David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

Its probably a dead heat between this and Hunky Dory for the accolade of being my favourite Bowie album. Ziggy Stardust is an absolute bloody masterpiece. Bowie's songwriting was perfect, the concept excellent (the album is set 5 years before the end of the world and tells the story of an alien rockstar sent to spread a message of hope to humanity), Mick Ronson's guitar playing is sublime and the overall arrangements and producton couldn't be any better. From the opening "Five Years" to the closing desperation of "Rock & Roll Suicide" there's not a second of it's 38 minutes wasted.

This is another one of those albums that you really should own, seriously, go and order it now because it's fantastic. It's got "Starman", "Ziggy Stardust", "Rock And Roll Suicide" and "Suffragette City" on it, plus a few you may not know which are just as good. here's "Moonage Daydream"...

Bossk - .1 EP

Bossk are named after a fairly obscure bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back, and play slow, brooding Post-Metal which builds from quiet melodic clean guitar parts into crushing metal riffage. They're mostly instrumental and sound similar to Isis, "Mr Beast" era Mogwai (Specifically "Glasgow Mega Snake") and Pelican.

This is a 2 track EP but is over 35 minutes long, so you definitely get your moneys worth. The band split in 2009 but have recently reformed so are worth chcking out when they play live next year. I've seen them a few times and they've been consistantly fantastic each time. I Particularly like the opening track "1" whcih opens with quiet Ebowed guita before gatting heavier and heavier. there doesn't seem to be a full studio version of it on youtube so here's a slightly edited down version...

Boss Hog - Whiteout

Mr Jon Spencer is a Rock and Roll legend. either with his Blues Explosion, Rockabilly lunatics Heavy Trash, 80's Garage Punks Pussy Galore and this band, the Hip Hop/Rock Influenced Boss Hog. Led by Spencer's wife Christina Martinez as their vocalist, Boss Hog sound similar to a female fronted Blues Explosion, with more emphasis on keyboards and poppier melodies. The album has a similar kind of vibe to Beck's "Odelay", with it's 60's inspired organs, distorted guitar and hip hop beats.

Whiteout is their third and possibly final album, released in 1999, although they have toured again more recently so there's hope they may release anothe in the future. "Itchy & Scratchy" from his album was featured on a Levi's advert at the time so is probably their most well known song, however "Get It While You Wait" is my favourite of the 11 tracks on offer. here it is...

Bon Iver - Bon Iver

I loved Bon Iver's debut album so much for it's stripped down isolated sound, that when I heard the follow up was a much more expansive, full band recording, I avoided listening to it for a few months. This was a mistake. A while after the album was released they were on "Later With Jools Holland". I sat there transfixed as they played the albums opening cut "Perth", with it's beautiful, open tuned elecric guitars, military style drums and gorgeous horns. Literally seconds after the song had finished I had already ordered the album from those lovely tax avoiders at Amazon. For me, Justin Vernon can do no wrong. Even the ridiculously 80's sounding Korg M1 electric piano doesn't sound out of place, where in lesser hands it could ruin an entire recording (In fact, it was a beautiful thing to wake up in a tent to the sound of the Korg M1 being soundchecked at this years Latitude festival).

Where the previous album had been almost all acoustic guitar and vocals with very little other instrumentation, "Bon Iver" is a lush sounding record with almost any instrument Vernon and his 11 other bandmates could get their hands on. Yet despite the expansive sound, The album still sounds like a continuation from where the previous record left off. There were little hints of electronic textures here and there and Justin Vernon's multitracked vocals tie it all together excellently.The whole album is damn near perfect. definitely one of my most listened to in the past year, and they're amazing live too. Here's the "Later With Jools Holland" appearance, with 3 tracks, "Towers", "Perth" and "Calgary"...

Bo Ningen - Koroshitai Kimochi

So here's a band I don't know too much about. They're Japanese, Completely Insane, Supported Chrome Hoof in Birmingham a while ago (where I bought this EP) and sound like Melt Banana playing Black Sabbath covers. Koroshitai Kimochi is their debut EP and if the packaging is to be believed, seems to have been in a limited edition of 30 copies. It's only 4 tracks long but in it's 17 minutes takes in metal, jazz, punk and psychedelic rock. The lyrics are entirely in Japanese so I have no idea what the songs are about, but sometimes that's a good thing, also all of the band members look like Sadako from "The Ring"...

here's the title track, turn it up LOUD!!!

Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish

So, I was a bit of a double agent in the Britpop Wars. Outwardly at least, in my house, I was the Oasis fan and my sister was the Blur fan, but we both changed sides more often than a french Professor Snape. I first bought "Modern Life Is Rubbish" on cassette from the sadly missed Music Junction record shop in Tamworth in about 1995ish. My sister already had "Parklife" and I wanted to investigate further. "Modern Life Is Rubbish" is an album born from desperation. Blur had been backed into a corner by an indifferent public, outwardly hostile attention from the music press and worst of all, the burgeoning success of their arch rivals Suede. In addidition to all this the music industry in the early 90's was incredibly dominated by American music, and British bands attempting to sound American in response. This album was one of the main things to change that. Blur were at this point heavily influenced by The Kinks and The Small Faces and their English sounding pop songs abut suburban life were very important in putting the "Brit" in "Britpop".

Probably my favourite Blur album, When seeing them live recently, songs from "Modern Life Is Rubbish" have been hilights of the sets, not as overplayed as the singles from "Parklife" but stil retaining the same pop energy. Probably the best representation of the album is it's biggest single and opening track "For Tomorrow"...

The Bluetones - Expecting To Fly

The Bluetones are one of those bands history doesn't really have a lot of time for. They're most likely nobody's favourite band and their albums never tend to show up in "Best Album Of All Time" polls, but I kinda like em. "Expecting To Fly" probably never changed anyone's life, but it's a nice collection of jangly indie guitar pop. I first heard this album when i was 14 or 15 on a Duke Of Edinburgh award "Initiative weekend" (in other words, a hike to a campsite using maps to find our way, then camping, cooking our own food and hiking back the next day. Apparently using your initiative to buy a steak sandwich from some people having a barbecue elsewhere on the camp site "Is not in the spirit of things" so I never got the award...).  I borrowed the tape from one of the girls hiking with us, in exchange for Supergrass's "I Should Coco" if i remember corectly, and it helped pass the tedium for a while.

They take their influences from The Kinks and The Byrds with jangly Rickenbacker's and 12 strings all over the place. The album got to number one in the charts (knocking oasis from the top, albeit only for one week) and the album spawned 3 top 10 singles, "Bluetonic", "Cut Some Rug" and "Slight Return", which are all pretty good (as are a few of their later singles), but my favourite track is "Putting Out Fires"...