Hood - The Lost You (Domino, 2004)

Glitch-y, Shoegaze-y, Post-Rock-y delights.

Definitely one of the most under-rated bands of recent times, Hood seemed to combine disparate influences - Post-Rock, Shoegaze, glitchy techno, ambience, leftfield sound collage and found recordings - into a thrilling soundscape.

Their best work runs along a similar line to Bark Psychosis and Disco Inferno where conventional instruments are merged with effects and entwined with samples and atmosphere. The likes of Trophy Wife are trading in a similar sound to the mighty, but now disbanded, Hood.

'The Lost You' kicks of with some glitched up beats, delivering a driving, staccato groove. A pale, translucent vocal comes in and the track builds up a clattering momentum before dubbing out into an extended break with delicious tones and piano, the treble whacked-out like on one of those Filter Disco tracks from the 90s. The vocal comes back and the tracks explodes in all directions, refracting sound like a post-rock mirrorball. 

Download Hood 'The Lost You' (post-rock, glitch, mp3) (Divshare)

James Yorkston - Woozy With Cider (Domino, 2007)

Minimal, electro-folk, spoken word masterpiece.

Crikey, this is a beautiful record.

Usually rocking it on a folksy tip, 'Woozy With Cider' sees James Yorkston mutter extracts from his diary over a gentle, what you might term 'ambient', backing.

A simple tone-loop is joined by an oboe and very little else, just Yorkston's dulcet, self-deprecating voice. He ponders the lot of the modern acoustic troubadour, pausing to wonder whether anyone will buy his records and whether they might end up soundtracking adverts. For oranges. Or lemons.

An array of remixes were released with this single but, for the most part, they seem redundant. Maybe Four Tet could have done it justice but, really, this track itself is a recontextualising of his usual sound. All the familiar elements have been removed excepting his voice, which makes it all the more intimate. It's just Mr. Yorkston muttering his stream of consciousness, cider-breathed, into your ear, slumped over the bar in an after-hours ambient techno bar. Or something like that.

Download James Yorkston 'Woozy With Cider' (Electro, Folk, Ambient, mp3 download) (Mediafire)

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.

Steinski and the Mass Media - The Motorcade Sped On (NME, 1987)

Utter genius cut'n'paste business from 1987.

This came on a covermount 7" with the NME in 1987 and I was utterly obsessed with it for years, vowing to top it if only I could get a better high-speed-dubbing-tape-to-tape machine.

I never did.

Pretty much unreleasable due to the sheer number of samples (Prince and Queen, for starters), it's a mash-up of the shooting of JFK. The utter mundanity of "the motorcade sped on" commentary lends it a surreal edge, especially given the level of repetition.

A completely seminal piece of early plunderphonics.

Download Steinski and the Mass Media - The Motorcade Sped On (NME, 1987, Plunderphonics mp3)

Stereolab 'Super Falling Star (Moog Mix)' (Volume, 1992)

Delicious, delicate take that exposes a different side to early Stereolab.

Gentle layers of synth interweave, able to breathe and unwind even more without the guitars.

Stereolab were always more of a cerebral band more akin to Seefeel than the gutsier, more instintive music of Too Pure bands like Moonshake and Th' Faith Healers.

This version of the 'Peng!' album track you hear Laetitia's vocal's more clearly, though, of course, you still don't know what she's on about. The waves of melody remind me of Plone or the hauntological sounds of the Ghost Box label and BBC Radiophonic Workshop experiments.

Lovely.

Download Stereolab 'Super Falling Star (Moog Mix)' (indie mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Advisory Circle Mixtape (November 2011)

Expansive mix from the man behind The Advisory Circle's haunted electronica. 

Taking in library sounds, classic Techno, Radiophonic experiments and more besides, this is an intriguing mix that takes in Carl Craig (in his 69 guise), Jim O'Rourke, library guy Keith Mansfield, the timeshifted dubstep bleep of Holy Other and a host of other things I've never heard of.

'Everything is Neu' by Hatchback is a particular favourite, a rumbling synthetic hymn to the motorik beat. It builds beautifully to a euphoric splendour.

The mix opens with a track from the latest release in Ghost Box's Study Series. Entitled 'Autumnal Activities', it's Number 7 in the series of desirable 7"s and sees Pye Corner Audio in collaboration with The Advisory Circle. It's a sombre, gentle piece of public information film soundtracking, riven by the sounds of wind and the sound of a haunted oboe.

Available from the Ghost Box shop of course.

The Advisory Circle present 'Autumn Cycles' by Cafekaput on Mixcloud

Thom Yorke 6Mix mp3 (BBC 6Music DJ Set) (16/10/2011) (Radiohead)

Nicely eclectic blend of electronica, glitch and downbeat indie by Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

Two hours of tracks selected by Thom Yorke for BBC 6Music's 6Mix.

Includes tracks from Radiohead's 'TKOL RMX' album, plus mixes by the likes of James Blake, Burial, Kode9 and Autechre and tracks from an eclectic selection from Low and PJ Harvey to Modeselektor, Ricardo Villalobos and Aphex Twin.

Tracklist (1hr 55min 30s):
Erykah Badu 'The Healer'
J. Dill 'Geek Down'
King Midas Sound 'One Thing (Dabrye Remix)'
Aloe Blacc 'Whole World'
Owiny Sigoma Band 'Margaret Okodo'
Thom Yorke 'Stuck Together (Remix)'
Radiohead 'Little By Little (Caribou Remix)'
Low 'Monkey'
-
Radiohead 'Little By Little (Shed Mix)
Modeselektor 'Kill Bill Vol. 4'
2512 'The Wind Up'
Steve Poindexter 'Short Circuit (C64 Bypass Mix)
FaltyDL 'My Friends Will Always Say'
Ramadanman 'Glut'
Pangea 'You & I'
Gil Scott Heron & Jamie xx 'New York Is Killing Me'
Radiohead 'Good Morning Mr. Magpie (Nathan Fake Harshdub)'
Thom Yorke 'And It Rained All Night (Burial Remix)'
Untold & James Blake 'Stop What You’re Doing (James Blake Remix)'
DJ Slugo 'Waiting For You Demdike'
Felix Da Housecat 'What Does It Feel Like?'
Tapes 'Outro'
Tapes 'Gold Love Riddim'
The Low Anthem 'Matter Of Time'
Aphex Twin 'Hy A Scullyas Lyf Adhagrow'
Radiohead 'Codex (Illum Sphere Remix)'
Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbaur 'Recat'
PJ Harvey 'When Under Ether'
Radiohead 'Paperbag Writer'
Emika 'Double Edge'
Radiohead 'Bloom (Remix)'
Autechre 'Drane'
Wiley '100% Publishing'
Kode9 '9 Samurai (Quarta 330 Remix)'
Flying Lotus 'Zodiac'

Download Part 1 - Thom Yorke 6Mix mp3 - BBC 6Music 16/10/2011 (electronica, indie mixtape, DJ set) (Rapidshare)

Download Part 2 - Thom Yorke 6Mix mp3 - BBC 6Music 16/10/2011 (electronica, indie mixtape, DJ set) (Rapidshare)

Triosk 'Two; Twelve' (The Leaf Label, 2004)

Intense and organic hybrid of post-rock, jazz and glitchy looping.

Triosk were an Australian jazz trio who blended post-rock grooves and electronic loops and glitches into their mellifluous, flowing pieces. They incorporated the sound of Tortoise's lock-groove wonder with controlled intensity, dynamics and improvisatory nous of The Necks. They evolved into Pivot (later shortened to Pvt) who have released a couple of albums on Warp.

'Two; Twelve' is a teasing, languid jam that grows in intensity across some expansive, jazzy drumming. There some Tortoise-y vibes and some rich, dark brown double bass action. Little touches of glitch and squiggle rough up the smooth edges, making the sound akin to Miles Davis' fusion band somehow jamming with Autechre at the Isle of Wight in 1970. Under sedation.

Magical. Triosk's two albums on The Leaf Label are highly recommended.

Download Triosk 'Two; Twelve' (jazz, post rock, electronica mp3) (Mediafire)

Disco Inferno 'It's A Kid's World' (Rough Trade, 1994)

Mental, ahead-of-its-time fusion of noise, rhythm and melody.

Another highly under-rated band, Disco Inferno struggled on for five years or so in the early nineties on a series of labels. They eventually settled at Rough Trade to unleash a string of mind-busting EPs and a couple of albums.

The band fused regular instruments with triggered samples and a mix of rhythm and melody. 'It's A Kid's World' is a gloriously melodic cacophony that fuses hi-life-ish guitars with the drum break from Iggy Pop's 'Lust For Life' before throwing in samples of a tuba, cartoon soundtrack, a stop-start chorus, what sounds like a recorder, another glorious melody on the outro.

You're literally bombarded with ideas and energy but it's a highly addictive mix. I'd reference some other bands but I really think there's no-one else doing what they did.

Hopefully the release of a newly remastered collection of their five EPs on Cheree and Rough Trade might give them a little overdue recognition. Here's hoping.

Download Disco Inferno 'It's A Kid's World' (alternative, indie, mp3) (Mediafire)

The Necks 'Sunken (Live at MONA FOMA, Hobart)' (2011)

More epic, evolving, post-jazz magic from The Necks.

The Necks deal in expressive, subtly shifting and evolving improv, making magic from a trio set-up of double bass, piano and drums.

Ostensibly jazz, their pieces are usually an hour or so of music that builds from nothing to a simple riff on one instrument into a piece that takes on a life of its own, going way beyond what might simply be termed jazz.

The Australian trio are very much a one-off but there are echoes of Miles Davis's 'In A Silent Way' in there as well as postrock like The Drift or late-period Talk Talk. The length and repetition/evolution forces you to submerge yourself in the music in the same way as great ambient dub like Seefeel.

The intensity they create is staggering and they're well worth catching live when they come back to the UK later this year.

This piece was recorded for radio at the MONA FOMA arts festival in Hobart, Tasmania.

Download The Necks 'Sunken (Live at MONA FOMA, Hobart, Tasmania, 2011)' (jazz improvisation, 320kb, mp3) (Mediafire)

Believer 'Nocturnal Sea' (Land And Sea, 2011)

Something new from members of The Drift and Tarentel.

Elongated, slowly-evolving loopy business from Danny Grody of The Drift and William Montgomery of Tarentel. Sounds like a couple of FX boxes and a loop pedal or two to me. Very relaxing.

Digital EP available via Bandcamp.

New - Neverest Songs 'Paper Trumpets' (Tea At Yours, 2011)

Gorgeous, subtle, folk-gazer stuff from multi-instrumentalist Luke Twyman aka Neverest Songs.

'Paper Trumpets' is simple and of spartan arrangement but full of life and melody and lets the music really breathe. It melds a folk-y sensibility with shoegaze-y melodicism and circular, ensemble singing in the mode of A Silver Mt. Zion.

File next to the similarly talented Peter Broderick, Tunng, Hannah Peel (whose album was co-produced by Tunng's Mike Lindsay), Sufjan Stevens and the exquisitely arranged prog-pop of Spoonfed Hybrid.

Unbelieveably beautiful and entrancing, drawing you in with each listen. Backed with 'Softly, Quite Softly, Quite Softly' which rocks a brass section. As you do.

Highly recommended. Look forward to seeing him at the Green Man Festival.

Seven-inch vinyl release available direct from the artist.

Paper Trumpets by Neverest Songs

Stump 'Down On The Kitchen Table (Peel Session)' (Strange Fruit, 1987)

Bendy, indie experimentalism from the unique minds of Stump.

'Down On The Kitchen Table' from Stump's debut Peel Session in 1986 comes over like a rush, a stream of consciousness in terms of both its lyrics and its music. That certainly seemed like a unique combination to me and pushed the envelope when compared to likes of 'Buffalo' and 'Charlton Heston' (with its Tim Pope-directed video) which only displayed three or four dimensions of musical imagination.

This particular track requires a little more processing in order to enter Stump's very particular, peculiar sound world.

Angular experimental indie funk hurtles along while adroit lyrics about cats, tap rooms, Young Conservatives and patio evenings spin out of the maelstrom. Time signatures shift and lurch and the closing section spins and burps to a crazy close.

Pretty much unique twenty-five years ago, certainly not matched in the years since.

Download Stump 'Down On The Kitchen Table' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Download the whole Peel Session over at Archive: Live + Rare (mp3) (Mediafire)

Seefeel 'Climatic Phase #3 (Overnight Mix)' (Too Pure, 1993)

Where shoegaze met dub, ambience, drones and post-rock for a blissed-out moment.

Another great album from the original wave of Too Pure artists - see Moonshake, PJ Harvey, Th' Faith Healers, Pram, Long Fin Killie for more dispatches from that golden age.

Seefeel were one of the first bands to adapt ambient dub and electronica into a live, band set-up, extending the scope of what an indie band could be and moving post-rock another iteration away from guitar-bass-drums orthodoxy.

This mix of 'Climatic Phase #3' from their debut 'Quique' album softens the dub thump of the original and creates an even more opiated fog, an aural comfort blanket. Drift away to the gentle ebb and flow of angelic looping feedback like the less aggressive My Bloody Valentine of 'To Here Knows When'.

They went on to record for Warp which, in hindsight, seems like their natural home but seemed a fairly radical cross-over point at the time. There was also a new album this year (self-titled released on Warp) which moved further away from flowing soundscapes and deeper into fractured experimentalism.

Download Seefeel 'Climatic Phase #3 (Overnight Mix)' (free mp3 download) (Mediafire)

When Saints Go Machine 'Fail Forever (Nicolas Jaar Remix)' (Studio !K7, 2011)

Utterly and oddly compelling hybrid of styles. Is it chamber music? Dubstep? Minimal house? It's all three!

It opens with what sounds like an ice cream van tune played on pizzicato strings them glitched up. Some steel pan (I don't know, you wait twenty years for an underground dance record with a steel pan on and then two come along seemingly at once...) adds flavour before an increasingly pitch-shifted vocal makes for an unsettled mood.

The track stays spartan and reserved until some sub-bass enters the mix, locking into a tight minimal groove. Then we're treated to some chocolatey, langorous cello before we get a half-time pass at the minimal groove.

It definitely has a kinship with Jamie xx's productions but it's a highly engaging and original sound.

Download When Saints Go Machine 'Fail Forever (Nicolas Jaar Remix)' (mp3) (Soundcloud)

Naciente Quartet 'One Two Three Four' (2004) (mp3)

Naciente Quartet were a South London outfit based within the Utrophia art-music collective in Greenwich.

I managed to see them live on one spectacular occasion at 93 Feet East and also picked up a couple of their self-produced EPs. Alas, though, I think they are now no more with no activity to speak of for a couple of years.

'One Two Three Four' showcases their blend of thoughtful post-rock with elements of jazz, systems music and some gorgeous playing. It canters along on some solid but expressive drumming and a sweet flow of bass.

Expressive guitar work is entwined creating an evolving, moody instrumental upon which subtle Tortoise vibraphone is added and bright, almost hi-life, lead guitar can radiate without being showy.

A great lost band and definitely worth fans of Fridge, the more thoughtful, intricate side of Foals and Tortoise checking their shit out.

Download Naciente Quartet 'One Two Three Four' (mp3) (Mediafire)

More tracks available on the Naciente Quartet Myspace page (remember Myspace?)

Connan Mockasin 'Forever Dolphin Love' (Because, 2010) (mp3)

Very much the mysterious Mr. Mockasin's Krautrock-tinged Jazz Oddyssey.

'Forever Dolphin Love' starts with a gently oscillating pulse-groove - a la Miles Davis circa 'Bitches Brew' - before drifting into a more song-based section that rides on deft bass and guitar interplay, tides of dolphin sonar rising as the track progresses into a locked-groove Can-athon.

His recently reissued album includes a spellbinding live version of the track that extemporises on the theme, busting out to over twelve-minutes of madness.

It opens straight into a Can-at-Der-Schloss-in-1969 late-night groove lock-in before receding in intensity to usher in the song section and those vaguely disturbing (presumably treated) vocals.

By the eight minute mark, it's mutated further into a dubby monster, each rotation increasing the tempo until it's as giddy as a village idiot chasing a cheese down a hillside. Having just huffed a load of lighter fuel.

By the time the track collapses in an exhausted heap, only able to loop through its vinegar strokes in half-time, it's created staggering momentum - the guitars spinning out shards of skronk, the bassist pounding away and the drummer flinging his cymbals round your ears.

Astounding.

Download Connan Mockasin 'Forever Dolphin Love (Live)' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Available on the Forever Dolphin Love (Double CD reissue) of Connan Mockasin's album.

Plone 'Press A Key' (Wurlitzer Jukebox, 1997) (mp3 download)

The mysterious Plone were a short-lived Birmingham experimental audio lab that released one album on Warp as well as a handful of singles and this, their debut 7" for Wurlitzer Jukebox in 1997.

Obviously in thrall to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and peers of Broadcast, Pram and Stereolab, Plone set the ground for the Ghost Box label to deal in their quirkily-synthed hauntology.

'Press A Key' is a mellow piece of library music that is based on a rolling groove of synth bass and analogue-sounding drum machine. The melody is pure Radiophonic oscillation, suggesting a public information film about the dangers of larking about on trains late at night.

Or maybe it sounds like the entry into the Music 2000 competition on Look Around You of Stanford Torpedo a computer programmer from Milton Keynes who has managed to make music by converting the brain activity of toads into machine code.

Download Plone 'Press A Key' (mp3) (Mediafire)

The Art Of Noise 'Sign Of Relief' (ZTT, 1983) (mp3)

'Sign Of Relief' is merely a fragment of a track from the recently expanded/reissued 'Into Battle' album.

Its rolling melody makes it sound like the call-sign for the only TV channel in some Soviet-era state. As such, it's reminiscent of OMD's 'Dazzle Ships' and a nice example of primitive sampling technology being pushed to its limit.

Download The Art Of Noise 'Sign Of Relief' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Super Numeri 'The First League Of Angels' (Ninja Tune, 2005) (mp3)

Twenty-four minutes - yes, twenty-four minutes - of staggering psychedelic/progressive/post-rock madness from this now defunct Liverpool outfit.

Hard to describe but I like a challenge - so it's like Tortoise on cheap speed, Moonshake jamming on laughing gas or Can on a trampolene.

Ambience and harp give way to a steady, cuboid drum pattern while twin basses surround your already-addled head with a widdly-diddly, incessant attack. It's a simply awesome intro that evolves through layers of bendy guitar feedback, the volume and intensity rising as rifling percussion adds to the maelstrom.

At the ten-minute mark it breaks down to a freak-out as an octopus takes the drum stool and the track then flies off the edge of sensibility before breaking down into an oasis of calm. The main riff builds again from scratch with trebly guitar shards arc-ing around it and the drums return with serious intent. We're off into motorik jam, hitting upon a frictionless plateau of mental rhythm and playfulness.

Staggering stuff.

Download Super Numeri 'The First League Of Angels' (mp3) (Mediafire)