First things first: what the fucking arse is that bloody stupid slash all about then? Do you pronounce it? Do you make some sort of corresponding sound effect, as in those idiots who named their band Chk Chk Chk and spelled it !!!? Actually that question mark is part of the sentence, the band is just called !!!, (without the comma, either) which is just one of the many, many reasons why this habit is bloody irritating.
So, Akron SLASH! Family, then. Well I heard about this through Tim at The Daily Growl and I have to confess to sharing his confusion for how to describe it. Folky, a little bit glam, a bit Worldy, and occasionally a little bit hippy, it’s just a gigantic mash of styles that barrels along with results as mixed as its roots.
I am going to leave you a couple of songs to sample here, but believe me, this is not a collection of songs, it is a whole album. In this way, tracks that would be genuinely rubbish on their own actually do make sense, although the whole thing is still rather a lot to take in all at once. The swirling maelstrom of medieval pagan folk prog pop indie craziness stumbles its way along, from epic eight-minuters to short sharp interludes.
There are times when you stick your head up from whatever else you might be doing and wonder ‘what the fuck have I put on here?’ and then there are times, when the whole thing seems to just about gather enough momentum to break into a brilliant indie folk song with more energy and momentum than many I’ve heard this year. It’s baffling, but if you’re a music fan rather than just a passive consumer I really wouldn’t pass this one by.
Akron/Family – Ed is a Portal
Akron/Family – Phenomena
website | hype | buy
Well you know how I said I wasn’t so convinced by Toadcast #17? Well it proved somewhat prophetic, although that prophesy may have been somewhat self-fulfilling of course. It’s one of my least downloaded podcasts for ages, but this one should sort that out. There’s some genuinely excellent music on here, although most of it is pretty obscure. There’s no Arcade Fire or anything to pull in the punters, bar a bit of The Magnetic Fields, but a really good selection of new and emerging music nevertheless.
And why the Homecast? Well that’s obvious of course: we’re back in our house at long last and I recorded this from my massive old lab bench that doubles as a desk and music centre all at once. It’s fucking brilliant – I really should take a picture and post it for you so you can see. The bench is 2.75m long, so I have computer and stuff at one end, stereo equipment at the other and a couple of good sized speakers either side. A music anorak’s paradise!
Toadcast #18 – The Homecast
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01. Aidan John Moffat – Eureka Springs (Edit) (00.00)
02. 4 or 5 Magicians – Forever on the Edge (02.30)
03. Flashguns – St. George (07.53)
04. George Pringle – Carte Postale (13.52)
05. Dusty Springfield – You Don’t Own Me (16.59)
06. Destroyer – Foam Hands (21.55)
07. Howlies – Aluminum Baseball Bat (28.44)
08. The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir – Aspidestra (38.36)
09. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – Leftovers (40.48)
10. Ruth Theodore – Overexpanding (49.22)
11. Akron/Family – Ed is a Portal (55.28)
12. Victor Borge – Phonetic Puncutation (63.22)
13. Josiah Wordsworth – Drive-by Media (70.23)
14. King of Prussia – Spain in the Summertime (74.44)
15. The Magnetic Fields – Threeway (83.07)
16. The Forms – Knowledge in Hand (87.44)
17. Howlies – Smoke (90.14)
18. The Beat – Mirror in the Bathroom (95.38)
19. Found – When You Fall (102.09)
