"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)

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

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.