"No matter how down you are you'll eventually rise..."
Every summer, particularly around our annual holiday, I seem to latch onto a particular album or EP that ends up the unofficial musical touchstone for memories of that summer. Previously there's been Boards of Canada's The Campfire Headphase, Mr Scruff's Keep It Unreal (Every time I hear Fish I can practically see the water lapping against the stone jetties at Stromness) and Air France's blissful No Way Down EP from last year, released on Swedish label Sincerely Yours. Skip to this year and this post from Gorilla Vs Bear, highlighting a new release on said label from an artist only known as JJ, describing the music as "summer jams of the dreamily wisftul, blood-spattered variety". Could be good, thinks I, and have a listen to one of the tracks (available for free here, or just click play below).
Lovely! Suitably sold, I popped over to the online store to buy the album whole, 9 tracks at a nicely priced £5.40, and already it's shaping up to be the album that soundtracks the sunnier moments of this summer (though it is facing some serious competition for playtime from the new Engineers and Phoenix albums, both of which are excellent and deserve proper reviews later, while the second album from the Gentleman Losers is currently noodling and brooding around my ears most pleasantly). As with Air France, it catches that blissed-out sun-bleached timeless feeling of a good summer, rather than the hi-energy trance bollocks you get blasting out of cars. Think Grouper on the beach, St. Etienne via Air France with a sprinkling of Paul Simon's Graceland and whale sex noises. If there was the slightest scrap of justice in this vicious universe, From Africa To Malaga would be the summer anthem, rather than fecking Bonkers.
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