2005 Version 2.0

If I have not said it before I shall say it here and now: 2005 was the greatest year for music ever. Well, for me it certainly was as it produced the most amazing albums in my living memory and it has always been albums that really make my pussy moist.

And now all those amazing artists are now coming out with their follow up albums and all helping to bring 2007 closer to the bench mark 2005 has set. We've already had Arcades Fire's follow up to Funeral, the excellent Neon Bible, LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver, Bloc Party's A Weekend In the City and quite a few other notable artists. Over a series of blogs I would like to draw attention to a few more acts that are following up their 2005 albums with produce of a similar high grade.

First up is New York based The National. Their 2005 album Alligator was the reason why I have bought their entire back catalouge, why I am willing to pay silly money to see them play in November, why I bum them hard and why I bought their new album, Boxer, without hearing a note.

The Album does not dissapoint and while I do love the format of albums I find it very hard to review them. But Huzzah! I live in blogland where the mp3s roll like mighty semi-legal rivers of music down the to estuary of your ears and trickling into your mind tanks the knowledge of how amazingly good albums can be sans the need for me describe the indescribable.

Here are two tracks from Boxer, Fake Empire and Mistaken For Strangers and since I know you're curious here's one of my favourite tracks from their Alligator album, Mr. November.

PS For me the National are a warm blanket that I like to wrap myself up in even when its hot, if you are cosying up to them too then I suggest starting with Alligator and moving on to Boxer from there. Also if you have a nosy round the blogs you may be able to lay your hands on their Black Session that did in Paris a while back - a truly magical recording. x

I could have been one of the most notorious..

I went out last night, and as I burned it up in the back streets of Soho (on the lovely little hotbox hidden gem that is White Heat's dance floor) there was one song on my mind, Santogold's 'Creator'. Now, I know this has been around for a while, but it's not as well known as it should be, it's just such a good tune to dance too -wicked rhythm (-IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BEAT IN MY BOOKS). I was even lucky enough to see them play this out live in Fabric no less - with it's renowned sound system it sounded so damn fine.

Santogold - Creator

Now the real reason I was in Fabric was to see Justice/ Busy P/ Goose (yes, yes the chem bro's were headlining, but I just couldn't resist seeing the lovely French duo and the rest of the Ed Banger crew that were floating around) and thus spent most of the night getting a bit grimey in room 3. So as I left White Heat in the early hours of the morn this song managed to find it's way into my head, and it's still going strong now..

Sebastien Tellier (Mr Oizo, SebastiAn) - Chivers As A Female

However, just like two dj's fighting over the decks, the above mentioned song has been hustling for head time play, it's rival being this classic tune which I stumbled upon when looking through my brother's music collection (he's got a better taste in music than I give him credit for) - enjoy

Turbulence - Notorious

(Short post yeah? I just had to get these tracks off my chest, or should that be out of my head?)

One last thing before I go, got sent this link earlier... daft hands - now I just have to wait and see if anyone's going to try and top it, say with firestarter (I don't know how it would work, but that's for someone else to deal with ;)

ellie love

x y z

VHS Or Beta version 2.0.

Somewhere along the line since the amazing 2004 debut Night On Fire, Kentucky's VHS Or Beta lost their guitarist of 10 years Zeke Buck, who parted ways to join Matthew Johnson in a new outfit called People Noise, exchancing the experimental dance funk for massive riffs and walls of feedback. Fair enough.

This however hasn't stopped the progress of the band, now a 3-piece, as they have just finished their third studio album Bring On The Comets, set for an August release in the US. Whilst new tracks such as forthcoming single 'Can't Believe a Single Word', and album teaser 'Burn It All Down' (both of which have been posted on the bands myspace page) have elements which herald back to the sound which they are most well known for, they also signal a departure towards a more minimal vibe, most obviously caused by the lack of Buck's trademark layered guitar noise. Yet despite this major change in the band's dynamic, they move on positively, as vocalist and guitarist Craig Pfunder discusses on their blog:

"We wanted to achieve a sort of minimalism we hadn't considered before. Not to say the record is minimal, but rather we focused on the songs first and labored to make big songs that have memorable melodies. That was a key focus."

'Burn It All Down' is my pick of the first two tracks to emerge, all flangered guitars, a riff not to disimilar to Boy Kill Boy's 'Suzie', with hints of syth and piano flourishing the verses, before a memorable chorus which calls back to 'Night on Fire', a highlight of the first record. VHS Or Beta are back, and it would appear they are far from an outdated format.

VHS Or Beta will release Bring On The Comets on August 28th via Astralwerks, there debut is available now.

mp3: VHS Or Beta - Burn It All Down
mp3: VHS Or Beta - Night On Fire

Messages from down under.

Sometimes I forget to check my e-mails. It's one of those things I'm not great at. Most of the time it's only messages from myspace or paypal, or the odd bit of spam, so you can imagine my surprise and joy when I log in to Hotmail and find I've had some exciting messages from fun people telling me about fun music.

Even more fun is that a couple of these had come from Australia. That's 10583 miles!

Firstly was Sydney's Lions At Your Door, who sound like they mean business. Imagine The Gossip, but Beth has ditched Kate Moss and has spent a bit of time in NY with Karen O... and listened to a healthy amount of The Rapture together. It sounds too good to be true, I know, but it's all real. Their signature tune, 'LAYD', is the dance-punk calling card that you must hear.

mp3: Lions At Your Door - LAYD

And as if that wasn't enough, then there was 7 Day Weekend, who I just love for existing. Or something along those lines. According to the spokesperson for their label, Love is My Velocity, the 4-piece take their inspiration from and sing about "boys, pizza, parties and leisure wear". It's very fun and cutesy. The four girls all met at art school (where else?) and take pride in giving their gigs themes, allowing them the chance to dress up in a whole host of outfits including pirates, clowns and mimes. Latest track, 'Hot Property', sees the girls sing about wanting to get down low in your bungalow, all tongue- in-cheek of course, whilst 'Party Monster' is perfect fluoro-electro-pop... and it has hand claps. Hand claps = a selling point.

mp3: 7 Day Weekend - Hot Property
mp3: 7 Day Weekend - Party Monster

Perks of the job? Yeah, I guess so.

Goin' back to my roots

Deep down I am a black man. I have always believed this. There are certain ‘facts’ that unscrupulous types would disseminate in an attempt to disprove this. My mother grew up Chiswick and my father in Kew and, yes, they are both themselves white. I was not adopted and to the untrained eye I do appear to be ‘caucasian’.

DO NOT BE DECEIVED!

I have been trained to feel the funk, to have soul, to be down! Essentially I was raised on Blues and Soul and very little else. Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Otis Reading, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Wilson Picket, BB King were played throughout my childhood and to this day, I say that they have had a lasting effect. Later on I moved to Funk, Disco and Hip-Hop and its this Music of Black Origin (oh yes!) that has always been my first love.

This all means that despite Graham and Ellie being uber trendy electro-trash-hip-hop-pop-rock lovers I’m going to have to add a slice of my own musical heritage as a black man. However to appease you blog-browsing music elites I’ve chosen 7 rarer tracks so this post doesn’t feel too much like the end of an Ally McBeal episode.

Al Green - Love and Happiness

The Reverend Al Green should be known to many of you but this song is far and away one of his best but never seems to get as much recognition as Lets Stay Together, Tired Of Being Alone et all. Besides being light years better than most of his other work Love and Happiness is straight up Al Green; electric organ, punctuating horns and a voice that many have said could recite the phonebook and still sound amazing. Trivia time: This is Nick Hornby’s favourite ever track – and he knows a little about music methinks.

Felice Taylor - I Can Feel Your Love

I Can Feel Your Love by Felice Taylor is a song that I’ve been waiting to appear in some KFC/Baileys advert for the last two years since a friend put it on a mix-cd for me and when you hear you’ll understand why. The track is immediate uplifting soul straight out of 1967, produced and written by a pre-stardom Barry White. Taylor didn’t do too well in the US but had some small success in the UK, sadly though she’s not a name that gets talked about much these days, (that is until she gets used for a advert which is inevitable says I).

Francine King - Two Fools (feat. Sax Kari)

Some songs just end up in my laptop and I have no idea how they get there but praise the Lord that they are there. Francine King’s Two Fools featuring Sax Kari is definitely one of those songs. I can find so little information about this lady, she seems to be a soul singer from Mobile, Alabama but its New Orleans’s Sax Kari, who plays guitar on this hook-happy, cymbal-splashing, funk-ridden track, seems to be the driving force behind the outfit, only hooking up with King to do this one track. Sax Kari seems to be another unsung hero, a prolific writer and big band leader; he was signed to States and later Chess records. Not heard much else of his but this song alone is a warm blanket of early Funky Soul with comforting crackles of vinyl and loose-living lyrics of the South.

Parliament - Come In Out of the Rain

I cannot say enough about Parliament. If you think you don’t know them you probably do. Sampled by anyone who’s anyone these guys, under the leadership of the weird and wonderful George Clinton, are the most spectacular pioneers of the funk. Under the guises of Parliament, Funkadelic, Parliament Funkadelic, P-Funk, P-Funk All Stars they have produced some of the most seminal albums of the genre and took funk to a more experimental, political and generally more engaging level than other exponents like James Brown ever did. This track Come in Out of the Rain is from one of their earlier albums Osmium (but only on a very rare pressing worth thousands today!) and its one of my favourite ever protests songs. It should knock the socks off anyone with ears basically. I doubt this will be the last time Parliament/Funkadelic will be posted by me on here but if you can’t wait for more buy Funkadelic’s 1971 album, Maggot Brain, TODAY!

Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle
Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day and John Coltrane
Gil Scott-Heron - Pieces of a Man

GIL SCOTT-HERON!!! Shouted by James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem 6 minutes and 17 seconds into I’m Losing My Edge, from their self titled album of 2005, when Murphy is listing some of the coolest underground acts ever to have existed. A tentative link to what this blog is usually concerned with but frankly it doesn’t need one, this could be a blog about German industrial metal or Buddhist prayer chants and I think there’d always be a case to put some Gil Scott-Heron in there. Introduced to me by my friend Dom about 4 years ago (for which I am eternally grateful) there was no denying this guy is amazing. Gill Scott mixes poetry, jazz, soul and funk beautifully and effortlessly. Considered a racist in the 70s by many of the whites in the music industry due to his outspoken and uncompromising political views he never crossed over into the mainstream sadly but I think its clear its not what he wanted. DAMN! I’m listening to some Gil Scott right now I can’t just give you one track so you’re getting three and here’s a video of his best known poem The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

I feel like I’ve got something out of my system. I can continue blogging about fey indie bands from Montreal and Sweden now and not feel like I’ve overlooked my past. Time will tell if I'll be returning to my roots.

One love.

Is yours a shower or a grower?

Your preference that is? Do you like yours to impress straight away or do you prefer it to grow to be fully appreciated. I’m definitely a fan of growers when it comes to my music – yes, music! I wonder at the amount of bands and albums and songs that I have dismissed after only one or two listens that could have become all time favourites had I just been prepared to give a little more time.

“BARR is really good”. This is what I’ve been saying to people when I’ve been giving them mix-cds. “Forget everything else, track nine, Half of Two Times Two, love it!” I feel obliged to give it special mention as it is definitely, for me, a grower and I would hate for anyone to not give it the time it deserves and, in my opinion, needs to be fallen in love with. But how do you define a grower? It is not simple because I believe there are many different types.

They can be ‘slow burners’ – you’ve been listening to a highly recommended album for a few days now, perhaps not giving it your undivided attention, you may not even realise it is mind blowing till a break in a song or a chorus. You sit up, not sure where this has come from. You re-start the track and listen to it fully and it slowly dawns of you that you’re listening to something really special.

They can be ‘leapers’ – albums that you listened to a few months, maybe a few years back and you enjoyed it but to no great extent. Leap forward to today, bored of what you’ve been hearing over and over again recently you go back and delve into your shelves for something you’ve not heard for a while. You replay the album and like a fine wine its matured into something wonderful. I’m not sure if in the dormant period the music has made a concerted effort to get better or in the time between listens subconsciously your brain has made sense of it all and has been awaiting the chance to listen again properly.

They can be ‘clickers’ – you’ve listen to a few songs by some group for a day or two just before you’re about to give up and consider it for recycling suddenly everything falls into place and all the stuff Pitchfork or that blog or what your mate has been saying makes sense. “This band is awesome!” A treasured favourite is born.

This is what BARR (Brendan Fowler) was. When first recommended to me, I didn’t think much of him, then another friend recommended him and I said I’d listen again. After a friend, with whom I had previously agreed BARR was nothing special, turned around to me and say he’d been converted I went back and was determined to discover what the fuss was about.

CLICK! The stripped down production with spoken word delivery at first seemed too bare but now beautiful. CLICK! Initially Fowler’s voice felt monotone and inexpressive but now subtle yet acerbic. CLICK! I got what he was actually talking about and who he was talking to, this opened up all his songs and his style became so much easier to understand. I think he has to be seen live to fully grasp what he’s about. Having now fallen in love with him I have to say his album Summary, one of my favourite albums this year (cover below), is definitely worth getting and giving it a few listens to – or however long it takes.

1. First
2 The Song Is The Single
3. Summary
4. Complete Consumption Of Us Both
5. Untitled
6 Half of Two Times Two
7. Was I? Are You?
8. Piled On Piles On Head
9. Context Ender

The best thing about a grower is you feel that you’ve really earned it. With the music not immediately brilliant and the time needed to be given to fully appreciate how good it really is you feel like you’ve come away with something both you and the artist have put effort into making and it this creates connection between yourselves. For me it creates one of the strongest relationships with a band I can have.

I played it to a friend and she loved it straight away. She totally missed the point.

Commercial breakdown #1: Dogs Die in Hot Cars

I was thinking earlier about how that every now and again there is an advert on TV, and I'll be sitting there thinking "I know this tune...". Well, welcome to the first commercial break. Basically it's a means for me to post some stuff I wouldnt normally post, and say a little about it.

First up is the now sadly defunkt Dogs Die in Hot Cars. The group only released one album, an ep and several singles in their short career, but albeit a brief stint in the spotlight, one of their unlikeliest tracks has become unknowingly their most well know by accompanying the commercials for popular high street chemist, Boots. Taken from the Man Bites Man EP, 'Nobody Teaches Life Anything' was always one of my favourite DDiHC tracks despite being just over a minute long and instrumental. I can remember the first time I heard Boots use the track several years back, which has since been re-recorded by unknown forces (perhaps the band??) into different variations depending on season, such as the Christmassy version which accompanied the 3 for 2 promotions.

I realise some people may find it rather sad that I have taken so much notice of the Boots adverts, but it's a great little piece of music. For those of you interested in Dogs Die in Hot Cars I highly recommend their LP, Please Describe Yourself, which is unashamedly packed with indie pop gems, such as 'I Love You 'Cause I Have To' and the amazing 'Pastimes & Lifestyles', which I have included below.

Dogs Die in Hot Cars' Please Describe Yourself is available on V2 records.

mp3: Dogs Die in Hot Cars - Nobody Teaches Life Anything
mp3: Dogs Die in Hot Cars - I Love You 'Cause I Have To
mp3: Dogs Die in Hot Cars - Pastimes and Lifestyles (EP version)