Outsideleft Week in Music Down. By the Sea.

Right from the opening beat, Quantic conjures up musical magic throughout the full 5 minutes of bliss that make up Theme From Selva. It's always a pleasure to listen over a soundscape from Quantic, who doesn't so much arrange a piace as much as he blends musical textures into  the comfiest of clouds to float away on.

"War in di east an' a war in di west
War in di north an' a war in di south"
Sounds about right, sadly. You already know the rest.

Aside from having a great name for a band, Fat Dog do so many things right. TowwerBlock 1 is Jimmy Caulty, he of the KLF/The Orb.  As you'd expect, he does a bang up job of re-mixing this, with a children’s choir and dog barks from the original, adding a jungle beat, police sirens and a sample referencing Elvis.  Anarchic and..yes..Fun!

The Desperate Bicycles weren't musicians, had no experience of recording studios, making records or running a record label. Or indeed any other business. But that didn't stop them pioneering the whole punk DIY  ethos. This their second single sees them railing with riotous abandon against the dismal music filling the airwaves, and rallying others to "go and join a band" and do the same  - - "It was easy, it was cheap, go and do it!". Thankfully very many did. It also needs noting that the second track 'Don't Back the Front', was a call for people not to support the "National Front" -- then the most prominent - and violent, right wing political party in the UK. Times may change, and names may be "reformed". But sadly almost 50 years on that's a message that still needs repeating.

Calibro 35 are "a legend" in Italy where they are known for film soundtracks and funk workouts which have been sampled by some better known rap and hip hop artistes. Unlike the band itself,  'Jazz Carnival' will sound very familiar. The original was released by Brazillian funk outfit Azymuth in 1980 and as a time honoured floor filler is still a staple at events where dancing is expected. What have Calibro added to the tune? A heavier beat and squelchier synth parts but not a lot else, is the answer. On the offchance it gets elevated to the soundtrack of the coming summer you can say you encountered it here first. 

Something like a Crack Cloud vibe, with added South London jazz chords. As with Crack Cloud, they make more sense with visuals. Without, it’s a kind of tidy, smart, art rock band with heckling vocals which aren’t improved by the autotune. I must check ‘em live where I think they would put on a jolly good show.

A female duo, Beefcake are drifting, angelic vocals, dreampop with a dark edge. The electronics which shimmer through the opening track, Lapinou, with its quieter mid-section are the highlight, introspective and attention grabbing. The rest of the EP tends to drift by, a hazy noise against a background aesthetic focused on surrealism and the natural world. The videos are dreamlike and disturbing, presenting singer Dora as a kind of demented fairy, all mis-matched contact lenses and pink kawaii. The whole world they create is fascinating, while the music itself may not make much impact, yet, I love the cultural referencing and world building. One to watch.

British pianist-composer Sam Beste has recorded and played with a long list of names too "A" rated to warrant mentioning here, and composed the odd film score. The Vernon Spring is a solo venture which, he explains, blends everything from hip hop through jazz, ambient and field recordings with unused bits of music from his extensive musical past. It certainly sounds that way. The noodly piano which dominates drifts from jazzy to classical, to vaguely hymn like via the aforementioned samples/found sounds. All spiced up with some dubby studio twiddling. If not for the (occasionally annoying) vocal interludes UaFS could be described as 'ambient',  'inoffensive' even. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se. But when professional sidemen / composers-for-hire venture out on their own it's not unreasonable to expect something a little more unrestrained and experimental, as opposed to "an intimate exploration of domesticity", which is what Beste (married, three kids, lives in Brighton), describes this outing as. In short: lacks an edge. 

Knox Chandler is one of those multi-talented types. Musician, Producer, Arranger, Teacher, and in his latter days, Painter, he has done stints in the later stage Banshees (before they called it a day), Cyndi Lauper's band, and, notably, The Psychedelic Furs. He has also worked with acts such as REM, Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Natalie Merchant, Tricky, The Creatures, Dave Gahan Paper Monsters and The Golden Palominos  as a Producer/Arranger. So you could say he knows his way around a studio. Entirely instrumental, The Sound is built around Chandler's cinematic style of guitar, accompanied by upright bass and percussion. There is a book of paintings, photographs, sketches and written meditations also. Musically, I would describe this as jazzy New Age improvisations of the type you will find auto-generated all over the web. That means that The Sound relies on his past reputation to generate interest and sales, although any Banshees or Psychedelic Furs fans out there are likely to be disappointed as this is bland and underwhelming.  Knox is an interesting and sincere chap though, with quite a history.  That must count for something.

'The Mother Tree' is a 5-track album featuring David J of Love and Rockets/Bauhaus fame reciting poetry about his mum to the accompaniment of piano tinkling.  He says it is "showcasing his multidimensional musical artistry" but it is in fact every bit as pretentious as it sounds. If you are a sucker for punishment, there is a book 'Rhapsody, Threnody and Prayer' full of his poetry written over several decades on life, love, loss, and tributes to dead rock stars (like we really need any more tributes) including Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley, Jack Kerouac and Mark Linkous. I won't be reading that.  The current trend for atmospheric New Age-y albums by musical 'icons', accompanied by a book of bad art/poetry continues unabated.  This is the second one this week.

This album is a sum of its parts, which may sound like a dig, but each part is a translucent crystal that rings with human frailty and resilience, and they all fit to create a seamless whole so pure you dare not look directly at it. There's a film that accompanies it for that reason.

Those of you in the know will recognise the name Steve Von Till from his band Neurosis, who are an altogether noisier prospect.  Von Till's solo work is what he describes as "quiet music" and has drawn comparisons with Nick Cave and, bizarrely, P J Harvey!  I can see the Cave comparison, as anyone producing blues-y reflective and atmospheric music like this tends to get daubed with the Cave brush, but that's a lazy and unfair comparison.  Von Till's work may be downbeat but it is less bombastic than Cave's and more introverted.  As you can tell from the title, 'Alone In A World of Wounds' takes a rather pessimistic view of our future.  Thematically, it centres on our place in nature and the current disconnect with that.  There is a strong ecological theme here and a concern for where we are heading.  Von Till has plenty to say on that and we will be running an interview soon where I sit down and dig deeper into that with him. "I often wonder where the psychological break was that caused the fatal delusion that we have dominance over the natural world" muses Von Till in his Press release.  I think that The Bible and other religious texts may have had a big part to play in that, along with our Adam Smith modelled economic system that values profit above all else.  As we trundle merrily and obliviously towards the ecological buffers that will spell our necessary extinction, artists like Von Till can only look on impotently and comment in their songs.  Music is powerless to stop this from happening, but the soundtrack to our End of Days may very well sound like this.

The latest delve into the mighty Fall's extensive live archive, curated by the most prominent of "the fallen" isn't out until next month. Our pre release copy was so good though, we couldn't resist giving it a heads up. Nine songs which appeared on four of the band's first five singlesappear in warts-n-all live versions  - some radically different from the studio recordings. None of the nine have yet  appeared on youtube, so below is a different live version of Fiery Jack as a hint at what's to come. Full review to follow. 

Koburg is a strange one.  A one woman generator of metal power ballads, of the sort The Warning churn out effortlessly, yet at the same time seeking Goth Metal credentials and regularly posting pouting images of herself in her underwear, I really have no idea what she is aiming for here.  I wouldn't mind betting her audience are largely men in faded band T shirts, though. This is a collection of remixed tracks from the past five years, many of which end up sounding much the same after a while. She appears earnest and desperate to please, if not quite as desperate as a TikTok influencer. She is a product of our times, existing as an Instagram post as much as anything and looking as botox'd and plastic faced as any of the girls you will see tottering around your town centre on a Friday night, and yet aspiring to be much more. She says of Twisted Fairytales "It’s a world where beauty and sorrow intertwine, where symphonic grandeur meets metal’s raw power. These songs are spells" and I believe her.  She has put everything into this. Too much in a way.  The tracks on this veer from Industrial Goth, to metal riffing, to power ballads.  Tracks like 'Requiem' and 'The Ego Has Landed' in another world would be on heavy rotation, but this isn't the 80s, 90s or even the 2000's any more.  Koburg is a fish out of time and she knows it.

Ivorian artist Jess Sah Bi’s Jesus Christ Ne Déçoit Pas is a warm, joyful blend of folk, reggae, country, and gospel sounds. From gentle guitar ballads to danceable grooves and dreamy harmonies, the album feels like a soundtrack to a peaceful summer day. Even without understanding the lyrics, the emotion and devotion are clear. The album’s title, translating to “Jesus Christ Does Not Disappoint,” underscores its nature as a praise and worship record. A beautiful and uplifting listening experience—highly recommended.

JACKDAW WHORE lives among us: 
a figure of influence in my community.
A place where, once, stray cats roamed: 
mystical visitors, delegates of dee-lite.

Then, almost overnight, 
Jackdaw swooped
—and the cats vanished.

Another decree from the Voyeurs above? 
We Walkers miss them.
We dream of their return.

Now come the rats. Well—of course.
Remove the cats, and rats, crows, cockroaches
start getting ideas above their station.

Should we summon magic? Maybe.
But would Cats want to return to this Land of Death—
riddled with Guards, their petted, leashed dogs,
All living lives under cheerful surveillance?

Better the Cats miaow in freedom elsewhere.
Let them stay far
from places ruled
by the likes of
WHORE JACKDAW.

The influence of Iggy Pop and Jim Morrison ran deep through Japan’s underground scene of the late ’70s into the ’80s. And in 1981, The Stalin—fronted by fiery Michiro Endo—covered Light My Fire with raw power. Endo apparently chose the band’s name for its shock value and the discomfort it provoked. Prior to this, he travelled throughout Southeast Asia. By the 80s, he was startling audiences and triggering some to do something unexpected with their lives. 

You're insignificant, a small piece, an ism, no more no less. Words to try to live up to.  oH! Martina an all time great.

Tell me a tale of the thrill of the wrong choice. Paint that picture against a backdrop of electro swing that leaves your soul dripping out through the shivers that race down your spine and you've hit the perfection that was The Correspondents fear and delight. Sounds like this will never come again, so revisit at your leisure and just try sitting still.

If you've ever found yourself wandering through forgotten places, there's a uniquely liminal quality to them.  That odd beauty of near dereliction, boarded up windows and fading placards from developers who're just waiting for the money to land before they erase the past and transform a place into something sought after by those with wealth and privilege enough to own a part of the future, whilst being misty eyed about a past they never had to know. With 'Overspill Estates', the Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan (WRNTDP) captures in sound that stillness, the echoing of nothingness were once there was life replaced with the fading memories of all that came before, whilst moving onward, always toward an unseen future. This is retro-futurism at it's finest, a collection of tracks that sonically soothe you in ways, this once, I'll leave you to discover

This is one of those fine moments of astonishing fan produced, fan assembled found video. (Names only withdrawn because of fear of applicable copyright laws). Wow! This is like a darn major cut up movie.  Whoever you are, fan video maker, come back, AC obviously needs you. We all need you. Oh don't forget to see Ancient Champion at the OL Night Out on Saturday [more info here].

We have written a bit in the recent past about cassette culture and there are a bunch of websites, blogs, podcasts, and zines dedicated to them, covering both the history of cassette culture and the evolving modern cassette underground scene.  This is one of the best, with cool comic style graphics.  Hosted by Martin Frankin, an ex-pat Brit now residing in Australia, and taking its name from Jerry Kranitz's book, this contains a series of interviews and 'unboxing' podcasts, featuring various underground cassette scene icons.  They promise to get into producing cassette themselves soon too. More info here

For years, kids waited with bated breath—at five to five—for Crackerjack. Ed Stewart, Michael Aspel, and Stu Francis played a big part in many of our childhoods. Of course, it wasn’t all fun, but there were often surprises. And I got one today—I had no idea that Slade performed on the show. Fits in well with the great review of Slade in Flame on this site. A very McCartney-esque Noddy Holder here!