Literate, off-kilter pop seems to have become the mainstay at Moshi Moshi Records these days. I’ve particularly enjoyed a couple of inventive, funny and slightly creepy pieces by Slow Club. Yesterday, I found an EP called PIGEON by The Wave Pictures, and over the last several hours have become particularly enamored of the opening piece, “Long Island”. It reminds me of something I haven’t quite put my finger on yet: that easy, loping shoutalong rhythm that just takes the stress out of my shoulders and has me rolling along with it. Cranked up loud, it’s soothing to these old bones first thing in the day.

You can buy the whole EP on download directly from Moshi Moshi themselves.

(Usual standards apply: mp3 is live for seven days only and provided for review purposes only, contact degaussing at googlemail com if you need it taken down immediately)

Sam, who I talked about the other day, has given me permission to release one of his songs into the wild. So I’ve chosen “The Dirty 13,” because I think it best exemplifies his ability to cram a novella into three minutes. Just him and a guitar — an angrier, wittier Billy Bragg is one way to approximate his style, though that’s far from exact, and he’s a lot more original than that.

You can find out all about Sam, including his British tour dates (which have to be seen to be believed), at his MySpace page. The following mp3 will be up for seven days only. Please give it a listen.

Sam Russo – \"The Dirty 13\"

I’ve mentioned this piece a couple of times before. But, with Woven Wheat Whispers going down, I’d like to share one or two of the things I found through them. This, to me, was the standout on the compilation project JOHN BARLEYCORN REBORN.

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Belong’s COLORLOSS RECORD came out a couple of months ago, and its dusty, crackling and haunted rooms seemed to me to be a small-scale attempt to do for shoegaze what Burial did for r&b and rave. As someone who was around for My Bloody Valentine, the record’s swoon and glide naturally appealed to me, but I didn’t think it signalled another of the periodic attempts to rediscover or repeat shoegaze. Until I heard a bit of the new M83 yesterday, which on first listen is all about ’88 (when M83 was a kid, it seems). Anyway, if that’s the revival, listen to a little bit of the funeral.

Belong – “Late Night”

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1978. Whenever I play this, I’m mildly amazed. “Regenmacher” was on the album DURCH DIE WUSTE, and it was released in 1978. I can hear so many other pieces of music in it now — so many things that “Regenmacher” prefigured. I first heard this around 1996, and knew then that Jarre must’ve listened to it before MAGNETIC FIELDS and ZOOLOOK. Something new every time. I happened to play this next to Animal Collective’s FEELS the other day, just jamming random shit into the cd changer, and goddamn. It’s there in FEELS too. And it’s just a strange and beautiful thing in itself.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius – "Regenmacher"

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The "a-side" to this record, "Little Bit," is forgettable mush. The other track is "Dance Dance Dance," and it’s entrancing. Nervous, hopping and febrile and fragile to start off with, but the echoing isolated opening builds up a beautiful force. It’s pop, sure, but it’s perfect pop.

Lykke Li – "Dance Dance Dance"

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