Yeah heard him on bbc 6 music a couple of weeks ago. Was ok. Stacy's bro supported him at Cluny 2 recently. In fact you might like his music too. Search facebook and/or soundcloud for Morris Ford. x

Yeah, I quite like James Blake and I can kinda see what the reviewer means with those comparisons - they all have quite fragile, emotive vocals. James Blake doesn't use autotune all the time. I actually think he has a great voice. x

Yeah, lone Wolf's pretty good. He has that quintessential Bella Union sound! Strikes me as the kind of album that will get better with increased listens. x

I'd forgotten you mentioning this guy. Did you say you saw him live somewhere? He's pretty sweet, quite Fink-esque in way. Watching his other videos, he's obviously a bit of a surf dude, so needs to be careful not to stray into Jack Johnson/ Jason Mraz waters (pardon the pun). x

Yup, 'high' seems about right to be honest... we have Manchester Orchestra 'in common' apparently, which is tremendous. I *heart* 'Mean Everything to Nothing', as the kids say.

No, I haven't sent any more, as I wasn't sure you'd got internet sorted, but I will, never fear! Exciting news: Yann Tiersen is playing northumbria uni on 8th november! x

So I never understood what was so amazing about Deerhunter, and still don't on the basis of your recommendation. Sorry! Film School and Giant Drag much better. Well redeemed! Tegan & Sara also good - feistier than I imagined they would be! x

There's a really nice Little Dragon Daytrotter session x

Haha! Rington-mendations! Subtle... x

It made you laugh?! Too much sunshine for you, sunshine! The moderat track is wonderful, but you're the first person that's actually agreed with me! Blue Roses = swoon. Perhaps we should both put all the tracks we've sent each other into playlists that we can subscribe to in order to keep track of what we've sent? x

I got my spotify back, woot! And I found some lovely aural prezzies waiting for me all this time. Thanks! Haven't quite got my iTunes sorted yet so it's nice to have music back again!. My friend put a Books track on a compilation she did for me, but I think your choice was better. Will definitely check out more of their stuff, i think. Avett brothers are another name i've heard of but, again, never actually checked them out. Clearly my error... And I'm assuming Swod are scandinavian, and therefore automatically cool? Never heard of them, but i like very much!.. I met Nicola today at the cherry tree. She's very nice! x

Alas no! But I do now have a brand spanking new one. Still need to get some files/programs off my old one, so am without spotify for the time being, and my iTunes has gone all weird. For some reason it's duplicated every song 3 times and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to fix the problem. And a load of playlists I deleted months ago have strangely reappeared. Bizarre! Daytrotter is very sweet indeed. I 'wasted' 2 whole days downloading stuff off it... x

When you asked me about free download sites way back when, I completely forgot about www.daytrotter.com. It's a site that features a load of specially recorded sessions by hundreds of very cool (mostly newly emerging) artists that you can download for free. Definitely worth checking out! x

By the way, Joanna Newsom tickets have been successfully procured. x

Nitin should be approached with caution! His recent albums have essentially been slightly inferior versions of the one that preceded it each time. He is a bit of a one trick pony, but when he gets it right he's awesome. Prophesy is probably his peak. Went downhill from there. Those two tracks (especially Breathing Light) have been used on loads of tv shows/trailers, so you've probably heard them then. Aqualung sings on one of his tracks too, called Falling. I AM a recommendation genius, yes, but my status as such is solely reliant on the exceptional taste of the person on the receiving end! ;-) x

That Dosh track First Impossible reminded me a lot of Andrew Bird's Simple X. Turns out Dosh was the actual drummer on said track. Who knew?! (You, probably...) Great playlist! x

By the way, are you planning on seeing Yeasayer in oct? Don't know if you're a fan or not, but I definitely want to catch them.

Sweet, cheers for the tips! As for gigs, I really have no idea! I don't attend many local gigs, even though, as a local musician, I should. My friends Sharks Took The Rest played Cluny 2 on saturday as part of Evolution Emerging. Was gonna go but then didn't! They're really good though. They're doing a gig in July at Northern stage. Tickets are about £13 but they are worth it and this gig will feature an expanded line up with full string section and vibes player. Check out their facebook page and give me a shout if you fancy going. Another friend, Morris Ford, has started putting on fortnightly acoustic sessions at the Forth on mondays. He plays plus a couple of other local acts, so hit and miss, but free! x

Which Dosh and Blonde Redhead albums would you recommend for a newcomer to their musics? They both seem to have quite a few under their belts... x

Hooray for naive bankers! You'll wonder how you ever coped without emusic once you've got started. You're probably wise to await a regular income first though. What the hell sort of a student are you anyway?! Don't most students just foolishly regard credit card ownership as being given a wad of free money?

Don't you worry, i have plenty left in my arsenal for our mutual spotification sessions (which is the official terminology I've just invented, by the way). Don't want to bombard you with too much of the good stuff all at once ;-) x

Ha ha! I know, i was meant to go out last night but was still too destroyed from friday night to find the energy to do anything, so ended up watching eurovision in the hope it would motivate me to get out the house. Didn't work... x

And the Dosh track is another beauty! Never even heard of him... x

Why have i not heard any Blonde Redhead before? I'd heard OF them...

Yeah i did notice Arve in particular was getting a few spins! I genuinely thought there might more chance of you totally hating that track than there was of you loving it when i sent it. x

Nah, not heard the wild nothing album yet. Don't have enough emusic credits left till they refresh next thursday :( ... Where do I find all this stuff?? Well the obvious answer would be working in a record shop, but that'd be a complete lie. The truth is I'm just totally fucking amazing...

Wild Nothing appear to have released an album this week called Gemini. I came across it on eMusic but it doesn't seem to be on spotify yet... Oh, and that Kate Havnevik track is frickin sweet, only slightly let down by her somewhat characterless vocals. Maybe that's just me... x

Our game of musical swapsies has had a pleasing effect on the upper echelons of the Poke chart for last week! ;)

I haven't come across Yppah or Wild Nothing before but I like! I have the first 2 aqualung albums but haven't listened to him in ages. That track you sent is sweet though and a reminder that I prefer listening to his songs on their own rather than as a whole album, as his albums do tend to be a bit miserable! So one of your friends shared my track? Wow, I hadn't anticipated that non-friends of mine were even aware of me! That's cool. I'm off work this week so should really try and buckle down and write some new stuff... x

Oh, ha ha! I get the trumpet thing now! Sorry, bit slow there... I do like Owen Pallett a lot, but found that cover was a bit meh until the Andrew Bird-esque layering towards the end turned it into a thing of beauty. Well redeemed, Owen!... I went through a stage some years ago of listening to loads of Scandinavian Nu Jazz. Some of it kind of sounds a bit dated now (Molvaer tends to be very hit & miss) but the eivind aarset album still sounds fresh. Arve Henrikson is also a tricky customer, some of his stuff is just a bit too weird and self-indulgent, but he does have a number of beautiful gems in his canon and occasionally his idiosyncratic trumpet playing brings a genuine lump to my throat. Max Richter's Blue Notebooks album is great, especially when listening on the ipod and walking the streets at some ridiculously early hour when no-one is around... I'll see what else I can find for you, though you don't seem to do too badly yourself! x

Oooh! More lovely things! Thanks! I do have an early M83 album. I should probably listen to it more! Don't recall any vocals on it though. My mate saw him in belfast a couple of years ago and said he was amazing live... Never quite got Imogen Heap (she is the vocalist in Frou Frou, right?).I really want to like her and I've heard she's pretty awesome live, but I put on her most recent album in the shop and found some of her lyrics a bit cringe-worthy. I also saw on Youtube an interesting, if ultimately less-good, version she did of Tori Amos' Cornflake Girl. That's a tough song to cover well and I wasn't entirely convinced! That said, the Frou Frou tracks you sent are quite nice, so maybe I should give her another chance... (And is that where the trumpet reference came from?) x

Trumpet?? You've lost me...

not sure what sort of job you're looking for, but if it's just a stopgap til something better comes along, hmv in town have a position going. Not sure if it's full or part time, but the ads in the window so maybe worth checking it out? Just a thought anyhow...

(All those artists you sent me are conveniently on eMusic. Get in.)

Incidentally, I like the fact you post any music-related discourse on this site, rather than facebook... x

You're welcome! I can't really remember what I sent you. Jaga Jazzist I remember, but i've forgotten the other one! Love the church organ at the end of that track. Immense! Cheers for your offerings too! I never properly got round to checking out the Volcano choir stuff, but I really like that track, but then I really like the original too, despite my usual aversion to vocoders... Olafur Arnalds is pretty sweet too, though very similar to Balmorhea. Not sure who did it first, but Olafur gets automatic points just for being scandinavian!.. Only heard one Benoit Pioulard track before and wasn't that arsed, but I was more impressed with the track you sent so will have to revisit his work. And Deaf Center are completely new to me (well done!) and I like very much. Mini Poke was pretty quiet but I think there were a number of factors affecting turnout that we couldn't have done much about. I do prefer the Kings Manor to Enigma though, so hopefully we'll be back there soon.

(That should say 'feature prominently on this...'. Stupid brain.)

Yo, have you heard the new Anais Mitchell album, Hadestown? Justin Vernon, plus a host of other cool people, feature predominantly this, described as a 'Folk Opera'. Only listened to a few tracks so far, but it's amazing! x

Oh. Arse.

I emailed yesterday to your hotmail address that's on facebook. Check your junk mail folder as it may have gone there. If not, let me know and I'll try again. x

...though I only get my 50 if you continue to subscribe for more than 2 months, but i don't mind if you just want to get yours, honest! x

Oh, and just to persuade you even further, YOU get 50 free tracks too. You can subscribe, download your free tracks, then cancel your subscription.

Listening to John Grant now ( and downloaded from eMusic)...

Yeah, Cinematic Orchestra are pretty awesome. I've seen them live a couple of times and they kick ass. To be honest though, I prefer their earlier albums. Ma Fleur was a tad predictable and formulaic, though it did introduce me to Patrick Watson's solo stuff, which was a definite plus point. Check out his Close to Paradise album. Very good! I don't really know of any other free streaming sites unfortunately. Spotify is frustratingly limited. I download a lot of stuff from eMusic, which deals solely in independent artists and labels. It's not free, but you pay a monthly subscription (that you can cancel at any time), and it works out cheaper than buying cds, even for me with my staff discount! I'll email you a link (if you take up a subscription, I get some free downloads, though don't let this sway you...) I've discovered so much new good music from that site over the last 2 years. I'll check out the spotify scrobbling again, cheers! x

How does one go about scrobbling from spotify? Is a subscription required?

Super. Never any doubt...

we've always been super, baby x

Hey Jack, Cheers for joining the Poke group. I'm very much enjoying the look of your charts! Can't wait for Midlake gig on friday and will maybe see you there! (though, given we've never met before, i probably won't actually know when i've seen you, so it serves more as just a turn of phrase rather than an actual promise! Ha!)