antarctica takes it!

Even though it's quite late on a Saturday night and I'm just about ready to collapse into bed, I just had to write about Antarctica Takes It! Yes, yes, I've done the "how twee are you?" quiz, and subsequently receive all those fantastically jealous email updates from How Does It Feel To Be Loved? each week, which is how I found out about these guys. You see, their record "The Penguin League" was originally released in 2006, but the lovely Ian in London is making their record known to the masses by releasing it on his own HDIF label. Nice chap, eh?

So apart from looking all hip and cute and whimsical by posing with white tights and cellos and trumpets and scarves and such, they sound hip and cute and whimsical to boot. Have a listen to "Circuits" - it's so sparkly, with its boy-girl harmonies, handclaps and xylophones, that it's hard not to love it, despite my description making it sound like your twee nightmare. I can envisage a film clip to this made on super 8, with sprinkles of snowflakes on suburban trees, with everyone rugged up in mittens, woollen hats and black-rimmed glasses. Okay, enough of the extreme twee descriptors. They've managed to use about as many instruments as they can to produce "Circuits", and, to their credit, they've made it all sound honest, unpretentious and just very very good.

At first I was worried they would fall into the same league as Los Campesinos!, what with their shared exclamation marks and comparisons to Belle & Sebastian and Sufjan Stevens, but Antarctica Takes It! have won me over, for sure. Now, where's my scarf and winter coat?

p.s. many thanks to Skatterbrain! for linking my blog - if you haven't already read it, go have a read because it's such a terrific blog!!