This is a band with a Father Ted joke held in high standing on their myspace profile. They also hold the mighty accolade of being one of the “best [top four - see flyer] Irish indie bands in London”. I recently saw frontman Conor Fahy perform a solo set at an acoustic night in Archway. He sits down with acoustic guitar and leather jacket and says “this is a song about East London”. GGRROOAANN!!! this is gonna be a barrel of laughs…

As expected, it wasn’t. It was very good though. He spoke over the music, instantly reminding me of a dub poet called Linton Kwesi Johnson. Despite his accent and accompaniment being so different, Conor had a very similar rhythm and intonation to LKJ and does an updated job of describing London with refreshing honesty.

Even though the Small Horses’ songs are not as politically powerful or outwardly frustrated as those of LKJ, in both cases there is a political note to the observations of life in London. Where Johnson saw historic riots and police brutality, Conor sees empty vanity and meaningless celebrity. Both poets refer to the BNP, despite being separated by over 30 years (Johnson’s “Independent Intavenshan”, 1979; Small Horses’ “Newspaper Boats”, 2010). Conor uses the line “No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish”, a ban now lifted in the vast majority of London pubs.

Anyway, I really like this stuff, and they are playing the Dublin Castle on St. Patrick’s Day (17th March, people. 17th March.) They were giving their CD away free at the gig, so I don’t feel bad about putting a track here to download. Listen, it’s great, and they are lovely guys.

—click here to download the Small Horses’ track—

Talking Sages is (is/are? corrections welcome.) a new band of improvising musicians and freestyle MCs founded by Trumpeter Pete Horsfall. The raps are clever, the beats are well constructed and archive113 has five tracks for you to download. Have a listen. Done.

Bill Zoot – Vocals
Twinky Blu Tac – Vocals
Pete Horsfall – Trumpet and Composition
Dave Shulman – Alto Saxophone
Ruth Goller (Calum Gourlay on recording) – Bass
Dave O’Brien – Keys
Mike Clowes – Drums

— click here to download the Talking Sages tracks —

These guys are very hard working indeed. Inbetween recording/touring/self-releasing (on vinyl, no less), Staz assures me she is finding time to send the occasional copy of their music to Japanese record stores. Hip.

They are launching their new single, WINNER (not sure on its capitalisation status) at the Old Blue Last on the 25th of February. Go to it.

You can see the video —here—

Bitches – Winner from PEACE BITCHES on Vimeo.

photo by Dave Hamblett

Three tracks from London drummer Dave Hamblett available for free download, exclusively at archive113:

Dave Hamblett – Drums
Tom Farmer – Bass
Huw White – Rhodes
Josh Arcoleo – Tenor
Joe Wright – Tenor

Recorded live at the Con Cellar Bar in Camden on the 11th January 2010…

— DOWNLOAD ALL THREE TRACKS ON MP3 HERE —

The Dave Hamblett Quintet will be performing live at Charlie Wright’s International on Thursday 18th February 8pm.

DOWNLOAD HERE

LISTEN ON SOUNDCLOUD

Featuring:

B.F.G. (4:30) – “Usual”

Pete Truin – Tenor Sax
Nat Keen – Guitar
Joshua Blackmore – Drums
Huw White – Rhodes/Synth
Jon Harvey – Bass

BITCHES (13:31) – “Cholula”

Blake – Bass/Vocals
Staz – Drums/Vocals

George Hogg Quintet (19:28) – “What Lurks Beneath”

George Hogg – Trumpet
George Crowley – Tenor Sax
Kit Downes – Piano
Calum Gourlay – Bass
James Maddren – Drums

The Receeders (25:21) – “”

Brett Alaimo – Guitar/Vocals
Kate Nash – Bass/Vocals
Jon Jackson – Drums

Photo by Flickr user Kathyp

The Receeders? Yes, the Receeders. Everyone who wants to talk about anyone is talking about them and this Hot New Rock Band is preparing to take the world by storm. For their last gig, at a bar in East London, they had prepared three songs. Legend has it that they played their set twice through, despite the house lights being brought up in a futile attempt to usher the crowds out at the end of the night. Such rock ‘n’ roll abandon has not been seen in this country since the hay-day of those controversial rockers – not to mention indie bad-boys – .

Can this really be true? Could the Receeders be here to scrape away the layers of grime( – or /electro/ or folk/ or indie/dance/  rock…) building up around the bleeding gums of pop music?

To find out, I caught up with the band.

This bristly trio consists of bassist Naweeder Receeder, guitarist Tony or something, and drummer Shit the Duck, with vocal duties being shared between Naweeder and the guitarist. Neither Naweeder nor Shit (the Duck) remembers the guitarist’s actual stage name and – true to form – he doesn’t either.

The Receeders are currently recovering from January-so-far in wild preparation for their next gig.
“There’s only so much TV we can watch before we need to get back to the music, y’know?” offers a uniquely lucid Naweeder. “You watch Come Dine With Me, right?”

There is something in it, though. In performing their music with such a throwaway sense of fun, this band gets away with great pop melodies without the slightest whiff of cheese.

The Receeders play at Hoxton Bar & Grill on the 18^th January, and feature on the forthcoming archive113 mixtape (UPDATE: mixtape guest featuring the receeders here)

Songs bad for your teeth include:
If I Could Turn Plaque Time by Cher
Too Flossed In You by Sugababes

Songs good for your teeth:
Shine by Take That
Mouthwash by Kate Nash

photo by Flickr user Ewan-M

Formerly home to the Loop collective’s weekly offering, the Oxford in Kentish Town is a fascinating place in which to hear music. Performances take place in or near the corner of the L-shaped room, upstairs in this well-positioned gastro-pub. There are many leather-bound chairs and it occasionally smells of rich mahogany.

Curling up on a warm chair with a good beer in a North London pub must surely be one of the best experiences in the world and the music promises to be just as good. One quick glance at the programme for the next couple of months reveals a flurry of names familiar to anyone who’s ever read the Jazz, World, Folk, etc. section of the Guardian’s Film&Music pullout.

(Aside: That section can be a messy conflation of totally unrelated records with something for each of us but nothing for all of us. But I always seem to end up with it in front of me every Friday lunchtime.)

New curators George Crowley and Josh Morrison seem to have done a great job cramming the foreseeable Tuesdays with inspiring, original music and I’m sure the atmosphere will be as friendly and welcoming as it always has been.

The first Jazz @ the Oxford is on the 19^th January featuring French band ‘Q’ and the Alex Bonney Quartet. See the Facebook Group for full listings.

BITCHES are the husband-and-wife duo of siblings Staz and Blake.

Staz is an old band-mate of mine from waybackwhen. We were in a ska-punk band together based in the Didcot area (with one gig which didn’t take place in a garage or garden, which was in Hermitage).

I recently found her loitering in a copy of the NME which had found its way into the studio:

Now, Staz has sent me a couple of BITCHES tracks to put up on the blog. One of them was recently recorded and sounds quite “tasty” (and, I suppose, post-rockily feisty). The other is much tastier, as it is named after a favourite foodstuff of mine. However, I am saving this one for a forthcoming release. For now, you will have to cope with the higher-quality track.

It is called “Can Not Love” and you can click below to download it…

—download BITCHES’ song here—

Look out for their upcoming 7″ release (although I’ll probably plug that too once it’s out) but for now,

enjoy! x

This week, we received a letter from our very special friend, George Hogg. It read thus:

Dear Archive 113,

I am a big fan of yours, and wondered if I could put my music on this splendid website.

I know I look a bit like the Haribo kid, but I play a mean horn.

Lots of love,

Hoggy xxx

Now, children. How could I turn down a request like that? I couldn’t, that’s how. No matter how desperate he made himself sound. Anyway, here are some fascinating facts about the tracks you can listen to:

1. Gone (Hogg)
   • George Hogg – Flugel
   • Calum Gourlay – Bass
   • James Maddren – Drums
2. If At First You Don’t Succeed (Hogg)
   • George Hogg – Trumpet
   • George Crowley – Tenor
   • Calum Gourlay – Bass
   • James Maddren – Drums
3. Where & When (Hogg)
   • George Hogg – Flugel
   • Kit Downes – Piano
   • Calum Gourlay – Bass
   • James Maddren – Drums

So there you have it: Three wonderful tracks from several wonderful musicians. Hope you enjoy them!

—CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD GEORGE HOGG’S TRACKS—

or, alternatively, here:

• Gone
• If At First You Don’t Succeed
• Where & When

Troykart

The Constitution in Camden is an unassuming Pub. I feel like I’ve never seen it in daylight, even though I definitely have. Its cellar, which opens up onto the towpath of the Grand Union Canal, is home to one of the most progressive and intimate jazz nights in London, organised and curated by trumpeter Richard Turner. The music is of a consistently high standard and the audience is rarely without a handful of London’s jazz elite. A few weeks ago, Jazz @ The Con Cellar celebrated its third birthday.

Opening the evening with a solo set was saxophonist James Allsop. He has such facility that for breathless minutes he blows away and there is nothing he cannot do. While his command over the instrument is impressive, there is a level of communication in his playing that is as inanely beautiful as the bric-a-brac surroundings of the Camden basement.

Like, yeah, man. {ginger between sushi}

\\

rice rice rice (no rice – con cellar birthday buffet)

enter Troyka.

(Chris Montague, Kit Downes and Josh Blackmore – all brilliant)

Guitarist Montague introduces one of the tracks: “this is a song by Nirvana” and I automatically flash back to some guys who used to play together before school band every Wednesday afternoon.
They always played Smells Like Teen Spirit.
They never sang.
It was never very good.
But it always had us mesmerized: the little kids, who were too young to have known about it all when it actually happened.

And then we all got Nevermind. Except I didn’t. I think they had sold out of Nevermind at HMV and I had to settle for an on-sale copy of In Utero from Modern Music in Abingdon. I listened to this album non-stop for ages. I remember having it in my discman on the bus to orchestra every Saturday morning. I loved it. While everyone else in class was discussing Come As You Are and Polly, I had to bluff along the conversation. They didn’t care for Serve the Servants or Rape Me.

Troyka weren’t playing Lithium or In Bloom: Troyka were playing Heart Shaped Box. Troyka were my new best friends.

Their disconcertingly bipolar sound revealed more about this music than I had ever noticed before. They showed me – or rather my fourteen-year-old self, also at the gig – that there are many dimensions to Nirvana’s songs which have not been explored. Heart Shaped Box demonstrated Troyka’s powers to me in a way other tunes couldn’t have: While there were even more exciting moments in their set, the fact that this song is embedded so deep in my memory made me listen very closely. I wanted to know why they had chosen it…

Nirvana’s music is one of extremes: From the eerily quiet to the painfully loud, the pretty and delicate to the noisy and indestructible. One of the things Troyka did was expand this to include crushing leaps in tempo and the ingenious improvisation which makes all of their performances so engrossing. The result was a musically distinct yet hair-growingly familiar rendition of one of my forgotten all-time favourites.

Of course, such musical development can be heard in all of Troyka’s work, and it reaches fantastic extremes of its own in their original compositions. However, in Heart Shaped Box I could hear the investigation I had always wanted into music I had not really listened to in nearly a decade.

- Soon after the gig, I listened to In Utero all the way through, twice in a row. And I loved it. Twice. I have since lifted my embargo on Seattle.

P.S. For a ruthless defence against the jokey-jazz-cover-of-a-pop-song accusation, look no further than The Bad Plus’ blog.