Nine Feet Underground

One of the best things about this time of year are the annual reviews of the year's best music according to the music press. Each magazine, blog or e-zine has its own bias so I like to take a cross-section: in terms of the printed press this means NME, Mojo, Uncut, Shindig! and Wire. Apart from the obvious joy of the list (!) there are three pluses: the fun of disagreement; the thrill of finding something explosive that you've missed; and most of all because it's the prompt for me to survey my albums of the year. To date I've seen the lists from Mojo and Uncut and both of these agree on one thing - their album of the year is Julia Holter's album 'Have You in My Wilderness'. It’s a great album and features one of my tracks of the year - it could even figure in my top 10, but that'll have to wait until another post. In the meantime here are a few tracks from some of my contenders... An absolute screamer from Anna Von Hausswolff...

All it takes is that electric piano and I'm lost to it. The woman's voice, the spoken intro, the loping drumbeat kicks in...'Midnight In A Perfect World'.  This is one of those songs that stops me in my tracks: once heard I have to listen all the way to the end.   Since I heard it again the other morning I think I've played it 6 or 7 times.  I found the official video for the track which I've never seen before - it's damn good for a video, not least because there's a sequence which leads to the cover shot of the album from which 'Midnight...' is taken: 'Endtroducing'.  The clock on the wall reads a quarter past midnight...

Nostalgia has featured a lot in my life lately - a 40th anniversary school reunion next year is generating lots of social media chatter with associated memories and Mr and Mrs 9Feet Underground have been enjoying a 22nd wedding anniversary - all of which has prompted me to write this piece on music and nostalgia. Let's get straight to the point: when it comes to music, in general, I'm not keen on nostalgia.  Let me expand on that.  I don't mean that I don't listen to any music that was written / recorded / released in the past. Far from it.  To me "new music" just means music I've not heard before, whether it was recorded yesterday or before I surfaced, screaming, onto this planet.  The key thing is to not only be open to new music but to actively seek it out; I'm not interested in the view that all the good music was made in the sixties, seventies, eighties, or whatever period happens to coincide with the speaker’s youth. There always has been go

Today would have been John Peel's 76th birthday were it not for his untimely death in 2004.  As a small note of respect for the man who introduced me to more new and exciting music than any other person, here's a musical tribute. I'm not 100% certain whether it was John Peel or Alan "Fluff" Freeman who first brought Captain Beefheart to my attention.  If it was Alan Freeman, then the first track I heard would have been 'Big-Eyed Beans From Venus' - I know I heard him play it. If it was Peel, then I really have no idea - he played so many of  Either way John  Peel remained a huge fan of the man, regularly including tracks in  his radio shows and was the person who first brought Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band to the UK This is one of my favourite Beefheart tracks: Happy Birthday John. Gone but not forgotten.

The best new music I've heard recently has either been from solo female artists or originates from Scandinavia. This post sticks to former though there is one track that fits into both categories... Here's the first three songs: It took a couple of listens find the heart of Julia Holter's new single 'Feel You' but it repays the effort - the sadness and longing at core of this song make it really moving. The phrasing is exquisite and the chorus that begins after the line "Are you mythological?" is like toppling of a cliff, but in a pleasant way :-) In stark contrast 'Dragged Out' - the first song I've heard by Chelsea Wolfe, though this is by no means her first album - has a much darker melancholy at its centre. It sounds like the soundtrack to a soul's descent into hell, a thing of obsidian beauty and is hypnotically compelling. On a slightly lighter note - though perhaps only at the surface - is Roisin Murphy's &

An article published by  Uncut magazine suggests that people cease to take an active interest in new music once they hit their mid-thirties.  I certainly know people whose musical taste has frozen: they only listen to music from the sixties, or the seventies, or the eighties or perhaps the nineties.  Typically the era in question coincides with the years when they were in their teens or twenties. The Uncut article is a summary of research into the listening habits of US Spotify users published in an article titled ‘ “Music was better back then”: When do westop keeping up with popular music? ’ . Putting to one side the source and coverage of the data used, for me the premise is a flawed one.  My approach to music is more aligned to that of John Peel who said: “People do find it curious that a chap of my age likes the things that I like but I do feel that it's one of those situations where everyone's out of step except our John, because in every other area of human activi

It's been a while since my last playlist so this time there are five songs rather than the customary three.  At least one of these songs has been bouncing round my brain for several weeks now - more on that below. There's one older track too - though not that old - the title track from Saint Etienne's 2002 album 'Finisterre'. 'Let it Happen' by Tame Impala has been playing in this brain for quite a while now, so much so that I've decided to adopt the title as my new approach to life :-J  This track is one of those restless Tame Impala tracks that seem to start off as one song, go through some changes and finish as a different song. Really can't say much about 'Fool' by Nadine Shah, other than I'm totally hooked. Album's good too.. The second track from Tame Impala's forthcoming album is ''Cause I'm a Man'. Not restless like the first track, it has been a slow burner that's insinuated its way into my b

Even after the announcement in February that Daevid Allen had terminal cancer with no more than 6 months to live, it still came as a shock to hear of his death on 13 th March 2015. Daevid Allen was a one-off – someone who embodied the most positive aspects of the late 1960’s hippy vision and dressed it up in his own singular world vision – the planet Gong. Whilst his songs often encapsulated this vision with serious messages about the way we are treating the planet or the iniquities of capitalism, he never took himself too seriously. Briefly a member of Soft Machine – he only appears on their very early single ‘Love Makes Sweet Music’ – he went on to form Gong with his partner Gilli Smyth and others.   Gong has never had a fixed line-up – there are even albums released under the name Gong on which Allen does not appear – but for many the line-up that truly represents Gong is the one that recorded the three albums known as the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy: ‘Flying Teapot’,  ‘

I've been entranced by the Father John Misty track since I first heard it on the radio ahead of the album’s release. ‘Chateau Lobby #4’ is a beautiful song of striking imagery written to (or for, or about) his (new) wife.  The album is equally powerful and joyous collection of songs largely on or around the same theme. Metaphysical concerns link the titles of other two tracks for this week: firstly Dragons’ ‘Food for My Soul’ was first released by Ninja Tune in 2007 though had allegedly remained on a shelf since its recording in the late 1960’s – how it failed to see the light of day for so long is a mystery.  In contrast Stereolab’s ‘Tickertape of the Unconscious’ is from their 1997 album ‘Dots and Loops’ – one of the best albums in their extensive recorded career.  This features thanks to a train journey combined with an MP3 player on set to random. As always the playlist is available through YouTube or Spotify…

Every waking moment there’s some tune or other sinuously snaking between, through and round my thoughts, frequently bubbling to the surface like…well, like bubbles surfacing. Three songs have been chasing their tails through my neural pathways this week and they’ve now broken out and surfaced in this playlist…

Great news! Almost 5 years after their last compilation album Amorphous Androgynous have announced the fourth volume in their brain-mashing ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble (Exploding in Your Mind)’ series.  Subtitled ‘Wizards of Oz’ the latest volume’s name provides a clue to the contents – and no, before you suggest it, it has nothing to do with a similarly-titled film. Due for release on the 23 rd March ‘Wizards of Oz’, like its predecessors is a 2-CD continuous mix of cosmic space music but this time focused on music from Australia and New Zealand.  In part the Australian bias is probably in response to the success of bands like Tame Impala and Pond (both of which feature in the mix), though there are plenty of names new to these ears.  Let’s hope this compilation is as strong as the three volumes that preceded it! More details of the album can be found on the Future Sound of London site  here. In the meantime a couple of tracks have already appeared on Soundclo

In order to keep up with the stream of new albums so far this year I recently listened to Natalie Prass and Napalm Death whilst carrying some “brain-largely-not-required” chores.  One thing I generally find difficult is multi-tasking where music is concerned. Very rapidly music gains my full attention and then spreads its tendrils to the pleasure and motor centres of my brain, but the chores were simple enough that the music remained to the fore and the jobs got done. Enough on the idiosyncrasies of my wiring… So, Natalie and the ‘Death – quite a contrast – and not just because Nat’s (hope she doesn’t mind the undeserved familiarity) album is her debut whilst the Nap’s album is their nth – how did they fare I hear you cry? Thanks to the glowing and unanimous praise heaped on ‘Natalie Prass’ – for example ‘a gem of a heartbreak album’ (Observer), 8/10 Uncut – it had to be worth a listen.  Sadly, it didn’t live up to my expectation based on the reviews: the musical settings a

2014 has been a great year for music. The further evolution of new bands taking inspiration from one or other of the previous psychedelic eras has resulted in more thrilling music, though there is a fine line that divides inspiration and slavish copying. I much prefer music made by those who understand the heart of the music and create something new and exhilarating. Alongside the burgeoning psychedelic scene the parallel – yet overlapping – progressive scene continues to develop further, mixing up the musical origins of prog with ideas, energy and single-mindedness of punk, folk and metal. Look no further than the invigorating and invigorated sound of Gong on their latest album ‘I See You’ for evidence of the health of prog in 2014. Set the joy that the psych and prog scenes have delivered against some of the best new albums from developing individual talents like  St. Vincent and Tune-Yards and it becomes clear that music in 2014 (and on into 2015) is in a really health