As the days draw in

Winter nights call for good company, spicy wines, steaming stews (crowded with colourful roots and dark meats), hot chilli chocolate and plenty of new music. All of this quickly takes the mind off the cold and turns it's frozen attention to more inspiring, cog-turning matters.

Last night, we accomplished most of the above. We invited four of our very good friends round the kitchen table, fed by a spanish stew of chicken thighs, chorizo and chick peas roasted in a bath of dry sherry, drank good spanish wine, finished off with a homemade chocolate amaretto mouse and having an accompanying playlist of Feist, Richard Hawley and Elbow to name a few. With a couple of big candles to finish off the already-warming atmosphere in the house, we had a superb night that made us forget what decade we were in, let alone what season.

With rarely returning to the radio in the past year, I've had little access to the promo discs that would light a fire in my musichungryass every sunday night and in turn, have me shouting and laughing and screaming about Fantastic Exciting New Artists to anyone who was listening; I'm proud to admit that over the six years I presented my lidl show, I was ahead of the game with artists like Franz Ferdinand, The Darkness, Imogen Heap, Anthony and the Johnsons, Jason Mraz, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jack Johnson, The Coral and many more; now without this avenue, I've found myself slowly 'winding down' on the music front.

But sometimes, I'll have a week/day/hour/few minutes where I'll find the time to investigate music again. This past week was one of them, and as I don't have the radio show any more to bleat about the fab musical finds, I thought I'd share some of them with you here.

Some of you will have already heard of these names, which is great, but if you haven't, take a few minutes to investigate them - you might find something that makes you smile as much as it has me...

Johnny Flynn - finally, this brilliant Brit's album arrived on my doorstep. have been waiting for it for a long time, having only had the occasional download/myspace songs to keep me going. it's everything I hoped...poetic, ramshackle, dark, jaunty, accomplished, shabby, uplifting, beautiful... yep, it's hard to describe. if you've heard Noah and the Whale, it's in a similar vein - but less commercial and more 'real'.

Jesca Hoop - wow. happened across this gal reading Music Week; it's been a while since music has excited and 'fit' me quite this well. she's making me rethink my own music too (dern it! ;) just GO LISTEN to her, I'd be surprised if you were disappointed. course, she looks incredibly cool too - love the Burtonesque style!
www.myspace.com/jescahoop

Miss Emily Brown - quirky, pretty, clever, lovely.
www.myspace.com/missemilybrown

Mumford and Sons - heard these guys in session on Radcliffe and Maconie and had to stop the car to pay closer attention. i suppose they could be a cross between the aforementioned Noah & The Whale, Beach Boys and Fleet Foxes...bootiful.

Speaking of Fleet Foxes, I cannot stop listening to them! Or Laura Marling come to think of it. And when I'm not listening to either of those, I seem to have Devon Sproule in my head. Or the fabulously uplifting Silver Seas. Or Scott Matthews (yes, still...) So I guess I would recommend all of the above, too.

I've also just received my DVD copies of the latest superb 1 Giant Leap project - Jamie Cato's global music undertaking. The latest series/album - and follow up to the self titled disc from a couple of years ago that featured Tricky, Robbie Williams and Neneh Cherry among others, is called 'What About Me?' This one features stunning vocals by KD Lang & drumming by Stuart Copeland among others, peppered with interviews/insights from people as diverse and brilliant as Noam Chomsky & Stephen Fry; I'd recommend you take five minutes to visit their website to see how inspired - and inspiring - the project is: http://www.1giantleap.tv. Then go buy both albums and DVDs ;)

Ok, that's plenty of (winter) food for (warming) thought! I now need to sleep - but perhaps after I find an extra blanket for the bed, and make myself a chilli chocolate drink...

Numero Uno!

Wow. Blogging eh? 

It's taken me a while to succomb to this (it being yet another virtual distraction from a Real Life Beyond the Keyboard), but then i figure, hell, it's probably 'good' for me; all this perfect white

 s  p  a  c  e   to empty my head onto... 

yup. feels good already!

just so you know what to expect from future musings: I'm a music obsessive (as most bloggers seem to be nowadays.. i guess Music got Trendy again?) my thoughts play out to a continuous soundtrack; i scour for and devour new sounds -from magazines, music tv, showcase gigs, specialist radio shows and our dear old friend the internet- and I have an irritating habit of trumpeting New Musical Discoveries from the virtual rooftop until people respond. it comes from being an indie DJ, which i was for about 6 years (and occasionally still dabble in now). so most of these blogs will probly be about that - y'know, what i'm listening to, gigs i've seen, what i'm writing/working on. OH yes, thats another thing, i'm a budding singer-songwriter, too (as most bloggers seem to be nowadays..in fact, as most everyone seems to be nowadays...i guess Making Music got trendy about the same time as Discovering Other People's Music did. and of course, Garage Band was invented. which helped, a lot.)

now would seem the time to Trumpet some marvlus music, so here y'go.. i was asking a friend today if he'd heard Nitin Sawhney's latest album, London Undersound, which i won't go into now but is bluddy brilliant and features guest spots from amazing bods like Imogen Heap, Paul McCartney and Natty; in talking about this latest endeavour of Nitin's, we also got to talking about one of his earliest projects - the album 'Prophesy' - which features the following stunning piece of music.. it made my day that little bit warmer & rosier, being reminded of this, so i hope it does the same to you:

*cue big, deep, satisfied-exhalation* that's like audio-yoga, that song! glorious.

hmmm...i should also tell you that i work for a management group/record label. we look after Corinne Bailey Rae and Back Door Slam, among others. i'm not sure what the rules and regs are when it comes to blogging - and to be honest, it would astonish me if anyone read this apart from me anyway - but there may be times i'll be wantin to dip in and out of  workday events n hapnins; this doesn't mean i'll be airing any dirty laundry here, or be speaking about the personal lives of our artists, but still, it should be fun :) 

ok, i'll sign off this 'Introductory Post' with a lidl piccy of yours truly (which has actually just deposited itself at the very top of this blog, so you'll have seen it already). i find this photo to be both hilarious and beautiful at the same time - it was taken by an extremely talented photographer friend of mine, as part of his Studio Test session; superb photo, but my catalogue-styled-overposing don't half make me chuckle! still, does the job eh? and i got to wear a hat.. which is another thing about me - i have a LOT of hats. guess they keep the headspace warm.

ciao for now!

CDH