MOJO PLAYLIST
Drink the long draught… and check the records, for cowboy whistling, catwalk remixology and psycho-surfing!
1 SPARKS HIPPOPOTAMUS
Combining Dr Seuss whimsy, classical miniaturism and the archest humours – with an invitation to dance – Ron and Russell Mael return as only they can. “We’re completely in sync with what we want to do,” says Ron. “Sometimes it’s a kind of trial and error approach, where we don’t want anyone to know that there was an error along the way.” But what have the noble hippo, micturition in the swimming pool and Hieronymus Bosch got to do with it? Maybe we’ll find out on the new album of the same name and its UK tour, both happening in September. Find It: YouTube
2 MARTIN CARR GOLD LIFT
Inspired by William Blake, Bob Dylan and Joseph Goebbels, genuflect before the erstwhile Boo Radleys rekindled pop genius on this zinging plastic soul counterblast to the shitocracy of Brexit and Trump (AKA “orange Mussolini”). Find It: sonnyboy.bandcamp.com
3 ENNIO MORRICONE A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS THEME
From Sergio Leone’s 1964 spaghetti western classic, the sound of blood, dust, greed and vengeance, building to a galloping crescendo with the masterful whistling of Alessandro Alessandroni, who died on March 26. Find It: YouTube
4 NOVO AMOR CARRY YOU
Setting the scene for his new release as one of trembling, spectral beauty, this soaring mini-symphony swells with big euphoric strings and the Welsh bedroom auteur’s uncanny falsetto; like a one-man Fleet Foxes. Find It: Rough Trade EP
5 YAZZ AHMED THE SHOAL OF SOULS
Bahrain-born British jazz flugelhorn player and trumpeter (credits include Radiohead and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry) ropes in Shabaka Hutchings on bass clarinet for the title track to her La Saboteuse project; languorous cinematic drift and seductive spoken word. Find It: yazzahmed.com
6 ROY OF THE RAVERS MELCHESTER ACID (PART TWO)
Want to explore the infrequently-probed interzone where football comics and acid house meet? Get thee hither, for all the squelch and squidge you could want. From 2015’s 2 Late 4 Love cassette. Find It: YouTube
7 WOODS LOST IN A CROWD
Brooklyn’s indie folksters come over all dystopian Donovan, pairing a nightmarish psychedelic reminiscence with a tip-toeing melody and tea-cup percussion. From tenth LP Love Is Love. Find It: Love Is Love (WOODSIST)/Streaming services
8 KID KOALA FT EMILIANA TORRINI COLLAPSER
Icelander Torrini brings her timorous girl-trapped-ina-TV vocals to the Canadian DJ’s new ambient pop album, Music To Draw To: Satellite. Find It: soundcloud.com/artsandcrafts
9 PADDY McALOON AMERICA
Released onto the net without warning last month, Prefab Sprout’s reclusive genius and his guitar spell out, with pained horror, the dreadful follies of the current US administration. Find It: YouTube
10 YORKE & GREENWOOD BLOOM (CREATURES MIX FOR JUN TAKAHASHI)
Remixed Radiohead tracks including Bloom and Everything In Its Right Place, collaged for the Paris Fashion Week show of the Japanese designer and former Johnny Rotten impersonator Takahashi. Find It: YouTube
11 THE GRAVITY DRIVE WAKE OF THE DAWN
Favoured by Bob Harris, this Dorset married couple make welltooled, anthemic pop-rock – in this case like Fleetwood Mac meeting Mum & Dad’s slept-on banger Dawn Rider. “I wish that someone would drop the bomb on me!” it threatens, overwroughtly. Find It: SoundCloud
12 WIN YOU’VE GOT THE POWER
What happened in ’85 when Edinburgh postpunk funk by the Fire Engines’ Davy Henderson got polished up for a chart-smashing that never came. Still insanely catchy, and later a Tennent’s lager ad. Find It: YouTube
13 SOULWAX IS IT ALWAYS BINARY
From the Belgian dance punks’ recorded-in-a-day new longplayer From Deewee, Antmusic meets LCD-style mutant disco. Find It: YouTube
14 SHARON VAN ETTEN THE END OF THE WORLD
Straight take on Skeeter Davis’s 1962 hit, from Resistance Radio: The Man In The High Castle LP. Inspired by the Philip K Dick TV show, the LP also boasts oldies also remade by Angel Olsen, Beck et al. Find It: SoundCloud
15 !!! NRGQ
The return of New York dancefloor vets Chk Chk Chk is heralded by this high-energy disco electro fronted by British singer Lea Lea and a mind-bending, nightclub dance-off video. Find It: YouTube
16 ADAM FRANKLIN IRON HORSE/BORN TO LOSE/THURSDAY’S CHILD
A Lemmy/Bowie tribute double-A side from the Swervedriver man. Motörhead’s Hells Angel hymn morphs into a Cold War Berlin paranoiac blues, while the Dame’s 1999 single is eerily retro-Bowiefied. Find It: Club AC30 7-inch
17 JOSH HARRIS FAIR WEATHER FRIEND
Keyboardist for ’80s ska revivalists The Untouchables, Marin County baker Josh Harris is a one-man jukebox, boldly mixing country, blues, jazz and breezy reggae-pop.
Find It: Breadchord Music/Spotify
18 JAMES WILLIAMSON AND DENIZ TEK PENETRATION
From the Acoustic KO EP, the Stooge and the Detroit-born Radio Birdman guitarist re-record the Raw Power song, back-porch style. A brooding reinvention, it takes it back to the howling blues roots.
Find It: SoundCloud
19 RAMSEY LEWIS LES FLEUR
Elegant intoxication from the piano great’s ’68 LP Maiden Voyage. Play with The Jaynetts’ Sally Go ’Round The Roses for added pagan vibes.
Find It: YouTube
20 EMPTIFISH SONIC’S GOT A RAY GUN
Pompey’s ’80s psycho-surf terrace droogs celebrate their recent reunion with a barmy attack of feedback, charting a vicious dogfight with aliens. On pink 10-inch vinyl!
Find It: detourrecords.co.uk
“YAZZ AHMED… A LANGUOROUS, CINEMATIC DRIFT”