You can now get your hands on a beautiful acoustic version of Vintage Trouble‘s ‘Blues Hand Me Down’ for free, exclusively from the Vodafone Music store. Head over here and download it, you’d be well advised!

If you haven’t seen the acoustic session we posted the other day, it’s not too late. Ta dah: Vintage Trouble acoustic and live backstage at Hard Rock Calling

And a little more about Vodafone VIP, who we’ve been working with all summer – on our mammoth jaunt up, down and sideways around and across the UK. They’ve just put out a video showing you what they’ve been up to, and you can watch it here:

The Wave Pictures are David Tattersall, Franic Rozycki and Jonny ”Huddersfield” Helm. This Loughborogh three-piece have gigged sporadically over the last decade, slowly crafting their witty pop songs that are shot through with Jonathan Richman’s gawky glee and Suede’s doomed provincial romanticism. Their sound is essentially a stripped-back rock ‘n’ roll that owes debts of various denominations to Chuck Berry, Dick Dale and Morrissey. On the cusp of the release of their next album Beer In The Breakers, the guys took some time out to chat to us about inspiration, gigging and future plans.

The Wave Pictures. Photography Laura Scott

Where did the name The Wave Pictures come from?

DT: It came from an art book called Art Now, a reference book where every page is a different artist of the last 20 years. Zoe Leonard did a series of photographs of the sea called ‘The Wave Pictures’. She also did a piece called ‘Strange Fruit for David’. This was a knitted banana and two oranges arranged in the hilarious shape of male genitalia. She’s some kind of feminist artist who’s probably not very good. She gave us that title. When you’re looking for a band name you’ll suggest anything. It just so happened that I suggested something that the guys liked. You’re coming up with names all the time. The Wave Pictures stuck, it just sounded right.

Zoe Leonard, I don’t know anything else about her. I didn’t particular like her art that I saw in the art book, it was her titles that I liked. I think that a knitted banana and oranges in the shape of a cock and balls is exactly why I, and Daily Mail readers, don’t like modern art of that sort, I think it’s crap. But you know, fair play to her, she gave us those titles.

You’re known for your collaborations with other artists. For instance, Darren Hayman from Hefner helped record and produce your new album Beer In The Breakers. Are there any collaborations on your new album?

DT: No, none. The exception was that Darren [Hayman] offered his equipment and he was in the room while we recorded, which was no larger than this large dining room table. There was no multi-tracking, no over-dubs. I mean there is studio stuff, Darren has good equipment with microphones; it’s not as low-fi as I might be making it sound. In a way it is sort of a studio album, as he [Darren] has a big old sort of desk and stuff. But it is home recording as well as it’s in his house and there are no over-dubs; everything is live. It’s just the 3 of us playing and singing. It’s real. And I think it’s the album that we’ve recorded that sounds the most like what we sound like, it’s the most like us. It’s the most representative album, the least sort of different from us live, I think. I think that’s true.

David. Photography Laura Scott

When it comes to the studio, is it ‘let’s try and get it done in one take’?

DT: Yeah, most of our albums are first or second takes. I think there may have been one song where we got up to three, but there is this sort of rule of thumb with recording where you either get something quite quickly where it’s quite spontaneous, or you have to work on it forever until you have really created something different to what you came in with. We’ve never done that – I personally don’t have the patience for it. And also because it’s what we’re like; live recordings that are rough and ready. We enjoy hearing all the different musicians; we like those sorts of records and that’s the most fun for us to do.

Considering the length of time that you have been together and the prolific log of albums that you have, do you think that you are still developing your sound? Or is your latest release demonstrating a mature, fully realised style?

DT: Well the Beer In The Breakers is defiantely not the end of us developing, as I think that we develop really slowly. We make a lot of albums along the way whereas maybe a smarter band would develop, then do an album. We have an awful lot of albums as the development is direly slow [laughs] so we think that that will probably carry on because that’s the thing that we like to do. We don’t intend to make perfect albums; they’re just meant to be us playing what we’re like at that time. I like that better. I don’t like the idea of people trying to make masterpiece EPs, and I never like those albums. I prefer band’s debut albums, so it would be nice to only make debuts and not ever graduate from that.

The most recent songs have a lot of instrumental solos and are moodier, which seems different to your oevour. Is this stuff that we’re going to see in the future?

DT: Yeah, there are definitely some really long and slow things on the new album. We’ve always done dark things like that but we’ve not always put it on our albums. It was something else that we wanted to readdress because some of the songs that perhaps get slightly more noticed are not things that we intended to. I mean in particular ‘I Love You Like A Madman’ is a song that Franic didn’t even want to put on the album. I like it a lot, but it is very jolly and I think that that was a little bit misrepresentative. But that’s fine. So we’ve put some slower, sadder, darker things on the new album, as well as some jolly things as well. Franic likes those dark, slow songs in particular.

FR: The last show that we played in London was one of the first shows that we had done after recording the album, and it was nice to do the slow ones that are going to feature on it. I quite like them, and we don’t play them lots.

Why is it that you don’t play those sorts of songs?

FR: There are songs that people request quite a lot like ‘Love You Like A Madman’, and then you sort of forget the other songs. It’s nice that people like the ones that they request, but it’s also nice to make that conscious decision to play the darker stuff. It’s fun to do something different – it’s very boring as a band or to go see a band that play the same set.

That’s a very good point – I’ve been to a few of your gigs and feel that I know a lot of your songs, but at your gigs I’m always confronted with something new.

Jonny. Photography Laura Scott

You’ve toured a lot across Europe and America, so you must be able to tell the difference in audience engagement.

JH: Yeah, there are real big differences. In Germany, people are very good at having a good time and having a party, whereas in England people are perhaps more reserved.

FR: Whilst in Spain you can’t play the quite songs, all they want are the really loud ones.

DT: It’s wonderfully crazy. The whole country is like Camden on a Friday night.

FR: So trying to play a nice romantic ballard doesn’t really work – if you do, you find they’ve all gone to the bar and started talking really loudly.

DT: Of course, it’s not always like that in Spain, or in the other countries, but it is often. I think Germany is my favourite place that I’ve been. It’s because they seem to like the songs if they don’t know them, and want to hear your gig. Of course they want to hear their favourite song, as everyone likes that, but also they seem to enjoy just something happening, something that is new and musical. They seem to have a real appreciation of that. Whereas in England I sometimes think, or in Spain, they’re glad that the gig has happened afterwards, but at the time they’re really not sure about being confronted with something a bit new. That’s a feeling that I get anyway.

Is it true that you don’t actually make set lists for gigs?

DT: That’s true. We do that to try and keep things spontaneous, and also when we used to write set lists we ended up having an argument about what the set list should be, which is a terrible way to start your evening. But the main reason is just to try and keep it spontaneous; like you don’t know what’s going to happen. The Wave Pictures don’t improvise lots – it’s not jazz – but it’s important to improvise a bit. And not making a set list is in itself not determining what it is that you are going to do – you’re flying by the seat of your pants a little bit, which is part of what a live show should be.

It really is boring and shocking how many bands play the exact same set the exact same way night after night, as if they’re X Factor pop type of musicians. In your head they’re inde musicians, but you end up thinking you’re watching popular musicians, but you’re not. There’s far too much of that. If someone has paid to see a live show, that’s what they want to get. They want to get something that they have never seen before and never will again. And that’s why it’s also good if you fuck up or make a mistake. Anything that’s a bit different is good. Jonny sometimes sings a song and the best thing that can happen, even though he finds it mortifying, is that he forgets the words. But when he does the audience goes crazy for it. It’s like perfect stage craft; he’s not faking and they love it. It makes it more live, which makes it more exciting.

If you’re not using a set list, does the audience determine the show by requesting songs?

DT: We’ve done whole sets by requests, but it depends what mood we’re in really – sometimes I won’t do a request and sometimes I won’t play the song that the audience wants because someone’s annoyed me in the audience or I’m cross, or I’m the wrong amount drunk or just because I really want to sing something else. Other times we’re a complete sort of whore for audience affection and we’ll play everything that they want and be very happy. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just a lot to do with mood, and how we’re feeling. So everything we sing, we’re really feeling it.

So when you take requests are there clear favourites? Do people shout out ‘we want Strange Fruit for David’ for example?

DT: Yeah, ‘Strange Fruit for David’, ‘I Love You Like a Madman’, ‘Just Like a Drummer’, ‘Now You’re Pregnant’, ‘Kiss Me’, I guess they’re the main ones. Maybe also ‘We Dress Up Like Snowmen’ as well. There are a few clear favourites. But then also you get odd ones, like ‘Avocado Baby’. We’ve also had requests for ‘Cinnamon Baby’ which really surprised me, that’s happened a few times. You get odds one too, sometimes someone will shout out something really, really old and it’ll be really surprising. It’s nice.

Your lyrics are really striking; this sort of marrying of the bizarre, the mundane and the sublime to make something really quiet intricate. David, where did your inspiration come from?

DT: Well Morrissey is a big influence, which is odd because I went off the Smiths when I was in my early 20s because I don’t like the way their records sounded. I was listening to Hat Full of Hollow by The Smiths and I was conscious of what effect the lyrics would, had on me. I think it mainly is lyricists, I mean I remember like when I first heard Television, and the type of lyrics that Tom Verlaine sings. It’s very impressionistic, slightly abstract lyrics. And Bob Dylan, obviously. I would massively love to be Bob Dylan like any singer / songwriter. Well not to be him obviously because he’s about to die, but to have even just a little bit of talent that he had. And Lou Reed and people like that. I guess mainly that, and sometimes a book or a poem. Poetry is inspiring.

Franic. Photography Laura Scott

I was going to ask actually if there were any influential authors or poets.

DT: Yeah there are, I really love reading. Literary influences would be Raymond Chandler; he’s a really big influence. I’ve made the occasional song where I am literally just singing sentences from Raymond Chandler books, chosen at random and chosen because they are nice sentences, but not chosen to make up any story. Nobody’s noticed [laughs]. But he writes really great sentences, Charles Bukowski I also like a lot. Along with DH Lawrence, John Steinbeck, Raymond Carver. I’ve been reading a lot of Raymond Carver’s poetry lately; his poetry really makes you want to write songs. Partly because he’s bad sometimes, he can be sloppy, but he’s just got to do it, it’s got to come out. Sometimes it’s amazing and sometimes it’s not. Bukowski is like that too. There are so many writers. I can’t think of any more. But that’s probably enough isn’t it.

It seems like some of your lyrics with can be quite banal. Is that a conscious choice, or is it just something that just comes out when you’re writing?

DT: I like those kinds of details in those songs, and I like everyday life sort of bits and pieces. But I, and the other guys too, also like mysterious sort of songs as well. I think those banal lyrics are the sorts of things that you notice. I was listening to an album, Tonight’s Tonight by Neil Young, and I remembered when he eats green eggs and country ham. You don’t remember when he falls in love with the beautiful girl because everyone is always falling in love with a beautiful girl. But it’s nice to put in a specific along the way; it makes a picture. The important thing with lyrics is that they make an image in the listeners mind. It’s important that they see something. A lot of my favourite lyrics are nonsensical, a lot of Pavement songs or Bob Dylan songs are nonsense really and a lot of my songs are pure nonsense, but as long as it’s throwing up images regardless if it’s about everyday life or just by being abstract, I like it. As long as it’s vivid, I like it.

What are each of your favourite The Wave Pictures song? Is there one?

JH: I like all of them [laughs]. The one that I’ve enjoyed playing recently is one that was written ages ago called ‘Lonely’. But that’s only coming into my head because that’s one that I get to sing and also play the drums. So that’s good fun. But I don’t think that that’s my favourite David Tattersall song.

FR: We’ve made a new song ‘The Inattentive Reader’, I’m looking forward to playing that one. But otherwise I don’t think that I have a particular favourite.

DT: I always like singing ‘I Thought of You Again’, I always enjoying singing that one.

Each of you have your solo projects too. For example, Jonny you have your EP Jonny Helm Sings. Are these projects completely separate from The Wave Pictures?

DT: The way that I would go about making a side project is roughly the same as I would go about making a Waves thing. Sometimes it’s intentional to make it a solo project, and then sometimes a song ends up being in two different places as The Wave Pictures end up doing it. Because we don’t tour the side projects, we end up doing some independent songs with the Waves just so that we don’t lost them. Then if you like them that way, then you record them that way as well. But my solo album [Happy For A While] was written to be a solo album. I don’t know if I was thinking of anything different, so there was less pressure for it to be a certain way – it could just be whatever it happened to be. So it was very nice to make that. I did that also to record with Stanley Brinks and Clemence Freschard who are the band on that album. They recorded and produced it and they’re close friends, so it was a way to go and stay with them for a week. That’s why I did a solo album. It was partly just a chance to do something just with him.

Photography Laura Scott

What’s coming up in the New Year?

DT: Well we’re rehearsing some new songs, newer than those on the album Beer In The Breakers. We’re trying to write some new songs as well, together as a band. We have seven half songs that we came up with recently, and we’re going to try and turn them into seven finished songs. I’ve also written three more songs lately for the guys to learn.

JH: After that we’re going to go to Switzerland in February: on 10th February we’ll be in Bern, on the 11th in Basel and on the 12th in Baden. The three B’s.

FR: Also, our album Beer In The Breakers is coming out in the Spring.

DT: I have another side project called The Lobster Boat which has Franic and Jonny on it. It’s with a French guy called Howard Hughes from Coming Soon. That’s coming out this year as well. So that’s two albums this year. And then I’m going to definitely try and watch the snooker finals; that’s part of my future plans.

Since their inception in 1978, Gang Of Four have been widely hailed as one of the leading bands for the post-punk movement. Known for their lyrical emphasis on political and social ills in society and influencing some of the largest names in the past decade such as R.E.M, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Nirvana, this English post-punk rock band are now back with their new album Content. This album, their first for sixteen years, sees founding members Jon King and Andy Gill continue to deliver more of their stripped down mix of punk rock, whose intelligence is as liberating as it is provocative and thrilling. Here singer Jon here tells us a little more. 

Gang Of Four

What were your largest early influences, things that shaped your decisions to become musicians?

JK: For me, the life-changer was Bob Dylan. I was 11 and had only before heard Pop radio. At school, the older boys were playing on the Art-room record player ‘Highway 61 Revisited’. It was like an earthquake. This voice that was singing about stuff I didn’t understand, so cool, so on it. Even though I couldn’t then, and can’t now say what the song meant – and of course the idea that songs can be pinned down like this is crazy – I knew he was on the side on the good guys against the military-industrial complex, the straights, the bores and the Fascists. I knew that I wanted to be on his side, too. Later, along with Andy, we both came to love Funk and Reggae, Dr FeelGood and the Band, The Velvets, Jimi [Hendrix] and Miles [Davis], Motown…  Like everybody else’s musical journey I guess.

You’ve been considered as ‘post-punk’. How did punk shape the early produce of Gang of Four? Did you see the band as being different from the rest of the punk scene at the time? Do you think that this still has an impact on your produce now?

JK: Punk, or at least British Punk rock, didn’t shape what we did. We did think we were different; BritPunk music had a very limited palette and was, mostly, like fast Sabbath with lairy words. It’s why it hasn’t aged well. Listening to ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ now you wonder what all the fuss was about. It’s so conservative.

 A lot of your songs like ‘Natural’s Not In It’ seem to breakdown song structure. This also happens with your unique playing style: the breakdown of the chorus bridge, allowing bass and drums to be elements rather than bedrock by giving instrumental solos. Was this intentional? Are we going to be seeing more of this on the new album Content? 

JK: This way of writing followed into our notion that we could make music where every segment played an equally important part, but had a relentlessness that took you somewhere else, like a train falling off a cliff. It was intentional. I’m so bored by endlessly layered, over-produced commercial music. Stops and starts feature as much on Content as back in the day.

Looking at your legacy, lots of groups have praised Gang Of Four. Michael Stipe from R.E.M for instance has spoken very highly of your influence. Do you feel proud of the legacy that you’ve made? Are there bands that have surprised you by claiming Gang Of Four as influential?

JK: I’m very proud that other musicians have found something in us that has inspired them to do something. We all do it. I’m glad that whatever we’ve done has been thought of so well by people I really respect. R.E.M supported us many times when they started off and are brilliant musicians. I value Michael’s compliments highly. He’s a great bloke. I bumped into Al [Jourgensen] from Ministry a few years ago and he said he owed us a debt. But we all owe someone something.

People still refer to Entertainment! as your definitive record. Do you feel that this album overshadows other work that you’ve done?

JK: I know that for many people Entertainment! is a precious thing and I love that. We all have our favourites. But I don’t think about the past much. I also love equally many other things we’ve done. I love our albums Solid Gold and Songs of The Free for different reasons; songs like ‘To Hell With Poverty’, ‘Do As I Say’ and ‘Farm’ on the new album; ‘What We All Want’ and ‘He’d Send In The Army’. 

You’ve been performing on and off again since 2004. Have any of the contemporary bands that you’ve played with/heard become influences?

JK: There’s a lot of great music being made. But we have our own thing going. I love Dizzy Rascal and Plan B, but I can’t see this affecting what we do.

Gang Of Four

There was something of a revival of interest in Gang Of Four in the early part of the last decade, both in New York and then in England. Did that have an impact on how you approached recording a new record? Knowing that you were a presence in the music that was being made for a new generation, as an oft-cited influence?

JK: Doing the new album, we wanted to play to our strengths, to make sure the songs had space to breathe. Leaving things out is usually better than putting something in; to think and argue hard about what we were writing about. Now it’s done, I think of it as a distant sister piece to Entertainment! and Solid Gold. It’s great we have a mostly younger audience who are desperate for relevant music that’s about something real.

How did the new album come about? You’ve been back together for a few years now – was it just a case of finding time to write and record, with a stable line up?

JK: We wrote like we always did: Andy and me kicking around ideas and working them up into a demo we could present to the band. Our new rhythm section is sensational; Mark’s one of the best drummers in the world and Tom can play hard funk and rock out too. It really makes a difference having such talent. 

Do you feel more pressure to compete with younger bands these days? Do you consider the new releases of old contemporaries like the Wire, who have recently released their new album Red Barked Tree, help or hinder you? 

JK: I don’t think in these terms at all and whatever we do is on our own terms.

In many ways, Content arrives in a similar political climate to Entertainment!, with a new (largely) Tory government in power and economic uncertainty. Are there parallels between both your political and musical outlooks then and now? Sex and consumerism in particular, and as ever in your music, seem to be recurring themes. 

JK: I’m not sure about that. I’ve never actually been interested in consumerism as a subject, which is pretty boring. I like to write as clearly as I can, and describe things as they are. Our desires for people or things aren’t natural but learned; trying to dig yourself out of a hole is pretty tough without a shovel. 

Do you find the lack of political engagement in the majority of contemporary bands’ music frustrating? Many bands, Arcade Fire come to mind for instance, keep politics and music separate. Is this an appropriate way to reconcile the two, or does it ultimately diminish any political message? 

JK: I’m amazed at how few musicians take on modern life and that almost no one wants to write about these amazing, difficult times. Where are the songs about the Iraq war or the crimes in the City and Wall Street who’ve brought us all so low? Actually, keeping these subjects ‘separate’ tells you a lot about how the ones who are most comfortable in other people’s misery are happy for things to stay as they are. 

There’s been a little bit of a debate in the music press lately about class, about how the majority of new bands seem to come from particularly well-off backgrounds. Is this something you’ve noticed, recently and throughout your career, and does it matter? 

JK: Starting off as a musician you need time to fool around and experiment in your chosen field. Back in the day, proto-musos like The Clash, Kinks, Beatles etc. could easily goof off at Art Colleges. Now, it’s increasingly only the privileged who can risk wasting their time like this, comfortable that bank of Mum and Dad can bail them out. It does matter that less advantaged people are having so many opportunities taken away from them. 

The Guardian recently wrote a piece that ‘Rock is Dead’ as Pop and R’n’B take a stronger hold on the charts. What is your opinion on this? Have you noticed a change in the landscape of Rock over the years? 

JK: Rock music is a minority taste these days and isn’t even close to what Hip Hop is in sales terms. Maybe it’s because Hip Hop tells stories about life that, at their best, say something real. 

What does the future hold for Gang Of Four? 

JK: We play a one-off show in the UK at venue Heaven in London on February 2^nd and then we head off to the US and Australia on a five week tour. 

Gang Of Four’s new album Content is out on 24^th January. New tracks ‘Who Am I?’, ‘You Don’t Have To Be Mad’, ‘I Can’t Forget Your Lonely Face’ and ‘I Party All The Time’ reveal Gang Of Four to be just as challenging and unconventional now as they were in 1978. 

Braids

BRAIDS

Hailing from Montreal, the Canadian quartet Braids are an experimental indie band, divulging in dream-like textured pop. Their music is full and heavy, but doesn’t explode at the seams. Instead their tunes take their time, exuding patience and lulling on for usually 10 minutes or more. Rather than repetitive or tedious, Braids are seductive; they carry you along for the extended duration, settling into a natural pace before fading softly.

Originally brought together as The Neighbourhood Council, Braids remind me of Broken Social Scene. Animal Collective however are the recognised influence, where their baroque-esq ‘Lemonade’ demonstrates this perfectly. Opening with what sounds like water babbling across a brook, the sound slowly unravels, emerging an ethereal pattern. Singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s vocals cut in, emitting a pure serpentine melody. The tune is knotted with intricacy but the vocals shimmer with light play.

Like BSS, they create heavily textured, buoyant sound, with extraneous depth and intricacy, however oddly light. Unlike BSS whose line up can include up to 19 members, they create this with only the four of them. This is a dramatic feat, and what’s even more incredible is that Braids are still honing their sound. If this is what they have come up with so far, it’s definitely a safe bet to keep listening out for them. Louise Coles

Factory Floor

FACTORY FLOOR

The London based trio Factory Floor are not necessarily new kids on the block. They’re been making a name for themselves for a while with their bleak underground abstractions that gets your pulse racing and limbs moving. Genre tagged as post punk and post industrial, they offer pulsating hard techno rhythms that tear at the human condition.

Their latest EP, Untitled, offers us merely four tracks, but yet spans over 40 minutes. Noise is produced at its most primitive level in ‘Lying’, as keyboards buzz through knotted metallic synthesisers and where indiscernible vocals echo into the ether. ‘A Wooden Box’ is similar: a continuous loop of marching keyboards combined with metallic clanging juts back and forth ceaselessly for nearing 10 minutes, where the only release comes from Dom Butler’s vocals, whose lyrics are just as oppressive as the music: all they want is a wooden box to be laid in the ground in which they can rot.

Although this metallic synth-noir grinds mercilessly, unlike lesser noise bands, you as a listener are not pulled down and ground to a halt. Throughout Untitled there is a coerce throb that rumbles throughout, dragging you into submission. Down the rabbit hole you fall, relishing every minute that you’re there. Louise Coles

Spectrals

SPECTRALS

Wakefield lad Louis Jones initially designed Spectrals as an outlet to vent some of his more private musings; a means to create some material that was incongruous with that of his other band Old Gold. Meant only to ever reach the ears of immediate family and friends, posting the songs on Myspace quickly put rest to that and in November his EP Spectrals Extended Play was released to general fanfare.

Astonishingly accomplished at the sprightly age of twenty, Jones enlists the support of additional musicians when performing live. On record, however, he’s a one-man-superband. Starting 2011 off with an impressive collection of songs already under his belt, his diligent brand of poignant love songs drenched in reverb pay more than just respects to the 60s. Best of the bunch and live favourite ‘Keep Your Magic Out Of My House’ is dreamy and languid, smudged like fingerprints on glass. Single ‘Peppermint’ was released in September and has been drifting around like dandelion seeds caught on a warm breeze ever since. Truly lovely stuff. Dannii Leivers

Penguin Prison

Penguin Prison is New Yorker Chris Glover. He was first introduced to the world by influential boutique label Neon Gold who specialise in pop music. Bloggers gobble up Neon Gold’s blog posts and spit them out on their own sites perhaps partly due to laziness but mostly because the music they put out is just so good. Success stories include Marina and the Diamonds and Ellie Goulding who occupied the top spots on the BBC’s Sound of 2010 list showing how their influence had infiltrated the mainstream.

Penguin Prison has also received a warm welcome by the blogs and will want to emulate the label’s success stories as he goes on. All his songs so far have been offered as free downloads. His first song ‘Animal Animal#, a slightly lacklustre pop song with reggae-lite noises was underwhelming compared to his remixes making you think that perhaps he’s a better producer than a pop star. His remix of Erik (not really worth the) Hassle (of checking out the rest of his music) in particular takes away all the middle of the road dullness and transforms the song into an incredibly listenable heartbreaker showing off Hassle’s interesting voice and lyrics. Everything else since then has proved the “better producer” theory wrong. ‘A Funny Thing’ is a sparkly mellow dance number with a brilliant Monarchy remix.

He attended a professional performing arts school and sang in a gospel choir with Alicia Keys, which will probably be an interview soundbite that keeps haunting him, and this probably didn’t dampen his ambitious side and on double A-side release ‘The Worse It Gets’/'Something I’m Not’ he gets to show off more of his singing abilities. The fidgety synth-pop of ‘Something I’m Not’ contrasts with the more laid-back ‘The Worse It Gets; and both are his best songs to date.

The album, which is apparently coming soon but hasn’t been given a definite release date, has been co-produced by Dan Grech-Marguerat, who has previously worked with Wiley, Sound of Arrows and Tom Jones (that’s one dinner party we’d etc. etc.) so it promises to be a twinkly synth extravaganza.

The one man electro pop scene hasn’t set the chart alight over the past few years despite a lot of hype surrounding many from the self-made Frankmusik to the more manufactured Alex Gardner and the aforementioned Erik Hassle. Recently pretending to be in a band has become the new acceptable face of the solo artist with their Machines and Diamonds. Penguin Prison feels more like a band’s frontman and may prove a more credible option for those who can’t handle the thought of liking a male pop star and in the few live gigs he’s done he’s played with a proper band with guitars and everything.  He is most definitely a talented performer and producer who doesn’t deserve to be dismissed.

From the beaches of Newport in Australia, there’s a new type of crooning cool that’s bound to grace the airwaves this season. Yet however fresh the offerings are, Angus and Julia Stone present a variation on a theme, that of an incredibly talented brother-sister musical team that brings its diverse stylistic strengths to the stage, working together to create hauntingly melodic pieces with effective acoustic compositions and minimalistic arrangements. Julia’s style has a distinctly fractured feel, one that draws listeners in and takes them for an enchanting ride; Angus, on the other hand, encourages one and all to kick back and let the waves of his by-the-beach drawl wash over them.

They didn’t initially realise that they were on to such a good thing though. Prior to their first collaboration in 2006, they each performed as solo artists and mainly doing so at open mike nights at beachside bars throughout the Sydney region. Following their first fruitful collaboration (the EP Chocolates and Cigarettes), they were launched on the Australian festival circuit, with performances most notably at The Great Escape Festival in Sydney and Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay, both two key Australian music events in terms of festival tickets sales and annual attendance figures.

A trip to London, a collaboration with UK band Travis, their first Australian national tour – and the rest is history. Subsequent years have seen the duo’s second EP, Heart Full of Wine, wide acclaim for the single “Paper Aeroplane” and the release of their debut album A Book Like This. Apart from other solo concerts and festival appearances where tickets have been hard to come by (including sold-out Scala shows in London), the group has furthermore supported Martha Wainwright, The Magic Numbers, Brett Dennen, Newton Faulkner and David Gray in various venues across Australia, the UK and Europe, and the United States.

So would Angus and Julia Stone be the type of music for you? If you’re into hauntingly beautiful creations that seem so fragile they could break at a touch, yet with an ephemeral delicacy that somehow endures time after time – then it would certainly be worth giving the Stone siblings a listen and permit yourself to be transported into their world for any amount of live or recorded time from the impressive duo.

Bowie's Lodger

By 1977, the collaboration between David Bowie and Brian Eno was running out of steam, which is fair enough when the last two years had each produced a genuine masterpiece of ambition and invention. Their final work together, Lodger, a more blurred musical vision than either of the previous two, is seen to represent the duo veering away from each others musical trajectories. After it, Bowie would lunge again at the mainstream, at first cautiously with Scary Monsters, and then without abandon with Let’s Dance. Eno, on the other hand, was busy hitching his wagon to David Byrne’s jerky star, making albums every bit as experimental and impressive as Low and Heroes.

Lodger is indeed noticeably distinct from the duo’s previous efforts. The first track hints at it – an epic ballad, ‘Fantastic Voyage’, is driven entirely by a piano and Bowie’s beautiful vocal, crooning a lyric which has a clear narrative of Cold War-era paranoia (it even contains a clear threat, that Bowie would ‘never sing anything nice again’ if bombs were dropped. The Cold War ended a mere ten years after this song – coincidence?). Its coherence and traditionalism would not have got anywhere near the preceding albums. Nor would the three chart-friendly singles, ‘DJ’, ‘Boys Keep Swinging’, and ‘Look Back in Anger’, all placed next to each other in the centre of the album for ease of picking. And following these, there are simply more songs  – no more long ambient tracks of harsh, isolated piano stabs. There are in fact no instrumentals on this album, and without Adrian Belew’s coruscating guitar continually turning songs on their head with layers of noise, it would be Bowie’s most accessible album for some years.

Not necessarily a bad thing though, and if this is the sound of a duo running out of steam, it still manages to be exciting and infused with an energy most bands would give their lead guitarists left arm  to possess. The triumvirate of singles which make up the middle section are great, slightly discordant slices of art-rock, particularly ‘Look Back in Anger’, which rumbles along with a Can-like metronome beat, its incessancy and repetitiveness something rarely heard in popular music. ‘Red Sails’ is the cousin of ‘Blackout’ from Heroes, a hugely enjoyable romp with Bowie’s inexplicable melodies merging with the uplifting brass backing and a typical Belew solo. Mentioned already, ‘Fantastic Voyage’  is a triumph of emotion, and contrasts with ‘Repetition’, led by Bowie’s dispassionate vocals and a detuned bass-line. Just like the opener, it is a song with a narrative, this time of domestic violence, and is as clear as anything from Young Americans, if not quite as uplifting. The whole feel of the album is one of adventure and travel, which, while not particularly subtle (‘Fantastic Voyage’, ‘African Night Flite’, the front cover being a postcard), gives the album a restless and invigorating feel.

Exploration brings with it risks though, and the album has its fair share of missteps. Songs such as ‘Move On’, dont do enough to hold the attention of the listener, and sound like ideas being sketched out  rather than fully formed. The world music influence, too, is clumsy. Bowie should be applauded for the attempt, as it precedes more landmark albums such as Remain In Light by the Talking Heads. But whereas songs on that album use polyrhythm and single chord grooves in a way which still sounds fresh today, Bowie’s attempts are more superficial, with silly chanting on  ‘African Nite Flight’ and overbearing Middle Eastern strings on ‘Yassassin’. Bowie clearly wasn’t as intrigued by the possibilities of African music as Eno – ever the musical chameleon, he showed no hint of world music influence until 1983′s ‘China Girl’. It’s debatable whether this belated attempt would have impressed Eno.

Perhaps it was the very beginning of the end – Bowie’s priorities had already began changing, becoming slightly more conservative, and albums after this got progressively worse for a miserably long period. But overall, that does not diminish anything about this one, which takes pride of place in Bowie and Eno’s masterful Berlin trilogy. Lodger‘s charms survive its missteps and what emerges from a full listen is an endearing hodgepodge of styles, with high-points that rank well up there with Bowie’s best work. After all, you don’t need a side of instrumentals to make an adventurous album.

Influential Australian guitarist and songwriter Rowland S. Howard has lost his battle with liver cancer, dying at the age of 50 in the Austin Hospital, Melbourne.

Perhaps most famous as a member of The Birthday Party, Howard was involved in numerous musical projects, from his tenure with The Boys Next Door through to a latent solo career. His guitar playing was often at the forefront and an inspiration to many.

As a sixteen year old he penned ‘Shivers’, a song that would later become a hit for The Boys Next Door, the band that became The Birthday Party. Following their dissolution he would be a key player in the early work of Crime & The City Solution (with whom he appeared in Wim Wenders’ cinematic masterpiece Wings Of Desire), lead singer of These Immortal Souls, and a significant collaborator of both Nikki Sudden and Lydia Lunch, among others.

His most recent works were the solo albums, 2000′s Teenage Snuff Film and 2009′s Pop Crimes. Although the latter has been a critical hit in his homeland, it is yet to see a proper worldwide release.

It was probably something of a surprise to many that he made it to this century, let alone the end of this decade, having endured periods of drug abuse and hard living in the past. Howard had however reputedly been encouraged by a renewed creativity and his return to the limelight this year. He was due to play his final gig of the year with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in Melbourne at their request, on what was to be the night before he died, unfortunately having to cancel for now obvious reasons.

Lifelong friend and frequent collaborator Mick Harvey remarked to Australia’s The Age on hearing of his passing, “Sometimes people are ready to go because they have been sick for a long time, but Rowland really wanted to live. Things were going well for him outside of his health and he wanted to take advantage of that, and he was very disappointed that he wasn’t well enough to do so.”

On a personal note, his passing is terribly sad, not only as a music fan, but as one of the many musicians to have been heavily influenced by him. As a guitarist, he was among the best of his generation, and will continue to shift the perception of those who listen to his records as to what that can mean. It would seem likely that a long-overdue assessment of his not insignificant back-catalogue will come, but it’s a shame (as is so often the case with artists) that he has had to pass away for it to happen. To hear that a talent such as his has gone forever is certainly tragic, especially when he had plenty left to give, and the desire to do so.

Rowland Stuart Howard, influential guitarist and songwriter, born October 24, 1979, died December 30, 2009.

With a name as difficult to search for as 2009′s Girls, and the fact that we’re entirely unsure who exactly they/he/she is/are, perhaps-Swedish-and-now-living-in-London x-piece Summer Camp have done an incredible job of getting me to play their songs on repeat for days on end at the tail of 2009. That the photo on the left is one of a select few on their MySpace and seems to embody the notion of girls at a Swedish ’70s/’80s crossover summer camp so darn well is just part of the fun.

Whether they actually met at a Swedish summer camp at the age of 14 as they say is unknown, as is the number of them involved in the band, whether they’re actually Swedish, whether they’re OAPs, kids etc. It’s that old adage of wanting to know the bits you’re kept away from, and not being interested when they’re there.

But while this may seem a gimmick enough in itself, it’s the music rather than the rhapsody that’s got me. The five songs available on the MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/morganwaves) are astounding, reaching Best Band of 2009 levels even without so much as a single release.

The five songs open with quotes from staple ’80s flicks (John Hughes, you know the sort), setting out Summer Camp’s vervy, knowing-bittersweetness.

Take ‘Ghost Train’, a wash of nostalgia placed carefully on top of teen-heartbreak-esque “ba ba ba”s, long-held-onto notes by the female vocalist and shiny, glimmering synths loitering a few spaces back. It sounds touchable, full of wist and wooziness. Such is the addictive nature of ‘Ghost Train’, currently being screamed about but those in the know, that I can only listen to it in 30-minute periods.

And then there’s their cover of ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’, a cover of a song written for Dames, a musical from the 1930s. Summer Camp hand-pick moments from bygone eras far from your common-place reference. The thing in common is once again a heartfelt  melodrama which fits nicely with Summer Camp’s musical cryptogram.

‘Why Don’t You Stay’, also available on the MySpace, is an even gentler affair, woozily doo-wopping through its path. It’s the sound of years of yearning bottled up and finally set free. ‘Round The Moon’, only made available to the world on December 22, is as beautiful as ever, but this time featuring a new male vocal. The lyrics are so muffled that meaning only comes from the rising and falling pitch, and the background “oh”-ing.

Summer Camp are a band your life will be better with. Go have a listen now: http://www.myspace.com/morganwaves