Entertainment For Lively Minds
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What's on the CD with the June 2012 issue
1. The Heartbreaks - Delay Delay
We’d wager that not a single member of this jangly Lancashire quartet had been born when the NME issued their C86 compilation. But that hasn’t stopped them from cutting this supreme slice of indie-pop, one as bracing as the onshore winds lashing their hometown of Morecambe.
From the album Funtimes
2. Mina Trundle - Too Loud
Parisian Mina Tindle shouldn’t be concerned that she’ll get lost underfoot in that crowded room of women making quirky folk-pop. Too Loud will be instantly attractive to anyone with the records of Regina Spektor or Jesca Hoop in their house.
From the album Taranta
Electronics and rock guitars join the esoteric for this much-anticopated collection of singles from Colombia's legendary record label, Discos Fuentes. This one’s a typically unusual hymn of support for Tunguska, the 830-square-mile Russian forest devastated by a still-unexplained aerial explosion in 1908.
From the album Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2
4. Gaz Coombes - Fanfare
Having vowed not to “defecate on the name of Supergrass” with a cash-heavy reunion, Gaz Coombes heads into what he calls “subterranean sonics”. This means he’s been down in the basement, tinkering with a pile of electronic gadgetry. And to fine effect, too.
From the album Here Come The Bombs
5. Hervé - Night Turns Into Day
Joshua Harvey has a number of aliases: The Count Of Monte Cristal, Machines Don’t Care, Speaker Junk… Today he’s Hervé. With its elasticated bassline and big, chiming, rave-friendly melody, this is a measure of what to expect from the DJ/producer’s own-label debut album.
From the album Pick Me Up, Sort Me Out, Calm Me Down
6. The Black Seeds - Loose Cartilage
Loose Cartilage is a deceptive beast. Cranking into action by way of classic rock riffage, it soon relaxes into a well-oiled rocksteady groove, all Hammond organ and stabbing horns. Fact fans: these New Zealanders used to count Flight Of The Conchords’ Bret McKenzie in their ranks.
From the album Dust And Dirt
7. Krystle Warren - Every Morning
She might be singing of sunrises but Every Morning is the smouldering sound of round midnight, of unfolding secrets over an after-hours nightcap. But Krystle regrets nothing. As convincing a love song as you’re likely to hear.
From the album Love Song: A Time You May Embrace
8. Nara Sirato - Mato
Panpipe players have never recovered from The Fast Show’s portrayal of shifty buskers clogging up shopping centres. Solomon Islanders Narasirato redress the balance, playing their music – which they simply call “bamboo” – with verve, invention and oodles of groove.
From the album Warato’o
9. Still Flyin' - Plastic Heart
Once described as “Quincy Jones producing The Lovin’ Spoonful”, Still Flyin’ are a loose troupe of around 15 San Franciscans stylishly flavouring their art-rock with more exotic touches. They remind us of Stop Making Sense-era Talking Heads. No bad thing at all.
From the album On A Bedroom Wall
10. Joshua James - Annabelle
“I find solace and beauty in darkness and depression,” Joshua James has said. The exuberant Annabelle suggests the Nebraskan folkie now lives in sunnier quarters. Both in style and subject matter (musing over the fate of a past squeeze), this is a companion to The Waterboys’ And A Bang On The Ear.
From the album Build Me This
11. Allo Darlin' - Capricornia
Allo Darlin’ originally consisted of just ukulele-toting Aussie ex-pat Elizabeth Morris. They’re now a four-piece with a neat line in “twee-pop”. Capricornia shows that “twee” is not a four-letter word.
From the album Europe
12. Sparrow - Black Leaves
A twinning of the towns of Brighton and Cambridge, Sparrow are a tidy combination of diaphanous harmonies and sturdy shoegaze-y guitars. And theirs is certainly the best song this month about diseased trees.
From the albumHowever Did The Wolf Get In
If an American band doesn’t call Brooklyn home, chances are they’re residents of Portland instead. That’s where Tu Fawning hang their hats, but their ghostly songs bear no identifiable postmark – or indeed, date stamp. Commendably out of both time and step.
From the album A Monument
With its echoes of a youthful Graham Parker, you could well believe that this ray of power-pop sunshine was a lost early Stiff 45, all bubblegum optimism and pub-rock nous. It was actually recorded in 2012 by a Swede. But, really, who’s counting?
From the album Soundshine
Williams’ new project – in collaboration with Simon Edwards and Ginny Clee, plus mixing mastery from Portishead’s Adrian Utley – moves beyond folk to accommodate ’60s pop, vintage beats and much else besides. Too many bands wear their forced eclecticism on the sleeves – this is a masterclass in getting the balance right.
From the album Kathryn Williams Presents The Pond








