GJ

Motorik; Mesmeric; Metronomic; Magnificent, 30 Oct 2011

This is a fine album of instrumental music. The predominant influence is "Krautrock" but there are also funky post-punk, disco, electronica, rock and more in the mix. For all the clear influences and nostalgia that might be evoked by everything from the titles to the "distressed" gatefold, this is very clearly a record made in the hear and now which doesn't sound exactly like anything else.

We receive a "Warm Welcome" through a jacuzzi of bubling synth before the first "proper" track, "Keep Warm" introduces the insistent drumming and propulsive basslines that are central to the whole album. "Trans-Pennine Express" pulls slowly away from the station, the tape speeding up slowly… Read more

Billy's British Blues, 14 Nov 2010

Billy Jenkins is, among other things, a blues singer but he's unquestionably British. He sings not of his woman having done gone left him, pickin' cotton for the man or selling his soul to the Devil but of the joys of avoiding matrimony, the downside of dogs and the misery of having the parents to stay ("Steradent, Anusol, TCP, Warfarin is your bathtime companion"). Musically, he is also a product of a country which has, for some time, had a thriving free jazz and improvised music scene, as well as being home to punk.

This is Billy Jenkins' most straight-ahead blues album, yet, but it is not without its musical invention and Billy's trademark splinters of scratchy guitar playing… Read more

Super book for any gardener, 2 Nov 2010

My parents lent me their copy of this book when I first got a garden that required more than mowing the lawn. I have since bought my own copy (they were reluctant to let it go for too long) because it is so useful. I now have quite a number of gardening books but this is by far and away the one I use most and that I treat as my gardening "Bible".

Don't be put off by the fact that it's by "the nation's favourite TV gardener" or by the silly title. This is not a glossy TV tie-in that is all style and no substance; it's a really useful, informative, comprehensive book. The book starts with the basics of working a plot through specific chapters on particular types of plants or… Read more