Got your own top ten for tips for stocking fillers?

Mail them in here

Bollocks to Bonfire Night and hollocks to Halloween... IT'S CHRISTMAS SOON! YAY!

And I'm sure you're all thinking: "Well, I've bought all those spiffing LPs that were recommended in the last issue of R*E*P*E*A*T but what do I do now? There's not a reindeer's shiny nose in hell's chance of another issue winging its way to me before chrimbo, so what on earth do I put on my Christmas list to send to McSanta in his Coca Cola-sponsored grotto?"

Well don't fret my lovelies - here's 10 albums (in no particular order) that have plopped into R*E*P*E*A*T Towers since the last issue got stapled into being that really shouldn't be missed. May your stockings brim with goodness…


Al Brooker - Quixotic (Bella Union)
When he collapsed on stage at Strawberry Fair never to recover, the world bid sad farewell to a man who had shed-loads to offer it. This collection of his unreleased solo work shows the diversity, imagination and sheer unbridled quality of his imagination and ear for a tune, including a fearsome Um remix, a few darkly beautiful tunes with Steven 'Broken Family Band/Hofman' Adams and some infectious and abstract weirdness that never fails to carry a beat. Breathtaking.

Sixteen Horsepower - Olden (Glitterhouse)
A kind-of best of celebrating a decade of a band that boast that rarest of attributes - a touch of the unique. Haunting, intense, timeless - a Nick Cave for the 19th Century, with all those jolly themes like death, religion and obsession. Twenty tracks from two recorded sessions and one live show, this sees the band at their raw, stripped down best. If classic tune American Wheeze doesn't affect you emotionally, you're already dead.

Pavla Milcova & Tarzan Pepe (Indies)
Barking mad Czech woman Pavla Milcova has the voice of an angel, a worryingly bonkers grin and a penchant for 50s jazz and the kazoo, often in the same song. Think Kate Bush on drugs, if you dare. A lot of her stuff is sung in English, but this doesn't make it much more intelligible, so I wouldn't worry too much. 50p to the first person that finds an English website dedicated to this deranged diva.

Saloon - If we Meet in the Future (Track & Field)
Beautifully crafted Moog-scapes with a French café feel and an airy female vocal that will sooth the most savage beast, Saloon have upped the tempo on this, their second album proper, but it doesn't dull the enchantment. John Peel loves 'em, I love 'em, and you will love 'em to. It might be arty, but hey - there's a time and place for everything. Put down your snakebite and your packet of Bensons and treat yourself to a glass of Chardonnay and a packet of Gaulloise.

Black Lipstick - Converted Thieves (Gliterhouse)
Quick! Like them now before everyone else does! Remember The Fall and Pavement before they both got all professional and by-numbers? Well, if you'd taken the movers and shakers of both line-ups and shaken 'em up, you would've got something like this. No pretension, no fear of being disliked, this is simple alternative garage rock in its purist, most innocent form. Catch them before they get ruined.

Welcome to… the-low-country (nowrecordings)
You'd think Rob Jackson popped out of the womb with a big smile, a bad gag and a guitar in his hands, and you'd probably be right. While this sees him at his finger-picking best, the real star of the show is aussie Emily Barker, who's vocals are utterly beguiling. It's a bit country, but there's so much more in the mix. Their reworking of Oh! Susanna renders other versions moribund, while the self-penned tunes are equally enticing. Emily's back in the UK next year to do some gigs with the band, so start saving. Until then, you can get the CD from their website www.the-low-country.com/

Armitage Shanks - 25 Golden Showers (Damaged Goods)
Billy Childish-style UK garage noise from the sadly defunct Armitage Shanks. There are some corny but classic covers (Orgasm Addict and Are Friends Electric), great song titles (Alf Ramsey's Porn Dungeon and Icon Schmicon), some top-draw angry shouting (One Chord Wonders and the classic Shirts Off) and garage racket (Support Slot and Who Chucked Who?). Ugly, badly produced and aesthetically unpleasant. Hurrah!

Hugo Race and True Spirit - The Goldstreet Sessions (Glitterhouse)
Bad Seed Hugo Race has got the inevitable smoke-stained sleaziness associated with all things Cave (except possibly Kylie, but I'll keep my opinions on that to myself) but his solo stuff is much more funky than you might imagine. This is a bit 80s but in a cool, The The kind of way - dubby and with lots of horns, this is great late night fucked up jazz music.

Azure Ray - Hold on Love (Saddle Creek)
More beautiful female vocals - I must be getting soft. But lets face it - after a few years of MTV2's steady diet of punk by numbers, surely you're getting bored of bowling shirts, piercings and polite, tuneful shouting? No? Well, just in case a belly-full of Linda Mcartney's I Can't Believe It's Not Turkey ™ mellows you out, this is two young ladies delivering some breathy harmonies over all kinds of backing tracks. Unrestricted by genre, it works more often than not, and the peaks are well worth the occasional trough.

And of course…

REPEAT Presents - Fear of a Black Kennett (REPEAT)
A fundraiser for the highly worthy Love Music Hate Racism campaign and boasting a wealth of talent including Asian Dub Foundation, Chris TT, Kinesis and Miss Black America, this 21-track compilation is a must have for anyone with a pulse. Not only will you feel warm inside for giving money to people who want to stamp on nazi shitheads, you'll have lots of nice tunes to listen to as well. Joy. Funnily enough, even with all those posh stars loitering on the CD, I still think Neo's Die in America is the stand-out track. But that's just me.

Enjoy.


Chris of the Marlings

Got your own top ten for tips for stocking fillers?

Mail them in here

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Steven Adams - The Broken Family Band

My list for 2003 (at least I think they're all this year):

Herman Dune - Mas Cambios

A really honest record. Makes you wish you were them. It feels all comfy.

Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf

Perfect rock 'n roll.

The Blood Brothers - Burn Piano Island, Burn

Nasty. I don't even know if I like it, but I like it.

Knife In The Water - Cut The Cord

Dark and fancy and more to get your head round than most bands manage to fit into an entire career. Glad I'm not them.

Four Tet - Rounds

Gorgeous. It's like a music that was waiting to be invented.

Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights

Just because it's good for hangovers and touching breasts to. Rubbish lyrics.

The Be Good Tanyas - Chinatown

Very pretty. I think there's a real tension in the music that sets it apart from traditional coffee table winsome ladybollox. Cool songs and healthy disrespect for tradition.

UM - The Old Album

Prat.

Spacemen 3 - Forged Prescriptions

It's a reissue. I read somewhere recently that there's no point in doing drugs unless you have this record handy.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Master And Everyone

I pity folks who don't love this record.

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Attila The Stockbroker
Ten CDs to give this Christmas

Suede - The Singles Album

Rancid - Indestructible and Out Come The Wolves

The Clash - The Story of The Clash

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore

Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels

T Rex - Electric Warrior

John Cale - Paris 1919

TV Smith - Useless

Blyth Power - Beyond the Viking Station

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Yalson's Christmas List

Ten CDs, in no particular order, that you should be forcing on your nearest and dearest this yuletide season, whether they like it or not.

Luke Haines and The Auteurs - Das Kapital - The Songwriting Genius Of Luke Haines And The Auteurs
Renowned anti-social miseryguts genius Luke Haines returns with a collection of 'greatest hits', (such as they are,) re-recorded for the occasion with an orchestral string section to add extra pomp and bombast. Still the wittiest and best current British songwriter around, as the three new songs on here prove. Even better, the self-penned sleeve notes looking back over his career are utterly hilarious.

The Distillers - Coral Fang
Honest, straight-down-the-line Yank sleaze-rock fronted by a woman who sounds like she has her own Marlboro loyalty card. What's not to like?

Spiritualized - Amazing Grace
Jason Pierce returns with another album, this time with all the songs allegedly recorded more or less in one take. It's rawer than Let It Come Down, but the world still sighs with joy at the lush loveliness of it all.

The Raveonettes - Chain Gang Of Love
The Jesus And Mary Chain return in the guise of a boy/girl Swedish duo with an obsession for 1950s B-movies. I don't think any of us could say we were expecting that to happen…..

Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
Equally, 'wistful', 'yearning' and 'subtle' were probably not words that anyone was expecting to be using to describe another of the seemingly endless stream of bands coming out of the basements of New Yoik this year.

The Kills - Keep On Your Mean Side
Essentially The White Stripes with a nervous tic and a criminal record. Songs about sex, sex and more sex. Nice to see Jamie from Scarfo doing something constructive with his time.

Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
The last album released by the man in black while he was still alive, and a fitting tribute to his talents. A scattershot collection of mainly covers, not all of them entirely vital, but all delivered in a voice that sounds as if it has been around for a thousand years, and will still be around a thousand after me and thee are gone. Some of the stranger song choices are more than compensated for by the likes of Cash's own 'The Man Comes Around' and 'I Hung My Head', which in this version is just about the darkest thing ever committed to record, despite the fact that it was written by Sting. You can pay no greater testament to the qualities of Cash's voice than that.

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Nocturama
Whether the album is any good is irrelevant. The fact that it was released meant that the Bad Seeds did a tour to accompany it. There they proved that they are the devil's own bar band. Watching and hearing the Bad Seeds play is like watching some kind of infernal Rock and Roll machine going about its business with a combination of ultra precision and terrifying violence. It truly takes you breath away.

The album's great, by the way. But then you wouldn't expect anything less.

Black Box Recorder - Passionoia
Oh, and while Luke Haines wasn't shut away, working away on his plans for world domination, or whatever it is he does with his spare time, he took a couple of weeks off to knock out another Black Box Recorder album. Unlike his Auteurs/solo material, though, BBR sound like a recent graduate from the BBC school of radio elocution reporting from a 1983 synthesiser convention. Larvely.

Various - Trojan Reggae Box Sets
Retailing for between £5 and £7.50, a Trojan Box Set will get you three CDs worth of themed material. Every one contains gems aplenty, and for that money, you can't go wrong. The Ska Volume 2 and UK Hits editions are particularly good, but doubtless all of the sets, (and there are about 60,) have their own treats in store. Proof, if any were needed, that joy sometimes comes in oddly-shaped containers.

Yalson - The Exiles, R*E*P*E*A*T and Umm Juicy.

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Jordan Hacan Ramone - The Hammers

1) Elephant - The White Stripes

2) Kick Up The Fire and Let The Flames Break Loose - The Cooper Temple Clause

3) Get Rich Or Die Tryin - 50 Cent

4) 2001 & The Chronic - Dr Dre

5) Appetite for Destruction - Guns'n'Roses

6) In Utero - Nirvana

7) Fat of the Land - The Prodigy

8) Get Your Ya Yas Out - The Rolling Stones

9) Never Mind The Bollocks - The Sex Pistols

10)Generation Terrorists - Manic Street Preachers

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Jason TSH

All new music is irrelevant. I haven't had the money, or the urge, to buy a Cd or record in maybe 18 months.I find that I'm happier if I completely ignore modern music.
That includes all the bands that I'm in.
I hope this helps.

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Tom King, Princess Drive

TOP 10 Xmas cds

i was going to name 10, but then I realised i left out the clash..................

The Specials- The Specials
*happy music; scary lyrics

The Dawn Parade- everything
*so good they get capital letters

The Virgin Suicides- Plough Over the Bones of the Dead ep
*Derek says it's always good to end a paper with a quote...

Nick Drake- Pink Moon
*only cool Cambridge university student i know

Asian Dub Foundation- Community Music.......
*union jack and union jill back up and down the same old hill

Kinesis- Handshakes for Bullets
*if only the manics still made an effort to sound like this

The Beautiful South- Carry on up the Charts
*how unfashionable of me

Public Enemy- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back
*flavour vision ain't blurry

Pulp- Hits........
*they live on lipgloss and cheap cigerettes

Primal Scream- Xtrmtr
*vowel less but great none the less

The Clash- London Calling
*get out of the kitchen you boys and girls

hurrah!!!!

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Pat King - Princess Drive

here are my favorite cds for giving/getting at xmas

1)the clash- the clash
2)nick drake- pink moon
3)asian dub foundation- community music
4)the saffs- ladyboy chaser
5)mogwai- come on die young
6)public enemy- fear of a balck planet
7)repeat records_ fear of a black kennet
8)manic street preachers- new art riot ep.
9)the smiths- louder than bombs
10)we can build you- comprehensive details of everything


 

And now, the man you've ALL been waiting for, Phil Rose esq.

1. I love Trash by Oscar The Grouch.

Toddler punk rawk

2. Woody Guthrie by Alabama 3

Living in the good old US of Stateside makes me all the more appreciative of a thumping techno bass-line and the lyrics ‘I don’t need no country, I don’t fly no flag, Cur no slack for the Union Jack, Stars and Stripes have got me jetlagged.’

3. The Clash by The Clash

Finally realised it’s great after all these years.

4. Drug Train by The Cramps

Dirty dirty. Evil. Bad music. For bad people.

5. Original Pirate Material by The Streets

The most original thing with a Cockney accent to come out of Birmingham in years. This is one fantastic album. Having listened to it non stop (nearly) from Nevada to the North of Washington State on a lonely road trip I can assure you I know what I’m talking about.

6. Party Music by The Coup

Socialist non-pussy hip hop in the finest tradition of P.E. et al. ‘You as a woman got to know your place. That’s in the front baby, I’m being blunt baby.’

7. Just as Dead Now by The Virgin Suicides

Just another pointless scream into the void. Just another bunch of angry, nihilistic kids doing rock and roll. But be honest, what would be better? Elton John? I’d rather see the Manics rehashed than the Beatles rehashed. Again.

8. Once Upon a Summertime by Blossom Dearie

The finest, sweetest, sugar filled come-to-bed voice in jazz. Buy her CDs. Buy all her CD’s. Finest lyrical moment ‘Brother let’s stuff that dove, down down down with…love’.

9. We her Majesty’s Prisoners by the Manic Street Preachers

Another rediscovery. The first home made tape my brother gave me of this band come to (temporarily) save the world had this track on it and it made my eyes pop, my liver fester and made me want to go and burn something down for the first time since I heard, I dunno, Borstal Breakout or something (well, I was 12 when I first heard that.)

10. Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky

A more clearly and concisely documented account with page after page of proof in the shape of facts and figures and sources about how we (in the US) are daily fed horse shit by a propaganda machine of a media one couldn’t ask for. Required reading. So go read it. Now.

 

Oh, and one required viewing webpage. Spot the odd man out.HERE, DAMN YOU


Bob Exile's top 10 of the year (in no particular order)

Sigur Ros - () - Just gorgeous. Best band at Glasto this year by miles

Television - Marquee Moon - Bought in one of those '3 for £20' deals cos I'd heard it was good. It is.

Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power - Their best since 'Radiator'

Black Keys - Thickfreakness - Probably my favourite new release this year

Elbow - Cast of Thousands - Not quite 'Asleep in the Back' but still better than most things released this year

The Libertines - Up The Bracket - Best getting-ready-to-go-out album of the year

Cream - Wheels of Fire - It's all about Ginger

Elliott Smith - Either/Or - My favourite album by my favourite songwriter. He's been on my stereo constantly for the last 3 years or so. The guy was a genius. Tragic loss.

The Strokes - Room On Fire - I'm sure the backlash is in the post but it's still a fucking good record.

True Swamp Neglect - Sleep Function Lost - Beta Band-ish stuff from Bournemouth. Very tasty.


...and Adam Exile's:

Elliott Smith - X/O

Mars Volta - De-Loused In The Comatorium

Grand Drive – true love and high adventure

Nick Drake – Pink Moon

Jayhawks – Tomorrow the green grass

Kings Of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood

RHCP- by the way

Ed Harcourt – from every sphere

Athlete – Vehicles and animals

The Strokes – Room on Fire


Caffy St Luce - Music Tourist Board

Mine is pretty traditional

My top ten!

No. 1 - SLADE (the national christmas anthem)

No. 2 - WAR IS OVER, JOHN & YOKO

No. 3 "FUCKING FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING BASTARD FUCKING CHRISTMAS FUCKING CAROL FUCKING SINGING FUCKERS OR I'LL FUCKING STRANGLE YOU!!!" - quite
probably the most christmas cheer our family have had in years, courtesy of a neighbour (B. A. Humbug?) well it tickled my fancy. I guess that's what passes for Seasons Greetings in Deptford.

No.4 Mr R. L. and a bunch of other road crew celebrated one Christmas on gravy laced with acid, made the tree lights very pretty.

No. 5 Give children wrapping paper if you really want them to appreciate their presents and enjoy endless hours of fun.

No. 6 solitary christmas is fab. Do what you like when you like. watch what you like, eat what/when you like.

No. 7 shopping is hell. We celebrate Christmas in January when everybody knows what they want and you can get it in the sales.

No, 8 Im rubbish at Top Tens...

No. 9 ...and hardly a pillar of the rock community, more like a pillock of the rock community

No. 10 with regards to the speech by the old squatter on christmas day
"R*E*P*E*A*T after me....
(or get the queens speech done by Graham Norton, the real queen).

Peas on earth... Share The Joy

Caffy.
Lady on a bike. South East X.


Anthony Gibbons, The Fly

1. The Darkness 'Permission To Land'
2. The Broken Family Band 'Cold Water Songs'
3. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs 'Fever To Tell'
4. British Sea Power 'The Decline Of British Sea
Power'
5. Snow Patrol 'Final Straw'
6. Elbow 'Cast Of Thousands'
7. Hell Is For Heroes 'The Neon Handshake'
8. Har Mar Superstar 'You Can Feel Me'
9. BRMC 'Take Them On... On Your Own'
10. ...and one for sentimentallity's sake... The Dawn Parade 'Caffeine Row' EP


Rosey, R*E*P*E*A*T Fanzine

Ten CDs to give this Christmas
(but don't give them to me, I've got them already!)

1) The Darkness - Permission to Land.
Simultaneously the savior of guitar bands, showing that they can matter and make it massive without the support of a conservative media, and their reason to quit, for who can begin to match the over blown riff laden camp magnificence of this album?

2) The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love
A sublime mix of sweet sweet melody with raucous noise. Like the best bits of The Jesus and Mary Chain , with a hint of added Swedish Country twang.

3) The Virgin Suicides - Plough Over The Bones Of The Dead ep
Proof that attitude and intelligence and bile glamour and bookishness are still alive and very muck kicking, as like little kids in a tantrum, the band try to batter you into understanding them.

4) Kinesis - Handshakes for Bullets
This album isn't perfect, but at its best, its angular guitar lines and intelligent lyrics show a way forward for committed rock into the new year.

5) Manic Street Preachers - Lipstick Traces
35 B sides and cover versions that highlight some oft overlooked sides of the Manics.

6)The Clash - The Essential Clash
The perfect retort to anyone who says that politics and pop music don't mix. They do. And here's proof.

7) The Rolling Stones - Forty Licks
As if we needed reminding who just about started this whole shebang, this shows the boys who made rock'n'roll big and bad and dirty at their hip wiggling, whisky soaked, blues battering, Beatle baiting best. All the bands above would never have existed without The Stones.

8)The Cooper Temple Clause - Kick Up The Fire and Let The Flames Break Loose
For some killer tunes and great videos and exciting gigs, along with more than a hint of ground breaking originality.

9)Cosy Cosy - Demos
Thought that pop music, that could make you leap around the room and sing along and smile from ear to ear and play it again and again, was dead? Then take a listen to this. That's POP with a capital P-O-P!!

Visit Cosy Cosy here

10) R*E*P*E*A*T Presents Fear Of A Black Kennett.
OK so maybe I shouldn't be blowing my own trumpet, but that has taken me 6 months of hard work - and I've still not seen the finished thing (will it miss its launch party, as is traditional with our releases?). Also it includes most of my favourite bands who I've not been able to mention above, including Miss Black America, Chris T-T, Impact, Asian Dub Foundation, Neo and more. And it's all in aid of Love Music Hate Racism. So that's got to be top of everyone's Christmas list then...

11) The Star Spangles -Bazooka. I know this is only meant to be a top ten, but here's eleven out of ten, and f*ck the marking system!!!

(Sorry Ainsley pop-idol, there really is no room to include your single!)


The Azadi Collective
www.azadicollective.com

1: Punjabi Hit Squad: On Da Streets
2: Beginner : Blast Action Heroes
3: Sian Supa Crew : X Raisons
4: Asian Dub Foundation : Keep Banging On the walls (DVD)
5: Sigur Ros : ()
6: Mc Trix : Nu Skool
7: Asian Invasion : Day of Reckoning
8: The Freestylers : We Rock Hard
9: People Under the Stairs : OST
10: DJ Shadow : Endtroducing


Initially I had this email written out with little bits of information for each cd, but then the computer crashed and i can't be arsed re-writing it all. so here are my top 10 cd's:

1. Biffy Clyro - Blackened Sky

2. Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

3. Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists

4. Mew - Frengers

5. Thirst - Mouth to Skin

6. Oceansize - Effloresce

7. Sigur Ros - ( )

8. Miss Black America - God Bless Miss Black America

9. Biffy Clyro - The Vertigo of Bliss

10. Bright Eyes - Fevers and Mirrors

John Pitts