You Me the Switch: 7" EP

You Me the Switch are a fantastic 'mathy' instrumental band, comprising two guitars, one bass and some immense drums. What I think sets them apart from many similar bands is their incredibly light use of distortion, bringing it in to add bite and loudness to their tracks, but never in a mad wall-of-noise type affair, done so brilliantly by a band like Mogwai. We still get the dynamic, quiets and the louds but at no point do we lose any of the interaction between the band's instruments and more importantly at no point are we anything less than captivated.

Like Shellac this is a band that manage to sound almost identical live and on record, yet still seeing them live is worth making every effort for. So this wonderful little slab of vinyl is the perfect way to get your fix between performances. The cover shows a sort of snowflake design made from flowers and microphone cables wrapped around the torso of a human skeleton, all in blues, pinks and yellows. Instead of the normal paper inner it comes in a neat matt plastic slipcase which adds that bit extra to feel of the packaging, and the two labels mirror the outer sleeve.

It's a 33 1/3 RPM but doesn't say that anywhere, but with four tracks to fit in a side and total running length just over 11 minutes it would be hard to fit them on otherwise. The four short, clever tracks presented will get inside your mind and have you whistling little bits of melody to yourself while you work at whatever 9-5 hell awaits you during the week. I'm not going to attempt to describe these tracks beyond saying each is very much individual and very much cut from the same cloth.

It's released through Faux Discx and Nice Weather for Air Strikes, who are to be commended for bringing us this little package.

If you want to hear some online then get to their MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/youmetheswitch

I like the artwork so much I'm going to break with my normal tradition and provide a scan of it here: