Never mind the editorial bit at the top or what we said the last time or last year, you’ve read all this already, just jump down past this editorial and let the actual music do the actually walking and the talking. Exact same thing again, another five (or so) slices of musical things that have passed our way recently and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of apples and here comes the intro….

Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Do we need to do the editorial bit again? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling flying rabbits out of the clouds? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever a reason? What do reasons make? Five more? Snake oil? Everything must go and same as last time (and the time before that) five, and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter why we started this damn thing and like we asked last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? We do really try to listen to everything that comes in, we do it so you don’t have to, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or about what gets played on the radio or indeed what we hang in a gallery. Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial, there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and cut cut slash and cut it, who needs an editorial or words or worms in general? What’s Wordsworth? Just facts and links and sounds then. Here you go, play the music, grab your five, eat your greens, go eat some art, go eat some fresh music and don’t forget whatever it was we said last time…

Here we go again, same as last time, in no particular order….

1: Bodega – NYC’s Bodega return today with news of their signing to Chrysalis and that their third album, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, is coming April 12th. The band also share their “thrilling” new single, Tarkovski, a song said to already fast becoming a live favourite after appearing in the set during their last UK tour.” It acts as a first taster of their upcoming LP, an ever-ambitious, fiercely playful record that widens their sonic palette ever further, offering up a cohesive, moreish set of songs that are both stylistically diverse and irresistibly anthemic”. The first thing to say is that the new single instantly sounds like Bodega, they have that vital thing that is a musical identity, a sound, a fingerprint, and yes, they are thrilling. We’re still feasting on all their Statuettes Sur La Console and yes, we need more, Bodega matter… 

Ben Hozie, joint lead vocalist of Bodega had the following to say about the themes behind their new single:

“Tarkovski is a pun on the famous Russian director and skiing; I was enamoured by his book Sculpting in Time but found that many of his professed rules and guidelines for film making were broken by his own film making practices. Theory never really gets at what you want and applying theory to the chaotic practice of art making (while still useful and essential) is like skiing down a wild slope.”

The new single is accompanied by a visually arresting music video, directed by Luca Balser and starring Nikki’s mother. It quotes the climactic candle-carrying sequence in Tarkovsky’s 1983 feature-length Nostalghia but quickly veers from studied long takes into punchy pop vogueing: theory never gets at what you really want.

In addition, a B-side to the single, Adaptation of the Truth About Marie, is available now exclusively from Bodega’s Bandcam

The band’s third and greatest LP yet, ​​​Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, is a full ‘remake’ of Ben and Nikki’s old band Bodega Bay’s sole LP which was a self-released 33 track album from 2015.

They approached this project like how a director might ‘remake’ one of their old films which meant writing a number of new songs and developing old ideas in new directions. It is a concept album about the current corporate mentality of underground/indie rock, where the band simultaneously desecrate and celebrate a certain indie rock cannon, hoping to redeem its’ ‘fall from grace’ like foolish missionaries who inherited a stained formal tradition that needs to change in order to become meaningful again.

The album will be available on digital, CD and a silver coloured vinyl paired with a 20 page lyric booklet. Rough Trade will also have an exclusive run of 100 lino prints, handmade, numbered and signed by the band’s own Nikki Belfiglio…

2: Slift – More Slift, were on a mission now, this is the French band live on KEXP a couple of months ago… KEXP.ORG presents Slift performing Ilion live in the KEXP studio back in September 2023.” We’re talking KayoDot style good here aren’t we?

and….

3: NiCKY, the “artistic identity of composer, pianist & singer Nicky Harris, shares an evocative new piano piece ‘4frida’, taken from their beautiful forthcoming debut EP ‘by’. A gentle, evocative solo piano work, ‘4frida’ is an ode to a time of isolation, urgent escapism and consoling friendship, dedicated to NiCKY’s close friends and their newborn daughter. Between the notes of masters and contemporaries like Erik Satie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Duval Timothy, ‘4frida’ is a softly enunciated, peaceful tribute to overcoming contemporary struggle and dislocation, and emerging on the other side, moving towards the light of new beginnings. A perfect way to enter the new year.”

According to NiCKY, the conception of ‘4frida’ was shaped by the surreal essence of life under lockdown, yet is now defined by ties of friendship and cherished connection: “I wrote this piece living in a warehouse near Tower Bridge with 14 others during the Covid era. It was such a surreal time of separation, confinement, joy, hedonism, claustrophobia! Songwriting became an escape and something I could make sense of in an abstract time. I sent an initial phone recording overseas to distant best friends going through a long, tiring labour during one of those everlasting lockdown months. This is the first song Frida heard when she came into this world. As her ungodly parent I thought the best thing I could do in the situation was name a song after her.”

‘4frida’ is the third single taken from ‘by’, the debut EP of poignant solo piano torch songs by NiCKY. Inspired by the aesthetics of the circus as well as East London’s queer performance scene, NiCKY inhabits an artistic identity that echoes the tender-hearted songcraft of Anohni and Perfume Genius coupled with the dramatic costume design of Leigh Bowery and Pierrot (the sad clown, famously depicted by Ashes to Ashes era Bowie).

Bandcamp

Watch the rather beautiful video for first single and Sandy Denny cover ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’

4: Mega Cat – They’re from Seattle, Washington, they’re another band who annoyinglly don’t do capital letters, they have an album out in February. The two tracks we can hear at the moment (via Bandcamp) tell us they’re a rather interesting, rather mellow, rather laid back, rather adventurous instrumetal outfit, they have a touch of the experimental film soundtrack about them…

“mega cat was first discovered in a basement home studio in the Central District of Seattle, Washington by audio chemists Aaron Benson (drums, percussion, guitar) Kim West (synthesizer, piano) and Ryan Devlin (bass, guitar). Upon first encountering mega cat, all three researchers experienced a loss of time, body dissociation, euphoria, and ego death. Reports of holographic thought, enhanced perception, and minor instances of levitation have been widely documented from just one encounter with mega cat. Though the being doesn’t seem to use traditional language to communicate, mega cat transmits instrumental narratives that feel familiar to fans of 20th century science fiction, afro-beat, hip hop, and psychedelic music. In a rare interview, the creature stated “mega cat is mutant. mega cat isn’t done mutating”

5: Alvidrez – A new name to us, Californian Glasgow-based artist Alvidrez has just signed to Memorials of Distinction and announced a debut album Antiphon, Alvidrez has also just shared this rather beautiful new single Hymn For The Corner. “Sacred, meditative, aching experimental pop steeped in choral vocals, hymnal arrangements and majestic soundscapes” is what we’re told to expect…

Bandcamp

And while we’re here….

This came out last year, it is rather hard to mess up this piece of beauty, The Caughtery didn’t so why not share it here?

And one more time before we get going on a new year of radio shows and more…

ORGAN: The New Years Eve Organ radio show on Resonance FM, the playlist, the links and the details and if you missed it then listen back to the show here…