After a run of Christmas “chart” shows, some catching-up and last weeks Beefheart tribute, I realised that I had been neglecting the recommendations of my good friend Farley – erstwhile randonneur and campanologist – who forwards me regular recommendations from his record collection to play on the show. I’ve also been deluged with lots of new music during January from both unsigned and signed bands so i’ve been trying to pick out tracks that would fit well together aurally in the show. I have to thank Tony Thornborough, Stephen Doyle, Monty, Stu Currie, Eddy Mann and Ian Rothwell – fellow DJs at Salford City Radio fior playing the tunes I do not have time to play. Thanks also to Eddie and Gemma Legge for giving Tony the time to play unsigned acts on thier show on Friday afternoons. As an instance I got a new single from Spencer Cloud and the Range Brothers the other week which for reasons which are to complicated to go into I could not fit into my show so the wonderful chaps at the Nine O’Clock Alliance at SCR have been playing it. And very good it is to! It’s called “Hypnotise” and shows a rawer side of the band’s work – pure rock and roll! I’ll be playing that in a couple of weeks.
Anyway I digress – lets talk about this weeks show. I kick off with a couple of local unsigned bands in Guile and Skankadelia. I’ve been blown away by the quality and variety of material that has been zapped into my in-box via the ethernet in the last four weeks and the two opening tracks exemplify that perfectly. On the show I mistakenly describe Guile as local. They are in fact from Cannock, which is some miles away from Greater Mancunia, but given they’ve played FAC251 in town then I guess we can display some degree of local affiliation. You can read more about them on thier My Space page.
However I can confirm that Skankadelia are “local” in that they all went to Salford University – although like Guile there is a Midlands link to Leicester. The band are getting a bit of a reputation around our radio station and our boss Roland Gent is aiming to get them in for an interview. I am rather fond of their wonderfully upbeat music. Again you can check them our on My Space.
I decided to fit four Farley fumbles into the show – both in order to catch up but also because I felt his next four selections in the pile fitted together well sonically. I’d played “How he wrote Elastica Man” before some time ago. It’s by Elastica featuring Mark E.Smith and friend of the show Julia Adamson, played a big part in the tunes construction. After that another ex-Fall man features in his band Marc Riley and the Creepers.
Next up is Rose Kemp from her new album “The Golden Shroud” which is reviewed elsewhere on this blog. Her marriage of folk and metal is pretty unique and deserves wider attention. The new album from Disappears got a bit of a grumpy review in a recent edition of the Wire but I think it’s rather good as exemplified by the title track. Another local artist is multi-instrumentalst James Hill who goes under the name of Bikini Test Failure. His second album “Fleecing the easily pleased” is reviewed elsewhere on this blog and opening track “Yes we are having a good time now” is a stunner.
Back to Farley for two more tracks – first up the brainchild of singer/guitarist Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal was one of the second wave of bands to emerge from the sprawling Elephant 6 collective. The band’s proclivity for lengthy track and album titles is clearly evidenced by this selection. The final Farley for this show is the eclectic Penguin Cafe Orchestra from the “Year of the Dog” soundtrack.
At the request of Stephen Doyle my fellow DJ at Salford City Radio i’ve dipped into my extensive King Crimson collection and selected a classic piece of prog rock from the band’s first album. The impressive playing of this band and the stylistic changes from prog to rock to jazz is stunning.
A couple of unsigned bands forwarded tracks recently. Warrington’s Bill Davro have a fresh new sound and more details of the band can be checked out here. And to prove Salford City Radio is getting an international reputation for playing new music Norwegians John Snow submitted some tracks recently – more details about them here.
To finish the show something via my chum The Great Gibbo who pointed out that the new Steve Wynn album was rather good. He has a new band called The Miracle 3 and the album “Northern Agression” is his best release in a while.
Listen to the show by clicking on the link below.
Aural Delights 