StereoRipe #SlewDem

After doing the odd album and single review for Buzz over the last four years, I made my gig début on Friday night, covering the launch party for Dragon Era 7 in The Abacus.

You can read my thoughts here on buzzmag.co.uk and check out the compilation behind the party below. If you don't feel like reading 350+ words, then Boris A Bono and Llwybr Llaethog were weird and good but StereoRipe #slewdem with his instrumental grime.

Painting & Voguing, Voguing & Painting

We've bought our first house in Canton and today was the full first day of decorating.

It felt right to explore the airwaves and I set the Sharp GF-6000 to work. We quickly settled on Heart (I was looking for Nation TBH) and they absolutely smashed it. No repeats, all killer.

Highlight? Flipping Don't Let Go by En Vogue, a certified Grade A slow jam banger.

Tutti Frutti Remix Beauty

Anyone for an eleven-minute Hot Chip remix of New Order's Tutti Frutti? Thought so!


This remix has come about because of Singularity, an interesting project that looks to document the ongoing influence of one of the finest bands the UK has produced. Currently on there is the above Hot Chip remix, a playlist from Robert Smith of The Cure, and stuff from Factory Floor, Algiers and Will Broome.

I Know What Elves Like...

Regular readers of this blog will know I love Christmas.

Some people don't get on it till December, others wait to get Bonfire Night or Halloween out of the way first, but for me it can't start early enough - the moment I feel that cold northerly wind and I reach for a scarf then it's time to get excited.

And that's a good thing too, as my Xmas Mixes don't just throw themselves together, despite what you might think. It's also when I usually get to see my mum, and hang out with old friends; it really is the best time of the year,

The hunt for tracks for this year's mix has already begun and I soon learned of Kylie Christmas, Kylie Minogue's new album for the holiday season. It includes the usual suspects, a few original compositions and also the intriguing prospect of Christmas Wrapping with Iggy Pop.

Christmas Wrapping is my favourite Xmas song, so I really hope Kylie and Iggy (Kiggy?) do The Waitresses' classic justice. There's no sign of it online yet, but when researching this post I learned that The Waitresses also did I Know What Boys Like and quite how I missed that obvious connection is beyond me...

Plastic Berk-Fans

So there we have it. We've done it.

Wales are going to the finals of a major tournament for the first time since the 1958 World Cup in Sweden... and yet some idiots still aren't happy.

I heard several people complaining about how Wales were playing last night, how they weren't hammering Andorra. The same players that qualified for Euro 2016 three days previous, the same players that mean I get to watch my country on the biggest stage for the first time in not only my lifetime, but my father's lifetime.

Some people are idiots.

And you can add most of the Andorra team to that category. As I posted on Facebook during the game...

If the population of Andorra is anything like their football team then the country must be a sausage fest of colossal dicks. I love a plucky underdog but these guys play the game in the wrong spirit. Fuck you and fuck off.

Still, we won and we're off to France. How did the FAW celebrate? Some utter genius but Plastic Bertrand on....



We like to sing, we like to dance, we've got our passports and we're off to France!

Twin Perks

Last week was my 2nd wedding anniversary and I got a shout out on BBC Radio 6 Music.

A pretty damn good week you could say and these two events weren't mutually exclusive either...





Related Article: Twin Peaks @ Christmas

Bonobo? Boyesbo!

I've been firing up my iTunes a lot more in the past week-or-so, simply because I've been using my laptop to do some stuff instead of my phone.

So I've been going through my **** and ***** rated tracks (as well as playing the Russian roulette that is shuffle, what with the large amounts of guff I've downloaded over the years) and one of the first to pop up was this simply lovely track.

Bonobo twists, strips and rebuilds Pilote's Turtle into a downtempo classic. I first came across it in 2001 when Chris Coco included it on Ibiza By Day, a cover mount CD for MUZIK, a mix I still return to to this day and which was surprisingly important in my musical education.



Related Article: Hanna / Hana

On This Day, The Champions League & 8-Bit Versions

I'm a huge fan of looking back.

I like to keep receipts for albums, so I know exactly when I bought them. I organise my MPFrees in monthly folders, so I know roughly when I downloaded them.

So when Facebook started pumping out its On This Day app, I was caught hook, line and sinker. So two years ago today, I shared this video, an 8-bit version of the Champions League theme tune. Well done past Sam...

Darkstar Dummy Mix

Darkstar did Dummy's 269th mix back in August but it's been on serious rotation this week at work.

There's ambient stuff, a bit of hip-hop, some rub-a-dub-dub, film dialogue and plenty of intrigue. It's a fantastic 45 minutes. Enjoy...



Tracklisting:

Mad Rush - Phillip Glass
After Soaking Two Years And Then Lying High Six Months It Was Perfectly Sound Through Waterlogged Past Dying - Shane Carruth
Chez Le Commandeur - Hector Zazou
Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am - Fela Kuti
Monijitas - Soul Keita
In Principio - Ludovico Einaudi
Africa Dub - Augustus Pablo
Listening Wind - Talking Heads
Fabulous Paris - Trevor Wishart
Comin' For Datazz - Gang Starr
Subterraneans - David Bowie
Institutionalized - Kendrick Lamar
Yayla - Rezzet
Memories Of Green - Vangelis
Through The Motions - Darkstar
midipipe1csds3timecube-klonedrm - AFX
Day In Day Out - XTC
The Last Human Exist Dance - Tylervision
Breathless - Gwilym Gold
I want you - Eyrkah Badu
Interplanetary Music - Mickey Moonlight
The Hours - Phillip Glass
Opera - Daniel Lanois

The Top 10 Things I Heard In 2014

I started on my top 10 things I heard in 2015 list last night and I realised that I never published my 2014 edition, so here goes...

10. Metronomy - Boy Racers



9. Alan Parsons Project - Eye In The Sky



8. Rustie - Attak (feat. Danny Brown)



7. DVBBS - Tsunami @ Belgian Halftime



6. Todd Terje - Delorean Dynamite



5. SOPHIE - Lemonade



4. Gruff Rhys - 100 Unread Messages



3. The Soronprfbs - I Love You All



2. Dornik - Rebound



1. Robert Palmer - Johnny & Mary



<< REWIND <<

• Top 10 of 2013
• Top 10 of 2012
• Top 10 of 2011
• Top 10 of 2010
• Top 10 of 2009

This Modern Rib-Eye

As I was cooking a frankly superb rib-eye steak this evening, 6 Music played a live version of Bloc Party's This Modern Love and I was reminded of what a great song it is and quickly went to grab Silent Alarm.

Thing is though that the best live version of This Modern Love I've got is a slightly ropey yet highly charming version by Smoosh (now known as Chaos Chaos)...



[Right-click and "Download Document" for a mp3 of This Modern Love (Live in San Francisco) by Smoosh]

Glad All Over

What links my granddad's side Crystal Palace, my new favourite Scottish football team Partick Thistle (sorry Kilmarnock but they've got a David Shrigley mascot) and former Welsh rugby powerhouse Pontypridd?

They all use - according to Wikipedia, anyway - Glad All Over by The Dave Clark Five as celebration music.

And what a stomper it is...

Eyesdown, Listen Up

Coldcut were recently on Essential Mix duty to celebrate 25 years of Ninja Tune and it goes without saying that it was some top, top listening.

The mix is on the BBC iPlayer for a couple of more weeks and I have to say it's been great that the Beeb have extended the time that you can catch up on radio shows from a week to a month.

One of the highlights of the mix was 30 minutes in when they dropped Machinedrum's roller of a remix of Eyesdown by Bonobo...

Music For Misfits

Nice if slightly hagiographic, Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie, started last night on BBC4.

The first in a three part series, it's shaping up to be a  rather good documentary strand and I've got the YouView on it.

Anyway, episode one kicked off with Joy Division's Disorder, the opener of Unknown Pleasures, and I don't need to be asked twice to share this track.