The Daily Shuffle #19: 'Sex Laws/Train On The Island'

Huh?
'Sex Laws/Train On The Island' as performed by Punch Brothers

Why?
The copy I have is a Daytrotter's session from the Illinois studio's Best Songs of 2012 compilation, so I would guess I was on hunt for new music at the time.

And?
From what I can make out, the 'Sex Laws' bit is actually a cover of a Beck song. But whatever the case, it's a thoroughly up-beat, country affair ripe with funky bluegrass slurs and enough fiddle to give Castro a run for his money. But seriously, it's pretty tight and there's some badass mandolin in there.

Who Cares?
It was always inevitable that I was gonna liken this to Hayseed Dixie, unversed in matters of American folk as I am, but there you go.

The Daily Shuffle #18: 'Ester'

Huh?
'Ester' by Elefant

Why?
I seem to remember discovering Elefant during one of my many 'good music to download' Googling sprees in my early, awkward teens, through their 2003 song 'Misfit'. Like many double-digits-and-change year-olds, I clearly felt that the song bore enough resemblance to my own life situation to bother downloading it. Ahhh, hazy Limewire days...

And?
Like many of the songs on the New York four-pieces 2003 debut Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid, 'Ester is a pop-garage-indie-rock affair built around a humble and repetitive, buzzy, guitar-esque synth hook, front-man Diego Garcia's intoned vocal style, and some plush Storkesey chord sweeps from the guitar department. And as you might have expected, it's about a girl called Ester.

Who Cares?
For indie rock affectionados looking for a sound somewhere between The Strokes and Interpol, made by four men with a penchant for German spelling.

Only Real - Yesterdays

Fresh from the Fruit Loop king of surf-tinged West London rap-pop comes 'Yesterdays': yet another catchy, falsetto-refrained taste of things to come from the 22-year old purveyor of 'baby music for babies'. Having already well and truly won us over with this year's Days in the City EP, Niall Galvin's first the full-length can't drop soon enough.

The Daily Shuffle #17: 'Samus' Stardrive'

Huh?
Samus' Stardrive by Kansan finger-picking wizard Andy McKee, taken from his 2005 album Art Of Motion.

Why?
Being a bit of a guitar-strangler myself, it's more or less inevitable that Mr McKee would be chillin' out in my library somewhere. I mean just look at the man play.

And?
Samus' Stardrive is a suitably stellar work of acoustic axe-work. Rich with sparkling harmonics and  soft-spoken string melodies, it's truly a staggering concept to grasp that the whole ornate ordeal is just one man and a guitar.

Who cares?
Guitar buffs. And people who like nice, meandering music that sounds like off-beat cinema montages where people travel across countries in buses whilst gazing pensively out of windows.

The Daily Shuffle #16: 'Audiotrack 7'

Huh?
'Audiotrack 7' from K.O. At Home - an unreleased solo album of demos by Yeah Yeah Yeahs' front-women Karen O never intended for public consumption and leaked by some geezer called Mike after being given to TV On The Radio's guitarist Dave Sitek.

Why?
So that I can make pretentious comments regarding the unbridled artistry and raw intimacy of Karen O's home recordings and their superiority over the Yeah Yeah Yeah's mainstream catalogue. Also discography torrents.

And?
Kicking things off with a sombre countdown in the style of a mission control flight controller who hates rockets, Karen O. drops us into a lilting, molasses-slow guitar and tambourine sound-scape before launching into (probably a bit of strong phrase in this context) a vocal-melody-mimicry of the guitar riff. The result is, by my best approximation, what you could expect if you asked First Aid Kit to perform a Kurt Cobain cover in the style of medieval ballad as if one of the Swedish sisters was off-sick. All-in-all, if you can hack the lingering tempo it's a rather nice example of the unbridled artistry and raw intimacy of Karen O's home recordings and their superiority over the Yeah Yeah Yeah's mainstream catalogue.

Who cares?
Fans of home-fi, bare-boned, slolk (slow-folk). Made me think of The Steals (a, I now realise, not-at-all-well-known band who I should probably stop referencing) for some reason, but with less Northern mysticism and Enyan reverb.

Los Porcos - Waterfalls

Renowned for their lively gigs and fondness of 'New Pork City' t-shirts, Manchester's former WU LYF members Tom McClung, Evans Kati and Joe Manning in collaboration with members of West London's FAMY and Swiss soloist Profondo, craft summer-centric songs rife with lo-fi guitar riffs, and in previous releases like 'Do You Wanna Live' and 'Jesus Luvs U Baby', falsetto vocals which have marked a departure from the defining rawness of WU LYF's Ellery James Robert's almost feral choruses.

Latest offering Waterfall is an compulsively chilled-out instrumental affair of twinkling guitars, cassette-crisp drums, and swooning synths that certainly doesn't outstay its welcome only only further whets our appetites for future things to come from the big-city collective.

Wolf Alice - Moaning Lisa Smile

With a riff that's got Nevermind scrawled all over it, and a spattering of grungy chorus vocals to boot, North London quartet Wolf Alice's new single 'Moaning Life' is oozing with the sort of summer vibes that make you want to take a plunge in the nearest outside pool. Never one to disappoint, this is freshly squeezed short and sweet raucous rock from from the lupine minstrels.

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