Sunday Swoon. September 8th 2013.

1. I always feel it’s terribly cliché to describe a track as haunting but I guess a collaboration between Natasha Khan and Jon Hopkins was always destined to be just that. Garden’s Heart is simply stunning.

2. I recently had the honour of hearing Margaret Atwood speak at Queen Elizabeth Hall. It was an inspirational reminder that I was lucky to be part of the generation that grew up with the likes of her and Kate Bush as role models. She was sharp, witty moving and wise and it’s an evening I will cherish forever. If you have never read any Atwood for some bizarre reason start with her poetry and The Handmaid’s Tale.

3. One  of the many terrible woes of suffering from Tinnitus is resisting the temptation to blare out tracks like Sleigh Bells Bitter Rivals through my headphones. Huge excitement that a third album is due out in the autumn.

4. Finally Gold Panda pays homage to Peckham is his video for Community. Making me think I really do need to drag myself south to nose at what’s happening down there.

Music for Getting Up And On With It

The other week I had a self-indulgent moan and posted Music for Melancholy. In my own way I guess I was exorcising the demons of a frustrating run of bad luck over the past twelve months. Since being slapped in the face with redundancy I have spent the past few weeks putting our families tried and tested work ethic to the test and it’s eventually paid off (that ethic being you work, you pay your taxes, you get on with it… you hear me Starbucks?).

Recently I pushed myself through three tough interviews at one firm to lose out literally by the toss of a coin between myself and one other candidate. On route to my final interview Ken Livingston was sat next to me on the tube and I considered it to be a bad omen. A prophecy fulfilled. Last Thursday, as I trekked my way to another interview I stumbled over a Ferret in Holborn outside the office I was going to, a thought that still makes me smile while feeling puzzled. It was the job I have been offered.

Conclusion; Bitey Ferrets are luckier than politicians. Like I even needed to point that out.

I have to say a huge thanks to my friend Lucy who sat with me during my melancholy weekend and reminded  me “You may be having the worst of times but you’re surrounded by the best of people”. Friends and family have nudged me along as well as the music I’ve been listening to. I owe them a million karma points.

This week I banish the melancholy to the bottom of the recycling bin along with the half price bottles of Oyster Bay. This Mixtape is brought to you by relief and a tiny bit of fight (trust me, it’s taken it). The tracks below are some of what I’ve been plugged into during moments of stress and exhaustion, a truly random and diverse selection. I’m sharing it with you in case anyone needs a kick up the bum.

London 2012 Legacy. From the Olympic Park

You can play this mixtape on Spotify or YouTube.

1. Doris Day – Keep Smilin’, Keep Laughin’, Be Happy
2. Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
3. Aaliyah – Try Again
4. Basement Jaxx – Where’s Your Head At
5. Sleigh Bells – Comeback Kid
6. Public Enemy – Harder Than You Think
7. Ben Howard – Keep Your Head Up
8. The Joy Formidable – Whirring
9. Mystery Jets – Someone Purer
10. The Rolling Stones – You Can’t Always Get What You Want

The Letter ‘S’ Mixtape.

The Letter S Mixtape.

I am having a brief respite on a day bookended by two job interviews, done all on a mild to middling hangover and a wonky fringe trim. Music will get me through it. Every indie boys ultimate girl crush St Vincent to a band named after a vibrator. From Sharon Van Etten (possibly my album of the year and my own personal girl crush) to the most perfect love song from Suede.

“Cos on you my tattoo will be bleeding and the name will stain”

You can play my letter S mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Shout Out Louds – The Comeback
2. Supertramp – Goodbye Stranger
3. Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill
4. Steely Dan – Reelin’ In The Years
5. SBTRKT – Trials Of The Past
6. St Vincent – Cruel
7. Siouxsie And The Banshees – Happy House
8. The Smiths – Cemetery Gates
9. Sharon Van Etten – Serpents
10. Suede – The Wild Ones

Sunday Swoon. August 26th

Its been a few weeks since I posted my weekly round-up. I have a new obsession with Lido’s and running around my local park. Time is ticking before half of London’s close for the winter however so service shall be resumed. A musical, book nerdy, Hackney mix below…

1. I was late to the hype surrounding Jessie Ware but now I have the album I find myself regularly lost in what sounds like the love child of Sade and Prince. Album Devotion is out now, instantly accessible and a pleasure to the ears from start to finish.

2. Every now and again a book lands in my hands that I just get utterly lost in and can’t put down. Thanks to Phil on Twitter Ben Aaronvitch came to my attention and in a week I’ve read both Rivers of London and Moon Over Soho. Think Neil Gaiman meets Luther under London skies. Itching to read the third in this series. I want to magic Peter Grant (the lead character) into existence. Somehow.

3. The lovely people behind Hackney WickED couldn’t host their two-day festival this year due to the Olympics, but they still managed to deliver a smaller knees up in a Shoreditch car park. Good cocktails, local artists, the weird and wonderful all served up on battered leather sofas and sand. Such a shame I couldn’t repeat last years weekend but looking forward to its return to the Wick next year. Photo’s from last year on Flickr. See their website for more events and open studio days.

4. One of my biggest band crushes Sleigh Bells have just released a video for End of the Line. Alexis Krauss looks like a Bronte vampire while she laments over the end of a relationship. I love this. Gives me the urge to be barefoot in rags and red lipstick, wandering over Hampstead Heath.

5. When I spotted Stealing Sheep had released Into The Diamond Sun it was a lesson in how time flies as I could have sworn I reviewed Noah & The Paper Moon a couple of months back for Flush The Fashion. Turns out that was November last year. This follow-up is trippy folk and is a contender for my album of the year.

July 10th Mixtape – 2012 Challenge

Around this time last year Marc listed his top 25 tracks of the year so far and challenged me to do the same. This year we’ve only bloody well done it again, and below are the tracks that have very much floated my boat during the first half of 2012, a smattering of them the same as his list produced. You’ll probably guess from the running order that they’re in no particular order, given Sharon Van Etten follows on from Azealia Banks being one good example of my inability to pick a favourite.

Beach House @ Village Underground

At the end of the year I compiled my top 50 tracks and will look to do the same this year if I’m still whittling on and boring you via this blog. One thing I am utterly certain of (and I seem to be uncertain of so much these days) is Beach House will still be there come December, this album captured every single cell in my body.

You can play this mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. Enjoy! ♥

1. Savages – Husbands
2. Beach House – New Year
3. Kindness – House
4. Santigold – Disparate Youth
5. Grimes – Oblivion
6. The Maccabees – Feel To Follow
7. Hot Chip – Motion Sickness
8. Sleigh Bells – Comeback Kid
9. Crybaby – We’re Supposed To Be In Love
10. Kwes – Bashful
11. Twin Shadow – Five Seconds
12. Azealia Banks – 212
13. Sharon Van Etten – Leonard
14. Mary Epworth – Black Doe
15. Friends – Mind Control
16. Polica – Dark Star
17. Lucy Rose – Red Face
18. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Garden
19. Two Wounded Birds – To Be Young
20. Chromatics – Kill For Love
21. Zulu Winter – Silver Tongue
22. Julia Holter – In The Same Room
23. Alabama Shakes – I Found You
24. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zero’s – Man On Fire
25. Lianne La Havas – Lost & Found

Sunday Swoon. June 10th

Technically not events that happened within the past seven days but all that real life/bad hangovers got very much in the way of Sunday’s recently. Macaroni Cheese, Baseball and some seriously skill, brill & ace music….

1. Feels like I’ve been waiting an eternity to hear the album from Friends. Such perfect indie pop. Think Karen O fused with Debbie Harry. Makes me want to wear those 80’s neon headphones and pretend I’m in a music video (which I am sure people do frequently in Dalston irrespective of soundtrack so perhaps I should move there). Manifest! is making me smile. A ton.

2. Finally my stomach got to try Pitt Cue this week. Guess what’s inside those panko breadcrumbs? Go on guess. Macaroni Cheese! Sounds bizarrely suspicious but oh my does it work. Topped with pickles and pulled pork in a brioche bun, with a side of shiitake mushrooms. I’m not sure if this is their invention but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen such a culinary combination. Pitt Cue, if you are responsible for this invention let me know so I can leave you something amazing in my will as a thankyou?

I went to the trailer instead of the restaurant which is on the Southbank, lovely to sit by the river with a book and some decent grub. Follow their Twitter updates here.

3. I’ve been playing Crybaby for a couple of weeks now, unable to blog about it on its release date due to weddings and hangovers (which often go hand in hand). If I could buy everyone that reads this blog a copy I would. Think early Richard Hawley, scrap that, think better than early Richard Hawley. It’s heartbreaking and truly beautiful music from Danny Coughlan. It will give you goose bumps and tingles.

4. It takes a talented teller of tales to make me invest so heavily in an American college baseball team (Geena Davis and Madge never managed to peak my interest in the game after all). Chad Harbach has created such flawed, painfully human, broken but brilliant characters in The Art of Fielding. Amazing debut novel.

5.  Technically not this week unless you include the hour I got home after Field Day but they deserve to be mentioned as my ultimate highlight over the bank holiday weekend. Of course I didn’t get to see all the bands I wanted, I am never quite militant enough when it comes to festivals but those I saw (Pond, Summer Camp, Kindness, Sleigh Bells, Theme Park, Franz Ferdinand) gave me that muddy knees wild abandon experience I cherish so much at festivals. It’s impossible to pick an absolute favourite but Kindness excelled all expectations. At all costs I would dash to see him and his band again, anyone that covers Womack & Womacks Teardrops is the boom and the lick. ♥

**Follow me on Twitter here***

Field Day 2012 Mixtape

Before any clever clogs point out to me that there’s no way I can see all the bands on this list due to those painful festival clashes we all suffer at times I am fully aware. That’s what getting drunk is for, those flippant decisions that you can regret the morning after. Still, they’re the bands and artists I am most giddy about for Field Day this Saturday. You can play the mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

Sunday Swoon. March 4th

A book about an anti-hero, a lot of art, some cocktails and brilliant music….

1. Huge thanks to Jo for bringing this book to my attention, this is Anna Richards first novel and it’s stunning. Can’t wait to see what her imagination conjures up next. If you love an anti-hero (heroine in this case) then I recommend Little Gods. The entire way through the book I felt such hope for someone who has no hope for herself at all. Beautiful.

“Happiness should come with a warning. A brightly coloured label at least.”.  

                                                                                                                                – Anna Richards

2. Don’t be fooled by Jeremy Deller’s (Joy In People, Hayward Gallery) fluorescent acid house posters, there’s serious social messages playing hard throughout his retrospective. The 1984 miners strike coverage and the wreckage of a bombed car from Baghdad  especially slapping me in the face after spending time in front of neon posters depicting lyrics from The Smiths drinking free tea. David Shrigley’s (Brain Activity, Hayward Gallery) crudely drawn and hysterically funny quips always have me howling with laughter at the sick, mundane and plain obvious. Yayoi Kusama took me through her groundbreaking confident pop art to more fragile pieces after she hospitalised herself in 1977 (it still remains her home). Ultimately it was her Infinity Room that I wanted to curl up in be left in solitude. Amazing afternoon along London’s Southbank. London is out doing itself with exhibitions this year and we’re only three months in.

3. Oh bright young thing Lianne Le Havas you have utterly stolen my heart. Her EP Forget was released this week and if you haven’t purchased it yet then I highly recommend you stick your hands in your pockets. Soulful and sweet.

4. Bury me in a mound of Hawksmoor’s smashed cucumbers and shaky pete’s ginger brew and I think I’ll be happy in eternity. We went to the soft launch of their new cocktail bar in the basement of their Spitalfields branch Saturday night . Hawksmoor must be quietly confident that everything they touch turns into THE place to go and this latest edition will add to their empire. Glimmering brass and flickering candles soften the basement and the staff positively set off indoor fireworks. Service comes with charm, relaxed smile and a natural friendliness. Soundtrack felt like they’d plugged my iPod in and at a volume where you could chat with ease. Food was expertly cooked, burgers served in brioche buns, poutine and triple cooked chips. Cocktail combinations were zingy, worryingly moreish and far from your average uninspiring mojitos.

5. I wish I could give you a detailed account of the Sleigh Bells gig at Camden’s Electric Ballroom but truth be told I was gin drunk. I do have a vivid recollection of dancing a lot and being transfixed with Alexis Krauss performance. I can’t imagine she’s that rehearsed or calculated for her striking silhouettes to be so intentional, she’s just a natural performer, knows how to dance with an energy rivalling Iggy Pop and has potential to be a great, great frontwoman.  ♥

**I’m over on Twitter. Find me here***

Sunday Swoon. February 26th

It’s been a bloody delightful week…..

1. Utterly smitten with Graham Linehan’s adaptation of The Ladykillers. Brilliant acting from an amazing cast (Peter Capaldi, James Fleet), found myself guffawing over the slapstick humour, laughed a ton and fell in love with the stage design (it’s my future home, in my dreams). Thanks to a twitter tip off from the man himself we had front row seats for the bargain price of £20 per person so if you tweet it’s worth keeping an eye out to see if the offer comes back around. Slick, brilliantly amusing script and visually a real treat. Peter Capladi’s facial expressions alone are worth the visit. Highly recommended.

2. I look at Sleigh Bells Alexis Krauss and think “you are everything I could never be”, by that mean I mean recklessly cool (I have wild abandon down to near perfection, coolness doesn’t come naturally to me). Reign Of Terror is hyperactive, destructive while being supportive and encouraging, storming and stomping as well as comforting. Alexis seems to be pulling someone, kicking and screaming, through a chaotic time. You can listen on Spotify.

3. All credit goes to Chris Owen on Twitter for bringing the above video This Is My Home into my life. I don’t want to say anything other than it was a beautiful reminder that there are good souls out there. Guarantee it will warm your cockles.

4. I took a seaside trip down to Broadstairs with ace friends yesterday. It used to be our family holiday destination growing up so for me personally it was revisiting my childhood. Nothing had changed, Bleak House (where Dickens wrote the book) perches on the cliff, fish and chips, second-hand book shops, the chipped and weather-beaten beach huts dotting the beach, Morelli’s ice-cream parlour dishing up sundaes. Perfect day.

5. A promising ballerina that had to give up her dancing career after a slipped disc and spinal fracture turns to writing music as a way of coping. I was always going to fall hard for Oh Land before even listening to her sing, seeing her live takes it to a completely bizarre and wonderful new height. She came on stage wearing brothel creepers, mint coloured tights and a skin tight pink dress complete with what looked like two slaughtered care bear heads puffed up on her shoulders. Hailing from a creative family she clearly lets performance course through her live shows, not just the costume changes and the constant dancing. A bunch of balloons at the back of stage had constant projections of a ballerina, a dozen tiny wolves and at one point each balloon dotted with her face providing the background vocals.

6. I’m cheating and letting this spill over into 6 swoons this week. The Shins have returned with Simple Song and I adore the track and accompanying video.  ♥

**Follow me on Twitter here***