Mixtape Week: Sunday

It's Sunday, so today's mixtape is one designed to help you in your quest to get your chill on on this most cold chillin' of days. Bank holiday tomorrow too, so you know that your chill isn't going to be all tainted by thoughts of dread at having to get up so dang early tomorrow.

Oh, and it's a double again. 30 tracks of the most chillingest stuff out there.


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: SUNDAY

DISC ONE

1. iLiKETRAiNS - Spencer Perceval (Latest single from a band that could be, given a couple of years and a kickarse debut album, one of the best bands in Britain. Sounds like the end of the world.)
2. Soulsavers - Revival (Mark Lanegan could sing the phone book and make it sound like a death march. The gospel choir and crashing piano chords give proceedings a hopeful tinge, but you know that Mark Lanegan would eat your soul given half a chance.)
3. Angie Stone - Wish I Didn't Miss You (The closest thing that the nu-soul niche has gotten to the spirit of the old stuff. It helps that it lifts the tune from The O'Jays' 'Backstabbers', mind.)
4. Benny Sings - For Your Love (Skirting the outer edges of cheesedom, occasionally dipping a cheeky toe in Camembert lake, Benny Sings is a kind of post-modern take on 70s soul music. The irrepressible groove of this tune elevates it to essential status. Not bad for something that could easily have just been a one-note joke.)
5. Marvin Gaye - I Want You (And now the real thing. Oozing sex and class, you just know that Marvin got the dames in the house all worked up whenever he belted this one out.)
6. Otis Gayle - I'll Be Around (Low-key lover's rock take on the Detroit Spinners classic. Gayle plays it straight down the line, but adds a lilting ska facet to the soul standard.)
7. Owusu & Hannibal - Le Fox (Bubbling, smoky soul from Ubiquity's Danish duo. Their album from last year, Living With... is one that I've only recently discovered. One of 2006's most slept-on gems.)
8. Blue Six - Fast Free Delivery (The lyrics are pure fromage, but the groove is addictive. Reminds me of some Acid Jazz stuff, actually. Not as bad a thing as you might be thinking.)
9. Soul II Soul - Fairplay (The tune that got one of Britain's best ever soul acts a record deal still sounds like it could light up any dancefloor in the known world, despite being nineteen years old now.)
10. William Onyeabor - Body And Soul (Ten-plus minutes of pure, uncut African funk. You know it makes sense.)
11. James Brown - Hell (You've got to love a song that starts with a gong being struck, but there's no need to seek an excuse to like this tough, funky little unit.)
12. Little Milton - More And More (Blues-flecked funky soul number from one of music's true greats who never really got the dues he deserved. Time to rectify that, I think.)
13. Caetano Veloso - Outro (From Veloso's 2006 album, Ce, this sounds like The Strokes transplanted to Rio at carnival time. Great stuff.)
14. Lavender Diamond - Like An Arrow (Menacing, lurching, folk-funk from the band's superb debut album, Imagine Our Love, out tomorrow on Rough Trade.)
15. Claudine Longet - God Only Knows (Longet's story is a strange one that takes in Andy Williams, the Folies Bergeres and criminally negligent homicide. There isn't a dash of her colourful life in this very French version of The Beach Boys' perennial though.)
16. Fifty Foot Hose - God Bless The Child (Yep, a psychedelic, bad trip run through of the Billie Holiday tune. It's done fairly straight but with loads of added weird moog effects.)
17. The National - Start A War (Matt Berninger is easily one of the best singers and lyricists in American rock music right now and this cut from the forthcoming Boxer album is just one of the reasons why.)

DISC TWO

1. Colourbox - Looks Like We're Shy One Horse (This post-punk/dub/spaghetti western epic is one of my favourite songs of all time and I don't think I've ever put it on a mixtape before. "You brought two too many". A wink and a thumbs-up to anyone who can name the film the dialogue is taken from in the comments box.)
2. Seko Molenga And Kalo Kawongolo - Moto Ya Motema (In 1977, Lee Perry apparently stumbled upon these two Zairean musicians after they had been abandoned by their manager in Kingston. He took them into his Black Ark and got them to cut a record with The Upsetters. This is just part of the result of those sessions, but it should be enough to urge you to seek out the album.)
3. Gina X Performance - Nice Mover (Slinky as fuck, this art-disco groover was so far ahead of its time that we're still catching up.)
4. My Sister Klaus - Call Yourself (Everything on My Sister Klaus' debut album, Chateau Rouge sounds like a pastiche, but in a good way. This is his mid-70s Bowie tune.)
5. !!! - Heart Of Hearts (The Brothers Mix) (The Brothers take the hectic punk-funk original and slow it down to a nice, dreamy pace, ditching the vocal on the way. In fact, it's pretty much unrecognisable. Like a completely different song.)
6. Diskjokke - Once More With Violence (The highlight from Jokke's Heft & Plunder EP on Kindisch, this is a tech-y, space-disco number that is just another in a long line of bombs from the fjords.)
7. Sorcerer - Surfing At Midnight (Trippy, Balearic disco from the Tirk stable. The Prins Thomas miks on the flip is worth a look, but it's the original that I prefer.)
8. Magnus International - Kosmetisk (What is in the water up there?! I'm fucking moving to Norway as soon as I can.)
9. Howard Wales - Rendezvous With The Sun (Another tune that begins with a gong, this is a surging sci-fi funk number favoured by DJ Harvey. Anything he gives the seal of approval to is good enough for me.)
10. Ahmad - Back In The Day (Remix) ("Jerome, Jerome, put on that Bobby Womack!")
11. Funkadelic - I'm Never Gonna Tell It (Really digging this one at the moment. Thanks to Royksopp for putting it on their Back To Mine mix.)
12. Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Mighty Girl (As featured on the upcoming Reinterpretations collection, this is the one with those arpeggios that just will not quit. One of my personal L&PT faves.)
13. Marshall Jefferson Vs. Noosa Heads - Mushrooms (Salt City Orchestra Remix) ("And I never saw that girl again.... And I never took a mushroom again" Absolute classic.)

Sunday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space

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.

Mixtape Week: Friday

The weekend starts here...

YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: FRIDAY

1. Battles - Atlas (Lead-off cut from Battles' superb upcoming debut full-length proper, Mirrored and former Single Of The Week on these very pages, 'Atlas' as most of you will know by now, is probably the strangest song since 'Windowlicker' to ever be considered 'catchy'. You'll be singing along, even if you don't know the words and, apart from Tyondai Braxton, who does?)
2. Bad Brains - Pay To Cum! (Probably one of the most enduring songs from the hardcore punk scene of the early-80s, this still has the power to get people slam-dancing from fifty paces.)
3. Flipper - Way Of The World (A slack, loose groove keeps this one plodding along evilly. A precursor to the grunge movement that plaid-clad throwbacks would do well not to forget.)
4. The Afghan Whigs - John The Baptist (The forthcoming Afghan Whigs retrospective, Unbreakable made me dig out my old copy of 1965, only to find that it still stood up pretty well. This soul-flecked slice of sex-rock is libido writ large and no-one writes rock music as pervy as Greg Dulli used to anymore. Might be a good thing.)
5. Magazine - Definitive Gaze (This, the opening track from Magazine's debut, Real Life sounds like a wrestling match between John McGeoch's scratchy, ratty guitar, Bob Dickinson's ornate, semi-futuristic keyboard swathes and Barry Adamson's fluid, restless bassline, with Devoto acting as passive, self-serving, sneering referee. Thrilling stuff, thirty years on.)
6. David Bowie - Black Country Rock (Largely forgotten footnote of Bowie's career, 'Black Country Rock' is often passed over as a bit of an anomaly on the weighty The Man Who Sold The World album. It's breezy blues-rock is hard not to like though.)
7. The Zombies - Care Of Cell 44 (Flower-power pop about a lover coming back from prison. Not standard lyrical concerns for this time in musical history really. All the better for it too.)
8. April March - Chick Habit (From the soundtrack to Tarantino's half of Grindhouse, Death Proof, this is a surf-y, campy take on Gainsbourg's 'Laisse Tomber Les Filles', only with, like, English lyrics and stuff. Kewl!)
9. Os Mutantes - Trem Fantasma (Queasy, psychedelic tropicalia from one of those bands you feel would be a hell of a lot more revered had they been British or American. Having said that, they probably wouldn't have been this good if they weren't from Brazil.)
10. Map Of Africa - Black Skin Blue-Eyed Boys (It's been nearly two years since this was released, but I still manage to hear it pretty much every time I go to a club. Tells you just how great it is, really.)
11. Baby Huey - Hard Times (When James Ramey sings about the hard times, you believe it as Baby Huey is probably one of the most tragic figures in the history of soul music. Dead at 26, with only one album under his belt, he was snatched away before he could really get going.)
12. Jeru Tha Damaja - D. Original (Still one of DJ Premier's oddest, most off-kilter production jobs is this cut from Jeru's superb debut, The Sun Rises In The East. It's the creepy, off-key piano sample that gets me every time.)
13. Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell (If there was ever any doubt of Illmatic's influence and enduring popularity, you should check out the album's Wikipedia entry. Ten tracks, including this, the closer, and out. All killer, no filler.)
14. A Tribe Called Quest - Award Tour (Midnight Marauders was always my favourite Quest album. Just a stone-cold classic.)
15. Ta-raach & The Lovelution - Merci Me Lord (I should have put this after the Jeru track, as it shares a similarly herky-jerky piano lick, this time on an electric one. Highly impressive, none-more-Detroit hip-hop from one of this year's best hip-hop albums so far.)
16. Devin The Dude - Almighty Dollar (Aside from Devin's irrepressible, addictive flow, it's just nice to hear a rapper bemoaning his lack of money, rather than bragging about how much he has.)
17. Prodigy - Mac 10 Handle (I've never been a massive fan of Prodigy's style. He always seems to be clumsily struggling for the next rhyme, but his new album, Return Of The Mac is all about the production. Crystal clear, smoking funk samples are the order of the day, so you can overlook the pimp-ish lyrics.)
18. Dr. Dre - Nuthin' But A G Thang (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg) ("It's like this and like that and like this and-uh". I don't know why it says featuring, when this is clearly Snoop's song. The sound of a talent announcing his arrival to the world. If only he could recapture the brilliance he essays here.)
19. Domino - Sweet Potatoe Pie (Despite taking the Dan Quayle spelling class, Domino could really hit it when he wanted to. His first album wasn't exactly a West Coast classic, but it had some really great stuff on it, like this. I still think of the video everytime I hear it, with Domino walking down a line of booty-bouncing babes and gin-glugging homies while singing to the camera. Can't find it on YouTube though. If anyone can find it, please let me know, I need a nostalgia hit.)
20. Eric B & Rakim - Juice (I Know The Ledge) (Talking of nostalgia, this always brings to mind the hyper-kinetic opening credits sequence from the film it's named for. One of the most-overlooked films of the 90s, by everyone other than 2pac and Omar Epps fans. "You got the juice now man!")
21. O.C. - Time's Up (Ending our all-nostalgia triple-header, I've actually found the video to this one though. What the hell was with all those guys sat on the floor in the dark, nodding their heads? Looks like a samurai meeting or something.)

Friday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space (new link!)

Mixtape Week: Thursday

Today is Thursday and you know what that means. It means that we're now past the half-way mark in our mixtape week (aww!). Fret not, however, as today's is a corker, featuring kickarse tunes from the likes of Larry Heard, Kathy Diamond and Harry Nilsson, alongside others. Tuck in!


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: THURSDAY

1. Arto Mwambe - Ombala Mbembo (More technoid badness from Mwambe's superlative Mudhutma! double-header. One of the finest releases of the year so far, make no mistake.)
2. Moodymann - Technologystolemyvinyle (To fill out Kenny Dixon Jr's prophecy, we have a fully digitised version of his new one that really has to be experienced on vinyl. Hey, new Moodymann is a big deal and not everyone has a record player. We're performing a service here!)
3. Frivolous - Sooo Savey (Jazzy, grinding minimal house, featuring one of the best cheesy/great vocals I've heard in quite some time.)
4. Blackjoy - The Bears (Snaking, downtempo disco-house from France's Blackjoy, taken from the latest in Freerange Records' Colours Series: Green. All it needs now is a Prins Thomas remix. Actually, scratch that, it's pretty perfect as it is.)
5. Larry Heard Presents Mr White - The Sun Can't Compare (Can't believe that it's taken this long for me to put this 2007 DJ mix standard (recently spotted leaving the competition for dust on Dixon's Body Language Vol. 4 and Ellen Allien's Fabric 34) on a mixtape. Found it and loved it last November-ish, but it rightfully takes pride of place here. Better late than never.)
6. Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe (Prins Thomas Diskomiks) (Thomas gives the original a bit of a slo-mo acid-jacking groove workout feel, without taking away any of the stuff that made the original such a perfect pop tune.)
7. ESG - Moody (Spaced Out) (No-one does minimalist grooves quite like ESG and this is one of their best, as evidenced by the amount of times it's been sampled.)
8. Harry Nilsson - Jump Into The Fire (As covered by LCD Soundsystem but even they couldn't improve on the original that features one of the most badarse basslines in the history of badarse basslines.)
9. Babe Ruth - The Mexican (It's easy to see why the drum break was such a staple of the early b-boy sound. For a rock band from Hatfield, this is hell of funky.)
10. Kathy Diamond - On & On (Still loving this clav-soaked smoky soul number from Diamond's immense debut album. You all should check her out on the 27th at Po Na Na in Manchester. I'll be there. Will you?)
11. Frost - Modesty (This, the opener from new album, Love! Revolution! seems to take forever to build, but when the release does eventually come, it's totally devastating. Frost do that low-key grace thing so well that it ain't even funny.)
12. The Mary Onettes - Lost (This couldn't be more New Order if Peter Hook was on bass and Martin Hannett was producing from beyond the grave. Totally derivative but great stuff all the same.)
13. New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (Shep Pettibone Remix) (As heard on Hot Chip's DJ-Kicks mix, this doesn't so much improve on the original as just extend all the best bits. The way a good remix should be really.)

Thursday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space (new link!)

Mixtape Week: Wednesday

Today's mixtape is a rockier affair than the previous two days. Guitar overload, just below the picture of Wednesday Addams. Y'see what I did there?


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: WEDNESDAY

1. Dan Deacon - Wooody Wooodpecker (Idiot-savant laptop-popper, Dan Deacon is currently one of the most blogged-about artists around. His stuff can sometimes be a little too manic for my liking and it often feels like you really shouldn't be listening, let alone actually enjoying it. The opener of his new album, Spiderman Of The Rings, 'Wooody Wooodpecker', however, just has to be heard to be believed. Try it. You might not understand it, but hey, you might just like it.)
2. OOIOO - Uma (Eye Mix 1) (Eye from The Boredoms gives the standout from last year's OOIOO album, Taiga a stroboscopic, tribal-trance-rave makeover. Can never get enough of those crazy, chanting Japanese women.)
3. Von Sudenfed - Flooded ("The other DJ needed a god-damn rubber sheet because he pissed the fuckin' bed". Mark E. Smith = Genius.)
4. Nine Inch Nails - My Violent Heart (NIN's new album, Year Zero, is the first one that I've ever really given a decent amount of attention to. I've just never really warmed to the overgrown adolescent schtick that Reznor has previously peddled. 'My Violent Heart' is a blitzkrieg-ing show of power from a band who have found a new, more likeable lyrical focus though and just one of the reasons why I think that Year Zero is the best mainstream rock album of the year so far.)
5. Holy Fuck - Frenchy's (A malevolent electro-noise stomp from Holy Fuck's recent self-titled EP, that's a marked improvement on their debut album from 2005. Expect this one to win a fair few new converts.)
6. Soft Circle - Earthed (Blackened, percussive, leftfield dance music from Hisham Barroocha (Black Dice). Like Liquid Liquid, raised on Dario Argento films.)
7. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Sun Lips (The highlight of their patchy new album, Dandelion Gum, this is a queasy, psychedelic slice of trip-hoppy strangeness.)
8. Sapat - Dark Silver (This track is a loose-groove, funky oasis of focus amidst the aimless jams of Sapat's current album, Mortise And Tenon. One of the most surprising finds of the year.)
9. Turzi - Animal Signal (More about this one soon, but for now, I'll just say that Turzi's album, A is the third album of dark, prog-inflected psyche-rock to emerge this year, after My Sister Klaus and Joakim.)
10. Neu! - Hero (Klaus Dinger's proto-punk classic from the second side of Neu! '75 is as menacing and ahead of its time now as it was back then. Brilliant.)
11. 120 Days - Get Away (Norway's 120 Days ally their kraut-y excesses to a love of '80s acts like Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure and Jesus & Mary Chain, leaving 'Get Away' sounding like it would be at home both on the soundtrack to a John Hughes film and a Werner Herzog film. A recipe for success, if ever I've heard one.)
12. Parts & Labor - Fractured Skies (Blistering, late-Husker Du-style anthemics from P&L's third and best album, Mapmaker. Owner of one of the best chord changes I've heard in a long time.)
13. Pissed Jeans - A Bad Wind (Pissed Jeans are the band your mother warned you about; a vicious blend of Mudhoney proto-grunge and the crunch of black metal. New album, Hope For Men is a coruscating listen, but one that reaffirms your faith in good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll sickness.)
14. Big Business - Hands Up (Big Business make a hell of a lot of noise with just bass and drums and come off a bit like Lightning Bolt writing songs for Motley Crue, with their hair metal-esque vocals. Fist-pumping and artful. Not as bad a combo as it sounds.)
15. Clutch - Power Player (Clutch borrow their riffs from ZZ Top, but there are worse acts to crib from. No-one really does this kind of bluesy man-rock as good as these guys do right now.)
16. Queens Of The Stone Age - A Song For The Dead (One of Dave Grohl's finest ever performances behind the drum kit is on this cut from QOTSA's best album to date, Songs For The Deaf. While we wait on Era Vulgaris, let's remind ourselves why this band is one of the best rock bands of the noughties.)
17. Johnny Thunders - Pipeline (Rocketing cover of the surf-rock classic from the sadly-missed Thunders. Recently heard on The Sopranos too.)
18. The Pink Mountaintops - Single Life (Recent single from Stephen McBean that cuts a psyche groove not heard since '69. It's a happening!)
19. The Sonics - Boss Hoss (Rounding things off with a track from the first punk band. Every song sounded the same but it was a trick worth repeating, I'm sure you'll agree.)

Wednesday's Mixtape, Ripped, Zipped And Sent Into Space (new link!)

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.

Mixtape Week: Monday

It's the first instalment in our week of mixtapes and today's one is a belter, taking in some discoid delights from the likes of Studio, Black Devil Disco Club, Chromeo and Talking Heads, among others.


YER MAM!'S MIXTAPE WEEK: MONDAY

1. Studio - Life's A Beach! (Todd Terje's Beach House Miks) (The better of the two 'Life's A Beach!' remixes, in my opinion, is this dubby, blissful slo-mo disco do-over from Terje. He amps up the tempo ever-so-slightly from the original and adds a bassline found in the drawer marked "Just won't quit". Superb.)
2. Bjorn Torske - God Kveld (More beautiful Norwegian disco from the Bergen-based legend. Similar in style and form to recent works by Reverso 68, but it's a sound that never gets old. At least it hasn't yet anyway.)
3. Special Touch - Garden Of Life (Shuffling, very smooth UK soul bomb from the early 90s, recently resurrected on Sonar Kollektiv's Computer Incarnations For World Peace compilation. A lost classic.)
4. The The - Giant (Pilooski Edit) (The ever-reliable Pilooski takes The The's original (from Soul Mining) and, well, doesn't really do much at all to it. It's all about the little touches like the way he piles a bit more reverb on the drums and adds all sorts of little effects on the coda, while stripping away the "Yeah, yeah, yeah"'s. Nice work if you can get it.)
5. Black Devil Disco Club - The Devil In Us (Why I managed to forget about 28 After when I came to compile my albums of the year list last year is beyond me, as it's one of the 2006 albums that I still give a regular spin to. I'm going to see Bernard Fevre in action in a couple of weeks, so here's my favourite off that album as a primer.)
6. Andre Cymone - The Dance Electric (Cymone was Prince's sort-of adopted brother (Prince lived with Cymone's family after leaving his own home as a teen) and he played bass in Prince's touring band in the early days. Prince also wrote and produced this, Cymone's only real hit. Cymone sounds a lot like Prince. Coattail-riding has never sounded so funky.)
7. Chromeo - Bonafied Lovin' (Tough Guys) (Speaking of Prince, the music world's most blatant Prince fetishists, Chromeo are back with a new album that doesn't actually make me want to chop off my ears. Fancy Footwork is, in fact, a truly joyous retro-pop marvel and this is one of the most addictive cuts from it. Christ, Chromeo got really good all of a sudden.)
8. Matthew Dear - Don And Sherri (Dear has gone all tech-soul on his new album under his own name, Asa Breed and it's a serious contender for album of the year. The pure pop of 'Don And Sherri' is just one of the reasons why.)
9. Loose Joints - Is It All Over My Face? (Larry Levan Remix) (One of the most fun, funky tracks to come out of the underground disco scene of the late 70s/early 80s gets a subtle rework from the don of that era. Pure ecstasy.)
10. Was (Not Was) - Out Come The Freaks (A good few years before 'Walk The Dinosaur' made them a household name the world over, they released this avant-garde disco classic on Ze Records. Still as strange and exotic now as it was in 1981.)
11. Jorge Ben - Taj Mahal (Samba-disco-funk from Mr. Ben. Recommended if you like... fun, dancing, good times.)
12. The Lafayette Afro Rock Band - I Love Music (Proto-disco funk from the early-70s. Features one of the most hard-driving bass and piano combos I've ever heard. It nearly gave me a panic attack when I first heard it, it's that fucking good.)
13. Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) (What can you say? Perfect afro-beat influenced new wave disco from the greatest band ever to walk the earth. Sounds great opening that new Back To Mine mix from Royksopp too.)

Monday's mixtape, ripped, zipped and Gigasized (new link!)

Coming soon to a blog near you...

Hey there!

Just wanted to drop in to say that we're doing something a bit special this coming week on Yer Mam! Every day for a week, there'll be a new mixtape for you to download. Yes, that's right, starting tomorrow, it's mixtape week on Yer Mam! I'm currently putting them together and getting them uploaded and ready to go, so you just sit tight and wait for the goodies to come.

That's all for now, but if you want to hear my dulcet tones in the meantime, I'm on this week's Blog Fresh Radio, talking about Studio's album.

TTFN,

JMx