I know we go through our lives making mental lists of our favourite labels and brands. It is one of the pleasures of living in a capitalised culture after all. It might be clothes. It might be bicycles. It might be record labels. It might be left-leaning philosophers. The idea of allegiances does not, after all, imply a certain shallowness.
There was once a terrific little series about record labels on my Tangents site. Blood and Fire rubbed shoulders with Fast and Thrill Jockey cuddled up to Postcard. Fourteen years on, I do wonder if Kevin were to write the piece again if his top ten would be different. Who would be in, who would be out?
If I were to write a piece about favourite labels at the moment, one place in my top ten would almost certainly go to Bleeding Gold. They’re not perfect and I can certainly pass on some of their releases (the French electro pop in particular seems pale and charmless) but when they get it right they hit my sweet spot with praiseworthy precision.
In The Notes they gave us one of my most played groups of 2011; their ‘Wishing Well’ EP a gorgeous stripped back beast that was beautifully packaged. That led to my grabbing a HEHFU set which I will admit initially left me underwhelmed. Thanks in part to some recent prodding by my friend Graham I have revisited the ‘Music For My Broken Ears’ collection and found it much more appealing. Certainly it would sit nicely with those Kestrels records I have been digging recently. And it is always nice to find delight in things you had tucked away in the back of a drawer after all.
Meanwhile, as mentioned last month, Tear Talk connected first time out. How could they not? With tinges of The Wake and Field Mice, their ‘Port Sunlight’ digital EP is surely deserving of a sweet 10” physical release? It would sit so nicely alongside my ‘Snowball’ and ‘So Said Kay’ discs after all.
From along the M62, Manchester’s oddly named S’s give us more in the same vein. Indeed, spinning ‘A Well Of Hours’ for the first time I could have sworn that I was listening to a long lost Orchids track. Their press release suggests The Strokes, David Bowie, Best Coast and The B****** as possible reference points. Me, I’ll give ‘em two of those ‘B’s and suggest instead echoes of Jazzateers and see how that flies with you.
Stream the Bleeding Gold 'Cult Of The Hopeless' sampler from their Bandcamp page.
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