The 10 Best Things I Heard This Year

Despite being a little bit peeved with lists, here’s yet another one, The 10 Best Things I Heard This Year…

10. Ariel Pink @ Buffalo

9. Angular vs. Coldwave Mix Part 1.

8. The song that Islet always finish their sets with.

7. The literally warped version of Alphaville's Forever Young from the weird tape I found in the street.

6. The news that Animal Collective were headlining Green Man.

5. Joe from Adam & Joe's Retro Text The Nation Jingle... Trash Version.

4. Unicorn Kid @ Green Man

3. Kode9 - Black Sun (mp3)

2. The intoxicating sound concocted from cries of despair and howls of laughter in the pub when Lionel Messi rose majestically to score Barcelona's second in the Champions League final.

1. Danny Boy & The Serious Gods – Castro Boy (Somewhat Normal) (mp3)... I don’t know if it says something, but for the second year running the best thing I’ve heard all year came out in the early 80s.

An Explanation

It's been ever so quite here. I must apologise for this but let me explain.

I haven't been listening to a lot of new music recently for a couple of reasons.

Firstly I was mugged at the beginning of the month. The fucker got off with my phone, which I use (well used to use) to listen to new stuff on.

So I got no player and I'm wary about walking round with earphones in as the guy crept up on me without me noticing because I was listening to music.

Secondly, I learned that George Lamb has been shifted to weekends on 6music, so I can now listen to the radio without punching walls. This has eaten into my new music time.

And thirdly, well it's been Christmas and shit.

But I'll forget the lesson I learned about walking around listening to music, I'll get bored of the playlists on 6music and January is almost here.

Normal service will resume soon.

Some Songs Put Together By Washed Out Which Sums Up Chillwave Pretty Much.

Blog darling Washed Out has hooked up with Platform as part of their Mixtape series. The Fantastic Symphony Mix gives us a little background into Washed Out, his influences and state of mind.

Dreams, summers, memories and youth are always brought up when people talk about Washed Out and it's with good reason. This short hazy nostalgic mix is quite lovely.

mp3 ---> Washed Out - The Fantastic Symphony Mix (Platform Mixtape VII) (Direct Link)

Tracklisting

1. Arch M – “Bedrm Band at Caf NVA (edit)”

2. The Samps – “Magnetic Thys”

3. Samiyam – “Wrap Up”

4. Toro Y Moi – “Brubek”

5. Koushik – “Homage”

6. Osborne – “Afrika (Bullion Remix)”

7. Iasos – “Inter-Dimentional Music”

8. Jack Nitzsche – “Untitled (edit)”

9. The Khalsa String Band – “Song of Bliss”

BBC Sound Of 2010

I love a list.

Especially one that tries to predict stuff.

That's why I always enjoy the day the BBC Sound Of... poll comes out.

Gold Panda is on it, as well as Joy Orbison and err... The Drums.

Parappa Pum Pum

I concede. I've done most of my shopping. I even started wrapping some yesterday. And I've been hitting the mince pies hard for a couple of weeks.

So here's cosmic disco don Lindstrøm twisting Little Drummer Boy into cooler shapes than even Bowie could manage. There's a 40 minute version floating around. This is the 5 minute edit.

mp3 ---> Lindstrøm - Little Drummer Boy (Direct Link)

Best Knob Twiddler of the Year 2009

Been thinking. Whose been the best laptop-wielding electronic fella this year? Yes I do have a lot of time on my hands.

There were three runners: Unicorn Kid, Memory Tapes and Gold Panda.

Unicorn Kid provided my favourite live experience this year at Green Man.

(I'm the twat in the green and red check shirt in the bottom right corner, trying not to spill cider).

Memory Tapes, kinda snuck up out of nowhere with a unique sound and free mp3s.

Gold Panda had been floating around for a minute and put in a decent performance at Swn, but I was never too sure about his own material, preferring his remix work.

That was until I heard Quitters Raga. A Four Tet flecked slab of summery eastern mysticism. Simply stunning.

And so the winner of Ceefax Of Life's inaguaral "Best Knob Twiddler of the Year" is Gold Panda. PRESTIGE!

mp3---> Gold Panda - Quitters Raga (Direct Link)

BSS Everywhere

Talking of Barfly last night, one of Los Campesinos had a Broken Social Scene t-shirt on. Can't remember which one. Left pretty soon after Islet finished.

Second time in a week for a random BSS moment. Heard Fire Eye'd Boy in Cardiff Arts Institute while waiting for BLK JKS.

And that's enough for a post on Broken Social Scene. Used to play this track loads on Sam & Sarah's Sonic Sandwich on Radiowave. Oh the memories.

Shuffling yet epic indie, that's perfect for making a grey day a bit brighter.

mp3---> Broken Social Scene - Fire Eye'd Boy (Direct Link)

Islet + Free Rum

Finally saw a whole Islet set. Always catch the end of their sets. It was starting to become a joke. They were the special guests at the Los Campesinos gig SPONSORED BY SAILOR JERRY'S @ Barfly last night.

I really want to hate Islet. Pretentious, art school wankery. Half hearted attempts at breaking the fourth wall. The way they swap instruments. The goof with the moustache (although he could actually be retarded, if so my bad).

But they're too damn good, all tribal and sinuous and odd and good.

Islet look like to have shunned the web as their USP, so no mp3s. But here's a video. Hope that suffices.

Ariel Pink

What? Yet another lo-fi dream-pop chillwave act from the States?

Difference here is that Ariel Pink was one of the first and is one of the best at this shtick.

With an new album out in early 2010 (on indier-than-thou stalwart 4AD), Pink is touring briefly in December and he's stopping off at Buffalo on the 6th. That's a Sunday.

Threatmantics are on the bill too, so it should be good. £8 on the door and you're in.

mp3---> Ariel Pink - Suicide Notes (Direct Link)

Dance Aerobics + Devo = Win

Best. Thing. Ever.

I'm looking to form a crack dance aerobics team. We will dance to Devo. We will wear spandex. We will be awesome. Who's with me?

To get you in the mood here's the Devo track used on the video.

mp3---> Devo - That's Good (Direct Link)

Can't believe I haven't posted about Devo before now. LOVE Devo.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

This sums up the past week. I miss going outside.

mp3---> Ann Peebles - I Can't Stand The Rain (Direct Link)

Yeasayer

Pottering around the pub the other day, had Yeasayer's new track swirling round my head. I walked into the back bar to hear Sky Sports using it to soundtrack a package about Liverpool in the run up to their game with Man City. Ambling certainly describes their season so far.

Anyway Yeasayer's track is a pretty darn catchy tune, unmistakeably birthed in Brooklyn and doing the rounds.

mp3---> Yeasayer - Ambling Alp (Direct Link... hopefully)

M83 & Jackson

Nothing timely or clever or overarching with this post. It's just a great track and that's why I'm posting it.

Glitchy yet mellow, Jackson (without his computer band this time around) tweaks M83 into even lovelier shapes.

mp3---> M83 - Run Into Flowers (Jackson's Midnight Fuck Mix) (via box.net)

BLK JKS

Stumbled into the Cardiff Arts Institute the other night. Literally stumbled. We somehow came second in the quiz. Rob Da Bank was there and they have Lego on the wall. Thumbs up all round.

Anyways, South Africa's BLK JKS, everyone's current uncategorisable new squeeze are playing the Cardiff Arts Institute on the 27th, which is... just let me check... a Friday.

And it's free, how ace is that?

mp3---> BLK JKS - Lakeside (via box.net)

UKG--->FWD--->???

Best clubbing experience I had all year was in a rugby club in Cornwall. Returned to Falmouth and while I was there caught dubstep pioneer Hatcha. I had steered clear of dubstep up until then (apart from the odd Skream track) thinking it was too slow and therefore dull.

How wrong I was.

Anyway Blackdown recently celebrated its 5th birthday and stuck up an early, exclusive Hatcha mix from 2002, just as the scene was starting to coalesce.

You have to jump through a few hoops to get the mix, starting here.

Essential Logic

It's about time there was some proper, PROPER post-punk posted here, so here's some Essential Logic that I stumbled across on donnaslut a couple of weeks ago.

They've certainly got the credentials for post-punk immortality, born out of X-Ray Spex and feature the counter-intuitive use of a honking saxophone on most of their tracks, Essential Logic were one of those bands that coagulated around Rough Trade in 1979, when it was at the vanguard of all things post-punk.

Their 1981 single Fanfare In The Garden is an absolutely stormer of a tune and I'd argue is far better than their most well known and celebrated track, Aerosol Burns.

mp3---> Essential Logic - Fanfare In The Garden (via box.net)

We Have Brand

We Have Band have announced a briefest of brief UK Tour and they're shoving a Cardiff show into it, playing 10 Feet Tall on November 30th. I saw them play in The Old Blue Last around this time last year and they were pretty good.

If you're unfamiliar with We Have Band then they're kind of disco-rock, but disco-rock in the punk-funk sense of ESG and The Rapture rather than say Kiss playing disco. WHB also have a synth-pop slant through the bored, detached boy-girl vocals and well, synths. It's probably best to just download this.

mp3---> We Have Band - You Came Out (Demo) (via box.net)

UPDATE - Looks like the gig has been switched to Buffalo

Some Songs Put Together By Someone Else Which Sums Up Coldwave Pretty Much.

According to some fella over on The Beat! Coldwave is "...vaguely scary European synth pop and experimental instrumental stuff. Imagine Depeche Mode records sung in Polish by bands you've never heard of, and you're getting there."

Dons of the hit and miss, Angular (early Bloc Party, Klaxons, Long Blondes and Wet Dog) are releasing a compilation next year called "Wierd Presents… Coldwaves and Minimal Electronics Vol.1".

They've posted a mix on Vice. It's an interesting listen. The second track is especially good, very Kitten & Thee Glitz.

Coldwave is the new italo-disco.

mp3---> Angular vs. Coldwave Mix Part 1 (Direct Link)

Swn Review

Posted a review of my Swn experience on theSprout. LINK

That's me on the left looking very unimpressed with The Drums. That's because they were rubbish.

Synthetic Beauty

Watched Synth Britannia last night, taped it. Amongst the excellent music, infuriatingly wobbly camera work (wobbly does not equal edgy), superb hair and the now slightly too familiar story of how it all began with Kraftwerk, were industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle (best band name ever).

I've only heard scraps of TG's work through compilations, so to babble about their music as a whole would be worthless and pointless. One track I am familiar with though is Hot On The Heels Of Love, a bizarre, dystopian (how those synth-botherers loved Ballard) yet brutally beautiful piece of electronic music.

The sounds on the record may be familiar to us now, after two cycles of synth-pop domination and the broadening of tastes that technology in some part has allowed, yet Hot On The Heels Of Love is still as ferociously alien as when it was recorded over 30 years ago.

mp3---> Throbbing Gristle - Hot On The Heels Of Love (via box.net)

Twitter Hither

I have succumb. I have fallen. I have turned to the dark side. With bile and shame boiling within, I type "follow me" ---> http://twitter.com/CeefaxOfLife

GWTF:5.0 - New LCD Soundsystem

This week in BlogEnders, LCD Soundsystem family made a surprise return to the square, sounding similar to when they left. Happy days.

In fact they seemed to have returned younger, like debut album younger. Bye Bye Bayou is not an entirely new composition by any means, it's a cover of an Alan Vega (Suicide) song from 1981.

A seven minute rolling yet relaxed jam that doesn't go anywhere fast but doesn't really care about that fact, it's down with that and doesn't care if you have a problem with it.

It doesn't grab you instantly like some past efforts have, but Bye Bye Bayou isn't set to appear on the new album (which is due out March 2010) so how much truck you wish to invest in it is up to you.

It's just nice to have them back.

mp3---> LCD Soundsystem - Bye Bye Bayou (via box.net)

Fuck Buttons Fuck Music

Although I've known of Fuck Buttons for a while (it's a moniker that tends to stick in the mind) this is the first track of theirs I've heard and by Jove is it good?

Eight and a half minutes of undulating, juddering, squealing electronics that builds and builds, an out-of-control juggernaut, always on the verge of crashing/climaxing, surging relentlessly forward until dissipating, slowly unravelling... la petite mort.

Space Mountain is the aural equivalent of a knee-trembler.

Taken from their second album Tarot Sport (ATP), which I might actually buy. With money. In a shop. Strange, I know.

mp3---> Fuck Buttons - Space Mountain (via box.net)

Flash Toys & Flash Covers

I dunno, maybe it's the toys I got sent this morning (strictly to do with work, yes work). I'm feeling frivolous. And frivolity means disco.

The cheesier the better.

I downloaded this a couple of weeks back and it's utterly silly, pretty funky and certain to upset the purists. Perfect for playing with remote control helicopters.

mp3---> Flash - You Really Got Me (via box.net)

Swn Ahead 2.0

When the line-up for Swn was announced, Gold Panda was one of the acts I was most psyched about seeing.

Gold Panda's profile has steadily increased over the past year through his excellent remixes of suitably blog-worthy bands. They flicker and shimmer and twist and enchant. His own material (I assume, the music seems of the "bedroom-auteur" aesthetic) doesn't quite hit the peaks of the remixes but is sufficiently titillating to warrant a nosey at Swn.

Gold Panda plays in Clwb on the Thursday around 8.30pm.

mp3---> Stricken City - Lost Art (Gold Panda Remix) (via box.net)

50th Post: ... Mission Of Burma

To mark the half century, I'm posting an mp3 that I've been meaning to stick up since the first post in February.

I was hoping in the intervening 8 months that I would be able to write something as eloquent and as accurate as Simon Reynolds does in his review of the band in his brilliant book Rip It Up & Start Again.

I haven't and I can't.

It's simply a great song.

Download and buy the book.

mp3---> Mission Of Burma - Fight Academy Song (via box.net)

GWTF:4.0 - Florence & The xx

Synergy.

1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

2. Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.

Awkward insular faux-romantic music mag darlings The xx, meet professional (and therefore safe) kooks and music mag darlings Florence & The Machine.

Is it better than The Source? No. Is it an interesting aside? Yes. Will it help both bands get more coverage? Certainly.

mp3---> Florence & The Machine - You've Got The Love (The xx remix) (via box.net)

Swn Ahead 1.0

I flipped the calendar and noticed that Swn Fest is only a couple of weeks away. So I thought I'd stick up some mp3s of bands playing Swn over the coming weeks.

First up are blog darlings The Drums, the New York surfer-boy wannabes, that have been snapped by Moshi Moshi. They're third on the bill on the Saturday in Dempseys. Think Beach Boys meets Factory Records.

mp3---> The Drums - Let's Go Surfing (via Box.net)

Trailer Trash Tracys

Lo-fi has been the hipsters default choice since garage rock. Today is no different. Drowning in technology, home made music can be pristine. Yet mp3s drift across the internet swathed in static and grit and rudimentary production.

A sign of authenticity or a sign of paucity?

A redundant question. What matters is the tune. "Candy Girl" is dripping in glorious melancholia, sniffs of scenes here, wafts of another there.

Beguiling is what it is, the snap of the snare, the echo of everything.

Yes a bit Jesus & Mary Chain, a bit Raincoats, a bit My Bloody Valentine, a bit Ronettes, a bit "Telstar".

Nothing new, but does it always have to be?

Sterling work from No Pain In Pop

mp3---> Trailer Trash Tracys - Candy Girl (via box.net)

RIP Donk

Radio 1 made a documentary about donk, about six months after everyone got bored of it. Bless Radio 1.

Donk is dead. Long live donk.

mp3---> Radio 1 Stories: Put A Donk On It (via box.net)

Vitalic & The Minimix

Vitalic returns on September 28th with a new LP "Flashmob". He has done the honest thing and let slip a minimix of it.

Oh the minimix, a wondrous symbol of our ever decreasing attention spans.

While ever so lovely of Vitalic to do such a thing, he unwittingly highlights the fact that nothing on "Flashmob" appears to have the guttural punch of his seminal track "La Rock 01". It must then beg the question, if you've got the minimix, why pay for the album?

We are killing music.

mp3---> Vitalic - Flashmob Minimix (via box.net)

UPDATE: mp3 mysteriously removed by box.net crew, something to do with copyright. Inevitable really.

Jukebox Escapades

I returned to Falmouth last week. The good ol', bad ol' days. I partook in the simple pleasure of the 3Ps (Pasty, Pint, Paper) in Finn's. While plonked there, I tried to figure out why I opt for that pub over the numerous other and probably better pubs in the town. Then the jukebox kicked in.

Utterly bonkers, it skipped across decades and genres, with nay thought. You can only find free-wheeling jukeboxes in free-houses now, what with chains opting for sanitised playlists, the at times chilling mp3 Jukebox or nothing at all. Another reason to support free-houses me thinks.

Back to Finn's, this came on and made my day.

mp3---> The Rolling Stones - Let's Spend The Night Together (via box.net)

Cinematic Sounds + Memory Tapes

Cinematic seems a curious word to use when talking of music. I can see the thrust behind its usage, an attempt to grasp the inherent epic scope of particular tracks, or the ability of some music to conjure a shared vision in the listeners mind.

To use such a visually-loaded word for sound tends to ruffles my feathers. But that is the only way I can portray the opening minutes of today’s track before it melts away to reveal undulating smacky space-disco.

Yet another surprising turn from the critical boomerangs, The Horrors.

mp3---> Memory Tapes – Bicycle (Horrors Cosmic Dub) (via box.net)

Green Man

I spent the weekend at The Green Man Festival, which was nestled in the Brecon Beacons. It was utterly lovely. Never thought I'd describe a festival as such, what with Reading being my usual haunt.

Lovely atmosphere, lovely food (all hail pieminister) and some lovely music. Highlights included Four Tet (pic above), 9Bach and Pagan Wanderer Lu (the less said about Animal Collective the better).

The stand out act of the weekend however was a 17-year-old Scot with a laptop, a lion hat and buckets of enthusiasm. Playing the tiny Green Man Pub Stage on Saturday afternoon, Unicorn Kid tore Green Man a new one.

The bearded folkies may have been left scratching their heads at the gameboy-dropped-in-a-bath chiptune beats but the kids got their rave on. Probably should have had a CRB check before I did too.

Catch him at Swn in October.

mp3---> Unicorn Kid - Goodbye (via box.net)

Cultural Tourism 2.0 - Benin

I have posted previously regards my feelings towards the rash of African rarities compilations around at the mo, so I shan't retread that thread.

This track is from Benin. I did a case study about this west African country in Year 5 at GJS. All I can recall about Benin is that it is shaped a bit like a peen and has never produced a footballer of note. I am aware of a player at Plymouth Argyle.

The point stands.

This tune is an organ/harpsicord driven, gamboling bass spattered, breakbeat driven funk monster.

mp3 ---> El Rogo et Sus Commandos - Feeling You Got (via box.net)

Min.

Philip Glass was one of the pioneers of minimalism in classical music, alongside Terry Riley, John Cage and Steve Reich. Taking their cue from Debussy and stripping it back even further, completely so in Cage’s piece 4'33", they embodied the less is more aesthetic of modern art and architecture.

You can see the influence Glass and his peers had on what would follow in music, electronic music in particular. The clean lines of Kraftwerk, the ambience soundscapes of Brian Eno, the gently evolving, enveloping rhythms of Basic Channel, the spacey techno of Lindstrom and aspects of Aphex Twin’s work, principally the non-schizoid tracks on Drukqs.

In the piece I’ve chosen, the simple melodies dance a macabre dance, swarming around the listener, a cloak of exquisite melancholy, allowing time and space for reflection, relaxation and renewal. Or you might think it's boring and miserable.

mp3---> Philip Glass – Metamorphis 5 (via box.net)

GWTF:3.0 - Daft Punk & Tron

(Tron + Daft Punk) - 2010 = December 23rd 1992 x Ball Ache

Rumours are that Daft Punk will tour the soundtrack... with Tron Legacy visuals.

The trailer is doing the rounds as is this excerpt, of a remix, of the theme tune, although it sounds the same as the track used in this video of nerd nirvana.

ARGH when is 2010?

mp3---> Daft Punk - Tron Legacy Theme (Cruda Luv Rework) (via box.net)

Found Tape - Gypsy Curses and Synth Pop

I was on my way to Heath Low Level the other day when I noticed this tape lying in the gutter. It looked in pretty good nick, no rain for a while, so it went in the pocket. I didn't play it for a couple of days, feared some Ring shit might go down.

Eventually I popped it in the walkman. 90 minutes later (well 93-94, does anyone know why they always pop a few extra minutes of tape in?) I was still alive.

The tape was majestic.

Filled with jump edits, the Pet Shop Boys, snatches of foreign DJ patter, George Michael, a poorly recorded conversation between a young girl and a man in a Balkan language (hoping it's not a gypsy curse or evidence of war crime), Tina Turner, swathes of radio static and towards the end, this absolute gem.

mp3 ---> Alphaville - Forever Young (via box.net)

(If anyone wants a copy of the tape give us shout below).

8 Songs Put Together By Someone Else Which Sums Up Italo-Disco Pretty Much

More sterling work from FACT Magazine, which chucks up killer mixes week after week. Number 72 in their series is from the Horsemeat Disco crew and is oh-so-fashionably Italo-Disco. You got about two weeks to get your download on.

Says Hello, Wavves Goodbye

Things move quickly in the twin towns of Hipsterville and Blogsburg. From being the darling, the future, the cutting edge to the gleeful reporting of an onstage breakdown and a general pooh-poohing of his work, Wavves has been gobbled up and spat out faster than Black Kids.

Except Wavves has turned the tables.

Realising that no matter how good your 2 minute lo-fi, fuzzed up, garage rock tracks are, you're always gonna run out of scope to make music that sounds fresh, that doesn't retread old ground.

Whether this is a genuine new direction or a riposte to blogs that only praise bands in the Animal Collective - TV On The Radio axis by creating a track that is a pastiche of that kind of music remains to be known.

What we do know is that Wavves has just released one of his best tracks.

mp3 ---> Wavves - Mickey Mouse (via box.net)

Nightwaves & Orange Juice

I went camping down the Gower recently. One night I decided it would be a good idea to go down the beach half cut and listen to some Animal Collective, like the pretentious cock I am.

I didn't last one track before a rainstorm of biblical proportions started.

As I ran through the dunes, torch in one hand, fag in the other, this was my soundtrack.

mp3 ---> Orange Juice - Rip It Up (via box.net)

Radio In Strangetown

Once again I've been regressing. G-Funk this time. Galaxy 101. Gangsta. The Rhythm Is The Bass And The Bass Is The Trebbbbbblllllllleeeeeee.

mp3 ---> Warren G & Nate Dogg - Regulate (via box.net)

GWTF:2.0 - Animal Collective

Another day, another tenuous link to a past post which I deem constitutes a series. GWTF, or Go With The Flow, started with a post about that Gang Gang Dance remix which herpesed it's away around the blogosphere a few months back.

Same thing is happening with the Atlas Sound & Panda Bear collab, but also with a new Animal Collective track which someone has recorded pretty pristinely at one of their concerts. It is good.

[Right click and "Download Document" for mp3 of Animal Collective's What Would I Want Sky (Live)]

The 2nd Gayest Record Ever Made

The second installment in the (very occasional) series of gayest records comes from Pitchfork-baiting Boy Crisis.

Ridiculous Lyrics + Forced Falsetto + Cheap Synths = Boy Crississippi



[Right click and "Download Document" for mp3 of Boy Crisis' Boy Crississippi]

Song Wars - The War Of The Songs

A bit off message but a quick shout out to the series of Adam & Joe Song Wars podcasts. A rare occurrence of musical comedy not being eye-gaugingly awful, (I'm looking at you Mitch Benn). Adam & Joe border on genius.

Review: The School @ Buffalo

The Hipsterville of Buffalo played host to a subdued evening of twee last Thursday.

Twee, the proper indie music to those in anoraks has never fully disappeared since its birth in the early 80s as the unlikeliest of off-shoots from post-punk. But its standing in the media and public consciousness is higher now than it has been for some time, as Twee’s innocence and childlike mannerisms appears to chime with a collective desire for nostalgia as a balm for problems and crises beyond our control.

With this in mind, Plus One Lou and I entered the blood red, close venue to be met with the electric twiddle of Colorama. One man and his amplified guitar, Colorama peddles a pastoral, introspective sound with Clinton Cards lyrics. Plus One Lou opined that the material he sang in Welsh was far stronger and I was inclined to agree as the indecipherable is often preferable to the indescribable.

If Colorama was cheese then Them Squirrels was chalk. Comprising a screeching guitar, a rather battered double bass, drums and numerous electronics spilled across the stage floor, Them Squirrels' set up screamed-whispered-screamed unorthodoxy. To pin down their sound would be futile, with tracks more like suites, with several passages and tempo shifts, quite bits and loud bits, parts with tunes and others of simple noise. It was wilfully difficult. Plus One Lou expected them to rip open their chests and write “THIS IS ART-PROG” with their blood spraying on the projector screen. I found them interesting yet dull at the same time, like staring at a field of black grass for an hour.

Moofish Catfish came on stage with the look of a band on their final date of a summer tour around the UK’s toilet circuit before handing back to Sweden and by Jove that is exactly what they were. I scribbled down grungy Black Kids which occasionally hit indie-disco pay dirt. I wanted to like them more.

And finally it was time for The School. Ticking every twee box, from coy girl-next-door lead to a xylophone, cardigans to a violin, it was possible to envisage the set before they played a note. And the sense of hearing it all before was there alive and well. That’s not necessarily to say it was a poor show it just seems that The School were too in awe of their influences to deviate or as Plus One Lou put it “…a serious Belle & Sebastian rip-off”. It was all very pleasant, jaunty and shuffling, tumbling and cute but lacked the punch of say the news of Michael Jackson’s death, which spread around the room towards the end of the set and overshadowed the evening.

Cultural Tourism

The glorious regression to the 80s continues with the appropriation of "World Music" into popular music. Just as Peter Gabriel and David Byrne utilised beats and pieces from around the world so have Vampire Weekend and MIA in recent years.

There has also been a splurge of compliations such as "African Scream Contest" and"Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of the Undeground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-1979" that seem to smack of smug cultural tourism, more interested in the obscurity of the music and the tales behind the tunes rather than the sounds.

But if we scrape away the pretensions (which I am never a fan of, as I heart pretensions) and listen to some of the tracks they actually turn out to be well ruddy good, such as this slab of Ethiopian jazz-funk from the 1960s.

mp3---> Alemayehu Eshete - Tey Geryeleshem (via box.net)

14 Songs Put Together By Someone Else Which Sums Up Summer Pretty Much

A quick heads up about Gorilla vs Bear's Summer 09 mix which is a rather lovely, summery, lo-fi, Africana, Tropicana, Brooklyn vibe kind of thing. Works rather well when played in sunshine.

EDIT: This was originally published in

Red Skin and Cider

As this short burst of summer inevitably comes to a halt on the weekend (just in time for my holiday), I feel I should post the track that has been soundtracking my strolls around the capital and indeed my first ever wee on a local train.

[Right click and "Download Document" to get an mp3 of Senor Coconut's Around The World)

The Big Weekend

I heart the Big Weekend. If you're unaware it's a three day free music event on the lawn of Cardiff City Hall. It also usually coincides with my birthday.

The music tends to split along taste lines over the three days. Friday is local. Saturday is worldy and quite Birkenstock. Sunday is the business. Last year saw The Young Knives (ace), Ash (meh) and Glasvegas (balls).

This Sunday 2nd August will be headlined by The Zutons, but further down the bill comes the more intriguing proposition of Camera Obscura (just confirmed for Green Man too) and Ebony Bones.

The Lightning Seeds are also playing. Look it's free alright.

mp3---> Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken (via box.net)

Electroclash, Epiphanies & Elders

I have returned to my synthetic roots recently. It's been sparked by the "The 20 Best..." feature in FACT. Usually they round up the top 20 records of a particular sub-genre of which I have little to no knowledge, through the fact that it happened a long time before I saw Firestarter on TOTP and decided that electronic music was my bag.

This month they did the The 20 Best Electroclash Records. I suddenly felt very old. I remember these tunes. I realised that there were kids out there that had their epiphany after Emerge. I regressed, digging out Felix Da Housecat's Kittenz And Thee Glitz album. One of the many highlights (and #9 in FACT's list) is the rumblin' tumblin' cracked glamour of Silver Screen (Shower Scene). Time to pop on my slippers, light my pipe and pose.

*mp3---> Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen (Shower Scene)

*Removed by request.

Beer & Blah

Guitar music for the second half of this decade has been dominated, for better or for worse, by matter-of-fact rock. A celebration and critique of the everyday, it may be argued that Friday-night-fight indie is a continuation of Britpop’s island view.

This music, though a brazen view of the now, is strangely apolitical. Perhaps I view the past through a kaleidoscope of affirmation but popular music seemed to have a message in times past.

They say to write what you know and to apportion blame to musicians for the general political apathy seems unfair. Up until the summer of 2008 these were boom times. It is hard to foster anger with food in your belly and money in your pocket.

Maybe we will see a return to music with bite and cause over the course of the year but, for the mean time, it seems that scene-of-the-street reporting is infiltrating the burgeoning synth-pop realm. The influence of The Streets as well as the streets should also be noted.

To pick Man Like Me as an example in this overall negative post is quite harsh as “9 Lives” is still a ruddy catchy pop tune with wit and swagger that lingers in the mind for an age.

mp3 ---> Man Like Me – 9 Lives (via box.net)

Stretching Metaphors

Pop is a snake. A snake lost in the desert. With nothing to eat, it eats itself, from the tip of the tail up. But what happens when the snake reaches it's own head?

Pop has always kept growing ahead of itself, keeping a decent gap between the music it is influenced by and consumes (the tip of tail) and the music it produces (the neck). But it feels like that gap is shrinking. Pop Will Eat Itself.

Or maybe I'm getting to the age where I remember the music that is now being consumed...

Whatever I just hope we have a summer of music that is consuming this rather than late 90's trance.

mp3---> Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea (via box...less pop-ups and stuff)

I love you, you big dummy!

Seeing that this is a blog about post-punk amongst other things, I think it’s about time I actually posted some.

Magazine are often held aloft with Joy Division, The Fall and Buzzcocks as the cream of the north-west regiment of post-punk, but I was always left a little cold by them. That was until I heard “I Love You, You Big Dummy”.

Taking a few quintessential elements of what became the post-punk sound, the scratchy guitars, the saw-like bass and the whirling organs, “I Love You, You Big Dummy” is a propulsive, repulsive love song, angry at itself, angry at being tricked into falling in love (perhaps the most un-punk thing imaginable) and builds to a climax of resented triumph, because love always eventually triumphs…BLEURGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like the MP3 of Magazine – I Love You, You Big Dummy has been removed so here's it on YouTube...

Go With The Flow

Gang Gang Dance’s remix of “Velvet” by The Big Pink has been doing the rounds in the blogosphere for the past week or so and with good reason. I try not to go too much with the flow on this blog but this is such a remarkable track that I feel it’s apt to bend a few rules.

“Velvet” is crammed with ideas. Usually if someone wedges a lot of different ideas into a track it’s because the ideas are weak so they stuff in lots hoping that this time, just for them, quantity will triumph quality. It rarely does.

This is an exception. Channelling Nordic space-disco, Balearica, Diplo’s globe-trotting crate-digging and Animal Collective’s narcissistic layering of voices and textures, Gang Gang Dance have created a track that perfectly encapsulates the border-breaking musical adventures of the post-pitchfork generation.

mp3 ---> The Big Pink – Velvet (Gang Gang Dance Remix)

OSG #5

Obscure Sub-Genre #5 - Crip Hop

When hip-hop and rap emerged in the late 70’s it was protest music. From the portrayals of inner-city hardship to the appropriation of the n-word, it disseminated messages of change, which soon caught wind and flew into mainstream consciousness.

As hip-hop (d)evolved into gangster rap, the ethos of positivity and improvement was lost, to the consternation of the older heads. Maybe the battle for equality has been won, signified by Obama’s election victory, yet a quick tour around any US city would illustrate that the ghetto is still a live concept in the 21^st Century.

It has then fallen to a group of people marginalised by mainstream America, to use the tools of hip-hop to voice their opinions, to change the way people view them and how people within the community view themselves.

Ladies and Gentlemen I bring you “Crip Hop”.

From The Spaz Kids’ “I Limpin’ But I Ain’t Been Shot” to MC Mong’s “Spittle Riddim” young people with disabilities have been dropping rhymes and beats to devastating effect and illuminating minds from both within and outside the disabled community.

Crip Hop is a positive musical force that you need to jump on quick y’all.

Real Films Vs Films In My Head

Was mowing the lawn and this came on, a pumping cinematic Italo flecked electro growler.

Mind soon drifted. Bent cops, drug lords and dancing girls. Mirrorballs, dirty neon lights and metallic clothing. Moustaches everywhere including the girls, faint eastern European ones not circus worthy. Murder and mild misogyny. Odd 70s tit, pointy.

The film in my mind sounded awesome.

Then I looked up the track. "Theme From Gutterballs" was for a straight to DVD horror flick from last year about "...a series of bizarre gory murders during a midnight disco bowl-a-rama at a popular bowling alley" and a grusome rape on a pinball table.

Not sure which I prefer.

Yet another killer track from 20jazzfunkgreats.

mp3---> Gianni Rossi - Theme From Gutterballs (via mediafire)

Livin' In The 80s

In honour of the return of Ashes To Ashes on BBC One tonight, here’s a track that almost certainly won’t be on the soundtrack.

Zero Boys’ “Livin’ In The 80s” is a declaration of boredom.

Bored of being force fed a diet of so-called superior bands that were over before you were born.

But the Zero Boys were done and dusted before I was born.

Shit.

mp3---> Zero Boys - Livin' In The 80's (via mediafire)

Sorry Y'all

Apologies for the quietness here but let me explain, in bullet points, because… umm…I miss Powerpoint…

1. I got a job

2. I’m staying somewhere without internet access

3. My web hosting ran out at the end of March, so no mp3s (YSI can suck it)

4. Quite frankly I haven’t heard anything that’s blown my mind since “Castro Boy”

But things change, new stuff gets released, old stuff gets rediscovered. So this period of hush is not a signifier for the end, but a blip...

Sam

B*O*B Podcast #3 - The Sealand Issue

Featuring music from Tom Tom Club, Art Brut and Metronomy

Tracklist:

1. Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love

2. Camera Obscura - French Navy

3. Art Brut - Alcoholics Unanimous

4. Metronomy - Fascination Street (The Cure Cover)

5. Danny Boy & The Serious Gods - Castro Boy

6. Bullion - Time For Us All To Love

7. Micachu & The Shapes - Had Enough

The Gayest Record Ever Made

I think I've found the gayest record ever. And no it isn't "YMCA", because, well, it isn't really that gay, a bit of limp innuendo rather than a clenched fist in-your-end-oh. I thought I had quenched this query for good with "Munchausen" by No Bra. But then I found "Castro Boy" over at 20JazzFunkGreats.

"Castro Boy" is a truly remarkable track, a killer Italo-flecked HI-NRG floor shaker that screams shapes and sweat, mirrors and filth, intimacy and debauchery. It laid the blue-print for a decade of chart dominance by electronic dance music artists. It's arpeggiated synths and clever-clever dyanmics sound oh so contemporary.

And that's before the vocal kicks in, a "nelly" voice spewing laugh out loud, crude, vivid lyrics. But with time and hindsight it's the backing vocals that have taken the limelight. The chorus "He's a Castro boy and there is no cure" now holds a grim new significance since they were originally written in 1983. Castro Street was the centre of San Fransico's gay scene before the scene was ravaged by Aids in the mid 80s.

"Castro Boy" is a track that has a sense of time and place yet doesn't sound dated. It is danceable yet not funky. It is bloody funny yet incredibly sad.

"Castro Boy" is a true lost gem.


mp3---> Danny Boy & The Serious Gods - Castro Boy

mp3---> No Bra - Munchausen

Pro Evo Boom Banger

A lot of stuff has been written about Micachu & The Shapes but no one has mentioned that they name-check the opiate that is pro evo, pretty sure the first track to do so right? Anyway they're playing Buffalo in Cardiff on April 8th

mp3---> Micachu & The Shapes - Had Enough

A Number Of Names - Shari Vari

When I heard this in February last year, I was struggling to finish my dissertation in the library in Falmouth, head dribbling through florescent lighting, cheap coffee and staring at the same document for 8 hours.

Then I found this track over at The Ill-ec-tron-ic. The world became a good place again. The best new track I heard last year came out in 1981.

This is proto-techno, proto-electro, proto-everything. It is primal yet ahead of it’s time. Shari Vari still sounds like the future. A future I want to in on.

Bursting from the juice-bars of Detroit, where there was no booze, no drugs, no need for stimulants as the music was intoxicating in itself. The extraction of soul from boxes of wires seemingly an act of alchemy compared to what was to come by the end of the decade.

mp3---> A Number Of Names - Shari Vari
*Proper non-skippy version*

The Future

The godfathers of Donk have started the charge down the M6 by putting a donk on southern elecwrongica star and Rough Trade favourite Metronomy.

It’s not big, it’s not clever, it’s not very good but this is the future. This is the 21^st century’s punk. Thank you Vice.

mp3---> Metronomy – A Thing For Me (Blackout Crew remix)

Obscure Sub-genre #4 - Wine Rock

Punk dominated British music between 1978 and 1980, over shadowing all forms of new music in the press at the time and blinding pop-historians looking back.

Wine rock not punk is the real link between Roxy Music, the primitive pre-punk pub-rock movement and the explosion of new romanticism around 1981.

New romanticism is often seen as a direct reaction to punk’s celebration of filth and decay. The make-up and flamboyancy allied with the DIY ideals of punk are taken as gospel. But this wasn’t a sudden reaction; it had been fermenting in London’s Wine Rock scene since 1977.

Bands like The Vintage Boys and The Merlots took there influences, both sound and image from Roxy Music and The New York Dolls. Seeing the sprouts of sophistication emerging in the transformation of traditional pubs to wine bars around London, they realised that the music they played had to become more sophisticated too. They pre-empted the mindset of Thatcherite Britain.

Although visually and ideologically distinctive they couldn’t quite reflect this in the music they made. Seemingly unable to fully unshackle from the lumpen pub rock that existed before this movement and the way punk dominated the limelight, the evolution wine rock tried to instigate did not truly occur.

Without the added technological twist of synthesisers that new romanticism utilised, wine rock is, sonically speaking, easily overlooked yet it should be remembered how in incorporating fashion, consumerism and narcissism they formed the outlook that new romanticism appropriated and ran away with.

For better or for worse, wine rock was instrumental in the form pop music took in the early 80s and that should not be forgotten.

B*O*B Podcast #2

mp3---> B*O*B Podcast #2 (The Piquionne Issue)

Obscure Sub-genre #3 - Boingra

We’ve had fifty years of multi-culturalism in the UK. The concepts of a community formed by members from all corners of the world have been ingrained in policy making by parties left and right as unquestionably as the notion of democracy. Yet walking the streets of our major cities you will see people fractured roughly along lines of race or religion, choosing to self-ghettoize themselves. Has the past few decades been a futile exercise? Do we need a stronger, tribal identity to operate within than the broad “one and all” British one we are coerced into? Do our boundaries make us who we are?

As always seems to be the case in situations like this, we look for positivity in the next generation, the youth co-mingling in our schools. For before the hang-ups of sociological handcuffs make themselves apparent, equality is the norm. And where youth congregate, new scenes will follow, taking reference points from their homes and twisting and skewing them into new shapes.

Just as early hip hop producers mined their parents funk collection for the breaks, kids in Leeds and Bradford are digging through their parents and siblings collections for samples and ideas. What’s chucked up is Bhangra by the Asian kids, while the white kids are nicking their older brothers “Bonkers” mix CDs, bringing happy hardcore to the table. In school rehearsal rooms and bedrooms across Yorkshire, these influences are been fused into Boingra, a bouncing pounding sitar soaked tabla bashing soundforce that’s doing a better job bridging the sometimes testy differences between splintered groups in the area than any Westminster diktat.

It would be interesting to see the phizogs of the forefathers of multi-culturalism in the midst of all the different faces on the dance floor of The Mill in Leeds on a Boingra night, but I’m sure there’d be a smile at a job finally completed and through the most unusual of vessels.

Rose Elinor Dougall @ Clwb 10th Feb Review

We rocked up around 8 o’clock expecting a quiet one but were surprised to see a good crowd for the openers Silver Gospel Runners. Suppose this was because they were a local band who were last months Kruger’s Single Club entry but they didn’t tick my boxes. That’s not to say they weren’t tight in a wispy indie way, with the obligatory brass for extra feyness but I’m not that into Magic Numbers and music of that ilk. Subjectivity is in for ’09.

Up next were Soy Un Caballo, a Belgian duo with a Spanish name, how thoroughly continental we thought. Channelling Nouvelle Vague with there bossa swagger and xylophones, they played a short but sweet set, lacking a bit in bite although singing in French they could have been singing about anything, the GCSE I scammed proving useless. Can’t imagine they’ll be challenging the holy trinity of Poirot, Bosman and Jean Claude Van Damme though.

In between Soy Un Caballo and the third band Hari and Aino, I managed to grab a quick word with Rose Elinor Dougall in the smoking area. I wrote down as much as I could in my tiny notebook, so she smokes rollies, the album is four weeks away from being finished, there will be a cellist on it, she doesn’t have a label yet, she likes playing Cardiff, Riot Becki (the other Pipette to leave with Rose) is working on material in Brighton and she tried to play my Stylophone, but it simply refused to work even with when Matthew changed the batteries, this was symbolised by the word CURSED being underlined five times (yet it works now).

Hari and Aino, opined Matthew had to be foreign as looked far too happy. A few bars in, I hazarded a guess that they were Swedish, as there sound was suffused with the sunshine indie pop that that country produces in abundance. Y’know it was pleasant and they can jangle with the best of them but most of there songs sounded pretty similar and lacked the spunk of say Alphabeat.

And finally it was Rose Elinor Dougall’s and The Distractions turn. Clearly illustrating again that she had the strongest voice in The Pipettes, her songcraft and sound was a step above what had gone before. Released from the straight jacket of The Pipettes doo-wop pop, Rose has developed a strong, full, structured pop sound which boldly stands apart from the current wonky pop sound in vogue. The Distractions were tight backing, unfussy yet embellished allowing Rose’s voice the limelight. She does cut a slighty awkward front woman, hidden behind keyboard and fringe but compensates with her sheer talent.

Matthew and I agreed it was a good gig and it surely won’t be long before she finds the right home for her album.

Sam

Obscure Sub-genre #2 - Pi-Step

Acid House is often cited as the birth of UK Dance culture and its influence is beyond doubt but it seems to come at the expense of Jungle. Jungle spawned so many scenes, distinctly British scenes from Drum’n’Bass to UK Garage. Obviously other movements from outside these shores have influenced British music but the importance of Jungle should not be underestimated.

“Pi-Step” is the latest spawn whose lineage can be traced back to Jungle. Incorporating the smooth fluid reverberations of Bassline and the fidgety glitchy twitches of IDM and err Glitch, Pi-Step draws a diverse intense crowd from both scenes, old “Warp” acid ravers looking for the new hedphuq, to dubstep and tech-step heads exploring the limits of rhyme and rhythm.

As you can guess from the name, Pi-step doesn’t follow four-to-the-floor or two step garage drum patterns but complex mathematical algo-rhythms. This makes it a bitch to mix and even harder to dance to but does allow the listener to look cerebral, while Frisbees fly around the dance floor as a substitute for jigging. Notes are forbidden as are fifty and twenty pence pieces and the rotund are celebrated. The symbolism of the circle holds shamanic sway in the Pi-Step soundscape and those entering the temple in check or stripes had better expect a hostile reception.

You have been warned.

Interview: Rose Elinor Dougall

I caught up with Rose Elinor Dougall, formerly of The Pipettes, who is back with a brand new sound, incorporating a darker undertone to the pure doo-wop pop of The Pipettes, while keeping an accessible lush feel. She’s in the middle of her first full UK tour (she plays Cardiff on the 11^th in Clwb Ifor Bach), but by Jove we tracked her down and grilled her frivolously.

Sammy Fax: How are you?
Rose Elinor Dougal: Very well thank you, despite being a bit cold and hungry...

S: What were you listening to when recording?
RED: Well I'm still in the process of recording; there have been loads of things over the past few months. I've listened to the radio quite a lot, which I guess is sort of passive music listening, but if nothing else it served as a good marker of what I DONT want to do, even though I do like a few things around at the moment. I suppose it’s interesting to try and place what you do in context... Otherwise it’s ranged from early Cocteau Twins, to Steve Reich, Bridget St John, ABBA, Scott Walker, John Barry, the kids outside in the garden....

S: Asides from music, what influences your work?
RED: I guess the musicians I’ve known over the years have taught me a lot. There are a few people in my life, that don't necessarily influence my work, but certainly whose opinions I respect very highly, and I’m sure have played some unconscious part in the way my songs have formed themselves.... Going for walks in the woods or by the sea, sitting on buses, London, films, novels, photos, paintings all the usual things like that... When you experience something like a piece of music, or a building or some really delicate bit of embroidery or something and you just have no idea how it was achieved, its totally amazing... I would like to try and create a mystery like that for someone else one day...

S: Do you feel any pressure to conform to the current movements in solo female music, say the electronics of La Roux, Little Boots, Lady Gaga etc, or Winehouse-style soul?
RED: I guess it is hard in some ways because there are a lot of solo females out there currently that are getting lumped together, but I do resent 'female artists' being viewed as a genre of music, I think all of these people are doing very different things...I don't really see how my music relates to them very much. I don't really imagine what I do to be particularly trendy or fashionable at any point, I would sort of like to exist outside of all of that crap... I would hope that the fact there are more women being successful in the music industry was a positive thing, not an opportunity for women to be competitive with each other... I'm mainly concerned with focusing on what I do and hopefully my output will find its own little place somewhere...

S: What is the writing process like for you?
RED: Well it generally involves me locking myself up in my room for a couple of days... Sometimes I’ll already have little ideas for melodies or words that I might have come up with whilst waiting for the bus or something, and I’ll try and work out how to fit them into some kind of cohesive structure, otherwise I’ll just mess around on my Casio for a few hours and see if any ideas come out that way. I tend to record everything as I go along, which I never used to do, and build up layers slowly, which helps me explore harmony and rhythm etc... I am tough on myself never to delete anything...

S: How are you finding being the focal point on stage now?
RED: Well it doesn't really feel like that because I’m playing with my band, The Distractions, which stops me from feeling lonely...I suppose its not something I’m totally comfortable with yet, I can't pretend I don't enjoy having more control over everything, but I guess I try not to think about all that stuff too much. In the Pipettes there were choreographed movements and a whole aesthetic to work with which made it much easier in some ways to be on stage, and so now I probably feel slightly more exposed, but also a bit liberated to be more natural..

S: How have your experiences in The Pipettes affected your new direction?
RED: I learnt so much from being in the pipettes, and am really proud to have been involved. This project is far more personal, and there are different priorities. The music I am making now is not so concerned with the idea of writing pop songs, and I think that experience helped me work out how I related to writing songs for myself, in terms of understanding what is important to me and it gave me the confidence to embrace my own musical instincts.

S: Is there an instrument you can’t play that you would like to?
RED: Loads, I would love to be able to play things like dulcimers and bazoukis and things like that. I love cellos too.

S: Do you like Stylophones and would you play mine?
RED: Yes I do, and most certainly. Georgia, our bass player, was given one the other day and we spent hours annoying everyone around us with it. We're gonna try and get it involved on our live set somehow, but they are surprisingly hard to play melodies on...

S: How do you find touring?
RED: I miss it!!!! Me and the new band have had a few little adventures so far, but I can't wait to go on a proper tour again. It is one of the weirdest ways to spend your time, you exist in this mental little bubble for a few weeks, and even when it gets a bit tough, it is just the best thing...

S: When were you happiest?
RED: Blimey, I was pretty happy the other day when I was dancing around my room with some of my friends, hopefully I haven't had the happiest time yet, maybe I have, who knows...

S: Any regrets?
RED: Not yet I don't think... I'm only 22 so I hope I’m too young for that sort of thing, but don't really believe in regretting things...

S: If someone was starting out now on a career in music, do you have any advice?
RED: Haha, probably not! I guess just make sure that you are doing it for the right reasons, and that you are prepared for the long haul, and to try and not to take yourself too seriously...

S: Vinyl, Tape, CD or mp3?
RED: Vinyl

S: Desert Island Discs time, I find it’s less traumatic than the “your house is on fire” line, which five records would you take with you?
RED: AAAAHHHHHH I hate these kind of questions. What good would records be without a record player? I think some nice stuff like Percy Faith and his Orchestra would set the tone nicely... haha sorry I know that’s rubbish....
S: What’s your favourite smell?
RED: Someone bought me some hyacinths the other day; I forgot how much I love the smell of them...

S: If you where made the Emperor of Education, which book would you make everyone read? RED: Maybe the dictionary, I find people don't know enough words:(I include myself in that).

S: If you had to go to a fancy dress party and you knew someone at the BBC Costume Dept. What would you go as?
RED: I sort of hate fancy dress parties.

S: Who were you musical heroes as a teenager?
RED: Joni Mitchell, Bjork, Jarvis Cocker. I have to admit I was a bit in love with Damon Albarn when I was 13...

S: Any tips for dealing with the recession? Mine is to wear rose-tinted glasses, as every thing looks better when wearing them.
RED: That sounds like a great plan...San Miguel is a quid in Wetherspoons.

S: Lions, Tigers or Bears?
RED: Tigers.

S: Have you been Rick-rolled?
RED: The Pipettes did it when it was announced that me and Becki had left I think...

S: Do you like Scrabble? If so what’s your best word? I got Anthrax into a game once…
RED: Yes I do, but I’m a bit rubbish...I recall getting Audible on a triple which I was pretty chuffed with...

S: If you had the power to bring stuff back from extinction, would you bring back a Sabre Tooth Tiger or a Woolly Mammoth? Dweebs or Astros?
RED: Woolly Mammoths seem to be a bit friendlier that sabre tooth tigers... Dweebs for sure, but I think I always liked Nerds better...

S: What do you have planned for the year ahead and further afield?
RED: Well to get the record finished, try and find a way of putting it out, hopefully me and the band can play as many gigs as possible and do a few festivals, and then maybe have a sleep, and do it all over again... I think I’m gonna try and make another record as soon as this one is done, me and my producer were drunkenly spouting ideas about it last night...

S: Tell me a joke.
RED: Boris Johnson

Rose Elinor Dougall (ex-Pipettes), Hari and Aino, Soy un Caballo and Silver Gospel Runners @ Clwb Ifor Bach, February 10th doors @ 7.30pm

Big thanks to Liz@Loose, for making the magic happen.

mp3---> Rose Elinor Dougall - Another Version of Pop Song

Obscure Sub-genre #1 - Nautical House

There’s a new sound ripping up the south coast of England, congregating in Plymouth and Portsmouth. It’s getting locals and those on shore-leave together in beautiful harmony, throwing shapes that would make Pop-eye cream his pants. This all encompassing, all enveloping, all embracing sound is “Nautical House”. Goodness knows how many things have been written about the way house music brings people together, so I’m not going to throw my pieces of eight in too, but I will quickly say that the violence that has scarred many a Friday night in these naval towns has all but disappeared since the emergence of this sub-scene last year. Coincidence?

As you can imagine Nautical House takes it’s inspiration from the sea. From sampling the sounds of waves and seagulls to incorporating melodies and rhythms of old sea shanties, this sounds like nothing you’ve heard before albeit the four to the floor house beat, naturally.

Portsmouth seems to favour a smoother organic almost Balearic strand of Nautical such as Fred Falke’s “8.08pm @ The Beach” while Plymouth, influenced by the great tradition of Acid music that spills out from Cornwall on the other side of the Tamar, tend to head for the harder, more breakbeat end of Nautical House. Check Cylob’s “Drunken Sailor”. You gotta be careful though, play out one style in the other town and you’ll sink quicker than the Kursk.

Whether this a video versus Betamax struggle for supremacy or just healthy variation in the scene remains to be seen, but hopefully this battle will be fought in the charts of 2010 than in the streets on the south coast.

Unknown Artist - Ask Tekken

I think this is what they call "Italo-disco". I know its definitely disco, ladies and gentleman baa-baaing and doo-dooing, a walky talky bassline, understated synth-a-tronics and an infinitesimal funky breakdown in the middle, oh this is certainly disco...but is the nice lady singing Italian? Apparently even if she's not, that doesn't necessarily disqualify it from Italo-disco status. How thoroughly confusing. Huge in Shoreditch in 2007 but don't let that put you off, it's ruddy brilliant especially if you heart a bit of Metro Area.

mp3---> Unknown Artist - Ask Tekken

Where I found it... and where you can buy the album

Wavves

Leading the charge, or if you heart puns, at the crest of a new wave of bands coming outta the US, Wavves is quickly becoming omnipresent in the music blogosphere. Alongside No Age, Vivian Girls, Blackblack, Arch M, Natural Numbers and Ducktails, it seems the sound of ’09 is a return to the DIY, lo-fi ethic of garage rock but also drawing widely from sources such as surf-rock, Phil Spector, Neu!, The Stooges, drone-rock and grunge. Instead of being inhibited by limited budgets and rudimentary recording equipment, these bands make it intrinsic and vital to there art.

The rehabilitation of grunge in popular music is somewhat overdue and it’s almost inevitable that after the resurgence of interest in post-punk (Bloc Party, Futureheads, The Rapture etc.) that musicians would skip the hair metal pomp of the mid 80’s and head straight to grunge. That’s not to say that Wavves etc is merely regurgitating the tropes of that scene, but rather invoke the feel of grunge while by-passing some of the more lumpen visceral elements, instead incorporating harmonies that are like The Beach Boys, particularly on “Weed Demons” and “So Bored”.

To see what I mean head down to Buffalo in Cardiff on the 4^th of March where Wavves will be supported by all-girl three piece Pens.

Sam

mp3--->Wavves - So Bored

mp3--->Wavves - Weed Demon

A Warrah

mp3--->B*O*B podcast #1 "The Warrah Issue"

B*O*B Podcast #1 "The Warrah Issue"

Rounding up the best mp3s posted all around the intermaweb over the past couple of weeks and pointing you to where you can get it, B-O-B is your 30 minute chunk of the good shit.

In episode # 1 you'll find stuff from Hot Chip, Diplo, Passion Pit and a nifty Pet Shop Boys cover amongst other lovely things.

Comments, recommendations and dubious jokes are more than welcome.

Sam

Oh and a Warrah is fox/wolf that was native to the Falkland Islands before they Dodoed around 1880

mp3---> B*O*B Podcast #1 "The Warrah Issue"

Edit: You can stream this on MixCloud