Mixtape, Sir? (Slight Return)

Hey!

I know I said that I was going to post this yesterday, but my internet connection was playing up like a mofo, so I couldn't be arsed waiting two and a half hours to upload a 102mb zip file. I'm sure you understand. Anyway, here's the second part of this quadripartite mixtape or embarrassment of riches, as I like to call it...


YER MAM!'S 10p MIX-UP VOLUME ONE (Disc 2)

1. A Mountain Of One - Warping Of The Clock (A Mountain Of One are a collective that includes Leo Elstob, Dave Barbarossa (Bow Wow Wow) and Martina Topley-Bird among their number and seem committed to making spacey, instinctual, far-out funk records. 'Warping Of The Clock' is a beautiful piece of music that sounds like the world waking up with a yawn and a stretch, a slow, woozy endorphin rush that tickles you in all the good places.)
2. Peter Visti - Bad Weather (Single Of The Week on this very blog just last week, 'Bad Weather' is one of those epic slabs of cosmic disco of which I haven't been able to get enough over the past twelve months or so. Naturally, it screams instant classic and marks Visti out as a producer to watch in 2007.)
3. Karma - Beach Towel (I:Cube's Cosmix Marathon Mix) (You kind of know what you're getting from the title, but this north-of-ten-minutes leisurely Balearic workout is still mighty impressive. As this week's SOTW, what's the betting that a really long and langourous disco track gets the nod each week for the rest of the year? Well, if they (by 'they', I mean the European discognoscenti) keep making, I'll keep lapping them up.)
4. Glass Candy - Your Dream Lover's On Video Again (Crossing the water but staying in the same ball park, GC come at disco from a rock angle, but don't take the usual influences with them. A chugging, blues-rock riff (a la The Kills) lies on a bed of squiggly 808 and a deliberate, stop-start, funky groove and, well, goes pretty much nowhere, but creates a sexy, druggy, hypnotic effect in the process. Ida No's yelps and echoey squeals are as chillingly effective as ever too.)
5. Sasse feat. Kiki - Loosing Touch (Vocal Mix) (Big, fuck-off Italo monster from about a year ago, but which I completely missed on release. Kiki's pitch-perfect, super-ridiculous, faux-moody vocal is backed up by euphoric, retro/fresh synths, courtesy of fellow Finn, Sasse. The kind of music that International Deejay Gigolo used to pump out with alarming regularity (think David Carretta's 'Vicious Game') but, sadly, haven't done in so long. It's nice to see that others have picked up the torch though.)
6. The Work - Just Talk (Skatebard Remix) (The original is pure Scando-pop, but Skatebard gives it an early-80s electro-Italo sheen, not too dissimilar to Arthur Baker's early productions, only less cluttered and more harshly focused. The 'bard run of genius continues unabated.)
7. Partial Arts - Trauermusik (Fuck me, isn't this about the best thing that Kompakt has released in about two years?! Partial Arts are Ewan Pearson and Al Usher and this is deep, cavernous, minimal, techy and ultimately gorgeous and uplifting. Roughly translated, the title means 'melancholy music' and I guess it does have a wistful edge, but if you have a fondness for this kind of stuff, it should put a big old smile on your face. Also, the string break, as brief as it is, is just sublime.)
8. Frost - Free Your Heart (There's definitely something in that there Norwegian water, as this is yet another slice of superb electro-pop. In fact, 'Free Your Heart' is more trancey and whooshy than the usual fare, with Aggie Peterson's warm, lissome vocals wisping over the top of a bumping, insidious beat suggestively and persuasively. I've a feeling that I'll be banging on about this duo for quite a while.)
9. Bertine Zetlitz - 500 (Bertine does the stern, hurt, sexy vamp over some perfectly executed retro-80s production from Pleasure aka Fred Ball (and that's not even his real name either). In just three minutes and 47 seconds, it's 1983 all over again and I like it!)
10. Kleerup feat. Robyn - With Every Heartbeat (I can't believe that I haven't put this on a mixtape before now. Not quite as good as her Christian Falk and Ola Salo collaboration, 'Dream On', but then again not much is, 'With Every Heartbeat' is still superlative pop genius. I love the way that it starts mid-stream and, if anything, gets less euphoric as it goes on, but perversely, this just makes it all the more impressive.)
11. Chateau Flight - Baroque (I know that it's cheating a bit to put I:Cube on the same mixtape in two different guises but this is intricate, beautifull, soulful house music that just has to be heard. A persuasive, eminently danceable and intimate-sounding song (that's song, not track) from the best producers in France right now.)
12. Atlantic Conveyer feat. Habibur Romman - Open Your Soul (Music Box Remix) (Sweet, graceful, afro-inflected end-of-night record that reminds me somewhat of Black Science Orchestra's 'New Jersey Deep'. For the uninitiated, this is a very, very good thing indeed.)

Yer Mam!'s 10p Mix-Up Volume One (Disc 2) Ripped, Zipped and Sent Into Space

More tomorrow, internet permitting,

JMx