Tweed for Breakfast?

Noah and the Whale are the new sound of my autumn and I'm having a pretty shitty autumn. I have been ill, my son has been ill, my car was hit by a van, the exhaust fell off, my boiler has broken (£60 call out!) the gas sent us a triple bill, I still have no renewal documents from my car insurance and the building society cocked up our remortgage.

However, the sweet melodies of this fine mess of sods from Twickenham is getting me through. Listen and love.

The Penguin Cafe Orchestra

Pioneers of otherly music the Penguin Cafe combine minimalist folk with baroque classical to produce a kind of baggy-trousered music of the spheres. The joy of discovering a band like this cannot be described.

Adem - for the child in all of us.

Adem makes joyous music with odd clusters of instruments. His records are perfect for cozy days baking bread or soring out the button box with rain on the windows.

The Real Deal

After Susan Hill's rather unsatisfying straightforward The Woman In Black (saw the ending coming a mile off) I had to give myself the willies properly with the daddy of them all: M R James. James is the master of place and detail and his suspenseful accrual of horror is second to none. His ghosts are rarely ghosts; more often agents of supernatural malevolence - things which should have been left well alone, but (fortunately for the reader) were not. The illustration on the jacket of this new Penguin reissue is from the creepy and horrifying "Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You My Lad", one of the high points of the genre. I cannot recommend enough spending 1/2 an hour in the eerie company of this skilled technician and frightmaster.