Friday, August 30, 2024
Monday, August 26, 2024
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Track Of The Day: Linton Kwesi Johnson - 'Di Eagle an Di Bear' live with Dennis Bovell
Some crucial cold war vibes steaming out of this excellent performance. Oh, we’re still living in it?
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Track Of The Day: Big Youth - Screaming Target (Trojan)
If there’s one track that transports me to the Cockpit Country, by way of downtown Kingston, it’s this one. Which is funny because I’ve never been to Jamaica. Big Youth’s ‘Screaming Target’, from his eponymously titled debut album has one of the slinkiest grooves imaginable. It’s the musical equivalent of a snake sloughing its skin. It feels like it’s falling off the edge of a very high mountain. A song that is just at home in pastoral, as urban, surroundings. I feel that reggae really peaked in the 1970s. I know that sounds like a boring and predictable take, as throughout the 1980s there was plenty of amazing music being made, but the context of the decade and the other emerging parallel genres all layered and coalesced to really elevate the sound. Big Youth was a reggae DJ/toaster who was more associated with dub than most of those who had gone before. Something that simultaneously thrust him into the limelight while keeping him left field.
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Black Rave Culture - Quick Game EP (Black Rave Culture)
Title: Quick Game EP
Artist: Black Rave Culture
Label: Black Rave Culture
Cat Number: BRC4
Genre: Black Rave Culture
1: Dick Control
2: Jambu
3: STOMP EM OUT
Well, I’m sure I have no idea what ‘Dick Control’ might allude to. However, I imagine that it’s one of those “club weapons . . . best suited for listening after midnight, in dark rooms with rumbling subwoofers and vibrant urban dance floors.” Somethjiong that I would currently have no idea of. Although I can say that listening to this in the cold light of day, in my dining room at lunchtime on a Wednesday, it does feel over before it’s begun. A brief glimpse into a paranormal subculture that underlays the waking life it seeks to subvert. ‘Jambu’ is cut from much the same cloth. Repetitive, digital call and response. A collection of verbal grimaces set to a primeval hoodoo hoe down. And then we’ve got ‘STOMP EM OUT’. A track whose brevity is perfectly relayed by the necessity to subject its title to the all caps treatment. A fidgety melody that sounds like a migraine set to music. “Black Rave Culture blends styles like footwork, techno, and two-step across this entire EP - continuing to showcase their uniquely gifted talent of fusing styles from multiple genres into one.” Is a succinct synopsis of this release and says it better than I can. I’m all about impressions though and I generally like that this release takes me to places where others cannot reach.
Monday, August 19, 2024
Track Of The Day: Yargo - Bodybeat (Arthur Baker Remix) (London Records)
Whatever happened to Yargo? I listened to their first album an awful lot during a short spell in the late 80s. Very overlooked and slipped under the radar unfortunately. Another great band amongst many out of Manchester. This is an Arthur Baker remix of said LP’s title track. Minimal and funky, it’s a great showcase for Basil Clarke’s raw vocals.
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Track Of The Day: Weekend with Keith Tippett - Nostalgia (Rough Trade)
The first trip to Amsterdam ended after a weekend. We had meant to stay for four or five days, but spent all of our money. The second trip went on for a bit longer, or it felt like it did. Time very quickly lost all meaning when, on our first full day there, we dropped a load of acid and set out across the city making random purchases. And the album this track comes from, ‘Weekend With Keith Tippett – Live At Ronnie Scott's’ was one of them. Myself, Dave, Jim and whoever else . . . Vin, Pete?? Sat down at a record shop listening bar and this was playing at the time. We all demanded a copy and started listening with headphones on. I bought a copy and so did at least one other. To call it an impulse buy would be an understatement. Having said that, it still sounds great and very much captures a moment in time. Sun kissed, just like the day it bought on.
Friday, August 16, 2024
Track Of The Day: Calm - Long Summer Dream (Hell Yeah Recordings)
I know nothing of Calm, nor his ‘ Long Summer Dream’. I got here via Chris Coco’s excellent Balearic playlist on Spotify, which does occasionally have its uses; “I never paid for it in my life, and I’m not going to start now!” Thankfully the best things in life are still free, and that includes this piece of blissed out, ambience that hovers in the sun kissed middle distance. Calm is Japanese, and Hell Yeah Recordings hail from Italy. Who knows how they met? A cross pollination of random eastern decadence has resulted though and on days like these we should all be thankful for such mind altering gifts.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Track Of The Day: Will Long - That's What They Understand (Sprinkles Overdub) (Comatonse Recordings)
Once you’ve had a listen to this, everything else feels irrelevant. The space time continuum takes a new course and opens new portals to hitherto unknown parallel universes. Aural dopamine. The real meaning of dub. What I like most about DJ Sprinkles’ dubs, overdubs and whatnot, is that first of all they give you more than enough time to get lost in them. More than enough time is important as there’s nothing worse than being found too quickly when you’re in that fugue state. The use of spoken word as well. Subtle but incredibly effective. The pads are heaven throughout, and that little bit of syncopation around them, that sounds like its wrapped on a vocal sample. Lovely dense handclaps carry this tune along under the power of its own positivity. And when the vibes come in there is a coalescence of gargantuan proportions. Not just the soundtrack top a new day dawning, but to that of time itself. I do love a cliché.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Track Of The Day: Millsart - Fake Rolex In Times Square (Axis)
A casual browse along the shelves and I’ve rediscovered this gem. None of the tracks have names on the release, ‘Every Dog Has Its Day Vol. 3’, but I’ve found out that this one is called ‘Fake Rolex In Times Square’ which, along with ‘Condor To Malaga’, is up there with Mills’ best song titles. And what a track this is. A dreamy, narcotic loop is underpinned by some sort of intergalactic samba. Comments on this release’s Discogs page reveals that everyone seems to be enamoured of the following track D2 ‘The Early Years’. It’s good, but more predictable as far as the melodic techno credentials are concerned. This one, on the other hand, is moody, magnificent and funktastic. An atmospheric scene setter like no other.
Monday, August 12, 2024
Dina Summer - Alien & Halkidiki (Iptamenos Discos)
Title: Alien/Halkidiki
Artist: Dina Summer
Label: Ipatamenos Discos
Cat Number: ISI006/ISI007
Genre: Italo
1: Alien (Extended Version)
2: Alien (Single Version)
3: Halkidiki (Extended Version)
4: Halkidiki (Greek Version)
This is what they want. Italo disco with vocals that straddle the fromage asteroid belt and widen the gap between credibility and pure bollocks. The lyrics are great, but what is “electric gear” if that’s what is said? It’s synth pingingtastic with a spacey melody. SURELY WE ARE ALIENS, NOT ALIEN? Anyway, both are correct innit. ‘Halkidiki’ comes in both an English and Greek version and is similarly brilliant. Using a similarly arpeggiated approach, it’s everything you want to hear when you’re battered and things are getting just that little bit messy. The Greek version could even be Nana Mouskouri if you use your imagination. Go on! Next time make the extended versions longer though. They’re not that extended.
Track Of The Day: AIR - Le Soleil est Près de Moi (Source 360°)
I was glued to the Olympics over the past couple of weeks. Paris put on an amazing show which, along with London in 2012, are my two favourite games evah! And the beauty of both of those events is that they had to win over a sceptical public before even starting. Anyway, here’s a bit of Gallic groove for you all. It’s the hottest day of the year so far, so something with the word ‘soleil’ in the title feels like a good fit. So Air, one of the standard bearers of the mid nineties French sound, it’s your turn. Straddling ambient and downtempo (trip hop innit), this still sounds as timeless as it did when I first picked up on it being played back on Radio Nova in my roomy Parisian pad. It’s cool daddy O.
Sunday, August 11, 2024
Track Of The Day: Steel Pulse - Prodigal Son (Live)
From their debut ‘Handsworth Revolution’, this version of ‘Prodigal Son’ sees a youthful Steel Pulse playing just a short journey from home at the BBC’s Pebble Mill studios. It’s fair to say that Steel Pulse quickly became The UK’s foremost ambassadors for conscious roots reggae, and in doing so also became spokespeople for a whole domestic subculture. Helped along by the rise and proliferation of punk, they were also closely involved with Rock Against Racism and shared the stage with many of the prominent bands at the time. ‘Prodigal Son’ is one of the stand out tracks from their debut and clearly owes a debt to mid 1970s Bob Marley & The Wailers. A real blast from the past that just creeped across my synapses and transported me back to the smoke filled teenage bedrooms of long ago.
Saturday, August 10, 2024
Track Of The Day: Fluke - Glidub (Circa)
From their ‘Six Wheels On My Wagon’ LP, ‘Glidup’ sees Fluke on fine proggy house form. This track bounces along under the power of a synthetic tribal trance template. The percussion forming a magic carpet of controlled spaced out syncopation, aided by some synthy flourishes that wouldn’t sound too out of place on a Juno Reactor tune. Those were the days, and we’re seeing them come back. Of course what you also have here is a veneer of cunning commerciality purveyed by polished production and a lack of rawness. That doesn’t mean it’s lacking authenticity though. As far as this sound is concerned, it’s the real deal.
Friday, August 09, 2024
Thursday, August 08, 2024
VRIL/HVL - Far Field EP (Reclaim The Streets)
Title: Far Field EP
Artist: VRIL/HVL -
Label: Reclaim The Streets
Cat Number:
Genre: Techno
A1: VRIL – Lost Togetner
A2: VRIL Fnord feat. RÆYN
A3: VRIL – We Believe
B1: HVL – Far Field
B2: HVL – Lancet Mxi
A very assured release this, balancing two tracks from Georgian maestro HVL with three from VRIL straight out of Germany, ‘Far Field’ is a purposeful drift of a track. Synths sway in and put of the mix on a bed of piston-like beats that sound like the power source of a giant clockwork space ship. ‘Lancet Mxi’ is something similar, but less straightforward; using break beats that feel denser and more compressed than those of ‘Far Field’ over a fluctuating psychedelic chasm in order to effect a feeling of sunlit bliss. As for VRIL, we’ve got ominous electro in the shape of ‘Fnord feat. RÆYN ‘, which sounds like part of a lost soundtrack to ‘Hellraiser’ Funnily enough, that’s also exactly what ‘Lost Together;’ soujnds like as well. Dense, full of foreboding and dripping with dread. ‘We Believe’ is a departure from the darkness. A piece of crisp trance that doesn’t get ahead of itself. It’s also the track that’s there to transport you from the comparative bleakness of the preceding two tunes.
Track Of The Day: Electra - Jibaro (FFRR)
While I was listening to tons of hip hop and going to as many likeminded gigs as possible, having just moved down to that London a year before. However, somewhere in a parallel universe, this was the sound of summer in 1988. I was aware of it, but at the time it just felt impossibly commercial and cheesy. That all changed the following year once I’d visited Biggin Hill airfield and everything took off. Elegant in its simplicity, it’s all about emotion and feeling this one. A synthetic latin groove more from London than Ibiza, and a great video in which no one is playing their instruments. Still bangin’ today.
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
Costin RP - Ceimultstrica EP (Handpicked)
Title: Ceimulstrica
Artist: Costin RP
Label: Handpicked
Cat Number: HP004
Genre: Deep House
01: Ceimulstrica
02: Linaric
03: Nostalgia
Costin RP has been steadily releasing music for around the last ten years on a wide variety of labels. And while being Romanian and, therefore, inevitably categorised as minimal, his recent output is anything but. It’s a full sounding, groove-laden disorientating sonic smorgasbord. The type of music that lots of people swear can only be enjoyed on drug. This is a very good thing because even though I’ve long since eschwed that path to enlightenment, there are still enough traces knocking about in my system to make listening to this music, and its ilk, very enjoyable indeed. “And what of the music?” I hear you say. Well, the title track is a trancetastic piece of warped deep house. Trance here being an adjective, not really the genre you understand. ‘Linaric’ highlights a busy bass that plays host to an array of stategically placed subtle embellishments. ‘Nostalgia’ employs a similar low end strategy and an off key bell that I like a lot. I’m not saying much about these tunes am I? That’s because they really come into their own in the mix. Those long, linear ones that stretch out for days. The devil’s all in the detail here folks, with each little knock, bump and noise has a hidden agenda designed to give your head a metaphorical wobble. What I will say, though, is that 'Ceimulstrica' is by far the best thing on this release.
Sunday, August 04, 2024
Track Of The Day: DJ Catt & DJ Foxx - Casafied Modern Music (Deep Mix) (Casa Del Soul)
Great random tune of the day. I really liked Casa del Soul while they existed, and blindly bought almost all of their output on full blown completist mode. Now, in the cold light of day, and in the winter of my discontent, I can see that some purchases may have been unwise. However, there are some real gems on the label and this one is right up there. DJ Catt teams up with DJ Foxx, who also put out the excellent ‘The Collective EP’ on the label for a piece of quintessential deep house trackiness. A dextrous use of samples reinforces this piece’s atmospheric credentials. It’s a proper pinger built on solid foundatio0ns and currently, to my great surprise, quite sought after on the ‘cogs.
Saturday, August 03, 2024
Track Of The Day: Rachid Taha - Ya Rayah (Barclay/Polygram)
This track originally came out when I left Paeris to come back to The UK, August 1997. I kn ew nothing of it then though. It was rereleased when Rachid Taha died, which was in September 2018. I first became aware of it one summer driving through France, as we have often done. It was constantly on the radio; I can’t be sure when this was, however. Definitely before 2018. It’s a great piece of work by the Algerian, although it feels very cheesy at the same time. The melody for example, with its Maghrebian couscous ambiance. No matter. The video is similarly brilliant. A sort of Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe scenario with a tent in the middle of a suburban street being a portal into a parallel world of suggestive debauchery. I recently returned from a similar holiday and heard it again. The circle of life is complete.
