Fast and Furious, Glowing and Glorious
Please welcome....
Arctic Monkeys, The Blue Herons, Cast, The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, Heavenly, Kieran Hebden and William Tyler. Loaded Honey, The Open Flames, Retrograph, The Swell Seas
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio : The Cosmic Tones Research Trio
Best for : Anyone who likes their jazz calm, melodic and fitting together perfectly.
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio could only be from the jazz world with a name like that. They are a trinity of multi instrumentalists who describe their music as healing and spiritual jazz. That's a big claim but it's not far off the mark.
I like the idea of them as a trinity rather than a trio. It captures the sense of being a united group, with no ego getting in the way. In jazz, two may be a trigger for competition and a desire not to be upstaged. In a trinity, three is a community not needing a leader, and that reflects their music.
Their key elements are cello, keyboard and saxophone, three instruments that can conjure beautiful and emotional music into being. Listening to this, if you give into it, is like being gently massaged with oils. The music may be spiritual, but it's not weighed down with reverence. It may be meditative but it's much more than music for meditating, being something that is a joy to listen to for its own sake. It's good for setting you on the right path at the start of the day.
It's a short album, clocking in at under 30 minutes. 'Awakenings' has a sense of waiting patiently for something before it becomes a trial. 'Sankova' has quiet eastern tones courtesy of the saxophone. It's the perfect track for understanding how they play together. 'Ba Hi Yah' is spiritual with a dash of venal soul. 'Photosynthesis' is calming and good for anxiety, while 'Invocation' introduces a feeling of aboriginal or native deep truths. 'Eternal Truth' is perhaps the track that draws in the wary follower of jazz thanks to its poppier undertow that breaks through the ambient jazz with an unexpected saxophone swing.
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio do what they set out to do in a graceful and beautiful way. It earns and deserves our gratitude.
Taster Track : Sankova
Forward : The Swell Season
Best for : Lovers of stageworthy, powerful songs
The Swell Season are Glen Hansard (founder of Irish band The Frames) and Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová. Their backstory is important in understanding the autobiographical feel to this album.
First, Ireland and the Czech Republic / Czechoslovakia are two territories that had more than their fair share of conflict and depression during the 20th century and into the 21st. Secondly, Hansard and Irglova met while filming 'Once'. They became a couple but after two or three years they separated. And now they've made an album that tells stories of relationship struggles in bleak and hard times that conjures up the feeling of living in the 20th Century.
If they were to film or stage it, they'd be in with a chance of adding to their Oscar for Best Original Song received for 'Falling Slowly' in 2009. 'I Leave Everything To You' sounds like the 'go to' audition piece for future musicals.The songs here are gripping. They summon up uncertainty, vulnerability and desperate hope and present them wrapped in heart tugging melodies carried on silver strings and emotional piano.
'Forward' though suggests a future, and that prevents the album becoming a misery memoir set to music. Each song contains feelings of love or, at least, the memory of it. There are moments of gratitude too, thanking Heaven for small mercies.
They're a well mismatched couple vocally. Hansard's voice is natural, worn and adds substance to the albums as if he's been impelled to communicate through song. Irglova's voice is more domesticated and cultured. Together they're a conversation teetering on the edge.
The album is bookended by the two strongest tracks. 'Factory Street Bells' has a lovely, sentimental melody that sounds as if it could have come from a hundred years ago. 'Hundred Words' leaves us with something positive in its exhortation:
"Don't give up, don't give up
Don't stop believing, don't stop believing
Keep the faith, keep the faith
Don't close the book just keep on reading."
Taster Track : Factory Street Bells
Love Made Trees : Loaded Honey
Best for : Lovers and lovers of classy, stylish retro songs
Loaded Honey are Lydia Kitto and Josh Lloyd who are two thirds of sophisticated dance pop act Jungle. 'Love Made Trees' is an intriguing departure from the bright and clean sound of their day band.
There's clearly a chemistry between Kitto and Lloyd that allows greater intimacy to glow through the songs. If Jungle are the night out, Loaded Honey is the soundtrack for the night to come.
It feels as if this music has been retrieved from a time capsule buried somewhere in the mid 20th century. All the songs hark back to a more romantic time, a little more formal and a lot more stylised that you find in 2026. The music sounds consciously thin and fuzzy, as if recorded on vinyl that has lain collecting dust before being played on a Dansette record player. The strings are straight from Tamla Motown's most romantic ballads. The backing vocals - excellent throughout - may have taken their inspiration from the likes of Gladys Knight's Pips.
There's much in this album that sounds like it's the result of brave artistic choices. They pay off because they're the results of a masterclass in production and arrangement. The vocals don't sound natural to 21st century ears but stylised in a 1940s / 1950s kind of way. They like their falsetto, fluttering and twittering in the same way that it does with disco revivalists Say She She. On 'Hello Stranger' it sounds as if there's some trickery going on with the vocal speeds.
All of this gives the album a feeling that it is made up of scenes from a black and white movie, rather than pop songs. The album oozes class and luxury, whilst preserving much of Jungle's soulful dance pop. 'In Your Arms' is effective with its one line repeated refrain, as comfortable as being settled to sleep by angels. 'Over' is a showcase for all the album's strengths.
It may be a little rich in its style for some, but as a once in a while delicious treat it's hard to beat.
Taster Track : Over
Same Time Next Year : The Open Flames
Best for : Doom scrollers who want great alternative rock with strong melodies
When you stumble across a new band, there's often a sense that the influences they cite are little more than clickbait. You know the sort of thing - karaoke performer Reg from Letchworth calls to mind Elvis, Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger and that bloke from The Darkness. Spotify and Google may love them. I just find them wearying.
The proliferation of influences claimed by The Open Flames include R.E.M, The Pixies, Velvet Underground - doesn't everybody? - The Lemon Twigs and Sonic Youth. If you wanted to play that game I'd take the last three away and add Eels.
The thing is, The Open Flames don't need to rest on their influences. They're excellent on their own terms.
With lyrics such as "Those who eat alone, die alone" they position themselves as secular prophets of doom for a world in meltdown. There are thrills galore here, but little warmth unless it comes from the flames of your personal Hell.
Why should you listen to this record? Because it will remind you that melody rules any waves of distortion underneath. You find it here in every vocal line. They're the sugar that lets the medicine slide down more easily. You find it also in the breadth of music, not tethered to an Open Flames signature style.
From their listed influences I was expecting something much rougher, coarser and angular than 'Drop A Coin', the opening track, initially suggests. It does a great job preparing you for how the music dissolves into meltdown as if stuck in the hinges of the door to a furnace. You can hear shades of Michael Stipe in 'Falling Up'.Keep them close as they are the antidote to the broken and squalling turmoil lingering in the background. 'UK Trains' is a full throttle slice of rock, exhilaratingly speeding towards disaster. 'Not Never' has a bluesy night time feel with the faintest shade of reggae in the bass line. Throw in the punk pace of 'Lockdown' and the acoustic misery of 'My Birthday' and you have a record that's a taster session for all that's good in rock.
If there's one thing wrong with this record, it's this. At 23 minutes it's too short by a long, long, way.
Taster Track : Drop A Coin
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah : Cast
Best for : Fans of Cast, Britpop and classic guitar anthems
Cast were one of those bands that seemed to peak with their debut, attracting attention and chart positions before beginning a long, slow slide away from the public eye as new bands came along to replace them. It turns out though that Cast never went away. They've continued to release albums through the 21st Century but I've never got around to listening to them.
In a confession that won't surprise too many people that know me, I've been a bit of a fool if 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah' is anything to go by, because it's an excellent and positive album full of festival rocking anthems.
Britpop may have been a marketing man's dream, where image came to trump anything as irrelevant as good music and a strong live performance. Cast, on the other hand, believe that their music should mean something, whether it's the call to arms they're stirring up in 'Don't Look Away'or the integrity inherent to the return to roots found in 'Devil and the Deep.'
This is an album that blends the simplicity at the hearts of The LAs (John Power's former band) with the stadium sized songs of Embrace or early (i.e. good) Oasis, the melodies that have been Liverpool's musical gift to the world and the idealism of 1990s hippies. It's an uplifting and exhilarating combination.
'Poison Vine' opens the album, sounding busier than they were at the start but energetically and entertainingly so. It's a scoop to attract PP Arnold to join in the fun on backing vocals. She's excellent, with an amazing rock voice regardless of being 79. There's a euphoria in 'Free Love' that owes as much to raves in a field as it does to a pub's back room. 'Teardrops' is simply classic pop.
Thinking back to their early history they've proven to be alright, giving us a very fine time indeed. I won't walk away again.
Taster Track : Don't Look Away
41 Longfield Street Late '80s : Kieran Hebden, William Tyler
Best for : Testing out your headphones and speakers
Kieran Hebden is the spirit behind Four Tet's ambient, electronic dance. William Tyler does many things, but is probably best known for his ambient, roots guitar. It's an interesting combination - analog and digital in collaboration. They both have the potential for creating music of great beauty. Equally they can sometimes disappear above your head.
'41 Longfield Street Late 50s' has a bit of both. This is serious music for serious people, musicians and technicians. It's a little heavy at times, occasionally wandering too close to electronic white noise for comfort. 'I Want An Antenna' is one of those unnecessary short tracks, 43 seconds that disrupt the flow and hurt the ears.
Luckily it's not representative of the whole. Both partners are always worth listening to carefully. Hebden's electronica delights in countering the gravitas that comes with Tyler's guitar playing. Together their music is a little like street art smudged by spilled paint.
'If I Had A Boat' is an excellent start. A minute of growling drone is broken apart by delicate guitar, like a familiar building appearing through smoke. They're two performers showcasing their style before uniting mid way through and confirming a combination that can work beautifully. 'Spider Ballad' is much more Hebden oriented, its more urgent beat providing a more solid structure. I can hear the influence of Underworld, but it's a shame that there seems to be no room for Tyler. He gets his shot in 'When It Rains', refusing to be hurried before both sides combine to show how they are perfectly in sympathy with each other. 'Loretta Guides My Hand Through The Radio' is a lovely slice of ambience, while the lighter 'Secret City' comes together like a spontaneous procession towards a new city.
It's the two lighter tracks that won me over to the album, but audiophiles everywhere will love the texture and sounds of each track.
Taster Track : Secret City
EPs, Singles and Songs
Arctic Monkeys, Heavenly, Retrograph, The Blue Herons
Sarah Records was a British independent record label active in Bristol between 1987 and 1995, best known for its recordings of indie pop, which it released mostly on 7" singles. On reaching the catalogue number SARAH 100, the label celebrated its 100th release by throwing a party and shutting itself down. Their roster didn't succeed in taking the charts by storm but their jangly, somewhat twee, addictive songs captured a whole generation. In March 2015, NME declared Sarah to be the second greatest indie label of all time. Heavenly were part of the Sarah roster, the kind of band that would have been and still should be student darlings. Their new single - 'Excuse Me' - continues in the same joyous vein of those classic Sarah years, full of indie pop harmonies and energy. They have a fair claim to provide part of the soundtrack to the best time of your life.
The Blue Herons,are another band to file with the growing sound of indie jangle shoegaze indie, populated by bands such as Shapes Like People, Goodbye Wudaokou and My Raining Stars. 'Willow' builds and builds satisfyingly to the extent that it seems to contain more than one song in its five minute running time. It's an excellent single.
'Anti Spaces' from Retrograph is a seductive slice of minimalist electro pop. It's a song that means business as it creeps from its dark world. It has the ability found in the early 80s to disturb you quietly as it provides the catchy rhythms that are ideal for dancing. Think early Human League and the sound of German electronic pioneers like Neu. It's available now on Soundcloud.
And, finally, a taster from the Arctic Monkeys for an exciting charity project 'HELP2' for Warchild. Twenty three stellar artists recorded their new song contributions across the space of a week. James Ford, the producer, managed the project remotely from his hospital bed. All participants in the production have waived any payments in favour of War Child. It's a win / win for the music fan. The album also marks the 30th anniversary of the original 'Help' album, following the same process and featuring acts such as Oasis, Massive Attack, Manic Street Preachers and Blur when they were at their peak. The original is a candidate for best compilation of all time. HELP2 is released on 6th March and features acts such as Pulp, Ezra Collective, English Teacher, Olivia Rodrigo and Wet Leg. As for the song 'Opening Night', it shows a quieter side to the Arctic Monkeys if all you know of them is 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.' It has the kind of brooding disquiet that approaches slowly, lingers long and bodes extremely well for the rest of the collection.