The Good Natured - Video Voyeur (No Ceremony/// Remix)

Unlike commercial publications who in order to attract readers / hits  have to feature certain artists that meet the demographic of their audience, being truly independent means we can do what we like. This is what fan journalism is about. There’s no reason for us to feature the latest buzz act (hello Azealia Banks) if we don’t love their music. However, if we want to feature a whole weeks worth of adoring gushing N-Robz (hello Nicola) posts we can. We could even rename our blog The Nicola Roberts Appreciation Society if we wanted to without any worries about loss of readership through re-branding.

So today here’s a remix. We’ve been long-term lovers (and when we say long term we mean in the sense of the timescales of music blogs, which in the main operate at a hump ‘em and dump ‘em speed of about 2 milliseconds) of The Good Natured and have been getting quite frisky with No Ceremony/// of late, so when you put the two together for a bit of a remix orgy the chances are, as a fan, we’re going to get quite excited and jump in to enjoy the fun.

Like any coupling there’s usually someone who’s a little more dominant and in this case it’s No Ceremony/// who are in the driving seat, so for balance we’re also streaming the original Good Natured track, a solo effort (no we’re not doing a masturbatory pun on that) which we didn’t post when it first came on line as we were busy with all of our end of year run downs. Play both, but don’t deliberate the differences, that’s like comparing a girlfriend / boyfriend with a previous partner. Just enjoy each one for what they are.

The Good Natured - Video Voyeur (No Ceremony/// Remix)

The Good Natured - Video Voyeur

Happy Hunting - New Waves

Happy Hunting is a new multi-instrumentalist boy-girl duo from north-west London who create sensually brooding dark flotation-tank pop. Like all the best pop it’s not straightforward, crafted as it is from eerie atmospherics as much as obvious hooks. Having started the project last summer Happy Hunting released their debut EP Pitchblack through Bandcamp (here) back in November 2011.  A further release, which is likely to simply be called Happy Hunting is being planned for this new year together with some live shows. The four songs on the Pitchblack EP have a fractured beauty that brings to mind bands such as Visions of Trees with less dance flavoured sensibilities, Purity Ring with less emphasis on synthetics and a hint of the more mystical textures of Bat For Lashes. They make soundtracks to the fragile switch of the twilight hours with tumbling drums, shadowy synths and accomplished feminine vocals.

With their monochrome video and blurry press shots it could be easy to assume that Happy Hunting are going down the whole mystery band approach (which let’s be honest is so 2009/10 these days) but thankfully they’re not; for Happy Hunting have already revealed that they are siblings named Alex and Jana with a wide range of influences from the likes of Bjork and Beirut to the more dubious disposition of enjoying metal bands. They’ve also stated that they would like to play shows in more unorthodox venues than typical bars and clubs and certainly we could imagine their music suiting the likes of crypts, churches or maybe a lost misty forest.

Come the witching hour you might just find yourself falling under this duo’s spell. You have been warned, let the magic commence.

Happy Hunting - My Life Is A Mess

Happy Hunting - Immorality



Happy Hunting - Pitchblack

Clock Opera - Once And For All (Video)

In the nicest possible way, Clock Opera have been around the block a bit. It was back in the olden days of 2009 when we first proclaimed “we love Clock Opera more than our own children.” The reason? Mainly because of this song – Once And For All, a jubilant life affirming piece of pop music that was inspired by a theatre show called  Once And For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen. (Click on the link for the trailer)

Now two and a half years later Once And For All has been re-recorded and readied for release with this new video - an album finally follows in spring. If the test of the best music is time then Once And For All succeeds in every damn way. No matter how many times we hear it this song makes us want to stand up, punch the air and truly believe that 2012 will be incredible.

Watch, listen and make sure your ceiling isn’t too low when you feel your fist rising upwards in glory. Oh and it's OK, our own children still love us, despite our proclamations of having to take second place. They understand our obsession with music.

Clock Opera - Once And For All (Video)

Patterns - New Waves

One of the well-used ways of exploiting the internet to get your music heard is the You Tube cover version. Normally the domain of below average acoustic acts in their bedroom, the typical indie band is less likely to use such methods of self-promotion, wary of how they may be perceived. Thankfully Manchester 4 piece Patterns don’t seem to be concerned about being cool or uncool; having last year posted a rather trippy version of All Saints number 1 hit Pure Shores online. It’s no acoustic bedroom version of course, with reverb laden vocals and worming psychedelic organ sounds filling the space like a bunch of choirboys sneaking a spliff at the back of a cathedral.They have also taken to covering Blue Jeans by Lana Del Rey live, putting their own creepy and near-menacing stamp on it.

Patterns are not just some sort of drug dream cover version band though. Having started out with the terrible moniker of Elmo Logic, a change in name brought about a change in musical approach, with a more sample and electronic direction to their previous straightforward indie guitar sound. With two releases to date – the debut New Noise EP and the persuasive single Induction (released through Melodic Records) Patterns have already picked up some deserved blog and radio exposure.

Patterns possess a bucket full of woozy psych-pop cleverness that stirs layers of textures and pop sensibilities together to create something that we like a lot. Treat your ears, click play below and see what we mean. The word potential is often an awkward one to use when describing music, but Patterns do seem to possess it.

Patterns - Induction

Patterns - Broken Trains



Patterns - Pure Shores