I’m not often one for picking up live releases of songs I’ve already heard on albums, but this sensational EP from Walrus favourites Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling, and their newfound Indian friends The Dharohar Project, has made me rethink my whole approach. Recorded live at this year’s iTunes festival, the three artists have created an eight-track release that confirms that each are deserving of the title ‘artist’ – it’s interesting, diverse, unique and experimental, and captures the energy of their live performances wonderfully. Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Mumford or Marling live will find themselves smiling their way through all eight tracks.

The standout track for me on this release is Marling’s ‘Devil’s Spoke’, where the collective nature of this EP comes together in a performance that sends your heart racing – hoedown meets raga as musicians from all three jump into the fray to create something that goes far beyond anything we’ve seen from Laura Marling or Mumford & Sons in the past.

This is an incredible release from two of the most exciting music-makers in the UK today. To see them going beyond the confines of the British and American folk traditions they are so clearly influenced by to work with musicians from a totally different culture and musical tradition is wonderful. I hope we’ll be seeing Indian influences on the next albums from both Laura and the Mumford boys.

If you’re not at Leeds or Reading on his fine bank holiday – much like us here at The Blue Walrus – but you’re still in the mood for absorbing yourself in some fantastic festival performances, you can do so from the comfort of your home. “How?” I hear you ask. Through that wonderful invention they call BBC iPlayer of course!

The BBC are offering some great coverage of the festivals – we’re especially enjoying the Mumford & Sons performance, which you can view by clicking here.

Here’s a track from Mumford & Sons’ packed-out Glastonbury performance at this year’s festival:

Winchester/Bristol quartet Polly And The Billets Doux are giving away a fantastic free track called ‘To Be A Fighter’, which you can grab via the link below.

Polly And The Billets Doux – To Be A Fighter

The band, who have been causing a massive stir all over the UK festival circuit recently, including performances at Glastonbury, Loopallu and The Big Chill, are going from strength to strength at the moment, and have a UK tour planned for this October:

7th   The Luminaire, London*

8th    Stereo, York

9th    Night & Day Cafe, Manchester**

10th  Westgarth Social Club, Middlesbrough

*supporting The Miserable Rich

*supporting Alan Pownall

The multi-faceted foursome come highly recommended live (just ask The Ruckus girls), so grab that MP3, have a little boogey, and grab yourself a ticket to one of their October shows.

You are thrown straight into  that electro-funk in the opening title track with smooth vocals, tight beats and a world of synths. Say My name is slower to build, but once the piano trickles into the vocal line, the whole creation transforms into something more driving, only letting up for a slightly sunnier chorus.

I Will Come Back gets right back into the funk beat, and bouncey synth-line that should remind anyone to pack some dancing shoes, with an uplifting chorus that almost briefly touches on the euphoric. The EP then comes to a close with I Know, I Hear which starts keeps interest in the rhythms with some titillating hi-hats a clean bass-line and then drops in the simple synth melody you know the dancefloor has been waiting for – but it doesn’t stop their as some tom-toms thunder in and you get a vocals chorus straight out of a 1980s playbook.

This isn’t a pop record with everything shortened into 3 minute bursts, but is given enough time (most are about 6 minutes long) to develop and transform into something much better. Let’s hope this is a precursor to a full-length release.

Holy Ghost! – Say My Name
Holy Ghost! –  I Will Come Back
…and there’s one hell of a remix on its way as well. Watch this space.

[BUY] Holy Ghost! – Static on the Wire EP on 12″ VINYL @ Rough Trade | Banquet | HMV
[BUY] Holy Ghost! – Static on the Wire EP on CD @ Rough Trade | Play | HMV | Amazon UK | Amazon US
[BUY] Holy Ghost! – Static on the Wire EP as MP3 @ Amazon UK | Amazon US | Juno | Play

Five tracks of brilliant lo-fi goodness and I can say in all honesty there is nothing bad to say about the EP; hats off to the amazing Broken Sound Music, who seem to be guiding Rachael and her music from strength to strength.

I’ve heard rumours of a new album for Ms. Dadd next year, and I’m sure she’ll be doing yet more touring over the course of 2011 too. I’m positively excited about both prospects, and I suggest you grab yourself a copy of this EP and a ticket to the EP Launch at The Luminaire right now. You’ll be in for a serious treat.

My favourite track by far on this release is ‘Elephants Swimming’, and lucky for us, Rachael is giving it away for free via the link at the bottom of this post. You’ll catch her performing the track at her house in Bristol, also below. Yes, she really is that good live and acoustic. At most shows you’ll find her jumping off stage to get intimate with the crowd, in fact!

Rachael Dadd – Elephants Swimming

Rachael sets off on tour again at the end of the month along with friends Alessi’s Ark, The Mariner’s Children, Rozi Plain and This Is The Kit. The dates are below.

31 Aug – Railway Inn – Winchester
4 Sep – Maltings – Farnham
5 Sep – EP Launch @ The Luminaire – London
8 Sep – South Street Arts Centre – Reading
9 Sep – Chapter Arts Centre – Cardiff
10 Sep – South Bank Centre – Bristol
12 Sep – Stanmer House (with Laura Marling) – Brighton

We were greatly saddened to hear on BBC 6Music that Ou Est Le Swimming Pool frontman Charlie Haddon committed suicide at Belgium’s Pukkelpop Festival during the day yesterday. NME.com has reported that the singer jumped from a mast backstage at the festival, and his death has been confirmed by Pukkelpop Festival, with a tribute to him left on their official website.

You might remember Tim featured Ou Est here at about this time last year, and since then the band had gone from strength to strength with a UK headline tour confirmed for the autumn and festival dates throughout the UK and beyond.

We’re very sorry to hear this devastating news about Charlie, and our thoughts go out to his band members and his friends and family at this unthinkably difficult time.

I have to admit that when I clicked through to Boy & Bear’s MySpace page, I was actually quite sceptical. Wow was I wrong to feel like that. I ran across the name because the Australian band played support, alongside Alessi’s Ark, on Laura Marling‘s last tour. I’d seen a lot of tweets at the time calling Laura’s performance mediocre, Alessi’s performance pretty good, and Boy & Bear’s performance absolutely amazing. So, with a spare few moments, I decided to check them out.

Their whole sound is ramshackle folk-rock goodness, and the two songs on their MySpace, entitled ‘Rabbit Song’ and ‘Mexican Mavis’, are bloody amazing. And you’ve got to admit, they really do look the part, don’t they?

Boy & Bear – Mexican Mavis

Check out the MySpace here and become a fan on Facebook here. Now treat yourself to their cover of Bon Iver’s ‘Flume’ below – it’ll send shivers down your spine, I promise.

We mentioned this 13 minute indie monster of a track when we reviewed Spring Offensive‘s debut album Pull Us Apart a couple of weeks ago, and it finally gets it free release today.

Now it would be easy to just have cut these 13 minutes into five separate tracks, but as with the five stages of grief it imagines (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance) – each part should not be heard or experienced in isolation. Also, if you’re anything like me you’ll enjoy with a wry smile the change in rhythm at around the 3 minute mark…

.Spring Offensive – The First Of Many Dreams About Monsters [free download]

[BUY] Spring Offensive – Pull Us Apart @ Friars | Amazon MP3 | iTunes

‘To, The Bottom Of The Sea’ is the debut release from a seriously talented Norwich duo. Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Dani and Doug – aka Alloy Ark – perform live will go out and buy a copy of this EP on the merit of the show, but actually, this recorded sound is quite different from both early demo recordings and the live sound of the twosome.

Released on the notoriously poppy NRONE Records, it’s not surprising that Alloy Ark’s music has taken an altogether more mainstream and produced vibe. At first I wasn’t sure about it, but the more I listened, the more it won me over. Resurrections of the band’s earliest rough demos include the beautiful ‘Columbian Coffee’ as well as ‘Sailor Song’ and ‘Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre’. But by the far the standout track on this release is ‘The Owl and The Wolf’, produced by the fantastic Kevin Tuffy. The song has a real genuine quality about it which is, to be frank, downright admirable.

At just 13 minutes long, this 5-track EP (4 tracks really, because the final track is a very quiet second version of ‘Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre’ in French, which I assume must have been recorded live), the one major fault here is the length. With other independent artists releasing 5 or 6 track EPs that measure forty or fifty minutes in length, it’s surprising that the label hasn’t worked with Alloy Ark to lengthen and expand the talent shown in these 2-3 minute songs.

‘To, The Bottom Of The Sea’ serves as a good introduction to Alloy Ark and their music, and I look forward to seeing a fuller, more developed release from them in the future. This duo are truly unlike anything else out there at the moment – it’s worth checking out this EP on that basis, and certainly when it’ll only take you 13 minutes!

[Pre-Order] Shit Robot – From The Cradle To The Rave @ Amazon UK / Amazon US

Shit Robot – I Found Love