It just caught my attention that bad boy of the early electronic music scene, Karlheinz Stockhausen shuffled off this mortal coil on Friday. James Brown is possibly his musical antithesis, so you are not going to find any trace of a groove here - not particularly easy listening - but when you think that the following track was done in 1958, it does make you wonder if sonically the boundaries haven't really been pushed since then. I caught a performance of some early stuff and the 5:1 (in 1955!) 'Gesang der Jünglinge'. Awesome stuff; he was there in his white trademark safari suit and I even saw the Aphex Twin in the audience in what I remember was a rather natty jumper ("oh get me another shirt, get me another tie, get me another woolly!").
Further to Nuts' post, the music that he is referring to is called Forró, from North-Eastern Brazil. I have a compilation on tape picked up a few years ago that is subtitled 'music for cleaning ladies and taxi drivers', illustrating who it is supposedly popular with.
Growing up as a kid, we had another compilation compiled by David Byrne (Talking Heads). The third installment of a series called 'Brazil Classics'. Not quite sure whether it is more nostalgia having grown up with it (we used to play cards to it), but the tunes are pretty strong.
Spring Heel Jack used to knock out what was termed 'intelligent drum and bass'. What a terrible coinage, but then pushed the boat out with more improv stuff. An epic slab of sound:
And if that wasn't enough, more cinematic presence from the very unknown Unmen. Two producers who vaguely got bundled up in the whole Ambient thing in the early 90s, but actually produced two pretty weird albums. I remember once reading an interview about them borrowing samplers. To think that these machines used to cost the same price as a new car:
This came on the Pod recently as I was cycling back from an industrial estate out near Berlin's Tempelhof airport. This is the airport right in the centre of Berlin, dating from the early 20s, built on land originally belonging to the Knights Templars. The architecture is pure Albert Speer (Hitler's architect) from 1934, part of the plan to transform Berlin into Germania, and has that slab-like monumental quality. Illuminated at night as I cycled past, it kind of fitted.
To make up for lost time I'll cut the crap and just drop a whole load of tunes I've been feeling lately.
Coki - Spongebob Heard this at FWD a couple of months ago and the crowd went mental... not hard to guess why.
Fridge - Anglepoised Kieran thingy's band before he became Four Tet. This kind of thing often bores me rigid but there's something about the perfectly formed textures in this tune - good winter music - and I don't even mind that it's about 15 mins long
Elmore Judd - Tron Song Particularly for all Ellis/Burghley crew - this is a nice tune that works even better live
The Firm - Phone Tap I'd be looking for this tune ever since Glastonbury 1998 when the Roots dropped it in their set - which I might add was the only good thing about Glasto that fucking miserably wet year. Anyway, always assumed it was a Roots tune but couldn't find it on any of their albums - I had given up looking - then heard this at a party the other day. The Firm are a hip hop supergroup consisting of various rap illuminati I can't remember. But dang if this isn't a killer tune.
Styles P featuring Sizzla - I'm Black Heard this on 1Xtra the other day and then fairly skipped to download it. Lyrics are a bit silly but it's a killer riddim or whatever you call it in hip hop.
Jaime Alem & Nair De Candia - Passara Beautiful tune from Soul Jazz's recent After Tropicalia set - Tom T informed me that this is an example of a particular Brazilian genre but I've forgotten everything else he said about it, including its name.
Brendan Moeller - Jazz Dunno where this came from or who the guy is but it's a sweet sweet sweet piece of minimal techno.
Caribou - Barnowl Know even less about this - just found it on my computer the other day and it appealed to the Krautrocker in me, even though it was apparently made only a couple of years ago.
so basically i feel the blog has been dead for far too long.. so here goes my attempt at resurrection
to kick off, a bit of hiphop..a tune by the elusive 'Clutchy Hopkins' (try googling him..) and MF Doom - Untitled Track. and a quality Fourtet remix of a Madvillian tune - Great Day
next up on the turntable an old funk/blues tune, Papa Was, Too by Joe Tex...apparently Tex had some pretty major beef with James Brown for not only stealing his wife (minor..), but for stealing his dance moves too..not cool...
James Brown didn't take too kindly to Tex either, and showed it by unloading a few rounds at Tex in a nightclub....someone should have suggested a dance-off
next, im gonna carelessly switch the fader across and stick a bit of german techno/house on, Getting out of Something by a guy called Stimming.. cant say i know much about the german techno/house scene but its a big tune..
lastly, a couple of tunes that have made me smile recently..
This track, whilst kind of unassuming, has the most mighty bass on it - deep, deep 808 kick drums mixed super low. Sweet. It also seemed suitably seasonal (if I'm running this theme into the ground):
Now for something completely different. Danish technøremixpøpmeister, but hits the minimal buttøns to keep Nuttall gøing, and some lush cymbal actiøn at three minutes twelve. Courtesy of Nedwin's Spanish mate Laura. Gracias. Nam Nam - Trentemøller
This came up and surprised me - one of the virtues of shuffling randomly through things: Anomovieshot - Ganger
I decided to follow it up with something suitable. They have big fans, but I think a fair amount of stuff is patchy, apart from the brilliant Terror Twilight album. Not a duff track...
After this, something completely different was required. Bear with me with this - the music is sick, verging on the putrid, almost lift-muzak, but you need to detatch yourself from the obvious connotations. Go with the lyrics, picture yourself in a silk suit in L.A. in 1980 in some trashy bar, chicks with perms, the odd 'nosebag' moment (to quote Will Self's 'The Book of Dave', a recent great read). Lyrics here.
From that to a cheap slice of 2007 cut-up trashiness casually picked up off an unknown blog like an aural STD just to leave you all feeling slightly abused, abandoned at four in the morning, freshly spilled out of a club, ears hurting from too much treble and not enough bottom end... Get Up - Trouble & Bass
good evening ppl. heres a jazzy mix i put together a couple months back. sketchie bits here n there but good wholesome tunes i reckon. for those with an mp3 player its a good brisk walking speed i find..
Bright skies, but cold winds... They talk here of things blowing across Russia from Siberia. I have that slightly melancholic end of summer feeling. Not quite sure how these three tracks capture my mood, but somehow they do.
I'm clearly trying to hold on to that sunny sandy feeling with this one... but something slightly mysterious about that second guitar line that comes in, after the jolly little ditty.
Next, keeping it kind of upbeat, a track from a fantastic Cambodian Cassette Archive compilation. The story behind it was the compiler came across a skip in Oakland outside a public library with a shed-load of Cambodian music on tape that they had junked. There must have been a fairly sizeable local Cambodian community in Oakland for the library to have had a devoted collection. He then went through and cherry-picked some tunes. Hardly any names for these, so it is: Unknown (Instrumental) - Unknown
Dritte, a bit of moody drone from Seefeel, from their Too Pure days - Stereolab's initial label. This definitely hits that Autumnal button for me. Meol - Seefeel
Bought a double CD compilation of Ethiopian music the other day. Whenever I stick it on, I feel the need to exclaim, but I never know whether to exclaim about how good it is, or about how weird it is. Either way, it's definitely good, and definitely weird. Listen to those fucking vocals. Check out those fucking names.
Inasmuch as I thought anything about him at all, I used to assume that Sufjan Stevens was one of those ten-a-penny folk revivalist droners. Either that or a Shakin' Stevens tribute act. So imagine my surprise when I downloaded this tune from a rival blog - and found it to be stunningly beautiful -
Here's a couple more beauties. All these tracks are from the album "Greetings from Michigan - The Great Lake State" - the first in what we are supposed to believe will be a series of 50 albums, one for each US state. He's done Illinois too but I think that's it so far.
Delighted to see the blog back to life!Unfortunately i cant say i have any particularly new tunes to offer but in order to keep the blog ball rolling (so to speak) here's a few that i feel people might be interested in..
Having been often driven dangerously close to madness by Radio Leeds and Chris Moyles during my sandwich making duties at Opposite cafe in leeds, I eventually managed to get a general switch over of stations to Classic FM (not a regular listener but what else is good on the radio apart from Radio 4?). It was through this switch over that i come across Ludovico Einaudi. Apparantly not really 'classical', but rather 'minimalist,' Ludovico's sound is deep, melodic and kind of cinematic.. see what you think- the tune here is called Oltremare and its from the album Divenirehttp://download.yousendit.com/F33979510AAFF281
next, inspired by the general electronic sound of the blog of recent, here's a mini tune by Vitalic - Polkamatic-http://download.yousendit.com/AFE79ECE01FF4E5D. the fact that it would make a very nice ringtone doesn't take away from its simplistic dopeness...
remaining amongst the electronic sounds, a tune from Prefuse 73's Reads the Books. an album in which the organic sounds of folk/indie band 'The Books' is transformed into the electronic sounds of Prefuse. cant say i listen to it regularly but its definetly worth a check - http://download.yousendit.com/505B01EB33A6F200
Finally, just to destroy the general theme of the above selection, and to counter the mellow and reflective mood of the post- a tune by the 'Gypo-Hop' outfit KAL from Serbia-
With the aim of keeping this show on the road, mehr musik... Some top postings back there. This one will be a little graceless, as my version of Blogger is all in German, and I can't work out how to do the fancy stuff.
Is is there a better hip hop tune that has been made in the last 5 years than Agent Orange by Pharoahe Monch (lame name, good rapper)? This one was around on vinyl in 2003 and has just resurfaced as a bonus track on Pharoahe Monch’s long-delayed new album Desire (hence very annoying 30-seconds of silence at the beginning). A few strong tunes (especially Body Baby) but Agent Orange still the hottest one there. Produced by Taz from SA-RA and full of tight, angry, political lyrics. Somewhere I’ve got a recording of Jehst freestyling over it. Will try and look it out.
On to Bjork. The music at Glastonbury this year wasn’t all that but Bjork’s set was in another league. Made other headliners like Amy Winehouse looks so amateur and unimaginative (and, in Winehouse’s case, pissed. P.s. here’s Pharoahe dropping some lyrics on Rehab). Nuttal already posted a couple of tracks from new Bjork album but this remix of Earth Intruders has been doing my head in.
Lastly, I didn’t want to let Dizzee’s album pass without posting a track. Keep returning to this one (Temptation). Uses Arctic Monkeys on the chorus but manages to make it come over.
Not on the track above, but I’m a sucker for lyrics like the below from the tune he did with Lilly Allen:
Leave me alone or you’ll be sorry, Beef aint nuttin new to me you wally, Why don’t you just kick back, be jolly, Stay at home with a cup of tea, watch Corrie….
Right time to breath life into our blog, so you kids are getting a super-mega-hyper post as i celebrate the return to rainy England! Enjoy!
Working through to the rowdiness here goes:
First up is this girl Adele who i got put on to today (myspace.com/adelelondon) who has an absurdly wonderful voice. 'Hometown Glory' despite sounding like it was recorded in school assembly is absolute magic- spine-tingly affair, though 'Daydreamer' is the one tipped to be the first single. Adele- Hometown Glory Adele- Daydreamer
Following up on the hidden cache of MF Doom that i discovered last time, here are a couple of special blends (volume 1). Basically the instrumentals are off MF Doom tracks and different acapellas are chosen to go on top by our main man- The production on 'Ya Playin Yaself'...[i shake my head] Wooop! Jeru Da Damaja/MF Doom- Ya Playin Yaself Nas/MF Doom- One Love
Continuing on the colaborations theme, we have the Dungeon Family version of Cool Breeze's 'Watch for the Hook'- representing a circa 1999 Southern Allstar team, with Outkast and Goodie Mob featuring. Thrown in is Dungeon Family's 'Follow the Light'.
Lang Whitaker from Slamonline put me onto this one, and the video ain't bad:
Moving on we head to the'foul-mouth lyricists for the discotheque, yo' section. Last time i put down a bit of Pase Rock and Spank Rock, this time i introduce the frankly terrible Mickey Avalon. Basically the deal with this ex-Hollywood Boulevard Gigolo/junkie, and general cracked out brear- (grandparents Holocaust survivors...) is that he is super popular with rebelious and ridiculously wealthy Orange County girls. Cue video and groupies:
Critics of his album claimed it was made on a casio- this track i feel exemplifies him: Mickey Avalon- Waiting to Die
ChazOlogy has become a recent resource, and carrying on with the 'foul-mouthed lyricists in the discotheque' section i add Amanda Blank. "Amanda Blank is a brassy, subterranean hip-hop seductress and staggering, firecrack Philly rapper" sayeth TrocaBrahma who are responsable for the some forthcoming events over the 26-29 July. On Friday 27, she is teaming up with the Diplo (!!!) and Os Mutantes at the Forum... am definitely making it down. Anyway here are a couple of tracks:
Finally i end on two corkers, courtesy of Estaw a dutch remixer/producer. The last one is a thumped-up version of Lupe Fiasco's 'Kick Push'. Lupe is quite clearly a bit of a don, and as these tracks show, Estaw is aswell.
this one came on in the car whilst driving along to pick up surfboards during a pissing wet weekend of supposed surfing in wales (last bank holiday). california beaches felt very far away but the tune felt apt. I can picture all the kids singing it in the school hall.
if james brown hadn't have gone and died, it would have been his birthday last month. and because I haven't really been inspired by any of the new ish I've got, I thought a couple of nuggets were in order. sometimes he's a bit relentlessly funky but I've been feeling these two of late.
Have been checking the new dubstep comp on Soul Jazz, courtesy of Waddaldo. As he's too lazy busy to upload anything from it I'll have to (dub)step in... currently loving this dark cut - suits my mood this Sunday evening - King Midas Sound - Surround Me
Couple of stand-out tracks from the new Bjork album - which disappoints so far but since Homogenic they've all been slow growers so I'm not writing it off yet...
inspired by the Ol' Dirty Bastard vocals on the mark ronson toxic tune, i hit a few old hiphop tracks and threw together a little rowdy hiphop minimix...
(its pretty old vinyl so i apologise for the crackling..)
also been under exam pressure, but the end is nearly in sight. so here's a little dose of furious nu-funk to relieve the pressure (despite the titles).
both covers actually. first, texas classic by archie bell and the drells via melbourne outfit, the bamboos tighten up and a very sharp take on the masters at work house classic, by yorkshire men, the new mastersounds. the nervous track
Bienvenue and welcome to our latest round of newcomers - showing up us grizzly old-timers for the lazy scum we are. So galvanised into action by Nicolas's spiky French house (though sadly not by tommywhy's - missed the expiry date by minutes), here are two sweet cuts from Lambchop's 2002 album Aw C'mon. A friend lent this to me last week and yesterday I got around to listening to it. I can't remember the last time I was grabbed so instantly by an album - the lush but not overwrought production, the laid-back control exercised over the sound, despite the fact that the band comprises about 20 people, all topped off by Kurt Wagner's gruff though tender vocals.
Two tracks in particular stand out. Each Time I Bring It Up It Seems To Bring You Down is a perfect example of what I'm waffling on about above - I'm particularly feeling the strings on this one. Then there's I Hate Candy. Again the strings are killer, but what really gets me on this is the unexpected musical progression of the song - just when you think it's going to descend into easy-listening alt.country wallpaper, there comes that weird, sinister chord structure, building itself up over and over until - another weird modulation that comes out of nowhere. Genius. Anyway, enough crap from me.
hi there peeps, cheers to notorious N.e.d for the link and thanks to Tom N for the invite too.i am honoured to be a contributor to this very splendid looking blog..
As this is my first entry, and bar the N.e.d, i dunno what tunes peeps are into, ive gone for a bit of a varied selection..
First on the turntable is a dubstep tune from that highly talented croydon based producer Skream. acknowledging the fact that summer is fast approaching i felt it appropriate to pick out the least dark-sided tune, which is happily one of my favourites - Skream-Smiley Face http://download.yousendit.com/5B6D377307780D98 .. turn up them bass eq's
to take a rather large leap away from croydon-based-computer-produced-dubstep, this splendid tune - Mulatu Astatke-Emnete http://download.yousendit.com/D50770395CD356E0 is the sound of ethiopian based-rugged-jazz/ska (at least thats how i see it). mulatu is somewhat of a flagship to the 'Soundway' record label, which is pretty much dedicated to all that is african-funk/jazz/soul.. check it out if the tune is your kinda thing..
Next. another leap. this time toward Argentina for some tango inspired argentinian hiphop! Gotan Project-Mi Confesion http://download.yousendit.com/20E851A52E671F14 Although i am not a spanish speaker, so have no idea what is being said, the second rap on the tune is sick! The album 'Lunatico' is pretty damn good overall too, but its all about the live show (including visuals, live strings, singer, piano, accordian and two djs) which i was lucky enough to see last year, highly recommended
lastly a tune from All Natural, a Chicago based hiphop crew headed by Cap D, who, having reverted to Islam in 2000, continues to include socially and culturally aware themes in many of his raps. this tune is from their debut album, no additives, no preservatives, back in 1998- All Natural-It's OK http://download.yousendit.com/CB06440B3FC5B09C .
thats all folks, hope peeps pick up at least something they like!
peace and cheers
-TommyWhy-
ps. sorry for the apparant failure to get the links to work properly, but it should stil be possible to d/l them..
A Good Evening to you all; a first post from the Thistle yout.
This delightful chap here is Naeem from Spank Rock: all-round top bad boi and b-more heavyweight. I happened to see him live on his birthday last year in Leeds- it was a rowdy night, and he absolutely 'murked it, even my housemate Laurie was won over. Bump is a big tune, and i think this remix is even better.
Next we have The Pase Rock, afiliated with Spank Rock (and also in Five Deez), and basically anyone who does a track inspired by Lindsay Lohan exposing herself deserves a lot of money. 'Bang!' is heavy too.
The other day I spent a good afternoon faffing around at Venomous Villains Suffice to say large scale robbery took place, spurred on my the posts about its impending Doom (pun sort of not intended). Anyhow it was an educative process: Daniel Dumile, was originally born in South-East London. Anyway his first appearance was as Zev Love X in KMD ("Kausing Much Damage", and then later, "a postive Kause in a Much Damaged society"- with his lil' bro Subroc (who later got run over and died) and another guy called Onyx The Birthstone Kid...
I've always wanted to know who duetted with Jagger on Gimme Shelter and just found out it was Merry Clayton who some bright spark brought into the studio to make the song her own.
Before I get more cusses for not posting, here are 3 that I think are well good.
Went and bought some new hip hop recently and it was well boring. In amongst the selection, however, was a compilation thrust upon me by bloke in shop. On said compilation were these three:
One of the more lamentable aspects of the Bobo dread takeover of Jamaican music - along with bunning fire pon batty bwoy's head, if you please - is the concomitant decline of the smutty reggae tune. There was a slackness arms race in lyrics in the 1990s which crowded out innuendo and insinuation, and not necessarily for the better. For the genre threw up some mighty tunes, in its day, some of which you're about to enjoy.
Max Romeo was the king of this sort of thing. You probably already know his "Wet Dream," banned by the BBC for its lewd content - though Max expressed disbelief, explaining that the lyrics were an innocent reference to a leaky roof.
But even better in my book is "Hole Under Crutches" - a version of "Hole in my Bucket" for a liberated age.
The same tune was reversioned in the dancehall era by Nigger Kojak and Liza, as "Ram It" - a Joe Gibbs/Errol Thompson production, this.
Around the same time, Yellowman was creating the slackness genre. But some of his lyrical wordsmithery was clever and subtle enough to qualify as smut in my book, and this is my post. So here's the wonderful "Breezes."
The spiritual home of innuendo has always been Trinidadian calypso rather than Jamaican reggae, so finally here's a beauty from Lord Creator - a calypsonian who later moved to Jamaica and made his name as a ska vocalist. It's about his Big Bamboo (I've got a much better and less cheesy version of this but only on vinyl, sadly).
I'm reminded of the scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off with the history teacher.
"The Battle of the Somme took place in... anyone? anyone?"
Enough snideness. For any remaining listeners, a Photek tune.
Inspired from a kung fu film or possibly the TV series based on one of the great classical Chinese novels of the same name about a group of 12th century river bandits.
For ages I thought the lyric on the last one was "What do you get when you kiss a guy, you get enough germs to catch pneumonia, after you do, he'll never bone ya". Cockney rhyming slang, I guess...
It's all got a bit quiet round these parts. I might have to start cracking my Flashing Whip if you lot don't start looking a bit livelier.
A pretty random round-up tonight. From the George Clinton-produced album Freaky Styley comes Red Hot Chili Peppers's Hollywood. And hold your cynical tongues - this comes from the pre-Blood Sugar Sex Magik era when the Chili Peppers still knew how to throw together a delicious groove. Love the horn production on this one.
Back in the 1970s George Clinton invented P-funk - here's a good example: Parliament - Star Child, from the Mothership Connection album.
Lord Finesse (?) duelling with KRS-One - don't know anything about this straight-up oldskool hip hop tune - please enlighten me - but I like it. Lord Finesse and KRS One - No Gimmicks.
Some disco house thing I grabbed from elsewhere - some might find it overproduced but I reckon the various parts fit together perfectly. Faze Action - In the Trees
Melvin Van Peebles - C'mon Feet - from Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. The other films are well known, but well worth tracking down this weird film credited with kickstarting the Blaxploitation genre. Cover version spotters, Quasimoto did a great re-version of this track.
alright then.... how do chaps? glad to be joining the fray.
thought i'd open my account with some pure pirate radio reminiscence.
shut up and dance records produced some of the best hardcore jungle at the beginning of the 90s and whilst the sound faded fast, the ragga twins (Flinty Badman and Deman Rockers) def still cut the mustard as far as i'm concerned. Shine Eye feat Junior Reid Wipe the Needle
Those Brazilian papal offerings made me think of a couple of tracks that turned up on the M.I.A. & Diplo 'Piracy Funds Terrorism' album. John-Boy, what was that music called in Brazil?
This kind of sound made me think in turn of a reggaeton bootleg that my brother sent me from Chile a few years ago. One of those scenes that were endlessly hyped in UK magazines - it is probably still huge in Puerto Rico...
Rather nicely this one keeps the rotor transport vibe going from Senor Nuttando's post:
I decided not to post a track called 'El Baile del Chorizo', but following on from the 'Japonesa' track from the previous post, here's some more dodgy Latino Orientalism:
Cheers for the tunes. Here's some Funkee music Brasilian stuff that started in the favela's in Rio about ten years ago. The kids over there go crazy for it.
Johnny wanted to know what dubstep is - here's a small selection, all but the last are from last year's "The Roots of Dubstep" compilation - Nick or whoever please drop in some more.
For the uninitiated, this stuff didn't really make much sense to me either until I had it dripping out of my ears at 3am on Friday... DJ Abstract - Touch
While my eardrums recalibrate themselves, I'm having a scout around for a few tunes than can compete in the extreme bassline stakes with the tunes we heard during last night's adventures in dubstep. [last night Wadd, Thistle and I found ourselves in Plastic People for FWD - big dubstep night - the kidz listen to weird shit these days]
There's this - Prizna - Fire (featuring Demolition Man) - which has got all the ingredients really - ruff rolling snares, ragga chat, a bassline you could spread on your toast and even a cheeky time-stretch.
Hello I am out here, haven't been able to post for a while because my flat mate disappeared with his computer and then I went up north and they don't have computers in Newcaslte. That and have been having trouble getting songs off my ipod, fucking apple.
Here are couple of tracks that I like alot because they are good. Saw the Brand Nubians play this one live in New York, but they were rubbish just going through the motions. What can you do.
My claim to fame this week is that the singer from the Noisettes told me I had nice teeth after I went to their gig. Going out with a dentist is paying off already.
Even better a couple of days later met one of the geeks from Beauty and the Geek, the TV show, in the pub and got him to help me play the quiz machine.
Just ate some cottage cheese that was six weeks past its use by date. Tasted ok better than the fag butt someone had put in my bottle of beer last night.
First up, CRUNCH and then a bit of SPLASH. Respectively, 'For The Meek' by Sliver to make you feel about 10 years old, and then 'R.I.P. Groove' by Double 99 to recreate that Lower 6th party vibe. See you down at Ritzy's on Tottenham High Road, no caps, no trainers - I'll be checking the soulful garage.
I've stuck a few links to other MP3 blogs on the right-hand side - all recommended.
And here are some Adam and the Ants tunes worth checking. I once saw Adam Ant in a greasy spoon in Camden, drinking tea. A few years later he was being banged up for waving a gun around. I have no idea if the two events were connected.
...was an oft-heard charge levelled at techno producers. Up for consideration, two pretty obscure outfits and one slightly better known. Parallax - Pressure of Speech
I caught Pressure of Speech supporting Orbital at Brixton Academy around 1994/1995. The main guy Mickey Mann worked in a psychiatric ward. Two albums and that was it. Both claustrophobic and talking of scary music (NIN vs. AFX), not always comfortable listening.
Two albums and that was it, too for Unmen. I came across them first on a Volume compilation (anyone else remember them?) with a great track that I put on many compilations. I dug up their albums this year, and some pretty good stuff too. Apparently, they were pretty broke and only ever had a borrowed sampler. That said what now costs £250 today, cost around £3000 back then... "cheap sampling technology killed electronic music, discuss".
Better known grace of having been signed briefly to Warp, originally on Too Pure (Stereolab had a few singles on TP). Seefeel were an essentially a shoe-gazing guitar band who crossed over, but played as a band rather than bedroom producers.
More klang than squelch with these tunes here, but will hunt down some good Acid soon.
Now we have the impending catastrophe of global warming to fret about, cold-war era nuclear paranoia seems like ancient history. If you like your apocalyptic terror the old-fashioned way, though, here's a trio of tracks to help you get back in the pre-1989 groove. Dig out Raymond Briggs' "When the Wind Blows" too, perhaps, to help deepen the mood.
Black Sabbath - War Pigs From the superlative Paranoid. Ozzy dusts off the hoary old truism that civilians are "just like pawns" for the warmongers - and then, as if he's only just learnt the rules, and fears there might be other games in which pawns call all the shots -- lamely adds "in chess".
(What's the reason for this post? I'm excited because I'm waiting for this awesome-looking 6-CD box set to land in the mail, which might prompt another post on this subject next week. You lucky people.)
Scour around the interweb for the Aphex Twin and all sorts of weird shit turns up. So by special request, here is some of the stuff that's wound up on my hard drive - most of it probably churned out by some kid in his bedroom in Staffordshire, trying to clamber aboard the Richard D James bandwagon with a bit of dishonest ID3 tagging - well it worked.
This is a gorgeous swirly synthy eight-minuter - sounds like it might date from the Analogue Bubblebath era - with early examples of those bouncy distorted rhythms that would come to dominate in later years Aphex Twin - Maximim Electronica
Very silly but give it a chance - I'm really feeling those Faithless-style stabs that kick in around the one-minute mark. Almost certainly nothing to do with RDJ. Aphex Twin - Hot Buttered Popcorn (techno mix)
these three tunes not to be listened to in succession. I think this is beautiful. Nass el Ghinwane - Ya Sah (thistle it might even have come from you originally)
I've followed the career of the terminally unfashionable Herbaliser ever since seeing - or rather "seeing" as I had taken approximately a million mushrooms - them in a small club in Liverpool with Gilbert in 1997. On most of their albums the best tracks are those featuring Jean Grae - or What What as she used to style herself back then - who apart from anything else had a sweet sense of humour. She's the daughter of South African jazzman Abdullah Ibrahim, and if memory serves is a bit of a braniac - studying for a PhD in something or other at Cornell or somewhere . Here are some highlights -
PLUS some more killer Renegade Soundwave for anyone whose tickle was pickled by Thistle's post below. Takes the sine-wave bassline to new levels of chest-rattling. Renegade Soundwave - The Renegade Priest
Hello to Hardhat and Thistle good to hear from you chaps hope all is well, also hello to everyone else here, I am looking forward to skanking some good music from you all.
Good morning Posters... some ruggedness from 1988, 1990 and then a 2002 clash of two tunes. All best loud on speakers.
First up, Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid - this lulls you in and then lets rip, before ending in a disorientating acid wig-out. Early incarnation of Future Sound of London. Love those lasers...
Seconds, Thunder - Renegade Soundwave - keep turned up, more rolling bassline and some tacky lounge string orchestra sample whacked on top.
The revolutionary left can't really claim too many hiphop stars as its own, so it's heartening to see that among the few it can claim, the proud "People's Front of Judea/Judean People's Front" tradition (of squabbling about the stuff that really matters) is alive and well:
Plus a bonus bit of badness that popped up this morning and sweetened up my commute no end. More Max Romeo genius - be sure to listen through to the dub version which kicks in about two thirds of the way in. Max Romeo - Blood of the Prophet Parts 1 & 2
Finally, a piano version of Summertime guaranteed to be like no other you've ever heard. Listened to this a million times and it still makes me want to blub. George Shearing - Summertime
Next up blind Sengalese duo Amadou and Miriam - this is from Dimanche a Bamako, produced by Manu Chao but a bit different from their usual flavour I gather. Anyone got any earlier stuff?
In hope of enticing the mysterious "iamquentin" out of the shadows, here's a post that follows the template of conceptually linked tunes that Quentin told me he was planning to deploy for his first post here - I won't give away his gameplan but suffice to say it's a bit more interesting than mine - reggae songs about trains. They're all totally sweet though.
Ah, I can see how Nuts felt when no-one was posting. Anyway, it is Sunday, cold, bright sunshine, so a trio for you dug up while fishing for tunes for Hard-Baps:
Two low-fi-ish numbers, perhaps best consumed quietly late at night when everyone else has gone to bed. 3. Parade - Magazine
Probably not to everyone's taste. Recorded in 1978, Magazine were formed by Howard Devoto, who left the Buzzcocks after their first EP. Also written by bass player, Barry Adamson, who later went onto play for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
Two fairly tranquil offerings suitable for the end of the weekend. Cheers for coming down yesterday. Good time had by all I reckon and about to crack on with the Nuts CD...
First up, Minotaur Shock, a Bristol lad, who was also in a band called Bronze Age Fox. Funnily enough, I answered a small ad for them when I first started at university there. Nice bunch, but all my gear was up in London, and never really got it together: Don't Be A Slave To No Computer - Minotaur Shock
Then a bit of a low-key folk number with a horn line worthy of Lalo Schiffrin (probably nicked from some such source): Calling On - The Memory Band
He'll know the tune inside out but nothing else seemed quite right today - plus it's the only Icelandic music I've got and I didn't want to let Nick down. As a bonus, here are some other bona fide Sugarcubes classics - from the days when Bjork was genuinely trying to act like a pixie, wearing her hair in bunches and shit.
Sugarcubes - Birthday (probably their best known tune and the one that got them an NME cover)
p.s. loads of my tunes don't show up when I look in folder where I thought they were all kept. vast majority still there but key bits gone walkabout. they are still there to play but when I look through yousentit dem no deh. ??
And then here's a great track from Sparklehorse's first album, 1995's rolls-off-yer-tongue Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. For some reason I find the line about awakening with spiders on your eyelids moving. Will have to try it out for real one day.
Just a quick one to say that Wadaldo's first techno post is none other than 'Clear' by Cybotron, circa 1983. Cybotron were Juan Atkins and Richard Davis and also mentioned on Wikipedia is one Jon 5 (who knows what happened to him!). Juan Atkins was also behind Model 500.
North London posse in da place, indeed... Love those stabs. Kaotic Chemistry included Rob Playford on the credits, he of much Goldie production and most famously, Renegade Snares. Was on the bus the other day and a guy had Renegade Snares blaring out of his tinny 'phones. It was most unmistakeable...
