New To Me...To You...To Me...To You

or, How To Get Away With Two "25 From 25" Albums Lists Whilst Pretending That Wasn't Your Intention All Along, Part Two.

This is the second of two lists, my very loose criteria being the first time I have purchased an album by these artists, irrespective of whether they've been going for years or debuted in 2025.

Again, loads of albums that either remained on the long list or haven't yet made it off the shopping list and as yet are unheard. Honourable mentions to Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires (sorry, JC!), Ead Wood, Restricted Code, Oklou, Steve Lane, The Morning Early, SPRINTS and Peter Capaldi (yes, him!)

As yesterday, I've listed my 25 picks alphabetically, rather than in order of greatness, but I will also reveal my favourite at the end.

25 From 25 - New To Me

(click on the links to buy these albums...and more!)

1) The Smile You Send Out Returns To You: Constant Follower

2) Gift Of Sorts: Chris Reeve

3) Dan's Boogie: Destroyer

4) Concrete Rockers: Earl Sixteen & The Co-operators

5) Ellen Beth Abdi: Ellen Beth Abdi

6) Mother Of A Thousand: F.O. Machete

7) Phantom Island: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

8) Om Verda Mi: Lakeshouse

9) Living History: Later Youth

10) LEDLEY: LEDLEY

11) Clients Of Suddenness: Louise Connell

12) A Danger To Ourselves: Lucrecia Dalt

13) Things Must Change: Montjuïc

14) Might As Well Play Another One: Mumble Tide

15) Ways To The Deep Meadow: Ocean Moon

16) A Dawning: Ólafur Arnalds & Talos

17) Desert Queen: Pearl Charles

18) Disturbia: Phonolab

19) Quad 90: Quad 90

20) Concorde: Res One, Upfront, Badhabitz

21) Don't Worry, It's Forever: Sister John

22) Rapture Party: The Joshua Hotel

23) Red Door Open: The Twistettes

24) Last Exit To Music: Xavier Corbera

25) Things Found In Books: Yvonne Lyon & Boo Hewerdine

I recommend each and every one of these albums, but my #1 of 2025 is the stunning self-titled debut by Ellen Beth Abdi.

I was fortunate enough to see Ellen Beth Abdi supporting A Certain Ratio in Bristol last May, and although I recognised her from appearances on the ACR album 1982 and 2023 EP, I was completely unfamiliar with her own songs.

I was at the gig with my friend Mike and we were both blown away by her performance. I told Ellen Beth as much at the merch stand after; she didn't have any records for sale at the time, but I did come away with a jar of delicious marmalade...now that's a USP!

So, when Ellen Beth Abdi's album emerged in May 2025, needless to say that expectations were high...and then surpassed.

The voice is something else, enough to carry the songs, but Ellen Beth handles the entire record with a sure hand, from keyboards and flute to co-production with Joel Anthony Patchett, this does not sound like a first album.

A highlight of the gig was a cover of Spellbound by Rae & Christian, a tribute to Ellen Beth's musical inspiration, vocalist Veba aka Beverley Green. She does the song - and the singer - justice, both on stage and in the studio, sublime vocal loops layering and layering to create a mesmerising whole.

Ellen Beth's own songs are more than up to the challenge of meeting this high bar. Tenterhooks, the lead single, was a perfect example of this but honestly, there's not a single song on the album that I don't want to play again and again. And I have, since buying it.

I can't wait to hear what she does next.

Walk On Glass In The Twilight Belt

Lucrecia Dalt is an example of a 'new' artist that I discovered through my curiosity in another, 'established' artist.

Earlier this year, my inbox bursting with the barrage of Bandcamp mailshots, urging me to buy the latest music releases, my attention was caught by Lucrecia's EP, cosa rara, featuring "a rare appearance by cult music legend" David Sylvian.

I enjoyed the EP so much that I featured two of the three versions in a couple of Dubhed selections in May, one focusing on David Sylvian, the other a round up of 2025 highlights.

As is frequently the case with my discoveries, 'new' is subjective. Colombian born María Lucrecia Pérez López has been releasing music since 2005, initially as Lucrecia for two albums and an EP, then as Lucrecia Dalt from 2010, with several albums, soundtracks, EPs and collaborations under her belt in the last decade and a half.

A Danger To Ourselves is added to the discography, coming out in full on Friday (5th). Thirteen songs, opening with cosa rara, and featuring the other three singles/videos to date, no death no danger, caes and divina. There's a bonus dub version of caes on the digital version.

To these ears, finding a sweet spot somehwere between Bebel Gilberto, Laurie Anderson and David Sylvian's own work, I can appreciate why the latter was drawn to work with Lucrecia, not only providing spoken word vocals and "feedback guitar" on cosa rara, but also co-producing and mixing the entire album.

One for the curious and another addition to my Bandcamp Friday shopping bag.

 

 

 

A Danger To Ourselves

Ten songs featuring David Sylvian, spanning his first solo single in 1984, an unexpected collaboration earlier this year and eight more diversions over the past four decades.

This is a sequel of sorts to Saturday's post, which focused on the Top 10 Jaoan songs challenge, posted by Top10Nathan on Bluesky. 

Whilst I enjoyed but didn't participate in it, I couldn't resist the inevitable follow up challenge, to post the Top 10 David Sylvian songs.

It was a fairly open brief, spanning not just David's solo albums (of which there are plenty) but also his collaborative efforts, including his 1993 partnership with Robert Fripp, the Nine Horses collective, and many, many guests appearances with other artists. 

I didn't have a defined sequence of ten songs to start, rather a short list of about 15-20, which I was deciding on instinct for the first five days, by which time the final five and order had been settled on.

These are not my Top 10 David Sylvian songs: there are far too many for that; I could have pretty much posted the whole of Brilliant Trees for example, and 'padded out' with a few more songs. 

I also imposed a couple of rules: vocal songs only, no instrumental pieces, and only one pick from each release; not that it made the shortlisting process any easier.

I knew from the start that the opening song would be Cosa Rora by Lucrecia Dalt, which came out on 28th February 2025. It's a great song as it is, but the completely unexpected spoken word passage by David at the end seals the deal. Check out the EP on Bandcamp, if you haven't already.

I also knew that the selection would end with Waterfront, from 1987's Secrets Of The Beehive, another album that I could have posted in its entirety for the majority of my 'Top 10'. 

My one song rule meant that I had to forego other brilliant songs such as Orpheus and Let The Happiness In, though others picked up on these and more on Bluesky.

It had to be Waterfront, though. The piano and strings arrangement by Ryuichi Sakamoto is sublime, and David's voice is so rich and deep that it gets me every single time. I've been moved to tears on occasion when the song has caught me in a moment.

To me, Red Guitar and Darshan represent the populist end of the Sylvian spectrum. The former was such a striking solo single in 1984, and a stark change of direction from where Japan had been heading. In sequencing Red Guitar as the immediate follow up to a new song, I also appreciate how timeless David's music is. Hearing the opening two songs for the first time, I think you would be hard pressed to guess that forty one years separated them.

Darshan appears on the David Sylvian and Robert Fripp album, The First Day. The original studio version is over seventeen minutes long. I instead went for a remix by The Grid, which clocks in at a 'mere' sixteen minutes and eight seconds. 

After an ambient introduction for three minutes, the beats kick in and David's voice and Robert's guitar lock into the groove, to great effect. I love Dave Ball and Richard Norris' partnership, but it's one of my favourites of their many remixes. 

I don't know if this was a label prompt (both were with Virgin at the time, alongside The Future Sound Of London, who also provide an epic reconstruction) but I'm siure that it would have needed David and Robert's buy in. Either way,  I'm glad that the Darshan EP came to be.

The natural follow on is 1989 one-off Pop Song, which of course is anything but...and yet. I loved it then as I do now, but Pop Song's quirky time signature and sudden pauses and, despite it's non-conformist structure and against all odds, for being an ear worm. 

I've paired a couple more collaborations, separated by a decade. David continued to work with his former Japan bandmates, including early contributions to Mick Karn's solo career. Buoy was the single from 1986 album Dreams Of Reason Produce Monsters, and it's great, though for this selection, I've gone for When Love Walks In which I think could also have been a contender for a promotional release.

David first collaborated with Russell Mills on 1991's Ember Glance (The Permanence Of Memory), comprising a near 33-minute piece The Beekeeper's Apprentice, and Epiphany, just shy of two and a half minutes. 

David returned half a decade later to guest on Russell's first album under his alter ego Undark. Notorious for returning to, refining and reworking his music, the Undark song How Safe Is Deep? is no exception, appearing a few years later on the Godman EP in two variations, re-titled Shadowland.

The rest of the selection comprises songs from the 1990s and 2000s, perhaps a period that many are less familiar with, though none the less rewarding in my experience. Dead Bees On A Cake (1999) and Blemish (2003) particularly resonate with me and whilst I've only relatively recently come to Nine Horses, it's another rich and deep addition to the Sylvian oeuvre. The song pick here features Stina Nordenstam, who proves a perfect vocal foil for David.

For something that began in a very loosely planned way, I'm really happy with the end result. Far from comprehensive, yet I think it captures the essence of why David Sylvian's body of work is so challenging and so rewarding. As ever, you'll be the judge of that!

1) Cosa Rara (Single Version): Lucrecia Dalt ft. David Sylvian (2025)

2) Red Guitar (Album Version): David Sylvian (1984)

3) Darkest Dreaming: David Sylvian (1999)

4) When Love Walks In: Mick Karn ft. David Sylvian (1986)

5) How Safe Is Deep?: Undark ft. David Sylvian (1996)

6) Darshan (The Road To Graceland) (Translucent Remix By The Grid aka Dave Ball & Richard Norris): David Sylvian & Robert Fripp (1993)

7) Pop Song: David Sylvian (1989)

8) Wonderful World (Album Version): Nine Horses ft. Stina Nordenstam (2005)

9) Late Night Shopping (Album Version): David Sylvian (2003)

10) Waterfront: David Sylvian (1987)

1984: Red Guitar EP / Brilliant Trees: 2

1986: Dreams Of Reason Produce Monsters: 4

1987: Secrets Of The Beehive: 10

1989: Pop Song EP: 7

1993: Darshan EP: 6

1996: Undark 3396: 5

1999: Dead Bees On A Cake: 3

2003: Blemish: 9

2005: Snow Borne Sorrow: 8

2025: Cosa Rara EP: 1

A Danger To Ourselves (58:48) (KF) (Mega)

If you like this, why not try Nostalgia Burns, my previous David Sylvian selection from February 2023? I didn't look at it prior to picking my 10 songs for Nathan's Bluesky challenge but incredibly I've managed to avoid duplicating any of the above tracklist. Even more incredibly, I managed to fit 11 songs into under 47 minutes!

Note: A few hours after posting this, I received an email from Lucrecia Dalt's mailing list, advertising her upcoming new album. It's title? "A Danger To Ourselves"...!

Doused In Dopamine

Another round up of 2025 highlights so far, this time focusing on the electronic end of the musical spectrum.

I posted my first review in March and only one of the ten artists featured then reappears in today's selection. No surprise to find that it's 10:40 aka Jesse Fahnestock, with the flip side of his excellent Powder Wax Vol. 2 EP. 

A few surprises: it was a delight to discover that Montjuïc are James Hackett and Ian Carmichael, old buddies from The Orchids, the latter also delivering era-defining music with One Dove. 

Not only that, but the remix is by Cold War Cowboys, who happen to be Martin Watkins, long-time Marc Almond collaborator, and Phil Bloomberg, bass player with The Polecats.

But I've saved the best 'til last, with a beautiful dub-infused remix by Matias Aguayo of Lucrecia Dalt's Cosa Rara, with a spoken word vocal from none other than David Sylvian, who also co-wrote, played guitar and produced the song. A real "how did she do that?!" moment.

1) Dagger (Radio Edit By Charlotte Caluwaerts & Reinhard Vanbergen): Charlotte & Reinhard (Dagger EP)

2) Falling (What Time Is Love?) (Tronik Youth Remix By Neil Parnell): Blavatsky & Tolley ft. Gene Serene (Falling (What Time Is Love?) EP)

3) Field Of Dreams (Hardway Bros Cosmic Interpolation Mix By Sean Johnston): Hugo Nicolson (Field Of Dreams EP)

4) The Third Wave: Matt Gunn (Nowhere EP)

5) We're All Gonna Hurt (Extended Vocal): Le Carousel ft. Jolene O’Hara & Jess Brien (We're All Gonna Hurt EP)

6) Let's Change (Cold War Cowboys Remix By Martin Watkins & Phil Bloomberg): Montjuïc (Let's Change EP)

7) Miracle Me: 10:40 (Powder Wax Vol. 2 EP)

8) Popolina 90: Follytechnic Music Library vs. Pop Will Eat Itself (FML25 Baggy Ravers 3)

9) Like Fire (A Space Age Freak Out Remix By John Paynter & Ben Lewis): Airsine (Like Fire EP)

10) Cosa Rara (Matias Aguayo's Dopamine Dub): Lucrecia Dalt ft. David Sylvian (Cosa Rara EP)

Doused In Dopamine (1:00:09) (GD) (M)

You can find my previous 2025 selection, It's A Glamorous World, right here.