Missive 110
05-12-2006
Singled Out
Missive 110

For Kelly and Mark.

‘Singled Out - snot, sniffles and snazzy sounds’

Yes indeed - this particular edition of Singled Out has been a real labour of love assembled in a piecemeal fashion while under the influence of large doses of paracetemol, lemon, honey, anti decongestives and lashings upon lashings of Jack Daniels and though none of the bastards appear to have worked we have enjoyed our new found pastime of trying to remember what day it is and exactly when a group of barn dancing midgets wearing steel tipped boots took up residence in our head to belt out what can only be described as a persistent slam dance all nighter.

Albums you should be plugging yourselves into -

Various Artists - Ammehoelahop (Transformed Dreams) - compilation featuring Zea, the Suicidal Birds, the Lovely Eggs, Chips for the Poor, Persil and much, much more….www.transformeddreams.com

Belinda Gillett - Someone hates you (Backwater) - debut full length from Suffolk based singer songwriter - haunting, raw and strangely beautiful - www.backwaterrecord.com

Various Artists - Holy Smoke (Sorted) - another killer compilation this time featuring a plethora of ensembles currently doing killer stuff on the underground scene - her name is calla, red cars go faster, don’s mobile barbers, former utopia and much more - also includes the return of Freed Unit - and how we’ve missed them - you should have too. www.sorted-records.org.uk for those wanting a slice of Freed Unit action go to www.myspace.com/freedunit

One Dollar Peep Show - Showreel (Weird City) - when you hear the opening cut ‘under your skin’ you’ll understand fully why we’ve been much smitten. www.onedollarpeepshow.com

Drone - colour of money (My Kung Fu) - fresh from raving endlessly about his appearance on the latest Wire Tapper CD courtesy of er - the Wire - a whle album worth of mischief from Cassidy Phillips - wonky, warped and quite ruddy wonderful. www.my-kung-fu.com

The singles then……

Kubichek! ’Outwards’ (30:30). Taken from their hotly anticipated debut full length ‘Not enough night’ due to hits record racks in the early part of next year (March) - ’Outwards’ is the Newcastle based quartets debut single for the newly augmented 30:30 recordings label. Angular art pop riffs braided with a bass heavy throb initially had us recalling the Playwrights as though loosened and detached of their clinically cold and tensely pensive delivery, ’Outwards’ is a cruise controlled slice of acute power post punk pop cool that zig zags tenaciously to conduct a precision scaled assault on your headspace while wrapped resplendently with a cortege of numbing sky piercing riffola and floor crunching dynamics that frankly wouldn’t look amiss on the darker moments provided for by U2’s ’October’ set. www.3030recordings.com

Mojo #158 (January 2007). No reasoning needed to include a mention for the esteemed Mojo, the one time prime bath time reading journal has admittedly been somewhat relegated to something more akin to a long shower glance these days. Party season apparently for this fresh off the printers issue given that there’s a pretty snazzily designed Mojo Annual squeezed inside the usual well versed features which includes all manner of end of year writers polls so and so forth. Centrepiece this issue is an extended appraisal of Bob Dylan, across a dozen or so pages Sir Bobness’ 50 best albums are put through the critical blender unsurprisingly ’Blonde on Blonde’ clinching the top spot. Elsewhere Brian ’Beach Boys’ Wilson chats about the making of the legendary ’Pet Sounds’ while to accompany the occasion the now obligatory cover mounted CD features a 15 track tribute to the surf board carrying West Coast dudes and before you all groan about appearances by the usual suspects the editorial have, it has to said done their homework here as this little gem features cuts the very wonderful Superimposers; Epicycle (who apparently have a best of compilation doing brisk business which we will keep an eye out for in the coming weeks); Elf Power; Apples in Stereo and the High Llamas while those pining for a spot of familiarity are suitably whetted with tracks by the Who, Mark Wirtz and Jan and Dean. Best of the set though goes to a rare outing from 1976 for the Langley Schools Project and their version of ‘In my room’ (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Langley_Schools_Music_Project) for more information and links and the ever perfect Doleful Lions who disappointingly haven’t fared on our hi-fi since that rather special full length by the name of ‘Out like a lamb’. www.mojo4music.com

Thomas Tantrum ‘Armchair’ (Marquis Cha Cha). Marquis Cha Cha continue apace with their remarkably faultless assault of releases with a rather dandy and petulantly flavoured twin pronged debut from all girl quartet Thomas Tantrum. ‘Armchair’ is a glow with wiry riffs that can trace their blood line to the Raincoats,…and the Native Hipsters (who apparently have a new album kicking about somewhere) and Delta 5, thawed from their late 70’s austere post punk surroundings and wrapped ominously in a sheen of acutely angular and fractured fibres. This edgily fraught cutie picks and itches scab like at your headspace stalking pensively with ominous glee all the time you cower waiting for the gear shifting climax that never arrives instead think the Breeders reworking a tensely mutant fusion of the Pixies ‘Number 13 baby’ and ‘Hey’ and enlisting the Shaggs to sprinkle a spot of crooked beach party pop into the mix. Flip side features the sedate dark seduction of the 60’s styled ‘Trust rhymes with crust’ - bruised but beautifully so this hurting honey stings and smoulders in equal measures like a sweetly simmering half cousin of Katastrophy Wife. Essential stuff - joint single of the missive. www.marquischacha.co.uk

Clean George IV ‘First blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women’ (Black Spring). Spiked with an audacious cortege of blistering hooks and a sinew straining melodic potency that’s been bled through with a frontal lobe assaulting chiming riff attack line that has the all the hallmarks of a youthful stripped to the bone tenacity of the late Stuart ‘Big Country’ Adamson - ‘First blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women’ is blessed with the kind of artillery accoutrement and unswerving savvy that puts to shame the most talent less wretches currently hogging column inches in journals who ought to know better. Debut single no less, Clean George IV are a London based quartet who feature in their ranks a certain George McFall who some years back along with his brother Tom made up the core constituents of the much missed musical outfit Serial P.O.P. who arrived in a flash, dropped off a handful of blistering singles, a much loved full length entitled ‘White Male Sex’ and promptly fucked off just as fast - one suspects - to a place where all classic and underrated ensembles go - a kind of elephants graveyard with plecs and effects pedals instead of tusks. ‘First blast…’ provides for a leanly exacting slice of sub three minute crunching pop, anthem like in design and brazen in delivery, this slinky streamlined honey darts, ducks and dives to simultaneously tick all the boxes and push all the buttons while bleeding together fist clenching clarion calling uber pop with strobe like stuttering effects that pummel and tease in equal abandon to crush you into jaw dropped submission. Flip over the disc for the gnarled fuzzily fucked up and fractured ‘the great highland crack epidemic’ - this damaged nugget opens briefly to the sound of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ before diving headlong into a swamp ridden boogie that pays subtle nods to both the Godfathers and the Fatima Mansions as though being rewired by the Fall replete as it with low slung riffs that serve to meter out what can only be described as a bastardised car crash of obtuse angular art pop meets progressive rock. Damn it buy the bugger. www.black-spring.com

Pilote ‘By the River’ (Kennington). Bizarre, bonkers and quite simply barkingly beautiful. Not strictly out for a few weeks but then that’s no reason not to badger your local record emporium with pre orders and tin pot radio station with demands that they should play it on the hour every hour. Pilote is the musical - well we say musical to mean in its loosest sense - alter ego of a certain Stuart Cullen and Richard Sands (when - according to their website - he can be arsed - obviously not on this particular occasion then) who emerges from a self imposed exile threatening to release a whole albums worth of goodies early next year entitled ‘Pop will make us free’ - which if I’ve got my numbers right will be Pilote’s fourth following outings in the main for Certificate 18 all of which I’m amazed to say we here have somehow managed to miss much to our bewildered annoyance. ‘By the river’ is odd. Very odd. Kind of arsed in a not arsed way if you get my drift. Braided with humungous like clumpish keys with Nellie the Elephant overtones - this curiously surreal slice of wonky pop takes its cue from Gulliver’s ‘Boujouba’ release for Pickled Egg from a few years back and welds onto it an eerily off paced nursery rhyme effect that has a disorientating and dislocated sea shanty delivery as though narrated by a half cut Tom Waits while all the time peppered with a shadowy harmonies provided for by the impish delinquents of Bowie’s ‘Laughing Gnome’. Flip over for the sumptuous ‘Coltrane’ - this cutie courts with a spectral electronic nimbleness more associated with early Minotaur Shock releases though here having their spacious luminescence tweaked starkly and suffused by a noire-ish cinematic afterglow that recalls a meeting of minds between Arab Strap and a reflective Big Audio Dynamite. Seems churlish not to give it the deputy single of the missive. www.kenningtonrecordings.com

Transgressive Records sampler - current issue of the NME has, as part of its three disc ’independent Thinking’ CD set (next issue will feature Modular records showcasing their wares), another tasty slice of window shopping featuring one of the hippest labels on the underground scene - Trangressive records. Fourteen cuts are featured and not a duff one in earshot - collects together a bulging roster of talent of the type to make your average skinny tied indie kids’ head turn, heart swoon and legs to flail - two cuts from current inkie press luvvies the Young Knives one of which is a cover of Kim Wilde‘s ‘Kids in America‘; Jeremy Warmsley sounding as good as he’s ever sounded on the Wyatt-esque folk mini opera ’I believe in the way you move’; the effervescent Polyphonic Spree meets Phil Spector machinations of Ladyfuzz; the gem like stately lushness of Regina Spektor and the shape shifting generic sonics of the compulsive listening experience that is Mystery Jets. Throw in a few morsels from Battle, the Subways, Burning Pilot (who sound remarkably like the Stranglers), Foals and Polytechnic for good measure. Prime cuts though come from the Noisettes with their hyper driving scalded and fractured blues, the dinky but eerie somewhere else pop of Mechanical Bride and the swirling rustics of Johnny Flynn. Comes replete with the NME.

The Isles ‘Summer Loans’ (Melodic). For me personally the highlight of what was a superb debut full length from the New York quartet the Isles was ‘Summer Loans’ - I said it then and I still say it now 6 months or so down the line it is the Wedding Present being bitten by the funky bug of Orange Juice’s ‘Rip it up’ though on reflection add into that bitter sweet effervescent mix the subtle spectre of the Smiths ‘Heaven knows I’m miserable now’. So audaciously infectious I’m surprised it doesn’t come packaged with protective shots, ‘Summer Loans’ is set to an intoxicatingly breezy white funk coda that’s seductively undercut with a tangy 80’s derived dance matrix through which pervades a warmly radiating silkiness that softly erupts into a chorus hook that’ll literally knock you backwards into next week. Flip side features two new cuts - barely touching the scales at exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds the driving proto new wave pop of ‘True South’ has the melodic finesse of the criminally overlooked Split Enz as though worked and re-wired by the minimalist no nonsense approach of Guided by Voices while ‘Pills from Mexico’ with its curiously inebriated pastoral etchings and wonkily drawn tropicalia may well alert patrons much missing ‘Crooked Rain Crooked Rain’ era Pavement. Joint single of the missive as though it was going to be anything but. www.melodic.co.uk

Embrace ‘I can’t come down’ (Independiente). I must admit that I’m still sitting on the fence getting splinters in my backside about all things Embrace though I guess they are the lesser of several evils involving Keane and Snow Patrol (only joking). Their last single admittedly hit us in our soft spot and caught us on our blind side considering we never used the words ‘Fuck’ or ‘why’ once in the review. Again we must be going soft in our old age, perhaps its this bout of unshakable flu that’s numbed us or maybe it’s the time of year to be blamed but ‘I can’t come down’ isn’t really that bad - admittedly we have been brainwashed given there are five versions of the same song on our seven track promo CD - so that means we get the radio edit, the acoustic mix, the album mix, the live rendition and the demo cut and there’s me holding out for children’s choir with lush string arrangements Cathedral mix - oh well maybe next time eh? Embrace it seems have honed to perfection the art of crafting anthem like heartbreak on an epic widescreen scale, this lighter waving heap of hurt is a colossal meeting of East 17 and Take That with an overburdened Relate workers caseload thrown in for good measure, crushing stuff that’ll no doubt be ringing loud across public drinking dwellings across this fair nation while set to being the soundtrack for many a broken heart in the coming weeks run up to the festive period. Soaked with bitter sweet strings and a harrowing line of heart string hanging ivory tinkling this aching beauty is a scene setting backdrop for a timely Dickensian picture postcard that’ll have you anticipating the mere peeking out of the window will be greeted by snow settings and a passing brigade of Lowry-esque matchstick characters - pass the kerchief I can feel another tear forming (as I poke my eye with a needle). Also included are two additional live cuts ‘Contender’ and ‘Heart and Soul’ the former a slinky side winding bogie with INXS overtones the latter a slow burning slice of amour pop. www.independiente.co.uk

Uncut #116 (January 2007). Literally just dropped through our letterbox so we haven’t had a chance as yet to sample the delights that no doubt await inside, that said if there were awards for best looking magazine cover this would probably nail it hands down being a hazy red-dy looking thing with the Beatles donned in their Sgt Peppers garb illuminating all and sundry. Not to be outdone by Mojo’s spot of CD track selection handiwork the Uncut crew go one better by including a 13 track freak out entitled ‘Comets, Ghosts and Sunburned Hands’ -a corking gathering together of the new psychedelic breed featuring cuts from Ghost, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Comets on Fire and Six Organs of Admittance all who’ve featured at some point in these pages previously - add into that some tasty morsels of head expanding pop from Jackie -O - Motherfucker, Howlin Rain, Wooden Wand, Dead Meadow, G Six, Citay and Oakley Hall plus a smattering of lysergically enhanced ensembles we’ve yet to stumble across - treats of the set being the wasted Hendrix meets Elmore at the UFO club slide psyche boogying Entrance whose ‘Grim Reaper Blues’ really has to be heard to be believed and the cool as fuck streetwise slut strut of the stoner Stones-sque Black Mountain.

Goddamn Electric Bill ‘The only power to please - v.2’ EP (Self Released). In truth we tripped over this rather wonderful gem via My Space - see just goes to prove that the facility isn’t just a spam dating agency or a number crunching advertising service for bands whose friends outnumber their record sales by a ratio of 10000:1. Goddamn Electric Bill isn’t a band as such but just one person - the multi talented San Diego based Jason Torbert. Following a long spell as the bassist with Cigar, Torbert flitted in and out of bands and projects alike until one day deciding to lock himself away in his bedroom. There with just the company of silence and his chosen effects - guitar, bass, keyboards, sitar and er - bagpipes he began to craft an introspective musical odyssey of sorts - the first fruits of which would appear on the long out of print first version of ‘the only power to please’ EP which finds itself sumptuously updated here as ‘version 2’. Broadly speaking GDEB are electronic by design, what Torbert brings to the table of this multi faceted genre is a sense of personality, the human touch - each of these seven cuts are succulently carved with an welcoming invite through which pervades a responsive lilting warmth, gentle timid like melodies tempered and coaxed amid their heart melting silkiness to spacious widescreen proportions. Here you’ll find elements of the bewitching Brontean elegance of FortDax softly colliding with ethereal honeycombed ambience of Manual (just check out the bounteous good to be alive snow falling chocolate box jubilance of the prickling ‘Oui - Ja’ and try all you can to fail to be smitten by its numbing spectral grandeur), the minimalist dexterity of Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly longingly lost in the crisp folds of Pat Metheny with the subtle ethereal overtures of Clannad lushly embracing the nimble frames (‘Everyone’s turning back’). The seduction by numbers ‘Country Jam’ opens the set, a trickling cascade of deftly plucked chords glide in stratospheric climes - invigorating, breezy and airy this honey soon playfully ingests delicate motorik hints into its freewheeling matrix along with a suggestive array of picturesque images of evenings lazily spent basking beneath the hazy aura of a reclining exotic sun. ‘Hokkaido’ is a slice of starry eyed streamlined lulling space pop that frankly wouldn’t look out of place on any number of releases put out by Ochre - namely 90 degrees South while Numanoid completists may well be advised to check out the momentary ‘Telekon’ -ish dream sequence three minutes in. The silken ebb and flow of ‘Climbing Spiral Stairs’ with its shyly stirring lunatic conversational pines that playfully chatter and caress with a procession of squelching beats upon a backdrop of repetitively lazily spun intertwining chords casts an almost fluffy yet frosted appeal to the occasion very much reminiscent of a sedate and romantically inclined d_rradio. Elsewhere the ambling electro rustics of the ‘The other way out’ is made of the kind of stuff that Tunng would bare their teeth for while the sleekly drawn latino flavoured ‘Cab’ puts the wraps on what can only be described as an exquisite set. As though we can’t get enough of this stuff we’ve also got a whole albums worth courtesy of Mr Torbert entitled ‘Swallowed by the Machines’ - review forthcoming though worth checking in for just to hear ‘March at Dawn’ and Looking up at down’. www.gdamnelectricbill.com

Greenwich Resident ‘I hid my heroes’ (Robot). Another ensemble that it has (I think I’m right in saying) to said that we recently came across via My Space is this mighty fine debut release from Liverpool based quartet Greenwich Resident. Admittedly not your usual gritty hip swerving skinny tie wearing three chord affair and as far as we can see bereft of any notion or hint of a scouse twang - instead and much to our delight we hasten to add Greenwich Resident are a cut above your usual samey scallywag type bluster. Featured here are five pristinely executed country tinged gems slipped straight from the working pages of Buffalo Springfield, Michael Nesmith and Gram Parsons and dipped ever so softly with a drifting West Coast aroma and drip dried to give you a inner warm fuzzy feeling. Where Greenwich Resident excel is in their ability to carve a style of song craft rooted in the timeless tradition of classic era Americana, the melodies combine a rich blend of breezy wholesomeness that carry the aroma of the Stateside Southern belts along as though gently transported on drifting streams of air, all the time the vibe is delicately lilting and lingering. ‘Imogen’ opens the set a gorgeous prairie picture book of pining lap steel, boys / girl vocals, softly shuffling percussions and melting string arrangements the sum of whose parts recall at varying points a more upbeat and nuzzling sunshine inclined Go Betweens. ‘Not quite the actress’ really is something else, darker and more tempered in design it provides the sets best moment by far nudging ever so gently the equally tasty title track ‘I hid my heroes’, sliding riffs arc longingly with the flotilla of noire-esque treated violas, tense and intimate this brooding slice of bruised romance and deceit reaches into McCartney’s more shadowy Beatle moments and counters it with a svelte waltz like fixture that’s simply numbs to the core. Through a frosted haze of spiralling chords ‘My Royal Address’ burns with a deep desire that owes much to the 60’s styled melodic finesse (in terms of simmering passion) as was once the remit of Rialto in the mid 90’s while the tenderly
frail and trembling campfire buzz that oozes from the introspective ‘I can hold out’ is best sampled late at night cuddled up to the warm embrace of a loved one. ‘I hid my heroes’ concludes the set and a beautiful thing it is to as it stings, hurts and cruelly beguiles you while reaching for your insides to gently squeeze your heart of its emotional attachments, so achingly slow its almost a murmur recalling in the main Codeine’s ‘D’ and just when you are resigned to being overcome by the perpetual swells of forlorn hopelessness it seductively turns about pace in true crushing style to see its way to the final stretch amid a honey crusted procession of heaven sent deftly picked Floyd-esque motifs - quite irresistible. www.robot-robot.co.uk

Schizo Fun Addict / the Boy from Space ‘Split’ (Bracken). Release number nine for fledging label Bracken - the same people who brought us that stupendous And his voice became… release from a few months back - though we note with much disappointment that somewhere down the line we’ve missed out on their must hear split with Spare Snare - oh well such is life. This time with two tracks apiece New York’s Schizo Fun Addict are pitted against Sussex based duo The Boy from Space in a face off made to make the bits of you that jangle go into seismic overdrive. Having recently put the finishing touches and wrapped up what will be their follow up to last years acclaimed ‘The Atom Spark Hotel’ set - their fourth long player entitled ‘The Sun Yard’ (tentatively due to hit the streets Spring next year) - ‘Jericho Son Down’ provides by way of a taster of things to come. In several words think Love’s ‘Alone Again Or’ dusted down reappraised, rewired and bastardised by godspeed you black emperor with a little help from the Gun Club. This has awesome branded on its hide in dayglo lettering - brooding, bruised and battered out of all recognition this scarred wasteland of a psychedelic Morricone western is festooned with the dried bones and restless spirits of pioneers who have gone before - echoes of Leyton, Cash and Johnny Kidd howl through the grooves against a Pironi inspired backdrop of arid brass fanfares and a Spartan delivery so chilled and purposively neglect that even Gallon Drunk would be forced to swoon in admiration of. By contrast ‘Mercy Calling’ sees Jane taking up the lead vocals for what is a slice of softly tingling acoustically drawn Cambridge styled folk pop, gorgeously airy in design with whistling to boot which we always find goes down well round these parts and made all the more charming by the fact that its so whimsically kooky a la Freed Unit’s ‘Gigglegoo’ - that forthcoming album is already shaping up to be a winner I can tell you. No doubt named after the classic children’s TV show given that their tunes are indelibly steeped with a veritable 70’s feel, the Boy from Space have to date put out two release via Interstellar both of which have sadly and dare we say - annoyingly - sneaked below our radar. Their featured brace of cuts reveal a curious infatuation with tripping jazz codas, spangles, space hoppers and 70’s children’s TV culture all of which I’m happy to say is mighty fine with us. Chirpy bugger that it is ‘The Farm’ is betraying brief at just 90 seconds in length, all at once zippy and wonky - a theme tune to a non existent magazine show aimed at the youth of the day - kinda ‘Why don’t you’ meets the ‘Double Deckers’. However it’s on the alarmingly infectious ‘Wouldn’t you rather be a winner’ that the duo show their true mettle, a funky little bastard it has to be said that samples vintage ‘work training tapes’ in this particular case the subject matter being customer service flashed over a genre munching backdrop that along its spacious cosmic like travels makes pit stops via Go! Team, Stereolab, Monade, Pet Shop Boys and KLF while incorporating swathes of retro electronic motifs - think Pizzicato 5 redressing and redecorating ‘the Hustle’ as a warped chilled out spectacle whilst suffering flock wallpaper flashbacks - classy. www.brackenrecords.com

There’s also a white vinyl Tillmanns single due out from the same label next month entitled ‘Superfiction’ which we’ve heard a sample of - all very tasty indeed sounds like a psychedelicised Psychedelic Furs - which we’ll have to nail as our own at some point in the coming weeks. www.brackenrecords.com

The Nightjars ‘Cease to Exist’ (Kiss of Death / Reveal). Another release that to date has persistently managed to duck and dive it’s way into the CD pile and out of arms length - so apologies to one and all. ’Cease to exist’ is the debut release from Manchester based quartet the Nightjars and before you all start groaning about another Mancunian guitar band replaying the cities past musical glories - think again this lot are more adeptly tuned in to the most crucial elements of America’s old school underground scene - namely the Minnesota area - to be more precise- Husker Du. It would however be fair to say that ‘Cease to Exist’ tinkers more so with Sugar than Husker Du but the prevailing ingredients and accents are in place all the same, admittedly not immediate to the ear this breezy honey coated nugget rumbles with a rugged cruise controlled power pop grace that occasionally splinters into action yet never threatens to tip the balance rather more erring on the side of carving out a slow to burn delayed effect sucker punch that patches in at intervals elements of a more muscularly inclined Velvet Crush into its matrix. The Velvet Crush comparisons are more prevalent on the initial opening sequences of the fluid sounding ‘Disabuse’ found over on the flip, the breezily softly cured jagged West Coast vibes references Chris Brokaw’s Snares and Kites project while simultaneous paying the loosest of nods to ‘Experimental Jet Set’ / ‘Washing Machine’ era Sonic Youth while investing the most subtle of traces pertaining to post rock’s jazzy codas. Quite a little gem all said and done. www.revealrecords.com

My space gubbins and stuff…..

http://www.myspace.com/pdmd - download / rip ‘won’t you stay until’
http://www.myspace.com/ashtray306 - download / rip ‘coffin’
http://www.myspace.com/luckysoulluckysoul - download / rip ‘lips are unhappy’
http://www.myspace.com/auntdracula - download / rip ‘diddle coaster’
http://www.myspace.com/earthgoat - download / rip ‘sublime eyes’
http://www.myspace.com/scifihorror - download / rip ‘late night in space’
http://www.myspace.com/talkingmakesnosense - download / rip ‘still change’
http://www.myspace.com/ibosonic - download / rip ‘cobblestone street’
http://www.myspace.com/dolefullions - download / rip ‘ghost town in the sky’
http://www.myspace.com/whenpaperaeroplanescollide - download / rip ‘hand me a water pistol’


Internet only labels you should be checking out -

http://www.sutemos.net - mentioned this Lithuanian label in passing a few missives back in the light of their ongoing and spiffing compilation series ‘Intelligent Toys’ - now up to its third volume and featuring a wealth of talent from the outer reaches of the electronic spectrum to include gems from Maps and Diagram, Bauri, Praveen and YLID. Current downloadable delights include a superb four track EP ‘Sutemos Live’ which features a debut performance from the minimalist IDM-sters Monolake, the lulling evensong ambience of Sleepy Town Manufacture, some delicious techno dub from SCSI -9 and the cavernous beauty of the lonesome sounding Yagya.

www.thinner.cc - new to us but 90 releases in - the latest being a full length by Munich based musician Philipp Weigl entitled ‘Monsters’ - influenced, it says in the notes, by all things Portishead, Radiohead and Bjork, though listen closely and you’ll uncover what are precision built classical arrangements of spectral dexterity that nimbly arc between lullaby-esque and lunatic suites - check out the Gnac meets Carpenter translucence of ‘Save’ or the twinkling thawing from hibernation frost pop of the sweet amour provided within ‘A day in town’. Also worth checking out is T-Polar’s ‘Lively eclectic grooves’ - T-Polar better known to family and friends as Gary Spence has in recent years carved an enviable body of worked for various web and record labels alike with his brand of smouldering space tinged uber funk. ’Lively eclectic grooves’ features four such floor romping gems - imagine Derrick May collaborating with FSOL and Wagon Christ to work on a script provided by Studio 54.

http://autresdirections.net/inmusic/ - perhaps all said and done one of our favourite labels it has said - each release has been a joy to behold though some would argue -including Stephane who runs Autres Direction in Music - that we seldom qualify this with forthcoming reviews. Truth is we love the stuff so much we forget the purpose or reason as to why we were sent them in the first place - and anyway we will be rectifying the situation shortly with some carefully chosen - and positive I might add - words regarding the labels latest release from Melodium entitled ‘music for invisible people’. For now its available as a free download or for a nominal fee Stephane will press said album on to a CD replete with artwork - can you really go wrong - somehow I think not. While your there also check out recent releases by Atone and Depth Affect.

http://piecemeal.net/ - another web label that’s new to us is Oregon’s Piecemeal who to date have posted a plethora of top notch releases from an assortment of ensembles in and around that area - of the stuff we’ve managed to sample Wishek come up trumps especially on their Neil Young like ‘Rhododendron’ from their eponymous debut full length. Also worth peaking at are Damn these monkey hands whose latest full length ‘bring us the head of jane goodall’ manages to cover so many generic bases it makes your head flip - from the bastardised PIL meets Sabbath swamp blues of ‘Blaze Orange’, the proto frenetic punk squall of ‘Bikini Fallout’ to the bleakly angular Left Hand meets Candidate ‘the New Freaks’.

http://www.notype.com/nishi/ - probably one of the most left field net labels currently in operation is Canada’s Nish - operating as a sub label for No Type records, set up in 2002 they have to date put out over 100 releases the latest being a three track EP from French artist Ambient Field entitled ‘Sci-Fi’ - think early career Pimmon let loose in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Those of you with a taste for adventure and with a ken ear for the serious odd are highly advised to check out RahMoonAhs debut full length ‘HippyHope’ contains everything from progressive, dub, chamber, drone, weird to the down right surreal all across a 10 part suite - think Wakeman meets the Residents and then some.

Next Singled Out will be around and about at the weekend - promise - that is cold allowing.

Take care of yourselves

Mark