Another five? We could do the five things again, shall we do it yet again? The thankless task? Did you read all this last week? Shall we? Did you? Why?

Well shall we do it again? Back to back being back to the five musical things thing and the fractured music portal yet again (and again and again) and yeah, we did say all this last week and this is a test and the weeks before and blah blah blah while the whole world window and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding and all that proof reading. It doesn’t really matter if it was a television fizzing and going off and things back then when we first heard of the Window. and like we did ask last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? Cut to the chase, there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music, don’t read this, head for the music, we’re just part of the cheap essential scenery or happiness begining to rise or some misheard lyrics stolen off Max Webster or something like that. No band was ever as cool as Max Webster and we are all here to be wreckless, here’s Lucy, she’s choosy…

This five musical things thing is mostly about just that, five musical things that have passed by in the last few days, five sound bites, five slices of musical information along with those oh so vital vital links and signposts staring back and making that hissing noise. You do read all this right? You did read that bit about Bandcamp Friday last time? Enough of this, cut the crap you say, wah, I know, on with the music, here comes whatever we have for you this time around, the low spark of high healed boys or something like that…

1: The Early Mornings – Here we go again, abstract paintings over concrete lines or soemthing like that, write what you know, they know lots, all original, Englsih fish and Chips, poetry, the poetry of someone’s everday, they’re from Manchester, they hae a debut EP out later in the year, “debut EP Unnecessary Creation  released 18th June 2021″ so shouts the press release, this we assume is a first taste from our chippy or their chippy or someone’s chippy

“The Early Mornings are a 3-piece formed in Manchester in 2018, made up of Annie Leader – Guitar/Vocals, Danny Shannon – Bass, Rhys Davies – Drums. After recording a couple of home demos and gigging around the UK, they released their debut single ‘Artificial Flavour’ last year”

Wiry is a good word, yes, we’ll borrow that, wiry guitars, poetic observations, is the sky ever blaks? Here’s their Facebook and there’s the homemade video, here’s the Bandcamp page and other bits of witchcraft or a trickle or a waterfall or the delightful dlow, the almost effortless flow of it all, hey look, you don’t needs words, the video is right there, you just passed the links you need  

2: J. Fisher – more of his dope stuff or whatever he said it was, I think he said Dope stuff. We like Jeremy Fisher, we like most things that come our way via Deathbomb Arc. The story so we’re told is that Jeremy Fisher has been abandoned by his otherworldly friends and attempts to take on the music thing without them on his broken SP-404 and OP-1. is it broken though? Sounds fine to me, here’s the Bandcamp thing yet again, far more healthy for you , us, them and everyone than that damn Spotify stuff. A new album then. Checkout Makebeat, how good is Makebeat? This stuff is gooooooood

.

3: Possum‘s second album Lunar Gardens will be released via Ideé Fixe Records on July 2nd so shouts the press release, here’s the link for more, no one ever said it was going to be easy, Possum, like Max Webster before them, are from Canada, here’s the music….

4: Lisel + Booker Stardrum – Now this is good, come on now, you don’t get this kind of musical variety and the spice of life and none stop earfood and eyecandy from the others. In The Dome,” was originally written for The Vanishing Point, a 25-minute piece of music & dance conceived as video art. The Vanishing Point was commissioned and presented by National Sawdust on February 28, 2021. The piece was composed, performed and recorded by Eliza Bagg (Lisel) and Booker Stardrum. And credit where it is very much due, choreography and dance performance by Gwendolyn Gussman, lighting and cinematography by Alex Taylor, video direction and editing by Eliza Bagg (Lisel)
and lyrics by Eliza Bagg (Lisel)

“Drumming wizard, improviser and composer Booker Stardrum and singer, producer, and experimental artist Eliza Bagg aka Lisel⁠ have joined forces for a debut album entitled Mycelial Echo. Crafted remotely over a six week period, the album is closely tied to other artistic projects. Half of the music was written for an opera about trees⁠ set to be presented in a virtual reality installation this year and the other half was composed for The Vanishing Point, a 25-minute music and dance piece commissioned by National Sawdust. The piece was made with dancer/choreographer Gwendolyn Gussman and conceived as video art”. More album details here or Order details

And here’s some more

,

5: Sheep, Dog & Wolf – A track from the new album out this week, “Sheep, Dog & Wolf’s new single ‘Fine’ – the fourth to be lifted from Daniel McBride’s upcoming second album – is another musical twist from the pop polymath. Soft, intimate vocal harmonies meld with shifting saxophones, underlined by off-kilter beats and an undulating, synth-like growl. Despite its electronic feel the track is in fact recorded using live instruments by McBride himself, singing in a distorted, pitch-shifted baritone to achieve a deep bass rumble and using mouth-percussion for an ever-morphing kick pulse.

No stranger to bold, visual statements, the video stars a strung-out and helpless McBride hanging upside down, juxtaposing inner turmoil with a surreal sense of calm.   The song is about the extreme denial he found himself in during some of his worst periods of illness. “I could be in the depths of it, barely leaving the house, completely devoid of feeling and utterly dissociated, and yet I would still somehow convince myself that everything was normal, that I was fine,” he explains. Believing it was a personal failure and not wanting to admit he was unwell or in need of help, he ignored it and hoped it would go away. “I wish I’d known then what I know now: that mental illness is just that, an illness. It’s nothing be ashamed of. And once you work past that shame and denial, once you acknowledge it and ask for help, it gets a lot easier.”   

‘Two Minds’ is out on April 9th via Aphrodite. The road to his long-awaited and triumphant return may have been littered with obstructions, but ‘Two-Minds’ mutant R&B, post-classical minimalism and electronica showcase McBride’s elevated perspective. Written, performed and recorded entirely alone, it documents a young life in disarray, striking a perfect balance between darkness and humour.

5 and a bit: Febueder have, so we’re told, just announced some gigs, imagine that, a gig, a live band, standing there with a pink watching a band, stroking a chin. This gives us a chance to post their rather fine album from last year or whenever it was, time has kind of got lost now, Tomalin Has Etched In is a rather fineset of songs or pieces or whatever you wish to call them, different flavours. Actually that gig announcement is for a gig in 2022, come on, we’ll be in lockdown seven by then, Noris and his mates will have taken themselves off to a private island where they can laugh at everyone who voted Tory and the Moth Club will be lost to us all. Got over excited thee for a minute thinking we could jsut wlak up the road and see a band and have a pint

Tomalin Has Etched In is the debut album from Febueder. “This album is what we consider our etch into the world, like a tiny pattern of 16 etchings, on the largest piece of wood, no doubt lost in the bigger etchings, but ours is an honest attempt. It’s a remarkable disarray with manic twitchy cadence, grand pop scores and graceful drowsiness.”

And yes it is graceful and grand , it is rather different, rewarding, and it would be wrong to let it get lsot in bigger etchings and louder noises Here’s the Bandcamp, here’s their website

.

“Febueder are an avant-indie duo from Ascot, England, composed of lead vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Kieran Godfrey and percussionist Samuel Keysell. Their name (pronounced Fe-byou-der) is more than a made-up appellation, it’s the palette from which they present their emotionally deft songwriting and progressive approach to rhythm and melody”.

That should do for today surely? And while we’re here let’s just leave you with some Fflaps. Fflaps were a Welsh post-punk group doing their thing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, formed in Bangor, Wales. The band comprised vocalist and guitarist Ann Matthews, bassist Alan Holmes and drummer Jonny Evans. Bangor is where some of the very early Organ seeds began to germinate but you don’t need to know that, you should go and explore some of those delightfully strange alternative bands that were seemingly to be found in every small town or city in the UK back there in the late 80’s though…

Right then, we’re out of here, there’s paint to throw, plants ro plant, art shows to currrrrrate, radio shows to make, art car boot fairs to think about, Next…