10 November 2015

Hello again.

Liines - Never There
I've been gigging. These were supporting Ex Hex at Manchester's Ruby Lounge on Sunday and were ace. More of the main act later, but this the debut single from Liines, out November 21.

Greys - The Voyeur
To Toronto now and this lot had an LP out last year. This is their first stuff since, off an EP called Repulsion.

Ela Orleans - The Sky And The Ghost
From Poland but based in Glasgow - coming over here, enriching our culture - the album Upper Hell came out in May. I've only just heard stuff off it, this being the pick. Blissful.

Featured Album
Ex Hex - Radio On
Ex Hex - War Paint
Like I say, I've been gigging. I snapped up a ticket to see these when I heard they were over here as it was a surprise to me that they were even in the UK. They're from Washington DC and the debut album Rips came out last year. I've already played tracks from it, but I'm going to feature it properly here as they were ace on Sunday.

Editors - Life Is A Fear
Not a band I thought I'd find myself playing, but this, their new single, is a bit good. In Dreams is the new LP, out last month.

Samuel Claiborne - Say Goodbye To America
This is ace. Claiborne is from upstate New York and this is off the album Love, Lust And Genocide. I think you get a clear picture of his politics.

Lonely Robot - The Boy In The Radio
Guitarist John Mitchell has had many guises, this being his latest one. This is the latest single taken from Please Come Home which came out in February. I'm still not 100% sure that I like it. I think I do.

LeRoy - Skai
To Munich now for this, which is pretty special. Off the album Skläsh which came out last month. Terrific.

TVAM - Porsche Majeure
Making a late bid for record of the year is this from Wigan's Joe Oxley. On a double-A side single. Out now. Get it.

Featured Album
Ex Hex - Waste Your Time
Another track from Rips which if you don't have, you should. Good old-fashioned rock n roll.

Ash Walker - Bamboo Circus feat. Segilola
Dub, next. The EP is called Agnostic, it came out in July and is good.

Fold - Detroit Red
Funk time for the rest of the night, starting with this from the new album, Fold. Describing themselves as experimental funk and hip-hop from Leeds, this features the voice of Malcolm X - Detroit Red being his nickname when he was grifting on the streets of Motown as a youth - with some apposite comments about the state of race relations in the US.

Savant - Stationary Dance
Off a compilation called Artifical Dance, this is Kerry Leimer from Seattle.

Lesbian Horse - I Have Some Very Strong Views About Whatever Happened To Rock 'n' Roll
Show favourite Sam Jones once again. Some weeks he'll put a dozen tracks out, some weeks he won't. This arrived last week and is among his best.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



and we'll see what we get next week eh?

13 October 2015

Hello again. I've got the most annoying tickly cough, so less of the chatter tonight.

Asian Dub Foundation - Stand Up
Another track from the brilliant album More Signal More Noise which came out in July.

Orphan Boy - Money To Money
Don't think I've played any bands from Grimsby/Cleethorpes way before, so consider that rectified. Coastal Tones is the album and it's out now.

Du Blonde - Raw Honey
Another one from Welcome Back To Milk which is, as you should know by now, ace. What a voice.

Featured Album
The Durutti Column - Beginning
The Durutti Column - Katharine
Our featured album this week is The Return Of The Durutti Column, the bands 1980 debut. Physically, it's most arresting feature was the sandpaper sleeve, a Situationist prank nicked from Jacques Derrida whose Memoirs was similarly fashioned. The thing then is that every time you take the book off or put it back on the shelf, it destroys the books next to it. That's Factory for you. Anyway, it's a masterpiece and worth revisiting.

Heavyball - Unhappy Now
A long-awaited LP, Black Eye Diaries, is now available to order and I cannot wait to hear it in it's entirety.

Ex Hex - All Kindsa Girls
A first track since debut LP Rips came out, a cover of a The Real Kids track.

Warm Brains - Pink Blackpool Rock
Another long-awaited album, this time coming next month. Big Wow is the title and this is the lead single from it.

Owiny Sigoma Band - (Nairobi) Too Hot
This is ace. I love what these guys do, mixing London and Nairobi sounds. This is off the new album Nyanza which came out at the back end of August.

Stolen Haven - Used
Off the EP Three Stripe Blues which is out now-ish. It's got just enough about it to stand out from the crowd.

Sea Creature - Songbird
Something a bit older now, from 2013. These are from Bury St Edmunds and the album is called Electric Dreams. Don't know how it passed me by, but glad I've caught up with it now.

Featured Album
The Durutti Column - Requiem For A Father

Air Formation - The Wasted Days
Off the EP Were We Ever There, which came out last month.

Shunkan - Paleontologist
To New Zealand now for this which appears on The Pink Noise which comes out on November 20.

LV - Balance Spring
Brilliant slice of electronica from the new LP Ancient Mechanisms which came out last Friday.

Tom Furse - Run To Me pt 3
Also out last Friday, an EP from Horrors keyboardist Furse titled Run To Me Suite. Four tracks, here's part three. Brilliant.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



No show next week - Town are playing a made-up football club from Buckinghamshire - so back in a fortnight.

6 January 2015

2015... Damn that relentless passage of time. And back to work as of yesterday. Boo to all of that.

The Diagram Brothers - The Expert
I only heard of these on the radio the other day. They were from Manchester - not brothers, not called Diagram - and this is off a 1982 Peel session.

Shabazz Palaces - Ham Sandwich
New from these by way of follow-up to their album Lese Majesty.

Ex Hex - Waterfall
I played something by these last week and it seemed to go down well, so here's some more. From the album Rips.

Cover Version Corner
The Monks/Ye Nuns - Pretty Suzanne
I've been meaning to play Ye Nuns for a while. They're a London-based all-girl tribute to The Monks, the American GIs based in Germany in the 1960s. The original was recorded in 1966, but only released in 2009. The cover is off last year's Nun More Black LP.

Fear Kittens - Spell
58 seconds. No mucking about. From Seattle and off a self-titled LP from last March.

Diane Marie Kloba - Foolosopher
To Chicago now and sounding something like a female Bowie. This dates from last July.

Ill - Hysteria
Bloody marvellous. From Manchester and off The Housewives Trilogy from last September.

Virgo - ISS
I've been meaning to play this for ages. This came out in August on The Revera Corporation. Virgo is Elizabeth Ann Clark from LA. More please.

Ox Scapula - Taking Liberties
This Stoke band disbanded in 2011 and this is off the 2010 album Hands Out. Still sounds contemporary, like Shellac or something.

One Degree of Separation (ish)
Calvin Party - Lies, Lies and Goverment parts 1 and 2
Bit of a diversion from the usual format. This is from 1996 and well worth playing all 12 minutes.

Pour Le Plaisir - Tin Machine
Don't know much about these other than this is the title track off a new EP which if it isn't out yet, will be shortly.

Rhino Cock Soundsystem - Tease Me 23
Another one I don't know much about other than it's the best name for an artist I've heard in ages.

Henry Plotnick - Wapiti
This lad from San Francisco is thirteen. Thirteen. One thing I wasn't doing when I was 13 was making critically acclaimed, avant-garde electronica.

YouTube:



Soundcloud


Back again same time next week.

30 December 2014

Everyone else is doing end-of-year lists and it'd be appropriate to do a best of 2014 thing this week. But I did that already and in the last two weeks since a normal show, there's been loads of good stuff put out, so normal service it is.

The Skints - The Cost Of Living Is Killing Me
From last March and from London, off an EP called Short Change. Pretty much the battleground for the general election.

Ex Hex - Don't Wanna Lose
Rips was their debut LP which came out in October. They're an all-girl three-piece from Washington DC.

Blossoms - Blow
New stuff out of Manchester. This is their debut single which you can get from iTunes.

Cover Version Corner
Ride/The Divine Comedy - Vapour Trail
Not hugely different versions, though it's a different sound for Neil Hannon than normal. his version pops up on the B-side of the 1999 single The Pop Star's Fear Of The Pollen Count. Before that, a shoegaze classic from the 1991 album Nowhere and excitement as to them reforming.

The Daintees - October Song
New stuff from Newcastle where Martin George Stephenson is back with his badn The Daintees. Haunted Highways is the new album and it came out on the 21st.

Emmy The Great - Swimming Pool
Ooh, that voice. Emma Lee Moss is Emmy The Great and her new EP is S.

Milo's Planes - Lost Talent
Bristol now, and a taster for a forthcoming album. I got nothing apart from that.

The Lucid Dream - Unchained
From Carlisle, this is the second single from their forthcoming second album.

Pemuda Setampat - Sebuah Pemuda
All I know about this is that it's Indonesian dub. And you know that can't be bad.

Sleater-Kinney - Bury Our Friends
Their first album in 10 years comes out next month. No Cities To Love is the title. Splendid stuff and welcome back.

One Degree of Separation
Martha And The Muffins - Echo Beach
Anguish Sandwich - Guangzhou Romance Musical Instruments Co
That was Martha and The Muffins' only UK top 40 single, reaching number 10 in 1980. After that, 46 was as high as they got. After that, a track from the album An Actual Thing which came out in November and is available on bandcamp. They're from Northampton. And I won't insult you by pointing out the link.

Aidan Moffatt - The World Around Us
Ex of Arab Strap and with a collection of previously unreleased material to share. Called Vagrants_09_14 - Vagrants given these tracks were previously homeless and the rest to do with it's release - it's bloody good.

Muslimgauze - 100 Great Turks
Bryn Jones was Muslimgauze. At the time of his death in 1999, he'd released over 60 albums and since then, that number is well on the way to having doubled as he left behind vast volumes of work which is now curated by his nephew. This is off a new EP called Deceiver vol 3 & 4. The original Deceiver came out in 1996, but it's still so fresh. This is just a fantastic track.

Lone - Life Time Loop
Nottingham's Matt Cutler is Lone and this very Boards Of Canada track is a follow-up to the 2014 album Reality Testing. Lovely.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



Back next week.