76Kids

My Songs of the Year 2011

2011-12-20T01:55:00.000-08:00

Seasonal joy ... here for your delectation is my very own pick of the pops for 2011. I will say right here that I forgot to include the rather brilliant Jens Lekman and Friends (I'm his girl) singles both of which just came out. Apart from that, this little lot are my special little musical pals for this year. Merry Christmas to you xxx David

David's songs of the year 2011 by Lightspeed Future Lullaby

1. Burial - Street Halo - Street Halo EP - UK
Burial has a "trademark sound", but like Boards of Canada before him, it is seminal, unique, much mimicked and never equalled. SONG OF THE YEAR.

2. Beirut - The Rip Tide - The Rip Tide - US
A welcome return for one of the truly great bands to emerge in the last decade. Hard to choose one track from the album, but this mournful title track edges it just. ALBUM OF THE YEAR.

3. Deerhoof - Super Duper Rescue Heads! - Deerhoof vs Evil - US
My daughter sings this - to my delight. Deerhoof continue to make skewed left-field pop with addictive hooks.

4. The Advisory Circle - As the Crow Flies - As the Crow Flies - UK
The prolific Jon Brooks in his AC guise on the ever-wonderful Ghost Box label (almost album of the year).

5. Zomby - Natalia's Song - Dedication - UK
Haunting standout from his first album on 4AD, featuring Zomby hallmarks like the wild time signature shifts but distilled down into a melodic tour de force.

6. Twin Sister - Kimmi in a Rice Field - In Heaven - US
Amongst the very very best of the recent crop of US bands filtering 80s influences into modern synthpop.

7. Connan Mockasin - Faking Jazz Together - Please Turn Me Into the Snat - NZ
Often called whimsical, this lovely fella from NZ via Elephant and Castle is just plain unique.

8. Balam Acab - See Birds (Moon) - See Birds - US
Spacious electronica with a dubby feel, from US sample wunderkind.

9. Metronomy - The Look - The English Riviera -UK
Perfect synth-pop originating from the unlikely environs of Totnes Devon.

10. Jon Brooks - Wandur Weltzeit - Music for Deiter Rams - UK
A musical tribute to Deiter Rams, designer of the Braun AB-30 alarm clock, from which all the sounds on this track are drawn.

11. The Field - It's up there - Looping State of Mind - DE
I think the album title says it all. A perfect example of the art of repetition.

12. Panda Bear - Surfers Hymn - Tomboy - US
The solo spinoffs from Animal Collective continue to thrill.

13. Rustie - Globes - Glass Swords - UK
It's prog Jim but not as we know it. An album from a dubstep hero that has divided opinion.

14. Tennis - Marathon - Cape Dory - US
A song that makes me want to be in the song. Very evocative.

15. Walls - Heat Haze - Coracle - UK
Label-mates and soul-mates of The Field. More repetitive bliss.

16. The Mummers - Call Me a Rainbow - Mink Hollow Road - UK
Lavishly orchestrated but still plaintively-beautiful song-craft.

17. PJ Harvey - On Battleship Hill - Let England Shake - UK
I think...my favourite ever PJ Harvey song!

18. Washed Out - A Dedication - Within and Without - US
An artist fast out-growing the "chill-wave" (hypnagogic was such a better name for it) micro-genre which has informed a lot of US indie since 2008. Reckon he'll last.

A Christmas single by me

2011-12-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

"Now it's Christmas" is a "Christmas single" - if you click through on the link below you can buy it and all proceeds go to Oxfam so please please be so kind. It's only a quid. See it as my version of getting sponsorship for running a marathon!!

Inspired by Ze's brilliant Xmas album from 1981 this comes in at the more wide-eyed and bushy-tailed end of the Xmas spectrum. Just a plain ole sentimental "want you back" love song.

Written and produced by David Griffiths with substantial input from Bryn and Cat (Sonic Magpie) - to whom many thanks.

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Cruel by St Vincent

2011-08-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

Now then, this is promising for her new album coming very soon.

The Wild Swans at the Thekla Bristol Thurs 9th June 2011

2011-06-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it's best to start with the days immediately following this gig. Wild Swans’ songs flew around my head like flocking starlings and my Google search history was littered with Swans-related search terms. So it was good - really good. Let's make that clear from the start.

Now, back to the moments just before the show. As someone who tends to shy away from reformed bands from the distant past (especially ones I love, like this one) it was fair to say I was sceptical about going to see the Wild Swans, a legendary band that shone brightly (but briefly) in the famous Liverpool scene of the late 70s and 80s. Paul Simpson, the leader of the band, was central in that scene but like the Wild Swans is perhaps less well known than some of his contemporaries (Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie, Bill Drummond to name but a few). Maybe that's why Simpson is calling the reconvening of the band "unfinished business" rather than a reunion. He has a point. One brilliant release in 1982 (a single, "The Revolutionary Spirit") was scant evidence of their stature in that bygone Mersey melting pot. But then if you are only going to release one single, making a stone-cold classic and releasing it on one of the coolest labels of the day (Zoo) will do you no harm in achieving almost mythical status in subsequent years. To an extent that is the position the Wild Swans have occupied all these years, as stars that burned brightly and exploded before any reputation could be sullied. A quintessential cult band; this despite reforming once already in the late 80s when they released 2 albums, the excellent and ethereal "Bringing Home the Ashes" (1988) and "Space Flower" (1990). In between the two Swans incarnations, Simpson made some lovely music with Care (another overlooked band) along with Ian Broudie, later of the Lightning Seeds.

Now fast forward to 2011 and Simpson's "unfinished business" has yielded a rather fine new album ("The Coldest Winter for 100 Years") and a fine band to play it (and lots of the older stuff) at the Thekla, Bristol's famous venue-on-a-ship (one of a handful of dates on a UK tour). Thekla Thursday gigs mean an extremely early start (because the venue hosts a club night from 10pm) so support act Stealing Sheep duly convened on stage at precisely 7.30 to a slightly sparse audience. This three-girl act (also from Liverpool) were a really nice surprise with a sound best described as the Andrews Sisters singing Warpaint, or putting it more literally, the sweetest close harmonies hung around minimalist alt-rock atmospherics. Their melodies were never obvious and always engaging. One to keep an eye on.

By the time the Wild Swans took the stage the audience had filled out somewhat but it should be noted that there was fierce competition in town as the hugely in-vogue Pains of Being Pure at Heart and a reformed Erasure were both playing within a stone's throw of this venue on the same night. I was glad to see that it was not made up solely of "men of a certain age" - often the case at such reformations. Maybe this was a function of that hyper-cult status the band enjoyed; cudos certainly thrives in the thin upper-air where music obsessives of all ages choose and hang on to their heroes.

The first thing I noticed about the group was that Simpson himself was looking very debonair and well suited to front a band who had obviously been instructed to "look sharp". And look sharp they did. But more importantly it was clear from the first song onwards that they sounded sharp too. As a statement of future intent (as opposed to past glories) they opened with "Falling To Bits", a song from the new album, then quickly followed it with a great rendition of "Bible Dreams" from "Bringing Home the Ashes". There was always something swashbuckling and grandiose about the Wild Swans at their best and the fact that that opening song from the new album sat so joyously next to an "old classic" from the first album says a lot for a band that immediately seemed comfortable and confident in their own sound. This set the pattern for the rest of the show, a great mix of old and new songs, which hung together seamlessly. Simpson, slightly nervous at first (at least between songs), grew in stature and poise as the show proceeded and the performance was met with warm enthusiasm from the crowd. The stellar band - Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen), Mike Mooney (Spiritualised), Ricky Maymi (Brian Jonestown Massacre), Richard Turvey and Stuart Mann (drafted in at the last minute but still superb) - played brilliantly and despite the "names" there was no showboating. The stage was very much Simpson's, just as it should have been, and although Raymi made some amusing interjections once in a while, this seemed only to reinforce the sense of "groupness" about them rather than the opposite.

Of course they closed the set proper with "The Revolutionary Spirit". How could they not! It is one of those inherently climactic songs and, as if it was needed, it reminded everyone of why this band were so fondly remembered and why they deserved that "legend" status all those years. But more importantly, the rest of the set was validation of the Wild Swans as a force in the here and now. A chance for Paul Simpson to begin to realise something he started so long ago. Not so much mission accomplished as "game on".

Set list:
Falling To Bits
Bible Dreams
Archangels
Liquid Mercury
Immaculate
When Time Stood Still
The Bluebell Wood
In Secret
Chloroform
Underwater
Now And Forever
God Forbid
No Bleeding
Bringing Home The Ashes
Revolutionary Spirit

Encore: Tangerine Temple

Such a tragic loss - Trish Keenan R.I.P

2011-01-15T03:55:00.000-08:00

I was absolutely desolate when I heard the shocking news yesterday (via a Facebook post) that Trish Keenan of Broadcast had died of pneumonia (possibly complicated by H1N1 influenza). Broadcast began in Birmingham in the mid nineties (where they remained until recently relocating to Hungerford). As a fringe member of the Brum scene of that era, our paths crossed and her death has certainly resonated more because of this "mutual friends" aspect (but also because she was a young healthy woman taken so early). But ultimately I just became a real admirer of the band, which over the years evolved into an essential "lynch-pin" in the cannon of experimental pop: one of those bands that defines a sound (or perhaps more an aesthetic in Broadcast's case). Their approach (and appeal) can almost be summarised in the title of their first full album, "The Noise Made by People". Broadcast were about more than just melody (though they had great melodies); noise, or sound of noise really, was essential too. The way they fused all that was their great strength. Trish was one of the two core members of the band (along with husband James Cargill) and her voice (icy and warm in equal measure) was its most defining characteristic. She sounded beautiful and looked beautiful (and very cool). Broadcast were the real thing. You only had to follow their extra-curricular activities to get a sense of how immersed in the exploration of sound and music they must have been. Various playlists and mixes were published on their website over the years, each of which was a route map to strange and exotic musical discoveries. In that sense the band name was so appropriate: Broadcast were ultimately like a TV channel; purveyors but also collators and curators: broadcasting fantastic stuff. They joined so many dots. It is to their absolute credit that their own releases (four proper albums and lots of singles which got gathered on two compilations) will surely be remembered as amongst the most essential and enduring releases on the left-field of pop. The link below is to the video of "Come on let's go" (from "The Noise Made by People"), one of my favourite songs. Trish you will be sorely missed - R.I.P. My deep sympathies and condolences to her husband, family and friends.

My favourite songs/artists of the year 2010

2010-12-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

Hey look - this is a long list of faves for 2010 (compared to 12 last year, when I tried to "distill it all down"). But as I stated then that was a struggle so I thought this year I'd go back to an "au naturel" selection which has meant a few more on the list. It never ceases to amaze me how so much new and inspiring stuff can come out year on year. All the below were released in either 2009 or 2010.

Of this lot, Beach House's Zebra just floors me each time I hear it (they were jaw-dropping live) and Jon Brook's work as the Advisory Circle and D. D. Denham has been inspirational. Close seconds after that were Owen Pallett, Dark Dark Dark, Caribou, Ariel Pink, Flying Lotus and Emeralds (whose album I only just heard and has really hit me for six). But all those on the lengthy list below sound brilliant to me. One other special shout has to go to Twin Sister (who I'm sure you'll hear more of next year) for releasing a very special EP completely free.
See also my lists from 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Most on the list have streaming links to listen from this page or you can download one or all of three podcasts; a haunting mix, a dance mix or a pop mix - all these feature seasonal 8bit Xmas intros from the wonderful 8bitPeoples. If you download, here are the individual pod tracklists.

Zomby - Digital Flora

Zomby’s take on 8-bit (or chip tune as it’s known) results in a new micro-genre - chip-step (my term). Zomby is still a cut above the majority of the dance pack and constantly delights with unexpected left turns.

Washed Out - Lately

The signature sound of this year is the filtered, cassette-compressed half-rememberings of American 25-year-olds. Washed Out’s take on hypnogogic pop is certainly a dreamy joy but I detect the presence of a decent wadge of 70s disco in Washed Out’s old record collection, an influence which gives this a more pulsating edge than some of his peers.

Twin Sister - Lady daydream

The opening synth refrain lends this pretty lo-fi ballad a space-age vibe that takes it from being just pretty to being truly special (so often in music one magic ingredient can make that difference). The song comes from a consistently good EP released for free on Band Camp. It was later deservedly picked up and released by Domino so expect to hear more from Twin Sister in the near future.

Symphony of Science - Glorious Dawn

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe” sings Carl Sagan on this amazing melodicised reconstruct of spoken words from his 1980 landmark documentary “Cosmos”. There are other variations of this on the Symphony of Science website. It’s all free (though this one got released commercially on a 7 inch by Jack White’s label). It’s a great project to explore.

Sufjan Stevens - All for myself

Ambitious, cinematic, epic - the usual hyperbole applies (yes Sufjan is back!!). As is his wont we got not one but two great albums by him this year after a rather long wait. He is like the proverbial buses.

Still Corners - Don’t fall in love

I know little of this band but was entranced by this piece of Mazzy Star-ish haze-pop when I heard it on 6Music. They have one previous single out, they come from London and this was on a 7 inch on a label with a fab name “The Great Pop Supplement”. Oh - and it’s rather lovely.

SQL - Sunday

Three tracks (see also Scuba, Joy Orbison) which represent almost perfect takes on minimal techno and dubstep. Each demonstrates how a mastery of using repetition dynamically (the core of good techno - but important in all music) can lead to beautifully nuanced and organic music in which microscopic transitions in sound and atmospherics evolve around the central motif. At it's best (as here) this hypnotic listening experience is immersive and near transcendental. It really does take some skill and love to make music as good as this.

Scuba - Three Sided Shape (see SQL for write up)

Owen Pallett - Lewis takes off his shirt

The artist formerly known as Final Fantasy and phenomenal one-man orchestra delivers a(nother) euphoric pop-song taken from what amounted to his major (actually a big indie) label debut on Domino. He cemented his position in my heart as an absolute favourite artist but I wish he hadn't come on so late that we missed half his set in Cardiff earlier in the year.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Ouroboros

I lump this and Emeralds (below) together simply because they are the vanguard of a whole swathe of dreamy-droney soundscape music that came out this year. At its best (as here) this is stuff you can just lie back and let wash over you - as huge reverb-drenched layers of of synth harmonics intertwine, undulate and evolve. Quite beautiful and a kind of wonderful fusion of the drone sonics of Japan’s Chihei Hatakeyama and the dense tecnho minimalism of the legendary Gas. Be warned though, the influences are not all good (well not to me anyway), the proggy meanderings of Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre lurk in the shadows. This could easily turn nasty!

Joanna Newsom - ‘81

Joanna Newsom is not one for brevity. Her songs and the albums they inhabit are long. Her latest, Have one on me, runs to 3 CDs totalling around 120 mins of material (the 18 songs on it average 6-7 minutes and rarely follow a traditional verse chorus arrangement). Love at first sight is unlikely. But Ms Newsom is a rare talent and some investment in her work pays off. ‘81 is almost the shortest song on the latest album and I'd say one of its best. I just kind of hope she releases a 40-minute (10 song) album next time.

MGMT - Brian Eno

No introduction needed to the now very popular MGMT. This very funny song was my favourite off their strong second album.

Le Corps Mince de Francoise - Something Golden

Shouty Finnish trio channel Neneh Cherry in irresistibly catchy style. It shouldn’t work but it does.

Joy Orbison - The Shrew would have cushioned the blow (see SQL for write up)

Janelle Monae - Tightrope

Produced by Big Boi from Outkast, that outfit is also the most obvious precedent for the kind of high concept and wild style hopping shown here by singer Janelle Monae. Another, more distant touchstone would be Prince in his 80s pomp and glory. Fundamentally, though, despite its epic length (70 minutes) and scatter gun genre-hopping, this is a great pop album that “flows”. “Tightrope” is one of the many stand-out songs from it.

James Blake - CMYK

James Blake is currently being widely touted as a dead-cert crossover act (as in from obscure dance-clique-darling to mainstream pop star). Boomkat (a shop), never short on hyperbole, said “It's like chamber music for the post-dubstep crowd”. Not sure about that, but he manages to meld minor chord melodicism with dusty dubby sonics to create concise (like pop songs) organic-sounding vignettes which always keep a good vibe (essential for dance music). Jeez, maybe he will be a star next year!

Jaga Jazzist - Tocatta

A welcome return after a long hiatus for Norway’s finest (yes they are better than Aha) Jaga Jazzist. This is a brilliant epic featuring repeating piano and celeste cycles and a huge brass motif. Basically it’s the Jazzist do musique concrète. Amazing stuff.

Here We Go Magic - Casual

Here We Go Magic is yet another in the seemingly endless succession of bands from Brooklyn. Just what is in the water there?! This track is off the album Pigeons and it really reminds me of Crazy Rhythms-era Feelies - and that is high praise indeed.

Gonjasufi - Sheep

The utter strangeness of Gonjasufi's cracked voice is probably one of those love it/hate it phenomenons. I’m pretty much in the “love it” camp but to me it needs the right musical vehicle and this haunting track (which sounds like it uses a Morricone sample - the “ahh ahh ahhs”) is just it. The rest of the album (A Sufi and A serial Killer) is a mixed bag. The tracks with the harder, grainier, bluesier edges remind me a bit of Tom Waits at his most obsturate and don’t quite do it for me. But the more atmospheric stuff (more typical of Flying Lotus who is connected with this) brings out the special other-worldliness in the voice perfectly.

Gold Panda - You

Cut-up sampled electronica from the more melodic end of the spectrum. The titles on Gold Panda's debut; You, Parents and India Lately signal it's autobiographical feel. There's no time-line here though, rather, a series of separate but interconnected memories. The listener is left with the sense that these fragments put together are the significant things that make the writer what he is. Overall - a very affecting album.

Flying Lotus - Zodiac shit

Enveloping psychedelic sound collage from LA pioneer of - uhm - “enveloping psychedelic sound collage”. Nobody does it better. Cosmogramma is an album of the year.

Brian Eno - Emerald and Lime

There’s not really much that I can say about Brian Eno that hasn’t been said before so I shall refrain from adding my two-penneth’s worth to the thinking on this music colossus. I picked this track mainly because it actually reminds me of some of my favourite Eno music from the past - especially the Apollo album. As you might expect from that comparison it has a very “outer-space” feel to it. A truly lovely track.

Emeralds - Science Center (see Oneohtrix for write up)

Eastern Seaboard - Soundblaster

A song that begins as plaintive country-tinged rock and builds spectacularly to an emotional crescendo. It’s very evocative of the wide-open spaces of East Anglia, where its authors reside. It’s also extremely catchy and has that most precious of pop commodities - a bloody great hook.

Divine Comedy - I Like

And I LOVE the Divine Comedy. A brilliant uplifting song without any cynicism at all from (Sir) Neil Hannon. I really do love Neil Hannon!!

Darwin Deez - Constellations

The best Strokes song they never did. A song that is hard to not “repeat play”. I’d describe this as “direct-injection” power-pop and like all such music it's “so simple” and yet so hard to do well.

Daedelus - Stampede Me

A moody semi-acoustic piece from the wonderful Daedelus who has cropped up on many of my end-of-year lists. He is prolific but remarkably consistent.

Dead Man’s Bones - Buried in water

The best thing about Dead Man’s Bones is that I like them despite becoming aware of an unwelcome backstory. Let me paint the picture - I picked this up in Rough Trade around Xmas last year. The grainy sleeve, obscure label and echoey 50s sounds, coupled with the haunting use of a children’s choir on many tracks, lent the whole package a coolness record crate-diggers like me skip heartbeats for. I was sure that I (and I alone) had unearthed a gem for which I could claim some nebulous credit for later when the rest of the world woke up to them (PS - this did happen with Animal Collective - I must remind you all of :-). Imagine how crest-fallen I was when I later discovered that this was a kind of vanity side project involving one Ryan Gosling - a far-from-obscure Hollywood actor - and not the product of unknowns from the fringes of the Austin scene. I have no gripes about Ryan (and little actual knowledge to be honest) but his presence in itself was enough to stoke feelings of betrayal. But worse than that it called into question that most precious of things for a record collector - judgement! Was this record really as good as I thought it was now I was fully aware of its provenance - could such a “side-project” really be up to scratch? Well, I’m more than pleased to say that in the intervening year - having calmed down and rested with the truth - I can honestly say that this is still very much a wonderful record full of spooky atmospherics and doowop melodies. And one very good fringe benefit from the Hollywood connection is the beautifully shot videos that accompany the record (see them on YouTube or Vimeo).

D. D. Denham - Ship Shore

Apart from mentioning the talents of Jon Brooks (Advisory Circle) again it’s worth pointing out that the album this comes from, Electronic Music in the Classroom, is more at the sound-lab end of the spectrum. It’s lighter on melody and focuses more on sound experimentation. But it’s a wonderful album full of texture, and interesting tonal mood shifts. It does live up to comparisons with Radiophonic masters like Delia Derbyshire or the mighty Raymond Scott’s Manhattan Research Project.

Dark Dark Dark - Something for myself

A spine-tingling ballad from a band that manages to conjure otherworldly textures with traditional folk instruments. In Nona Marie Invie they are blessed with one of the great female singers of the day. I have to give a shout here to Tom Ravenscroft – who has championed this band on his excellent 6Music radio show. They were magical live just a week ago in my local pub.

Caribou - Sun

Mesmeric repetitive beats. A mantra and possibly the best one word lyric ever. The Swim album has deservedly been Dan Snaith’s “breakthrough” moment - richly deserved for an artist on top form.

Best Coast - Boyfriend

Pure ‘n’ sweet califor-nye-aye bubblegum pop from a rapidly ascending indie group.

Belle & Sebastian - I want the world to stop

There’s a school of thought that has Belle & Sebastian morphing over the years from hallowed protectors of a kind of C-86-indie purity - to MOR traitors getting into bed with all sorts of evil music industry behemoths like Trevor Horn. The recording location of this album (LA) and the presence of one minor dud (a very MOR duet with Norah Jones) might give this nonsense some credence. But the truth is B&S (from Tigermilk onwards) always had a sophistication about them that could be misconstrued as blandness (but is actually just a very clever modern band with lots of classic influences). I think they reached a zenith (so far) on the last album 2006’s The Life Pursuit which strangely I have played more than any other this year. So in a very tiny sense the new one does represent a slight dip. But for all that it was great to get a new album and it still features some of the best and sassiest songs you’ll hear all year, including this gem.

Belbury Poly (remix of Advisory Circle) - And the cuckoo comes to Belbury

Dubby and disorientating electronica from the kings of hauntological pop on the rather wonderful Ghost Box label. If the folk musicians of the Wickerman had old analogue synths this might be what they sounded like.

Beach House - Zebra

Much as I loved Beach House over the last few years there was a sense that pre-eminence in their signature sound - a kind of shadowy dream-pop - might just be it. But with a sprinkle of gospel here and a hint of 70s soul there they have somehow super-charged their own sound while retaining its unique essence. And in the process they created a song as jaw-droppingly beautiful as “Zebra”. The rest of the Teen Dream album is wonderful too.

Badly Drawn Boy - I saw you walk away

I’m reluctant to repeat the “return to form” tag that seemed to crop up in many reviews of BDB's new album, because in truth, I think he’s put out a lot of decent stuff in the years since his first excellent album (The Hour of Bewilderbeast from a decade ago). BUT - this is probably his most consistent outing for many a year. Maybe it’s the return to the lo-fi reverb drenched production aesthetic as much as the great songs.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Fright Night (Nevermore)

80s-referencing sound collagist and a former one-man hypnogogic pop-meister does his thing with a full band to great effect on this great new album Before today.

Allo Darlin’ - Dreaming

Boy/Girl duet that lives up to the grandest tradition (i.e. Lee and Nancy as opposed to Peters and Lee). This also scores high on the “direct-injection”-o-meter mentioned in relation to Mr Deez. Mind you the name of the band is dubious.

The Advisory Circle - New dimensions in...

This is one of a few tracks on this selection by Jon Brooks (see also D. D. Denham). In his Advisory Circle guise he makes some of the catchiest and evocative analogue electronic ditties since Plone in the late 1990s.

Actress - Hubble

Post-dubstep minimalism from London's Actress who in Splazh has made one of the best electronica (as opposed to dance) albums of the year. Actress himself has called his music "R&B concrète," which might sound a bit pretentious but sort of captures what's on offer on the album.

Jon Brooks - godlike genius

2010-12-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

I just discovered that Jon Brooks (he of the Advisory Circle on the Ghost Box label) has started his own label - Cafe Kaput - and the first release is just out. It's actually by Jon himself under the name D. D. Denham and entitled "Electronic Music in the Classroom" (music can be streamed here). The more I hear of Jon's work the more I seriously wonder if the the much abused genius tag might be deserved here (not really but he is simply VERY GOOD). The Advisory Circle (along with Belbury Poly) is my favourite act on Ghost Box and this new album maintains that quality. It's more abstract than AC - mostly (but not entirely) un-melodic in a pop sense. But it's a deeply textured work that would appeal to any Radiophonic Workshop fan. Some of it is actually quite beautiful (the penultimate track "Ship Shore" for example). Further research on Jon revealed that he has also put out at least one pretty good dance 12" under the name of Georges Vert (on the always excellent Lo records). I love that depth and eclectisism. A new hero!

Ex fan des eighties

2010-12-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

The signature sound of this year is the filtered, cassette-compressed half-rememberings of American 25 year-olds.
Ariel Pink
Neon Indian
Washed Out
Nite Jewel

And last year it was the filtered, cassette-compressed half-rememberings of British 35-45 year-olds.
Ghost Box
Trunk

Nostalgia is the new NOW!!

Ghost Box in 2010

2010-10-06T05:54:00.000-07:00

It's great that the Ghost Box label has started to release stuff on vinyl because finally the packaging does justice to the label's brilliant artwork and music. Previously everything came out in jewell-cased CDs which was mildy disappointing. This year's releases have been a mix of vinyl re-issues of early hard to get releases (Belbury Poly's "Farmer's Angle" and the Advisory Council's "Mind How You Go") and a collection of 7 inch singles by various artists including Broadcast as part of a "Study Series" (now up to number 4). Musically all this is typical Ghost Box fare - and that means wonderfully evocative folky electronica that nods heavily to library music. But it's really been the medium as much as the message that has upped the ante for the label. In terms of music and design Ghost Box had already nailed the essential requirements for a boutique label: a strong coherent identity and an ability to turn obscurity into a sellable commodity. It all looked and sounded great until you got one of those CDs with it's excellent artwork printed on flimsy grade paper slotted into the ubiquitous jewell case. Somehow the lustre of the label took a dip at the point of purchase. Everything was special except the object. But the move to vinyl releases has finally meant that the cake has got icing on it. All this year's releases come robustly packaged with beautiful artwork printed on chunky card with the music pressed onto satisfyingly heavy vinyl. In the case of the two re-issued mini-albums they came out on 10 inch vinyl which many agree is the coolest (ie least common) format. So all in all a great year for Ghost Box and for those who collect its releases. My only gripe - you don't get MP3s with the vinyl purchases, something I think all labels should do these days.

When two blogs collide - Rowan Jelly and Add N to (X)

2010-09-15T11:40:00.001-07:00

This Rowan Jelly is deliciously smokey/sweet with a satisfying burnt treacly after-taste. I just got a jar of it from a friend of my wife's. He picked the berries and made it from scratch and it's lovely. I had a teeny spoonful whilst playing some moog-rich Add N to (X) - cor! - what a mix! - so - because I'm big on sensation associations I hereby post a pic of both in action. Each work well with cheese and bics on a cloudy early Autumn evening under some fairy lights. I intend to try and work a recipe incl. the jelly.

Crate digging: Jane Birkin - "Quoi"

2010-08-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

A timely find this given that the recent bio-pic on Serge Gainsbourg will most likely spur some interest in the great man's work. Up til now he's been something of a minority sport here in the UK. This album is a great comp of the stuff he did with Jane Birkin - and therefore contains his most famous song "Je t'aime...Moi non plus" plus other classics like "Jane B" and "69 annee erotique"; though my fave on this is the lesser known "Ex Fan des Sixties". Actually there isn't a dud on the whole album, which shows that Serge definitely still "had it" right through until the 80s. I got it from the guy at Southville market which has been a rich source for me. It's a French pressing on Phlips from the early 80s and is in immaculate condition and plays just great. The sleeve is "very 80s" but I kind of like it - the Aran jumper is a garment which deserves a comeback too :-)

Here We Go Magic - "Pigeons" - reminds me of Feelies family

2010-07-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

Here We Go Magic is yet another in the seemlessly endless succession of bands out of Brooklyn. Just what is in the water there! This track is "Collector" off the album "Pigeons" and it really reminds me "Crazy Rhythms"-era Feelies and that is high praise indeed. But it's another Feelies-related act that springs to mind when listening to the rest of the album, the almost entirely forgotten Speed the Plough, a brilliant band featuring various Feelies folks which released quite a few good albums and two spectacularly wonderful ones ("Speed the Plough" 1989 and "Wonder Wheel" 1991). I'd really recommend these if you ever see them (sadly they are long out of print). In the meantime check out Here We Go Magic's album - it's definitely one of my faves so far this year.

ADDENUM 7th Aug 2010: I changed the Speed the Plough link above after John from the band informed me they were very much still going and have a current website with info on their activities.

MP3 - Here We Go Magic - Collector
MP3 - Here We Go Magic - Casual

Joy Orbison - "The shrew would have cushioned the blow "

2010-06-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

I had my doubts about Joy Orbison's Hyph Mngo single last year which was the subject of much hyperbole. It had a decent filtered synth hook but the drums sounded too mechanical and quantized to me. I was also amazed that no-one seemed to suggest it owed a fair bit to Todd Edwards with it's cut-up vox. But I do love this latest EP which sounds much more organic to me. The wierdly titled "The shrew would have cushioned the blow" does suggest this chap might have "it" after all. Great stuff.

Crate digging: Sandy Nelson "Drums A Go Go"

2010-06-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

This is a scrumptious little vinyl find from junk-shop crate in Norwich. I only really bought it for the ace cover (and vaguely knowing about Sandy Neslon as a top-notch 60s drummer). I paid a quid and didn't even haggle (though any self-respecting crate-digger should have - even at that price - must have been the sunny weather:-). The sleeve is near perfect but the vinyl looks scratchy. But it's one of those wierd ones that actually plays really well (sometimes it goes the other way - looks great - plays terrible). It's actually a cracking record - particularly the title track. Because it's a drummer's record the beats are mixed really high up so in that sense it has a modern sounding power. Anyway - look at the sleeve and delight.

Note to self Maschine and Kore

2010-05-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

Bit of beat this but I want to rember how to do this trick with my new Maschine sequencer.

Hot Chip's "I feel better" video

2010-05-05T01:16:00.000-07:00

Generally not a big music vid fan but I love this from Hot Chip who by the way were so brilliant when they played the O2 in Bristol in Feb that even that awful venue was bearable. This video is hilarious.

Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Hot Chip | MySpace Music Videos

"Dreaming" by Allo Darlin'

2010-04-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

A sugar-rush of indie-pop sweetness this, that really puts a spring in the step of thoughts of Spring. It's as catchy as a summer cold but it's real killer punch is that it's a boy girl duet, in the grand tradition of Sonny and Cher or Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. Out on Fortuna Pop home of fellow C86 flag bearers Pains of Being Pure at Heart - in fact the vibe of this song echos POBPAH's yummy little nugget "Young Adult Friction".

No more Final Fantasy

2009-12-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

Final Fantasy, my favourite band of last year is no more! A cause for consternation you might think? Well not really. Owen Pallett has simply decided to release his music under his own name rather than FF (which was always more well known as a computer fantasy game anyway). Truth is it was a slightly naff name anyway. I'm really looking forward to the new album, "Heartland", now by Owen Pallett, which is out on January 11th.

Great article on MP3s vs hard copy music formats

2009-12-19T01:54:00.000-08:00

The day after I distributed my end of year comp digitally (for the second year running) this article in the Boston Globe (sent to me by my friend Dave) is about the best I've read on the meaning of music collections in the digital age.

2009-12-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

Nearly in the top 12 of the year

2009-12-15T08:00:00.001-08:00

Weeding that list down to 12 was tough. I didn't include any drone music even though it's been a big thing for me this year. But it's difficult stuff to weave onto a mix CD. Chihei Hatakeyama has put out two excellent albums, full of dense and evolving harmonics which provide an incredibly immersive sonic experience when listened to as a whole. In a similar (but darker) style Black to Comm's album Alphabet 1968 was notable for its majestic sweeps of noise and found-sounds, but also featured one of the most beautiful songs of the year in "Hotel Freund" with it's haunting orchestral sample. Another track that missed out for simply practical reasons was Lars Horntveth's (of Jaga Jazzist) Kaleidoscopic, an incredibly ambitious Sibelius-like orchestral work which, at 37 minutes, was just too long to include. One of the true giants of the electronic music scene, AtomTM, put out a fabulous album Leidgut, which again works better as a whole. Dirty Projectors released what I think will turn out to be their best album yet in Bitte Orca - but I only got it last month so am still digesting it and I was truly charmed by the romanticism of the Leisure Society, whose Sleeper album is simply very pretty. And speaking of prettiness - Haruko's Wild Geese is an exquisite example of plaintive acoustic folk loveliness. One of my favourite artists, Broadcast, released their most experimental album to date, a collaboration with Ghost Box's Focus Group and very much in the "hauntological" style. But with two tracks already in the 12 from Ghost Box I felt this sound was already adequately represented. That said, the live show Broadcast did in support of this album was brilliant and bodes really well for next year's full album. Other things have crept onto my radar too late, such as Good Evening by the beguiling Nite Jewel, who may end up featuring on next year's comp. Likewise Dead Man's Bones and Joker's Daughter both of whom's albums are currently on repeat-play on the Griffiths iPod. With these late-comers and a veritable stack of eagerly anticipated releases early in 2010 (Jaga Jazzist, Beach House, Hot Chip AND Final Fantasy all have albums released in January) next year's compilation is almost writing itself!

Songs of the year 2009

2009-12-15T06:11:00.001-08:00

Dear All - welcome to my songs of the year. I whittled it down from a huge 140 minutes double CD's worth to these 12 prime cuts (see who nearly made it - 12 was a struggle!). You can listen now via the play button just below or download the MP3s to burn to CD or play on your MP3 player. All the tracks are described below.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Merry Christmas, Love from David. xxxx

Summary: A golden year for British music was blessed with gems from Bristol in particular. It's a year when a characteristic that's long interested me in music seemed to crystallise around the idea of "hauntological". It's almost a musical equivalent of cubism where sound objects are rearranged and abstracted, but there's undoubtedly an added dose of nostalgia. Artists like the Advisory Circle exemplify the genre with music that collages samples of old public service announcements, vintage synths and degraded sound fragments of old folk tunes. It was interesting to see this coalesce as an unlikely "scene", but more so because it generated lots of interesting discussions on it, led by folks like Simon Reynolds and the Dissensus forum. But as it happens, my favourite of the year is from Canada and in no way "hauntological". Final Fantasy is the name and I explain more below! Finally, it was the year that my favourite band of the decade, Animal Collective, suddenly won mainstream approval with their eighth album!

2009 12 best - David's end of year compilation by Lightspeed Future Lullaby

Gig of the year: Final Fantasy / Cardiff
Album of the year: Animal Collective / Merriweather Post Pavilion
Song of the year: Animal Collective / My Girls
Artist of the year: Final Fantasy
Label of the year: Ghost Box

1. Civil Defence Is Common Sense / The Advisory Circle 2:52 (UK)
Retro-synths and samples of grainy public service announcements combine to evoke a Britain past, this, like much of the music on the label Ghost Box encapsulates the genre micro-genre now known as hauntological

2. My Girls / Animal Collective 5:41 (US)
I am evangelical where AC are concerned and I think they have featured on pretty much all of these comps since 2003. This year the band "broke through" and everyone and his uncle proclaimed their genius with the release of the latest album Merriweather Post Pavilion. This track - about the simple impulse of a fellow to wanna look after his girls (wife/daughter) had very special meaning to me for obvious reasons. In fact it was often a track that I used to rock my new daughter Isobel to sleep with, back in the early days of fatherhood.

3. Mood-ring Band / Final Fantasy 2:54 (Canada)
I wrote about my discovery of Final Fantasy way back in February and was bowled over that my impulse purchase of all their records based on hearing one track had paid off in spades. My admiration for this artist was later enhanced by a really special live show in Cardiff. As the biog unravelled with each google-stroke I was amazed to discover that Owen Pallet (who is Final Fantasy for all intents and purposes) has a stellar career helping out Arcade Fire and various other artists, including one of my own favourites, Beirut. It was exciting to find out that Beirut and Final Fantasy have collaborated so much and being able to revisit some of my Beirut faves with this in mind.

4. Where Were U in '92? / Zomby 2:04 (UK)
Zomby is a dubstep artist but one who has extended his oeuvre in an impressive and convincing way (not many others have as yet). Here he concocts a distillation of EVERYTHING that was great about early 90s rave music - all into a sublime 2 minutes.

5. The strangers / St Vincent 4:05 (US)
As soon as I heard this I thought of Doris Day and old musicals. Her voice has similarities but the melody and those little orchestral flourishes really evoke Nelson Riddle's or Billy May's 50s big-band arrangements. I subsequently heard that she was influenced by the Wizard of Oz on this album. A fantastic gig at the Thekla in Bristol sealed the deal for me.

6. Gardens Of The South / Sleeping States 4:13 (UK - Bristol)
If true love is that which is pure and without prejudice then this ranks very highly. I heard it on a Bella Union label comp and I had no idea who it was, but it stood out from the rest melodically and stylistically with its minimalism and nods to 50s American DooWop (an overlooked style that is criminally under-referenced in modern pop). On the strength of this song I bought the album from which it comes. The album is great too. But then the whammy kiss! they are based in Bristol. I find this a matter of some pride.

7. Scary Mansion / Scum Inside 2:28 (US)
I found out about this band through one of those serendipity routes that the internet makes so possible. I was checking Sleeping States' blog to see if they were playing in Bristol. That happened to recommend the latest by Francois and the Atlas Mountains (another fave from Bristol). From Francois's page I clicked to the label that is releasing his new album. That website started playing audio automatically (something I find really annoying). But just as I was trying to find a way of stopping the sound I realised I was enjoying it. And this was it - Scary Mansion - I bought the album - it's bloody great. The automatic audio feed worked - bugger!!

8. Destroyer / Bay of pigs 13:39 (Canada)
The word epic gets bandied about quite a lot in music. Usually its unjustified (when a song is merely meandering - long and dull). But here is a song which demands that description, a truly epic 12 inch single from Destroyer. Over 13 minutes it weaves it's way seamlessly through ambient electronica, prog-rock through torch disco and back again. Add to this Dan Bejar's brilliant allegorical lyrics and distinctive vocals and perhaps another superlative is justified - CLASSIC. So here it is a classic epic!

9. The Girl Who Fell to Earth / Jega 4:39 (UK)
It's funny to say that this glistening piece of icy electronica, no doubt created on cutting edge synths and music software, sounds dated, but in a strange way it is. No one seems to play this kind of melodic "futuristic" techno anymore. It reminds me most of the halcyon days of early Warp when this kind of thing got the awful moniker Intelligent Dance Music (IDM). But Jega, who is one of the giants of that scene from the 90s, has returned with a classic.

10. European Male / Bronnt Industries Kapital 5:09 (UK - Bristol)
Bronnt were probably the first band I discovered in the fragmented but brilliant Bristol scene, when I heard their soundtrack to a film about witch trials called Haxan. Four years ago that was a sound that fits perfectly into the "hauntological" thing that's going on now so they may be a band somewhat out of time because here Bronnt has moved on to a more meaty/beaty form of retro-futurism and created a wonderful homage to some of those dark synthy soundtracks of the 70s by bands like Goblin and John Carpenter.

11. The Hidden Door / Belbury Poly 5:08 (UK).
Belbury Poly is another of the artists on Ghost Box which is my label of the year. It inhabits a similar sound territory to the Advisory Circle, as do most of the artists on Ghost Box (the label is coherent in its vision) but like the Advisory Circle Belbury impress melodically as well as sonically. It's future-retro, it's "nostalgia for an age yet to come", it's ghostly, hauntological and it's hypnogogic pop (Google the last 2 for a wealth of information). The sound of yesterday from tomorrow.

12. Oktober / Bersarin Quartet 6:26 (Germany)
A recommendation from Norman Records, a great online indie shop, this obscure piece of neo-classical gorgeousness, sound-tracked many-a-late night for me and Isobel early in the year. Luscious and enveloping stuff.

Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit

2009-12-01T08:33:00.001-08:00

At the end of October I went to the Barbican in London and finally got to see Jaga Jazzist perform, a circle finally squared after I missed them in Bristol 5 years ago. They were actually supporting Efterklang doing a performance with the Britten Sinfonia. The show was pretty exhilarating and I meant to post about it at the time. Anyway now is timely as a promo of the forthcoming JJ album is on Soundcloud. It's classic Jaga Jazzist, full of twists and turns and really sounding like no one else whatsoever. I look forward to the album.

Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit

Teach them early

2009-11-26T03:40:00.001-08:00

DSC_0272.JPG, originally uploaded by bubtweeker1.

Here is my lovely daughter following in her daddy's footsteps. At this stage it's best not to hear the tune she made :-)

Scary Mansion

2009-11-22T09:39:00.000-08:00

SCARY MANSION - "Make Me Cry"

I found out about this band last night through one of those serendipity routes that the internet makes so possible. I was checking Sleeping States' blog to see if they were playing in Bristol. That happened to recommend the latest by Francois and the Atlas Mountains (another fave from Bristol). From Francois's page I clicked to the label that is releasing his new album. That website started playing audio automatically (something I find really annoying). But just as I was trying to find a way of stopping the sound I realised I was enjoying it. And this was it - Scary Mansion - I bought the album - it's bloody great. The automatic audio feed worked - bugger!!

The Return of Walt Jabsco (feat Lightspeed Future Lullaby)

2009-11-22T00:21:00.000-08:00

I'm very proud to announce my participation in a great new 12 track compilation of artists inspired by the music of Jerry Dammers and the Specials. I was chuffed that my single "Me and Jerry D" was chosen for inclusion. It's available to buy from Amazon and iTunes and all the proceeds go to charity so please buy it.

Lightspeed Future Lullaby new EP (free download)

2009-11-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://lightspeedfuturelullaby.bandcamp.com/album/people-strong"&amp;amp;gt;People must be strong by Lightspeed Future Lullaby&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

When angels talk together by Lightspeed Future Lullaby

2009-11-18T02:27:00.001-08:00

When angels talk together by Lightspeed Future Lullaby
Here's a new song by me 'specially for Xmas (yes it's a bit early). The voices are from kids talking about a nativity play.

Jega - "Variance" - Planet Mu - July 20 2009

2009-07-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

The new LP by Jega - his first in almost 10 years is stunning - at least that's what my early impressions tell me. Worth the wait! Hearing about this one made me fish out "Spectrum" (an earlier album and an all time classic electronica release) in anticipation. It's early days but this new one might just be the match of it.

Ralf Hütter was not interviewed on the Culture Show - oh well!

2009-07-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it was always going to be a long-shot that the elusive and media-shy leader of Kraftwerk (now the sole original member) would (as was billed) be interviewed on the BBC's Culture Show. Miranda Sawyer actually went head to head with Ralf's stage robot which in interview was a touch wooden and not too revealing. But it was a good little feature anyway about their performance at the Manchester Festival 2009. I loved the fact it happened at the velodrome with cyclists whizzing by.

Connections - Drone/Exotica/Minimal/Hauntological

2009-06-24T01:40:00.001-07:00

Music (that hardly exists) was my first love.
A long long time ago (I'm talking 1984 here in the days of new-romantic flamboyance and post-punk noise fests) I went to see Jonathan Richman and was kind of amazed to witness the lengths he went to to play quietly. During the set, which culminated in an a cappella version of "Walter Johnson", Jonathan asked for instruments to be turned down, decided that the drummer should play with brushes, and then hands, before encoring without even a mic. He literally did go out with a whisper, which made the euphoric applause that greeted his unusual performance sound even louder than it was. This was not then or has ever been since seen as a conventional way to satisfy either performers or audiences in rock music, performances of which are often ruined by an over-reliance on brute-force volume. But it struck a chord with me and what it showed was how lightness and subtle nuance can truly rock your world.
Subsequently I've come to notice that a lot of music I love - and this may sound an odd way of expressing it - seems to barely exist, comprising of tiny ripples of sound with modulations and minute adjustments. It is almost tenuous. I guess it's why I took to acid house and why this year I have gone doolally over the music released on Ghost Box and a micro-genre generally called "drone". It's kind of given that this hazy approach to sound is key in those two. But this is also a defining characteristic of some other, less obvious music too. As noted in a pleased-with-myself earlier post, I just got a pristine copy of Arthur Lyman's Taboo. I was rather cooing about the actual item in that post and didn't say too much about the music, which I've been digesting in the last week. Lyman is very much a key figure in "exotica" and was one of those artists rediscovered during the "lounge-core" trend of the late 90s. This whole scene was very much based around an image of retro fun, frivolity and cocktail playfulness exemplified in titles such as "Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music" and saw a number of great artists like Esquivel, Martin Denny and Les Baxter restored from ignominious (qu)easy-listening posterity. In my mini-post I leapt onto the Esquivel similarities, of which there are many (extravagant use of percussion, lashings of spring reverb and a "kid in the toyshop" application of the then relatively uncommon and novel ability to record and release in stereo "hi-fidelity") but, there is a more potent vibe at work in the Lyman stuff. This guy really plays it quiet. There is an absence of those cartoonesque stabs of whacky percussion that were an Esquivel trademark and instead the music often fades in to the distance as ambient washes of wind, wave, bird or jungle sounds well up. In actual fact this is not a million miles away from the campfire vibe of some of Animal Collective's work and those washes of ambient noise bring to mind Basic Channel's dubby minimalism. This music is simply not "in your face". In terms of my very recent listening it sits beautifully alongside Belbury Poly (Ghost Box) and the beautiful drone ambience of Chihei Hatakeyama (whom I will be posting about soon).

Luke Haines' britpop memoir

2009-06-16T02:52:00.000-07:00

"Bad Vibes: Britpop and my part in its downfall", by Luke Haines is definitely worth a peruse if you take your nostalgia un-rose-tinted and served with a good measure of misanthropy. It's mainly pretty funny and certainly gets off to a hilarious start with a recollection of how a stage-invading dwarf somewhat spoilt his band the Auteurs' swansong live show in France. It's pretty dark, very immodest (he has an appealingly over-inflated sense of his own place in musical history) and mentions plenty of actual names and places as it reveals to the reader how a sizable chunk of Britain's indie music scene in the 1990s evolved into (or came to be known as) britpop. Anyone with a fondness or interest in the era will enjoy the numerous anecdotes featuring characters from the scene (from household name Damon Albarn to the eternally cult Lawrence from Felt and Denim). But Mr Haines has few complimentary things to say about many of the great, the good (and the hardly-remembered also-rans) of that musical decade. In particular, I doubt Matt Johnson (The The) will likely be sharing a pint with Mr Haines any time soon. Oasis feature often as the object of the author's scorn and such is the cutting eloquence of these numerous put downs that I almost began to feel sorry for Noel Gallagher and co (I did say almost). He depicts himself as some kind of britpop fifth columnist - in there at the heart of the scene, agitating; quietly detesting and disdainful of the competition (more successful and otherwise). The odd grudging acknowledgment of rare good moments by peers (like Pulp's "Common People" for example) only serves to heighten the sense the reader gets of being on a journey with Mr Haines through a musical decade, kicking against the pricks, and cocking irreverent snoops to all and sundry along the way. But despite the spikiness you do empathise and the overall impression is that beneath the entertaining veil of superiority, a more humble present day Haines exists. In fact, as the author himself says in the intro, the impressions and views he describes were as he felt them at the time and do not necessarily reflect his current thinking (though it has to be said that the verve with which he regularly diminishes Oasis and its members seems rather too gleeful to be yesterday's feast). And as Mr Haines' band were indeed right in there at the start, this makes for a very insightful and witty dissection of the whole britpop phenomenon. Those familiar with his music will already know him as lyricist skilled at evoking and deconstructing past cultural eras. It's a strength he has managed to carry through to this enjoyable trek through a particular epoch in British music. Highly recommended especially if you have ever led a band yourself and fancied yourself as the greatest. And perhaps especially if you always thought Oasis were shit.

Taboo

2009-06-14T04:56:00.000-07:00

Quite excited this morning that I managed to pick up an absolutely immaculate original pressing of Arthur Lyman's "Taboo" at my local market. I've been after this for a long time and always held back on copies I saw because of over-pricing and/or rubbish condition. This one's the bees knees though - the vinyl and the sleeve are near perfect. It's something to purr about. Look at the picture. The sleeve is still so shiny you can see my reflection in it! It's classic easy listening - but the kind of thing that never really deserved that tag, although it is undoubtedly easy on the ear. Very exotic sounding with a a definite South Pacific/Latin vibe but really "out there" sound and production-wise. File under "exotica" along with Esquivel, Martin Denny and the like.

Endless Bob Brown...music was my first love...

2009-02-25T13:13:00.000-08:00

It's not at all the raison d'être of this little soap-box to self-aggrandise (just that one little link to my music over there on the right isn't much is it!!). But something slightly funny has happened, which I guess is a function of the fact that the great worldwide-blogosphere-webby-sponge eventually leaves no stone whatsoever unturned. And so it comes to pass that a band I was in as a thin gaunt youth in the 80s seems to be stirring some interest, more than two decades after the event. PleaseRainFall, the main blog in question, has even released an online EP. That band was Endless Bob Brown, so named after a chant a stage-invader repeated and repeated - religiously, loudly - at a very early Birthday Party gig. It left an impression on me and might explain to this chap, a fan of the music, that the name is not "mince" (used as an un-flattering adjective). On reflection I can sort of see what he means about the name, but yes - Endless Bob Brown was my band - along with my friends Bryn, Guy and Tim. We were from the provinces; the West Midlands; mainly Kidderminster but with a foot in the Black Country. We were pretty good. But we were (on reflection) perennial under-achievers - not Biz-ready - not street-wise - and certainly not confident (at least outside the garage where we rehearsed). I think this is the story of so many other bands like us. We were the children of our influences for sure, but not just musically. Successful, no-compromise bands like the Smiths and Joy Division fed our sense of pride in being "outsiders" who would not "play the game" and who would abide faithfully - come what may - to a pure idea of artistic endeavour. This approach was, to be truthful, an iron-clad guarantee of ZERO SUCCESS, but despite that I must admit, I still kind of believe in it. To this day I remain puritanical and obsessed about music; often to a perspective-distorting extent. I can't really take it lightly. I mean, should a 40-something father, who works for a leading current affairs magazine, feel that the financial-crisis pales as a news story besides the debate over the rights and wrongs of a Specials reunion (wrong by the way)?

But in truth we did have our chances; the offer of a tour with the Chills (a band of the moment), patronage and support from UB40's producer, to name just a couple, but a combination of laziness and distraction (we were all heading off to different worlds - university, jobs etc) foiled even these "open goals". We all continued to do music and we all do today. Bryn and I kept at it as a band on-and-off, well into the acid-fueled l'eighteis (with Elation). Then Super 8 was our Pulp-inspired Brit-pop affair right up until I left Birmingham for London in 1996 (where funnily enough I eventually found a modicum of "real" success with actual releases on a record label). I think all the bands were at least "pretty good" - but we always had that self-imposed ceiling on real-world ambition. It doesn't matter, because being in Endless Bob Brown and subsequent bands was great fun - sort of - but it is still gratifying to find that all these years later some people are discovering and loving the music. So I modestly suggest that if you are reading this (stupid comment eh) you have a little click here and on those earlier links to see some nice things that people have said about us. It's undoubtedly good for my ego, but really and truthfully I actually think the writings and enthusiasm of these folks deserves an audience too.

A matter of local pride

2009-02-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

Well there I was, crammed sardine-like into a Southwark bound Jubilee line tube on Wednesday night, subconsciously scanning those banner ads they have on the trains (they work so well becasue folk so strenousuly try to avoid eye contact that what else are they going to look at) when I spotted the one below for The Times and being a vinyl head I began mentally thumbing through my list of London emporiums trying to get a match. Then it dawned on me. Yes I do know it. But it's not a London shop at all. In fact it's Plastic Wax on Bristol's Gloucester Road (probably one of the last streets in Britain where you can still do a record shop crawl). Quite exciting really. Gave me some joy on a bloody horrible tube anyway. Must go up there at the weekend.

Weren't the Woodentops good?

2009-02-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

I don't know why but a song by the Woodentops popped into my head the other day, prompting me to fish out "Giant", their first album - on Rough Trade - which came out around the same time as the Smiths' debut in the mid-80s. There was quite a buzz about them at the time and I saw them live at least twice (they were top-notch live - very tight - very intense). But they seem to have become something of a forgotten band considering their prominence at the time. Anyway - I'm not about to write a potted history or a plea for recognition/reappraisal here. But I would like to say I massively enjoyed the first album on re-listening. I'll be putting at least a couple of Woodentops songs on February's compilation - freshly ripped and slightly scratchy from two decades old vinyl - nice.

Final Fantasy - and why impulse buying is cool

2009-02-01T15:26:00.000-08:00

I wondered a couple of weeks back if last year's end of year round-up from Pitchfork would throw up any gems. The answer is a resounding YES. Final Fantasy is a band I hadn't come across before. It's actually not really a "band" so much as a quasi-solo project. In this case of Toronto-based Owen Pallett who seems to have flourished as a collaborator with high-flyers like the Arcade Fire ( he did the orchestral and string arrangements on both Funeral and Neon Bible) while his own rather brilliant output has dipped under many radars (including mine until now). Via the Pitchfork list I heard a track called "The Butcher" which it said was the 99th best track of 2008 (is that damning with faint praise?). I loved it and swiftly went online to research and ended up buying three CDs from this nice record shop in Canada, which is also a co-operative co-founded by Owen Pallett.

The discs duly arrived mid-January. Now it's always exciting receiving such exotic goodies from afar, but I don't mind admitting that my heart skips a few extra beats when I buy records I have hardly heard. It's a risky business; more so when your lead has come from a track already picked out as a standout which could just mean it'll be downhill from there. And undoubtedly, I've had my fair share of disappointments, but oh the joy, the delicious sense of EUREKA!, when a gem is uncovered. And to be perfectly honest, there's a distinct feeling of reflected brilliance when ones own nose for for sniffing out quality is shown to be so damn keen. Of course me blogging about me discovering this proves the latter point! Final Fantasy is what I'd call a true gem - a pearl in fact - and along with my newly acquired complete collection of Ghost Box recordings, the CDs have been on constant rotation since they arrived. The music couldn't be more different to Ghost Box's stuff mind you. This is baroque chamber pop with occasional operatic flourishes, in the vein of the Divine Comedy, circa "Promenade" (though stranger, more off kilter and just a little lo-fi). The prominence of strings and the excellence of the string arrangements are the most distinctive features but Owen's voice is smashing; a delicate, slightly tremulous tenor (which is occasionally winningly overwrought) . It's not unlike Zach Condon's (Beirut), another collaborator, who also contributed to the most recent of the records, "Spectrum, 14th Century". This is the one that features "The Butcher" along with four other tracks. It's great EP and like the others has some really good artwork.

It is actually true that "The Butcher" is probably the standout track from this EP but the pick of the three CDs is undoubtedly the second album "He Poos Clouds" (apparently a compliment - your shit don't smell natch). This is a magnificent collection featuring a number of beautifully rich songs. My favourite at the moment is the heart-wrenching "I'm Afraid of Japan" which reminds me of nothing so much as the existential movie masterpiece, Monsieur Hire. I'm doing some monthly compilations this year and it's plain that Final Fantasy and Ghost Box will feature prominently on January's and maybe beyond. Brilliant stuff.

Ghost Box

2009-01-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

I have stumbled upon Ghost Box. This niche imprint releases records by "artists that find inspiration in library music, folklore, vintage electronics and haunted television soundtracks". I think the latter describes the frequent use of samples from grainy public service broadcasts. There is certainly an obvious debt to Boards of Canada's (BOC) seminal "Music Has the Right to Children" which mined a similar seam and has become something of a holy grail in terms of atomospheric electronica. Like that BOC album much of Ghost Box's output feels half-formed, dream-like and fragmented. It's also very nostalgic - music that feels like memories and evocations of the past. Bloggers like K-Punk and Simon Reynolds have said a lot of interesting stuff on it, and it may have been the former who dubbed it hauntological, a description which kind of gets to the crux of this music really - it really is quite haunting. My tardiness in finding this lovely music is amply demonstrated by the fact that even the Times has done an article on "hauntology". Rather fantastically the Guradian has called it psychogeographic rock. But names aside, this is essential listening for fans of the afore-mentioned BOC, but it also brings to mind Isan, Plone, Broadcast (who share an art-work designer with Ghost Box I believe) and that whole future-retro thing that got going in the late 90s. Other reference points are the soundtrack of Kes and the output of labels like Trunk and Mordant Music.

"DONK" - fun early 2009

2009-01-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

I find myself laughing at this by the Blackout Crew http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ckMvj1piK58 - but bloomn' eck I like it too. I'd call this great pop. FACT is hilarious in its write up, like it thinks it's found some bizarre northern fun cult that it can't work out whether to love or mock, but Simon Reynolds has investigated without prejudice and seems to have some love. There is a joke here but who it's on is anyone's guess.

Pitchfork top 50 albums of the year

2008-12-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

Over the last 5 years I have always looked forward to this end of year list from Pitchfork. Like all such list it's equal parts infuriating/interesting but I have to say that without fail I always find out about a couple of lost (to me) gems from this list. One year it was Beirut and another was the Shins and the Arcade Fire (all well before minor global fame befell them). Bon Iver's (then) self-released debut, now many's album of 2008, was listed in 2007 (at 29). This year maybe it'll be Cut / Copy which I'm listening to now and it sounds like a great electro indie pop album. We shall see.

Gosh! early Momus albums for free.

2008-12-16T04:46:00.000-08:00

Momus (a hero of mine), has decided to give away all his Creation records albums (from the 80s and 90s) via his website. Since Creation folded he reckons there is little chance in the near future of these great out-of-print albums getting a re-release and hopes to undermine silly prices on eBay and the like. He's posting them daily and started with the first, Momus: "The Poison Boyfriend" (full album). These are fantastic records and I urge you to click on over there and bag 'em.

The new Animal Collective album is coming :-)

2008-12-13T15:41:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems to be going bonkers about the forthcoming Animal Collective album "Merriweather Post Pavilion", which is not out until January but already has a promotional site. FACT, Drowned in Sound, Pitchfork and even MOJO are amongst those to pour forth superlatives. But I'm finding it quite strange that some of these enthusiastic previews have a peculiar implicit message; that they haven't really loved the band that much all along!!
A quote from FACT for example:

"What's the best thing about Animal Collective? What is it about us that they really respond to?". The answer, of course, is Panda Bear -- a fact borne out by his solo album, Person Pitch, totally eclipsing the Collective's messy last LP, Strawberry Jam."

Uhm...the logic goes something like this - "Merriweather Post Pavilion" is a great album because it sounds more like AC member Panda Bear's (more accessible and less varied) solo album, "Person Pitch", from last year and less like previous AC releases! Don't get me wrong, "Person Pitch" was a suberb record, a wonderful concoction of Beach Boys-esque harmonies and reverb-drenched mantras. In a way it was a deeper exploration of one aspect (Panda's aspect?) of the AC sound, whose choral harmonies also have a strong Beach Boys quality. But the beauty of AC is the variety in their music and if ever a band benefits form all of it members (rather than one) it's AC. I'm hoping that "Merriweather Post Pavilion" is indeed the best AC album so far - but not because it's a compromise, which irons out the bands quirks, which some at least, obviously have seen as weaknesses in past.

Hot Chip and Robert Wyatt free download - version of "Made in the Dark"

2008-12-13T05:58:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit perplexed! How come the first taster of Robert Wyatt's collaboration with Hot Chip sounds a bit naff? Surely - I thought when I heard about this venture - a match made in heaven? But, I hate to say it, the free download teaser of their version of the fab "Made in the Dark" sounds a bit cobbled together - kind of like there's the original Hot Chip version slightly submerged under RW's additions (lots of jazzy horns, some OK backing vox and a goddamn awful Jew's harp drone ALL THE WAY THROUGH). It creates a slightly jarring impression and overall sounds like some kind of avant garde Karaoke. Anyway maybe there is hope for the full release, an EP under the name of Hot Chip with Robert Wyatt and Geese - but this doesn't inspire confidence.

Aidan Moffat - agony aunt!

2008-12-13T05:49:00.001-08:00

I stumbled upon Aidan Moffat's romance advice column today. Here Mr Moffat - in agony uncle mode - offers support and solutions to those with problems of the heart and/or awkward lustings or, as he says, "conjugal woes". If you think you might have such a problem why not see if good old uncle Aidan can sort you out.

Songs of the Year 2008 - continuing thoughts

2008-12-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

Of course, compiling one's songs of the year before the year-end of means that later-in-the-year releases or things belatedly discovered get scant consideration and/or an overly quick evaluation. It seems right and orderly that the late releases get carried over into 2009's prize-draw, but those other awkward cases can sometimes get forgotten, dropping into a sort of "appreciation void". Well I'll try to address those here. First up is Of Montreal's "Skeletal Lamping". The diligent amongst you might recall my fondness for this band and their inclusion on last year's SOTY. Thus enthused I was really looking forward to their new album. BUT....first impressions were not that great. For those not in the know, Of Montreal (really the project of Athens Georgia's Kevin Barnes) have evolved from pretty good but basically conventional indie band into a kind of hydra-headed kaleidoscope of musical and lyrical influences. The kitchen sink is in here, and so is the garden shed, the attic and all it's contents, which seems to include Prince, Morrissey and George Clinton. This schizophrenia began to emerge in mild form on the albums just before last year's wonderful "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" where the "vision" (or maybe hallucination) seemed to coalesce in the form of an almost perfect experimental pop opus. What grated about SL was the initial impression that the spontaneity and gay abandon which appeared to be at the heart of "Hissing Fauna" had been abandoned for a more calculated and self-conscious eclecticism. SL is certainly a difficult record to take in - it flits all over the place and even the individual songs typically feature multiple sections and mad style shifts. Just when you've started to identify a satisfying melodic sequence to cosy up to, some bizarre juxtaposition occurs. BUT... after numerous listens, a semblance of unity about the album is emerging to me. Hooks are echoing in my mind through and during those odd changes and somehow a whole is emerging from the fragments. In other words, while the jury still may be out on this record, I am beginning to get a sense of its hidden pleasures. The bottom line though is that the music world, is blessed by rare mavericks like Kevin Barnes and OM are one of those bands that are likely to tickle your senses (maybe infuriate them too) in ways few other bands can get near. There's nothing run of the mill here.

David's songs of the year 2008

2008-12-06T03:57:00.000-08:00

Hello all and happy Christmas - LOVE - from david, samantha and isobel - click & play the video below for a quick megamix and greeting - continue for details and downloads:

Here for you is this year's "David's selection" - my annual compilation and write-up of this year's best songs which I've sent you on CD or you can download it here (PART 1 and PART 2) - to be honest you should download it anyway as home-burnt CDs are basically shite and unreliable (cassettes were better from that perspective) . You can print off that image above and use it as CD artwork, if you want to have a hard copy to play in a CD player and to keep lovingly in your collection. As this is posted as a blog you can, if you wish, get in the spirit of things and leave comments.

I do hope that some of you will at some point in the future come to our place and listen to some of these under the comforting glow of multiple lava lamps.

Special thanks this year to:
Hamish - he turned me onto Disrupt - an amazing find.
Steve - alerted me to Destroyer who I saw at the Bowery Ballroom New York this year (bloody great gig - sorry you weren't there Steve!).
Fraser - belated thanks for diverting my attention to Daedelus (who apart from Animal Collective, is probably the most regular artiste on these annual mixes).
Dave - would I have found MGMT without your tip off?

TRAX: (in alphabetical order with CD track number in brackets) - DOWNLOAD THE CD (PART 1 and PART 2). Click the artist's names for more information.

Animal Collective - Water curses (4)
Animal Collective have been on most of my Xmas comps over the last 5 years which is a testament to their evolving magnificence. There wasn't a new album this year (it's due in Jan 09) but they seem to have got into the habit of releasing great 4-track EPs between albums. "Water curses", the opener from this year's stand-alone opus of the same name, is one of the band's more melodic outings. I noticed that Mojo magazine, a bastion of AOR, led its December review section with a glowing report on AC's imminent new album, a sure sign that the wider music world is waking up to this amazing, unique band.

Beach House - Gila (14)
Songs of warmth and gentle fuzziness abound on "Devotion" from Baltimore's Beach House. It's all echoey guitars lo-fi electronics and gorgeously gentle melodies. "Gila" is my favourite .

Bon Iver - re: stacks (1)
One of those "stop what you're doing", "pull the car over" "gaze out of the train window" "reflect-on-life-wistfully" type of songs. Plaintive and wonderfully direct it's a beautiful stand-out performance from a fantastic debut album. Probably my favourite song from my favourite album this year and certainly one of the most enthralling and mesmerising live performances I've ever been to. Go to the coast in winter, stare out to sea, and put this gem on.

Daedelus - I car(r)y us (17)
YouTube notoriety befell Daedelus this year with his Deelite-echoing, Obama-endorsing rap, which I must admit I found bloody irritating (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbjBHkKiS4c). It's now what he's most known for, such is the nature of fame these days. However, my admiration is undampened, and in fact enhanced immensely by the arrival of maybe his most "fun" album to date - it's as eclectic as ever but with a unifying nod to 90s UK/Euro rave (always good in my book - 88-92 4Eva).

Destroyer - Shooting rockets (5)
From Toronto, Dan Bejar's outfit Destroyer is now a firm favourite of mine. I was lucky to be in New York to see them perform in the Spring when they played most of the new album from which this song comes. This sprawling but enticing ballad is a good example of Destroyer's unusual style and wantonly verbose lyrics - which have the air of a stream of consciousness.

Disrupt - Jah red gold and green (15)
The founder of a micro-genre - "8-bit-dub" - and the artiste behind the wonderful Jahtari.net (where loads of his and similar artists' material can be freely downloaded), Germany's Disrupt has released one of the essential electronica albums of recent years with "Foundation Bit", an album showcasing the best of his bit-crushed rhythms, sub-atomic bass and eerie atmospherics. The judicious use of some great spoken-word samples (a few from the great John Carpenter film "Dark Star") is the icing on the cake.

Andre Ethier - Hard Landing (16)
This Canadian singer song-writer supported Destroyer when I saw them in New York. I'd never heard of him before but he was extremely impressive live so I bought his album at the gig. It's got quite a traditional bluesy style I suppose, but something lifts it from the pack.

Flying Lotus - Roberta Flack (13)
Wonderful dense, mashed-up electronica from LA's Flying Lotus on Sheffield's Warp records, a jewell of a release on what has become a patchy label of late.

Gas - Pop2 (19)
I have belatedly discovered Gas this year by way of an excellent (and very cheap) 4-CD box set which compiles all four albums to date. Gas is the project of Wolfgang Voigt, co-founder of the influential electronic music label Kompakt. These albums were all originally released in the 90s on Frankfurt's wildly eclectic Mille Plateaux label. It's a fantastic body of work featuring ocean deep textures and undulating rhythms which is truly hypnotic and other-worldly. Really something to lose yourself in.

Hercules and the Love Affair - Blind (18)
Antony's (as in "the Johnsons") appearance on many of the tracks on this album as guest vocalist really lifts it. His voice is perfect for these torchy disco grooves. The band really nail the sound too on a great album.

Hot Chip - Made in the dark (11)
At the beginning of this year I heard the unbelievably infectious electro-pop of "Ready for the floor" and was certain that it would make my songs of the year comp, but on digesting the subsequent album, I had to change my choice to this song, one of the sweetest lilting ballads you'll ever hear. I think that it's Hot Chip's ballads that make them one of the great bands of the moment.

Tesfa Maryam Kidane - Heywete (from Very Best Of Ethiopiques) (3)
There's nothing like an exotic discovery and tumbling over this album on a listening post in Fopp was a golden one. It's from a wonderful compilation of music from an Ethiopian scene in the 60s and 70s which, on this evidence, must have been on fire. Every track suggests a kaleidoscopic melting pot of global influences (jazz, rock, blues and soul) mashing with local styles. What really strikes though is the sense how all these inspirations fed so happily and spontaniously into the creation of some truly fantastic music.

Magnetic Fields - The Nun's Litany (10)
Stephin Merritt, MF's main man, likes to place conceptual fences around his projects, so following the epic "69 Love Songs" (as it says) and "I" (songs beginning with I) it's no surprise to find that his album called "Distortion" is a collection of songs bathed in fuzzy, crunchy sonics. What never changes is SM's knack for writing killer melodies with hooks that lock in the brain.

Mariee Sioux - Wizard flurry home (6)
Mystical imagery, native American pipes and earnest folkiness. These, my friends, are not qualities that usually inspire fondness on my part. BUT!! something just works about this for me. I guess ultimately it's her lovely crystal clear voice which has a Karen Carpenter-esque clarity, and the fact that it really does evoke a campfire in an Arizona desert.

Matmos - Les Folies Francaises (2)
The wonderful album from which this comes is like a study in 20th century electronic music, lovingly referencing everything from the BBC radiophionic workshop, through Raymond Scott, to Wendy Carlos (to which this synth take on classical music owes an obvious debt), Kraftwerk and Acid House. A must for all fans of experimental electronic music.

MGMT - The Youth (8)
Now here is one of Brooklyn's finest, MGMT. The album, "Oracular Spectacular" lives up to the second word in its title and contains at least four classics, including this anthemic ballad. Definitely an album of the year.

Aidan John Moffat - International Valentine (7)
Tricky to extract one song successfully from AJM's "I can hear your heartbeat" as, strictly speaking, it's a story set to music and is heavy on narrative segments which segue the music. The album even opens with Mr Moffat directing us to read its accompanying booklet before listening, in order that we make sense of what's to follow. Taken on its own, this track - and in fact much of the album's music - comes over almost as a marriage between his other two outlets, with the kitchen sink lyricism of sadly defunct Arab Strap and the lush sample-heavy orchestrations of L.Pierre. But try and hear the whole album if you can.

The Notwist - Boneless (12)
Another band (like Portishead below) who took their time to follow up their previous album and another worthwhile wait. Brevity has its rewards. "Boneless" is one of those understated songs that you don't notice at first, but then realise you are always humming it - and loving humming it at that. Beautiful.

Portishead - The Rip (9)
Who'd-a-thought-it! Portishead - almost "band-of-the-year" status. After seeing them on their live return at last year's All Tomorrow's Parties at Butlins Minehead (yes it was surreal), I suspected we might be in for a treat with the new album. And "Third" (the title, indicating its chronolgical place in the band's catalogue, is the only note of dullness) is a wonderful album. It arrives over ten years after the previous one, a gap befitting (though perhaps stretching) their native city's inhabitants' reputation for having a "laid back" approach. But the wait, variously put down to personal problems, writer's block and perfectionism, might ultimately be more to do with a band struggling to wrench themselves once and for all from the spectre of being (un-fairly) tagged a "coffee-table" band. The massive success of their seminal debut "Dummy" was undoubtedly a double-edged sword, as their sound quickly became appropriated as the wallpaper music for the "This life"- generation, spawned a genre (trip-hop), maybe another (downbeat) and "inspired" countless dull-dull-dull imitators (most of whom are indeed only worthy of playback in a lift). But it's hard to imagine "Third" soundtracking any 40-something's dinner parties - especially when we have Coldplay for just that purpose. No, Portishead are back to their innovative best - in fact they never really released a dud - it's just that society misunderstood them.

Songs of the Year 2007

2007-12-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

Songs of the year 2007 part one:

1. Half-handed Cloud (USA – 2006)
Christian rock ain’t what it used to be! Sufjan Stevens recommended this to me – well sort of. Would you call this an indie hymn?
2. Bjork – The Dull Flame of Desire (Iceland – 2007)
Bjork’s new album is pretty fantastic and it was hard to single out one song. This one edged it, partly due to the presence of an amazing vocal performance by Antony Hegarty (of the Johnsons fame).
3. Of Montreal- A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger … (USA - 2007)
Sing-a-long now - “I spent the winter on the verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway”. I’ve always liked songs that create this kind of mood dissonance between sound (stomping joyous pop) and lyric (depressed and alone).
4. The Tuss – Shizz Ko E (UK - 2007)
As many might know, this is Aphex Twin very thinly disguised as “The Tuss”, from an album called “Rushup Edge”. Very funky electronica, suitable for rocking round the Christmas tree to. Got the nod about this from Boomkat records, which does a good (if too long) weekly e-mail about new releases.
5. The Shins – Turn on Me (USA - 2007)
When you hear a song in Nov 06 and you’re still wailing it loudly to yourself in the bath in Dec 07 you know you have a winner. I suppose I’d call the Shins my favourite (conventional) rock band. Hard to miss a Shins release now but I first got wind of ‘em via Pitchfork media.
6. The Devastations – Man of Fortune (Australia - 2006)
The wee Aussie sons of Nick Cave. Well not really but you can’t help but hear the influence of the big bad seed on this three-piece. This gently smouldering ballad features a nice duet with NZ singer Bic Runga. Came across this band at 1am in Butlins at All Tomorrow’s Parties. Very impressed.
7. LCD Sound System – Someone Great (USA - 2007)
There is a reason why LCD Sound System can successfully meld delicate electronica and vibey dance sounds into their rock music. They love it and feel it – it’s not a gratuitous pose or a clever conceit. Here, the nuances of echo, decay, opening filters and microscopic changes in timbre all feature in this fine song. And like a few LCD songs the lyrics to this are quite moving and tender.
8. Panda Bear – Bros (USA - 2007)
Panda Bear is from Animal Collective and there’s no disguising the similarity in the sound. This (and the album it comes from) is much less diverse than your average AC album (see below) but Panda Bear has captured an essence of something of the Beach Boys and turned it into a hypnotic campfire chant.
9. Animal Collective – 1 (USA - 2007)
Without a doubt, Animal Collective are the most interesting and melodically inspired band in the world today (and – IMO - the most likely to write something immortally brilliant – ONE DAY). Like every other AC album, the parent of this song is so full of ideas, hooks, rhythms and sounds that listening to it leaves your head spinning. I chose this song because of the wonderful synth arpeggio (note of techno) and the peculiar baritone vocals (avantgarde), which, together with those Beach Boys-esque counter vocals (pop) go someway to capturing in a nutshell what I love about them (though you can never hear one AC song that totally sums them up).
10. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black (UK - 2007)
Much has been written and even more photographed on the crazy whirl of Amy’s world. All I’ll say is this is truly superb Motown-inspired pop music sung by a great singer.
11. Neil Landstrumm – Kids Wake Up (UK - 2007)
Mr Landstrumm probably wouldn’t thank me for saying it, but his album has much in common with Amy Winehouse’s, because this too is an exercise in faithfully (almost religiously in fact) recreating a sound. In this case, close your eyes, crank up the volume and re-enter that E-warped-pupil-dilated “moment” of pure elation you experienced in some heaving sweaty club circa 88-92. Top one, nice one, get sorted.
12. Mum – Guilty Rocks (Iceland - 2007)
Bit of a change of tack for Mum but to very good ends. The glitchy electronica of yore has been replaced (on this song at least) with an almost Morricone-esque pallette of sounds. The result is a really haunting piece, evoking Lynchian fairgrounds and quirky French films.
13 and 14. Blonde Redhead – My Impure Hair and Spring and by Summer Fall (USA - 2007)
There is something quite epic about Blonde Redhead – not a quality I’m usually attracted to. But there’s an exoticism here that twists this miles away from your standard “big rock” sound. A brief biog - Jazz-trained Italian twin brothers and Japanese art students form band in New York which soon gets endorsed by Sonic Youth – probably explains the magic.
15. Robert Wyatt – Stay Tuned (UK - 2007)
Comicopera, the album from which this song comes, is a real treat. Eclectic and strange, yet tuneful and warm and not prone to the slightly whimsical feel of some of his recent albums.
16. Matias Aguayo – Lineas (Chile - 2007)
I do like my deep-minimal-house and I’ll keep bothering you non-believers (as I know many people I’ll give this to are) whether you like it or not. Can you hear the textures? Feel the tweaks? And those microscopic incremental progressions in sound? Oh yes!! Feels good. No?? Well tough – skip the track then J

Songs of the year 2007 part two:
1. Burial – Etched Headplate (UK - 2007)
Deeply soulful and haunting. Burial is in a class of his own in the dub-step scene. In fact his beautifully textured sounds almost define a new style in the same way that Boards of Canada came to define a sound. After last year’s equally brilliant debut album, “Untrue” cements this artist’s position as a major new talent.
2. Flying Lotus – Tea Leaf Dancers (USA - 2007)
Very deep sounding cut-up on Warp records. One of that label’s best releases for a while I think. Don’t know much about Flying Lotus really but this EP (6 songs) is cosy like a velvet fog (which is how they used to describe Mel Torme’s voice by the way – seems appropriate here too). I heard this in Sister Ray and bought it on the spot.
3. The Good, the Bad and the Queen- Kingdom of Doom (UK - 2007)
This saturates you in its own London story. One of the few songs that really does echo the haunting quality of the Specials’ best work – an accolade all too often rolled out for any old twerp who sings of desolate provincial Friday nights of puke, loveless kwik-sex then chips on the way home on the bus.
4. Beirut – Nantes (USA - 2007)
After his strange (and now hugely successful) indie/Balkan concoction (my fave of 2006), for his second album Beirut (Zach Condon) turns his unfeasible talents to French torch singing. The real secret of why this works: this guy can really really sing a song. And if you get a chance, check out the amazing videos of performances of songs from the album at http://flyingclubcup.com/.
5. Battles – Atlas (USA - 2007)
Nouveau glam for indie beard strokers. A compliment, by the way, for this truly weird and wonderful tub-thumper.
6. Coleco Music – Please Add Me (Argentina - 2007)
The social networking generation gets a love lament. “Please Add Me” by Buenos Aires-based Coleco Music is part of a mini-concept EP. Appropriately, the EP is a download only freebie from the quite amazingly brilliant “8 Bit Peoples” project – an online repository for music in the burgeoning underground “chiptune” scene. Get out your old Atari/Commodore/Sinclair and get chipping.
7. Dean and Britta – Me and My Babies (USA - 2007)
Cor! You know this could easily work on the fabled Bradley’s juke box. Dean’s slightly nasal baritone (it does work!) is perfectly counter-pointed by his other half’s sexy cooing “la las” and those warm spacey vibes. Nancy and Lee would be proud.
8 and 9. Mr76ix – 9 and Spirit of Man (UK - 2007)
Two deeply atmospheric tracks from a superb album “3 minority of one”. An album of dark dystopian visions to get totally immersed in. Very futuristic and just a bit scary and ominous.
10 and 11. Deerhoof – Cast-off Town and Whither the Invisible Birds (USA - 2007)
I’m a latecomer to Deerhoof and some of their long-term devoted fans suggest that this album is a tad soft and “poppy”. Personally I found it to be one of those wonderful collisions when something weirdly off-kilter gets infected with a pure pop aesthetic, resulting in something strange but entirely accessible.
12. Mike in Mono – Europe Eccentric (UK - 2007)
It was so nice to find this ace little 7 inch when trawling through the racks at the new Rough Trade store off Brick Lane in London (great shop by the way). Mike is an old friend from Brum who was once part of the criminally underrated Plone. This is a great bit of electro-pop fun.
13. Fiery Furnaces - My Egyptian Grammar (Canada - 2007)
I’m pretty sure that Fiery Furnaces are trying to be clever – which can often be a deadly killer to a good tune. But it’s almost despite themselves that this band do deliver (frequently) some really inventive pop songs. Like all their other albums this one features a whole batch of things where they have indeed over-egged the cerebal pudding. But on this one they reign in the post-modern tendencies just enough.
14. Rufus Wainwright – Tiergarten (USA - 2007)
When I play this soppy piece of genius on the train I find myself looking out of the window and sighing wistfully – hopefully embarrassing the Telegraph-reading-Chippenham resident I always seem to get sitting next to me. If I was getting married again I’d go up the aisle to this. No irony.
15. Francois – I’m So Glad I Met You (UK/France - 2007)
Did you know that Bristol has its very own French indie scene? Yes - Francois – a Bristol-residing French singer/songwriter is a lovely Gallic jewel in the city’s already rather great musical crown - inner city Britain is much more exotic than you thought.
16. Grinderman – Get It On (UK/Australia - 2007)
Nick Cave demonstrates that a gentle descent into mournful balladeering is not his last shake of the dice. Lascivious old thing!
17. Malcolm Middleton – We’re All Going to Die (UK - 2007)
Something we all share – a universal – so put on your Santa hat and sing it “You’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die alone”. Feels great – try it! And yes – this is actually a Christmas song.
18. Husky Rescue (Finland - 2007)
This Finnish band captures the sound of snow melting. That’s it really. Lovely stuff.
19. Komputer – Like a Bird (UK - 2007)
Wistful electronica with an eye to a bygone age. The human factor. A welcome return to form from the authors of one of my all-time-favourite songs “Looking Down on London”. Great to have Komputer back to their best.
20. Daedelus - Fair Weather Friends (USA - 2007)
Daedelus is back. Yipee. The greatest solo electronica performer in all of Christendom returns with a real pop belter.
21. Dirty Projectors – Rise Above (USA – 2007)
“Rise Above” is a song-by-song "reimagining" of Black Flag's “Damaged” album which is a pretty bizarre concept. All I can say is, if you know Black Flag (an 80s US hardcore punk band) you’ll probably be very surprised to hear that this sounds like it does.