Maybe I’ve got a bit soppy because I’m feeling a bit sad and fragile but Mereba’s haunting electro-ballad hits me right there. Especially its lyrics.

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Here we are on the hottest day of the year and I’m reflecting on the hottest gigs I’ve ever attended. One of them, on a night like this, was by Nas at the 100 Club.

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If there was an instrument I’d lock away in Room 101 it’s the ukelele, that scratchy little four-stringed guitar so beloved of hipsters. Yet I’ve always had a soft spot for Zach Condon.

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Christina Vantzou and John Also Bennett collaborate as CV and JAB on this beautiful piece of peaceful piano music – a soothing balm for the pains and frustrations of everyday life.

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This Welsh group is new to me but it seems they’ve been going since 2019 when they formed as what Americans call a “jam band.” The sextet are named after their home town of Church Village, ten miles from Cardiff, calling themselves Church Village Collective – CVC for short.

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Do we really want to hear an elderly church minister sing a song blissfully unaware that it celebrates the pleasures of heroin? Well yes, it turns out we do.

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Unlike some other old punks of my acquaintance, I am no longer a fan of being hectored by angry men thrashing guitars and pummelling drums into oblivion.

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I love it when a group lives up to its name. And rarely, if ever, has a group lived up to its name as much as Alogte Oho & His Sounds Of Joy. It’s written all over their faces, it’s in every note they play and sing, and it’s in every sinuous groove their bodies make.

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I love Snõõper’s description of themselves as “a band who, in a 33 ⅓ RPM world, make 45 RPM music they play at 78 RPM.” Alternatively, you can use the shorter term “egg punk.”

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In what is something of a golden era for electronic artists, one of the most consistently interesting is a former footballer called Darren Cunningham, who performs and records under the alias Actress.

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