Neneh Cherry – Everything (Villalobos & Loderbauer: Vilod high blood pressure mix)

Having not really thought about Neneh Cherry for years she seems to have somehow worked her way back into my musical consciousness. I unearthed a copy of her seminal Buffalo Stance Remix 12” in a charity shop last week and then her new LP is reviewed in this month’s copy of the Wire magazine.

It sent me searching online for new tunes and I uncovered this amazing Richard Villalobos and Max Loderbauer remix of her track Everything on Soundcloud. Everything closes the new LP Blank Project and has been released as the second single. The original as 7:21 is hardly likely to bring her back to the charts but it’s a great track.

The rattling electronic prime evil swampy trip-hop of the original (supplied by electronic duo Rocketnumbernine and Kieran Four Tet Hebden production) has been stripped back and replaced by a lovely pulsing bassline, slow mo rhythmic ticks and the vocal cut, sliced and diced across the mix in a series of grunts, sighs and vocal tics and generally dub it up brilliantly.

Have a listen below:

Classic Chicago House Mix Tapes

I caught a brief snatch of "Love Can't Turn Around" by Farley "Jack Master" Funk and Darryl Pandy on the radio the other day. Its a great record and it makes me think the first time I heard any "house" music back in 1986 when I would have been 15 years old. There is a piece in the Mike Skinner book (The Streets) about exposure to "club music". For most kids it comes initially via radio, peoples cars and back in the day via Top of The Pops. I was far to young to go clubbing and in the part of south east London I lived in they wouldn't have been playing "house" and they only time I saw a DJ live would be at a school disco or a wedding. I can remember "Love Can't Turn Around" on Top of The Pops and thinking it was wonderful. I had no idea it was a "house" record. I just loved the vocal and the bassline. I was just finding my musical feet/taste at the time and I think I would have been living on diet of The Pet Shop Boys and The The's Heartland LP. Although I ended up mainly as an indie kid/goth with a soft spot for house, acid house and most types of strange hued dance music.

The performance from Top of The Pops  is below and it is every bit as glorious as I remembered it. I always thought I had dreamt the bit of him going on his back at the end, but no there it is.



Big soul vocal hooks over a thumping bassline and electronic drums, what's not to love about that!

I had no idea it was originally a house track called "I Can't Turn Around" by J.M. Silk.

So it opened an internet wormhole and I started to look for some classic house mixes and came across this great blog. A mixtape a week by a US based  "DJ, producer and record nerd" - CHRISSY MURDERBOT

http://yearofmixtapes.blogspot.co.uk/

There are a wide range of styles covered on the blog including Ghetto House, Post Disco Pre House and a Hi Energy mix.

The Chicago House mix is great, covering a wide range of classic tracks and is well paced and mixed.

Classic Chicago House Mix

I also found this great mix on SoundCloud by Leroy Skibone



Close to an hours worth of classic Chicago House. Track listing below:

Kreem - Triangle Of Love (Remix) (Vocal Mix) - 00:00
Lil Louis - French Kiss (The Original Underground Mix) - 03:33
Farley Jackmaster Funk - Clap'n The Pella - 06:28
Bigger Than Life - World Of Make Believe (World Of Samples) - 10:59
Rhythim Is Rhythim - Nude Photo - 13:46
Fast Eddie - Acid Thunder (Fast Thunder) - 16:19
The Lincoln Boys - Check It Out (Bad Boy Mix) - 17:50
Bam Bam - Give It To Me (Instrumental Mix) - 19:06
Mix N Tel - Feel The Beat (Mix 2) - 22:09
Kenny Jammin Jason with Fast Eddie Smith - Can U Dance (Can U Drum) - 24:41
Mr Lee - Come To House (Club) - 26:13
Quest - Mind Games (Underground Mix) - 29:23
J.M. Silk - All In Vain (London Mix) - 32:11
Criminal House - Rhythm Talk (Rick's Mix) - 35:46
Mickey Oliver and Ralphi Rosario - Pump Up The Acid - 38:34
Mark Imperial and Dennis Ramirez - Rock This House (Bassline DJ Groove) - 41:06
J.M. Silk - I Can't Turn Around (House Of Trix Mix) - 43:08
Mr Lee - Acid Pump Up London - 47:27
Mark Imperial - J'adore Danser (Club Mix) - 51:45
Armando - 100 Percent Of Disin You Remix (Mike Dunn's House Mix) - 53:31

Enjoy

Half and Hour with Mark Eiztel in Amsterdam 2013

A great video of Mark Eiztel playing the Paradiso Amsterdam in 2013. I assume although I don't know that it is an edited set list but its still a wonderful performance of some classic American Music Club and solo material. It's a shame the banter has been cut back as Mark is often very funny in a deadpan kind of way.



The track listing is as follows:

• Mission Rock Resort
• Dead Part of You
• Apology for an Accident
• Blue and Grey Shirt
• Decibels and Little Pills
• Bad Liquor 

Dean Blunt - New Mix Tape Skin Fade Free Download

The every elusive and odd Dean Blunt has dropped a 27 minutes free mix tape titled Skin Fade. The "tape" by the Hype Williams main man is a collaboration with Joanne Robertson. The tape seems to take a his obsession with the 80s pop has taken a slightly left-field shift towards a more underground/indie sound source. The song fragments at times sound like lost 4AD demos.

The Soundcloud posting appears to have gone but follow the links below to a download of the set. The track below is one from the pair from last year.



http://www.factmag.com/2014/01/30/dean-blunt-drops-skin-fade-mixtape-featuring-the-redeemer-collaborator-joanne-robertson/

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/dean-blunt-drops-26-minute-mixtape-skin-fade-with-joanne-robertson

Yellow Loveless - My Bloody Valentine Loveless covered by Japanese Shoegazing bands

Stumbled across this great record today. I have always been a fine of the cover LP and this version of the seminal My Bloody Valentine LP Loveless by a range of Japanese shoegrazing bands is brilliant. I don't imagine when Kevin Shield was going mad, staying awake for days and spending all Alan McGee's cash on Loveless he dreamt that one day it would be covered by a wide range of artists from Japan.

The CD never appears to have had a physical release outside of Japan but it can be purchased here  - http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=HFR-1202

The track listing and timing are below:

1 東京酒吐座 – Only Shallow 4:27
2 Goatbed – Loomer 3:19
3 Sodom Project, The – Touched 4:48
4 Lemon's Chair – To Here Knows When 11:18
5 少年ナイフ* – When You Sleep 3:21
6 東京酒吐座 – I Only Said 5:13
7 Age Of Punk – Come In Alone 4:05
8 Boris (3) – Sometimes 8:12
9 Shinobu Narita – Blown A Wish 5:12
10 Lemon's Chair – What You Want 6:19
11 Sadesper Record – Soon 6:21

Nice article at Tiny Mixtapes about the LP  - http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/boris-and-eight-other-japanese-bands-prep-my-bloody-valentine-tribute-album-yellow-loveless

Happy Birthday New Order's Technique - 25 Years Old Today

On the 30th January 1989 New Order released their LP Technique on cassette, compact disk, record and digital audio tape! Released on Factory Record with the Factory Number - FAC 275. 

Recorded partly in Ibiza (although very little of the Ibiza recordings made the final record), where the band spent the time partying, crashing cars and soaking in the emerging Acid House/Balerica Beat club culture. The new club sounds clearly influenced the band and bleed through to the LP. You can hear them in the indie acid of Fine Time to (the first single) to the general sun dappled production, upbeat melodies and rhythmic thrust. The shift from the band debut LP Movement in 1981 with its heavy Martin Hannett production and difficult lyric and deep vocals couldn't be more marked. If a year is a long time in politics then eight years is generation in musical terms. They simply don't sound like the same band at all, the only clue that links the bands is Hooky's melodic bass and the brilliance of the drumming. 

I remember buying at the time on cassette from Our Price in Woolwich. It is one record that has really stuck with me through the last 25 years, it arrived at a rather difficult part in my own personal life and I have bought it on CD a number of times as I have lost or damaged them across the years. It always brings a smile to my face and is an uplifting listen. 

 "It begins. It thumps with glee, it swirls with lackadaisical  intensity. "You're much too young to be a part of me, you're much too young to get a hold on me." And never have veterans sounded so

brilliantly arrogant, masters so eager. Jesus. "Technique" is so

effortlessly GREAT, so languidly heroic, so vibrant and thrilling

despite itself, that one wishes one could weep....."

Chris Roberts 

A can remember Chris Roberts review in Melody Maker at the time and it can viewed here 

http://www.new-order.net/terminal1.demon.co.uk/NewMM1-89album.htm

A great review from Ian Wade at the BBC website from 2008

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/nxbd

Rate Your Music Page on Technique

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/new_order/technique/

The LP reached number one in the UK Album charts, the singles released were Fine Time (11th), Round and Round (21) and Run 2 (49). It would be the last LP the band released on Factory before the label went bust and the band moved to London record for the release of Republic in 1993. 

Happy birthday Technique you are still a joy to listen to.

Cool as Ice - Be Music Productions (New Order) Spotify Playlist

Have just found this little gem on Spotify. The LP Cool as Ice collects various New Order Productions as Be Music between 1983 and 1984. This was just as New Order were dancing headlong towards electronic music and away from the Martin Hannett  Joy Division production template.




The LP collects the various members of New Order as they produced other Factory Record acts (no doubt Tony Wilson hoping that some of that chart bound magic could be sprinkled on other artists).

The Be Music productions were divided into three teams:

• Barney and Donald Johnston of ACR (aka DoJo)
• Hooky
• Stephen and Gillian 

Section 25, Marcel King (Shaun Ryders favorite ever Factory track) , Paul Haig and Quando Quando (including future M People main man Mike Pickering) were produced by Barney and Johnston, Nyam Nyam and the Be Music Theme are the work of Hooky and Life, Thick Pigeon and 52nd Street by Stephen and Gillian.

The two Section 25 tracks are wonderful, full of the fragile grace and brittle melodies that also marked out New Order at this time. They could be out takes from Movement or Power Corruption and Lies. The Looking From a Hilltop 12" Megamix is a real lost factory classic all bleeping bass, interweaving male and female vocals and a great synth string part. 

The Be Music Theme has shades of the New Order track murder in its mix of sampled(?) speech, tribal drumming and keyboard washes. Fate/Hate by Nyam Nyam is with is chugging baseline and midi synth parts is beautiful. The New Order pair of Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert also played on the Nyam Nyam record and went on to produce and play on the LP Too Crazy Cowboys released by Factory in 1984.

You can purchase the LP in CD and Vinyl formats here:

http://www.ltmrecordings.com/cool_as_ice_ltmcd2377.html

East India Youth - Total Strife Forever

On the first couple of listens I am loving the debut LP by William Doyle as East India Youth. It has elements of many things I love, electronic systems music, four to the floor electronica, warped left of centre pop and an a vocal that is equal parts papier-mache vulnerable and 3am lonely ache. Some in it reminds me of the first Matt Johnson/The The Record - Burning Blue Soul, well if Matt Johnson had recorded in 2013 as opposed to 1981. The mix of fractured instrumental, vocal looping and loneliness places it in the same sonic space just 32 years apart. Total Strife forever could be Burn Blue Soul's musical baby . Oddly both were written/recorded in the East End of London so it might be something haunting the air. James Blake is a name that keeps cropping up in the reviews but I think this much more interesting sonically and emotional than that.

The closing Total Strife Forever IV builds up from static and distorted strings to a stirring organ hook and chugging noise undertow, it is a blissful hazy way to finish the record.

One for the Mercury Prize in 2014?

The Soundcloud track Heaven, How Long showcases his ability to meld these disparate strands into a wonderful whole.



Some good reviews of the LP here

http://www.metacritic.com/music/total-strife-forever/east-india-youth

http://thequietus.com/articles/14252-east-india-youth-total-strife-forever-review

Nice playlist of tracks that inspired the writing of the LP via Q Magazine

http://news.qthemusic.com/2014/01/playlist_-_east_india_youths_s.html

Article about forming a record label to release the LP as no-one would sign East India Youth
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-siva/east-india-youth-the-soun_b_4589574.html

Return of Mogwai - Remurdered

The new Mogwai LP is released in the UK on the 20th January 2014 on Rock Action Records. Titled Rave Tapes and likely the works of Burial it seems to be in part at least a requiem for the "gold age" of rave in the early 1990s.

Below is the track Remurdered from the Rock Action Soundcloud Page.



You can also get a lovely boxset version of the LP with Pink Vinyl included! Mogwai Rave Tapes Boxset

The Guardian website is carrying a full stream of the LP here-

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/jan/14/mogwai-rave-tapes-album-stream

Stuart Braithwaite of the band wrote the following:

"...The album was recorded by Paul Savage who we worked on for our early single Summer as well as our first record Mogwai Young Team and our most recent Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. Paul was also a member of The Delgados, the owners of Chemikal Undergound Records who released our first two records..."

Its good to have them back. 

Doll Boy – Ghost Stations

Doll Boy – Ghost Stations 

There is something about travelling in London on the Tube that makes me want to soundtrack the journey with electronica. Born and bred in London I find the Tube and endlessly fascinating and enjoyable way to travel, mind I no-longer have to do it every working day and tend to avoid the peaks of rush hour commuting.

My recent soundtrack to Tube travel has been Lost Stations by Dollboy. The songs are a requiem/reflection on “lost” Tube Stations in London and Berlin. Empty or abandoned spaces are another one of my obsessions so an LP about abandoned Tube stations, well what’s not to love about that.

The LP was released back in 2010 on Second Language Music records but I only stumbled across it just before Christmas this year. 

"Dollboy is the alias of London-based musical polymath Oliver Cherer who has released three albums (of both electronic music and more orthodox song-based material) under that moniker for the likes of Different Drummer, Arable and Static Caravan..."

Imagine a lovingly blended mix of field records, electronic chatter, Eno style ambient washes and Eric Satie piano and you’re in the right place.  The songs rotate and mutate around long brass tones, clicks, hisses, bass piano notes and the ebbing of slow electronic pulses. The pieces use silence to great effect, the balance between the rattle of the tube trains and the dolorous nature of their empty life’s since closure are keenly felt in the music.

I would love to get the chance to wander around the empty stations with this as my soundtrack, a homage to forgotten places no-longer of commercial use but full of memory and loss.

The closed London Underground Stations that feature on the record are:

• Down Street
• York Road
• South Kentish Town
• British Museum
• Brompton Road
• Strand

More information on Ghost Stations in London- http://www.underground-history.co.uk/deeplevel.php

The Berlin Stations that receive the musical treatment are:

• Warschauer strasse
• Jannowitzbrucke
• Potsdamer platz
• Unter den linden

More information Ghost Stations in Berlin - http://www.slowtravelberlin.com/a-trip-through-berlins-ghost-stations/

Close your eyes and picture yourself in the Berlin of Christopher Isherwood’s novels.

Dollboy has a great Soundcloud page here where you can hear a live versions of LP tracks that can be downloaded - https://soundcloud.com/second-language/dollboy-ghost-stations-live and track 10 Potsdamer Platz for free.