Day 2 (05/04/11)

Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel
On my way into work, my first listen to the album that I bought at the gig. Very much as expected, which is a good thing.

Elbow - Ticker Tape
Patrick Wolf - The City
Guillemots - The Basket
Delays made my journey a bit longer, so I listened to the last few mp3s which I'd bought - the new singles (or B-side) of three of my favourite acts and among the few that I would bother doing so for.

Admiral Fallow - Boots Met My Face
New album (well, it was released last year but has been rereleased and put on Spotify) which I listened to for the first time based on this piece and its mention of recommendations from a couple of my favourite bands. I liked the arrangements and the obvious depth and care that went into them, but wasn't so sure on the songwriting or singing. Will give it another go at some point.

Katy B - On a Mission
Another new album through Spotify Mobile which I listened to on my way home. Didn't quite get all the way through it and didn't form much of an opinion yet.

Hannah Peel - The Broken Wave
Listened to once I got home while on the web/playing games. On my own in the room. Lovely album which the previous day's gig made me want to go back to.

Oh Land - "Sun of a Gun" x3
I wanted to check that my thoughts on the song from listening to it on the album would stand up to concentrated listening before submitting my review for The Singles Jukebox (they did), and I needed to check the exact wording of a line that I was quoting.

Emmy the Great - First Love
Followed on from the indie folk of the previous day, but also a choice influenced by a discussion with my girlfriend about British people who are part-Chinese (she had been reading Matt Tong and Alexa Chung interviews for her PhD), and because she was in the room so I wanted to pick something she would be happy to listen to as well. I love this album a lot.

Xposure on xfm
Listened to this for about an hour, it's the only thing on xfm that I will listen to but is very good for new indie stuff. The highlight was the gorgeous new single from Clock Opera, "Belongings", which was played immediately after The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's "Belong".

Music Diary Project day one (04/04/11)

Hi everyone! I really wanted to take part in Nick Southall's Music Diary Project. This involves writing down all of the music that you listen to for a week (and trying not to let your choices be too affected by the fact). Luckily I already have this neglected blog handy to write it up in! Day one is a bit late as I was out last night (as you will see) but this is what I listened to:

Connan Mockasin - Forever Dolphin Love
I listened to this album for the first time, during my commute into work. At the start of this year I signed up to Spotify Mobile and it has had a big impact on my listening habits as I love listening to new music and now can read about something intriguing, set it in my 'starred' playlist and it will almost instantly be available to listen to on my phone wherever I am. I think I still actually buy the same (large) number of CD albums as previously, but listen to many more and make a lot fewer bad purchases. In this case the title track appeared in Sweeping the Nation's Spotify playlist for the month and I'd never heard of it, looked it up and it sounded intriguing. It turned out that it indeed was, psychedlia which wasn't all possible to process on first listen but which I will definitely come back to.

Kassidy - "Stray Cat" (from Hope St.)
Connan album didn't last the whole journey and so Spotify went on to the next thing on my playlist. I put this whole album on after seeing a friend of a friend talking it up on Facebook, but it turned out to be horrendous landfill indie of a kind I thought was dead, and I didn't make it through more than one song.

Niki & the Dove - "DJ Ease My Mind"
Instead I went on to this to fill the last minutes of the journey - from my playlist of stuff by new acts. Owes a lot to The Knife, but really great regardless.

Oh Land - Oh Land
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
I listened to both of these on headphones while working. I usually listen to one or two albums a day at most as I don't like to keep dipping in and out of an album and am not usually concentrated on doing on single task for that long, but when I am I find it easier to do so with music.

Something I didn't recognise which may or may not have been Macy Gray / someone whistling the World 1-1 theme from Super Mario Bros.
The soundtrack to getting my lunch.

Braids - Native Speaker
For my commute home. I have listened to this album a lot and it's one of my favourites of the year. Quite annoyed that I will be away when they play in London next month.

Conquering Animal Sounds live set
Various folk songs I didn't know, and a very proggy instrumental version of "Scarborough Fair"
Hannah Peel live set
I went to the Lexington to see Hannah Peel. I had never heard of the support act Conquering Animal Sounds but they were really impressive, building looped voices and keyboards into fragmented but increasingly powerful songs which also just about fitted the folk theme of the night. I bought their album before I left.

It was the first time I'd seen Hannah Peel and things took a while to properly get going, not helped by the drums being overpoweringly loud in such a small venue. Strong voice though and the quieter songs lived up to her excellent album. I love her music box playing too - such a clever idea! Also a neat bonus to see Laura Groves (aka Blue Roses) as part of her band.