Thursday, July 24, 2008

I want you to dig!!!


In Manchester this weekend? Stuck for something to do on Sunday night? Don't stay in, come out and witness the birth of something special. A new night is hitting Manchester like a TGV, in the form of Dig For Victory!

Spawned from the music-addled brains of myself and jonthebeef, Dig For Victory! (taking place in the homely city centre surroundings of The Bay Horse on Thomas St.) is an all-encompassing musical behemoth, spanning genres like they've never been spann(er)ed before, eschewing logic and thematic chin-stroking in favour of BIG FUCKING TUNES with hooks aplenty, old and new, popular and obscure. Sure to put a smile on your face and ensure that the Monday after payday is met with a new vigour, a spring in your step and, most likely, a pounding head (in a good way), Dig For Victory! will rock your world and your private bits in ways you never thought imaginable.

Can YOU dig it?!!

Here are some BIG FUCKING TUNES to tide you over 'til Sunday, when you'll most likely hear them anyway.

Latyrx - Lady Don't Tek No (mp3)

Tori Amos - Professional Widow (SDC Disco Mix) (mp3)

A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxations (mp3)

Todd Rundgren - I Saw The Light (mp3)

Jay Reatard - Nightmares (mp3)

See you down the front,

JMx

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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Clear thy schedule!

A couple of dates for the old diary this week. First of all, this weekend, Platt Fields Park (Platt Lane, off Wilmslow Road, just after all the curry houses) plays host to the Summer In The Park Food & Drink Festival. Food & Drink?! On a music blog?!!! Pray tell! Well, there is going to be quite a lot of music involved too from leading local lights such as I Am Kloot, Mr Scruff, Liam Frost, Aidan Smith, The Earlies, Josephine Oniyama and so on.
Anyway, jonthebeef and myself are DJing there between 4 and 6pm on the Saturday so come down and show your support while we play music to eat and drink to, ie. disco and Balearic-type stuff. Sweet!
In the meantime, check out the website to find out more. Hopefully we'll see you there.

Before all that though, this Thursday (10th, tomorrow), Shoplifters is on at The Bay Horse. That's Grammar (laptop, hands-in-the-air stance), Jon Claude (CDJs, too many e-numbers) and Sapnarella (girl, actual, proper vinyl DJ, with Technics and everything, showing up the fellas) playing "Remixes, Covers and Bastard Pop" in the lovely surroundings of the best pub in Manchester city centre.
Everything you will hear will be some kind of remix, edit, bootleg, cover and whatnot, hence the name, so let the finest 'lifters in Manchester give you a potted history of pop music's illegitimate offspring. Just check your wallets on the way out.
JMx


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Yer Mam!'s Guide To Essential Summer Listening Part IV: The Compilations


I've been meaning to write something about this for an absolute age. As usual, the Cosmic Disco lot beat me to it - and offered forth more insight and information than I ever could - but I thought I could still chip my two penn'orth in now that it's actually available in the shops.

Anyway, Disco Italia: Essential Italo Disco Classics 1977-1985, to give its full title is the latest in Strut's hot streak and it's arguably the best yet. This isn't Italo music in the high energy, synth-powered way that you might think (for the most part, at least), but Italian disco music in the sense that it adds a distinctly Eastern Mediterranean flavour to the hedonistic disco sounds that were emanating from New York around the late-70s. In all, there are more strings, horns and live percussion here than synths (although Kano's superb 'Now Baby Now' more than takes care of the latter), replete, of course, with charmingly cod-English vox.

As I said, the Cosmic Disco boys offer more than enough colour and historical context than I could, so let me just point you in the way of some of the compilation's highlights. Red Dragon Band's 'Let Me Be Your Radio (Part 1)', with its feather-headed shouted vocals and clattering drums is a favourite, as is Kasso's classic 'Brazilian Dancer' (robbed nearly wholesale a couple of years back by Manhead for their 'Birth School Work Death' single). Kasso's Claudio Simonetti pops up again with Easy Going and their sex-funk groover, 'Do It Again'. Best of the bunch is the peerless ersatz Chic-ery of Firefly's 'Love (Is Gonna Be On Your Side)', which with its NY attitude and reverb-soaked chorus vocal would have fit like a glove onto Murphy and Mahoney's recent Fabriclive mix.

I'm at risk of becoming a bit of a Strut Records cheerleader but as they seem to be improving with every release (Grandmaster Flash retrospective to come!), then I'm happy to keep on carrying the Strut banner for now. Viva Strut!

Firefly - Love (Is Gonna Be On Your Side) (mp3)

Kasso - Brazilian Dancer (DJ Version) (mp3)

Red Dragon Band - Let Me Be Your Radio (Part 1) (mp3)

Tribute albums are fraught with the massive stumbling blocks of over-reverence and pointlessness, so it was with some trepidation that I approached Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Classics Reworked. Brought to us from the same people that compiled the Radiohead tribute album a couple of years ago, Exit Music, Life Beyond Mars is a hodge-podge of intrigue, failure and unalloyed triumph that frustrates and dazzles often at the same time.
One thing that Life Beyond Mars has going for it is a marvellously eclectic bunch of cover artists. The list here includes such names as Joakim, Matthew Dear, Carl Craig, Kelley Polar and The Emperor Machine amongst others. Also, their choices run pretty much the whole gamut of Bowie's career (minus the early folky stuff), or as much of his career as you can cover in twelve songs at least. So we get overly faithful run-throughs of 'Sound And Vision' (Matthew Dear) and 'Golden Years' (Susumu Yokota), alongside dull takes on 'Oh! You Pretty Things' (Au Revoir Simone) and 'Be My Wife' (Richard Walters & Faultline).
It's where the coverers add something of their own personality into the mix that Life Beyond Mars excels though. The Emperor Machine turn 'Repetition' from Lodger into, well, an Emperor Machine song (in a good way though). Joakim & The Disco's version of 'A New Career In A New Town' gives the song a veneer of grotty, tech-y disco (natch). Then there's Kelley Polar's 'Magic Dance', from the soundtrack to Labyrinth. It's totally head-wrong, bizarre and brilliant and is the best thing here by a million miles. So much better, in fact, that it just highlights how good this compilation could have been had the rest of the artists had the balls and psychosis to really go for it in the same way Polar has.
Not a total failure then as the inherent curiosity of hearing modern electronic acts take on one of their major influences pulls you through for the most part, but it's only Polar's contribution that will linger on after the curiosity value has waned.


And now to a remix album so we have all bases covered. Delicious Vinyl, the eminent hip-hop label, decided that the best way to celebrate 20 years in the game was to hand over some of the best tracks from their back catalogue to some hot new remixers (although the words hot and new don't really apply to any of these, especially in the cases of Peaches (!) and Eminem (!!!)).
As with all remix albums, it's pretty difficult to see the point in this, especially when you consider the quality of some of the re-takes here. Peaches' interpretation of Tone Loc's 'Wild Thing' sounds exactly like you'd expect a Peaches remix of 'Wild Thing' to sound like and is therefore rubbish, Aaron Lacrate & Debonair Samir's lazy-as-fuck, B-more-by-numbers rerub of Young MC's 'Know How' is also completely uninspired and Mr Flash's, tres Ed Banger mix of Masta Ace's 'Sittin' On Chrome' is both terrible and doesn't fit the source material in the slightest. God knows what he was thinking.
It's not all bad though, as there are some real diamonds in the rough. Hot Chip turn Pharcyde's 'Passin' Me By' into a downbeat electrosoul hymnal, while Cory Nitta turns in two fabulous reworks under both his Pink Energy and Philippians guises for Brand New Heavies' 'Never Stop' (didn't even realise Delicious put this one out) and Pharcyde's 'Runnin'' respectively. Also Breakbox's inventive summery version of Fatlip's 'What's Up Fatlip?' is one for the coming months. Not too shabby then, if you skip past the dross.
Back later with some dates for your diary this week,
Laters,
JMx

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Saturday, July 05, 2008

The Glimmers Find Their Hidden Depths


Something rather cool is happening in Manchester on Thursday night (10th July). San Miguel Hidden Depths are hitting town, Joshua Brookes, to be precise, with The Glimmers in tow. If you don't know what Hidden Depths is and what they're all about, the general gist is that they, in conjunction with fine Spanish lager, San Miguel, are hosting a series of nights in Manchester and London where they release one artist name to the public ahead of time, whilst keeping other, just as tasty, sometimes tastier names up their collective sleeve.

So, to recap, this Thursday the 10th, The Glimmers (venerable Belgian DJ/production double-act, Benoelie Fouquaert and Mo Becha) are playing at Joshua Brookes in Manchester (y'know the one, on the corner opposite 5th Avenue, just down the side of the BBC on Princess St.), alongside some rather famous names. I know who they are but I'm sworn to secrecy. Let me tell you this though, I'm proper moistening in anticipation.

To tie in with all this, you lucky Yer Mam! readers get the opportunity to win a signed copy of The Glimmers' new album The Glimmers Are Gee Gee Fazzi (fine record, been mentioned on these pages before, not available in the shops). We've got two to give away and all you need to do to win one is email me at norty.morty@gmail.com with the answer to this simple question...

What is the name of the recent Belgium-set crime thriller starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Feinnes?

Piece of piss, isn't it? In the meantime, if you want to snag yourself some tickets for the event and future London events with Secretsundaze, Chromeo and It's Pop It's Art/Fred Deakin, head on over to the San Miguel website and register. See you down the front!

In the meantime, here's a little something to whet your appetite...

The Glimmers - Kobe's In Columbia (mp3)

Laters,

JMx

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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Aw, look at the cute mouse!


I apologise, readers. I've been neglecting this blog lately and although I have a bit of a self-imposed "no apologies" policy, I've actually been feeling bad about it, compounded by the occasional wrist-slap from fellow bloggers (Jon The Beef, I'm looking at you). That's all about to change though. I'm turning over a new leaf and I plan to become a more pro-active blogger starting right about now. Or maybe tomorrow. Soon anyway.

In the meantime, here's a mix I made. Hope you like it...

Yer Mam!'s Tropical Acid Mix

David Rubato - Circuit (Aeroplane Remix) (Institubes)
Hot Chocolate - Cadillac (The Revenge Rework) (L.E.S.S.)
Flying Lotus - Parisian Goldfish (Warp)
Jersey Street Allstars - Burnin' (Electric Chair)
Max Essa - Back To The Beach (Bear Funk)
Kerrier District - Disco Nasty (Rephlex)
Hercules & Love Affair - Classique #2 (DFA)
Syclops - NR17 (DFA)
Roland Appel - New Love (Sonar Kollektiv)
Madonna - Into The Groove (Shep Pettibone Dub) (Sire)
Simbad - Ain't No Sunshine (Raw Fusion)
Canyons - Apples And Pears (Hole In The Sky)
Sly Mongoose - Snakes & Ladder (Rub N Tug Remix) (Mule Musiq)
In Flagranti - Where Is Miss Palmer? (Codek Records)
Cadence Weapon - We Move Away (Big Dada)
Her Bad Habit - Jamaica Center (Citinite)
Osborne - Outta Sight (Spectral Sound)
Trus'me - Shakeabody (Fat City/Prime Numbers)
Henrik Schwarz feat. Amanpondo - I Exist Because Of You (Dixon's Stripped Down Version) (Innervisions)
Matthew Dear - Don And Sherri (Hot Chip Version) (Ghostly International)
Black Affair - Sweet (V2)
Charles B & Adonis - Lack Of Love (Desire Records)
Prosumer & Murat Tepeli feat. Elif Bicer - Turn Around (Ostgut Tontrager)

Back soon,

JMx

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