29 September 2015

I was ill last week, so you can have what I prepared for then this week.

Bunnygrunt - Frankie Is A Killer
An old-ish track, but off a new compilation from the St Louis veterans. Bunnygrunt Vol 4 is out now.

The St Pierre Snake Invasion - Rock 'N' Roll Workshops
New stuff from Bristol. Some proper old school rock from the LP A Hundred Years A Day which is out on October 31.

Penetration - Just Drifting
A new track from the punk veterans, their first since 1979. They got back together a while ago touring the old stuff, but now there's something new.

Featured Album
Thee Headcoats - Troubled Times
Thee Headcoats - Girl From '62
This week's featured album is Elementary Headcoats a re-release of which is due imminently. It's a collection of tracks released between 1990 and 1999, originally released in 2001, and is very much in the Billy Childish - for it is him - idiom. Garage rock as it used to be.

Drew Worthley - Bone China Saviour
Off the second album, Crucible, which is out on Friday. A bit Dutch Unclesy, which is never a bad thing.

I, Ludicrous - We're Signed
Another one from Dull Is The New Interesting which by now I trust you're in agreement that it's quite splendid.

Ghost Car - Woman In The Shadows
I was looking for a different Ghost Car track, but this caught my ear first. It came out in January on a split LP between these and Valencian outfit Summerisle.

Fiesta Island - I'm Awake ft Jonny 'Huddersfield' Helm
Dreamy stuff from the Californians which matches Wave Pictures drummer Jonny Helm's vocals nicely. This came out at the back of August.

Splashh - Pure Blue
A first cut from the forthcoming LP Honey And Salt, the follow-up to their acclaimed debut Comfort. High hopes for the rest of the album on the back of this.

Horsebeach - I'm Alright
Another one from the Mancunians whose album II comes out this week. Almost Fleetwood Mac-ian at the start.

Featured Album
Thee Headcoats - My Dear Watson
Something a bit sillier from Elementary Headcoats. Verging on Bonzo Dog/Goons territory.

India Mill - Come On In My Gun
Another track from the LP Under Every Sky which we like a lot here. It came out almost a year ago, but so what. This is a belter.

Peter Hook and The Light - Atmosphere ft Rowetta
I heard the new New Order track the other day and was non-plussed to say the least. On the back of that and never having heard Peter Hook's outfit, I gave them a go. I prefer this, I reckon. Rowetta's vocals take it to somewhere else, but the overall sense is that these blokes are too old for all this crap. Just grow up and make proper New Order records. This is off the EP 1102/2011 which is four years old now.

Moth Effect - Last Orders At The Chateau Plaisir
A rough cut of a first track following the LP Crocodilians, which we very much enjoyed. More Boards Of Canada-esque floatiness. Bliss.

Dementio13 - We All Fall Down
Another one from August's The Dark Science LP which is great. We read, worryingly, that the man behind this stuff is thinking of jacking in music for a bit and focusing on visual art. Fair enough, we all need a break from time to time, but I hope it's not permanent.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



Enjoyed that. We'll give it another go next week shall we?

15 September 2015

Just when you're struggling to fill a show, your new feature section tees you up for a 10-minute Fall track. Easy.


Hooton Tennis Club - Kathleen Sat On The Arm Of Her Favourite Chair
From the Wirral and sounding a bit Pavement and a bit Teenage Fanclub. And that's a very good thing. This is the latest single from the acclaimed album Highest Point In Cliff Town.

Dog, Paper, Submarine - Ms Moonlet
Now sounding more Dinosaur Jr, some Swedes. This is off a 7-track EP/mini-album called Signal From Kepler-22B

Stanley Brinks and The Wave Pictures - Berlin
Another collaboration between house favourites The Wave Pictures and French chanteur Stanley Brinks. Their new LP is called My Ass and is out in a couple of weeks.

Featured Album
The Fall - Auto Chip 2014-2016
Here's your ten minutes of The Fall. Uniquely British, more uniquely Manchester. If it's possible to be more unique... Anyway, this is off their last LP, Sub-Lingual Tablet, which came out in May. Their 31st.

Lush Rimbaud - G Spot
To Italy now, Ancona more precisely, for something genial and pleasant. This is off L/R which is out on October 1.

The Iain Duncan Smiths - What Difference Does It Make (If All Our Testimonies Are Fake)
Off the album The Devil's Songs: The Very Worst Of The Iain Duncan Smiths, a four-piece take Smiths songs and turn them into satire on the DWP. I spoke to them for a piece on IBWM which should tell you all you need to know.

Los and The Deadlines - Feel At Ease
A multi-national four-piece based in London off their LP Perfect Holiday. Not easily categorisable, just jolly good.

Bicep - Just
Belfast now for some electronica. Off an EP of the same name which came out in May.

The Reverse Cowgirls - Cry Cry
And now some filthy garage rock from Glasgow. Outskirts came out in July.

Featured Albums
The Fall - Dedication Not Medication
And if you thought the previous record sounded like The Fall, here's The Fall. Probably my favourite track off Sub-Lingual Tablet, and it's up against some strong competition. It's one of their best.

Tellison - Tact Is Dead
Back to London now for this which I like a lot. Hope Fading Lightly comes out on Friday.

Kagoule - Made Of Concrete
Highly-rated Nottingham band whose album Urth came out in July. You'll be hearing these a lot. Not just here - everywhere.

Kryten - Upping Doses
Yes I was intrigued by the name and yes it is. They're from Aberfeldy, out Perth way in Scotland, a 2-piece and the album is Soda Jerk and it's out now.

Astro - Druida
And finally, some electronica from Chile. Chicos De La Luz - Boys of the light - came out in July.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



Hoping for more inspiration next week.

8 September 2015

Here we go again. May have gone overboard a bit.

Leftfield - Head And Shoulders ft Jason Williamson
And now I defy you to get the phrase 'chicken in a basket' out of your head. The latest single off the album Alternative Light Source.

Luca Afrobeat - Barse
The first of two tracks from Canterbury bands. First, this magnificent horn-laced funk from an 8-piece band from the EP Heard. And Barse is a great name for a single.

Origami Horses - Slates
And then this, off the LP Artful/Artless? which came out in June. A bit New Ordery, a bit Charlatansy and with a Foalsy vocal. Two out of three ain't bad.

Featured Album
Neu! - Isi
This week, we feature Neu! 75, the third album from Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother's band post-Kraftwerk. It was something of an end point for the band. Tonight, I'll play the opening and closing tracks from it. This is the opener and picks up where Neu! 2 left off. By the time we get to the final track, it's clear that the two of them are going in different directions. Later in 1975, Bowie was in Hamburg and asked to record with Neu! Rother said no. What might have been...

John Grant - Disappointing ft Tracey Thorn
Magnificent. Lovely juxtaposition of Grant's booming baritone and Thorn's delicate vocals. Grant's new LP is Grey Tickles, Black Pressure and is out on October 2.

Kassassin Street - Radio Silence
Record of the week. I adore this. The synths really lift it. These are from Portsmouth and their debut EP is out next month.

The Crookes - Before The Night Falls
Show favourites from Sheffield. This is the latest single from the album Soapbox which came out last year. It's still splendid.

Pocket Gods - In Search Of The Divine
The title track from last month's album. From St Albans, something of a lost mark on Britain's musical map.

Lusts - Waves
Brothers Andy and James Stone of Leicester are Lusts. This is superb and if the rest of the album Illuminations, out on October 23, is anything like, we're in for a treat.

Dead Hope - Swordz
To Glasgow now for something pretty raw, but no less appealing for that.

Jim Johnston - Officer Paranoid
This is off an album that came out in March which has somehow passed me by until now. After All The Wishing... is Johnston's second album. More of that please.

Featured Album
Neu! - After Eight
Like I say. Very different at the end to the start. And it progresses like that through the album.

The Ska Vengers - Frank Brazil
Indian ska now. These are from New Delhi and this is a tribute of sorts to Udham Singh, Indian revolutionary, executed 75 years ago for assassinating Frank O'Dwyer, orchestrator of the Amritsar massacre. Frank Brazil was one of Singh's aliases. History lesson this show as well... There's an album due in October.

Carter Tutti Void - f(2.6.2)
New from these, of the new album f(x) which is out on Friday. File under E for experimental.

Four Tet - Back 2 The Start
New track from Kieran Hebden. Bit more clubby than we're used to, perhaps, but none the worse for that.

V.I.P.N - I Am V.I.P.N
And to finish, something from a 17-year old kid from Germany called Viktor. I don't know anything more than that, just that I wasn't doing anything like this at 17.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud, which for some reason doesn't seem to want to embed this week. Get it here anyway.



and we'll do it again in a week.

1 September 2015

I return, slightly less stressed than a month ago. Anyway, I've changed it round a little bit, but the focus still remains new music. Let's see if I can remember which buttons do what on the console. Anyhoo...

John MOuse - Your Funny Little Ways
From Cardiff, John Davies is John MOuse and this is the new single taken from the album The Death Of John MOuse which is tremendous and you should buy it. This is out on the 18th.

Diet Cig - Dinner Date
Also out on the 18th, these are from upstate New York. It's on a double-A side - kids, ask your parents - with Sleep Talk.

Fruit Bomb - Goin' Home
From Manchester and featuring parts of house favourites Nai Harvest, this came out a few weeks ago. I'll be catching up on things from the last month or so for a while yet, methinks.

Featured Album
The Broken Heed - Funny Little Things
New feature section now. The Broken Heed is personal friend John Hartley who, like me, has suffered depression lately. He found CALM - the Campaign Against Living Miserably - a help. One phone call to their impartial hotline costs £7, so John decided to record the album, also called The Broken Heed, to raise money for the charity. It's a very personal album, but also very good. Crowdfunding raised the cash for a physical release. Get it off bandcamp.

Lou Barlow - Moving
A new album, the first in six years, from Mr Barlow. Brace The Wave is out on Friday.

Menace Beach - Ghoul Power
Another track from the new EP Super Transporterreum which is out on the 25th and is excellent.

Houdini Dax - Found Love In The Dole Office
Another one from Cardiff - there is some great stuff coming out of South Wales at the moment. A very pleasing ditty off the album Naughty Nation which is out now.

Poledo - Loser
Oxford now, and this is really pleasing. Off an EP called Egg Ccun Catpil Butfli. Me neither.

Nightingales - The Only Son
Another one from the Birmingham veterans latest LP Mind Over Matter. It really is a superb album. The oldies showing everyone how it's done.

April Towers - A Little Bit Of Fear
To Nottingham now. This came out last Friday.

Bruja - Horsey & You
Bruja means witch in Spanish, as anyone familiar with Juan Sebastian Veron will already know. Anyway, these are from Barnsley and this is off a self-titled album which is out now.

Featured Album
The Broken Heed - How To Be A Man
Another from our featured album of the week. There are so many things trying to tell you what being a man is. It's all meaningless.

Ceiling Demons - Even If
Mysterious Yorkshiremen purveying alternative hip-hop. Bit different innit.

Traams - Succulent Thunder Anthem
I doubt we've had a Chichester band on before. Difficult to know what you'd be influenced by down there. Either way, I like this. Off Modern Dancing which is out in November.

Sextile - Can't Take It
An LA band and off the album A Thousand Hands which came out last week.

Lesbian Horse - They Are A Part Of The Wave Of The Future
Another one from this project which I've played before. Since then, I've been in touch with the brains of the operation which is Sam Jones, a France-based Welshman. No albums. No physical releases. Just watch the stars (well, social media) and keep your ears open.

Here's that on YouTube:



And Soundcloud:




And I guess we'll give it a whirl next week as well.

21 July 2015

Insert introduction here.

Du Blonde - Hunter
Another one from the acclaimed album Welcome Back To Milk by the artist formerly known as Beth Jeans Houghton.

Richard Hawley - Which Way
New from the Sheffield troubadour off the forthcoming LP Hollow Meadows which is out in September. Classic Hawley.

I, Ludicrous - Hacky's Wine Bar
Another one from Dull Is The New Interesting, their first release in ages.

Cover Version Corner
Kraftwerk/Gulp vs Miaoux Miaoux - Tour de France
Topical innit. Gulp is the side project of Super Furry Animals bassist Guto Pryce and has teamed up with Glaswegian producer Miaoux Miaoux for this update of the 1983 Kraftwerk classic. One of the better covers I think we've ever featured.

Menace Beach - Super Transporterreum
Not resting on their laurels following the debut LP Ratworld, this is the title track from a new EP. And is splendid.

Girls Names - A Hunger Artist
How good is that? They're from Belfast and the album is Arms Around A Vision.

Ultimate Painting - (I've Got The) Sanctioned Blues
Seeing the humour in getting a parking ticket, this is off Green Lanes which is out now.

Trust Fund - Dreams
And they just keep on coming. From Bristol, these, and this is their new single.

Swells - Banal
Another band from Bandung in Indonesia which is some sort of hotbed of musical genius. I'm sure banal doesn't mean that in the local language and this sure ain't. Clearly influenced by 1990s Manchester and that can't be a bad thing.

Tom Robinson - Don't Jump, Don't Fall
The first new stuff from Robinson in 20 years, this is off the album Only The Now. The single is raising money for CALM - the Campaign Against Living Miserably - which raises awareness of male suicide, the biggest killer of men aged 20-45 in this country. You know, because we're big idiots who don't talk about stuff. Powerful stuff.

One Degree of Separation
OMD - Electricity
The Avalanches - Electricity
Just the titles that link them. Can you believe that's OMD's debut from 1979? Still sounds fresh. The Avalanches simply because it's an age since I played anything by them. That's off 2000's Since I Left You.

Malcolm Middleton and David Shrigley - Caveman
Unusual. This is a collaboration between former Arab Strap man Middleton and visual artist Shrigley on an album called, appropriately, Words And Music which came out last December. Words by the latter, music by the former.

Bullion - Saysah!
Hugely retro stuff from the EP Rooster which is out now.

Dementio13 - A New Economic Freedom
6 minutes of brilliance from the album This Is Civilisation which came out last month.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



Although the dementio13 track is on neither. Follow the link above.

And I think that'll do it for a few weeks. I need a break. I will return.

14 July 2015

Yep. Still here.

Flux Pavilion - Blow The Roof
Start with a bang. Off the album of the same name that came out in 2013, Flux Pavilion is Joshua Steele from Towcester.

Evans The Death - Terrified
Odd name for a band, but hey ho. And a band rather than a single person. And a cracking tune. Off Expect Delays that came out in March.

The HolyDrug Couple - French Movie Theme
I don't think we've had anything from Chile before. Might have - not sure. Anyway, that's where these are from. Moonlust is the album and serves to remind me that I still fancy doing an all-instrumental show one day.

Cover Version Corner
Jimi Hendrix/The Cure - Purple Haze
Not the greatest cover, I grant you. That's off a compilation called Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix which features a number of artists covering his tunes. Before that, unmistakeably Hendrix. Nothing else has ever sounded quite like that. Off 1967's Are You Experienced.

Sleaford Mods - No-one's Bothered
Another one from the new LP Key Markets. Go get it.

Shopping - Why Wait?
More social commentary from the album Why Choose? which comes out in October. Good tune too.

Autobahn - Society
And yet more social commentary. From Leeds this time. And probably record of the week. Dissemble is the new album and it's out at the back end of August.

Bully - Trying
To Nashville now. Not the greatest name for a band, but what a great voice. Their debut album is called Feels Like and came out late last month.

Dymaxion Groove - The Greatest Power
Baltimore now and Jad Fair and Jason Willett from seminal post-punk outfit Half Japanese have their own side project and this is it. The album is of the same name and is out in September.

Kingsley Chapman and The Murder - Lovers
This is great. Teessider Chapman, ex of the Chapman Family, with a splendid bit of song writing. A hint of the Nick Caves about it, in the very nicest sense of the term.

One Degree of Separation
Paul Smith and The Intimations - Break Me Down
Nano Kino - Eyes Before Words
And staying in the north-east, two records from Maximo Park members. Front-man Smith has a new LP, Contradictions, out in August. Nano Kino's self-titled album came out in March. And why not - spread your wings, try something different and then come back together for the day job.

Lanks - Hole Me Closer
Melbourne's Will Cuming is Lanks and the EP Thousand Piece Puzzle came out last month.

Victories At Sea - Up
This really is ace. They're from Birmingham and this comes from an EP called In Memory Of. A bit retro, a bit New Order at times, and yet entirely contemporary.

LV - Jump And Reach
And we finish with a collaboration between London producer LV and Armenian pianist Tigran Hammasyan. Unusual combination, outstanding results.

Here's your YouTube selection:



and Soundcloud:



More next week as usual.

7 July 2015

July already? Let's do this.

Hotgothic - Smackuout
Energetic and punchy, as befits something off an EP called Punchline.

Brawlers - Annabel
And continuing the short and punchy theme, a new single from this Leeds band off the album Romantic Errors Of Our Youth.

Nai Harvest - Ocean Of Madness
And again. Sheffield this time and the LP is Hairball.

Cover Version Corner
Jacques Brel - Au Suivant
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next
I remember seeing the Alex Harvey Band perform that on The Old Grey Whistle Test. It was bonkers. That's off the 1973 album Next and is an English translation of Au Suivant, Jacques Brel's anti-military record from 1966 and the album Les Bonbons.

Sleaford Mods - Tarantula Deadly Cargo
Finally, a track I can play in the 7pm slot. The hype is justified, they are the most important band in the country right now and the new LP Key Markets is out on Friday.

Christian Fitness - The Harder It Hits
Side-project of Future Of The Left front man Andy Falkous. Following on from the album I'm Scared Of Everything That I'm Not, a new single. Record of the week, I reckon. Love it.

Sauna Youth - The Bridge
And another track from the frankly brilliant Sauna Youth from their album Distractions.

Ought - The Weather Song
This dates back from last year. They're from Montreal and it sounds like Jonathan Richman in ways to me. And that's never a bad thing. More Than Any Other Day is the LP.

Fufanu - Circus Life
Iceland now and something from their EP Adjust To The Light. Something a bit different.

Asian Dub Foundation - The Signal And The Noise
I love this lot. A new album, More Signal, More Noise, is out on Friday. Still great.

One Degree of Separation
Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro
SWR - Close The Dam
The link should be obvious from the moment you realise that SWR stands for Shaun William Ryder. That's his first solo release for about a decade and it's bloody good. You don't need reminding that Kinky Afro was on Pills N Thrills And Bellyaches, still one of the most significant records of the last 25 years.

Shitwife - High Octane Party Banger
Splendid stuff and there's an album coming. Called Big Lad, it's out on August 28.

Lesbian Horse - 30 Seconds (Could Save The Universe)
These are a mystery. They're from London, but that's all I've got. They're also prolific and also also splendid in the turntablist style. Just fantastic.

AFX - Serge Fenix Rendered 2
After hiding away for so long, Richard D James - Aphex Twin to you - is suddenly prolific and has a new record out in the guise of AFX. Orphaned Deejay Selek 2006-2008 is the title. Of course it is.

Here's that on YouTube:



and Soundcloud:



Back next week.