Tracks of the Week – 23 October 2011

Matthew Britton is our human blog-music aggregator, kind of like Hype Machine but with feelings and shit. Every week he goes, puts on his rubber gloves and trawls the darkest sewers of Soundcloud, reporting back to TLOBF with his findings. Sometimes he strikes gold, sometimes just faeces, but one day, maybe, just maybe, a band covered here will play an actual gig in front of human people. We continue to live in hope.

Whether it’s been made official or not before, Autumn is the time of year that hipsters most enjoy. Summer is all about bronzed-bodied lads having it off with horrible, shimmering woman in Ibiza, wearing swimming costumes and strutting about, whilst the pasty white boys sit back at the hotel room, trying to connect to the free wi-fi. Autumn comes and the lads have to return to their jobs on building sites and lives of verbally abusing woman over cheap bacon sandwiches, whilst hipsters get to wear a nice coat, layer up, think about that nice hat they’ve had their eye on and, most importantly of all, call in sick because they’ve got the sniffles. A true joy. So, whilst you piss your life away, kicking up damp, decaying leaves and talking about what togs are in this season whilst sneering at the underclasses, these are the most relevant and exciting tracks from this week that you can accompany your middle class bile.

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Female Band – One Day The Sea Will Swallow Me

First up: a bit of a weird one, really. If you were a fan of Pocahaunted, or if you’ve ever listened to Jay Reatard and wished it was one girl from London channelling all of his energy, then this is for you. For those looking for feel-good times, harmonies or melody, it’s best to skip on. One of those rare, unearthed soundcloud gems, even Female Band’s name hints that this wasn’t really meant for wider public consumption, but there’s a haunting quality to the piece that hooks you in as a listener. Live shows should be starting about February: we expect drooling boys and a lot of noise.

Female Band – One Day The Sea Will Swallow Me

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Hourglass Sea – Dream Warrior / La Concorde

It’s difficult to draw the line between a fan and a fanboy – perhaps it’s when you start becoming heavily defensive of an artist, or purposely forcing them upon a bewildered audience who’re too polite to stop to bombardment – both of which this column does on a weekly basis. Whatever the distinction, it’s fair to say that Hourglass Sea has at least one fanboy, and you’re going to be seeing every new release he puts out on these pages until you’re part of the same camp or you’re begging for it all to stop. Your choice.

Hourglass Sea – Dream Warrior/La Concorde

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The Louche FC – Hands

Here’s a new one: The Louche FC are not only a real band made up of real people playing actual songs, but they’ve actually managed to play some live shows to people who have paid pounds sterling to see them do so. In another peculiar twist, they’ve already had one single out on SWAYS records and they’re set to have another out on the same imprint, and Hands comes from the sessions – yes, sessions – that went towards making it. If this is one of the offcuts, imagine how sweet the stuff committed to wax is going to sound.

The Louche FC – Hands

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Summer Heart – My Favourite Smile

The epitome of blog famous, your friends from school might not have heard of Summer Heart (and if they have, they’ve spent a lot of time on blogspot), but ‘My Favourite Smile’ is actually good enough that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to play it back to them if, by some cruel turn of fate, you were forced to give your long forgotten half friends musical tips. Yeah, it’s chillwave, but it’s the acceptable face of it, glo-fi with just enough gloss on to make it palatable.

Summer Heart – My Forever Smile

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Little Black Ant – Sleep

Getting over the disappointment of missing Binnacle last weekend was easy for three reasons; firstly, the fact that many of the bands playing had already been forgotten about by the time their set had ended meant any gloating by attendees was quickly curtailed; second, the experience of simply following the #binnacle hashtag whilst laying in your bed and listening to random bleeps was likely just as enjoyable; finally, this little snippet from Little Black Ant, one of the stand-out performers of the festival, quelled any remaining doubt.

Little Black Ant – Sleep

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Kelly Rowland – Dilemma (BNRY Remix)

Treat this as you would a Destiny’s Child remix: it doesn’t need any justification to exist. Kelly was only a third (and, at some points, even just a quarter) of the best girl pop band to have ever existed, and even if Beyoncé has stolen all the subsequent good vibes, BNRY wouldn’t make a chopped up masterpiece from any old popstresses effort. We’re still waiting on the ultimate ‘Bug-a-Boo’ rework though.

Kelly Rowland – Dilemma (BNRY Remix)