More twee vicar?

Dead Jazzmen, unhinged rockabilly, French sci fi comic illustrations and dub reggae - time, perhaps, for something of a more obvious beauty.

Magpahi. Probably at the top of the list of artists that I want to see play live. The main draw is her voice, but also the interesting instruments: xylophone, recorder, harmonium (or variations on). I posted her song Seed a while back. Brisk and a little bit twee (it contains the phrase,"not even a small bumble bee"). I don't mind twee and I love that track but it took me a while to follow it up with her six track ep - mainly, I think, because I thought it was only available as a download. Anyway, this is from that.

Magpahi Horses In The Night

Ars brevis

Magpahi - great name, great songs. But only seven of them so far. I heard a snippet of this at Finders Keepers and had to have the whole song (that's the idea I suppose). I can't stop listening to it.

Magpahi: Seed

Going for a song

A very sunny day shortly after pay day with no plans so I visited two of my favourite record shops today: Intoxica and Honest Jon's. I'd forgotten what a nightmare Portobello Road is but as well as the record shops I was also in the market for a kurta (in anticipation of a blazing hot summer), but no luck on that score. Intoxica is an Aladdin's Cave but very expensive, overpriced even: "Cruisin' with Ruben and The Jets" for £100? Honest Jon's was full of far more realistic propositions, it also seems to have diversified a bit, or maybe I have. I picked up a couple of records anyway. I've been circling "Hear, O Israel" for a while now and when I saw it here on vinyl for a tenner I swooped. I love the cover art for this LP, which is a big reason to buy it on vinyl rather than cd. Otherwise an odd choice for an atheist jazz-hater you might think. But whereas I find a lot of jazz harsh and jarring this is very mellow. On the religion front - I'm not Jewish but I find judaic imagery comforting. My theory about this is that it's because I lived in Manchester for the first five years of my life.

The other thing was a compilation featuring the track "Seed" by Magpahi. The short sample of this track that's the only digital availability has been driving me mad for a few months now, so it's good to finally be able to listen to it all the way through.

After Notting Hill I doubled back into central London and got the Kuniyoshi catalogue I promised myself after seeing the exhibition. And that's it for spends this month I think. On a proper record buying binge I'd have headed for Berwick Street in Soho but I'm watching the pennies and also Selectadisc has apparently shut down. If true then that's the recession for you - I used to have to fight to get to the counter in that place.