hello soho

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My office has just relocated to very near Soho and I've been taking advantage of this by exploring the music shops nearby. There's a few well known ones, notably Sister Ray but also some smaller, mainly dance oriented record shops. I particularly like BM records. I looked in Sister Ray today and I was impressed with the range of tunes but to be honest the prices they were asking was a bit steep for a lot of stuff. It's all well and good them tarting up an album by marking it as 'rare' but I wouldn't say CDs are collectable in the same way as records are and the quality of some of the CD cases weren't great. I'm doing the shop a disservice here because it's the music that's important after all. I bought the following albums:

Felice Brothers - Celebration, Florida

Steve Mason and Dennis Bovell - Ghosts Outside

Holy Other - With U (this is an EP)

Interpol - Interpol

Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly

Rodney P - The Future

The last 3 albums were filling gaps in my collection. Christ knows why I never got round to buying Interpol's album last year. I should have got that at the time. I've always loved Hope Sandoval's voice and this Mazzy Star album is the only one I don't have. I'm glad I've got the set now. The Rodney P album was a completely random purchase. It was sitting there in the downbeat section, it looked quite groovy so I bought it. Time will tell if it's any good but I've got a very good success rate from random buys so I'm not going to stop even if this is a dud. 

The Holy Ghost EP is going to be a grower, I can tell. My newly-12 year old son described it as the opposite of minimal techno - kind of maximal. I know what he means as it has a lot of layers to it. I need to grow into this little number, I think.

Now onto the last two. The new Felice Brothers album - Celebration, Florida is quite simply excellent in every way. They go from strength to strength and cover so many bases with this long player. There's some old fashioned country and even a bit of yodelling, there's a sub-dancey 'I Feel Love' soundalike, there's everything. Buy it - you won't be disappointed.

I wish someone would upload the 'Dallas' track but this, the opening song ' Fire at the Pageant' is a lovely backup.

The other album is a Dennis Bovell dub remix of Steve Mason's Boys Outside album that the ex-Beta Band lead singer released last year. I think I mentioned it a few weeks back actually. It's co-produced by Richard X who also did the Foxbase Beta album a year or two back. I really wouldn't have thought that the deeply personal and haunting Boys Outside would have been a contender for a dub remix but bloody hell, this absolutely hits the spot. 

i'll drink to that

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I was listening to I Am Kloot this morning and was enjoying especially 'To the Brink'. It's a great drinking song. Not in an 'Irish Rover' kind of way, it's just rather laconic and is about drinking. The lyrics are sublime too, I Am Kloot are very good songwriters as well as excellent musicians. It got me thinking of other songs about drinking. I'll avoid the Pogues as that's a bit cliched and the most apt one from the Beautiful South - "Ol' Red Eyes" is not a favourite of mine so I'll go for the songs below. Please feel free to let me know what you would pick.

I Am Kloot - 'To the Brink'

Tom Waits - 'The Piano Has Been Drinking'

Primitives - 'Carry Me Home'

woop, woop, da sound of da police

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This entry is dedicated to the boys (and girls) in blue who are out on the streets tonight trying to keep it safe. 3 songs, all with a police connection in the band's name and all are personal favourites of mine. The last is particularly beautiful.

Interpol - 'Pioneer to the Falls'

Thompson Twins - 'We Are Detective'

Sherlock's Daughter - 'In The End'

melanie pain - my name

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Melanie Pain is best known as the sultry voice behind Nouvelle Vague. She's made a career of whispering over 80s electronic classics and very good she is at it too. I hadn't realised that she had made a solo album, My Name, a year or two ago until I picked up a copy recently. 

I like it a lot. It's a lot more conventional than the bossa nova lounge style of her day job and I've returned to the album a few times now. It starts off with a very 'French singer with guitar' sort of affair. It would feel quite home in an Emilie Simone album. So far so good. We then get a bit retro with the likes of 'Bruises' that has a sort of 60s hook to them. 'Helsinki' puts us firmly in Morcheeba country. Not surprising as both Morcheeba and Ms Pain have a deep love for folk with a soul edge to it. Neil Young, Nick Drake, Beth Orton all have left a big influence and it shows.

The title track is an intimate acoustic number where she confesses to not yet knowing herself. Perhaps this is a reference to the musical style that she calls her own. I hope she pursues her journey through albums such as this. It would be a waste of a talent for her to typecast herself as a kitsch singer of songs in an ironic style. Saying that she has a lot of fun with 'Little Cowboys'. It sounds like one of those Andrews Sisters doo-wop songs from the 40s. Fortunately it's very short so the joke doesn't start to grate and then we're back to the serious stuff.


The rest of the album takes a very Gallic turn now. La Cigarette is very French, not just because it's sung entirely in her mother tongue but it's a tad cliched for my liking. It's just a bit too earnest and is probably the weakest song on the album. 'Celle De Mes 20 Ans' is also sung in French but a bit more whimsical with a lovely Carpenters-esque guitar interlude. L'espace D'un Instant doesn't work well for me. I'm not sure where she intended to go with this song and is instantly forgettable. It's a shame but there you go.  'Everything I Know' is much better and rescues the album from turning into twee dinner party mood music. It reminds me a bit of Martina Topley-Bird and is infuriatingly catchy. The penultimate song is also in French and once again doesn't quite hit the mark. It's odd that it's the French language songs that aren't pushing my buttons with this album. Normally I'm a sucker for that usually. The album reprises with a 70s style ragtime 'If You Knew'. I haven't heard this style of song in a long time and I am now inspired to dig out a Lynsey De Paul album now!

Melanie Pain alluded in the album to not 'knowing her name' and I think she proves that here but it's been fun listening to her search for it. There's been a few dead ends and I dare say there will be in the future but I hope she carries on the journey. I'll be a willing Sancho Panza to her Don Quixote.

don't worry, be happy

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I don't want to think about the riots in London at the moment or whether I can get to work tomorrow. It's just nice thoughts from me after a lovely weekend with my children.

Instead I'll play this lovely EP from Chilean DJ/Producer Fantasna. 'Las Siete Canchas' was released a week or two ago on Neovinyl Recordings and is a fresh sounding deep house collection that would be perfect for a hot night like this. I have played it a few times tonight and am enjoying discovering different things in it each time. It's almost as if there's a Villalobos influence with the depth and complexity of the rhythms.

Fantasna - Las Siete Canchas by Neovinyl Recordings

cirque digital - monthly mixtape august 2011

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...and this deep house mix is just perfect too. Time, I think, for a Sunday roast down the pub with my children.

Here's the tracklisting:

1 Lift Up Your Faces - Rising Sun
2 What Happened (Vocal) - John Gazoo
3 Harmless Frustration (Original Mix) - Huxley
4 Coney Island Boppers - Ethyl & Flori
5 Red Sparrow - Marvin Dash
6 Midnight Hours 1 Track 4 - Artist Unknown
7 Moreno - Anette Party feat. Anita Coke
8 Keep It Physical - Elef
9 Music - Vakula
10 Boulonnais - Cavalier
11 Color Of Love - Daniel Bortz & Sascha Silber
12 Twilight - Patlac
13 Piece Of Mind - Andre Lodemann

i've still got the blues for you

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I once read somewhere that men always feel the Sunday blues. I don't know if this is true or not generally but it's certainly true for me. I can be quite happy in the blues too. I'm in that state now, post-euphoric after yesterday's dramatic last-minute-in-extra-time win for Brighton over Donny Rovers. To revel properly in this slightly melancholic funk requires the right kind of music too and I've been listening to some gems this morning.

Eddie Floyd - 'Oh, How it Rained'

Lambchop - 'Close Up'

Dave Van Ronk - 'Cocaine'

Beautiful South - 'Bell Bottomed Tear'

Mike Blookfield/Al Kooper - Blues for Nothing

...and lastly thanks to my little brother for putting me onto this gem

Townes Van Zandt - 'Waiting Around To Die'

a big day in the south

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I can't sleep and it feels like I'm 9 years old and it's Christmas Day. After 14 years of Brighton and Hove Albion playing in temporary (and various degrees of crap) temporary stadia we finally move into our new £100 million new home for our first league game of the 2011/12 season. It's never dull supporting the world's coolest football team but today is extra special not least because it's also my eldest son's birthday. I may cry tears of unbridled joy.

This is my eldest son modelling our new top. As you can see he has opted for a philosophical name on the back. My youngest is staying old school with 'I H8 Palace'. I have no idea where they get this from. *ahem*

Right...I got the emotional stuff out of the way so let me get back to the music for a bit and then I'll love you and leave you for the day. Swedish dream pop bands must be like buses, no sooner do I hear that jj have released new material than one of my other favourite bands, Air France also release a free download to listen to. As others have said, they haven't made any great changes to the 'Air France' formula but it still sounds quite fresh and summery. I hope this isn't the only output in the pipeline as I've been waiting 2 years for new material from them.

Click here to download the single

Whilst I'm yacking away about Air France it gives me a chance to play my favourite song of theirs, 'Never Content'.

Another exciting piece of news is everyone's favourite Brighton band, Paisley and Charlie have finally released their debut full length album. I've been following their progress for a bit now and I know they've both worked very hard in getting this far. I love bands that are unashamedly good at pop music - Saint Etienne, Belle and Sebastian, Beautiful South - they all have a charm and sophistication and most importantly an ability to make music that means something to the listener. Paisley and Charlie are rooted firmly in this tradition and deserve every success. Fingers crossed that this album is a commercial success.

You can find details of the new album here.

Here they are with a track that's fairly new to me and also featuring samples of 'Smalltown Boy'.

jj no.2 re-released

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The record label Secretly Canadian are re-releasing jj's first album, quixotically called 'No.2'. For those that haven't heard of jj they are an elusive Swedish band that make the best dream pop around. The album is quite short but sublimely good (as is the follow up album, No.3 - in fact I think it's even better). I remember hearing the first track "Things Will Never Be The Same Again" from No.2 and falling in love with it from the outset and I still often listen to both albums back to back. 

There's also a free download of a brand new track here.

They've been very quiet of late with a short European tour but they've recently collaborated with Ne-Yo for the Adult Swims album. See what you think of this.

our broken garden live in concert

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Our Broken Garden released my album of the year for 2010. It is stupendously good and I am very excited that I came across this stream of them live in concert. I can't wait to see them live. Interestingly, there seems to be some new material here so fingers crossed we'll have a new album or EP from them soon.

http://www.gimmeindie.se/live/konsert/ourbrokengarden/

have i mentioned before that i adore hafdis huld?

Tweet ...sigh...She is so lovely.

if musicians ruled the world....

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...what would it be referred as? Rule by the elite is an oligarchy, rule by priests is a theocracy, rule by the mob is ochlocracy and so on. So what would rule by the musicians be? 

I ask because I read that Peru's most famous singer Susana Baca has just been made Minister of Culture for her country. An inspired choice I think for she has always been an inspiration for Peru's poor especially the minority of African descent. Susan has also in her time been a teacher as well as a Grammy winner and anyone with a passing knowledge of the campaigns that Susan has put her name to will know that she will take this role very seriously indeed. She's not the only South American to take this career path. Rubens Blades is/was Panama's Minister for Tourism. 

I'd like to see the pattern repeated here in the UK but I wonder who we would have. Bono is disqualified immediately using the Groucho Marx clause about barring those who seek to join. Anyway, until he puts his not inconsiderable fortune where his considerably large mouth is I will take no notice of the man. Perhaps Billy Childish as Health Secretary, Robert Wyatt as Defence Secretary, Mark E Smith as Speaker of the House of Commons, Marianne Faithful in charge of prisons. We could have all sorts of fun with this. I've always felt too that if ever we became a Republic with an elected President that the man that everyone could truly love and feel inspired by is Rolf Harris. I'm serious, I think the man has the golden touch and we all know that he's a thoroughly decent bloke.

Enough frivolity, methinks. Let's get back to Ms Baca who above all else (for the purposes of this blog)  is a fantastic singer. Let's have a couple from her to see us out of this post.

in the mix

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This is a mix by Recondite, a Berlin-based producer. Perfect for a hot sunny afternoon.

animal magnetism

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A very long train journey home tonight allowed me the chance to listen to quite a bit of music on the journey. The weather was uncomfortably hot and tempers were getting frayed so I stuck to the lighter music on my iPod. A few tracks, in particular, worked a treat in keeping my mood chilled even if the sweat on my brow told another story. I'll pick 3 from tonight's not so little playlist with a tenuous connection between them: all 3 are sung by females and you'll spot the animals in the descriptions too. 

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - 'Butterfly Mornings'

Hippos in Tanks - 'Vanessa'

Kate Bush - 'Night of the Swallow'

Be careful, folks. It's a jungle out there.

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.