Welcome to the M Friday playlist. The M team are heading off in all directions for the Bank Holiday weekend and wanted some sounds to make those roadblocks, train and plane delays a little less arduous.

So dive into our Travel & Transport playlist – it includes Catatonia, The Clash, Daft Punk, Metronomy, Vitalic and Jessie Ware.

Safe travels and, as always, if you think we’ve missed anything obvious off this week’s list, let us know via Twitter or Facebook www.facebook.com/PRSforMusic or @M_magazinePRS.

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Somewhere between the rich, percussive instrumentation of Daphni and the layered synth hooks of M83 resides Tropics, aka Southampton artist Chris Ward (right). His music delivers a tropical warmth garnered from from vintage synths, Rhodes piano, guitars, real drums – whatever the 25-year-old multi-instrumentalist can lay his hands on.

Earlier this year, Chris received British Music Abroad funding to take his lush dream-pop to South by South West, and has since caught the attention of Pitchfork, XLR8R, The Guardian and Clash, who have all praised his ear for melody.

Following an EP and the critically acclaimed album Parodia Flare for Planet Mu, Chris spent 2012 producing remixes for Little Dragon, M83 & Polica, before bringing his voice to the fore on Popup Cinema, the lead track from the EP of the same name.

This spring, he released the follow-up Home and Consonance EP, which received widespread acclaim online. Since then Chris has been taking his immersive live show on the road, featuring live drums, guitar and keys and is tentatively working towards another album.

We invited him to play the pub organ at The Cavendish Arms – a cosy establishment in south London – and here are the results. We hope you enjoy!

http://twitter.com/tropics_
http://facebook.com/tropicsband

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Candy Says are Juju, Elisa, Ben and Mike, who make ‘lo-fi chic pop’ that has an affirmative feel good factor, reminiscent of early Slow Club and Regina Spektor singles.

The band were previously signed to Universal/Island as Little Fish, but have taken a new musical direction into territories that could almost be called twee. They liken themselves to both Velvet Underground and ABBA, hence the feel good factor, and are adept at delivering infectious, alternative pop that has pricked the ears of BBC 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne.

The quartet have just finished a new album, recorded entirely in Juju’s bungalow, of which new song Favourite Flavour will feature – you can listen below.

They are set for a busy season playing at summer festivals, including Dot To Dot, Big Brill Camp and Lodestar and, throughout May, have been taking their indie-pop to the four corners of Great Britain on a jam-packed tour. Before the popsters could jump back in the tour van, we caught up with them for a 30 seconds interview to get more acquainted…

We first started writing music because…
We wanted to create a new sound for the new band. Juju was pregnant, and knew she wouldn’t have time to write once the baby was born.

We have been making music since…
We recorded 14 songs in our garage in 2012, and started playing live in January 2013.

Our music is…
A DIY garage version of the sort of polished pop that usually costs a fortune to produce. We call it “lo-fi chic pop”.

You’ll like us if you listen to…
The Velvet Underground and/or ABBA.

Our favourite venue is…
Anywhere that isn’t usually a venue. We’re putting on our next show in a church. Although Juju did enjoy playing the Royal Albert Hall with Little Fish.

Music is important because…
It inspires people to connect and communicate with one another. It brings people together.

Our biggest inspiration is…
People, books, music and conversations all feed into it, but creating the best art that we can with what we have in the garage is our inspiration.

Our dream collaboration would be…
Debbie Harry on bass, Patti Smith and Beth Orton on backing vocals, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper on guitar and Helena Bonham-Carter in the video.

To try us out, listen to our song…
Favourite Flavour (watch the video below).

If we weren’t making music we’d be…
Making something else.

In 10 years time we want to be…
In exactly the same place. Making things happen and being happy.

Upcoming tour dates:
25 May – Dot To Dot Festival, Bristol
26 May – Dot To Dot Festival, Nottingham
22 June – Big brill Camp, Oxfordshire
1 September – Lodestar Festival, Cambridgeshire

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Organisers of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival have revealed full details of the 2013 programme, which features British jazz legend Stan Tracey CBE and renowned composer Burt Bacharach.

The festival will take place at various venues across Glasgow from 26 to 30 June and will bring together celebrated jazz and blues talent from the UK and beyond. Alongside headliners Tracey and Bacharach, the event will host Scottish luminaries Bobby Wellins and Carol Kidd MBE, plus The Blind Boys of Alabama, Georgie Fame and Leo Blanco.

Bacharach’s internationally-renowned compositions have helped shape popular culture for decades. With 48 top ten hits and no less than nine number one songs, he is one of the most famous and successful songwriters of his generation.

Young jazz stars at the festival arrive in the form of a Gondwana Records double bill, with trumpeter Matthew Halsall performing alongside the dynamic trio GoGo Penguin.

Halsall has been tipped by the likes of Gilles Peterson, Jamie Cullum, Mr Scruff and BBC 6 Music as a rare upcoming talent. Meanwhile, GoGo Penguin’s heady brew of influences from Aphex Twin to Brian Eno, Debussy to Shostakovich, have won them acclaim from the organisers of the Mercury Music Prize and a whole host of broadsheet journalists.

A full festival programme and tickets are available at www.jazzfest.co.uk

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The National Theatre (NT) is to host to a new cross-arts project exploring the power of sound, with electronic producer Matthew Herbert and NT associate director Ben Power at the helm.

Part-gig, part-play, part- art installation: actors, sound designers and theatre-makers will collaborate on The Hush, which runs from 17 July to 3 August.

Herbert – composer, DJ and electronic music pioneer – has created a unique aural template for the project which investigates the emotions and politics of sound.

Limited early bird tickets are now on sale. Further tickets will be released on 3 July and day tickets will also be available for each performance. For more information contact the commissioning organisation behind the initiative: www.theshedtheatre.co.uk

Herbert’s previous work includes albums Herbert Complete, One Pig, Around the House and Scale. He has also produced a wide range of artists including Björk, REM and Serge Gainsbourg. In a previous interview with M, Herbert discusses his controversial One Pig project. Read it here.

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IMS NEWS: Ed Banger’s Pedro Winter, Ministry’s Lohan Presencer and K7’s Horst Weidenmuller are among latest names to sign up to the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM) industry body.

AFEM, dance music’s international advocacy and lobbying group, announced the new additions to its 51-strong international board of advisors at this week’s International Music Summit (IMS) in Ibiza.

The board, which also includes publisher and producer John Truelove and Beatport’s Matthew Adell, brings together artists, DJs, managers, labels, promoters, publishers, agents, retailers and broadcasters to advance the cause of electronic music.

AFEM co-founder Ben Turner said: ‘There has been an incredible outpouring of support for the Association of Electronic Music. Everyone sees the opportunity to seize this moment of dance music’s high profile and make a lasting difference.’

Following AFEM’s launch at this year’s midem convention, work has been going on behind the scenes to finalise a wide-ranging agenda embracing marketing, health and safety and the damaging effects of piracy.

AFEM launched with the support of such powerful names as Patrick Moxey (Sony Music), David Levy (WME) and James Barton (Live Nation). Legendary producer and dance music pioneer Nile Rodgers – who produced Daft Punk’s latest album Random Access Memories – has already agreed to serve as an AFEM ambassador, and further high-profile ambassadors will shortly be announced.

In related news, PRS for Music’s Mark Lawrence took part in a panel at the IMS yesterday to promote the work of the society’s Amplify dance music outreach programme. He was joined by Truelove, Marcus Trojan (Weekend club), Ralf Kollmann (Mobilee Records), Stephen Titmus (Shazam) and moderator, Kurosh Nasseri (Association for Electronic Music). Together they discussed how dance music makers need to focus on business as well as making music to ensure they receive the correct royalties from their work.

Read more about PRS for Music’s Amplify project.

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Rebecca Lea as Emily

A new opera celebrating the life of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison is launching at the Hippodrome Theatre in Todmorden this summer.

Emily, supported by PRS for Music Foundation and the RVW Trust, has been constructed from historical sources dating from the time of the suffragette movement, including personal correspondence, newspapers, medical records, census documents and police reports.

Davison was fatally injured after she fell under the hoofs of the King’s horse while protesting at the Epsom Derby a century ago. The dramatic event was witnessed by a crowd of 300,000 racegoers including King George V and Queen Mary.

Inspired by her story, award-winning composer Tim Benjamin’s new opera recounts Davison’s actions as a suffragette and the way in which the establishment tried to quell the movement.

He said: ‘The music is composed using a leitmotif technique and blends various early 20th century influences with my own musical style, which is neither a completely familiar tonal language nor a difficult, unfamiliar modernist language. I seek to engage the listener, support the drama, and to explore new musical territory.’

The production runs from 4 to 6 July at the Hippodrome Theatre, Todmorden. For more information and tickets, see http://www.emilyopera.co.uk

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Music industry knowledge hub MusicTank is hosting a session to explore the issues around ad-funded piracy and assess ongoing work against unlicensed music websites

The upcoming think tank, entitled Follow The Money: Can The Business Of Ad-Funded Piracy Be Throttled?, will gather industry executives together to discuss the advertising models that make illegal filesharing platforms profitable.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, will shed light on the record music industry’s work against unlicensed music websites. James Barton, artist manager (Bright Light Bright Light, Iyes), will approach the issue from the standpoint of managers and small music business owners.

They join Theo Betram, UK policy manager for Google, and David Lowery, music artist and passionate advocate for artists’ rights online at The Trichordist.

Panellists will also examine the wider relationships between the music industry and tech firms, asking if we are approaching a tipping point, away from the adversarial lobbying that typified the last decade and towards a future based on more fruitful partnerships.

The session takes place between 6pm and 9pm on 28 May at Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, London W1B 2UW. For more information and tickets, see www.musictank.co.uk

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Cloud Boat are Sam Rickett and Tom Clarke, who make music in their own way, at their own pace, away from the intoxicating London music scene.

Their music explores a soulful vein of shoegaze, although they call dance label R&S imprint Apollo Records their home. The two draw inspiration from R&S label mate James Blake, as well as the likes of Four Tet, culminating in a sound which has made a progressive march away from the brooding electronica of their early work.

Cloud Boat have recently finished writing new album, Book of Hours, featuring Dréan and Kowloon Bridge. The album is laced with soothing vocals and lullabye-like guitar reminiscent of José Gonzalez and Bombay Bicycle Club’s acoustic work, and was perfectly suited to the sunny setting of St. Gabriel’s Wharf on London’s Southbank.

In the afternoon sunshine, we quizzed Sam and Tom on writing, balancing electronic music with traditional sounds and getting signed to R&S.

Make sure you check out both part one and two of Cloud Boat session.

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Sean Spicer, Harvey Lee, Richard Maddy and Tom Barnes are the four chaps who make up the well heeled sounds of London’s The Red Lapels.

Hailing from Penge towards the south east of the capital, the band spent some time attempting to tie down their energetic and wired guitar sound all fuelled by the love of a great story and the desire to break out of the 9-5. Their music is equally inspired by a passion for the likes of the Stones and Richard Hawley as well as the raw soul records they’ve sourced through scouring the charity shops of their home town. Describing themselves as third generation mods, the lads look to the aesthetic and fashions of the time as much as the music.

Since they decided to expose their songs to the wider world, their tunes have been performed in a variety of venues including Leefest, The Wheelbarrow, The Good Ship, a gathering at a house party in a huge derelict house and an Xmas party at the notorious Lexington.

Debut single It Ain’t Easy is the first fruits of their labour from the recording studio and will see release on Two Sisters Records, a label which has already given the world music from the likes of Mt Wolf and The New Union. M finds out why these talented young chaps started making such sharp sounds…

We first started writing music because…

Because we were shit at everything else we tried.

We have been making music since…

Since Richard and Sean returned from travelling and started to make a racket in the garage. Harvey and Tom shortly followed and then we started to make a racket in Harvey’s shed instead.

Our music is…

A mix of all the things we listen to – Richard Hawley, the Stones, Beatles, the Libertines, the Strokes, and plenty of second hand soul records courtesy of the bargain buckets of Penge’s charity shops.

You’ll like our music if you listen to…

Any of the above.

Our favourite venue is…

The hidden and unpolished gem that is The Windmill in Brixton.

Music is important because…

It gives me hope when the alarm goes off at 6am on a Monday morning.

Our dream collaboration would be…

Lennon but he’s murder to get hold of. Weller it goes without saying and Blondie’s Debbie Harry before she got saggy.

To try us out, listen to my song…

Our debut single It Ain’t Easy and Eyes Like Knives when it is released early this summer.

If we weren’t making music we’d be…

Bored and not as skint.

In 10 years time we want to be…

Selling out the Albert Hall

www.facebook.com/TheRedLapels

www.twitter.com/TheRedLapels

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