It's Friday . . Let's Dance

Here we have a very fresh slab of minimal tech house from Redshape on the Delsin label.  Future Shock is the title track from this 3 tune ep which comes on rather lovely marbled transparent blue vinyl. This is a belter of a track which reminds me of Late Night Jam by Levon Vincent, featured in this very spot some time ago.

Redshape is the alias of Sebastian Kramer another producer working out of Berlin.  What is it about that city that produces so many consistently good purveyors of Detroit influenced Techno? He has been responsible for numerous great pieces of tecno on the Delsin and Present labels and this year also did an absolutely brilliant remix of CCTV by The Black Dog.

Redshape - Future Shock

Gig of The Year

It was quite a funny year gig wise. Didn't go to nearly as many as I have done in the previous few years. This was partially due to the fact that all the gigs I did want to go to were on in the same week or fortnight or when I was away with work.

There is a more worrying reason that has crept into my lack of attendance this year and that is,  I cannot be arsed. I look at the listings,  see somebody I wouldn't mind hearing live and then I check out the date and it is usually mid week and at the Wah Wah Hut and all of my enthusiasm drains away. I say to myself,  do I really want to drag myself back out, drive into the Town stand through a couple of mediocre at best support acts then wait for the main act to come on stage at 10:30 pm and eventually get home sometime after midnight to get up again at 06:30?  The resounding answer 99% of the time is no. And before anybody comments that it is because I am becoming an old git, I am well aware of the fact and this is why I am troubled.

Without a shadow of a doubt my best live experience this year was The Airborne Toxic Event at the Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh. As with the Wedding Present I have never seen this band give a lackluster performance.  Granted I have only seem them 5 times and that has been over the space two years but it is still quite an impressive track record. But the performance in Edinburgh was particularly special I think that this could have to do with the quite intimate,  rather lovely venue complimented the band wonderfully. Also there set was chosen extremely well and the segueway from Missy into I'm On Fire truly inspired, the 2 and a bit years of near constant touring have certainly paid off. It has been a while since I left a venue with quite as big a smile on my face. The only downside is that that will probably be the last time that I will see them in such an environment as I think that with the new material that they aired that they are on their way to bigger venues and good luck to them.

It is also very easy to pick the biggest disappointment of the year and that rather dubious honour goes to that contrary bastard Mark E Smith, who will most certainly not give a damn about it. So much for your work ethic Smith, you robbing bastard, it wasn't big and it certainly ain't clever. And to the guy whom we overheard saying " That's Mark E Smith and that's why we love him" you must be even stupider than you look, fanboy.

The Airborne Toxic Event - A Letter To Georgia

What You On About Jobbers?

This came on the iPod while driving up from Birmingham earlier this evening and I realised that I have never known what the lyrics to this song are and what's more I haven't been in the slightest bit curious over the past THIRTY years about what Jobson is going on about in this song.

Has not having a scooby in any way diminished my appreciation of this absolutely wonderful piece of pop?

Not one iota!

I also suspect that Jobbers doesn't really know what the hell he is on about on this record either.


The Skids - Circus Games

Darlin', You're No Oil Painting

As you are reading this, I will be attending my December Team Meeting and will now be the lucky owner of a packet of Pot Pourri, a pack of three size 22 pants or some such shit. I will have tried my best to look as if my sides are splitting with laughter but suspect my coupon will have given the game away.

Anyway, here is the first single from an album that does genuinely make me smile when I hear it.  Schmotime, released in 2006 is full of great tunes with lyrics full of wry humour and in Dan Michaelson's deep voice a really distinctive vocal.

Absentee - We Should Never Have Children

Something Different For A Sunday

I forgot to include this in my Tracks Of My Year. It's from a rather strange, clear vinyl 10" single and throbs along nicely for nearly ten minutes.

Possibly not the best thing to listen to if you have a hangover.

Factory Floor  - 16-16-9-20-1-14-9-7

The Tracks Of My Year

This year has seen me retreating further from indie rock and going back to listening to a lot more northern soul and buying a lot of new dance music thanks to Boomkat.

I don't know what it is about me and indie music at the moment but I find it hard to be enthused let alone moved by the majority of what I have heard this year. It could be that my ears are getting old but most of it sounds the same to me. There have been exceptions such as the albums by Allo Darlin' and Lucky Soul and the brace of singles from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart but apart from these I can't think of much that has been memorable.

I also seem to have developed an aversion to albums, not buying them,  but listening to them in their entirety. Apart from the latest  by the Fall and Meursault I don't think that any of the other that I have bought in 2010 have been listened to in one sitting more than twice. I don't know if it's my concentration span that has gone due to either age or the effects of having the ipod on shuffle but I seem to get bored half way through most things these days.

I think that part of the problem and this has undoubtedly been discussed to death in other places,  is that albums these days tend to be far too long,  too much filler. I don't think that it is coincidence that the two albums that from 2010 I can listen to over and over only contain 10 and 11 tracks.

A notably mention has to go to Metallic Spheres by The Orb and David Gilmour a project which had the potential of ending up it's own arse. I've read people say that this is a return to form from The Orb. I don't agree, as last year's Baghdad Batteries saw Alex Paterson and Co back doing what they do best and this album is just a continuation from there.

Anyway here is my favourite tracks of the past 12 months, three of which can only be found as a download, no physical product being made as yet.  In the past that would have ruled them out of my lists but times have changed. The Jessie J track will come out in a physical format at some point I have no doubt, the Kills track may find it's way onto a future b-side or something and I can but hope that John Talbot's remix of Shelter makes it onto twelve inch as if not it would be such a waste, it could be the track of next summer.

1. Pilooski - AAA
2. The xx - VCR (Four Tet remix)
3. Xenia Beliayeva - Ever Since (Andre Winter remix)
4. To Rococ Rot - Forwardness
5. The Fall - Mexico Wax Solvent
6. Meursault - Song For Martin Kippenberger
7. Clubroot - Solar Flares 
8. Manic Street Preachers - Peeled Apples (Andrew Weatherall mix)
9. The xx - Shelter (John Talbot's Feel It Too mix)
10. M.I.A. - Born Free
11. Mount Kimbie - Vertical (SCB edit)
12. Gorillaz - Glitter Freeze
13. The Jezabels  - Sahara Mahala
14. Trentemoller - silver surfer, ghost rider go (Andrew Weatherall Prinz mix)
15. Lola Dutronic - Whisper
16. Slam - Room 2 (Pan Pot Rave Tool)
17. Caribou - Sun
18. Jessie J - Price Tag
19. The Kills - Pale Blue Eyes
20. Massive Attack - Paradise Circus (Gui Borrato mix)
21. Redshape - Future Shock
22. Plan B - Prayin
23. Four Tet - Sing (Extended mix)
24. CocoRosie - Lemonade
25. Tanya Donelly - Moon River
26. Para - It's Just Our Way
27. Allo Darlin' - Dreaming
28. Commix - Be True 
29. Chew Lips - Karen
30. The Orb featuring Dave Gilmour - Metallic Spheres (Ambient mix)
31. Zola Jesus - Poor Animal
32. Lucky Soul - Woah Billy
33. Imelda May - My Baby Left Me
34. Fuck Buttons - Rough Steez (Alan Vega mix)
35. Ramadanman & Appleblim - Void 23
36. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Say No To Love
37. The Fall - Hungry Freaks Daddy
38. Kate Nash - Do-Wah-Do
39. The Joy Formidable - I Don't Want To See You
40. Warpaint - Ashes To Ashes

Sorry no tracks available to listen to anymore as some short sighted git has complained and have had a DMCA takedown notice. Guess you won't be able to listen to find out if any of these tracks are worth buying.

Tonight I Will Mostly Be Drinking . . . Beer

If you live in the UK and can get your hands on some Brew Dog beer, you really should give it a go. I can recomend the Punk I.P.A., Trashy Blonde and the 5a.m. Saint which really is the dogs bollocks.

Frank Zappa - Titties and Beer

 "Not too subtle or enlightened title for a song Drew!" you say. I know but the post about the faux hippies earlier in the week brought memories of this song back to me and I had to dig the Zappa in New York album out of the cupboard. It really is a piece of nonsense but don't blame me this was Davy H's idea!

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

Back to 1993 for a bit of Progressive House from The  Delorme.  Released in 1993 on Zoom records here in the UK and ZYX in Germany. Which begs the question as to why mine's is a German import. You're on your own if you want any more information as I know nothing else, apart from I used to play this a lot.

The Delorme - Beatniks (dharma bums mix)

About As Much Use As A Fart In A Spacesuit.

Does anybody else have a problem with the concept of the office Secret Santa?

No

Just me then, as I suspected.

If I am going to shell out my hard earned,  even if it is "only up to a tenner" I like to know who the fuck my money is being spent on so I can buy them something that they may vaguely like or find useful. Not waste my it on complete tat that only gets made because people keep giving the like of it to others in office Secret Santas.

I particularly hate the fucking "humorous" version where people try to out do each other in the uselessness or filth stakes with the so-called gift. How funny is it to get either a clockwork penis or a pack of 3 size 22 pants. Laugh I nearly shit myself.

So if any of my workmates are reading this and on Tuesday find themselves in possession of a Fall cd, or How Not To Run A Club, Santa is not trying to be funny but trying to fill that void in your life where the work of Mark E Smith should be or getting you to read something other than Dan Brown or Harry fucking Potter.

The Fall - Open The Boxoctosis #2

New Music . . . Cobson

I know very little about Cobson apart from the fact they are from France and formed when Anna who used to be a solo artist met Laurent. The band is now a three piece, I think but without a bass player.  They released their debut album in November and make a rather nice noise. You can check them out here

A bit more info may have been helpful Laurent.

Cobson - C8H11N

Makes You Proud To Be From Lanarkshire

The motorways may be shut, the post left undelivered in the sorting offices and the garages out of fuel but still the Icey gets through, delivering Irn-Bru and B&H to the needy.

Now that's the kind of people we breed in Lanarkshire.

Fair makes you proud by the way!

Sambassadeur - Ice And Snow

Not Quite Budapest

Well I'm not in Budapest. I got a text from BA last night informing me that my flight from Glasgow to Heathrow this morning was cancelled, so that was that.

I have to admit that I was in two minds about this trip anyway. I wasn't really enthused about the flying as I've said before and try not to do anymore than two hours at a time but it didn't matter which route I took to Budapest it meant spending at least 2 hrs 45 mins in the air at one time which may have sent me over the edge unless I had had enough alcohol.

On the other hand Budapest is a city that I have always wanted to visit and my hotel was going to be right on the Danube on the Buda side very near the castle. Another time maybe.

I have been listening to Glow by The Innocence Mission today and it did exactly that filled me with a warm glow which was just as well as it is bloody baltic up here in the north of Britian at the moment. If you haven't heard this album or of the band don't let the fact that they are sort of Christian folkies put you off , the album is beautiful and not a bit preachy.

The Innocence Mission - That Was Another Country

Cold And Bitter Tears

I didn't expect to be in the position of doing a post this evening. I should be on my way to the Arches in Glasgow to see the big nosed bastard from Barking. However Billy, like my concert going buddy Stiff is stuck on one of the many closed roads on the west of Scotland tonight.

Anyway here is a track from Billy Bragg and Ted Hawkins recorded on the tour when I first saw possibly the finest protest singer of his generation at the Barrowlands way back in 1986.

Unfortunately it looks like I am also going to have to cancel my visit to Budapest tomorrow.

Billy Bragg and Ted Hawkins - Cold and Bitter Tears

Here Comes The Flood

When I was an angry young teenage rebel (or so I thought) and the chair of the local youth CND, I hung out with a group of faux hippies a few years older than myself. This bunch were into pre "And Then There Were Three" Genesis, Marillion, Peter Gabriel and all things proggy,  ie it was either a quadruple vinyl concept album or the vinyl consisted of 2 tracks both taking up the side of an album and dealing with dwarves, faeries,  evil kings and the like. Most of this I thought was absolute pish. Have you ever heard of Golden Avatar? No. I wouldn't even bother spending 5 minutes seeking them out,  they were gash.

Every so often I would be subjected to something which was not too awful and on rarer occasions I would hear something that I actually liked, like the 20 minute version of The Pusher found on the Early Steppenwolf album or Zero The Hero and The Magic Spell from the Gong Live etc lp, the latter standing me in good stead  when I got into The Orb and System 7.

Another album that I first heard when sitting on a bean bag or on a mattress on the floor while gagging from inhaling the awful combination of patchouli oil and burning incense was Robert Fripp's Exposure. Fripp had been a member of King Crimson and contributed to Bowie's Heroes which spurred him into recording Exposure with a load of others such as Peters,  Gabriel and Hammill, Brian Eno and others who would have been termed as "dinosaurs" in 1979.

One track in particular caught my attention and it was a rather stark and beautiful version of Peter Gabriel's Here Comes The Flood which can be found on Gabriel's first eponymous album alternately known as "Car".

I hadn't thought about this album in years until a few months ago when someone posted a Gabriel track and from then on I couldn't get the track or more correctly the slight remembrance of the track out of my head. So as usual the first stop was Amazon but I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend 17 quid on the Special Edition or twelve for the normal one. So then,  as it really was bugging me I searched the net to try to get a snidey download of the album but every time I found it the subsequent link turned out to be dead.

So,  a fortnight ago while picking up a mint, picture sleeve 12" of Geek Love for a quid in my favourite Oxfam Music on Byres Rd, I also spied a vinyl copy of Exposure at the very reasonable price of £3 which I duly purchased. I think that I went temporarily mad as I also paid a fiver for a copy of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis which I was never fond of in the first place.

After getting the album home and playing it, I have to admit that it hasn't aged well, maybe it just wasn't that good to begin with. However there is something foreboding and eerily beautiful about the sparse arrangement on Here Comes The Flood.

Robert Fripp - Here Comes The Flood

There will be no activity from the kitchen table until Friday as I have to go to bloody Budapest with work for three days and I haven't been arsed to do any posts

Soothing Sounds For An Arctic Sunday

I'm straying into Colin's territory with this tune.

This tune just seems to fit with sitting watching all of the people wrapped up like Michelin men wandering past the window while we try yet again to get the house in some semblance of order.

Trembling Blue Stars - One Wish Granted

Take Me

On Thursday night me and a mate braved the Arctic conditions to venture into Glasgow (the temperature gauge in the car read -13) to see David Gedge's latest incarnation of The Wedding Present.

The performance consisted of the Bizarro lp played in it's entirety as it is 21 years since it was released, it really is and a smattering of other classics. As Gedge said himself rather modestly "couldn't possibly play all the classics, ther's too many " or words to that effect. This meant that at least one fan went home slightly disappointed as his constant requests for Flying Saucer were in vain.

I don't think that I have ever seen a bad performance by "the boy Gedge" and co and Thursday night did not disappoint. They played what can only be described as a blistering,  full throttle 90 mins and then they were gone absolutely fucking brilliant. The three quarters full, if that, crowd, left the QMU happy.

While walking back to the car Stiff and I were ruminating over the fact that a band as consistently good as the Wedding Present were playing venues the size of the QMU and not at the very least the Barrowlands. However after thinking further on this, that is what makes Wedding Present gigs special the size of the venue and seeing Gedge mill about talking to fans before and after the gig.

Here is the studio version of the highlight track of the night for me.

The Wedding Present - Take Me!

Disturbing Times.

Number one son has taken a shine to Shaun Ryder. I'm not sure what causes me more concern that or the fact that I seem to have spawned a reality TV junkie, what with that and the Cack Factor!

Happy Mondays - Lazyitis

Tonight's Recomended Poison

I have never had the pleasure of tasting moonshine but I was once given a bottle of Poitin by an Irish brickie once who was working on the same building site as me. If Moonshine tastes anything like that stuff then it is best avoided, drinking the stuff was akin to shoving a red hot poker down your throat and being temporarily blinded and that was just after a quick sip. Suffice to say the rest of bottle went down the sink and probably corroded the drain pipe.

Have a good weekend.

The Big Bopper - White Lightning

The Fall - White Lightning

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

Back to the streets of Lagos for today's dance track. Another track from the Tony Allen remix project, Lagos Shake on Honest Jon's.

Mark's Disco Dub is remixed as suggested by the title by somebody called Mark.  The Mark in question is Mark Ernestus one half of German dub Techno pioneers, Basic Channel. Along with Moritz Von Oswald they released a number of influential 12" singles under a number of aliases on their Basic Channel label.

In the late 90's the duo moved away from the dub techno sound which they had helped to create to a more vocal driven reggae sound and released music under the moniker Rhythm & Sound, the compilation See Me Yah and the remix album are well worth a listen.

Tony Allen - Tony's Disco Dub (Mark Ernestus remix)

Jesus, This Is Iggy

I'll be turning blue if it gets much fucking colder.


Iggy Pop - Turn Blue