Optimo

Mule Musiq has set up a new label by the name of "endless flight".
This label will feature releases that will crossover the borders of
music.
The first release will be handled by "Optimo", known for their first
Mix CD "How to Kill The DJ Vol.2" released from the label "Kill The DJ"
and their second mix cd "Psyche Out" released from "Eskimo".
They have also set up a regular event, "OPTIMO", at the "Sub Club", a
club in their hometown Glasgow. In the past 9 years the party has
featured artists such as
Rapture, Liquid Liquid, ESG, Franz Ferdinand and over 120 other bands.
It has also featured DJs such as Harvey and Ivan Smagghe. The party
itself has become
known as one of the best parties around the world and collects a large
gathering every week.
The group has been called all over globe, from big festivals to small
parties. Their new release from "Endless Flight" will be a mix cd
consisting of Industrial,
New Wave, Techno and Minimal House. A smooth blend of music which can
best be described as a session between Mouguai and Ricardo Villalobos.
This release will not only feature some of the best club hits, playing
at the clubs right now, but it will also feature the original world of
"Optimo".

Walkabout

tracklisting:
1.Throbbing Gristle/Walkabout (MUTE/ Industrial)
2.Grungerman/Grungerman (Profan)
3.Pansonic/Hapatus (MUTE)
4.Databrain/Electrofrogs (Pin-Up Records)
5.Like A Tim/Aibe Stracie (DJax)
6.Lenny Dee & Nicolai Vorkapich/The Virus (Nugroove/ Empire Music Werks)
7.Philus/Kuvio 3 (Sahko)
8.Shane Berry/Fillertet 2 (Trapez)
9.Boris/My Machine(Diwphalanx)
10.Godsy/The Grass Runs Red(Whatever We Want Records)
11.Suicide/Radiation (Ze Records)
12.Eventell and Metaboman/Control a zoid(Musik Krause)
13.Thomas Brinkmann/Momomexico(Max Ernst)
14.6k/Tighten(Pi Recordings)
15.Marc Houle/Bay of Figs(Minus)
16.Herbert/Moving Like A Train (Smith & Hack Remix) (Studio K7)
17.Black Dice/Manoman (DFA)

Studio

Studio is Dan Lissvik & Rasmus Hägg.

Yearbook #1

ENJOY!!

Milenasong

The daughter of Norwegian and Slovenian parents, she spent her childhood in south Germany and as a youth lived in Oslo, which is also where she first pressed the record button on her four track. After that came art school in England and Berlin, part-time jobs, the life-style of an uncertain existence, but also friends for life and much collaboration with people from the local as well as international folk music scene. And during all these years the cassette tape was constantly flowing over the audio head of her multi-track, and a sound archive started to take shape of which previously only excerpts had been heard in public. A series of lovingly hand-finished, extremely limited edition CDs touched the hearts and ears of selected music freaks - this provided that little bit of publicity every new artist needs to begin with so as not to just give up, press the stop button and leave their work unfinished.

But that wasn't meant to be and the Berlin label Monika Enterprise made an offer, the first result of which is "Can't Tape Forever", a 10" the title of which says so much. This record will be followed early 2007 with the debut album release. It was recorded in London's Golden Hum studios and will bear the name "Seven Sisters", with guest appearances by Dark Captain / Light Captain and Sculpture among others. The record took on its final form in Bernd Jestram's (Tarwater) studio where he mixed the songs together with Milenasong and legendary folk pioneer Jeff Tarlton.

Having completed mixing the album in late summer 2006 Milenasong took the time to play some concerts (among other with Matt Elliott) and complete a very successful mini-tour. Her unbelievable presence during performances for which she uses diverse instruments, of course her unmistakable voice and a loop-station which allows her to create ever new variations of the songs mesmerizes audiences and has already won over quite a flock of fans for Milenasong.

The songs on “Seven Sisters” unravel, as if written by a delicate hand on rice paper, stories which border between dreams and realty. Stories that are as old as the sun but different every time like each new phase of the moon. The vocal melodies flicker like eyelids in REM sleep and her unusual voice is a whole choir in itself. Milenasong's music weaves together Norwegian folklore, English folk rock, forgotten memories and poetry. In her work she unites the unutterable with clarity. Music-historically her sound is related to such people as His Name Is Alive, Sandy Denny, This Mortal Coil, Roy Harper and Vashti Bunyan. While contemporary artists from whom she takes
inspiration include Les Mouches, Animal Collective, Matt Elliott, Diane Cluck and The Liars. Her vision is complete and she knows how to use it.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

The second installment of Will Oldham songs recorded under his nom de plume of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Ease Down the Road finds Oldham playing his quintessential role as the crack-voiced acoustic troubadour. He is backed by a drunken choir and a rickety orchestra featuring, among others, brother Ned Oldham, avant-garde director Harmony Korine, Papa M's David Pajo, and a gaggle of longtime musical comrades from Oldham's first group, Palace. In comparison to the first Bonnie "Prince" album--the spectral I See a Darkness--the mood is warm, playful, and concerned mainly with love, infidelity, and the joys of the flesh; "She's a fine looking lady, and she likes to go down on me," croaks Oldham on "A King at Night," "And I like to go down on her too..." Lewdness aside, though, there's much to recommend Oldham's latest incarnation as a serious artist, rather than some lo-fi freak, suitable only for a niche audience; the lazy, sleep-encrusted love balladry of "Break of Day" drags on the castoffs of a raggedly clothed Bob Dylan, while "After I Made Love to You" gently embraces the gospel tradition, albeit a gospel to the joys of infidelity, with Oldham whispering of "doing something filthy / in a rented room tonight".

Flaming Lips

Starting with either a sample or a cool replication of a legendary one-off line in the Beatles' "Revolution No. 9" -- "Take this, brother, may it serve you well!" -- the Lips dive head-on into rock dreams on Oh My Gawd!!! Coyne's sudden resemblance vocally to Paul Westerberg is its own curiosity, but the Replacements never quite got so fried -- drunk, yes, but not fried. The cover, one weird-ass collage of skullmonsters, random photographs of landscapes, dogs and things, and, on the back, somebody literally burning up serves to set the mood just as much as the rampaging fun of "Everything's Exploding." The same combination of this and that which made Hear It Is a fun listen takes precedence here -- Coyne and company can strum along softly or crank everything up to ten and back as they please, and they do. Coyne's knack for utterly brilliant song titles also takes full life here -- how else to explain such hilarities as "Maximum Dream for Evil Knievel" or the flatly phrased "Prescription: Love," a groovy mindbender and arty rave-up all at once. While the Lips here are still a rock band par excellence, evidence of the band's increasing ambition kicks in with the simultaneously mocking and celebratory Pink Floyd vibes of "One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning." All ten minutes of it should really be on Ummagumma -- Richard English's drums are pure Nick Mason from the get-go -- but darn if it doesn't sound equally great here, as Coyne idly wonders what to do with himself in the time allotted. Other songs throw in everything from Led Zeppelin drum stomps to Mountain/Deep Purple raspy rock bellowing and more besides -- theoretically everything mid-'80s American indie rock wasn't, making the Lips that much more of a fun, unique trip.

Roberta Flack

Although originally released in 1969, FIRST TAKE languished in obscurity until noted jazz fan Clint Eastwood chose Roberta Flack's haunting, minimalist reinterpretation of Scottish folkie Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" to score a love scene in his 1972 film PLAY MISTY FOR ME. Latter-day fans of that single and Flack's later smooth soul hits might be surprised at the overall sound of FIRST TAKE. Recorded with a small combo of jazz giants--guitarist John Pizzarelli, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Ray Lucas, with Flack on piano--and produced by Atlantic's house eccentric Joel Dorn, FIRST TAKE is a jazz album with soul and pop influences. The recording has more in common with Nina Simone, or even Dorn's work with eclectic reedsman Rahsaan Roland Kirk, than mainstream soul divas of the 1970s. Flack's utterly controlled, elegant vocal style and her churchy piano chords root this album, which has a stately power and deliberate grace even at its most soulful--particularly on a call-and-response version of the spiritual "I Told Jesus" and the heartbreaking "Angelitos Negros."

Echoboy

Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Richard Warren is the driving force behind Echoboy, a psychedelic electronic project influenced by Bob Dylan, Television, Kraftwerk and the Chemical Brothers. The Nottingham, England native was also the singer/songwriter/guitarist for the Hybirds, who disbanded soon after their critically-acclaimed self-titled debut album was released in 1998. During the group's dissolution, Warren began working on Echoboy material and even handed out copies of the first single, Flashlegs, at the Hybirds' final gigs. Later that year Warren released the debut album Echoboy on his own Point Blank imprint

Songs of Green Pheasant

Songs Of Green Pheasant is the work of Duncan Sumpner, a 30-year-old artist / teacher from Oughtibridge in Sheffield. His self-titled debut album was released on FatCat in August 2005, and drew widespread praise, gaining admiration from Devendra Banhart, Múm, and Vetiver, and making many people’s lists as an outsider ‘album of the year’. What emerged on that record was something fragile, yet coherent and utterly charming. With a warm cloudy depth, sweet melodies and some gorgeous vocal harmonising, it was a set of simply beautiful, beautifully sung and played songs.

Again created rural isolation on the rim of the Peak District, some of the tracks include the playing of friends, but other than the odd bit of instrumentation it was entirely written and recorded by Duncan again. With obvious differences in production as well as feel, tracks exist independently of one another in a chronological and musical sense, with each having been made purposefully as a response to something that happened in Duncan’s life at that particular time. The most obvious example being The Beatles cover, ‘Dear Prudence’ which was made when he was asked to contribute to a Radio One evening show commemorating John Lennon’s death with cover versions of the ‘White Album’. The rest stemmed from the desire to turn a thought or feeling into a tangible hard copy... ‘Remembering and Forgetting’ began from Duncan reading a newspaper article about teenage killers; ‘Brody Jacket’ is a lament about finally throwing out a much-loved coat he had worn for the previous 7 years; ‘Wintered’ is about the misplaced personal faiths and mythologies we make up as young people.

Whilst there is no real intended thematic connection, there is an overall theme to the record, with Duncan describing tracks as “musical jottings of certain times (however irrelavent) and for me are kind of little candles that light up and stretch out across those 3 or 4 years illuminating those pockets of time....I can remember clearly where I was, what I was doing what the weather was like etc something i would have no chance of doing if i hadn't considered it important enough to make a song ..”

“Hence the title which i think suggests the drifting irrellevance of these things versus the romantic human desire to make something out of them.”

Where ’Songs Of Green Pheasant’ was tagged as yet another outsider / neo- folk release, its sphere of reference lay closer to an uneven lineage of artists like Butterfly Child, Talk Talk / Mark Hollis, Pan American, Simon and Garfunkel, Flying Saucer Attack, Jewelled Antler Collective, Richard Youngs, and Galaxie 500. Whilst certain of these tracks retain the feel of that album, others hint at the future, and musically SOGP has clearly moved on. The newer tracks (recorded now in 8-track) show a richer, more sparkling production, and overall it isnt anywhere near as folky as before.

Aerial Days

Manual

Blissful second album from Mr Jonas Munk known better as Manual. Having caressed our preconceptions with the fraglility of acoustic instrumentation on his debut Hobby Industries 12", and then honing his melodic sensibilites with his very well received debut full length ‘Until Tomorrow’ for Morr Music, we now have the eagerly anticipate follow up - ‘ascend’. The artwork by Jan Kruse plays with similar imagery to Fennesz's ‘Endless Summer’ and in some ways these albums share much in common, both offering life affirming electronic music for the masses to enjoy. It would be no lie to refer to Manual's music as euphoric, melodies that tug at the heart strings blending in with unobtrusive rhythms and subdued vocal drops. In fact many moments hit the emotional heights that the finest work of Sigur Ros has hinted at, with the acoustic/electronic lines becoming so blurred that it's hard at times to separate the two. This is reflective music, an album one of the very few current electronic music artists who have paved their own unique path, it will enrich your record collection and is another hit for Morr Music. Sink into it with confidence.

Deerhunter

Cryptograms is the second full-length offering from Deerhunter, and their first for Kranky. The album took almost two years to finish and was the product of emotional, physical, and financial strain on the group. The result is an album that finds the band shifting from discordant catharsis, and forming a sonic identity that completely expresses the place from which they have arrived. The album functions in part as a study in duality and the concept of the same experiences seen from two angles, present and past. The most obvious manifestation of this is in the chronological sequencing. The first half of the album was recorded first unsuccessfully in 2005. These recordings were a blur at best, wordless and bordering on psychological atrophy. The sessions failed to provide anything tangible, and were racked with technical and personal problems, including out-of-tune pianos, panic attacks, and a tape machine that seemed to fail to capture the full spectrum of ambience the band was exploring. The band returned home, having failed, and considered giving up. The idea arose to give it one last shot and exactly one year from the date of the recording of their first self-titled LP at a small studio in rural GA, they returned to that same studio and plugged in. The session resulted in the first half of the record which was recorded in one day and completely filled the reel of tape they brought with them. Cryptograms' first side begins with an introduction leading to the title track, and ends with the tape literally spinning off the end of the reel in the middle of a drone layered with bells and accordion ("Red Ink"). The second half of the record, also recorded in one day, in the November of 2005, represents the band in an entirely different state. "Spring Hall Convert" opens with the line, "...so I woke up..." and introduces a set of focused psyche-pop songs fixating on adolescence, illness, and failing connections.

The Cat's Miaow

Australian indie-pop band the Cat's Miaow formed in May, 1992; a quartet comprised of members of the incestuous Melbourne music scene, the lineup featured vocalist Kerrie (formerly of the Beat Poets and Tra La La), guitarist Bart (from Blairmailer and Girl of the World), bassist Andrew (also of Blairmailer, as well as the Ampersands) and drummer Cameron (ex-Girl of the World). Recording on a primitive four-track, over the next two years the Cat's Miaow issued a series of cassettes on the small Aussie label Toytown, including Little Baby Sour Puss, Pet Sounds, the excellent From My Window and How Did Everything Get So Fucked Up?; finally, in 1996 the U.S. label Bus Stop issued A Kiss and a Cuddle, a compilation of the cassettes' best tracks. Songs for Girls to Sing -- another collection of EPs, live tracks and unissued material including "Shoot the Moon," taken from a split single with Stereolab -- followed in 1997. After a handful of ambient-influenced recordings issued under the name Hydroplane, in 1999 the Cat's Miaow returned with The Long Goodbye, their entry in Darla Records' continuing "Bliss Out" series.

Songs for girls to sing

Hollow inside (version 2)
Make a wish
Light the beacon
Not like I was doing anything (version 2)
You left a note on the table (version 2)
Baby I love you
You know it's true
Seventeen
What time is it there?
I can't sleep thinking you hate me (version 3)
I fall to pieces
Let me brush the hair from your face (version 2)
Portland, Oregon
One of us is in the wrong place
Stay
Smitten
Right back where we started from
Do you think it will snow tonight?
The others way
Shoot the moon
Firefly
Barney and me
Millions of tiny lights
LA International airport
If things had been different
Crying
Don't worry this isn't about you
Nothing can stop us
Peut-etre que rien jamais
Laisses-moi froler les cheveux de ton visage
Revant de toi
Troisieme etage
Nothing can stop us (live)
Crying (live)
Third floor fire escape view (live)
Let it flow (live)
*All songs were previously available on singles or compilations except Light the beacon, Not like I was doing anything (version 2), You left a note on the table (version 2) and Baby I love you, from the unreleased Bus Stop single "Songs for girls to sing" (Bus052) and the live tracks taken from the unreleased "Fireside songs" tape (Fanclub) Fan003.

Max De Wardener

Max de Wardener is a true original, a talented multi-instrumentalist and composer. His debut EP for Accidental Records, "Stops" (2002) wove a solemn tapestry of gentle oratorio, tonal grandeur and shimmering, cut-up electronics. With his debut album, 'Where I am today' (2004) he presented the widescreen version of his musical vision.

'Where I Am Today' manages that rare thing, an electronic album that relies more on actual musicianship than recording techniques. The sound sources are part arch-experimentalist and part Sunday-school music room, so we find recorders and organs rubbing shoulders with cloudchamber bowls, transistors and the sound of wires. It is an album with a clear-cut experimental agenda that has managed to remain beautiful and emotive.

The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes CD / LP (JAG106, released: 02/20/07)
Rich with Beach Boys style harmonies, Roy Orbison reverbs and orchestra, Pink Floyd's pacing and Freddy Mercury's falsetto, The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse is a luxurious foray into sound and music. This is the second record by The Besnard Lakes, Montrealers by way of Western Canada. Their independently released previous record, Volume I, came out in 2004, and it was noticed by critics but was largely overlooked by the public at large. On both records, The Besnard Lakes have shown that they are masters of finely-honed experimental pop songs that invoke the eerie Lynchian setting as aided and abetted by the music of Julee Cruise. But, on The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, the band throws into the mix a mad dash of Fleetwood Mac proportioned swagger and ambition. Not so incidentally, the Besnard Lakes have created a masterpiece that will resonate within all quarters, amongst critics, casual and not-so-casual rock listeners, garden variety pop fans and headphone junkies.

The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse was recorded by Jace Lasek at the Breakglass Studios (whose production credits include Wolf Parade, Islands, Sunset Rubdown and Stars, amongst others) with his wife and band member, Olga Goreas. The other members of The Besnard Lakes, Steve Raegele, Nicole Lizée, and Kevin Laing, contributed as well. Nicole wrote dark string and horn parts, Steve wrote dark guitar solos, Kevin, dark drumming. Also joining in on the making of this record would be George Donoso III from The Dears, Chris Seligman from Stars, Sophie Trudeau from Godspeed/Silver Mt. Zion and Jonathan Cummins from Bionic/Doughboys.

As an interesting aside, the completion of the album seems to have conjured a bizarre series of unexplained events. When the six-person live band, that includes Lasek, Goreas, Raegele, Lizée, Laing and third guitarist Richard White, began performing this new material (usually accompanied by a five person choir, French horn, flute, and violins), strange things began to happen. During the quietest section in the song 'Disaster,' a bartender dropped a load of dishes onto the floor. On another occasion, while opening for Wolf Parade, during the same quiet section in 'Disaster,' the front-of-house console actually turned off (!) then on again creating a thunderous crack throughout the theatre. And Kevin Laing, (drummer) suffered second degree burns on his face the day after completing drum tracks for ...The Dark Horse. Coincidence? Maybe. This is The Dark Horse; this is The Besnard Lakes...

Boredoms

Boredoms' ringleader Yamatsuka Eye has never been one to sit still for long, and given his immersion into DJ culture in the late '90s, it's not surprising that he should want to issue another version of his band's Vision Creation Newsun. Although some remix albums are pegged as inessential curios, Rebore, Vol. 0 is so different from its source album that it nearly achieves status as a legitimate follow-up release, rather than just a companion piece. Eye chooses to emphasize a futuristic, electronically enhanced aesthetic instead of Vision Creation Newsun's cathartic, psychedelic brawn. Sometimes the sound is reminiscent of Eye's DJ Pica Pica Pica project, wherein he compiles a hyper-speed DJ mix of world music, electro, obscure techno, and even classical music. Despite Eye's interest in techno, Rebore, Vol. 0 actually tends to shy away from outright "beats." Most of the songs (all titled incorporating the number "7") start with a guitar or synthesizer line, and build upon that. "77" takes guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto's minimal arpeggio from the "circle" track on Vision Creation Newsun and adds space-age synth pings, what sounds like a deft xylophone line, and later brings in Hira's bassline, mostly buried in the original version. The mood is similar, but the execution is completely different, lending an intricate, graceful ambience to the piece. Likewise, "77777" takes Yamamoto's gentle, fingerpicked guitar figure and adds the sound of drummer Yoshimi's newborn child, later even soft vocals from Yoshimi herself. Some songs barely sound as if the same band could have produced them. "777777" takes a laid-back acoustic guitar figure and adds a tropical, bossa nova drum machine beat and in turn transforms the piece into a punchy Stereolab backing track. Rebore, Vol. 0 is different enough from Vision Creation Newsun that fans will have reason to listen, but more than that, it sits comfortably alongside Boredoms' best albums as a unique artistic experience.

Darondo

A mystery to most, Darondo records are high on the wants-lists of many collectors. He is spoken about in hushed-tones by other Bay Area musicians. Back in the day he was seen cruising around town in a white Rolls Royce (with a "Darondo" license plate). He opened-up for James Brown and lived a colorful lifestyle hanging with folks like the notorious Fillmore Slim. Take a listen to these tracks, released for the first time together on an album, and you may agree that he could have been the next Al Green or Sly Stone. But about 25 years ago Darondo disappeared.

Releasing three singles in the early 1970s (as Darondo, Darondo Pulliam, or the miss-spelled Dorando) he mixed low-rider soul with blues and r'n'b. He delivered in a variety of styles from the socially-charged "Let My People Go" to the sexually-driven funk of "Legs". All three singles were recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area, and both sides of each of the singles are fantastic productions.

"You can hear a little bit of everything," says Darondo about his music style. "There's a little jazz and a little soul. They say if you Black you supposed to have soul. I got Latin flavor in me so there's some Latin in it. Definitely got the Blues in it. I sound kinda' country but I grew up in the Bay Area," he adds.

But after the release of his three 45s Darondo stopped recording. “It was mostly me, just having a good time with a real good hobby,” he says. “It wasn’t about money but about having fun. Something I just liked to do. Maybe your dream is to be a James Brown or Frank Sinatra but those were just mostly dreams to me.”

Outside of the music business Darondo was living life to the full, and it eventually caught up with him. “Folks would say ‘Daron got that dough…Daron Do…that’s how I got the name. I used to get my suits tailor made, one of a kind, like my rings. A player can’t have the same ring as someone else. Got my rings specially made with diamonds and stones. But in order to get yourself together you had to get away from all the fastness. I was driving around in a Rolls Royce, I was a fast young man," adds Darondo.

Darondo now lives in Northern California with his wife and family and is delighted to hear his music is getting a second wind courtesy of DJs and collectors like the UK-based Gilles Peterson who recently picked "Didn't I" for his "Digs America" compilation.
The six tracks from the three original singles are featured here, along with three previously unreleased songs that were recently discovered on a demo reel. The demo reel was sitting in a box of VHS copies of his cable TV shows which we had requested to use for images in the CD booklet. Recorded in the early 1970s, tracks from the demo reel were taken into a San Francisco studio in the summer of 2005 for enhancement. Darondo over-dubbed missing background vocals and guitar parts alongside up and coming San Francisco soul man Bing Ji Ling. Darondo warmed up quickly, he hasn’t lost his touch. After the session Darondo confessed that he was inspired to start playing again…so there is hope for a full-blown Darondo revival!

Monaural

On Monitor Interference, Monaural seem to have spent a good deal of time trying to escape the tag of "just another space-rock band from Detroit" -- the album mixes bits of dub, electronica, and jazz in a way that's been done quite a bit before, but could never really be called uninventive. "Dot" begins with an airy, nearly ambient mix into which a dubby pulse gradually emerges; other tracks approach Air's mellow grooves, and it's during these dubby moments that the album is at its best. Unfortunately, Monaural doesn't seem to accomplish a whole lot beyond the general movement and spacy texture of the album; almost like an ambient record, there's enough there for a pleasant listen, but it's easy to be left wanting more.

The Legends

Facts and figures« is the sound of complete opposites coming together perfectly. The Legends combine their love for heartfelt indie pop and soft 60's style melodies with the German precision of
Kraftwerk and DAF. Perfectionism is mixed with the naive curiosity and experimental lust of a beginner. A hate of dance floors combined with dance music...

Cinerama

David Lewis Gedge was recently described by the NME as one of the most consistently brilliant songwriters in Britain, a plaudit he has earned over a decade of leading his band the Wedding Present as it became one of the most influential groups around. Now he has teamed up with long time Wedding Present associate Sally Murrell to form Cinerama, a brand new pop group to record and perform his bittersweet, breathtakingly real love songs.

For their debut album Va Va Voom the pair, both big fans of pop culture, have trawled through their record collections and, as a result, this wide screen recording is subtly flavoured with the various hues of classic pop. John Barry, Barry White and Barry Gray ... Ennio Morricone and Isaac Hayes ... Burt Bacharach and Serge Gainsbourg ... from Abba to the Zombies, Cinerama have combined these glamorous and colourful influences to assemble a distinctive and individual sound of their own.

From the opening end-of-relationship ansaphone message, 'Va Va Voom' is really a great pop album with beautiful melodies and bittersweet lyrics; the harmonies are lilting and gentle and several of the songs have a sort-of 60s TV Theme feel.

The first track 'Maniac' is a pretty song with classical stringed instruments and chilled keyboard sounds and begins its story about revenge with: And when I made that stupid oath/about how I was going to/pay for someone to kill you both/it was just my way of showing you that I wasn't playing. Oh yeah, you're right, I sounded like a maniac.

After that highlight follows after highlight: from 'Comedienne' with its jangly guitars, the cute 'Hate' with its Caribbean(!) sounds and the first single 'Kerry Kerry' to the poppy 'Barefoot In The Park' with gentle backing vocals from Sally and 'You Turn Me On' which features brilliant lyrics and a Wedding Present guitar.

The catchy 'Ears' sees David duet with Glaswegian chanteuse Emma Pollock (from the Delgados) who appears as a special guest on the album. 'Va Va Voom' also features members of Australian psychedeli group The Church and Animals That Swim.

From the poppy 'Me Next' we come to the rock anthem 'Hard, Fast & Beautiful' with gliding strings and a grand chorus and the second single 'Dance, Girl, Dance' with an uplifting melody and very sweet lyrics and 'Honey Rider' with its delightful flute sounds at the end. What a wonderful record!

New Winter Mix

New Winter Mix

Tracklist:

1. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
2. Au Revoir Simone - Sad Song
3. Sally Shapiro - Anorak Christmas
4. New Young Pony Club - Hiding on the Staircase
5. Chromatics - In The City
6. Calla - Stand Paralyzed
7. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Five Easy Pieces
8. Loney,Dear - Carrying a Stone
9. The Besnard Lakes - For Agent 13
10. The Ponys - Double Vision
11. Born Ruffians - This sentence will ruin/save your life
12. Deerhunter - Hazel St.
13. Apostle of Hustle - cheap Like Sebastian
14. The Earlies - No Love in Your Heart
15. Beirut - Scenic World
16. Herman Dune - When the Water Gets Cold and Freezes on the Lake

Kate Bush

Considered by many reviewers as her masterpiece, 1985's Hounds of Love is no less experimental from a production standpoint. Not only did she produce it herself, but for this album, stung by the huge costs she had run up hiring studio space for The Dreaming, she built a private 48 track studio near her home where she could work at her own pace.

In August of 1985, England's most popular music magazine, NME, featured Bush in a "Where Are They Now" article. Two days later, on The Wogan Show, the single "Running Up That Hill" was played for the first time. The single, and indeed the album, were showcases of a newfound mastery of production. Hounds of Love ultimately topped the charts in the UK, knocking Madonna's Like A Virgin from the number one position.

The album is split into two sides, with the first side, Hounds of Love, containing five "accessible" pop songs, including the four singles: "Running Up That Hill," "Cloudbusting," "Hounds of Love," and "The Big Sky." "Running Up That Hill" re-introduced Kate to American airwaves, and received considerable airplay at the time of its release. "The Big Sky" can be viewed as a creative manifesto issued by Kate in response to criticisms of "The Dreaming" (for which she had been criticized for being too obtuse). The second side is entitled "The Ninth Wave", whose title is taken from a poem by Tennyson. As part of a song cycle, each track helps to convey the story of a woman who is lost at sea, facing death by drowning, and the tortured night she spends in the water. Bush's technical wizardry is shown to full effect, using samples and vocals played in reverse to synthesized sounds and folk instrumentation.