Keep it in the family

Every time I take a loot at what search engine queries have led people to this site, it appears that somebody has visited in search of tales of incest between the Bedingfield siblings... as mentioned here. If my skin crawled while watching that appalling and extremely creepy Brit Awards performance it was nothing compared to what greeted me on CD:UK this Saturday morning.

Bedingfield (Daniel) doing a cover of The Killers' 'Somebody Told Me'. Accompanied by Spanish Guitar.

Thankfully I was not nursing a hangover, or I my guts may have found it too much to take. It was the most embarassingly awful thing I have seen on television since that footage of Boyzone dancing on The Late Late Show.

Who the hell told this bloke he should be a pop star?

Diabolus in Musica

This should wake you up if you're struggling to recover from the bank holiday! If you've ever thought that thrash metal was for pussies, then this is for you. Ninja Tune's Amon Tobin takes Slayer's 'Angel of Death' and lays some ferocious beats over the top!



I've been after this for a while after seeing it on sale on ebay a few times. I believe it was limited to 300 copies though, so I don't reckon i've got much hope of spotting it in the bargain bins! Finally the Lord Slsk fixed me up.



Now I will confess my knowledge of Slayer is slightly sketchy, however I had an immediate burst of recognition upon hearing this, since it's the same track Soulwax opened their DJ set with at the Primavera festival last year. Class! I've got to buy some thrash metal to try mixing with.

I've always visualised dance and rock music as a bit of a circle, with both meeting up at the extremities. At one end thrash metal is not far removed from Gabba or Hardcore... at the other you have a lot of similarities between the likes of Slowdive and Ulrich Schnauss, or Eno and Em:t. My mate Steve slipped a bit of Metallica into an electro set at a party a while back, which fitted perfectly with something like Vitalic. Both sound best when you jump up & down and shake your head.

Amon Tobin has been recording for Ninja Tune for ages now... I've not actually heard any of his stuff apart from the track he did with Chris Morris ('Bad Sex' - which was based on a sketch from Jam) and now this. I was surprised to discover that he's Brazilian. Aren't Slayer Brazilian? Or was that Sepultura? Maybe he should have remixed one of their tracks instead? Either way i'm glad he did this one. It rocks hard.

Be warned.. it's one of those that starts quietly & tricks you into turning the stereo up. It should of course be played at maximum volume though!

PLAYER - ANGEL OF THEFT

Entertainment!

Sunny at Pollox Niner has posted up one of the Gang of Four's finest moments.. 'Damaged Goods', which if you've not heard you should immediately investigate.



It's not my favourite track of theirs though...that title belongs to 'At Home He's A Tourist', also originally from the classic 'Entertainment!' album. It should have been a massive hit for them, however Top of The Pops wouldn't let them perform the line 'The rubbers you hide, in your pocket' and without this TV exposure it stalled just outside the Top 40. It seems incredible that such an inoffensive line could be censored as recently as 1979, but morality is a strange beast. I was reminded of Kenneth Tynan's famous honour of being the first man to say 'Fuck' on television. He was smoking a fag at the time. If that show went out now, the fact he was smoking on television would cause outrage while the expletive would go unnoticed.



(Nice quote from Tynan: "A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car")

Back to the track though, it's incredible the tension created by the jerky bass & itchy guitar stabs. The riff in the chorus sounds like a massive release of all that tension, before reaching the 15 stabs at the climax, sounding to me like the embodiment of frustration. Despite all this the track does make me want to dance, although I'm not sure it's possible without jerking around like Ian Curtis. Terrible danger of spillage on the dancefloor.

Strangely G of F didn't have a great deal of recognition in their home town of Leeds when I was a student there. The Sisters of Mercy were more likely to be mentioned as part of the city's musical heritage. I'm sure that would have changed now with the likes of Franz Ferdinand & Bloc Party paying well-publicised homage to the Gang of Four sound.



GANG OF FOUR - AT HOME HE'S A TOURIST


There are a couple of excellent articles on the Gang of Four here. Take a look.

The Sound of Young Chav Britain

Coldplay may be 'The Biggest Band in the World' according to every bloody newspaper and magazine published in the last fortnight, and 'Speed of Sound' may have been on the radio every 27 seconds for the last month.... however it seems this is not what the kids are listening to.

Who the fuck buys this? And why?

'CRAZY FROG SET TO BEAT COLDPLAY TO NUMBER ONE

According to music retailer HMV, Crazy Frog's 'Axel F' is outselling ’Speed Of Sound’ by a 4 to 1 margin in their stores.'

http://www.nme.com/news/112448.htm


If you think that's ridiculous, check this out... The Killers are now favourites to be headlining Glastonbury. WTF?

Cracks appear

December 8th 1980.

After putting the final touches to a track in the studio, John Lennon & Yoko Ono set off from the studio to walk back to their apartment in The Dakota, Central Park.



Mark Chapman was waiting outside & shot Lennon dead.

I came across the track they had just completed, 'Walking on Thin Ice' thanks to Joey Negro's amazing 'Disco Not Disco' compilation, however I had no idea about the significance of the record. I loved it for what it was.. a killer bassline and ska-like groove allowing Yoko full reign to yelp & generally go off on one over the top. It's no surprise that it was a big favourite in The Loft, Paradise Garage and other legendary New York clubs.. the groove is inescapable.

The song becomes more astonishing though once you know what happened immediately after the recording. It's even suggested that Lennon was holding the master tape when he was shot. The lyrics of the song and Yoko's almost funereal vocals add an incredible amount of poignancy. It's no wonder when it was released that the sleeve dedicated the record to John's memory.



Walking on thin ice,
I'm paying the price
For throwing the dice in the air.
Why must we learn it the hard way
And play the game of life with your heart?

I gave you my knife,
You gave me my life
Like a gush of wind in my hair.
Why do we forget what's been said
And play the game of life with our hearts?

I may cry some day,
But the tears will dry whichever way.
And when our hearts return to ashes,
It'll be just a story,




I don't claim to know that much about Yoko Ono, but I do believe she is a lot more talented than she's ever been given credit for. She undeniably infuenced to a huge extent all of Lennon's work in the 70s, as well as producing plenty of interesting art in her own right. I suspect the press would have been much happier had Lennon married some vacuous but beautiful model, and that much of the hostility towards her led from an incomprehension on the part of the media and public that he didn't.

YOKO ONO - WALKING ON THIN ICE

When You Walk Through A Storm

What a great game tonight. I've always had a soft spot for the scousers, and I thoroughly enjoyed the stunning comeback this evening. Far from the mugging that ManUre gave Bayern Munich a few years back.

I have started to accept that Wycombe Wanderers will never lift the European Cup (at least not until I become a billionaire and buy Ronaldinho & Shevchenko for The Blues), so seeing Gerrard raise it to the sky this evening was a fine alternative.

Superb.

LES RHYTHMES DIGITALES - FROM DISCO TO: DISCO

Muddy Marys

According to the Holy Moly newsletter (think a more juvenile Popbitch. It's great!), Scissor Sisters are replacing Kylie as Glastonbury headliners.

A bit disappointing if it's true.. i've seen them touring their debut album 4 times. Not sure I can be arsed again. I was kind of secretly hoping it would be U2, since there's no way in a million years i'd actually pay to go & see them... and they're probably damn good live. Still, i'm sure i'll find something else interesting going on. I'm not really one for the main stages anyway.


I'm also considering going to Lowlands in The Holland this year. Anyone been before? Is it as good as you'd imagine a Dutch festival would be?

New Wave Disco

It's not all techno techno techno chez headphonesex.

I've been listening to this song all day after coming across it on Richard X's 'Back to Mine' compliation. I recognised the unforgettable title 'You'll Always Find Me In the Kitchen at Parties', but i'd never heard the song before.

Released on Stiff records (sometime home of Madness, Kirsty MacColl, The Pogues, Ian Dury, Yello and Elvis Costello to name just a few) in 1980, the single managed some chart success with the unlikely backing of Dave Lee Travis, after the hairy cunt cornflake overheard it in the radio 1 corridors and made it his single of the week.



It's a tale of a man hanging round in kitchens at parties (no shit) attempting to score.

"Then I met this debutante I said I like new wave rock.
She was into french cuisine but I ain't no cordon bleu.
This was at some do in palmers green

I had no luck with her."

Perseverance pays off though! He who dares rodney, he who dares! Our hero finally has his way with a lass!

"At last I met a pretty girl she laughed and talked with me.
We both walked out of the kitchen and danced in a new way.

And now I've done my time in the kitchen at parties."

It's not clear what happens next though. Does he stop going to parties altogether, or just move into the lounge? Sadly the follow up single did not explain, but instead became an unlikely christmas smash hit. "Stop The Cavalry" is a standard on christmas compilations and I suspect that he now lives a fine life from the royalties a la Hugh Grant in 'About a Boy'. (You'd know it if you heard it)




The whole track is done in a really jaunty synthpop style, with Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals singing his lines back to him. Matthew at Fluxblog would LOVE this. And so do I.

JONA LEWIE - YOU'LL ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE KITCHEN AT PARTIES

Sex With The Machines

The second part of Dave Clarke's 'World Service' mix CD is out next week. Like the first installment there are two CDs - one given over to Electro & one to Techno. The techno CD in particular is superb... the best techno mix i've heard for a long time. (DJ Bone's 'Subject: Detroit Volume 2' is the last outstanding one I can think of). Loads of cutting, scratching & all the stuff that brings looped techno to life.. combined with Clarke's superb track selection of dirty grooves and jacking house.

The Electro disc isn't quite as good, but does have a few killer tunes, including this one by Electro Commander Anthony Rother.



Rother was one of the first electro revivalists, and came to prominence back in around 1997/98 with superb releases such as 'Sex With The Machines', 'Red Light District' and particularly his cover of Kraftwerk's Trans Europa Express. (the musical equivalent of Gus Van Saint's 'Psycho' remake)



I've not heard much of his more recent stuff, but he seems to have been branching into new areas, with a couple of Ambient releases on Pete Namlook's Fax label, and an electro-pop album called 'Popkiller'. I saw this picture disc in a second hand shop not long ago, and thought i'd give it a whirl. A wise choice. This tune, 'When The Sun Goes Down' veres towards the poppier side of Rother's output, but is no less devastating.



Starting with some fierce electro beats (that's an 808, right?) before long a growling synth line appears, which gradually gets tweaked into an acid bath. Meanwhile Rother's nice Kraftwerk-esque vocals keep things building until by the end you're sure that whatever does happen when the sun goes down, it's gonna be fun... if a little dangerous.

ANTHONY ROTHER - WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

Just make sure when you listen you listen LOUD.

Nothing Happens in My Town

The Maximo Park album is out this week. And it's a killer.

I was a bit disappointed when I saw them live a few months ago (at the Camden Crawl). I think it was just the fact that the venue was slightly too big for them at that stage. There wasn't a lot of enthusiasm from the crowd, so I was left singing along to 'The Night I lost my Head' and 'The Coast is Changing' alone. I suspect that will have changed by the time I see them at Glastonbury though. This record is going to win them a lot of fans.

I suspect some of the credit for the way the album's turned out must go to producer Paul 'Phones' Epworth, who also produced the Futureheads and Bloc Party albums. Despite the punky feel there's a really rich, clean sound. You can hear every word Paul Smith comes out with, and most of them are worth hearing. The rhythms take Route #1 straight into my brain and most of the choruses find me singing along in the car (or under my breath at work) a la Kaiser Chiefs - who they are also similar to by virtue of having keyboards and lots of Oooh-ing.

All the songs are short and to the point, which keeps an exhilarating pace going through the album. The only exception is slowish penultimate track 'Acrobat', which hopefully hints at a band who have greater things to come.

My favourite song at the moment is recent single 'Grafiti' - the video of which you can watch right here. I'm going to post up their ode to Brit beach & beer destination 'Limassol' however because I like the dirty keyboard sound it starts off with. I don't think it's got much to do with Cyprus though.

MAXIMO PARK - LIMASSOL

Buy this album.

You're not going to like this. At first.

I didn't really illustrate my point too well yesterday by myself posting up a fairly tracky tune. As you will have no doubt realised, I don't spend the time I should on this site. You will have to forgive my occasional lazy track selection & frequently lazy writing. I have a job to do as well y'know!

This is what I should have posted:

BLUES EXPLOSION - MARS, ARIZONA (DFA REMIX)

Whether you're a lover or hater, you can't deny the influence James Murphy has had over the music scene these last couple of years. Dirty post-punk bass lines overlaid with yelps, cowbells and half-sung vocals are more common now than a sunburnt englishman on a Spanish beach.

But far more agreeable to listen to.



This remix is a lot dirtier & rougher sounding than the LCD Soundsystem stuff, and as such I prefer it. Picadilly Records have this in stock at the moment, so if you are a DJ who finds yourself frequently lapsing into euro-techno tedium all is not lost. Just burn all your records and buy some good ones instead.

You can listen to the !!! mix over at Moebius Rex, who put me onto this track. His site is certainly one of the better MP3 blogs out there so bookmark him up. While you're visiting check the acid-electro 'Plastique de Reve' track and the bizarre but strangely compelling human beatbox techno of 'Barbatuques'. Who needs a 303, fatboy?

Kill all (crap) DJs

Bleurghh.. a bit dazed today after a weekend of too little sleep and too much of everything else.

I ended up in the 333 club in Old Street on Friday, only to find yet again a night full of DJs playing unbearably tedious tunes.

This has happened every time recently that i've drunkenly dropped into a club instead of specifically going out to see someone. And I don't understand it. Surely as a DJ your job is to bring out the absolute best records you have in your collection, play them loudly and get everyone dancing. Instead I repeatedly have to experience boring featureless 4-4 electro-tech DJ tools. Techno without funk, thrills or feeling.

It baffles me why with so many incredibly good records in the world, why any DJ would choose to play something in a club that is not an incredibly good record.

I don't give a fuck about your mixing skills. Just play me some good music.

Such as this for instance

METRO AREA - HONEY CIRCUIT

It's from the sixth in the Metro Area series, and is right back to the quality of the first few releases after the disappointing #5. Lush disco hooks, squelchy bass and really intricate drum patterns. Yep, this would definitely get me shaking my hips (and stop me moaning about the crap music to anyone unfortunate enough to be standing nearby).

Cheese

My indie selections don't seem to be going down too well. No comments for that Bang Bang Machine track? I'm astounded.

Oh well. I won't sulk.

Much.



So y'all want techno do you?

DBX - LOSING CONTROL


I recommend you stare at the scary girl while listening.

A belated but heartfelt tribute to JP

Although Rob Da Bank and Ras Kwame seem to be doing an excellent job in John Peel's Radio 1 slots (or so it seems on the rare occasions I tune in) they don't seem to have the knack for pulling out the unexpected that JP did. Still, I guess it's best not to try and imitate the great man, although it's sad that Napalm Death can no longer count on Radio 1 support for their new releases!

Although my later memories of Peel mainly involve him either playing gabba to a load of stoners at the Big Chill or laying down some ferocious jungle on his radio show just as I’m turning into bed, I’m going to have to pay my respects with some old skool indie.

Observe. The Festive Fifty from 1992 (well, the top twenty)
1 Bang Bang Machine - Geek Love
2 PJ Harvey - Sheela-Na-Gig
3 Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod
4 Wedding Present - Come Play With Me
5 Fall - The Legend Of Xanadu
6 Fall - Free Range
7 Sonic Youth - Youth Against Fascism
8 Pavement - Trigger Cut
9 Babes In Toyland - Bruise Violets
10 Pavement - Here
11 Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea
12 Fall - Ed's Babe
13 Jesus And Mary Chain - Reverence
14 Wedding Present - Flying Saucer
15 Suede - The Drowners
16 Sugar - Changes
17 Sonic Youth - Sugar Kane
18 Wedding Present - Silver Shorts
19 Wedding Present - Love Slave
20 Orb - Blue Room

Full of the usual Peel suspects as you see... however you will notice sitting proudly at number one a song that seems to have disappeared into the mists of time. "Geek Love".

I remember listening to the countdown that year and apparently the Bang Bang Machine track won by the biggest margin since the festive fifty began. I remember JP saying something along the lines of "you don’t even need me to tell you what the number one is". “Oh, it’s Nirvana then” I thought. And then while anticipating some power chords this incredible track came on.

I've listened to it again and again over the last few days, and it's every bit as astounding as on that first listen. The version i'm posting here is the 9 and a half minute original. It was marked on the reissued CD single as the 'Spangle Mix', however I also have the original 12" (a bit of A4 paper glued onto an inner sleeve. Limited to 250 copies or something) and it's exactly the same version that appears on that record (minus the pops and crackles).



It's an astonishing debut and propelled them to a brief flirtation with the top 40 that they were never able to capitalise on with their later releases. I don't really have dreams of being a rockstar, however it would be fantastic to leave the world something this good then fade away into obscurity.

These are the only two pictures of the band that seem to exist on the interweb. They deserve to be remembered more than this.



BANG BANG MACHINE – GEEK LOVE

“To Love. But never to be in Love.” That sounds very familiar.

Janice? Mabel?


Another record I discovered through Peel was by a band called 'Delicate Vomit'. Three girls from Newcastle who kind of arrived as part of that 'Riot Girrl' thing that Huggy Bear started. Well, I say 'arrived' however 'hung around in the car park outside' might be more apt. A Google search for the track I am going to post brings up NO results!



Perhaps if they hadn’t a: chosen a terrible name and b: tucked this song away as the third track on their one-sided 7” they could have been as big as…well.. Elastica.



I don't know if anyone else in the world actually owns this (except the band, me and my mate Ant - who virtually ran down to Crash records straight after hearing me play it.)(Hello Ant!). It's bloody great though.

DELICATE VOMIT – NOWHERE BOY

I guess as well as the Peel link both songs have similar lyrical themes of unrequited love. "It's just not fair, 'cos I quite like him and he doesn't care." They are also linked by both being fucking amazingly good. Whatever you do PLEASE make sure you listen to ‘Geek Love’ in particular. It truly is one of the greatest records of all time.

Dance Like a Machine

With the number of MP3 blogs around now it's getting hard to get in there first with any kind of important new release. Gutterbreakz has just posted an excellent review of the Analord series, which I have been dilligently buying and kind of enjoying. I dunno, it's all good, but if I played any track from the 9 records so far to someone who hadn't heard Aphex before they wouldn't have the same reaction as I had the first time I heard 'Selected Ambient Works 85-92' or 'Didgeridoo'. I mean those two records in particular opened my mind to the possiblities of dance music, and saved me from wasting the 90s buying Sebadoh 7"s instead of being wasted dancing in fields. I'm looking forward to number 8, which by all accounts is the best of the bunch so far, but to be honest with this series I get more joy from stroking my lovely binder than from actually listening to the tunes inside.

Another record I should certainly have mentioned before now is the Vitalic album. Trouble is that since I already owned the 'Poney EP' and 'Fanfares EP' the album was a bit of a disappointment as I already had half the tracks. That's not to say that if you aren't a vinyl junkie you shouldn't rush out any buy this immediately.. you should. It's great. But after three years leaping round my room to 'La Rock 01' I was hoping for a bit more payback.

This is the only track from 'Poney' not included on the album. I guess it's not been included as the arpeggiated synths are starting to sound a little dated, however it's still a killer track... right up there with Poney Part 1 & La Rock 01. What a 12" that was. (As I have previously mentioned.)

VITALIC - YOU PREFER COCAINE

After the release of the Poney EP a Vitalic remix was de rigour for any self-respecting techno artist. All are worth a listen (Lady B, Bjork, Shari Vari, Miss Kittin & Basement Jaxx are all the ones I can think of) however pick of the crop was this breathtaking metallic reworking of Slam's 'Visions'.

Click here for dancefloor devastation.

SLAM - VISIONS (VITALIC REMIX)

EDIT: RESULT! I have finally fixed my FTP problem having tried just about everything short of reformatting my hard drive. Turns out the problem is a rogue Windows Update. It was hotfix KB893066 if you are interested - or more to the point if you end up having the same problem with FTP timeouts. Thanks Bill!

Also I made a terrible error earlier in the post. 'You Prefer Cocaine' dated? WTF! Now i'm home with it pumping out of my stereo rather than my earphones I realise that I was talking shit. Sorry 'bout that.

Winsocked

Still having problems updating the site... I think some spyware may have infected my LSP Stack.

Ouch!

(No, I have no idea what that means either. Or how to fix it.)

Fortunately I have a few tracks already loaded onto the server, which will hopefully keep me going 'til I can sort the problem out.

Among them is another BOMB from Kenny Dixon Jr.



This track is apparently called J.A.N. (Just Another Niggah), released in 2002 on his own KDJ label. The record itself is a one-sided affair with no writing on the label and not even anything written in the millimetre thick run-out grooves. All the info I know (like the title for instance!) is from discogs.

As it says there, the interviewer sampled on the track is Detroit's infamous Electrifyin' Mojo, and is apparently taken from an interview with Prince. Electrifyin' Mojo has been credited with being a huge influence on Detroit Techno & House by championing European synth music on his radio show.

"Techno's roots in Detroit date back to a black FM DJ named Charles Johnson-better known by his on-air name, the Electrifying Mojo. From 1977 into the mid-'80s, Mojo practiced a philosophy he calls "counter-clockwiseology": ignoring the strict racial formatting that afflicted the local airwaves. "When I first got to Detroit, it was like apartheid on the dial," Mojo recalls, "separatist radio." A typical evening's session of Mojo's genre-defying Midnight Funk Association ranged from Parliament's "Flash Light" to Visage's "Frequency 7," plus anything and everything by Prince. Most important, when the German electronic group Kraftwerk's Computer World came out in 1981, Mojo played virtually the entire album every night, making a lasting impact on impressionable young listeners like Juan Atkins. "

Sweet.

MOODYMANN - J.A.N.

Look

Election Day.

What a depressing campaign. I can't imagine that any country in the world could EVER have seen such a pathetic level of political debate.

'We will be TOUGH ON CRIME'

'WE will be TOUGHER on Crime'

Yeah, well WE'LL be TOUGHEST on crime'


and so on ad infinitum.



Every day saw exactly the same questions put to Blair. Every day saw exactly the same replies dripping out on autopilot. 'LOOK' 'LOOK' 'LOOK' he keeps gibbering. What the British people have to decide is this. Is the world a better place now that Saddam has been ousted?

Well there seems to have been widespread assent in the media and from other politicians that it is.

Well frankly if (as it has been) at the cost of over 20,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, long term destablisation in the region and a financial cost of countless billions of pounds that could have been spent on healthcare and schools in this country... NO IT ISN'T. Quite where this bright new utopia is on the map in the Middle East I don't know. Because the Iraq I read about in the papers and see on the news sounds like the fucking wild west right now.



All the pressing concerns weighing heavy on our shoulders have warranted barely a mention:

Climate Change? I mean even ignoring the global consequences and being entirely parochial, surely the fact that Norfolk will be under water in 20 years should be a matter of some concern?

(Mind you i've been to Norwich and Great Yarmouth. They won't be missed.)

I enjoyed the policy put forward by the 'Church of the Militant Elvis'. "When elected our M.P. would like to go the Antarctic, stand in front of the ice bergs and shout "Stop Melting You Big White Bastards". It won't do much good but it's more than Bush & Blair are doing."

Europe? Last time it was the ONLY issue that the Tories seemed interested in. They seem to have forgotten it exists now. I suppose if we close our eyes long enough it won't be there any more.

Bollocks, is that the time? I have to get outta here & go vote. I could rant on for ages.

I'll be voting Lib Dem & I sincerely hope they overtake the Tories to become the main opposition party. We may then finally get some sensible debate about some of the key issues.

Let's face it though, we're gonna have four more years of Bliar.

CHAOS AD - GENERATION SHIT

This is Squarepusher in disguise - from his Acid album on Rephlex (Buzz Caner)

I just can't get enough

Sorry for the lack of posts over the weekend.. for some reason I can't upload to my server from home & i've not had time to work out why. It seems like I can at work though, so I can give you some more sweet lovin'...



The first I came across Goldfrapp was Alison did the singles reviews in Muzik magazine one month, and gave every single release no stars.... except the single of the month which she awarded one star out of five. That is a bit shitty really isn't it, but at least it's fairly interesting, and marked her out as having a bit of atitoood. I didn't really give 'Felt Mountain' much of a go when it was released though, since I suspected them of coming out of the same tedious 'chillout' box that Zero 7 and Groove Armada emerged from*. It was slightly reluctantly then that I went to watch them in a tent at Glastonbury a couple of years ago. Wow. They were amazing. Her voice was incredible, the stage show was mesmerising and it was the first time i'd ever seen anyone attempt to fuck a theremin. It was also a lot more rock 'n' roll than i had given them credit for. I did a lot of dancing.



So while I wasn't exactly counting down the days for 'Black Cherry' to come out, I was at least looking forward to hearing it. I had no expectation at all that it would be as good as it turned out though. What a fantastic album... and i've seen them live a couple of times since its release and they ROCK it. Along with Basement Jaxx & Super Furry Animals I think they're about the best live act around right now. Check out the live DVD 'Wonderful Electric' for a couple of stunning live shows. As one reviewer says, 'Seeing Alison live could be one of the seven wonders of the world'.



This is a remix they did last year, and comes off the Depeche Mode triple CD remix box set. It's more a throwback to the ethereal moments off 'Felt Mountain' than the glam electro disco of 'Black Cherry', but still a marvellous reworking.

I need to listen to some more Depeche Mode.

DEPECHE MODE - HALO (GOLDFRAPP REMIX)

According to their website there will be a new Goldfrapp album and tour later this year. Hurrah!

*Zero 7 to their credit have done some amazing remixes. Groove Armada can fuck right off.