Fully detached

More has emerged hot off the presses - no, that's wrong, mastertapes? wav files? - from what we like to imagine is the underground radar station somewhere in wildest, dampest Prestatyn established as home base by Under Alien Skies. Their third home cooked EP, Detached, was made with minimal input from the chief vocal member (away working, apparently) and with influence from Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack. While it still comes across as loose items from Panda Bear's box of beatification placed under a powerful microscope, there's still all sorts - folky acoustic plucking, disembodied future soul, washed out soundscapes - that make this world of their own one worth visiting. You can do such for free via Bandcamp (or £3.99 for a cassette, a limited edition of 50), or just by listening below. The tracks run together here are, in order, To Part To, Takewon, Be Better and Ritethru.

detached01 ep by underalienskies

Tracklist: Sean Rowe - Time To Think

New Yorker Sean Rowe, last seen in this country touring with Noah and The Whale in late 2009, is the possessor of one of those deep baritone, warm while sonorously expressive voices that can never be put to use in light, carefree songwriting. Guesses as to who it's most resonant of range from Bill Callahan to Gil Scott-Heron - his US label Anti- reckon Leonard Cohen, but that's clearly just the first deep voiced singer they could think of. Anyway. Rowe would have made a great soul singer, but his chosen oeuvre on debut album Magic, out now in the US but not til 25th May in the UK (and it's been hanging around tiny labels since mid-2009), is detailed storytelling songwriting with blues and Springsteen echoes, recorded rewardingly close to the strings and voice, expressively creative even when raking over those old love and displacement chestnuts again. It's a tremendous, tremulous album that rewards repeated listening to delve deeper into the gothic heart of darkness.

Sean Rowe - Time To Think by antirecords

Reeling In The Years: 1982

by Peter Climie

I was 10 in 1982. Unintentionally half of these tracks would be recognised by the 10 year old me at the time, and the other half are more recognised by the 38 year old me.

New Order - Temptation
One of the most enduring New Order songs, and a perennial live turn. For me, the stand out track from in 1982.

Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes
Adam, for all his troubles, is a great performer, and his turn on Top Of The Pops where he takes over the whole set is a fine example of this. This was his first Ant-less outing, as a solo performer. Adam and The Ants were the first band whose posters went up on my bedroom walls.

The Jam - Beat Surrender
Released as I was just starting to browse the 7" singles in Boots and Woolworths, and then they split up!

Depeche Mode - See You
Depeche Mode showing that there was life after Vince Clarke, with Martin Gore taking over song-writing.

Yazoo - Only You
Vince Clarke showing that there was life after Depeche Mode. Not to be confused with the Flying Pickets cover version the following year!

Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
Dusted down and danced to at every family party I attended for the rest of the decade.

Willie Nelson - Always On My Mind
Also covered with great aplomb previously by Elvis and later by The Pet Shop Boys.

ABC - The Look of Love
Trevor Horn cutting his teeth with the production technology that would spawn the hits of Frankie Goes to Hollywood over the next few years.

Soft Cell - Say Hello Wave Goodbye
Seedy torch song sing-a-long from Marc Almond.

Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding
Oh, and the Falklands war took place in 1982 but was rarely sung about.


Master list

Tracklist: Chapter 24 - All Them Selves

Something less approachable for the unwary marks Tracklist number fifty. The more we hear of Chapter 24, who have an eponymous album out next week, the more we find ourselves drawn to the idea that the Raincoats and Slits might have funny nephews worthy of the name after all. For a good while this track off said EP exists only in splinters and bits caught in the wind, waiting for some heavy machinery to come along and sandblast it into a more lasting shape. Instead, they make you wait a good two and a half minutes before sticking the constituent parts of tropical punk-gasm in a cement mixer, playing Jenga with the remains and hoping the bits might make sense when eventually thrown together. By the end Claire Smith's not so much run out of gas as been placed under emergency heavy sedation. It's clearly not something we're going to commend for the strength of its pop crossover melodies, but the madness inherent is just as winning.

All Them Selves by chapter24band

Tracklist: Slow Down Tallahassee - Curly Cuh

Sheffield bands seem to have a much shorter lifespan than most, two albums seeming like a decade and a half's service to most. As such, Slow Down Tallahassee are splitting up after the release of their sophomore collection today, from which this is the title track. Apart from a certain prevalent sense of world-weariness it's pretty much taking up where the first left off, girl group harmonies plus burbling synths and classic hook-laden pop undercut by wantonly dark and frank lyrical content. Something about it feels more isolated and lonelier even as Claire and Nicola pledge allegiance to companionship for ever, plausibly in memorial. A fitting epitath.

Slow Down Tallahassee "Curly Cuh" by Thee SPC

Stream Sunday

This week, the reverberating, wire-framed melancholy (apart from the couple of blues stompers) of The Low Anthem's Smart Flesh, out tomorrow.

The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh by Bella Union

Reeling In The Years: 1992

by Popty Ping Records

I was 16 in 1992, the age when everything seems to change for a teenage boy.

It was a year of odd times, at least with regards to growing up. I lost my virginity, got served a pint in the pub for the first time, went to my first gig. I somehow scraped through my GCSE’s, entered sixth form and began the process of failing my A levels. My reading literature changed from Amiga User to the NME, I fell in love with Gaby Roslin on the Big Breakfast, and secretly stayed up late to see Jennifer Ehle get her boobs out in the Camomile Lawn. Thankfully it was to be the year I went on holiday with my parents for the last time.

1992 was the year the nineties finally seemed to get going, thanks to Kurt Cobain, grunge was at its height and people were discovering guitars once more and the farcical events with the Happy Mondays in Barbados finally brought Manchester, dance and the initial love affair with ecstacy to a lull. And so, this is was what you would have found in my tape deck :

The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray
Evan Dando’s masterpiece album, of which this single was always the highlight to me. Every sixth former had this in their walkman, or their 1.0 litre 1984 Ford Fiesta tape player. I had a massive crush on Juliana Hatfield (secretly I still do), I’ve seen him play this album three times and it still never bores me, simply a lovely little song, and before drugs began to take their toll, which it would seem Dando’s output and creative tendancies never really recovered from.

Manic Street Preachers - Little Baby Nothing
Generation Terrorists sounds like it’s been recorded in a shed, is far, far too long and has way too much filler. However this single remains utterly fantastic. They wanted Kylie to sing it, they ended up with Traci Lords the porn star. Jacqui and Carrie Shampoo feature in the video, and the song contains one of the band's finest ever lyrical snippets ("Rock 'n' roll is our epiphany. Culture, alienation, boredom and despair").

Senseless Things - Homophobic Asshole
Discovering the NME in 1992 exposed me to the word homophobia for the first time. In those days homosexuality was still significantly less open and acceptable then it is today. Back then the NME was far more political and controversial then the mainstream major label tainted remnant you can still buy in WH Smiths today. Steven Wells was the propelling force behind a lot that activisim, and this four minutes of pop punk is a brilliant example of raising anti homophobia issues. I seem to recall the video features everyone from John Peel to Boy George in a pro homosexuality view. The Senseless Things went on to soundtrack the next two years for me, The Things' Mark Keds wrote most of the Libertines' Can’t Stand Me Now, sadly his involvement with Doherty also brought about a heroin habit he too sadly cannot seem to shake. It would be nice to see him healthy and performing once more.

Sugar - The Act We Act
Sadly these days everything associated with Creation Records is overshadowed, possibly tainted even by the Oasis brand. But way before the Burnage boys knocked everyone for six, McGee and his cohorts were already signing quality band after quality band. Clearly everyone knows about Teenage Fanclub and Primal Scream, but these days Sugar seem to be quietly forgotten. Licensing Bob Mould’s post-Husker Du outfit Sugar for a UK release was a wise move, and NME voted this the album of 1992 in their end of year polls. A truly fantastic album, and possibly the perfect mix between pop and grunge, I never ever get sick of it, even to this day 19 years later. I went to see them once, downstairs in the Newcastle Uni student union, sadly they were truly awful. Shame really. If popty-ping ever sign anything like this I’d be the proudest failed record label boss in the world.

Spiritualized - Run
I was born and grew up in Rugby, and as a child remember Spacemen 3 posters plastered all across the town. My dad taught Jason Pierce, and my mum and gran bought their wool from Websters, Sonic Boom’s family wool store in Dunchurch. So when Spiritualized produced their first album at the same time as I discovered the NME, my love of Spiritualized was born, made more so my father's acknowledgement that Pierce has become his most successful ever former student (even last year Dad was impressed to see an interview with Jason in the Guardian). Lazer Guided Melodies is a beautiful album, highly rated as a post E comedown soundtrack, and at the time was considered ambient. NME reckoned it no. 72 in the greatest albums ever released, and still nearly 20 years later appears in such polls. The fact that it took two years from recording to final mixing and mastering shows just how much drugs they must have all been consuming at the time.

U2 - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Ah ok, Bono. Theres not that much that can be said about U2. Bono is a dick, and they’ve become the new Rolling Stones. But to me at least, Achtung Baby was their creative peak, before they started attempting to go all disco, and ripping off The Sun Always Shines On TV by A-ha. I’d have loved to see U2 tour the Achtung Baby/Zoo TV tour, but theres no way you’d find me paying £100 to see them now. His voice is on its way out for starters. I do like this album though, and this is the only single from 1992 I could fit in. Richey Edwards once said he hated U2, but loved this single. I kind of agree with him.

REM - Man On The Moon
Every so often an album appears which literally everyone you know will buy, listen to and play over and over again (eg Definitely Maybe, or more recently the xx). The sort of album which appears on tv adverts, voice overs, promotional breaks, films, the lot for the entire year. In 1992 it was REM’s Automatic For The People, and this was my favourite single. During aforementioned last family holiday with the parents I discovered MTV Europe for the first time and they hammered this song, closely followed by The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight again and again.

Carter USM - The Only Living Boy In New Cross
Seems odd to think now, but in 1992 Carter USM were the Saturday night Pyramid stage headliners at Glastonbury. Needless to say they managed to cock it up, went on stage late, insulted Michael Eavis and were promptly banned from ever playing again. The band got so big their album (funnily enough entitled 1992 : The Love album) hit the number one slot for several weeks, and this was their biggest pop hit. On a Radio 1 show even Kylie said it was her current favourite song. When the Arctic Monkeys first arose people refused to believe Alex Turner could actually write such lyrics, and the common belief was that it was a manufactured pop act and the actual lyricist was Jim Bob from Carter USM. I hope both gentlemen are quite impressed with that tale, it’s actually really rather credible.

The Beautiful South - 36D
The popular image of the Beautiful South is one of sweet saccharine pop, but people often completely miss the somewhat harder imagery often hidden in their lyrics. Messers Heaton and Rotheray often picked somewhat more challenging topics for their lyrics, and reportedly it was the issue of this song which resulted in Briana Corrigan leaving the band and ending possibly their finest line up. The song targets glamour models for using their physical assets to promote themselves when in reality possibly it’s the media itself which should be criticised for utilising such women. Either way, it's got a bloody brilliant singalong chorus.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Intact
Everyone at school had a Ned's Atomic Dustbin T-shirt and both the God Fodder and Are You Normal? albums. The Neds played De Montfort Hall in Leicester in November 1992 and pretty much my entire sixth form went to watch, and the next day the annual sixth form photo featured some 20+ people in Neds t-shirts from the night before. I can’t wax lyrical enough about this band, Are You Normal? is still an album I can listen to again and again. If only their imagery hadn't tied them to fraggle and they toured God Fodder a little longer they’d have completely broken America big style like their mates EMF.

Master list

Tracklist: The Voluntary Butler Scheme - To The Height Of A Frisbee

Rob Jones' first new pieces of pocket symphonic oddball pop since 2009's At Breakfast, Dinner, Tea album comprise The Chevreul EP, out 18th March (stream, preorder, whatever). It's a very English kind of sunshine in the mad scientist's basement for all the careful arrangement of instruments, that intangible sense of something homebaked with both ambitions of and no requirement to use bigger studios as much as Jones retains the touches of Motown underpinning the big drums, Lennon multitracked vocals and obtuse lyrics.

To The Height Of A Frisbee by Voluntary Butler Scheme

Reeling In The Years: 1979

by Sam Pegley

1979: Rubbish is piling up in the streets, hospital entrances are being picketed, gravediggers are on strike, there are power cuts, fuel shortages, cuts in public services and sharp rises in unemployment. Add to this a brooding anxiety about the Cold War, heightened in December by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and you get the impression that Britain was a fairly grim place to be.

It was against this backdrop that the songs on this playlist were written and in their own way, capture the mood of the time. There is apocalyptic imagery (The Clash), commentary on the violence in Northern Ireland (Gang of Four), pre-new man blokiness (Squeeze) and The Specials, who were actively confronting racism and raising awareness of the dangers of the National Front.

Musically, 1979 was a time of innovation and experimentation following the landscape clearing of punk (though Buzzcocks proved that there was still life in the catchy three chord thrash). The mysterious Unknown Pleasures, with its vast space and eerie clicks and whirrs was released in July, while the year also saw a glimpse of the synth-driven 1980s via the cold futurism of Gary Numan and OMD. Wire released third album 154, and The Cure continued their early run of spiky pop singles before moving off into a grey, bleak period culminating in 1982's unremitting Pornography.

As with any year, it's impossible to sum everything up in one playlist, and these songs are only a fraction of what was happening at the time. You could choose plenty more obscure songs, and certainly plenty from other genres, but this I think is a pretty good representation of (at least part of) 1979.

The Clash - London Calling
Gang Of Four - Ether
Joy Division - Disorder
The Specials - Gangsters
The Cure - Jumping Someone Else's Train
Buzzcocks - Harmony In My Head
Gary Numan - Cars
OMD - Electricity
Squeeze - Cool For Cats
Wire - I Should Have Known Better

Master list

Tracklist: Shy And The Fight – How To Stop An Imploding Man

There's not been a lot of country hoedown in the modern folk revisiting, maybe tainted by thoughts of the raggle-taggle element of the Levellers. The first Chester band we've come across since Mansun, Shy And The Fight throw a lot of instrumentation and a big vocal crescendo at it in order to break down such preconceptions, not to mention a way with earwormish hooks and a sharp lyrical ire aimed at old home town ways. You may think of early Frank Turner, possibly Bright Eyes when Conor's in the jig mood.

Reeling In The Years: 1980

by Tom Jenkins

In 1980 I was merely a twinkle in my newly betrothed father's eye (I would arrive two years later). As a result, these songs do not represent a particular period of my life. They are, put simply, the ten songs from 1980 I could happily listen to on repeat, from here to eternity. Notable absences include Joy Division, The Cure, Siouxsie and Dead Kennedy's, but to be honest, I'd much rather listen to Abba and Dolly...

The Jam - Going Underground
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
The Clash - The Magnificent Seven
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
Ultravox - Vienna
Abba - Lay All Your Love On Me
Dolly Parton - 9 To 5
The Ramones - Baby I Love You
John Lennon - Watching The Wheels

Master list

Tracklist: Colourmusic - Tog

Colourmusic are based in Oklahoma, and with the psychedelia weave of the guitars, reworking of skew-wiff elements into anthemic status and crackpot ideas - they once attempted to combine their five beings into one amorphous human and claim to write based on Isaac Newton's theory of colour - they may remind you of some more currently celebrated Oklahomans. Overdriven glam would be another way of condensing it, taking an acid road trip through wired melodies, headphone listening rewarding layers and metronomic overdriven beats. Two further points: their album, out on 4th April through Memphis Industries over here, is called My _____ Is Pink (style guidance needed on that one), and yes, if their press release is any judge in the video it probably is (meant to be) what it looks like.

Colourmusic - Tog by baldryan

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

"I read pages and pages of people shouting in all caps "I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THEM!" as if that's a valid musical critique, as if that's anything but a braying declaration of proud ignorance. As if somehow the prefab pop royalty whose handlers dropped the most money on promotion are promised a Grammy as a kind of birthright, the way that Will Smith's kids are guaranteed hit singles and blockbusters if they want them; the way that Gwyneth Paltrow is apparently allowed to show up anywhere at any time and sing, whether or not we want to hear her. I've never heard Esperaza Spalding either, but now I'm excited to."
- Will Sheff

By now you'll be aware of the fallout from the Grammys, for our purposes the late-catch-up crowning of The Suburbs as album of the year. As expected on the ever rotating hype cycle, the hipster-than-thou declared it a hollow so-called victory for the corporate stadium-succour concensus middlebrow mainstream... only to be stopped in their tracks by proof that actually, most people don't know who they are. Moreover, those people aren't prepared in this Web 2.0 age to give any time to finding out who they are, but they have the gift of aimless rage into the void and by god they're going to use it. Or at best assuming they're typical Grammy fare. Even given time to think it through and research Female First, responsible for 2010's lamest end of year journalism (that's "the last twelve months of 2010", and Belle & Sebastian posited as "an experimental band" "sending shockwaves through the industry"), had a shot with the deathlessly memorable summation "I don’t want to sound politically incorrect, but they didn't seem 'all there' really did they?"

While The Suburbs winning was a surprise, what seems more unlikely is a band who followed a number two album with a number one, have played Saturday Night Live and all the talk shows and have sold out Madison Square Garden twice could be so far off so many pop fans' radar. But then think about the size of America, the subcultures of east and west coasts, the lack of a unifying national radio presence and the very idea of safety first Top 40 and Classic Rock radio being king. Arcade Fire's music in essence isn't immediate, so it would confuse the youth of middle America. But still, as Win artfully responded on Tuesday night: "We're called Arcade Fire - check it out on Google".

Oh yeah, Tuesday night, the Brits. After Best Female had provoked the focused ire of Cheryl Cole fans (christ, look at that most recent one), the night built up to one award apex, and when it happened...

Mumford an what? Who are ya'll
- @LilyTyley

Okay.. So I have never heard of mumford and sons, laura marling or arcade fire yet they still win an award! What a load of shit!
- @lozmeff

So I need to start listening to capital fm again, cause who are Mumford n sons are they an insurance company
- @Djmessiahpro

I am the only one who has never heard of Arcade Fire, Manford & Sons and Plan B
- @kevinrafferty1

OK, this might sound dumb to you but I didn't know who Mumford & Sons was till tonight...
- @JustGot2Belieb

haha nd don't blame no ones heard of en x but they are pretty good x
- @Charlie__xxx responding to the above

NO ONES HEARD OF EN.

Mumford & Sons. More than 800,000 albums sold (a lot these days, we assure you) with 71 weeks on the album chart at time of writing, and given the post-Brits bounce likely to be back in the top five or so this weekend. Seventh most played on Radio 1 (The Cave fourth most played song), fifth most played artist of 2010 on Absolute (Roll Away Your Stone number one). Their radio play stats take in as much local commercial radio as XFM and 6 Music. All over the festival coverage. All over all press, so much so that mocking and sneering reference points/straw man building is now the industry standard among journos ("If that's the best we can muster, the feeling is that the industry really is broken"). Hell, they won an award for the album of 2010 for a record released in 2009. And yet the above was not just the odd few responses seen on Twitter search, but quite prevalent lack of opinion except in themselves. A lot of people, bemused adults as much as illiterate kids, plain haven't heard of artists who've sold a shitload of records and been all over daytime populist national radio with a sound that at its very core puts them distinctively aside to the casual listener from mainstream pop contemporaries.

I've never heard of this. Ergo, it cannot be worthwhile. Therefore, everyone else is wrong and I have the only sane voice. HOW AM I EVER SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS BAND (THAT WAS DEEMED WORTHY OF EVEN BEING NOMINATED FOR THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS PRIZES IN BRITISH MUSIC). The idea that 'I don't know them, it must be shit' is dispiriting and simultaneously fascinating as as examination of self-belief driven insularity and the desire to never learn anything for yourself when it can be spoonfed by language instead. At its extremes you get Isle Of Wight Festival announcing Neil Young as a headliner a couple of years ago and a popular petition being run among attendees urging the festival to cancel his booking as he wasn't a young student-indie-populist choice. Those people, of course, would more than likely share the opposite but no more laudable view: people have heard of it, or is it pop, thus it is shit. That's why poptimism, for all its flaws (no, Since U Been Gone was no good and let's hear no more about it), was something that had to sandpaper down the nascent blogosphere's walls before it got ideas above its station.

It does also shine a spotlight on the idea that a lot of people's exposure to music seems to be narrowing. You could argue this was long flagged up by the paucity against popularity of local commercial radio and the reductivism to entirely pre-programmed daytime stock, but also see how the tabloids on Wednesday all led with Rihanna and Cheryl - glam girls for the photos, of course, but also what they see as two of the only points of crossover with the mass market that runs on US megastars, one-off club bangers and Cowellites. Outside the box would be fallacy. That's something Tinie Tempah is only just managing, while someone like Bruno Mars, with three number one singles and a number one album, is still practically invisible to the majority of people.

Maybe it turns out in the fallout that we're living in parallel bubbles all along - the one blogs like this represent, where Arcade Fire and Mumford & Sons aren't worth discussing any more, the youth middle ground of fashion spreads and Pendulum, and the mainstream set, where they're radical challengers from out of leftfield. whoisarcadefire and the Mumford anti-effect are not really about laughing at the deliberately ignorant, they're the moment when one bubble is exposed to the other, and everyone reading this must have had moments when they've given up trying to explain their taste to others when faced with blank faces, and we realise that none of these stances is typical or, in lasting crossover terms, workable.

Celebrity Playlist: Maybeshewill

At this moment, the emotionally pummelling DIY arthouse post-hardcore electronically foundated post-rock powerhouse collective Maybeshewill are finishing off work on their third album, due some time in late spring/early summer and featuring guest spots for members of Her Name Is Calla. Before then they release a new single on 7th March, titled Critical Distance and sounding and looking like this:

Maybeshewill - Critical Distance from Robot Needs Home on Vimeo.

Before even that they start a European tour tomorrow, the UK leg of which is listed under the Playlist. And before any of the above, in fact logically in the recent past, we held guitarist John Helps down and got some preferred songs out of him.


Jeniferever - The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky
This song pretty much defines the phrase 'unbearably pretty', the whole EP is great, but the first two tracks in particular are astonishing.

Youthmovies - If You'd Seen A Battlefield
We've been recording the drums for our new record in the same studio Youthmovies recorded this album. Their earlier EPs are so unusual that they kinda blew my mind when I first heard them - really influenced the way I thought about music. The album is much more accessible, but still pretty unusual.

Portishead - Glory Box
Dummy is one of the first albums that's still lodged in my consciousness that I remember listening to on loop as a teenager - it was tough to choose anything off it as a stand out track, but this is as good as any.

Adebisi Shank - International Dreambeat
This is a firm van favourite at the moment - It's just a ridiculous amount of fun.

Blakfish - Jeremy Kyle Is A Marked Man
Of all the songs by all the noisy British post-hardcore bands over the past five years or so, this one is far and away the best - just an incredible idea from start to finish, brilliant melodies and an insatiable sense of urgency.

Reuben - Stuck In My Throat
Me and Jim (Maybeshewill's drummer) totally bonded over Reuben, and I think they've been a big influence on a lot of the bands, certainly from around Leicester, that we sort of align ourselves with. They had tonnes of personality which was perhaps a bit distracting on later albums, but Racecar Is Racecar Backwards is perfect from start to finish.

Mew - Am I Wry? No
Everything Mew have released sounds absolutely incredible, and the only time I've managed to see them they were almost unbelievable. This is perhaps a cop out choice of track, but it is undeniably brilliant.

Jetplane Landing - There Is No Real Courage Unless There Is Real Danger
These guys were a big influence on me musically and from a DIY perspective - Andrew Ferris runs his own label (Smalltown America) which has released some of our favourite bands, but that aside this is an incredible song from a great album.

You Slut! - Mybloodyjesusexploreronfire
I don't think there's been an instrumental band that's bettered this song. Four minutes of magic.

Peter Wyeth - Spring
I promised myself I wouldn't pick anything from Leicester for this, but this, and pretty much everything Pete touches to be honest, is brilliant.



Those dates:
24/2 Southampton Joiners
25/2 Cardiff Buffalo Bar
26/2 Nottingham Rock City
27/2 Manchester Moho Live
28/2 Sheffield O2 Academy
1/3 Glasgow Stereo
2/3 Newcastle O2 Academy
3/3 Camden Barfly

Tracklist: The Lionheart Brothers - The Desert

There's a name we haven't come across for a while, not since the Norwegians made a brief press splash early in 2007. Then they tipped hats to Brian Wilson and chamber pop. There's still echoes of something if not strictly Wilsonian then more Byrdsian, but filtered through pretty much the whole of Dan Snaith's career at once - shoegaze's hazy vocals, programmed warped beats, rhythmic pulsing and tribal percussive breakdowns. The psychedelic hidden depths are dizzying, a general eclectic wash through a baroque glass darkly.

The Lionheart Brothers- The Desert by Anorak London

Reeling In The Years: 1990

by Adam Hepton

I'll be honest: the only reason I went with 1990 is because I wanted Betty Boo to feature.

England New Order - World In Motion
The Soup Dragons - I'm Free
Dream Warriors - Wash Your Face In My Sink
A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?
MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This
EMF - Unbelievable
They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul
Betty Boo - Where Are You Baby?
Wilson Phillips - Hold On
Scorpions - Wind Of Change

Spotify playlist

Master list

Tracklist: Hymns - A Punch To The Temple

Sam Manville, once of Blakfish, now the vocals and guitar half of Big Scary Monsters' newest roster members, says Hymns - or, to get technical, †Hymns† - are an interpretation of contemporary classical music and in particular the mood and spaciousness Arvo Part through the medium of guitar and drums. We'll have to take his word for it, as taken on their first recorded output what it's transmuted into is leftfield razor wire riffage, noise too clean for post-hardcore yet sharing a determination to crash through walls through unreasonable force. There's a touch more self-control than the haywire frontman of old but the raw self-belief remains intact. This debut single is out on the 28th.

Celebrity Playlist: Let's Buy Happiness

It takes a band with big, forefronted ideas to justify Sundays/Cocteaus comparisons, and Newcastle's Let's Buy Happiness are that band judging by their first couple of singles, all crystalline chiming guitars and clarion vocals, "iceberg monoliths in a sea of calm without stillness" as we called them in the year preview. These are their forthcoming live dates:

25/2 Leeds Cockpit 3
26/2 Newcastle Riverside
1/3 Glasgow Captain's Rest
3 Sheffield Plug (with Frankie & the Heartstrings for that Topman CTRL thing)
9/3 London Old Blue Last
10/3 Bristol Start The Bus (free!)
11/3 Brighton Hope
12/3 Southampton Unit

This, should you need reminding, is their new single, out on the 28th and produced by them Heartstrings' Mick Ross:

Fast Fast by letsbuyhappiness

And these are their songs:

Radiohead - Videotape
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Death Cab For Cutie - Brothers On A Hotel Bed
Bright Eyes - Lua
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Field Music - In Context
Minus The Bear - Absinthe Party At The Fly Honey Warehouse
Animal Collective - Grass
Four Tet - Hands
Ray Lamontagne - Jolene

Tracklist: Das Wanderlust - Fish Necklace

You can understand why Teesside's Das Wanderlust split opinion so much, given their modus operandi is clatteringly shrieking 'wrong-pop' (their description) with a tendency to wander off the point if left without supervision for too long. New album Bones, Hooves & Horns, a free download, isn't too different from yore, putting playfully odd pop alongside moments when you wonder what the hell they're playing at. They're best when they do both at the same time, as on its opening track wherein Laura Simmons skirts all round the place before landing on the passing concept of friendship amid pointed indiepop with a glockenspiel and cheap keyboard breakdown interrupted by distorted dirty riffage. As we say, clatteringly wandering.

Always Check The Label: Thee SPC

They may for the most part deal with Sheffield bands alone, but Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation has still put together an enviable trail of success in its own sphere, from the Long Blondes, Monkey Swallows The Universe (and Nat Johnson's subsequent solo/with the Figureheads career) and Slow Down Tallahassee to more latterly Standard Fare and This Many Boyfriends, with plenty of interesting stuff in the middle. Label boss Darren Chuck talks us through it.



Why start a label?
That’s a question I continue to ask myself every day. I mean, on the small level that Thee SPC operates, bands could probably do a lot of it themselves. On the other hand, I guess I’ve got some expertise in the business side, whereas bands have the ability to pen tunes! So in answer to your question, start a label if you love a band and want them to get more exposure and they can’t do it themselves.

What's your ethos?
Try no to lose your bank balance.

Have you been influenced by any labels?
Pre-Sony Creation and Sarah Records have been a big influence. The former for their unconditional love and enthusiasm for their releases and the latter for their DIY-as-political-statement manifesto!

What do you initially look/hope for in a prospective signing?
I have to totally love their music for a start. Distinctive vocals are also very important to me. In so much new music the vocals are indistinguishable! I guess that’s mainly ‘cos of triple tracking and autotune, but even the more respected indie bands sound samey. Yawn. Give me Dave Gedge any day. It also helps if the band can get out and tour. You’d be surprised how difficult this can be for a band, especially if they’re older and have job/family responsibilities.

What else should people looking to send you a demo know?
Well, I’m currently booked up for releases and not looking at the moment!

If push comes to shove, what would be the most satisfying thing you’ve done through the label to date?
Putting out 7” singles is a joy, if risky financially. Watching bands develop is great. Without wanting to sound self-aggrandising, the simple fact that we’ve taken an interest in a band can build their confidence, which feeds back into their music. I guess some artists just need a bit of encouragement to blossom.

What's your biggest selling release to date?
The Monkey Swallows The Universe album we put out a few years ago sold really well and continues to sell, but I expect the Standard Fare album will eclipse it.



Anyone notable that you’re willing to admit you passed up on?
Gawd, where to begin! We were really interested in a young Sheffield band but took ages to bother contacting them. Eventually we approached them but by that time they had a manager with bigger plans. They were Arctic Monkeys. We did the same trick with an ace Sheffield band called Umlaut who signed to Fantastic Plastic while we twiddled our thumbs. One of us wanted to chase up Slow Club early on, but I didn’t think they were any good. Stupid me.

Do you still believe in the physical product?
As Sean Price said in a previous article, it really depends on your goals. I think nowadays you either have to go for a very niche, micro-label approach or spend large quantities of cash on PR, pluggers, tour support, etc. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground! Thee SPC has sorta shrunk a little and we’re deffo on the micro-label side of things. But we’re still around and that’s an achievement itself.

What is the future of the common or garden record label?
Yeah, I do. I listen to tons of music on the web, but I still prefer the audio quality of CDs. I suppose one day that’ll be the standard on the web. And vinyl is great fun, of course. Also, you can’t beat having a physical product to handle, with lyrics books, liner notes, inserts, artwork. There’s no denying that the market for physical records has shrunk, but it’s nowhere near disappearing completely.

One thing you've learned about being a label boss and can pass on to anyone looking to do likewise?
Things always take a lot longer and cost more than you expect!

What have you got coming up?
Slow Down Tallahassee release their second album Curly Cuh on the 21st February. Standard Fare have a new single Suitcase out on the 21st March, with an album to follow later this year, fingers crossed. Latest signings Japanese Sleepers have an EP out hopefully in March. We’re releasing a new EP from Cats For Peru in April and Champion Kickboxer have a new album called Thumbs which will be out in a couple of months.