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Aphex Twin: Music From The Merch Desk (2016-2023)

December 29, 2024 Peter Kimpton

Aphex Twin: Music From The Merch Desk (2016-2023)

Album review: A decade since his last album, Syro, electronica’s brilliant British outsider and pioneer Richard D James returns with a surprise fan-pleaser, a mass compilation release of 38 numbers played at festivals, and previously only on limited-edition vinyl sold at the merch desk of select events

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In albums, alternative, avant garde, dance, dance music, drum n bass, electronica, experimental Tags Aphex Twin, albums, new albums, compilations, Warp Records
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Izumi 'Mimi' Kobayashi: Choice Cuts 1978-1983

December 27, 2024 Peter Kimpton

Izumi 'Mimi' Kobayashi: Choice Cuts 1978-1983

Album review: Out of many compilations released in 2024, this Time Capsule collection is a highlight, picking some of the fabulously fun, inventive, hybrid jazz-funk-Latin-reggae-electronica pop of the innovative Japanese composer and pianist

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In albums, alternative, electronica, experimental, funk, fusion, jazz, reggae Tags Izumi 'Mimi' Kobayashi, Time Capsule, compilations, albums, new albums, new releases
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CONDEMN RACISM, EMBRACE EQUALITY


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DRINK OF THE WEEK

black coffee


SNACK OF THE WEEK

rollmops


New Albums …

Featured
Sault - Acts of Faith.jpeg
Jan 5, 2025
SAULT: Acts of Faith
Jan 5, 2025

New album: Released as usual without fanfare, and on Christmas Day, the London collective of by producer and musician Inflo return with an 11th LP – silky smooth, classy soul, funk and gospel, fronted by the voice of Cleo Sol

Jan 5, 2025
Albums 2024 collage 2 final.jpg
Dec 30, 2024
Favourite Albums of 2024 - Part 2
Dec 30, 2024

Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 2. Part 1 can be found here. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but please dig into this rich seam of originality and quality, and even suggest more of your own

Dec 30, 2024
Albums 2024 collage 1 final.jpg
Dec 30, 2024
Favourite albums of 2024 - Part 1
Dec 30, 2024

Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 1. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but rich seams of originality and quality are certainly here to be enjoyed. Peruse away …

Dec 30, 2024
Aphex Twin - Music from Merch Desk.jpeg
Dec 29, 2024
Aphex Twin: Music From The Merch Desk (2016-2023)
Dec 29, 2024

Album review: A decade since his last album, Syro, electronica’s brilliant British outsider and pioneer Richard D James returns with a surprise fan-pleaser, a mass compilation release of 38 numbers played at festivals, and previously only on limited-edition vinyl sold at the merch desk of select events

Dec 29, 2024
Juniore - Trois Deux Un.jpeg
Dec 27, 2024
Juniore: Trois Deux Un
Dec 27, 2024

Album review: Released in September, the French band’s latest LP is another sparkling gem of 60s psychedelic and “yéyé noir” surf pop – whisperingly seductive, witty, wistful, stylish and sophisticated, from the breathless paced to the songs like a coil of smoke - moody, slow and pithily philosophical

Dec 27, 2024
Izumi Mimi Kobayashi choice cuts.jpeg
Dec 27, 2024
Izumi 'Mimi' Kobayashi: Choice Cuts 1978-1983
Dec 27, 2024

Album review: Out of many compilations released in 2024, this Time Capsule collection is a highlight, picking some of the fabulously fun, inventive, hybrid jazz-funk-Latin-reggae-electronica pop of the innovative Japanese composer and pianist

Dec 27, 2024
Human Error - Human Error.jpeg
Dec 23, 2024
Human Error: Human Error
Dec 23, 2024

New album: Ingenious, playfully inventive electronica by Jeremy Barnes, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, inspired by the idea of how errors lead to invention and discovery, written while teaching music to incarcerated teens at YDDC juvenile detention

Dec 23, 2024
Legowelt - A Field Guide To The Void.jpeg
Dec 20, 2024
Legowelt: A Field Guide To The Void
Dec 20, 2024

Album review: The Netherlands electronic artist Danny Wolfers returns with a delightful mixture of old-school-influenced synth pop, crafting textured soundscapes, nostalgic, futuristic, eccentric and eclectic, steering somewhere between robot voices, cosmic exploration and the dancefloor

Dec 20, 2024
1971 by E.U.E.R.P.I..jpeg
Dec 18, 2024
E.U.E.R.P.I: 1971
Dec 18, 2024

New album: A truly evocative, alternative experimental project of the Bulgarian composer Mirian Kolev from Tryavna, here combining music with detailed field recordings of an old Soviet train, one still running on trips along the Bulgarian railway line Gabrovo-Tsareva Livada

Dec 18, 2024
Saint Etienne - The Night.jpeg
Dec 18, 2024
Saint Etienne: 'The Night'
Dec 18, 2024

New album: The London trio of Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs returrn with an strange, dream-like, ambient ‘headphones’ release, one that hovers across their career as if perceived through rain-soaked glass, designed to capture the essence of the after-hours

Dec 18, 2024
The Bloodstreams - Eat Your Heart Out.jpeg
Dec 16, 2024
The Bloodstreams: Eat Your Heart Out
Dec 16, 2024

New album: After last year’s excellent debut LP, How To Be A God, the south-east London quartet return with another heady swirl of stylishly swaggering, stomping, darkly visceral 60s garage rock, psychedelia and with tasty echoes of 70s Bowie, Stooges, Cramps and Birthday Party-era Nick Cave

Dec 16, 2024
Angel Olsen - Cosmic Waves Volume 1.jpeg
Dec 14, 2024
Angel Olsen and various: Cosmic Waves Volume 1
Dec 14, 2024

New album: A novel form of “compilation reimagined as a dialogue” LP by the acclaimed, serene-voiced American singer-songwriter, showcasing five different lesser-known artists on Side A, and then covering other songs by them on Side B

Dec 14, 2024
Tristan Perich - Open Symmetry.jpeg
Dec 12, 2024
Tristan Perich and Ensemble 0: Open Symmetry
Dec 12, 2024

Album review: Released on the wonderfully innovative, independent London label Erased Tapes, the New York-based composer joins with the French group on a mesmeric, 50-minute work of seven instrumental tracks for three vibraphones and 1-bit electronics

Dec 12, 2024
Native Harrow - Divided Kind.jpeg
Dec 11, 2024
Native Harrow: Divided Kind
Dec 11, 2024

Album review: Released in September, classy, meticulously crafted, intelligent, warm Americana mix of folk, rock, pop and country by the Philadelphia duo of vocalist Devin Tuel and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Harms in this sixth LP

Dec 11, 2024

new songs …

Featured
Brooke Combe - This Town.jpeg
Jan 7, 2025
Song of the Day: Brooke Combe - This Town
Jan 7, 2025

Song of the Day: Breezy, escapism-themed, uplifting classic soul by the charismatic, golden voiced Scottish singer, heralding her forthcoming album, Dancing At The Edge of the World, out on Modern Sky UK

Jan 7, 2025
Panda Bear - Sinister Grift.jpeg
Jan 6, 2025
Song of the Day: Panda Bear - Ferry Lady
Jan 6, 2025

Song of the Day: Trumpets, a beautifully serene melody, with an eclectic, catchy Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry clip-clopping vibe and syncopated rhythm? It’s none other than the Animal Collective drummer and vocalist Noah Lennox, who returns with a new single, taken from from his forthcoming first solo album for five years, Sinister Grift, out on 28 February via Domino Records

Jan 6, 2025
Loraine James 3.jpeg
Jan 5, 2025
Song of the Day: Loraine James - Yet To Know The Meaning Of Forever (with Coby Sey)
Jan 5, 2025

Song of the Day: Gentle, tender, soulful, crisply experimental new work by the innovative British electronica artist, here joined by the vocalist, musician and fellow south Londoner Coby Sey on the EP New Year's Substitution 3, made between Christmas and New Year

Jan 5, 2025
Elea Calvet 2.jpeg
Jan 4, 2025
Song of the Day: Elea Calvet - Filthy Lucre
Jan 4, 2025

Song of the Day: Slow, smoky, alluring, entrancing and dramatic, this is the title track of the new five-track EP by the eclectic Bristol singer-songwriter released on Hyssop & Victoria

Jan 4, 2025
Black Hole - Emma-Jean Thackray.jpeg
Jan 3, 2025
Song of the Day: Emma-Jean Thackray - Black Hole (featuring Reggie Watts)
Jan 3, 2025

Song of the Day: A fabulous fusion of P-funk, jazz, pop and more about seeking refuge from the winter or any darker times, in this recent release by the Leeds-born British singer and multi-instrumentalist joined by the American comedian and musician and out on Brownswood Recordings

Jan 3, 2025
Heather Nova - Ghost In My Room.jpeg
Jan 2, 2025
Song of the Day: Heather Nova - Ghost In The Room
Jan 2, 2025

Song of the Day: Ghostly by name, ethereally delicate by nature, this delicate new track by the Bermudian singer-songwriter and poet is about tangibly missing someone, and heralds her latest LP, Breath And Air, out on 21 February on V2

Jan 2, 2025
The Velveteers.jpg
Jan 1, 2025
Song of the Day: The Velveteers - On And On
Jan 1, 2025

Song of the Day: Gripping, gutsy, greedy, dirty-fuzz guitar rock by the trio from Boulder, Colorado, heralding their new album A Million Knives, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, and released on 14 February via Easy Eye Sound

Jan 1, 2025
Cosmic Waves.jpg
Dec 31, 2024
Song of the Day: Camp Saint Helene - Wonder Now
Dec 31, 2024

Song of the Day: A profound, philosophical and ethereally beautiful final SOTD for 2024, by the band from the Catskill Mountains, New York, taken from Angel Olsen's recent collaborative album, Cosmic Waves Volume 1, out on Somethingscosmic and Jagjaguwar

Dec 31, 2024
Richard Dawson - Boxing Day Sales.jpeg
Dec 30, 2024
Song of the Day: Richard Dawson - Boxing Day Sales
Dec 30, 2024

Song of the Day: A seasonal gem of beautifully droll wit and storytelling by the brilliant experimental folk singer-songwriter, heralding his upcoming new LP, End of the Middle, out 14 February 2025 on Weird World / Domino

Dec 30, 2024
Laura Cannell - Winterlore.jpeg
Dec 25, 2024
Song of the Day: Laura Cannell - On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas
Dec 25, 2024

Christmas special Song of the Day: A wonderfully haunting and beautiful strings and bells instrumental piece by the British composer from her the twelfth EP, Winterlore in the monthly ‘Year of Lore’ series of 2024

Dec 25, 2024
Say She She - This Wintertime.jpeg
Dec 24, 2024
Song of the Day: Say She She - This Wintertime
Dec 24, 2024

Song of the Day: An elevating, intimate, original Christmas song – slow, heartfelt, with high, soulful, soaring vocal harmonies – by the Brooklyn and London band, the B-side of their new single Purple Snowflakes, out on Karma Chief / Colemine Records

Dec 24, 2024
Meta Golova - Seasonal Hallucination.jpeg
Dec 23, 2024
Song of the Day: Meta Golova - Yellow Arrow
Dec 23, 2024

Song of the Day: Eclectic, catchy, mesmeric electro-punk and darkwave in this single taken from the second album, Seasonal Hallucination, by the duo of Siberian Lena Kilina and Brazilian Carlos Issa, released on cassette on the Berlin-based label Coisas que Matam

Dec 23, 2024

Word of the week

Featured
icicles.jpeg
Dec 12, 2024
Word of the week: aquabob
Dec 12, 2024

Word of the week: Sounding like some water-based children’s TV superhero, it’s actually a particularly apt and descriptive word for wintertime, being an 18th-century English Kent dialect noun meaning icicle

Dec 12, 2024
Raccoons.jpeg
Nov 27, 2024
Word of the week: broticolous
Nov 27, 2024

Word of the week: Mice, rats, spiders, foxes to raccoons, this obscure adjective, connected to the French noun broticole, this relates to any animal and insect species with a tendency to live around and alongside humans and their dwellings perhaps as scavengers, but also showing adaptability

Nov 27, 2024
Tristram+Shandy+Vol+3.jpeg
Nov 15, 2024
Word of the week: circumbendibus
Nov 15, 2024

Word of the week: Not a snaking elongated piece of public transport but still a very evocative 17th-century word for a circuitous, long-winded route or way of doing something or telling a story …

Nov 15, 2024
Deoch an Dorus pub in Partick, Glasgow.jpeg
Oct 16, 2024
Word of the week: doch-an-dorris
Oct 16, 2024

Word of the week: From the17th-century Scottish Gaelic phrase, deoch an doruis (and also with the form deochandorus), this literally means “door-drink” – a toast made with, or to honour, someone about to depart

Oct 16, 2024
Four lads in jeans.jpeg
Oct 4, 2024
Word of the week: eel-skins / excruciators
Oct 4, 2024

Word of the week: Aside from the literal outer layer of the ray-finned slippery fish, this evocative, slightly suggestive 19th-century slang means very tight trousers, while this week’s bonus word, excruciators, points to the experience of wearing very tight shoes

Oct 4, 2024

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