xxyyzz transmission episode 3 (march 2017)

The latest edition of xxyyzz transmission, hosted by Glen Byford, goes for a slightly different vibe to previous months, but is still full of the best new and recent music around

To help keep up with all the artists featured in xxyyzz transmission episode 3, a full track listing features below, including relevant links to music streaming sites or social media accounts where possible.

1. Missy Elliott - I Give You Power feat. Mavis Staples
2. Wiley - Common Cold
3. Reel Feels- She Said
4. Deep Throat Choir - No CD
5. Silver Liz - Didi At Night
6. Trash Castle - Black ft JME & Dizzee Rascal
7. Cloud302 - What's That (Is It a Monster?)
8. Skrillex - Raoul
9. Fatboy Slim- Mister Mental
10. Soul Link - Jacknife And The Death Call
11. Wood N Head- Teenage White Boy
12. Cruel Waves- The Dead Guy
13. The xx - Hallelujah Money feat. Benjamin Clementine

xxyyzz transmission episode 2 (february 2017)

February of 2017 brings with it our second edition of xxyyzz transmission, the new music podcast hosted by Glen Byford, and a chance to look at a number of artists that have released albums and singles since the start of the year.














To help keep up with all the artists featured in xxyyzz transmission episode 2, a full track listing features below, including relevant links to music streaming sites or social media accounts where possible.








1. Arcade Fire - I Give You Power feat. Mavis Staples
2. Recessive Genes - Common Cold
3. Sundara Karma - She Said
4. Loyle Carner - No CD
5. Disco Vumbi - Didi At Night
6. Donae'O - Black ft JME & Dizzee Rascal
7. Young T & Bugsey - What's That (Is It a Monster?)
8. The Automatic - Raoul
9. The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster - Mister Mental
10. The Shimmer Band - Jacknife And The Death Call
11. Sit Down - Teenage White Boy
12. Al Bob Bidwell - The Dead Guy
13. Gorillaz - Hallelujah Money feat. Benjamin Clementine

New Podcast: xxyyzz transmission episode 1 (january 2017)

January 2017 sees the launch of xxyyzz transmission, a new music podcast hosted by Glen Byford with the sole aim of sharing and enjoying good music.

Below you will find an embedded stream and full track listing for Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle's brand new podcast

It felt like a natural progression from writing about music to actually filling your ears with music and talking about it too, so to mark the start of a new year we look at the one just passed, in the form of new music from new artists, new music from older, more recognisable artists, and older music from older artists still, those that are sadly no longer with us to witness whatever 2017 may bring...

Some of these artists have already been featured or reviewed on Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle, and others are sure to feature prominently as 2017 continues to unfold...

To help keep up with all the artists featured in xxyyzz transmission episode 1, a full track listing features below, including relevant links to music streaming sites or social media accounts where possible.

And thanks also go to Ian Byford Art for specially creating the artwork for our new podcast.

1. Warpaint - New Song
2. Annie Keller - Sandwishes
3. Catholic Action - Rita Ora
4. Idles - Well Done
5. Sit Down - Candy Bar
6. Beyoncé - 6 Inch (feat. The Weeknd)
7. Childish Gambino - Redbone
8. Centau - Over You (feat. Hanna Marie) reviewed on Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle
9. The Invisible - Dreamscape reviewed on Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle
10. Poet Palms - Opaque Motive reviewed on Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle
11. David Bowie - Little Wonder
12. Prince - Black Sweat
13. George Michael - Freek!
14. Mac McCaughan - Happy New Year (Prince Can't Die Again) reviewed on Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle
15. Sagar - You're Free To Try Again
16. Rag'n'Bone Man - Human

#ThrowbackThursday presents Tayalarz vol.6: Spectral Vapre (february 2014)

The Tayalarz mixtape series began life as a musical scavenger hunt, a quest to source free music and present it in the classic format of putting one song after another in order to create a customised recommendation of good music.

Now these mixes have found new life as one continuous, flowing mix upon the shores of mixcloud, and despite the passing of time I feel these still stand strong as seasonal soundtracks to the months that spawned them.

We now present, for the first time ever, the long lost 6th volume, due for release in February 2014, but delayed and derailed by errant artwork....

And so, embedded below is Taylarz vol.6, ahead of a new music project from Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle that'll be hitting mixcloud before the end of the month.....

From February 2014:

With enough wallowing in January done, we are now galloping ever forward with 2014 and, although it may be a little behind some of my contemporaries, the February edition of the Tayalarz mixtape takes a look at some of those tipped for big things this year, as well as featuring a few of some of our own discoveries and favourites that we hope to hear a lot more from as the forthcoming months progress

Only time will tell who will make it and who will be left behind, but for now let's just enjoy the majesty of their music, sourced for free via a number of blogs and websites and all compiled into a neat little list of links masquerading as the following tracklist

and for the last time, the artwork was provided by Ted Joyce, as it has been for the previous two months also, who not only has displayed his talent as a graphic designer, he also displays his musical skills as the lead singer of Decoy Jet who are featured in this very mixtape

1.  The Dexters - Oceans (demo)

2.  Decoy Jet - Georgia

3.  Circa Waves - Good for me

4.  Chloe Howl - I wish I could tell you

5.  George Ezra - You don't have to be in the army to fight the war

6.  FTSE - a little sumthin

7.  Foxes - White Coats

8.  Neon Jungle - Braveheart

9.  FKA Twigs - Water me (Hunchback remix)

10. Ancient Mermaids - luvu 2 pieces

11. Sheen - Lovelust

12. Guardian Ghost - The Wilderness

#ThrowbackThursday presents Tayalarz vol.5: Lemons Rubik (january 2014)

The Tayalarz mixtape series began life as a musical scavenger hunt, a quest to source free music and present it in the classic format of putting one song after another in order to create a customised recommendation of good music.

Now these mixes have found new life as one continuous, flowing mix upon the shores of mixcloud, and despite the passing of time I feel these still stand strong as seasonal soundtracks to the months that spawned them.

And so, embedded below is Taylarz vol.5, ahead of a new music project from Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle that'll be hitting mixcloud before the end of the month.....

Link to original post and full tracklist from january 2014

Mac McCaughan - Happy New Year (Prince Can't Die Again), single review

So.... 

that was 2016...

And for the majority of responsive adults that managed to keep their eyes open and senses as far from dulled as was humanly possible for the entire twelve months, it is perhaps a fair conclusion to make that it was a rather messed up year.

I'm not here to document every notable passing or offer commentary on human tragedies and political unrest, I'm simply here to bring everyone's attention to a little ditty that was recorded on Christmas Eve of this year, and rings true with many of the sentiments that we have felt flowing through us at some point or another.

Happy New Year (Prince Can't Die Again) is joyful in its sadness, it is poignant in its power of empathy, it is good-spirited in the face of another year that will soon be upon us before we've barely got to grips with this one.

none of us know what will await us, and it almost felt as if all hope had left us in 2016 and that 2017 is just another impending threat... but we can greet it with a song on our lips more apt than Auld Langs Syne...

Happy New Year.

The Invisible - MK-ULTRA, album review

MKUltra... A prime example of heightened paranoia and the conspiracy theory culture that has risen in the digital age alongside omnipotent social networking and a right-swiping society with a deteriorating attention span, although the US government's illegal mind control programme may not be as prevalent as tinder and snapchat, it has certainly taken its rightful place in the niche corners of the internet that firmly believes the world's most popular music artists are among the highest order of the illuminati...

Whilst Rihanna and Jay-Z's suspicious status has yet to be proven, MKUltra is (or was) very real, and has given birth to a creative response among the arts that plays on our fears of government power.  Forget off-shore tax havens and shady allowances made for second properties, for there are far more sinister strings that have been pulled in an attempt to create sleeper soldiers through mind control and experiments with LSD.

More than 40 years since proof of these practises came to light, The Invisible, aka Enfield multi-instrumentalist Jake Bradford-Sharp, takes this subject as inspiration for his debut long player, a concept album that not only threads together a fictionalised account of an MKUltra test patient but also weaves together a rich tapestry of musical influences that reach back through the decades almost as far back as the controversial practise itself.

The 60s psychedelic influence of Pink Floyd is an obvious one to tag this release with, along with the expansive and progressive sounds of the 70s that could be heard emanating from the likes of Yes, but harder edged guitar riffs call to mind rock titans such as Black Sabbath, and a far more recent touchstone would also be Muse, who have managed to fuse stadium rock with a sense of the overblown and an overbearing theme of paranoia and political mis-trust.

Perhaps the strongest thread that runs through this accomplished debut is a home-grown predilection for British eccentricity that is not only self evident but also self serving in the aforementioned works of Syd Barrett, Rick Wakeman and Matt Bellamy, and is explored here through no mere pastiche or doe-eyed hero worship, this has been seriously crafted in a way that blends musical styles and extravagant opuses without feeling bloated or over-reaching, and I constantly have to remind myself that this is all the work of just one musician... in fact the involvement of others could possibly have diluted such an ambitious and focused piece of art.

Here is an album that challenges you to put aside distractions for its duration in what is another conscious decision to go against the grain of modern music, and each track opens itself up to deeper dissection of both a critical and literary nature... I hear shades of Tom Vek in brief opener Inside Voices, but I also hear an awakening experience, there are three key tracks that each have their sights set on reaching epic proportions standing tall within the framework of the album, but the shifting sonic identity within these longer tracks and the flow of the album raises the listener's own questions as to whether one track has truly ended and another one yet begun, surely a reflection of the inner turmoil and disturbed psyche of MKUltra patients.  Recollections of mind-control experimentation collide with musical experimentation perfectly, and This Drug, The Discovery, and Dreamscape all are fascinating in their ability to hold your attention as they unravel over an extended run time, again I'm reminded of the paranoid stadium rock of Muse, but also of mostly forgotten early-noughties vanguard noiseniks The Cooper Temple Clause and (the sole American group brought to my mind) The Flaming Lips, and their own uncompromising approach to making music since the band's inception, except right now there isn't a single pink robot in sight...

Each listen reveals further depths not only in the sonic construct of MK-ULTRA, but also in the storytelling that the 'concept' of the album is pinned upon, providing a cohesive story structure that complements and mirrors the equally cohesive marriage of myriad styles and sounds.