Blog: Loft And Lost

Aren't You An Old One Now

Feb 2, 4:24pm Loft And Lost
Cocteau Twins - [Brixton 1982] Part 1/2 // Alas Dies Laughing + Wax And Wane
Before the Cocteau Twins became the band you, I, and anyone with any musical taste whatsoever 1 adores with their still-beating bloodthumping heart, there was a darker, stranger version. Before all the delicate chirruping, the apparently nonsense lyrics 2 , those chiming, echo-drenched arpeggios, that whole sonic cathedrals of sound 3 thing. Before Blue Bell Knoll, Treasure, Heaven Or Las Vegas, all those stunning EP's (the Love's Easy Tears , in its CD form, must rank as one of the finest 14 minutes of music anywhere, ever), came Garlands. A jagged, fraught, mechanised, angry, [...]
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Artist:Cocteau Twins
Title:Wax And Wane
Link Text:Wax And Wane by Cocteau Twins
File Name:02-wax-and-wane.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Genre:Indie Rock
Year:1982

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Feb 2, 4:22pm Loft And Lost
You may note that I've updated the look. Thought the site needed a bit of a wash and brush up (with Liberation Theology). Let me know if you like it, or don't like it. Ta. Filed under: News
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RIP Etta James

Jan 20, 6:40pm Loft And Lost
The first Etta James song I remember hearing was "Tell Mama", on Soul Jazz's marvellous "Chicago Soul" compilation. I remember being dumbstruck by the force of her voice; how she could somehow combine being angry, pleading, triumphant, playful, lustful, and yearning, all within the space of a single song. Or sometimes even a single line of a song. Frankly, I was hooked. Etta James songs have featured on whatever iWhatsit device I've had in the past ten years, waiting for that moment to get transported to a whole new world. To me, she was the [...]
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Artist:Etta James
Title:Tell Mama
Link Text:Tell Mama by Etta James
File Name:2-15-tell-mama.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps
Genre:Soul
Year:1968

New Year New Music Four – Griggleschpot

Jan 19, 6:33pm Loft And Lost
New Year New Music Four – Griggleschpot As I mentioned the other day, I get lots of emails . I don't listen to many, sadly, and sometimes it takes something unusual to get noticed. Calling yourself "Griggleschpot" might normally make me wince and move on, but something in the brevity and politeness of the email made me wander over to the Soundcloud link. And waiting there was some quite lovely, if slightly ominous electronica, in the vein of early Aphex Twin, or Boards Of Canada. And that is really all I can say. Mr or Mrs or Ms or [...]
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Artist:griggleschpot
Title:Dear, Luft
File Name:SoundCloud
Artist:griggleschpot
Title:Eyedroxide
File Name:SoundCloud

New Year New Music Three – Guided By Voices

Jan 17, 5:40pm Loft And Lost
New Year New Music Three – Guided By Voices Guided By Voices are one of those bands that I only know through reputation and a Best-Of, 2003's "Human Amusements at Hourly Rates". The problem with such a prolific band is that there's so much material you just don't know where to start, even when some of the songs on the best-of have clawed their way into your inner ear and have taken residence with such tenacity that only a post-mortem, or possibly the final decay of the skull, will remove them. I'm looking at you, "My Kind Of Soldier", don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking [...]
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Artist:Guided By Voices
Title:The Unsinkable Fats Domino
Link Text:The Unsinkable Fats Domino by Guided By Voices
File Name:the-unsinkable-fats-domino.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Genre:Alternative
Year:2011

New Year New Music Part Two – Town Hall

Jan 14, 9:37am Loft And Lost
New Year New Music Part Two – Town Hall As a music blogger, even one on the dusty edges of the blogosphere 1 , you have to get used to getting a lot of PR mails. And I mean lots. I get around 30 a day, and I know many bloggers who get up to ten times that. Picking music you might want to listen to can be a tough affair, especially when many of the emails are just basic mass-mailings, with no thought at all about what kind of music you clearly like. No, I am not interested in a mash-up of Lady Gaga [...]
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Artist:TownHall
Title:Alright
File Name:SoundCloud
Genre:Experimental Folk
Artist:TownHall
Title:Just Watching My Breath
File Name:SoundCloud
Genre:Experimental Folk

New Year New Music Part One – Craig Finn

Jan 13, 9:02am Loft And Lost
So here we are, on the 13th day of the New Year, and my writer's block that has been dogging me since last year has managed to get itself distracted for long enough for me to get my fingers on a keyboard and start writing some goddamn posts. Every year, I've spent January hunting through emails, blog posts, Soundcloud streams and the like to find the most exciting, most thrilling, most stunning new bands and songs, for your delectation. Previous finds, such as Freelance Whales and Cotton Jones , have ended up being albums of [...]
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Artist:Vagrant Records
Title:Craig Finn - New Friend Jesus
File Name:SoundCloud
Genre:Indie Rock
Year:2012

Albums, Songs, Gigs 2011 – Part Three

Dec 23, 2011, 6:45pm Loft And Lost
Ron Sexsmith - "Get in Line"
Here's the third (and final, you'll be pleased to hear) round up of the year's music. Or at least the year's music that I could give a toss about. Parts One and Two here and here . The Albums You Wish The Artist Would Re-Record As A Solo Acoustic Album Ron Sexsmith – Long Player Late Bloomer When I saw Ron Sexsmith perform "Get In Line" on Later…. I was smitten. Not with his looks, of course (he's hardly Feist, [...]
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Artist:Iron and Wine
Title:Tree By the River
File Name:SoundCloud
Genre:indie rock, folk
Artist:Yo La Tengo
Title:Let's Save Tony Orlando's House
File Name:SoundCloud

Albums 2011 – Part Two

Dec 23, 2011, 6:40pm Loft And Lost
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bats In The Attic (Unravelled)
Here's Part Two of my list of my favourite things from 2011. And by things, I mean albums, songs, and gigs, as opposed to huge steaming piles of crystal meth. (Disclaimer: I do not have anything to do with huge steaming piles of crystal meth. It's all meow meow round here, you know) Part One is over here . The Others Elbow – Build A Rocket, Boys! The Seldom Seen Kid was always going to be a hard act [...]
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Artist:Brian Friesen
Title:02 I Might
File Name:SoundCloud
Artist:Elbow
Title:Lippy Kids
File Name:SoundCloud
Artist:King Creosote & Jon Hopkins
Title:John Taylor's Month Away
File Name:SoundCloud
Artist:The Antlers
Title:I Don't Want Love
File Name:SoundCloud

Albums 2011 – Part One

Dec 23, 2011, 6:14pm Loft And Lost
Sam Amidon - Saro
Well, it's been one of those years. For one reason or another, my record searching out ability, and time or inclination to sit down and write something about records, has been seriously curtailed this year. And so it seems appropriate that the first two records in my list weren't even released this year. So it goes. The Obligatory Album From Last Year That I Only Heard This Year Cotton Jones - Tall Hours In The Glowstream Tipped off by the marvellous Song, [...]
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Artist:Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Title:Quail & Dumplings
Link Text:Quail And Dumplings by Bonnie Prince Billy
File Name:bonnie_prince_billy-quail_and_ dumplings.mp3
Genre:Folk
Year:2011
Artist:Low
Title:Try to Sleep
Link Text:Try To Sleep by Low
File Name:low-try-to-sleep.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Genre:Indie
Year:2011
Artist:The Psychic Paramount
Title:DDB
File Name:SoundCloud
Genre:Rock / Experimental
Year:2011

None More….errrr…Flow ery

Dec 8, 2011, 9:11am Loft And Lost
Mark Lanegan's back. Back with his first solo record since 2003, if you can believe that, given how astonishingly prolific he's been in the last ten years, what with QOTSA, Soulsavers, Gutter Twins , that Isobel Campbell business, and more guest spots than you can shake a stick at. Through all that he's maintained a grumpy integrity and devotion to the cause of growling ominously that is second to none. Seriously, could anyone else these days release a record called "Blues Funeral" and have the lead song titled "The Gravedigger's Song" and still expect people to [...]
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What Else Could It Be?

Nov 30, 2011, 2:27pm Loft And Lost
Excuses, excuses. This time it was chopping nearly half off the top of my middle finger in an unguarded moment chopping a carrot. Thankfully, there was not half as much damage as first appeared, and a couple of weeks on all I have to show is a rosy patch of shiny skin about a centimetre long. No photos, this time. Which leaves me with a few articles piled up, resting in the fertile compost of my brain, awaiting my now-fixed and eager fingers to splurge them onto the screen. Oh, lucky you. And [...]
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Artist:Lambchop
Title:If Not I'll Just Die
Link Text:If Not I’ll Just Die by Lambchop
File Name:01-lambchop-mr-m-if-not-ill-ju st-die.mp3
Genre:Alternative
Year:2012

Don't Make Me Blue

Nov 15, 2011, 9:30am Loft And Lost
Roy Orbison - Blue Bayou
The last post's subject title was, for those of you not paying attention, a reference to an old, old song by one of rock'n'roll's finest voices. Scratch that. The finest voice. You can line up your Robert Plants, your Jeff or Tim Buckleys, your Feists, your Mark Lanegans all you like, none of them can come close to the sheer futile majesty of Roy Orbison. He had, as someone once memorably put it, the voice of an angel falling backward out of a window. And the songs, once he'd got through attempts at shoehorning [...]
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Artist:Roy Orbison
Title:Lana
Link Text:Lana by Roy Orbison
File Name:lana.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Genre:Rock

Don't Make Me Blue

Nov 15, 2011, 9:30am Loft And Lost
The last post's subject title was, for those of you not paying attention, a reference to an old, old song by one of rock'n'roll's finest voices. Scratch that. The finest voice. You can line up your Robert Plants, your Jeff or Tim Buckleys, your Feists, your Mark Lanegans all you like, none of them can come close to the sheer futile majesty of Roy Orbison. He had, as someone once memorably put it, the voice of an angel falling backward out of a window. And the songs, once he'd got through attempts at shoehorning [...]
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Lana, Oh Lana

Nov 7, 2011, 5:36pm Loft And Lost
Lana Del Rey - Video Games (live on Jools Holland, Oct.11, 2011)
Being horrendously behind the times does have some benefits. I'm not one of those people that foolishly went out and bought an iPad or an iPhone when a newer, shinier, better one was just around the corner. I never had a Minidisc player. Betamax? No, sirree. Having better things to do with my life than finding out what was the new hot thing was this summer meant that when I finally discovered that it was Lana Del Rey , I could watch her performing "Video Games" with a sense of perspective. [...]
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Artist:Lana Del Ray
Title:Video Games
Link Text:Video Games by Lana Del Rey
File Name:videogames.mp3
Bitrate:256 kbps
Year:2011

I'll Be A Bachelor Boy

Oct 22, 2011, 8:17am Loft And Lost
Hank Williams I'll be a Bachelor Till I Die
Minds being funny things and all, a recent period of having Cliff Richard's "Bachelor Boy" in my head (which surely must rank as one of the most egregious earworms in history) has driven me toward Hank Williams' "I'll Be A Bachelor Till I Die". Now if you've never listened to ol' Hank, you really need to. Like, now. And if you have, well, you know what treat is in store, don't you? MP3: I'll Be A Bachelor Till I Die by Hank Williams [...]
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Artist:Hank Williams
Title:I'll Be A Bachelor Till I Die
Link Text:I’ll Be A Bachelor Till I Die by Hank Williams
File Name:1-22-ill-be-a-bachelor-till-i- die.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Genre:Country

I'll Be A Bachelor Boy

Oct 22, 2011, 8:17am Loft And Lost
Hank Williams I'll be a Bachelor Till I Die
Minds being funny things and all, a recent period of having Cliff Richard's "Bachelor Boy" in my head (which surely must rank as one of the most egregious earworms in history) has driven me toward Hank Williams' "I'll Be A Bachelor Till I Die". Now if you've never listened to ol' Hank, you really need to. Like, now. And if you have, well, you know what treat is in store, don't you? MP3: I'll Be A Bachelor Till I Die by Hank Williams [...]
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The Work Keeps Working

Oct 19, 2011, 6:40pm Loft And Lost
So, I've been b….there's not really any point in saying it, is there? Joining me in returning from The Land Of The Otherwise Engaged are Frightened Rabbit, who have returned from their 2 year long World Tour and have punted us, dear listeners, free EP. You have to sign up to the mailing list but as their emails are some of the funniest, wittiest and genuinely pleasant promotional emails you could wish for, this is in no way a hardship. The songs themselves seem to have been largely written on the bus , but this [...]
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Artist:Frightened Rabbit
Title:The Work
Link Text:The Work by Frightened Rabbit
File Name:03-the-work.mp3
Bitrate:256 kbps
Genre:Alternative
Year:2011

The Work Keeps Working

Oct 19, 2011, 6:40pm Loft And Lost
So, I've been b….there's not really any point in saying it, is there? Joining me in returning from The Land Of The Otherwise Engaged are Frightened Rabbit, who have returned from their 2 year long World Tour and have punted us, dear listeners, free EP. You have to sign up to the mailing list but as their emails are some of the funniest, wittiest and genuinely pleasant promotional emails you could wish for, this is in no way a hardship. The songs themselves seem to have been largely written on the bus , but this [...]
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Up To The Stars

Oct 5, 2011, 5:15pm Loft And Lost
Up To The Stars Sad news came today of the death of Bert Jansch. One of the finest guitarists of all time - and I'm not being hyperbolic here - he rose to prominence in the 602s along with John Martyn and Davey Graham. Like them, he was astonishingly talented, and like them, he liked a drink or two. Or twenty. Saying that, unlike the somewhat difficult Martyn or the tragically lost Graham, he reined in his drinking and continued to record and perform, as well as being a gentleman who graciously accepted the plaudits rained upon him whilst giving the distinct impression he [...]
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Artist:Bert Jansch
Title:Angie
Link Text:Angie by Bert Jansch
File Name:05-angie.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Genre:Folk
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