3 February 2015

Not in the studio, but I'd put this together already, so we might as well eh, just you and me?

Inspiral Carpets - It's A Good Job Baby
I've rather overlooked their first new stuff in 20 years since it was released last year so let's make up for lost time. The album is, imaginatively, titled Inspiral Carpets.

The Wave Pictures - I Could Hear The Telephone (3 Floors Above Me)
Brilliant. From the album Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon (obviously) which is due any minute. They play The Doghouse in Halifax on Friday.

Twerps - I Don't Mind
To Melbourne now and one of those bands that dispense with the impersonal pronoun. Range Anxiety is the album and it came out last week.

Cover Version Corner
Jacky/Kitchens Of Distinction - White Horses
An old TV theme from 1968, Jacky being Jackie Lee. Then a B-side from the 1994 single Now It's Time To Say Goodbye. And ta to chum John for the suggestion. I was struggling.

Faerground Accidents - She Makes Me Want To Die
These should be enormous. I reckon they're ace. This is the new single, due out February 9. Buy it. Buy it often.

Krom - Mama Blue
To Phnom Penh now. This came out last week on Metal Postcard with more than a hint of Tom Waits about it. Gorgeous.

Outside Your House - Kingfisher Dave
Something different from Durham. Quite unlike much else you've heard. From the EP Before I Got Fat which came out last July.

Bruising - Can't You Feel
More stuff from Leeds now, rapidly coming to rival the other big cities in terms of output these days. These are a two-piece and you can find this on Volume 3 of the Beech Coma records compilations which comes out in March. Nice bit of scuzzy reverb on the guitar.

Polynation - Dew
The Atomnation label rarely lets you down. This is off their latest compilation called 25. A delight.

Dissolved - Superfluity Of Jeweled Bitterns
A whole load of new stuff appeared on his Soundcloud page this week in advance of the new album Paradox Hues. From Glasgow, but based in Vancouver now which helps explain the missing L in Jewelled.

One Degree Of Separation
Wire - I Am The Fly
The Cramps - Human Fly
Not a tricky link. Wire from 1978 and the album Chairs Missing, though that was a Peel Session version which can be found on their Peel Sessions album from 1990. Then The Cramps from the album Gravest Hits, also from 1978.

Powell - Club Music (Ancient Methods 'Körpersäure91' Mix)
Stone cold banger off the Club Music EP which came out last May.

Scares - Krieger
This is fabulous. Scares are from Austin, Texas, and this is half of a split single with Tocopa which came out on Outward Records a couple of weeks ago. Just brilliant.

Aphex Twin - diskhat1
And finally, something from the EP that dropped unexpectedly last week from Richard D James, Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments vol 2.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



No show next week - football - so back in a fortnight.

8 July 2013

Another Monday, another week to get kicked off.

Nothankyou - Know Yourself
John: I've barely been able to tear myself away from this since I first heard it. This is a collaboration between Tom Vek and Dirty Projectors vocalist Olga Bell and it's flipping brilliant. This is out on a double-A side single released on August 5.

Hookworms - Radio Tokyo
John: We like these. From Leeds, this is off their album 'Pearl Mystic' and is probably the most accessible record on there.
Carolyn: What - in terms of length?
John: Yes and less... experimental.

Owiny Sigoma Band - Harpoon Land
John: Another band we've had before, taking London beats and Kenyan traditions. Short and sweet, that's off 'Power Punch' which came out in April.
Carolyn: It sounds like it should be older than a couple of months ago. Stuff I like normally turns out to be 20 years old and more.


Cover Version Corner
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band/The Black Keys - Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
John: I've been threatening to play Beefheart for ages, and finally I have. That's a relatively easy way in to his oeuvre, before it all went a bit skew-whiff with Trout Mask Replica. That's off the 1972 album 'Clear Spot'. Then the Black Keys version which is remarkable for sounding more Beefheart than Beefheart did and is off a split single with the Flaming Lips from 2009.

Pinkunoizu - Moped
John: New stuff from Denmark. That's off an album called 'Drop' which is out next month.

Toy - She's Out Of My Head
John: We like these and we've not played them for a while. This isn't off their critically acclaimed album 'Toy', rather a B-side to the single version of My Heart Skips A Beat which we've also played. Really like that.

Disclosure - Stimulation
John: A proper foot-stomping, old-school floor-filler. These are big and, for me, won Glastonbury. That's the third track we've played off their hit album 'Settle'.

Boards Of Canada - New Seeds
John: I'm a big fan of these and a new album is something to savour. Dark, moody, brooding, cinematic... The album is 'Tomorrow's Harvest' and came out last month.

Hot Chip - Dark And Stormy
John: New stuff from these, which is always fun. Hopefully a new album to follow shortly.

One Degree Of Separation
The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray
Lemon Jelly - Space Walk
John: Not a tricky link this week. If life gives you lemons, play Lemon Jelly - that's what I reckon. That's off 2002's 'Lost Horizons' album and features astronaut Ed White on 1965's Gemini 4 mission which is one of the more unique samples you'll find. Before that, Evan Dando and the Lemonheads off the 1992 album of the same name.
Carolyn: Given it was an easy link today, is next week's going to be one of your obscure ones?
John: I don't know yet.

Young Rising Sons - I Want It All
John: I like Twitter. It allows me to share the stuff I play each week and also allows people to recommend stuff to me. Which these did. They're from New Jersey, have an album called 'Highway Town' out now and available for free download. Very commercial, that, in a Black Keys style.
Carolyn: By commercial do you just mean that I like it?
John: It has mass appeal is all. I just hope they appreciate we don't have a wide listenership and I'm not a massively influential player in the music industry.

Inspiral Carpets - Directing Traffik
John: Unmistakeable. That's off their 1990 debut album 'Life' and is probably my favourite of all their stuff.
Carolyn: 1990... I feel old.
John: Still going strong and making new stuff. More power to their collective elbow.

The Horrors - I Can See Through You
John: From Southend, this is a couple of years old now, off 2011's 'Skying'.


And that's your lot for this week. That's all packaged up for you in a neat YouTube playlist except the Hookworms track which is over here.

17 June 2013

A full 100 minutes of the show tonight due to a combination of poor planning and unforeseen circumstances. Oh well, an opportunity to work through that ever-growing backlog.

Ruen Brothers - Walk Like A Man
John: Sounding like they're from 1960s Tennessee or something, these lads are very much au courant and from sunny Scunthorpe. They are Henry and Rupert Ruen and that's their debut single.

Disclosure - When A Fire Starts To Burn
John: Another pair of brothers, this time from Surrey. Guy and Howard Lawrence are Disclosure and they're very much the new big thing. Their debut album 'Settle' came out two weeks ago and went straight to number one.

Bat For Lashes and Toy - The Bride
John: Take two of our favourite bands, mix together and tell them to make a record with Jefferson Airplane overtones and this is what you get.
Carolyn: That does sound a lot like White Rabbit. I liked the start and the end, but it went a bit strange in the middle.
John: No idea if it's anything other than this one-off, but I hope it is. Marvellous stuff.

Cover Version Corner
Inspiral Carpets/Carter USM - This Is How It Feels
John: From the Carpets' debut album 'Life' from all the way back in 1990. Carter had it on the B-side of After The Watershed a year later.
Carolyn: All I know about Carter is the rugby tackle on Phillip Schofield.
John: After The Watershed was what they played immediately before that incident.

Hooded Fang - Ode To Subterranea
John: We're awaiting a new album from these. 'Gravez' - with a Z, inevitably - is it and is due soon. A bit of good old San Francisco psychedelia from Toronto.

Money - Bluebell Fields
John: A new band, these are a four-piece from Manchester and this is their debut release. They've just signed to Bella Union records and the finishing touches to an album are being applied sort of now. That's awfully relaxing.
Carolyn: I'll say. Nearly dozing off, here.

Virals - Wax Work
John: Something a bit livelier then. Virals is Shaun Henscher from Worcester and that's available as a free download right now.

Tame Impala - Apocalypse Dreams
John: We've played a few tracks off the hit album 'Lonerism' and this is the latest. Top notch.

Jagwar Ma - Man I Need
John: And another Aussie band with a smash on their hands. This is the Sydney duo's (Tame Impala are from Perth) latest release from the album 'Howlin''.

One Degree of Separation
The Durutti Column - Sketch For Summer
Neon Neon - Hammer And Sickle
John: That's the second single from Neon Neon's second album 'Praxis Makes Perfect' which is a concept album about Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, the subversive publisher and left-wing agitator during the Years Of Lead - the 1960s to '80s in Italy, a time marked by tit-for-tat political assassinations and complete political turmoil. Before that, The Durutti Column from back in 1980 off the debut album 'The Return Of The Durutti Column'. They were named after Buenaventura Durutti, Spanish anarchist who was active pre- and during the Civil War.
Carolyn: Wow. Not just a music show, this...
John: That Durutti Column album - on Factory - was notable also for coming in a sandpaper sleeve, an homage to Situationist writer Guy Debord whose 'Mémoires' did likewise, in order that other books on the shelf are destroyed every time you take it out. Not the only time Factory did something daft with a record cover - the Blue Monday 12", for instance, which famously cost more to produce than it was sold for.

Liars - I Saw You From The Lifeboat
John: This is off the forthcoming album 'Synth's Not Dead' and boy am I glad it's not.
Carolyn: I didn't like it.
John: I appreciate it's an opinion-divider. Personally, in an era when a lot of music is made with computers, there's still room for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Art Brut - We Make Pop Music
John: I'm not a fan of bands putting new material on 'best of...' albums, but I'll let them off. That's off the new album 'Art Brut Top Of The Pops' and is an anthem to misanthropy. Misanthem?

Time and Space Machine - River Theme
John: Wasn't that pleasant? That is on the flip side of the Dubwood Allstars single we played last week.

Fuck Buttons - The Red Wing
John: Always exciting to get new stuff from these, a Bristol duo comprising Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung. This is off the forthcoming album 'Slow Focus'.

Temples - Colours To Life
John: Bringing a bit of psychedelia to Kettering, this is their second single and comes out on June 24, so you're bang up to date with it.


Mount Kimbie - So Many Times, So Many Ways
John: From the album 'Cold Spring Fault Less Youth' which came out a few weeks ago, I really like that. All floaty and light and... ahhhh....

Outfit - I Want What's Best
John: A new band, a Liverpool five-piece. This is their first single off the album 'Performance' which is out in August.

The Juan Maclean - You Are My Destiny
John: John Maclean from Rhode Island performs as The Juan Maclean. I don't know.
Carolyn: To differentiate from the main protagonist of the Die Hard films? Could disappoint a lot of people if they're expecting someone in a vest.
John: That's been doing the rounds for a while and is part of the massive backlog I'm getting to clear out today.

Kurt Vile - Air Bud
John: Let's end on a summery one. Again, it's been around a wee while, off the album 'Wakin' On A Pretty Daze'.

Phew. A marathon session. Here's all that in a bonus long-format YouTube playlist, except the Time And Space Machine track which is here.

10 June 2013

What with Bank Holidays and a Monday night game of rugby league that took broadcast precedence, it's been a couple of weeks. That means we've got a massive backlog which we'll start working through now.

Drenge - Backwaters
John: I like these. Brothers Eoin and Rory Loveless from Castleton in the Peak District, but now firmly established in the Sheffield pantheon. This is the new single, telling of those years growing up in the middle of nowhere, and was launched with a great video.
Carolyn: We'd play them a lot more if they didn't swear quite so much. This is a family show.

The Orwells - Mallrats (La La La)
John: That's how you end a record. From the suburbs of Chicago, these are five teenagers making raw, energetic music. Sort of sounds like early Strokes or Hives.
Carolyn: Another tale of misspent youth as well. Are you trying to tell us something?

The Dubwood Allstars - Under Dub Wood
John: What a treat. I've been trying to insist to people how good that is and telling them that it's Richard Burton reading Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood over the top of a King Tubby dub beat and it sounds ridiculous. But it's anything but. It works and it's great.
Carolyn: It's certainly very interesting. The echo effect on Burton's voice adds a depth to it as well.
John: It came out recently on a limited edition 7" on Rivertones Records.

Cover Version Corner
The Psychedelic Furs/The National - Pretty In Pink
John: Now, I think the organ on the National's version of that lends it a melancholic tone that the original doesn't have and makes it a very different thing to listen to.
Carolyn: Yeah, it changes the whole tone. I wondered where it was going when the organ kicked in.
John: That's off 'Daytrotter Session' from 2007. The original is from 1981 and the album 'Talk Talk Talk'.

Mutiny On The Bounty - Myanmar
John: So that's what all the kids are listening to in downtown Luxembourg.
Carolyn: When you said they were from Luxembourg, I did wonder what language they were going to sing in. Answer: None.
John: They call it 'math rock', a term that I don't really get. Sounds more like prog for a new generation to me.

Billy Bragg - Handyman Blues
John: A new album from the Bard of Barking, his 15th, called 'Tooth And Nails' and it's less political and more love songs.
Carolyn: A nice change of pace and just a really nice song. All I could think while listening to it is you, yesterday, mowing the lawn and one of the wheels falling off the mower.
John: I got it back on! The album came out in March and a cracking video of this was released last week. Directed by Johnny Vegas, it stars a Who's Who of British comedy.


Splashh - All I Wanna Do
John: We've had these before and we have been expecting an album at some point. Now we know that it'll be called 'Comfort' and this will be on it and I really like it. That's Splashh with two aitches.
Carolyn: Of course with two aitches...

One Degree of Separation
Jurassic 5 - Swing Set
Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business
John: Delta 5, from Leeds, very much part of the thing termed post-punk, that was from 1979. And before that, Jurassic 5.
Carolyn: The link being the number 5 then, I presume?
John: Of course.
Carolyn: You could have gone for Five Star.
John: But I don't like them. That Jurassic 5 track is off the 2000 album 'Quality Control'. I thought it'd be right up your street.

Inspiral Carpets - Fix Your Smile
John: If I'd not said that this was an Inspiral Carpets record, I reckon you'd have worked it out for yourself. The unmistakeable organ stylings of Clint Boon. That was their release for Record Store Day in April which we've had a few things from.
Carolyn: You're right, it's fairly distinctive.
John: I went to see them in March as a birthday treat. Brilliant.
Carolyn: And the audience full of blokes your age, give or take, all in polos, jeans and trainers trying to rediscover lost youth.
John: Like that's a bad thing?

Waldeck - Midsummer Night Blues
John: That's Klaus Waldeck from Vienna off an album called 'Ballroom Stories' from 2007. We play that because it's been midsummery lately.
Carolyn: And a sample of Ella Fitzgerald.

Marnie - The Hunter
John: This is ex-Ladytron singer Helen Marnie going solo. This is the first single off her solo debut 'Crystal World' which is out some time this month.

And that's all we've got time for. We've barely made a dent on that backlog. Ah well, it'll keep. Here's all that in a YouTube playlist except for the Dubwood Allstars track which is here. Go here and listen to it. Here. Over here. Go. Go now.