It’s been a good eight months since there’s been any mention of The Young Republic on here, which must be some sort of record. So it’s time for an update. They’ve been busy - trying to crack their home country, recording not one, but two albums, changing line-ups (bye Nate and Bob, hello Wes) and moving to somewhere called Sky Mountain in Tennessee. If that all sounds a bit Oh Brother Where Art Thou, just wait till you hear their new ol’ time country and bluegrass album, naturally called Music From Sky Mountain. It’s all good stuff. The other album is Hipster Blues and British Birds and contains the Panda Bear-baiting Hipster Blues and a song all about Abi from the Zutons.

Anyway, enough waffle from me. I’ll leave it to frontman Julian Saporiti himself to fill us in on some more of the happenings in camp YR.

I last saw you on the last night of your UK tour in November. There seems to have been a lot happening since then - what’s been going on?

I suppose that was less than a year ago but it seems ages longer. We’ve really taken the time to make a home up on Sky Mountain here in Tennessee. When we’re not on the road, we’re constantly recording new records for ourselves or other bands in our studio.

How have you been going down across your homeland?

After spending a couple of years mostly concentrating on the UK, we’ve made an effort to try and tour around the states more. We’re starting to see the fruits of our labor pay off I suppose, but like with all things YOUNG REPUBLIC, it’s a slow and steady climb. It sure is good time though.

Two new albums this year - have you hit a purple patch of songwriting and recording form?

No purple patches, just the same ol’, same ol’. I reckon having our own studio and micro-label allows us to record a record (or two or three) when we feel like it and then press it up and sell it online or at shows without waiting three months or a year to time the release. That’s nice.

Does Music From Sky Mountain herald a new country direction for the YR, or is it a mere interlude?

That’s something we’ve always been doing, or at least, I have growing up in Nashville. This year the band started to do a set of old timey country music during the day to try and make more income on the road to support our nightly electric music habit. The first few times we performed, we received loads of requests for CDs and were selling them Balletesque. We felt poorly about doing this as Balletesque is a big loud monster of a record and the busking set is pretty low key. So, during a three day break from the road, we cut a bunch of songs I had written in this style and threw on a few tunes from this part of the country and there you go, an album was born. It’s just what we do during the day -farmer’s markets, street corners, pedestrian malls etc -  and at night and forever we are a rock n’ roll group. Music From Sky Mountain is the Bruce Wayne to our Batman (do British people like Batman?) but funnily enough it has outsold Balletesque about 2 to 1 in the states. Some day people will hopefully get that we just like to play all these different styles of music. Might as well right? If we’re good at ‘em, well that’s for the audience to decide, but sometimes that hillbilly music hits the spot.

We can obviously buy these albums from your website, but can we expect ‘proper’ UK releases?

To be quite honest we haven’t gotten any definite plans from End Of The Road on putting out any of the new material we’ve released this year, which is a shame as we are very grateful to our UK fans and wish they could pick up a nice copy of the new record in stores WHEN it’s new. By year’s end we plan to release the proper follow up LP to Balletesque and I’d like that to come out in the UK and Europe regardless of who helps it gets there, so we might try and push for that to happen some way or another. It’ll all come out eventually, but I do think it’s kind of odd that we’ve put out a new record and then another one and the people who own our old ones might not even know.

What have the hipsters done to you?

They’re all fine people. Just being cheeky. That’s what you guys would say right?

On This Girl’s Got Legs For Miles you sing “I can’t wait to tour again in the UK”. So when you coming back over?

Whether we have to fly ourselves over or have some help in that department, the talk has been to try and make it over for the fall season of next year. We miss you guys and I really do want to meet the chick from the Zutons…

I love the reworking of Girl From The Northern States. I’m all for this sort of revision. Can you rework Goodbye Town for me when next play London?

Well, thank you kindly sir! We’re an accommodating and well mannered young band, so if you say jump and we’ll say how high. Would a speed metal version with Chris singing in German work?

mp3: The Young Republic - Girl From The Northern States (Sky Mountain version)
mp3: The Young Republic - Bronagh

Buy the two new albums from the band’s website. The YR tour the US from Saturday till 11 November (see myspace for full dates). All fans over here, sit tight for another year.

Another artist who’s recently been overdue space on The Daily Growl is Dan Michaelson, former Absentee frontman and all-round East London good guy. It hardly seems any time since the release of his debut album Saltwater with his band The Coastguards, but that was 18 months ago and he’s about to hit us with a whole new long-player - Shakes - due in October. Before then though he’s releasing a limited single Love Lends a Hand on his own Editions label, and it’s another great tune in the classic Michaelson mode, gruff soulful Americana, which along with the fine b-side Without is a tasty taster for the new record. Here’s what Dan had to say about these records and a few other things.

1. I’m very lazy, describe the new single in five words.
Faster-Than-My-Average-Speed.

2. I loved the debut Coastguards album - what should we expect on the new one?
It has a different feel. I felt that I wanted a less smooth sounding record this time so I stripped everything back to its bones, giving each part loads of space. Its resulted in quite an odd sounding record I think. It’s intentional but not necessarily what I intended, which is good. Things should never turn out exactly as you thought; that would be boring. Song-wise, it’s a return to a more band orientated record. With the last album I recorded the songs on my own and we built the Coastguards parts around what I’d done. With the new record Shakes, we wrote everything together and recorded in a more traditional way.

3. You’ve formed your own label for this release - what’s the story behind that? Are there plans for other artists releases on it?
I think I’ve just taken a very long run up to self releasing.. we were recording and paying to make our own records as far back as Absentee’s Victory Shorts album, then licensing them on a label. It’s not a massive jump after that to self release. Not that it doesn’t make me nervous, it does, but I’m having a great time doing it at the moment. Until I have to actually try to sell some records it will probably remain that way. Issuing loads of short run editions of the single and album would probably been impossible on a “proper” label, too many people involved and whatnot.

4. Who are the Coastguards on the new record?
The Coastguards are now the group that solidified from a year of touring. we started off the last record with nine people that would drop in and out of gigs depending on who was available when. the band was different every night. after 3 or 4 tours a core group seemed to have appeared and they remain the backbone of the whole thing. We started writing new material together which ended up being the new record. those men are Henry Spenner, Sanjay Mitra, Laurie Earle and Horse,

5. Have you got any live plans around the new record?
We have bits and bobs booked in all over the place but probably wont tackle a proper headline tour till December.. let it sink in a bit first!

Here’s a reminder of Saltwater

mp3: Dan Michaelson & the Coastguards - Bust

Love Lends a Hand is out on 13 September and Shakes is released on 4 October. Buy the single from bandcamp or pre-order the album from Rough Trade.

Dan and the Coastguards play a gig next Tuesday (31 August) at The Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell, for all you London people to get  a taster before the tour sinks in.

I don’t want to go on about my blogging absence of late and how busy I am elsewhere, but it’s precisely that which has prevented this feature from appearing much earlier. Ideally, it should have appeared at the start of the year, when long-time Daily Growl faves Left With Pictures started their new In Time project, releasing a song every month of this year. It didn’t of course, but here it is now, in the form of a short interview with band leader Stuart Barter.

I’ll leave it for him to explain more about In Time and all that involves, but before that I’d just like to say two things. First, the new material, despite being produced under pressure to a strict timetable, is excellent and any resulting album will probably be the best thing they’ve ever done. And two, the line-up for their Fleeting Fanfares gig on 5 September is one of the best I’ve seen in ages, so London people - get ye down the Queen’s Head that day. Now read on…

Tell us a bit more about the In Time project

In Time is a project in which we release a song and video at the end of every month in 2010. Each new track is debuted on Gideon Coe’s 6Music show on the last Monday of the month, and we email mailing list subscribers a free mp3 the following day, posting the video on our website. So in short, we have to come up with a new song and video every month!

The idea came after we finished and released our album at the end of last year. We already had new material which we wanted to get out, and we didn’t want to disappear for another year working on a new album. Plus we wanted to start a proper band website - which we didn’t have before - so posting a new video every month seemed a good way to get people to visit it!

You’re now up to month 8 of the In Time project - how’s it going so far?

Well. There are always songs you like more than others, but I’m very happy with the material overall. Plus, we’ve now got far more people on our mailing list, which is really important as it’s our main communication tool with our fans. I can’t deny it has been hard work - but I think it’ll prove to be worth it.

How are you managing that crucial balance between producing good songs and doing it within a fixed time?

With In Time there just isn’t the opportunity to sit back and think about things, you just have to go with the best idea you have at the time. There isn’t the chance for songs to have their usual quality control process of playing them live, demo-ing and getting feedback etc. The result is that it feels much more risky when we’re putting these songs out - sometimes NOBODY else has heard them before we send them to Gideon Coe’s producer. There’s much more of a feeling of uncertainty. So far the feedback has been really good though, which is lovely. There’s still time for a howler though - 5 more songs to come!

How’s the video side of things going? You said at the start of the year that you might struggle because you didn’t know 12 film-makers. Have you managed to rope a few more in?

We’ve had to do a couple of them ourselves (which was good fun) but quite a few film-makers have come out of the woodwork since the start of the year, which is great. We have almost no budget for the videos, so we’re relying on people’s good will - people have been very kind so far. The difficulty is that we can’t deliver the final tracks to film-makers until shortly before we need the videos finished, and we often make last minute alterations. We’ve got away with it so far though - and we’ve got some great people lined up for some of the last videos.

Are we going to get a nice CD or (even better) vinyl release at the end with all 12 tracks?

That is the plan. It will probably be a very limited edition physical release with some nice, hand-made artwork. I did have the fantasy of releasing it as a vinyl box set with six 7 inches, or three 10 inches, but there’s almost no chance that’ll happen. It’s just too expensive for us indie-label types!

Tell us about your upcoming live plans

We are hosting our own mini-festival on September 5th at The Old Queen’s Head. It’s called Fleeting Fanfares and it will be the fifth such event. We’ll be playing, alongside Lulu & The Lampshades, Sleeping States, Stairs to Korea and more. It’s great that we get to play with people we really admire - so we can’t wait for that. It’s also free entry! After that we’re off to End of The Road festival - we’ll be playing The Local stage there on Saturday evening. Then, the next show will probably be a “wrap party” for the In Time project in December.

With writing, making videos, gigs and presumably day jobs too, you must be a busy bunch! What are your top tips for time management?

Work part time - and work in schools! That way you get some days free every week, and long holidays. There’s no way we could have done this if we all had 9-5s! Sorry - I know that’s not a very helpful answer….

mp3: Left With Pictures - Constantly
mp3: Left With Pictures - June

Here are a couple of the mp3s. For the complete set, sign up the the In Time mailing list on the Left With Pictures website.

You know there’s something wrong when there has been one post on this blog since 22 July. I know there’s something wrong when I post this month’s MAP 9 days after it was supposed to go up. All of this is not good, but life is very busy and something has to give for a while. So blogging slips down the priorities, other things slide too, and sorry to anyone who cares about this. I have been listening to new music though, and I have a rash of interviews and other stuff to bring to you once I can get my blogging shit together. For now though, I can thank Jason Pop Cop for the ease of a pre-prepared post containing the top tips from around the words, in which I big up Bear Driver, like I did only a very few posts back.

To download all 36 songs in one file click here

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Hacia Dos Veranos with Alasdair MacLean - Draft Morning
Hacia Dos Veranos is one of Zonaindie’s favorite bands, a four-piece instrumental psychedelic trip. This is an amazing Byrds cover from their latest album, with The Clientele frontman Alasdair MacLean as guest vocalist. The song was recently featured on Pitchfork’s Forkcast section.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
DZ - Gebbie St
Brisbane’s DZ have been making waves with their killer live show for a couple of years now, but so far “that song” - the one to take them to the indie masses - has eluded them. I think it’s here, and it’s called Gebbie St. It’s pretty massive, streamlining their raw, beat-heavy guitar jams into a tight, dance-punk number like one of the highlights off the debut albums by DFA 1979 or Liars.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Fusile - Combat Samba
Sort of a Brazilian reaction to Gogol Bordello, Fusile’s debut EP Coconut Revolution is full of energy and great ska/punk songs such as Combat Samba. The EP (available here) has just four songs, but that’s enough to make them one of the most impressive new Brazilian bands.

CANADA: I(Heart)Music
Gramercy Riffs - Oh Linda!
One listen to It’s Heartbreak, the full-length debut from Gramercy Riffs, and you’ll immediately notice that the band brings together a whole bunch of disparate elements: one moment they’re crooning pre-rock’n'roll style, the next they sound like they’ve just stepped out of the ’50s, the next they’re sounding like an updated version of The Unicorns. Listen to it a few more times and you’ll find they mix all those styles together extremely well. Then listen some more because you’re unlikely to hear many better albums this year.

CHILE: Super 45
Marcos Meza - Danza
Marcos Meza is a pianist and composer from experimental hip hop outfit Como Asesinar A Felipes. His solo work goes in a different direction, closer to the more complex pop melodies of Ryuichi Sakamoto. His debut album, Piezas para Piano y Cuarteto de Cornos, is available for free download here and sees jazz, improvisation and contemporary chamber music share an interesting common space.

CHINA: Wooozy
Pairs - Oh Ghost
Pairs are basically a drummer, Xiao Zhong, and a guitarist, F. They are from two different places and hemispheres of the Earth. Pairs basically don’t make theirs or any kind of music particularly well. Pretty much like people who have lost their talent. So it’s cool if you hate them. Pairs are basically a misspelling on Paris and/or Pears. They’ve had nothing to do with these two objects. Pairs basically like to take their broadway smash music to various death traps, both North and South, and survived to tell the tale to deaf ears. Pairs just launched their first music video Yangpu Qu - you can check out here.

COLOMBIA: Colombia Urbana
Farina - Hasta El Final
Farina is a young talent and in her blood runs some sparks of Arabic traditions and Latin flavor. Right now she’s promoting her single Hasta El Final (”To The End”), a dancehall/R&B romantic song, which is perfect for the perfect moment.

DENMARK: All Scandinavian
King’s Light Infantry - Home
Back in April, King’s Light Infantry released their debut EP, Crops, from which this track is taken. The quintet work in guitar-driven indie-rock where the ever-famous Scandinavian melancholy, pop hooks and the strong, emotional vocal of lead singer/guitarist Mathias Slot play leading roles. Right now they’re recording their first full-length record, slated for release sometime next year.

ENGLAND: The Daily Growl
Bear Driver - A Thousand Samurais
Bear Driver are a six-piece from Leeds who have only two singles under their belts, but are already turning the heads of festival organisers, labels and music fans in the UK. Current 7-inch Wolves came out last month, but this track is from their single from last year.

ESTONIA: Popop
Badass Yuki - Jacques Lacan On CSR!
Badass Yuki is the brainchild of two high-school students (Mart Avi and Paul Sild), who kill time by creating lo-fi-esque tunes. BY’s soundworld is diverse and constantly changing, bouncing somewhere between post-punk, noise or just eclectic pop music with dancey rhythms. BY emerged from nowhere and won a local Soundwave band competition in 2009.

FINLAND: Glue
Pintandwefall - Doughnuts
Girl band Pintandwefall celebrated the warmest ever summer in Finland with the release of a free EP available to download on their website. Doughnuts is a delicious treat with a sugared guitar riff, punchy bass line and funny melody. Just 90 seconds of alternative rock for your coffee break.

FRANCE: ZikNation
Crocodile - Mental Home
Crocodile came about from an encounter between Jeremy, electric guitar player of Parisian rock band Louis de Lights, and Helene, singer of the mysterious electro collective Stupeflip. About 15 songs emerged from Crocodile’s stomach in less than a year. Do not let yourself be deceived - behind a sweet voice and catchy melodies hides a ferocious animal whose bite will leave marks that will get under your skin.

GERMANY: Blogpartei
Hans Unstern - Paris
Catch Hans Unstern if you can. Uncommon is an able word to describe the work of this artist, who combines complex songwriting with sensitive German lyrics. He never crosses the fine line between brilliance and kitsch, maybe due to the slightly achy atmosphere he creates on the album Kratz Dich Raus from which Paris is the first single.

GREECE: Mouxlaloulouda
Musica Ficta - The Cell
Musica Ficta’s music is a treasure that deserves plundering. Even if they haven’t any official release, they are known for their astounding live performances. Apollo Retsos’ undeniably affecting vocals soar over orchestral pop arrangements, lush strings, drums and chiming guitars. As a matter of fact, an effervescent explosion of emotion will drift out of your stereo as you are listening to this live recording of The Cell, an enchantingly theatrical, profoundly beautiful and incredibly addictive song. I’m eagerly awaiting their debut album.

ICELAND: I Love Icelandic Music
Pascal Pinon - Djoflasnaran
Teenage quartet Pascal Pinon - named after two-headed Mexican freak Pasqual Pinon - released their eponymous debut last year. An album full of simple pop-folk songs in Icelandic and English, written by Asthildur and Jofridur. At the moment, the 16-year-old girls are recording a second album to be released on Morr Music. This label will also re-release their debut album, containing this song, Djoflasnaran (”Devil’s Snare”), a reference to Harry Potter.

INDIA: Indiecision
The Bicycle Days - Circles
The Bicycle Days is an alternative rock quintet from Bangalore. The band’s music infuses samples and ambient guitar sounds into contemporary alternative rock. Think a slowed down, less self-involved Mute Math. Circles draws on progressive rock influences like Tool and The Mars Volta to create a submersive fluidity that’s as languid as it is involving. Turn up the volume to 11, or just leave it at four and let the music create your pictures.

INDONESIA: Deathrockstar
Sarasvati - Oh I Never Know
Risa Saraswati is a new, aspiring singer-songwriter who is pursuing a solo career using her Sanskrit name, Sarasvati (???????). Such divine passion towards knowledge, art and music is conveyed through songs and lyrics. In her spiritual journey and quest for perfection, Risa shares her eternal experience of pursuing happiness with you.

IRELAND: Nialler9
Adebisi Shank - International Dreambeat
Taken from their second album This Is The Second Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank, International Dreambeat is the sound of pure rainbow rock. You can just see the confetti, the parades and crazy Japanese manga characters. Look out for the band’s second album released on August 20 through Richter Collective in Ireland, BSM Records in UK and in October on Parabolica Records in Japan. Guests include Conor O’Brien from Villagers, who provides vocals on Europa, while Jape plays synths on the last track, Century City.

ISRAEL: Metal Israel
Acropolis - Divine Cycle
Acropolis is an extreme melodic metal act from Israel. They blend aggressive metal grooves with brilliantly structured songs and melodies. Their debut release, The Aftermath, became a top seller on indie distribution website CD Baby and, incidentally, was very big in Japan.

ITALY: Polaroid
Colapesce - La Guerra Fredda
For the first time I’ve selected a MAP song sung in Italian. I like the way it mixes our folk tradition and pop influences. La Guerra Fredda (”The Cold War”) is about girls on the beaches, boys dancing and grinning, the fate on some provincial road one night, long time ago. Colapesce is a young and talented songwriter from Sicily. You can download his new EP for free here. Check out Albanopower as well, Colapesce’s other band.

JAPAN: JPOP Lover
Matryoshka - Monotonous Purgatory
Matryoshka was formed in 2006 by Sen (track maker) and Calu (vocals). Their subtle yet profound strings, unreal rhythms, melancholic female vocals, cool and alluring piano mix with a hundred noises to create their massive sound.

MEXICO: Red Bull PanameriKa
Rey Pila - No. 114
Rey Pila is the new project of Diego Solorzano (Los Dynamite), who has created a homonymous album that refines his aesthetic intentions while adding some singalong choruses with mountains of synth and guitars that are so very 80s, so ‘Rock en tu idioma’.

NETHERLANDS: Unfold Amsterdam
Palmbomen - Myself
Translated as “Palm Trees”, Palmbomen is the Netherlands’ answer to the chillwave phenomenon that’s sweeping through another indie summer. Although we’re still a bit antsy about a genre identifier that, at least to us, signifies a bunch of kids buying fourth-hand DX7s and deciding it’s okay to like Simply Red, Palmbomen has made a hefty dent on the Amsterdam live scene in only a few months of activity. The vibe is unsurprisingly tropical from the off - throbbing bass, rumbling percussion and synth-heavy. The music isn’t trapped in a languid haze, however. The melodies hook you instantly while the vocals are playful and, perhaps unexpectedly, not utterly buried in a cathedral full of reverb. Essentially, it’s just great electronic pop.

NEW ZEALAND: Counting The Beat
Mild America - Coriander & Heaven
The title track from an EP (available here) of songs melding pop with alt-country, the aim of the band is to create a sound which is “nostalgic and celebratory, bitter and hopeful”. Coriander & Heaven perfectly encapsulates that approach with lyrics about a blue jay hitting a glass door and flapping with one wing on the ground. The arrangement goes from a slow vocal and percussion intro, bringing in mournful slide guitar, shifting to a martial beat before quietening to a whisper and then ending in a majestic squall of guitar.

NORWAY: Eardrums
Silje Nes - The Card House
When I first heard Silje Nes four years ago, I instantly fell in love with her fragile but strong music. Now she’s a critically acclaimed artist on the fine FatCat label, preparing the release of her second album Opticks. Nes is one of those artists who plays around with lots of sounds and instruments, some which she can play and some she can’t. The result is often stunningly beautiful - somewhere between pop and experimental - but definitely accessible and catchy. The album will be released on September 13 but her single, Crystals, is available now. The song we have for you here is a MAP exclusive from the new album. Thank you, FatCat!

PERU: SoTB
Maku - Cuantas Piedras
Maku is a project led by Michael Dawson. Talking about his debut is almost like talking about a box of surprises. Maku’s music uses reggae as its base and also blends jazz and tropical sounds. Cuantas Piedras is the opening track from Maku’s self-titled album, which is available to download free from here and contains 11 songs, nine of which were recorded with the help of Francois Peglau.

PORTUGAL: Posso Ouvir Um Disco?
Peixe : Aviao - No Jogo da Quimera
Peixe : Aviao (translated as “Fish : Airplane”) are a quintet from the oldest ciy of Portugal, Braga. Their first recording was an EP, in 2008, and their Radiohead influence was already clear. In 2009, they released their first LP, which confirmed them as one of the most interesting new bands, singing in Portuguese. No Jogo da Quimera is from their 2010 record, Madrugada.

ROMANIA: Babylon Noise
Bogdan - Phase Transition
Bogdan makes the transition from experimental productions to dance music, and makes it seems like child’s play. His artistic development is noticeable both in his own productions and the hallucinating club nights he manages to kick off. In June 2010, Bogdan lit the fuse for local Romanian sound with another change in style - a cosmic techno hybrid. 4/4 dancing with a disco heart, it’s an album that tells a story about dancing in zero gravity. The new EP, Human Thermodynamics, can be downloaded from the Local Records website.

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Dems - Jarndyce vs Jarndyce
Dems is a truly exciting newcomer to the Scottish music scene. London-raised but Edinburgh based, Dan Moss has just two songs to his name at the time of writing and no live appearances on the horizon. What we do know is that he’s a man whose talent is matched by his ideas. Jarndyce vs Jarndyce is a classy, clever and thoroughly accessible piece of electro-pop, like a more edgy Postal Service.

SINGAPORE: I’m Waking Up To…
Basement In My Loft - I Think I’ll Run
Basement In My Loft have an underground, garage-rock sound with lofty melodies. As a power trio, they deftly walk the line between bittersweet melodies and utter chaos, while delivering an urgency in their music, convinced that one day, all this shall pass. They’ve got big things planned ahead, dropping their debut album at this year’s Baybeats music festival, one of Southeast Asia’s most prestigious indie festivals. Even with the accolades, BIML’s belief in their music and style keeps their integrity intact, with the band taking no shortcuts to making music that matters.

SOUTH AFRICA: Musical Mover & Shaker!
Popskarr - Tonight
Popskarr’s sound has been described as “deep but dancey, but new wavey, but all in all it still kinda bangs out your sound system”. Their song Tonight shows off their electronic, nu-disco sound with just a splash of pop thrown in for good measure.

SOUTH KOREA: Indieful ROK
Kinzli & The kiloWatts - Oahu
Hailing from South Korea but now residing in London, Kinzli is currently preparing for the UK release of her second full-length album, Down Up Down, on September 6. Her music offers an eclectic mix of genres, from gypspy rhythms to jazz, and in a recent review her vocals were likened to Regina Spektor. Oahu is a warm and breezy ukulele tune where her impressive lyrical skills has her declaring true love for her favourite canoe.

SWEDEN: Swedesplease
Skatan - Teritory
Skaten is not just another random Swedish band of unknown quantity and quality. This project by Simone Andersson Wingfors has been written about on various Swedish blogs for well over a year (me here) despite the fact that the songs have only been demos on MySpace. Taken as a whole, the debut record We Are All Children With Different Titles could be called piano-pop. But if you dig deeper into each song you hear elements of more serious music, be it classical, jazz, gypsy, or circus cabaret. Territory combines many of these elements in one song. The bass is as full as you’d expect from a hip hop track, the scattershot drums pulse and ricochet, and Simone’s voice will give your tweeters (and your emotions) a workout.

SWITZERLAND: 78s
We Loyal - Distant Heart
We Loyal from Basel play highly addictive dark-wave synth-pop with detours to indietronic. Their influences range from TV On The Radio to Joy Division and The Notwist. Even so, their Obstacles EP proves they are capable of more than reciting their role models.

UNITED STATES: I Guess I’m Floating
Wise Blood - STRT SRNS
Christopher Laufman aka Wise Blood makes the kind of music that might come out of a lo-fi Panda Bear & Jack White collab session. STRT SRNS is straight off his debut EP, +, which you can pick up for free at his Bandcamp page.

VENEZUELA: Barquisimento
Desorden Publico - Espiritual
Desorden Publico is one of the oldest ska bands in Venezuela. Formed in Caracas in the mid-80s, this nine-member team has been famous for their powerful live performances and has the reputation of being a solid, influent and respected icon for the genre. Their music is full of Latin vibes and honest lyrics inspired from social problems. Espiritual is taken from the Desorden LP.

Even in the age of mass digital media, the best music recommendations still come directly from friends’ tip-offs. And sometimes it’s just as well. If I’d never been personally told about the album Cowabungler by Round Ron Virgin, I’d probably have overlooked it, or been put off by the dreadful double pun whammy. But I persevered, buoyed by the promise of “a pleasant kind of shuffling, English acoustic folk”, and even better, a free download, and found myself enticed and entranced by a quaint little album full of heartfelt ballads, sea shanties and jaunty singalongs. One thing led to another and a few weeks later I was sitting outside Rough Trade on Brick Lane, drinking tea on a fine July afternoon with Oli Chance, the man who is Round Ron Virgin.

Before we get started properly, time for some history. Oli’s not some wide-eyed young buck. He’s been involved in making music for a good few years, but things have never quite worked out ideally. A while back he was doing solo stuff and despite spending two years recording an album, it just wasn’t quite getting there. Naturally, he wanted to get it done, he recalls “in the course of getting it finished I spent a horrible two months in a studio mixing it with a manic depressive and a guy who smoked draw constantly to the point where I ended up going completely mad. I walked out of the studio the moment it was finished, binned the CD and never listened to it”

This was followed by a period where he lost interest in music, but there were still a few lingering songs which he managed to salvage. He was plunged back into playing again when he was booked for a gig so he put together a band, including his old mates from Devon, Tom and Henry who were in The Rumble Strips. This was the first incarnation of Oli ‘n’ Clive. The Rumble Strips’ increasing popularity meant a line-up revision, which was the second version of Oli ‘n’ Clive, where Chance gathered “a bunch of people I knew who could play instruments but maybe hadn’t played them in a while but wanted to have a go. We became what I used to call a ‘special needs orchestra’” although he admits that sounds a bit harsh. He remembers that “it was really nice – it developed well together over a two or three years“. But momentum was lost, a Christmas single “caused some weird tensions” after which he stopped writing songs, and by early 2008 it was all over.  Although he says that he doesn’t have many regrets about doing this “it was nice to put an end to it while it was still positive and good rather than just petering it out”, he admits that he “managed to piss of some people in the process. I don’t think everyone in the band got and it’s taken some of them quite a while to forgive me.”

After this ending, he had another period of not doing music, during which he moved to work in Frankfurt. Given that city doesn’t exactly have the reputation as a party town, unsurprisingly he got bored and sure enough, started writing songs again. But time it was working better, probably because he was “writing songs for my sake and not worrying about having to involve a band”. When he left Frankfurt, earlier than planned because it wasn’t working out – “It was quite dull” – he came back to London, and started writing and recording as Round Ron Virgin.

After starting recording, things seemed to develop naturally, and Oli and his friend Billy who was recording the songs, got people in to record different parts as it seemed fit. He recalls, “The beauty of it was that it was complete y different to the two previous things, in that I had complete control over it and could make it sounded like I wanted. So on some songs there’s just me and others have 30 people; I had that flexibility. Once it started, I didn’t want to stop, and it turned into an album.”

And it’s an album that is packed full of little pleasures. One of the unexpected pleasures is how it sounds. I had expected something quite lo-fi, but a lot of it sounds big, fully developed, and packed-full of well-realised ideas. According to Oli, not all these ideas came off, like the one to follow up a contact with the Metropolitan Police Marching Band, and another of having a real church organ, but Oli and Billy seem like a great team, knocking ideas about, some great, some mad, some not working but not causing much concern, but others turning out really well. Oli seems pleased with all this, “because of aiming big like that, we got a helluva lot of good things. We could try things and if didn’t work, we’d just bin it and it wouldn’t be much of a problem. And where it went big, it was really nice. So from just me to loads of players and stupid amounts of layers and loads of stuff.” They’ve thrown everything including the kitchen sink at it, and surprisingly it mostly works.

One thing that stands out about the album is the juxtaposition of downbeat lyrical content with some pretty rousing tunes. Nowhere is this more obvious than on Old Sick and Die where Oli sings the chorus “We’re gonna get old sick and die, every one” in the most cheerful way I’ve ever heard, backed by parping brass. I suddenly wondered how I’ve got to this stage in life without a pub singalong about the inevitability of mortality, but I’m very glad it’s here now.

Pursuing these morbid themes further, Oli happily admits that “I’ve always been a little over obsessed by ageing and dying. Ever since I’ve been 16 I’ve felt old, like ‘shit! I should be doing more, I’m going to be dead soon’. But I’m not doing it po-faced, it’s more taking the piss out of myself.” But he’s quick to add “It’s not a comedy thing, more of a ‘fuck’s sake, cheer up Oli’ sort of thing.” Although in all this, Billy was a tempering force: “He suggested things which helped and sometimes kept it from being too self-indulgent which is could have been if we hadn’t been careful.”

As far as influences go, Oli is a big Neutral Milk Hotel fan, and their music perhaps influenced him a little more than he’d realised. He confesses that “Billy noticed that I’d completely ripped off a Neutral Milk Hotel song in one of my songs, but instead of worrying that it would be a shit rip-off, we said ‘let’s embrace it’. So it worked out nicely in the end.”. There’s a lot of music that he likes that doesn’t necessarily come across in his music. “The first thing I was obsessed with was Tom Waits. All 20 albums, but I’m not as musical as him, I can’t write songs in the same way. When recording on my own I was obsessed by first two Beck albums. Recently I’ve become obsessed with Chad Van Gaalen, a guy on Sub Pop who records 25-song albums in his basement. His influence doesn’t come across much – more in feel maybe than actual sound. “

I’m aware that Oli is part of a network of East London musicians that play together, and share members across various bands, such as Wet Paint, Absentee, Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards, even The Singing Adams (who aren’t all from East London). So is there a collective? Oli laughs at the suggestion “that makes it sound cool! It’s nowhere near that cool. It’s just people meeting people, drinking together and making friends and. It’s nothing conscious.” As for the musicians which contributed to Round Ron Virgin, he offers “I grew up with Tom and Henry from the Rumble Strips. There are a couple of people from Oli ‘n’ Clive who didn’t still hate me, so I got them involved. I Met Dan [Michaelson] through an old friend and I got to know Wet Paint and the others through him.”  And so on.  “And because we know and like each other ask them to come along and help out with recording and playing live”.

Live opportunities presented themselves without ever being pursued. “ I hadn’t thought about playing live, but went to pub with Dan, who asked if I’d  thought of playing live, before adding “you’d better because I’ve booked you as a support for a gig” So he had to put a band together in a couple of months. After that Angela from Magic Numbers booked them for tour support, and then came a Christmas gig on the back of that. It all seemed to grow quite naturally.

The line-up has been gradually evolving, and currently features Tom and Henry Rumblestrip again, Melinda and Babak from Wet Paint and Absentee, and a couple of others – Johnnie and William. One of the interesting things that Oli has found with taking Round Ron Virgin live is taking the songs with big arrangements and creating different versions to play live. “It’s nice changes though, not compromises” he’s quick to add.

The album’s being made available to download for free, which seems like a brave move, but it’s one designed to let more people hear it. It certainly worked for me. Oli elaborates. “I decided to offer it for free, rather than going with another small label which might not work out. Everyone I know who are on small labels (or even on big labels) there are always problems and no-one is making money out of it, and there’s no point pretending people aren’t going to pirate.  The main thing is that people hear it, and if they like it, they might want to buy it.” Then he adds “It could get more coverage because it’s free.” Well, that’s certainly worked in this instance at least.

He’s not only given it away for people to hear, he’s also given away some tracks, via the website, for people to remix, which has also worked out well. “I got one sent the other day from my friend Andre in Germany, which was an angry semi-techno remix of Old, Sick and Die – he’s annoyed with the positive message at the end, so wanted to make his own super-miserable version”.

Ultimately, he’s relaxed about the whole free album thing, because he believes there’s nothing to lose. “It hasn’t cost much and it’s been really good fun. It’s the one thing I’ve done that I’ve been really proud of. I’m not suffering from self-consciousness like I did before and having to explain it and why may not be as good as hoped. I fucking love it; I want as many people as possible to hear it. That’s about the size of it. I’m not a desperate youngster trying to make it. As long as it’s out there and the people who want to hear it can hear it. That’s enough.”

The other interesting thing about the release of Cowabungler, is that it’s being done under the banner of Records Records Records, less of a label, more of a collective umbrella for like minded souls to gather their stuff together, put their albums out, cross-promote their material, and generally do good things. All better than ploughing away alone. It came about because as Oli says, “we’ve found people who are interested in doing things in similar way. Melinda is doing her solo stuff on it and Babak is doing a comic/graphic novel which is coming out soon”. He also hints at the possibility of some Singing Adams material, songs from a brand new boy-girl duo called Big Deal and some thing else involving someone much more famous which he was cagey about because it may not come off.

After a pleasant half hour, it was time for me to get back home to take my daughter swimming. Just time for one last question. Perhaps the one that I should have asked first. Why Round Ron Virgin? Some sort of cheesy reference to Silent Night? Well, the story goes like this:

“My mum is a teacher, and one year she got the kids drawing nativity schemes. One kid had drawn a big fat fella off to one side and she’d asked the kid who that was, and he said ‘Round Ron Virgin’. He’d imagined that it was a person in the story, and ever since I’ve been little I’ve been obsessed with Christmas and I love the idea that there’s this fat bloke in the nativity scene who isn’t supposed to be there, and everyone’s looking round and going ‘who’s he?’ ‘What’s he doing?’ It might not be a great band name and it may be a shitty pun, but it means a lot to me.”

And with that, I’m much more satisfied. Sure, it may still look awkward on CDs and posters, but it’s come from something personal, and rather amusing. If you’ve read this far, I hope you agree and are more likely to listen, enjoy and who knows? Maybe even buy a copy. Cowabungler may never make Oli Chance a rich man, but it’s something he’s proud of, it’s a cracking album and as he says, that’s probably enough.

mp3: Round Ron Virgin – Old, Sick and Die
mp3: Round Ron Virgin – Been Waiting

Download the album or even the Cowabungler CD from the Round Ron Virgin website, where you can also download the tracks to remix or even have a go at designing a new cover.

The album launch gig is at The Betsey Trotwood on Farringdon Road on Monday (9 August). Support comes from Big Deal.

Cloud Control from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

Have you been on the Black Cab Sessions website lately? I drop by regularly and there’s always something brilliant going on. The latest session comes from Cloud Control - an Australian band I’d never heard of before - who bring handclaps and some lovely harmonies to a trip up Brick Lane. Turns out they’re playing for the self-same Black Cab Sessions at The Luminare tonight. I found out too late to be able to go, but if you’re reading this before 8pm today, maybe you can get down. It’s bound to be a good show.

mp3: Cloud Control - Gold Canary

Last year, Bear Driver did well for a band with only one single under their belts, playing both Reading and End of the Road festivals. I missed them at the latter of course, and as has been the case every year of the festival now, bands I missed have a habit of cropping up the next year and pleasantly surprising me. It’s hard not to like Bear Driver’s agreeable, tuneful indie pop. Turns out they’re pretty agreeable people too. To belatedly mark the release of their fine second single Wolves, I asked them my seven questions.

A song that’s been in your head today
Jon: I was humming Sick of Goodbyes by Sparklehorse in the shower this morning. Then I got a bit sad and didn’t really dry myself properly and had trouble getting my socks onto my wet feet, which only exacerbated the bad mood. Sigh.
Oli: Misunderstood by Wilco stayed with me allll night, and Samantha by Ian Williams has been going round and round my head alllll day.

A song that’s inspired you to do what you’re doing now
Jon: Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow by Funkadelic has a very inspiring sentiment that we all need reminding of every now and then.
Oli: Shoreline by Broken Social Scene. Every song I record I hope will come out like that but it doesn’t so I try again.

The best song you’ve heard in the past week
Jon: Brendan Fraser by Slow Motion Shoes.
Oli: Flaws by Bombay Bicycle Club.

A song that you think everybody should hear
Jon: It’s very presumptuous to think that everybody will like a song just because you do. I was going to say Reno by Jonathan Richman, but then I realised that not even everyone in the band would like it. Maybe Sugarcube by Yo La Tengo. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like that song.
Oli: Agreed, I can’t imagine anyone not liking Sugarcube. But then I also can’t imagine anyone not liking Jonathan Richman. And yet…

Something that you’re enjoying playing live
Jon: Wolves
Oli: Soon To Be A Fugitive

Tell us something about a track from your new album
Jon: No.
Oli: I think what Jon means is that we don’t have a new album, but we have a single coming out. The B-Side Long Lost Giants was one of the first ever Bear Driver songs, and came into being during a very drunken night. It got a makeover for the single - haircut, manicure, the whole bit - and became one of our favourite recordings. I hope more of our songs come out like that one.

A song from an album that you’re enjoying just now
Jon: Suburban Beverage by Real Estate.
Oli: Cat Power’s version of Smog’s Bathysphere on What Would The Community Think

Bear Driver // A Thousand Samurais by Stayloose

Wolves is out now on Animal Farm. Buy from Rough Trade.  Catch them playing tonight at The Old Queen’s Head. There are a few upcoming shows in London, Bristol and Wakefield.

The next installment in the ongoing adventures of Gruff Rhys. The last two years have seen him go from sports car-inspired electropop to huge psychedelic rock jams in his day job with Super Furry Animals and now back to teaming up with Brazillian eccentric Tony Da Gatorra playing huge psychedelic rock jams. Sort of. With added Gatorra. And I don’t mean just Tony himself, I mean the Gatorra instrument - part drum machine, part guitar - which he invented. See? It’s interesting already, and that’s even before you’ve heard the track.

The back story is intriuging too. Legend has it that Gruff, a huge Gatorra fan, tracked the man down in Brazil, a trip that was so much fun that they made a film about it. He found Tony of course and they recorded an album live in just over five hours. It’s great, but then it would be. Gruff rarely puts foot wrong. And Tony is the added bonus. The icing on the cake.

In A House With No Mirrors (You’ll Never Get Old) by TurnstileMusic

The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness will be released on 26th July. Buy from Turnstile Music.

The road movie Separado! is showing at selected cinemas around the country from 30 August. More details here.

Not Squares - Release the Bees from Bright Stem on Vimeo.

Here, Belfast’s premier synth destroyers return, having ditched their guitars, clutching a well-thumbed copy of Let’s Make it RAVE, and a cheap graphics package, and somehow contrive to make it awesome.

mp3: Not Squares - Bi Ki Na (Me Me Wee Wee WeeMix)

This review first appeared on Bearded Magazine.

Glasgow has long been celebrated for its independent music – plenty hot new bands, artists and scenes have come out of there in the past few decades, but you can be sure that no media flurry about music in that city will ever mention the name Richard Youngs.

There a few reasons for this. Despite being hugely prolific, Glasgow-dwelling Youngs is a reclusive sort; live appearances are rare and tours even rarer. Plus his wide ranging experimentation hardly has mass appeal. He’s one of these refreshing free spirits making music unbound by any commercial motives, happily releasing several sets of recordings each year, some of them on CDRs, others on small labels and a few on Jagjaguwar. It’s perhaps no surprise that no British label of any size has taken an interest in Youngs, but gratifying to see that an American record company have seen fit to release at least some of his output.

So I’d like to follow that by saying that this album is the one to introduce him to a wider audience. After all Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits is a bit of a change for Youngs – he’s made a pop album. And it’s not an obtuse or ironic album either – it’s a proper pop record, full of tunes, hooks, gorgeous harmonies and electronic beats. So much so that you’d wonder if Youngs has a secret love for the Pet Shop Boys.

Despite their lack of high-gloss sheen, this is a collection of songs that really will stick in your head. Sure, there are little intricacies and complexities creeping in, as you may expect, but this is mostly a straightforward album, inviting you to appreciate it on its own terms. In fact, Oh Reality, with its easy melody, propulsive rhythm and unexpectedly appropriate guitar solo, may be a candidate for one of the best pop songs of the year.

But it’s no crossover album. There’s no commercial bent behind it, merely the response to a friend’s challenge to ‘make a proper pop record’. Youngs has done that, but he’s primarily done if for himself. There’s no attempt to reach out to new audiences. The original release was a limited-run CDR which only a few hardy souls found. Even the higher profile Jagjaguwar release is vinyl only. Let’s hope there is a download release too, because given his talent, it would be a shame if Richard Youngs remained a prophet without honour in his own city and country.

mp3: Richard Youngs - Love in the Great Outdoors

Beyond the Valley of the Ultrahits is out next week on Jagjajuwar. Buy from Rough Trade.