There's Always Time For One More

Apart from anything else, Christmas and the New Year always serves to highlight death. I don't think I'm being particularly morbid. Obviously news is slow so stuff that may have been otherwise shelved gets more of a look-in than normal. Having said that, the tsunami of 2004 broke al records for bad news over the festive season. Anyway, James Brown left us on Christmas day in 2006, and this year, either side of the 25th, we had Teena Marie and Bobby Farrell. Although by far the most artistically credible I can't just reinvent myself as a fan of Teena Marie now she's gone. I knew of her and heard some of her records way back when, I also knew of an association she had with Rick James, and the only way I knew of Rick James was because 'Super Freak' and 'Give It To Me Baby' were played at almost every club I visited, regardless of the crowd, throughout the early/mid eighties. In any case, I confused Teena Marie regularly with Kelly Marie, a Scottish singer who made it big in the eighties, sort of, with a tune 'Feels Like I'm In Love' which I remember mostly because of her dance routine in which she was flanked by two camp black guys who bounced to the beat of trebly synth drums. Takes me back to my primary school days actually, when I was made to absorb the Catechism, (so much so in fact that I can still quote passages from it now), and the answer to the question "What Is God?" . . .the answer of course "God is a living being without a body." Anyway, when I was a young whippersnapper inside the Catholic school system I initially misheard the response as "God is a living bean without a body." Consequently, I used to think that God lived in a tin and breathed tomato sauce.

Bobby Farrell as well. Definitely a hero from my days of Top Of The Pops addiction. I put up some words about Captain Beefheart when he died the other week, and mentioned what an influence he'd been . . .well Boney M, although I deride my girlfriend for having one of their cds in the car, made just as much a mark in their own way, and their centrepiece was Farrell, his gruff, murmur of a voice and his silly, but eminently watchable dance turns. Out of all the artists mentioned here, (except Kelly Marie), although he fronted the least artistically credible group, he gave me just as many musical memories as anyone and they weren't bad by any means so, for that reason, he'll be very sadly missed.

Have a Happy New Year and a great 2011 whoever and wherever you are.

P xxxxx

Rounding Off

It's been a good year, (that's unless you mention football); lots of new music consumed, books read, household chores put off for infinity, a tuberculosis breakout at work, finally getting paid for writing in the service of music . . .not bad at all. Difficult to say who stood out for me over the year as I'm not a great one for lists of any description. Having said that I did, for the first time since having started contributing to them, deign to complete the Resident Advisor end of year poll. I was unable to finish the top tracks section though. Maybe I'm not listening hard enough, or is it really a case of not enough individual tunes standing out . . ? I don't know. Anyway, I would have found it easy to chart whole releases - which is what I do every month in the same studied, but arbitrary, fashion.


In any case, as RA don't publish individual contributor's polls, opting rather for the "put everything in a bag, shake it all about and let it spill out" approach, here are my individual results in the categories of Top Artist Albums, Top Compilations/Mixes and Top Labels, in that order. Oh, and as well as not sending in my "top tracks" I also didn't bother with "top live act" either.

Top Artist Albums 2010:

1
Flying Lotus
Cosomgramma
Warp

2
The Black Dog
Music For Real Airports
Soma

3
Ikonika
Contact, Love, Want, Have
Hyperdub

4
Peter van Hoesen
Entropic City
Time To Express

5
Anthony “Shake” Shakir
Frictionalism 1994-2009
Rush Hour

6
Marcel Dettmann
Dettmann
Ostgut Ton

7
Ark
Arkpokalypse Now
Perlon

8
Caribou
Swim
City Slang

9
Robert Hood
Omega
M Plant

10
Mr G
Still Here (Get On Down)
Rekids

11
Shed
The Traveller
Ostgut Ton

12
John Roberts
Glass Eights
Dial

13
Scuba
Triangulation
Hot Flush

14
dOP
Greatest Hits
Circus Company

15
Wareika
Harmonie Park
Perlon

16
Commix
Re Call To Mind
Metalheadz

17
Matthew Dear
Black City
Ghostly International

18
Efdemin
Chicago
Dial

19
Massive Attack
Heligoland
Virgin

20
Darkstar
North
Hyperdub

Top Compilations/Mixes 2010:

1
V/A
Funf
Ostgut Ton


2
Optimo
Fabric 52
Fabric


3
Kode 9
DJ Kicks
K7


4
Seth Troxler
Boogybytes Vol 5
BPitch


5
Martyn
Fabric 50
Fabric


6
Shackleton
Fabric 55
Fabric


7
Ben Klock
Berghain 04
Ostgut Ton


8
V/A
Superlongevity 5
Perlon


9
Todd Terje/Various
Remaster Of The Universe
Permanent Vacation


10
Scientist
Scientist Launches Dubstep . . .
Tectonic

Top Labels 2010:

1
Ostgut Ton



2
Hyperdub



3
Hot Creations



4
Underground Quality



5
Numbers



6
Highgrade



7
Desolat



8
Crosstown Rebels



9
Upon You



10
Hypercolour

In order to be more critical and, of course, more precise next year I'll have to start taking notes from next month so I plan to be a lot more investigative from 1/1/11. Meanwhile, I hope you all had a happy Christmas, or a good equivalent if you don't celebrate it, and all the best for 2011.

Q & A With Billy Dalessandro & Brian Ffar

Here's a link to an interview I did with Siteholder Records Billy Dalessandro and Brian Ffar for Ibiza Voice.

Here's a link to the mix page of Brian's website, (the most recent is from June of this year), and here's one of Billy's from a few posts back. Scroll down a bit to get it.

December Chart

Some winter warmers To Keep Your toes tapping over Christmas:



Where The Freaks Have No Name - Benoit & Sergio (Visionquest)



The L Word feat Jada - Deniz Kurtel (Crosstown Rebels)



Big Ass Biscuit/Clive's Alright EP - Pteradactil Disco (Hot Creations)



Space Is Only Noise LP - Nicolas Jaar (Circus Company)



Harry Klein Records 03 - Marco & Dario Zenker (Harry Klein)



Wolkenreise - Deepak Sharma & Dieter Krause (Hidden Recordings)



What Is Who? EP - Manik (Poker Flat Digital)



Superlongevity 5 - VA (Perlon)



Cottam 4 - Cottam (Cottam)



Midas - Roof Light (Millions Of Moments)

Don Van Vliet: 15/1/41-17/12/10

Heard about Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, passing away yesterday. Sixty-nine years old and taken by that most stealthy of diseases, multiple sclerosis. I didn't rush up and play one of his records, rather preferred to give in to nostalgia and all that remembering his music evokes. More than anything else it evokes happiness and youth. The song titles, 'Big-Eyed Beans From Venus,' 'When I See Mommy I Feel Like A Mummy,' 'Lick My Decals, Baby,' etc. I don't have to hear these tracks to be transported to my, or Vinny's - one of my oldest friends - bedroom in the early eighties. These were temporal autonomous zones of hedonism while the music continually played and our parents went about their business downstairs, separated from the party by the floor's breadth of a small, northern English house. I doubt that anyone's music evokes such affection and wistfulness quite as much as Beefheart's, and what I always find amazing, and what I'm always very thankful for, is the way I came across him. Once a punk always a punk I suppose, because had it not been for my sudden exposure to the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Clash, etc; a logical progression in many ways from being blown away by the likes of Bowie, Sparks, Roxy Music and Mott The Hoople on Top Of The Pops in the early seventies, I wouldn't be the person I am now. Coming across Beefheart, first by way of 'Shiny Beast, Bat Chain Puller,' (I think), and then fervently plundering his back catalogue was all very natural, and would continue to be so across all genres. I'll dance the Candle Mambo tonight. RIP

Thirty Five To Forty People To See Matthew Dear On A Friday Night In Liverpool

It's happened to me before, as I'm sure it's happened to most of you. I remember it particularly when I went to Brixton's George lV in 1998. Terry Francis was playing in his South London heartland, (even though he's from Leatherhead). Wiggle was at it's peak, selling out parties, as it always has and continues to do. It was a Saturday night, £5 to get in, the George was normally packed to the rafters for "Come Shake The Whole" (it's monthly house hoedown), surely it would be the same, if not more so, for Terry. Well, apart from me and my mates, maybe five or six others made it in. There were no more than fifteen of us all night. We had a great time all the same but I found it quite inexplicable why the night had been so poorly attended.

That feeling of incredulity returned last weekend when a friend of mine, let's call him Colin, told me that only around thirty five to forty punters were in attendance to check out Matthew Dear on the Liverpool date of his tour, playing at the O2 Academy. I was very surprised, Liverpool being a city with a reasonably well-developed club scene and one where live music has traditionally always found a very willing and responsive audience. All this and only £8 to get in on a Friday night, what could possibly go wrong? Well, under attendance on a grand scale. Check this link to see how many people - and they're just RA members - went to see him in Glasgow. The ultimate kick in the nuts was the presence of a poster advertising a Shakin' Stevens gig at £22.50 a shot.

In any case, Colin enjoyed the evening very much, chatted to a very unassuming Matthew Dear and came away happy, which is how it should be. He'd just been to great gig, the star attraction of which was one of the worlds foremost electronic artists who, as a side order, is also an exceptional DJ and has just released one of the years best albums of any genre. What could possibly have gone wrong?

Playing With Acid EP - Ahmet Sisman (Slash)

Yet another. Here's my review of Ahmet Sisman's 'Playing With Acid' (Slash) for Ibiza Voice.

More Reviews

Read my reviews for Ibiza Voice of Double Oh Oh here, and Shlomi Aber here.

Heliscope EP - Guy J (Bedrock)

Read my review of Guy J's 'Heliscope EP' for Ibiza Voice here.