It is almost that time of year when things need to be tidied up again, things we’d thought we’d covered already and things we had intended to cover and never quite got around to it. Best intentions, not enough time, better late than never and well, take it up with your local bus company or maybe write an indignant letter to the Man from Delmonte, he’ll say yes and agree with everything you say and well.

And so you start listening back to the things you kept thinking you should review in some way, things you kept on going back to but never got around to saying something about and you ask yourself are they going to make that end of year list? I mean, right now that back from wherever they’ve been first album for many many year from The Jesus Lizard is playing again, Rack is a fine album, but is it in the top 43 of the year? Probably not, likewise this year’s album from Pixies, another fine fine album but is The Night The Zombies Came going to make the list? They were excellent in the sunshine of Victoria Park back in the Summer, they’ve always being really good and Zombies has been getting regular bits of dipping in for a bit style play in here since it came out, these bigger bands don’t really need us and unless their albums they release are absolutely vital do we need to spend valueable time reviewing them? probably not, it isn’t going make a difference to anyone, where as saying something about Dancer’s album that came out earlier this year might well.  

Dancer – 10 Songs I Hate About You (Meritorio Records) – There’s an urgent delight to Dancer’s positively lo-fi pop music, an almost shamble of pleasure. Slightly spiky, pointy and back in my day they did it in a different way, I like this way, this is the alive, this like the dawn of the internet and the birth of the sun or riding on the Docklands Light Railway (where you have to be quick to get the front seat), rein it in? Certainly not, really really should have covered this back in March when it came out, did have a reasonable excuse back then though. This is good, this is figgity – Figgity may refer to an  adjective that describes someone who is restless, anxious, or jittery, or maybe tales of growing up as a teenage horse or a international birdman. The Glasgow band are an uplifting tangle of lo-fi post punk flavoured indie pop goodness…  

Bandcamp / other links

They’ve been busy this year clearly….

They released a split album back in October, she doesn’t sound that Scotish, they released a split album on US label HHBTM Records, that’s Happy Happy Birthday To Me Me records to you and and me…

Dancer / Whisper Hiss – Split (HHBTM Records) – “Split is a split 12″ featuring six songs each by both Dancer and Whisper Hiss. This split release came about by chance. Whisper Hiss had solicited the HHBTM label to release a 7″ single and the label had just pitched doing a record with Dancer, who at the time was about to release their debut album. The label pitched the idea of the bands recording a few extra tracks and doing a split 12″ as a way of connecting the bands together and maybe have it to where the two bands could tour with each other in the USA and the UK. The packaging was designed by Keyboard Ape and the sleeve is a triple color screen-print and the middle labels are hand stamped. The album also includes a digital download and xerox insert”. 

Well forgive the lack of a u in colour back there, they are an American label, Dancer feel a little more focused on here there they were on their own, a little more polished, not too polished though, they are still a delight, that personality is still there, they are still up. And yes it does make sense for hem to share space with Whisper Hiss, they are of the same hue, the same areas of operation, both female fronted, both feisty, Whisper Hiss are a little bit more conventional, they’re maybe a little too repetitive and a touch too politely pop for us…   

Bandcamp

Abandoned Buildings – Eroding Light – Meanwhile “Abandoned Buildings are five friends who like to make noise in a dilapidated old mill in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Their music is influenced by the post-industrial landscape of the city and the stark beauty of the surrounding moors”. They’re not really saying post-industrial landscapes or abandoned building to me, they are making a rather creamy shoegazerish set of refined post rock flavoured indie sounding things though, they put an album out back in late September, they make a rather positive rather uplifting sound without really being that groundbreaking or different. They are rather good at what they do, there are some rather positive psych undertones in there, they’re a band you need to uncork and let breathe for a while, let them take their time to pleasantly reward you with their positive blend of flavours….

Bandcamp

English Teacher – This Could be Texas (Island) – Now this, before anything else is an absolutely gorgeous album, this is an album so full of uplifting emotion, so full of positive sound and colour and yet it comes from a place full of so many things, actually it comes from Leeds, or at least the band do, and it is so so beautiful but it comes from a time and place that is so right here right now and a world weighed down by prejudice, by the cost-of-living crisis, by mental health issues, by just trying to get through it all, it is just so nail hit-right-on-the-head yet it feel so good. There are so many cultural references, so many flavours, slices of subtle literary lines and tinker tailor, soldier, spy and and dabble. Some of it all whispered or softly spoken, some of it warmly minimal, some of it gently twisting around melodies. It flutters, it quietly soars, it takes flight like a small bird, instruments that flutter, a mellow delight, almost gently prog rock at times, quite, delicate, never fragile though and there goes another absolutely gorgeous bit, nearly everything about English Teacher is gorgeous. That bit wandering piano, those stings, are they strings? Those bits that into drums, into space or at lease the thought that we all can’t go. There’s some much it each of these beautifully uncluttered songs, each one of these pieces of art.

And this English Teacher album has been kicking around here for ages and we keep meaning to write something about how good it is, it came out back in April, we’ve just been enjoying it way too much to stand here and write about it – these things are written while standing up, keyboard on top a sticker-covered filing cabinet, space to pace while the music flows and I hope I can get my mind right now I can keep it up. They’re writing from real life. And this album has been kicking around here for months and then they went and won the Mercury Prize, no one good ever wins that we sneered, they went and won and off it all went and they really don’t need us now (which is good) and there is no real need for us to be saying anything here but it is so good, it is surely one of the albums of the year and we are starting to think about the end of the year and those lists and Albert Road does that thing to your spine every time as it builds up and well Lily Fontaine is an epic-scale front voice, she is just so right about it all and she and her fine fine band don’t need us so say so… This is a special album, an album that has so much to say and it just gets better and better (and hey don’t let the idea that it won some stupid music prize put you off, don’t let that blur your vision or break your biscuits) and there, written something at last, don’t let This Could Be Texas pass you by… (sw)   

And we did go back to that Kim Gordon album from March and well it might be good enough for Nancy and as hard as we might try we just can’t get going with it and there are many things we’ve missed and we never ever claimed to have it all nailed and well a million ways to get what you want