Back from the states and badder than ever. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmakuh and New Year and that the easing into 2010 hasn’t been entirely painful. We did the east coast for three weeks, celebrating everything from births (word up Patrick and Gracie) through to an 80th birthday in Florida. I’m entirely exhausted and that wasn’t aided by the violent bout of food poisoning I dealt with from 4am yesterday, but I’m pleased to be home and yes, pleased to be back to a normal weight even if it took a Moroccan parasite to get me there.
Now on to the important stuff – what has everyone been listening to all month? I’m way behind in my bellyaching so I think the time has come to get my finger out. Please send me some shout-outs for new music. I’m running out of fantastic suggestions and need some more.
These New Puritans – Hidden
What starts out with a Salvation Army band song and leads directly into Aphex Twin? Must be These New Puritans. And the Bartnett twins have released their second effort, Hidden, at a good time if you consider how well their fellow Southend-on-Sea scenesters, The Horrors, are doing at the moment. But TNPS is a different kind of band altogether. Or are they?
Like their compatriots, TNPS grew up out of the Experimental Circle Club (ECC) which grew out of the edgier Junkclub, mother of Essex’ Southend Scene, both vehicles for sub-mainstream clubby music. It’s a good idea at its core: a floating club night devoted to bringing a different sound to a select group who really want to hear it. And of course if you’ve got the right people making the music and the right people listening to it, it’s also a venture which proves fairly lucrative.
The NME had a lot of good stuff to say about TNPS last album, Beat Pyramid, ultimately saying that they were surprised by “a singularity of vision that just shouldn't happen to 20-year-olds.” But, let me ask you, when else in life does one truly have a singularity of vision? Before all the passion gets subdued by dayjobs and middle-management, that’s when. And that’s 20, pure and simple. I always want to laugh at people who are so surprised by the standard of art produced by adolescents. Teenagers feel everything as if it was their last emotion, as if this is the one that is going to kill them or save them or at least get them laid which is tantamount to the same thing. As we all get older, we lose that desperation. It’s there beneath layers of responsibility and carrying on, but it’s quelled enough that we just don’t run out as frequently at age 40 to make ground-breaking music. We don’t even go out to listen to it. And no, I'm not 40. I just feel like I'm 80.
But back to our lovely boys. Now listen – some of this is pretty self-indulgent. There are flutes for christsake. Flutes! But - and this is a big but – it’s very interesting. I have to say, it’s not interesting enough to make it onto my greatest albums of all time list, but I am glad I listened to it. It makes me feel like I have a soul buried somewhere in there. I have a vague recollection of listening to similar sounds when I was 20 and I’m glad they reminded me of that. ****
ITune free download – “This Momentary” Delphic
Acolyte is finally out. Hurray! For those of you (I think there are one or two… seriously) who have been reading this from the beginning, you’ll know that Gills suggested Delphic way back in October. Well the new album is as great as the EP for “This Momentary” was when we first listened to it. Run run run to listen to Acolyte. As I said before, this is getting ready to go out music. Remember when it was as much fun to get ready as it was to go out? So much promise. So much alcohol. Ah. Those were the days. ****1/2
Recommendation from ME - Contra – Vampire Weekend
Don’t you feel like “Horchata” has been out for years? I think it has been. And although no one recommended that I listen to them, I’m going to recommend Vampire Weekend to you. Yeah I know, you all already know. If you like that, you should try Radiohead and while you’re at it, there’s this great new band, the Rolling Stones. Har-dee-har. I don’t care what you say, Contra is fan-freekin-tastic stuff. No adjustment time to listen to this album. Surf-rocky and ska-ey and lovely lovely lovely. And what the hell is Horchata anyway? I’ll tell you. According to Wikipedia, “Horchata or orxata is the name for several kinds of traditional beverages, made of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley, or tigernuts (chufas).” There. Now you know. ****1/2
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