Now Playing April

Happy 1st of the month and all that, not that there's much to be cheery about.

Anyway, one thing that might help lift the gloom is that April's edition of Now Playing is now ready for you. Lots in there this month, so let's kick off with the actual playlist, so you can have a listen:




Decided to go with some very old classics, and some very new good stuff too. That Hayley Williams stuff has been great so far - I do love a bit of Paramore, but also really like this solo stuff she's been putting out. Oh, and yeah I added the HM 10 version of Heart Monitor too, as the EP is now 10 years old, it'd only be right to throw it in there :)

Also in the list is *fairly* new stuff from Cloth and Duck. That Cloth album is just brilliant - one of my recent favourites, and that Duck track is great too - they're from up north too, and from speaking to Evie from the band, she mentioned that she was really into smoky noir reverb Lynch jazz stuff, just like I try and make with my more recent solo output.

Zelienople have a new record out, which is just as expansive and beuatiful as ever (it sounds exactly like this Twin Peaks scene), and an old slab of Radiohead for no other reason than it's just a mint song. B-side from something off Amnesiac wasn't it? Blimey, those were the days!

Then we got my old friends Capac, who have an amazing new album out on Friday (go pre-order it here!), and a solo track from Gareth Liddiard of the Drones from about 5-6 years ago. Was the first thing I'd heard from him, and it's just such a beautiful little song. Really simple, but really evocative.

HooksArthur was on Bandcamp editorial recently about how he made tunes on garageband, and how he's really into old school hip hop like Wu-Tang, so thought I'd include a bit from his ace new album as it's extremely my shit. That Tall Ships song is just massive isn't it? Huge riff. Great band.

Beta Band and Magma next, then. Fucking loooove Magma, and this is one of my favourites of theirs. How you can invent a language and make soulful prog epics that spin out for 13+ minutes of mayhem, and not have it sound utterly shite should be a nightmare, but fuck if Christian Vander doesn't make it sound easy. Oh, and that Beta Band track is ace too - kinda krautrock, in a weird way? A favourite of theirs anyhoo.

Then we end on a 1-2-3 punch of Back To The Grill (fun fact: this was Nas' first appearance on a record), a mad, hypnotic jazz freakout from Hendrix and finally one of my favourite REM songs - the kinda-forgotten-how-good-it-was Near Wild Heaven.

Until next month!
(ps. oh yeah, and don't forget to click like or follow or whatever it is these days on the playlist!)