HotSpotMusic.

What better way to kick off the new year than a whole month’s worth of songs by this humble blogger’s favourite English troubadour, Mr Darren of Hayman.  This time last year, he was just setting out on a valiant quest: to write, create and record a new track each and every day during January, which you can still review over on the blog.  Accompanied by the talents of friends and artists alike, January Songs is a 31 gun salute to endeavour and to new years resolutions.  He’ll even be performing them all in a series of gigs this month so if you’re lucky enough to be in England, be sure to see it.

Landing right at the beginning of this year, HotSpotMusic missed out on Anna Calvi.  Despite having the unfortunate albatross of one of the BBC’s Sound of 2011 acts hanging round her neck (although this was perhaps offset by Brian Eno referring to her as the best thing since Patti Smith), her tightly composed debut is a grand work.  There are definite elements of PJ Harvey but it is the dark, dense power of this album that makes songs like Desire and The Devil stand out amongst other contemporary female performers such as Florence & The Machine or EMA.  This has only spun a few times but it may well get a few more… and if that’s not enough, she’s covered Wolf Like Me too.

Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed when they came out but still worth sharing before the end of year lists hit.

Original release date: 17 Januaruy 2011

Wild Beasts are one of those bands who have very slowly progressed into being silently quite brilliant with each album.  The British band’s sound has evolved from simple pop songs to rather complex and thoughtful compositions still backed up by the marvellous (and impressively replicable in a live setting) Jeff Buckley-style warble of lead singer Hayden Thorpe, only now with more nuance and subtlety in its delivery.

Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed when they came out but still worth sharing before the end of year lists hit.

Original release date: 10 May 2011

The inimitable Laura Marling’s third album was once again a marked progression from her previous work and surely solidifies her position not only as one of England’s brightest young talents in indie/folk but one her best songwriters too.  

Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed when they came out but still worth sharing before the end of year lists hit.

Original release date: 12 Sep 2011

Already the recipient of the Mercury Music Award this year and likely to be right up there in a lot of end of year lists, Polly Jean’s latest album is an epic barnstormer.

Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed when they came out but still worth sharing before the end of year lists hit.

Original release date: 15 Feb 2011

I hate Christmas records so much.  But this is a Christmas record with Emmy The Great and Northern Ireland’s Ash’s Tim Wheeler.  I am feeling so conflicted right now.  And that is why I will leave it up to you, dear reader, and your impeccable taste to make the judgement on this one.  I do urge you to at least listen to Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing), an inspired Wheeler take on the Ramones.  Now go buy your turkeys you miserable scrooges.

It’d be easy to dismiss Summer Camp as lazy 80s revivalists but beneath that veneer of sneer is a heart of gold.  Sounding like the soundtrack to the John Hughes movie that was never made in, let’s say Condale, this album is a pop masterpiece of sun-reflecting-off-the-newly-polished-surface-of-that-sailboat-you-took-out-once-as-a-kid-style-glistening quality.  This is an album about good times in the face of heartbreak, about memories that are more real than the sepia-tinged Polaroids they are now represented by, about life.  A really assured and vital release from Summer Camp.

Still Corners have taken the concept of pillow talk to another level - listening to Creatures of an Hour (and we can only assume that that hour is the Twilight Hour) is like being transported to the top of a mountain, shrouded in the clouds with lead singer Tessa Murray whispering delicately in your ear.  The atmospheric paradox the band creates from behind the covers is a simultaneous equation of lightness equaling murkiness, of the diaphanous suddenly seeming as weighty as the mountain itself.  

Mixed gender duets (especially over limited instrumentation) can generally go one of two ways: either charming (Slow Club) or trying (Ting Tings).  Luckily, London-based Big Deal fall into the earlier category.  Led by 18-year old Alice Costelloe and assisted by Kacey Underwood, the pair play opposing guitars while their singing complements each other as they yearn for something fulfilling out of life.  Whatever the backdrop, there’s a tender, emotional side to the songwriting that manages to never feel fake.  Indeed, it’s that sincerity that is probably Lights Out’s most endearing quality.  A charming debut that rips at the heart.

After Radiohead dropped The King Of Limbs into the world at such short notice, there followed a slow trickle of remixes.  Released a couple at a time as singles, these 19 tracks make up a diverse take on that intense beast.  However, depending on your predilection for spaced out electronica, these remixes are a mixed bag.  There are some superb reinterpretations (Jacques Greene’s take on Lotus Flower is one such highlight) but on the whole these versions don’t come anywhere near the originals.  The sense of dynamism and invention is lost in the during the inevitable unpacking of TKOL that any remixer had to attempt.  Maybe it was the complexity of the originals that was daunting to those who dabbled with them or maybe it was just that Radiohead already spent 4 years honing these so that a few weeks by others was simply not enough.  It’s worth listening to once but then just go back to TKOL.

Welcome to psychedelia everyone.  But the most beautiful, serene psychedelia you can imagine.  The Zombies, originally famous for their 1964 hit She’s Not There, were perhaps behind only The Beach Boys when it came to mellifluousness in this era of pop music.  But on Odessey And Oracle, one of the best albums of the 60s, the harmonies were bittersweet and the songs the same.  Care of Cell 44, a tale of a lover’s impending release from prison, is a perfect example of the off-kilter songwriting pared with beautiful production that distinguishes this album.  The other distinctive element that the Zombies introduced was the masterful keyboard skills of Rod Argent, who was also their main songwriter and added layers of character to the band’s sound.  Originally recorded in 1967, Odessey And Oracle (the spelling in the title was due to a lack of funds to re-do the mistaken cover art) only saw the light of day in 1969 when Time Of The Season made its way to the top of the charts but the band themselves had long since split, the pressures of making this album taking their toll.  In a sense, this album closed the door not only on the band themselves but also the end of the 60s and the end of an era.  The turning of the season that makes it the perfect accompaniment to an beautiful autumn - warm and chromatic.

Veronica Falls… right into your inbox today you lucky reader you.  Because this album is so dark that it’s hot.  Like charcoal.  And like when fiery charcoal hits you in the face, this record is going to leave an immediate impression.  After releasing a string of singles over the last two years that were nothing short of glorious, Veronica Falls debut LP proves that they weren’t just flashes but a slow burning ember of driving, esoteric songs.  As much inspired by the other- or underworld-ly as they are by C86’s jangly, rapidly strummed guitars, this London quartet have innovated on a dying style to make a dead catchy record.

Blood Orange is the latest incarnation of Dev Hynes, the man formerly behind Test Icicles and Lightspeed Champion. With each shedding of his musical skin, Hynes’s act is part snake and part chameleon, changing his act to blend in with the prevailing trends - not to get lost in the background but to be heard and to be current. On Coastal Grooves he keeps the whimsy of Lightspeed Champion whilst dropping the tweeness and drops the chaos of Test Icicles whilst retaining the ability to find the right riff for the right song. As such, this album should feel like a mutation, a twisted, contrived image of ‘freshness’.  It’s to Hynes’s credit that it doesn’t. It feels like it’s own piece of work; unique and interesting, sampling the guitar work of 50s rock and roll but still modern sounding. And certainly befitting it’s own title.

Doing what Hot Chip and Caribou could never do on their own for electronic-loving indie lovers, Hugo Manuel (actual name) brings a much needed bit of rhythm to the summer music circuit (and your speakers).  Smooth, melodic, easy-to-follow for those of us who like our music to sound like it took some talent or math or both to create, Hugo/Chad is cool and hip like a dancing ice cube.  Also, let’s all take a moment to appreciate the sound of the words, ‘equatorial ultravox’ - they are music themselves.