happy new year

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And to celebrate here's an oldie but a goodie. 

grimes - 'genesis'

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This is from a live performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival from earlier this year. This woman will be massive next year after such a critically acclaimed debut album. Mark my words.

erasure - 'blue savannah (der deutsche mix i)'

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Count the number of Kraftwerk samples in this beautiful remix of the Erasure track! I lost count, but it's a fun way to spend a Boxing Day. I always maintained that Erasure never got the credit they deserved at times with their music and I believe this mix kind of makes that point so well. It stands the test of time  rather well too, I think.

the temptations show

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I should really go to bed but I keep finding music to listen to. This is the main reason tonight. a 20 minute long Temptations TV special. Just check out that live medley.

st. germain - 'rose rouge'

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I've said this before but when the French do music don't do mediocre music. It's either awful or subliminal, I don't think there's too much that falls into the halfway slot. With that in mind, it's not difficult to guess which category this house/jazz tune falls into. It's so good, I'm going to loop it for a while and enjoy the moment.

hammersmith gorillas

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This blog entry is an unusual one in as much as it's inspired by one particular photo that I really need to share it, it's so wonderful. I can't work out if it's really naff or really, really cool. I'm leaning towards the cool. Love it.

I don't know an awful lot about them and can't say I've heard their music before but after coming across that photo I've done a little bit of digging on the internet and discovered they were a proto-punk pub band from err....Hammersmith(!) with heavy influences from the Who and the Kinks and the wider mod culture, as can be seen in the fusion fashion of modernist tailoring and glam rock flares. Here they are with, from an initial bit of research, their biggest hit. It's a heavier, faster, more garage rock version of the Ray Davies song. I'm not sure why they didn't get picked up by the punk movement in the same way as Johnny and the Thunders. Perhaps it was the suedehead sideburns - punk always did prefer rockers to mods.

the o'jay's - 'backstabbers (tom moulton remix)'

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Remix this classic? I don't know about you but my first thought is why? It's gilding the lily and no mistake but this isn't a dodgy dubstep affair but he's kept very true to the essence of the original, given it a polish here, a new set of wheels there and one hell of a waxing and this absolute monster of a remix. I texted a mate of mine who knows his stuff (far more than me) and he tells me that Tim Moulton invented the 12". What a claim to fame.

jimmy reed - 'christmas present blues'

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As an antidote to those Christmas classics that have been done to death, here's a peach of a tune. What it makes it even cooler is the singer shares the same name as my Grandad, who was, still is and always will be the coolest man ever to have drawn breath.

unkle - 'eye for an eye backwards'

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The Josh Homme remix of what is possibly my favourite Unkle track and the accompanying video are compelling. Sadly, the sentiments of the song will always be relevant.

james brown - 'dancing in heaven soulful christmas'

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What a tune.

ólafur arnalds - 'day III: romance / day iv: allt varð hljótt'

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Morning! Let's take this Tuesday nice and slowly. This video features tracks 3 and 4 from Arnalds 'Found Tapes EP' and is the CD on in my bedroom stereo right now.

manic street preachers - 'australia'

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They've never been my favourite band, too often spent posturing, too many songs turning into lectures and far too much taking themselves too seriously but their 'Everything Must Go' album is fantastic whichever way you measure it. This is, in my opinion, them at their best when they let go of the politics  and just rock. The sentiment behind the song is about the band members trying to get as far away, mentally and physically, from their home in the Valleys and having to come to terms with the loss of their friend and band member, Richey Edwards.

cody chesnutt - 'till i meet thee (acoustic session)'

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Still on a blues-y vibe here's Cody Chesnutt with some interesting choice of headware. I can't make out if he's rock climbing or going to war. Probably the former, he's a lover not a fighter.

lightnin' hopkins - 'lonesome graveyard'

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After a morning spent listening to Dean Martin I'm dropping the mood slightly with this haunting Lightnin' Hopkins track. 

warpaint - 'beetles'

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If only the Beatles had written a song entitled 'Warpaint' I would have had some wonderful symmetry. I recall reading a few years back that a band named an album after John Cougar Mellencamp after he had given his then new album a title shared by another band, so it does happen occasionally.

 

This is a great song and I do hope that the all-girl group are planning a new assault on the music industry after their wonderful debut a year or two back.

 

 

dave brubeck 1920 - 2012

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It seems to be a particularly bad year for music legends dying. I'm quite sad to hear that Dave Brubeck has passed away aged 91 (it would have been his 92nd birthday tomorrow). With his 1959 album 'Time Out' he completely changed the jazz landscape and gave us one of the great jazz standards - 'Take Five'. I'm going to take the first track from that album, the equally loved 'Blue Rondo A La Turk' as my tribute to him. So long and thanks for the music.

cat power - 'nothin' but time'

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I must share this song with you, it popped up on my iPod on a long train journey home yesterday and was a real treat to listen to. It's one of those audience participation tunes at gigs and I suspect it features often at the end of her gigs. It has the bonus of Iggy Pop's dulcet tones too and more than a slight nod to Bowie's 'Heroes'. Others have compared the style to the Brian Jonestown Massacre and I can hear that too. Whatever the influence it's a damn good record so time for me to stop rabbiting on and let the music play.

crybaby - 'armies of darkness'

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I've posted about Bristol warbler Danny Coughlan before. I think I described him as the lyrical genius of Morrissey or Hawley with the voice or Orbison. This is one of the stand-out albums of the year for me and is a source of constant pleasure.

kidkanevil - 'basho basho remixed remixed'

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I picked this up randomly on Bandcamp recently. It's a remix album of Kidkanevil's Basho Basho and there's some pretty big names on the roster. Well worth a listen and proof, if ever any was needed that there are so many talented musicians out there.

hanne hukkelberg - 'a cheater's armoury'

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From her 2006 album Rykestraße 68 album, this is Norwegian musical prodigy Hanne Hukkelberg. Her music lies somewhere between jazz, pop and folk and none better exemplified than with one of her biggest hits. The video is well worth a look too, it has an Emilie Simon feel to it that I like.

ken2 - 'el condor pasa dub'

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When those crazy Japanese put their minds to creating great music,  I don't think they can be beat. Here's Ken2 giving the Simon and Garfunkel standard a big heavy dub reggae makeover for a monster hit.

eels - 'peach blossom'

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Oh Lordy. Here's the brand new video to the Eels latest track 'Peach Blossom' the first track released from the new album scheduled for next year. Go 'E'!

massive attack v burial - 'paradise circus'

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I've played the 4 Walls collaboration before but this needs to be mentioned too and is dedicated to someone very special.

prodigy - 'smack my bitch up (major lazer remix)'

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Take one dancefloor classic and give it to a top notch DJ to bring it bang up to date and here's the result. Hell yeah.

massive attack - 'black milk'

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I remember the first time I heard this mesmerising song with Elizabeth Fraser's ethereal contribution. It still blows me away.

nick cave and the bad seeds - 'we no who u r'

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This weekend has been incredibly painful after seeing Brighton lose 3-0 to our rivals Crystal Palace. I tell a lie, I saw it up to 2-0 and then left. This morning has been difficult for other reasons but I've been greatly cheered to see that Nick Cave has just released the first track on Youtube of his new album out in February/March. The song itself has a dreadful title "We No Who U R". I hate it when they do that. Weller did that too with the name of his last album too and I don't get it. It's like watching your dad dance. Not funny, not hip, not ironic.

The good news is that the song is beautiful. It's a classic Bad Seeds piano ballad complete with female backing singers. It was the kind of song that became the staple diet of his albums from Boatman's Call to Nocturama. Of late he has taken his mid-life crisis seriously with rockier Bad Seeds albums and the Grinderman spin-offs and so the piano ballads have been binned but this is a wonderful song and perfect to ease the pain of my troubled soul.