Cd's in the pile up- the good and the very good.

THE SAW DOCTORS; THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF..

The Saw Doctors recently released their seventh studio album: The Further adventures of... I have been hearing it on the radio the past few weeks, and was delighted to hear radio giants: Rte and Today Fm give this incredibly talented and durable Irish band airtime, except for the old reliables of course, and we can't really argue with that either. Their former releases never really garnered much airplay in the past after their successful well known favourites: “N17” & "I Useta Lover”. So this is clearly their second, third fourth wind at it and it seems to be going very well. 

That they are one of Ireland's biggest music exports, is perhaps not so much common knowledge, they even recently gathered the attention of US governors whilst on a tour of the States - where they sold out venues with over 2200 seating capacities. and they played a handful of Festivals over the summer including: V festival and Oxegen and are off to do a UK tour in the coming weeks where I believe they have also nearly sold out Sheperds Bush Empire!

The album in its entirety is a collection of old and new sounds and should prove as a great reintroduction to the band. Fuelled with mid-tempo folk rock and melody along with the unmistakeable vocals of Davy Carton & Leo Moran, the record flows effortlessly. What I always loved about this band is their ability to base their tracks on stories of Irish life, telling tales about the confinements of living and loving in a small rural town in Ireland. ( Tuam, Galway )

Here is an album that occupies a distinct ‘Saw Doctors’ sound but added with clever production and a shot of youthful vibrancy in their newest addition to the band (Drummer and co- writer Eimhin Cradock). With a lifetime achievement under the belt already, International sell out shows, the album itself shooting to No. 1 in its first week (and still remains in the Top Charts over a month later) and adorning loyal fans throughout the years, the sky is the limit for this wholesome Irish Rock band.

Stand out tracks: Be Yourself,  Friday Town & WELL BYES.:

GROOVE ARMADA; WHITE LIGHT

Black Light has a companion set, the flickering 'White Light' containing nine tracks that complement the 11 of its immediate predecessor. In Black Light there was indeed flashes of genuine genius- so White Light - the remixed version is not any different. The stand out track for me is still  History,  which features a brilliant performance from a chart-topping Mr. Will Young.  

These aren’t remixes of what came before, more reinterpretations and a sequencing moving the album in a new direction – one that leads to instant gratification, whereas before some of these cuts were harder work.  Let  no mistake be made, White Light is an essential addition to Groove Armada’s sizeable catalogue; stupendous. here is the band playing HISTORY live on Jonathan Ross:

and last but not least::

This has been sitting on my desk for a while now. BUSTIN OUT: ‘Bustin’ Out 1983 – New Wave To New Beat Volume 3’ is the third installment in veteran DJ Mike Maguire’s sparkling, ongoing series chronicling the seismic developments in electronic based music through the often misrepresented  1980s.

This collection takes a microscopic looks on 1983, when the fallout from the previous year’s ‘Planet Rock’ spawned electro funk in tandem with the emerging hip hop and graffiti cultures, while electronic developments started infiltrating many more stratas of new music, whether disco, punk or even mainstream.

Steering clear of the obvious route the set kicks off with electro-punk poetess Anne Clark from Croydon, proceeding with an atmospheric mix of legendary film director-composer John Carpenter’s theme to ‘Assault On Precinct 13’, before hitting New York City’s boiling electro scene with Special Request’s ‘Salsa Smurf’ and later the Jonzun Crew’s ‘We Are The Jonzun Crew’, while Downtown is represented by Liquid Liquid‘s ‘Optimo’. New York’s clubs also massively influenced New Order, as beautifully shown on their ‘Power, Corruption And Lies’ album, represented here by the grand melancholy of ‘Your Silent Face’, while San Francisco’s innovative electronic movement is represented by Twilight 22 [formed by Stevie Wonder’s former synth programmer Gordon Bahary].

Rather than focusing entirely on US developments, the set carries on its tradition of exploring Europe’s often darker use of the new technology, including Belgium’s Front 242 and The Neon Judgement, Denmark’s Laid Back with the enigmatic electro of ‘White Horse’, German goth-punks Xmal Deutschland, while Koto’s dub of ‘Chinese Revenge’ spotlights the burgeoning Italo disco movement. Another standout track comes from German synth duo The Unknown Cases fronted by legendary former Traffic percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah on the rousing Afro-electro of ‘Masimba Bele’. After such a potent, multi-strained hotbed, the UK’s Cocteau Twins make the perfect finale.

1983 was as unpredictable as it was exciting, with musical boundaries falling all the time and clubland on fire with the oddest anthems. At the time the word buzzing around New York summed everything up: fresh. Same goes for the latest gem to appear in this wonderful series, telling the whole story in the celebratory spirit of that amazing era. This Cd is a sonic gem.

Year Zero- Impossible Oddities. THE ORB

Year Zero is set to release a collection of tracks from the early '90s label WAU! Mr. Modo, entitled Impossible Oddities. on Oct 22nd.

Founded at the end of the 1980s by Alex Paterson of The Orb and ex-Killing Joke bassist Martin Glover, AKA Youth, WAU! Mr. Modo was one of the first labels devoted to acid house, dub and ambient. In addition to The Orb, the imprint housed Sun Electric and often overlooked artists like Paradise X and STP Twentythree. The basis of WAU's artistic ethic was to value sampling over conventional production methods. "We set about sampling our record collections and creating new music with a new vocabulary," says Glover. "We practically got rid of all musicians and created entire tracks from collaging other records."

Impossible Oddities collects almost 40 of the label's tunes, including a previously unreleased version of The Orb's classic "Little Fluffy Clouds." Slated for release late next month, the package consists of three discs, one of which is mixed by The Orb.

Check out LITTLE FLUFFY CLOUDS:::

THE CLOCK- It's their time again. ( The Frank & Walters )

Let us cast our minds back to the early nineties, when one Cork-based band The Frank and Walters- first burst onto the indie scene before the double whammy of grunge and Brit-pop came along to dilute the indie world and onto the commercial limelight. When it was still possible for bands to spend time crafting their music without being told how many sales they had to reach to become viably successful- the golden age of indie music. Learn your craft, work it and make your money from it.

With Indie hits such as ‘Fashion Crisis Hits New York’ & ‘After All’ (which reached the top twenty in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #11. The group also appeared on Top of the Pops in support of the single; it went as high as #5 in the Irish charts). The band: Paul Linehan (Lead vocal & bass), Ashley Keating- (Drums) & Kevin Pedreschi (lead Guitar) took the band name in honor of two eccentric Cork characters. Two decades on from the release of their very first record, and the Franks continue to defy expectations.

The new single The Clock is a punchy, Indie Pop delight that verifies that this band are still in the possession of something rather special- what so many new bands search for- a unique ability and capability to write and record great sounding Indie Pop classics. their impending album can not come any sooner.

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