So I’ve been very noticeably counting down the days til the release of Lupercalia, the latest from Patrick Wolf, who has been one of my more recent musical obsessions. Several evenings of my life has disappeared into a special activity known as ‘Patrick Wolf Youtube playlist time’. For those of you who dont know Patrick, he started out playing violin from 11 moving onto to busking in a string quartet, attracting label attention and playing with the likes of Arcade Fire and CocoRosie. He even managed to pair up with Marianne Faithful and Florence Welsch too.  Fat Cat gave him some mixing gear and the rest is very unexpected and imaginative creative history. Patrick does my favourite thing of fusing genres in the most unashamed fashion.

I am glad to say that he has kept his unique blend of catchy brilliantly written pop songs with lovingly OTT cinematic string arrangements. Whatever style Patrick does, there are no half measures and Lupercalia is no exception. Unsurprisingly from previews he has gone further down the line of the 80s romantic strain in his music. I’m not a fan of the romantics but for some reason Patrick pulls it off in a hypnotic way, perhaps because he has that true romantic sensibility – you know the 18th century sublime kind – wikipedia if stumped here. Outlandish costumes and overindulgent videos that I’d normal sniff at I lap up when it is a Wolf song – see the video for ‘Wind in the Wires’ as a case in point.

Lupercalia is most definitely his most commercial sounding and accessible sounding album yet. I think this is partly due to how bloody happy and in love he sounds on this album and undoubtedly is. Congrats Patrick. Sadly, misery makes good music. There is a reason why romantic movies end when the couple overcome obstacles and finally get their shit together – the bit with the marrying and the babies… not so exciting. My favourites of Patrick’s songs are by far his most gritty, depressing and full of emotional outpouring on a King Lear like level. Is it just me or is tragedy and drama just more compelling than tales of domestic bliss however heartfelt these may be? Maybe it’s just that most people can relate to about the failures and pitfalls of their lovelives and very few can or have had the good fortune to be at a point to sing love’s praises? Patrick follows his wolfish word play from Lycanthropy on this album – the title referring to the Roman ‘wolf festival’ celebrating fertility. This album is clearly a celebration and full of energy.  Sadly I want something with a bit more of the air of being slumped at the corner of a party hogging the rum to yourself while muttering angrily about life’s disappointments.

I was expecting not to like the more joyful tracks on Lupercalia, and with that ‘Time of My Life’ the most gloomy single on the album is assuredly my favouite. Basically if you are happy pop fan you will like the beginning of this album. If you are like me and like getting caught up in the tragic romance, the second half is more your bag. I really embraced Patrick’s more bouncy happy romantic side on ‘The Magic Position’ but I am sad not to see more edge and grit in this album. A few more risks and dangerous genre smushing that got me hooked in would have made this album score higher with me.

This is a solid well made album but I do miss the rougher sounds to Patrick’s vocals which seemed to come with his more experimental and darker material. His strings sing sweetly on this album but where is the dance macabre of tracks like ‘The Libertine’? While some artists in their earlier career have a roughness that shows their potential and needs polishing into a diamond like substance I like Patrick less polished and squeaky clean thank you very much. That said, happy or sad, Patrick’s uniqueness and creative flair has not been rubbed off in this polishing process, neither has the oh so palpable honesty of his songs.

So it appears that, as the media have proclaimed, the Wolf has been (somewhat) tamed by love.  I wanted more a bit more big, bad and bite from this Wolf.  However, after the hurly burly and rush of any relationship there comes stability and loyalty. This is not my favourite of Patrick’s work but, after a good length of obsessing over his previous songs with great envy for his talent, I find myself being loyal.  With every listen this album is becoming more endearing to me and no doubt I will be running around in the rain singing ‘HAPPY WITHOUT YOU OH!!!’ for a long time to come.

Lupercalia is out today, June 20th, in all not run by thickos record stores

Here’s a selection of my favourite Patrick Wolf Tracks with suggestions of appropriate ‘fun activities’ to do to them:

1. The Libertine – ride around on a horse and cutting down stuff with a sword, or alternatively go for a jog

2. Walk on the beach wearing only black thinking about how melancholy and deep you are

3. London – be annoyed at how good this song is, preferably in London…in the rain…and in some sort of black and white film

4. Pigeon Song – Regret breaking up with anyone you ever went out with, even if they were completely shit.

5. Time of My Life  – reconsider all decisions from track 4. You’re way to cool for those guys, so cool in fact that you go and buy Lupercalia. good choice.

Thought today I would do a couple better than just a tune of the day. Here’s my top 3 remixes that are floating about today.  I will be mainly listening to these in the office while trying to phase out everyone else’s news about TGE. Fingers is ears , la la la la la.

1) IS TROPICAL \’THE GREEKS\’ (MOONLIGHT MATTER REMIX)

The Greeks is from Is Tropical’s Forthcoming album Native To which will be released on Kitsune on June 13th. To preorder visit: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/preorder

Look out for I think we’re alone – this track is gonna sum up my summer I reckon!!! (Especially as I will be spending this summer frolicking in an ISTROP t-shirt). Anyway this remix is definitely tapping into my disco influenced tunes obsession right now.

2) OH LAND! – ‘SON OF A GUN’ (YUKSEK REMIX)

Oh Land is going from strength to strength, now supporting Kat Perry on her California Dream Tour.  She also got the Brink of Fame: Music Artist Award at this year’s NewNowNext Awards.

3) LYKKE LI – SADNESS IS A BLESSING (GOLD PANDA REMIX)

Double whammy of musical delights. Think I prefer this to the original mainly because Lykke Li freaks me out a bit in the video. Is it just me or is she looking progressively like a posher version of one of the Olsen twins these days? Anyway, leaving the shallow world of appearances aside (do check out her bum on the Levi’s ad though), great track, great remix. A more chilled one from our top 3 selection today. Liking the twist on a bit of 90s dance stuff here.

So I’ve been away for a wee bit. Life has been a hectic rollercoaster of writing my first ever score at college, interning in music management and going to the Music Connex conference.

I’ve also been hosting my own radio show for 2 months on Goldsmiths Wired FM. This involved many mishaps such as some one stealing all but one of the mics before a session and the Drum and Bass DJ a few shows before us blowing the desk to high heaven. Muchos gracias for the crackly sound all through my show which had twoooo interviews on it!!!

The show was a great chance to interview some of the bands on our roster where I am interning. Check the playlist links down the side of this page to listen to the playlists online. We have tracks from artist who interviewed on the show: Castle Radio, Breton, Pleasure Mob and Flash Fiktion as well as many more. Castle Radio’s singer Simon Lee came in and did a cracking live session despite having only one mic! Our other interviewees also picked out tracks for the show – seriously check out the playlists there is some really tasty new music on there.

Podcasts of the interviews and session will be online shortly – I’ll keep you posted

The first Music Connex conference was just held last week providing a great platform for artists, producers, writers, managers and other music professionals to mingle. There were great antics from Jazzie B of Soul to Soul fame on the artists panel – plenty of pearls from him but also often repeating the same answer to every question ‘ I’m a beats man, me…It’s got to be in the first 12 bars…’ etc. Although from time to time he was interrupted by some embittered artists who wanted an explanation for why they hadn’t made it.

A highlight for me was the songwriting workshop with Al Shucks which was less of a workshop but more of an interview about how he got into the industry and how he writes. It was great to see how down to earth he was and to get so much practical advice from him. Certainly much better than the usual ‘just keep going’ ‘follow your dream’ bull you get from a lot of people.

The main undercurrent in discussions over the 3 days seemed to be about where artists draw the line between being creative and knowing the business. It is increasingly the case these days that artists have to go it alone and get a lot of business and technical knowledge down pat before they can really get going in this industry. Many at Music Connex seemed simply overwhelmed with the workload. With more artists seeking to DIY route and wanting to bypass labels the more business savy they are going to need to have.

The other big issue was the digitisation of music. Apparently the industry is still, years later, struggling to come to terms with this. A main feature of the conference was about monetising music in the age of the internet. Though a lot of this was useful to know I did feel myself give a little sigh of despair that it has taken the industry this long. I do wonder sometimes how the music industry can carry on being 10 steps behind technology. That said there were some very promising talks from Pledge and Music Dealers about how internet platforms have made it easier for artists to go further and fund themselves without label support.

Anyway after all that updating, how bout a song? Came across this on 8tracks:

Enjoy the bank holiday folks,

x mus1cmatters

Holy Ghost Batman! – It’s Holy Ghost! with their new single Do it again. Get your disco on. You can get a free download of this track if you submit your email on: http://www.holyghostnyc.com

cheers guys

Though I am partial (as geeks like me do tend to be) to a Brachiosaurus  and other creatures form the Jurassic era I have to say I have a new favourite totally enormous extinct dinosaur.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs are currently touring with Darwin Deez around the UK and beyond, so check them out if you can. Just caught them with Darwin at Koko (review, vids and pics coming soon). They’ll also be showcasing at SXSW this year.

So this is my favourite from Thursday night at Koko. The delicious ‘Garden’. Take a peek at: http://www.myspace.com/totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs

I’m going to watch this video again and have a little boogie. Wont you join me?

Congratulations to Stornoway who won XFM’s New Music Award on wednesday!!! Today I’m picking an album track The Coldharbour Road. A totally single worthy track (as are pretty much all the tracks on the album).

I defy  you not to be moved.

Run down  post on the top 10 nominees for the award coming soon…

Mr Fogg, continuing the growing trend for artists using prefixes (Mr Hudson, Lady Gaga, Missy Elliot) has become a myspace sensation. BBC introducing love him as do NME. He’s touring the UK this march and his debut album Moving Parts released last April is currently on offer on mypsace for under a fiver. Bargainous yummy new music.

Seriously considering the prefix thing. Ms Lobo? Duchess Edie? her Royal…

Today’s pick is Colourful Life by Cajun Dance Party. For some reason this song is getting me very excited about summer and picnics in the park. I think it brought the sun out today anyway. Enjoy!!

Happy new year Everyone!!

My pick for today is the only song I could find with a chinese connection that wasn’t just that little bit racist. This is M.Ward with the beautiful Chinese Translation.

May it bring you good fortune…

So, I’ve now got myself a show on Goldsmiths college Wired  Radio. I’m very excited about the show! It should be an interesting mix of alternative music with some live sessions and unsigned new acts too.

Any burning suggestions for songs to be played? or if you are a musician and wanna get played, send me your Mp3s to: edie.astro[at]gmail.com

Live sessions are also up for grabs if anyone is keen!

The show starts on Friday 4th Feb, 7pm-8pm. You can listen online at: http://www.wiredradio.co.uk/