That's exactly what I wanted...

...exactly that. It's the EP's title and, on hearing the overdue return to record of low-key indie rock marvels Wheat, reallyrather is surely not alone in thinking it utterly apposite. Holygoddamn! This is gorgeous!, might've been an alternative. Or maybe Stop, you bastards, you're killing me. While the band's relative scarcity of output undoubtedly has something to do with it, grateful rapture is still the entirely fitting response to a 20-minute stop-gap release with really only three finished songs.
In the eyes and ears of many, the trio blew a whole load of critical capital accrued from albums 1 & 2 when they released Per second, per second, per second.. every second (though not round here where it ranked no4 for 2003; still sounds great). The main 'crime' was its undeniable directness, from a band whose calling card had been its quietly indirect, almost sly take on indie guitar rock. But Wheat have also seemed to take some delight in confounding, even frustrating, folks expectations of what is - or isn't - going to happen next. What happened after Per second was.. nothing. Oh, except Ricky Brennan left. But it was mostly three years of nothing. Then last autumn...

...out of the clouds a new song popped up on their website. What everyone keeps telling me is now the lead-off track on the EP and tho' this blog has been listening to it on and off for months [myspace] it remains a beguiling, strangely affecting thing. Building on shifting sands of shaken percussion and softly pulsing electronica, layers of pizzicato nylon strings and Scott Levesque's double-tracked, sweetly despairing word-in-you-ear vocals are added, whisking the listener straight back to the promised land of Hope & Adams.
It's a good start but - smack! - they straight away top it with Little white dove, a more regular shaped rocker with an accapella coda. There's the familiar crushed electric guitar chords but Brendan Harney's drumming (and not drumming) is an equally distinctive element of the Wheat sound. Deceptively simple, its role is commonly emphatic rather than rhythmic. When there is a groove there'll likely be a little catch in there; odd beats are missed, sometimes there's nothing at all for a while. It's the art of knowing what to leave out.
Little white dove is the only track here which will not be left off the forthcoming album which means you'll need this ep for Until it takes which is just pure, ravishing essence de Wheat. Medium-slow with a melody that falls like a feather, it hits and infuses like the first liquer shot. That's exactly what I wanted.. is a spoken-word riff while Washing machine blues is another curve ball, a pretty, cracked solo piano tune of the sort, frankly, Norah Jones would have been pleased to come up with. reallyrather would argue that this last pair represent a valid use of the ep vehicle, relatively experimental and a working out of the disparate ideas which feed into the whole. But then, of course, the 'pretentious indulgence' lobby will tap you on the shoulder and remind you that the album (due in May) is set to be called Everyday I said a prayer for Kathy and made a one inch square...

...which, apparently, is all 'about remembering through a ritual,' according to drummer Brendan who seems to have copped the early press detail...

And the news that matt pond PA next album Last light has been put back to August gives Wheat a clear run at spring/early summer...

File under 'Expectations, confounding of:'
Since the start of the year one UK publication has run 1000-word-plus interview features with, amongst others, Richmond Fontaine's Willy Vlautin, Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, various Decemberists, Sunderland's twisty art-poppers Field Music and a 1700-worder on The Shins' James Mercer, not to mention a little SubPop retrospective and hatfuls of reviews. So which liberal broadsheet or niche indie zine can this be? Of course, you've guessed already - it's The Sun! (The Vlautin piece is here, you can search for the rest.) Commenting recently on The Guardian's hatchet job on nascent twee-rockers Los Campesinos!, Another Form of Relief concludes, 'This is the kind of “journalism” that I expect from The Sun.' Well, on Friday's at least, expect the unexpected...

Benoit Pioulard keeps it coming. If you've got last year's ace release on Kranky, reallyrather year-end top-tenner Precis [see Dec31], you'll want to hear Fir which is just out on vinyl via Type Records but which you can also hear here...