Spotlight Artist - Lady Lazarus

Lady Lazarus is the alias of Savannah, Georgia-based Melissa Ann Sweat. Her self-released debut album Mantic is out now. For fans of Grouper, her hazy and sedate, yet enchanting songs should connect. Here's the suitably hypnotising video to Sick Child.

Live session from C Joynes this Sunday on Cam FM Breakthrough!

Tune into Cam FM Breakthrough on Sunday 7th November for an exclusive live session from Cambridgeshire musician C Joynes. Currently signed to Bo'Weavil Records, Joynes has been wowing audiences both as a solo artist and with a collective of artists known as The Restless Dead. Calling his technique “Anglo-naive and contemporary parlour guitar", C Joynes' masterful and highly unorthodox playing of the guitar, banjo, and anything else with strings is not to be missed.

If you're local to Cambridge, tune in to 97.2 FM from 9pm; otherwise you can listen online at www.camfm.co.uk. Missed a show? Just find it on the archive here.

Spotlight Artist: Low Sea

Galway, Ireland's the Low Sea have enjoyed a busy but ultimately successful year. The band's debut album Las Olas (Spanish for The Sea) provided an excellent showcase for the duo's sultry electronica, and was good enough to see them snapped up by the fast-emerging Lefse Records (who also boast the likes of Neon Indian, Keepaway and How To Dress Well amongst their ranks). Their first official release under Lefse is new 6-track EP The Light, which includes a couple of cuts from Las Olas, plus a bundle of new songs.

Such is the sophistication of the Low Sea's sound, it's easy to forget that they comprise just two members; when Billie turns up the sass on the likes of Save My Soul, her enunciated drawl recalls Mazzy Star, whilst the dark, scuzzy soundscapes provided by Bobby D bring bands such as Spacemen 3 to mind.

The Light is out now. A limited edition of the band's debut Las Olas is available from the band's website.

Listen to Save My Soul for a limited time on the Hear The Secret music player.

Cam FM Breakthrough: Live session with Fuzzy Lights TONIGHT 9-11pm

Cam FM Breakthrough, my music show dedicated to unsigned and up-and-coming artists, made its debut on the newly launched Cam FM last Sunday. This Sunday I'm delighted to have one of Cambridgeshire's finest, Fuzzy Lights coming in for a live session on the show; expect discussion and songs from their excellent new album Twin Feathers. Tune in tonight (and every Sunday) from 9pm on 97.2 FM Cambridgeshire, or online at www.camfm.co.uk.

Cam FM: it's finally here!

Yes, CUR1350 is no more, but Cam FM, the official radio station for Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin universities, successfully began transmitting today at 1pm, launching to the sound of Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol. It marks the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication, work which saw the station pick up the gong for Best Student Radio Station just a couple of years ago. Now the station's reach is further than ever before; tune in on 97.2FM, or else listen online.

It's been an enormous pleasure to contribute to the station, and see it take the next step forward. I look forward to continuing to promote the best in unsigned and up-and-coming artists on my show Cam FM Breakthrough, which starts Sunday 9th October (time TBC, more on that soon)

All that leaves me to say is a big well done to all involved, you should be proud of your efforts!

Spotlight Artist: Andrew Cedermark

Former guitarist of Titus Andronicus (who released quite a good record earlier this year), Andrew Cedermark has just released his rather fabulous debut solo release Moon Deluxe. Its lo-fi but lush sound, aided by Cedermark's rich guitar work, will sit well with fans of Real Estate, but Moon Deluxe also has an organic intimacy to it which recalls Phil Elverum's Microphones project (indeed the title track both sounds and reads like it could have originated from The Glow Pt. 2). Some of his old band's ragged bar-room antics are still in evidence though, on the likes of Your Dream Is Killing Me, and the rambunctious closer I Won't Know Me Anymore.

Moon Deluxe, released on Underwater Peoples, is one of the year's most rousing records. You can listen to Anchorite on the Hear The Secret player.

Spotlight Artist: Haight-Ashbury

Haight-Ashbury is a district of San Francisco, noted for its bohemian 60's counter-culture. Conversely, it's also the name of this Glaswegian psych/rock/folk trio. Musically too, this band seem far removed from their brooding home-town contemporaries, and the sexy indie-cool on the likes of Favourite Song and Freeman Town are more Rilo Kiley than Twilight Sad. The flipside to their sound is a folksy psychadelia, in-keeing with their geographical namesake, on songs like Molitof and Sympathetic Strings.

The band are about to embark on a big UK tour, including several dates with cult indie-heroes The Vaselines. I hope to catch them at the Portland Arms in Cambridge on November 16th.

CUR1350 Breakthrough: Live Session with The Miserable Rich

Brighton orchestral folk group The Miserable Rich played a cracking live session in the studio last session, and spoke to us about their new album Of Flight And Fury (out now on Humble Soul), their forthcoming single Chestnut Sunday (check out the splendid video below), and adjectives beginning with the letter V. Catch it all on the CUR1350 archive (apologies for the fan noise, it was a very hot and cramped studio, what with the double bass and all):

CUR1350 Breakthrough with The Miserable Rich, 6th June 2010

CUR1350 Breakthrough returns!

So CUR1350 Breakthrough returned to the airwaves last Sunday, and it was a very special show, as it featured a live session with The October Game, a band which Breakthrough has maintained a close following with since the show's conception. I hold my hands up and admit that the live recording isn't the best I've done, but it was a great session nonetheless, and you can catch it all here:

CUR1350 Breakthrough with live session from the October Game

CUR1350 Breakthrough is on every Sunday, now at the slightly later time of 9-11pm on CUR1350, Cambridge's student radio station. You can catch it on 1350AM locally, or stream it live, or from the archive via the CUR1350 website.

Spotlight Artist: The Delta Mirror

Spotlight Artist is a section I run on my radio show CUR1350 Breakthrough to highlight the cream of the up-and-coming crop, into which the Delta Mirror fit quite nicely. Their debut album, Machines That Listen, came out this week on Lefse Records, and is available to listen to in full on both Spotify and Lastfm. The LA trio acknowledge that their sound is in keeping with the atmospheric electronic fuzz of the likes of The Big Pink and F**k Buttons, whilst the album's concept (each song is set within a different room of a hospital) is reminiscent to Hospice, last year's terrific offering by The Antlers. The monotonic baritone of singer Craig Gordon , and the dark tone of their music also bears obvious comparisons to early Interpol.

The band have just finished doing the rounds in Austin, Texas for SXSW, and have more dates in the US. Hopefully a european tour will be on the cards in the not-too-distant future.

CUR1350 Breakthrough: the place for unsigned and up-and-coming artists on CUR1350

Hello, and welcome to my blog! To kick things off, let me introduce you to my student radio show, CUR1350 Breakthrough. It's the station's flagship show for unsigned and up-and-coming music artists, and frequently features live in-studio sessions. CUR1350 Breakthrough goes out live every Sunday 8-10pm: well, actually, the show's currently taking an Easter break breather, but will return in full swing in late April. In the meantime, you can listen back to earlier shows by visiting the station's archive (and check out some of the other fine shows that grace the station's airwaves whilst you're at it):

http://cur1350.co.uk/index.php?section=43

You'll be hearing plenty more about the artists I play on Breakthrough on this blog!