London has a lot of stuff. This much may well be obvious to most, but it’s an endless surprise to me. Every corner turned reveals another week of potential activity, and when one only has five days to fill, either careful choosing or madcap cramming is required.
Last weekend, I chose the latter, and am now a happily exhausted shell of a man. One of the ways I chose to fill my time was to stop for a coffee with the supremely pleasant Richard Banks, who is part of the BBC Introducing online service.
We chatted for a long time, about new music and the BBC’s coverage of it, and it struck me how fortunate we are in Britain that our main broadcaster ploughs enough money into new music to make Richard’s, and many others’, jobs not only viable, but essential for the development of new music.
When I was discovering new music, it was via the BBC and the NME. Now it’s via the BBC and via blogs, like, er, this one. The point is that the idea of a major broadcaster pushing comparatively minute bands like, say, HOUSES, is almost entirely oxymoronic. We are lucky.
And HOUSES themselves? Simply beautiful. Listen to Endless Spring, and then read the entirely paradisical description of the circumstances under which it was recorded. Then listen to it again, and swoon with excitement, pleasure and warmth.
Endless Spring dithers and trips, relaxed and dreamy, in exactly the way that most songs don’t. I imagine that living for a few months in a beautiful tropical forest does that for you.
HOUSES: victims of a wonderful fate, choosing to share it with us.
Primavera! | LocaDora