Friday 28 February 2014

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance





I'm in the mood for something a bit bouncy and not to taxing today. The constant pissing rain is beginning to really get on my nerves. I realise that it is a lot worse for people further south however it is becoming rather dispiriting to look out the window every day to rain. On saying that it is dry at the moment but it probably won't last.

So here is one of my favourite New Order songs given the Fire Island treatment by messrs Farley and Heller.

Airdrie have managed to haul themselves off the bottom of the Scottish First Division with some spirited performances of late. So I along with the boys and their granpa,  will be joining Stiff, Willie, their dad and six to seven hundred other hopeful supporters at New Broomfield tomorrow to see if the Diamonds can keep up the undefeated run against Ayr Utd. I have probably just put the kiss of death on them.

Have a good weekend people.

New Order - Regret (Fire Island Mix)


Thursday 27 February 2014

Long Lost Heart




Let's stick with modern retro rockabilly for just now.

Jake Allen is only twenty two but has already played Elvis Presley in the theatre in London's West End and toured extensively under his own name over the past few years. Today's track is the title one from an ep released in 2012 on the Ambassador Records label. There is certainly a feel of the boy from Tupelo Mississippi about the record right down to the the cover art.

There is also a link to yesterday's post in so much as the ep was co-produced by Darrel Higham, the spouse of Imelda May Clabby.

Jake Allen - Long Lost Heart

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Bring Back My Cadillac



Imelda May has a new album out later this year and I have it on good authority from Stiff that the new material is very good. Apparently she was on fire last month when she was playing the Celtic Connections festival in the town.

Here is a rather good basic rockabilly track from her first solo album, No Turning Back.

Imelda May - Bring My Cadillac Back

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Harking Back To A Bygone Age.



The third single from the second album of  the major label "indie act" Noisettes is the only thing that I own by the band the other stuff that I have heard by the band I liked well enough but not enough to actually purchase. It was inevitable that a band with a name like Noisettes would pique my interest. In fact when I first heard anything by them I was rather disappointed as it didn't have the retro 60s girl group vibe that I thought was implied by the moniker.

Never Forget You certainly rectified the situation as it has a very retro feel about it which of course I lapped up more than enough to want to buy, unfortunately it wasn't released as a single (vinyl), well not in the UK anyway and then as now I was loathed to buy a download but I eventually gave in and purchased it.

About 18 months ago I found out that the song had been released as a 7" single on the other side of the pond and then the search was on to get a copy not that difficult as it turned out and at that time the postage costs from the States were a lot more reasonable than they are now, and so the single was bought, subsequently arrived, got played a lot for about a month then filed and forgotten about. That was until the start of this year when I dug it out gave it a spin and it has been on the turntable probably a dozen times a week since then. The other week Max stuck his head round the door when it was playing and said "catchy", so I think that it comes with his seal of approval.

Noisettes - Never Forget You

Monday 24 February 2014

Soul Time, Again



I'm not sure how I got into posting a bit of soul on a Monday but it has become a bit of habit which is increasingly hard to break to paraphrase a pish 70s soft rock group. I can't think of a better way to start the week than with a little bit of soul.

Today's track comes from an artist who began her professional career at the age of two when she and her six siblings formed a gospel group and she hasn't stopped since, not only as an artist but a  talent spotter when still in her teens, producer, label owner and mentor too. She released her first album when she was still only fourteen and her first gold disc with the single "Clean Up Woman" when she was seventeen! She is still going strong and has just released her eighteenth album.

Today's track comes from 1972 and was released on the Alston label distributed by Atlantic at that time.

Betty Wright - If You Love Me Like You Say You Love Me

Sunday 23 February 2014

Mellow Sunday



I have posted a version of Tallulah before but this is the version from Allo Darlin's second album,  Europe. I just love this song it's so simple and Elizabeth Morris' voice is full of regret and hope at the same time, if you get what I mean.

Allo Darlin' - Tallulah

Friday 21 February 2014

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



The trance word rears it's ugly head again across the kitchen table, you would get the impression that I love this stuff.

Juno Reactor was an art project started by Ben Watkins in 1990 and is probably best known for the collaboration with composer Don Davis on the soundtrack to the Matrix but he has also scored several other films. High Energy Protons was released through Nova Mute in 1994. I used to mix this tune quite effectively with The Snake by Opal when I could see that people were getting bored with the progressive house stuff.

You will be glad to read that I have eventually finished painting, although a worse fate awaits me tomorrow as I will be dragged kicking and screaming to that big blue Swedish shed that has recently announced to the dismay of record collectors everywhere the end of the Expedit vinyl storage system. It was probably designed for some other purpose but I cannot think of anything that looked quite as beautiful in it than a record collection. On a FUCKING Saturday!!!

Have a good weekend people.

Juno Reactor - High Energy Protons

Thursday 20 February 2014

Baby's Coming Back To Me



I've always had a soft spot for Nancy Sinatra from the first time I heard These Boots Are Made For Walking. Although nothing is quite as good as the stuff that she did with Lee Hazelwood in the late 60s and early 70s or can equal Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), for me anyway her eponymously titled album released in 2004 is pretty damn good. Baby's Coming Back To Me is one of the two tracks on the album written by Jarvis Cocker who also produces it along with his mate Richard Hawley.

Being the daughter of Sinatra must have caused some expectations and pressures when she decided to pursue a career in music.

Nancy Sinatra - Baby's Coming Back To Me.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Spit On A Stranger



Here's Stephen Malkmus in one of his more melodic moments. This was the second single from the band's final album released in 1999. Kathryn Williams does a rather lovely version of this on her brilliant covers project Relations.

It's quite funny for someone who liked Pavement and bought most things that they released. I have never felt the urge to buy any of Malkmus' stuff since, even although what I have heard I have quite liked.

Pavement - Spit On A Stranger 

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Dirty Dream Number Two




We haven't had anything from Belle and Sebastian for a while.

Dirty Dream Number Two is probably my favourite song by the Glasgow band after Lazy Line Painter Jane obviously. It probably has a lot to do with the stomping northern soul beat and I also love the choppy guitar sound which is also very reminiscent of 60s soul. The song can be found on what for me is their best album, The Boy With The Arab Strap.

Belle & Sebastian - Dirty Dream Number Two

Monday 17 February 2014

Happy



I know that it is highly unlikely that you will be ecstatic on a Monday morning (unless your name is George and have buggered off to sunnier climes, obviously) but this may  banish the Monday blues.

This may sound familiar. This is the original from 1977, If you own this on 7" or even better on 12" and are willing to part with it you are likely to end up quite a bit better off due to the renewed interest in this track.  If you are seeking a copy there was an Originals repress released last week with this and the Pharrell Williams track on the flip but you will have to be quick.

Enjoy!

Velvet Hammer - Happy

Sunday 16 February 2014

Mellow Sunday



I'll be brief as I am still bloody painting!

This is just lovely. From the group's last album but one, My Maudlin Career.

 Camera Obscura - Careless Love 

Friday 14 February 2014

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



Today's post is a repeat as I have had no time whatsoever to do anything because I am still fucking painting! It took the whole of Sunday to do the bloody cornice and there is more wood to be glossed in the dining room than there was in the whole of our last house!

Anyway, enough of my problems this was first posted back in September 2010.

Have a good weekend people. I will be mostly painting!

About the tail end of 2002 beginning of 2003 I stopped seeking out new dance music. It wasn't a conscious thing but I think that somewhere in my brain I had decided it was time to grow up and be an adult and I think that I equated dance music and the fun to be had listening and dancing to repetitive beats while of your nut or sometimes not with being young, free and responsibility lite all of which I was becoming increasingly aware no longer fitted my profile.

If I heard a tune somewhere that I liked I would buy it, however this was an increasingly rare event. At the moment I'm trying to wrack my brains and find something outstanding from 2002/2003 and can't think of anything. Also I would no longer spend hours in specialist dance shops listening to the latest batch of white labels and deciding which ones were worth my heard earned cash.

This state of affairs continued for a few years until a younger colleague at work,  whom I had been recording what she so charmingly referred to as "those old tunes" ie anything from before the year 1998 to her, gave me a loan of the latest mix cd she had bought. I took it home and decided to listen to it, I had already persuaded myself that it would be rubbish but when I put it on I was more than pleasantly surprised what I heard had me jumping about the room and turning up the volume until L was yelling "turn that bloody racket down".

The cd was It's Only A Mixtape Vol II mixed by Paul Jackson. I hadn't heard of the DJ or any of the artists or tunes in the mix before but it was the best and livliest thing that I had heard in a long time and the following Monday at work I was asking Cheryl if she had any more like it and so my re-induction to dance music began and I've not looked back since.

Here is one of the tracks from that mix that I subsequently sought out and bought.


Rob Hawk & Mysoul feat. Leanne - So Shock-In!

Thursday 13 February 2014

Rank Outsiders



Ever since SA's post last Friday on the tracks available on Souncloud for the much anticipated but sadly never to be released second One Dove long player I have been flogging the back catalogue to death from the original and best version of Fallen, Darkest Hour when they were still called Dove, the debut album, Morning Dove White and the myriad of remixes of the five singles released.

I was puzzled by SA's comment that the album was "flawed" as at the time I thought  it to be just about perfect. I haven't played the vinyl through very often over the past few years and so thought that I would do so in order to find out if I have a rose tinted view of it as at the time any release by Dot and the guys was more than welcome. So over the past week I have played the lp more than a couple of times and I come to the same conclusion, that it was one of the very best albums released in 1993 along with Live 93 from The Orb.

Anyway, when trawling through all of the various mixes of things I found a mix of Why Don't You Take Me the final single and an absolutely lovely song which still gives me goosebumps when Dot sings the initial "oh baby", it has such a forlorn feeling and therefore quite a final statement from the band. The Rank Outsiders mix by Stephen Hague turns it into more of an ambient post clubbing thing with a wicked bassline that arrives about two minutes in. I think that I still prefer the album version, however this did come as a welcome surprise but not sure of the purpose of the hidden track tagged onto the end of it.

When talking of One Dove, I would like to draw your attention to the new ep by Scottish three piece Le Thug who I have banged on about before. I get the same sort of feeling when I listen to Clio's vocals that I do when hearing Dot's and therefore in my mind at least they remind me of One Dove. Anyway you can download the ep free from here but please give them a couple of quid and then maybe they will be able to release something on vinyl which I am eagerly waiting for.

One Dove - Why Don't You Take Me (Rank Outsiders mix)

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Strait Jacket



This track has been posted before but due to the ongoing painting of the dining room which may take as long as the Forth Bridge due to my two little helpers has left me absolutely no time whatsoever to think about what to post.

Strait Jacket originally appeared as the last in a week long series of track that I thought sounded like tunes from Spy movies. I know absolutely feck all about the track, it was featured on a Fat City compilation, Mystic Brew which bought quite a while ago which was rather lacking in sleeve notes. The track however is an atmospheric funky little number that sounds as if it came out during the mid to late sixties which is all the excuse I need to post another picture of Edie Sedgwick.

Guiliano Sorghini - Strait Jacket

Monday 10 February 2014

Don't Think I Could Stand it



Don't Think I Could Stand It is the flip side to the better known It Ain't Necessary on the St Lawrence label. This is a classic upbeat Chicago tune from 1966.

Mamie Galore - Don't Think I Could Stand It

Sunday 9 February 2014

Mellow Sunday



I was going to sit on this until the weather got better but it is just too fucking good. It popped up on the mp3 player on a particularly shitty site visit on Thursday and cheered me up no end. To be honest with you I had forgotten all about this track and I am rather puzzled as to how something so incredibly lovely could have slipped out of my head so easily. It's not as if it was released years ago only this time last year. Must be something to do with the rapid onset of middle age that appears to be taking place.

John Talabot, my favourite Catalan dj and producer has put together some great remixes and this is up there with the best of them. So sit back, relax and let this heat your bones. I know George that you will be warm enough but those of us left back in the old country are rather soggy and cold at the moment.

Peaking Lights - Beautiful Son (John Talabot's Acetate dub)

What I'd give to get a hold of that acetate!

Saturday 8 February 2014

Techno, Dub Techno, Dupstep or Something Else?



I have no idea how to label this remix other than quite brilliant.

Last week while raking through the dance 12" singles for something for the series that refuses to die (contrary to what you may think some thought does go into the feature) I pulled out Shackleton's remix of Rusty Nails by Moderat a slab of vinyl that I had flogged to death when I got it then about six months later filed it and totally forgot about it.

It is quite a haunting tune, full of atmospheric synth sounds and echoey percussion. Just the sort of thing for a dull wet Saturday.

Moderat - Rusty Nails (Shackleton Rmx)

Friday 7 February 2014

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



I have been listening to a lot of  early nineties stuff recently, then both dance music and I were in our prime. It has mostly been stuff on Sabres Of Paradise, Guerilla, Hard Hands and especially Soma Quality Recordings, probably the finest label to come out of Glasgow. I know that some people will rubbish that and try to tell you that it is Postcard that that accolade belongs to but for quality and longevity it has to be the label that started off in Otago Street in the West End of the city.

Seduced was the label's third release and was a collaboration by the members of Slam and Rejuvination who were also four of the five founding members of the label. A classic example of progressive house a genre that Soma and two other Glasgow labels of the time Limbo/23 Precinct and Bomba did a great deal to popularise.

Have a good weekend people. I will mostly be emptying the dining room of all the records and cd's in order to paint the room. Deep joy!

G-7 - Seduced

Wednesday 5 February 2014

"Is That Weed He Is Smoking?"



I was sitting in my chair listening to the Archers on Friday night when Max crashed through the door , as he does and asked me "Dad, what does this dub stuff sound like?"  Of course to which there is only one reply "great".

His next question was "have you got any on cd and where are they?"

So I looked out a few cds including the Trojan Dub box set, Arkology some King Tubby and Scientist things. He grabbed the lot and went back up to his room. Making a reappearance twenty minutes later brandishing the Arkology booklet and asking of a picture of Lee Perry "is that weed he is smoking?"

Our house since has been rocking to the foundations with the sound of heavy bass and reverb!

From the Pistols, through PiL, The Clash and Sham 69 to Lee Scratch Perry in 8 months. He better slow down or he will have nothing left to discover by the age of twelve! I am quite looking forward to the Velvet Underground/Jesus And Mary Chain phase.

The Upsetters - Grumblin' Dub

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Sunnier Times



With all the shit weather about and the general gloom that descends on me at this time of the year I am in need of cheering up. I need to hear something that will bring back my normal cheery disposition.

I think that this will do the trick. Happy memories of sunny days and a less complicated time.

Saint Etienne - Kiss And Make Up (12" mix)

Monday 3 February 2014

Take Care Of My Love

Last week I mentioned that I had heard that Happy by Pharrell Williams was going down a storm on rare soul nights. Well it just so happens that it's not just you international mega producers that are making tunes aimed at northern soul dance floors, it's happening here as well. Here is a stormer of a floor friendly track with all the right ingredients a pounding beat, great brass and a lovely female vocal.

Nick Pride and the Pimptones hail from Newcastle Upon Tyne and Take Care Of My Love is the lead single from their second album. The single and album can be ordered here.

Look out for their cover of Unfinished Sympathy a prospect I baulked at when I first heard of it but it is rather good and the interpretation of White Lines on the flip is absolutely wicked!

Sunday 2 February 2014

Mellow Sunday



Not quite.

However,  you will have to stop what you're doing and invest 28 minutes of your time in this as it's not something to just have on in the background. I find it sounds best either through headphones or quite loud on the stereo, not a track for tinny laptop speakers. I love the way that it just keeps building and building,  layering noise upon noise to create something quite beautiful in it's way. This is one of things that I scroll through the ipod for as soon as the seatbelt light goes out on the plane and I then lose myself in for the next half hour.

Somfay - Fricative White (From A Whisper To A Scream)