Posted in Music chat, New Tunes

Simz is BACK!

ALL HAIL.

We are big big Little Simz fans here at TINH, and while we were mixed with our view of Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (S.I.M.B.I.) – for me, it was a brilliant record, somewhat let down by the strange skits from Emma Corrin / Lady Di in the Crown – we all adored Grey Area for its energy, power and sheer do-not-give-a-fuck attitude (not to mention amazing flow and vibe).

And as we all got to thinking about our 2022 Top Tens, here landed No Thank You, on 12 December, to land in that strange slot of after end of year lists, but not in 2023, hence a sort of hinterland. But my god, it doesn’t really matter, because it’s an amazing work. Much more personal, and pared back than the maximal feel of SIMBI, this sees Simz and her producer, Inflo, in perfect harmony. Gorilla may be one of my tracks of the year as a late entry, and if it came out in November, it would’ve likely been in my Top 5, straight in!

It’s great to have her back, but perhaps next time, release on 2nd Jan?

We love Simz.

Posted in podcast

Podcast Episode 18 – Our Top 10 Albums of the Year 2021

Ep. 32 | Everything But The Girl | Fuse This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

In Part 1 we explore the new Everything But The Girl album Fuse,  and ask is it worth the 24 year wait? In Part 2 we play Spin It or Bin It? The theme this month is new music … tracks that have been released since Feb 1st 2023.Part 1 | Album of the Month | EBTG | FuseIt's Nolan's choice this month and we go with the long awaited / not even expected 12th studio album from Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt. It's rare that we get to talk about an artist that we all have a significant relationship, but this is a great example. In January we got treated to the track Nothing Left to Loose but the album offers much more. It's got just about every type of EBTG track you can think of and some of their best tracks ever.Go listen to the album – HereGo watch some videos – HereGo buy some of their stuff – HereSome links that we reference and recommend; Pitchfork interview – Click HereBBC Radio 5 Live interview – Click HereEBTG in conversation at Rough Trade – Click HerePart 2 | Spin It or Bin It | New MusicIt's been a few months since we did new music so here we go. There's a definite whiff of summer in the air!Nolan chose – Amplify by Rodriguez Jr.David chose – Mo Se B'ola Tan by The Estuary 21 Joey chose – Sandrail Silhouette by Avalon Emerson Guy chose – Everybody's Saying That by Girl RayIn order to chose our tracks we create a long list, then a short list of 4 tracks each. Each of our 4x track short lists are collated here … have a listen. *** Enjoy the episode ***We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
  1. Ep. 32 | Everything But The Girl | Fuse
  2. Ep.32 | Kelela | Raven
  3. Ep. 31 | Young Fathers | Heavy Heavy
  4. Ep 30 | Rozi Plain | Prize
  5. Ep 29 | Ab-Soul | Herbert

This Is Not Happening‘s 2021 comes to an end with a look back at the many musical highs of a memorable 2021 and count down our top ten  albums of the year. Despite the many challenges musicians have been facing in making music in a pandemic, it’s been a truly exceptional year,  from the likes of Wolf AliceJapanese BreakfastArlo ParksBillie EilishThe Weather Station and many others, but there’s only room for one winner – who’s it going to be?

We’ll also be nominating our tracks of the year, from a very tough long list of amazing records. Here are our our 4 monster fave tracks of 2021, one from each of us, below. 

Guy: Feu! Chatteron – Ã‰cran Total
Nolan: Gheist – We Are Not Alone
David: Royce Wood Jr – Slush
Joey: Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever

The full top 10s and playlists and all our music discussions over the last ten years can be found on the blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which will run alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. So check them out so to see what we like and where we clash, and comment if something catches your eye. We’d love to see what you think.  You can also find our longer tracks of the year here on Spotify.


Episode #19 will see us take on one of 2021’s most underrated albums – Joy Crookes‘s incredible debut Skin –  and we’ll be delving deep into it in January. The episode will land in the second half of January.

This Is Not Happening:
Created by JoeyNolanGuy and David.
Produced and Edited by Guy and Nolan.
Twitter: @thisisnothapng
Instagram: @thisisnothappeningpod
Email: thisisnothappeningpodcast@whyohwhyohwhy

This Is Not Happening Albums Of The Year.
Posted in New Tunes

Four Tet – Parallel

The methods of making music may not have changed much in lockdown but the way its’ released and consumed surely has, especially with electronic music. With no clubs, how do you craft something for release? When should it come out? If you’re Kieran Hebden then Christmas Day is the answer to the latter. Not one, but two new albums appeared in December, and of the two – along with an odd retrospective, 871 – Parallel was the one that’s landed most with me. A selection of tracks, some of which have been released under a strange hieroglyph moniker over the past few years, which carry all the beauty of his electronica as well as anything he’s done recently. Particularly the opener, a monster 27-minute Parallel 1. It’s chimed perfectly in lockdown for me, and I’m really glad to have such a musical polymath like Four Tet around.