Truffle, but her? (Sorry)

Heard a few good things on the radio recently so it's time to share.  I feel like Hot Chip just had an album out, but they're back with a new track again already.  Again, they're a band I've kind of avoided -- always heard that they're good, liked a few things that I've heard, but I've made a semi-conscious decision not to get into them.  I may revise that soon though.  Really like the off-kilter keyboard line in this track, it's nice when things are a bit weird.


Unknown Mortal Orchestra are coming to U Street Music Hall soon I gave them a listen, especially  after Ghostpoet tweeted about them.  Not really the kind of thing I want to check out live, but I do like this track:

I thought it was new but it's from 2013!

I was listening to the actual radio the other day and heard a Nicki Minaj song.  The beat really stood out to me, but it had the feel of something I may have heard before -- turns out it's a slowed down beat from a Maya Jane Coles track!  They didn't really change it much either.


Finally, I don't have a whole lot to say about this Richard Hawley track I heard a couple of weeks ago except that I like it -- it's very evocative.

The London-centric videos of Ghostpoet

Ghostpoet is another one of those artists who I've been aware of but never properly checked out.  I've shied away of getting  too into him for some reason.  I think it's because his Britishness (look at the photo above!) produces some intense feelings of yearning in me.  But he put new album 'Shedding Skin' out recently, and I've been hearing the single 'Off Peak Dreams' quite a lot, which has grown on me.  Alexis Petridis did a short video recommending the album; watching that, I couldn't help but notice the London-y vibe of the video to 'Off Peak Dreams' and it led me to check out some more of Ghostpoet's videos.  He's got more that seem to have been filmed on the cheap in surburban parts of the city, ones that have, of course, produced those feelings I wanted to avoid.  I thought I'd post a selection below for anyone else who's feeling the same way I do sometimes.

Classixx

Not the previously blogged about musical outfit, but some old but great songs with small blurbs.  OK.

My appreciation of the band Squeeze increases every time I hear a track by them.  I really like the story-telling aspect of this song, and the shambolic quality of it all.  Dance to this with a mug of tea in your hand, that's what I did yesterday, and I felt pretty cool.  Bonus!  Spot young Jools Holland in the video!  He looks great.


Of course I heard this next track on 6 music, source of at least 90% of what I hear now.  It's Lulu and it was apparently produced by Bowie himself.  Love the production on this, especially the sax.
 

There's something about off-kilter pop music that I love.  I heard this next one again recently in a coffee-shop.  Weird contrast between the lyrics and the sound of the song itself.

All this useless beauty

I've been indulging in remembrances of simpler times today.  It's funny how life can seem like it's full of problems when you're young.  Then you grow older and look back to the past and miss how easy it was; "if I only knew, if I only knew..."


SOAK - Sea Creatures from Christopher Vickers/CR VICKERS on Vimeo.