There’s a distinct folk feel to our early round up of the best albums of 2013 so far, with two of Britain’s most interesting exponents of the genre releasing stellar albums this year. But as with many years our list is also dominated by American indie and alternative music, of both the stadium and indie disco varieties. There are also a lot of beards among our top ten. Just one of the those razor free years that comes around every now and again.

So enough of the hair chitter chatter, get yourself down to your local independent record shop and start picking up these excellent albums from 2013. Feel free to let us know if we’ve missed out your favourite albums of the year. And finally, here’s a Spotify list featuring some tracks from those in our list.

10. Josh Rouse – The Happiness Waltz

Josh Rouse is dancing into middle age nicely with his tenth album The Happiness Waltz. Like some of his early to middle period albums, in particular 1972 (named after the year of his birth), this latest album is full of sunny melodies, country twangs, radio friendly hooks and some gorgeous singing. Read our full review here.

9. Thirty Pounds of Bone – I Cannot Sing You Here, But For Songs of Where

This third album of folk music by Thirty Pounds of Bone, aka Johny Lamb, manages to sound traditional without ever slipping into genre cliche. It is one of the best folk albums released this year and one of the best albums of 2013 full stop. Read our full review here.

8. Just Handshakes – Say It

This impressive debut from Yorkshire’s Just Handshakes features many a familiar C86 sound, from whirly-gig keyboards, chorus pedals and the choppy insightful melodies of XTC, all providing the perfect backdrop to the sumptuous, earthy English folk vocals of singer Clara Patrick. Indie pop with a distinct folk twist. Read our full review here.

7. Matthew E White – Big Inner

White is part of an eclectic country, rock, soul, gospel, you name it, collective of musicians in his native Virginia who are put through their paces with aplomb on this his first album. The end result is timeless country soul at its best and fans of Lambchop’s Nixon are going to love this. Read our full review here.

6. John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts

In Pale Green Ghosts, sweary ex-Czars man, John Grant, presents an album of wonderful contradictions. In parts almost dirge-like folk rock, this incredibly raw and openly confessional record is also awash with poppy electronica. Read our full review here.

5. Low – The Invisible Way

Centred around husband and wife duo Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker Low have been fine tuning their brand of so-called slow core rock across ten albums now. The Invisible Way takes the haunting, tender ethos of previous album C’mon one step further. Gone are the overt ’50s and ’60s electric guitar sounds  to be replaced with piano, acoustic guitar and an even softer Americana feel under the direction of producer, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Read our full review here.

4. Tullycraft – Lost in Light Rotation

While many of their twee peers are still drinking weak lemon drink from a flask and grumbling about this and that, America’s veteran indie pop outfit Tullycraft have added a good splash of gin to this poor metaphor of a flask and are belting out optimistic happy pop as if the recession and all the other ills since their last album in 2007 had never existed. Read our full review here.

3. Southern Tenant Folk Union – Hello Cold Goodbye Sun

Conflict about musical direction, song choices and album themes, can be a destructive influence for some bands. Fortunately for Southern Tenant Folk Union, the Edinburgh based collective that loosely falls under the folk/bluegrass banner, the opposite has happened and pre- production disharmony has conspired to create one of their best albums and one of the year’s most innovative albums. This is folk and bluegrass like you have never heard it before. Read our full review here.

2. The National    – Trouble Will Find Me

Born out of the chaos of the hurricane that ripped New York state apart last year the Brooklyn based band have produced one of their most calming and satisfying releases yet. Read our full review here.

1. Phosphorescent – Muchacho

American album of the year and our favourite so far as Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck expertly blends country, soul, electronica and rock. Perhaps the greatest exponent of sounding epic and in need of a good night’s sleep in modern music. Marvellous stuff. Read our full review here.

Album reviews by Joe Lepper, Dorian Rogers and Rob Finch.

The choice of music at the Glastonbury Festival can be bewildering: from the well known Pyramid Stage, which forms the bulk of the BBC TV coverage, to the smaller stages and bar venues.  To help out we’ve compiled our list of the key bands to watch out for, many of which have already impressed us live. It’s worth noting that the BBC Introducing tent line up had not yet been announced at the time of publishing and we urge you to check out that stage as well to find your new favourite band. It was one of our favourite locations when the festival was last held in 2011.

Dinosaur Jr

The Park Stage is shaping up to be one of our favourite line ups this year especially with indie rock veterans Dinosaur Jr making the Friday line up. Don’t expect witty stage banter from the maudlin J Mascis and the band but do expect some of the best guitar soloing and all round fret noodling you will ever hear.

Django Django

Django Django will have fond memories of Glastonbury having played the BBC Introducing Stage long before the release of their critically acclaimed, self-titled debut album in 2012. Back with a Friday evening Park Stage slot they are now highly experienced at delivering a stunning festival set with their idiosyncratic take on the notion of indie pop.

Tame Impala

They played twice at Glastonbury 2011 but mud and life conspired to ensure we missed them both times. Not this time as we will ensure we see this Australian act’s very modern take on psychedelic rock. Their Friday, Other Stage slot shows the wide appeal for their two stunning albums Innerspeaker and Lonerism.

Portishead

We champion local acts in our key areas of Brighton and the south west of England and they don’t come bigger for us than Bristol’s Portishead. Back from a hiatus in 2008 with the stunning album Third they are one of the most innovative acts in the UK and not to be missed live when they grace The Other Stage on Friday night.

Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg at Glastonbury Festival 2011

At the last Glastonbury festival in 2011 Bragg was headlining and organising the Leftfield stage. He proved once again what a consummate festival act he is. Armed with just his guitar, voice and wise words he provided this reviewer with shelter from the rain and one of the highlights from the festival. He’s back again at the same venue on the Friday night, this time with a full band. As an indication of how high his star is once again rising he has also bagged a Saturday afternoon Pyramid Stage slot, where he will bring his songs about love and a politics  to a wider TV audience.

Bridie Jackson and The Arbour

Bridie Jackson and The Arbour at the Glastonbury ETC finals

This year we were among the judges of the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition (ETC) which was won by this north east of England  folk act. They quite simply stole the show at the finals of the competition with their haunting, stunning interpretation of English folk. Their prize is to open proceedings on Saturday at the Acoustic Stage, one of the most warm spirited venues at the festival.

Calexico

Another of our favourite acts is Arizona band Calexico, who put in a superb festival set at Pavement’s All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2010. Expect to be dazzled by their excellent blending of indie rock and mariachi music as they play tracks from the past and last year’s excellent album Algiers  at the Park Stage on the Saturday night.

First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit at Bristol O2 Academy, 2012.

If you want stunning vocals from tiny Swedish women then look no further than sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, aka First Aid Kit. We caught their set at Bristol’s 02  Academy last year and were struck with the power of their vocal talents. Their cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s America is not to be missed should it make their set. It is an indication of how far they’ve come since we first saw them in a pub in Brighton many years ago that they now have a Sunday afternoon Pyramid Stage slot.

Stealing Sheep

Stealing Sheep at The Fleece, Bristol, 2012

The best support band we have ever seen. A packed Fleece in Bristol was left in awe last year when they supported Field Music. Now they headline in their own right and are firm favourites on the UK festival scene with their wholly original merging of indie folk bizarrely reimagined as a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. Their Sunday afternoon slot at the Park Stage is well deserved after a busy year for this Liverpool band.

Matthew E White

Matthew E White at Thekla, Bristol, 2013

Matthew E White skips across genres effortlessly, from gospel to funk to soul to country to rock. The eclectic West Holts is therefore the perfect venue for him to showcase tracks from his debut album Big Inner. We caught his set at Bristol’s Thekla this year and were left impressed not only with the quality of the music but his witty and engaging stage banter. Not to be missed when he takes to the stage on Sunday afternoon.

Phoenix

One of the best pop acts around. Following the success of 2009’s superb album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix they are back in 2013 with the release of Bankrupt! With a Sunday headline slot on the John Peel stage this French band will be primed to show Glastonbury how guitar pop should be played.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

The Pyramid Stage line up is arguably the most impressive it has been in years, offering a great mix of old and new artists. Last time we attended in 2011 we managed to avoid the stage entirely. This time we’ll be regulars at the venue with Sunday’s set by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds among those not to be missed. They and Cave in particular have still got it as a recording and live act all these years on. A true legend. Just watch the clip above and brace yourselves for amazement.

Words and pictures by Joe Lepper

Day three starts in the Komedia downstairs into the unnecessarily dark concert space to watch Mary Epworth play. I am immediately struck by the incongruous nature of the band, two young women, with beautiful harmonious voices backed by a hairy bunch who could easily double as bikers in a remake of Easy Rider. Odd they may look, but they play things pretty well and the prog-folk-rock songs are enjoyable, if let down a bit by some poor sound in the venue with a slightly irritating rattle throughout. This is a minor quibble on what was a strong set by a very promising artist.

Mary Epworth

Heading upstairs to the smaller studio venue I manage to get front of stage to catch Husky Rescue a Finnish act that prove to be one of the finds of the day.  Sounding like Efterklang  at their more minimal with impressive vocals by a singer that recalls a less histrionic Bjork it is an engaging set. Johanna Kalén is a calm and ethereal presence on the stage whilst the two ban members quietly and unassumingly produce some really lovely music. One of the bands from the weekend that go down in my notes to check out after the festival is over.

Husky Rescue

Outside at the Hub it is Jake Isaac who has the unenviable job of telling the crowd that Deap Vally have cancelled their set and he will be filling in. His voice is nice enough and his acoustic guitar based songs are fine, but it doesn’t make up for missing out on one of the bands I’d been looking forward to (more on whom later).

After a break from bands and a few convention activities I start the evening at Sticky Mikes Frog Bar for some full on classic rock from The Upskirts.  Fronted by a couple of bare foot guitarists they make an enjoyable noise, it is loud and high energy but falls short of doing anything special. I can’t remember a single note of any song they play even as I’m leaving the venue.

The Upskirts

Superfood are another band that sound pretty good without managing to serve up anything particularly memorable or groundbreaking . They do have some nice hooks, evoking the sound of Blur’s noisier songs and, less favourably, some of the second string Brit-pop acts that history has forgotten.   They are a very young act though and I hear enough promise in their sound and playing to think that they might turn into something more interesting over time.

Superfood

Cheatahs are an act that wear their influences on their sleeve, and given that their influences are largely bands I love I can live with that. Fey vocals, echoing guitars and lilting melodies which recall Ride, The Posies and Superchunk across an entertaining set. They are a band I’d heard a lot about prior to the festival, and on the strength of this performance I can see why. If you are going to be derivative then you need to do it well.

Cheetahs

The schedule is out the window at The Haunt, with Deap Vally make a surprise appearance on the bill with the promised Jagwar Ma nowhere to be seen. To be honest I’m not disappointed by the substitution,  the all girl version of The White Stripes sounds like a lot of fun on paper. Imagine Bette Midler belting out AC/DC tunes in the back of a sleazy dive bar off the Sunset Strip and you’re somewhere close to understanding their strange charm.

Deap Vally

Parquet Courts are the band that I’d been looking forward to most all weekend, they got great reviews at SXSW and I’ve enjoyed the little of them that I’ve heard on record to date.  The perfect modern New York art rock band, effortlessly blending Jonathan Richman, Sonic Youth and Big Black into a sound that’s uniquely their own. Their ability to take other band’s sounds, like their opening track sounding like Pavement doing the Fall, is one of the keys to their success. There is a level of familiarity mixed with enough individuality to make for a truly excellent show. It is also the best crowd reaction I saw all weekend, with frantic dancing, crowd surfing and a small stage invasion taking place during their frenetically paced set.

Parquet Courts

I’ve enjoyed lots of acts each day, and been lucky enough to see one truly great set towards the end of each night. But whereas Phosphorescent are an established band, one who I’ve seen over three years earlier, and Billy Bragg a true veteran it is Parquet Courts who are the best new act at a festival that is really all about new music.

This was Neon Filler’s third year covering the Great Escape and each year offers up something new and exciting. I look forward to another excellent festival next year and urge you to buy a ticket as soon as they go on sale.

Words and pictures by Dorian Rogers and Alex Reeve

Day two at the Great Escape is really all about one man, Billy Bragg and I could spend the who review talking about him and his excellent show. However, there was plenty of other great stuff to see through the day, so I’ll cover off some of that first and come back to the bard of Barking later.

Eamon McGrath

My first act, albeit a brief stop, is singer songwriter Eamon McGrath whose gravel voiced songs play to a Hub crowd that is noticeably smaller than day one. The downturn in the weather meaning that outdoor and seaside based venues are not quite as busy as the day before.

Cousins

My first planned stop of the day is at the Blind Tiger for another act in the Canadian showcase, this time Cousins from Nova Scotia. As always the venue is a hot ticket and I only just beat the queue to get inside the pub-venue sweatbox. Canadian acts in this venue have always been pretty reliable and Cousins don’t disappointing  They are another guitar and drums duo, this time with the classic girl drummer, boy guitarist line-up, but definitely not aping the White Stripes sound. The guitar sound is rough and the drums always one step away from falling apart, with some really nice extended repetition in the songs. Definitely an act I’ll check out on record when the festival is over.

Fletcher

Moving to the slightly odd Brighthelm Centre, a kind of mix between a church and a community centre, we decide to give Fletcher a go. The programme description of bands playing is often a little misleading, but in this case it seems that the organisers may have booked the wring act. Where we are promised a three piece new-age British rock band we actually get a rather earnest singer songwriter accompanied by a harp player. The tunes are very pretty and well played, but it is a much more low key experience than we were expecting.

Wandering into the Komedia we are greeted by the extreme contrast of Lady Chann startling a small crowd with some pretty full on dancehall stylings. Sadly she finishes minutes after we arrive and her compatriots, The Heatwave, start to treat the crowd to a reggae karaoke sing-a-long that is a lot less fun or interesting.

Popstrangers

Coalition seems to be the venue where slightly sullen acts are booked to play, yesterday Girls Names were the petulant schoolchildren and today Popstangers are the ones staring at their shoes. To be fair they don’t complain, and it is easy to mistake nervousness for lack of audience communication, but more effort is needed to win over a crowd. Better songs than played here would also be a bonus, nothing really catches fire during a middling set and it is a hook free half hour. There are some nice instrumental moments amongst their 90s slacker indie set, and enough interesting sounds to show some promise, but the band isn’t quite the real deal yet.

In Digital

On route to get some food we pop into Digital and catch a few tracks by the rap act performing to the smallest crowd we’ve seen at the festival so far. They are pretty good and put everything into their show, something that Popstrangers could learn a little bit from. In a festival dominated by white guitar players an act like this is going to struggle to get an early evening audience. I couldn’t tell you who they were as they don’t seem to match anything in the programme for the time slot.

Billy Bragg

Fed and watered we head for the main event, a true veteran of British music who is loved and loathed in equal measure for his straight talking and good old fashioned political songwriting. Although truth be told it is the many love songs that Billy Bragg pens that show his skills and, although there is plenty of politics between songs, make up the bulk of his set.

A mixture of old favourites, pop classics, new songs and Woody Guthrie numbers are all played beautifully by Billy and his band. The experienced performer that he is, he knows exactly how to command a crowd and there is hardly a moment that isn’t top quality in the time that he is on stage.

His band are excellence, and the pedal steel country style suits his back catalogue pretty well (his first dabbling with country music dating back 20 years). In the middle of the set he takes the stage alone and plays some old favourites to a partisan crowd. When he plays ‘The Milkmen of Human Kindness’ there is no need to ask the crowd to sing the chorus for him, they do it unprompted  and it is quite a touching moment.

It is the first time I’ve seen him play since one of my first festival attendances nearly a quarter if a century ago. Hearing him tonight I wonder why I’ve let myself miss out on some great performances in the intervening years.

Siblings

After a failed attempt to get in to The Warren to see Iggy Azalea (clearly one of the hottest tickets in town) we heard up to the Green Door Store where Siblings (an unscheduled act) are taking the stage. The appearance of a banjo makes me worry that we have another Mumford and sons on our hands, but an energetic performance gradually wins me over. The songs are pretty good and, if anything, Vampire Weekend are a more accurate reference point. All told it is a pleasant enough end to another enjoyable day.

Words and pictures by Dorian Rogers and Alex Reeve

The Great Escape got off to a literally bright start, with sunshine make a rare 2013 appearance. Good weather always brings out the best in people and the massed crowds in the many venues around town seemed in good spirits. I doubt that cheerful Canadians The Elwins need much brightening up though, their bouncy pop coming from a naturally happy place. It is always hard to get the audience participation going during an early afternoon gig, but in a packed Blind Tiger they made a pretty good fist of it.

The Elwins

Scottish singer Lauren St Jude, in a dark Dome Theatre, was a radical change in pace slowing things right down. Her voice was pitch perfect and the performance was good, but it was late night music and seemed better suited to a smaller venue.

In further stark contrast was rock trio Velvet Two Stripes playing to an overflowing Komedia basement, with a singer looking like a young bottle blonde Chrissey Hynde, with Joan Jett’s voice after chuffing down a bottle of Whisky and 200 fags. Like a Swiss take on The Kills’ drum machine-backed blues rock this trio of strutting rock vixens proved that Switzerland has more to offer the world than the cuckoo clock and a hideaway for Nazi gold.

Velvet Two Stripe

After a strong start the afternoon hit a bit of a lull with the underwhelming Young Husband playing to an overflowing Prince Albert. Their retro indie sound is nice enough but really fails to engage and this is the first set that we abandon to enjoy the sunshine.

Girls Names prove to be another disappointment, their surly performance failing to win me over to their surf guitar influenced sound. They seemed annoyed at having their set cut short, but surely giving the huge Coalition audience a good time for 20 minutes would have been a better approach? Thankfully the vocal mic was so quite that it was hard to hear the singers grumbles between songs, and the shorted set was a blessing in disguise.

Staying at the same venue it was up to Wolf Alice to show them how to do it. Engaging, cheerful, noisy and showing a mix of swagger and indie-pop hooks ready to reach a mass audience. They prove that enthusiasm and good tunes is the (not-so-secret) recipe to a good show and set us up nicely for the evening.

Drenge

The Corn Exchange can be a bit of a soulless venue, the sheer length of the room means that bands can get a little lost, but the NME stage there each year always presents some interesting acts to catch. Drenge are a guitar and drums duo, which is a line-up that will always see a band compared to The White Stripes. In practice if you play bluesy rock in this set-up it is going to have similarities, but Drenge have a style and sound that just about sets them apart from Jack and Meg. The set takes a while to get going, but for most of the performance it is very enjoyable, and the drumming is excellent. They make a poor choice of final tune, a turgid affair, which brings a promising performance to a rather flat conclusion.

Merchandise are up next, and one of the bands playing today with the most hype around them. A Smithsy single getting play on 6 Music suggests that they could be a big thing in the future. The performance tonight doesn’t rule that out, but it wasn’t to my tastes at all. Elements of Simple Minds and even Big Country show they know their 80s stadium pop, but it feels mannered and I don’t hear enough classic tunes. Maybe they’ll prove to the new Killers, another bland throwback act, but I’ll not be keeping an ear open.

Merchandise

Taking some time before the evening’s main event we manage to catch the end of two sets in the various Komedia venues. Boats, with a mountain man lead singer, are hard to categorise but seem like a lot of fun and I’m tempted to catch the whole of their Saturday performance. The Skints are also a welcome find, a band I enjoyed last year, and another act I may try and catch again today. Their skinny unassuming singer having one of the biggest and best voices of the festival so far.

Boats

Phosphorescent prove that they are one of the best live acts around, as well as having a catalogue of excellent songs to play. Tracks from their excellent last two albums, along with a a stunning version of Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson’s sobriety-yearning hit from 1983, Reasons to Quit, sound big and bold in the Dome Studio with electric piano and organ high in the instrumental mix. Matthew Houck’s mumbled vocals take a while to adjust to, but it is an assured headliners set and a closing version of Los Angeles is as wonderful as when I first heard it several years ago at End of the Road.

Phosphorescent

There are still many shows left to play when we head home, but with two full days and dozens more bands to see a good night’s rest is in order. This year’s festival is has more names that are unfamiliar to make than ever before, and as a result it is proving to be the most interesting Great Escape to date and I can’t wait to see what today has to offer.

Words and pictures Dorian Rogers and Alex Reeve

The Great Escape is a multi-venue music festival that takes part ion Brighton each year in May. Firmly established as one of the best events in the musical calendar it offers up the chance to see some of the 350 bands playing across the 30 venues involved.

Getting to see even a fraction of the artists you want to see is a challenge, as clashes and geography get in your way. Equally, with so many new and emerging artists on show it can be a challenge to work out who your should be trying to see. Below we feature ten of the many acts that we will be trying to catch across the festival weekend.

1. Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg played at the first music festival I ever attended, Reading in 1990, and is a stalwart of the festival circuit. Strangely, despite always being a fan of his music, I’ve not seen him live once in the intervening 23 years. He is always great value, a first rate live act, and has a great catalogue of songs at his disposal.

His set is one of the Dome shows (requiring a top-up on the standard ticket price) and I recommend taking in one of the three nights there if you can. BRIGHTON DOME FRI 17TH MAY 21.30.

2. Phosphorescent

This band, essentially the work of Matthew Houck, came to our attention through shows at the End of the Road festival and their album Here;s To Taking It Easy in 2010. The brilliant Muchacho earlier this year was equally impressive, and added some new sounds to the expansive country he had become famous for. This is very likely to be one of the most popular sets of the weekend, and my advice is to get there early on the night.

DOME STUDIO THU 16TH MAY 23.30

3. On and On

This trio, from Chicago and Minneapolis, are brand new to me, and although  Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing have played in various bands for more than a decade I first heard them via the Great Escape Spotify playlist. They have a dreamy washed out sound that could be pretty perfect for a midnight gig.

COALITION FRI 17TH MAY 0.00

4. Sweet Baboo

Sweety Baboo are (is?) a Marc Riley favourite which (Mumford and Sons excepted) is normally a good sign. Stephen Black plays songs that are funny and tender, and manages to be quirky in a good way (something hard to achieve). Flitting between folky and poppy he delivers a pretty varied song palette and promises a very enjoyable set.

GREEN DOOR STORE SAT 18TH MAY 22.00

5. Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Another act getting Radio 6 evening airplay is the eccentrically named Unknown Mortal Orchestra. UMO is the work of multi-instrumentalist Ruban Nielson and play a music that has been described as junk-shop break-beat and having an “ intoxicating, opiate groove”, neither of which seems to sum up how they sound at all well.

COALITION FRI 17TH MAY 22.15

6. Parquet Courts

New York punks Parquet Courts are one of the more hyped bands coming in to the Great Escape this year. Their second album, Light Up Gold, has received glowing press in their native land and has recently received a full UK release. Their shows at SXSW festival were some of the most talked about in the programme this year.  Their clash with Sweet Baboo gives us a scheduling problem before the festival even begins.

THE HAUNT SAT 18TH MAY 22.00

7. Three Trapped Tigers

Instrumental rock music can be a difficult thing to wholly buy into. The lack of lyrics can lead to a lack of emotional investment in the band. Three Trapped Tigers play an intense music that draws equally on electronic sounds as it does noise rock structures. Their Saturday evening slot making our list of early clashes even longer.

CONCORDE 2 SAT 18TH MAY 22.00

8. Drenge

Drenge (a name I’m not certain how to pronounce) are a young guitar and drums duo from the Peak District that play a stompy blues music that belies their age. Place them min your heads somewhere in between The White Stripes and The Bad Seeds and you’ll not go too far wrong. The band (like many acts) offer you two chances to see them over the weekend.

CORN EXCHANGE THU 16TH MAY 21.15
THE HOPE FRI 17TH MAY 22.15 

9. Girls Names

A four piece from Belfast, Girls Names have a sound that is more than a little bit influenced by the post-punk sounds of the early 80s. They have been favourably compared to The Cure and, with two albums under their belts (signed to the excellent Slumberland records in the US), they have started to develop their own sound.

COALITION THU 16TH MAY 19.30

10. Melody’s Echo Chamber

Melody’s Echo Chamber produce sweetly sung pop music that, in a very very rare moment of perceptive YouTube commenting, has been described as like a female version of Tame Impala. Whether this accurately sums things up is arguable, whatever the comparisons this is blissful softly psychedelic pop music.

CORN EXCHANGE THU 16TH MAY 23.15

 Preview by Dorian Rogers

Earthbound is a musical memoir and a hymn to London Underground’s Bakerloo Line. In it, Paul Morley uses the stops from Harrow & Wealdstone to Elephant & Castle to take us on his own musical journey from Can and Kraftwerk through to Mars Volta and Pantha du Prince.

This is Stockport lad Paul Morley of the punk era NME, rather than the talking head of TV list show fame. Morley is clever, but not a show-off. He’s an enthusiast, not a geek. He matches the thin brown line of the Bakerloo with the magnetic cassette tape revolution of the 70s (illustrated beautifully on the minimalist cover). Morley lends this tape added meaning, revealing that through a fluke of circumstance, he was one of the first tube travellers to get their hands on a Sony Walkman fresh from the Japanse factory.

This now-dated technology was totally unique on his commutes. The flat corduroy-coloured line was at the core of seemingly insanely modern machine, delivering private musical pleasures. Now of course, it is almost as rare to see a passenger without Apple-white ear phones on the ride from say Regent’s Park to Lambeth North.

Earthbound is an indie music flavoured essay of London’s unfashionably wooden tube line that takes in the NME offices close to Oxford Circus, the BBC studios and radiophonic workshop of Maida Vale, the suburbia of Finchley Road and Kilburn. Ironically, for all his praise of the Bakerloo, Morley can’t recall his first trip on the line (surprisingly I can: as another Stockport boy on a hot summer night circa 1981).

At a slim 137 pages, Earthbound is an accessible read for anyone with a love of the alternative music scene (or mass transit systems). The book terminates not with a slow rumble (as the Bakerloo does at Elephant) but with a breathless, three-page sentence, releasing the reader from the claustraphobia of the underground like a train spilling from the tunnel outside Queen’s Park.

Earthbound is part of the Penguin Lines collection, commemorating 150 years of the London Underground

by Rob Finch

See Also: Top Ten Books About Music

Our contributor Garry Todd has already dazzled us with his top tens of the golden age of folk and British psychedelia and has now turned his attention to this divisive genre. Sit back, pull up a Moog and settle down with us as we present Neonfiller’s Top Ten Krautrock Albums.

10. Tangerine Dream – Atem

Tangerine Dream had formed in West Berlin at the end of the 1960s. Arising from the gallery scene and art school they would soundscape happenings and multimedia events before putting out records. Atem was their fourth album and saw increasing use of synthesiser to augment mellotron, guitar, organ, piano and percussion.

Soon the synthesiser would dominate their sound, but on Atem it is still just one voice amongst many. It is no surprise that they would eventually move into soundtrack work as each track works on a programmatic basis as an imaginary soundtrack, small motifs arise within the overall soundscape, but mostly the tracks work as environments, places to escape to or from. Atem was John Peel’s album of the year in 1973 for good reason.

9. Ash Ra Tempel – Schwingungen

Coming out of the great power trio tradition of Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ash Ra Tempel were rooted in blues rock to a greater extent than most of their contemporaries. Opening the album with a slow blues shuffle on Light: Look at your sun,  you aren’t so far away in sound from Pink Floyd, but with the interstellar drift opening Darkness: Flowers must die this falls away and Ash Ra set sail for deep space. Drums kick in and additional percussion starts flailing as organ, guitar and bass lock together on a frantic groove.

Constant soloing by lead guitar rises and falls in the mix, saxophone bursts in whilst flanging and phasing effects drop in and out. All the while vocalist John L gets more frenzied, screaming of his disconnection from the universe and alienation. It’s clear that something has shaken free at the fade possibly John L’s mind. Side two opens with quiet drifting exploration, slide guitar, organ, piano, cymbals shimmer, there is no melody, it all about timbre. Slowly drums pick up in the mix and then drop out again, before a melody is brought in on wah-wah guitar with choral keening, and although it sounds a lot like the quieter moments of Pink Floyd’s Come in Number 51, your time is up on the Zabriskie Point soundtrack, this is no bad thing.

8. Harmonia – Deluxe

Michael Rother from Neu! had formed Harmonia with Cluster when Neu! first split in 1973. Their first album had been a perfect union of the both talents and Rother went on to produce Zuckerzeit for Cluster and then reform Neu! for Neu! 75.

Although lacking the bile of the Dinger tracks on Neu! 75 a great deal of the energy and sound of those tracks continues on Deluxe. Rhythm, repetition and gliding guitar lines combine with synth arpeggios to streamlined driving effect. Insanely catchy riffs and chants on Monza ( Rauf und Runter) will have you singing along and pogoing in short order.

7. Amon Düül II – Yeti

The muso-splinter group from the original Amon Düül commune were serious about rocking out in acid fried splendour on their second album, a double which gave them room to sprawl. One of the great psychedelic albums from gatefold sleeve to vinyl grooves. Fuzz bass, pummelling drums, twin electric guitars, keyboards, violin and soaring vocals throughout render maximum sensory assault.

The first album is studio based with a big influence coming from Frank Zappa, the second album is live and taken up with a monster jam with a large degree of improvisation. Taken as a whole it rocks hard.

6. Kraftwerk – Kraftwerk

The first Kraftwerk album was a much a product of producer Conny Plank and his studio skills as the compositional chops of Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider. Building on organ, flute, bass and drums, Plank takes the mantric music and subjects it to various layers of distortion and studio processing stirring in sound effects and tapes. This is heard most clearly on second track Stratovarius which starts as a long keyboard drone manipulated with reverb, phasing and stereo panning until it hits a tape sequence of what sounds like ancient wooden machinery which leads to footsteps, then a drum kit falling down stairs and then a magnificent groove with a violin the source of magnificent feedback arcing over bass, drums, keyboards and guitar.

The tempo builds furiously up to a literal breakdown, everything stops and then slowly piece by piece it builds again until collapse leaves a plaintive violin line and sine wave synth. But that still isn’t the end. Playing in counterpoint they set the scene for a return of drums and fuzz guitar in a manic steadily intensifying riff until it just stops cold.

Currently Kraftwerk’s first three albums are not legitimately available for sale and have been out of print for over thirty years, a baffling state of affairs considering how exceptional and vibrant this music is.

5. Popul Vuh – In den Gärten Pharaos

Popul Vuh virtually invented all the tropes of ambient music with this album. It opens with the sound of flowing water, a Moog line floats over, a simple heartbeat rhythm appears briefly and drops out, the synth takes over and it sounds like we’ve entered a cavern. Congas start and we are on a journey to find the sun. Eventually we emerge from the cavern into the garden, lush electric Rhodes Piano lines shimmer in the heat haze, conga rhythms roll and at the end you’re back in the water hearing gentle waves lapping at the shore.

The second side commences with a magnificent deep organ chord which cycles through a descending sequence. Synthesised choral chords appear above that and occasional cymbal percussion rolls over like thunder and it builds and builds and builds, until drums roll in.

4. Cluster – Zuckerzeit

Cluster had previously been exponents of severe experimental synth noise, extremely spacy, occasionally atonal, no percussion. With Zuckerzeit they went pop applying techniques developed on previous albums to drum machine rhythm tracks, inventing a clunky kind of electro ten years early. Throughout the album simple rhythm tracks underpin synth arpeggios which twist turn and morph in counterpoint to each other, giving an overall sensation of relentless forward motion. The perfect soundtrack to a nightdrive through Babylon.

3. Neu – Neu 75

Neu had effectively broken up in 1973 following the troubled recording sessions for their second album. Michael Rother, the guitarist, and Klaus Dinger, the drummer, were at odds over the direction of the band. Rother tended towards trippy ambience, whereas Dinger was intent on rocking out. Having got back together to fulfil a contractual obligation to make a third album Neu proceeded to make an album of two very different halves.

The first side is Rother for the most part making ambient music, pretty and blissed out, the second side is Dinger and he is really pissed off, inventing something like punk as a by product. This contrast was always there on the other records, just not usually so blatant. Whatever the internal dynamics both sides are to be treasured, side one for beauty, side two for snarl.

2. Faust – The Faust Tapes

Fragments of songs collaged into a glorious rag bag of dislocated psychedelic noise. The Faust Tapes was an interim release put out when Faust signed to the fledgling Virgin Records in 1973. It sold at a special price of 48p, the price of a single at the time, and shifted 100,000 copies before it was deleted. Due to its collage structure and general unfinished nature it confounded and confused a goodly proportion of those who bought it at the time, but was probably responsible more than any other release at the time in bringing avant-garde techniques and tropes to a wider audience.

It is often weird but most episodes of drone or noise are quickly cross cut to melodies, then pure rhythm, back to drone, then more melody, into fake jazz, usually ending with sweet chanson – all the while being subjected to various studio treatments, echo, reverb, and filtering in an effort to further stretch out the soundscape. Not an album for fans of the well-crafted song.

1. Can – Tago Mago

Can had already blazed a new path for West German psych fans with their first two albums, tracks like ‘Yoo Doo Right’ and ‘Mother Sky’ long hypnotic mantras of awesome buzzing repetition. Tago Mago had to be a double to take on the sheer invention of the music pouring out of the band at this point.

A double album but with only seven tracks, two side long epics, only one song under six minutes. The album is essentially patterned after an acid trip, side one the preliminary scene setting, side two coming up, side three and start of side four you’ve been up a little too long and wandering if you’ll ever feel normal again when the last track comes on and it’s dawn, the trip is over and you are on the other side asking for warm beverages.

by Garry Todd.

Editor’s note: I was a little uneasy at first about referring to this collection as a top ten of Krautrock. Kraut is a particularly unpleasant term for something or someone from Germany dating back to the first world war. We are more than happy to change though if anyone is offended. JL

We appear to be in the midst of a bit of a golden age for music documentary, with films about interesting and surprising subjects coming out or being announced with increasing regularity. The reduced cost of making films in the digital age and the new crowd sourced methods of getting funding make creating a film about a relatively obscure artist achievable without the need for cinema showings or guaranteed DVD sales to support the endeavor.

Last year was a good year for the music documentary at both ends of the success and attention spectrum. At the top end was the Oscar winning ‘Searching For Sugarman’ which took an artists that was both obscure and hugely famous (depending on where you live) and coupled it with a fascinating story to great effect. Also notable was the epic homage to George Harrison, ‘Living In The Material World’, that was perhaps too comprehensive but was certainly a labour of love for Martin Scorsese.

TV has been another good source with BBC4 and Sky Arts leading the way in showing interesting and well produced documentary films on a wide range of artists. Sky Arts tends to show archive films but the BBC have made and shown excellent films on the likes of Squeeze, The Kinks and a surprisingly in-depth look at the work of Chas and Dave. They also have a film about David Bowie in the pipeline which features world renowned Bowieologist Nicholas Pegg in a consultant role.

Lawrence of Belgravia

Last year saw two of British music’s greatest curmudgeons celebrated in film, Felt/Denim/Go-Kart Mozart main-man Laurence and former Auteur Luke Haines.

‘Laurence of Belgravia’ was perhaps the better film and showed Laurence as an increasingly delusional figure, clinging on to concepts of stardom that  would never come, although it is all wrapped up in a self-perpetuated myth by the artist himself. (You can watch a trailer for the film here).

‘Art Will Save The World’ shows Luke Haines as a figure who is increasingly affable and comfortable with his place in modern music. At odds with his (again self-perpetuated) image as the most evil man in Brit-pop it sees him moving towards becoming something of a national treasure. It is perhaps best viewed as a companion piece to his excellent memoir, ‘Bad Vibes’. (You can watch a trailer for the film here).

Pitchfork has also entered the music documentary arena  and done some sterling work as part of their Pitchfork Classic series of films. These films are similar in concept to the 331/3 series of books focusing on a single album by the band in question whilst offering up some biographical details about them. These films to date have been of a very high quality and managed to get all the principle players interviewed for the films and included some excellent archive footage. Best of all is the recent film about Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister, and managed to make a brilliant record seem even better. (You can watch the whole of the film on the Pitchfork TV site here).

The Sad and Beautiful world of Sparklehorse

Below I preview four films scheduled for release, or in development, most of which have been made possible by crowd funding (the pros and cons of which I will not discuss here, although it is much debated).

‘The Sad and Beautiful World of Sparklehorse’ is a film about the music of the late Mark Linkous, one of my favourite recording artists. The UK interview filming has been completed and the producers are currently trying to raise funds for interviews in the US and Europe on this crowd-funding website. I have mixed hopes for this film based on the interviews captured to date, with some like-minded musicians such as Jonathan Donahue and Ed Harcourt included as talking heads. More worrying is the appearance of TVs Matthew Wright in the film, he may be a big fan but this doesn’t add credibility.  Hopefully the remaining interviews will include collaborators like David Lowery, Dangermouse and PJ Harvey and the archive footage could be what lifts this film.

‘Song Dynasties’ has already managed to get full funding through Kickstarter and looks set to bring out the story of Kevin Barne’s Of Montreal on DVD later this year. The film has been put together from hundreds of hours of footage from throughout the band’s career and has been 16 years in the making. If it is anything like as entertaining as Of Montreal are live on stage then it will be captivating viewing. (You can read more about the project and watch a trailer for the film here).

In February we posted a review of a little-known (in this country at least) album by the South African punk band National Wake.  We now have an opportunity to find out more about the African punk scene thanks to the forthcoming release of ‘Punk In Africa’, a film made by Deon Maas and Keith Jones in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Kenya. (No UK showings of the film are currently scheduled but more details about the film and some footage can be found here).

Best of all is ‘Are We Not Men?’, a film about Devo. And  if you watch the trailer (above) you’ll see what an exciting film it looks to be. Devo were colourful, subversive, different and had some ideology to support the ideas in their songs. The perfect subject for a documentary film and one that should appeal to those unfamiliar with the band as well as their fans. The film was made possible by a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $70,000 and is scheduled for a release in August this year.

If you have any favourite music documentary films, or know of any interesting projects in production, please post a comment below.

By Dorian Rogers

For our latest feature and competition we’ve linked up with author Martine McDonagh, who has just released her second novel After Phoenix.

To mark the release Martine, whose debut novel I Have Waited And You Have Come really impressed us, has handed us a copy of After Phoenix to give away. For more details of how to win the book visit our competitions page here.

Martine, who has also worked for many years in artist management looking after the likes of James and Fujiya & Miyagi, has also supplied us with her favourite tracks from the 1973-74 era the book is set in. For more information about the book and Martine click here.

So sit back, tuck into an Angel Delight and enjoy Martine McDonagh’s top tracks from 1973-1974.

10. Barry White – Never Never Gonna Give You Up

9. Mott the Hoople – Roll Away the Stone

8. David Essex – Lamplight

7. David Bowie – Sorrow

6. Stevie Wonder – He’s Misstra Know-it-all

5. The Hollies – The Air that I Breathe

4. Queen – Seven Seas of Rhye

3. Suzi Quatro – Devil Gate Drive

2. Roxy Music – Street Life

1. David Bowie – Rock n Roll Suicide