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.