Unsung Podcast

Before we begin, this episode contains the discussion of some fairly charged and unpleasant topics, including some deplorable ideas and music. Please be aware in advance that this show features some isolated samples and we’ve added them into this episode because we’re discussing a difficult topic and we trust our audience to exercise their own discretion. Hopefully you find this to be an informative and a cautionary journey. Enjoy! Depending on how online you were in the early 2010s, you may have come across the odd story here or there about how Ulf Ekberg, keyboardist of Ace of Base, was part of a Nazi punk band called Commit Suiside in the early 80s. This, by his own admission, was indeed true. He has since signified his regret for this dark period and, we’re sure, hoped that would be the end of it. Only it wasn’t. Rumours of whether or not Ace of Base had actually secretly started out as some kind Aryan pop project have quietly bubbled away across the internet since then. There’s been numerous articles on it, some defending the idea and some rubbishing it, but no real definitive conclusion has been reached. Before we undertook this episode we reached out to the band for their comment, mostly because we wanted to give them the right to a fair response before we took a deep dive into this topic. Sadly, we heard nothing back, but we’ve done our best to keep things as fair as we could in this and next week’s episode. In part one we’ll go over the basics of the Nazi controversy surrounding Ace of Base, Ulf’s response to it, and the overall history of the band themselves. We also talk about Swedish pop, the country itself, Nazi punk and the darkness of that entire scene. We hope you enjoy this episode. We had fun doing it, even if going down the rabbit hole itself was a bit grim.

Your favourite Poundland album review show is BACK and we have quite the selection for you on this episode. The lads have gifted each other with the following three albums: Mark has Alisha Rules the World by Alisha’s Attic. Chris has Odelay by Beck. Dave has A Weekend in the City by Bloc Party. It’s an interesting and fun selection, with some highlights and a lot of lowlights. Does anyone actually remember Alisha’s Attic? Are Bloc Party one of the most boring “popular” bands in recent memory? Is Beck actually good? All this and more and is answered this week. It’s a riotous time. Enjoy! REMINDER: It’s record club shipping time and we’re sending some cracking albums to our subscribers. Want free albums every month? Find out more below!

We promised to make our covermount episodes a recurring feature and we are here to make good on that promise. This week Crag joins us again and we’re talking about a “collection” that was included with the June 2006 issue of Uncut Magazine imitatively called “The Playlist”. If you were to think of words that end in “able” the first one that springs to mind with this covermount is “forgettable”. Sandwiched in between (admittedly brilliant) tracks from the likes of Siouxise and the Banshees and Al Green is some truly beige music. There are other stand outs of course, but the whole thing is downright bizarre. In our last covermount episode we hypothesised on what the real purpose was for covermount CDs for magazines such as Kerrang! And Metal Hammer; was it to promote new bands by using established acts to get people’s attention? Was it simply a good way to make money from smaller labels/bands/management companies by promising them an audience that was sure to be rapt with attention when they found out someone such as, say, the Deftones, would be contributing a track? We’re not entirely sure, but the feeling was certainly that at least they were trying to promote new music. Uncut’s motivations are just as opaque and baffling only in a completely different way. Shoved in between tracks from the The Small Faces, The Waterboys and the aforementioned Al Green and Siouxie and the Banshees is a grab bag of indie, electro and country garbage laid out across 16 tracks. Whatever the purpose of this covermount was, it certainly was not to promote new music, or even, it seems, particularly good music. The title “The Playlist” is probably the giveaway here – their ethos seems to be akin to what we all do with Spotify playlists now. That is, they wanted to chuck together some songs they thought were cool and then offer for free to their readers. A noble intention perhaps, but we can’t help but think many of their readers were familiar with some of these bands already. Did you enjoy it? Let us know in the comments below. REMINDER: Our Patreon is now a RECORD CLUB where we will send you a digital and/or vinyl record from the host of your choice every month. We’ll be shipping May’s lot very soon but since this is an ongoing thing, there’s still plenty of time to get involved. Learn more www.patreon.com/unsungpod

We’re men of our word. As we look to clear all of our outstanding commitments from our old Patreon model (info on the new one - the Unsung Record Club - can be found here), there was one album we were asked to do that we’d been putting off for a while - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges by Colin Stetson. Our top subscriber Cory Robinson asked us to do this a while back, but it took us ages to get around to it. Why? Well, we actually tried to do it earlier on in the year. We listened to the record and thought that it would make a very interesting episode, but none of us could quite connect with it. A few episodes passed and we realised that we had to stop putting this one off and just go for it. For a podcast that primarily deals in rock music, and the various subgenres of, we do our best to expand our palette where possible. We’ve covered jazz briefly in the past of course, but nothing quite as avant-garde as this. This album, and indeed most of Colin’s work, requires the listener to be in a certain mood. It’s a mood that doesn’t come easily when you’re unfamiliar with the genre, and it’s also something you can only really tackle if you’re feeling up to the task because this is complex, challenging stuff. It’s also musically and technically impressive. Oh, and physically impressive too - the things this guy can do on his own with just a saxophone and a bunch of mics in one room are truly stunning. So as you can imagine, it took us while to get into the mindset to tackle this album. On this episode, alongside chatting about Colin Stetson’s extensive discography - soundtrack work included - we talk about mood albums as a whole, and discuss why it can sometimes be difficult to get into a song/band/album if you’re just not in the mood for it. We also discuss how this affects the creation of this podcast as a whole. Yeah, that’s right, we get fucking introspective this week folks. Is this an unsung classic? We certainly feel it is…

Dads of the world, UNITE! How do you follow the Beach Boys? Well, apparently it’s by covering Electric Light Orchestra. Going from one grandad band to one dad band seems to make a crude kind of sense, even if immersing oneself in the music of ELO is…difficult. Not because they’re terrible. No no no. They are by no means a terrible band. Some of their music has aged well whereas some of it certainly has not (we’re looking at you Discovery). One example of the former is their ridiculous foray into synth-pop with their ninth album, Time. Chosen by guest Alexander Volz from the wonderful podcast Every Album Ever (which you should absolutely check out if you’re a fan of ours - they’ve covered a bunch of stuff we’ve covered, as well as some we want to cover in future), his rationale was pretty straight forward - it’s a very polarising album and it should fit in well with our MO. And he’s right. Despite still selling millions of copies, the claim that Time is an unsung album is a very fair one. The mid 70s were the band’s creative and commercial high points - A New World Record (1976) and Out of the Blue (1977) were runaway successes for the band. After incorporating disco elements in 1979’s Discovery, and tackling their first film soundtrack with Xanadu in 1980, Jeff Lynne was trying to find ways to keep the band sounding relevant and with Time, he largely succeeded. A concept album about a man being transported from 1981 to 2095, the album sees Lynne and co ditch the string quartet they had used for the last decade and replace it almost entirely with synthesisers. The result is much like The Visitors by ABBA, a record that is very ahead of its time and sees the band use new technology to evolve their sound. Sadly, the album seemed to mark the beginning of the end for ELO - after a poorly attended tour the band all but ceased playing live, and the follow up, 1983’s Secret Messages, essentially killed the band entirely. 1986’s Balance of Power was created and released as a way to fulfil contractual obligations and ELO simply vanished into the shadows. Aside from a brief re-emergence in 2001 to release the poorly received Zoom, Jeff Lynne kept ELO dormant until 2015. In the period between Time and the present day the band never revisited this synth heavy sound. Which is a shame because you can hear lots of different genres of electronic music emerging from this one record. It’d have been cool to see what another album of this would have been like. Is this an unsung classic? We certainly think so. What say you? REMINDER: It’s Record Club shipping time! We’ll be posting out vinyl and emailing digital download codes to all of our subscribers next week so there’s still time to get involved before the end of March! You can also drop in and out if an ongoing subscription is too much for you. Find out more below.

Whether pretending to be surfers and getting slapped with fines from the manager for swearing or cavorting with transcendental meditation and falling out with one another, The Beach Boys were never quite what people thought they were. They were often at each other’s throats, relationships were fraught a lot of the time, members of the band seemed to withdraw from the group and return whenever the mood suited them and that’s before we even mention Brian Wilson’s sometimes extreme battle with mental health. The story of the Beach Boys is weirder, sadder and madder than you could have ever imagined. We spent a lot of last week talking about that aspect of their career. The lore is so thick, in fact, that we had to stop only half way through their career because these guys have said and done a lot in the last 61 years. So this week, we pick up where we left off – the late 80s, when the began to slow down significantly when it came to their musical output, but refused to vanish entirely, becoming a legacy touring act with a rotating line up of ex-members and studio musicians alike, all revolving around Mike Love and Bruce Johnston. Given the legacy of this band, we decided to offer up our own subjective interpretation of that legacy. Were The Beach Boys really at their best with Brian Wilson? Is Mike Love a bit of a dick? What about the extensive contributions of Carl and Denis Wilson, as well as Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston? Do the band deserve to be heralded as one of the greats? Can they even be Unsung? We answer all of these questions. Then we dive into the three albums that Vicki struggled to choose from - Wild Honey, Sunflower and Surf’s Up. We do a bit of a dive into Wild Honey and Surf’s Up before giving Sunflower the full Unsung treatment. What do you folk think? Is Sunflower the most underrated and underappreciated Beach Boys record? Let us know what you think! REMINDER: It’s Record Club shipping time! We’ll be posting out vinyl and emailing digital download codes to all of our subscribers next week so there’s still time to get involved before the end of March! You can also drop in and out if an ongoing subscription is too much for you. Find out more here: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Did you know that The Beach Boys have 29 studio albums, 11 live albums and a staggering 61 compilation records? Before we agreed to do their 16th(!!!) album Sunflower at Vicki’s behest, we knew it was going to be a huge undertaking but good lord, it was bigger than we could have ever imagined. And that’s to say nothing of the tumultuous interpersonal relationships between the band members. On one hand, it makes sense that there would be some drama – they came up in the 60s and churned out records at a faster rate than The Beatles throughout that entire period. They were also teenagers when they began, so some discord was bound to arise as they grew up and started to change as people. Furthermore, they’ve been a band (yes, they’re still going) for over 60 bloody years at this point. Falling out once or twice was sure to happen. And yet… It’s hard to understand why these guys keep at it. For decades, literal decades, of their career, it seems like some members didn’t even like each other all that much. The answer is (other than money, of course) the music. There is a lot of it, sure, but there’s some truly great stuff throughout their career. Ok, not their whole career: there’s a lot of great stuff up until the late 70s. After that it’s some serious Big Grandad Energy. As of writing, the band is 61 years old. There’s a very good chance that they’re the world’s longest running band. The Rolling Stones started in 1962 – a year later than The Beach Boys – so as you can imagine, there’s a whole lot to cover here. Which is why it’s an epic two parter. In part one, Vicki takes us through their history right up until the 1980s. We talk about the music, the members, their relationships, the drink, the drugs, the mental health problems, the politics and of course the deaths. Next week – the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s (because aye, when this episode ends there’s still just over 30 fucking years of general stuff to discuss) and Vicki tells why she had trouble deciding between Sunflower, Surf’s Up and Wild Honey. REMINDER: It’s Record Club shipping time! We’ll be posting out vinyl and emailing digital download codes to all of our subscribers next week so there’s still time to get involved before the end of March! You can also drop in and out if an ongoing subscription is too much for you. Find out more here: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

We’ve called this episode “The Covermount Mixtape” for now, but it hasn’t escaped us that a covermount essentially IS a mixtape, only one that was put together by magazines (with what is probably a fair amount of label/PR interference, but we digress…). So until we come up with a better name for this new series, we’re stuck with this for the time being. In any event, this is the first in what will no doubt be quite a long series where we discuss and dissect a covermount CD. For this one, we’ve picked Radio Kerrang! Vol.5 and friends, it’s weird. Alongside the usual nu-metal fare that was floating around in 1998, there’s also a few other interesting choices, such as Backyard Babies and a few bands that no doubt no longer exist, like Freekspert. There’s a surprising amount of Swedish artists on this CD too, much to our bemusement. It’s not all just banter about the music on the CD though, we also ponder what the conditions were to get on these CDs for smaller bands, and contemplate just how much sway the labels or PR companies of the bigger bands had over the selection. In doing the research for this new feature we found that it is very, very easy to get your hands on these CDs. People sell them by the box load on eBay. Probably because they’re all worthless and no one in their right mind wants to own them. So strap the fuck in folks, we’re plumbing the very, very depths of late 90s rock and metal with this one. If there are any covermount CDs that were instrumental to your musical development then let us know what they are. Or better yet, if for some reason you still own one of these CDs, we’d love to hear from you. Next week we’re back to the regular format. Vicki returns to chat about The Beach Boys. It’s going to be an epic.

Some time ago we threatened to do an episode on covermount CDs. For Chris, Dave and many, many other teenagers, the covermount CDs found bundled with copies of Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, NME and numerous other magazines were an indispensable way of finding new music. At a time when these music magazines were still in high circulation, the covermount CD (or cassette, or vinyl) was also a great way for relatively unknown acts to find a new audience by being included on a CD with some of the biggest acts in the world. But how did it all begin? What was the origin of these covermount CDs, cassettes, vinyl and floppy disks? How did it benefit bands, the magazines and the labels? Did it even have a positive effect on the smaller bands that found themselves on these release? And how exactly did unsigned bands manage to land a spot on one of these compilation albums? In this episode we endeavour to answer all of these questions and attempt to figure out just how this process worked for musicians, managers, labels and magazines alike. We also talk about the ways in which these types of CDs - mostly from the late 90s and early 00s - had a huge effect on our music tastes as we grew up. Next week we’ll be diving into the first in a brand new series where we review a covermount CD and let us tell you, there’s some true crackers to be discussed. REMINDER: We’ve begun shipping vinyl for our new record club and there’s still plenty of time to get involved. Want to know how to get free records every month? Check out our patreon! http://www.patreon.com/unsungpod

All genres are littered with bands that somebody somewhere thinks are unsung. Some are unsung because they influenced other, more successful acts, whereas there are artists that are unsung because they just didn’t land quite the right way at the right time. That Petrol Emotion are, arguably, the latter. Formed by the brothers O’Neill from the ashes of legendary pop punk band The Undertones, That Petrol Emotion immediately come across as a whole different proposition on their 1986 debut album Manic Pop Thrill. Sure, primary songwriter (on this and subsequent album Babble) John O’Neill had already proven he knew his way around a tune in his old band, but this new outfit were something else entirely. Daring, politically charged post-punk all but blows away the cheerier, more saccharine vibes of The Undertones, and the result is truly great. Our guest host this week, Ferruccio, is a huge post-punk nerd (as you all know by now) and he was torn between this album and follow up Babble. It’s a close call indeed - Babble is darker but also with a couple singles in tow - but on balance, we feel he’s made the right call here. After Babble things start to go a bit weird for the band. John O’Neill left and the direction of the band changed from album to album, and by the time they called it quits in 1994 they were edging towards are more American radio rock, REM influenced vibe. A far cry from this album. Is it an unsung classic? As ever, the choice is yours. Vote below. We’ve also begun shipping records for the record club! Head on over to our Patreon below to find out how you can sign up and see what all the fuss is about.

We loved the last Sound is a Pound so much that we thought we’d go away and record another. You know the drill - each of us goes into a Poundland and buys two albums for £1 then “gifts” them to the other two hosts. You’d be surprised at some of the gems you can find in a Poundland store, actually… But we opted not to buy any of those classics. Instead, we opted for something a little more…bland. Mark got A Place in the Sun by Lit, Chris got Gran Turismo by The Cardigans and Dave got Deserter’s Songs by Mercury Rev. In a sea of beige, these were the best we could come up with. The results are not quite what you expect though. Well, not in every case. Lit is sheer garbage, but Chris and Dave managed to find unexpected things in their albums. Things that they, well, liked is a strong word, but certainly appreciated in some way. We hope you enjoyed this excursion into Poundland albums. We’ll have another for you soon. Next week? Manic Pop Thrill by That Petrol Emotion and the return of our favourite Italian, Ferro. Our new record club starts shipping this week! You still have time to sign up where you can not only support our podcast, get access to bonus content and episodes a few days early, but also get a new hand picked album from a host of your choice every single month. Available in digital and vinyl variants. Sign up here: http://www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Are InMe an unsung band? Is Overgrown Eden a forgotten classic? Well…you can make up your own mind on that. Us? We’ve certainly made up our mind. In fact, we’re not even going to bother playing coy with you here - we only did this episode because we were asked to do it for “the patter” by friend of the pod Craig B. He also paid us a handsome sum of money for the “privilege” and we really wish he hadn’t. We also decided it was time to do this because we’re “clearing the decks”, so to speak, of our old Patreon tiers before we move to the new Unsung Record Club. Check out how cool this is - we’ll be shipping records soon! Anyway, if you’re a fan of the band InMe, you might want to skip this episode. Have the fans left yet? Good. First thing’s first - we’ve heard that they’re all nice guys. In fact we’ve heard that lead singer/only remaining original member Dave McPherson is a very nice guy. That’s awesome. You love to see it. But we’re sorry Dave…we just didn’t like any of your music. On this episode we canter through all 7 of their albums before returning to Overgrown Eden and giving it a good once over. We also talk about nostalgia festivals and bands that probably should have stopped years ago but are somehow still going. Alongside this, we discuss the finer points of why bands suddenly seem to disappear after being on the cusp of fame, and dive into how the now defunct PledgeMusic (and other crowdfunding platforms) were something of a panacea for bands with small but fervent fan bases. There’s no vote this week. We’ve taken the power away from you on this one. We don’t want this in our discography. Next week - a surprise! You can still sign up to our new Patreon Record Club! Find out more about it below!

We’ve taken a week off this week because we had a bunch of admin stuff to catch up with at Unsung HQ, but we will return next week with something real fun. This week we thought unlock a Patreon bonus episode, and it is the latest instalment of our Sound as a Pound series. The concept is simple: we each buy an album from Poundland for our fellow two hosts and then we must listen to it and report back. On this episode Mark has A Grand Don’t Come for Free by The Streets, Chris has Razorblade Suitcase by Bush and Dave has The Defamation of Strickland Banks by Plan B. So it’s a real gauntlet of nonsense for each of us this week. Dave gets raging at how beige Plan B is, Mark is weirdly enamoured by The Streets and Chris…well he was a big grunge fan back in the day so you can imagine how it goes for him and Bush. If you thought this was brutal, wait until you hear next as we fulfil a longstanding promise to Mark’s flatmate and enter the doldrums of early 00s nu metal/post grunge. You’ll love it. Just a reminder to all of those who missed it: we’ve started a record club! That’s right, we’ve updated our Patreon and you can now get hand curated records delivered to you every month by signing up to our the Unsung Record Club. Find out more here.

Ah, electronica, how we have missed thee. This week we’re talking about the debut Factory Floor album and Chris gets to wondering why he like this album in the first place. Are they a minimal wave band? Post industrial? Tech house? All of these categories seem to fit in their own way, and we talk a little about all three of these, what they are and why they might be relevant to this band. Many styles of electronic music are repetitive. Indeed, any music that humans want to dance to is repeitive in nature. However, Chris contends that this is a releatively recent phenomnon, and that certainly in the case of Factory Floor, it’s something they rely on heavily. Indeed, songs are so long that the repetitive beats and melodies become weirdly hypnotic. In this episode we chat about all this and more. Including a little detour into the nature of live electronica and the sort stuff that may seem like an artist is making sounds at a gig, but when in reality they’re probably not… Is Factory Floor’s debut album an unsung classic? As ever, you decide. Vote below.

Hello, Unsungers! We hope you had an excellent festive season. We’ve been hyping some changes to the subscription levels for a few months. So here goes. We feel that via our extended musical family (that’s you), Unsung has the potential to materially help under-recognised artists whilst also becoming a more interactive experience for yourselves. First and foremost, all of our main shows will remain free. Unsung is available to anybody that wants and can access it. You are under no obligation to pay and, as we have said many times, if you can’t afford the commitment but want to show your appreciation, reposts, shares and simple word of mouth go a long long way. Anyway… first off, we’re simplifying our Patreon tiers and reducing the number of options to three from Feb 1st 2022. (please note, prices do not include VAT) In Tier 1, you can pay £4 a month and get the same bonus episodes and early access you’ve become accustomed to. We know a lot of people subscribe around this level, and our recent survey of listeners has shown that most people are happy to pay a minimum of £4 a month (less than £1 per episode). So, this is the new minimum tier. Next : introducing The Unsung Record Club. This is the new bit. We talk about a lot of great records on the show, many of which are damn near impossible to find, or which you might otherwise never encounter. Both of the options here mean that, for your subscription, in addition to all the features of Tier 1, you also get to look forward to specially selected albums, EPs and singles (some very limited edition) dropping into your inbox or - in the case of the ballers in Tier 3 - even your real life mailbox! Exciting eh? A little present to yourself once a month and a way to show support for the podcast, the underground music scene and also discover new mind-blowing art. So, in Tier 2 - The Digital Club, for £15 a month (all territories), you get all the features of Tier 1, plus we will send you at least one digital album by a specially chosen unsung artist/label. Those albums will be purchased directly from artists/labels and will all be releases that we consider unsung, thus benefiting their creators and (hopefully), the audience. We will also throw in the occasional freebie that we think you might like. In Tier 3 - The Analogue Club, for £34 a month (UK), £42 (Europe) or £50 (rest of world), we will send you one vinyl unsung album* from an unsung artist/label AND one digital release**. This price includes all postage and packaging via Royal Mail. *see DETAIL #9 below **see DETAIL #10 below Next, since not everyone has the same taste… Each month you can either put your fate in our hands and take pot-luck, or choose a specific flavour curated by the show-hosts. This means reaching into the… Bucket o’ Chris: If you know the show you know the script. A release from a band in the alt rock, noise rock, electro, post punk and post rock genres (and all sub genres therein). Bucket o’ Mark: A release tending to be from a band in the punk, hardcore, hip hop, folk, acoustic, country and perhaps even some crusty/metal genres (and all sub genres therein). There will be no Prince and very little pop punk. There may be some funk though. Bucket o’ Dave: A release from the pop, dance, metal, doom, experimental and electronic genres (and all sub genres therein). Bucket o’ Pals: Selections curated by our regular guest hosts. So those are the basics. If you want a little more detail including an explanation of the thinking behind the new record club …read on. DETAILS 1: There are so many terrific artists and imprints putting out amazing material without worldwide distro, making it likely you will never encounter them. Our ability to buy in bulk for this Record Club means we can actually put some cash in their pockets. 2. There are many

In the legendarium of hardcore and post-hardcore, there are a whole slew of bands that are arguably unsung. The big hitters are pretty obvious, right? Your Black Flags, Bad Brains, Husker Dus, Fugazis etc have lots of column inches devoted to their huge influence. This week we’ll argue that Jawbox’s third album, For Your Own Special Sweetheart, is just as, if not more influential, than some of those artists. Vicki joins us this week as we chat not only about the band’s small back catalogue, but also about the major the label feeding frenzy that led to this weird indie band from Washington, with deep ties to the legendary DC hardcore scene, getting signed to Atlantic Records. In the dying days of grunge, when everyone was scrambling to find the next Nirvana, some exec at Atlantic thought that Jawbox were one of those bands. Unlike many other acts though, Jawbox made modest demands of the label before signing, allowing them to go away to record the album they wanted in the way they wanted to do it without getting into huge amounts of debt with the record label. The result is an album that saw the band literally re-learning how to play together and which helped them to solidify their status as one of the best post-hardcore bands around. We also talk about the legacy of the band and their lead singer J. Robbins, who would go on to be a significant producer in his own right.. Is this an unsung classic? You decide.

We’ve asked our friend of the pod Babs from the Over/underrated music podcast back to talk about one of her favourite bands - Belgium’s weird alt-rock quartet called Millionaire. This all came about because when we last had her on for our episode on Origin of Symmetry by Muse, it turned out that she and Chris shared common ground in the form of this band. It just made sense that an episode would follow. Millionaire are one of many projects by the Belgian artist Tim Vanhamel. Tim keeps some interesting company, having previously played with Eagles of Death Metal and working with Josh Homme. He’s also closely linked to another weird Belgian group (that you’ve probably heard of) called dEUS. Outside of their home country, not many people seem to be aware of Millionaire. They’ve released four albums, the most recent being APPLZ ≠ APPLZ in 2020. There was a lot to cover in this episode besides their four albums though. We go deep into the Belgian rock music scene, as Babs talks about the different sounds that come from different parts of the country, as well as some of the acts that are huge over there but seem more or less unknown in other parts of the world. So, aside from a deep dive into Millionaire, you can also consider this your deep dive into the Belgian rock music scene. Outside the Simian Flock is Millionaire’s debut album and it’s equal parts alt-rock, indie and funk. Sound weird to you? Well, it basically is. Is it an unsung classic though? You decide.

We always coming out swinging with something BIG after Xmas and this year is no exception as we talk about South of Heaven by Slayer. What is there to say about Slayer that hasn’t already been said? Formed in 1981, it goes without saying that they’re one of the most important metal bands of all time. The “Big 4” of thrash were called that for a reason, and it’s about more than just their rise to fame. Their influence is legion but Slayer’s sound had a massive influence on extreme metal. It arguably began with them, after all. A band for almost 40 years, they released 12 albums all without every really altering their sound in any huge way. This album though, the middle one of three records that would later be classed as their “peak”, was perhaps the most “experimental” of any of their work. After the unholy fury and speed of Reign in Blood the band made the decision to slow things right down on South of Heaven and saw them take their songwriting in a whole different direction. After this record, they’d go on to record Seasons in the Abyss which would combine the approach of Reign in Blood and South of Heaven. The result being three albums that simply defined their legacy. In this episode we chat about the band’s entire legacy including the lyrics, the controversy, the death, the drink and the huge influence they had on metal. Oh, and this episode is almost 2 hours long. So grab a six pack of beer and tune in. Is this their unsung classic? You decide.

The New Year is now well underway but we’re not quite ready to let the Christmas cheer disappear just yet. To that end, we now share the conclusion of our XMAS XTRAVAGANZA. Vicki and Chris are pished, we talk about our favourite albums of 2021, artists who should have joined the 27 club, our favourite discoveries of the year that we made via the pod and a whole lot more. Now seems like a good time to thank everyone for their continued support over the last four years. Next week, we will be doing an artist that many might argue are not unsung at all. We will also be announcing our new Patreon subscription model and we’re really bloody excited to tell you what it is. Let’s make 2022 a cracker, eh?

Happy new year to all you fine folks. I hope you’ve shaken off the hangover and are ready to re-immerse yourself in real life. Part two of our CHRISTMAS XTRAVAGANZA is upon us and we’re having a grand old time. The port is flowing, the opinions are getting gradually more ramble-y and everyone is in an altered state of consciousness. Our questions this week include: what artists are shit but have one, or a few, great songs? If you had to watch one artists every night for the rest of your life, who would it be? And what music hot takes are you sick of? Amongst other nonsense. Ferro also drops by to talk about his favourite album of 2021. Next week - the XMAS FINALE (two weeks after Xmas).

Merry Christmas one and all! There will be no coal in your stocking this year, oh no. This year you get a big fat Xmas three parter with both David and Vicki joining Mark and Chris. Aren’t you lucky?! As is now tradition, we have canvased our loyal fanbase for fun questions and set about answering them over the course of three episodes that start fairly acceptable and descend into drunken madness. This year’s Xmas special is a little different though because it begins with episode number 200! That’s right folks, we did it. We got to episode 200. It marks our four year anniversary (sorta) and we have everyone who listens to this podcast to thank for it. So whether you’re a new listeners (and this is probably a terrible time to begin listening to our show, tbf), an older timer, or something in between, thank you. Enjoy!

Well, it was going to strike one of us down eventually. It just so happened to coincide with our fourth birthday and our 200th episodes… That’s right folks, one of us went got the ‘rona. Chris was struck down with COVID-19 just a few days before we were due to record our Xmas special on December 10th and as a result, we were left with no episode, and our plans to release our 200th episode on our 4th birthday were deposited right in the bin. But fear not. We have something else for you. Something new. Something hilarious. A while ago we decided to listen to and critique our own music. So each of us sought out our the first demos from our first bands (Dave had to RIP HIS from a CD!) and thought it’d be funny to tear them apart. After we recorded the episode, we promptly forgot about it until recently. So here it is - the three us listen to, and pass judgement on, the following three demos: Dead or American (from Chris), Always Until Victory (from Mark) and Dimmer (from Dave). We had a lot of fun doing this and we want to do more. Would you like to send us your first demo so we can review it? If so, get in touch! Enjoy!

Pitchfork do get it wrong from time to time. That is why we’ve just dedicated two full episodes to how often they, and music journalists as a whole, get it wrong. This week we’re discussion three albums that we think they it got it the most wrong with: Futures by Jimmy Eat World Lateralus by Tool Wishville by The Catherine Wheel With the exception of The Catherine Wheel, who broke up shortly after Wishville came out, and whose break up had nothing to do with how they were received in the press, both Tool’ and Jimmy Eat World’s careers were unfazed by their poor Pitchfork reviews. Indeed, Pitchfork were very much the outlier when it came to these albums, both receiving much acclaim in pretty much every other big music publication. The point of this deep dive into Pitchfork and music journalism in general is not to definitively say if Pitchfork is bad (although a good case could probably be made, and has been made, for that) but to say that they did (maybe still do?) wield incredible power. Bad reviews don’t seem to be particularly common on big sites these days - but between the early 00s and mid 10s, they sure did help make and break so many bands. The question is, then, which of these three albums did they get it most wrong with in their review? Vote below.

Over the last few episodes we’ve discussed how the music press can make or break a band’s career, and even have a lasting effect on band members psyches’ long after they receive critical acclaim/indifference. My Vitriol and The Sound provide two fascinating case studies in that regard: The former were a band who gained massive buzz in the dying moments of the physical format era. The turn of the 21st century saw a frankly obscene amount of cash, coverage and opportunity being flung at bands. Now of course, we’re not naive enough to think that this happens in a vacuum - having well connected friends and family can and does play a part in that sometimes. Indeed, My Vitriol went at it so hard, so early in their careers that it by all accounts led to burn out. On the other hand, The Sound were contemporaries of bands that had acclaim heaped upon them, yet seemed to miss out on it themselves. Various members of the band would speak about this at different points over the years, discussing how seeing their peers get critical and commercial success but never tasting it themselves led to a significant amount of distress. We’re probably past the age where the “Pitchfork Effect” is relevant, but from the early 00s to the mid 10s, the influence of Pitchfork’s opinions was huge. They were tastemakers. Kingmakers, even. The gatekeeper of coolness. Their opinion could, and did, definitely influence the trajectory of many now beloved bands. In part one of this special, we talk about music journalism as a whole and our experiences with it, both as part of the machine and as artists at the mercy of it. Next week we’re going to pick an album each that we think Pitchfork reviewed wrongly, and make our case for it being included in our discography. FUN.

Our favourite Italian post punk encyclopaedia Ferruccio Quercetti joins us this week. He’s nominated the hugely influential, yet strangely underappreciated album Jeopardy by The Sound. Being contemporaries with bands like Wire, Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division (to name a few - Ferro gives even more detail in the episode), it’s something of a mystery as to whey The Sound never quite reached the heights that those bands did. Indeed, if any band could be seen as one that could take the post punk mantle into new territory, The Sound would surely be the first name on some people’s lips… And yet, it never quite panned out that way. That’s not to say they were unsuccessful - quite far from it, actually - but their lack of acclaim is something that irked the band. In particular, it was a source of discontent that would haunt the band’s late lead singer and primary songwriter Adrian Borland for most of his days. On this episode we cover the band’s discography and also get into the weeds around how the press at the time didn’t really seem to enamoured with them, and the impact that had on the group personally and musically. Is Jeopardy an unsung classic? You decide. Vote below.

We’re back in action! This week our friend Neil from The Accordion podcast joins us to talk about the mythical My Vitriol, and their highly praised debut (and so far only) album Finelines. First off, a little on Neil himself. He hosts a podcast called The Accordion which, if you like ours, we’re absolutely sure you will love. He has interesting conversations about his favourite albums with an array of guests and it’s just as deep as ours, so if you like analysis and good chat, you’ll love his show. My Vitriol were a huge buzz band in the early 2000s. Their debut album saw them gain acclaim and a ton of great touring opportunities from pretty much the get go. Whilst longer term success seemed assured, they then went a bit quiet before going on hiatus completely. They’ve since re-emerged in fits and starts ever since, even manging to release a sort of second album called The Secret Sessions in 2016. In many ways, My Vitriol’s success is something that could only have happened during the major label feeding frenzy of the early 00s. On this episode, we talk about the band’s history, the fickle nature of music journalism and how it can make or break bands, whether they warranted the buzz they had and much more. Is Finelines and unsung classic? You decide. Vote below.

We’re going to be 4 years old soon and for pretty much every single week of those 4 years (with the sole of exception of around this time last year when a technical issue made us lose an entire episode) we’ve been able to release an episode a week. However, this week we just couldn’t. Some life things got in the way and we had to take care of that. We couldn’t just leave everyone hanging though, so we decided to reach way back into our vault of bonus content and excise this little gem from back in October 2019. One of our subscribers, Chris Hynd, asked us what our perfect festival line-up would be and we duly obliged. So enjoy as Chris, Mark and Dave talk about who would play their festivals. We will return next week with special guest Neil from The Accordion Podcast as we talk about Finelines by My Vitrol.

What you hear in this second episode is the sounds of three people getting gradually drunker whilst a Scottish ex-pat in Australia looks on aghast. Yes, whilst, much like last week we were all jazzed to talk about Caught Up by Millie Jackson, and her career, the night was getting long and it’s well past 1am local time as we record this one. If you thought the first part sound merry then hoo boy, do you have a treat in store for this episode. It’s also pretty fucking hilarious too. One of our very first subscribers, and the man with a whole tier named after him on our Patreon, Crag Carrack joins again us this week. He’s currently doing a radio show over in Australia and Chris has featured on it a couple of times. Be sure to check it out if you like good banter and tunes. This week we talk about Millie’s career in some depth. When we say “some” we do mean some - she’s released a lot of albums, which mean there’s a lot of stuff to cover. So this week, we pick some highlights from her storied, weird and wild career before diving right into Caught Up itself. A wonderful example of mid 70s soul and RnB. She is, in our opinion, an unsung artist. Does this album deserve a place in our discography of unsung classics? You decide. Vote below.

What you hear in this first episode is the sounds of four people on the second attempt at recording. Yes, whilst we were all jazzed to talk about Caught Up by Millie Jackson, and her career, a catastrophic technical issue turned this two parter into a mammoth 5 hour recording session. So when you hear how this rapidly begins to sound like a Christmas special, you know why. The booze was flowing as the Scottish contingent did their best to keep the banter flowing until 3am. One of our very first subscribers, and the man with a whole tier named after him on our Patreon, Crag Carrack joins us this week. He’s currently doing a radio show over in Australia and Chris has featured on it a couple of times. Be sure to check it out if you like good banter and tunes. Vicki also joins us, and together we get down to the business of talking Millie Jackson. In this episode we talk about some of her career, some of her career choices, why she’s perhaps not as famous as she could have been and a whole bunch more stuff besides. An astonishing artist, and if you aren’t already familiar you should rectify it that right after you listen to this episode.

Still with us? Good. In part two of our Muse exploration, our guests Fran and Babs from the excellent Over/underrated music podcast make a case for why Origin of Symmetry is an Unsung classic. We ponder what a “birth squeeze” is and what a llama’s toenail looks like…. We also talk about the band’s entire discography and friends, let me tell you, it was a journey. There are definitely highs - some ridiculously overblown highs at that - but there are also some crushing lows. Matt Bellamy once stated that Muse fans were 5 years behind them musically. A truly baffling statement when you think about how their latest album is essentially their take on an 80s new wave record. Actually come to think of it, this is also the guy whose lyrics are so close to some of the things Alex Jones says to real live human people on InfoWars so really, nothing is surprising about this band any more. All this is to say that yes, we tackle all 8 of their albums. Giving every single one a good once over before diving headlong into Origin of Symmetry (and the remaster!) itself. Think it’s unsung? Vote below. Don’t forget to check out Fran and Babs’ podcast too. We’ll have them back on in the future, so get acquainted!

EVEN MORE GUESTS?! WHY! Well, because it’s fun and across these next two episodes you’ll really begin to see why because our guests Fran and Babs from the excellent Over/underrated music podcast have chosen Origin of Symmetry by Muse. This turned into the most EPIC of two parters, so you better strap the fuck in for this one because we had so much to talk about that we didn’t even get to the band’s discography in part one. That’s right, there was just so goddamn much to talk about with Muse that we spent an entire episode talking about the band’s history and, more specifically, the history of Matt Bellamy’s weird conspiracy theory fixation, and how that seems to inadvertently align with a lot of the bullshit spouted by people who like Q-anon and InfoWars… But we digress. This episode is really quite entertaining and we end with a game of “Who said it: Matt Bellamy or Alex Jones” and the results are….frightening. Next week we’ll talk about the band’s discography and Origin of Symmetry itself, but for now, buckle up and enjoy the ride. Don’t forget to check out Fran and Babs’ podcast too. We’ll have them back on in the future, so get acquainted!

Our good pal Anna Goldthorp joins us this week and takes us into a genre of music we have not yet covered with Shannon and the Clams’ third album, Dreams in the Rat House. Hailing from Oakland, Shannon and the Clams are part of a rather deep, and popular, retro garage rock revival scene. They’ve been going since 2009 and have six albums in that time to critical acclaim. The band themselves are very well respected in this scene, and the boys had really great fun immersing themselves in an entire genre of music they’d never really explored before. A genre which is somewhere between 60s do-wop, RnB, garage rock, psychedelia and rockabilly. There’s a lot to be said about this genre - and believe us, we do say a lot about it - but what’s pretty clear is that when it comes to recreating that 1960s feel, Shannon and the Clams stand head and shoulders above their peers. The resulting conversation covers a lot of ground, which is why this episode is a bit of a bumper edition because when Anna is about, we can’t help but have a good old chinwag. In this episode we talk about the death of the American dream, Elvis Presley, the allegations around Burger Records, beauty standards in music, David Lynch, punk rock melancholia and way more besides. So do come with us on the journey, and at the end voice your opinion as to whether you think Dreams in the Rat House is an unsung classic by voting in our poll below. Next week - MORE GUESTS!

This week we’re joined by the multi-talented troubadour, promoter and friend, Kapil Seshasayee as he picks the debut album by little known Scottish post rockers Long Fin Killie. Post rock is perhaps only one way of defining this band., but it’s probably the most accurate label to affix to them when it comes to Houdini. Incorporating a myriad of American post rock influences that were floating around this tiny scene at the time, the band, fronted by writer Luke Sutherland, made extensive use their impressive multi-instrumental talents to weave violin, bouzouki, mandolin, hammer dulcimer, saxophone, trumpets, keyboards and so much more alongside the standard two guitars, drums, bass and vocal setup. The band did achieve a reasonable amount in their short lifetime though, and released another two albums after this, inching away from post rock to something a little more post-hardcore and straight forward. Luke Sutherland would later go on to play with Mogwai for years as a touring member and occasional contributor, so whilst they may not be hugely well known, they certainly had an influence on the nascent British post rock scene at the time. So, I think it’s fair to say that this band, and this album, firmly tick all the boxes of being “unsung” indeed. It is up to you to decide if Houdini is worthy of inclusion in our discography. But before you do that, do take a second to check out Kapil’s work too! He’s an artist whose profile has consistently risen over the last few years on the back of his debut album A Sacred Bore. It’s a journey which has seen him appear on festivals and tours on both sides of the Atlantic, and saw him gain press in The Guardian, VICE, BBC radio, Rolling Stone, and much more. Check out his website for more info on his music and the message behind his truly unique, captivating music.

IT’S A PODCAST CROSSOVER, BABY! This week we’ve asked Ryan Schaff from The Broken Record Player Podcast to come chat to us about an album he thinks is an unsung classic. His choice? Tinderbox by Siouxsie and the Banshees. We always knew that we’d need to address these guys at some point, so it was great to have a fan come on and do the job with us. Ryan’s a super lovely dude and Siouxsie and the Banshees are a super interesting band so we couldn’t be happier to have him on hand to lend his expertise. We go pretty deep on the band’s discography and Ryan let’s us know abou his favourite songs and his opinion on all the band’s catalogue, whilst Mark and Chris come along for the ride. He also attempts the nexus which, to be honest, went very well indeed. Is Tinderbox and unsung classic? As ever, you decide by voting below. Don’t forget to check out his podcast too - it’s pretty great! He’s also thrown together a playlist of his favourite songs, so check that out below too.

Dave is MIA this week so we’ve drafted in our pal Vicki and asked her to pick an album. Her choices is Stubborn Persistent Illusions by Canadian post-rock troupe Do Make Say Think. Hailing from Toronto and part of Constellation Records, it would be fair to consider Do Make Say Think’s jazzy, dual drummer, almost joyful approach to post-rock the yin to Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s doomy, melancholic yang. That’s not to say there aren’t moments of darkness in Do Make Say Think’s music, just that their overall vibe is quite different to that of their labelmates. Members of the band have played in/contributed to/been part of Broken Social Scene over the years, so they come from reputable stock too. Over the course of their 25 year career they’ve grown to comprise of 11 members, including various woodwind and brass instruments. At their core though, sits Ohed Benchetrit, David Mitchell, James Payment, Justin Small and Charles Spearin, all of whom have appeared on most of their seven albums. This week’s choice is the latest of their seven albums, and arrived in 2017 after an 8 year gap - the longest in their history. So Vicki and Chris take us through a tour of their back catalogue before asking the age old question - should this go in our discography of unsung classics?

It’s incredibly difficult to categorise Arthur Russell. His music ranged from the purely experimental, to disco, warped 80s synth pop and so much more. It’s the latter that makes Calling out of Context, the first posthumous complication released by his estate such an intriguing listen. Arthur rose to prominence as the musical director of Manhattan’s avant-garde musical playground The Kitchen. He rubbed shoulders with people from all walks of life - from Allen Ginsburg to the Talking Heads and many more besides - before discovering disco music. From there, he produced a number of underground disco classics under various names (most notably Dinosaur L). All the while, he recorded tons of music on his own, most of which remains unreleased to this day. His life story is wonderfully told in the film Wild Combination, and if you’re a fan of this episode, we urge you to seek it out. It chronicles his career as he left small town Iowa until his untimely death from AIDS related illness in 1992. In his lifetime, Arthur Russell only released two albums. Both were very different. His first, Tower of Meaning, was completely instrumental and was almost orchestral in nature. Sparse percussion and cello led, there’s something very aching about it. Particularly in comparison to his second album, World of Echo, which sees the cello very much front and centre, slammed through effect pedals, alongside his almost fragile vocal. Calling Out of Context is, as already stated, the first posthumous release by his estate. More followed, but this is, we feel, the perfect introduction into the strange world of Arthur Russell. He’s an unsung artist for sure who has influenced many people. Is this album an unsung classic though? You decide.

Alright, so in the grand scheme of things, Humbug by the Arctic Monkeys isn’t exactly bereft of plays on the ol’ streaming platforms. Hell, it still sold a lot of physical copies too. However, in comparison to the rest of their discography? It’s certainly one of the albums that has shown the least love. It did have some big-ish singles of course, but nothing on the scale of some of the others. The closest to Humbug is their 2018 album (and latest release at time of recording) Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino. Which, yeah, probably asks more of their fans than any previous release. Why do we bring this up? Well, cause we talk about that album as well as Humbug on this episode. Foreshadowing n that, eh? Anyway, we go deep on Humbug this week, and also have some very nice, very fun nexus (nexi? nexae?) for y’all this week before Dave decides that he will be taking us in a very different direction next week. You’ll need to tune in to find out what that direction is though… Is Humbug an unsung classic? Make your voice heard by voting on our twitter poll below.

The cat is truly among the pigeons this week, as Chris puts the Arctic Monkeys’ third album Humbug forth for our consideration. Is this the biggest band we’ve ever covered?! Probably not, no - we did cover Metallica after all - but they are the first band we’ve ever covered with a song on Spotify that is has over 1 billion plays (It’s Do I Wanna Know? incidentally) so I suppose you could argue that they are the biggest band we’ve yet covered. On this episode we talk about the band’s history, as well as how they came about in this weird post-Napster pre-Facebook era, coming completely out of nowhere at a time when MySpace was the places where all the kids hung out online. The band have made a number of interesting stylistic choices over the years, which is impressive for a band with their profile. What’s more impressive though is how their fans seem to come on the journey with them, which is rare for just about any band, let alone a huge act like these guys. Next week we’ll talk about Humbug itself and of course the Josh Homme factor.

Screamo is still a dirty word to those of a certain generation. It conjures up images of The Used and Hawthorne Heights and Silverstein. Well we’re here to tell you that before those bands became a thing, screamo was something entirely different. The best example of this is, of course, As the Roots Undo by Circle Takes the Square. Won’t harp on about screamo too long in this post (you’ll need to listen to get the full rundown) but the OG version of it (or “skramz” as it is often called, partly as a way to differentiate it from the aforementioned early 00s, mainstream bothering second wave of it) has more in common with grindcore and post-hardcore, than it does metalcore and pop punk. CTTS released this album in the midst of the mainstream screamo boom, but like their peers in Orchid and pg.99 (to name a few), couldn’t have been further from the mainstream. On this episode we’ll cover the history of the genre - from its beginnings in the early 90s to it’s mid to late 10s post-hardcore tinged renaissance. We’ll also give you some history on the band too. Before asking the key question - is this unsung? Vote below.

And so we’re back to talk some more about Skunk Anansie and this time, THIS TIME, to actually chat about the album we said we would talk about, Paranoid and Sunburnt. But before we get there of course, we also chat about Skin because her influence and mere presence in the music both back in the 90s and now, are huge. She’s a very interesting character in her own right, so it would be remiss of us not to talk about her. After that, we then dig into the album proper. This weird hard rock/funk rock hybrid which sounds more American than British, and produced the huge (yet strangely not their most popular on streaming services) single Weak. Is it an album which has stood the test of time? Are the band unsung and underappreciated? As ever, you decide. Vote below.

Skunk Anansie have sold millions of albums. Paranoid and Sunburnt, their debut, was released to wide acclaim and arrived in the post-grunge period where the UK was in the thrall of Britpop, but what is the band’s legacy? Many of the bands that came out around about this time that didn’t fall into the Britpop category were loosely termed Britrock, and Skunk Anansie were one of the biggest, and most interesting of the lot. Sonically, they had more in common with bands like RATM and Faith No More than anything this side of the Atlantic, but they were a breath of fresh air when they arrived, bringing the politics of race, class and sexuality to the forefront of their music and their message. They released 3 albums in the 90s before vanishing, resurfacing in the late 00s. Their output since then hasn’t quite reached the heights of this interesting (if now dated) debut, but there’s still a few songs to love throughout their more recent 3 albums. On this episode we talk about the band’s history and what they mean in the wider lexicon of British rock music. We also talk a little about how, despite being huge at the time, they seem to be a little “forgotten” by many people. As ever, we talk about the band’s back a catalogue too. Next week, we’ll talk more about Skin and the album itself.

Two episodes in a week?! Yes, this week herald’s the return of our Sound is a Pound feature! In it, we each go to the pound shop, by two albums each and then gift them to one another. And boy we have some real doozies for you. NOTE: This is actually BONUS CONTENT - y’know the kind of thing we give to our subscribers on a regular basis. if you like this and want to hear more, consider signing up to our Patreon. So what albums are we covering this week? Well, we’re going to take you on a whistle stop tour of some primo £1 albums such as: Mosley Shoals by Ocean Colour Scene Trailer by Ash God Shuffled His Feet by Crash Test Dummies They are, by all accounts, quite the selection. We had real fun with this one, even if there was no outright anger for any of them. We hope you enjoy it! We return to our regularly scheduled programming next week. Dave is bringing Paranoid and Sunburnt by Skunk Anansie to the table. It is delicious.

We were on holiday this week so we’ve gone deep into our catalogue of bonus content and unearthed the very first in a series that we’re calling Unsong. If you like what you hear, consider subscribing here. It’s basically THE UNSUNG SINGLES CLUB. In it, we breakdown a single song to talk about why it works so well. On this episode, Weaver has chosen Blessings Upon the Throne of Tyranny by Dimmu Borgir. TRVE KVLT BLACK METAL. Taken from the Norwegian black metallers’ fifth album Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia it’s as pure an example of “symphonic black metal” as you’ll get. Complete with electro interlude and mental piano sounds. Let us know what you think of this episode. We’re doing more of these in future and we enjoyed the hell out of this! We're welcome to lots of feedback on this. Wanna see more of it? Can we do it differently? What can we improve? Bring on your comments! We’ll have ANOTHER EPISODE coming your way this Wednesday too, so keep your eyes on your feeds…

Whilst any meaningful distinction between what is “high” and what is “low” are is surely a conversation born out of complete nonsense (who gets to decide this things? Why do such individuals fall into these categories? etc), what we can say is that we are very much out of our wheelhouse on this episode. That’s right. We’re going classical. We’re going Erik Satie. Look, classical musical analysis is really not our forte but we give it a damn good go on this episode (with proper credit applied where necessary). As some of Christopher’s favourite pieces of music Gnossienne is something he’d been itching to do for a wee while. There’s a good chance you’ve heard at least some of numbers 1 to 3 in a film at some point over the years. Indeed, just like at Satie’s IMDb entry to see how many films his music has appeared in. It’s a lot. Anyway, Erik Satie was a bit mad. We won’t spoil it for you by talking about it here - really, you need to listen to get the full measure of his strangeness - but what is often agreed upon is that he’s the father of ambient music. We talk about that, and so much more, in this week’s show. Is he unsung though? You decide.

In case you missed it, last week we discussed the history of the double album. We spoke about how the double album was born, how it paved the way for more conceptual records, some of the big hitters, some of the worst ones, triple albums, quadruple albums…just any and all things related to the very concept of the double album. We also created three loose categories that we think all double albums fall into. If you missed it, you can find the episode here. This week, we’ve each picked what we think are excellent examples of the double album and decided to chat about why they’re not just great records, but whey they’re great double albums. As is usual for the format of our mixtape episodes, we’ve relaxed the rules a little on what constitutes as “unsung”. Chris went for perhaps one of the most well known, and well loved, double albums ever, in the form of The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Weaver plumped for Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter by Joni Mitchell, because we don’t really think there’s a way we can do Joni Mitchell on a regular show given how massive she is. And Mark went for the influential alt rock/emo classic Zen Arcade by Husker Du. Both three very different examples of the double album, we think. Some are conceptual. Some are just long ass albums. Whatever the case, we stand by our choices. But which do you think should be the first ever double album to go into our discography? Use the Twitter poll below to decide.

The dreaded double album. In the eyes of some, it’s an aberration. A sure sign of a band with too much ego/money/time and not enough tunes to make it really work. Well, join us this week as we talk all things double album. The double album dates back to the last 50s, with Ella Fitzgerald first releasing a double LP set with her 1956 album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. Yet many will claim that Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan is the first true example of a double album in popular culture because it was the first double LP set that contained original songs. Whatever the case, the double album truly began to blossom into the 70s, when many bands started to take advantage of the double LP format to create sprawling works that no single LP could contain. Different variations on the format followed - the triple album, the Sesquialbum, the quadruple album, the box set to name them - but as time went by, and the physical format gave way to streaming, it seems that double albums are no longer the statement they once were. On this episode we’ll cover the history of the double album, talk about some highlights, discuss some of our favourites as well as some good (and bad) examples of the genre. Next week, we talk about the three albums we’ve picked as the best examples of the format.

Before we dive into Demanufacture properly, this week we take some time talking about Fear Factor’s albums from Archetype until this year’s Aggression Continuum up and friends, to say it’s a mixed bag would be an understatement. If you missed last week’s episode, listen here. Largely this is down to interpersonal issues between the band, with Digimortal being the last time the “classic” lineup of Fear Factory would ever spend time in the studio together. There’s some good stuff lying around these later day albums, and we do call out some of the interesting tracks, but your mileage may indeed vary with some of this. Then to wrap things up, we talk about Demanufacture itself. It’s an interesting chat, and it goes in a couple of surprising directions too, as we discuss the larger concept at play on the record, Dave explains why he has so much love for the album and all three of the lads give us their final thoughts on the album and the band. Also, the nexus is a doozy as we have to link Baby Hitler to the band. Which is a lot easier than you might imagine (but not because the band are racist or anything). Is Demanufacture an unsung classic? Is it more influential than Obsolete? Is it the band’s finest moment? You decide. Vote now.

A mainstay of 90s and early 00s metal, Fear Factory are a band whose influence has been felt keenly on both nu metal and industrial metal alike. Their second album, Demanufacture is, Weaver argues, a hugely important record on metal music in general, so this week we take a tour of the band’s history and more. Despite having been a band for over 30 years at this point, Fear Factory have only released ten albums. In fact, their latest one came out only a week ago (at the time of writing). We didn’t plan that - truthfully, Dave was completely unaware that they had a new record coming until he decided we were doing this album - but it’s turned out quite well for us. 30 odd years is a long time for a band to exist, which is probably why they’ve long portions of that time either not being Fear Factory, or being at each other’s throats. Indeed, whilst the latest release features co-founder Burton C. Bell, he’s no longer actually in the band. It might feel like a strange thing to mention, but the interpersonal relationships between band members but it’s actually one of the defining features of this band. It’s something we talk about at length in this episode. We also discuss cyber metal, industrial metal and Mark also gives his thoughts on why he more closely associates the band with groove metal, despite (and including) the industrial elements. We also talk about their first four albums, and indeed mention the thematic trilogy that links Demanufacture, Obsolote and Digimortal. All in all, it’s a jam packed episode. We hope you enjoy. Vote next week!

If you’ve any interest in underground hip hop then this album is probably familiar to you. Widely hailed as one of the most important hip hop albums of all time, The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox a real lightening in a bottle moment for Vast Aire and Vordul Mega. And now, having just celebrated its 20th anniversary, it seems a good a time as any to explore why. Having formed simply by dint of knowing each other through the New York battle rap scene and hanging out at El-P’s flat/studio, Cannibal Ox came together somewhat at the behest of El-P. What transpired was two years of hard graft on their first (of only two) album together, created as they sat around thinking about rhymes and creating music with producer El-P. The skills of Vast and Vordul really shouldn’t be underestimated. Having clearly honed their craft through years of spitting rhymes in ciphers on the streets, their lyrical dexterity and outrageous vocal partnership is clearly a highlight of this album. That’s alongside El-P’s production. This was the first thing he’d ever worked on outside of the work he’d done with his old group Company Flow, and it’s a tour de force. Together with Can Ox, they paint a paranoid, dystopian, Philip K Dick inspired vision of Harlem, Brooklyn and New York City as a whole. Despite being hailed a classic, to date it has only sold just over 100,000 copies. Which is clearly fucking insane. That alone means it fulfils our criteria as an unsung classic, but like so many other artists we’ve covered on this podcast, Can Ox are real artist’s artists. So we ask you, is it worth of a place in our discography? You decide, as ever.

One of the ultimate aims of this podcast is to introduce lesser known bands to a new audience, which is why we’re all pretty chuffed to be doing This is the Third Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank by Adebisi Shank. Hailing from Wexford in Ireland, Adebisi Shank were a band for about 8 years, and in that time released three albums and one EP. Throughout their life, they were able to release music on some cool labels (Big Scary Monsters, Richter Collective, Sargent House) and tour a whole bunch with great bands. Their music is often classed as “math rock” and whilst they occasionally took issue with that, it’s probably the closest genre to place these guys in. For a three piece, they made a tremendous racket, and made, we think, some of the craziest, catchiest pseudo-instrumental math rock that you can possibly imagine. Indeed, this, their final album, is their true zenith. It combines all the math rock time signature instrumental madness with a real sense of joyful abandon, coupled with ridiculous guitar and bass tones, awesome drum sounds and some appropriate robotic vocals. Most of all though, this album is just pure fun. Like, really really fun. It’s quite over the top in places but it all works. It’s carefree. Exuberant, even. In this episode we talk about that at length. We also talk about the rest of the band’s catalogue and why they never once fall into the self serious overplayed nonsense that a lot of math rock falls into. More folk need to listen to this band and we think it absolutely is an unsung classic. Agree? Disagree? Vote below.