We reach the last of the 10 posts revealing I Don't Hear A Single's Best 100 Albums Of 2025. There are a few that I was surprised not to included, but it is such a large piece of work that rearranging part way through just wouldn't work. I'd remind all that any Album reviewed on here is of the highest merit. We only review what we like.
Ordering is so difficult, comparing apples to oranges and next year, I may just post 10 of the 100 per day alphabetically with one named Album Of The Year, There will be a full listing of all 100 later and tomorrow EPs will be covered with one post. Then we get on to 2026.
We don't normally write about single songs. The Listening To This Week Playlist handles the sounds and time constraints mean writing is dedicated to Albums and EPs. However, we make an exception for these videos. It is a one off we are not becoming MTV, although it would probably be VH1 if we were that way inclined.
With our love of Psych Pop, we had to tell you about them. On 15 December, the magnificent Fruits de Mer label release a limited coloured 7 Inch Double A Side from The Chemistry Set. The pair go all UK Beat on The Magic Fridge Magnet, but the Psych Pop takes over on STP. The songs are as hypnotic as ever. You can find further details of both songs and 7 Inch purchase details here.
Custard Flux - The Floating Chamber
Our adoration of Curvey's Custard Flux followed on from our fanboy tendencies with The Luck Of Eden Hall. Custard Flux mix Psych with Prog, but allow the melody and catchiness to flow. The Floating Chamber is the closing track on the splendid Enter Xenon album. It isn't that often that we get a Custard Flux video. Here is all 12 minutes of it.
You can read our review of the album here. You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download.
Custard Flux are beloved here. The albums regularly bother the higher echelons of our End Of Year Album lists and each album adds something different to the Curvey Back Catalogue. We know how the followers here are also enchanted as Reviews are regularly most popular when posted.
Enter Xenon is no different as Curvey's shifting of the dial continues. There are songs that you might expect, built on wondrous Riffs, surprising choruses that grip you and an early Gabriel-esque vocal. But Custard Flux are about evolving.
A band that initially started out using heritage instruments gradually morphed into an outstanding is it Prog? is it Psych Pop? electric affair. Now even wider steps are taken. The use of Monophonic and Duophonic synths changes the mood considerably.
There is far more of a soundscape feel when you move away from Opportunity Knocks. The keyboard element is incorporated into the norm on Winter and Tomorrowland, enhancing strengths. This is nevermore so on the magnificent Superposition.
There are also two instrumentals that underline how ace Curvey is at moving on with an uncanny knack of taking you along for the ride. Just when you have made your mind up that Custard Flux have done it yet again, stepped slightly away, you get the superb 12 minute closer.
The Floating Chamber is gobsmacking Psych that underlines the power of the Guitar in mesmerising fashion. It is jawdroppingly great and a perfect end to another Curvey masterclass. Thank goodness we have him or we would all be listening to the same thing time after time after time.
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD or as a download.
For the last eight years We have compiled annual Best Of 's because these posts seem so popular and the aim of this Blog is to get exposure (and Sales) for the artists. A reminder that anything reviewed on I Don't Hear A Single is highly recommended. A reminder that only new albums are included among these 100.
Narrowing things down to this 100 has been really difficult. The 100 albums are posted in reverse batches of 10. For each album, A song is embedded from the album and a link is provided to the IDHAS Review where you can find further details and how to listen or buy the album.
To be in one exhilarating band is commendable. To start again and be just as great, if not better than the previous one reveals massive talent. Chicago's Curvey Gregory is certainly a major talent and getting about more Gig wise these days where people witness the man at his best.
The Luck Of Eden Hall were always special. The type of band that you get excited about when a release is near and frustrated at because it is an impatient wait. There were more outlets that covered the Psych scene in their time, in what was still a buoyant internet scene, unspoilt by social media.
The second coming of Gregory was the magnificent Custard Flux. A band that initially was more about analogue and non Electric, but over the five albums, they got more and more Electric. You can read our Reviews of the Custard Flux albums here y searching the Review Archive.
Again not as Psych as you might expect for Dr Sardonicus, the band are somewhere between Psych and Prog, but with songs built on riffs rather than terminable solos. Extremely melodic with a vocal that is not a million miles away from Peter Gabriel and just as adaptable.
It is always a delight to see him over here. Gregory is a multi instrument talent with a killer detail for arrangements and an ability to wander off into different tangents without ever losing the focus of the song. Yet he can play around with and lean on a killer riff. Enjoy the Festival Performance of the five piece.
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on CD and as a download.
Custard Flux's first four albums were heavily acoustic, played largely on nostalgic equipment. That did not stop them rocking, but for Einsteinium Delerium, Guitars are fully plugged in and I can think of no better artist in this situation.
As part of a quartet with added Mellotron from Andy Thompson, Curvey is on fire as Custard Flux unleash sheer magnificence. Still somewhere between Psych and Prog, the album is awash with melody and choruses that at times get nearer to Pop Rock.
This is a lesson for those who think Prog is just pretentiousness and Psych too way out, Custard Flux are here to make you see how joyous and accessible both can be. The album feels more joined up than ever, indeed Einsteinium Delirium could easily be thought has one complete piece.
The rhythm section are absolutely locked, which allows the riffs to take over your head and those riffs lead to spellbinding solo. Although, there are great moments of Psych, particularly the magnificent Open Wide, this feels more and more like a Modern Prog album.
The focal point of this Progressive fest is the mellotron heavy Fat Man's 8 minutes of melancholic moodiness that closes the album. It is the one time that you think of 70s Prog. The Guitar lines here at times lend themselves to Art Rock, Alt Rock and more commercial directions.
There are also great lighter moments where the arrangements are even more accessible, songs like Burning In The Sun and Right Now Here In Time and the poptastic chorus of Valentine. Curvey's vocal is still very Gabriel, but that softens the material too. Custard Flux could yet bring the complex to the masses. Here's hoping!
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download.
I don't often return to albums after I have reviewed them. But I've been listening a lot to Phosphorous again recently after its release as a Double LP. Released in September of last year, it is a wondrous listen. It was No 12 in IDHAS's Best Of 2022, an amazing result for a Progressive album on what is essentially a Guitar Pop dominated site.
People ask me how I can be such a lover of Pop Rock in the window of I Don't Hear A Single and yet at home be such a massive Psych and Prog fan. It really is rather easy if you have the patience. Through Secondary School, in fact smack bang in the middle around 1976 there was a lull.
Glam Rock had virtually ended and Punk had not properly started and that coincided with the time when albums came to my fore and all the seemingly greatest albums were Prog and you had a golden previous period to listen to and learn. Pop albums were still largely singles and load of "will this do" filler.
Through all my musical crystallising and genre hoping, I always returned to Prog and Psych, complex albums, but you could just let them wash over you. So new albums don't usually appear on IDHAS, because that's not what the audience necessarily appreciates. But there are artists who can be from either of those genres and still be accessible to a wider, dare I say it, Pop Rock audience?
This is where Gregory Curvey comes in, through both his The Luck Of Eden Hall and more recently, Custard Flux adventures. Curvey and Custard Flux compare to a band like Big Big Train, not as chorus led, but willing to take more chances. Both cross over and you would be surprised how many Pop Rock fans I know that are fans of Curvey.
Vocal wise, he comes in as very Peter Gabriel pre Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, say 1972 or 1973. However, he is a gobsmackingly great Guitarist. He can be plank spank with the best of them, but be equally understated or complex, riff driven at times. He is also an incredible arranger.
Phosphorous is the third Custard Flux album and it is typically Prog as a double album. At almost 81 minutes, it is a long, but completely worthwhile listen. The variety holds your attention as do the moods. Two of the instrumentals add Sax and that instrument lights up The Gardener, which isn't an instrumental. Well done Mars Williams!
Likewise, Jay Tausig's flute on The Face Of Mankind is superb on a song that sounds so much like Big Big Train. Orbital Transport shows another side to Custard Flux, Acoustic Guitar led, almost classical and Roses And Wine gets as near to a Pop Song as could be, but still sounds very Adrian Belew.
What thrills me the most though are always the riff led songs that take on different avenues but rest on that riff and repetition both vocally and instrumentally. Station is a great example, but the tour de force is the opener The Pretender / Memory Ends. I could have spent the whole review extolling the wonders of this song.
Nine minutes in length and as expected with the title, two part, it is mesmerising without a wasted second. The Pretender is so damn melodic, you find yourself singing the hypnotic chorus. It is as urgent as Curvey has ever been. There is also a wig out Guitar Solo and before you know it, Memory Ends has begun.
This second part is very very Genesis 1973 and it could be Peter Gabriel himself, a complete change of pace, wonderfully so. My hope with the embedded songs is to attempt ro bring newcomers in. Everyone is welcome! Oh and the sleeve notes are written by our very own Mick Dillingham.
You can listen to and buy the album on Vinyl, CD or as a download here.
This year, the standard has been the highest since IDHAS began six and a half years ago. Narrowing things down to this 100 as been really difficult. For each album, I've posted a song from it and a link to the IDHAS Review where you can find further details and how to listen or buy the album.
A reminder that anything reviewed on I Don't Hear A Single is highly recommended.
No 11 : Lannie Flowers - Flavor Of The Month IDHAS Review
People ask me how I can be such a lover of Pop Rock in the window of I Don't Hear A Single and yet at home be such a massive Psych and Prog fan. It really is rather easy if you have the patience. Through Secondary School, in fact smack bang in the middle around 1976 there was a lull.
Glam Rock had virtually ended and Punk had not properly started and that coincided with the time when albums came to my fore and all the seemingly greatest albums were Prog and you had a golden previous period to listen to and learn. Pop albums were still largely singles and load of "will this do" filler.
Through all my musical crystallising and genre hoping, I always returned to Prog and Psych, complex albums, but you could just let them wash over you. So new albums don't usually appear on IDHAS, because that's not what the audience necessarily appreciates. But there are artists who can be from either of those genres and still be accessible to a wider, dare I say it, Pop Rock audience?
This is where Gregory Curvey comes in, through both his The Luck Of Eden Hall and more recently, Custard Flux adventures. Curvey and Custard Flux compare to a band like Big Big Train, not as chorus led, but willing to take more chances. Both cross over and you would be surprised how many Pop Rock fans I know that are fans of Curvey.
Vocal wise, he comes in as very Peter Gabriel pre Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, say 1972 or 1973. However, he is a gobsmackingly great Guitarist. He can be plank spank with the best of them, but be equally understated or complex, riff driven at times. He is also an incredible arranger.
Phosphorous is the third Custard Flux album and it is typically Prog as a double album. At almost 81 minutes, it is a long, but completely worthwhile listen. The variety holds your attention as do the moods. Two of the instrumentals add Sax and that instrument lights up The Gardener, which isn't an instrumental. Well done Mars Williams!
Likewise, Jay Tausig's flute on The Face Of Mankind is superb on a song that sounds so much like Big Big Train. Orbital Transport shows another side to Custard Flux, Acoustic Guitar led, almost classical and Roses And Wine gets as near to a Pop Song as could be, but still sounds very Adrian Belew.
What thrills me the most though are always the riff led songs that take on different avenues but rest on that riff and repetition both vocally and instrumentally. Station is a great example, but the tour de force is the opener The Pretender / Memory Ends. I could have spent the whole review extolling the wonders of this song.
Nine minutes in length and as expected with the title, two part, it is mesmerising without a wasted second. The Pretender is so damn melodic, you find yourself singing the hypnotic chorus. It is as urgent as Curvey has ever been. There is also a wig out Guitar Solo and before you know it, Memory Ends has begun.
This second part is very very Genesis 1973 and it could be Peter Gabriel himself, a complete change of pace, wonderfully so. My hope with the embedded songs is to attempt ro bring newcomers in. Everyone is welcome! Oh and the sleeve notes are written by our very own Mick Dillingham.
You can listen to and buy the album on Vinyl, CD or as a download here.
Mick Dillingham talks to Curvey about the upcoming Custard Flux album, Phosphorus, in an I Don't Hear A Single Exclusive
The time is finally upon us to immerse ourselves once more in the swirling ocean of musical joy that is the Custard Flux with the brilliant new album Phosphorus. When it comes to the magical out pouring of Greg Curvey I find myself as a reviewer in that familiar and slightly confounding place I’ve been many times before in theses very pages.
To blithely say this is his best yet is a nonsense, because Curvey has always delivered the best, from when The Luck Of Eden Hall reformed in 2006 right through to today and onwards into tomorrow's yet to come. Its all the best and Phosphorus continues that unbroken chain of greatest we have come to expect from this hugely talented man. So what has our friend been up to in these strange times since we last met?
Curvey: "I wanted to be a biker after watching C.C. & Company, a B movie featuring Ann Margret and Joe Namath. It was the early 1970s and I couldn’t get my fill of Cycletoons comix. I idolized Evel Knievel. I drew pictures of motorcycles and monsters all the time.
My Dad had a garage filled with motorcycles, including a Triumph Bonneville, with matching bubble visored helmet and gas tank, a glorious sparkling silver, adorned with orange and yellow flames. Sometimes I’d muster up the courage to cross the forbidden zone and sit on it. I’m pretty sure my Dad knew.
He bought a 50cc Suzuki trail hopper for my step sisters and I to ride and let me take his 175cc Yamaha out a couple of times, which was fantastic, when I got to visit every other weekend. Years later, I had a 1968 Triumph Bonneville for a very brief time, but it was stolen. I was in my late 20s, living in Chicago and it wasn’t the best place to own a motorcycle.
In 2020, after Oxygen was released, I had started working on the basic tracks for Phosphorus, when I saw an absolutely gorgeous 1974 Harley Davidson Sportster for sale. Boom! I decided to sell enough of my childhood collectibles (i.e. cereal premiums, concert tour books and t-shirts, toys, etc.) that were sitting in boxes, and buy the bike.
Being stuck in the house under Covid quarantine was a bit maddening, right? So, I spent the entire summer and fall of 2021 becoming a grease monkey, falling in love with chrome and the smell of burning oil, riding and working on my bike. Then came the Michigan winter. Back to the mixing board and the Phosphorus Album."
Here are Curvey's thoughts on the new songs.
The Pretender
"This song initially started out as a complaint about all of the political lies being casually shoved down our throats, but I decided not to go that route. I really wanted to write some positive, even possibly uplifting, songs. I figured the world didn’t need more negativity after experiencing the pandemic and the Trump fiasco. Goals we set, are goals we get, eh?"
Memory Ends
"In 2021, my brother-in-law, and friend, died unexpectedly. He was a gifted, intelligent being, using his talents to help his family and the folks around him grow and prosper. The world needed him. His passing influenced the lyrics in this song. Inspiration for the music came from chords I started playing while recording the harmonium at the end of the previous song, The Pretender."
Phosphorus
"This is one of my favourite tracks on the album. Red era King Crimson, maybe? It all started with the intro, as it should. Vito Greco and I decided it was the perfect setting for a guitar battle. Why not? I love Tim Prettyman’s double bass part and Mars Williams’ interplanetary saxophone solo rules!"
Station
"I had the music composed and recorded, long before the lyrics settled. In my youth, FM radio was a place to discover new music. Long extended tracks, played back to back, with no commercials. Mahavishnu Orchestra, Genesis, Yes. It didn’t last long, but it was a beautiful thing while it did. The same thing happened with cable TV and the internet. I long for old frequency modulation. FM. Vito’s Portuguese guitar part re-energized my interest in this song, after I’d nearly scrapped it."
The Gardener
"The lyrics are inspired by something one of my High School classmate’s older brother actually pulled off and would have gotten away with, had he not bragged about it to some friends. It was around 1980, before cell phones and cameras were everywhere. Imagine that.
Strawberry Squid
"Practicing scales pays off and inspired this composition. It’s was one of the first tracks written for this project. I wish I was a better drummer. Oh and strawberry squids are real!"
The Man In Blue Wants Out Of His Suit
"Something I posted on a thread once, about some 60s band’s photograph and my friend Steven Curl suggested it would make a good song title. I’m just singing about myself. The good folks at Fruits de Mer Records included this track on their recently released Earworms CD Compilation."
Roses And Wine
"Once again, the music was composed and recorded and in need of a lyric, so I decided to look up the Henry Mancini classic, The Days of Wine and Roses, for some inspiration. I never realized how bad the lyrics to that song were! But, they did inspire me to write something. The music is inspired by a riff I’d recorded on my phone while practicing. I do that quite often."
The Devil May Care
"I really like this mix and Vito’s guitar parts. It’s not really about anything, or anyone, I guess. Stay away from drugs, folks. They will make your life worse."
Sifting The Stars
"This one flowed seamlessly after The Devil May Care and resolved what was a bit of a downer with something uplifting. It’s certainly easy to sing along to and was a good excuse to plug in my Flying V."
Orbital Transport
"Definitely influenced by John Barry’s soundtrack to You Only Live Twice. You may not hear it, but it’s there. Mars on saxophone. When I recorded the triangle during the last part of the song, I set up two mics, positioned facing outward, like the ears on your head and revolved the triangle around the mics in a big circle. There’s some autoharp in there as well."
Staring Straight Into The Sun
"Beware of the charlatans. I’m gobsmacked by how many people swallow the bullshit fed to them by talking heads. That’s what the lyrics are about. The music was written around the riff."
By Order Of The Grand Vizier
"I’d written and recorded the piano and drum parts for this track while I was working on Echo, but it didn’t fit in with the other songs, so I filed it away. When Phosphorus grew beyond the limits of a single LP, I pulled this one out and started working on it again. The ghostly sounds are the combination of an Ebow on my electric guitar and a recorder, the instrument we all had to play in elementary school. I added the motorik bit at the end to extend the composition and Vito absolutely nailed his solo on the Stratocaster. I love this track."
The Face Of Mankind
"It doesn’t happen very often, but most of these lyrics came to me while I was composing the music on guitar. The weight of knowledge can be hard to carry. Isn’t that what the Garden of Eden is all about? Even though it may seem like an easy way out, to be one of the souls who have remained wilfully ignorant, I’m glad to have chosen the path I’m on."
"One of my favourite memories I keep from my years of martial arts training, is from a Kali bow: The hand of friendship is superior to the hand of war. Truth."
Phosphorus will be available to pre-order on the Custard Flux Bandcamp site here from 1 April.
Oxygen the third album by Curvey’s Custard Flux project has arrived and as with everything the great man releases, there’s no need to worry here. The stars turn in the heavens above and everything is as it should be in the wonderful world of Curvey. Oxygen is full to the brim with marvellous heart felt songs smothered in sensational and adventurous musicianship and blessed with yet another beautiful kaleidoscopic production.
Such is the assured consistency of his creativity that I can confidently buff up yet another five star award and slot it into place even before hearing Oxygen for the first time, knowing full well those five stars will be effortlessly deserved. As a listener, it’s a great position to find yourself in, to be so very sure that what is about to be delivered into our heart and mind will not disappoint.
Then comes the first listen and…and….hell let's not even pretend this is a cliff hanger because we all know how this turns out. It turns out right. The three Custard Flux albums are like three beautiful sisters, unmistakably sisters at all times, but each with a individual personality that makes each of them unique unto themselves. Oh hold on here’s Curvey passing by my windows right now, let me grab him and get some background on the latest platter.
What’s going on with you good sir?
“First off, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who supported Echo and helped make it such a successful release. I sincerely appreciate the DJs, bloggers, magazines and fans who keep this little train rolling.”
So Echo sold really well?
“It’s a mystery to me what makes one album sell better than the next. When we released The Luck of Eden Hall’s Victoria Moon, Clearspot, my distributor in the Netherlands, sold 250 copies in the first five days. But that didn’t happen with the next album, The Acceleration of Time, which got more coverage and better reviews and in my opinion was a better album. When I recorded the first Custard Flux album, Helium, I couldn’t get any label support, so I decided to have them manufactured here in the states, at Smashed Plastic in Chicago, who did a fantastic job with the printing and pressing. But it turned out to be a foolish decision on my part, because most of my sales are in Europe and shipping a box of 80 LPs to the Netherlands cost a lot of money. It was actually three boxes.
The album didn’t sell as much as I’d hoped, in part because of shipping costs and also probably due to my releasing a CD box set of the same music one year earlier. I’d chosen to do CDs first because it was less expensive, but had a ton of requests for an LP version, so I went for it. I did sell enough copies to pay for my investment, but I still have a couple boxes of Helium LPs in stock, which I’d really like to get sold off.
When I was going to release Echo, I approached Keith at Fruits de Mer Records and he kindly offered me a Friends of the Fish release. I was ecstatic, because it meant extra promotional support and some guaranteed sales. I’m now down to my last thirteen copies of the Echo LP and those good sales put enough extra money in the coffers to cover most of the manufacturing costs of Oxygen, but it’s certainly no guarantee that Oxygen will sell as well as Echo. So, here I sit. Eyes closed, fingers crossed, preparing to spin the roulette wheel once again.”
So tell us about the recording of Oxygen.
“Some of the Oxygen tracks were already in their embryonic stages when we recorded the songs for the bonus CD that’s included in each Echo LP. I Feed The Fire did make it on to that release, but Vito Greco has since recorded a new solo for the ending and I remixed the track, to great improvement in my opinion.
The bulk of the recording took place during the first few weeks of mandatory quarantine. I’m incredibly fortunate to have my own recording studio and used the lockdown time to my advantage. I initially set down to record all the parts myself, being as I had no choice, but then I remembered Vito had recording gear and we started sharing tracks. I knew the Psychedelic Furs Tour, like all tours, had been cancelled, so I reached out to Mars Williams, who’d played on a track for The Luck of Eden Hall and he was happy to help.
I’d been hearing a saxophone part in my head that I wanted recorded and when Mars agreed, I wanted to utilize his playing for the solos on Gelatinous Mass, to introduce another sound other than guitar. Then Tim and Walt Prettyman got what they needed to do some home recording, by mail order and that was sorted. I knew I wanted to call the next album Oxygen since the wrapping up of Echo and had already chosen the perfect image for the cover, painted by Gregory Chamberlin.
It was only after all the songs were completed, as I sat listening to the full album, that I realized how much the project had been influenced by the virus and it’s effects on us all. I’d like to dedicate Oxygen to the folks that lost their lives to the virus.”
Any chance of a track by track guide to Oxygen?
Oxygen.
"I’d been messing around with this guitar part in 5/4, but it took me a while to find the right melody to sing over it, especially one that I could sing while playing guitar. The lyrics are about meditation. My daughter had been having a bit of trouble with anxiety and I’d recently shared the gift of meditation with her."
Gelatinous Mass.
"When I just can’t find the right vocal melody, it’s instrumental time. I figured the soloing would be covered by my Flying V on this track, but I really like to try to stick to my “no electricity” rule if possible and was ecstatic about Mars playing sax on it. Heavy electricity free Prog."
You Can’t Get Away.
"I like this song. It’s written about killing time while under quarantine. I’d had the structure worked out for months, but when it was all recorded it didn’t feel quite right. Actually, after all nine songs were finished, the album had a problem with continuity. The sounds were kind of all over the place. Sax solos, violin solos, acoustic and electric guitar solos. So I decided to break my rule and stitch the tunes together by doubling parts with my Flying V. I hope you don’t mind."
Quarantyne.
"I picked up the guitar and this song fell out. It’s morbid. I live in the Detroit metro area. Lots of people were and still are, dying. I was reading horrible stories about people being left alone in rooms to die. I chose it for the single and artist Shane Swank created a beautiful music video for it. Vito plays a really cool Brazilian instrument on this track, too."
Monster Island.
"I was a monster fiend in my youth. I loved to read magazines like Creepy, Eerie, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and Weird Tales. The Ghoul was a television personality that hosted monster movies every Saturday night and I always tried to stay up late and watch his show. Creature Feature ruled too, with all of the Japanese monster films. Monster Island is a place in the movie Godzilla’s Revenge."
I Feed The Fire.
"I absolutely love where Vito’s guitar part took this track. I knew I wanted the song to start with a train whistle and found a wooden one on EBay. The lyrics are about humanity, blasting forward, laying everything to waste to achieve light speed and the acknowledgement that I am part of humanity.
She Opens Her Eyes.
"This is one of those tracks where the original sketch and the final mix sound completely different. After laying down the drum part, I deconstructed the song and reworked the bass, guitar riffs and vocal melody, until I enjoyed listening to the song again. I figure if I don’t want to listen to the song, why would anyone else want to?
Vito plays the Brazilian guitar again on this track and I liked the sound of it so much that I made a special mix which is included as a digital bonus track. I had bought a bow meant for using on acoustic guitar and used it on Quarantyne to great effect, so I tried it on this song as well. Walt’s fabulous violin solo was the last thing added. The lyrics are a metaphor for lady liberty and my hope for a more liberal and sane direction in our next election."
Innocence and Peppermints.
"Yes, the title is an homage to the Strawberry Alarm Clock hit. I was writing about my daughter again. She’d just had a bad break up with her closest friend and confidant and was taking it kind of hard. It’s hard being a parent and watching your child experience pain.
This was the last track to be completed on the album. I wrote it on guitar, but Tim and Walt’s parts, along with the Harpsichord, took it to a different place. The recorder was a last minute addition and makes me think of Donovan."
Capacity Overload.
"Ahh, the piece de resistance. My favorite on the record. Vito suggested we do electric solos on this one and who was I to disagree? Being in quarantine gave me time to figure out how to use iMovie, so I made my first music video using footage I’d shot driving into the city of Chicago, along with footage I’d shot driving in the Welsh countryside. There’s an image in the video of half my face with streaks of horizontal lines that I didn’t create.
I’d used my phone to shoot a short movie of my computer screen whilst I fiddled with Photoshop, which worked fine, but when I did some colour editing of the movie on my phone, that half face video just magically appeared in my photo files. A gift from the cyber gods."
I’m Feeling So Much Better (Bonus Track).
"On March 7th, my wife rushed me to the hospital because I was experiencing severe pains in my lower abdomen. While there, I was dosed with Ketamine and experienced bad hallucinations. This song is about that experience. Turns out it was a kidney stone, that I passed while I was at the hospital, so they sent me home. We got to the hospital at 6pm and left at 6am.”
You can pre-order the vinyl release, buy the download and listen to Oxygen here.
Welcome to the Fifth of our week long Audio Extravaganza Live Session Specials. Today we have exclusive sessions from Curvey of Custard Flux, Blaine Campbell and Blake Jones And The Trike Shop. If that isn’t enough excitement for you, we also have two exclusive recordings from I Don’t Hear A Single Favourites.
We begin with a song from Nick Frater. Who leads the way in bringing Power Pop to a new audience. His fourth album, Full Fathom Freight Train from last year was marked high up in many critics Best Of Year Charts. It was in the I Don’t Hear A Single Top 10.
Frater has already recorded a new album, Fast And Loose which will be released in the Autumn, marking his debut for the Big Stir label. He also is currently involved in a ground breaking Instagram project, called 59 Viganettes in which he releases a track each day, each being under 59 seconds. Today he provides a wonderful cover of Gilbert O’ Sullivan’s Alone Again Naturally.
For the past 30 years or so, Detroit’s Curvey has been the driving force behind the magnificent Luck Of Eden Hall. The band’s mixture of Psych and Prog with big hints of Pop has been a revelation. Custard Flux is Curvey’s largely electricity free project utilising traditional instruments.
The first two albums, Helium and Echo were in Prog Magazines Top 10 End Of Year Chart in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Both albums reveal the breadth of the man’s inventiveness. A third album, Oxygen has just been recorded and will be released on the 5th July.
This outstanding solo session reveals both the range of music that I Don’t Hear A Single covers and the talent that Curvey has.
Los Angeles’s Blaine Campbell released his fourth album, Under The Tidal Wave in December of last year. Campbell is known for exceptional harmony driven melodic songs. I suppose you could frame it as Beach Boys Pop.
However Under The Tidal Wave reaches out far further encompassing many different styles in songs that beautifully arranged and sung. The album gently Rocks. Here’s a four song session that Blaine recorded for us pre-lockdown.
Bristol and Bath quartet Ulysses are a revelation with their mixture of Glam and Chorus led Rock. There is a real joy and wit that they bring to their singalong songs. Without ever taking themselves too seriously, their four albums offer up real earworms that are immaculately produced.
A breath of fresh air in what has become a po faced musical climate, the quality of the songwriting is overlooked in all the fun. The band’s latest album, On Safari was second in I Don’t Hear A Single’s Top 10 albums of 2019. Here they perform an exclusive Acoustic Version of a new song, Supply And Demand.
Fresno’s Blake Jones And The Trike Shop have been around since 1993, this five piece since 2005. Their fifth album, Make, is a joyous Art Pop listen. Indie in the truest sense of the word, they offer up great pop songs with unusual arrangements.
Imagine a Psych band playing songs that should be in the Top 40 and you’d not be far away. Highly original and now part of the Big Stir stable, the band play four songs recorded pre lockdown. Three are from previous albums, including Soft Rock Girlfriend from Make and Shake Your Dress is exclusively new.
Thanks as always to Jim Moody for his technical excellence. The details of our fourth special are below:
01 Nick Frater Intro
02 Alone Again Naturally
03 Curvey Intro
04 Extraordinary Man
05 Magazines
06 Custard Raga
07 Helium
08 Blaine Campbell Intro
09 Someday You'll Be Mine
10 Happy Faces
11 Shoutin' Dont Count
12 Surrender
13 Ulysses Intro
14 Supply And Demand (Acoustic)
15 Blake Jones Intro
16 Soft Rock Girlfriend
17 Shake Your Dress
18 Forestiere Gardens
19 Sun Up
You can still listen to Monday's Caper Clowns Session here.
You can still listen to Tuesday's Sessions by Spygenius and Chris Church here.
You can listen to Wednesday's Sessions by Nick Piunti, The Vapour Trails and Dolph Chaney here.
You can listen to Thursday's Sessions featuring Ex Norwegian and John Howard here.
You can listen and buy Nick Frater's albums here. You can find more about him on his website here .
You can listen and buy Custard Flux albums here. You can listen and buy Luck Of Eden Hall albums here.
You can listen and buy Blaine Campbell's albums here.
You can listen and buy Ulysses's albums here. You can find more about the band on their website here.
You can listen and buy Blake Jones And The Trike Shop's albums here. You can find out more about the bandhere.
