The New Cue #381 May 17: Wunderhorse, Michael Head, Cardinals, Yoshika Colwell, Blancmange, Wu-Lu, Beth Gibbons, She Drew The Gun, Glass Animals, Mdou Moctar, J.C. Wright

"I was lying on the ground next to a bonfire with my dad and his good friend Nigel."

Good morning,

Welcome to your regular Friday bonanza of music picks. That’s right, it’s Recommender Time™ because this is the Recommender™ edition of The New Cue™, the world’s greatest music newsletter™, brought to you by Ted™, Niall™ and Chris™. Today we’ve got the usual abundance of reccie selections alongside Album To Blow Your Mind™ picks from Blancmange and Yoshika Colwell.

Here's this week’s playlist:

Apple Music adjacent? Then click here Stevie Jobs:

Mmm, did I get carried away using the trademark sign? Probably™, deal with it™, enjoy the edition™…

Ted, Niall and™ Chris

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An Album To Blow Your Mind #1

Blancmange’s Neil Arthur picks debut by experimental US rockers

Last week Blancmange released a career-spanning collection titled Everything Is Connected that celebrates four decades and more for the synth-pop duo who formed in Harrow in 1979. It is now a one-man operation after Stephen Luscombe left due to ill-health in 2011, but singer Neil Arthur has kept the flag flying high – since then, he’s released a very impressive 14 albums. They’re currently on tour to support Everything Is Connected, click here for dates and ticket details.

Here, Neil tells us why Pere Ubu’s 1978 debut album The Modern Dance is his mind-blower selection:

Pere Ubu
The Modern Dance (1978)

“Stephen Luscombe gave me a cassette copy of Pere Ubu’s The Modern Dance after one of our early get-togethers making some Blancmange noise. The other side of the cassette had Kraftwerk's The Man-Machine and one of his own compositions with the typically Luscombesque title, Plinky Plonk added at the end. 

It was the first time I’d heard Pere Ubu as I recall. I’d never come across anything like them before or since and wanted more. That more came along soon in bucketfuls. I went to see them play live each time they visited London where I was studying at art college. I guess we all create our own listening worlds and certain albums can conjure those worlds up. The Modern Dance took me somewhere exciting that I’d never visited before. It was after one of the most wonderful days in my life (a first date!) that I blagged my way in to see Pere Ubu at the Electric Ballroom in Camden with my girlfriend. That was Nov 28th 1978. David Thomas sang while hitting a piece of metal with a hammer. It was like a band version of David Lynch’s Eraserhead. In amongst the sound and really jelling it all together was the most amazing array of synthesiser noise. We were completely mesmerised. 

In the student house where I lived The Modern Dance, along with This Heat, Young Marble Giants, Cabaret voltaire and Eno’s Music For Airports/Discrete Music, was on heavy rotation, helping us, guiding us, through college work.

Many years later I saw David Thomas performing at the Southbank wearing a red plastic apron with contact mics attached. It seemed strangely normal on him, as though he might dress like that off stage too. Sometimes in the set he’d grab a wedge monitor or an amp and hold it against his body to create feedback noise. Believe it or not, Pere Ubu had a huge influence on Blancmange, then and now. Note to self - order plastic apron and PZM mics for forthcoming tour.”

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Recommender

Credit: Polocho

Niall Doherty

I thought I had Wunderhorse down as widescreen classic-rockists with the occasional diversion into the sort of sleepy, alt-rock ballads that sound like they could only have been written on a porch in the American South at dusk. No other porch will do. But then I pressed play on the new single by the British quartet fronted by former Dead Pretties frontman Jacob Slater and I realised, not for the first time, that I know nothing. I suppose if you call people know-it-alls in disdain, being a know-nothing is actually pretty decent. I might get it tattooed on my arm.