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Only just clocked that the previous post was my 24th of the year, which was my target for this year. After the record low of 23 in 2023, I set myself the target of two posts a month in '24 to take me to 24. And hey, look at us. Who would have thought? Not me.

Joy Orbison - Flight FM

A right rumbler to start us off. Might well make my best of the year list, not gonna lie.

Lemon D - Why? (12 Hz Mix)

Man, how good is that distorted kick/bass? Proper d'n'b. Dillinja last post, now Lemon D, I'm on a Valve tip RN.

Massive Attack - Exchange

The last track on Mezzanine, and probably my fave. Used to play that album so so much. Kinda drifted away from it though. So much in fact, that this is the first time I've posted about Massive Attack in the 15 years I've been doing this blog. Wild times. Wild, wild times.

Aphex Twin - #20

AKA Lichen. Still not bought the £40 cassette reissue, still playing the second-hand copy I got from Tangled Parrot in Carmarthen earlier this year.

The Flying Lizards - Move On Up

One of those covers where I'm not entirely sure how I haven't heard it before now. Curtis Mayfield's all-timer is squeezed of all its funk, leaving it so stiff it becomes funky again. An experience.

The Fall - The Classical

I hope he's saying 'obligatory knickers' there.

Lambrini Girls - Company Culture

Spiky sharp lyrics and spiky sharp guitars with a cheap fun video and a great vocal performance. Really into this. 

Floating Points - Fast Forward

I'm just a sucker for spacey propulsive electronic jams like this, I'm sorry but I won't apologise.

Mathew Jonson - Decompression

Grotty, industrial, minimal techno from 2004. Again, I'm a sucker for it.

Original image: Wenceslaus Hollar, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

'Deranged jungle during the day'

Right, there's got to be something in the timing of this tweet (post, whatever) moaning about Mary Anne Hobbs playing 'deranged jungle during the day' last Tuesday (1 October):

The downfall of 6Music is baffling. Going from a station with a clear identity and knowing who it's audience was to the current jumble sale is madness. Not to mention MAH playing 2 hours of deranged jungle during the day. Utter nonsense.

— Anon Opin (@anon_opin) October 1, 2024

And MAH banging Dillinja's rip-snorting 2004 Breezeblock mix out on her Friday 4 October show.

Someone must have clocked it.

As BBC Sounds only keeps its mixes up for a month, here it is on MixCloud...

I'm gonna head down a jump-up rabbit-hole.

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It's a new dawn.

Malcolm McLaren - Madame Butterfly

It's the old 'seperate the art from the artist' thing with Malcolm McLaren for me. Not sure if he did anything truly awful but he always came across as a massive bellend. But he could create magic. Madam Butterfly is simply an incredible six minutes, gloriously of its time but a time I'd rather be in (1984).

Billy Joel - Big Shot

Yeah, I've started watching The Boys about four years after everyone else. And I thought I was done with superheroes.

Captain Beefheart - Hot Head

I remember getting Trout Mask Replica out of Cardiff Central Library as a boy and not bothering to rip it. Left me cold. However this later stanky grinding bar blues smear has something to it.

At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor

Now this is something I bought rather than ripped as a boy, but lord knows where it went in all the moves. Had it in my head for days and now it's here. Glorious low bit-rate video too.

Loose Joints ‎– Is It All Over My Face (Larry Levan Remix)

Bit of handbrake turn on this playlist but sometimes you have to slam it about. As featured in that Arthur Russell mix I posted about the other day (Arthur Russell produced it like). Just top notch disco house grooves from the masters.

Renegade Soundwave - The Phantom (It's In There)

One of those old bangers I've heard numerous times but never knew the name of like. Huge rave/breakbeat hardocre energy, would love to hear this and feel this in a field.

Leftfield - Swords

Went to see Leftfield a week or so ago. They didn't play Swords but it was still good, proper loud. Orbital also played but they were not good, the nadir being the endless Spice Girls vocal sample towards the end.

The double-bill was all part of Cardiff Music City Festival from the council. It was day after Carnedd said they were closing immediately and had six days to get out. Music city, baby! Still, nice puff piece in The Guardian, you know it's a winner when there's no comments section.

Rustie - Draoidh

I needed something from 2024 in this list, it's looking v. retrograde otherwise. Draoidh is the third track that Rustie has drip released this year and there's still no sign of any drums. Are we looking at an ambient album or the mother of all drops?

Philip Glass - Rubric

Charlie Bones played this today on Do!! You!!! Radio. I asked the boy what he thought of it. 'Pirate-y music'. I'm not going to argue.

Byeeeeee.

Original image: Post of Indonesia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Delayed All Russell Twitch

I've been meaning to listen to this for a little while, but it just goes to show how little I go on SoundCloud now.

Uploaded on 14 August 2024, an All Arthur Russell DJ set from JD Twitch of Optimo would've been on repeat for weeks 10 years ago. Instead, it's taken me till October to get around to listening to it.

Maybe it's the rise of Do You and NTS in my streaming time, maybe it's now the SoundCloud logo is black it kinda gets lost in the apps. (Turns out I can change it back to the old orange - funnily enough it switched around August too). Whatever it is, I just don't go on SoundCloud much anymore.

The mix itself is lush. Don't just take my word for it, the boy came over while I was writing this and said, and I quote "I love this music" and did a little jig. Then he went back to Octonauts. But Octonatus is a firm fave and not a lot competes with that. But Arthur Russell got cut through.

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Calling it on number 39 with this design process. The 39 steps. The same image glitched and glitched again. It might have been more interesting if I could find the original image to compare and contrast. But there we are.

So, something new for the next list. It'll still be glitched and based on an image nabbed from Wikimedia Commons though. So not that new. But a change of sorts.

But for now, there's the image and here's a playlist of things I've enjoyed recently...

Herbie Hancock - I Thought It Was You

You can hear where Daft Punk got it from, can't you? Robolovin' goodness.

Hudson Mohawke - Escape

Talking of Daft Punk-y vibes this came up on shuffle on the short drive back from the beach this week. Turns out it's basically John Carpenter's Escape from New York theme with a few tweaks. Still good though. Escape is on the 2015 edition of LuckyMe's free Advent series. Gotta see if they're still doing those (edit - looks like it ended in 2018). And where I can watch Escape from New York. Love Kurt Russell.

Aphex Twin - Hexagon

One of the advantages of shuffle is hearing stuff with fresher ears. I usually zone out by disc two of Selected Ambient Works 2, and definitely by the time #19 (Hexagon) comes on. But up it came as I walked through the car park to the library last week and it caught me. Lovely stuff. 

Still, it's another reason not to stretch to the £40 they're asking for the cassette re-release of SAW II.

Louis Culture - Babe ft. Tora-i, Richie

Time for something from this year, here's some laidback... r'n'b? Only uploaded 10 days ago, it's got a way too low play count for something this good. Kind of a shame this didn't come out in the height of summer, the vibes are on point for hazy sunny days.

Laurie Anderson - Let X=X

Laurie Anderson doing Laurie Anderson things. I vaguely recall buying Big Science from a stall in Camden Market about 20 years but lord knows where that's gone in all the house moves since.

Ovlov - Grab It From the Garden

Switch hit now, I've always had a soft spot for this kind of shoegaze-y post-rock. I don't even know if that's the right term for this distortion-heavy guitar sound, but come autumn, it fits.

Stereolab - Come And Play In The Milky Night

Another list, another Stereolab track. God, this band are good, so annoyed it took me so long to get hooked.

Little Simz - 101 FM

Best ever UK MC? Does it matter? And where's that sample from? Is it Mortal Kombat? Or am I just thinking that as she mentions it in the track? Am I asking too many questions? Absolute bumper? Yeah?

Kneecap - Parful

Should've known this was a Toddla T production. Another bumper to finish.

Byeeeeee.