Kyte - Planet

Everybody's doing a brand new dance now… it's called nu-gaze, and it's fucking boring. Judging by Kyte's Planet, nu-gaze is slowed-down shoe-gaze with dreary vocoder vocals: all that is boring about post-rock with none of the elements that bring excitement or psychedelia to it. There is a certain kind of radio playlist that can only be heard while waiting in hairdressers, and this is perfect for heavy rotation there, bringing a drowsiness and apathy to even the most upbeat soul. The b-side, a remix of High Voltage's Secular Ventures by Mercury nominated Maps, at least pretends to have some soul as a gurgling industrial-lite loop underpins High Voltage's dreary meander. [Ali Maloney]