The Resource Centre - Low Fantasy EP

I've just been sent this wonderful new release, due out next week on The Geography Trip records - Low Fantasy by The Resource Centre.

Billed as an EP but, with 6 tracks clocking in at over 40 minutes, I'm happy to look on this as an album. I mean, you never viewed Script For A Jester's Tear as an EP did you? Not that I'm saying you should use Marillion as a benchmark for defining things as albums or EPs but it was the first thing that sprang to mind.  Maybe I should've thought about it a bit more and said something more credible like Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk. Yes, that's got 6 tracks too and is about 40 minutes long I think... Anyway, I digress, and this sounds like neither.

What we have is a set of beautiful and occasionally unnerving tunes, sometimes playing out like a stripped back electronic Philip Glass score. The perfect music to play in your child's nursery as they drift of into dreams of bubby rabbits and dark moving shadows.

The title track kicks things off as they mean to go on, floating on a sea of keyboard tranquility, which finally drifts away to be replaced by what sounds like a light breeze blowing against a microphone.

The Hour Angle (The Sun, It Rises Everywhere) opens with a looping melody backing a woman reading some poem about a cinnamon bird and three legged crow, before evolving into some form of pagan electronic folk. Then we have High Fantasy - the almost title track - which is possibly Low Fantasy slowed down and played backwards. Its certainly something backwards.

I also thought there were an overwhelming number of beautiful bird songs interweaving with the synths and harmonics throughout the final track, Slow Release Energy, but then I realised that, although there are some on the track, the rest was provided by a couple of blackbirds in a tree outside . It sounded awesome, so if you want a remix doing then give me a call and I'll stick a microphone out of the window.

Anyway, it's available as a download or limited vinyl 'with old tea cards of British birds' from the label's website.

I've just read the description on the label's website: "For fans of: ...Birdwatching...". Maybe those blackbirds were onto something.

This is Lone Justice - The Vaught Tapes

Remembered more for a number one song she didn't particularly like and a number one song she wrote but gave to someone else, there's a lot of hidden treasures in the career of Maria McKee. This new album of previously unreleased recordings by Lone Justice from 1983 being a case in point. A raw set of recordings that capture the energy of the band more than either of their albums did (much as I loved them). A great blend of rock'n'roll'n'country'n'whiskey.

Juicy Fruit

I can't say I'm a fan of the music - this is by far the worst Isaac Hayes album I've heard - but...oh my, what a sleeve! So bad it's good. Words can't do it justice.

Mouse on Mars - Autoditacker

It's hard to believe this album came out almost 17 years ago.

I've just given it the first listen in a year or so and it's staggering how fresh, innovative and mesmerising the music still sounds, as if I've once again heard it for the first time.

Chances are you could say that about most MoM albums...