Cornershop’s Ample Play label: Rocksucker playlist

Published on August 7th, 2012 | Jonny Abrams

Seemingly not content with dropping a third beaming summer soundtrack in the space of four years in the form of the colourful, funky and playful Urban Turban, Cornershop duo Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres have been introducing us to remarkable new talents left, right and centre through their self-run label Ample Play. They’re onto a ruddy good thing and you need to know about it, so here for your listening/discovering pleasure is Rocksucker’s hand-picked playlist of some of the many choice songs to have emerged from this roster of late.

First, though, let’s introduce you to the artists represented…

Matsuki Ayumu

The Japanese prodigy’s One Billion Year Record album moved Rocksucker to describe it in the following terms in this review…

“A double album of euphorically frazzled acid-pop that has barely been out of Rocksucker’s ears and brain since being introduced to it a few months back.”

“An astonishing, constantly surprising sonic wonderland that, while not actually a billion years long, is nonetheless hard to begrudge such an outlandish title… One Billion Year Record brims with the kind of energy and imagination that dovetail all too rarely in these firmly categorised times, its startlingly original yet instantly and ceaselessly gratifying pop songs lent a futuristic bent by all manner of quirky programming and squiggly production tricks.”

“Disorienting yet energising, futuristic yet familiar; perhaps a pointer towards the next evolutionary step of the psychedelic pop song. Sensational, basically.”

Fans of the following, apply within… Gruff Rhys, early Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles, Cornelius, mid-’90s Flaming Lips, Mellow Gold/Odelay/Midnite Vultures Beck, early Apples in Stereo

Click here to read our interview with Matsuki Ayumu!

Izzy Lindqwister

We liked the Stockhold-bred, Paris-based songstress’s recent double A-side “1 Million Keys”/”Fool to Fool” so much that it was the rare recipient of a five-quail review. Like the sound of “dirty funk, sunny feel-good ’60s girl group pop, Marlene Dietrich-like vocal effect, barmy sci-fi whirring and bucketloads of character” all in the same song? Well, get on it! She’s got another single on the way soon and frankly we can’t wait.

Fans of the following, apply within… Kate Bush, The Cardigans, Cate Le Bon, HAL, classic ’60s girl groups, The Jackson 5, Spaghetti Western films

Jack Lesser Lewis’ Awkward Energy

Strictly speaking it should be Lewis’s, but we like Jack so much we’re prepared to forgive him this grammatical oversight. We described his Lvov Swims the Willamette LP in the following terms in this review…

“Playful of mood, lyric and melody, Lewis’s laid-back demeanour frequently evokes Slanted and Enchanted-era Stephen Malkmus…”

“Lewis carves out a nifty little niche for himself…”

“Tremendously promising fare.”

Fans of the following, apply within… Pavement/Stephen Malkmus, Silver Jews, early Apples in Stereo, The Dead Trees, Adam Green, Guided By Voices

Click here to read our interview with Jack Lewis!

The Paperhead

These Nashville teens reared on vintage British psychedelia do their heroes a remarkable amount of justice on their The Paperhead Focus in on the Looking Glass album; here are some of the things we had to say in (our review)…

“A bit like an especially monged Olivia Tremor Control travelling back in time through a swamp in Ray Davies’ garden.”

“…just on the ‘charm’ side of ‘ramshackle’ in a way that disintegrates you atom by atom and restores you in the band’s own sun-dazzled parallel universe.”

“…what would happen if The Kinks and The Pretty Things bathed in lysergic acid and jammed… Kind of like a cross between a pleasant countryside stroll and an acid adventure.”

Fans of the following, apply within… The Olivia Tremor Control, July, The Pretty Things, pre-Forever Changes Love, Kevin Ayers, The Doors

Click here to read our interview with The Paperhead!

The Sufis

Meanwhile, The Paperhead’s friends and kindred spirits elicited the following descriptions in our review of their self-titled debut album…

“…lays the vintage psychedelia on thick, phased vocals dripping trippily/tripping drippily all over drums that stagger and rumble with lucid abandon.”

“…not so much kissed by the sun as utterly intoxicated by it. Basically, it trips balls something lovely.”

“A young band with the potential for greatness.”

Fans of the following, apply within… See answer for The Paperhead!

Click here to read our interview with The Sufis!

Right, you’ve met them, now it’s time to hear them. First, though, we bring you our choice cuts from the last two Cornershop LPs Urban Turban* and Cornershop and the Double ‘O’ Groove Of, as well as a track from their 2000 album Disco and the Halfway to Discontent, released as Clinton…

Cornershop / Clinton for Rocksucker by Cornershop

Click here to read our interview with Cornershop head honcho Tjinder Singh!
…and now get stuck into the talent on their Ample Play roster with our very own Ample Playlist! Enjoy…

Ample Play Records Mixtape for the Rocksucker by ample play records

With thanks to Marie from Ample Play

(* denotes half a quail deducted as a good-natured protest at Tjinder’s self-imposed lead vocal exile)

Artists: clinton, cornershop, izzy lindqwister, jack lesser lewis awkward energy, Matsuki Ayumu, the paperhead, the sufis

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.