Look what we sneaked online while you were sleeping… Transmission 32.0…. w/e 12/08/2017 – side b….

Look what we sneaked online while you were sleeping…

Transmission 32.0…. w/e 12/08/2017 – side b….

Revolutions of a 33 and 45 kind….

This edition features one or two items that missed the cut in error and should have featured in earlier missives….apologies to all concerned…

. features …

The king khan BBQ show, pressure, Shannon and the clams, waves, current joys, magenta placenta, Glenn Campbell, castle face, alain pirie experience, nuvem leopard, the green ray, the gold needles, the insektlife cycle, superfjord, permanent clear light, the paperweight array, the vox humana, Kris gietkowski, civilian zen, arcade messiah, cat frequency, vukovar, crispy’s curse, anda volley, popol vuh, the bevis frond, anton barbeau, sendelica, fuchsia, babal, red sun, chariots, cary grace, the spookers, deviant amps, the telephones, mark mcdowell, earthling society, pulselovers, Brutalist Architecture in the Sun, blix six, oscillation communications, mary epwoth, the doxey boggart, some detergents, those naughty lumps, freeze frame, afraid of mice, lori and the chameleons, pink industry, ex post facto, the hardy tree, scrabbel, sea fuzz, eaters, bodywash, oddnesse, duds, male gaze, magnetix, looped for pleasure, i monster, the bordellos, Persian claws, the vice barons, the monsters, the prisoners, the bikini lovers, the alarm clocks, the daggermen, the surfadelics….

Stuff……

Things we missed – isn’t just the dandiest thing you’ve heard in an age, sounds like a bad assed Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons on seriously wired smoke-ables……

https://soundcloud.com/thekingkhanbbqshow/07-too-much-in-love

…but then there’s always this, some of the niftiest guitars heard for such an age……ultra-cool go go rumble…..very youthful Cramps….

https://soundcloud.com/psycheevil/pressure-corners

……bugger me, is it just me or does this sound like it’s just walked straight out of a 50’s ice cream parlour……

https://soundcloud.com/hardlyartrecords/11-into-a-dream

…..would I be right in saying that we’ve mentioned the Wavves in passing, here’s another nugget we are suspecting we missed along the way……

https://soundcloud.com/mackennalagos/wavves-weed-demon

…..about this one, we’ll just simply say….bliss…

https://soundcloud.com/currentjoys/kids

….. In a word … perfection ….

https://soundcloud.com/magenta-placenta/even-if

sadly parted …..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40870474

http://www.liverpoolpsychfest.com/bands/castle-face-records-irregular-orbits/

As previously mentioned, those attending the forthcoming Fruits de Mer summer soirees will be able to lay your hands upon variously CD stuffed goody bags amid which you’ll find a head tripping thirteen track compilation simply entitled ‘the fifteenth dream of Dr Sardonicus’ – a mammoth cranium frazzling collection of cuts featuring both familiar and not so familiar ensembles frequenting the FdM sonic universe. A positive smorgasbord of talent is gathered here, each of these tracks nuggets in their own right and each occupying their own celebrated space, in short a kaleidoscopic event that opens to the previously unknown to us, Alain Pire Experience whose ‘lazin in the afternoon’ is, unless I’m very much mistaken, a mushrooming 60’s cloud decorated in the finest of vintage psych pop threads, no doubt the kind picked up in a trendy postcode situated thrift shop and once belonging to Messrs Lynne and Wood, that’ll be Jeff and Roy, so much here oozed in a symphonic dream weaving piped through with hushing harmonies as to have you reaching for your classic ELO and Move platters for comparison. Another new to us are Nuvem Leopardo found here serving up ‘revolucao interior’ and into the bargain tripping your head space in a mind-blowing collage of hallucinogenic hazes and progian psych white out waywardness replete with the kind of smoked out stoned freakery fuzziness that were one to carbon date would find lurking in its own self-made haze way back to 1971. Up next the Green Ray’s ‘silent river ride’ arrives plentiful in eastern mosaics and the kind of scuffed up shit faced out thereness that sounds like it dropped something particularly potent in the early 70’s and then just forgot to wake up, and while they mightn’t quite have nailed that creative aplomb of Dungen they certainly veer in similar terrains crafting up the kind of kiss the sky grooving that in truth could easily have come from a vault dig turned up by those Rise Above chaps. Ah the disarmingly kooky sounds of the gold needles who recently graced our listening space with a rather dandy and ultra-limited lathe twin set press. ‘service with a smile’ featured here clearly nods to the early doors vibes of the Go Team whilst simultaneously finding itself not a million miles in terms of sound, style and wherewithal as that of the blue giant zeta puppies in so far as it comes adored in oodles of sci-fi-tronic cosmic psych twang – think barry gray seven / joe 90 / the Andersons with a smattering of delightfully wigged out 70’s grooviness thrown in for good measure, so infectious and buzzy it might just cause the onset of a rash. Much loved around here, the Insektlife cycle delight in a fusion of post / math rock proggy psych, ‘unicycle monologue’ particularly straying at times in to the outer margins of the Cardiacs albeit a kind of silent version therein all day dreamily tumbled down a magic rabbit hole, something I’d hasten to add of listening love to those appreciative of say, Mountain. ‘the Chandrasekhar limit’ by Superfjord, really what can we say aside pointing out that it’s a trip and half, think chxfx and astralasia in mind morphing cahoots doing weirdly woozy things from the more head expanding moments of Delirium’s celebrated 90’s back catalogue, just out there and astral planing no doubt looking for a neat spot for a kosmick picnic. Think I’m right in saying that it’s been a while since Permanent Clear Light stunned and wowed our listening space, though why oh why each every time ‘this quiet man smiling’ rears into earshot do we get the overriding desire to fetch out platters bearing the name Freed Unit upon their hides, no problem with that mind, this ‘un though does towards the end go very Birmingham 90’s sounding with the appearance of some dreamily pastoral 60’s mosaics finitely cut by what sounds like a gathering of pram, plone, l’augmentation and broadcast types. I’ll be honest in saying that we had to have a double take on this to make sure it wasn’t some secret and long-lost collaborative face-off between a very youthful REM and an equally fresh faced Blue Aeroplanes, happy to confirm that this is indeed the paperweight array whose ‘transmissions’ has been causing a veritable amount of swooning around these parts honed as it is to a pristinely turned radiant sun glazed transistor adoring throb. Up next a nifty slice of kosmische lounge, something I’ll hasten to add that ought to be on the radar of admirers of such labels as enraptured and deep distance, these folk be the Vox Humana and this is ‘jobfinder’ a kind of celestial Balearic that imagines a star hugging symphonia cobbled together by the gathering talents of say, Slipstream, Silver Apples and Fly. Kris Gietkowski who you might recall from his ridiculously brave and hugely enjoyable expanded three disc set of Egg covers, now you don’t need me telling you such an event is an absolutely essential listening acquirement, herewith ‘lights’ a shy of the 12 minute ticker tape chin stroking with optional beard forming qualities slab of trippy 60’s freakiness or to put it another way a psychedelic seaside soiree that wouldn’t look to out of place on that quite spiffing ‘monsterism island’ compilation put out a few years ago by lo recordings which all said ought to appeal at times to those Vernon Eliott and north sea radio orchestra folk among you. First time appearance to these missives by Civilian Zen with ‘Apothesis’ who, unless ears do wickedly deceive, do a less that obvious take on space rock that sumptuously manifests to emerge from the dark side of working for a nuclear free city albeit as though graced and accompanied by a cruise controlled Church. Track twelve finds Arcade Messiah taking up the groove space for a mammoth 12-and-a-half-minute work with the immense ‘deliverance’, we still say that these dudes veer on a sonic axis where the lines of separation are found to be at their most narrow and finite between Grails and Porcupine Tree, takes a wee while to kick into its stride but once it does, a simply stunning tour de force ripples and rips into panoramic rapture upon your listening space. Bringing matters to a close, Cat Frequency opt to kaleidoscopically craft courtesy of the zonked out ‘Icarus come fly with me’ – a sun drenched psych baroque that all at once hints of Syd Floyd, the Zombies, Left Banke and the Pretty Things, fried eh.

The fifteenth dream of dr sardonicus is scheduled to happen over three days – August 4, 5 and 6 in Cardigan – a festival therein featuring a galaxy of talent, roll call as follows…….

The Bevis Frond

Sendelica

Anton Barbeau

Fuchsia

Babal

Earthling Society

The Telephones (acoustic set)

The Cary Grace Band

The Spookers

Deviant Amps

Chariots

Red Sun

Mark McDowell and Friends

and DJ Wally Stagg

in addition to the usual FdM frolics there’s the goody bags and limited lathe presses to lay your hands upon……the goody bags come stuff with 9 CD’s, the lathes – well take your pick – Sendelica, Cary Grace and a Bevis Frond gem along with a chance to get your mits on a vinyl pressing of Fuschia’s ‘Fuschia II’ – first time wax pressing for that one.

Further details here ….. http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/15thdream.html

truth be told, the coolest thing in planet pop right now (if you ignore its b-side that is), post everything perfection at its most towering and majesty, this is Vukovar and ‘the clockwork dance’ – need I say more…..mentioned a little while back here…. https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/vukovar-9/

…..and back with Sonic Entrails for a spot of oddness courtesy of the ‘Music Composed For ‘Crispy’s Curse’ soundtrack. You might recall us mentioning this a little while back, well the film at least, due for release / screening sometime this month we believe, all centres around a creepy clown by the name Crispy, the CD on limited release even comes packaged with its own fuzzy felt clown nose. Very creepy I hear you cry. The soundtrack, made up of macabre incidental moments stretches to some 35 tracks, for now, we’ve hooked our ears upon just two tracks, the longest ‘tears of fear’ and the parting shot ‘lulla bye’. Both deeply disturbing, not quite sure what’s going on within the former, but I suggest those of you with a fear of dentist chairs with particular reference to drills might want to look away and press frantically on the skip option for this takes you beyond the veil into terrains lurking deep in the primitive subconscious. Of course, this being a Sonic Entrails artefact, anything purporting to call itself ‘lulla bye’ even forgiving for the playful spelling twist, is going to be anything but a charming walk into kindergarten dream worlds, instead this is bloated and fractured in the eerie all the time blurring the dread with the hopelessness, all in all something we suggest, not for the faint of heart. https://sonicentrails.bandcamp.com/album/music-composed-for-crispys-curse

Incoming on one-way static, a strictly limited repress of Popol Vuh’s long deleted 1991 classic ‘for you and me’. Just 300 copies of this lost nugget escaping into the wilds, all pressed on black and white swirl vinyl. An album that genuinely turns on the full spectrum of Fricke’s classicist vision as the featured track here – ‘wind of the stars in their eyes’ so eloquently attests, a beautiful slice of floral intimacy shimmered in a tenderly toned earthy sonic symmetry that captivates, caresses and charms with a divinely unbridled romantic elegance that seduces and swoons the listening space with a sophisticated majesty.

Just between you, me and garden gate post I’m not altogether certain whether Anda Volley has secretly set herself the challenge of scoring five tracks, each a minute long and then off proceeding forth with the aim of cramming as much inventiveness and sonic narrative into the limited confines as she can. ‘paper moon’ her latest, features five tracks, each barely making it past the one-minute mark, yet each revealing a different and uniquely individual side to her persona. The set opens to the mystical ghost folk spectral that is the title track before eerily dissolving into the sparsely siren-esque and softly psychotropic ‘wolf meet’. ‘the life inside you’ momentarily breaks the spell arriving sepia framed as though an echo from a lost near forgotten monochrome world before ‘where I feel most at peace’ arrives to assume something of a seductive apparition drizzled and demurred in the kind of noir touchings that recall Musetta leaving the woozy hallucinogenic ghost light ‘Crane and Chrysanthemum’ to steer matters from out of the chemical fog and off towards the end credits. In short, all very stunning. https://andavolley.bandcamp.com/album/paper-moon

…..and so, we’re back with Fruits de Mer who about now should be into the first night’s festivities of the fifteenth dream of dr sardonicus gathering in Cardigan. As mentioned earlier, a goody bag stuff full of CD’s awaits all who attend, one of which features a selection of crucial cuts from each of the bands appearing live. Thirteen tracks in all serving up the full gamut of the FdM experience, the set opening to the mind floating arabesque wooziness of Chariots who clearly, judging by ‘Vimana’ imbibe frequently on Eastern essences of a head expanding kind with this snake charming kaleidoscopic tapestry clearly found peeling the lids from the third eye. Babal on the other hand present a clearly different mystical perspective, for ‘land of warriors’ is graced upon an empirical palette than swirls and shifts with a storm calling shadowy vibrancy raised on the finest of prog rock pedigrees all the time darkly beautifully and irrefutably magical. ‘magic dawn’ by, I think I’m right in saying, the previously unknown to us Red Sun features swathes of dream draped riff flotillas amid its milky widescreen drifts cape, post rock gone wild west replete with oodles of soft psyche thrown in for good measure, reference wise think of subdued Church canoodling with Balmorhea. Those of you preferring your sounds oozed in lysergic trippiness might do well to seek out Anton Barbea’s ‘heavy psychedelic toilet’ – in short a kaleidoscopic opera that sounds as though it’s just stepped out of the late 60’s holding the hand of Paul Roland. Next up a very special radio edit of ‘without a trace’ by Cary Grace all seductively trimmed in a dizzying array of softly tinged psyche folk mosaics and coolly arrested in the kind of vintage that much recalls a laid-back Renaissance which neatly leads to Mark McDowell and friends’ quite quietly sublime ‘service of owls’ whose lushly rustic flutterby like airiness had us in mind of the strangely quiet of late the Katie Winter. High time for some mercurial musings from Fuchsia, herewith folk ghost light ‘the waves’ which itself gets a tad bit delightfully psychedelically wiggy at times all the time turbulently rambling amid crescendos of yesterday spectres all bled through with acid rustics. None of these FdM compilations are complete without a spot of stoned out beatnik fuzziness from chief beard the Bevis Frond,herewith a rare demo variant of ‘Nautilus’ all sounding suitably scuffed and high as though its stepped from the early 70’s. Somewhere else the Spookers cook up some nifty 90’s psych tweaked club land shape cutting, ‘Gabba haze for the nuke’ sounding not unlike an erroneously left on the cutting room floor classic era Delirium chill pill refried by a clearly stoned Paris Angels. Another name I’m suspecting in being right in saying new to us, are Deviant Amps who craft the kind of smoked out wasted way out psyche blues haziness much beloved of the Bad Afro imprint, see Baby Woodrose et al. No strangers around these here parts and with that in no need of introduction, the mighty Sendelica do things to heads that most chemicals only dream of, however on this occasion serving something a little more mellowed and less head evaporating than usual with an edited version of ‘ripples of the megalith’ – a delightfully dreamy pastoral mosaic that takes stock of their widening craft and artistry and something so intricately intimate and rich in beauty that certain of you folk may well feel obliged to re-acquaint yourselves with the classic era platters of a youthful Constellation imprint. All said vote for the most smoked out moment of the set is clearly won hands down by Earthling Society whose mammoth twelve-and-a-half-minute workout ‘outsideofintime’ is so heavy we wouldn’t bat an eyelid to find it appearing on the periodical tables, a hefty slice of beardy kaleidoscopia with Floydian flights of freakiness, in short, a full-on mind bending sonic odyssey. Wrapping up matters, the telephones serve up a demo version of the hurtfully hollowed ‘old man’s range’, into the bargain souring the grooves in a touchingly tearful casting of reflective melancholy.

Eyed this on a posting, both volumes of the excellent UnMute music tribute to Mute records up for free download. I think I’m right in saying a gathering of folk covering tracks originally heading out of the label in the early 80’s. Ever time poor round these parts we’ve only had a brief chance to sample the gems lurking within duly noting that Pulselovers feature on both sets, their contribution to Volume II being the distinctly chilled n’ minimalist ‘hill of men’ which had we not known any better would have hastened to gather it being some ominous pulsar cooked up by those Add N to X folk after an evening dosed up on late 60’s Dr Who radiophonics, admirers of the Truth About Frank consider yourselves warned. Okay you all know me so well, so you won’t be too surprised to hear that initial attractions to Brutalist Architecture in the Sun was purely based on name alone, that said such churlish reasons for listening are so often well rewarded we find, the case in point being ‘double heart’ which once loosened of it Karl Bartos-esque Kraftwerk-ness soon blossoms into something that sounds as though it rolled off an electronic pop conveyor belt in 1981 all moulded in the image of an Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark in a secret pact with B-Movie. We here have always had a soft spot for Wire’s ‘kidney bingos’ here re-imagined by the black hundred and done to faultless faithfulness it should be said and smoothed of its proto angular pop grooving into something more bliss toned and dreamy. Over on Volume 1, Oscillation Communication usher in a distinctly sinister gouging to the Mode’s ‘photographic’ given it along the way something of a DAF vibing. Somewhere else Blix Six tetool Yazoo’s ‘only you’ into something we can actually tolerate, never a great fan of the original, this new re-appraisal sounding wonderfully wasted and weirded out, did we say creepy as well, well creepy an all, reference wise a twisted Babybird colluding with White Town I think covers what’s afoot. Last up for this all too brief mention, we will be back if we think on, Pulselovers going all Human League mk 1 ‘being boiled’ style on ‘mode of infection’, they really must put out more records. https://unmute-music.bandcamp.com/album/unmute-a-tribute-to-artists-on-mute-records-vol-i and https://unmute-music.bandcamp.com/album/unmute-a-tribute-to-artists-on-mute-records-vol-ii

Think I might be right in saying that it’s been way to long since Mary Epworth troubled these pages, we hear word of a new album incoming on the horizon entitled ‘Elytral’ through the Sunday Best imprint, a label who at one time or another many years ago used to frequently pepper these missives. Anyhow rambling over, this is the quite alluring ‘me swimming’ replete with Kafka-esque video, a demurring spectral mysterio all softly bathed in whispering lunar ethereals, just adore the way it softly smothers you in its woozy dream drifts, don’t know about you folk but we here are adoringly smitten by it.

Many thanks to the folk over at Sonic Entrails for sending out copies of their latest release, the dare I say epic and handsomely packaged ‘the Doxey Boggart Original Soundtrack’. Mentioned in passing a few weeks ago, this set comprises of 2 x CD’s and a DVD all parcelled up in a hand stamped envelope that includes a polaroid and some bog grass. Only 100 of these pressed up, our copy – for the note takers among you – #14/100. A multimedia document centring around the legend of the Doxey Boggart, a malevolent creature thought to lurk in the Boxey marshes prowling for local town folk to steal. The DVD part of the release, features in the main location footage that explores the history of the legend, various related folklore to do with superstition, sacrifice and the whole mythology surrounding marshlands and the long-held beliefs that these serve as portals or gateways to other dimensions. It’s all very eerie stuff, the location itself lending perfectly to the tension and macabre ushered forth by its remoteness, harsh bleak beauty and detachment. During the course of the filming strange occurrences manifest – a mother and daughter going missing at the same time the team are making field recordings themselves later to be discovered, the subject of mysterious sonic manifestations, coincidence perhaps, in the end all’s well, the mother and daughter, its discovered, weren’t missing after all, and the sound recordings though eerily enhanced, are simply put down to the environment and some hitherto natural source picked up and twisted or fused with the dronal mosaics by the recorder. As to the sounds, stretched across two discs, the soundtrack comprises of fifteen sinister suites that encapsulate perfectly that sense of isolation and unseen dread offered up by the wilderness of the marshlands, which even in daylight seem to create both their own atmosphere and environment. As you can imagine the common theme running here is one of nightmarish foreboding with the elements playing a key role in the creative inspiration. With that in mind, similarities are drawn to Stylus’ excellent ‘The Last Seaweed Collecting Hut At Freshwater West’ and ‘Skomargraph’ sets from a few years back via the much-missed Ochre imprint (see From The Bogs Of Aughiska), for both share that sense of raw eerie magic as though your entering a secretly mysterious place far from the interference by modernism. Agreed not as bleak and foreboding as those sounds that have haunted our listening space courtesy of the Aetheric imprint (that said Whote’s ‘the distant field’ may have you thinking otherwise), yet something that ought to tick the ‘hauntologist’ boxes of those subscribing to the regular rural reports emanating from the A Year in the Country collective, as said 15 tracks lurk with ominous glee here, Autoclav 1.1 opening proceedings in truly nightmarish detachment with the chilling ‘peaks’ – a spectral ghost light weaved of flickering apparitions pressing upon the listener an inescapable sense of stilled dread, a perfect entrance that sets the atmospheric tone exquisitely, for here amid these drone suites and between their somewhat doomy macabre, invisible energies and the hum of dimensional breaches between realities both real and supernatural collide to portray a psycheographical map of the area that by night assumes a more mythical, more eerie and readily more unfamiliar landscape to its serenely calming beauty by daylight with the pychotronic pulsars emitting a curiously malevolent fog that casts its cloak across the marshy wastelands. So here be archaic utterings, the summoning of legendary beasts (John E Smoke’s frequent incantations), the timeless groan of lands left wild for generations, all sound tracked to a haunting symphonia that casts shapes from shadows in the mind’s eye, the howling wake within Satan’s Bee Keeper’s ‘the Doxey Boggart’ – an unwitting centrepiece here, is scorched upon white hot shards of sky siren feedback vapours a marked contrast to the shimmering disquiet that greets the appearance of Raxii4’s brooding ‘160317’ . that said rarely does this dark harvesting get as intensely isolated as on ‘gakidama’ by Theresia, ghostly whispers invade its terrain making this a true from behind the sofa viewing which all leaves John 3:16 holding the odd man out stick ushering everyone back out through the exit gate with the parting and typically overcasting ‘appolyon’. https://sonicentrails.bandcamp.com/album/the-doxey-boggart-original-soundtrack

interlude…..Mersey memories……some detergents, those naughty lumps, freeze frame, afraid of mice, lori and the chameleons, pink industry, ex post facto…..

some detergents…..

those naughty lumps….

freeze frame….

afraid of mice…..

Lori and the chameleons….

Pink industry….

ex post facto…..

You might recall us briefly mentioning WIAIWYA’s rather intriguing ‘7 at 77’ project – whilst running the ruler so to speak, over the Papernut Cambridge contribution – there’ll be another mention later in the week. In short, the project was set up with intention of raising funds to assist the sterling work done by Medecins Sans Frontieres, 7 releases each seventy-seven minutes long all released at daily intervals earlier this month. Sadly, the specially made CD variants have long since flown the coup, however all the tracks are now available to hear and of course purchase digitally via the labels bandcamp page. Now we here have found ourselves totally smitten by the Hardy Tree’s dreamy fix ‘sketches in D minor’ a wonderfully orbiting floral lunar love note it be all seductively crushed in romantic nostalgia and peppered longingly in a wistfully sultry shimmering of Balearic ghost tones, it really is a most beguiling listening experience with its shy eyed wood crafted expressions forming a lilting crystalline cortege to engage in a night capping lullaby dance, something I’d suggest of interest to both admirers of Reich and Riley not to mention on a looser sonic plain, Stereolab. https://wiaiwya.bandcamp.com/track/sketches-in-d-minor-2

Staying with WIAIWYA a little while longer, couldn’t resist drawing this one to your listening attention, a limited 7 inch by Scrabbel by the name ‘all night’. A delightfully sun basking slice of skin tingling effervescent loveliness, excitably infectious and cut with more struts than a wannabe Elvis talent night, add in swathes of feel good chiming riffola along with oodles of tropical brisk breezes and you have something that ought to sit pretty alongside your prized Allo, Darlin’ and pains at being pure at heart platters. That said over on the flip sits ‘summer’s end’ a smoky slowie pepper corned in hazy arrests, sighing strings arrangements and a sly soulful bruising that much recalls Damon and Naomi at their most captivating and vulnerable. https://wiaiwya.bandcamp.com/album/all-night-summers-end

Another release that mischievously fell beneath our radar is a recent one from Sea Fuzz entitled ‘sun gazing’ – now this one has been working its way beneath our skin with a curiously strange ease, all sky siren riffs cut to a mellowing haziness and the kind of restrained cool coalescing whose shoe gazing hypnosia and bliss toned blistering skirts into the distance sonic quadrants of a youthful Church pierced with the muscular wherewithal of Skywave. https://soundcloud.com/seafuzz/sun-gazing

you know how it is, sometimes you just wanna kick back and listen to some kick botty day glo grooviness that rewires you back to your younger listening experiences, not that we’re accusing this lot of being retro, well we are sort of, though I think it’s trying hard not to be. Would I be right in saying these folk are fully paid up members of the ‘I adore Wire’ fan club. This is Eaters with what we assume is a single called ‘embrace the strange’ through the dull tools imprint. A rollicking slab of kraut fuelled cosmically florescent nag nag nag new wave future gazing brittleness that adeptly freewheels into terrains occupied by the Invaderband so much so that its sci-fi-tronic strut arrives fused in elements of Magazine and the Beatnik Filmstars. Essential. https://soundcloud.com/dull-tools/embrace-the-strange

oh my, how on earth did we miss this first time around, slinked in a hazy hermetically sealed bubble softly purring in slo-mo formations this is ‘sunspots’ by Bodywash, a moment of out of body feel good radiance wrapped in all manner of whispering bliss tones, vapour trailing chiming carousels and astral gliding cosmic sea surfing, if I didn’t know any better I’d be suspecting the handiwork of the flaming lips were upon it. https://soundcloud.com/bodywashmtl/sunspots

blimey, no sooner do we dispatch one lost gem then along comes another to replace it in our affections. Again, another we missed first time of asking, this is Oddnesse with the frankly immaculate ‘somewhere somehow’. This ‘un can be found heading out of the myster music imprint, blessed with a shy sighing vocal that draws comparisons to the Sunday’s Harriet Wheeler, this bruising honey tugs gently on the heartstrings picking away at your emotional defences and that’s even before we’ve had a chance to mention the opining riffs. In short jaw dropping dream pop perfection. Any questions? https://soundcloud.com/oddnesse/somewhere-somehow-1

an essential listening mix tape put together by the Castleface dudes heralding the oncoming head happenings at this year’s Liverpool Festival of Psychedlia soiree. Eleven well-heeled selections opening to the twang trashed scab forming shadowy vibed groove of Magnetix who to these ears sound not unlike the evil twin of the Cramps dragged up from some swamp festering lake, literally oozing psychosis. In sharp contrast, once and future band appear adept at crafting pristinely sunny 70’s MOR softly turned in warping kaleidoscopia, oozes west coast harmonies with an impeccably attractive nod to the Zombies albeit as though woozily smoked and toned in Elephant 6 essences. Fancy some clearly wasted jazzy psych that sounds like it’s been sneaked off a lost and recently found Old Grey Whistle Test performance from the mid 70’s, then the Sunwatchers beard forming ‘eusubius’ might fill that wanting space, in truth not a million miles from the kind of groove occasionally committed to wax by Anla Courtis and the like. That said we suggest you tune into ‘there is no God and fuck the Government’ – for some drop dead head fracturing freeform squalling noise niking. We here are suspecting we need to hook up to more DUDS groove and sharpish, for ‘assembly line’ is one of those skittish sore thumbs that demands repeat play, wilfully wayward and angular with it, a bit like imagining a late 70’s gathering of Fall and Wire types. As to Male Gaze, blighters barely give you time to settle back comfortably before being about you in a rush all up close and personal courtesy of the frankly frenzied agit gouged ‘the shining path’. https://soundcloud.com/castle-face-1/sets/liverpool-festival-of

those of you opting to order the print / vinyl bundle of the latest issue of electronic sound get to grab yourselves a split 7 inch featuring a brace of tracks from a collective of Sheffield’s finest ambassadors of future sound. Upon this double a sided disc, first up comes ‘city lights’ by looped for pleasure, a track that finds Cabaret Voltaire founder Stephen Mallinder in studio cahoots with former Screaming Trees dudes Messrs Maloney and Swancott to cook up some nifty shadow playing and shape cutting subtronic techno dub with if anything neatly joins the grainy dots separating the Cabs’ ‘seconds too late’ and the Crackdown’ and into the bargain nodding along the way to a c.81 era Clock DVA. Over to the flip, the equally legendary I, Monster serve up ‘Arp (long live the avatar)’ – a remix of ‘Alan R Pearlman and the ARPiological Exploration of the Cosmos’, an obvious nod to the founder of Arp technologies, this one relocates your head space straight back in the late 70’s – a time of space age disco with this not surprisingly an imagining of some secret French futurist collaboration between Space and Jean Michel Jarre. In addition to the vinyl, the bundle also gets you access codes to a free 13 track download ‘made in sheffield’ featuring a plethora of tracks from the likes of they must be Russians, I’m so hollo, vice versa and more……further mentions later in the week……

am I right in thinking that this is a re-recording of a track currently featured on their last – and dare I say much loved – full length set for recordiau prin ‘life, love and Billy Fury’. Featuring duetting vocals by Persian Claws’ Dee Claw here’s the wonderfully skewiff and spartan ‘brief taste’ with video to boot, one of those impish shakes of the Bordellos mischievous mojo bag gruffy drawing an albeit wonky yet nevertheless proto withered around the edges hoochie coochie bluesy skiffle toned line that simultaneously shakes hands with the Fall, the Beefheart and Of Arrowe Hill.

Interlude……fuzzy gubbins and the return of the bands with names beginning ‘the’……the vice barons, the monsters, the prisoners, the bikini lovers, the alarm clocks, the daggermen, the surfadelics…..

The vice barons……