With the flip side of this marvellous 7” LA’s Francisco The Man came on like the gigantic swell of ‘Arms Like Boulders’ hooking up with an Adventurous Television for a blind date, each with copies of ‘Keep It Like A Secret’ and ‘Poor Fricky’ clutched tight for identification. With such fine reference points you know that furtive snogging would be on the cards at the very least. But would they take off the hipster glasses?
The Twilight Sad unveiled their monumental ‘No One Can Ever Know’ set in February with silk screens, tote bags and a delicious double vinyl platter. I suggested back then that they had created a contemporary gothic monument to ennui and existential pleasure and I stand by that some ten months later. I also stand by the assertion that there is more than a little of the early ‘80s Simple Minds about the sound of the record: the supple motorik rhythms and icy electronic spaciousness recall an admirable update of ‘Sons And Fascination’ . There can be few better recommendations than that.
Lights And Radios - I Am Ampersand (Bandcamp)
The Great Unknown - The Starfolk (Bandcamp)
Marmalade - Julie Byrne (Bandcamp)
Paper Winter - Typsy Panthre (Bandcamp)
Only You - Taken By Trees (YouTube)
Death Is My Lover, Life Is Your Wife - Sutja Gutiérrez (Bandcamp)
La Congugasion Pour Tous - Action Biker (Bandcamp)
Forgive - Lavender Diamond (YouTube)
Grounds - Black Coffee & Cherry Pie (Soundcloud)
The Healing Power Of Nothing - Black Moth Super Rainbow (from Cobra Juicy)
The Wilderness - Cemeteries (YouTube)
Music To Walk Home By - Tame Impala (YouTube)
You Won't Be Missing That Part Of Me - Melody's Echo Chamber (YouTube)
A Rose Is A Rose - The Ocean Blue (Bandcamp)
Wait A Day - By The Sea (from By the Sea)
Allison - Jim Ruiz Set (Bandcamp)
I Can Hear It When You Sing - Milk Teddy (Bandcamp)
Tilt The Crown - Eux Autres (Bandcamp)
Moonlight Mile - Babies (YouTube)
Long Journey - Allah-Las (Soundcloud)
Tigercats - ‘Stevie Nicks’ from ‘Isle Of Dogs’ (Fika recordings)
God how I loved Esiotrot. They were sublimely, shambolicaly superb. But now we have Tigercats and oooh, I might just love them every bit as much. Maybe a wee bit more. It depends what day you catch my tail on. ‘Isle of Dogs’ was a stormer of a set, ‘Stevie Nicks’ a seductive sashay with a poignant guitar line full of pregnant pauses and sidelong glances. Tigercats will scratch your eyes out and kiss your bleeding lids closed. And you’ll thank them for it. Oh how you will thank them for it.
The trouble with an advent calendar is that there just isn’t enough room for all the delights one wants to share. So today we have the first shared entry; a bumper crop of three delicious chocs for the price of one. Result!
Aggi Doom - ‘Cakewalk’ from ‘Bring Me The Head’ 7" (Soft Power) September Girls - ‘Green Eyed’ from ‘Green Eyed’ 7” (Soft Power) Big Wave - ‘Only You’ from ‘Only You’ 7” (Beautiful Strange)
The Brogues seemed to be banging on about Aggi Doom for such a long time before I ever heard them that I admit I had fears they would fail to live up to my expectations . I needn’t have worried. Their vinyl debut on the magical Soft Power label was a treat and a half. ‘Cakewalk’ was the main course for me, with its Switchblade nods and Strawberry shivers. All that concerns me now is having to wait so long for new recordings...
Soft Power gave us the first September Girls vinyl this year as well, with the ‘Green Eyed’ 7” acting as a fabulous follow-up to their cassette single. Spine tingling diaphanous webs of noise, the ghosts of The Organ pattering on your heartache.
Big Wave also came to my attention thanks to Soft Power. The ‘Roots of Love (Come Tumbling Down)’ tape was a fine melodic power-pop-tinged primer, but their vinyl 7” on the Beautiful Strange label really upped the ante, coming on like Lucky Soul on their holidays to the seaside.
The Girl With The Replaceable Head - ‘Coldest of Days’ from ‘Evil Debt Hotel’
How many priceless gems have fallen through the cracks in the pavement to shimmer deliciously on the beach? Too many to count. Too many to count. ‘Evil Debt Hotel’ is surely one of those hidden treasures of 2012 and ‘Coldest of Days’ perhaps the brightest of its gems. Kevin Pearce wrote eloquently of its delights on the Caught By The River site back in September. His words, like the music, still stir the soul and turn the head.
No streaming available for this track, but you can grab the whole set on Bandcamp here. The fact that the CD edition (limited to a mere 50 copies) is still available is one of the most criminal acts of the year.
My Lady of Clouds - ‘Rose, My Truth’ from ‘Your Name in Secret I Would Write’ (Gelsomina Records)
Former Tibi Lubin songstress Katie Stewart quietly unveiled this solo album under the moniker My Lady of Clouds back at the tail end of 2011. But it wasn’t until early this year that the vinyl landed on my desk and therefore I have no problem including it in my 2012 advent. Gently played, softly but perfectly poised and lyrically assured; twenty years hence people will talk of My Lady of Clouds with the same hushed tones of reverence as we now speak of Wendy and Bonny or Vashti Bunyan. And then you’re going to feel pretty stupid for not picking up the record when you had the chance, aren’t you?
Advance Base- ‘Riot Grrrls’ from ‘A Shut-In's Prayer’ (Orindal)
Owen Ashworth’s group Casiotone For The Painfully Alone largely passed me by. I couldn’t tell you why exactly, it was just one of those things. Nor could I really tell you why I switched onto his Advance Base recordings, although I think it was probably as much due to being seduced by lathe-cut singles and matchbook sleeves as any sounds. The sounds are wonderful though, and no finer than on his ‘A Shut-In’s Prayer’ set (on vivid red vinyl). Something I do remember is nodding sagely on reading Andrew Male’s review in Mojo magazine which he opened by citing Hemingway. It is such an apt allusion. For Advance Base songs are carefully crafted and suffused with underlying sadness. Never cloying nor gauchely self-pitying. Just quietly observed and recorded with impressive restraint. Just so.
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