The New Cue #303 July 21: Blur, Viji, Wreckless Eric, Palace, Madmadmad, Skindred, Pashyman, Emma Anderson, Laura Groves

"That was it, I knew I wanted to play rock’n’roll...”

Hello TNC crew,

Here we go again, ready for another round of summer loving, not the fruity kind of summer loving though, no, this is the musical recommendation arm of summer loving. No sex please, we’re music journalists.

In today’s edition, we’ve got a load of recommendations for you to dive into, plus Album To Blow Your Mind picks from Palace and Madmadmad and we also think you should stick around for an entertaining And Finally… from Skindred frontman Benji Webbe. And Finally… doesn’t get enough respect round here – just cos it’s at the end doesn’t mean it’s an afterthought! (It is).

This is the bit where we tell you that this edition is for paying subscribers only because they are the absolute dons who clicked on the Subscribe Now button below to pay £5 a month for full access to all our editions. OK, let’s get to it, go subscribe if you don’t already – everyone’s skint anyway, what’s another £5 a month gonna do? Here we’ll chuck in this playlist for free:

Enjoy the edition,

Ted, Niall and Chris

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An Album To Blow Your Mind #1

Madmadmad bassist Kevin Toublant picks the atmospheric collaborative record by David Byrne and Brian Eno.

Madmadmad were on tour at the time Kevin wrote his entry so he didn’t have the record, but he made us this nice picture instead

Today, experimental London trio Madmadmad release their new record Behavioural Sink Delirium. As befits a band who are called Madmadmad and recently released a single titled Totes Amazeballs, it is a full-on explosion of deranged in-your-faceness taking in squelchy electro-pop and warped disco grooves. Here’s a quite odd video to their recent single Krautjerk:

Have a listen to the record, out today, if you think you can take it:

And here’s bassist Kevin Toublant on Brian Eno and David Byrne’s 1981 team up:

Brian Eno + David Byrne
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (1981)

“In my early 20s, I got to work for this great festival called Transmusicales, in France. One day, the boss of the festival, Jean-Louis Brossard, played My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts to me, and it blew my mind. Jean-Louis is a legendary music lover, who always shares incredible music, but this record in particular stuck with me.

I love the Talking Head-ish sound of the rhythm section on this album, very repetitive, with this blend of synths and sermon-like vocal samples. Something really strange, hypnotising about it, tribal and quite eerie.

The sound of the tape looping… you get sucked in, and it’s hard to tell who does what, because everything blends in so well. 

The album features some of the best musicians at the time, such as Bill Laswell, David Van Tieghem, Tim Wright, Prairie Prince, Mingo Lewis… Eno’s experimentations with the sampling are really groundbreaking for its time, there’s no doubt why this record became such a milestone in music. During this time, Eno also recorded Talking Head’s Remain In Light, another one of my favourite albums.”

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