I think I’ve found real love. Not Friday night after work drunken love, more that girl you’ve seen in that recurring dream of yours (or the girl you've just married). 2007 has still to work it’s magic on me, to date it has been a wasteland for outstanding albums (aside from the odd Panda Collective here and there) but I think ‘Five Roses’ may be about to become a very impressive notch. Miracle Fortress has come a little out of the blue, a little I say because Graham Van Pelt previously announced himself a while back with his main band Think About Life (‘Paul Cries’, we all do). Miracle Fortress is his own expedition though and his debut effort is a slinky sacrifice to the gods who invented breezy summer pop. By that you probably know who I mean (the one with the cover featuring lots of animal love) and ‘Five Roses’ certainly lives up to its billing focusing honeyed harmonies through the needle head of waves of neatly calibrated electronic devices. ‘Have You Seen In Your Dreams’ is a peach, with a slightly off-centre motivation it nonetheless descends from above like a celestial being. Record store sound systems were invented for tunes like this. 'Five Roses' has been shortlisted for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize (Canada's Mercury Music). KD

Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen In Your Dreams

More Info: Official & Myspace
Haven't You Bought It Yet?: Five Roses
Year: 2007

Whipping Boy were among my first music loves and one of the first gigs I ever attended in Galway had the band promoting their debut (and by far their best) album ‘Submarine’. The album has resurfaced recently and it remains an astonishingly angry piece of work that is tempered by some of the sweetest guitar jangling. Ferghal McKee was a ticket back then, which made the reunion gigs of December 2005 all the more disappointing witnessing a clearly much more mature lead singer faking it (or at the very least lapsing into pastiche). But Whipping Boy's early days were astonishing, no other contemporary Irish band aside from, perhaps, Rollerskate Skinny could stir such audience emotion. McKee atop the drums, his head wrapped in several layers of cling film while his band recreated a nuclear holocaust is just too memorable an apparition to ever forget. Every element of ‘Submarine’ cut me to the bone, like the opening track on side 2 ‘Bettyclean’ with it’s out of key singing/whistling. The subtle mid section chord changes are a particular highlight but the sluggish delivery throughout still sends electro activity down my crouched spine. KD

Whipping Boy - Bettyclean

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Watch The Video To Twinkle (live)

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Buy Album: Submarine
Year: 1992

Dirt me up after some pristine pop he said, so in rolled Dark Room Notes’ perfect blend of eerie electronic expulsions and boy/girl kite flying voices. The Dublin quartet have released 1 single to date called ‘Love Like Nicotine’ and a pretty successful notice of intention it is too. A half human/half machine hybrid it scatters its propulsive melodies forth with an intensity that could startle some and coax others into random acts of vandalism. Picture DRN as the Human League had they landed on earth 20 years later with pounding headaches and a moody attitude but with no less sonic palettes. Their colourful industry means that the ‘Dead Start Program’ EP pencilled for October should shake the ghouls (and the lazy) from their dusty resting places. KD

Dark Room Notes - Love Like Nicotine

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Buy The Single: Love Like Nicotine
Year: 2006

Out of context, out of character wherein hugger finally falls off the indie bandwagon to herald a potential daytime gem. A casual email had announced Eliane Elias and my usual eliticism left me horrified but despite hovering over several point and delete file actions I couldn’t get rid of the little bugger. Sleepless nights, 24 hour fretting, interminable cold sweat sessions about a slipping of the mask meant it took 6 months to realise that a blog doesn’t need to be totally linear, sometimes the kinks are what makes an entity an interesting proposition. And so the hugger brand of approval is finally bestowed on this gem of a tune from New York based Brazilian born pianist Eliane Elias. This version was remixed by DJ Strobe and presents soft lighting in a way a 40 watt could never really hope to emulate. Eliane’s latest album ‘Around The City’ is out now. KD

Eliane Elias - Running (DJ Strobe Remix)

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Buy Album: [UK] Around the City [US] Around the City
Year: 2006

I really can’t understand why Findlay Brown isn’t a global phenomenon. Sure he ain’t exactly reinventing the wheel but his application is both pristine and heartfelt. His debut ‘Separated By The Sea’ has had most of 2007 to make an impression but thus far his folk infected ditties have failed to ignite widespread interest. As ‘Come Home’ poured gently over a Christmas advert (granted it was for a credit card) it seemed as if it was only a matter of time before Blunt was finally consigned to the permanently sealed dustbin of history. Brown perches on a ledge where above him Nick Drake whoops sweet homilies and below him Jose Gonzales faintly hums what could be his next big smash. It’s all so quiet and timid, perfect for star-crossed lovers or a soothing tonic for the tiny animal with several broken limbs that you are nursing back to health. There is still plenty of time for Brown’s talent to ensure he stays in the black so you know what you gotta do. KD

Findlay Brown - Loneliness I Fear

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Watch The Video To Come Home

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Buy Album: [UK] Separated By the Sea [US] Seperated by the Sea
Year: 2007

A new voice emerges from New York City and the world stands back agog at its unique gravity. The sound belongs to Shilpa Ray and even though her band Beat The Devil employs no lead guitars (in a sassy kick to the groin to those who thought Keane had cornered that particular market) they ensure that a couple of minutes in their company will leave you in a smiling dishevelled heap. And anyway who needs those chords when Ray can produce a harmonium, a curiously awkward looking instrument with a set of lungs as terrifyingly awe inspiring as her own. ‘Shine In Exile’ won’t grab your intention, instead it’ll reach inside the pit of your stomach and wrench those flutterbye’s into a possessed form of dance. Beat the Devil's self-titled EP was released late last year with their debut LP on the way soon. Evil has never sounded so exhilarating. KD

Beat The Devil - Shine In Exile

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Buy EP: Beat The Devil
Year: 2007

I've spent the last few days wondering what I could use as an appropriate soundtrack for my reappearance. Something lush, something wholesome, something that could float the boat of pretty much everyone who heard it. In the end it was a no-brainer; once Caribou’s new single ‘Melody Day’ had swung into action I knew I had my man. The startling news is that ‘Melody Day’ is just one of a plethora of outstanding slices of giddy electronica on Dan Snaith’s (Mr Caribou) new album ‘Andorra’ which is set for a release later this month. Like it’s predecessor ‘The Milk Of Human Kindness’, ‘Andorra’ beats with a frantic yet melody soaked attitude, the songs translate almost immediately but also have pleasing staying power. ‘Andorra’s gift should see it colouring your summer as well as those far off days when the sand will be replaced by a mountain of fluffy snow. Caribou will be in Ireland on the 7th (Crawdaddy) and 8th (Roisin Dubh) of next month. KD

Caribou - Melody Day

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Buy Album: Andorra
Year: 2007

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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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

More Info: Official & Myspace


Dyrdin - Popp Og Co

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Future Clouds And Radar - Drugstore Bust

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Zykos - Autographin' Bibles

More Info: Official & Myspace


Liechtenstein - Stalking Skills

More Info: Official & Myspace


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

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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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Listen & Buy Songs:
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

More Info: Official & Myspace
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

If summer fails to arrive on our shores maybe we should stop complaining and move on to the next season forthwith? To help out here is a band from a sunny clime who sing about one of winters tiny miracles. Shana Levy used to be in Irving but is now the main thrust behind Let’s Go Sailing. ‘Icicles’ is taken from her debut ‘The Chaos In Order’ and is unlikely to be rupturing eardrums such is its light and airy disposition. Levy’s voice is particularly attractive amidst the gentle instrumentation, a polkadotted frenzy that’ll dry the linen when the sun is the last thing on the weathers list of today's duties. KD

Let's Go Sailing - Icicles

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Buy Album: The Chaos In Order
Year: 2007

If only a band existed that distilled the best bits (you know the bits I mean, they’re all over your CD compilations) from the Shins, the Apples in Stereo and Built to Spill and in the process arrived at a perfect sonic constellation. Well, Terrene’s new (old) album may just have arrived at this superlative juncture due to its consistent policy of dreaming up hypnotic melodies. John Dylan is the poet and chief architect on Terrene’s debut ‘The Indifferent Universe’, an album that has had a less than hasty gestation period. While the thrills don’t always fall into your lap as easily as ‘Fifty-One’ there is an unmistakable sense of grandeur on nearly every track. ‘Fifty-One’ is flighty and energetic, spilling its ample array of goodies with the profligacy of a faulty sweet dispenser. KD

Terrene - Fifty-One

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Buy Album (in july): The Indifferent Universe
Year: 2007

What do you do when you know you are the third best musical act in Iceland? Keep doing what you do best, namely electronic excursions to faraway planets or perhaps change gear and introduce a surprise element like the semblance of a proper tune. From the sound of ‘Dancing Behind My Eyelids’ it would seem that Mum have chosen the latter and a nice departure it is too. Not that it’ll be troubling the mainstream charts any time soon but the introduction of the non-digitised presents an occasion that is as close to a chorus as they’ll ever produce (the video of ‘Green Grass Of Tunnel’ may counteract these words but you get my drift). The new album is out on Fat Cat Records in September and is called ‘Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy’. Could this perhaps mark the beginning of the changing of the guard? KD

Mum - Dancing Behind My Eyelids

Watch The Video To Green Grass Of Tunnel

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Buy Album: Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy
Year: 2007

Of course Gaz Coombes was writing fantastic songs (well at least one anyway) for the Jennifers aged 14 so it should come as no surprise that the young bucks from Paper Airplanes who made ‘Boyhood’ should be capable of a nice tune or 2. In fact they’ve made a clutch of great ones, full of opportunistic variations on the indie rock theme. If variety be the spice of life then surely this Wichita mob have enough elixir to fill several racks. ‘The Fences’ opens the album in epic fashion, in many ways it's one song inside several songs. This Russian doll approach serves the band well as ‘The Fences’ has all the charm and chaotic good humour of a Christmas get together. The stars (and there are many) of the piece include Marcus Stoesz’s aching vocals, some ingenious string arrangements and a piano that just refuses to stand still. This is another new opus to call your own. KD

Paper Airplanes - The Fences

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Buy Album: Boyhood
Year: 2007ish

It has been almost 2 years now since I started this blogging lark and although I was a ferocious hoarder of all things indie beforehand actually writing about the stuff has spurred me onto a different level of inspection. It’s funny how despite the thousands of mp3’s that have passed my aural gaze how one or two just refuse to budge from my consciousness. One of these is this song from a Swedish band called South Ambulance, a band I cherish but have failed to attain even a smidgeon of sales. ‘Die 5times Times 5’ will be with me forever as much for the shoegaze frontage as the absolutely venomous lyrics where the rejected party wishes endless excruciation on the triumphant Romeo. Try this for size ‘I hope you’ll never be, happier than me, I hope your flat burns down, I hope you 2 break up, I hope you lose you hair, though I wish I didn’t care, I know you’re fucked up, I hope they beat you up’. Ah such sweet maliciousness wrapped up in wonderfully realised boy/girl harmonies, riffs so well turned out you could put a top hat on them and they’d easily gain entry to a Gentleman’s club. If you can, love this band. KD

South Ambulance - Die 5times Times5

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Buy Album: South Ambulance
Year: 2005

This sort of stuff always gets me and it’s probably because shoegaze remains one of my favourite genres. While not fully in the shoegaze arena the Paper South’s ‘Short-Wave Resolutions’ still delivers an impressive brew of twisted guitar lines and delicate male vocals (reminding one of UK band Revolver). The Paper South are a quartet from Austin that have previously played in the American Analog Set and Winslow. They released their 6 track self-titled debut EP last year from which ‘Short-Wave Resolutions’ is taken. The EP is available for free download from the bands website and highlights an appealing jangling sound that could flower wonderfully over the next few releases. KD

The Paper South - Short-Wave Resolutions

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Buy: The Paper South EP
Year: 2006

Jim Putnam and his cohorts are entering the final stages of recording their new album, the follow up to 2005’s ‘The Fallen Leaf Pages’. That album received a mixed reaction, the fans hailed its languid charm while the detractors pointed to a lack of variation. Well, who cares what they think when here on the blogosphere all you generally get is one mp3 per band with variation just a mere post away. Not to say that ‘To Remember’ isn’t memorable because it is, in fact it is a godsend for someone still mourning the loss of Grandaddy (not related). The song has a wonderfully warped sense of pace, coordinated by a dandy piano line and a hip jazz sensibility. And all that before you even consider Putnam’s delicate singing, don’t listen too hard or it may just fall apart in your ears. This is a luscious opportunity to recharge your emotions. KD

Radar Bros. - To Remember

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More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: The Fallen Leaf Pages
Year: 2005

This takes a while to get going but before you know it there’s a scrambling effort akin to the Kings of Leon going at it hammer and tongs in progress. And they’ve got some fairly impressive beards to show off too which must make for some very sweaty chins when they hit full throttle on stage. To its credit ‘Priest, Poet And The Pig’ hardly flags for the duration, but stops just short from being an instant classic due to the lack of a truly memorable chorus. But these are VietNam’s early days so there is bound to be a few minor casualties before they become a force to be reckoned with. VietNam's self-titled debut was released on Kemado Records in January and should appeal to anyone with a weakness for rock centric blues that secretly hanker for a time when ZZ Top pulled all the girls. Give them all your lovin'. KD

VietNam - Priest, Poet And The Pig

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Buy Album: Vietnam
Year: 2007

‘Appearances’ is classically briefed in the ways of the religion they call indie. Perhaps it has studied in the seminary as Thurston Moore, David Gedge and James Mercer dolled out advise that was too good to forget. The other possibility of course is that its makers Citizens Here and Abroad from San Francisco are clever tacticians in a game that easily falls flat on its face through endless repetition. Citizens Here and Abroad released their second album late last year but ‘Appearances’ is taken from their debut, the intriguingly titled ‘Ghosts of Tables and Chairs’. It boasts what is surely some textbook boy/girl vocal interplay. Chris Groves and Adrienne Robillard swoop and glaze over each other while the tommy gun beats and shoegazeresque crescendo’s create a effervescent backdrop. KD

Citizens Here And Abroad - Appearances

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Buy Album: [UK] Waving Not Drowning [US] Waving, Not Drowning
Year: 2006

You may not have heard of Louis Schefano but he has been in bands you might have. Previously he fronted Regia, drummed with Remy Zero and is currently doing the same job with the Ladybird Transistor (he had a spell with Bright Eyes too). It is quite likely that his greatest success will come as himself though, by simply dropping his surname he has created a new incarnation called Louis. A debut album is near completion (damn those Ladybirds) titled ‘Songs from the Psych-Salon’ but he has already squeezed out an EP earlier this year. ‘My Own Good’ was one of its slumber tracks, a hushed beauty with a sparkling glint in its eyes. The song hardly shifts into second gear but before it ends you may have nodded yourself into a right old sore neck. KD

Louis - My Own Good

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Buy The EP: [UK] Freak Show Revenge [US] Freak Show Revenge
Year: 2007

Could this be the start of a shouty female scene on our shores? To the unfettered joy of Fight Like Apes you can now add Hooray For Humans from Cork. And with a 10 track album in the works ‘Signature’ will soon be in the company of a plethora of like minded brattish escapades. ‘Signature’ is a scattershot gem, a cut and paste scrapbook of tiny acorns all vying to become the biggest yoke of them all. Think Bis if they’d come from a republic within a republic and could sing ‘Woo, Hey Hey’ against a backdrop of electronics and frantic chords. It doesn’t get much kookier than this, at least until the album drops that is. KD

Hooray For Humans - Signature

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Buy Album: Soon....
Year: 2007

The Star Department are a Dublin quartet with 2 releases to their name. The most recent mini LP ‘Auditions’ displayed the grand plans that they’ve in store for us. The song structures they adopt generally have a loose feel, trading the traditional chorus verse chorus system for something that never lulls into the realms of predictable. Not that listening to their music is a difficult task; despite an ever-changing soundscape there are bite sized pieces of melody and sweet shimmering chords to dine out on immediately. ‘Palettes’ is typical of the lolloping bundle of jangling noise that the band are capable of as it switches from quiet introspection to stampeding herd of riffery within the blink of an eye. The Star Department are a great prospect who are proving that experimentation doesn’t necessarily always have to be a challenge to unlock. KD

The Star Department - Palettes

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Buy Album: Auditions
Year: 2007

You’ve probably guessed by now that this blog is partial to the odd slice of Swedish indie pop. Bands from that neck of the woods generally come equipped with pantry sized sunny melodies and more often than not spring from the loins of the majestic Labrador label. Labrador released Ronderlin’s debut ‘Wave Another Day Goodbye’ 5 years ago and although they have since moved on they retain the essence of what that label stands for. In between that last album and its follow up ‘The Great Investigation’ various members of Ronderlin have moonlighted with other Swedish bands such as Love Is All and Irene. ‘Way To Be’ is one of 3 tracks that are been given away free to entice newcomers to Ronderlin’s celestial world. It’s impressive stuff, a million miles away from the Arctic Monkeys of this world. If anything it has a slightly gothic edge, with creepy organic drifts and vocals that emanate from cobwebbed cathedral towers. KD

Ronderlin - Way To Be

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Watch The Video To Three Times

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Buy Album: The Great Investigation
Year: 2007

This has been sitting in my inbox for a while now but I find myself returning to it regularly. Motocade are from Auckland and cut the sorta dash in angular ditties that you’d have expected the ‘Silent Alarm’ version of Bloc Party to conjure. Motocade play it hard and fast but never forget to include a good tune amidst all the scattered riffage. ‘In The Fall’ is taken from the band’s second EP ‘Into The Fall’. And good value it is too as the EP boasts 7 tracks in total. The song is adroit at short bursts of intense energy that come alternatively from the sharp riffs and Eden Mulholland’s rapid-fire verbal volleys. And it’s all tempered by some pleasing background harmonies to seal the deal on a neat little track. KD

Motocade - Into The Fall

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Watch The Video To Bomb Squad

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Buy EP: Into The Fall
Year: 2007

For Against have a rich musical heritage stretching back to the early 1980’s. I hadn’t heard of them until I stumbled across their music on the words on music label’s website. For Against create an attractive formula with Jeffrey Runnings lean vocals and their preference for energetic jangling riffs. This approach is never more evident than on the title track from their last album ‘Coalesced’ released in 2002. There is more than a hint of C86 in evidence with the vital ingredients uncluttered by plush recording techniques and openly left to fend for themselves. Things go supernova in the second half as the words are dropped in favour of the charge of the lightly tugged chord brigade. This is a band to fall in love with. KD

For Against - Coalesced

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More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: Coalesced
Year: 2002

Wonderfully eclectic and worth hanging in there for a solid helping of twists and turns ‘Amperfan’ is perhaps something that daytime radio would like to take a machete to. Culled from 2005’s ‘24/7 Dance Force’ it’s an unruly child with a schlock of curl and a vibrant personality. So it might be all over the place but if ‘Slanted and Enchanted’ era Pavement is your bag then you’ll probably be flummoxed with utter joy. In fact there is enough gas in this little monster to power another couple of minutes so when the end comes it feels a tad premature. Look Down do seem to be making the sort of shapes lately that indicate that they’ll be releasing something new soon. KD

Look Down - Amperfan

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More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: 24/7 Dance Force
Year: 2005