No Badger Required – Music. Stories. But mainly music

Algorithm Is A Chancer – #1 ‘The Sound of Domino Records

You will recall that last week, I introduced this series by setting the scene. That being that the two music streaming services that help me kill music have provided me with a whole host of playlists and keep inviting me to ‘Explore’ them. So I decided to take them up on their very kind offer and every Sunday for the foreseeable (or until music eats me) to pick one and post some tracks from it – well. I’ve decided to go a bit further than that.

What I am going to do is post about 30 minutes or so of music from each one. I’ll start at the top and work from there.

The very first playlist that Amazon recommends is ‘The Sound of Domino Records’ which sounds promising, at the very least. I’ll press shuffle and then post every song that it plays for the next thirty minutes or so.

Let’s press shuffle.

Miracle Aligner – The Last Shadow Puppets (2016, Domino Records) – On paper, any band that features Alex Turner from (also Domino signed) The Arctic Monkeys should be excellent. One in which he teams up with his best mate Miles Kane and one of Simian Mobile Disco should on paper be even better. But, for some reason, I never really got The Last Shadow Puppets even if they do try and recreate the sounds of David Bowie and Scott Walker.

Midnight Surprise – Lightspeed Champion (2008, Domino Records) – Lightspeed Champion is the work of Dev Hynes. They were the band he formed when Test Icicles disbanded, and they make a kind of folky slow paced indie rock. The songs often wander off in various directions accompanied by strings, solitary sounding pianos and drum breaks (‘Midnight Surprise’ rocks in at about ten minutes). Of course, nowadays Dev is in Blood Orange and they are literally everywhere.

Becoming A Jackal – Villagers (2010, Domino Records) – I went to a wedding once about twelve years ago. It was the second marriage of a friend, whose first marriage lasted about six hours – it’s a long story – and his to tell – anyway, ‘Becoming A Jackal’ was the song that was playing when his bride walked down the aisle of the frankly freezing church. It was kind of brilliant and to this day is still the only song by Villagers that I could name.

Feel You – Julia Holter (2015, Domino Records) –Julia Holter is one of those artists who seems to get widespread acclaim for everything she touches. ‘Feel You’ is taken from her fourth studio album (and second for Domino) ‘Have You In My Wilderness’ and it is very lovely indeed. Possibly the best song of the day so far.

The Sun Never Sets – Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid (2007, Domino Records) – Although of course, my previous words were written before I knew that Kieran Hebden would be coming on next. I mean its Kieran Hebden making twisted bleepy electronica with a renowned jazz drummer, what could you possibly not love about that. Definitely the best thing I’ll post today.

Talking Backwards – Real Estate (2014, Domino Records) – And that is an excellent way to round of this thirty minute mix – which isn’t actually a mix unless you mix it yourself, but you know what I mean. Real Estate are one of those bands that always seem to release good albums of sun drenched lofi indie rock. They will sit perfectly in your collections next to your Teenage Fanclub records if you have never heard them before.

Nearly Perfect Albums #187

Surrender – Chemical Brothers (1999, Virgin Records)

It is all well and good being at the forefront of a musical scene, as The Chemical Brothers undeniably were, but its what you do after that matters, because if the Tom and Ed just sat back and made another album of massive beats and all that, it would have in all honesty probably have been taking the piss slightly. Luckily, they didn’t just do that, instead they grabbed some of their musical buddies, called us all superstar DJs and got their rave on.

Hey Boy, Hey Girl – Chemical Brothers (1999, Virgin Records)

That, you might think, was the very least that the Chemical Brothers could do and it is hardly the most surprising of returns. I mean if they returned with a death metal album or one that only used instruments made in the fourteenth century, then we would have been more surprised than the Chemical Brothers making a rave album, however, it just so happened that ‘Surrender’ was bloody excellent and it turned out to be a career highlight.

‘Surrender’ is a brilliant record from the very opening bars of the Kraftwerk tribute ‘Music:Reponse’, to closing refrains of the Mercury Rev (or Jonathan Donahue at the very least) assisted psyche trip of ‘Dream On’ – via Chicago house, trance, psychedelia, acid pop and Hope Sandoval sounding half asleep, all of is a hugely enjoyable listen.

Music: Response – Chemical Brothers (1999, Virgin Records)

Where ‘Surrender’ really works is where someone else does some of the heavy lifting. ‘Out of Control’ for instance, is far and away the greatest thing that Bernard Sumner has been involved in outside of those other two bands he was involved (ah, face facts Electronic fans). You can probably say the same thing about Bobby G as well.

Out of Control – Chemical Brothers (and Bernie and Bobby) (1999, Virgin Records)

And the use of Hope Sandoval, a singer who stands out for sounding dreamily wonderful, without ever really trying not to, on a track called ‘Asleep From Day’, seems to be something of a masterstroke,

Asleep From Day – Chemical Brothers (and Hope Sandoval) (1999, Virgin Records)

Sometimes the Brothers decide that there is simply no point in fixing things. The nine minute album centrepiece for instance, ‘The Sunshine Underground’ is essentially, ‘The Private Psychedelic Reel’ with a disco ball attached to it and the Noel Gallager aided ‘Let Forever Be’ is calmed down version of ‘Setting Sun’.

Let Forever Be – Chemical Brothers (and Noely G) (1999, Virgin Records)

But, these are mini gripes and you can easily skip over them, because actually, when ‘Let Forever Be’ gets going you still manage to get lost in its subdued funk and its difficult to argue that it, and ‘The Sunshine Underground’ are anything but enjoyable tracks

It may be nearly thirty years old and it may not be the most groundbreaking or radical of records, but music isn’t always about being groundbreaking or radical – in fact – it rarely is. Music tends to be about making people smile or being enjoyable and ‘Surrender’ is one of the albums that does exactly that – it will always be enjoyable; it will also make you smile and it will always be excellent because of that.

The Best of the Rest – #1

Morning.

Whilst you open the window to get rid of that lingering sprouty smell that’s been around ever since Aunty Brenda arrived, I’ll fire up the stereo to bring you five tracks that all made the No Badger Best of 2025 Playlist – you can, if you haven’t already, find that Playlist of Spotify or Amazon by searching on “No Badger 2025 Playlist”.

We’ll start with the track that I listed at Number 42

Speed Freak – Youth Lagoon (2025, Fat Possom Records) – Youth Lagoon, is, as you will probably know, the work of a chap called Trevor Powers. His music is a proper melting pot of ideas, sometimes the guitars will be jangly, sometimes they will be fuzzy, sometimes they will get shoved out of the way by some electronica or some sunny sounding synths. Its nearly always marvellous though.

Right, next up, number 52,

Little Wing – Campus Christy (2024, Stones Throw Records) – Campus Christy continue to intrigue and amaze. ‘Little Wing’ is a wonderfully understated track that sounds like it was swept up on the floor of the studio where Mercury Rev recorded ‘Deserters Songs’, especially the gentle guitars and the breathtaking harmonica interlude.

Ok, next the record at number 31

Breakaway – Been Stellar (2025, Dirty Hit Records) –Judging by ‘Breakaway’ and the two other tracks that have surfaced from the as yet untitled second album from Been Stellar, it looks that album will be every bit as dynamic and excellent as the first (which, you’ll remember was the No Badger Album of the Year in 2024).

Time for a slight change of style and the track at number 36 on my list

Dead – Sudan Archives (2025, Stones Throw Records) – There are not many artists around making music like Sudan Achives right now. She takes her experience as a trained violinists and adds that to breakbeats, samples and electronica and that sings and raps over the top of it. The results are frankly stunning.

Finally for today at least, here’s number 27 on the NBR list.

I Don’t Wanna – Sydney Minsky Sargeant (2025, Domino Records) – Sydney Minsky Sargeant is probably well known to all of you as the singer in electroclash upstarts Working Men’s Club He’s also one of the most prolific artists out there at the moment, because as well as that new Working Men’s Club album that is due to send them stratospheric come late Spring, we had an EP of tracks that he made with Daniel Avery under the name of Demise of Love and a rather sweet solo album called ‘Lunga’.

Christmas Day Non-Post Post

As it’s Christmas Day, here’s a picture of Thom Yorke wearing a Christmas Hat.

And here is a distinctly unfestive Christmas song from LCD Soundsystem

Christmas Will Break Your Heart – LCD Soundsystem (2015, DFA Records)

The chocolates are on the table, I’m off to peel some carrots.

The No Badger Tracks and Albums of The Year – Number 1

Tracks of The Year – Number 1

Minimum – Bon Enfant (2024, Duprince Records, taken from ‘Demande speciale’)

I may have said this before, but I spend hours looking for that one song that will make my socks roll up and down my leg in marvel. Sometimes you will find me in the bars, the venues and the seedy underbelly of the musical world, often standing at the bar on my own cradling a pint of ridiculously priced organically produced wheat beer as the latest in a line of hip swinging uber cool upstarts do their thing on the stage. Sure I’ll nod my head and tap my foot and towards the end I bring out my little notepad and whip out the pencil from behind my ear and I normally end up writing,

“Nah”

When I’m not in the bars and all that, you will find me in a dark corner of my lounge, headphones on, hunched over a laptop, mouse scrolling up and down various pages as the bios of the latest hyped group are devoured and their releases digested. Genres will come and go, post rock, future rock, post post punk, sadcore, happycore, thiswave, thatwave, glitchstep, misstep, dreampop, nightmare pop, and then often in the middle of the night, I’ll throw off the headphones, sigh, as I look at yet another empty of jaffa cakes and type into my computer,

“Sounds like early James” or “needs less bass” or “needs more elephants” and when I type that, I realise that I’m too tired too care.

It turned out all I needed to do was to pick up my faithful notepad and scrawl backwards a few more pages, because back in late 2024, Bon Enfant, an art rock quintet from Montreal who sing in French released their third record the wonderful ‘Demande Speciale’ and after listening to it, I wrote, almost as a reminder to myself,

“minimum’ – incredible song, Track of the Year already?”

Folks, ‘Minimum’ is simply flawless. I can’t fault it in anyway. It is a song that no matter how many times you listen to it, whatever mood you are in, wherever you are in the world, it will always sound perfect. It is a dreamy pop song, almost shoegaze in its style about spending an afternoon in the park with someone you love and its floats and its shimmers and its sparkles and, well, this year it stood head and shoulders above everything else.

Also standing head and shoulders over everything else is the Album of the Year winner.

Albums of the Year – Number 1

Like A Ribbon – John Glacier (2025, Young Records)

John Glacier’s debut LP ‘Like A Ribbon’ is only 30 minutes long, I’ve got tracks by renowned cymbal soloist Seth Cooke that are longer than that, but as we’ve already found out in this countdown via the wonders of Water From Your Eyes’ even shorter album, it’s not how long it is that matters, it’s how you fill that time, that matters.

‘Like A Ribbon’ is stuffed full of ideas, there are so many ideas that to fully get a grasp of everything that is going on you have to perhaps listen to it three or four times in a row. There are of course tracks that are huge earworms that are addictive for all the right reasons. The riff, for instance, that takes centre stage in ‘Emotions’ will play over in your mind for weeks to come.

Emotions – John Glacier (2025, Young Records)

But its more than just an album of earworms. This is an album that invites you to explore it. It wants you to ask whether it’s a hip hop record or a garage record – but at the same time it wants to reflect and also think that its roots lie in the grime scene or in the drum n bass world, because all of those genres appear to wrap themselves around this album. It is full of mysterious sounds, glitchy voices, slowed down samples and the odd scream that appear to come straight out the Aphex Twin school of weirdness.

Satellites – John Glacier (2025, Young Records)

Don’t Cover Me – John Glacier (2025, Young Records)

‘Like A Ribbon’ doesn’t really sound like anything else around, it is genuinely intriguing and an album where you can get more and more lost within it.

Heaven Sent – John Glacier (2025, Young Records)

A fascinating and compelling and whilst I’m here, very nearly perfect record.

And that folks, is that.

The Album of the Year is from John Glacier and the Track of the Year is by Bon Enfant, both will make your Christmas Holidays even more amazing than they already will be. Thank you to the Musical Jury for their recommendations – and I’ve actually just found one more that I didn’t publish earlier – which kind of brings me on to the rest of this month.

On Friday, we will start to take a look at some of the other tracks and albums that also made the No Badger End of Year Lists but didn’t quite make the final countdown – The Best of the Rest – if you like.

Until, then, relax, have that extra mince pie, no one looking, and if anyone asks you, I definitely didn’t drink Santa’s hefty glass of Goslings Darkest Bermudian Rum that was left for him on the fireplace.

Happy Christmas everyone.

The No Badger Tracks and Albums of The Year – Number 2

Tracks of The Year – Number 2

Never Enough – Turnstile (2025, Roadrunner Records)

If, like me, ‘Never Enough’ was your first experience of the Baltimore hardcore punk band Turnstile, you could be easily forgiven for thinking that they were anything but a hardcore punk band. The reason for this, is because ‘Never Enough’ is as far detached from hardcore punk as you can be without turning into Green Day.

It opens with a synth solo, but not just any synth solo, oh no, this one is straight out of the eighties to the point where it could be dressed in a pastel colour suit with massive shoulder pads and played on a keytar by Nick Rhodes. That synth solo as it happens is pretty wonderful and it leads into something even better as the vocals bring us a verse and then a chorus that teases us with its build before the guitars blast in and only then do we hear that punk sound emerge as frantic drumming crash in from every direction.

But its short lived, because in less than, what, two minutes, the guitars are gone and the synths are back but this time they are not alone. They are accompanied by a piano that drifts dreamily in and out of earshot, some strings that sound like bird noises and weird but utterly mesmerising drumbeat that stops and then starts, almost like its waiting for the rest of the song to catch up and then ‘Never Enough’ suddenly stops (actually in reality the next song on the album, crashes in, that folks is punk rock)

Sole – Turnstile (2025, Roadrunner Records)

Whether its hardcore punk rock or something entirely different, doesn’t matter when the music sounds as good as ‘Never Enough’ sounds. 2025 has been Turnstile’s year. An incredible track.

Albums of The Year – Number 2

For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) – Japanese Breakfast (2025, Dead Oceans Records)

Chapter Nine, Paragraph Six, Subclause Four b, of the No Badger Manifesto clearly states that

“If a band wins The NBR Album of the Year Award twice in a five year period, then they have earnt the right from that point to be referred to as ‘The Best Band on the Planet until another band does the same thing…’

Well, folks, back in 2021, Japanese Breakfast romped to the NBR Album of the Year title, shoving aside all the other records from that year, with their bouncy eighties electronica lead third record, ‘Jubilee’ and in 2025, they came very close (and I mean, really really really close) to activating the Chapter Nine clause.

Because the band’s fourth record, ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)’ is an incredible record, one that sort of turns it back on the bouncy nature of ‘Jubilee’ and explored a more slow paced indie rock direction.

Leda – Japanese Breakfast (2025, Dead Oceans Records)

That slow paced indie rock is accompanied by vintage sounding organs, steel guitars and a host of other things (like harps for instance) that almost turn this record into an Americana album. It also gives the record a slightly sad feel – but its not one that you should let get in the way of what is an impeccable record. ‘For Melacholy Brunettes…’ sounds tremendous from the first gentle whisper of opening tack ‘Here is Someone’ to the closing sighs of ‘Magic Moments’ there is barely a duff second on it. I mean let’s be honest, any song that featured Jeff Bridges (yep that Jeff Bridges) on guest vocals is going to be worth listening.

Men In Bars – Japanese Breakfast (and Jeff Bridges) (2025, Dead Oceans Records)

There are a couple of real high spots (although the whole thing is great, obviously). The lead off single, ‘Orlando In Love’ is almost a perfect pop song, all gentle and memorable, if not a slightly mournful tale of a poet being lured to his death by the tempting song of a siren (or at least that’s what I think its about).

Orlando In Love – Japanese Breakfast (2025, Dead Oceans Records)

The slightly melancholy nature of this record will of course lead to people like me calling this record, ‘intimate’, largely I suppose because, it is, but that melancholy does life, the real highspot of this record is ‘Honey Water’ (which is about an unfaithful partner), has crashing drums and guitars that ventures into shoegaze territory amongst a terrifically sweet vocal.

Honey Water – Japanese Breakfast (2025, Dead Oceans Records)

A stunning record from a band that are a very front of the queue of bands waiting to be called the Best Band on the Planet.

Tune in tomorrow to find out what tops the No Badger Charts this year.

The No Badger Tracks and Albums of The Year – Number 3 – The 1500th Post Bonus tracks Special

1500 Posts Blimey. 1499 too many. Probably,

Here are a couple of bonus tracks (the second of which I haven’t heard in about six years), randomly selected from my music library as a present before we crack on with the worlds longest end of year countdowns.

Norway – Beach House (2010, Bella Union Records, taken from ‘Teen Dream’)

Song For Zula – Phosphorescent (2013, Dead Oceans Records, taken from ‘Muchacho’)

Tracks of The Year Number 3

Bedwetter – Makeshift Art Bar (2025, MAB Records, Taken from ‘Lacklustre Writing Makes Fundamental Reading, EP’)

Of all the bands that have wandered onto our sharp eyed radar this year, no one has stood out as much as Makeshift Art Bar have. They are a band that are fast becoming vital and are easily No Badger Required’s New Band of the Year.

But what makes them vital? What makes them stand out from all those other new bands that I’ve banged on about this year? Well, how long have you got? Because there are about a million reasons why we should all be very excited about Makeshift Art Bar and a million more why we should be tapping that bloke in front of us in the post office queue on the shoulder and bending his ear about how great Makeshift Art Bar are – because anyone with even the slightest interest in music should be listening to this band.

But, we probably haven’t got the time or space to go into that much depth so we will just concentrate on ‘Bedwetter’, which is taken from the band’s debut EP, ‘Lacklustre Writing Make Fundamental Reading’.

‘Bedwetter’ is an astonishing listen, one that lurches from one direction to another effortlessly. It sucks you in, dragging you into its brilliance. It hooks you in further with the way it rocks and by the way it rolls and by the way that it is full of this raw visceral energy that makes them sound volatile and unsteady. The dynamism it what really sells it though, the way it explores and exploits that quiet low dynamic. The quiet moments are low and atmospheric, they are incredible on their own, before they expanded and then explode in a devastating post punk crescendo. Absolutely vital.

Birthday Party – Makeshift Art Bar (2025, MAB Records, also taken from ‘Lacklustre Writing Makes Fundamental Reading EP’)

Albums of The Year Number 3

If You Asked For A Picture – Blondshell (2025, Partisan Records)

The second album by Blondshell is a kind of dreamy masterpiece. Not shoegazey dreamy but bumpy dreamy in which a dream leaves you feeling strangely odd for the rest of the day and unsure if the dream was good, bad, real or imaginary. You know the kind of thing I mean, I’m sure. Anyway, that dreamy masterpiece is an album that deals with heartache, insecurity and confusion.

But this isn’t just any old album and heartache. It isn’t even really a break up album. This is about the heartache you face when you are in you early 20s. When you are in your early 20s, as we probably all know, heartache seems twenty times worse than anyone else’s heartache.

Luckily for us, the result of Blondshell’s heartache is this utterly gorgeous record. Albeit one in which heartache is never far from the agenda. Although its joined there by other topics like love, parental relationships, tension between people, body image, toxic masculinity and respect.

Musically, this album is heavily indebted to the 90s guitar scene. I mean, why wouldn’t it be, when I was in my early 20s, the merest whiff of trauma, angst or heartache, I’d turn to the first guitar record I could find and crank the volume up. On this record though, Sabrina Teitelbaum uses the formula that era perfected, the slow build, the loud/quiet dynamic, the soaring chorus, the obvious strains of despair in the lyrics and the croak of the voice to craft some brilliant indie rock songs.

Event of A Fire – Blondshell (2025, Partisan Records)

‘Event Of A Fire’, is a prime example of this, the guitar start slow and almost acoustically before they build to something resembling a riff hungry monster and Sabrina’s vocals sound suitably exhausted at the strain of it all.

Album opener, ‘Thumbtack’ is all acoustic guitars that gently ease themselves around a song that is all about saving yourself from, well, yourself really – albeit in this case, Sabrina saves herself by hooking up with a toxic guy, who probably isn’t that good for her – he makes a reappearance across the record in the squally fuzz rock of ‘What’s Fair’ and in the single ‘T&A’ – and in each case, he get more toxic.

What’s Fair – Blondshell (2025, Partisan Records)

‘Arms’ is a murky grunge song that sounds in someway like the Smashing Pumpkins (without the squeal of Billy Corgan banging on about vampires and all that), and ‘Two Times’ is probably the best song that The Cranberries never wrote – and that folks makes it far better than you think it is might be because ‘Two Times’ is a gentle acoustic wonder and easily one of the best songs you’ll hear today.

Two Times – Blondshell (2025, Partisan Records)

‘If You Asked For A Picture’ is an excellent record, its sharp, its honest, its refreshingly open and most of all it is captivating and an absolute gem.

Introducing “Algorithm Is A Chancer” – A New No Badger Series

Hello, and welcome to the 738^th new series on this Blog.

A few weeks ago, both my music streaming applications of choice sent me a yearly review of my listening activity. Spotify told me that the musical genre that I had listened to the most was ‘Indie Sleaze’, whilst Amazon Unlimited told me that I was in the top 1% of Avalanche Party fans. Which is nice, I suppose.

John Coltrane’s Moscow Skyscraper – Avalanche Party (2025, Kartel Records)

The next day, a whole host of new recommendations appeared on my home pages for both applications. These recommendations came in the form of playlists, and as everyone who has ever met or vaguely heard of me will know – I love a playlist.

Which is where this series comes in. There are currently somewhere in the region 50 playlists (that I haven’t compiled myself) sitting on either my Amazon or my Spotify account, which they are encouraging me to listen to (and follow) and I thought we could randomly work our way through them. Now, having flicked through these playlists, some of them are quite good, but they won’t all be good, some I suspect will be awful, but they are apparently all based on ‘my listening habits’ and as most of my listening habits usually end up being repeated on here in one form or another, it seemed like a good idea (at the time).

Let’s have some examples shall we – 2 from Spotify and 2 from Amazon – I think in terms of balance I should say that other streaming services are available and to be honest, you can still just about buy music from most Town Centres should you hate streaming services.

First up, some Indie Sleaze, which Spotify claims is the genre of music that I listen to the most – and they have helpfully created an entire playlist lasting over NINE hours full of what they consider to be ‘Indie Sleaze’ – now I’m not overly sure what ‘Indie Sleaze’ is but when I pressed the shuffle button on that Playlist the first song that blared out of my speakers was this slab of potty mouthed French flavoured indietronica,.

Homecoming – The Teenagers (2008, XL Records) – so I suspect all Indie Sleaze will sound like this.

Folks, just a warning, don’t listen to this when impressionable people might be around as it drops a few C and F bombs and generally talks about shagging, quite a bit. Good song though.

Next up, let’s fire up Amazon and checked one of the Playlists that they recommend to me. Welcome to something called ‘Autumnal Alternative Rock’ and the first song that was selected from that when the shuffle button was pressed was this,

Colors and The Kids – Cat Power (1998, Matador Records) which doesn’t sound particularly autumnal to be fair but it is rather lovely.

Let’s have some ying for our yang shall we – courtesy of Spotify or rather one of the people who use it, because it recommends that I listen to and follow a playlist called ‘Music 14’ which appears to have been created by someone called ‘Jamie B287’, who I don’t think I know – and judging by the song that comes on when I press the shuffle button – I don’t think I want to know – because it is this chunk of festering donkey droppings,

Writing to Reach You – Travis (1999, Indiependiente Records)

Finally, them for today at least, let’s go back over to Amazon and their clumsily titled ‘100 Best 2010s Alternative’ playlist, and the first track on the shuffle, means I can safely type that I’ve saved the best till last,

Bloodbuzz Ohio – The National (2010, 4AD Records)

Which, all things considered isn’t a bad selection, apart from Travis, but, for the next 7000 Sundays (approximately) I’ll dive into these playlists in more depth.

Nearly Perfect Albums #186

Automatic – Jesus and Mary Chain (1989, Blanco Y Negro Records)

I think ‘Automatic’ has been unfairly treated in life. It constantly get compared to its two predecessors and that has harmed it. It suffers very much from third child syndrome. Its oldest brother, ‘Psychocandy’ is the brilliant, innovative, genius child that achieved everything and more,that it set out to achieve. ‘Darklands’ is the older sister, that despite not being as quite as brilliant as ‘Psychocandy’, stills has her own merits. She’s cool, she’s beautiful, she’s less moody, she probably has more than one boyfriend.

And then there is ‘Automatic’, which is a bit awkward, a bit lonely, doesn’t have many friends, and seems desperate to be something different to ‘the other two’, and by and large everyone thinks that they were probably the result of a drunk fumble in the back of a Sierra, long after the parents had stopped doing that kind of thing.

OPG, by the way, hated ‘Automatic’ and referred to it as ‘artificial’ .

Between Planets – Jesus and Mary Chain (1989, Blanco Y Negro Records)

Appearances can be deceptive though, because ‘Automatic’ isn’t awkward and is probably far more popular than it thinks it is and for the record, its just as brilliant as ‘Darklands’ for instance it’s just a very different type of record.

Here Comes Alice – Jesus and Mary Chain (1989, Blanco Y Negro Records)

It’s a different sort of record because at the time of recording the Jesus and Mary Chain was basically Jim and William. They’d lost another drummer and a bassist and so they bought a drum machine and recreated the bass sound on a keyboard, they also dialled back on the feedback and decided to try and make a few pop songs. One of the results of that was ‘Head On’, a track which is still considered to be one the greatest things that the band ever recorded.

Head On – Jesus and Mary Chain (1989, Blanco Y Negro Records)

I think perhaps it also fair to say that maybe ‘Automatic’ was designed to appeal to a rising fan base in America and that perhaps isolated some of the fans that loved those first two records. Regardless of all that the driving indie rockabilly of ‘Head On’ sounds just as emphatically brilliant as it always has done and that lyric,

“Makes you want to feel. Makes you want to try. Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky.”

Still makes me want to try and take on the world at high speed.

As, does, to be honest, the icy indie fuzz of ‘Blues From A Gun’, which remains I think, the bands most successful single in America (which does kind of highlight my earlier point about ‘Automatic’ and its targeted audience). ‘Blues From A Gun’ contains everything that you would expect from a Mary Chain track and is part of the reason why they are as great as they are.

Blues From A Gun – Jesus and Mary Chain (2025, Blanco y Negro Records)

There are other moments of sheer bliss as well – ‘Between Planets’ is a three chord marvel and ‘Gimme Hell’ is possibly the one track where the brothers Reid forgot about dialling back on the rage and the feedback. In fact, ‘Gimme Hell’ is the one track on ‘Automatic’ that wouldn’t sound out of place on ‘Psychocandy’.

Gimme Hell – Jesus and Mary Chain (1989, Blanco Y Negro Records)

The No Badger Required Best Tracks and Albums of The Year – Number 4

Tracks of the Year – #4

Found – John Glacier (2025, Young Records, taken from ‘Angel’s Trumpet EP’)

Let’s start with something of a mini bio shall we, because I suspect we here at No Badger may not necessarily be the key audience that she is trying to reach. John Glacier is a London based rapper. Although if you were to ask her to describe her music she would tell you she is a poet. Regardless of that about three years ago when she first started releasing music it has pushed boundaries. This year she released her debut album, ‘Like A Ribbon’ (spoiler – see next week) and bundled up within that was the excellent single ‘Found’.

‘Found’ is the musical equivalent of a bag of feathers being tipped out from a twenty storey building. The way it glides and occasionally twists is remarkable. A reverbed piano tinkles away over some bumpy drums as John’s trademark deadpan vocals deliver a narrative and emotive track about loss and renewal. It’s absolutely brilliant.

‘Found’ wasn’t the only outstanding track that John Glacier released this year, roughly six months after ‘Like A Ribbon’ came out, an extended version of it got a standard release an tucked away on there was a couple more outstanding tracks, that would have both made this rundown had I not limited to one track per artist.

Fly With Me – John Glacier (2025, Young Records)

Couldn’t Get Back – John Glacier (and Wet) (2025, Young Records)

Albums of the Year – #4b

Future Sounds of Kraut Vol. 3 – Various Artists (2025, Compost Records)

We have of course seen music evolve over time. A genre will come along and artists will, as is their way, change it slightly so that the genre evolves. We had punk, then post-punk and these days some bands will tell you that they are post post-punk. Krautrock has for a long time been one of the exception to this. There is no New- Krautrock or a post-Krautrock or even a Art-Krautrock (although I expect that if I looked long enough I could find a band who claim to be all three of these things). Until now that is.

Because roughly halfway through the excellent third (and possibly final) chapter in Fred Und Luna’s marvellous ‘Future Sounds of Kraut’ series comes something which describes itself as ‘Krautback’ or more simply Krautrock made by some Australians (albeit Austrailians with a distinctively German name) and its rather lovely.

Lost In The Center – Die Orangen (and Hayley Morgan) (2025, Compost Records)

Of course, most people out there will say that Krautrock itself has evolved decently enough without the need for new names and gimmicks, because as this album demonstrates very well indeed, that sound that drives it (glitchy synths, motorik beats, repetitive basslines) has made itself a decent home within the electronica scene.

Take fourth track on this album, the excellent ‘Nachtraucher’, which is all moody synths shimmery cymbal noises and a persistent jittery bassline. If Neu! made records these days, then they would almost certainly sound like ‘Nachtraucher’.

Nachtraucher – Christian Nainggolan (2025, Compost Records)

Elsewhere, ‘Lambda’ by Von Spar sounds like Can jamming with Air, and Benoit B’s ‘Cosmic Music Style’ is a Kraut homage to birdsong. Both, are memorable tracks.

Lambda – Von Spar (2025, Compost Records)

Cosmic Music Style – Benoit B (2025, Compost Records)

Perhaps the finest track on the album though is ‘Wer Macht Die Arbeit’ (Who does the work) by Salvage Art – which adds a political slant to proceeding and by doing so, gives the album a little bit of an edge.

Wer Macht Die Arbeit – Salvage Art (2025, Compost Records)

All of which should make ‘Future Sounds of Kraut Vol.3’ the compilation album of the year. Should being the operative word – It would be the compilation album of the year were it not for the utter brilliance of the second compilation from those boys from the Flightpath Estate.

Albums of the Year – #4a

Sounds from the Flightpath Estate Vol.2 – Various Artists (2025, GLS Records)

Now, I can’t find Sounds of the Flightpath Estate Vol.2 on Streaming Services so I am unable to post a link to it – so you are going to have to trust me on this one. Actually, don’t do that, because here’s Swiss Adam, who was actually involved in the record, and you can definitely trust him.

“a 10 track tribute to Andew Weatherall with an unreleased Sabres of Paradise track an 9 brand new recordings from Sleaford Mods, Red Snapper, Richard Fearless, David Harrow, Richard Norris, Unit 14, Dickie Continental, A Certain Ratio and Bedford Falls Players…”

I mean what’s not to love about any of that.