The latest single from Rob Da Bank’s Sunday Best label, David E. Sugar’s ‘Party Killer’ defies the grey skies with a spot of sunny indie dance pop. Slightly louche vocals with a pronounced Estuary edge – ‘I liked you betaaah’ – slide on top of a funk-inflected assortment of bouncing electo beats with a light-hearted sense of style that promises good things from the upcoming album. As well as ‘Party Killer’s radio edit, we get the requisite album version; forgettable remixes by Disco of Doom and Adam Smith; and the unexpected treat that is the full-bodied, instrumental-heavy ‘Sunday Best Wig Out Dub‘. In addition, there’s B-side ‘Travel Light’, which is more of the same only not quite as engaging – still pretty good, but definitely the junior partner on this disc. Okay so, he’s trying a bit too hard to be a cheeky, chirpy London geezer, which might wear after a while, but ‘Party Killer’ leaves you in no doubt that David E. Sugar also knows how to make a summer floorfiller.

Record Label: Sunday Best

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This is pop music, Jim, but not as we know it. For a start, eccentric Sunday Best crew Lucky Elephant are packing a harmonium and a wurlitzer, and on this single, come together to create soundscapes somewhere between low-key ska and the Grange Hill theme tune. Oddly enough, this isn’t the horror story you might expect, though it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. ‘Reverend Tilsley…’, then, concerns a hard-drinking, lantern-bearing 19^th gent and boasts a leisurely pace coupled with a summery, laconic vibe. Yet it somehow manages to refrain from drifting off into delirium; it sounds fresh yet also suggests a golden, rose-tinted past full of fun fairs, surreal music halls and cabarets. Singer Emmanuel ‘Manu’ Labescat adds his reggae-tinged vocals to the pot and, hurrah, they fit snugly into the whole affair. B-sides include the haunting, piano and samples-led ‘When You Fall To Earth’, which intrigues and disturbs in equal measure with its voice recordings straight from the ghosts of the ‘Nam. Also included is the jazzier ‘Red Ties’ along with ‘Neptune’, which hints at shades of shoegaze pop and illustrates exactly how varied the Lucky Elephant canon may be.