Mark Mulcahy and Miracle Legion

Yesterday morning, while flicking through a couple of recent Marc Riley 6Music shows that I'd missed, I was surprised to discover that Miracle Legion played a session for him last week. I've been a fan of Mark Mulcahy's songs since picking up the band's 'Backyard' mini-album in (gulp!) 1984 and continued to follow his solo career following the Miracle Legion's dissolution in 1996. I had no idea they were back, though it turns out that Miracle Legion have temporarily reunited to play a few shows to coincide with a 20th anniversary reissue of their final LP, 'Portrait of a Damaged Family'. The Marc Riley session was really great (it's available here for another 3 weeks) and it prompted me to spend the rest of the day listening exclusively to Mark's music - solo, with Miracle Legion and as part of another occasional project, Polaris. Most of my physical music collection remains boxed up and inaccessible, so I was chuffed to find that all aspects of Mark's career are well catered for on Bandcamp. Here are a handful of choice nuggets.

Meatraffle at The National Portrait Gallery

As anyone who's paid even the slightest attention to my ramblings will know, I've got a bit of a thing for Meatraffle. I initially wrote about the band here and have subsequently featured their latest LP, 'HiFi Classics', over on my 'heavy rotation' sidebar on more than one occasion. While down in London on family business over the weekend, I was extremely chuffed to discover that Meatraffle had been invited to play a show at The National Portrait Gallery as part of its Creative Connections season. The high ceiling and cold walls of the room caused the band a few sound-related headaches early on, though these were quickly overcome and soon their dubby post-punk grooves were echoing through the old building. Meatraffle make a unique noise and they're very rapidly becoming my favourite band in the land. If you haven't done so already, do yourself a favour and check out the album here.

Red Gold & Green #6 - Jimmy London

As I'm currently spending a few days ensconced in this nation's capitol city, it seems a particularly appropriate moment to share my favourite tune by one Trevor Shaw - better known in reggae circles as Jimmy London. Early on, Jimmy's sweet voice was a natural fit for such vocal harmony acts as The Inspirations and The Untouchables, though it was after going solo that he found his greatest commercial success, scoring a minor hit in 1971 with a cover of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'. 'The Road Is Rough' appeared on the b-side of 'No Letter Today' in 1974 and gives John Lee Hooker a co-writing credit. I know of a Hooker song entitled 'The Road Is So Rough', but it bears no relation to this one, so if anyone can enlighten me further I'd be very grateful. The jaunty tune of 'The Road Is Rough' belies the determined desperation of the lyrics. Sing it Jimmy.

Jimmy London - 'The Road Is Rough'

Live At The Fish Factory

Yesterday morning the postman arrived at the front door clutching my copy of 'Live at the Fish Factory', a clear vinyl 10" single by Collocutor, purchased in support of the band's crowd-funding initiative for their forthcoming second LP, 'The Search', which is due in November. Collocutor's 2014 debut, 'Instead', was an essentially jazz-based affair, albeit liberally laced with all manner of afro-inflected grooviness - and it's a corker. Check it out here.

The two tunes on 'Live at the Fish Factory' were recorded in January of this year - and filmed at the same time. Here's the spiritual 'Arrival'.

(I'm heading off to London for a few days to catch up with the visiting New York contingent of the family. Back after the weekend.)

Julia Jacklin

Following on from my recent nod to English chanteuse Holly Macve, here's Julia Jacklin, another new name to keep an ear out for. Julia hails from the Blue Mountains region of Australia and, like Holly, has a debut LP set for imminent release. Check out this desperately beautiful acoustic version of the album's title track, 'Don't Let The Kids Win', along with her recently issued debut single 'Pool Party'.

Hintermass

Flicking through some of my most played albums of the year so far, I'm surprised to find how many I've failed to share on these pages. You know when you're convinced you've done something only to later discover that you actually haven't? I've gone through this very scenario several times while cross-referring what I've really posted against what my poor befuddled brain is telling me that I have.

Take for instance 'The Apple Tree' by Hintermass, released in June on the ever reliable Ghost Box imprint. The band consists of Jon Brooks (from The Advisory Circle and the excellent Pattern Forms) and Tim Felton (from the much missed Broadcast). It's a record that combines big dollops of pastoral loveliness with occasional splodges of gentle blippy weirdness. Highly recommended.

Find out more here.

Dust Is Everywhere - Sweep!

Monday is cleaning day here at Swede Towers. Mrs S tackles all the intricate stuff - the nooks, the crannies, the out of the way crevices and sundry cobwebby corners that I would otherwise surely miss - while my own main contribution to proceedings concentrates on somewhat larger brushstrokes, or, more precisely, vacuum-cleaner strokes. Yup, every Monday, for my sins, I'm charged with hoovering each room in the whole house, from top to bottom. When delegating this particular task to me several years ago, Mrs S justified her decision using very sound logic - there aren't many ways in which I can mess it up. She knows me so well.

I invariably sing while I work, dragging the vacuum-cleaner behind me, its howling motor drowning out my own peculiar vocal howling. I can latch onto any random tune that comes to mind, but more often than not, for the past few months at least, one particular track from 'Human Performance', the fifth LP by Parquet Courts, has been my full-time hoovering earworm and it's easy to see why.