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Track: The Clockworks – Can I Speak to a Manager?
In three and a half blistering minutes, The Clockworks prove once again that they are one of the most exciting bands around at the moment. ‘Can I Speak to a Manager?’ is over three minutes of excoriating and rage-infused ranting at the mind-numbing stupidity of everyday interactions – in this case simply trying to get …
SEE: Sneaks – ‘Mars In Virgo’: lofi astrological rave rhyming
LET there be no doubt: Sneaks, known to friends and family as Eva Moolchan, is COOL. Last year’s Highway Hypnosis album for Merge wended through seductive, deconstructed electro; leftfield, whispered lofi soul with an eerie undertow; almost nursery-rhyme incantations, stripped back grooves. I mean, she wears yellow Cons too. This a woman you can trust …
TRACK: Space Captain – ‘Birthday Cards’: graceful psychedelic soul on Tru Thoughts
LIKE that friend you have that you’ve grown with and can always WhatsApp in the middle of the night, Brighton’s TruThoughts is someone you can rely on; that you can turn to when the chips are down and you need a little pizazz. The label’s consistency in panning out the glittering nuggets of artists who …
TRACK: Bill Callahan – ‘Let’s Move to the Country’: Bill out-smogs himself
BESIDES being a songwriter we should grasp close to our chests, we’ve seen time and time again this summer that Bill Callahan has an incredible capacity to surprise. First he goes and pulls a whole new LP out of the hat, Gold Record, laid down quickly and announced unexpectedly. Then – ka-bam! – he starts …
TRACK: Hen Ogledd – ‘Trouble’: further glorious wonkpop from Richard Dawson’s quartet
WHAT started as a side-project for Newcastle’s premiere exponent of passionate out- and wyrd-folk, Richard Dawson, to find an outlet for other musical stylings, has come to take on a wonk-pop life of its own. Originally a side-salad duo with harpist Rhodri Davies, the addition of Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington has fleshed it out …
TRACK: Black Marble – ‘Johnny and Mary’: Robert Palmer gets the lofi synth look
EVERYONE loves a cover version, there can be no argument there; what do they do with the song? Do they tread carefully and deferentially; do they take a sledgehammer to it; do they make it their own? Do they make it something very odd indeed, such as Robyn Hitchcock’s a capella take on “Kung Fu …
TRACK: Andy Shauf – ‘Judy’: low-key baroque folk brilliance
HE’S one of those gorgeous, nuanced, baroque-pop songwriters we could all do with spending a lot more time with, is Andy Shauf. Like fellow countryman Patrick Watson, he has this way with a beautiful pop arrangement that for me puts him firmly in a lineage that stretches back to The Left Banke and Emitt Rhodes: …
TRACK: Monzanto Sound – ’23’: off-kilter dub-punk grooves
THERE’S a real skeletal dub-funk groove, with this offbeat sway and disjuncture; on the one hand, it’s deep and smokin’, on the other, wiry and angular: very The Pop Group. The percussion underpins things, but has its own ideas; it’s busy with polyrhythms of its own, thank you very much. The real heart of the …
SEE: No Age – ‘Turned To String’: new video from low-slung noise rockers
SO LOOK, it’s not even news anymore: 2020, and the world is busy going to hell in a handcart. So just what is a scuzzily excellent, guitar-totin’ US alt.rock band to do? There ain’t no gigs; there no signing sessions. Hell now even the goddam pressing plants are backing up like bad plumbing. The answer? …
TRACK: Tim Englehardt – ‘Shine’: propulsive tech-house atmospheres
TIM ENGELHARDT has been quietly carving away in the world of deep tech- and deep house grooves for a while now. Based in Westerwald, a low and mountainous region on the Rhine, he’s released one album previously, Moments Of Truth, which he out together for Poker Flat in 2017; and more than two dozen singles …