3 Albums (in order of preference):
tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
Dom - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods (UK release this year)

27 Songs (loosely grouped by genre):
Purity Ring - Ungirthed / Lofticries
Jessie Ware & Sampha - Valentine
Hyetal feat. Alison Garner - Diamond Islands
Jacques Greene - Another Girl
Blawan - Getting Me Down
Addison Groove - This Is It
xxxy - You Always Start It / Ordinary Things
FaltyDL - Hip Love
Sepalcure - Your Love
Burial - NYC
Rockwell - Aria
ASC - Silkworm
Peverelist -…

Fri 18 Mar – FabricLive 56: Ramadanman / Pearson Sound Album Launch

My first exposure to dubstep in rave form. Pretty good line-up, right? Some of the leading lights gathered together to celebrate the release of Ramadanman's FabricLive CD. So 'twas of interest that Rama's set, which kicked off the party, moved me the least. Very housey, I thought. You couldn't escape the 4/4. Where did the swing go, dude? The haywire precussion bits were the most energizing, but quite a lot of it plodded. I was pretty grateful when the awkward transition to James Blake's "I…

It's fair to say that my friends are pretty suspicious of P4k, and I can understand their attitude even if I don't share it. Personally, I think parsing thru their recommendations is worth it if once in a while you unearth something like this:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/12088-ungirthed/

The review does the song some justice, I just can't help adding some of my own slobbering over it. This is beat and vocal science applied to pop like nothing else. White gusts of chopped 'Aaah's crash against strategically fired 'Boh's over stuttering ticks, starting and stopping, stumbling and lurching. And that's BEFORE the vocal…

True story. Sitting over cocktails a close personal acquaintance reveals she doesn't really like Robyn. 'Dancing On My Own' (some remix thereof) had been burbling out of the speakers and I had been quietly grooving, hence the conversation. Alas, conversation was not really what was had. The revelation had robbed me of speech. I had never thought about exactly WHAT separates Robyn from the multitude of pop stars that populate our pop culture galaxy, partly because I never thought I would have to justify her in any way. Robyn just IS. She's undeniable. The possibility that she…

I have a shiny new "Witicha Recordings Ltd." pencil, which has been used to record for the sake of posterity the continuing chronicles of Johnny Foreigner and Los Campesinos!'s occasional visits to London. Together this time around! With unknown (to me) interlopers Frankie & The Heartstrings! Fabulous!

I arrive early, not wanting to miss JoFo's set. My waterbottle gets confiscated by guards outside the venue. Bastards! How am I going to hydrate now? Go in, buy Guinness, move to dark corner and fume. Guinness hardly sipped before Alexei and friends take to the stage. Their opener I do…

Yeah OK, 'Crazy In Love' is great. The driving horns pump you up high, the bump and grind bring you down low. Repeat with increasing returns. Jay-Z's rap makes the beat even funkier, and the brass goes positively shoegaze at the end. BUT. There's something about the chorus that is a bit… uncrazy. It's kinda docile. There is no big ridiculous diva moment where the vocal overloads the track – where personality asserts itself. The closest we get to that is the bridge ("baby you're MA-AKING a fool of me!") and it's just not enough for me. I…

It is sunny right now in London, a perfect time to get acquainted with this song good and proper. I realize the entire blogosphere has covered this ground already, but oh wow Animal Collective! You boys sure do spoil us.

'My Girls' was all shimmering anxiety building to triumphant resolve. 'What Would I Want? Sky' is more obviously a song of two parts. It starts with a claustrophobic cacophony – bruising drums and echoed ululations. You're fighting ghosts underwater, ghosts chanting what sounds like "blue jeans" at you. Freaky. You want to get out. And…

It's been difficult to escape the clutches of Now, Now today. Like a lot of St. Vincent songs, its about confinement and resistance. Muffled drums like power muzzled. The breezy strings coming up against guitar blasts. But what makes the thing so gut-wrenchingly beautiful and poignant is Annie Clark's voice. The taunting sing-song of "YOU DON'T MEAN THAT SAY YOU'RE SORRY" trying to crush that moment of defiance: "I'm not… any any any any any any any any thing". There's a frailty to those repeating anys. A precariousness. Negating all those categories you get boxed into is so difficult. The…

Tue 9 Feb – Johnny Foreigner, Talons

The chronicle of Johnny Foreigner's occasional visits to London continues. This time the venue was my student union, which is swanky as student unions go. The Guinness didn't taste half bad.

And there is seating, which I made use of during the set of the first (unknown, local?) support act. I refuse to be mean about them, for they look like upstanding gentlemen. I shall just stick to the facts: they played their instruments, and some organized noise came out. Meanwhile, I was reading Niall Fergerson's The Ascent of Money. A little…

Let's begin with the releases by the Grizzly Animal Projectors, which were not very album albums for me, but were dominated by a few magical singles. On Veckatimest, 'Two Weeks' is truly sublime, but I found myself preferring the angrier, rockier 'While You Wait For The Others', which always reminds me of Built To Spill for some reason. Bitte Orca is somewhat marred by the exasperating 'Useful Chamber', but 'Stillness Is The Move' is epic, and I do like the way 'Temecula Sunrise' is always falling apart only to…