Tim V. Smyth
Tim V. Smyth has been an active participant in the Irish music scene for many years under a variety of different monikers. His most recent musical endeavour was Hidden Highways a dark and minimal folk/alt-country outfit inspired as much by The Hired Hand and Return To Oz as it was by Townes van Zandt and Gillian Welch. Unsurprisingly then, the songs he penned for that project found their way into a number of film soundtracks.
However despite his love for Americana he has recently moved away from his alt country roots to explore a darker, more glutinous sound in his latest self-produced work. This new body of work features a wide range of influences, from the solo guitar pieces of Loren Connors to the lo-fi electronica of John Maus with Tim utilising a variety of tools, toys and techniques to create a unique and textured sound. Hear test equipment, botched guitars, dictaphone vocals, broken bass synths and wonky tape float together around lyrics dealing with the age-old stuff; life, death and love.
Boy, Im just a loser for your love - Good Morning
I love this coz its like a scuzzy Little Joy tune - nice warm chord changes and less than pristine production values. I can get behind this !
Sad Girl Disco pt1 – sweet baby angel
Heres what you can do with just one Yamaha PS20. Im kind of obsessed with this home keyboards from the late 70s / early 80s coz they have some amazingly rich sounds and rhythms. They are great to process or as illustrated here just sit down and use it as the Yamaha corp. intended !
Strawberry Sheets - Caroline Kingsbury
I know nothing about this other than I found it on a playlist and cant stop listening to it. Absolutely love everything about it, lyrics, vocalbbs , synths, tempo . Sounds like it might have been a big hit when I was a kid- once a tune is entirely original but very familiar yer on a winner.
Kaleidoscope - Ringo Deathstarr
Best name for a band. Ever. I love how it sounds like the speakers are coming unstuck. Puts me in mind of Slowdives heavier guitar work. That’s a good thing.
Sure ( Robin Guthrie remix) – Hatchie
Could quite happily listen to this on repeat. Shoegaze Power Pop. Shoepop. That’s what I’m aiming for – to make a Shoepop album. This is the Robin Guthrie Remix – but either this or the original are great – the guitars are a bit more Heaven Or Las Vegas era Cocteau Twins in this version.
Lets Go Out Tonight - The Blue Nile
I was always vaguely aware of The Blue Nile but it was Pat from Arrivalists turned me on to them. A lot more going on in this song sonically than meets the ear at first listen. It builds in a really subtle way. Its hard to do down tempo and keep it interesting. The guitar line is like a vein of pure gold through it all.
babysbreath - Loveliescrushing
I attribute my slight hearing loss to using headphones trying to blot out talk radio on trains, buses, waiting rooms etc. These guys and My Bloody Valentine helped me achieve that. Guitars are warm fuzzy and savage all at the same time like steel wool and candyfloss all mixed up.
Dream Baby Dream – Suicide
You don’t need 808s , 303s or whatever to get good electro beats especially if you can chop up stuff in a DAW. To me Suicide are the Velvet Underground of electronic music. Actually maybe the Velvet Underground are the Velvet Undergound of electronic music….you know what I mean though. Great fun to be had using stuff in ways it wasn’t meant to be used. Turn that Bossa Nova tempo up on yer Casio and run it into a few pedals. Pay no attention to the peaks, over compress stuff and then run it into few more pedals. Theres no rules.
Treehouse – Alex G, Emily Yacina
I'm late to the Alex G party but it’s a good party and it looks like it might go on a bit.
Margos Song- Jones Carwash
Love this – nice lyrics . “ tonight I will be knocking like a coward for a dream to let me “ – I mean damn…. that’s a line! And it works in the tune not shoved in clumsily around the beat. I don’t like overly wordy lyrics – it’s hard to pull off but here's an example of nailing it. Sticks with the narrative too. Fucking love that. And then it goes grungy ! Tremendous value for money !
