MBV Blast

I'm sure you know this already but My Bloody Valentine slipped their first album for twenty two years out over the weekend. I can't imagine it's taken that long to come up with the title 'mbv' and I've not had a chance to listen to it properly yet, to really immerse myself in it, but the on the basis of a first hearing it's not exactly a massive step forward from Loveless, more like more of the same. But given that Loveless is peerless, this isn't really a problem. Those guitars, those disembodied voices, those drums, that headswimming noise. Sat here at the computer, with admittedly not great speakers, some of the songs- breathless fanboy alert- do sound amazing. Can't wait for the vinyl. For the moment the dl will have to do, and will at least mean I get a change from The Asphodells lp which is pretty much all I've been listening to recently. You can stream mbv at The Guardian and buy vinyl, cd or download from My Bloody Valentine's website.

Before Christmas Cat's Eyes singer Rachel Zaffira released an album which contained this rather beautiful cover version of MBV's To Here Knows When, done in a 60s acoustic chamber pop style.

To Here Knows When

The picture shows the cover of Blast!- Wyndham Lewis's house magazine of Vorticism, with his own illustration on the cover. The mashing together of linocut art, Vorticism and music here recently has been a bit random but this cover seems to summarise MBV's mbv blast quite well.

Not A Friend

Cat's Eyes, the duo formed by The Horrors frontman Faris Badwan and Canadian classical musician Rachel Zaffira, have an album coming out soon. This is Not A Friend which sounds a bit like a Phil Spector 60s girl group recording with Joe Meek in a Holloway Road bedsit.

Cat\'s Eyes - Not A Friend.mp3

Side Project Death Match

Nick Cave's hirsute side project Grinderman get remixed by Faris Badwan's mascara'd side project Cat's Eyes to good and somewhat spooky effect. I imagine no-one involved sees these as side projects, but it's a bit inevitable. Faris Badwan, spindly goth/art-rock front man from the Horrors, has joined up with Canadian classical starlet Rachel Zeffira to make music inspired by Italian horror soundtracks and the 60s girl groups, with an e.p. and album to come. They played their debut gig at the Vatican. Amazingly, they make all these things seem like really good ideas.

When My Baby Comes Cats Eyes Remix.mp3