Dignan Porch

Dignan Porch's rapid ascent seems anachronistic now - signed by America's hottest indie, Captured Tracks, after being discovered on myspace(!). They matched The Only Ones' venomous poise with XTC's Top 40 psychedelia. Their second album Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen is one of the best British albums of the past 5 years. It was their last for Captured Tracks.

They needed luck and several American tours to break through. They had neither. They're a DIY band with such perfectionism that their gigs are often stalled by 15 minutes of tuning up. This wouldn't happen if they were a headline band in a big venue. They should be both things. When they get going, there are very few live bands who come close.

There was a third album, Observatory, last year - less immediate but just as intensely rewarding as previously. There's still life in this band, like a bee in a box. This latest single Out of the Picture is a psych-pop peach.



There was a tape a month or so back. It sounds great. Great like this:

The Soul Surfers feat Myron & E: You Can Run (But You Can't Hide) From My Love

Myron & E have made some of the greatest modern soul classics with Finland's The Soul Investigators. Their earlier collaborations like Cold Game and On Broadway remain among my very favourite singles of the past 7 years, but more recent singles haven't quite hit those heights.

So Myron & E have headed further east to Russia to work with The Soul Surfers. You Can Run (But You Can't Hide) From My Love recaptures their urgency: stabbing staccato guitar and sharp blasting horns meet gritty funk with club soul's sophisticated charm. You can keep your Mark Ronson records, thanks very much. This is where it matters.

No Ditching: Inseparable

Irrepressible, more like. This 3-track 7" blasts through a hymn to friendship with added surf guitar (Song For Shelley), tears some waste of space a new arsehole in just 64 seconds (Dickhead) and has the best punk-pop song about cats since Angelica's Why Did You Let My Kitten Die? (If_you_hate_cats_you_die). It's a record full of fun and hate. I *think* they're having a great time ripping through these songs. And you will, too, listening to them.

Sharon Henderson: Inside of Me

My showbiz pal Brogues was rightly excited about Sweet Pearl's 1981 soul gem You Mean Everything To Me. He, or someone else, was wondering about other 1980s soul classics. My instinct was to reach for Sharon Henderson's Inside of Me. Crossover classic, soul stepping magic, 1981 vintage. It sounds even better on warm summer days.

Head Full Of Steam by The Go-Betweens

In 1964 George "Shadow" Morton entered the Brill Building with a demo of Remember (Walking In The Sand) he'd made with 4 young ladies, The Shangri-Las, and played it to Jerry Leiber.

Leiber recalled: "It was a very strange sounding thing. It had this kind of 'swim' in the sound, that kind of tension that was very attractive."

I imagine that 21 years later in a London recording studio, Robert Forster asked his producer to put that strange swim in Head Full Of Steam. It matches the suggestive, cryptic lyric - "she never had a nickname but then nor have I" and "her mother works in exports, but that's of no importance at all" - and the way Forster raises the madness of love's ignition to mythical status.

On Man O'Sand To Girl O'Sea Forster sang with complete certainty, "I feel so sure of our love, I write a song about us breaking up"; on Head Full Of Steam he's chasing a fool's dream. It's as captivating and baroque and ambiguous as love. It is, I think, his greatest song.

It's on the best side (2) of The Go-Betweens' greatest album (Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express). Then there's this Whistle Test performance with the classic line-up. The band are on fire. Lindy's clearly the world's greatest drummer. Forster knows exactly what he's doing and where the camera is at all times. I can see why people enjoy Morrissey and Julian Cope from the same period. I can't see why Forster's not at least as highly regarded.

Why this song, why now? Because respected international blog Finest Kiss wrote about Forster's 10 best songs. I called out blog supremo Toby for omitting Head Full Of Steam. He suggested I start my own blog. So I did. Yes, there have been posts previous to this, but no one read them.

Michael O: Really?

The bad pun Michael O's given his debut album belies the scrappy romance and tender twists of Really? The obvious touchstone is Jonathan Richman's Back In Your Life (spare, simple pop songs) and I'm So Confused (delicate with barely restrained sentimentality).

My first thought was 'US indie folk that City Slang was putting out about 15 years ago, Wheat and Kingsbury Manx'. But these miniature masterpieces suggest Michael O's been listening to The Church's cavernous anthems and working out a way to strip them down to something more human and touchable.

My second thought was 'this is on Fruits & Flowers, the USA's finest new record label, let me at it'. Fruits & Flowers remind me of the Make A Mess label who came racing out of the traps in 2008 with a stream of brilliant releases. F&F put out the Piano Movers 7" last year; they used to be Nodzzz, who were on Make A Mess. There's some sweet coincidence right there.

As long as there are records like Really? and labels like Fruits & Flowers I think everything's going to be alright.

Bel Etage

Bel Etage is French for Pam Berry and Lupe Nunez-Fernandez. This is their first single and it's great.

Pam takes charge for Lonesome Heartache Constellation, all electric guitar, tambourine and tremulous vocals. It's simple and effective like Dolly Mixture and enigmatic like first album Mazzy Star.

Lupe's in control for Quiet Town, a trip through the back streets of 1970s English folk. It's understated and captivating like Mark Fry. There's some Broadcast analogue atmosphere in there as well.