2:54

A while ago I featured a track from the first single by 2:54. Since then the sisters have released a follow-up 10" single and a few weeks ago a further 7" entitled You're Early and apparently the debut album is to be released on 28th May.

Here is the title track from the 10". Very reminiscient of Souixse And The Banshees to me with a hint of The Jesus And Mary Chain. I'm actually surprised how much I like this as it is rather Gothic sounding.

2:54 - Scarlet

Hiding In Shadows

Some lovely deep soul from Eddie & Ernie to kick start the week. Every time they break into the chorus I get shivers up and down my spine.

Another soul act that most of us would have unaware of it it hadn't been for Dave Godin, that man should be given a lot more credit for all of the amazing music he unearthed and championed.

Just wonderful

Eddie & Ernie - Hiding In Shadows

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

The use of possibly the worst rap this side of World In Motion, a mega cheesy piano line and samples of Pink Floyd and the Osmonds wouldn't usually mean a sure fire dance classic, well not in my book anyway. But that's exactly what Is There Anybody Out There? is.  A raver's anthem that made it overground and bothered the charts that much that it got to number 5 in the UK.

The early 90s were strange days indeed.

Have a good weekend people.

Bassheads - Is There Anybody Out There?(Extended)

I Found A Reason

Some of my favourite covers have been versions of songs of the Velvet Underground like the Kills version of Pale Blue Eyes and  Lone Justice's Sweet Jane. Most of the band's output has been covered at one point or another with Beck covering the whole first album to varying degrees of success.

Here is another of my favourites, where Chan Marshall does a gorgeous version of one of the standout tracks from the Velvets final album.

Cat Power - I Found A Reason

Take A Good Look

The most expensive purchase of the weekend was also the spurr of the moment one. When checking through the listings of what was available I pretty much discounted the Fame Singles Box as it was far too expensive sure it would be nice to have just for the Art Freeman single alone but unjustifiable.

Thst position changed as soon as I got in the door of Monorail and I saw the boxset calling out to me from the shelf behind the counter. There was no point trying to fight it as I knew that if I didn't buy it I would almost certainly one drunken Saturday night  a few months down the line pay even more for it on eBay.

The stand out single has to be Keep On Talking by James Barnett an increadibly rare 45 which goes down a storm in northern circles. But for me the real find is the flip-side a tune more in keeping with the Muscle Shoals sound and which reminds me of Ted Hawkins interpretation of Bring It On Home To Me.

James Barnett - Take A Good Look

Kiss My Love Goodbye

A bit of crossover soul from 1974. The kind of thing that when I was in my late teens and early twenties would dismiss as "seventies pish". Bobby the jobbing brickie once offered me a mint copy of this and a handful of other 70s northern singles for a mere twenty quid. Unfortunately I declined to take him up on his offer. Something I have reflected upon and cursed myself for on a few occasions over the years.

Bettye Swann - Kiss My Love Goodbye

Another Year Older

Not the best way to start the week, shit!

Fine Young Cannibals - I'm Not The Man I Used To Be (Jazzie B & Nellee Hooper mix)

Alteria Percepsyne

A  lovely bit of dub Techno for a Sunday.

I know absolutely nothing about Alteria Percepsyne apart from her real name is Emily Griffiths and the fact that she has produced two CDs. The first I have never heard but Cloaks of Perception where this track is lifted from is pretty special stuff very reminiscent of DeepChord's Echospace series.

Alteria Percepsyne - All You See Is A Ghost

Record Store Day 2012 pt 2

I now have had time to listen to all my purchases, reflect on the day over a meal out with the family and can still say that the Fall single is pish and best avoided if you have any love for this gruppe whatsoever.

Max and I left the house at 06:40 this morning, yes that bloody early and we arrived outside Monorail at 07:15 to be confronted with 14 people in front of us in the queue, the best placing in the last three years and funnily enough the two guys who joined behind us were the guys who were in front of us last year. I also spotted a guy I'm sure was at Aberdeen at the same time as me twenty five years ago about five or six behind us with his daughter. If that was you Spence then I apologise for not speaking but I wasn't sure.

I had my list of wants which wasn't too large, top of the list was the afore mentioned Fall single, closely followed by the Sweet Jane 7",  also the Raveonettes double pack and Rosebud by the Jezabels and I said to myself if I got those then I would be happy. I did have other things like The Slow Club lp but at twenty quid, it was a bit steep and a few other 7" which would have been nice to have.

When I actually got into Monorail I realised that it was going to be a far costlier day than I had budgeted for, as I saw the Fame singles box set and decided that it had to be purchased. So when I got to the front of the queue this was the second thing asked for after Sweet Jane and I was also successful with the Raveonettes and Fall, as you will be aware, I also forked out for a copy of the MC5/Africa Bambaataa 7" of Kick out the Jams and the Big Deal vs S.C.U.M. single which is excellent.

I was wanting to hang about for a while but I had promised Max a visit to Forbidden Planet which also ended up costing me a small fortune.

Now, everywhere I look on the Internet I see less than favourable comments about Record Shop Day but my feelings are that anything that gets people into record shops is a good thing. I have seen tweets saying "record shop day is everyday for me" and good, so it is for a lot of people me included, if I were lucky enough to be able to get to a record shop every day. But to a lot more people they just aren't that important and anything that can get people into the mindset of visiting their local record shop while out shopping for other things has to be beneficial not just to the record shop but also the individual who will hopefully hear or see and buy something which they would have other wise been oblivious too. Days such as today must contribute to this as the atmosphere in the queue and also inside of Monorail which greeted my son was so completely different to the elitist, unfriendly atmosphere which greeted me when I started buying record  being only a a few years olderthan he is now.

As for the arguement that the real fans don't get the records and most end up in the hands of dealers who then put the items on ebay for sale at exorbitant fees. Well fuck them, don't buy the stuff from these leeches leave them with their "product".

I know, that's rich coming from somebody who got everything they wanted today, but last year I thought twice about the St Etienne box set and decided not to buy it, as it was too expensive at thirty quid; for months it was on ebay for fifty/sixty quid. Three months ago I got a copy from a seller on ebay for £13 including postage.

Here is a track that has naff all to do with RSD but comes from the best album I have bought this year and that is including the Spiritualized one. I do urge everyone to go get this.

Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls

Aw fuck, I forgot the Hangover Lounge Vol 3, shit!

Record Store Day 2012 pt 1

The Fall - Night of The Humerons, pish.

Laurence And The Slab Boys

Found this in my junk folder and decided to give it a listen. It is really rather good.

PR -
‘Mushroom’ is the debut single by the noise-pop collective, Laurence and the Slab Boys. The single was written and recorded in Berlin by multi-instrumentalist, Larry Reid.
Formalising their union under the moniker Laurence and the Slab Boys, the group is named after Scottish playwright John Byrne’s trilogy, The Slab Boys, which deals with issues such as institutional sectarianism, class-struggle, and mental-illness. Larry explains the curious signature -

“I was born in Paisley, where the plays are set. I read them years ago and thought the title had a nice, ambiguous ring to it. After my last band I wanted no part of music industry, and I tried to create something the music industry would want nothing to do with either. I imagined the "Laurence" part might make things even less accessible. My parents think it’s a stupid name, which is a good sign.”
‘Mushroom’ pulsates into under-lit corners of emotional heft with fears of apocalypse and a Third World War. There’s a hushed vulnerability to Reid’s vocal laments, “I fear we’re gonna die young” he sings, yet as the song ascends there’s a sense that even in adversity there is comfort in togetherness:

“We don’t need to call it romance, let’s just skip the mystery dance. We can watch the mushroom cloud and shelter as the sky falls down”.

Underneath the deceptive simplicity, there is a ghost in the machine: a penchant for spooked minimalism, textural and spatial abstraction which is at the same time wholly listenable. It’s a ghost that allows Reid’s enigmatic lyrics to take centre stage.

With radio support from BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio Scotland, and a recent live debut backing The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the mushroom cloud looks to be lifting for Laurence and the Slab Boys. 'Mushroom' is taken from the forthcoming album, Lo-Fi Disgrace, set for release on Monday 18th June 2012.

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Here is a track I was sure that I had posted before but apparently not, probably when I thought about posting it before I had the same dilemma as I had last night, which bloody mix to choose, they are all brilliant.

When I used to think of myself as a bit of a DJ, I would mess about for ages mixing dialogue from the Apocalypse Now soundtrack into this track and used to follow it with Homer's mix of Persian Blues which seemed to work very well or so I thought at the time. I came across a few homemade mix tapes, one including this track  the other weekend but haven't had the courage to listen to how bad the train crash mixing is, as yet.

The Disco Evangelists were Ashley Beedle, David Holmes and Lindsay Edwards they released two singles in 1993, De Niro and A New Dawn both are very good progressive thumpers but for me it will always be De Niro, which was first released on Black Sunshine records and then picked up by Positiva and given a wider release.

The pan pipes sample comes from possibly my favourite soundtrack music for the film Once Upon A Time In America bu Ennio Morricone.

Have a good weekend people.

I'm off to Monorail in the morning to spend way too much money.

The Disco Evangelists - De Niro (The Spaceflight remix)

OX4

I was never the biggest fan of Ride. Apart from the first Slowdive album all the shoegaze stuff just sort of washed over me. But I do remember hearing this track and really liking it. It took me by surprise yesterday when it came up on shuffle as I had forgotten just how good it sounded.

Ride - OX4

Cry Baby

Yesterday I finally got around to listening to the Alabama Shakes album and I was pleasantly surprised that the music actually lives up to all the hype. It did however have me reaching for a bit of this.

Janis Joplin - Cry Baby

Marvin Revised

If the man known as The Reflex had asked me beforehand what my opinion of his intention to re-fit songs by Marvin Gaye, I would have told him in no uncertain terms to leave them the fuck alone, there are certain artists that you do not muck about with and Marvin is one of them.

Just as well for me that my input was never sought as the results on the GAMM 12" of the refits of a couple of classic Gaye tracks and a very strange pairing of Amy Winehouse's vocals to Rehab over the backing track to He Was Really Saying Something, which works increadibly well, breathe new life into the tracks. Not that any of these tracks sounded stale in the first place but the new productions just add a different perspective which only prove that great songs are great songs and can deal with re-interpretation.

The Reflex - Ain't No Mountain

The Flirtations

I'm hoping that now I'm back at work and the bloody paiting is completed I might find some time to actually post something on here.

It is becoming a bit of habit posting some soul on a Monday. I can't think of a better way to start off the week than with some quality soul.

Here is a track from a group that started back in 1960 as the Gypsies and changed their name to The Flirtations in 1966 and appear to be still going strong, though I suspect like Trigger's brush in Only Fools And Horses not with the original elements.

Nothing But A Heartache was released on Deram records in 1968. It may be familiar as it was used in an advert for chicken products in 2007.

The Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

My postings have been rather pish this week down to spending all of my bloody annual leave painting both boys rooms. The only thing worse than emulsioning in my book has to be glossing and living in an old house with deep skirtings and enough fecking wood around the windows to build a shed it takes forever. This combined with me not being the most patient of people has got me rather vexed.

So I don't care that I have posted this track before, it's good enough to warrant another post. It is brilliant in fact, despite basically being made up of samples from another track and a breakbeat. To be honest with you it is probably on account of the samples that I love the track as nothing else the duo ever did hit the mark, for me anyway.

Have a good weekend people 

Liquid - Sweet Harmony with added crackles and pop

Twenty years ago, bloody hell tempus fugit as my Latin teacher was in the habit of saying.

Father /Sculptor

Back in February I went to see a band I was really looking forward to hearing, granted on the strength of a couple of singles but nevertheless I expected them to be very good. Turned out the two tracks I liked were their  two best tunes the rest being a bit, well innocuous or as Colin or Ctel would say, a bit meh.

First on the bill that night were a band that both JC and I thought stood out from the rest of the bill by a mile. and a couple of whom looked familiar to me. It turned out that the band Father/Sculptor contained members of another local band that I really liked when I saw them last year Johnny Reb.

A couple of nights ago I got an email from Philip the bass player informing me that their debut single is available for download as of Monday and very good it is too. I'm not going to say anymore give it a listen and see what you think.

Break, Some Break!

I really fucking hate painting!

Sex Pistols - No Fun (Winterland)

"Well, you know what they say . . .

. . . It's always a badass that makes a girl's heart beat faster.

      Wanna dance?"

LaVern Baker - Soul On Fire

LaVern Baker - Soul On Fire (Angel Heart OST)

Easter Parade

I think that it's only fitting to give this track another airing, what with the 30th anniversary of the Falklands Conflict being all over the news this past week and also the fact that it is Easter Sunday.

I watched Max Hastings piece about the conflict last Sunday, which got me reaching for my copy of Don't Cry For Me Sergeant Major, as his recollections of his participation differs slightly from what I remember being written in that book and I think I may also revisit  "A Soldier's Song", to further remind me of my brother's regiment's role in the conflict over the coming weeks.

At the time I was in second year in high school and got into a couple of fights and even more arguments over what seemed to me at the time as a hyping up of nationalistic fervour for islands that very few of us knew existed before the start of April 1982. I will also never forget the front page of the Sun the day after the sinking of the Belgrano for bringing to the fore all that was wrong with Britain at that time.

I feel that I need to add, that I never had anything but support for the Airmen, Sailors and Infantry sent down there, they were doing what the military had to do, enduring conditions nobody should have to put up with and which I certainly could not have endured.  As for John Knott, Margaret Thatcher, Henry Leach and the rest of the old men in suits that sent them there, well contempt doesn't really express what I felt at the time and still do. Also the justification that the conflict saw the demise of a dictatorship in South America doesn't really cut it when we weren't calling for democracy in Chile where Mrs Thatcher's pal, Pinochet was in charge.

But enough of the politics this song means a lot to me for a whole different reason which has been explained before here .

The Faith Brothers - Easter Parade

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I thought since this week Orbital released there first album in eight years it was as good a time as any and look back at where it all started for probably the finest live techno act ever. I have always been amazed at the atmosphere being created by 2 guys and a wall of technology.

The groundbreaking Chime was first released on Oh'Zone Records in 1989 but was quickly picked up by FFRR,  reached number 17 in the UK charts which earned them an appearance on Top Of The Pops and the rest as they say is history.

This still sounds as good now as it did twenty two, yes twenty, fucking two years ago.

Have a good Easter weekend people.


Orbital - Chime

Nova

Seeing as this isn't going to get a digital release and not everybody will be lucky enough to get their hands on a physical copy.

What's it like? It's Burial and Four Tet innit?

I do think that eight quid for  five and a half minutes of music is a bit steep. Especially since the last Burial twelve gave us just under 30 mins of brilliance for six quid.

Burial and Four Tet - Nova

Do You Mind

Not really up with my UK Garage but I stumbled upon this track after finding out that one of my favourite xx tracks was actually a cover. I therefore investigated and found out that the original was every bit as good but radically different from the xx's stripped down cover.

Paleface ft Kyla - Do You Mind (Crazy Cousinz remix)

Life's A One Take Movie

I've been thinking back quite a lot recently, probably something to do with becoming another year older real soon.

Anyway, here is another brilliant single from a bygone age by the 'Boy Wonder' and one which should have had a much higher chart position than number bloody seventy but as Paul Quinn once sang,  Ain't That Always The Way".

My original  10" copy of this ended up in a charity shop, not I should add with my permission. But that was in the past and is probably best left there.

Aztec Camera - The Crying Scene

Update - here it is from the best gig of last year, Youtube is a wonderful thing!

I Still Love This So Much

Sometimes it takes a little time away from some things for you to really appreciate what it was that loved in them so much. This is just so simply and inexplicably gorgeous.

The xx - VCR

Don't Let Him Hurt You

Today's track comes from possibly the most collectable label for Northern Soul Connoisseurs but not one of my favourite labels. I'm not sure that the reason that singles from the label are in such demand hasn't more to do with the rarity of the vinyl as opposed to the quality of the tracks. I'm not saying that the music is not good just not as top notch, to me anyway, as the price tag would suggest.

The label was formed in 1965 in DC by Eddie Singleton and Raynoma Gordy, the head of Motown's ex wife and was in existence for only two years and released tracks by the likes of Ray Pollard, The Epsilons  and Bobby Reed.

The track posted by Les Chansonettes was released in 1966 and to refute what I said above is sheer class.

Les Chansonettes - Don't Let Him Hurt You

Old Raves End

I bought this album at the tail end of last year, listened to it once and duly forgot all about it until last week. After listening to it again I cannot understand why I have so criminally ignored this,  these past four or five months.

The trio that make up Swarms hail from Bristol and hence in the reviews of this album the usual Bristolian suspects all get a mention, Massive Attack, Portishead etc. Personally, I think that the album sounds like a collaboration between Burial and The Future Sound of London. It is one of those albums that flow and has to be listened to in it's entirety which doesn't mean that there aren't any standout tracks, there are, the one posted for example but they just all sound better as part of the whole rather than one off tracks. This album is well worth 42 minutes of anyone's attention and when listened to over and over only gives repeated pleasure.

Swarms - Flikr of ur Eyes