Alright, I know I said I'm ditching Muxtape for Posterous and I am, but at the same time, I've got to be flexible. Right? Can't look like an unmade bed in the face and just leave you all there without any music. Any. Right. So here's number 19, featuring a dazzling 20 tracks! Use the above player to go git!
1. The Polecats - "John, I'm Only Dancing"
This old rockabilly lot grew strong off of this one, a David Bowie-cover. Nobody thought more of them, until, of course, guitarist Boz Boorer joined Morrissey and has played with him since.
2. David Holmes - "The Ballad of Sarah & Jack"
This is a soothing yet harrowing track to me. Piano-based, slow and melodic, recorded as if Holmes was using old instruments and recording equipment to capture feelings found from looking through his parents' old pictures. More on his new, good album here.
3. Woven Hand - "White Knuckle Grip"
From David Eugene Edwards' mind springs a new album by Woven Hand, "Ten Stones", which hands us the well-known sound of theirs while showcasing how their craft is further finessed. Songs like this one reminds me of Nick Cave while other tracks forces me to concentrate on his voce. The melodies are pushed, thrown out there, sometimes gazing at the stars, sometimes gripping you by the shoulders and telling you to wake the fuck up.
4. TV On The Radio - "Halfway Home"
Oh yeah, another album released by a very nice band; this being the intro track, I love the playfulness and how Tunde Adebimpe sounds like a mix of Gruff Rhys and Saul Williams; the ba-ba-baa-baa-baa refrain wins me over instantly. A must-have, this album.
5. Justice - "Planisphà¨re Part 2"
Justice has made a little mix for fashion-house Dior, which incorporates their usual analogue sounds and beats, yet goes to show how they can use something as tiny as the arpeggio stroke of a key to funk stuff up. The mix incorporates a few elements from their album, "Cross", yet is quite nice as a whole, momentarily forcing me to dance.
6. Glasvegas - "Be My Baby"
Yeah, I know, I'll shut up about this lot soon enough, but here's a cover they've done which is a b-side vinyl release. The Ronettes should be...displeased if they'd be expecting anything other than a note-by-note cover. With lots of reverb thrown in, of course.
7. The Gutter Twins - "Deep Hit Of Morning Sun"
This duo are just releasing a semi-album of covers, titelled "Adorata", including this track originally by Primal Scream.
8. Mogwai - "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead"
Always competing with Morrissey, Super Furry Animals and Anal Cunt for the best song-titles, this lot have just released their new album, "Hawk Is Howling" and this is the opening track. Keep a look-out for them, as they're set to kick off their tour.
9. Okkervil River - "On Tour With Zykos"
Previously known through its better title, "Guy I Knew, Girl I Met", this track is one of the best off their new album, "The Stand Ins", which is the follow-up to "The Stage Names", serving as an appendix. I love it. Will's voice is really maturing now, coming into new breadths with him realising his potentials, which seem to be expanding by every record. Listening to old tracks like "For The Captain" ((Which is, I admit, a blow under the belt of sorts.)) and comparing it with the vocal triumph on tracks off this album, e.g. this one, reminds me of Morrissey's voice as it (in my mind, anyway) started to find more realms circa "Vauxhall & I". Buy this album!
10. Sen Dog - "Fumble"
I've still no idea how this happened, but his debut solo album is still way better than anything released by Cypress Hill in the past few years. Whoa!
11. The Vaselines - "Son of a Gun"
Oldie goldie from the shores of Scotland, this is a great song. Simple, plain.
12. Saul Williams - "Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)"
Together with Zack De La Rocha this is a stand-out track from Williams' first LP, unwavering and blissfully angry electronica.
13. Nitzer Ebb - "Without Belief"
One of my favourite synth-based EBM-groups, who have by the way just left legendary label Mute, here present a track off their often-overlooked album "Belief". Minimal and hard, just as I love 'em.
14. Marshall Jefferson - "Move Your Body"
One of the ultimate house-tracks. Nothing more needs to be said, apart from telling that Soulwax have culled the bass off it for their recent live-documentary-cum-album, "Part Of The Weekend Never Really Dies".
15. Altern-8 - "Move My Body"
Two jinxters from England made a long-standing impression on me with the album "Full On...Mask Hysteria", consisting of breakbeats, horns and rave sounds. Altern-8 are a bit like The KLF, but more prank-loving. The songs are good, though! And who can resist two men in chemical warfare suits?
16. The Fall - "Ride Away"
Mark E. Smith is a legend in his own right, not giving a fawk about anybody, with Bo Diddley acting the possible exception, but he's been the leader of The Fall for 30 years. Reading his autobiography, "Renegade", is more than nice, albeit it's hard for me to buy into his way of reasoning at times. The music is quite the same, either you love it, hate it or dig into a few songs; me, I'm more to-and-fro rather than being all in or out. Make your choice.
17. Arctic Monkeys - "Love Machine"
This is a cover of a track by Girls Aloud, and I crack up at the backing vocals. Oh! Oh! Oh!
18. Beach Boys - "Feel Flows"
This song is a warm blanket around me, showing just how genius Brian Wilson was at song-writing. If you're one of those who - like me - shun their album "Pet Sounds" just because you're always hearing it's so excellent you have to hear it, I say just wait until you hear it, and then you'll punch yourself at least once for not having delved into it earlier. Just sayin'.
19. Bert Jansch - "Peregrinations"
This old master of the guitar started his career as a member of Pentangle before moving on with his solo career, through which he's earned the superlative and love from people like Nick Drake, Johnny Marr, Jimmy Page and Pete Doherty.
20. Super Furry Animals - "(Drawing) Rings Around The World"
I love this simple song about connecting throughout the universe, in which SFA have called a variety of embassies around the world. I love the American voice: "Rings around the world? Oh, man..." It's like Kraftwerk's "The Telephone Call" but with Welsh and no braces. I love the video, although I must say I prefer the weirder, more rare version here: