MP3: Held By Hands - Trading on Past Treasures

“the weather
is as good as it could have been
and we rowed
to the centre of the river…

traced our fingers through
the surface of the water”

These sort of songs just have to be over 5 minutes long. Unsettled grey-skies of whispered lyrics and quietly plucked strings send us away from the dusk with ever increasing energy, with spaced-out predictions of what the night will bring. There’s no inevitable crescendo, it’s far too unknowable to make such a guess: it could become dawn at any moment.

Held By Hands could do anything they like. And they do: electric-guitar feedback shreds the stars and moon and scatters a light: causing everyone to sing… “MY GOD WE WERE INNOCENT. MY GOD IT WAS IT WAS SUCH A GOOD TIME“. This isn’t the music I live for, it’s music that exemplifies a perfect time, and it is done with passion, soul, eagerness and a disconnected lofi-shape that is too infectious to not get excited about.

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myspace.com/heldbyhands

Next gig:
10 Mar 2008 // Leeds: Brudenell Social Club // Held By Hands + Casiotone For The Painfully Alone + Gossamer Albatross.

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Photo credit: Noeluap + Jjjohn.

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I am continually amazed by the sort of music that emerges out of our fair isles. Much much more music is gasping for inclusion over the next week or so.

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Also:

VBS.tv: The interview with Graham Coxon over at Vice Magazine’s website (which is really a TV channel) is intelligent and revealing: he discusses work ethic, art vs music and speaks with an honest and undulled enthusiasm.

BigArtMob.com: Is attempt to log the location and preserve all sorts of street art across the world, but mostly in the U.K. They are roping in various bands and other well-travelled urban dwellers to get the ball rolling, and use mobile phones to send pictures of the art. Channel 4 are sponsoring the initiative as part of a Big Art Project they have planned for the summer.

Tags: Best of NBGL, Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive by Mike Smith
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MP3: The Matinee Orchestra - Hide And Seek

“Hide and Seek” is a fantastic way to start February. Forget the showers! Don’t cower! The spring is coming. Expect it! “Hide and Seek” is also big sounds and samples delivered this morning through a soaking shower of lost, organic and journeying acoustic instruments looking for a place to roost (but enjoying a pre-dusk flight. As much as birds enjoy flight; Which I think they do, Very much). Or maybe: Sesame Street go an a field trip to Iceland*, enjoying the landscape and becoming very human for a moment.

* Yes, Sigur Ros comparisons are welcome here - here, the richness and atmosphere are well translated to a whisper and an echo.

myspace.com/matineeorchestra

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As mentioned a couple of days ago, I’ve been nominated for an NME award: “Best Music Blog”. I forget to say that it’s down to a public vote. You can vote for me at NME.com. (You need to be registered to vote. Registration is free. Voting is not compulsory for your continued enjoyment of this site.)

No news of an awards ceremony invite yet, I guess they just send a helicopter on the night to pick up nominees.

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Photo credit: Omarrun @ Flickr.

Tags: Best of NBGL, Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive, Not London by Mike Smith
2 Comments »

MP3: Let’s Wrestle - I won’t lie to you

They swagger through door. People look up, they wink a collective wink. The crowd parts. They think it’s so simple they’ve been up there for so long - they deserve it. Indie-Rock presented by the consistently-on-fire Stolen Records. Let’s Wrestle don’t just spin around in pointless chorus-led circles in their English urban sprawl - they float, follow the ley-lines and probably don’t care for dirty-dancefloors: this sounds so much more free. Triple filtered, triple strength.

myspace.com/letsfuckingwrestle

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I am very very busy. Normal service well resume soon.

Tags: Best of NBGL, Johnny 5 Is Alive, London, not-folk-music by Mike Smith
4 Comments »

MP3: The Rollercoaster Project - What Happened

Anthemaic drone digs amongst the diamonds, snow and leaves and finds some soil. For a moment metallic drills of synths driven by a rising tide of electricity give way to all those working to get down on their hands and knees and dig - it’s the most comfortable way - and in a panic it seems like the fastest. There cold hands find the soil, and the Rollercoaster Projects finds a voice. And they celebrate.

I’ve been really enjoying (digging?) The Rollercoaster Project’s electronica for years, Dreamboat Records recently featured this new track ‘What Happened’ on their 2008 sampler.

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There are plans for a 2008 Rollercoaster Project release, and on the strength of this, and on the back of other similar U.K electro-drone sounds/projects new in 2008 (Fuck buttons, and Banjo or Freakout) Rollercoaster Project might just be the most accessible and grandest of them all. But they all sounded pretty damned fucked up and shaken this way and that and smoothed out.

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Ah-ha! I see you there! Writing whilst I write! Sean at Said The Gramphone similtaneously contextualises The Rollercoaster Project within an utterly apocalyptic scene of Soviet Particle accelerators and questions like “PURE PROTON BEAM” CAPITALISED for emphasis. If you don’t already read Said The Gramophone, do.

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Candians droners Stars of the Lid realised one of my favourite albums of 2007 “And Their Refinement of The Decline” is fantastic on triple vinyl. It’s very different and much more minimal and stretched out than Rollercoaster Project, it weighs it at over 2 hours. Awesome & hard to comprehend.

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Photos by Adele Booysen, Tunnelbug respectivly.

Tags: Best of NBGL, Johnny 5 Is Alive, Not London, not-folk-music by Mike Smith
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A real treat for the final act of 2007 on NBGL.

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MP3: A Classic Education - Stay Son
(Bologna, 3:54 mins, 192 kbps)

A Classic Education are expansive in the ‘it just sounds big, the climax of dozens of ideas, that have travelled continents looking for a means of expression’ sort of way. It’s impassioned because you can’t make music so well formed and frankly epic without pouring you soul out in this sort of a way. A string section draws the lines and vocals flow along their course unimpeded by rigid structures. Big sounds are provoked by big ideas. “Stay Son” is all of these things, and coming to the end of the year it sounds like unstoppable progress.

MP3: A Classic Education - Victories At Night
(Bologna, 4:32mins, 192 kbps)

“Victories at night” isn’t so progressive, but more questions are asked from far-away places. For those of us who have spent 2007 tripping over the analogies and similarities of Panda Bear to “brian wilson recorded underwater” (see: almost every review) welcome to Sigur Ros recorded deep underground, only the roof has just caved in: the sky, echoes and space come together and begin to explode apart. Music shoots up, and rain falls in.

They’ve opened for the Arcade Fire and recently did some work with Mr Jeremy Warmsley. What a combination. With the aid of kind winds and favourable tides, let’s hope indie-pop done in the biggest way possible gets some success in 2008. The soundtrack to Climate Change 08? We have a very strong contender.

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Best of December soon, best of the Year just after.

More suggestions for soundtracks to global warming to listen to as you float away on top of your house in the comments section, if you please. I’ll begin.

Tags: Best of NBGL, Johnny 5 Is Alive, Not London, not-folk-music by Mike Smith
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