DXIII - Par Avion/Lockdown Mix

It really is about time I wrote something about the remarkable DXIII again.  The work of Paul Foster, from Wales, has regularly featured in my Dandelion Radio show almost since it began streaming, thirteen years ago. He's recorded a stunning lockdown mix for the show this month, which you can hear at various times throughout August here.

He's also offering his work as NYP on his bandcamp site during lockdown so it's more than worth your while to get on there and, if you've not done so already, treat yourself to the work of an electronic artist whose music remains consistently enthralling and innovative.

As a starting point, try his Par Avion album, which he released in April this year: the title track forms part of the mix he's done for us but everything on there is more than worth your attention.   It's Paul Foster very much at the height of his powers, as the blurb on a paperback might say, but rather than continue to throw clichés around it's really best that you find out for yourself.  You can download Par Avion as NYP here.

Kill the Giants - Drones, Clones and Bio Machines (Nub Music)

The clues to who was behind Kill the Giants were always there, had I bothered to consider them rather than simply rolling around in the wonders of this extraordinary release, which instantly became one of my favourite half dozen releases of what has already been a great year for great music.

It's on the Nub Music label for a start and, as this is the label of Pocket God Mark Lee, it made sense that Mark would be behind it all, especially given the playful brilliance of the release.   The excellent 'Beautiful Day' (which samples quotes from Shakespeare and not only gets away with it, but absorbs it magnificently) opens my Dandelion Radio show this month but consider this only an entry point to the fascinating, diverse and compelling world of sound within this album.

It's Mark Lee at his best - and it should be enough simply to say that.   It's also one of many fascinating releases Nub have put out recently - find out more here.

The Mauskovic Dance Band - Shadance Hall (Dekmantel)

From the Netherlands, the Mauskovic Dance Band continue to weave their rhythms into ever more curious and beguiling combinations.  I'm speculating that the proclaimed geographical origin for this release (the Welsh valleys) has something to do with their appearance at last year's Green Man Festival, where the band brought a mesmerising live set to the Chai Wallah stage.

Some of the spirit of that set is undoubtedly captured here.  Finished off in Amsterdam, the result is a compelling and bewitching combination of elements derived from instruments that clash and bounce all over the place, encountering echoes, reverbs and curious bass rhythms as they go.  

This is nowhere more pronounced than on the wonderful 'Squeeze Dogs', which features in my Dandelion Radio show this month but the album's eight tracks all manage to surprise and consistently reward as the listener works through.

The album is available as a digital release here. 

Dead Bambies - Dandelion Session (Thomas Imposter)

There's so much great stuff coming out of Japan at the moment and the Thomas Imposter label is home to some of the best of it.  Dead Bambies unquestionably qualify for inclusion in that category: their frenzied guitar attack has launched many welcome assaults on my ears in the last few years and I hope and trust there will be many more to come.

This session was broadcast in my Dandelion Radio show in September 2018 and it's great to see it getting an official release via TI.  Not only that, but the four session tracks are augmented here by a further three previously unreleased tracks: you can hear one of them, Taste of Honey, in my show this month. 

It's available to download from the Thomas Imposter Bandcamp site.  Get a copy here.   Also, listen out for their labelmates The Jungles!!! whose brilliant debut session can be heard in my show this month.

Nac/Hut Report - Transmisja Z Przesilenia (Chrunchy Human Children)

Sometimes, massive changes of direction can be a good thing.  However, I'm always glad to hear a new Nac/Hut Report album and find that they've resisted it.  Frankly this duo, based in Poland, create such astonishing things together it's always refreshing to find that a new collection of their stuff consists of hammering out a new set of jarring, challenging noises from pretty much the same template.

As usual, the release comes via the Warsaw cooperative Crunchy Human Children and, as you might have guessed from my preliminary comments, it doesn't disappoint.  I played a track from the album in my Dandelion Radio show last month and this month I'm playing 'Plytki Lek'. 

The album is available to buy on cassette or as NYP download here.

Mood Taeg - Exophoria (Happy Robots)

Another excellent release from the Happy Robots label becomes available next week in the form of this Dusseldorf/Shanghai collaboration that stems from a wider collective comprising DJs, graffiti artists and photographers, among others.

Exophonia's five tracks exhibit their krautrock influences prominently but there's something highly distinctive about what emerges, all emanating from their own Lowell's Garden studio where digital recording techniques meet with analogue synths to produce results that are at once experimental and bewitchingly accessible.

I'm playing opening track '2MR' in my Dandelion Radio show this month and you can pre-order the release as a download or on vinyl here.

Jangly Mark & The Benefits - My City (Lavender Sweep)

The sprightly, strangely intimate feel of a Jangly Mark & The Benefits release has invariably brought a positive shine to many aspects of life.   This new EP - released at the height of lockdown a coronavirus-ravaged Britain - is no exception.

Released via the always excellent Lavender Sweep label, the EP contains some unreleased gems, the B-side of the excellent I Fancy You single and a couple of glimpses of what to expect from the forthcoming Rimmer & Other Stories album.

I'm playing 'Heading East' (the aforementioned B-side) in my Dandelion Radio show this month and I strongly encourage you to give the full EP a listen.  It's available here as a free download but with a request to make a donation to a charity providing PPE for NHS staff.

Wished Bone & Spencer Radcliffe - A Bug Crawled In The Piano

While all genres of music can throw up items of interest, some are less fertile ground than others.   For instance, that kind of dreamy bedroom lo-fi that has found a home on the 'name your price' areas of bandcamp has not, it has to be said, offered an especially rich source of great tunes.

Ohio's Wished Bone are an exception and always have been.   Very often even a cursory wander over to their bandcamp page can dig up the occasional delight: on this collaboration with Spencer Radcliffe, the delights are more than just occasional: they come thick and fast.

I'm playing opening track 'Help My Brother' in my Dandelion Radio show this month.  It's a wonderful starting point for a short journey (six tracks) of subtle touches and gentle but threatening curves.   Get it, of course, for name-your-price here.

Roman Angelos - Spacetronic Lunchbox (Happy Robots)

Happy Robots are establishing themselves as one of the most fascinating and innovative labels around at the moment.   This quirky delight from Roman Angelos (the pseudonym of New Yorker Rich Bennett) crams eleven synth pop tunes into ten minutes.  It's like the kind of muzak you'd hear in a psychedelically-altered elevator.

Having played a track from the album in my Dandelion Radio show last month I've been playing 'Farewell To Love' in this month's show (hear it today or tomorrow or on Mixcloud after that) and I still can't get enough.  If the elevator analogy can be extended further, it's like, having reached your intended destination, you forget all about it and want to leap back in again and again just for the hell of it.

Get the album here and look out for the forthcoming album from Mood Taeg on Happy Robots: I'll be playing a track from that in my show next month.

V/A - You Don't Have To Be Fashionable Vol. 8 (With A Messy Head)

The annual You Don't Have To Be Fashionable compilation from French label With A Messy Head is always keenly anticipated.    The release invariably offers great opportunities to hear some great new bands or artists from around the world, reacquaint yourself with a few already established favourites and just generally listen to some fantastic tunes. 

Volume 8 is up there with the best yet.  I've made it a featured compilation in my Dandelion Radio show this month, playing tunes from three bands I don't think I've played on the show before - Germany's Big Hit, The Victor Pope Band from Scotland and Barcelonas Ella Ella along with tracks from the wonderful Carton Sonore (France) and Woog Riots (Germany), both of whom I've featured multiple times before and will no doubt continue to do so.   Incidentally, the new Woog Riots single is great and I'll be playing that in my show next month.

Get the album for free here.

V/A - 'Mark Barton's "The Sunday Experience"' (Bearsuit)

I have to confess I hadn't been aware of Mark Barton's  work prior to his untimely death earlier this year.    Having got hold of a copy of this excellent tribute album, it's clear how much I was missing out.   So many terrific bands and artists have contributed to this tribute compilation, it's hard to know where to begin.  The Lovely Eggs, JD Meatyard and Moon Duo all feature here among many other staples of my musical diet over the last few years.

I'm featuring selections from the compilation in my April Dandelion Radio show, concentrating on artists I've either not played in the show before or not played enough.   That both helps to narrow it down and also enter into the spirit of this tribute to a great lover of new music and someone who clearly dedicated a lot of his life to bringing it to the attention of others.

In my show, which streams at various times until the end of the month, you'll hear tracks from Schizo Fun Addict, Xqui, FortDax and Eat Lights, Become Lights but please do yourself a favour and don't leave it there.  There are 42 tracks on this mammoth release, lovingly assembled by the wonderful Bearsuit Records, and all proceeds go to McMillan Cancer.  Get it on CD or download here.

Alienbaby Collective - Fishbowl/Terrestial (Humm)

One of the finest albums 2020 has coughed up so far is this vinyl/download release from Norwich's Humm label.  If the label 'experimental pop' often disappoints - and, let's face it, it does - then the remedy is here. 

I played the tremendous 'Degenerate Moon' track in my Dandelion Radio show last month and this month I offer you 'T I T L E' but it almost feels pointless to attempt to illustrate with a couple of tracks the broad sweep of eclectic wonder that lies within this magical fourteen-track beast.

Get it on vinyl or download here.