Jumble Hole Clough: I'm Waiting for My Mam

Leave it to avant-garde musician Colin Robinson to mislead the listeners with I'm Waiting for My Mam, , the new album by his one-man project Jumble Hole Clough. Why not start with I Just About Remember The Revolution a glam-rocker of T-Rex variety to take a sharp left with the skewed I am Still Listening just as people were bobbing along contentedly. Things only get weirder after that one-two punch, as he mixes up krautrock with psychedelica, noisy rumblings that sound like mushy demos made by Mark E. Smith on his own again after he fired all the pickup players that made up the latest incarnation of The Fall.

Each track comes with an explanation, well sort of. Twenty Colden Grates is a nod to a project with his mate, the late, lamented Mick West. Tension & Release is an Ian Dury-esque nervous electronic ditty could be about not being able to navigate a flight of stairs. Death is the Poor Man's Doctor and Prelude to a Down-Payment on a Gas Cooke would have fitted on one of his "music for imaginary puppet shows" albums, had they been offered as instrumentals.

Martyrs: "Hyacinth" video

Welsh synth duo Martyrs have made a video for Hyacinth, a track from their Last Summer EP: "Michael Hall and Jon Howells don't give a fuck about what is fashionable right now and recording their music in splendid isolation, away from the suits and A&R types gives them the freedom to release anything they feel that deserves to be heard. This DIY ecleticism resulted in a string of EPS that all sound different, safe for the vocals who were left as is. People who think that utterly danceable music and meaningful lyrics can't share the bed willl stand corrected."

Nice touch filming only multi-instrumentalist Jon for this one, as most videos focus on the singer.

» Martyrs on Bluesky

HCTF review of the Last Summer EP

Words about music (851): Kris Kristofferson

I always had to wait until something hit me, and I could write it. But when I would cut an album, to me it represented the time that I spent since the last one. Just the way I was looking at the world.

Kris Kristofferson

Three times "The Gift" in stereo

How about an enterprising soul who made not one, not two, but three music only in stereo mixes of The Velvet Underground's The Gift? Are people actually listening to this or even all three of them in a row? There sure are. They were posted on Steve Hoffman's Music Forum and The Velvet Forum. Not that hardcore? They can be found on YouTube.

John Cale: Underdog in de underground

Not counting the AI-generated total rubbish biographies there haven't been many books about John Cale. Belgian author (and musician) Wouter Bulckaert's effort Underdog in de underground is a worthy addition to Cale's autobiography What's Welsh For Zen (co-written with Victor Bockris) and Tim Mitchell's Sedition and Alchemy. Part retelling of his all over the place career, part critical review of the extensive discography, Bulckaert is obviously a fan, but he doesn't turn a blind eye to the weaker spots and odd decisions made by a perennial outsider, restless musical seeker, collaborator, and producer.