nathan fake - grandfathered

Tweet

nina kravitz - show me your time

Tweet

I can't tell you how much my ears love pure minimal techno such as this. It's so crisp, so clean, so beautiful. 

shigeto

Tweet

I've been following this band for some time now after seeing them on a show on Sky Arts. Unfortunately I could never remember the name of the show and couldn't find the footage showing the amazing drumming and simultaneous synthesising. This short clip isn't the one I saw but does do justice to the talents that they have. Brilliant stuff.

i would fix you - kenickie

Tweet

dedicated to joyce reid

Tweet

This song reminds me of Sunday breakfasts with you and Grandad. Rest in peace, Nan. 

pressure drop - warrior sound

Tweet

CHOON!

rick hopkins - take it to the house mix (part1)

Tweet

post modern escape artist

Tweet

Have I played this before on my blog? I've had this tune for a while now and I can't find anything when I do a search but I have a nagging feeling I have posted this before. Here it is anyway and apologies if it's a repeat. Actually, scrub that...I won't apologise. It's a lovely splice of Billie Holliday and hip hop. How can anyone be sorry about that?

nick pride and the pimptones remixed

Tweet

This is a classic funk-jazz album given a hip hop makeover and the overall effect is close to perfection. Don't take my word for it though. Give it a listen and your ears will thank you for it.

daniel steinberg - arms and legs podcast #4

Tweet

The latest podcast from my favourite minimalist. This just oozes soulful minimalism.

sister frica - 'one in the spirit'

Tweet

This is a haunting dub track produced by Augusto Pablo and sung by Sister Frica. This is as good as it gets, it really is.

chelsea wolfe plays rudimentary pen

Tweet

This is a brilliant collection of covers from lady of the moment, Chelsea Wolfe. I hope you don't mind my laziness but I've lifted the sleevenotes from the Soundcloud site:

1. A HANDFUL OF DUST

I will show you fear in a handful of dust

2: ECHO

language of agony, torment in sound. weeping of ancestors formed into words. the echo of anguish, primeval sorrow

3: BLACK ON GOLD / SICKENING FOR SOMETHING

lapis lazuli turquoise and amethyst black on gold viridian and jasmine tan and black ruby and cinnabar dove grey puke pink onyx and bronze vermillion and amber jade and amber black on gold 454 Angell Street Black on gold green to feel blue gawd those colors opium madness unleashed! supreme final ecstasy.

give me that decanter, eliot!

4: DISSOLUTION/REHEARSAL FOR MORTALITY

it matters not that i did seek, to conquer fear and vanquish pain, for victory belongs to grief, so into tears dissolve in vain.

in this rehearsal for mortality I learn acceptance and can no longer return with such tenacity to cling to all that is me to all that is me

5: PRAYER FOR THE UNBORN

let us rest in oblivion forever and ever amen

alan's psychedelic breakfast

Tweet

Well...actually it's mine with probably the finest purveyors of psychedelic rock around at the moment. This is Amorphous Androgynous with 'Tiny Space Birds'. Are you experienced yet?

saint etienne release new track

Tweet

Yes, I am very excited about this and am going to get tickets to see them for their upcoming tour too. Their new track 'Tonight' is available as a free download here and there's a new album coming out too. It sounds classic St Etienne and let's face it - if it ain't broke then don't fix it. What a great start to the weekend.

alex kenji - 'adelante'

Tweet

One of my favourite ever minimal techno tracks, I love the way Alex Kenji brings in a Spanish guitar ever so lightly, leaves it to linger, building it louder and louder and then BAMMO! He swirls it around the speakers. Fantastic!

ian brown - 'in the year 2525'

Tweet

What a weekend in store for Brighton and Hove Albion fans.

julia holter - 'in the same room'

Tweet

Something for the weekend



good graces

Tweet

They play with a shoegazer style to their guitars but more hardcore style to the vocals and the overall effect is something surprisingly listenable, melodic even. I really like this band. They have that indefinable quality about them that deserves a bit of success. The songs I've heard so far are incredibly well-produced with the band showing just how tight they can be in holding it all together. Here's Philadelphia's Good Graces.

tennis - 'origins'

Tweet

Let's have some indie pop before we go to bed (Their new album was released yesterday, as it happens).

jane bond and the undercover men - 'hot rod lincoln'

Tweet

A conversation I had about listening to the John Peel show reminded me of a seminal Peel band  - Jane Bond and the Undercover Men. I have absolutely no idea about how successful this band were but remember they were often played on the late great man's show. I haven't heard this song in over 25 years and I feel quite nostalgic. If only I could find a way of getting this tune onto a portable radio and then I could listen to it under the bed covers. 

in the mix

Tweet

Originally a mix from 2010, this is a beautiful showcase of the Tribal Guarachero scene in Monterrey. It works as a nice bit of party music or as background music as you live the rock and roll lifestyle at home with a bit of shirt ironing. Guess what I'm doing at the moment!

millsart - 'gamma player'

Tweet

I'm lucky that I've got some really knowledgeable friends when it comes to music. This recommendation comes from the one and only Rick Hopkins. I have certain boxes when it comes to dance music - soulful, deep, moody, melancholic, intricate, clean and crisp - it's rare that I get all those boxes ticked with one tune but this one such track. 

plus ça change

Tweet

After nearly a week long hiatus I'm returning to my blog with a remix of a track that is up there with the best of the new music. I've put a few Bonobo tracks on here in the last year but I think this is possibly the strongest yet. It's the Mark Pritchard remix of 'Stay the Same'. 

pantha du prince - stick to my side (lawrence version)

Tweet

Sometimes it's lovely to lose yourself in crisp, clean minimal techno.

goldmund - 'evelyn'

Tweet

disko-ions - marram rest

Tweet

Taken from the album 'Overpasser' this is a beautiful track. It's not quite minimal techno, it's more ambient electronica with maybe a smidgin of glitch or breakbeat in there.

tonight i shall mainly be listening to...

Tweet

These popped up randomly on my iPod on the train home. They're all corking tunes so I thought I'd share them with you.

Erland and the Carnival - 'Love is a Killing Thing'

Rainbow Arabia - 'Sequenced'

DJ Hype and Ganja Max - 'Rinse Out'

Blind Willie McTell - 'Dying Crapshooter's Blues'

new order - your silent face

Tweet

And without Kraftwerk there would not have been New Order. I love the lyrics to this song and the way the song builds with the really fat chords on the synths followed by an infectious hook (sic), the signature bass guitar riff and that throwaway "why don't you piss off?". I really should go back and re-discover New Order afresh.

kate havnevik - mouth 2 mouth

Tweet

These Scandinavians keep getting under my skin. Here's another multi-instrumentalist Norwegian who does a lovely line in downtempo electronica. She's been around for a few years now and this track is taken from her recent album, You published on her own record label. This song reminds me a lot of the German outfit 'Hundreds' 2011 song 'I Love My Harbour' - itself a criminally underrated masterpiece. 

kraftwerk - neon lights

Tweet

Taken from the 1991 remix album. The BBC have been having a Kraftwerk weekend and I'd like to add to the love-in with one of my favourite tracks, Neon Lights, taken from the 1978 album Man-Machine. I never tire of listening to this.

don cornelius 1936 - 2012

Tweet

I was looking for a suitable music video as an epitaph to Mr Soul Train, the late great Don Cornelius. It's been bothering me for a few days as I didn't want to do him a disservice but someone else has done all the hard work for me with this wonderful tribute. Rest in Peace, Mr Cornelius.

ren harvieu - something

Tweet

I find Beatles covers can be hit and miss. This is a big hit for me and very much in the 'less is more' camp.

dakota suite & quentin sirjacq - to make you whole again

Tweet

Wrap up warm. It's a bit chilly out there.

just because...

Tweet

....it's a great song.

sparklehorse - see the light

Tweet

Morning! 

patti smith - privilege (set me free)

Tweet

An early night for me tonight but a little present for you before I hit the sack.

free lambchop download

Tweet

I'm a bit late out the tracks on this one but it's still worth passing on. Lambchop have released a track from their latest album as a free download. It's seven minutes of lost love delivered in Kurt Wagner's inimitable style.

m.i.a. bad girls

Tweet

I seem to have focussed quite a bit on hip hop recently. Here's another post on the subject, this time everyone's favourite female rapper, M.I.A. with her new single. It's got the thumbs up from the younger members of this household.

the history of hip-hop

Tweet

I'm back and I've got such a treat for you chaps. Cosmo Baker, DJ Ayres, and DJ Eleven of The Rub have been presenting their history of hip-hop year by year on BrooklynRadio.net and they've uploaded each year as a download and stream, it's your choice.

That's 30 years of hip-hop definitively explained and analysed. It is, of course, American-centric but that's to be expected but the lack of foreign hip-hop should not detract from the sheer WOW factor that this post gives me. You can either dip in and out or you can listen chronologically. I've done the former and can confirm these guys know their onions. I think I just died and gone to hip-hop heaven!