Features

Really seems churlish not to join in with today's shenanigans. Judging by this, looking like justifiable use of hype.

Yet another period of quietness to apologise for, though I do have the excuse this week of having been away working in the States. More about that later, and, hopefully, some more proper blogs next week. Maybe we should start with Radiohead and “King Of Limbs”, do you think?

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.

Finishing the issue, so have to be quick today. It all goes a bit early ‘90s towards the bottom of the list this week. Nice to dig out the Suntanama records from about a decade ago, though, prompted by the discovery that Dave Shuford/D Charles Speer figured in their lineup.

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.

Perhaps you’ve already picked this up, but the title track from Fleet Foxes’ “Helplessness Blues” has popped up as a free download at the band’s website in the last day.

A few more nice things this week, not least the new Chris Forsyth album, which features some assistance from various bits of the Helix/Hans Chew axis. I think I might tackle them both for my next magazine column, but bear with me.

Plenty of interesting psych stuff accumulated here over the past few weeks, while I’ve been distracted by a bunch of other things. A bit of a roundup today, kicking off with Daughters Of The Sun, whose “Ghost With Chains” is forthcoming on Not Not Fun.

Since I saw them play a series of shows at the Union Chapel in Highbury a good decade ago, I’ve always felt that Low’s music suited churches. Not because of the religious connotations as such, more because they were so suited to the space, stillness and reverberations inherent in those kind of buildings.