Gabriel Yared and Underworld - Breaking & Entering - 2006

Gabriel Yared, Underworld. Buy. "this is gud".

Califone - Roots & Crowns - 2006

Still not impressed with the look of this blog but I am very impressed with the quality of the music and that is what we're about. Is this all sounding a bit Jack Black [makes horned finger HM salute]. S'pose it could just be: artist[s] - title - year, pic, website, buysite and "this is gud".
I'll try that next as that sounds like a superBlogtastic thing. But...... the temptation to write something.
In the absinthe of anything much better from Beck or half decent from Gomez. And all things quiet on the Scott4 front - thankfulness then for Califone are we. Just about says it really oh except for absinthe makes the heart grow fonder. Yes and you can pretty much trust anything from ThrillJockey can't you? Another one of the one50. Buy me.

Tim Finn - Imaginary Kingdom - 2006

How much of a piss off is this - there you are head of the most successful New Zealand/Australian pop group, you're little brother asks "can I play too?" And you think "what the heck; sure!" Then before you know it not only does the little fucker go and take over the whole show, with his winning ways and a knack for re-jigging old Beatles tunes he sets up a rival band, conquers the charts - then the world, whilst rakeing in a pile of dosh...errr make that a Mountain of dosh.
So where does this leave poor old Tim Finn - well I dunno....YOU have a listen! buy £6.99
Guess he can always tap the little'un for a few bob ;-) and he does get a very nicely designed LP sleeve and an even nicer website.

Flexitones - Joyrider - 2005

Definately 2005 on this one and it's also from the 150 2006 batch.
Made by an ex Propellerhead and an eatStatic. Starts off all Big Beats but then mellows out nicely by track 4 into something relatively sophisticated and quite jazzy - mmm smooth mellow jazz.........nice [not]. Very dodgy name though, and an even dodgier cover which looks like a reject still from Too Fast Too Furious Too?
Brought to you by Backroom Beats a subsidiary of Twisted Records the ppl who print Shpongle

Buy Flexitones

Breaks Co-Op - The Sound Inside - 2006

My copy of this is dated 2005, Amazon lists it as 2006 but hey! who cares? In the absence of a decent new Zero7 album this more than makes up for it - very very mellow groooove.
And Mr Bigmouth's going to have to eat his words as the man who makes radio and TV insufferable for me - Zane Lowe [makes crossed fingers "ward off the Devil" sign] is a member of this band. And, get this, somewhere along in the production he sings!
Out of a recent batch of 150 of this years promos this is the only one that's really had my ears pricking up. I nearly put the biog down when I read "from New Zealand" but apparently they're well regarded and had their first, this is their second, album released in 1997. But fuck me Zane Lowe "I don't BELIEVE it!".

i am robot and proud - the electricity in your house wants to sing - 2006

I'm getting the hang of blogging, well a bit anyway, and KW tells me Rapidshare's up and running again. Can't say I'm that impressed with the look of the blog though. Still hopefully everything works as it should and when I get time and, more importantly an idea, I'll sort things out a bit.
So: i am robot and proud a surefire way to attract me; get an unusual name, set it in lower case, have an eyecatching cover and label yourselves something like "new age avant folktronica triphop chill". Don't ask for much do I? No disrespect to them, as I like the album a lot, but, on one level, they do make very pleasant noodly electronic wall paper. Just the thing to play whilst typing up this kinda stuff. It reminds me of erm, I think it's early Fourtet and maybe Her Space Holiday anyway when it comes to me exactly I'll edit it in. I particularly like the shoddily edited beats sample used in track one - so no it's not a bad rip! on my part. My favorite ppl at Vinyl Exchange have this listed at £4.40 and I'm sorely tempted.
But it's also the penguin cover that I like as they won't be around for long, Penguins, that is, fortunately for them the Japanese don't eat them. Now that's not meant as a racial slur or xenophobic bigotry but, fuck me, they're wiping out whales just to put a national delicacy on their plates. Almost everyone else is in agreement that whaling must stop except a minority who practice slaughter under the cloak of "scientific research" and gain support via economic blackmail. Whales could be the largest and most sentient being on the planet - let's let them live. And the penguins too. I kind've like the penguin advert that's on tv at the moment and the current trailer that shows a penguine falling through the ice and all his palls piling in in after him.