Ashley loved the dreamy trip-hop psychedelia of the first Shortwave Set's album.This time round they have been hanging out with Danger Mouse, John Cale and Van Dyke Parks and delivered what at least one PopJunkie reckons is the album of the summer in Replica Sun Machine.

The episode in which

Sean thinks Madonna should hang up her odd shaped bras and, ahem, interesting leisure wear and concentrate on child rearing. Meanwhile Victoria dissects The Glastonbury line up while gushing about ace Scandi country rocksters Hyacinth House. The video comes from Ashley's psych-lite faves The Shortwave Set

The Shortwave Set – Replica sun machine

Seduced by the alethiometeresque cover, but disappointed by the frequency with which the wan, characterless vocals of Andrew Pettitt displace the considerably more elegant singing of Ulrika Bjornse.  Danger Mouse production?  Check.  Van Dyke Parks string arrangements?  Check.  Tunes?  Mostly.  ‘Glitches ‘n’ bugs’, ‘Distant daze’ and ‘No social’ stand out.

Elbow – The seldom seen kid

In the last couple of years Elbow’s records have been surreptitiously stealing their way to the centre of my listening world.  This confirms their place there with its high musicality and wry humour.  Guy Garvey’s songs are lugubrious and beautiful, even managing to reanimate the corny image of the mirrorball.

DeVotchKa – A mad and faithful telling

Romany Mexican indie with Greek or Klezmer undertones, anyone?  Not forgetting occasional forays into chamber and oompah band territories?  Singer Nick Urata looks like a roughed-up cross between Clooney and Morrissey.  One song – ‘The clockwise witness’ – is truly great, throwing off excessive stylistic colouring for an affecting shade of blue.

Carl Craig – Sessions

How long it’s been since I was lost in niteklub rhythm.  For all that Craig is a master of dancefloor dynamics, Sessions ultimately feels relentless, at home or in car.  It’s a relief when the end is near and the unpredictable rhythms of ‘Bug in the bass bin’ take hold.

Four Tet – Ringer

A river whose flow is as relentless as Sessions, but out of the current more is going on.  I wish I had more time to relax into ‘Swimmer’’s patterns; fretted less about the time Kieran Hebden takes to develop his swirls and eddies.  Moments of life that won’t come again.

Neon Neon – Stainless style

After the Rhys-Boom Bip collaboration on Blue eyed in the red room, and Gruff’s loveable Candylion, a disappointment.  In evoking the worst aspects of the eighties, it’s loud, shiny, and as attractive as the boxy lines of the De Lorean car.  But ‘I lust u’ achieves a  Depeche Mode-esque melancholy.

Colin Meloy – Colin Meloy sings live

Just occasionally in these solo performances, Colin Meloy is one note short of a melody.  Otherwise he conveys the best of the Decemberists – as well as Shirley Collins and the Smiths – with songwriter’s conviction, stand-up comedy and helpings of the ‘campfire singalong’ spirit that he declares he is aiming for.

The Last Shadow Puppets – The age of the understatement

The chief northern monkey and his best mate perform a Dukes of Stratosphearic take on Scott Walker (and indeed Brel through Scott’s distorting mirror); in their turtleneck sweaters they’re photo-fit go-getters.  The result is a noirish existential beat group and the second of many reinventions Alex Turner may yet perform.

Goldfrapp – Seventh tree

I lost interest between Black cherry and the insistently decadent electro of Supernature.  Fortunately the duo are aware of the benefits of reinvention and return; Seventh tree is closest in spirit to Felt mountain but with added folk sensibility and pop nous.  ‘Little bird’ floats and ‘Caravan girl’ drives along.

British Sea Power – Do you like rock music?

Like Open season, this is eight-tenths of the way to greatness; if I were eighteen and at my first Glastonbury, I would wave my flag to it.  But it’s as rock as the substance you’d mine were you to tunnel into Mount Blanc, and for me that remains a problem.

Paul Weller – 22 dreams

Press would have you believe that Weller has suddenly emerged from a lengthy spell in rock purgatory.  Truth is he rediscovered his touch over the two preceding sets; you could not get more pastoral than ‘Pan’ on As is now.  22 dreams expands the lightness in familiar and fresh directions.

Portishead – Third

Top bombing from Barrow, Gibbons and Utley.  The avant-garde attack of the electronics is reminiscent of New Order discovering synthesisers.  Next time Portishead can worry less about making it impossible for anyone to countenance putting them on as dinner party listening; this is music with which to greet the apocalypse.

Robert Forster – The evangelist

The healing power of song – I’m so glad RF rediscovered it.  But how could the tone be anything other than elegiac, with fragments of Grant’s last songs among Robert’s lyrical responses to his death.  As we hear those last tunes, Robert sings ‘it was melody he loved most of all’.

This song is well and truly stuck in my head at the moment.

It's called 'No Social [life]', and its catchy, mantra-like chorus is the thing that's malabarring around in the echochamber of my brain...

And they look down their nose
At these so-and-sos
Because everyone knows
That a dog dressed in clothes
Is still a dog

Partly it's in there because it connects with that thing i said a little while back about no-one on the internet knowing that you're a dog. But mostly because of the sound that it makes.

Music's like that.

Like, if you listen to the lyrics, it's not got much to say, other than the dog thing.

But it sounds nice.

And, in the end, isn't that all that really matters?

...

Good point. I guess that music also has to look nice, too, nowadays. And hence the film clip, which i find quite disturbing.

I'm not a big fan of making a mess. Not even a colourful mess.

But i will say that the moment in the film clip (47 seconds in) when the girl (Ulrika Bjorsne) flicks her hair, just as she takes aim at the screen with that paint dart... that's pretty hot.

The rest of the time she's fairly agricultural, but that hair flick is undeniably hotness-enriched.

I think my opinion on this matter has something to do with Charlie's Angels. Especially Farrah Fawcett-Majors' part therein.

Yours,
Gullybogan

1. Montt Mardie - Set Sail Tomorrow

http://www.myspace.com/monttmardie

http://monttmardie.blogspot.com

“Enquanto as outras crianças procuravam por armas e munição, Monty lia a bíblia. Amava barcos e montanhas-russas. No dia em que completou oito anos, sua mãe lhe comprou uma guitarra. Ele a manteve dentro de um armário e só tirava quando estava sozinho”

Montt Mardie, ou David Pagmar, é um jovem sueco que cita Frank Sinatra, Joy Division e Jay-Z como influências para o seu trabalho. Sua estréia no mercado fonográfico independente foi em 7 de Novembro de 2005, com o álbum Drama. Mais de 5 das 12 canções do CD se referem a uma garota chamada Annie.

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2. The Shortwave Set - No Social

3. The Breeders – Overglazed

4. Donora - Shak'ida

5. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement

6. Caesars - No Tomorrow

7. The Do - Queen Dot Kong

8. She & Him - Sentimental Heart

9. The Black Mages - Opening Bombing Mission

10. The Submarines - Sub Symphonika

“Sejam realistas: peçam o impossível” – esse era o slogan dos revolucuonários franceses em 1968. Paz e amor. LSD, Psicodelia, Rock’n’Roll, Flower Power... Há quarenta anos o mundo fervia e se preparava para uma grande transformação que até hoje está em curso. Segundo Zuenir Ventura, 1968 é um ano que não acabou.
Se pegarmos a música como exemplo veremos que a afirmação de Zuenir faz todo sentido. Grupos atuais voltam no tempo para criar seu trabalho e não é difícil perceber elementos de Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Beach Boys, The Doors, Os Mutantes e The Who, só para citar alguns.

Mesmo não sendo um divisor de águas, pois este foi no ano anterior graças ao lançamento de “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, dos "Fab Four", a produção musical de 1968 foi impressionante. Alguns dos discos mais importantes de todos os tempos foram lançados naquele ano:

- Beatles – White Album
- Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
- Mutantes – Os Mutantes
- Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets
- Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
- Janis Joplin - Cheap Thrills
- The Doors - Waiting for the Sun

Sem contar que o The Who preparava “Tommy” para o ano seguinte,  Bob Dylan o seu “Nashville Skyline” e Joni Mitchell seu primeiro álbum, “Song to a Seagull”.

Quarenta anos depois alguns ficaram pelo caminho como é o caso de Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin e Jim Morrison, que passaram desta para melhor e o Pink Floyd, que até segunda ordem, pendurou instrumentos. Em compensação, Os Mutantes estão de volta (ainda que com 1/3 da formação original), Brian Wilson, mesmo sem os Beach Boys e alguns neurôniosos, segue carreira e Stones, Dylan e The Who continuam tocando mundo afora. Além disso, o espírito da época está mais do que vivo em bandas como: High Llamas, Belle & Sebastian, Oasis, The Chemistry Set, Dengue Fever, Magic Numbers, The Shortwave Set, The Draytones, Jim Noir, Black Hollies, Selmanaires, Black Keys, Raconteurs, The Apples In Stereo, Autoramas e por aí vai...

The Beatles - Revolution

Os Mutantes - Panis et Circenses

High Llamas - Nomads

Autoramas - Fale Mal de Mim

Estos de Orange están como una cabra.

Bueno, aprovecho y pongo algunos temas que no creo que me vaya a durar mucho esto.

The Shortwave Set es un grupo que desconocía, pero indagando un poco (esto es, yendo directo a su MySpace...), descubro que es un grupo del Reino Unido y que con este No Social adelantan el que será su segundo álbum (el primero data del 2005, The Debt Collection) y aparecerá en el antiguamente famoso sello de breakbeat Wall of Sound (que tiempos, los de Propellerheads y cia,eeeh) y bueno, no es que hayan inventado la crema exfoliante, el estribillo es de lo más manido, pero consigue lo que se propone, y es alegrarte tres minutillos y mover la cabeza y el pie cuando se acelera en la segunda parte del estribillo.

A mi me gusta, que más le puedo pedir a una canción.Además el single aparecerá con un remix bastante bueno de los Optimo, a ver si lo cuelgo algún día.
The Shortwave Set - No Social