he gently took my arm
we had change of the moon

I know very little about the music of Sibylle Baier, but it seems that nobody really did. She only ever recorded one album, back in 1973, which only found release in 2006. How? After giving up music after one album, those recordings fell into the hands of the lead singer of Dinosaur Jr thirty years later, who passed them on to Orange Twin Records. The songs are sparse, mostly just Sibylle and her guitar. The listener should be grateful for this intimate acoustic treat, for she never expected anyone to hear these songs, especially not nearly forty years later.

LISTEN: Sibylle Baier – Tonight

The Good Natured a.k.a. Sarah McIntosh is just about to have a remix of one of her electropop songs featured on the latest Kitsune Maison Compilation. Over the Easter holidays she uploaded a Cure cover to her Myspace for fans, just a bedroom demo, but alluring nonetheless. We caught up with her for a quick Q+A.

It’s been just over a year since The Guardian named you their New Band of the Day, how have things come along for you, since February last year? 
After I was named Guardian New Band of the Day, I had to take a break from music to focus on my A levels, as getting good grades was really important to me. After that I picked it up again. I am still doing much the same, gigging and writing lots, but I have had time to develop my sound and find my own direction, which I am really pleased about.

What’s your recording process at the moment; equipment, software, etc?
It depends who I am working with. My demos are all done on Cubase which I have at home, but when I work with producers its usually Logic or Protools

Your electro-pop has prompted allusions to the likes of Kate Nash, Bat For Lashes, Lady Gaga, and Lily Allen. How do you feel about these links? 
I really like Bat For Lashes and Lady Gaga is an amazing writer and performer. To be honest I don’t really think much about comparisons; I just do my own thing.

The music press has a tendency to immediately correlate female artists with one another on the basis of sex, what are your thoughts on this?
Yeah there is, I actually think every female artist out there at the moment is very different and unique in their own way, it is shallow to group them all together because of gender.

Am I right in understanding you’re also at University? What are you studying?
No, I differed my studies in order to put maximum time into my own music, hoping it will pay off!

How did the Zebra and Snake Remix come about, and what’s it like to have one of your songs remixed? Is there anyone you’d like to work with, in terms of remixes, in the future?
Dan, my PR guy, also does press for Zebra and Snake, so it came about through him. Its great to have one of your songs remixed and really interesting to see which elements remixers pick up on in the song. Not really sure about who I would like to remix me in the future – I haven’t thought about it too much!

How do you feel about being being on the new Kitsuné Maison compilation?
Its really great, it will be great to get the exposure from it , they are a brilliant label.

Why the choice of Lovesong as a Cure cover?
Ha, I don’t really know. I did that cover on Easter Day whilst eating lots of chocolate, its not very good quality but it was a bit of fun and I am really glad people like it. I think its a beautiful song, so I guess thats why I chose it.

Finally, what are you most looking forward to in 2010?
Playing festivals in the summer, as I have never done that before, so I am really excited about it. Most of all though, I am excited about releasing “Your Body Is A Machine” as my single and showing people the video.

Thanks to The Good Natured for the track and Q+A.

Lovesong (Cure Cover)

So where have I been? I was wondering if I would still be able to log in or not, but sure enough here I am. Not to bore you with my personal life (for if you wanted that you could read something else) but I moved around New Year, and since then have been largely without internet. Yet fear not, ‘Thoughts for Tonight’ has returned.

The past few weeks with internet have been playing catchup very quickly with everything I missed since I went offline; and this mostly a huge influx of new music. I’ve recently had to conduct an interview for a dubstep duo that I was worried I wouldn’t like. Yet as soon as I listened to their first E.P., I knew there was something new going on here. This new strain of dubstep, has been called a pastiche of 2step, ambient, IDM, techno, electronica, minimal, nu-jazz and almost any other genre under the sun. Resident Advisor noted in certain circles they just call it “-step,” though what circles that is I don’t really wish to know. The London-based duo are called Mount Kimbie.

The track that I’m bringing to you is a remix they’ve done for British indie group Foals; a group that Hadouken would have fervently mocked in That Boy, That Girl. Foals seem to have changed direction slightly with the track:Spanish Sahara, at least if this is anything to go by, and the rather beautiful melancholy that the song brings is wonderfully paired with the Mount Kimbie remix; dark, haunting, and really rather emotive. The remix doesn’t rely on the climaxes that the Foals original does, it delivers its beauty in a much more subtle light, and it suits the song wonderfully.

I had many plans for what Thoughts for Tonight should return with, and this was really chosen at last minute, but its completely overtaken my listening habits of late, and so I was left with little other choice.

Foals – Spanish Sahara (Mount Kimbie Remix)

because i’m still in love with you
on this harvest moon

there is something about the song ‘harvest moon’, and i’m not sure what it is. i wouldn’t really want to quote any of the lyrics from it, and the music is fairly meandering for the most part, but there is an inexplicable chill from the song. what did it for me was hearing kevin barnes covering it, softly and sweetly, with a sincerity i don’t find in the hunderds of other covers of the song. even the elliott smith version doesn’t work for me. maybe it’s because i’ve been feeling so emptyand disinterested recently, and the song encapsulates how i wish could be: a few simple words that carry so much meaning behind them, regardless of how trite and cliched that meaning is, because at least there is meaning.

LISTEN:
Kevin Barnes – Harvest Moon
Neil Young – Harvest Moon

doesn’t it seem like it’s always been here?
walking around, bumping into things
i try to say hi, i end up making you cry
true friends don’t want to do things like that

maybe i’ve completely misinterpreted this little-known of Montreal song, but it seems apt for this time of year if you’re single (and don’t hug your pillow, pretending you don’t know what i’m talking about). you need to listen to the whole song to pick up the effect of the lyrical trick of hiding true sentiments amongst playful absurdism. yet, how sincere is that (possibly bitter) title?

stumbling around, crashing into things
i try to be sly, i end up licking your eye
true friends don’t want to do things like that

LISTEN: of Montreal - True Friends Don’t Want To Do Things Like That

5. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
November 2009.

I did nothing but praise this album when it was released not that long ago. I still believe they’re one of Britain’s best ‘new-folk’ exports.

It is unfortunate that this album has seen such a lukewarm response; reviews where good have been with their downfalls, though in general have been as hit and miss as the band’s fanbase. They evolved from a West London scene, whose other counterparts had started to release deadening singles, yet when you hear the dynamic breaks in Mumford & Sons’ ‘Little Lion Man’, ‘White Blank Page’ or ‘Winter Winds’, then you know you’re dealing with something entirely different.

Little Lion Man

4. Matt Tolfrey & Gavin Herlihy – I Just Can’t (Take It)
April 2009. Cocoon Recordings

Considering quite how permeated with techno and house, my listening preferences are, you’d be surprised to learn that this only escalated to this extent in 2009.

Bloc Party’s ‘Silent Alarm’ drew me further into British ‘indie’ in late 2004, and Matt Tolfrey & Gavin Herlihy’s “I Just Can’t (Take It)” did the same for tech.house. I have always been a sucker for buildups; and the 5 minute long wait until the bassline hums in, is exasperating, and then the vocal kicks in: ‘Just can’t take it, just can’t take it, just can’t take it.” This, for me is the best of the best.

Just Can’t (Take It)

3. George Pringle – Salon Des Refuses
September 2009

It was 2009 that first saw George Pringle get more major-radio airplay, a review in the British music press, and the long-awaited release of her, essentially, self-recorded album.

Her electronic beats breath and evolve from Winter; “Spring is never a good time,” she muses. Strangely, this album feels like a final chapter; her ending to a lifetime of experience. Indeed with ‘We Could Have Been Heroes’, ‘S.W.10′ and ‘Bonjour Tristesse’, a rather epic, apocalyptic state of the world seems to be unravelled and envisioned; the dulcet tone of her music embodies it, and her lyrics, and poetic delivery, can’t help but annotate along the way.

We Could Have Been Heroes

2. Bloc Party – Signs
May 2009.

Before the wave of disappointment that swept over us when ‘One More Chance’ was released, Bloc Party released the crossover Intimacy/Intimacy Remixed single ‘Signs’.

The original, and its iTunes exclusive, piano-led, Gossip Girl-featured masterpiece, were two of the best tracks of last year. Bloc Party love their remixes, and 2009 saw Kele Okereke fall further in love with house and techno (note the band’s advent into the electronic), yet this doesn’t always combine well. While the first two Bloc Party ‘remixed’ albums featured hours worth of fun; they still lacked something that would ever throw the releases outside of indie clubs and pubs, all-nation wide. Yet Armand Van Helden’s electro-house bass-riproaring assault changed all that. Not since Soulwax’s remix of MGMT’s Kids has the world seen such a great crossover remix; and not since Aphex Twin’s ‘Come To Daddy’ have we seen such a great music video (at least according to Spin’s Peter Gaston).

Signs (Armad Van Helden Remix)

1. Florence and the Machine – Lungs.
June 2009.
The choice of Britain’s best 2009 release was easy to make; an artist masked in criticism from the musical and culture elite, her record is an undeniably beautiful pop record.

2009 saw a reinvention of sorts for Florence and the Machine. I welcomed her extraction from the nauseating attempts at punk that she made last year, and as she transcended Kiss with a Fist with musical and emotional capability, she became the most refreshing female voice in British music. Whether its with the (comparatively) upbeat, string crescendos of ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’, the amorous screams of jazzy ‘Girl With One Eye’, or on the unmistaken genius of ‘Howl’, Florence Welch captivates her listener with exaggerated dynamics, euphoric builds, and melodies that leave you wincing in their aftermath. Her songwriting, orchestration, and structure blends her influences better than many would ever hope for, and her cover of ‘You Got The Love’ seems unanimously to be one of the best covers of the year. This album easily clinches the top spot over any release, and Britain should be proud to have her as an export of 2009.

Howl

Rolling Stone is proud to premiere the video for Thom Yorke’s cover of “All For the Best” from the upcoming tribute disc Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy. Directed by Melinda Tupling, the video is a David Lynch-like odyssey that fits perfectly with Yorke’s stirring, Erasered rendition of the Miracle Legion song. The song is also noteworthy because it features the first time the Radiohead frontman and his brother Andy Yorke, lead singer for the Unbelievable Truth, have appeared together on a song, with Andy’s background vocals complimenting his big bro’s trademark croon.

::Read More at Rolling Stone::

Considering its the year I decided to pen ‘Thoughts for Tonight’; the self-indulging, British, rant about what’s good on this side of ‘the pond’, it was an incredibly disheartening task coming up with an end of year list. Yet, after much careful deliberation, many re-listens and such extensive hair-pulling, that it looks like I’ve had my fingers in an electrical socket; I’ve come up with a list of the best British releases of the year, for your consumption and pleasure.

15. Emmy The Great – First Love [from First Love]
Feb 2009. Close Harbour Records

Emmy The Great is perhaps a risky first choice for a wholly British music end of year list; firstly she wasn’t born, or brought up, in the U.K., instead she comes from Hong Kong. Her inclusion however, comes from her very obvious involvement with the British music scene, around this time last year, and then at the beginning of 2009.

‘First Love’ is synonymous with the twee new/anti-folk scene that London gave birth to last year. The album is alluring and beautiful throughout, and certainly showed a diversity that perhaps, Laura Marling, was never quite capable of. The Guardian criticised Emmy for being “understated,” “winsome,” and “ultra-wordy;” three complaints I shall not be sharing with them. Her lyricism is draped in remorse, heartbreak and surprisingly non-conceited use of pop culture reference. Winter is returning, and as it does, Emmy The Great seems natural for the time of the year.

LISTEN :: First Love

14. Geddes & Alex Jones – Tubular [from The Paper Weight E.P.]
June 2009. Murmur

This collaboration was one of the best electronic dance music collaborations of the year. And if I was to be rating, reviewing, or listing record labels as well, then Murmur would definitely clinch the top spot.

The Paper Weight E.P. is a soulful serving of microhouse from two of London’s best DJs: Geddes, and Alex Jones. The E.P. closes with a hypnotic remix from Dutch DJ Lauhaus to round up one of the best electronic releases of the summer. While here the pairing’s production is great, where Geddes, and indeed Alex Jones, truly shine though is with their DJ-ing, and the former’s ability to throw the best party in London.

LISTEN :: Tubular

13. Codeine Velvet Club – Vanity Kills [from Vanity Kills]
November 2009. Island

As I stated in my recent column, CVC really are one of the most exciting new bands in Britain. And all it takes is a throwback forty years through music.

“Vanity Kills” sounds like film noir. The rock ‘n’ roll boy-girl exchanges, jaggedy guitars, and sexy ‘la da da dah’’s from Lou Hickey warm you instantly; and the song’s ability to create the vision of whiskey-drenched evenings in a cabaret club is really quite impressive.

LISTEN :: Vanity Kills

12. Imogen Heap – First Train Home [from Ellipse]
August 2009. Megaphonic

Imogen Heap returned this year with the rather nice surprise of ‘Canvas’; a track that blew me away and stayed on loop for days on end.

Ellipse, unlike her previous albums, felt more coherent in terms of narrative, her soulful and eery electronic diversity is better displayed, and she’s captured euphoric bliss, contrasting the heartbreak of before. Its cliche to say an artist matures with each album. Yet there has been so much regression in music this year, that hearing Imogen Heap’s lyrical, and certainly, musical progression is welcoming. “First Train Home” beautifully introduces the album.

LISTEN :: First Train Home

11. Nathan Fake – Basic Mountain [from Hard Islands]
May 2009. Border Community

A return from Nathan Fake, after what feels like an entire decade, sees the East Anglian producer return closer to his live techno mixes, than previous productions dictate.

His debut was blissful electronica for people who found beauty in machinery. 2009’s followup in “Hard Islands” showed the record-buying world the techier side to Nathan Fake. Personal album favourite ‘Basic Mountain’ fuses together discordant pitch bends, lofi drums, and euphoric melodies; it really is a true blend of his countryside electronica, and city techno.

LISTEN :: Basic Mountain

A few hours ago, I watched a 2007 American indie film called In Search of a Midnight Kiss. It is a black-and-white romance set in L.A., and shares many similarities with Woody Allen’s masterpiece Manhattan. In Manhattan, Allen uses Gershwin’s bold music to paint his beloved city, but In Search of a Midnight Kiss uses soft music as a reminder of the quiter, more innocent strangers who walk the streets of a place generally thought of as containing unemployed actors. There is one song that really stood out, and I had never heard of it before, but I tracked it down as soon as the film was finished. It is called ‘My Good Deed’, and is by Shearwater, otherwise known as a side-project for Okkervil River.

There is a certain scene when the two protagonists run out of a house together, running away from her violent ex-boyfriend, and they are laughing. Instead of being terrified, they have fun, and then they stop, before he says that they should continue just in case. But really, he’s just having fun and wants to elongate the moment. And then this song starts playing, and it fits the moment perfectly, from its first few lines:

i tried to save a girl i truly loved
and didn’t quite know how to help her

I am endlessly fascinated by films that portray romances between two people who end up together just because ‘it happens’ and they have nothing else to do, and this film somehow managed to be honest about that situation, yet romanticising it at the same time. And I think it’s mainly down to the combination of the black-and-white direction and a soundtrack of acoustic tragedy.

LISTEN: My Good Deed by Shearwater
FROM THE FILM: In Search of a Midnight Kiss

I’m not a sportsman. I have never pretended to be, and I definitely not going to start now. When I say that I’m not a sportman, I don’t just mean that I’m bad at sports; I rarely do any physical exercise. I’m a big supporter of lifts and escalators, and my knowledge of gyms mainly comes from watching films. However, I have joined a football (or soccer, depending which country you’re reading this) team with some friends, and we had our first game last Sunday. This was our first ever game. Not just for the season, but ever. Only a few of the others had trained together, and this was going to be the second time in three years I’ve done any form of phsical exertion. This was Sunday, so the day after Halloween. Every single member of our team was hung over and had minimal sleep. During warm-up, our centre-half threw up nine times. Before coming onto the pitch, half of our team were smoking cigarettes. Then the opponents turned up: a squad of seventeen, wearing matching kit, each being taller and bigger than the last one, and they definitely didn’t look hung over. We lost 15-0.

there’s my father looking on
and my girlfriend arm in arm
with the captain of the other team
and all of this is clear to me
they condescend and fix on me a frown
how they love the sporting life

As I said earlier, I am not a sportsman, so I actually found the ordeal to be quite funny, even though I didn’t let our captain know just how funny I thought it was. At least Colin Meloy can also find the funny side in ‘The Sporting Life’, although whilst he tries to ‘fight the tears’, I was wondering how to look lackadaisical to supporters, yet committed to my team. My muscles still ache, although my pride is fine.

LISTEN: The Decemberists – The Sporting Life

Broadcast, have been around since 1995, having formed in Birmingham, Great Britain. Broadcast are signed to Warp Records; a record label, that acts as a who’s who of each important name in electronic music since the labels formation in 1989. Warp have hosted, amongst others, Andrew Weatherall (under Sabres of Paradise guise), Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Nightmares on Wax, !!!, and Richie Hawtin.

Broadcast have come together with Julian House, a.k.a. The Focus Group. His influence of English folklore, and eerie vintage sound complements Broadcast perfectly, and their partnership here could not be better placed. Indeed Britishness transpires this abstract collection of sound. I See, So I see So, like the similarly-phrased tongue-twister, paints a seaside landscape of fairgrounds, seagulls, and ice cream.

Most songs on this album subconsciously limit themselves around the two minute mark; with acoustic loops, a-capella breaks, warming but distorted vocals, and dissonant samples that fall out of time, all within any chosen song. Each song plays like a jam where midway through, each band member gets bored and changes focus and direction; on paper, this seems at best, an exercise, and at worst, an evocatively, nauseating, mismatch of sound. The delivery though; of electronica, and sample-splicing, with 60s, guitar psychedelica, is excellently crafted, and incredulously carried off.

Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, is a warm touch of experimental sound, a contrast with the majority of much darker sounding psychedelia that is ubiquitous with some music of the moment. Its a refreshing full-length; different in itself, with its structure, and for that reason it may not have a rigidity that some need. Despite the disjointed nature of this album, they have created a fantastic release. The album will float by in no time, and a wonderful dream will be all that’s left.

The Be Colony
Royal Chant

2008 saw Britain’s fast-developing craze toward London’s “new folk revival”. A ’scene’ that supposedly brought the general British public, and folk music closer together. Bands and artists, such as Noah and the Whale, Jay Jay Pistolet, and perhaps most famously, Laura Marling, delivered acoustic songs that, not only received recognition and respect amongst music magazines, but also amongst a public usually obsessed with Akon and Girls Aloud. In truth, the “new folk revival” was nothing more than a bland imitation of Americana and indie-pop, delivered with the admirable force, of a close-knit London scene.

Throughout 2008 and early 2009, Mumford & Sons released a triplet of E.P.’s that progressed their style, and sound. Opting against a rushed album, that could have fallen prey to pigeonholing alongside last year’s bands of the minute, Mumford & Sons took the time with their debut “Sigh No More.” The twelve-track full length combines bluegrass and folk, with a rhetoric that reflects the band’s religious beliefs.

Mumford & Sons arrange folk like no British counterpart has done for a long time; bluesy soloing, and orchestral climaxes that leave you breathless and in a state of euphoria. They are ambitious in their arrangement; the dynamics between, their twee storytelling verses, catchy pop choruses, quiet middle eights, and explosive, towering crescendos, are closer to post-punk or grunge, than they are to folk.

“Sigh No More” shows a breadth of the band’s experience; they compliment their darker lyricism (“After the Storm”, “Little Lion Man”, “I Gave You All”), with the uplifting moments of pop sensibility (“The Cave”, “Winter Winds”) that create, in part an unnerving experience. Melancholia and ecstasy are substituted with one another superlatively, and the sound that transcends is warming, evocative, and inspiring.

“Sigh No More” has already been criticised as a latecomer, to a cut and paste genre of generics, and mediocrity. Yet it is in this late-coming that the band refined their sound and message (for as a folk band, a message is preferential), and this has worked incredulously well in their favour. Mumford & Sons have created the most accomplished LP, from all acts in the tabloid-entitled revival; perhaps it is fitting that frontman Marcus Mumford asks us to “awake [his] soul”, for his band has truly awakened a movement that, until this point lacked any lasting substance.

Winter Winds