“Acolyte” by I Think Like Midnight

Philadelphia instrumental 4 piece I Think Like Midnight have a new album out in a few weeks. “This Land is Your Mind” is jam-packed with shimmering and often deliciously psychedelic guitar-driven soundtracks to road-trips way out West of Weirdsville – real or imagined. Here’s “Acolyte”:

The album takes in many moods from surf twang to motorik psychedelia and even instrumental power pop. It often travels similar cosmic trails to the instrumentals of New Zealand’s David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights, and also Australian guitarist Cam Butler. So, if you like those artists or if you like what’s on offer here on “Acolyte”, take the plunge and get the album. You won’t be disappointed.

The recording and sound is rich and colourful, and the ensemble playing by the band balances technical skill with feeling, bringing the arrangements alive. And sometimes those arrangements provide imaginative surprises from additional instruments – keyboards and vibraphone – to add even more layers to the sonic variety and atmosphere.

Here’s another song, called “Tuned Mass Damper”, in video form:

‘Harvey’ by Alex G

I quite like the idea that great pop can exist with apparent great popularity in some parts of the world and yet be unknown to my bat-like damaged-pop radar. But it is also just a little disturbing that this stuff can exist and I don’t hear about it other than by happenstance. How much more stuff is there out there I ought to know about?

By way of a tip-off from a friend, who randomly heard a song on a US radio show listened to via the internet, Alex G finally comes into range of the PopLib radar.

Look at the obsessively created back catalogue of releases I almost can’t bear to check, for fear I’d be lost in this for weeks. And listen to the latest album DSU, released on vinyl in June and already sold out.

In some ways this is like all your (well, OK, all my) favourite artists of the last 20 years reconstructed from leftover parts & random stabs of noise, by some eclectic DIY-savant genius.

So, there’s a hint of (in no particular order) Pavement, Sparklehorse, Guided by Voices, Grandaddy, Teenage Fanclub, and whatever else you think you want to hear in these songs. PLUS, there’s stuff you can’t quite put your finger on. And it’s great. And it’s just the most recent album…

‘No One Talks’ by Allison Crutchfield

When I was younger, and read too many science fiction books, I used to imagine what it would be like to be able to hear everyone’s thoughts. I was convinced the initial attraction of a telepathic mind would soon become a curse.

I’m not sure what any of that has to do with “No one Talks”. But hearing this song triggered that memory.

There’s something perfect and personal about all of ‘Lean In To It’, a 7 song mini-album of fuzzy, buzzy guitars and grainy, epic synth-pop, from Allison Crutchfield. You might recognise the surname – Allison is in the band Swearin’ and twin sister Katie Crutchfield records as Waxahatchee.

Unlike the frenetic punk/ garage churn of Swearin’ these solo recordings (with Sam Cook-Parrott) sometimes reminded me of hearing the first two Magnetic Fields albums (‘Distant Plastic Trees’ & ‘The Wayward Bus’, combined together on a Merge CD), back when Claudia Gonson sang most of the vocals. ‘Lean in To It’ is a different beast, but there’s something just as epic, insular, home-made & confessional about this and I can’t really explain it in any other way. I like it a lot.