TRACKS OF THE WEEK - 20/01/13 - Beach Fossils, TNGHT, Futureages, Matthew E. White, Tom Waits & Keith Richards

A five pack of the finest 100% choice tunes this week.....no horsemeat rubbish! What were your Porterhouse steak burgers?

SFW:-
Beach Fossils - 'Careless' (2012)

I admit it, I can't grow out of Indie Pop! Brooklyn's Beach Fossils are a band that I've sadly neglected. I loved their 2012 track Shallow and this is in the same vein - energetic, melodic, shoe-gazing brilliance!  Download Careless for free from their record label Captured Tracks

London Scouser:-

FutureAges - 'Under Order' (2012)

I’ll admit I don’t know much about FutureAges, apart from lead singer Natasha Fox’s amazing vocals in collaboration with Scroobius Pip on the song Feel It (see my previous post). To my delight I see that FutureAges released an EP at the back end of last year, which I missed at the time, but am really enjoying now. Her voice complements the rocky feel of this track. Which in my opinion needs to be heard loud to fully appreciate it. I don't usually go for female vocalists in rock as I think they are a bit naff with a few exceptions. And this band are definitely an exception. I'm gonna keep an eye out for them.

Old Pa's Corner:-

Tom Waits and Keith Richards - 'Shenandoah' (2013)

 

Boy oh boy! Can it get any better? A song with Tom Waits and Keith Richards together, a fantastic whiskey soaked rendition of the old classic Shenandoah. Don't be put off by Tom's voice, this is actually very, very good.  (Van Morrison also does a superb version of this song as well, accompanied by the Chieftians)

This is taken from an interesting compilation called Son of Rogues Gallery : Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys (2013) which is the follow up to Rogues Gallery : Pirate Ballads (2006) which sadly I have to say I never heard of. I will of course put this right as there are many great artists featured on both albums. Just check out the listings, there is quite an outstanding wealth of talent there. 

The idea for the project was the brainchild of Johnny Depp, apparently he thought of it while he was involved with Pirates of the Caribbean. Nice job Johnny!

Flycasual:-
TNGHT - Higher Ground (2012)

This is a prime cut, grade A piece of instrumental Hip Hop which has played havoc with the speakers of the family's Peugeot. With the annual tradition of trawling through the year's best of lists, this track kept cropping up and was the one I kept being drawn back to. I guess Hip Hop is just in the blood for me. TNGHT consists of the DJ/production skills of Montreal's Lunice (who's remixed for Azelia Banks amongst others) and Glasgow's Hudson Mohawke.  Despite (almost) being named after a terrible Bruce Willis film, Hudson Mohawke's production skills are far from disastrous and it's little wonder Hip Hop supremo, Kanye West has snapped him up to his record label. Big ting await, turn it up! TNGHT are on Warp records, check the site here...

Shell Hunter:-
Matthew E. White - 'Big Love' (2013) 

God Bless the radio, for without it, I may have missed out in discovering Matthew E. White, who I am very excited about. When I first heard Big Love, it had me wide eyed and open mouthed, it was like I got stung by the enjoyment of hearing the track unfold with the strings, the gospel choir, the sax and the guitar solo. What a fantastic arrangement! It makes me want to walk down the street with a pimp limp and stick a big feather in my hat! Big Inner is M.E.W's debut album released this year on Domino Records and after immediately listening to a few tracks, I'm convinced we're all gonna have 'Big Love' for it. From soul to folk but all instrumentally brilliant, it has a tinge of retro production about it, what's not to like?

Check his blog out at www.matthewewhite.com

Checkout previous Tracks of the week here

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