VA - Now Hear This! (The Word Magazine, October 2009)

Tracks
01. The Unthanks - Because He Was A Bonny Lad (2:37)
02. The Boxer Rebellion - Flashing Red Light Means Go (5:26)
03. The Voluntary Butler Scheme - Tabasco Sole (2:51)
04. We Fell To Earth - Lights Out (3:40)
05. Jega - Moment (3:06)
06. Boo Hewerdine - Muddy Water (3:41)
07. Smoke Fairies - Frozen Heart (4:30)
08. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - 40 Day Dream (3:53)
09. Robin Guthrie - Close My Eyes & Burn (3:26)
10. Jay Reatard - Wounded (2:37)
11. Shantel - Usti, Usti Baba (4:17)
12. Beccy Owen - Anchor (3:25)
13. Ben's Brother - Apologise (2:53)
14. Hey Negrita - One Mississippi (3:13)
15. Clint Mansell - We're Going Home (3:45)

Total time: 53m 20s


What's on the CD with the October issue

1. The Unthanks - Because He Was A Bonny Lad
Since their rightly hailed debut record The Bairns, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset have undergone a reshuffle that now sees Becky co-fronting with her sister Rachel and producer Adrian McNally joining the line-up on piano along with guitarist Chris Price. They’re on tour in October with their expanded nine-piece line-up.
From the album Here’s The Tender Coming

2. The Boxer Rebellion - Flashing Red Light Means Go
The Boxer Rebellion is the name given to the violent movement to rid China of foreign influence in the late 19th century. This is obviously the ideal name for a group who formed in London at the beginning of the 21st century and were formerly signed to
Alan McGee’s Poptones label.
From the album Union

3. The Voluntary Butler Scheme - Tabasco Sole
Given the essentially evasive nature of contemporary indie, it should go without saying that The Voluntary Butler Scheme masks the work of one Rob Jones, a Stourbridge-based singer-songwriter. According to his MySpace page he has a vivid imagination and home-made ingenuity. He must have written that testimonial himself. Fair enough.
From the album At Breakfast, Dinner, Tea

4. We Fell To Earth - Lights Out
Wendy Rae Fowler and Richard Fine met in the California desert. She was working with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, while he was a refugee from the ranks of UNKLE. They brought together her psychedelic tendencies with his electronic throbbing tendencies to form We Fell To Earth.
From the album We Fell To Earth

5. Jega - Moment
Jega is the recording name of Dylan J Nathan, a Manchester-born electronic musician and 3D designer. Nathan has released albums on Planet Mu, Matador and Skam records. Nathan produces all the music and artwork for his releases. Nathan received his pilot’s licence at the age of 16. His first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
From the album Variance

6. Boo Hewerdine - Muddy Water
Boo is the stage name of Mark Hewerdine, an East Anglia-based songwriter who formerly fronted The Bible. The album is Boo’s first band recording for many years and comes on the back of the success of his limited-edition acoustic EPs Toybox 1 and 2.
From the album God Bless The Pretty Things

7. Smoke Fairies - Frozen Heart
The Smoke Fairy is the name of an early silent film in which a smoker falls asleep and is visited by two nymphs. Smoke Fairies are Katherine and Jessica, who met when they were put in the same class in Sussex at the age of 11. They’re taking their bluegrass/folk-blues hybrid act on tour in October with Richard Hawley.
From the EP Frozen Heart

8. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - 40 Day Dream
As recession bites, people gather together for comfort. Bands who once were content with three or four members now boast line-ups in the double figures. This bunch of folk-rockers from Los Angeles claim to be able to field 11 or 12 members. Anthems a speciality, unsurprisingly.
From the album Up From Below

9. Robin Guthrie - Close My Eyes And Burn
From former Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie comes this latest album of instrumental music. His record company describe it as “uplifting, summery, opulent, dreamlike, exquisite, moving – with Guthrie quietly coaxing beauty out of layers of echoes and always inventive soundscaping”.
From the album Carousel

10. Jay Reatard - Wounded
Before you ask, his real name’s Lindsay and his stage name is taken from his erstwhile group The Reatards. He comes from Memphis and claims to have walked out on high school to record music, sleep and eat Big Macs. He describes his compositions as “just noisy pop records”. You be the judge.
From the album Watch Me Fall

11. Shantel - Usti, Usti Baba
Shantel is a German DJ known for fusing the music of Balkan brass ensembles with electronic beats. He claims that his new Disco Partizani album lays the groundwork for a new form of pop music. This is the music Fraser Lewry likes to play on high days and holidays.
From the forthcoming album Planet Paprika

12. Beccy Owen - Anchor
A Welsh-born singer based in Newcastle-on-Tyne, Beccy Owen has enjoyed the patronage of such distinguished performers as Kate Rusby, whose husband Joe has produced her third album at the Pure Records farmhouse in Penistone, Yorkshire. In December she’s due to appear at the Sage theatre in Gateshead backed by a 20-piece orchestra.
From the album Down With Gravity

13. Ben's Brother - Apologise
Ben’s Brother is London-born Jamie Hartman, who has dabbled in advertising with some success and finds himself able to call on collaborators such as Joss Stone and Jason Mraz on this, his second album. He’s been through the mill with the upheaval at his erstwhile label EMI in the last year and releases this on his own imprint.
From the album Battling Giants

14. Hey Negrita - One Mississippi
Hey Negrita are an English country-blues band who took their name from the Stones song of the same name on their album Black And Blue. They recorded this album by sitting in a circle for five hours. “We wanted to capture the band exactly how we sound when we’re playing for friends in the kitchen.”
From the album Burn The Whole Place Down

15. Clint Mansell - We're Going Home
A former member of Pop Will Eat Itself, Mansell has carved out a career for himself as a composer of film-soundtrack music, contributing to The Wrestler, Definitely, Maybe, Smokin’ Aces and now Moon, the much-acclaimed film by Duncan Jones.
From the album Moon - OST