More Pink

Talking of Pink vinyl, here's the 8 track debut album by Manchester post-rockers Plank! It's pink, which makes my daughter very happy.

I saw Plank! live at the Green Man Festival a couple of years ago and immediately took to them, as I thought they sounded a lot like my old band The Deltics - maybe they were part of the 20 strong crowd that saw us at a gig once...or maybe it's just that post rock / math rock sound. When it comes to their records, the sound is very much like Standards-era Tortoise with an element of post-punk thrown in for good measure.

Four Tet's "Pink" on vinyl

Four Tet's latest album, Pink, collected together a number of tracks Mr Hebden has released over the last 18 months, with a couple of extras thrown in, and is available as a "download only". However, with the extra tracks (Lion and the beatiful Peace On Earth) now available as a 12" single, there's a 5x12" audiophile vinyl format of the album that you can get. If you can be bothered to track them down or bought them when they came out.

You even get an art print of the albums design with the lastest 12".

So here's the tracklisting (technically with two "bonus" tracks not available with the digital version):

Disc 1
Pinnacles
Ye Ye (by Daphni)
Disc 2
Locked
Pyramid
Disc 3
Jupiters
Ocoras
Disc 4
128 Harps
128 Harps (Anthony Naples Remix)
Disc 5
Lion
Peace for Earth

Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

The return! of! Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Completely out of the blue, this album turned up unannounced at a GYBE gig in Boston a couple of weeks ago - a far cry from the usual "please please please buy me" overpromotion that most bands sign up to with every release. Anyway, it's now available in proper shops too (yeah, I know - sell outs eh?).

In classic GYBE style, you get something unique with both the vinyl and CD versions, with songs differing in length (I haven't listened to the CD so I can't tell you what is different, I've just noted that the track lengths are different) and sequencing. As always though, the vinyl version is the one to get - a 12" album and a 7" single, both housed in a wonderful elaborate gatefold sleeve with a "spot metallic ink and spot matte varnish" and a poster.

As well as looking good, it sounds great too. The usual beautiful, mournful, uplifiting and aggressive monoliths that you would expect from the band. The sequencing works better on the vinyl with the two long tracks - think classic GYBE symphonies designed to be listened to during a heavy storm - being placed either side of the 12" to make a wonderful 40 minute album, whilst the two shorter "drone" tracks (also good, but an acquired taste akin to Tangerine Dream's "Zeit" or Tony Conrad & Faust's "Beyond The Dream Syndicate") are kept together on the 7" as a beautifully unsettling side dish.

Heady Fwends

Well, after a 2 month delay, the 'proper' vinyl release of The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends has finally arrived.

Originally released as a very limited edition outside the UK as part of Record Store Day, it was inevitable that it would see the light in a non-limited form sooner rather than later.

The CD version came out in July, but I bet that's really boring to look at, unlike this beautiful headache-inducing package. Two uniquely coloured locked-groove discs with etched messages, contained in a sleeve that is all colour and no info.

Each song is a collaborative piece of cyberdelica, performed with the likes of Nick Cave, Ke$ha (yes, yes, I know what you're thinking. It's a great tune), Yoko Ono, Prefuse 73, Tame Impala and Bon Iver. The track with Chris Martin (available on the original RSD release) has been replaced by a new song with Aaron Behrens, presumably for some inexplicable licencing reason. It's a shame, because the Chris Martin song was quite good. Not that many people would admit to liking it, but that's their problem.

Go and buy it, listen to it and then put it on your wall as a piece of art.

Is it a postcard? Is it a record?

It's both.

The new single from Barry Adamson comes as a playable flexi-postcard with a barcode to scan for the download version.

The track, Brighton Rockers, is a brief but pleasing piece of dub, done in typical Adamson cinematic style. All proceeds go to CALM, so you really should buy a copy and then post it to a friend. Go to his website for more details and, while you're there, also buy his latest album 'I Will Set You Free', which is brilliant.

The question now is, where do I keep it? With my records? Or maybe I should stick it on the fridge.

Oi! Y Niwl! Where are your songs?

I love the fact that all Y Niwl's song titles are numbers - named in the order that they were written, which gives a certain amount of chronology to their releases. It also allows the songs to stand on their own merits rather than by any association with good or bad titles.

But it has made me curious - what has happened to the missing numbers? The world can remain unaware to unreleased/unrecorded songs by most bands. But there's no hiding the fact that Y Niwl have a song, somewhere, called "5" (or "Pump" in Welsh).


So here's the complete/missing songs released so far that I'm aware of. Anyone know the whereabouts of 5, 16 or 20?

1:   Un - first 7" single
2:   Dau - first 7" single
3:   Tri - first 7" single
4:   Pedwar - self-titled album
5: ???
6:   Chwech - self-titled album
7:   Saith - self-titled album
8:   Wyth - self-titled album
10:  Deg - self-titled album
11:  Undegun - self-titled album
12:  Undegdau - self-titled album
13:  Undegtri - self-titled album
14:  Undegpedwar - self-titled album
15:  Undegpump - self-titled album
16: ???
17:  Undegsaith - second 7" single
18:  Undegchwech - second 7" single
19:  Undegnaw - 'Y Niwl 4' 10" EP
20: ???
21:  Dauddegun - 'Y Niwl 4' 10" EP
22:  Dauddegdau - Y Niwl '4' 10" EP
23:  Dauddegtri - 'Y Niwl 4' 10" EP
24:  Dauddegpedwar - 'Y Niwl 4' 10" EP
25:  Dauddegpump - 'Y Niwl 4' 10" EP

Pye Corner Audio - The Black Mill Tapes Volumes 1 & 2

I'm really enjoying this album at the moment. Collecting together two digital EP/LPs, this repress is available on tasty double grey vinyl (the original vinyl issue came on coloured or...yawn...black vinyl).

Sounding antiquated but timeless, and rich in melody and atmosphere, it's an exploration into the murky world of analogue synths. All the reviews I've read compare the music to the Radiophonic Workshop and Boards of Canada and, whilst they're right to mention these, it would be pointless for me to simply repeat what they have said, so can I just add the following reference points: Aphex Twin (Ambient Works), Cluster, The Human League (Introducing, Tom Baker, Dignity of Labour etc) and Harald Grosskopf. There you are, I feel much better for saying that now.