The Voluntary Butler Scheme - Chevreul

You’ve gotta love it when the sun shines and bands get all frivolous and partyparty, and man is this ever right on the summer money.

The Voluntary Butler Scheme have abandoned their normal modus operandi - which if you don’t know is slightly soppy, ever so lovely, gentle as kitten kisses, loopy (as in it uses loop effects, not as in, y’know, ‘whoa, mental’) indiepop about hot air balloon hearts, the Eiffel Tower and making lassoes from unravelled jumpers - for a slab of loopy (as in - aw you know where this is going - yeah it’s ‘whoa, mental’, ok?), boingboing, plinky-plonky, plasticy Little Beat.

It’s so unashamedly playful, buoyant and toytown that it’d make Bentley Rhythm Ace blush and mutter about how seriously they take their art. Even better, for good measure, and because it’s genuinely the only coherent option, they get The Go!Team to chuck in a remix who make it their own, make the little beat a bit bigger and add even more bounce, bang and partyparty.

There are more treats to be found elsewhere on this EP; ‘Satisfactory Substitute’ sounds like The Avalanches with sunstroke, whilst ‘To The Height Of A Frisbee’ is a more traditionally sweet VBS track which mentions the ‘Be My Baby beat’ (clue: that’s the surest way to a two thumbs up review there is) and is super-pretty with it. But it’s ‘Do The Hand Jive’ you’ll hear once, never want to hear again and then play on repeat until you go a bit, yeah, ‘whoa, mental’.