Ha ha ha ha ha..

'How do you respond, in words, to something so immeasurable you're hesitant to shame its angel-name by dragging it into the commodified realm of the record review? How do you make the words therein evoke something so raw, so rare, so poetic, so profound, so precious?

..ha ha ha ha ha..

'This sound seems of the breeze, of the trees, of leaves, earth, sky and light; of the sun; of the God communing only in the space between it and you'

..ha ha ha ha ha..

'Such enchanted incantation filling her throat with the voices of countless spirits, intoning fragments of folk who once sung in their own hallowed tones, as if each breath she draws draws on history itself'

..ha ha ha ha ha. Thing is though, he's not wrong. Anthony Carew waxes beyond lyrical about Joanna Newsom's The milk-eyed mender over at Neumu...

And you never know, you might get to hear a track or two on BBC 6Music in about six months time what with Tom Robinson just starting to play Sufjan's Greetings from Michigan and Gideon Coe having Denison Witmer(!) in for a session this Wednesday (19th). It's certainly all go for Denison just now - heck, the boy's even got his own video. He's busy touring Europe right now promoting Philadelphia songs and makes a return visit to The Windmill in Brixton on Sunday night as part of a super-value line-up. Yours for just 3 (as in three) quid:
Charlemagne | How Could He? mp3
Justin Rutledge | Special
Denison Witmer | 24 turned 25
Gentleman Reg | Give me the chance to fall
Apparently, Canadian up-and-comer Justin Rutledge will be playing with one or two members of Mojave 3 but if the sample tracks are any guide his compatriot Gentleman so-called Reg could give them all a bit of a run for their money...

And while Denison's here plugging a two-year-old record, this very week sees the US release of The river bends and flows into the sea from his full-band side project, The River Bends. Denison teams up with various Philly musicians on eleven 'more upbeat' originals and it's available from reallyrather's favourite retailer cduniverse for just $9.79. More amazingly still, they're selling the equally brand spanking new Matt Pond PA album Emblems for a mere $7.69! With postage that's a total of $25.47 or £14.40 the pair. Do what reallyrather has done and snatch their hands off...

Fantastik! That's Swedish for 'fantastic' and it's really the only fitting adjective to pin on Up against the legends, last year's debut album by Nordic nine-piece The Legends. For straight up disposable pop rock thrills this one gets it all just about right. With twelve tracks in a little over half-an-hour and all the handclaps and tambos you can handle, it's a bit like a Phil Spector-produced Jesus and Mary Chain album of Proclaimers' covers - like I said, fantastik!
Bought purely on the strength of the irresistable Make it right, reallyrather was fully prepared for everything else to pale in comparison. Stunningly, it doesn't. Call it our is a terrific opening statement of intent: 2mins25 of ringing guitar lines, dense background strumming, cracking tune and oh yes those mighty, mighty handclaps. There and back again, Everything you say and No way out all hit the same pop bullseye. Much of the record has a compressed, treated sound but best of the lot is Nothing to be done which zips along in a slightly lighter style and is damn near perfect. Summer's here and this is it's soundtrack. Legends indeed...