I guess there are probably worse jobs to return to after a fortnight’s holiday. I arrived back in the Uncut office yesterday to be greeted by a big pile of new releases, which I’m still picking my way through. Currently playing: Track Two of Damon’s reissued “Song Of A Gypsy” – “Generally regarded,” it says here in the press release, “as one of the finest privately-pressed psychedelic rock records” of the late ‘60s. We shall see.

It’s been easy to be distracted these past 24 hours by reissues of records that were barely released in the first place: a big chunk of yesterday afternoon was consumed by a beatific comp titled “I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age In America, 1950-1990”. Some vintage New Age music is being deservedly reassessed at the moment, as you might have divined from the Rediscovered! review of Iasos in the current Uncut.

Also waiting for me in my inbox yesterday was an interview for next month’s mag with sometime Eno collaborator, the spiritually elevated Laraaji. Laraaji, I learn, is “currently learning the didgeridoo and has a sideline in laughter workshops”. His lovely music never worked well in clubs, apparently, because it “would put people into trance states. And people in a trance don’t buy drinks.”

Laraaji also talks about sharing Eno’s ideas about ambient music: “It’s music that you can just be in – it doesn’t require you to think.” Which is probably why it’s so useful to have on while you’re working. Of course, that’s not always what we require from music, and maybe a few of the new records which have turned up while I’ve been away – White Denim’s “Corsicana Lemonade, Lee Ranaldo & The Dust’s “Last Night On Earth”, new jams from Chris Forsyth and Cian Nugent, plenty more stuff I haven’t had time to play yet – are rather more arresting.

I’ll write about these some more in a playlist blog in the next day or two, and include a few things for you all to hear. But in the meantime, this is incredible, I think: the lead track from Matthew E White’s new “Outer Face” EP. It’s called “Hot, Hot, Hot” and it sounds extremely roughly like how “Gris Gris” might have worked out if it had been produced by the Tropicalia scene’s maestro of orchestration and sound collage, Rogério Duprat.

White was, by all accounts, one of the highlights of the End Of The Road festival last weekend, which Uncut was proudly involved with this year. Tom was there blogging, among other things, throughout the weekend, and you can read his reports on Belle & Sebastian, Eels , David Byrne & St Vincent and plenty more here.

And if you fancy telling us your highlights of the festival – or indeed want to talk about anything – I’m happy to announce that, this morning, we opened a new comments system on all our blogs (There’s no need to use Facebook to talk to us any more, if you’re averse to that sort of thing). Don’t be a stranger; or, as it kept reiterating on all those Deadline Day liveblogs I wasted half of yesterday reading, GET INVOLVED!

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

Photograph: Pieter M Van Hattem

David Byrne & St Vincent at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Ethan Johns at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Eels at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Parquet Courts at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Mike Heron & Trembling Bells at End Of The Road 2013 – review

William Tyler at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Belle & Sebastian might not have surprised anyone with their last two albums, 2006’s The Life Pursuit and 2010’s Write About Love, but it seems their fans’ love for them is growing even deeper – these two are their highest charting records, in the UK and America.

So as warmly as End Of The Road’s other headliners have been received, the reaction Stuart Murdoch and co get is as frenzied as it would be at a tiny fan club gig. Every bit of stage banter is met with screams, and even relatively obscure cuts like the opening instrumental “Judy Is A Dick Slap” are treated like the cream of their canon.

With added strings and brass, and excellent mixing, Belle & Sebastian sound much meatier than on record, with fantastic harmonies and bountiful energy. “The Stars Of Track And Field” on If You’re Feeling Sinister sounds positively weedy in comparison to the string-drenched, muscular version we hear tonight.

We could perhaps have done without “Sukie In The Graveyard” or “To Be Myself Completely” – not bad songs, but no way the equal of many stunning tracks not played tonight – but the closing trio of groovy ’60s pastiche “Legal Man” (during which the stage is swamped by invited crowd members), “Judy And The Dream Of Horses” and “Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying” end the set – and indeed the whole of 2013’s End Of The Road – on a high.

Tom Pinnock

Follow Tom on Twitter for more End Of The Road coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Belle And Sebastian at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Ethan Johns at End Of The Road 2013 – review

David Byrne & St Vincent at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Eels at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Parquet Courts at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Mike Heron & Trembling Bells at End Of The Road 2013 – review

One of the highlights of this weekend’s Uncut Tipi Tent is almost certainly William Tyler‘s performance on Sunday afternoon. It’s hot and dry in Dorset, and Tyler’s dusty, crystalline solo guitar pieces are the perfect counterparts.

The former Lambchop and Silver Jews musician plays to a surprisingly packed, and rapt, tent, mostly performing tracks from his second album, this year’s Impossible Truth.

Live, the likes of “Cadillac Desert” – which Tyler dedicates to Marfa, Texas, a remote town of artists and musicians that gave him “the most psychedelic experience ever…without help” – are more luminously alive than on record, and with their chorus and echo effects, even more reminiscent of The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly.

Tyler closes his 40-minute set with the reverby “Country Of Illusion” – he explains it was inspired by the end of the world, but admits that he’d like to put a more positive ‘new beginning’ slant on it in honour of End Of The Road’s positive vibes.

Tom Pinnock

Follow Tom on Twitter for more End Of The Road coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Belle And Sebastian at End Of The Road 2013 – review

David Byrne & St Vincent at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Ethan Johns at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Eels at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Parquet Courts at End Of The Road 2013 – review

William Tyler at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Mike Heron of The Incredible String Band has teamed up with Trembling Bells a number of times over the last couple of years – in fact, I saw them almost exactly two years ago to the day at London’s Vortex Jazz Bar.

It was an intimate and moving set, and tonight the only real difference between that and the collaboration on the Uncut Tipi Tent stage is that today Trembling Bells intersperse the songs featuring Heron with their own versions of String Band classics.

Bizarrely, they pick two songs by the String Band’s other half, Robin Williamson, to perform – the ten-minute “Maya” opens the set, while their take on “Waltz Of The New Moon” follows later. In both cases, the guitar picking from Mike Hastings is impressive, but Lavinia Blackwall’s singing is a little too strident to really evoke the intricacies and subtleties of the ISB’s sound – despite reputation, they were far from hippie whimsy.

Much better are the songs Trembling Bells perform with Heron, who smiles continually throughout the set, even when lamenting the fact that they only have 45 minutes onstage. His voice isn’t quite as confident as it was so many years ago, which is hardly surprising, but it retains that unmistakeable sense of childlike wonder and joy. “This Moment” is especially beautiful, Georgia Seddon’s hushed harmonies complementing Heron better than Blackwall’s blustery delivery.

Of course, as at any String Band-related show, the highlight is the epic “A Very Cellular Song” – tonight, with seven excellent instrumentalists onstage, you wonder if the song has ever sounded so good live – the four-piece ISB of the late ’60s probably never got it sounding so lush and flowing.

Mike Heron/Trembling Bells played:

Maya

A Very Cellular Song

Tom Pinnock

Follow Tom on Twitter for more End Of The Road coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Belle And Sebastian at End Of The Road 2013 – review

David Byrne & St Vincent at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Eels at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Parquet Courts at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Mike Heron & Trembling Bells at End Of The Road 2013 – review

William Tyler at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Producer turned artist is weird enough, but Ryan Adams producer Ethan Johns playing new songs produced by Ryan Adams is even stranger…

Yes, as he tells the crowd at his Uncut Q&A earlier, Johns has a new album ready to go, recorded over the last few weeks in LA with Adams; and he’s keen to show off the new tracks, filling at least half his early afternoon set on the Garden Stage with them.

They slot in well alongside songs from his debut album proper, last year’s If Not Now Then When?, being similarly drenched in folk and blues, and riddled with images drawn from Americana.

Johns performs the songs completely solo, strumming and picking on an ornate white Gretsch – for the heavier blues workouts he straps on some kind of Airline guitar.

The crowd are sitting but enthralled, and Johns is visibly overwhelmed by the reception after closing with “The Long Way Round” – not bad going for his first ever festival set.

Tom Pinnock

Follow Tom on Twitter for more End Of The Road coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Belle And Sebastian at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Eels at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Parquet Courts at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Ethan Johns at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Mike Heron & Trembling Bells at End Of The Road 2013 – review

William Tyler at End Of The Road 2013 – review

When David Byrne and Annie Clark got together to make an album you wouldn’t necessarily have imagined they’d be united by brass – especially the kind of brass parts that can only be described as ‘fidgety’.

Headlining the first night of 2013’s End Of The Road, though, the sound is somehow even more brass-based than on Love This Giant, which has its ups and downs. With just a drummer and a keyboardist alongside a massive eight brass players, it allows for some very singular arrangements, as on their version of X-Press 2’s Byrne-featuring “Lazy”.

The constant movement of the polyrhythmic Love This Giant brass parts becomes quite wearing, however, as it does on some of St Vincent’s solo tracks tonight (aside from the gorgeous “Northern Lights”).

The collective take a more subtle approach on the Talking Heads songs showcased, with “Burning Down The House” and “Road To Nowhere” treated to particularly restrained arrangements, the latter tastefully echoing the accordion of the original.

The musicians are obviously all having a fantastic time onstage, though, despite the complexity of their parts – they dance around and circle the stage in procession, and at one point Byrne and Clark seem to engage in some kind of dance-off while triggering a theremin. You don’t see that at every festival.

Tom Pinnock

Follow Tom on Twitter for more End Of The Road coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Belle And Sebastian at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Eels at End Of The Road 2013 – review

David Byrne & St Vincent at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Ethan Johns at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Mike Heron & Trembling Bells at End Of The Road 2013 – review

William Tyler at End Of The Road 2013 – review

This time last year they were unknowns self-releasing their Light Up Gold album in a limited run, but now New York/Texas indie-punks Parquet Courts are packing out the Big Top tent at End Of The Road.

They’re not even headlining, but the place is full of fans, nodding along to “Careers In Combat” and wildly cheering “Borrowed Time”.

The four-piece take a while to get going, but really hit their sloppy stride when they get to “Master Of My Craft”, powering through a selection of Light Up Gold tracks exactly as they appear on the record – at breakneck speed with no pause for breath. Although he’s basically playing the same beat the whole evening, you’ve got to feel for drummer Max Savage.

The set nears its close with “You’ve Got Me Wondering Now”, from their forthcoming EP, but climaxes with the group’s customary farewell, “Stoned And Starving” – this proto-motorik groover, the longest track on Light Up Gold, is stretched out even further live, with Andrew Savage and Austin Brown generating all manner of feedback from their Squier budget guitars, while the bass and drums drone on and on… For a few minutes it’s like Hawkwind if they’d grown up in New York instead of Ladbroke Grove.

Undoubtedly one of the best, and brattiest, sets End Of The Road is likely to see this year.

Tom Pinnock

Follow Tom on Twitter for more End Of The Road coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Belle And Sebastian at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Parquet Courts at End Of The Road 2013 – review

David Byrne & St Vincent at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Ethan Johns at End Of The Road 2013 – review

Mike Heron & Trembling Bells at End Of The Road 2013 – review

William Tyler at End Of The Road 2013 – review

“Look what we brought you!” shouts E. “A motherfucking wonderful glorious double-rainbow!”

It’s a beautiful sight in the sky, but Eels‘ mainman has also brought some serious rock’n’roll energy with him to the first day of End Of The Road – they’ve toured in many different guises (power trio, acoustic with strings, etc) but tonight the band (all dressed in matching black tracksuits and shades) are distorted and fierce, dispensing with keyboards, strings and brass, and using just bass, drums and a lot of loud guitars.

Naturally, the more full-on songs in their Woods Stage set come off the best, including “Fresh Blood” and the “Jean Genie”-esque “Prize Fighter”, but the five-piece are also able to turn their hand to the more tender areas of Eels’ canon, such as “Dirty Girl”.

The highlight of the set is a blistering version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”, hounded by fuzztone guitars and blazing maracas. E seems to enjoy the song so much he orders one of his guitarists to come down from his riser for a hug.

Tom Pinnock

Follow Tom on Twitter for more End Of The Road coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Shane Carruth’s Primer was one of those debuts that appeared to come out of nowhere, much like David Lynch’s Eraserhead or Darren Aronofsky’s π.

Shot on a budget of $7,000, it was a cerebral time travel movie, light on special effects but high on theory that won the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, though left many baffled. Nine years later, Carruth’s second film – Upstream Color – is likely to polarize audiences even more than its predecessor. At its best, this is challenging experimental cinema; though I suspect many will find it pretentious and deliberately oblique.

If Primer was characterized by a very formal austerity, Upstream Color is, in contrast, lush, symphonic and sensual. I’ll try and give some broad idea of what happens in the film; at least so far as I can understand it. Kris (Amy Seimetz) is a victim of a figure referred to as the Thief, who uses a hypnotic drug fashioned from parasitic grubs to extract financial information from his marks, leaving them with no memory of the events afterwards. So Kris finds herself broke, jobless and homeless, which is when she meets Jeff (Carruth himself), who has also been a victim of the Thief. Although they have no recollection of their experiences at the hands of the Thief, they sense they are connected. Carruth’s film drifts further and further into allegory, its final, fragmentary third section a beautiful, near-worldess tone poem that forgoes convention narrative for something more sensual and aesthetic.

Carruth seems to me to be very much one of those artists who is pursuing his singular vision regardless. In the nine years since Primer, it appears he’s had to abort a number of promising projects because to proceed with them would have meant he’d have to compromise his vision. It’s an admirable dedication to his art, which I guess is what makes Upstream Color such an achievement. And not only did Carruth write, direct and star in Upstream Color, he also composed the score, edited the film and cut the trailer. It’s certainly not a film to everyone’s tastes; all the same, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Carruth is an original talent.

And I haven’t even mentioned the stuff with the pigs.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.