This Week I've Been Mostly Listening To...

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - I'm Glad (1967)

My Uncle Les recently presented me with an original vinyl copy of Safe As Milk (he knows me so well!) - an excuse, as if one were needed, to enjoy the debut by Don Van Vliet & his Magic Band. I've long heard of my uncle's mythical record collection, packed away in a crowded loft, but only in the last few months has he started to sort through it. There's a pretty incredible selection of mod, Motown and Stax singles up there, apparently; psychedelia and hard rock from the 60s and 70s. I look forward to one day having a good riffle through. He handed me a lovely pile of LPs (Exodus, The Jam, B.B. King, Joe Jackson) with Safe As Milk – the cream – on top.

In many ways, it’s Beefheart’s most approachable album - the song structures are (relatively) conventional and the guitar work by a 20-year old Ry Cooder is fantastic throughout. Already, though, Van Vliet's take on the blues is a frazzled, twisted one (one listen of his first single "Diddy Wah Diddy" back-to-back with the Bo Diddley original confirms this); weirder and less reverential than that of the British blues-rock explosion.

I'm very much a fair-weather Beefheart fan: for every work of madcap mischief-making that I find thrilling and electrifying (The Spotlight Kid, Shiny Beast, "Big Eyed Beans From Venus"), there are others that remain impenetrable, no matter how much I persevere with them (the majority of Trout Mask Replica. "A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is soft and bulbous, got me?!" Erm, not really Capt'n, no).

I'm fond of the rare softer moments (“Observatory Crest”, “Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles”) which suggest that - like fellow "difficult" avant-gardists Lou Reed and Frank Zappa - Beefheart had an appreciation of classic R&B and doo-wop. “I'm Glad” being my favourite.

Quilt - Open Eyes (2013)

Held In Splendor, the second LP by Boston dreamers Quilt, was a constant companion during the miraculous run of sunny days in Glasgow we enjoyed for the first week of the Commonwealth Games. It's a delightful little album where "each song has its own voice", a patchwork of folk, soft psych, sunshine pop and indie-rock. The tracks with co-vocalist Anna Fox Rochinski on lead are particularly beguiling - when that sweet coo of a voice beckons you near, you heed its call.

"Open Eyes" is probably the band's finest moment to date: darker and, ironically, less clear-eyed than anything on Splendor, it was released last year on a split EP with fellow Bostonians MMOSS.

Ultimate Painting - Ultimate Painting (2014)

MMOSS front-man Doug Tuttle released his lovely Teenage Fanclub-subscribing solo album in early 2014 on Trouble In Mind records. (Factor in the incredible Morgan Delt and Klaus Johann Grobe records, and TIM stake a strong claim for being my Label Of The Year So Far. Good work, chaps!).

New kids on the Trouble In Mind block are Ultimate Painting, consisting of James Hoare and Jack Cooper. For the past five years, both have been providing vocals and guitar for two of the finest British indie acts around (Mazes and Veronica Falls, respectively), and they sound very much on the same page here, easy in each other's company.

"Who Loves the Sun?" the Velvet Underground once inquired. "Ultimate Painting" the track, with its gorgeous shiny guitar sound and loosey-goosey Loaded flow, suggests that Ultimate Painting the band do.

The Budos Band - The Sticks (2014)

Another label enjoying a strong year is Daptone Records: Sharon Jones gave the people what they wanted in January with her comeback album; Cold World by Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens has been justly well received; and the forthcoming fourth LP by The Budos Band looks set to be an absolute stonker.

The Budos backed Charles Bradley on his ace cover of "Changes", and, judging by The Wizard imperious on the new sleeve and teaser track "The Sticks", they have continued to flick through the little black book of Black Sabbath black magic. Down-tuned guitars and sustained bellows of brass bring a doomy gloominess not present in their funk before; the hyperactive interplay between drums, horns and organ hints at an exciting new prog influence.

Nude Beach - I Can't Keep The Tears From Falling (2014)

Take a quick look at the cover (tight jeans, checked shirts, leather jackets) and tracklisting ("Radio" "Walkin' Down The Street", "Some Kinda Love") of Nude Beach's 2012 album II and, without hearing a note of the music, you could probably have a good guess what it might sound like. Theirs is a 70s FM Rock dream world, where Tom Petty is God, lovers cruise around to The Cars, and Big Star rule the airwaves.

Nude Beach have a knack for writing infectious, irresistible power-pop - tunes that stay with you even as they rush by you. "I Can't Keep The Tears From Falling" is the latest example and first taster of new LP, 77. The drums hit hard, the guitar solos sting, and that chorus just wont take no for an answer. I hope it reaches the size of audience it deserves.

King Creosote - My Favourite Girl (2005)

"My Favourite Girl", a long-time favourite of mine, originally appeared on 2005's KC Rules OK. A rerecorded version features on King Creosote's beautiful new From Scotland With Love LP, a soundtrack to archive Scottish film footage and a future Sunday Morning Vinyl staple, for sure. Written about his daughter Beth, "My Favourite Girl"'s simplicity and beauty breaks my heart every time I hear it: "I guess that I have not got long / Promise you'll tell her / She's my favourite girl / In all the world".

This idea of family and time passing is a recurring theme in much of Kenny Anderson's best work - "Your Young Voice", another favourite, repeats the phrase "it's your young voice that's keeping me holding on to my dull life" over and over until I'm reduced to a blubbering wreck.