plants and animals - 'lighthouse'

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If, and it's a bloody huge if, U2 were still relevant and making great records instead of ..well, I think we all know what I'm going to say, suffice to say that I don't think U2 are anything more than a brand that Bono uses as his soapbox. Where was I? Oh, yes. If U2 still made great records....In my opinion they would sound a bit like this one by Montreal trio, Plants and Animals. They've got a new album coming out in January 2012 and this is the first track from it. 

i'm free, free to do what i want to do

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Amazon are offering a free download of the Stereocolors 'Underground'. It's a great track that sits somewhere between intelligent drum and bass and trip-hop. It's the sort of tune that will never set the world alight but play this to your friends and they will marvel at your good taste. It comes from their album 'Marzo' released earlier this month. The link to the free download is here.

enter shikari - sorry, you're not a winner

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Man United play Crystal Palace tonight. This is dedicated to both sides.

new vince clarke track

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It's called Spock and is quite trippy, certainly a bit deeper than the usual poppy tracks that he's better known for.

and now the end is near

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This is my last day working at my current job. My contract is up and it looks like I won't be working for at least a month. I decided to treat myself so I spent my lunchtime in record shops in Soho and I managed to snaffle some real beauties. Here's the lowdown on what went into my shopping basket:

Arthur Verocai (self-titled) It's a collection of songs from one of Brazil's foremost funkateers from the 70s. He was quite a controversial figure and often in opposition to Brazil's then military rulers. It's a real peach of an album.

Gold Panda - DJ Kicks Peckham's finest, Gold Panda is given free reign to spin his dream mixtape.

Mr Chop - Switched On A homage to the synth-led funk from the late 60s and early 70s from Cheshire based Mr Chop.

Xeno and Oaklander - Set and Lights - I've written about this New York duo before. They do a great line in 80s English inspired electronica. In the words of the Inspiral Carpets, as cool as f*ck.

Ringo Deathstarr - Shadow - They're shoe-gazer heaven as far as I'm concerned and although from Austin in Texas sound very British Isles in their music. Sort of mid to late Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine. They sound fantastic, almost epic at times.

Right...enough chat, let's get to the serious stuff.

beck and charlotte gainsbourg in collaboration

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This is called Paradisco. I like it a lot. They seem very suited to each other, music-wise.

les sessions cubaines

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Philemon Chante are a band that I don't know too much about but their Cuban Sessions album is the business. It combines the coolness of Cuban jazz with a Gallic-ness that is so languid that they don't even shrug. It's perfect for this time of night before I head to bed.

tom zé

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He's one of Brazil's most respected musicians who first came to fame in the 1960s. He drifted into obscurity until rediscovered by a new audience in the 1990s eager to hear the man and his music. Seriously, get your ears round this. It's brilliant.

ry cooder - dirty chateau

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This is from his 2011 album ' Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down'. It's got a Leonard Cohen coolness to it that I like. It's also a little bit James Taylor. What a lovely tune.

plastikman - ask yourself remix competition

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This is the entire shortlist for the Plastikman remix competition from earlier this year as judged by Richie Hawtin himself.  I should have posted it at the time. Apologies for not doing so early. You can read more about the competition here.  

the drugs don't work

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This is an interesting mash-up of a tune I'm not a big fan of: 'White Rabbit', This seems to work though. Maybe I do like the original after all. It's late. I'm off to bed.

 

renegades of jazz

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This album gets the big thumbs up from my 12 year old son and from me. Lots of head nodding and white man overbite going on at De-Minimis Towers to this collection of tunes from Germany which combine the funkier end of jazz with a hip-hop feel. It feels very old school breakbeat with someone like the JB band in attendance. There are probably funkier albums out there but I haven't heard them recently.

chipmunks are go

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I've no idea what possessed me to have that as a title other than the Mr Scruff song. Here's a collection of classy, laid back, dance tunes.

Mr Scruff - 'Chipmunks'

Wax Tailor - 'Que Sera'

Wagon Christ - 'Nighty Night'

DJ Format - English Lesson

Public Enemy - Bring the Noise (mc-swanson's The Incredible All-Star Remix)

Blue Foundation - Little by Little

nina simone - mr bojangles

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For Gary Speed. 

john fahey sings

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He's got the poor boy blues.

3 kickass songs from yonder

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Taking it right back with 3 tunes that caused controversy, back in the day.

Jan Davis - Watusi Zombie

Lloyd Price - Staggerlee

LaVern Baker - Voodoo Voodoo

daniel johnston: the black cab session

Tweet Here's the great man doing what he does best, in a black cab!

that was then, this is now

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Bob "Derwood" Andrews and Elizabeth Westwood used to be in Westworld, a band from my mid teenage years. I was quite partial to them and bought their album. Their biggest hit was 'Sonic Boom Boy', I still have fond memories of it now although my favourite is Silvermac and that's the song I have chosen for this entry. Nowadays they are together in Moondogg and still making damn fine music. Just check out 'Gasoline Rain' below.

dubporn records

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Dubporn records is Miami’s first and only Deep Dubstep, Future Bass, Experimental and Downtempo label. They released a compilation album yesterday full of lots of dark, soulful loveliness. This pushes all the right buttons for me. It's not too heavy but not too light either and oozes class throughout. It's a great little discovery. 

lay low - farewell good night's sleep

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I'm so impressed with Lay Lows singing that I dug out this album of hers from 2008. This woman deserves a much bigger audience with a talent as good as hers.

 

ragga gísla & lay low

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Two very fine Icelandic singers with a trippy song titled 'Dúfurnar hvítu'. Lay Low sounds a lot like Bjork, doesn't she?

those darlins - be your bro

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I featured this band a few months back and I think it's time to bring them back for an encore. 

spector - grey shirt & tie

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Spector are a band you'll be hearing a lot more over the next year. They do a kind of power pop that was de rigeur for any self-respecting anglophile band in the 80s. They hail from London, do a kind of understated performance a la Pet Shop Boys and are very listenable. Here you go.

wakey wakey

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Power Punch Sound - Stagalag Riddim Mix

inside the beehive

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This may not be to everyone's taste but I really like this. It's grindcore band Inside the Beehive's album 'Drink Bleach; Live Forever'. It really packs a punch that leaves you with quite possibly a nosebleed but definitely wanting more. I find this very hypnotic and strangely melodic despite the crunching guitars and primeval throaty singing. If you hear a band pour more into their music than this band this year, I want to know about it. The stand-out track has to be '150 Degrees in the Shade'. It's as if someone let off an Uzi in the studio. Absolutely brilliant.

sóley - we sink

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The title track from her 2011 album, Sóley Stefánsdóttir, has scored one of my albums of the year and I have just got round to re-listening to it and feel the need to share it. It truly deserves a wider audience.

She gives a lovely interview where you can read more about her here.

the man in black

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Gabriel (my 9 year old son) and I have been hunting out facts about Johnny Cash this evening. His homework is to find facts about someone famous that he admires. I was extremely proud to learn that he chose the Man in Black. So this song is dedicated to Gabriel. I hope he listens carefully to Cat Steven's words and takes them to heart.

can't sing, can't act, can dance a little

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This was famously said of Fred Astaire on his first ever screen test. It came to mind after reading of the Hugh Laurie blues album that seems to be on everyone's Christmas present list for their mum and dad. A word of warning to my children - if you buy me that album, I may just take your Christmas presents away from you. I have actually heard some of it and it's bland and very cod-blues. No thankyou, children.

But it got me thinking of actors who have actually made decent music. Now, for this particular blog entry, the entrance criteria is quite strict: the music has to have been good (so no Minnie Driver, Johnny Depp,  Keanu Reeves) and the music must not have been recorded by someone who first came to acting after a music career (so unfortunately the very excellent Kris Kristofferson won't feature). And lastly, it needs to have been more than a one-hit wonder music career (Dub be Good to Me and MacArthur Park, for instance). With this in mind, here are a few entries that make the grade.

Milla Jovovich -  'Charlie'

Jenny Lewis - 'Acid Tongue'

Juliette Lewis - 'Death of a Whore'

Blake Sennett - 'Not Going Home'

gus gus

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Between the Sugarcubes disbanding and the likes of Sigur Ros coming to the fore, Icelandic music didn't get much airplay. It wasn't that there was no good music coming from that musical island rather than a lack of interest from the radio stations and music magazines. There was one band, however, that almost single-handedly kept the flame alight for Icelandic pop music and that was Gus Gus. I can't remember when I first heard their music but I've been hooked ever since. Here's their latest album and proof that they still haven't lost their touch.

pinch and shackleton

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They release their collaborative album this week and from what I've heard so far it's a monster. Check this out for size.

tiny vipers - another day's sun

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my top tunes of 2011 (part one)

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I've been thinking about those songs that have really moved me this year and after a lot of thinking yesterday (and aided/hindered by the mother of all hangovers) I think I have got a good idea of the tunes that rocked. Please do not ask me to put them in any sort of order. I'm always terrible at these 'your favourite ever song' type things. These are the first five that sprang to mind. I've waxed lyrical about these songs already in my blog so would encourage you to hunt them out if you really want to re-read my ramblings. I'll spare the rest of you the pain by just posting the tunes.

Rainbow Arabia - Without You

Disco Gnome - Thugfucker (technically a 2010 tune but was new to me this year)

Herman Dune - Tell Me Something I Don't Know

Raphael Saadiq - Heart Attack

David Lynch - Good Day Today

stone darling

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I stumbled across this single quite by chance and I think it could be my new favourite tune. It starts off very REM circa Green album and then morphs into a Raveonettes/Beach Boys/Ramones pure pop tune that just puts a big smile on my face. This is as good as it gets, folks. Wonderful stuff.

radiohead - morning mr magpie (nathan fake remix)

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I'm not sure what I make of this. It's certainly interesting but the jury's out. What do you reckon?

suuns - red song

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This is the video to 'Red Songs' by Suuns. It's the B-side to their new 12 inch 'Bambi' on that fantastic indie label Secretly Canadian. Here's the blurb about the incredible video:

The video was shot on an old VHS recorder that we picked up on tour somewhere in the southern United States for 4 bucks, which gives it that old video look. We also grabbed a handful of old home videos and some other tapes; some self-help stuff, excercise tapes, some religious videos, and a Dragonball-Z animation. Just randomly threw the tapes in and started recording clips. Mostly it came out fuzzy or obscured. We didn't really try and select cool parts, just whatever turned up on the screen. The Dragonball-Z parts just seemed to fit well: pretty intense action scenes that are bleached out from sitting on a shelf for however many years. There appears to be a kind of resurrection scene in those clips that compliments the relatively static nature of the video. --Dale W. Eisinger

austra - in session

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I recently came across a video of Austra in session where she sings her smash hit 'Lose It' just to a piano accompaniment. It showcases the talent she has perfectly. Her voice is very clear and strong and I wonder if she needs the mic at all, to be honest. She hits the power  notes as easily as those tops. Her voice glides with little or no strain. I could listen to her all day. 

frankie says...

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I see that Frankie and the Heartstrings are opening for the Vaccines tonight somewhere up north. I'd pencilled in this band to stick in my blog ages ago and it clear slipped my mind. I'm sorry about that because they are an excellent band, very much in the Franz Ferdinand/Pulp vein. They definitely have an art college feel to them and I don't mean this as any slight. If you can do it well, as Art Brut do, then it's a joy. There's less laughs with Frankie though - they're quite a tight outfit and well worth seeing live. Apparently they tore up Reading this year. Here's the title track from their album from earlier this year.

jonsi - we bought the zoo

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This is very fresh off the press, a brand new track from Iceland's number one son and proof that he still has the ability to amaze. 

stanton warriors in the mix

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I love this mix. Seriously, love it.

rhythm & sound with ras donovan & ras perez - let we go (villalobos remix)

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hip hop blues

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Who's for a bit of John Lee Hooker as re-interpreted as a hip hop instrumental?

the perfect ambience

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I'll leave it to Dapayk and Padberg to draw this day to a close perfectly with this slice of chilled electronica. It's called 'Close Up'.

 

kontent - dimension drift

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Kontent is an 18 year old producer from LA - that's LA as in Los Angeles and not Littlehampton as us people from Sussex affectionately call the town and he is producing this wonderfully precocious sounding tune. Just check out the maelstrom in the middle. I really wish I had half the talent that these kids have. I guess I'll just have to live a rock n roll lifestyle vicariously through this blog!

You can check out more of his tunes on Soundcloud here.

the fall

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If there is one English indie band that define how great music is in this country it's the Fall. I'm a long-time fan, seen them many times and can appreciate how important Mark E Smith is to our musical landscape. Here's an old documentary previously unreleased from 1994 when he was scrapping with his band and sacking band members with amazing regularity. I love it when MES waxes lyrical.

And here's one of my favourite Fall songs.

onra - i wanna to go back

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connect four

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These 4 tunes/artists are connected in the order of their appearance. See if you can spot the links.

Ocean Colour Scene - Get Blown Away

Bob Seger - Turn the Page

Thin Lizzy - Still In Love With You (Live) 

Sade - By Your Side

(Ocean Colour Scene had an album called Mussel Shoals, Bob Seger was part of Mussel Shoals Rhythm Section, Thin Lizzy covered the Bob Seger Song Rosalie and Sade covered Thin Lizzy's Still In Love With You)

ja ja ja

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I've discovered a wonderful website dedicated to Nordic music. As you can probably guess, I'm very excited by this new music source. It's called Ja Ja Ja and you can find it here. They've got lots and lots of new bands to explore together with a few more well-known acts. They also have a presence on Soundcloud where they have a few samplers that you can listen to. They've just uploaded a new downloadable set that they've called the 'Retrospective Anniversary Album'. I'm halfway through listening to it now and each track has so far been a delight. I'm particularly impressed with Niki and the Dove and I see that some of the acts featured on the album are at their club night at the Lexington in London on the 24th of this month. I'm definitely going!

zlatan ibrahimovich

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England are playing Sweden, my favourite country in the whole world (after England, of course) and I can't let the opportunity pass without playing this tribute to the Swedish superstar footballer by his fellow compatriots, JJ.

jadele in the mix

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better dead than red

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I'm not the biggest fan of Marxist chic but art can transcend politics even when it is created with dubious intentions. I don't know why Doris Days paid tribute to her and their mealy-mouthed bullshit about Ulrike Meinhof being the only true icon in Western Europe in the 20th Century is as  patently wrong as it is ridiculous but the tune is beautiful.

And this is an equally lovely mashup sampling the aforementioned tune, Clint Mansell and also the Editors.

can - ege bamyasi

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It's krautrock afternoon here at De-Minimis Towers and arguably the daddy of all krautrock bands, Can,  has been rocking my world.

Pinch

Splash

Call Me

curtis mayfield live in concert

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Oh yes. This is what I've been listening to this lunchtime. It's a live PA he did for a German radio show back in 1990 before (I think) his tragic accident. What a voice this man had and what great tunes. He's sadly missed and greatly admired still.

Direct link to music: http://soundcloud.com/das-boy/curtis-mayfield-live-pa-modernes-bremen-de-radio-bremen-1990-03-23

 I also found quite a bit of info about this performance, in case you are interested:

Curtis Mayfield - Guitar, Vocals
Frank "Buzz" Amato - Keyboards
Randy Brown - Bass
Lee Goodness - Drums
Louis Stefanell - Percussion

Tracklist:
1. [01:55 4:20] Curtis Mayfield - "Super Fly" (1972) [Buddah/Curtom Records] [1]
2. [06:15 4:41] Curtis Mayfield - "It's Alright" (1980) [RSO Records, Inc.]
3. [10:56 4:08] Curtis Mayfield - "Gypsy Woman" (1971) [Buddah/Curtom Records] [2]
4. [15:04 6:35] Curtis Mayfield - "Freddie's Dead (Theme From Super Fly)" (1972) [Buddah/Curtom Records] [1]
5. [21:39 8:06] Curtis Mayfield - "Pusherman" (1972) [Buddah/Curtom Records] [1]
6. [29:45 5:26] Curtis Mayfield - "We Gotta Have Peace" (1985) [CRC]
7. [35:11 2:56] Curtis Mayfield - "People Get Ready" (1965) [ABC Paramount] [2]
8. [38:07 5:18] Curtis Mayfield - "Give Me Your Love (Love Song)" (1972) [Buddah/Curtom Records] [1,3]
9. [44:08 5:22] Curtis Mayfield - "When Seasons Change" (1975) [Buddah Records]

[1] Feature On The OST For the Film Super Fly (1972) [Sig Shore Productions] Dir. Gordon Parks Jr.
[2] Originally Performed By: The Impressions (1961) [ABC Paramount]
[3] Originally Performed By: Jerry Buttler (1963) [Vee Jay Records]

Release date: 23rd March 1990


edit - Since first posting this yesterday, the owner altered the sharing rights so I'm posting the link directly to Soundcloud. Sorry about this.

chase the tear

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I had a very pleasant email drop into my inbox this morning from my lovely independent record store. They have the new Portishead 12 inch 'Chase The Tear' ready for me to collect. As with all things Portishead it's all too rare, it's oh-so-good and it's a must-have for anyone who appreciates just how important they are.

aural t.l.c.

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I feel the need to ease myself into Monday morning.

Hafdis Huld - 'Fucked Up Mind'

hoping for a deep sleep

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I'm off to bed now and hoping for a deep sleep. Can I leave you with a slice of brand new deep house? I love it's moodiness and then the sheer fatness of the keyboard arrangement.

My Favourite Robots - 'Forest Fires (Original Mix)'

whiskey priests

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As a bit of a wind down to a weekend where I've struggled to rest due to illness this album has come closest to chilling me out. It's officially released tomorrow and draws heavily on that brand of Americana that Bon Iver and Bill Callahan excel at. They sound a bit more traditional American folk although I can't help hear the lead singer and think that's Jon Bon Jovi singing! It's not a criticism at all either to Bon Jovi or the Whiskey Priests. Some of the songs work better than others but overall I really enjoyed this shortish long player.

Motorhead - 1916

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This seems appropriate for today of all days.

there's some people on the pitch, they think it's all over

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Well, this is the final post for today and it's a football related bumper edition. I think it ties in quite nicely with the international footie being played this weekend. See if you can spot the very tenuous links.

Little Bobby Moore - Do the Ginger Snap

Sensible Soccers - Twin Turbo

The Wedding Present - Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft

KWS - Please Don't Go

Kirsty MacColl - England 2 Colombia 0

(That KWS tune is very tenuous so I'll tell you the link there. It was allegedly dedicated to Des Walker who was on the verge of signing for Sampdoria from Nottingham Forest, KWS's team)

far out, man

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This post is dedicated to modern psychedelic music and long may it still be around. I have a particular soft spot for psychedelia when it's done well. Here's 3 tracks cooked to perfection. They are in play order: British, Icelandic, American/Cambodian.

The Amorphous Androgynous - Elysian Feels

Dandelion Seeds  - Love and Sweet Dreams

Dengue Fever - Cement Slippers