Demob Happy

Dawn choruses 8.5/10 The first thing you notice when listening to ‘At Dawn‘ if, like me, you’ve approached their back catalogue, er, backwards, is how faithful it is to a kind of alt-country orthodoxy when compared to the more magpie-like tendencies of ‘It Still Moves‘ and ‘Z‘. Arguably it is more a consistency of mood [...]

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Alive and kicking 7/10 The Dodos are an exciting new band that blend freak folk with latin influences and blues. Their debut ‘Visiter‘ sees the duo create often cacophanous and frenetic songs mostly from acoustic (sometimes slide) guitars, banjo, pounding percussion and occasional horns. It is a raw template that recalls, by turns, The White [...]

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Me and my new Merz albun 7/10 Merz’s singular vocals – pitched somewhere between Bob Dylan and Horace Andy (to my ears anyway) – first surfaced in 1999 with his eponymous debut album and a couple of memorable singles that got a lot of airplay on Radio One and the likes. A mix of (sometimes [...]

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This month I’ve been beguiled by the latest side project by sometime DJ and Kings of Convenience member Erlend Oye. The Whitest Boy Alive hints at Oye’s interest in the hypnotic rhythmic concerns of house music but features the same Simon & Garfunkle-esque vocal style of KoC. Angular – but certainly not abrasive – guitars, [...]

Whitest Boy Alive - Burning [ 3:11 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yeasayer - Many Waves [ 4:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Octopus Project - Bees Bein Strugglin [ 3:48 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Radiohead and the art of modern marketing 10/10 How much is music worth? Not the CD it’s printed on or the cover art, and certainly not the plastic jewel case – but the music itself? Or more precisely, how much is Radiohead‘s music worth? This is the question the band have asked fans to contemplate [...]

Radiohead [ 3:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Lost classic but will they make another? 8/10 I would be tempted to describe this album as a ‘lost classic’ since it started as a minor independent release by two college roommates in 2003 and has steadily developed a cult following. People will continue to look back to this album while one half of Department [...]

Dept of Eagles - The Horse you ride [ 4:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Frequently enjoyed album 8/10 The term ‘slowcore’ doesn’t really do justice to this album, conjuring as it does images of painfully protracted, po-faced minimalist post-rock. ‘Frequently Asked Questions‘ is nothing of the sort. I bought this album on a whim on its release in 2001 and still find myself playing it periodically six years later. [...]

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Ghost Of You Lingers 7/10 Although ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’ finds Spoon moving further away from their punk beginnings and broadening their sonic pallet, it is arguably their most accessible record yet. While ‘The Ghost of You Lingers’ registers one of their most experimental album tracks so far, a masterpiece of lo-fi minimalism (further [...]

Spoon - Finer Feelings [ 4:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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‘Just Like Heaven’ 9/10 While some of The Cure faithful may feel aggrieved by the absence – ‘A Forest’ notwithstanding – of tracks from their gloomiest period (Faith, Seventeen Seconds, Pornography), the more casual listener will find much to enjoy here. Having had a big Cure phase in my teens, I might quibble that the [...]

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‘Something to Look Forward to’ 8/10 Anyone who got into Spoon’s later albums, ‘Gimme Fiction‘ and ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga‘, will certainly not want to miss out on 2002′s ‘Kill the Moonlight‘. Spoon are a hard band to categorise, at once both willfully experimental and with plenty of crossover appeal. They make lean, concise [...]

Standard Podcast [ 3:08 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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