The Hot Five – My favourite new tracks of the week, usually rounded off with a classic, obscure or alternate track from my music collection.

Track of the week: Thom Yorke – ‘A Brain In A Bottle’

Thom Yorke clearly doesn’t lead a boring life. There I was, sat watching the Ryder Cup on relaxing Friday when the news breaks: there’s a new Thom Yorke album, it’s called Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, and it’s out now via BitTorrent. With a recent history of unusual album releases and a series of mysterious tweets from the studio where Radiohead have recently regrouped, many fans were right to be on their guard. Thom Yorke’s solo material generally takes a slightly different route to that of Radiohead. Sometimes this more electronic-based composition style is unfairly criticized, but Thom Yorke will demonstrate time and time again his natural talent for creating delicate melodies over a variety of innovative sonic backdrops.

Lorde – ‘Yellow Flicker Beat’

I can’t imagine there are many people that haven’t heard of The Hunger Games or Lorde, so I’ll keep this one short and sweet. ‘Yellow Flicker Beat’ is the lead song from the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. It’s been 12 months since Lorde’s critically acclaimed debut Pure Heroine. In that time she has firmly established herself as one of the most vibrant and current female artists in music today, with her latest track only adding to a reputation that I’m sure will continue to grow.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 will be released in cinemas worldwide on November 21, 2014.

The Who – ‘Be Lucky’

The Who are kicking off their 50^th anniversary celebrations with ‘Be Lucky’, their first new track since 2006. With WHO HITS 50, the new greatest hits album, being released on 3rd November to coincide with the band’s anniversary tour of the same name, it’s sure to be a big year for The Who. ‘Be Lucky’ is an old school track with modern cultural references to Daft Punk and AC/DC. The track was produced by Dave Eringa, who recently worked with Roger Daltrey on his 2014 album with Wilko Johnson, Going Back Home. In keeping with their ongoing support for Teenage Cancer charities, the band have donated their royalties from the song to Teen Cancer America, a charity founded in 2011 by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend.

ETCHES – ‘Ice Cream Dream Machine’

‘Ice Cream Dream Machine’ is the brand new second single from Liverpool band ETCHES. I’m going to be frank for a minute: The song title is weird. The video is a bit weird. The music? Well, it’s bloody great. The vocal has character, and I love the atmospheric production of the track. ETCHES are demonstrating great potential, it’ll be good to see what they come up with next. ‘Ice Cream Dream Machine’ is released on October 13^th via CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH with supporting shows at St Pancras Old Church, London (Oct 1) and East Village Arts Club, Liverpool (Oct 2).

Hidden track of the week: Nine Below Zero – ‘Eleven Plus Eleven’

To mark the re-release of their two critically acclaimed A&M studio albums from the 1980s, Don’t Point Your Finger and Third Degree, the original line-up of Nine Below Zero have reformed for a special UK tour this autumn. The original band line-up famously appeared on the very first episode of BBC sitcom The Young Ones, which starred Rik Mayall and Ade Edmundson. ‘Eleven Plus Eleven’ was released in 1982 and appeared on Third Degree. Nine Below Zero will be touring the UK until the end of November, performing songs from the band’s first three albums only.

You can follow Tom on twitter @tom_fake.

Scientists have determined that the Earth’s surface will not be able to support human life much longer, due to pollution and overpopulation. In 1957, Dr Carl Garstein proposed three alternative solutions. The first was a drastic reduction of the human population on Earth. The second, the construction of vast underground shelters. Alternative three?

As a reporter in Scotland this month has been the best of my life. I’ve seen the very best of my nation and the very worst, play out across the streets, and during the phenomenal amount of driving involved in covering the beginning of a nation’s future, I’ve been listening to a lot of radio, both music for this column and the general scrawl of chart music. I can say with a considerable amount of shame that Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ somehow bypasses the gnarled, miserable part of my brain and lodges straight in the lyrics-remembering part of my brain like a wretched American harpoon. In other news, the amount of music released on the eve of a revolution explodes, we’re looking at thirty or forty bands for you to chow down, so get digging.

This month has been noteworthy for three releases from major hitters which were noteworthy, if nothing else. Scando-afro-weirdos Goat dropped Commune and it’s… dense. Inch thick butter on toast rich with thick party grooves and sultry female vocal lines. Gone are the manic midnight mantras and in are more OMlike Dead Skeletonsish kind of grooves which are less immediately satisfying than barnstormers like ‘The Sun The Moon’, but may ultimately prove to be our redemption. Electric Wizard have no interest in redemption, or anything other than burying markless vinyl in a Devon snake pit with a cow horn while the sun and Jupiter are in opposition to your menstrual cycle, and dredging up the results for your listening displeasure, Time To Die is that record, it turned a foggy Fife B road into a suburb of Silent Hill. I’ve been obsessed with Leckie Wizard since before I can really differentiate years and while their later grooves slipped into comfort zone, Dopethrone and Come My Fanatics will never lose their sting, and this new album at last is a callback to those halcyon days; a payoff for all the worrying I did over Legalise Drugs And Murder hoping it wasn’t a Sunday night one-off, and it wasn’t. It gives me great pleasure to say Electric Wizard are back, and once you get into one of these groups, there’s only a couple of ways you can get out. One is death, the other is, mental institutions. Lastly, something has happened to Earth. For as long as I’ve been aware of them they’ve been sliding down into ever more largactil-induced warm-pitcher-of-Tennants special desert rock; but their latest album erases much of that originality and formlessness and creates a more or less standard slowed down desert rock album. Some parts of it work, others don’t, but I just don’t see why Dylan Carlson is still calling his band Earth, he’s long since ceased scrabbling around in the sands.

“There are stars above you, even in the day, and they are watching. Drive on, driver.” If we’re talking driving music, the new Ur example will be Devin Vibert’s superb and peerless Glitchhikers soundtrack. Fascinating, absorbing, bizarre and fantastic as the game is, it’s nothing without its soundtrack, and the soundtrack works apart from the must as a kind of ambient post-Dead Man guitar warble that absolutely slays me. Drive on driver. The game is also available for free and it’s great.

I have also similarly become obsessed with surf covers of metal songs. Specifically a compilation of surf rock black metal covers titled True Kvlt Surf which I acquired illicitly (with the permission of the creator), there is also a fantastic free album from Killjoy And The Cutthroats featuring thrash metal songs in surf style (specifically ‘Ride The Lightning’ and ‘Hangar 18’ are highlights). You ought to serpently seek it out, play it loud, and appropriate the shit out of some culture.

Tombgrinder aren’t going to win any points for originality or intelligence, but their basement sludge grooves will satiate anyone who needs a steady drip feed of basically the same song from different artists (in which group the author includes himself). Manchester based SKÅGLÖRDS bring the dense, demented Korea; while basically just directionless Sabbathean proto-rock, it has been spinning quite a bit in my house. Fresh (and very weird) San Fran psyche this month comes from Morgan Square with When Kristofar Is Lost In The Woods which is just real nice.

I think it’s come time to finish up this column and move on to pastures new. It’s been a great voyage, and I’ve dug into music I never would have, but my professional life is becoming crowded so I must bow out. Keep sending stuff to my twitter though because I love to hear all of what you lot are listening to.

Remember, don’t eat the brown acid.

Act now, and you too can regret following me on twitter @stevendinnie

The Weekly Froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week: ‘Don’t Take it the Wrong Way’ by B-Jam vs Enos

Let’s get the funky in with B-Jam, who is a sure bet to get that funk ‘n hop vibe going on in his tracks. Just love how the track slides to the soulful, emotional vocals around the fifty second mark, then moves back to that talky, deep Barry White-ish voice in this mash-up that works. I especially love the combination between those soulful vocals and the music that is put underneath it, with the beat, the bass, the lighter instruments as well: that all just gels so perfectly, with the voice giving it the emotion and repetition it needs as he repeats that There are no words to express how I feel. Again, at about 3:25, that lovely transition, also in terms of just the vibe, which completely changes and makes your mind go Whoaa!. Just another creation coming out of that B-Jam corner that just does it.

‘Power Station’ by Riccio

Riccio immediately gets the vibe going with the handclaps, the deep rhythm, and the electro sounds that come in shortly after the start. To contrast those you get some ol’ school percussion in there, which is then followed by a deep little bassline that sounds as authentic as the percussion does. Through those two sounds, which have now taken over a tad, you get the electro again to juxtapose them, but by this time you’re already doing that Caribbean boogie. Riccio rides the bass for all it’s worth, which makes it nice and hypnotic, and even the horns won’t snap you out of that one. Those horns get a more prominent role as time goes by, sliding on top of the bassline, and the combination of it all makes for this festive sounding tune to do some dancing to. After about five minutes of going with that bass, Riccio takes it away for a moment, going with a beat and a wavering television signal (or something eerily similar to it). Not too long after though, that bass comes back, the horns quickly follow, and it’s all happy, festive, and party again.

‘Naomi’ by Citizen

This one starts with that thuddy, banging sound that I am never truly enamoured with, but those mysterious vocals tease me in, and the drums do the rest. That thuddy sound, after a minute, is left behind, and now we’re just getting the deep techno vibes with those electronical, industrial sounds. Citizen throws some extra punch in there at about 1:30 to get you feeling, and shortly after we get the talky vocals that mention that she can make you feel better, after which this one slides back into that deep beat with those mechanical sounds on top of them. At about 2:50 he ups the pace, though a minute later he dials it back down again as those vocals come in once more. This time they’re accompanied by those horn like sounds that are used very effectively for the build-up, leading you back into the moment the beat comes in again. If you like it deep ‘n 03AM sounding, this is one for the after-midnight crowd.

‘Dippin’ in’ by Ron Basejam feat. Danielle Moore

This is not the first track in my library that features both Ron Basejam and Danielle Moore, but the first time Basejam did a remix of a track featuring Moore on vocals. That track, ‘Just Be Good To Me’, is completely awesome, and well worth a listen if you have never had the pleasure. This one uses those R&B vocals effectively again, with Ron going for the slow jam, with the pace being dictated by that lovely, lazy bass. Sometimes Basejam varies a bit with the pace by dropping or adding the bass, though the mood he is aiming for stays the same. Moore really features prominently, with around the three minute mark being about the first time she takes a back seat to the instruments. Still, the main attraction to this catchy, Sunday sounding R&B crossover is that bass and those vocals, to which Basejam adds plenty of other instruments to provide a nice whole. This is a snippet, but can’t wait to be listening to the whole track, definitely easy on the ear this one.

‘I Want You’ by Huxley

This one starts with the atmospherics, going with the mood sounds and the vocals at the start. Only after the vibe is set he slides in the deep beat, though that one definitely stays a layer underneath the vocals, which keep their prominent position. Behind her, though, the space fills up, with more and more (semi)deep rhythm elements being moved in. In the mean time, the vocals aren’t letting up, and even when all words have gone, there are still enough sounds that can be made vocally, no problem. About three minutes in the deep gets ditched again, and a wall of synth takes over, with a smattering of piano squeaking through, and eventually outlasting that wall-o to softly, vulnerably end the track.

‘Sargas’ by Lehar (Mario Basanov remix)

Starts with the piano and the choir this one, but it just takes about 15 seconds to get the beat in there to up the pace. And immediatley it becomes one of those dancefloor bangers that just has the right vibe to get the whole crowd dancing. Accessible, up-tempo enough, but with those angelic sounds in the back and the patience in the down tempo bits even the snotty know-it-alls won’t be stuck complaining at the back for too long. There’s just too much vibe in there, and the build-ups are too nice for that I reckon. Then again, with that steady beat in the background for most of the time, plenty to hold on to for the nightly ravers as well. The second break in the track features a nice, deeper piano sound that gives it some extra atmosphere, though Basanov gives it a quick helping from the beat not too long in. As said, it’s just got this nice mixture of party scope together with this house, basement club blend that might just work both ways, even though the basement club vibe takes a hold of the song as it nears its end (not that you’ll be hearing me complain about that anytime soon...).

{soundcloud}https://soundcloud.com/mario-basanov/lehar-sargas-mario-basanov-remix{/soundcloud}

The Hot Five – My favourite new tracks of the week, usually rounded off with a classic, obscure or alternate track from my music collection.

Track of the week: Brian Ferry – ‘Loop De Li’

I know these days that Brian Ferry is a name that is likely to be associated with BBC Radio 2, but hear me out. Despite respecting Ferry as an artist both in his own right and with Roxy Music, I can’t say that I’d ever delved too far into his back catalogue. However, a faultless headline set at West Holts on the Saturday night of Glastonbury Festival this year and the quality of new single ‘Loop De Li’ are quickly changing a young man’s view on a musical icon. There’s a great sound on ‘Loop De Li’; it’s well produced (by Brian Ferry himself) and the atmosphere that the track creates is very modern and up to date. Ferry’s new album, Avonmore, is set for release on November 17 and will feature artists including Flea, Johnny Marr, Nile Rogers and Mark Knopfler.

Band of Skulls – ‘Himalayan’

Ahead of their performance on Later... with Jools Holland this week, Band of Skulls announce brand new single 'Himalayan'. Other reviews suggested that  Band of Skulls lack originality, but ‘Himalayan’ does display a blues rock sound that has a killer riff and is, for want of a better word, cool. The combined chorus vocals of guitarist Russell Marsden and bassist Emma Richardson's give the song it’s USP, lifting it above the large number of average tracks released in this genre. After a busy summer of festivals (Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Sonisphere), the band are due to embark on a UK tour kicking off in late October - which includes a headline gig at London's Eventim Apollo.

Frank Turner and The Levellers – ‘Julie’

One of the Levellers' best loved songs, the 1993 single 'Julie' has been re-worked by Frank Turner in his own style, with the Levellers performing as his backing band. Turner is known to be a huge Levellers fan, and stated that ‘Julie’ was one of his favorite songs to play whilst growing up. ‘Julie’ is the latest video in a series from The Levellers, which also includes collaborations with Imelda May, Billy Bragg and Bellowhead. All four tracks appear on all versions of The Levellers' Greatest Hits album, which is released on Monday 29th September.

Amber Run – ‘Thank You’

Following the dark two-part video to ‘I Found’ and ‘Pilot’, Amber Run have released a third track from their new EP, Pilot. You can really hear the influence that Coldplay have had on a new generation of bands here. The arrangement and melodic hooks of ‘Thank You’ definitely pay tribute to the style made famous by Chris Martin and co. (particularly the riff from ‘Paradise’). Don’t let this take anything away from the track; it’s a fantastic track that you can play over and over again, with great vocal melodies and production. Having just finished a series of summer festival dates, Amber Run were recently voted as one of the top 10 acts who played the Isle Of Wight festival by attendees. They will support Lewis Watson on his UK tour this September.

Hidden track of the week: Crowded House – ‘There Goes God’

This is a song that I remember from my childhood, mercilessly drummed into my head by my parents from an early age. Written by brothers Tim and Neil Finn for the album Woodface in 1991, Tim Finn joined the band during the recording of the album but subsequently left during the UK leg of the world tour that followed the album’s release. The song features former Beach Boys and Rutles multi-instrumentalist Ricky Fataar on drums.

You can follow Tom on twitter @tom_fake