The summer months are usually a quiet time for new releases. Except nobody seemed to have told this lot, so here’s a few of my favourites…

ALBUMS OF THE MONTH:
The Week That Was - The Week That Was
Jonquil - Lions/Whistle Low EP

It’s not often that I get to rave about a band from my home-town Sunderland, mainly because the only acts we could boast about for the best part of the last 25 years were the Toy Dolls, Leatherface and Laura Laverne’s band Kenickie. But in 2004 along came the Futureheads, and their former drummer’s new band, Field Music. Both bands seemed to be fans of XTC, but Field Music also added the likes of Todd Rundgren and the Beach Boys to the mix. They made two excellent albums (plus a b-sides compilation), and then split. Which is weird as two of the three band members are brothers, David and Peter Brewis. So was this a Gallagher-style falling out? Apparently not. The band apparently wanted to get away from the treadmill of playing live, and no-doubt a chance to do their own thing. An honourable mention goes to younger brother David’s solo debut, Sea From Shore, which came out earlier in the year under the name of School Of Language, and of the brothers solo albums, is the closest to the Field Music sound.  However, it is big brother Peter, under the name The Week That Was, who has gone on to make he biggest leap forward. The touchpoints for this record seem to be the likes of Kate Bush’s classic Hounds of Love, Peter Gabriel early trilogy of self-titled albums, and Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. This is definitely a very grown-up type of pop music; the complexity of the arrangements alone suggests that this was a labour of love recorded over many years, rather than an album that was apparently written and recorded in just a few short weeks. This album, however, has more to do with Brain Wilson’s pocket symphonies, than anything from Tales from Topographic Oceans. And at 35 minutes long this is one record that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, even though I’d be happy to listen to a triple CD album of the stuff…

Jonquil are another young British band, who I know far less about. From what I can gleam from their MySpace page they are an Oxford-based six piece, and Lions is their second album. An immediate comparison on first hearing is a British take on citizensound faves Akron/Family. Their music is certainly rooted in folk, but is strangely redolent of early James before they all got us to all “Sit Down”. Their taste in music is pretty eclectic, referencing everyone from Joan Baez to Motown, Eno to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Bulgarian woman’s choir to Can, and they even like to jack to Fleetwood Mac! With so much weird American folk music getting coverage in the UK music monthlies these days, it’s a wonder that this record slipped through the net. The Whistle Low EP, is a great 7 track intro to the band, and features an excellent rerecording of the bands stand-out track “Whistle Low”. Certainly the most interesting band to come out of Oxford since Radiohead?

METHODS OF DANCE:
Fujiya & Miyagi - Lightbulbs
Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - Eine Kleine Nacht Musik
Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too
Various - This Is Wrong Music

One of music’s biggest dilemmas in music is where do you go next when it feels like everything has been done before? As Edwyn Collins once sang “rip it up and start again”. So it’s no surprise that some current crop of artists have looked in some different paces for some inspiration, and a number of them seem to have discovered Krautrock. Fujiya & Miyagi are not Japanese or a two piece, but are a Brighton-based four piece. You may remember them from their minor hit “Collarbone”, which was also featured in ads for both Jaguar and Miller Lite. Their new album highlights their love of motorik rhythms, but also shows a taste for electro-pop and Italo-disco.The lyrics don’t seem to make much sense, with opener “Knickerbocker” referencing the ghost of child star Lena Zavaroni and Hans Christian Andersen! Eine Kleine Nacht Musik might be more familiar to dance music fans as Riton, who recorded some fine dance music for Manchester’s Grand Central label. Here Henry Smithson (for it is he) takes his apparently recent discovery of Krautrock for a joyride around Shoreditch with a soundtrack of acid house, techno and Neu!, making this a pretty fine meld of electronica and Krautrock. Hans Peter Lindstrøm is so painfully hip at the moment it hurts, his 2008 take on the cosmic Balearic sound is definitely worth a listen. If you think you know the name it may be from numerous mixes or his work with fellow Norwegian DJ Prins Thomas. And this album is quite a statement, only three tracks, and a sound reminiscent of Tangerine Dream being taken to a club and being shown a really good time. If you are old enough to remember Sueno Latino’s classic Italo disco hit from 1989 being played at some drug addled orbital rave, or spent any time losing yourself in the Cafe Del Mar in Ibiza you’ll get this immediately. New York City’s Rong Music label have been around since 2003, but the only act on the label that I’ve come across on this excellent mix album are Tussle. Here Liquid Liquid and ESG rub up against classic Larry Levan disco epics, Morgan Geist’s Metro Area and Ze Records. The label has recently joined up with DFA records, home to LCD Soundsystem, for a new joint label. The first album release being the excellent Notwave compilation (just out on import and reviewed next month), which features a new track by the legendary no-waver James Chance. I suspect that we’ll be hearing a lot more from these guys. 

NOWT AS QUEER AS FOLK:
Matt Baldwin - Paths Of Ignition
Ass - My Get Up And Go Just Got Up And Went
James Blackshaw - Litany of Echoes
The nu/freak/wyrd folk scene that has emerged over the last few years often uses the likes of the Incredible String Band, Nick Drake, The Fairport Convention, Donovan and Pentangle as touchstones, mixing it up with some fine A-grade psychedelia. However, the main inspiration for these three artists seems to be legendary American acoustic guitarist John Fahey, who sadly died in 2001 leaving behind a stunning catalogue of work. I came across Matt Baldwin’s album via a review by Julian Cope on his Head Heritage website. It’s hardly a surprise that the Arch Drude Cope raved about this album as it starts with a fantastic 10-minute cover of Neu’s ‘Weissensee’, relocating it from Düsseldorf to the Appalachian Mountains, while track three is what I assume is a pretty radical reworking of Judas Priest’s “Winter”, with Baldwin mixing up acoustic picking with layers of sludgy psychedelic electric guitar. A class act.  Swede Andreas Soderstrom, otherwise known as Ass (!!??) is another follower in the Fahey school of acoustic folk primitivism. He has picked one of the most god awful and inappropriate names for himself (it apparently stands for Andreas Soderstrom Solo) , but this a mighty fine selection of acoustic music. He even includes a great cover of the theme to John Caprenter’s ‘Escape From NY’. However, the best of the bunch of guitarists is Hastings resident James Blackshaw, with his sixth album Litany of Echoes. His last album The Cloud of Unknowing was pretty astonishing, but this is an even stronger record. Opening and closing tracks “Gate of Ivory” and “Gate Of Horn” are the biggest departures from his previous output with the dominant sound being an acoustic piano. Much of the album is reminiscent of minimalist classical composers such as Gavin Bryars or Terry Riley or the musical output of the ECM label, than acoustic guitar players such as John Fahey, Robbie Basho or Leo Kottke. However, his 12 string acoustic playing is still rich and beautifully textured as ever. All three albums make great music to kickback to when you’ve had a really shitty day and just want to relax.

THE WELCOME RETURN OF SOME OLD FRIENDS…
Stereolab - Chemical Chords
Beyond The Wizards Sleeve - Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Ark 1
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
My first Stereolab record was the very excellent Superelectric 10″ EP back in 1991, and since then I seem to have amassed sixteen or seventeen records by the band, with only Neil Young managing to sneak more records into my collection. However I must confess to not spending much time with their previous studio album, 2004’s Margarine Eclipse. Sadly it seemed that the band were finally running out of ideas, not helped by the death of former member Mary Hansen in 2002. Chemical Chords may not be a total reinvention, but there’s enough new ideas going on here to suggest the band are getting back to their best, and keen to try some new things out. But for much of this album it’s good news for us fans with business as usual, which is to say that this album is still a million miles ahead of the indie-by-numbers of many of today’s bands. When I first met Richard Norris, one half of Beyond the Wizards Sleeve, he was working with record sleeve designer Phil Smee on the wonderful Psychedelia reissue label, Bam Caruso. The next time we met he had joined the NME as one of the writers covering the emerging dance scene (alongside Jack “the tab” Barron, Helen Mead, Andy Weatherall and my old friend Mixmaster Morris). Richard then cropped up with ex-member of Soft Cell, David Ball in the Grid. And now he’s working with pal Erol Alkan (DJ and producer de jour), and his love of Psych is back. This album isn’t exactly made up of their own material, but re-edits of classic 60s psych and Krautrock from around the world. The album includes a great rerub of The Factory’s “Path Through The Forest“, one of my favourite bits of UK freakbeat. Only available from the Rough Trade shop, you better move fast if you want one. Tricky is an amazing character. Coming through the Bristol scene with Massive Attack and Portishead, he made one of the defining albums of it’s time in Maxinquaye. And here’s Tricky back again, doing his own thing, fitting in in one particular genre, and now with a label Domino Records that seems to understand the man, and how to sell his records. This is the first Tricky album I’ve really given a good listen to since 1998’s Angels With Dirty Faces, which makes me wonder what I’ve missed something in the interim years. Fave tracks at the minute are “Bacative” which features a tremendous dub bassline, the haunting “Joseph”, and the rocking “C’mon Baby”. It’s nice to have the Tricky Kid back and firing on all cylinders.

…AND SOME NEW FRIENDS TO CHERISH
The Chap - Mega Breakfast
Clutchy Hopkins - Walking Backwards
White Denim - Workout Holiday
Endless Boogie - Focus Level

These four acts don’t have much in common, other than they were all new to me. The Chap sound like Hot Chip’s quirky art school older brothers, whose favourite bands include the Flying Lizards and the Cardiacs. Lot’s of fun, and not to be taken too seriously. Clutchy Hopkins is not a real person. There are a good number of posting on the web asking who the man is and speculating who is behind this album, guesses include MF Doom, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, and one of or all of the Beastie Boys. We’ll obviously no one had been looking at the credits on eMusic as it seems that Clutchy is the work of the one and only Shawn Lee. Shawn’s first album came out on the Wall Of Sound album in 2000, followed by a bunch of albums for US label Ubiquity. This album is made up of some superb soundscapes that certianly wouldn’t disgrace the catalogues of any of the artists that were thought to be behind this record. Definitely one for any instrumental hip hop heads, fans of Shuggy Otis and David Axelrod. White Denim seemed to appear around the time I started to read about No Age’s highly rated Nouns album, an album I bought but just couldn’t get on with, and unusually for me took it back to the shop. White Denim are equally noisy, but take from 60s garage punk, rather than early 80s hardcore punk. Lots of fun to jump around to, and way more intersting than many of the bands who steal form the music of the 60s and early 70s. Endless Boogie are as John Mulvey, deputy ed of Uncut magazine claims masters of Chooglin’, which apprently characterises the music of everything from Creedence Clearwater Revival to…uhum…Status Quo. Heaven help us. However, although Focus Level could be no more a hideous rehash of late early 70s-style blues rock, this album sound like a mix of early ZZ Top, Canned Heat and Captain Beefheart, but all filtered through some weird Krautrock filter. Once you get over the shock of listening to a record that might just take some of its inspiration from the mighty Quo, this is a surprisingly good record that makes we want to check out if anything else from the early 70s blues boom was quite so interesting as this record!