WRAPPING UP 2012 with Whistle Peak

“Whistle Peak is pop music in disguise” says Karate Body Records, label and home of the Louisville, Kentucky band. And indeed it is difficult to pigeonhole these electro-folk “children’s stories told by grown men”. Writing about the album in February, I cited Panda Bear, Beirut, Joe Henry, Eels and Tuung as various reference points on different tracks. Americana UK’s take was: “if the Folk Implosion had imploded they’d sound like ‘Land to Land’, but don’t think that these are inward looking indie fan-boy songs. Yes, ‘Sleepy Pants’ does sound like the Flaming Lips in restrained mood but ‘Play the Ghost’ contains some of the same DNA that makes Gnarls Barkley – notably the combination of dance music, soulful vocals and a leftfield sensibility.”

Maybe best to say the five-piece just sound like themselves? Either way I was wowed by “Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls” calling it a “buoyant and luxuriant experience: eleven tracks of melancholy-tinged Vaudevillian alt-pop floating on banjos, xylophone and egg-shaker with washes of electronic flutter and mechanical scrape that soothes and surprises”. Here three of the band - Billy Petot, Michael Snowden, Jeremy Irvin – shared their thoughts on the last twelve months:

What we will remember most about 2012 is...
Billy: I had a baby this year. And UK winning the NCAA was pretty awesome. I'm really proud of the album, of course.
Michael: I also had a baby, which is pretty unforgettable. Watching the record gain traction and making a bunch of new friends while working to promote it has also been great. No matter where things go from here, 2012 will always stand out in my mind as a watershed year for the group.
Jeremy: My lady and I got engaged in Zion National Park, in Utah. One of the most exciting moments of my life, set to the most amazing scenery I've ever witnessed. Let's not forget our single, "Wings Won't Behave," jumping to over 50k listens, practically overnight...



What should be forgotten about 2012...
Billy: Mitt Romney
Michael: Who's that?
Jeremy: Paul Ryan, who, by comparison, made Romney look like a Saint.

The best gig we played was...
Billy: Our album release show at Zanzabar in our hometown, Louisville. And we had a good time at Radio Radio in Indianapolis, though we could have played better.
Michael: Our show with The Cave Singers last Spring was really enjoyable. We played well, the Cave Singers killed, and the crowd was fantastic. Good times.
Jeremy: Record Store Day, at Please & Thank You, here in Louisville, KY. Due to capacity constraints, we were asked to perform a 'stripped down' version of our set, which resulted in what I believe Billy dubbed "acoustelectronic." 80's synthesizers and drum machines paired with acoustic instruments. It came very naturally for us, and if we could ever make it across that grand pond, I believe this would be an efficient way for us to tour Europe. There's a video of "Big & Bright" from that evening, it's floating around the Internet somewhere; check it out.

The best gig I saw was...
Michael: Just saw Lindsey Buckingham play solo earlier this week. Incredible.
Jeremy: Damien Jurado performed here in Louisville, as part of our own WFPK's "Live Lunch" series. These shows are always free, and the station really opens its arms to a wide range of artists. This was definitely my favorite show of 2012.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
Billy: I am pretty sure I'll be listening to Bro Stephen's "Baptist Girls" for that long.
Jeremy: "Arrow" by Heartless Bastards.

Overlooked in 2012?
Michael: Big Fresh's “Moneychasers”, without a doubt. It's a solid album from one of Kentucky's most underrated bands.
Jeremy: “Red Parole” by Seluah. Label mates, and fellow Louisvillians, these guys kill it at their live shows.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from Whistle Peak?
Michael: One thing you won't be seeing is more babies. Just new music... my vote is for the melancholic dance album of the decade.
Jeremy: An album FOR babies, BY babies. Or at least for baby-making practice sessions.

Before 2012 I really only knew Louisville, Kentucky as the birth place of Will Oldham. Now thanks to Karate Body Records and the name-checks above, I have a whole new world of Louisvillians to explore. And in Whistle Peak an excellent new favourite band who stand apart from any clumsy musical references. “Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls” does have worldwide distribution but if you have difficulty tracking it down Karate Body ship internationally (including the teal-coloured vinyl!).

WRAPPING UP 2012 with Hooded Fang

Hooded Fang’s debut UK release “Tosta Mista” is named after a grilled Portuguese sandwich snack. Apparently. But it’s best not to take the tongue-in-cheek, cartoon villain world of the Toronto outfit at face value – even from a band whose (Canadian only) debut EP was called “EP” and their debut album “Album”. Are they are a collective or just a vehicle for chief Fang Daniel Lee? Can these ridiculously infectious beat-pop tunes really constitute a break-up album? Does a 22 minutes and only seven proper tracks make an album? And what’s with the masked Mexican wrestlers?

What is undeniable, except to a few po-faced reviewers, is the effect of the record on the listener: “evocative of summer sunshine and parties on the beach – clean, bright indie pop mixed with ’60s garage and a whiff of Tiki kitsch” said Loud and Quiet. “A record that screams “FUN” across its breezy 22-minute running time... but rather than it sounding like an experiment in kitsch or all surface and no feeling, it really does sound like it’s written from the heart” said The Line Of Best Fit. My take back in March was “listening to this record is like opening a sealed time-capsule from 1968... but rather than diminishing returns retro-nostalgia, “Tosta Mista” feels like a genuine re-tread of garage rock year zero and Lenny Kaye’s “Nuggets” collection. Hooded Fang manage to capture – not recreate - the sense of possibility, experimentation and fun of that era brilliantly... half the length of most albums but twice the psyche-pop fun”.

Here Daniel Lee reflects on the last twelve months for Hooded Fang:

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
The birth of the internet. It came in the form of a 7-billion armed porn monster where ideas are everything and money disappears.

What should be forgotten about 2012...
Clop Clop. It had its day, and now pony cartoons having sex are passé.



The best gig we played was...
Brussels, London, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, Berlin, the moon.

The best gig I saw was...
Ariel Pink at Constellation, the surf band in Manchester (shit I forget their name). [that would be The Bell Peppers?]

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
Slim Twig "A Hound At The Hem", Ariel Pink "Mature Themes".

Overlooked in 2012?
Probably everything good.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from Hooded Fang?
New record, stupid costumes, purchasing of ponies, holograms, digital fictional live players, extra heads, extra head.

Hooded Fang toured the UK in May with Howler, having to bump a show for Underachievers Please Try Harder at The Castle until the autumn. Sadly I missed both chances to see the band live but let’s hope a return visit to accompany new album “Gravez” is on the cards.

WRAPPING UP 2012 with Richard James

Since the first solo album from Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci co-founder Richard James in 2006, the excellent “The Seven Sleepers Den”, the interval between albums appears to have halved – “We Went Riding” in 2010 and then this year’s stripped-back “Pictures In The Morning”. However the latter was actually written in the summer of 2009 and then recorded in two houses in Cardiff with producer/engineer Iwan Morgan. “I record everything now in houses, using every area of the building. It makes it hard to do drum tracks live but you can do acoustic ones. The album is meant to be quite low key and intimate as it’s quite personal.”

However a delayed gap from writing to release date does not Mr James has been idle: not only does he curate the musical side of the Laugharne Weekend festival each April he has also established In Chapters as an umbrella for publishing and promoting a variety of musical and literary endeavours including the Pen Pastwn group he formed with Gareth ‘The Gentle Good’ Bonello and Laura J Martin.

Although a low-key and personal record, The Line Of Best Fit captured the spell that the nine track album weaves perfectly: ““Pictures in the Morning” is also an addition to one of the most overpopulated brackets in the song-writing tradition: the break-up album. Add this to the album’s blanket ban on loud look-at-me antics and its propensity for melancholy introspection, and you’d be excused for assuming we’re faced with a bona fide misery-fest. However, although regret and heartache run rife through the nine tracks, these are nevertheless tunes tailor-made for the bright, warily hopeful morning after the boozy self-pity of the night before has faded. There’s hurt aplenty here, but you can practically feel the sunshine radiating from the gentle, warm melodies that propel most of these tracks.”

So a busy year for Richard James?

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
A week long trip to Sudan with the British Council in February. I took the Pen Pastwn band out there to collaborate with local musicians, play 2 shows. We swam off a reef in the Red Sea, met some great people and musicians, and was an eye-opener to that part of the world and its music.

What should be forgotten about 2012...
I can't remember....

The best gig I played was...
Green Man Festival, with a 7 piece Pen Pastwn band. [The gig in May at The Castle in Manchester was quite special too]



The best gig I saw was...
Y Niwl, The Fountain Inn, Laugharne Weekend festival in April. They were meant to play at midnight, but had a gig in Birmingham the same evening, turned up at five past, and were on by quarter past. Super charged rock 'n' roll, great set.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
'Spin That Girl Around' by Euros Childs.

Overlooked in 2012?
Depends what you mean by overlooked. If a good artist has the chance to record and release their work, play live and get it across to people, then they aren't overlooked and the view of the media is irrelevant. The almost instantaneous word of mouth and directness to music fans the internet provides means the judgement of the media is increasingly irrelevant. Radio play I would say is the most important because of revenue, and provides a more well-known and well-trodden platform to hear the music.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from Richard James?
Hopefully a couple of records, a few gigs, working on a couple of projects I hope will come off. Plenty in the pipeline!

Halving that release time again? This can only be a good thing. In exchange for your email address there’s a five track Pen Pastwn EP over at In Chapters. And the Richard James solo albums can be tricky to track down but here is a good starting point.

WRAPPING UP 2012 with Mowbird

How will you remember 2012? As well as the crooks, liars and continued selling off of our future for profit (see yesterday's Q&A with Adrian Flanagan from The Eccentronic Research Council for an effective summary), I will remember it in part as the year I heard 'We Sell Maternity Swimwear' by Mowbird.

The "surf-punk quartet from Wrexham” (population 42,576) take inspiration from a couple of decades worth of US alt-rock leading lights: Malkmus, Barlow and Lytle and their noisier acolytes including Times New Viking, No Age and The Black Lips . Their somewhere-between-lofi-and-nofi DIY ethic extends to all the band do: self-released EPs (two this year: “We Sell Maternity Swimwear” and “The Quiet Despair of the Starship Enterprise”), hand-screen printed T-shirts, zines and poster design, tour booking and of course the type-written personalised notes that come with releases. They even stuff high quality Welsh air into the packages they send out. You don’t get that from the major labels.

The band’s Ben Sawin offered up these reflections on the past twelve months.

What I/we will remember most about 2012 is...
The apocalpyse/playing at Green Man Festival. In 2047, we will be saying to our android grandchildren and their electric goats, "Your creators prepared for the end of the world with copious amounts of alcohol and dancing in an underground bunker. The world didn't end."



What should be forgotten about 2012...
As little as possible. Especially Mitt Romney.

The best gig we played was...
The Gold Room, Glasgow. It came at the end of a really terrible day (our van broke/we could've died/we spent a LONG time in Glossop). We eventually got to Glasgow, found out the Gold Room was a bedroom occupied by the raddest Scotsman Jackson. We played with three amazing bands (North American War / World Peace / Furrow) in the most DIY venue we've ever been to, and had the best time doing it.

The best gig I saw was...
We all went to see the reformed Grandaddy the week after Green Man Festival and it was surprisingly fresh, d-e-lightful.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
John Maus “A Collection Of Rarities”, Islet “Illuminated People”, Cate Le Bon “CYRK”, The Evens “The Odds”



Overlooked in 2012?
Mr Dupret Factory - a London-based post-JPEG/worrycore band.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from Mowbird?
An album / a split 7” with Sex Hands on Popty Ping / a big, big payout from PRS; one of us going mad with the excitement, killing the rest of the band in a meticulous and well thought out manner, escaping maniacally with the riches only to return weeks later, funds extinguished, to face the music.

A pool of bloggers recently put together a Blog Sound of 2013 list as an alternative (not a challenge) to the BBC list. For my first (and only?) contribution to this, one of my five tipped bands for 2013 was Mowbird, who subsequently didn't even make the long-list. Not sure if this says more about me or about the other contributors? The fact that Polydor-signed LA slushy soft-rockers Haim appear on both Blog Sound and BBC Sound lists is a sad state of affairs... a triumph of marketability over all other kinds of ability in my book.

But for crunching together noise and melody with quality and distinctiveness in North Wales’s largest town, Mowbird still get my vote, this year and next year. The band finish their 2012 with a gig at Central Station in Wrexham on 23 December.

WRAPPING UP 2012 with The Eccentronic Research Council

“This is the North, the fantastical North, home of proud, hard graftin' bastards..." Some records are steeped in a particular location or thick with geographical reference points but "1612 Underture" - created by Sheffield duo The Eccentronic Research Council and Lancastrian actress Maxine Peake - is one of the richest, most atmospheric, most authentic evocations of a - partly mythical - place you will hear committed to tape. And much of it is set in the 17th century as part of its re-telling and commemoration of the Pendle witch trials of 1612. “Part psycho-geographical field-trip, part history lesson and part contemporary state-of-the-nation address” I said writing about it a few weeks ago but maybe The Quietus put their finger on what makes the album a success: "On first glance, the cover art of "1612 Underture", the preponderance of vintage synths – patched to sound as if they're being played by men in white lab coats - and the subject matter (the Pendle Witch Trials) all point towards one thing: hauntology. But this excellent record on Manchester's Bird label isn't some generic late adopter's attempt to take on the Moon Wiring Club, rather a genuinely unhinged, unique and deliciously weird pop album".

Council member Adrian Anthony Flanagan gives us his take on 2012 - emotions and facial expressions indicated in brackets.

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
Our Government’s psychological war on its own People. Mother Nature flexing her muscles. The surprise that people were surprised about Sir Jimmy, not being surprised what people will do to keep their precious jobs, justice for the Hillsborough 96; 2012 does seem to be the year where everyone you’re supposed to trust or rely on for protection has been revealed to be a crook, a liar, a charlatan. The Genocide on Syria. The endless Tory attempts to steal the NHS. Jessica Ennis winning her Olympic Gold. Man City's league winning game against QPR and the goodwill & kindness shown towards our album '1612 Underture'.. I'm very proud of it..If I was to never write another word or note I'd be happy if that was my final word and note...but...over my dead body (laughs)

What should be forgotten about 2012...
That Boris Johnson still lives (serious face).



The best gig we played was...
Festival Number 6 at Portmeirion for the atmosphere and location and a Spiegeltent in Sheffield for the performance. There was a bit of a eureka moment in Sheffield where the live group really gelled and sounded pretty special/unique.

The best gig I saw was...
I can't watch live bands without feeling I'm facing the wrong way but the most enjoyable stuff I've seen this year has been at tiny D.I.Y nights around 'non venues' in Sheffield. New groups that people should know about/check out are a 3 piece called Blood Sport. They've got that Can & Neu catatonic groove thing going on but with a noise thing that's quite their own over the top, it's both hypnotic but uncomfortable, a winning formula. I also quite like a man & woman duo called Flaming Skulls, heavy Bonham style drums with a lass playing proper rock riffs better than the boys and with a voice that sounds like she's been possessed by a poltergeist. You can imagine her head spinning round 360 degrees as she sings... it's good. There's loads of good music beavering away in Sheffield that on the whole will be forever just Sheffield's, that's not a bad thing though.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
I love the Mary Epworth album 'Dream Life', inventive but melodic witchadelia. I'm a sucker for weirdos with big ideas. I Also like the BEAK and Pye Corner Audio LPs. Some people think it’s a crime to have an album with lots of different styles and sounds on it, these kind of people tend to like stupid records. Like this year’s ‘Birdie Song’, ’Gangnam Style’ (laughs).

Overlooked in 2012?
The 200 bowl cut toupees sported by 40 somethings in the first few rows of the Stone Roses reformation concerts.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from The Eccentronic Research Council?
We may do a couple of live events between now and the start of the New Year but after that the live thing will probably take a break for a while. Maxine's got quite a bit on with TV and film through Spring and Summer so it's going to be hard to fit live shows in... but you never know maybe the odd sporadic last minute appearance where we are not welcome (laughs).

I'd like to start writing and recording another ERC album in late Winter/Spring and get that out late Summer, to be honest I've not really thought hard about it but we've all said we'd like to do something but how that manifests itself and when I'm not too sure. There's never been a plan...The ERC isn't a predictable beast it's a few pals who come together occasionally whilst doing other things to do something out of the realms and constraints and rules of their usual things, to let loose like a great big sexy demon. (Laughs).

There's still one chance to catch the big sexy demon that is The Eccentronic Research Council live this year: in a secret location in Preston this Sunday as part of the Frozen North Weekender. Excellent support is provided by Emma Tricca and Paper Dollhouse all for the bargain ticket price of £10. Plus look out for two January shows to be announced this week: 18 January at Queens Social WMC in Sheffield and 19 January at Hebden Bridge Trades Club. And regardless of your affinity to the North of England or not, "1612 Underture" is an essential purchase.

WRAPPING UP 2012 with The Douglas Firs

For their second full-length release “The Furious Sound” (see yesterday’s post), Edinburgh’s The Douglas Firs apply accident as much as design. Their excellent ‘gloom-pop’ album inspired by the East Lothian witch trials of 1590 was recorded in locations related to the persecution: South Leith Church, the parish of David Lindsay, who led the witch hunt on behalf of James I & IV as well as the church at Old Kirk Green, North Berwick and the dungeons at Tantallon Castle, East Lothian where the witches practised their sermons. However: “many parts of the record were improvised, inspired by the locations used. No fortuitous sounds leaking onto the tracks were excluded.”

Despite there being a spate of witch trial related music this year (and all of it excellent), The Douglas Firs are originals not followers: “The Douglas Firs are a band fearlessly doing their own thing, with as much 1960s psychedelia as 21st-century indie-folk, as many post-rock episodes as ambient soundscapes. Perhaps only The Phantom Band are pushing genre envelopes in quite the same way” says The Herald; “Belle and Sebastian on a spirit-quest” says The List. Or maybe the best of this bunch of comparators is from Subba-Cultcha “...like Midlake on a bad trip rather than chirping merrily about cedars and Aunt Roseline”.

Aberdonian Neil Insh, now living and making music in Edinburgh, is the driving force behind The Douglas Firs and answered some questions on his year (very promptly and well ahead of schedule) at the end of last month.

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
That Zlatan overhead kick was pretty memorable, from last week.

What should be forgotten about 2012...
Coming from someone who hates memories, this is a tough one. I'm going to have to say The Weeknd. and I don't even mean, 'the weekend'. I mean the dreadful artiste, The Weeknd. I had a disturbing streaming experience with his music a few weeks ago.



The best gig we played was...
We played two gigs this year. I'll opt for our gig with Michael Anguish and Iliop, at Old St Paul's.

The best gig I saw was...
I haven't seen any gigs this year, so by default I'll have to opt for Michael Anguish and Iliop, at Old St Paul's.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
He hasn't actually released his second album, yet, but Green Gerry has leaked out some teasers. I've been listening to everything else he has done for over 2 years, so that's pretty good going. a quarter of the way there.

Overlooked in 2012?
Green Gerry.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from The Douglas Firs?
I want to record an album in as small a space as possible, but maximise the amount of people involved. So far, I have 8 people interested. And in my head, it sounds like the Velvet Underground playing spectral samba.

Sounds amazing. And more of that accident and design at play. But as evidenced by both “Happy As A Windless Flag” or “The Furious Sound”, The Douglas Firs are more than capable of pulling off ambitious plans. Bring on the spectral samba.

The third (I think) and final gig for The Douglas Firs is this Friday at Augustine United Church when they play live to launch the new album supported by Snake Until Listen, Lamplighter and Something Beginning With L.

THE DOUGLAS FIRS The Furious Sound

Most of the first half of the second album from orchestral alt-folk ensemble The Douglas Firs is propelled by the heavy insistent beat of multiple sets of drums. Not intricate soft-brushed patterns or jovial rolls and fills but an ominous, repetitive heavy thud. It’s taken a step further on ‘ Fortress’ where the combined throb of drums, electric bass and hammered piano sound intimidating, like the metallic pounding on the gate to said citadel.

If the first album “Happy As A Windless Flag” often recalled the angular alt-rock volatility of Deerhunter, the propulsive menace of this one recalls the baroque intensity of These New Puritan on "Hidden" – only with less roto-toms and (slightly) less martial belligerence and more liturgical chant alongside Neil Insh’s Zach Condon-like airy croon. The oppressive sense of doom for the first six songs does subside but the dark mood lingers and feels entirely appropriate for an album loosely based around the East Lothian witch trials of 1590 at which seventy people were tortured, tried and burned to death. And if that sounds jolly, “The Furious Sound” goes further and seeks to become “an investigation into outsiders, madness, extreme internal states, physical degradation and the brevity of human life”.



There is no easily discernible narrative thread despite these theme(s) and song titles like ‘Vastations’ or ‘Firelight Acolyte Diorama’ lend the album an arcane aura, but there is a tighter musical focus to “The Furious Sound” than its predecessor. Its thirteen tracks - recorded in churches, dungeons and forests – move from the pounding opening of ‘The Great Generations’ to ethereal, post-rock abstraction (‘Black Forest’), haunting monastic shimmer and chill (‘Firelight Acolyte Diorama’) and angelic orchestral elegies (‘The Possessed’ and ‘Monument’). I love the dark atmospherics, the sense of menace and doom mixed with orchestral delicacy and the sweetness of Insh’s voice but it can feel (intentionally I suspect) unrelentingly oppressive. The sprawling randomness of “Happy As A Windless Flag” in comparison does appear a virtue to change and lighten the mood. So far this record is still in the shadow of that predecessor for me but there’s no denying its compelling dark and original powers.

The Douglas Firs - Backroads by Armellodie

The Douglas Firs The Furious Sound [BUY]

MARK MULCAHY @ NIGHT & DAY 6 December 2012

About 3.30pm this afternoon I got rather over-excited by seeing an Instagram photo of a grown man playing an amusement machine in a motorway service station. Mark Mulcahy is somewhere off the M6 and will soon be in Manchester! Proper fanboy jitters. In the life of this blog I haven’t see Mark play live but in 2009 wrote about the tribute CD "Ciao My Shining Star". Gaps between seeing the Springfield, MA resident and ex-Miracle Legion front man are often long – for me 1995, 1999, 2000 (or possibly 2001) then 2005. This latest gap of seven years lengthened by the tragic circumstances of that 2009 album.

But somehow, amazingly, here is the man himself, larger than life in wide lapelled burgundy two-piece suit in the small confines of Night & Day reminiscing about previous solo and Miracle Legion Manchester shows with an uncannily sharp memory (“and before The Hacienda what was it called...yes The International!”). He is here for three English dates before joining the bill at All Tomorrow’s Parties as a guest of the curators The National. But he is also armed with new songs from a fourth solo album “due sometime early next year” and backed by Ken Maiuri on drums/keyboards/percussion (often at the same time) and Henning Ohlenbusch (“of the perfume family”) on bass and backing vocals.

The trio are an odd assortment of heights and shapes (cue some comedy mic stand adjustments as they exchange instruments or spots late in the evening) but play together in an enthralling, spontaneous almost intuitive manner. I have forgotten how physically bulky Mark Mulcahy is. He is a large man but very much the gentle giant, and one prone to sudden deviation and long pauses. In that suit and oversize brown boots he appears the down-at-heel supper club crooner, a decade or two out of touch with the modern world. As he moves across the stage initially, he appears ungainly getting caught up in his guitar lead or clumsily adjusting the microphone. But then he starts singing and something magical happens. He, as we the audience too, are transported somewhere else.



The set cleverly combines songs from all solo albums plus odd singles and EPs, five new songs, some Polaris and as part of the encores a Miracle Legion song. From early, tentative beginnings, we moved through intense, near-chaotic jangle-pop strumming (‘Saturnine’) to hushed, almost whispered harmonies (‘Can't Find A Reason‘ ) to a menagerie of comic animal noises for a new song set it seems in a zoo . And it just gets better and better from song to song: beautifully sharp story-telling with unflinching emotional detail where what is not said is as crucial as what is. Did I say a decade or two out-of-touch earlier?! Forget that this is powerfully authentic. A final ‘Bill Jocko’ is hair-raisingly immense it is octave-shifting grandeur.



For a moment it seems the prospect of no encores is a real one but then we get three. The spooky, jazzy theatrics of ‘The Cottage That We Rented Had A Name’ (B side to single ‘Low Birth Weight Child’ out 10 December), said Miracle Legion cover (there was a shout-out for ‘All For The Best’; “too greedy” was the response, more a statement than a reprimand) then the final solo heart-breaker ‘Hey Self-Defeater’. I could write another 500 words about how good this show was. And I still wouldn’t be finished. Fanboy jitters subsiding slowly but now we have a new Mark Mulcahy album to look forward to. And hopefully a shorter interval than seven years for a return UK visit.







The Set List
New Song (Where's The Rabbit?)
New Song (Impolite and Insecure?)
Cookie Jar
C.O.D
Saturnine
Can't Find A Reason
I Woke Up In The Mayflower
He's A Magnet
The Quiet One
Love’s The Only Thing That Shuts Me Up
Hurry Please Hurry
New Song (Zoo?)
Pasadena Love Story
Bill Jocko
---
The Cottage That We Rented Had A Name
Mr Mingo
Hey Self-Defeater

WRAPPING UP 2012 with Laura J Martin

January this year saw the release of Laura J Martin’s debut full-length player “The Hangman Tree”: “intricately arranged, jaunty folk-jazz excursions, mixing eastern vibes and a percussive, soulful swing, all powered by flute, mandolin, xylophone or piano with Martin’s vocals switching from child-like (but never infantile) innocence to breathy sultriness”. The tail end of the year saw a collaborative EP with Mike Linday (Tuung/Cheek Mountain Thief) released under the name Bónus Skór, both this and the album on the excellent Static Caravan. So 2012 has been bookended by family feuds, Morecombe Bay, careless ninjas and 17th century Japanese arsonists at one end, then salty tales of fish scales and apple carts at the other. And in between Ms Martin has toured relentlessly. A year of travels literal and musical.

“These spry, gnomic songs echo Slapp Happy’s downmarket Weimar bohemia or the inveterate oddness of The Raincoats “Odyshape”” reckoned Uncut on “The Hangman Tree”. I prefer The Word: “an Oliver Postgate vision of Kate Bush”. Whatever your reference points, there’s no disputing she’s an original.

Having consistently failed to see Laura J Martin prior to this year, I made sure 2012 was about catching up, seeing her in January, in May for Sounds From The Other City, in June for No Direction Home and in August for Green Man Festival (and I haven’t finished yet).

So what does the well-travelled Liverpudlian make of 2012?

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
My trip to Iceland and recording the Bónus Skór EP with Mike Lindsay. A wonderful eerie beautiful place.



What should be forgotten about 2012?
Usually things are painfully etched on my memory forever, but maybe my cover of Phil Collins’ ‘Sussudio’.

The best gig I played was...
A toss up between Ladyfest in Paris and the Union Chapel, I really hope it doesn't get closed down as a live venue.

The best gig I saw was...
Jonathan Richman at Green Man.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
’Spy’ of course!



Overlooked in 2012?
My friend and esteemed colleague Jess Swainson is an amazing artist. She should be minted by now in my humble opinion.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from Laura J Martin?
The second album is being mixed at the moment so another album hopefully.

Hopefully? If it’s being mixed now surely that’s a certainty?

Laura J Martin may be may be sparing in her responses and social media pronouncements and may appear diminutive on stage in stockinged feet but there is no doubt that both on record and live she is a formidable force with plenty to say. She also has an impressive address book – “The Hangman Tree” features collaborations with Euros Childs and Buck 65 plus she has worked with Richard James, Sweet Baboo and The Simonsound amongst others. For her two final live shows of the year more collaborations and surprises are hinted at. Don’t miss either the Cloud Sounds Xmas Bash in Manchester on 14 December with Y Niwl or the Kings Place, London gig on 21 December to see what may come of these. A magical end to a fairy-tale year?

WRAPPING UP 2012 with Tigercats

“Tigercats are a very, very good band. The kind of band that make you want to be a teenager again, so they can be your band. They’re from London but their influences come from America: a splendid guitar busyness inherited from Television, a rhythmic restlessness from Violent Femmes and, from Blondie, an understanding that just because you’re a rock band, it doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to make people dance”.

So spake the esteemed Sunday Times on the album “Isle Of Dogs” from Tigercats. My take on them seeing them live in July for an Indietracks warm-up gig at The Castle in Manchester was “a joyous, edgy and cosmopolitan experience, blending hints of uplifting afro-pop to infectious indiepop goodness that touches on Talking Heads, Hefner and Los Campesinos”. And me and the Murdoch-owned broadsheet are not alone in loving the debut from the band formed by members of Esiotrot and Hexicon: check the long list of full-marks-possible excerpts from their press reviews on their website.

I challenge anyone who reads this fulsome praise or hears a Tigercats song not to be drawn in. The songs are as infectious as the enthusiasm of the reviews. Trust me.

Laura from the five-piece enthusiastically threw herself into the role of band spokesperson for her take on the last twelve months.

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
This year was amazing for us! We released our debut record and are so happy and grateful for the positive feedback we received. We did a lot of European tours this year, but our crazy 7 day whirlwind tour of Europe in April was pretty stand out. We played in a different city every night. We drove from Calais to Porto and back. Our car broke down. We missed a show. Jonny lost his wallet. We had a pizza party in a garage with some teenagers and broke up a Spanish family. It was a crazy time.

What should be forgotten about 2012…
Umm, a show we did where there were only 4 people watching and 3 of them were in the other band. And we also got a telling off.

The best gig we played was...
Indietracks! That was my favourite ever show. So many people, such a brilliant atmosphere and everyone was so happy and danced and oh wow it made me flustered.



The best gig I saw was...
Grizzly Bear at Brixton Academy. So, so amazingly perfect. Best show I think I've ever seen.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
“Shields” by Grizzly Bear. Incredible. Pretty sure I listen to it at least once a day.

Overlooked in 2012?
Fever Dream! They are good friends of ours and they deserve so much more attention because they are freakin' ace and we love them. Everyone go see them! RIGHT NOW!

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from Tigercats?
A new brand new record!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tigercats play Nottingham this Saturday. It may not be Indietracks but if you are ANYWHERE in the vicinity you should go. And more importantly if you haven’t got it already, get yourself a copy of “Isle Of Dogs”. The vinyl copy from Fika Recordings comes with “a bag of chaigercats tea and a recipe for chocolate cupcakes”. It’s only £10 – for one of your new favourite records.

WRAPPING UP 2012 with Seamus Fogarty

As December rolls in, time to catch up with some artists who’ve made an impression on me this year, to find out what they themselves made of the last twelve months. First up the nomadic Mr Seamus Fogarty.

As a subscriber to Fence Record’s Chart Ruse EP series, I was offered the extra benefit of purchasing new label signing Seamus Fogarty’s debut LP at a modest discount. I think I only needed to listen to one of the preview tracks available to know this was a done deal (and whilst the discount was a nice ‘thank you’ hardly essential to the transaction). Seamus’s induction into the Fence Records family began with meeting James Yorkston in Kilkenny in early 2009 (as recounted in this Q&A between the two) followed by an appearance at Homegame Festival in Fife that year.

The album “God Damn You Mountain” was released in April this year and I fell almost instantly for its “wayward folky sounds formed on guitar, banjo, fiddle and cello with the added curious spaciness of analog synthesisers, laptop interventions and sea-shell percussion; a mixture the traditional and the experimental, of the DIY and accidental”. I particularly like this from The List: "This is folk music that nods towards Irish tradition but with a dreamy, mesmerising feel all of its own; echoes of Scotland and rural Americana haunting everything... while the stripped-down tracks in the middle display Fogarty’s songwriting chops, it’s the more experimental beginning and ending that really demonstrate an exciting talent".I was then lucky enough to catch Seamus three times this year – supporting James Yorkston in May then at No Direction Home in June and at Green Man in August.

Here’s his take on 2012:

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
That it was the year I released my debut album and there was a lot of sport on TV.

What should be forgotten about 2012...
Ireland's performance at Euro 2012, although I suppose it was nice to be there for a change.

The best gig I played was...
On the main stage at Green Man. It pissed rain all morning, as it tends to do at Green Man, only to stop around 5 minutes before we started to play. I was in no fit state to be playing anywhere but it was unforgettable. [A video of 'The Wind' from the day here]



The best gig I saw was...
Tricky, not the man, the question…a tie between Jonathan Richman at aforementioned Green Man Festival and Hardsparrow at Away Game on Eigg

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
I'm kinda stuck in the past musically (see next question) but I reckon I'll still be listening James Yorkston's new one, “I Was A Cat From A Book”, timeless songs. And Lau's new one “Race The Loser”.

Overlooked in 2012?
I spend most of my time sat in front of my computer listening to Gregorian chant so quite out of touch with the world…I shared a few festival bills with Euros Childs this summer, he's not really overlooked but I can't believe he's not playing bigger venues, a consistently amazing songwriter.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from Seamus Fogarty?
I've given myself until Christmas to write and record an EP, its going well, lots of Gregorian Chant. I'm also hoping to take some friends into a nice studio before the summer to record an album. And what else… I'm also doing a big UK tour with aforementioned James Yorkston and The Pictish Trail which I'm really looking forward to, that's happening in March/April time.

An EP influenced by Gregorian chant?! Can’t wait. “God Damn You Mountain” was a vinyl only (with download) physical release. If that put you off, there is a limited CD version in the Fence Shop if you’re quick. And for Londoners you can see Seamus Fogarty this week on Wednesday supporting Colorama before two dates back in Ireland with James Yorkston. Seamus Fogarty live and on record is very different propositions. Whether you get to see him live or not, you should really, really get the album.

Seamus Fogarty - By The Waterside by Fence Records

DARREN HAYMAN + WITHERED HAND @ THE HOP, WAKEFIELD 2 December 2012

If it hadn’t been for the labyrinthine Wakefield one-way system I probably would have made the whole of the opening set from Jamie Lockhart of Mi Mye. As it was, for this my first visit to The Hop, I had to settle for just the second half of the set: alt-folk tunes played first on plucked fiddle then acoustic guitar, which were as quirkily appealing as his between song banter was winningly witty. Such convivial patter would become one of the hallmarks of this excellent evening.

Last time I caught Dan Willson aka Withered Hand (“[the name] it just is... you don’t think about these things at the time”) he was fighting off a bad cold which would eventually become a chest infection which would lead to the postponement of the remainder of the tour. Tonight he was hale and hearty, and after his recent visit to Finland, expounding the virtues of saunas “but you have them here right?” he asked hopefully staring through the stage lights to the packed crowd. As well as in fine health, he was also in good spirits: adding in anecdotes from his travels (USA and Australia as well as Finland) that included teenage ministry, ACDC and travel pussy (don’t ask apparently). But the songs, oh the songs. The quietly attentive audience, the intimate pub venue, and the aforementioned good health/spirits, allowed you to get caught up in mini bio-pic dramas of grey hair, study trips and second-hand suits. ‘Religious Songs’ and a re-started ‘New Dawn’ were particularly strong tonight in a 12 song set but stand-outs for me were new song ‘Long Over Desire’ and the final, impassioned ‘A Wonderful Life’ which added some raw, extra anguish to finish with.





Withered Hand Set List

Cornflake / Life Of Doubt / New Dawn / I Am Nothing / Providence / Love In The Time Of Ecstasy / Love And Desire / Religious Songs / No Cigarettes / Takeaway Food / Inbetweens / (It's A) Wonderful Lie

Darren Hayman has borrowed Jamie Lockhart’s guitar for his joint headlining solo set: “I’m telling you that not as an excuse... I think it’s good to try unfamiliar instruments. And you’ll probably get a better show for it”. After “song for any occasion” ‘I Taught You To Dance’ and ‘I Know I Fucked Up’ from “January Songs”, he then concentrated on a ‘condensed’ set of songs from his latest release "The Violence", a double album about the English Civil War-era Essex witch trials. If it sounds obtuse or heavy-going (“the last thing I want to do is lecture you”), nothing could be further from the truth. These songs were immediate, accessible and often deeply moving in their precise unpicking of the feelings of those caught up in the fear and violence of the times. Each song was delicately played out on that borrowed guitar with Hayman rocking from foot to foot often peering over his glasses to focus on the microphone given the intense brightness of the stage lights. And ‘Vinegar Tom’ is the most spell-binding love song to her dog from a one-legged, eighty year woman on the gallows you will ever hear. And I don’t mean that facetiously – it was truly spell-binding. There were only six out of twenty songs from ‘The Violence’ but as Hayman later said: keep them wanting more. Saying this would be a final song, he was offered time to do three, and as a compromise we got two: ‘Big Fish’ from “Pram Town” and the Hefner classic ‘The Sad Witch’.





I later overheard a debate in the Gents toilets as to whether he should have played the latter, suggesting it overshadowed or undercut his new material. I think I know what this person was getting at. But to me it was only one song. And the material from his solo career is strong enough to withstand any backward glances. It seems putting a concept to this album, the final of his Essex trilogy, has given the songwriter a set of rules, a restrictive framework, much like the discipline of “January Songs” in 2011 (write and record a song a day for every day of the first month of the year). And rising to such challenges, Darren Hayman is writing some of the best material of his substantial career, here beautifully delivered. I think he was right about that guitar.

Darren Hayman Set List

I Taught You How To Dance / I Know I Fucked Up / Impossible Times / Vinegar Tom / Henrietta Maria / I Will Hide Away / Rebecca West / Desire Lines / Out Of My League / Big Fish / The Sad Witch

FREE SWIM A Rip-Roaring Christmas

Despite the glossy retail desperation that has been pervading our town centres and television screens since early November (even October), and despite today being the one when advent calendars have been unceremoniously ripped open, I’m not feeling very Christmassy. But here’s the new Free Swim single to challenge that.



Trademark heavy riffing and spoken word narration from our plummy voiced friend of Free Swim-EPs-of-old Quirrence are slightly in check here. Bookended by snatches of Christmas carols, in ‘A Rip-Roaring Christmas’ guitars swirl rather than snarl in a blizzard of feel-good euphoria. And Quirrence’s narration is less deranged and off-the-hook surreal; instead a fairly straight roll-call of the predictable habits and repeated activities of a typical middle class Christmas day “I wake up at 8 in the morning and stumble downstairs to find my stocking full of satsumas, Marks and Spencers underpants, and two cans of Lynx Africa for the 15th year running”. Le Creuset sauce-pans, breadmakers, Daily Mail DVDs, the Queen’s Speech, church and the Rotary Club are all present and correct too. However – SPOILER ALERT – “I wouldn’t change it for the world”. Bless ‘em - for all their maverick musical tendencies, of course Free Swim are just a bunch of sentimental softies when it comes to Yuletide.

I spend most of December ignoring anything Christmas-themed, particularly music. But this is Free Swim so it’s different. The band – who have released everything free to date via Bandcamp – are putting this song on sale on Monday 3 December via iTunes with the ambition of a Christmas Number One. However in a Twitter exchange early today, band leader Paul Coltofeanu also urged “we need to get this bad boy kicking around on Hype Machine”. These two – contradictory - impulses sum up Free Swim: they operate somewhere between commerciality and credibility but regardless of whether they achieve one or the other or both, as ever Free Swim come up trumps musically. Have a rip-roaring Christmas everyone (even if it feels a bit too early to say that).



Free Swim A Rip-Roaring Christmas [BUY]

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC December 2012 Pt.1

Deck the halls with... No, no, no. The only seasonal offerings to expect from music in Manchester this festive month as far as I'm concerned is the many servings of art-rock with side dishes of noise-pop, alt-folk, a new all dayer festival and the now traditional Cloud Sounds Xmas Bash. Christmas carols just aren't on the menu.

Y Niwl are a regular but thrilling fixture for the Cloud Sounds Xmas Bash. This year the Welsh surf-rockers are co-headlining with ace Liverpudlian flute-and-loop wrangler Laura J Martin ably supported by the cut-up alt-pop of Magic Arm, the country-grunge of The Wobbly Hearts and the Leicestershire folk-pop of The Junipers. Today is the last day to grab tickets at £4 before they go up to the still-recession-busting price of £6.

Shebeen is a new all-dayer festival across five venues in Withington with stages programmed by Comfortable On A Tightrope, Denis Jones, Folklore Tapes and others. An excellent mix of the outré, the outsider and the original. Tickets are just £8 early bird rate.

As ever a mixtape of bands playing Manchester this month to help inform your gig-going decision-making - link in the post below this one

Manchester Gigs In Music Mixtape: December 2012 [65 mins / 74 MB] - download here.

Golden Grrrls New Pop [1.48] (16 Dec Shebeen Festival BUY TICKETS)
Allah-Las Don’t You Forget It [4.51] (13 Dec Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
MiSTOA pOLTSA Niagra Falls [8.02] (16 Dec Shebeen Festival BUY TICKETS)
U.S. Girls Jack [10.29] (8 Dec The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Boris Spoon [14.53] (5 Dec Islington Mill BUY TICKETS)
Waiters Vacillate Wildly [18.26] (16 Dec Shebeen Festival BUY TICKETS)
The Junipers Song To Selkie [21.06] (14 Dec Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
Magic Arm Move Out [23.46] (14 Dec Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
Buke & Gase Hiccup [28.12] (5 Dec Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
My Brightest Diamond Reaching Through to the Other Side [31.49] (10 Dec Islington Mill BUY TICKETS)
Lower Dens Brains [36.48] (12 Dec Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Slim Twig Young Hussies [40.45] (8 Dec The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Crooked Fingers Typhoon [45.28] (6 Dec The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Olympian Change Will Come [49.57] (19 Dec Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
Woodbine & Ivy Band Gently Johnny [55.01] (7 Dec Sacred Trinity Church BUY TICKETS)
Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou A Proud Surrender [58.53] (9 Dec Salford Lad's Club BUY TICKETS)
Bridget Hayden Waste [65.15] (16 Dec Shebeen Festival BUY TICKETS)

And not forgetting:
1 Dec Marika Hackman The Castle / 1 Dec Brown Brogues Secret Location / 1 Dec The Raveonettes Sound Control / 2 Dec Willy Mason Ruby Lounge / 2 Dec Quiet Loner The Castle / 2 Dec Mono Sound Control / 2 Dec Matthew Dear Deaf Institute / 2 Dec Chilly Gonzales RNCM / 2 Dec Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield Academy / 3 Dec Admiral Fallow Deaf Institute / 3 Dec Yeasayer Academy / 4 Dec Martha Wainwright The Ritz / 4 Dec Karima Francis The Castle / 4 Dec Stars Sound Control / 5 Dec This Is The Kit Night & Day / 6 Dec Mark Mulcahy Night & Day / 6 Dec Fidlar Soup Kitchen / 6 Dec James Blake Gorilla / 6 Dec Wild Beasts Sound Control / 6 Dec Temple Songs + Sex Hands Dulcimer / 7 Dec The Wave Pictures Night & Day / 7 Dec Beans On Toast Kraak / 8 Dec Death To The Strange + The Suns Kings Arms / 8 Dec Stealing Sheep Deaf Institute / 9 Dec Dawes Ruby Lounge / 9 Dec Josephine The Castle / 9 Dec Jo Rose & Monroe Hips Dulcimer / 12 Dec St Etienne The Ritz / 12 Dec Chris Cohen Trof Fallowfield / 13 Dec Beth Rowley The Castle / 13 Dec The Slow Show The Roadhouse / 15 Dec Slow Club Gorilla / 15 Dec The Hives Academy / 16 Dec Pete Roe + Emily And The Woods The Castle / 16 Dec Natives Sound Control / 19 Dec Ren Harvieu Ruby Lounge / 19 Dec Tim Wheeler + Emmy The Great / 20 Dec Hookworms + Kult Country Soup Kitchen / 21 Dec PINS + Female Band The Bunker

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC December 2012 Pt.2

Manchester Gigs in Music Mixtape: December 2012

Manchester Gigs In Music - December 2012 by Follyofyouth on Mixcloud

Or download mixtape [65 mins / 74 MB] here.

THE ECCENTRONIC RESEARCH COUNCIL 1612 Underture

The exquisitely monikered electronic duo of Adrian Anthony Flanagan and Dean Honer have created a beguiling, gritty, poetic beauty of a record that is part psycho-geographical field-trip, part history lesson and part contemporary state-of-the-nation address. “Practical Electronics enthusiasts from Sheffield, make spooked out spoken word LP with Maxine Peake” is how The Eccentronic Research Council underplay their achievements on “1612 Underture” an album based around “the mistreatment and memory of the Pendle Witches” in this the 400th anniversary year of their deaths.

There are musical backdrops and interludes of library music corruptions, Kraftwerk-like machine pulses and windy drones over the course of this 37 minute journey o’er hill and back in time. But in the foreground is the narration – and latterly singing - from stage and screen actress Maxine Peake. You only need to listen to scene-setter ‘Autobahn 666 (Travelogue #1)’ to know that this is neither opportunistic celebrity casting nor novelty but a match made in rain-swept heaven (“Welcome to the North...like all beautiful flowers, we need our rain”). By your third listen, it’s inconceivable anyone else could deliver this front-woman role that pulls all the time and space dimensions of “1612 Underture” together so well.

Peake brings a flinty, hard-edged Northern attitude to the record whether it’s a road-trip into the heart of Lancashire in the travelogues (the elegiac ‘From The Grave To The Freshcos Late (Travelogue #4)’ is particular moving), the bitter, first-person re-telling of the biased trial and persecution the ‘witches’ (‘Trial By Jiggery Pokery’ and others) or the angry, final condemnation of contemporary mores and celebrity obsessions in ‘Ghost Of Old Lizzy Southerns Returns’. There is a rich eloquence to this demotic poetry whether modern or ancient, whether condemnatory or conversational (“tourism is a funny old fox-trot in Pendle Town... how do we market the loss and hanging of women?”). As well as the anger and observational sharpness that ridicules David Cameron, the EDL, Jeremy Kyle and Matthew Wright, there is also a winning humour (“curse the Twentieth Century Yorkshire versus Lancashire bread-cake versus barm-cake debacle...[pause] it’s a barm-cake”) to off-set the analogue spookiness worthy of Broadcast at their most occult and morbid.

“1612 Underture” is released on Jane Weaver’s Bird imprint which to date has concentrated on female folk singers either current or overlooked from earlier decades. At first the shadowy and bearded Eccentronic Research Council appear unlikely bed-fellows with the label. But their collaboration with Maxine Peake not only has strong feminist leanings in its uncovering of injustice and prejudice both then and now, it also fulfils a definition of folk as music of the people. I saw some Twitter shock that this album wasn’t included in Top 100 albums of the year from Manchester’s Piccadilly Records. The more I play it, the more I agree. It’s a fascinating listen and one that deserves to reach far beyond its hard graftin' Northern patch.



The Eccentronic Research Council 1612 Underture [BUY]

YUSUF AZAK Go Native

If this is your first encounter with Glaswegian singer-songwriter Yusuf Azak, your initial reaction may be who has cruelly committed this poor emphysema sufferer to tape? Yes his distinctive husky rasps, often double-tracked to emphasise the breathless wheeziness, may take a moment to adjust to, but once you've done this you'll find a man not only in rude health but definitely worth spending time listening to. Also if this is your first listen to Azak, this is actually his second album in addition to (at least) two EPs. But where you start is less important. Because in many ways “Go Native” is only a notional development to “Turn On The Long Wire”; “lighter, cleaner and more straightforward” as label Song, By Toad puts it.

Solo guitarists can fall into two distinct camps - intricate finger-picking folkies keeping it clean and authentic or those who drape everything in loops and effects and multi-instrumental trickery. As with his debut long-player Azak steers his own particular course between these poles.

‘(I Would Sooner) Fade To Love’ on the one hand is as sparse as an antique Alan Lomax folk-blues recording. ‘American Eyes’ on the other has a honey-golden glide to it created by a restrained string section-like hum behind the sharply plucked, acoustic guitar and the double- (treble-?) tracked vocals which create a cotton-wool embrace. ‘Sanctuary’ has an engaging elegance with the acoustic guitar rolled in with aching violin, and ripples of concert grand piano. Yusuf Azak doesn’t often sound like a man smiling when singing in his thoughtful knotted brow kind of way but I challenge you, once you’ve embraced that vocal style, not to be heart-warmed by the resonant yearning of ‘Smile Tactics’ or the mellotron-like friendliness of ‘Immunity Or Rescue’ or the relaxed swing of ‘Move Me Starlet’ even though the latter is quite lyrically cryptic.

IMMUNITY OR RESCUE from Salome Oggenfuss on Vimeo.

“It’s a doom-sayer’s view / salvation is nil” is the opening couplet of the title song; the following tune ‘Losing My Aim’ dances around a complex, cloudy relationship (“I’m the enemy, you’re my saviour”) but even this pair sonically never sound overly gloomy. Intense pregnant pauses and with some wild gypsy violin in the former yes but both are curiously captivating rather than engaged in certificated hopelessness.

“Go Native” feels a more confident as well as cleaner record – it is still relatively brief at 34 minutes but several of its eleven tracks leisurely stretch to 4 minutes and it adds two tracks and seven minutes to its predecessor’s running time. Like-minded and familiar to its forerunner it is true but on balance maybe the first-time listener should here. Sadly I suspect there are too many first-time listeners to Yusuf Azak out there. Please help rectify this – wherever you start.



Yusuf Azak Go Native [BUY]

BÓNUS SKÓR Bónus Skór

For a record named after a city shoe shop, this EP from Laura J Martin and Mike Lindsay (Tuung/Cheek Mountain Thief) sounds strangely maritime. Salty tales with a mysterious, bobbing allure from somewhere out amid (or under) the Atlantic waves that sound very distant from a dry-land Reykjavik boutique. The recording session in Iceland, now home to the ex-Tuung man, that produced these songs was intended I think as work on the second Laura J Martin album but instead led to Bónus Skór. ‘No Soul's Treasure’ is like floating in a sealed bathysphere: a lullaby-like opening leading to dreamy murmur and hum with child-like wonder, reflective flute and unsteady violin that then decays into a solemn frazzle of fuzzy wheezes before ending with field recordings of conversing Icelandic voices (which re-appear to link each of the following tracks too).

‘Salt Hangs Heavy’ ripples and ebbs, with Laura J Martin’s voice at its most Kate Bush-like over a bubbly bass bounce whilst ‘Fish's Tail’ is a duet, with Lindsay and Martin trading alternate, short lines complicitly over a Portico Quartet-like nautical pulse. ‘Applecart’ feels closest to a companion song to this year’s “The Hangman Tree” and the most land-locked song of the EP: a halting, steady rhythm work song for orchard hands or a song about blame? Even this most lucid of numbers holds its mystery tight. If many of songs on Laura J Martin’s debut album were mini globe-trotting narratives and modern fairy-tales, this collaborative EP is not only more leisurely but also more about mood and brackish atmospheres.

I haven’t heard Mike Lindsay’s Cheek Mountain Thief project so I don’t know is this four-track EP due on Static Caravan at the end of this month (so expect it in December?) is a midpoint between the two artists. But whether a midpoint or biased towards one or the other, the duo are certainly bringing out the best in each other. This is a continually fascinating EP, both familiar and foreign, that feels like the magnetic call of the mermaid (and mer-man). No track to embed yet but as soon as one is available I’ll add it below. But if you trust my judgement, or even if you don’t, you can pre-order Bónus Skór now.

Bónus Skór Bónus Skór [BUY]