One of these days I'm gonna update this feckin page ... not anytime soon though :|

Lemon Jelly - Lost Horizons .................................

In my own words .. I love that cover! ..

In Nick Franglen's own words ...

"So to keep you up-to-date: New Album 'Lost Horizons' out 21st October. 'Space Walk' single out a couple of weeks before that. Our gig plans are really close to being confirmed, hopefully by early next week we'll have it sorted out and will post accordingly, honest. I agree that the info here is a bit thin on the ground, it's just that we don't like to flag things until they're sorted otherwise it all just gets too confusing and we have to sit down for a bit and watch some telly to clear our heads ..... Elements and Closer are on the Lost Horizons, Pushy ("Bushy" was someone's misprint) is on the b-side of the Space Walk single. It's one of our favourites at the moment, after the age that the album took to finish it was really fun just banging Pushy out in next to no time (oh sorry, I meant "exploring different musical avenues in an introspective and collaborative journey through our joint psyches; after weeks of soul-searching Pushy was born)."

In the words of a mutual aqauintance (cheers, Amadeep!)

"... I actually got a promo of the album yesterday and have been listening to it on repeat non stop. 8 tracks, and much shorter than [lemonjelly.ky], but it is just a fantastic collection of cut-and-paste sampled electronica. more depth and focus... feels like a proper record. a journey ..."

....and in the words of amazon (as ever w/o permission!)

"As anyone who's heard their exuberant debut album will tell you, Lemon Jelly are no ordinary chill-out act. Here the eccentric duo present their second full-length outing Lost Horizons, and it's every bit as good as their acclaimed debut, Lemonjelly.ky. Inhabiting a world of almost limitless playfulness, Nick Franglen and Fred Deakin make the sort of brassy, beautiful downtempo music that leaves the listener desperately trying to suppress a goofy grin. You see, Lost Horizons is that rarest of things: a focused, humorous and exciting chill-out album that stands up to repeat listens. Often this kind of tongue-in-cheek chillage can sound dull and contrived (or, worse, sickly and overbearing), but Lost Horizons is anything but tedious. It simply bristles with shimmering, sunny instrumentation (jaunty acoustic guitars, skippy beats, tinkling pianos, oh-so English brass band fanfares… even the odd harp), while quirky, oddball samples lurk round every turn ("Nice Weather For Ducks", for example, is a country-funk shakedown based around a sample from a children’s nursery rhyme). From the percussive space jazz of "Return to Patagonia" to the seductive, sleepy closer "The Curse of Ka’zar", Lost Horizons doesn’t so much glimmer, it positively shines. 2002’s best downtempo album? Almost certainly."

One day .. I will be able to form my own opinion on something....

.................................... Mr. Scruff - Trouser Jazz

On the back of a 23-date UK tour and being namechecked by Madonna, Andy Carthy's (aka Mr Scruff) sophomore album Trouser Jazz has certainly been worth the wait. Having built a formidable reputation on the DJ circuit, not least for his genre-defying and strenuously long sets, but also for his ability to hold down residences throughout the UK, he has missed two label deadlines for this album release. Brimming with humour and littered with his characteristically playful sampling shenanigans, Trouser Jazz is a joyous romp through funk, jazz, soul and hip-hop complete with commentary from children's TV presenters and fish references aplenty. "Here We Go" sets the scene with a minute of looped horn-led retro funk that fades straight into the jazzy vibes and disco beat of "Sweetsmoke". First single "Shrimp" ups the tempo further with squelching rhythms and a trembling Rhodes hook, but it's moments such as "Valley of the Sausages" with it's strings, flute and breathless Latin vocals and the ragtime rhythms of "Come On Grandad" that confirm that Mr Scruff is no slouch when it comes to blending the absurd into a life-affirming sonic jumble. <-- taken w/o permission from Amazon.co.uk

New Godspeed You! Black Emperor in November
Enter final round in "Six Degrees Of" world championships
Ryan Schreiber reports:

Turns out Sigur Rós aren't the only ones dicking around with punctuation this fall, as the newly rechristened Godspeed You! Black Emperor return this November with Yanqui U.X.O.. Recorded by Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studio, the five-song (three even have titles-- or rather, two songs share titles with others) album will be released both as a double LP and single CD November 11th on Constellation.

Uh, so what does that title mean, you ask? Search us!! "'U.X.O.' is unexploded ordnance is landmines is cluster bombs," Constellation's press release offers. "'Yanqui' is post-colonial imperialism is international police state is multinational corporate oligarchy. Godspeed You! Black Emperor is complicit is guilty is resisting. The new album is just music." Constellation's official website for the album even offers a mind-bendingly complex diagram, presumably drawn up by GYBE mastermind Efrim Menuck, linking major labels and their respective media conglomerates to major international defense contractors-- even if the links are a bit tenuous (for example: DirecTV is a co-venture between AOL Time Warner and Hughes Electronics Corporation which entered a merger with Raytheon Industries who makes Tomahawk cruise missles).

In other Godspeed news, the bombastic doom-rockers are apparently a big part of director Danny Boyle's apocalyptic sci-fi thriller 28 Days Later. The Trainspotting director unspooled a rough cut of the film's first 20 minutes at a London horror festival in August, including "some amazing footage of an empty and ravaged London set to the music of the Canadian group Godspeed You! Black Emperor," according to Canadian film site/rumor clearinghouse Corona Productions. The film is due early next year from Fox Searchlight. Incidentally, Fox Searchlight delivers funding to The CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media who is allied with the Mitsubishi Corporation who makes atomic bombs. <-- Taken w/o permission from pitchfork.

The new Low album "trust" will be released on the 23rd Sept. not much news on this one yet :)

Sigur Ros - ( )......................................................

And of course ... 28th October heralds the new Sigur Ros album "( )" (or "koala emoticon" as some of the press like to call it). If you haven't heard of Sigur Ros - you haven't truly lived. They're a bunch of Icelandic Space-Rockers who play guitars with cello bows through canyons of feedback.

Extracts from the official news site ...The album is 70 minutes long and is entitled ( ). the album's eight songs are all untitled and the songs are sung in "hopelandic", in other words the vocals don't have any lyrics. the twelve-page booklet is all blank and listeners will be invited to write in their own lyrics for the songs. in a move that is sure to result in the lower end of the media waving the pretentious card, sigur rós have chosen to take minimalism to the extreme on their new album. the music should speak for itself. The album is divided in half: the first half is the "quiet" half, composed of 4 sweet and fragile songs, while the second half is the "heavy" half, composed of 4 bleaker, more melancholic and intense songs. after the first 4 songs, there is a brief period of silence to signify this division. as has been mentioned before, the songs on the album have no official names but being the analytical nerds that we are, we're of course aware of the band's working titles for these songs, so we can construct a tracklisting for you. you can download live clips of the songs on the downloads page so you can see which song is which and to get a general idea of how the album is constructed. the duration of the album's tracks varies from 6:33 to 12:54 mins. so without further ado, here is the official tracklisting of ( ):
1. vaka / 2. fyrsta / 3. samskeyti / 4. njósnavélin / (break) / 5. álafoss / 6. e-bow / 7. the death song / 8. the pop song

If you haven't bought "Agaetis Bjyrun" - do yourself a favour and buy it today . you will love it!