Tune Of The Month

           [Free Download]               Captain Beefheart - Moonlight On Vermont

Rarely has rock & roll sounded as utterly deranged as Captain Beefheart. In wild cacophony and without the slightest care given to playing in time with each other, clashing tones, dustbin-lid drums and satanic barking snarl at each other like circling wolves, twitching with rabid bloodlust - it's actually pretty terrifying. According to popular legend the captain once kidnapped and held his band hostage until they played the exact sound that was in his head, without giving them any clue as to what it was. However, if this yowling, bonk-eyed din wan't enough of a warning call to the men in white jackets, they should probably be in the loony bin too.

Tune Of The Month

                        PJ Harvey - White Chalk               [free download]

In case you didn't know, shapeshifting songstress Polly Jean Harvey beat Tinie Tempah and Adele to the Mercury Prize a few days ago (thank fuck for that), an achievement which prompted me to get well and truly stuck into her back catalogue. This is the title track of her 2007 album 'White Chalk', an incantation of bleak and eerie wilderness, and a truly stunning piece. There is something very supernatural about PJ's wispy, delay-thick vocals and the lonely, haunted Dover landscape she paints with her lyrics. The album is class, and very different from anything else she's done, so if you haven't done already, check it out!