It's Friday . . . Let's Dance. To The Fall???

Surely not.

Oh yes.

But at least MES never said "there's always been an element of  dance music in our sound" He may have done recently but nobody would have noticed as he is all but incoherent apart from the expletives these days.

Have a good weekend people. And wrap up warm,  I think it's going to be a cold one.

The Fall - Touch Sensitive (Dance mix)

What A Beautiful Noise

Sometimes all you need is a feedback drenched cover of an old Buddy Holly song to cheer you up.

This racket was one of the highlights for me of early Raveonettes gigs, sometimes they even started and ended their sets with it.

The Raveonettes - Everyday (Live Roskilde 2003)

Leave My House

Here is a cracker of a garage band sound, from 1966.  All fuzz guitar and up front vocals. The singer sounds really pissed off with his girlfriend waking him up in the middle of the night. I don't think that the guy is a morning person somehow. The band were a big hit around Missouri and N.E. Arkansas according to one website. The band recorded an album's worth of material of which only this single remains. Apparently there is reel to reel recording with a different mix of the song where you can actually hear the drums, bass and second guitar but as yet I haven't been able to get a copy. So you will just have to content yourself with the single version, which is another repress as the original fetches upwards of twelve hunderd quid! It's good but not that good.

I'm off to Belfast for a couple of days.

The Modds - Leave My House

Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow

I have featured Age Of Chance here before and mentioned the  not altogether there attendance at their gig in Aberdeen in 1987.  The tour was to promote their first full album for Virgin, their previous mini-album, Crush Collision had originally been released on Fon Records and then re-released on Virgin. The album sounds a bit dated these days due to the amount of times the samples and beats have surfaced on other records since then but back then no British band was doing this sort of thing, mixing hip-hop beats with thrashy guitars and rapping with a West Riding twang.

I fucking loved them at the time. The music was genuinely innovative and the way they dressed was not just an affront to good taste but also an assault on the eyes of the beholder and made me run out and buy a ludicrously expensive cycling top, I already had the Flat-top and docs.

Here is the 12" mix of the first thing to be put out on the Virgin label and a taster of the LP to follow.

As they would chant at the time, You want trouble,  T-R-O-U-B-L-E, you got it.

Age Of Chance - Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Noise (Dance Power mix)

and as a bonus!

Age Of Chance - Big Bad Rap

How Times Have Changed

I have heard stories that Oscar nominated tune Happy by Pharrell Williams has been getting plays in the main room at northern nights in the UK and is going down a storm. This would seem to be backed up by the prices copies of the 7" are going for on ebay, north of 60 quid! I feel rather smug that I paid £7  for mine which I think is about right, I would probably have gone to a tenner but not much more.

The irony of the fact that tunes like that by Pharrell Williams and Tribute by Bob Sinclar are being embraced by the rare soul fraternity when he was met with death threats and a "Levine Must Go" campaign when he tried to introduce new music and then his own "tailor made" recordings can't be lost on Ian Levine.

Here is his first venture into production with a track he wrote based on a fictitious title of a Bob Relf track, released in 1975 and crossed over to reach number 31 in the UK singles chart. I love the opening lines of this song "I got the price of a Ford, looking for a Rolls Royce"

The Exciters - Reaching For The Best

Mellow Sunday

It's all in the title really.

I've posted this before and I have no doubt I will post it again.

Kris Kristofferson - Sunday Mornin' Coming Down

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

No,  not the T word!

It is a well known fact that I despise Trance, it is the worst form of dance music and for a long time was also for some reason that I cannot comprehend the most popular. I couldn't get away from the pish. It turned me into an even more anti-social git than I had already evolved  into by the mid-nineties as at the weekends when the inevitable cry of "all back to mine" was uttered I usually declined as a couple of hours drinking lukewarm beer listening to people talking bollocks to the sound of the latest mix cd by Nick Warren, John Digweed et all was about as appealing as going to a Tory Party conference.

Having said all that, today's track is a very good example of the form which for some reason I actually quite like. There are possibly a dozen songs in this genre that don't fill me with the desire to hurl projectile vomit across the room and this is probably in the top five.

Nightmare is the output of Venetian producer Alberto Bertapelle and released on the Strike Force label in Italy in 1996, it was then picked up by ZYX where it came to the attention of a wider audience. Those eerie strings and claustrophobic feel of thee track seemed to appeal to a lot of clubbers and the track went global. And the inevitable happened, the following year it was bastardised by the likes of Judge Jules and Tall Paul,  turned into the worst kind of shitty trance possible and released in the UK on Positiva. The version posted is the "Sinister Strings" version which appeared on the ZYX release.

Have a good weekend people.

Brainbug - Nightmare (Sinister Strings)

Come Back Bird

Here is a bit of a bluesy stomper of a garage band sound recorded in  Abiline,  Texas and released on the UMI label in 1965. Sadly my copy is a reissue from a few years ago.

The Chevelle V - Come Back Bird

The Spirit of The Velvets is Strong With This Pair

Following on from yesterday's VU post here is a rather good cover of a classic Velvets tune. Not sure what it is about Mosshart and Hince but it doesn't matter what song they are performing but they manage to envelope them all with an underlying feeling of malevolence and the threat of imminent violence. Perfect  for keeping alive the spirit of the Velvet Underground.

The Kills - Pale Blue Eyes

The Booker T

Here's the Velvet Underground being as funky as in this wig out tribute to the great piano/organ player. The Booker T started out as a live jam that the band would play when Lou Reed was ill. It later evolved into the instrumental track to the story of the hapless Waldo Jeffers on The Gift included on the second album White Light White Heat. The version included here was recorded live at The Gymnasium in NYC in April 1967. It is included on the bootleg,  Psychedelic Sounds From The Gymnasium but only the cd version and also came out as a bootleg 7".

The Velvet Underground - The Booker T

I'm The One To Do It

Jackie Wilson's version is probably the better known of this song. However I think that Laverne Baker's version of the Billy Butler penned track from 1969 which like Wilson's was released on the Brunswick label can more than hold it's own.

Laverne Baker - I'm The One To Do It 

Mellow Sunday

Another track from last year's brilliant Jon Hopkins album. Seriously,  if you don't own this already you need to have a word with yourself and then sort yourself out.

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

It's been a long time since last pay day and still a week to go. Just as well that no "must have" records have been released so far this year.

Today's dance track comes from a much overlooked and underrated trio in my opinion. Fluke started making music in the late 80's influenced as so many electronic groups at the time by the evolving dance scene in the UK. They have produced many memorable 12" singles enlisting the talents of a diverse group of remixers from The Dust Brothers to Fila Brazilia. Today's track comes from 1995 and is a great example of a throbbing piece of progressive house that just keeps building.

Have a good weekend people.

Fluke - Bullet (Percussion Cap)

FFS Drew, Get A Grip!

Last night my TV viewing habits reached a new low. Up until then I had managed to body swerve the dubious delights of that Berry woman and the guy with the extremely shifty looking eyes. To my horror I found myself watching the I'm A Celebrity, Sport's Person Watch Me Bake A Cake and hoping that Michael Ball's Big Daddy cake was going to be a success which it kind of was but I'm not sure that I would have wanted to eat it, it looked a bit dense as did all the sponges really. I like mine to be light and moist.

Not sure that Jamelia has a new career as a baker either but she can sing. Is it really ten years since this was released!

Jamelia - Thank You 

More

Why wasn't this a hit?

Oh, that's right they tried to pockle the charts, got found out and the single was withdrawn! Pity really as it is a cracking pop song.

The High - More

Silver Train

Silver Train is the first song on the posthumously released album, Drop Out by East Village. The band was formed in the mid 80s by brothers Martin and Paul Kelly, the former went on to found Heavenly Recordings with Jeff Barrett and the latter to form the band Birdie. After a handful of single releases the band split on stage in 1991 at which time they had finished recording their debut with financing from Bob Stanley and Jeff Barrett who got the album mixed and eventually released on Heavenly in 1993. It was subsequently re-released last year.

I must confess that I bought the album on a whim on the strength of the cover.

East Village - Silver Train

Soul Self Satisfaction

Here is another belter of a track, I really need to use another word to describe these records. Out of Chicago and released in 1967 as a demo only which became a crowd pleaser at the Torch. This song has everything, a distinctive intro, lyrics about loss and heartache and a tempo aimed directly at the dancefloor.

Not a bad way to start a Monday.

Earl Jackson - Soul Self Satisfaction

Leo Is Also Five

Leo is five today. About nine months ago he told me that he wanted to be called Sandy and for a couple of minutes I was perplexed as to where that had come from.  We didn't know anybody called Sandy and nobody from "Fire Sam" or Star Wars went by that moniker. It was Max who eventually shed light on who Sandy was " that guy in the shorts, who shouts and swears at everybody in the Wild Geese, that's who he is talking about dad". It all fell into place.

Why was a four year old allowed to watch a film about mercenaries in Africa I hear you cry. I can only hold up my hands and admit to bad parenting. We had it on DVD, one of those free things from some paper that my dad had bought,  Max had watched and brought home and which Leo had taken a shine to. So much so that one evening I heard him singing the theme song while playing with action men. I further encouraged this by seeking out the single on ebay and purchasing it for him. So along with "Too Much Apple Pie", The Flight Of The Wild Geese is one of  his favourite records.

And for the record,  he also loves Where Eagles Dare, I blame his grandpa, or "my Andy" as Leo refers to him. This caused much searching for my Geoff Love And His Orchestra's Big War Movie Themes album I bought from a charity shop a long time ago, thinking that it would be a laugh to drop The Dam Busters theme half way through the night in the pub,

Happy Birthday son.

Joan Armatrading - The Flight Of The Wild Geese

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

How about a bit of Siberian Techno remixed in Minesota,  which is probably just as cold if not colder than Siberia at the moment?

Nina Kraviz is a singer, producer and DJ from Russia's frozen north who runs the Friday night at Moscow's Propaganda club. She has produced tunes for quite a few labels including those run by Greg Wilson and Ellen Allien.

Today's track sees her employ the talents of the Minneapolis residing techno producer DVS1 who takes the track Best Friend and takes it to a whole other level. The track was first aired on Kraviz essential mix in 2012 and finally got a vinyl release in the summer of last year. Quality stuff.

Have a good weekend people.

Nina Kraviz - Best Friend (DVS1 Forever Mix)

Back To The Soul

Here is an absolute belter of a soul tune that was recently re-released on 7" vinyl. and which originally came out on the Jewel label in the mid 60s I think.

Jimmy "Preacher" Ellis - I'm Gonna Do It By Myself

Who Would Have Thought It

That 1700 posts ago this pish would still be going five years later? Certainly not me. And for those who wish it hadn't, sorry.

The Postmarks - 5 Years

The Pale Fountains - From Across The Kitchen Table (12" mix)

Rest Easy Renee

For L and her Mum

Mellow Sunday

Here is a lovely piece of groundbreaking music which first appeared in 1983 on the Into Battle With The Art Of Noise 12" and was later appropriated by the E generation as as post club come down favourite.

The Art Of Noise - Moments In Love

It's Friday . . . Let's Just Sit Back And Relax.

I have been listening to a lot of the KLF recently not sure why but the White Room and Chill Out have been on rotation on the turntable, last night it was the turn of the Orb and Loving You and the full version of The Blue Room. My head is not in the right place at the moment for dancing.

"Sunlight on a winter's day" that would be nice, it has rained here constantly for the last fortnight!

Have a good weekend people.

The KLF - No More Tears

The Impression That I Get

Not got much to say.  This came on shuffle earlier and I had forgotten just how good it was. Just the sort of thing to blow away the cobwebs while dancing round the kitchen like an edjit.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get

Ne'er Day

I hope that you are all suitably hungover.

I'm off to my mother's for lentil soup and steak pie.

Here's a bit of Dick Gaughan singing the words of Hamish Henderson. I first heard this song about thirty years ago at the first Lanark CND social I attended. For those of you interested you can find the lyrics and English translation here. This is also for my mother in law, who although from Carlisle loved Scottish music. Rest easy Renee

Dick Gaughan - The Freedom Come-All-Ye