Sunday 31 October 2010

Happy Halloween , Happy Birthday My Boy.



It's Max's birthday today, born on Halloween seven years ago and has been scaring the shit out of his mother and I ever since.

Here is his favourite song of the moment plus the only northern Halloween related song I can think of and a lovely duet with Shane and Sinead a match made in hell if ever there was one.

AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie

Azie Mortimer - Haunted

Shane MacGowan And The Popes - Haunted

Saturday 30 October 2010

The Last Time For A While, I Promise.



I promise this will be the last John Martyn for a while. I just can't stop playing his music at the moment, I think that these songs are particularly suited to my mood at the moment.

Anna is another unreleased gem which for me is far too beautiful not be heard by as many people as possible.

John Martyn - Anna

Friday 29 October 2010

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



When I decided to feature today's track I realised that the Age of Chance had been ahead of their time on more than one occasion in their short career and never seemed to get the recognition for the innovators that they really were, it may have been to do with the ridiculous cycling get up or the rapping in a Leeds accent but I don't think that the band were taken as seriously as they should have been.  Would the Bomb Squad ( Hank Shocklee and Carl Ryder) have remixed a band that wasn't taking their chosen form of music seriously, I don't think so.

Let's look at the evidence, the band although originally grouped in with the C86 movement were the first band to record a track comprising solely of samples. In early 1986 they made a promo of  their cover of Prince's Kiss, which was sent to John Peel who played it on a number of occassions. The track unfortunately never saw the light of day in the commercial world due to the Virgin lawyers being a bit worried about the fact that the Boss or his purpleness, Prince among others may get a bit litigious over the release.

The band were also the first non rap act to incorporate a dj as part of their sound and also have him go out on tour with them.

As mentioned above they were also the first and probably only British indie band to ever be remixed by Public Enemy's production Team (Take It).

However I think that a veil should be drawn over the sartorial preferences of the band even though after seeing them on the Whistle Test I went out and bought a ludicrously expensive and unfeasible tight cycling top as I thought that this was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. I was young, stupid and had far too much disposable income at the time.

The tune posted also shows the band's ability to be ahead of the pack. Timeless is a remix of the  track Time's Up  from the band's second full long player Mecca. When you listen to it now it is hard to believe that it was recorded in 1989 as it was still a couple of years before Progressive House took hold in the UK and it could also be seen as a very early example of Trance.

I have uploaded the bootleg version which appeared three years later, the only difference being that the acid line from Brandon Cooke's Sharp As A Knife ( a track featured here a while ago) has been added to the mix. You may also be able to make out the Pink Floyd samples from The Dark Side Of The Moon.

Age Of Chance - Time's Up (Timeless bootleg mix)

Thursday 28 October 2010

I Can't Let Go



It's been a while since we had some northern soul around these parts.

Here is a rather pleasant mid tempo from Johnny Summers and like with so many other northern soul tracks I have have I can tell you very little about the artist or the record apart from the fact that the single was released on Yorktown records and would set you back a mere 400 quid if you were lucky enough to find a copy.

Johnny Summers - I Can't Let Go

I'm Going to Get Pelters For This One.



I really like this track. It's kind of difficult to get your head round the fact that this is the same band that came up with the banality of Why Does It Always Rain On Me or Driftwood only two years later.

Travis - All I Want To Do Is Rock

Monday 25 October 2010

Johnny Reb



New music time here.

Johnny Reb are a five piece from Glasgow who, in there own words "like getting up people's backs". They were suppossed to be playing the Glasgow University freshers week but had an altercation with another band on the bill and were duly thrown out, this is my kind of band.

Anyway, they have just got back from Portugal where they were recording with Boz Boorer, Morrissey's guitarist but I won't hold that against them.

If you should be in Glasgow on Thursday night and at a loose end you could do worse than getting your backside down to Nice n Sleazy's where the band will be headlining. I have it on good authority from Philip that it will be a distinct 6/10 with a pitch like that how can you resist.

Do not be put off by the tags of Racist, white country on Last FM, I think that that must refer to somebody else, I hope so. This might be a slight impediment guys.

Check out their myspace page here 

Johnny Reb - Nine On The Line

I'm off over the water for a couple of days so nothing more from me 'til Thursday.

Keeping It Peel, Number 1



Well here it is, my favourite session track ever from the John Peel show.  Another one of those "what the fuck" moments and not just from me I think,  as it was also the most requested session for repeat.

I did hear it first on the Peel show and I can honestly say it was like nothing else I had ever heard before, totally unique. For one thing there didn't seem to be any structure to the track, just snippets of dialogue, samples of everything from jets to cockerels, beats floating in and out and it seemed to go on forever. Before this session I had never heard of the Orb and I don't think it was until the second or third repeat that I actually caught the name.

This session didn't just baffle the listeners but also the staff at Maida Vale didn't have a clue what was happening during the recording of the track. Here are Alex Paterson's recollections of the session lifted from Ken Garner's excellent book the Peel Sessions, which if you don't have a copy you really should click here and rectify the situation.

"We turned up early and, finding nobody about, started setting up the turntables and desk in the control room. Suddenly the producer appeared and bawled out: "Get this equipment out of here!" He told us to set up in the studio and come back at 2pm. We said that we were going to generate a load of samples then mix it off the multi-track, which he didn't seem to get. We were so put off that we went round to a friend's house for an hour. But we were determined to defeat this producer so we went back, and pulled all the sofas and lamp stands into the middle of Studio 3 and set up a little living-room set in this huge studio, like something out of Alice In Wonderland and got the main lights switched off, to get a good atmosphere. I just started throwing all these samples at Jimmy: Waves, birdsong, jets, old Sci-Fi play excerpts, those "Aaaahs" of Grace Jones' Slave To The Rhythm, and Minnie Ripperton's Loving You, of course (we'd already started this thing of crediting all our samples, and virtually mixing the drums out of house music). And Jimmy did this great live mix really quick. I think that we were out of the building by 7pm! I think that it was the best mix we ever did of that. The head of Geffen records was over here, and listening to it on Peel while driving and had to pull over, he was so knocked out. He tried too sign us for America, but we already had a deal. The whole thing couldn't have been planned: it was just a very vivid day, because we were finding it so entertaining to defeat this producer bloke."

This session for me is one of the best illustrations of why John Peel is revered by so many people and was so essential to popular music during the thirty seven years that he was broadcasting on the BBC.  Long before the Radio One bosses decided that they needed specialist dance dj's Peel had been championing house and hip-hop. No other DJ anywhere in 1989 would have had the courage or sheer bloodymindedness to play a 20 minute noodling like A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Loving You) and for that reason alone he should be saluted.

And lets not forget all of the bands he gave the chance for more than their mates to hear by airing their demos or first singles. Or the obscure reggae, soul and other genres that got no other national airplay. He certainly contributed greatly to me opening my mind to music that probably if I hadn't heard it on his show I would have remained oblivious to.

Another reason I respect the man so much is that he refused the Irish Band a session, bit petty I know but that's me.

John Peel meant many things to many people,  from the sympathetic voice that listened to peoples woes and idiosyncrasies on Radio 4's Home Truths,  the devoted Liverpool supporter who cried on air after the Hillsborogh tragedy, the champion of so many different genres of music not least punk,  to the hippy who was friends with Mark Bolan and presented The Perfumed Garden.

It may be an overused phrase but it makes it no less true that his like will never be seen or heard over the airwaves again.

Teenage dreams so hard to beat



 Orb Session recorded 03rd December 1989 aired 19th December 1989

Tracklisting: A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Loving You)

The Orb - A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld  (Loving  You)
Alternative zipped file

Sunday 24 October 2010

Keeping It Peel, Number 2



If there is one band that is synonomous with the Peel sessions then it has to be The "mighty" Fall. As I have mentioned previously this is where MES and the gruppe shine brightest.  Whether showcasing new material or much rarer revisiting old stuff for the "look back bores",  the Peel session versions of tracks such as Blindness, Winter, Hip Priest, the list goes on and on became the definitive versions for a lot of fans.

Many, many Fall fans had waited for years for the release of all of these tracks in one package. Many still listened to the stretched and over played but loved cassette copies they had made over the years. However when it happened,  although we were still elated with the release it was also tinged with sadness as we all knew that what we had in our hands was the finished product as due to John's untimely death the previous October there was no possibility of ever hearing again those words which made the heart beat that little bit faster and filled grown men with the expectations of children on Christmas morning,  "Tonight a new session from the Fall".

So when I first sat down to compile this short series the only certainty I had was that the Fall would be #1, the problem would be choosing a single track from the 96 broadcast over the course of  an unassailable 24 sessions.


How very wrong I was, as I trailed through all of my Peel sessions I remembered a session that had more of an effect on me than even any of the Fall ones but more of that tomorrow.

Much has been written about Peel's love of the Fall over the years and he  is responsible for many memorable quotes regarding the band.  My favourite and the one that hits the nail on the head about why the Fall are what they are to fans is "With the Fall you can never be absolutely certain about what you're gonna get. Sometimes it may not be what you want, but it's still,     they're the Fall that's all you need."

There is a common misconception that Peel and Smith were the best of friends. There was mutual respect between the two men but if Smith is to be believed they only met on a few occasions and Smith unlike quite a few people who had recorded sessions for the great man didn't attend the funeral. When asked about it by a journalist he said "the reason I didn't go to John's funeral is because I never even knew him. Of course,  I'd see him when we went down to record the sessions, say hello, but I never went round to his house for tea, unlike fucking PJ Harvey and all them." The fact that he didn't go to the funeral didn't mean that Smith wasn't affected by Peel's death, even though the strange appearance on Newsnight on the night after Peel's death may point to the contrary.  In an interview later he wondered about the arbitrariness of life when he said " . . . he's gone (JP) and when you see some of the bastards still walking around. . . . "

Sometime before his death John has been quoted as saying " If I drop dead tomorrow, I'll have nothing to complain about  - except that there'll be another Fall album out next year."

It seems fitting to post the last track(s) from the final Peel Session by the Fall, before which we have the dulcet tones of the man himself introducing the gruppe.

Session 24 recorded 04th August 2004, aired 12th August 2004

Tracklisting: Clasp Hands, Blindness, What About Us?, Wrong Place, Right Time - I Can Hear The Grass Grow

John Peel - The Fall

The Fall - Wrong Place, Right Time - I Can Hear The Grass Grow

Saturday 23 October 2010

Keeping It Peel, Number 3



As I've said before the first time I heard the cacophony that was the early Jesus And Mary Chain sound it was one of those "what the fuck is that " moments. I would love to be able to say that that first time was on the Peel show, however for some reason it wasn't I don't know why because as far as I can remember I was listening to the show at the back end of 1984 but my abiding memory of hearing Upside Down for the first time was on a tape that a friend gave me.

The third session, however does stick in my mind as it totally threw me. Was this the same band that I had been listening to continually?  Gone was the feedback replaced with jangly acoustic guitars, surely not.  But it was and it was glorious. It showed that the band were no one trick pony and that beneath all of that feedback and pseudo violence there were actually some rather pretty pop songs.

The Mary Chain would go on to record another 3 sessions for the Peel Show, however for me session three stands head and shoulders above the others.

Session recorded 29th October 1985 and aired 11th November 1985.

Tracklisting: Some Candy Talking, Psycho Candy, You Trip Me Up, Cut Dead

The Jesus And Mary Chain - You Trip Me Up

Friday 22 October 2010

It's Friday . . . Let's Keep On Keeping It Peel, Number 4



By the end of the 1980's more and more Peel sessions were from solo artist or duos who had thrown away their guitars and amps and replaced them with sequencers, decks and drum machines. With acts such as A Guy Called Gerald, Coldcut and the like recording sessions. This was one of my favourite periods of listening to John Peel as I was hearing most of these weird and wonderful artists for the first time. I seem to remember at the time that there were quite a lot of grumbling at the time from long term listeners as to why Peel was moving away from the indie fodder that had reigned supreme during the 80's.

This move towards more electronic music increased as the show entered the 90's, to such an extent that Dave Clarke even filled in for Peel on a couple of occasions. During the early 90s there were seminal sets by Orbital, Sabres of Paradise and the Orb (more of which later).

Today's session track comes from Future Sound Of London's first of four sessions for the show.

Session recorded 25th August 1992 and aired on 18th September 1992

Tracklisting: Lifeforms, Expander, Papua New Guinea, Space Hippy

Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea

Thursday 21 October 2010

Keeping It Peel, Number 5



When a lot of people think of the Peel sessions what initially springs to mind are punk, post punk and indie bands. I know that this is a sweeping generalisation but whenever I mention the Peel sessions to people of my age they mention groups like the Fall, Wedding Present, Napalm Death etc or if younger The White Stripes.

Today, although recorded in 1978 when the Peel Show was full of The Fall, Stiff Little Fingers and The UK Subs we have a very different beast.

Those of you who have read this nonsense over the last month or so will know that I have posted material by John Martyn on a few occasions recently. Martyn recorded 7 sessions over 10 years for Peel and today's track comes from the last session and is probably my favourite track by the artist.

This track/session is an illustration of what made the Peel show so unique. I think that a couple of other DJs on fabulous Radio 1 would probably have played tracks by John Martyn, none I'm guessing would play the 8mins 25secs of Small Hours and follow it up with the likes of 999 or Steel Pulse or something just as diverse.

In the dictionary under eclectic, surely the Peel show should be mentioned.

Session recorded 9th January 1978 and aired 16th January.

Tracks: Small Hours, Big Muff

John Martyn - Small Hours

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Keeping It Peel, Number 6



Stiff Little Fingers have always been my favourite punk band, I will still play Inflammable Material and Nobody's Heroes on a regular basis. I still find the rawness of the first album quite exhilarating and tracks such as Barbed Wire Love and Wasted Life still sound alive and relevant these days to me in a way that other albums of that era sound dated now with the exception of The Clash.

It is not an exaggeration to state that if it wasn't for Peel, Stiff Little Fingers would probably never have been heard of outside of Belfast. When he received a copy of their first single Suspect Device, he played it continually on his show, leading to Geoff Travis of Rough Trade taking notice and offering the band a distribution deal. The band could not believe the support they were getting from Peel and on their next single Alternative Ulster acknowledged the debt they owed to the man by having printed on the back cover "For John Peel Who Made It Possible".

The band recorded 5 sessions for the show. The track posted is taken from the second and I think the best of those sessions.

Session recorded 12th September 1978 and aired on 18th September 1978.

Tracklisting: Johnny Was, Law and Order, Barbed Wire Love and Suspect Device.

SLF - Suspect Device

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Keeping It Peel, Number 7



Today's choice in my Peel session is by "the boy Gedge", another favourite of Peel's who recorded 22 sessions, combining The Wedding Present and Cinerama appearances.

The amount of sessions meant that I was spoilt for choice when it came to picking a track, first of all should it be the Weddoes or Cinerama?  Should I pick one of Gedge's original compositions, one of his wonderful interpretations of other people's work, bizarrely including a track by faux Russian lesbians tATu, or one of the Ukranian folk songs.

After long deliberation I've chosen something from the 12th and final Wedding Present session mainly due to the fact that the track comes from the album which I play more than any other Wedding Present album these days Take Fountain the album Gedge decided to resurrect The Wedding Present after a 7 year hiatus. Some of the tracks which would appear on this album were previewed during the final 2 Cinerama sessions in June 2003 and January 2004.

Peel himself when airing  final session said "Well, I think that this session has been as good as anything they've done over the years" and I for one am not going to argue with the man.

The Wedding Present session 12 recorded 22nd July 2004, aired 21st September 2004

Tracklisting: Blue Eyes, Ringway To Seatac, Shivers, Queen Anne and White Horses.

The Wedding Present - Ringway To Seatac

Monday 18 October 2010

Keeping It Peel, Number 8



Today it is the fourth best band in Hull's turn to shine in their first session from Maida Vale.

I was always a big fan of the Housemartins. I loved the way that they incorporated left wing political views in what seemed like innocuous pop songs, however I'm not quite sure to what extent the messages registered with those not already converted. I was also rather partial to their a cappella efforts at gospel music (it isn't Christmas in this house until Caravan of Love has been dusted down and placed on the turntable) although others I know couldn't abide these tracks.

One of my big regrets of the mid eighties was not borrowing the money to go and see them at the Barras for what by all accounts was one of the best concerts that those who attended had ever been at.


The first session was recorded 21st July 1985 and was aired on 29th July 1985.

Track listing: Drop Down Dead, Flag Day, Stand At Ease and Joy, Joy, Joy.

The Housemartins - Flag Day

Sunday 17 October 2010

Keeping It Peel, Number 9



I am slightly embarrassed to say that number nine in the countdown sees the appearance of the only female in the top ten. This troubled me when I was compiling this list but unless I wanted to start putting quotas in, then I'm sorry but no other female or female fronted band came close, with the exception of PJ Harvey who would probably have made a top 15.

Today's track comes from a session by Cat Power recorded on 18th June 2000 and broadcast on 20th July 2000 and 31st August 2000.

Chan Marshall decided to record some of her favourite songs for this double session. Included is what I think is the definitive version of Oasis's Wonderwall,  even better than the version by Ryan Adams. Peel's listeners seemed to like it too as it reached number 33 in that year's Festive Fifty.

Session Tracks: Sophisticated Lady, Hard Times In New York City, Wonderwall, He Was A Friend Of Mine, Freebird, Deep Inside, Come On In My Kitchen, Werewolf, Up And Gone, Sister, Knocking On Heaven's Door.

Cat Power - Wonderwall

Saturday 16 October 2010

Keeping It Peel



I was reading the other week at The Vinyl Villain of Webbie's idea for the 25th October and decided that it was too important a date not to commemorate. So I started thinking of what Fall session track I would post on the day but realised that by just posting a Fall Peel Session track. I was being a bit slack with Mr Peel's memory and of the influence the man had on my musical taste,  as the Fall weren't the only band that I got to hear through him directly or when I was a lot younger more indirectly from JP via Bat and Tank,  my best mate's  older brothers.

So what to do? Should I try and list the bands that I first heard on the John Peel Show, examples of such would be The Fall of course but also Bang Bang Machine, Ella Guru, Okkervil River amongst many others.  Or should I post my favourite Festive Fifty tracks or the best Festive Fifty number one, which in my opinion is Geek Love by the afore mentioned Bang Bang Machine.

After much thought I have decided on the ten best  Peel session tracks by different individuals or bands that I have in my collection at the moment and don't have to go searching for and downloading from the internet.

The facts, date of session etc will either come from the back of the vinyl (I am lucky enough to own a few of those Peel Session 12" singles that were released on Strange Fruit) or the cd and for the couple that I own only in MP3 form, from Ken Garner's excellent book, The Peel Sessions, a read and reference material that no self respecting music fan should be without.

So, here is number ten on my list, The Pixies,  a band that over the last few years I have neglected. When I first heard them, I was sort of falling out of love with guitar based music in favour of the 4/4 beats of House. The Pixies were one of the few conventional bands at this time that I got into but it was in a bit of a half hearted fashion. I bought Doolittle and the follow-up Bossanova and listened to them on and off but not nearly as much as the house and acid 12" singles I was buying at the time. It wasn't until I revisited these albums in the early noughties that I really got into them.

The track I have picked is from their third session for Peel recorded on 16th April 1989 and aired on 2nd May 1989.

The Pixies - Wave Of Mutilation

Friday 15 October 2010

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



Here is a bit of recent Techno from The Black Dog for your aural pleasure this Friday.

The Black Dog released their first ep Age of Slack in 1989 and were one of the bands along with Aphex Twin and LFO, amoungst others who would be labelled by the music press as IDM (Inteligent Dance Music), a term that I always thought to be rather patronising,  as if everybody else creating dance music was thick as fuck or something, unlike all those bookish, sensitive, guitar strumming indie types.

Anyway, the Black Dog have had a couple of line ups with Ken Downie being the only constant. The other two original members, Andy Turner and Ed Handley left in the mid nineties to concentrate on their other project, Plaid. In 2001 the current line up was formed with the inclusion of Richard and Martin Dust.

The track posted comes from a remix project from earlier this year  of tracks from the Further Vexations album which was released last year on Soma Quality Recordings.

The Black Dog - Northern Electronic Soul (Claro Intelecto Snake Pass Mix)

Thursday 14 October 2010

Dark Storm



The Jezabels have just released their third ep,  Dark Storm.  Although there is nothing as immediate as Disco Biscuit Love, all five tracks get better with each play.

The best new music I've heard for a few months.

I don't know how to best pigeonhole their sound so I won't even bother.

The Jezabels - Sahara Mahala

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Rejoice, Rejoice

Stx is back and this time he's posting his own mixes.

Here

There's bound to be plenty of Weatherall in the mix.

John Martyn, Again



I don't know what it is at the moment but I find myself listening to John Martyn a lot of an evening. Maybe it's the time of year, there is something rather comforting in those slurred vocals when the nights are drawing in but it''s probably just the fact that the man was a brilliant songwriter/musician.

To illustrate the point I have posted an incredibly beautiful track which Martyn didn't deem good enough to warrant inclusion on One World and which lesser talents would probably give their left bollock to have penned.

I defy you to say this isn't lovely.

John Martyn - All For The Love Of You

Tuesday 12 October 2010

I Will Try Again, . . Shall I?



I am going to try once more to persuade you of the genius of Greg Dulli. When I have posted anything before by either the Afghan Whigs or The Twilight Singers there has been a distinct lack of interest.  Apart from Tommy Bolin they have been the least downloaded tracks, christ,  Bonnie Tyler was downloaded more, for fuck's sake!

Anyway, this track comes from the final release on Sub Pop by The Afghan Whigs, Uptown Avondale which was an ep of covers apart from the tune posted which was a remix of the final "hidden" song on the Congregation album.

The track shows that Dulli had been listening to what has been going on over the previous few years on this side of the pond,  as included in the heady brew of alternative rock, 70's funk and Motown which are prevalent in all of Dulli's music he has also added a bit of indie dance to the mix.

Therefore, please listen without prejudice (the only time a George Michael reference will ever be made on this blog) and give it a go,

It's good, trust me!

The Afghan Whigs - Rebirth Of The Cool

Monday 11 October 2010

Some Candy Talking, too



Just back from the Wigwams and had a great couple of days, no rain but plenty of wind. The Mull Of Kintyre is quite a beautiful part of the country, well worth a visit. I now know what the writer of that song with The Frog Chorus was banging on about all those years ago.

Anyway, after scouring the blogs to see what I've been missing. I noticed that Swiss Adam had posted a rather lovely version of Some Candy Talking by Richard Hawley.

I also have a cover of Some Candy Talking, however mine's features feedback from an accordian of all things. It is by The Caulfied Sisters,  from Brooklyn and was released as a split 7" single on smart blue vinyl on American Laundromat Records with Julie Peel on the other side covering Divine Hammer by the Breeders. The song was recorded for a session for the John In The Morning show on KEXP.

The Caulfied Sisters - Some Candy Talking

Friday 8 October 2010

That'll Teach Me To Ask

"What do you want to do in the October week holiday?", I foolishly asked M, certainly not expected the reply "Go to a wigwam, dad!".

Before I could explain that it would be October, freezing and wet L was on the internet.

So tomorrow we're off to a wigwam on the Mull of Kintyre for the weekend.


Prince Buster - Madness

Bitty Mclean - It Keeps Rainin'

It's Friday . . . Blow Yer Whistle




Right it's back to 1992 for this Friday's instalment of the most flogged to death series in blog land. So it is time to get out your glow sticks, air horns, masks and vicks.

I have absolutely no recollection of buying this release as I was never really into the Rave scene, I was more of a progressive house person and would rather go to the Sub Club or the Arches in 1992 than some Rezzurrection or Fantazia shindig. I did however, like Anthem and it is possible that this was bought on a whim late one drunken night from Tower Records in Glasgow, which was stupidly open to midnight and if this was the case then it is far from the only bit of vinyl that was purchased in this fashion during that period.

The record is basically a mini Rave split over two sides of vinyl. Don't ask me to name the individual tracks as I haven't a scooby. But I have been reliably informed that this was pretty much how a PA by N-Joi went down during the days of white doves and mitsubushis.

I just love the crap but earnest MC'ing.

You're rockin' with N-Joi, Come On! 


N-Joi - Live In Manchester (Part1)

Thursday 7 October 2010

I'm Really Not Sure



On the three occasions I have seen Imelda May live, one of the highlights of the night has always been her cover version of Tainted Love, so when the new album popped through the door, it was the first track that I put on.

After listening to it now for the fourth time, I really don't know if I like it or not which is a new feeling for me being undecided about music.

It would appear that I may be starting to become indecisive.

Imelda May - Tainted Love

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Not Quite As Good As The Other One

Two weeks ago I managed to get my hands on a copy of Don't Send Nobody Else by Ace Spectrum for what I thought was a reasonable but still considerable amount for a record graded as VG.

Unfortunately when the single arrived from the States, so the postage wasn't that cheap either it became obvious that I had been duped as a certain Mr Smith would say. The overall effect of listening to the record could not have been made any worse if I had put on headphones and eaten a pack of Kettle chips while listening and also speeding it up and slowing it down all the time just for the hell of it for not only was the vinyl, how shall I put it, shagged it also had a warp just to enhance the listening pleasure.

I was rather upset at this and emailed the seller but surprise surprise the spineless bastard didn't even have the decency to respond.

Anyway, earlier tonight, for some reason I typed  Don't Send Nobody Else into Google and to my surprise found out that Millie Jackson did the original version of the song which until that moment I was totally unaware of. Not as good as the Ace Spectrum version, in my opinion but worth a listen nonetheless.


More Of The Same, Unfortunately



If somebody were to ask me what my favourite ten albums of the past decade were, I would probably have trouble trying to keep it down to ten. But two sure choices would be the Burial albums, both would have to be included as I really can't choose between them.

I was completely blown away when I heard the first album, it was just not what I had expected at all especially when it was said to be dubstep. Instead of something to go mental on the dancefloor to here was an album that you had to sit down and listen to and really listen to. Even now when I put either album on I just have to take time out and immerse myself in them and do absolutely nothing else but listen.

So anytime I hear William Bevan's more famous moniker mentioned in relation to new music it is time for a celebration. When I heard that Burial would be responsible for remixing a track from Commix album Call To Mind, the only question that came to mind was when can I order this.

The single sided 12" single arrived last week and I eagerly ripped it from the cardboard box,  fired it on to the turntable and listened. I don't know what I was expecting exactly but I felt disappointed, don't get me wrong the record is great but great in the same way as all of the previous Burial records have been but there is nothing new in it, it just sounds like Burial.

As I said I don't know what I was expecting but from somebody who has been so innovative in the past, most recently in his collaboration with FourTet, Moth,  it feels to me as if he is treading water a little.

See what you think

Commix - Be True (Burial mix)

Monday 4 October 2010

The First Cut Is The Deepest



I'm so looking forward to Bullingdon Boys first party conference in power. Nearly as much as the comprehensive spending review which will follow shortly afterwards.

Still, it's good to know we're all in this together.

Maybe they should adopt this as their new theme tune.

PP Arnold - The First Cut Is The Deepest.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Enjoy



Here is possibly the best thing that Paul Oakenfold ever did in my opinion and not a bad track to listen to while perusing the Sundays.

Solid Gold Easy Amex (feat. Redbox) - Enjoy ( Paul Oakenfold's Future mix)

Friday 1 October 2010

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



I'm not going to keep this up for very long as it is out at the moment but it is one of the best Techno records that I've heard in a long time and therefore needs to be brought to your attention

It's by Slam, purveyors of quality Scottish Detroit Techno since 1991 when they released Eterna, the first release on their own label Soma.

It is great that nearly twenty years later they can still deliver the goods albeit the a side is remixed by somebody else but both tunes on the flip are nearly as good.

Room 2 (the remixes) is out on Paragraph records and can be purchased here if you are quick enough.

Slam -  Room 2 (Pan Pot Rave Tool mix)