Under The Influence

I'm sure I've probably mentioned it before but I love the Klezmer sound, it sounds so fresh to my western ears.

There are plenty of stomping tracks to dance around to - in fact almost all of them are really upbeat. A couple of songs are even sung in English so I can figure out what's going on some of the time. The production is great on here too.

Charlatan-Ka is great - it sounds like it's going to be a cover of Those Were the Days My Friend. And I know I've heard Golem Hora before but I can't pick from where... oh wait, The Saints (another Klezmer group from Poland) do a version of this too (though I'm sure the melody is more famous than that).

Just a short little EP to whet the appetite. Does a fine job too.

Emasculate The Masculine is a great little bit of pop rock while The Unicorns: 2014 is a cool little futuristic space ditty. The demo version gets pretty menacing towards the end (it's cool). Has a sweet drum line somewhat like the one from that big Hot Chip track (name escapes me right now).

These guys sound a lot like one of my favourite Wellington bands, Dana Eclair. Americanaish with more of a rock edge. Flaming Lips quality to the singing.

As I listen to this I'm watching a guy on the opposite train platform from me. He's very drunk, leaning against a pole, threatening to topple into the path of an oncoming train at any moment. The scene really suits the song (Held).

Healthy mix of downbeat and upbeat tracks. Lots of handclaps, I like handclaps. The final track, Left Only With Love, is absolutely beautiful though rather sad. Reminds me of Candy Says (VU). I have no idea why Smog aren't huge.

Random tip from a random site discovered whilst digging around for Kiki Bohemia related material. This is very much a Rodriguez moment for me - another under-promoted great. From what I can gather this has been a record collectors (notoriously hard to obtain) favourite for years, now made accessible to the masses via a recent reissue (though I'll be going out of my way to get hold of an original copy).

God, what a voice. Billie Holiday-esk I suppose, incredible texture. Something On Your Mind and In a Station are well up on my list of picks of the moment.

Katie Cruel blows me away - is this the original? I also have covers by White Magic and Bert Jansch collected along the way that I absolutely adore. Either way it's simply a beautiful song.

Apparently Bob Dylan and Nick Cave are both huge fans of her work. In the end she died destitute after drug addiction in the states (in Take Me I think she says "it would be like heroin to me")... hell of an injustice.

The other day someone asked me for the most embarrassing pick from my collection. Being the sort that can never bear to throw away music I have a good number of questionable records to nominate for this dubious honour. Even though the bulk of said collection lives on the opposite side of the world to me this one jumps still straight to mind.

I was given this album by a friend - from memory it came free with a guitar magazine. The music itself is not too bad (though it's pretty bad), it's the image that really does it. I believe he builds his own electric violins shaped like claws and the like and then gives them names like The Violator. Completely stuck in the past, not the good past either. I feel like I should give this problem a name - possibly Derek Sherinian disease

So anyway, I'm on Mark Wood's website (take a look at the promo video) and I notice something - he's in Trans Siberian Orchestra! You know, the guys that did that song made famous by the xmas house video. Solid gold.

One of the acts I was lucky enough to stumble upon whilst in Berlin last week. She was actually playing at the place we were staying (Bar 25). Great place by the way. Fun and friendly people supplying/enjoying a great selection of cultural highlights.

I don't really have that much to go on with this - just what I heard at the gig and the scattered bits I've found around the internet. The older recordings I could find have a Portishead quality to them (I think that's actually got a lot to do with the Phillicorda Organ she uses).

Great songs. Great twisted melodies. Check out Woodfull of Love on her myspace (sorry) page.

You can grab a few mp3s from Kliklak (Berlin music blog) including a cool little cover of Nirvana's Something in the Way.

So what's going on here? I've been away, that's what. Don't panic though - Berlin and Barcelona both went right out of their way to provide me with interesting new sounds. More later.

This is a very hard one to describe. It's alternative rock I guess. I've been avoiding writing about this one for days because I have no idea how to describe it. I feel like I should use Wilco to set the scene. That may well just be because Spoon too, have a great camera track (I turn my Camera On). Two Sides / Monsieur Valentine is pretty country, almost sounds like Tom Petty or something.

Great beats. The songs are all really strong. Just download yourself a copy of the opening track, The Beast And Dragon, Adored, and you'll be instantly hooked. Gah! There are just too many great pop masterpieces on here. Currently listening to They Never Got You - what a great little guitar riff.

It's strange how this one has snuck up on me. I feel like I've almost never listened to it but somehow it's subversively wriggled itself into place as one of my favourite albums of the moment.

I first discovered Tom Middleton when he did a mini set (like 15 minutes long or something) at the tail end of another mix set on a German dj website (4 or 5 years back). I remember being somewhat amazed. He was doing a rock set and I recall commenting on how great the variation of tunes was.

I then had the pleasure of witnessing him dj at the Big Chill festival a few years back. At the time he was working on Cosmosonica so he treated us to a fine mix consisting of cover after cover. His style live is brilliant, very casual, getting on the mic every now and again to tell a little tail or something. He ended up playing for much longer than he was meant to. Bonus.

This particular set consists of two discs. A chilled set and a party set, each perfect in its own way. Look out for Spanky Wilson's most excellent cover of Sunshine Of Your Love on the party disc (actually there are covers to be enjoyed throughout).

I look up to Tom Middleton - he's my hero.

I found this one when searching for Cut Copy - that much I do know about it. Just happens there's a Cut Copy remix dangling off the end of the cd, hence the discovery. I guess it's progressive house - sounds like silky electro disco pop to me. Too dark to be called pop really. I keep thinking the chorus of the title track is going to break into NIN (The Perfect Drug).

It's very cool. Got a modern 80s edge to it. Kind of like LCD Soundsystem in a way - but far less rocky, and much slicker. The remix of Girl and the Sea is probably the most upbeat track on here. Electro Disco. Love it.

There are 5 tracks on here and they're all winners. I'll definitely be looking to buy more of this.