MUSIC FAN'S MIC//

Stubborn Heart | Knuckledown The weather shouldn’t dictate...

Fri, 25 May 2012 14:49:41 +0100

The weather shouldn’t dictate what you’re listening to. We spend too much time making summer playlists, hitting play on Grizzly Bear because the sun’s out, because we feel obliged to. Or maybe I’m just feeling miserable as I hide indoors and play Portishead at full blast. Regardless, the seagulls which appear in the background of ‘Knuckledown’ don’t make this effort any happier - it’s a stark, gorgeous track though, with some twisted vocal takes to swerve it into unknown territory. Soulful, performed with such expertise and emotion and deeply, deeply sad. Perfect for this weather.

Taken from an EP due out soon on Kaya Kaya

MP3| Stubborn Heart - Knuckledown

via/via

Ditt Inre | JordenDitt Inre translates as ‘Your...

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:59:01 +0100

Ditt Inre | Jorden

Ditt Inre translates as ‘Your Inner’, which makes sense in so many ways. It’s very much like staring at a painting for several minutes before casting your eyes over to the title - everything clicks into place, it makes complete sense. This is music from the soul, the very depths of our mortal flames - for want of a better phrase, it’s also body music; a giveaway in its message and emotions. The ‘En Värld I Brand’ EP is one gorgeous heart-swell of both utter joy and stunted melancholy; I like to think of ‘Jorden’ as its most uplifting centrepiece.

Empty Pools | Vanderbilt Cup (The Soft’s ‘Long...

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:30:00 +0100

Empty Pools | Vanderbilt Cup (The Soft’s ‘Long Island’ Mix)

If ever you needed something to arrive at the very brink of a weekend, something to take you out from any work routine and into a hazy 48 hours of escape. These ten minutes will fly by; by the end you’ll be in another place entirely. Far flung from the hyped-up, enthralling original of Bristol band and MFM favourites, Empty Pools have been transformed through the work of experimentalists The Soft, a band who consistently impress - I’ve seen them live twice now and you can tell they’re improving at a quite drastic speed - affirming the theory that if two great minds meet, you get a result of pure brilliance, rather than a stubborn clashing of heads.

Stream: Empty Pools | Vanderbilt Cup (The Soft’s ‘Long Island’ Mix)

[Taken from the Gold Flake Paint compilation, ‘From The Outside Looking In…’]

The Interest Group | The Boys and the GirlsI haven’t...

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:44:33 +0100

The Interest Group | The Boys and the Girls

I haven’t really had an internet connection for the past week, so anything I can actually get my hands on, musically, tends to earn a bit more of my time than I’m used to. Yvynyl brought this incredible track to my attention last week, the work of Philadelphia’s Yohsuke Araki (formerely of Bananas Symphony and Blackhawks), which visits the narcotic haze of Girls but comes out sounding fresher, more ready for the world than Christopher Owens after a week spent with tranquillisers. A beautiful, classic sound made up of perfect guitar arrangements and some pretty triumphant vocal sections.

Stream: The Interest Group | The Boys and the Girls

Uncanny Valley | Rising A bit of a personal one, this. So...

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:30:53 +0100

Uncanny Valley | Rising

A bit of a personal one, this. So don’t mind me.

Each year where I go to the Great Escape I come back with a new series of aims, a greater perspective on what I should be doing and what matters in music. Not only will you go and see several new bands over in Brighton, you’ll also meet all manner of people from a wide range of jobs in the industry - some of these people you’ll adore and some of these you’ll want to become anything but.

A lot has happened in these first twelve months for me, and at times I’ve felt an intense passion for music slipping away or at least becoming watered down - that’s pretty much my greatest fear.

Last year I told myself MFM had to be entirely new-music based, free from release details or PR pressure, more accountable for how many plays a song had (the less, the better).

This year I’ve come back convinced this needs to change. I don’t mind how fresh or capable of getting buzz a song might be, it simply needs to be brilliant, better than anything else I hear each day. It can be 2 months or 2 hours since being unveiled, it just needs to have warranted repeated plays, it needs to spark something off inside of me and hopefully everyone who happens upon it.

Uncanny Valley achieve this from the off. Dark-wave synth pads collide with tense percussion and commanding female vocals; it almost reminds me of the midst of all the excitement of a night out in Brighton - when you can feel yourself getting carried off into the dark for as long as intoxication permits. That was the general theme of this past weekend so ‘Rising’ sets off the reminder.

Thursday 10th May | Odonis Odonis @ Brighton Green Door...

Wed, 09 May 2012 08:22:07 +0100

Thursday 10th May | Odonis Odonis @ Brighton Green Door Store

Toronto garage punk specialists Odonis Odonis help form a distinctly Canadian cast for this year’s Great Escape and as the night folds in on the festival’s first day, they’ll be taking to the Green Door Store to keep the momentum going.

MFM will be DJ’ing with Crack In The Road and the wonderful people at Be Nothing, who helped put this show on.

MFM x The Great Escape: Guide | Day Three

Tue, 08 May 2012 08:41:57 +0100

[Day One]
[Day Two]

It’s probably worth mentioning that any old sod could hitch over to Brighton on Thursday and see a wealth of Extremely Good Things. Plenty of bands who play the actual Great Escape festival end up playing the Alt Escape too. This consists mainly of unsigned bands, or smaller bands, playing outdoors or in record stores or vintage clothes shops. The likes of Pins, Kins and Michael A Grammar are all playing somewhere, for free, throughout the three days. But look: Some of us paid. So really, we deserve a treat. And Saturday’s schedule…Well, this kind of a line-up doesn’t come for free.

—————————————-

REGAL SAFARI

Most of the festival-goers will probably be feeling the effects of ‘multi-buzz’, or, in other words, seeing multiple buzz bands in the space of 48 hours. It’s important that you get a break from all of this at some stage. Maybe have an ice cream while watching a flock of seagulls attack a young family’s picnic. But the buzz cannot simply come to a halt. Saturday sees Willis Earl Beal, Trust, and all of MFM’s three picks hoping to add a tiny little piece to their already amounting wall of hype. Regal Safari are somewhat detached from all of this, having released their debut EP last year. A live show promises visuals, ear-splitting bass levels and spellbinding homages to krautrock.

——————————————

DOLDRUMS

I’ve been slightly afraid to see Doldrums play live. His ‘Empire Sound’ EP from last year is so defined and detailed, with no room for alteration, that to see the whole package decompressed and laid bare in a dark sweaty room would be to distill some of the magic and throw it aside. But word on the street is this man now comes in tow with a full band, of equal insanity and wealth of experimentation to the kind Doldrums sports on both his debut EP and most recent track, ‘Egypt’, a seven minute long work of maddening brilliance.

——————————————

HALLS

You have two, quite magnificent choices to choose between as the clock strikes midnight on Great Escape’s final day. You either take the walk along the beach’s promenade to the Concorde 2, closing your festival with a breathtaking set by Nathan Fake. Or you stay seconds away from the station, at Brighton’s Green Door Store, ready to see Echo Lake and Halls play back to back. The former are on the brink of releasing their fantastic debut record, while the latter continues to work towards his first full-length. Expect two immersive, highly-charged sets to close the festival.

——————————————

ALSO GO AND SEE THIS LOT:

MMOTHS, Prince Albert, 12.15pm
Vondelpark, The Haunt, 20.00
Seams, Corn Exchange, 21.30 {CLASH ALERT}
Willis Earl Beal, Life, 21.45 {CLASH ALERT}
Trust, Above Audio, 21.45 {CLASH ALERT}

aeirs tv | empty Soft, looping hypnosis from an anonymous...

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:11:00 +0100

aeirs tv | empty

Soft, looping hypnosis from an anonymous Nottingham producer. Aside from a Drake edit, aeirs tv’s Youtube channel is somewhat scarce, and the same goes for a bandcamp page, with just one three-track album to sport. What’s been produced to date is trippy, capable of lulling its viewer into a transfixed haze. More please.

[credit goes to Neighborhood Tapes for the find]

<a href=”http://aeirs-tv.bandcamp.com/track/empty” data-mce-href=”http://aeirs-tv.bandcamp.com/track/empty”>empty by aeirs tv</a>

MFM x The Great Escape: Guide | Day Two

Mon, 07 May 2012 09:11:45 +0100

[Day One]

I’m sat here in the comfort of my own bed, having slept for a good 10 hours, in the full knowledge that in four days’ time I will be feeling the exact opposite. As well as music venues, Brighton has a fine array of fish & chip shops and establishments which sell cheap, Polish bear. I could probably write an esteemed guide on those very things, better than I could for the acts playing The Great Escape on Friday 11th but alas, there’s no going back now.

—————————————————-

M O N E Y

Friday 11th, Horatios, 20.30

This year I’ll be consciously avoiding a long walk up Brighton’s Palace Pier; avoiding the humiliation of arriving at a dingy bar where decent bands play through a shockingly sub-par sound system. It happened last year with Big Talk & Cults. It musn’t happen again. There’s one trip to Horatios which I can’t avoid though and that’s to see Manchester’s M O N E Y. It’s difficult to make your mind up about a band who raise their WU LYF flag so high and proud, but this lot are beginning to bring something new to the fore. A fairly spectacular visual show is also promised, we hear.

—————————————————-

PINS

Friday 11th, Amazing Radio Stage, Queens Hotel, 22.30

Ferocious fully-charged garage punk, sporting confidence on record - it’ll be interesting to see how PINS, another Manchester act, fill out a half hour set and whether they’ve got enough exciting songs beyond the brilliant debut cassette, which featured ‘Eleventh Hour’ and ‘Shoot You’. PINS top off a stunning bill on the Amazing Radio’s Alt Escape stage, where throughout Friday the likes of Eagulls, Mammal Club and Gross Magic compete for your time on the seaside.

—————————————————-

PEACE

Friday 11th, The Loft, 23.00

This last tip is essentially a means of me fulfilling a promise; a promise I made to Peace’s lead singer Harry after interviewing him for DIY Magazine. He ensured me that to see his band live would be a way of truly ‘getting’ what they’re all about, so I enthusiastically agreed to show my face. Harry was in Berlin at the time, probably quite hungover, probably with a 1% chance of remembering telling me to come along. Besides, by the sounds of things, Peace don’t exactly require one solitary new fan when they’re got hundreds pouring in each day. But it’s easy to imagine their head-splitting Brummy-based rock taking to the stage with ease.

—————————————————-

I’ll also be doing my best to check out the following:

Oliver Tank, Volks, 12.30
Grimes, Digital, 20.45
Wild Belle, Horatios, 21.45
AlunaGeorge, Coalition, 23.30
Forest Swords, Pavilion Theatre, 00.00

MFM x The Great Escape: Guide | Day One

Sun, 06 May 2012 14:29:00 +0100

MFM will be heading back to its birthplace, Brighton, this week, braving the storm clouds and the coldest temperatures since Christmas day to check out a few bands that I’ve been championing but have yet to see live.
The Great Escape is up there with my favourite festivals; my experience of it last year was hugely significant and it’s pretty much shaped these last 12 months for me. I actually remember coming back from the festival and deciding the MFM should be nothing but new music-based. Alas, things have gone full circle and below is a guide to the acts you’ve best get down to see.
Quick note: I’m going to be DJ’ing at Be Nothing’s event at the Green Door Store, Thursday night, from 1.30am. Come and watch us spin the buzz hitz.
—————————————————-

SHINIES

Thursday 10th, Hydrant, 16.00.
Scuzzy Manchester based garage punk with Rory Attwell production to its name for ‘Spent Youth’Shinies combine lust-filled lyrics with a harsh riffs and oddly triumphant choruses. MFM introduced you to them at the tailend of last year and they backed up their debut track with the frightfully cool ‘Shola’
—————————————————-

SPLASHH

Thursday 10th, Blind Tiger, 20.30
Huge guitar licks surfacing beneath a false veneer of ‘lo-fi’ production; we cannot wait to see how Splashh’s unconventional sound transfers to the live stage. From a few word of mouth recommendations, we’ve been told to expect some seriously good things. Considering they only began to make waves two months back, things are progressing mighty quick for this act. The ideal centerpiece of this supposed ‘showcase’ festival.
—————————————————-

LAPALUX

Thursday 10th, Audio, 21.10
While the sweat and fuzz drips out of the proverbial system having seen the above two garage punk newcomers, nightfall will mark the opportunity to see something from the opposite side of the spectrum. Lapalux is a head-fizzing electronic great, the kind who will only add adrenaline to a potentially endless first night of the festival. —————————————————-

The aim of the festival is to see as many new things as possible. So while the above three are top of my list of things to see, I’m going to be doing everything in my power to see the following on Thursday:

Dauwd - Above Audio - 19.30
Young Magic - Above Audio - 20.00
Shabazz Palaces - Coalition - 20.45
Cloud Nothings - Above Audio - 21.45

Jordan Danelz | Red String Silver BirdI’m growing...

Thu, 03 May 2012 12:17:06 +0100

Jordan Danelz | Red String Silver Bird

I’m growing exhausted with the bedroom pop style of production: Sure, every so often I’ll champion something of that exact ilk, but only when it’s truly sensational, when there’s a genuinely brilliant pop song lurking within. The typical elements; reverb-laden guitars; tap-tap percussion of no rawness, no subtlely; there’s little to pay a devoted amount of attention to.
Jordan Danelz veers just outside of this tiresome tag. ‘Red String Silver Bird’, like many of Danelz’s other tracks (in one, his lyrics give instructions on how to “bury your boss”), has a certain honesty, a personality that often songs within this genre distinctly lack. Like Bradford Cox with a smaller set-up; maybe it’s just me envisioning a grand career for this guy, but I can see acres of potential waiting to be stepped upon by Jordan.

MP3| Jordan Danelz - Red String Silver Bird

Ditt Inre | Månljus (saknad)Sometimes I ask myself why I...

Wed, 02 May 2012 17:32:41 +0100

Ditt Inre | Månljus (saknad)

Sometimes I ask myself why I didn’t carry on playing the keyboard. Well, I didn’t play, I hit notes and then sometimes did a little dance to the demo tunes. But look at this. Behold: Observe the magnitude of creativity that exists when synth players bounce ideas off each other. Complex at close inspection but so sweet and satisfying to the incoming ear, this new Ditt Inre single is a stunning piece, where tiny little fragments of euphoric synthetics are pieced together, as if years went into the entire construction. And yet the final result is something deliciously consumable; a slice of saccharine, Nordic pop of a ‘chill’ concoction.

MP3 | Ditt Inre - Månljus (saknad)

Taken from the ‘En Värld I Brand’ EP. Out May 29 on Cascine

Ghost Loft | SecondsA blend of tasty samples and more...

Wed, 02 May 2012 13:40:28 +0100

Ghost Loft | Seconds

A blend of tasty samples and more well-grounded, organic vocals help make up each of LA producer Ghost Loft’s track to date. The less time trying to figure out which pop superstar he’s sampling this time round on ‘Seconds’, the better. A fiver says it’s Beyonce.
I love how tight the arrangements are here, with funk-ridden guitars melding into a backdrop of sparkly synths and pretty patterns. It’s intelligent, but any absent-minded fool could spent every day and night with it by their side.

MP3 | Ghost Loft - Seconds

“You keep me wishing in the dark”—- Thankyou...

Tue, 01 May 2012 12:24:00 +0100

“You keep me wishing in the dark”
—-

Thankyou for reading MFM in April. Lots of exciting things to come. In the meantime, I’ll try and flood your senses with as much new music as possible.

Forrests - Billions
Soft Arrows - Spirit Animal Bones
Beachmen - In The Deserttt
Echo Lake - Even the Blind
Slime - Lean Over
Jayyeah - ////††††
Jessie Ware - 110%
Outfit - Drakes
XXYYXX - Living Together
Splashh - Something’s Here

MP3 | MFMIX - APRIL 2012

Misfit Mod | Cars“Gotta make a move from the backseat of...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:20:53 +0100

Misfit Mod | Cars

“Gotta make a move from the backseat of this car…”
A move to getaway from a pressing situation or a move on someone you like? ‘Cars’ might be full of lust - its lyrics suggest as much - but the haunting atmospherics hint at otherwise. Vocals are soft to the touch, and pulse in the background in a similar style to a Grouper track, with Sarah Kelleher overlapping layer upon layer of mystery. Lust or terror, it needn’t matter: So enigmatic and so conscious of its beauty is ‘Cars’ that you can’t help but fall under its spell.

Taken from a debut album out this summer on Stars & Letters.

Intermission | Slime, Sunless 97, PINS

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:50:00 +0100

[IMG via/]

A round-up of sorts of the best bits of new music to have emerged within the past week - all of which I forgot to tell you about in the first place. If you haven’t visited MFM at all this week up to now, well, there’s plenty to catch up on: Jayyeah, especially. The Dirty Magazines make scuzzy garage rock to ease the pain. And ILLLS just blew my delicate little brain with ‘Teeth’.

But here are those THINGS which I’ve been meaning to tell you about.

——————————————————————————-

SLIME - LEAN OVER (stream)

The best parts of a Bonobo album combined with the fruitful results of These New Puritans’ sessions with a Czechoslovakian choir, ‘Lean Over’ puts these together into a pressure cooker of electronic deliciousness. You just want to “lean over” and give it a big smoochy kiss.

——————————————————————————-

SUNLESS ‘97 - BODY WEATHER (stream)

Saxaphones: Are they in or are they out? Did Kindness splitting boundaries with his debut LP give them a revitalising lease of life or are we just not convinced? Are we still recovering from the groundshaking effects of the M83 album? Regardless, when the saxaphone steals the show on this new Sunless ‘97 track, you can’t help but raise a beaming smile.

——————————————————————————-

PINS - SHOOT YOU (stream)

Mere days after a gorgeous gold cassette landed through my letterbox, PINS gave ‘Shoot You’ away to the non-cassette-player-owning masses. Those silly fools, with their updated gadgets and their fast-paced lifestyles. There’s still one song on this amazing debut release which, as far as I’m been told, will never make its way onto the net.

Jayyeah | ////††††Yesterday’s minor obsession shows no...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:11:00 +0100

Jayyeah | ////††††

Yesterday’s minor obsession shows no sign of subsiding. A producer with a wealth of experimentation + shortcuts on his Mac keyboard to boot, Jayyeah is the multi-eyed, undiscovered deep-sea-monster that lurks at the very bottom of the ocean. Choral choirs collapse into motion with a series of lurking synthetic sounds, all merging into one tranquillising mesh of darkness.

Stream | Jayyeah - ////††††

Check out EVERYTHING he has on offer.

MFM x Into the Blogosphere

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:41:00 +0100

DIY Radio: Into The Blogosphere (23rd April 2012) by Diy on Mixcloud

MFM was on the radio this week, shipping off buzz to the ports inside your pretty ears.

The past two weeks’ worth of mp3s have been among the finest of the year so far. In complete honesty, if you were to make a list come December of your songs of the year, a least a few of these would be in serious contention of aiming for the upper half of the countdown. Take the finest, most pristine example of minimal pop to date for example, with Jessie Ware’s ‘110%’. Also take note of a highlight on Beach House’s forthcoming record, alongside the true standout track on Echo Lake’s debut and perhaps the best song Outfit have put their name to.

Sitting pretty in this stellar line-up is the glorious gift of new Hot Chip, placed right next to a song some critics are labelling as a masterpiece; Neneh Cheery & The Thing’s ‘Dream Baby Dream’. Plus there’s my personal favourite from Chromatics magnum opus, as well as stunning efforts from newcomers Michael A Grammar, Forrests and Soft Arrows.

Echo Lake - Even the Blind
jj - Beautiful Life
Outfit - Drakes
BEACHMEN - In The Deserttt
Splashh - Something’s Here
Hotel Mexico - Wolves Running Through The Desert
Solar Bears - Cosmic Runner
Jessie Ware - 110%
Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Dream Baby Dream
Hot Chip - Night and Day
Violens - Totally True
Krusht - Think Hazy Streets (feat. Deanna Neil)
Laurel Halo - Light + Space
Chromatics - Back From The Grave
XXYYXX - Living Together
Michael A Grammar - All Night, Afloat
Friends - Mind Control
Cymbals - Candy Bar
Soft Arrows - Spirit Animal Bones
Forrests - Billions
Jack Dixon - Lose Myself (Dauwd Remix)
Disclosure - Boiling
Beach House - Lazuli
Peaking Lights - LO HI
Norra Kust - Valley
Gold Panda - 4
Doldrums - Egypt

Soundcloud is down so I’ve been playing this all...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:42:58 +0100

Soundcloud is down so I’ve been playing this all afternoon.

Dude (Jayyeah) has tons of videos, all radiating in beauty. Based in Long Beach, California.

ILLLS | Teeth The queasy-looking artwork (Is it soup? Is it a...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:12:00 +0100

ILLLS | Teeth

The queasy-looking artwork (Is it soup? Is it a plate of icing sugar? Is it something much, much worse?) right up to the very band name - ILLLS, with three ‘L’s - the intention is to leave you dizzy, dumbstruck and, if you’re a touch vulnerable, leaning over the sidewalk. ‘Teeth’ is the Oxford, U.S. band’s debut track - so good that it leaves you a peculiar state once the heady adrenaline rush dies down. Indeed, when the pace picks up and sends itself into a flurry of sweet guitar licks, your heart will race and your ears will prick up. Trust me. There’s no way it won’t happen.

MP3 | ILLLS - Teeth