19 July 2016

Me again.

Seratones - Necromancer
One from last year I missed at the time, a bit of soulful rock n roll from Shreveport, Louisiana.

Orchestra Of Spheres - Anklung Song
Seven-piece psych-rock outfit from Wellington, New Zealand. The LP Brothers And Sisters If The Black Lagoon came out in May and is founded in a deep sense of disillusionment with the state of NZ politics.

Beau - The Patriot
Trevor Midgeley, still going strong, is Beau and released the album An Original Thought to coincide with his 70th birthday. Here, he picks apart the far-right vote.

Featured album: Julian Cope and The Black Sheep
These Things I Know
Come The Revolution
If you've listened to me at any length, you'll know that only Half Man Half Biscuit outdo Julian Cope in terms of my musical appreciation. The Black Sheep was a double album released in 2008, described by Cope as "a musical exploration of what it is to be an outsider in modern Western culture". The result is quite astonishing and yet thoroughly accessible.

Howard Marks - Death Shall Have No Dominion
Another one I've had on the radar for some time. Marks died on April 11 this year and the EP 'Do Not Go Gentle... Howard Marks Reads Dylan Thomas' came out five days later as a Record Store Day release.

Ukepunk - From The North
DIY ukulele punk rockers from the north-west. This is the title track to the latest EP which came out in April. Terrific, refreshing, different.

Thee AHs - Davie
These are from Vancouver and the LP Names is a playful beast. All ten tracks take the title of somebody's first name. The eponymous Davie in this one gets dumped, hard.

Teen - Free Time
New York art-pop quartet with a track taken from their Love Yes LP which came out in February.

The Gotobeds - Real Maths/Too Much
From Pittsburgh, their second album came out in June. Blood//Sugar//Secs//Traffic is out on Sub Pop.

Holy Holy - History
An Australian duo, albeit with 1000 miles of land between them. They met as English teachers in south-east Asia and eventually ended up in Europe. Their debut LP When The Storms Would Come is out in the autumn.

Shotgun Runners - Reflection
Here's curious. Japanese garage rock released on Lisbon label Groovie Records. It features on a compilation released by Groovie last winter called Kaminari - Nineteen Japanese Garage Monsters. Throwback.

Featured album: Julian Cope and The Black Sheep
Psychedelic Odin
A wonder of epic song writing from the pen of the mighty Archdrude. It encompasses everything he's become known for in the latter part of his career.

Boxed In - Running Out feat. Formation
Heralding a new Speedy Wunderground compilation. That is Dan Carey getting bands in and giving them 24 hours to record a track.

Unholy Sights - Gateway To The Hesh
A trio from Annapolis, Maryland, whose EP Esoteric Domine came out in April.

Rendez-Vous - Workout
Post-punk, industrialist rock from Paris with hints of Manchester. This is off their second EP, Distance, which is quite the thing. It oozes grey smog, in a good way.

Here's your Youtube:



soundcloud:



and Bandcamp:








Phew.

4 November 2011

Early nights, cold nights... Cosy up with this week's selection.

CTMF - Zero Emission
Who needs records longer than two minutes? Given I have several over six minutes... Anyway. The B-side to their recent 7" Punk Rock Enough For Me, which I think I prefer.

Beau - The Night Before Trafalgar
I heard an acoustic version of this a couple of weeks ago, but this is the original from the 2012 album Fables And Facades.

Vision Thing - Living With Ghosts
Liverpool alt-folk band whose new LP is called Hauntology. I'll declare an interest - the bassist is a friend which is how I came across it. Still wouldn't have played it if I didn't like it.

Cover Version Corner
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds/PJ Harvey - Red Right Hand
PJ Harvey's version may be familiar to viewers of Peaky Blinders, which I understand is on television. Before that, from 1994's Let Love In.

Curxes - Valkyrie
Pronounced Curses and off a forthcoming album called Verxe, which is annoying. The music however, is fantastic. More of this please.

Ωracles - Melt Tonight
To Berlin now and another daft name, albeit replacing a letter with a Greek semi-equivalent rather than the wrong letter. Off their debut EP Standford Torus. 

The Horn The Hunt - Find It Free It
Bit closer to home now - Leeds to be clearer. Off their latest LP Terrafidella which is out now.

The Unfortunates - Margate Sands
There are a few bands called The Unfortunates. These ones are from London and this is off an EP called For Boys With One Track Minds which came out in August.

Ghost Society - Under The Sun
To Denmark now and a great track off an album called The Back Of His Hands, Then The Palms. No, me neither.

Hopeku - Ambush
Canada now, Quebec more precisely, off an EP called Kosoku, all of which I got through without tripping over my own tongue.

One Degree of Separation
Barcelona - Kasey Keller
John MOuse - Robbie Savage
Retired footballers for this week's. Exquisite story-telling from Cardiff's John MOuse off his current LP The Death Of John MOuse. Before that, from 2000 off the album Zero One Infinity.

Shift Work - Scaled To Fit
I know I've played this before, but so what when it's this good. Seriously, as good a track as I've heard in years.

Hells Kitchen - It's Not For Me
And we round off this week with this from Krasnodar in Russia. Reminds me a lot of mid-period Underworld which can never be a bad thing. The album is called Letters and is out on Festival Lounge.

Some of that's on YouTube:


and some of it on Soundcloud:


More next week.