Friday Top Ten - 9/9/11

DJ Cull's Friday Top Ten - 9/9/11 by Dj Cull on Mixcloud

Here's this week's broadcast of the best new music around, just click on the play button above to listen. Track listing and details below, including 7 free downloads, just click on the links:

1. Boys Noize & Erol Alkan - Avalanche (Terminal Velocity) (feat. Jarvis Cocker)
2. Joe Goddard - Gabriel (feat. Valentina)
3. Crookers - Dr Gonzo Anthem (feat. Carli)(Sinden Remix) Free download
4. Instra:mental - Vicodin (Skudge Warehouse Mix)
5. DJ Shadow - Warning Call (feat. Tom Vek) Free download
6. The Weeknd - House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls Free download
7. Fitz & The Tantrums - Breakin' The Chains Of Love
8. Grace Jones - Well Well Well (dub) Free Download
9. Deep Cut - Just Chasing (Electric Loop Orchestra Remix) Free download
10. Wolf Gang - Pieces Of You (Mondkopf Remix) Free download
11. Ole Torjus - Renvas Ugnim Free download
12. Dirty Beaches - Lord Knows Best
13. James Blake & Bon Iver - Fall Creek Boys Choir

Recommended music: 'Gracious Tide, Take Me Home' by Lanterns On The Lake

Time for another review of a record quite far removed from the sort of stuff I normally listen to. I first heard Lanterns On The Lake in March of this year at SXSW. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to like them (an opinion reinforced when I saw the violin on stage) but when they played I was pretty blown away by the power of their music. Now the album has arrived from the Newcastle sextet, and it manages to mix fragile and gentle folk tendencies with flickers and blips of electronica in a really satisfying way.

'Lungs Quicken' is a subtle introduction to the album sung by Hazel Wilde, ethereal but with a ticking electronic backing, while 'If I've Been Unkind' brings Adam Sykes' vocals to the fore on a more straightforward acoustic song that still has loops and swirls in the background. Then 'Keep On Trying' sweeps by, all airy and breathy, followed by 'Ships in the Rain', which sounds like a traditional north-east lament. This is one of a number of tracks that help inform the album's overall themes of the sea and the life that surrounds it.

'A Kingdom' starts to pick up the pace with a driving snare. The violin is quite prominent here, in a way that reminds me of The Waterboys rather than in an overtly folky style. Next, one of the longest tracks on here, 'The Places We Call Home', starts quietly over an electronic rhythm but slowly builds to peaks and then falls back - I remember this one sounding great live as it shimmers and soars. 'Blanket of Leaves' has a dark undertone (I picture it being about someone laying down to die), and soon gives way to 'Tricks'. One of the best tracks on the album, it's atmospheric and moving, with a great drum rhythm and swooping guitars and violins.

'You're Almost There' is a piano-led, dark ballad made for a moody black and white video with cars driving across the desert in Utah, campfires and horses (anyone at Bella Union want me to direct it?). Last but one is 'I Love You, Sleepyhead', with lyrics about being "just in time to save a life", it starts sleepily enough but is another that builds to a crescendo. That just leaves you with 'Not Going Back To The Harbour' to listen to, a brief, fragile acoustic number to close things off.

If you buy the album from Rough Trade Shops you get a 4 track bonus disc with 2 new songs - 'The Watch House And The Daughter' and 'Father's Song', an alternative version of 'Not Going Back To The Harbour' and the Dustin O'Halloran remix of 'Ships In The Rain'.

There are hints of a lot of other bands in the mix here, from Sigur Ros to Mazzy Star, but none of these influences get in the way of the spirit of their music. Much like the Mercury nominated album by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins this record manages to combine different genres to produce something that transcends both. Definitely the best thing that Bella Union have put out this year. And if you like the record make sure you try to catch the band live to experience the full force of their music.

Lanterns On The Lake performing at SXSW in March 2011

Recommended music: 'Lights Out' by Big Deal

Big Deal are another of this year's duos, and definitely one of the best. Formed by 29 year-old KC (or Kacey) Underwood and 18 year-old (and beautiful) Alice Costelloe, this is a match made in whatever passes for heaven in your belief system. Opening with 'Distant Neighborhood' the album instantly drags you into their fragile world, where guitars and vocals are the only things that matter. There's no room for anything percussive anywhere on the record, which adds to the stoned beauty of the whole thing. Equally there's no real 'lead vocalist' as singing duties are shared throughout, and mostly both are singing at once.

'Chair' features the albums first great lyric - "only want me for the songs I write about you, about how I like you" - and is, like most of the album, about love. Costelloe alternates personas between the shy innocent and the sexed up vamp, aching with longing and lust. 'Cool Like Kurt' is a plea to be ravaged - "Take me to your bed, don't take me home, I wanna be old, I wanna be older" - in the best Lolita style. 'Swoon' is swoonsome, brief but lovely, although I'm not sure if they're singing 'the summer's coming soon' or 'Osama's coming soon' at the end, which might change the complexion of the song a bit.

First single 'Homework' is gently fragile, and is followed by 'Talk', which is the track that first brought the band to my attention. Any song that includes both a reference to the film 'Let The Right One In' and the lyric "All I wanna do is talk, but seeing you fucks me up" is alright by me, and the song perfectly sums up that teenage angst and unrequited love that we've all felt at some time.

'With The World At My Feet'  is probably the most up tempo song on the album, but even here you don't really miss the drums - the guitars provide enough rhythm, and there's even a guitar solo on this one. 'Locked Up' was originally the b-side to 'Talk' but has been re-recorded here, with shimmering guitars under the lines like "You don't have to be alone, maybe you're not, but you keep it locked up". Next up, 'Summer Cold' is a cool breeze on a hot summer's day, with lovely twanging guitar and perfectly matched vocals from the pair. Harking back to the early 80s, 'Visions' has more than a hint of Blondie's 'Dreaming' in both lyrics and melody, and is followed by the darker-tinged 'Seraphine' which has an air of goth to it. Closer 'Pi' leads with Underwood's vocals over an atmospheric backing, but it's not long before Costelloe joins him as they both lullaby us to sleep at the end.

If you were going to criticise this album at all you might say that on first listen it's a bit one-dimensional, being just guitars and vocals, but spin it a few times and you really begin to sink into the atmosphere of the record and appreciate what KC & Alice have crafted here.

Undoubtedly one of the best debut albums of the year, in fact one of the best albums of the year period. You can listen to the whole thing by clicking here, just before you rush out and buy it.

Track of the Day: 'Gabriel' by Joe Goddard feat. Valentina

Play this (loudly) and just try to sit still. You can't. It's impossible not to move to this absolutely huge dancefloor filler from Hot Chip's Joe Goddard. No free download, so if you're going to buy it I recommend you head to 7digital where the 4-track EP is only £1.58.

One day all dance records will be this good.

Track of the Day: 'Lord Knows Best' by Dirty Beaches

I don't expect this will be a particularly regularly feature on the blog, but every now and then I'll use it to bring to your attention a track I think you all deserve to hear. Taking the inaugural slot is 'Lord Knows Best' by Dirty Beaches, a track from their new album 'Badlands' which was released on iTunes this week (although it's been available independently for a few months). A solo project by Taiwan-born Alex Zhang Hungtai, the track is imbued with the spirit of David Lynch, the throat of Matt Monro and the leather jacket of Marlon Brando, and sounds entirely unlike anything else you'll hear this week.

Watch the video above, or click on the photo of Alex below to download the track.

Friday Top Ten - 2/9/11

DJ Cull's Friday Top Ten - 2/9/2011 by Dj Cull on Mixcloud

15 tracks for you this week (I'm sure we'll be up to 20 by the end of the year) - just click on the play button above and enjoy! If the first track's not your cup of tea don't worry, it's only 37 seconds long and there's plenty more diverse stuff following afterwards). Track listing and details below, including 12 free downloads, just click on the links:

1. Gallows - True Colours Free download
2. Wavves - I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl Free download
3. Gauntlet Hair - Top Bunk Free download
4. Oberhofer - Gotta Go Free download
5. Other Lives - For 12 
6. Exitmusic - The Sea Free download
7. Memoryhouse - Quiet America Free download
8. Roll The Dice - Calling All Workers Free download
9. Radiohead - Give Up The Ghost (Brokenchord RMX)
10. How To Dress Well - Suicide Dream 2 (Holy Other's Effervescent Mix) Free download
11. Active Child - Playing House (feat. How To Dress Well) Free download
12. Fixers - Swimmhaus Johannesburg (Star Slinger Remix) Free download
13. Unicorn Kid - Chrome Lion Free download
14. Sims - Jordan 5's Free download
15. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - How Can You Luv Me

Have Another Cigar - a Pink Floyd cover versions playlist

Have Another Cigar: The Pink Floyd cover versions broadcast by Dj Cull on Mixcloud

Collected for your listening pleasure, here are some of the best (and one or two of the worst) Pink Floyd covers ever to have been recorded. Just click on the play button above to listen, the full track listing is:

1. Sweet Billy Pilgrim - In The Flesh?
2. Gary Lucas - Astronomy Dominé
3. Laibach - Dogs of War
4. Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
5. Martha Wainwright - See Emily Play
6. Love and Rockets - Lucifer Sam
7. Easy Star All-Stars - Money (feat. Gary 'Nesta' Pine and Dollarman)
8. Snowbird - Goodbye Blue Sky
9. The Mars Volta - Candy and a Currant Bun
10. The Hot Rats - Bike
11. The Shins - Breathe
12. Malachai - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1)
13. Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb
14. Foo Fighters - Have A Cigar
15. The Flaming Lips - The Great Gig In The Sky (feat. Peaches and Henry Rollins)
16. Wolf People - Time
17. Peter Broderick - Is There Anybody Out There?
18. Lia Ices - Wish You Were Here
19. Luther Wright & The Wrongs - Run Like Hell
20. Camper Van Beethoven - Interstellar Overdrive