Sound is a pound is always good fun. You'd be amazed what you can pick up for a quid in a charity shop. It's been about 18 months since our last one of these and frankly, we'd forgotten what albums we'd "gifted" each other at the end of the last episode. So Mark decided to pick two that he'd bought for Chris: Planet Claire by The B-52's (a strange compilation what was not released by the band's label, Warner Brothers) and Highly Evolved by The Vines.

There's some surprises in this episode. There's also somethings that won't be surprising at all to long time fans. We'll leave you to figure out which is which...

John Congleton is a great producer, and as it turns out, also a great musician. The Paper Chase were, for many years, his only musical project and even as his star began to rise as a producer, he was still churning out unsettling, chromatic, occasionally catchy, often nasty music. Often described as a combination of avant-garde jazz, indie and punk, the band tick all of those boxes and much more.

This week we're talking about their second album, Hide the Kitchen Knives which helpfully/frustratingly is only available on YouTube. An album so twisted that it actually gave Mark nightmares. We also talk about the band's discography at large and chat about why some albums never seem to make it to streaming platforms.

Long terms fans of the show will know that we've spent altogether far too much time talking about Britpop. And the bad news is that it looks like it's ABOUT BECOME ALL ANYONE TALKS ABOUT when Oasis announce their reunion. We recorded this episode before those rumours started to creep out. Funny how these things happen.

Anyway, Mark fell into a Suede hole (sounds quite comfy, when you put it like that) after our episode on Baader Meinhof/Luke Haines and this lead to two realisations: 1) there's no way we could call Suede (or this song, really) unsung, and 2) we don't think they have an album solid enough to carry a full episode.

This song though? It's a banger. Pure class. And we really wanted to talk about it. So we bent the rules a little.

A quick note of correct: we haven't done a Mojo covermount before. It was Uncut, but the audience for both magazines was/is broadly the same...

Or so Mojo would have you believe. We'll be honest: the bag of covermounts is full of questionable CDs, so it was actually something of a surprise to land on something interesting. This Mojo covermount is, ostensibly, a history of electronic music. It goes all the way back to the 60s and includes in the mid 00s, when this CD was released. A strangely fascinating find, given that it was only released on the front of a magazine.

From disco to house, ambient to jazz, this thing has a real selection of music that incorporates keyboards and synthesizers. It was fun to spend time with it, and we hope it brings something interesting into your life too.

A few months ago we covered Tanz, Grozny Tanz by Yacøpsæ and if you listened to that episode, we mentioned how we'd reached out to the band for some info. They didn't get back to us in time, but band member Stoffel was keen to hear the podcast, so we sent him a link to it.

Luckily he was a fan, but there was a few points he wanted to clear up. After arranging a short Q&A with the input of our subscribers, we managed to pull together this wee episode based on his responses. The result is a fun, insightful episode on Yacøpsæ directly from the mouth of the band. Enjoy. We'll be back next week with some a lovely covermount!

Can you believe it was back in February 2020 when we did our Britpop mixtape? How wild is that?

This week we're joined by Glaswegian musician Andy Isacsson, otherwise known as Luminous, who has picked this week’s record. We chat at length about his latest record, Precarious Karma, which took him about a decade to complete. We dive into the influences behind it, the reasons it took so long to finish, and much more. Then, we get into the business of talking about Baader Meinhof and Luke Haines.

Unlike a lot of musicians, Andy opted not to release his music on Spotify. So you can check out his album here on Bandcamp. For Record Club subscribers, we’ve also added it to our catalogue. It’s pretty great, and we thoroughly recommend giving it a whirl.

To wit.

We always knew we’d come back to Britpop one day and we always suspected we’d do so via unorthodox means. Baader Meinhof by Baader Meinhof, Luke Haines’ sorta kinda first solo album, gave us a wee chance to do that. Not because it’s a Britpop record – it’s far from it – but Haines himself has proven to be quite a large figure in the history of that genre. He’s also got a massive discography.

In this episode, we touch a little bit on The Auteurs, then very briefly look at Black Box Recorder and a minimal selection of his solo discography.

Maybe next week we’ll escape from the 90s hole we seem to have found ourselves in, but I wouldn’t bet on it...

Is this a controversial choice? Quicksand's debut album Slip is widely regarded a classic, and in my quarters the band are seen as being hugely influential. So in many ways, picking their second album, Manic Compression, as an unsung classic seems like a no-brainer. On this episode, Chris talk about why this album is not just an unsung classic, but why it's also their best album. Healthy disagreements abound. What do you think is the better record, Slip or Manic Compression? If you're a spotify user, vote on our poll now!

Hailing from Ireland, Katie Kim is an artist who has demonstrated remarkable musical growth over the course of her career so far. Evolving from lo-fi folk to dark, experimental, haunting, almost ambient alternative rock. This week, we talk about her entire discography, before diving into her riveting fourth album, Hour of the Ox.

One thing that we find particularly fun about this podcast (most of the time) is re-appraising records from our youth. Taking a closer, critical look at something you were once super familiar with is often eye opening. Particularly if it's a record you remember liking a lot at one time but have since stopped listening to.

Most of the time, it's a fun experience. And this episode on Eight Arms to Hold You by Veruca Salt is one of those times! Mostly. Chris was not super into this band when he was younger, but he did like this album a lot.

In this episode we talk all about the band's career, before ending on the album in question. Dig in!

X Japan have released a proper studio album since 1996. They did release a soundtrack in 2016, and released the occasional single too, but as for a longer release? Nada. Zilch.

Of course, some of this is down to the fact they essentially broke up and only reunited in 2007. In this episode, we'll be talking about their 5 studio albums. Chris' album choice is actually their 1988 debut, Vanishing Vision. So as usual, we'll leave the chosen album to last. Before that, though, we go on a wild ride through their discography. From what is perhaps their best album Blue Blood, to their most recent output, which is 1996's Mania.

Buckle up - we're going deep on this one!