Music
Black Box Recorder
There are quite a lot of bands I had no real expectation of seeing. These tend to be the ones that had split up either before I’d heard of them or before I could reliably go to gigs. Over the years, a good number of these have played special anniversary gigs - one off shows to celebrate the passing of a large number of years since their albums. Though these shows always come with a hint of “Oh God I’m old now”, it has meant the opportunity to see a whole bunch of bands I narrowly missed first time round. The Research! Camera Obscura! (And booked in the next year both The Sunshine Underground AND Forward, Russia - very excited!). But Black Box Recorder? They remained firmly in the list of bands I never expected to see.
Unlike most of the others mentioned, who I read about in the NME when slightly-too-young to get to gigs - especially the many indie-friendly 18+ venues - Black Box Recorder had pretty much stopped in 2003. I’d never heard of them at that point. Instead, I got into them from the soundtrack of the fabulous Monkey Dust animation. As well as being rude, clever and wickedly funny, Monkey Dust had an absolutely incredible soundtrack. From the opening tune, Eels’ That’s Not Really Funny to melancholy chunks of Goldfrapp, there was a lot of great music in there, but it was a haunting female vocal that really stuck with me, murmuring “It’s only the end of the world…”. I looked them up. Black Box Recorder.
They did 3 albums. They’re all great. There are some top B-sides too. Sarah Nixey’s “opiated debutante tones” (thanks Wikipedia) carry a whole bunch of songs about cruelty, greed and turn-of-the-century life in England. It was an absolute joy to discover that being liked by Billie Eilish (!) has brought them renewed attention and got them a big London show, for which the Brudenell, Leeds was the warm-up gig. It also meant the crowd was a weird mix of ages - with a large part of it in their 40s and a significant number of children (OK, OK, they were probably late teens, but they looked like children)
I don’t really do gig reviews. It was great. Of course it was.
Albums of the Year 2023
For everything else that 2023 may have been, or not been, there’s been a lot of excellent music. Here we are at the end of the year. Grab your headphones, hide from the world outside. Here are my favourite records of the year.
Shit and Shine - 2222 and Airport
S&S produces a lot of music, and a lot of it has never really connected with me. But this one does. By turns full of good beats, funny stories and weird noises. Excellent stuff.
Squid - O Monolith
I don’t love this quite as much as their first, but its still great. Spiky, post-punk loveliness.
Memorials - Women Against the Bomb
I was surprised by how much this stuck in my head. It’s the soundtrack to a film about the Greenham Common protests and isn’t subtle at all, but I keep finding myself singing little bits of it.
Lankum - False Lankum
This is my kind of folk music. Macabre, dark stories, told over shuddering bass and weird noises. Fabulous.
Hey Colossus - In Blood
Short and sweet, walls of fuzzy guitar noise.
Meatraffle - Superstructure
Cracking post-punk tunes with some wickedly funny lines. As you’d expect from a band called Meatraffle.
The Loving Paupers - Ladders
Gorgeous NY reggae. Their first album is equally good. Get to know.
The Mountain Goats - Jenny From Thebes
It’s the Mountain Goats. It’s a polished one, with horns and all. I love it.
Overmono - Good Lies
This is an absolute gem. Sits alongside Bicep’s Atlas in my mind, and that’s high praise.
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - The Nation’s Most Central Location
Understated electronica. This one pulses and bubbles and fizzes. For fans of Pye Corner Audio, Demdike Stare and the like. I love this sort of thing.
Mungo’s Hi-FI - Past and Present
Mungo’s are a reliable source of bangers, but this one is wall to wall greatness. Absolute stomping tunes.
Reverend Kristine - SAVED
OK, this won’t be for everyone. It’s deeply weird and not an easy listen but its fascinating and very memorable. I love it. Very hard to describe. Give ‘All of my friends are going to hell’ a listen.
Belbury Poly - The Path
Sleeper hit for me. It’s very understated. All gentles tunes with a little folksy storytelling. Worth giving some time to. I love all this hauntology business.
Jellyskin - In Brine
Leeds Leeds Leeds. Bringer of Brine was my most listened track of the year, and ‘I was the first Tetrapod’ can’t have been far behind. Stomping techno-tinged wonky pop tunes.
James Ellis Ford - The Hum
I know nothing about this. Don’t know anything about the artist. Can’t remember how I found it. But it’s great.
Goat - Medicine
Everything these folk make is excellent and this one goes hard. Psych-folk? Alt-fusion? Chant-rock? The internet has no idea how to classify them. It doesn’t matter. This is ace.
2021 Tapes - January
As might be expected, I hadn’t really got started on 2021 music for much of January. So instead, most of this mix is made up of a lot of new discoveries of old music, a few relistens (RIP DOOM) and just a couple of truly new tracks.
So here we go…
Attica Blues - Deeper starts us off. I love trip hop but its a bit before my time so I’ve never been very knowledgeable about it. Didn’t know Attica Blues at all until Gilles Peterson played them earlier this year.
Next up is a double bill of MF DOOM tracks to go with the sad news on NYE that he’d died last year. It’s hard to pick out specific tracks - I feel Doom works function much better as whole album that little snippets - but I’ve picked a couple anyway. First up is Viktor Vaughn - A Dead Mouse from the Vaudeville Villain album, one that I didn’t really know very well but listed to a lot in January. Followed by Madvillain - Figaro, a classic piece of one of his most loved albums.
I don’t know if its escapism from the grey cold weather or escapism from the grey cold lockdown but I’ve been listening to a lot of reggae lately, a lot of whch has come from David Rodigan’s excellent shown on BBC 1XTRA. So here’s a triple of reggae cuts. First up is The Loving Paupers - Enemy of History. They’re a contemporary New York band and their whole 2019 album, Lines, is great but this is my favourite track. After that’s its Macka B - Gentrification a brand new track I’ve enjoyed a lot and then Mafia & Fluxy - Horns of Jah Children, a lovely re-recording of a clasic tune.
By far the oldest track on this month’s playlist is Roberta Flack’s Compared To What. It’s another Gilles Peterson discovery that he played for its 60th anniversary and I just found myself singing over the following days.
Kruder & Dorfmeister brings us back to the 2020s, although it doesn’t sound like it. I didn’t really start listening to the dusty sounding beats on their 2020 album 1995 until the start of this year but its a firm favourite from start to finish. It’s a similar story with the next track from Four Tet - Parallel 4. Parallels came out right at the end of lasy year but I didn’t really get to it until the first couple of weeks of January. Great stuff.
The last pair up the ante a bit. We have the fab squelchy, bassy stomp of Danny Breaks’ - The Jellyfish, an early 2000s track I listened to on repeat this month (need to check out more Danny Breaks!) and then the only true 2021 album of the lot: from Isles we have Bicep - Saku. There was some serious hype around this album and it was well justified, the whole LP is incredible. A strong early contended for AOTY 2021!
Best Music of 2020 - Part 2 Club
There was some good music in 2020, so I’ve put together my list of ~40 albums. This is the ‘Club’ section - from full on disco to some proper techno.
Click here for the Spotify playlist of the lot!
Romare - Home - Gone
Beatrice Dillon - Workaround - Square Fifths
Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song - Melt!
Three fantastic albums from very different UK producers. All of these work as long-play albums in their own right.
Jupiter Jax - No Such Thing - Moods No Grooves
Shinichi Atobe - Yes - Yes
I don’t know very much about either of these, but both albums are great fun.
Horse Meat Disco - Jump Into The Light - Jump Into The Light - Aeroplane Remix
This album’s been a long time coming. Joyous stuff.
Georgia - Seeking Thrills - Tuff City Kids Remix (Edit)
Actually found the album a little disappointing but this single is big, and the remix even bigger.
Ellen Allien - Auraa - True Romantics
Damian Lazarus - Flourish - Into The Sun
Now we’re talking. Some of my favourite techno from this year.
Faithless - All Blessed - Synthesizer (feat. Nathan Ball)
New Faithless! No idea how this manages to be both totally cheesy and thrilling. Had the album on repeat for a week.
Luke Vibert - Luke Vibert presents Amen Andrews - Bad Boy Acid
Vibert dropped 3 monster releases back to back, covering breaks, rave and rave-hop. It’s all great.
Best Music of 2020 - Part 3 Weird
There was some good music in 2020, so I’ve put together my list of ~40 albums. This is the ‘Weird’ section - there’s nothing in common here except that they don’t quite fit anywhere else. And I love them all.
Click here for the Spotify playlist of the lot!
Heather Leigh - Glory Days - All I Do Is Lust
One of the best albums that is very much a product of lockdown. Echoes of deserted dancefloors.
The Mountain Goats - Songs for Pierre Chuvin - Until Olympius Returns
What do you do when Covid cancels recording sessions? Write an album of acoustic songs about old pagans, of course.
Harmonious Thelonious - Plong - Höhlenmenschenmuziek
Nuel - Fantasia - The Running Flow
Hotspring - Obit For Sunshade - Resounding
Nihiloxica - Kaloli - Gunjula
Genuinely know nothing about any of these but I’ve been playing them all year. Hard to describe any of them well but the Nuel album may well be the best of the year.
Nídia - Não Fales Nela Que A Mentes - Tarraxo Do Guetto
Everything Nidia does in fantastic. I’m still kicking myself for passing up an opportunity to see her live a couple of years ago.
Lyra Pramuk - Fountain - Gossip
This is an interesting one. Every sound on the album is Lyra’s recorded voice, manipulated and chopped.
Duval Timothy - Help - Fall Again
An impossible to define album. It does jazz, piano solos, gospel, sampling. Fascinating.
Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders - Silver Ladders
Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant - Ruminant
Both really beautiful albums. Mostly wordless, rewards slow listening.
Lina, Raül Refree - Lina_Raül Refree - Os meus olhos são dois círios
One of the most interesting of the year. Fado, stripped of guitars and reimagined.
Rian Treanor - File Under UK Metaplasm - Debouncing
Wow this album. Hard to listen to, hard to imagine anyone dancing to. Sits somewhere between music and noise.