MV : "Dry land" by Harper Lee

Anyone know what film/programme the footage originally came from?

Secret Shine - all of the stars (Clairecords CD)

Sarah C86 band Secret Shine faded away from the scene post-Sarah but did finally come back again many years later. This was their first album since their shoegaze classic Temporal, which i still have and i still rank up there with the best indie albums of the early 90s.

In many ways this album, from 2008, is a continuation of their earlier blissful noise pop work. "Voice of the sea" epitomes this, a hook heavy pop song waves of guitar noise feedback over an electronically enhanced beat with breathy ethereal vocals.

"Oblivion" is another great track, starting with razor edge guitars with an almost doom-laden melody and moving into walls of guitar noise and then exploding into a glorious blissful chorus. They followed up one of the best indie albums from the early 90s with one of the best ones from the late 00s and you really can't ask for any more than that.

Harper Lee - everything's going to be ok (Matinee CD)

Brighter once claimed our hearts then they went away... but the singer Keris Howard returned with a new band Harper Lee (with of course the lovely Hal as an interlude) to gave us three more albums plus of beautiful pop tunes before going away too. This is heart felt and so-often heart broken indie pop, post-Sarah C86 at its most distilled. Delicate, beautiful, embarrassed, despondent and bleak.

This is music for those who never quite got what they wanted in life, which is probably all of us. Its music for those who never got the love they truly wanted and had to make do with something else if anything. A song like "The thought of you and him" really brings this to the fore. The love is still there but its one way and that fact is killing you inside. But the magic of Brighter/Harper Lee is despite the bleakness and despair there is a beauty and a way to move on.

"This better life" starts off with an upbeat tune but the song is anything but, there is a hope in there somewhere but its at the end of a very long tunnel. At least it is there. "The forest alone" is another bleak track but its more a reflective acceptance than anything darker. This isn't music to slit your wrists to, its music to sigh sadly and have a cup of tea to. Its an album of pragmatic despair. Its life itself. This album represents us all. I loved every single nanosecond of it.

Hal - election day

In between Brighter and Harper Lee was was a short lived side project by Keris Howard who released just the one EP as Hal. With Hal Keris went for a much more electronic sound after Brighter, the title track bringing to mind early 80s pop and even a bit of New Order. Its a great pop song as you might expect, with a catchy up-beat and down-beat lyrics.

"Clear about this" is a sparkling song and "Somedays" continues the vein, sounding a bit too much like an indie dance remix of a Brighter song however. Ultimately this may have been why the Hal project was not continued for long. Its great, but somehow just seems a bit... wrong.

MV : "This better life" by Harper Lee

MV : "City station" by Harper Lee

Fosca - on Earth to make the numbers up

Fosca were a synth-pop C86 band formed by Dickon Edwards ex of Orlando and the Sarah band Shelley. With that kind of heritage its no surprise Fosca produce luscious electronic indie pop with sharp and witty lyrics. This was their first album which was released on Shinkansen.

Great pop with perfect electro-pop melodies as clearly evident on a track like "Its all going to end in tears" though at times you feel they are trying to shoehorn every PSB/Erasure/electro pop hook possible into a 5 minute long song. Maybe the slower and more laid back and reflective "There is another country" works better? The album is a gorgeous piece of work in any case.

MV : "The way that you move" by The Orchids

The Orchids are back with a new EP on Pebble next month!

MV : "Cold colours" by Trembling Blue Stars

Great song, bit New order-ish.

MV : "Secret crush on third trombone" by Fosca

Synth style from the Shinkansen band.

Monograph - lorelei

Monograph released a number of records in the late 90s mostly on the post-Sarah label Shinkansen, this being their first album. First of all i absolutely love the name "Monograph" but is what is on the disc any good too? You certainly get plenty of songs, there being 15 on this album though thats tempered somewhat by a lot of the songs being rather short.

I am in two minds about short songs, of course it is PUNK ROCK! but at the same time i hate it when you really get into a song and it stops after about 90 seconds. Still better to flicker brightly for a few seconds than a dull glow that lasts for hours. Wasn't it a very clever man who said it was better to die for something than live for nothing? Oh wait it was Rambo wasn't it?

Its good post-Sarah C86, some beautiful songs that probably should have gone on for longer. Appealing indie guitar pop with a bit of a rocky edge. Its maybe not that original but is a lot of indie joy all packed into some really tasty little pop bitesize portions. Lots of songs to like and if you don't like one there will be another one around in a minute anyway. "The river" and "Our sometime star" are highlights but nothing is really that duff.

MV : "Girls with guns" by Tender Trap

Off their most recent album.

MV : "Paper museum" by Monograph

Monograph are (or were actually) a great indie band from the late 90s / early 2000s. I got their album earlier this week, this track is off one of their singles for Shinkansen.

Trembling Blue Stars - fast trains and telegraph wires

Is this the end of the Trembling Blue Stars? Maybe so after seven albums but its a good way to end. The legacy of the Field Mice still shines through on what has to be the ultimate post-Sarah C86 group (or super group really considering who has played for them over the years). "My face for the world to see" is classic TBS, great indie pop song and opens the album well with its acoustic driven swift melody.

"In arrivals" is my favourite though, long-distance relationships strike a chord with so many of us these days. It has a great key change too, something i notice appearing more and more in indie pop these days. Its all there, great songs, great melodies, great writing, superb pop moments. The flame has been kept alive, it'll be interesting to see where the various personnel involved go next. CD #2 which is an EP of more experimental tracks from Rob Wratten could maybe give a clue.

• Fast Trains & Telegraph Wires (Amazon)

Harper Lee - all things can be mended

Its funny you know, i didn't think a band could hit me in my heart and soul as much as Brighter did (and still do) but Harper Lee have achieved it. But then again Harper Lee in many ways is Brighter 2.0 being the band Keris Howard formed after the break-up of Brighter in the early 90s.

Musically Harper Lee is very similiar, the sound is more refined and the production quality higher. Its basically very melancolic and introspective indie pop. Harper Lee is what you could get if you got every sorrowful indie C86 band in history and could somehow distill them down into one band.

So i think they are wonderful, with their jangly guitars and lyrical despair. Its simple music but beautiful. "I don't need to know about your wonderful life" is somewhat upbeat in tempo but not in sentiment. With songs like "This is the sound a heart makes when its breaking" and "Everybody leaves" you might think this is too solemn to truly enjoy. But far from it, as i have said on earlier Harper Lee reviews this is pragmatic despair. A realisation that life sucks but one must just get on with it.

If you are into music like this like me then you would struggle to find anything better than this.

• All Things Can Be Mended (Amazon)

MV : "November Starlings" by Trembling Blue Stars

I did get the new (last?) Trembling Blue Stars album today, going back to 2007's album however and we have this lovely song (and video).

MV : "Helen Reddy" by the Trembling Blue Stars

Forged from the ashes of the Field Mice and Northern Picture Library (and including at various times Keris from Brighter, Harvey Williams and Beth from Aberdeen) the Trembling Blue Stars is the ultimate post-Sarah band. New (and possibly last) album out tomorrow!

East River Pipe - the gasoline age

East River Pipe are another of the ex-Sarah bands i am currently rediscovering though the band, in actuality all the work of FM Cornog, has had a career both pre and post Sarah Records. This album (ERP's 4th) dates from 1999 (and thus is in the post-era of course).

The title of the album and some of the song titles indicate a bit of an automobile or travel theme or trying to escape for a better life as is the theme of the epic "Atlantic City" and its tale of going to try and make it rich at the casinos. Like all ERP albums this is an exploration in lo-fi pop with delicate and beautiful melodies, sentimental and fragile but sometimes with a hard edge kicking in at exactly the right moment.

FM Cornog is a master craftsman of pop music and like all of his music this captures your heart and takes you to a strange and slightly desperate yet life affirming world. This is beautiful pop and its also wonderful Americana.

• Gasoline Age (Amazon Link)

The Orchids - she's my girl EP

Imagine my surprise at the weekend when not only did i find out The Orchids, one of the best Sarah bands and a band beloved by me back in the 90s, had reformed but they were about to release their second album since reforming!

This EP was released earlier in the year, seeing an Orchids album with 2010 on it is certainly a very strange experience. One i will enjoy getting used to. So The Orchids, it seems like they have never been away. On the rocky driving "She's my girl" the essential pop melodies are all there and "The lost star" is a delicious exploration into electronic pop as The Orchids often made back in the late Sarah days.

Of course they are older now and sound it slightly to be fair, but it is in a more world-weary mature way than say being boring and rubbish. This EP could easily have been released by Sarah back in 1995 but at the same time it couldn't. So get it.

• She's My Girl EP (Pebble Records)