Concision, it's an admirable quality in any sphere and a keystone of much of the music that finds favour hereabout. Brevity isn't necessarily axiomatic nor as inherently desirable but the two naturally hang out quite a lot. They meet up, for instance, on Sorry love, the hugely enjoyable new record from international jet set duo Pipas. In the two years or so since their last ep Mark and Lupe have mustered a ten-track collection lasting a magnificent 23min 13sec including, er, Long songs, 2mins of trademark breezy laptop insousiance matched with Lupe's up-close everygirl vocal and strummed classical guitar. Great, groovy and gone.
Actually, the last (and title) track does crack the 4-min mark which by Pipas standards is some kind of epic and in theory a little ominous. (This blog has lost count of the number of albums which have to be manually foreshortened due to the invariably misguided moody, relatively 'experimental', commonly overlong closer. Sparklehorse look like the latest sinners, Mojo describing 'the long, narcotised drift of the hypnotic, closing title track' of new album Dreamt for light years.. - groan.) Happily, Sorry love is an electro-dance-pop belter, super-smartly assembled and shot through with an utterly irresistible groove. Not long enough, in fact.
At the other end, the record opens with the giddy pizzicato perfection of Basements, paintbox piano underpinning Lupe's lighter-than-air melody. Her (admittedly fairly limited) voice fairs less well with the bustle and chords thru the first part of Riff raff but stick with it, towards the end this one r-r-really goes (man). The strummy, breathy loveliness of You crash keeps things moving and get yourself strapped in as Windswept room soars off into the jangly electro-pop stratosphere.
Pipas play what they like and know their limitations. Whatever the opposite of 'hell bent on making it' is, they're it and remain engagingly, um, flawed in their occasional live shows. Their recent outing at the Progress Bar was much the same as others this blog has caught over the years and populated by the same coterie of bob cuts, frocks, stripy t-shirts and vintage sports bags. But you don't need to wear the uniform to enjoy the music. Sorry love is far too enjoyable to be allowed to languish in the melancholic twee-pop ghetto which would claim this music as its own but whose denizens, barring some kind of minor miracle, are the only ones likely to come across it. Six pounds-ish and its yours...
[buy][pipas][on MySpace]

But little miracles do still happen...
- watching BBC Sunday Grandstand's highlights of the horseracing year this blog was pleasantly stunned to hear Rilo Kiley's Execution of all things soundtracking the package
- and Denison Witmer's coming back over! It must be at least a couple of years since the shows with Rosie Thomas and Sam Beam, and over three years since rr caught his debut UK shows. With Keep Recordings' J Tillman in support, hopefully this blog can swing it and get to The Social on Oct 23 [tix]
- and this really is a lil miracle: Swedish pop chorus I'm from Barcelona turning up at the End of the Road Festival!! Having been an early subscriber to this nascent event coming off mid-Sept on the Wilts-Dorset border, the (UK debut) appearance of this gang - a kind of less ambitious, more pop song-oriented P. Spree guaranteed to bring out the inner child - should entirely vindicate the commitment. Every festival should have its of-the-moment, happy-clappy, we-all-love-each-other aspect and this lot could make it happen. They're booked for the Sunday...
[i'm from barcelona][their ace ep][end of the road fest]

Definitely not playing the End of the Road but who, if they were, would fit right in:
- My Sad Captains. OK, just a blatant excuse to mention them. If you haven't already, hear here... Shamefully missed the Buffalo Bar show but there's the Windmill on the 10th and Bar Monsta on the 13th...
- Stars of Aviation, the unassuming lovelies who despite being together for quite a few years retain an innocent callowness in performance. They were seven-strong but drummerless at Notting Hill Arts Club last weekend but it certainly didn't detract from their cross-channel folk-pop whimsy. Recent single Marie et l'accordeon is a delight but also check out older stuff like ..Carol, a cuddlier, bloopier Shearwater, maybe...
[stars of aviation][on MySpace]
- M. Ward! Only rarely is music performance on TV affecting but Ward's one-song appearance a year or so back on Later, a glistening solo rendition of Fuel for fire bathed in blue-white light, fair killed this viewer. And he's just done it again. Showcasing his more upbeat (but still plaintive) flipside, Matt and his band (Selzer, Blumberg, Coykendall) turned up on Letterman last week and utterly, utterly nailed it. Guaranteed you'll break out in spontaneous applause each and every time you watch it...
- Gentleman Reg!! OK, nothing new at all from Mr Vemue but if you liked that last Ward song tis but a corner kick away from the (still criminally obscure) precision pop clatter of The boyfriend song, etc...
- and also not particularly new but a new lease of life for Broom by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Recommended here back in Feb when this blog mused idly about licensing something like this for proper distro. Well, Polyvinyl have stepped in stateside at least and the band's DIY debut has been rejigged for an October launch. The very model of indie-power-pop concision, only Anne elephant really outstays its welcome. Shins/Oranger types where have you been?
[sslyby][on MySpace][polyvinyl]

So then, Ys, Joanna Newsom's follow-up to the still-startling Milk-eyed mender, emerges blinking from Dingly Dell Nov 14. It runs to 55mins but has only five 'songs' - oh my, the concise-ometer flickers worryingly...

Oh Jesus Christ almighty
Do I feel alright?
No, not slightly*

Now this is getting just a little bit silly. Despite still seeming to regard the whole music career thing as some kind of bizarre (and not always entirely welcome) accident, the Be Good Tanyas find themselves booked to play the Royal Albert Hall, Nov 17. Serious, you cannot be, er, serious. Sadly they are, determined to put the Tanyas, still hardly the most relaxed and 'projecting' of live performers, nicely at their ease by booking them into the the most buttoned-up, inappropriately portentous London venues they can find (South Bank, Barbican, now this). It just doesn't feel right and despite having followed them since their first trip over [see rr March 7 02] this blog ain't gonna be there...
...and, yes, will probably miss out. Hey ho, good luck to them. Actually, not sure how many records the Tanyas have sold to date but they must be contenders for the lowest-key names ever to headline the Albert Hall. The third album, Hello love, comes out Oct 10 and courtesy of Nettwerk Records you can listen to the whole thing now over here. Much as before, the cover songs they include (here Neil Young, Prince) pale in comparison to gorgeous originals like A thousand tiny pieces, Ootishenia and Human thing...

The last time this blog caught the BGTs was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Nina Nastasia similarly. She's also back in town this autumn but has happily knocked back the likes of the Albert Hall in favour of.. downstairs at a Crouch End boozer. The 60-capacity Kings Head on Sept 1 to be exact. Top girl! rr will definitely be there...

...and also, all things being equal, at:
-the Buffalo Bar Aug 16 where nifty alt-pop combo My Sad Captains pick it up again after a brief and appallingly selfish hiatus [Also at the Windmill, Brixton Sept 10]
-and, after an even longer gap, the Progress Bar the next night for another dash of Pipas' charmingly amateurish electo-twee (playing with Shimura Curves). There's a new album Sorry love available now and a new website...
-Rota on Sat Aug 26 - free! - for more bucketloads of wist courtesy of Stars of Aviation [go]

And further ahead there's Unwed Sailor Oct 6 at a venue tbc and The Essex Green return Oct 17 at the Luminaire for just 4 quid - snatch their little hands off...

Still no sign of The Tyde coming in - check this dream setlist from their recent Japanese trip - but, hey, apparently they're working on it...

Three-out-of-three for albums purchased this summer. The Pipettes' We are The Pipettes was always going to be a no-brainer hereabouts but still reallyrather was taken aback by it's sheer relentless gloriousness. Hit after hit after hit.. in another, more perfect universe, that is. Not sure how much mileage there can realistically be in this kind of project but at least they've nailed the Greatest Pop Song in the History of Pop (this week) in Pull shapes and Gwenno's power towards the end of Your kisses are wasted on me is another quite thrilling zenith. Girl power, you just can't beat it, can you...

...Lily, eh? Lily Allen's Alright still is, er, still alright after daily hammerings this past month. The ubiquitous opener and no.1 single Smile is almost the weakest thing about this set of savvy pop-ska - funny, observational and catchy as.. a very catchy thing. Way more palatable than the likes of The Streets and Ms Dynamite, *Everything's just wonderful will surely be bustin' out all over some time soon while the silky dub and double chorus of Friend of mine is another album highlight...

Meanwhile, another world away in terms of style and exposure, the new Don Peris solo album Go when the morning shineth is far too lovely a thing to be allowed to sink without trace. Largely full-band instrumentals with Peris' distinctively affecting guitar to the fore, there's a shimmering, vaguely nostalgic melifluousness and softly transporting air across the whole 40 minutes or so. Obviously, Innocence Mission devotees will connect immediately (and wife Karen steps up the mic on North Atlantic sand) but also anyone who enjoys the Dansette tones of Richard Hawley should also definitely take note. Tracks like the eye-wateringly wistful Ribbon of highway, and things like Day trip, Flyer and Jubilee tap into the same seam of sonorous, gently ambient melodicism as the the Mercury Prize nominee. Gorgeous stuff and, like the Pips and Lily before, wholly recommended...
[Don Peris][on MySpace]

Randomly:
...Still no sign in Mojo, Uncut, Q or The Word of a review for The Weepies' Say I am you. No need to let their ebbing relevance deny you the pleasure tho'...
...Oh, Laurel Music, where art thou? ...
...Thirty-five days and counting...