Beach House - Teen Dream

For the intrigued/lazy amongst you we’ve decided to condense a month’s worth of blabber into an easy to digest Spotify playlist. Included are tracks from reviewed albums by Laura Viers, Beach House and Delphic as well as some January singles (OK and some late December ones) from These New Puritans, Late of The Pier, Plan B, I Was A King and The Strange Boys.

We’ve also included some tasters from forthcoming albums from Race Horses as well as a few of our tips from the year including First Aid Kit, Dimbleby and Capper and Toro Y Moi. There’s also thrown in some tracks from acts we’ve reviewed live this month like Vivian Girls and She Keeps Bees and acts we put on like the ace The Grave Architects and fantastic Cats and Cats and Cats.

There’s also track from this month’s classic album; David Bowie’s Lodger and a highlight from one of the best expanded re-issues of the month, David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name. Phew! Let’s hope February keeps us this busy as well.

Here it is: January 2010 in a playlist

The Dark Esquire - Situation

Our weekly look into the blogosphere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.

Track of the week:

‘Situation’  by The Dark Esquire (CFCF remix)

He, it is a funny thing, I loved all the remixes by CFCF last year. They were really good, and then came the album, and for some reason it never really grasped me. This though is another beauty. It is less disco and less dancey than what you might have seen from him next year, and the overall vibe is a bit more in line with his album. But he really turns up the atmosphere on this one. I also really love the vocals here, and how yearning they are, but also how they are not belting over everything and everyone but how it stays within the melancholic framework. Yeah, lovely late night music for insomniacs really, and oh boy do those people need some good music like this. You gotta love the restraint CFCF shows on this one.

http://hypem.com/track/1027215/The+Dark+Esquire+-+Situation+Cfcf+remix+

‘Fences’ by Phoenix (Delphic remix)

Oh boy, you know, those two are perhaps two of the hottest names out there, and I don’t like them. I can bare that Holy Ghost! remix of Phoenix because I love Holy Ghost!, but there is something about that voice that just doesn’t do the trick for me. Which is highly personal seeing them selling out everything and everywhere, but with the vocals so prominently at the start, it just immediately sets the wrong tone for me. I do like what happens underneath those vocals, courtesy of Delphic, and I do think they have some very neat tricks up their sleeve here which makes me rethink checking more of their work (saw them live and since have failed to bother). But I like what they are doing with this track, for me personally it is just the wrong track, and therefore the wrong remix. Regardless of the track by the way, it should’ve been cut in half this one, seven minutes is a bit stretching it. I have no idea how the last part relates to the first.

http://hypem.com/track/1031581/Phoenix+-+Fences+Delphic+Remix+

‘O.N.E.’ by Yeasayer

I actually like some of the tracks on this album, but this new single just isn’t my thing at all. I don’t know who of them is singing it, but it comes across as slightly whiney to me. It is mid-paced, and five minutes long, and musically they try to do some nifty stuff, but it doesn’t hit me on a gut level (I wish I could hit him on a gut level is what all the Annie Hall watchers who like Yeasayer are thinking right now, am I right?). I like the extra vocals at the very end of the song, but that’s about it. And I keep hearing “Hold me like a phone”, which always makes me go “eh?” to then realize, oh no, wait, that’s not right, never mind.

http://hypem.com/track/1030432/Yeasayer+-+O+N+E+

‘The Eyes of Mars’ by Franz Ferdinand feat. Marion Cotillard

I like this sort of genre bending and goofing around. Another actress who can sing, and she can strut her stuff in the first part of the song, which is nice and slow and piano led. And then the lads from Franz Ferdinand build it up to a rocky, signature song. Perhaps Cotillard does not have quite the voice for that part, and when she has to hold a note long it perhaps sounds a bit too fragile in contrast with those guitars. Which doesn’t mean she can’t sing — she can — it only means that at some moments the voice does not mix perfectly with the rock sound the Scotsmen produce. Nevertheless it is fun to hear a band like that with someone from the world of arts to produce something fairly interesting and reasonably entertaining for a period of time.

http://hypem.com/track/1026030/Franz+Ferdinand+-+The+Eyes+Of+Mars+feat+Marion+Cotillard+

‘Never Known Love’ by Thieves Like Us

It doesn’t feel that long ago since they released Play to be honest, that might just be me having a wrong sense of time though. But since that came out rather delayed I believe it is no wonder Thieves Like Us gives it another go so quickly. It actually seems a bit different than what I’m used to from these guys, perhaps less dancey than I remember them, a bit more gazey. They were always a band for after 4AM though (PM? At night I mean, darn it, that’s elementary education for ya ey.). I actually like how this track dawdles along, though perhaps it is a bit too much on the background for its own good. Maybe it’s just me writing this on the commute which has me thinking of other things (Hello, nurse!), but again, Thieves Like Us has always been a I’m-walking-at-home-in-the-night-with-a-barely-lit-sky kind of band for me.

http://hypem.com/track/1031348/Thieves+Like+Us+-+Never+Known+Love

‘Marchin’ In’ by Lo-Fi-Fnk

Well, haven’t they discarded the cheery synth-pop for a different look. The happy, gaily vibe of ‘City’ and ‘Louder’ have been replaced for this one, so you might like it even if you weren’t so keen on the band at first and vice versa. That’s always what you get when you try a new thing, no? It is a bit deeper, as in, the beat, it sounds deeper, a bit heavier. Luckily the vocals make it not like an awfully serious deep house attempt or anything (I mean, lets not change scenes completely here, ey?), so there is still a catchy streak to this one. It is not synth-pop like anymore though, lot less pop, steered away from Cut Copy a bit. But I really like this track. I was a bit hesitant on first listen, but now the catchiness has come through and I can see me dancing on this, and I think it is put together rather nicely. I interviewed the lads like December 2008 or something, where they said they were halfway, and it seems they are now real close to piecing the album together, and this is encouraging to hear. Not sure where the aquatic clip comes in though.

http://hypem.com/track/1032801/Lo+Fi+Fnk+-+Marchin+In

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

So here we are, one of 2010’s most anticipated releases…but can Putney’s favourite geeky dance-pop musos deliver the classic (and possibly career defining) album many are expecting?

Things get off to a strong start with opener ‘Thieves In The Night’.  It’s all broody synth organ drones and a four-on-the-floor kick drum, which builds anticipation and excitement, as any album opener worth it’s salt should. Alexis Taylor’s instantly recognisable falsetto finally gets things going: “My friend once told me something so right, he said to be careful of thieves in the night.”

From here on, the track seems to be on an ever-upward pursuit for bliss and abandon, with layers of synths, beats and guitars being added on top of one another in a clever marriage of words and music, “happiness is what we all want.”  Lovely stuff.

Next up is the piano led demi-ballad, ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’, which stands out as one of the record’s more instant tunes.  In what seems like an attempt to remain “human” and “honest”, the band have opted for a distinctly acoustic drum kit sound in the intro and verses.  It’s not what you’d expect from a Hot Chip song, but then again surprising listener’s is one of the things they do best.

Pretty string lines and delicious rising melodies ensure that it won’t be long before Erol Alkan decides he wants to sinks his dirty electro teeth into this one, as there is a filthy floor filling monster hiding just below the surface.

* “Don’t give a shit about the cool kids”

It’s no surprise that the album takes its name from the first single to be released from the album. ‘One Life Stand’ is an instant Hot Chip classic.  It’s irreverent, completely mad and is filled with a seemingly bottomless pit of hooks.

The choreography on the video sums up Hot Chips’ “don’t give a shit about the cool kids” approach to their music and image, which has garnered the band such a devoted fan base.  What’s a shame is that this sense of fun doesn’t appear elsewhere on the album. A few more tracks like this, rather than the insipid ‘Slush’ or ‘Brothers’ and One Life Stand would be the first must have of the decade, rather than just the very decent album that it is.

Other highlights include ‘Alley Cats’ and ‘We Have Love’.  The first is more of an entity than a song and is quite simply one of the loveliest, most understated, tracks Hot Chip have written to date.  It drifts in and out of focus like a sunshine drenched winter weekend morning and contains one of the album’s rare moments of Alexis Taylor’s and Joe Goddard’s beautifully idealised duel vocals.

‘We Have Love’ will certainly be featuring in several DJ’s set lists in 2010. It’s subtle dance hall and dub step ingredients are fused seamlessly with Hot Chip’s uncanny ability to produce dark, obscure mantras, which demand to be played time and time again.

* “How come they don’t just play like that cool part through the whole song?”

Taylor and Goddard have clearly decided to save one of the biggest choruses they band have ever summoned for the album’s closer ‘Take It In’. The song employs a familiar song-writing trick of minor key verses and major key choruses, which reminded me of a scene from Beavis and Butthead where they discuss Radiohead’s ‘Creep’:

Beavis: “What’s going on? How come they don’t just play like that cool part through the whole song?”

Butthead: “Well Beavis, if they didn’t have like a part of the song that sucked, then it’s like, the other part wouldn’t be as cool.”

To say that about ‘Take It In’ is a little harsh, but you get the idea. The minimally melodic verses become more attractive with repeated listening and act as a perfect counterweight to the gorgeous falsetto chorus: “My heart has flown to you just like a dove, it can fly, it can fly.  Please take my heart and keep it close to you, take it in, take it in.”

The album still has room for Amnesiac era Radiohead in the minimalist electronica of ‘Keep Quiet’ and an attempt at a 90s dance pop revival in ‘I Feel Better’.  I used to live next door to a halfway house for young offenders and elements of this track certainly come from the same ‘Dance Anthems’ stock, which used to haunt me during the delinquents’ all-too-frequent all nighters. That said, ‘I Feel Better’ isn’t unpleasant, but as with a few moments on the album I can’t help but feel that it doesn’t quite reach it’s potential.

So back to the key question, is the album any good?  It’s certainly a strong addition to the Hot Chip oeuvre and a must for any fan however, I would still recommend 2006’s The Warning to any newcomers.  Key tracks ‘One Life Stand’, ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’, ‘Alley Cats’ and ‘Take It In’ are undoubtedly great Hot Chip songs, but they don’t quite reach the dizzying heights of ‘Over And Over’, ‘Boy From School’ or ‘Ready For The Floor’.

Perhaps Hot Chip are just too eclectic and experimental a band to write an album that will be widely regarded as a classic.  It’s unlikely they will ever write a record that will be universally viewed as a cohesive ‘whole’.  But perhaps that’s not the point. Their inventive and often risky approach to song writing means that not every attempt works as well as it might, but this is precisely why they are admired as one of the most unique bands of the past decade.

So anyway, dance your nuts off to ‘One Life Stand’, find your heart swept away by ‘Alley Cats’ and ‘Take It In’, play ‘spot the steel drum Leitmotif’ that runs throughout and prepare yourself for the brilliant remixes to follow.  This might not be a ‘classic’, but don’t be too surprised if it ends up on a few top ten lists at the end of the year, after all how many bands are capable of sounding completely out of place and in perfect harmony with their surroundings at the same time?

Fiery Furnaces - Take Me Round Again

Heard it all before? It all sounds the same is a common complaint, and one often thrown at folk-tinged garage bands. The Fiery Furnaces do at least try to do things a bit differently – from the throb of electronic beats they sometimes sneak into their output to the bizarre cut and paste approach taken to last year’s live album Remember, which had about three years’ worth of gig recordings spliced together into an odd aural patchwork. But there is a reason their latest effort seems familiar.

Take Me Around Again, their ninth – Jesus – album in around six years (on top of Matthew Friedberger’s recent solo mission – prolific, huh?), is essentially an alternative version of I’m Going Away, their eighth album, released earlier this year. Still with me? Not so much a remix album in that there’s no obvious electronic tampering – save the 8-bit glitchiness of ‘Drive To Dallas’ – this is more a full reworking of what went before. The pair claim that only the lyrics remain untouched, the words like ghosts wandering around a new building, bumping into walls that haven’t always been there.

The track listing tries to spice things up further, billing this as some kind of bout, with one or the other of the duo putting their name to each song. Opening with the title track of that last album recut twice could be seen as an ironic turn. With both of them telling their version of events, the idea they’re probably trying to get across is one of sibling rivalry spiralling out of control. But ‘I’m going away / I’ll be back some old day’ is an empty threat when that distant occasion is actually a few months on from the last record.

This wants to be creative differences laid out for the world to see, with Eleanor finally given some say in the studio, but there is no build up of tension. Instead, it sounds remarkably uneventful. The music might be different, but the effect is much the same. The comparatively uncluttered production of I’m Going Away, which shied from the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink attitude the band have often adopted, is still quite straightforward here, especially now the pair’s ideas have been stretched across two albums.

The song craft is often so simple that it’s hard to imagine it could have been written any other way. But with a surprising lack of drama, this might be for hardcore fans only. And with a bit more breathing space between albums, there might feel like more of a need for this.

Night Slugs

Since this month’s sudden thaw fucked our already frayed wiring, Short Circuitry’s been in slow recovery on top of the kitchen radiator and has taken the opportunity to catch up on over a month’s musical backlog. Thankfully, we’re now back to our usual shepherd selves, rounding up and processing the usual herd of electronic releases into pre-shaped, bite-size portions – now with an added ‘free stuff’ section.

If the start of 2010 heralds anything in dance music, it’s a beautiful blurring of the lines between what were once seen as neatly insular regions. Towards the end of last year, drum ‘n’ bass innovators Instra:mental began releasing a run of immaculately crafted hybrid tracks that took in everything from eighties electro-pop to fractured dubstep. Dark dub/two-steppers TRG and Martyn began to explore the increased freedom provided by slower house tempos, and the skeleton of UK garage was redesigned by an entire cohort of bass experimentalists.

As befits one of the UK’s most influential club institutions, the people at Fabric have been closely been following these developments over the last year or so, as dubstep’s remit has shattered outward to encapsulate a widening cluster of sub-sounds. It’s a consistently shapeshifting and impossible to define landscape, so with fantastic new compilation Elevator Music Volume 1 they simply haven’t bothered to try – instead offering a momentary snapshot of bass mutations circa now. Either way, it functions impressively both as a scene primer (for those not predisposed to buying shedloads of vinyl) and as a collection of unreleased gems from both established and upcoming producers.

So Untold’s characteristically mindbending ‘Bad Girls’ and Martyn’s house workout ‘Friedrichstrasse’ rub shoulders with the far less ubiquitous likes of Doc Daneeka’s ‘Drums In The Deep’ and the delectable funky techno of xxxy’s ‘Sing With Us’. Even Caspa & Rusko are on atypically restrained form with ‘One Of The Same’, an echo drenched, space-is-the-place slink that sonically finds its feet not a million miles from Lindstrom’s cosmic disco groovefests. But most promisingly, the compilation’s best tracks are from relative unknowns – the lush tropical funk of Hackman’s ‘Pistol In Your Pocket’; Mosca’s insanely addictive ‘Gold Bricks, I See You’ easily eclipsing Joy Orbison at his own housey-garagey game – offering the tantalising probability that this year should be every bit as exciting as the last.

Kieran Hebden seems to have been similarly taken by these exciting states of flux, drafting in both Joy Orbison and Roska to remix his new Four Tet material and further pushing his penchant for jazzy cadence in a dance-oriented direction. Hebden’s new album There Is Love In You, his first Four Tet full-length in nearly five years, further draws on these connections. After the majestic understatement that was last year’s collaborative 12” with Burial, previous single ‘Love Cry’ and the mesmerizing ‘Sing’ are saturated in dazzling technicolour, a world away from Everything Ecstatic’s stranger meanderings. There are elements of his work with Steve Reid here too, both in the glitch-ridden interlude ‘Reversing’ and the ever-changing backdrops of ‘This Unfolds’. To these ears Hebden has always been a reliable talent, so the fact that There Is Love In You is so enjoyable comes as no great surprise. Yet it’s still a welcome statement from a musician who manages to conjure intriguing results regardless of setting.

Traces of Everything Ecstatic at its most percussively oblique also litter Lake, 10-20’s latest EP on Highpoint Lowlife. It’s an appropriately titled record, drenched in aquatic background chatter and curiously inverted, as though gradually resolved through several feet of murky water. But where Hebden’s periods of awkward abstraction are as likely to find resolve in a softly plucked melody line, tracks like ‘Overloam’d’ and ‘Endzone’ as often plunge into cavernous, introspective noise. It’s bracing stuff for the most part, a less easy listen than his earlier releases but as rewarding, dragging together uneasy hip-hop and ambient influences to create a result that’s as much an installation as a record.

Meanwhile, Highpoint Lowlife’s first release of the new year brings together a host of the label’s major players to rework material from Erik XVI’s frosty Stern-Gerlachs Forsook EP. The resultant seven tracks range from austere minimalism to unabashed hedonism, Hot City’s ‘Unionens sista dagar’ remix in particular escalating its house pulse to heart attack-inducing tempo. Infrasonics head honcho Spatial, on the other hand, contributes the EP’s least immediate – but almost certainly finest – moment with his remix of ‘Kalabaliken i Bender’. Consisting of little more than diffuse percussion and blank pulses of sub-bass, like the rest of his music it’s garage taken to the furthest extreme – stark, emotionally withheld and inhuman, save a lone female voice crying into the void.

Over the course of four releases on the Daphne label, semi-anonymous operators Millie & Andrea have been honing a similar balance between icy restraint and direct dancefloor action. Their most recent 12” neatly encapsulates their work over the last year or so, ‘Spectral Source’ combining a lean rhythmic chassis with expansive dub-techno atmosphere. By way of contrast, ‘Ever Since You Came Down’ is all stop-start jungle-influenced percussive mania, bulding in fits and starts before jerking to an abrupt halt.

On the dancefloor, 2010 looks set to be Night Slugs’ year – the London night set up by Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990 has spiraled out into its own label, the first couple of releases from which look set to saturate clubs for the foreseeable future. Their first official 12” is Mosca’s long-awaited Square One, based somewhere in the hinterlands where dub’s expansive space meets funky’s tribal bounce. It’s certainly less immediate than some of funky’s biggest hitters, the title track’s tension between smooth legato and shattered vocal soul more akin to Cooly G than Crazy Cousinz - a conviction borne out on the compulsively brilliant B-side. A nocturnal tryst through London clubland’s astral plane, ‘Nike’ is three tracks in one – ten minutes of constantly morphing, ethereal dance music that manages to cram in an impressive roster of influences yet sound like nothing else around. Shifting from an opening dubstep-ish crawl, it suddenly picks up at around the three-minute mark to a clipped house/garage hybrid before a sudden drop into swirling, oceanic ambience. The payoff at the end of this extended interlude is glorious – three final minutes of bittersweet funky that finally tails off to leave a melancholy afterglow in its wake.

Night Slugs and Apple Pips associate Greena has carved out a similarly warped niche with his recent tracks – his ‘Square One’ remix, available for free download at XLR8R, locks the source material’s melody in a dense cage of percussion and swooping bass drops. His recent Apple Pips 12” pulls a similar trick but in sharper focus, ‘Tenzado’s toughly percussive nature undoubtedly dancefloor ready but cocooned in a humid ambiguity of intent.

It’s hard to isolate exactly what’s been prompting the emergence such an impressive array of unique sounds, but one of the main factors seems to be a renewed willingness amongst a generation of dubstep and grime producers to acknowledge Detroit and Chicago’s huge influence. The steady rise of laptop DJing, even amongst traditionally vinyl purist scenes like dubstep, can also claim some responsibility. DJs can easily change track tempo without shifting pitch and so mix together genres that would previously have been incompatible. Greena’s Ableton sets have always been willfully eclectic beasts, switching with surprising ease between UK bass sounds, classic techno and all manner of regional house variants – an ‘anything goes’ attitude that seems to be traveling further as genre boundaries become harder to draw. His recent mix for XLR8R is well worthy of a listen, moving seamlessly from the Detroit sounds of Omar S and Carl Craig, through Mosca and Untold, to Ricardo Villalobos and Claude VonStroke.

This month’s best free stuff

Greena’s XLR8R podcast, a dizzying forty-five minutes of genre-bending music.

Mosca – ‘Square One (Greena Remix)’, also available for download through XLR8R.

Deadboy – FACT Mix, in which the upcoming London producer whips up “a little heartache on the dancefloor”.

Sully – FACT Mix, further proof that two-step is still in capable hands, with tracks like ‘In Some Pattern’ treading the fine line between upbeat magic and keening melancholy.

Gilles Peterson podcast, with special guest Mala, a wholly worthwhile hour of chat and tunes: new Deep Medi material, classic dub and Steve Reich.

Further reviews, interviews and links to similar material can be found at Close Bracket/Open Bracket.

Mike Doughty

February 2nd 2010

“I want to be on you”.  Ron Burgundy’s “immortal words” are those chosen by Mike Doughty to sell himself to the British public.

Doughty, formerly of alt-rock band Soul Coughing, is pretty popular in the States, but relatively unknown here.  My question referred to selling himself to us in the style of a dating ad.  His witty answer, I come to realise, is standard.

The American singer-songwriter is a fairly open book, regularly tweeting (find him @mikedoughtyyeah) and blogging on his website, where he comments honestly on his day to day activities and thoughts on the happenings in the world; two recent tweets include “Lousy night. Crowd couldn’t have cared less” and “Salinger gone – perhaps we’ll at last hear his Rock Opera”.  Is it important for him to keep in touch with fans? “I think it ends up being important, but the reason I do it is just my general obsession with killing time online” he says. “I think my crowd feels pretty close to me because of the access I give to myself, but I don’t think it’s necessarily vital to being a musician these days”.

This openness has extended to a book about his previous life as a drug addict, which he’s in the process of writing.  Mike claims “writing prose is a lot more time consuming than song writing” and that “linear thinking”  is not his strength.  He’s currently struggling to write about his time with Soul Coughing, describing it as “pretty shitty”.
Another way his fans get to know about him is through the Question Jar, something passed round at his gigs where people can put questions in for him to answer.  He told me he’d not had it on this tour because his German wasn’t good enough to answer the questions – he’d been touring Germany and Switzerland for two weeks before playing London – and that he wished he’d brought it along for his gig at the Relentless Garage, but as it happened he ended up inviting the audience to shout out questions to him anyway.   There were a large amount of Americans in the crowd, many of them obviously long-time fans, as lots of the questions were, by Doughty’s admission, in-jokes regarding Dave Matthews (of the Dave Matthews Band; Doughty supported him in Soul Coughing, and is now signed to his record label) and various song lyrics. He claims the best questions he’s had to date are “Would you rather punch a kitten in the face or play Twister with Dick Cheney?” and “Have you ever considered a life as a Ghostbuster?” – unfortunately he didn’t tell me the answers to either.

Mike’s here to promote his new album Sad Man Happy Man, which is a lot more stripped down compared to his previous work – mainly in response to his fans.  He said the last album, Golden Delicious, “was received as kind of a betrayal – they thought it was too fluffy. I’d been doing gigs with just my cello player, Scrap Livingston -pretty bare bones, so it was pretty natural just doing a record that was stripped down like that”.  This time, the response was a lot more positive, demonstrated at the sold-out gig by rapturous applause after every track and numerous encores.

Doughty was the embodiment of stripped down, wearing a plain black t-shirt and jeans, with only his guitar for company,  and he managed to engage and entertain the crowd for an hour and half.  The set was a chance to showcase the new tracks with old favourites like ‘27 Jennifers’, ‘Nectarine’, and the two songs probably most well known by his British fans – ‘Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well’ and ‘I Hear The Bells’ – both of which have been featured on various US TV shows, most notably Grey’s Anatomy.  Asked how he felt about TV syncs, he replied, “I watch too much TV to really complain about it as a sellout. I don’t think I’d give my music to booze or cigarette commercials, but other than that, I’m not bummed out by the association.”

Mike’s humour entertained the crowd just as much as his music, regularly ad-libbing funny lyrics – much to the audience’s amusement – and giving good banter between the songs.  Toward the end of the show, he stopped and said he was about to play the “fake last song”, instructed us to cheer loudly afterwards while he turned around and pretended to be surprised, before going into the ‘encore’.  But in actual fact, he ended up doing two real encores, in addition to the fake one – and the crowd still demanded more.

Mike Doughty hadn’t played in the UK for 10 years before this gig, but I suspect he’ll be back a lot sooner next time.  To paraphrase a certain Mr. Burgundy – I love Mike. Mikey, Mike, Mike…

Hot Chip confirmed for Bestival 2010

January is only just over and already we’re gearing up for the festival season – Glastonbury rumours were rife yesterday, but today’s announcement on Bestival’s line up reveals a host of impressive acts. Dizzee Rascal, The Flaming Lips, Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem and, er, Rolf Harris are all on the bill.

The full line up can be found over at the Bestival website, but there’s a strong mix of the old (Marc Almond, Gil Scott Heron, Echo and the Bunnymen), the leftfield (Four Tet, Flying Lotus, Here We Go Magic) and the hotly-tipped (Joy Orbison, The Antlers). There’s also dan le sac v. Scroobius Pip, but you can’t have everything.

Bestival will take place over the weekend of 9th-12th Septmeber 2010 at Robin Hill Countyside Adventure Park near Newport on the Isle of Wight and tickets are available here.

Jazzie B

On February 17, Red Bull Music Academy are hosting a wondrous sounding event at the very splendid Roundhouse. Entitled Clash Culture/Culture Clash, the line up features Soul II Soul Soundsystem, Jazzie B, MC Chickaboo, Metalheadz, Goldie, Roots Manuva and many more special guests.

It’s being billed as an all-seeing night celebrating the role of sound-systems in London, and the emergence of reggae, dub and lovers’ rock.  Jazzie B’s Soul II Soul will bringing “positive vibes”, with Goldie’s Metalheadz offering something altogether different – the hardcore. Dubstep’s infamous Digital Mystickz will be bringing the sounds up to date, and Trojan Soundsystem offer their sounds too.

Culture clash and clashes make culture – it’s pretty darn innovative!

Tickets are available from here for just £10.

Male Bonding

Dalston’s very own Male Bonding will release their much-anticipated debut album on May 11th. Entitled Nothing Hurts, it will be released on the legendary Sub Pop Records.

New York band Vivian Girls appear on the album’s final track ‘Worst To Come’. The full tracklist is below. The band will embark on a U.S. tour in March and April in the lead up to the album’s release. They also have a compilation coming out on their own Paradise Vendors Inc label at the end of this month, featuring the likes of Teen Sheikhs, Fair Ohs, Spectrals and Cold Pumas – Alan McGee likes this.

Nothing Hurts tracklist:

1. Year’s Not Long
2. All Things This Way
3. Your Contact
4. Weird Feelings
5. Franklin
6. Crooked Scene
7. TUFF
8. Nothing Remains
9. Nothing Used To Hurt
10. Pirate Key
11. Paradise Vendors
12. Pumpkin
13. Worst To Come (feat. Vivian Girls)

Muso's Guide

We are looking for short dramatic pieces, to be performed as part of a one-day event at The Camden Head we’re hosting on Sunday 4th April. In association with Broken Glass Theatre Company, the day will showcase innovative approaches to theatrical and musical performance.

If you’re  a band, please post links to your MySpace page as a comment to this piece – we’ll listen to all of them.The Muso’s Guide half of the event is looking for new bands and artists to be brought to our attention.

We are open to submissions of complete pieces from theatre companies and individual performers working with fresh approaches to live theatre, with a maximum running time of 25 minutes. Please email a short CV of previous work and proposals of no more than 300 words to alex@brokenglassplay.co.uk or vicky@brokenglassplay.co.uk by Monday 1st March.