heard on the wire

It’s been just over a month since I resurrected this blog and the subsequent catching up I’ve done has certainly been enlightening.

As I mentioned, much of my listening over the previous year had been confined to car journeys, thus accompanied by a variety of noise and disturbances that, I’ve discovered, obscured many of the delights.

Thus LPs, EPs and singles that I listened to three or four times made only a fleeting impression, their true worth lost on the A19.

Take, for example, Home Cinema the debut solo record from Emma Kupa. I never truly warmed to Standard Fare, whom Kupa named after a sign seen from a bus in Newcastle and fronted for eight years and two LPs. So I may not have accorded Home Cinema the attention its six tracks deserved. Either that or that just a little to gentle to cope with noise from Newcastle’s roads. That, Alanis, is ironic.

Emma Kupa // There Will Come a Day

Scarcely a post goes by without something from Brooklyn, New York, and this post is no exception. Wilsen describes herself as alternative folk, which should tell you straightaway that she has no earthly chance of a fair hearing. This comes from her 2014 debut, Sirens.

Wilsen // Dusk

From Brooklyn, cross Manhattan to New Jersey then ride the 3,000 miles of Interstate 80 and you’ll arrive in San Francisco, home of No Vacation. This two-cum-four piece play “beach, bedroom, pop dance, dream pop, indie pop, indie soul, indie surf, indie-soul melodic pop”. That sounds like this.

No Vacation // August

Talking of enlightening, this Standard Fare track popped up on shuffle just recently and, again, it’s one I hadn’t really appreciated first time around. Maybe I am warming to them after all.

The titles cites a character from a middling sci-fi saga whose popularity far exceeds its worth. Still, what do I know‽ Incidentally. I wonder if anyone watching spotted the clue in the name, vader being the Dutch word for father.

Standard Fare // Darth Vader // iTunes

Photo: Misery as Whitemark Pool roadworks start by the Newcastle Chronicle; some rights reserved.