Crumbs! Biscuits Are My Weakness!

Here you find quiet and loud, young and old, future and renewed friendships. Enjoy.

Arlo Parks, Chloe Foy, Droning Cats and NVR, Echo Collective, Geese, The Mostar Diving Club, Nora Joy, The The, Toada

Cartography of Sleep : Droning Cats and NVR

Best for : Those who enjoy exploring the nature of sound

'Cartography of Sleep' is what happens when Belgian trip hop duo Droning Cats work with Japan based electronic pop producer NVR. The results may not be pop as we know it. Perhaps it's not even music. It is, however, a fascinating journey into the world and nature of sound.

Infinity is a tricky concept to get our head around. We usually think of it as huge and vast and without end, but it can also go the other way and be immeasurably small with no beginning. Droning Cats take some initial steps down the path to small.

It makes for a multi sensory experience not just a listening one. It becomes quickly apparent on 'When Two Longitudes Overlap' that the tracks may be more soundscapes than pure music. They crackle, drip and drone as they slide up and down, in and out, back and forth. 'Slumbering On A Swing' begins with the sound of a mournful church bell that's been slowed down and fractured into multiple frequencies. The track degrades into something savage. If bread had feelings, this is the sound it would make when you rip a hunk from the loaf. The bubbling that starts 35 seconds into 'Catastrophic' is as unexpected as rounding a corner and bumping into a clown. The sounds that litter this album are a gift, and like any good gift they bring a smile to your face.

The alternative musician Pauline Oliveros championed the idea that music was simply a part of sound and that if you listen carefully you'll find music in the everyday noise all around you. She christened this approach 'deep listening'. Deep listening is what you need to get the most from this album. This is music that is like the famous picture that can be two faces or a flower vase, depending on what you see first. When it clicks, you see it differently. You have to give this music a chance to click. That's when you'll find its interest and beauty.

Few albums will reward deep listening so fully. It will let you tingle with pleasure.

Taster Track : Catastrophic

Nora Joy : Nora Joy

Best for : Restoring confidence in the future of classic songwriting.

It's an exciting time to be Canadian singer-songwriter Nora Joy. At an age when UK children (yes, children) are preparing for GCSEs and pleading for lifts from overworked older people to avoid a half mile walk to school in the drizzle, Nora has released her debut album and is currently touring the UK with Ron Sexsmith.

She hasn't won a cute TV Reality show, although she was selected as an Ontario Youth Discoveries Competition winner in 2024. She doesn't have celebrity parents and she's not riding the wave of some teenage fad. She's drawn attention for the quality of her song writing and performances.

Nora is a remarkably positive and self aware performer. Her voice is natural, mature and appealing husky, whatever the pitch. She shares her innermost thoughts and how they've shaped her approach to life without over emoting. Her lyrics are convincing. They're not so wrapped up in teenage concerns that they can't appeal to anyone over the age of twenty-one.

It's easy to write and release songs that sound like demos with just a singer and an acoustic guitar, perhaps a quiet piano or shuffling drum beat in the mix if time permits. That works if you're listening to her live in intimate surroundings. She understands though that repeat listening at home requires something more, and she already has the skill of thinking in more than one instrument at once.

In the course of songs like 'Shine' and 'What I Want' she'll switch from an acoustic strum to something rockier. The playing throughout is catchy, but with vocals and lyrics upfront and centrestage, it's easy to overlook the contribution the music makes to a song such as 'Starlight'. Refreshingly, she's not set off in pursuit of glamour and that means she can be here for the long run. There's an indie styling to 'I Like You' that's reminiscent of the day to day writing of 'Allo Darlin'.

We shouldn't get carried away with her age. This isn't a good album for a sixteen year old. It's a good album, period.

Taster Track : What I Want

( Stop Press : After reviewing the album, I caught Nora Joy supporting Ron Sexsmith at Cadogan Hall near Sloane Square. And yes, a stripped back version of songs featuring just her and a guitar worked very well indeed in that setting. It's the best of both worlds.)

Complete Fool : Chloe Foy

Best for : Folk influenced pop that's a little different but very lovely

It's time for that difficult second album and I suspect that Chloe Foy looked at the challenge ahead and laughed in its face. This is a confident, playful album and it sounds as if she thoroughly enjoyed making it.

On her debut she delivered a strong set of folk troubadour songs, with one spectacular surprise in the sudden move to unaccompanied singing and silence at the end of 'Square Face'. It sounds as if she's used the risk taking of that song as the starting point for 'Complete Fool'. It's a beguiling album, constantly surprising, uplifting and immensely enjoyable. All her risks pay off and all her choices are proved right.

She's not left behind her guitar, but there's a greater emphasis on strings than before. She's determinedly different, without being in the slightest off-putting. It calls to mind Kate Bush at the time of 'Army Dreamers'.

The opening title track has a lilting folk melody, but the backing vocals come straight from a 1930s drawing room. It's intriguing and you want to pay attention. 'Drifting' approaches the arch sound of the Sarstedt brothers, with an added loveliness that feels like drifting on waves and gently buffeted by a warm breeze. Throughout, but especially on 'Your Beauty Is Your Silence, there's a playfulness in its formal dance patterns. Perhaps she's the Jane Austen of indie folk! The album flows into the confident pop of 'Elephant In The Room'. 'Animal' chirrups in the same way as Austra. In 'Blinkers' she's unexpectedly loud enough to compete with The Last Dinner Party. It's a lot of fun.

It's only with the closing track 'Empires of Dust' that she returns to a purer folk sound and greater seriousness. It's as if she feels she should pull herself together and apologise for not taking things too seriously. No apology necessary!

Taster Track : Your Beauty Is Your Silence

Beautiful Forever : The Mostar Diving Club

Best for : Anyone who has loved, lost and has the chance to love again.

Back at the turn of the century there was a band called Obi who released two perfect albums and disappeared. I loved that band, and I felt their absence from time to time with an ache that never lessened. Last year, from nowhere, a 'new' album appeared. It was a portal to what they're doing now. And what Damian Katkhuda is doing now is The Mostar Diving Club.

Bate your breath, and wait for the verdict.

The Mostar Diving Club make exquisite songs that are the essence of everything that made Obi so good. This is music that holds you on the cusp of tears for all you've lost that you might, just might, have again. The songs here, reach out to caress you with golden melodies, yearning heartache and a secular faith mingled with hope. As he sings in 'Garden Full Of Angels',

"I prayed for something good, don't let me down

Good God."

If you have any heart at all, it's impossible to turn down these sad and poignant songs.

There are so many charming touches that light up these songs. Take the brass on 'Where The Birds Sing'. Its emotion fits the song perfectly. Or the strings on'Baby, Coming Home' that make it a thing of wonder. The sudden descent in the first line of 'Garden Full Of Angels' is simply gorgeous and it reappears later in the song. The ambient voice of 'Everything In Colour'... the list goes on and on.

As Damian Kathkuda sings in 'Everything In Colour'

"I just need to shout from the hills that it matters to me."

He has the confidence that he has something to share and the childlike fear that no one else will listen. Over the course of an album he is insistent that his message will get through, like Cupid's arrow squirming its way into your heart, never to be dislodged.

The Mostar Diving Club is the sound of the sudden return of your most important past and happy relationship. Don't let it slip away again.

Taster Track : Garden Full Of Angels

~ Maresia : Toada

Best for : People with time on their hands and a desire to sink into music.

If the Holy Grail of ambient electronic music is to transport you to a different place. Toada's '~ Maresia' comes closer than most.

That's why the best time to listen to this would be waking before you need to wake, or to resettle you during a sleepless night. Something in the brain seems more receptive to change at those times. I'm not a musicologist, so I can't explain how the music on this captivating album achieves its effects. But then I'm not a pharmacist either, and I still take medicines.

It can be infuriating to press play on a piece of music that seems, at one level, to be going nowhere. In '~ Maresia' Toada avoids the elements that might usually draw you to pop, the strong tunes that attract you with their immediacy and memorability. The eight pieces merge to become one piece of music. He may not give you what you want, but he sets the scene for you to take what you need.

While sinking into this album, some random images came unbidden to mind. The songs feel fluid, drifting here, dripping musically there, ebbing and flowing with the tide. There are clues to this in the titles too - 'Maresia' (the pungent smell of the ocean), Hydrabliss, 'Night Swim', 'Aquflex'. If you can relax, this is music that will carry you along. Another image was that of a mother settling a baby to sleep, eyes closing before jerking momentarily back to wakefulness.

'Offline Glow' moves from lulling you to sleep to shaking you gently awake with a breakout of glitchy beats. 'Pausa Drift' encourages you to meander along with its flow. 'Night Swim has the rhythms of sleep and dreams.

The acid test of any album is whether or not its music works magic. That varies from person to person, but for me this cast a calming spell.

Taster Track : Pausa Drift

Get Killed : Geese

Best for : Anyone who wants to listen to the exciting future of rock.

Fancied something loud. Chose Geese. Mind blown.

I was told this would be noisy. (Thanks Lily. Thanks Ben.) I imagined something raw, a way of celebrating 50 years of punk. I found that, but there are differences. The songs are more complex, the lyrics are more poetic. But in its chaotic energy and, most importantly, its uncomprehending rage it captures punk's confrontational essence, filtered through post punk, no wave and math rock. Listening to this record triggers a physical reaction. I felt my chest tighten, my heartbeat quicken and my brain move to full alert. Very few records come close to causing that reaction.

This isn't a senseless rant at the world. ' Islands of Men' shows the album to be an exposed wound, but fully controlled in its rage. 'Husbands' is just one song that reveals it to be a kind of delta blues twisted by raw emotion. There are sounds from Africa in the mix too, the sound of brutality in underclass townships. It's a world music for our times.

In the wrong hands it could be unlistenable. As it is, it's a tangled and broken, but glorious mess of a record. How did the trumpet of 'Trinidad' find a place in this world? 'Cobre' is ugly beautiful, with a great off kilter riff. It's magnificent. 'Long Island City Here I Come ' is a delirium dream with the freedom of a 60s free festival. It's an epic closer to the album.

At the heart of each of these songs is a melody or a hook or a riff that keeps you pinned to your seat. 'Au Pays du Cocaine' has an unexpected grandeur and dignity. They play until they run out of fuel and simply stop.

'Getting Killed' is also testimony to the melting pot that has underpinned New York's contribution to world pop and rock. It's new, and it's the most exciting record I've heard sing Fontaines DC's 'Dogrel'. They stand alone but if you search for other band influences you might settle on a hybrid of Radiohead and Gomez.

'Getting Killed' was one of the most picked critic's choices for 2025. For once the critics were absolutely right.

Taster Track : Cobra

(Post Script : If you're interested in hearing more about New York's contribution to rock and roll in all its forms, there was a Pop In The Real World New York Special on Mixcloud, which you can still hear at : New York Groove. )

EPs, Singles and Songs

Arlo Parks, Echo Collective and Matt Johnson of The The

At the moment I'm reading Elizabeth Alker's book 'Everything We Do Is Music'. It's a fascinating study of how musical approaches that developed in the classical world, influence pop music.Some of it's going over my head, but one suggestion it makes is that music can affect your sense of environment and that, in turn, affects how you hear music. So if you hear music for the first time in a church, it will sound different to hearing it at home. And if you listen to something that makes you feel happy, that will carry over into the second thing you hear.

The reason for that introduction is because the three artists I listened to in this section are probably the victims or beneficiaries of how I responded to Arlo Parks' new single 'Heaven' / '2SIDED'. As she sings on '2SIDED' she has a sadness that she can't really shake and you hear it in every song she sings. She's the very serious one in your friendship group. 'Heaven' is a more grown up sound than before, and a darker one too. I liked it a lot. It has quiet club friendly beats and a heavy Groove Armada bassline. '2SIDED' is similar but trades in some of the heaviness for a more soulful RnB feel, which also works well.

That's the background to hearing The The's soundtrack to the film 'Odyssey'. 'Live and Let Live' feels more embedded in the soundtrack world, and probably has an exposition purpose in the film. It's OK. But in the context of listening to Arlo Parks first, it feels like Matt Johnson is the friend who urges you to cheer up because what's the worst that can happen? In 'Unrequited' he seems determined to find out. It feels like a preparation for making a disastrous life decision with consequences you can't shake off. It's a slab of electronic blues that spirals between two singers. Gillian Glover takes the female part. No one does the feeling of bad time threats better than Matt. It's great, and could stand alone as a single at any point of The The's career.

Echo Collective, on the other hand, felt more melancholy than they perhaps intended. They don't bother with defining their sound by genre but this felt like a blend of nu-classical and Penguin Cafe. Their three track EP 'The See Withing' is mournful but pretty, thanks in the main to the combination of cello and slightly discordant violins, as heard on 'Inflection Point'. The pieces here conjure the sound of ships as dawn tries to pierce the lingering night mist. It's serious and, occasionally, heavy going music, the kind a teenager might feel they have to sit through while their classically invested parents sit lost in rapture and with eyes shut. You either get what they're trying to do, or you don't