The DurAnorak

Week 1 : Stories and books

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:38:03 GMT

Which is an excellent theme and a good one to start with. Herewith, ten songs that fit it, for your listening pleasure this week. If you've had any more ideas for themes you might like, do keep comments to that effect coming. I have my own inspiration but I really like giving you what you want. :)

Shalott - Emilie Autumn
Much as there are things that I don't like about her, this song is a brilliant bitter doll-like working of the story of the Lady Of Shalott with ribbons of violin, harpsichord (really) and unexpectedly subtle electronic beats. It's all a bit of a cliché, but then she knows that - "I could have guessed it all along, 'cause now some drama queen is going to write a song for me..."

Books From Boxes - Maxïmo Park
I do love this band. I don't know any other indie band that manages to combine intellectual pretensions with frenetic energy and sharp suits quite so well. Paul Smith's voice always sounds on the edge of cracking into undreamed-of emotion - never breaks, but you always feel it's only a matter of time. This has tenderness and awkwardness, some surprisingly 90s guitar sounds, and the most unlikely chord change towards the tiny middle section. I've just had to listen to it several times over to make sure I heard that right.

Voldemort Is Awesome - Draco & The Malfoys
You know, in honour of The Book and all. And indeed because although all the wizard rock bands play some of the lamest, worst-written, weediest crap in musical history, I still get the giggles listening to this because I'm hopeless. "And now it looks like you'll be back in your place - my dad was so glad he didn't punch me in the face! He said "Hurray! He's okay! Oh Volday! Yeah I think he is back to stay, praise the day! I am gay. Oh hurray!"." Ahem.

Hold That Thought - Trademark
...but seriously. I'm so glad to have an excuse to post this. Trademark are a quietly excellent and extremely geeky little British electro band and I like their album Want More very much indeed. 'Sine Love' is probably their best song, all glacial heartbreak, but 'Hold That Thought' hit home hard when I first heard it. For anyone who's ever fallen into a book, or wanted to drag anyone out of one. It's simple, almost uncomfortably simple, but it's got a place right in my heart because I don't know anyone else who's really written a song about this. Plus, glowy synths. I like my glowy synths.

Demon Barber Of Fleet Street - Spook & The Ghouls
Their album found on a random search during the great London Mix Hunt of 2006, the internet won't tell me anything about this band other than that they're a psychobilly outfit, which really I could have told you myself. Nothing like an obscure double-bass-led smirking unsubtle work of genius sung by Sweeney Todd, is there? May be a couple of flaws in the track, the whole album was ripped from vinyl and is a mess. Worth listening to anyway, I think. But then I'm easily amused.

Darrell & Alicia - The Horatii
You knew it was coming. One of my favourite songs to dance to in clubs, if you don't already know this - and you should - it's a tongue-in-cheek goth hymn to the joys of two of Enid Blyton's best-loved schoolgirls. It's a pretty clever little thing, really. Hovers just on the edge of humour and discomfort. Plus it's better goth-rock than any number of more serious bits of generic toss.

Dancing Through Life - Wicked Original Broadway Cast
Shut up, I'm obsessed. I'm sure you all know by now that Wicked the musical is based on Wicked the book, which is based on a film which was based on a book, so I declare it counts. I'm particularly fixated on this one song this month, Prince Fiyero's gloriously shallow solo number about how "nothing matters when knowing nothing matters", segueing into bits of sung storyline that hurt my heart. Oh, damn it, tickets to this show should be free on the NHS. It's the best thing in the world.

Beware...For Wolves Come In Many Disguises - Gavin Friday and the Friday-Seezer Ensemble
The look on my face when I discovered there was a version of Peter And The Wolf narrated by Gavin Friday, he of the voice that could melt diamonds and disintegrate clothing at will, must have been priceless. This, anyway, is the first introductory section of it. I just. What the hell. Gavin Friday. and Prokofiev. together at last. it's perfect. Insane! But perfect.

Mr. Punch - Future Bible Heroes
I've got a deep and abiding phobia of Mr. Punch. He's one of the most unpleasant characters in story tradition. So, of course, Neil Gaiman has written about him, and this is from the (mostly excellent) Neil Gaiman tribute album, called Where's Neil When You Need Him? which I'm sure is a question most of us have asked ourselves. Creepy, spirally cheerful fairground music and puppet-theatre percussion and, ugh, verses that might be sung through a swazzle. Brilliant and rather horrible.

The Queen Of Argyll - Silly Wizard
I was asked for stories, and I'm insisting that this counts, presumably because I want to be mocked and ridiculed for liking dodgy folk music, I don't know. But I've got in Future Bible Heroes and Gavin Friday, I think I'm allowed to have my credibility slip enough to demand attention for this because it's just so. damn. beautiful.
Look, I don't like folk music all that often. The voices drive me up the wall and the twangly little instruments offend my synth-bass-craving sensibilities. But this thing, although yes, it's got the voice and the twangly guitar and stuff, unfolded in my head like a map I should always have known and then the harmonies in the chorus made me burst into tears. "The swan was in her movement, and the morning in her smile..."

I'll be there before you close the door

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:14:09 GMT

Hi! God, I have neglected you for much too long. This is because I'm not gathering new music in the way I used to, but really, I don't want to utterly abandon you. So I kind of want to change the way I do things here.

I have a lot of music and I love sharing it with you and talking about it; don't want to stop. So I'm going to share ten songs a week. One post, ten songs, all on a theme of some kind. What I want from you, dear lovely people, is theme ideas. As many as you like, anything that you might be interested in. I'm going to screen comments because I always find my inspiration chased away by what other people say to posts like this, and also because I'm all in favour of multiple people posting the same theme; I'm curious. If you do this for me, I'll cover everything you post, eventually. Even if it means I have to go find new stuff to fit a theme of yours. :)

Or, alternatively, comments screened so you can tell me how not interested you are. That's fine too. :) I'm just trying to get around my enormous writer's block.

E.
x

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 03:54:27 GMT

This has made it okay for me to have been awake at four in the morning, with a cold.

JAPAN MACROS, among other wonderful things. Joy of joys.

Tue, 22 May 2007 14:41:43 GMT

Do you know what? I'm not ignoring you. No, I swear. It's just that I'm in the middle of a total mental block as to what to post anywhere, my main journal included. I'd love to be able to tell you about some new exciting sensation of some kind or other, but I honestly don't know of one. However, I can't bear the thought of you all sitting out there waiting for me to drop music out of the sky into your poverty-stricken villages (because I know that's what you're doing), so, here is what I have been listening to recently. No, no, don't get up. I do it out of the goodness of my ego.

In One Ear - Formatic
Actually, Formatic are a new exciting sensation, of an electro kind, naturally. I've mentioned them before because they're on the marvellous Robopop : The Return compilation, and here's what seems to be the latest song they've released into the wild. I love how unusual their songs are, all jagged and unexpected, and I love how her voice sounds like Sophie Ellis-Bextor; everything about what they do stands out a mile. I like.

Man Of Colours - Icehouse
It's things like this that make me feel I haven't heard enough Icehouse. But then in England in the 80s there was never really enough room for music like this, gorgeous atmospheric post-new-wave with haunting instrumentation the colour of the sky in midsummer. This is utterly glorious; if you go in for the atmospheric and don't know it, download it now so that you have it for one day in July when you'll be lying out in the sun and suddenly realise it's the only thing you want to hear.

Safety Dance - Trans-X
I love Trans-X. There just aren't enough bouncy French new wave groups and in addition to the club favourite 'Living On Video' they did many other very lovely things, including this pretty faithful Men Without Hats cover. It's lifted above the simply pleasant by their female vocalist's charming spoken French pleas asking for a guy to dance with her. Anyone? Anyone? Awww. I also love Trans-X for this, which could not be more what I want from an early 80s video if it tried. Really. It really couldn't.

Voda - Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoukov
Otherwise known as the Bulgarian Eurovision entry for this year. Also a truly outstanding Eastern European dance track with all the wailing you could possibly want. Much as I enjoyed Les Fatals Picards from France and the Ukraine's mirrorball genius is forever emblazoned on my soul, this was easily the best song that went into the competition. Also they had a hell of a good time performing it, evidently.

Wenn Engel Hassen - Subway To Sally
Friend sent me this and I've only just got round to listening to it. It's wonderful. Beautiful verses over music like steel lacework and then huge German dramatic rock choruses that ought to have Rammstein CRYING LIKE GIRLS. I don't listen to enough music like this.

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? - British Standard Unit
Well, I'll be damned. Someone once made a cover of this that's far, far freakier than the RevCo version. This is one of the weirdest cover versions I've ever heard and is a bit like a very deleted scene from I, Robot coming to pornographic life all up in your speakers. It's genius. Add N To (X), give up now, you'll never be this good.

Linoleum - Tweaker feat. David Sylvian
Thank you, rahalia_cat! This is just what's needed some days, David Sylvian's unmistakeable croon over the top of oddly-placed electronics with a hazy, almost hallucinatory chorus and then Big Fuzzy Guitars. Oh yes.

Luv 4 Luv - Robin S
Yeah, I know. But I missed this song, and downloading a (mediocre and now discarded) cover version of it reminded me how great I used to think it was. So I downloaded it again and it still sort of is, if in a way that could not be more early 90s if it were doing the running man to 'House Of Love' by East 17. Who first thought to make keyboards make that noise so beloved of the Nightcrawlers? Anyway.

Meet Her At The Love Parade - Da Hool
Right. Here's something I don't understand.
This piece of sound recording has no words. It has an unchanging beat no different from, say, a million other dance tracks. It has no tune. It has little bleeping noises that go up and down a series of four notes, but there is no tune. I do not take drugs. I have never taken any drugs. I have never heard it in a club.
So why on earth do I like it? Seriously. Why. I just don't understand.

All The Pretty Little Horses - Coil
There should probably have been a law against letting experimental lunatics like Coil near traditional children's songs. Actually, though, this comes out rather beautifully. Which...just makes it creepier, really. Hallowe'en this year will probably feature this one rather heavily.

Day Of The Dead - Voltaire
For some reason I always refuse to admit Voltaire is as good as he is. So, this is a deeply unimpressive, very boring song about kittens. There is not in any way a set of amusing lyrics, nor is it in fact a completely brilliant and unlikely piece of music utterly suited to its subject matter. Specifically, he does not at any point sing "When hell is full, the dead will walk the earth, and apparently, they come up here for the beer!" Because that would be excellent. And he's not.

Big Time - Ryeland Allison
The best covers are those you hear and think, I always wanted someone to cover that song this way - I just never realised it. This is one such. It's perfect, tongue in cheek and inventive and not in the least complacent. I love it.

Mordred's Lullaby - Heather Dale
It's my journal, I'm allowed to like german goth-rock and early 90s dance music and mystic celtic folk all at once if I want to. I'll give you three guesses which of those this is. If that's your thing, you might want to take this; it's very beautiful, cold and fierce and all strings and dark swirly electronics in the background.

Spooky Vibes - Blind Mr. Jones
Can someone tell me why I had to wait this long to hear about this band? There are flutes in this, and desperate early 90s guitars, and soft harmonies and. And why do I get the feeling nobody else is going to like this? Oh well.

For sanssommeil - To Venus And Back

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:18:08 GMT

Five of my very favourite things about Tori Amos. Because no-one gets away without the Tori for long. Please ignore this if you already know it all, I will post something cutting-edge and electronic at some point, I will. I promise. I am behind on music! Argh.

Five Tori songs. It's not easy to limit it that far down. So I'll just give you the ones that have hit me the hardest. Tori songs tend to be ones you feel more than listen to. I have no idea what you'll think.

China
'China', the soft white blanket of a song about heartbreaking distance. The lyrics of which make a great deal more sense than many Tori songs; in that context, the directness is even more destroying than it already was. Beautiful, for the breathy instrumentation behind her unique voice, for the hurt in that voice, for the words. Sudden flying middle-8 out of nowhere is a bit unexpected, but you get used to it. I love this.

Silent All These Years
Here are the words, for I am wordless. Except to say that if you don't understand this song, that's all right. Good, even.
We do, though.

Black-Dove (January)
Frightened thing, this. All about fear and escape and childhood and dark corners. And the woods.

Sugar (live)
Already had this up on Vox for a reason. It is powerful and unkind and beautiful. It makes us shudder.
Sweet boy, when they find you out, tell me what you think they'll do?

Bells For Her
Never less than in pieces when I listen to this. The desperately lonely ghost toy piano, the cracks in her voice, the cracks in the lyrics. The way her voice fails her at times. Everything.
Bells and footfalls and soldiers and dolls;
Brothers and lovers she and I were.
Now she seems to be sand under his shoes...
There's nothing I can do.

Can't stop what's coming.
Can't stop what is on its way.

And now I speak to you; are you in there?
You have her face, and her eyes. But you are not her.

Internet owns my soul part 6457

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:12:31 GMT

The entirety of Japan's Oil On Canvas video? All fifty-six and a half minutes of it? In my videos folder? Don't mind if I do.

Really, this is very exciting. No, it is. Shush.

I owe you stuff, I know! Don't know what to post, though, any thoughts?

E.
x

[review] We Are Not Men, We Are Nemo

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:34:17 GMT

There are pros and cons to going to small indie gigs. On the one hand, you get to see what's new and electric (or whatever) up close and almost-personal; on the other hand, no bugger ever dances and the dress code is always 'things that stuck to you last time you ran past a tramp'. Last night, feeling both at home - I like the Metro, it's everything a small Central London venue should be - and out of place by virtue of being twice the height of everyone else there, I had come to see Nemo. I didn't even realise there would be support bands; I'm glad I got there early enough to see them, as they were both entertaining. In their own way.

Miss Davina Lee are two people making very cool music, and two other people making very uncool music, at the same time. I am astounded by how well this works : vocalist and keyboard player are all sawtooth 21st century indielectro, guitarists are like session musicians for The Eagles. At first I thought said guitarists had been overwhelmed by the pervasive keyboards, good but oddly flat and basic, as seems to be the fashion at the moment. But as the songs went past and were filled or decorated with swooning 1950s guitar stylings, I had to concede that they were holding their own remarkably well. In front of all this stood Miss Davina Lee's very lovely singer - the epitome of current dork-chic, she was wearing a pea-green cardigan and a dress made out of a deckchair. And she sounds like Annabella Lwin and Clare Grogan having a catfight. She is enchanting. Some of the songs crossed over into the self-indulgent, but for the most part they were infectious and extremely likeable. Although, since their most fundamentally memorable and excellent song was about a dirty old man masturbating on the tube, I'm not sure wider audiences are beckoning just yet.

Eddyfink. I owe this band the kind of drink they won't accept - one to day thanks for making me laugh harder than I have in ages. Opening with a strobe light and U2-esque flickering guitars, whatever they did next was going to be underwhelming (small bands should NEVER over-introduce themselves), but nothing could have prepared me for how utterly and bizarrely disappointing they turned out to be. They have a small shrieking coterie of fans; this is because two of them look the part, all dapper facial hair and geometric waistcoats. The third member looks like barrysarll's creepy uncle and appears to be hanging on to his 'heyday' like grim death. The hilarity, for me, began with him : he sings falsetto backing vocals. On everything. Utterly out of tune. Or perhaps not, because Eddyfink are fans of the Adventurous Discord. Not a song went by without some teeth-clenching yet somehow puny clash of sounds. It got worse and worse, and all the more infuriating because they write good Bloc Party anthemic choruses, but they will insist on surrounding them with unforgivably smug 'progressive' verses and middle-8s and crap. The best thing they did, a really gorgeous, soaring instrumental break followed by a truly festival-worthy chorus, was tacked onto the end of something that sounded like a Korg trying to mate with a washing-machine.
And, lest you think that I am being too harsh and my criticisms may, if read, curtail Eddyfink's quest for glory, let me assure you of one more thing : they fucking LOVE themselves. I am frankly amazed someone didn't have to come and scrub the stage, given the amount, the sheer surging torrent of wank that poured forth from their set. Out of all the songs I genuinely caught only one lyric - "I don't think so." Well, quite.

Nemo are a band I have been wanting to see for months, and now that I have, I'm finding it hard to describe the experience. Let's say that there is very little in this world that I delight in so much as watching beautiful people make good music. And that Nemo are very beautiful people, and by christ their music is good. Their guitarist looks like young John Foxx in a wig, and James Cook appears to be some kind of genetic project to create the perfect man out of satin, cream and Leo Sayer. They are all extremely competent musicians who play their own instruments with flair and pass around a tiny Korg synth like they were born playing it - with the exception of the drummer, who was landlocked but flawless throughout the set.
I only knew two of their songs - the new single 'Car Crash Eyes', which was given a new dimension of electricity by their frenetic performance, and the sublime 'Piccadilly In Sepia' - but the next time I see them, and there will be a next time, I will remember just about every line. Nemo are one of those bands that sear their artwork into your brain, that stamp the lyrics into your skin over and over and over again until you feel like you've been watching them all your life. James has an amazingly strong voice that carries easily over the mesh of electronics and guitars behind him, and performs with that kind of crazed jerky desperation I expect from all my indie vocalists and so very rarely get. Wide staring eyes and sweat-sheened skin made him appear utterly unworldly as he and his guitarist sang their way through song after song that, fundamentally, I want to hear again.

Which is all you can ask for, really. Go and see them. They're brilliant.

Construction Time Again; Some Great Reward

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:58:48 GMT

See what I did there? Heh. I am moving house tomorrow, and am not sure when I will get my computer hooked up to the internet again, so, much like last time - presents! Presents for you. Because I might not be able to upload any music for a while.

Here's the best of what I've uncovered recently, plus one or two things I've had for a while and only just realised how good they were, because I'm special like that. Lots of songs. Today is a good day to request things, if inspiration strikes.

Skin Trade - Scarlet Soho
I'm going to see this band soon. I am very happy about this. Frankly excellent electropop with some grin-inducing chord progresssions. Not a Duran Duran cover; that would have been too much to ask for, really.

Blue Dress - Fishtank No. 9 feat. Christa Bell
This is a cover, though, a very beautiful, slightly hallucinatory, dreamy Depeche Mode cover. I can't stop listening to it at the moment.

Space Age Love Song - Dark Distant Spaces
Awwwww. Darkwave covers of A Flock Of Seagulls! More like this, please.

Lollipop (Original Mix) - Dada feat. Sandy Rivera
Electro house with a sparkly heart. You'll hate it, but I love it.

Burn - Sister Machine Gun
Electroindustrial is the sex. This came out of this week's excellent audiography posts and I am very glad, I love it.

Move Any Mountain - The Shamen
What? I've only just been reminded of how great it is.

Caroline's A Victim - Kate Nash
I don't know what's wrong with me, but I am actually madly in love with this song, which is as musically complex as 'Warm Leatherette' and will probably annoy you all to death. Killah! Yeah.

The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove - Disciples Of Astaroth
I think this is an awful cover, but my love for covers prevails over all and I love the nervous piano bits and stuff. I don't know.

Cynical Heart - Jam & Spoon featuring Jim Kerr
If that isn't an unlikely combination, I don't know what is. I thought this was terribly boring until the chorus. Now I listen to it on trains and have to restrain myself from standing up and doing Electro Anthem Hand-Wavy Dancing.

U Got The Look - Dirty Sanchez
The Electro-Goth Tribute To Prince is a very weird album. This, though, is an absolutely brilliant reworking of what's probably my favourite Prince song. And this is why I love covers. It's full of synth washes! Why are there not more synth washes in music? I demand synth washes.

Frosty The Snowman - Cocteau Twins
...obviously.

Warm Leatherette - Bauhaus & NIN
You know you want it.

All Tomorrow's Parties - Icehouse
Now with added chanting. Honestly. I love covers of this song more than almost any other, but even I never expected to hear Iva Davies get all Libera on it.

Sister Europe - Icehouse
This is now in my top ten cover versions. The piano and strings are frankly quite frightening levels of genius. Listen to it now.

Isn't It Strange - The Cooper Temple Clause
Whatever I expected new TCTC to sound like, it wasn't this. I thought it was some random mediocre electro I'd downloaded without realising, when it came up on shuffle, but it charmed me enough to keep listening and then it all got very, very beautiful. Oh god. Shy indie. I love it.

This Is Halloween - Panic! At The Disco
How much love is it possible to make a cover version with? THIS MUCH LOVE. Bless them.

Low Five - Sneaker Pimps
One of the most gorgeous songs I've heard in the last year. Chris Corner is god.

Kooks - Robbie Williams
In which Mr Of Williams gays about all over my very favourite early Bowie song.

Wenceslas - Abney Park
Darkwave instrumental 'Good King Wenceslas'. Because of course...um...something. It's good, though.

Whiskey In The Jar (live) - U2
I don't often go in for live songs, but there's something incredibly moving about this.

Silent Eleanor - Depeche Mode vs The Beatles
Best mashup I've heard in a long time. Gorgeous.

Holly Jolly Christmas - Joy Electric
Oh, I would have loved to be in the studio for this. WTF. WTF. WTF.

Halcyon + on + on - Orbital
I don't care if I am the last person in the world to hear this. That makes me a happy last person. It is amazing.

Count Souvenirs - Junior Boys
I find it very hard to express how spine-tingling and brilliant I think this song is. So you'll have to listen to it and see if you agree with me. "Please...please don't touch."

Are You The One? - The Presets
This, too, is new, and quite unfeasible levels of genius have gone into it. Sawtooth discomfort and set-jaw vocals and and and. It's fantastic.

Indoctrination (A Design For Living) - Dead Can Dance
Most of you probably know this already, but since it features not one but two Lost Chords I can't resist including it.

Alice - Cocteau Twins & Dead Can Dance
Quite, quite impossibly beautiful. I listened to this out in the snow the other week, with nobody else around.

Seven Dials - DJ Downfall
And now for something completely different; silly sweetheart electro that rips off 'Manic Monday' something chronic but is too adorable to condemn for it.

It's Bad & It's Just Begun - Performance
I cannot stress enough how amazing I think this band are. Crackly, as it's from vinyl, but also stunning. Earnest, a little desperate, the harmonies. God, this rules.

These Boots Are Made For Walking - BEF with Paula Yates
Only because nobody believes me that this exists. It's terrible. Obviously.

Empire Line - My Life Story
My favourite band of the 1990s. But then you knew that.

The Smile - Marion
The art of making indie songs like this may have died with them, to be honest. (Yes, I know they've reformed and stuff.) This is amazing.

Descending (Upper Regions) - Moulin Noir
I love this man. I love him. I want his time machine! How come he gets a time machine and I don't? It even takes a detour via the 1990s in the middle of this! I am jealous.

Maximize - Rex The Dog
One of the best pieces of dance music ever to be written. God damn you, dance music, I don't understand you enough to be able to say why. It just is.

Don't Say No - Patrick Wolf
As long as this man is making music I will not stop going on about how much you should be listening to the music he is making. It's conceivable he's the most important musician Britain has produced in...oh, a very long time.

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 15:44:09 GMT

You cannot possibly overestimate my joy at finding someone with an audio bootleg of the John Foxx gig I went to in 2003.

It's not that I particularly like listening to live versions of songs - I often can't stand them - but that was the first time I ever heard 'Ultraviolet/Infrared' and, although I love the album version very much, it's never quite captured the magic of hearing it in that crowd under those lasers. Obviously I can't find the lasers and I'm not amongst that crowd, but the other thing the album version is missing is the harmonies Louis Gordon added in the live show.

And they're there, on this crackly bootleg recording.

Thank you, internet. I do love you, you know.

Keyboards! Who knew?

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 09:41:21 GMT

Oh my god, I've just actually had to hold on to the arms of this chair so I didn't fall off it.

Listen to this! It's the upcoming Maxïmo Park single and it. is. wonderful. They always could pretty much do no wrong, but now they've got keyboards in as well. As usual with their songs it feels slightly put together with double-sided sticky tape, but that's one of the things I like about them, to be honest.

Also, since it amused me, the video YouTube decided to recommend me after that was Away by The Bolshoi, featuring some of the most charming overacting by a lead singer that I've seen in quite some time. Ah. I do love the 80s.

But, yes. Maxïmo Park, guys, seriously. Thank you theashtray_girl for mentioning it and getting me to go and look it up. :)

E.
x

Sometimes I do this.

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:02:58 GMT

A while ago, dennyd mentioned a band he'd heard whilst browsing last.fm radio, that I'd not heard of but he thought I'd like. I made a mental note and then lost the mental notepad I'd made it on. Except that for some reason I've had a running SoulSeek search on them recently, but also totally forgotten why I was doing that. Now I've found a couple of their songs, and had them explode inside my head like some kind of acidic firework electro popping-candy, of course, I've gone and looked them up properly.

Oh yeah. I was SoulSeeking them because they're supporting IAMX and I wanted to know what they sounded like before I saw them.

They sound AMAZING. And I'm going to see them. HA.

chris_coltrane, you are only half right, by the way. Digital are my new favourite band, but only for the next four minutes until I realise how much they fundamentally suck. Which they do (in many, many ways, by the looks of it, some of them enthusiastically) but they are, I confess, enjoyable.

Don't watch that, watch this

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:41:42 GMT

I have just spent a very happy two hours watching E4 music and making notes. It has been such a long time since I last made a proper post about new music I've been hearing - I hope you've not lost faith in me. I am very much behind on this so I'll try and watch a whole morning of music someday soon, but for now, here's my current highlights.

I'm liking what's being played at those discotheques the kids go to at the moment, I can tell you that. Ministry of Sound currently have a compilation out called Electro House Sessions and some of the things on it are nothing short of lightning-strike brilliant, particularly 'Exceeder' by Mason vs Princess Superstar and the truly blinding 'The Creeps' by Camille Jones, as remixed by Fedde Le Grand of 'Put Your Hands Up For Detroit' and that. It's got everything I need - a dark and dirty bassline, shivery neon keyboards, back-of-the-throat vocals. I love it.
Those of you who saw the video for 'Put Your Hands Up For Detroit' will be unsurprised by its cousin, mind.

In not unrelated news, can anyone think of a reason why they didn't tell me about 'Acceptable In The 80s' by Calvin Harris? In point of fact what he is doing was not only not really acceptable in the 80s (it reminds me of 'Hey You (The Rocksteady Crew)' more than anything else) but I'm not at all sure it's acceptable now, either. But that doesn't matter because it makes me grin with its bassline in overlarge clown shoes and its absurd keytar-like melody line and the relentless gay optimism of its vocals. E4's resident muppet George Lamb said he was reminded of Tiga, but I reckon Tiga would have to bathe in day-glo paint for about six months to get anywhere near this level of silliness.
It's cute, though.

If that overdoes it, then underdoing it in a way that makes me wonder if this is what electroclash would have sounded like if it had started in Tottenham instead of New York is 'Caroline's A Victim' by Kate Nash. I'm not sure about it as a song. It's minimal to the point of embarrassment, one little 60s bassline, some drums and a saw-motion on a keyboard, and then these utterly pointless vocals. And still I can't take my eyes off the video (which is all candy pink supersweet zeitgeist) or help wanting to hear it again. I don't know quite what's going on.

Speaking of not knowing quite what's going on, um. Have I missed something in the world of R&B? Because you know Justin's bizarre 'My Love', which I never wanted to like but found myself utterly seduced by? I think Nelly Furtado's new single 'Say It Right' is its twin sister. There are the same black/white graphics and dancers, there is the same up-close camerawork, and more than anything there is the same musical sensibility - an extraordinary feeling of coldness, giving you the sensation of sinking into ice as you listen to it. I really want to know whether this is something that's going to happen more often or if this is just a case of a perfect couple of songs. Because it's made me like two singles I know I would have been bored by otherwise. Video here.

I actually noticed a curious lack of indie bands on E4 today. Can it be that the new new new new wave is drawing to a close? If it is, at least the Kaiser Chiefs have got the excitement of a brand new single in before the door closes. It's called 'Ruby' and I expect every radio station will be playing it all day every day for the next two months, so you too can enjoy its not electrifying but nevertheless perfectly pleasing British naivete. It's good. Not brilliant, but good. The only other indie band I particularly noticed were The Maccabees, who make the kind of fragile major-key university indie music that bores me to tears, but have done something rather lovely with their new video.

And that word "video" brings me to, uh.
Um.
What. Is going on. On the planet Of Williams?
Mr. Robbie of Williams has a new single coming out, kids! It's called 'She's Madonna' and because I am remiss I have not told you yet about the utter headfuck that is his Rudebox album. So you might not know that the track is written by the Pet Shop Boys, or that it's all about how Mr of Williams loves his girl very much but has been asked out by Madonna and therefore is going off with her because frankly, who wouldn't? Musically it's beautiful, just the kind of lush sweeping stuff recent Pet Shop Boys own the rights to. Lyrically, obviously, it's cutting and unkind and brilliant. And the video, uh. Has Robbie performing to a room full of drag queens and incidentally dressed as one himself giving bits of an interview about having multiple personalities.
No. Really. It's...genius.

And in the round we like to call General Ignorance :
* Sophie Ellis-Bextor has a new song called 'Catch You', which has big dreams, even bigger guitars, a HUGE bassline, and unfortunately doesn't really go anywhere with any of it, making it sound rather like taking a Pagani Zonda out to get the milk. Also the video makes her look even more insane than usual. I don't think she's human.
* Gwen Stefani's new single 'The Sweetest Escape' is absolute nonsense, not aided by whooping from Akon (but then, what is?) Even the video doesn't make up for it. I am thoroughly bored by her second album, which is a shame.
* Lily Allen has given in to public pressure and released the brilliant 'Alfie', a brilliant 60s pastiche about her little brother. Good.
and finally
* Good Charlotte are back!
Their song is called 'Keep Your Hands Off My Girl'!
They're angry! They're dark! They're dark and angry! They're...full of vocal distort, massive electroindustrial backing and occasional falsetto crying?

...they what now?
I was wondering where they'd been all this time. Having listened to this I can only conclude they've spent the last two years living in Alec Empire's bin.

It would probably be quite good if they could actually write lyrics at all and had released it five years ago instead of now. Oh well.

Speaking of surprise cover versions

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:02:27 GMT

Things I have discovered of late :

* Someone's home-constructed (I presume) 'Darkwave Christmas' compilation, including instrumental gloomy (if rather good) versions of 'We Three Kings' and 'Good King Wenceslas', a heavy industrial 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' and the most half-arsed 'Little Drummer Boy' ever.

* Relatedly, just now, the Cocteau Twins doing 'Frosty The Snowman'. It's lovely. Of course.

* The Human League, live in 1982, murdering 'Destination Venus' by The Rezillos because both bands share one member. Who evidently couldn't remember how it went.

* Icehouse covering 'All Tomorrow's Parties' with the aid of a choir singing in what appears to be choral church Latin. Absolutely beautiful but now I have no idea who to play it to who won't just laugh.

I love cover versions. Yes, I know you know that. There's some shiny new electro pop and house stuff happening at the moment as well, but I'll get onto that when I have more energy. :)

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 23:15:55 GMT

Of all the covers I didn't think I'd hear, NIN and Peter Murphy teaming up on 'Warm Leatherette' has to be in the top ten of 'most likely to make my head explode with brilliance'. MY GOD.

Just saying.

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:48:05 GMT

Okay, fine, since you only show signs of listening to me when I'm giving you presents, here are some songs. Now will you go and listen to Performance? :)

We Rise - Chris Corner
The coolest thing I've heard in weeks. Oh god it's so great.

What Time Is Love? - Kaiser Chiefs
Yes, really.

Rollercoaster - The Grid
How can this album possibly be out of print?

Ambler - The Echoing Green
I don't know why.

Cobrastyle - Robyn
More attitude than you'll ever have.

PS

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:28:06 GMT

Also, I'm sure nobody needs me to tell them this, but 'Grace Kelly' by Mika really is the best thing to happen to the UK charts in...oh my god. A very, very, very, very long time.

Time for you to pay attention again.

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 09:25:38 GMT

You see, I spend the last couple of months showering you with gifts, and now you have to do as I say. And what I say is, my god, there's this band I keep meaning to talk about.

Usually every time there's this band I keep meaning to talk about, I leave it for a bit and then they make it huge and nobody believes me that I heard them before the horde (this happened with the Kaiser Chiefs, which was...irritating). So I'm not going to leave this. I'm going to shove it in your faces because a) they are just that bloody good and b) they...probably aren't going to make it huge, so someone has to tell you. Right? Listening? Good.

Just before Christmas, as you know, I bought the Robopop : The Return compilation, a marvellous thing composed of the best of modern electro and the synthpop of the future. There were some very exciting things on there, one of which wasn't quite 'Surrender' by Performance - it was good, it was energetic and engaging, but it was a bit...daft. It suffers from that electroboy disease of 'if I really throw my heart into this and sound so honest and earnest it's as if I raise guide dogs for the blind in my spare time, perhaps they won't notice that what I'm singing doesn't make any sense!'. But it was a good little newnewnewnew wave song, with some really lovely touches, so I thought I'd find out a bit more.

And what did I find? I found a fledgling band with, buried in some of their songs and shining all over other ones, the ability to give my White Rose Movement a run for their money. Last year they released an EP called 'Short Sharp Shock' on vinyl, and because it was only on vinyl I shall upload two tracks for you (vinyl ripped, so a bit scratchy). In 'Short Sharp Shock' you will be listening to frantic desperate electronic indie hurtling into the stratosphere and taking you with it, something of which I unequivocally approve. The verses grab you by the shirt collar and shake you and then the chorus is just. this. HUGE. THING. I love it so much. 'Architecture & Police' doesn't sound as electrifying to start with - especially as for at least half a minute it's in disguise as 'Fade To Grey' - but give it time and it becomes this glorious strutting creation of British charm that melts my heart more and more as it goes on. Although they're from Manchester, this one sounds just like I wish Carnaby Street felt like.

For god's sake listen to them and let's all go and see them live, they sound like they'd be amazing. If you're in Manchester it's your civic duty. Bring them to London! PLEASE.

Short Sharp Shock - Performance
Architecture & Police - Performance
Website

Question.

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:15:51 GMT

On the basis that I'm currently listening to 'A Forest' by The Cure - what are the songs that you always forget are quite that good, due to their being overplayed in your particular sphere of listening?

I get it with 'Rio', too. And 'Vienna'. What about you?

Also I've not asked this in a while, so - what one song would you lock in Room 101 forever?

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:05:17 GMT

Sometimes I do worry that I might be missing something.

Just picked up a sincere but bonkers metal cover of 'Dancing With Tears In My Eyes' by Ultravox. Why do they do it? It's not as if any single thing about Ultravox has inspired them to get where they are, which is here.
I fundamentally do not think they wish they were in Ultravox.

So why the appalling cover version? I am bemused. It happens more often than you might think. The metal 'Vienna' covers are especially painful.

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:23:03 GMT

You know when I post music here I post for everyone, so you're all welcome to steal these things if you so wish, but this post is for johnpilgrim, who may possibly have the closest match to my taste in music that I have ever seen ever - ever - if one just goes by the power of last.fm. Watch this space (well, click the cut tag) for a bunch of synthpop and modern electro many of you may have seen before, and some you may not have. There's a lot of stuff here; if you disapprove of this sort of thing please walk on by but also bear in mind I myself own just about all of it. :)

Hey you. I'm just going down my iTunes list in alphabetical order, so there's no real rhyme or reason to this beyond that. There's a million not-synthpop things I want to share too because I know you like much of the other genres I do, but I did promise you synthpop, so I've limited myself to that and...things a bit like it. Honestly, this is what happens when I restrain myself. I have a lot of music. Hope you like and some of it's new to you. :) xx

Keep On Smiling - 120 Days
Sweet Thing - Alice In Videoland
Beauty 606 - Ambra Red
Furniture Music - Bill Nelson's Red Noise
Summer Tide - bit pixel
Phostographt - Crossover
Cubismo - Data
Voyage, Voyage - Desireless
Fall Awake - The Echoing Green (technically not synthpop, but a current obsession nonetheless)
Future Pop Muzik - Epsilon Minus (also futurepop rather than synthpop, but my favourite cover ever)
Like Zsa Zsa Gabor - Erasure (I'm guessing they're not new to you as a band but you may not have heard their b-sides. I don't know)
Neon Human - Felix Da Housecat
Ocean Drive (Tiga's White Linen Vox) - FPU
Stakeout - Freezepop (I can't see them on your last.fm...)
Tracey Gold - Freezepop (...hence two of their songs. And if you like them there are many more :)
It's Not Enough - Ganymede
Beautiful - Goldfrapp (I'm assuming you have most of their stuff already though)
Spit It Out - IAMX
Sailor - IAMX
Captain, My Captain - I, Synthesist
030 - John Foxx (not sure how much of his stuff you have)
Sirius - JuJu Babies
Nothing To Declare - Laptop
Play It For Today - The Legends
Hot Room (Tiga Remix) - Linda Lamb
Samantha - Margaret Berger
Destroyers - Marlow
You Think You're A Man - Massive Ego (Should have been on the Gay Space Cowboy Chic mix at Xmas)
Naive Song - Mirwais
Industry (demo) - The Modern
Discotheque Francais (demo) - The Modern (Fall in love! Fall in love, damn you! :)
Tokyo Girls (demo) - The Modern
Suburban Culture (demo) - The Modern
Model #426 - The Modern
Jane Falls Down (single edit) - The Modern
Media Boy - Moulin Noir
Picadilly In Sepia - Nemo (more mates of the Boosh)
Computer Games - North Shore Pony Club (I'm a sucker for cover versions and vocoders)
The Weather Girl - Shiny Toy Guns
Sparkle - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Cool Places - Sparks
Living In Neon - Spray
Cosmic Kylie - Spray
Supine - Swarf
Pakmovast - Telex (I have no idea about this obscure 80s curiosity, I picked it up randomly, I think it's adorable though)
Paris - Temposhark
Switch Off - Temposhark
Sine Love - Trademark
Delta Sleep - Trees (the best thing to happen to me in 2006, off a long-lost New Wave album no-one remembers. Not synthpop, but hey.)
Kelly - Van She
Survive - Van She

Can anyone cooler than me...

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:00:06 GMT

...tell me why on earth I am listening to Klaus Nomi singing 'I Feel Love', please?

This is sort of a rhetorical question. Technically I am listening to it because I downloaded it.
I have heard stranger things in my quest for cover versions, but...honestly not many.

You know, he's one of those names cool people throw around the internet a lot and I'd never bothered to look into it before. I think now I will. I kind of have to own everything now. Right now.

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:51:09 GMT

Hello, I come without gifts for once, but with a question - someone on Audiography has posted 'The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove' by Dead Can Dance this week, and I am falling over myself with amazement at how wonderful it is. I seem to be very much enjoying Dead Can Dance's company at the moment, but currently only have two of their albums - Dead Can Dance and The Serpent's Egg. I've got stray other tracks, many of which I love, but I want to know what you think I should go looking for. What else is going to blow my mind like this has?

I have two posts up on Audiography myself at the moment if you want music to steal, mind you. :) This week's theme is 'names in song titles' so there's all sorts going on over there.

Awwww.

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 06:07:16 GMT

What better way to celebrate my being so awake at five o'clock that I've had time to update my covers list than by unearthing a gorgeous cover of my favourite Wire song?

Map Ref. 41N 93W - Dykehouse

Awww. It's all sort of shoegaze-y and beautiful.
More people have GOT to cover this song.

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 20:34:58 GMT

In the interests of spreading the WTF until it's thin enough to cope with, here is the latest curiosity to arrive in my life via the medium of SoulSeek :

Jack Pelter & His Sex Change Chicken - Indians In Moscow

Happy Christmas. Weirdly, it's rather good.
I came downstairs and told our Christmas guests about it and trishpiglet sang it straight back at me, which suggests that I am missing something as regards the band in question. Anyone else come across them before? (I had, but only through the Little Hits blog...)

Mix for babysimon

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 19:24:19 GMT

Hardest mix I've ever made. :) I hope there's at least a few things here that you like. This one, also, is only a few seconds short of 80 minutes and so wouldn't technically fit on a CD, but there you go.

1. Hold Your Colour - Pendulum
2. Silent Shout - The Knife
3. Neon Human - Felix Da Housecat
4. Der Mussolini (Dj Taylor and Flow remix) - Der Verfall
5. I'm So Crazy - Par-T-One Vs INXS
6. Blue Movie - Sneaker Pimps
7. Solow - OhGr
8. Keine Melodien - Jeans Team
9. Kick Muck - Ozric Tentacles
10. 2nd Floor - The Creatures
11. Over To You (Vocal Mix) - Formatic
12. Overdose (Lady Radio version) - Tomcraft
13. Glass Danse - The Faint
14. I Can Complete You - Luke Slater
15. Carnival - Project Pitchfork
16. Room 57 - Dream Disciples
17. Destination - DT8 feat. Roxanne Wilde