Issue 8

Hey there folks! Remember me? Your favourite neighbourhood purveyor of musical nuggets?

I do hope so because I've got some more cracking gems for you in this return issue. Afterall, what's four years wait among friends?

To listen, click the book image below or use the flash player in the sidebar.

This show can also be subscribed to as a podcast by copying the address of the RSS link in the sidebar into the podcast receiver of your choice. It's all so simple


(60MB, 63 mins. MP3 file)

1. The Dirty Projectors - 'My Offwhite Flag'


As it's pretty much certain that Dirty Projectors will quite rightly claim the top spot in most end of year polls, I couldn't think of a better way of begin Sleephouse again after a long hiatus than with this roughly-hewn gem.

Despite the relentless progress this band have made throughout the latter half of the decade, for me it's the first song that I ever heard from Dave Longstreth that remains my own personal favourite.

"It's been a while since I played the game..."

Dirty Projectors MySpace


2. Tune-Yards - 'Hatari'





This song - the product of one woman, a ukulele, drums and a loop pedal - snuck up on me one day while listening to Marc Riley's 6music show.

Merrill Garbus - for that is her name - turned in a stunning live version of 'Hatari' that night and I've been trying in vain to track down an mp3 of the performance ever since.

This album version nearly captures the magic I heard on the radio, but it seems she's getting better the more she tours and plays - comparing the album recordings with this great 4AD live session bears this assessment out and makes me expectant of future releases.

Tune-Yards MySpace


3. Cold Cave - 'Life Magazine'


Their name is tripping off all the right tongues at the moment but I'm yet to be fully convinced by them for an entire album's duration but they come close. I'll just never be that drawn to the dark side.

That said, this track is a sure fire winner - all buzzing synths and vocals that echo in your head way after the song's finished.

Cold Cave MySpace


4. Gentle Friendly - 'RIP Static'


Something stirs in South London and it's very probably shaking the grime from the buildings there with what looks like a ferocious live equipment set-up. I mean, jesus - look at that all those control panels and mixings desks.

Accordingly, Gentle Friendly set controls for the heart of the sun, and navigate their psychedelic voyage with no mean amount of radio-friendly skill. their freshly released debut album 'Ride Slow' is a real grower, buzzing with exuberance and shot through with a shitload of fuzzy ideas.

Gentle Friendly MySpace


5. Kurt Vile - 'Freak Train'


The word on the street has been feverish for Kurt Vile all-year-long. Three massive releases had already bubbled under before he dropped his "major indie label" debut with 'Childish Prodigy' on Matador last month.

'Freak Train' is taken from that Matador release and I don't really wanna say anything other than recommending it as a damn good listen.

Kurt Vile MySpace


6. Kurt Vile - 'Best Love'

The previous song showcases Kurt Vile's ability to mash together accepted rock cliches and come out with something fresh and exciting - that's no mean feat considering we're some 40-odd years from 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'.

This song flips to the otherside of the coin: with Kurt casting himself as the bedroom recording ambient mystic. It's equally as essential and I can highly recommend the purchase of any of his releases over the past year or so.

'Best Love' is taken from 'Constant Hitmaker' but 'God Is Saying This To You' and 'The Hunchback' EP are just as winning.

Kurt Vile MySpace


7. Harmonia & Eno 76 - 'Sometimes In Autumn' (Shackleton Remix)


A wetdream inside the malfunctioning brain of a HAL 9000 - this remix ticks just about every box a geek could ever hope for.

Legendary 70s ambient masterpiece- check! Present-day minimal-tech refit - check! Available on 12" vinyl with an Appleblim remix on the b-side - check, mate! Direct your hard-earned dollars earnt while programming C++ in the direction of Norman Records or some such reputable outlet.

Amazing Records Website


8. Yoko Ono + John Lennon - 'Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him'


Reunions are never what you expect them to be - this year I've had the pleasure of a reunion with my vinyl record collection after a decade of separation (It was stored in my parent's garage - fact fans)

For some reason 'Double Fantasy' has been a sticker on my turntable ever since, and has resonated through my house since January.

While listening, it's really struck me how much I must have grown since I last heard the record. I still love John's songs but now it's Yoko's stuff that has caught my presumably more mature attention.

The Beatles-loving teenager had invariably skipped these songs but now I'm really loving them. It's weird how an album that I thought of as so familiar has proved to be so alien and exciting. And it's all thanks to Yoko and the impatient teenager I used to be. Thanks be to both.


9. Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band - 'Mind Train'

The second train song this week, the second Yoko Ono song too and my second explanation of why I'm showcasing her stuff. From the 1971 album 'Fly'

I'm happy to see that a critical acceptance of her and her multifarious talents has been growing in the public mind over recent years. I fully support this and to advance her standing further in the eyes of any dinosaur-minded doubters that still remain I offer up this unsteady load of fatback groove to career us all out of the show this week. Enjoy the ride and I'll see you next week.

Top 30 Songs of 2008 - Part Three

Ladies and gentlemen - the final furlong: the 10 Best Songs Of 2008. Enjoy them all via the magic of the youtube playlist below:



10. Vic Chesnutt, Elf Power And The Amorphous Strums: 'And How'
Vic Chesnutt teams up with Elf Power for a song that pitches the listener an absurdist curveball. An urban fairytale, complete with nursery rhyme jauntiness that leaves one just as confused about its subject matter as its possible to be. Catchy hell it is too.

9. Jonquil: 'The Weight Of Lying On Your Back'
Sometimes songs are just so perfectly conceived, so full of energy and excitement that you can't help but surf the surge of joy that wells up every time you hear them. This is one of those songs. A cracking tune and a band to watch.

8. Grouper: 'Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping'
I'm a huge fan of delay and reverb, especially when it's so deftly controlled as it is here. In fact, this song is so beautiful and finely spun that to say any thing more would run the risk of destroying the delicate magic that holds it together.

7. High Places: ' From Stardust To Sentience'
A band well and truly of their time and all the better for it. We're now at the point where skillful practitioners of the form, like Rob Barber and Mary Pearson, can not only make the machines talk and sing but breath too.

6. One More Grain: 'Jon Hassellhoff'
I wasn't in this band when they recorded this song, but when I heard it I knew I had to join. The marriage of Daniel Patrick Quinn's thick freeform thought soup and Andrew Blick's fine eerie trumpet drone and call. The rhythm section is excellent too. It's a shame that the band is no more, but this song will always sound this way, and that's the important thing. It's pretty much the only thing I care about.

5. Sigur Ros: 'Goobledigook'
By far and away the best song that Sigur Ros have ever written, as swirling, tempestuous and invigorating as the wind that blows in off the North Atlantic to torment the Icelandic people.

4. The New Year: 'The Company I Can Get'
This was the year I woke up and realised I don't want my musical heroes to be drug-adled stargazy waifs anymore - I want them to be learned men, men who've seen life and what it's got to give. Maybe they could even be history professors, then I'd really respect them.

3. Wild Beasts: 'His Grinning Skull'
The one truly exciting British band to emerge this year, and one with more than a whiff of The Smiths stately otherworldly poise. Not that the Beasts sounded like anything other than themselves, you understand. Thrillingly original and willfully obtuse at times. I saw them live more times than I can remember and was consistently flawed. Cheers to you, chaps!

2. Animal Collective: 'Street Flash'
Their alchemistic fingerprints were everywhere this year, and not just on their own record: the 'Water Curses' EP. But it was this release that contained their finest work to date. 'Street Flash' feels like the distillation of what this band have always promised, a swirling dayglow psychedelic masterpiece that's as accessible and welcoming as it is playful and interesting.

1. Destroyer: 'Shooting Rockets (From The Desk Of Night's Ape)'
From the moment 'Trouble In Dreams' arrived in the bleak tail end of winter there was something about this song that perfectly encapsulated 2008; the financial crisis, the end of decadence, even the sickening Chinese Olympic fervour was somehow conjured. It's the sound of something huge and overblown collapsing and falling in on itself and a song so huge and nebulous that I was lost in it for weeks. A masterfully arch piece of work that turned summer breeze into an ill wind.

"It's a terrible feast we've been stuffing our faces on..."

Top 30 Songs of 2008 - Part Two

Yet more pointless self-important compulsive listing is to be found in Part Two of Sleephouse's Top 30 songs of 2008.

Listen to or watch the lot in the youtube playlist below:



20. Mountain Goats: 'San Bernardino'
Yet more predictably awesome songwriting from John Darnielle, and the song that most consistently stopped me in my tracks from his 'Heretic Pride' record.

19. Invisible Conga People: 'Cable Dazed'
Everyone lost their shit for the Italians Do It Better label this year, but I often failed to see the attraction. This ICP 12" was the only release that really moved me. A snaky little piece of future hippy bleep that made me want to dance. In an art gallery. In slow motion.

18. Vapid: 'Do The Earthquake'
An intensely catchy 7" nugget of wax from a friend's label in Vancouver. A part Riot Grrrl, part pissed-up punk shaker. This band might be the start of something new, or they might not. Who cares? Let's all dance before "The Big One" hits and we're all sucked into the ocean.

17. The Constantines: 'Our Age'
They switched from Subpop to the lovely Arts & Crafts label but the move didn't make them miss a single step. They still make the best "proper" music going and 'Kensington Heights' was their most mature release yet. Is anyone listening though?

16. Dosh: 'If You Want To, You Have To'
I've never been an Anticon head, but the 'Wolves And Wishes' record from Dosh was a big favourite of mine this year. The intro to this makes me think of the theme to 'Chariots Of Fire' and I was often to be found sprinting to catch the 390 bus while this played in my ears and spurred me to a photo finish...

15. Chad VanGaalen: 'City Of Electric Light'
I haven't lived in Canada for almost 5 years now, but I miss it like hell sometimes. Chad VanGaalen's 'Soft Airplane' is just another reason why I wish I was back there.

14. No Kids: 'Bluster In The Air'
After previewing a few taster tracks, I truly thought this album would be an underground hit. However, after hearing the rest of the record, I can now understand why the world might not yet be ready for a librarians-only slowjam block party. I'd be there though, trying to blend in with my fake glasses, getting jiggy between the shelving.

13. Beach House: 'Gila'
Stately majestic improvements to a previously modest but perfectly respectable dwelling. Flawlessly finished throughout.

12. Fleet Foxes: 'White Winter Hymnal'
There's no need to contribute to the hyperbolic snowstorm that surrounds this record and its worthy makers. A now-classic song and perfect for this time of year too. "Keep their little heads from falling in the snow..."

11. Samamidon: 'Wedding Dress'
I spent pretty much all of 2008 thinking "This has been a crap year for music." Then, quite recently, I found this song in an end of year list and realised I was wrong. There's been some great music made in 2008. I'd just been listening to British radio.

Top 30 Songs Of 2008 - Part One

After much stalling and a hiatus that was truly epic - Sleephouse Radio emerges from the wilderness just in time for a Christmas treat - a Top 30 Songs Of 2008 rundown (in order no less).

Part One is below, Part Two comes tomorrow and Part 3 will be slipped under your tree on Christmas Eve. Enjoy...

Listen to 30 to 21 right here (in this Youtube playlist):



30. El Guincho: 'Palmitos Park'
29. Dodos: 'Fools'
2008 was the year when the Animal Collective's influence was truly felt in indie music. Plenty of releases proudly wore the eclectic tribal allegiance to their heroes on their sleeve, including these two excellent efforts from El Guincho and Dodos, the former aping the loopy party vibes of Panda Bear's 'Person Pitch' album and the latter stealing some of 'Sung Tongs'' ample acoustic joy.

28. Fennesz: 'Vacuum'
For whatever reason, I listened to a hell of a lot of ambient music this year. Most of it old stuff and a large portion of it was made by Fennesz. Truth be told I'm still getting to grips with this new work from the old master but the song functions perfectly as a deft representation of what 2008 sounded like for me most of the time.

27. Portishead: 'The Rip'
I can't say that I was looking forward to Portishead's return very much. I didn't even spend much time listening to it. A performance of this song on Jools Holland's TV show stuck in my head though. Never has restraint been such an effective tool.

26. Silver Jews: 'San Francisco B.C.'
The first in a number of songs introduced to me by the ever magnificent Chris-a-riffic and his unmissable radio show on CiTR. A picaresque adventure from Dave Berman revealing a teemingly febrile imagination lurking in the cracks of what was an ultimately disappointing Silver Jews record.

25. Those Dancing Days: 'Hitten'
A solid gold office favourite where I work. We went to see them and it was hard not to feel like a dirty old man - a total indie boy boner party (arguably the “ Pop Culture Term Of The Year” courtesy of my good friend Saelan). Question: Why are Swedish girls so fucking stylish in just that particular way?

24. Mount Eerie: 'Voice In Headphones'
Phil Elverum and Bjork are two large gravitational forces in my record collection. 'Voice In Headphones' is Phil's homage to her genius and probably his best recording in years.

23. The Sea & Cake: 'Weekend'
One of my all-time favourite bands, seemingly back on form with an all-too-short summer time blast of electro-jazz-what-have-you. It's probably best listened to while watching the song's video - a Gus Van Sant jizz flick if ever I saw one.

22. David Byrne + Brian Eno: 'Strange Overtones'
I've been going for Talking Heads in a big way in the last quarter of this year, so this album came just at the right time. I'm still not sure about some of the production, but David Byrne bucks the usual trend and to show that songcraft can indeed be something that gets better with age.

21. Neon Neon: 'Belfast'
A neat little history lesson wrapped in song. Check it out people - that's what wikipedia's there for. Gruff Rhys, and his cohort Boom Bip, really achieved something with this record. Well-read and intelligent pop that retains a playful edge. A perfect postmodern piece of work that flew mostly over the heads of the entire population.

Stay tuned for Part Two tomorrow.

Anyone got a kazoo?

Sleephouse's extended summer holiday is almost over and I'll be back with a new issue in the near future. Here's a little something to keep you going until then.

Climbing gingerly on the back of the beast of hyperbole, last night I was fortunate enough to witness one of the best gigs I've ever seen in my short little life. It was I'm From Barcelona's debut London show and it was an absolute belter. I guarantee that unless you are a complete stone-cold-hearted bastard there is no way that you will leave their show without a smile on your face.

To the alarming operatic strains of Freddy Mercury's and Montserrat Caballé's 'Barcelona' I'm From Barcelona took to the stage in hail of enthusiasm, confetti and balloons and they just didn't stop until the whole of the audience was either on stage dancing or completely swept away in a tsunami of grinning good vibes. I can honestly say that I've never seen so many hearts melt and faces beam in my entire life.

Here's two songs from last night's performance.

'Chicken Pox'


'Collection of Stamps'


I'm From Barcelona have a few more shows in England coming up in the near future. Here they are:

Friday 15th September @ How Does It Feel To Be Loved?, Jamm, London
Saturday 16th September @ Rough Trade Shop, Covent Garden, London
Sunday 17 September @ The End of The Road Festival

You really need to see this band, and don't forget to bring your kazoo!

Buy their album too. Here's my review of it for Playlouder.com:

I'm From Barcelona: Let Me Introduce My Friends (Mute)

Have A 'Little Heart'

Setting Up (Small), originally uploaded by sleephouseradio.

Hey there people! Well, it’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? Sleephouse 8 is coming soon, most probably later in the week. Apologies, but as I’m always telling you—I’m real lazy.

Until then, here’s hoping that this update holds you over. Sleephouse hasn’t been completely idle in the intervening weeks since Issue 7. No, my dear listeners, the summer’s here (almost) and I’ve been out and about. Since the last show I’ve taken in some excellent gigs from the likes of Black Mountain, The Pink Mountaintops, The Shins, The Gossip and Serena Maneesh.

I’ve been drinking heavily and abusing my body in a most grotesque manner, so last Wednesday afternoon’s genteel outing to see Mount Eerie was welcome indeed. Held at the hangover-accommodating hour of 1pm, and a free gig to boot ( though I contributed £3 voluntarily), the show’s venue was, inexplicably, but somehow fittingly, a beautiful old library in the London School of Economics. The very university where Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones was first taught the principles of penny-pinching on a grand scale, and from which he would ultimately drop out of, in order to, according to his professor, “form a skiffle band.”

And, though no pouty snake-hipped dancing was in evidence, the gig was a great little intimate affair, with Phil Elverum playing some of his lesser known stuff, in an attempt to not repeat anything from a set he had played at a show the previous evening. He was supported by Geneviève Castrée, who is the wonderful Woelv and Elverum’s partner. The show was put together by the excellent London/Northampton-based collective called Undereducated. They release records, put out zines and organise shows. Make yourself friendly with them at their myspace or their very own website.

Here’s a little bit of film I managed to catch, a performance of the song 'O Little Heart'.



And, in a further attempt to convert you to his cause, here’s my favourite ever Mount Eerie song:

Wooly Mammoth's Absence (MP3)

It’s taken from the Seven New Songs of Mt. Eerie EP. Phil’s website sells loads of goodies, and though this EP is currently out of print, the ever generous Mr Elverum has provided the whole thing for free download. All you have to do is go to this site (which seems to be down right now but I’m sure it’ll come back soon).

I’ll see you later in the week.

Issue 7

There’s more than a whiff of retro-ism about Issue 7 of Sleephouse Radio. But am I apologetic? Of course not—you have to know your history to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. And with so many musical thieves out there these days, just waiting for the appropriate opportunity to pass off some old tat as their own work of original genius, you can thank your lucky stars that Sleephouse is here to disseminate the good from the bad. What follows is the good stuff, artists that take from the past but add something new to it in some small way. There’s a genuine lost gem of an oldie too.

To listen, simply download the audio file of the show (by clicking the image below) or use the flash player in the sidebar. This show can also be subscribed to as a podcast by copying the address of the RSS link in the sidebar into the podcast receiver of your choice. It’s all so simple…



(40MB, 43 mins. MP3 file)

1. Jens Lekman: A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill (Secretly Canadian)

Nothing adds to the career of a pop singer like a bit of “will he?/won’t he?” speculation. Devotees of this politely spoken Swede were dismayed earlier this year when reports emerged of his intention to quit the music business for an extended period of soul searching and life adjustment.

Thankfully, whether this was actually a fully-formed idea in the mind of Lekman or just a bit of unsavoury media insinuation, Jens now seems to have shelved the plan and is throwing himself into his musical career wholeheartedly. He’s got a spritely US tour in the offing and will hopefully soon follow up his intermittently magnificent album, When I Said I Wanted to be Your Dog, with something truly befitting of his genius. This track comes from the rarities and b-sides collection Oh You’re So Silent Jens and it shows that the young man knows a thing or two about how to make a track sound classic.

2. Sunset Rubdown: A Day in the Graveyard II (Global Symphonic)

Just what a “Sunset Rubdown” involves is anybody’s guess. But as long as it’s soundtracked by this talented Canadian (Spencer Krug, Top Right) and includes a “happy ending” then count me in.

Long before Wolf Parade took the maple leaf to parts unknown, Spencer Krug’s bedroom project Sunset Rubdown has allowed his musical creativity free reign to develop unchecked. To be honest, this made for music that was pretty hit and miss: plenty of towering highs but plenty of indulgent lows too. But let’s not be too hard on the boy, after all he was a member of the first incarnation of Frog Eyes at the same time and one’s creativity can only stretch so far, right?

Sunset Rubdown is a different proposition these days, however. Now decked out with a full complement of permanent band members, and preparing to release the album Shut Up I am Dreaming, it seems they have sharpened their focus dramatically. The songs still meander and sprawl in an alarming number of different directions, but they now satisfy the listener with a distinct sense of purpose. As is evidenced from this song, taken from an album teaser of an EP released on Global Symphonic earlier this year, what was once a sideline could end up overshadowing Spencer's already successful day job.

3. Lilys: With Candy (Manifesto)

When The Shins shot to fame and Natalie Portman uttered those immortal words in the film Garden State: “[They’ll] change your life.” The Lilys frontman Kurt Heasley must have a cursed a blue streak a mile long. The Lilys have toiled in indie mines of obscurity for years now, forever on the lip of mainstream acceptance but always having to settle for the frustrating moniker of cult band.

Well, with their new album, Everything Wrong Is Imaginary, just dropped, hope may come from the unlikeliest of sources, that of a potty-mouthed ingénue helming a two-piece shoegazing band who write songs with titles like 'You Fuck Like Your Dad'. That’s right Annie Hardy of Giant Drag, NME’s latest flavour of the month, is a big fan of Lilys and can be found on her website spouting the following eulogy:

“What am I so excited about that I feel the need to exclaim it?! […]i will tell you what i am excited about: the new Lilys record! […] why are the lilys the greatest? i suppose the bigger question is why don’t more people know and love them? is everyone way dumb or has there been some foul play? i suspect a bit of each. tell your mothers all you want for christmas is the entire lilys catalog. oh, and giant drag’s hearts and unicorns...sorry, they make me say that.”

Well, the girl does make a point now, doesn’t she? Why haven’t you bought this record already? If you haven’t, and you own a copy of either Oh Inverted World or Chutes Too Narrow, at least do the decent thing and support the band that made all this possible. That band, my friend, is Lilys.


4. Euros Childs: Costa Rita (Wichita)

The Welsh have always have always exhibited a very particular grasp on reality. And before you go burning down my holiday cottage, let me say that I’m almost always a fan of any music that appears from this valley-riven and well-mountained territory. Converted to the power of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci during a particularly extreme doubleheader of gig headlined by a pre-crap Spiritualised at the Sheffield Octagon in 1997, I’ve been a devotee of their mushroom-headed psych pop for a good few years now.

I’ve always seen Euros Childs as the driving force behind Gorky’s and that (perhaps unfair) assessment is born out by the evidence of his first solo album Chops. Mellifluous harmonies ride on the backs of donkeys while Bossa Nova beats help sell ice creams on a British sea front. Hardened cynics may find Childs' world a tad too sugary sweet, but anyone who’s inner child has survived into today’s brutal adulthood will be delighted by an album that flouts reality’s usual conventions with such glee. No album will turn this spring into summer so quickly as Euros Childs’ Chops. Play it loud, open your windows and coax nature into action.



5. El Perro Del Mar: God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get) (Memphis Industries)

Phil Spector’s ludicrously vain afro looms large over many a new hope for music this year. Up and coming acts like The Pipettes and The Long Blondes both owe a certain amount of their studied charm to Spector’s patented Wall of Sound/Girl Group template.

But despite the undoubted talent of the aforementioned artists, no one nails the ethereal calm and otherworldly appeal of the old nutter’s music like El Perro Del Mar and her song ‘God Knows’.

El Perro Del Mar is the gorgeous work of sultry Swede Sarah, who gained a fair amount of deserved attention when she appeared on a split release with fellow countryman Jens Lekman last year. She’s recently signed to Memphis Industries and is preparing to release an album from which ‘God Knows’ shimmies forth. A song so classic the Twelve Inch probably smells of thirty-year-old dust and charity shops, and were there any justice in the world this song would be number one with a bullet. This song aims for great things and hits the target dead centre. If only the beleaguered Mr Spector had done the same. Don’t miss it! Shall I go on? No…you got it, right? Here’s a hint.

6. Mia Doi Todd: My Room is White [Flying Lotus Remix] (Plug Research)

If there’s one genre that Sleephouse has ignored in the past, it’s hip hop. Call me a hopeless indie white boy if you will (hey, I deserve it), but I just don’t feel qualified to direct you to the next big smoking hip hop joint, blood. (Though: Gnarls Barkley--now I like the cut of that young fellas jib, what what?)

But I do know a crispy fried beat when I hear one and if the grapevine is anything to go by then Flying Lotus is set to be the next big producer in the leftfield hip hop world. He might sound like your favourite Chinese restaurant, but the way Flying Lotus chops and dices Mia Doi Todd’s ‘My Room Is White’ would make this song dish of the day in many a fine establishment.

To be fair Mia Doi Todd might have something to do with it as well. Her smoky tones have always eluded me in the past, but the soon to be released remix album, La Ninja: Amor and Other Dreams of Manzanita, from which this song is taken, might just have hooked me. I look forward to investigating these artists further, and should you wish to you can do the same. Set browsers to stun and teleport to Myspace station A or B.

7. Add N to (X): King Wasp (Family Recordings)

Jarvis Cocker has a funny name, a funny dress sense and, on the evidence of the compilation album The Trip (Family Recordings), a bloody funny taste in music too. But like his unlikely moniker and his geek chic threads the music presented on this album just plain works.

Put together in collaboration with his fellow Pulp-ster Steve Mackey, The Trip is fantastic journey through the baroque and freakish record collection of these two northern gentlemen. Lee Hazelwood rubs shoulders with the Birthday Party, while The Fall barge past 60s crooner Gene Pitney spilling his drink all over OMD and The Human League. Yup, it’s hardly your average post party comedown mix. In fact, were you to slip this on in the company of the average popped-out pillhead you’d have to scrap him off the ceiling before you’d got round to the second CD.

A song with particular paranoia-producing prowess is this crawling king snake of a song from late-90s boffins Add N to (X). Originally released in 1997, with a 3D cover illustration no less, this is a true lost wonder that buzzes white hot noise all over Bo Diddley’s gently shuffling ‘50s slacks. Absolute crookedly, crackling genius.

8. Screaming Lord Sutch: Flashing Lights (Family Recordings)

Screaming Lord Sutch might be better known as the perennial comedy vote in British General Elections of the ‘80s: His Monster Raving Loony Party was the only welcome political raspberry any child growing up in Thatcher’s Britain could look forward to on the Election Day 5 o’clock News. I will always thank Lord Sutch for his humour and steadfast commitment in the face of certain defeat and many a lost deposit. He brightened my early life. Little did I know that he’d also been a pop star in waiting in the early '70s, one that unfortunately failed to launch into the famous firmament.

In this second song from The Trip compilation Cocker and Mackey have dug up a great cod-psych work out that, despite the critical panning that all Sutch’s albums received, 'Flashing Lights' is actually a hell of a lot of fun. Consider, too, that it features some supremely muscular session work from the recently Led-Zepped Jimmy Page (who also produced the album) and John Bonham and an unemployed Noel Reading (fresh from his dismissal from the Jimi Hendrix Experience). Even more interesting is the fact that it appears to be the place where the Stones Roses originally plundered their fool’s gold. The cheeky Manc monkeys.

9. Liars: The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack (Mute)

Emerging from the smoking rubble of the NYC new wave explosion at the turn of the millennium, Angus Andrew and his fellow Liars found themselves missing half their band and a captivating musical direction.

Settling down as a three piece, and trying to live up to the frighteningly gargantuan hype that surrounded their debut They Threw Us All in a Trench… Angus and the boys decided musical salvation lurked in a sound roughly similar to the kiss of an angle-grinder on sheet metal and a hastily thought-out predilection for the occult. Unfortunately critics disagreed with this belief, and their second album They Were Wrong, So We Drowned was widely panned as an unlistenable folly.

They returned this year with a counterpunch of sorts, an album that’s most definitely listenable, and might just be their best work to date. It’s called Drum’s Not Dead and ‘The Other Side of Mount Heart Attack’ is the next single to be taken from it. It’ll be released on April 11th on Mute Records.

That's all for this issue, but don't forget to check out the Sleephouse Notes Blog for updates between times, and don't forget that you can now add Sleephouse Radio to your livejournal friends page. What's next?! Myspace? Why, yes.