28 June 2016

Some special treats for you today. Strap in.

Martha - Ice Cream And Sunscreen
From the town of Pity Me in County Durham. This is off their second LP Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart.

Mutineers - Infidelity
From 2010. Not sure how this passed me by, but still worth coming back to. Friends, Lovers, Rivals is the album. Definite New Order vibe there.

Wedding Present - Bear
New stuff from Dave Gedge's evergreen collective. Still going, still great.

Featured Album: De La Soul - Stakes Is High
Stakes Is High
The Bizness feat. Common
Twenty years ago almost to the day, Stakes Is High was released. It marked a new direction for De La Soul and a change of sound, their first LP without Prince Paul on production. It's a comment on the state of hip-hop at the time.

Atmosphere - Ringo
Minnesota duo with their eighth LP Fishing Blues.

Fightmilk - Some Boys
Don't know much about these apart from this is really good.

Palm Honey - You Stole My Blackout
Another one I know little of. Apart from they're from Reading.

Evans The Death - Haunted Wheelchair
London next. Off the LP Vanilla which came out a couple of weeks ago.

Ought - Beautiful Blue Sky
Another one from a while back - only a year this time. The Montreal band released Sun Coming Down in 2015, but this is a sublime track. Absolutely stunning.

Featured Album: De La Soul - Stakes Is High
Itzsoweezee
Another cracking track from our featured LP. They were unmatched in this period.

Portishead - SOS
A cover of the ABBA record in memoriam of Jo Cox. Haunting, beautiful.

Alone - Hold Hands Over Borders
Another track inspired by recent events. 8-bit cool.

Aphex Twin - Cirklon3
NEW APHEX TWIN STUFF! Get you some of that.

Here's that on Youtube:



and Soundcloud:



and we'll have another go at it next week.

17 May 2016

Held over from last week because I had a raging sore throat that was definitely not radio friendly.

Bent Shapes - What We Do Is Public
Perky stuff from these Bostonians. Wolves Of Want is the album.

Meilyr Jones - Strange/Emotional
Bowie-esque. This guy is going places. The album, his debut as a solo artist, is 2013 and very highly rated.

Red Cabin - Follow Me Home
The solo project of Jonathan Foster of Long Island who has songs that don't fit the idiom of his other band, Snowday.

Featured album: Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Angles
Beat That My Heart Skipped
Letter From God To Man
The 2007 debut from these two left a big impression. There's lyrical intelligence and banging beats and it's great. One of those that I keep going back to.

Parquet Courts - Dust
Always nice to get new stuff from these - a band that could only possibly come from New York. Human Performance is the new LP.

Martha - Goldman's Detective Agency
More sunshiney pop from Durham town Pity Me. The LP Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart is out in July.

Lower Slaughter - Hands
Raucous stuff from Brighton, the title track off their EP which came out in February.

Mugstar - Time Machine
Gorgeous krautrocky stuff from Liverpool. This is off the album Magnetic Seasons which came out in March.

The Coathangers - Down Down
More than a little element of psych about this. They're from Atlanta and the LP Nosebleed Weekend came out on February 29.

Black Mountain - Florian Saucer Attack
The Jagjaguwar label is normally a reliable badge of quality and this is from them. IV is the Vancouver band's first LP since 2010.

Featured album
Thou Shalt Always Kill
This had been doing the rounds a lot before it's release. I remember it on YouTube from way back before seeing it on a pub jukebox in York just before the LP came out. It's a modern classic.

The Dandelion Set - Judy Switched Off The TV
Bizarre and sublime, this is from their debut LP A Thousand Strands 1975-2015 and featuring the vocals of Alan Moore, writer of V For Vendetta and Watchmen.

Malcolm Middleton - Steps
Another new one from the LP Summer of '13. Which is great. More than a hint of Gary Numan about this one.

NZCA Lines - Two Hearts
These have been played plenty, but I got a new appreciation for their art after seeing them support Teleman. The LP Infinite Summer came out in January. It's good.

Krywald and Farrer - Spoon-Billed Sandpiper
A club banger to finish from this London duo. The EP Top Pocket Persies came out in March.

Here's your YouTube playlist:



and it's Soundcloud cousin:



More next week.

15 July 2014

Still propped up on pain-killers, let's do this.

King Creosote - For One Night Only
What a great way to start. I always like a singer who sings in their own accent which Kenny Anderson definitely does. Off his new album From Scotland With Love which is out next Monday.

Martha - 1997, Passing In The Hallway
These are from Durham, which you can also tell from the voice. The album is Courting Strong which came out in May. It's a delight.

Royal Blood - Figure It Out
Terrific. From Brighton, this is off their self-titled debut album which is out in August.

Cover Version Corner
Bob Marley and The Wailers/Stiff Little Fingers - Johnny Was
We try to get two versions that are very different. Great track from Marley's 1976 LP Rastaman Vibration then re-tooled by SLF for their 1979 debut Inflammable Material to reflect the situation in Northern Ireland at the time. It's also at the forefront of when punk started taking in reggae influences more and more.

By The Sea - I See A Crystal Sky
That reminds me of a few things none of which are particularly obvious. Like it lots. The album is Endless Day, Crystal Sun and is out on August 18.

Spinner Fall - By Numbers
Not 100% sure on this one. I think I like it, but it could quite easily disappear like Foals or somesuch. For now, it gets a tentative thumb up. They're from Oxford and that's on an Audioscope compilation of Oxford bands which is raising money for Shelter.

Land Observations - On Leaving The Kingdom For The Well-Tempered Continent
This is interesting. The album is The Grand Tour and comes out on July 28, described by James Brooks who is Land Observations as 'an imaginary travelogue through Western, Central and Southern Europe'. Every track takes up a part of that journey. Top stuff.

Wild Smiles - Never Wanted This
Throwing forward to October now... That's when the Wild Smiles album Always Tomorrow comes out from which this is taken. I think they've just about enough to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

White Lung - In Your Home
In a similar vein, but from Vancouver rather than Hampshire, this is off an album called Deep Fantasy. I think it came out yesterday. Either way, it's available now.

Half Japanese - In It's Pull
What a treat. They're back, after 13 years away. The new album is Overjoyed and comes out on September 2 and this is the first release from that. Great to have them back.

One Degree of Separation
Julian Cope - Robert Mitchum
Phantogram - Bill Murray
Of course the link is Hollywood stars as song titles. First from Skellington, recorded in 2 days in 1989 in sessions after completing My Nation Underground which was so not Julian Cope it was untrue. Second was from the album Voices which we've played a couple of tracks from. It came out in February and is really good.

Whirr - Mumble
Shoegaze and grunge never died. They just jumped in alongside each other in tracks like this. They're from San Francisco, the album is Sway and it's out on September 29. Love it.

Pye Corner Audio - Black Mist
The mysterious Head Technician is back with a new EP, also called Black Mist. It's out on August 18. I could listen to that over and over. Maybe a hint of the Doctor Who theme in there?

Scanner - Backwood
And we close with Robin Rimbaud. Off the album Electronic Garden which came out in March. Typically sublime.

Here's most of that on YouTube:



And another load of it on Soundcloud: