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alj-j cover for 3WW
Song of the Day: alt-J’s third album is full of oddities and wonders, but today’s pick is the album’s opener, the sort of fusion of disparate elements that we love at the Song Bar, mixing PlayStation imagery with Shakespeare and folk
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Carla dal Forno
Song of the Day: Sculptured, sparse, dark and melancholic, this title track is from a new four-song EP by the London-based Australian artist who has also worked in Berlin. The title is nod to Einstürzende Neubauten, but here day becomes night, a place of refuge, glissando bass and brittle effects, but also fear and fragile emotion, and echoes of Massive Attack's Protection
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Courtney Barnett … mischievous.
Song of the Day: We recently highlighted Barnett's new album with Kurt Vile, but here let's enjoy a couple of tracks from Taken from the witty 2015 album Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, out on Milk! Records
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Molly Drake (centre, shown here with Rachel and Betty Unthank)
Song of the Day: Could there be a more beautiful song about songs than this, written by Molly Drake (1915-1993), the poet, musician and mother of Nick Drake? It is sung here by the Northumbrian folk band fronted by Rachel and Betty Unthank
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Foxygen
Song of the Day: Particularly known for their theatrical, extravagant performances, the Californian duo of Jonathan Rado and Sam France can sound, as on these tracks, like a throwback to early-70s hippy psychedelia or stage musicals, but these are some of many styles they can play with
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Superfood … stimulating.
Song of the Day: Two sample tracks from the Birmingham indie band currently on tour, the first from 2014, the second from this year, and attracting increasing large and young audiences. They mix driving 90s indie with humorous lyrics, bringing a raucous and entertaining mixture of Blur, Space, Kasabian and Gorillaz
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The Breeders are back
Song of the Day: To celebrate the coming first new song recorded by original Breeders lineup for 24 years a double dose from Kim Deal and co, first from the acclaimed album Last Splash (1993) and a new song which carries the classic ingredients – snarling lyrics, the power chords, the humour, the frenetic energy
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Bedouine aka Azniv Korkejian
Song of the Day: A singer-songwriter of wonderful warmth, intelligence and voice, a song from the Syria-born artist's eponymous first album from this year
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DUDS' new album Of A Nature Or Degree
Song of the Day: Post-punk pop meets prog meets jazz? Manchester's cutting-edge northern lathe has turned out another bunch of true originals, bringing short-sharp songs of jagged guitar, percussion, cornet, and vocal
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Adrian Thaws, better known as Tricky
Dark, simmering, brooding, two tracks spanning and capturing the raw, visceral, yet tender and sensual music of one of British music's most innovative and distinctive artists from the past 25 years …
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Prophets of Rage - a protest supergroup
Song of the Day: To accompany Donald Trump's continuing controversies, two powerful tracks from the new album made by as potent a protest force in music imaginable – a supergroup of three members of Rage Against The Machine along with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and DJ Lord, and frontman B-Real of Cypress Hill
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The The's Matt Johnson
Song of the Day: Two sweet-sounding, but politically charged tracks old and new from Matt Johnson and friends, including Johnny Marr, the first from the 1986 album Infected, the latter from the 2017 documentary The Inertia Variations. Divided Britain, destruction of welfare, Europe, the influence of the US, and climate disaster? Sounds familiar …
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Swan song? St Vincent in the New York video
Song of the Day: Two contrasting songs from the artist also known as Annie Clark, mixing sassy, satirical techno pop with intelligent social observation, the other a soulful love song. Both are about opposite cities of the US and from her forthcoming album Masseduction
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Nadine Shah
Song of the Day: With a rich, full voice and truly original sound, from one of the best albums of 2017, two powerful songs from the intelligent South Tyneside singer-songwriter with a Norwegian/Pakistani heritage. This cuts deep into one of the burning issues of modern times, the plight and treatment of war-torn immigrants in the UK, and the divisions in our state. Think PJ Harvey and Anna Calvi with a new, contemporary, edgy twist
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Cover of Omni's 2017 album Multi-Task
Song of the Day: Taut as a trapeze high wire, the Atlanta band draws from influences as diverse as Talking Heads, Devo, XTC, Wire and Fire Stations. This track from the new album Multi-Task, growing on the strength of 2016's Deluxe, and is really going places
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Desert to Delta: Songhoy Blues were formed in Bamako, Mali.
Song of the Day: A special double, from each of their first two albums, Music In Exile (2015) and Résistance (2017), by the brilliant guitar band from Timbuktu, who were forced to flee Mali after war and Sharia Law. Beloved by many including collaborator Iggy Pop, their superb African funk-blues fusion echoes Zimbabwe's Bhundu Boys, John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix
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James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem
Song of the Day: From the stronger, later part of James Murphy and co's returning album, American Dream, a powerful cri de coeur about US politics and personal turmoil, with classic dance-punk driving rhythms and riffs, cutting lyrics and here echoing influences of Berlin-era Bowie and early U2.
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He's Beck.
Song of the Day: A bittersweet, but upbeat return from the evergreen American singer-songwriter. From the upcoming album Colors, this first single comes across like a psychedelic pop cry for help – how can society retain its highs between lows?
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