Oupa + Porcelain Raft + A Grace With No Name // Red Light Sessions

A quite beautiful, haunting selection of recordings here, the product of three inventive minds, bottles of wine and a video camera. There'll be a full edited session to come, and these teasers are evidence that greatness may have been achieved one night at Daniel's London flat.


Forget - Oupa (live in Daniel's home) from Oupa on Vimeo.




Balloons - A Grave With No Name (live in Daniel's home) from Oupa on Vimeo.

Local favourites // Fanzine

Fanzine have not been gigging long, but what they have done has been of the highest calibre of bill. London shows with Spectrals, Cymbals Eat Guitars and French Kissing have helped draw a deserved amount of attention to a band with a discerning collective ear for a melody.

While heavily influenced by late 80s / early 90s American indie, there's a gleaming poppiness to the vocals on early track Susan, which draws on Pacific coast surf and, somehow, Pink Floyd, while Run is akin to a sprawling, Smashing Pumpkins re-edit of Graham Coxon. With the band currently recording new material, there should be much, much more to enjoy from Fanzine this year.

Run by Fanzine

Mazes // Most Days

Mazes' debut album A Thousand Heys may well be the cream of the ever growing crop of 90s American indie influenced slacker pop, and Most Days is the most thrillingly fun record we've heard in ages. The kind of song that just makes you want to form a band, skate and make music all summer.

That's pretty much the theme behind the new video, directed by Paul and Matt Layzell, which comes off like a skate video made by Ren & Stimpy. This should definitely be made!


Mazes - Most Days from FatCat Records on Vimeo.

Also, here's a sneak peek of the band on Lightship 95, the unlikely site on which the album was recorded. You get another blast of Most Days for your money as well. The band play Dingwalls on April 5th.

Glasser w/ Sampha // XOYO

A belated post of my review of the quite immaculate Glasser at XOYO last month, first posted on The Fugitive Motel.

The high and mighty of London indie are out in force, FORCE, tonight for the presence of LA siren Glasser, AKA Cameron Mesirow. Not one but at least two xx’ers are in attendance, as are members of WHB and The Vaccines, to witness what is perhaps the most innovative and enchanting female voice around.

Due to an unreasonably long queue outside XOYO, we only make it in time for second support Sampha. Thank god we did. A remarkable combination of soul, house and dubstep, sounding like a Jamie xx remix of Billy Ocean, and sure to break as big, if not bigger, than contemporary James Blake.

Arriving on stage in a magnificently improbable dress and Jamiroquai-esque millinery, Mesirow’s onstage presence is surprisingly unassuming. Last year’s album Ring was heralded in best-of lists and sent bloggers into a frenzy, its artfully folkish electronica and tropical rhythms accenting Mesirow’s refined vocal, but would this translate to a live performance?

The opening tribal call to arms of Apply immediately fills the room and answers any doubts with an emphatic yes, with Mesirow seeming most at ease within the music and giggly and shy without. Her voice is impossible to pin down. It has elements of Karen O in the yelps, Bat for Lashes on the soaring Home, with looped vocals producing the effect of a one woman Dirty Projectors. Despite feeling “like Janet Jackson at the Superbowl” after a self inflicted wardrobe malfunction, the pulsing electronica of closer Mirrorage gets wails of approval from the now devoted audience, before an impromptu acapella encore of old English folk song Let No Man Steal Your Thyme is the ultimate pin drop moment, and proof if any more were needed that Glasser is primed to be the Bjork of our generation.

Friendly Fires // Live Those Days Tonight

For those of you that loved the progression in Friendly Fires from their worthily acclaimed debut to interim single Kiss of Life, you will also love Live those Days Tonight. The tropical rhythms and percussion adds a freshness and vibrancy to their funky epic dance, which promises much for the release of album two, Pala, in May.

This live effort on Jimmy Fallon is brilliant not only for the song, not only for Ed's moves, and not only for his uncontrollable energy and involuntary leaps once the song ends, but for the final glimpse of Bootsy and his funk to play us out.

UPDATE: Urgh, NBC removed the live vid, so you'll just have to believe the above and imagne the situation using the single version below.

SXSW 2011 // Jack White

Our unbridled affection for Jack White is well known, and this 'impromptu' performance in a SXSW parking lot only enhances that love.

Cheekily introduced by Ben Swank, former Soledad Brothers and current Mr David Viner drummmer, and fellow Detroit scene stalwart, as a Third Man Records recording artist, White launches into Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away before a brief but impassioned version of Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.

New Third Man signing Seasick Steve follows up with his older than time three string blues, completing 10 minutes full of reasons why I must get to Austin in 2012.



via NPR

Latitude 2011 // Edwyn Collins

In honour of the Latitude line up announcement and the fact that the great man of C86 pop will be performing, what better time to relish his genius? What a good looking chap. And what boots, what boots!

Local favourites // Sampha

Having remixed the likes of fellow illustrious Londoners the xx, SBTRKT and Scroobius Pip last year, Sampha's cache is growing all the time, not least through recent production duties, backing vocals and remixing for Jessie Ware's Valentine out last month.

His solo stuff, however, is on another plain altogether. Sounding something like a Jamie xx remix of early Billy Ocean, Sampha's blend of two step, dub and house beats are levitated with his classic soul vocal. With James Blake currently blazing a more high profile trail for 'the future of music as we know it', perhaps not of his own doing but such is the industry frenzy for the next big thing, Sampha is more than equipped to follow that up. Last year's Sundanza EP on Young Turks was evidence if any were needed that a breakthrough is imminent, and hopefully more material this due this year will do just that.Here's some samples of his wares below (and you even get a bit of acting in the Valentine vid!)

YT039 - Sampha - Sundanza EP by Young Turks

Not Cool // Queens

We posted about the brilliance of Not Cool's Rugged Raw mini-album moons ago, but now it's finally getting an official release on Sleep All Day Records in April.

As warm up for the no doubt hectic schedule of touring and promotions, the band got wrestling in the video to new single Queens, under the guidance of former Male Bonding and Sky Larkin collaborator Margarita Louca. Choose for yourself who won below.

Not Cool "Queens" from Margarita Louca on Vimeo.

Weird Dreams // Hypnagogic Lullaby

We're big fans of Sleep All Day Records at No Action HQ, largely as the label consistently delivers record after record of the best London acts around. And they've struck audio gold again with Weird Dreams' enchanting Hypnagogic Lullaby EP.

It's probably no coincidence that sleep, dreams and hypnagogic lullabies tie in so nicely, with the EP fitting the label's canon like a glove, crafting lo-fi power pop riffs with a Pixies ear for distorted melody which, while perhaps not achieving the transcendent state the title suggests, certainly makes the pulse race.

Hypnagogic Lullaby by Weird Dreams

The Strokes // Under Cover of Darkness

As if you didn't know, those pesky kids of the early noughties and today's discerning godfathers of garage The Strokes release what is likely to be their farewell album 'Angles' on March 22nd. For those wanting an early listen of what will hopefully be a bow worthy of their good name, you can download a free copy of first single Under Cover of Darkness for the next 48 hours from their site, or listen here.

The Dodos // Black Night

While their early demos and second album 'Visiter' made and cemented The Dodos as blogosphere megastars mentioned in the same breath and verse as Fleet Foxes, their follow up felt, well, underwhelming.

Black Night from their forthcoming 'No Color' LP sends the duo straight back to the top of the pile, rivalling Vister's Winter and Fools in its ability to be both sparse and epic. The thunderous drums to open are unrelenting throughout, the very definition of the engine room, while Meric Long's plucking and vocals provide the charm, the refined features and melodic flair that makes the track stay with you for days. You'll find yourself walking in time. Typing in time. Breathing in time. It's that good.