...at www.losingtoday.com

http://www.myspace.com/entireforkmovement - initially misread as the Entire Folk Movement there was much bemused expectancy, would it be like a crafts fair made up of strange patrons of rarefied parsley sounds doing waltzes around a medieval village maypole enriching the lives of all who ventured with a becoming enchantment and worldly wisdom. And then we read it again. Fork not Folk. Better still Entire Fork Movement - my my what does that very name convey. We scratched our heads. A moment passed. Nothing. Then another. Nothing. Followed by another. Nothing. And then more and more, like a procession of child play choo choo trains. Alas nothing. Hey we thought - it might be a good idea to actually listen to the track that was posted. ‘hello boys and girls’ is its name. which to be fair once it had finished still had us at a loss as to how to describe the sound of the Entire Fork Movement. Purely a vocal based track employing phrases from Bill Haley’s legendary ‘rock around the clock’ treated to the merest of effects and time changes - blink and its gone as it only lasts 25 seconds. Its all slightly puzzling leaving a somewhat distinct feeling that its someone’s idea of a leg pull. There’s been talk of a DVD - alas it hasn’t appeared - its title in case your taking notes is ‘social interaction is better than mouldy bread’ which I’m sure it is but then hang on it depends on who your interacting with because in some cases I’d happily take my chance with a month old tin loaf any day. In addition there’s been promises of updates and music - alas none materialising so far - this instilling that feeling of a pattern emerging, its all quite perplexing mind you likewise it has given us a fair old chuckle or two into the bargain. that said I’ve a distinct feeling that I’m going to regret posting this. D’oh.

http://www.myspace.com/taysidementalhealth - blimey - ever had one of those weeks. You can expect loads of aural atrocities care of Tayside Mental Health just as soon as we’ve located the stash of CD’s that Claire from the band sent over - ooh - many moons ago - which so far despite various quick rummages have seemingly escaped our grasp so far. Fear not they will be brought out of hiding to no doubt unleash all amount of curdling carnage during the course of the next few days. There’s also a split with Blood Moon currently doing the rounds via Scotch Tapes who will also be putting out (that is if we’ve got our information right) a limited lathe set - Al from Scotch Tapes has promised to send over said platters for review. Ahead of all that we got a message / alert from Claire yesterday - which in typical time honoured fashion we’ve managed to mislay - informing us of a new track posting on their my space site - alas we can’t remember what its called though a quick peak at their page gives us a strong feeling that it may well be ‘war’ given that its listed as unreleased. Possessed of unhinged monochromatic austere electronics that sound not unlike the Normal being spooked by Zea with the session recordings mischievously being fried and flipped by an overzealously impish Kirameki, ’war’ is decorated with a head drilling and demented Dadaist underpin that literally wires into your psyche and festers with a scab like itchy annoyance, frenzied and monotonous it provides for a caustically schizoid white hot head jarring inferno of mind torturing dynamics as though freebasing on a brewing cauldron drawn from the potent elements of both Melt Bananas and Atari Teenage Riots more wilfully obtuse and confrontational back catalogues whilst finding itself scalded by some seriously manic primal therapy shrieked vocals which when gathered together and viewed as a whole come across like some devilishly rupturing and blistering breakdown. Those of a feint disposition need not apply. Damaging stuff but precariously perfect all the same.

The Convocation ‘my history mystery’ (gravity). Haven’t a clue how limited this is but for all you wah wah fuzz lovers we strongly suggest that you seek this out at your earliest opportunity. Pressed up on 7 inches of clear wax and heading this way via the Gravity imprint, this twinned hulking slab of grizzled grind comes courtesy of the recently re-activated Baltimore ensemble the Convocation who feature amid their ranks various members of Moss Icon, Born Against and the Entrance Band. As said two slavering cuts feature on this seven inch, both heavy as fuck swamp dredged groove that sounds like a seriously blissed out though slavishly heavy Mountain after a bad night on some potently high grade weed and acid cocktail. ’my history mystery’ is well hairy a deliciously shit faced slab of bearded beatnik boogie, a wasted primordial monolith like throwback from the early seventies nailed to the floor by a locked grooved heavy stoner psyche blues grind the type of which that seems these days to be purely the sole remit of anything Acid Mothers related and laced by all manner of wiring guitar effects and trip wired mind freaking pyrotechnics that quite frankly beg to be enjoyed while rolling up a fat one and just kicking back. Flip the disc for more mind fried lysergic calibrations courtesy of ’face to face with the beast’ - more leviathan like sludge-y psyche that’s so dirty and decadent we wonder if its been tie dyed, frankly makes Sabbath sound like the Shangri La’s while repeat plays may well have you peering through your awakened third eye or at worst having an incurably annoying habit of calling passers by ‘man‘ - hell we’re gonna grow a big mother f**king beard in its honour. www.gravityrec.com

The Joy Formidable ‘whirring’ (friends vs. records). Those paying attention at the back may well recall us falling tits over arse over this lots ‘Cradle’ track / single when we stumbled across their my space page a few months ago, a thing clipped with such seizure laced effervescence that we here we’re frantically trying to root out our Bleach and Cranes records from yester year for favourable comparison. Anyhow spotted and indeed picked this twin set gem up at a local record buying foray hurried home and laid said platter upon the excitable turntable and let fly. Cut from a similar template to ’Cradle’, the edgily elegant and pristinely honed ’whirring’ locks its sights and electrifies the listening space with a bracing bearing down jubilance that’s framed amid rippling halos of searing charges of stratospheric struts all armed to a pulse racing lightshow of controlled lovelorn tempestuousness which if your none to careful may just literally sweep you straight off your feet with its amped up velocity. That said - as is always the case - we here are much adoring of the flip side ’chwyrlio’. magnificent and majestic this honey is hollowed by an arresting glacial opulence whilst sweetly bathed in a gloriously fading lip biting aura, the textures panoramic and cut to ensure maximum emotional strain advance in measured procession with an assured finality amid the crushing regal waves of triumphant bitter sweetness - so arresting you could kiss and certainly the best thing to emerge from Wales since the much missed Melys while simultaneous quite possibly proving to be the sexiest thing we’ve had on our hi-fi since the Clerks. Need I say more. www.friendsvsrecords.com And here’s the video to ‘cradle’ for like - the umpteenth time in these pages - pure and simply because we love the rascal to bits….

Three Trapped Tigers ‘7/1’ (too pure). It took exactly one listen for this babe to hook itself into our psyche and indeed affections, a bit of a strange beast that appears to mutate across a whole host of reference points with such rapid fire aplomb it literally has your head spinning faster than the record itself. Any how to the domestics - Three Trapped Tigers are a London based three piece who to date have released just one EP previously called ‘EP1’ - stands to reason eh - which by all accounts is long since sold out - ensuring much grumbling and utterances of evil thoughts by yours truly given we’ve missed the blighter. Happy to say we’ve nailed the follow up a twin set no less. Lead out cut ’7’ opens caustically firing up shards of contortionist maths grind at will, breathless and blistered if your not forewarned and armed the effect is so seething its liable to take the top layer of your face skin straight off, indeed its all over the shop where time signatures and structure are concerned, in fact its more like a seriously skewed and wired jam session inspired by those ever lovable Battle chaps. And just when your wondering what the fucks this its goes off radar and quietens down a tad before erupting again only to emerge amid some sublime and subtle shadings of Goblin-esque proggy-ness with Add N to X transfusions - I kid you not it really is alone worth checking out for. Of course being the impish souls that they are they quickly about turn for a spot of fierce some post rock punishment and then silence - their off and gone. Flip the disc for ’1’ - again more Add N to X freakish wonkiness and vintage progressive rock drills that loosely veer into VdGG and Tangerine Dream territories. Do you know we could just get to love these chaps. www.myspace.com/threetrappedtigers

The Wildebeests ‘one minute time’ (dirty water). A quick spot of tin-ternet researching reveals that this lot are a trio - john, lenny and russ in case you were wondering all finding space for a spot of down time from their various day time residences in bands such as the Kaisers, green telescope and the milkshakes to hook up for the occasional quick studio blast to let their hair down. There’s already an album out in record land via screaming apple called ‘annie get gnu’ (are you sure its called that) from which the flip cut here ‘Lucinda’ is culled with the promise of a soon to be released new platter via those dirty water dudes - a taster from which being provided by the lead out cut ‘one minute time’. anyway its all raw as fuck stuff, gritty and trebly toned vintage honed garage beat pop that sounds like its been drop kicked straight out of an uber cool mid 60’s boutique, sadly our copy appears a little warped on the lead cut which makes things a tad frustrating in the listening department mind you we are hearing through the wonky grooves some damn fine Mod vibes all blessed with a needling corkscrew riff that‘ll have you shaking your tats off. That said the flip plays without a blemish - a frankly spanking slice of bad assed primal Troggs meets early career Kinks boogie and spiked with some of the dirtiest riffage this side of the Wailers and the Standells while appealing no doubt to admirers of the Wolfmen. Well smart. www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk

http://www.myspace.com/blueskiesdaisydayscomp - been a fair old while since the bunting was called upon to be hoisted aloft in joyous celebration of a Planting Seeds release - alas we fear we’ve fallen off their mailing list. So you can imagine our excitement when we got a friend request from Virginia’s finest in the shape of this rather admirable charity / health awareness set. Part of the proceeds made on the ‘blue skies daisy days’ compilation go to the Keep a Breast Foundation with the release hoping at least to ‘help eradicate breast cancer by exposing young people to the methods of prevention, early detection and support’. Anyhow it’s a 24 track jamboree featuring an all star cast made up of cuts from planting seeds celebrated back catalogue as well as contributions from like minded friends, bands and labels. Seven cuts feature on the showcase player opening with the Parson Red Heads whose ’change your mind’ has something of a vintage hued trippyness that blends a criminally sly and catchy lazy eyed aura with a classically drilled mid 70’s MOR pop sensibility that to these ears sounds not unlike some Alan Price styled experience fused with the dead eyed acuteness for a deceptive hook laced ditty of Kevin Tihista, mind you we do love the subtle ’hole in my shoe’ harmonic references. The See See’s ’its true’ is something of a more mellower affair, a gorgeous slice of smoked and countrified driftwood which at times has a certain Cockney Rebel gait about its wares though that said we’re more than smitten admittedly by its sky blazed 60’s sourced psych-y run out. The Incredible Vickers Brothers are up next, ‘blues’ soon emerges from its quietly murmuring intimate framing and blossoms quite beautifully into a dinky and demurring lolloping slide guitar tweaked slice of jangle some jamboree that to these ears had us imaging a barn stirring Clock Strike 13 relocated to some smoked mid west postcode. Alas the Fischers cut ‘call yourself alive’ refused to play despite much coaxing while the Left Outsides deliver up a soft psyche pop shade adorned 60’s babe of sumptuousness in the shape of ’out of time’ - think the Mamas and the Papas cross wired with the Adult Net and Strawberry Switchblade. Elsewhere AM Vibe do a neat line in crystalline shimmer pop whose roots are drawn directly back to the Sundays albeit that’ll be a Sundays found less shy eyed and carving effervescent swoon adorned strut laced summer flavoured treasures the type of which that give you tingles and a glowing fuzzy warmth. Though that said edging it just as the best moment of the showcase set is the near perfect ‘stonewords’ by the Corner Laughers, a sweetly glazed effervescent beauty that swerves and arcs in all manner of sophisticated and sublime uber cool 60’s trimmings that radiate softly as though some kind of love child borne of a union between the Heartthrobs and the Bangles. Nuff said I reckon.

hopefully later tonight there'll be stuff by planting seeds, rio en medio and plenty of other stuff to be going on with....for now here's a few vids featuring the latter mentioned and something from the Corner Laughers from a killer PS comp called 'blue skies daisy days'...

  

The Foxes ‘lover, killer’ (room 10). Could have sworn we’d reviewed this previously - in fact so sure where we that we’ve spent the best part of the evening frantically trying to cite said review. Alright we exaggerate a tad - call it five minutes - and do you know what - we have. Anyway not officially out for a month though definitely well worth badgering your local record emporium retailer for given both tracks are certified nuggets - and just for those among you who either ignored our ravings about it the first time of asking or else can’t be arsed to trawl back to missive 108 - well you blighters I’ve copied and pasted said wise words below - now seek out. The Foxes ‘lover, killer’ (room 10). By our reckoning the third single from these dudes, and dudes they are because we here are beginning to see a pattern forming in that each and every one of their releases has a tendency to wallop our hi-fi each and every time the blighters rear into view. Certainly responsible for some wildly frantic toe tapping in our gaff since arriving through the mail box earlier today ‘lover, killer’ is so damn fecking catchy it ought to come accompanied by a course of jabs, restless 60’s drilled punch pop that to these ears sounds like a mighty fine dose of The Stairs and early Bluetones / LA’s fair, whooping vocals, zig zagging strut laced riffs and a breathlessly hip shimmying pristinely tuned beat pop awareness. Now tell me just what the hell is there not to like? Well as it happens there is the small matter of the flip cut ‘headlock’ - as with previous releases something of an affinity being drawn with all things scouse-a-delic, with its dizzy lysergic swirls cut finitely with traces of ‘rubber soul’ era Beatles-esque vibes that run through it like words through a stick of rock, this mellowing honey is invested with a desirably fetching see sawing shanty like dynamic that finds itself subtly undercut by softly drifting kaleidoscopic tonalities that nibble with much adoring aplomb to the likes of stuff the Coral were spitting out like no ones business a few years ago. A debut full length is mooted about time by our reckoning. www.thefoxesband.com