Ivan Campo ‘The Curse’

Mancester’s Ivan Campo have been brewing via my headphones for a few weeks now, I should have written about them an age ago, but haven’t. Apologies Ed. There’s a good reason I’ve been so tardy though – I can’t decide which flipping song I like best. I can’t.

Named after the notorious big-haired Spanish defender (who is currently being over-looked for a place in the back four at Ipswich Town), I’ve been travelling a lot recently and the eight Ivan songs in my possession have been every mile.

I think ‘Forgetful Fred’ might be my favourite. I’ve listened to it a lot. A. Lot. How can you not like something that gently swells with delightful sunshine calypso? Where Manc lads get sunshine calypso from is anyone’s guess. With not one song wandering over 2’40″, it’s easy to listen again and again and again. I have done and can confirm it’s easy. ‘Lotus Eater’, with its Merseybeat bounce, is straight off the set of ‘Ready Steady Go’, while the foot-tapping twang of ‘Rat Race’ ambles off up I Am Kloot street, but i think, by a nose, the gentle shimmering plinky-plonk of ‘The Curse’ gets my vote.

If you need a peg to hang your coat on, it lands them in territory occupied by near neighbours The Coral, as does ‘Darling Diva’, which is just lovely, and it’s alarm clock percussion is a delight on a stick. There’s that proper off-kilter sensibility that we like so much round these parts, they also have a quite brilliant knack for a tune, and the kind of soul only bands from the North-West seem able to muster. And as your default Manchester correspondent, I should know.

As an aside, their new EP, ‘Super 7′, is produced by Yorkie who, fact fans, was in a band called Space. It feels odd having to explain who Space are. In the late Nineties they were properly famous. They were top boys, and I enjoyed their company enormously when I spent time with them for a Maker cover, which was a rare thing – enjoying the company of pop stars, not me writing Maker covers, no, no. I particularly recall Yorkie’s football talk and finely tuned sense of humour. Glad to hear he’s still making good use of himself.

You’ll be hearing more from Ivan Campo I’d wager.

More hear…
- There’s the MS then, but there’s also a proper site with a ton of music that’s NOT on MS. We like that.
- Their new EP, ‘Super 7′, will be with us in March 2009.

The really, really nice thing about doing MNFB is the raft of emails we’ve started getting recently. People actually seem to to like what we’re up to, and they want their music to be a part of it. People like Junior Jaguar, who kindly explained he’d mailed two other sites as well as us. Mp3hugger and 2UIBestow being the other two.

It’s great that people seem to becoming more discerning, that they’re not taking the kitchen sink approach and mailing everyone listed on HypeM, but they’re picking and choosing. We are genuinely flattered that music is specifically coming in our direction too. Thanks, and keep it coming.

Things I know about Junior Jaguar then. He’s 25 years old. He lives in America, somewhere. He does all this in his room. With insight like that, there’s little wonder I was a music journo of some repute is there?

What I do know is that it’s rare, very rare, to find an artist you can describe as unknown these days. Even the most hopeless artists have thousands of listens and hundreds of friends on MySpace. Junior Jaguar has precisely six friends on MySpace, where the two songs he has posted have been listened to 221 times… and I think I’ve contributed to half of those listens.

When JJ turned up on our virtual doorstep last week we were gobsmacked, not only because he’s quite a secret, but at work here is some quality tunemongering. There’s a fantastic timelessness too – it feels very seventies, and brilliantly so. A bit Steely Dan perhaps, a dash of Wings (or am I getting confused with The Killers?), some Nick Drake…

Of the two songs, we’re honking like over-excited geese at ‘Divine’, although Kevin the Hugger is flapping his flippers in the direction of the more gentle ‘Morning’. This really is music to get properly exited about. We love the loose, scampering Bowie-esque vocal on ‘Divine’, the swirling, soaring melody, and the stop and start bit before it gallops off towards its climax made us want to stand up and applaud. Thrilling stuff.

There’s a full-length coming early in 2009, which we can’t wait to hear. You also wonder how far down the playing live road he is… you get the feeling this would be quite something if he got it right.

Junior Jaguar is good. Very good. It’s accomplished stuff, and we’re going to be standing alongside MP3 Hugger saying told you so when JJ gets a break, which if there’s any justice in the world he will.

More hear…
- All there is, is right here on his MS. You don’t need much else for now. More soon!