Author Archives: Albert

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About Albert

Presenter of Eclectic Mainline on BCB 106.6FM, bassist in Wilful Missing, solo musician under the name Our Albert, and photographer.

Eclectic Mainline 29th May 2013

New music in tonight’s show included Alessi’s Ark covering The National:

…Jamie Isaac:

…Alphabetical Order Orchestra:

…Koreless:

…and  Camera Obscura:

The full show is available on the BCB Listen Again page for 29th May. Here is the full playlist:

Wolf People – ‘Empty Vessels’ (single and LP – Fain) (Dead Oceans)
Jamie Isaac – ‘Softly Draining Seas’ (single) (House Anxiety)
Tweens – ‘Rattle&Rollin’ (demo) (Fat Cat)
Camera Obscura – ‘Do It Again’ (single and LP – Desire Lines) (4AD)
Raffertie – ‘Trust (feat. YADi) (b-side to ‘Build Me Up’ single) (Ninja Tune)
Alphabetical Order Orchestra – ‘The Architect’ (unreleased)
She & Him – ‘I Could’ve Been Your Girl’ (LP – Volume 3) (Double Six)
Koreless – ‘Last Remnants’ (Yugen EP) (Young Turks)
Phosphorescent – ‘Ride On / Right On’ (LP – Muchacho) (Dead Oceans)
Teleman – ‘Steam Train Girl’ (single) (Encona)
Alessi’s Ark – ‘Afraid Of Everyone’ (LP – The Still Life) (Bella Union)
The National – ‘Pink Rabbits’ (LP – Trouble Will Find Me) (4AD)
Boats – ‘Great Skulls’ (single) (Kill Rock Stars)
Honeyslide – ‘Deep Architecture’ (double a-side single with ‘Drippin”) (Critical Heights)
The Travelling Band – ‘Hands Up (acoustic version)’ (single)

Eclectic Mainline 22nd May 2013

New music floating my boat this week includes Electric Ills:

…Cindytalk:

…Steve Mason:

…Guided By Voices:

…and Happy Walter Jr:

If you wish to listen back to this week’s Eclectic Mainline in full, you’ll find it on the BCB Listen Again service. Here is the full playlist: Continue reading →

Eclectic Mainline 15th May 2013

One of the most interesting albums I have heard this year is Voices by Kink Gong on Descrepant Reocords.  The album is based on location recordings Laurent Jeanneau made in South East Asia.  Laurent has manipulated the recordings, but with reverence to the original performers, and the end result is rather marvellous.  As I first listened, and read about the project, I thought of the field recordings I made during my own travels in South East Asia.  I keep thinking that I should do something with these recordings, at the very least put them online for people to hear.  Hearing Voices may just be the inspiration I need to finally do this.  Have a listen to the hypnotic, captivating opening track from Voices here:

I played that in my show on BCB this week, as I did this by Deco Child:

If you care to listen back to the show, you will find it on today’s BCB Listen Again page. Here’s the full playlist:

Still Corners – ‘Midnight Drive’ (LP – Strange Pleasures) (Sub Pop)
Lord Tang – ‘Fog’ (LP – Lord Tang) (Alarm)
The Electric Soft Parade – ‘Brother, You Must Walk Your Path Alone’ (single) (Helium)
Scout Niblett – ‘No Scrubs’ (LP – It’s Up To Emma) (Drag City)
Jon Hopkins – ‘Open Eye Signal’ (single) (Domino)
King Gong – ‘Baozoo Khen’ (LP – Voices) (Discrepant)
Alessi’s Ark – ‘Tin Smithing’ (LP – The Still Life) (Bella Union) (this week’s Brief Candle)
Balthazar – ‘Sinking Ship’ (single) (Play It Again Sam)
Lloyd James Fay – ‘From The Eyewall’ (single and LP – The Black River Chronicles) (Platform)
Betacicadae – ‘jjjjj’ (LP – Mouna) (Elagua)
Deco Child – ‘Skinless (Part One)’ (single) (Ninja Tune)
She & Him – ‘Never Wanted Your Love’ (single) (Double Six)
Neil Halstead – ‘Spin The Bottle (Alt. Version)’ (single) (Sonic Cathedral)

Eclectic Mainline 8th May 2013

John Grant is playing not once, but twice in Leeds this Saturday. In the afternoon he is doing an instore at Jumbo Records, and then he’ll be at Leeds Met in the evening. If you are in reach of Leeds you really should think about going to one, if not both.

And here’s a Letherette a tune from the self-titled album that I played in my show last night:

If you listen back to the whole show, you will hear these tunes: Continue reading →

Eclectic Mainline 1st May 2013

After writing a little about music videos in this blog last week, I expanded on the topic on my own blog. That’s pretty much all my blogging power for this week used up, so I’ll be brief tonight.

New music in tonight’s show included Locust:

…The Uncluded:

…and Raffertie:

You can listen back to the show if you desire. Here is the show’s full playlist:

King Midas Sound – ‘Aroo’ (single) (Ninja Tune)
Marika Hackman – ‘Bath Is Black’ (single) (Dirty Hit)
Locust – ‘Fall For Me’ (LP – You’ll Be Safe Forever) (Editions Mego)
The Jim Jones Review – ‘7 Times Around The Sun’ (single and LP – The Savage Heart) (Play It Again Sam)
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – ‘Mermaids’ (LP – Push The Sky Away) (self-released)
Bonobo – ‘Sapphire’ (LP – The North Borders) (Ninja Tune)
Glorytellers – ‘New T-shirt’ (LP – Current Resident) (Damnably)
Scout Niblett – ‘Can’t Fool Me Now’ (LP – It’s Up To Emma) (Drag City)
Raffertie – ‘Build Me Up’ (single) (Ninja Tune)
The Child Of Lov – ‘Fly’ (single and LP – The Child Of Lov) (Double Six)
Mick Harvey – ‘I Wish That I Were Stone’ (LP – FOUR (Acts Of Love)) (Mute) (this week’s Brief Candle)
Still Corners – ‘Berlin Lovers’ (single and LP – Strange Pleasures)
The Uncluded – ‘Delicate Cycle’ (single) (Rhymesayers)
Sigur Rós – ‘Brennisteinn’ (XL)

Best of BIFF playlist

During the recent Bradford International Film Festival, several BCB DJs provided additional evening entertainment in the cafe area. I’ve put together a Spotify playlist of some of the tunes we played. The tracks in the playlist were contributed by the following DJs:

1-5: Albert Freeman (@albfreeman)
6-10: Maria Spadafora (@BloodyNoraDJ)
11-14: Phil Cope
15-19: Jenny Harris ((jennyjetharris)
20-24: Griff
25-29: Patrick Thornton (@Selection_Box)
30-34: Simon Ashberry

Eclectic Mainline 24th April 2013

One of the (numerous) highlights of this year’s Bradford International Film Festival was Adam Buxton’s Best of BUG show.  In the Pictureville cinema he screened videos of several tunes that I have heard, and that I like, but have never seen. I don’t always get to see videos so it was a real eye-opener to see what amazing pieces of art have been created in the name of a music video recently, such as these by Shogu Tokumaru,  Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Bonobo.

Adam didn’t discuss the evolution of the music video, which I thought he might.  I find it interesting how we have moved beyond the MTV era and are now in the YouTube era whereby, to the best of my knowledge, most music video consumption is now online.   Gone are the days when I used to eagerly await The Chart Show once every 3rd Saturday morning on ITV to see if I might get to see a video by one of my favourite bands in the show’s Indie Top 10.

Anyway, moving seamlessly on from Adam’s BIFF show, the video for the next Bonobo single is also rather satisfying:

Other tunes I played in this week’s show include the new single by Marnie Stern:

..this from the new Locust album:

https://soundcloud.com/mark-van-hoen/07-oh-yeah

…and the new Bleached single:

If you wish to listen back to the show, you’ll find it on the BCB Listen Again service (look for the 8pm show).  This is the full playlist:

Continue reading →

Eclectic Mainline 17th April 2013 – Record Store Day preview

Record Store Day 2013This Saturday is Record Store Day.  Each year when I preview this event in my BCB show I notice the list of special, very limited, releases grow and grow.  Apparently this year there are 500 such releases.   Now, I love Record Store Day, and what it does for independent record shops.  However, I think there is a real danger that these limited edition releases may be starting to overshadow to real purpose of Record Store Day, and there are record shop owners who share my oncerns.   It is not Limited Edition Day, or Record Label Day.  The clue is in the title.   It is about the record shops.

This is why I think what shops like Jumbo Records in Leeds are doing is the right way to approach the day.  They have lined up a fabulous set of of instore performances throughout the day.  So, whether or not there is a limited release you want (and whether or not you get there in time for there to be any left) you can enjoy some wonderful music, have a browse round the shop, and acquaint yourself with the staff.  Last year a couple of young girls who are special to me saw The Staves at Jumbo, instantly became fans of the band, and want to go back to Jumbo again for Record Store Day this year.  The array of limited edition releases didn’t really matter to those little girls, but Record Store Day has done its job in drawing them into an independent record shop.  I for one hope that relationship lasts many years for them.  Their lives will be all the richer for it.

In my show this week you can hear Adam of Jumbo Records talking about what this day means to their shop.  If I were to make one recommendation, it would be that you are at Jumbo in the afternoon to see James Yorkston.  He came into BCB a few years ago to record one of my favourite sessions we’ve had.  Listen to the show here, and this is what you will hear:

Continue reading →

Eclectic Mainline 10th April 2013

Bradford International Film Festival starts tomorrow, celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema.  So, it seemed fitting that I play something by Asha Bhosle in tonight’s show.  Of the 12,000 songs she has reportedly recorded, I went for this one, from the 1970 film, Kati Patang:

BCB is involved in this year’s festival, curating some of the BIFF By Night music events.  I’ll be there most evenings, either DJing or overseeing proceedings, so if you’re around, come and say hello.

New music in tonight’s show included this by Rustie:

…and this by Bibio:

Listen back to the show at your leisure if you desire.  Here’s the full list of tunes I played: Continue reading →