Nine Feet Underground

Drum beat kicks, sampled string section weaves its dreamy melody in and out of focus over a lurching slow drum pattern and the mantra "It's Seven, It's Heavy, It's Heaven" leads in to the gloriously addictive hypnotic chorus. Brain hooked after four chorus repeats that gyrate and wind like a snake charmer dancer sending ripples through a smoke-filled room.  The rap begins it's roller coaster ride with phrases merging into phrases before we hit the chorus running again and back to the dancer's sinuous moves. A melancholy fadeout as the rap and strings hit the wall...exhale. Shabazz Palaces look at America ("Amurderca" in Quazarz-speak) through an alien lens on their pair of albums - 'Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star' and 'Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines' - both released on the 14th July is a breath of fresh air, a singular rap vision to be celebrated.

Back to SUB89 for the third time this year: The Jesus and Mary Chain supported by a relatively new band from Bath, Swimming Girls. SUB89 is the most crowded I've seen it - clearly the JAMC are still quite a draw, helped no doubt by the strength of this year's new album 'Damage and Joy' as well as the strength of their back catalogue, not to mention their "mainstream" rock credentials which gives them pretty broad appeal. First up, as tradition dictates, the support act, Swimming Girls, clearly a new band (they only seem to have one song out there on SoundCloud) but, as their playing shows, a band used to playing together.  Ahead of the gig I listened to the one song I could find, 'Tastes Like Money', which was OK, certainly enough to make me want to hear what they were like live. As is often the case, live, the band were better than I expected with a late '80s / early '90s sound - a cross between maybe shoegaze / dream pop with a

Mac DeMarco has a pretty bad reputation for being a bit of an arsehole, though an arsehole capable of writing great songs, each album being blessed with several intoxicating songs.  His latest, 'This Old Dog', is no exception and one of the standout tracks is the summery 'On The Level'.   Opening with a woozy keyboard sound over a loping beat leading to Mac's trademark even-more-laid-back-than-a-hammock-swinging-gently-in-a-Caribbean-sea-breeze vocal style, this is a song to lose yourself in.

There is a beauty in the bleakness of these soundscapes and, when they work, the lyrics and the singer's broken weariness only serve to plunge the listener deeper in. The occasional crass lyric aside 'Cigarettes After Sex's' self-titled  album is a journey into a glacially sharp lovelorn despair that can only serve to draw you down into its crushing core. 'Each Time You Fall In Love' encapsulates the feel of album with songs like 'K.', 'John Wayne' and 'Apocalypse' being amongst the standouts.

After beginning to despair of the new releases this year - not that they were bad, but worse than that much that I've heard has been just OK. Boring. The cardinal sin where music is concerned. You begin to wonder if it's your own frame of mind that's the problem, but then an album comes along that restores your faith. Jane Weaver's new album, 'Modern Kosmology', which tips a nod to both Trish Keenan's Broadcast and also, naturellement, to Laetitia Sadier, as well as krautrock in a broader sense. Nevertheless she is her own person and has her own vision which immediately becomes apparent. 'Did You See Butterflies' builds from an insistent rhythm into a simple guitar riff until the vocals kick in and we are lost into a dreamy vocal swirl that builds and builds into the chorus. Drowning in reverb and echo lost to the intoxicating voice round and round.Bliss... Listen to the album here...

Inexplicably this is my first visit to South Street Arts Centre though I've lived in the Reading area off and on for more years than space allows. After this visit, though, I will plan to return again especially to see bands but probably other gigs. Why? It is a great size - a really intimate venue in which to see bands - and a really friendly venue, like seeing a gig in a room in your own home (assuming you had a fairly large spacious home). The support act was a band called Mauno from Canada who've been supporting Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble on this leg of their tour. A four-piece with 2 guitars, bass and drums playing I guess some kind of hybrid of pop and rock with Talking Heads-style rhythmic shifts. Not being familiar with either them or their songs it took a couple of numbers to get into their sound, but as the set progressed it became clear there was something interesting going on, both lyrically and musically.  In such a small venue it was great to see the

Melody's Echo Chamber released their debut album in 2012 and it has remained a oft-returned to favourite of mine ever since. Some five or so years later there's a new track been shared as a taster for a new album, titled 'Bon Voyage', slated for release "in the Spring", whenever that may be. 'Cross My Heart' is a track full of unexpected twists and turns that retains the psychedelic feel of the first album whilst having a much more open and expansive sound.  Further excitement comes from involvement of a couple members of the Swedish band Dungen in the new album: both Reine Fiske (Guitar) and Gustav Ejstes (various instruments and the guy who effectively IS Dungen) are credited for production and playing. I love this and hope the album has many more delights to offer...roll on "the Spring"...

Back to SUB89 and also to Dreadzone after a semi-enforced break, on a Friday night and accompanied by my sons - "Dreadzone virgins" in the words of MC Spee: sounds like the setting for a great night out... ...and so it proved to be! There was no support act though Greg Dread (Greg Roberts, drummer) played a DJ set prior to Dreadzone taking to the stage - a gentle warm up for what was to follow.  The band took to the stage to cheers and applause and launched straight into 'Rootsman' from the new album, a great reggae-based opener that led neatly into MC Spee's intro for 'Return of the Dread' - and already the "bouncing crew" was in full sway. Dreadzone are a joyous band live - it's impossible not to dance - and I for one had a grin from ear to ear whilst dancing for the entire two hour set. There was a good mix of old and new songs though a definite bias towards their most "successful" album, Second Light. S

First up was support act Captivves, a Reading three-piece featuring drums, bass and guitar. From the outset the guitar player set a tone of dark foreboding with sheets of steely noise: the bassist is also the singer and his angst-filled vocals had the perfect setting against this backdrop. A beautifully consuming sound to get lost in.  Captivves have a couple of EPs up on Soundcloud that are well worth a listen:  Captivves on Souncloud .  The venue started filling out ahead of the arrival of the main attraction, though if you were there early you did see Colin Newman setting up his equipment before the band came on stage for their set.   Whatever happened to roadies? Wire took to the stage and got straight into 'Boiling Boy' from ' A Bell is a Cup' one of the few numbers dating back to Wire mark 1.  This year is Wire's 40th anniversary but - as is customary with them - they did not choose to do a greatest hits set, rather a set almost totally compiled fro