Don’t forget you can still download the Places EP – where “Exploring The Landscape” can be found – for FREE from our Bandcamp page. The EP also features a beautiful contribution from The Advisory Circle (Ghost Box).

We were very pleased to contribute a track to this 26-track compilation on WIAIWYA celebrating the 26 Olympic sports. Of course, we plumped for table tennis as our chosen sport!

There are some really super tracks on the compilation and you can score special gold, silver and bronze editions of the double album through WIAIWYA’s Bandcamp. It goes on general release on 28 May 2012. There is also a blog about the compilation here, where you can find further information about the contributing artists and their tracks.

Here’s the tracklisting:

1. Saint Etienne – Steeplechase
2. Jeff Mellin – Hit Me!
3. One Fathom Down – Exodus
4. Hacia Dos Veranos – The Way Of The Hand And The Foot
5. The Vatican Cellars – A Palpable Hit
6. The Leaf Library – Badminton House
7. Linda Guilala – Morir Ahogada
8. Flotation Toy Warning – The Buoys Are Back In Town
9. Fox – Behind Enemy Lines
10. Town Bike – Tour De Force
11. Darren Hayman – Bundle
12. Hawaii Fried Dough – Tumblebee
13. Hong Kong In The 60s – Let’s Play Table Tennis
14. White Town – Theme For Olympic Weightlifting
15. The Sunny Street – Steffi
16. Alexander’s Festival Hall (feat. Yazuyo Uemura) – Judo (What We’ve Been Playing)
17. Sool – Handball
18. Hannah Peel – The Bully
19. Band À Part – Cascabel
20. DJ Downfall – Shoot It Shoot It (Hit Me Again)
21. Monster Bobby (feat. Desmond Tutu) – Stanley Could Turn On A Tiki (A Football Song Of Praise)
22. MassiveAnneFrank – Transition
23. Parenthesis… – Synthesised Swimming
24. Ellis Island Sound – Ergo Squad Box
25. The Libero – The Regal Drug
26. High Barnets (feat. The Butterflies of Love) – Danny’s Got A Good Shot

I remember reading Old Master Q when I was about seven or eight years old, living above my parents’ takeaway in England. Someone had bought these comic books over from Hong Kong in the 1980s I suppose but the flavour of the artwork was decidedly 1970s, all girls in miniskirts with super-long hair.

There wasn’t much text in the four-panel strips so even I as a non-Chinese reader could enjoy them. I found Old Master Q hilarious, full of absurd situations and silliness, and I’m sure that my sense of humour was profoundly influenced by it.

Old Master Q has been running for 50 years and I believe it’s still being published. It was created as a strip in 1962 by Alfonso Wong (Wong Kar Hei), going by the pseudonym Wong Chak, and serialised soon after in 1964. The comic has been adapted into numerous live action and animated films as well as TV series across the decades, such is its enduring appeal.

One of the key elements of Old Master Q, and the most charming thing for me, is how the characters remain steadfastly stuck in a world that’s really always 1960s Hong Kong even though they might be time travelling, in outer space or using mobile phones. They’re constantly navigating the line between traditional Chinese ways of doing things and modern Westernised life. The world might look on in consternation at these yokels but Old Master Q is almost always cheerfully jubilant, even wilfully so.

I once asked my family why Old Master was called Lǎo Fū Zi and my brother thought that it was possibly a pun on Confucius: Confucius is known in Chinese as Kǒng Fū Zi – Master or Teacher Kǒng. Alfonso Wong himself says that Lǎo Fū Zi is a generic title for an old learned person. I think I prefer my brother’s wittier version.

If you want to see more strips and find out more about this true product of Hong Kong in the 60s, have a look at the official Old Master Q website. And I recommend Hong Kong Comics: A History of Manhua by Wendy Siuyi Wong for an in-depth read on the topic, plus tonnes of great artwork.

In case you wanted to know what I played:

Holger Czukay – Cool In The Pool (EMI)
Ryan Paris – Dolce Vita Pt II (Clever/Carerre)
Hot Blood – Dracula’s Theme (Creole)
Harry Nilsson – Me And My Arrow (RCA Victor)
Cyril Stapleton and his Orchestra – Afrikaan Beat (Decca)
Richard Denton and Martin Cook – Tomorrow’s World (BBC)
Sly & The Family Stone – Family Affair (Epic)
John Barry – Theme From The Persuaders (CBS)
Rita Chao – Yummy Yummy Yummy (King)
Steely Dan – Peg (ABC)
Lalo Schifrin – Quiet Village (CTI)
Ennio Morricone – Mon Nom Est Personne (WEA)
John Scott and his Orchestra – Midweek Theme (Polydor)
Kraftwerk – Tour De France (Instrumental) (EMI)
Brigitte Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg – Bonnie and Clyde (Fontana)
Tony Camillo’s Bazuka – Dynomite Pt 1 (A&M)
France Gall – Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son (Philips)
The Roger Webb Orchestra – Theme from Cover (Chips)
Grethe Agatz – Ekkoleg (Bocaccio Records)
Coulouce – Beau-Pere (Damoo Mauritius)
Los Diablos – Un Rayo De Sol (EMI)
Herb Alpert – African Summer (A&M)

I told Paul Glancy – who runs LateNightTales – that my band would surely make an amazing mix for the series. Yes, that’s what they all say, he replied. He did share my passion for Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly, though, so at least we were able to bond over something.

On Thursday 5 April 2012 we are supporting Rough Fields, who are launching their new album Edge Of The Firelight and playing their first ever live show, at The Windmill in Brixton. Fierce County are also supporting.

On Saturday 14 April 2012 we return to the Buffalo Bar with Strangefruit and our friends Cosines.

Hope to see you at one of these shows!

And don’t forget that you can track our upcoming gigs at Songkick – it’s very handy!

I was reminded, for no particular reason, of the adorable W (Double You) track 白い色は恋人の色 [Shiroi Iro Wa Koibito No Iro] the other day and was prompted to do a little research into the song’s origins when I found out that it was actually a cover version.

And I could not be more surprised by what I discovered!

The original was recorded in 1970 by a teenage American duo named Betsy & Chris. Elizabeth Wagner and Christine Rolseth first came to Japan in 1969 as members of a high school choir and the pair were offered a recording contract to perform Japanese language folk songs.

The original Shiroi Iro Wa Koibito No Iro (roughly translated as “white is the colour of my love”) is full of the pair’s wonderful harmonies and picked folk guitar. I really can’t get enough of it.

Betsy & Chris went on to release nine albums in Japan with a mixture of English and Japanese songs. Here are a few of my favourites:

As of today, the new compilation from our good friends in Tokyo, Diskotopia, is available to download from Boomkat and all other good online music stores. The album features a brilliant remix of our track “You Can Take A Heart But You Cannot Make It Beat” by the label’s proprietors, A Taut Line and BD1982 (which you can download for free from XLR8R), as well as a new track from Chris’s side-project with A Taut Line, Greeen Linez (the video for which you can watch below).

Those in Japan also have the option of buying the compilation on CD (including 4 exclusive bonus tracks) from Tower Records and other retailers. It’s an absolutely fantastic album, but don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what Joe Muggs had to say about the release in the latest issue of The Wire magazine:

N.B. to accompany this release, an exclusive track by BD1982 & A Taut Line will be available to Wire subscribers next month, as part of the magazine’s Below The Radar compilation series.

Ornate, hand-painted wallpapers like these were the height of luxury during the 18th century and it’s amazing that some are still extant in their original homes.

What really caught my eye were the pictures of the newly painted fascimile wallpapers at Avebury Manor.

The design was applied to the walls by stencil and then details were painstakingly painted in by hand.

The design may not strictly be historically accurate but I think the decision to feature flashes of local British flora and fauna (such as wild pansies, red admiral and peacock butterflies, great crested newts and foxes) on the wallpaper adds another neat layer of history onto this restoration project. After all, true Chinoiserie, like the original Chinese wallpapers, was always made for Western consumption and Western tastes.

You can read more about Chinoiserie and wallpaper on the Treasure Hunt blog.

The Advisory Circle – As The Crow Flies (Ghost Box)
The High Llamas – Talahomi Way (Drag City)
J Mascis – Several Shades of Why (Sub Pop)
Battles – Gloss Drop (Warp)
Giorgio Tuma – In The Morning We’ll Meet (Elefant)
James Ferraro – Far Side Virtual (Hippos In Tanks)
Testbild! – Barrikad (Kalligrammofon)
Mountains – Air Museum (Thrill Jockey)
North Sea Radio Orchestra – I A Moon (The Household Mark)
Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica (Software)
Moon Wiring Club – Clutch It Like A Gonk (Gecophonic)
Jon Brooks – Music For Thomas Carnacki (Cafe Kaput)
Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky)
Pye Corner Audio – Black Mill Tapes Vol.2 (PCA Transcription Service)
Euros Childs – Ends (National Elf)
The Leaf Library – Different Activities, Similar Diversions (Proper Songs)

What were your picks of the year?