How can a track made up of just a piano, hand claps, and layered vocal sound so huge?
There doesn't seem to be an awful lot of information as to whom 1010 Benja SL is or are, but one known fact is Boofiness is one of the best things I've heard this year. And with 3 days to spare.
Boofiness was first uploaded around this time last year and was made commercially available from March. Hence it rightly makes the cut for Benji B's 2017 Mixtape.
Merry Christmas one and all, Soulwax have only gone a 20 minute Xmas music megamix for BBC 6 Music.
I'm pleased to hear a few familiar tracks that I've used on my Xmas Mix series over the last couple of years. Also love the Wham Edit, which borders on hauntology and hypnagogic pop. Soulwax's Christmas Mix is only on the BBC site for a couple more days, so best hurry.
Of course I've got A Love Supreme. I also had a burned copy of Kind of Blues. I even scanned and printed the artwork, featuring the POP sticker in the top right-hand corner that Cardiff Central Library placed on all its CDs way back when. So yeah I know jazz.
Well all the jazz I need to know according to Q or Mojo or whoever compiles those 50 albums you must hear before your face falls off lists. John Coltrane and Miles Davis are always the token jazz entries. And when I was 17 I thought I was a serious music fan and that I should have A Love Supreme and Kind of Blue to prove I was a serious music fan. So I got them and I barely listened to them. In fact I think Kind of Blue went in the burned CD purge of the Eco House. So yeah I don't know jazz.
The markings on the tape are "Noor Karaan" on both sides and "77" scratched into the plastic in four locations. A quick google suggest Noor Karaan is an American tween.
The person speaking on the tape is definitely not an American tween.
If I had to hazard a guess, through the fuzz and flutter, the person speaking is an older male, possibly Middle Eastern and reciting a text, perhaps praying.
Returning to 77, it seems to have some religious significance, predominately in Islam but also in Christianity (the Gospel of Luke lists 77 generations from Adam to Jesus). Now I mentioned the Kayasth caste as being Hindu. However there are Muslim Kayasths and they're mainly from the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. And Uttar Pradesh happens to be the state that Super Cassette Industries are based in (Noida to be exact).
So now I'm slightly worried I've committed a hate crime by sampling some of the cassette to make a track...
Still if it was that big a deal, they wouldn't have dumped it where I walk my dog.
Anyone for some manufactured Hi-NRG disco from early 80s NYC?
The Flirts were a carousel of beautiful on-stage models and faceless off-stage singers, constantly being spun by electronic disco pioneer Bobby Orlando. Bobby O wrote the songs, played all the instruments, and picked the line-up. That's definitely in the Svengali / mogul area of pop production.
I've gone for the 12" Mix of Passion today as the longer version gives time for Orlando's magic to spin out, pushes the nondescript vocals aside and allows the A-ha! moment of 4:11 to happen. For me that's when I finally clocked the sample... it's the melody of Felix Da Housecat's superb Silver Screen (Shower Scene)!
Apparently The Flirts are still a going concern as a live act, though I'm not sure how much Bobby Orlando is still involved. His Wikipedia page, which I do have an inkling he's still involved with, says he is releasing music even now. Bonus Bobby O fact - he originally produced West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys.
Finally, there are quite a few different versions of Passion by The Flirts up on that YouTube, so if 9 minutes of pumping disco bliss is too much, then have a go on this proto-Eurotrash video instead...
Original Image: By City of Orlando (http://www.cityoforlando.net/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
I also like petrol ones as the Celica has just gone through her MOT and is now purring.
So who is Patrick D. Martin? Beats me. Beats the beeb too. Left and to the Back has a stab, however they can't uncover much either. It seems that Martin rode the New Wave in 1979, smashing Sparks, Ian Dury, Giorgio Moroder and Plastic Bertrand together and then disappeared. He left behind a series of odd yet prescient singles that focused on technology and on the future.
I could watch the trippy visuals of Floating Points' Ratio for ages. And as I ain't got much on ATM that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Quick Q - what programming language should a n00b learn? PHP? Ruby? JavaScript. Asking for a friend*.
I think Provider by Frank Ocean is the first rap track to mention Aphex Twin...
I'm a big fan of Frank Ocean, Channel Orange is always in the Celica, and this twisty, slippery, odd slice of alt R'n'B indicates there's plenty to come following Blonde. Just imagine how good an AFX remix or collab would be?
This is another one of those "heard it on a show on MixCloud" posts. Except this time it isn't an NTS show but Radar Radio, in particular the track that Girl Unit opened his September show with...
The key here is "Timbaland Remix". Done in 1999 as a b-side for Say My Name, it reappeared on Destiny's Child This Is The Remix album in 2002. Late 90s to early 00s R'n'B is pretty special and that is down to Timbaland. This was his imperial phase. His productions during this time frame is as close to perfection as pop music can get.
Essential listening this week has come in the form of Daphni's one-off NTS show. Daphni is the clubbier side project of Dan Snaith, more widely know as Caribou, so you should know that it's two hours of excellent and eclectic music.
I'm going to highlight two tracks from the show that have stuck with me.
First up is Medellin, which appears on Daphni's new album Joli Mai and is a bumping, twisty slice of uplifting house music.
The second is James Holden & The Animal Spirits - Each Moment Like The First, a wibbly downtempo jam that builds steadily across its five minutes...
I need an image to go with this post, and while I'm a fan of Dan Snaith's glasses, I can't resist shoe-horning in some Frasier.
So it's been a little quiet on here lately. This is the reason why for the last couple of weeks...
Man, I can't quite express how much I'm enjoying the SNES mini or "Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System" as it's meant to be called. That hasn't meant I've stopped listening to music, and I plan to post a few things over the next couple of days, but first off I'm going to stick with the SNES and share one amazing soundtrack in particular.
Epic, driving, and fun I could listen to this 16bit classic on loop for hours.
Plus One Loo has been playing EarthBound loads and there's some amazing music in that game too, however I've been too busy in Hyrule to play two RPGs at once. I will share some music from EarthBound too once I've taken care of Ganon.
If there's one thing that's guaranteed to get on this blog it's PC Music head A.G. Cook reworking the iconic Windowlicker by Aphex Twin.
"My set at Field Day directly clashed with Aphex Twin's headline show, so I thought it would be nice to do a full-length, note-for-note cover of Windowlicker. Spent a very intense 48 hours inside a windowless room - somewhere between a Braindance rehearsal and a labour of love." - A. G. Cook
And it's a surprisingly faithful cover, with just a few of the sonic flourishes for which the ever-divisive PC Music is known. They've even made it free to download, which is nice. Remember mp3s?
Anyone after some nihilistic 80s DIY synth punk from France? Here's Görl by D.Stop.
I love how basic this is, how singular in its goal it is. Minimal electronic music always wins out for me, whether it's punky like D.Stop or disco like Metro Area. The longer I live, the more I realise what I love.
The moment finally came to refresh the Celica soundtrack. A drive to Dorset with the dog blocking the glove box will do that. So it was time to rummage through the spare room on a CD hunt.
While this was going on, Plus One Loo was trying out her new Apple Music subscription and fired up a 2001 playlist. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. And nostalgia for that time pushed Metro Area's self-titled debut to the top of the pile.
I picked up this album in Fopp, back when Cardiff had a Fopp at the bottom of Queen Street, back when the bottom on Queen Street was alright. Now the bottom of Queen Street looks pretty dire. I suppose the Capitol Centre didn't stand a chance against St David's 2.
Anyway, I remember buying Metro Area upstairs in Fopp way back when, as it's one of just two occasions when the person behind the counter positively commented on my selection. The other was Röyksopp's Melody AM in HMV (coincidentally Eple was on Loo's 2001 soundtrack). Twice in all the years I've bought albums. Maybe I should take that as evidence of my shit taste in music.
Metro Area's 2002 debut always used to be my housework album. It just bumps and it just swings, spreading positivity and energy. This is helpful when dusting. It is beautiful disco house music that's funky as fuck.
However what I love most about it is the space. It has a confidence to it, and that confidence allows it to pause, to breathe. A lot of electronic dance music tries to cram everything in. Metro Area by Metro Area knows it's on to something and takes it time. And don't just take my word for it, Resident Advisor voted it the 2nd best album of the 2000s.
Muira is the biggie off this album yet I'm gonna go with Atmosphrique, as I'm a sucker for double disco handclaps.
Keen-eyed peeps will have noticed that Metro Area is missing from the pile in the second picture. That's because it didn't make it out of the kitchen. I had some housework that really needed doing.
If you have even a passing interest in Devo, then you simply have to check out WTF episode 807. Marc Maron interviews Mark Mothersbaugh, the co-founder and driver of Akron's finest. It's a brilliant insight into Mothersbaugh's life and vision, including his time at Kent State University - he was there when the shootings happened in 1970 - to funny tour tales from Japan.
However Maron can be a grating presence, so skip to around 13 minutes in if you're not a fan of his schtick, or indeed are new to it. After 807 episodes the patter is well down by now making it a bit daunting for new listeners. WTF does often features in round-ups of best comedy podcasts, however I just don't get it. If you do want a crash course in Marc Maron though, Adam Buxton interviewed him on his excellent podcast a couple of weeks back. As an aside, the latest Adam Buxton Podcast is with Adam Curtis (The Power of Nightmares, HyperNormalisation etc.) - I've not listened to it yet but it should be fascinating.
Back to Mark Motherbaugh, if all you want is stories from Peak Devo, then that comes in around the hour mark.
The world is a better place with Soulwax doing their thing in it.
Here's an hour of acts recorded and/or mixed at their DEEWEE studio for XLR8R. It's less banging than their mid-00s maximalist heyday, however the mix has a real strut and groove to it. Touching on acid, techno, and of course electro, the Dewaele brothers still have the Midas touch when it comes to electronic music for the disco.
I've always been more of a techno man rather than a house man, but it is good to dabble sometimes. Dip the toe in, so to speak.
And so I went on a bit of house mini trip via YouTube the other day, thanks in part to Joe Goddard's Essential Mix.
Together - Together
As I made my way down Churchill Way on the X1, Goddard dropped Together. How the flamin' heck I missed a collab between Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk and DJ Falcon from the filter house golden era of 2000 is beyond me. Beyond I tell you! Together can seen as the forgotten little brother to the worldwide smash that was Stardust's Music Sounds Better With You, another Bangalter collaboration (this time with Alan Braxe) from 1998. For all its cheesiness and simplicity, I just love that filtered French house sound and it remains a joy.
DJ Boring - Winona
The first recommended video after Together was some geezer called DJ Boring. Well I just had to give it a go, especially as it had over a million plays. Clearly I'd missed something here. Winona is made up of snippet of a Winona Ryder interview and a load of sounds, textures and tricks from late 90s deep house. I'm not complaining, I mean anything along the lines of Deep Burnt is OK by me, and this really chugs along nicely. I'm just a little surprised that this sound is back in and in a big way. And that it is made by someone with a jokey name like DJ Boring.
Turns out the name thing is a bit of a meme in this new lo-fi house scene. I only know this thanks to a takedown article by Fact from back in December. DJ Seinfeld and Ross From Friends are other leading lights in this sound. From the few tracks I've heard, I don't really get the scorn that was thrown at lo-fi house in that article. OK, it's not the most original progression in the history of dance music but it sounds pretty good to these ears. Been listening to a few DJ Boring mixes as I worked from home today and it makes good working music. That's not a back-handed compliment. If you got something that needs doing, chuck on this mix, let it bump away and get your stuff done.
Midland - Final Credits
Final Credits was held up in that previously mentioned Fact article as something much more deserving of praise and plays than the efforts of DJ Boring et al. Thing is, this sounds as retrogressive as the lo-fi stuff. The other thing is that it is also really bloody good house music. It's just so damn danceable, I could cut some serious rug to this, a phrase that clearly indicates I haven't been, nor should I be allowed near, a club anytime soon.
Composed for Merry Christmas , Mr Lawrence, Forbidden Colours is a sumptuous journey of new age flourishes, exoticism and synth pop sensibilities. It may have appeared on every chillout compilation going but that shouldn't diminish the wistful beauty of Sakamoto's composition.
Sega Bodega is at the helm of three mixes made up entirely of the soundtracks from the wonderful Studio Ghibli. The first went up in January, so we can expect part 3 in May perhaps? It'll be worth the wait if the first two shows are anything to go by. It's perfect music to walk to as you drift off into the imagination of Hayao Miyazaki and co.
My highlight, and something I've currently got on loop, is Mukashi O Ima Ni Nasuyoshimo Ga Na from the soundtrack of Pom Poko. The only thing I really recall from Pom Poko is the whacking great testicles of the raccoon-like tanukis. So if you like animals with big balls and beautiful music, then give Pom Poko a go. Stick that on your poster Miyaziki.
With an itch to write a blog, here's my Savlon, a selection of mixes that I've enjoyed over the past couple of weeks. I'm still in Podcast Land however. What's kept me there is the recent switch to Stitcher. The app seems to have the most comprehensive selection of streams available, so I've returned to Harmontown amongst others but the killer new one is Missing Richard Simmons. Loving that and My Dad Wrote A Porno (not on Stitcher, but still very good).
Anyway we're here to talk mixes, so without further ado, we'll start with this.
A beautiful hour long mix that that builds, bumps and bubbles along with Bonobo's usual charm. You can find the tracklist over on Mixmag, although whether you can find a CD of it I'm not sure, as I think Mixmag dropped its cover mount CDs a few years back for digital download codes. Still, you can stream it on MixCloud and SoundCloud.
Joe Mount goes into his parents' attic and pulls out a load of records he hasn't heard for a while for an hour of the Ninja Tune affiliated Solid Steel Radio Show. Idiosyncratic, wonky and shonky, like all the best of Metronomy's output, it starts off with Laurie Anderson's O Superman before taking in Stereolab, Tangerine Dream, and Eminem. A funny little hour or so with the ever engaging front man.
Promoting new album Providence (Ninja Tune), Nathan Fake provides Resident Advisor with an hour of tougher more abrasive sounds than you might readily associate with Fake if you're a fan of his early work. Tracklist is yerr.
Sometimes you just need to strip it all back and just enjoy something for what it is. Garage rock is one of those simple surface pleasures. Fun times and dumb times, raw music that jerks and jives, joy for the players and for the listeners.
The Pleasure Seekers were an all-girl Detroit band that started in the mid-60s. What A Way To Die name checks different beers and celebrates drinking, while rattling along with a rockabilly feel and almost punk vocals, all distortion and howling.
It's a terrific record that's highlighted in Simon Reynolds' latest book Shock & Awe. While it's about glam rock and its legacy, and The Pleasure Seekers were definitely not glam (or glitter as it was apparently referred to in the US, a sobriquet that would'nt work over here any more), the chapter on Suzi Quatro does talk of her early days - and her first band was The Pleasure Seekers.
So this is a heads up that there may be more glam rock posts in the next couple of weeks. May. I'm not a massive fan of glam but I am of Reynolds, so we'll see. Schlitz all round.
Sugar Loaf railway station in Powys is the least used in Wales. In 2014 it averaged 5 passengers a month. I tried to imagine what it is like to wait there, on that single platform in the middle of nowhere.
I used this picture from Wikipedia as the stem. Through chopping and moshing, PixelSynth and Fruity Loops, and scrunching it together on Audacity, I came up with Sugarloaf. Peace, repetition, isolation, engine rumbles, storms are what I'm trying to convey.
It happens. It always does. It passes. It always does.
Music goes out the window. Yet it eventually finds a way back in. I can't listen to my classics, I tear them apart. So it has to be something new. Something that flows, that distracts but also intrigues. Blocks and dots.
Creep Zone is a monthly show on NTS (hey it almost exclusively fills up my feed on MixCloud). It's put together by Marc Schaller and James Pants, he of Stones Throw and my favourite Boiler Room Set. It's really weird. "Dreamy electronics, wired sounds and experimentation" is how they have it. It's really quite good. I like it anyway. The tracklist means nothing to me, the only thing I clocked was David Lynch's Gordon Cole having a boogie in Twin Peaks.
A Llantwit Major-based music blog for things post-punk, electronic and a little bit left of centre, with second-hand cultural musings, third-rate sociological stabbings and very rarely the odd mp3.
I also write the odd album review for Buzz Magazine and used to present Amser Electroneg on Bro Radio.
