Drop Out Venus – ‘Elastic Teen Rent’
To be fair I was already halfway to loving this on the basis of the title. The fact that it’s by some Bulgarian Deptford squat-dwellers with blue hair and filthy mouths is just a bonus. Great baby-Fripp solo too. Check out their Soundcloud if you get a chance – they seem to be evolving almost weekly.
Various Artists compiled by Johnny Jewel – After Dark 2
Slightly cheating because it 15 tracks on Johnny Jewel’s Italians Do It Better label mixed into one long album. I’m a sucker for pretty much anything this guy does and I love how prolific he is. His updates are always like ‘couldn’t sleep in my layover between Toronto and Berlin so mixed another twelve tracks’. It’s all good but the Chromatics stuff stands out as ever.
The Fall – ‘Sir William Wray’
A year will come when The Fall don’t release an excellent new album. 2013 was not that year.
Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory – ‘Spectral Split’
This snuck up on me. I love Pantha Du Prince but on first listen this set of tracks recorded on a 50-bell carillon was just too smooth. Hear it on headphones though, especially walking late at night, and its like aural MSG.
British Sea Power – ‘Radio Goddard’
Love this band. Not many bands sound this good, this driven, five albums in, but I think Machineries Of Joy might be my favourite of theirs already. Something about this track reminds me of bands I loved as a teenager – Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Orange Juice – can’t wait to see them at Kenwood.
Scott Walker – ‘Copenhagen’
It was reissued this year so I can include it right? We played Tivoli Gardens – the 19th-century amusement park in the city centre of Copenhagen – earlier the year and this was playing incessantly in my head. The most beautiful voice of the last century.
Savages – ‘Husbands’
Could be anything off this album really. Jenny Beth just has one of those voices – like Nick Cave or Snoop – where you have to listen. So urgent and vital compared to the other bands mining that post-punk seam.
Julianna Barwick – ‘Nepenthe’
She’s been doing these amazing, drawn-out tracks that are just samples of her own voice for a while now but this is a teaser of an upcoming album that she recorded with a children’s choir. From this track it’s going to sound like Music For Airports as done by Sigur Ros. Which is nice.
Teleman – ‘Christina’
Just totally charming stuff. Minimal instrumentation. An exposed, heartfelt vocal. Magical tune. All adds up to an addictive single. We booked them up for the Kenwood show and the UK tour just because the album’s not out yet and we get to hear what they’re up to.
Gaz Coombes and the Bombs – ‘Universal Cinema;’
It’s no surprise that the first ex-Supergrass album from Gaz Coombes is great, but a surprise at quite how different is is. This is the stand-out track to me – starts of starkly acoustic, chucks in a motorik beat and dreamy vocal, goes gonzo for a bit and ends up somewhere beautiful.
Suede play Kenwood House, Hampstead Heath on Friday August 23rd. Support comes from British Sea Power and Teleman, tickets here
