Songs of 2011 pt. 1

It's that time of the year again, time for me to make a list of my favourite 20 songs of the year, which I'm going to try and do in groups of 5 between now and the end of the year. There is no order to these as I find that sort of ordering a little too difficult. I'm only going to only choose one track from each artist though which is tough.

2011 has been a pretty good year for music, for me maybe not so many great new artists as I would have liked but some fantastic new abums from bands and artists who have expanded and evolved their sounds.


Bon Iver - Holocene

Bon Iver's self titled second album is my album of the year, it's a record which I can listen to again and again and lose myself in it completely. It was really hard for me to choose only one song from this album and after some deliberation I've had to go with 'Holocene'. This song is moving, well written and lyrically beautiful. There are so much going on in this song that you almost discover something new with every listen.

Lykke Li - I follow Rivers

Lykke Li shows just how good pop songs should be written. 'Wounded Rhymes', her second album is absolutely brilliant and 'I Follow Rivers' is one of its finest moments. She returned with a darker, edgier sound that shakes away some of the youthfullness of her first album and this song shows just how far she has come. Like my Bon Iver choice before it was difficult to choose one song from this album but this just nudges it, a big catchy chorus and some great production throughout, I'll be listening to this for years to come.

Metronomy - The Bay 

Metronomy returned this year with a new sound, a full band and a concept album based on Torbay, what's not to like? This song is the centrepiece of that album, and what a song this is, even the video makes Torbay look good! The Erol Alkan edit is my remix of the year, a no brainer really there, and the original is fantastic in its own right. The Bay highlights just how much Metronomy's sound has changed since the first record while still maintaining the elements of why we loved them in the first place.

Wild Beasts - Bed Of Nails

Wild Beasts might not be to everyone's tastes and in fact I was slightly nonplussed about them until I saw them play an absolute blinder of a set at End Of The Road festival. Built up with some fantastic harmonies and what is a really individual sound for a guitar band at a time when much seems to be sounding the same to me. Intertwining melodies and sounds backed by a solid bass line and some great rythms really make this song deserving of its place in my top songs of the year. 

SBTRKT - Wildfire 

Featuring Sweden's Little Dragon (who released a great album in their own right this year), SBTRKT have produced a sparse dance sound that seperates it from the dearth of dull dubstep that came before it. This track is an absolute stormer on what is a really clever and well thought out album. Wildfire is a dark, brooding song song for small clubs and sweaty dancefloors, amazing.  

Goats cheese, asparagus and sun dried tomato tart

So I had my mum over for dinner last night and time wasn't on my side so I whipped this dish up. It's really simple but looks and tastes amazing. I used ready rolled puff which is far simpler and time consuming than making the real thing.

First of all dust a baking sheet with flour and cut a couple of tart sized rectangles of puff pastry and place them on the sheet. Score the puff using a sharp knife about 2cm in from the edge but careful not to cut all the way through.

Take four stems of asparagus cut into 2cm pieces (leaving the spear whole for the top of the tart) and 8 sun dried tomatoes, and mix in a bowl to allow the asparagus to take on some of the oil from the tomatoes. Layer the tomatoes and asparagus up on the tart with the spear on top and crumbled up soft goats cheese throughout,  cook on about 200 degrees for 12 or so minutes.

Easy.

Butternut Squash and Courgette Tagine

So maybe it might seem a bit strange that the second recipe I post on my blog also contains butternut squash but that's ok because it's a great vegetable. I more or less based this on a recipe I got from a cookbook with a few alterations. 

This is really simple to make and tastes great, I did it to serve two with enough left for my lunch the next day. 

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1/2 medium butternut squash

1 medium courgette

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

Pinch of saffron thread

2 teaspoons of crushed cumin seeds 

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons of crushed coriander seeds

1 cinnamon stick

1 large red chilli

1 tablespoon of honey

Peel the butternut squash and chop it into 2cm cubes, do the same with the courgette. Now finely chop and fry the onion in olive oil for a few minutes, then add the chopped garlic, after a minute or so add all the dried spices and stir for another minute before adding the chopped chilli. Add the tomatoes, cinnamon stick, honey and vegetables. 

Cook until tender, which is about 30 mins. You may need to top up with a bit of water to stop it drying out. Once done season and add plenty of chopped coriander. I then garnished with a little extra coriander and served with cous cous.  

The cous cous I served it with tonight was 150g with a knob of butter in the bottom, zest of a lemon, chopped green chilli and finely chopped coriander with enough boiling water on top to cook it through. 

Primal Scream at the Eden Project

Here is a review I did for Primal Scream....

Watching a band perform a classic album they released 20 years ago against a backdrop that made me feel like I was in the future was a pretty special if contradictory experience. For those of you who haven’t been to the Eden Sessions or indeed the Eden Project before, the setting for tonight’s gig was a natural amphitheatre placed in front of massive bio-domes containing all sorts of tropical vegetation - it’s like nothing else you’ve seen before. 

After hastily making my way across Devon to Cornwall for tonight’s gig, I arrived a little into The Horrors’ set to be greeted by ‘Who Can Say’. The setting seemed strange and distant for a band far more suited to dark and dingy clubs than the bright sunshine and open space they found themselves in.  Nevertheless, there was a sense of them really trying - they offered up a set that included a fair few tracks from their upcoming third album Skying alongside the best from their previous two offerings, the highlight being an excellent version of ‘Sea Within a Sea’. Despite appreciating the effort they went to – necessary to counter the far from ideal, if idyllic surroundings - one couldn’t help but feel that it was lost on a crowd who clapped appreciatively enough, but still seemed slightly unsure what to make of it all. 

Of course the atmosphere changed when Primal Scream ascended to the stage, the audience being right on side from the off, despite not being sure what to make of old Robert Gillespie’s metallic silver shirt.

Being able to start with a song like ‘Movin’ On Up’ is a privileged position for a band to be in, and just then it really hits home how special an album Screamadelica really is. The majority of the crowd, unlike me, were old enough to remember the LP the first time around, and reacted as if they had been transported back to the week of release. 

The whole shebang was worked through fantastically, with the many altered and extended versions of its classic songs being gratefully received, none more so than the lovingly doctored ‘Higher than the Sun’. Bravely, the ‘Scream even played with the tracklisting to get the most from the crowd, ending on a combination of ‘Loaded’ and ‘Come Together’ which had the audience singing long after they’d left the stage. 

Not content with treating us to just one classic record, following ‘Come Together’ the band retook to the stage for an encore of ‘Country Girl’, ‘Jailbird’ and ‘Rocks’ which really topped off a fantastic performance against an amazing backdrop.

The death of the high street record store revisited

Back in January I posted about the decline in high street record stores which you can read in full here. Since then things seem to have become bleaker still, as in the space of a few short months following that post, Exeter lost its Fopp records and now another local independant is following suit. Yesterday I was alerted to the fact that Martian Records on Ghandi St., is soon to be shutting its doors to the public and was having a closing down sale. I mourned the loss of Fopp as HMV really doesn't have the feel or charm that it used to and now Martian has lost its battle too.

Martian Records, along with the now defunct Solo Records were where I spent many hours and many pounds when I was younger and it seems like the excuse of the internet killing music retail has finally won in Exeter. Although I perhaps haven't visited Martian as much over recent years as I used to apart from the occasional trawl through sale and second hand stock or more recently to see a chaotic Computers album launch gig in there, it will still be missed.

Will HMV last out the year?

Rival Schools and Trail of Dead - Electric Ballroom, April 15th 2011

I went to see these bands the other week and here is my review, which is published in full here 

http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/5022/and-you-will-know-us-by-the-trail-of-dead-rival-schools-electric-ballroom-london-1542011/

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Whilst I had a preconceived bias towards seeing two of my all time favourite bands in one of my favourite venues before this gig even began, I was also somewhat fearful that tonight’s gig might not live up to my lofty expectations. It was nearly a decade ago when I first saw each of these bands headlining their own shows, and I was suitably impressed to repeat the experiences a number of times since. So what has changed in the last 10 years? Rival Schools have spent most of this in hiatus, only recently returning with a second album to follow the critically acclaimed United by Fate.  Yet despite an at times perplexing fall from critical grace, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead never really went away, releasing four albums in the period and shifting the line up multiple times since these eyes first gazed their way.

Yet the energy behind Rival Schools tonight seemed at odds with their long vacation, with songs from new album Pedals  blending seamlessly with those from their aforementioned classic debut. Playing the opener of new before moving to the opener of the old, their hour long set brought together the best of both records, actually making their new album sound like it could have come out the year after their first. When played back to back, ‘Undercovers On’ and ‘Good Things’ took me back to a time when bands like Rival Schools and their British counterparts in bands like Hundred Reasons and Hell is For Heroes were ruling the rock world. I was engrossed in my memories which were only shattered for a moment by Walter likening their touring habits to Bon Jovi, followed by an impromptu verse of said band, before closing with signature tune ‘Used for Glue’.

In terms of sheer performance, having seen Rival Schools perhaps 6 or 7 times, I’d say this was the best of the bunch - perhaps it was the inclusion of a raft of new songs, or simply because the band had put their differences to rest, and decided to just enjoy themselves again. Whatever the reason for their new found invigoration, it made it extremely easy for the audience to follow suit.

By contrast the start of Trail of Dead’s is slightly slow to get going, the crowd seeming somewhat ambivalent towards the trio of songs from new LP ‘Tao of the Dead’ they used to open.  However, after these three songs, they decided to take us back with ‘Will You Smile Again?’, at which point everything seemed to come to life.  This was as close to a Greatest Hits set as a band like Trail of Dead can ever hope to have.

The rest of their set drew almost exclusively from their first four albums, the highlights of which included an excellent, reworked version of ‘Relative Ways’ and a closing rendition of ‘A Perfect Teenhood’ with enough raw energy still present to blow me away.  On stage the band reminisced of their first UK show at the Highbury Garage, and mused on the reasons they seemed to be more liked over here than on the other side of the Atlantic.  Put it down to better taste, I guess.

I came away feeling I’d witnessed two bands still pouring the same amount of enthusiasm and vigour into their live performances as they ever have, with any prior apprehension I may have had that the pair may have past their best before date proved emphatically wrong. 

Music Diary Project Day 5

I'm a little bit late in putting Friday's entry together, and I do so with a slight hangover, and by slight I mean horrific.

Friday began with listening to the Beth Ditto E.P. on the way to work, it's only four songs, so I managed the whole thing, it's a really great few tracks and I think she just has a fantastic voice. Following this I managed to squeeze in Band of Horses - Is there a Ghost? before arriving at work.

I was just blown away by how much it felt like summer yesterday, and when I got in I put on Weezer - Say it Ain't So while I got ready to go out.

So yesterday evening I had a radio show on phonic.fm, I do it every other Friday 8-10pm and here is a list of what I played (this may not be in the exact order though).

Paper Planes (DFA Remix) - M.I.A.

L.E.S Artistes - Santogold

Sun Hands - Local Natives

Postcards From Italy - Beirut

Litigation - Mariachi El Bronx

Surprise Hotel - Fool's Gold

Fools Golld - The Stone Roses

Learn to Lose - Hockey

Kiss Of Life - Friendly Fires

Time Bomb - Dismemberment Plan

Australia - The Shins

Float On - Modest Mouse

Walking On A Dream - Empire Of The Sun

Pot Kettle Black - Tilly & The Wall

Pump It Up - Elvis Costello

Train In Vain - The Clash

If You Got The Money - Jamie T

Suffragette Suffragette - Everything Everything

Young Love (Ft Laura Marling) - Mystery Jets

This Orient - Foals

Fine + 2 Pts - Minus The Bear

Young Blood - The Naked and Famous

Sister Saviour - The Rapture

Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem

Da Funk - Daft Punk

After that I got very drunk and let my friend down. Sorry. 

Music Diary Project Day 4

I started day 4 of this project by getting a train from Exeter Central to Digby & Sowton (two places, one station) for a conference and I sort of have this thing where I really like to listen to M83 - Saturdays = Youth on train journeys, so without breaking habit, I popped that on. Managed to listen to the whole album by train and foot, and then return to train station post conference, it's great record which sort of tails off a bit in the last couple of songs. 

For the short train jouney home, my friend Sam's twitter post mentioning the Dismemberment Plan caught my eye, and so Dismemberment Plan - Change caught my ear, well the first 5 songs of it did anyway. 

When I got in I listened to Black Keys - Brothers, it's one of my favourite albums of last year, and considering how sunny it was outside, I just whacked it up loudly, opened my bedroom window and listened to it on the balcony while grabbing some sun.

This evening I went to meet some friends at the White Hart beer garden on South Street, on the way there I was still enjoying the sun and fancied something upbeat so I ended up just hearing the first 3 songs of Delphic - Acolyte.

I have a radio show to present tomorrow evening so I imagine I'm going to have to list a whole load more music then! 

Music Diary Project Day 3

Day 3 of this project I needed somthing to wake me up while walking to work and what better than LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening, I actually worked my way through the whole album yesterday after putting my headphones on in the office to block out the background drone and people who are too loud on the phone.

On the way home I opted for Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites. Mew are one of, if not my favourite band, depending on my mood and I hadn't listened to their second album in a while. I'd forgotten just how great it is, from the crushing instrumental opener 'The Circuitry of the Wolf' to the somewhat disco-esque 'Special'.

Following football training I put on the new album by Likke Li - Wounded Rhymes. I recently picked up a NAD cd player and I've really got back into listening to CDs as a result and this album just sounds incredible through it, I listened to pretty much the whole album.

I then popped downstairs for dinner and just put on a couple of songs through my iPod dock while it was getting ready, Warpaint - Undertow and Animal Collective - My Girls.

Music Diary Project Day 2

OK so I was a little tired to post this last night but I kept a record of everything I listened to, so what's the harm in posting this up the following morning?

I didn't actually listen to that much today. I worked from home in the morning but didn't actually listen to anything until I was on my way to work and it was Foals - Total Life Forever which first hit my ears today. I managed to get as far as Spanish Sahara before I got to work, probably my favourite song on the album.

Post work I went to play 6 a side, on the way up to the game and in my friends car, I put on Crystal Fighters - Xtatic Truth (TEED remix) and a poor quality rip of the new Justice single - Civilization. Once home, I had a listen to the Crystal Fighters album through spotify to decide if I liked it enough to buy it, and I subsequentally ordered the album for amazon. I flicked through the free mp3s on the amazon store as well and also downloaded Playgirl - Ladytron which I then popped on before watching Tottenham get stuffed.  A quiet day for music.

The Music Diary Project Day 1

http://sickmouthy.com/2011/04/04/musicdiaryproject-whos-taking-part/

Ok so my friend has this idea where we all create a diary of everything we listen to for one week, and consider the wheres, whens, whys and hows of this experience. I won't go into too much detail because he can explain this far better than I can.

So Day 1 of my music diary....

I was running late for work, because it was after all Monday and I'm always running late. I listen to half an album on my way to work, well 6 songs of Gorilla Manor by Local Natives loudly through my headphones.

I guess I chose it as it was a regular favourite of mine about this time last year, actually almost to the week I first bought the Local Natives album, and it was a continual favourite through to last summer. It reminded me of breakups and dancing to Local Natives at Roskilde. It's a great record, full of harmonies and off kilter rhythms.

I listened to the second half of the album on the walk home.

Had my friend Jack around for dinner and to watch a couple of episodes of Boardwalk Empire, while I was cleaning the kitchen and preparing the food (oven roasted veg, cous cous and feta) I played the Suburbs by Arcade Fire, I think I got as far as City With No Children. I've got this little Kef iPod dock in the kitchen connected up to some cheap Eltax speakers but it does the job.

Post food and TV, I've come up to sort my room out and played a few 12"s, I don't have much up here (most is still in boxes at my grandparents) but I plumped for Joy Division - Atmosphere/She's Lost Control on 12". My dad gave it to me when I was younger as a present and it's great music to tidy up to. Strangely following this I opted for In Between Days - The Cure and North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem.


Not much really for a Monday but there you go; more tomorrow.

Everybody wants to be a dj

When people ask me what I do, I normally say one of two things, I do project management in the NHS to which I am the recipient of a blank look and silence, like when I tell people my degree is in Classics and Philosophy. The second answer, I play records, often gets a raised eyebrow, this is normally followed by the line, 'oh I've always wanted to do that, how do I get into it? '.

So looking at one of those responses I give, being a Dj. I started out at the tender age of 18 playing punk/rock/metal at the Cavern on Thursday nights, I think I sort of fell into this because I worked at HMV, so bought a lot of music, and also because I was at the Cavern all the time. I really enjoyed it and continued doing the Thursday nights until 2005.

By 2004 there were less rock kids and more indie kids, as someone who had started out as an indie kid, I was pleased to see this return and decided to start up a night on a Saturday. As part of Exeter's alternative, I, like my peers wanted something to do on a Saturday night, and maybe that punk-rock DIY ethic came through. There was nothing that played the Strokes on a Saturday night in Exeter, so why not start my own? I'd also just started my degree and needed some additional income. I started up doing it with my old school friend Tom, who now is a bar manager at the Cavern, and while I was at uni, I did the Lemon Grove on a Friday night too, my weekend was sorted.

So fast forward to 2011, what has changed? Well not much really, I'm still at the Cavern on Saturdays, where I started out with CDs and vinyl, I now use a Macbook and Traktor. The nights are busier than they have been for years and I look forward to every Saturday night as if it was my first one. Is it easy? Well actually it's not, and people say it's just playing CDs but to me it's so much more than that, I see it as an organic process. I like to respond to the crowd I have in front of me and never plan in advance.

Steve Lamaq once said to me, 'to be a successful Dj, you need to choose a genre of music to play in, and play the most popular songs from that genre', and that in effect is true. Although I enjoy a lot of what I play out, it's really important to keep that distinction between records that are suitable for your bedroom, and those that are suitable for a club floor, a distinction I've seen many fail to make.

A technically good Dj I am not, I've never professed to be, and actually I have little desire to be. What I want to see though is a packed dancefloor, dancing to the music I choose, and when I have that in front of me, I wouldn't change it for the world.

The geeks were right.

So I was having a conversation with my friend today about my blog while perusing the DVD section of Exeter's Fopp and we started discussing favourite films, so the result of this is me now writing this and thinking off the top of my head about some of the films I enjoy. I've actually decided to do the top 'geeky/nerdy' films I enjoy. When it comes to watching films I tend not to watch too many by myself, I'd rather immerse myself in music. If I'm going to watch a film, I like company, I like to be able to discuss it with whoever I've watched it with afterwards. I don't need to say loads about the films because the trailers sort of do that anyway....

Blade Runner
Ridley Scott's take on Philip K. Dick's novel, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', is a bleak dystopian take on the future. I might be a little bit of a sci-fi geek at times, but this film has an engrossing story, great characters and leaves you with plenty of unanswered questions. Visually this film was years ahead of its time and I sort of just get lost in Ripley's world everytime I watch it.

Spirited Away
OK it was really hard for me to choose a favourite Studio Ghibli film but this one has a special place as the first I saw. I actually saw this at the Picture House while I was at university and I'd never quite seen anything like it before. The emotion and detailed level of storytelling that Hayao Miyazaki is able to portray through this, and other, films is beyond anything any theatrical film is able to replicate.

Goodbye Lenin

This film is beautiful, from the fantastic casting, story and scripting to Yann Tierson's wonderful soundtrack. The film is really moving, following a young man's journey to try and keep his mother alive at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Part tragedy and part comedy, it manages to keep you gripped throughout at the same time reminding the viewer just how much of a lifestyle change the fall of communism must have been for East Berlin. 

 

Empire Strikes Back

I had to sneak one Star Wars film in there and this one is definitely my favourite. Why? Well because it's the darkest of the original trilogy, the battle of Hoth scene is amazing, Yoda teaches Luke how to be a Jedi and we find out Darth Vader is Luke Skywalkers father. Pretty powerful stuff to cram into one film. If people ever ask me the last time I cried at a film I always say this one, I am however joking. 

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Some people might say I'm being damn right risky to put a film that only came out last year alongside such other gems but that's the sort of live life on the edge sort of man I am. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was without a doubt my favourite film of last year, it was a real breath of fresh air and just plain fun. Scott has to defeat the seven evil ex's of the girl of his dreams, Ramona. If you haven't seen it yet, well you should. Enough said. 

Part of the weekend never dies

So with the weekend looming, as a dj I've been thinking about some of my favourite songs to throw outlandish shapes and bust moves to, I'm ignoring any guitar based bands here. I guess thinking about songs that people dance to is a big part of my Saturday evening, and I really enjoy the buzz of a packed dancefloor. If I was to hit the floor, these would be 5 of my favourites.

Blue Monday - New Order
Without a doubt my favourite song to dance to and one of my all time favourite songs, for me this song will never get old. It still sounds fresh today despite the fact that it is as old as I am. New Order were terrible live, great on record, better being played through a club's P.A.. This song will always remain the biggest selling 12" of all time in this country.

Justic Vs Simian - We are your Friends
This song is always great to dance to and has been filling the floors since it was released. This sort of acted as a platform to help launch both Justice and Simian Mobile Disco (even though this is sampled from a track from their former band Simian). You can always here people shout the words as loudly as they can when it comes on.

Hot Chip - Over and Over
Although Hot Chip are a great live band, I feel the true Hot Chip experience is this song on the dancefloor. As hard as they've tried I don't think they're been able to do anything which tops this. At the time it sort of came out of nowhere and Warning was much more of a dance album than their first effort.  .

LCD Soundsytem - Daft Punk is playing at my house
Certainly my favourite dance group, LCD produce have produced three consistently good studio albums proper, and all of them are fantastic in their own right. Choosing a favourite song to dance to is harder, today I've gone for this one, tomorrow I would probably give you a different answer.

The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers 
Produced by James Murphy off of LCD Soundsystem, this is probably the best dance track of the naughties. Everything about this song was years ahead of it's time and still doesn't really get the recognition it deserves and it probably helped Murphy pull some of his ideas together for LCD. If there was ever a perfect song for me to pull shapes to, this is it, probably because I can't dance.

A few others include

Mylo - Drop The Pressure
DFA 1979 - Romantic Rights
Soulwax - E Talking
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Heads Will Roll (A trak remix)
The Knife - Heartbeats
Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith - Not in love
Metronomy - Heartbreaker
Simian Mobile  Disco - Hustler
MGMT - Kids (Soulwax remix)
The Faint - Glass Dance

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So the weekend is nearly upon us, time to Dance Yrself Clean.

The death of the high street record store

Today I was shocked by the news that HMV is to close 60 stores and its shares have plummeted. Shocked is perhaps the wrong word, I suppose the writing has been on the wall for some time, what with record industry in freefall and pretty much everything being available cheaper online. So I thought I would jot down some of my memories.

I remember my first experience of purchasing music, I can still picture the old Our Price in Exeter (I think it's a Starbucks now). I used to love Our Price, which as a chain was later consumed by Virgin Megastores, and I have a vivid memory of purchasing Kula Shaker 'K' on tape in the old Exeter store.

I worked at this HMV on Exeter High St. for over 2 years. My job there was as a back catalogue Cd buyer (I bought all the Cds for the shop that weren't chart or singles), I look back on that job with mostly fond memories. I used to often be the only person downstairs during the week and pretty much had a free reign as to what I wanted to play in the shop. It seemed then like the high street record shop was booming, we were increasing our year on year sales and getting nice bonuses.

After my degree I worked at Virgin Megastores for a while, which shortly after became Zavvi, and shortly after that folded completely. The original Virgin Megastores in Exeter was where the new Next is, I remember going into that shop the day it opened and buying a Blur cd. Tribute should also be played to Solo Records in Exeter, where I've bought too many albums and seen a few good bands play too. Solo is now a Shaker Maker, milkshake outlet.....

OK I may still be young but I remember the high street record shop to be somewhere I used to waste my Saturday afternoons, whether as an employee or customer. So where did it all go wrong? We can't put this down purely to illegal downloading, even if the record companies would have us believe this is the case. I think another factor has to lie in the prices that are offered by the Amazons and Play.coms of this world.

Whatever the cause of this decline, a decline we are in, and one we have no control over. With independant record stores pretty much wiped out, except for the wonderful Banquet Records, it would be a shame if we lost the high street record shop too. I for one would much rather spend my Saturday afternoon flicking through CDs in our Fopp records, Exeter only real last bastion than trawl through its online competitors.

A sad day indeeed.