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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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...
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.
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 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.
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.
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?
As mentioned in Flo Dill's recently returned newsletter, she compares this newish Irish band to Prefab Sprout, so obvs had to give it a go. Super slick, bordering on pastiche, lounge funk. Kinda hard to find anything else on them outside their Bandcamp, don't know whether that's a gimmick or they ain't great at SEO.
This came up on shuffle on a recent drive down to Portsmouth, shout out to Huis, my only highlight from that sub-ideal weekend. Anyway, love this remix by Breakbot maybe even more than the original. I first posted about this track in 2011. FFS.
And on the drive back from that shite weekend in Portsmouth was this absolute electro-techno banger from 2001. Any EP with this on would be a classic, but add in LA Rock 01 too? Ooof.
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.