Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'C'.

I'm back after a bout of blogging fatigue, with a bitty, fractured post about some things, in the hope that it will get me back on the horse, so to speak....


As a blogger, I get some right shit flung my way via MySpace and the like. Not to go all biting the hand that feeds on you lot, as I do want people to send me stuff. I like it. It's nice. It's just that most of the time, it isn't really worth the solicitation. There are reasons why some people aren't signed, you know?

Anyway, I digress. Leo from Hole In The Sky Records (hope you don't mind me using your name, Leo) got in touch to let me know about the forthcoming release of Canyons' Lovemore EP. Having heard the last thing HITS put out (the Fred Cherry/The Templates 10" last year) and having loved it, I literally begged him to send me this. That's a lie, actually. He offered and I accepted, graciously.

Canyons are a two-piece from Australia (also home to HITS) and despite the fact that Australia's contribution to dance music can be summed up in two words - The Avalanches - Lovemore more than marks Canyons out as ones to keep an eye out for. They share The Avalanches cut-and-paste attitude but rather than going down the hip-hop route, Canyons prefer a more soulful, discoid approach, with elements of jackin' Chicago house thrown in for good measure. They call it "pineapple club music", whatever the hell that is, but I know I'm hungry for more. Lovemore is out later this month and there's an album in the pipeline. Whatever they release from here on in, I'm sure it'll be grand. See what I did there?! Clever aren't I?

Canyons - Apples And Pears (mp3) (link removed)


I've been listening to this thing a lot lately. It's a Carl Craig mix album, but here's the twist, all the tracks are Carl Craig productions! Imagine that! It's a C2-fest, mixed with crowdpleasing fluidity and energy by the man himself, but - and it's a big one - I can't really see the point in it, other than to act as a primer for Craig's considerable output.

The man has a recognisable style that he seems to have honed almost to the point of muscle memory these days, but he's never boring, which makes this a really good two-disc mix. It feels like a bit of a cash-in though for a man who seemingly thrives on integrity and credibility. That said though, if you want an easy introduction to the legend, Sessions could well be the album for you. Would it have killed them to have thrown on an unmixed disc though?

Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - Relevee (Carl Craig Sessions Remix) (mp3)

Some other stuff I'm liking lately...

Get behind France for this year's Eurovision, as this is their entry...

Sebastien Tellier - Divine (mp3)

Adem covers Aphex Twin and doesn't fuck it up...

Adem - To Cure A Weakling Child/Boy Girl Song (mp3)

"AGGGHHHH! C'MON FUCK A GUY!"

In other news, I recorded a segment on Trus'me's Working Nights LP on Blog Fresh Radio. I say that 'At The Disco' starts with a sample from the film, Jackie Brown. I lied. It doesn't. A couple other tracks on that album do, but not that one. Sorry Trus'me. Am I still allowed to come to Prime Numbers?

Also, there's some reviews wot I done up on High Voltage; Spektrum live and Les Savy Fav and Hercules And Love Affair singles. Read them if you dare!

I'll be back soon - honest - with more stuff about music.

JMx

D-I-S-C-Oh lordy, has it really been that long?!

That's right, I'm back, after a well-deserved (I think) breather, with some recommendations for your ears. Looks like I'm well into my disco at the moment, like...


Masterminded by Scottish disco, erm, mastermind, Al Kent, The Million Dollar Orchestra are a reaction to the current trends towards re-editing, sampling and all things recycled. Kent recruited some seriously talented musicians (remember them) and got them to play some furious old school funky disco jams like their lives depended on it. The resulting album, Better Days is a heady, nostalgic dip into pure disco, except that it's only the spirit that's been revived as all the sounds you're hearing are brand new.

Better Days is all about the horny horns, fleet-footed percussion and, above all else, sweaty hedonistic good times associated with '70s disco. It eschews conventional song structure in favour of creating dancefloor groovers, with hooks to spare. There's no verse-chorus-verse here, it's all very much in the vein of original '70s heads like LTD or Positive Force, with tons of four-to-the-floor beats, chicken scratch guitar and lascivious synths that bring to mind the likes of Class Action's classic 'Weekend' or early-80s boogie peddlers like D-Train, Patrice Rushen or Brenda Taylor and the functional, matter-of-fact style track titles like, 'Feel The Music', 'Dontcha Wanna Get Down' and 'Get It Boy' further enhance the fact that this is music for dancing, pure and simple.

Which doesn't mean that it doesn't lend itself equally well to headphones as there's an effervescence about Better Days that makes it great walking music. Just don't complain to Mr. Kent if you get stopped for strutting with intent to get down.

The Million Dollar Orchestra - Feel The Music (mp3)

For comparison's sake...

Class Action - Weekend (mp3)


Using the medium of disco to different ends than The Million Dollar Orchestra is arty ponce, Kelley Polar. Well, I say "arty ponce", but what I really mean is "refined electronic music genius", as his second album, I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling makes good on the promise of chamber-disco debut, Love Songs Of The Hanging Gardens (likes his ostentatious titles, this fella), which was pretty great itself. I Need You To Hold On... is a fuller, more confident, richer record, if a little less focused.

Whereas its predecessor stuck closely to a kind of patented orchestral disco-pop, the follow-up takes in some proggier elements (the multi-textured synth symphony of 'A Dream In Three Parts (On Themes By Enesco)' and the Mercury Rev-esque 'Zeno Of Elea' spring to mind), whilst also finding room for some sharp, immediate pop moments, like the he said/she said duet of 'Entropy Reigns (In The Celestial City)' (fondness for parentheses too) and, best of all, the shimmering 'Sea Of Sine Waves'. It's way too early to say shit like what I'm about to - doubly so given the task I'm still suffering from lethargy because of - but if this isn't there or thereabouts in my year-end lists come December then it'll have to be one hell of a year. Not perfection, although it seems we are to expect that from Polar one day, but it's damn close.

Kelley Polar - Sea Of Sine Waves (mp3)


No post on disco music would be complete without a look into its past. It's timely then that Strut records gets back off the ground with another in its series of digs into the weirder end of the disco spectrum. Disco Not Disco: Post Punk, Electro And Leftfield Disco Classics 1974-1986 is, torturous title aside, quite a fun listen. It seems that compiler Bill Brewster has hedged his bets a little with that broad title as some of these tracks wouldn't know disco if it bit them on the balls (quite what Vivien Goldman's 'Launderette' is doing on here is anyone's guess, great song as it is), but then again, I guess that's what the Not infers.

Some of the tracks here suffer from over-familiarity (do we really need to hear 'Mind Your Own Business' and 'Contort Yourself' again?), but things get more interesting when the compilation heads down the esoteric early electronica route, with tracks like Yellow Magic Orchestra's effervescent 'Seoul Music' or the bionic throb of 'Los Ninos Del Parque' by Liaisons Dangereuses and bonus points added for throwing in the instrumental of 'Sharevari'. Granted, the vocal version might be better, but surely everyone has that by now, right? Either way, it's nice to have a label like Strut back. Look out for the forthcoming Compass Point chronicle, Funky Nassau, too.

Vivien Goldman - Launderette (mp3)

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Seoul Music (mp3)


I'm adoring this thing too at the moment but I'm reviewing it for someone else, so I'll save my words for now. In the meantime, nick a treat before EMI tell me to take it down...

Hercules And Love Affair - This Is My Love (mp3)


In case you think I've been doing sod-all during my break, think again, then go and download the two recent Blog Fresh Radio shows I've contributed to. One where I'm talking about Cadence Weapon and another where I'm yammering about your man, Kelley Polar. Also, keep an eye out for some mixtapes coming soon. No word of a lie, it's gonna be boss!

Five-four-three-two-one!

Okay, this is the start of a new (ir)regular feature on Yer Mam! Because I kid myself I don't have the time to write about every little thing that's shaking my musical foundations (I could. I just don't wanna), I thought I'd do something of a chart, maybe every two weeks or so, to fill you in on things that I think are worth checking out. The Yer Mam! readership being such a clued-up bunch, you're probably already way ahead of the curve on me with this stuff but if you view me as a borderline-senile old uncle, you'll at least humour me on this. Pat me on the head in the comments in as patronising a manner as you see fit...

1. Dissident Distribution

This label really came out of nowhere the other week and had the right people chattering about them online straight away. No-one seems to know much about them but the three releases that surfaced are all top-drawer stuff. Limited to 100 copies each worldwide (all gone now, full releases to follow later in the year though), these three one-sided vinyls - Binary Chaffinch's 'False Energy', Gatto Fritto's 'Clem's Bounce' and Cage & Aviary's 'Giorgio Carpenter' - are eminently playable slabs of long-form, weirdo-disco.

Superfluously in step with the Lindstrom's, Prins Thomas' and Sorcerer's of this world on first listen, upon repeat plays it's clear that the Dissident crew are on a whole 'nother tip completely. Vaguely rustic (check the birdsong on 'False Energy'), but charmingly so and clearly on speaking terms with Dr. Strange, these three tracks are certain to make many appearances in DJ sets and lists before the year's out, so I thought I'd stick my oar in first.

Personally, I think the best of the triumvirate is 'Giorgio Carpenter'. It succeeds in being what the title obviously alludes to and that's a meeting point 'tween Moroder and John. Spooky and sensual, it presses all the right buttons in the correct order and does so for a mind-enhancing eleven minutes.

As I said, very little is known about these shadowy figures but I can confirm that Binary Chaffinch is, in fact, a pseudonym for Milo from electro-metallers, Chrome Hoof. There's also talk of one-half of Cage & Aviary's former life as a member of Gay Dad, but I'm willing to take that one with a pinch of salt. Anyway, have a taste.

Binary Chaffinch - False Energy (mp3)

2. Hercules & Love Affair

Of all the great stuff coming out on DFA soon (see below), the debut 12" from Hercules & Love Affair is the one that's got me worked up the most. That's mainly because I've heard it in all its glory (next week, my opinion will most likely change). H&LA is the brainchild of NY DJ, Andy Butler and frequent listeners to Beats In Space will no doubt be quite well-acquainted with his work by now (he recently did a guest mix and a few H&LA tracks have popped up on there since early in the year).

The 12" consists of two tracks - 'Classique #2' and 'Roar' - and it will be out early next month. They're both excellent, 'Classique #2' being very Detroit-y, a little Carl Craig-y and superbly bleepy, but 'Roar' is the standout. Featuring Antony (of ...& The Johnsons fame) on vox, it's an immensely fun, hedonistic jacker. All you Antony fans would be well-advised not to come to it expecting a torch song though; his vocal consists of two repeated, treated vocal snippets made to sound as though he's on the verge of some kind of sexual awakening. It's that kind of tune.

What's mostly impressive about these two tracks though is that they sound like they've been unearthed from another age (1987 to be precise), but both sound utterly modern. Hear them for yourselves over at Hercules & Love Affair's MySpace.

3. Everything else that's coming out of DFA between now and the end of the year.

It's an exciting time for DFA records and an even more exciting time for us DFA obsessives. They've teased us for too long with all this new stuff that's been getting aired on Beats In Space for what seems like an age now, so it's time for them to give it up. And give it up they will.

For starters, next week sees the launch of Death From Abroad, a spin-off label designed to release 12"s in North America of stuff that they like that has been or will be released on other labels elsewhere in the world. The first four releases from this stable read like this; Mock & Toof - 'K-Choppers' b/w 'Brownbred', Altz - 'Max Motion' b/w 'Yello', plus Idjut Boys remixes, Gucci Soundsystem - 'Acarpenter' b/w 'Lordamercy' and 'Acarpenter (Joakim Remix)' and Bot'Ox - 'Babylon By Car' b/w 'Tragedy Symphony'. I'm not a big fan of the Gucci Soundsystem tune (it was released on Bugged Out! last year) but the Mock & Toof, Altz and Bot'Ox releases are all winners in my book.

Next up is a biggie as far as I'm concerned. Still Going is Eric Duncan from Rub 'N' Tug and Olivier Spencer from Manthraxx and their DFA released 12", 'Still Going Theme' b/w 'On And On' is pure f'in bliss. Two big old piano house monsters sure to slay any discerning dancefloor. That should be all you need to know really. Oh, that one's out on September 18th.

After that, you've got LCD releasing 'Someone Great' as a single with quite possibly THE greatest remix package in the history of music. Soulwax taking on 'Get Innocuous!'? Check. Sorcerer adding a dash of coastal charm to 'Us Vs. Them'? Check. The aforementioned Gucci Soundsystem taking 'Time To Get Away' on an amyl-stained electro-house bender? Check. CARL FUCKIN' CRAIG sprinkling some techno angel dust on 'Sound Of Silver'? Fuckin' CHECK!!! I thought the 'All My Friends' release was hard to top but, barring any major phoning-it-in, this is sure to be the one that'll make you all cream.

Oh, and somewhere along the line there'll be the Shocking Pinks album, 45:33 finally getting a proper CD release with three b-sides (don't get too excited, it's just 'Hippie Priest Bum-Out', 'Freak Out/Starry Eyes' and the Onastic Dub of 'North American Scum', all of which have seen the light of day this year already), Holy Ghost!'s long-awaited debut single, 'Hold On' and - fingers crossed - new 12"s from Shit Robot, The Juan Maclean and that Eric Broucek solo thing that James Murphy let slip about at the LCD aftershow in Manchester back in March (clang!). It's a good time to be alive, ladies and gentlemen.

Shocking Pinks - Smokescreen (mp3)

4. Kasso - Key West (Jellybean Benitez Edit)

Old as the hills but still better than most things around right now. Jellybean is God.

Kasso - Key West (Jellybean Benitez Edit) (mp3)

5. Blockhead - Uncle Tony's Coloring Book (Ninja Tune)

Currently getting a lot of play round our gaff is the new album from Blockhead (aka Tony Smith. I can see why he changed his name). He's one of those people whose work I've always been aware of - mainly through his long-standing association with Aesop Rock - but I've never really investigated until recently. I won't try to over-analyse it because it just won't stand up to it. It's just a really fun, summery, light record of instrumental hip-hop that deserves more attention than it's likely to get. So give it some.

Blockhead - The Strain (mp3)

This was going to be a top ten but I kind of wore myself out on the DFA section and I'm hella tired anyway. Might throw in some more tomorrow. Then again, I might not.

In other news: You can listen to me bore the pants off you about new Swedish balearic pop duo, Boat Club on this week's Blog Fresh Radio, should you harbour the desire to listen to a dour, gruff-voiced Manc wax lyrical about such things.