Paris Motel at Good Ship, Kilburn (26/07/07)

(Yeah, I finished the blog entry and got there in time for the support acts too)

First up, as featured today in one free paper's Glen Hansard-led feature on buskers, the unfortunately named Rod Thomas. Playing solo, he puts thoughts of Matchbox 20 to the back of our minds soon enough with some agreeable folk-pop, in Stephen Fretwell/Liam Frost style but constructed in the Final Fantasy style by recording bits of himself playing different instruments and looping them round and round. This has clear benefits in fleshing out his simple melodies, but eventually begins to feel a little constricting. Almost every song goes minimal keyboard melody-minimal electronic beat-handclaps-minimal strum before finally getting to the point, and there's not much freedom for them to breathe when tightly constrained by the lengths of loops. Ultimately, it feels like he's just not doing much with the cool technology that couldn't be replicated by even an average backing band.

Better by far still than Kaiko. Jetlag may have been lingering, and I don't usually go to gigs on my own, but the fact that there was absolutely nothing remarkable or interesting whatsoever about their trebly, vaguly post-punky indie proably still had something to do with my dozing off during their set.

No such risk with Paris Motel. The sinister fairytale crack and thud of "Mr. Splitfoot", magnified by proximity in cramped quarters, makes sure of that very quickly even before technical problems kick in and we're assaulted with feedback screeches. With Amy May tonight backed by 6 band members, including violin, clarinet and a new double bass player, the very crowded nature of the set up on the venue's tiny stage does have a large impact, both in a few such technical problems and that seeing the band here feels such a treat.

'We are the disasterous Paris Motel,' proclaims an elegant Amy May brightly as an introduction after those screeches, 'home to broken strings. And maybe broken bra straps too'. Gulp. A lot of eyes were surely following her as she regularly pulled up her strapless dress even before that point, though the band make for no shortage of other visuals. Their intense playing sometimes conjuring a bit of an Arcade Fire feel, especially apparent in the a capella group singing of "I Lost My Heart".

Later on there's sadly no "Static Song" but "071" is as sumptuous as on record and "Oh" even more bittersweet. A short set doesn't allow for too many new songs, but they are without exception great, especially "After Wanda" which winds its way through multiple dramatic turns with expertly handled ease. After which hearing a long delayed defintie release date for the album (September 26th) is music to the ears too.

no title

Hard-Fi's Stars Of CCTV definitely had one of the best album covers of recent years. A really striking image that (in the UK at least) was instantly recognisable but something that is so commonplace that you didn't normally give it any thought at all before presented in this different context. Which is probably the answer to why no-one thought of it earlier.

So how do they follow it up? Well, with something that's already got people writing dramatic articles about the death of the album cover:



Which is definitely a great idea, but it should have been even bolder - why bother with the band name or album title at all? They could always have gone for the better cop-out of putting them on a sticker. And the bright yellow colour, as part of what made the debut's cover so striking, has become representative of them to a certain extent as well. It seems like even when trying to remove image, they're just a little too brand-conscious to go the whole way.

Paris Motel - Static Song

One of the very best things about living in London is being able to look up a band's website for gigs at 5:30, see one, realise that it's today, and be able to go. And still have time to write the blog entry that you were looking it up for to boot.

So, I'll report back on Paris Motel live very soon, but for now this is about the 071 EP, especially one song on it, which is the best thing by a new band I've heard this year by far (lets not let the fact that it came out in 2005 and that the album is all new stuff get in the way here). It appeals to much the same bits of me that fell head-over-heels for Guillemots I guess - their eclecticism and tendency to drench songs in strings and do it well is pleasingly similar, though Amy May's songs assured, layered songs are not exactly cut from the same cloth.

"Static Song" is their (/her?) tender pop at its most romantic. It takes a simple recieved premise (that the infinite shifting disorder of an untuned TV screen is a bit like that of the universe) and retells it as a thing of fantastical wonder, slowly assembling its own glistening world along the way of xylophone and humming strings and May's enchanting voice. It's warm and thick with nostalgia but remains alive and urgent, like opening a dusty old book in front of a crackling fire and still being enthralled by the stories within.

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Chartsengrafs - Told you I'll be here forever

When I last did this near the start of June, "Umbrella" was number one. And, well, it still is. Its now in its tenth week on the top and is only the 6th song ever to have its run reach double figures. Now, it's a pretty great song and all, but that still says more about the slowdown of interest (and sales) in the singles chart than anything else. Kate Nash has been hanging around almost as long and goes back up to number two, it looks like her "Foundations", rather than anything newer, is going to block Rihanna from reaching an eleventh week. It still doesn't feel like a song by someone quite ready yet to be thrust into fame, but it'll do.
The Hoosiers go back up two to 8 and I realise that I still haven't heard "Worried About Ray". The video is what I expected (ie. annoyingly wacky) more so than the song, which sounds like a Britpop era band that I can't quite place covering "Happy Together". Enrique Iglesias is at 5 and I'm also wondering how I could have missed that his new single goes under the subtitle "The Ping Pong Song". Mark Ronson avec Lily Allen doing Kaiser Chiefs goes to 8. It's better than "Everybody's Changing" but not as good as "Nan, You're A Window Shopper". And people who say 'could care less' annoy the living shit out of me at 10.

Why does Amy Macdonald's Scottish accented voice make me think of Tim Booth? I'm confused. She's at 12, anyway, and not as bad as 'new Sandi Thom' tags suggest, even after reading the lyrics. Though that was still slightly ill-advised. Patrick Wolf's favourite Mika moves up to 14 with the much more than slightly ill-advised "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)", and Biffy Clyro follow at 18 with the latest product of their new exciting new Foo Fighters direction. No one's even seen High School Musical 2 yet, but they're still at 20.

Further down: Reverand & The Makers have been in the top forty for 11 weeks? R Kelly and Usher and Sunfreaks and Andrea Britton join them (that's two entries, not four) and The Thrills make a triumphant return at 40.

Over in the albums, The Enemy are removed from number one by Paul Potts, winner of Britain's Got Talent. Now, this is probably worth more than anything said band has ever done (although I like their album cover a lot actually) but that's no excuse to give the guy an album. It also makes me think that we're now at the end of July and still no sight of a follow up single for last year's X Factor winner Leona Lewis, someone who shouldn't really be a problem to market further. Cowell et al appear to have completely given up any pretense of being in it for building anyone's careers but their own.

Lisa Brown - What's That Sound?

I've been following Snowfight in the City Centre for nearly three years now, during much of which they've always seemed just on the brink of a much deserved breakthrough. So it's a real shame to find out that they've split up (in May, in fact - I haven't been following that closely obviously).

Here's their finest released moment to commemorate. Under their previous guise as Lisa Brown, it ties icy guitar blasts and heartfelt falsetto vocals to a 80s disco beat and silly backing vocals, with infectiously fun results that beat Delays' "Valentine" by a couple of months back at the end of 2005.

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Hello Saferide - San Francisco

I'm back! And sort of trying out a song a day format as it worked so well for Paraguay And Laos, although this will be much less strictly cotnrolled and lead to rambles about whole albums or other things as often as not. I should be making a couple of other changes too as you'll see soon.

This song followed me round on holiday, at least in my head. Every time I saw a sign of San Francisco this came into my head, not that suprisingly as it's from one of the albums that I've been listening to most for the past nine months or so and is a pretty fine song in its own right. The closing encore highlight the last time that I saw Ms. Norlin, it was given a massively energetic that rather suited it and the thrill of escape that it's all about.
Because there's nothing about San Francisco in it that you won't know without ever going there (Golden Gate? Alcatraz? Closest is 'the only place in North America not too destroyed by the government', which has got to be an ouch for Canada), since the from is always far more important than the to. San Francisco doesn't really have to be the destination, though it serves rather well, when the emphasis is always on escaping from the present surroundings to handclapping excitement.

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(my CD haul out in SF if anyone's interested:
Bargain bin:
Goldrush - Ozona
Goldrush - The Heart Is The Place
The Like - Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?
The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Tori Amos - Under The Pink
Black Box Recorder - England Made Me
Kenickie - At The Club

Cinerama - Torino
Mae - The Everglow (a gift for someone)
The Lodger - Grown-Ups
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
Puffy Amiyumi - Splurge
Polysics - Now Is The Time!
The Dresden Dolls - Live at the Roundhouse London DVD

I wish I could have spent more!)

Oops

I didn't actually mean for this to die when I started Paraguay And Laos.
But I will definitely be away for the next two weeks, with the proper excuse of being on holiday, and then after then have some non-Bluetones related ideas to work on alongside it. So, see you on July 23rd or so!

Finally

Tomorrow, I graduate! I'm looking forward to having the whole thing finished for good. Wearing a gown and stuff, not so much.

I'm not usually at all good at meeting new people so it was especially nice yesterday to talk to a friend of a friend of who I had lots to talk to about: he turns out to live two minutes away from me and to have had been to many of the same gigs in the last couple of years. Even nicer was that he recommended me a band called Paris Motel who are, judging by the songs on their myspace, fantastic. Beautiful, grandiose stuff and the album will hopefully be soon!

Also, since I've built up a few entries to make it worth a look now, it's time to link to my new blog project, Paraguay and Laos, in which I talk about every Bluetones song ever. 6 out of 111 in and I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

Field Day Festival

London's best gig promoters Eat Your Own Ears have really outdone themselves this time with the Field Day Festival:

1990'S
ABSENTEE
ADEM
ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT
BAT FOR LASHES
BATTLES
FRIDGE
GOODBOOKS
GRUFF RHYS
JAMES YORKSTON
LIARS
MYSTERY JETS
PULL TIGER TAIL
THE ALIENS
THE CONCRETES
THE EARLIES
VETIVER

All for the not unreasonable price of £22.50 a ticket. And if that isn't enough to get you down to Hackney in August, there's going to be Morris dancing too.

Chartsengrafs - It's raining more than ever

Right, now I've got this blog moving again, time to bring back the only regular feature that I 've yet kept up with any regularity. What have we missed? Well, back in 2004 before legal downloads were included to the charts, things hit a disasterous low in October when barely 20,000 sales were needed to reach the number one mark, and Manic Street Preachers came within spitting distance of making it there despite their song having no real reach beyond their fans at all. A few years on the positive effect of downloads seems to be dwindling a little and, yep, so close again. Plus album sales are dying too. Eek.



Sunday gone: No need to be downhearted for now though because "Umbrella" rules all for the fourth week running! Looking up the lyrics for my title here was an interesting one because I've not really paid much attention to them before and their tone really is rather at odds with the sound of the song. This is Rihanna's number one after a few near misses, and well deserved all round really. Number one album too, fending off an unlikely challenge from Biffy Clyro.
Second for a second week is Mutya Buena, doing the laid-back, famous sample soul thing to no great effect. Moving up to number 3 on full release is Calvin Harris, who likes them black girls and them asian girls and them big girls, albeit not enough to put them in the video.
When I did Gym Class Heroes for Jukebox ages ago I was rather disdaining, but somehow "Cupid's Chokehold" actually becomes less, rather than more annoying from more exposure. How do they do that? It's 4, anyway.
Amongst new entries and risers, Reverend & The Makers show just how haircut-indie-friendly the new charts are at 8, Enrique Iglesias manages to repel all those bad memories of his previous work and replace them with even worse ones at 12, The White Stripes continue making each lead single more barking mad at the last at 13, Bob Sinclar is 14, Unklejam 16, Kelly Rowland 18 and QOTSA 20.
The Chemical Brothers and Klaxons make early entries with "Do It Again" and "It's Not Over" at 25 and 28, at 32 The Zimmers make it to a second week striking a blow against agist music culture in a very similar fashion to Beth Ditto naked on the NME striking against size zero culture, and Ghosts are in at 25 for the benefit of people who didn't find out about Thriteen Senses' second album. Something called Cornell/Lisa Marie Experience is 37, apparently. And just to finish things off on a delightful note, WORST BAND EVER The Holloways edge in to the botton end with advance downloads for "Generator '07". Yes, that's a rerelease of their one before last single which was 30 in October.

Sunday coming:
At the moment, The White Stripes hold an unlikely lead on the singles front. So a fifth week for Rihanna, in other words. Enrique will move up to 3, Marillion just won't die and will probably make the top ten, with Maximo Park probably joining them. Koopa turn out not to be a bad dream that we all once had and are currently heading for a better place than Erasure and Kelly Clarkson's widely 'meh'ed new single.
In the albums, it's The Travelling Wilburys versus Bon Jovi! Welcome to June 2007, all.

Gig roundup - Travis, Pet Shop Boys

In the past two weeks I've been to two gigs at Hammersmith's reasonably large Apollo. Both were by bands with a dedicated following but their best days (in musical and success terms) some way behind them. One of them was kind of formative in my music taste, the other wasn't at all.

First up, Travis. In the wait before the inevitable encore, I jokingly guessed at what was to come: 'They're going to play three more songs, and not one of them will be "U16 Girls"'. It sort of made my evening that, on the second count, I was wrong. Fran Healy hammed up his implausible dirty old man role brilliantly and all laid into its increasingly incongruent strut with style and, gosh, had fun. It cemented what was clear throughout much of the gig, that ten years after they abandoned the dischordant rock of Good Feeling it's still when they sound most vital. Not just the songs from that album though (we were treated to another two earlier). It's thanks to unlikely guitar god Andy Dunlop is let loose that "Turn" and particularly "Writing To Reach You" reach through overfamiliarity. New songs, aside from the appallingly drippy "My Eyes", are loose enough to benefit similarly and prevent increasingly redundant lyrics from being a liablilty, which just leaves the empty stadium rock of "Sing" and "Side" as evidence of where things all went wrong. Hope that they'll learn too much from their live strengths isn't strong, but for the night, it was enough.

Travis, in a rather pleasing gesture to showmanship, began their show spotlighted, running through the crowd with the theme from Rocky playing. Pet Shop Boys beat this though, with some ingenious sleight of hand whereby Neil and Chris emerged from a neon lit frame, followed by... Neil and Chris. And Neil and Chris. One man in a fluorescent yellow anorak and baseball cap looks much like another from a distance, you see. This set the scene for definitely the best staged show I've ever seen, with fabulous projections and lighting and great work by the dancers throughout. The accusatory synth stabs of "Can You Forgive Her?" synched with angry flashes of white light, the thunder and lightning finale to "It's A Sin", the gold lamé cowboys dancing to a hilarious "Where The Streets Have No Name"... yeah, there were a lot of highlights.
And a very smartly chosen setlist, aside from packing in enough classic songs to make almost anyone jealous, was often tied into the staging. The icy blast of "Numb" giving way suddenly to the warm, red glow of "Se a vida é" was perfectly done, and it's a compliment that segueing M-I-N-I-M-A-L into S-H-O-PP-I-N-G seemed so obvious in retrospect.

Staging aside, the music was given a boost and a twist here and there to sound more bright and immediate than ever, and Neil Tennant was pitch perfect. A little too much if anything - a curiously limp "Rent" didn't really add anything to the record and was about the only moment to not quite come off. Almost all of the rest was fantastically celebratory in a way that only The Flaming Lips can nearly compare to out of any gigs that I have ever been to. During "Always On My Mind" the dancers popped up from behind giant cardboard cutouts of the boys' heads in a succession of silly hats to massive cheers, and it seemed the most logical thing ever, bursting way through irony and turning it into genuine feeling in much the same way as the song.

More YouTube awsomeness / Volta disappointment

Björk on Later last night, not just playing new songs but taking full advantage of the robed brass section to play "The Anchor Song"! Breathtaking stuff and probably my favourite song of hers ever.

An especially nice suprise as I find the new album Volta really rather disappointing. The fact that it's impossible to get to the CD without ruining the packaging wasn't a good start, but I still held hope. "Earth Intruders" is a really fine single, recalling earlier work more than innovating but with way too much relentless energy for that to matter.

Problem is, only the completely batshit electro-punk of "Declare Independence" is on the same level as "Earth Intruders". Of the other two Timbaland tracks, "Innocence" is much the same with diminishing returns and "Hope" is sort of interesting but somewhat muddled. Elsewhere, two songs have to be flat out discounted thanks to Antony Hegarty's unccessarily horrible bleating (ban on guest appearances NOW PLEASE). That leaves, well, not that much. "Wanderlust" and "Pneumonia" are pretty but coming from someone capable of the supernaturally gorgeous Vespertine, pretty doesn't seem so much.

I think the most disappointing thing is that it doesn't feel at all musically brave. Even though Medúlla only had a couple of flashes of genius it's individuality was impressive in itself and it did feel like it was stretched a little too far - if you only listened to it 100 times, it might all start to make sense! - while this one feels like just another Björk album. That's a first in itself, I suppose.

Anyway, back to watch the video again...

My gosh

The new version of Los Campesinos' "You! Me! Dancing!" is perfect. Possibly the single of last year except that it wasn't actually released as a single until now), it's been tightened up anywhere it needed to be tightened but more mostly left well alone and so sounds just as ridiculously gleeful as ever but with twice the punch. Yay!

Missed The Boat

It's no Shimura Curves on BBC Breakfast, but I was still a little taken aback to see a feature on Modest Mouse on Channel 4 news this evening. This was, of course, a somewhat belated reaction to Johnny Marr becoming a Brit at number one in the US album chart despite not being Rod Stewart.
Jon Snow's introduction, explaining how Marr had turned down a lucrative Smiths reunion to 'join obscure American band Modest Mouse and take them to the top' required either a mid-sentence jump across the Atlantic or an unusual reading of obscure to work, but the actual piece didn't go too badly. At least until they got to the name of the number one album being discussed. We Were Already Dead When The Ship Sank. Together with the total fluffiness of everything else, kind of makes you wonder why they bothered.

Quick update

Stylus does Eurovision 2007 - including some of my thoughts, though just on the performances as I didn't really get a chance to comment properly on the voting this year. Suffice to say that I wasn't too happy with how it went. Too many points for Serbia, Ukraine, UK and Ireland.

So then, non-music update

I spent yesterday at the MCM (Movie, Comic & Media) Expo at Edexcel. Much of the interest was nothing to do with anything on show but just looking at the other attendees:



and it was a nice enough day to sit outside and watch some swordfighting too:


This was one of five Links, I think, rivalled only by Sephiroth as the most popular. In common with other costumes some were much better than others, with the best ones showing an impressive level of dedication and attention to detail, but all were fun to see. The expo was not exactly my normal scene and a lot of the manga stuff especially passed completely over my head but it was still a lot of fun. And I got a T-shirt there too:



At home, rewatched the film Densha Otoko, as seemed appropriate. Still as sweet as ever and I can definitely relate a little to much of the story, if not quite to how the main character starts off. Fortunately.

Now with 5 x more "Slight Return"

xfm are dropping DJs entirely from 10am-4pm.

It seems a bit of an odd idea at first but on reading more it might actually make sense. When listenening to the radio outside of Xposure hours I've been listening to Virgin Xtreme (when not Radios 1 or 6) instead for a while and the fact that they have no DJ has never proven a problem. As far as slipping into the background goes, it actually helps, which may will be the reasoning behind the move (and most of music television?) Even though it would help if they sorted out the digital track display, it's already easy enough to look anything up online. The playlist remains by far the larger factor in why I choose as I do though. DJs as a prescence on music shows are sort of an inessential anyway - as many fond memories as I have of the Mark and Lard parts of their show on Radio 1 towards the end of their tenure, it was still the fact that they would play Belle And Sebastian or Elbow instead of Dido for another hour that was more important to making it the best show in the daytime schedule. That was down to them too, of course, but giving one person the duty of personally picking the music without having to do anything else actually sounds sort of good to me.

That isn't what xfm are doing, though, instead 'asking listeners to choose the non-stop tunes' (where non-stop means 'apart from for adverts'). I hope I'm not tempting fate by wondering how long til they call it Radio 2.0. But anyway, just how much freedom they're giving will be crucial. The ok request shows they run at the moment suggest that this will ideally be enough to prevent the drudgery of The Twang and The Fratellis and The View and The Enemy day in, day out, but not so much that they're replaced by "I Am The Resurrection" every half hour instead.

Hi

There are a lot of reasons why Delete As Appropriate has basically been dead this year.

A preceding year of reading so much of the amazing music writing out there and trying to keep up, increasingly feeling that it was a hopeless cause. Needing some time out to sort out some issues with myself, generally quite linked to the same sense of worthlessness. Getting back into video gaming for the first time since 1999, coincedentally (?) just before my music fandom really took over. Simply not getting as much time to listen to music as I'd like, even before that. A final year of my degree which turned out, through my own fault in part, to be the least fulfilling by far and sap my will to do anything constructive. Well, that is now over (I get my results tomorrow so wish me luck if you've happened to stumble across this) and things are definitely looking up for the future.

There is something else though - a creeping lack of excitement about almost any new music that's been nagging at me for a while. I wondered at moments if it was burnout from writing too much last year but, looking back, it was already setting in then. I think it's more to do with listening to the same music for 7 years now, or at least listening for the same things, and reaching for something new without really knowing where to look.
There are exceptions, of course. And they actually include some of the most obvious things that I'd expect to have been excited about - Patrick Wolf, Arctic Monkeys - as well as the not so much.
There's still hope then, but you might be thinking nonetheless that this doesn't sound like a very promising start for a return to music blogging. Well, it doesn't, and for the moment this is not going to be a music blog in the same sense as before as I talk about whatever else I want or need to as well. Don't worry, it's not going to turn into livejournal (there's a reason why I've never been able to keep one of those going long) and this post might stay as personal as it gets, but just a warning to anyone still out there. I really don't want to lose writing about music as an outlet though, and have really begun to miss it. Plus, you know, it would be nice not to waste all of the progress that I made last year in actually getting better at it. So I'm determined to find a way back in, and this, as well as another ideas that you might see more of soon, will be it.

Thanks for reading.

Chartsengrafs - Tomorrow is cancelled

Sunday gone: Kaiser Chiefs' physical release is enough to give them the first ever number one
by an alumni of Drowned In Sound records. Jeniferever unlikely to follow. The Kaisers' 38,000 sales are enough to put them comfortably but not enormously ahead of Mika, finally gone after five weeks at the top, and a second week for "Ruby" is unlikely.
Kelis and Cee-Lo jump to 3 with their CDs out, but Sophie Ellis-Bextor's are only enough to make 8. Take That are number 10, just like last week, but this time it's with "Shine", and The Fray continue their inexorable rise at 5. Not known if this was helped by their Radio 1 appearance, during which they played a cover of "Hips Don't Lie" that set amazing new standards in DEAR LORD HOW LONG DOES THIS GO ON FOR??. Actually, that might explain why Shakira's original is at 74!
Akon both falls to a place to 4 (the one with Snoop) and climbs a place to 7 (the one with Gwen).
To make things a bit less confusing, the Take That, Gwen Stefani and The Fray records are the ones that actually got released yesterday and will be sure a boost next time around.
As will The Gossip's "Standing In The Way Of Control", already an impressive 13, although there are some rules issues to be worked through there: they already released it as recently as the end of October on as many physical formats as are allowed, and some of those are still selling.
Beyonce's "Listen" jumps back from outside the top forty to 16; Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" makes a further leap up to 18 post-Brits with her album similarly returning to 1 an album chart otherwise lifeless bar The Fray entering at 4. And Explosions In The Sky at 58! Junior Jack's climber "Dare Me (Stupiddisco)" rounds out the top twenty, possibly thanks to being mistaken for Just Jack.
In download action Lily Allen moves to 23, Fergie to 27 and The Killers to 29. No such chance of advancing for The Magic Numbers (36) and Mumm-Ra (40). Fair enough in the latter case when Pull Tiger Tail are doing the same thing better, really. Not making the top forty
And in our now regular closing puzzle, The Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger" is 34 this week, up another five places.

Sunday coming: Kaiser Chiefs will be number one in albums, but you already knew that, right? In singles, they're probably going to be deposed by Take That, just sparing us "How To Save A Life" at number one. Gwen/Akon should be top 5, The Gossip and Justin Timberlake a little further down. And we have out first actual big new download rules entry (no, Koopa don't count) as an anti-war song promoted at the weekend's demonstrations heads for the top 10. Ooh.
Further down in the top forty:
Cascada!
Cussh!
Pigeon Detectives!
The Horrors!
Idlewild! (which is, us, a surprise actually)
The Maccabees!
and CSS!

7 Days - The grammar of one finger

Patrick Wolf - "The Marriage"
Thanks to the awful quality of the leak I have I haven't been listening to the album much yet (that can wait til tomorrow!), instead falling in love with this bonus track from its iTunes release. Which is all about Patrick being in love too, as demonstrated through popping electronic noises and one of his warmest and sweetest vocals ever. Its entertaningly gauche lyrics are soon to be an essential reference for every messageboard 'Is Patrick gay??' debate ever, too.

Kepler - "Lighthouse"
This came from Ian, and a quick google reveals (aside from the astronomer) that they've broken up. It's a shame, because this is gorgeous. Running on only a slowly cycling guitar riff and the merest smears of strings, it concentrates everything on the singer, not that he needs more than similarly minimal input. There's a real tension present throughout, because it feels on the edge of launching into some kind of catharsis but never actually does. The atmosphere of overhanging doom that is created so effectively is a perfect fit to the lyrics, too - when it finishes on 'every day, my execution is stayed' the hint of futile relief present is heartbreaking.

Art Of Fighting - "Free You"
Continuing the slow and the sad, the new single by a band that I've previously talked about at length. This isn't as monumental as "Heart Translation" but is rather lovely nonetheless.
Thanks to Sheila for the tip-off on this one, available for free from Aussie radio station Triple J.

Goose - "Black Gloves"
I got their album because they impressed me so much at Eurosonic, and it's living up to expectation so far. This instrumental first track is actually the pick of the bunch, cramming all that they do best into two minutes: sleek bass, squelchy keyboards and a fast build into a brutally effective dancefloor monster.
{A different song on YouTube}

MIA - "Zirkus"
First, no, not that M.I.A.. No dots, see. Anyway, this is your Jukebox referral of the week. I totally said 'sinister undertones' too! But there's obviously no point in having it twice. Together with "Tanz Der Molecule", good enough that I have ordered the album of the same name from amazon.de. At least, I hope I have. I only studied German for two years and it was a while ago.

The Kissaway Trail - "Eloquence And Elixir"
If you were just a bit disappointed when Mew decided to coat their dreamy pop in lots and lots of prog then it's time to rejoice, because The Kissaway Trail do yearning and twinkling and grand at least as well as they did! They're Danish too, of course.
{A different song on YouTube}

I Was A Cub Scout - "I Hate Nightclubs"
Carries on exactly where their really promising electro-angst debut left off, really, bar the addition of just a smattering of guitar fuzz taking them further away from The Postal Service. That made it initially slightly underwhelming, but there are still few new bands making music so addictive.