Voice of the seven thunders

First off, a tremendous and very worthwhile London gig to plug next month. A Requiem For Jack Rose takes place at Café Oto in Dalston on February 16, with a neat bill of Rose friends; Hush Arbors, Heather Leigh, Rick Tomlinson, Michael Flower Band and C Joynes. More details about the show here at No-Fi.

Good list, this one, I reckon. Among some really nice arrivals from old favourites: a new Voice Of The Seven Thunders remix EP; a stripped-back one from Hiss Golden Messenger; Etienne Jaumet’s Zombie Zombie project ramping up the Carpenter vibes; The Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright and Raconteur/Greenhorne Patrick Keeler in The Parting Gifts; and, maybe best of all, the debut album by Hans Chew, who you might know from his piano-playing on various Jack Rose and Helix jams. A lot more about that one, especially, soon.

Another busy week; busy enough to put me off expending any energy on the ritual travesties of the Mercury Music Prize. Then again, I guess holding out hopes for a Voice Of The Seven Thunders nomination would’ve been more deranged than optimistic; and there have been worse shortlists. Fingers crossed for Wild Beasts, or, indeed, for “critics’ favourites” the XX. Finally playing These New Puritans, as I type…

Endless Boogie, The Cairo Gang, Bill Mackay, Rick Tomlinson, Anthony Pasquarosa/John Moloney reviewed...

“Where the music’s hot…”

A while back, I read somewhere that Ben Chasny’s next Six Organs Of Admittance record would feature the heavy involvement of his old bandmates from Comets On Fire: it would be a kind of Comets reunion, was the speculation, albeit with Chasny in the driving seat rather than Ethan Miller.

Hiss Golden Messenger Slaughtered Lamb, London “I’ll do my best to put you in a trance here,” says Michael Taylor, aka Hiss Golden Messenger, as he tweaks and tunes his guitar at the start of tonight’s Club Uncut show. This is Taylor’s third London show in a week, including an in-store performance at Rough Trade on Saturday. Clearly, he’s on a roll.

Various circumstances mean I have to miss Hiss Golden Messenger’s show at Club Uncut on Wednesday, so I went to see Michael Taylor’s first UK show at King’s Place, a rather refined venue beneath The Guardian offices, last Friday.

A few years ago, I came across an album called "Love, Peace & Poetry 9: Turkish Psychedelic Music", one of those compilations that suddenly opens up a new corridor of musical investigation.

Thanks, once again, to all of you who submitted your Top Tens of 2010 to the blog at the end of the year. I’ve now applied the dark mathematics and come up with a Top 50 from them, which provides an interesting - healthy, to be honest - contrast to my own list. The winner was ahead of the pack by a mile, incidentally…