Music That Made Me #15 - Underworld - Born Slippy

Music That Made Me is a weekly personal and autobiographical dip into the ocean of memories and music. Its intention is to look back and celebrate some of the songs that have provided the soundtrack to my life. The picture above is of my eldest daughter, now aged 12, 'catching the sun'.

In 1997, on New Years Eve, or Hogmanay as she would prefer to call it, my girlfriend jumped suspended only by a bungee cord off a high rise platform in Queenstown, New Zealand. Exactly one year later she gave birth to our first daughter.

In life before children I had never given a thought to becoming a father. When we first told people of our impending new arrival the reactions verged from happiness to a state of shock. For those who were used to seeing me at the latest London indie club necking lager and my girlfriend out on the town in the latest trendy Soho bar, cigarette in one hand, bottle of red wine in the other, the idea of the two of us becoming responsible adults seemed near impossible. If truth be told, we found the idea pretty incomprehensible ourselves. The jokes about how long it would be before Social Services were called were probably a bit too close to the truth. It’s 100% true that the day that my daughter was born was the first day I’d ever held a baby.

Yet that day, something changed. As clichéd as it sounds I felt absolute and instant love – a natural rush of chemicals through my body that I’d never experienced before. I remember the midwife passing me the baby and being shocked at how wide her eyes were – I’d been led to believe that babies were born all puffy eyed and red looking – yet here was this beautiful tiny little thing looking up at me with the widest eyes I’d ever seen, staring straight into mine. It didn’t feel at all how I’d expected it to feel; awkward, terrifying, me a useless father. It felt completely natural, exciting and absolutely incredible.

That night I drove the short distance home to our humble 1 bedroomed modern flat in Slough, Berkshire whilst my new family rested in hospital. I was absolutely buzzing and as people scurried down streets, their breaths streaming above them, I was completely unaware that it was New Years Eve. I’d been awake for over 50 hours by this point and should have been sleeping, but my body was still bursting with adrenalin. Eventually I began to drift off and in my slightly addled state of mind heard fireworks in the distance – I honestly thought that they were celebrating the birth of my daughter.

A couple of days later my girlfriend and baby came home. It felt so calm, so relaxed. It wasn’t the hell on earth that everyone had told me it would be. Both of us found that actually, dealing with a new born baby was OK.

Every new parent struggles with sleep to a certain extent, but we found a number of tricks to get our little one to drift off; the vacuum cleaner switched on, the continuous whir of extract fan in the bathroom and to my absolute pleasure – music. Yet rather than sweet nursery lullabies we found the best song to get our daughter to snooze was something that two years before we’d been punching the air to in clubs such as Popscene ‘the dance club for people who like bands’ and Blow Up - the track that the seminal film Trainspotting had made famous -Born Slippy by Underworld.

Fixers - Crystals

If Iron Deer Dream by Oxford’s Fixers was the bands calling card, then new song Crystals is the moment when they storm the palace with a huge harmony led battering ram. It’s a gloriously energetic stomp through the back catalogue of Animal Collective and The Beach Boys, firmly establishing them as one of the most exciting new groups in the UK right now.

Of course Fixers sound is more widescreen U.S west coast psychedelia than traditional UK indie pop, but this is because Fixers embrace cosmic intent and sonic ambition rather than down at heel averageness. They may be playing black painted stinking lager strewn indie clubs right now, but wherever they go their sound soars with light and majesty far removed from the miserableness of those dark toilet venues.

Summer is on its way and Fixers could be the perfect soundtrack for stripping off and dancing like a loon – who wants to join us?

Crystals will be released on May 9 as part of the bands next EP. It will make your summer.

Crystals by Fixers.

Vanbot - New Waves

There’s something a little bit valuable about Robyn. She somehow manages to straddle hip club-bound hedonism and commercial electro-pop sounds with a certain sort of cool underground knowingness that means that whilst she’s never become a massive household name, she’s managed to stick around long enough to be appreciated.

So it probably comes as no surprise to find that as the pop-clock ticks on towards yet another year of nothing-lasts-forever dreary X-Factor contestants (Joe McElderry where are you now?) that a number of Robyn sound-alikes have popped up. We’ve already featured Neon Hitch and now here’s another. Her stage name is Vanbot, and she very much falls into the imitation is the highest form of flattery camp, but that’s fine, because in terms of pop, we’d rather have 100 Robyn-a-likes than 1 Joe McElderry.

We’ve done the mathematics for you and really all you need to know about Vanbot is this simple equation: Vanbot = Ester Ideskog + From Sweden + A lot like Robyn = A very good thing. Her new single Lost Without You is a free download, which for the sake of one click on the arrow on the player below is possibly the best thing you will do today.

Lost Without You by Vanbot

The Mystery / Enigma Philosophy

“The job of the artist is to deepen the mystery,” Francis Bacon once said, and recently a number of newcomers to the scene have embraced these words as a philosophy. The masked space-disco anonymity of Monarchy, the non-communicative aloofness of Wu Lyf, the shroud of intrigue of who-are-they electro kids Just A Number 05272011 – a group that even with their name hint at something future happening – all of these acts are enigmas, leaving music bloggers and press perplexed and panting for more, with very little except the songs and the secrecy to write about. And if you're like us, endless descriptions of what the music sounds like and who the artist compares to is yawnsome - especially when we can press play on a music blog and decide for ourselves. What we really want to know is has our new favourite band slept with anyone in the music industry and what's their favourite cheese.

Everyone likes a good back story. Pop music culture wouldn’t be the same without elaborate tales of how bands met, what they stand for, their state of mind and everything that gives them meaning to people beyond the tunes. But these mystery bands are seemingly not aiming to please in that way.

With a back story even the most discerning music lover can be swayed by the blurb of words. How would you feel about a band if you read the following? “This group of Brit School graduates were formed when Jessie J quit her pop career and turned to management. The 4 girls, all themselves daughters of various TV personalities, are her first signing to her new record label and their debut single will be produced by the same team that worked with the likes of Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.” Unless you are the most open minded of people you’ve probably already made some assumptions about what the music would sound like and based on those assumptions may not even have bothered to give the band a chance. We’re nearly all prejudiced with our assumptions to a greater or lesser extent.

This is why perhaps some bands prefer to be anonymous and be judged on the music, but it's a risky business. It can pay dividends but can also lead to the artist being shipped out to the graveyard of pop pretty damn quickly. With no information the listener has nothing to make judgements about except the music. If the music is good then the artist could be out of the starting blocks; but there are pitfalls to beware of.

As more and more bands adopt the game of giving little away, bloggers, the press and the public become cynical and weary of the approach – passing on bands because they don’t have enough to buy into. The mystery approach can add intrigue and clothed sex appeal to a band, making you want to know more, wanting layers to be stripped away to reveal the full naked story. Yet this very approach can backfire - it can leave fans feeling a lack of ownership of the band – people want to buy into not just the music but the whole ethos of the artist. Sometimes music on its own isn’t enough.

So mystery bands beware. If enough isn’t revealed in the long term the fan generally moves on – and even when we get to know about you, if you’re personality and character are dull it’s going to be hard to stick around as well. So Wu Lyf, Monarchy and others, make sure you know what your favourite cheese is. For now, here's the music.

I Won't Let Go (Bag Raiders remix) by Monarchy

Gold In The Fire by Monarchy