A Month In Music: October

The summer may be a distant memory but festival fever’s still alive and kicking thanks to Oxjam. Oxfam’s October-long fezzie features hundreds of events throughout the country, promotes local acts and at the same time raises money for the charity. Well worth checking out then. Head to www.oxjam.org.uk to find out what’s happening in your home town.

Meanwhile Brit-folk act Bellowhead’s highly touted third album Hedonism (Navigator Records) is out in the first week of the month. Produced by John Leckie (Stone Roses, Radiohead, Muse) at Abbey Road studios, it promises to capture the contagious energy of their live shows, where sitting still just isn’t on the agenda. As a little teaser, the band is offering a free track from the album, “Cold Blows The Wind” to Music Magazine readers here: http://soundcloud.com/proper-music-distribution/bellowhead-cold-blows-the-wind

Psych-folk singer Cate Le Bon is back on the road this month including a headline show at the Buffalo Bar in Cardiff on 23 October as part of the SWN Festival. The following night she joins up with Robyn Hitchcock, Alasdair Roberts, Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards, Jo Bartlett, Emily Barker and Cathal Coughlan for a night entitled “Marginalised: Songs Of Love and Loss” at the Union Chapel In London.

Another fresh autumnal offering is London-based Chancery Blame and The Gadjo Club’s fiendishly catchy second single “Tokyo Oh Oh” (Outsider!). The nu-gypsy track’s hypnotic accordion married to Mr Blame’s cautionary tales from the big, bad city should gain them a raft of new fans. A spine-tingling cover of the Pixies “Where is my mind?” – that’s already garnered acclaim from Radio 1’s Rob Da Bank - features on the flip side. See what happens when the sextet squeezed into a shed here:

Super producers, purveyors of dubbed out funky chillage and the guys behind the G-Stone label Kruder and Dorfmeister play London’s Roundhouse on 22 October. Surprisingly this will be the Austrian duo’s first show in the capital – although UK fans of their slick sounds may well have caught them in action at this year’s Big Chill festival. It promises to be a belter.

Keeping with the electronic beats, The 2 Bears (aka Raf Daddy and Joe ‘Hot Chip’ Goddard) release their second EP “Curious Nature” on 18 October. Check out their ursine-influenced video at http://www.vimeo.com/15624192

The 2 Bears: Curious Nature from The 2 Bears on Vimeo.

Flying Lotus also has a mini tour this month to coincide with the release of new EP “Pattern + Grid” (Brainfeeder). FlyLo kicks off on 23 October at The Masque in Liverpool before heading to Koko, London on 26 October, Thekla, Bristol on 27 October, Brighton Concorde 2 on 28 October, before ending up at Manchester Warehouse Project on 29 October.

Also well worth checking out this month is the annual In The City festival in Manchester, 13-15 October. Industry movers and shakers converge on the city during the day for a host of forums and debate on the music biz, while after dark new emerging and unsigned bands perform at a host of venues. The smooth soul sounds of Andreya Triana – who featured on Bonobo’s fantastic Black Sands album earlier this year - and lo-fi pop merchants Egyptian Hip Hop are just two of the many names to check out. Take a look at www.inthecity.co.uk for further details.