Tag Archives: new music

Music of 2006 – Part 1 – EPs I liked

I’m splitting up my posts on the past years listening this year, in an attempt to make them more readable (unlike last year). So to kick off, here’s some EPs I thought were rather good. Including links to youtube and myspace as necessary to let you enjoy in vision and sound, as Bowie would say if he got confused and put the lyrics the wrong way round.

  • Vitalic – Bells [myspace] [wikipedia] [official site]
    vitalicbells.jpg
    Having originally made his name via a number of EPs it seems only fit that Vitalic return to releasing stonking EPs and Bells is almost good enough to put everything that came before in the shade. Almost a mini album given that it runs to six tracks the linda Lamb voiced title track is an addictive and pacy number. For me though the real highlight is Candy which takes a very disjointed beat played on a fuzzed up guitar, some very distorted lyrics and just lets rip.
  • Misty’s Big Adventure – Fashion Parade [youtube] [myspace] [wikipedia] [official website]
    mistys.jpg
    How I hadn’t come across the wonder of Misty’s Big Adventure until this EP started to get hyped by their fans is beyond me. Clearly I don’t dig deep enough, or indeed much at all. The title track is a brilliant tongue in cheek dig at a number of modern bands (but chiefly Franz Ferdinand, see the video). Fortunately Misty’s themselves are a brilliantly inspired band who do great gigs (Featuring your man with the hands above dancing through the crowd lots). The EP sadly lacks the amazing song they played when I saw them at the 100 Club (Something about taking the time back), but it does have the excellent Kids Are Radioactive which is clearly the best song about kids turning into zombies due to inappropriate mobile phone mast placement ever.
  • Menomena – Wet & Rusting [youtube] [myspace] [wikipedia] [official site]
    wetrusting.jpg
    I was kind of doomed to fall in love with this EP. Menomena constantly sit high in my list of bands that seem weirdly under-rated beyond certain blogs on the internet (perhaps because they’ve never played a gig in the UK). Anyway, we only got three tracks out of them in 2005 so to get a whole EP was a treat and a nice prelude for their difficult proper second album. And it has awesome Craig Thompson cover art. Anyway, enough fanboy-ish-ness and on with the praise. Wet And Rusting itself is a wonderful Menomena track developing their sound nicely and again showcasing their oddball sound expertly (especially with the remix and plain versions of the title track). At some point I’ll tire of their multi-layered voices, drums and guitars with plinky piano production, but there’s a good album of this worth pursuing first.
  • Devotchka – Curse Your Little Heart [myspace] [wikipedia] [youtube] [official website]
    curseyerlittleheart.jpg
    An interesting alternative American band doing soft but sweet covers of classics? No, it’s not Cake. Devotchka I stumbled across thanks to Beirut and though their albums are all some years old this EP of covers is fascinatingly fresh and beautiful. To describe Devotchka’s sound is tricky so just go to myspace and save me the hassle! It’s hard to pick a favourite track but their version of The Last Beat Of My Heart is really quite moving, but then they also bring something fresh to Somethin’ Stupid which takes talent. Oh, and as youtube proves that Venus in Furs cover live is something else. On the topic of youtube I really dig how incongruous the sousaphone looks on stage in this clip.
  • Matson Jones – A Four Song EP [myspace]
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    Matson Jones don’t exist on Wikipedia (at the moment), only sit on myspace thanks to fans and last I checked didn’t take being a band too seriously but just wanted to make good music. On this count they succeed marvellously and I’d kill for them to record another album. In the meantime this EP shall suffice and their particular brand of cello indie makes me very annoyed I gave up the instrument myself.
  • Fog – Loss Leader EP [myspace] [official site]
    fogtimewaster.jpg

    • Fog’s in a year of transition, and has finally packed away the turntables and other tools of his earlier sound. His final excursions on this EP showcase these changes. The EP is pretty good but doesn’t come close to capturing the live sound and how rocking Fog now is (no endless sparse birdsong). His myspace is now chock full of stuff that makes me very excited indeed about his next album, Your Beef Is Mine especially.

Now, don’t ask me to pick a favourite.

you too can hear the voices music in my head

Luisterpaal is a bit like myspace but infinitely more useful. I’ve been on the verge of blogging up here that you should all go and listen to the music on DC Recordings (label), Padded Cell (pretty good artist on that label) and Emperor Machine (very good artist on that label) for some time. But if you go to LuisterPaal you can just listen to the DC Recordings compilation Death Before Distemper (which I’m listenning to a lot), the new Emperor Machine album (which I’ve been waiting for since I moved to London two years ago and is sounding pretty good thus far but I’ve only reached track two), and also the new Rapture album – which is worth it for Whoo Alright Yeah Ah-Huh alone.

But hurry, because luisterpaal will update with newer musical delights all too soon.
I reccomend most strongly that you check out Unknown Zone by Padded Cell on Death Before Distemper. If you imagine semi radiophonic workshop inspired electro which quite likes being a little less harshly structured and a bit more organic you get the idea.

Also, it has to be admitted that DC Recordings artwork is pretty even with numbers plastered all over the covers.

Meanwhile, Cornelius is starting to preview his new album, via youtube…

Curse your little heart pitchfork


After falling over onto Beirut thanks to Pitchfork’s review I was feeling somewhat smug that I had got into listenning to Devotchka via an emusic reccomendation rather than another review at Pitchfork. Annoyingly just as I go to blog here about it I find they’ve finally seen fit to review an EP..

Of course I can still be smug that it takes an EP of covers for them to take notice of what is a very good indie band. If you want a listen just click here and either play that youtube video or the one linked just beneath for the live experience. Alternatively you can let the site play you either the excellent Queen of the Surface Streets or the very soundtracky but great How It Ends. Better still if you even just attempt to sign up for their mailing list you seem to be able to listen to the whole EP which features a brilliant new version of the song that got me into them, Curse Your Little Heart. In a funny old way their covers remind me a lot of Cake but with more varied and accomplished style. Certainly their cover of Something Stupid ranks up with Cake’s cover of I Will Survive.

I’d kill to see them live about now but unfortunately they passed through London just a couple of months ago so I have some time to wait.

There is also more Devotchka available to listen to at myspace, if you dare sully your machine.

In interesting look-at-that-webstore notes AmpCamp have a feature which notes unusual instruments used on recordings, such as the theremin. They also have a nifty difficulty rating pop up thingy which may well be the coolest thing ever. There is a strong temptation to borrow the idea of ranking music on a series of 1-5 scales such as “Attention Required: 1 – Billy Ocean, 5 – John Cage” but that may just be the thoughts of the small hours talking.