The sun's disappearing in a pink nosebleed behind filthy clouds. You're struggling for home, coughing, sashaying, wondering where another weekend went, why you kissed that girl, if you have any food in the cupboard, if the pain in your lungs will still be there tomorrow, if you can face tomorrow at all, if you'll miss these two-day cycles when they're gone, if you should confess what you've done, if you're currently making your parents proud. You need some sweet slumber-pop to quieten these thoughts, and here's former London band Essay Like Nephew (sadly now split ) right on cue. [...]
Hype Williams make me think of lost Sundays, sleepwalking and being trapped in the Underground: a world of elasticated dimensions. Impossible to pigeon-hole, the enigmatic London duo's music is best described as a trance loaded with goofball influences and filtered samples. There's a general dislike of fitting in: the vocals, when they come, are blurred, while songs are startlingly short or skewed together in protesting pairs. You'll hear '60s lizard-lounge guitars and then '80s cop film soundtrack fare. Just when you think you've got them typcast, they play hip-hop. It's impossible. It's wonderful. [There is a video that cannot be displayed [...]
God.. 5am bedtimes, missed train stations, late-night bus hell.. it's been a week where I've really needed these songs: Pepper Rabbit - Red Wine ( mp3 ) I've featured this before but it bears repeating. A preposterously-unheralded duo from LA, Pepper Rabbit sit somewhere between the saintly, tremulous sound of Jeff Buckley and early Yeasayer, before they discovered synths. Their music seems somehow very touching: in the right situation, it leaves me light-headed and shaky. I can only guess what this particular lullaby's about, but like to think that the mystery drinker of singer Xander's [...]
Say what you want about Q Magazine, but it sure does a good job with its annual, five-night New to Q Sessions in January. 2011's version is headlined by Funeral Party, Clare Maguire, Egyptian Hip Hop, The Pierces and the surely-not-new-t0-anyone Noah & The Whale, while nestling in the undercard grass can be found the sublime talents of Dutch Uncles, David's Lyre and Primary 1. And each night's trio of acts costs a piffling ten bob. Now that's some good economics... Dutch Uncles - Takeover ( mp3 )
Clock Opera 's music contains the kind of invasive loop that you suddenly hear again, from a deep cubby hole of your achy skull, two days later, and wonder where it came from. The Kitsune-signed Londoners' un predictable pop mixes regal pomp with luscious keys; one minute it's all sedate and Sunday lunch; the next bristling with clubland brawn: spoiling for a scrap and desperate for a dance. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Clock Opera - A Piece Of String ( mp3 )
A couple of slices of London festival pie: Firstly, the increasingly revered Revere will headline the returning Fishtank Festival on Brick Lane later this November. Secondly, Still Corners and Mogwai man Stuart Braithwaite are among the acts at The Local & TLOBF's also-returning Shhh! Festival in January, once more championing the appeal of quiet, reflective music. Thank you, goodnight. Still Corners - Cremona ( mp3 )
London female duo PLUG mix uncompromising bass melodies, occasional drum thwacks, demented keys and angelic vocals in a combination so ill-advised even Walkers crisps wouldn't try it. And yet, though it's maybe a little inaccessible at first, the girls' debut album - out now on Upset The Rhythm - is also escapist, thrillingly intense and pretty unique. 3am Dalston dive-bar bangers play happily alongside 7am soul-searches, and I haven't sat forward this much in weeks. Thanks for TLOBF for the tip-off. PLUG - Body Story ( mp3 )
I'm aware it's Tuesday, and not Monday. But I had a date with a gorgeous Scrabble hot-shot called Winona last night, and felt it my duty to bring the beauty down to size. Luckily for her, our chosen bar lacked a board, and so the anticipated demolition job never took place. Sarah McLeod - Dancing In The Dark ( mp3 ) While Scrabbling for conversation, I mentioned to Wino that I love covers of classic rock songs that make me appreciate previously-ignored lyrics. Tallest Man On Earth did one such , and here's another. The stylistics [...]
Don't Panic magazine this week called Becoming Real a "post-dubstep noise artist"...... Nope, me either. Lolz. What I can tell you is that BR, aka Londoner Toby Ridler, produces 25% haunting, 25% disco and 87% fucked-up electronica, genre-jumping faster than a covers album, but doing it nicely. On Ghost Step (mp3 below), there's even a splash of Arabian snakecharmer drone thrown in. And everyone likes Arabian snakecharmer drone. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Becoming Real - Ghost Step ( mp3 )
The enigmatic Vondelpark has no MySpace page, no Facebook, no Bandcamp, no nothing. But still from somewhere - under rocks, perhaps, or behind clouded windows - the Londoner releases languid, ketamin-pop, hazy as the capital's summer sky and soothing as a kiss of death. His music belongs to a world of torn-up diary pages, of broken promises and unanswered telephones. This Vice interview sheds a bit more light, while the video below sets a suitably halcyon tone. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Vondelpark [...]
Today I just ended up walking through that cold November rain - singing/humming these songs: Long Walks On The Beach - metaPhysical ( mp3 ) A song as instantly warm and familiar as a woolknit jumper or new book by a favourite author. This is jangly rock with a faintly regal air; a three-minute breeze with fuzzy, autumnal verses prior to a blow-out chorus. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Four Tet - Circling [...]
Remember when New Cross was an achingly cool, upcoming London creative area? Not no more, laddie. The final, er, nail in the cross, for, er, New Cross, has come with the loss of the annual Nail The Cross festival, hosted by blog No Pain in Pop . The festival's third birthday will instead be celebrated in Peckham, on Nov 27th. The excellent music line-up includes Becoming Real, Vondelpark, Echo Lake , Still Corners and Chad Valley . Niiiice. Vondelpark - California Analog Dream XXX ( mp3 )
About to enter winter hibernation? Me too. Here's one last song to jam on our Spotify playlists before we power down and draw the curtains, though. Soothing and spectral in equal measure, it's a lullaby of bewitching chants and chimes on old-school hardware from London/Leeds duo Val-d'Isère : a witchhazel brew of dirty dreampop, a death knell in a digital coat. See you in April. Val-d'Isère - Pinpoint ( mp3 )
The days darken, the clocks retreat and the tube becomes a symphony of snuffles... it can only be the onset of winter. Here are five songs that have helped me survive the first week of this shit: Anna Calvi - Moulinette (Live) ( mp3 ) The Sunday Times bade me download this, but then I found a live version from a show at the Luminaire. Calvi's tremulous house-of-cards folk sounds even more delicate in this unfettered surround, and yet her voice stays strong and true, a lighthouse amid the darkness and distant drums. [...]
Here's some more audio valium for your sleepy Sunday. Billed as shoegazey-glo-fi, Wash is a solo project by exlovers bassist Danny Blackman. He's released a four-track demo, Floating Away, each song floatier than the last, and all offering a return ticket to dreamland, to a world of silent rainstorms, epic love affiars and frown-scarred foreheads. Each has a video, too, available here . Or download the EP from Bandcamp . [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Wash - Eyes Down [...]
Another shaky Sunday morning. The mug of untouched tea trembles in my hand, and taste instead last night's tobacco and toothpaste. Pressure in my head bubbles like a witches' cauldron, and it's all I can do to sit in an armchair, and stare somewhere, anywhere, not quite hearing anything. Idly I claw at myself, only to find lipstick smudges on my cheek. I wonder when I'll cease all this nonsense. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Until I do, the chants and chimes of Elizabeth Walling's solo project Gazelle Twin [...]
I'm beginning to suffer that autumn-winter blight: the weekday evening spent slumped to the sofa, your body the very enemy of activity, your mind unable to enable productivity. Signed to Captured Tracks , London fivepiece Dignan Porch 's music relates to this feeling - there's a hazy, slacker feel to their flicker pop. There's also enigma: these are brief and brittle lo-fi gusts, just piquing the interest, like 50 flighty words from the dream-girl after you've thrashed out three essay-length emails doused in longing. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Dignan [...]
If you like your shoegaze ephemeral, occasionally post-rock explosive and fretting to a 3am beat, then Wild Dogs In Winter are for you. The five Londoners have just released debut album Homba via Gravid Hands , and to celebrate their headlining the latest Spatchcock warehouse bash in Manor House this Friday. In honour of this unusually poignant genre gracing N15, the party's been renamed Spatchcocktails . Don't worry though, ye ravers - once the kids are tucked up in bed, DJs will seize control and you can make all the shapes you want... [There is a video that cannot [...]
In these killer days of knifing rain and ceaseless gales, it pays to have a big jumper, reliable shoes, Vaseline aplenty and a supply of throbbing, dreamscape electro for your ears: a surfboard on which to ride out the waves, a ledge behind the waterfall. London garage act Pariah , his second album imminent, is just the man for the job. Pariah - Crossed Out ( mp3 )
Oxford (whatever, it's near London) band Chad Valley are about to become the UK's chief pioneer of digital dream-pop - think dark and truncated vocals, psychedelic keys and overwhelming rhythms, all in the melodic style of Washed Out, Memory Tapes etc, with the merest hint of Africana thrown in for good measure. The duo are furiously funky, and best listened to when you're either 100% awake or trashed on Lemsip. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Chad Valley - Ensoniq Funk ( mp3 )
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