





Happy New Year, everybody! On this slow-and-easy Sunday, we recognize that, as Judaism prescribes, a few dusks ago we entered into the year 5771, and are currently headlong into the ten days of repentance that mark the beginning of every year. Sounds like fun, no? The gentile brothers Kadane, though, they never “repent” as much as they simply lament, which is really much closer to the heart of this Jewish season, not that there’s anything necessarily Jewish about the New Year (the band). Guitarist Peter Schmidt, maybe, but it doesn’t matter. The point is that repentance, while official, is only the religious way of describing it, whereas culturally the ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are about reflection, where we take stock of our lives and set goals and evaluate progress and that kind of thing. For Jews, reflection and lamentation tend to go hand in hand. And as with any entrenched basket of hocus pocus, it is what you make of it. Personally, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate video to herald this time of year than the one for the New Year’s “The End’s Not Near.”
"The End's Not Near" by The New Year from Touch and Go/Quarterstick on Vimeo.
I realize that lyrically, while the song plays with notions of religious modernity, it’s not directly correlative to the act of self-reflection, per se. The video, though, is a flawless visual metaphor: Trying to ride a bike with no hands on the slippery, twilit pavement of an endless vacant parking lot surrounded by industrial detritus. The setting sun, the barren sprawl, that’s America for ya, and then the no-hands style of bike-riding — see, it’s all about balance and confidence. If you think you’re going to fall, you will, but if you’re confident enough in the path ahead and your centered-ness on the bike, it’s like second nature. What could be more apt to the task of trying to make sense of your life, past, present and future, all at once? Further to the vast expanse of pavement in the video, the song itself, a modern classic, has been pretty well paved over, recognition-wise. If you google “The End’s Not Near” right now, you’ll find that of the first 40 results, only four pertain to the New Year, who wrote the song and included it on their masterful 2004 LP, The End is Near. The rest regard Band of Horses, whose admirable cover of “The End’s Not Near” wound up on one of those soundtrack compilations for the TV show The O.C.. “The saints who don’t want to be found,” a.k.a. the New Year, are probably fine with that, and are enjoying some easy royalties. 2004 really wasn’t very long ago, though, and the New Year remain one of the best bands currently making records. We were huge fans of their 2008 self-titled LP; hopefully we won’t have to wait until 2012 to get another, though it would make sense. With all this calendar-oriented business, maybe they’re thinking Mayan.
Lazy Sunday: The New Year, “The End’s Not Near” is a post from Crawdaddy! - The Magazine of Rock.
"mp3 [108MB](right-click & 'download linked file', 'save target as' or similar)
Lou Rawls / The Politician (MGM)
Maddslinky / Further Away feat Tawiah (Tru Thoughts)
Redeyes / Sur Ecoute (Promo)
Lisa Taylor / Did You Pray Today (Nirobi Re Edit) (Promo)
Pharoah Monch
/ Shine (W.A.R)
Kanye West
/ Power feat Jay Z (Remix) (Promo)
Slick Rick / I Own America (Def Jam)
Bahamadia / Total Wreck (Chrysalis)
Kenny Knots / Watch How The People Dancing (Unity Sounds)
Smerins Anti Social Club / Dr Who (Tru Thoughts)
Mr Lexx / Dem A Pree (Ward 21)
Busy Signal / Picante (Greenmoney Remix) (Promo)
Rosie Gaines / I Want You (Booker T Remix) (Pure Silk)
Kenlou / The Bounce (Masters At Work)
Sejij / Basslips (Man Recordings)
Stray / Frost (Med School)
The Spy From Cairo / Jennaty feat Ghalia Benali (Earthrise Soundsystem Remix) (Wonderwheel)
Afronaught / Golpe Tuyo Calande (Simbad Remix) (Promo)
Belleruche / Churro (Tru Thoughts)
David Holmes / My Mate Paul (Go Beat)
Kjell / Good People (Promo)
Eddy Meets Yannah / Bad Fairy (Zed Bias Remix) (Compost)
Hidden Orchestra / Footsteps (Tru Thoughts)

Energetic and innovative world class DJ and producer
Benji Boko lives in our hometown of Brighton where his style of music is shaped by the records he finds in some of the 2nd hand shops & flea markets. His latest live show has been rocking clubs and festivals the past year…. from Rockness to V-Festival & Ibiza to Amsterdam, including a midnight slot at the O2 arena NYE 2009-10. In his own words it’s “on the fly, off the cuff, completely improvised live remixing.” We’re talking Mozart vs. Missy, Dizzee vs. Depeche Mode and Snoop vs. Simpsons, just to name a few. Crowds are being transported from the ‘norm’ into a world of pure imagination.
His first single “The Jungle V.I.P” jumped straight to No. 16 in the iTunes electronic charts and received countless radio airplay across the globe. As well as being used on BBC & ITV he has worked on music for numerous TV commercials such as Motorola
, Kellogs and Guiness. His debut album is set for release in 2011 via Tru Thoughts
.

Energetic and innovative world class DJ and producer
Benji Boko lives in our hometown of Brighton where his style of music is shaped by the records he finds in some of the 2nd hand shops & flea markets. His latest live show has been rocking clubs and festivals the past year…. from Rockness to V-Festival & Ibiza to Amsterdam, including a midnight slot at the O2 arena NYE 2009-10. In his own words it’s “on the fly, off the cuff, completely improvised live remixing.” We’re talking Mozart vs. Missy, Dizzee vs. Depeche Mode and Snoop vs. Simpsons, just to name a few. Crowds are being transported from the ‘norm’ into a world of pure imagination.
His first single “The Jungle V.I.P” jumped straight to No. 16 in the iTunes electronic charts and received countless radio airplay across the globe. As well as being used on BBC & ITV he has worked on music for numerous TV commercials such as Motorola
, Kellogs and Guiness. His debut album is set for release in 2011 via Tru Thoughts
.

+ 2nd podcast available
On Friday 9th October Belleruche will celebrate the launch of their 3rd album, 270 Stories (released two days later on 11th October) at the remarkable art deco London venue, Bloomsbury Ballroom.
With live support from The Correspondents, The Shadow Orchestra and a fine roster of DJs including Natural Self, Robert Luis, Dom Servini and Bam Bam Sound, the night will be a drunken taxi ride through the trio’s musical influences and likes, completed by a headline set showcasing the brand new album and the band’s favourite tracks from the last two records.
The venue will be visually transformed with light and analogue projections to create a world of giant ravens, broken records, looped ideas and clicking tape reels.
And to top it all off ticket holders will be entitled to a free download of a exclusive Belleruche track, which has been recorded especially for the event. It will be available, on a secret server accessible only with a code supplied with the event programme, for 3 days after the event – after which it will disappear into digital dust, never to be distributed again.
Bag tickets here
Until then head over to their website to hear Part 2 in the their series of podcasts
by Tru Thoughts