The Ex-Men - The Curator

In criticism, “not getting it” is as horrendous a faux-pas as it’s possible to make in one hundred words, but I’ll confess: I don’t really ‘get’ the Ex-Men. Sure, they’ve a talent for punchy electronica, but the moment the spoken vocals start, it resembles Adam and Joe spoofing avant-garde pomposity. Humour may be their strong suit –Godot On Call Waiting turns an awkward phone call into the amusing Beckettian absurdism suggested by its title – but smiles alone aren’t enough. The result is a puzzling single that sounds incomplete, like a fragment from a project yet to be fully realised. [Chris Buckle]