The Music Fix Blog August 2009
 | The TMF August Playlist Posted by Douglas Baptie on 31-08-2009 08:40 | 0 comment(s) |
| Not for us a summer of chilled tinnies and peeling, lobster-skin. No. We listen to music so you don't have to.
This month we be mostly recommending: Can – Oh Yeah – Just when I think there is no more to give, this amazing band recapture my imagination and I fall in love again. This is so good I can barely believe it actually exists. Perfect in every way. (AM) Zomby – Digital Fauna – Reminiscent of early AFX singles without being a cheap copy; haunting and beautiful. Yet more magic from this label-hopping electronic wizard. (AM) Priscilla Renea - Dollhouse - Electro-pop stomper that treads a similar path to Katy Perry's "Hot and Cold". (LT) Invasion - Spells Of Deception – 1:56 of snarling Motown meets metal mash-up. I salivate over every single release from this amazing London three-piece who just keep getting better. (AM) The Antlers - Kettering - Are you ready to be anaesthetised? Pitchfork might have just discovered The Antlers, resulting in a stratospheric increase in downloads for the New York trio, but we've been fans for a little longer and this is evidence of why we love them to bits. Song of the year. Watch this space... (PF) Dolores O'Riordan - Skeleton - We all love The Cranberries... well OK some us do! But let's hope that this great new song from Dolores' second solo album gets a chance to stand up in its own right before the reunion of her previous band in 2010. (PF) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Curse Of Millhaven - An old favourite that won't let go. I've been looking forward to Cave's second novel, The Death Of Bunny Munro, published later this month and that's had me digging through the meister's back catalogue once again. Surely this wonderfully tawdry epic is one of the most addictive murder ballads since Deep In The Woods? And so much more fun at the same time! (PF) Mini Viva - Left My Heart in Tokyo - In six weeks' time it may be the most annoying thing you wished you'd never heard but, for now, enjoy the latest delectable concoction those masters Xenomania have brewed up in their future-pop lab. Sassy, bratty and downright cool, this could be 2009's 'That's Not My Name'. (LM) Drugstore - White Magic For Lovers - I've already extolled the virtues of these '90s dreamsters, who are reuniting for a London show in September. They've got so many great songs that it's hard to know where to begin and this may not be my very favourite, but it's one of those that I just keep coming back to. A perfect introduction to this hugely underrated band. (PF) Aus Rotten - The Second Rape - From 2001's The Rotten Agenda, some old school crust punk with a guest appearance from Spitboy's Adrienne Droogas: "I may not have bruises all over my body / But when I went to his room I never would have guessed / That he would force my no to mean a yes." (DB) The Saints - Erotic Neurotic - Back in 1977, sexual politics were a little ... simpler but this track from the band's debut remains four minutes and eight seconds of utter fury and makes some of their contemporaries seem quite pedestrian by comparison. (DB) Paloma Faith - New York. Stunning second single from Paloma's forthcoming debut album featuring a big chorus and an even bigger quiff in the video! (LT) Selena And The Scene - Fallling Down - Debut track from Disney wizardess Selana Gomez's new rock band .(LT) Brooke White - Use Somebody - The ex-American Idol contestant, best known for suffering horrendous stage fright during her live performances covers Kings Of Leon in a country style. One of the better tracks from debut album "High Hopes and Heartbreak". (LT) Arctic Monkeys - Humbug - It may be getting sour reviews from critics and fans alike, but I think it's a vast improvement on the lukewarm Favourite Worst Nightmare and there's time for it to grow on me even more. Moving away from the teen concerns, Alex Turner's lyrics are still brilliantly considered and the music itself is both grungier and more soulful. (LM) Tori Amos - Marianne - Reminding us of a time when Florence wasn't the only Kate Bush-inspired redhead to grace the charts, this sweeping ballad is the pick of the bunch from Tori's most experimental album Boys for Pele (1996). I'm listening to it, and the other albums that form her back catalogue, in preparation for September's UK tour - can't wait! (LM) Tim and Sam's Tim and Sam Band with Tim and Sam - Summer Solstice - This track touches a space of untainted innocence, unblemished soul and pure joy. With sparkling guitar, wind and glockenspiel, Tim and Sam make sounds that draw out that secret place in your imagination that you had all to yourself when you were a child. I'm not sure how they do it. Maybe it's magic. [SR] Weezer - Keep Fishin' - Very much an underated track from the king of 'Geek Chic' himself Rivers Cuomo and band. It's still as fun, fresh, energetic - and relevant - as when we first heard it all the way back in 2002. Like Kermit the Frog, it's an enduring alternative classic. [SR] The Cribs - Last Year's Snow - Gorgeous, timeless guitar music which showcases the inimitable talents of Johnny Marr perfectly. New album Ignore the Ignorant is going to send some of their peers back to the drawing board or DHSS. (SB) HEALTH - Die Slow - Howling industrial dissonance meets sugar sweet harmony to create something genuinely exciting. (SB) 9Bach - Bwythyn Fy Nain - Wales' best kept secret take a step up from cult folk status to perhaps laying claim to being the celtic answer to the Cowboy Junkies. (SB) | |
 | Behemoth's Ov Fire And The Void video Posted by Douglas Baptie on 20-08-2009 09:48 | 0 comment(s) |
| Come end-of-the-year-poll time, Behemoth's Evangelion (Nuclear Blast/Metal Blade August '09) will be fighting it out for title of best extreme metal disc, with the Polish outfit delivering nine tracks of supremely charred death metal, all sitting atop drummer 'Inferno's oft-bewildering stick and pedal work.
Your tolerance for this stuff will, obviously, vary but this is a band at the very top of its game and, nine albums in, you can't help but respect their ability to keep raising the bar. The video for 'Ov Fire And The Void' is a fine introduction to their theatrics and, given their on-going difficulties with the Polish authorities, is inevitably NSFW at certain points. Behemoth "Ov Fire And The Void" from Metal Blade Records on Vimeo. | |
 | Florence Rawlings is hard to get Posted by Colin Polonowski on 18-08-2009 18:05 | 0 comment(s) |
| Check out the video for Florence Rawling Motown inspired debut single. Out on 24th August...
| |
 | Sam and Me do battle Posted by Douglas Baptie on 06-08-2009 14:55 | 0 comment(s) |
| They're hotly-tipped. Like a poker left in a fireplace.
Described as a "bed-sit Flaming Lips with echoes of Harpers Bizarre, Kings of Convenience, early Lemonheads, all filtered though a love of 90's arcade and games consoles." Their debut album The Battle of Hemsby comes out on 17 August on Akoustik Anarkhy (Cats in Paris, its a buffalo). They also win first prize for best promo item of the summer - a unique Polaroid from the album art-work photo shoot and ‘Sam and Me’ chip fork! One of each free with every copy! Here's the video for the track 'A Lying, Down Disposition'. | |
 | Jade Ewen - My Man Video Posted by Colin Polonowski on 06-08-2009 12:16 | 0 comment(s) |
| Jade Ewen is soon to set the charts on fire with the release of My Man - the first single to be taken from the UK songstresses highly anticipated debut album. It’s out on 14 September through Geffen. If you can't wait, we've got the video for your viewing pleasure...
| |
 | TMF July Playlist Posted by Douglas Baptie on 04-08-2009 09:17 | 0 comment(s) |
| With most of TMF keyboard jockeys sunning themselves in balmier climes (or at least on a lilo moored somewhere off the Norfolk coast), only time for a few contributions to this month's hot picks and tips, but what crackers they are!
King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown - The latest stop on my exploration of dub, this album, released in 1976, includes the talents of at least three reggae heavyweights: King Tubby, Robby Shakespeare (of Sly & Robbie fame) and Augustus Pablo, king of the melodica. (JD) The Best of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - About twenty years too late, I know. Having only a passing acquaintance with Cave, I was inspired to delve a little further after watching his televised Glasto appearance. A good mix of scary and tender, but y'all probably know that already. Where to next, I wonder? (JD) Brad Carter - Morning Always Comes Too Soon (Kalista Remix) - Rewind to 2004 and the big Ibiza anthems were Deep Dish's Flashdance and Shapeshifter's Lola's Theme. Of the same vintage is the overlooked Morning Always Comes Too Soon. Okay, the original is rather cheesy trance, but the Kalista remix, flecked with guitar, is beautifully Balearic and absolutely perfect for summer groovin'. (JD) Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone - A rare highlight from an album that takes its place alongside 2009's other middling third efforts from the class of mid-decade. (DB) Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome - Holiday - You'll be hearing this whether you wish to or not, such is the extent to which Dizzee has well and truly landed. It may not be subtle but, when I'm drunkenly dancing to it in the mud in a few weeks, I'll be glad that the UK is producing shamelessly sunny singles despite another weather washout. (LM) Wild Beasts - Two Dancers - Far from beastly, Hayden Thorpe's falsetto vocal brings welcome drama to the humdrum indie landscape, while the tunes themselves sound epic without resorting to White Lies' existential gloom. (LM) Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest - A long-player that has snuck up on me over the last couple of months, Veckatimest's pleasures lie beneath the fur of its untamed, harmonic pop experiments. (LM) | |
