wicked game, wicked cover

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I've just discovered this slightly odd cover version of the Chris Isaak classic ' Wicked Game'. It's a cover from a Swiss feminist collective called Les Reines Prochaines translated as future queens in English. 

what's sunday without some chillout music?

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As the title suggests, some music for a Sunday chill-out. 3 new(ish) downtempo dance tracks from 2011 and a classic soul song from 1964. I hope you enjoy them.

DJ Shadow - 'I've Been Trying'

Jordi Clapés-Bot - 'Green'

Radiohead - 'Separator (Four Tet Remix)'

James Brown - 'Nature Boy'

please please check this video out

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the best things in life are free

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This afternoon I shall mainly be listening to this Funerals remix of 'Nimrod Glacier' by plus/minus. In fact, I'm going to have it on loop as it sounds fantastic. Amazingly, it is available for free download. They really ought to have an option to pay what you think a song is worth as I'd happily part with some money for this excellent techno remix.

steve mason - I let her in

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I'm currently stuck on a broken down train and listening to Steve Mason's excellent "Boys Outside" album from last year. I've listened to the album quite a few times but this is the first time I've actually taken notice of the lyrics. Take this song for instance 'Let Her In' where Steve contemplates loves he will never have and children he will never have nor hold.

wait till the midnight hour

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Can I leave you with this very moody version of Ayshay's 'Warn-U' as remixed by Nguzunguzu? It's almost like an old skool drum and bass track but without the bass (if that makes sense). I've played it back to back about 4 times now. I think I ought to go to bed!

crystal clear

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I think I have most of Bjork's output including the splendidly kitsch album she made when she was 11 years old and so was excited to read that the Omar Souleyman remix of Crystalline from her new Biophilia album is out now, in fact I think there's 3 or 4 sets of remixes of Crystalline out there to buy. I'm tempted to go for the complete set here. I can't stretch to the $500 ultimate set but will try to get a collector's edition of this album somehow.

candomblé, hombre

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Music is a vital part of the ritual of the Candomblé religion and Vincent Moon's short film of Alessandra Leao leading the singing here is a wonderful primer to its sounds and rhythms.

Even if you are not a believer, you've got to appreciate the beauty they bring to their faith. Great stuff.

dark side of the spoon

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The news of Amy Winehouse reminded me of Liam Maher, lead singer of Flowered Up and the video he made about his own heroin addiction. I'll let the video do the talking.

I remember seeing Flowered Up back in about 1990, Liam was on top form. Boy, was that bloke a natural born star. When he died in October 2009, I played this track by Spiritualised an awful lot. I have no idea why but it just seemed to fit.

Every life is precious, even those who fuck it up so spectacularly. Rest in peace Liam and Amy.

new primitives album in the pipeline

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No - I'm not making this news up. Apparently, the Primitives are recording their first new album since 1991. It's a collection of covers of obscure female fronted 60s bands. I'm hoping it's something akin to Anika's album last year.

Guitarist Paul Court posted recently: "Hopefully there'll be a new Primitives release pretty soonish, we've been in the studio recently having fun with vintage fuzz and marimba. A couple of brand new songs have been recorded. A cute little heart-melter called 'Never Kill a Secret' -- imagine the Carpenters gatecrashing the 'Banana' album, and 'Rattle My Cage' -- a fuzzified girl-pop stomper."

I, for one, cannot wait and I've managed to locate a sneaky preview of one of the songs too.

mind the step

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Bandcamp delivers yet again with this Tearist remix of the Parenthetical Girls track 'Careful Who You Dance With'.

mechanical bride - young gold

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I must share this video with you before I go to bed. It's 'Young Gold' by Mechanical Bride, the nom de plume of Lauren Doss, a Brightonian who is sure to make the big time soon if her output continues to be of this quality. It's taken from her new album 'Living With Ants', available from all good record shops. The video looks like it was shot in location at least partly in Brighton and the surrounding areas. I love spotting my home town in music videos. It reminds me of why I love this town so much (and its football team). We're the hippest place in Britain and this is a very hip video by a very hip lady. (I'll stop here. Any more references to hips and I'll start with the awful puns).

Mechanical Bride - Young Gold from Geschwister on Vimeo.

shag, marry, kill

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There's a little game being played on Facebook at the moment where someone gives you the name of a band and you have to name a song of theirs that you love, a song you like and a song you dislike. I was given Talking Heads and have just chosen my 3 tracks. I'll repeat them below but also try to expand a bit on why I have named those.

Love: Psycho Killer. I could have been clever here and gone from an obscure album track but the truth is that sometimes a band's most popular hits are their very best. I think so with this. The bassline alone deserves a round of applause as Tina Weymouth pounds the beat, at that time looking way too small for that guitar let alone the relentless drone by which the rest of the song hangs. I love the way the band looked, back then. Bearing in mind they were CBGB darlings at this time and that the punk look was de rigeur for any rock band in 1977, they were all so preppy 30 years before Vampire Weekend re-invented the style. This is a fantastic song to sing along to. You don't even need to learn the words, it's all mapped out for you.

Like: Listening Wind. David Byrne was experimenting with world music long before this album but 'Remain In Light' released in 1980 and produced by Brian Eno was definitely a mainstream album whilst drawing heavily from African sounds especially the West African beat. They paid homage to the legendary Fela Kuti quite openly and with a lot of respect. It includes 'Once In a Lifetime' but my favourite from this album has to be the choice here. There's a slight melancholy to the music as all the best African music seems to have yet it is at the same time uplifting, inspirational even.

Dislike: Big Daddy. The band had run out of ideas by 1988 and Byrne had disappeared quite a way up his own arse by this stage so it is no surprise that "Naked" was their last album. The production had a "freeform" feel to it, a risky decision even when a band is at the top of its game and unsurprisingly it failed with this album on so many levels. The album is a self-indulgent mess and Big Daddy is perhaps the worst offence. The title is a bit crap as well. 

If anyone wants to carry on playing this game then let me know in the comments below and I'll give you a band to choose your 3 songs from.

checkmate

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If the music doesn't seduce you then the cinematography will. Most people are familiar with the title song 'Windmills of Your Mind' from the film the Thomas Crown Affair but have a listen to Galt MacDermot's lesser known 'Coffe Cold'. It's surely as good, if not better and Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen's chess-playing take coolness to near absolute zero temperature.

wugazi

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The name sounds like a bizarre Fugazi/Wu-Tang Clan mash-up and there's a reason for that - it is....and it's very good indeed. In their own words:

Wugazi is a labor of love by Cecil Otter and Swiss Andy. A year’s worth of cutting up every imaginable Fugazi record and trying out every Wu-Tang acapella they could get their hands on, resulted in Wugazi: 13 Chambers (a must listen for anyone who even looked at a skateboard in the 90’s).Cecil Otter is an emcee and producer, and one of the founding members of Doomtree. He has contributed to over a dozen records. His most recent full-length, Rebel Yellow, was re-released by Sage Francis for Strange Famous Records. He’s now recording his solo project, Porcelain Revolver. Swiss Andy is a musician and producer residing in Minneapolis. He has been a contributor to several bands including The Millionth Word, Field Guide and The Swiss Army. He is currently working on a remix of Rebel Yellow.

It's all downloadable here and more details can be found at their website www.wugazi.com Just check out how good "Another Chessboxin' Argument" is.

rock my world

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Just some fairly new dance tunes that are rocking my world at the moment

DJ Asky - Ma Bucur Devreme

Alli Borem - Scotch Your Mind

Nina Simone - Strange Fruit (Fall Remix)

Loco Dice - Knibbie Never Comes Alone (Original Mix)

for norway

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free warpaint remix 'bees' download

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Just a quick heads-up that Warpaint have released a free download of the Royal Bangs remix of Bees. You can get it here.

more baltic loveliness

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Inspired by some stuff a Latvian friend played me I went onto Discogs and bought some Latvian dance music. 

The albums are:

'Blue Planet Chill'  - Selffish

'Gas of Latvia in 13 Exhalations' - Various Artists

'Electronica@*.lv' - Various Artists

'Lagunamuch Sampler' - Various Artists

It's certainly a lot more experimental than I was first expecting. The source of inspiration was Selffish, a Latvian musician who flits between experimental soundscapes and more conventional electronica. He has recorded sounds around his native Riga - church bells, trains, shipyards to create ambient pieces that challenge the listener to listen to the sounds that we normally block out from our consciousness. His album 'Blue Planet Chill' is, as it suggests, also ambient but this time from a studio rather than natural surroundings. Unfortunately I can't find any of this album on the web to link to but this track is fairly typical of the high level of quality you can expect from him.

I'd encourage you also to explore his website http://www.selffish.org/, you won't be disappointed, I'm sure.

The sampler also interests me greatly. There's so much packed into this that I'm not sure where to begin. It was a freebie gift from the seller and features what I presume to be Russian/East European musicians. It could easily be one of those quarterly CDs from Wire magazine, it's remarkably listenable considering that it is so experimental. Andrei OID is definitely one to bookmark for the future.

Flexkids is another name from the album I'd never heard of before. This is a beautifully jazzy little number reminding me of Wiseguys.

martin landsky -beatport live set 20th july 2011

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I had a lovely Wednesday evening this week. I was in the kitchen preparing dinner for my 2 children who I hadn't seen in a week and the laptop was strategically placed so we could all listen to the Beatport stream of their latest live set from their Berlin office by Martin Landsky. I do try to listen to these when I can although anything verging on hard house or trance usually gets turned off double quick (sorry, but it's just not my cup of tea). Landsky's set was one of the best yet with deep house, minimal and even some nu-disco blended into the mix. I love, as well, that Landsky brings you his music with such a cool attitude. It's great to see a DJ with a smile on his face. 

Fear not if you missed it as it's still available as a stream complete with an interview with him about the set and what he's currently up to. You can read more by clicking here. There's also details of the playlist and where you can buy it.

Here's the set streamed in it's entirety:

soho shorts awards 2011

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The Rushes Soho Shorts Awards is an annual festival of innovative film-making centred in London's Soho. It's purpose is to promote excellence specifically in short films with prestigious awards in several categories including a music award. This year's nominations have been of a particularly high standard, you can view the full list here: http://sohoshorts.wordpress.com/rssf-2011-official-selection-2/

I think music videos must be particularly hard to judge as I imagine it would also have to include an appreciation of the music and relevance of the film to the subject matter. I watch lots of music videos in my spare time and the quality is invariably sketchy. It's to be expected really as the golden age of music videos is long behind us. I've got MTV on my telly but I can honestly say I haven't watched it in years, probably since it stopped showing Beavis and Butthead (ah...halcyon days!) and even MTV relegates music away from its flagship channel to make room for endless reality TV drivel. 

I've watched all the films in the shortlist and my favourite is the Joe Cave 'Mrs Violet' video. It is particularly strong in all areas with Cave's voice bringing echoes of Muse or Ben Folds and the genre firmly on the David Gray side of the street. The song itself is a modern slant on the familiar theme of the loneliness of modern urban living and the video captures the mood perfectly.  Cave's unusual singing style provides the melancholy and the film brings the intensity of Mrs Violet's descent into death with a style that belies the shoe-string budget the film was made on. Director Dan Shipton has done a marvellous job here.

Runner-up would be Chase and Status 'Let You Go'. Perhaps I expect too much from their videos but they raised the bar so high with the retro-tastically brilliant 'Blind Faith' that they only have themselves to blame.

i'm on the hunt i'm after you

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My mission today is to track down the new re-releases of rare St Etienne 12" tracks from back in the day. I've heard bootleg versions of these but really, really need to own these little pieces of St Etienne treasure:

http://www.factmag.com/2011/07/20/aphex-twin-and-autechres-classic-saint-etienne-remixes-reissued/

Let me explain. Aphex Twin remixed "Who Do You Think You Are" on an ultra-rare white label back in 1993. Autechre remixed "Like A Motorway" a year later and this appeared on the same record as a David Holmes mix that was obviously given higher billing. These two tracks have now been re-released (although it would appear very unofficially). Seeing as I adore St Etienne and given the above, I feel the need to own these records; I think I'm a better person for owning these records.

Please wish me luck and in the meantime it gives me a damn good excuse to stick the tunes up on my blog.

laurel halo - constant index (actress violet remix)

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If this tune doesn't blow your mind then perhaps nothing I post will. Actress has remixed this track superbly, transforming a portion of the original to a new level of darkness. The song sounds a tad like the start to the Breeders 'Cannonball' with the same ominous beginning but in this case it never relents building up to a slow march taking everything in its path. 

normal service has now been resumed

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A thousand apologies for my tardiness but work commitments have meant that I haven't been able to get to update my blog of late. I am going to rectify this with lots of posts (I hope). Let's start with this superb remix of a Tricky track by Maya Jane Coles, proving once again that she has to be one of the hottest properties in dance music. Je l'adore.