Sometimes a song seeps its way into your consciousness and just lodges there. Such was the way with this one by the Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
Kae Tempest and Loyle Carner teamed up to make a South London double act in 2014, blending poetry and hip hop to poignant efect in Guts.
There are many things I love about Sault, not least their initial anonymity, their eclecticism, and their refusal to play by the marketing-led rules of the music biz.
This one is properly obscure, though you may well recognise the tune as Dawn Penn’s vintage reggae classic No No No.
Five or six years ago I spent a few magical days at Air Studios witnessing Peter Gregson’s recording of Bach’s canonical Cello Suites for Deutsche Grammophon.
This is very far from being my favourite Springsteen song; I don’t have much time for that Eighties period at all. But Nashville duo The Harmaleighs breathe new life into it.
Glasgow reggae collective Mungo’s Hi Fi team up with toaster Pupajim for a celebraton of two-wheeled transport in the catchy Bike Rider.
La Luz sound as if they should come from somewhere by the sea in sunny SoCal but actually come from rainy Seattle… though they did once record an album in a California surfboard shop, and now live there.
Get Lucky was one of those songs that soundtrack an entire summer, blaring out of car windows and shop doorways on the longest hottest days of 2013.
A decade ago I went to see a new band called Poliça somewhere in Shoreditch. They didn’t fit into any category I knew: their immersive electronic sound had a dreamy sort of quality with an RnB undercurrent. (more…)