From Soweto to Cinderford

Welcome to the weekend, fellow surfers of the zeitgeist. Today we are making one of our rare forays into modern music and featuring a couple of newish records that turned up in my inbox this week.

First up is "Africans From Outer Space" by Afronaut, leading lights in the 'So Punk' movement that is sweeping Soweto. They describe their style as "an interstellar compound of cosmic folk and tropical rockabilly". 

I have no idea what that is but I like the noise they make. One review I read said they reminded the reviewer of the Violent Femmes and I can see what they mean, at least on this track.

Next we meet Garden of Live Flowers, whose "Sticky, Sweet and Dirty" came out last month. They are a "mystery band from the darkest Forest of Dean", and add to the mystery by using what I strongly suspect are not the names they were born with (unless there are Forester families called Blue-Sky and Sweetpea). 

The sound is spacey, proggy and at times a bit poppy. One might almost call it an interstellar compound. Personally I particularly like the eight minute closing track where they give themselves space to stretch out a bit, so that is what you are getting. 

You can - and should - get hold of the Garden of Live Flowers album on Bandcamp. At just £5 it is a bargain. There are three different Afronauts on Bandcamp; however, none of them are this one. But you can find "Africans From Outer Space" on Spotify, Amazon and possibly elsewhere.

"Barfight" - Afronaut

"MRI" - Garden of Live Flowers

For today's video I searched on Wikipedia for famous musicians from the Forest of Dean. Unless Edna Healey made an album that inexplicably slipped under the radar the choice seems to be between Jimmy Young, Joe Meek or EMF. Tough call, but I've opted for Joe's finest moment.