We choose songs, albums & artists old and new we’ve been enjoying recently.

Bob: The weather here in Budapest has been incredible for this last week or two. But as I sit here and write this, the skies have opened up and brought rain like you’d expect to see back in England. But, at any rate, today’s slight blip aside, I’ve found my musical listening gradually shifting back  toward the lazy beats that I always seem to enjoy more with the shift into the spring and summer months.

Scott: I’ve always hated the question ‘what type of music do you like?’ during small-talk, as it takes me an hour to answer, by which point the person is bored, and I would imagine, slightly weirded out. Or I just take the easy route and say ‘all types’. It’s a lazy answer that usually means a person has no distinct musical taste. For anybody new to this site, or that doesn’t know me, I mainly like punk music. But what is punk music these days? I would argue it spans into all genres and hopefully during these brief scribblings over the next months, years or maybe even decades I can show just that.

Bob: Bonobo – Black Sands

Bonobo’s latest album couldn’t have got released at a better time. Along with Beck’s Modern Guilt, I listened to Bonobo’s discography almost exclusively for the entire summer of 2008. Repeated listens of his stuff did reveal to me that there was perhaps only one really great album out of the three previous ones, however. Animal Magic does clearly sound the first major attempt, but it has its moments of greatness particularly with closing track Silver. Dial “M” For Monkey was my favorite out the bunch. It built on everything before it from Animal Magic, and added a more jazz infused element to the proceedings. Days To Come initially blew me away, but after a while I found the tracks with vocals eventually got on my nerves a little, and felt somewhat forced. On new album Black Sands, however, Bonobo has found something of an incredible balance between the previous albums, without sounding like he’s going over old ground. The jazz is back in a big way, and boy does it sound smooth. The beats are as lazy and engaging as ever, with even more of a hip hop feel, but this time the tracks featuring vocals are easily some of the standouts. Eyes Down in particular is just divine, with the vocals weaving naturally around the minimal beats. At this point, unless something else remarkable comes along, Bonobo is easily going to be my soundtrack to the summer all over again.

Scott:  Crazy Arm – Born to Ruin

There is no greater joy than turning up to a gig and catching an unbilled support act who really blow you away, this was a joy I encountered at the recent Chuck Ragan/Frank Turner gig where turning up half-way through the set I caught Crazy Arm playing some crazy hybrid of punk rock and country. Now the word ‘Country Music’ is a dirty word for most, conjuring images of cowboy hat clad grizzly gents in tight jeans singing about how Betty Loo walked away, but it’s a form of music that the punk scene has really taken to heart as of late. It’s now not uncommon for bands to have acoustic/folk/roots side projects, especially American bands, but for a British band to incorporate it directly into their music with such success is nothing short of a miracle. Born to Ruin is an album that has folk melodies mixed in with rousing power-chord breakdowns and sounds consistent throughout, and it’s been rocking my ride to work everyday now for a couple of weeks.

Bob: Quantic – The 5th Exotic

Much like Bonobo, Quantic was an artist I absolutely abused a few summers ago. The problem I have with Quantic is that he’s such a busy producer, with no less than four projects active at the same time, that his material can sound pretty unfocused on many albums. But with The 5th Exotic, that’s simply not the case. It’s an old one now, but it still sounds incredibly fresh every time I hear it, and nothing quite accompanies a lazy evening with some booze, the windows wide open, and this album blaring out at full volume…

Scott: Leatherface – The Stormy Petrel

Frankie Stubb’s and co. are a band who are hugely influencial but have never enjoyed any mainstream success or press, this despite ‘Mush’ being regarded as one of the finest punk albums ever, a title it thoroughly deserves. This, their 8th album in 22 years (not counting comps, singles and splits) is on a par with the best work the band has done. Full to the brim of soul, passion and water-tight melodies, it’s an album that feels completely like home to me, one that I could hold up and proclaim this is what good music sounds like to my ears. Stubb’s voice is just such a gem, you can feel his every frustration when he belts out his gravelly tones and his eccentric, witty lyrics never fail to inspire, amuse and most of all pull an emotional response out of the listener.

Bob: Moloko – Statues

I still have trouble when realizing how old this album is already, but man I swear it could have been made last week. While Roisin Murphy went off and explored her ever more increasingly bizarre disco diva image (of which I dig immensely), before Moloko parted ways they sure as hell left one dazzling album with us. Statues is a consistently positive album, with only the title track deviating from the overall mood, and even that’s perfectly suited when taken in the scheme of the album. Familiar Feeling, 100%, Cannot Contain This, and the album centerpiece Forever More never fail to get my juices going.

Scott: Dark Dark Dark – Bright Bright Bright EP

It’s strange how one band can hit such a unique and unexpected note that it shifts your musical taste immediately. This was the case when I first heard Murder by Death, and I’ve been craving dark Americana tinged folk ever since. Dark Dark Dark are one such band that live up to their name by playing accordian, piano, banjo, cello and more regular instruments, well, darkly. It’s a sound that’s deeply atmospheric, bringing to mind smokey bars in Eastern Europe, and the vocals are similarly haunting. I hear these guys also have a full length out, and if it’s anywhere near as good as this it should be hitting this very feature soon.

Bob: The Rock of Travolta – Uluru

Myself and post-rock don’t particularly get on these days. Like my co-writer Scott, I find it all terribly drab and rather uninviting to the listener, bar a few exceptions of course. Mogwai still get my attention when they come out of their own arse from time to time, and MONO never get old for me, but elsewhere most bands really do sound the same. It seems fitting then, that this gem of an album is probably the first post-rock album I heard, and still easily stands as one of the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. Even now, eight years on, it flat out defies the genre, with bursts of creativity on absolutely every track. It’s short, it’s mind-bending in its variations, and it’s ever so much fun. The only track to feature vocals, Everything’s Opened Up, with David Line from Seafood on duty never gets old for me. It really is about time they released another album.