"If I'm sued into submission, I can still come home to this."

'Ow do!

Couple of things to get through this Bank Holiday (or Memorial Day, if you're North American scum. Joke. No offence.) evening. First things first...

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - ALL MY FRIENDS (DFA/EMI)

Okay, hands up who saw this one coming? A surefire front-runner for single of the year is released today in the form of 'All My Friends' by LCD Soundsystem. I'm sure you all know it off by heart by now, but this bumper pack gives a new spin on the song (not that it really needed it, mind, but a little enjoyment enhancement is no bad thing). I wittered on the other day about the John Cale remake, but the Franz Ferdinand cover has its charms too. Granted, they over-egg the pudding with regards to the original's New Order-isms, but at least it's got some energy.

The cover of Joy Division's 'No Love Lost' that was originally supposed to be on one of the 7"s is conspicuously missing in action (it's excellent and well worth seeking out*), but we do get the bananas new song, 'Freak Out/Starry Eyes' for our hard-earned. An epic cut-and-shut of two entirely different songs - the first being a magnificently strident dub-disco workout, with added horns and the second being a slice of Nancy-sung, camp psych-electro, doot-doot - it's yet more proof of LCD's stature as one of the best bands around right now. Oh, and there's a DJ Harvey remix too, that's typical Harvey and bears very little resemblance to the original whatsoever. Buy it! All four formats, people!

Download the video from Cliptip!


Did somebody say remix of the year? No? Okay then, here goes nothing. Prins Thomas' jaw-dropping re-version of Hatchback's 'White Diamond' has certain areas of the disco underground frothing at the mouth at the moment and it's not hard to see why. The art of the remix is an oft-sullied one, with many of its practitioners preferring the take-the-money-and-run method of reinterpreting other people's work. There are some remixers out there however who take what they're given, break it down and remould it so that the end product bears their own indelible stamp or trademark. Carl Craig is one, Henrik Schwarz another, but Prins Thomas has really come into his own this year, reaching a peak with this peerless piece of music.

It really is a "piece of music", too. There's no other way to refer to it. The words "tune", "track", even "song" seem too trifling and insignificant tags. A deliberate, slowly-unfurling slab of aural bliss, clocking in at a not-long-enough seventeen minutes and eighteen seconds, it bears comparison to works from artists such as Brian Eno, Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, The Orb (when they used to knock out stuff like this for fun) and Terry Riley, but is most definitely a Prins Thomas production. I know very little about the source track (Hatchback is one-half of Windsurf with Sorcerer, I know that much), but this seems like very much a stand-alone thing.

Minimalist in texture but vast and expansive in feel, Prins Thomas' mix of 'White Diamond' is, barring some other heart-stopping wonder coming out of the blue, THE remix of the year. Now that I've built it up waaay too much, find out for yourselves, for one week only...

Hatchback - White Diamond (Prins Thomas Miks) (mp3) (link removed due to attack of conscience)

It doesn't happen often, but I felt guilty enough to actually take this one down. If you grabbed it in the 24 hours it was up, please cherish it, keep it close to your chest and if you like it, buy the vinyl when it comes out. If you'd like to hear a snippet and you don't mind listening to my voice, then check out this week's edition of Blog Fresh Radio.

Coming this summer on This Is Not An Exit.

In other news: Over at High Voltage, you can find out what I got up to at this year's Futuresonic and what I think about the newly-released Sunkissed mix of Norwegian disco and the like.

Also, find out just what the Kathy Diamond live experience is like over at The Console and read my thoughts on the season finale of Lost on my TV blog, No Flipping!

Laters,

JMx

*Oh, what the hell, may as well go for two cease-and-desists for one post...

LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost (Joy Division cover) (mp3)

Spaceships don't come equipped with rear-view mirrors

'Lo!

Some more of my thoughts on some new/forthcoming releases and general musical happenings...


There's something about The Cribs that elevates them above the rest of the crop of young British guitar-pop bands that seem so commonplace these days (indie is the new mainstream, you know). I think it's the brash confidence they exude and the fact that they know they're better than almost everyone else on the 'scene'. No-one likes a self-aggrandiser though, but The Cribs know that too, so the cocky swagger is imbued with a self-awareness and a highly defined bullshit filter that probably tells them when the swagger's getting a bit too pronounced.

It helps that the Jarman brothers know their way around a tune though and their first two albums are pretty much packed with the things. Third time around, on new record, Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever the hits come no less thicker or faster but there's a more refined, mature edge to proceedings, brought on in most part by Alex Kapranos' beefy production. Songs sparkle where they would have once been flecked with spit and bile, but it's not like they've gone crazy with the Pro Tools or anything. In fact, there's a certain live frisson to everything, but any of the first two albums' lo-fi, unreconstructed feel has been ditched in favour of a more assertive sound.

Ultimately, it serves them well. They sound like they've moved into the big leagues but retained what made them such an unpredictable, sassy mess in the first place. The lyrics are still as tart and sharp as ever and the pretention-free likes of 'Our Bovine Public', 'My Life Flashed Before My Eyes' and first single, 'Men's Needs' are fizzy headrushes to match 'Hey Scenesters!' and 'Another Number'. Steps forward don't come much bigger than endorsement from Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, who guests in spoken word form on the cathartic 'Be Safe' and it's just great to have a band like The Cribs around to shake the complacency from the young Britrock scene, even if they are doomed to be perennially ignored.

The Cribs - Our Bovine Public (mp3)


The early leak of 'The Ghost Of You Lingers' threw even the best of us a curveball, but Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is most definitely not Spoon's experimental album. It'd have been the same had 'Paper Tiger' leaked before Kill The Moonlight or 'My Mathematical Mind' before Gimme Fiction, but in the end, the new Spoon album ended up sounding much like all the other Spoon albums and that's no bad thing at all.

The echoey, weirded-out, Reich-ian brilliance of 'The Ghost...' aside, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga's songs are classic, traditional Spoon. Spoon playing at being Spoon and doing that thing they do really fucking well. That's writing top-notch pop-rock songs and colouring them with enough flair and strangeness as to make them sound distinctly Spoon (I'm enjoying writing the word Spoon, can you tell?). 'You Got Yr Cherry Bomb' may be one of their greatest songs (there are horns and it sounds like Phil Spector's behind the desk!), The Clash-y strut of 'The Underdog' is, well, just dandy and the cyclical melody of 'Finer Feelings' has a breeziness and effervescence that other, inferior bands have to force. For Spoon this kind of thing comes really easy, so who are we to ask for more. This album is the sound of a band comfortable in their own skin and feeling precisely no real need at all to shed it and it sounds fucking great.

Spoon - The Underdog (mp3)


I've been in love with Frost for a little while now. Their music isn't generally the kind of thing that I go for - their brand of glacial electro-pop skirts around the inoffensive at times - but there's a passion and a mastery of craft at play here that's just absolutely irresistible.

Their torch-y synthpop is so gossamer-light that it will crack under harsh scrutiny, but that doesn't mean that it's forgettable. There are hooks on their new album, Love! Revolution! that will bury themselves deep within your cerebral cortex for months on end, but the overall effect of listening to the album is that of weightlessness. Frost's songs are aural massages (save the ill-judged stridency of 'Trainstop') that tingle all the right places and make you feel like breaking out that old Enigma album. Go on, you know you want to.

Frost - Messages (mp3)

Does this song remind anyone of the Knight Rider theme?


You can tell that summer's on the way from all the great pop music that's going around. You certainly can't tell from the weather, but there are a chunk of songs doing the rounds that make you want to dig out the flip-flops and ill-advised shorts (not me though, no-one wants to see that). Anyway, I just wanted to share a few of them with you...

'International Player's Anthem' by UGK featuring OutKast (which I've written about before) is remarkable for a few things. Firstly, despite the fact that Andre 3000 and Big Boi appear at opposite ends of the tune, they've not sounded so in sync with each other since Stankonia and I can't put into words just how massively chuffed I am that Dre seems to have got all that experimentation out of his system (not that it didn't make for some fine music, but his stuff on Idlewild just plain stank and not in a good way). Secondly, UGK, despite the calibre of their guests, never sound like they're being overshadowed. In fact, Bun B's verse is particularly excellent. Lastly, I just can't get enough of it. No matter how many times I hear it, it doesn't fail to improve my mood. Ladies and gentlemen, make way for one of the best singles of the year.

UGK feat. OutKast - International Player's Anthem (mp3)

Roisin Murphy is back, back, BACK, with new single 'Overpowered'. Produced by Bugz In The Attic's Seiji, 'Overpowered' is an insistent little groover, with a winning acid line running through it's spine. Above all else, Murphy's vocal is awesome ("You day-ta my dah-ta"! Excellent!) and this should be a huge radio hit all over the summer. It probably won't be now that I've said that, but it sounds like her forthcoming second solo album is going to make more of a tilt at the pop charts than Ruby Blue did.

Roisin Murphy - Overpowered (Radio Edit) (mp3)

Escort are rounding up their first run of singles before they head back to the studio to knock out the album of the year with 'All Through The Night'. Again, this is one that I've praised before (with a Single of the Week accolade nonetheless), but it just gets better with each listen, like all of Escort's releases to date. I'm surprised not more people have cottoned on to their brilliance, but to go some way to rectifying that, here, for one week only (or until I get told to take it down) is a taster of Escort's discoid genius.

Escort - All Through The Night (mp3)

One band who pretty much no-one would have pegged for making a summery, poppy hit are Queens Of The Stone Age. I know that most of you are going to think that I've completely lost it, but '3's & 7's' from upcoming fifth album, Era Vulgaris is just built for soundtracking every trail for every channel's festival coverage. Imagine that riff playing atop a montage of beered-up, sunburnt, Reni hat-wearing day-trippers, arms aloft and mugging for the camera when you get sat down to watch T In The Park on BBC. You know it's going to happen. I just hope that I get some acknowledgement when it happens. I could be a roving reporter you know.

Queens Of The Stone Age - 3's & 7's (mp3)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor's only gone and recorded one of the best pop albums of the year, hasn't she? The ex-indie chick with the fruit pastille jaw has rediscovered what made 'Groovejet' so great and managed to keep the quality levels unfeasibly high over Trip The Light Fantastic's twelve tracks. An early personal favourite is the Franz Ferdinand produced by SAW romp of 'New Flame', with its new wave guitars and punk-disco beat. Superb.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - New Flame (mp3)

Bring on the BBQs now!

I need a lie down,

JMx

Jesus has no place on the dancefloor.

Hi there,

I've not dropped in for a week or so, have I? I've had a bit of outside work on and that's taken up a fair chunk of my music criticism efforts, so I haven't really felt much like blogging to be honest. I was thinking the other day though that I haven't highlighted what's on the Yer Mam! stereo for quite some time (although you could probably guess my music listening activities from all those mixtapes I put up the other week), so I guess it's time to right that wrong.

Here then are a few things that I've been checking out and I think you should too.


Matthew Dear is a bit of a bugger to pin a label on. He makes brilliant techno music in his Audion, False and Jabberjaw guises, but it's the records he makes under his own name that intrigue me the most. The fact that he chooses not to hide behind a pseudonym would indicate that the music he records as Matthew Dear is his most personal. That would appear to be true as, while there are still some tech-y flourishes here and there, Matthew Dear records are more warm, immediate and organic affairs than the machine music he cooks up the rest of the time.

His latest run-out under his own name, Asa Breed, is, in my opinion, his best work regardless of moniker. A fully-formed, sumptuous tech-funk-soul album full of finely-crafted songs that are as addictive as they are strange and exotic. At times, Dear comes on like TV On The Radio making electronic music, his baritone recalling Kyp Malone. The vocals, as affecting as they often are, are probably the least interesting aspect of an album where the production is spotless, crisp and multi-textured. Lead-off single, 'Deserter' for example is held down by a reverbed-up drum machine pulse, while reversed string samples and plaintive bleeps cascade over the top, enveloping Dear's weary vocal in spacious sonic decoration. This song alone is a front-runner to be one of the year's best.

Elsewhere, Dear tries his hand at skippy pop-house ('Don And Sherri'), bends-inducing deep house ('Fleece On Brain') and even skewed afro-pop ('Elementary Lover'). Asa Breed is a confident, eclectic work of brilliance by a producer who's really starting to come into his own. Expect this one to figure there or thereabouts in many an end-of-year list.

Matthew Dear - Fleece On Brain (mp3)


Not surprising given my over-expressed for the original, but I'm becoming increasingly enamoured with John Cale's cover of LCD Soundsystem's 'All My Friends' (Franz Ferdinand's I can take or leave). Cale plays it pretty much straight down the line, but I think that's what I love about it. For someone as respected as he is to approach a contemporary song with such reverence and gravitas as he does here is astonishing.

Cale's rich croon lends the lyrics an added dimension of ennui and regret, but ultimately the original's sense of triumph still reigns supreme. Musically, it's a little more sparse than LCD's version, more Joy Division than New Order (actually, it reminds me more of Bowie's 'Heroes' for some reason), but this only accentuates what we knew all along; that 'All My Friends' is arguably James Murphy's finest moment yet. Giving it to an experimental rock godhead to interpret in his own manner has just elevated its growing modern classic stauts that little bit more.

John Cale - All My Friends (mp3)


Il y a quelque chose dans l'eau en France. And I'm not talking about Justice, Ed Banger, Uffie et al, those guys can all go jump in the seine. No, after Joakim's spooked out psych-rock adventure on Monsters And Silly Songs and My Sister Klaus' all-over-the-shop Chateau Rouge, comes the third album in some sort of unofficial 2007 trilogy of French psychedelia, Turzi's A.

Turzi are on Record Makers, Nicolas Godin and J-B Dunckel of Air's label and it appears that they've taken the aesthetic that they dallied with on 10.000 Hz. Legend (most notably on 'Don't Be Light') and ran with it. This is a record informed by horror film soundtracks and 70s prog and it isn't afraid to wear those influences on its sleeve. The hallmarks of Goblin and John Carpenter are all over this album, yet it sounds utterly contemporary. Oh, and it's a concept record on which every track starts with the letter A. This deserves as wide an audience as label mate, Sebastien Tellier gained with Politics.

Turzi - Afghanistan (mp3)


After two years of incessant hype on the beardo-disco scene, we can now ascertain for ourselves just whether Map Of Africa are worth getting worked up about. The work of scene pioneer DJ Harvey and Rub N Tugger, Thomas Bullock, Map Of Africa's three 12"s have been changing hands on the black market for astronomical values since their limited runs, but they've now finally got around to releasing a full album.

Well, it isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea and Harvey's notoriously scatalogical and perverse sense of humour is all too prevalent at times, but I think this is one of the most fun, unpretentious releases of the year thus far. A mixture of swamp rock, funk and Balearic grooves, it more than delivers on the promise of those early vinyls and features some of the darned funkiest tunes of the year so far. Look out for this when it's released on CD later in the year.

Map Of Africa - Wyatt Urp (mp3)

Also, due to popular demand and available for one week only...

Fleetwood Mac - You Make Lovin' Fun (Trail Mix)

In other news: read my reviews of albums from The Maccabees and Von Sudenfed over at High Voltage.

I meant to mention this last week, but if you're interested, I was on the last Blog Fresh Radio show, waxing lyrical about Devin The Dude.

Finally, I've been quoted in Carol McGiffin's Wikipedia entry! What are the chances?! Hopefully, the opinionated Loose Women presenter will link back to here from there and feel the full force of my invective. Bigoted fuck that she is.

More of these random musical musings later in the week.

Laters,

JMx

Listen up!

Howdy!

Just thought I'd drop in on you all, see how things are. How are things with you? Life treating you well?

I went to Futuresonic over the weekend, which was nice. I missed Faust though, due to a bout of man 'flu, which wasn't all that nice. Did manage to catch TTC, Black Devil Disco Club, ex-Kraftwerkmensch, Wolfgang Flur and some hippy woman making music out of running a mallet around some bowls filled with different measures of water. A fun time was had by all.

Anyways, I'm writing a feature on that for High Voltage, so I'm sure you'll get to find out more in the not-too-distant future.

Haven't done this in a while...

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Escort - All Through The Night (Escort)

I think I make this the third time that Escort have been my single of the week, after 'Love In Indigo' and 'A Bright New Life'. This concludes the run of singles that precedes the guys locking themselves away in the studio and coming up with what should be a shoe-in for disco, nay, pop, nay, all-genre album of the year. 'All Through The Night' is probably their most upfront cut to date, featuring sexed-up lyrics, squelchy synths and some unabashed 80s electro-pop nods. Fantastic, life-enhancing disco that makes you wonder why all the bands who aren't as good as Escort haven't just thrown in the towel yet. A liberal dash of radio play and a CD release away from world domination. Just remember where you heard about them first. It probably wasn't here but, y'know, remember anyway.

Buy it from Piccadilly Records

So lately, I've been experimenting with Audacity software and having a crack at putting together a mix. I'm not a DJ (although I would like to be if anyone fancies putting me to work), so the mixing nous is a little lacking, but if you're willing to listen without prejudice, the first fruits of my labour can be found both here and over at The Console, for your listening (dis)pleasure.

The mix that I threw together for The Console is a kind of fuzzed-out, psych-garagepunk-funk-soul affair, taking in the likes of The Sonics, Love, The Staple Singers, Eddie Bo, Baby Huey and loads more. Let me know what you think.

The mix I've compiled for this very blog, however, is a more discocentric one and I've given it an intentionally pompous name...

Yer Mam!'s Disconautical Journey Across The Discoverse In 72 1/2 Minutes

Tracklisting:

01 Karma - Beach Towel (I:Cube Remix)
02 Lindstrom And Solale - Let's Practise
03 JJ Cale - Ride Me High (Mischief Brew Re-edit)
04 Lopazz - Migracion (Fujiya & Miyagi Remix)
05 Black Devil Disco Club - The Devil In Us
06 Glass Candy - I Always Say Yes
07 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
08 Magnus International - Kosmetisk
09 Fleetwood Mac - You Make Lovin' Fun (Trail Mix)
10 Escort - All Through The Night
11 Toby Tobias - A Close Shave (Brontosaurus Remix)
12 Kelley Polar - Rosenband
13 Baby Oliver - Hypochondriac
14 Blondie - Llamame (Call Me) (Original 12" Instrumental Mix)

Like I said, these are my first cracks at actually putting a mix together, so be nice. I promise I'll get better in future. I intend to make this a running feature. Any feedback whatsoever will be appreciated.

Laters,

JMx

Pining for the fjords.

If you're a raging disco nut like myself, there's no more fertile stalking ground than the Norwegian fjords right now. Since around 2004, in fact, Norway's DJs, producers and record labels have been steadily making the kind of luscious, organic disco music that's as informed by prog and pop as Larry Levan or Studio 54. Not for Norwegians is the garish hedonism that is often a trigger response when someone mentions the word 'disco' to you. They prefer their 4/4 beats with a more psychedelic but no less immediate or fun tint.

Which brings us to two of the Norway kosmische scene's leading lights, Lindstrom & Prins Thomas. With hindsight, we're allowed to label the pair as godheads of a scene (alongside the much-missed Erot, Per Martinsen aka Mental Overdrive and the venerable Bjorn Torske) that's recently entered an exciting second generation, as evidenced by recent releases from upstarts such as Magnus International (actually a scene progenitor as one-third of Kalle, Magnus & Daniel with Kalle Risan Sandaas and Daniel Tjus Andersen), Blackbelt Anderson and DiskJokke. L&PT's self-titled debut of 2005 was one of that year's best dance records (inasmuch as you can call it a dance record, with its jazz and prog overtones) and has grown in stature ever since. It is such a rich, well-orchestrated album with ambition and warmth to spare and still stands as probably the defining statement of one of the few scenes that actually seems to exist.

The end of May sees the release of Reinterpretations, a compilation of tracks from the 12"s that L&PT released from that album, along with two new tracks. The emphasis is on dancefloor-aimed reworks of that album's downtempo grooves, with 'Turkish Delight', 'Claudja', 'Feel AM' and 'Boney M Down' all getting a more danceable, Saturday night makeover. For fans, there isn't a lot here that you won't have heard before, but it's still worth getting as a companion piece to the well-thumbed original.

Despite the tracks here being more designed for the club, there are still many startling, sparkling gracenotes that you don't often get in a genre where the more functional and effective a track is, the more successful it is. L&PT refuse to pander to genre expectations and are more preoccupied with producing something that's as intricate as it is funky. Witness the overlapping, multifarious percussion on 'Claudio', for example, or the skeletal, echoey 808 line in 'Nummer Fire En', the album's 20 minute-plus highlight.

As with other compilations, this is probably more catered for newbies to the Lindstrom & Prins Thomas canon, but this stuff just doesn't get old. No matter how many times you listen to the Can cover, 'Mighty Girl', those arpeggios, even though they aren't an L&PT creation, still send a shiver up your spine. Reinterpretations avoids any accusations of cynicism purely by virtue of L&PT's take on disco being absolutely peerless and needing to be heard by everyone.

Pre-order the album from amazon.

Up until recently, Prins Thomas was in danger of remaining forever in the shadow of his more ubiquitous production partner. That's all been blown out of the water by Thomas' recent, incessant string of quality remixes for the likes of Justus Kohncke, Sorcerer, Simian Mobile Disco and Studio, to name but four. He's also about to release the remix of the year and the DJ mix of the year, too. You heard it here first.

Prins Thomas' epic take on Hatchback's 'White Diamond', forthcoming on This Is Not An Exit, is a superlative seventeen minutes and eighteen seconds that makes any kind of brainless baiting of the remix as an artless artform by Thomas' twinkly, soaring do-over being quite possibly the best piece of music I've heard not just this year, but for the last five years.

This is a track that ushers forth comparisons to the likes of Philip Glass, Can, Manuel Gottsching, Steve Reich and the like and you have to say that you don't often get that with a Digitalism re-edit. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to post it yet. Not that I don't want to, in fact, this is exactly the kind of music that I want to share with as many people as possible. I just don't think it would be fair to a new, upcoming label like This Is Not An Exit to post something that is guaranteed to raise their profile ahead of its release. This is one of those tunes that every DJ worth their salt, nay, every self-respecting music-phile is going to want to get their hands on, so why should I let them get it for free at this early juncture?

Anyway, the DJ mix of the year comes in the form of Cosmo Galactic Prism, a two-disc set to be released next month on Eskimo that takes in pretty much every kind of music that's informed Prins Thomas' own work. Kicking off with Joe Meek & The Blue Men's eerie sci-fi-doo-wop classic, 'I Hear A New World', it then goes on to cover kraut-disco (Holger Czukay's 'Cool In The Pool'), Japanese disco metal (Metalchicks' 'Tears For Fears/Conspiracy'), techno, both minimal (Matias Aguayo) and Detroit (Carl Craig in his Tres Demented guise) and a healthy dash of prog (Zombi and Hawkwind).

The mixing is seamless and often dazzlingly outlandish (the transition from Dubarchanoid Trim's 'Perfumed Garden' into Aguayo's 'Radiotaxi' is particularly breathtaking), but the whole thing hangs together so well that it makes you wonder why all DJ mixes don't take as many risks as this does. Just perfect.

Pre-order from N.E.W.S.

For more insight, read the interview with Prins for Fact Magazine.

In other news: read my reviews of Electrelane live, the new Arctic Monkeys album (although I swear I gave it 3/5, not 5/5 like the review states) and The Procession's album, all at High Voltage.

Also, I'm the featured blogger on this week's Blog Fresh Radio (until Monday at least), so you should all listen to that.

Mixtape Week: Sunday

It's Sunday, so today's mixtape is one designed to help you in your quest to get your chill on on this most cold chillin' of days. Bank holiday tomorrow too, so you know that your chill isn't going to be all tainted by thoughts of dread at having to get up so dang early tomorrow.

Oh, and it's a double again. 30 tracks of the most chillingest stuff out there.


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: SUNDAY

DISC ONE

1. iLiKETRAiNS - Spencer Perceval (Latest single from a band that could be, given a couple of years and a kickarse debut album, one of the best bands in Britain. Sounds like the end of the world.)
2. Soulsavers - Revival (Mark Lanegan could sing the phone book and make it sound like a death march. The gospel choir and crashing piano chords give proceedings a hopeful tinge, but you know that Mark Lanegan would eat your soul given half a chance.)
3. Angie Stone - Wish I Didn't Miss You (The closest thing that the nu-soul niche has gotten to the spirit of the old stuff. It helps that it lifts the tune from The O'Jays' 'Backstabbers', mind.)
4. Benny Sings - For Your Love (Skirting the outer edges of cheesedom, occasionally dipping a cheeky toe in Camembert lake, Benny Sings is a kind of post-modern take on 70s soul music. The irrepressible groove of this tune elevates it to essential status. Not bad for something that could easily have just been a one-note joke.)
5. Marvin Gaye - I Want You (And now the real thing. Oozing sex and class, you just know that Marvin got the dames in the house all worked up whenever he belted this one out.)
6. Otis Gayle - I'll Be Around (Low-key lover's rock take on the Detroit Spinners classic. Gayle plays it straight down the line, but adds a lilting ska facet to the soul standard.)
7. Owusu & Hannibal - Le Fox (Bubbling, smoky soul from Ubiquity's Danish duo. Their album from last year, Living With... is one that I've only recently discovered. One of 2006's most slept-on gems.)
8. Blue Six - Fast Free Delivery (The lyrics are pure fromage, but the groove is addictive. Reminds me of some Acid Jazz stuff, actually. Not as bad a thing as you might be thinking.)
9. Soul II Soul - Fairplay (The tune that got one of Britain's best ever soul acts a record deal still sounds like it could light up any dancefloor in the known world, despite being nineteen years old now.)
10. William Onyeabor - Body And Soul (Ten-plus minutes of pure, uncut African funk. You know it makes sense.)
11. James Brown - Hell (You've got to love a song that starts with a gong being struck, but there's no need to seek an excuse to like this tough, funky little unit.)
12. Little Milton - More And More (Blues-flecked funky soul number from one of music's true greats who never really got the dues he deserved. Time to rectify that, I think.)
13. Caetano Veloso - Outro (From Veloso's 2006 album, Ce, this sounds like The Strokes transplanted to Rio at carnival time. Great stuff.)
14. Lavender Diamond - Like An Arrow (Menacing, lurching, folk-funk from the band's superb debut album, Imagine Our Love, out tomorrow on Rough Trade.)
15. Claudine Longet - God Only Knows (Longet's story is a strange one that takes in Andy Williams, the Folies Bergeres and criminally negligent homicide. There isn't a dash of her colourful life in this very French version of The Beach Boys' perennial though.)
16. Fifty Foot Hose - God Bless The Child (Yep, a psychedelic, bad trip run through of the Billie Holiday tune. It's done fairly straight but with loads of added weird moog effects.)
17. The National - Start A War (Matt Berninger is easily one of the best singers and lyricists in American rock music right now and this cut from the forthcoming Boxer album is just one of the reasons why.)

DISC TWO

1. Colourbox - Looks Like We're Shy One Horse (This post-punk/dub/spaghetti western epic is one of my favourite songs of all time and I don't think I've ever put it on a mixtape before. "You brought two too many". A wink and a thumbs-up to anyone who can name the film the dialogue is taken from in the comments box.)
2. Seko Molenga And Kalo Kawongolo - Moto Ya Motema (In 1977, Lee Perry apparently stumbled upon these two Zairean musicians after they had been abandoned by their manager in Kingston. He took them into his Black Ark and got them to cut a record with The Upsetters. This is just part of the result of those sessions, but it should be enough to urge you to seek out the album.)
3. Gina X Performance - Nice Mover (Slinky as fuck, this art-disco groover was so far ahead of its time that we're still catching up.)
4. My Sister Klaus - Call Yourself (Everything on My Sister Klaus' debut album, Chateau Rouge sounds like a pastiche, but in a good way. This is his mid-70s Bowie tune.)
5. !!! - Heart Of Hearts (The Brothers Mix) (The Brothers take the hectic punk-funk original and slow it down to a nice, dreamy pace, ditching the vocal on the way. In fact, it's pretty much unrecognisable. Like a completely different song.)
6. Diskjokke - Once More With Violence (The highlight from Jokke's Heft & Plunder EP on Kindisch, this is a tech-y, space-disco number that is just another in a long line of bombs from the fjords.)
7. Sorcerer - Surfing At Midnight (Trippy, Balearic disco from the Tirk stable. The Prins Thomas miks on the flip is worth a look, but it's the original that I prefer.)
8. Magnus International - Kosmetisk (What is in the water up there?! I'm fucking moving to Norway as soon as I can.)
9. Howard Wales - Rendezvous With The Sun (Another tune that begins with a gong, this is a surging sci-fi funk number favoured by DJ Harvey. Anything he gives the seal of approval to is good enough for me.)
10. Ahmad - Back In The Day (Remix) ("Jerome, Jerome, put on that Bobby Womack!")
11. Funkadelic - I'm Never Gonna Tell It (Really digging this one at the moment. Thanks to Royksopp for putting it on their Back To Mine mix.)
12. Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Mighty Girl (As featured on the upcoming Reinterpretations collection, this is the one with those arpeggios that just will not quit. One of my personal L&PT faves.)
13. Marshall Jefferson Vs. Noosa Heads - Mushrooms (Salt City Orchestra Remix) ("And I never saw that girl again.... And I never took a mushroom again" Absolute classic.)

Sunday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space

Mixtape Week: Saturday

Something a bit special for you today. It's a double disc mixtape, all uploaded into one nifty, almost-200mb zip file for you. Hey, it's Saturday! Play this when you're getting ready to go out.


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: SATURDAY

DISC ONE

1. Chin Chin - Toot D'Amore (Prins Thomas Diskomiks) (Yet another Diskomiks from the venerable Maj. Swellings. Definitely the most prolific producer on the dance music scene in 2007 puts in one more sterling re-make to raise his profile even further. All hail the Prins!)
2. L.T.D. - Love To The World (Orchestral disco-soul music from the '70s. A bit of a lost gem, recently discovered via the superb And It Don't Stop blog. Spend a few hours over there, it's a goldmine.)
3. Bob & Gene - Your Name (Effervescent, careening teen-soul from a largely forgotten early-60s act. Sounds like the wheels could fall off at any given moment, but the funky energy brings it through to the premature finish line.)
4. Jackson Sisters - I Believe In Miracles (Single Version) (One of those tracks that the more savvy soul DJs drop to make the dancefloor go crazy. You'll have heard it loads of times, but you won't be able to put your finger on where. It'll just bring back hazy memories of bad dancing, sticky floors and making passes at people you shouldn't really have made passes at. That's a good thing by the way.)
5. Aaliyah - More Than A Woman (Timbaland's recent car-crash solo album, Shock Value made me dig into his older productions to remember why I loved him in the first place. True, he took more than a few cues from Discovery-era Daft Punk on this one, but it stops short of plagiarism by Mr Mosley stamping it with a few of his own trademarks. Also, Aaliyah knocks the vocal out of the park.)
6. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z - Umbrella (Clean) (Jay-Z's descent into rap dinosaur status can't stop this from being one of the most effortlessly brilliant r'n'b tracks of the year so far. It's all about the drums, baby!)
7. Santogold - Creator (All over the blogosphere like a rash at the moment, it's the new M.I.A.! That's probably a bit unfair, because it's a great tune in its own right. Breaks stalwart, Freq Nasty is on production duties too.)
8. Hot Chip - My Piano (Proving that The Warning was no fluke, their first new single since that album carries on the good work. One of Alexis' most heart-bruised vocals to date glides atop a stop-start drum beat, fuzz bass and some Italo-house piano work.)
9. The Juan Maclean - Give Me Every Little Thing (Juan's in danger of becoming the DFA's forgotten man, so I thought I'd give his best tune to date another airing. The best song that Talking Heads and Daft Punk never wrote together.)
10. Crazy Penis - You Started Something (God, I miss Paperecordings. One of Manchester's best ever labels has been defunct for many a year now, but this still makes me all misty-eyed. Good times.)
11. Dorfmeister Vs. MDLA - Boogie No More (Reverso 68 Remix) (Yet more Balearic magic from Pete Herbert and Phil Mison, this time working over Dorfmeister and Madrid de los Austrias' cover of Brooke Valentine's disco classic. Pure gold.)
12. Baby Oliver - Primetime (Uptown Express) (New-ish on Environ, this is rumoured to be Morgan Geist acting under an assumed name. It sure sounds like him. Well, at least it sounds like Metro Area after a noseload of amyl nitrate.)
13. Kalabrese - Auf Dem Hof (This track acts all low-key, but really there's a big colourful tech-funk tune waiting to bust out. It almost does when those horns kick in, but that would be far too crass.)
14. Inner Life feat. Jocelyn Brown - Ain't No Mountain High Enough (Larry Levan's Garage Mix) (Absolutely epic disco take on a soul standard. More peaks than the Pyrenees.)

DISC TWO

1. Elektrons - Get Up (Teriffic broken-beat/hip-hop/soul bomb from Luke and Justin Unabomber in their band guise. Awesome stuff that deserves to break out of the Manchester ghetto.)
2. Notorious B.I.G. - Party & Bullshit (Ratatat Remix) (Bigger than an elephant. Just absolutely fucking huge!)
3. Felice Taylor - I Can Feel Your Love (Get the talc out, it's a Northern Soul standard that makes me want to neck a load of bennies and get my spin on.)
4. Lyn Collins - Rock Me Again & Again & Again (James Brown's protege almost breaks out from the Godfather's shadow here, but you can hear him on backing vocals. Funkier than a mosquito's tweeter.)
5. Bush Tetras - You Can't Be Funky ("... If you haven't got soul", so say the Bush Tetras. Never a truer word was spoken. Fortunately, Bush Tetras got soul by the bowlful.)
6. Escort - A Bright New Life (I'm starting to think now that this is my favourite Escort release so far. That'll probably change when I get my hands on the newie, 'All Through The Night' in a couple of weeks. That debut album couldn't come soon enough.)
7. Chaz Jankel - Ai No Corrida (Extended Version) (Camp as a row of tents cover of the Quincy Jones/James Ingram hit from the erstwhile Blockhead. This is what every song should be like.)
8. Antena - Camino Del Sol (Joakim Remix) (Ascending to modern classic status recently, don't come knocking if you're expecting something like Joakim's own compositions. This one's like early Chicago acid, filtered through Joakim's own, very-European sensibility and it's been a staple of all the best DJs' sets since last year.)
9. Faze Action - In The Trees (Carl Craig Remix) (A masterclass in building anticipation and tension, Craig must be able to do this kind of stuff in his sleep by now, but the words 'Carl Craig Remix' still raise a record's must-have value.)
10. Robert Babicz - Sin (The man formerly known as Rob Acid brings the enticing darkness on this deliciously addictive slab of techno.)
11. Booka Shade - Tickle (A-side from their first single of new material since Movements mines a darker seam of minimal house than the highlights from that album. It shows a bit more diversity at a point where Booka Shade could have just succumbed to coasting.)
12. Kaos - Panopeeps (Shit Robot Remix) (If you can listen to this without gurning and doing the rave hand gestures (little fish, big fish, cardboard box) then you're a better man than I am.)
13. Blackstrobe - Last Club On Earth (Letting Ivan Smagghe go has proven to be a bit of a bollock dropped as the new Blackstrobe album is a crushing disappointment. This is no 'Innerstrings', but it's the best of a bad bunch and is surprisingly rousing for what is ostensibly a goth-rock outfit now.)

Saturday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space (new link!)

N.B.: Turns out I've labelled the Booka Shade track wrong. It really is supposed to be on the second disc. Honest.

Get Down Saturday Night

What are you doing tomorrow night? If you say anything other than "I'm going to Get Girl. Kill Baddies. Save Planet. at the Night & Day Cafe in Manchester", then I'm cutting you off.

I kid, but seriously, you all should come down, because Grammar & Pasta Paul will be rinsing the plates until the early hours, alongside guest DJ Selina (from Invest In Property) and live sets from The Delta Fiasco and Deluka. I'll be there, generally acting the goat and dancing like an epileptic gibbon, so you know that's going to be fun.

Anyway, if you email the good people from Get Girl at ggkbsp@googlemail.com, you can get in for three nicker! Bargain!

See you in the speakers.

JMx

Mixtape Week: Friday

The weekend starts here...

YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: FRIDAY

1. Battles - Atlas (Lead-off cut from Battles' superb upcoming debut full-length proper, Mirrored and former Single Of The Week on these very pages, 'Atlas' as most of you will know by now, is probably the strangest song since 'Windowlicker' to ever be considered 'catchy'. You'll be singing along, even if you don't know the words and, apart from Tyondai Braxton, who does?)
2. Bad Brains - Pay To Cum! (Probably one of the most enduring songs from the hardcore punk scene of the early-80s, this still has the power to get people slam-dancing from fifty paces.)
3. Flipper - Way Of The World (A slack, loose groove keeps this one plodding along evilly. A precursor to the grunge movement that plaid-clad throwbacks would do well not to forget.)
4. The Afghan Whigs - John The Baptist (The forthcoming Afghan Whigs retrospective, Unbreakable made me dig out my old copy of 1965, only to find that it still stood up pretty well. This soul-flecked slice of sex-rock is libido writ large and no-one writes rock music as pervy as Greg Dulli used to anymore. Might be a good thing.)
5. Magazine - Definitive Gaze (This, the opening track from Magazine's debut, Real Life sounds like a wrestling match between John McGeoch's scratchy, ratty guitar, Bob Dickinson's ornate, semi-futuristic keyboard swathes and Barry Adamson's fluid, restless bassline, with Devoto acting as passive, self-serving, sneering referee. Thrilling stuff, thirty years on.)
6. David Bowie - Black Country Rock (Largely forgotten footnote of Bowie's career, 'Black Country Rock' is often passed over as a bit of an anomaly on the weighty The Man Who Sold The World album. It's breezy blues-rock is hard not to like though.)
7. The Zombies - Care Of Cell 44 (Flower-power pop about a lover coming back from prison. Not standard lyrical concerns for this time in musical history really. All the better for it too.)
8. April March - Chick Habit (From the soundtrack to Tarantino's half of Grindhouse, Death Proof, this is a surf-y, campy take on Gainsbourg's 'Laisse Tomber Les Filles', only with, like, English lyrics and stuff. Kewl!)
9. Os Mutantes - Trem Fantasma (Queasy, psychedelic tropicalia from one of those bands you feel would be a hell of a lot more revered had they been British or American. Having said that, they probably wouldn't have been this good if they weren't from Brazil.)
10. Map Of Africa - Black Skin Blue-Eyed Boys (It's been nearly two years since this was released, but I still manage to hear it pretty much every time I go to a club. Tells you just how great it is, really.)
11. Baby Huey - Hard Times (When James Ramey sings about the hard times, you believe it as Baby Huey is probably one of the most tragic figures in the history of soul music. Dead at 26, with only one album under his belt, he was snatched away before he could really get going.)
12. Jeru Tha Damaja - D. Original (Still one of DJ Premier's oddest, most off-kilter production jobs is this cut from Jeru's superb debut, The Sun Rises In The East. It's the creepy, off-key piano sample that gets me every time.)
13. Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell (If there was ever any doubt of Illmatic's influence and enduring popularity, you should check out the album's Wikipedia entry. Ten tracks, including this, the closer, and out. All killer, no filler.)
14. A Tribe Called Quest - Award Tour (Midnight Marauders was always my favourite Quest album. Just a stone-cold classic.)
15. Ta-raach & The Lovelution - Merci Me Lord (I should have put this after the Jeru track, as it shares a similarly herky-jerky piano lick, this time on an electric one. Highly impressive, none-more-Detroit hip-hop from one of this year's best hip-hop albums so far.)
16. Devin The Dude - Almighty Dollar (Aside from Devin's irrepressible, addictive flow, it's just nice to hear a rapper bemoaning his lack of money, rather than bragging about how much he has.)
17. Prodigy - Mac 10 Handle (I've never been a massive fan of Prodigy's style. He always seems to be clumsily struggling for the next rhyme, but his new album, Return Of The Mac is all about the production. Crystal clear, smoking funk samples are the order of the day, so you can overlook the pimp-ish lyrics.)
18. Dr. Dre - Nuthin' But A G Thang (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg) ("It's like this and like that and like this and-uh". I don't know why it says featuring, when this is clearly Snoop's song. The sound of a talent announcing his arrival to the world. If only he could recapture the brilliance he essays here.)
19. Domino - Sweet Potatoe Pie (Despite taking the Dan Quayle spelling class, Domino could really hit it when he wanted to. His first album wasn't exactly a West Coast classic, but it had some really great stuff on it, like this. I still think of the video everytime I hear it, with Domino walking down a line of booty-bouncing babes and gin-glugging homies while singing to the camera. Can't find it on YouTube though. If anyone can find it, please let me know, I need a nostalgia hit.)
20. Eric B & Rakim - Juice (I Know The Ledge) (Talking of nostalgia, this always brings to mind the hyper-kinetic opening credits sequence from the film it's named for. One of the most-overlooked films of the 90s, by everyone other than 2pac and Omar Epps fans. "You got the juice now man!")
21. O.C. - Time's Up (Ending our all-nostalgia triple-header, I've actually found the video to this one though. What the hell was with all those guys sat on the floor in the dark, nodding their heads? Looks like a samurai meeting or something.)

Friday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space (new link!)

Mixtape Week: Thursday

Today is Thursday and you know what that means. It means that we're now past the half-way mark in our mixtape week (aww!). Fret not, however, as today's is a corker, featuring kickarse tunes from the likes of Larry Heard, Kathy Diamond and Harry Nilsson, alongside others. Tuck in!


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: THURSDAY

1. Arto Mwambe - Ombala Mbembo (More technoid badness from Mwambe's superlative Mudhutma! double-header. One of the finest releases of the year so far, make no mistake.)
2. Moodymann - Technologystolemyvinyle (To fill out Kenny Dixon Jr's prophecy, we have a fully digitised version of his new one that really has to be experienced on vinyl. Hey, new Moodymann is a big deal and not everyone has a record player. We're performing a service here!)
3. Frivolous - Sooo Savey (Jazzy, grinding minimal house, featuring one of the best cheesy/great vocals I've heard in quite some time.)
4. Blackjoy - The Bears (Snaking, downtempo disco-house from France's Blackjoy, taken from the latest in Freerange Records' Colours Series: Green. All it needs now is a Prins Thomas remix. Actually, scratch that, it's pretty perfect as it is.)
5. Larry Heard Presents Mr White - The Sun Can't Compare (Can't believe that it's taken this long for me to put this 2007 DJ mix standard (recently spotted leaving the competition for dust on Dixon's Body Language Vol. 4 and Ellen Allien's Fabric 34) on a mixtape. Found it and loved it last November-ish, but it rightfully takes pride of place here. Better late than never.)
6. Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe (Prins Thomas Diskomiks) (Thomas gives the original a bit of a slo-mo acid-jacking groove workout feel, without taking away any of the stuff that made the original such a perfect pop tune.)
7. ESG - Moody (Spaced Out) (No-one does minimalist grooves quite like ESG and this is one of their best, as evidenced by the amount of times it's been sampled.)
8. Harry Nilsson - Jump Into The Fire (As covered by LCD Soundsystem but even they couldn't improve on the original that features one of the most badarse basslines in the history of badarse basslines.)
9. Babe Ruth - The Mexican (It's easy to see why the drum break was such a staple of the early b-boy sound. For a rock band from Hatfield, this is hell of funky.)
10. Kathy Diamond - On & On (Still loving this clav-soaked smoky soul number from Diamond's immense debut album. You all should check her out on the 27th at Po Na Na in Manchester. I'll be there. Will you?)
11. Frost - Modesty (This, the opener from new album, Love! Revolution! seems to take forever to build, but when the release does eventually come, it's totally devastating. Frost do that low-key grace thing so well that it ain't even funny.)
12. The Mary Onettes - Lost (This couldn't be more New Order if Peter Hook was on bass and Martin Hannett was producing from beyond the grave. Totally derivative but great stuff all the same.)
13. New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (Shep Pettibone Remix) (As heard on Hot Chip's DJ-Kicks mix, this doesn't so much improve on the original as just extend all the best bits. The way a good remix should be really.)

Thursday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space (new link!)

Mixtape Week: Wednesday

Today's mixtape is a rockier affair than the previous two days. Guitar overload, just below the picture of Wednesday Addams. Y'see what I did there?


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: WEDNESDAY

1. Dan Deacon - Wooody Wooodpecker (Idiot-savant laptop-popper, Dan Deacon is currently one of the most blogged-about artists around. His stuff can sometimes be a little too manic for my liking and it often feels like you really shouldn't be listening, let alone actually enjoying it. The opener of his new album, Spiderman Of The Rings, 'Wooody Wooodpecker', however, just has to be heard to be believed. Try it. You might not understand it, but hey, you might just like it.)
2. OOIOO - Uma (Eye Mix 1) (Eye from The Boredoms gives the standout from last year's OOIOO album, Taiga a stroboscopic, tribal-trance-rave makeover. Can never get enough of those crazy, chanting Japanese women.)
3. Von Sudenfed - Flooded ("The other DJ needed a god-damn rubber sheet because he pissed the fuckin' bed". Mark E. Smith = Genius.)
4. Nine Inch Nails - My Violent Heart (NIN's new album, Year Zero, is the first one that I've ever really given a decent amount of attention to. I've just never really warmed to the overgrown adolescent schtick that Reznor has previously peddled. 'My Violent Heart' is a blitzkrieg-ing show of power from a band who have found a new, more likeable lyrical focus though and just one of the reasons why I think that Year Zero is the best mainstream rock album of the year so far.)
5. Holy Fuck - Frenchy's (A malevolent electro-noise stomp from Holy Fuck's recent self-titled EP, that's a marked improvement on their debut album from 2005. Expect this one to win a fair few new converts.)
6. Soft Circle - Earthed (Blackened, percussive, leftfield dance music from Hisham Barroocha (Black Dice). Like Liquid Liquid, raised on Dario Argento films.)
7. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Sun Lips (The highlight of their patchy new album, Dandelion Gum, this is a queasy, psychedelic slice of trip-hoppy strangeness.)
8. Sapat - Dark Silver (This track is a loose-groove, funky oasis of focus amidst the aimless jams of Sapat's current album, Mortise And Tenon. One of the most surprising finds of the year.)
9. Turzi - Animal Signal (More about this one soon, but for now, I'll just say that Turzi's album, A is the third album of dark, prog-inflected psyche-rock to emerge this year, after My Sister Klaus and Joakim.)
10. Neu! - Hero (Klaus Dinger's proto-punk classic from the second side of Neu! '75 is as menacing and ahead of its time now as it was back then. Brilliant.)
11. 120 Days - Get Away (Norway's 120 Days ally their kraut-y excesses to a love of '80s acts like Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure and Jesus & Mary Chain, leaving 'Get Away' sounding like it would be at home both on the soundtrack to a John Hughes film and a Werner Herzog film. A recipe for success, if ever I've heard one.)
12. Parts & Labor - Fractured Skies (Blistering, late-Husker Du-style anthemics from P&L's third and best album, Mapmaker. Owner of one of the best chord changes I've heard in a long time.)
13. Pissed Jeans - A Bad Wind (Pissed Jeans are the band your mother warned you about; a vicious blend of Mudhoney proto-grunge and the crunch of black metal. New album, Hope For Men is a coruscating listen, but one that reaffirms your faith in good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll sickness.)
14. Big Business - Hands Up (Big Business make a hell of a lot of noise with just bass and drums and come off a bit like Lightning Bolt writing songs for Motley Crue, with their hair metal-esque vocals. Fist-pumping and artful. Not as bad a combo as it sounds.)
15. Clutch - Power Player (Clutch borrow their riffs from ZZ Top, but there are worse acts to crib from. No-one really does this kind of bluesy man-rock as good as these guys do right now.)
16. Queens Of The Stone Age - A Song For The Dead (One of Dave Grohl's finest ever performances behind the drum kit is on this cut from QOTSA's best album to date, Songs For The Deaf. While we wait on Era Vulgaris, let's remind ourselves why this band is one of the best rock bands of the noughties.)
17. Johnny Thunders - Pipeline (Rocketing cover of the surf-rock classic from the sadly-missed Thunders. Recently heard on The Sopranos too.)
18. The Pink Mountaintops - Single Life (Recent single from Stephen McBean that cuts a psyche groove not heard since '69. It's a happening!)
19. The Sonics - Boss Hoss (Rounding things off with a track from the first punk band. Every song sounded the same but it was a trick worth repeating, I'm sure you'll agree.)

Wednesday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space (new link!)

Mixtape Week: Tuesday

Today's mixtape is a confection of strange, delightful sounds that you should all enjoy, so git downloading!


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: TUESDAY

1. Deerhunter - Octet (I'm slowly waking up to the brilliance of Deerhunter's latest album, Cryptograms. It's taken a while to get its hooks into me, but I guess it's that kind of record. This is my current favourite, a propulsive exercise in post-rock build-sustain-release that displays the mastery at work.)
2. Alex Delivery - Komad (This song sounds like it was made by Boces-era Mercury Rev, using only busted, rusted cogs and machinery and it's essentially about three songs in one. This just adds to the rickety, adventurous charm of a song that lasts ten minutes but feels about half that.)
3. Tuna Laguna - My Lunar Boots (If you can imagine a post-rockin' Super Furry Animals, then you're halfway to getting what 'My Lunar Boots' actually sounds like. Sounds like summer too and there's not many rock instrumentals that you can say that about.)
4. Midlake - Roscoe (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Remix) (Alkan and Norris just basically strip away the guitar from the original and make the keys sound a little more trippy, but it's a nice take on the song. You can't improve on perfection but you can look at it from a different angle.)
5. The Cure - Lullaby ("A nice singalong song", according to one of my work colleagues. I'd prefer to call it one of the creepiest songs ever to make the top five in the UK singles chart.)
6. Modulo 1000 - Nao Fale Con Paredes (My very limited grasp of Portuguese (which stems from a slightly better understanding of Spanish) takes the title of this song to mean 'Don't Talk To Walls'. Am I right? Probably not, but, language barrier be damned, this is some seriously psychedelic acid-prog-carioca madness right here.)
7. Mott The Hoople - Bastard (A Mountain Of One Edit) (Courtesy of Best Foot Forward, this gives Mott The Hoople's 70s badass blues-rock palatable for the Bumrocks crowd. Great job!)
8. Arpadys - Monkey Star (Now a staple of any self-respecting beardo DJ's set, it's still as futuristic and forward-thinking a disco track as it was in 1977.)
9. Easy Going - Fear (Serge Santiago Re-Edit) (Deep, twisted, Italo disco re-edited for maximum dancefloor effect by the man who's done more edits than most of us have had hot dinners. Tasty!)
10. Camouflage - You've Got The Power (I heart Tom Moulton and this is just one reason why. Pure class.)
11. Prince - Controversy (Because I had to fit Prince in somewhere this week after having Andre Cymone on yesterday's mixtape. 'Controversy' seemed as good a song as any, as it pretty much sums up the androgynous sex dwarf in it's "People call me rude/I wish we all were nude/I wish there was no black and white/I wish there were no rules" hook.)
12. Nico - These Days (Capping things off with one of the saddest songs ever written. You can feel the regret and remorse dripping from every note. Beautiful.)

Yer Mam!'s Mixtape Week: Tuesday Ripped, Zipped and Gigasized (new link!)

In other news: Read some reviews of mine...

Pop Levi live on The Console.

Black Lips live on High Voltage.

Electrelane, No Shouts No Calls album review, also on High Voltage.