The best album releases of the month, September 2013 edition

Well, it has been a tricky month for me personally and I'm not in the mood for writing much. However, due to a slight ripple of demand (!) and the fact that I have been doing these for 21 months now, I have decided to post my choices from September even though they are late. It was a strong month and I heard around 23 decent albums. Cutting them back to ten was tricky, but it makes for a decent list I think. Note: I sidelined the Arctic Monkeys very fine 'AM' because you'll all have heard about it already, and shoved the albums released on Sep 30th (Quasi, RM Bubbert, PINS) into next month's pile. Here you go...

Factory Floor 'Factory Floor'

I was beginning to wonder when this debut album from Factory Floor would arrive, they've been teasing us for years. They have a similar skill to Moroder-style  disco by making tunes that somehow seem to go on forever, but never outstay their welcome. Well worth the wait.


Bill Callahan 'Dream River'

He's made some fine records over the last 20 years, both under the name Smog and more recently as himself. This is the first one since Knock Knock to completely floor me on first listen. It is dream-like as the title suggests, and his subtle songs are played by a fluid bunch of musicians, adding some slight jazzy touches.


Neko Case 'The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You'
Another artist often labelled alt-country, Case's latest sees her deliver a varied range of songs, with the same vigour as her other band The New Pornographers. The quality doesn't dip on this, one of her best yet.


Mazzy Star 'Seasons of Your Day'
You know when people say, "it's like they've never been gone"? Well, that fits Mazzy Star's 'comeback' album perfectly. This slots perfectly on to the rest of their back catalogue, and on first few listens it is just as strong an album as any of their releases. Apparently they never stopped writing and recording over the years, and I can certainly believe it. If you've ever been a fan of their music, you need to hear 'Seasons of Your Day'.


Body/ Head 'Coming Apart'
my review (The 405)
"Overall this album may be too raw and difficult for a lot of fans to take in, but as an artistic impression of the post-Sonic Youth flux it is pretty great. Bill and Kim's guitar improvisations and drones create a trancelike backdrop and Gordon sounds like she is singing in a bad dream.
This is one of the most uneasy listens of the year but, for fans of this music, it is essential."


Joanna Gruesome 'Weird Sister'
Nothing to do with the absurdly talented American lady that their name rhymes with, instead Joanna Gruesome are the finest c86 and early MBV loving band I've heard in many years. The trouble with this kind of music was that it got old very quickly, many years ago, but 'Weird Sister' gives it a thrilling make-over. Hard to resist this kind of thrilling indie-pop.


Califone 'Stitches'
As far as I can tell, this is pretty much a solo effort by Califone's Tim Rutili. At times it comes across as a series of musical sketches or demos, pitching itself between Americana and a kind of cinematic lo-fi.


Sebadoh 'Defend Yourself'
Yet another comeback, fourteen years after their last album. Like Mazzy Star, their sound hasn't changed, yet 'Defend Yourself' is more of a grower and less immediate than their great run of 90's releases. After a few listens, I'm beginning to think that this maybe one of the most consistent records they've made.


Chvrches 'The Bones of What You Believe'
The album does suffer by opening with a slice of utter pop genius in 'The Mother We Share', which is impossible to follow, but it is a fine debut album. A vibrant, crystal clear version of synth based indie-pop.


Younghusband 'Dromes'

Like Factory Floor, this is another lot who have taken ages delivering their debut album. They seem to get bundled together with the psych-rock types, but this is an album built around classic indie-pop influences. By turns reminiscent of the Velvet Underground, the House of Love and maybe Pavement, it does tend to wear its influences proudly. Happily, they've got plenty of songs to transcend them with.

Looking forward to Field Day this weekend? Here's a playlist and a preview

Something that interests me as a voracious consumer of new music is the rise of multi-venue festivals where you can try and cram as many acts into your day as possible. The SXSW festival in Austin, Texas is the best example of this, but this year already many UK events have taken this as their lead, with the likes of Brighton's Great Escape, Liverpool's Sound City and the long established Camden Crawl booking a huge range of bands over a variety of venues.

With literally hundreds of music festivals competing for space and attention over the summer months, this seems to be a succesful model. This year larger events such as Sonisphere have been cancelled, whilst even legendary ones like Glastonbury have taken a year off.

One event that has moved from its normal slot in the festival calendar is London's Field Day; a one day outdoor event that has steadily been building an audience in Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets since 2007. This multi-stage music festival traditionally takes place in August, but this year it has been pushed forward to the first Saturday in June due to the huge presence of the Olympics taking over that area in August.

Field Day always boasts a cutting edge line-up of both established and breakthrough acts, and as it is all compressed into one day, you don't have to camp or bring anything with you. For me, it works brilliantly as a showcase; an excellent way to see quite a few new bands in one day as you can cover the ground between each stage in a few minutes.

The festival emerged from small grass roots venues and promoters working together and has grown into something much larger. In 2006, it began in the car park of the Griffin Pub in Old Street as the Return of the Rural and took the format of a village fete with live acoustic acts such as James Yorkston and Beth Orton, as well as Clinic and Four Tet. These acts were large enough to pull a decent crowd back then, and the promoters decided to do something bigger the following year they booked space in Victoria Park, joined forces with other promoters and announced the first Field Day, which sold out to 10,000 people in August 2007.

The festival has evolved and grown in size to 20,000 and has now played host to the likes of Florence and the Machine, Phoenix, Santigold, James Blake to name just a few.

Last year's festival was the largest yet and there were some issues with overcrowding. These have been addressed this year with a new layout to help the flow between stages, although the capacity remains the same.

The close proximity of the stages gives the organisers another headache, specifically how to reduce the bleed-through of sound between venues. Over the years they have taken various steps to address this and with some clever positioning of each PA plus a capacity crowd in each tent, the colouration is negligible.

There are around 60 acts on the bill, so I thought I would try and pick out some highlights. There are inevitable clashes of course, but I reckon on a carefully planned day you get to see around 8 or 9 acts. A clashfinder is essential but here are some suggestions.
Grimes – one of the breakthrough acts of 2012, Grimes is the alias of Claire Boucher, a young prolific talent from Canada, who manages to straddle the genres of dance music, lo-fi indie and witch house with ease
Peaking Lights – a husband and wife duo who make a lo-fi mix of dub, krautrock and psychedelic pop
R. Stevie Moore – a prolific but wilfully obscure DIY musician who has been making music since the mid-70s but is only just coming to a wider audience now thanks to the likes of Ariel Pink
The Men – high octane punk rock, noisy and brash, which sounds like it was recorded with all the needles on red
Summer Camp – duo Jeremy Walmsley and Elizabeth Sankey are building their indie-pop origins into something very special,as last year's Welcome to Condale album showed.
Fennesz – legendary Austrian guitarist now firmly established in the world of ambient electronica, he makes some lovely noises
Andrew Bird – an amazing talent who plays superb violin, writes great songs and does clever things with loops. He is also a fantastic whistler!
Tortoise – the guys who brought dub, jazz and krautrock to the world of American indie-rock in a rescheduled show from last year
Mazzy Star – newly reformed,this duo made three classic albums in the 1990s, featuring the distinctive voice of Hope Sandoval and the psychedelic fuzz guitar of David Roback.
Liars – one of the finest experimental rock groups of the last 10 years, showcasing their new album WIXIW.
Papa M - the alias of David Pajo, best known as guitarist of the post-rock group Slint
Django Django - last but not least, one of the bands of 2012, on a mid-afternoon slot so look sharp.

Just in case you missed the clashfinder, click here to get the official one.

The Field Day line-up was hard to pick ten or twelve acts from, so I've made a 25 track playlist on Spotify. Enjoy!