Like most people, I hate Manchester United. They make it really easy to hate them. So it came as a complete shock to me how much I love a song about the former United player, Paul Tierney. I want to hate that song as much as I do the team he formally played for, but its impossible. If a track can make me renege on my very firm belief system, then it’s got to be something bloody special. and it is.
“I like a boy in uniform, school uniform…” Thankfully, not my words, but the words of Gwenno Saunders in her guise as part of one of my favourite pop bands ever, THE PIPETTES. Yes, they went through numerous line-up changes, but that did little to hide the fact that there was something supremely fantastic going on. Song after song of incredible pop, each album like a ‘Best Of’, threatening to overshadow every other chorus you’ve ever heard. Yes, its safe to say, that I HEART THE PIPETTES ( and always will). So what next for Gwenno? Well if you had answered ” An album called ‘Y Dydd Olaf’ which is sci-fi inspired Krautrock, sung completely in Welsh… obviously” I would have called you a damn liar.
It was a normal day. I did my usual sound-dump of songs I’ve been recommended, sent, found, onto my phone (yes, I know, not exactly the way audio should be heard for the first time) and made my way home across london. For those of you not from our beautiful capital city, you may not know the particular sense of dread you get from stepping onto a tube at approx 5.30pm in Canary Wharf. It’s like that film ‘The Warriors‘ but the only gangs are ‘The Suits’ and their weapon of choice? Brylcreem covered Dre Beats. Now I have nothing against this particular brand of headphone, but the sound escape is incredible. It’s like being in a rainforest, as you just don’t quite know where the sound is coming from, but the nearer you get, the worse you feel. So I’m surrounded but the gentle tinny hiss of a thousand identikit guys who have just discovered Drake and I set my phone to shuffle. This is a mildly dangerous thing, as the music I tend to listen to is eclectic to say the least, but I suddenly realised that today wasn’t going to be like any other, today is the day I discovered OH VILLAGE. And so you can interact with this memory, listen to that very track ‘Give They Fears’ right now as you read on!
You may have noticed that I usually have a long rambling intro describing how I stumbled across a new band while climbing a tree in a rainforest, narrowly escaping the wrath of a pack of baboons when the band in question appeared like magic - as a hologram - at the top of the tallest tree around ; or perhaps I discovered a band while sinking to bottom of well and a found a small door and while crawling through, I find the skeleton of an ancestor, holding a mixtape with the most perfect band ever as track 1… None of these events happened with TREASURESEASON. I found them on Soundcloud and it was more exciting and magical than 1000 of my convoluted stories ever could be.
You may remember when POST/POP released a Double A side single for PEPA KNIGHT a few months ago. You may have even bought it. If so, you will be one of the many people who have been positively frothing at the ear (is that a thing?) for more PEPA, and it’s about time we wiped that froth from your… ear. Luckily PEPA KNIGHT is better at producing incredible music, than I am with analogies, so here he is with the winter-busting HYPNOTIZED VOL. 1!
HERE IS A PREVIEW OF 3 SONGS FROM HYPNOTIZED VOL. 1
Running a record label is hard work. You have to deal with people telling you that vinyl is old news, and that only anoraks collect it, and to get with the times, and you get force fed articles about independent record shops being closed down every other day. Imagine what it feels like to be a Tape Label. You not only feel the disdain of the general public, but you get looked down upon by the vinyl collectors (AND some record shops) for wanting to release things on a format most people consider “dead”. FUCK THEM. Do what you want to do as long as you enjoy it and it isn’t hurting anyone else, and to me, thats what Cassette Store Day is. Yes it’s essentially a pun on Record Store Day, but its also the one day a year when the little tape labels out there get to lift their heads up (from their shoes) when walking down the street, look a stranger directly in the eye and say “Hi, that tape you just bought… I made that!”
BUY ‘ADVENTURE SOUL BY M&O HERE
TWO albums in one!
This year, more than most, I have become obsessed with certain songs. Obsessed to the point where I listen to a song on repeat for half a day until the lyrics become meaningless and the music is less music and more the sound of my heartbeat wowing and fluttering until sleep brings me sweet relief. This happened, quite suddenly with the M&O song “Jimi Savannah”. I first heard it while scouring the depths of the internet for new music to populate my radio show (I no longer do my radio show btw, in case you’ve been tuning in on Sundays!) and often tried to find excuses to play it twice on the same show. I then found out that M&O had an album with this song on it called “The Joy” and it fast became one of my standard go-to albums for when I needed guaranteed audio quality. But lo, what’s this? They have another album that preceded, called “Almost Us” and it features multiple guest appearances including Chance The Rapper? Amazing! Let’s stop here for just one second.
click on the image above to see the artwork up close.
