John Peel’s anniversary was a couple of days ago, and, like everyone else over the age of 25, I joined in the happy reminiscing. The only person who influenced my musical education as much as him was my dad, and that was partly because he was a John Peel devotee too. Today, the ANBAD Donkey celebrates a hero.

Mixtape!

FIRST! Basketball have been on ANBAD before, but that doesn’t preclude their inclusion here – when a song like Suspiros de Chile plops into your lap, sharing with the wider world is not so much an option as a requirement.

Basketball – Suspiros de Chile

Lunacy reigns here, and the band are happy to be swept along by a tide of manic beats, crazed fiesta vocals and wholly spectacular chanting. Fireworks in pop-song form. Prepare to ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’. Excellent.

SECOND! Hippo Campus‘ songs are beamed in from the future. That’s the only explanation I can offer for songs like Cherries, which seem to be composed in a way that defies convention, if not logic. Perhaps the future is entirely peaceful because of these songs, just like in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. It wouldn’t be surprising – these deft and calm semi-songs would pacify the angriest beast. Brilliant.

THIRD! Spotlight Kid list “My Bloody Valentine, Spacemen 3, Lush and Swervedriver” as their influences. But weirdly enough, they sound just like Insane Clown Posse. Only joking – they sound just like those Shoegaze bands from about 1991, but that’s no bad thing. The music warps and folds just like you’d hope, and makes me wonder why Shoegaze ever went away in the first place.

FINALLY! Big Deal – Sadly, I missed Big Deal at the In The City festival. I missed most of the bands I really wanted to see as I was distracted by bands that I didn’t realise I wanted to see. A subtle difference. In Locked Up, vocals float on dense guitar fuzz just like how white-hot sheet glass floats on molten tin. Hot, close and alluring. Great.