5 May 2015

All refreshed after the Bank Holiday? Let's do this.

The Vinyl Records - Whims
And we'll start in New Delhi and the title track from their January EP. Perky, quirky, excellent.

Brawlers - Windowmisser
The first of a number of tracks from Leeds bands this week. This is off their debut LP Romantic Errors Of Our Youth which came out last month on Alcopop! Records.

Thee Faction - Choose Your Enemy
And an even longer album title... Songs That Remind The Class Of The Glorious Victory To Come And The Work That Must Be Done To Get There. There's an election soon, y'know.

Cover Version Corner
The Wedding Present/Heathers - Dalliance
Back to Leeds and possibly my favourite Weddoes track, definitely off my favourite of their albums, Seamonsters from 1991. LA's Heathers put their version out on an EP called I Know (Part-Time Punk Session) in May last year.

Flies On You - Action Stations!
And yet another Leeds band... I finally got hold of their latest album Etcetera this week and it is excellent. Did I mention that election?

Crybabycry - Love Got Me Wrong
To Wakey now and one of my favourite bands du jour with a new track.

Serpent Power - Last Ape In Space
Ian Skelly, formerly of The Coral, and Paul Molloy of The Zutons with some contemporary San Francisco psych.

The Vaccines - Dream Lover
A couple of tracks that lean more to the commercial side now, but I'll be independent in my own choice of music thank you. Everything I know suggests I shouldn't like The Vaccines, but I do, so there. This is the second single taken from the album English Graffiti which comes out on the 25th.

The Maccabees - Marks To Prove It
A new single from a forthcoming and as yet unnamed album. Ploughing a unique furrow.

Nueva Costa - Glacé
And now for something completely different... This is lovely. It came out last September on an EP called Ave Del Paraiso. That's all I've got.

One Degree of Separation
Pete & The Pirates - Blood Gets Thin
Teleman - Not In Control
I've played Teleman quite a bit and here's another track from their acclaimed debut album Breakfast, possibly my favourite track off it. But while I've played Teleman often, I've not played the band that spawned them before. Three-quarters of Teleman are three of the Pirates from Pete & The Pirates. And that track is pretty much perfect.

The Smiling Disease - The Klingon Race
A debut album from Olly Moss, bassist from Evans The Death. But as well as a debut, it's also a collection of recordings from the last six years, hence the title Beach Bodies: 2008-2014.

(m+a) - Ninja ft Spank Rock
The m is Michele Ducci, the a is Alessandro Degli Agnoli and that track is ace. Off the EP Anyway Milkyway which came out last month.

Julian Cope - Double Vegetation
And finally, great news for gig-goers in the area, such as myself, as the second-best recording artist ever is playing Holmfirth in July. I've got my ticket already and I'm excited beyond belief. So here's a track from the 1991 album Peggy Suicide.

Here that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



and we'll do it again next week. See you.

31 March 2015

Couple of really exciting things tonight.

Everything Everything - Distant Past
I still don't know about these. The singles off the last album were good, but the rest of it, not so much. But this I kind of like despite myself. The new LP is Get To Heaven, out in June.

The Raveonettes - Kill!
To Denmark and last summer's album Pe'ahi from which singles are still coming from. Good stuff, that.

Therapy? - Still Hurts
A new album, their fourteenth studio LP, from these and it's back to basics. Having gone a bit conceptual in the interim, it's back to what made them great. Their best since Troublegum? Possibly. Disquiet came out last week.

Cover Version Corner
Depeche Mode/Johnny Marr - I Feel You
Johnny Marr rocked Holmfirth last Thursday and this is his new single which he played there. Before that, can it really be 22 years since Songs Of Faith And Devotion? Apparently so.

Drakkar Band - Bang Chhub Thveu Khos Hoeuy
No I won't try pronouncing the track title. And Google's Khmer to English translator isn't giving me anything. Anyway... The Drakkar Band were quite the thing in the early 1970s, fusing Western influences with the best of Khmer music to create something pretty special. Drakkar 74 was launched as a run of 20,000 cassettes which went quickly, prompting two further runs of 20,000 more. 1975 turned Cambodia upside down and part of the Khmer Rouge's cultural vandalism - though perhaps not their worst crime - accounted for most of those. Some remained, however, and a four-year project by Metal Postcards records saw it remastered from whatever they could find. It is an absolute wonder. The 12" was a run of 500 only, but you can get it as a digital release. I recommend that you do.

Crybabycry - Spin City
Bringing it back local now, the title track from the new EP of one of our favourites from round here.

East India Youth - Turn Away
William Doyle from Bournemouth is East India Youth and this is just lovely in so many respects. Culture Of Volume is out next week.

Lux Lisbon - Keep Me Wild
This four-piece met at Nottingham Uni and are now based out of that London. They sound a bit like the Killers, but if the Killers had ever followed an idea through to completion. There's some intelligent writing, musically and lyrically on the EP Get Some Scars which you can get as a free download now.

Kassassin Street - To Be Young
I don't know a lot about these other than they're from Portsmouth and named for a Portsmouth street. Oh, and that I like this a lot.

Du Dauphine - Thieves
Another track from the local five-piece's self-titled EP which is out now. Probably my favourite from it.

One Degree of Separation
Komputer - Valentina
Public Service Broadcasting - Valentina
Two different tellings of the tale of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. A bit more literal from Komputer, off their 1997 album The World Of Tomorrow, and certainly more obviously Kraftwerk-influenced. PSB's new album is The Race For Space and it's a wonder. Fascinating period of modern history.

Bona Dish - Challenge
Maybe I should start a lost 45 section. This dates from the early '80s and can be found on a compilation called the Zaragoza Tapes: 1981-1982. They were from Hertfordshire and this track is probably still relevant now.

Motorama - Dispersed Energy
This could be Joy Division if you close your eyes tightly enough. But it's not post-industrial Manchester, it's modern-day Rostov-on-Don. Poverty is the new album which came out in January.

Leftfield - Universal Everything
New! And fantastic! Leftfield is a solo project these days, Neil Barnes going it alone without Paul Daley. A new album, Alternative Light Source, is due for release in June.

Here's all that on YouTube:



And Soundcloud:



See you next week.

27 January 2015

Last time for January already? Blimey charlie.

The Garden - Surprise!
Twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher from California are The Garden. 95 seconds and done. No messing. Cool video too. This came out last month.

The Vinyl Records - Ready Set Go
To New Delhi now in what is a bit of a world tour of a show. This is from last May. Jaunty stuff indeed.

Whyte Horses - Astrologie Siderale
And now to the exotic shores of Manchester. And there aren't many bands in Manchester singing self-styled cosmic love songs in French so more power to their elbow. The album is Pop Or Not which came out in November.

Cover Version Corner
David Guetta ft Sia/Crybabycry - Titanium
A truly dreadful record transformed into something quite marvellous by one of our favourite bands around at the moment. That David Guetta track is awful. My philosophy in compiling this show is that if I like it, I play it and if I don't, I won't. The exception here is that it leads into the Crybabycry cover version where they take something unspeakably bad and flip it around completely. Because they are brilliant. They've an EP out. Seek it.

Astronauts - Everything's A System, Everything's A Sign
Astronauts - no indefinite article here - is Dan Carney from London. Plenty going on here. Hollow Ponds is the album which came out last summer.

Futsu - Mechanical Bride
Multinational now, featuring artists from Paris and Sydney to create a unique sound. This is off Body Island which came out last month.

Dolomite Minor - Talk Like An Aztec
A two-piece from Southampton who make a right old racket, in a good way. This came out in August. Hugely enjoyable.

All We Are - Keep Me Alive
More multinationalism with Irish, Brazilian and Norwegians involved though based out of Liverpool. This came out last month.

Echo Lake - Waves
Dreamy shoegaze from London. March 2 sees the release of Era which this is taken from.


One Degree of Separation
Ausmuteants - Hate This Town
Sundae Sunday - I Hate This Town
From Australia and Indonesia respectively. I don't hate this town though, that's not what I'm trying to say here. I love Huddersfield. I wouldn't have stayed for 22 years if I didn't.

Goat - Hide From The Sun
From their album Commune which came out in September, welcome to the 1960s. Joyous.

Best Friends - Shred Til You're Dead
With more than an homage to The Vaccines and/or The Horrors, but pleasing nonetheless. These are from Sheffield and it's out on Art Is Hard records.

Jape - Seance Of Light
A hint of Hot Chip about this Dublin outfit, which is rarely a bad thing. This Chemical Sea came out last week.

FKClub and Morgan Hammer - Raro
And to end, something French. Morgan Hammer is a Basque DJ and she's teamed up with Antoine Germain and Marc Lapeyre for this one. It came out in September.

Here's your Youtube clips:



and your Soundcloud playlist:


Same time next week, yeah.

23 September 2013

Back again. Bit of a struggle to get it down to a manageable show, such is the amount of great stuff about at the moment. Anyway, here you go:

The Primitives - Spin-o-rama
You'll remember these from their 1988 hit Crash which is still great. Well they reformed in 2009 and their second album since then is due out next month. It's also called Spin-o-rama. It's like they were never away.


Crybabycry - Go Go
This is Jonny Firth from house favourites Knuckle, only this time alongside Rosie Doonan and Nici Todd to produce something quite remarkable. A real beauty, this.

Super Besse - Приказано Забывать
One of the best things I've heard in ages. This is the first Belarussian band we've had on the show - they're from Minsk - but beyond the fact that Super Besse is a ski station in France and the climb up to it has been used in the Tour de France I don't know a lot about them due to my inability to speak Russian. The title translates as 'ordered to forget'. Thanks to Google Translate for that. Band of the week.

Cover Version Corner
Gershon Kingsley/Caustic Window - Popcorn
Probably better known is the version by Hot Butter, but Gershon Kingsley - Goetz Ksinski from Bochum - composed it. That's off 1969's Music To Moog By. Caustic Window is one of the names Richard D James - Aphex Twin - has recorded as. His version is off the 1992 EP Joyrex J4.

Fat White Family - Auto Neutron
Another track from the acclaimed Champagne Holocaust album which came out last year. Something a bit slower than we've become used to, but showing off their abilities.

Hookworms - On Leaving
Another track from the forthcoming album The Hum which comes out in November. It's not so much a change of direction, as other tracks show things we're familiar with. But this shows that there's more to them.

Thunder Sanchez - I Start Fires
From Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. I found these through the power of Twitter after playing a band called Napolleon a while ago. I don't know an awful lot more than that other than if you're after a wrestling name, you can do much worse than Thunder Sanchez.

The Proper Ornaments - Step Into The Cold
I saw these supporting Toy in Newcastle a while back and they stood up against that standard. Bit of Velvet Undergroundy feel to this, which is rarely a bad thing. It's off the album Woodenhead.

The Hidden Cameras - Doom
From Toronto, this is off an album called Age which came out in January.

Wild Billy Chyldish and CTMF - Punk Rock Enough For Me
If it's punk rock enough for Billy Chyldish, it's punk rock enough for anyone. This is out on a 7" now and will feature on the forthcoming album Acorn Man due later in the year.

One Degree of Separation
The Damned - Love Song
The Cure - Love Song
Two tracks separated by ten years and a common name. First from 1979 and the album Machine Gun Etiquette, then from 1989's Disintegration one of the all-time great songs.

The Allah-Las - Follow You Down
Off the album Worship The Sun which came out last week. A cracker.

Chorusgirl - Oh, To Be A Defector
I don't know much about this other than they're from London, it came out in May and I love it.

Underworld - Birdstar
It's 20 years since dubnobasswithmyheadman came out, which is frightening in itself. There's an anniversary edition coming out with this as part of it - a track that didn't quite make it. It speaks volumes about the album that this didn't get onto the final cut.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:




See you next week.