April 2011

Good evening campers, and welcome to the latest springtime edition of Chip's Blips. As usual, we have 9 nuggets (actually, while we are on the subject of words ending it -ets, I bought some sweetcorn in a tin today. Bear with me. It was Green Giant, and underneath the logo, instead of a tagline like "crunchy yellow corn", they had decided to go with SweetNiblets. SWEET NIBLETS! Outrageously bad. Anyway, back to business) of wonderment for you this month, hopefully they will bring you joy, happiness and musical enlightenment. Or just keep you entertained for an hour. I'm happy with either outcome.

So press play and enjoy!

1. Mountain Man - How'm I Doin

3 mystical ladies to start us off this month. If this song was a carrot, it would be the one covered in mud, still with the stalk on. 100% organic. You can't get much purer music than this: three voices creating beautiful sounds. For those of you who pay attention, they are covering the Mills' Brothers version that I Blipped last year.

2. The Naked And Famous - Sun

Got the album by these Antipodean funksters last week and it's been in my ears for most available waking moments. This is my favourite track on the record; a dark and broody slow-builder, reminiscent of Radiohead in full flow. Spot on, top notch, full marks, thumbs up and plenty of other two-word statements of approval.

3. Kurt Vile - Ghost Town

The USA is churning these lo-fi minstrels like, well, a Galaxy Minstrel factory. This time it's Kurt Vile, another long-haired shoegazer, who is jumping on the bearded bandwagon with a delicious slice of dreamericana (just made that up, consider it copyright). Vile it most certainly isn't. (A little bit long it most probably is though)

4. Stealing Sheep - Mountain Dogs

From long and sad to short and perky. There's something sexual about that sentence but I'm not going to explore it. 2 minutes and 20 seconds of fun. That's longer than... Oh dear. And we're back with the innuendo. Shit. Help! This is embarrassing. Sorry. Ah. Umm, nothing to see here, move on. Ahem.

5. Swimming - Sun In The Island

It's the chorus of this song that gets me every time. One of those anthemic ones that just does something to your stomach and makes you want to belt out "Hold on for dear life/ if it feels riiiiiight!" at the top of your voice (really badly). I'm getting a lot of Placebo here. That's a good thing.

6. The Balconies - Do It In The Dark

Remember The Virgins? Remember the funky basslines? Welcome The Balconies, Canada's answer to those New York upstarts. If it doesn't get your foot tapping then it isn't connected to your body. Or you are dead inside. A shell of a human. The video is silly (so don't watch it), but who cares when the song is this good? A perfect pop song.

7. Dels - GOB (David Sitek Remix)

"I won't get swallowed by the gob/ swallowed by the darkness/ swallowed by the fog". What is the gob? I definitely don't want this to happen to me. Anyway, it's a brilliant re-work here by Dave Sitek (of TV On The Radio). The strings on the chorus and the slow bass make it for me; such a simple touch but so effective. Simple simple simple. That's the way to do it.

8. Julio Bashmore - Battle For Middle You

Two dancey numbers to finish. The first is Julio Bashmore who, as those in the know like to say, has been "tearing up dancefloors" for the past year. I don't say that, they do. I copied them to try and look cool. So, now that I do indeed look/sound cool, I can describe this track as a "banger" and make the affirmation that it is "guaranteed to melt faces" and "should come with a health warning". As in it is so good it could be bad for you. Like cake. No, not that kind of cake. Yeah ok, I don't get it either, this is all stuff that the people in the know talk about.

(Ask this guy, he definitely knows)

9. Vandroid - Master & Slave (Van She Tech Remix)

What an absolute monster to finish. Don't be scared by the beginning, it's just a silly intro. Try and listen to this really really loud, and just wait for 1min34 to arrive. This makes my brain tingle so much that I'm not really sure I could handle it for an extended period of time. It reminds me of the Rex The Dog numbers that were being churned out while I was at uni. Absolutely brilliant. Although the person in the know above probably wouldn't like it: it's totes not dubby enough.

And with that horrendous word-murder (if you really say that word you should be ashamed of yourself - obvs) I'm out.

-----------END OF TRANSMISSION-------------