FFNORDZZ

When I was young, I was pretty vocally defensive of Plymouth, the city I was born and raised in, to anyone who ever criticised it. Only when I went to university in Cardiff and visited places like Brighton, Manchester, Bristol, and London did I realise just how shit Plymouth was. There is no live music scene, there are (or at least were, thanks to The Last Shop Standing) no indepdent record stores to buy new music, and there are even very, very few bands from or based in Plymouth - especially now Gorgeous Bully has pissed off to Manchester. So when I find an even semi-good band or musician in Plymouth, I get very excited.

Amazingly, one-man-band FFNORDZZ (formerly briefly FNORDS) is even more than semi-good. Also born and raised in Plymouth (and currently based here oncemore), the musician spends all of his time putting together experimental bedroom pop songs with a dark and sinister twist. Though he has no Facebook page, two songs sit on his bandcamp: 'Surfer Of The Apocalypse' hears frenzied high-pitched guitar sit atop a repetitive, creepy bassier guitar line, while 'Acid At The Beach' is a slightly lighter and catchier psychedelic-tinged surf-pop ditty.

They're taken from a split cassette single with Pagan Moon on Hello, Hello, How Lo-Fi? out on 17th January and I bloody love them both. Check them out below and keep an eye on his bandcamp for apparently 'a lot more material uploaded' throughout 2013.





Bandcamp

Le Pécheur

The world of music blogging is an odd and fickle one. Should I care that Altered Zones blogged about Le Pécheur before I managed to? No, of course not. If anything I should be happy that a band I like are getting the attention that I feel they deserve. But I do care. I'm sorry. I do.

I suppose what I'm actually annoyed at is my own laziness to not post it sooner. Still, listen to the excellently psychedelic and interest sounds of the London/France artist now and try to forget that Altered Zones got there first, if you can. And buy their album, out through Azbin Records when it comes out next month.

Voodoo by Le Pécheur

Torture by Le Pécheur

Apocalypse by Le Pécheur

Facebook | Bandcamp

Altered Hours

The wonderful thing about writing about bands 'these days' is that you can do a good job of exploring a city's scene at the click of a mouse. A few days ago BF featured Saint Yorda, a three-piece from Cork making some pretty interesting sounds, and through their SoundCloud appeared Altered Hours. Also from Cork, though with slightly less information about them knocking around on the internet, Altered Hours are apparently a five-piece - putting together a bunch of excellently woozy, lo-fi psychedelic sounds.

Altered Hours - Garden of Sonic Children

SoundCloud | Facebook

Hookworms

When did small, DIY bands start making such massive sounds? Fuck knows if Hookworms know when it started, but they sure as hell know how to do it - the Leeds band making some impressive reverberating, crashing, driving psychedelic sounds.

I'm a little confused as to how it took me so long to listen and also how everyone doesn't know about these yet, but the latter will probably change in the not-so-distant future given an ace tape is due out this summer. Listening to the opening track of that cassette, Medicine Cabient, below.


Hookworms - Medicine Cabinet

P.S Please give me some credit for not going down the "Hookworms' songs get stuck in your head like their namesakes get stuck in your gut" route. I'm sure someone else will.

Bandcamp | Blog

Diamond Man

I'm a rubbish blogger, this is good music, recommended to me by the folk behind Hear Hums. Not especially new (the Diamond Man Travels EP was up on bandcamp from last October), but even less known it would seem, the sound of Diamond Man is swirling, kaleidoscopic electronics, guitar noises, and samples all worked together into one semi-coherent full wholly enjoyable sound. See for yourself below or download the full EP for free at bandcamp.


Diamond Man - Metamorphic Rock


Diamond Man - Bonesaw


Diamond Man - Leif Langford

Bandcamp |

Sumsun

So I've taken a step back into the good old days of posting about bands after a good deal of people already know about them. As well as the good old days of not posting new bands for an age. Blame a lack of self control, motivation, and general ability to be a useful human being. I am sorry. But if you don't know of Sumsun - WOOHOO.

Sumsun is looping, psychedelic, 'tropical' electro sounds coming from Florida, apparently. That's about all you really need to know. Oh, and it's good. Oh, and insert some cheesy line about the summer. Oh, and if you liked Mozam Beaks a few weeks back you'll like this. Oh, and if you like this and you don't know of Mozam Beaks, check them out.


Sumsun - Stay FRESH Young


Sumsun - Non-Menthol Dub


Sumsun - Ants

MySpace | Tumblr | Beaten comfortably by The Pigeon Post

David K Frampton

Apparently some sort of bedroom project from a Brighton based electronic musician who has been around for a while, to me this sounds more like some pretty great dark, synthy psychedelic sounds along Arc Light or Red Psalm lines, made by a newbie, weirdo social recluse. In my book, that's a good thing - its eerie, minimal, electro given a dark and odd edge with the spoken vocals. Listen below or find out more at the links underneath the tracks, such as the free 4 track EP over at bandcamp.


David K Frampton - Mask 4


David K Frampton - Window Seat

Bandcamp | MySpace

Mozam Beaks

This is awesome. Verges from dirty prog to psychedelic 'world' sounds, to tropical, kraut-y electronica with dashings of pop thrown throughout. Amazed this isn’t being released by some super cool tape label yet.

Listen below or grab stuff for free at bandcamp.


Mozam Beaks - Sons of the a la Mode



Bandcamp |

Teens

Just stumbled upon Teens over on I Guess I'm Floating and immediately became excited to listen to new music again. 60s psych influenced lo-fi pop, but not with a fear of showing some balls every so often. They're from Boise, Idaho and this is bloody good.

Listen and download below, or grab the whole self-titled 9-track album over at their Tumblr.


Teens - Reasons


Teens - Die With You

Tumblr | Bandcamp

Negative Pegasus

Brighton’s Negative Pegasus - fronted by Todd Jordan formerly of My Device - make noisy, droning, and reverberating psychedelic rock. Best served: mildly heated, in a dark room, loud. Perfect with: a slightly pissed off mood or a bunch of well collated friends. Also a perfect companion for live outings.

These make we want to nod my head aggressively and stomp my feet.

Find out if they give you the same response by heading to their bandcamp or listening below. Alternatively, catch them live - in London supporting Sightings on April 6 at The Grosveor, or in Brighton headlining at Cowley Club on April 13.


Negative Pegasus - Psychic Energy


Negative Pegasus - For Life


Negative Pegasus - Visitation

Bandcamp | Facebook

BARB

BARB is a collaboration of some of New Zealand’s finest output of the last few years – Liam Finn, Connan Mockasin, Lawrence Arabia, Eliza-Jane Barnes, and Seamus Ebbs. Although they’ve been ‘rocking out’ together for almost 12 months, now seems just a good a time as any to write some pleasant words about them seeings, like most good bands, they don’t seem to be getting the attention they deserve.

As you might expect from reading the line-up, if you know anything about the band’s members’ other work, BARB is far from your usual ‘supergroup’. Rather than pooling their individual talents to create a bland, middle of the road rock band (like seems to often be the case with other ‘supergroups’), BARB keep things all kinds of weird and interesting.

Take ‘Leo’. It’s a song, written by Connan Mockasin’s five-year old alter ego, about Leonardo DiCaprio. And it’s quite that simple. Without trying to be clever about it and wrapping the song in metaphors, it features brilliantly basic lyrics (“such a brilliant actor / works out every day / always knows what to say”) that won’t fail to bring a smile to your face (if you have a soul, that is). Musically it’s interesting and catchy psych-pop but, instead of drowned in fuzz or covered with a lo-fi blanket, it’s clear and played with precision. Wonderfully written songs, brilliantly played.

Although there are only a couple of songs knocking around the corners of the internet, they do have a full-length album available from here. Otherwise, check out some stuff below.


BARB - Havin' A Baby


BARB - Leo



Bandcamp | Blog | MySpace

Trogons

I've been trying to find some information about and hear more music of Trogons since better-blog Pinglewood posted about them back in November. I figured that I'd wait around and, given how great the song was that was shared back then, information, more music and a buzz of excitement would have fallen in my lap by now. For some reason it hasn't, and Trogons still seem as little known now as they did back then - a mere 138 Last FM plays from 51 listeners and only 1 post on HypeMachine, at time of writing.

Trogons are based in London, and are apparently formed of current/ex members of the likes of Kasms, Betty and the Werewolvees, Spin Spin The Dogs, and The Human Race (posted about on BF here). Their sound is dark psychedelic rock - with distorted guitar twangs, underlying unsettling synth sounds and brilliant, dark and troubling female vocals - as well as some hints of both 60s pop and 70s prog. It possibly shouldn't work, but it most certainly does, and these few words can not do it the justice it deserves.

This blog post is unlikely to give them the success they deserve as a band, but hopefully they can find it somehow or another. The Marc Riley session a few days ago should help, as would buying their music; do that here and here. Listen below, too.

Protest Song no.678 - Trogons

HEAVY DRAGOON - Trogons

SoundCloud | Tumblr | Facebook

Myrrh

So a few weeks ago I pretty much called Ryan Gabel a weirdo when talking about his music project Arc Light, in an introducing article over on ThisIsFakeDIY. I didn’t have much to base that assessment on, just an album or so of material under his solo work as Arc Light, but it looks like it may have been a fair assessment after all, with fresh evidence coming from his new project, Myrrh.

This time Ryan is working with a friend (named Landan, apparently), who seems to bring out an even weirder side. Myrrh has a similar lo-fi and psychedelic feel to his Arc Light work, only it’s even darker and spookier. Club (Drum Sound Life), for instance, opens with weird and echoing vocal samples which are then joined by fairly minimal bleeping and echoing synth lines which lasts throughout. There’s not much more to Way Body Moves, either – buzzing bass, random bleeping synth, wah-ing noise, and spooky vocal samples once more.

It’s hauntingly empty of any of the ingredients we usually associate with songs, but it just works. Listen and download two tracks below, or head to Myrrh’s website to download five-track N’ajzabi Beats for free.


Myrrh - Great Gathering


Myrrh - Club (Drum Sound Life)

Website | MySpace | YouTube

New Animal

The thing with music blogging is that, quite often, you’ve only known of a band a few weeks and only listened to their stuff a handful of times before writing and posting about their music. It’s fairly obvious why this is the case (you know, the nature of blogging about new music is that the music needs to be new, really), but what it can mean is a lot of positive press and superlatives for bands who make music that immediately grabs you, leaving those bands whose music burns its way slowly into your mind sourly unrepresented.

Take New Animal for instance. I was literally just preparing myself by listening to their self-titled album to put up a blog post praising a track or two from it, whilst also commenting about my disappointment that not the rest of the release could live up to these tracks’ standards – but then it finally hit me, and I finally ‘got’ the record.

15 tracks of worldy sounds from Atlanta’s Kris Hermstad and Derek Burdette, their album is largely made up of harmony-filled psychedelic pop songs through the medium of a range of big vocals, twangs, jingles and buzzes. Other Side has one of the catchiest choruses (and bass-lines, actually) I’ve heard this year (granted, it’s only a month old) which is slowly built towards and finally comes after three minutes of teasing, and much of the album follows catchy pop, alebit sometimes downbeat, suit. its But it also delves into the darker and varied side of things on regular occasions, too; Science seemingly New Animal’s (slightly lighter) take on Nine Inch Nails with a ticking drum-machine and buzzing synth throughout, and the likes of Last Winter, Fires In The Backyard and In The Water At Night sees them delving into the melancholic depths of - perhaps Bon Iver influenced – country and folk.

New Animal isn’t perfect, and some tracks aren’t as good as others. This is no surprise. It’s the case for the vast majority of albums, obviously. But it does offer far, far more in terms of consistency, strength and breadth than I originally gave it credit for. Thank God for doubting myself.

Download some stuff below or grab it in its entirety at bandcamp.


New Animal - Other Side


New Animal - They Don't Know

Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter

Soccer96

With all the wonderful music from around the world readily available at the tip of a finger, bands perhaps have an even tougher time than in previous years deciding exactly which styles will contribute to their own sounds, and which are simply more to be enjoyed rather than replicated. Of course, there’s always the argument that you could just cram all of your favourite music into your own and hope that it comes out as some sort of coherent sound rather than a big, confusing mess. After all, it’s worked for Brighton’s Soccer96.

Forcing together psychedelic world sounds with electronica, post-rock, math-rock, and even prog and jazz, the two-piece come out the end of the long and dark tunnel smelling of roses and with all the girls trailing behind them. It’s simultaneously fun yet kind of in-your-face, both chilled out and laid back yet impressive. And taking influence for your name from legendary gaming systems like the Megadrive and NES – well, that’s just inspired.

Soccer96 should be touring the UK (perhaps with Illness, previously featured here) soon, and are looking to also release an EP in the coming months. Until then, listen and download below.


Soccer96 - Level8Clouds


Soccer96 - SuperWarrior

MySpace |

Maymok

Don’t know a whole load about Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Tim Kraus aka Maymok but his tracks have had my head on a constant spin these past few days. Wonderful looping, psychedelic and kaleidoPOPic (I know, I'm shameless) beats.


Maymok - Family/Friends


Maymok - Spacestation

Bandcamp | MySpace | EP at Two Michael Jordans

Under Alien Skies

What happens when you take all of the best music of the last few years and compact it into one EP? A band trying their hardest to thrust themselves into the hipster limelight? An over-complicated and poorly flowing collision of incompatible sounds? Maybe for most bands, but not if you’re Under Alien Skies, apparently.

Their sounds feels fresh from a dream, the north-Walian duo combining woozy harmonised vocals, tender trip-hop beats, electro-tinged wavy reverb and world-y influences creating just the sort of laid-back sounds for a hungover Saturday morning.

They’re soon to be touring and are also in the process of putting together a full-length release - though there are no firm details of either just yet. Until then, listen below, or hear the Paste EP and download the Powder EP from their bandcamp.


Under Alien Skies - Papillion


Under Alien Skies - Overseas

Bandcamp | MySpace | Twitter

Birthdays

When writing blog posts, there are certain bands that - although you enjoy to listen to - you are never really sure if they will be appropriately appreciated by the public or even the wider music community. But then there are other bands that you immediately sense are destined for wide adoration after listening to just a few of their tracks.

Birthdays are one of those bands whose hype is easily understood, and most of the reason the hype is so easily understood in all honesty is the one track Howolding Girls (which you may have heard or read of an earlier version, which was called Procreating Flower Bug). As much of a boring cliché it is, it’s one of those songs that really is gripping from the start – opening with vibrant looping synth sounds and bursting into life with celebratory and chant-like distorted vocals and drumming that switches from dance-y bass-snare to tribal tom rolls. It’s a bit like eating sour flavoured Skittles for the first time; the intense flavour forcing your face to do all sorts of unexplained weird shit.

As far as looping experimental psych pop goes, Boston-based Sam (who makes up one-man-band Birthdays, and is also apparently vegan, which makes him cool even without the great music) aren’t a one song pony. I’m Keeping Some Of Mine For Me is a slow-paced droning take on the Animal Collective sound, yet still excites and brims with brilliance. Part That Grows has a country/folk-y Conor Oberst feel to it yet through an underlying pulsing drum beat and rattle shakes, unusual strums, and some “ooh”-s chucked in for good measure, it manages to not feel out of place alongside his other work.

Pretty darn exciting stuff. Listen and download below, and find more on HypeMachine.


Birthdays - Howolding Girls


Birthdays - Software


Birthdays - I'm Keeping Some Of Mine For Me

The Ruby Suns

The other day I went so see The Ruby Suns play Cardiff's Buffalo Bar, a gig put on by the quite brilliant Loose (run by Liz from The School). It was a really good gig - and one that I reviewed at ThisIsFakeDIY (top Google result for "Ruby Suns Cardiff", yes!) - though it was far too empty than the band deserved, probably because of Islet and Yuck playing at Cardiff's Clwb Ifor Bach on the same night.

The third album from the New Zealand based group is pretty darn good (I also reviewed this, on StereoSubversion) and it definitely deserves checking out, especially for fans of the likes of Animal Collective. In fact, all three albums (all of which are on Spotify) deserve a good listen. I also interviewed the band after the gig and will link to that as soon as I get around to transcribing.

Most of you will already know of them. Well worth a listen if you are yet to or are skeptical!

Connan Mockasin

I saw Connan Mockasin last year supporting Fanfarlo to a relatively empty Clwb Ifor Bach and have since had a burning desire to hear more and more of his stuff. Many of you may be aware of him from his support tour of Late of the Pier not long back and, seemingly by Connan's Last FM shout box, not many of you liked it. Indeed he seems to have a nack for supporting very good acts, having shared the stage with First Aid Kit, Late of the Pier and Micachu in his last few shows (I don't think much of Fanfarlo so haven't included them in this list).

Connan Mockasin is another act from New Zealand, a country which seems to be spitting out great band after great band (see Ladyhawke, The Ruby Suns). Despite being previously known as Connan and the Mockasins and being backed by a full band at live shows, Connan Mockasin seems essentially a monikre for the solo work of Connan Hosford. At gigs he is undoubtedly the man in charge, orchestrating his band so everything is as perfect as he wants it to be. He plays a sort of blues inspired psychedelic pop, topped off with his unusual yet completely addictive high pitched vocals - these unusual vocals suiting the unusual song content brilliantly ("It's Choade My Dear", "Unicorn in Uniform" etc).

His MySpace promises UK album details soon (it's already been released in New Zealand, apparently). For more info, check out the MySpace, Twitter, and website.