I know, it’s a shocking thought, isn’t it – the idea of me spouting tedious garbage on the World Wide Superhighways in the faint expectation that anyone might take the time to listen.  Anyhow, recently I have been involved in two such enterprises, both eminently listenable, but for entirely different reasons.

Firstly, I made my debut appearance on Hype Machine Radio this month, talking about Julian Plenti.  Given that Hype Radio is supposed to be at least loosely related to their charts I think the chances of my making regular appearances on this thing are pretty slim, although I’d love the chance to go on and slag off The XX, who are fucking dismal, but I’m not sure that faux-hipster sneering is quite what they intend to be about so that chance probably won’t come my way.

Anyhow, the episode I am on is September 2009, which is currently at the top of this page, here.  My friend Dev who runs Hype Radio and comments here from time to time was drinking whisky the other night and was not impressed with his tipple.  He emailed me this plea for help:

I am currently sipping a single malt from Islay, the maker is Bowmore (clearly a mass producer posing as a small producer) and it kinda sucks.  Wine is really my thing these days (or, you know, beer, or margarita, or gin & tonic, of course, depending on the occasion) but I have been every so slowly endeavo(u)ring to develop my Scotch palette over the years… and this stuff sucks.  You have any favorites?

My personal favourite is Laphroaig, but I am so new to whisky that I’m in no position to offer advice or suggestions at all, so I thought I might throw this one open to the readers.  And Dev is a nice guy, so don’t offering the poor man cleaning products just for fun.  Suggestions in the comments, please.

And secondly, do you all listen to the Contrast Podcast?  Well if you don’t, you should.  Every week for the last 180-plus weeks Tim has put together a podcast assembled from songs and intros emailed in from music people around the world, all centred on an ever-changing theme.

I chipped in two weeks ago on the topic of darts, not because I know any songs about darts, but because I know one which mentions them somewhat tangentially and also contains the stupendous line ‘Is your child hyperactive, or is he perhaps a twat?’ which is, in its supremely brilliant delivery as much as its rather brutally hilarious content, one of the funniest things I have ever heard in a song anywhere, ever.

Half Man Half Biscuit – Surging Out of Convalescence

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Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Rye Whisky (I know, I know, he doesn’t want a rye, but I like this song so fuck off.)

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Found are off to play at SXSW at the moment (support them by buying this) and one of the gigs they’ll be playing there is the Hype Machine Radio launch party.  Hype Machine Radio heavily involves a friend of mine called Dev Sherlock from Blogfresh Radio, who has been about as supportive as humanly possible of  Toad Records, of the blog itself, and of pretty much all of the bands who I’ve sent his way.

Pairing up with the Hype Machine is great news for Dev, I assume, partly because Hype are becoming a pretty heavy hitters in the world of internet music and partly because they seem to be genuinely nice people.  He has also been kind enough to extend that warm, cosy cyber-hug to Found, both by inviting them to play and by including them, and my good self, on the Hype Radio show episode on this page, to go with the launch party event itself (abridged version on Blogfresh Daily).

All of this, in terms of exposure, is great news for Found, who have agreed to record a Toad Session on their return from SXSW.  In amongst all this excitement, however, they have slipped out an EP which is really rather good and has been really rather criminally overlooked, as far as I can tell.

Seven songs seems a bit long for an EP, but there are a couple of fairly short numbers – almost interludes – on there, and the whole thing clocks in at a very efficient twenty-two-and-a-bit minutes.  I have to confess that I really, really do not like Now We’ll Never Make the Playlist, but the rest of it is terrific.  The opener, Enough About Human Rights, is one of my favourite songs for ages.  The rest of the record jumps about a bit, but it’s still a very coherent piece of work.  There’s Let Fidelity Break, which could have been lifted straight from the This Mess We Keep Reshaping sessions, and the excellent, down-tempo Freaky Freaky Raving.  This Way By Design reminds be of their earlier work, actually, and its these little shifts of gear which make this an interesting EP, for me.

They don’t seem like they’ve quite decided on how they want to move beyond their previous album, and The Fidelities seems almost like they’re trying on a few things for size before they take the plunge into their next project*.  But, having said that, it’s still a beautifully packed and highly enjoyable piece of work in its own right.

Found – Enough About Human Rights

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*Disclaimer: I have no idea if this is true or not, of course.

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