Now if you go wandering in the woods of Stoke Newington, London, namely Clissold Park, you'll more than likely bump into this pair strumming on a guitar and beating on a paint tin to a background of soft rock synths. Gypsy and the Cat - which one's which, who can say - have upped sticks from Oz and settled over here producing big anthemic pop; the kind that raises a smile through tears. Sniff.
Xavier Bacash and Lionel Towers (FAB names) have a brand new album out, Giglamesh, which is like hearing Toto's Africa for the first time. It's a fresh yet classic sound. Nice to see Art Malik popping up in the vid below for their recent (amarze) single Time to Wander filmed just down the road from me outside the Tate Modern.
That pesky Belgian duo, Aeroplane, have ram-raided my fashion cupboard and nicked all my ideas for this season's outfits. The cheek! Anyhoo, it makes their video for the newly released single, Superstar, stand out from the pack. Go buy it here.
After DJing around the globe over the summer, they've finally landed their new album We Can't Fly and parked it on my iPod. It's got their trademark languid groove with a few 'rockier' numbers I'm less keen on. But as a debut, it's well worth the wait.
Well, Monsieur Electrosexual has created a monster. This duet with Mz Sunday Luv is deep and massive, like a thumping heartbeat on a dancefloor heady with amyl. I Feel Love is out now as an EP with three other all-meat tracks (clicky here for the UK - oh, and here and here).
28 years after the original version was played every week as the theme tune for the BBC's cheapo saturday show Get Set For Summer, Yazoo's Get Set is OUT NOW! As a single!! Here!!! I remember the TV show being outside a lot, but with a British summer, that usually meant bands looking pissed off, slipping onstage as their peacock hairdos flattened in the drizzle.
Vince Clark and Alison Moyet had a ball reconnecting with each other and the Yazoo back catalogue on the Reconnection world tour last year. The songs were massive live and Vince, being the studio nerd he is, had all the original synth sounds which meant it was like listening to the two albums Upstairs at Erics and You and Me. But with Alison's belting 28 year older voice, they were given a new twist. Check out the live experience below.
Years ago, in high school, my headmaster told me the French called pop music 'Yé-Yé music'. It wasn't meant as some cultural snippet but as a sneering put down. He was the same headmaster who blubbed to the local press when Neil Tennant wrote It's a Sin about his time at the same school. In other words, the man was a boring shit who hated pop music. And by dismissing Yé-Yé music, he missed out on something joyous. No wonder he was miserable. Here are two pop songs currently making me feel vindicated.
First up is a bunch of thrift store guitar twiddlers turned All Saints stadium pop gods. One Night Only have grown up - due in part to lead singer Georgie Craig's Glamorama-type existence as Burberry's pin-up boy - and become Keane/Duran Duran. I love bold, confident music, but the lyrics have to match. "The big screens, the plastic-made dreams" has such an 80s anthemic ring, it belies the true age of the singer (er, 20). Say You Don't Want It is now a bona fide top 40 hit, ripe to sound mammoth in Wembley Stadium.
Next up is someone who really doesn't need any poking from me. Web-rat, Sky Ferreira's One is everywhere at the moment. It's the kind of clever pop that gets on people's tits but others think is nothing short beautiful, just like the fashion shot of her above. Honestly, she doesn't need to bother after this.
The marvelous Hot Lips duo from Sweden, Pacific! are back! Back!! BACK!! And gone all frightwig on us. Delving into the depths of the universe they've come back with Narcissus, a bone-shaking, sonic-bothering, rumbler of a dance track that made my arse cheeks quiver.
Heads up to Jon Pleased Wimmin who put this on his facebook with a warning. It's hard to believe it's the same band who's debut album, Reveries, was such a squelchy, funky laid back affair. But I like bands going leftfield. It's been two years since they began travelling the world with Hot Lips et al and in that time they'll have seen, done, eaten, danced to A LOT. In other words, this is a band expressing their broadening horizons. As a taster to the new album on Alan Braxe's prolific label Vulture, it's coming straight at you, fists flying. The Pet Shop Boys should take note that Narcissus was originally "conceived as a live performance to accompany a modern dance ballet" and especially as this track has the anthemic qualities of a classic PSB track.
And the FREE Jagz Kooner REMIX is below via Soundcloud. Enjoy!
I can inhale this track all day. In.... and out. Goldsmiths alumni Katy B is all over the radio and much deserved too. Sidestepping the current Brit sound to create their own hugely appealing version of dubstep, Katy and producer Benga have hit on a winning formula. Check out the current A-listed Katy On a Mission and the just as amarze Louder.
Well this one sneaked out... Mischa Barton's new squeeze, the clubbing fashionista, Ali Love, has a proper collection of ten tracks released as a bona fide album, Love Harder. Following the killer singles, Diminishing Returns and Love Harder, this album should be MASSIVE. Think of a straight Sylvester. That's Ali Love.
Love Harder is quite an achievement. Every track is accomplished dance/pop. He's kept the huge 80s feel of his earlier material but added a twist with dirty synths and filthy vocals. Love In Darkness has the aforementioned Sylvester feel. It's a bit like two straight blokes doing Man 2 Man's Male Stripper. Glorious. But he can still do floaty pop with the lovely Dark Star.
Here's the latest single, Smoke and Mirrors. Go get the album here before he explodes - in the filling out arenas sense - because he will!
FOOTNOTE: repeated listening of the album and the more I'm thinking how would it sound with Ewan Pearson at the helm as producer. Pretty epic I'd suspect. And how about a Fred Falke remix? Just wet meself.
It's taken well over a year, but Hurt's Wonderful Life single finally gets an official video in the run up to the release next month. The Hurts camp have been clever in their mass global awareness campaign. Like a slow creeper, they've spread roots all over Europe. It remains to be seen whether or not it all pays off: the last stop before release, radio play seems to be non-existent. I find it very odd that Radio 1 are resolutely ignoring one of the most talked about bands of 2010. With a few weeks to go, it should be way up there on the playlist. A message to the band themselves though... "Don't let go. Never give up it's such a wonderful life"!
**UPDATE AUGUST 5th: Wonderful Life now on Radio 1's B-List!!!**
A friend of mine bemoaned the lack of updates here, "I suppose there's nothing new worth writing about though". Coming from the queen of the bright and shiny and all that's new, it's a big statement. But he and I both know there's loads of new stuff worth writing about, it's just we take our eyes of the horizon for a bit of a rest. And that's where we uncover hidden gems from the past. Or rather, it becomes the new discovery. And that quite neatly sums up the stunning collection of 33 (bloody Nora!) tracks Moon on a Mirrorball from Judie Tzuke .
Her name has always been always been synonymous with the UK's rock and pop pantheon, but weirdly, I couldn't recall any of her music. A chance encounter on a radio interview where they played her 1979 hit Stay With Me 'Til Dawn and THAT VOICE just lifted me. Yes, I actually elevated off my seat. And then I realised I knew her voice all along, usually in the back of a cab gurning all the way home at sunrise o'clock when the taxi driver's tuned into Magic or Heart or dressed in Mylo's clothes as Need You Tonite on his classic Destroy Rock and Roll album (quick aside: where the fluck has he gone?!?).
After 30 years as a singer/songwriter she's packaged her favourite tracks alongside new ones which is the PERFECT introduction for Judie Tzuke philistines. And the new stuff is KILLER. Take the introductory single If (When You Go). Her daughters Bailey, 23 (yes, the Freemasons singer on the glorious Uninvited) and Tallulah, 15, provide the angelic, ethereal backing vocals - one in each ear - with their mum front and centre with a deeper, resonant, slightly gravelly voice on a track co-written with Kylie's longtime collaborator Steve Anderson. His trademark strings do the business, sweeping and swooshing underneath this mammoth song.
Judie Tzuke's songs are like looking up into a blue sky to see jetstreams criss-crossing. They're the past and the future. And it's clear she has influenced a plethora of singer/songwriters with her music. Sia springs to mind immediately.
Go buy Moon on the Mirrorballhere. She's touring the UK in autumn and the gig in majestic Union Chapel in London promises to be vare special.
Bona! This is a music blog. If there are any mp3 files uploaded which need to be taken down, get in touch! Also, email me if you have any music you want nice people to hear...
Now if you go wandering in the woods of Stoke Newington, London, namely Clissold Park, you'll more than likely bump into this pair strumming on a guitar and beating on a paint tin to a background of soft rock synths. Gypsy and the Cat - which one's which, who can say - have upped sticks from Oz and settled over here producing big anthemic pop; the kind that raises a smile through tears. Sniff.
