Reviews

 "This is NOT new sound" EP  (order it here)

Mark Moore in Qx Magazine - July 2005

... The Bozilla track 'This Is Not New Sound' from last October's 5 track EP just won't go away! Catchy as fuck, this needs a re-release on a major label immediately! ...

Kathodik - Teenage Kicks Vol 12  (Italy) - July 2005

Anche i Bozilla sfrangiano campi electro-magnetici, sbilanciandone i suoni sul versante più poppettaro, sulla scia dei vituperati 80es. Insomma, se non siamo su frullati Silicon Teens poco ci manca visto che The Box That Got Away, la title track e Awkwardly Dance zompano tra Electroluvs (ma senza la carica dirompente di quest’ultimi), B-Movie e Garbage. C’è (poco) altro, tipo la versione lo-fi senza tette di Madonna ad ergersi in Back Now e Fingernail.

The Vanity Project - Fanzine #13 - March 2005

At the playschool sessions, the 5 year old swans into the studio to knock out his line “I’m a robot” then fucks off to live his rock n’ roll existence, freebasing sherbet and blueberry Panda Pops. In VP11 it was My Robot Friend hooking up with octogenarian rapper Bingo Gazingo spitting his rhymes (and falsers) into the mic. Bozilla are doing it for the kids. With the kids. Saves a tantrum in the vocal booth anyhow. ‘The Box That Got Away’ is the tune with Little T. himself, all about that time when we just got over the ‘girls/boys*, urgghhh’ thing and wowed ‘em at the school disco with our body-popping (I have a memory of pulling at a wedding, aged 4, thanks to some hectic break-dancing, so this twists my nostalgia key, although I doubt the young lady in question looks up my Friends Reunited entry, or even remembers my name. Sigh). But what of the Bozilla mainstays? Well, “this is NOT new sound, it’s just the one we found in the bargain bin” is their self-appraisal, but in truth it’s a kind of Gen-X electro-pop that drills into zeitgeisty stuff, talking from memory and reality, curling a lip when necessary, getting amongst the culture on the other. They ‘Awkwardly Dance’ with the alt.lads that are full of self-importance and play footsie in the cinema so, yeah, they’re cute alright, but with a ‘tude that nicely sours their sugar. Skif
*delete as applicable.

Le Manchester - Webzine (Sweden) - December 2004

Befäng lyrik som »we want to be cool, but we don’t care about being original« och kanske årets tråkigaste titel, men odödlig tonföljd, gör veckans utstickare värd en plats i rankingen. Urholkad från tonföljdernas urmoder? Möjligtvis.

Comfort Comes - Webzine (USA) - December 2004

A new group from Glasgow , this being their first release on End Of The Month Records. At first start “The Box That Got Away” is a compelling little dance number. Not very up beat. Yet, the sound is there and the vocals are spot. “This is not new Sound” while is the dance song of the year hands down. A tight beat and catchy lyric will have the kids jumping along to this one for months. This one is absolutely is a mega song. “Awkwardly Dance” slows things down a bit. The beat is slow and stead and Aimee's vocals make the title very fitting. This EP shows a lot of promise by this four piece from Sheffield (eh?) . This is some really impressive stuff.  Rating: 9.2/10

Robots & Electric Brains - Uk Webzine - December 2004

The way to a Jimmy Possession's heart is through his robot. You want a good review? Get your 5-year-old nephew to recite "I'm a robot" over a budget beatbox, add a chorus about "a body-popping life as a robot" and send it to me on a purple CDR. Bingo. Bozilla cracked the formula first and so their glowing review mentions compatriots Ex-Rental and Motormark as well as the general frantic electro pop thing.

Pop Rock - Alternative Nation Webzine (UK) October 2004

Glasgow is split between those who 'know' and those who don't. Between those who get the joke, and those who don't. Between those who attend the End of the Month Club (http://www.eotmc.com) almost religiously, and those who don't. Bozilla (http://www.bozilla.co.uk) are the hosts and house band at the End of the Month Club. Those who know, know.

For those who don't know... Bozilla have given in to peer pressure and 'laid some tracks down on wax', as the hipsters say. Well, almost. They've released a CD - a proper EP with five whole tracks.

Bozilla kick off the EP with The Box That Got Away, which is either a clever attempt to get the least interesting song out of the way in a hurry, or else included to scare off those without the requisite sense of irony. It's quickly forgotten once you hear the rest though. The title track, This is Not New Sound, is an instant pop classic and a perfect introduction to Bozilla's unique take on 'what proper music should be'.

Electro beats which wouldn't be out of place in any so-cool-it-hurts dance club, cleanly-plucked bass, right on the beats, honey-coated female vocals with just the right mix of sex-kitten and ice-maiden, topped off with samples right where you don't expect them. Bozilla walk tall across the Glasgow music scene with a Doc Marten on the left foot and a spangly stilletto on the right. They make you dance, they make you smile. Aimee's vocals lure you right into their bastard pop lair, before kicking you back out with a cheeky grin.

There's so many reference points that listing them is pointless, but for the sake of tradition, here's a few musical pointers: Goldfrapp, Kylie, Blondie, the Specials, Bomb the Bass, M.A.R.R.S., the Clash, EMF, and even Pop Will Eat Itself. The only other band mining Bozilla's particular seam of dirty pop are Gorillaz - and they don't even exist, let alone play monthly gigs right here in Glasgow. It's refreshing to hear music which manages to be alternative without being angry, independant without being self-righteous, and populist without being dumbed-down. Bozilla's sheer danceability is the result of bedroom geekery and backroom beats being married to a strong pop sensibility, and helped along by a vocalist whose sheer star quality doesn't get in the way of her local roots and copious in-jokes.

Bozilla are beyond postmodern - their pop doesn't stand on the shoulders of past giants, it stamps on their toes and spits in their eye. The best part is that they make you laugh while they're at it, and give you a great big hug when they're finished.

"And For Bed Heads in Scotland.."

on Littlest Album Vol 1

Robots & Electronic Brains

One minute each for twelve Scottish bands at 33 on a 7" album. By definition, moments of beauty are fleeting but intense, and come from Bozilla (big buzz bass, sounds like a bootleg of Flat Eric with a vocal track you’ve never hear that fits perfectly), My Legendary Girlfriend (a blast of their usual), Salvation By Stories (spoken intro, rough riff, pinging fade out, feels like an epic), Thee Moths (recorded badly, a midget gem of boy/girl pop) and, saving the best til last, The Hector Collectors (also recorded badly, but described beautifully as "BMX Bandits meet Half Man Half Biscuit.")
 

Making Music

from quirky folk via wonky beats and atonal pop to metal racket and beyond - and, on the whole, it's a little package of joy.

George Zahora, writing for Splendid Ezine

The folks at Stereo Solution Recordings might be disappointed to learn that compilations of minute-long songs are not a new idea, but few mini-song collections accomplish their aims with the charm of this little seven-inch EP. The Littlest Album presents twelve Scottish pop groups, each of whom offers a sixty-second ditty for your approval. The results, while inevitably a bit gimmicky, are generally quite pleasing.

Nibushi Shang Hong's "Leading To Little Street" opens the album in high style with a boisterous, rollicking burst of garage-rock; given the time restrictions, it's surprisingly well-formed, and never seems rushed. My Legendary Girlfriend's "A Drink and a Chat", though lower-key and dronier, follows a similar route, while Pentothal's contribution is in keeping with the band's name. Bozilla's "And For Bedheads In Scotland..." bubbles with agit-disco vibe, but is marred by its fast-fade ending, while Slowloris' Cocteau Twins-y "Stem The Rise", a highlight, is appropriately brooding and doomladen, though it sounds like it was recorded in a burlap sack. Salvation By Stories' "Ideal", which ends side one, is that rarest of all beasts, a minute-long psychedelic tune that works.

On the flip, Thee Moths' ancient-sounding "The Garden of Céline Rememberance" makes good use of its primitive recording (despite its hopefully ironic "Hi-Fi Version" tag); the tune's scratchiness keeps the boy/girl pop song from lapsing into tweeness. Kasino, by contrast, has in "See You Fall" (LA Version) one of the album's richest-sounding pop tunes, a pleasing swirl of Crowded-House melody and intricate vocal harmonies that ends a little too abruptly. Squander Pilots' unique "I Was Wrong" sounds like a four-track collaboration by the Stereo MCs and My Bloody Valentine, and Drugstore Cowboys' "Black Powder: White Vinyl" is straightforward if perfunctory jangle-pop. Purple Munkie's "Two Brass Camels" is a minute of death metal marred by vinyl problems (this track alone was so skippy, it sent the tonearm skittering across the record face), and The Hector Collectors' "Georges Braque" ends the album in vintage Television Personalities style, all fragile four-track pop and off-key but earnest vocals.

While the best of The Littlest Album's songs are frustrating by design, bringing premature closure to promising tunes, as an overall listening experience it's quite pleasurable. I can safely say that I'd like to hear more from all of these bands -- although "more" in this context could be anywhere from another two minutes to a full-length album.

Live Reviews

Beard Magazine - Jan 2005 - Caledonian BackPackers

Opener was Glasgow's Bozilla, possessors of a number of mad fun electronic thingies you can just wave your hand at to get fades, percussion, scratching, all kinds of stuff (looks literally like magic!). And red-dreaded lead singer Aimee with a kicking fine voice — though she mainly chose to stay back in with the rest of the electropop/disco mix — and a nice line in hip-wiggling. Top tracks included “This Is Not New Sound” and “Too Much Fighting on the Dancefloor”, their recreation of The Specials' “Ghost Town” — and these were very top tracks indeed, TINNS being one of the most mind-infecting things I've heard in ages. Any later in the night and I'm sure they'd have succeeded in their stated goal of getting us to Awkwardly Dance ('nother great track). ... Unquestionable stars of the last two days though, for sheer live brilliance, were Motormark, closely followed by Bozilla.

Interviews

This is Fake DiY - Introducing Bozilla (click to Read)

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