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Monday 24 June 2013

24 June 2013

Last week, I got talking about long records and the concept that anything above eight minutes really sorts out the men from the boys. It so happens that there are a couple of new releases of quite a weighty size and after playing 21 records last week, I felt a contrast was required.

Hookworms - Away/Towards
From Leeds, we've had these on before. I really like what they do. The album 'Pearl Mystic' came out in March. They like a long record.

Cover Version Corner
Pink Floyd/BEAK> - Welcome To The Machine
BEAK> are from Bristol, ex-Portishead man Geoff Barrow is heavily involved. As opposed to north-east supergroup B>E>A>K>. This can get confusing. Their version sounds a bit Joy Division-y, all bleak and metallic like. Before that, Floyd from 1975's 'Wish You Were Here'.

Four Tet - Unspoken
Kieran Hebden records as Four Tet and that - all 9'30" of it - is quite excellent. Got a bit of a DJ Shadow feel to it which is never a bad thing if you ask me.

Champions League - Paris Is Our Playground
Not an overly long one, this. Champions League are a couple of lads from Paris and that's off an album called 'Please Don't Go' which comes out on Wednesday - June 26.

One Degree of SeparationHey, Rube! - Mengi Dem Disco Leggi
Cabaret Voltaire - I Want You (Extended 12" version)
That Cabaret Voltaire record is from 1985 and, frankly, sounds like it. They were from Sheffield and you get the feel of the other things going on around the time there - Human League and all that malarkey. It is a bit dated. The album is 'The Covenant, The Sword and The Arm Of The Lord'. Hey, Rube! are from Hull and that very jaunty track is off 'Can You Hear Me Mutha?' and your link is Stephen Mallinder who has been in both bands.

Holy Ghost! - Dumb Disco Ideas
Now this is a belter. From New York, Holy Ghost! are Nick Millhiser and Alez Frankel and that's off 'Dynamics' which is out about now.



Shit Robot - Feels Real
Marcus Lambkin from Dublin is Shit Robot. This is a new release and hopefully signifies a second album is in the offing.

Sultans Of Ping FC - Where's Me Jumper?
Here's a self-indulgent piece of nostalgia. Also Irish - from Cork this time - this was a minor hit back in 1992 and came off the album 'Casual Sex In The Cineplex'. I think we can all sympathise with the difficult themes raised in the song.

And that's your lot. I'm actually surprised I managed to get ten records in - thought it'd be single figures. Anyway, all that's in a YouTube playlist here for your delectation.

Monday 17 June 2013

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.

Monday 10 June 2013

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.