Audio Journal: 11/10/2013 - X Factor, Erasure, Young Knives, Ejecta

Against my will, it seems that my attempts to avoid ever watching ITV's X Factor have roundly failed, and so it has become the new weekend routine to find myself half-watching however many hours of auditions, emotional wannabes failing to get a break and oddballs who never had a chance in the first place.

The last episode I watched was, I will admit, mildly diverting, but not because of the music. Definitely not. No, in that one Gary Barlow and Olly Murs were attempting to whittle Barlow's team down, and they were doing so on the roof of a building in New York (by my estimates I'd say somewhere in Chelsea) with lots of views of beautiful skylines. So, diverting, yes, but only because I was trying to work out which buildings I recognised.

What did occur to me was that like strands of music, reality shows have their own unique vernacular. Here are some of my personal favourites, often to be heard spilling from the mouths of contestants:

• 'I've got to take it to another level.'
• 'It's an emotional roller coaster.'
• 'She's had a long journey to get here.' (To my abject horror, my eldest daughter actually used this one last week when I was being especially disparaging toward one weeping contestant.)
• 'My whole life depends on it.'

Erasure Snow Globe

On to more interesting things. This week I completed my usual round of reviews for Clash. To use another hackneyed reality show phrase, this month's assignment included a real 'dream come true' in that I was able to review the new Erasure album. This is the first time I've been able to listen to a new album from my favourite band ahead of its release, so it was a bit of a treat for me. It has also meant that I've been in a very festive mood all week, since Vince Clarke and Andy Bell's new offering - Snow Globe - is a Christmas album. It really is a lovely record, and as well as some nice versions of standards, the duo offer up some of their best things they've written together in a long time. Put it on your Christmas list.

Young Knives Sick Octave

The other album I covered this month is Sick Octave, album number four from Young Knives. For this album the trio took themselves off into a disused airbase and experimented with computers, synths, gas canisters and sheet metal to produce something that sounds like it was transplanted from the post-punk hinterlands of the early Eighties. 'Something Awful' from Sick Octave, a track that is anything but awful, can be listened to here and below.

Finally, this week I was sent the debut album from Ejecta, a duo of Neon Indian's Leanne Macomber and Joel Ford from Tigercity. Dominae (Happy Death) isn't out until December and so I shouldn't say too much now, but suffice to say that this New York duo have nailed a downbeat strain of rather lovely electronic pop full of ethereal singing and appropriately vintage synths. Listen to track 'Jeremiah' here and below.