Albums from Olivia Louvel and Botched Fairytale

Olivia Louvel sent us a new track back in March 2009 - the spiky, moody, bass heavy Army Of Dolls... little did we know that it was just the beginning of a whole album, Doll Divider, from the French born composer and producer. We played the track for Tom Robinson on his 6 Music Introducing show, he loved it, we loved it and that was that. Or so we thought... we received a beautiful vinyl copy of Olivia's album in the post a month or so ago. Composed using synth loops and percussive rhythms on her laptop, the album is glitchy, mysterious, DIY, minimal... all those good things, if not simultaneously unnerving. You can listen and BUY at her Bandcamp here:



Botched Fairytale




Deejaying at the excellent John Peel Day at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes last year, we were approached only once during our set and it was when we played The '06 Census by Botched Fairytale. The young chap was saucer-eyed and almost frothing at the mouth about the track, which is exactly how we felt on first listen to this, their debut album. Marie O Hara and Mariel McCormack are from County Longford in Ireland and were inspired to make music back in 2008 when, they say:

"sick of sitting around complaining about the lack of lyrical content in the Irish music they heard on the radio, the duo formed because they wanted to do their bit for the situation. 

They had a vision of an album that provoked, it would be blunt and unsafe and uncomfortable, full of ideas and energy that reflected the ugliness and beauty of everyday life, an album that was universally relevant but distinctly Irish."


The album is available FOR FREE at the Bandcamp player above, thanks for giving this away free girls - it's a real gift to the music world.

TOW on 6 Music: The Just Joans and Anguish Sandwich

Every week TOW plays two songs for the brilliant Tom Robinson on his BBC 6 Music Introducing show... here are our picks from this week's show:  

The Just Joans - Your Pain Is A Joke Next To Mines

Major props to the brilliant Leg Guitar blog, the source of this pick for Tom's show. TOW has signed up to the mailing list and are thoroughly enjoying their mail outs. Check out the latest one about band's covering Madonna's True Blue... fabulous. Anywho, The Just Joans are based in Glasgow, originally from North Lanarkshire and have been around for ages! Plenty of back catalogue loveliness to get busy with then. They're signed to WeePop! Records and released their mini-album Your Pain Is A Joke Next To Mines recently. The name is in tribute to Scottish Daily Record's agony aunt of the same name... and their songs sort of have that bent to them - tortured love, wry but not too clever-and-smug songwriting and to top it all off a sensitive and beautiful approach to songwriting. Sit back... and enjoy.

Anguish Sandwich - Leave My Brain Alone Catherine, John and Chris make up this 3 pieces from Northampton. It's so lo-fi it's practically off the meter... so lo-fi can sometimes be off-putting, you need catchy melodies too and Anguish Sandwich have them in spades. The EP No More Cows is available for free a their bandcamp page and you MUST download it immediately. With songs like Leave My Brain Alone which we played for Tom and the one accompanying this video (one of our best of 2011) it's such fun and has such 'tude! We love it. Also check out Chris East's blog, he's the brains behind the band and it's quite read.