Recommended Releases

Welcome back, The Primitives, – I still love you!

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Knut in Recommended Releases, Reviews | 3 Comments

“Never Kill a Secret” is the title of the new EP from my old favourites, The Primitives. Reunions are usually disappointing, and I was extremely sceptical when I put this new EP on. Thankfully, The Primitives do not disappoint, and they deliver 4 really good popsongs on this EP. They sound a bit different than I expected, and this is a good thing in my book. The songs still sound like The Primitives, but it does not sound like an old band trying to do the same old thing over again. These songs sound fresh and new, – and at the same time quite retro, with strong nods to the 60s. The four tracks on the new EP include the lead track “Rattle My Cage”, the lovely and cute “Never Kill A Secret”, along with two covers, Suzi Jane Hokom’s Lee Hazlewood-penned “Need All the Help I can Get” and Toni Basil’s Northern Soul classic “Breakaway”.

I welcome The Primitives back after all these years!

http://the-primitives.co.uk/

http://www.fortunapop.com

For singles only: Tesco Chainstore Mascara

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Knut in Recommended Releases | 1 Comment

Tesco Chainstore Mascara has a new, wonderful double a-side single out on Bubblegum Records, “Big Bowl of Wrong”/”You Lost Me at Hello”. This is a part of Bubblegum’s “For singles only”-series, – a limited edition download project. Each band will provide 2 songs and design the artwork for the single. The artwork will be designed as a printable A3 poster that you can print out and post on your wall – if you want to. Each single is limited to 200 copies. You can download it from Bubblegum Records for the price of 2£. Well worth it!

Click the Soundcloud-player in the cover-art above to listen to the single.

New edition of P+M magazine, incl. a free compilation

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases | 2 Comments

In Japanese, but with lovely photos and great music!

P + M magazine is a pdf magazine made by Masahiro Nomura of abcdefg*records in Japan, and although I can’t say much about the written content (it’s in Japanese), I can tell you that it’s a great experience to click through the pages and listen to the accompanying music compilation. The photos are many and interesting, and the mp3-compilation is close to perfect. You can download everything for free from P + M magazine’s website. I have heard several of the bands on the compilation before, but some were a wonderful new experience, – like the Japanese band The Earth Earth. Lovely!!!
Highly recommended viewing and listening.

Download it all from here:

http://onimaga.com/

Tiny Ruins & a Singer of Songs – “Little Notes”

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases, Reviews | 1 Comment

Underused Records and Hi54Lofi Records will release a folky gem in December, “Little Notes”, a collaboration between two of my favourites, Tiny Ruins and a Singer of Songs. Some of you may remember Hollie Fullbrook from Tiny Ruins’ amazing vocals on EardrumsPop’s compilation “Between Two Waves”, where she participated as Pix & Hollie.

This new EP features 6 stunningly beautiful songs, most of them with Hollie’s vocals in front, surrounded by acoustic guitars, subtle strings and an atmosphere worth the price of the EP and more on its own. The vocals of Hollie and Lieven Scheerlinck (a Singer of Songs) fit so good together, – full of warmth and beauty.

a Singer of Songs lives in Barcelona while Tiny Ruins is from New Zealand, and although the two of them knew each other through their music, they had never met before they started working on this EP. Hollie went to Spain, and the EP was recorded during one week in an old apartment in Barcelona. It’s one of those pieces of music that can make you cry just by listening to it. Amazingly beautiful!
The EP is released on 6 December, but can already be ordered from Underused Records.
http://www.underused-records.com/site/releases#tinyruins

It will also be released digitally in all the usual places (iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, etc.).

Little Notes (Tiny Ruins & a Singer of Songs) by HI54LOFI RECORDS

In related (great) news, Hollie Fullbrook will be recording the first Tiny Ruins album this December in Australia, and it’s planned to be released in April/May 2011.

The Very Most– “Patricia” EP

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases, Reviews | Comments Off

The Very Most have a new EP out these days, “Patricia”. It features 4 wonderful popsongs, including the sweetest version of The Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man” you can ever think of. Both the title-track and their tribute to Jonathan Richman, named “Jonathan Richman” , are among the best I have heard from the band. Really, really good songs. The one minute long ukulele-track “Gleaming Gleam” is nice enough, but easier to forget than the other songs.

This is a 7″ vinyl, but when you buy it, you will also get download codes for the mp3-version. In the download codes you will get an extra version of “Here comes your man”, a “tuff version”. Order from The Very Most’s shop.

The Very Most – Jonathan Richman

New single from Sharesprings

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Knut in Bandprofile, Recommended Releases, Reviews | Comments Off

The Indonesian indiepop-band Sharesprings have a new single out these days on HeyHo! records. This is the band’s first official single-release, although there have been several songs by them circulating around the internet earlier. The two songs, “Jasmine” and “I Love To See You (Daydreaming Me)”, are some of the more focused songs I have heard from this band so far, and both are really strong pop-songs. Their sound is somewhere between the jangle pop of Sarah records, The Radio Dept., Boo Radleys and Ride, with a little dash of melancholy added as a counterweight to the sweetness. Very, very nice!

Here is a stream of one of the songs, and the rest can be bought from the label’s website at http://heyho-records.tumblr.com/

Sharesprings – I Love To See You (Daydreaming Me) by HeyHo!

Debut single from Ralegh Long

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Knut in Bandprofile, Recommended Releases, Reviews | Comments Off

UK artist Ralegh Long will self-release his debut single "Shtick" officially on November 22, but you can already now get it for a “pay what you want”-price on Bandcamp. The EP is also available in physical format, but it’s limited to 5 (FIVE!) copies, with exclusive artwork. To get the physical version, you have to make a bid on ebay (link on his bandcamp-page).
It’s the second track on the single that is my favourite. "Final range" reminds me of Lloyd Cole, The calmer moments of The Go-Betweens/Grant McLennan or the songs by Leonard Cohen, and it’s really beautiful. An EP is planned early next year, and I hope for more songs like this one. Good stuff!

New album from Anthony Rochester – “Hot hits ’96″

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases | Comments Off

Anthony Rochester is an artist we have followed for several years, and we had one of his songs, “Special Payment Option”, on our “A Good Crop” compilation a couple of years ago. The Australian artist has released two very good albums earlier, “Music for Librarians” and “Music for in the Spaceship”, and now he has a new album available. It’s called “Hot Hits ‘96”, and features 12 good songs, full of the warmth, wit and sense of melody we know from Rochester’s previous releases. The album is at the moment only available in digital format through iTunes, but Rochester is considering making a few physical cds as well. Highly recommended!

Here’s one of my many favourites on the album, “”At Kingston Beach”:

Anthony Rochester – At Kingston Beach by eardrums

The Orchids – The Lost Star

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases, Reviews | 4 Comments

The Orchids are back again with a new album on the lovely label Pebble Records, “The Lost Star” (their fifth album, and their second since they reformed).
I usually hate it when my favourite bands from the old days reform, – the result is usually crap, – but I absolutely love the reformed The Orchids. They have kept their old self, but have managed to develop their sound and songs in a good way. The new album is full of classic indiepop-songs, and a few of these may have become some of my favourite Orchids songs. “God of Special Things” is amazing, so is “The OK song”, and lots of others. Good songs all the way through the album.

I love the use of strings and synths, perfectly put quite low in the mix, so it doesn’t take over the focus. It adds a really nice feeling to these songs. The Orchids master their electronics as well, and when they put on a disco beat on “The Way That You Move”, they still sound like The Orchids, and it’s sounds so amazingly good.
The album can be bought physically through the label, but should also be available in digital format from most good digital music shops.
http://www.pebblerecords.co.uk/node/760

The Orchids – The OK Song by eardrums

(If you have access to Spotify, you can listen to the full album there: The Orchids – The Lost Star)

New releases from Club 7 digital singles club: Skittle Alley + The Arctic Flow

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Knut in Recommended Releases | Comments Off

The Spanish label Bubbletone Discos is back again with two new free releases in their Club 7 digital singles club. This time, they release 2-track singles with The Arctic Flow and Skittle Alley. I am especially fond of The Arctic Flow’s dreamy indiepop, but also Skittle Alley has really good songs on his single.

Like last time I wrote about this new netlabel, I have to say well done, – this is high class popmusic!

http://www.bubbletonediscos.com/club7