Freakaholics Anonymous - Fen Invasion

Cambridge duo and former radio show guests Freakaholics Anonymous release their debut album which is as random and kitsch as the Tron inspired artwork. There are tales of love between and eagle and trout, bus driver and passenger and possibly the first disco track on the subject of keeping tropical fish. A lo-fi synth fest with a healthy disrespect for convention.

Have a listen to their Headstand interview here and look out for their freaky multimedia stage show.

Show: 10.6.14 Night Watch

New music and spoken word including some of the artists who will be keeping me awake at Night Watch at the Junction this Saturday.

Colouring Lesson - Mea Culpa Blues (It's My Fault)

Horse Party - In-between

Japp Blonk - Cadenza

Crookram - Balboa

Ergo Phizmiz - Consequences

The Breaches - Jesus Wept

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - We No Who U R

Euros Childs - Give The Girl A Hand

Kate Tempest - A Hammer

Mouth - Blood Beat

Gaze is Ghost - In Love of Post Apocalyptic Watch Towers

Hollow Mountain - Untitled

Meta-Ex - Spiked With Recursive Dreams [Live Coded Session}

Girl Band - The Cha Cha Cha (Peaks remix)

10.6.14 Night Watch by Headstand on Mixcloud

Show: 29.4.14

29.4.14 by Headstand on Mixcloud

A show with some of the many great tunes I've received recently including a beautiful new single from ex-Brazilian Girls singer Sabina and a couple of tracks from artists on Erased Tapes.

The Fall - Mother Sister (Peel Session)
Ezra Furman - Anything can happen
Edith Sitwell - A Man From A Far Countree [From Façade]
Motor Tapes - Sunshine Moment
David Youngs - Follow My Footsteps
Mincemeat or Tenspeed - Circle Crazy
Melt-banana - Lefty Dog (run, caper, run)
Sabina - I won’t let you Break Me
Fay Roberts with Wooden Arms - Turning Point
Russell J Turner with Wooden Arms - The Dead Start Fires
Elbow - Fly Boy Blue / Lunette
Richard Dawson - The Ghost of a Tree
Malportado Kids - Soy La Pocha
Luka Lesson - 5th Season
Tom Adams - The End
Douglas Dare - Swim
Rival Consoles - Odyssey

Headsound: Douglas Dare - Swim

The dark electronica of Radiohead and celestial beauty of Sigur Ross come together on this track from Douglas Dare's debut album Whelm. It has all the depth and texture you would expect from a new signee to Erased Tapes - home to Nils Frahm.

Classical piano, electronics and Dare's soft vocals slowly engulf the listener. It feels like a house anthem  constructed more intricately and delicately, never getting too loud or intense. The track is available as a free download and Whelm is out on May 12th.

Headsound: Antonymes - Snow on Snow

Amongst the slew of charity records released at this time of year, one that is worth six of your hard-earned pounds and a couple of hours listening time is Touched - a compilation of electronic music released in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. It contains a staggering 123 tracks by artists including 808 State, Future Sound of London and recent Headsound pick Jet Jaguar. I haven't listened to half the tracks yet but here's a nice ambient piece with a festive touch from Antonymes.

Headsound: Jet Jaguar - Five Production Mistakes Even Professionals Keep Making (They're Not What You Think)

Five Production Mistakes is the final EP in a series of 6 released in the last year by the very productive New Zealand musician/producer Jet Jaguar. Featuring spaced-out disco, warped easy listening and glitchy beats gently dissolve and reform in five multi-flavoured compositions.
Jet Jaguar aka Michael Upton is half of another Headstand favourite Malty Media.

Looking forward to more like this in 2014.

Headsound: Textbeak - EICV7" No. 56

A number of releases from net label everythingischemical.com have featured on Headstand. Electronic, hip-hop, shoegaze, ambient and dream pop collide in exciting and original combinations on their regular releases. Their 56th virtual 7 inch from Textbeak contains deep dark industrial rhythms with cinematic overtones. If you enjoy this take some time to check out their other releases.

Headsound: Cloneliness - Sights

Osaka based Canadian-French artist and musician Charles-Eric Billard has regularly featured on Headstand since the beginning in various guises. His improvisations on found and homemade instruments intrigue with skewed sounds and mesmerising rhythms.

His latest pieces released under solo monika Cloneliness are smoother and more melodic. Acoustic and electronic elements blend into finely crafted performances though still with a refreshing touch of spontaneity. Enjoy the concise 'Sights' then delve deeper into his recordings on Soundcloud.

6 years of Headstand

Headstand has been going for 6 years now. Here's a recording of a performance I did with Tom Adams at the fifth anniversary celebrations last year. I got to hear Tom Adams playing exactly one year on in the basement of CB1. Performing solo he combined live and electronic instruments with his powerful singing voice in a set of new material. He is working on a new recording to which the words 'eagerly anticipated' can be readily applied. You can hear more Headstand related recordings at headstand.podomatic.com.

Show: 16.6.13 with Fake Maria

My guests on this show Fake Maria are playing 2 shows next weekend. On Saturday 22nd they are playing Shindig on Mill Road with Clorinde and Gaze Is Ghost and in Sunday they are at Allographic: Other Voices with Hollie McNish. You can hear pieces from all those other acts along with their live session in this special 2-hour show.

Playlist

Magazine - Shot From Both Sides
Darren Hayman - Seven Months Married
Hollie McNish - Mathematics
Fake Maria - in Session
Gaze is Ghost - Cloud Hidden
Stephen Morrison-Burke - Strings and Stars
Half Man Half Biscuit - Running Order Squabble Fest
Fake Maria in Session
Marnie Stern - The Chronicles of Marnia
Nick Mulvey - River Lea
Hyelim Kim - Pochagi
Fake Maria in Session
Clorinde - Pollen
Orbit over Luna - Asahi
Jet Jaguar - Poster Child
Raymond Antobus - The Town in This Dream
Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld - A quiet life
The Breaches - So Tell Me What Is Left
Six By Seven - Fall Into Your Arms
The Love Language - Calm Down
Tim Clare - Pub Stuntman
The Rolling Stones - Doom and Gloom
The Handsome Family - Woodpecker
I am a Man With a St Tropez Tan - There is No Death
Zombi - Shrunken Heads
Halo Halo - Is It Shiny
Memoryloop - Saturate
Lubomyr Melnyk - The Six Day Moment


16.6.13 with Fake Maria - 2 Hour Edition by Headstand on Mixcloud

Memoryloop - Illuminate

I'll be back live on air this Sunday after a break in Spain. Here's some free music for you, recommended by Tom Adams, smooth electronic music interspersed with intriguing vocal samples.

New EP From Jet Jaguar

New Zealand based Jet Jaguar has a new EP out, the first of six due for release this year. In 'Another World' spoken phrases echo amongst a bed of dreamy synths and wobbly basslines. It's like a soundtrack for the space between conciousness and unconsciousness. 'Single-Digit High' has an industrial edge with 80's synths, minimalist beats and vinyl crackle bumping into each other like marshmallow dodgem cars. Heavily processed female vocals echo in and out. The EP concludes all too quickly with the darker 'Mose.' What might once have been a human voice hums and groans a smooth melody as percussive elements build and disintegrate.

It's a deep, atmospheric trio of tunes. The use of vocals is effective but a little standoffish. Voices are warped, distorted and scattered sparingly, mixed up with the electronic instruments.  A track with more prominent vocals and audible words would give this lush electronica a much needed organic element. Looking forward to the other five.

New Single from Malty Media

The New Zealand duo return with the best enema you'll ever receive.

The music of Malty Media aka Stuart McDonald and Michael Upton could have been made for Headstand. Audio clips drawn from movies, adverts and TV programmes are mixed with experimental electronic compositions  in original and memorable music and spoken word compositions. The duo also do occasional radio shows on Radio Active FM. Each one is a seamless journey through an eclectic selection of music and sound. You can listen to their shows here.

Man vs Enema / No Sparky is the first release from the duo in two years. Man vs Enema is built around a snippet of Bear Grylls explaining how an enema can be used for survival. The juxtaposition of Bear's macho commentary and laid-back dub track is a pleasing bit of musical comedy. The absurd and lurid images it conjures up leave an indelible mark on the listener's mind. The subtly comical track is followed by funky chill out piece No Sparky with a wobbly beat and sparkly synths. Grab the free download to be entertained and slightly increase your chances of survival if you find yourself stranded out at sea.

http://www.maltymedia.co.nz

Bad Timing 11th Anniversary with Heatsick - 6th December

Read my review at: http://www.movingtone.com/reviews/patrick-widdess-reports-bad-timing-11th-anniversary-heatsick-cow-06-december-2012


Get down to the Cow for some live techno from Heatsick headlining Bad-Timing's 11th anniversary downstairs at the Cow.

"Heatsick batters a solitary Casio through a myriad of effects, looping up a coarse, crisp and twinkling out-house music into a wonderfully queasy eternity, teasing out melodic and rhythmic mantras to an off-kilter, Burroughsian effect that wins on the floor and never forgets to be lo-fi fun/funk. Combining a palette of sources from early Chicago house mixtapes (in sound, texture and mixing technique) through to musique concrète and psychedelia, Heatsick proposes a live dance music that expands and unlocks the senses."

Steven Warwick (also known as half of duo Birds of Delay) is active in the music, visual arts and club scenes. Recent releases include the acclaimed debut LP 'Intersex' and EP 'Déviation' on Bill Kouligas's PAN label, where labelmates include the likes of recent Bad Timing visitor NHK yx KOYXEN, Aaron Dilloway and Lee Gamble (recently seen at Reworks' closing party in Cambridge). Recent and upcoming activities include Unsound festival and visual arts shows in Berlin and Glasgow.

"This is dance music through and through, albeit probably unlike any you've heard before" - The Quietus

"There's something about the sense of containment (all the sounds come from one box), the character of the sound (circuits which sound like they're operating at close to overload and the sense of play within these constraints that makes this as overwhelming as any dancefloor experience you can imagine" - The Wire 

For full details and tickets go to: www.bad-timing.co.uk



Heatsick Paris Olympic Café 26nov2011 -2 from NO MORE RETURN on Vimeo.

Show: 2.12.12 with Geoffrey Heptonstall

This show featured special guest Geoffrey Heptonstall making a return to the show. I don't see Geoffrey out as much as some poets and it was great to be reminded not only what a great poet he is but also a very fine reader as you'll hear in the show.
The programme also featured a poem by Wayne Holloway Smith and we launched the Christmas season with a beautiful rendition of Deck The Halls by Rue Royale from their Christmas EP which you can listen to and download here.
The programme finished with some laid back electronica from Cambridge-based Tom Adams and Ian Handsley, a DJ I used to see out and about in Osaka. He now makes lush ambient music under the name enh. You can find more of his music here.

Elbow - High Ideals
Prince Rama - Those Who Live For Love Will Live For Ever
DJ Incidental - Uh La Lai
Louis Armstrong & The Hot Five - Struttin’ With Some Barbecue
Wayne Holloway Smith - Cutting a Figure (1.30)
Lester J. Allen - Good Old Luton Town
Rue Royale - Deck The Halls
Anna Silvera - Snow Queen
Billy Bragg - She Smiled Sweetly
Charly “The City Mouse” Fasano - Laundry Day
Tom Adams - Through the lens I see the great cliffs, we are close now.
enh - Within You

2.12.12 with Geoffrey Heptonstall by Headstand on Mixcloud