From right about now this blog is on temporary hiatus until mid August. The reason is a happy one, for after 36 years of the solitary life mp3hugger has finally found someone who can put up with his flagrant disrespect for learning how to drive, finding a career with potential, knowing when to hang up the football boots or turning off the computer/stereo at a godly hour. So this saturday he shall wed his sweetheart. She is his inspiration. KD

The Electric Pop Group - My Only Inspiration

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Buy Album: The Electric Pop Group
Year: 2007

Now this one caught me a little off guard. Right in the middle of an enjoyable run through the new Interpol album my Zen decided, without warning, to shift focus to something entirely different. Not sure why it happened but I am relieved it did. Ólöf Arnalds is an Icelandic graduate who released her debut album last year. She has already collaborated with Mum but ‘Við og Við’ (‘Now and Then’) was entirely her own work. And a magnificently unique piece of music it is too, take a listen to ‘I Nyju Husi’ and bask in its singular take on hushed folk. You may hear shards of Kate Bush, Stina Nordenstam and her style closely maps Vashti Bunyan but Arnalds is pretty much out on her own. ‘I Nyju Husi’ is bare except from a gentle chord progression and Arnalds falsetto, inspiring an enchanting and otherworldly sense of wonder. KD

Ólöf Arnalds - I Nyju Husi

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Less Info: Official
Buy Album: Við og Við
Year: 2006

As a thank you to the weather gods here is a selection of great tunes to celebrate the temporary end of the wettest Irish summer in living memory.



Normandy - Kentucky Isolation

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Dyrdin - Popp Og Co

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Future Clouds And Radar - Drugstore Bust

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Zykos - Autographin' Bibles

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Liechtenstein - Stalking Skills

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Kinematic - Championship Vinyl

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I will always link Orbital, Underworld and to a lesser extent the Chemical Brothers together as my introduction to electronica. To a smug indie git dance music always seemed like such a superficial pleasure but by pulling back the covers it revealed itself to be multi-faceted and more diverse than anything the guitar brigade could offer. So for a time in the 1990’s I almost ditched ye olde indie for the sugar beats. Orbital in particular were capable of alluring records, even if the joy was hard won you always knew it was worth persisting with. Of course they could also turn out an immediate number that was capable of holding its own over repeated listens. ‘Funny Break (One is Enough)’ is one such beauty. Appearing as late as 2001 it swings with machine like precision with the female vocals expertly navigating the bump and grinds. I once saw the Hartnoll Brothers performing on a stage, I cried. KD

Orbital - Funny Break (One is Enough)

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Buy Album: [UK] Snivilisation [US] Snivilisation
Year: 2001

Ah, this is the just the tonic for a sleepy head. With a distinct pep in its step Shoot Charlie’s ‘Boaster’ ain’t at all revolutionary but its feisty package of incessant jangling noise is hard to ignore. Shoot Charlie are from Sweden and have been on the go since 2001. 2007 looks like being their biggest year to date with the release of their debut LP ‘Junior & Senior’. ‘Boaster’ scuttles along like a punkette whose absorbed enough twee to turn a brighter shade of pale. It’s drama is coloured by an inert sense of abandonment which in a samey market is as refreshing as a mouthful of ice-cubes. KD

Shoot Charlie - Boaster

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Watch The Video To Come Around

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Buy Album: Junior & Senior
Year: 2007

No they’re not from Scotland but by the sound of them they probably have been rattled by a spell of incessant rain at some stage (one of them actually spent a couple years in Glasgow as an arts student). A Sunny Day In Glasgow are in fact from Philadelphia and comprise of a trio of siblings and 2 others. Their debut ‘Scribble Mural Comic Journal’ is undoubtedly a top 10 contender in the albums of the year stakes due to its lavish invention and artful appraisal of the genre they called shoegaze. ‘Things Only I Can See’ is a mesmeric, multi-layered romp that could easily be passed over by the less attentive. At certain angles it can sound like a blustery day but beneath the whirlpool of noise beats the heart of a beautiful tune. How do you explain this wonderful noise to an unbeliever, you can’t, it’s either a you get it or you turn on the radio. KD

A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Things Only I Can See

Watch The Video To C'mon

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: A Sunny Day In Glasgow
Year: 2007

Ok, it mightn’t sound like much in the opening sequences but boy does this song make up for it a couple of minutes in. The Ting Tings is a daft but slightly cute name for a band still in its infancy but these baby steps could yet see them becoming everything the Pipettes promised but ultimately failed to deliver. And even that description is hardly adequate to illustrate what ultimately presents itself when you listen to ‘That’s Not My Name’. Because the Ting Tings (who incredibly number only 2, a boy, a girl) could well have arms shaped like Los Campesinos!, a torso moulded to resemble a synchronised CSS and a head so full of Bis it could likely spend most weekends slurping copious amounts of kandy pop. A Toni Basil for the noughties even. KD

The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name

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Year: 2007

Growing up in the musical wasteland of the 1980’s didn’t feel half bad at the time became if you took a good peek into its more obscure corners there was quite a mine of essential tracks. For a time ‘Icing On The Cake’, ‘True Faith’, ‘Brilliant Mind’, ‘Running Up That Hill’ and this song were my top 5 and given what was on offer it doesn’t stack up too badly even now. ‘Sinful’ remains absolutely thrilling, a song so ebullient it should have become a party staple. Wylie is Liverpool born and bred and has intermittently led his band the mighty Wah! (much feted by John Peel) through brushes with death, the charts, the Champions League Final and more recently a well received appearance at SXSW. The fact that he has recently had to set up his own label Pete Sounds to market his records is both sinful and erm, downright tragic. KD

Pete Wylie - Sinful

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Buy Album: [UK] Sinful [US] Mighty Wah
Year: 1987

With a name like that they are probably guaranteed a high google ranking but out in the real world the New Pornographers should also become serious contenders when their 4th album ‘Challengers’ drops next month. You may have already succumbed to 2003’s ‘Electric Version’ or its follow up ‘Twin Cinema’ 2 years later but even if you are raw to their talents ‘My Rights, Versus Yours’ will surely rope you in. It has a restrained approach compared to their earlier standouts but Carl Newman (A.C. Newman) has rarely sounded so good. In fact after a month of listens it already feels like a classic. I guess it’s fair to expect miracles every time the New Pornographers pull an album together given that Newman is only half of the dynamic, with Neko Case and Danny Bejar from Destroyer among others providing their own unique propulsion. In a year of long player let downs perhaps ‘Challengers’ could be the one to turn the tide. KD

The New Pornographers - My Rights, Versus Yours

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Watch The Video To Use It

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Buy it Early: Challengers
Year: 2007

Way back in late 2005, on my 11th post as mp3hugger I featured this song from London band Animals That Swim. And here almost 2 years later I return to its majesty, it is one of the few songs that I’ve studied for its lyrical ingenuity. Not that it’ll change the way you think but it’s hard not to marvel at Hank Starrs fluid and seething/hilarious commentary on a disturbing event that he found himself caught up in. Add in some gorgeous guitars and a trumpet that spins in and out of the songs consciousness like a guardian angel and you have a heady mix. Animals That Swim were crudely ignored and called it a day after 3 stellar album. ‘Pink Carnations’ was a single taken from their debut ‘Workshy’ and marked one of the bands many highs. This is the single version, which had a slightly different zing to the cut that was contained on the album. KD

Animals That Swim - Pink Carnations

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Buy Album: [UK] Faded Glamour - The Best of Animals That Swim [US] Faded Glamour
Year: 1994

If you can get past the babel fish generated biography Villeneuve is a pretty impressive prospect. His debut album may have thus far been passed over but when quality in the form of ‘Oh No’ lies in waiting it will surely only be a matter of time before his star is in the ascendancy. ‘Oh No’ featured on both the EP of the same name and the ‘First Date’ LP from 2005. It’s an intelligent piece of dance music, featuring tidy nods to indie rock, Michael Caine and a female vocalist (Mélanie Pain) who doesn’t sound like a paid extra. It’s avoidance of cliché is particularly refreshing as is it’s undoubted potential to a mass audience. KD

Villeneuve - Oh No

Watch The Video To Alone Not Alone

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Buy Album: First Date
Year: 2005

This is as nutty a piece of pop you’ll hear this side of the next Clinic record so in that context you’ll either love it or despise it. It took a while for ‘A Place Called LA’ to leech onto my affections but from the getgo I found it near impossible to turn away a band called They Shoot Horses Don’t They? Previously the domain of a 1969 Sydney Pollack film it is now being used to sell a Vancouver 8-piece who formed in 2003. One online review portal has already called the bands new album (‘Pick Up Sticks’) headache music, rather unfair and completely missing the point. Most music given the right conditions could be superbly conducive to headache formation. Just right now I’m sure a half an hour with Joanna Newsom’s ‘Y’s’ would have me reaching for those Sunday morning wonders. As it is ‘A Place Called LA’ propels my legs at unseemly angles, thrusting limbs in directions normally associated with teenage eastern block gymnasts. A success in my book at least. KD

They Shoot Horses Don't They? - A Place Called LA

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Watch The Video To Sunlight

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Buy Album: Pick Up Sticks
Year: 2007

Before folk enthusiasts get too excited ‘Nights of the Furies’ has absolutely nothing to do with Davey Arthur and his mates whipping up a storm with several Guinness fuelled ballads. Instead it marks the return of the duo known as the Rosebuds, now on their 3rd album. It should have the summer dancefloors rocking to its beat infested contours but on a humid Sunday afternoon we’ll dip back into their back catalogue for an altogether more drowsy listen. ‘Blue Bird’ is awash with Kelly Crisp’s dreamy whoops and Ivan Howard’s more straight laced yet eminently enjoyable wordage. As your eyelids get heavy let this piece of heavenly caress you into a comfortable corner of the land of nod. KD

The Rosebuds - Blue Bird

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Watch The Video To Silence By The Lakeside

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Buy Album: Night of the Furies
Year: 2007