With a name like The Electric Prunes, whose founder and front man James Lowe has just died, they could only have been a late-Sixties band from California.

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Spellling’s queer power ballad manages to be ethereal, euphoric and anthemic all at the same time, and crosses as many musical boundaries.

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Suede return with new single Disintegrate from what Brett Anderson descirbes as their post-punk album, Antidepressants.

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This new track by Little Simz, a defiant celebration of self-reliance, is all about the video, in which she plays a poverty-stricken punk granny living life to the full.

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Avant-garde artist Cosey Fanni Tutti drops a haunting new tune, Never The Same, from her forthcoming solo album 2t2. (more…)

I’ve never been able to make up my mind whether I like the Lambrini Girls for their shouty punk energy or hate them, probably for the same reason.

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Obviously there’s no ‘good’ way to die but to lose your life in a house fire, as Jill Sobule has done, must rank among the most unfortunate and unpleasant of all. (more…)

This is not just a great tune but a cleverly constructed composition – created by combining two tracks recorded 37 years apart.

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Here’s my latest playlist for the month of April and as ever it’s eclectic; one of the most diverse yet. We’ve got postpunk guitar legends (Keith Levene, John McKay), banging dance choons (ATB, Altern-8, Baby D), vintage soul (Three Degrees, James Carr), old-skool hip-hop (Luniz) and nu-skool reggae (Protoje), ambient (JakoJako) and country (Kaylee Rose) and tributes to those who left us in April (Max Romeo, David Thomas, Mike Berry, Wizz Jones…. Pope Francis).

You may not have heard of him, and neither had I, but Wizz Jones was a pioneering figure in British folk: a man described by Bert Jansch as “the most underrated guitarist ever.”

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