I’m not sure how Róisín Machine passed me by in 2020. I suppose a global pandemic didn’t help, did it? Either way, I’m utterly delighted to have come across it recently while digging in the virtual crates. It’s a modern electropop dream. 

I love the idea of Record Store Day but I no longer have a turntable, cassette deck or CD player despite the hundreds of vinyl records going mouldy in my garage (wanna buy them?). 

These days I want less stuff, not more. You’ll understand when you’re in your fifties. 

I love to buy albums digitally on Bandcamp and Subvert (or Qobuz/7digital/Juno if it’s a major label) after using Spotify to try-before-you-buy, but it’s an underwhelming experience. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to do this in a physical store, where the retailer gets a cut of my digital purchase like they do with vinyl?

Indie record stores are so great, especially my local, but there’s no reason for me to go in and bother them because I won’t be buying anything. I feel like a fraud! I’d love to be able browse the music physically like everyone else, chatting to the staff, listening to stuff and getting recommendations, but rather than bagging the vinyl I’d like to pay them for a FLAC download that gets delivered to my inbox. To make it more of an event and add a physical dimension, maybe they could offer me a postcard version of the cover art too? That would be a nice keepsake.

As far as I know, this experience doesn’t exist, which is such a shame. Could we make it happen? Technically speaking, it’s entirely possible. I mean, Bandcamp and others already do it, but an equivalent system would have to be made for independent stores to get their cut as well as the tech provider.

I suppose you can think of it as an iTunes / Bookshop.org mash-up but one that’s integrated into physical stores. The store needs to get their 20% (or whatever) so perhaps they pay an annual SaaS fee (and probably a cut of the cut) to the software company who runs the system. There’s a workable model in there somewhere I’m sure. 

As always, the tech isn’t the hard bit. You’d have to get all the major and minor labels on board as well, which Jobs and Ek have proved to require Herculean salesmanship and major concessions. It already seems insurmountable, and I’m probably kidding myself, but this isn’t streaming – it’s a physical retailer flogging high-price, high-margin digital recordings. There’s a lot more dosh in that for labels and artists alike over the streaming situation.

It’s unlikely, and something of a small niche (for now), but I think there’s something in this. We need independent, community music stores (like book stores, life without them is worse) but the world also needs fewer physical things. At the same time people are becoming increasingly fed up with smartphones, and Gen Z (as well as Tony Fadell) are calling for the return of the iPod. 

I’m calling it. It’s time to make digital downloads cool again, and physical record stores need to be at the forefront. 

I’d love to help solve this problem, so on the off chance you happen to know some major label execs, please introduce me! 

As a fan of the Pets since watching them play West End Girls on Top of the Pops, then getting Please on vinyl in 1986, having the chance to see them play an intimate show at the Electric Ballroom in Camden was a #lifegoals moment last night.

For these five Obscure shows, they’re only playing B-sides and album tracks. I’m more of an old school 1980s PSB fan, so it was a total delight to hear three tracks from Please, a couple from Actually as well as Introspective and Behaviour.

They’ve still got that mystery and effortless cool about them. Living legends and national treasures.

Here’s the full set list courtesy of setlist.fm:

1. Music for Boys (Intro music)
2. Will‐o‐the‐wisp (Live debut)
3. Two Divided by Zero (First time since 2012)
4. Jack the Lad (Live debut)
5. To Face the Truth (First time since 1994)
6. After the Event (Live debut)
7. Hit and Miss (Live debut)
8. Always (Live debut)
9. Do I Have To? (First time since 2012)
10. Sexy Northerner (First time since 2004)
11. Young Offender (First time since 2000)
12. Happiness Is an Option (with Sylvia Mason‐James; First time since 2000)
13. The Theatre (with Sylvia Mason‐James; First time since 1997)
14. One in a Million / Mr. Vain (with Sylvia Mason‐James; First time since 1994)
15. New Boy
16. King of Rome (Live debut)
17. King's Cross (First time since 2012)
18. Love Is the Law (Live debut)
19. Why Don't We Live Together? (First time since 2012)
20. The Performance of My Life (Live debut)

Encore:

1. Your Funny Uncle (Acoustic; Neil solo on piano; first time since 1991)
2. The Way It Used to Be (First time since 2010)
3. Later Tonight (First time since 2017)
4. A Dream of a Better Tomorrow (Live debut. Unreleased track from their musical “Naked”)

I made a Spotify playlist of the set, with the exception of the final encore which I think is a new, unreleased song.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2tzauyogcysgWOhZs5MR7X?si=dLoPq88_Se6BAG7dvKDIpw&pi=Bs9ldljERIK8F

This Tiny Desk from De La Soul is an uplifting, soul-warming gem. Music is the answer.

I saw Suede the other night on their Antidepressants tour. They were good, and Brett Anderson shone like it was 1991.

Like me, the audience was on the older side. It was largely fans of the band from the early 90s, with a scattering of younger people. The energy at the show was okay but I found it a little lacking, which is probably because of the demographic. My energy was lacking, so it’s likely that it was the same for my fellow quintagenarians as we all stood there foot-tapping and nodding along politely.

This got me thinking about these older band tours. It’s wonderful that these bands have still got the chops to tour (and, as with Suede, are sometimes still cranking out half-decent albums), but I find I don’t enjoy the gigs as much as I used to, and I think it must be because of the energy thing, which is because of the demographic thing.

Gigs are about the energy. They’re a closed system and you get back what you put in.

I’ve been to hundreds over the years, and it’s probably nostalgia but the absolute gig chaos of Oasis at Rock City in 1993, or Black Grape, the Chilli Peppers – and probably Suede had I managed to see them back in the day – were all on another level to when I see these ageing bands today.

You need youth to provide the energy. Us oldies are too busy conserving it.

New Ragz Originale joint out today. On the first few listens it‘s no BARE SUGAR, but of course it’s hard for an artist to reach those heights once, never mind twice. 12 short tracks over 28 minutes. Modern soul music with the unmistakable Ragz vibe.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7qbYXzYoWTnlzDTHbs0oCS?si=7Dera8_pTjatDPiTTeHlew

I’ve been creating end of year mixtapes on and off for well over a decade. They’re a programmed set of my favourite tracks released that year. I like making mixes for the fun of it, but it’s the memories and nostalgia in years to come that makes these music diaries so special to me.

My tastes are pretty eclectic and I have a Spotify listening age this year of 17. To reflect that, this mixtape takes you on a 2½ hour journey from hip hop and R&B, through pop, house and ending with some singer-songwriter/guitar songs (genre classification is not my forte!).

Something for everyone, maybe. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0AMSGQ354llCAgi4SqU98H?si=WVW6vauBRDimRBxJvB21VA&pi=TZJeR_dNRn6bU

The Orb have been cranking out albums for decades but I haven’t paid attention since U.F.Orb in 1992. Spotify decided I should know about Buddhist Hipsters, thank goodness.

It’s a brilliant journey from ambient through dub to some peak hypnotic house tunes. An absolute cracker of an album.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0qp9tOW3mXLTfVTLbziEif?si=iDpiTp59TtiWjj3QTwzEwA