It probably loses a little of its early ecstatic vim along the way but there’s no denying that this little nugget had us scurrying for more information about its makers. Nice bunch of lads from Philadelphia by all accounts (mostly their own) and a nice back catalogue with which to impress the girls (if the haircuts don’t get them first). Album number three is a mere tyke having only left the presses a couple of months ago. ‘Leaves’ does its merry thang after the third short silence and gives credence to a small hankering for certain whistling Swedes. Could we be the most cherishable hurried groove of the summer, disagree and I might have to take you to tusk. KD

Cheers Elephant – Leaves

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Buy Songs: Cheers Elephant
Year: 2012

Their debut ‘Life’ may contain their most famous efforts but the follow up ‘The Beast Inside’ was always my favourite album from Oldham’s the Inspiral Carpets. The band bred a love-hate relationship with the press with lots of barbs aimed at their fashion sense and choice of barbers. But that side was incidental because their music was all that mattered. Of course they hardly revolutionised the art of songwriting but at the heart of much of their output was psychedelic drenched melody. And that was largely down to Clint Boon’s Farfisa organ interjections, giving the baggy grooves a blast of Doorsesque retro glamour. Recently the band announced plans to record their first new material in over 15 years and are currently out on tour around the UK and Ireland. To celebrate here is one of my favourite tracks from the band, the 13 minute plus grandeur of ‘Further Away’. Mooove aside Adele. KD

The Inspiral Carpets – Further Away

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Buy Songs: The Inspiral Carpets
Year: 1991

If I wasn’t so old and busy I’d be dragging my lard to see the bands that kick-started me on this road. Legends like the Happy Mondays and the Inspiral Carpets who play a double-header in the Olympia next week. The Roses are also playing nearby in the summer but I’ll definitely be giving that a wide berth, disappointment is the only possible outcome. James are another of that early 90′s Madchester brigade, even if they never really took to its baggy machinations, who are back touring. Their 1992 album ‘Seven’ ranks as one of the finest of the era and it really came into its own in a live context. The band recorded an MTV performance soon after the album’s release and such was its hold over me I wasn’t long wearing out the videotape, after which it lay motionless at my feet like a spurned ball of chewed tobacco. Listen to the brass on ‘Born of Frustration’ and dance like someone who can’t (take your cues from Tim, the lead singer). KD

James – Born Of Frustration

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Buy Songs: James
Year: 1992

Somewhat bored by today’s mainstream diet of Springsteen, Coldplay and the Roger Waters “The Wall” tour, I recently installed Spotify on my PC and boy am I glad I did. While Spotify is legal and some other file sharing programs aren’t, there’s the disadvantage of not being able to drag songs into i-Tunes and “keep” them. But when you can open Spotify anytime you want and listen to virtually any song you want, why would you care? I know I don’t. Initially I just roamed about putting various queries into the search bar, like “trance acid blues” or “psychedelic techno”, or searching for better known stuff like but then I started searching for bands and albums I hadn’t listened to in a long, long time. Probably the most memorable of them is The Naked Prey’s Under the Blue Marlin from 1986. I can still remember the first time I listened to that album. It was 1987. We were in a friend’s flat, back home in Manchester. I’d just gone and picked up a tape of the album from a local psychedelic music aficionado, and we imbibed of some suitable victuals before banging it on the stereo. We were paralysed in our seats throughout the entire first track, “The Ride”, and then some. “These people are mental”, my mate spat, alarmed at the advanced state of terror “The Ride” had sent him into. “And so are that Thin White Rope an’ all!” “That Thin White Rope” was a reference to a band who’d also recently emerged from the L.A. music scene known as The Paisley Underground. Thin White Rope had released Exploring the Axis in 1985, hot on the heels of other Paisley Underground luminaries such as The Rain Parade, Green on Red and The Dream Syndicate. In 1987 they bettered Exploring the Axis with a shocker of an album entitled Moonhead. Moonhead basically scared the pants off anyone daft enough to listen to it “in the right frame of mind”, and indeed the local oficionado himself described his initial reaction to it as “Pickin’ me brains off the ceiling when it finished”.

But I digress. We were sitting in my mate’s flat, picking our brains off the ceiling having been subjected to Naked Prey’s “The Ride”, and he was terrified and moaning about how they and Thin White Rope were sick, twisted people who should never have been allowed into a recording studio. I was similarly alarmed at the weirdness and power of Naked Prey’s sound, but I wasn’t ready to denounce them as he had; they were just too %$&@%^$ good. At first blush they seemed like a fairly normal guitar band with a dark southwestern feel. But as the record progressed it became obvious there were large undercurrents here. Riptides and eddies that threatened to pull you under and crush the breath from your very bones. “The Ride”‘s frenzied pace switched down to a moodier even more dangerous sounding “A Stranger (Never Says Goodbye)” for track 2, doing nothing to help either of us regain our composure. The undulating, slow guitar riff along which “The Stranger” sailed sounded like it should have been in a much more famous song by a much more famous band, but wasn’t that like all Paisley Underground music? Each of the outfits associated with the scene represented a wasted ability to be stellar while sounding strange enough to never hit the big time. “Stranger” gave way to a storming version of The Stooges’ “Dirt”, taking Iggy’s Jim Morrison-esque vocals and injecting them with a big dose of speed. This was followed by a haunting track called “Train Whistle” whose lyrics melted into double-entendres that keep you awake nights feeling like a demented freak. Speaking of haunting, there truly is something odd about the quality of vocalist Van Christian’s voice. Half folk-psych-distorto-rocker, half plain Silence of the Lambs style insanity, Christian’s words were a force like a warm wind deep inside a dark desert cave.

The years 1983 to 1988 were definitely Brain On Ceiling vintage and “Under the Blue Marlin” was up there with the very best. While Thin White Rope were more obvious in their evil intentions, The Naked Prey were more of a stealth mindquake. Like quicksand, you were already in too deep by the time you realised you were in mortal danger, and by then it was too late; you were paralysed in your seat and your head was nearing explosion point. Being a fan of the Paisley Underground bands, and being 18, 19, 20, 21 years old when it was all happening has left an alien scar on my musical tastes. No offence intended, but the likes of Roger Waters, Springsteen and Coldplay are indistinguishable from One Direction when you’ve taken the trip into the labyrinth.

Ian Hough

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Despite winning the 2011 Juno Award (Canada’s version of the Choice Music Prize) for his 3rd LP ‘Oh Fortune’ word of Dan Mangan’s near infinite talent hasn’t spread as far and widely as expected on this side of the Atlantic. Probably a minor delay on his road to superstardom though because the kid is able to produce gold from base ingredients. You think there isn’t much happening but his subtle jigsaws are adept at coming together at the least expected moment. Not that you’d call them anthems but there is generally at least one powerful accelerant embedded in each of his tunes. ‘Oh Fortune’ is oh too short, but as sweet as a cookie. KD

Dan Mangan – Oh Fortune

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Buy Songs: Dan Mangan
Year: 2011

Dublin band the Crayon Set have been gently tapping on my door for over a year now and while their sound is a snug fit I always tended to get diverted. ‘I Worry’ from their soon to be released debut ‘The Crayon Album’ is impossible to resist however. Structurally it is sewn together with the finesse of a group of indie pop greats and when you throw in the girl/boy vocals you are left with a sweet number that will have the tweepop boards all aglow. More small successes like this can only lead to much bigger ones. KD

The Crayon Set – I Worry

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Buy Songs: The Crayon Set
Year: 2012

Jared Miles has some backstory, at least the first few weeks of his introduction to the world which belongs in biblical times. Not that that will in any way colour your views of his music which is well capable of setting its own scenery. And for all that tunes like ‘He Once Was A Friend Of Mine’ could well turn people off due to its slow canter with revelations that come so organically you may just feel like the world is passing you by. But herein lies the beauty, once drawn in it is very hard to move on to anything else. The instrumentation too may not initially appear that elaborate, which could be down to Miles captivating vocals, but there is much to savour. Not least the climatic brass and the delicate chord changes. Should be enough to get you hunting down Miles’ 2011 record ‘Rocketship’.KD

Jared Miles – He Once Was A Friend Of Mine

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Year: 2011

Some people don’t pay the household charge, others attempt to run lorries through the gates of Leinster House while the odd one or two make their stand via their electronic generating software. Shanghai based Seamus O’Duigneain is a fine example of the latter but don’t let that put you off listening to his fine debut that he recorded under pROVISIONAL mOOVES. ‘sON’ is an example of the quality fare on offer, coming across like a lost Orb track that was destined for a Bentley Rhythm Ace remix until it decided to retire to Koh Phi Phi. This is truly seductive stuff and while it will hardly have Enda quaking in his boots it could well bring the house down in several local music emporiums. KD

pROVISIONAL mOOVES – sON

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Free Songs: pROVISIONAL mOOVES
Year: 2012

Him out of Slow Loris, Wes Doyle, and a chanteuse by the name of Elsa Nekola make up a new incarnation called Treefort. They create a curious brew, like something that has fallen off a ramshackling 90′s vehicle but with moments of undeniable clarity to balance things up. In many ways ‘Telephone’, from the Wisconsin duo’s LP ‘Très Fort’, is like a studio jam but one that you hope will go on and on. The striking vocals at the start soon dissipate, never to return but the congregation of slight chords is never less than a subtle joy. On such minor delights do our evening’s turn into memorable bouts of languidity. KD

Treefort – Telephone

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Buy Songs: Treefort
Year: 2012

There are a handful of people I’ve met through the internet who are now my foremost sonic prompters. People who send me short emails about a song or an act that they think I’ll like. In the vast majority of cases their hints end up becoming posts on this site. This one came in from our man in Switzerland this morning and what a feast for the senses it is. He primed it as a sort of Neil Young/Uncle Tupelo sound to which we’ll add Red Star Belgrade. A touch of ragged country that is fuelled by a rotating chord and Dave Heumann’s deft pronouncements. Taken from newbie LP ‘Aureola’ this was informed, inspired and generally aided and abetted by another band with a similar lineage called Hush Arbors. The latter, Keith Wood, has spent time in a list of curious yet spelling bands like Six Organs of Admittance and Sunburned Hand of the Man. With those ingredients it was never going to fail, in truth it is one of the year’s most incandescent compositions. Arbouretum and Hush Arbors play Whelan’s this Saturday (May 5th). KD

Arbouretum – New Scarab

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Year: 2012

If you thought this sounded retro then you’d be on the money as it comes from the now dusty environs of 2009. From an Atlanta band that have gone on and recorded a follow-up just last year. Given their Beatles referencing moniker it might be too ironic for some that they sound altogether like the Kinks. But why deny oneself an undeniable guilty pleasure? The chords are sultry and fused to equipment that Jack White would give his sister away for. As if to ram the point home there are also lots of hand-claps and vocal harmonies cascading underneath a rapidly fading sunset. You may well be in paradise. KD

Gringo Star – All Y’All

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Buy Songs: Gringo Star
Year: 2009

What with Reading getting promoted it’s probably apt that one of her most famous (sorta) bands is rolled out for old times sake. And boy did this 5-piece have a lasting influence, to this day my mind often wanders back to their floppy fringes and perfect indie girl singer. The music for its part was a hypnotic brand of shoegaze and along with MBV they were the poster-boys for the genre. Slowdive’s back catalogue, while quite slight (3 albums and some incandescent early singles), had at least half a dozen bona fida classics. This is one of them from their middle album ‘Souvlaki’, which along with ‘When The Sun Hits’ epitomised the bands swirling psychedelic montages. It still sends tingles, even more so if you can rent a smoke machine for the afternoon. KD

Slowdive – Machine Gun

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Buy Songs: Slowdive
Year: 1993