It's exciting to be less than a month away from prime record release month! I don't know why but so many artists seem to want to release their records in September, and most of the best ones come out then because of it. However, let's see what's in store for us this month leading up to that...



CHILDHOOD - LACUNA
If I'm honest, I didn't actually think too much of Childhood before seeing them live and since seeing them live I still have trouble remembering what their individual songs sound like. However, they put on a good show live and I just hope that this debut record is able to stick with me more when it comes out on the 11th of August.






FKA TWIGS - LP1
If you haven't at least heard this name uttered; I'm not too sure where you've been, but here it is! The highly anticipated debut album from the beautiful FKA Twigs. I really, really hope that it lives up to the hype because if it does, this could easily be featuring in my top 7 albums of the year in December. I suppose we'll just see on the 11th of August.

In case you didn't catch the review of Day 1, you can have a look at that here. As amazing as some of the artists on day one were, I still feel like overall the calibre of shows on day two might just have pipped it slightly...

PANES
Had never heard of these Londoners before Field Day but their ambient vibe started the day off slowly and really didn't manage to make a lasting impression on me. Had I not written their name down, I doubt I'd have remembered seeing them. In terms of their genre, they may be the creme of the crop, they just weren't up my street.
  
THE WYTCHES
This band on the other hand reeeally caught my attention. I'd been hearing lots about The Wytches before Field Day but this was the most I'd ever heard from them and it was brilliant. I actually felt like the festival officially started with this set. Three pretty young guys were able to fill the main stage and impress the whole crowd this early on in their career. Yes.

THE BOHICAS
Really interesting band. A little bit generic and predictable but I couldn't dislike them for it because they were all extremely talented and the set was great! Even had us moshing a little bit towards the end. All in all, I had a lot of fun but I don't see myself making a huge effort to purchase their music any time soon.

CHILDHOOD
For some reason, I always confuse this band with Superfood but once I'd figured out the difference they'd played an impressive set. Ben (lead) had an interesting voice and a slightly intriguing persona that was sort of endearing. Solid set from the Londoners.

TELEGRAM
Again, I always used to confuse this band with Teleman, either way, be it Teleman or Telegram, this was an electric set. There were a lot of high points throughout this set and a couple of their songs stood out to me. Speaking to them briefly afterwards cemented my liking for the band - very nice guys, who play very nice music.

DRENGE
The most draining yet energising set of the entire weekend. It's my third time seeing the boys but their set never gets old. The inevitable mosh pit had formed less than 30 seconds into the set and didn't dwindle at any point. These two are just pure talent and seeing them again has made me that much more excited for their sophomore album.

THE HORRORS
Having now officially seen both Badwan brothers live, I'm not entirely sure who I like best. I do think that I enjoyed Loom's set more, as it was more engaging but this set still had some amazing moments and was the perfect level of good to lead up to Pixies' headline set.

PIXIES
This was it. The headline set to rule them all. No other acts on at this time so pretty much the entire population of the festival was in attendance. Standing pretty much front row meant that I felt like I'd be crushed to death almost every minute of the performance but I didn't care. They were amazing. Their drummer astounded me on every track (loved when he threw his drumstick to Joey mid set) and of course Frank slayed! Paz really held her own too because Lord knows it's no easy task replacing Kim Deal. Excellent set to end an excellent weekend!

As expected, with a new month comes new music. There've been quite a few new interesting tracks out this past week. Here are some of the few that I had a listen to...


KLAXONS - There Is No Other Time
In short, it's nice to have Klaxons back. They've announced that they should be releasing a record later this year around spring time and so until then they've left us with this to whet our appetites. Listen to it HERE.




THE WYTCHES - Gravedweller
Another band that I wrote about previously as a "new discovery" and boy am I glad that I discovered them after this. They've just made this corker of a track available to stream (along with two other songs to form an EP) and if this doesn't make you want to see them live then you must not be into surf punk. Have a listen HERE. 


BECK - Waking Light
Since just being announced as one of the headliners for Bestival this summer Beck has gone and put out this track from his upcoming record - Morning Phase. It's just a genuinely nice ballad and it makes me interested to see what he brings to the stage this summer. Listen HERE.


ELBOW - New York Morning
In all honesty, I hadn't heard much else from Elbow except the obvious "One Day Like This" and so when I heard that they'd released a new track, I thought that I may as well give it a listen. I do like it but something about this band just really doesn't come close to overwhelming me. Check it out HERE.

Amongst these five there were quite a few other new releases this week and I'm sure that next week will be no exception. 2014 is already looking like it'll be better for music than 2013 and it's only just February! Madness!!