listening2... 15/02/25
I've been listening to... #15 in the series
listening2… is a series of regular posts on what I’ve been… well, listening to. Tracks from my travels. New songs and music to explore further. Half forgotten tracks from my collection. Roadtrip gems. If you like this post, let me know or, even better, let someone else know!
Here’s the 15th Listening2… since this publication began last March. The purpose of the series has always been to highlight tracks, bands and artists I’ve been listening to over the past few weeks. To find new (and old) music that you - the reader - might like to dig out.
Listening2… #15: 15/02/2025
On this listening2… playlist: A track from an album that got away from Phony Ppl (Boo) and a Tiny desk bonus from them (Hooray). One from up and coming band to watch The Orchestra (For Now). Hardcore shenanigans from Californian post-post-punks, Scowl. Columbian inspired instrumental immersion from Unknown Mortal Orchestra (11 minutes of it!). And to finish, new tracks from two excellent crate-dug albums from Cloth and Meernaa. And a second bonus from the much maligned and very excellent Sade…
1. Phony Ppl - helGa.
From their 2015 album, Yesterday's Tomorrow
Oh my God!!!
You know when you see a re-release of an album by a band you don’t know and think, ooh that looks good, and you give it a listen and it is really good and it’s up on pre-order on Diggers Factory - a limited-edition, anniversary re-release, as it turns out, of the band’s classic record from ten years ago – and you hesitate because it’s just before Christmas and, well, maybe you already have too many records, and so you bookmark it, and then forget, and then remember a few weeks later and go back to find that it’s been sold out?
You know that thing????
You probably don’t unless you’re as obsessed as I am. But I REALLY wanted this album on vinyl! It’s so great. OK, I will promise to work on this in therapy (or preferably, if I can, wangle a copy from somewhere).
This is one that got away, and it’s a wonderful, soul-filled, fun-soaked, weed-smoked album of joy. As always with records like this, I could have chosen any track, but this one, helGa made me smile a lot.
The ‘I-want-to-go-to-that-party’ track award goes to Smoke To Get Sober. Not a good example to the kids, of course… but check that one as well.
Really! Check the whole bloody thing out!!! Phony Ppl are awesome. Here’s a bonus of them on Tiny Desks - basically a consolation prize to me from me…1
2. The Orchestra (For Now) - Skins
From their forthcoming EP, Plan 75
The Orchestra (For Now) are one of those bands that lots of people started whispering about until they were predicted to become the ‘next big thing’ – a bit like Black Country New Road (who I’ve never really got). They have a strange, retro index.html website which, frankly, is very annoying and unnavigable, however cool it might be.
So are they any good?
Well the Green Man Festival seem to think so – they won the Green Man Rising award in 2024, and they do bill themselves as fundamentally a live band. I haven’t seen them to judge, but I do like their new song, Skins.
Do I love it, though? Not sure. I’m going to put it here because I have been listening to it, and I want to see if it’s a grower.
Spoiler alert: the video gets very dark and strange, and is none the worse for that.
3. Scowl - Not Hell, Not Heaven
From their forthcoming album, Are We All Angels
Since seeing Bodega at the Boia Festival last year, more and more fragments of hardcore have been coming my way. Turns out, there’s some great new post-post-punk around. This Californian band, Scowl, are on their way, and have a new album coming out this year. I’d not heard much about them, but the pre-released singles are all strong – and I like the videos too…
4. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Earth 1
From the forthcoming release, IC-02 Bogotá
Unknown Mortal Orchestra have been on my radar for a while, but last year I picked up a 10th anniversary copy of their album II - which definitely deserves an anniversary…
UMO are a New Zealand band fronted by Ruban Nielson and now based in Cleveland, USA. They’ve produced some great music and also have a project which they themselves explain on their YouTube intro:
“In addition to the vocal-based records they’re more well-known for, they’ve also begun to make an instrumental series called the IC where they spend time in a chosen city and improvise and collaborate on non-vocal music. Recently the band spent time in Colombia to make music and initiate their new keyboard player Christian Li. The resulting sessions have become IC-02 Bogota, a musical document of the time they spent in that exciting city and the possible background”.
This track, Earth 1, is the first release from the new album, which will be out at the end of March. It’s eleven minutes of funky immersive weirdness and I love it.
5. Cloth - Ambulance
From their 2023 album, Secret Measure
Tracks 5 and 6 on this issue of Listening2… were discoveries in the recent Dead Sea Records clearance sale. Both are beauties (and there are still some excellent vinyl albums on sale at https://www.deadsearecords.co.uk/collections/clearance).
Cloth – twins Rachael and Paul Swinton from Glasgow – come from the same label as artists like Mogwai, the mighty Kathryn Joseph and the aging misery-misters, Arab Strap. All Scots greats!
Cloth’s second album is a beautiful thing with Rachael Swinton’s soft and ethereal vocals to the fore. However, this never feels like a prissy record. It’s got beats, man, great songs and some really clever arrangements and production. It’s one you really want to listen carefully to.
The songs are all really strong. It was a toss up between the opening eponymous opening track, or this one, Ambulance. Both are worth hearing. The whole album is…
You can find the full album at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_llMrxXb_y1pO7VkS7frUxaW1dRYNYVAdc and on Bandcamp… I have been listening to my lovely transparent turquoise vinyl copy a lot! Their new album Pink Silence is out in April and the early tracks bode well for another winner.
6. Meernaa - As Many Birds Flying
From her 2023 album, So Far So Good
My second find from the Dead Sea Records sale is another new artist to me. Meernaa aka Carly Bond from Oakland, California. She reminded me instantly of Sade, one of my favourite soul artists from the 80s, who was unfairly labelled as releasing dinner party records. Listen back to Sade and you hear great soul music and amazing songwriting; stuff that lasts. Check her out for yourself in the bonus track… 2
Anyway, Meernaa is equally smooth and laid back, and her songs just as strong. Her album, So Far So Good, is really good and, along with Cloth’s record (see above), it’s been on my turntable a lot.
Here’s Meernaa’s Bandcamp description which I thought you might like. It reveals an admirably left field view on life:
I'M FLOATING UPSTAIRS, MY BEST SHOES POINTLESS. THE SONG IN MY POCKET MAKES ALIEN GRAVITY. THERE'S A THIRDFLOOR WITH A GOOD VIEW. I'LL SEE THE CAR PULL UP. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO DRIVES. BOTH SEATS PLEASE ME. THE DRIVER GETS PURPOSE. THE RIDER A CHANCE TO WAVE AT A NEIGHBOR, THE MOON, A HORSE. I WORE THIS DRESS TO BE SEEN. BUT I'M GLAD TO HIDE PAST THE STREET LIGHTS.
Is that all clear to you? Good, so here’s my chosen track from the album, As Many Birds Flying. I love the opener, On My Line too…
Find the full album at: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mng_q3KGMAJzPnGhDpw5LZZftPy9JcNAk&si=5Z9yZx3rWlkOaLTh and, at the time of writing, you can still get a copy of the the vinyl record for a tenner from Dead Sea Records – bargain…!
Bonuses
Bonus 1: Phony Ppl’s NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert recorded on the 4th March 2019. It’s got ‘explicit language’, just in case you need to know. It’s also awesome.
Bonus 2: Sade’s first album, Diamond Life, came out in 1984, and captured the contradictions and aspirations of that decade perfectly. Deeply urban and cool, with a kind of Style Council/Working Week vibe, there was also sardonic social commentary on songs like When Am I Going To Make A Living, which made it a bit odd that Sade became – in the eye of the media – a bit of an aspirational middle-class, MOR favourite. I’m listening to Smooth Operator right now; the playing on the song is gorgeous and the lyrics have a knowing bittersweet bite… showing that Sade knew the 80s for what they were. Who cares anyway, the whole album still sounds funking amazing! The band produced six albums and released them all on heavyweight vinyl in the 40th anniversary year of Diamond Life’s release… Hmm… Good to know…