This week something a bit different: the first in what, hopefully, will be a semi-regular music feature that we’re calling Six Degrees of Band Separation. The premise is simple: we ask a group or artist to recommend another group/artist, who recommend another, who recommend another and so on, with the end result hopefully being that we uncover a load of new and exciting music to listen to.
First up are Brighton five-piece Squid. You might remember them from their debut album Bright Green Field, a squall of Death From Above-style dance-punk and experimental noise rock that got a lot of love when it was released in 2021. They’re back with a new album, O Monolith, which is a bit of a leap forward – denser and more tuneful, adding pastoral folk and a bit of prog into the mix. (Check out epic new six-minute single The Blades, whose music video features Fresh Meat and Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie).
Naturally, Squid’s tastes are pretty eclectic, and their chain features everything from exuberant alt-pop to muted ambient soundscapes and a bloke who dresses as a space druid. Here’s what they recommended:
Squid recommend ICHIGO EVIL
“Ichigo Evil are the mad combination of The Evil Usses – an incredibly smiley Bristolian four-piece making exuberant rock music – and the alt-pop and performance art of Ichi, a homemade inventor of all things weird and wonderful from Nagoya in Japan. Separate artists in their own right, they first joined forces last year for a gig in Bristol and cemented a blooming musical relationship this year through a couple of residencies – PRAH in Margate and The Cornish Bank in Falmouth – which we also had the pleasure of doing. Highlights from that Falmouth set were many but the real standouts were predominantly gymnastic: the length of time that Ichi can hold a handstand (over five minutes!) and the height at which Ichi, The Evil Usses – and the subsequently soaring crowd – could jump.”
Watch the video for Ichigo Evil’s Nee Naw here
Ichigo Evil recommend PADDY STEER
“Paddy Steer has provided an audacious and unconventional soundtrack to the realm of Evil since we found him. Our encounter with the album Dragon’s Breath, serendipitously discovered in a charity shop in Manchester, transformed our van into a perpetual sonic sanctuary. Paddy’s lopsided abilities as a one-handed drummer, synth craftsman, costume designer (his cosmic outfits!), polyphonic maestro and vocoder-helmet virtuoso, coalesce in his haphazard but killer live shows and his albums are all phenomenal. Really one of a kind.
Watch the video for Paddy Steer’s Unorthodox Paradox here
Paddy Steer recommends SAM MCLOUGHLIN
“My head is currently being cleaned out walking the Camino Frances route [in France] … the last five days of a 450-mile trek (carrying 5kg of clobber, including one spare pair of undercrackers). But I reckon I have enough capacity to champion Sam McLoughlin, AKA Sam and the Plants. He’s unassuming, considered, and brilliant in equal measure as songwriter/instrument builder/improviser/natural recordist …. and also, I hear, as an accompanist to Shakespeare theatre shows. He’s released a bit on Twisted Nerve and Folklore Tapes – and under various pseudonyms … he just gets on with it.”
Watch Sam and the Plants’ Environmental Meditation Music here
Sam Mcloughlin recommends DAVID A. JAYCOCK
“I first saw David (above, centre) play around 2006 at the Gregson centre in Lancaster. It was truly haunting and delicate yet intense, I became an instant fan. He was playing material from The Improvised Killing of Uncle Faustus and Other Mythologies, an album of instrumental vignettes that became an all-time favourite. Years later we shared a split release – Inland Water – on the Folklore Tapes label, where we got to explore our shared love of analogue synths and nylon string guitars. Since then, he has gone on to work with many labels and interesting folks (James Yorkston and Marry Waterson (also pictured above) and was nominated for a BBC Two folk award. His new solo record explores a minimal electronic sound, but the unique sense of melody and signature sweet dissonances are still there.”
Watch the video for David A. Jaycock’s The Murderous Huntsman here
David A Jaycock recommends DAN HAYWOOD’S NEW HAWKS
“I would have to choose Dan Haywood’s New Hawks mainly because of their self-titled triple LP, which came out in 2010. Although always a treat to see live, this record captures everything good about Dan and that band. Very original songwriting, livid with ideas that resist categorisation. I think all the songs – 32 in total – were written in some mad dream state frenzy. A definite cult classic.”
Watch Dan Haywood’s New Hawks’s Jackaroos here
Squid’s new album O Monolith is released on 9 June.
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Take Five
Each week we run down the five essential pieces of pop-culture we’re watching, reading and listening to
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FILM – Reality
Sydney Sweeney trades in the sexcapades of Euphoria and the snark of The White Lotus for something even more daring. Here she plays Reality Winner, the former NSA translator imprisoned for leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 election, in a tense thriller whose script is entirely taken from the transcripts of Winner’s interrogation by the FBI. In cinemas from today.
Want more? Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to the dizzingly great animation Into the Spider-Verse, is also out today and the early reviews augur well.
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PODCAST – Death on the Lot
After exploring the untimely deaths of 80s basketball players in Death at the Wing, director Adam McKay returns with another set of morbid – if compelling – tales of deceased entertainers. This time his focus is Hollywood in the 50s, a decade that witnessed the deaths of a number of celebrities, from James Dean to Superman star George Reeves. As with his previous series, McKay is as interested in the political undercurrents of the era as the figures he’s profiling, with the Red Scare and the civil rights movement featured heavily. The first two episodes are available now, with new eps available every Thursday.
Want more? New BBC pod Fever bravely tries to get to the bottom of the origins of the Covid pandemic.
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TV – Gods of Tennis
The BBC’s Gods of Snooker, recalling the outsized figures who dominated the felt in the 70s and 80s, was one of the most entertaining sporting documentaries of the past few years. Now the Beeb looks to repeat the trick with a series on another sport that tends to feature big characters. Again the focus is on the 70s and 80s, but this time it’s not an all-bloke affair, with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert among the talking heads. And yes, expect to hear at least one shout of “you cannot be serious”. It starts this Sunday at 9pm on BBC Two and iPlayer.
Want more? Are you a TV rubbernecker? Tune into HBO drama The Idol (Monday on Sky Atlantic and Now), surely 2023’s worst-reviewed show. Plus: here are the Guardian’s seven best shows to stream this week.
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BOOK – Fancy Bear Goes Phishing
Hackers once seemed a minor nuisance at best – more a threat in naff 90s thrillers than real life– but in 2023 they are a worryingly ever-present element of everyday life, from meddling in elections to holding individuals and organisations to ransom. Scott Shapiro’s book traces this evolution via five notorious hacks, as he tries get the bottom of what motivates the perpetrators, and what their nefarious behaviour can tell us about our information age.
Want more? Gays on Broadway looks at the vibrant LGBTQ+ history of theatre over the past century.
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MUSIC – Kari Faux
Lovers of HBO’s Insecure will be familiar with this Arkansas rapper, even if they don’t know her name: she was all over the show’s soundtrack. Her new album is a southern rap odyssey, paying sonic homage to the astral funk of Outkast and literal homage to the women she has lost in her life. The velvet-smooth Turnin’ Heads, with its languid slap-bassline and earwormy “who-who” refrain, is a good place to start.
Want more? Virginia rapper McKinley Dixon’s Toni Morrison-inspired Beloved! Paradise! Jazz?! is cerebral, adventurous rap.
Read On
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What about that Succession finale then?! Its final act was TV as hernia-inducing as I can ever remember. The Guardian, of course has you covered, with a review, recap, ranking of every episode, a great behind-the-scenes piece from its writer and co-executive producer Georgia Pritchett, plus plenty more besides.
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Whatever happened to Meg White? For Elle, Melissa Giannini goes searching for the elusive White Stripes drummer, who last made a public appearance more than a decade ago.
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It’s sad to hear that Lost, a show that I (for the most part) loved, had a worryingly toxic culture behind the scenes, according to this Vanity Fair extract (£) from Maureen Ryan’s book Burn It Down.
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And a great piece from the Guardian’s Laura Snapes on Royal Blood’s meltdown at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, and why some rock bands seem to think they deserve to be venerated over pop acts.
You be the Guide
Last week, in honour of the conclusion of Succession and Barry, we asked for your favourite TV endings. Here are your nominations (Spoilers for Parks and Recereation, The Prisoner, Blackadder Goes Forth and This Life!):
“The ending of Parks and Recreation was peak perfection. The flash-forward approach could arguably be seen as a bit naff but, let’s face it, it’s what everybody wants at the end of most shows, a “where are they now”. Everyone seemed to get what they deserved, all the resolutions made perfect sense, and the bits for Ron Swanson and Garry/Larry/Jerry Gengurch/Gergich made this 6’2” man weep like a baby. No comedy has finished on a better note.” – Joe White
“The original drop the mic/WTF finale to a TV show has to be that of Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner in the late 60s; it caused outrage from many of its viewers – angry letters, phone calls etc and even threats that led to McGoohan briefly going into hiding.” – Simon Blinkho
“Mine (and I’m sure many others’) is the ending of Blackadder Goes Forth. I remember seeing it when it first screened, and it was so shocking and poignant that I’ve never forgotten it.” – Katie Purvis
“This Life. Catfight at a wedding where both parties are in the wrong but all right –thinking humans would be cheering for Millie, Warren returns from his travels and declares the scene outstanding? Perfect.” – Helen Wood
Get involved
This week I’m after your gig discoveries, bands that you encountered for the first time at, say, the backroom of a pub or in a support slot, who blew you away. Share yours by replying to this email or contacting me on [email protected]
