New Aphex Twin dropped on his not-at-all secret SoundCloud account a couple of days ago. In fact, the artwork is a holiday snap (does AFX have guns??).
The other track is Zahl am1 live track 1c f760m1 unfinshd, which has this blurb "got many requests for this one from a few years back, italy, pic with my love from scilly recently...need sun...relentlessly raining in uk...mixed down on the zahl, think theres better mixes, will upload if i find em,"
The moment that melody line kicks in at 30 seconds, you just know the Dewaele brothers are involved in this. And yep, it's on Deewee and has that late Soulwax vibe that I'm such a sucker for.
'Tis the season, appaz. Last week The Futureheads released a whole album of Christmas songs called... Christmas.
I'm not sure I'll be slapping down £15 for the CD, but there are a few bangers on it. If I ever do another Xmas Mix, then their cover of 'What's This?' from A Nightmare Before Christmas will 100% be there...
Who remembers Deutschland 83? Man, that was good TV. Anyway, The Space Lady does a cover of what would become the theme tune to the series, originally done by Peter Schilling. I feel The Space Lady works really well in a list/mix/radio show, but not sure I'd want an album or gig of it, y'know?
Straight outta Do!! You!!! It might take a few spins, but when it hits, it stays hit.
Honest to God, if you told me I'd be posting a Van Morrison track when I started this blog in 2009, especially after that dogshit Green Man show, I would simply not be having it.
A recurring theme in these lists is me always choosing the oldest and crispiest video on YouTube if I can, and today is no exception. There's higher fidelity out there, but I know this tune from taping Fabio off Radio 1 back in the day. Taping as in taping with shitty cassettes recorded over and over again. Hiss me, Hardy.
Anyway, this absolute d'n'b roller from 2001 was featured in Reduced 39, Mumdance's Substack, where they post 5 tracks and 2 DJ mixes every Thursday. And that's it, all links, no words. Jump in and jump up.
Original image: Dave Dyet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Been sitting on these for a while, as the last 9 in 1 was over two months ago. Strong possibility I've forgotten where I came across these, a journey for us both to share.
This duo seemed to get a lot of support from NTS a couple of months back. Not Welsh despite the name, but we can forgive, laid back motorik 90s chillout vibes, with a bit of Islet to it.
I know we had Pat Benatar earlier, but this is somehow even more 80s. Incredible. The video is also a treat, bordering on parody. Then the bit that Alan Braxe and Fred Falke sampled for Intro just drops from nowhere. Top top stuff.
I'm a little behind on my podcasts, as I'm not running much at the mo (got an issue with my new daps), so I've only just got around to No Tags 53. It's an interview with Holly Dicker about her book, Dance Or Die: A History of Hardcore, which delves into the earlier years of the scene in Germany and the Netherlands.
Dicker mentions Mescalinum United's We Have Arrived as v. important in the pod, and this absolute stomper, often regarded as the first hardcore techno track, is still a joy. I was more familiar with Aphex Twin's remixes of it on his Classics comp, but the original's rawness is something to behold.
"The idea was to thread Boards of Canada’s music with original sample sources, tracks they’d remixed, fan remixes or songs that fitted their sonic blueprint."
That's how DJ Food describes his 'O is for Orange' mixes, the first hour of version 3 being Bleep Mix 308. The audio-only version is yerr, but I'm embedding the video version, which is nice and trippy.
It's taken me until the stretch that is the bank holiday weekend to jump into the mammoth mixes released for RA. 1000.
We're talking 7+ hours from Tim Reaper and 6+ for Andrew Weatherall B2B with DJ Harvey, alongside mixes from Theo Parrish, Frankie Knuckles, and Helena Hauff.
Fair play, Resident Advisor have pulled out the stop here, with a lovely mini-site to mark the 1000th edition of its mix series. Best bit for me is that you can download the mp3s - feels like ages since you could grab the files.
As I've got my finger on the pulse, I only clocked last night that there's now a semi-official video for Korg Funk 5 by Aphex Twin.
I think it's kinda cool, bit Michel Gondry-like. Reddit does not agree. Although I think anyone with the profile that Nadia Lee Cohen apparently has (NGL, this is the first time I've come across their work) would not go down well with that community.
Right, so I made this playlist a while ago, then got sick and then got depressed. Trying to work my way out of it, trying to get back on with things like a used to, fake it till you make it.
So I'm here posting this list. It's not ordered (yes, I try and sequence the playlist usually, surprising I know). I can't remember where I came across these tracks. But it's a post. A step forwards. A half-step?
I've bought a couple of Concrete Junglist t-shirts recently and I thought I should really dive back in and listen to some D'n'B.
Probably showing my age here, but my first thought was Radio 1 and seeing what the new stuff sounded like.
As you can see I've posted an old Metalheadz track from 2001 rather than anything new because what I heard on the Radio 1 Drum'n'Bass show was absolute shite. It all sounded like trance with really brittle drums. There was no weight or grit or heft. I swear one of the tracks was a Tiesto remix. Proper old man shouts at clouds moment for me.
I was getting our stuff together to take the boy to his swimming lesson and Let's Go Swimming came on the radio. I'm not sure which version, so here's Gulf Stream Dub.
Looping back, it may sound like I was a little negative on Songs In The Key of MP3, but it's well worth a read. It's good, it just starts with the sections on Dev Haynes and FKA Twigs, who I'm not really into, before cracking on with Oneohtrix Point Never, Earl Sweatshirt (more on him later), and SOPHIE, so slow start before I ripped through it like.
Deadpan weirdo synth-pop from 1982, inject it. Was very surprised to learn it was The Stranglers when Flo played it on her NTS Breakfast show the other day.
As mentioned earlier, there's a whole section on Earl Sweatshirt in Songs In The Key of MP3, and this addictive little nugget is picked out. That loop is something else.
I've had this list running for a while, so not 100% where I came across this, but I'm pretty sure it was Macca on his One Glove show on NTS in April, maybe even March.
Uplifting house with a right on message, you've got to love it.
One of the delights of upgrading the Micro SD and resetting the play count on Musicolet (though thankfully keeping the carefully crafted playlists) is that older tracks crop up in the unplayed list. And this glitchy twisty gem was one of them.
Slapped in a few tapes as the heat got up recently. I don't know why, but hot weather and cassettes just go together for me.CSN, the third studio album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, was one of them, a tape I inherited rather than lost during a house move years ago.
Is this yacht rock? Whatever, it works in the sun.
There's a walking challenge at work, so I've been trying to get out and about.
I even risked a stream and lost signal around Llantwit, listening to Barker's Bleep Mix 300 as I went.
And what a lovely mix it is too; spacey and ambient and perfect for getting lost to. Whether that's a wandering to get your 10,000 steps in or grinding through a job application (truly one of the worst experiences on Earth, second only to the actual job interview).
As mentioned in the Rustie Mix post, there was also a Jam City mix lurking on that old USB drive too and boy does it bang. The page for XLR8R Podcast 219 is still up from 2011, which is lovely to see, though the links to the mp3 are long gone.
My highlight is section that goes from the absolute panel beater (from Prague??) at 24 minutes in through to a Talking Heads sample via the rather rude Parris Mitchell “All Night Long” (Dance Mania).
Finally caved and bought every Electrelane album over the last couple of weeks. To The East is off their last album, 2007's No Shouts No Calls. I'm pretty sure I had this on some kind of big label compilation CD they sometimes gave away in Spillers. Long lost, so who knows?
Watched True Romance for the first time the other day. Got the DVD from the local Mind shop. Best 10p I've spent in a long time. Mind you, it's the first thing I've bought for 10p for a very long time.
Not beating those 6Music Sad Dad charges. Four Tet flips a track by The Cure as part of Mixes Of A Lost World - a new remix collection coming out on 13th June. Three discs in the deluxe version with artists including Daniel Avery, Orbital, and Mogwai contributing reworkings of the 2024 album.
Stuck an old USB into my laptop the other week and found a folder called 'Mixes pOur Werk' on there. Amongst all the Justice, Jam City, and Julio Bashmore was the mix Rustie did for Fact Magazine in September 2009, which I completely forgot about.
It still bangs, not as much as his 2012 Essential Mix, but that's the greatest mix of all time (IMO), so a tough ask.
Set the title and lyrics aside for a second and bathe in this other-worldly electronic noodle. Kanye West sampled it in 2019, so put that aside, too, and just go with it, it slaps, trust me.
"Lockdown took its toll on Clive. Not the isolation or sense of impending doom - that was normal - but specifically the worldwide marmite shortage in April. On the verge of a 'Driving to Dundee barefoot' style meltdown, Clive found solace in his 20 year obsession with Alan 'foot on a spike' Partridge.
Taking Musique Concrete to its textbook conclusion, Clive has made music only using sounds from TV series 'I'm Alan Partridge'. Over 100, mainly foley samples were repurposed into the two title tracks of the Alan EP."
I mean, that might be true. What is true is that Alan B is a tidy little broken-beat shuffler. With Alan's face on the label. And that's enough for me.
Right, I've had this list rumbling for a while due to my difficulties with YouTube, and I've forgotten where I came across this. I think it might've been on One Glove but I'm not 100%. Another spacey house number (at least this is from 2025). The vibe will switch in this list soon, I promise beb.
Who wants to hang around 2025, straight back to the 80s please drive! No idea how to describe this, is it synth-pop? That term doesn't quite cut it. "Inspired by the film E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial" according to Discogs.
Yerr fella that did that glitchy downtempo cover of The Smiths - There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, also did this glitchy downtempo gem. So there we are.
If you get a wheel* on both Sarahtonin and Flo Dill then you're doing something very right in my book. Add in a little mystery (I misheard the name of the remixer) and then make it a free download on Bandcamp when you eventually find it and you're in very special territory. Like one of the tracks of the year territory.
So, what I thought was LCD Soundsystem - Home (Tom Skarkitt remix) is actually Tom Sharkett - Just Do It Right, a light spacey edit of the LCD banger. And as it is well unofficial, you might want to get your skates on and download it now before it's pulled down...
(The other track on Futuro Edits 001 is a twist on a Paul McCartney/Wings track if that's more your bag.)
*I can't remember if it was actually wheeled but I stopped what I was doing and the chatrooms were abuzz appaz.
It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted and when I logged on I thought this was going to be a 'sorry, not sure when I'll be back' post.
You see, the Adblock crackdown finally came for me, and YouTube refused to work. Even after removing the Adblockers, I still couldn't get anything to play. And I mainly use YouTube and playlists for posts on this here blog.
Logging on today though and we've got some functionality. With ads, but stuff plays. Not sure what I'm gonna do when I need to play a playlist at the school. Pay for YouTube Premium you say? Over my cold dead body. Google has enough money.
Away from my YouTube fight, I've been to Porto, did a linocut class, and been rewatching Twin Peaks (on Blu-ray, no streaming issues or adverts there).
And here's that killer psych-rock dirge from Fire Walk With Me called The Pink Room...
Saw The Futureheads in Bristol last night and it was a blast.
Most fun I've had at a gig in a long time. Great songs, Gower chat, a couple of quiz questions. The venue was alright too, first time in SWX, not baking, decent sightline from the raised bit on the side, £7+ for a pint though.
But The Futureheads were great, even the one acapella track was a bit spesh and they finished on Man Ray which was an absolute delight, windmilling away I was.
So yeah, it's a hard recommend for me if you can catch them on the rest of their tour. If you do go, swing by the merch stand as there's a rare-ish 7" for sale for £5 - Broke Up The Time (Field Music Remix), which according to Discogs was a "Giveaway 7 inch white label at King's College Gig 29th November 2007".
And the band may also show up there, I handed my fiver to Jaff the bassist for my copy.
I'm not in a good place. No, not Llantwit Major, though it is less charming in winter when there's a v little to do. Mentally, I'm not in a good place. V low, v tired, v done with the world right now.
Life ain't great, though I'm not in trouble, which makes me feel worse. There are many, many people out there having it worse, what have I really got to complain about?
Blurb: "The passing of time brings inevitable change - corrosion, disintegration and, eventually, disappearance. While the certainty of this process may seem like cause for despair, Matthew Syed explores the beauty that can be found in the process of decay."
Now there's something to lift the spirits.
It features stuff on abandoned buildings in Detroit but mostly it's on William Basinski and The Disintegration Loops. The Disintegration Loops is one of those albums I've always meant to get around to but never do.
Came across this on the Rough Trade Shops Counter Culture 2022 comp, which I bought for £3 in the Bristol branch of that shop. One of the few CDs in there like. I can't be dropping £40 on a record, mate. Anyway, I don't know much about Girl Ray but Give Me Your Love has a nice Hot Chip feel to it.
Jeff Parker got a mention in the new newsletter from NTS DJ Macca, whose One Glove show on Saturday mornings is always a good listen like. His newsletter is pretty good too. As is this sparse instrumental cover of the Frank Ocean banger. Think I read somewhere that Jeff Parker is in Tortoise.
A slightly novel(ty) cover is my kryptonite. Here's a wonky take on Skream's classic Midnight Request Line. It's also a free download off Bandcamp as well, lovely stuff.
The last track and this track featured on a recent show from Ruf Dug, apparently one of his last ones on NTS Radio, which is a real shame. Anyway, this is another wonky slice of something, mixing spoken word, humour, politics, and bubbly electronics. Into it. Might stick it on my 2025 list already, never too early to start.
Is late-00s maximal electro back? Is this what they're calling indie sleaze? Is shit I remember already being recycled by the kids? Fuuuuck. Happy 2025.
Original image: Malis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
I got that Disco Pogo tribute to Aphex Twin book from Christmas and there's already a new chapter required in it. Music from the Merch Desk (2016-2023) was a surprise release on 17 December 2024, which as the title suggests, collates all those limited edition 12"s at various shows into a 38-track digital album.
John Doran, editor of The Quietus, has a good recap/first take on The Guardian, but I'm still working my way through it. However, I don't think I'm gonna pay £20 for the mp3s right now.
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.
-1.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
![Gold cassette of RUSTIE x BALLERS SOCIAL CLUB - FACT79 [NSRTAPE008]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-qFsOXfRXtzRXBKAt1SnVfC20K4nk7RS6YHP96Vu4sGLTfGoT31a_zksEWjlyYCKOT_mmUqwtP7IbB7JsYlq9GdmJWEjcdKiGAjH-TeDOxBK0oM8VrzhCpr7dJjVpiVZgTTLn05HDjvk1vO9getQR1vnoh1vrH_2yZiAhxcET-ZhA6TwD_0TlJAwVGzA/s1200/0036911159_10.jpg)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.jpg)
_Junon_-_Mus%C3%A9e_Saint-Raymond_Ra_51_bis.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
