The Aural Delights Radio Show for December 8th 2010 included my top 15 artists of the year in respect of singles, ep’s or demo’s that had come my way. It’s unfortunate that I had to leave quite a lot out due to the wealth of good material and I should mention demos from Corinne Crabtree, and Deadly Brotherhood of the Gun, plus The Black Knights – Parade of the Piranhas, the Kingfishers Catch Fire Demo, and Charlie Barnes brilliant “No Offenkk” EP’s especially as I would have liked to included music from all of them. I might be able to remedy that omission in one of the future shows – but i’m not giving anything away.
So – who were the top fifteen? – first thing to say is that whilst these are ranked – with the exception of the number one spot which won by a country mile – the other fourteen are all equally as good as one another. Right then, enough waffling from me lets get on with it……
15. Borland – released three great EPs called “The Universe Trilogy” – I picked “Fox” from Supernova Lovers as its one of their shorter tracks and it meant I could get more into the show.
14. Danny Short – Dan has had a busy year and has released two great EPs – the first Collected Times 2 was released on Invisiblegirl, and I selected “Make Me Happy” from that. And given the man’s productivity I thought i’d include a track from his latest EP Celebrate the Day which you can get from Bandcamp, and from that I chose the infections Mr It which I think got its first ever radio play on this show.
13. The Hidden Gem – did two great sessions for me during the year and produced an excellent demo EP at Ding’s 6dB studio in Salford. The chosen track is the excellent “Flick of a Switch” a track is memorable live.
12. Pearl Divers – the Divers have had a busy year and took a sharp change of direction about half-way through with a number of line-up changes. The latest set of demos I got from the band will hopefully form their debut EP – Rebirth – I picked the great new track “You Gotta Do It”. They are currently recruiting a new drummer and it’s be hoped that they will be gigging again soon.
11. The Happen Fallen – until recently this new bands output has been created at home by the brains behind the outfit Neale James. Neale has recruited some other musicians and the group will be playing live on 21st December at Night and Day. I chose the excellent “Three Forty Seven” from the debut demo EP which you can get from Reverbnation/Facebook.
10. The Chanteuse and the Crippled Claw – I’ve waxed lyrical about the new single from Adrian Flanagan’s partnership with Candie Payne elsewhere on this blog. Let’s just say “Are You One” is a great piece of pop and deserves the widest possible listen.
9. The Hide EP from Mr Heart blew me away when I first heard it and my admiration for it has not diminished since – the launch party for the EP is at Gulliver’s Manchester on 16th December. I picked “Boredom;s Device” as I am rather fond of Tamsin’s octave leap at the end.
8. The Dark Reverend Gary Hope of The Black Knights has a good ear for the type of music I like and he pointed me in the direction of Para Zali a week ago. I’m glad he did. Their second EP The Kindest of Thieves is fabulous. Pure sleazy erotic blues and free from Bandcamp. I picked the title track as I felt it was a good showcase from their talents.
7. AAAK have already done well in these shows and I’ve know doubt they will be featuring again. Ding has been sending me new tracks as they developed and this latest one “Everything’s Real” is a belter with more than a little Jamaican influence making it’s way into their Buildingscape Beats.
6. I’ve been an advocate for Darwen’s Monster Island for a lot of the year. I find them to be amazingly refreshing with a clear mission and mandate to play what the hell they like in the way they want to. Their latest ep The Green Room is simply marvellous and I’ve chosen the lyrically superb “Looking for a Leader”.
5. Facebook travellers will be aware of the very productive Periscope who has been sharing his work in progress with us all year. One of the latest demos “It’s just too high” is one of his best so far.
4. Macclesfield’s The Ascension are a great band and it was a pleasure to receive their latest EP recently – reviewed elsewhere on this blog. “For the Guilty” is an excellent track. They support Mr Heart at the aforementioned gig.
3. Kin have been magnificent all year and the recent sampler for their debut album is stunning. ”Reptile” finds the band at their inventive best marrying intelligent electronica with powerful post-punk-jazz sounds.
2. Well Wisher are developing a great reputation – their debut EP was packed with great tunes which appear to be able to match post-rock chops with wacky para-pop madness. The originally titled “How to grow a chin” now appears to be called “Tops Off”
and the EP of the year is…….
1. The Unobtainable by Fall Fan Dave and the Lap Top Dancers. A request by my chum Stephen Doyleto Dave Bromwich to cover a Freshies song resulted in this memorable four track release – you can getit from Bandcamp – which includes the exceptional “I can’t get the C Side so I’m going to the seaside”.
….next week “Gig of the Year”
listen again here….
Aural Delights 