Repossessed Beats

I went to check out Kasabian last night at Ally Pally. To be honest i'd tried listening to their album a few times and have never got past half way, however they seem to be incredibly popular so I thought i'd go along & see what the fuss was about.

As I say they are astonishingly popular, however I was still taken aback by the hordes of late-20-somethings tackling the considerable climb up to the venue. My ticket was number 7,916. Ally Pally is a big venue. There were massive video screens. There were also video cameras everywhere in preparation no doubt for some upcoming DVD release.

They've only released 2 singles haven't they?

And in a nutshell I found them extremely boring.

I was in a way quite pleased though. Thanks to a green fingered friend I have had a good supply of nice skunk for the last few months, and as such I have been pretty stoned at every gig i've been to recently. I was beginning to wonder whether gigs I have been blown away by recently were actually that good, or whether being that much under the influence was clouding my judgement. Well I am pleased to report that although being very stoned will immeasurably improve any concert experience, it won't make a rubbish band good.

Kasabian are a rubbish band.


I did a compilation CD for the car though - which helped me through the 2 hours of ridiculous traffic I faced. I couldn't remember what i'd burned on to it, just a random selection of tunes I loved and tunes I hadn't yet listened to properly but thought might be good. When this came on it completely dazzled me. I listened to it 5 times in a row racking my brains to work out who it was by.

I had no idea at all that Belle and Sebastian were this good.

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN - YOUR COVER'S BLOWN


No time for pictures today i'm afraid.. i'm off to see Out Hud in a short while.


Here are a couple of links for your enjoyment though, courtesy of today's b3ta newsletter:

This girl gets more and more terrifying as you scroll down the screen. Anyone for botox?

Pop Quiz. Woo! I got 8 out of 10. Yay!

And if you ever get stuck up a mountain with a can of coke and a toblerone, this is how you light a fire.


Anyone manage to get Queens of the Stone Age tickets this morning? I tried at 9:15 this morning but they seemed to have already gone. Oh well....

Origins of a Sound

OK, so this is not by any means a Detroit Techno blog. However it will inevitably reflect what i'm listening to... and right now i'm still deep into one of my Detroit phases. This music is just timeless, and I find myself returning to it again and again.

Despite my Detroit obsession I had always assumed that Cybotron's 'Clear' was the first real techno tune - produced by Juan Atkins (Model 500) way back in 1983. I discovered recently however that two records preceded this in 1981, and are now generally regarded as the origins of this sound - 'Sharevari' by A Number of Names and 'Alleys of Your Mind', also by Cybotron.

'First' is clearly a grey area. No music has a virgin birth, and the influences of Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder loom large here - however you can clearly trace a line from these records that leads to 'No UFOs', 'Time, Space, Transmat', Derrick May, Inner City... and onwards to the future.



The first I came across 'Sharevari' was a couple of years ago when it was remixed and re-released in Berlin on International Deejay Gigolos, and Detroit on Puzzlebox. Vitalic and Ectomorph tackled the Gigolo issue, while the cream of present day Detroit Electro featured on the double vinyl Puzzlebox release. The Vitalic mix was the first i'd heard of the track, and it seems astonishing hearing the original now that it was made nearly 25 years earlier. With the arpeggiated synths and spoken lyrics it sounds incredibly similar all the Gigolo releases that have been rocking clubs for the last 5 years.

As far as I can tell this was the only record they released.. what a legacy to leave! All the information I can find about 'A Number of Names' is here, so read that there & listen to this here:

A NUMBER OF NAMES - SHAREVARI

Unlike ANON, Juan Atkins is no one-hit wonder. He is still releasing records today, and recently had a new album released on Tresor as well as the honour of having the last ever record played at Berlin's legendary Tresor club (a brand new track). Although this slice of proto-electro is not as famous as it's incredible follow-up 'Clear', it's a cracking tune, and you can hear all the elements that eventually defined the Detroit sound...



CYBOTRON - ALLEYS OF YOUR MIND



Ah, and look at this. Coincidentally, any time now Tresor are releasing a 20 year Juan Atkins / Metroplex double CD retrospective!! Seriously now.. this shit is essential. It looks like it was supposed to be out on 30th March but there's no sign in any online shops yet except for the Tresor store. Absolute quality from start to finish... I've placed my order. Have you?

Buy that along with the upcoming Underground Resistance double CD mentioned on the Techno Rebels site and you will have enough heavenly Detroit tunes to keep you going for a fair old while!

Plus check out Gutterbreakz for some more Detroit reminiscences...


Keep it soulful

Summer Nights

Line-up for the Somerset House gigs this July:
05 Beth Orton
06 Doves
07 Queens Of The Stone Age
08 Super Furry Animals
09 The Mars Volta
10 Sigur Ros
11 Bright Eyes
12 Bloc Party


I'll be taking in a couple of these I think.... (SFA & Sigur Ros?)

Tickets are supposed to be on sale today sometime, but i've not had any luck finding out when.

Gold Blend

Todays entry will be low on words but high on quality. I'm off to Sheffield for the weekend soonish, but thought i'd bang one out before leaving. I should have time to do a post as well! (boom boom)

On my Boards of Canada post a couple of months back there was a comment regarding their genius remix of Midnight Star's 'Midas Touch'. Now i'd never heard the original of that track, however sifting through an old pile of records last week I discovered a forgotten Street Sounds album, and after scanning the tracklisting spotted that very song - snuggled up close to Jaki Graham and the classic 'Holiday Rap' by MC Mike G and DJ Sven!



It's astoundingly good. This is pure 80s electro heaven. I cannot believe that this is not blaring out of every bar in Shoreditch.

While finding a crackle free version to share with you, I discovered that there had been a set of remixes out last year by the likes of Ewan Pearson and Ashley Beadle. Good though these are, they still don't match up to the genius of the original. Mainly because they miss out the best bit of the song - the little 'ding' that comes after they say 'Midas Touch'.

Have a good weekend. This is Pure Gold.

MIDNIGHT STAR - MIDAS TOUCH





DING!


Incidentally the scene from Goldfinger above (where Odd Job decapitates the statue) was filmed just down the road from me.. at Stoke Poges golf course. It's as posh as it sounds. Needless to say I have never graced its greens.

International A & R

So i've recently started getting some music sent to me, and remarkably most of it is good!

First off the mark (a while back now) was a song by Philadephia band Racecar.



And it's excellent. It starts off like 'Box Elder' by Pavement, but then moves into something more reminiscent of The Arcade Fire... who Racecar supported on some dates last year.

The song is apparently 'about being kronked up'. I don't know what that is but it sounds fun.

RACECAR - D IS THE NEW C

If you visit their site you can listen to two other tracks and also buy their self-financed album. Hurrah!




The next band is brought to you via Patrick, my man in Amsterdam. He describes his friend Jasper as 'disgustingly talented', which is high praise indeed since Pad himself is no slouch on the 6-string. The band (there are two of them - Jasper & Robin) are called David Gilmour Girls, and are signed to Relish Records - a sublabel of Fine Records run by Headman / Manhead. Fine is home to Tiefschwarz, The Glass and Mocky, so the DGG are in fine company. Their first single (the marvellously named 'Crack House Warming Party') came out to great acclaim last year (download a mix from their site), and with any luck this new single 'HMMM' (Heavy Metal Music Magazines) will do the business for them.

It's a 10-minute epic that begins with loads of overdriven guitars in a very similar style to Ratatat, before morphing into a Kraftwerk / Moroder-esque synth track. I been getting down to this a lot this week. It's well weapon.

DAVID GILMOUR GIRLS - HMMM

Apparently they will be playing live at 'Our Disco' some time soon (where the likes of Errol Alkan, Trevor Jackson, 2 Many DJs and LCD Soundsystem can be found manning the decks). I'm looking forward to getting down in public.







And finally a special mention goes to Brian from Portland's Audraglint label, who actually sent me a shiny CD. I like that. And I also like the music on it. I'd not heard of Audraglint beforehand but they've previously put out records by Kid 606. The album I have is by a group called Nice Nice and is called 'YESSS!'

This track 'Uh-Oh' is a glitchy little number with a pinch of R&B among the electronic squelches. The album is out on June 21st and also contains a couple of great remixes by Stars as Eyes and DJ/Rupture. Ch-ch-check it out.

NICE NICE - UH-OH

So there you go. Send me your music and you too could be heard by OVER ONE HUNDRED(!) people a day!

James Woodley
PO BOX 204
SL2 2QE
UNITED KINGDOM

or

auralexciter at btopenworld.com


Please bear in mind that unlike other more scrupilous bloggers, I am extremely susceptable to bribery. Guest list passes, massage parlour vouchers and Bolivian marching powder particularly welcome.

You might have loved me in the end

I've been meaning to post both of these for quite a while... but while they're not quite as hot off the press as they could have been, they are still both pretty damn hot.



First up is the much praised new single by Recloose (out to buy today) - who famously signed to Carl Craig's Planet E label after passing him a demo tape hidden in a sandwich. He's new stuff is coming out on Peacefrog - the St Albans label that has for 15 years been putting out records from Detroit & Chicago greats - along with UK techno legends like Luke Slater, Stasis & Neil Landstrumm.

This new release, 'Dust', has been picking up a lot of play from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Laurent Garnier (again) and Mr Scruff. It's a funky-assed broken beat style track with that unmistakeable Detroit soul running through its veins.

Expect to hear this in every bar you visit for the next month.

But still like it.

RECLOOSE - DUST


I first came across the second track today thanks to a post on 20 Jazz Funk Greats a couple of weeks back. They posted the brilliant Peaches remix of this song.... however after watching the video that Matthew kindly linked to I completely fell in love with the original.

This is glorious sleazy rock music - think The Ramones or New York Dolls - played as it should be - by ugly men from Northern towns (Sheffield in this case) with leather trousers, bad hair and rock 'n' roll in their hearts.

I love the opening line 'And now my future's gone, I didn't need it anyway'

I also like that the last line is 'This is the end'.

And I particularly like all the bits in between.

I think this is my favourite record so far this year.

PINK GREASE - PEACHES

I don't think Davina got the love and awe it deserved last week, so please show some love for this. Leave a comment!


p.s. Can anyone tell me the name of the instrument that Pink Grease use - the one you play with a pen that makes Dr Who noises? Watch the video & you'll see what I mean. Whatever it is, I want one!

p.p.s The last (?) AD was awesome - however was it just a tease to finish with an 'on the next season of Arrested Development' section? I hope not. Three is the magic number.

Inspiration

For a couple of weeks now i've been promising you a piece of house magic from Detroit.. and your wait is now over!

I first heard this track more than 10 years ago on Laurent Garnier's superb Mixmag Live CD. Soon after that I saw Garnier DJing in Sheffield, and still remember the hairs standing up on the back of my neck as he played the same record. Co-incidentally i'll (probably) be seeing him again this weekend, so i'll be desperately hoping to hear this pumping out of The End's cracking soundsystem.

The record in question is 'Don't You Want It' by Davina. A production by Underground Resistance chief 'Mad' Mike Banks.



As an uncompromising balaclava wearing revolutionary, 'Mad' Mike would seem to be an unlikely creator of such blissful house music, however a listen through to the UR back catalogue reveals an artist dripping with soul and funk, particularly since Jeff Mills and Rob Hood left the UR camp to persue their own minimal directions. UR are one of the big hitters in Detroit Techno, and tracks like 'Amazon', 'Final Frontier', 'Hi-Tech Jazz', 'Electronic Warfare', 'Transition', 'Timeline' and 'Firekeeper' (I could go on...) will be with me for life.

And that's before mentioning the classic releases by Drexciya or DJ Rolando's incredible 'Knights of the Jaguar'.... but I'll save them for another day.

Over the years a myriad of labels have appeared under the Underground Resistance umbrella, and in the early 90's Mike Banks produced a series of garage releases on the Happy Records label. It was here that the Davina track first came out in all too limited numbers.

I spent more than 8 years hunting this down on vinyl. Annoyingly I did find it in a second hand shop once, but decided at the time that I couldn't afford the £25 asking price. Shit did I spend a lot of time kicking myself for that one! It was another 6 years before I ambled into Sister Ray one afternoon and saw the word 'DAVINA' staring out at me from the front of the rack. I fairly skipped to the counter to discover that UR had reissued the track on pristine shrink wrapped vinyl!

A couple of weeks later I took this out to play for the first time, only to find as I carefully checked my bag at the end of the night that some crafty bugger had attempted to half inch it. After virtually tearing the room apart I found it tucked in the back of a box of records where it could not have gone by accident.

Hands off my Davina, suckers!

Anyway, no-one has attempted to steal any of my other records, so I guess that is some kind of seal of quality. I won't talk it up any more.. just listen.

DAVINA - DON'T YOU WANT IT



BONUS UR!

'Transition' is a more recent UR classic from 2002, fitting in perfectly with a transitional period in my life. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get quite enough inspiration from the track to really make any meaningful changes. Perhaps I should have listened to it more.

If you think this is good you gotta hear it pumping out of a club system. This track shows exactly why techno music will always be deep in my heart.

UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE - TRANSITION

2005 a funk odyssey

Warp's latest signing is a French dude called Chok Rock, whose debut release 'Give It Up', from the 'Big City Loser EP' is a magnificent 12 minute glitch-rock odyssey. Output records boss Trevor Jackson describes it as 'Akufen meets Parliament'.. which just about sums it up.



The only information I have is from the Warp site...

"Originally released in a limited pressing on the Parisian label Chateaurouge, a copy of the 12" ended up in the Rough Trade shop where one of the band !!! (on a rare afternoon's break from touring last year) heard it, flipped out and brought it to Warp's attention. Gael was immediately tracked down and bundled onto the next Eurostar to London...

Further EPs and an album will follow in 2005/6 on Warp."



I was going to post the excellent first track, however first of all it's a 16MB file; second it's not out for over a month & I don't want to step on Warp's shoes; and third there are a couple of other good songs on the single. This one sounds like a robotic Finlay Quaye jamming in a car factory.

CHOK ROCK - HAPPY MAN


Buy the single from the usual places on 25th May.

Into My Heart

Along with Boards of Canada one of my most eagerly anticipated albums still to come this year is the new one from Danish gods Mew, which according to their site is now due for release in August. It's hard to keep up with the relentless flow of musical genius coming out of Scandinavia, and commerical success has so far and somehow eluded them. Hopefully this new album will give them the recognition they deserve.



They have three albums under their belts already, although the first two were only released in Denmark and are harder to find than an honest politician. (Politicians are cheaper to buy though - i've seen 'A Triumph for Man' selling for £300). After being signed by Sony, 'Frengers' - which means 'Not Quite Friends but Not Quite Strangers' - was released to an unsuspecting world in 2003, and has become one of my favourite albums. Although quality from start to finish, the album ends with an absolute masterpiece in 'Comforting Sounds', which surely would have been number one for a month were it not 9 minutes long and therefore unsuitable for radio.

Every time I hear it I immediately think 'Fake Plastic Trees' - I guess the chord structure is similar - but it's better than that, eventually building to a breathtaking crescendo whose volume catches me out every time, invariably scaring some old dear at a zebra crossing as it blares out of my car window!


This = Magic.

MEW - COMFORTING SOUNDS





I'm off to see British Sea Power tomorrow night. I gave their album a rather lukewarm review a few months back, however it's really grown on me & i'm looking forward to their show tomorrow. What more can you want from a gig than seagulls on sticks, shrubbery, military headgear and amazing tunes?

I've put 'Like a Honeycomb' from the new album back up temporarily.. so give it a listen if you've not heard it.

Fox have made a Terrible Mistake

I've just watched what's more than likely the second last episode of Arrested Development. Shit I just cannot believe that it's been cancelled. I fucking LOVE this show.



BBC2 did the same disservice to the first series as they did to Seinfeld, moving it round the schedules like a dose of the clap.... but I managed to keep track and watch them all, and have been unable to wait until they decide to show series 2. I've been watching torrents of the second series as they're shown in the states, and I have to say the show is getting better and better every episode. Cutting this down in its prime is negligence of the highest order. It's the televisual equivalent of the Munich Air Crash.

I cannot understand how a TV executive can watch something this good, this well written, and this fucking FUNNY and decide that it would be better to replace it with 'America's stupidest bank robbers' or some such tripe. Tobias, Gob and Buster are three of the best characters any sitcom has ever come up with.... and GODDAMIT I NEED THEM ON TELEVISION.



Dear Fox...... SAVE THIS SHOW

Intensity in tent cities

The full Glastonbury lineup was announced this morning. I'm feeling slightly underwhelmed by it - too much turgid NME-style indie rock (e.g. Razorlight, The Killers etc) and not enough decent dance music. However as always the more you look the more people you realise you want to see.

Kylie & The Kaiser Chiefs are probably the only two on my 'absolutely must see whatever the circumstances' list. The following also caught my eye out of the lineup though, and if I happen to be sitting round chomping down mushrooms while they are playing I will be a happy man: White Stripes; Brian Wilson; Hayseed Dixie; New Order; Interpol; Tom Vek; The Go! Team; M.I.A.; Willy Mason; 2 Many DJs; Whitey; M83; Bloc Party; Futureheads; Art Brut; Roots Manuva; Femi Kuti; DJ Format; Squarepusher; The Bays; Mark One; Nouvelle Vague... and of course... CHAS 'N' DAVE and THE PROCLAIMERS! Hopefully the Lock Tavern will be back as well this year.. had a couple of great nights there last time with Bugged Out & Sonic Mook Experiment.

The lineup is fairly irrelevant at Glastonbury anyway. To be honest these days I seem to fritter away my days drinking tea with assorted weirdos in the green fields, and the nights seeking out madness and badness. The best band I saw last year were The Beat (of 'Mirror in the Bathroom' fame) at 5am in Lost Vagueness. Attempting to ska dance while up to your knees in indiscribable mud wearing a sombrero and tuxedo is an experience you can only have in Pilton.

If anyone can recommend to me some of the numerous bands i've not heard of I would be glad of your tips!

GAH!

I promised last week that this weekend i'd post up my favourite house track. Ever. So last night I spent a fair old while preparing a lengthy post, until it reached the stage where i thought 'hang on, i'd better save this in case I lose it'. So I pressed 'save'. And lost it. Bollocks. Seems like Blogger decided to go down at the most inopportune moment possible.

Blogger is great but posting does my head in at times.. particularly when it decides to a: randomly change the size of your text and b: reformat your image tags & turn them into hyperlinks. Maybe it's just me but doing these posts seems to take a lot longer than it really should thanks to pointless fiddling round with formatting.

But enough of my technical woes.... here's a quick blast of techno pop to compensate for having to wait for your house fix. This will be very familiar if you've heard Michael Mayer's Fabric mix CD and is brought to you by the mighty Kompakt.

HEIKO VOSS - I THINK ABOUT YOU

Ski Thursday

As promised here is that track by The Chalets

THE CHALETS - SEXY MISTAKE


I hope you like it.

I do.

Down The Tube

Caught another couple of bands last night, after going to see The Chalets and The Subways at the LA2.



The Chalets were excellent.. two sexy frontwomen in co-ordinated kinky gear, a great band, and some great songs sounding kind of like Huggy Bear or The Go! Team - but tighter & less shambolic. I really enjoyed the first half of the set, and although it started running out of steam a bit towards the end I have no doubt that this lot have a good future. Watch out for them. I've got one of their tracks on a compilation at home so i'll try & post it up a bit later on.

There was a palpable buzz in the air while waiting for The Subways to come on, and as they pounded their way through their opening track in a blur of energy and shaking hair I was getting quite caught up in it. Unfortunately though it was all downhill from there. 3 songs in I was starting to get a bit bored... at about the time when I realised that if I closed my eyes I may as well have been watching McFly. Radio-friendly inoffensive punk pop.

Like The Bravery a few weeks back the kids loved 'em though... so i'm sure my cynicism will be no barrier to huge success for them.


So it was a decent enough evening.. however once again the drive home proved the musical highlight of the evening. I'd earlier picked up a CD by a band called Ske, after firstly noticing that it was on the same Icelandic label as Sigur Ros - Smekkleysa (Bad Taste), and subsequently noticing that it was only a quid!

I slipped it in the CD player on my way home and was hugely impressed. I can't believe I'd not heard of this lot before.. it's not as if Icelandic musicians struggle to break through in the UK!



The opening of the album, 'Stuff', sounds like uncannily like The Beta Band doing a cover version of Zero 7's amazing Lambchop remix (Up With People). As the album progresses, scores of influences become apparent.. from U2 to Air to Goldfrapp to The Kinks to Chas 'n' Dave! It's incredibly diverse. Every track is distinctive, with songs in three languages in its 8 tracks (although not Icelandic for some reason). The songs in Japanese in particular are stunning, and since I love this album so much I'm going to post one of them up here as well... 'Julietta 1'. It sounds exactly as you'd expect an Icelandic band doing a song in Japanese would sound!



It seems as though this album (Love, Death, Happiness & Stuff) came out back in 2002 in Iceland, but didn't get a UK release until late last year, when it seems to have completely fallen under the radar. If you like these two songs then please buy it. You won't be disappointed. I am totally loving this record.

SKE - STUFF

SKE - JULIETTA 1

Result x 2

Two big hurrah's today.

#1 I managed to get Glastonbury tickets. Yay!

#2 I finally managed to suss out my Atom feed settings. Woo!

You can now find a feed at www.headphonesex.co.uk/feed/atom.xml

Don't Press Red Buttons

Picked up a great little 7" on my weekly shop today.. There's a Four Tet track on the A side, however I really bought it for the David Shrigley track on the flip.



Hopefully you'll be starting to appreciate Shrig's deranged humour by now - i've been featuring his pictures & drawings the last couple of weeks. In this piece he offers up a few words of advice... which believe me are well worth heeding.

DAVID SHRIGLEY - DON'TS

This 7" was released as part of the 'Late Night Tales' series... the next three will also feature David Shrigley tracks, although i suspect i'm a bit late to get part two (The Flaming Lips covering 'Seven Nation Army') as it came out a couple of weeks back and they're all limited to 1000 :-(

CDs are of course available of both the Four Tet and Flaming Lips editions of this series.



EDIT - LINK FIXED... SORRY ABOUT THAT!

EDIT #2 - LINK REALLY FIXED THIS TIME! (Blogger really doesn't like spaces or apostrophes)

Fastest Finger First

I was going to spoil you today with two more slices of Detroit magic... but hey this is Headphone Sex, not an orgy. One at a time please. That way I can give each of these babies all my love and attention.



As I mentioned in my last post i've been listening to Moodymann a lot recently, which prompted me to dig out the only thing of his I previously owned on vinyl - a record by long-time collaborator Norma Jean Bell, which came out in Europe on Laurent Garnier's F-Communications label.

It's quite unusual to hear a house record genuinely from a woman's perspective, rather than singing words laid down by the inevitable 'bloke in background'. I can't think that i've ever heard a male equivalent of this track .. 'i'm the baddest bitch in this room, cos you belong to me, and everybody knows it' .. on records fellas seem to be more into bragging about their jewelery or how many women they've had.

Kenny Dixon Jr (Moodymann) never rushes anything, and as usual with his productions it's getting on for 10 minutes long; it's as deep as the Marianas Trench and it's dripping with sex, sax and soul. I defy anyone not to shake their hips to this....

NORMA JEAN BELL - I'M THE BADDEST BITCH (MOODYMANN MIX)

Her album on Peacefrog has been going cheap in Record & Tape Exchange on my last few visits. I'll have to snap it up at the weekend if it's still there.

Stay tuned next weekend for the best house record you've never heard.

Yes it's from Detroit.

Sunday sees the annual scramble for Glastonbury tickets, not helped in the slightest by Michael Eavis first announcing that there is no festival next year, and then casually mentioning that Kylie and Coldplay will be headlining. If he wants to avoid the chaos of the last few years why not just keep quiet until the tickets are sold & then announce the line-up?

Anyway, i'm staying in this weekend just to make sure i'm hovering over the 'refresh' button at 9am Sunday. Wish me luck.