The Young Knives - The Decision (Transgressive, 2005)

Post-punky indie pop delight.

From the once-mighty Transgressive Records, came this little 3" CD gem. Just two tracks but when one of them is the XTC-ish spiky pop of 'The Decision' that'll do.

It rolls and clanks, loping along on a dragging drum beat, all yelping vocals and twisty-turny, nonsense lyrics.

"I'm the Prince Of Wales, I'm the Prince Of Wales, And if all else fails, I am that Prince Of Wales."

Good tune though.

Download The Young Knives 'The Decision' (indie mp3) (Divshare)

The The - Uncertain Smile (12" Mix) (Some Bizzare/Epic, 1982)

More classic angst.

Beginning like Steve Reich gone bendy, 'Uncertain Smile' soon settles into a rolling, indie lilt with a milkman-friendly melody. Matt Johnson mumbles the words like he's talking to himself on a bus, drawing you in to listen closer.

'Uncertain Smile' has a folksier feel to it than the more aggressive sound of the later 'Infected', 'Sweet Bird Of Truth' and so on. This 12" mix drifts gently across ten minutes, taking in long instrumental sections and building in intensity.

Download The The - Uncertain Smile (12" Mix) (Some Bizzare, mp3) (Divshare)

OMD - Genetic Engineering (312mm Version) (Virgin, 1983)

Speak'n'Spell electro pop classic.

Before the advent of widespread sampling, playing a Speak'n'Spell* machine into a track was probably about as clever as it got.

'Genetic Engineering' is my favourite thing by OMD because it blends pop sensibility with a minimal approach to building a track and a degree in sociology.

Download OMD - Genetic Engineering (312mm Version) (Speak'n'Spell, FuturePop, mp3) (Divshare)

Check-out this cool Speak'n'Spell simulator.

Clinic 'The Second Line' (Domino, 2000)

More twisty psyche business from Clinic.

Irresistable, twisty lo-fi ear-worm from Clinic, riding on a bouncy groove. Vocals are quietly intoned over a ticky-ticky guitar scratch and some halucinogenic organ pulses the song to its conclusion.

It's what The Horrors think they sound like.

Download Clinic 'The Second Line' (Psyche, indie, mp3 download, 2000)

New Music - Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Dream Baby Dream (Smalltown Supersound, 2012)

An unexpected treat.

I have to say I wasn't expecting something as good as this. The Thing tone down the skronk and dial-down the energy to create a meandering cradle of gentle, sax-led jazzing. They mutate this Suicide song so it sounds like a lullaby written by Albert Ayler.

And over that Neneh Cherry - rather than busting rhymes about nasty girls sucking beer through straws (admittedly, that was twenty-odd years ago) - lets loose a soothing stream of the title's repetition.

The whole thing just builds and winds until it feels appropriate for the sax to cut loose with some gentle squall as a sweet trumpet anchors the track around the relentless, Jaki-Liebzeit-on-tranquilisers drumming. It reaches fever pitch before coming quietly to a stop.

A total f-ing triumph.

Neil Cowley Trio - Let's Go Away For A While (Beach Boys cover) (Mojo, 2012)

Yet another gem from the 'Pet Sounds Revisited' freebie.

It's obviously hard to ruin source material as amazing as 'Pet Sounds' but the Neil Cowley Trio turn this delicious instrumental into a gently post-rocking jazz masterpiece.

Waves of bright piano roll along over a twisty post-rock rhythm section, using the song's structure from some added tension-and-release dynamics.

Tasty.

Download Neil Cowley Trio - Let's Go Away For A While (Beach Boys cover, mp3 download, Mojo) (Divshare)

Stars - Elevator Love Letter (Setanta, 2003)

Cute electro indie pop gem.

'Elevator Love Letter' by Canada's Stars is a delightful cascade of sweet yearning and regret set to a gently clattering beat, swoons of synth and pulsing acoustic guitar.

Bittersweet with divine melodies, it has a kinship with the likes of The Postal Service and is four minutes of joy.

Download Stars - Elevator Love Letter (Arts & Crafts, Electropop, mp3 download) (Divshare)

The Flaming Lips - God Only Knows (Beach Boys cover) (Mojo, 2012)

More delights from the Mojo 'Pet Sounds Revisited' tribute.

Fractured, radio-broadcasts-in-space version of one of the most beautiful songs/records ever made.

Wayne Coyne coos the song as he floats, untethered through space, watching Earth float away from him.

Download The Flaming Lips - God Only Knows (Beach Boys cover, mp3 download) (Divshare)

Wishbone Ash - Phoenix (Live) (MCA, 1972)

Dirty, dirty Prog but rather splendid with it.

Those familiar with the BBC4 'Prog Britannia' will be familiar with Wishbone Ash's 'Vas Dis' - a slice of widdly-diddly progressive duelling guitar madness. I was rather taken with it and it led me to the hoarier end of the Progressive spectrum...

Namely, Wishbone Ash's 1972 opus 'Argus' and the track 'Phoenix'. This nineteen-and-a-half minute live version veers from (what I imagine) Lynyrd Skynyrd (sounds like) to subtle touches of Jazzy, Tortoise-esqueness. From passages of pompous portent to explosions of frizzy thunder. From plateaus of calm to what sounds like the band playing pat-a-cake.

Nice.

Download Wishbone Ash - Phoenix (Live) (Prog Rock, mp3 download) (Divshare)

Saint Etienne - Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys Cover) (Mojo, 2012)

Lushly-vocalled tribute to The Beach Boys.

Opening with a long, lush acapella section, this is a cooler, less exultant take on 'Pet Sounds' opening track.

Sections of a layered choir of Sarah Cracknell are interspersed with gentle, dreamy dub pop sections - reminiscent of One Dove - that coo you to sleep before a burst based around what sounds like the Harpsichord Rock setting on their Casio.

Download Saint Etienne 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' (Beach Boys cover, mp3 download) (Divshare)

New Music - Thula Borah - Live Secretly (Bandcamp, 2012)

Tasty, elongated Shoegazey Post Rock.

Glasgow's Thula Borah have an expansive, widescreen sound somewhere in the same realm as Slint, Mogwai or Explosions In The Sky or the classic post-Godspeed sounds of the Constellation label. However, across the tracks of this EP, they demonstrate a real mastery of dynamics and restraint.

'Murder' is a vast, surging slice of gently distorted post rock with occasional vocals in a Mark-Gardener-being-gently-tortured sort of way. Some really nice melodic guitar work and uses its eight minutes to good effect without outstaying its welcome.

The EP ranges from US alt-rock flavours (Drop Nineteens in the house) to the wonderfully edgy minimalism-blasting of '(Null Interface)' where the guitar interplay reminds me of Suede's 'The Asphalt World' played refracted through Mogwai's FX rack.

Well worth a listen.

More about Thula Borah at their Bandcamp.

Pop Will Eat Itself - Def Con One (Chapter 22, 1988)

PWEI embrace the Fon Force.

'Def Con One' is the point at which PWEI dropped the laddish cartoon Grebo-isms of 'Box Frenzy' and focused on a ciderdelic, sampladelic homebrew that did the groundwork for indie-dance. 

Sitting somewhere between Gene & Jim Are Into Shakes' 'Shake!' and Bomb The Bass' 'Beat Dis', 'Def Con One' hurtles along on a fuzz of guitar, a sleek machine-tooled rhythm with burbling bass and their inimitable take on That Rap Music. Samples from Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Beastie Boys and The Twilight Zone theme music are thrown into the mix/maelstrom for good measure.

The chorus lifts the riff from The Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' (not that I knew that at the time, of course) and boasts the classic refrain "Big Mac, fries to-go, Big Mac fries to-go, Big Mac fries to-go, Gimme Big Mac, Gimme fries to-go" long before that song about Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut.


Seminal.


Download Pop Will Eat Itself - Def Con One (Indie Dance, Grebo, 1988) (Divshare)

The The - Sweet Bird Of Truth (12" Mix) (Epic, 1987)

Groundbreaking global political commentary.

It's hard to believe this is now 25 years old - not just from the point of view of how much time has passed but how relevant Matt Johnson's commentary on global politics and religion remains today.

'Sweet Bird Of Truth' is a brooding, desperate plea for absolution from a GI in action over the Gulf Of Arabia as "all the planet's little wars start joining hands".

Released as a single from the equally brooding and political 'Infected' album, this version stretches the menace out to eight minutes with pilot-to-control dialogue (requesting authorisation to use Napalm) and dubbed out sections highlighting the clanking, relentless moodiness.

Download The The - Sweet Bird Of Truth (12" Mix) (Epic, mp3 download, 1987) (Divshare)

New Music - Dive - How Long Have You Known (Captured Tracks, 2012)

Swooning, wobbly, shoegazedreampop loveliness.

Partying like it's 1990, Dive are serving up slice after slice of keening, swooning, woozy dreampop-type shoegaze business. After last year's 'Corvalis' single, they've just unleashed another gem in the form of 'How Long Have You Known' which precedes their debut album 'Oshin' in June.

Delightfully driving but wobbly at the same time with layer upon layer of melodic guitar. Nice one for fans of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the wonderful Wild Nothing and Blouse.

Or Revolver, The Field Mice or Moose, of course...

Download Dive - How Long Have You Known (indie, shoegaze, dreampop, mp3)

Kevin Shields - City Girl (Emporer Norton, 2003)

All-too-rare appearance by MBV's Kevin Shields.

As a tribute to the scarcely credible news that, no-really-this-time-they'll-definitely-come-out, the My Bloody Valentine remasters might come out in May, here's one of the few new tracks Kevin Shields has released since 'Loveless' came out in 1991.

For two years, I used to get emails from Amazon that let me know that the latest (re)release date for the remastered version of 'Loveless' was actually fiction and, no really, the release date was now the twelth of never. Allegedly, a compilation of the Creation EPs is due out in May but, well, I'm not holding my breath and, aside from a few odds and sods, I've got these peerless tracks anyhoo.

But listening to this track from the 'Lost In Translation' and its nonchalent, laconic charm, it's hard not to hanker after something more - new or otherwise - from the guitar of Kevin Shields.

Download Kevin Shields - City Girl (Lost In Translation, My Bloody Valentine, mp3) (Divshare)

Air - Alone In Kyoto (Source, 2004)

Gorgeous Satie-esque minimalism.

'Moon Safari' is fun and fresh but, for my money, 'Talkie Walkie' is Air's premier album.

A subtle, haunting record, for the most part it whispers gently in your ear and wends its way to the closing track 'Alone In Kyoto'.

'Alone In Kyoto' is a strung-out but beautiful instrumental built around a simple tone pattern and augmented with accordian, guitar and washes of sound. The chorus builds a tension over stately piano and chirrups.

The track also featured on the 'Lost In Translation' soundtrack and conjures up that film's sense of dislocation and wistfulness perfectly.

Download Air 'Alone In Kyoto' (Lost In Translation, Eric Satie, mp3) (Divshare)

New Music - 2:54 – You’re Early (Wild Beasts Remix) (Fiction, 2012)

Stately, elegance with added Hayden Thorpe.

2:54, who have previously dealt in a wiry, post-Siouxsie and the Banshees gothic noir, have enlisted Wild Beasts to mix-up their new single.

It's a misty, almost funereal, procession with brooding, drifting strings and Wild Beasts' Hayden Thorpe adding his croon to the mix.

Roxy Music - Do The Strand (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1973)

Tasty live version.

Of the many things I could've chosen by Roxy Music, I've posted this because of the instrumental break about two minutes in where the piano emerges and leads a brief avant garde tango with the saxophone.

Good song too, of course.

Download Roxy Music - Do The Strand (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1973, Roxy Music mp3) (Divshare)

Cud - Only (A Prawn In Whitby) (Imaginary, 1989)

Hysterical indie-opera giddiness.

What an oddity Cud were. Starting out with a lumpy and awkward sound but striving for something more cerebral and uplifting.

'Only (A Prawn In Whitby)' was a single extracted from the side-long indie-opera that graced their 'When In Rome, Kill Me' album.

It's reputedly about chancing upon uber-Vegetarian Morrissey enjoying the seafood on the Yorkshire coast (though it turns out to "have been a lookalike" sadly).

The song lurches and jerks at a dizzying pace, Wedding Present-esque guitar jangle fighting with cello, breakneck drumming and Carl Puttnam's earnest croon.

Download Cud - Only (A Prawn In Whitby) (Imaginary, 1989) (Divshare)

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1978)

Lumpy but thrilling live version.

Major props to Tina Weymouth whose primitive but perfectly-judged bass propels this live version of 'Psycho Killer' forwards before taking centre stage in a Krautrock jam of a coda which has to be heard.

A great Talking Heads song, of course, but where this version loses a little in terms of razor sharpness, it gains massively in terms of the interplay between the guitars and the aforementioned Can-tastic coda where the drums cut loose and David Byrne almost pops the top button on his polo shirt.

Download Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1978, Talking Heads mp3) (Divshare)

Cud - You Sexy Thing (Peel Session) (1987)

Lumpy seduction.

The Cud Band were something of an enigma, dealing around this time in a dragging, lumpy indie funk. They were soon to blossom into a period of gently whimsical, progressive lightness on the 'When In Rome, Kill Me' album. Possibly as they learnt to play their instruments.

Sounding like Stump's trendy younger brothers, they blarted out this Peel Session Hot Chocolate cover with only a passing nod to notions of tuning and timekeeping, spiralling into the sort of faster-faster-faster coda beloved of garage indie bands everywhere. Nice with it, though.

Download Cud - You Sexy Thing (Peel Session) (1987) (Divshare)

Rothko - Roads Become Rivers (Rivers Become Oceans - Four Tet Mix) (Lo Recordings, 1999)

Delicious, ebbing post rock with gently skittering washes.

Rothko's gently meandering warm bass patterns are given a re-rub with Four Tet's trademark melodic skittering.

Undulating bass weaves together the track with piano and tones pulsing across the sound before a lazily euphoric percussive breakdown takes the track off in a different direction - Tortoise playing a samba band in an underground bar in Rio.

Eight minutes of insidious wonder.

Download Rothko - Roads Become Rivers (Rivers Become Oceans - Four Tet Mix) (Post Rock, Electronica, mp3) (Divshare)

Spirea X - Speed Reaction (4AD, 1991)

Pristine, buzzing, melodic indie pop with a West Coast tang.

Formed by former Primal Scream guitarist and songwriter, Jim Beattie, Spirea X dropped a couple of singles and an album on 4AD in 1991 and were gone.

It's the Primal Scream of 'Velocity Girl' mixed with a more widescreen sound and 'Speed Reaction' is bolstered by waves of harmony vocals, some subtle horns and a blast of energy.

Divine.


Download Spirea X - Speed Reaction (4AD mp3) (Divshare)

The Blue Nile & Rickie Lee Jones - Easter Parade (Linn, 1990)

Minimal, heartbreaking, beautiful.

More poignant, beautiful minimalism, this time a Blue Nile b-side from 1990.

Paul Buchanan's yearning, soulful voice and haunting piano says so much with so little. It's the sound of a large, empty space where the fairground used to be, the cold of winter burning your cheeks. The sound of an empty railway station on the way home from heartbreak.

Rickie Lee Jones' voice mingles perfectly and the point at which their combined musings take off (2:22) is spectacular. In a restrained, longing kind of way.

Download The Blue Nile & Rickie Lee Jones - Easter Parade (1990)

Eurythmics - Julia (Long Version) (Virgin, 1984)

Wistful, haunting track from the 1984 soundtrack.

For a long time Eurythmics were my favourite band. I haven't really listened much to them for years - apart from their Krautrocking debut album 'In The Garden' (yes, really).

Between the pomp-rocking stadium angst, they did release a number of edgy, even challenging, albums. This soundtrack to the Richard Burton and John Hurt version of 1984 is suitably dark, mainly comprising rhythm-heavy, chanted moodiness and echoing the fusion flavours of 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts'.

However, right in the middle of the album is this simple, haunting ballad that spins yearning and loss from a minimal pallette of piano and synths.

Download Eurythmics 'Julia' (1984 OST, mp3) (Divshare)

Grace Jones - Private Life (Dub Version) (Island, 1980)

Langorous. Echoplexed. Genius.

Very much enjoying the 'Compass Point Sessions' album at the moment. This gem of dubbed-out tension really stands out amongst some wonderful tracks.

Taut, damped guitar is juxtaposed against burbling synths, pattering rhythm, poised bass and ricochet-ing rimshots.

It's a prowling, febrile track that is at beautiful odds with Grace Jones' calm, controlled, dispassionate vocal. Classic.

Download Grace Jones - Private Life (Dub Version) (Island, 1980)

Memoryhouse - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (The Police go Shoegaze)

Classic Police chirpiness given Shoegaze makeover

Oddly, I was actually thinking of posting the original, which is a earworm that marries ponderous, slightly melancholy verses with a bright, sunsplash of a chorus. Bee-Oh-Oh.

Instead, I stumbled on this version that majors on the chord progression of the versions and maxes out the moodiness, remininscent of arch slowcorers Low. It rolls along on a massive reverbed-up semi-acoustic with rolling toms and sweet, simple female vocals, building with some plaintive organ and exploding into the chorus with a slapdash indie-rocking guitar before busting the old, backwards echo, mooding-up to a close.

Lovely stuff.

Download Memoryhouse - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (Police cover, Shoegaze mp3) (Divshare)

Caribou / Manitoba - If Assholes Could Fly, This Place Would Be An Airport (The Leaf Label, 2003)

Tight, funky dancefloor electronica.

Beautifully spring, tight, tech funky electronica business from 2003 before Dan Snaith was forced to change is nom de tronica from Manitoba to Caribou.

Intelligently mental stuff from the ever-reliable Leaf Label that just stops short of a 'woo!... yeah!' moment.

Download Caribou / Manitoba - If Assholes Could Fly, This Place Would Be An Airport (The Leaf Label, techno, electronica, mp3) (Divshare)

New Music - Sigur Ros - Ekki Mukk (XL, 2012)

Radical change of departure for Icelandic moongazers.

Not really.

If anything, new album 'Valtari' promises to be even more minimal and beautiful than previous Sigur Ros outings.

'Valtari' apparently means "steamroller" which is perhaps the most inappropriate title ever, given that the first track to emerge -'Ekki Mukk' - is the sound of 10,000 angels blowing you a kiss goodnight under the Northern Lights.

The track opens with just an ooze of backwards ambience, evolving into a cradle of atmospherics and minimal strings, Jonsi cooing quietly so as not to distract. Beautifully restrained all the way through its eight minutes leaving you with just a sparse piano line.

Red Sparrowes - Alone And Unaware, The Landscape Was Transformed In Front Of Our Eyes (Neurot, 2004)

Epic, postrock dynamism.

The title kind of gives the game away in that this is an Explosions In The Sky type slice of epic, unfolding postrock mastery. But, oh my, does it work, ebbing and flowing in waves of sweet then tangy guitar abuse and widescreen, expansive drumming.

Download Red Sparrowes - Alone And Unaware, The Landscape Was Transformed In Front Of Our Eyes (Post Rock mp3) (Divshare)

Pavement - Conduit For Sale (Big Cat, 1992)

Spindly-then-shouty indie mastery.

'Slanted & Enchanted' = Gel Pen bonus find situationz.

Early singl sparx memory blast.

Elton John combs scrubland for signz of Rickie Lee Jones' Dreft spill while Alex Lifeson returnz Smokie and the Bandit VCR tape for thrift shop bonus.

Great early Pavement b-side.

Download Pavement - Conduit For Sale (indie rock mp3) (Divshare)