Our Daily Bread 483: Modesty Blaise, Placebo, Magon, The Hawks…
December 2, 2021
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Roundup
Each month we supply him with a mixed bag of new and upcoming releases to see what sticks.
Singles:
Placebo ‘Surrounded By Spies’
I have never been much of a Placebo fan to be honest with you, but I actually like this track as it reminds me a touch of the Pet Shop Boys, and also because it really is a little bit silly. The lyrics are quite laughably bad, which is always entertaining, and it takes itself so seriously: It is after all Placebo, so that can be expected. But apart from that it really is a jolly jape of a pop song so well worth getting a flag out for and donning a multicoloured frizzy wig and doing a fish dance to.
Magon ‘Egyption Music’
(Groover Obsessions)
This Single is quite a nice jangly little thing. It reminds me of The Floaters Float On, it has that same lazy laid-back vibe. It’s one to listen to whilst softly floating on the river in a rowing boat or on a cloud of half-forgotten memories and dreams: a lovely little thing.
bigflower ‘Supersad’
(Self-Release) 19th November 2021
Another month, another dose of sonic six string wizardry from bigflower, and another reason to not quite give up on the power and pull of rock ‘n’ roll. Beatles like drums and psychedelic meanderings explode into a belter of a modern daydream of a track; a train journey to a much better place. All of his songs released this year should be gathered up by some label and released as an album, for it would be a gem of a release and certainly one of the albums of the year.
Pulco ‘Stirred Beyond Surrender’
(Self-Release) Taken From An As Yet Untitled Album In 2022
The sound of experimental pop is a wonderful thing especially when it is performed with such tuneful vigour, and this track is 2 minutes 16 seconds of pure pop magic. It has that air of tossed away brilliance that can only be performed when the artist is brilliant and they know it. ‘Stirred Beyond Surrender’ is indeed a joy. It’s lovely to have Pulco back.
Modesty Blaise ‘I’ll Be Home For Xmas’
(From Lo-Fi To Disco)
Ah the perfect time for a Christmas ditty. Yes it’s Christmas, so once again we are bombarded with aural tinsel, and with myself being a huge fan of both Christmas and Christmas ditties, I’m pleased to announce this is filled with all the things one would want from a Christmas song: jolly bells, sickly sweet sentiments and three minutes when one can escape real life and imagine we do really live in a winter wonderland. Modesty Blaise ‘I’ll Be Home For Xmas’ is a song to play whist ignoring the smells emerging from your aunt Nora after indulging in too many sprouts and one too many glasses of sherry; this is a song that gathers the memories to the golden days of Morecambe and Wise Christmas night specials and over winding your Evil Knievel bike sending it hurtling into your unsuspecting little sister’s leg…a fine single.
Craig Fortnam ‘Lunar One – November 21’
19th November 2021
Craig Fortnam continues his Lunar Release single schedule with this fine double-sided slice of psych folk bliss. I could easily imagine ‘Hidden Away From The Heat’ being plucked from a comp of unheralded obscure 70s folk gems, the kind of thing Cherry Red records like to release, and the other side, the lovely ‘Her Room’, being the thing of great beauty that Badly Drawn Boy would sell his mother’s soul to have written.
Albums/EPs
The Hawks ‘Obviously 5 Believers’
(Seventeen Records)
Recorded on four-track and eight-track recorders they capture the magic and the muse of those times of post-punk Britain in all its glory. These songs, that carry hopes/dreams of an escape from the Thatcher led years of days on the dole and of no hope, have been released for the very first time. You can actually feel the excitement and flush of realising that these songs are brilliant and is only a matter of time before they are launched into the realms of superstardom that the Hawks deserved, but sadly that did not happen. But what did happen was these wonderfully written and recorded songs, and that it’s happening over 40 years later and is one of my favourite albums of 2021… just how magic is music!
Goodparley X Ioan Morris ‘Surroundings’
(Subexotic Records) 26th November 2021
McCookerybook & Rotifer ‘Equal Parts 2’
22nd November 2021
There is something quite beautiful about this album, but then I am a complete sucker for male/female duets, for when it is done well there is nothing quite as musically romantic or sexual and this album with its six tracks of melodious folk tinged pop is a lovely treat; six songs filled with melancholy and love; six songs that pull on the heartstrings and leaves one with a look of love struck awe and slips in an occasional “ba ba ba” intro just to remind you just how magical life can be when listening to music. But all is not love and roses with the song ‘Step Into England’, for they aim a good kick up the bum of England and the laughing stock it has become since Brexit and Boris Johnson becoming prime minister. Equal Parts 2 is another splendid release following the equally excellent Equal Parts the first album if I am not mistaken I reviewed last year. I look forward to Equal parts three next year.
Legless Trials ‘Hotwire An Ambulance’
(Metal Postcard) 28th November 2021
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