Category Archives: Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 13th October 2025

Flock Of Dimes – Long After Midnight

We begin this week with a delightfully simple video idea that is startlingly effective alongside the lyrical premise of the song. In ‘Long After Midnight’ singer Jenn Wasner is caressing a gentle acoustic ballad in which the narrator is willingly giving everything she owns in an unshakeable loyal commitment to an ailing loved one. Viewed here, we see her offering these caring gestures whilst behind her the room is stripped bare, piece by piece, of belongings and furnishings. Jenn’s Flock Of Dimes project, which she has maintained alongside her indie duo Wye Oak, has long been a font for personal and musically bold exploration and so the new album from which this comes, ‘The Life You Save’ out now on Sub Pop Records, brings a sonically warm and personable new chapter to the project and is well worth a deep listen.

David Byrne – Everybody Laughs

David Byrne’s post Talking Heads solo career has seen many sudden gear shifts and changes in direction. His art-rock leanings have ensured he would remain an artist uncomfortable with sitting still or falling into a repetitive routine. Despite this though, he cannot shake that knack of his for creating a slice of celebratory, genre-defying and downright catchy pop such as this. It is to be found on the essential new album, his first in seven years, ‘Who Is The Sky?’ Every now and then in the career of an art rocker (I’m thinking of albums like Peter Gabriel’s ‘So’ or David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’) they put out an album with the intention of catching some mainstream attention, these are often surprisingly pleasurable listens. David Byrne may just have pulled that punch here, for the album is overflowing with melodious ideas and electrifying musings. That is what we hear on this one, an insistently bouncy number that runs through a shopping list framework of shared human experiences.

Walter Trout – Sign Of The Times

In a career that spans five decades Walter Trout has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the electric juggernauts of blues music. With a deep solo catalogue but also an impressive collaborative CV that has seen him shine during stints with Canned Heat and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (stepping into shoes previously filled by legends Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor), Trout deserves his place in the pantheon of modern day blues elder statesmen. That firecracker style of his is still blazing as it takes aim at the disconnect in a modern day society with their heads buried in screens, apparently oblivious to the wider world around. This is also the title track from Walter’s newly released album which is one of the strongest collection of new songs you will find in 2025. It features lyric writing contributions from his wife Marie all of which help shape an emotional core in tracks responding to the external chaos and internal battles we all feel living in these modern times.

Wednesday – Bitter Everyday

It is not only the older generation who are feeling disillusionment these days. Now already up to their sixth album, the newly released ‘Bleeds’, Wednesday sound typically punch drunk and cheesed off on this crunching highlight from the record. Frontwoman Karly Hartzman does seem to have definitively found her writing voice on the last two Wednesday albums and it is with good reason their “Wednesday creek rock” sound is beginning to win some wider acclaim and recognition. Still, the band are not without inner turmoil with some line-up changes; they were possibly a little wrong footed by the rising solo career of MJ Lenderman over the past couple of years. He remains a studio member but will no longer be touring with the band. Still, despite these bumps in the road, they sound more determined and likely than ever to break on through.

The Onlies – You Climb The Mountain

There is swingin’ old-time string band action aplenty from the US right now too, here in the hands of some lively young pickers, pluckers and slashers named Vivian Leva, Leo Shannon, Riley Calcagno, and Sami Braman. ‘You Climb The Mountain’ is the bands fourth album, although the first two were recorded before they could drive. They are all 27 years old now but got their start twenty years ago, with Vivian drafted in on guitar ten years later, as a kid band; this might be a clue as to why their playing is so tight and infused with passion and feel, what with two decades of practice and refinement behind them. The bands Riley says that “there’s a careful balance between crazy intensity and melancholic peace, I like that both of those exist on the album.” This pulsating, string-laden steam train of a modern folk and bluegrass album is out now.

Jalen Ngonda – All About Me

Finally this week are some sumptuous new laid-back vintage reggae vibes from soul singing supremo Jalen Ngonda, released on Daptone Records. He is joined by veteran keyboardist and producer Victor Axelrod and the pair wrote the lyrics then recorded the vocals all in one night. It already has the aura of a reggae classic to it, the song is a direct pitch for entry into the catalogue for bragging and self-aggrandisement songs. With lyrics like “I may cloud up your day, yet I light up your night and by the morning I make you feel alright” there is no modest humility being portrayed by Jalen here, it is a peacocking strut in every sense and he nails it with his vocal. The genius in the performance is appearing in the final verse, for all his posturing and bravado, there is a little crack in Ngonda’s voice that tells you, he really wants this. This may well be a new route away from the Motown sophistication Jalen has previously shown, but it is no less wonderful for it, so dig in.

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 10th October 2025

John Lennon – Come Together

It would have been John Lennon’s 85th birthday yesterday and so in honour of his enduring legacy, alongside the newly remastered release of his 1972 Madison Square Gardens concert which accompanies the restored footage that appeared in the film ‘One To One: John & Yoko’ released earlier this year, this weeks selection of older music clips is a John Lennon special. We begin with one of the few occasions he revisited his Beatles catalogue on a concert stage (the one other notable example was during his guest appearance with Elton John in 1974) and the revitalised footage certainly unleashes the rocking power of the performance. This is from that 1972 concert, tragically the only time John would ever play a full solo show based around his own songs. Other occasions were either of an avant garde nature with Yoko or with the ad-hoc Plastic Ono bands he would occasionally show up with mainly doing rock ‘n’ roll covers. So, for rarity alone but also for its conviction, this is a special moment.

The Beatles – You Can’t Do That

The first years of The Beatles worldwide invasion were largely propelled by the raw attack of John Lennon’s thick Liverpudlian rock ‘n’ roll voice. Of course, over the years, the musicality of McCartney has been evaluated to properly acknowledge the genius that he is to this day, but the primal force of John Lennon remains undeniable and probably still the element that gets people into The Beatles in the first place. That is on display here on a lesser celebrated number but no less wonderful for that.

John Lennon & The Dirty Mac – Yer Blues

The Dirty Mac were a one off supergroup formed for the 1968 Rolling Stones picture ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus’. The film would sit in the vaults for years because the Stones were unhappy with some aspects of it (possibly that they were outshone by the other acts invited to appear) but this four piece featuring Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell and John earned their place in music folklore thanks to the status, if nothing else, of providing a mega-rare filmed live performance of a Beatle performing a track from ‘The White Album’ in the year it was released.

The Beatles – I Am The Walrus

John Lennon was the Beatle that embraced English psychedelia to the full and with this track, ‘A Day In The Life’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ in particular, wrote some of the movements most enduring pieces of work. Not only that, but this track and accompanying film sequence alone rescue the Beatles much maligned ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ film from the realms of the inessential.

John Lennon – Instant Karma

One thing that gets repeated by many who worked with him about John Lennon, is that he was lacking in patience and he loved the thrill of the instant hit and spontaneity. ‘Instant Karma’ was a non-album single from 1970 that epitomised this working approach and even this ‘Top Of The Pops’ appearance, after the single had charted, clearly shows John buzzing off the energy of having written, recorded and released a track in the space of two weeks. In fact he said of it that they “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner”

John Lennon – Imagine

And we end back at that 1972 concert with a heartfelt rendition of the classic and then still only recently released title track from John’s second solo album. This is the latest of many restored and dynamically revived pieces of film footage we have enjoyed relating to John and the Beatles in recent years and once again, despite being relatively well known amongst Lennon fans, it does have the glossy sheen of something new.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 6th October 2025

Hannah Frances – Surviving You

This is taken from Hannah’s new album ‘Nested In Tangles’ which is out this week via Fire Talk. Having already caught the eye in 2024 with a stunning debut album ‘Keeper Of The Shepherd’ this immediate follow up continues to dazzle and amaze. No mere confessional folky, Hannah has a free flowing range that recalls the likes of Kate Bush and Jeff Buckley but as legitimate as those comparisons are, the fact is she possesses the eloquence and imaginative expression to make this style her own. Parts of the new album feature collaborative arrangements with Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen; something detectable in the eruptions of free jazz and progressive flourishes but the Hannah Frances core magnifies all elements into one heady brew, poetically honing her thematic meditations on generational trauma and maladaptive patterns with a musical experience that is deeply rewarding. Do not miss out on this one.

Jessie Kilguss – Howard Johnson’s

This is a preview track from Kilguss’s sixth album ‘They Have A Howard Johnson’s There’, a line that features in this superb reflection fuelled rock/pop tune, which is due to be released on November 14th. Jessie is a former actress who made songwriting her full time artistic outlet after working with musical heroes Marianne Faithfull and Mary Margaret O’Hara in the Tom Waits / William Burroughs musical ‘The Black Rider’. This song was inspired by the Al Pacino movie ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ and specifically the line spoken by Pacino “I’ll charter a plane to Algeria, they have a Howard Johnson’s there”. Kilguss’s father Howard had passed away a month before her seeing this movie and so the song stands as both a tribute to him and an inspirational spark for what the songwriter felt was a ridiculous line in the movie. ‘Howard Johnson’s’ is a wonderful, slightly forlorn and yet simultaneously uplifting and loving song that deserves some recognition. The nostalgia in the accompanying vintage advert filled video is a blast too, so enjoy.

Jose James – Tokyo Daydream

Released earlier this year, this irresistible slice of soulful electro with jazzy inflections is taken from Jose James thirteenth studio album ‘1978: Revenge Of The Dragon’. There is something in the pulse of the electro beat that sounds so warm and natural, which might have something to do with the fact that the record was recorded live to tape in a manner recalling the analogue heyday of the seventies. Jose has long been a voice in the contemporary soul and jazz worlds who is impossible to pin down, his groove is just so versatile, so cosmically old and new. The new record combines four originals alongside four new interpretations of late 70s classics and is a must hear for any fans of these styles who are on a quest for something bold, innovative and unique. Not only that, but it is a joy to listen to, so dig in.

Southern Avenue – Upside

As we have taken a soulful turn, let’s keep it going with some deliciously rootsy sounding funky soul and a killer chorus hook to boot. This one is an uplifting live version of a standout track on the bands debut album released this year on Alligator Records. Recorded in Memphis, the sense of that regions musical roots merging with gospel and funk is tangible, just as the impression of Southern Avenue being a band that can really cut it live is equally hard to ignore. The message carries a positive punch as well, with a lyric that pushes for the shedding of old concerns and the welcoming of the winds of change with open arms. “Every day’s a new day, find me on the upside” indeed. In the light of the times we live in, the mere act of setting out each morning with that attitude is a heavy act of defiance and one that I willingly try to embrace.

GoGo Penguin – What We Are And What We Are Meant To Be

Taken from GoGo Penguin’s latest album ‘Necessary Fictions’, the title of this modern jazz configuration is a strong indicator to the inspiration for the compositions creation. Pianist Chris Illingworth described it as being born of “deep reflection” and the music conveys sonically the abrasive dividing line between the reality of the people we are and the dream of the people we aspire to be. In that sense, each of the audio facets that are the building blocks of this piece, the delicate piano patterns, the restless drum grooves, the throbbing of the bass at the heart of it all, the deep washes of double bass and the ambient ever-presence of the synths each serve to capture an element of the whole that only becomes fully identifiable when everything is combined, which seems to happen both naturally and with some resistance. All told, this electric Manchester trio are still making and creating sound in a manner that demands attention and delights the ears.

U – The Bitter Withy

And finally, we conclude this week’s selection in a place that is one-part traditional old-England folk, another-part haunting and a wonderfully baffling puzzle all rolled into one. It comes from an album set to be released on 10th October called ‘Archenfield’ on the Lex Records label. There in lies the first mystery, for the record has been constructed by a sample collagist called U about whom little is known. In putting this audio delight together U has dug deep into archive recorded material, found sound and sourced other atmospheric samples all relevant to the area in Herefordshire known as Archenfield. The ambience of the whole record, in conjunction with the mesmeric appearances and disappearances of voices from another age, both bring folk and folklore into the current realm in tandem with time-locking them into history. Do these voices speak to us today or is our connection too severed to ever reach back that far? ‘The Bitter Withy’ itself is centuries old, telling the tale of a child Christ and a murderous misuse of his powers, and it sounds archaic too; it plays as if it were broadcasting from the needle on an antique shellac player which has just been wound for the final time, never to play again. This one is unique in every sense, one of those albums that will not survive as background music but for those who want immersion, confusion, patient gratification, questions without easy answers and a positive banquet of imaginative audio wonderment, then U’s ‘Archenfield’ album will surely become a treasured possession.

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 3rd October 2025

Tim Buckley – Happy Time

Last week the sad news broke of the passing of double bass legend Danny Thompson. As a tribute to the man and his immense fingerprint left on the landscape of 20th century music this weeks edition of Old Fruit pulls six archive performances enhanced by Danny’s involvement holding down that bottom end. First up, a rare piece of film capturing the week in October 1968 when Tim Buckley visited the UK to play the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Danny was part of his pick up band upon arrival in the UK, rising to the unenviable challenge of following Tim’s music and bringing an appreciative backing to proceedings. It is evidence of Danny’s standing in the sixties as a go-to session man, a reputation that would see his name appear on many credits from the time, most notable on records by Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, John McLaughlin Trio and Nick Drake.

Pentangle – Light Flight

Danny’s presence on the double bass in Pentangle undoubtedly elevated the bands fusion of folk, jazz and free-form acoustic psychedelics to heights they would not have attained with a mere four string plunker. He could bring both percussive energy and improvisational alertness and as such, the band felt like the ideal environment for his eloquences to thrive and evolve. For a time they did too, although Danny was never likely to be limited to just one combination of players during a career when so many would seek out his sound, his ear and his magic touch. Here he is performing arguably Pentangle’s most well known number at the start of 1971, a song that was originally both a 45 and a stand out number from the bands ‘Basket Of Light’ album.

John Martyn – Couldn’t Love You More

John Martyn’s deep folk-jazz fusion benefited from the Danny Thompson touch in a collaboration that would last more than three decades. They first came together for Martyn’s 1973 classic ‘Solid Air’ and it would be a union that endured through not just studio work, but mouth watering live concert sessions too, as is witnessed here from a vintage ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ clip. Their last known shows together were in the early 2000’s by which time Danny almost sounded like the essential component in John Martyn’s soulful, probing musical quest.

Richard Thompson – Put It There Pal

Similarly on a wavelength were the musical interactions between folk-rock maestro Richard Thompson and Danny. It has long been impossible for the pair to be written about without first explaining that they were not brothers, but with the kind of intuitive understanding they often displayed in live performance it was hard not to think there must be some higher degree of communication going on. Their highlights are worth digging into across a multitude of live recordings over the years but they did also share joint billing on an under-the-radar 1997 studio album called ‘Industry’.

Martin Simpson – Heartbreak Hotel

There is a temptation in compiling this selection to dip into some of the more mainstream cameos to be found of Danny’s work over the years. Top of that list is his bass credit on Everything But The Girl’s nineties melancholy dance classic ‘Missing’, of which there are TV appearances featuring Danny to be found should you care to dig them out, but really all he is doing on that track is holding down a very basic, beat accompanying low end. His playing always shines with brighter colours and variation when heard alongside an instrumentalist of similar dexterity. That is what we find here, playing in tandem with folk guitar legend Martin Simpson on a live bluesy version of a fifties rock ‘n’ roll classic.

Danny Thompson – Idle Monday

We finish with one of the all too scarce examples of Danny taking the lead on a performance of a tune from his first solo album. ‘Whatever’ was released in 1987 to a favourable critical reception in the jazz world, it gave Thompson a platform to express his love of folk and jazz in a deep instrumental showcase that did open the door for future solo projects in a similar vein. Danny himself said “I just wanted Kate Bush to like it. I wanted the jazzers to like it. I wanted the folk side to like it”. Returning to the album after news of his death broke, this work does stand the test of time and represents a grain of the mans music that is ripe for rediscovery amongst the many higher profile recordings on which his genius, expressive playing can be heard. We have lost a good one here, RIP Danny Thompson.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 29th September 2025

PINS – I’ll Be Yours

This Manchester all female have been releasing attention grabbing indie-rock albums for nearly fifteen years now and make a welcome return here with more classic sounding original music. They are leaning into a sixties wall-of-sound aesthetic here, albeit one that still thrashes those melodic guitar hooks to Jesus And Mary Chain levels of fuzziness. When they were starting out, founding member Faith Vern brought her fashion photographers eye to the mix, ensuring that PINS always had a stylish swagger to their post-punk aggression with vivid nods to the Riot Grrrl movement. All these elements are clearly still flourishing today, so it is great to hear news of this return for their previous release was 2020’s ‘Hot Slick’, a wait that felt far too long.

Jeff Tweedy – Out In The Dark

The new album from Wilco front man Tweedy is a 30 track, triple album epic called ‘Twilight Override’. He recorded it at Wilco’s home base The Loft in Chicago in collaboration with his sons Spencer and Sammy as well as James Elkington, Liam Kazar and Finom’s Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart. Unmistakably the work of Jeff, it proves him to be a song writer still very much in service of the creative spark and with a record this size, that tap is clearly still pouring a potent natural supply of inspiration. He himself describes the record as a reaction to “the bottomless basket of rock bottom” and it is indeed a defiant action against the despair of modern times expressed through his unique musical vision.

The Divine Comedy – The Last Time I Saw The Old Man

This is just so beautifully on the money, relatable too if you have ever found yourself reflecting on your final moments with a close elderly relative. It requires a certain lightness of touch in tandem with a fluent musical vocabulary but, if there is a recording artist from the past 35 years who has consistently displayed these qualities it is undoubtedly Divine Comedy mainstay Neil Hannon. The bands newly released album is called ‘Rainy Sunday Afternoon’ and it shows a deliberate emphasis on chamber pop orchestration and offers an overriding sense of introspection. A perfect soundtrack for reflection as we enter the colder winter months, the sense of autumnal melancholy is striking and Neil himself, when talking about the album, has said it is a way to “work through some stuff”.

Half Man Half Biscuit – Horror Clowns Are Dickheads

If you need a lift after the previous recommendation then this should provide enough of a contrast. Nigel Blackwell’s band had their oeuvre nailed down on arrival forty years ago and they have stuck with it brilliantly, often hilariously, ever since. The recipe has always been energetic punkish indie-rock as a bedrock for Nigel’s dead pan mocking alongside devastatingly observed social and cultural satire. New album ‘All Asimov And No Fresh Air’ features the definitive take down of the profiteering hype around ‘Record Store Day’ (“oh I do like to re-release my b-sides” sung to the tune of “I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside”) but it opens with this instant classic, a song that instructs “all horror clowns are dickheads and if you have a phobia of them, you’re a dickhead too”.

Joan Shelley – Here In The High And Low

Joan Shelley’s new album ‘Real Warmth’ arrives, as many new releases have done in the current climate, heavily troubled by the unstable world conditions we live in. There are multiple layers to the “real warmth” she is referring to not least the collaborative, tangible connection we humans often isolate ourselves from in an online space and also the climate anxiety that is provoked by our warming planet. But she also took her mission drive to the recording process too, seeking a looser, more interactive and live feel to the sessions by recording them with musician friends in a snowy and remote Canadian hide away. That was definitely a sound move as can be heard here on the records superb cascading opening track, after which the rest of the album holds up equally well.

Julianna Riolino – Seed

So it feels like a closing of the circle with this weeks final selection for, much like the opening number, this is a cut swinging its sixties style hooks with a bolshy, assured swagger. For a song that begins like a 21st century take on The Shirelles, the way it ends in a hurricane of rising noise with Julianna repeated spitting out the refrain “I was your seed” is really quite sensational. This is taken from a new album due in October called ‘Echo In The Dust’ from the former member of Daniel Romano’s Outfit. Hailing from Canada, she has pursued a solo path since releasing a single called ‘Be My Man’ in 2019 and with this follow up to 2022’s ‘All Blue’ LP there is clear evidence of an artist who has absolutely found her voice.

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 26th September 2025

Billy Bragg – Between The Wars

For this edition of Old Fruit we are jumping back forty years to 1985 and a few tracks that show an often maligned period in popular music had some seeds of hope in the margins away from the thin-synth dominance of the mainstream. I am kicking off with Billy Bragg because I launched this weeks Fresh Juice with another guitar crunching bard from Essex and I felt like indulging in a bit more of the South of England’s London overspill splendour. Bragg’s classic lament drew vivid parallels between the working class struggles felt in England between the world wars and the Britain he drew topical inspiration from in the eighties. Forty years later, the relevant themes insure this song still has a place in the musical culture, even if the idea of the protest song itself now seems awfully idealistic and naïve. Bragg though, always sang, and continues to sing, with feeling and sincerity which is precisely why he has endured.

R.E.M. – Driver 8

In 1985 this tune, heard here in a rare earlier acoustic performance, would be one of the stand out tunes on R.E.M.’s third album ‘Fables Of The Reconstruction’, a record the band would have less than fond memories of recording in a damp English winter with the legendary Joe Boyd in the producers chair. It seems incredible now that while the US was frothing over Madonna and Prince (justifiably so I might add) ploughing away in the margins at the exact same time was one of America’s greatest ever rock bands, quietly refining their craft and slowly finding their identity. Maybe it should stand as a lesson in two things; firstly that there is a lot to be said for not tasting success too early and secondly, that the good stuff really does rise to the surface eventually. Nowadays, all five of those pre-worldwide fame R.E.M. albums are regarded as must hear classics.

The Fall – Spoilt Victorian Child

Whereas the previous band would tangibly move from their cult, outsider status to a place where their genius won the acclaim and success it deserved, the same pathway never opened out for The Fall. That is, I guess, understandable for the confrontational, unpredictable and undiluted delivery of leader Mark E. Smith was clearly never made for mass mainstream consumption. Even when he did break through to occasionally occupy a popular platform (I’m thinking about his Top Of The Pops appearance with the Inspiral Carpets in 1994 or the later time when BBC TV got him to read the Saturday evening football results) the tension that followed Mark around was not unlike that felt when a potentially aggressive thug stumbles into a pub looking for someone to pick an argument with. But maybe that was the thing that gave The Fall their spark? That garage rock energy and post-punk edginess moulded into something wholly unique and real by Smith’s primitive, poetic take on life as a working class man from Northern Britain.

The Waterboys – The Whole Of The Moon

For just a short time in the 1980s The Waterboys featured two of the periods greatest songwriting and producing talents. Band leader Mike Scott, for whom the group were essentially always a solo project with an ever rotating supporting cast of musicians (much like The Fall actually), is the ever present Waterboy but for a couple of albums back then they also had the equally gifted Karl Wallinger. It was undoubtedly a volatile pairing as both men were natural leaders with a strong desire to back their ideas but Karl did later prove himself in his own one-man band with changeable sidemen configuration, World Party. ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ remains the crown jewel from their time together, definitively Mike Scott’s composition but traces of Walllinger across the recording are undeniable and do enhance it with sonic stardust that continues to burn bright to this day.

Camper Van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling

This was an early underground anthem from a band formed in 1983 in Redlands, California having emerged from garage bands like Sitting Duck and Estonian Gauchos. This track helped bestow a quirky irreverence on them that, along with their facility to eclectically fuse punk, folk, psych and ska influences, insured their status as cult favourites. This one appeared on debut album ‘Telephone Free Landslide Victory’ and two more albums would appear the following year before they signed to Virgin in 1987. They split in 1990 (although would reform by the end of the decade) after their last notable success, a 1989 cover of Status Quo’s ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’ which became a number 1 hit on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks in 1989.

‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry

Elvis Costello once described the eighties as “the decade that taste forgot” and whilst this weeks feature has been tailored to present the case for the defence from the eras middle period, when all the excesses provoking that kind of comment were at a peak, it is true that around 1985 you could find acts like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and even Elvis himself struggling with the digital production evolutions of the time. But this final selection also points to the same issues possibly restricting newer artists who would find their sound a lot more convincingly later in the nineties and beyond. Aimee Mann, one of the next decades most credible and dependable purveyors of a grungy, folk-rock sound, is heard here leading her band ‘Til Tuesday, clearly developing the writing chops that would serve her so well later on, but arguably held back by a flat mid-eighties pop sheen. This isn’t too bad, there is a lot of potential on display, but there was much better to come further down the line. Something I find myself thinking about a lot of music from this era.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 22nd September 2025

Scott Lavene – Cars

Scott Lavene took some time to find his voice, having busked extensively before retreating to solitude on a boat via stints in bands around France and New York, his breakthrough came around the time he attended a music workshop for recovering addicts. That awakening brought us a singer and writer with one of the most authentic voices on the music scene today, rooted in urban Essex with the poetic flare of an Ian Dury taking on the Sleaford Mods in a lyrical arm wrestle. He is self effacing, warm, witty and incisive in his observational detail, as his music jumps between spoken word narrative and soul boy intonations whilst the subject matter pivots across real life confessions and Scott’s wild imagination. His new album, ‘Cars Buses Bedsits and Shops’, is so named because all of the songs focus on those exact, recurring subjects. Simples.

Foxwarren – Deadhead

This one is accompanied by a video that is both divertingly amusing and a little disturbing at the same time. It feels like they took the songs title as a launch pad and decided to feature some actual dead headed puppets but eerily, still smiling and moving because after all, with its “don’t stop dancing” refrain, this is quite a light and bouncy number on the surface. The effect is wonderfully unsettling as this Canadian indie band, led by Andy Shauf, deliver their second album following their 2018 self titled debut, with a similarly satisfying analogue expansion of the introspection heard in Shauf’s solo work. Especially with those flute licks, this one is infuriatingly addictive and catchy.

Bret McKenzie – Freak Out City

There was always a suggestion when performing as comedy duo Flight Of The Concordes and delivering pitch perfect parodies of retro pop styles and artists, that there was quite an adept musical talent at work here. The trouble with comedy songs is, as a general rule, they are set up for just one listen and only a few are ever re-played. Once you know the joke, it is time to move on. Still, with a burgeoning side hustle composing film music, Bret did set out his serious musician credentials on 2022’s stringently straight ‘Songs Without Jokes’. Now with a new follow up album, of which this is the title track, he appears to have struck the perfect balance; ‘Freak Out City’ is a record driven by melodic tunesmithery without totally abandoning the droll, subtle wit flowing so effortlessly out of McKenzie’s modest, humble disposition.

Brandee Younger – Gadabout Season

Spiritual, ethereal and soulful jazz played with the harp as lead instrument is thriving in 2025. At least, that is how it feels with Brandee Younger releasing sumptuous music such as this, the title track of her new album available on Impulse! Records. It is the harpists third album with the label and feels like the closest she has been thus far to realising and developing the signature sounds in her minds ear. That it was recorded on Alice Coltrane’s harp is an apt connection, for if an exploration into this music’s roots were to be undertaken then those fifty year old heavenly vibes would certainly show up. Still, Brandee is plugged into the modern motions too, as the records collaborators like Shabaka Hutchings, Courtney Bryan, NIIA and Josh Johnson only serve to prove. Justified, stylish and stately.

Carson McHone – Winter Breaking

Carson’s new album ‘Pentimento’ is out now on Merge Records and it is one of the 2025 albums that demands some immersion. All of the songs entered the world as poems but McHone has nurtured and developed each of them into a song cycle that transports the listener through the four seasons. Comparisons are already awash with references to the late 60s/70s Brit-folk-rock sound and names like Shelagh McDonald and Bridget St John are accurately being tossed into the appreciation, but I hear a more contemporary edge seeping through as well. McHone may well find her musical soul drawn connecting with these wonderous vintage echoes but her head is firmly plugged into the present day and that kinship alone makes her first full-length album since 2022’s ‘Still Life’ a repeatedly rewarding experience.

Adrian Sherwood – The Collapse Of Everything

This is the title track from Sherwood’s new record and it somehow is a heading that feels depressingly pertinent in the current climate. Nevertheless, that it should be masterfully vintage sounding dub soundtracking the breaking and broken nature of the world around us at least seems very fitting. The audio landscape is both doomily oppressive and chillingly fatalistic but, in equal measure, soothing and resigned. This is Sherwood’s first solo album in thirteen years and the experimentally inclined dub maestro, so often the background wizard sprinkling his sonic sorcery on the work of others, is allowing himself to be the centre stage focus of attention for once. It is a full length record to set sail with, playing like a film soundtrack as it glides across worldwide musical territories and regions but rarely breaking loose of the dub backbone holding this phonic requiem together as one.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 25th August 2025

Eve Adams – Get Your Hopes Up

Growing up alternating between the rural farm idyll of Oklahoma and more urban surroundings in Los Angeles, Eve began writing music at a very young age and was already showing considerable emotional depth in her songs by the age of twelve. Her latest release is called ‘American Dust’ and arrives on the Topic label continuing her narrative fuelled folk-noir style with a maturity that seems to be really hitting the heights now. In a recent interview with Uncut Magazine she described her music, which pulls in strong visual art elements too, as “a nice little ouroborus”.

Curtis Harding – There She Goes

This is psychedelic soul par excellence, featuring a deep production resplendent with strings, funky rhythm chops and a far-out fuzz guitar solo, it is clear Curtis’s music is going places other soul stirrers cannot reach. This is a recently released stand alone single marking the mans first new music since the acclaimed 2021 album ‘If Words Were Flowers’. In terms of theme Harding has described the song as a tribute to “the beauty and duality of the ideal woman” but I say it skates pretty damn close to the beauty and duality of the ideal soul track. There is much to love here, including the Twilight Zone essence of this accompanying music video.

The Black Keys – Man On A Mission

While I am thinking about psychedelic soul it is fair to say there is a huge element of that very thing in this new music from the Black Keys, that and their ever present raw blues cut and thrust. This one is from the bands brand new album ‘No Rain No Flowers’ released this month on Easy Eye Sound/Parlophone Records. They remain dependably brilliant on this LP which sees them at times return to the blues-rock sound of their roots and elsewhere turn to other modes such as post-punk, retro soul and then, pushing even farther out from those roots, a touch of eighties style synth action. Always worth checking out.

Laura-Mary Carter – June Gloom

This is one part a forlorn country-style ballad and another part a Lana Del Rey style haunting melodrama. Laura-Mary is previously known as one half of Brighton alt-rockers Blood Red Shoes but after two decades pounding down those souls she is now stepping out solo with a striking shift in tone. Hers is now an Americana adjacent motion with a vivid echo in the production that calls to mind a Spector wall of sound and a Velvet Underground-like ghostly shimmer. If that sounds like an appealing cocktail, which it certainly does for me, then be sure to dig out the solo debut album ‘Bye Bye Jackie’ when it arrives later on in September.

The Onlies – Going Across The Sea

Pronounced the own’-leez, these young yet old-timey folk and bluegrass whizz kids are about to release a brand new album called ‘You Climb The Mountain’. This lively number from a recent live performance may not feature in the tracklist but the live footage offered up does give you an idea of the fire and energy this combo possess in spades. It therefore ensures, despite its old fashioned reference points, this has a vitality definitively proving they belong in the here and now of modern times. The album features a wide panoramic view of the emotive range in the sound, from the slow swinging reflection heard in ‘Roll On Buddy’, a railroad song learned from Aunt Molly Jackson, to the punchy picking on show in a vibrant interpretation of the English song ‘Matty Groves’, it is clear The Onlies are explosive talents rightfully demanding our attention.

Studio Electrophonique – How Can I Love Anyone Else?

I am closing this edition with some dreamy electronica, a song that sounds simultaneously retro and modern, both primitive and grandiose in its lush production. It is a rather forlorn piece but there is a warmth in there too, this piece has a piercing autumnal feel ready made for the next season that is already starting to show its colours. This is the solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, one of the most interesting and original musical outfits to emerge from Sheffield’s current independent scene. He says this song “existed for a while as just this little arpeggiated interlude I’d play in between writing other songs, kind of like a thinking tune, but then one night it just turned into this swirling fairground ride of a sequence. The full thing came all at once, as if it was already there — like I’d found some secret waltzer and had a pocket full of tokens. I just kept going round and round until I’d finished the words”. He will release his eponymous debut album on Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records on September 26th.

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 22nd August 2025

Ottilie Patterson & Chris Barber Band – Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean

For this edition of Old Fruit I am looking back at half a dozen vintage jazz selections all of which are cooking, boiling, frothing, fizzing and fantastic. The late fifties and early sixties were overflowing with undeniable jazz music, it is probably fair to assess that this was the last era when jazz sailed close to the mainstream. Not only was it a period of great leaps forward in melodic and structural evolution but it was delivered with such ice-cool style and image. No wonder it all just looks so classic now. So, set alongside some of this bebop, bohemian cutting edge elegance, some of the British trad jazz contingent may have started to look very old fashioned seemingly overnight. But while there may be some truth to that with a combo like the Chris Barber Band, as this clip clearly proves they could still tear it up with the best of them. Mind you, they were instantly pushed into a different league altogether any time the deceptively domestic looking Ottilie Patterson stepped up to the microphone, a singer of such pure vocal power and honesty that she even managed to out-soul Ruth Brown when covering her 1953 R&B classic as the band do here. One look at Ottilie and you know this is the real thing!

Jimmy Giuffre Trio – The Train And The River

As mentioned in the text accompanying the first song, the style and visual presentation of jazz during this period was potentially as crucial to its long term status as the music itself. Nowhere was the indelible late fifties jazz look captured on film better than the 1958 picture ‘Jazz On A Summers Day’, the opening sequence of which are the images that appear with this performance. The Jimmy Giuffre Trio had released this piece the previous year and it won many plaudits for its realisation of Giuffre’s “blues based folk jazz” which merged understated swing with the sensibilities of a chamber referencing musicianship. That this rendition at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival should open the film depicting events and performances at that years festival only serves to cement this hypnotic piece into the fabric of the eras jazz lineage. And just look at the names in those opening credits, if you have not seen this movie get on whatever streaming platform you need to find it and put that right immediately.

Art Blakey & Lee Morgan – I Remember Clifford

Whilst not quite as celebrated as Miles Davis, Lee Morgan has stood the test of time and to this day remains one of the essential players to listen to from this period of jazz history. He had a beautiful tone to his playing, an awareness of melodic motion and an appreciation of the simple truth that sometimes less is more. His music remains a real pleasure to experience and his untimely death in 1972 is still one of the greatest losses to the music world imaginable. Lee had recorded this tune, a 1956 Benny Golson composition written in tribute to trumpeter Clifford Brown who had died in a car crash, on his 1957 Blue Note Records album ‘Lee Morgan Volume 3’. On both the recording and this live footage the composer Golson is present on saxophone and it is said that he regarded it as a symbolic passing of the torch from Brown to Morgan, at the time still very much a young trumpet prodigy from Philadelphia.

Charles Mingus – Better Git It In Your Soul

This was the opening track from Mingus’s legendary 1959 album ‘Mingus Ah Um’. It suits the mans personality, it is a mammoth tune that unfolds with might and momentum and packs a punch with undeniable force. You see it in these images (when they begin, the first three minutes of this one is audio only), even when the brass soloists step forward it is still Charles you cannot take your eyes off, a powerhouse propelling everything forward. The tune was inspired by the gospel singing and preaching heard where Mingus grew up, the shouts, handclaps and sense of anything goes improvisation reaching for, and finding, the spirit of a Southern Black church service. This tune is considered one of the best examples of Mingus’s faculty for bringing complex themes and structures into a soulful and rousing melange of sound.

Bill Evans – Waltz For Debby

This tune first appeared on Bill Evans 1957 debut album ‘New Jazz Conceptions’ on Riverside Records. It was written for his niece, Debby Evans, and is a beautifully lyrical waltz that blends Evans classical sensibilities with jazz harmonies. This was to become Evans most iconic original composition that would also go on to be the title track for a live album recorded at the Village Vanguard in June 1961, this proved to be the final recording for Evans legendary first trio, often hailed as the pinnacle of piano trio interplay. This particular piece of film is from 19th March, 1965 recorded for the London BBC TV series Jazz 625.

Miles Davis – So What

And I simply cannot resist the urge to finish this jazz half dozen with arguably the most iconic piece of film footage from the genre available on YouTube. ‘So What’, with the previous songs leader Bill Evans on piano not to mention John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley on saxes, was recorded and released in 1959 on the landmark Miles Davis album ‘Kind Of Blue’. To this day it remains an all time jazz classic, so wonderful in its simplicity on the one hand and yet a foundation block for all the freedoms and melodic space that would define modal jazz in years to come and prove to be a guiding influence for many a legendary artist, including Coltrane himself as well as people like Herbie Hancock and so much of what was to evolve on the Blue Note label in the sixties, seventies and beyond. On top of that, it just all looks so fantastically cool.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 18th August 2025

HONK – Vine-Glo

Well, this weeks first offering takes about three handbrake turns in the first sixty seconds leaving you wondering what the hell is going on here? But in the best possible way. It starts off like a hillbilly cousin of Telstar by the Tornados before launching into space with a disturbed yeouch of a lead vocal only to surf rock over the waves of a chorus that hits all the right targets. They call this unique grain “trashcan country” which does kind of tell you what you need to know about the scuzzy, rootsy and energetic sound HONK purvey. The new ‘Closing Down Sale’ EP is the follow up EP to their debut ‘Grand Opening’ EP and drops this week, released digitally and on cassette via Leeds label Shooting Tzars, HONK also have a run of gigs across the UK this summer

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Annick Michel – Between

Sometimes brilliant new music can be discovered online clouded in mystery and this is one such example, I came across this incredibly soulful, impassioned, intense acoustic song earlier purely by chance, simply by being on the right page at the right time and served suggested content by an impressively on-the-money computer algorithm. My digging has deduced that the artist has released a little music under the name Annick Michel, she is possibly a Montreal based singer-songwriter and this track may have been around on the internet from as far back as 2022. But the mystery is around the identity and back story, for I have found the song presented under the artist name Ama & Jaguar Dream although it is definitely the same person. Whatever, this is an great new song sung and played with a conviction that demands proper attention and incites use of the old cliché, one to watch.

Paul Kelly – Rita Wrote A Letter

If you are inclined towards a knee-jerk resistance or cautious suspicion when an artist is heavily touted as a ‘great songwriter’ then I fully understand, I am of a similar disposition myself. After all, there are people who pile those kind of accolades towards Ed Sheeran or Chris Martin and it rather lowers the bar in terms of being credible, worthy praise. However, if you are of the opinion that a great songwriter will have a flare for chord progression and melody, an acute facility for observing the minutiae of human life and interaction, strong story telling instincts, a sense of the absurd and a self-effacing tendency to recognise the fallibility in themselves, then wrap it all up in a song shaped bundle that will keep you listening and coming back for more, then Paul Kelly is a great songwriter. Furthermore, this Australian tunesmith has got 45 years of experience behind him and the advance single presented here, from November’s forthcoming new album ‘Seventy’, shows there are no signs of his craftsman like quality diminishing any time soon.

Peter Holsapple – Larger Than Life

Releasing his first new solo music in seven years with the album ‘The Face Of 68’, this is a recent live clip of Peter performing ‘Larger Than Life’ from that record. The song itself is a tribute to Carlo Nuccio of the Continental Drifters and features, as does the rest of the LP, Robert Sledge from Ben Folds Five on bass and Rob Ladd of The Connells on drums. As this tune definitively makes plain, the Holsapple of 2025 is firmly in touch with his jangle and power pop roots for there is a more than passing echo of this former dB’s co-founders musical heritage. And that is great news indeed, as this is the sound of a man in touch and plugged in to the pretty damn wonderful music he is making.

Luke Haines & Peter Buck – The Pink Floyd Research Group

Moving on from a former R.E.M. sideman to a former R.E.M. man in acting side man guise, it is always so great to hear Peter Buck bring that trademark jingle-jangle style of his to the table in the name of niche, outsider, eccentric British songwriting. The song itself is a whimsical slice of Summer-of-67 flowery spacedust which, if the Pink Floyd Research Group of the title are to be believed, was written by some kind of artificial AI assisted song bot. At least that is what someone claiming to be the PFRG in the YouTube comments are claiming and if it is really them, what a brilliantly offhand way to have a gentle retaliatory slap back to a song that is not as convincing in its sincerity as it is in its freak flag flying quirkiness.

Richard Thompson – Siggy’s Song

For the recent Radio Two hosted project called ’21st Century Folk’, five current folk artists were introduced each to five people in order to learn their back story and write a new folk song about their lives. In this edition arguably our greatest living folk composer Richard Thompson meets Siggy, who came to London from Barbados in 1962. He began working on the railways and playing cricket as soon as he arrived. At the age of 85, he still works at a train station, and he still plays cricket! Tapping into the folk tradition of participation, Richard’s new song pulls in Siggy’s teammates at the Holtwhites-Trinibis Cricket Club in Enfield for some rousing backing vocals.

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