Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Talking like a pirate is something I stopped doing after the novelty wore off in the twilight of my teenage years. Or perhaps it was because I liked the first Pirates of the Caribbean film and the others were poor. There's still a pirate-shaped gap in my life though and to day I'm going to fill it with Penfold Gate . Penfold Gate - Pirates Emerging from a rollicking rocky intro is a chorus [...]
Stuff that falls into place beats carefully contrived hands down. My favourite discovery of 2009, Django Django has been bubbling away on the stove for a while now. I met up with Vinnie (vocals / guitar) a few weeks back and we went to a pub quiz in Hackney. Whilst assisting my inept friends to a totally undeserved fourth place, he filled me in on the Django Django story. Django Django - Happy Families Vinnie met Dave [...]
I can't decide which of these magical magical reworks from Pogo is the daddy. He condenses childlike awe that the kid in you felt watching these films. It would start to jade after the twenty eight spin of the tape though. I so wanted to be Rufio. Pogo showcases startling audio-visual ability. Just startling. I'm off to Bestival. Pogo - Alice
It starts with a guitar line that screams try harder or she'll be dead at the scene. Dreams then scattered as atmosphere comes wading in full widescreen panaromic garb. Hiding behind the casio curtains are MASKS . Throbbingly intense yet playful, this careers off at canter into the ether. MASKS - Forever Dancing Their myspace caught my eye over at FUCKING DANCE . I Covered Myself in Furs has gorgeous Neu vibes. They love [...]
Analogies are great. They are great because they allow me to describe music like this gorgeous rendez-vous between Séverin and Breakbot. This collabo is like two kids that are best friends until the age of 10 when Séverin broke Breakbot's Gameboy in a fit of pique. Breakbot blatantly had the higher score on Tetris. The Edge of A Sunday talks about those times when they would have sleepovers and play Golden Axe until it got real late. Like ten pm in the evening. Total total sugar rush. Séverin - The Edge of a [...]
photo: cookiesound Rainbow Arabia have been blinking on the radar screen for quite a while. They don't so much blink as illuminate via their sweet sweet spaceage nothings set to pulsing Africana rhythms that sashay and dance from can to can. Left to right leaving me unsteady, but holding on somehow. There is a siren quality to this, it really enchants. Going on holiday to Congo is the Lille native Myd . My oh my is he one to [...]
I really hope when I go to the Macbeth on Thursday for the next installment of One's to Watch, I don't bump into a two torsoed man-lady like the above picture. Then again, it is Shoreditch. No MP3s today. What I hope to find is a nice rum and ginger and after that a band called The Antlers . Home for them is the delightful stable of Frenchkiss Records. They are the result of Manhattan isolation and Brooklyn reemergence. I want to make a joke about not having had a good cocktail in ages but it won't [...]
The Lexington was the rendez-vous point for a multitude of fortuitous competition winners (thanks to Christel at IM // UR ), keen Rough Trade pre-orderer, rockfeedback employees and bloggers as HEALTH brought their album tour for In Color to a close with this 'secret' gig. Shiny silver tickets were distributed at presumably lavish expense. Despite such grandeur, the venue was disappointingly half-full, meaning that a great deal of 'winners' idly cast off their tickets as worthless; value only possible when cold coin swaps hands maybe. Perhaps there just weren't that many people aware of what was [...]
Those in Shoreditch tonight would be wise to head down The Gramaphone and lose their shit to Hyph Mngo. I'd punch the air if I was there. ///more dates on myspace.
Drop the needle and it comes sauntering back. Back onto the telly set in your front room as you dance around crushed tinnies, swapshopping clothes as you prepare for the soirée. Over the top moves in sweaty dry ice glazed dancefloors. The stop-start dancing gearing up We Are Not The Same in the Roxy that exploded into perspiration pirouhettes.The thought of a moonlighting hangover burning a burbling hole in your guts swiftly banished as you remember how you danced at the Bodega, threw shapes in the Guardian Lounge, got down and dirty at the Barfly, got your groove [...]
Whereas Strangling Good Guys was the dragging yourself off the pillow and hurling yourself headlong into the shower to wash away the hungover remnants of yesterday, Candy Girl is a confident brush past all the losers in the queue straight to the front of the queue for the waltzer. I'll be lost in merrymaking at Bestival when they take the stage at The Lexington for their single launch, dreaming of a youth misspent at funfairs. Trailer Trash Tracys - Candy Girl (demo) [...]
Little Comets are the rarity: an intelligent indie band. So says the press release. As the degradation of the term 'indie' continues to gather further momentum with rat-faced pricks crying out to 'be somebody'', is the idea of an intelligent indie band now a contradiction in terms? If The Enemy / Scouting for Girls / The Twang etc are seen as 'indie', why would anybody intelligent want to associate themselves with the now defunct term anyway? It's been the victim of a bastard generalization. I think 'indie' now means music with guitars, which is vague. I wouldn't [...]
Introducing Francois-Charles Domergue. Otherwise known as Geste . Our paths crossed in Paris where we would often encounter each other, completement bourréd off our tits. The most amusing encounter was when he turned up to my houseparty pretty in pink drag, it spun me out. We bonded over prostate cancer; having to translate medical interviews on the subject. Do not look up the word gynecomastia. Besides being a good laugh, FC spends a lot of time in his room getting lean and churning out beats on his antique laptop. He released an EP on Berlin based [...]
I was drawn in by the NME tagline - 'IO' is a party record even snobs can enjoy.' Finally, after all this time I've been waiting for a party record I can enjoy along with all my snob friends. Recently parties have ranged from abject to the dire because the party records have just been a bit too umm obvious. The thought that circles round my mind is when the fuck will DANGER enleve le doigt de son cul and make the best party record ever. Soon selon a son myspace. Seriously though, Rival Consoles deserves your attention [...]
This came charging down the wires courtesy of my man Tiger who you'll find manning the helm at demi & denzel . Taken from CDR album Jamz and Jemz, this lo-fi goodness from Javelin feels like sliding down the bannisters on Saturday mornings before jumping up and down on the couch waiting for Sharkey and George to start. It has a knowing childlike glee that can only come from too much Ribena and cheap synthesizers. Javelin - Vibrationz ///www.dollarbinsofthefuture.c om
I'm really not of the opinion that any blogger should take themselves that seriously. The above album was my soundtrack to being fourteen until my sister borrowed it and lost it. Recently, my cravings for early noughties UK Garage became too strong for me to resist and I leapt at the chance to revisit my youth on Amazon Marketplace. Opening the package and seeing that gold wrapper was practically a madeleine moment. Listening to it makes me feel sick and giddy, kinda how the year 2k was. So before summer fucks off for another [...]
AU in series Ears to the Ground from Dig For Fire on Vimeo . AU 's ability is to keep the embers glowing long after the fire went out. Rejuvenated they clasp hands and form a circle swaying slowly round and round. Lull is the default setting for the larger part of last album, Verbs , which led me to conjure on repeat the incessant hurricane of light that is RR vs. D. Galloping back into town this autumn with [...]
photo: UGL I'll be the airline. You'll be the chewing gum. A visceral journey from Entrepreneurs. Over in a blink of an eye, loaded with panoramic menace. Gare du Nord only made me feel like that when I kept missing the fucking trains. Entrepreneurs - Gare du Nord ///download more of Entrepreneurs crooked hiphop glory here. ///interview here
photo: Nickster 2000 Lend Bibio your ears and find yourself cut-and-pasted into a world where crushed glass rain brushes your hair and makes you tingle from feet to head. Pegging it from the hayfield and jumping head first into your ride, gleamingly fresh from the garage. The country air pervades the stereo and the tape is still playing despite the absence of a cassette. Vroooomvrooom back into the city, now please. Bibio - S'vive Seriously [...]
introducing Luke. The only gigs I go to these days are either half-filled with aged hipsters placidly sipping Corona (e.g. Growing) or packed-out with aged hipsters amiably dancing in whatever way they can (e.g. Animal Collective). Field Day would be much the same. Underage – next day, same field – looked to be a rather different affair despite sharing some of the bands. To my disappointment Video Nasties got cancelled. It was something to do with timing; not just because they're totally underrated. Good Shoes played to what happened [...]
shattered satellite
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
