Come back Seeed, I say

I confess that, in close matches like this, I tend to resolve the dilemma by plumping for the country I regard (rightly or wrongly) as the underdog

‘A Quiet Bay’ packshot: front cover of LP sleeve (an abstract design suggesting a pyramid or obelisk in a landscape); black vinyl disc. Heavy Axe is Neil ‘Correlations’ Hale and Khaled Lowe. Assisted on this record by Simon James and Francesca Panaccio.

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21/30. Heavy Axe, ‘A Quiet Bay’ (2026)

LP on Feral Child, one of a deluge of releases by the label in its final year of operation. Side 1 is SAW85-92 meets Fripp & Eno with a bit of psych and shoegaze thrown in, but it goes to other places too on Side 2. Enjoying this a lot.

Track notes from Select magazine for their “Exclusives” cassette compilation

Found it! (in my Stereolab archive). Hopefully text is legible if you zoom in?

Traffic In My Mind YouTube video by The Osmonds - Topic

Alan Osmond R.I.P, producer of the brothers greatest lp and co-writer of a lot of their best tunes.

youtu.be/nN9SS5bqN4s?...

A classic of its kind. Think I’ve still got the track notes from the mag somewhere, as well as the tape.

One general observation after the first 12 matches. A lot of nations are employing unexpected tactics (though I confess I’m no expert on the tiny ones). Wasn’t expecting 17 minutes of extremely pretty keep-ball from Germany, for example.

First GBs of the tourney, for Qatar (their match v CH had the most goals today) & for NL (heartbreaking defeat for JPN, close to snatching a draw after going 2 goals down early). It’s a w/o for Morocco after Brazil fields Gorman instead of Gérson. Wins for ECU and CUW. TUN and SWE share the points.

hey, prior warning the Long Song vuvuzela would be sounding would have been nice

The fact that a couple of teams turned out in strips that recalled the uniform of a certain marine corps lieutenant helped.

Shout out to Scotland for surprising me.

Haven’t got energy atm for match-by-match commentaries. But I will say these are tough choices and I changed my mind about how to vote in several games after a second listen. Final results: one scrappy nil-nil (I abstained), one rather more intriguing nip-and-tuck (used the bonus), four narrow wins.

wiaiwya022 - Elephant & Castle, by Action Biker 1 track album

I found some Action Biker 7”es in the lockup

Make them yours by shopping here

wiaiwya.bandcamp.com/album/wiaiwy...

Cover art (v.2) for the digital-only album release ‘Commission on Prism Occultations’ (as was; album now deleted from Bandcamp). A “still-life” style composition made with digital tools, including a tomato, a fork, some cheese, half a boiled egg, a croissant, a prism (with refracted light beams emitting from it), a human face in silhouette and a planet.

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4/20. Patrick R. Pärk, ‘Commission on Prism Occultations’ (2024)

A digital purchase shortly after release. Slightly pointless my sharing as PRP recently deleted his entire, vast catalogue from Bandcamp. But PSA: if you ever bought his music there it’s still in yr collection via the BC app

‘The Beware Gallery’ pack shot. Cassette j-card sleeve (with colourful artwork by Leeham The Wizard); tape in pink transparent shell (with catalogue number ‘WC77’ in DYMO label form taped to it); Waxing Crescent label logo badge (in yellow); label courtesy card.

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19/30. The Eyes and The Mistoids, ‘The Beware Gallery’ (2026)
@mistoids.bsky.social

A welcome return to tape by Waxing Crescent Records. Stuart Smythe’s piano + electronics project is as beguiling as ever, mixing jazz, neoclassical, Enaudi-esque melodies and forceful rhythms.

Pack shot: ‘Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself (Original Soundtrack)’ by Let’s Eat Grandma. Front cover of outer sleeve; two printed inner sleeves (partially obscured); one of the 2 vinyl discs (it is pressed in a translucent red colour).

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18/30. Let’s Eat Grandma,’Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself (Soundtrack)’ (2022)

LEG return to the witchy sounds of their earliest work in this OST to a Netflix drama. Pleased to find a s/h copy of the 2LP set at To Have And To Hold Records in Tewkesbury on Monday.

You’ll probably do this anyway, but can you please state the original year for each participating track when announcing a match. Can’t imagine I’d want to know any other context, but this definitely.

AUGUST 1974 Strange, the things you remember. I have two clear memories of August 1974; one concerns the chart being one day late in Bank Holiday we...

After a three-week break, Young Punctum deluxe reboots are now back on! This week it's August 1974. Bit of relevant time-travelling right at the end #hangonintherebaby:
funthirty.blogspot.com/2025/03/augu...

Cover art for ‘Batakari’ by Ata Kak. An elderly man with close cropped white hair and a white beard stands in front of a sun-drenched apartment block in Ghana. He is wearing a colourful shirt and sunglasses.

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17/30. Ata Kak, ‘Batakari’ (2025)

I was familiar with the title song from this EP / mini LP, but am delighted to find the other 5 tracks are also great. Life affirming - and one of the comebacks of 2025.

A digital purchase earlier this year.

A painting of a metal footbridge that spans a river. There’s a railing along the near bank, and a paved road; trees and other foliage run along the edge of the far bank. The sky is blue with a couple of puffy clouds.

“Back of Avon, Tewkesbury”. Pencil and watercolour.

(The bridge IRL is actually painted pale green, but I wanted some greater contrast with the background. Some details omitted also)

Time to breathe, by Remington super 60 track by Remington super 60

New single from Remington Super 60! Their first new thing in at least 5 years. And it’s lovely.

remingtonsuper60.bandcamp.com/track/time-t...

‘We Hate You South African Bastards!’. Front cover of the LP sleeve, featuring artwork by welsh artist and musician Jon Langford (a founding member of the Mekons and the Three Johns); clear vinyl LP. From the Microdisney story, part 2: Richard Boon — “Rough Trade Records was very artist led, especially when it came to packaging. We’d have Morrissey sending us Xeroxed pictures of his favourite TV or film stars from that Noir-Northern period of film and television, with colour suggestions. Microdisney came up with We Hate You South African Bastards!, which was a great title at the time and they met Jon Langford from The Mekons and he did a fantastic drawing for that. I seem to remember a gig where Langford played with them as well, he’s a hero.” Cathal Coughlan — “With Jon Langford’s masterpiece — to me, I still love that. It did get more attention because of the name than it would have done just on its own merits and I kind of feel a bit bad about that really. I don’t recall there being any backlash from any anti-apartheid people or anything but I think profanity on a record cover was still a big deal at that point. There were people who would become interested in you, like the National Front and stuff like that, just on the back of something like that. Nobody put anything through anybody’s letterbox, no vinyl was destroyed that I can recall. It was an attempt at doing a kind of flippant thing, “Oh yeah, we all know that this is a really serious thing, but we’re going to make a joke about it.” To be honest, with hindsight that’s a bit up itself really.” Source: https://medium.com/learn-and-sing/iron-fist-in-velvet-glove-the-story-of-microdisney-part-2-eb613258163c

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Here’s yesterday’s listen, posting delayed due to Bsky wobbles

16/30. Microdisney, ‘We Hate You South African B*******!’

Facsimile LP reissue on Dimple Discs of the 1984 compilation (originally on Rough Trade) of tracks recorded by Cathal and Sean in Ireland as a duo between ‘82 and ‘83.

Yesterday a new release landed on my label Frosti from Scottish musician The Lost Past Society : frostilabel.bandcamp.com/album/transm...
It's a stunning album in the form of a fictional radio station style mixtape (lots more about the concept in the Bandcamp description!)...

Shouting at Radio 4 works pretty well too

Front cover of the 1979 LP ‘American Express’ by Harry Thumann. A head and shoulders shot of a young man with long permed hair (resembling Peter Frampton here to some extent), photographed slightly from below. He is looking up to the heavens, thus exposing his neck. Kind of a weird photo to be honest.

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Harry Thumann, ‘American Express’ (1979)

German musician and sound engineer. The first of his 2 solo LPs. Came to this via the space disco classic “Underwater”, which I heard recently for the first time on a 30 Door Key mixtape. Most of the album is worth the trouble though.

Angel Pavements by D.Rothon was created to mark the Clay Pipe Music event at Soho Poly. It will also be available at the Independent Label Market on 9th May, I’ll be taking reservations for those attending, so if you’d like me to reserve you a copy, just shout. Audio>>> www.claypipemusic.co.uk

Jula’s Instagram feed of random pulls from her late father’s vast vinyl collection is one of the best things on the internet. Her reviews are consistently perceptive and she always finds something positive to say. I confess I didn’t know of ‘Six Days In Berlin’ before either but will listen to soon.

Cover art by Frances Castle to the Clay Pipe Music release ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’ by Alison Cotton. A drawing of an attic room turned into an office. In the foreground, on a table, is a typewriter, date stamper and a knocked over coffee mug. Beyond these, against a wall, are filing cabinets and a safe. Next to them is an open doorway to a staircase (some of the banister is visible) and beyond these is a window through which another building can be seen. The image is mostly monochrome but with some sepia and beige tinting.

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15/30. Alison Cotton, ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’ / ‘The House of the Famous Poet’ (2019)

Two moderately long pieces, inspired by/soundtracks to Muriel Spark ghost stories. Multitracked viola & voice, with other occasional instruments plus effects. A digital buy late in 2025.

Had quite forgotten Poleconomy. I used to love that game. Wonder what happened to our family’s set… 🧐

you can bear a grudge, it’s fine, i don’t mind 🙂. The Dutch gaffer rejected the star striker I’d kindly made available for selection (so obviously their squad’s on the first plane back to Schiphol)

Honestly, one of the most generous and fun art exhibitions I’ve been to in years. The Riso Club 100 is a celebration of global Risograph art prints at Glasgow’s Glue Factory. On until Sunday. risottostudio.com/pages/events...