As the old saying goes, “do something magical, or disappear.” Copy Haho might be ‘Bred For Skills & Magic’ but they would do well to heed that wisdom. A guitar-pop band from the north of Scotland, signed to the genuinely fantastic Big Scary Monsters label (increasingly the owners of seemingly every promising guitar band in Britain), and who I’ve never heard a word that wasn’t praise for, you’d think they couldn’t go much wrong really. And you’d be right”¦ they couldn’t go much *wrong*”¦ but this EP is far from life-changing, imo.Compare if you will Ace Bushy Striptease. Ace Bushy Striptease have, if anything, the opposite sort of talent to Copy Haho. Copy Haho are tight and jangly, and most of their songs seem to be you know, a sort of fleshed-out melodic hum. Ace Bushy Striptease, also working within the medium of guitar pop, are ramshackle and yelping and haemorrhage members at an alarming rate. But I care about Ace Bushy, because aside from the intense fun they exude, they have their own world that they inhabit, and their own genre, cuddlecore. In the case of Copy Haho, none of this terraforming has gone on, so there’s not something to latch onto in the same special way, no mystique.That of course might sound like only half the story because I haven’t really referenced the songs, but of course it is specifically the songs that it’s hard to apply this mystique to (and lend themselves to being applied to). This wouldn’t technically be a problem if the songs really were wonderfully good but, you know, they’re not- they’re alright, not bad- but then if the songs really were so wonderfully good the band would presumably have some more interesting take on reality behind them. Like Pavement. The songs I guess are sort of “half-catchy” because little bits of them get stuck in your brain, but they all sound pretty much the same, so it’s hard to know which song they’re from. The one bit I can really, definitely identify is the chorus of ‘This Retro Decade’ where it goes “this retro decade” and has this little bit of jangly guitar, which would be much better if I liked the way the combination of words “this retro decade” sounded, but I really don’t. Besides, retro? What is this, 2004? We’re living in the far future of sound now.Let it just be made clear in my closing remarks that I in no way believe my take on Copy Haho to be the same as the editorial line (ie: what the editors think) of this website. When Rich Thane sent me the promo for this EP he was all like: “this is MEGA,” I could tell he was really excited, and I really hoped I would be. Because, like, I also don’t think (to reiterate) that Copy Haho are in any way a bad band. I just think this isn’t a particularly inspiring EP. (also, although I’ve never actually seen them, from videos I’ve watched and stuff I think they’re probably a lot better live) Hopefully in future they can pick up their shit and use their quite evident talent to make something actually special. Go on Copy Haho, make me really care. (I’d really like to!) 68%mp3:> Copy Haho: 'Pulling Push Ups'Copy Haho on MySpace