Mixtape August 2019

1st day of August and I've finished my blog on time.  I'm going to give myself the rest of the month off.

1) The Graveyard of the Outcast Dead by Frank Turner
An alternative Christmas song about a dead Southwark prostitute. Better than it sounds!

2)  Give Me Honey by Dope Lemon
Stoner rock from Angus Stone.  The Album Smooth Big Cat is my favourite so far this year.



3) Impossible Knots by Thom Yorke
Could this be Thom's funkiest bassline ever?

4)  Fly (King Britt Remix) by Low
The haunting vocals from the lo-fi rockers given a subtle remix tweaking.

5) In My Mind by Alice Ivy featuring Ecca Vandal
Cut N Paste Dream Pop

6) Martini (Happiness Is Wealth Disco Remix) by The Presets
Aussie dance track stretching out over nine minutes

7) Jacuzzi Rollercoaster by Roisin Murphy & Ali Love
A duet featuring Ali Love and Roisin Murphy formerly of Moloko fame.

8) Melody of Love (Adelphi Music Factory Remix) by Hot Chip
An awesome remix that sounds like an early nineties rave track.

9) Bizarre Love Triangle Live at MIF by New Order & Liam Gillick
New Order have released a live remix album of their greatest hits.  Bizarre Love Triangle remains one of my favourite songs of all time.  Always fun to hear new versions but the vocals are rather weak on this recording.

10) Linked by Bonobo 
Only discovered this ambient groove artist yesterday, 21 years into his career.  His last full album Migration makes a sublime late night listen.  Co-incidentally he was born two weeks after me and grew up in Hampshire.  We have never (knowingly) met. 


11) Dancing In Love by Alice Jemima
Lush new single - love her voice.

12) Talk It Out by Matt Corby & Tash Sultana
Two Aussies collaborating on a laid-back duet.

13) Once by Liam Gallagher
Sounding more like John Lennon than usual - not a fan of Liam's solo career but this cuts mustard.

14) Rollin With The Flow by Kurt Vile
A fantastic good time stoner country rock ballad originally recorded by Charlie Rich in 1977.

15) Walking Away From Love by Steve Mason
More quality daftness from the former Beta Band man.   



16) How Can A Head by The Flaming Lips featuring Mick Jones
It is now twenty years since the amazing 1999 album The Soft Bulletin and this sounds just as good.  The Flaming Lips more often than not get too weird to enjoy but their latest album King's Mouth: Music and Songs is a return to form.  This is Mick Jones from Foreigner (not The Clash).

17) Northern Holiday by Kaiser Chiefs 
The Kaiser Chiefs just released an excellent new album called Duck which recalls the bands glory days.

18) Restless (Riddim Punks Remix) by The Skints featuring Protoje
This has everything.  London's Skints - check, Jamaica's Protoje - check and drum n bass remix - check.  Happy listening!

19) One Club Town by Real Lies 
Love the heavily sampled nineties track - still trying to figure out what it is??? Answers on a postcard please.

20) Bullet With Butterfly Wings by Karen O.
A smashing Smashin' Pumpkins cover.

Mixtape July 2019

July was getting away from me and I hadn't created my monthly blog.  I'm getting very slack but if you excuse the tardiness then you should enjoy my latest playlist of indie/dance/soul/pop.

1) Timee by Stevan 
Dreamy pop from a teenager from Wollongong.  I'm tipping him as one to watch.

2) Salt & Pepper by Dope Lemon
Angus Stone should always be watched.  This time he has a narcotic hook that buries itself deep in your brain.  New Dope Lemon album is out now.

3) Make A Move by Winston Surfshirt
More laid back grooves from Australia.

4) Teach Me About Dying by Holy Holy 
Holy Holy will release their third album next year and this is an excellent taster.

5) Lucifer by Charles Bradley
Posthumous release from the soul man singing  joyfully about Lucifer and Obama.

6) Sad Boi by Seratones 
Fantastic new song from Seratones.  Instant classic.

7) She's A Runaway by The Coral
Liverpool's The Coral are still recording great music currently influenced by 70s country pop.

8) Sail On by Noel Gallagher
It's almost ten years since Oasis broke up and if I had to pick sides I'ld definitely (not maybe) be in Noels corner. 

9) Repetition by Ride
Speaking of former Oasis members, Andy Bell's reformed shoegaze band are going to release their sixth album next month.

10) Frankenstein by Editors
"Won't you dance like a monster with me".

11) Be Someone by CamelPhat & Jake Bugg
Jake Bugg's distinctive vocals appearing on a pounding dance track.

12) So Far by Thomaz Krause  
Big in Brazil and seems to have unlimited supply of funky rhythms.

13) Spell by Hot Chip
Hot Chip's latest album A Bath Full of Ecstasy is full of gems. Great video too!

14) Sister Buddha by Belle & Sebastian
Chiming guitars and another song about finding yourself on a late night bus trip.

15) The Brazilian Hipster (Skeewiff Remix) by Fort Knox Five
Check it out ya, the funk soul brothers!

16) I'm In Love by Mini Mansions
LA Band making cleverly crafted dumb pop rock songs just like Supergrass used to.

17) Good Samaritan by The Hives
The Hives have been quiet for years.  It didn't suit them so they make up for it in these three minutes.

18) Drink Too Much by G Flip
Australian bedroom producer who drinks too much.

19) Family Of Aliens by Teleman
Melodic indie pop from a bunch of nerds - very Hot Chip.

20) People Know How To Love One Another by Kaiser Chiefs 
Ending with a big feel good anthem.  "And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make". 

Mixtape May 2019

This month there is a big retro indie-pop flavour to my mixtape.
I'm skirting the outer limits of indie credibility but I think I get away with it due to the dark undertones in many of these tracks.

1) Millennium Drive by BOO Seeka
Wake Up BOO! - Awesome new single from the NSW band.

2) Turn The Light by Karen O & Danger Mouse
Another cut from Danger Mouse's collaboration with the singer from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

3) Borderline by Tame Impala
Lush new single by Perth's biggest band.

4) Stay With Me by Hatchie
Chilled dance track which reminds me of a monster 90's tune - I'll leave you that as a puzzle to solve.

5) Everywhere by Roosevelt
Pretty faithful cover of an old Fleetwood Mac song. Couldn't escape this in 1988 and it used to annoy me but after three decades I can enjoy it. 

6) Easy Way Out by Leisure 
Came across this New Zealand band recently and they fall into the same groovy canyons as Parcels.

7) Hungry Child by Hot Chip
Hot Chip rarely disappoint and this new single starts slow and builds to a layed disco pop song.

8) Symbols of Joy and Eternity by Sundara Karma
This is just pure pop and they deserve to be massive.

9) Night Running by Cage The Elephant & Beck
Always a pleasure to hear Beck's drawl over a track.

10) Don't Get Me Started by Sloan Peterson
Another great single from the creative force of Sydney's Sloan Peterson. 

11) Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
She is one of the biggest pop sensations on the planet.  I didn't know.  I think I included her Bellyache single on this blog last year but I had no idea she was now world famous.  This should give encouragement to the other artists I champion!



12) Sins Are Forgiven by The Dandy Warhols
The hillbilly country twang of the Dandy Warhols at their best.

13) This Thing by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
All Hail the mighty King Gizz & the Liz Wiz - long may they rule the scuzzy universe.

14) Eagle Birds by The Black Keys
Big blues riffs and an infectious groove.  Top band.

15) Ur A Piece of Shit by Ali Barter
Sweary Aussie artist who has has the knack of crafting brilliant feminist rock n' roll.



16) Escape From Los Angeles by Holy Ghost!
80s electronic revivalists with a big slab of NYC disco.

17) Future Love by Ride
This wistful indie guitar pop is a sample of what to expect when Oxford's Ride release their second album since reforming. 

18) Black Star Dancing by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Noel doesn't take much time off - He's already back with new material.  Maybe the sibling rivalry is still pushing him to outshiiiinnne Liam? 

19) Passport by Circa Waves
Great piano driven ballad from talented Liverpool band. 

20) Nightshade by The Lumineers
Another piano based song with lyrics inspired by Game Of Thrones.  As Ramsey Bolton once said, "If you thought this would have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention".

Tracks of the Year 2015

According to the Spotify, I have listened to over 2000 different artists and nearly 7000 different tracks during the last 12 months.  From this I conclude that I should get out more.

I have culled those options into a Top 40 Countdown list of my favourite tracks of 2015.
I'm too lazy to write about every song in this list but they all have merit.
In reverse order...




 #40 An Australian collaboration between Craig Nicholls of The Vines and Nick Littlemore from Empire of The Sun  under the supergroup name White Shadows they have taken a very ordinary Vines B-side called "Give Up Give Out Give In" and turned it into a classic tune.  The transformation is amazing and it is worth finding the original to compare.

#39 "Pedestrian At Best" by Courtney Barnett.  Courtney from Tasmania has divided opinion after winning Triple J's Australia Album of the Year ahead of more popular acts such as Tame Impala.  I loved her early singles but her debut album was disappointing as a non-stop wordy whinge-fest.

#38 "Stroking My Beard" The Beards.  This hairy Aussie band have made a career singing about their facial hair.  This is a prime example of why it works so well.

#37 Ryan Adams "My Wrecking Ball"

#36 Hymnal "In The Valley Below"

#35 Public Service Broadcasting "Gargarin" - Ode to an East German Soviet Spaceman.

#34 The Yetis "Little Surfer Girl" Fuzzy Beach Pop.

#33 Gaz Coombes "The English Ruse" - Supergrass Disco Pumpin' On The Stereo.

#32 The School "All I Want From You Is Everything" - Poppy Welsh Gold Miners strike again.

#31 Holy Holy "House of Cards"

#30 Pete Doherty "Flags of the Old Regime" - Pete's Tribute to his friend Amy Winehouse.

#29 Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds "Ballard of Mighty I" - Oasis don't need to reform yet.

#28 Sons of the East "Already Gone" - Sydney band who sound a bit like Mumford and Sons.

#27  Mystic Braves "Five Minute Dream Girl" - Retro Fuzzy and Awesome.

#26 DMA's "Lay Down" - Another reason why Oasis don't need to reform.

#25 Swim Deep "Fueiho Boogie" - The Brummie Unhinged Psychedelic Reel.

#24 Unknown Mortal Orchestra "Necessary Evil"

#23 Proteje "Protection" - New Jamaican Reggae Legend

#22 Jamie XX "Loud Places" - The XX go clubbing.

#21 The Libertines "Anthem For Doomed Youth"

#20 Pond "Zond" - Perth madmen

#19 Mercury Rev "Autumn's In The Air"  Lush orchestration and vocals.

#18 Gengahr "She's A Witch"   She turned me into a newt.

#17 Blur "Pyongyang" - Haunting ballad about Damon's trip to North Korea.

#16 The Chemical Brothers "Wide Open"

#15 Methyl Ethel "Rouges" - Singing stream of consciousness ramblings about being knocked down on The Causeway  (my nearest bridge), alien abduction and the heat of a Perth Summer.

#14 Jacco Gardner "Find Yourself" A very talented young Dutchman.

#13 Mini Mansions featuring Alex Turner "Vertigo" - Starved of Alex Turner material this year but hoping for the Last Shadow Puppets and Arctic Monkeys to release new albums in 2016.

#12 The Avener featuring Ane Brun "To Let Myself Go"

#11 Kurt Vile "Pretty Pimping"

#10 Alabama Shakes "Don't Wanna Fight"

#9 Beck "Dreams" Beck teases everyone with this gem of a pop record but holds off the album's release until 2016.

#8 Belle and Sebastian "Nobody's Empire" An autobiographical song from Stuart who was hospitalised suffering from M.E. back in the early Nineties.

#7 The Hives "Blood Red Moon"  A modern cowboy song that is screaming to be the theme tune to a new Netflix series.

#6 Unknown Mortal Orchestra "Multi-Love" 

#5 The Dead Weather "I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)"  Supergroup with a super riff.

#4 Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars "Uptown Funk"  Impossible not to enjoy and very hard to listen to without dancing 'round your kitchen.

#3 Blur "Lonesome Street" Classic Blur featuring the alternating mix of positive and cynical lyrics that give way to another bittersweet chorus.  The band are tight like it's '93 throwing in some "Woo Woos" and whistling.  Their whole musical career is mashed up on The Magic Whip and the only missing element is Phil Daniels' cockney diary extracts.

#2 Tame Impala "Let It Happen"  They went interstellar this time.

#1 Hot Chip "Huarache Lights"  A groovy repetitive Hot Chip workout. "Replace us with the things that do the job better" they sing until they get replaced by a robotic voice.  If Terminators were funky this would be the soundtrack of their revolution against the humans.



Happy New Year Pop Pickers!

Albums of the Year 2015

The nights are getting longer/shorter/not changing depending on your latitude, which means the end of the year polls are coming.  I have been making a list and checking it twice.  

I can now reveal my top ten albums of 2015 and some additional recommendations that missed out on the cut.  In reverse order to maintain the illusion of rising excitement...

10.  Oh Inhuman Spectacle - Methyl Ethel 

Methyl Ethel are a band from Freo in Western Australia who have released a handful of singles and this debut album.  They sound like a lazy Summer's day and are destined for further greatness in the next few years.  Listen to the single below and marvel at how they incorporate a saxophone solo without sounding cheesy.  Not an easy feat!

9. Why Make Sense - Hot Chip

Infectious grooves from and for dorky indie dads.

8. Ancient Future - Protoje

Jamacian reggae from one of the biggest reggae artists from the Reggae Revival scene.  Check out my earlier post  if you love a bit of reggae.  This is the third album by Protoje and the video below features Chronixx who is another big root reggae superstar.

7. Music Complete - New Order

New Order have returned with the best album since Republic.  Despite losing Peter Hook to musical and personal differences they are reunited with Gillian Gilbert who had ten years off and with Tom Rowlings (The Chemical Brothers) as the producer. The singles are loaded up front on this album but I find the more interesting material is found on the second half of the record, which gets better and better as it progresses.   Iggy Pop also appears on the track Stray Dog.

6. Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance - Belle & Sebastian

The Scottish Twee Overlords return to vanquish all before them armed with some pop songs.

This is the first studio album for five years and their ninth album in their twenty year career.

It's a fantastic return and adds some classic tunes to their repertoire.

5. Currents - Tame Impala

Perth's Tame Impala make the crossover into the big time with this album of psychedelic dance pop tunes.  This is the second WA band to make my top ten but they are not the last.

4. The Light In You - Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev release their most accessible album of the century which almost hits the highs of their timeless 1998 classic Deserter's Songs.  So many top spacey rock tunes to wash over you.

3. Man It Feels Like Space Again - Pond

The third and final Perth band to grace my list is the unhinged poppy psychedelia of Pond.

2. The Wanderings Of The Avener - The Avener

The French Producer behind the worldwide smash hit Fade Out Lines released his debut album in January 2015 containing plenty of deep house covers and guest vocalists including Hope Sandovol of Mazzy Star and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.  A great laid back collection of modern dance music.

1. The Magic Whip - Blur 

It was 1999 when Blur last released an album with full attendance.  Since then there have been many great solo albums and side projects.  Damon formed Gorillaz and Good The Bad and The Ugly. Graham had a series of lo-fi solo albums.  Dave stood for Parliament and became a lawyer.  Alex wrote an autobiography and become a Cheese Farmer.  Blur's Magic Whip was recorded in a dingy Hong Kong recording studio when the band found themselves with a week to kill following the cancellation of a festival.  Whether The Magic Whip will be Blur's swansong is unknown but with Gorillaz revival in 2016, it could be the last for a while so enjoy it.  

   

Honorable Mentions to the following albums that just missed the cut...

Wasting Away And Wondering - The School

Multi-Love - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Born Under Saturn - Django Django 

A Dream Outside - Gengahr
Chasing Yesterday - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds