We Started Nothing - Dark Publications

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Amazon.co.uk
The debut album by Salford's The Ting Tings comes hot on the heels of their No.1 single "That's Not My Name", a nugget of pop gold that comes on like a genetic splicing of Toni Basil's "Micky" and The Knack's "My Sharona". The bulk of We Started Nothing follows a similar formula, navigating a path between the smart, angular indie of CSS, Bonde Do Role, et al and the pop mainstream. Here and there, they pull it off perfectly: the stutter-rap of "Fruit Machine" sees vocalist Katie White leading on some poor sap with sultry charisma and lip-gloss sass, while the excellent "Shut Up and Let Me Go" is snappy dance-punk in the spirit of Blondie's "Rapture" or Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love". Elsewhere, they branch out with mixed results. "We Walk" builds from quiet flourishes of piano into a surprisingly steely manifesto: "Smash the rest up/Burn it down/Put us in the corner cause we're into ideas", sneers White. Rather less good is "Traffic Light", a light, jazzy number that employs a number of somewhat forced driving metaphors to describe a relationship hit the skids. Still, it's a debut with promise, and a string of good singles is nothing to be sniffed at. --Louis Pattison

Album Description
We Started Nothing is the debut album from The Ting Tings. Tipped in the top three of the BBC's Sound of 2008 poll at the beginning of the year, seemingly they have much to prove. However, The Ting Tings aren't about proving themselves; they are simply here to enjoy it. Making great British pop music - their way - is what they're about. Born of a desire to employ the DIY ethic from day one - Katie White and Jules De Martino escaped the industry trappings they once experienced in a previous band and went back to basics as a duo. They stripped back everything they thought they both knew about making music and the industry that revolved around every note.

We Started Nothing is a debut album brimming with intuitive pop noise. It's pure garage-pop and once heard will in-bed itself into your subconscious for many days, weeks, months to come. Snappy choruses trade off against angular gutar work, whip smart drumming and a succession of loops that they create live with the use of delay pedals.

Album Description
10 tracks. Katie White and Jules De Martino needed a name for the "unintentional band" they'd created in 2007. For the sheer fun of it, Katie (vocals, guitar and bass drum) and Jules (vocals, drums, electronics) had begun writing songs together and doing impromptu shows as a two piece. Suddenly, they were generating massive excitement at a series of house parties at Manchester's Islington Mill, a derelict cotton mill from the Industrial Revolution converted into a thriving underground artist collective housing painters, filmmakers, writers, sculptures, musicians and more.

Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

It's just fun !...and she looks gorgeous ! June 3, 2008
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

Love or hate them!
This is pop which seems like it's just been plucked from thin air.
It's unashamedly mainstream-orientated manufactured pop groups like "Girls Aloud".
The Salford duo have found themselves near the top of various 2008 hot-tip lists. Pitched somewhere between vogueish, ravey indie and all-out chart-attack pop, they perform as a drummer-singer pair, with much of the music appearing out of the ether via the magic of technology, giving singer Katie White plenty of room to strut, pout, clap and yelp her way through their bouncy, punchy songs.
There are echoes of that dumb-yet-knowing proto-punk produced by Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers , or maybe a nod towards the sardonic pop of "The Cramps" and the "B-52s".
Licking their wounds after trial-by-record-label with former outfit, Dear Eskimo, the Salford duo stared into the roiling canyon of resentment - and decided to go drinking instead. The result is the delirious joy-gasm known as "We Started Nothing", and the soundtrack to what can only be described as a Ting Tings moment.
"That's Not My Name", Katie White's rant at the cynical music industry, is an insolent anthem which deserves a place in pop posterity. It is a feminist tirade you can only write when you have the benefit of hindsight. It was inspired by the experience of singer/guitarist, Katie White, who was offered fame-for-flesh in their former incarnation. The track laments forgettable female starlets baring all for the lads. With idealism duly quashed, it's a refreshingly jovial indictment of modern music which, nonetheless, packs a punch. It's a great empowering chant.
Then there's the smile-inducing "Shut Up And Let Me Go", a raw Chic-style bit of funk topped by man-bating lyric.
Of the 10 tracks, six are more like chants than songs. The opener "Great DJ" is an infectious ditty that slips a chugging guitar riff and some cheeky bleeps around De Martino's hypnotic bass drum. Equally impressive are "Impacilla Carpisung", all squelchy sound effects and funky disco beats, and the title track, which offers six minutes of pure guitar-funk sunshine.
There are two more melodic tracks, the prettily chiming "Be the One" and the flabbergastingly twee lullaby "Traffic Light".
The most memorable moment: the bit in "Great DJ" where Katie White cheeps, "And the strings: ee-ee-ee-ee..."
Yes, she's mimicking the sound of violins. Either the best or worst lyric of 2008, we can't decide.
This duo aren't going to be going home alone any time soon. Their staggering six-minute title track is like a dishevelled dawn chorus, serenading the last men standing.
Taken as a whole, this debut sparkles more often than it grates. Despite their age and false starts, "We Started Nothing" sounds like the work of two young whippersnappers ready to take on the world.
Whatever happens next, nobody will be forgetting their name from now on.
As debut albums go, it's not all good, but occasionally it's glorious.
Pick of the album:"That's Not My Name", "We Walk", "We Started Nothing", "Great DJ", "Be the One", and "Shut Up and Let Me Go".
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4 out of 5 stars

Fun, unapologetic pop May 23, 2008
19 out of 21 found this review helpful

This album will probably be dismissed automatically by people like myself for being too manufactured, too saccharine, or too whatever, but the truth to this is that it is a fun, unapologetic, unassuming pop rock album that is a lot of fun.

Too often with rookie albums, whether pop or indie, the songs you've heard on the radio or wherever are light years better than the rest on the album (I'm looking squarely at you, MGMT). This is NOT the case with this album.

The album starts with two of their most biggest songs to date- Great DJ and That's Not My Name. Most bands would kill for just those two songs. Next up is Fruit Machine, which keeps the fun of the first two going with a lot less chanting. Traffic Light is a wonderful little jazz-pop plinky tune that will float in the summer breeze a lot this year.

Next up is the rousing Shut Up and Let Me Go, probably the most known in the US thanks to the latest iTunes/iPod commercial, with its solid rhythm section (a wise DJ will mash in Queen's Another One Bites The Dust). Keep Your Head follows with a fun popping, bopping synth line and drumming. If you haven't started dancing yet, this one will get you off you seat. Be The One follows a little more quietly, but still has a solid groove that will put a smile on your face.

We Walk starts in, and you think, "Uh, oh. They are going to get quiet and ballady now." Um, no. Not even close. Impacilla Carpisung is the Ting Tings getting crazy and a bit experimental. Not sure how I'm feeling on this one. We Started Nothing closes as a long jam that closes things well.

The last two are a bit 'scattered' to me, and don't really close the album the way it should be. Maybe if they'd been put earlier, or with a rousing closer after these two, it would leave me feeling more excited, but....hey- you've gotten 8 great songs to start out this album.

Really, highly recommend this one. I could easily see 12 year old girls absolutely loving these if given the chance. Fortunately, their parents will also enjoy this as well.

2 out of 5 stars

Truth in advertising June 4, 2008
15 out of 37 found this review helpful

Attention -- apparently the Ting Tings have been pronounced the Big New Thing Du Jour in the world of pop music, as they dropped their debut album and were featured on an iPod commercial.

So are they worth it, listeners? Well, at least the title of "We Started Nothing" is forthright about what their album does -- it starts nothing, only produces a stream of catchy, simplistic pop with an indie-electronic flair. It's a fun little listen until after the first single, but then the easily-digestible dancey stuff ends up being galling after the first couple songs.

It opens with a strummed guitar and series of synth pops, with Kate White announcing, "Fed up with your indigestion/Swallow words one by one... Nothing but the local DJ/Said he had some songs to play." But the song kind of goes downhill with the chorus, which basically is "Imagine all the girls... And the boys... And the strings... And the drums" followed by bad chimp imitations. Lots of "ee ee ee ee!" and "ah ah ah ah!"

They turn out something a bit different in "That's Not My Name," a shimmying beat-heavy little tune that sounds like a teenage cheerleader trying to assert her individuality. "They call me quiet girl/But I'm a riot/Mary, Jo, Lisa/Always the same/That's not my name!/That's not my name!" If you have to tell someone you're a "riot," then you almost certainly aren't.

After that, things start sliding down, especially since the Ting Tings seem to lose some of their hook-producing skill. They turn out blippy little pop tune, a somewhat awkward jazz-lite ballad, pianopop riddled with synth and jiggling drumsticks, and a string of mildly catchy guitarpop. By "Impacilla Carpisung," it's pretty clear that they've run out of inspiration, and the last couple songs are a flurry of halfhearted beats and droney, bouncy riffs.

Unfortunately the nadir is the horrendously contrived thumpfest that is "Shut Up And Let Me Go," a breakup song that is just screaming to be covered by a MTV pop tart trying to prove her toughness and failing miserably -- "I ain't freakin'/I aint fakin' this/Shut up and let me go/Hey!"

By a certain point in the album, I felt like screaming those very words.

I'll be the first to admit it -- the Ting Tings are fun and catchy in a radio-friendly/MTV-potential way, with pop music that is heavy on hooks and light on musical complexity. The big problem with "We Started Nothing" is that despite a few interesting twists, it all more or less sounds the same -- they do the same kind of pop more or less from beginning to end, with only a couple exceptions like "That's Not My Name's" funky cheerleader vibe.

They put some fairly polished instrumentation -- some nimble guitarpop with solid drums and riffs, and sprinkles of synth to brighten up the repetitive melodies. They also drop in a bit of piano, horns and what sounds like a squeaking violin at times, but this doesn't really product a sense of variety. Instead, they just melt into the repeating hooks and riffs, until it's almost hard to remember they were there.

White has a nice feisty pop voice, and she can easily handled the softer moments ("When nothin' makes you feel good") as well as the gleeful snarls (see everything associated with "That's not my name!"). Unfortunately the lyrics she sings are often weirdly obtuse ("Your jeans were once so clean/I bet you changed your wardrobe since we met"), when they aren't awkward and kind of trite ("Winning streak that you had over me/Has turned into your broken tragedy").

"We Started Nothing" starts as a poppy guilty pleasure, but the Ting Tings start running on empty before too long. Easily digestible, and even more easily forgotten.

4 out of 5 stars

Fun album from start to finish June 24, 2008
6 out of 10 found this review helpful

The Ting Tings shot like a meteor onto the UK music scene in 2007, helped along by coverage from UK music rag NME. A year later, they reach to No. 1 in the UK singles chart and the debut album arrives.

"We Started Nothing" (10 tracks; 38 min.) starts off with the irresitable double blast of "Great DJ" and "That's Not My Name" (originaly released as a double-A single in 2007, and "That's Not My Name" re-released a year later, and reaching No.1 on the UK singles chart last month). But the fun doesn't stop there. The duo keeps things moving quite nicely, with "Shut Up and Let Me Go" (which reminds me of that song "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" of yesteryear), and it sounds like another sure-fire single to me. The second half of the album is not as strong, but still features several great tracks like "Keep Your Head", "Be The One", and in particular the closer, the 6+ min. title track, a great way to sum up the album.

In all, these songs just flow by in no time and before you know it you'll find yourself playing this again and again. "We Started Nothing" is not a grand 'artistic' statement, just an album with great fun, dance-along songs. I'll be catching the Ting Tings at the Monolith Festival (at the Red Rocks) in September, where they'll be playing the intimate WOXY-curated stage, and I can't wait to see how these songs will translate in a live setting. Totally unrelated, the internet-only station WOXY ("BAM! The Future of Rock'n'Roll!") plays these guys regularly, and they are the best source for indie music in the US, bar none.

5 out of 5 stars

Bloody Brilliant July 20, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

My new favorite album. Take the White Stripes and reverse the roles. Add in some Devo, electrified disco and Cibo Matto. This album is a blast.

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