Headsound: Guillermo Sexo - Fall Lens

Boston four-piece Guillermo Sexo play psychedelia and indie pop with a rough swagger. A scintillating blend of dirty guitar and clean vocals sifts in mood and texture, "like Sonic Youth on shuffle with the Jesus and Mary Chain," according to the The Boston Globe. 

Fall Lens comes from their latest album Dark Spring which you can listen to here.



Guillermo Sexo- "Fall Lens" from Reuben Bettsak on Vimeo.

Headsound: Junip - Oba, Lá Vem Ela

Jose Gonzalez's band perform Jorge Ben's Oba, Lá Vem Ela with a laid back groove. The track is part of a compilation on Mr Bongo Records - Brazilian Beats 7. It presents a rich diversity of sounds from the country that will be centre stage over the next decade as it hosts the World Cup next year and the Olympics in 2016.

Expect to hear a Brazilian vibe on the show in the coming months.

Show: 10.11.13 RIP Lou Reed

On this show we pay tribute to Lou Reed along with the usual variety of music and spoken word old and new - including Euros Childs who played in Brighton recently. You can read my review on the Argus website.

10.11.13 RIP Lou Reed by Headstand on Mixcloud

Hammer and Tongue featuring Stephen Morrison-Burke

The headline act for Hammer and Tongue this month is the 2013 slam champion Stephen Morrison-Burke. He stormed to victory in London after winning the Cambridge heat last year. Now he's on tour to share his powerful work with H&T audiences around the country. To get an idea of what to expect listen to him on this show from earlier last year.

28.7.13 with Stephen Morrison-Burke by Headstand on Mixcloud

All dates are on www.hammerandtongue.co.uk. The most relevant ones to readers of this blog are 7th November in Brighton and 13th November in Cambridge. Support in Brighton comes from another recent guest on Headstand Tommy Sissons.

Next month it's the Brighton final which I'll be competing in on December 6th.

Headsound: Tom Adams - Migration

Migration is the first track to released from Tom Adams' new EP: In The Constant Noise. Ambient sounds, delicate piano and Tom's tender vocals building to a powerful crescendo create a spectacular cathedral of sound which gently dissolves into a silent void. Impressive results for a late night session with a hand-held recorder.

All the new songs on the EP were recorded this way. Tom explains:

"This brings an intentionally imperfect and intimate feel to each track as every recorded layer features the sounds of birds, wind, rustling leaves and other natural sounds unique to the recording location.
By emphasising and celebrating these imperfections, the EP explores the idea of silence in a world where high levels of background noise are the the norm.
The result is a highly emotional set of new songs that invite you to listen to music and the sounds around you differently. Whilst each new song tells its own story, they are all unified in a melancholic lament for the sounds that have been lost in the constant noise."

Interview: Euros Childs

Headstand favourite Euros Childs plays Brighton this Saturday. The former frontman of Welsh indie band Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, has had a prolific solo career.  Last year’s album Summer Special was nominated for the Welsh Music Prize and he has already released the follow-up Situation Comedy. 

The album was recorded with a band in a live environment. “I've worked this way on quite a few albums,” he says. “It's probably the first album I've made in which all songs are sung from the perspective of different characters.” These include an Avon lady and a singer who realises: “nobody is really listening,” on Holiday From Myself. The album finishes with a 13-minute mostly instrumental piece, Trick of the Mind. “I wanted the album to finish on an unexpected note,” he says.

There was an unexpected note or two at a previous solo gig in Brighton. He recalls: “I played a solo gig with a piano in a church a few years ago. I was in the middle of a song called Poodle Rocking and a piano string snapped and hit a woman sitting in the front row. Luckily she was unharmed.”

He will be playing with a full band on Saturday towards the end of a national tour, then it will be time to take a break and plan the next album.

Euros Childs plays Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, 9-12 Middle Street, Saturday November 2nd, 7pm, Tickets £10. Support: Laura J Martin and The Wellgreen.