Biodegraded’s Music Picks
Currentish
Circles Around the Sun – Let it Wander
Jazz-rock-funk-psych by wannabe Deadheads. Wut?
The Essex Green – Hardly Electronic
Indie chamber-pop with the odd bit of folk & country thrown in, by old hands at the genre.
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs
Australian guitar-poppers who do a creditable job of worshipping The Go-Betweens.
Orion’s Belte – Mint
70s-style pysch-funk instrumentals by Norwegians: what could possibly go wrong?
Wooden Shjips – V
The latest from the San Francisco/Portland psych-Kraut-garage quartet is sunny, optimistic and toe-tappingly fun.
The Mekons – Deserted
Desert-flavoured old-folks folk-punk, with decent production for the first time in their 40+ year career.
Retro
Cinerama – Va Va Voom
The Wedding Present does 60s Europop but with the same subject matter as usual (love triangles / quadrangles / tumbleweeds).
Pere Ubu – The Modern Dance
Post-punk before there was punk. Great stuff.
Swervedriver – Raise
Their first and IMO best. Shoegaze with a harder edge.
Calexico – The Black Light
If Lou Reed fronted a mariachi band. Great melodies, instrumentation and production.
Sunday mornings
Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth
Low vocals, sparse instrumentation, simple melodies – the perfect recipe for hangovers.
Pete Fij & Terry Bickers – Broken Heart Surgery
Slow songs about love and loss with lyrics that are tragic and laugh-out-loud at the same time.
The Penguin Café Orchestra – A Brief History
Chamber music for punk pensioners.
Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children
Hard to describe; both relaxing and affecting. Ambient electro-soul? Work tunes for robots?