By their third album it seemed as if Lemon Jelly had somehow lost the knack to write electronic wonderments to calm the soul. Artificial souls with addictive personalities were their stock in trade but by ’64 – ’95 the well was beginning to run dry (not so nice weather for avian friends as you can imagine). That said, there was still more than a smidgeon of satisfaction to be gleaned from the album whose premise was built around samples taken from music recorded between 1964 and 1995. The pulsing ‘The Shouty Track’ comes across a little more aggressively than Nick Franglen and Fred Deakin’s previous material but it is a none the less ear catching piece of music. The snot can be forgiven considering the sample used (chunky sample this one) was taken from ‘Horror Show’ by a Scottish punk band called the Scars (take a listen to it here). This is wide angled dance music for a hedonistic weekend. KD

Lemon Jelly - The Shouty Track

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More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] '64 - '95 [US] '64-'95
Year: 2005

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My Brother Woody is the work of a one man band called Michael Cleare and it’s obvious he’s well eared in the art of the pop hook. He’s already released a 7 song self titled EP and since that didn’t set the world alight he is about to go the whole hog and release a full LP. The indications are good, for a singer songwriter much of what I’ve heard goes beyond the delicately strummed guitar and into the fertile landscape of crystal harmonies, wandering brass and the odd shot of glockenspiel. Teenage Fanclub and the Beach Boys spring to mind when cosying up to the layers of melodies provided by ‘Wish I Was A DJ’. Probably won’t surface, any day soon, on daytime radio but when there’s a continental college scene to harvest it hardly matters. This is precise indiepop with enough gadgetry to capture the attention of an army of fans. KD

My Brother Woody - Wish I Was A DJ

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: It's A Long Way From That Sort of Thing You Were Raised
Year: 2007

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Bis fans, awake from your slumber because Bearsuit are about to sweep you off your lightly tinselled feet. Blasting at the face of MOR Bearsuit have been contributing fresh pieces of fantastic plastic out of Norwich since 2001 but it seems that it’ll be a song that takes the name of a famous Hollywood director in vain to shoot them to semi-fame. ‘Steven F***ing Spielberg’ is pretty gorgeous with its erratic strings and a slingshot boy/girl partnership. The promising signs were there for all to see for some time though, with scuzzy masterpieces like ‘Rodent Disco’ preaching from a hymn sheet that neither adheres to old testament nor ditchforks prediction for 2007’s most bankable genre. ‘Rodent Disco’ is deceptively all over the place, like an unleashed Cocker Spaniel in a pedigree chum producing facility. Pull your rainbow jumper over your face and down an ice-cream. KD

Bearsuit - Rodent Disco

Watch The Video To Steven F***ing Spielberg

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] Cat Spectacular [US] Steven F***ing Speilberg
Year: 2004

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There is probably a part of me that adores ‘Video Kid’ because it could only have come from someone with an appreciation of that section of 80’s music that wasn’t disposable. Struggling to be heard above this songs gene pool of influences are slices of electro pop, new romanticism and a liberal spray from the Joe Elliott School of anthemic guitars. The Birthday Massacre are from Toronto, sport inordinate amounts of makeup and should be rightly proud of the click rate for their songs on myspace. ‘Video Kid’ is a galloping monstrosity, best served at weekends when its frantic diversions can be enjoyed with a glass of alcohol. Just perfect for those Placebo fans who’d like to wig out and enjoy what’s bubbling under from the other side of the pond. Enjoy these gloriously dark times. KD

The Birthday Massacre - Video Kid

Watch The Video To Nevermind

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] Violet [US] Violet
Year: 2004

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San Saba County lies on the skirts of Austin and from its dusty populace of 6,000 came forth a band headed by one John Saba with bushels on their mind. The scraps I’ve heard tend to suggest that San Saba County are keen to play the pleasant alt country card. ‘More Than Me’ is perhaps a short scenic detour but it had me lassoed immediately. It’s taken from the bands second album ‘Its Not The Fall That Hurts’ and provides an entrée with an altogether pleasant aroma, gentle jangling and a vocal that never strays too far from its musical backdrop. It’s subtle and perhaps too genial for many but it could be all you’ll need to make a 10-minute session on a rocking horse feel like you are sashaying into a golden sunset. KD

San Saba County - More Than Me

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: Its Not The Fall That Hurts
Year: 2006

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You’ve got to admire Owen Ashcroft’s do it yourself style. His early albums as Casiotone For The Painfully Alone took the bedroom recording process into the cupboard as battery operated keyboard met analogue 4-track cassette (Daniel Johnston springs to mind). This year’s album ‘Etiquette’ fleshed out his sound and spawned the fragile single ‘Bobby Malone Moves’. Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ is initially resembled yet the piano parts that define the musical backdrop pull plenty of magical strokes of their own. Ashcroft’s near spoken vocal style means his lyrics are readily accessible. The theme might be about ordinary people but it’s a tale you won’t mind being recalled time and again. Also included here is ‘Cold White Christmas’ from a Daytrotter session that CFTPA recorded in April. Another Ashcroft with plenty of verve. KD

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Bobby Malone Moves Home

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Cold White Christmas (Daytrotter Session)

Watch The Video To The Subway Home

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] Etiquette [US] Etiquette
Year: 2006

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Tantalising titbits from the isle that scooped 3 consecutive Eurovision Song Contests. An occasional series that promises the best of Irish without the wild leg movements. KD





The Claremen pluck for a stunning chord volley.

The Walls - To The Bright And Shining Sun

More Info: The Walls


Making cool electronica a reality on the freezing western seaboard.

Cane 141 - Foxy Trot

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Touted and doubted in equal doses, Humanzi finally come good.

Humanzi - Out On A Wire

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Sometimes David Kitt backing band prove they’re capable of small moments themselves.

Jape - Floating

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Ginger haired, wired to the moon yet they still steal our attention.

The Revs - You Shine

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Seems that last verse of their dumb punk song sunk the good ship Woodstar.

Woodstar - Sorry Skin

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You can now buy this song on one of our Indiecater compilations here!

Michigan band Sa Sevol are short on the details. Apart from cobbling a myspace page together and announcing that they are working on an album called ‘The Sea of Showers’ there is precious little other facts to be cosseted into neat little word packages. Until we know more it will be all about the music however. And what a pleasant dash Sa Sevol cut, melancholic electronica hasn’t been drafted this spectacularly since the last Broadcast album. Synth’s may be omnipresent but it’s the female vocals (like Sarah Cracknell convening a side project) that truly haunt as they aggregate slinky allure with the menace of a spectre. There are other goodies to be had too from their page, all of which means that ‘The Sea of Showers’ could be something well worth waiting for. KD

Sa Sevol - The Little Ones

More (cough) Info: Myspace
Year: 2006

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What have we here? ‘Lazy Susan’ being a distinguished beast with a multi-faceted personality that skirts through enough genres to appeal to the broadest cross section. My Dad could have his Kenny Rogers urges sated and yet I’d also be there approximating a ridiculously impoverished attempt at a dancing Dandy Warhol. This is raw and dirty yet as aspiring as a Clinic track that has somehow taken the wrong exit off the dusty farfiso highway. The drums are precocious and the dual boy/girl vocals recall a time when wearing flowers in your hair didn’t necessarily mean that you’d just crashed into the botanic gardens. ‘Lazy Susan’ are from Brooklyn, an epicentre of all things necessary at the moment, and seem the hold the expressed intention to make alt country at least palatable to rock audiences. Well, they’ve succeeded and matched their achievement with a tour with Calexico. Keep it country. KD

Oakley Hall - Lazy Susan

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] Gypsum Strings [US] Gypsum Strings
Year: 2006

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Leaving aside my silly attempts at trying to twist my last.fm profile into what I think it should read I’d have to say that no other group in the last few years has given me more pleasure than Explosions in the Sky. This from a Texas band that never utters a single word, often commit constructs of interminable length and can search in vain for the holy grail that is the memorable riff yet still bring something worthwhile to the table. Their most recent release ‘Earth Is A Cold Dead Place’ is undoubtedly their classic yet a casual trawl through their discography uncovers an enviable wealth of post-rock masterpieces. No more so than ‘Yasmin The Light’, a song that could break Waterford crystal with its early shot of white noise. This is Mogwai at full tilt and it really could scare small woodland creatures so be warned. What follows is a ragged chime fest that is remarkable for its lucid dexterity. EITS are due to perform twice in New York this month a European tour is planned for early in the new year. KD

Explosions In The Sky - Yasmin The Light

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: Explosions In The Sky
Year: 2001

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Nyles Lannon is guitarist and vocalist with Film School. In between releasing one of 2006’s best albums as part of FS poor Nyles works in a record store, records some electronic music (under the n. Ln moniker) and pushes his solo album ‘Chemical Friends’ from a couple of years back. Of late ‘Chemical Friends’ has been racking up some serious battery loss on my portable player. It is one of those slow burners, a tad underwhelming at first but something within gnaws at your music appreciating nodes to ensure it gets a fair hearing. Then it creeps up on you, a sudden realisation that Lannon has managed to create a laidback classic, full of easy melodies and gentle acousticism. There is something there that reminds of Matthew Jay's overlooked 'Draw' album. ‘Beached’ is sparse yet as comfy as a pair of heated slippers on a frosty morning. The harmonies are so well sewn into the fabric of the delicate acoustics it’s hard to imagine one without the other. Lannon’s voice is often masked down the clearest of telephone lines, thus making his undoubted melancholy all the more real. A quiet classic and the good news is that Lannon has a new album on the way in March of next year. KD

Nyles Lannon - Beached

Watch The Video To Film School's 11:11

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] Chemical Friends [US] Chemical Friends
Year: 2004

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Despite the heavy handedness meted down on their debut LP from certain quarters Sound Team remain a dazzling prospect. Sure, ‘Movie Monster’ might not have had the thrill and cohesion of their extraordinary ‘Work’ EP but it boasted lots of dynamically challenging pieces. Included on the EP but recorded within the influential four walls of the Daytrotter studios ‘It’s Obvious What Is Happening Here’ is a gurgling monster that pounds like a giant heart but plays like an acute brain. This is so far removed from anything else recorded in 2006 that it just makes a little bit of sense to read Bill Baird (bass) maintain that technology stopped its onward advance in 1975. Included here also is an unreleased song called ‘Orian’ culled from the same sessions. 'Orian' boasts that organic Sound Team movement where their experimentation sees them plunder higher grounds while all the while despatching several shots of pitchforked lightening. KD

Sound Team - It's Obvious What's Happening Here

Sound Team - Orion

Watch The Video To Your Eyes Are Liars

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] Movie Monster [US] Movie Monster
Year: 2006

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In anticipation of the slew of rangy adjectives that would be used to describe their band Bedroom Walls decided to lend a hand by categorising their own music into the heretofore unknown genre of romanticore. Whether the term is adequate to define their smouldering output is open to question but who needs definitions when there’s a weak at the knees experience to be had in the bands sophomore album ‘All Good Dreamers Pass This Way’. ‘In Anticipation Of Your Suicide’ is the impressive opener with cleverly crafted nooks of creative melody and ambiguous lyrics to pour over on a winter’s night. The instrumentation is sparse yet delivered in a heart-warming style while Adam Goldman’s voice is the epitome of a heart that has just been unlocked. KD

Bedroom Walls - In Anticipation Of Your Suicide

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] All Good Dreamers Pass This Way [US] All Good Dreamers Pass This Way
Year: 2006

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From the getgo El Goodo are shamelessly retro (note the nod to Big Star in the name). They are undoubtedly a mishmash of influences, mostly those who resided back in the swinging sixties but its obvious the Welsh combo have also swallowed quite a bit of psychocandy in their time. The results can be found on their charming self-titled debut LP that is as immediate as a ghost in the house. The purists will probably be up in arms but for the less highly-strung songs like ‘Stuckin in the Sixties’ will at the very least create a feeling of absolute joy. The production is right on and there is a fair scattering of heckish skill also. El Goodo have already hooked up with their countrymen Super Furry Animals through the Placid Casual label, which has given the album a Europe wide release. El Goodo was let loose stateside last month so the good vibes are on their way to a record store near you. KD

El Goodo - Stuckin The Sixties

More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] El Goodo [US] El Goodo
Year: 2005

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Now here’s one to really get stuck into. Wandering soul that he is Jim O’Rourke moves from project to project with gay abandon. Music collaborator, producer (Wilco’s ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’), playing parts in seismic bands (Gastr Del Sol, Sonic Youth), soundtrack consultant ('School of Rock'), filmmaker and yet his name is but a ghost in the consciousness of the public. Chances are you’ve sat through or at least listened to his one of his creations. And even if you haven’t after giving this song a go you’ll be forever entranced. ‘Women of the World’ is a song that repeats its mantra umpteen times yet the finish still comes too quickly with the gradual build being both heartfelt and imaginative. Even after half a dozen listens it’s hard to be moved by the sentiments and the genuine feeling poured into the composition. The take included here excludes the prelude on the version from O'Rourke's heavenly album ‘Eureka’ from 1999. This version was ripped from an NME compilation called ON:1 and provides a much more ebullient listen. KD

Jim O'Rourke - Women of the World

More Info: Bibliography & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] Eureka [US] Eureka
Year: 1999

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