"Dreamphone"

Peach Kelli Pop's debut lp sounded like an attempt to express musically the sensation of scoffing a whole bag of Tooty Frooties and then swigging a load of cheap cherryade.  Unfortunately, Not Unloved was too tardy to the party to secure a copy of it on vinyl.  Hopefully, that won't happen with lp number 2 which seems to be imminent.  "Dreamphone", the first track to reach these ears from it, is as pinky blue as anyone could wish for:

 Giddiness and glockenspiels abound!  It's the perfect antidote to the adult world; take at least twice daily.

Radio song.

It's no doubt a function of a) my advancing years, b) my listening to more football than music radio (see d), c) the passing of John Peel and d) non-digital music radio (i.e. other than BBC6 Music) in the UK feeling like a bit of a wilderness that means that I rarely get to experience that once common feeling of hearing a song on the radio and being so smitten with it that I feel compelled to lose my dignity and enthuse about it to anyone who is unfortunate enough to be within wailing distance.  It was a sweet surprise, therefore, when this Melody's Echo Chamber song was played on BBC Radio Scotland earlier this evening:

From the number of YouTube views, it's not the new thing but I'm ok with that. I don't need to be first, I just need to fall in love.  Although it sounds nothing like Strawberry Switchblade's shining "Since Yesterday", it provoked in me the same desire; the desire to spin.  Which is great, I guess, because you're not worrying about the world when you're spinning.  "I Follow You" features one of the loosest, most soulful guitar solos of recent times.  That it sounds like it's been scratched-out like a photographic negative towards the end only serves to make me love it all the more.  A nice reminder, therefore, of when 'radio friendly' was a good thing.  A reminder, too, that having other people choose what you listen to for a while can enrich your life.

The Aislers Set in Glasgow! (19/11/2012)

Way back when fanzines seemed like the only way to express just how much you loved a group's music, I wrote that if The Aislers Set ever came to Glasgow, I would arrange a ticker-tape parade in Amy Linton's honour.  Of course, that was the hollow rhetoric of a boy with a deep love of Amy's previous group Henry's Dress who never expected it to actually happen.  When, miraculously - or so it seemed at the time! - The Aislers Set showed up in Glasgow, first with Stevie Jackson at Nice'n'Sleazy and then with The Tall Boy at The Woodside Social, I was there each time, grinning like I'd just had my teeth whitened and was mad keen to show them off.  I didn't, however, throw a ticker-tape parade for Amy.  To tell the truth, I've always felt a bit of a fake for not doing so - I hate it when, as is so often the case, my words aren't backed up by actions.  Luckily, I've got another chance to arrange a ticker-tape parade as, in a remarkable turn of events - I'd thought the group to be defunct! - Amy and co. are about to hit Glasgow once more:

Surely gig poster of the year so far!  It looks set to be another of those unmissable Mono evenings that warm you to your very core and fortify you for the days and weeks ahead.  Revisiting The Aislers Set's music since it was announced that they would be coming to the UK has been one of the purest joys of recent months and, as expected, it transpires that I still love Amy's music with every part of my heart.

Full details of the show can be read here.

In The Garden

Today's challenge: name a prettier 60s tune than Triste Janero's airy, jazz-flecked"In The Garden":

...I knew you couldn't!  With a honeyed tone pitched midway between Tracey Thorn's and Debsey Wykes's, my heart was always going to flip for Barbara Baines's voice.  Original White Whale issue copies in Not Unloved friendly condition go for around the 50 pound mark so I had to plump for a second hand copy of the Jazzman reissue which coupled it with the nowhere near as lovable "Baby True" by Gettysburg Address and was mine for a much more modest 2 pounds*.  Joe Foster's Rev-ola reissued the group's "Meet..." lp on cd a few years ago (although it doesn't appear in this discography, for some reason).  I saw it in Monorail but somehow it never quite rose to the top of my lust list so I don't own it.  I'll rectify that someday, I'm sure.

Read more about Triste Janero here

* - It was actually the second time I'd bought it. Unfortunately, however, the first copy was lost in the post - just one of the many drawbacks of buying records mailorder.

September Girls (again!)

Magic multiplies when it comes into contact with vinyl so I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of some September Girls vinyl after enjoying them so much on tape and cd-r. Both are fine formats, of course, but somehow neither has vinyl's mysterious power to multiply.  "Green Eyed" b/w "Danny Wood" is nearly here - it's out on 22nd October - and it's as bold and dramatic as it is pretty.  With a melody of pure end of summer sadness swept along by a powerful fuzz undertow it's the kind of song you don't tell people about so much as evangelise about - really, I'm only 3 plays away from having a sandwich board made, booking a week off work and parading up and down Argyle Street to make the people of Glasgow sit up and take notice of September Girls.  It also just happens to be book-ended by just about the most resplendent guitar nugget I've heard in 2012; just too much.  The accompanying video is worth a spin, too:

Almost makes you nostalgic for pre-smoking ban gigs.  And those sections with the overlaid faces, Loop and Spacemen 3 woulda walked over hot coals for visuals that cool.

Delores Hall "Good Lovin' Man"

There could be hard times ahead so Not Unloved is stockpiling records with the fervour of a mad-eyed doomsday cultist preparing for The Armageddon.  Delores Hall's knockabout "Good Lovin' Man" was bought in haste after hearing it on Patrick Foisy's amusingly named Parka Avenue blog but it's such a fun, zesty record that there will certainly be no repenting at leisure.

Unplayed Keymen Records originals are kicking about on ebay for around the tenner mark.  Considering that a lot of soul reissues cost roughly that these days it's worth a punt, I'd say.

Brenda Ray is my new heroine

It's true to say that I know practically diddly about dub, reggae and lovers rock.  I do know one thing, however, and that's that Brenda Ray's music has been heard more than anyone else's round these parts of late.  The groundwork for her "Walatta" cd (recently reissued by EM Records of Japan) was probably laid almost a year ago to the week by Hollie Cook's stunning Glasgow show and impeccable debut album. "Walatta" really should have been reissued by Heavenly Recordings as Brenda's voice puts me in mind of Dot Allison (both solo and with her stupendous group One Dove) or her Heavenly labelmate Sarah Cracknell at their breathy best. Come to think of it, "Another Dream" sounds exactly how I'd imagine a Saint Etienne dub single would sound:

Those spoken word sections are uncannily Sarah Cracknell-esque aren't they?  Quality-wise, "Walatta" is from the top drawer throughout with the tone being set right from the "Sweet Jane" shimmer of the intro to opening track and wafting pop masterpiece "Star Light":

Some dub heavyweights' names appear in the credits (Prince Far I, King Tubby etc.) and many of the sounds a novice like me would associate with dub records are present and correct (the forlorn melodica, the spring reverb and the odd vaguely rum-soaked sounding male singer) but, really, it's the softness of Brenda's voice and her lightness of touch as a producer which makes "Walatta" a record to obsess over.  It's hard not to feel a little more positively about life after a period of immersion in it.  Words like 'dream', 'sweet' and 'love' are recurrent and seep into your soul so that when on "D-I-Z-Z-E-E" she mildly suggests “Come on now and get unhinged, cos I am gonna make you swing” you're more than happy to get a little unhinged and have that second custard cream whilst dancing round the kitchen in the most understated way.  Life's good when Brenda's singing.

Coming soon to Not Unloved: Brenda Ray - D'ya Hear Me! Naffi Years 1979-83

[Glaswegians: Monorail has a bunch of copies of "Walatta" on cd just waiting to take away yr dreich autumn blues!]