sweet escapism

Muchuu want you to follow them. Shut the curtains, cram your pockets with marshmallows and penny-chews and just run out the back door, down the garden path into the fields that overlook the railway line and down down down into the forest.

Don't ask questions. Just dance. Or skip. Or frolic.
Your only company is your gameboy, your imagination and everything in between.
Just follow Milky (vocals / dreamy nature) and her brother George (beats and backing vocals) into their secret world.


Somebody Tell Me is youthful escapism condensed into three minutes of nicely styled electro pop. If your bedroom wall is plastered with posters of Lykke Li and Jonas Bechtolt, then these two are your latest pinups. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of their debut album Adventure We Go a few weeks back. Packed to the brim with more of the same, there isn't a second of filler in sight. Every track can and will be a massive single. 2010 is theirs for the taking. Already getting mad love on 6music, enjoy this exclusive.

Muchuu - Somebody Tell Me



Their pop music is gorgeously innocent, yet holds crimson undertones that prevent it reaching that saccharine saturation point and the inevitable hurling after the ferris wheel ride. Sweet, sweet escapism is what it says on the tin, if Muchuu had a tin. I'd imagine they do, it's probably filled with sweets and fairy dust. Join the queue at the secret door of The Social on Little Portland Street next Tuesday, it's going to be magical. I can't even begin to imagine what they got up to at Halloween.

///visit their fun-filled website.

taken for a ride

Last Sunday with a hangover the size of a high rise, I clambered into my car and sped down to the coast to take in Daniel Johnston. Down by the pier in Brighton, a sea of sore-headed halloween revellers, eyeliner still intact, took in supports from Laura Marling and The Wave Pictures. In my heart of hearts, I only hoped for something coherent tinged with something magical. Obviously he was never going to play the whole of Don't Be Scared in its entirety. Obviously, he didn't play any of it.

Just seeing him in the flesh brought home how honest his songwriting is.
His searing honesty, filtered and fettered through unrequited love, always bulldozes its way through the harshest of cynics. Even though were moments where he struggled to maintain the pace, the songs he played were infused with tremendous warmth and exuberance. You wouldn't think it necessarily from the above photograph, but his voice is still drenched in childlike glee.

Daniel Johnston (with Yo La Tengo) - Speeding Motorcycle

after party: revive her

JONNY NASH (DISCOSSESSION/SOMBRERO GALAXY)

HAMPUS GUNNARSSON (TOP NICE)
DJ AKI (WALL TO WALL)
BI-BOP (PEOPLE IN THE SKY)
HENRY BENNETT (COLOURING IN)

Free Entry
address: The Camp (The City Arts & Music Project), 70-74 City Road

the shattered satellite party will end at midnight.
this is where you need to head after.

the best two quid you'll ever spend.

Next Friday will see the first and maybe the last shattered satellite party. It certainly won't be a monthly thing. I have no grand ambitions to be a promoter; my only motivation for doing this is to make sure everybody in The Victoria has the best time ever basically. To make that happen, I've put together a stellar lineup on a shoestring budget.

I don't really trust most people, so figured the only way to start proceedings would be to do it myself. Or rather with my band, Al Cool and the Stranger Wines. It's been a year since our first riotous show at Kensington Roof Gardens and I'm pleased to announce we're entering the third phase. I haven't been this stoked about playing a gig since Glasto' so I'd get down there early if I were you. Introducing our Thamesbeat chillwave motown postrock latino jazz funk classic - Céline. Produced and mixed by the baddest producer in all of Bath, Papa Yerbury.

Al Cool and the Stranger Wines - Céline


I do have a stonking remix of the track by my boy but it's getting a release so have to keep a lid on it for now. Be patient and enjoy the original. Only the beginning kids.


Self-promotion over. Following Al Cool will be ColouringIN, led by future romance pop prince Henry Bennett with the able assistance of Dominic Dowbekin and Ricco. The live show has contracted since I first caught it earlier in the year, they are now a three-piece on stage. It works better, their furious melting pot of trumpet, cello, opera vocals and dirty danceable beats providing Henry with the perfect backdrop to flutter without clutter as only he can.

ColouringIN - Intergalactic Romantic

Headlining are Django Django. Hurry on over to myspace to hear Skies Over Cairo, their West Coast vibes sent scattering on a blimp ride around the desert. Django Django have been building up a fierce reputation as purveyors of oddball pop that really is like nothing else at the minute. It's hypnotic, catchy and I'm very excited to have them perform. Read my interview with Vinnie here.

Django Django - Loves Dart



Occupying the decks in between bands will be Jamila from FUCKING DANCE and the Slutty Fringe crew of Tony, John and Flo. There will also be mixtapes, brownies and Arthur Russell themed fun times.

Anyway it's two pounds. Two pounds if you stick your name on the list over at the facebook event. Or you can buy tickets via wegottickets. If you turn up randomly, you'll have to pay three pounds. Which is still one hell of a bargain. I'm going to be talking about this for the rest of the week so get used to it.

///beautiful flyer by lucas liccini.

i want you endlessly

When thinking about Fyfe, I think of that moment when Trains to Brazil first sent me spinning. It was a grandiose fly in the face of all doomsayers and had such feeling. It was unstoppable. Even then, you could see there was a playful spirit hanging around.

Dangerfield's solo material channels this mischievous nature into something a lot more cheerful and booze infused, less widescreen melancholy. Still fueled by that same fire, he now sounds like the best 90's pop star that never existed. NOW 36 should have been his.

The beat that leads you in tells nothing of what to come but it's safe to say three minutes later you'll be dancing to a groove that's pure Dangerfield. I'd suggest heading over to Fyfe's site for more but you only get snippets. These leave me with a face like a kid who wanted a bigger slice of pie.

Props to Neon Gold for bringing this to my attention. Derek has slayed it this past week, which post CMJ bender I find pretty commendable.

Fyfe Dangerfield - When You Walk In The Room

good thing too

My favourite entrepreneur is weaving his own world slowly but surely.
Good Thing 2 fizzes and writhes like a fish stuck on a sherbet shore for too long.
I'm talking about the moment after when calmness is restored.
Reimmersed in the drink, it's a lolling rush to the surface that hints at a future electroflecked with weird alien beauty.

The Super-Ego - Good Thing 2

mumbai mirage

Last night, Turzi shook the aisles of Rough Trade.
Sadly there isn't a modern French krautrock aisle yet.
It's something they should really consider.

This morceau, Bombay, is an absolute behemoth.

Turzi - Bombay


When they get round to redesigning and implementing some new aisles.
Maybe they should get a Chinese krautrock aisle whilst they're at it.

Radiant Dragon - Oysters (Ornine remix)


This Ornine rerub of Oysters belongs at the bottom of the ocean though. Like when video games crash and you deathdrop like flies through the ocean floor, through the clouds into a new sky then crashing back to down to earth and to the ocean floor again and again ad infinitum until you yank the cartridge out.

Cosmo also deserves an aisle.

Cosmo D. Hines - Moon Hat Thief