Songs From Santa's Sack #6 - Summer Camp - Last Christmas

“Weaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy kidz! Santa ‘ere again and gez wot? I’m out of ma f*ckin’ tree! This sherry has been goin’ down a treat! Even betta than last Christmas. Which rmeindz me. Last Christmas by that George Michael c*nt and that absolute W*NKER Andre Ridge Pole or whateva 'is name his. For f*ck's sake, what a TUNE! Not as good as Mariah of course, but still a tuneeeee all the same. No idea who this Summer Camp lot are, but the bird in the band looks hot enough to melt my snowballs and whilst I’m at it the bloke can have have a go at warmsley-ing me up in whateva method he choosis as well. Even betta, lets have a Christmas threesome! After all it’s the time for goodwill to all men and womenz. Where’s that Rudolph? Oi'll tell yer wot, he can join in wif his big shiny red nose as well! Ho ho ho.

Well I’m done in. All the presents are delivered, I’m absolutely bolloxed. See you next year for more songs from me bulging sack of happiness.

Wishin’ yer all a happy Christmas and all that. Breaking More Waves is having a couple of days break but will be back very soon.

Ho bloody ho, merry Christmas! This is Santa signing off. It's Christmaaaaas!!!!!!"

Summer Camp - Last Christmas

Summer Camp - Fresh

Now all the hype surrounding Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories has settled down we think it’s about time that we went on record and said that we think it’s rather glorious. It’s a record that seems to break so many rules about what people expected of Daft Punk, destroys the notion that it’s not possible to make big expensive sounding pop records any more (Thom Yorke take note with regards to your recent comments concerning Dark Side of the Moon and how it couldn’t be created today), is like a love letter to music and in its sound makes us feel incredibly warm and nostalgic. The question now is will any other artists embrace Daft Punk’s love of prog-disco and give us further Saturday night fevers?

First out of the box shouting yes to this is Summer Camp as Jeremy and Elizabeth return with a new single. Fresh sounds as summery as a 99 Flake (that's an ice cream for you non UK types) with a dollop of disco guitar and pop melody on top.  It’s like a low budget indie version of Daft Punk, right down to the promo picture with two helmeted wearing dudes on a motorbike. Nothing will ever beat Pulp’s Do You Remember The First Time for songs about doing exactly that but Fresh does a damn fine job of getting close.

Summer Camp - Fresh

Summer Camp - Life

Music appreciation is made up from the fabric of relationships. The relationships we have with songs, with bands, the people we go to gigs with; they’re all bonded through the emotions of love, hate, sexy one night stands and intimate long termism’s.

The internet has changed relationships though. Facebook and other social networks have given many people the sense of having many of them, but the depth and quality is actually very superficial. Our relationship with music is similar; it's now one of constant turnover. We see music bloggers making proclamations of how they adore a particular new record or artist and yet just a few months later they’ve ditched that music for something shiny and new. We recently asked on twitter a high profile 'buzz' blogger about an artist (Lana Del Rey) that at the start of the year he was proclaiming almost undying love for. He admitted that in the last three months he hadn’t played her album at all. This it seems is how some people live with music these days. Everything is becoming a short term shallow f*ck.

Ladies and gentleman we are living in the upgrade generation where for many, nothing holds any lasting emotional value any more.

As a music blog we fully recognise we have the potential to be part of the problem with our constant posting of new music. Yet so are musicians, who with modern technology can create and upload to the internet the wealth of new music that is out there. And as soon as something is available on line, somebody will hear it, blog it, tweet about it or post it through one of the hundreds of other channels that are now available. Just like the first hot adrenalin flushes of a relationship where two people meet and are attracted to each other, when you hear something incredible, something exciting, something that thrills your heart you want to tell the world about it.

Not only are we living in the upgrade generation we’re part of the sharing generation, created through the code of the web.

So today we’re sharing the new Summer Camp song with you. It’s called Life.

But our relationship with Summer Camp is not a one night stand, far from it. When they first appeared on line with a bunch of smudged washed out 80’s pop referencing songs we didn’t find them attractive at all. Interesting possibly, but not attractive. Yet as time has gone on they’ve become ever more appealing. In December 2011 their debut album Welcome To Condale almost made our Top 10 of the year and if we rewrote that list now it would have found a place in it. The first time we saw them live we certainly weren’t dazzled, but their recent headline show at the Scala in London bowled us over with goodness.

Our point here is that sometimes all of this upgrading and sharing means that we can easily dismiss something and never return. As we’ve said before the most important ingredient of good music and great artists is time. We wonder if one of our favourite bands of all time – The Cure – would have ever stood a chance of the long term if they’ve had if they had been born out of the internet age. Would they have been quickly upgraded for something else?

So listen to Life below. To our ears it sounds like Giorgio Moroder has discovered an indie vampire disco. It’s taken from a new 5 track EP called Always which will be released on July 9th. If you like what you hear why not buy the EP and then in six months, if you’ve moved on to your new fancy, remember this blog post, dig out the EP and give it a spin. It might even sound better than you remembered it the first time.

Summer Camp - Life

The Saturday Surf #31

This post represents a slight slowdown in the output of Breaking More Waves over the next few weeks, and the last Saturday Surf until mid March. We try to post once or twice each day to give regular visitors something new to read and listen to, but with the vast majority of the content being created by a sole author sometimes real world / life commitments get in the way and mean that time is a scarce resource. In the next few weeks that resource is even more restricted than usual.

So for just a short while we’ll be reducing our output to about 3 posts a week, before ramping it back up come the middle of March.

In the meantime here’s a round-up of tracks that we caught this week that missed out on a full blog post – and they’re all top-notch.

Elliphant – In The Jungle

To use a bloggers cliché this one dropped in to our in box yesterday and has been gyrating around our ears and twitching our brain all day. Hailing from Stockholm, Elliphant are a brand new act associated with Ten - a music production company who also have worked with fellow Swedish acts Icona Pop and Niki and the Dove. Imagine The Ying Tong Song by The Goons colliding with some turbo-rave rhythms, M.I.A and a bit of Eye of the Tiger by Survivor with some overly (but brilliantly) long electronic caps over the top to spark it all off. It’s stupid, but in all the right ways and if we had a song of the week award this would be it. Bonkers but bloody brilliant.

Substatic – Arcadia

Last week one of our blog buddies and possibly the finest electronic music blogger in the UK (Electronic Rumours) put on a fantastic show at 93 Feet East in London with a whole host of Breaking More Waves approved acts including Queen Of Hearts, Kid Kasio, a Ronika DJ set and this lot – Substatic who shook it up like an earthquake with a set of hedonistic, dirty, funky, bassy electro tunes. Here's a new one - it's called Arcadia. Warning this track comes with a 'may cause dancing like a certificate 18 sexy copulating robot' sign. Extra marks are awarded for including a picture of Arcadia's spider stage on the picture of the Soundcloud player - if the song is a tribute to that place then it certainly has the right late night festival vibe.

Summer Camp – Losing My Mind (St Etienne Remix)

Summer Camp’s 2011 album Welcome To Condale was a surprising triumph. Fundamentally it was a pop album that people that sneer at pop music could like, if that makes any sense. With St Etienne (one of the best pop bands ever – fact) gearing up for their umpteenth album release this year (that is to say their first album this year but their umpteenth in their history) they put their name to this remix, that surprisingly isn’t as pop as you would expect – in fact it takes a darker route to the heart. But it works.

That’s it for now, we’ll be putting the brakes on from next week (but not stopping fully and our twitter will still be pretty active so follow us there). Have a good weekend and we'll be back in a few days.

A Letter To Santa

Dear Father Christmas

I know that I’m a bit late sending you this letter now, but to be honest in this day and age I thought you would have embraced technology and had the internet installed up at the North Pole. I’m sure Sky or Virgin would do you a good deal, even in your cold distant location.

However in the absence of email, this slow piece of snail mail is sent to wish you and all your elves and reindeer a very merry Christmas and to let you know that I’ve been a very good music blogger this year. I’ve not told any lies, have kept my room tidy and have left you a mince pie and a small sherry by the chimney when you visit. However after last year’s blog fiasco where you drank far too much, were very rude to all the nice Breaking More Waves readers and ended up claiming that you’d f*cked my mum I’m only leaving a very small sherry for you this time. I’m sure you’ll understand. It’s in everyone's best interests.

I’ve also been a good blogger this year as I’ve stuck to my beliefs of not blogging something just because it’s ‘cool’ or a ‘buzz’ track, but because I like the music (even if a couple of the artists I’ve written up have ended up a few months on becoming some of the biggest new acts of the year) and also not being afraid to blog about pure pop music as well as fuzzy lo-fi dirge, folk music, indie bands and melodic singer songwriters, because that represents my tastes. It’s why Santa, that I believe that fan journalism / blogging is a very different form of journalism from professional journalism and should be built around the ethos of supporting the artists you love and nothing more, whereas professional journalism has a different underlying core motive – to make money for the journalist.

So Father Christmas, please, please, please what I’d really like for Christmas are a whole bunch of ace new bands and tunes to tell those who visit my blog about. That would be lovely.

Have a good Christmas Santa, in return here’s our choice of three enjoyable Christmas songs for you to listen to whilst you finish off your last minute present wrapping, packing and sleigh adjustments prior to your gruelling day.

Happy Christmas, don't binge drink the sherry

Love Robin xx

Dog Is Dead - Christmas Wrapping (The Waitresses Cover)

This Christmas by Fairline

Summer Camp - All I Wonderful Christmas Is You

Camp Bestival 2010 Review - (Part 1)

The third Camp Bestival was the biggest and without doubt the best yet. Now establishing itself as one of, if not the best family-friendly festival in the UK, Camp Bestival sprinkled fairytale magic throughout its Lulworth Castle site and kept both adults and children alike entertained for the whole weekend. Camp Bestival may have had some teething problems in its first couple of years, but rather like the giant glow in the dark tulips in the enormous kids field, now it is really blooming. Amongst the colourful flags and bunting that adorned the site a friendly, safe, relaxed vibe was present that showed that festivals really can be for everyone. The only problem was that there was almost too much to see and do. From an incredible fireworks display over the castle, to watching jousting, wandering through the woods to find the petting zoo, to the insect circus, fancy dress, cocktails, the House of Fairy Tales, the East Lulworth Literary Institute, dancing to a Rob Da Bank DJ set of old school classics from The Jam to Michael Jackson in the Isle Of Boden it was almost possible to forget the live music at all.

But live music there was, with a line up that satisfied everyone from the very young (Mr Tumble), the quite young (Calvin Harris, Tinie Tempah, Example) to the old (Billy Bragg, The Human League). New music was also well represented with acts such as Visions of Trees, Summer Camp, and Charli XCX. In spirit Camp Bestival was more akin to the eclectic and anything goes spirit of the first three Bestivals before it grew into the bigger beast it is now, albeit with far more push chairs.

So when punters weren’t watching festival goers narrate a chapter of their lives in the Literature Tent, smiling at the 40’s / 50’s stylings of Mr Wippy and the Conettes performing odes and dances to ice-cream from the inside of an ice-cream van parked on the castle lawn or laughing at the range of comedy in the big top later in the evening, there was still time to watch some music on the main stages.

Backed by his dancers Derek Japan and Kevin Peters, a.k.a Double Penetration, the Bestival legend that is Barry Peters Halifax Hospital Radio got the party started with a conga across the Castle Stage field (pictured above), whilst blasting out nostalgic 80’s anthems and organising a skipping competition on the grass. It encapsulated the Bestival spirit perfectly - a mix of random humour and originality - a long way from V Festivals and such like of this world. “C’mon girls, don’t be shy, your mother weren’t,” Barry announces to get the crowd going in his fake Yorkshire accent. Who needs a comedy tent?

Example wasn’t the only artist on Friday who had to announce that he was late because of traffic congestion around the site, but the hard-working rapper/ singer soon caught up for lost time with a slingshot of electronic pop bangers that delivered the goods. “If you see somebody not bouncing I want you to grab their arm - even if they’re in a wheelchair,” he announced and the front half of the field bounced as one. There was a high-energy Radio 1-ness to his performance, but with the glorious summer anthem Kickstarts and the dirty electro of Hooligans, it was difficult not to be won over.

Over in the Big Top blog favourites Summer Camp’s hazy chunk of keyboard pop wasn’t quite as distracting. Innocently cool, Elizabeth’s vocal drifted with an almost country-tinged effortlessness, and whilst Summer Camp were fine, they didn’t dazzle.

We had mixed views about Lissie’s Catching a Tiger back in June, but her live performance to Camp Bestival was faultless. Her nicotine-yellow-smothered vocal was tender and beautiful, managing to make a cover version of Lionel Ritchie’s Hello seem less a guilty pleasure and just a pleasure. The guitar riffing Cuckoo made a sound case for her being the new star of AOR rock - her Stevie Nicks referencing drawl charmed the crowd who watched her.

Still in the Big Top, Breaking More Waves favourites Stornoway drew a decent sized crowd, but much of their quiet folk-pop intimacy was lost as they battled against sound bleed from the nearby Bollywood Bar. At least however Stornoway didn’t have to announce as both Lissie and Example had, that they had been delayed in traffic - typical of a band that seem to embrace themes of nature, travel and romanticism, they had arrived via the Swanage ferry. Songs such as the Thames inspired On the Rocks and Fuel Up were still acutely intricate, beguiling and life-affirming whilst the trumpet heightened Zorbing received the cheers it deserved.

Worst performance of the weekend came courtesy of Tony Da Gatorra and Gruff Rhys, whereby the lead singer of the Super Furry Animals disappeared the whole way up his musical anal passage. Standing in front of banners that proclaimed ‘The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness’ Gatorra played an instrument that is best described as half drum machine - half guitar, whilst his vocals rambled like a lost hitchhiker over hilly layers of ambient noise created by Rhys. It was an embarrassing psychedelic experimental mess, with complete disregard for melody - a performance designed for the statement “What planet were they on?” By the end the crowd were shouting the name “Billy, Billy” over and over again in anticipation of the Bard of Barking and when Rhys announced the last song, a big cheer sounded. Whilst Neon Neon was a credible Super Furries side project, this wasn’t.

“Not bad for an old bloke,” jokes Billy Bragg sipping a cup of tea. He’s right. In fact he’s far better than not bad - his set being an inspiring community singalong. “I feel a total jerk, before your naked body of work,” he crooned with touching warmth and awkwardness on Sexuality. The anti-fascist Accident Waiting To Happen was as lyrically powerful as ever and a great tune to boot. By the time he delivered a passionate speech about his pride for the young people of Barking and Dagenham coming out to ensure the BNP got a poor result in the election and that cynicism is the greatest enemy, his status as elder statesman of socialism and pop was assured. He rounded things off with New England and a mash up of Marley's One Love with lyrics changed to “Let’s drop the debt and it will be alright," and showed that passion and belief in what you do will always have greater longevity than shallow fashion.

It was a rewarding end to a first day, with the promise of more great live music that would please all-comers to follow the next day.

Lounge on the Farm 2010 - Review

There’s a very relaxed vibe to Lounge on the Farm festival, Merton Farm near Canterbury. The sun helps this atmosphere - it shines powerfully all day, but the new local authority licensing restriction that limits punters bringing their own alcohol onto site is also a significant factor. With the smell of cow pats not far away and a market area that retails only locally produced food (even the farm itself sells edibles made from its own livestock - a properly sustainable burger that hasn't travelled hundreds of miles in production) Lounge on the Farm has a welcoming local / village feel. Inflatable cows hang from the steel frame of the huge cowshed that forms the main stage and punters sit by the bandstand at picnic benches soaking up the rays and enjoying delicacies such as kipper in a bun and Russian stuffed vine leaves - not your typical festival food.

Whilst the majority were in attendance for the full three days, Breaking More Waves was at Lounge on the Farm 2010 for just one day; the motive being that Moshi Moshi and Wichita Records host the small Sheepdip Stage on the Saturday.

Things open at the Cowshed Stage with a sample from Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped. As the words “I ain’t gonna take it no more,” boom out Liverpool’s Kids On Bridges plough through a short set of booming chest vibrating electro-pop. The band seem totally out of place with the general organic vibe of the event with members sporting a blue metallic hoody, bleached blonde hair, sportswear and shades. The skewered slabs of disco synth on Check Your Head add a sprinkle of gold dust, but it’s just too damn early for most. A case of wrong place wrong time.

Alice Gold fares a little better - flicking her golden locks backwards and forwards in a demented fashion to her blend of adult friendly FM rock - although her strong passionate voice loses something in the empty echoing heights of the cowshed.

A walk past the farms flag lined sweet corn fields leads to the sunflower covered bandstand where The Momeraths are giving a gentle lesson in everything twee and lower case. Xylophones, quietly cute vocals and summery girl-boy melodies, they’re like the long lost cousins of Belle and Sebastian circa Tigermilk, and go down rather well with the sun-kissed crowd who are busy consuming Kent ice cream and cider.

Heading under canvas, The Sheepdip Stage is where the too cool for school fashionista’s can be found. In sweltering and rising temperatures of 30 degrees centigrade there are kids here wearing retro jumpers - they’ve either left their brain in another field or have a very good deodorant. Veronica Falls try to bring the temperatures down by adding icy attitude with their lo-fi early 80’s U.S styled indie garage rock, complete with shambling guitars, flatly sung female vocals and pouting red lips. There’s a significant number of bands mining the C86 gone stateside genre right now, and Veronica falls are digging with the rest of them. One for the old-school indie elite.

“You’re such an attractive festival crowd - I thought you were all going to mingers,” announces the leopard print clad Elizabeth Sankey of Summer Camp with a smile as the band begin their experimental pop. No doubt after three days of sun and cider by Sunday evening there will be less beauty and more mingers. Summer Camp get only moments in before the sound cuts out. A few minutes of frantic action by sound technicians sort the problem and the band recommence their woozy Beach Boys influenced synth-layered pop. The band are motionless verging on invisible and it's left to Elizabeth to be the star of the show, her voice clean with an almost country-esque twang. There’s a charm to what Summer Camp do, even though occasionally they let muso cleverness get in the way of pop sensibility. If they can keep the shackles on they could be as beautiful as the audience.

Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit draw the biggest audience of the day so far -albeit it’s still bums on grass at this point - and are incredible. Johanna and Klara have a raw, enchanting quality in their live performance that as yet they have not fully replicated in recorded form. Using just delicately picked acoustic guitar, autoharp, keyboard and drums their sound is quietly romantic - their mournful harmonies sounding agedly ghostlike. When they sing acappella “I don’t know what I’ve done, but I’m turning myself into a demon,” on Tiger Mountain Pleasant Song it’s breathtakingly moving. Ending with rich majesty of I Met Up With The King, their voices in turn gravely and lullaby smooth, it’s no wonder that the crowd applaud for an encore.

Besides the pullover wearing indie boys Australia’s Sarah Blasko has also arrived in the Cow Shed from the school of inappropriate festival attire. Wearing a blue tartan dress and leggings she announces “I didn’t realise it could get this hot in England.” Despite her fashion fail she is quirkily engaging with her puppet-like dancing, unselfconscious marching and note perfect songs - the spectral wail on All I Want is particularly affecting, a snow capped misty mountain romance, even on this sweltering day.

It’s inevitable when the weather is this warm that this is going to be the main talking point of the day, and so it continues. “Has anyone got sunburn?” questions Rebecca from Slow Club as a packed Sheepdip tent slowly melts. Slow Club are never going to be a slick pop band - their ramshackle unpolished country-rock-folk -skiffle style is part of their charm. Today at least they manage to get through their set of both old and new songs without any of them breaking down halfway - that in itself is a result for them. From yelling gang hollers to sweet harmonies Slow Club have it easy - most of the crowd are ready to lap it up, even if Rebecca notices that one man in the crowd is screwing up his eyes and shaking his head negatively - she suggests he’s right though - “essentially, we’re shit,” she mocks. Songs such as Trophy Room with it’s acoustic thrash and pensive “Oh oh oh,” sighs oppose this argument -the single man in the crowd was wrong.

The top end of the site pays host to the Farm Folk stage, where a mellow crowd rests on hay bales under pink drapes. Looking like a younger David Bowie or James Dean, Alan Pownall and his band play a set of fine well crafted songs that are perfect for this near sunset moment. His sound is warm and mature, laced with violin and gentle percussion. Occasionally there’s a reggae lilt to his tunes, elsewhere they’re of the more heartfelt singer songwriter style. Explaining to the audience that he was late getting here due to traffic, it seems his journey was worthwhile.

As night falls the Sheepdip stage alters its musical direction from indie / folk / pop to vibrant electronic geekiness. The numbers in the tent dwindle, but it leaves more room for dancing. “At least my nails had time to dry,” jokes a member of Silver Columns after a late start due to the dreaded technical hitches. With flashing lights all over their microphones and kit, their relentless electronic burbles sound a lot like a humorous high energy Hot Chip, and on Brow Beaten -a song which really deserves a shot at the charts re-release -a modern day Bronski Beat. Bridging the gap between audience and stage, one of their number hauls a drum into the crowd and plays from the floor to the bemused faces of onlookers.

Gold Panda continues the geek-core dance revolution wearing a T shirt emblazoned with a Tampax logo. Waves of ambient noise give way to gentle electronic chimes, crackles and then stuttering jerky beats of brilliance. His futuristic flow gets the crowd dancing spaz-like - by the time he wraps things up with Quitters Raga the temperature has been cranked up a notch again.

It’s left to James Yuill to finish the small crowd who remain off. We’ve called James the thinking mans Calvin Harris before, and this seems to be truer than ever. The bespectacled high priest of geek electronica rolls out electro-pop / folktronica bangers by the bagful under a beautiful vision of kaleidoscopic slides. It may now be midnight, the temperatures may have cooled outside, but Yuill ensures that Lounge on the Farm continues to sweat it’s head off until the very end of the day.

Lounge on the Farm 2010 - what an absolute scorcher.

You can see more photos from Lounge On The Farm 2010 by clicking here.