The New Cue #510 July 18: Natalie Bergman, The Charlatans, Sam Prekop, We Are Scientists, The JTQ, The Keys, DC3, Sydney Minsky Sargeant, Hope Of The States, Shock Horror

"I was in a fugue state and not really comprehending what was happening."

Morning,

You know we finally here, right?
Where are we?
It's Friday then
Then Saturday, Sunday (what?)

It's Friday again
Then Saturday, Sunday, what?
It's Friday again
Then Saturday, Sunday, what?
It's Friday again
Then Saturday, Sunday, what?
It's Friday again, 'ain, 'ain', 'ain (what?)

Yes, it’s the end of the working week, which means it’s Recommender Friday once more. In the words of the Nightcrawlers, I thought the hands of time would change me, and I’d be over this by now. But no! I am not! So once again Niall and I have been down the music mines to dig out some gems for you to listen to this weekend, a selection that Niall has conveniently turned into this Spotify playlist:

And this one for our Apple-minded friends…

As well as the recommendations, we also have a rib-tickling Release Valve from We Are Scientists. All this is below the line and mostly for our hardcore paying subscribers who we love very much indeed as they throw a fiver into our hat every month to keep us alive.

Enjoy the edition and we’ll see you on Monday for a Life & Times with dub king and production wizard Dennis Bovell MBE, a man who has worked with everyone from Linton Kwesi Johnson and Fela Kuti to The Slits, Madness and Orange Juice and has the stories to match: his first answer took up 40 minutes and it was simply a reply to “how’s it going?”

Have a good weekend,

Ted and Niall

Recommender Pt. 1

Ted Kessler

Not even Jack White has released a more authentic sounding Third Man record than Natalie Bergman’s tremendous second LP, My Home Is Not In This World. It’s an entirely original set filled with perfect 1960s blue-eyed soul and pop period detail, hoodwinking one into thinking it might not actually be contemporary, its grooves sprinkled with the magic antique studio dust that Lee Mavers sought so forlornly for his recordings with the Las. It’s a truly lovely collection of softly heartbroken songs that come floating through the wires like a Bobbi Gentry album that you never knew existed, mournful doe eyes acknowledging the end of something serious but looking nevertheless ahead. Great record, future classic. Hope it finds the audience it deserves.

Incredible and hugely inspirational that The Charlatans continue to produce music as dynamic and as restless as their very earliest singles thirty-five years after their recorded arrival, given the sometimes traumatic trail they have navigated to arrive here. We Are Love is the title track of their recently announced 14^th album, a collection due at the end of October. Propulsive, melancholic, determined, powered by a great keyboard line and a lovely Tim Burgess vocal: classic Charlatans gear. Excited to hear the whole caboodle.

A beautiful new Sam Prekop track appeared this week, a luminous, motoric, almost techno night ride called Light Shadow that previews an album, Open Close, that the Sea And Cake vet will release on September 26. There is a rhythm beneath the melody, but it’s used almost as if an undercoat with an array of technicolour keyboard bubbles providing all the drive. Can imagine it serenading the dawn warmth on some Ibizan terrace or another this summer, and, as I fly out there first thing tomorrow, I may even be able to help that dream manifest.