The majesty of creating something so brilliant is the inevitability that it usually doesn't make any sense, much like London's Is Tropical. A crazy mask wearing three piece, mysterious in nearly all details except that the songs are killer.Tropical, Is.
The majesty of creating something so brilliant is the inevitability that it usually doesn't make any sense, much like London's Is Tropical. A crazy mask wearing three piece, mysterious in nearly all details except that the songs are killer.
Radar Detector
Hit Club's official laser pen will probably be bought from Argos. No matter how long we use it for the batteries will never run out and it will be used for good only, unlike these crazy yobs. Lasers From Atlantis are actually from London and make 13 minute sonic stews, mixing for good measure a pinch of space rock, noisy post-prog and early yes wave.Please visit hitclubblog.blogspot.com to download one of their songs.
Dunlop, Bell, Fleming
I recently came back from a traumatic few days stuck in Scotland on the most Westerly point of mainland Britain. Although I did see a deer, civilisation felt a million miles away - to help me though this whole experience the magnificent Midnight Maxi Mixes rarely left the speakers. Crafted by the mind-blowingly-life-alteringly-groundshakingly-talented Django Django (also they're Scottish) it's a fantastic monthly compilation of some beautiful corners of noise.
Younger British Artists
One thing many people will be have brought back from Glastonbury this year, alongside the early signs of dissentry, a T-shirt sun tan and a fake moustache from the gay bar, is a new appreciation for a band they either hadn't come across before of hadn't given a chance before.
I had a few breakthroughs of this kind, a particular highlight being my 'not-at-all-chemically-induced' decision that Two Door Cinema Club's set at the BBC Introducing stage will one day be remembered as a moment of similar musical importance to day Kraftwerk learned to ride bikes.
Someone I missed at Glastonbury, because they didn't play, but did give me that similar rush of euphoria when I discovered them a while back were Manchester's lo-fidelity sonic-conquistadors Young British Artists.
Most of the band lead double lives of be-suited normality by day and visceral, overdriven rockness by night, and perhaps accordingly the songs are all soaked in an acute distaste for the day-to-day.
The members are currently hand-folding all of the covers or their debut EP 'Small Waves' out on Red Deer Club at the end of the month. We're playing some records at the launch at Islington Mill on the 1st of August so you should step over any dead relatives you may have to come down.
Let's Jump Ahead
Sweden is pretty much the most amazing place, an endless supply of insane jeans, blankets for when it gets cold so you can enjoy sitting outside, as a nation they know how to live. Cleast Eatwood hail from the beautiful Stockholm and create sounds that could only come from Scandinavia. Majestically understated you glide through moments that effortlessly summon up a generation of artists that have created some of the finest noises in recent history.
We could list lots of Swedish music we all love, knowingly nod our heads in agreement to their reference points and contemporaries, instead enjoy the fantastic Get Related and the inspired Michael Polnareff, thank God for myspace's influences.
The Mono
As the tides rise, the seasons changes and the world slowly begins to boil you'd be forgiven for forgetting that anyone in Great Britain could write exciting and genre defying pop music without being a private school whore with auto tune stuck down their gullet. But, salvation comes in the shape of The Mono, softly spoken and tucked away in a quiet corner of Kent they've created a sound that deftly cuts though the darkness to reveal two long slim figures stood in the light at the end of tunnel.
From snarling guitars shredding around perfectly balanced vocals, that swoop from the hushed beauty of Aimee's tones to the sharp power of David's lead vocals, to killer beats that underline the foundations of sublime pop brilliance that The Mono are crafting. Although yet to play a show, we're able to pass on the mesmerising Sparkling Furrs, with a pinch of new wave, no wave and for good measure yes wave it's quickly becoming the sound track to Hit Club's summer.
Frankie & The Heartstrings
Back to Sunderland again, but this time for the majestic Frankie and The Heartstrings. The heartstrings are the purveyors of some of the finest pop sounds in Britain at the moment, which kept most of the Hit Club hotel room sane through last month's Great Escape. So one last listen before we start packing and preparing for Glastonbury.
Oh Minnows
Our friends at the fantastic Young and Lost Club, probably the sexiest record label in the world, have given us the amazing debut single 'Might' from Oh Minnows. Written and recorded in Chicago by Chris Steele-Nicholson of semifinalists, the result is one of the most exciting new records we've heard in ages.
Catch these dreamy vocals and swirling sounds all over London in July.
France & The Habsburgs
Sunderland's finest sheet metal cutting factory employees France and The Habsburgs are pretty much the best thing to come out of Wearside since Michael Proctor joined York City on loan in 2001.
Egyptian Airwaves
Egyptian Hip Hop. Affectionatly known by us as everything from Bolivian Chip Shop to Arabian Brit Pop we've all developed an unhealthy fascination with them, their fringes, their post skins duds and most importantly their fluttery-post-garageband rhythmic delights.
Rad Pitt (Rad. Fucking. Pitt!) is becomming anthemic to us to the point where barely a Hat Club goes by without it being dusted off and it got dropped three times within about two hours at the Blue Flowers easter all dayer.
Their three gig history is pretty consumate already, the first so good that they had Tobias from O. Children jigging giddily along to songs they'd written that morning, the second (a 3am set at a Christian Cafe) so bad that half of the audience actually believed them to be a practical joke and at the third they got booted off after one (amazing) song for being underage.