Elysium Fields

Andrew Bird at Union Chapel

2009-11-11T00:22:00.002Z

I only heard of Andrew Bird this year when he was part of the Rough Trade Album club but I thought as an acoustic singer-songwriter he would be a good fit for the venue.

The show was better than I could have expected though. Bird (on stage by himself) mostly plays violin with a Phrase Recorder to create a layered sound and manages the trick far better than previous people I have seen use it. He made heavy use of a picked or strummed violin that reminded me a bit of Final Fantasy. He mixes virtuosity with a lot of playing panache so it was a really impressive show to see as well as listen to.

Max Richter at the Union Chapel

2008-06-29T23:33:00.007+01:00

Max Richter is a hard musician to categorise, if he didn't use loops and samples he would one of the world's most enjoyable composers of modern classical music. But he does and therefore he kind of straddles that space between electronica, classical music and music as multimedia art performance.

He has a new album coming out and on Sunday there was a gig at Union Chapel to coincide with the release. Although a huge fan of Blue Notebooks and Songs From Before I have never had the chance to catch a live performance.

The support act was Johann Johannsson whom Amazon has been recommending to me for the last year. In this case Amazon is right, it is the kind of art noise meets string quartet experience I enjoy.

And then the sun began to set and a truely magical experience began. It was partly the light and atmosphere of the old church but it was mostly about beautiful music. A swooping, haunting melody that captures so many complex feelings. All of Max's releases have a concept and narrative that binds together the fragments of themes and individual pieces and the performance, though mixing music from four different releases, had the same sense of a journey through melancoly, stasis, loss and hope.

The performance was fantastic, with the playing matching the quality of the recording but adding an emotional feeling on top of the technical reproduction of the recorded sound. Everyone on stage seemed to be caught up in emotion of the music and everyone in the audience seemed rapt (rather than doing the normal London gig audience thing of talking incessantly).

It is truly the most amazing gig I have seen since I moved to London and is really one of the highlights of my life. I'd love to do it all again.

High Contrast 6Music Mix

2008-05-24T20:57:00.004+01:00

6Mixes can be a bit of a mixed bag but at their best they are a mix of influences, admiration and a personal musical history. Listening to the High Contrast Mix (not someone I had heard of before) I was struck by the familiarity of his choices and his reasoning for choosing his music.

Although it lost me towards the end I was really curious who this person was, finding out that it wasn't just a 6Music punter I had a Google and came up with a bio which says that actually we not that different. Except that he's more my brother's age and he's a drum and bass producer and I'm an IT consultant, natch.

Still I found it weird that we had these parallel journeys through a Welsh childhood with our musical discoveries.

NIN: Ghosts I-IV

2008-03-05T22:52:00.001Z

Late, tired. New NIN musical experience is amazing value for $5. Buy it now.

Throbbing Gristle - Discipline

2008-03-03T21:52:00.004Z

Since I seem to posting now I might as well get the last link off my list and point y'all in the direction of Throbbing Gristle's Discipline. I don't generally really "get" much TG but this live performance is punishing brilliant.

When the beat kicks off it's amazingly heavy but also surprisingly 4 to the floor modern. There is also an amazing moment near the start when the vocal delay and loop is taken off the mike and suddenly this kind of song appears from the midst of a cloud of discord.

Generally I prefer SPK for the misery music but this performance is fascinating because it is not simply proto-industrial. You have punk nihilism, post-punk performance, electronic beats and Kraftwerk electronic manipulation all going off in one place.

If you think it's rubbish then you can watch this and skip to 5:20 where someone agrees with you in a satisfyingly direct action sort of way.

Insanity in the sideband

2008-03-03T21:41:00.003Z

If you have a digital radio I don't know if you've ever made use of the little text ticker that accompanies the broadcast. Usually I just use it to check what record is being played at the moment. However Marc Riley's 6Music show makes an insane amount of use of the ticker. In addition to telling you useful stuff like the release date of the new Tindersticks album they also just make up completely random stuff on there. Kewl!

Indelicates - Sixteen

2008-03-03T21:22:00.004Z

I quite like the Indelicates but their current single is the kind of funny, catchy, clever and bitter pop song I love. The video captures the yearning, snideness of the lyrics and I think its hard not to be delighted by the swooping rhythms and rhymes of the song's chorus.

You can get more Indelicates at their Myspace page, I'm looking forward to their album but Sixteen is really their high point to date.

If you do take a look at the video (you are aren't you?) then also take the time to watch the Iggy and the Stooges Sixteen video that you'll probably get in the recommendations. It's amazing to watch some simply give themselves over to their performance with no irony and no reservations. It's mesmerising to watch Iggy at his best.

Listening to Tom Robinson can be expensive

2008-02-03T22:32:00.001Z

Sometimes I listen to the Tom Robinson show on 6 Music when I am washing the dishes. Sometimes these shows can be expensive. I have ended up buying three EPs within weeks of each other due to airtime on Tom's show and at the end of tonight's show I have another five names in my notebook to follow up on.

First there is my new favourite shoegazer band, Ringo Deathstarr, you can buy their EP from Spoilt Victorian Child and you really should you know. Then there are the goth rock stomp charms of the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and the northern vaguely category defying Beneath Fire and Smoke. Listening to a radio show has never been so expensive.

New Google Feature

2008-01-08T22:26:00.000Z

Que?

Google Music Search for Mum.

That was the year that was

2007-12-26T09:27:00.001Z

Okay, year in reviews are kind of obligatory in the musical world. This year I read the OMM and The Wire and realised how hopeless and useless these kind of thing are. Pointing out overlooked gems only works if you have built up some kind of relationship with the reader over the previous year and this year no-one had so I was skeptical of what unknown quantities were chosen over music I had heard.

I think that there can be little doubt that one of the most outstanding albums of the year was Radiohead's In Rainbows. It managed to blend their experimental and conventionally rocky side into a more coherent whole. Some people said it was a retreat from the Kid A era but I think they are wrong, Kid A was exciting and unconventional but In Rainbows is holisitic rather than simply ditching everything done to date.

However personally I was suprised to find myself returning again and again to the math techno of Calabi Yau Space by Dopplereffekt. I liked their previous albums but would have to say they hardly kept me coming back for more. Calabi Yau Space has never left my MP3 player this year and has been a welcome listen in all kinds of situations.

Live the experience I look back on most fondly was watching Jeffery Lewis perform an acoustic version of one of his Crass covers. Lewis is whimsical nu-folker who has some funny kitschy songs but it was a strong of genius to see that aggressive anarchist punk lyrics would more be more plantive within a twee pop setting.

Sellaband and Co.

2007-10-07T23:19:00.000+01:00

Julia Marcell is a female singer-songwriter, something that Sellaband isn't necessarily short of. However she is the real deal and has shot through to the 50K in no time at all. Having ignored her initially one listen made me realise I was up my own arse about it and that I needed to buy some parts. I am actually looking forward to her album.

However if you want to support some not so attractive but musically very worthy people then check out my list or simple look at this band, they're great!

Anyway there was a piece in Guardian Money reviewing the new set of websites that aim to link fans with money with bands wanting money. They mentioned Trail who I also thing should record an album (they are a bit mainstream but they are still better than some crap acts that actually have deals like Morning Runner) so hopefully there will be a little jump in parts purchased.

On the back of the article I tried SlicethePie which I found incredibly convoluted. I tried scouting but after acerbically reviewing two fucking awful RnB acts I realised that apart from being incredibly rude to musicians there was no point to the experience for me. There is no community interaction and the whole investment thing basically buys a CD and a weird spread betting-style purchase. The whole thing felt really negative instead of being about letting people connect to music they might actually like.

Amazing Tunes on the other hand seems to work. Listen to a track, like it, buy it DRM free for a fair price. Isn't that what this whole idea is meant to be about?

Bleep was robbed

2007-10-07T23:16:00.000+01:00

iTunes won the best online music store at the BT awards. Bleep deservedly won last year and while they may not have been expected to win this year I cannot believe that iTunes got the prize instead. Have people actually used different music stores? iTunes is useless without it's own app, that would disqualify it immediately in my opinion.

iTunes winning this award is like announcing that beige was the most exciting colour of the year.

Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster: In the Garden

2007-09-29T21:47:00.000+01:00

This is an awesome piece of gothic rock from a band I previously associated with limp-wristed indie fare. The EP costs £9 from HMV and while that is a lot for just one track it is actually a generous double cd affair with a live recording on the second disk. You can also get a digital download of the track via the band's website (although I had never heard of the site involved).

Thank you 6 Music for alerting me to this rocking track.

Roisin Murphy Video

2007-07-09T22:10:00.000+01:00

I've just spotted this YouTube version of Roisin Murphy's (the lead singer of Moloko) new single, Overpowered, and I think it's a bit of a gem. The track is quite good but the trip home across London is one I recognise, lots to wryly smile about. Of course I tend not to have a stage costume when I'm heading home but maybe that's just me being unimaginative.

And on a related note have a look at this mashup (it pains me to use the word, mind) which while using two similar tunes is really very good and gains bonus points for noting the similarities in the videos.

SellaBand

2007-06-10T22:12:00.000+01:00

Like all muso Guardianistas I read the story about Sellaband and immediately jumped over to have a look at the bands I could buy part of. The first disappointment is that all the bands who are gaining a lot of traction are really incredibly dull. If Sellaband intends to be something of a focus group on music then it's a depressing outcome with folky, souly, lumpen pub rock being the main recipients of most peoples money.

I chose some electronica bollocks which I think is good but to which I am rather in the minority at the moment. When it works the system seems good, you get to listen to some interesting music and you can put a stake in the ground and say "this would be even better with some professional production". However overall the experience is a bit depressing, the musical taste seems conservative and although 5000 people does not sound a lot it is probably a lot more sales than most bands make. A CDR release probably doesn' t go above 500 copies. There also a lot of intrusive advertising on the site and some of the flash items on the jukebox player actually end up showing you an advert rather than having any function.

On the plus side though there are some truly dreadful promotional pictures on the band pages. I find it hard to understand the logic of these. You are going to display a vision of your band to potentially thousands of people so you put your dad in the picture, you can't persuade the drummer to take his glasses off and drop the pony tail for five minutes or you mistakenly think that people desperately miss Venom.

Sellaband probably just shows why most bands can't get a record deal but I do hope that it leads to something interesting for decent independent artists.

The Enemy

2007-06-10T21:42:00.000+01:00

I had the The Enemy inflicted on me when I went to see the Manics at the Forum the other week. The Enemy are an exercise in amplified tedium and the only pleasure in watching them was the vague hope that they might stop and leave the stage and the end of the song. I'm only really mentioning this because they are meant to be playing another show at the Astoria (which is apparently going to be demolished as part of Crossrail/London Olympics 2012).

Do yourself a favour, stay away.

FLAC

2006-12-03T22:50:00.000Z

So I ordered my first FLAC album from Bleep this weekend. So it is a brand new of audiophillic glory?

Well it actually sounds pretty good and it is probably worth the extra two pounds but I still suspect that for all but the most distinguished ears there is a strict law of diminishing returns.

The Blog is Over

2006-12-03T20:58:00.000Z

Ever since I discovered Rate Your Music (quite randomly through a tech blog) the purpose of this blog is pretty much over. The site is easy to use and actually music is one of those things where a good indication of the quality of a piece can be obtained by simply asking a lot of people.

Reading through a couple of the reviews does have that infinite Internet monkeys vibe but it's about numbers at the end of the day with the "reviews" really just being justification for the marks (rather like Boardgame Geek).

Dresden Dolls at the Roundhouse

2006-10-08T22:05:00.000+01:00

I was delighted to find that the Dresden Dolls gig at the Camden Roundhouse still had tickets available. I have wanted to go to the refurbished Roundhouse for a while and the Dolls seem like the band who will make the most of the venue.

Nouvelle Vague - Dance with Me Video

2006-10-08T21:43:00.000+01:00

I stumbled across this video on YouTube which is a mash of the Nouvelle Vague cover Dance With Me with the dance scene from Bande a Part. The two fit so seamlessly that I can only assume that the music was actually set to the timing of the film.

Regardless, it's a great scene and the music is fiendishly catchy. Having resisted the charms of French lounge music until now I gave in and purchased the album from Bleep.

The Mercury Prize 2006

2006-09-07T18:34:00.000+01:00

Why deny worthy winners? The Arctic Monkeys are clearly the act of the year and are the rightful winners of the paltry 20K prize.

However in terms of the performances it is hard to beat Thom Yorke's spellbinding spot at the piano. Editors also managed the best TV performance I've seen from them although that's not saying much and they looked like they had turned up dressed for football in the park rather than to perform at a major awards ceremony, make an effort damn it! The Guillemots did an interesting turn as did Hot Chip (although I'm not sure I understand the appeal of the latter). Sway seemed a lot more interesting than I had initially thought (I'm a bit wary of Grime in general).

Other than that nothing really stayed with me from the TV show. That said though it was a superb selection of artists and albums on the very diverse shortlist. We seem to be at a very fortunate time for music where there is no dominant paradigm and all manner of great stuff has a chance to bloom and connect with people. For all the moaning about duffers like James Blunt et al they can hardly be said to have popular music in the vice-like grip that BritPop or Stock, Aitken and Waterman did.

No Bra - Munchausen

2006-08-26T23:46:00.000+01:00

Apparently I've made the hideous mistake of not blogging about the absolutely phenomenal slice of satire that is the fantastic Munchausen. Hi, my name is Munchausen how are you?

There is no point in describing this song too much as it is work of complete genius and completely skewers every pretentious wanker you've ever met. Don't take my word for it click on the link and learn about the Anal Staircase and the hitherto uncommented on relationship between Germans and Ethiopians.

It's endlessly quotable and if you're not sobbing with laughter by the end go to KwikFit and see if they can't sort you out with a soul.

I actually went to see NoBra do an instore performance at Rough Trade. To be honest most of the people there were probably like me, enormously impressed by Munchausen and wanting to see if there was more in that vein. The performance seemed very awkward to me. Susanne seems excrutiating shy and has a near zero presence not to mention a weak voice. Performing topless was a bit of a surprise but just added to the general sense of awkwardness.

To be frank at the moment what NoBra is a one song novelty act with the remainder of the show consisting of a lot of rambling poetry being delivered like a brick to the head over the top of wandering electronic bleeping. It's not the worst thing I've seen (because I've seen Fennesz and Icarus live so you've got to be bloody bad to take that title) but it's nothing worth seeing at the moment.

Still that doesn't matter. Listen to Munchausen again, right now before Top Shop gives you syphilis again.

Schengen - The Beijing of Our Career

2006-08-26T23:30:00.000+01:00

Schengen are a little Bristol two piece and they have produced some good stuff and some not quite as good stuff (you can hear the best on their MySpace page). Now though (provided you can forgive the punning title) they have released an unreservedly excellent album through their cooperative label MakeMineMusic.

Some tracks such as City and Macdafun have been released before but this recording of the tracks are far superior (perhaps the quality of the engineering and mastering, perhaps experience, possibly both). If you have the Flow sampler give City a listen and then listen to the Beijing version to see the difference.

As for the new tracks it is all of a similar quality and has the warm analogue sounds that characterise the best Schengen stuff so far. The percussion is generally the weak spot in most Schengen tracks and while you're not going to be blown away by it this time either it is well-mixed and supports the strong melody lines that flow through the tracks rather than distracting from them.

The CD has fifteen tracks and there's no better introduction to the sound of Schengen. It is also at a phenomenally good price of £5 so if you fancy a prime slice of mellow electronica get over to MakeMineMusic and buy it right now.

The Pipettes and related

2006-08-26T22:54:00.000+01:00

Okay so I've picked up on the buzz about The Pipettes but I needed to have a good listen to their tracks and particularly watch the stage show on YouTube (check out Your Kisses are Wasted on Me) before I was convinced that they are most definitely a Good Thing.

I don't know what the deal is with retro girl groups at the moment but there are also the Puppini Sisters who are frankly just too arch for me. Musically The Pipettes aren't so much influenced by the past but have borrowed the Tardis and have stolen a whopping chunk of it. In this they have a lot in common with label mates Go! Team although the genre being plundered is different.

Researching the Pipettes lead to all kinds of mad stuff. Ex-member Julia is now in the Indelicates. I saw their eye-brow raising single cover in Rough Trade but it was so exploitative that I thought it was transgression wank. However their Myspace page yields some good stuff. Try the track Sixteen which is spot on.

In addition Gwenno Pippette had a former career as Welsh popstress and her own material is also quite good (she has a tremendous voice). Again MySpace is the place to be. Afterglow is phenomenally good.

MySpace for the Signed

2006-08-06T00:40:00.000+01:00

Until now I've thought of MySpace being more for unsigned or indie groups but increasingly established bands are joining as well.

Here's a few highlights:

Ladytron
Luke Haines (The Auteurs, check out the Lenny Valentino track that is currently available)
The Divine Comedy (including the new single)
Piano Magic (check out the new single Incurable)
The Manics (although the tracks are cut which is a bit cheap)
And finally new discoveries Dresden Dolls

Free Ladytron download

2006-08-06T00:35:00.000+01:00

Go to the Sideload site right now. Download the Ladytron track that is currently on the front page. It's off the Witching Hour album and, unbelievably for a freebie taster track, it is one of the best on the whole thing.

Port-Royal - Flares

2006-08-05T15:08:00.000+01:00

A swift turnaround sees Port-Royal's Flares arrive the day after I PayPal it. Record label service can't be faulted but what of the record?

Well I was expecting a minimalist, Arctic techno sound but while there is some of that sound we are more in the Piano Magic/Godspeed/Explosions in the Sky territory and that's no bad thing.

My immediate reaction is that I like it and, goddamn it, Amazon is just too smart in its recommendations. I like label mate Strafrænn Hákon and it correctly put two and two together to make the connection. Just to spite the machine I bought it direct.

Burial - South London Boroughs/Burial

2006-06-26T22:00:00.000+01:00

Urban music; in general something that I am happy to leave to the kids. Grime really left me cold so thank god that there is now something out of the London underground scene that I can take real pleasure in.

No less an authority than the Observer Music Magazine described Burial's music as being in the brand new genre 'Dubstep' and I have to say that having read it it is hard to disagree. There is the spacey echo-y Dub elements, the great big soundsystem bass and throughout all of the best tracks an urgent and insistent beat that never outstays its welcome and instead disappears too soon. My only concern is that this genre may consist of exactly one band albeit one that does a fantastic job of merging its component elements. If there's more I'm desperate to hear it but for now this is enough.

Burial is awesome, there is nothing else to say. Go to Bleep now, listen to South London Boroughs. It's dance music... but you can listen to it. It's dub but it's not stoned. It's club music but it is not boring. It sounds retro but it could only be happening right now. It's just amazing!

MP3 Locker

2006-05-21T23:31:00.000+01:00

I ended up having an MP3 Locker because I had bought some music at MP3 Tunes. At first I didn't understand the value of the service and just found it annoying (the script in the plugin cannot deal with big pages full of MP3 links for example).

But recently I've been reconsidering. I have been visiting some of the various John Peel style blogs that are either dedicated to the program and the music of the time or honouring the eclectic style of exploring new music. Most of these blogs have links to recordings of old radio shows, obscure 7" or band sessions. I don't want to download such eclectic material onto my PC, it would be a pain to handle and if its a duffer I don't want to lose it amongst all the other files I have.

MP3 Locker means I can download the file without having to store it on my machine. It also allows me to store a link that may be ephemeral. The locker also has a nice web based MP3 player and allows you to have a quick a blast of something while wandering the web.

It's probably not 100% there yet but it has been becoming increasing useful, to the point where I actually noticed that the SL icon was missing on my MacBook. For music grazers I would definitely recommend, it's the junk store of online music.

D'oh! Or Bleep and Track Numbers

2006-05-21T22:40:00.000+01:00

My music player, along with the iPod (I believe) ignores the track numbers in the tagging information on my music files and instead organises directories alphabetically by the filenames. It used to really bug me that once I downloaded something from Bleep I had to spend ten minutes manually rejigging the filenames to add the track number at the start. However it seems that I was just being a bit of an idiot and that if you login and go to your preferences you can select the filename format you want from three options.

Full marks to the Bleep crew for having the option, null pois for advertising it.

Primal Scream - Live at the Dundee Radio 1 Weekend

2006-05-14T00:07:00.000+01:00

I took the opportunity tonight to use the power of digital TV and the red button to watch Primal Scream perform at the Radio One Dundee event. I've seen Primal Scream live before and didn't really enjoy the experience. That's because for me they are very inconsistent in their output: there's the Rolling Stones Primal Scream, the Stoner Primal Scream and the screaming industrial Primal Scream. That's fantastic in terms of longevity of the band and variety in the albums but live it just results in a confusing experience. As soon as you've got into one style or, rather, as soon as you are enjoying one of the Primal Screams they seem to change to another.

What makes the experience worse is that the band do not seem to have found a way to mesh these styles together into a whole themselves but instead have to lurch from one to another.

It is easy to understand why people like the Scream but personally I think watching them on telly is a far better experience.

Classical Appropriation

2006-05-13T08:26:00.000+01:00

I went to see the last Sacred Selection last night (Black Metal). The church was local and the whole performance was less than two hours so it was an enjoyable and easy-going evening.

Out of the music chosen for the night I only really knew Cradle of Filth. So I was coming at it from a very neutral point of view. I was not exactly sure how the important rhythm section was going to be handled and, in fact for the most part, it wasn't due to the selection of the pieces. Something like Cradle of Filth is already orchestrally arranged anyway. A lot of Black Metal albums and tracks also start with keyboard intros based on Requiem style church music anyway so I guess what was more revealing was not the adaption but actually the way it revealed the influence church music has had on the subject matter.

Listening to the recital also made me think about how limited the range of organ music I have heard is. Like many people I most often find myself in a church due to a wedding. At such occasions the music is of necessity mostly in a major key and relatively unobtrusive. It was therefore nice to hear the instrument really displaying a wider range of tone, style and key.

It was also nice to see that the audience was not just die-hard metallers nor the typical ICA art show attendee. Both were present but the audience was broader. It was also a relief to see that the audience for the most part respected the church and its environment as well as the genre. There were a few idiots but there always are at anything that is open to the public.

The show also got me thinking about the way that classical music seems to be plundering popular music genres for ideas at the moment. Over the last year I have bought a couple of classical reinterpretations of dance music and electronica. Generally such crossover traffic is in the opposite direction with electronica borrowing liberally from classical music to provide samples as well as ideas.

Ambient Radio

2006-04-09T20:12:00.000+01:00

StumbleUpon has just exposed me to a brilliant German Ambient site called Spheric Lounge.
The music is pretty cool and the interface (while a bit pseudy) and stream quality are good.

Arctic Monkeys - Bigger than the Beatles

2006-02-04T21:32:00.000Z

So I've downloaded their new album from Bleep (Bleep has this new player technology that I'm giving a whirl in this post) and finally I hear what all the hype is about. At first I have to say that I'm not absolutely knocked out, although I admire the musicianship and poetry of the lyrics. Then today in HMV I'm listening to the Foo Fighters being pumped out on the store radio and I think: "My god they really are all that!". The Arctic Monkeys make music that isn't tired and isn't straight-forwardly derived from some other great band from twenty years ago.

That said the band seem to have the same problem I saw with Franz Ferdinand; since most of the songs are about chav-life through the prisim of a night on the town up north they are not going to have a lot to write about for their next album. But maybe that's not the point, maybe the point is that they've created an album of the moment and the place and it is a great album.

New albums ahoy

2006-01-24T21:18:00.000Z

There are two new albums I'm looking forward to this month. Schengen's new album, they're stuff on the Flow compilation was the best yet so it is going to be interesting to see what they have been up to. The other is a new Biosphere album, always welcome with me.

Bleep also have the Artic Monkeys (gotta give into the hype), the new album from Clearlake (they have had their moments in the past but what is this release like?) and an oldie from Mogwai, Rock Action which I don't have.

Roll on pay day (and release dates)...

Top Tens

2006-01-21T15:43:00.000Z

Since we are only into the New Year properly now I thought I would have a look at some lists of 2005 records. There's an element of music navel-gazing here but on the other hand I felt 2005 was quite a good year for music.

First let's have the Observer Music Monthly Top Ten

I am Bird Now - Antony and the Johnsons
Demon Days - Gorillaz
Illnoise - Sufjan Stevens
Chavez Ravine - Ry Cooder
Get Behind Me Satan - The White Stripes
You could have it so much better - Franz Ferdinand
Late Registration - Kanye West
Want Two - Rufus Wainwright
Le Fil - Camille
Funeral - Arcade Fire

Excellent, like all good muso lists there is plenty of obscure stuff but what surprised me was that there was a lot of stuff I had heard of but actually didn't like all that much.

Okay, now for the reader's list from the same magazine.

Arcade Fire
Franz Ferdinand
Gorillaz
Antony & The Johnsons
Kaiser Chiefs
Bloc Party
Magic Numbers
White Stripes
Coldplay
Madonna

This seems to me to be a more accurate list based on buzz, the charts and what people were actually talking about. Personally though I think there is something hideously wrong with people who rate either the Kaiser Chiefs or Bloc Party above the Editors. The only real WTF is the presence of Coldplay and Madonna. Coldplay had a good video, a good single and an album that was the aural equivalent of vanilla blancmange, it gave coffe-table music a reputation for being edgy.

Again there is some taste differences. The White Stripes are a good band and their album was probably equally good but I didn't like it, the Magic Numbers seem too retro to actually be interesting.

Right, finally we have my own list, which is actually a bit more than ten because I forget a few that were actually made this year so they had to be slotted in later.

Murcof - Remberanza
Rhythm & Sound - See-Mi-Yah
Editors - The Back Room
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Mogwai - Government Commissions
Gravenhurst - The Velvet Cell
Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
Autechre - Untilted
Antony & The Johnsons - I am a Bird Now
Ladytron - Witching Hour
Isolee - We are Monster
FourTet - Everything Ecstatic
Goldfrapp - Supernature

So, comments on my list. Well the ranking is based on how much I liked the album as a piece of music but really the sign of true value for me is how long I listen to an album after the initial appeal has worn off. With Teeth for example was really a bit of a placeholder record but you have to credit it with a number of grooves that kept me coming back.

The disappointments were FourTet and Goldfrapp, neither seemed too certain where they were going after a good previous album. In FourTet's case his mix compilation was actually better than his own release, not that has to hurt. The new BoC album was a bit uneven as well and while I liked the new Autechre it hasn't exactly been on continual play since its release.

The top four really deserve their rankings and I was disappointed to see no intersection at all on these (although Death Cab and Editors made the Top 100 in the Observer). See-Mi-Yah might pip Remberanza in terms of number of listens since release but Murcof managed a great job of moving his sound on while retaining its essential qualities (in case you haven't heard it: Electronica in a fusion with Contemporary Classical). The same was true of Death Cab for Cutie, the melodies, lyrical keystones and style from previous albums were all present but the product as a whole was buffed and styled to perfection. The opening two tracks are an example of pure pop songs that don't insult the listener.

Editors were a revelation for me this year, seeming to pick up the musical threads where Joy Division left off (only with a lighter tone to the lyrics). Their only deficiencies are a lacklustre drummer in the studio and vocalist live. Other than this they have a powerful indie rock sound that is incredibly slick for a debut.

They've had a lot of stick for their obvious roots in The Cure, Joy Division and lesserly The Smiths but I don't buy it. Sure they have their roots in these bands but they do not sound like any one of them, they are their own thing. As for being some kind of retro indie nostalgia piece... well to me the Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party sound like the poor man's Jam tarted up for the disco. For me the Editors didn't just create a pastiche they reinvented.

Gravenhurst Live at the Islington Academy

2005-12-15T18:35:00.000Z

First time at the Islington Academy and it is actually a really nice venue, the sort of small, informal place that I really like to see bands in.

It is a three-slot bill put on by Tiscali who are meant to be putting a video of the show online but it doesn't seem to be there right now. In fact currently there is a video of my evil celebrity stalker Patrick Duff(y). Whatever you do don't encourage him: don't listen to his music or watch his videos. I think he will do me harm in the end.

Anyway Gravenhurst did a fantastic show that had the emphasis on their new "power trio" material (the rockier stuff from the Velvet Cell). The performance was great and I really enjoyed it. However during the quieter folky numbers all you could hear was people yakking, completely oblivious to the show. I thought it was rude but then I also realise that for a lot of Londoners gigs are essentially places where you go with your friends to score drugs. These people probably consider any band who might try to perform a distraction from the main business of the day.

That side of things was depressing and it reminded of the huge difference between seeing Underworld in Newport and the Brixton Academy. Newport Leisure Centre actually had a great atmosphere because people really wanted to be there, really wanted to the see the band and really wanted to have a good night. At Brixton I think you could have shoved a naked monkey on stage as long as he was dealing speed and Ecstasy.

So after the set I went up to the stage where Nick Talbot (the main man in the band) was packing up his gear and told him what a good show the band had done. First time I have had both the desire and opportunity to do so. I am glad I did because it was a great show but Nick seemed disappointed by the relatively hostile reception he had received.

Gravenhurst were followed by Morning Runner. Morning Runner are probably going to be huge. For a start they have at least one roadie for every member and they are already entitled to have fresh towels brought on stage before they play.

They also have an extremely handsome singer who has a touch of feminine vulnerability (and for all I know a 10" cock), a powerful rock sound and songs with choruses and everything. And teenage girls love them or rather they love their frontman and that's good enough for rock and roll.

We left mid-set and I really felt a Coldplay moment. I saw Coldplay at Bristol's Louisana not long before their management cut Chris's whitefro and they released Yellow. Coldplay were not very good but if I had been more aware I would have realised that they were going to be big. It's the same with Morning Runner, they have all the trappings of a band making it big but they are boring and formulaic.

Thank heavens for Gravenhurst then.

Diatonis

2005-10-12T21:54:00.000+01:00

In an interesting example of targeted marketing CD Baby sent me an email saying that American ambient artist Diatonis has a new album out. So I duly forked the cash and got myself a copy. Proof that people who bought X really do buy Y. Pretty easy with the same artist though.

I am currently really enjoying Diatonis's Convolving Universe and Highway 1, the new album, doesn't feel in the same league. On the other hand it covers a very different vibe. I need to listen a bit more before passing judgement.

Oh except to say that Ambient Life and Convolving Universe are excellent and you should buy them right now from MP3 Tunes right now!

The Mercury Prize

2005-10-12T21:39:00.000+01:00

Well I'm never known for my timeliness am I? The Mercury Music Prize has a few interesting contenders this year, neither of which were the Kaiser Chiefs or Bloc Party. Maximo Park were more interesting that I had previously thought and the folk entry Seth Lakeman actually seemed to be more than a token offering. Similarly The Magic Numbers were actually okay which is better than most bands Noel Gallagher tip.

KT Tunstall gave a great live performance but after checking out her album on iTunes I can't decide whether she is better live or whether she just went with her strongest material. Either way the recorded album is disappointing.

Winner Antony and the Johnsons gave a fantastic performance and I ended up buying the CD. I had seen it recommended before but had no idea what was on it. The lead song is brilliant and the rest of the album is good but not in the same league. Interestingly it is a very dark album with the spectre of death hanging over each track.

The real revelation was The Go! Team who just exploded on the TV screen and were simply more fun and far more inventive than anyone else performing (MIA is excellent but she's not as brilliant as she thinks or wants the public to think). Bleep had the album not too long after the awards so it was duly downloaded. The album is definitely harder listening than the live performance (and a lot of the tracks seem destined for re-recording and re-mastering I believe). However that same energetic invention was all present and correct. The easy comparision is with The Avalanches but instead of just pure 70's and charity store sampling there is a lot more live playing in the mix. Playing a riff or re-recording a rap allows for a different feel to the track. It may be retro but it isn't boring.

Y'Dig!?

2005-08-14T17:27:00.000+01:00

I recently saw the film Dig! at the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead (great place, screen 2 has, well, sofas instead of seats; I can't think of anywhere else I'd want to watch a film).

The film covers the story of two bands: The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. You've probably heard of the former but you're pretty lucky if you've ever heard of the latter (I knew they were a good choice if you want to be hip but not more than that).

Starting out as new bands at roughly the same time the Warhols are stars while Brian Jonestown Massacre ended up in heroin-addled obscurity.

The film isn't an unbiased view of rock bands as it seems to conciously or unconciously subscribe to the tradition view of rock music as being made up of self-abusive genius musicians bent on self-destruction. The more fucked up you are the better music you'll make.

In this view of rock the Dandy Warhols are of course dirty corporate sell-outs who talk about a lifestyle they watch but don't participate in. Now the Dandies (most famous for a track that, no matter how good it is, was popularised by a mobile phone advert) probably are dirty sell-outs but the thing that struck me about the film is how tired the traditional rock narrative is.

Realistically does anyone believe that good music is something other than a productive collaboration? If music is all about the heroic individual genius how come there are so many musicians that fail to have solo careers that match the output of their previous band partnerships?

The real reason the Dandies are more famous than the Jonestown Massacre is simply that they have managed to produce progressively better tunes as a unit. Numerous lineup changes results in an effectual reset of musical progress as far as I can tell from the evidence of this film. The Jonestown Massacre continue to push a Sixties retro-revivalist vibe that actually sounds more tired at the end of the film than when they started.

The film gives plenty of food for thought and is actually pretty cool and funny most of the time which puts the bitterness of success and failure into a stronger contrast. I'd recommend getting a hold of a copy on DVD if you can, it's entertaining and never lags.

iTunes favourites

2005-08-14T17:01:00.000+01:00

iTunes with jHymn is useless to me but with it, it is becoming a favourite stop for musical "nibbles".

Recent tracks I just can't seem to stop listening to are:

Death Disco - PIL. Fantastic white dub with an intense bassline
Marian - Sisters of Mercy. I can't quite understand the appeal but I think it is basically that this track is a kind of archetypal Goth rock sound that completely sums and eptiomises the genre. It gloomy and great.
Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz. Like previous hit Clint Eastwood the Gorillaz may not have an album of hit but every now and then they have a killer pop tune that you just cannot help but like.
WFL (Think about the Future Mix), Hallelujah (Club Mix) - Happy Mondays. These two mixes are the indie rock-dancefloor crossover of the 90s distilled into quarter of an hour. Both are total distinctive sounds, whose riffs take seconds to recognise and a blind hippo could dance to them without fear.

Live: Ladytron and SnapAnt at the ICA

2005-06-13T00:23:00.000+01:00

Went to see Ladytron at the ICA last week. It's been a while since anything was heard from them but they apparantly have a new album and record deal so it's off on tour. The sound is kind of like a fusion of Kraftwerk, The Human League and Moloko. On record it is very electropop with Kraftwerk-like repeated phrases instead of lyrics.

Like Moloko though everything is different on stage with a live rhythm section providing a groove and an intensity that is different to the studio sound. The whole experience was excellent with music for head and feet. See here for pictures from the band's forum.

I've never heard of SnapAnt before (SnapAnt is a guy by the way and accompanied on stage by four other musicians) but despite scepticism they won me over as they seemed to have a sense of humour about what they were doing and also did a nice line in four-piece harmonies.

This was my first gig at the ICA and I have to say it was a nice space with decent acoustics. Interestingly it was also sold out but still very spacious which suggests that they sell the tickets based on the number the venue should have rather than the fact that there is still space to ram people in. The ICA bar is also great with cheap drinks and excellent food. I'd definitely return.

FLAC

2005-04-24T22:42:00.000+01:00

FLAC is a lossless audio format that Bleep is offering Autechre's back catalogue on. The quality is meant to be top-notch but to be honest I think I don't have the machinery to take advantage of the additional quality. MP3/Ogg is fine for me.

However is appearance does open up the interesting possibility of distributing copies of the original master recording without ever having to mix for CD or any physical format. At the moment it is difficult to distribute high-quality audio because the files are so much bigger and there is, to be frank, little audiable difference between them and the much smaller lower quality files.

As the technology changes though there is the exciting possibility that an artist might be able to send a track straight out of their final mix and straight to the audience with no compromise required because of a physical media.

Leaf Records

2005-04-24T22:36:00.000+01:00

Leaf's back catalogue is now on iTunes. On the one hand this is good news as Leaf is a good label with many fine artists. On the other though iTunes does have a lot more DRM that some of the other sites, particularly Bleep. Also you'd need a hymn and a prayer to get the files to work with a non-iPod player.

Various Artists: The Flow compilation

2005-04-24T22:29:00.000+01:00

The Flow compilation from the Make Mine Music label (see the sidebar for the website) is an excellent collection that is extraordinarily generous and varied. It is also only £8 which is silly money.

There's a lot of good pieces on the CD and you can now preview three of the tracks at the Make Mine Music website including Schengen's City which is one of the highlight tracks. I was a bit surprised to not see something from July Skies as part of the preview as their contributions are excellent. I'm going to write about their album at some point in the future but for now I would say that it is worth getting a hold of a copy if you like atmospheric, melodic electronica.

Autechre: Untilted

2005-04-24T20:34:00.000+01:00

Listening to any new Autechre album is for me a rather tentative process. I'm not a huge fan of their more hardcore sound. Granz Graf for example doesn't make sense to me as music, as a DVD I can just about see it, otherwise no.

However a quick preview at Bleep and I was surprised to see that as with the last album Draft 7'30 (I think that's the title) there are some concessions towards, say, melody. The first track is actually really engaging and reminds you why Autechre can be so great. It immediately persuaded me that I had to download the whole thing.

Overall I think Untilted is a great release but as I tend to have followed the Autechre releases almost religiously it is hard to tell whether the music is any good or simply becoming less-bloody mindedly abstract and more accessible. One thing I'm pretty confident of saying is that a minute or two of most of these album tracks would actually form the basis of an entire track for lesser artists. I would also say that this release confirms for me that in terms of the way electronic music is constructed and structured Autechre are the masters. No-one is quite as inventive or intricate in their designs, it's breath-taking. There's a continual sense of progression and change while every track has a sense of consistency. Technically too their engineering is excellent, sometimes Autechre's music sounds so effortless or natural it is easy to forget how densely layered the tracks can be. Sometimes when I really listen to the tracks I can't believe how they can have four or five motifs chattering away simultaneously without it sounding like pure chaos.

All of that on the record I do have to say though the repetitive treble hits and sharp snare hits do get a bit samey. Yes it's impressive that they can do so much with them instead of more conventional rhythm sounds but I don't need to hear it done again (or at least I only need to hear it once or twice and album).

Mogwai: Government Commissions

2005-04-24T20:29:00.000+01:00

This is a brilliant album (a compilation of the Scottish post-rockers BBC Sessions) that I have been listening to again and again. I've never seen Mogwai live so I've had to rely on the BBC to hear anything outside their album sound. There's not a huge difference between the studio recordings and some of the stuff here except that of course familiarity and practice tends to make the songs sound slicker.

Perhaps the major difference is that almost every track here sounds more powerful than the studio albums. Regardless, it's a superb introduction to Mogwai if you aren't already a fan and a great retrospective if you are.

MP3 Players

2005-04-24T20:16:00.000+01:00

Finding a decent MP3 player is actually a lot harder than it seems. Sure there is a lot of choice but partly that's the problem, there's hundreds of different players and some are "integrated media centers" by which they mean they can control your TV, display a low-resolution lightshow when listening to music, lookup the cover art for the album you're listening to but more often than not crash.

I needed a player that was simple, allowed MP3's to be mixed with Ogg files, was preferably open source and didn't get too hung up on playlists. It also had to be pretty stable. Zinf has been a favourite since wayback when but it can be a pain to switch between music based on the file labels. It is also not being developed in Windows any more. After that came wxMusik which is pretty good but is very unstable (it crashes if you shutdown Windows without exiting the app). The File Tag editing is particularly good I feel.

I have finally settled on MusikCube, very stable, strong codec support and Tag editing, minimal interface (influenced by iTunes but not, for example, obsessed with the concept of playlists). It also claims to be able to play CDs (unlike most file players). So far I'm very impressed.

Gravenhurst: Flashlight Sessions

2005-04-17T17:29:00.000+01:00

In case you hadn't noticed there's a major folk revival going on (if you hadn't then just take my word for it, it's all Bonny Prince Billy's fault for being brilliant). So far this has mostly been American's rediscovering their folk music traditions (and not getting them confused with fucking Country music). Gravenhurst though is an offering from this side of the Atlantic and is a brilliant album.

Earnest, soulful lyrics backed by minimal accompaniment equals an emotionally engaging and beautiful album. Soundwise you're not a million miles away from the recent Piano Magic albums but a lot more stripped down and personal.

You can buy and preview it on Bleep so stop wasting time and do it now. Do consider buying the CD though as the digipack is quite nice, similar to Godspeeds'.

Rough Trade Counter Culture 2004

2005-04-17T17:21:00.000+01:00

A huge compilation (2 CDs) that allows you see what's cool with your fellow record store nerds. I don't think I need to say that this is a great compilation and still the best guide to good indie music today.

The obvious standout track is Cornershop's Topknot, it's just excellent and a surprising inclusion as it was a decent hit single. Other tracks that are standing out for me at the moment are Pony Up!'s "I heard you got action" which is really fun grrl pop. Coil's "Sex with Sun-Ra" is equally quirky and fun with a great squirmy melody line.

I already liked Cobra Killer who do a combination of electroclash and 60's American girl groups in a definitely Teutonic fashion. But if you needed pursuading of their virtues then they have a decent track on the compilation called "L.A. Shaker".

Retro: Illcommunication by The Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine

2005-04-17T17:10:00.000+01:00

Two albums from the early Nineties when I was a student. Tracks from both albums were almost impossible to avoid then but apart from rock clubs you don't hear them so much now. It doesn't help that after Illcommunication the Beastie Boys needed G. Bush Jr. to get them back on track.

At first listen Illcommunication is the better listen, putting on a track or two it is easy to end up listening to the whole album. Rage Against the Machine on the other hand feels more like a singles album, all the hit singles are immediately likeable and time hasn't diminshed their raw power, rage and energy. Listening to the album though there is a definite comparision with the Beastie Boys more inventive and humourous musical invention. There's no denying RATM technical ability but they often fall back on the same riffs and ideas (I was also surprised to find out how much they owed to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers). Illcommunication still sounds fresh and surprising.

As an album of political polemic though RATM is still a raw slice of anger and a strong contrast to the stylish and slick BB production.

Both albums though have easily lasted the decade though and remain essential listening.

The Dears - No Cities Left

2005-04-17T17:02:00.000+01:00

I suspect that The Dears are about to be huge any second now but for the moment they don't have the profile I think they should have. I first heard them on BBC Radio 6 and after a while Rough Trade in Neal's Yard admitted they did have a CD copy of the album.

The Dears sound like Oasis would sound if they were actually the best band in the world. It is big, big indie rock with an orchestral sweep. Gloriously uplifting and with lyrics that are neither doggerel nor self-involved.

To my ears they sound a bit like Gene musically and kind of like the Tindersticks lyrically. Like Radiohead they are promoting themselves with a few judiciously released MP3 versions of their tracks. I got mine from Salon but if you are file-sharing type of person have a look for "We Can Have It".

There's more to say about The Dears but I need to sort it out in my head first.

Bola: GNAYSE - The final verdict

2005-04-17T16:55:00.000+01:00

I've been listening to the album for a bit and to be honest I haven't enjoyed it as much as the previous ones. It is hard to tell because technically I can tell that this is actually better. The production is just slicker all round.

My current thinking is that perhaps the improvement is actually the problem. The organic analogue sounds are now really lush and beautiful but the synthetic elements now sound too harsh. The two don't really combine in the way they did on the earlier albums. Sometimes it feels as if there are two separate tracks that are simply playing at the same time.

Despite that I still have to say that Bola are head and shoulders above most electronica. Gatyse is maybe not their best but it's still the most engaging electronica album I've heard recently.

Queen: Jazz

2005-03-30T23:20:00.000+01:00

I loved this album as a teenager so I had no problem paying a fiver for the CD in Fopp. Except, except, rose-tinted glasses and all that...

Some tracks are still excellent dirty blues/funk/hard rock. Let Me Entertain You, Dead on Time, Fun It and in particular More of that Jazz all rock pretty hard. Fat Bottom Girls? It's not holding on to its nostalgic appeal just yet.

Interestingly the highlights are split fairly equally between the members but Taylor definitely was the coolest of the bunch. The album was originally put out in 1978 which is odd because I remember it sounding quite edgy in the Eighties but it's really quite tame compared to something really leftfield like Blondie's Rapture. Listening to it now the most interesting thing going on is the way they manage to marry some pretty different styles into the earlier rock style of their first couple of albums.

Oh, also features the most ballless recording of a thunderclap evar.

Last Harbour: Hold Fast, Pioneer

2005-03-24T23:06:00.000Z

Sounds vocally like the Tindersticks crossed with Nick Cave but musically it's an interesting intersection between the Godspeed orchestral sound and the Bonny Prince Billy school of American folk revival.

A bit too wierd to comment on the moment.

Bola: GNAYSE Here

2005-02-05T18:46:00.000Z

I ordered the latest Bola album from Skam last weekend and it turned up today. The packaging is just beautiful and the photomontage is strange and engaging. Can't wait to give it a spin, in the meantime I am converting yet more albums to OGG so they can go on the iRiver.