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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 …
TRACK: The Kondoors – ‘Mr Rain’: classic boy-girl power balladry wants your heart
THE KONDORS is the musical project of Gavin Conder and Jess Greenfield, who were involved romantically long before they were a musical item. Jess has come up through her involvement with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, a gilt-edged name to have on the CV if ever there was; previously she’s worked with artists such as …
TRACK: 79.5 – ‘My Dream’: timeless, crate-diggin’ retro-soul gem
IT’S absolutely fair to say that Big Crown Records, which has been down in the crates bringing you some incredibly fine cuts out of its Brooklyn base for the past four years, is deeply involved in a heartfelt romance with San Antonio, Texas, Chicano soul legends Sonny & The Sunliners. Mind you, a quick listen …
TRACK: Olivier Alary & Johannes Malfatti – ‘Drifting’: out-classical, ISDN warmth
MONTREAL-based, Toulousain composer Olivier Alary and his Berlin-based compatriot Johannes Malfatti have been friends for many years – that kind of relationship so much easier to conduct in our modern fibre-optic world. With an album apiece under their belts: Johannes’ Surge for Glacial Movements, and Olivier’s 2016 debut for FatCat’s 130701 imprint, Fiction/Non-Fiction, it became …
TRACK: Tree Trunks – ‘Reaction’: elegant synthpop for a lovers’ summer
LONDON outfit Tree Trunks have been around for a little while now, nibbling at pristine pop, picking up airplay, seducing the ears. There’s been four singles in the past couple of years proffering a line in intelligent, pristine synthpop, taking on influences such as the Yellow Magic Orchestra, Talking Heads and Frank Ocean to bring …
TRACK: A quintet from Bill Callahan with ‘The Mackenzies’: not a dry eye in the house
IT’S become a lovely little start-of-the-week tradition through the dead centre of this mournful summer: the Monday teasing of another new Bill Callahan track ahead of September’s Gold Record. And today he brings a tale of “The Mackenzies”: the sweetness of the chance encounter with a neighbour never met after his car gives up the …