Thursday, February 29, 2024
Some Anonymous Answers To Those Random Questions For A Work In Progress: 1
Have house and techno evolved as far as they can?
To me, house and techno are a utility music. The evolution is quite gradual, the tempos go up and down, but you don't want to keep the same piece of gum in your mouth forever without the flavour changing, do you?
Is it important to keep up to date with new product?
Yes, absolutely. Although sometimes it's a mighty trudge through a sea of very average productions. But if you don't keep up with what's new you might miss one of the nuggets of pure delight that come along every few months (and that is a personal thing, right? What I consider to be a truly great release might be way different to what others are seeking).
If “house is a feeling”, are there any limits to what it can be?
I expect so, otherwise we'll start calling it something else. House is a sound isn't it?
Do you think that house/techno, etc, can survive without clubs?
Yes, but in a more limited sense. Nothing ever really dies. There are still people writing classical music, bluegrass, delta blues etc
If you are a DJ, etc . . .
How much of a typical set is composed of new tracks?
That depends on how often I'm playing. Typically I would include 70% tracks released within the previous 12 months mixed with stuff which still rocks from the previous 5 years. It's always fun to trawl back through the old promos for things you might have missed.
How far do you think a crowd can distinguish between what is old and new?
Not much. Due to the nature of disco circumstances most people are just living in the moment, so as long as you hit the buttons in a way which keep both them and you happy I'm not sure it really matters to anyone else.
What formats do you use?
Purely digital. I'm not the least bit romantic about the old days of vinyl. Anybody who is probably didn't have to try and lug 150 records through an airport. I even feel it was a victory for sound quality when I was finally able to put WAVs on a USB... seriously, a lot less chance of finding the turntables poorly connected, badly earthed, or with a stylus that had been ground to a nub by a numpty dropping the needle on the slipmat.
When recording mixes, do you write track lists?
No
If not, why not?
I'll only do it if asked, and even then I have to go through the tracks and try and work out what they all are. And to be fair that is sometimes a decent eye-opener, but usually I just don't really bother.
If you are a music lover:
How often do you go clubbing?
Almost never...so you can probably scrub the following section for me. I'll just leave a general answer instead... as a bona fide veteran (57 years old) I don't much enjoy clubbing as a punter anymore. I love seeing the crowd having a great time when I'm playing, but I really only go out and get involved about once a year, and only then to listen to a DJ who I can really trust. To be brutally frank I get bored unless i'm doing gear, and that's not really me anymore.
Do you feel that a night club is a safe haven, an artificial construct or something else?
It's a construct with benefits. Sorry to be cynical but once you've seen a few clubs after closing time, with someone sweeping up and someone else counting money you kind of understand it for what it is.
Do you think you are treated well or badly when at a club?
How much house and techno do you listen to in your free time?
Where do you listen to it?
In what form: specific tracks, albums, mixes?
If you don’t go out but still consume the music and keep up to date with things in general:
How do you listen to music?
How much money do you spend on it and in what format?
How important is it to you?
Do you see it as an integral part of your lifestyle?
How easy do you find it to describe the music you listen to?
How much have house and techno evolved over the last 35 years, or since the inception of disco?
Why are we often “looking back in order to go forward”
Do you think your musical taste has changed much over time?
Yes
How?
I'd be more worried if it hadn't. I know this is a personal thing but I think it's important to remain open to the endless joyous opportunities which music provides. No point in saying “oh, I don't like THAT type of music” coz you never know if your tastes will change. It's fine to like something then go off it entirely, and it's fine to not like something and then to start liking it. No-one is judging you except yourself.
If you are a music maker:
How long have you been making music?
40 years
Is this a full-time occupation for you?
Sort of. I don't earn enough to support myself through music anymore. I'm lucky to be in a position where I can spend a lot of time making music and running a label without having to worry about paying huge monthly bills... but it's been a lifestyle choice. I didn't have kids or take out a mortgage that I couldn't pay off, partly because I wanted to be able to do music full-time. I'd have been a lot more comfortable financially if I'd just treated it as a hobby. I'd also have missed out on lots of exciting stuff which music has brought into my life.
Are labels/genres important to you?
Labels, yes, because they are usually run by curators – arbiters of taste. If you can trust a label to look for things you will like then it's an absolute joy to hear whatever they have to offer. I think 4AD is possibly the greatest example of this in the history of indie music.
Do you listen much to similar music to what you make in your free time?
No. I listen to music which is a long way removed from my particular brand of oompty-boompty. I love a well-crafted pop song from The Beatles to Methyl Ethel, Post-Punk, electric Miles, Krautrock, Film music, Dub reggae, a bit of ye-olde Prog Rock, JSB, Stravinsky, Prokofiev. That doesn't mean I don't LIKE dance music, it's just something I see as a separate strand in my life.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Track Of The Day: M5 - Celestial Highways (Metroplex)
One from Gerald Mitchell, aka The Deacon, etc. This track is a lush piece of melodic, Detroit techno that samples Juan Atkins’ ‘The Cosmic Courier’ and is one of Mitchell’s best. While trying to steer away from cliches can be difficult, this composition is a deep, soulful, uplifiting, and relatively sparse piece of work that exudes positivity (is that enough adjectives?). Looking back on a lot of these Detroit standards however, and this one is a typical example, I find them to be a little too pacey and, consequently, too short. Maybe it’s my age, but tone down the bpms ever so slightly, insert some other-worldy variation, and lengthen by a couple of minutes. Lovely stuff, but feels like it’s over before it’s really got going.
Random Questions For A Work In Progress (Still)
During lockdown I thought I'd start researching a book based on what I've written below. Like much of the gibberish that surfaces on these pages, this verbal diarrhoea hasn't really gone in any particular direction, except to stay on my hard drive. Anyway, as a way of reviewing and to some extend, making a fresh start, I am publishing the questionnaire I used, along with three anonymous interviews. Random skullduggery, but maybe interesting to some. This is the concept. Interviews to follow over the next few days.
Book Overview
The book, hereafter referred to as TB, will explore the scope of “underground” house and techno in a post clubbing environment. It will also analyse the relationships between those who either don’t go out much anymore, or not at all, and their passion for it. What will also be looked at is the difference between the music being made now, that was made at its inception and throughout the course of its history.
Techno particularly has always been regarded as the sound of the future, but this is full of contradictions.
Electro similarly.
How much has house music evolved over the last 35 years, or since the inception of disco?
Why are we always “looking back in order to go forward”?
Which other musical genres would, in the context of a club night, be playing tracks that were made 35 years apart and fusing them together with the only thing to possibly distinguish them being the quality of record pressings and/or an evolution in production values and techniques?
And if “house is a feeling” is the door always open to anything? (see Balearic).
The way we listen: mixes, track ids, (Villalobos’ elitism), (Internet) radio & its value
How much do drugs have to do with anything?
TB will be a mix of interviews conducted with DJs, artists and “punters”.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Track Of The Day: Daryl Hall & John Oates - I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) (RCA)
If you haven’t sung along to this when it comes on the radio, I pity you. Hall & Oates ‘I Can’t Go For That’, is a piece of languid, sunny disco, the likes of which hadn’t been heard before and hasn’t since. It’s ultra processed sound, a slow shuffle that seems bogged down in quicksand, is the perfect sunshine soundtrack. There are so many little sonic “moments” in this tune that it’s hard to keep up. And the “Say no go” line was famously sampled by De La Soul on their eponymously titled track. Put this together with Miami Vice and you’ve got one facet of the eighties in a nutshell. Maybe not the one you like, but one that is inextricably linked to the others, no matter what. I've heard that these two are now locking horns with each other in a lawsuit, inevitably about royalties, etc. The inspiration to post this came from it being broadcast this morning on Zoe Ball’s breakfast show, which kept me company while driving to Cambridge and getting stuck in traffic earlier today. Andwhich kept me company while driving to Cambridge and getting stuck in traffic earlier today. And I was singing I was singing.
Monday, February 26, 2024
Track Of The Day: Foremost Poets - Moon-Raker (Soundmen On Wax)
Please do not be alarmed, remain calm
Do not attempt to leave the dance floor
The DJ booth is conducting a troubleshoot test of the entire system
Somehow, while the party was in progress,
An unidentified frequency has been
Existing in the system for some time
And while many of you have been made too brainwashed to comprehend,
This frequency is,
And has become a threat to our society as we know it
This frequency has been used by a secret society in
Conjunction with Lucifer to lure and prey on innocent partygoers
With hypnotism, syncro prism,
Tricknology, lies, scandal, and pornography
While the party is still in progress we
Will keep you updated on our current status
We repeat, this is only a test, this is only a test
This station in conjunction with other airwave
Announcements will conduct this exact test without prejudice
Under the jurisprudence of the soul, the mind, the body
The positive, the negative, the ground
The proton, the neutron, the electron
The ying, the yang, the young
The sun, the moon, the star
We repeat this is only a test, this is only a test.
This station in conjunction with other airwave
Announcements will conduct this exact test without prejudice
Under the jurisprudence of the soul, the mind, the body
The positive, the negative, the ground,
The proton, the neutron, the electron
The ying, the yang, the young
The sun, the moon, the star
The man, the woman, the child
The plaintiff, the defendant, the judgement
The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit
The past, the present, the future
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Track Of The Day: Round Three Feat. Tikiman – Acting Crazy (Main Street Records)
The great thing about this track is it successfully melds dub techno with vocals at a great pace. It also has the quality, like all of Moritz von Osvald’s productions, of being able to make time stand still. Such a track is like “The Illustrated Man”, an infinite aural oracle within which are multitudes, and Paul St. Hilaire’s vocals suit these sombre voyages so well. A piece of dub perfection whose predictability is an illusion.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Track Of The Day: The Alan Parsons Project - Pipeline (DJ Steef Edit) (Darkness Has Never Been So Bright)
This track comes on at the beginning of one of Sean Johnston’s many ALFOS EBS mixes, number 7 to be exact, recorded right back in the depths of lockdown on the 10/7/20. And although a lot has happened since then, tracks like this keep on occupying my middle distance. This mid paced cross-pollinated chugtastic banger is a good example of everything that I find interesting about music right now. It transcends genres and, consequently, feels timeless. Music like this does not feel like its locked in to any particular trend, rather it skates across the top of them, laughing at the plight of what gets locked into a particular era. A hypnotic, transcendental piece of work that gets more intoxicating on repeat.
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Track Of The Day: I-F - Space Invaders Smoking Grass (Interdimensional Transmissions)
If I remember correctly, (and I do), Dave Mothersole sold me this at IQ Records on Lexington St, and told me that he’d “played it the other week in Amsterdam and everyone went spastic”. Home turf can do that to you sometimes I guess. From the redoubtable brains behind Intergalactic FM I-F, ‘Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass’ has an obvious electro undercurrent but, besides that, sounds like nothing on Earth. Italo disco comparisons have been made, but I think this is due to the artist’s predilection for it more than anything else, because it really isn’t. What it is is a piece of intentionally dust-submerged beat science that sounds like a pulsing broadcast from beyond the stars so, mission accomplished innit.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Track Of The Day: Paul McCartney & Wings - Live And Let Die (Apple)
Another track I’m waiting to hear a suitable edit for. ‘Live And Let Die’ was the theme song to Roger Moore’s first film as James Bond, and one of the best. Off the top of my head, I don’t think any previous Bond theme had enlisted a rock band at the peak of their powers to provide similar musical backing. Anyway, Sean Connery had finished his shift with ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, which used Shirley Bassey for the second time, so I imagine this was seen as a break from the past in more ways than one. It’s a great piece of work from a great band who effortlessly straddled the pop and rock worlds. Also, another masterclass in songwriting from Sir Paul, instantly memorable and very influential.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Track Of The Day: Brian Eno and David Byrne - The Jezebel Spirit (Sire)
Definitely in my all time top ten, by virtue of its pervasiveness. An amazing track that changed electronic music forever and is arguably the standout on a revolutionary album full of them. Also released almost two years before ‘Thriller’, which it undeniably fostered. ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ was David Byrne’s first piece of work away from Talking Heads and this samples an exorcism over a backing track, sonically not too dissimilar to those being used on ‘Remain In Light’. Listening back to this now, although its influence is undeniable, it seems terribly short, much briefer than I remember it. This used to get so much play in the hash layered bedrooms of my youth. And, of course I say “arguably the standout”, maybe the most memorable, but I’m not sure if it’s the best tune on the album. One thing that I’ve noticed though, is that it’s ripe for an edit, which doesn’t seem to have happened yet. I’m sure someone will put me right on this.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Track Of The Day: Random XS - Give Your Body (Delta Funktionen 3AM Mix) (Delsin)
Originally released on Djax in 1992, ‘Give Your Body’ by Random XS is an acid techno classic. However, this remix, which came out much more recently when the original was rereleased on Delsin in 2019 is, for me, an improvement on the original. The track feels like it has grown in volume, in spite of its shorter length, and the production generally feels more refined and deeper, something that is essential when using a 303 I reckon. I’m not a fan of the “raw acid” sound. It’s squat party central. The warmer sound on show here feels both more sophisticated and a product of better drugs. Delta Funktionen is an elite producer and it really shows on this remix, which is essentially a more concise, sonically more interesting twist of what has already been declared a classic.
Friday, February 16, 2024
Track Of The Day: UK Subs - I Live In A Car (City Records)
Probably the shortest ‘Track Of the Day’ there’ll ever be. UK Subs ‘I Live In A Car’ is a brief glimpse of poverty set to a raucous, slightly dissonant soundtrack. Fronted by the redoubtable Charlie Parker, who seemed old back then, and is still performing at 79; the Subs have a list of members, past and present, as long as your arm, with Parker being a constant. ‘I Live In A Car’ is, more than most, a defining punk single even if it first appeared on the ‘C.I.D’ single, hidden away as a subsidiary song. More relevant now than it was back then, mainly because now I reckon more people live in their cars. So there’s that.
Well i live in a car,
Yeah i live in a car
Well i ain't got no television set or stereo
Cos i live in a car
Don't try to call me up on the telephone
Cos i won't be home,
I live in a car
234
Well i live in a car,
Yeah i live in a car
Well i ain't got no yard,
No i.d.card cos
I live in a car
Cops try to get me
But i don't care
I'm never there
Yeah i live in a car
234
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Track Of The Day: Pino D'Angiò - Okay Okay (Out)
I’m not going to pretend that I’ve heard this track before, as it’s a prime example of the algorithm doing its dirty work, but that can be a good thing sometimes and, with the weather getting noticeably milder I can feel the holistically under lit Rimini dance floors pounding away to this one. I suppose it would qualify as italo, but only because it comes from there and, due to when it was released, embraces the principle production values. It’s too kitsch really though, veering into, and staying in the cheese lane for the duration. Arguably the place where a lot of italo resides, but this lacks a transcendental element, unless your idea of an out of body experience is being chatted up at the bar by a swarthy Mediterranean type. It is undeniably funky though and, although my Italian isn’t really up to scratch, funny.
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Monday, February 12, 2024
Track Of The Day: Uf0 -- You Will Shine (Furthur Electronix)
An uplifting piece to start the week from an album which came out almost a year ago. This is a journey that has echoes of italo, electro and trance, masterfully mixed together, resulting in an emotive, sustained high of a track. This is what happens when those two ‘m’ words, melodic and melancholic, are put in a sonic Hadron Collider together. A dense composition, dripping with feeling and optimism, which is how it should be, right?
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Track Of The Day: Taro Tokugawa - Here My Dear (Public Possession)
A magnificent mid-paced disco weapon that wouldn’t sound out of place at an ALFOS night, ‘Here My Dear’ is built around what sounds like a simple, melodic loop underneath which are some aquatic effects and one or two percussive layers. This evocative track is simplicity itself and is just the ticket when out running in the rain.
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Track Of The Day: The Exaltics - Zwoelf (Arpanet Helium Shell remodel) (Solar One)
A great piece of slightly off-kilter electro in true Arpanet style. Danceable and funky, but eliciting a simultaneous feeling of uncertainty and dissonance, this remix for The Exaltics typifies what is the sometimes kitsch sounding inner monologue that must be constantly running through Gerald Donald’s mind. No one currently does that backwards to go forwards soundtrack to mystery better. ‘Gamma Player’, which is probably the apex of it, is techno. However, this is electro and, while the genre sometimes rattles along at a fair pace, it’s at it’s funky best when it doesn’t. Adding an extra layer of analogue intrigue makes it even better. The soundtrack to mechanical, reanimating laboratories everywhere.
ALFOS EBS45 - Sean Johnston (09-02-2024)
Partial track listing because I got high and played off multiple USB's (Sean Johnston)
Friday, February 09, 2024
Track Of The Day: Kenny Larkin - Funk In Space (Warp)
There’s no doubt that this track is comfortable in its surroundings. This is important as so many get labelled randomly and without thought. Not that it matters once you start listening. However, it’s always nice to put a name to a face and have some resonance. And this, from Kenny Larkin’s magnificent first album on Warp, ‘Azimuth’, is full of it. It’s a stellar soundclash, evoking the entropic environment within which we live in panoramic form. It’s maybe not the easiest composition to dance to, but it is possible to find symmetry within the break beats as they play out in the void. Kenny Larkin doesn’t always feature in the many conversations in existence about Detroit techno, but he has always been one of its most soulful and sensitive composers whose long player oeuvre particularly is second to none.
Thursday, February 08, 2024
Track Of The Day: The Irresistible Force - Sky High (Flying High) (Rising High)
Hungry for a bit of rave nostalgia? Fond memories of the chill out room? Well, this is the tune for you. Not that I particularly remember hearing this track in any specific place, you understand. It just typifies a vibe, a time and a nebulous place. What I like most about this tune is that it occupies a bit of middle ground. You can appreciate it horizontally, but it also has enough energy to encourage some abstract shape throwing. It also has that magical, analogue quality of making you feel you’re out in the British countryside, or hovering above it, on a particularly nice day. It’s pissing down outside right now, not in India though where my mate Pete Hurst is, who engineered this piece of perfection.
Wednesday, February 07, 2024
Track Of The Day: The Advent – Future Cities (Internal)
I’ve only just found this on Youtube, it’s recently added (well, since I last looked), and doesn’t appear on Discogs. And it is, for me at least, a quintessential piece of fast paced electro, normally much faster than I listen to, but I do pitch it down a bit. Anyway, I have this track on Eternal and, although this is billed as an “unreleased mix”, my untrained ear on the sofa with a dog on my lap can’t tell the difference. Whatever; for me it’s all academic at this point. This is a wonderful piece of electro, amongst many similarly wonderful pieces of electro that Cisco Ferreira has produced over the years. Incredibly funky, great, sinisterly intoned one word spoken. A rhythm that fluctuates in keeping with its environment and a cavernous depth of feeling. This is a masterful piece of music that sounds as great in the supermarket as in the club.
Tuesday, February 06, 2024
Track Of The Day: Counterpoint -- Soul Search (Synewave)
Following hot on the heels of 'Lofthouse’ under the Clark pseudonym, ‘Soul Search’ by Counterpoint was, in my humble opinion anyway, the best of a trio of tracks from ‘Jigsaw’, released on Damon Wild’s Synewave. And, as befits a release on said imprint, this goes a bit harder that the Planet E classic. Mark Bell really engages with Mills and Hood on this record, (more so Mills). However, it’s this track, the funkiest of the three, which stands out for me and feels like it’s all Bell’s own work. It bounces along at a good pace and, strangely, seems to eschew bass while giving the impression that it’s bottom heavy. An original take and one which hasn’t been convincingly imitated, yet.
Monday, February 05, 2024
Track Of The Day: Maurizio - M7 (B) (Maurizio)
If it’s Monday, it must be Maurizio. I lost count a long time ago as to which of his releases I’ve already posted in this ongoing for all eternity series, and I may have posted this one already. However, it doesn’t matter. No one listens to the same track in the same way twice, a feat made even more difficult by any of the M Series. And while I’d like to say that ‘M7 (B)’ stands out from the others in a rare, idiosyncratic way, it doesn’t, which is another reason for liking it in such an indescribable fashion. I’m sure that a lot of listeners will say that it won’t win any prizes for originality when placed alongside the rest of its label mates and the Basic Channel series; but you and me know that they’re all wrong, and that a piece such as this contains multitudes. At almost 12 minutes long not a second is wasted in pursuit of the quintessential, holistic funk experience. The granular overlay, underpinned by a pervasive bass, constantly shifts and changes to ensure that not only is the track never listened to twice in the same way, but the millions of moments across it are each subject to permanent change.
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