2024 – The Year So Far – #2

I’m typing this in a room inside a bland building in Acton, London.  I arrived about an hour ago, took a number from the dispenser on the wall and sat in one of the chairs that fill the room.  The little red display screen reads “26”.  I look down at my ticket and it says 53.  I look around the room, there doesn’t seem to be 27 other people in this room.  Then I notice the second room which has about twenty people in it.

I’m here to collect a Visa.  It’s my second visit to this building, about ten days ago I turned up armed to the teeth with a mound of paperwork and my passport and eighty five quid, all of which I handed over to man, after a relatively short wait, I was handed a receipt and instead of being given a Visa and my passport back, I was told that “you will be telephoned and then you come back”.  I live 300 miles away I tell the man with a pleading look in my eyes.  He shrugs his shoulders and calls the next person over.

Back in the room on my second visit, an official looking man in a blazer wanders past and says to the room, “Two Hour Wait”.  There is no apology.  There is some tutting and sighing, some of which comes from me.  I sigh and get comfy, I have no choice but to stay. I could go and get some food but I worry that the queue might speed up and I’ll miss my place and then it might automatically slow down again when I return and besides the man behind the glass screen to my left, has my passport and I need that so I sit and wait.

So that’s the reason why I am typing this in a bland room.  To make things worse, a child is crying behind me because his mother won’t let him play on a Nintendo Switch and a chubby old bloke to my right is coughing like he has just tried his first cigarette. 

The red display screen now reads 41, so things are moving slowly.  Unlike the child who has stopped crying and is now chasing another child around the room, both of them making noises like motorbikes, much to the annoyance of most of the people waiting.   They at least make me smile when one of them crashes his pretend motorbike into one of the giant flags that the official people have left lying about in a frankly haphazard way.  The blazer man is back and is lecturing the parents in another language, he waggles his finger and the mother apologises and grabs the kiddie by the arm and shoves the Nintendo switch in his hand.  I grin at the brilliant resourcefulness of the child who knew exactly what he was doing.

Here are four tracks that are all new (or relatively new) that have like a child pretending to be a motorbike, made me smile today and we are going to start with some old(ish) favourites.

Advertising Services – Problem Patterns (2023, Alcopop Records, Taken from ‘Blouse Club’) – Regular readers of this nonsense masquerading as music blog will have met Belfast riot grrl band Problem Patterns before, as they featured quite highly in the end of year tracks countdown.   They are also Kathleen Hanna’s favourite band and that as I said before, should be enough of a reason to absolutely love them but if it isn’t then the brilliant punky indie that they serve up should be.  ‘Advertising Services’ is the most political track on their debut album, a fierce, fiery blast that takes aim at inequality and fat cats creaming off the profits.

Next up today, some jazzy drum and bass from an act I know very little about but I heard it on the radio, loved it and jotted down the name.  Its incredible and that is pretty much all you need to know. 

Stop – Sully (2024, Uncertain Hour Records)

Following on from that, a band that I do know quite a lot about, having been a fan for almost as long as I’ve been sat in this room (the display is reading 50 by the way so I’m nearly there).

Loved – Four Tet (2024, Text Records) – Ok, here’s a rare thing.  I’m going to dish out some advice for free.  You can take it, which is advised, or leave it.  Here it is…if you ever find yourself stuck in a room with a long wait – be it some bland visa department of a North African country, a doctors surgery, a train station or anywhere really, take some music by Four Tet with you – it will make two hours feel like twenty minutes.  Oh and by the way Four Tet’s new work is astonishingly good, so that would be as good a place to start as anywhere.

Lastly for today, a band who my good friend Mr L brought to my attention.  We were, as it happens supposed to be going to see them tonight (Feb 29^th) at the Cavern Club in Exeter, but now I can’t be there because I’m going to be mucking around in the desert for a couple of days instead.  They are called junodream and they are great, more so if you love psychedelic shoegaze.

Kitchen Sink Drama – Junodream (2024, Visualiser Records, Taken from ‘Pools of Colour’)

A Month of Beasts, Bugs, and Birds – #17 – The Bird

Night Patrol – Two Wounded Birds (2011, Moshi Moshi Records, Taken from ‘Keep Dreaming Baby’)

I haven’t given much space to talk about music this month, but I want to say something about Two Wounded Birds if I may.  They were a rock band formed in Margate in Kent in 2010.  Their sound is compared as being like The Beach Boys and the Velvet Underground but in reality you can file them somewhere in the gap between the Vaccines and Chris Isaak.

Their vocalist was the excellently named Johnny Danger, who did have this sullen broodiness about him.   Their press photos always used to shown the band looking cross, or wearing sunglasses and leather jackets as they displayed the agony of life through their tortured souls, that sort of thing.   But despite all the darkness and gloom tinged indie, they were definitely more Venice Beach than Broadstairs beach.  Their songs were about summer for one thing.

In 2012, before they had really got started, the band split, there had been problems before then with band members leaving and a few less than favourable reviews of their debut album – which to be fair showed little of the promise of the bands early EP’s but is you know, not bad at all, just not overly good either. I remember, just before the split, the band getting into a furious online spat with a music journalist (a journalist who is now a key part of the excellent music team at the Guardian, but at the time, I think worked for the NME) where insults were slung to and fro and they called the journalist “The worst journalist who has ever lived”, which is quite an insult considering Boris Johnson, Piers Morgan and Garry Bushell have all worked as journalists before.  The journalist responded with “Two Wounded Birds are a fourth rate indie tribute act that even a Wetherspoons pub would refuse to book” or some such put down.

Saucers of milk were distributed all round I think.

No Goodbyes – Two Wounded Birds (2012,Moshi Moshi Records, Taken from ‘Two Wounded Birds)

Anyway, we can’t be talking about music, on a music blog, that would be madness. 

Let’s talk about birds for a bit. 

I’ve got this app on my phone that records the noises made by birds and then analyses it and comes back and tells you what it is.  Really useful if you are out and about, lost and want to know if those screeching noises you can hear above you are vultures or not (they shouldn’t be by the way).  The other week I was walking down to the school to pick up my daughter and I’d taken the scenic route along the footpath which runs along side a couple of fields.  There is a tiny little yellow bird darting in and out of the hedgerow and its shrill little trill fills the air.  It’s a lovely sound.  I have no idea what bird is making the noise but I know an app that can tell me.

Mr Birdsong – Arbor Labor Union (2016, Sub Pop Records, Taken from ‘I Hear You’)

I take out the phone and stand still so I can try and record the sound using my app.  You kind of have to stand there with your arm in the air for a minute, so that a decent range of sounds can be heard.  I stand there perfect sill, I keep my breathing down to a minimum and there is silence.  The bloody bird has shut up for a bit.

Teenage Birdsong – Four Tet (2020, Text Records, Taken from ‘Sixteen Oceans’)

I stand there and wait.  The app keeps telling me that ‘No bird sounds found’, which I know because the only thing I can hear is the faint murmur of cars heading to the school, which is where I should be in about three minutes time.  I sigh and walk on a bit.  Then I hear that trill again and I stop, and give it one last go. 

I like to think that the tiny yellow bird sees me and takes pity on me because it tweets away for about twenty seconds then stops and flies away back into the hedgerow.  I press send and wait for the app to tell me what it was.

It takes about a minute or so. 

It was a Cirl Bunting and as any ornithology fans out there will tell you, that is quite an exciting thing as they are pretty rare.  Sometimes, life is worth a little perseverance.

Birdy – Sea Power (2000, Rough Trade Records, Taken from ‘The Compleat British Sea Power Vol 1 (2015))

Here is tomorrows Creature Clue  A Soft bodied mollusc with a small interior skeleton

Alternative Versions – #10

Turtle Turtle Up (Extended Version) – Four Tet (2005, Domino Records, Taken from ‘Everything Ecstatic Part 2’)

Turtle Turtle Up – Four Tet (2005, Domino Records, Taken from ‘Everything Ecstatic’)

The original version of ‘Turtle Turtle Up’ is just over two minutes long.  It is a collection of bleeps and computer generated noises rather like the sounds from the game ‘Defender’ with drums added to it.  It is rather cool in a mismatched kind of way.  That kind of sums up most of Four Tet’s fourth album ‘Everything Ecstatic’.  When that is good it is brilliant and when it isn’t it is a bit all over the place – which being Four Tet, was probably the point anyway, and therefore its brilliant regardless.

When ‘Everything Ecstatic’ was released back in 2005, Kieran Hebden being the unbridled genius that he is released a DVD version of the album which came with a bonus additional CD.  That was called ‘Everything Ecstatic Part 2’ and that opened with an extended version of ‘Turtle Turtle Up’.  Now with the original being just over two minutes long you would expect an extended version to include perhaps a few extras minutes of beats and squiggles to perhaps take it to 3 or 4 minutes, but this is Four Tet remember.

The extended version of ‘Turtle Turtle Up’ clocks in at just over sixteen minutes.  It is EIGHT times longer than the original and for what it is worth – it is infinitesimally better than the original version.  It’s full of squeaks, noises, breaks, beats, drums, keyboards, crashes, whirls, swirls, twirls and that’s just the first eight minutes.  Its pretty much what Four Tet would sound like if they ever got invited to an Aphex Twin themed fancy dress party.  Its incredible and makes it 5 – 4 to the alternative versions, with nine to play.

Also included on that bonus CD was part 2 of ‘Sun Drums and Soil’, which is probably the most well known track on ‘Everything Ecstatic’.  The part 2 version starts with a bunch of noises that sound like the sort of noises that cheap seventies sci -fi films used in order to make them sound futuristic.  All that the fades away and what is left is some wonky sounding synths, a shimmering snare, jazzy drums, scratchy beats and stop start breaks and then suddenly just stops in a way that makes you think that you headphones have stopped working.  Personally I think it’s great in its own disjointed messy way.

Sun Drums and Soil (Part 2) – Four Tet (2005, Domino Records, Taken from ‘Everything Ecstatic Part 2’)

Here’s your original part one, which is pretty much an entirely different track, full of relentless drums, faint organs, whirling horns, tinkering keyboards and stuttering beats – it’s marvellous just in case you needed telling.

Sun Drums and Soil (Album Version) – Four Tet (2005, Domino Records, Taken from ‘Everything Ecstatic’)

On Monday – The Manic Street Preachers give us an example of why demo’s sometimes don’t need to be released.

The Future is No Words….#1

And They All Look Broken Hearted – Four Tet (2003, Domino Records, Taken from ‘Rounds’)

You know what I think about words.  Over rated.

So here is the first in a series which celebrates tracks which don’t have any. It is inspired by a Sunday morning run I did the other week where the iPod chose at random four consecutive songs that had no words in them at all.

First, we had Four Tet and when the gentle breakbeats of that faded away I was met by the wild west meets Krautrock musings of Quickspace

Precious Mountain – Quickspace (1997, Kitty Kitty Corporation Records, Taken from ‘Precious Falling’) and yes I know that there is an odd “Ooh” and “Aha” running through this, but that doesn’t count

That eventually segued into something completely different as Richard D James and his brilliantly bonkers brand of electronica burst into my ears.

Peek 82454201 – Aphex Twin (1996, Warp Records, Taken from ‘Richard D James Album’)

And when that had finished whirring and clanking away it was followed by this big beated blast from the past.

Whoosh – Bentley Rhythm Ace (1997, Parlophone Records, Taken from ‘BRA’) – and yes I know there is a kind of vocalised sample in this but that also doesn’t count.

So Sundays from now until I can actually think of a better idea for a series will feature tracks that have no words and as words are over rated and the future is clearly no words, each post will be mercifully short.

Counting Up from Two – #6 – Seven

7 Like That – Quickspace (1998, Kitty Kitty Corporation Records, Taken from ‘Precious Falling’)

When I was seven years old we moved house.  It was an exciting time.  I remember reading all the information about my new school, proudly stating that I was going to join the football club, and various other after school clubs that the school appeared to run.  The house we were moving was a bit smaller than the old one and my brother and I would have to share a room.  Something we were excited about until about a week after we moved in, and we reverted to lengthy arguments about who could fart the loudest and whether we were cheating at Monopoly (we both were).

On the third day in our new house, our dad sent me and my brother out into the street to play football, so that he could properly unpack.  Slowly a gaggle of boys our own age all turned up and a mass kick about was taking place on the small grass area in front of our house.  After an hour we had learnt all the nicknames of the kids – some of which remain to this day, there was Baldy, Plum, Griff and a few others who I forget.  It was like we had been picked up and dumped in an episode of the Bash Street Kids. 

We all went in for our teas – shouting that we would see them at school tomorrow, which was conveniently located at the end of the road.  Half the kids I’d been playing with would be in my class and I thought I would fit in really well.  I was also better at football than most of them, apart from Plum, who despite only being 8 told me he played for Gillingham (he didn’t he played right back for Wigmore Whippets), and I had already been told by Baldy, captain of the First year team that he would tell Mr James, the ‘manager’ that I should play on the right wing, because I was better that Matty who currently played there.

Monday arrived and we looked forward to going to our new school.  Baldy even knocked for us and said he would walk with us.  Which is when my dad dropped the bombshell that we weren’t going to the school at the end of the road.  

Turns out they didn’t have room for us and so my dad had got us places in the school about two miles away, the one stuck in the middle of a really rough council estate – not that I knew or cared about that back then (or now for that matter) – but they had plenty of room for us and according to my dad, school is school, they all teach the same stuff. 

My new school was pretty rough, on my first day, I got thumped by the school bully, a lad called Michael (who got expelled in the final year for various nasty deeds, including taking a dump on the floor of the staff room).  The reason for the thump is that I got the highest mark in the class for a times table test, and that I was a ‘boffin’. I’m not convinced Michael knew what a boffin was.   In my second week I tried to get in the first year football team and failed miserably.  A tall lad called Wayne, who claimed to be 8 but looked about 19, marked me out of the game completely. 

Jacob Street 7am – Sabres of Paradise (1994, Warp Records, Taken from ‘Haunted Dancehall’)

Parallel 7 – Four Tet (2020, Text Records, Taken from ‘Parallel’)

The Great One Word Title Countdown – The Didn’t Quite Make It List #2

I was going to feature six songs today.  But a strange quirk of fate, one of the songs is due to be posted tomorrow as part of the ‘Nearly Perfect Album’ series and we can’t have the same song two days running, that would make us the blog version of Dave.  It is ‘Miniskirt’ by Canadian trip hoppers Braids in case anyone doesn’t like cliffhangers and won’t sleep tonight due to nervous excitement.

Anyway, lets start today with a rolling bass line, airy chimes and heavy techno synths and another track I expected to do much better than it did.

Pyramid – Four Tet (2011, Text Records, Taken from ‘Pink’)

I said yesterday that most of the songs that bubbled just outside the Top 100 appeared only once in all the returned votes.  That much is true with the exception of this next track.  ‘Depreston’ by Courtney Barnett featured in three Top 30’s, sadly for Courtney it was ranked 25 or under in all of them.  Meaning that despite being in more Top 30’s than most of the records list from 75 – 100 it didn’t score many points, making it the unfortunate winner of the Most Popular Unsuccessful Record in the Countdown Award.  Some of the other awards on offer in this series are  “Most Marmite Record” – for the track that people either seem to love or hate, “Song that Appears in the Most Top 30s” – which is not strangely the record that topped the list at the end of the voting and Most Psychic Jury Member – one of our jury successfully predicted 17 of the Top 20….But not quite in the right order, that would have been just too damn scary.

Depreston – Courtney Barnett (2015, Mom + Pop Records, Taken from ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think Sometimes I Just Sit’)

Anyone out there remember Grand Theft Auto III, the groundbreakingly violent crime game on Playstation 2?  One of the tasks in the second bit of the game was to run around the city reaching various ringing telephones before the timer ran out.  It was clearly inspired pastiche by the classic Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry, which was of course scored by Lalo Schifrin.  Another game that leaned heavily on a Schifrin scored film was the ‘Driver’ series, which took its inspiration from Bullitt.  The theme of which is just a remarkable piece of work and very early crept into this Top 100

Bullitt (Main Theme) – Lalo Schifrin (1969, Warner Bros Records, Taken from ‘Bullitt Soundtrack’)

Next Up a track I featured a few weeks ago in the Nearly Perfect Album Series, and one that has done so badly its almost feels criminally neglected.  Unbelievably its ‘Demons’ by Super Furry Animals and it’s still a tremendous few minutes of indie brilliance.

Demons – Super Furry Animals (1997, Creation Records, Taken from ‘Radiator’)

Next up Boards of Canada, the first thing that you should all know about them is that they are not from Canada (although they did live there, whilst there dad helped build an ice hockey stadium) and are not boards either.  They are in fact two brothers from the east coast of Scotland, who in the late nineties ripped up the Electronica Rule book when they unleashed their landmark ‘Music Has the Right to Children’ album. 

Roygbiv – Boards of Canada (1998, Warp Records, Taken ‘Music has the Right to Children’)

And that completes the round up of all the tracks of note that didn’t make the Top 100.  On Monday, we start to countdown…

Nearly Perfect Albums – #28

Rounds – Four Tet

According to Neil Young and then St Etienne ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’.  I’m prepared to bet a rather large bag of doughnuts that Neil Young has never listened to ‘My Angel Rocks Back and Forth’ by Four Tet.  That folks with break your heart into two very even and symmetrical parts and leave you weeping like a lovesick puppy, on the kitchen floor. 

My Angel Rocks Back and Forth – Four Tet (2003, Domino Records)

It is simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music you will ever hear.  It is essentially a ballad with no words, that chimes and tinkles away at your senses.  It is led by that most post rock of instruments, a harp, which is plucked (or in this case I imagine, sampled) away sweetly while a scratchy beat whispers alongside it.  Its marvellous in a “man I must stop chopping onions whilst listening to this track kind of way”.

As marvellous as it is, ‘My Angel Rocks Back and Forth’ isn’t even the best track on this album.  For that you have to look at ‘As Serious as your Life’ which blends Tibetan chimes, strings, acoustic guitars and then mutates them all together until it sounds like nothing on earth.  Its utterly unique and utterly amazing. 

As Serious as your Life – Four Tet (2003, Domino Records)

That’s the thing with ‘Rounds’ it’s unique.  There is simply nothing that sounds anything like it.   Here stands a record that was recorded, mixed and probably produced on a laptop, and it sounds otherworldly, timeless, heartfelt and incredible.  A record that was so hard to pigeonhole that the NME created an entirely new genre for it and then immediately made Four Tet the flagbearers for that scene.  They called it ‘Folktronica’, though it was quickly, like, nearly all of the other scenes that the NME invented, ignored.  ‘Rounds’ is a dance record, simple as that.  It’s just a dance record that you don’t want to dance to, because you want to listen to its intricate beauty, the way harps mix with hip hop beats, or the way that weird noises merge together to make a noise like no instrument on earth should sound like.

She Move She – Four Tet (2003, Domino Records)

I can see why they coined the genre ‘Folktronica’ though, it is an album heavily influenced by folk music. But its also an album influenced by hip hop (‘She Moves She’ clearly has its roots set in hip hop) and R & B.  But ultimately it’s the uniqueness that sets this aside, ‘Spirit Fingers’ for instance, mixes perfectly a violin led jig against what sounds like a house beat, its insane but it makes you giddy with its hypnotising brilliance.

Spirit Fingers – Four Tet (2003, Domino Records)

The Sunday Shuffle – #13

Break My Body – Pixies (1987, 4AD Records, Taken from ‘Surfer Rosa’)

Last Sunday I went for my weekly run.   Every week at the end of the run, my watch downloads a load of stats and stuff into an app that I use to monitor performance, times, distance, and all that.  It also tells me that I should change my running shoes every 400 miles.  Last Sunday’s run clocked up the 395th mile completed in my current trainers.

So for this weeks randomly shuffled song I decide to post the song that was playing on my iPod Nano at the very moment that my watch tells me that I had reached 400 miles in these trainers.  

My main running route can best be described as undulating, I live in Devon and its hilly but over time I have crafted a circular 10km course from my doorstep and on this day I decide to do that run.  The five mile point is roughly the point where I run past my daughters school in the middle of the village that I live in. 

And….it would appear that my iPod has developed a sense of humour, because at the precise point when the trainers had run 400 miles , ‘Break My Body’ by Pixies was playing and at that point I would have looked a lot like a beetroot that had grown legs and run 5 bloody miles.

I plod on regardless, determined to make it to 401 miles in these shoes, sadly it’s uphill most of the way back from middle of the village but slowly I make it, two songs help me on my way the first is almost in complete contrast to ‘Break My Body’ because its by Four Tet and the calm brilliance of Four Tet gives me the energy to trot up the final hill.

128 Harps – Four Tet (2012, Domino Records)

Four Tet are replaced about 500 metres from home by

October Swimmer – JJ72 (2000, Columbia Records, Taken from ‘JJ72’)