unpopular

Unpopular Advent 2013 Day 8 - Alpaca Sports

'Telephone' - Alpaca Sports (from split 7" with Acid House Kings)

Every time I hear Aplaca Sports I am reminded of April Showers and the wonderful tragedy that they released only one perfect single. And whilst I do not know for certain if April Showers were ever an influence on Alpaca Sports I’m fairly sure it is no coincidence that they share the same initials. But if it is a coincidence? Well, you know that proves the magic of Pop.

‘Telephone’ was certainly sprinkled with generous amounts of magic dust. Not since the Buzzcocks’ ‘Promises’ has a song about unrequited love gone off sounded so magnificently upbeat, capturing both the adrenaline rush of infatuation and the sorrow of rejection in one perfectly delivered candy coated right hook.

“You always tell me to wait. I don’t wanna wait” sings Andreas, in one line capturing the tension between anticipation and urgency - such an essential ingredient of great Pop.

AS Forever!!

 

Now and Forever

Just up the road the sun will shine... <That was a download link for the entire mix (plus artwork). Like I said, it wasn't here forever.

Big Muff (Strikes Again) - Astro Children (from 'Proteus' LP. Bandcamp)
Brännö - Finnmark! (free download from February Records. Bandcamp)
Future Vanishes - Rose Elinor Dougall (from 'Future Vanishes' EP. YouTube)
French Disko - Stereolab (available on 'Refried Ectoplasm [Switched On Volume 2]' LP. Live on 'The Word')
I Worked Myself Up From Nothing - McCarthy (from 'Banking Violence And Inner City Life Today' LP. YouTube)
Women's Studies - Lloyd Cole (from 'Standards' LP. YouTube)
Sorry For Laughing - Josef K (available on 'Entomology' LP. (YouTube)
Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory - Wah! (YouTube)
Speedway Star - The Pastels (available on 'Truckload Of Trouble' LP)
Danny Wood - September Girls (from 'A Sunday Matinée' LP. Or on Bandcamp)
First Rule Of Book Club - Bubblegum Lemonade (from 'Some Like It Pop' LP.
House with a Hundred Rooms - The Chills (from 'Somewhere Beautiful' LP)
Now And Forever - The Wild Swans (from 'Incandescent' vinyl reissue) 
They're All Going To Laugh At You - Piper Laurie & Cast (from 'Carrie: Original Soundtrack')
Wargames - Vital disorders (from 1982 7". Unavailable)
Breathless - Sweet Valley Slumber Party (Bandcamp)
Steal Your Jokes - Dutch Barn (from 'About Time' EP. Soundcloud)
Brisbane - James X. Boyd & The Boydoids (from 'Super Low' LP. Bandcamp)
Frozen Atmosphere - Toy (from 'Join The Dots' LP)
The Devil Has Come Home - Piper Laurie & Sissy Spacek (from 'Carrie: Original Soundtrack')

no gulls flying, no fishes swimming

Unpopular Advent 2013 Day 7 - Ancient Times

Hieroglyphic - Ancient Times (from Nightschool/Hieroglyphic 7")

I understand there was a lot of fluff and nonsense about a new Penguin (so-called) Classic this year but I admit I allowed it to pass me by. I feel fairly confident that members of Ancient Times may have perused a copy, although frankly their noise to me sounds more like it has been refracted through the lenses of the likes of Gene and Raymonde, and is therefore all the better for having been twisted and turned into different versions of the act*. There may be devotion and homage at play here, but it is thoroughly (and glamourously, grubbily) stripped to the waist and hurled gleefully into the fire.

* 'the act' would be The Smiths, in case you are cripplingly incapable of joining my not so difficult to connect dots of thinly veiled reference.

Unpopular Advent 2013 Day 6 - Sad Day For Puppets & Makthaverskan

'Cold Hand' - Sad Day For Puppets (from 'Come Closer' LP)
'Something More' - Makthaverskan (from Makthaverskan II' LP)

Consider my hand raised sheepishly in the air. Yes, I am still a sucker for Scandinavian ([Strawberry] Blonde)* sounds and yes I am still a sucker for guitars that collide in the forested bleakness of wintering hearts. Or, to put it another way, yeah, that shoe-gazey kinda noise-melody kinda schtick still sticks it to me even though part of me says I am far too old for this kind of malarky and that it really is best left well alone. In this category then it was Stockholm’s Sad Day For Puppets who appealed to me most this year and their ‘Come Closer’ set ended up as one of my most played collections. That said, Gothenburg’s moody looking Makthaverskan’s  “Makthaverskan II” pushed it mighty close with its Pauline Murray meets Curve cacophony, so consider this the first of a few entries this year where I simply couldn’t resist giving you an extra treat.

 
 
*Congratulations those who spotted the Frida Hyvönen reference without the need for this footnote. You may want to re-acquaint yourself with the climax to the (first) Unpopular advent of 2008. I did so myself recently and found myself falling head over heels all over again. 

Unpopular Advent 2013 Day 5 - Elizabeth Morris

Sweetheart - Elizabeth Morris

It is documented somewhere, I am sure, how I was once disparagingly dismissive of Allo Darlin’. Although secretly I might still admit that I dislike the dreaded ‘twee’ associations of the name, I will also admit that it was somewhat ridiculous posturing on my part. Certainly nowadays I would be one of the first to raise a glass to celebrate their marvellously informed (but never annoyingly knowing) Pop confections. With no new Allo Darlin’ product in 2013 though it was left to the solo ‘Optimism’ EP by Elizabeth Morris to supply that fix of understated, perfectly observed songwriting, from which the beautiful ’Sweetheart’ was undoubtedly the highlight. And really, was there a better line sung in 2013 than that one about writing "about the rain and that one day of Glasgow sun”? I would certainly struggle to think of one.

Blast from the past

  

Here’s a blast from the past and no mistake. I had all but forgotten about this event until a founding member of the near-mythical Troon Velo reminded me about it after many, many years (well, nearly thirty to be precise). Looking at this invite/ticket now brings a curious mixture of emotions. Embarrassment is clearly one, due in no small part to the appalling inability of the printers to understand the language of the Peloton (or at least O-Level French) and for introducing an absurd apostrophe mid-word and for inexplicably putting brackets around Robert Millar’s name… I also get a shiver of cold fear at seeing the logo for Pebbles, Troon’s notorious ‘nightlcub’ and at the very vague remembrance of Friday and Saturday nights spent in despair around its bar and dingy dance floor. There’s also sadness of course: at the memory of the faces and friends who would have been there that night and who have disappeared from my world over the intervening three decades; at the fact that Robert Millar never did win Le Tour (although he did finish fourth overall and landed the King Of The Mountains title that year - still the only English speaker ever to do so); at the thought of thirty years having passed and being ever more aware of one’s own age and mortality. I guess there is also a little bit of pride and delight though: in Millar’s achievements of course, and in the ability of The Velo to turn pretty much anything into an excuse for a party. Heady days.

 

Unpopular Advent 2013 Day 4 - Amor de Dias

Jean’s Waving - Amor de Días (from 'The House At Sea' LP)

If one were to be horribly unfair one would cast a disparaging eye in the direction of this writer and witheringly suggest that really this entry should have been in the 2012 advent, having been released as a single at year’s end. And whilst one would be technically correct, the counter argument would run along the lines of “hey, pull your beard in, hipster, I dig what you say, but man, it was also a centrepiece in the fabulous “The House At Sea” set and why would we pass up an opportunity to share it with the world?” Dude.

Actually I would struggle to see the word ‘dude’ ever being used in proximity to Amor De Dias, but you get the gist*. And in fact Amor De Dias are so far away from the hipster herd* it’s debatable whether anyone with a beard would be listening at all (one can but hope). Instead I rather see “The House At Sea” as a record to be played in the hallways and staircases of 21st Century Romantic Modernists. De La Warr Pavillions and Joseph Cornell boxes - such exquisite connotations: "The House At Sea” as an ocean liner on land, peopled by passing ghosts and fading scraps of memory.

Plussing as which, ‘Jean’s Waving’ is one of those songs that, once heard, is never forgotten; its sweet melody and the gorgeous interplay between Alasdair and Lupe forever breathing in your mind with glinting smiles, squinting in the twilight.

 
*Did you see what I did there? The Gist? ‘Herd’? Oh, suit yourselves...

Unpopular Advent 2013 Day 3 - Hacia Dos Veranos

Las Bailarinas Azules (The Blue Dancers) - Hacia Dos Veranos (from 'Limay' LP)

I first came across the beautiful Hacia Dos Veranos when I was running my eminently Unpopular record label. An email arrived one morning from Argentina mentioning Felt and The Clientele and naturally I felt powerless to resist. A charming 3” CDR release subsequently snuck out to a ripple of appreciative applause from everyone who knew the score. In other words, all those folks who similarly shared a love of Maurice Deebank and Alasdair McLean’s glittering instrumental guitar work. Fast forward several years and the seeds sown in that 3” have flourished into the fully fledged 12” vinyl ‘Limay’ album released by those fine people responsible for The Hangover Lounge. I dare say instrumental albums tend not to feature in the traditional ‘rock’ press’ end of year self-congratulatory fests, but hey, you are here in Unpopular land where they most certainly do.

 

Unpopular Advent 2013 Day 2 - Belle Ghoul

Saturday Knife Fight - Belle Ghoul (from 'Saturday Knife Fight' 7")

Following on from Paul Messis, there is more than a hint of the retro in the sound of Belle Ghoul too, from the "Bande à part" sleeve homage to the Northern Soul meets James Kirk sound that bounds from the speakers when you drop the needle on this wax. Few singles this year were as instantly, deliciously danceable as this. 

 

Unpopular Advent 2013 Day 1 - Paul Messis

'I Hate The World Around Me' - Paul Messis (from 'Case Closed' LP)

I’m not much of a one for slavish re-enactments of the past, but I admit I do have a degree of respect for those who manage to carry it off. Certainly Paul Messis does the sixties garage/beat look and sound better than just about anyone else around. If it’s proof you need, look no further than his ‘Case Closed’ set on State Records. Eleven originals plus a cover of The Five Bucks’ 1966 cut ‘No Use In Trying’ come pressed on vinyl with a sleeve that pitches the details to perfection (laminated front, flip-back rear, just like those Troggs and Kinks albums you used to find in the charity shops). His own Market Square label is well worth checking too.