Daisy Hill Puppy Farm

Perhaps I'll sell the new Legends album. I didn't like their debut record at first; too manicured, too polite. Eventually, I came to appreciate it for those qualities: it's like a bonsai garden version of a noisepop album, every squeal of feedback and "Be My Baby" drumbeat carefully positioned. ProToolsCandy.

Public Radio was pretty "meh". Without the peppiness of the debut, the sense of references being ticked off a list became oppressive: a Cure bassline here, a recycled Joy Division melody there, grey wipe-clean surfaces everywhere. The new one, Over and Over has a higher average bpm, but leaves me just as cold. Does Johan Angergård feel compelled to make this stuff, or is it just a stylistic exercise? Does that matter? I grew up listening to indiepop that sounded like it was recorded in a shed (and often was): ramshackle; borderline chaotic; bashed out with enthusiasm compensating for ability. Even something as feedback-swathed as "Seconds Away" on the Legends album sounds...flat packed, somehow. Assembled by tight-lipped Swedish androids with meticulously-organized record collections.

Which is all by way of an elaborate build up to some old skool noisy Scands: Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. The band hailed from the bleak wastes of Iceland (or the cosy suburbs of Iceland, for all I know) and were active in the mid-to-late 80s . I first heard their Mary Chain-esque desecration of "Heart of Glass" on Peel: pastiche of a sort, too, but done right. I've been looking for their 7" since then, and finally picked it up on ebay last month (though sadly without the Debbie Harry poster insert pictured above). I see that their management was based in Station Parade, Barking, Essex: maybe 20 minutes from my hometown. I could probably have nabbed a copy back in the day without too much effort.

Daisy Hill Puppy Farm - Rocket Boy + Heartbreak Soup
Daisy Hill Puppy Farm - Speedball + Heart of Glass

PS: I finally discovered the "gain" knob on my USB turntable. Are these loud enough? Do let me know.

Londinium

I've been listening to the reissue of Foxbase Alpha a lot recently and tripping over nostalgia. The album takes place in a utopian, pick'n'mix version of London, of course; my real experience of London was probably more akin to this:

The Members - Solitary Confinement

A tiny box in Finchley, six feet by fifteen, sink and stove at one end, shower at the other. Enough floor space to lie down, or to pace back and forth three steps each way. Fuses that popped when I tried to turn on more than one electrical device at a time (a workman eventually confirmed that all the electrics were hooked up in some mysterious way to the shower). Scaffolding bars outside the window, in a piece of symbolism that would be rejected by the most vulgar film director as far, far too obvious.

So, for all the things I miss (the Photographers Gallery, the Rothko room at Tate Modern, the ICA, Hampstead Heath, good curry, seeing The Clientele play in a succession of tiny venues), I should be happy in LA.