Bookerbury

So Glastonbury is on and the BBC coverage is yet again excellent.

Watching on iPlayer you can flick through live streams of four to six stages (Pyramid, Other, John Peel, West Holts, Park and BBC Introducing), which is a godsend as our TV struggles with picking up BBC 3 & 4 (our flat was built when NTL was all the rage and doesn't have an external aerial).

Highlights yesterday were Mary J Blige who absolutely stormed it, Hot Chip doing their thing and, surprisingly, Mark Ronson's pick'n'mix legends selection.

Another highlight was Benjamin Booker, who I'd never heard of and is not usually my thing, but impressed with his blues rock thunder. The drummer was also wearing a nice East Greenwich Avengers shirt.

We've Come A Long Way Since Tetris...

Thump published an excellent article this week about how games, in particular driving games, are breaking new drum'n'bass artists.

The most interesting part of the article is the comments from Ashley Howard, head of publishing and sync at Hospital and the importance of this channel and being the 'press start' track.

Aside from Warp and maybe Ninja Tune, Hospital was one of the first labels I followed religiously. It might not be clear from my postings here over the last five years, but D'n'B was my default listening selection from 15-19.

From taping the liquid funk of Fabio off Radio 1 (but rarely Grooverider, as I only had one tape to record either The Blue Room or Fabio & Grooverider and tended to alternate between the two) to somehow sneaking in underage to Clwb Ifor Bach on Friday nights, D'n'B played a big part in my musical education.

Hospital Mix 1, which I picked up for £4.99 in Virgin Megastore in the Capitol Centre, used to get hammered on my stereo. Sadly I can't seem to find it (or High Contrast's debut album True Colours) but the good folks at Hospital have uploaded it to YouTube with some nifty turntable graphics.



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Ghostly Glitch

I recently posted about Adult Swim's 2015 Singles Club, but while you're there waiting for the goodies, it's worth scrolling down a little bit to access a free compilation from Ghostly International called Ghostly Swim 2.

Pumped out in April, you get an hour-or-so of beautiful electronic music for nadda, so take a dip if you're after woozy ambient jams, hazy house or some techno workouts. Personal highlights are Heathered Pearls' Supra and I Only Have Eyes For You by Mary Lattimore & Jeff Zeigler.

Technodubfest

I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road yesterday in Vue Cardiff, god bless the £4 price war started by Premiere in the old Odeon.

"Going pedal-to-the-metal for two hours means it's an exhilarating if exhausting watch but if you're after a beautifully shot, edited and choreographed movie that isn't afraid to keep it simple then check it out."

Junkie XL did the score and the Dutchman is probably best known for that remix of Elvis Presley's A Little Less Conversation but my mind always jumps to Technodubfest.

It's not even listed on his Wikipedia entry but this mix for Ministry magazine from 2002 with Charlie May is never far from my stereo. Technodubfest probably isn't mentioned as Junkie XL had very little input in the mix, according to this blog from 2009. I also never knew until researching this post that it was an influences mix for Sasha's Airdrawndagger, which both May and JXL worked on.

It's tough to pick a highlight with the mix featuring Fridge, Penguin Café Orchestra, Rhythm & Sound and Susumu Yokota but I'll go for Model 500's Lightspeed.



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Adult Swim Singles Club 2015

Yesterday Adult Swim announced the line-up for their Singles Club this year and it looks pretty darn sweet with Danny Brown & Clams Casino, Shabazz Palaces, and DOOMSTARKS all set to take part.

I'm particularly looking forward to SOPHIE remixing Sia, which is due on 24th August. Pitchfork has a rundown of the 20-odd artists involved this year.

Adult Swim's Singles programme is their annual free download thing and you can still get all the previous editions; 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.

Last year's highlight was Run The Jewels...



You can all run naked backwards through a field of dicks.

Punk Panda: The O'Jays & Steak

Plus One Loo wangled a 50% off deal at Punk Panda this evening, so we obvs went for the steaks as it's a BBQ kinda place.

The steaks were perfectly fine, chips nice, redslaw banging, but if you're paying full whack for a steak in Cardiff go to Steak of the Art. If you do plump for Punk Panda avoid the 'special panda glaze' as it is sickly sweet, I love sweet things but that glaze is redonk.

Anyway while there Angie Stone's Wish I Didn't Miss You came on the stereo, which pinches pretty much all of the backing track of the far-superior Back Stabbers by the O'Jays.

Gaaaaaaabbbbbrrriiiieeeeeeeel: NOW TV, GoT & The Affair

So my six months silence has pretty much coincided with my NOW TV subscription and losing myself in A Song Of Ice And Fire.

But it isn't just Game Of Thrones that's sucked me in, have you seen The Jinx? Best thing I've on TV in years.

Anyway, as I'm paying £6.99 for the privilege of watching GoT and the finale of Mad Men as it's going out (Don was definitely smirking about creating The Coke Ad, I don't care what others say, he can't have happiness outside of advertising), I've investigated a few other series and I've found myself watching The Affair.

I'm not particularly fussed on it, but the name Gabriel keeps cropping up and in my head it goes Gaaaaaaabbbbbrrriiiieeeeeeeel because...



Fucking McNulty

Young Marble Birthday

Quite how I've never written about Young Marble Giants on here before is beyond me, especially as they were one of the first things I wrote about for theSprout.co.uk back in 2008.

Why am I writing about them now?

HUUUUUGE gig new for Cardiff!! LEGENDARY Young Marble Giants play @GlobeCardiff 6th August in support of @GrassrootsCF10 . Tix on sale 2mro!

— SPILLERS RECORDS (@spillersrecords) May 29, 2015

Well that's my birthday sorted.

If you're unfamiliar with Young Marble Giants then let a young me explain a bit...

"Formed in 1978 and disbanded before the end of 1980 after one LP, one EP and one single, their anthology was as minimal as the music contained within it. And as with the timeless classicalism of the Greek statues from where Young Marble Giants got their name, there is a timelessness to the music which is as intriguing and as alien today, as it was almost 30 years after it surfaced on the Rough Trade label."



If you're unfamiliar with Grassroots, then check out this article on theSprout.co.uk or head straight to their CrowdFunder page.

So head down to Spillers or buy online via The Globe.

See you there!

Neva Leave Me With Bubble Tea

How could I not click on a mix called Music To... Drink Bubble Tea To?

Now I don't expect to hear Victoria Kim's collection of super slick bedroom-focused R'n'B to be pumping out of Bubble Base in Queen's Arcade any time soon, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a spin.



Highlight for me is Yummy Bingham's fantastic slow jam Neva Leave Me.



P.S. Hi Everyone!