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

Trevor's extra strong mints.

Hey y'all!


One recent release that's barely left my CD player since I got my mitts on it is the latest in BBE/Rapster's The Kings Of... series. As you can see, this one is a two-disc offering of electro cuts, compiled and mixed by Trevor Jackson (Playgroup, Output) and Alter Ego (them of 'Rocker' fame). As with the previous entries in this collection, both discs try to offer a glimpse into the specified genre's past, present and future. With electro - as with most things, in my opinion - there's more fun to be had digging into the past (I didn't mean that to sound as retrogressive as it does. I'm as forward-thinking as the next man. Honest. I'm into dubstep and everything.), so it's Trevor Jackson's Playgroup mix that floats my boat the most out of the two.

It's not that the Alter Ego mix is necessarily bad, they just miss the point a little ('Doom's Night' = electro?! Yer kiddin'?!), whereas Jackson goes for the part of your brain known as the nostalgia reflex (it's real, look it up). His mix is chock full of 808s, vocoders, phased synths and pop-lockin' grooves, as characterised by its highly recognisable tracklisting ('Turbocharged' by Just Ice, Arkade Funk's 'Tilt' and C-Bank's 'One More Shot' are all present and correct). It harks back to a time when the future seemed like somewhere you'd really want to be, full of friendly, helpful - and preferably funky - robots, hover cars and buggin' fashions, not the future of today which is all nuclear war, lowered life expectancies and crippling debts. So, I guess in taking a look back, Jackson has kind of reminded us all that we should want to look forward, just like the futuristic sounds of early-80s electro. Does anyone know a channel that runs repeats of Metal Mickey?

Hashim - Al-Naayfysh (mp3)

Model 500 - No UFOs (mp3)


Speaking of Trevor Jackson (seamless segue there, I should work in television), the last word on his label, Output Recordings hit the shops last week in the form of I Hate Music, a two-disc compilation of some of the label's best bits all in one neat package (with bonus DVD, naturally). Output was one of the most intriguing, innovative labels of its time, so it was saddening to see it take a nosedive last year, even though it could be argued that its best days were behind it (a point highlighted by this chronological compilation's patchy final stretch).

This is a timely reminder of just how diverse and risk-taking a small, boutique label should be and covers pretty much all what made Output such a great label. It's a shame they couldn't license some of the early DFA releases (before DFA had EMI's backing, they entered into business with Output who put the early 12-inches from LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture out in Europe), but who really needs another compilation with 'House Of Jealous Lovers' and 'Losing My Edge' on it (the full version of 'Olio' would have been nice though)?

There's some really great stuff over I Hate Music's two discs though, from the likes of Gramme ('Crooks & Criminals', which I still think The Juan Maclean lifted the melody pretty much wholesale from for 'Give Me Every Little Thing'), Blackstrobe ('Innerstrings', forever to be their finest moment in my eyes), Mu ('Paris Hilton', but everyone knows 'Chair Girl' is way better - again this is probably a licensing issue as it was a co-release with Tigersushi, whom the Fultons fell out with rather acrimoniously not long after), two of Output's most-likely-to's, DK7 (represented twice, but, alas, they had to use the inferior album version of 'The Difference') and Colder (who would have been a great pop producer if he weren't so in debt to Joy Division and Gallic indifference) and a handful of great lost pop songs from San Serac (the brilliantly pervy 'Tyrant'), Kreeps ('All I Wanna Do Is Break Some Hearts') and Tall Blonde ('Don't Stop').

Jackson showed the rest of the UK how DIY was done for a decade and his label will be missed. Now we have this fantastic time capsule though, it's going to be difficult to forget at least.

OUTPUT MP3 BINGE!!!!

Dempsey - ODB On The Run (mp3)

Fridge - Lojen (mp3)

Kreeps - All I Wanna Do Is Break Some Hearts (mp3)

San Serac - Tyrant (mp3)

And some that were criminally left off I Hate Music...

The Rapture - Olio (Full Length Version) (mp3)

DK7 - The Difference (12" Version)

Mu - Chair Girl (mp3)




I regret to announce that December's Get Girl. Kill Baddies. Save Planet. is to be the last. Yes, that's right, my favourite monthly shindig is calling time after just shy of a year in the game. In the typical live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse tradition however, they're bowing out with what could possibly be their most high-profile and best guest to date. D*I*R*T*Y Soundsystem's very own Pilooski will be manning the decks on December 7th and hopefully he'll be dropping some seriously bad-arse twisted disco bombs to take the boys out with a bang.

Backing Pilooski up will be Get Girl ressies, Grammar and Pasta Paul. There won't be a dry eye in The Roadhouse come 3am and if I don't hear the next two tracks at some point in the night, then I'll be severely pissed off...

The Pointer Sisters - Send Him Back (Pilooski Edit) (mp3)

Herbert - Movin' Like A Train (Smith 'N' Hack Remix) (mp3)


R.I.P. GGKBSP

In other news: I have a Robyn live review up at High Voltage and I'm also on this week's Blog Fresh Radio, yammering on about the new Burial album. Get about, me, don't I?

More mixtape action coming soon...

JMx

"Well I say it's just smoke"

Two posts in two days?! Blimey!

Haven't done this in a bit, but this is well worth dusting off the old SOTW trophy for...

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Various Artists - Firecracker EP 03 (Firecracker)

Okay, before the pedants have a shit-fit, I'm fully aware that this was released last week. I was a bit slow on it though. I picked it up today and wanted to bring it to your attention. This is a three-track EP (four tracks if you count the skit at the beginning of side B) that's just come from out of nowhere to be, according to Piccadilly Records, "THE underground hit of the summer". They're waxing hyperbole of course, but this is insanely good.

On the flip, there are two wildly different tracks from Linkwood and Fudge Fingas and His Fidgety Friends (no, I'm not making this up), the Linkwood one being a deep, soulful downtempo number, while Fudge Fingas and co. weigh in with a nice reggae mini-jam. The A-side is where it's at though. Linkwood Family's 'Peace Of Mind' is a smart, tricksy, party-starting discoid banger, full of soul-drenched, choral vocal snippets, a killer b-line and an overall good-time vibe that's impossible to resist. Get it while you can as it's extremely limited. You won't regret it.


And now for something completely different... Having all but cut American indie rock out of my diet after a succession of disappointing albums from some of the scene's leading lights (Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Wilco et al), along comes a new Sunset Rubdown album to renew my faith. However, Random Spirit Lover just highlights how special a songwriter Spencer Krug really is and how most of the more highly regarded mopes have nothing on him.

Krug can melt your heart with grotesquerie and that's no mean feat. Say what you will about Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes frontman whom Krug is said to imitate by some), but I find his songs to be too studied and calculated, whilst Krug exudes a charm and a feel for instinct that Mercer lacks. Songs like 'Winged/Wicked Things' and 'The Taming Of The Hands That Came Back To Life' display a carefree, childlike spirit that elevates Krug above most, if not all his peers. Now I'm really looking forward to that Wolf Parade follow-up.

Sunset Rubdown - Winged/Wicked Things (mp3)

In other news: I am owning High Voltage this week, with five (count 'em!) reviews on the front page. Click through to find out what I think of albums by GoodBooks, The Strange Death Of Liberal England and Chicane and singles from The Cribs and Lightspeed Champion.

Laters,

JMx

"I'm a union man now, all the way."

Hi!

Sod all this new music crap...


Okay, gun to my head, forced to choose or die, The Band's second album - the self-titled brown one - is my favourite album of all time. I'm posting about this now, rather than, say, two years ago because if I hadn't made the snap decision to pick this up to take to work this morning, somebody would have been killed and I would be in jail.

Yup, The Band saved the life of one of my co-workers (doesn't really matter which one, any of them could have got it today I was that wound up), not that they know. It's a testament to a record that I've lived with for about the last ten years or more that I still get that prick of excitement the minute the mournful horns that open 'Across The Great Divide' strike up and Richard Manuel intones "Standing by your window in pain, a pistol in your hand" like a man with the weight of many a world on his shoulders. Every minor little thing that's stressing me out just falls away at that point and I lose myself in this timeless music once again.

I remember my first encounter with this album was the Classic Albums documentary on it and just being enraptured both with The Band's music and their story. Arguably the tightest, most accomplished band of their time (of all-time, maybe), they also had their fair share of tough times and tragedies, most of which occurred after The Band had split. Co-vocalist and pianist, Manuel committed suicide in 1986 at the age of 42, while fellow vocalist and bass player, Rick Danko died from heart failure in 1999 at 56, following a long battle with drug addiction that he'd recently kicked.

Their eponymous 1969 album stands, in my opinion at least, as their finest work. In fact, even though the albums that followed all had reasons to recommend them, it was their last great record and doubles up with their 1968 debut, Music From Big Pink as one of the most formidable opening one-two punches of any band ever. Fusing country, rock 'n' roll, folk, r&b and soul in their own inimitable style, this record also acts as a retrogressive document of a bygone American era.

I'm not Greil Marcus, so I'm not about to analyse the album's core themes, but I will say that the 'old-timey' feel of the album - for want of a better descriptor - is intoxicating and enveloping (just try to sing along to 'Jemima Surrender' without mimicking Levon Helm's Arkansas inflections). Anyway, whatever, this is one of those albums that I believe everyone should own and cherish, as I have. The Band: it calms your murderous instincts.

The Band - Whispering Pines (mp3)

The Band - King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (mp3)


Another album from 1969 that helped me through a particularly hellish day today was The Flying Burrito Brothers' debut, The Gilded Palace Of Sin (spotting a trend?). Gram Parsons was a god, 'Hot Burrito #1' makes me weak at the knees (we've all been there, haven't we?) and this album is just the tits. That's all I have to say.

What?!

Sometimes you just have to let the music speak for itself...

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Hot Burrito #1 (mp3)

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Do Right Woman (mp3)


And finally, as you can see from the above pic, I'm DJing at Get Girl. Kill Baddies. Save Planet again next month. It's shaping up to be a good one, with an arse-load of bands and DJs all doing their stuff between the hours of 2pm and midnight on Sunday 12th August. It's at The Roadhouse on Newton Street and, oh well, just look at the poster! How could you not want to come to that?!

Get in touch if you want cheap guestlist. Plug, plug, plug...

A couple more shameless plugs...

I'm on Unity Radio on Monday night, guesting on the rather fine Makin Music Show, between 10pm and midnight. The show is hosted by the guys from the also pretty darned great Cosmic Disco blog, so expect the unexpected. Should be good fun, if nothing else.

Also, I'm on this week's Blog Fresh Radio talking about that Italians Do It Better After Dark compilation.

And definitely finally, read my review of Spoon's new album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, over at High Voltage.

Hasta luego,

JMx

Mixtape, sir?: Whispering words that scream of outrageous sin.

I'm not exactly posting at what you could call regular intervals but I get there in the end. I blame the horrible weather for making me more slothful than usual. Come on! Summer's not supposed to be like this!

Oh yeah, I'm using Gigasize today on the advice of one of my commentors. Hope it works for you all...


YER MAM!'S BIG SUMMER MIXTAPE BLOWOUT! VOLUME FOUR

1. Misha - Scars (Walking that precarious line between charming and twee, 'Scars' ultimately charms with that impossibly good-natured brass break. Lovely.)
2. Seu Jorge - Bem Querer (Soulful stuff from the one-time Knockout Ned. Deserves sunshine and beaches but rain-soaked Manchester suburbia will have to do.)
3. Caribou - Sundialing (I'm starting to think of this as a low-key cousin to 'All My Friends' with its repetitious guitar line and gently pounding drums. It's the cousin that's out of his gourd on psychedelics, naturally.)
4. Metalchicks - Tears For Fears/Conspiracy (You know when people say "It's like nothing I've ever heard" about a song or album, then you listen only to spot the influences straight off the bat? Well, you really won't have heard anything like this before. Disco-metal, only about as far removed from 'Danger! High Voltage!' as it's possible to be whilst still actually being a piece of music.)
5. Dolly Parton - Jolene (Peter Visti Edit) (It had to happen sometime. I'm just surprised that it's taken the disco edit mafia this long to give Dolly's classic sexual jealousy tale a Balearic makeover. This cut from the latest in the Mindless Boogie series is pure Visti, with those trademark phased synths and the new look suits her.)
6. Wild Rumpus - Musical Blaze Up (Rub 'N' Tug Bitches Remix) (After picking this for the recent Blog Fresh Radio summer mixtape thingy, I thought I'd stick it on here too. It's called synergy, people!)
7. Henrik Schwarz & Ame & Dixon - Where We At? Part 2 (Body Language Version) (Yet another slightly different take on this track, built around Derrick Carter's modern classic. Old news for the techno heads out there, maybe, but I love the way you can tell which parts were added by each of the protagonists. A dance music brain trust at work.)
8. Chromatics - Hands In The Dark (Icily romantic cover of the Dark Day tune that graces the Italians Do It Better label comp, After Dark. Modern disco with a retro grounding.)
9. Sheila E. - A Love Bizarre (This might as well be Prince's track as he's all over it like a bad shirt. Not that he'd ever wear one. A bit overlong perhaps at 12 minutes-plus, but as I've said many times before, you can never have too much Prince.)
10. Amerie - Crush (Amerie's new long-player, Because I Love It is easily one of the best pop albums of the year, but this is one that I keep going back to. Amerie reins in the vocal histrionics for a brilliantly underplayed, subtle approach and it leads to one of the best pop ballads I've heard in about, well, forever. Lush!)
11. Queens Of The Stone Age - Make It Wit Chu (Re-worked but not entirely different from the Desert Sessions take (it's only really missing PJ Harvey), it's proof that Josh Homme is a great soul singer trapped in a kickarse rocker's body.)
12. Keith Murray - The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World (It's great to hear a hip-hop love song that doesn't make you want to throw up, but I've had to go back to 1994 to dig one up. An almost-forgotten classic.)
13. Erykah Badu - Bag Lady (Cheebah Sac Radio Edit) (I posted this on its own a while back but I thought I'd bring it back to close this one out. The best thing she's ever done in my opinion.)
    

Yer Mam!'s Big Summer Mixtape Blowout! Volume Four, Ripped, Zipped and Gigasized

In other news: read my fawning review of the Daydream Nation Deluxe Edition at High Voltage.

Back soon with more free music for everyone!

JMx

Mixtape, sir?

Guess who's back?


YER MAM!'S BIG SUMMER MIXTAPE BLOWOUT! VOLUME TWO

1. LCD Soundsystem - Freak Out/Starry Eyes (Proof, if it were needed, that James Murphy & co. can do no wrong, this excellent, percussive, two-part disco jam was passed off as a b-side. Check the drum solo intermission for added freaky vibes.)
2. Tracey Thorn - Raise The Roof (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Re-animation) (Easily one of the year's best remixes so far, BTWS rewire the chirpy ambient pop of the original in a discoid style with lush, slyly insistent synths and that certain rustic charm that Alkan and Norris give all their makeovers.)
3. Matthew Dear - Elementary Lover (feat. Mobius Band) (Winningly odd afro-pop from this year's renaissance man, Dear. Distills Talking Heads circa Remain In Light, TV On The Radio and King Sunny Ade in one small, perfectly-formed package.)
4. The Honeymoon Killers - Histoire A Suivre (High-tensile but strangely floaty, thanks to Yvon Vromman's sweet vocals, new wave from the forgotten Belgians, currently undergoing somewhat of a rebirth following their appearance on Prins Thomas' Cosmo Galactic Prism. Not with this track though, 'Histoire A Suivre' was their first single and takes cues from the likes of Gang Of Four, The Slits and Contortions but with a Blondie-esque pop sensibility.)
5. Talking Heads - Making Flippy Floppy (From Talking Heads' last great album, Speaking In Tongues, 'Making Flippy Floppy' is the sound of a great art-rock group playing at being a pop band and it's as thrillingly fractured and strange as the band's pop forays ever got. Forget 'Road To Nowhere', this is the one that should have been massive.)
6. New Young Pony Club - Hiding On The Staircase (After showing so much promise, NYPC's debut album, Fantastic Playroom is a bit of a letdown, but the chicken-scratch guitars and reggae-lite beat work together so well with the semi-dispassionate vocal from Tahita Bulmer here to hint that they might still have greatness in them.
7. The Tough Alliance - New Chance (I can't get a handle on whether TTA are just having a big old laugh at our expense. That doesn't matter for shit though when songs like this one and pretty much every other on their new album are as imperviously effervescent and summery. There's something sinister going on under that good time facade though.)
8. YACHT - Platinum (feat. Bobby Birdman) (This sounds like a mini-pops version of LCD's 'Get Innocuous' (Murphy is an admirer too, apparently), but the pay-off comes around a lot quicker with this one, making it an instantly gratifying little mover. It's also just as addictive.)
9. Shahrokh.SoundOfK - Chicago (An undiluted sugar-rush of sample-heavy tech-house from Compost Records' latest Black Label release. A promising start from the future stars.)
10. Kelley Polar - Rosenband (Magic Tim's Instrumental Version) (Magic Tim (Who he?) strips the original of all vocals apart from some breathy bits, allowing the impressive sonic layering to come to the fore. Can't wait for Polar's new album later in the year.)
11. Lindstrom & Solale - Let's Practise (Dub Version) (In which the slo-mo Italo blinder gets slowed to an even drowsier crawl and heaps of echoey effects dumped atop the groove. Elegantly wasted.)
12. Matias Aguayo - New Life (I've recently gone back to Aguayo's 2005 release, Are You Really Lost and it's better than I remember it to be. Interesting to note how many other producers around seem to be following his lead these days too. Both the recent Kalabrese and Matthew Dear albums seem to act as distant cousins of that record, which means it should be interesting to hear what Aguayo releases next. What we need more of is sleazy techno.)
13. Solomun & Stimming - Feuervogel (One of the biggest techno tunes of the year, this one probably owes more to deep house as it does to minimal with those fat synth stabs and the chiming melodics. Whatever it is, it ticks all the boxes and pushes all the buttons in such a pleasing manner that genre definitions fly out of the window.)

Yer Mam!'s Big Summer Mixtape Blowout! Volume Two, all ripped, zipped up and mediafired

In other news: Read my review of that there Prins Thomas mix CD that I keep banging on about over at High Voltage.

In and out like a thief in the... daytime.

Howdy!

Just a quick one today...

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Burial - Ghost Hardware (Hyperdub)

Bit of a slow week this week, but that's not to say that this 12" of all-new tracks from Burial isn't worthy of the SOTW title. Three absolute blinders populate Ghost Hardware, the best of which being the title track, a skittery, spooky, clanking, bass-heavy head-nodder that despite, or possibly because of all the static-y effects and concrete-esque found sounds is both alluring and oddly soothing. 'Shutta' is in a similar vein, if slyly more confrontational, while 'Exit Woundz' is even more sparse and minimal than we're used to from Burial. Arguably one of the most thrilling, idiosyncratic and forward-thinking producers that Britain has to offer.

Not much else to report today, really, other than to tell you to look out for some new mixtapes coming later in the week. It's been a while since I've uploaded any, so I thought I'd pull my finger out. I've threw quite a few together and I intend to up them over the course of the next couple of weeks, intermittently. Watch this space!

In the interim, here's something that I'm liking at the moment for your listening pleasure...

Camille - Ta Doleur (Henrik Schwarz Remix)

Not exactly new but I'm all about the Schwarz at the moment. Enjoy!

In other news: I'm on this week's Blog Fresh Radio talking about Escort. Also, check out my reviews of the new Ratatat remix album and the debut full-length from Cristian Vogel's new band Night Of The Brain over at High Voltage.

Laters,

JMx

Bon anniversaire!

Happy Monday to you all!

Everyone have a good weekend? Glad to hear it. Let's crack on then, shall we?

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Ame - Balandine EP (Innervisions)

Following the hypnotic, preternaturally excellent 'Fiori' on Ostgut's Shut Up And Dance! compilation of techno music for ballet dancing to, comes this bonafide club-slayer on their own Innervisions label. 'Balandine' comes on all Carl Craig-like at first before traversing down a more direct route. I'm tempted to say that it is essentially just a big dumb techno track, but there's smarts in them there peaks and troughs that bely the tracks's single-mindedness. Turn down the lights, flick the strobe on and get lost. 'Enoi' on the flip recalls Henrik Schwarz' darker moments and is no less thrilling either. Ame are steadfastly staking a claim for techno artists of the year right now, so don't get left behind.

Sticking with the realm of club music, three of the most intriguing, exciting labels around are currently enjoying reaching landmarks of varying longevity and they've all decided to release compilations celebrating that fact. Let's take a look.


Matt Edwards (Radioslave, Quiet Village, er, Rekid) launched his label Rekids (a co-venture with James Masters) a little over a year ago now, with the release of his own 'My Bleep', under the Radioslave moniker. Since then, it has quickly developed into a label with an astonishingly high hit-rate and an identity all of its own (helped by the eye-catching, idiosyncratic, sparse artwork that adorns each release).

Rekids Compilation One consists of two discs: the first being a kind of greatest hits set, cobbling together some of the highlights from Rekids' first thirteen 12"s, with the second being a collection of remixes of said releases. Listened to as a whole, the second disc fares better than the first, as it's a more varied set, taking in both trippy and upfront disco (QV and Prins Thomas' re-dos of Toby Tobias' two Rekids releases), crowd-pleasing techno (Claude Vonstroke's wobbly take on Luke Solomon's 'Ghosts') and spooky minimal glitch (Radio Slave's monumental mix of Matt O' Brien's 'Serotone').

It's the first disc though that will become the label's calling card as it moves into its second year. Having achieved so much in the first twelve months, it's hard to see where Rekids will go next, but with the master-of-all-trades, Edwards at the helm, it's sure to be exciting finding out.

Luke Solomon - Ghosts (mp3)

Toby Tobias - A Close Shave (Prins Thomas Disko-Tek Miks) (mp3)


On the block for ten years now, it's easy to be snarky towards Sonar Kollektiv. Their jazzwise brand of electronic music often errs too much on the side of coffee-table tastefulness all too often for my liking. That said, anniversary comp Ten Years, Who Cares? (self-effacing tendencies come in handy for fending off criticism) is a mostly pleasurable, if erratic listen.

Jazzanova's accompanying mix is more successful than the up-and-down unmixed collection that inhabits disc one. It's perhaps fitting that the label founders remain the most interesting artist on the SK roster, but you can't help that SK's, and J-nova's thunder has been stolen by the rise and rise of Innervisions, once an adjunct of Sonar Kollektiv. If you like your house and techno with a twist of jazz however (or vice versa), then you can't really go far wrong with this collection. Just don't blame me when you start idly poring over the Ikea catalogue and fetishising everything you see.

Siriusmo - U-Again (mp3)

Jazzanova - Let Your Heart Be Free (2007 Edit) (mp3)


Ah, Get Physical. Has it really been only five years? Seems like this German label has been around forever, so seismic has their impact on European house and techno music in the last half-decade been. The conglomerate of Booka Shade, DJ T and M.A.N.D.Y. have released some of the most prominent, enduring underground dance music of the noughties so far (I'm thinking 'Mandarine Girl', 'Lucky Bastard', 'Tonite'), but they've also proved themselves to be great talent scouts too.

The emergence of the likes of Chelonis R. Jones (everything he does is great), Elektrochemie and Audiofly X (all present and correct here) have highlighted the label owners' ear for where dance music is heading. This compilation, while undoubtedly pretty great, feels like a bit of a missed chance though. Perhaps by wanting to give the punters something altogether new, instead of money for old rope, they've bypassed an opportunity to hook in the newbies by failing to even bother compiling the label's past highlights.

Disc one is a collection of remixes of former glories, the best of which being Earl Zinger's outlandishly askew re-rub of Elektrochemie's 'Pleasure Seeker', Herbert's funk-concrete remake of Chelonis' 'I Don't Know', and the surprisingly brilliant string orchestra cover of Booka's 'Night Falls'. Disc two goes down the route of exclusives and, as such, is a varying set of brilliant one-offs and hmmm... interesting off-cuts. We don't really need to hear 'Body Language' again, but it would have been nice. And where the fuck is Fuckpony?!

Booka Shade - Night Falls (Larry Gold String Version) (mp3)

Elektrochemie - Caiti (mp3)

In other news: read my reviews of The Aliens live, The Stills' new album and Black Lips' new single over at High Voltage.

"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)

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

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.