EAR FILLERS #2 JUNE 2022.

This month’s playlist of tunes that have been filling our ears at HPHQ.

Jimi Tenor ‘Life Hugger’

The excellent Jimi Tenor signs in from Helsinki and it’s back to basis with this track. Big fans of his stripped-down live shows, the bigwigs at Hamburg’s Bureau B challenged him to make a minimalist record, just synthesiser, flute and saxophone on. The results are very effective.

* From ‘Multiversum’ (Bureau B)

Red Snapper ‘B Planet’

Following a sizable lay-off (not spotted since 2014), this new album from the 90s trip hop/avant jazz/electronic trailblazers is an eagerly awaited return. This track, which appeared as a single upfront of the LP’s release in May, is a full-on blast of the sort of energy this lot can conjure up live. Catch them on a stage near you if you can.

* From ‘Everybody Is Somebody’ (Lo Recordings)

Everything Everything ‘Teletype’

A band who just get better and better. On their recently released fifth long-player they set about “revolutionising modern pop music” by ushering in AI to help out on lyric-writing, song titles and artwork. The whole thing feels like a communication from the future of pop.

* From ‘Raw Data Feel’ (Infinity Industries)

!!! ‘Storm Around The World (feat. Maria Uzor)

The first of a back-to-back double bill of guest slots for Sink Ya Teeth’s Maria Uzor in this month’s playlist. It comes from the ninth long-player from the brilliant !!! (that’s Chk Chk Chk if you’re not sure on pronunciation). “We’ve always been pushing towards something stranger and weirder,” says singer Nic Offer. Like a modern-day Parliament/Funkadelic.

* From ‘Let It Be Blue’ (Warp)

Acid Klaus ‘Party Sized Away Day’

A debut single from the alter ego of Sheffield’s Adrian Flannigan (Moonlandingz, Eccentronic Research Council, International Teachers Of Pop), starring… Maria Uzor, and it’s as squelchy and funk-fuelled as you’d hope from someone calling themselves Acid Klaus. Signed to Yard Act’s Zen FC label, expect to be hearing a whole lot more about this outfit in 2022.

* single (Zen FC)

Dubstar ‘Token’

The best song the Pet Shop Boys haven’t written! Chris Wilkie and Sarah Blackwood make a triumphant return with their fifth album, which finds Sarah in full disclosure mode about just how messy the 90s really were. If you remember them, they say, you weren’t there.

* From ‘Two’ (Northern Writes)

xPropaganda ‘The Night’

A ZTT release and it doesn’t half sound like it. Here, the extended two-minute intro with its heartbeat pulse and stabbing strings is a real thriller. Some 40 years on from ‘A Secret Wish’, vocalists Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag return with original Propaganda producer Stephen Lipson. Worth the wait? It is.

* From ‘The Heart Is Strange’ (ZTT)

Underworld ‘Juanita 2022’ (label)

Underworld are great at chucking out the occasional release just to keep us all on our toes. This 12-minute reworking of the opening opus from 1996’s ‘Second Toughest In The Infants’ album is also available on vinyl. It comes backed with, for the first time on wax, the similarly whooping version of ‘Juanita’ from their classic ‘Everything Everything’ live album.

* 12-inch single (Smith Hyde Productions)

Porridge Radio ‘End Of Last Year’

Delightfully popping up on Metronomy’s album earlier in the year, the glorious voice of Dana Margolin across a whole record – her band Porridge Radio’s third long-player – is something that can only improve your life. There’s a fair few who would compare this lot to The Cure at their most forlorn, which is a good way of looking at things.

* From ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky’ (Secretly Canadian)

Belle And Sebastian ‘Unnecessary Drama’

A total barnstormer from the the indiepop kingpins. That squalling harmonica is very Talk Talk. The Chorus goes “This is my life / this is my so-called life” so almost ‘It’s My Life’. You’ll have this one on repeat.

* From ‘A Bit Of Previous’ (Domino)

Thomas Leer And Robert Rental ‘Monochrome Days’

This comes from the very long-awaited reissue of a defining 1979 album from Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, the original DIY mavericks. Recorded very quickly, on borrowed gear, in a high-rise flat overlooking Battersea Bridge, it was the sound of the future. Which is now very much the past. But it still sounds great.

* From ‘The Bridge’ (Mute)

700 Bliss ‘Totally Spies’

A thrilling collaboration between DJ Haram and Moor Mother, which began way back in 2014 as a blistering live act on Philly’s DIY scene. Plug in for the dark grime of this, the first single from an album of hip hop and electronics that sounds likes it has properly beamed in from the future.

* From ‘Nothing To Declare’ (Hyperdub)

Midlife ‘Vapour (Cosmodelica Remix)’

Taken from a collection of tunes compiled by ‘Classic Album Sunday’ founder and Worldwide FM’s ‘Balearic Breakfast’ show presenter, Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy. Many of the tracks featured are appearing on vinyl for the first time in forever. Once the sun is finally shining you’ll thank us for pointing you in this direction.

* From ‘Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy presents Balearic Breakfast Volume 1 (Heavenly)

The Rah Band ‘Messages From The Stars’

This electro classic from 1983 is just a tiny taste of the fun and games on display from South London DJ collective Horse Meat Disco who serve up a new mix album that’s packed full of absolute after-hours bangers. This lot could get a party started any time of day or night.

* From ‘Back To Mine: Horse Meat Disco’ (Back To Mine)