EAR FILLERS #3 JULY 2022.

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

Stephen Mallinder ‘Shock To The Body’

The former Cabaret Voltaire frontman with a track from his new solo album. To fans of The Cabs, the voice here will be so distinctive, but the music has a much warmer, even soulful feel. Mallinder himself describes the sound and feel as “wonky”, who are we to argue?

* From ‘Tick Tick Tick’ (Dias)

Working Men’s Club ‘Cut’

Ones to watch when they dropped their first LP in 2020, this second offering takes things to a whole other level. Spinning on Manchester/Sheffield electronic axis, this is brilliant synthpop 21st century style. The list of Album Of The Year contenders just keeps growing.

* From ‘Fear Fear’ (Heavenly)

Warmduscher ‘Eight Minute Machine’

A change in the production hotseat sees Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and Al Doyle apply an 80s funk sheen to this raucous London-based outfit and the result is an album that is distinctly Warmduscher but with much more polish. And it suits them. Another one up there in the end of year polls.

* From ‘At The Hotspot’ (Bella Union)

MISZCZYK ‘In The Dark’

Ontario producer Nyles Miszczyk doesn’t really need the shouty capital letters in his name as the music does the shouting for him. ‘In The Dark’, starring Stereolab’s Leatitia Sadier on vocals, is the opening track from an album that brings 16 different vocalists to his smoky soundscapes.

* From ‘Thyrsis Of Etna’ (We Are Time)

Gwenno ‘An Stevel Nowydh’

Fast becoming a proper national treasure, Cardiff-based Gwenno Saunders sings in both Cornish and Welsh. ‘Tresor’, her third album and second almost entirely in Cornish, is nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize where she more than holds her own alongside the likes Wet Leg, Yard Act and Self Esteem.

* From ‘Tresor’ (Heavenly)

The Associates ‘Party Fears Two’

With 1982 being full of musical rich pickings, we can’t get enough of the 40th anniversary reissues. The Associates were more than this one-hit wonder, the entire B-side of ‘Sulk’- the album it came from – is all killer no filler. The reissued LP comes with, among other things, a great previously unheard live set from Amsterdam back in the day.

* From ‘Sulk – 40th Anniversary Edition’ (BMG)

Ash ‘Goldfinger’

Taken from the newly remastered splatter vinyl version of the Irish trio’s classic debut album, getting a reissue for the first time since its original 1996 release. ‘Free All Angels’ gets the same treatment to mark its 21st anniversary in September, with added live dates starring the brilliant Charlotte Hatherley on guitar duty for the first time in a while.

* From ‘1977’ (Echo)

Idlewild ‘Stay The Same’

The Edinburgh noiseniks started to spread their wings on ‘The Remote Part’, their third album which was originally released 2002. This melodic track from the reissued record is almost as noisy as they get here. It’s a light year away from the furious racket of their early work. It was quite a journey from there to here.

* From ‘The Remote Part’ (Warner)

Tyndall ‘Großstadtgefühl’

Krautrock wasn’t just the preserve of 1970s longhairs you know. Munich’s Bureau B label collects some proper obscure curios for a compilation drawn from 1972-1986. There’s plenty of the big guns here – Cluster, Faust, Moebius, Roedelius etc – but it’s this early 80s thrummer that really stopped us in our tracks.

* From ‘Siblerland – Vol 1: The Psychedelic Side Of Kosmische Music’ (Bureau B)

Pye Corner Audio ‘Warmth Of The Sun’

In which Pye Corner Audio’s Martin Jenkins teams up with Ride’s Andy Bell. The album concerns itself with us all blinking into the daylight after time spend locked away during Covid. You can almost feel the release of this track – a euphoric post-rave cockle-warmer- as Bell’s shuddering guitars build alongside Jenkins’ synth workouts.

* From ‘Let’s Emerge!’ (Sonic Cathedral)

Orbital ‘Halcyon & On (Jon Hopkins Remix)’

Marking 30-odd years since they made their debut with ‘Chime’, this track comes from an unmissable set of reworkings of new tracks by the brothers Hartnoll and remixes galore by a who’s who from the quality end of the dancefloor. This Hopkins mix is something else.

* From ‘30 Something’

Indian Wells ‘Four Walls’

Max Cooper’s Mesh imprint brings us fabulous slice of experimental electronics from Italian producer Pietro Iannuzzi, who felt his last album – 2017’s  ‘Where The World Ends’ – was unfinished and picks up on that theme throughout. Says here he’s inspired by the likes of ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’, Boards Of Canada and Aphex Twin, Border Community and Massive Attack. Can’t go wrong, right?

* From ‘No one Really Listens To Oscillators’ (Mesh)