It's Immaterial - Rope (Siren)

You're either very irritated or completely beguiled by It's Immaterial. Their songs reach out for that strangeness, that twitchiness that Talking Heads used to deal in. You either twitch along or leave the room. Here, they've re-invented a non-existent traditional folk melody, laced it with ghostly fiddling, and set it to a skipping drum machine. All pastel hues and shadowy word play, it makes for a nervily merry English voodoo pop. Stay with it, and twitch. (Roger Morton, Record Mirror, March 7, 1987)

Itsy (as we fans call them) have had an undeservedly hard time following up "Driving Away From Home". "Rope" could just be the one to do it, ridiculously catchy, hopelessly cheery, and it has a 79-year-old banjo player, one Tarrant Bailey Jr, rocking out. Not a lot of singles can say that! Probably their strength (all their songs are so different) is their weakness (nobody knows it's them). All the same, 'tis a harsh and cruel world that cannot find room for It's Immaterial. (John Aizlewood, No 1, February 28, 1987)