"Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins

It's May...

Here is "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins (previously here).

https://cocteautwins.com/

"Spring" by Maria Sommerville

Ah, what lovely, dreamy sounds..."Spring" from Irish musician Maria Sommerville can be found on "Luster," her brand new release on the legendary 4AD label (home of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and This Mortal Coil among other incredible artists).

She is on tour this spring/summer and, for us locals, will be in San Francisco on May 23!

https://mariasomerville.com/

"Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins

It's May...

Here is "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins (previously here).

https://cocteautwins.com/

"Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins

It's May...

Here is "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins (previously here).

https://cocteautwins.com/

"Scratchcard Lanyard" by Dry Cleaning

This is coming at me sideways and it is hitting me just right. Dry Cleaning is a British band comprised of vocalist Florence Shaw (a visual artist, drawing lecturer, and picture researcher with no prior musical experience), Tom Dowse, Lewis Maynard, and Nick Buxton. I love the art rock, post-punk, oblique, cracked, spoken word sensibility of this song "Scratchcard Lanyard." Writing for The Quietus, Europe's largest independent music and culture website, journalist Patrick Clarke correctly called it by saying the band "sound so enthrallingly taut, so spikey, frantic and engaging." 

It's rare that I hear music that so captures the post-punk sense so well...see Fontaines D.C. here and Savages here.

And not least, the video itself is amazingly creative and hypnotizing. They are on the 4AD label after all, home to decades of amazingly rich and creative artists.

Many years have passed but you're still charming
Rose falling and exploding, you can't save the world on your own
I guess
Don't send me it
You keep it
You keep it
You keep it

Weak arms can't open the door, kung fu council
It'll be okay, I just need to be weird and hide for a bit
And eat an old sandwich from my bag
I've come here to make a ceramic shoe
And I've come to smash what you made
I've come to learn how to mingle
I've come to learn how to dance
I've come to join a knitting circle
I've come to hand weave my own bunk bed ladder in a few short sessions

It's a Tokyo bouncy ball
It's an Oslo bouncy ball
It's a Rio de Janeiro bouncy ball
Filter, I love these mighty oaks, don't you?
Do everything and feel nothing
Wristband, theme park, scratchcard, lanyard
Do everything and feel nothing
Do everything and feel nothing

Pat Dad on the head
Alright, you big loud mouth
Thanks very much for the Twix
I think of myself as a hardy banana with that waxy surface
And small delicate flowers
A woman in aviators firing a bazooka
A woman in aviators firing a bazooka

I've come here to make a ceramic shoe
And I've come to smash what you made
I've come to learn how to mingle
I've come to learn how to dance
I've come to join a knitting circle
That's just child chat
Why don't you want oven chips now?

It's a Tokyo bouncy ball
It's an Oslo bouncy ball
It's a Rio de Janeiro bouncy ball
Filter, I love these mighty oaks, don't you?
Do everything and feel nothing
Wristband, theme park, scratchcard, lanyard
Do everything and feel nothing
Do everything and feel nothing

You seem really together, you've got a new coat, new hair
Well, I'll tell you one thing, you've got it coming
One day, you're gonna get it
Ha

https://drycleaning.bandcamp.com/

Currently listening to...

...the ethereal, otherworldy "Waves Become Wings" by This Mortal Coil from the classic debut album "It'll End In Tears" released in 1984. TMC was a kind of "super group" comprising members from many different bands who were all signed to the 4AD label. This song features Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance (previously here, here, and here) on vocals and treated accordion.

http://www.4ad.com/artists/thismortalcoil
http://www.lisagerrard.com/
http://www.deadcandance.com/main/

Currently listing to...

...the haunting "The Carnival is Over" by legendary duo Dead Can Dance (Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, previously here and here). It's just that kind of a day...

Outside the storm clouds gathering
Moved silently along the dusty boulevard
Where flowers turning crane their fragile necks
So they can in turn reach up and kiss the sky

They're driven by a strange desire
Unseen by the human eye
Someone's calling

I remember when you held my hand
In the park we would play
When the circus came to town
Over here

Outside the circus gathering
Moved silently along the rain swept boulevard
The procession moves on, the shouting is over
The fabulous freaks are leaving town

They're driven by a strange desire
Unseen by the human eye
Someone's calling

The carnival is over

We sat and watched
As the moon rose
For the very first time

http://www.deadcandance.com/main/

Currently listening to...

...the hypnotic, somnolent "Cradle" by Heidi Berry from her 1991 album "Love" for the legendary 4AD label. I've been on a kick with this song recently, putting it on "repeat" for an hour or so...it is haunting and delicate...a dark lullaby from a dream.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Berry
http://4ad.com/artists/heidiberry

"Ivo" by Cocteau Twins

It's hard to believe that this track is 30 years old. I remember when this came out...a friend of mine had a seaside cabin in the Northern California coastal area of Mendocino, and we went up to spend a weekend. We left the Bay Area rather late at night, and as we drove through the redwoods, I lay in the backseat, watching the towering trees pass us in the spray of lights from the front of the car. She put in a cassette of "Treasure" by Cocteau Twins, and of course the album starts with this incredibly unique, shimmering, breathtaking track called "Ivo." Rocking from side to side on the twisting road in my half-dream of darkness and trees, the song washed over me. Where did this miraculous sound come from, we all wondered then--not pop, not rock, not anything familiar.

And I think we still wonder...

Their former label 4AD says, "When they first emerged in the early 80s, the Cocteau Twins were compared most often to Siouxsie & The Banshees, but in truth they never sounded like anyone – or anything – else. Taken together, their nine albums, and sixteen EPs/singles, sound less like a band and more like an element of nature."

Yes, an element of nature... yes.

http://www.cocteautwins.com/
http://4ad.com/artists/cocteautwins

"Bloodflows" by SOHN

Mesmerizing sounds (and a mesmerizing video) from SOHN. This song creeps up on you...
SOHN just signed with legendary recording label 4AD.

http://sohnmusic.com/

Currently listening to...

..."The Protagonist" by Dead Can Dance. Grand, commanding, and mythological, with a video of hypnagogic images.

http://www.deadcandance.com/main/