Monthly Playlists

January 2024 Playlist

As readers of my accompanying piece for the December playlist are aware, I have no shortage of available archive / vintage music to explore in my daily life and often a new obsession can lead to months of ongoing discovery and musical joy. Many people my age seem to have suspended their listening habits around their teenage years and much beyond their twenties they do not keep up with (not a statement that applies to my close music listening friends I should add). I even know a few serious record collectors who are perfectly happy just sticking to a past genre like Northern Soul or Acid Jazz or Seventies Prog and letting that journey uncover their thrills. I occasionally ponder whether I would be capable of going through a new release dry spell, all too aware that there is now more than enough already recorded music that I am going to love waiting for me to hear.

The problem with that would be that I do not appreciate just one or two styles of music. I would still be riding the genre waves, not anchored to one specific stream. And that being the case, I would invariably come across new present-day music. And as this latest playlist reveals in clarity, I am going to hear music that I will love and need to find out more about. I cannot imagine hearing any of the tracks on this playlist and turning a deaf ear to them because I am not interested in contemporary music. It is unthinkable. That means I would not be alert and alive to the sensational Cleo Sol, that alone is a circumstance that I cannot give any consideration to. Not only that but to deny myself recent music would be to also miss out on the live experience. As much as that remains an outlet rife with its own annoyances (over loud gig chatter, people not in the moment as they pointlessly capture mobile phone footage) in the average year there will be more than enough soul stirring performances to easily outweigh the negatives. Every once in a while, you catch something life changing.

So, I do not see a time when I will ever be indifferent to new music. Every January for a while now I have used the first monthly playlist of the year to round up my top tracks from the previous twelve months that escaped inclusion. And every year I end up pleasantly surprised at how easy the selection process is, I am simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of contenders to pick from. If there ever comes a year when there are a lack of choices or getting up to seventy-five tracks is like arduous work, then maybe that will be the right moment to step back from the fresh juice. But I do not see that happening. I do not regard my tastes as representing anything remotely mainstream however, if my favourites were so ridiculously niche then there would not be so much of this stuff around. It is good to cast your net wide and it can be rewarding when you uncover something that is outside the popular consciousness. Just as much though, it is vital to have no rules and be ready to be excited by the unexpected. That is why you see an Olivia Rodrigo song in this list, that red alert explosion when you hear something for the first time and shout “bloody hell that’s brilliant” is so important.

Without that penetrative moment, I doubt any of us music obsessives would exist, we would all be satisfied with sticking on a supermarket CD at Christmas and partying annually like it’s 1994 (or whatever your peak younger year might be). For me I could never lock music away in a cupboard like that. It is not a background to other activities; it is not something I only need at parties and neither is it my nostalgia shelf. It is my primary artform, a vessel that lights up my life every single day. It is more important than movies, more accessible than books, more of a life crutch than my favourite football and cricket teams. Simply, it is the only thing that makes me feel happy, sad, blue, ecstatic, nostalgic, thrilled, amused and delighted; that moves me both emotively and physically; that can simultaneously induce tears of sadness and delight; the art form than can bring the past vividly back into the present moment or paint a clearer vision of the future. It is everything and the way it works its powers on the human emotions are mystical, it has a power that is almost magical. It is hard to imagine this ride ever losing momentum while I breathe. Let 2024 commence…

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Records of 2023

Top Twenty Albums of 2023

20) Kassi Valazza – Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

A fine and captivating slice of cosmic Americana with added splashes of fuzz and crazy horse indebted wonder…

19) Joanna Sternberg – I’ve Got Me

Singer-songwriter fare with a style and range that harks back to the glorious seventies eloquence from the likes of Dory Previn and Gilbert O’Sullivan; there’s an almost musical theatre flourish built into their songwriting…

18) Quasi – Breaking The Balls Of History

A welcome return from this fuzz rockin’ duo on a set without any dips; just to hear Janet Weiss trashing her drum kit again in this exuberant way was a timely reminder of exactly what her former band Sleater-Kinney are missing in their most recent work…

17) Sunny War – Anarchist Gospel

This was a brilliant realisation of the punk/folk grain Sunny has been refining over the past five years. An assured album with a band that included David Rawlings and Alison Russell, highlights include a punchy and pounding ‘No Reason’ and a Ween cover in ‘Baby Bitch’…

16) Margo Price – Strays

Not the only Margo Price release of the year but the one that teared down the walls between the Alternative rebel rousers and the Country mainstream establishment, a place that should be proud to have an artist as naturally gifted as Margo among its numbers…

15) The Murlocs – Calm Ya Farm

This merry band of Aussie Psych-heads have impressed in the past, especially with their authentic garage rock rough edges but there was a pleasing adventurousness to this album, taking in country rock inflections and many a Brit leaning instrumental embellishment…

14) Oracle Sisters – Hydranism

An example of a band getting the basics right; they played a fantastic set at End Of The Road festival and I kept coming back to this album thanks to the many earworm melodies built within that were like sweet audio honey to these ears…

13) Zoe Rahman – Colour Of Sound

In a decade that is shaping up to be one in which Jazz as an artform is firmly re-establishing itself back into the mainstream, artists like multi-award winning pianist Zoe Rahman are enjoying a reciprocal canvas on which they can develop their sounds and ideas. The best of those, as heard here, are recording music that demands repeated listens and is surely built to last…

12) The Nude Party – Rides On

Not just an album highlight of the year for me but a live one too. I saw these psychedelic rodeos back at the Red Rooster festival and they brought the summer sun to the skies in every sense. I recall one audience member saying the singer was “just the right side of Jim Morrison” which made me wonder what the wrong side would be? Maybe just being Jim Morrison perhaps?…

11) Nick Waterhouse – The Fooler

Nick is an artist known for his authentic channelling of fifties and sixties production values, producing music with a delightful analogue warmth that would be easily passed over as retro were it not so classily executed. He brings these sounds into the modern vernacular alongside the many ghosts and fading memories of a bygone San Francisco that stitch these songs together so cohesively…

10) Aja Monet – When The Poems Do What They Do

As debut albums go this is one of the most eclectic, it belongs in a box entirely its own. The Brooklyn based poet and activist incorporates elements of jazz and experimental freeform brushes into sound and these are far from conventional poetry structures. They are a tumbling torrent of words, thoughts and emotions because, as Aja has said herself, “who’s got time for poems when the world is on fire”…

9) Esther Rose – Safe To Run

Here’s another artist building a reputation for dependably great album releases. This one is perhaps the boldest in her catalogue, there is evidence of more grit and dirt in this alt-country sound not to mention a heavy dose of climate crisis anxiety hanging in the air…

8) Lisa O’Neill – All Of This Is Chance

Whilst it was her fellow Irelanders Lankum who deservedly topped a lot of folk lists in 2023, for me it was this mesmerising album that demonstrated just why folk music appears to be in such a healthy place right now. Lisa is just so tuned in to the natural and spiritual worlds, her work is like a polemic for the way the human race has disconnected from the things that really matter with all this technology surrounding us. Some people just seem to exist in a better place…

7) Shana Cleveland – Manzanita

In which the La Luz lady cuts some solo rug and delivers a dream-like suite of hazy, wavy-gravy songs apparently direct from the twilight zone of her mind. It is hypnotic from start to finish and charming the whole way too. Somehow Shana has captured that brief moment of consciousness between our waking hours and sleep in a cloudburst of audio finery…

6) Lael Neale – Star Eaters Delight

It is no surprise that this one rated highly among the alternative-sixties type of crowd. It pushes all the right period buttons, not just in its Warhol factory freakbeat style but also in the girl-group look Lael pushed to the forefront in her music videos (all Quant minis and multi coloured umbrellas) and artwork. I am no fan of retro indulgences just for the sake of it but if the artist is creating great pop music and writing superb songs as the back bone, as is the case here, then I might just find the work as hard to resist as this is…

5) Say She She – Silver

It seems so obvious now, just marry the pop hooks of the Sugababes to the chic style of seventies Pointer Sisters, throw in some deliberately arch disco referencing production and dance shapes that look like they were worked up for a laugh in the back of a club and put it all together in a shockingly loveable album. This is class…

4) Peter Gabriel – i/o

Back in the eighties Peter Gabriel said in an interview he didn’t like easy listening, he preferred “difficult listening”, music that only reveals itself depth after a few plays. As these tracks arrived with every 2023 new moon, I would give them a listen and, to be honest, be a little underwhelmed. However, with the arrival of the full album at the years end and with the opportunity to experience the whole work on repeat in detail the fact became clear; this is a top drawer collection and Gabriel has retained the integrity present throughout his career…

3) Cleo Sol – Heaven

Everything Cleo Sol does is absolutely overflowing with quality. I have nothing but admiration for the way she has retained an air of mystery around herself, refusing to play the regular media game and never saturating her exposure in the usual way an artist would when promoting a new album as strong as this. This approach has the appropriate effect of making everything about the music which is crucial because this is soul music that harks back to the classic values of the sixties and seventies but sings in a language and wears a relevance entirely belonging in the modern day…

2) Cleo Sol – Gold

So the same artist occupies two of the top three spots in my list of the year but I cannot place it any other way. Cleo just happened to release two sensational albums in the space of a month and they both had ‘soul classics of the future’ written all over them. I am listening to Cleo’s two new albums almost every day at the moment and it has been that way for a month or more. When you listen to a lot of different music both new and old, I cannot exaggerate how rarely this actually happens. But there is an argument that says Cleo Sol is the best thing around at the moment, if quality of music were measured by sales and status she deserves the level of a Taylor Swift, although she appears to have too much integrity to ever let that kind of cultural monopolising ever tarnish the thing that matters to Cleo the most, the music…

1) Jaimie Branch – Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))

If only I didn’t have to write that this is now a posthumous album, in all likelihood a final release. That Jaimie Branch passed in 2022 at the age of 39 is devastating, her music had been one of the most alive things in Jazz for a few years by then, infused with a punk attitude and a take-no-prisoners strength of character it seemed on a perpetual upward trajectory. We will never know how many doors she could have kicked open, how much life enhancing music has been lost but at least her family and collaborators were able to put together this final penetrating artistic statement, the third in a trilogy of thematically linked records that put the boot in on the state of America today whilst never losing sight of the desire to make things better aspect of the human spirit. “Don’t forget to fight…”

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Monthly Playlists

December 2023 Playlist

I first came across Blossom Dearie around fifteen years ago thanks to my dealings in the world of second hand vinyl. I had purchased a collection that heavily featured top drawer female vocalists, primarily from the sixties and seventies era. It is possible that I had noticed the name Blossom Dearie before that time, just as it is equally probable that I dismissed her as someone of no particular interest to me, especially if a routine glance at her place within the twentieth century canon identified a middle-of-the-road jazzer in the easy listening realm. My relationship with all forms of jazz has evolved over the past fifteen years to the extent that today I would not turn away without investigation any style the music offers as I am a far more enlightened jazz fan, fully aware of the music’s potential to elevate, surprise and delight. But I digress, back then a name like Blossom Dearie would have sparked my interest no more than a name like Roger Whittaker.

But there was an album by Blossom in that collection from 1970 on the Fontana label called ‘That’s Just The Way I Want To Be’ that I learned, as I priced the collection ready for sale, was worth in the £100+ region. This obviously did catch my attention because, knowing what I do about the reason certain albums from this golden era in recorded music rise to three figures in value, the chances are the music in those grooves was going to be worth a listen. That absolutely proved to be the case, it was immediately clear from the opening title track (which also opens this months playlist) that here was music displaying a folksy, psych-tinged majesty several planes removed from any predictable trad-jazz leanings I may have expected. Yes there are tracks that lean more towards the balladeer grain Dearie was known for, but the whole album flowed with a diversity and inventiveness, not to mention a singular style, all its own. It even ended with a funky little number called ‘I Like London In The Rain’ I later found is hotly sought after as a break beat sample source. As is always the case with rare records whose status is built around the genuine quality of the music, my original copy sold within hours of my listing it online although it did get added to my list of records I needed in my own collection at some future point.

That day has finally arrived this past month when I acquired the newly released Blossom Dearie box set ‘Discover Who I Am – The Fontana Years 1966-1970’ which includes as part of its six discs that same, complete 1970 album. But I have to say, my appreciation of Blossom has, thanks to this incredible set, now hit full bloom and landed as an out-and-out obsession. I love it when this happens, as I listened all the way through the hours of music feeling like it is not my usual kind of thing but becoming acutely aware that something in those recordings was absolutely hitting the spot. Blossom was going through an evolution herself during this period, launching upwards from a polished interpreter of song and a stunning pianist into an expressive artist nurturing a subtle songwriting talent of her own. That voice of hers was an often light, pure and childlike instrument in which she began to untap a unique understated power within her own compositions. However, her gifts for interpretation shine bright here too. For example her version of ‘Trains And Boats And Planes’ is, for my money, the definitive recording. Where the familiar Dionne Warwick hit version has an almost jaunty bounce to the production, Blossom devastatingly unlocks the pain in the song, the longing and the heartache at the departure of a loved one. You can feel the hurt, but gorgeously so, it is nothing short of a master class of performance, nuance and class; qualities that Blossom Dearie had in abundance. I do not believe these will be the last words I write about her.

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Monthly Playlists

November 2023 Playlist

My relationship with Phil Collins and his music is a contradictory one. His voice and his sound are part of the pop fabric of my earliest music memories, I would have been nine years old when my memory of him gurning in the video of ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ was sewn and as a fan of The Police at the time, one of my first album purchases was a ‘Secret Policeman’s Other Ball’ record because it featured Sting; Phil was there as well doing a live version of ‘In The Air Tonight’, which I also remember liking. But as the eighties unfolded and Phil became ubiquitous, I did not become a Collins fan as I did other artists and bands I got into in my early teens. By the later end of that decade, I had crossed the barricades to the growing masses of Collins detractors. Something in the way he was impossible to escape, in tandem with my parents rating him highly and the nagging sense around the time of ‘Groovy Kind Of Love’ that he was churning music out on auto-pilot and getting a disproportionate amount of praise for it in the mainstream media (not the music press) established him as scorn worthy by a then music obsessed seventeen year old. That he received press attention in the nineties with accusations of being a tory loving tax exile and sending his ex-wife a fax to notify her of their divorce only served to reinforce my anti-Phil feelings.

Maybe I would never have moved on from this position if not for the fact that in the summer of 1987 I attended, with school friends, my first concert, Peter Gabriel at Earls Court in London. Gabriel is a performer who grabs an audience’s attention with visuals, dynamic energy, and wonderful, often challenging music. Here was an artist I was sure to be a fan of and the subsequent months saw a process of back catalogue digging which returned me to the early seventies and those superb, flowery, and crazy prog rock albums when he was the singer in Genesis. Those albums remain among my favorites to this day and of course who was the Genesis drummer for most of them? None other than old Buster Collins. And rather brilliant behind the drum kit he was too. Not only that but Phil was also an audible presence with his voice long before he took over as lead singer, he is the main backing vocalists and even then, got a couple of leads. So despite my negative position towards the man in general, my whole hearted agreement with Billy Bragg when he said in the music press that if Phil Collins is singing about the homeless (on ‘Another Day In Paradise’) but not engaging with the problem he is to some degree using the situation to his own benefit, I still had to give him the kudos for being an important member of one of my favorite bands. “I love Genesis” I used to say, “but only when Peter Gabriel was the singer, they lost their magic when Phil Collins took over.”

That position has slowly changed over the last couple of decades. For starters I came to appreciate just how important the Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford writing was to the band and how that flare remained after Gabriel’s departure. In fact, for the next ten years Genesis continued to make music with much to dig in and enjoy, it just so happened that by then it sat alongside hit singles. Tracks like ‘Turn It On Again,’ ‘Mama’ and ‘That’s All’ are rock/pop classics of the era for sure, favorites of mine in fact, something which I have taken it all too far in my denial of. My suspicion about Phil was, I believe, not entirely inaccurate. Having recently listened to the audiobook of his ‘Not Dead Yet’ autobiography, it is obvious his problem by the mid-eighties was that he put himself about too much, said ‘yes’ too often and the quality of both his solo and Genesis output did suffer. But the book also suggests this was less his naked capitalist ambition and more a modest humility at his core, a sense that he could not possibly decline the opportunities flying his way because they might never happen again. Producing heroes like Eric Clapton, working with Motown legends on the ‘Buster’ soundtrack, accepting Robert Plant’s offer to “do something together” at Live Aid. Phil got caught in a never-ending cycle of “what an opportunity, how can I not do that?”

It is plausible that if Phil Collins had just gone underground in the mid-eighties, disappeared out of view for a decade or so, by the end of the nineties he would have been hailed as a musical genius. I am inclined to believe him when he says he did not want to be such an ever-present irritant, looking so smug riding the scree on all that success. He made himself an easy target which served to diminish the relevance of all the superb music created up to that point. If only he had held firm against the pressure to be the voice of the ‘Buster’ soundtrack, just nurtured his creative instincts in the background. If only he had refused to do the Atlantic crossing at Live Aid when it became apparent it was just him travelling, not Duran Duran and others as he had been led to believe. Alone it just looked like a massive, literal ego trip. If only he had stepped back from the Led Zeppelin reunion that same day when it was obvious they could not rehearse with him. Instead, they just let Phil take the flack for this massive shit show blot on their reputation. Look at the footage, Jimmy Page was a dribbling, stumbling wreck that day and Phil did his best under impossible circumstances. The way they acted with the MTV interviewer afterwards was embarrassing, no wonder Phil stepped in with a few helpful answers. You see his eternal problem in those moments, say nothing and you are just being a dick like the rest of the band, speak up and people will say you are muscling in on something that has nothing to do with you.

Having finished the book, I felt the urge to try out some solo Phil so went to a first stop essentials collection on Apple Music. I have to say there are some gems in there although equally there is bland stuff that I will probably never get past. But how many artists can I honestly say I unconditionally like all their output? Not many for sure. If you get a chance to read ‘Not Dead Yet’ I would strongly recommend it to music fans, regardless of their overall position on Phil and his music. It is awash with fantastic anecdotes featuring the biggest names of the era; the George Harrison story around the recording of ‘All Things Must Pass’ is a fascinating time capsule to those 1970 sessions with a hilarious punchline years later to boot. The stories about his relationships and marriages are as gloriously honest as they are messy and complicated, whilst the Collins years of atypical rock star excess and flirting with death come in the period you would least expect. Overall, it is hard not to come away from this life story with a warm feeling towards the man, even if I never wholly lose touch with the things that once pushed me away. Nevertheless, against all odds, I am a bit of a Phil Collins fan these days (there I’ve said it!)

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Fresh Juice

2nd October 2023

Quantic featuring Andreya Triana – Run

Quantic is the creative and performance identity of musician and producer Will Holland who has an incredible back catalogue with his unique melting pot of Latin, Disco, Soul, Jazz and Electro hybrid sounds which are invariably a delight to the audio senses. He first caught my attention over ten years ago on an album with Alice Russell called ‘Look Around The Corner’ which sounded for all the world like a lost Motown classic with disorientating echoes of the future. Incredible stuff and that is merely the tip of the iceberg yet still today it is more than apparent that his ear for an authentic soul voice and indelible groove remains intact thanks to this stunning tune made with Andreya Triana. Andreya herself is an artist I have kept an ear out for since her equally impressive debut from 2010 ‘Lost Where I Belong’ and today she remains one of the outstanding, authentic vocal talents in the soul world; all in all, a musical marriage that works for everyone…

Joanna Sternberg – People Are Toys To You

As we hit October I am starting to think about the albums that will make up the list of my top twenty records of the year and it is already beyond doubt that Joanna’s ‘I’ve Got Me’ LP will have a high place in the run down. They are a US singer-songwriter and visual artist who seem to have such a natural flair with the craft of melodic music composition. There is a quirkiness to Joanna’s sound which may regrettably push them to the ‘outsider’ fringes of the music scene which is wholly unjust because there is a classicists eloquence to the work way beyond the reach of most pop balladeers and two-chord strumming acoustic coffee shop poseurs. I flipping love Joanna’s album and sincerely hope it is heard and picked up by the large volumes of people it deserves, if Taylor Swift could make a record this good the critical establishment would be queueing up to call it a masterpiece…

Teleman – String Theory

In recent years Teleman have always been a dependable band for superior sounds in the indie-rock world. They released new music on the ‘Good Time / Hard Time’ album earlier this year but found there was still a lot of top-drawer material left in the tank and so a new deluxe-edition of the album is on its way. Tom from the band explains “we were aware of these extra songs that were knocking around; songs that should have/ could have made the cut but for one reason or another got left off. As well as that there was the usual big pile of demos and alternative versions that we always have when we come round to making an album. So we thought that a Deluxe version of the album was in order- all the bells and whistles- and to top it all off, we went back into the studio and recorded a brand new track called ‘String Theory’ which came out really well”. It certainly did, here it is…

Romy – Loveher

Romy Madley Croft is perhaps better known for her music as part of The XX who have won widespread acclaim and success over the past 13-14 years with their bass heavy, quite dubby variant of indie/electro pop. Here Romy is branching out on her own, albeit with XX bandmate Jamie XX listed as part of the production team, revealing a side to her work heavy influenced by the dancefloor. Far from being a blatant shot at mainstream solo riches however, this classy track has the soulful injection you would expect from a classic house 12″ and consequently is rather wonderful indeed, dig in to this one immediately…

The Coral – That’s Where She Belongs

I have been writing new music recommendations on this site for a few years now and it is possible that The Coral are my most frequently suggested band. They have just released a wonderful new album ‘Sea Of Mirrors’ from which this is taken, one of two new LPs they are spoiling us with in 2023. It is not that I have a bias towards them, I really don’t, I haven’t even seen them live since 2002 but the reason they deserve such regular shout outs is simply the quality of their work. They seem to exist in a sweet spot where they have had a deserved amount of success, but nowhere near enough for it to spoil their creativity. The Coral clearly still live and breathe through their music and as much as I’d imagine that’s a rewarding place for the band members to exist, the real winners are us, the listeners. They simply keep on giving us the most wonderfully written and recorded albums to enjoy and obsess over, please never stop…

Hania Rani ft. Duncan Bellamy – Don’t Break My Heart

I have only recently written about Hania Rani and her glacial splendour as a creator of deep, expansive and immersive instrumental mediations on the piano. Her work comes from other planets and as such you need to receive it and give it the attention it demands in order for the vibrations to work their magic. However, it seems she is increasingly moving towards songwriting with lyrics too, as heard on this new release, which given the superior quality of the work can only be a good and welcome development; do not miss out on this one…

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Monthly Playlists

October 2023 Playlist

I went to a Record Fair this past month with a couple of friends both of whom are approximately twenty years younger than me. Other than the obvious cultural difference of trying to convince them that they are not called “vinyl’s,” it did occur to me that the major change in their visiting a fair as a punter to my record hunting two decades ago is that they are searching for things they have already heard. My mission was almost always based on the desire to find things unavailable for me to listen to, the discovery of exciting fresh sounds both newly released and from previous decades. Tracks that do not get played on the radio, or those that were given a spin once by the more eclectic late-night DJs only to vanish from your life, destined to be added to an expanding list of holy grail finds you are on the look out for. All of that has gone now in an age where pretty much everything is available to listen to, even tracks unavailable on download facilities or streaming services can at least be found and listened to if you plough the internet deep enough. Personally, I do not even have a list anymore, Record Fairs are a place I search for things that I am already familiar with but would like to own a decent quality vinyl pressing of.

Obviously, there are still things I never found back in the twentieth century and now appear so obscure even the internet has not logged thus far, but as time passes and people increasingly upload old video tapes and cassettes to YouTube the more these dark corners of music’s back pages are uncovered. I had this proved to me a few moments ago, as I started this paragraph, I recalled a song Mark Radcliffe played on his late-night Radio One show around 1995-96 called ‘Expecting Joe’ by The McTells. I wrote it down at the time and have kept half an eye out for it for nearly thirty years. Even when Discogs and eBay appeared I would occasionally type it into a search and come up blank. But I have just heard it for the first time since that radio play, it is sitting there on YouTube with a grainy old video clip to add to the time capsule. Turns out it was released on a cassette in 1987 which might explain why my looking for it on vinyl came up short. It does prove that my taste for lo-fi pop and scuzzy garage-rock sounds has been present for a good three decades, it would appear that the McTells were loosely associated with the C86 movement but were a little too rough around the edges to be fully embraced even by that scene.

The sad thing is I do not really feel like I am looking for it anymore, I sort of feel like I found it, but the payoff is not so sweet when there is no physical artefact to show for the conclusion of the hunt. So maybe I am still looking? I dare say if I find a copy of that particular cassette I would buy it, if it was cheap enough as I do not really collect tapes, but the heart and soul of the mission was to hear that music again, which is a desire that has now been satisfied. I do not mean to appear lukewarm about record collecting, those moments when you find a clean original pressing of music that you love, take it home and play it being sure to really listen to those sonic details can be magical. This month’s cover star is Sandy Denny in the late sixties fronting Fairport Convention and I recently enjoyed such an experience listening to their ‘Unhalfbricking’ on an original 1969 Island Records pressing. They really were one of the all-time great Rock-era bands around 1968-1969, a period in which they released a mind blowing three classic albums whilst struggling to overcome the turmoil of a motorway van crash with fatalities. No wonder this combination of their line-up splintered before the seventies for, on top of the tragedy and in addition to the wandering sprit of Richard Thompson’s genius, they also had a singer in Sandy Denny who threw all her raw emotions into her art and music. That is what I love about the above photo, she looks wound up and annoyed which, if true, was sure to have fed into the music Fairport Convention were playing that night. One of their most rousing pot-boilers from 1969 opens this month’s playlist, a selection which represents the range of music, both new and old, I would love to source on vinyl pressings when looking around a Record Fair…

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Fresh Juice

25th September 2023

Aja Monet – The Devil You Know

It matters little whether you regard Aja’s lyrical vocalising as a rap or poetry recital set to music, her words are what count and you cannot help but be entranced by the conviction in this delivery. Her music has a close association with Jazz and this track in particular carries a hefty dose of jazzin’ credibility when you hear the trumpet part by Christian Scott, but Monet’s ear for cultural mix and matching when added to her focus makes this a journey entirely in a field of its own. Her new album ‘When The Poems Do What They Do’ is as powerful a statement in dynamic, driven and inspirational protest music as you will find in 2023, presenting an artist who cares about the society and landscape around her and one who is ready to give all she can to solicit positive change, awareness and improvement

Semisonic – The Rope

As with any band worth making a fuss over, the music should be the thing that matters above all other attention grabbing criteria. That is absolutely the case with Semisonic, a US band who I could be sat opposite on a train and still fail to recognise. Their music on the other hand did leave an indelible impression, especially a brace of songs from around 25 years ago, ‘Secret Smile’ and ‘Closing Time’, which sounded then and remain today like a couple of late period Britpop classics being far more sonically connected to that fading UK scene than anything coming out of the US at the time. For the last few years Semisonic have dipped their toes in reunion lakes around album anniversaries and it is now a delight to report new music arriving too, especially when it is as good as this, losing none of their early deftness around a guitar pop tune…

Das Koolies – Pain Down The Drain

Back in 1973 the sound of Glam Rock probably felt like the future even though within three years it would perpetually be linked to the music of a very precise period in the past. So how is it that Das Koolies have lifted that glitter stomping effect from fifty years ago, filled up its tank with four-star fuel and continued to recycle it in a way that seems ostensibly of the future? This is the kind of rollicking, timeless mayhem the Super Furry Animals used to dazzle us with at the back end of the nineties, which is funny because it turns out Das Koolies comprise four former members of that classic band recalibrating for fresh adventures in sound. Their debut album ‘DK.01’ has just arrived…

Olivia Dean – Carmen

Wanted to give this one an entry in the Fresh Juice section mainly because it only just came to my attention via this performance on the night of the Mercury Music Prize. For me the prize on the night landed, for once, in the most deserving hands and what a delight it was to feel the joy of Ezra Collective as they celebrated their success. But the other thing that shot through the pointless flannel of the occasion is how vital the Jazz and Jazz-Soul scenes are proving to be this decade. It really is the area bringing the most consistent thrills, ideas-heavy compositions and innovations in recent times as is demonstrated by the emergence of Olivia Dean, a voice with a vintage earthly vibe singing songs she is clearly feeling with her heart, this is the way it should be done…

Spencer Cullum – Betwixt And Between

A lovely serene song from the latest Spencer Cullum album ‘Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection 2’ and this one features a delightful vocal contribution from Erin Rae. The video is simple and the natural analogue effect it offers suits the song rather well. I looked down the YouTube comments and noticed someone had posted “see kids this is real music” which is the kind of attitude that could put me off this track (it doesn’t, but it could). As great an era as it was, a piece of music does not have to sound like it is from 1972 to be classed as ‘real’ and neither does it have to be made on conventional instruments. None of that is Spencer Cullum’s fault however, I bet he wears his vintage clothing and collects his twentieth century ephemera like a man high on the simple pleasures of life which is a fine thing indeed. Why don’t you go and put the kettle on before enjoying our penultimate two tunes for the week…

Chip Wickham – Slow Down Look Around

No visual accompaniment to speak of on this one but when the music gently elevates you like this I see no need for anything other than glorious audio. Taken from the new ‘Love & Life’ EP, considering Chip’s background in the early 21st century Jazz scene and Trip-Hop influences this might sound a very conventional piece of music, leaning back into soft spiritual tones and playing with an expressiveness that requires a real lightness of touch. But oh boy what an impression this music leaves on you, enhancing the message of the title ten-fold. We should all ease up the pace from time to time, put down the digital distractions, the screens with their endless scrolling (you’re at the end of this weeks new music recommendations now so you’re good to go) and just breathe in the natural world around. Music this fine needs to be experienced with 100% involvement, it really is worth your time…

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Fresh Juice

18th September 2023

Blur – St Charles Square

Much of Damon Albarn’s writing of late has tended towards the melancholic, maybe with good reason if there is turbulence in his personal life. Certainly it has been evident in his solo music and even the most recent Gorillaz album had more mournfulness than earlier work. On top of that this years new Blur material had its fair share of 21st century angst and sorrow. That said, in the same way that you would not wish for the Rolling Stones to abandon their signature electric blues riffing neither do I want for Blur to abandon that stomping, Brit-grunge sound they perfected around the time of their late nineties peak. It is that very sound you hear here, alive and well on the fantastic ‘St Charles Square’. A deranged, pounding, punchy late period slab of crunchy, tasty Blur goodness that may not define the whole of ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ but for these ears, at least the Bugman still has a place and that’s good enough for now…

Ezra Furman – Gloria

The End Of The Road festival is becoming my unmissable highlight of the festival season and this year offered a phenomenal roster with far more must-see live treats than I could possibly hope to fit into the four days I was there. This is an audience filmed clip of the closing act on the second stage from the final night, Ezra Furman. The fantastically wired version of Patti Smith’s re-working of ‘Gloria’ was the penultimate number from an emotional set in which Ezra offered her own Ziggy style farewell to her audience, stating that this was the last live performance from her band and pointing to an uncertain future with no firm live plans in place. I am certain she will continue to make music but anyone witnessing her dramatic personal and musical journey for the past decade will be aware that this has been tumultuous period in which she has channelled turmoil into some essential, fully-loaded writing and performance; a real artist in the purest sense. One full-throttle run through of ‘Tell Em All To Go To Hell’ later and she was gone, come back soon please Ezra…

Adwaith – Cwympo

I will continue my End Of The Road reminiscences a little longer with my next few selections. Adwaith were unknown to me before the festival, not a name that I had pencilled in to see and indeed when they started their set I was not watching, I was queueing up for a cider or something when I heard their music coming out of the Big Top stage and instantly thought “wow they sound good” making a detour to catch them before they finished. I am still in the process of discovering them post-festival but here is a nice taster of their wonderful Welsh sound when they were playing the Focus Wales annual international showcase festival earlier this year…

Say She She – C’est Si Bon

Say She She were a band that I did schedule to see at the End Of The Road festival but wow, they certainly exceeded my already high expectations. Their sound is indeed rooted in the seventies US disco scene but it was their natural stage presence and personalities that won this crowd over wholesale. They made me think of the Sugababes or All Saints, those bands that whilst adhering to the choreographed dance moves typical of the music’s roots never lose the sense of being friends brought together by their love of the music and desire to have a laugh along the way. Nothing was too slick or polished which only served to enhance the charm tenfold; do not underestimate this trio though, they are producing music with soul, groove and a vintage / modern crossover flare that marks them down for serious good times to come…

Angeline Morrison – Cruel Mother Country

My final End Of The Road reflection for the time being is Angeline Morrison, who I went to watch at a small stage tucked away at the bottom of a steep slope in the woods. It is a stage where the comedy and spoken word elements of the festival bill often perform but as Angeline plays a purely acoustic set on very gentle, quite quiet, instruments maybe it was the right location for her. She was wonderful, intense, hushed, poised, focused as she played and sang with indelible conviction, especially on often quite hard hitting material from her rightfully acclaimed 2022 album ‘The Sorrow Songs (Folk Songs Of Black British Experience)’. My only reservation was the feeling that I might have got even more from this set in an enclosed location such as that featured in the clip below. It is no fault of Angeline’s, but to start with she was up against the closing crescendo of Daniel Norgren’s electric blues bleeding into her arena then towards the end the main stage sound of Bodega’s alt-rock threatened to drown out the modest acoustic performer. How an artist holds their concentration against sonic intrusion like that I never know, but she did not appear in the least bit disturbed because perhaps sometimes power comes from within, it does not need to beat a drum…

Rolling Stones – Angry

I will end where I began (just as the Rolling Stones maybe plan to with their latest record) by celebrating the presence in 2023 of one of the greatest bands of all time. When I was listening to a lot of classic sixties bands in the nineties, it could feel at times like I was perversely indulging in the music of the past. That no longer feels the case, as much as it may not fit in with the music industry narrative, I fully believe that I have lived through the era of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Being born in the seventies, my lifetime is coinciding with the majority of the living years of these bands and their members, as time moves on that increasingly feels true. I mean only a few months ago I was at the Fleet motorway services and I recognised the band The Zombies had stopped off on their travels for a coffee. I once stood in a newsagents in Diss and looked over to see that Peter Green was stood next to me. I have interviewed Dave Davies of The Kinks and many others who are readily tied to the sixties. A little while ago my parents saw Rod Stewart having breakfast in the farm shop of their Essex village. I know people who have built their social calendars around seeing artists like Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan whenever they’re on tour, in fact one of my daughters saw Bob Dylan in Bournemouth only last year. My point is the Rolling Stones is not the music of the past, theirs and so many of their peers remains the music of our time now and to have them putting out new material in 2023 and it still sounding as good as this makes me feel alright…

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Fresh Juice

11th September 2023

Hania Rani – Dancing With Ghosts

Hania Rani is a Polish pianist who, in the 20twenties, has carved a natural patina on her instrument and presented a sound that is wholly her own. It is a glacial sound, a floating cloud of ambience, tension and release which seems to make most sense to me in the early sunrising hours of the day when the world seems so still. Equally, her beautiful music could bring calm to the most stressful of days even though there is a sharpness to its edges that evocatively expresses the eastern European industrial machinery of her homeland. This is a graceful song (a departure from the Rani instrumental pieces I have become accustomed to these past three years) taken from her forthcoming ‘Ghosts’ album released on Gondwana Records…

Esther Rose – Chet Baker

From the album ‘Safe To Run’ on NewWest Records which is a record well worth spending some time with. I admit the hint of Velvet Underground wearing cowboy hats might have been a strong factor in this tunes ability to reel me in but still, what a combination and she certainly pulls it off with some swagger. Also, this proves you don’t need a big budget to make a great video…

Susanne Sundfor – Alyosha

Susanne is a singer-songwriter artist from Norway who is perhaps best known for her ongoing appearances in electronica with Royksopp. Her own music however, reaches far and beyond the confines of one style, hers is a creative odyssey that encompasses lush orchestral pieces, minimal chamber folk, musique concrete and widescreen string laden ballads. It is the latter that features in this romantic piece with an accompanying film that cuts in personal scenes from her own wedding ceremony to powerful effect. It is taken from Sundfor’s stunning sixth album ‘Blomi’ which is a work that showcases her impressive range indubitably…

Blake Mills – There Is No Now

Blake’s own solo music is a deceptive beast, it can appear to be light as a feather and slight but do not be fooled, there is always a lot going on in those grooves. By now he has more than established himself as a go to man for his production skills; even a passing listen to the most recent albums by Fiona Apple or Bob Dylan prove that he can efficiently realise the sound that a song needs. But his own work remains a place of progression and sonic flexing, the space in which he develops those phonic ideas that mark him out as a thrilling talent. This one is from Blake’s latest album ‘Jelly Road’…

Gena Rose Bruce – Lighting Up

Adding to this weeks collective is Australian Gena Rose Bruce who has been favourably compared to the likes of Angel Olsen thanks to her brooding country sound and an outer shell that seems to have risen from the dark, dangerous underground. It is no surprise to learn that she has collaborated with Bill Callahan and you cannot argue with Bill’s taste either for Gena, seen here preforming the title song of a 2023 EP, does come across like an artist with potential ready to be tapped. She first came to my attention with 2019’s ‘The Way You Make Love’ which I would strongly recommend checking out on our monthly playlist too: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2023/08/30/september-2023-playlist/

Zoe Rahman – Roots

Rahman’s trio are captured here in a brilliant live film playing a track from her latest album ‘Colour Of Sound’, already one of my favourite Jazz releases of the year (should be in with a shout at next years Mercury’s I reckon seeing as they’ve finally remembered to actually listen to the Jazz nominations and realised they’re worthy of a gong). Zoe is an outstanding pianist whose playing never fails to delight me. There is something in her touch and the flow of her compositions that has always caught my ear in that magical, inexplicable way some music can. A while back I was on holiday watching a play at the Minack Theatre about Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel and became weirdly distracted by the piano score only to find later of course, it was written by Zoe. That sort of confirmed that there is something to her work, an extra quality that I cannot quite put my finger on but despite this, what I can do is strongly urge you to listen to her music, that is what all this waffle comes down to in the end after all…

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Fresh Juice

4th September 2023

Mitski – Bug Like An Angel

This leaves such a heavy impression on you when you first hear it, there is something in the contrast between the solemn verses and the way the heavenly choir just seems to crash into them that is simultaneously unsettling and soothing. Add to that this video depicting the older woman raging with her own demons and coping strategies and the way Mitski herself shoots her a glance and you have a spine tingling combination of tension, sound and vision. This is from the upcoming album ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’, out September 15th…

Ash Walker – Time Gets Wasted

Ash Walker is a bass player first but pretty much everything else a close second, including DJ, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger of an alluring hybrid Jazz form that pulls in influences and collaborators from Soul, Dance, Funk, Reggae and Trip-Hop. His new album ‘Astronaut’, his fourth in the eight years since his debut, shows a real progression into a grain of sound that is uniquely his and a very satisfying and glacial vibe it has too, as heard on this tune featuring Denitia and Sly5thAve…

Buck Meek – Cyclades

Here is a track from the new album ‘Haunted Mountain’ by the Big Thief guitarist, this time a live version captured in superb quality from the front row of a recent gig in Copenhagen. Among the highlights of this typically wired performance is the crunching electric guitar solo, the camera rightfully closing in on Buck’s bandmate as he conducts showers of feedback and fuzz with the speaker positioned to his rear. This is the kind of instrumental break that would make Neil Young lunge about the stage with delight which is apt because this grungy country sound owes a lot to those old Crazy Horse records, although you cannot deny that Buck Meek puts his own individual delicate spin on every bit of music he turns his hands to…

Big Thief – Vampire Empire

And while I am thinking about Buck Meek’s other band, here they are with a clip that I already featured once this year in the Fresh Juice section of this site. However, this song was unreleased at the time and now it is available, so where a band like Big Thief are concerned that is justification enough for a little reprise of some new 2023 music which reinforces the already widely held opinion that they are one of the finest things we have in music today…

Wilco – Evicted

What are a combination of four words that are guaranteed to always bring a smile, to be excitedly welcomed and gladly received? How about “you reached your target?” Or perhaps “I’ll get this round?” Maybe, depending on the speaker, “get your kit off” works for you or on a similar sporting theme “another win for Arsenal?” Well they all have a place don’t they? Still, I have just realised there are four words that should definitely bring joyous responses from anyone with fully functioning ears and good taste and they are of course “new music from Wilco”…

Emma Rawicz – Phlox

Here is a superb loose and explorative live version of the opening track from Emma Rawicz’s new album ‘Chroma’ released on ACT Music. The saxophonist may have classical training in her background but it is her ears and appreciation of Jazz fusion artists like Chick Corea in tandem with an open minded approach, which has even seen her sitting in with a Frank Zappa tribute band, indicating her massive potential. She is fearless in her live approach, not afraid to dive into improvisational dark corners and yet her focus and natural feel for what the music requires ensures you stay locked in for the whole journey. This five-piece band situation provides her with the wide pallet her music warrants so do not miss out on this one…

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