Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Monday, May 25, 2026
Track Of The Day: Clio/Roberto Ferrante - Eyes (Paris Mix) (Planet Records)
Great piece of Italo here. Wonderful melody, arpeggiating into the distance. The vocal sounds a bit ruffled, which only adds to its charm. And once the chorus kicks in and the intensity is raised, it’s almost Japanese. Everything hits the right note on this track. Music doesn’’t get more synthetic than this, yet its soul is tangible.
Sunday, May 24, 2026
Track Of The Day: Salif Keita - Soro (Afrika) (Stern's Africa)
The title track from Salif Keita’s breakthrough album, ‘Soro’ is typical of the rest of the album in that it feels a little over produced. That’s not an issue as such, at least not when everything harmonises so well together. Keita’s voice stands out of course, as does the underlying rhythm which is a sonic pan-African potpourri. It’s a bit dramatic towards the end, m which is something that may have sounded better had it been rawer. It certainly made its mark though, and takes me back to when I went to see him live touring this at the Astoria back in 1987.
Saturday, May 23, 2026
Track Of The Day: Zillas On Acid - A Wonderful Time In A Terrible Club (Fantastic Twins Remix) (Inside Out Records)
More mutant nonsense, this time from Zillas On Acid remixed by Fantastic Twins. This is disorientating, paranoid dub. The tectonic plates present may seem a little ill-matched, but that’s this remixes genius. There’s about five different tunes here roped into one, and what holds them together is the steady beat of the drum. Great use of spoken word samples as well, giving it a very secret tapes cold war feel. Well, we’re back there aren’t we.
Track Of Yesterday: Velmondo - Name Your Price Edit 007 (Les Yeux Orange)
I don’t post many tracks straight from Bandcamp. However, I couldn’t find the video and this was the only way. And who minds advertising when the quality is this good and free? The ’Name Your Price Edits’ compilation is available for just that and this is one of its standout tracks. Chuggy, cosmic and dark. Redolent with menace and strong gothic overtones. Part of an alternative soundtrack to ‘The Seventh Seal’, I’ve got the scene with the flagellants in mind. Having said that, that just describes a normal evening in the town centre where I live.
Friday, May 22, 2026
Track Of Yesterday: Icho Candy - Babylon (Rockers)
If this isn’t sunshine music then I don’t know what is. The temperature suddenly soared yesterday afternoon, which coincided with me going to run a 5K with the remnants of a stinking cold. It was a tournament organised by the local running clubs here in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Herts. I’m happy to say that what was left of my malady was left on my shirt, which was soaking wet after the run. I also ran a very respectable 21:22, which is quite quick for an old fart like me. Anyway, on the walk back to the car we passed some kids playing cricket. This was around 8:15. They probably had another 45 minutes before bad light would stop play. Definite Augustus Pablo melodica ambience.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Track Of The Day: Gil Scott Heron - Angola, Louisiana (Arista)
‘Angola, Louisiana’ comes from the album ‘Secrets’, an album I used to own but sadly don’t anymore. And the reason I’m posting this is because when I looked at the track list I had a bit of a Prussian rush. Honestly, there are a hatful of tracks I could have posted, but this one stands out. ‘Angola, Louisiana’ references a high security prison. More specifically, it is “A courageous message about the unfair trial against Gary Tyler who supposedly killed 13 yrs old Timothy Weber during the assault by white students against a black student's minority recently integrated thanks to new antiracial regulations in '74...GT is still in jail”. That was cut and pasted from a YouTube comment, so it’s a bit all over the place, but you get the picture. Black American music is full of such references. People literally getting away with murder and framing others if they can. “There are more than 6,000 men currently imprisoned at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola—three-quarters of them are there for life, and nearly 80 percent are African American. It's the end of the line for many convicted criminals in Louisiana, which has the highest incarceration rate of any state in the U.S.”
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Track Of The Day: Rhythm & Sound - Mango Drive (Wackies)
There’s not much to say about this track except that it’s possible to listen to it forever and not get bored. In spite of what feels like a simple structure, dub like this has the ability to suck you in and keep you transfixed. This is anything but smooth though. Because although there are tight boundaries, within those walls there is an elastic reality.
Robert Hood - Spectra (M-Plant)
Title: Spectra
Artist: Robert Hood
Label: M-Plant
Cat Number: MPM52
Genre: Techno
A1: Spectra
A2: E. Dark
B1: Untitled (Spectra)
B2: Fiend
Even though it was released back in 2001, ‘Spectra’ may be a new tune to me as, although I bought a lot of the M-Plant stuff on sight, I think I’d stopped by 2001. Why, I have no idea. I mean I’ve got a lot of records so it could be in there, somewhere. In any case, in his heyday Hood was the innovator, alongside Mills. They both followed different paths though. Both onto their own specific artistic vision and while Mils pursued a sort of sci-fi aesthetic, Hood was gazing more inward. His minimal vision has always been a singular one and his production so crisp and physical that it is still amongst the most forward thinking music of its type today. On the face of things that may not be immediately apparent. However, once you’re locked onto the demented machine funk accordion of ‘Spectra’, you soon realise that this isn’t just any old process. There are myriads of different layers and inflections laid out which mutate with every different listening. It’s not all like that though. Both ‘E. Dark’ and ‘Fiend’ loop the loop and plough a relatively one dimensional furrow. They’re great at what they do however. And the quality of the production as well as the measured way that they let off steam means that they aren’t to be categorised with the normal fare enjoyed by the sweaty techno masses. ‘Untitled (Spectra)’ has a lot more about it. There are swirling phantom noises, for example, and even though it feels linear, there are small indentations which emphasise the fact that it is a coalition of off-beat chaos. The keys are pure Detroit, and then there’s a violin. This isn’t an easy thing to imagine, let alone make. No problem for Mr Hood though. The devil in the detail.
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