#testbild!

12/29/25.

Concentric Circles (Portland, Oregon) is releasing the new Sternpost (Malmö, Sweden) LP in January 2026. We first posted about the band in 2024 after learning about them through a Monorail email. Monorail heaped praise upon the LP "Ulrika" and mentioned The Pastels, Euros Childs, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, The Zombies and Robert Wyatt in their write-up. I added The High Llamas.

"unworld.afterpop" only has three songs currently available for streaming. The High Llamas immediately come to mind again as does Van Dyke Parks, Chris Weisman, Peel Dream Magazine, and Prefab Sprout.

4/29/18.

This is a whole different snoop for me.  I’ve been listening to Manufactured Recordings’ excellent reissue of Momus “Circus Maximus” (1986).  There is nothing of Momus on Bandcamp, so I had to look for a connection. 

French musician Louis Philippe’s work (and that of many, many others) owe a debt of gratitude to Momus, so I started my connection search there.  Look what I found:

The Ocean Tango is a collaboration between Louis Philippe and Testbild! (Sweden).  Released in 2010, this is only available on CD.  Frankly, I would love to hear how this sounds on vinyl.  Fans of The High Llamas, The Beach Boys, Van Dyke Parks and Arthur Russell take heed. 

So really, this was intended to be a Momus post.  How many bands, must have been influenced by the sounds of “Circus Maximus”.  I’ll start the list at Belle and Sebastian and leave it to you to fill in the blanks.