Basel, Switzerland – a town of culture, the pharmaceutical industry and permanent frowns. No one smiles in the birthplace of LSD. Basel was pretty, but my holiday was like a trip to a mental asylum. Clinical, regulated and dull. We needed to escape. To Germany.

Freiberg, a beautiful town with great food and smiles, was worth the hour long train journey. Especially as we managed to squeeze in a Broadcast 2000 gig.

Joe Steer, the brains of Broadcast 2000, has been justifiably triumphed by my friends recently. His experimental acoustic jinks, backed by a rare mix of snare drum, violin and glockenspiel, are delightful.

The music of Broadcast 20000 feels more authentic than the similarly styled Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Perhaps the lack of electronic mumbo jumbo makes a more heart-warming and personal experience. Songwriters that don’t bombard me with all the crazy shit they find on their music software are in my good books – experimentalism can be all about moderation.

Broadcast 2000‘s exposure has been, well, quite big. Get Up and Go is on an Orange advert and on Building Blocks, their tasty mini-album. To whet your appetite Joe has kindly offered my favourite song from the album to holeytonal for you to devour:

Broadcast 2000 – Everybody & Me

Especially when an arty fan of James and the Jewellery Store from Copenhagen makes a music video of Lights Go Dim. Only Danes, as the inventors of Dogma 95, can get away with camcorder films – Festen is one of my favourite movies.

You can download an MP3 of Lights Go Dim from my previous post about James and The Jewellery Store. But his story driven lyrics, bound with the sound of Sufjan Stephens on burlesque, deserve the attention of any art house film maker:

Major labels should know sounds that sell – with rosters full of great artists or at least great assets. So why was I so surprised at a gig featuring two singers signed to Universal and Warner?

Because the two unsigned acts also playing put the big boys to shame.

I don’t care if artists are signed to a major, an independent or are unsigned. Its the music that counts. What does irk me are major labels wasting money on generic muck when there is spectacular talent on their doorstep.

Life In Film

Unsigned Life In Film were one of the bands that deserves the rewards of being signed. Their infectious and unique indie pop could sell many records. Festival crowds will love their sing along choruses, whilst mud dancing to the funky rhythms. Life In Film’s live set did lose some subtlety from their recordings – but add a glockenspiel and problem solved.

Actually nothing was subtle in the Water Rats – you’d have been lucky to hear a 747 if it sat on your face – its stupid and dangerous. I’d still like my hearing when I reach 30.

I’m Sorry, You Don’t Know What You’re Doing

I was instantly put off Doug Walker (Warner) and Gary Go (Universal) – they’ve been manicured into  such characterless manifestations of mediocrity that if they chanted their own names in every chorus you still wouldn’t know who they were. A Life In Film track on the other hand could play on the radio and you’d know who it belongs to. We can only hope they get more radio play, especially if they keep on writing songs like I’m Sorry, I Didn’t Know What To Do. If I did tune of the month this exclusive from Life In Film would be October’s flavour:

Life in Film – I’m Sorry, I Didn’t Know What To Do (mp3)

Is anyone else becoming addicted to Born Survivor with Bear Grylls? He eats caterpillars and cuts the heads off skunks. Double hard.

I’ll never be that adventurous, but I’m always up for New Adventures. Especially ones destined to fill arenas around the world.

The four men of New Adventures began playing together at university, but a piece of the jigsaw was missing until vintage jeans brought Helen into the fold. Jez and Steve were selling vintage clothing – Helen bought some, and the rest is history.

The main obstacle New Adventures face is being lumped with Coldplay and Keane – but once you get over that you can enjoy some delicious stadium rock.

New Adventures will be releasing a second EP, Accidents, later this year featuring the stunning and drumless Never Get Caught, which can be heard on their MySpace. But I have fallen in love with this post’s MP3, try not to sing along:

New Adventures – Godspeed & Goodnight (mp3)

New Adventures are playing at Barfly in Camden, Thursday 23 October.

So, the fact that holeytonal features more male artists, or bands with male leads, is not the reason for posting about CHEW LiPS. I’m posting about CHEW LiPS because I look like a tit when I groove to their tunes on the tube.

Only 8 gigs old, CHEW LiPS‘s 8-bit drone disco and indie fusion has already been featured by Steve Lamacq on Radio 1. Its especially refreshing after Pendulums’ shit but commercially successful dance-rock crossover – I’d even prefer Alphabeat.

Try your hardest not to tap your feet to this excellent tune courtesy of CHEW LiPS – only available to download at holeyontal:

Chew Lips – CLVRI (mp3)

Tour dates include 93 Feet East on Friday 12 September. But I can’t be bothered to go to the far east this week, so I’ll wait until Saturday 27 September and see them at the St. Moritz Club in the West End.

Also found out the new video for the super tune and new single Headlock was on YouTube, so here it is:

If any of you ladies ever sleep with this dude, keep your dental gear safe. Favourite lyric so far this year: “Pissing on your toothbrush helps to relieve the pain”. Pure filth. Listen out for it in the this punk pop megathon:

Esser – Long Arms

Previous Esser Post: Get Esser’s Foot Out of his Mouth and Throw it at Alphabeat

But, despite being lauded by the Guardian as ‘one of the best bands you’ve never heard of’, they’re still largely unknown. Despite featuring on the Hotly Tipped for 2008 iTunes compilation, they’re still largely unknown. Despite being finalists in Q’s Glastonbury New Talent competition (they didn’t win it, which is probably a good thing), they’re still largely unknown.

You get the picture, but I’m going to paint a new one. The arty and epic Revere deserve to be known and, dare I say it, revered.

Fronted by Liverpudlian Stephen Ellis, the 9 piece from north London boast instrumental forces including violin, cello, harp and trumpet. They sight influences such as Bjork and Buckley, but I’d say if you cross-bred Muse and Sufjan Stevens, Revere would come out the mongrel. Its best though not to expect anything from Revere, they are quite unpredictable.

I’m looking forward to Revere‘s debut album, which is currently in the works and will be released on their own imprint, Albino Records.

This title track from their 2006 EP Learning to Breath is simply sublime:

Revere – Learning to Breathe

Be sure to buy more Revere tracks from 7 Digital.

Then he played. He sang. The world rejoiced. Well, maybe not the world, but 30 people in a church west of London did. Luke Sital Singh stole the show.

Despite having a bad case of man flu, his voice and lyrics were mesmerising. His melodies and harmonies catchy and clever. His performance wiped the fear from my face. Only to be replaced by a glare reading something like ‘ok, so this guy is good, bloody good’.

Luke Sital Singh is being modest when he compares himself to ‘a lovely bowl of soup’. Then again my favourite dish is a Vietnamese soup called Pho. So maybe he’s not so modest after all. Soup or no soup, he’s certainly not soupy, proven in the demo he kindly agreed to share. Its a fantastic song on tape. Even better live.

Luke Sital Singh – A Mile on Broken Legs (mp3)

I peeped Peephole through Bell’s MySpace. Glad I did. Their main man is called Kent Odessa. What a name. Its nearly as good as mine.

Aside from great nomenclature, their music is really where its at. The currently unsigned, Peephole, draw from the legends Prince, Bowie and Serge Gainsbourg. MGMT aren’t too far from their imaginations either, with some great driving and distorted bass lines a la Electric Feel. Peephole’s USPs are their experimentalism, with some interesting use of minimalism, as heard in their song Traitor. They also receive counseling from fruit.

You can download all these and more MP3s from their MySpace, but if you’re too lazy to go there, then just listen to these:

Peephole – Strawberry Told Me (mp3) Counseling from Dr. Strawberry and Dr. Cranberry.

Peephole – Half a Soul (mp3) Can you hear Serge?

Peephole – Traitor (mp3) Minimalist piano freak out

Olga Bell, born in Russia, raised in Alaska and now living in Brooklyn, has vocal and musical qualities that instantly remind you of Björk. Theres even an interesting cover of Its Oh So Queit on Bell‘s MySpace.

At first I reacted against what I thought was a blatant rip off of the Ice Queen, but I kept coming back for more. Throwing IDM into the mix did it for me.

So, homeopathy? Bell‘s Echinacea is the IDM infused Björkathon, with a great trippy beat, and clapping. Its a bit of a shame Bell didn’t make more use of the cheering at the opening of the track, otherwise its quite the tune:

Bell – Echinacea (mp3)