Biodegraded’s Music Picks

Currentish

Circles Around the Sun – Let it Wander

Jazz-rock-funk-psych by wannabe Deadheads. Wut?

The Essex Green – Hardly Electronic

Indie chamber-pop with the odd bit of folk & country thrown in, by old hands at the genre.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs

Australian guitar-poppers who do a creditable job of worshipping The Go-Betweens.

Orion’s Belte – Mint

70s-style pysch-funk instrumentals by Norwegians: what could possibly go wrong?

Wooden Shjips – V

The latest from the San Francisco/Portland psych-Kraut-garage quartet is sunny, optimistic and toe-tappingly fun.

The Mekons – Deserted

Desert-flavoured old-folks folk-punk, with decent production for the first time in their 40+ year career.

Retro

Cinerama – Va Va Voom

The Wedding Present does 60s Europop but with the same subject matter as usual (love triangles / quadrangles / tumbleweeds).

Pere Ubu – The Modern Dance

Post-punk before there was punk. Great stuff.

Swervedriver – Raise

Their first and IMO best. Shoegaze with a harder edge.

Calexico – The Black Light

If Lou Reed fronted a mariachi band. Great melodies, instrumentation and production.

Sunday mornings

Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth

Low vocals, sparse instrumentation, simple melodies – the perfect recipe for hangovers.

Pete Fij & Terry Bickers – Broken Heart Surgery

Slow songs about love and loss with lyrics that are tragic and laugh-out-loud at the same time.

The Penguin Café Orchestra – A Brief History

Chamber music for punk pensioners.

Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children

Hard to describe; both relaxing and affecting. Ambient electro-soul? Work tunes for robots?