Acting as the compère of a burlesque show, as I do from time to time, ensures that you get to spend time with all sorts of unusual people, many of whom, as a happy bonus, take their clothes off for a living.

Last night I met a dancer whose act involved flinging many handfuls of golden glitter at the audience whilst removing rubberised clothing. It was a much better act than that description implies. I spoke to her as she got ready for her next act, and she revealed that she was from a Dutch town called Monster. Monster!

Naturally, I didn’t believe that such a place existed, but a quick google reveals her claims to be true. I picture Monster to be filled with Dutch death-metal bands who spend their days wearing leather face-masks, eating meat and watching gore-horror movies.

Apparently [SEGUE ALERT] there’s a Monsterland Recording Studio in Brooklyn, a part of the world that ANBAD has (sadly, only metaphorically) visited many times this year. The Brooklyn Heat EP was curated and recorded there – featuring some of Brooklyn’s brightest and sharpest, all collaborating under one monstrous roof.

Shake The Fog, Magnetic Island’s contribution, is, like burlesque dancing, trashy in the best possible way. The song is ragged, ruffled, rambling and endlessly endearing. Disaffected and woozy, the song rolls slowly under its own momentum, ambling on a  slow arc to a foggy, delirious finish, that – joy of joys – has the kind of mumbled spoken word quasi-outro that I love.

To listen to Shake The Fog is to accept an invitation to roll around in the soft warmth of gentle fuzz, and to swoon with pure happiness as the song stumbles and catches itself. A late-year delight.

www.myspace.com/magneticislandband // brooklynheat.bandcamp.com