Waiting For My Life To Change

Another Bandcamp Friday, another clutch of new songs to add an already impressive 2022. Ten random selections of highlights from the year so far, some so newly purchased that I listened to them for the first time whilst compiling this playlist.

Catherine Anne Davies aka The Anchoress delivers another beautifully balanced cover of a song that Jackson Browne wrote when he was 16 and Nico recorded for her debut solo album, Chelsea Girl, in 1967. In between, a smattering of songs from albums that set the bar high early from Andy Bell, Dan Wainwright, Mr. Oizo & Phra and Trentemøller. Momus' latest album officially dropped on 1st April and I wrote about it here. Confidence Man have also released their latest, Tilt, and on a single play so far, it's enormous fun.

 

David Holmes & Raven Violet have followed up last year's superb Hope Is The Last Thing To Die with the equally brilliant It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love. The song was initially released on Valentine's Day and a clutch of remixes have just dropped. Darren Emerson and Hardway Bros aka Sean Johnston deliver superb mixes, but they're all good, as this one (of two remixes) by Lovefingers & Heidi Lawden amply demonstrates.

 

I knew absolutely nothing about Jeshi, being drawn in by the flurry of label and artist mail drops that come in prior to Bandcamp Friday. A quick Google search reveals that Jeshi is from East London, has previously worked with slowthai and Vegyn and "turns the richness of British culture in swerving, genre-moulding rap". Ross From Friends, better known to his chums as Felix James Clary Weatherall, "provides his own compressed, fidgety interpretation of techno/house". It's a good combination.

 

Closing the selection and quite rightly celebrated on Bagging Area yesterday, is a track from the latest EP by Jesse Fahnestock aka 10:40. The lead track is a 2021 highlight, Kissed Again, originally appearing on the excellent Higher Love Vol. 1 compilation and deservedly getting a release in its own right. Its accompanied by two new songs, Coat Check and Fin, the latter described as "a haunting blissed out beauty tailor made for the majesty of a warm summer sunset". I can vouch for the fact that it works equally well on a dark, cold spring night and a bright, frosty April morning. What better way to finish the playlist, before hitting replay again?

1) These Days (Cover of Nico): The Anchoress

2) Riverside: Andy Bell

3) Relieve The Pressure: Confidence Man

4) Ruin From The Flood: Dan Wainwright

5) It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love (Lovefingers & Heidi Lawden Low Tide Mix): David Holmes ft. Raven Violet

6) 3210 (Ross From Friends Remix): Jeshi

7) Influencer Village: Momus

8) Hits Me (Instrumental): Mr. Oizo & Phra

9) Glow: Trentemøller

10) Fin: 10:40

Waiting For My Life To Change (49:48)