Monday Mix Tape Numero 6

Week 6 : The Scandinavian Mix Tape

by the aptly named Blizzard

Yo. I have the authority to do a mix on this subject because I went to Iceland 6 years ago and nearly died after a strenuous walk through the mountains in the pissing down rain. I passed out, but managed to wake up by the time the burgers and hot dogs had been cooked by the angelic Iceland girl with the rosy cheeks and ample bosom. Hurra for ample bosoms.

I'm going for something different with this one - not so many songs, and hardly a guitar in sight. Whack on a decent pair of cans, as the tension is in the detail. As the Finnish say.

Monday Mix Tape 6

1. Giuoco Piano - P. Jorgensen

2. Killshot - Ben Frost

3. Part 1/ IBM 1401 Processing Unit - Johann Johannsonn

4. Here Before (feat. Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid) - Fever Ray

5. TwentyTwoFourteen - The Album Leaf

6. If You Ever Need A Stranger (To Sing At Your Wedding) - Jens Lekman

7. Pollon Pentu - Kuupuu

8. Track 6 (There is probably an actual name for this track, but it aint on my scruffy itunes...) - Olafu Arnalds

9. Pversogn - Sigur Ros

10. I Was Her Horse - Mum

11. Wrong Gods - Troels Abrahamsen

The Nichols Family Gospel Hour – Polemic EP (2008)

It's my sister's 18th birthday tomorrow and because it's a weekend and my dad works away, we're going for a family meal today - how tenuous a link can you get? Anyways, this is very good, as it said on a blog I read about the album, it pretty much sounds like like Godspeed You! Black Emperor making country music. If you've ever read Nick Cave's brilliant novel And The Ass Saw The Angel, this is the perfect soundtrack for it; it has the same dark atmosphere. Enjoy.

The Nichols Family Gospel Hour – Polemic EP (2008)

Monkey – Journey To The West (2008)

Continuing our animal theme...this is a bit of a weird album, so bear with me, and please don't be afraid to give it a listen. This is an electronic opera written & produced by Damon Albarn, and performed by the UK Chinese Ensemble, a Chinese orchestra, as a soundtrack to a stage show also written by Albarn. It's based on a sixteenth-century Chinese novel about a a monkey, a pig, a water monster and a Buddhist monk who travel on a pilgrimage from China to India having all kinds of adventures. The book is probably a bit boring, so watch the 70s Japanese TV show Monkey instead, it's fucking sweet; just like this album. Enjoy.

Monkey – Journey To The West (2008)

Three things

A few things. Well, three things:

1) Top Ten of 2009 - we are going to do a Top Ten of 2009 sometime over the next few weeks. We are a democratic blog we are, so please feel free to sumbit your Top Ten by e-mail or Facebook or even MySpace; we'll use a complicated points system to choose a Top Ten. Any album released between 1 January and 31 December is eligible - studio, EP live, best of, various artists compilation etc. etc. 2010 albums that have leaked are NOT allowed - naughty children!
2) Facebook - join our Facebook group by clicking here.
3) We also have a rarely used MySpace - click to see how shit it is!

Jet Black Berries

I got a nice e-mail from the drummer of this band and said I'd do a little thing for him, so here it is. Jet Black Berries were first making music back in the mid-to-late 80s, and appeared on the Return of the Living Dead soundtrack alongside the Cramps and the Damned; and anything zombie-themed is always welcome cos zombies are great. They reformed this year with a new singer, and have started making new music, with an album slated for release next year. Enjoy.

MySpace

Grizzly Bear – Horn Of Plenty (2004)

Grizzly Bear's debut album Horn Of Plenty is basically a solo effort from main man Edward Droste; the rest of the band didn't join for another year, and in some respects the band is still primarily a front for Droste, who still remains the sole songrwiter five years later. Consequently, because there is no backing band, the album has a stripped-down sound, and Droste has been forced to use his voice as an instrument; he multilayers his vocals to create an almost-spectral sound. All in all, Droste has managed to craft a rather beautiful lo-fi album. Enjoy.

Grizzly Bear – Horn Of Plenty (2004)

Bear vs. Shark – Terrorhawk (2005)

Another gem from Chev's collection, and one which, when I first heard it, I couldn't stop listening to for weeks. This is just utterly brilliant post-hardcore - if you liked the Les Savy Fav I posted a few weeks back, then this is for you, and even if you didn't, this is a highly accessible album - and I can't really say anymore than that other than:

Enjoy.

Bear vs. Shark – Terrorhawk (2005)

Minus The Bear – Planet Of Ice (2007)

Indie rock that's just the right side of emo, Minus The Bear are from that great musical city of Seattle. They use a tapping technique which, to my non-musician ears (when I was 10 I was given a music scholorship at school, until my parents said they'd made a mistake, FML), sounds pretty much exactly the same as normal playing. But ho-hum, I'm sure some music geek will tell me the intricate differences in sound. This is one of a great number of bands introduced to me by my dear friend Chev whose music collection would make even John Peel weep. Enjoy.

LINK REMOVED BY REQUEST

Panda Bear – Panda Bear (1998)

Noah Lennox, AKA Panda Bear, is the lead singer of everyone's favourite psych-weirdos Animal Collective. This record, his debut album as a solo artist, was written and recorded when he was just twenty, and taking that into consideration, it just makes it seem all the greater. I much prefer this album over 2004's Young Prayer, which is a rather lo-fi affair written following the death of his father, and 2007's Person Pitch, which, despite the fact that music journalists the world over seem to be crawling over one another to lavish it with superlatives in a big circle jerk, it just sounds like everything else Animal Collective have produced; this self-titled album is definitely a solo affair, and is all the better for it. Enjoy.

Panda Bear – Panda Bear (1998)

Monday Mixtape #5

Dave's chosen this week's theme, yet hasn't bothered to do a mixtape for it. Go figure.

Week 5: Bears!

Yes children, you heard correctly - bears. The clue was in the song 'Eisbär' by Swiss disco legends Grauzone in yesterday's post. Dave wanted a kakapo-themed week but seeing as no-one actually likes the stupid birds other than him, let alone any bands, and consequently that was a dead-end. So instead, please feel free to sample 25 of the finest songs ever written that have 'bear' in the title or 'bear' in the band name; admittedly one or two are a bit 'meh' and a couple are just weird, but most are good. Enjoy.

Monday Mixtape #5

1. Acres & Acres – Polar Bear Song
2. Rose Melberg – Bear In A Cave
3. Edward Bear – Fly Across The Sea
4. Bipolar Bear – Manbase
5. Bearsuit – Foxy Boxer
6. Volcano The Bear – Burnt Seer
7. The Bear Quartet – Millions
8. Bear Hands – Bad Blood
9. Bird & Bear – Practical Imagination
10. Javelins – I Was Raised As A Polar Bear
11. Alan Price – Simon Smith & His Amazing Dancing Bear
12. Bear On Bear – Magpies
13. Boy & Bear – Mexican Mavis
14. Tiger Bear Wolf – Input, Output
15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Honeybear
16. Benjamin Bear – This Rusty Truck
17. Poler Bear – Parachute
18. Hello Electric – The Bear King
19. Motorama – Bear
20. Huggy Bear – Her Jazz
21. Holiday Shores – Bradley Bear (Live)
22. The Damned – Edward The Bear
23. Bombadil – Otto The Bear
24. Bear In Heaven – Lovesick Teenagers
25. Black Bear – Australia, Olympia, Poughkeepsie

Cut Copy – FabricLive.29 (2006)

So last night I went to my friend's house party to celebrate his 22 years of achievement on Earth, and there were three gnarly Aussies there. They had spent 24 hours on various planes, were forced to wait for 6 hours in Stansted Airport, and then had to endure the pleasures of a five-hour MegaBus ride up to Leeds. They hadn't slept for 2 days, hadn't properly washed in 4, and yet they still managed to outparty everyone there. I think they went through 2 crates of beer or something; then they started a fire (after I had drunkenly demanded they "put some shrimp on the barbie"), broke a chair, started a moshpit etc. etc. So this album is in their honour; it's a great mixtape from the marvellous Cut Copy. Oh, and one of the tracks is a clue to next week's theme...enjoy.

Cut Copy – FabricLive.29 (2006)

Penpal – Penpal (2009)

This band takes all the good elements from indie, math-rock and emo, and fuses them into this nicely chilled-out and rather enjoyable album. Basically, if I was slightly hungover on a Californian beach, early in the morning, and the sun was rising, and this album was playing, it would just seem so apt and so perfect. I know that's incredibly wanky and pretentious of me - I've never even been to California for fuck's sake! - but that's just the imagery that the album immediately - and I mean immediately - conjured up in my mind. Hope you have a similar experience! Enjoy.

Penpal – Penpal (2009)

A Certain Ratio – The Graveyard & The Ballroom (1980)

Ending the week on a high cos the weather is so terrible, I'm wet (not in a good way) and need chearing up, so let's put some A Certain Ratio on, crack out whistles, and have a fucking boss dance party. This is post-punk fused with dance and funk (post-funk?!), and is just a whole heap of fun. This album was released by Factory Records on cassette only, as is therefore extraordinarily cool. It also helps that it is also extraordinarily brilliant. Enjoy.

A Certain Ratio – The Graveyard & The Ballroom (1980)

Cocteau Twins – Treasure (1984)

And this one isn't post-punk in the slightest! It's probably best descrived as "ethereal dream pop" - dark, ambitiously atmospheric soundscapes that incorporate elements of both ambient and electronic music, and which can be seen as one of the parent albums of the late 80s/early 90s shoegaze fun explosion. Another blog I read once said that the world is split into two groups - people who love this album, and people who haven't heard it yet. I think that pretty much sums it up perfectly. Enjoy.

Cocteau Twins – Treasure (1984)

The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro (1980)

Not a true post-punk album in my eyes, but a great record nonethtless. The angular guitars and prominent base that dominated other post-punk records is replaced by a slightly poppier sound, almost watered-down - one guitar is replaced by a keyboard, and the bass fades slightly into the background, and some trumpets even make a guest appearance - but don't let that put you off; this is a very accessible, very good album. The Teardrop Explodes also did a very good Peel Session, which I much prefer - if you want it posting, let me know. Enjoy.

Link removed by request

Gang Of Four – Entertainment! (1979)

This is possibly my favourite post-punk album. It was one of the first I heard, when I was about 15 or 16. Despite the prevalence of punk and post-punk bands active in Manchester during this period, Gang Of Four were actually four students from my hometown of Leeds, and so it has a special. It's political but not in the annoying Rage Against The Machine way; they sing about sex but not in your typical teenage manner; and it's slightly influenced by funk and reggae - a theme that will be explored in greater detail later in the week. Enjoy.

Gang Of Four – Entertainment! (1979)

Monday Mixtape #4

Another day, another dollar. But not for poor old unemployed me - I'll have to console myself with sandwiches and back-to-back episodes of Dog The Bounty Hunter. What a shame...

Week 4: The 80s

Well, kind-of the 80s - half of the songs are actually from the late 70s. You see, I started off trying to cover the entire 80s spectrum, because it was such a boss decade - synth pop, classic hip hop, shoegaze etc. etc., but in the end it was just getting too long & hard, so I narrowed it down to 80s post-punk (oh Dave, did you know I liked post-punk?). It's mainly British as well, with a couple of Yanks thrown in for fairness, due to out "special friendship" and all that. But post-punk was also great in the late 70s, so I had to include songs from then...it's not all post-punk though - I've also included some good little punk songs, and a bit of C83 and shoegaze, as well as the Smiths - it may be cliched, but they were damn good and what kind of 80s mixtape would be complete without them, eh? Enjoy.

Monday Mixtape #4

1. Young Marble Giants – Searching For Mr. Right
2. My Bloody Valentine – Drive It All Over Me
3. The Ruts – Staring At The Rude Boys
4. The Fall – Psykick Dance Hall
5. Talulah Gosh – Be Your Baby (Peel Session)
6. The Smiths – This Charming Man (Peel Session)
7. Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love
8. The Jasmine Minks – Think
9. Elvis Costello – (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea
10. UK Subs – Warhead
11. Sonic Youth – Pipeline/Kill Time
12. A.R. Kane – A Love From Outer Space
13. Delta 5 – Mind Your Own Business
14. XTC – Making Plans For Nigel
15. The Undertones – Teenage Kicks
16. The Clash – The Guns Of Brixton
17. Penetration – Don’t Dictate
18. Joy Division – A Means To An End
19. The Child Molesters – I’m Gonna Punch You In The Face
20. Essential Logic – Aerosol Burns

The Soft Pack – The Muslims (2008)

Another garage rock album today, although from the other side of the Atlantic. It's another EP as well, albeit one with 10 tracks (!), as I think the ethos of garage rock is more suited to short, hard-hitting tracks as opposed to long, drawn-out albums. This record was recorded by the Soft Pack back when they were still known as the Muslims; it's just good fun, and much like yesterday's Let's Wrestle EP, highly simple but dangerously effective. Enjoy.

The Soft Pack – The Muslims (2008)

Let’s Wrestle – In Loving Memory Of... (2007)

I bought my copy of Neutral Milk Hotel from the same place - the rather excellent Jumbo Records in Leeds - and at the same time, on one of my annual Boxing Day music binges. This is a great little EP from a great little garage band from London. The music is simple and the production is kept to a minimum, but the quality and enjoyment comes in bucketloads. Some songs are early versions of songs that appear on debut album In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's, which is also well worth checking out. Enjoy.

Let’s Wrestle – In Loving Memory Of... (2007)

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (1998)

Argh, I'd love to spend hours writing aabout how good this album is, and how it's one of my all-time favourites, but I've got a train to catch. So what I will say is that this album is one of the greatest of all time, perfect in every sense. It sounds utterly whole and complete, and yet the tracks are still songs as opposed to movements in the greater symphony. Can Jeff Magnum sing? Can he bollocks; but that only adds to the album. He sings his little heart out, and emotion is greater than any formal training for ability. Case in point - 'Oh Comely', an eight minute track that was recorded on the first take. You can even heat the sound engineer say 'Oh shit!' at the end of the song - that's how damn good this album is! Enjoy.

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (1998)

Les Savy Fav – Inches (2004)

I was genuinely torn between posting this album and 2007's Let's Stay Friends. The latter is the first album of theirs I heard, and is arguably their best - more consistent, more of a whole, than any of their earlier albums. So why, you may well be wondering, did I post Inches instead? Well partly because it contains the original of 'The Sweat Descends' that was covered by Art In Manila for Monday's mixtape, but mainly because it is a compilation album, collecting together their vinyl-only singles recorded and released between 1995 and 2004. Because it is an older album, it naturally has a rawer sound, and because it is a compilation, there is little coherence or links between the songs. Overall, I feel, it makes for a better introduction to a fantastic band. Enjoy.

Les Savy Fav – Inches (2004)

The Knife – Deep Cuts (2003)

Yes, José González's cover of 'Heartbeats' may have been an obvious choice for this week's playlist, but I stick by it, as it's a great version. But the original, which appears on this, the second album of Sweden's premier electropoppers, is so much better; in fact, the album as a whole is just generally ace. The Knife are a mysterious bunch - they rarely have photos taken, and when they do they wear masks, and they only play live gigs fleetingly. They're not that prolific either - they've only produced three albums and a movie soundtrack in nearly a decade. This enigma they are wrapped snugly in only adds to the attraction and enjoyment of the album, somehow. Enjoy.

The Knife – Deep Cuts (2003)

Love – Forever Changes (1967)

Wow. Just wow. This album remains one of my favourites of all time, definitely up there with the album I'm going to post on Friday. It was produced by singer Arthur Lee, whose death gave me my first taste of music journalism, compelling me to write a letter into NME, which was published, yay! Building upon the psychadelic rock of their first two albums, musically Forever Changes is actually much more chilled out than its predecessors, but lyrically, it is unbelievably and shockingly dark; written and recorded when the Vietnam War was becoming more and more of a disaster for the US, it is almost passive aggressive in its tone, which only adds to its utter & complete brilliance. Enjoy.

Love – Forever Changes (1967)

Monday Mixtape #3

Dave's been busy this week eating lush food in various cities around the UK, so this week's theme is 100% Pip. I hope you don't mind.

Week 3: Covers

This week's albums will be by either the bands being covered, or the bands covering - obviously. Covers can be a bit difficult; bands have to show respect for the original while remaining unique and original. I've chosen some of my favourite covers, and I've tried to avoid famous or 'classic' covers, although one or two may have seeped in cos they are actually damn good. Some personal highlights include Love's cover of 'Hey Joe' (oh, and it isn't a Hendrix original, it was first recorded by a garaga band called the Leaves, although the authorship remains contentious), as I heart Arthur Lee; Florence & The Machine covering Beirut (it is telling that her only two good songs are both covers...); and Iron & Wine's live version of the Stones' 'Wild Horses', which is just such a beautiful song. If I ever find a girl foolish enough to marry me, I'm going to insist on having the original as our wedding song. Oh, and I didn't intend to have two Pixies covers after one another, but I couldn't be arsed to actually put any thought into the order of the playlist, so I let iTunes shuffle do it for me, and that's the way it turned out. Enjoy.

Monday Mixtape #3

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Sheena Is A Punk Rocker – original by the Ramones
2. The White Stripes – Jolene (Peel Session) – original by Dolly Parton
3. Franz Ferdinand – All My Friends – original by LCD Soundsystem
4. Art In Manila – The Sweat Descends – original by Les Savy Fav
5. Tunng – The Pioneers – original by Bloc Party
6. Love – Hey Joe – original by the Leaves
7. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone – Graceland – original by Paul Simon
8. Otis Redding – (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction – original by the Rolling Stones
9. Florence & The Machine – Postcards From Italy – original by Beirut
10. Iron & Wine – Wild Horses (Live) – original by the Rolling Stones
11. José González – Heartbeats – original by the Knife
12. Run Toto Run – Sleepy Head – original by Passion Pit
13. Andrew Jackson Jihad – Two-Headed Boy – original by Neutral Milk Hotel
14. Emily Haines – Don't Think Twice, It's All Right – original by Bob Dylan
15. Band Of Horses – Plans– original by Grizzly Bear
16. Jens Lekman – You Can Call Me Al (Live) – original by Paul Simon
17. Tom Williams & The Boat – Bonkers – original by Dizzee Rascal
18. xx – You've Got The Love – original by the Source
19. TV On The Radio – Mr. Grieves – original by the Pixies
20. Emmy The Great – Where Is My Mind? (Live) – original by the Pixies

Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights (2002)

It still grates on me that the band which really kind of kickstarted the British post-punk revival - a scene which originated in Manchester in northern England - is from New York. True, two of the members are British-born, but they're still an American band. I'm incredibly hungover, and I think I've got chesnut poisoning, so I'm not going to go on and on about how damn good this album is. It's just an album you can listen to over and over, and never get bored, and always find something new to appreciate. No matter what kind of mood you're in - whether you want to party or just chillax - it just moulds itself into the perfect album for you. Enjoy.

Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights (2002)

Idlewild – 100 Broken Windows (2000)

Classic British indie rock that only slightly preceded this week's time period, yet is quite different. It's not angular or jangular or blangular; it's a full sound, good old proper rock. Every song's great. It is just too good to put into words, so I'm not going to attempt to, seeing as I am watching the football while typing this. Apparently it's Roddy Wombibble's favourite Idlewild album, and it's definitely mine - by far. The proof is always in the pudding, so chow down on this bad boy. Enjoy.

LINK REMOVED BY REQUEST

Tom Vek – We Have Sound (2005)

...and something different again. Do we have four skinny blokes? No, we have but one. Tom Vek is a self-taught London-based multi-instrumental (wow, hyphen overload!) who wrote, produced, and played all the instruments on his 2005 debut. He's also something of a mystery - his website has said he has been "working on new material" ever since the album came out, but not a peep has been heard yet. Hmm. Anyways, props to my main man Ally B for hitting me up with this sweet album all those years ago. It's just guitars with an electronic undercurrent, and some classic drums. Simple yet highly effective. Enjoy.

Tom Vek – We Have Sound (2005)

Errors – How Clean Is Your Acid House? (2006)

So, something different today. Do we have a band made of four skinny blokes? Yes. But do we have a jangly guitar band singing songs about love and loss? No. Instead, Errors are what could be described as "electro post-rock", seeing as they fuse both electro and post-rock. Simple. They hail from Glasgow and are signed to post-rock Gods Mogwai's record label, which gives you some idea of how well thought-of they are. Anyways, this is a little five-track EP back from 2006 (the 2008 debut album is arguably better, but comes after this week's time period of 2002-2007) which is largely instrumental, and reminds me of a much less pretentious Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia. Enjoy.

Errors – How Clean Is Your Acid House? (2006)

Good Shoes – Think Before You Speak (2007)

The more beady-eyed among you will notice that both today's and yesterday's albums are from 2007, the very end of our five-year spell. Partly because they are two of the best albums produced in this period and on this theme, and partly because the bands which were active in this period seemed to shine brilliantly and then burn out in this latter period. Expect something a bit different tomorrow & Friday. Anyways, I recently realised how much I love this album - it is just about perfect. It's an album that deals with love and heartbreak, without being whiny and annoying; it also deals with the utter despair at one's hometown, and the resignation that you can probably never escape it. But despite all that (seeming) negativity, this album is uplifting and simply just an utter joy to listen to. Enjoy.

Good Shoes – Think Before You Speak (2007)

The Maccabees – Colour It In (2007)

When I first heard the song 'About Your Dress', I became obsessed with it - literally. I think I watched the video on YouTube about 80 times in a row, and I had the lyrics committed to memory; even now, nearly three years later, I'll happily reel it off after a pint or two. That's how good I thought this album was when it first came out. Yes, it's lost it's impact over time, and yes, Orlando's whiny vocals still grate a bit, but this album remains a perfect embodiment of whatever Dave was jabbering on about yesterday.

The Maccabees – Colour It In (2007)

Monday Mixtape #2

This week's theme was chosen by Dave who, like me, is pining a bit for our ace student days again, but he's whining like a bitch about it whereas I am being a man and handling it with a quiet grace.

Week 2: British Indie 2002-2007
2002-2007 spanned almost our entire teenage lives - ages 14-19 - and so it a pretty important time for emotional growth blah blah blah. The picture is from back in our first year of Uni; I'm the blonde lad who looks a bit special and Dave is the creep in the foreground. We'd been to a You Say Party! We Say Die! / Los Campesinos! gig and the band were DJing afterwards in a local club called the Cooperage, which is a very narrow, very tall and very old building down on the Quayside - or was, until local residents complained about "noise pollution" and had it shut down. Cunts. Anyways, literally the only people there were us and the bands. We got really drunk, Dave became a Ninja, and him and Jez told the lead singer of Los Camp! he was an emo and to get a haircut; he did and wrote a blog about it. Bloody emo.
Anyways, me & Dave have each done a ten-track mix (I can't be arsed to do tracklistings, yo'll have to read the essay Dave has written), both of which approach the theme from very different angles.

Pip's Mix
My teenage years were a happy time, a time when post-punk revival guitar bands roamed the earth. Me & my mates would have houseparties - which basically consisted of drinking Fosters and dancing around like tits while singing like lads. So it's only fair that my mix reflects that - so I'm more than happy to include demos & early tracks from the likes of Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, The Rakes, Franz Ferdinand, The Cribs et al. A better time? One that I certainly miss, but one which I am also happy to have grown out of (there's that emotional growth shiznit again!) - the post-punk revival allowed me to discover the original post-punk. Anyways, it's nice to reminisce. Enjoy.

Dave's Mix
I hate to say it, but the truth of the matter is that the Yanks have us licked. From the noise-pop emanating from LA to Brooklyn's psychedelia, the music, both in terms of breadth and volume, pouring out of the US has come to dominate the twilight throes of the noughties. And what's more, the prognosis remains bleak. The UK dithered too long in the post-punk revival sparked by the "new rock revolution" and when it eventually emerged, bloody and bruised, it found that a new wave of synth-pop bands had stolen its car and was sleeping with the missus.
Just how did it come to this? It's especially sad, as at one point, it looked like we might be developing the closest thing a national scene has come to self-sufficiency since the dawn of the internet. Thus, my mixtape focuses on an important and tumultuous time for the British indie scene, but one that will no doubt be forgotten when the era is reviewed in decades to come. I'm talking about the bright young things that made up the class of '05.
While angular guitar bands continued to dominate during the period, it was clear they'd reached their zenith, and that it was mostly downhill from there. That's not to say that successful developments stopped being made, hence the presence of Maximo Park and Good Shoes on the mix, just that the initial explosion of frenetic energy that characterised England, and London especially, at the start of the decade, launching bands such as The Libertines and Bloc Party had all but dissipated. Swagger and pomp had returned to rock, pushed it further towards the mainstream and, like it had done before, made a lot of people very bored, very quickly. Albion? Arcadia? Band of the people? The dream had died, the entrails picked over and smeared across the tabloid headlines as the new indie struggled to keep for itself what it had created and worried over the morals of even attempting just that.
Oh well, whatever, waa waa waa. Taking inspiration from New York's understated but over-publicized anti-folk scene, and with Thamesbeat’s urn under one arm, a clutch of singer-songwriters got ready to save England. They very nearly managed it, too. Nearly. Y'see one of the problems with the bright young things of '05, was that the operative word was definitely 'young'. The manic British press had been steadily working itself up about the most youthful artists they could find for quite some time, no bad thing in itself. I'm all for celebrating youth and all that, but the British press, in their hurry to observe everything, often end up crafting as well as just looking and it has proved time and time again to birth something that is essentially unsustainable.
Now, here's the point, many have cited the youth of British artists as the reason the vast majority of them fail to achieve longevity, but this isn't the case. It's because they're not allowed to grow up properly. Far from being overly cynical, as many have accused the various magazines of being, they actually placed too much faith in those 17-year olds. They play a few gigs, upload a few scratchy demos, and the blogosphere starts to rustle. The gigs start to fill up, all fine and dandy, but suddenly one over-zealous NME journo shows up and the next thing you know, Kate Nash is signed to a major.
After the resulting exploitation happens, and albums are showered in gloss they didn’t need, it's really very difficult to persuade people that these guys were any good, ever. But they were. In those original demos lay the strength and the advantage these artists had with their youth, their happiness at being able to play songs, the exuberance of sincerity and the distilling of that already-present accented singing really made them look like the future. This reads like an epitaph, but really, not one of them actually survived the attention they got with their souls fully intact. No respectable music fan will now admit being a fan of Jack Penate or Kate Nash, but there really was a time when they weren't bent over.
For me, that little epoch represents the best that England produced during the period these mixes are covering, a true representation of the youth of the day, whatever they went on to (fail to) achieve, I'll remember them as the people they should've been.
Emmy the Great, whose slow-burning, cautious attitude towards 'the biz' saved her from the majority of the damage contributes the XFM version of 'Two Steps Forward'. A showcase of her hyper-literate song-writing, the lyrics sum up for me (I'll admit in a rather self-satisfied manner), what exactly the problem was. Jack Penate, much maligned for his white-boy reggae influences similarly contributes an XFM session song in the form of 'Torn On The Platform', a tune in which you can tell he really meant it, despite the dreadful lyrics (as ever, Jack). Los Campesinos!, whose debut possibly suffered the most at the hands of over-production have the demo version of 'You Throw Parties, We Throw Knives', possibly the biggest statement of wanton, joyous intent (or lack thereof?), any of the groups managed to produce. Jamie T, despite being a Wimbledon trustafarian to his core displays great self-awareness in his cover of Bragg's 'A New England' somehow reinventing the sacrosanct blue-collar anthem by barely changing it. Laura Marling's delicate re-working of Dylan's 'Lay Lady Lay', 'Tap At My Window', which was sodomized beyond belief when it resurfaced on her debut appears here in its wonderful original form, as heard on her debut EP. Good Shoes' 'Morden' and Maximo Park's 'The Coast Is Always Changing' show that if more bands had just thought before they spoke (ahem), the post-punk revival could have truly achieved something great. 'We Dress Up Like Snowmen' and 'Big House' by The Wave Pictures and Thom Stone respectively, represent artists that kept their dignity only because the scene collapsed before anyone had noticed them. And The Maccabees, the one band to truly thrive (for one album at least), lend their most representative song 'First Love', to a mix that celebrates naivety, grass-roots musicians and, more than anything else, the sheer elation of being young with all the excitement, foibles and worries that it brings.
I have one final thought, and it's a depressing one. When the all-too-shiny official releases from these artists brought down the very thing they had sought to prove, they did more damage than even I initially thought. It is now virtually impossible to find a great deal of the rough demo and session material that represents the 'golden' period, searching the internet for it will merely bring up the newer, more sterile, versions. When I started ear-marking songs for this mix in my head, there were a number that I then subsequently, simply could'’t find. So wherever you are, Kate Nash demos, Jeremy Warmsley 7” tracks, Simon Mastrantone originals and practically every track by O Lousy Tired Gal, may you rest in peace.

The Whitest Boy Alive – Rules (2009)

Formed in Indonesia and based in Germany, this band is fronted by Norwegian Erlend Øye, better known as one half of Kings of Convenience. He may look like Napolean Dynamite, but he is one cool cat. He may well be the whitest boy alive (well second if you count me - I'm basically transparent) - but he somehow manages to make the most amazing, chilled-out funky indie pop. This is just an amazing album. Enjoy.

The Whitest Boy Alive – Rules (2009)