We welcome two new authors to the ranks of Issue001 this time round, and find the amount of content is fast outgrowing the format, we hope you take the time to enjoy. Two shouts out before we continue, Fight Like Apes: the most un-Irish band out of Ireland this year, have just released their new EP, bizarrely titled "David Carradine Is A Bounty Hunter Whose Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch". Take a look. Secondly, because Issue001 saw him in action just last week in an art gallery in the rural Irish town of Sligo, Max Richter, who performed with three violinists and two doublebass players, accompanying him on piano. With in-gig visuals, an intimate audience numbering about 100, and a hushed reverence befitting the scene, this was a defining moment in our music listening tastes. We urge you to grab his new album "Songs From Before", which comes out this week on FatCat's 130701 label. If there's a band you'd like to tout, mail us back, and we'll consider it. We're at issue001 - at - wrafter - dot - com Like author Jack London, Alex Brown Church hails from the San Francisco Bay Area. Fittingly, Church named his band after one of London’s classic books, Sea Wolf. Sea Wolf has a rotating backing band, primarily drawn from a group of LA musicians known as the Ship Collective, but its heart and soul are Church’s. Church, a former member of the LA band, Irving, formed Sea Wolf in 2006. He felt that the songs he was writing for Irving, a mostly 60s alt-pop band, were forced and weren’t representative of him. Sea Wolf’s music, which has been referred to as ‘chamber pop,’ showcases Church’s moody and personal side. The EP, "Get to the River Before it Runs Too Low", produced 5 songs – including "You’re a Wolf", which, with its melancholy cello, received considerable radio play. That EP was followed last month by a full-length album, "Leaves in the River". Church, the child of hippie parents, grew up without television and with, in his words, music and his imagination as his entertainment. This is evident in his ability to tell stories with his songs – he creates a mood and invites you into his world. In a world of indie bands with the word ‘wolf’ in their names, Sea Wolf is a standout. Definitely have a listen! Music, 2007, where do you start, where do you end, quantity, quality? Endless uploads, downloads, streams, genres, cross-pollination, trends, titles, "check this out", "that's passe!". Dubstep, new rave, retro-techno, nu-folk, americana, punkrock, hip-hop, trip-hop, trance, westcoast, eastcoast, backpacker, new guitar rock, old guitar rock, guitar rock, world music (isn't it all?), grime, bhangra, crunk, cut'n'paste, funk, baile funk, old timey, bluegrass, jazz, bleep and hop, minimal, deep house, soul, gospel. With the i-pod (I heard, I conquered) generation, perhaps the earlier list of genres and sub genres may all be available soon on an eternal chip with super-human memory storage capacity and we'll all pretend we have the potential to listen to and importantly assimilate, remember and love, a body of recorded work that the Amoeba store in San Francisco would have difficulty in storing its CD equivalent. Give us peace, magazine reviewers, DJ's, radio stations, websites, trendsetters, people of the zeitgiest, music is all around, has never been so plentiful, available, accesible, good and bad: we will find it - thanks for the maps, but often self-discovery and silence are the most fruitful and rewarding sauce. We get tired sometimes. Mick Cave’s last record, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, was his biggest selling. But his recent music has lacked the energy of his early screamfests and the beauty of albums like The Good Son. His backing band the Bad Seeds became workmanlike under the weight of too many new members. Anyone missing Cave the hardcore lunatic should get hold of his side project Grinderman, where he prods his twisted younger self back to life. Largely improvised in the studio, Cave is back strutting and howling. But you do wonder if his heart is really in it, especially when he name checks a radio gardening show. Fellow enfant terrible and punk veteran, Mark E Smith of The Fall is also seeking new directions. His unlikely pairing with German technoheads Mouse On Mars makes more sense than it should. Smith has been twisting technology to his own ends for years - see Infotainment Scan and Extricate. The result is Von Sudenfed, a spliced-up name (South Germany meets well-known stomach tablet) perfect for this musical melange. Smith actually sounds like he’s enjoying himself, and best of all, his humour is back on tracks like Family Feud. The whole point of The Fall was to back up Smith’s rantings, and now it looks like anyone can. If David Sylvian joined Mouse On Mars while listening to the Beta Band, the result might be US indie obscurantists Department of Eagles. They are rumoured to be producing a follow-up to the their debut CD The Cold Nose (released as Whitey On The Moon in the US). Well worth hearing. Does the world need another singer-songwriter? Not when one of the best has been ignored for years. The deadpan baritone of Smog, aka Bill Callahan, is worth hearing in its own right. He’s rumoured to be dating winsome harpist Joanna Newsom, who played on A River Ain’t Too Much To Love. The deceptively simple songs on this CD cannot disguise the work of a master storyteller.

Today (October 26), Autamata's Ken McHugh is in the wee town of London, putting the finishing touches to the last mix of the third Autamata album to be called "Colours of Sound". Over the phone, Ken revealed to Issue001 that the release will include 11 tracks, with four additional tracks from this week's recording session to be released on an E.P. later. The album mastering is being done at The Exchange, again in London, with Mike Marsh (of Chemical Brothers, Bjork, Massive Attack experience-levels and whatnot). For each new album, Ken tends to shut himself away in the studio for about 12 months, to create rhythm tracks and sound-scapes using various instrumentation and an array of modern tech. As things progress, he moulds some of these instrumental tracks into songs, with the help of various talented Irish vocalists (see below). Some tracks are left instrumental - for those, vocals would just seem irrelevant. The album, Ken says, is set for release in February 2008. This time 'round, fans will be treated to an up-beat collection of tracks with notable vocal contributions from McHugh himself, Carol Keogh (Tychonaut, The Plague Monkeys, Natural History Museum) and Cathy Davey plus the instrumental virtuosity of violinist Cora Venus Lunny. The artwork will feature an original painting by the artist Jimmy Lawlor. Four of the album's tracks are previewable here. Issue001 Treat: Rare-Autamata-track: "Autamata - Hide And Seek (Fireside Remix)" (4.9mb).   EXCLUSIVE: ASHLEY KEATING of THE FRANK AND WALTERS Q: What’s your most-tipped band of the moment? A: "Fight Like Apes are my current favourites, you see, I love them and cannot stop thinking about them, they probably have some music and lyrics and stuff as well but I'm way beyond that, this is forever..."