This month sees the arrival of the first citizensound podcast. We decided that we wanted to share with you some of the vast array of music, from every genre imaginable, that makes up citizensound’s combined record collection of some 25,000 albums and singles. Our aim is to expose you to some great new music, including some of the best unsigned music around, but also some classic gems that you may not have heard before from times gone by. It will also give you the chance to hear some of the music we’ve been sounding off about in the ‘Stuff We Like’ section of our website, and we might even sneak in a few tracks that would make a great soundtrack for the odd advert or seven.

So let’s get down to volume one of It All Ads Up…

To listen:

To download the podcast:

For those of you who are PC users, or are not iTunes users, the MP3 version can be downloaded by right clicking your mouse, here

You can find out the track listing by clicking

On our inagural podcast, the music that you will be mostly listening to is…

1) Gone Beyond by the Akron/Family

Where do you start with these guys? The rather oddly named Akron/Family are a folk-influenced experimental rock band, formed in New York in 2002. Signed by Michael Gira founder of the Young Gods label, former singer of doom rock merchants Swans (the loudest rock band citizen watt has ever seen), and the man who ‘discovered’ Devendra Banhart. This track is from their second album proper Meek Warrior.

2) Go Your Way by Anne Briggs

Both citizen bay and citizen watt have been known to enjoy a bit of wassailing in their time. Traditional British Folk music is the latest music genre to get the once-over from both young bands and the media, alike. Many of the ’stars’ of the Nu Folk sound, such as Devendra Banhart (him from the Orange ad), PG Six, Joanne Newsome and Espers, are head over heels in love with Anne Briggs. Sadly she was a bit of reluctant star and left the business after only three albums in the early 1970s. Despite coaxing from some of the brightest names in folk music, she sadly refuses to return to the recording.

3) 7 Nation Army by The Dynamics

This came out last year and was the first of a series of 7 inch singles that put the 70’s dub back into cover versions. Their debut album, Version Excursions, has just come out on Groove Attack. Check out the Ska version of Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”!

4) Moondust by Bare Knuckle Soul

Bare Knuckle Soul are a collection of poets, musicians and singers who met through the Sheffield music scene in 2002. They began work on a project ‘rooted in and informed by the history of Groundbreaking black music, from Billie Holiday to Curtis Mayfield through The Specials and Fela Kuti ending somewhere around, D’Angelo, Soul II Soul and Outkast’. Moon Dust is one of the tracks from their debut EP, which contains three other excellent tracks.

5) How Do I Let A Good Man Down? by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

If you haven’t read the acres of eulogies written in the press about this group, boy have you missed out. The Dap Kings are Amy Winehouse’s backing band, while Sharon King has the sort of voice that melts a good man’s heart. This is from their second album, Naturally, and is funky as a bag of snakes in a Memphis Juke Joint.

6) In McDonalds by Burial

This track is from his second album Untrue, which was named by Wire magazine as the second best album of 2007, almost matching the previous self-titled début album from the mysterious artist known only as Burial, which got the number one slot in the very same magazine poll in 2006. This the sound of two-step glitch soul (or dubstep to the rest of us - ed). If only all fast food emporium’s played this album as their soundtrack!

7) Lovers Pass by the Old Romantic Killer Band

citizens watt and citizen bay discovered this wonderful Leeds-based two piece playing at one of the In The City Unsigned gigs last October. It was only something like the fifth time they’d played together live, and they not only wowed us, but also the whole audience at the Bedlam bar that night. Lead singer and guitarist Harry had an astonishing blues howl of voice, which occasionally reminds us of Tim Buckley in full flow. While drummer Bunse does a good impression of the Velvet Underground’s Mo Tucker on steroids. Go see them when they next play your town or at least go to their myspace and check them out. Their first single You Don’t Know How To Love is out soon…

8) Another Distressed Damsel by Michael Dracula

This track is taken from one of citizen watt’s albums of the month. Any month, he doesn’t mind which one. Reminiscent of the New York No Wave scene of the early ’80s, Emily MacLaren from Glasgow by way of Ohio, comes up with one of the best début albums we’ve heard in ages.

9) Atlas by Battles

If this doesn’t make you bounce around the room like a little kid on a spacehooper, with a mouthful of Strawberry Space Dust, you probably need to stop wearing comfortable slacks at the weekend, and dig out your disco pants from the bottom of the wardrobe. This was Plan B magazine’s track of 2008. Oh yes!

10) My Own Memory by Yegelle Tezeta

Now some people get all sniffy when you mention world music. But boy when you play this track to folk and not tell them what it is, they want to know what this awesome slice of Jazz-meets-R&B is. This dear friends comes from Ethiopia, and the tremendous Ethiopiques compilation albums (22 volumes and counting). This is from Volume 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale 1969-1974. The best place to start however is The Very Best Of Ethiopiques compilation, which is a great primer for these excellent albums. Oh, and don’t forget to check out Alèmayèhu Eshèté, Addis Ababa’s very own James Brown!

11) Watch Out by Tawiah

citizen martin and citizen bay are greatly enamoured by the wonders of Tawiah, and citizen watt is happy to concur. This is the true sound of British soul. It’s a crime she hasn’t been signed yet. Amazing live, great on record. Last week she rocked the house at Book Slam (kind of like the Richard And Judy Book Club, but hipper), following on from a virtuoso performance from Will Self! This is taken from her forthcoming self-released EP which also contains the excellent tune “Every Step”.

12) Equinox by Jose James

“Anyone brave enough to put words to John Coltrane needs to be listened to. When I got hold of this 10 inch EP, it just sat on the turntable playing again and again”. In fact citizen bay’s wife had to take it away from him, as he wouldn’t do anything around the house without it’s beautiful refrain following him. José James debut album The Dreamer got a 4/5 review in Mojo, and proves there’s more to contemporary Jazz singers than Michael Bublé or Jamie Cullum!

13) Rat A Cut Bottle by Lion Youth

citizen bay was a huge reggae fanatic in his ‘yoot’. He used to make many pilgrimages from the Home Counties into London to buy the latest dub slates and reggae anthems at legendary record shops such as Daddy Kool in Berwick Street, and Dub Vendor in Notting Hill. This classic slice of UK Reggae comes from 1981, and can be found on the excellent Pressure Sounds compilation album, Don’t Call Us Immigrants.

14) Love Is Simple by Akron Family

And we finish as we started, with a track from Akron/Family. This time from their 2007 album Love is Simple. The ever on the ball Pitchfork claim that this album “is Akron/Family’s bold, unvarnished paean to discovering god within nature, through a fusion of drum-circle bliss, religious signifiers, and classic rock.”

And on that note, that’s the end of our first podcast. We hope you enjoy the music. And please let us know what you think by mailing us at ourfriends@citizensound.net