missive 148 - part 3
31-12-2007
Singled Out
Missive 148
part 3


Yellow 6 ‘merry6mas’ (make mine music). Now something of an integral feature in our gaff at festive time to be listed alongside the Christmas tree, crap telly and general all around grumpiness - the Yellow 6 musical greeting card is a thing we look forward to with each passing year. Been a bit quiet this year as far as our hi-fi is concerned has Mr Atwood nee Yellow 6 so its with much delight that we have this 9 track collection with which to re-acquaint - not that we do really - honest. A brief background on these limited releases - originally started in - was it 2000 - this CD’s packed choc a bloc with outtakes, demos, unreleased and live material used to be pressed up and sent out t people and persons who in some way had supported Jon whether that be deejays, music press, long standing fans and friends alike - they were in the real world like gold dust. That said this years edition we have happened to spy at Norman records - so all is not lost. As said 9 tracks feature here - split between 5 home recordings, a reworking of ‘phase 1’ from last years Xmas sampler along with Carta, a my space collaboration with LAM and two as yet unreleased commissioned remixes for Port-Royal and Televise. Monolithic montages that call upon the spirits of Mogwai, Roy Montgomery (especially on the hurting ‘phase 1‘), Floyd and Gnac, there’s no doubting that Atwood is the master of the understated both in terms of beauty, texture and atmospherics - melting moods that freewheel between the pensive and the ceremony, his delicately deft appreciation of space and dramatic tension balances superbly to craft out pristine ice carved aural sculptures - ‘in some other‘ is a perfect example of this technique - each dissipating chord hugging fast to the voids creating an almost majestically repose. The home recordings find Atwood in familiar comfort zones armed with a lonesome guitar eking out pining sonic signatures invested with transcendental curvatures - ’burning holes in the sky’ the opening salvo treads the climatically arid regions as were once prowled upon by godspeed, looping free spirited drone chord motifs collide into a delicately ominous storm passing contrasting with the reverb laden tenderness of the lulling ’diamond’. ’L#4’ provides the best moment of these private recordings - bedded on trademarked / classic Yellow 6 ground - brooding, bewitching and beautiful is all we’ll say on the matter. I have to admit that I’m prone to agree with Atwood’s assessment on remixes, I always find them pointless exercises unless of course you can bring some thing to the table the best remixes have always been the ones were the original template is radically reworked to fit an environment previously never considered by the creator. Atwood’s reframing of Italian combo Port Royal’s ‘karol bloch’ goes someway to achieving this - a chilled out celestial carousel of ice tipped crunchy beats and cavernous ambient shimmers. The re-working of Televise’s ‘life on Mars’ is better still, stuttering dub tuned vocals a la Butthole Surfers ’hurdy gurdy man’ replete with huge hulking Cathedral-esque drenched feedback washes give this an epic and stately persona though ostensibly trippy and dare we say hallucinogenic aspect. Described as a my space collaboration of sorts ‘LAM -Y6’ is exquisite - a hazy fuzz fuelled cyclical psychedelic odyssey is brought to the fore that applies the type of fringe re-arranging mind evaporating touches as more commonly associated with Sunray this babe is emerges into a hypnotic dreamscaped gem. The cosmically pirouetting ‘down’ is also worth checking into to - a collaboration with Jason Perez (Carta) - imagine space walking in a mallowy animation coloured by the Beatles blue meanies - say no more. A bit of a treat. www.makeminemusic.co.uk

Further listening -
http://www.myspace.com/uptheroyals - disarming twinkle some electronic suites is the order of the day -we suggest you re-tune your radar to the timid though charming ‘internet love’ culled from their current long player ‘afraid to dance’ via Resonant. They also feature on the latest ‘little Darla has a treat for you’ compilation which we’ve somehow missed out on - darn another trip to the record shop I feel is much warranted.

http://www.myspace.com/cartamusic - San Francisco based sonic collective who craft out teasingly evocative morsels of beauty, both timid and frail these little pearls of exquisitely carved and slender in detail montages are cut from the stuff that hold the stars in the night sky. Betwixted between roaming cascades of gently lilting noodling guitars refrains (‘perdido’) and warmth fuelled electronic hazes married to key motifs (’Small lights’) Carta all at once woo, enchant and romance - a full length ’an index of birds’ is tentatively slated for a 2008 release.

http://www.myspace.com/televise - Televise need no introductions here - they’ve featured on the odd occasion via outings for the esteemed Club AC30 (see missive 68) - essentially just Simon Scott - one time Slowdive member who divides his time with the Televise operations to collaborate with Isan’s Anthony Ryan in a project entitled Sea vault (see below). To describe Televise is to say of them - shoe gaze psych tinged florescent folk pop - these selections reveal the mellower persona of Scott’s work we suggest you hook up to the drifting light headed shimmer of the spellbinding rustic roasted Cul De Sac - esue ‘Neon Stone’.

http://www.myspace.com/seavault - heavenly made collaborative project featuring ISAN’s Anthony Ryan and Televise’s Simon Steer (see previous) - apparently these two have already issued a single and an album upon the record public via Morr both of which we’ll have to try and snare in the coming days as our own. ’Mercy Seat’ - what can we say - stunning - a faithful interpretation of one of ’dream pop’s’ great lost records - originally done by Ultra Vivid Scene way back in an age when some of us still had a fringe that could be re-arranged in moments of swooning brought to bear by hearing gems such as this. Here repositioned with a tearfully effervescent sheen that’s part celestial part ‘road to Damascus’ visitation - braided upon shimmering hazes of crystalline fuzz laden bliss its enough to make you weep in joy - now where is my UVS copy? And the treats don’t stop there - not content with up rooting one long lost classic the blighters go and unearth another in the shape of Altered Images near perfect pocket posy of pristine pop ’I could be happy’ - regular readers to these pages will note that Scotland’s finest cannae do nothing wrong in our eyes while onlookers misfortunate enough to have heard us wielding the wheels of steel on the very rare occasions we haplessly spun discs in the dead air between support bands may well have been much bemused to hear this particular nugget popping out between ENT and whatever puzzlingly oblique beauts we’ve had about our person. In the hands of Seavault its gorgeously beset with an almost wonderfully blankly non committal vocal that bleakly mooches about the heavenly serenades of celestial styled electronic twinkles - in short perfect.

http://www.myspace.com/thelam2 - Italian based collective who it seems have a full length currently sneaking in to all the finest record collections in the shape of ‘house of wax’ which after hearing the evidence brought upon by these four showcasing treats we feel we need to have as our own - and sharpish. LAM deal in sparsely layered electronic / guitar ambient textures, partly influenced by Morricone’s ‘fistful’ scores as though relocated in some far flung idyllic South Pacific hideaway especially on the delectable ‘1’ which sounds like some celestial Hawaiian styled apocalyptic gun slinging closing scene from a Western while the dustily arid ‘half a century high’ I a sumptuous slice of daydreaming retrospection rooted with snake charmer riffs and an inordinately perfect chill out smooze.

Schizo Fun Addict ‘Dream of the Portugal Keeper’ (Bracken). Yes I know we’ve already covered this at Missive 145 - but hey we still think its worthy of another slot especially given that we now have in our hands a finished vinyl copy which comes replete with a CD for al you vinyl-philes who don’t want to spoil your copy as well as for those foolish enough among you to trade in your turntable all those years back - don’t you just feel like dicks now eh? Anyhow a teaser for their forthcoming fourth long player ‘the sun yard’ - which we are eagerly waiting with baited breath to hear. This babe features three cuts - just wait till you hear the lead cut ‘dream of a Portugal Keeper’ think Camera Obscura meets L’Augmentation - need we say more - good - then buy. www.brackenrecords.com

Mojo #171 - we haven’t had a proper chance to spec this yet but it’s the one with Radiohead on the cover, inside being interviewed - in fact their everywhere, wouldn’t surprise me if they’d edited, written and printed the bugger themselves. Elsewhere there’s features / interviews with Joni Mitchell, the Cult, Adam Ant - a spotlight on photographer Henry Diltz, Can feature on the ‘how to buy’ section while hello / goodbye trains its sights on the genius of Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys. Oh yea there’s also something about a band called Led Zeppelin - you may have heard of them. Glued to the cover you’ll find the now obligatory 15 track CD - this one entitled ‘OK Computer’ which features the multi generic use of electronics in pop. A wealth of talent on show - some household names and some barely known at the local record emporium - among the culprits on show Tubeway Army, Human League (whose ‘Circus of Death’ has had me hankering to re-investigate both ‘Reproduction’ and ‘travelogue’), Tangerine Dream, John Foxx, the Knife and so on - selected prime cuts for me personally Fujiya and Miyagi’s hypnotically chilled and frayed Normal-esque ’Ankle Injuries’, Claudia’s crooked They Might be Giants on glue like ’dead dogs two’ and Severed Heads jiggly head weaving pan house ’dead eyes opened’.


And for something that got a little lost in the review type heap - a rather nifty 7 label freebie compilation….

Various Artists ‘Lets dream it, dream it for free’ (Bearos, Pickled Egg, Static Caravan, Fortuna Pop, Victory Garden, Where its at is where you are, Vacuous Pop). Another of those superb freebie samplers currently kicking around and about no doubt skulking on the counter of your friendly neighbourhood record emporium. This time around a positive feast of talents some you should know and some you will in time get to know. A bulging package featuring 29 cuts from the rosters of seven of the best underground imprints around each offering a smorgasbord of window delicatessen spiced with more than enough cross generic tuneage to entertain the most hard to please punter. First up three morsels from the vaults of where its at is where you are records who frankly have a ridiculously enviable collection of talented souls on their books as these three choice cuts prove. DJ Downfall AKA John Stanley of Tender Trap fame opens the proceedings with the cutely sassy ‘Rediscover Fire’ - think Sophie Ellis Bextor given a serious cutting edge state of the art re-fit fronting a dinkily delivered Euro disko inspired St Etienne doing seismic damage on the dance floor. Swedish Chef (no not the manic Muppet - the London based ensemble) - I suspect are a band we should really be chasing and literally playing to death in the losing today record shed. ’Hilo’ is simply heavenly - some trippy Beatles-esque mellotron, a vocal not unlike David McAlmont and a shyly sophisticated delivery that would have those rather impeccable souls Shortwave Set swooning in admiration for, all at once enchanting and hurting - we want more and I dare say you will once you’ve sampled this cute twinkle some gem. In a career stretching back some 15 or so years Rose Melberg has acquired a formidable body of work to her name - a member of the Softies and Tiger Trap she’s graced the catalogues of the highly influential K and Slumberland labels. ‘Cast away the clouds’ is a sweetly curdling rustic ramble of some measure, softly drifting acoustic pop that transfixes and tenderly captivates that in truth is no to dissimilar to the more lighter introspective moments to be found skulking within Nick Drake’s lasting legacy. Next up the small but well formed Victory Garden imprint - home of Southall Riot (more about them in a second) and the label responsible for ushering upon the world the debut release from Hot Chip. Four selections culled from their finite file tray of free forming pop beginning with our latest loves - it has to be said - One More Grain. Already responsible for holding our hi-fi under house arrest with their rather essential debut full length ‘pigeon English’ - ‘tropical mother I law’ taken from that set and perhaps - in our humble opinion - the best thing there - imagine Lurie’s ‘Get Shortly’ soundtrack being re-sparked and turned on its head by a Van Vliet fronted early 70’s art house Roxy Music - kookily funky head pop - squares need not apply. The Phil Collins 3 - (great name eh?) - sound like they’ve fell off an old taped broadcast of a John Peel show from yesteryear, ‘Greenfly ate my dog’ is an amalgamation of all those wired releases that the bearded one used to spike his show with - strangely enough mostly emanating from Japan or some strange off the beaten track place in the States, bent out of shape, odd, acutely obtuse and disturbed in a way that only the Cravats come near when considering comparisons. You have bee warned - frankly want more. ’Champion Overseen’ I think I might be right in saying is a previously unreleased nugget from the Southall Riot - who though inactive for longer than I care to remember where at one time a regular fixture in these pages - releasing along the way some spiffing ultra limited releases including if memory serves right one full length - which may or may not have been a split subscription only thing on Earworm (damn we need to get our record collection in some sort of order). Anyway oft compared to Guided by Voices, the Riot boys dished up devious slabs of short and to the point candy floss styled morsels of psyche pop that sounded for all the world like stray west coast birthed Elephant 6 gems that had somehow lost their sense of direction, took a detour and had ended up across the pond - needless to say pop archivists in future years will reclaim them and a whole movement will copy them - for now though bliss out to their fuzzy head trip and think JMC boogying with Sunray. The Original Beekeepers have - assuming they aren’t joshing us - been around in some form or other since 1984 (are you sure?) and have so far done a magnificent job of hiding their light under the preverbal bushel that we suspect it was never switched on in the first place, ’Flow’ is deliciously homely sounding - a bit like a shanty murmuring Earlies cast adrift upon the seas in a rusty tin bath, cutely affectionate and enchanting prickly pop that’ll have you laughing, crying and experiencing all the emotions in between along with a few you never really counted on previously - gemlike in a word. Been ages since we heard anything from Vacuous Pop - I suspect they’ve moved onto bigger things and in the process debunked us from their mailing list - such is life. A quartet of spiked pop tunes feature here opening with An Emergency’s ’I don’t think Tom Cruise is real’ - which strangely enough is something that I used to ponder about when I was somewhat younger and with fringe, the enfant terrible of Hollywood land is so wooden that we wonder whether he has an annual coating of cuprinol. Anyhow An Emergency are an Exeter based combo who to date have littered many of the coolest record racks with what seems like a formidable body of work - all of which disappointingly have so far managed to remain at arms length from our slavering hi-fi. This little ditty is your jagged angular hiccupping stop start gnarled riffs type thing that seems equally happy in incorporating happy go lucky pop fused woo woo’s while devilishly pummelling you into next month with its blistering tight as a gnats chuff intricate sonic needlework. youth movies are next stumping up ’when we won’t have to make the freezing scene no more’, originating from Oxford this quintet display an unearthly knack for crafting crushing slabs of wide screened super charged post rock this tasty morsel proving case in point bathed as it is in sublime swells of euphoric stratospheric grandeur that arcs seismically between heads down razor sharp primitive scorched earth grind and alluring out their bliss fuelled sophistication. Upon hearing ’codeword’ by trouble everyday you’d be forgiven for thinking that these lads spend their nights chilling to the back catalogue work of early career Killing Joke - touched superbly with a sense of the austere laced late 70’s post punk they cleverly fuse the bleak edge of Coleman and Co with the attrition of early Chameleons. Breakneck Static - what can we say - totally fuckin mental and really just too brief for its own good, at 26 seconds in length this caustic cutie flips your wig, ruffles your head and spanks your hi-fi - three guys two girls and what a deliciously unholy racket they make - ’oki gen ika ga’ makes melt banana sounds like the shaggs, disturbingly off the wall, frenetic, fucked up and mighty damn fine - word has it there’s a must have split single with An Emergency lurking about somewhere. Essential we’d say.
Of course Static Caravan need no introductions here - they have for the last few years been perhaps the barometer of taste in terms of what’s happening trend wise on the underground, more of a way of life than simply a label , they have been home to some of the finest sounds to have bridged the divide from a secret shared among friends to something achieving a lasting hold in the greater public conscious - Tunng perhaps most notably where given support, love and care when no one else dared touch them while of the current brigade Shady Bard stand head and shoulders amid most of what the majors seem to be buying into these days. Three selections from the Static roster kicking off with the mysterious, and dare we say, deeply engaging Men -An -Tol . Already having enchanted us with the long sold out ultra limited 200 only EP earlier this year, this cut ’Orange Juice and Vodka’ being taken from that set. Easily comfortable in being filed alongside the like of EPOK, Circulus and the Owl Service, Men An Tol head a becoming list of nu-folk talent, this gem treated to an archaic brushing of village green pageantry is threaded subtly with the drifting essence of yesteryears Cambridge folk and a beguiling gaellic airiness. Tasty. We suspect that we may have missed out on Danny Norbury’s debut release ‘Dusk‘ (we’ve hastily added it to our wants list - so when we do nail it we will mention it in full). ’Lullaby’ offered here is barely a minute in duration - a delicate piano signature a la ’Trois Gymnopedies’ by Satie - beautifully eerie, tender and quite lilting in a one eye turned looking over your shoulder kind of way. Serafina Steer - already having delivered one of the best albums of the year in ’Cheap demos bad science’ - ’Peach Heart’ one of that sets highlights is an obscure Lear meets Tim Burton noire-ish gothic deathly white ballad prickled with haunting imagery and delivered in a style that suggests Laurie Anderson transplanted in to the mindset of a youthful Bronte influenced Kate Bush - chillingly gorgeous. We never get to hear enough Pickled Egg ear gear for our liking these days - whether that’s due to the fact that the releases are more staggered these days or simply due in part to Nigel Pickled Egg haven given up on us we don’t know. That said we have just received our copy of the debut full length by Mass Shivers - great name eh - who incidentally feature here with ’Downwind of Amour’ - think the early white funk groove of Talking Heads though fronted by the Manics’ James Dean Bradfield recalibrated by the 90’s era Touch ’n’ Go crew with lashings of head maddening fried up Beefheartian noodling and a healthy nod in the direction of Bowie’s ‘chant of the ever circling family’ going on in the mix. Fulborn Taversham who appear courtesy of the acutely wired ’beachtune’ feature members of Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear amid their ranks along with the indisputably excitable vocal of Alice Grant, think X-Ray Spex whipping Miles Davis good style with Tom Waits masterminding the beating, oft to be found filed under jazz which in itself is a bit of a misnomer because this lot I suspect would be far happier filed alongside the likes of Zea et al. Warped yet addictively tasty. Dragon or Emperor whose self titled debut full length from a while back we still dig out for an occasional spin is one of the many splinter ensembles of the Volcano the Bear family - and before you all groan fearing for your sanity at the expectancy of weird slices of anti pop then think again - ’part of me says’ taken from that aforementioned debut is a molten rock boogie of some measure fusing Led Zep groove with Melvins grind to be dispatched with a vocal that sounds not unlike David ‘Pere Ubu’ Thomas trying out for Beef heart - everything you ever needed to know about decadent 70’s styled street sassiness neatly distilled into 3 minutes of horny hip hugging throb. Apatt - frankly the best thing out of Liverpool right now - they are a class above - sadly we haven’t heard anything by them since they’re debut EP which we reviewed way back at Missive 36 - even then we were hooked by their wilful nonchalance to the burgeoning Mersey scene. ’Happiness’ is without doubt the samplers best moment by some distance an exotic Hawaiian styled ode of stalker intent that melds the oddly unhinged pop vocabulary of Whitetown with the sinister darkly toned language of early career Space both lost beneath the starlit splendour of Stereolab’s self styled bachelor pad down tempo groove all sublimely metered out with doo wops and big band sounding strings - once heard you’ll be spellbound - guaranteed. An album - we hear - is due to surface imminently. Fortuna Pop - the little label with the biggest of souls stump up 5 dainty treasures opening with Airport Girl’s twang-tastic beach boogie ’Black rock sands’ - short ’n’ sweet slickly delivered hip swerving tastiness that pays several nods to the Surfaris. The Mountain Movers - previously unknown to us though we suspect that won‘t be for to long - serve up the delicious ’what the devil wants the devil takes’ - imagine early 70’s cool as f**k Stones overdosing on some of the sleekest vintage Stax there was to be found chilled and classy and perhaps to these ears the best thing we’ve heard since the Panda Gang who incidentally these days go under the name BDI’s and have a stonking debut full length just out that we’ve been swooning to since it arrived here tail end of last week. Few things in life are tastier than the small but well formed bubblegum beat combo The Loves, ’honey’ barely passes the one minute mark yet in that time manages to distil all there is to know about cutesy cute candy pop - think Jan and Dean with the Ramones fused into their blueprint DNA on a 60’s west coast vacation - tangy lovelorn perky power pop of the highest order. And we say this each and every time we hear something from the Butterflies of Love - but seriously - they are one of the most underrated bands around today. Not content with delivering one of the best debuts ever in ’rob a bank’ they’ve cut up some of the best slabs of 60’s invested pop around today - these days loosened of their penchant for the Velvets and to be found excavating in their own imitable way the routes and walkways of Neil Young’s early career work - ’Act Deranged’ shimmers feverishly, a freewheeling countrified pop nugget that subtly pays nods to Dylan and Buffalo Springfield while casually bridging the divide between them and the much overlooked honey glazed homeliness to be found on Moville’s ’durable dream’ - a bit of a treasure if you ask me. My Sad Captains debut ’Bad decisions’ released earlier this yea (see missive 121) is another mighty first outing that will by rights feature on a fair few end of year polls - ’here and elsewhere’ its attending flipside featured here is just simply arresting, a willowy half cousin to the Shortwave Set, that is the Shortwave Set decamped to the wiles of the Southern States of America and partaking in campfire frivolities - hurting but sweetly so - guaranteed to leave not a dry in the house. Rounding up the pack the Chemistry Experiment - too clever for their own good though perhaps its true to say that this sub 30 second slice of throwaway vocal / drums only petulance entitled (well what else) ’drummer bummer’ doesn’t really paint the picture that way - contrary bastards they are - but bloody good all the same. Bringing up the rear of this excellent sampler come five well dispatched volleys from the criminally overlooked Bearos imprint (and I include myself in that damming charge). Opening with the sound of Richard Burke, the autobiographical ’So quick’ is a sparsely sensitive folk hurter that barely clocks in at one minute in duration, despite its threadbare appeal there’s a warmth that radiates throughout this slender plucked acoustics as though June Panic had consorted to appear with the Red House Painters - an album ’the wintered sea’ should be the first port of call for those wanting more. The baker boys I regret to admit we’ve had a CD by sometime last year - though with one or another encroaching on my personal life we somehow got through half a review before it was abandoned. They are of course father and son duo Dave and Gavin Baker - Gavin you may or may not recall has in the past released some tasty morsels of intimate pop under the guise Meets Guitar. The Baker Boys came to be following the pairs long lasting love of archaic traditional folk and bluegrass from the 20’s, ’Redwing’ featured here for your disconcerting delicacy is a deeply engaging meeting of sprightly Irish folk spliced as were with the drifting nuances of vintage southern state mountain sounds, something a certain Andy Kershaw would know doubt lap up by the barrel load - between the grooves silky laces of subtle possum chomping bluegrass and the timeless tread of delta blues echoes filter softly - quite something else it has to be said. ’Your Song’ by Lazarus Clamp happily minus Simon Bates is to put it mildly like imagining the Gibson Brothers boogying with Jesus Lizard - scuzzy gnarled grind for all the family. If the prospect of a bass intro lifted straight from Queen’s ’you’re my best friend’ doesn’t get your appetite salivating then maybe the thought of the idle some sweetly countrified canter of the curvaceous southern belle styled melodies slickly drifting and arcing lovingly may just tempt you. Failing that perhaps vocals that sound not unlike the late Kirsty MacColl may do the trick or as a last resort the delightful late 80’s indie pop lilt of the chiming riffs a la Hey Paulette - whatever the reason ’puppet’ by Clair Horton just has to be heard - okay. Bringing the whole shaboodle to a close Mills and Boon - no not the books ya div but a quartet from Birmingham who describe their music in passing as ’spaz folk’ - this is an edited version of ‘witches cradle’ which we truly feel the powers that be sorely cocked up on when including this given that they’ve managed to cut it just when things were getting to sound interesting, anyhow before we were rudely excommunicated we did get to hear enough to strengthen our resolve that this lot may well be worth checking out in closer details - intricately layered math rock noodling and a vocal that sounds not so dissimilar to a certain Robert Smith - go on admit it you’re intrigued. A faultless collection.
www.wiaiwya.com
www.victorygardenrecords.co.uk
www.myspace.com/vpop
www.staticcaravan.org
www.pickled-egg.co.uk
www.fortunapop.com
www.bearos.co.uk

Key tracks Swedish chef ‘hilo’, The phil collins 3 ‘greenfly ate my dog’, Breakneck static ‘oki gen ika ga’, Serafina steer ‘peach heart’, Apatt ‘happiness’, The mountain movers ‘what the devil wants the devil takes’ and Clair Horton ‘puppet’.

Blimey Static Caravan wonderland - not content with recently dropping by our way the killer George Washington Brown, Steve Moore (see Steve’s side project - somewhere above) and the exquisite Binary Oppositions full lengths - not to mention that rather lovely Yellow Moon Band single - now they seek to adorn our hi-fi with some rather special seasonal treats (well sort of - okay well definitely with regard to Shady Bard - fair enough).

Dollboy / Robin Saville ‘Split’ (Static Caravan). We’re not sure when this cute but well formed beauty is due - its not even on pre-order yet. Strictly limited to just 250 copies all pressed of 7 inches of wax and housed in a hand numbered hand finished wrap around sleeves this little gem sees duties being split between Robin Saville and Dollboy. Robin Saville is better known for being one half of the diminutively demurring ISAN (Anthony Ryan his co-conspirator can be checked elsewhere here with his collaborative project Seavault - seamless eh?). ‘player piano’ - as the very title hints at - is a gorgeously willowy key laden suite - gentle, alluring and transfixing it emerges and tip toes from lamp lit confines of a child’s play room to do a delicately lilting pirouette before winding down and returning to rest in the safe retreat of the musical box - one for fans of Raymond Scott’s ‘Soothing sounds’ series, teething tots and small kitchen appliances though do what out for amorous toasters. Flip over for a spot of flighty overtures from the rarely heard Dollboy (well rarely heard in this gaff anyway - though see below for news of an ultra limited release via Harmonium records). Last featured here in these pages with their remix handy work being applied to Tunng (see missive 71) - former member of 90’s remix collective Cooler, Oliver Cherer has recently sneaked out a full length via Arable in the shape of ‘Casual Nudism’ to much acclaim - another record we’ll no doubt be hunting for in the new year. For now though that Dollboy dude gets to grips for a spot of playfulness with Bach’s ‘prelude no.1’ - though postulating as to whether the words classical and fun should ever be seen in the sentence let alone spoken really should seek this out, more uptempo than the Saville companion, Cherer applies some measured and dare we say crooked funkyness to his aural canvas over which he daubs a deliciously radiant landscape of lightly flecked waltzing whirly-pop-ness that strangely enough had us imagining an electro marriage of wonder comprising of the pairing of ISAN and fortdax. Essential of course as though you needed telling. www.staticcaravan.org

You can - should you so desire - and we suggest you do and should - there’s more Robin solo via his my space site at http://www.myspace.com/willowwarbler - we suggest you check out the enriched wistful folk treat that is the mesmerising ‘magpie’ - think pastoral Kraftwerk knee deep in woody textures of undulating drift breezes. You have been warned.

While you’re there it might be wise to seek out Alexandra Veanna via http://www.myspace.com/alexandraveanna a young Israeli duo Maya and Gil who together are responsible for crafting moments of austere minimalism that translate superbly as teasingly beautiful and slender pirouetting honey dripped gems of celestial electronic pop, think of an igloo living chilled out version of Shortwave Set remodelled by the whispery fragile persona of Mum (‘out and in’) or the despondent android boogie of ‘power’ era New Order sparsely sugar twisted with Cobra Killer as on the wistful ‘kaleidoscope’ - while not forgetting the warming daydream ambient treads of the star staring ‘the oak song’ - you can also download their debut album I am like a dog, I never speak but I understand’ for free via this site or for a small fee get a physical copy with postcard inserts and stuff which we did try to order until the web page kicked us out four times on the bounce - oh well - make do with the download then - much gnashing off teeth.

www.myspace.com/60237930 - new label type thing by the name of Harmonium promises to deliver bespoke hand made CD-r’s of some of the nations most celebrated artists currently residing below the slipstream surface waters of underground pop. The first release in this series sees Dollboy (they appear again way down towards the arse end of this missive via a must have split with Robin Saville) dividing up duties with Woodcraft Folk - the former covering the Smiths ’last night I dreamt’ the latter redrilling the Fall’s ’English scheme’ - each release ultra limited to only 100 copies available via a link here.

Inch Time ‘Thought Objects’ (Static Caravan). Already sold out on pre release alone - there are only 150 of these babies around with the first 50 coming paired with a specially commissioned hand painted t-shirt designed by Ben Javens. And so the winter season is upon us, its deathly grip ushering in a steeled silence and eerie chill casting upon the land a shadowy hand as the suffocating breath of the still dark night air extends long and perilously cloaking all with its frosted kiss. Those familiar with Inch Time’s (or as he’s better known to his friends and family back home in Adelaide - Stefan Panczak) previous work or who may have (obviously by accident) stumbled across these pages will indeed be all to aware of our fondness for the richly absorbing fluid marriage of organic / electronic melodic miniatures that escape from the grooves of his compositions. This ultra limited 2 track offering reveals a more darker, perhaps sombre - certainly macabre nature to his psyche, frosted gems schooled as were with the grace of Satie and in the technique of Stockhausen, minimalist ambient suites all at once hypnotic and spellbinding ‘Thought objects - part 1’ - is by and large broadly divided into a triptych of suites - initially beguiling with its thoughtful yet lonesome looping piano motif before slyly thawing out of it self contained orbiting igloo to shift trajectory to depart for realms more readily mapped in the minds eye before returning by way of an eerie collage of chillingly sparse atmospherics from what sounds like bowed glass treatments choreographed by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop - will appeal to fans of EAR, Stylus and Mount Vernon Arts Lab. ‘Part 2’ provides for a more sedate ornamental affair - marrying twinkling Cantonese bells, delicately undulating piano motifs and a steely reverential stillness swept with mercurial mystery draped within a dreamy landscape of dissipating aural atmospheres - one for switching off the lights to and kicking back for one of those brief but necessary revitalising meditation moments where its just you and your inner self. Tragically tempting. www.staticcaravan.org

And we briefly part with some amazing news that we wouldn’t have scarce believed had it not been for the fact that we actually have a copy in our mits - but after a long lay off especially from these pages where if memory serves me right we haven’t had a chance to fall headlong into its charm for a fair few years (missive 32 in fact) the esteemed Ptolemaic Terrascope is back, now relocated across the big pond - Oakland, California to be precise, new owners / editorial and a face lift to boot (don’t worry Phil McMullen though having relinquished control will still be around and about and imparting his thoughts and observations via the periodicals web site at www.terrascope.co.uk). Issue 36 marks the dawn of Terrascope’s next phase, lavishly presented in a bookish styled glossy magazine this eventful issue features interviews and spotlights with Vashti Bunyan, Davey Graham, Colleen and Sean Smith as well as being equipped with a rather nifty 20 track CD that includes cuts from Six Organs of Admittance, Willow Willow, Doug Yule, Colossal Yes and a rather smart track from Barbara Manning and the Go Lucky’s.

And literally just arriving in our in box just as we were wrapping things up is this little gem from Gilbert - http://www.myspace.com/gilbertlinley - a London based six piece currently signed to the much admired Shifty Disco, Gilbert it seems are adept at crafting slyly off centred pop symphonies from a myriad of sources and reference points, like a pocket ethereal epiphany ‘Willow’ deceptively engages the senses with its sugar rush of dream laden piano florets as though a celestial cortege penned by a song craft union of Van Dyke Parks and Phil Spector - all at once fluffy, flighty and gorgeously ghostly his serenading slice of string laden sensuality twinkles and tip toes with such amorphous abandon it leaves you swooning in its wake. ‘Animal Vegetable Mineral’ is a surreal lightshow that imagines the Residents encroaching on realms more readily occupied by They Might be Giants and those warped space cadets They came from the Stars and relocated on some brain fried landscape dreamed up from the recesses of the out there creative mindsets of the Mighty Boosh crew - quite barking in other words. Weeping violins endow a brittle wintry aspect to the deliciously ice coned ‘sigh’ - an alluring wonderland of frosted felicitations laid upon a bed of shuffling beats and orbital shimmers over which Maud pants and purrs softly - if you want my honest opinion imagine Mum casting their fragile icy amour to Animal Collectives left of centre pop mindset. All said and done though ‘self help for the English’ provides the showcases best moment - it really does sound like Stewart Copeland in his Klark Kent guise - a rollicking brigade of sound festooned by ‘Lucky Jim’ and ‘oh lucky man’ styled college hall baritone braids and swirling brass arrangements - effervescent and quite unavoidably addictive if you ask me - expect releases galore next year - we hope - that is.

And by way of a parting shot for this extended missive something a little bit special with which to fill you with a warming fuzzy glow on these winter fuelled festive days…..

There should be more lighting of cigarettes on records

And what better way to round of this particular year end missive with something a little special……

Shady Bard ‘First, the Winter’ (Static Caravan). What’s becoming something of a traditional treat - the Xmas outing for the esteemed Static Caravan comes by way of an ultra limited 4 track release from singled out favourites Shady Bard. This release is sadly already sold out on pre release alone though your usual record emporium stockists (Piccadilly, Norman etc….) may well have a few snucked under the counter looking for loving homes. Only 150 of these cute little things are around, all housed in hand sewn pouches that include a sew on badge and a ‘church service’ styled programme insert - and as though that‘s not collectable enough in itself there are a handful of special editions which come adorned inside their own little hand crafted box - which we will say here and now are a thing of visual beauty. Within these hand made packages a quartet of disarming gems hang upon a threaded snow theme. Viewed as a whole these are not mere pop trinkets but an occasion, an event - perhaps a celebration. Frail, magical and enchanting this truly is a warming experience to behold - those un-familiar with Shady Bard’s previous outings may well be best warned to expect to be guided gently amid a masterfully spectral suite of church like resonance, as said four cuts feature here - three of which to date previous unreleased the fourth ‘these quiet times’ originally found nuzzling on their near perfect debut full length ‘from the ground up’ is found here decoded with a disarming choral braid. As to the music what can we say - exquisite, poised, melancholic yet absorbing, illuminating and hopeful, in Lawrence Becko a vocalist whose hurt and loss cuts to the quick and possesses a tear stained timbre perhaps only out classed by Robert Wyatt. From the opening heartbreaking frailness of the slender piano pining instrumental ‘Snowstorm 1914’ to the Lowry-esque charcoal charmed Christmas card decorated ‘these quiet times’ with its homely snow tipped harmonies (provided by the Ice Park Choral Society) and softly unfurling twinkle some demeanour, Shady Bard it seems have carved themselves a unique niche, a niche that enables them to capture and conjure an impenetrable song craft style that’s timeless, tragic and yet invested with worldly wonder and an unfailing forlorn grace. ‘Big Snow’ with its thoughtfully cantering trickery begs to be a backdrop to an aftermath of a cataclysmic event while in my much humbled opinion ‘Winter Song’ - by far the best moment here erupts the emotions with such slight of hand ease that it numbs through to the bone, an experience rarely stumbled upon it emerges from a position of dulling reflection to embrace and shower all the would be gathered in a quietly euphoric glow. Remarkable event. Without doubt Shady Bard are the most special of bands - tender and fragile and as such this is a truly special and fitting release to round off a phenomenal year. Roll on 2008. www.staticcaravan.org

Future Caravans on the horizon should see outings for the Accidental, a split release between Blood Music and Ass (the latter of whom Geoff Static kindly sent down a copy of their very excellent debut full length on Headspin which we highly recommend you should drop whatever you are doing and check out right now), there’ll be limited lathe releases from d_rradio and men an tol - both of whom have graced this pages to much acclaim and a compilation curated by the Static crew and Inch Time entitled ‘Teaism’ of which we’ve no idea who features or anything other than to say there’s the mysterious appearance of a dedicated web page at www.teaism.net - talk about being tight lipped.

And that’s your lot for the year - there will be a quickly fashioned missive in a few days time wherein we’ll scoop up all the releases that should have featured here but which due to time constraints were pulled at the last moment - treats featured include stuff by sine star project (stunning), that aforementioned Lumerians release, let‘s wrestle, exit avenue, personal space invaders, rory mc vicar, the maccabees, great defenders, patscan, gavin Thorpe, Nebraska, death by sadie, stone halos, nephu huzzbard, subliminal girls, butterfly bangs, tin man, jo bywater and those long promised sugar drum releases should all see their way to cyber print.

As per usual correspondence, death threats and general hellos via mark@losingtoday.com or check for updates on the super duper Technicolor all singing and dancing www.myspace.com/thesundayexperience alternatively there’s always snail mail via 105 shaldon drive, morden, surrey, sm4 4bq, uk.

Till next year take care of yourselves and have a wonderfully peaceful New Year….

Mark
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