Seda Muerta

How about a bit of pounding Techno to brighten up your Tuesday. This mix by Female is one of the best things this side of the new Slam single Chasing Shadows which you really must look out for.  The track just keeps building and building.

Svreca - Seda Muerta (Female remix)

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

From the outset the label title said it all "Soma Quality Recordings".

If anybody can find me another independant label as ground breaking and with such consistently high quality over the past twenty years (Warp is a given) I would like to know.

Prior to the release of SOMA-1, Slam were already know as the best dj double act this side of the border starting with their Black Market nights at Fury Murrys then their Atlantis nights at the Sub Club and one offs at the Barrowlands and Strathy Park. The year after they launched Soma records saw them take up occupation of  the Arches in Glasgow which produced some of the best nights that I have ever been to with guest spots from the cream of the world wide djing fraternity.

But coming back to the music, the term "classic" is bandied about far too much these days not least by me but I think that this is a bona fide classic. When thought of now through the haze of too many years, you think that it is very much of it's time but back in 1991 Slam were well ahead of the pack when they released Eterna.

Have a good weekend people.

Slam - Eterna

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Back to 1992 for a bit of Garage, House, Tribal House? Whatever you want to call it . The mix of the track posted is by Slam but not the kind of tune that you would naturally associate with the Glasgow producers, what with the gosple style vocals and the almost JBO baseline. If I didn't know better I would have said that this was a Farley/Heller mix from around this time.

The track was released on the Stress label with mixes by Brothers In Rhythm which are not bad but not nearly as good as the Slam one.

Have a good weekend people.

Voices of 6th Avenue - Call Him Up (Slam mix)

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)

Am I Really Such A Sadsack? Part One

I stopped by Crying All The Way To The Chip Shop, where londonlee has posted a scene from one of my favourite films of my youth, Diner. In the scene, Shrevie is trying to explain, albeit rather scarily the merits of his record collection and the importance of filing said pieces of vinyl to a rather ambivalent Beth (Ellen Barkin), the scene encapsulates rather well how serious some people take music and in the end you feel rather sorry for Shrevie and the pathetic specimen of a man that he is.

The only other film which, comes close to conveying the, some would say,  sorry life of the record collector is High Fidelity. When I first read the book there was a passage which got me to thinking, god I wish that would happen to me and I started to feel rather envious of Rob until I got a grip and reminded myself that it was a mere work of fiction but then again what if that happened. The scene was not in the finished film, however it has been posted on YouTube.

If you want to watch it you will have to click on the link as the embedding has been disabled for some reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Esanwk37c

I have always had a couple of problems with this scenario from the first time I read the book.

Firstly, the guy couldn't have thought that much of his collection in the first place if he left it and ran away with a young thing. Surely he knew what the consequences would be?

My second problem with the passage/scene is Rob's, frankly pathetic response when the wife says that she only wants fifty quid for the whole priceless collection. All that, "I couldn't do that to another collector" is bollocks, I don't know anybody who in that situation would walk away, no matter how straight your moral backbone was , it's sheer nonsense, you would be down at the cash machine in a shot, insisting that the lady go with you, just in case some other guy was to turn up while you were getting the cash. Anyway,  if you combine it with my highly plausible  argument in point one, then there really is no moral quandary anyway, as the guy didn't deserve the vinyl in the first place.

I used to have nightmares about coming home and finding that L, in a fit of pique had taken all of my records out and made one huge ashtray out of them in the back garden. It was my only worry. I have had to move them all on a couple of occasions and know exactly how much time and effort goes into shifting them, so I reasoned that if some burglar with such good taste managed to get them out of the house and whisked away without anybody being alerted then he (as it would most certainly be a male) deserved the haul.

A couple of years ago I was asked by somebody what record I would save if I only had time to get one out of the house? This thought troubled me, I would be so indecisive that the house would probably come crashing down around me while I was trying to choose. This preyed on my mind for quite a time until I came up with the solution.

So I bought 2 very good quality Swan flight cases, one which could holds 100 12" records and one which could hold 200" 7" ones.

A lot of difficult choices had to be made as to which records warranted inclusion in the boxes and the decisions were not made on financial value as quite a few of the records which are worth money such as the first Fireman album, were never in the running. It took some time but the contents haven't changed that much since then, there have been  a few old ones that have had to make way for certain new ones but no major upheavels. At the moment I am debating as to whether the mighty Fall should have a box all of their own or would it be enough just to save the vinyl I have in the boxes and the Peel sessions box set.

Anyway, to the point of the post, does this information and the further disclosures to be made make me a sadsack or just someone with a healthy interest in music? I know which L believes.

Here are 2 records from the afore mentioned boxes

From the 7" box

Frightened Rabbit -  Head Rolls Off

and the twelves

Slam - Positive Education

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Back to the heady days of progressive house during the early nineties when leather trousers and long hair were de rigueur in clubbing circles for today's offering.

Rejuvination were Glen Gibbons and Jim Muotune who along with the Slam boys and Dave Clarke founded probably the best label out of Glasgow since Postcard, Soma Quality Recordings. In fact they shared the billing with Slam on the first ever Soma release Eterna/IBO. This track was their second single from 1993, so probably after the leather trousers had been thrown to the back of the wardrobe by the uber trendies.

This track reminds me of the Arches in Glasgow and I especially love the breakdown about half way through.

Rejuvination - Requiem