Ólafur Arnalds - Eulogy for Evolution
FaltyDL / Be My Baby [2026]
3 days ago
on Thursday, 25 October 2007
It only seems like yesterday when i found myself slowly picking up my own musical identity, straying away from what amazingly when i was at school where thought of as unknown, weird bands, bands like Kenickie, Hefner, Sparklehorse and even to some extent The Smashing Pumpkins. Distributors such as Norman Records and Gayle Brogans Boa Melody Bar opened me up to a whole new world of underground music, the latter especially, it was here i believe that i heard of the excellent and now quite possibly my favourite band the Aislers Set a band so wonderful its hard to put into words how they make me feel. Fuzzy guitars, fairground keys, festive twinkles, handclaps and ba-ba-bas to die for. Songs that make you want to unashamedly dance in that way that long fringed indie pop boys do, songs to sing your heart out to, songs to drive to and songs you will never tire of. 
Lately I’ve been going through a bit of a revival, particularly enjoying what i had felt was a disappointing third album, How I Learned to Write Backwards, a more sombre affair than the classic and possibly along with Amy Linton’s former bands, Henry's Dress sole album Bust ‘Em Green, favourite album in my collection, The Last Match, two albums that are currently racing up my Last FM charts. I hadn't really appreciated what a great album it was, how different it was and that really i shouldn't have been expecting another Last
Match, instead a more sombre affair, a tired album, one full of melancholy, the downer than almost always any prolonged period of happiness. This is the Aislers Set come down album. Unfinished Paintings is barely there, all drowned in reverb and delicate strokes of guitar, sparingly picked, not too dissimilar to the route Dear Nora took following her early upbeat EPs. Was Either Easier likewise is bare in sound compared to The Last Matches garage band racket, the vocals sublime, the bass taking the lead for the first time and doing a fine job off it, complimenting the horns quite beautifully. 
Catherine Says, Action Attraction Reaction, Languor in the Balcony and Mission Bells are more classic girl group yet again minimal in depth, but deep in reverb. These are lovely songs that given chance will become something special to you, only not in the same way that The Way to Market Station, Been Hiding, Balloon Song, The Red Door and We Give Up Did. This is the sound of the Aislers Set after they've been in love, after they've had their hearts broken, an all the more cynical Aislers but an utterly lovable Aislers all the same.
I often wish that the Aislers Set would grace us with another album and yet at the same time the three that they've given us are a little more than special. I'd hate them to come up with something half hearted, go fall in love!
on Sunday, 14 October 2007
Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love (Rough Trade)Following much in the footsteps of what is already one of my favourite releases of this year, The Finches "Human Like A House" comes Lavender Diamond with what i believe is their debut album, Imagine our love, a collection of honey sweet country pop
songs that stay just the right side of pop, instead of veering off into full on country. The vocals are a joy, taking on the almost yodled chorus of the very country Garden Rose, like Joanna Newsoms This Side of the Blue played at 10rpm, as glorious as you'd imagine. "i love how the garden grows/ and i love love the garden rose" soaring over sweeping violins and occasionally over excitable pianos. Open Your Heart is the albums obvious pop songs, pianos bashing out and hooks so instantly loveable you'd swear this was 
the work of the New Pornographers, the almost wordless chorus of "oh, oh oh" 's will instantly store itself in your subconscious mind, popping out at every possible opportunity.Here Comes One carries the same instantaneous hooks, immediate and direct, near perfect pop. Side of the Lord and My Shadow is A Monday similarly are worthy of mention with their lovely Carpenters pop
feel.A worthy contender to the New Pornographers, Neko Case and Rilo Kiley.
MySpace
Lavender Diamond - Open Your Heart MP3
Lavender Diamond - Oh No MP3
Lavender Diamond - You Broke My Heart MP3
Charalambides - Likeness (Kranky)I first stumbled over the Charalambides in the late summer of 2002 care of an article in what i can only assume no longer printed Ptolemaic Terrascope, an amazing magazine, all psychadelic in appearance and in tiny print, so keen was it to stack as much information about all these amazing bands it knew of. In fact sitting here with the one copy that I had chance to get hold of, it is little more than a fanzine with a colour cover, much like the also missed Bees Knees, yet all the better for its simple appearance.
They described them Charalambides, pronounced Shar-a-lam-ba-deez as follows:
"Throughout the last decade, Tom and Christina Carter (occasionally augmented by Jason Bill) have created some of the most harrowing, mournful, sophisticated, soul-searching, and brutally honest music in the comfort of their home" the ensuing interview revealed a long history of albums released by obscure labels and featuring lengthy songs rotating around Christina's haunting vocal solo's whereby her voice became more of an instrument than a "voice" in the most traditional sense of the term.
However it was only last year that i began to seriously pay attention to them with the release of the excellent A Vintage Burden and now they're back with another fine release on the much revered Kranky label. They are clearly an acquired taste but certainly a rewarding one given the chance.
Kranky
Charalambides - Do You See MP3
on Thursday, 11 October 2007
The Loves – One-Two-Three EP (Fortuna Pop!)Mixing T Rex and Johnny B Goode, the Loves have cooked up the feel good song of the year. A chorus so good that you’ll be singing before you’ve even heard the song “I love you/ You love me/ we’ll be together/ One-Two-Three ugh-huh-huh!!”
The release also sees another reworking of a song from their debut Track and Field album, the simply titled “Love”. It’s Chelsea Girl this time that gets the make over, whereas last time the lovely aching, slow She’ll Break Your Heart was sped up into a French Pop cover of the Velvet Underground, here they do the opposite, dragging it out, almost
like Low if they were hippies with flowers in their hair, one to sing along to broken hearted and sat in the rain.MySpace (four songs for FREE download)
Fortuna Pop!
Some other tracks by The Loves
The Loves – X’s and O’s MP3
The Loves – I My She Love You MP3
on Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Venetian Snares – My Downfall (Original Soundtrack) (Planet Mu)I've have for several years been a huge fan of Aaron Funks work as Venetian Snares and yet again i find myself in total awe of this prolific and immensley talented artist, it doesn't seem that long since i had my first Venetian Snares album closely held to my chest, the wonderfully titled Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett, an album inspired by a trip to Budapest that had him return, learn the electric violin and trumpet and then make a near perfect album of classical experimental techno, whereby the well known violin sat alongside breakneck techno, rapid and erratic rhythms that only Mr Funk can pull off. On My Downfall (Original Soundtrack) we see a return to this classical sound, perhaps delving deeper still into the world of contemporary music, a sound that both Mozart and Godspeed would be proud of, sorrowful violins and angelic choirs mix with one another expressing both beauty and at time uneasiness, for instance the chilling Holló Utca 3.
This seems like a step forward for an already accomplished musician, whereas previous album, the clumsily titled yet still excellent Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms relied heavily on his trademark drums, it seems that only four of the tracks here feature percussion at all, as always when it appears the results are astonishing but like all things good most are best in small doses and when saved for special occasions.
A landmark album and certainly an artist that deserves your attention and lives to up to any hype that surrounds him.
Sadly none of the below links are from the current album, you'll need to check MySpace for a taster, however the below are a fairly good introduction to the genius of Venetian Snares
on Saturday, 29 September 2007
Emma Pollock & Alaska in Winter Reviewed
Posted on 2007.09.29 at 22:20
Current Music: Gel-Sol - Unifactor
Tags: 4ad, a hawk and a hacksaw, alaska in winter, beirut, daft punk, emma pollock, silver mount zion, the delgados
Emma Pollock – Watch The Fireworks (4AD)
It was just last night that I and a good friend were discussing how difficult we were finding it to write songs of late, to come up with something new, in the past songs have come easily or at least there would be those days once or twice a week, maybe a month if I think deeply enough, the days and years all seem to float into one these days, when a song would fall together just out of nowhere, or a melody or riff would almost play itself. Just lately it all seems to sound so uninspired and as if it’s all been done before, I personally put my new deficiency down to the wider world of music that the internet has enlightened me with, an endless library of inventive tunes, too clever for me and more time consuming than I can justify, still although there is no shortage of people out there still bashing tunes out left right and centre in the traditional way, few do it so simply and so consistently as it
would appear Emma Pollock does. I had previously concluded that she was simply a voice to Alun Woodward’s thoughts in the excellent Delgados but it would appear that she has more talent than I’d ever given her credit for.
Emma Pollock – Watch The Fireworks (4AD)It was just last night that I and a good friend were discussing how difficult we were finding it to write songs of late, to come up with something new, in the past songs have come easily or at least there would be those days once or twice a week, maybe a month if I think deeply enough, the days and years all seem to float into one these days, when a song would fall together just out of nowhere, or a melody or riff would almost play itself. Just lately it all seems to sound so uninspired and as if it’s all been done before, I personally put my new deficiency down to the wider world of music that the internet has enlightened me with, an endless library of inventive tunes, too clever for me and more time consuming than I can justify, still although there is no shortage of people out there still bashing tunes out left right and centre in the traditional way, few do it so simply and so consistently as it
would appear Emma Pollock does. I had previously concluded that she was simply a voice to Alun Woodward’s thoughts in the excellent Delgados but it would appear that she has more talent than I’d ever given her credit for.You can still hear the Delgados in the general sound, 3 minutes into opening track Paper and Glue its classic Delgados piano breakdowns and sweet vocals, slightly tainted by an icy fear as it slowly moves into a lovely waltz outro and at times echoes Reasons for Silence. Acid Test is upbeat and fresh sounding, slightly more “pop” than the Delgados by and large were, Adrenaline likewise an ascending piano tune that needs no help in introducing itself to you.
If this does nothing more than make you aware of the existence of the Delgados and their excellent back catalogue then it will be a success, hopefully though it’ll help you realise what a rare talent Emma Pollock is.
Alaska in Winter – Dance Party in the Balkans (Regular Beat Recording Co.)
By simultaneously mixing Piano & Vocoder, Alaska in the Winter have created what may be the most original and ambitious pop albums of the year. It will not surprise you upon listening to them that their line up is as follows Brandon Bethancourt, Zach Condon (of Beirut), Heather Trost (of A Hawk and a Hacksaw), Hari Ziznewski (of Rap), Stefanie Lamm, Rosina Roibal (who played in the Kanye West live string section), Hilary Bethancourt, and Naila Dixon. There are obvious references to Beirut and A Hawk and a Hacksaw but here they are mixed with vocodered vocals that almost give some songs a daft punk feel.
Other songs such as Harmonijak and Horsey Horse have piano chords as sparse as A Silver Mount Zion, mixing these tender sounds with electronic drums and the aforementioned vocoders, this really is something special.
Myspace2
on Monday, 24 September 2007
Tom Brosseau - Grand Forks Reviewed
Posted on 2007.09.24 at 23:15
Current Music: Tatsuhiko Asano - Genny Haniver
Tags: benjy ferree, calexico, charlie parr, hank williams, johnny cash, lonnie donegan, loveless, smith garrett band, tom brosseau, willie nelson
Tom Brosseau - Grand Forks (Loveless)In my childhood and early youth my dad constantly tried to brainwash with me with all sorts of country music, generally it would be quite horrible and sickly sweet, fiddles galore and yodels aplenty. Ever so occasionally though the odd track or artist would stand out, Johnny Cash obviously (although my younger brothers constant repetitive playing of Folsom Prison Blues should yet somehow didn’t turn me off that song for life) Willie Nelson, Lonnie Donegan and perhaps with the most long lasting effect Hank Williams. And so it remains that in
my blood I have both a loathing and a small box room in my house of music for out and out country *(I’m not talking bonnie prince billy, Sparklehorse etc) Tom Brosseau has instantly been promoted to the top of that list with his wonderful album Grand Forks, recalling the Smith Garrett Band, at times Benjy Ferree with his Steptoe and Son pop so delightfully done on opening track I Fly Wherever I Go, Down on Skidrow is like the moody dusty best of Calexico and both At the Close of Everyday and Misplaced Music’s Charlie Parr on the accentuated Plain Lined Jacket.
A gloriously simple album to coast down still waters on with a picnic basket and a bottle of cider.
on Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Bosques De Mi Mente & Serafina Steer Reviewed
Posted on 2007.09.18 at 22:18
Current Music: Talkdemonic - Beat Romantic
Tags: bat for lashes, bosques de mi mente, cat power, cocorosie, eluvium, joanna newsom, kate bush, meg baird, serafina steer, sparklehorse, the finches, whistler
Bosques De Mi Mente – LoFi
With the first signs of the winter bearing down us, they bring with them a terrible feeling of loneliness and a bleak reminder of the harsh weather set to follow in the steps of what has yet again been a poor summer. Yet the winter also brings with it a tragic beauty, one that can pull you from the deepest of setbacks and sprinkle you with hope.
Bosques De Mi Mente – LoFiWith the first signs of the winter bearing down us, they bring with them a terrible feeling of loneliness and a bleak reminder of the harsh weather set to follow in the steps of what has yet again been a poor summer. Yet the winter also brings with it a tragic beauty, one that can pull you from the deepest of setbacks and sprinkle you with hope.
The music of Bosques De Mi Mente is your perfect partner to such feelings of melancholy and despair, like the scene from Far & Away when Nicole Kidman gets shot and Tom Cruise hands her back to her former lover and takes the slow walk through the snow, brutal and unforgiving it beats against your bare face, its gets in through any means possible and bites at your defenceless skin. Yet against the odds it’s hard to deny the beauty of snow and its icy mischievousness, its ability to hold a moment in time, the way you sometimes feel the need and occasionally elongate a time and period of sadness, finding comfort from your sorrows and wallowing in your misery, its unhealthy yes but sometimes it serves a purpose yet eventually like Tom you just have to let her go, just walk away from the situation. You try not to look back yet when you do all you see is footsteps slowly disappearing in the snow as the fresh snow covers them up and severs all former ties.
Bosques De Mi Mente is the music to soundtrack your latest tragedy, the music that will bring beauty to the most tragic of happening, solo piano has rarely captured such feeling, this was last done so well by Eluvium and if that’s not a recommendation then I don’t know what is.
Serafina Steer – Cheap Demo Bad Science (Static Caravan)
You may have guessed that I have a little more than an appreciation for the female vocal and more than a chip on my shoulder about how highly rated Cat Power is and yet again I find myself stumbling over a stupidly talented female that far exceeds anything that I’ve heard from Chan Marshall.
You may have guessed that I have a little more than an appreciation for the female vocal and more than a chip on my shoulder about how highly rated Cat Power is and yet again I find myself stumbling over a stupidly talented female that far exceeds anything that I’ve heard from Chan Marshall.
Serafina Steer will appeal to anyone who has been wowed by the likes of Bat for Lashes, Whistler, The Finches, Meg Baird, Cocorosie or Kate Bush and yes I hate lame comparisons but it’s not just because she owns a harp that I find myself thinking of Joanna Newsom, however it’s not that simple, this is Joanna Newsom gone back in time, a medieval Joanna who at the same time mixes her folk styling’s with modern technology and electronics, as if she’s half stuck in the past and half in the future, maybe the common, poor servant girl who creeps into her mistresses room and jumps grubby handed onto the harp at every opportunity, bashing out beautiful songs that no one will ever hear until now. As creative and original as Cocorosie, as lyrically weird as Sparklehorse, yet as accessible as the girl next door, the girl living on a council estate fighting to hear her harp over the arguments that overpower her playing
Catch now before you regret having to stand at the back of a packed out crowd, next to burger king at next year’s ATP, Serafina is a delightful discovery.
Sadly I can’t find any MP3’s so give her Myspace a try
on Sunday, 16 September 2007
Múm - Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy Reviewed
Posted on 2007.09.16 at 16:10
Current Music: Mom - Little Brite
Tags: fat cat records, fatcat records, kanda, mice parade, silent ballet, stereolab, the books, the delgados
Is the new Múm album really so bad?
Múm – Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy (FatCat)
I’ve been quite surprised to see how badly the new album from Icelandic (currently) septet Múm, described on the reliable Silent Ballet website as follows:
“let's just say this is one to put on the shelf and watch it collect dust…this album fails at accomplishing any sort of goal, and even raises the question if one exists in the first place. There's an anxiety behind the track, and many others that really prevents anything from being carried out completely. Thoughts are left completely abandoned, mid-sentence, and rarely do we see anything fleshed out to form any sort of understandable statement.”
Rating it at a measly 3 out of 10, it seems that there has been further negativity towards the album from other reliable sources and so it’s with caution that I stick my neck out, that I pipe up above the crowds and ask “Is it really that bad?” I started this fanzine in paper format initially with the idea of promoting good music, sharing with people music that I have fallen in love with, hence why you will normally find just positive reviews on here, I see no point in telling people what I don’t like, what’s disappointed me. For one of the first times though I feel that I could be wrong, how can there be so much disdain for an album that I have loved fro
m the very first listen to now where new songs keep popping out into the foreground, is it because although having the Múm back catalogue I’ve never given it the time I imagine it deserves, yes I loved Green Grass of Tunnel but really who didn’t? maybe those devout followers were expecting something more spectacular, something more progressive and I’ll admit that at times the timid production does sound like that of a band debut opposed to their fourth/fifth (?) album but to me that adds a certain Icelandic magical charm to it, the delicate icy frozen nature of the twinkling lullaby’s within are made that little bit more childlike and naïve, slowly tip toeing through the snow on cold winters nights.
Perhaps it’s the new line up, after all now not only one of the twins that famously graced Belle & Sebastian’s Fold Your Hands album cover have left the band, with Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir following her sisters footsteps departing at some point in 2006. It was her voice that alongside the electronic glitches, beats and effects, and the variety of traditional and unconventional instruments that made the band’s sound so distinct. So now we have the inclusion of more prominent male vocals not too distant from those of the excellent Mice Parade and particularly on the Books-ian cut up glitch of single They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Exploded the much missed synth pop of Kanda. Marmalad
e Fires are what the Delgados would’ve sounded like had they purchased a laptop rather than split up. Dancing Behind My Eyelids is again lovely and playful, again reminding us of Kanda and mixing amstrad-esque loading screens with truly delightful melodies. School Song Misfortune is again naïve and playful like some strange childhood dream sequence, lullaby’s for an Icelandic kindergarten.
The closing triplet of songs are somewhat more somber and melancholy in sound, and perhaps those will please long term fans, mainly instrumental and occasionally haunting, particularly so the dense and dark forest walk in the middle of the night that is I Was Her Horse. Guilty Rocks is everything you’ve ever read about Stereolab yet down several times better and closer Winter (What We Never Were After All) is again haunting and angelic icy keyboards set to choir like Viking film chorales, delightful and refreshing, as I listen again I can only convince myself further of how special this album is.
MySpace
Website
FatCat Records
Múm - Dancing Behind My Eyelids MP3
Múm - They Made Frogs Smoke'Til They Exploded MP3
Múm - Moon Pulls MP3
Posted on 2007.09.16 at 16:10
Current Music: Mom - Little Brite
Tags: fat cat records, fatcat records, kanda, mice parade, silent ballet, stereolab, the books, the delgados
Is the new Múm album really so bad?
Múm – Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy (FatCat)I’ve been quite surprised to see how badly the new album from Icelandic (currently) septet Múm, described on the reliable Silent Ballet website as follows:
“let's just say this is one to put on the shelf and watch it collect dust…this album fails at accomplishing any sort of goal, and even raises the question if one exists in the first place. There's an anxiety behind the track, and many others that really prevents anything from being carried out completely. Thoughts are left completely abandoned, mid-sentence, and rarely do we see anything fleshed out to form any sort of understandable statement.”
Rating it at a measly 3 out of 10, it seems that there has been further negativity towards the album from other reliable sources and so it’s with caution that I stick my neck out, that I pipe up above the crowds and ask “Is it really that bad?” I started this fanzine in paper format initially with the idea of promoting good music, sharing with people music that I have fallen in love with, hence why you will normally find just positive reviews on here, I see no point in telling people what I don’t like, what’s disappointed me. For one of the first times though I feel that I could be wrong, how can there be so much disdain for an album that I have loved fro
m the very first listen to now where new songs keep popping out into the foreground, is it because although having the Múm back catalogue I’ve never given it the time I imagine it deserves, yes I loved Green Grass of Tunnel but really who didn’t? maybe those devout followers were expecting something more spectacular, something more progressive and I’ll admit that at times the timid production does sound like that of a band debut opposed to their fourth/fifth (?) album but to me that adds a certain Icelandic magical charm to it, the delicate icy frozen nature of the twinkling lullaby’s within are made that little bit more childlike and naïve, slowly tip toeing through the snow on cold winters nights.Perhaps it’s the new line up, after all now not only one of the twins that famously graced Belle & Sebastian’s Fold Your Hands album cover have left the band, with Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir following her sisters footsteps departing at some point in 2006. It was her voice that alongside the electronic glitches, beats and effects, and the variety of traditional and unconventional instruments that made the band’s sound so distinct. So now we have the inclusion of more prominent male vocals not too distant from those of the excellent Mice Parade and particularly on the Books-ian cut up glitch of single They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Exploded the much missed synth pop of Kanda. Marmalad
e Fires are what the Delgados would’ve sounded like had they purchased a laptop rather than split up. Dancing Behind My Eyelids is again lovely and playful, again reminding us of Kanda and mixing amstrad-esque loading screens with truly delightful melodies. School Song Misfortune is again naïve and playful like some strange childhood dream sequence, lullaby’s for an Icelandic kindergarten.The closing triplet of songs are somewhat more somber and melancholy in sound, and perhaps those will please long term fans, mainly instrumental and occasionally haunting, particularly so the dense and dark forest walk in the middle of the night that is I Was Her Horse. Guilty Rocks is everything you’ve ever read about Stereolab yet down several times better and closer Winter (What We Never Were After All) is again haunting and angelic icy keyboards set to choir like Viking film chorales, delightful and refreshing, as I listen again I can only convince myself further of how special this album is.
MySpace
Website
FatCat Records
Múm - Dancing Behind My Eyelids MP3
Múm - They Made Frogs Smoke'Til They Exploded MP3
Múm - Moon Pulls MP3
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on Thursday, 13 September 2007
Future of the Left, Go! Team, Euros Childs Reviewed
Posted on 2007.09.13 at 23:33
Current Music: The Books - Music for French Elevators
Tags: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, belle & sebastian, euros childs, future of the left, go! team, hefner, let airplanes circle overhead, mclusky, memphis industreis, russian circles, the delgados, too pure, witchita
Future of the Left – Curses (Too Pure)
It’s fair to say that heavy music rarely does it for me, and when I say heavy I don’t mean heavy in the sense of Let Airplanes Circle Overhead, Russian Circles, Pelican and the like, I adore them, no I mean heavy as in with screaming and intenseness, it’s the combination that I’m not that fussed about. However there will always be exceptions, in the past the main exception happened to be the highly underrated Mclusky and so its no surprise that my new favourite band (for 15 minutes as ever for me) are Future of the Left the new project of former Mclusky front man Andy Falkous and drummer Jimmy Egglestone. This is no nonsense full on aggressive in your face rock, yet for all its no nonsenseness it full on nonsensical lyrics, and melodies that will having you nodding your head and banging your steering wheel as you wait at the lights.
Future of the Left – Curses (Too Pure)It’s fair to say that heavy music rarely does it for me, and when I say heavy I don’t mean heavy in the sense of Let Airplanes Circle Overhead, Russian Circles, Pelican and the like, I adore them, no I mean heavy as in with screaming and intenseness, it’s the combination that I’m not that fussed about. However there will always be exceptions, in the past the main exception happened to be the highly underrated Mclusky and so its no surprise that my new favourite band (for 15 minutes as ever for me) are Future of the Left the new project of former Mclusky front man Andy Falkous and drummer Jimmy Egglestone. This is no nonsense full on aggressive in your face rock, yet for all its no nonsenseness it full on nonsensical lyrics, and melodies that will having you nodding your head and banging your steering wheel as you wait at the lights.
In the tradition of Mclusky amazing song titles are ever present (My Gymnastic Past, Suddenly It's A Folk Song, Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood) and perhaps less familiar will be the excellent keyboards lines now present used to amazing effect on the fantastic Manchasm, I’ll let you discover this years best outro yourself, needless to say that like Mclusky, Future of the Left are a very special band.
Go! Team - Proof of Youth (Memphis Industries)I’m not ashamed to admit that I really never intended to hear this, planning to avoid it at all costs. I really enjoyed their debut album but was let down with the live performance, it was all very “put yr hands in the air, like you just don’t care” and didn’t do it for me at all and then a series of events, the plan b interview, to quote “I wanna be a cartoon! I wanna be a comic! I wanna be a watch!” why? why would you ever say that? And then the press shot in the latest Plan B, grotesque and utterly repulsive, again why would you let people print such bad pictures of yourself, and yet I eat each and every one of my words, I take back all my misconceptions, my past experience of bands never quite matching the exuberance and quality of their debut, my everything, Proof of Youth is one of the best albums you will hear this year, full to the brim and overflowing with feel good tunes, songs to pick you up, to make you dance, to let you forget about all the crap you have to deal with, I love this album, only a week ago I could never imagine saying such a thing. Its sends a shiver down my spine how good this album is. Taking the best of hip hop and mixing it in with a serious helping of motown, tracks like Doing it Right have no need to beg you to dance for by the time the first bar has kicked in you’re already there on the dance floor, and a series of chants likely to be echoed on a million dance floors “do it do it alright” “extra extra read all about it”.
If you thought Annie’s Chewing Gum was the song to get you in the mood then now you have a whole album, soo good that you’ll be tempted to stay in, it really is that good. I’m having trouble describing just how good, Fake ID is smothered in such northern soul magic where it not for the hip hop twist you’d swear you were down Wigan Casino on a Saturday night.
Don’t let your musical snobbery put you off, Proof of Youth is awesome.
Don’t let your musical snobbery put you off, Proof of Youth is awesome.
Back when I was a lad, or at least when I when I was first beginning to “properly” get into music, whereby I mean that my record collection no longer consisted of taped music recorded from and occasionally by friends too cautious to “lend” in fear of never seeing their beloved disc again. Instead my hard earned cash gave me the opportunity to fill every possible place I could ram a CD within my (shared) box room…and so I did…and so my findings led me to a pentateuch, so to speak, of bands that I both swore by and adored, bands who could do no wrong in my eyes…a list of which follows 
1) Belle & Sebastian
4) The Delgados
It is from the final and perhaps weirdest and unpredictable of the bunch that arises my latest obsession, that being the solo project of former front man Euros Childs, going by the alias of…erm, Euros Childs. Gorky’s a their finest where able to produce both noise and melody, hush and chaos and ultimately a song for each occasion, whether that be the loud and chaotic Sweet Johnny, the literally barking mad Poodle Rocking, the sunshine pop of Spanish Dance Troupe, Diamond Dew and Patio Song or the heart melting four tracks that closed 1999 album, Spanish Dance Troupe, who could forget the “Jodie brown eyes” line, one that to do this day I find myself randomly singing.And so out of nowhere Euros has given us three albums in the space of sixteen months, Chops (13/2/06) Bore Da (05/03/07) and now The Miracle Inn (25/06/07), a treasure trove of Gorky-like pop. The piano led pop remains, songs like Horse Riding & Ali Day are instant classics, whereas the more ambitious 15 minutes of The Miracle Inn show the ideas and experiments are not running short yet. Costa Rita is a
lovely love song told in the normal Euros way, quirky and normally from a distance, the way we all fall in love with that girl that we see on the bus each day, the one who walks past our window at work, the one who works in the florist down the road and yet we’ll probably never ever pluck the courage up to talk to her let alone tell her how we feel. Country Girl shows his fondness for country as previously expressed in the much loved yet little heard Johnny Cash Lawsuit Song.Euros Childs is a madcap genius who deserves your attention, let him put a little sunshine and romance in your life.
MySpace
Euros Childs - First Time I Saw You (Acoustic Version) MP3 Euros Childs - Billy and the Sugarloaf Mountain MP3
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