Isn't Anything

• Chillwave
• Synth-Computer-Pop-Atmospheric-Wave
• GazeWave
• WaveWave
• ShoeWave
• Chillgaze
• Pitchforkwavegaze
• No-gaze
• Blowgaze
• GazeStep

Whatever the hell it's called, for the first time for bloody ages there's a recognisable genre of music seeping out that i feel a connection to. Or, do i feel an affintiy with this amorphous pop music precisely because it requires no connection?

This is music that blurs the edges of connection, that exists outside the rational and the physical, looking beyond the palpable, somwehere in memory, somewhere out of time.

and I've been here before.

Anybody who's ever spent time with me will no doubt have had to endure at some point listening to My Bloody Valentine at deafening volume. They will also have had to listen to A.R Kane's '69' with me wittering in their ear about how this group were the unhearalded fore bearers of ambient rock, oceanic rock, shoegaze and countless other genres that possibly don't exist. And members of Magic Alex certainly had to listen to cries of, "Can we have more distortion on this track and make it sound more like Spaceman 3 please".

Shoegaze, the coalition of bands circa 1989-1992 was one of those movements that sounded stupid almost as soon as it was invented. Named after the artists (MBV, Ride, Pale Saints, Moose, Chapterhouse etc) propensity for gazing down at their shoes during performance, it seemed to me as obvious a progression for popular music as abstract expressionism was for fine art, but, perhaps, wasn't the sort of music that your Dad wanted to listen on a long car journey together (Me: "No Dad, it's supposed to sound like the casette's broken", Dad: "Can we have Tina Turner back on now please"). By 1994 any band claiming to be influenced by shoegaze were laughed out of town.


But, this recent glut of bands who's musical aesthetics mirror those of my shoegazing heroes didn't come out of nowhere though. Over the last few years, a band who I was fortunate to sign to Memphis Industries, The Russian Futurists were, in my opinion a kind of trailblazer for introducing a post modern 'un' sheen to pop music. Taking a lo-fi approach to electronic pop and creating (maybe by accident or by design) a thick mist of noise which rendered the music a slightly woozy quality, like it almost wasn't there. A sound akin to when in the old days you'd tape a record before taping it again for a friend (and perhaps again and again) until the hisses and pops accumulated became synonymous with the music.

But perhaps the artist that really spearheaded this current (chill)wave of artists is Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear, who's 2007 album Person Pitch raised the bar for nu-gaze (sorry, i'll stop in a minute). Sounding like a Brian Wilson crooning from beneath the waves, it perfectly married what is essentially avant-garde form with beautful blissed out pop music. A day spent without this album truly is a poorer one.

Anyway, here's a chance to get your lugholes around some choice tunes that have been popping up over the last months and that seem to exist within the same space.


    02 - Deadbeat Summer.mp3


Deadbeat Summer by Neon Indian is to my mind the kind of music that Daft Punk should have made post 'Discovery' - here Neon Indian take the analogue-y, squelchy dance beats and robotic melodies and turn them inside out, creating a dance song that sounds like you're on the waltzers spinning round, feeling sick but deliriously happy. Their album 'Psychic Chasms' is pretty much on repeat round my house these days.











    Memory Tapes - 02 - Bicycle.mp3



  Bicycle by Memory Tapes veers more towards the New Order side of things (check the ripped off Barney guitar break half throught the track for proof of that!) - it reminds me of the Beloved remix album 'Blissed Out' a little too (a very underrated album that).

    04 - Feel It All Around.mp3


Feel It All Around by Washed Out to these ears sounds like a failed remix of 10cc's 'I'm Not In Love'  by Jam & Lewis circa 1987 that got consigned to the dusty vaults and has only been discovered and reinterpreted now. Which obviously means that it sounds pretty great.

Finally, for those of you who never heard it here's the final track from Panda Bear's masterpiece, 'Ponytail'

    07 Ponytail.mp3



Next time i'll be writing about my favourite tunes and albums of the year, till then, stay dreamy...

Blonde on Blonde

"One chord is fine. Two chords is pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz." Lou Reed

Once when me and John S were sat in a hotel room with Ian McCulloch in the early hours, apropos of nothing, Mac suddenly declared that there were only three bands that mattered, The Bunnymen, The Velvet Underground and Magic Alex. Now if some random bloke in an internet forum had said that it would have made my day, but the fact that one of my teenage idols (a man who at the age of 14 had inspired me to coat my hair in orange juice so that it would get the correct amount of 'lift') was saying it, to my face was, shall we say, rather special...

The fact that he was wrong didn't matter, what was more important was that we'd reached a place musically that we'd been aiming for, a place that was identifiable.

Y'see when me and bass player Simon first put an advert in the (now defunct) Melody Maker for musicians wanted we listed our influences as The Beatles, Sly & The Family Stone, Roxy Music & Can. Which basically meant, look how ace our influences are, but gave potential members absolutely no idea as to what we wanted to sound like. This reflected itself in the first few years of Magic Alex's existence. We'd go from playing a cute pop song to a noisy dub monster to a slow jazzy ballad in the blink of an eye, thinking we were being eclectic when really we just sounded confused.

And then one day, we were listening to The Velvet Underground's 'What Goes On' and it all became clear. Less is more. Enough of trying to cram obscure suspended 7th chords into tracks, enough of me trying to prove how clever lyrically i could be. The results were immediate. We wrote our first good song 'Chica Chica' and with every song we wrote after we distilled what we wanted more and more until we became a (pretty) well oiled rock and roll band.

As you can see from the photographic evidence above, last weekend was a bit of a get together for us. In an attempted age-defying scam we toyed with the idea of doing a gig as Magic Alex Jr's and get our collective kids up on stage miming to our songs. We also looked into the possibility of blonde hair implants. Neither look as likely on this wet Tuesday afternoon.

One thing you should keep your eyes peeled for though is the London gig listings this coming Autumn.

Till next time

02 What Goes On By The Velvet Underground.m4a

07 Chica Chica by Magic Alex.mp3

111-echo_and_the_bunnymen-the_puppet.mp3

Live And Let Live

When i used to work at Memphis Industries ploughing through the awful demo's I used to bemoan, why don't we get a demo from somebody as wildly inventive, as fully formed, as jaw-droppingly brilliant as Roxy Music circa their first album? Imagine how bloody brilliant it must of been the day Ivo Watts-Russell got The Pixies Come on Pilgrim demo's on his desk? But it dawned on me slowly but surely that band's that special don't come round every day, or in fact very often at all. Last night i went to see a band that might just be that special.

White Denim kicked my ass for an hour solid last night. This, i thought as the drummer stood up and casually played the greatest drumming i've ever seen, with one hand, must have been a bit like when Jimi Hendrix strode into London town in 1967 and casually blew Eric Clapton off his self-imposed perch. Don't get me wrong, there's no point rushing to the bands myspace expecting the finished article, but if the age of the bass player (he looked about 13) who sold me the t-shirt is anything to go by (yes, i bought a t-shirt at a gig, the first time for about 15 years) there's every chance that when they do become the 'article', they'll deserve to be mentioned among the greats. This song was one of the main ass-kicking perpetrators last night Mess Your Hair Up . If you get the chance GO AND FUCKING SEE THEM.

This morning me and the wife were discussing which bands we'd seen in the past that equalled the mind-blowing qualities of last night, for her Atari-Teenage Riot in the mid nineties was a contender, for me there were lots, but one we could agree on was My Bloody Valentine, last year at the Manchester Apollo.

Now back in 1992 there was a tour put together by The Jesus & Mary Chain called the 'Roller coaster' tour, it featured JAMC headlining plus MBV, Dinosaur Jr and the then, little known Blur. I remember quite distinctly not being able to afford the ticket because it was £17.50 which was beyond my student budget. Obviously in retrospect i should have mugged a granny, but instead i had to sit and listen to friends regaling me about how amazing the night was, especially My Bloody Valentine and especially the 20 minute 'noise' section at the end of You Made Me Realise.

As a result in my head, I'd always built up a mythical status for them as a live entity, especially as Kevin Shields seemed more likely to announce himself as my long-lost real father as he was was to produce a new record or play MBV material again. So, when i held the ticket for that show in my hand, I was, shall we say, just a little excited. And let me tell you I was not disappointed. From the moment they came on stage i was nearly wetting myself with excitement (or the fact that it was packed and the toilets were on the other side of the venue, but I digress...) Bathed in beautiful hues of electric blue and crimson red they proceeded to play almost every song in their catalogue. By the time the 'noise' section came we all thought we were prepared (earplugs had been given as we entered the venue), but nothing on earth can prepare you for that. Imagine standing underneath Concorde as it took off and you're maybe 3/4 of the way there. For 5 minutes, it's rock and roll, then it becomes annoying, then you go to a place where time, space & rational thought doesn't really exist (i remember remarking afterwards that it had been living proof that you can feel bored and exhilarated at the same time.) I'm not posting 'You Made Me Realise' here, but another song, a B-Side, Off Your Face' which has always been my favourite MBV song and which i was beside myself with untrammelled joy when they began 04 - My Bloody Valentine - Off Your Face.mp3

I've thought long and hard as to which other gig to mention here, maybe The Stone Roses at the Empress Ballroom in 1989 (me to my sister, "why is everybody smiling and grimacing at the same time?") or the Throwing Muses at Manchester University 1992 (I fainted, got stood on the face by a lady in stilettos, before getting back to find the car had been broken into and the windows smashed, driving home on the motorway with the wind rushing against my bleeding, bruised face) why not The Mock Turtles at the Blackpool Station in 1990 (at the end of the gig a part of the Turtles entourage informed me that the female keyboard player requested my presence at her hotel bar - i politely declined).

But no, the last gig worthy of mention is Love with Arthur Lee at the Garage Islington in 1996. Like most music-obsessed boys I'd discovered Forever Changes and had my mind altered forever, but the thought that Arthur could come to my local (at the time) venue and play the whole damned thing note perfect was beyond my expectations. Myself and John S went to this in the perfect mind-altered state and watched in awe as a real genius showed us mere mortals how it's done. Every song oozed class, but this one Love - 06 - She Comes In Colors.mp3 sticks in my mind as perfection...

Ok, some quick 'me' facts before i leave you.

My first gig - Kids From Fame at the Winter Gardens Blackpool 1982 ( i wore white leg-warmers fact fans) - i could've lied and said The Police but that was three weeks later. Don't remember much about it apart from Shorofsky, which went off like a mutherfucker.

Artist seen the most times - Black Lace - no shit, when i collected glasses during the summer of 1987 Black Lace were the house band they played three times a night (consummate professionals) which by my reckoning means i've seen their live show over 200 times.

And finally, my favourite gig of all time was The Pixies at Preston Guildhall in 1990 from which I'm still speechless.

See ya soon

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

Did indie become alternative or did alternative become indie? Is Spotify going to kill iTunes? Were Duran Duran a better pop band than The Kaiser Chiefs (Does anybody care?) What kind of album would Buddy Holly have produced in the mid-sixties? Was the demise of Top Of The Pops a victim of digital tv or noughties pop? Why couldn't have Otis Redding missed that plane?

Why hasn't everybody heard of Benny Profane?

Seriously, if there's a better, more overlooked band, like ever, i'll eat my stetson hat. The first song i heard by Benny Profane (on the John Peel show, summer of '89 - see previous post), "Stitch That" blew my head off and i immediately checked out it's parent album, "Trapdoor Swing". What an amazing hybrid. Musically i could hear shades of The Fall, Johnny Cash, The Velvets, Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra and loads of old cowboy tunes , whilst lyrically it was referencing or alluding to pretty heavyweight writers such as Pynchon, Pinter, Vonnegut and Heller, not just for a pose, but actually following their attempts of decomposition, or blurring of high and low culture into a three minute pop song. Pretty mind blowing stuff for a 17 year old. I naively thought that it was only a matter of time before they were massive, that's what happens when somebody writes music good as this right? But they split up one year after i discovered them (not however before i'd snaggled a support slot for my first band The Cherrydales
at their final gig at Blackpool Jenks...)disillusioned with a lack of success.

My favourite Profane tune is probably one called 'Here Comes The Floor' which is rich with dazzling imagery, but here's that first track i heard, "Stitch That", excuse the slightly leaden 80's production and dig those lyrics and delivery. stitchthat.mp3

"and now the sounds of the limitations of our existence from the maddening crowd"

The Squire Of Somerton. i could write a book about The Squire, or Toby Jenkins as he's known to his friends, of whom, happily, i'm one. Out of all the artists i've worked with over the years, nobody who's deserved such success has achieved so little. This is a man who, when on the top of his form (and excuse me if i gush), has the melodic range of Brian Wilson, the abilty to out 'tap' Joe Santriani and can make Elton John's piano paying sound like Les Dawson. Whether as a member of Fort Lauderdale, Zan Pan or solo, The Squire has been knocking out twisted, top notch, proto-psychedelia for the last decade with absolutely no due recognition. The last i heard Toby was writing a ballet based on Mikhail Bulgakov's Master & Margarita, which will no doubt be exasperating, exhilarating and completely ignored.

Listen to this track (on which The Squire plays everything), the various interweaving themes and melodies the way the words and music are there for an absolute reason, the sheer joy a musical journey can take you on if you allow it and then gasp at the guitar solo which Toby once described to me as a mere mortal reaching for the stars... Squire of Somerton - Transverberrations.mp3

I find as i get older, i dance less often, but enjoy it more and more. I think this could be partly because i've learned which music gets me going and there's nothing that gets me going more-so than Lee Dorsey's Yes We Can (Part 1). Now, if you hadn't guessed already the general theme for this post was to write about artists who i think have been unfairly neglected and as a result it was touch and go whether to include Lee, as here is a man who hit the charts both here and in the USA, but my point is... Why the hell is Yes We Can and Lee Dorsey himself for that matter not an absolute unmitigated, respected part of the Rock/Pop/Soul cannon in the same way that Otis, Sam Cooke or Issac Hayes are? Why did i have to wait until i was in my early thirties before i heard this monster?

Download this and keep it kids, keep it for those night when you push the sofa back and kick your shoes off... lee dorsey - 01 - yes we can part i.mp3

Be good now...

Ah! Melody

As he walked into the HMV he remembered a not so distant past. Easily navigating the aisles he looked at the middle-aged (grand)mothers and bored suits and recalled his addiction.

Must have, must have, must have a CD. Not sure which, does it matter? Just need another CD. He asked himself when the last time was that he'd bought a CD from HMV and as the music in the shop changed from Kings Of Leon to Duffy he realised he couldn't remember.

I threw my CD's away.

Not all of them you understand (i'm not getting rid of my nuggets box-set just yet), but all the ones i dont play anymore and pretty much every CD single. Out they went (to the bin, or if they seemed in any way valuable to the charity shop) and as they did i felt no remorse.

But it wasn't that long ago that this action would have seemed absurd. During my teens and early 20's i spent ALL my money on music, some of which i'd heard, but most of which i'd read two or three reviews of and was willing to take a chance on. Friends, girlfriends and family couldn't enter a town-centre in my company without the inevitable need to visit the record-shop(s). When holidays were booked the first thing i thought was, 'i wonder what the record shops are like there'? Monday lunchtime i'd hurry to Our-Price (the singles were cheaper there) and decide which 2 or 3 new releases to buy. Rushing between WH Smiths to double check if there was a positive consensus in the music press for my potential purchase. On the way home on the bus or tube i'd read the label copy - the producer credits, sleeve notes, songwriting credits, filing away useless information. With the mountains of CD's piled up against my bedroom wall I honestly thought i was building a library for my future children.

"Wow dad, you've got The Propellerheads second and somewhat inferior single, 'Spybreak' AND Slowdive's first three Creation EP's... What riches you bestow upon us!"

And now, i look at my itunes and wonder where did that song come from? Did somebody send me that, was it a free download, was it from a blog or a rapidshare link, or drunkenly nabbed from limewire?

Did i buy it?

Well, here are three new(ish) songs that i have bought and that after listening to here, that i rather think you should buy too.

First of all Kwes. Really can't say i know too much about this man, but what i do know is that this is the best song i've heard in a bloody age. Sure there's echoes of The Specials, The Cure, (early) Scritti Politti and Christian Fennesz but this is mad, original, beautiful pop music that makes my head spin and my stomach lurch.

Kwes - Hearts In Home.mp3


Robert Wyatt & Bertrand Burgalat's 'This Summer Night' sort of slipped out last year, but thankfully the ever wonderful Marc Riley played it on his 6music show months later and i was smitten. I watched Robert Wyatt on that BBC4 Rough Trade documentary a few weeks back and wondered if he isn't perhaps the most underrated British musician sort of, ever?


bertrand_burgalat_this_summer_night.mp3



The last song was played to me a few weeks back by my best man John in a very compromised state. Now, John knows me well enough to know that in complete sobriety i could well have baulked at the overly twee, smooth pop classicsm that The Leisure Society display here, but with the bottle of whiskey drained and the early morning sun cascading through the window i was powerless to resist.


10-the_leisure_society-a_matter_of_time.mp3


Happy holidays kids...

Peel slowly and see...

It's the summer of '89 and I'm lying in Darren McNeil's garden. College is over for the year and the holiday spreads out its expanse before us. It's hot, so hot that all the pretence of trying to do something with the day has dissipated. So there we lay, radio 1 blasting out from the kitchen and the sun creating dancing patterns on my eyelids when i heard the advert for that evening's John Peel show.

Now i knew who John Peel was. He was the Liverpool fan who always looked a bit older than the other DJ's on Top Of The Pops. He was also the guy who was supposed to have the really great radio show that the older kids listened to. So, i made a mental note to listen to it that night, which i did, but even better, i stuck a C90 in my system and taped the whole show too. As the nights progressed i started transferring the best tracks onto new C90's ad fin um until i had a bunch of C90's with, hand written on them, "The best of John Peel". I've still got about 20 of these.

The Family Cat, Spaceman 3, Pale Saints, Finitribe, Mudhoney, 808 State, Galaxie 500, A.R Kane, Sonic Youth, Lil Louis, Napalm Death, The Four Brothers. All these bands went from somebody i might have read about in Melody Maker and the NME to being the soundtrack of my life. And that was just the current artists he was playing, it was through John Peel that i heard mind and life changing tracks by the likes of Neil Young, Can, Kevin Ayers, Young Marble Giants, Captain Beefheart, Scritti Politti. The man was responsible more than any other in my life for breeding a wholehearted desire for musical eclecticism and the knowledge that no matter how much great music that i'd heard there was hundred's of LP's out there just waiting to blow my mind.

By the time John Peel died in 2004 i wasn't obsessively listening to his program anymore, he'd been shifted around so many times in the Radio 1 schedule that it was more a case of tuning into his show by mistake, but it was heartening to know that he was still there playing nosebleed techno before Ivor Cutler, going off into flights of fancy and putting records on at the wrong speed.

I got a phone call one night in 1997 from a friend, apparently he was playing a track from Magic Alex (Chica Chica). I ran to the radio but it was too late, if he had played it i'd never hear it, or hear his remark afterwards. This was the days before the internet (or certainly as we know it now) so there was no way i could 'listen again', but if he did play it i'd like to think that it wasn't the worst record he'd ever heard...

So here's three songs i heard that summer. Firstly i can distinctly remember that first show and one of the hightlights was this track from A.R Kane, Crack Up. Still gets a spin this one on the odd occasion, if the crowd seems in any way discerning.

13 Crack Up.mp3


Secondly, Can was probably the biggest discovery for me that summer and this song 'Dizzy Dizzy' was the first track i heard. Not my favourite, but every time i hear it i expect to hear John Peels voice at the end saying, "well that still sounds as good as ever"


Track No01.mp3


And lastly, it'd be quite obvious to post a Fall track here, but in all honesty i'd already got a fall album by that time in my life and anyway this Captain Beefheart track was the true soundtrack to those hot late nights.


05 - My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains.mp3


Till next time folks...

Son's Of Pioneers

So, after my first post, i got into a discussion with a dear friend of mine in regards to always trying to finding the musical source, or as he put it, "the original sauce." For example he wouldn't want to listen to Lonnie Donnegan when he could listen to Leadbelly instead.

And i understand. As an adolescent i was an obsessed with Japan and David Sylvian, but then i heard Roxy Music's 'Song For Europe' and felt a little silly for spending so much precious time on something that was quite frankly, pretty derivative.

A few years ago i got kind of preoccupied with working out who was the originator of certain styles of music, in fact there was a Magic Alex band joke that the Beatles invented everything (Helter Skelter - "This is where they invented heavy metal!" I Feel Fine "This is where they invented feedback!" Your Mother Should Know "This is where they invented musical post-modernism!"). But back further i went, pouring over Chuck Berry b-sides, Buddy Holly out-takes and doo-wop obscurities.

Now however, i'm feeling that, if it's good, it's good. i dont care if they were first or they were last. How does it make me feel? I know for example that whenever the opening bars of ELO's Mr Blue Sky begin i always feel about 150% happier than i did minutes earlier -and let's face it Lynne was no pioneer.

So, in the spirit of this here are three brilliant songs by wholly unoriginal artists.

First up, The Left Banke certainly weren't original, appropriating from The Beatles (you again!), Brill Building and The Byrds in equal measures. No matter, please do tell me if there's a more beautiful 3 minutes than Pretty Ballerina. Listen.

The Left Banke - Pretty Ballerina.mp3

Secondly, The Dovers, What Am I Gonna Do is, in my humble opinion the most underheard and therefore underrated pop single of all time. Like Phil Spector producing the Swinging Blue Jeans but 500 million times better than that sounds

dovers - b - what am i going to do.mp3

Lastly, the Perfect Disaster, what a band. Some would accuse Magic Alex of ripping off The Velvet Underground, but my god this band did it pretty much better than anybody else and B52 is as good as anything Lou and co put out.

07 B52.mp3

'Go, Bo Diddley. Go home"

Bye then...