Think I Need a Little Help

Any new material from Kenny Dixon Jr is cause for a party in my house, and i'm loving his new single 'Technology Stole my Vinyle'. The man just kills it every time, having been blessed with that elusive Motor City magic. Fans of the Moodymann will lap up those funk & soul samples, the jazz riffs, and that swinging beat that heads directly to your hips. Don't be misled.



MOODYMANN - TECHNOLOGY STOLE MY VINYLE

This is a very limited 1-sided 12", so don't hang about if you want a copy as it's been out a couple of weeks already.


I'm a bit confused by this next one, as I thought it came out a while back (in February) but i've just got an email telling me it's coming out on 28th May.

Findlay Brown has joined Jose Gonzales as another folky singer on the previously resolutely techno Peacefrog records (which has also put out a lot of Moodymann stuff in the past). 'Losing the Will to Survive', the forthcoming single, sounds like a lost folk classic from the 60's and wouldn't sound out of place on 'Forever Changes'.



Now the original has a definite hint of lysergicity running through it, which has been teased out even further by those modern masters of Psych Rock, Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve. I don't think it's much of a secret any more that BTWS are Erol Alkan and Richard Norris, and I can only assume that they're targeting the mushroom dwellers of Lost Vagueness with these new tunes. Hearing this at a certain point at Glastonbury I think you could quite easily forget which decade you were in. It's quite brilliant.

FINDLAY BROWN - LOSING THE WILL TO SURVIVE (BEYOND THE WIZARDS SLEEVE RE-ANIMATION)

Want more Wizard's Sleeve? Well fortunately their third album is out this week. I've not heard it yet, but reports are good. It's called 'George'. And this is what you want to look out for:



Like the previous two, it won't be around for long.

So, what would you maniacs like to do first?

So, Does it Offend You, Yeah? Their name sounds like something created by Nathan Barley, and they also to be honest sound like they may just have put together by a bunch of hoxton 'creatives' with too much time and too few brains.



But suspicions of some industry joke aside, you can't deny the hard rocking riffs, daft punk vocoder sounds and crunching beats of forthcoming single 'Weird Science'. The more I listen the more I realise that it is, in fact, 'well weapon'. I'd actually go as far as to say that it's totally fucking Mexico.

DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? - WEIRD SCIENCE


The big news for next week is a new 'is it is or is it ain't AFX' release on Rephlex. The hand of Richard d. James has been rumoured to be involved in countless Rephlex (and Warp) releases over the years, and it usually turns out to be someone else entirely (Rubber Johnny, Bogdan Racynzski & Ovuca for example).

Listening to this new single by The Tuss however, has me 95% convinced that we do in fact have some Aphex Acid. The tracks are an obvious continuation from 2005's Analord series, and another clue lies in the fact that 'Tuss' is Cornish slang for an erection! The track titles and label photography also scream 'Analord'.



This is track 2 from the EP... make your own mind up. I think it's pretty wonderful stuff either way.

THE TUSS - ALSPACKA

Buy it from Warpmart.

Time is Tight

I get concerned sometimes about the overwhelming 'whiteness' of this blog. I mean looking back through history (and through my record collection) it's always been black musicians who've led the way; inventing all the new & exciting musical forms which have usually then been quickly jumped on by white folk who've sold millions of records to the mass market. This happened to Jazz; R&B, Techno, House... even soul music to an extent. I can't be certain, but I have a terrible feeling that Michael Bolton may have sold more records than Marvin Gaye.

So where are the black musicians now? Obviously there are exceptions, but my record collection seems to be getting whiter and whiter. Is it me? Or is it the all conquering hold that hip-hop seems to have on black America? In the early days, the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, Run DMC and hundreds of others seemed to have either something to say or at least a new and interesting way of saying it. Now i'm afraid to say that most hip-hop leaves me cold. I just find it hard to relate... or more importantly to care... about tales of Lexus', Guns & Ho's. I was never one of these suburban kids who seem to think they live in South Central LA.

So I feel a bit strange that when I do cover hip-hop it tends to have an unmistakably white flavour. Maybe it's just that I can't handle the real stuff, and I need people like Plan B, Shadow or Diplo to water shit down for my ears. Whatever the reason, here's some more honky hip-hop, courtesy of a great album by Canadian MC Abdominal.

I first heard about him when he guested on several tracks by Brighton's DJ Format - notably this one, 'The Hit Song'; but also the brilliant 'Ill Culinary Behaviour'.



Now branching out on his own, Abdominal's debut 'Escape From the Pigeon Hole' shows off his dazzling MC skills perfectly... track after track of head nodding b-boy hits filled with lyrical dexterity and catchy hooks.



This first track is a love poem to his home town of Toronto. I'm not sure it was commissioned by the Canadian tourist board, but it sure does make Toronto sounds an appealing place to visit. If Abdominal doesn't make it in music, a career on an open bus tour surely awaits.

ABDOMINAL - T-ODE

Next track reminds me of those 'grumpy old men' TV programmes. But let's face it we all like a good moan from time to time, and among other targets Abdominal has correctly identified people who stand on the left side of the escalator as worthy of a good kicking.

ABDOMINAL - WALK LEFT / STAND RIGHT

So I can't pretend to know much about hip-hop, but I quite like this as well. I've no idea what they're on about, but the it's a party on plastic. A twisted oriental sample, and frantic rapping by the likes of Ghostface Killah & Spank Rock. Sounds like a hit to me. Especially since the single also comes backed with a great Hot Chip remix.



PLASTIC LITTLE - CRAMBODIA


Finally, check out the mad skills....

Drums of Death

Sorry i've been quiet lately. I've been pretty ill to be honest, but seem to be on the road to recovery now. I should have been furnishing you with reports on last weekend's Camden Crawl, but had to give it a miss. I did manage to crawl out and see Maps at the ICA last night though, which was pretty great. Save for a frenetic drummer it wasn't the most charismatic of live performances, but the songs were amazing and the audience were suitably bewitched.




Here's the video to forthcoming single 'It Will Find You'....



And one of the excellent b-sides from the single

MAPS - I WAS BORN TWICE

Removed by request


Datassette is one of the new breed of artists making beautiful records with 8-bit sounds. He's been picked up for a couple of releases on AI Records, but what really pricked my ears up was his superb remix of the now ubiquitous 'Young Folks'. This definitely applies enough of a fresh rub to the track to make it worth a listen. The other two remixes are similarly full of 80s bleeps and phat bass noises.

PETER BJORN & JOHN - YOUNG FOLKS (DATASSETTE REMIX)
KATE BUSH - RUNNING UP THAT HILL (DATASSETTE REMIX)
INTERPOL - UNTITLED (DATASSETTE REMIX)

There's plenty more gems on his site. Best of all... check this brilliant vocodered italo version of 'The Message'. Just amazing! Datashat is his bastard pop alter ego... under which you'll find some even more twisted cover versions.

DATASHAT - STOP THE MESSAGE

Any feedback would be good, as I don't think there's any plans to release these at the moment, and I reckon they need to get pressed on vinyl! I for one would certainly buy 'The Message'....

Also tipped to me by Wonktronica are new Australian performance artists / electro rockers 'Theatre of Disco'. They look like a lot of fun, and i'm sure you'll be hearing much more of when they hit the UK at the end of the Summer.



Oli Chang from the band has come up with a superb new tune that's supposedly a mash up of Britney and Oasis... but to me just sounds like a party-rocking electro gem.

KWIK ALLSTARS - KWIK ALLSTARS


Finally while we're returning to a bit of Peter Bjorn & John, here's Diplo's take on 'Young Folks'.

PETER BJORN & JOHN - YOUNG FOLKS (DIPLO'S DRUMS OF DEATH REMIX)



And really finally...

DATASHAT - DON'T YOU WANT ME

Don't Fear The Sun

I'm still feeling the repercussions of the pumelling meted out by Justice at the weekend. I dunno... although they're obviously brilliant at what they do, I wish they'd vary the records they play a little. Maybe it's my age (ha!), but 2 hours of relentless noise is a bit much for me these days. Unless i'm particularly fucked that is! How about a bit of craft to work up to these monstrous peaks?

To be honest i've been a bit under the weather lately, so I'm requiring a bit more than just a physical response to music. 6 hours dancing has been a bit beyond me the last few weeks, but that's pretty much all you can do in the face of an Ed Banger onslaught!

So i've been attempting to nurse myself back to the land of the living with some gorgeous new tunes that recall my mispent youth listening to shoegazer bands like Slowdive & My Bloody Valentine.

Two posts in a row with bands from Northampton? Seems unlikely... but Maps, otherwise known as James Chapman, has a stunning debut album coming out on 14th May. It seems incredible that 'We Can Create' was recorded in his bedroom, since the multi-tracked washes of sound seem the result of a meeting between a production genius and an expensive recording studio.



The album contains a couple of previous singles, 'Lost my Soul' and the brilliant 'Don't Fear' (the video of which is below). While forthcoming single 'It Will Find You' sounds like a lost highlight from a Mew album.

It's hard to choose a track to post from what's one of the best albums i've heard this year, but i'm quite partial to 'You Don't Know Her Name', one of the poppiest moments from the record.

MAPS - YOU DON'T KNOW HER NAME



I suspect that Ulrich Schnauss was a huge influence on Maps, and at long last he has a new record forthcoming. One of the biggest names in electronic music after the masterful 'Far Away Trains Passing By' and 'A Strangely Isolated Place', there's been a 4 year wait for his third album 'Goodbye'.



I'm not certain that the copy doing the round on t'interweb is the final version, as first impressions suggest that the production is a bit fuzzy in comparison to the previous two records. This seems a bit strange when you hear about the painstaking trouble that he's gone to in perfecting the album. But to be fair my stereo isn't the best equipment to appreciate the subtle nuances of his sound.

I was attempting to complete this post without using the word 'lush'. But I give in. It's lush.

ULRICH SCHNAUSS - STARS


Ulrich is DJing with Maps at the ICA next week. As Ulrich would say.. let's party like it's 1991.

Palatesex

Apologies for the diversion, but today I am becoming 'palatesex.co.uk'... after having an incredible lunch at the Fat Duck restaurant.

For those who don't know, The Fat Duck was voted best restaurant in the world in 2005 (and came runner-up last year), thanks to Heston Blumenthal's 'Molecular Gastronomy' approach to cooking. The kitchen is as much a laboratory as a kitchen, and results in remarkable signature dishes like Snail Porridge, and Bacon & Egg ice cream.

The restaurant is just a few miles down the road from me, and after half-talking about it for a couple of years my mum & I finally decided to head down for a little lunch-time snacking. We're both pretty adventurous eaters & this place certainly appealed to our intrepid tastebuds.

Of course, being our first visit, we were obliged to sample the famous 'taster menu'... an 18-course spectacular featuring an astonishing array of flavours, textures and aromas... many hugely unexpected.

Allow me to bore you with the details.

The meal began with a 'Palate Cleanser'. Which naturally in the Fat Duck requires a large quantity of Liquid Nitrogen! At our table, a meringue mix of Egg White, Lime, Vodka and Green Tea was sprayed onto a spoon from an aerosol - before being dunked for a minute in a smoking bowl of liquid nitrogen (at -196 degrees celsius!).

Gingerly picking up the resulting meringe, and putting it in my mouth, resulted in an explosion of refreshing flavour unlike anything i've experienced. Fresh saliva bubbled on my tongue, awaiting the first dish... which like all the others arrived swiftly.

So first up were these two little squares of jelly... one orange and one beetroot.



The first surprise was that the orange jelly tasted overwhelmingly of.... beetroot. While the red square had an unmistakable orange tang. Apparently the flavourings are derived from Blood Oranges and Orange Beetroot... just to keep you on your toes. A very tasty way to kick things off, swiftly followed by Oyster, Passion fruit Jelly & Lavender. An oyster (in its shell) sitting on a bed of sea salt, with a delicious passion fruit 'jus'. Every oyster i've had previously has been accompanied by a splash of tabasco and a wide open mouth, so it was great to savour the flavour by slowly eating it with a knife & fork.

Following the Oyster was Grain Mustard Ice Cream with Red Cabbage Gazpacho, one of the nicest things we ate.



The mustard ice cream was sensational, and complimented the powerful cabbage soup perfectly.

You know those listerine strips that stick to the roof of your mouth? Well the next course began with one of those... except moss flavoured. This was presented on a bed of steaming moss to accompany some Truffle Toast.




I must admit the accompanying 'soup' derived from pea, langoustines & foie gras wasn't one of my favourite dishes. The kind of overpowering flavours beloved by poncey restaurants... and an aftertaste of guilt caused by eating foie gras and not particularly enjoying it.

Next was the famous Snail Porridge. The appearance of which wasn't quite how i'd expected. Rather than a white sludge with bits of snail in, the porridge was a vivid green. And after my first experience of snails I have to conclude that they're rather tasty. I'm not about to go digging in the garden, but like most peculiar things i've eaten (ants; locusts; guinea pig & snake for example) they were well nice. I didn't find that the 'Joselito Ham and Shaved Fennel' added too much, but overall it was a surprisingly tasty treat.




So then to yet more Foie Gras. I don't understand the infatuation certain restaurants have with it, particularly since the flavour doesn't for me warrant the undoubted suffering it causes the Goose. However to my shame I didn't become a consciencious objector here. I thought i'd better try some really good Roast Foie Gras before deciding if it's worth boycotting. Well it was OK. Nothing I can't live without though. Save the Goose!



For The Sound of The Sea we were issued with mini-ipod shuffles, whose seaside sounds were intended to prepare us for a dish of Tapioca (sand), Seafood & Seaweed (kelp) & foamed shellfish juice (surf). It was fantastic. A beatiful seafood dish, although I was rather distracted by trying to work out how the hell you charge a mini-ipod, and where to plug in your USB cable.

This is my mum getting down to "the sound of the sea"!




So, having dispatched the seven (?) starters, it was time for the mains. Salmon Poached with Liquorice and Best End of Lamb. The lamb in particular was incredible. I assume it had been roasted in the same way as Heston Blumenthal's notorious roast beef... roasted at a very low temperature for 20 hours of more. The texture was remarkable, and the cut seemed to have been hugged by the oven rather than blasted with heat. The roast potato accompanying the dish, which was around the size of a pound coin, provided some amusement, but the lamb will live long in the memory.




To begin the desserts was a cup of Hot and Cold Iced Tea. Which bizarrely and somehow defying the laws of physics, was freezing cold on the left of the glass and scorching hot on the right. With no mixing of the two temperatures in the middle. The tea was slightly viscous, which I suspect was its secret. But still very strange to slurp down a hot and cold drink from the same glass!



Here you see me enjoying Mrs Marshall's Hilarious Margaret Cornet (not entirely its correct title), and a Douglas Fir flavoured Sherbert Fountain.




and after a couple more deserts...




began the 'breakfast menu'. Starting with parsnip flake cereal with parsnip milk.



before the famous nitro-scrambled egg and bacon ice cream was prepared at our table. An egg had somehow been scrambled in its shell, and infused with bacon flavour. This was then cracked into a pan and mixed with more liquid nitrogen to create ice cream... served on some sweetened French toast, and washed down with some jellied ice tea. Yum!







An indication of the strange gastronomic hotbed that this village has become, came as we left the restaurant and ran into Michel Roux outside... heading down to his own Michelin Starred joint down the road. In fact there are only three restuarants in the UK with three stars, and two are in Bray (population, I dunno.. 1000?):

The three three-Michelin-star restaurants in the UK
	The Fat Duck, Bray, Berkshire
	Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Chelsea, London
	The Waterside Inn, Bray, Berkshire

Anyway sorry if that bored you to tears, but it was a pretty interesting lunch.. and since it's my blog i'll write about what I want! The meal, as you'd expect, wasn't cheap! (£150 incl. service & wine); but it's not often a meal will stick in the memory for quite so long. I actually thought it was very good value for what you get served up. Had my bank balance agreed I would have gone for the wine taster menu that accompanies the the banquet, but that's £95 in itself (or £295 for the more expensive selection!) so since I was bankrupting myself anyway I thought i'd give that a miss & stick to the £9 a glass plonk! (which was delicious itself).

Treat yourself (or preferably someone else) sometime. It's well worth it!

Let's Drive to the Seaside

I had high hopes of posting a lot, and in fact doing a lot this long weekend. I failed at both. Although I did manage to see The Presets & The Wombats (both of whom were quite amazing); and The Teenagers (who were rubbish).

I didn't get a chance to listen to a lot of records though, the main exception being this rather amazing single by Twisted Charm.



Despite coming from Northampton, they're signed to French label 'Because Records' (which is somehow related to Ed Banger), and fire out a kind of shouty moddish punk, whose catchy slogans & sax riffs will i'm sure go down a storm with the kids. The addition of the Sax gives the tracks a real Specials feel, and though they don't seem to have too much new to say, they say it well.

The 5-track single also comes with a typically great South Central remix, but possibly for the first time I prefer the original tunes to the South Central version. Boring Lifestyles makes a lot more sense when you realise the band are from Northampton... a town for which suicide may have been invented. In 'Happy Alone', it seems to me that singer Nathan Doom insists just a little too much how happy he is to be on his own... a supposition that the increasingly desperate-sounding backing seems to support.



TWISTED CHARM - BORING LIFESTYLES

TWISTED CHARM - HAPPY ALONE

The band have just been touring round La France with Los Klaxons.... i'm looking forward to checking 'em out whenever they're back in London.


Staying in France, AlexKid has been releasing records on Laurent Garnier's F-Communications label forever. I've been enjoying his most recent album 'Caracol' a lot, and i'm particularly taken by forthcoming single 'Love Letters'.

You know the end of 'Over and Over' when they say 'C.A.S.I.O.Y.O.U.M.E... ' and so on? Well the vocal is rather like that, except that I can't work out what the hell the voice is trying to spell out. The precise beats lead into some beautiful & sexy melodies, always shifting and changing frequently enough to leave you gripped throughout the track. It's techno, but it's lovely.



ALEXKID - LOVE LETTERS


I really like this Salsa version of 'Dancing Shoes' from the Rhythms Del Mundo - Cuba album. Consisting mainly of Western hits performed by the Buena Vista Social Club 'massive', much of the album is to be honest pretty forgettable. There are some inspired moments though, such as this & the Franz Ferdinand cover. Worth a listen at least!



ARCTIC MONKEYS - DANCING SHOES (BUENA VISTA VERSION)

Electricity So Fine

It's to my shame that months after receiving the debut album from Jensen Sportag in the post, during which time I have carried it with me everywhere & found it frequently sliding into my CD player, i've still failed to write about it.



Perhaps the quotes on the back of the CD case are a good place to start:

"Every time I listen to Jensen Sportag I love it more - my favourite unsigned band" Max Tundra

"I didn't even know they had crystal meth in Nashville, not to mention pygmies and techno" Aeriel Pink


So yes, techno as produced by crystal meth smoking pygmies in Nashville. That's a far better description than I could come up with, so I shall appropriate it as my own.

Perhaps the reason that i've not written about the album yet is because the first few tracks are so good that I keep re-listening to them rather than reach whatever delights are to be found in the second half of the album. Tracks 2 & 3 rock my boat in particular.



I keep thinking that this first one sounds Australian for some reason (the chorus at least). I can't quite put my finger on why. It's kinda pop, but rather demented also. The best kind, I find.

JENSEN SPORTAG - THUNDERCOVER

Even better is 'Japanese Zombie Schoolgirls'. Although perhaps 'Japanese Werewolf Schoolgirls' would be a more appropriate. Beginning like a beautiful Rob Hubbard C64 theme (Monty on the Run?), a horrific transformation then takes place and the record grows serious, horrific, fangs. Screams ring out as filthy talons rip apart rosy virgin flesh. The perpetrator roars at the heavens, before collapsing under a tree and waking with no real memory of what's gone before, but a sense that whatever it was..... it wasn't good.

JENSEN SPORTAG - JAPANESE ZOMBIE SCHOOLGIRLS

Buy the album, listen to songs & send hot love via their myspace.


So next in the DJ Kicks series is a mix album from Hot Chip. And to be honest i'm not finding it as fun as their two unofficial 'Mixture' mixes.



I was in fact reminded of the best track on DJ Kicks through it's appearance on Mixture Vol. 2 - Steppin' Out by Joe Jackson is simply a masterpiece of 80s pop. If this doesn't warm the blood in your veins I don't know what will. It's a last song of the evening, hug everyone in sight, dance for joy and cry a small tear that you will not be able to listen to it again until you get home song.

JOE JACKSON - STEPPIN' OUT


And here's another track off of Mixture Vol. 2 - 'Working in a Coal Mine' by Lee Dorsey. It sounds like a piece of New Orleans soul as sung by a group of Welsh miners... but it's in fact a piece of New Orleans soul as sung by one of the stars of Southern Soul.



I'm just wondering how much better 'Snow White & the 7 Dwarves' would have been with this instead of 'Hi Ho'.

LEE DORSEY - WORKING IN THE COAL MINE

Check the cover of this by Devo!

It's the Wrong Trousers

Yay! That's Glastonbury tickets sorted.

Who'd have thought that would make me listen to Coldplay?

MARK RONSON - GOD PUT A SMILE UPON YOUR FACE

I'm going back to bed.

It's The B.e.a.t.

I guess i'm a bit reluctant to post this, cos despite banging on about Justice from pretty much the day I started the blog, they've reached a level of success now that means my banging on about them any further becomes a bit irrelevent.

But shit, this is just too good.

It's a version of D.A.N.C.E. from the forthcoming Justice smash. The boys have the sound of the summer wrapped up yet again....

JUSTICE - B.E.A.T.


Until that monopolised my itunes, i've been getting heavily into the new single from Tomboy on Gomma records. Gomma is also home to Headman and Whomadewho (of whom Tomboy is a member)... and lately seems to have hit another of their periodic purple patches.



This no-wavey beauty builds up a real feeling of tension and claustrophobia, before letting out with some subtly mind-blowing synths about 3:45 in.

TOMBOY - FLAMINGO (TOMBOY'S TA-RAM REMIX)

Tomboy's new album, Serios 01, is out now. Check it.



Nottingham's Late of the Pier are a band whose name is usually found within about an inch of the words 'Hotly Tipped'. I've not had a chance to check them out in their original form yet, but i've been sent two different remixes of their debut single 'Space The Woods'.

This first one is by the C90's, and starts off like a mix between Erol Alkan's Franz Ferdinand remix and Gary Numan's Cars.... after which it just gets better & better. It basically features a soupçon of every record you've ever danced to in your life. Except for that time you danced to 'Cotton Eye Joe' at your cousin's wedding.



LATE OF THE PIER - SPACE THE WOODS (C90s REMIX)


Also rather excellent is this version by the Filthy Few.



LATE OF THE PIER - SPACE THE WOODS (FILTHY FEW REMIX)

I would like to promote their podcast, however since i'm so retarded that I have never actually listened to a podcast, it would be rather like Linda McCartney trying to make you eat sausages. If you're into that sort of thing, head to their myspace & follow instructions.

Good luck getting Glastonbury tickets in, er, 6 hours time. I am setting 3 alarms as we speak....