Podcast recommendations this week

In lockdown, I'm experimenting with doing the occasional blog post recommending podcasts. Again, this is something I tend to do more on an annual basis but, given a lot of you currently have more time on your hands than you would usually, I've again decided to write more frequently about this.

That said, the queen of podcast recommends would be Amanda Litherland, who presents Podcast Radio Hour over on BBC Radio 4Extra, and who has introduced me to a lot of the podcasts I currently listen to. Podcast Radio Hour is itself available as a podcast, via BBC Sounds, and is definitely well worth a listen.

Two episodes of ongoing podcasts have caught my attention in the past couple of weeks, namely Best Pick's episode on The Apartment and We Are History's episode on Nuclear fall-out shelters. What both have in common is a fantastic combination of expert knowledge and enthusiasm. In the case of Best Pick, the three presenters were talking about one of their favourite films, and their enthusiasm was palpable. In the case of We Are History, Angela Barnes is known to be a massive Cold War geek with a strong affection for nuclear bunkers, so it was always going to be a great episode. Both podcast episodes are all absorbing and fascinating in equal measure, and guaranteed to take your mind off current affairs.

It you really want to disappear into another world entirely though, may I also recommend binge listening to the entirety of Victoriocity?

Photo by ERIC ZHU on Unsplash

On Helen McCookerybook's Pea Soup and the 7" album as a format

 

Back in January, as the world was just starting to go a bit mad, musician, artist, writer and lecturer Helen McCookerybook wrote on her blog about her decision to create a mini album of short songs on 7".

It's an interesting read, expounding as it does on ideas of 'smallness' and 'bigness' as well as 'loudness' and 'quietness'. 

Her decision to do a 7" album intrigued me in another way: The timing of it. 

Helen began her career back in 1976 as the bass player in Brighton punk band Joby and the Hooligans, before moving onto bass duties in post punk band The Chefs and (later) guitar in Helen and The Horns. She had a long sabbatical from music before returning in the 2000's as a solo performer. 

Previously, when I've heard 7" albums, they've tended to be by very new bands just starting out. Bands who tend to have a lot to say, but who also have very little in the way of resources. Songs tend to be shorter when you first start out, and back in the mid 1990s, pre download, 7" EP's (as they tended to be called at that time) were the DIY format of choice if you were a punk band. 

I have two in my collection, both from 1995: Kenickie's debut, Catsuit City (8 songs), and the Yummy Fur's second or third release, Kodak Nancy Europe (10 songs). Both bands were still teenagers at the time, and the songs on each record are raw, very under produced, and - by and large - very, very short. 'Male Slut', a classic from Kodak Nancy Europe, is probably under a minute long, and the lyrics consist in their entirety of:

A male slut can
Get a drink in the Victoria pub
Unless he
Serves the customers with X Ray Spex
Male slut
Male slut
Male slut
Male slut 
Male slut 
Male slut

Similarly, Kenickie's high speed punk take on the soundtrack to Grease ('Rammalammalamma') also only takes about thirty seconds.

In the case of Helen McCookerybook's Pea Soup, the songs are short, well polished, well produced little masterpieces of songwriting skill and experience. A lot of love has gone into these ten songs, one of which is only five seconds long. 

There's something about the understated nature of McCookerybook's songwriting that lends itself to this format, and I think that's also why it's a format that works so well for punk bands: Simplicity. 

When Kenickie recorded Catsuit City, they could just about play three chords and, arguably, their skills set musically was behind what they were trying to do as songwriters. Listening to that struggle in songs that last between 30 seconds and two minutes is fascinating, even now. The Yummy Fur, having formed their band slightly earlier, were ahead of Kenickie in terms of musical prowess, but not by much: There is a jerky, handmade quality to their songs too, but they feel slightly less frustrated with their capabilities. 

The 7" album is a forgiving format then. In the mid 1990's it was a good way for young bands to flex their songwriting muscles and get a relatively large number of their songs down for posterity without them feeling overawed by the recording process. Nowadays, young musicians are messing around with GarageBand on their laptops long before they play live so, in some ways, the process is slightly reversed. Whether this leads to a greater confidence for young female singer/songwriters when faced with a formal recording situation in a studio remains to be seen. 

For McCookerybook, the process has been cathartic, a labour of love. A seemingly 'small' DIY project over which she has maintained control of every part of the process (even the sleeves are hand crafted and numbered.) Given the highly DIY nature of both Catsuit City and Kodak Nancy Europe, this feels very appropriate. 

Lockdown reads: Great journalism and writing you might have missed, part 1 (December 2019)

Please don't try this at home

One thing I've been hearing from people under lockdown is that they're struggling to concentrate, which is making reading something long like a novel difficult. Coupled with insomnia (which I know many of us are also struggling with at the moment) it's a classic symptom of anxiety.

I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't be anxious, but there are online resources out there that will help you to manage it, including CBT and Mindfulness, so if it's really bad it might be worth giving them a go.

In the meantime, I'm bringing forward something I would normally do at the end of the year, which is to signpost you to great journalism and long reads in the hope that you'll find them interesting and informative, if not always escapist.

I started compiling entries for this years list back in December 2019, and now I've got four months worth of stories bookmarked, I've decided to provide you with a month by month list of what's caught my eye so far.

One of the big stories of last year was the Hong Kong protests and, in December, 1843 magazine published a piece by Eduardo Baptista which provided a tour of the city's protest graffiti.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism published a damning report on a particularly cruel aspect of the UK housing crisis.

With Christmas in mind, Wicked Leeks' Megan Tatum wrote about the role of food banks at Christmas.

Narratively published a fantastic read by Aram Balakjian about Gilbert Alaskadi, a boy from nowhere who went on to triumph in the Mr Universe competitions.

And, lastly for now, Nina Pullman over at Wicked Leeks provided a thoughtful piece on the thorny topic of how to be a sustainable vegan.

Image by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

Jehnny Beth | Flower (Official Video)

As the singer in Savages, Jehnny Beth always came across to me like the very intense lovechild of Siouxsie Sioux and Ian Curtis. While she's carried a great deal of that intensity across into her solo career, 'Flower' suggests she's decided not only to experiment with her sound, but also to have a little fun while she's at it. In addition to releasing a solo album in April, she's also releasing a book of "graphic sex writing" (according to The Guardian) later this year, and the video to 'Flower' seems to be seeking to bridge both music, text and imagery. It's incredibly sexual, but it's not titillating. It feels powerful rather than voyeuristic and it reflects the level of confidence Jehnny Beth has as a performer. A salute is in order.

Gazel - Come Alive

Released on the Bone Key EP, three years prior to the excellent Gazel's Book of Souls album of 2019, 'Come Alive' sees Gazel experimenting with form and storytelling in equal measure. The sound of an artist experimenting and discovering her voice, it was a fantastic indicator of what was to come later in the year.

MENTRIX - WALK

Like the cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, Mentrix was born in Iran and spent her early childhood there before living in Europe and returning to her home country as an adolescent. She is based in Berlin these days, which seems apt given the slightly industrial edge to her music, which has been compared to Zola Jesus amongst others.

Her forthcoming album, My Enemy, My Love, has been two years in the making and everything, including the videos accompanying her songs, has been thought through incredibly carefully. Mentrix is a full multi media package and her singles have excited a certain amount of critical buzz and attention, which should bode well for the album when it arrives.

AURORA - Apple Tree (Georgia Remix / Audio)

Norwegian alt pop star Aurora gets a euphoric house re-work courtesy of Georgia, and it is glorious. Georgia's remix gives an assertive framework to the utopian lyrical imaginings of Aurora, while ensuring that 'Apple Tree' remains a blissed out slice of pop. Great work all round.