Tender Prey – Falling Off Chairs. I really liked the last album from Laura Bryon aka TP, a stripped back garage/blues affair that kept throwing weird proggy bits into the mix. There’s still some of that here, and a couple of tracks are compellingly off-kilter, but overall this sounds a little more conventionally lo-fi: https://tenderprey.bandcamp.com/album/falling-off-chairs
Trimdon Grange Explosion – s/t. This is pretty great, one of those albums where the band have nailed their sound, then pushed to see what they can do with it. In a nutshell, Fairport Convention played by the Velvet Underground, but more than anything, it never sounds ersatz like a lot of psych/folk stuff does: https://borleyrectory.bandcamp.com/releases
Centralstödet / The Myrrors – Wudkamrater. I can take or leave a lot of the Cardinal Fuzz releases, but this is a goodie, again because it sounds like it’s played by a band (or bands in this case) that really know what they’re doing. Particularly like the Centralstödet tracks, which manage to be both propulsive and discursive, yet keep the attention: https://skylanternrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ljudkamrater
Laucan – Up Tomorrow EP. Delicate sounding young man who may possibly have heard a Radiohead album or two. Great track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY1k-Tk5IFk
Lo Five – When It’s Time To Let Go. Lovingly crafted nostalgia techno for fans of mid-90s Artificial Intelligence stuff. It’s quite clever and very listenable: https://patternedair.bandcamp.com/releases
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Feed The Rats. Loving this, has a bass sound that Butthole Surfers would have died for, and the singer has a superb set of Lemmy-esque lungs
Heat Exchange – Reminiscence. Super obscure Canadian psych/prog types from the late 60s/early 70s have their various recordings compiled. Variable, but a couple of absolute killers, such as: https://guerssenrecords.bandcamp.com/track/inferno
David Bowie - Blackstar. My wife played it off Spotify, but couldn't get it off random shuffle. Still brilliant.
Hawkwind – The Machine Stops. Eek, I don’t like to say a bad word about t’Wind, but… I’m afraid I can’t share the enthusiasm that was shown to their latest the other week. It certainly sounds like HW and it’s competently played, but it feels flat and over-long to me. Perhaps I’ll just blame the production…
Listen With Father:
Smoke Fairies – s/t. This elicited zero response from the kids, though I think the older daughter was quite interested (in an entirely quiet way) in ‘Eclipse Them All’, as well she might, as it’s a brilliant song with filthy lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZaHXiNWKGM I really like this album, but it could have been pruned back and sonically it’s a bit samey in places. I don’t know, there’s a strange kind of brittleness to them that’s alluring but a little off-putting at the same time. Eeh, a conundrum wrapped inside a mystery etc etc.
D is for…
Dark Star – Twenty Twenty Sound / ‘I Am The Sun’ b-sides. What the remaining trio of Levitation people did after Terry Bickers had bailed. It’s got a late 90s, post-grunge sound to it which means that it never quite flies, but I’d forgotten how strong this is. Some brilliant songs full of skyscraping psych guitar and delicate melodies. Vocals are possibly a weak link, but I actually quite like them, some interesting lyrics too. I was about to say that, despite the general excellence of this album, it and they disappeared without trace, but Wikipedia tells me they actually scored two Top 40 hits from it and got on TOTP, so what do I know. Hmmm, it further says that they recorded a second album, but split before it was released. Main guy Christian ‘Bic’ Hayes has done lots of stuff since, and is currently in ZOFFF (who I saw supporting Gong last year – they were noisy). Anyway, if you like experimental rock music with melody, you’ll definitely want to give this album a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVNCgOBhjHk
(Oh, and here’s that ‘unreleased’ second album: https://soundcloud.com/dark-star-4/sets/zurich)
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