Shelf Life: Sadie Jones - The Snakes (2019)

Just as I love music that challenges its audience, I love books that do it too. While Snakes is not my favourite Sadie Jones novel - that still has to be The Outcast - but it's the one that, like Dylan at Newport, is her most transformative. Like the snakes of the title - who are essentially metaphoric - Sadie Jones has already shed a skin or two in an 18-year career and it's this novel that the suggests she has the potential to continue doing so.

I hate those 'ending explained' posts generated by certain novels and never look at them until I'm finished. If you can't make your own decisions about an ending, you're missing a vital facet of the reading experience. Without giving any spoilers, Jones takes us down a path that might bear resemblance to a thriller, but there enough clues to its artifice to mean a conventional thriller ending would be a huge disappointing. Thankfully, we get something else.

At least, that was my feeling. A quick look at comments on the internet revealed a number of readers who were disappointed by the way the novel ends, even betrayed by it. It seems they've not picked up on what, for me, this novel is really about: Snakes is about the impossibility of finding closure: an ending offering us precisely that would be the real betrayal.

Vert:x/VX

Following yesterday's foray into the world of The Chasms, it seems appropriate to follow that with a journey into another fascinating world, that of their sometime collaborators Vert:x.Vert:x recorded four sessions for my show in 2010, 2018, 2019 and 2021 and VX, the solo offshoot of main man Neil Whitehead, have recorded two more and there was also a joint session with The Chasms in 2012.

Basically, listening to the show means Vert:x beoome difficult to avoid, and why would you want to? Like The Chasms, there's a krautrock foundation to what they do, sprinkled with lashings of psychedelic guitar and electronica, the latter very much the focus of the VX project. If you have somehow managed to miss them, their fascinating series of albums, including a couple of great collaborations with Pete Hope, can be found here. 

A couple of those sessions are available there too. 

If that's not enough - and why would it be? - you can get all the VX material on their bandcamp site.

In my Dandelion show this month, I'm featuring the extraordinary Full Fathom Five, from the 1947 album that was released on my Unwashed Territories label back in 2018. I only had time to play the radio edit in the show but you can still get hold of the full release here or at the Vert:x site, including the full 15.56 version which made the Festive Fifty that year.

The Chasms

This Isle of Man three piece remain, for me, the band against whom all others in the current millennium must be measured.

Their existence spanned a mere three years and, in that time, they produced four stunning albums and became a mainstay of both my show and the wider Dandelion Radio landscape. They didn't misstep once, producing a glorious motorik-driven drone around which Mike Seed's loosely weave.

Reviewing their Alchemical Postcards album in 2011, I called it in my now defunct Unwashed Territories blog 'the latest in a series of mesmerising releases by what we must now surely label the world's best band.'

Their appeal hasn't waned with time. Assisted by Neil Whitehead of Vert:x, they released one final album - Winter Arcade - in 2012 before disappearing from our lives. Mike Seed and Richard Quirk have released some fine solo material since then but it's no disservice to their solo output to say that nothing - either by them or anyone else - has matched the chemistry that this band conjured up together during that period.

In this month's Dandelion show, I'm playing a track from their first Dandelion Radio session, recorded for Pete Jackson's show in September 2009. You can get it at the band's bandcamp site, which also has all four albums available for download:

Advance Paranoia, Advance (2009)

Index of Spirits (2010)

Alchemical Postcards (2011)

Winter Arcade (2012)

Also available on the site are the two Pete Jackson sessions, a session they recorded for my show in collaboration with Vert:x and a Christmas tune specially recorded for my show in 2009.

The Sinatra Test

The Sinatra Test, aka Phil South, were a mainstay of my show for several years and probably will become so again when they release some more material. In this month's retrospective show, I'm playing the wonderful Wodehouse Whippet Bingo from the session they did for the show way back in 2011. You can get the whole session as NYP here. 

Like most of Phil's output, it's an artistic collage built around samples and underpinned by an electronic pulse. Unlike many of the collage-based tracks I've encountered, however, The Sinatra Test never steer into inaccessibility: if this is art, it's art with a lowercase a: it's rooted in life, not Art, if you get my meaning.

If you don't - and I wouldn't blame you - you'd be better off simply trying all the material that's on bandcamp, including the recent 15th anniversary remastering of the Do Be Do album, also available as NYP. 

The Ale Trail: The Dog & Bone, Lincoln

The Batemans Brewery website declares, with some pride, that their Dog & Bone is in the top 15 pubs in Lincoln, as reported here. It's hard to imagine there are another 15 as good as this one. I did visit another boozer in this top 15 - The Cardinal's Hat - which was also well worth its place, but it can't match this one on at least three counts: the sheet warmth of a backstreet alehouse, six Batemans ales on handpump and a friendly pub dog.

The six ales would have been enough on their own. Batemans has long been one of my favourite breweries so to find a place with half a dozen of them - including the masterful XXXB - had me close to beer heaven. Wandering outside with a Dark Fruits Porter had me in it: it's a small beer garden to the rear of the pub, beautifully manicured, the hot Lincolnshire sun beaming down, the pub dog sitting on the seat next for me hoping for a crisp. Or was it the beer?

The Dark Fruits Porter was sumptuous: purple/black with cherries, blackcurrants and blackberries that fortify a mildly sweet aftertaste. I stayed for another - the more familiar Dark M Mild - before stroking the dog and leaving, telling the landlady I'll be back next time I'm in the area. Now I've got to figure out a good reason to be in Lincoln again.

Diane Marie Kloba

Among the many artists featured in my 20 years of Dandelion Radio retrospective a few stand out as regulars of my show over a long period of time. Among them is Diane Marie Kloba. From Chicago, Diane's music and vocal style sound unlike anything else. I love artists whose style is so distinctive it's hard to guess at the influences behind them. There aren't many such artists but Diane's music has passed this stringest test with every album she's made.

Not only that, but each album tends to contain some element that manages to surpass its predecessor in terms of its framing of Diane's distinctive vocal style. Her tenth, Red Sun, came out last year. 'These songs take on a serious tone but I am seeking to convey a spirit of optimism and forward thinking outlook,' comments Diane in the album notes. It's a defiant album created by an artist standing for humanity, vulnerability and perception amid the chaos of an America that's not just lost its way, but has found another, very dangerous one. But beneath the fragility of Diane's songs lies a profoundly human strength and that's exactly what we need right now.

The track I'm playing in my show this week is one that featured in a session Diane did for us in 2018, featuring three acoustic versions of her songs, including the one I feature, an acoustic version of her wonderfully evocative Took the Train Alone. The songs were released on an EP called Deep Heart Acoustic, which is available for NYP here.

The Ale Trail: Adnams Broadside Premium Ale

When it comes to bottled ales, I normally stick to cask conditioned but my son got me this for Father's Day and I immediately grabbed a bottle and headed outside with a pile of strong cheese. Why? Because I'm familiar with Broadside as a sturdy 4.7% ABV tipple and this mf is a powerful 6.

Even the usual Broadside packs a punch: coming out of the pumps, it's probably my favourite among cask ales that are widely available. I'd love to see this baby in a hand-pull: even out of a bottle its rich raisin-y textures came through and zazzed my head as I sat in the back garden on an unusually hot day in the grim north of England. 

I was reading Hemingway, who I believe said once that drinking from a bottle was fine but when you open a new one you know you've got a problem. But he was talking about whiskey so I figure however much of a wallop this ale delivers, I ain't gonna go the way of Hemingway. Just yet anyway.

Live: Devo, B52s, Rezillos, Lene Lovich at Manchester Arena

Bit of an unusual one for me. I'm normally more inclined to check out less established bands in smaller venues but, having missed the opportunity to see Devo when they were in the UK a couple of years ago, I was keen to put it right.

I'd always found the others on the bill appealing too and they certainly didn't disappoint. The B52s played most of the tracks from their debut album, the Rezillos fizzed on stage with the infectious energy they always brought and Lene Lovich was delightfullly eccentric, as you'd hope and expect.

But Devo's stagecraft is something else all together. They're sharing top-billing with the B52s on this tour and tonight it was their turn to finish the night off. Sadly, a lot of those who'd come to see the Georgians chose to bugger off, denying themselves the chance to see a band whose originality has never paled since Are We Not Men? dropped 48 years ago. 

The holding together of their unique musical philosophy during that time has been almost as remarkable as their ability to continue sounding as fresh as ever. Finishing off against a backdrop of a desecrated American flag and an emboldened 'Fight the Power motif, what they do and how they do it has never felt more important.

Babe Roots - Mi Feel It

This was one of my favourite records of last year. From Turin, Babe Roots always whips up a magnificent dubby vibe and, while the groove is always a big part of the appeal, but this one gets lifted by a fantastic vocal contribution from Wayne.

One of the comments on bandcamp reads, 'A Babe Roots release is like an actual event in your life.'  Listen to mokkah_n_versatile and invest four euros in a download of this baby. There's a 10" available here too. 

Lord Numb - The Chicken Mangle Disco

Lord Numb is one of those wonderful, enigmatic artists who gave my show some sort of shape in those early years. It wasn't just his own, wonky, mesmerising stuff that did that, but the range of artists with whom he collaborated, such as Spidersleg and Julien Auroux. They established a pattern early on of sending me whatever they did and, invariably, I loved it and played it.

This track can now be found on the Numb bandcamp site as part of an EP called Vintage Numb. The four tracks on there do a pretty good job of capturing the essence of an artist whose work pretty much defies description. The Chicken Mangle Disco is but one of several weird houses that inhabit his musical universe.

Jesus Christ (The Indie Band): Is This Really What You Want?'

I had no idea where this came from when I played it - and immediately loved it - back in 2010 and it's only recently that I found out it's the project of a writer called Tao Lin. I also tracked down an interview he did with LA Weekly where he talked about playing the track, an almost unbearably intense chronicling of relationship breakdown, to his girlfriend.

'What's fucked up is that I really like this,' she said.

I can't think of a better way of describing its appeal. While the two tracks are very different, the nearest comparison I can think of is Dylan's Visions of Johanna in the way the two tracks managed simultaneously to enthrall and emotionally drain me.

I've now idea how to get hold of a copy of the track now but if you want to get similarly mind-fucked in the most pleasant way possible, you can hear it here on YouTube. 

The Venopian Solitude: Mother Earth & Father Man-Made

 

If I were to select my favourite track of the current millennium, The Venopian Solitude's Mother Earth & Father Man-Made would be a very strong contender. It appeared as part of the Sangfroid EP in February 2010, a release which, like much of the artist's other output, was available as a free download.

TVS is a solo Malaysian artist who came to my attention purely by chance in 2010 and, when I played it in my Dandelion show, it generated more feedback than I've had from any track before or since. It went on to be placed at number 18 in that year's Festive Fifty.

Despite my comments in my Dandelion Radio retrospective this month, it appears the track and the Sangfroid EP are still available on the artist's Bandcamp site, which was updated fairly regularly until 2012 and then hosted what seems to be a one-off 2020 release. There's a quirky, lilting quality to everything she does but nothing matches this. 

The Ale Trail: Riverhead Digley Bitter

Got a pint of this beauty at the always magnificent Cricketers Arms in St Helens last night (where darts legend Steve Bunting, a frequent visitor, stroked our dog).

Riverhead Brewery, an offshoot of the Ossett brewery, is located in Marsden in West Yorkshire, a microbrewery also responsible for the superb Sparth Mild, which they've had on at Manchester's Piccadilly Tap this week. 

Digley is a robust chestnut-coloured bitter with a hint of caramel, just enough to deepen the texture without overwhelming the classic bitter taste. AT 4.5 ABV, it's a moderate but substantial little devil that set me up nicely for a pizza at The Turk's Head (also well worth a visit) afterwards - more about that wonderful hostelry in a future entry.

Gusto Extermination Fluid: Newty 08

I still remember the CD crashing through the letterbox, announcing itself to me, it seemed. These days everything tends to come through digitally, but back in 2008, when this gem was released, we were still receiving a lot more physical releases.

Gusto Extermination Fluid present the kind of industrial noise attack you can't tear your ears from even if you want to. Fortunately, I didn't want to and this EP became a firm favourite at the time. The bad news is GEF don't appear to have released anything since 2011: the good news is you can find their two releases on their bandcamp site, including this which is available to download for free.

What are you waiting for?

Swordman Kitala: Kimbalagala

Some of my favourite releases on the Blue Tapes label have featured the Ugandan vocalist Swordman Kitala: check out, for instance, this split release, also featuring Cattarh Nisin and 6v9id.

Kitala was part of the Nyege Nyege collective and has collaborated with legends like DJ Scotch Egg and MC Yallah, among others. If you like categories, you can place him on a spectrum between dancehall and techno with much going on in between. If you like categories, he's probably someone you'll love.

In my show this month, I feature a track from his 2020 EP released by Luton's Blip Discs, available here. 

A reminder that you can hear the anniversary show, featuring Swordman Kitala and many of my other favourites from the last twenty years, here. 

2 Hot 2 Sweat

This quirky duo were one of the first acts to record a session for my Dandelion Radio show. They ceased activity some time ago but you can still find a lot of their stuff on their Soundcloud site, which was last updated 15 years ago. It's kind of as if an indie pop band crawled into a blender, found a load of Fisher-Price toys in there and decided to enjoy themselves.

Their 'Swap It!' track opens my Dandelion 20-year celebration show: I can't think of a tune that reminds me more of those early, fun years on the station. You can hear the show on-demand here.

Over my Dead Bodies: Celebrating 20 Years of Dandelion Radio

In June 2026, a bunch of John Peel fans decided the death of the great DJ had left such a hole in their lives, they'd better do something to fill it.

The result was Dandelion Radio, named after Peel's 1970s record label, and it's been broadcasting uninterrupted ever since.

I joined the station eleven months later and, while the ethos of the station is very much about discovering new and diverse music, sticking as closely to the Peel model as possible, we've taken time this month to reflect on some of our favourite moments over the last twenty years.

So it seems as good a time as any to share the first track I ever played on Dandelion Radio, in that first show of May 2007: The Dead Bodies and Pink Muff Dance Party Vampire Resolve, a weird mix of pulsing tunes and Donald Duck vocals that somehow morph into the restrained tones of an upper class Englishman. 

The track comes from their album Mr Spookhouse's Pink House, released on the Quite Scientific label, out of Ann Arbor Michigan. No idea what happened to the band after that: if anyone does I'd be keen to know, but the album's now available on Bandcamp here. It's worth five dollars of anyone's money and then some.