HELLO FRIDAY! Or whatever day you read this. Seems a little like there's no time to press up the perfect holiday presents so the music corporate partners are giving up and ramming remixes down our inbox instead. Somehoo then the OL folks have eeeked out enough few star releases to fill out this page this week. Stringers, I salute you.
SINGLES
ORBITAL - Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) (feat. The Mediaeval Baebes) (London Records)
by Tim London
From the 1990s… when new samplers that held longer samples made it possible to squeeze in all kinds of found bits of music so that they sort of fitted electronic beats. Drugs helped. Remove the little segment of (presumably a Mediaeval Baebe singing) whispy nursery rhyme and we have four arpeggiated chords going around and around on top of a busy electro beat. You could knock it up in ten minutes on your phone if you had the inclination and then get the missus to do the whispy bit, maybe about your socks.
GOGORIZ - Honest ft. Jamila Woods, Kyle Dylon, Yo Trane (Gogoriz)
by Ancient Champion
Could probably listen to this all day. And usually since I listen while finding a few pertinent details and those details are scant about this, and since I'll keep on searching maybe I will be listening all day. Just goes. Groovily. Good for a weekend in the mountains with people you feel good about, good s/t for that. Jamila Woods, I don't know what she does here, a perpetual favorite since Donnie the Trumpet.
SATOKO FUJII - 100 dreams (Libra Records)
by Toon Traveller
Pianist and composer Satoko Fujii celebrates her 100th album with the release of Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams available December 9, 2022 via Libra Records. When I put the record on and immediately love the delicate piano opening, dawns sun rise, stretching... Waiting for a larks call, if you ease yourself into the day, these moments are for you, it's piano, and nature, a delight. Especially with winter's rain window bashing in Newcastle. Love the sudden collapse into a flurry angry notes, rows at the station, coffee shop queue, office water cooler. A return to calm, a soundtrack for the commute. Yeah a great listen, and running through, an inner calm of bird song, serenity and composure, and meditation. The flurries deep and sonorous, a great slab of jazz as a comment on daily life, a soundtrack for that suburban, urban, urbane , lifestyle many of us might fancy, some loft apartment in some hip, happening neighbourhood, but just as good out here in the reality og the suburbs. This track imbues me with optimism and hope.
CUSTARD FLUX - Phosphorus (Bandcamp)
by Graham Baker
LUMER - English Dream (Bandcamp)
by Lee Paul
Lumer's English Dream has already been recommended by KCRW and is lyrically gritty for sure and musically Strangler-esque maybe, with an epic luminescence. There's a contrast then between the gutter and the stars.
LEVELLERS - Down By The River 'O' (On The Fiddle Recordings)
by Tim London
I hated ‘country dancing’ when at primary school, an hour of sweaty palmed conjoining with the girls I didn’t like soundtracked by a sadistic accordionist. It’s The Levellers! Who have transformed from scrungey indie rockers playing on the back of any old artic’ lorry parked at free festivals as an alternative to the otherwise interminable (and illegal!) beats of hyped up DJs in leather waistcoats into a rough and tough, heel stomping, Blue Mountain, shotgun waving, blackleg murderin’ backing band for Billy Bragg’s late life Americana.
YENDRY - Ki-Ki ft. Enny (RCA)
by Ancient Champion
Ki-Ki is like 100% less turgid than anything I've been asked to hear this week. Ki-Ki is shot through with J-O-Y and pretty obviously YENDRY has decided to restore our faith in music. It's her first single since 2020, so I kind of like that not working too hard.
SUPERORGANISM - Woofin' and Meowin' (Domino)
by Tim London
When this started I was ready to click after 5 seconds cos I thought it was the soundtrack to the preceding advert for a Xmas take on delivering something unwanted to an imaginary family (which nowadays, thankfully, is as multi-cultural as actual real life Britain - yay for cute brown kids selling us things). But it wasn’t. But it could be. Which is, perhaps the idea. Good money in adverts for a sweetly ironic punk group.
CAROLINE POLACHEK - Welcome To My Island (Perpetual Novice)
by Tim London
Despite the distracting sight of the crack of Caroline’s ass appearing as the screen saver for this track I managed to focus on the lyrics and there is a kind of weird inward gaze to them that lends a poignancy to what would otherwise be seen as yet more 1990s electronic pop stylings. What the four (count them) producers actually did on the recording is bemusing (presumably they took a strata each, one for the corny drums, one for the corny synths etc) but. somehow, Caroline has managed something with a little more substance than usual.
YAKOV BERGER - After While (Youtube)
by Lee Paul
Yakov Berger, a great favorite at outsideleft returns with a slight,wistful piano. solo.
BIG ROMANCE - High on You (Independent)
by Tim Sparks
Big Romance are a three-piece indie/rock band from Newcastle Upon Tyne Uk, and this week I listen to their 3rd single, ‘High On You’ from the forthcoming EP of the same name. The track kicks off straight into the action, nice big sound and production with the mix to match. Vocalist Dan Frend and the guys take us on a road through a twists and turns all backed by those fuzzy guitars, hard hitting drums and riffs grabbing our attention at every opportunity, with the stacked vocal harmonies further enhancing the song.
Written in Lockdown, Dan says of the lyrics “I think there was just this desire to communicate in a time where the ability to physically do so was super limited. I became obsessed with this idea that everyone just existed online now and dating apps were a really weird place to be because of it " Certainly a breath of fresh air here folks...one to add to your playlist.
LPs
BJöRN MAGNUSSON - Nightclub Music & Ethereal Faith (Specter Fix Press)
by Tim London
Right. Tim battles his self-declared enormous concrete chip on my poor aching left shoulder to get in a review of Björn Magnusson's Nightclub Music & Ethereal Faith, here⇒
ANTON BARBEAU - Stranger (Gare du Nord)
by John Robinson
Anton Barbeau, musical polymath and synthesist, Stranger LP is out now. Read John Robinson's comprehensive review right here⇒
THE SHOP WINDOW - A 4 Letter Word (Spinout Nuggets)
by Tim Sparks
I spotted this band whilst surfing my social feeds as I do, guitar intros always grab my attention and seem to be sadly lacking in the current music scene, however The Shop Window change all of that as this album has as raft of cool guitars and intro riffs, combine that with a nice big wide vocal sound and great production and we have some very entertaining music. Checking through the tracks I had to come back to one of my favourites which happened to be track 1 - Eyes Wide Shut, again a cool intro then straight into a jangled chorus guitar and smooth harmony vocals which continue throughout, holding the attention all the way, the melodic lyrics sound really nice, and the mix style works really well. Nice to hear a band bring guitar back into focus, check them out, you won't be disappointed.
Other Materials
BEABADOOBEE - Tiny Desk (NPR)
by Lee Paul
One of the loveliest weekends I had this year was popping down to Bristol dropping my daughter and her friend at a Beabadoobee show. There's something so now about Beabadoobee that excludes pop snobs, and this and that. Ambitious enough to defy the closed shop that is UK music radio. You and I know it's merely coincidental that eight of the ten 6Music LPs of the Year came from just one music publishing company. Think about that while listening. You won't be able to think about it for long. They're counting on that.
Essential Info
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