Lulu Rouge

In the current climate if feels only fitting to feature some Scandinavian electronic music.

Lulu Rouge have featured here before in their guise as remixers and very good remixers they are too. Check out Fat Berri's electronic blog here for an extensive source of Lulu Rouge edits. I especially love their edit of Aaliyah's Try again and A Day In The Life.

But here I'm focusing on their output as artists in their own right. In 2008 Dj T.O.M. and Buda, two well respected producers and djs got together recorded and released a criminally overlooked album, Bless You with the aid of their friend and collaborator Trentemoller.

The album is full of whispered vocals, down tempo beats and a laid back sometimes haunting atmosphere,  the sort of thing to listen to late at night with a bottle of red wine.

Do yourself a favour and get your hands on a copy of this album while you still can.

Lulu Rouge - Bless You

Lulu Rouge -Melankoli (The Crooked Spoke Remix)

Why Did It All Go So Bland, Jenny?

New kid on the blog, Scott over at Spools Paradise has a piece about Jenny and Johnny's performance at Oran Mor at the weekend.

I have to confess that I have given the Jenny and Johnny album a half arsed listen and dismissed it as more of the same lightweight MOR that the final Rilo Kiley and second Jenny Lewis offering were. I think that I will have to give it another listen but I feel that my initial view will stand as that last time I saw her live she had her Bo on tour with her and I think they did a couple of numbers which would have been early versions of stuff from this album. I was bored stiff that night by the bland performance.

Which really pissed me off, as on the previous 3 occasions that I had seen her she was brilliant and captivating. Granted one was with the Watson Twins in Mono which was astounding and the other two were with Rilo Kiley which were equally as special. Once as support to Bright Eyes in the debating hall of The Glasgow University Union and the other in their own right at the Wah Wah Hut. But on all occasions there was something special in her performance that made for truly memorable gigs which was all the more evident by it's complete absence at the QMU.

One other thought, why are there so many anally retentive music bores blogging in the West of Scotland?

Here are a couple of tracks featuring Jenny before she went bland.

Rilo Kiley - Spectacular Views 

Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Born Secular

It's Just Our Way

I came across this record on the Fat City website the other week and after listening to the first 30 seconds decided it had to be purchased.

Para has been described as the South West's answer to Cut Chemist. He started off djing and producing Hip Hop mixtapes. He joined the Breakin Bread stable in 2007 where he has released a series of 7" singles and a brilliantly named mix cd called "Smack My Pitch Up".

It's Just Our Way features the vocals of long time collaborator Caitlin and is a refreshing piece of modern funk with an infectious breakbeat in the back ground. I think that this may be right up Simon and Mondo's street.

I will be exploring the other offerings from Breakin Bread and you can too here.

Para - It's Just Our Way

Darker My Love

The first time I heard of Darker My Love was in spring 2006, when Mark Smith either sacked his band mid way through their American Tour or the band members decided they had had enough of his tyrannical ways and left of their own accord depending on who you believe. Anyway Smith was left without a band to finish the tour and enlisted the talents of some American musicians who,  ever since have been referred to as the "Dudes" by Smith and fans alike. Amongst the Dudes were Tim Presley and Rob Barbato who had their own band, Darker My Love. The Dudes would go on to tour with Smith during the rest of 2006 and 2007 and write and record the album Reformation TLC.

Darker My Love are described as a psychedelic indie band and indeed there is much in there sound that harks back to garage bands of the Bay Area of the late 60s. They  formed in 2004 and to date they have released 3 studio albums and a live album recorded at the Silverlake club in Los Angeles which finishes with a blistering version of Can's Mother Sky.

The track posted comes from the second album "2" which is the better of the first two albums, I don't know what the third sounds like as I haven't got round to getting a copy yet.

Darker My Love - Two Ways Out

Every One Loves A Cover . . . Right?

And this one is a belter.

Time Is On My Side was originally recorded by Kai Winding and his orchestra in 1964.

This recording by Irma Thomas was released on Imperial in 1964, the same year as the Rolling Stones covered the song. Irma's voice is just the right side of manic and the production is magnificent.

Irma Thomas - Time Is On My Side.

Something To Warm Us Up

With all the snow around and sub zero temperatures , I prescribe sitting down with the Candi Staton Honest Jons compilation and a mug of hot Ribena.

Candi Staton - In The Ghetto

Infinity

It appears that The xx are not only the band to remix to death but to cover. I have noticed a few covers of their tracks from the ridiculous, OMDs version of VCR, so bland that if it was a colour it would be beige. To the sublime cover of Infinity by Jonquil.

This comes from a split 7" with Various Production, who also tackle Infinity. A single well worth tracking down

Jonquil - Infinity

This Week's Tipple

Every day I spend my time drinking wine.

Up here in darkest Lanarkshire Wine means only one thing. Just like ginger or juice actually means Irn Bru, when men of a certain age say "I'm off for a bottle of wine " they mean, tonic of course, not a St Emilion Grand Cru.

Cheers

Python Lee Jackson - In A Broken Dream

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

Here is another new release for your delight.

Regis and James Ruskin team up as O/V/R to release this pulsating slab of techno on clear vinyl on the Blueprint label.

Not much more to say than that, except the other two tracks on the twelve are a bit different but just as good a this.

O/V/R - Post-Traumatic Son

Touched By The Hand Of God IX

I was going to keep this for tomorrow but it doesn't really feel like a Friday tune to me.

Weatherall seems to be going through a rather productive period at the moment.

Here is a very recent remix of a Trentemoller track which can be found on side 2 of the 12". The other 3 mixes are just as good as the Weatherall and well worth the price of the vinyl.

As this is a current release, this track will be here for a very short period. so as Janis would say "get it while you can".

Trentemoller - silver surfer, ghost rider go!!! (andrew weatherall prinz mix)

Rain

Today's track comes from a much overlooked album, Dust by Muggs which was released 1n 2003.

Muggs is Lawrence Muggerud, aka DJ Muggs as he will be better known to most, the DJ and beat maker with Cypress Hill. For his first solo attempt Muggs decided to move away from hip-hop in a sort of indie rock direction. Herin lies the problem, in my opinion, it is not as guitar based as it needs to be to appeal to the indie rock fraternity but it doesn't have enough skewed beats to appeal to the headz.

I love the way the album goes from a song like Rain, a sort of country rock track tsomething like Tears, all breathy female vocals and beats.

Muggs also enlisted the help of Everlast, the main man from The House Of Pain, Gregg Duli, Josh Todd and Amy Trujillo to provide the vocals on the album.

I think that Muggs was trying to follow in the footsteps of Mezzanine era Massive Attack and Tricky with the claustrophobic dark feel of this album.

Worth a listen.


Muggs - Rain

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, Again

It appears that the cd I tried to upload was one of those encrypted things they made a few years back and therefore wouldn't upload to the database. But with a bit of jiggery pokery I have managed to upload it so for all of those who downloaded nothing, sorry, this should be okay but.

Morcheeba - Rome Wasn't Built In A Day

DMCA At It Again

It seems that it is all about the money for Jessie J after all.

I found 4 emails from Blogger and one from Boxnet. about copyright infringement today in relation to the recent posting on Jessie J's appearance on Later, which was nice.

Anyway here's something by the Circle Jerks that made me smile today when it came on the iPod while driving up the road from Manchester.

I fucking hate the M60!

The Circle Jerks  - When The Shit Hits The Fan

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day

Over the past week both JC and Ctel have blogged about the indiepop band Dubstar. Although I was never a fan of the band it got me raking through the cd racks and cupboard trying to find a track that years ago I argued with L was by them only to be proven wrong, a very rare occasion in this house I should add.

But after about an hour scouring the racks I was no further forward, then L came in and remembered straight away, Rome Wasn't Built In A Day by Morcheeba.

I still find it hard to believe  that this out and out pop song is by them. My previous experience of the band was through two early twelves, Trigger Hippie and Tape Loop which were very firmly in the "Trip Hop" genre.

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day was released in 1999, four years after the Dubstar album and reached the giddy heights of number 34 in the UK charts, a fact of which I would not have been aware of at the time as by this then I had almost lost interest in the charts.  It's a rather good piece of pop music.

Morcheeba - Rome Wasn't Built In A Day

Run

Snow Patrol are a band that I have mixed emotions about. There are tracks on their breakthrough album the Final Straw that I love, well 2, Run and Grazed Knees but the rest of their output just washes over me. I have listened to the Final Straw, the previous two albums and the one after quite a few times under the premise, that if I like two tracks surely I will like others but no, nothing,  it does absolutely nothing for me.

I have bumped into Gary Lightbody a couple of times in The Wah Wah Hut  and a throughly nice guy he seems to be which makes me want to like his music but I just can't.

Anyway, today's post is a pretty miserable but brilliant cover of Run, a song that I think is very very good,  by Shetland islander, Astrid Williamson.

Williamson, used to be in the band Goya Dress with Terry DiCastro and Simon Pearson. When the band dissolved Williamson embarked on a solo career while the other two went on to join David Gedge in Cinerama.

Her cover of Run was the b-side of her 2004 single Reach which came out on a rather cracking picture disc featuring the painting, The One by Mary Jane Ansell.


Astrid Williamson - Run 

Kimble

Here's a track originally recorded in the Black Ark in Kingston Jamaica and re-interpreted in Maida Vale.

Quite beautiful in a warped kind of  way.

The Fall - Kimble

Gin Time

 Have a good weekend people.

Champion Jack Dupree - Big Leg Emma's 

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

This has probably been posted on a hundred sites already, but then again you can never get enough of something when it's as good as this, oh and it also fits in nicely with the soulful vibe of the week.

I can't remember the first time I heard That's The Way Love is but I'm pretty sure that it stopped me in my tracks and I probably cried, I was quite an emotional fellow back in 1989.

The combination of Byron Stingly's vocals and Marshall Jefferson's production makes something that is as close to perfection as any House track ever got.

Ten City - That's The Way Love Is (Underground mix)

Just Because

It's been that kind of week.

Enjoy


Bessie Banks - It Sounds Like My Baby

"From The Pages Of The Neville Brothers Songbook"

Shall we stick with the soul for a while?

Over at The Ghost Of Electricity, Mr H posted a wonderful track by Bettye Swann. Whenever Bettye's name is mention I think of one certain song which she covers incredibly well, however I think that I still prefer this version by Aaron Neville who was first to record Tell It Like It Is in 1966.

Aaron Neville & The Neville Brothers - Tell It Like It Is