Another month, another 50(ish) audio treasures that cheered my soul during the coldest, dampest May since the Ice age. As ever please let me know what I missed and check out streamable playlists at Whyd.com (embedded below) and Soundcloud.
A few of my favourite things
A roundup of the finest music, freshly stumbled across in the last seven days.

Thanks must go to Beatnik online for tipping us the wink on Brighton based four piece, Palace. All three demos on their soundcloud page are worth a listen but the wistful bluesy “Veins” is the standout.
They state their main influences as “White Denim, Kraftwerk, Wu Lyf, Jeff Buckley, Foals, Wu Tang Clan and Nigerian Blues” although I’m not quite hearing Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s oeuvre in their gentle blues rock as yet. Their tongues were probably firmly in cheek when they claimed to end their sets with a loud letting rip song dedicated to Blackheath village! Sadly attempts to google it only bring up an Indian Restaurant.
Top 50 tracks of the month April ’13

Last month we were collectively up all night getting lucky as a Nile Rodgers assisted Daft Punk (pictured) returned to conquer the globe using only the power of disco music.
Aprils cup truly runneth over so here’s 50 of the finest sounds in handy playlist form. I say 50 because that’s the limit of the Why.com widget below. There are actually almost 60 ridiculously good tunes on the full Whyd playlist, and almost as many on Soundcloud if that’s your preference.
Follow the monthly playlists on WHYD.COM or SOUNDCLOUD
Three reasons to help Sky Valley Mistress play the Download Festival
Last month, those Blackburn based purveyors of Bluesy Rock N Roll, Sky Valley Mistress almost made it to Glastonbury and now they have until April the 26th to take a step towards Donnington’s Download festival.
With days to go, the threesome of Maxwell Harvey William Newsome III, Squire and vocalist Kayley “Hell Kitten” Davies are hovering precariously at number 85 in the online vote, with only the top 100 making it through to the judged stage.
Can you spare one click to keep them in the hot 100, and give them a chance to showcase their debut EP “The Best Thing You’ve Never Heard“?
IT TAKES ONE CLICK TO VOTE
(ALTHOUGH YOU CAN VOTE ONCE A DAY IF YOU FEEL THAT WAY INCLINED)
Need more convincing..? Here are three good reasons to click once and send Sky Valley Mistress to Donnington Park. READ MORE
Benin City: MLD live session & free download “My Love” single
Is it possible to will a record to success just by concentrating really really hard?
Internet research and common sense (not always closely linked) suggests it’s about as likely as moving an object with mind power alone (one presumably American commenter claims to have “pooped their pants they concentrated so hard“).
But for Benin City I’ll take that risk!
Their last single “Baby” strolled to the summit of MLD’s Top 200 tracks of 2012, and on the basis of what Ive heard so far, their debut album “Fires In The Park” (out June 24th) fills me with enough excitement to risk the same fate as the previously mentioned internet commenter.
As a teaser for the album they’re offering up their new single ‘My Love‘ to DOWNLOAD FREE!! <—Nab it there.
Spread the word by visiting the Benin City Hype Machine page & tweeting your love for the track.
It combines two twin loves of mine, intelligent thought provoking lyrics and a stonking great brass sound. Main man Joshua Idehen delivers poetic reflections on his imperfect love over a sparse repetitive loop, while the brass section builds slowly with the kind of fanfare that usually signals the arrival of a head of state. Finally it explodes into a melodramatic climax that were the London Olympics still on would surely soundtrack a montage of British success.
MUSIC LIKE DIRT SESSION
Benin City were kind enough to record a session for the blog. Joshua Idehen (Vox), Theo Buckingham (Drums) Tom Leaper (Tenor Sax), Rob Peterson (bass), Rebecca Nash (Keys) and Faye Treacy (Trombone) crammed themselves into a comically small room in a glamorous corner of Walthamstow to perform “Crush”.
- Wittering on about music since 2005
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