Fucked Up are among the bands playing at the Vice festival 'Tales of the Jackalope' this weekend coming (click for full size):
Looks like it'll be a great little do, and it sounds like the weather is going to be 'scorchio'. If you fancy coming I have two tickets to give away. Woo!
Email me the names of three fictional creatures by midnight tomorrow (Wednesday) to be in with a shout. The address should appear if you flick your eyes to the right. I'm not that fussy about the answers... make some mad creatures up if you wish. For example have you ever heard of the fearsome Zeppowine? Half Walrus half Budgerigar. It was created by Geoff Capes in a a freak budgie breeding experiment and has been roaming the Norfolk broads ever since. At night it's said you can hear it scream.
I actually bought some records today, as reward for negotiating a job interview with a reasonable amount of success. Among them was this absolutely ESSENTIAL tune by David E. Sugar - the first release on the label associated with the Grecoroman club.
Backed with remixes by Skream, Hot Chip and Jesse Rose you can see that this is one hot slab of vinyl... but the original kills it for me. Squelching breakbeat garage electro. Or something. And a cheeky nod across the pond with it's 'Oi Oi New York, This is London' lyric.
Unfortunately just as the lord giveth, the lord taketh away. And when I got home I found that the unexpected onset of summer had its first victim. The record i'd left on my turntable had melted and warped into a nice ski jump effect. Unfortunately it's slightly irreplacable - being a white label of Tom Middleton's re-edits of Blur & Daft Punk, of which i've never seen another copy :-(
It's worse than it looks here by the way...
Anyone know where I can find another one? Or have any good ideas for repairing fucked up records? I thought it might work in the oven between two heavy pieces of wood. You never know! It's the second record that's fallen victim to the sun there, the other one being the original white label promo of Scissor Sisters' 'Comfortably Numb'. Again pretty rare!
I was going to slap this next video in with some kind of 'cover versions' post, but who knows if i'll ever get round to doing it. Just enjoy this treat.... a fantastic cover of 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' by Patrick & Eugene. It'll be coming out on the Tummy Touch label, and is accompanied by a gloriously psychedelic video. Enjoy....
Are you watching Tom Jones?
I don't have an MP3 of the track, but here's one from their last album, which was apparently in an advert or something. The Charleston is never far from pop.
After seeing Matt Small doing his painting magic last week, I nipped over the road to Plastic People, where The Ghost Frequency were starting a new monthly residency.
Now signed to City Rockers, the band certainly created enough of an atmosphere in that dark basement to suggest they might be stepping up with label mates The Sunshine Underground in the future.. with plenty of memorable punky electro tunes, and girls crowded round the stage singing along.
One that did stick in my mind was this, 'Money on the Fire'.... a squelchy Rapture / Shy Child kinda jam. I presume they mean notes rather than coins.
Weegies Dolby Anol have arrived with this new single on Tigerbass - the more dancefloor orientated offshoot of Tigerbeat6. It comes complete with an absolutely storming Kid 606 remix (check it out for sure), but I thought i'd give you a taste of them in OG format.
This goes hard & fast - like something Duke Dumont or Kissy Sell Out would play. The synth line sounds like those old skool acid tunes where in the climax the 303 gets tweaked to within an inch of it's life... while someone for some reason shouts 'VISTA! COUNTDOWN!' over the top. Maybe it's sampled from Bill Gates?
At Primavera Festival a good few years ago (2003?) my friend Steve bought a Liars t-shirt on the basis that they looked quite good. We then toddled off to watch Liars only to find them possibly the worst band i'd ever seen. Just total tuneless rubbish. As such, despite the unashamed fandom of the 20jazzfunkgreats boys i've not really listened to them since. I was rather surprised therefore to find their new album 'Liars' quite enjoyable.... in particular the blistering opening single 'Plaster Casts of Everything'. It's like an adrenaline shot to the eyes and ears.
This track 'Houseclouds' strangely sounds like Beck., which might not be a good thing for Liars fans, but suits me just fine. LIARS - HOUSECLOUDS
Something for your eyes as well... if you're ever in East London you'll have noticed Cyclops & Sweet Toof have been covering the place in their deranged faces. Some new stuff that appeared on Brick Lane last night:
I got a wicked (and huge) Cyclops sharpie drawing quite a while ago, which is on my list for framing.
I think Cyclops particular is a talented fella, and they're both getting their stuff sold in galleries now. Check out loads more here.
Though I clearly spend a lot of my time with my music, I lead a secret undercover life where I obsess about street art, and have spent the last few years amassing quite a collection of prints, paintings, drawings & the like.
My most prized possession by far is a painting by Matt Small, a guy who lives in Camden & produces quite stunning & utterly unique portraits (excuse the wallpaper).
'Paul' is like my guardian angel. Wise and tranquil. We spend a lot of time together.
So last night there was a unique opportunity to see Matt painting live at Cargo, alongside graffiti artist SheOne. The guy's a fucking genius as far as i'm concerned, so it was quite something to see him at work... and I also got a chance to have quite a long chat with him. It was quite a special night really so I thought i'd share some of the photos with y'all.
Matt usually works on pieces of metal he finds in skips & on the street. But on this occasion the portrait was on a piece of wood he'd found. I was quite stunned by how good the portrait was even before he'd started working his magic on it... Here's SheOne working on his piece:
A couple of Banksys from the Cargo courtyard. Now covered in perspex now they're worth a fortune!
Here's the source picture Matt was working from. He usually works from video of disaffected yoof he shoots out & about... but on this instance he'd invited some local kids into his studio to be photographed.
Here's where the magic starts happening. The paint gets slapped on, mixed & generally fucked about with. Most of his paintings tend to have colour radiating from the centre of the piece, which sucks you in like you're drifting round a black hole:
SheOne's finished piece:
Matt's painting as I left it... there's obviously a fair bit more work to go, but you can see that when the masking is removed from round the head you're gonna be left with a kick ass portrait. I'm loving the colours. And the paint spattered laptop! I think it's shaping up to be one of his best pieces.
What's remarkable about his work is how little detail seems to be defined in the finished painting.. yet when you step back a little you see so much expression in the face. You can check out some more of his paintings here and here. And if you happen to be in Shoreditch, the Leonard Street gallery has a couple of his paintings on show right now as part of the excellent 'Found' show.
I should really talk about this kind of stuff more often, as i'm probably more into my art than music these days. I could go on forever about Adam Neate, Antony Micallef, Eine, Sweet Toof, Cyclops, Faile, Space Invader and so on. And Banksy of course. Maybe I will do a bit more from now on. I should certainly endeavour to share a few more photographs.
This is a recent purchase of mine, from New York's Judith Supine (who was apparently mute until the age of 17).
I had a bit of a shock today as it's still in the gallery, so I wandered over at lunchtime to have a look at him. I got there & found it looking a bit crooked in the frame, so I told the girl in the gallery that it was looking a bit wonky. At that precise moment it leapt out of the frame & jumped onto the floor! No harm was done, but I found the timing a bit freaky. The one time i'd been in there in the two weeks since I bought it, and out of 100 or so pieces mine was the one that chose that moment to crash to the floor! I like to think he was just trying to jump over to me so that I could take him home... but he'll have to wait a couple of weeks longer.
Apparently, in tribute to Rhianna and the 'slightly damp weather' we've been having, the latest 'clubland craze' is for people to wave their umbrellas in the air on the dancefloor.
Well Hattie Collins. Please give credit where credit's due. I believe that I am the true underground instigator of this fad - in an Edinburgh club on my 30th birthday a couple of years ago, whilst armed with a fetching tartan brolly and a considerable quantity of booze. Perhaps the bouncers would have been more understanding if they realised I was making musical history.
Obviously the flooding is pretty high in my thoughts at the moment. It's quite astonishing though how everyone affected appears to be taking it in their stride so much. I suppose there's not a lot you can do when everything you own is ruined except have a beer & a game of pool.
So i'll resist the temptation to post up some water-related tracks. Not when i've got some new South Central in my CD player.
A-side 'Machine' is supposedly based on the theory of philosopher G. I. Gurdjieff (No, me neither!) that 'the ordinary man is a machine who is only capable of reacting to what acts upon him'.
South Central have interpreted this by sampling 808 State's 'In Yer Face' (?) and turning it into a typically blistering piece of dancefloor rock & roll. Dance like a machine indeed. It's out as part of the Regal Singles Club on 6th August, but limited to just 500 7" vinyls.
I was also sent a new South Central remix - of the snappily titled 'We Are The Birds and The Bees We Are The The Telephone Trees' by Manchester rockers Kill The Young. I've become rather partial to the original version though, which whist uncharacteristically RAWK for this blog, has an infectous beat which would work well for dancing i'd say. Plus it has an excellent whistling breakdown, and I can't think of any bad records that feature whistling.
I know this has been on a few blogs already, but I don't seem to get the time to look at other blogs any more, so i'll pretend it hasn't. It's kind of exactly what you'd expect if you heard a MSTRKRFT remix of Chromeo - 80's hairspray pop with a distorted guitar riff backing. Does that sound like it's a bad thing though?
Been to a couple of great gigs recently that I didn't talk about. Firstly Datarock at the Luminaire, which has now become my favourite London venue. It has a little trench just in front of the stage so that tall bastards like myself can bop around under the noses of the band without getting tutted and prodded for the entire gig. It also allowed me to get some great photos:
An unexpected treat was the band coming back on after they'd finished to sing & play along to 'I've Had The Time of my Life' from Dirty Dancing.
It was jokes. The most fun i've had at a gig for ages!
A very different experience was had at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last week, where Squarepusher got all Jazz on our asses with a special solo bass performance... later joined by free-jazz saxophonist Evan Parker. Now i'm rather of the opinion that musical virtuosity should be avoided as it tends to get in the way of a good tune. However it was hard not to be impressed by the incredible skills on show. Here's a taster of what was on offer:
The concert was recorded for a live release in October... and though I can't see it livening up many discos, it's a fascinating new direction for Tom Jenkinson. There's another chance to see the show in Paris in September - as part of the Jazz a la Villette festival.
Here's some old skool riddims from the 'pusher. From 1997's 'Big Loada' single on Warp.
I've just been watching the DVD accompanying the reissue of The Knife's 'Silent Shout'. A bigger bargain I can't imagine... the original album, a live CD, and a live DVD all available from Amazon for £7.98. If that's not enough it also includes every stunning video they've made.
Here's the track 'Silent Shout' from the DVD.
And the video for 'Like a Pen'
Next we have Parisian hipsters The Teenagers, who i have been deliberately ignoring after seeing them live at The Scala and not being very impressed.
However i've now listened to the single. And it's amazing!
It's hard not to feel sorry for the female protagonist of the song, who's fallen for a guy who's after nothing more than a quick fuck. THE TEENAGERS - HOMECOMING
Finally the competition results... the winner of tickets to The Coral and Candie Payne is... WARREN LUYT.
Have fun Warren.
The world's second largest coral reef is in Belize. So now you know!
Wow, the rain's been coming down like it's going out of fashion this morning. I've decided to pull up the sandbags and ride it out. I'm not moving a muscle today, except to go to the kettle and back!
It's inappropriately sunny for this kind of weather, but i've recently been really enjoying the new album by the The Coral. I think I was away travelling when they first came to prominence, so they've not really been on my radar much, and I can't really compare this new album to any of their older stuff. But I like it.
The title, 'Roots and Echoes', correctly suggests that they look backwards rather than forwards for inspiration. And this album harks back to some golden 60's pop. You won't find this challenging, however if you're looking for some fine tunes to tap your feet to in the sunshine you can't go far wrong. The album's out on August 6th.
Another great summer tune, on the same label as The Coral, is this new single by Candie Payne. It's produced by Mark Ronson, and has a mod-ish Dusty Springfield feel to it. "One More Chance" comes out on 27th August,
The Coral and Candie Payne are playing together at one of these itunes gigs at the ICA. I don't think tickets can be bought by mortals, however I have two to give away. Just let me know which country is home to the second largest Coral Reef in the world. Obviously there's not much point entering if you don't want to go, or if you can't make it to the ICA on Monday 30th July.
Continuing my voyage through ancient emails, here's something else I should have posted a long while ago. I posted up a bitching remix that Clarky Cat did of Shit Disco some time back, and as a result they emailed me a couple of tracks. I'm quite taken by this one, which itself has something of the Shit Disco about it. It's catchy, has an ace bassline, and is very hard not to love.
Along similar lines, but with a very much more New Yorkian twist is this new remix by The Glass. The original version, which you can hear on Robbers on High Street's myspace, is a pretty nice tune by itself. But The Glass inject a healthy dollop of funk, teasing out comparisons to The Rapture.
Finally for today a band that have been tipped for stardom by more pundits than there are "special doctors" on the Tour de France. I've been a bit slack not writing about them before now, but it's as good a time as any.
So they're young, gifted & good looking. Have a fanatical teenage fanbase. Write great tunes married with excellent lyrics. I'm not quite sure where they can go wrong to be honest... although some of the more hyperbolic comparisons with The Smiths are a bit premature I think. However having said that i've not seen them live yet... i'd LOVE to go to the Luminaire tonight if anyone with the power to make it happen is reading!
I posted up the last single on Lo Experimental Beats (LoEB) a while back, but this new one's even better. A lush space disco jam with sci-fi sounds and occasional opiate vocals. It's been killing me all day what this reminds me of, but it's just twigged that it's a slower version of the Klaxons remix by Simian Mobile Disco.
I don't know much about Black Mustang, but Kerrier District is of course Luke Vibert's splendid disco alias.
All you French House lovers need to get on this one straight away... Lifelike's follow up to the classic 'Discopolis'. Shimmering robotic synths give way magnificently two thirds of the way through into a bit of 'Go! Team' style chanting & hand-clapping. Like Alan Braxe it's simple but very effective, and it's no exagerration to say it's better than anything on 'Human After All'.
Gomma brings us more dark disco, with the forthcoming new single by Golden Bug. It's an evil remake of Laid Back's 'White Horse', with some gay disco vocals laid over the top. Quite odd, but there's nothing wrong with that!.
There is, however, something VERY wrong with this picture taken from their myspace:
Much as I hate Groove Armada with a passion, i can't deny that 'Song for Mutya' is pretty excellent. It's also quite undeniable that they've assembled a mighty lineup for their lovebox festival. Just a shame they insist on taking the stage themselves.
Well 'Song for Mutya' is by far the best thing they've ever done, being a distillation of all that's great about Xenomania, Sugababes & Girls Aloud. Which is clearly helped by having an ex-sugababe singing. You can watch the truly godawful video here, or listen to this Kissy Sell Out remix... which wisely doesn't dispense of too many of the original's good features. GROOVE ARMADA - SONG FOR MUTYA (KISSY SELL OUT REMIX)
A bit of time off work has given me the chance to start getting on top of my emails, so over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting up a few things that I should have posted up ages and ages ago. These would have been sizzling as fuck in January, but still pricked me up a little now.... JUSTICE - PHANTOM (CRIMP YR HAIR EDIT) (myspace)
Crimp yr hair have a remix of Crystal Castles coming out on CC's forthcoming Kitsune 12". You can check that out on the myspace link above, as well as a Klaxons remix & this version of The Knife (but it's a bit low quality i'm afraid)...
Finally there's always some space in my life for a bit of Junglism. This is one of the lesser known tracks from Soul Jazz's awesome 'Rumble in the Jungle' retrospective. Air horns ready!
I gather Pharoahe Monch is quite a big name in hip hop, but to be honest i hadn't heard of him until very recently... and in particular until the remixes of his latest single emerged. First up Sinden & the Count of Monte Cristal (AKA Herve) weigh in with a typically bonkers Kissy Sell Out-esque glitch-hop bomb. But it's the two Optimo remixes i'm enjoying the most.
This has a bit of a finger-clicking Gnarls Barkley Hip-Hop / Northern Soul flavour. But passed through Optimo's dancefloor disco filter to come up with something rather unclassifiable. Just put it in the box marked 'good'.
It was the fact this came backed with a Vicarious Bliss remix that caught my attention, but good though that is (listen here) I think I prefer the Whitey gone acid flavour of the original. Electroluxe Family hail from France, and 'Rock That Shit' does exactly what it says on da tin.
Here's a new track from Crystal Castles... casio disco with added drums & screaming. It comes from a forthcoming split 7" with HEALTH, although I think it's been unofficially round the block a few times before. Still, it's just popped into my inbox & it's a nice little adrenaline burst for yas. CRYSTAL CASTLE - MOTHER KNOWS BEST
Not long now until we can see what they're like live....
Finally here's some videos i've been enjoying. The first two come from Qoob.. a site that I don't quite understand as it's in Italian, but which I believe lets users develop content for bands in return for coverage & cash!
This CSS video is brilliant, and the Four Tet one afterwards is pretty jamming also.
CSS - Alcohol
Four Tet - A Joy (Remix)
Matt & Kim - Yea Yeah (Flosstradamus Remix)
I don't know much about this, but it seems to sample Basement Jaxx a lot and is great fun.
Gravenhurst - Trust
The first single from Gravenhurst's third album on Warp. I'll always have time for Gravenhurst since his incredible track 'Animals' (which mysteriously was never a single)... so it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.
Slow is the new fast I hear. I can't remember where. Perhaps one of my underground moles let it slip.
Those D*I*R*T*Y boys can be relied upon for some quality slow jams, and their new 'Dirty Space Disco' compilation is packed full of 'em. This awesome compilation is out next week by the look of it, and is well worth checking out. Hell i've posted something from every D*I*R*T*Y release in recent times.
Both these tracks are superb, but be sure to also check 'Undisputed' by Undisputed Truth... which got dropped to the bench at the last moment!
The main man at D*I*R*T*Y is Pilooski of course, and his fantastic re-edit of Frankie Valli's 'Beggin' (which naturally you heard here first), is as we speak headed for the higher reaches of the hit parade. Not sure if this is the official video or not, but it's reeet good! I'm particularly taken by the finger clicking trees.
The last I heard of Poni Hoax was their brilliant single 'Budapest' - which, backed with a Joakim remix, made me dance a lot a couple of years ago. Now they're back together with the French maestro for a new single. And once again it's an unqualified success. Disco, Indie, Acid & Cowbells combine and make scary good.
Pilooski, Poni Hoax & Joakim are all playing together at The Egg in a couple of weeks. Optimo as well. Phwoar!
The latest limited single on IGetRVNG is a tasty little number by Mock & Toof. Coming as usual in a lovely screen printed sleeve, the most immediate track on the 12" is a remix of Wire's 'Three Girl Rhumba' (the track that Elastica nicked for 'Connection'), and the second track is pretty pop as well (in a kind of Map of Africa way). However since we're on a disco tip today, i'll post up the track that fills the b-side. An afro-tinged deep disco jam with guitars that go 'chugga chugga wah wah' and some afrobeat chanting. Well weapon.
Possibly the best thing i've ever had in the post came this week... a CD of new edits, mixes & mash-ups by DJ Greg Wilson, king of the re-edit. A CD-R with a hand written tracklist, I doubt that many of these will ever see the light of day. So you're in luck that i'll post up a couple here.
The CD kicks off with a real gem... Missy Eliott's 'Work It' placed over a slow but devastating bassline, which after a bit of digging I suspect may be by Imagination. Seems like this did get a vinyl release, so keep your eyes open...
It's difficult to choose what else to post, but i'll go with this track by Teenage DJ - an ironic alias used by Greg, who's been spinning tunes since I was two feet tall. Spot the Daft Punk sample!
Despite threatening to move my blog to Wordpress as Blogger wasn't working & I couldn't get anyone to tell me why, I discovered that due to how the site is set up it was going to be easier said than done. I spent ages importing all my stuff into the easy version of Wordpress (wordpress.com), only to discover from my web host that I wouldn't be able to use my domain name. Gah! I then started tackling the rather more terrifying techie version... wordpress.org. But by 2am the 'world famous 5-minute install' was starting to make my head explode. You find me someone who reckons they can do that in 5 minutes and i'll find you a liar.
Fortunately the next day Blogger seemed to return to some kind of life. So I think for the time being i'll leave things as they are. I know this place is starting to look a bit dated, but hey, like my crappy Ford Mondeo it still goes. So I think i'll keep things as they are for now.
It seems like a long long time since my last proper post, since when i've been drowning in CDs and emails. And then there's the myspack as well. Jeepers! So i'm hoping this post will be high on tunes & low on words so I can clear some of the backlog.
I've also had a few things on my mind with work, and I decided to hand my notice in today. Woo! Trouble is I don't have a job to go to, so if you come across something you reckon I could do then please drop me a line!
But anyway, the music! Well probably the album that's impressed me the most recently is the 'Italians Do It Better' Tour CD... a compilation from the Chromatics / Glass Candy camp, who'll be very familiar to readers of 20JazzFunkGreats.
The CD is packed with icy italo grooves, conjouring up images of dirty days and cocaine nights. There's also some great cover versions of 'Computer Love' and 'Last Night a DJ Saved my Life'. Here's a couple of the other highlights.
Buy it from Troubleman Unlimited. It's a bargain at $12, and even has a hand-screened sleeve.
This next one's from The Black Ghosts, and came as a bit of a surprise to me after their previous singles and the mix they sent me. This one has 'Big Chill Anthem' written all over it, with the Ashley Beedle mix edging it over the original version for me (although i'm hard pressed to find too much difference between the two). This really brings the sunshine. And christ we need it.
If he keeps writing tunes this good, Simon Lord might be up there with his old band mates from SMD pretty soon....
Some more indie-ish fare now. Apparently this track by The Loyal Trooper is coming out on This is Fake DIY records on 6th August. Shit, is it nearly August? This interminable rain had better stop before the summer finishes!
Well I don't know much about the fella, but it sounds like he's realised that records with spoken word bits in are generally good, and has put this knowledge to great effect on this charmingly catchy single. Check it.
Bricolage have lurked at the edges of my consciousness for a while, and this forthcoming single is rather a toe tapper. Called 'The Waltzers', it does have something of the fairground about it. As well as something of The Franz Ferdinands, who they recently supported on tour. It's out on the lovely Memphis Industries, er, sometime.
I've just this second had a comment flash up from my previous post saying "Any chance of an Eddy TM related post? He's not very blogged, but I think he should be!" Well Mr 1KG, i just yesterday received an email containing quite a stonking Eddie Temple-Morris remix, in which the XFM DJ turns Alex Gopher's 'The Game' into a squealing frenzy of synths. I also just got an email about Eddie's forthcoming Remix all-nighter starring Kissy Sell Out. Look:
Currently riding high in Mr Sell Out's DJ chart is this new shit by the Switch man. Do I have to tell you that it's awesome? Kissy says 'Played loud enough that bassline is dangerous'. Well I'm only up to about '2' on my amp and I can feel strange things happening already.
'Cos I can guarantee you, I can do it better than you'. You ain't wrong mate. Really. Rather. Good.
As is this new cut from Switch's mates Sinden & Herve - as The Count of Monte Cristal. Beeper is a bad ass piece of fidget house on the Counterfeet label. If you like the switch, take a sip of the cristal.
SINDEN & THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTAL - BEEPER An album i've enjoyed much more than I expected is the new one from the Chemical Brothers. Not because I don't like the Chemical Brothers but because their Glastonbury show was so lame. I'm sure that Klaxons have influenced the Crowley-esque album sleeve, so it's no surprise to hear them chanting their faux-mysticism on one of the tracks inside. It's a good 'un.
I'm also particularly loving the instrumental 'Saturate', where competing synth-lines fight it out for supremacy until the drum roll brings it all crashing together & triggers Ecstacy rushes all round.
Seems like Blogger have pulled their fingers out & fixed whatever was wrong. I can now not post because i'm too lazy rather than because of technical fuckery.
