Chimpomatic

In no particular order: Animal Collective – Feels or Strawberry Jam I remember getting very scared, when I was a kid, that, mathematically, there was only a limited number of songs possible - limited number of notes and limited number of combinations. When would they run out? ARRGGH!!!! Then I heard Animal Collective and I realised it was ....read more

Talking to a friend about cover versions, he said that his pal always preferred the first version of the song he heard rather than the first one recorded. Anguished, he told how his chum maintained that Jamie Cullum did a better version of High and Dry than Radiohead. With the ‘first past the lughole’ preference in mind, I was intr ....read more

Mr Perkins opened his first long player - Ash Wednesday - with the immense and emotional ‘While You Were Sleeping’. It’s so good that on listening back it dwarfs the rest of the songs. Second time round and the overall quality and craftsmanship have been taken up a notch or two and the collection feels more rounded, more varied, ....read more

Albums of the year: Fleet Foxes - every song's a winner on this doozy. Though it's 'Mykonos (Alternative Version)' that gets my vote for song of the year. Vampire Weekend - This lot strike me as being a bit smug, but i guess if you release a debut album this good then you're allowed to be. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - The hits way outweigh th ....read more

It was just before the music stopped on my first listen through ‘(k)no(w)here’ that I thought the first track was going on a bit. Then I read the blurb. “Conceived as one musical piece... The eight identifiable parts of ‘(k)no(w)here’ are not readily separated from each other, such is the flow from and into each par ....read more

The Lord Dog Bird is the solo alter ego of Colin McCann - the guitarist in the band Wilderness (review of their new album to follow) - and it was recorded at home on a 4-track by the spookily voiced Lord Colin himself. Sparse scratchy droning guitar, vocals and simple drums are the main ingredients here. This bare and basic sound adds authenticity ....read more

When I was a kid what I knew about traditional folk music was based solely on watching in bewilderment at the people wearing cloth beermat waistcoats who wandered round my home town at the annual folk festival. Nowadays I like a bit of what might be called ‘alternative folk’ - Bonnie Prince Billy, Iron and Wine, etc. Yet, I still d ....read more