Dalston Oxfam Shop

BBC 6 radio end of 2011 blog show

2011-12-29T19:46:00.002Z

Tomorrow, the 30th of December, is the first ever Now Playing 2012 Blog Preview on BBC 6 Music.

Below is a list of the tracks and blogs who have contributed. They have included my recommendation, Brenmar (video below).

The show starts at 7pm GMT tomorrow (Friday 30) and will also feature contributions from the presenter Tom Robinson, and 6 Music listeners.

Some of these tracks I don't know. They originally asked me to contribute artists who would blow up in 2012. With that in mind, I'm not sure about Garbage, who were already big. Though I like the track. I also like the D/R/U/G/S track though it's not the best from that genre in my view.

I have also started a tumblr to post music that I'm either listening to or djing at the moment, cause this blog is mostly about tapes. The tumblr is D.O.S and you can follow me there.

You will be able to stream the show afterwards also at the BBC site by clicking on the Radio and Radio 6 and then looking for the show.

Jay Weathers – I Like It (Instrumental) (BNTL)
D/R/U/G/S – Lust                                     (A New Band a Day)
Blondes – Wine (Dummy)
Maya Jane Coles -                                     (4clubbers)
Frank Ocean – Swim Good                         (Muso’s Guide)
Hysterical Mystery – Maths                         (Drunken Werewolf & Music Liberation)
First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar (Strikes Spark Anywhere)
Duologue – Push                                     (Fear of Fiction)
The Weeknd – Lonely Star                         (Details of My Life)
Cloud Nothings – No Future/No Past (Vainzine)
Clock Opera – Belongings                         (Faded Glamour)
Dave Congreve – Your Sun                        (Beats and Beyond)
The Widowmaker – Black Monday             (Oh Deary Me)
Brenmar – Temperature Rising (Dalston Oxfam Shop)
Garbage – Milk (We Are Pop Slags)
Chapter 24 – Spindle                                    (God is in the TV Zine)
KUTF – These Canvas Shoes                        (Cougar Microbes)

Chris Low - Trax Bedroom Mix - jackin house

2011-12-07T20:33:00.001Z

Chris Low has given me a number of excellent mixtapes and this is a mix he made himself. It's a lot of stuff that you could find on Dance Mania or Trax records. Very basic hard jackin early house. He made it for a 91.5 WPRK radio in the US in 1996.

Chris ran and DJd at a number of Scotland’s most successful club nights throughout the 1990s: SOMA, SKIDOO, PHUTURE JACKS, SEX BEAT, XS and the legendary AHOY! ferry-boat all-nighters. Chris also guested at the aftershow parties on Kraftwerk’s 1991 tour as well as having DJd throughout Europe, America and Tokyo. Here are a few pics which Chris sent me.

Chris tried to remember the track listing for this mix though in some places there are records mixed that seem to be white labels or disappeared. You can download both mix sides below as well as a few tracks from the mix. In particular I would appreciate anyone who can ID the mystery track on side 1. I've included below a track from Steve Poindexter not in the mix, but which is incredible.

You can find Chris on Facebook here.

CHRIS LOW – BEDROOM MIX 1996 FOR 91.5 WPRK HOUSE NATION SHOW

Side 1 (download)

1) Parliament Funkadelic – Free Your Mind intro (signature set opener)

2) Terrence McDonald – Spaced Out (Saber)

3) Bryant Stewart – Dance Wit Me (Maad Trax)

4) DJ Rush – Beat The Devil (Force Inc)

5) DJ Rush - ? white label

6) K-Alexi Shelby – Club MCM (Rhythm Beat)

7) DJ Puff – Work This MF (Dance Mania)

8) Quad – Gherkin Beat (Dance Mania)

9) Robert Armani – Up (ACV)

10) Steve Poindexter – Whiplash (Muzique)

11) DJ Rush - ? track on Child’s Play EP (Dance Mania)

12) K Alexi Shelby – Jazz (Djax)

13) Skyman I – Skoba Dee (Drewsky mix) (Dance Mania)
14) mystery track (download)

14) Steve Poindexter – Body Heat (Muzique)

15) Houz Mon & DJ Funk – Over Dose (Underground Trax)

16) ? – Circuit Records white label

Side 2 Download

? - something backwards

1) Paul Johnson – Mindwarp (razor)

2) DJ Rush – Slam Jack (Knee Deep)

3) ? – haven’t a clue!! Mad record tho.

4) Mixx Blood camero – Psycho House (Saber)

5) Traxmen – Playin’ With A Rubberband (Dance Mania)

6) ? – Dance mania white label

7) White Knight – Yo baby Yo / white label / Lil Louis – Video Clash / Steve Poindexter – Work That MF / Robert Armani – Ambulance (5 track mix!)

8) Quad – Work That MF beat (Dance Mania)

9) Trackstars – Hardcore Trax (Dance Mania)

10) ? – Dance Mania white label

11) Jammin’ Gerald white label

12) Drew Sky – Pussy Make The World Go Round (Chicago Power)

13) Groove Source – This MF is Hype (Underground Construction)

14) ? – Dance Mania white label

15) DJ Rush – Rush Revenge (Dance Mania)

16) A Guy Called Gerald – Blow Your House Down (Rham)

Steve Poindexter - Computer Madness

Destroy Culture vs. Long Clothing party

2011-11-25T11:16:00.001Z

I think the music world in general is floundering about with lots of people doing things in different directions but not much dominating the scene with excitement. You have nu disco stuff happening, some of it really well done, and new bands doing old school house - but none of its has been really exciting me.

Fortunately I recently went to a Halloween party put on by Destroy Culture and was really loving the scene and the music, especially that of Shaun Bass. So I'm especially excited that they've invited me to dj with them this Saturday, the 26th. Lots of new sounds, dubstep (but fun), tropical madness, rave, etc. Hope to see you there. More details on the Destroy Culture tumblr.

Select Magazine - Cloud 9 compilation 1996

2011-11-13T18:32:00.001Z

I bought this tape in the Dalston Oxfam shop some time ago. It was a free compilation tape which came with the May 1996 issue of Select Magazine.

It's unique because it has a slightly electro rock version of a Moby track that he did for this compilation only - so you can't find it anywhere else. And it's quite good.

There is also a track from Cable which was recorded with John Peel which is only on this tape as well.

Unfortunately the sound quality is not great on the B side and the A side is virtually ruined (so I've not posted it).

A1	Ash –	Kung Fu (Mark Radcliffe Show 1995)	2:23
A2	Underworld –	Oich Oich	8:30
A3	The Afghan Whigs –	You've Changed	4:21
A4	Edwyn Collins –	You Are On Your Own	2:50
A5	Beth Orton –	Live As You Dream	2:50
A6	Rosa Mota –	Shelflife	3:11
B1	Northern Uproar –	Kicks	3:09
B2	Moby –	Everytime You Touch Me (Fucked Up Version)	3:10
B3	David Holmes –	Keep The Motor Runnin' Honey	7:30
B4	The Trash Can Sinatras –	Pop Palace	3:30
B5	The Divine Comedy –	Becoming More Like Alfie	2:55
B6	Cable –	Action Replay Replay (BBC Peel Session 1996)	2:25

Fire Shock - Sister Irene O'Conner vs. Daniel Bell

2011-10-09T18:47:00.004+01:00

I recently downloaded a fab playlist from the Boyhood tumblr and discovered the fantastic track Fire by Sister Irene O'Connor who had been featured on WFMU. Then one day I was playing around with my Djay software on my iphone and thought it might go well with one of my favorite old minimalistic house tracks from the early 90s by Daniel Bell, Electric Shock. I had first discovered that track by watching this great youtube clip from the New Dance Show. As it turned out I really liked the mix, so I tried to polish it up in Logic and here it is.

Fire Shock (Daniel Bell vs. Sister Irene) - Todd Hart mashup (direct download)

Smylonylon 22

2011-09-26T22:16:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I uploaded a Smylonylon comp but I have a number of them that have still not been posted. This is one that I picked primarily because I think side 2 has a number of good and yet obscure tracks. In particular, I think the way that Alex (from In Flagranti) would speed tracks up sometimes when he made these comps produces a really interesting effect. The track Going Home by Annie Haslam is really not nearly as catchy at regular speed.

There is also a new Smylonylon page on Facebook that has lots of related stuff on it.

The track I've included for separate download is the Soukous/calypso-ish African track that has a great synth bit in it at the end of side B. I also highly recommend that you download the Telex track Lakelele. I'm not sure what the Purilator - Minimal Tape track is - no record of it on the Internet.

Honorable mention goes to Sven Vath's Electric Salsa and Flash and the Pan - Walking in the Rain. Also, check out the other track on that Ramsey Lewis album Sun Goddess.

Side A (direct download)

1. Man 2 Man/Man Parrish - Male Stripper
2. Sven Vath - Electric Salsa
3. Hot Chocolate - Put Your Love in Me
4. Visage - Fade to Grey
5. OMD - Enola Gay
6. B.R.E.R.
7. Disconnection - Dead On The Case
8. Style Council - Mick's Company
9. Gina X - No G.D.M.
10. Flash and the Pan - Walking in the Rain.
11. Soft Cell - Tainted Love
12. Fad Gadget - Coitus Interruptus
13. Liaisons Dangereuses - Los Ninos Del Parque
14. Vanity 6 - Drive Me Wild
15. Prince - Controversy

Side B (direct download)

16. Jerry Goodmann - No Fear
17. Purilator - Minimal Tape
19. Vangelis - La Fete Savage
19. Elo - The Whale
20. Annie Haslam - Going Home
21 Trio - W.W.W.
22. Alan Parsons - A Dream with a Dream
23. Ramsey Lewis - Jungle Strut
24. Malcom McLaren - Legra
25. Strech - Why Did You Do It
26. Macho - Hear Me Calling
27. D. Dundas - Jeans on
28. Slade - Coz I Luv You
29. Telex Lakelele
30. Baricentro - Tittle Tattle
31. Les Aiglons - Le Petit Chaperon Noir (download)

Sigue Sigue Sputnick- Russian sleeve of Love Missile

2011-09-07T21:25:00.000+01:00

I recently picked up a collection of dance vinyl from a collector and in it was this Russian text cover of Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Love Missile. As that track has seen a fair amount of coverage, I thought I would post the track on the B side that I've heard less of. All around I like their sound a lot. But that would make sense cause this was produced by Giorgio Morodor, who I love.

Interesting trivia about Sigue Sigue Sputnik is that one of the key members, Tony James, was previously in bands with members of the Clash (before the Clash) AND with Billy Idol when he was in the punk band Chelsea. And later he was in Sisters of Mercy. Here is a link to some music with Billy Idol in Chelsea (the track Right to Work was a big single).

Hack Attack (direct download)

Buy Love Missile at Itunes.

Kristine W - Land of the Living remixes

2011-08-11T14:46:00.002+01:00

I recently acquired a collection of mid and late 90s house and trance. And then I was listening to old Junior Vasquez and other mixes from the mid 90s that I used to listen to in NY and realizing how I feel that big house fun is missing from my music world these days. So I'm going to post some of the great records I got. This is one of the tracks I rarely hear that I used to love. The Junior Vasquez mix is amazing but wasn't on this 12". My favorite of these mixes is definitely Dekkard's. Enjoy.

Land of the Living (Lisa Marie Experience Vocal mix)

Land of the Living (Rollo & Sister Bliss Remix)

Land of the Living (Deep Dish Land of the Lost remix)

Land of the Living (Dekkard's Planet Vocal mix)

Download all tracks

This Friday I will be djing at Durrr in Dalston at the Nest with The Magician, Moonlight Matters and Rory Phillips.

Facebook event here.

Sue Barnett - Fit for Life

2011-07-29T16:25:00.001+01:00

Back in 1984 Sue Barnett, a Christian PE teacher and wife of evangelist Doug Barnett (according to Buzz Mag), came across the idea of setting an aerobics session to Christian pop, a la Bob Sinclar in Gym Tonic. It sounds strangely sexual to me. Probably not what she had in mind. But in the quest for new ideas, I felt that I had to bring you this record. Have a listen in particular to We Need to Hear from You.

Side 1
I'm Forgiven
Under His Reign
Cornerstone
Never Had a Reason
I Have Decided
I Don't Worry

Side 2

We Need to Hear from You
Walk By Love
Somebody new
This is The Day
All I Must Do

I've also started doing some of my own music. Matthew Stone recently was introduced me to this great software called DJAY - great cause it's easy to use and play with ideas without having to learn all that Ableton malarchy, etc. I made this mashup from ideas I played with on that software.

Kylie vs. Gesaffelstein - Slowpr (Todd Hart mash)

The Olympic Trio

2011-07-10T21:31:00.000+01:00

I really know nothing about this group and can't read Greek so I can't find anything on the Internet. I assume they're actually called The Olympic Trio. The music has touches of cheap synths and greek guitars. But here and there is a slight disco feel and it's fun.

I bought this in the Oxfam shop in Marylebone and it's kind of fun. I can't identify the track names but I think my favorite is Track B1.

Tracks.

A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6

B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7

NME 21 - Pogo a Go Go

2011-06-12T16:54:00.000+01:00

I am reposting this blog post from 2009 because it was offline for a while and has a lot of tracks that are rare and sought after.

Here is another of the rare NME cassettes released with the magazine in the early 80s, a number of which you can find elsewhere on this blog. These tapes featured a variety of styles from jazz, pop, reggae, even african, to punk, which is what they tape is. Each of them has a lot of tracks from bands that are quite obscure and impossible to find elsewhere. This one has unreleased tracks from the Sex Pistols and The Clash that are not released. Even though this compilation came out on CD, the unreleased tracks were not included. So this is the only place you can find them.

Unfortunately, the cassette quality is not so amazing. Some of the last tracks on the B side, such as the Buzzcocks track have a slight waiver in the pitch and the Sex Pistols track has a bit of a buzz in it now and then. But it's great to hear the Sex Pistols guy say something at the end of the demo recording. And the tracks by The Fall, Elvis Costello and The Slits are all good quality and also fantastic tracks. "Part Time Punks" is also great for its tale (even when punk was big) about people who do Punk for the aesthetic, not for the principle. Aesthetic is my principle, though, and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm a punk in other ways.

A1 Sex Pistols - Satellite (Suburban Kid) (unreleased version)
A2 Undertones - True Confessions
A3 Nipple Erectors - King Of The Bop
A4 Television Personalities - Part Time Punks
A5 Sham 69 - Borstal Breakout
A6 The Damned - Stretcher Case Baby
A7 Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Watching The Detectives
A8 The Stranglers - Choosey Susie
A9 Victim - Strange Thing By Night
B1 The Clash - 1977 (demo)
B2 Johnny Moped - Incendiary Device
B3 Slits - Typical Girls
B4 Alternative TV - Love Lies Limp
B5 Swell Maps - Read About Seymour
B6 The Jam - In The City
B7 The Fall - Bingo Master's Breakout
B8 Subway Sect - Ambition
B9 Wire - Dot Dash
B10 Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict

Maria & the Mirrors - Travel Sex EP

2011-06-10T20:01:00.000+01:00

I'm a big believer in people. I want to believe that special people have something special that will make them keep doing special things. Maybe this is because I want to believe in heroes. When I hear a really good band I want to believe there is something special about their songwriting that no one else can imitate and want to believe that they will continue to do amazing things. This is why I continue to be intrigued by Metronomy for example.

Maria & the Mirrors is a band that I've loved from the first time I saw them at the Offset festival a few years ago. Since then I've written about them and they have done various gigs and blah blah. But they're still around and they have a new ep out called Travel Sex and I still think their sound is unique, raw, trancelike and not formulaic. It's like 3 blind people trying to map Godzilla's skin in Logic. . .

This is not the title track from the ep but I like it probably best. I assume it was named after this film but who knows. I didn't ask.

Valerie a tyden divu

Special Fetes

2011-05-18T21:18:00.000+01:00

I picked up this tape in a flea market in south Paris a few weekends ago. Not really sure what song is which or what the song titles are but I was loving this arabic cover of Barbie Girl by Aqua. I've also included two other tracks just to show what it sounds like. I thought it was also interesting that one of the tracks, while sounding like typical party music you might hear blaring from a Lebanese restaurant, also has shades of Scottish bagpipe music.

Barbie Girl - arabic cover version

Track 1

Track 2

5 year Annivesary radio show!

2011-05-03T21:26:00.000+01:00

Having done this blog for five years, I thought it would be a good idea to do something special for the 5th anniversary. Five years ago in April 2006 I started the blog with this post. Luckily, the people at the new London Fields radio station invited me to do a new radio show and so here you have a 5 year overview of the good stuff from this blog.

LISTEN HERE

The tracklist for the show is as follows - all of these tracks have been previously featured on the blog and you can search for them above.

Tracklist

The Look I Am The Beat

Ongaku Mihon 3

Cinnabar Forces

Dr. Calculus Perfume From Spain

Bobby Brown Free Style Megamix (On Our Own, Do....)

Ivo Papasov And His Bulgarian Wedding Band

Bulchenska Ratchenitsa (Bride's Ratchenitsa)

Star Taxi Music Interlude 8

Umoja Money Money

Richard Berry Oh! Oh Get Out The Car

Tradicional Kazzabe Gurinbiuwa

Frank Chickens Shellfish Bamboo

Aphex Twin Phlid

Les Jaloux Saboteurs Maître Gazonga

Lata Mangeshkar & Asha Bhosle

Main Chali Main Chale

Fiat Lux Secrets

Les Choeurs L'Armee Sovietique Hymne Soviétique

Hi-Ryze Jp233

Omary Kopa Track 03

Sex Pistols Satellite (Suburban Kid)

Dj Chip Dilla Carbootie Mixtape

Eydie Gorme Y El Trio Los Panchos

Noche De Ronda

Colourbox Baby I Love You So

2011-04-13T22:23:00.000+01:00

This blog has always been about trying to pull music that you either don't know or have forgotten about off of old tapes - sometimes with a sense of humor but often unearthing things that are amazing. I think that's what gives the blog an edge - the feeling that you're finding treasure here that you can't find anywhere else, and someone has actually done work to bring it back to life for you.

I recently was given some more tapes of the collection of friends of DJ Quark who I've previously featured. This one was done for a radio station called Zero Gravity in 1993. Obviously it was a radio station that required a certain degree of cannabis-ness to function. But dj Quark has a real talent for mixing in tracks and layering beats in a way that, as my friend Yasmin says, tells a story. Have a listen and see what you think. Most of the mix does not feature individual tracks but woven throughout the story are featured at least the following tracks.

Download Side 1

Download Side 2

Balil - Merck

The Clan (Mongol Hordes) - I.A.O.

Both of the above tracks are from the Black Dog Productions album Bytes. Black Dog later becaome Plaid and were on Warp.

Colourbox - Baby I Love You So

Colourbox were an English due of brothers and were on 4AD label - the same as This Mortal Coil. They also were sort of a precursor to the much later work by Rhythm & Sound such as the 2003 album I used to listen to with Jah Rule.

The Grid - Floatation (Subsonic Grid Mix)

This mix also features 2 tracks from The Grid. The other is one is mixed by the Orb called Crystal Clear (the Crystal Clear Water Revival mix).

I've also lately been buying some more gear for my home studio. I got a Korg M1 for not a bad price and excellent for producing original piano house sounds. I am increasingly working on more of my own music and remixes and I'm always a sucker for interesting pro studio equipment. I'm on the lookout for a good drum machine right now. I discovered there are actually not very many actual shops you can go to and try things out in the Uk these days, at least not in London. There are only the limited selections on Denmark street. For this reason I wanted to draw your attention to this new pro audio resource I discovered called Sounds Great Music in Cheshire. You may want to check out their Voodoo Lab effects.

The Wizard (Jeff Mills) - 1986 & 1987 WJLB live shows

2011-03-07T23:54:00.001Z

These are original dj sets from Jeff Mills aka The Wizard on WJLB radio in Chicago from 1986-87. These are more of the tapes I got from Chris Low. This is mostly hip hop although now and then some early house slips in. The crazy thing is that Jeff Mills really adds a lot to the mix as many of the tracks are scratched and mixed into completely new tracks and often sped up significantly. All around a very enjoyable listen to see a real dj artist at work.

At some point in Side 1 it appears that we join radio station WHPK which apparently was one of the first stations to broadcast rap in Chicago. Included in that segment are two live raps identified as Legend of Doom and DJ Quickhand. I've posted few separate tracks below that are included in the shows that are rarer and the live shows.

Side 1 - Download

live rap - Legend of Doom
live rap - DJ Quickhand

Whodini - I'm a Ho Download

Side 2 - Download

Side 2 includes the following tracks. I managed to find the fantastic Nude Photo track on the Boards of Electronica site here.

Shante - Have a Nice Day

Chip E - If You Only Knew - Download

Rhythim is Rhythim - Nude Photo - Download

EPMD - I Know You Got soul

Eric B & Rakim - Check out my Melody

Cafe del Mar tape no. 1

2011-02-22T22:03:00.000Z

This is the original first tape that was sold in the Cafe del Mar of Ibiza. I received it from someone I work with who actually bought it in the Cafe in 1991. It was mixed by Jose Padilla and never commercially released (the cd series came later with different tracks).

Unfortunately the quality if the recording is such that it wavers a bit too much so I was lucky to find this upload of the same tape as one continuous stream on the djhistory website. According to that forum the tracklisting is as follows. It's a lot more mellow than I expected. I never made it to Ibiza until 1999 and I somehow thought it would be more upbeat. This shows how much of a fool I am because Jose Padilla is known for popularizing chillout music ;) I could imagine after a hard night of strange substances this would be nice to listen to as the sun rose hot over the beach. Could do with a bit of that now actually . . .

I've also included one track to download, Habebe from Ann Dudley & Jaz Coleman.

00:00 Penguin Café - Paul's Dance
01:42 Chris Spheeris - Fields of Tears
04.47 Bob James - Women of Ireland
12:14 Clifford White - Ascension
18:10 Eric Serra - Remembering a Hearbeat
19:21 Dancing Fantasy - Are You Ready?/ Beyond the Horizon
23:48 Mahavishnu Orchestra - When Blue Turns Gold
26:25 Richard Horowitz - Marnia's Tent
29.05 Ann Dudley & Jaz Coleman - Habebe
36:18 John Carpener - Starman (End Titles)
38:12 Jevetta Steele - Baghdad Café (Callin' U)
42:04 Dancing Fantasy - Good Morning America
47:02 Penguin Café - Steady state
49:59 Penguin Cafe - Air a Danser
54:14 Dancing Fantasy - Tim's Talk/ Malibu

DOWNLOAD

I also want to draw attention to the new EP from Beth Ditto of the Gossip. It's produced by Simian Mobile Disco and is very excellent. The track I Wrote the Book has been on constant circulation in my flat cause my friend Price James has been staying with me while he made her video. Check it out. Major voguers. Also check out his recent vid for Hercules & Love Affair. That's major kudos too.

It's Contagious compilation

2011-01-31T14:25:00.000Z

My friend Anthony Faroux found this tape in a flat he was clearing out in Kennington, south London. The only artist on here I can find any detail about is The Instant Automatons and so this may be part of their DIY/free music scene discussed here. There is a video of theirs below.

Unfortunately the quality of the tape is pretty low but there are still some amusing sounds here. John the Baptist is pretty funny and the Christmas song Our Father has the lyrics "Father Bagwan, Father Bagwan, here's my Volvo . . ." But probably the most enjoyable to listen to are Nick Harrison's vaguely 80's eurodisco "Kuji" and Colin Potter's "Here is Picture", which remotely sounds like Suicide.

Thanks Anthony, and check out his video art here.

Side One:
1. Negrava: John the Baptist
2. Nick Harrison: Orford Ness
3. Missing Persons: Sir, You're an Arsehole
4. The Instant Automatons: Ignorance is Bliss
5. Negrava: Under the Anaesthetic of Love
6. Colin Potter: Another Day is Missing
7. Transistor Six: Slowfall
8. Negrava: Our Father

Side Two:
1. Missing Persons: Nothing Happens (when you least expect it)
2. Negrava: Brian's Girls
3. Transistor Six: Light like Moss
4. Nick Harrison: Kuji
5. The Instant Automatons: Ballad of the New Things
6. Colin Potter: Here is Picture
7. Negrava: Little Venom
8. Transistor Six: Fanatical Belief

Smylonylon 2

2010-12-11T20:09:00.001Z

I haven't posted any Smylonylons for a while. This is one of the earlier tapes that features more 60s pop and lounge exotica. Some might immediately think of elevators. But I was actually really enjoying listening to this, especially side 2. I think maybe it's a nice contrast from all the darkness that I'm listening to right now, all the heavy acid house and 80s Belgian synth pop. No one wants to eat the same food all the time.

I don't have much to comments about the artists as most of them are well known but these tracks are less commonly played, at least not in my circles. Enjoy.

Side 1

Not sure about most of the tracklisting on side 1 but it does feature near the beginning the track Journey to the East by Bill Plummer/The Cosmic Brotherhood.

Side 2

Track listing that I could identify on side 2 - some individual download links.

Bridget Bardot - Contact

Harangozó Teréz - Sose fájjon a fejed

Michel Legrand - Brule Pas Tes Doigts

Bo Didley - Bo's Bounce

Tom Jones - If I Promise

Esquivel and his orchestra - Frenesi

Anonymous amusing German tracks at end of Side 2

Lektyr - Sommar Hits

2010-11-01T21:39:00.000Z

I bought this tape in a Saturday flea market in downtown Oslo. My friend Anders told me Lektyr was a porn mag in the 80s. Anyway, most of these songs are forgettable but the Rain and Tokyo tracks are pretty good. What it looks like has been done here is that the real artist names have been replaced with made up names. So the I'm the Lady track is Linda Williams, the Marigot Bay is Arabesque and the Rain is Goombay Dance Band. If you want to let me know who did the Tokyo track that would be great.

Side A
Morning Train - Baby Girls
In Your Arms - Company of Friends
Marigot Bay - Baby Singers (Arabesque)
All Those Years Ago - Revolutions
I'm the Lady (Eurovision song Netherlands) - Baby Singers (Linda Williams)
Seven Tears - Disco Rollers

Side B
Rain - Revolutions (Goombay Dance Band)
Tokyo - Janne Lucas
Flash - School Boys
Sukiyaki - Flash Backs
Take Me Home - Freestyle
Cinderella Jones - Kerstin Dahlberg

Zarcop Oddcast III

2010-10-18T12:00:00.000+01:00

Alaska y Los Pegamoides

Faley from Late of the Pier has posted a mix of tunes which I selected for him in the sort of early 80s minimal no wave, german-ish vein. Hope you enjoy.

Oddcast on Mixcloud

Tracklist / Chapters

1 Superdome 80 - Auto Gegen Pfütze

2 Xeno And Oaklander - Sentinelle

3 Alaska - Bote De Colon

4 Klan X - Alarma General

5 International Music System - An English

6 Human Puppets - In The Nights

7 Rob Hubbard - Immortal

8 White Ring - Ixc999

9 Edwyn Collins - Never Known A Girl Like You Before

2010-10-11T00:32:00.000+01:00

I've been getting more and more into early more simple hard sounds from Detroit and Chicago - and on that vein here is another tape from the collection I got from Chris Low. It's a particularly good run through the acid house scene. The standout track here that I don't remember hearing before, mostly because of the robotic girly voice in it, is Confusion's Revenge by Armando.

Enjoy. Chris volunteered the following tracklisting but I haven't checked it through.

part 1: - download

1) the acid life - farley jackmaster funk (house)
...2) confusion's revenge - armando (jack trax) [DOWNLOAD]
3) land of confusion - armando (westbrook)
3) this is acid - maurice joshua (trax)
4) hot hands - hula (trax)
5) as acid turns - liddell townsell (trax)
6) born to freak - steve poindexter (muzique)
7) computer madness - steve poindexter (muzique)
8) machines - laurent x (house nation)
9) fingers - the juice - or may be "Ecstacy" (hot mix 5)
10) dj #1 - acid houz (dance mania)
11) The M rules - MD connection (musique)
12) some white label
13) Hous Mon - Acid warp (underground house)
14) can't for the life of me remember what this track is!
15) cool & dry - jack frost (trax)
16) downfall - armando (warehouse)
17) can't for the life of me remember what this track is!

part 2: - download

1) 20 below - dj pierre (jack trax)
2) phuture jacks - phuture (trax)
3) think this is either jack frost or the porch monkeys, pretty sure it's on Trax or Housetime Records anyway
4) this sounds like a Larry heard track, maybe something off the Hot Mix 'Acid LP' might be called 'hot coals'?
5) magic fingers - 3-2-6 (dance mania)
6) box energy - dj pierre (trax)
7) 'art of acid' maybe?? - otherwise not sure.
8) 151 - armando (warehouse)
9) 151 (remix) - armando (warehouse)
10) climax - black trax (niteclub)
11) acid trax - phuture (trax)
12) slam - phuture (trax)
13) pfantasy girl - pfantasy club (SRO)
14) the creator - pfantasy club (jack trax)See more
2 seconds ago · LikeUnlike

Fundi Konde - Marahaba

2010-07-02T19:08:00.000+01:00

This is another of those tapes I bought in Tanzania in January 2009 which I have not gotten around to posting. Fundi Konde was one of the oldest and best known of Kenyan musicians. According to Wikipedia he entertained East African troops in World War II when they were working in Asia. This recording must have been made a long time ago cause it sounds like it's almost from the 50s. The quality of this recording is not amazing but it's lovely to hear the Swahili lyrics.

You can listen to more of the tapes I bought in Tanzania here.

Side A:

1. Ajali Haikingiki

2. Ndoto

3. Majengo Siendi Tena

Side B:

5. Tuheshimu Mahib pt. 1 and 2
6. Mwanangu Libe

SALSOUL 1 - VARIOUS ARTISTS - KISS RECORDS

2010-06-30T18:00:00.000+01:00

The Salsoul sound is well known and has been endlessly sampled, including most recently in the big hit You're Nasty by Duck Sauce (Arman van Helden and A-trak) which, like many big house tunes, is mostly great because of the original disco hook. I was surprised when listening to this tape that it has a number of really good Salsoul tracks that are actually quite rare. The Double Exposure and Surface tracks are lovely and fairly well known. Anyway, ain't no groove like a D-Train groove if you know what I mean. This is like apple juice in the morning when you're hung over . . . . sweeeeeeet.

Side A:

1. Jimmy Williams - All Of My Lovin

2. Arru - Are You Single

3. Loleatta Holloway - All About The Papers

4. Instant Funk - Can You See Where Im Coming From

Side B:

1. Double Exposure: Ten Per Cent

2. The Salsoul Orchestra - Take Some Time For Love

3. The Strangers - Step Out Of My Dreams

4. Surface - Falling In Love

Personal pleasures - the driving podcast

2010-06-29T12:06:00.000+01:00

People often ask me what I really like to listen to at home. Truth of the matter is that I really love pop and dance and weird stuff, which is exactly what I dj. That's kind of what I'm known for. Recently I got asked by How The Other Half Lives blog to do a collection of tunes I've liked for a long time that maybe I don't get to dj that I might listen to when I'm working at home or driving on a trip. Many of these tracks wouldn't really fit into a dj set of mine but in each case they have some kind of quality which allows them to hook me in and just go on and on and on - great for background listening.

This is a mix of sort of pop techno, trance-ish world music, great african soukous and classic instrumental disco.

The Micronauts - The Jag
Charanjit Singh - Raga Todi
Ongaku - Mihon 3
Elasticoculture - Container Dreams
Tomas Andersson - The Other Day
Rita Indiana - Platanitos
Samba Mapangala - Adija
M'Bilia Bel - Faux Pas
El Coco - Cocomotion
Love Unlimited Orchestra - Forever in Love

Listen and download on How The Other Half Lives blog.

Smylonylon 30 (the last one ever) + In Flagranti + Fabric

2010-06-28T21:52:00.003+01:00

So here it is. The last Smylonylon mixtape ever made. This doesn't mean I won't post any more earlier ones, but this is a very special one. As I've said before, Smylonylon tapes were a series of special tapes made of rare 60s-80s pop, moog music, italo, disco, etc. They are a real special experience and a great place to discover lots of rare old stuff. I've posted previous cassettes here, as well as explained the link between Alex (half of In Flagranti) and the tapes.

When Alex gave me Smylonylon 1 he was surprised to find that I had a copy of Smylonylon 30, the last one. Then he told me the story - apparently about 6000 Smylonylon tapes were made and sold through the Centre for the Dull store in NYC in the 90s. Then in the fall of '99 he was in a restaurant in NY and someone was playing what sounded like a Smylonyon tape. But when he asked about it, the tape was labelled with someone else's name. With copycats in the wings, he decided it was time to get out of the Smylonylon business and start a band, which became In Flagranti. But he made one last tape, limited to 20 copies only, without a tracklisting so people couldn't copy. What makes this tape special even more than usual is that Alex speeds up a lot of the tracks considerably, or slows them down, and fiddles around lots with filters/eqs. So it becomes a very different mix than if you just listened to the original tracks.

I've managed to figure out and hunt down a few of the tracks on the tape. The first side is virtually impossible for me to identify cause it's mostly instrumentals. But the Android Sisters track is loopy (as in weird) and amazing. I had more luck with Side B and discovered a lot of tracks I'd never heard of. I never knew, for example, that there was a female french version of an early Fab Five Freddie (who Blondie raps about) track. And weirdly enough, I'd never heard of The Mood. Munich Machine is also an amazing track of theirs. I want to particularly thank the always amazing Saltyka blog where I found a bunch of these tracks.

I'm also posting this now cause In Flagranti are playing as part of a Durrr party at Fabric this Friday. So you can see the man who made these tapes play live on a fab sound system. And coincidentally I will be djing earlier in the night playing a lot of similar tracks. So come down and say hi - give me your nerdy tips for similar tracks you've discovered.

Also, check out youtube of the latest of In Flagranti's project Sounds Superb 5.

Side A (direct download)

Tracklisting
?
?
The Android Sisters - Robots are Coming
?
?

Side B (direct download)

Tracklisting
The Mood - Don't Stop
Anne Clark - Our Darkness (12 inch version) (or Razormaid mix)
Kim Larsen & Jungledreams - Time Bomb
Buggles - On TV
John Cooper Clarke - Teenage Werewolf
? (instrumental)
Fab 5 Freddy (Beeside) - Change the Beat (female french version)
? (instrumental)
? (has vocal "enferme dans la voiture .... se roule ma vie")
Altered Images - I Could Be Happy
Tone Band - Tokyo Twist
The Flirts - Surf's Up
? (something german)

Trance 3 Various Artists

2010-06-25T13:12:00.000+01:00

This is not really like the trance I normally think - or at least not like commercial stuff such as ATB's 9PM (Til I Come) which was a huge scene when I first moved to the UK in 1999. This is more like early progressive dance and is part of a series of tapes which include the seminal techno compilation Technovisions which I featured way back when I started the blog.

Like many tapes I've posted on this blog, my reason for posting is that it's a genre of dance music which falls between the classics that are well known and the current dance scene. These era is currently the most difficult to find but its sound is so fresh again. This tape features the Stealth Sonic Soul track which was produced by Apollo 440 (if you remember them) and also the Dust Brothers track Song to the Siren, which was one of the very first Chemical Brothers releases in 1992. The only previous release is something done by Rowlands called Ariel - Rollercoaster / Mustn't Grumble in 1991. It also has remix work by Andrew Weatherall and in general it's one of the best tracks on this comp. I also really like the Van Basten - Lizard King remix but no idea who these guys are and even though their name appears on discogs - they seem lost to history.

Side 1:

1. Soul Odyssey - Rapture
2. Blood Runs Dry - All Of Your Mind
3. The Dust Brothers - Song To The Siren (Sabres Of Paradise Mix)
4. Stealth Sonic Soul - Stealth Sonic Soul
5. Van Basten - Lizard King (Amsterjam Mix)
6. Mad - Hollow

Side 2:

7. Shi-Take - Perfect Virtue (Full Moon Over Maduri Club Mix)
8. Otaku - Percussion Obsession (Back To Basics Trucker Mix)
9. Morgan King - I Am Free (Soma Mix)
10. The Pressure - Amor
11. Tom Tom - 480 Degrees
12. Jagga - Na-Na-Na (Acido Latino Mix)

Total Shite Vol 1

2010-06-21T19:09:00.000+01:00

Although generally it must be agreed that I post perhaps the most critically acclaimed music you could find, from seminal rare techno to forgotten essential congolese soukous, now and then I feel it is necessary to expose oddities which may not be quite critically acclaimed. Whoever made this tape must have worked for EMI - looks like maybe a compilation of stuff that either they had received as submissions or else just some random stuff they found. Either way, it's pretty special stuff. Tracks like Jessica are actually a decent quality recording. But most of these are in a league of personal expression of their own. Which makes you wonder if the Internet and everyone being able to easily make their own music is actually a good or bad thing.

Total Shite side
1. America
2. Do i want you
3. If love can win
4. So long ago
5. Its Christmas for Jesus
6. Norwegian Wood
7. Girl of my dreams
8.Rude Skanker
9. We would have problems
10. This old heart of mine
11. Raindrops keep falling on my head
12. Why
13. ??!????
14. Get back
15. Where does Santa go in Summer
16. All that love you gave me
17. Killing me Softly
18. ?????
19. Close to you
20. Conversation in Surburbia

Worst Flatulence side
Underworld avenue / America - J.Spencely
Do I want you - M.Lett
Diamond of your mind - R.Kray
If love can win - J.Hudson
So Long ago - R.Corbett
Jean - R.Beard
Let him damce - R.Beard
Jessica - R.Kray

TANGA

2010-06-16T19:20:00.000+01:00

I found this a few other tapes in a street cart in Modica, Sicily, one of those kind of carts that normally sell burgers at car boot sales. It is special because it falls into the eurodance/italo category, but after the classic italo period and moving into 1986 when the Stock Aitken Waterman sound and Sabrina's Boys Boys Boys style were becoming de rigeur. And it appears a bunch of the tracks are quite rare in that they only appeared on a single and this comp, including the tracks from Ka-Zan, The Winners, Marilytz and Animal Heat. Unfortunately, the original tape was not in great recording quality even though it was new when I bought it.

These are all direct links so you can click and listen immediately.

Side A:

1. KA-ZAN – Give Me Your Heart
2. THE WINNERS – Freedom
3. BRIAN ICE – Tokyo
4. CARRARA – S.O.S. Bandido
5. MECCANO –Activate My Heart
6. CIAO FELLINI –Nocha A Bahia
7. JESSITA – Maybe This Night
8. MARILYTZ – She’s A Bad Girl

Side B

1. REGGIE –On The Park
2. MARIANA – Talk About Love
3. ANIMAL HEAT – Honey Words
4. PAUL SHARADA - Boxers
5. MARK MC DEAN – Italian Girl
6. EUGENE – Free Your Life
7. HOT COLD – I Can Hear Your Voice
8. MAX COVERI – One More Time

Our Husband - new band

2010-06-14T21:32:00.000+01:00

I just got an e-mail from this new Australian oufit Our Husband. I don't like most of the stuff I get sent but somehow I liked this. Maybe a bit twee but lovely.

Our Husband - Villages

Djing at new Bar Strelka in Moscow

2010-05-27T14:08:00.000+01:00

I am going to Moscow this weekend to dj on Saturday night, the 29th of May, at the new Bar Strelka at the new Strelka institute. I am delighted with the chance to dj on the opening weekend of this bar and the ongoing relationships I have with the great people at lookatme.ru.

This Strelka Institute is set up in the former Red October chocolate factory and features a curriculum that combines different creative disciplines that was developed in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas. Should be a fun weekend.

ZAZA live gig!

2010-05-17T16:23:00.001+01:00

I'm djing for this party and the new New York band ZAZA are playing live. It's Wednesday, the 18th of May. It's in a great unused warehouse in Dalston and I really like the band's ethereal sound as a contrast to all of the hard driving stuff I've been hearing lately. And there's free drinks. Come down.

Zaza on myspace

Street Sounds '87-3

2010-04-28T20:54:00.000+01:00

This is another tape I bought in the Dalston Oxfam Shop. Lots of urban dance stuff from 1987. It features three artists that only had like one track out ever, which is on this tape - E'leesa, The Ebony Dukes and Ex-Sample.

Before I go on, let me just say that this is the website for the actual Dalston Oxfam shop. Check it out.

My favorite tracks are the E'Leesa track Where Did Your Love Go? and the Ex-Sample track And So It Goes. Both are really early house tracks and feature those simple deep analog beats with some disco samples so you can see the migration from disco to house. The E'Leesa track was from Bassment records and was written by Barry Zeger and Craig Bevan who apparently wrote a number of early house songs but there is almost no information about them on the web.

The Ebony Dukes are also a band that only did this one track. It was produced by Jazzy Jay, a seminal king of hip hop who did the very first release by Def Jam with T La Rock. I just discovered today that he is actually from a Gullah family. The Gullahs are Americans who originated in Africa and have retained some african words and characteristics in their language.

I also just discovered that Jingo, which I know as a famous disco track done by Candido (also of Thousand Finger Man fame), was originally done by Santana.

Tracklist

A1	Mirage -	Jack Mix IV
A2	E'leesa Weldon -	Where Did Your Love Go?

A3	Ex-Sample -	And So It Goes

A4	Eleanor Goodman -	Sneak Preview

B1	The Whispers -	No Pain, No Gain

B2	Point 3 FM -	So Delicious
B3	Hashim -	I Don't Need Your Love

B4	The Ebony Dukes -	Girls

B5	Candido -	Jingo

Eydie Gorme y El Trio Los Panchos

2010-04-19T21:47:00.000+01:00

Another great tape actually bought from the Oxfam Shop. Eydie Gorme is an American singer who did a lot of amazing 50s-70s style ballads, love songs etc. In the mid 60s she did a series of albums with a very famous Mexican trio called Los Panchos that is apparently still famous in Latin America and who also appeared in many Mexican films. This is beautiful sweet music and I love it. Her most famous song from this album is supposed to be Sabor A Mi, but I also really like Noche de Ronda. The harmonies are amazing.

Anyway, Eydie has some incredible vids that are from a time that's gone. Check this out.

Side A

A1		Nosotros
A2		Piel Canela
A3		Y...
A4		Sabor A Mi
A5		Noche De Ronda
A6		Caminito

Side B


B1		Cuando Vuelva A Tu Lado
B2		Di Que No Es Verdad
B3		La Ultima Noche
B4		Historia De Un Amor
B5		Media Vuelta
B6		Amor

"O" - O'rgasm - 1991 EBM

2010-04-13T17:55:00.001+01:00

I don't know much about this group "O" but it's one of the many projects of Martin Damm. His aliases include (and I have to say I've not heard of a single one) -

909 Disco Babes, Alfred Chicken, Anodyne (4), Bad Blood, Badass, Bio Phobith, Biobreaks, Braindub, Chicks With Dicks, Creepozoids, Cyberchrist, Cyclo S9, DammBreaks, DJ Fistfuck, Dryfish, Earlenbeach Terror Squad, G/O, Headhunter, The (3), Headware, Insecticide, Kinky Bros., M.C.P., MAD (4), Manipulator, The (2), Martin Damm, Moldiver, Necronomicon (2), Null, Phase IV, Play Dead, Prince Of Pot, The, Q-Boy, R.I.C., Raindance, Red Bullfighter, S.C.U.M., Search & Destroy, Shapeshifter, The, Speed Freak, The, Spin, Steel, Subsonic 808, Synchroton, Trance Wonder, Violator, Wendy Milan, Y-Decibel. Note that one of his projects started in 1997 is S.C.U.M., not to be confused with S.C.U.M. which is a hot band playing round London right now.

Play it loud.

Side A

O'rgasm (hetero-version)

Side B

Panic! (blackout version)

O'rgasm (S/M version)

Gangpol und Mit - Sylvain's mix

2010-04-05T15:35:00.001+01:00

Sylvain Quément is the inimitable musical half of Gangpol und Mit. I've liked them and dj'd their stuff for a few years now so I was delighted to see they were playing London recently for the first time. The vid above is an example of some of their stuff I like best. The show was fab and so I thought I might ask Sylvain to dj with me. He sent me this mix that blew my mind - seriously!! So many tracks I've not clue about and yet it's really poppy and fun at the same time.

Then he came down to dj with me at Catch 22 and it was exactly the same. So he is my new favorite dj and he just moved to London. So hopefully I can see him around shaking things up a bit. I also am giving you a download link to a few of the individual tracks. I especially recommend you check out Finnish band Aavikko.

Sylvain is also a contributor to the Cartilage Consortium blog which is really full of amazing finds such as this asian ethno pop, this fab Cameroon disco, and this mega mega Madrid band Retrato Robot.

V/A PLAONG selected
Fish lightnings for milk riots

DOWNLOAD LINK

Tracklist:

KANNO YOKO - CM works
ES ISLAND - Teku Teku Mummy
POLYSICS - I My Me Mine               (download)
PLUS-TECH SQUEEZE BOX - F(ake)
TOSHIYUKI YASUDA - Adeus
NORMAN BAMBI - Psychotic interstellar catastrophe
AAVIKO - Syntaksis                     (download)
THIAZ ITCH - Mingmiling Mahou
GASORMASS - Defenestration old friend
JUN TOGAWA - Angel Baby
A&E - Allo
SECRET CHIEFS 3 - Jãbalquã & Jãbarsã (my edit)
CANDIE HANK - Booty bank
PLASTICS - Copy, BUBBLE B remix
LES TUEURS DE LA LUNE DE MIEL - Nationale 7        (download)
E PAK SA feat. MAYWA DENKI - Fantasy
CAPTAIN AHAB - Punch Yourself in the Crotch
SONIC COASTER POP - Summer In The Pool
FELIX KUBIN - There is a garden
KUWABARA YUKIKO - love story theme

Oriantal Disco - Egyptian

2010-03-30T17:28:00.001+01:00

I was loaned a batch of amazing african records by my friends Polly and Antony under the condition that I put some of them on the blog. Unfortunately I have been slack at posting them. But I finally went through and found an amazing 12" of Shakara with Fela Kuti and a fantastic LP from Yaka Lokito which I can't further identify. I will put these up soon. But firstly I was drawn to this great cover of Egyptian pop-ish music from 1983. It's not really western disco at all. But I know nothing about this album or the artist. The arabic on the cover translates as "rakasat" which means "dances" and "disco al sharq" which means means "disco of the orient".

Side 2

Ya Mealem

Oriantal Disco

Gozy

2010-03-24T17:54:00.000Z

Koot Hoomi is not a band sound that I would normally write about. But anyone who claims to write a covers album of Hall & Oates performed with Sitars in a sort of eastern influenced folk style has got to have a little attention. A few of their other tracks are on Hypem.com, so I'm posting others here.

Apparently this is the image of Koot Hoomi who was some theosophical master of some sort. I seek to bring you a higher level of knowledge than just casual band info.

Say It Isn't So (ysi)

Maneater (reprise) (ysi)

I just also want to add quickly that I saw New Yoga perform recently and they were very good. Hounds of Hate and their crew are really pushing the edge in the parties they are putting together and the crowds are getting better and better. The music is quite experimental if you actually go down and listen. It's not obvious or banging, it's layered synth fabrics.

Techno Technically - 1995 Nick Watts mixtape

2010-03-22T20:54:00.002Z

This is a tape given to me by Yasmina Dexter of Pandora's Jukebox dj and blog fame. It is put together by part of the musical group Dubolition, Nick Watts. It is a collection of very hard to find sort of techno/trance/acid from the mid 90s. I can't say much about it other than that Nick was very kind to offer me a playlist of side 2 with as many tracks as he could remember. I managed to identify a track from side 1 as well. So there are a few individual tracks in low quality to download and then the full mixtapes. I really like side 2.

Side 1 (direct link)

Exit 9 - Insync vs. Mysteron (download 128k) (buy full quality from itunes)

Side 2 (direct link)

Side 2 tracklisting:

    1 ?
    2 Thee J Johanz
    3 Berkana sowelu-solid fuel
    4 Hardkiss
    5 Dubolition Gizmo
    6 ?
    7 ?
    8 Claude Young- concentration factor (download 128k) (buy full quality from djdownload)
    9 ?

Luxury Living

2010-03-09T21:41:00.001Z

My friend Mario used to be in a band called Captain back in like 2005. We used to see each around a lot, djing, maxin', relaxin', and generally trying to show our love of music. Then he started doing the Pearl Flash synth disco concept party with this dope dude called Ben who I first heard dj at a great warehouse party in Shoreditch in like . . . 2005. He was very serious, but had some arpeggiating synth knowledge for sure. Anyway, Pearl Flash went on from from joy to joy and I dj'd with them now and then and I could see it was growing like a nasty poisonous mushroom under the floorboards into a full blown magnificent wonder angel of parties.

Meanwhile in 2009 Mario started to chat me up about his new band Luxury Living and I was generally like, smile, smile, pretend like it will be good. I kept telling him to tell me when it was going. So finally this last Saturday I went to see them play. And it turns out I was LATE. They had already been playing around town and lots of other people already loved them a lot. And they were REALLY good. Even my girlfriend loved them and she doesn't even really drink. They only really have demos so far but this will give you an idea. I personally prefer this epic disco stuff than the stuff that is probably more mainstream to the pop world right now like Everything Will be Amazing. What they're good at is phrasing - songs have to go somewhere, up and down, etc., in the right places at the right time to keep you hooked. Have a listen.

And I am djing for a new party called Fancy done by the Pearl Flash kids for the first time at Bungalow 8 next week, the 17th of March.

Kimberley (demo) - Luxury Living

Defao - Amour Scolaire soukous

2010-02-28T21:34:00.000Z

I haven't put up an african tape for a while so here is another one I bought in Tanzania last year. You can find more of them here.

I don't know really anything about Defao but you can read about him here. Unfortunately this tape is not great quality but it's still rare and it sounds very raw and nice having been converted by my new RME Fireface analog to digital hardware. It's another example of Congolese soukous music and features the following tracks:

Amour Scolaire
Santu Maria

Delly Pangola
Chakito Bakou

Side 1

Side 2

Dj Chip Dilla - Carbootie - ghetto house from 1997

2010-02-22T20:31:00.000Z

Sorry I have not posted for a few weeks. I was in transition on my hardware and also travelling. But the tapes will sound MUCH better now cause I'm working with this fantastic analog to digital unit - RME Fireface 800.

Anyway, this is another of those tapes from Chris Low I've written about previously. This came out in 1997, about the same time as Daft Punk's first album, and it's mixed VERY well, with lots of DIY vocal improv. It's a lot like this live radio show from 1999 I previously posted by Spin Doctor Kim James. Once again, lovely little misogynistic lyrics ranging from the track "Let Dem Hoes Fight . . . " (side 1) to "If you Ride in my Truck, B*tch You Gonna F*ck" (side 2 - 12:40) to "The Girl, The Girl, The Girl is on fire - We Don't Need No Water Let The F*cking Girl Burn!" (side 2 - 9:50) (a play, of course on the 1985 track Roof is on Fire by Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three).

This tape is slicker and has more of a house sound like the Daft Punk and DJ Sneak stuff from around that time (96-98) - whereas the Spin Doctor Kim James track is more pure booty and hip hop. I've extracted a few tracks that are mashups of sorts with known house/disco house loops of that time. One in particular is Ghost Town DJs "My Boo" mashed with Rollin' and Scratchin' by Daft Punk. Trivia point for you - DJ Sneak did a collab with our own current london darling dj Princess Julia.

Side 1

Side 2

Snippet from side 1 (Ghost Town DJs "My Boo" mashed with Rollin' and Scratchin' by Daft Punk)

Snippet from Side 2

Gum Takes Tooth

2010-02-09T22:06:00.001Z

I went to a gallery's anniversary party at MKII in Clapton last weekend and ended up moshing to this band - Gum Takes Tooth. I don't write about many new bands but these guys are AWESOME and tight. Again, two drummers (like Maria & the Mirrors) and some guy on synths. One of the drummers is from Agaskadoo Teliverek which has that amazing Gay Hussar track. All local folks. Anyway, live gig is way better even than the tracks. But here are a few.

Bottom line. If you can make 30 somethings mosh in a gallery . . . you got something going on.

Gum Takes Tooth - Strychnine Motive

Gum Takes Tooth - Tannkjøtt

In terms of great pop writing I haven't come across anything in London recently that I like as much as French Horn Rebellion which is out of the US. Ok, maybe there's some really big well known stuff but PR has sent me these tracks and they're not even showing in Hype machine yet. Soooo good. Make sure to look for the Twelves remix of Beaches and Friends (classic classic clasic chic style US disco) and also their remix of Tiger City - Ancient Lover - all on HYPEM.com.

I've given you a track here which is more mellow but very clever.

The Quatrain - French Horn Rebellion

A Bitch Called Johanna - I'm A Bitch vinyl

2010-01-21T00:14:00.000Z

I have just purchased a collection of 800 new beat, house, etc., records from my friend Chris Low, old school dj, and guy who loaned me a collection of amazing tapes. This is one of the first ones I have recorded.

According to discogs vocals in this track from 1990 were from Wendy Wild who was a NY 80s downtown fixture and did work with John Sex, though it looks like the Bitch Named Johanna may have been Johanna Jimenez.

Some great early 90s house sounds here, and I'm sure the acapella could be used for a lot of great remixing. I actually like best the Bitch to Bitch on the clean side for the trigger looping of the phrase "I'm a Bitch". Check out her in a vid below from 91 in the legendary Pyramid Club in NY. Looks like there was also a related track done by Johanna Jimenez. And I almost prefer this later 1994 version by Olga.

Also some hilarious Wendy Wild vid here with John Sex.

"Fellas? I don't wanna know what you DO. I wanna know who you ARE!!"

TRACKS

X Bitch

Bitch Moaning

X ' Capella

Bitch to Bitch

article on music and money for lookatme.ru

2010-01-12T11:42:00.000Z

I have started writing a column of sorts for Russian website lookatme.ru. More and more I have felt a growing concern and frustration from seeing so many friends struggling as they try to survive and make money while trying to be artists - particularly in the music industry - and especially as the industry is changing so much. So I tried to summarize my thoughts:

– originally written for Lookatme.ru (link)

12 Jan. 2009

Many of my friends are musicians, artists or fashion designers. But most of them don’t make much money. In this article I’m going to discuss various reasons why I think this is the case and what it may take to make money. I’m not proposing to have done any real research on the topic and I may be wrong – I’m just giving an overview of the way I see it.

The way to make money in the arts (music, fashion, art, etc.) is to provide something that people really want or need that they can only get from you or which they can't get cheaper or easier elsewhere. A really good live show is an example. People may be able to easily find someone's music on the Internet for free. But they can only experience a live show by going to the show. A great art piece is the same way. Making it may take the same time as a great album, but the experience can't be put onto a little disc and shared with everyone for free. . . . continue reading

Exsanguination Blues comedy record

2010-01-11T22:06:00.001Z

This is a little odd treat from my dad. It's a comedy record recorded by an actual medical doctor in the 50s and put out by Colonial Records, which had a lot of success with comedy records from that time (the most notable to me being from Andy Griffith). This one is pretty obscure but I remember my dad playing it to me when I was a kid. I think the singer Doug Harrell was an actual doctor and probably did this side project and then never recorded anything else.

My dad asked me to record it to mp3 for him when I was in California over Christmas. The music has kind of a southern folky flavor to it, and it's kind of entertaining, but mostly it's about the story and the humor - the kind your dad would probably like. Enjoy.

Exsanguination Blues - Doug Harrell

Hospitality Blues - Doug Harrell

Warm Leatherette (Matthew Stone mix)

2010-01-06T23:29:00.002Z

My friend Matthew Stone sent me a random mix of Warm Leatherette by The Normal that was so good I decided to post it. I made the artwork to go with it cause he's too busy of an artist to make it himself :)

Matthew is a very special person. In the years I've known him we have often dj'd together and I can say without question that when I do it is usually for some party so underground that there are sound system problems and no license or bar, and no one there that would see me play to hire me for real money - yet still somehow the very most fun I have ever have djing. I think part of the reason for this is that we have similar taste and I enjoy playing stuff to try to impress him and vice versa. Matthew is also a rising art star - you can check out his ventures here.

He told me these are 2 of his favorite tracks right now.

Trentemoller & Margeir Bootleg – Kasper Bjorke vs. Jimi Tenor

And Chris Flatline's re-edit of Yazoo - Situation. Youtube below.

Coincidentally, Warm Leatherette was on the only release ever put out by Daniel Miller [Edit: as the Normal] who founded Mute Records, and it's still one of the most amazing tracks ever. I've always been looking for similar stuff without much luck - maybe a little early Human League but that's about it.

Enjoy.

Warm Leatherette (Matthew Stone mix) - The Normal

Nitzer Ebb live - Edinburgh February 1989

2009-12-16T22:31:00.001Z

This is another of Chris Low's collection of tapes he has generously loaned me. The recording is not super amazing, but it's still great to get a feeling what a live industrial/EBM concert sounded more than 20 years ago. I think Chris recorded this by carrying a boombox into the venue. Check out the parties he's doing now.

Industrial and EBM music is having a bit of a moment now with parties like the Endurance party which has happened a few times at the Korsan Bar on Kingsland Road. We used to play some of this stuff at the Come parties we did back in 2008 in Dalston and I've been djing New Beat and industrial stuff for a while now cause the raw synth sounds are amazing. I like to pick the stuff that is slightly more poppy cause some of it can be a bit hardcore for the unitiated. Another track I really like right now is Fire by Dance or Die.

FYI, Douglas McCarthy did some projects recently with Terrence Fixmer who was a key part of the Electroclash scene on International Deejay Gigolo records, for those that remember.

Anyhoo, enjoy. I've ripped out a live version from this set of the track Hearts and Minds and also included the version off the album so you can compare. But pop over to itunes and buy the complete Belief album. This set was from different albums from 85-90 - my favorite era. Can you believe they started in 1983?!!

Merry EBM Christmas!!

Side A
(yousendit) (rapidshare)

Fitness To Purpose

Warsaw Ghetto

Violent Playground

Let Beauty Loose (not on tracklisting)

Blood Money

Hearts and Minds

Join in the Chant

For Fun

Murderous

Side B

(yousendit) (rapidshare)

Let Your Body Learn

Control I'm Here

Hearts and Minds (album version) (buy from Itunes)

(direct link)

Hearts and Minds live version in Edinburgh 1989

(direct link)

DJ Quark mixtape - Tex Mex

2009-12-01T23:07:00.003Z

I have a lovely friend called Yasmina Dexter who writes the blog Pandora's Jukebox. She is also a fashion muse (meaning she works for and has her claws in a variety of unimpugnable fashion lights). She also djs as Pandora's Jukebox and on occasion has deigned to do so with me. Knowing that I have a thing for the little tapes she finally gave me a bit of a collection she has. Most them were made by her old flame DJ Quark, known by his mother as Jono and currently incarnated as Ping Specialist.

All I have ever wanted to be is a dj who can play all kinds of music together in a way that surprises and delights. So people always ask me what kind of music I play, and what I really want to say is, "Just lots of great stuff" rather than "house music" or "drone rock". Whether or not I can actually do that is a matter for history to decide. But Dj Quark actually mixes together an unusual but fabulous variety of oddities and rarities from trip hop to acid dub darkness beatz. I could only identify the Future Sound of London track on Side A. But DJ Quark helped me to identify a few of the other tracks. A number of them come from the Irdial label which had an interesting philosophy of putting its music out to download for free. You can read about Irdial catalogue here and find more to download here. One of their seminal artists, Insync's track Storm I have also made available for download below. Air Liquide is another great artist with a mix of ambient and acid sounds. And there's some really good slightly electronic dub from the Club Meets Dub compilation vol. 01 you can buy here.

The Future Sound Of London - You're Creeping Me Out (buy on Itunes)

InSync - Storm

Air Liquide - Liquid Air

Dubolition - Blaah

The Disciples - Cool Down

Side A (rapidshare)

Side B (rapidshare)

Taras 3000 and Schleusolz

2009-11-17T14:44:00.002Z

Some new music has come my way. This first track is from my friend Dima who djs and throws the best parties in Moscow. He is also known as Taras3000. He probably thinks this track is too cheesy and pop, but I think it's some of the best work he's done. You can read about his Idle Conversation party here. And more here. The band is called Slideshow Park from Xuman records, which looks like a cool little label.

Slideshow Park - Shining (Taras3000 remix) (yousendit)

Schleusolz is a Frankfurt, Germany band that contacted me out of the blue on Myspace. They exhibit a trait I often find in German bands, they use something from the past in a clever new way. Here are 60's sort of sounds looped in a sort of Pilooski-ish way. Very catchy. Check the latest songs on their myspace as well cause this is the only free one they sent me.

Schleusolz - Polyphobia

live sets from Armando and Farley Jackmaster Funk on WBMX 1987-1988

2009-11-06T15:13:00.002Z

Not much to say here and I don't have a tracklist but these are both excellent early house mixes in decent quality sound. One side is Armando (also referred to as Land of Confusion Capital One) and is quite intense amazing analog sounding acid. The Farley set is more fun but not necessarily as good quality sound. I found this different Farley set (search for the DHP mix 600 with Joe Smooth in it) with tracklisting that is really great with Ten City tracks etc. (by the way, isn't it amazing how much Byron Stingily sounds like Sylvester in Ten City).

Armando live set on WBMX Chicago 1987 (yousendit) (rapidshare)

Farley Jackmaster Funk live set on WBMX Chicago 1988 (yousendit) (rapidshare)

Frankie Knuckles live mix from WBMX Chicago 1986

2009-10-30T08:56:00.006Z

This is a mix by Frankie Knuckles mixing live on the Chicago radio station WBMX on a saturday in 1986. Frankie Knuckles was one of the seminal djs who helped build house music. But when you see this tape titled "deep house" you may think of what you know as deep house today. This is actually a mix of excellent mid 80s soul-disco and jackin' and acid-ish house (which is probably what you would expect from this era). I love listening to these mixes to see the development from really good hard disco into house - it is this crux which has long term been one of my favorite sounds. What's also exciting is that while there are a few other Frankie Knuckles live mixes from this time in the internet it looks like this one is not available.

This tape is part of a collection of excellent live mixes from amazing djs like Jeff Mills, Ron Hardy, DJ Sneak and others that were lent to be my Chris Low, an excellent dj in his own right from back in the day (and no, not the Pet Shop Boys dude). His biog is here. Here you can check out his Edinburgh party Benetti & Low. I am very excited/grattitudinous for this donation and you will get to hear lots of great stuff in the next few weeks that is so far not widely avaiable. You can read more about Chris hear and catch up on one of his regular dj gigs.

Tracklisting info - this mix starts off in the middle of Future Brain - Den Harrow, then cuts into a lengthened version of Baby I'm Scared of You by Womack & Womack, which is really the high point of this mix. I had forgotten that the second half of the track has this great driving break with kind of a breakbeat and the male/female vocals going back and forth. The original track is only like 5 minute long but here Frankie plays it out more than 8 minutes and it's also sped up which makes it sound much better. Then it breaks into We Got The Funk by Positive Force and then into an early house track I don't recognize. B side has First Choice - Let No Man Put Asunder and some other excellent early jackin house stuff.

The thing that strikes me as I listened to this is that it really feels like the djs were playing in a groove where the crowd was meant to just dance and dance and dance in ecstasy to a track for a hours on end. Whereas most of the dj sets I see these days are either really hard or really catchy/ironic. There's no long term groove. Even when it's disco, it's italo which is less groovey. Someone's got to bring that back in a space that's cool. We need you Paradise Garage. Maybe it's going on at Horse Meat Disco - I gotta get down there.

Baby I'm Scared of You ripped from mix with radio announcer (direct download) (yousendit)
Buy on itunes.

Side A (rapidshare)

Side B (rapidshare)

Rap History 2007 mixtape

2009-10-22T10:27:00.007+01:00

This blog has generally been known for posting music that is either rare or at least not recently in the spotlight. This mixtape on the other hand is essentially a mix of some of the top chart hip hop pop from 2007 - so it might seem like an odd choice for the blog. But I've been suddenly feeling like I've not heard any hip hop for a long while and in 2007 I was DEFINITELY mostly ignoring this genre. It is also a very good selection. So even though it includes 50 Cent, Lupe Fiasco, Kid Sister, and Cool Kids, it emphasizes my philosophy on music - there is no such thing as a bad genre of music or a bad time for music, no matter how recent - there is only such a thing as boring music. And that's a personal issue.

Given to me by artist friend Sam Porritt, who borrowed it from a friend's car who he was temporarily using. I think it's of Swiss origin - from raphistory.net, though I can't tell who CNDR or Motorcycle John are. Download, plug in, ride the tube, listen. Enjoy. Then probably next month I'll be droppin more Das EFX and Black Uhuru in my sets.

Side A - direct link (Rapidshare)

Side B - direct link (Rapidshare)

I'm also djing tonight (Thursday, the 22nd) at the Old Blue Last at the corner of Curtain Road and Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. And on Sunday I'm djing at 8 pm at the Dogstar as part of the Oxjam Festival. I'm particularly proud to be part of this as my blog and djing has been linked to Oxfam from the very beginning (though really only by name only :)). I might choose to play a set of tracks which only come from tapes I've bought in Oxfam shops. It's the only UK show of A-Trak for some time and Annie Mac, Isa GT, David Sugar and many others are also playing. No guestlist as it's a charity event - more info and ticket links here.

First ever blog Minimix

2009-10-12T12:06:00.003+01:00

I have done a number of podcasts that were recorded live at Durrr (also here) or other parties. And I've done radio shows live for Diesel you can find on the blog previously here. But it's a very different thing to make a podcast where you carefully mix the tracks and pick each track to fit together within a theme, not considering the live element. I finally learned enough Ableton to do this mix and even though the mixing has got a hitch or two here or there, I'm really happy with this first mix (podcast if you wanna call it that).

At first glance this may just seem like another high energy or disco mix and you may think that's a bit tired as disco is all over the place since last summer. I chose these tracks however because I think each of them is unique from the average disco track, even from most high nrg, and because they have all stuck in my head and those of my friends over the last few months. Each track is also quite rare and hard to find. For me this is the essence of a great mix, hearing a sound that stands out for the quality of each of the tracks, while also being unknown and new to the listener. This is also pretty much the mix I played last Friday at the Catch bar 10th birthday party where I opened for Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve (Erol Alkan's other project).

Track Listing

Tone Band - Tokyo Twist (12" version) - I discovered this track on the Smylonylon 30 tape posted on this blog. I had to order it from Germany as it was nowhere to be found for download. It's surprisingly fast but somehow has a hypnotic driving pattern as well as the hilarious Japanese discussion. An ideal for this sound, sort of like Telex.

Nena - Nur Geträumt - everyone plays 99 Luftballons, but this is the best one, especially if you listen to it on vinyl, for the driving disco bit on the break. Also the vid is hilarious and hot. Yet another chick who prefers guys who look like Richard Marx to me.

Lori & The Chamelons — Touch (Casey Jones Eurodance Disconet mix) - I ripped this out of the Casey Jones mix done for Disconet available on No Guts No Glory here. This is significantly better than the original, which is a bit too 80s and dry. This one has got fantastic little synth punches throughout. But still the best thing is the amazing sexy vocal and how she loves Japanese boy Kato.

International Music System - Bonus Single "Joke" - International Music System is one of those bands that everyone talks about in the New Beat/Italo vein as being SOOOO amazing. Most people love the An English track from the same LP, but I was listening to the vinyl recently and suddenly heard this track and thought WHOA!

Secret Service - Flash in the Night (Casey Jones Eurodance Disconet mix) - OK, a bit unfair to rip out two Casey Jones remixes, but they are both just soo good. When the heavy wave of synth strings come in at the beginning of this track . . .

Nick Straker Band - A Walk in the Park - I have loved Nick Straker's A Little Bit of Jazz and Up Jumped the Devil for years now, but only recently did I hear this one on a comp. Somehow more eurodance than the others.

Golem Edits - La Toubana - this is an edit (though I can't quite tell the difference from the original) of Kassav's Lagué Moin. A good way to end the mix as I am also known for having a big heart for African influenced beats. This really sounds like NY early 80s disco, but it's actually by an african band and has a bit of a soca structure to it. Perhaps a bit odd for the rest of the mix, but I really love the track if you listen to it for a while the synth guitar gets under the skin.

Dalston Oxfam Shop blog first Minimix - October 2009

photographs from old Zoom and Glamour mags

2009-09-23T22:19:00.008+01:00

When I was in Marseille last weekend I picked up a bunch of old Glamour and Zoom (photography) mags from the 80s and early 90s. In addition to djing and writing about old rare cassette music on this blog, I do a lot of amateur photography. There were so many amazing old images in the mags that I decided to post some of them. I am particulary interested in creating the really saturated color film effect you get in some of the 70s photographs. But I understand that it's partly from film and processing that you can't get amymore, like slow speed Kodachrome.

The image of Grace Jones is from an article about the design of some of her album covers by Jean-Paul Goude. I also love the image from Goa of the white kids worshipping one of their own on drugs.

The following images were all from Glamour mags. I think if I was to be a woman, my ideal style would be the woman on the motorbike. So now. In contrast the outfit Naomi is wearing, I don't see that coming back anytime soon but maybe I'm missing something.

NME 021 - Pogo a Go Go!

2009-08-03T17:43:00.006+01:00

Here is another of the rare NME cassettes released with the magazine in the early 80s, a number of which you can find elsewhere on this blog. These tapes featured a variety of styles from jazz, pop, reggae, even african, to punk, which is what they tape is. Each of them has a lot of tracks from bands that are quite obscure and impossible to find elsewhere. This one has unreleased tracks from the Sex Pistols and The Clash that are not released. Even though this compilation came out on CD, the unreleased tracks were not included. So this is the only place you can find them.

Unfortunately, the cassette quality is not so amazing. Some of the last tracks on the B side, such as the Buzzcocks track have a slight waiver in the pitch and the Sex Pistols track has a bit of a buzz in it now and then. But it's great to hear the Sex Pistols guy say something at the end of the demo recording. And the tracks by The Fall, Elvis Costello and The Slits are all good quality and also fantastic tracks. "Part Time Punks" is also great for its tale (even when punk was big) about people who do Punk for the aesthetic, not for the principle. Aesthetic is my principle, though, and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm a punk in other ways.

A1 Sex Pistols - Satellite (Suburban Kid) (unreleased version)
A2 Undertones - True Confessions
A3 Nipple Erectors - King Of The Bop
A4 Television Personalities - Part Time Punks
A5 Sham 69 - Borstal Breakout
A6 The Damned - Stretcher Case Baby
A7 Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Watching The Detectives
A8 The Stranglers - Choosey Susie
A9 Victim - Strange Thing By Night

B1 The Clash - 1977 (demo)
B2 Johnny Moped - Incendiary Device
B3 Slits - Typical Girls
B4 Alternative TV - Love Lies Limp
B5 Swell Maps - Read About Seymour
B6 The Jam - In The City
B7 The Fall - Bingo Master's Breakout
B8 Subway Sect - Ambition
B9 Wire - Dot Dash
B10 Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict

DJ Tom T rave tape - early 90s

2009-07-17T11:09:00.004+01:00

Another excellent rave tape made by the unknown DJ Tom T in the early 90s. This was sent to me by Mel who sent me the Tynynyny tape from the previous blog post. He told me he collected this from the early 90s in the Washington DC area but that's about all the info I have. Any tips would be encouraged about Tom T or the tracks. There is one track in particular that I have ripped out from the middle of side A that is really stand out. I'd love to find the whole track.

Side A

Track ripped from Side A

Side B

Also I want to direct your attention to a genuine new talent. Hounds of Hate (my Hackney neighbor Stan) has produced a complete mixtape which you can buy (says it's sold out). The tape is a collab with Hype Williams. Once again, first featured on this blog, now featured on the NME. In my opinion, his standout track so far is Phantasy Re-Up featured on No Pain in Pop.

tynynyny volume two sixties spage age bachelor pad pop

2009-07-13T21:58:00.008+01:00

This is 60s pop, or as it is often described "spage age bachelor pad music". This came out around 95-96 done by the same guys that did Smylonylon (also now part of In Flagranti) and you can see a similar style in the early Smylonylon tape posted on the blog here. Around that time there was a big upswing in interest in 60s hipster parties, especially in NY and Hollywood, which also coincided with the release of the early Vince Vaughn movie Swingers. I moved to NY in 1996 and just caught the tale of this party scene where I met some of my best friends. Tynynyny was one of the parties and another was the 999999's which used to go on at Flamingo East in which Penelope Tuesdae, my very favorite friend Lasia, and DJ Fancy were involved (Dj Fancy later appeared as the genius behind fantastic girl group Fannypack). I also met Chris McClary there who since moved to Cali and is behind the great website See Spot Ride featuring dogs riding in cars. It looks like you can see an original flyer from the party over at o~ SeMeN photos. There is even mention of this party in the mid 90s in the New York Times. This was originally unhip spage age according to this New York Times article and the music was often put together to demonstrate the technical capacities of new equipment that had just been released.

First track on side A is the intro to the german version of Sesame Street called Der, Die, Das, and I believe it originally came out on this album called "Sesamstraße - Der, Die, Das - Und Andere Lustige Lieder Und Lernspiele", in case anyone wants to send it to me. But the most amazing 2 tracks appear in the middle of side A and I haven't been able to Shazam the names of the first one so any help would be appreciated. I've ripped them to listen to as individual tracks below. The second one is very well known Popcorn track by Hot Butter.

The first track on side B is the great Sunshows track linked below by the same band that did Cherchez Le Femme.

I want to thank the very lovely fashion god Mel Ottenberg for sending me these and other cassettes. I will be featuring a rave cassette he sent me later in the week.

Side A (direct link)

Side B (direct link)

Side A track rip 1 (name?)

Side A track rip 2 (Popcorn by Hot Butter) Listen to 79 (yes 79) versions of the same song on WFMU here, including version by Prodigy, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin. I like the Klaus Wunderlich version best.

from Side B - Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Sunshower

D-Frost 20 Global Dance Warnings

2009-07-04T16:35:00.008+01:00

You've been warned!! (cause they're global dance warnings - get it? ;))

"My name is Barbarella. I'm from planet earth." This is Sven Vath work from when he first started playing techno. Great story of his about how he built up clubs and developed himself in Frankfurt in the mid to late 80s. I was at Dorian Gray in 91.

I think side A of this cassette is a bit lame, but side 2 has a number of hits I've posted individually below. I particularly love the Dreams of Heaven, which was from an Australian one hit wonder, and rumored to play in the nightclub scenes of soap opera Neighbors.

Complete side B - listen streaming here

B01	West End	The Love I Lost
		Featuring - Sybil
B02	K.W.S.	The KWS Hitmix
B03	System 7	7:7 Expansion
B04	Naughty By Nature	Hip Hop Hooray
B05	Jump	Funkatarium
B06	Ground Level	Dreams Of Heaven
B07	Praga Khan Featuring Jade 4U	Phantasia Forever
B08	A Separate Reality	I'll Take You There
		Featuring - Shelley P
B09	Air Tattoo	Synaesthesia
B10	Barbarella	Barbarella 2 (sharebee) (direct link)

goodbye Michael - we'll miss you

2009-06-26T12:04:00.003+01:00

As an indication of my admiration and respect for Michael Jackson I'm just doing a one off post to say goodbye. I don't care how weird you may seem to the mainstream - weirdness is usually what makes people extra special and successful.

Below is the remix of thriller made by Hampus Drake (I believe) which I used to play all the time and one of my favorite tunes of all time. And the vid above is probably one of my favorite for the way he dances.

G-Rock- Thriller

Live interviews with bloggers - Diesel U Music radio show

2009-06-24T22:12:00.005+01:00

I did a radio show in Diesel U Music on Monday and interviewed bloggers from the following big blogs in between playing tracks they recommended and some of my own. We discussed lots about the blogging world, how it works, how they choose tracks, the music industry, etc.

PROGRAM

Ground level - Dreams of Heaven
No Name - Cosmic Rave (Aeroplane chart)

[interview with Lukas - WFMU blog]

Anne-James Chaton / Andy Moor - Dans le monde
Djemila - L'Homme a la Moto

[interview with Austen - Palmsout blog]

RGBs - STAR JUMPS (Urchins remix)
Duck Sauce - Anyway

[interview with Clive - ylow.blogspot.com]

Perry Ernest & The Afro Vibrations - Ozioma (Message)
Farce Majeure Team - Doe't Voor Het te Laat is
U K W - Sommersprossen

[interview with Amy - Trash Menagerie blog]

Black Box - I Don't Know (KINGDOM REMIX)
Blue Beat Allstars - Something Like That

[interview with Martin - discobelle.net blog]

L-vis 1990 - United Groove

Something for Your Mind - Speedy J

[interview with Stuart - 20jazzfunkgreats blog]

Ritalin (Taras3000 remix) - Twices

listen streaming below

Listen live NOW to other great programs on Diesel U Music here.

a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. - pullover '92 Belgian techno acid mixtape

2009-06-06T19:01:00.012+01:00

This is probably my favorite cassette I've posted on the blog right now. It's such the sound I'm looking for. I feel like disco is starting to get overplayed and there are rarely new discoveries that are amazing that I don't know. Electro bangers are fine, but that's been going on for a while now. Pop-synth stuff is great, but there are few and far between tracks that are great. So 1992 Belgian techno acid just sounds so fresh to me. I am not as crazy about the big hardcore sound right now that I've previously posted on here, things like James Brown is Dead, etc.

I found this cassette in a thrift shop behind Hackney Central. The Pullover side appears to be almost a duplicate of side 2 of the Serious Beats 4 cassette. But I can't identify the tracks on the a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side so any track id tips would be lovely.

a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side (sharebee)

sample track from a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side ("I wanna be your finger")

Pullover side (sharebee)

(listen Pullover side streaming below)

Here are a few tracks from the PULLOVER side. They are slightly different versions than in the mix.

Speedy J - Something For Your Mind

DHS - House of God (Unholy version)

I also want to hype the UK Soundclash ipod competition coming up this Tuesday, the 9th. I've been invited to compete in a team with Matthew Stone. Lots of other good djs competing with us such as Crookers, Girlcore, Nova and others. I think Matthew and I will go for the conceptual vote. It's all about the popularity though so come down and scream for us to win. Winners are measured by the loudness of the crowd. Tickets here.

various news - live radio show - Diesel

2009-05-16T19:07:00.004+01:00

Just a quick note to say that I just did a live radio show on Diesel radio with new music personally recommended by writers from Discobelle, WFMU, Palms Out Sounds, Big Stereo, 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Trash Menagerie and Ylow blog. I also played some of my own favorite tracks including some classic house, rare italo and new beat. You can listen here at 3-5 am Sunday morning the 17th (that's tomorrow morning) and also 9-11 pm on Sunday the 17th. I will do another show at some point and this one will be posted here to download.

click on "radio" to hear the show here: http://cult.diesel.com/radio

Also I'm djing tomorrow night at the Lock Tavern (Sunday evening, the 17th) for Kai's party (from Mystery Jets). Details are the following. I'm on from 9-11.

Madhouse Urban Jungle at the lock tavern, Sunday 17 May. Featuring: The Jacks, Is Tropical (ex Ratty Rat Rat) and Nick Mulvey (Portico   Quartet), with Dj sets from Madhouse Djs, Blonde Ambition and Special   guest Todd Hart (Dalston Oxfam Blog). Bands from 7 pm. Free entry +   Special Sunday Surprises

And last night we went to a local party Can't You Want To put on by various punk/garage friends with Pandora's Jukebox (Yasmin) djing. It was fantastic music and the band Not Cool played live. They were REALLY tight and a great live show. So keep an eye out for them - you can listen to tracks on their myspace but you should really hear them live to appreciate how tight they are.

Rough Trade C09 cassette

2009-04-28T23:33:00.006+01:00

Rough Trade just put out a new limited edition cassette in the vein of other NME cassettes such as C86 from back in the day. So even though almost all the tracks have been widely blogged (check hypem.com) I simply had to cover it (considering all the similar cassettes that I've put up here) and Rough Trade had sent me a copy, and I like them :). The only track that appears to fairly exclusive is the Clark Kunt's remix of Micachu. In the end I couldn't extract a recording of the cassette that was quality enough (even though sometimes, such a with the african cassettes, the tapes sound fantastic) so I compiled the mp3s from other blogs.

All in all, the music on here is really good. My favorite track has to be (hands down) the Cure cover by the Mystery Jets. Such a good track. I dj'd with Will and Kai from the Mystery Jets in Ghent last weekend and they played a fantastic banging set (with excellent mixing skills). Will is going to come down and dj with me downstairs at Catch this Thursday at 22 Kingsland Road in Shoreditch. It's free if you want to come along.

[edit: I've put the Micachu track up now cause it's exclusive to this blog and this cassette]

A1 Jarvis - Angela
A2 Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen In Your Dreams
A3 Micachu - Lips (Clark Kunt's Heavy Mental Mix)
A4 Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - Whistle Past The Graveyard
A5 Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me
A6 Little Joy - Brand New Start
A7 God Help The Girl - Musician, Please Take Heed
A8 The Decemberists - The Rake's Song

B1 Super Furry Animals - Inaugural Trams
B2 The Veils - Three Sisters
B3 Antony & The Johnsons - Shake That Devil
B4 Mystery Jets - In Between Days
B5 1990s - The Box
B6 The Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis
B7 British Sea Power - No Man Is An Archipelago

djng this week in Nottingham and Ghent, Belgium

2009-04-20T21:07:00.009+01:00

I'm so lame that I've been so busy to actually post music, which is too bad. Last weekend at the Land of Kings festival, Lou & Nova rocked it out, as did Rory Phillips and super special guest Disco 3000 (Erol Alkan). I got lucky to play just before Erol so I tried to lay down a disco set. It was amazing to play for that kind of crowd and play whatever I wanted, which happened to be mostly new synth disco.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm playing for the Liar's Club 6th Birthday. All around the lineup is fantastic, but I want to give a special mention to Maria & the Mirrors which is actually one of my favorite live acts right now. I can't explain it other than I feel like they could have stepped out of Warhol's factory. Read about them on my previous review here.

I'm also djing on Friday night, the 24th at the Make Up club for I Heart Niyi's party in Ghent, Belgium. More details on the party's facebook page.

Luckily for both parties I've been told that anything goes. It so happens that I'm crazy about this track right now. I just kind of works, especially if you listen for a while. I think one of the reasons I love Empire of the Sun so much is their very excellent production. I think the songwriting is just very well done, but the production is out of this world. I like this other track by Dream Academy, which is quite similar, which might also seem quite naff, just because the production is excellent.

Empire of the Sun - We Are the People (cagedbaby remix)

Dream Academy - Love Parade

Land of Kings Festival in Dalston this Thursday and Friday

2009-04-15T23:51:00.004+01:00

I'm behind on my posts here cause I have a great idea but it's taking me a while to post it. I'm going to post a mix I've made of new music that I'm crazy about before I go back to posting some more cassettes.

In the meantime, come to the Land of Kings festival this Thursday and Friday, the 16th and 17th of April. I'm djing on Friday night with Lou and Nova and Rory from Trash/Durrr along with a special secret guest who can't put up with Disco from our millenium so he has to go for the year 3000 (yeah!). We're playing at the Stone Cave from 11 pm (111 Kingsland High Street). It's a freaky cave restaurant so should be good. Also playing at the festival are An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, David E. Sugar, Serge Santiago, Colouring In, Kathy Diamond, Allez Allez and many more. It's cheap and you can get tix on the day. You've come a long way baby Dalston! You can read more about it by clicking on the picture above which is my first full page article in Timeout.

WJLB - Live at the Warehouse with Spin Doctor Kim James - 1999

2009-03-19T16:32:00.005Z

This is a gift from my friend Bohdan who is from Detroit and used to listen to this station, WJLB all the time on the weekend. He recorded this in 1999. It's full booty/ghetto/hip hop recorded live at the Warehouse in Detroit. The tracks are fantastic but even better is listening to the dj Spin Doctor Kim James work the crowd - calling out the playas and the hoes and pointing out girls he thinks are hot. All around it's an energy that I feel like I don't hear in clubs in London these days. I know that booty made a bit of a round on the dj circuit maybe 2-3 years ago, but this is like I've never heard it. Anyone who can name check some of the tracks, like the track where she says "if it's the last thing I do, I wanna go down on you", please post names in the comments. I gotta have it. I've posted one track from Dj Godfather which is in the mix with the great line "you got dem PHDs, dat's da 'playa hate disease'".

I'm off tomorrow to Miami for two weeks for the Winter Music Conference and to have fun. Going to go to Erol Alkan gig's, the Durrr gig and the disco pool party at the Gansevoort. If you're in Miami shoot me an e-mail. And if you want me to dj, I'll have my stuff with me. I got all kinds of freaky music, you know me. And I play for fun, not money :)

listen below.

side 1 (download sharebee)

side 2 (download sharebee)

DJ Godfather and Coon Daddy - See U No More

EDIT: I managed to get my friend Pierre to identify the other track I like which you can download below. I think you need to speed it up a bit to get the right effect.

Aaron Carl - Down (original mix) (sharebee)

Planet Rock 1 - various dance mixtape 1997

2009-03-16T19:33:00.009Z

Finally emerging from an African cave where my musical ear has been for the last two months. I bought this fresh cassette a few months back at a car boot sale in Dalston from a guy called Paddy Austin. He told me these were some of his favs for auto cruisin and I would need to return what I didn't use. Here's to you, Paddy, cause the first one reminded me of some of the great tracks that were out in 97, things like Aphrodite, Cornershop, Primal Scream, Fatboy Slim, and Propellerheads. I so much love the Aphrodite - Bad Ass track that I dropped it at my dj set at Catch in Shoreditch last thursday - and the crowd asked for more!

Planet Rock 1 - side A (download)

Planet Rock 1 - Side B (download)

Bad Ass - Mickey Finn & Aphrodite

I also want to mention a lot of other things that I like right now, things I've seen recently, and things that are coming up.

DJ GIGS

I'm djing at the Land of Kings festival on 17th of April. Lots of good djs/bands at the festival so check the lineup - Kathy Diamond, Rory Phillips, Lou and Nova, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, Allez Allez and others. Then the following Tuesday I'm also djing at the 6th birthday party of the Liar's Club in Nottingham with Health (live) and Banjo Freakout playing. I hear they get their freak on in Nottingham, so I'm waiting to see.

NEW BANDS

I'm also creamed to the brim at randomly meeting two new musical projects in my neighborhood (that would be Hackney, creative center of the universe) that I really like. One is ColouringIn (which sounds a lot like Empire of the Sun, which is totally the sound of now and my tip for the BBC Sound of 2009). ColouringIn is "Love Minus Zero head honcho Tom Neville and opera singing former student of the Royal Academy turned electronic-upstart Henry Bennett" (plus a few others I think, such as my friend Marnie Hollande). In other words, beautiful music with a fab operatic voice. They've let me post a track below and I'm sure the record labels are panting.

Intergalactic Romantic (demo radio edit) - ColouringIn

The other band is a new project by uber mad synth fan neighbor Stan. We hang out now and then and he just popped up the idea that he's working on some music last week and I was like "oh my god, here we go again, some lame ass project I'm going to have to be nice about but ignore". But the music is beautiful and fantastic. It's not a dance floor piece, more like a catwalk piece, or something to play in the background when you're working in your fashion studio not getting paid but filling your resume and lightly tapping your foot along. Reminds me of that LCD Soundsystem track that was big - Someone Great.

Tumble Down Slow - Hounds of Hate

ART/OTHER THINGS

First of all, you have to check out this hilarious project Dollar Van Demos that someone sent me by e-mail (it's on youtube). It's basically a taxi mixed with new artist shows. The taxi is cheap and you get to check out some new artists. Notice how different the vibe is in Brooklyn than in London. Go Sally Connors.

I also saw some art I really liked at the Perrotin gallery in Paris a few weeks ago and as I'm increasingly interested in how undeveloped my taste in art is, I thought I would post some of my favorites so people can tell me why I have bad taste. I really like Tatiana Trouve, and particularly this piece. I also really like Jose Levy's show that was at Perrotin's gallery, but I guess he comes from fashion and it's not called "art" but rather "design" on the web page. humph! The chessboard of little mice he made was really great. Finally, my fiance and I have been fans for some time of Rosa Loy, so now you know what I want for my Easter present. I think it's because I'm somewhat drawn to the slight fairytale imagery, particularly stuff like this.

That's all for now.

Old is Gold vol. 1 - more Soukous

2009-03-10T16:13:00.005Z

Well this is one more soukous cassette I brought back from Tanzania. After this I'm going to go back to posting some other types of music but I will post more Tanzanian cassettes in the future.

This one is full of huge names and all of them have that dancey soukous sound I love. I played a bunch of these at our Manifesto party last thursday night which was a smash pot of fun. Thanks to those who came. We had more than 400 people in the Double Club that night and Taxi Pata Pata (Zong Zing in disguise) rocked it out. Pictures here. Fiston who plays in Taxi Pata Pata and Zong Zing told me that he used to play with Samba Mapangala, so you can get an idea of what it was like by listening to the tracks below.

Side A

Kabibi - Sam Mangwana

Marina - Samba Mapangala

Muzina - Tabu Ley

Ngandempa - P Adams

Cheche Dezo - T. Muana

Side B

Mboungou - Mayaula

Tojours Ok - Franco & Sam

Double Double - Nyboma

Dandy - Victoria Eleyson

Soukous Soukous - compilation tape

2009-03-03T00:13:00.004Z

This tape is a compilation of some more amazing Soukous. I assume most of this is from Congo because it's not in Swahili, and the tracks are more of the soukous sound I love. Unfortunately even though there are lots of great names on the cover such as Danny Engobo and Pepe Kalle, none of the songs are tagged by artists. So I encourage anyone who reads this to tag the songs in the comments if you know them. I only included the songs which I like better. I think any one of them would make the dancefloor sizzle but I'm especially drawn to Soukous Tonic because of the fantastic guitar work.

Side A

Egide
Young Africa
Amina
Aziza
Pousse Au Fond

Side B

Soukous Tonic

Susie
Adie Amie
Salomon
Vacances Au Pays

I am also including a Soukous tape because we are finally doing another of our Manifesto parties and it's all about the SOUKOUS!! It's been almost a year since our last one and in the meantime lots of other parties have sprung up doing african music. The Double Club also opened, which is a big chic venue sponsored by Prada themed on the Congolese culture. We have been invited this Thursday, 5 March, to do Manifesto at that venue. With the help of some amazing musicians, including Fiston who plays in Zong Zing (who have played twice at Manifesto) and used to play in Samba Mapangala, we have booked the legendary Taxi Pata Pata which has been called one of the best Soukous bands in the world. Read all about Taxi Pata Pata, who was a big hit in the 80s, and come down and see them live. Details in the flyer below.

Vijana Jazz Band - Zilizowika

2009-02-16T21:42:00.005Z

Another Internet virgin. This album is not mentioned anywhere on the Internet. Vijana Jazz Band are one of the biggest Tanzanian groups in the Muziki wa Dansi category though generally were later than some of the other bands (according to Wikipedia).

One of the tracks was too badly recorded for me to include it here, and I think Kapu La Mjanja has the best combo of vocals and instrumental on this tape.

Mundinde

Aza

Kapu La Mjanja
(listen below)

V.I.P.

Bunjumbura

Pepe Kalle - Voisin/Stop Feu Rouge

2009-02-10T11:47:00.009Z

Pepe Kalle was quite a character and very well known in the world of congolese and east african pop. According to this great summary of his discography from Frank Bessem, this cassette came out about 1990. I already have some Pepe Kalle stuff and know that he is quite well known, but now I'm going to have to check him out further. This kind of fairly fast Soukous with really bright metallic guitar just really grabs me. You can cop some really fresh Pepe vinyl from 1981 on the amazing Ylow blog here.

I didn't put the last track on here because it doesn't sound like it is Magali and I'm not sure what it is called.

Voisin

Keva

Stop Feu Rouge

(stream below)

I'm not sure what to think of the fact that he was famous for having dwarfs who performed with him. It gets more freaky when the dwarf starts to hump the other dancers halfway through the vid.

Tabora Jazz Band - old school favorite

2009-02-09T21:08:00.005Z

The Tabora Jazz Band was one of Tanzanian pop's seminal bands. According to Wikipedia, they were one of the key bands that developed the Tanzanian pop sound I really love called "Muziki was dansi", which came from Congolese/Rumba and Sokous sounds. Unfortunately the quality of this cassette, which is probably from before the 70s, is not super good. Still, the standout track here is Mariam Mpenzi. Particularly the latter part of the track in the breakdown is fantastic. I'd so love to find a better recorded version of this.

Asha No. 1

Alhamdulilah

Zabibu No. 2

Mariam Mpenzi
(stream below)

Tatu Wajidanganya

You can find another Tabora Jazz track over at this Mwana Simba page.

Tandale Modern Theatre - Mbereko - tanzanian pop

2009-02-06T21:43:00.005Z

As I continue through the cassettes I bought in Tanzania, this one is one of the more obscure ones. I can't find virtually any reference at all to the group on the nets. Kind of half way between the traditional dancey band stuff and the gospel choir stuff, this one seems to be more of maybe a traditional local group. But some of the tunes are still really catchy with complex instrumentation. Probably my favorite is Shoga Kidokozi which you can both download and stream below. The funny thing is that even though I didn't know the term, it says online that Shoga is slang for gay man. So literally this song could mean "a little bit gay".

Mbereko (22 minutes long!)

Mashine

Nipisheni Msinibane

Shoga Kidokozi
(stream below)

Omary Kopa - Zanzibar Taarab

2009-02-05T18:18:00.003Z

This is proper Zanzibar Taarab which I purchased in the gift shop of the House of Wonders in Stone town. I am finding that lots of the Taarab is heavy on the kind of arabic style singing and doesn't have much of a traditional song structure (or at least a song structure I'm used to). The singer seems to wander all over the place without much of a melody. So I'm not posting all of the songs, just the ones which I think are a bit more catchy.

I can't find much info about Omary Kopa but I think the 3 tunes are quite catchy, particularly track 3. I can't tell what the tracks are called but I've guessed on 2. The cd had 6 songs on it and for sure they're not in the order on the cover.

Namtunza Mwanangu

Track 3
(listen below)

Tufurahie Kitchen Party

mystery cassette - Tanzania gospel music

2009-02-04T17:21:00.005Z

Well I was really looking forward to this cassette but when I played the songs I realized that it must have been accidentally switched by the cassette stand seller cause the Swahili lyrics don't match the song titles. THE SONGS BELOW ARE NOT THE CASSETTE COVER ABOVE. It sounds like some kind of Tanzania christian music and the cassette has no indication of its title. Still, the music is great and kind of dancey, so if anyone can identify it for me that would be great.

It looks like the Mandela Theatre Troupe were some kind of educational group in Tanzania trying to use music to educate. There is only one reference I could find to this cassette and it is in the Doran Ross collection of Taarab cassettes from Zanzibar. Doran Ross appears to be some luminary from UCLA and the list of cassettes looks like a very comprehensive resource of what might exist in the genre. I will be posting a few of these in the days to come.

Most of Side A was corrupted sound, but I managed to rescue this track for its great male vocal stylings. And Side B is fresh - particularly B3.

Track A4

Track B1

Track B2

Track B3
(listen below - this track is so great)

Track B4

Track B5

Track B6

Download all tracks in rar file. (Sharebee)

Mbaraka Mwinshehe - Tanzanian classic

2009-02-03T16:36:00.007Z

I just returned to London from a month travelling with my girlfriend in Tanzania. I grew up in Arusha, so it was a chance to go back home and check things out. One of the great pleasures was listening to the great east african sounds blaring out of sound systems in roadside shops and little tinny sounding radios everwhere I went. I managed to pick up about 40 cassettes and a few cds, many from artists whose music doesn't seem to appear anywhere on the web. So I am going to try to do a blitz of the better stuff I got for the next few weeks and then return to my regular programming.

First of all I want to add that there are others much more knowledgeable than me about this kind of music, and others who write about it all the time. Awesome Tapes from Africa covers nothing but african tapes, but it does seem to be mostly west african. He has nothing on Tanzania from what I can tell, though there are some gems from Kenya here. I find that I do usually prefer the instrumental sound from east africa (kenya, Tanzania, and sometimes Zaire (now known as Congo)). This may however be partly because I understand Swahili and the lyrics. Steve Ntwiga's blog is the only one I have found that consistently covers east african music also, but I think he has more of a Kenyan bent. Benn Loxo du Taccu's blog is fantastic for covering lots of african music, but his east african coverage has been thinner. He has covered some Tanzanian stuff before though all links are now dead.

Most of the music I'm going to cover will be of the Taarab flavor or old dance band sound. Tanzania has been crazy about bongo flava for the last few years and some of it is quite nice. But in my view it's just an interesting variation of hip hop and rnb with Swahili lyrics and I'm not really into that sound right now. So I didn't really collect any. Taarab often sounds like a mix beween middle eastern/arab and tanzanian pop. But it varies and sometimes sound a lot more like traditional pop, like the sound on this cassette.

This first cassette I'm featuring is of Mbaraka Mwinshehe who is one of the classics of east african music. His track Shida can still be heards playing out of bars/sound systems all over the country. I had not had a chance to play the cassettes much when I was in Tanzania. But one day we were travelling from Tanga in the north down a really bad dirt road to Pangani (which I highly recommend as an unspoilt beach spot). The driver was playing his Bongo Flava so I asked him if he would mind trying one of my cassettes. We popped this in and when Shida came on he suddenly laughed and started to sing along. I also love the authentication stamp, with signature, on the back of the cover (click on it for a better image).

[I've tried to provide swahili translations of song titles to the best of my capacity.]

Side A

Shida Part 1 & Part 2 (Problems - part 1 and 2) "Problems"
(listen below)

Nisalimie Wanazaire "Greetings to the Zaire people"

Mapenzi Yanitesa "My Lovers are Bothering Me"

Side B

Choyo Uache "Don't be Petty" (cassette cover says this is the song, but not sure)

Tutakuja Gombana "We will Start to Argue"

Dr. Kleruu "Dr. Kleruu"

Esta Wangu "My Esther" (cassette cover says this is the song, but not sure)

Download the complete album here (Sharebee).

A.E. Bizottság - Kalandra Fel!! Hungarian post-punk

2009-01-01T15:48:00.004Z

Sorry there has been a bit of a delay in the blogging. I am travelling for a month in Tanzania and Zanzibar, in east africa, so the Internet has not been foremost on my thoughts. Hopefully, I will find some excellent Taraab and Swahili music while here however and post one or two things up before February.

I don't know much about this cassette other than that I think it was part of a rock/post-punk movement in Hungary in the early 80s. I bought a whole bunch of Hungarian cassettes, including some from Beatrice (sp?) from someone at a small car boot sale behind the Dalston train station. Excellent! Some of this is really quite good stuff - I was surprised. Hopefully I will find a chance soon to upload the second half. Check out in particular the track Linaj, Linaj, Van-Van-Van.

Tracklisting:

A1		Köszöntő [Address/Invitation]
A2		Putty-Putty
A3		Brutális [Brutal]
A4		Konyhagyeplő [Kitchen Rein]
		Guitar [Solo] - Y. Sándor Bernáth*
A5		Linaj, Linaj, Van-Van-Van [Linay, Linay, Van-Van-Van]
A6		Ne Nagyon Gesztikulálj [Don't Gesticulate So Much]
A7		Vaniliaálomkex [Vanilia-Dream-Biscuit]
A8		Bestia [Beast]
A9		Versike [Rhyme]
A10		Na Ne Hülyéskedj [Stop Kidding]
B1		Egy Lány Kéne Nekem [I'd Need A Girl]
B2		Már Megint Ez A Depresszió [Depression Back Again]
B3		Nem Bírom A Gyűrődést [Pooped Out]
B4		Mindez Én Vagyok [All That Is Me]
B5		Kamikáze
B6		Szerelem, Szerelem [Love, Love]

SUPER SUPER magazine mix

2008-12-10T11:34:00.005Z

I wrote an essay for this months issue of Super Super fashion magazine (available in select stores, of course). My concept was a discussion of art/music completed by an essay using a sequence of sentences each of which were lifted from a blog. Then I did a mix which was a tune taken from the same blogs in the same order as each sentence in the essay. So essentially it was an experiment in a mix being selected by the meaning of words. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But what "works" is subjective and the point of the essay.

download sharebee (53 megabytes)

listen

here is the tracklist and the blog they are taken from in sequence.

http://darksynthesia.blogspot.com/        The 4-08 To Paris - Berlin Express
http://robartopoland.blogspot.com/        Nothing to Lose - Rendezvous
http://babakazoo.blogspot.com/        Arcadia - Goodbye is Forever
http://dollarbinjamsonline.blogspot.com/        Peter Dragontail – Perfect Machine
http://discoidterrorist.blogspot.com/        Karen Young - Deetour
http://titisse.blogspot.com/        Regrets - Je Ne Veux Pas Rentrer Chez Moi Seule
http://blog.datasapiens.net/        Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer (Tom Novy Remix)
http://supertroels.dk/wp/        Boom Clap Bachelors - Fylde Dig Med Regn
http://www.ohhcrapp.net/        Klaxons - Gravitys Rainbow (Todd Edwards Remix)
http://www.roboboogie.blogspot.com/        PNAU - Embrace (Miami Horror and Fred Falke rmx)
http://www.discobelle.net/        Diplo - Blow Your Head (DJ Eli remix)
http://twankleandglisten.blogspot.com        MC J' Ro 'J - Let's Jump
http://www.unkut.com/        Eric B. & Rakim - Follow The Leader
http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/        Maurice Maiga and Amore Cultural Group - Mugun Fata
http://funky16corners.wordpress.com        The Pioneers - Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone
http://nurse-marbles.livejournal.com/        Francoise Hardy - La Maison Ou J'ai Grandi
http://blog.wfmu.org        Rainbow Arabia - Let Them Dance
http://www.unicornmeat.com/        Great Motion Picture Themes From Jean Harlow Films
http://brotbeutel.blogspot.com/        D.U.R. - Bericht aus der Beamtenkultur
http://thethingonthedoorstep.blogspot.com/        Tequila Mariachi - Confidencia
http://keytarsandviolins.blogspot.com/        Maxence Cyrin - D.A.N.C.E.

80's groove!

2008-11-18T12:34:00.003Z

Key kids. I don't normally talk about every dj gig I do on the blog here, but tomorrow night (that's Wednesday 19 November) I'm doing a special set of 80's groove music at ISA GT's party Musicalia. It's free and in the middle of Shoreditch at a venue with a great sound system - and you need a great sound system for 80's groove. In case you don't know, 80s groove is pretty much the only sound that is just not getting played out much these days. People will play all kinds of indie rock, electro/techno/house, even disco and sometimes hip hop or old school stuff. But I almost never hear the stuff like below. But I love this stuff and you need to check it out. I have a huge collection of it.

Mangray compilation tapes

2008-11-14T17:13:00.008Z

Mangrey is one of those kind of guys that, if you see him at a cocktail party, you will just feel you need to find out who he is. But I don't want to give you a visual image of what he is like, striking as that is, because I want you to imagine him. Someone I met at an east london fashion studio, not too young, not too old, but who you can know only through these tapes.

I first met him at a party at the Boudicca fashion label's studio and was told that he did magical mixtapes. And when I first started doing this blog I thought I would be posting lots of nuggets of personal confession, mixtapes done with a lover in mind or a theme, a slice in time perhaps. Unfortunately the Oxfam shops have a policy not to sell privately made mixtapes, so I've been mostly posting commercial releases.

Mangray had made a bunch of themed mixtapes for Zowie and Brian of Boudicca and they lent a few to me. Then I got to know Mangray's lovely personality myself and he offered to lend me copies of the original artwork for the tapes.

Maybe some day you will met Mangray. If you do, ask him what the mixtape theme of the day is. In the meantime, listen and enjoy.

We Are Normal

tracklisting - Side 1:

Orson Welles - intro
The Steve Miller Band - Space Intro/Fly Like and Eagle
The Stills Young Band - Fountainebleau
The Allman Brothers - Please Call Home
Joss Stone - Right to be Wrong
Roger Daltrey - Giving it all away
Neil Young - Old Man
Free - Travellin in Style
Doobie Brothers - Long Train Runnin'
The Stills Young Band - Make Love to You
Barclay James Harvest - Mocking Bird
Crosby and Nash - Samurai

tracklisting - Side 2:
Van der Graaf Generator - A Plague of Lighthousekeepers
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - We Are Normal
The Beautiful People - The Sea
Brain Auger and Julie Driscoll - Take Me Down to the River
Peter Gabriel - Here Comes the Hood
Nick Drake - Riverman
Alison Krauss - Down to the River to Pray (edit)

side 1
http://sharebee.com/450c2f39

side 2
http://sharebee.com/ea31cd0d

Mangray also gave me a Beautiful People cassette, but I prefer not to post complete cassettes that have been posted elsewhere. Still the artwork he did is amazing (above) and the music is really great (I didn't know them) - early 90s sort of loopy/synthy kind of dancey trippy stuff, with Hendrix samples. Check it out here. I also have one more with amazing music on it but I'm waiting for artwork from Mangray.

I encourage you to check out Boudicca if you are not familiar with them. As Showstudio says, Boudicca is the thinking woman's favorite label. Yeah, and their clothes fit. Seriously, they have brilliant ideas and are really nice people, but more than anything, their clothes fit really well and are really well made. I love clothes and I've discovered that the magic to an amazing designer whose reputation lasts is that their stuff fits really well. I've seen their stuff transform more than one woman trying things on in their studio. Amazing. Also, check out their Wode perfume they've just made. It's not that expensive and does this amazing thing that when you spray it on, it's blue, like paint, and then within about 20 seconds it fades completely. So you can spray it on a really expensive piece of clothing and freak the person out that you've just ruined their outfit, only to discover while they're getting mad at you that it's all gone and they're left smelling all spicy and wonderful. Class gift for christmas. I already bought some. Check out one of their catwalk shows I like here.

djing at Timeout gig with Drums of Death

2008-11-04T12:28:00.002Z

I have been invited by Timeout to join them in this new series of On The Up parties they are doing. This one features a number of up and coming artists which are really good and in particular Drums of Death is getting a lot of great hype. He played last nigh at Durrr and word is that the live gig is amazing and it's hard to capture the show in the tracks of his you can download. Anyway, his tracks are stand out. Check out his latest release Dodf**ksupanescorttune on the Keytars and Violins blog here and his remix of Late of the Pier's Bathroom Gurgle (one of last year's biggest tracks) on Discobelle. He is up for awards as breakthrough producer of the year at Dj Mag and you can tell by the diversity of these two tracks (the first is like an 80s groove remix and the second is bassline) that he is a new one to watch.

I am also a big fan of Ipso Facto and they are sure to draw a great crowd and looking forward to hearing their dj choices. I am playing the late set so you can be sure it will be just like all my freaky sets at Catch and elswhere - lots of tunes meant to first make you go "What the F*"£*K?" and then go "Uh Oh, my knees feel weak".

More details on the party and tickets here.

Manifesto - Cape Verde mini Film Festival

2008-10-29T19:08:00.003Z

As you may have noticed I have been involved with an african music party called Manifesto for the last few years. The party is currently on hold while we look for a good venue but in the meantime Alberto (who I do the party with) has organized a mini film festival this coming weekend. Details are in the flower above (click on the photo for a larger image). Hope to see you there!

various 1990 dance RnB/freestyle from Honolulu

2008-10-21T19:07:00.005+01:00

This summer my girlfriend and I had a day layover in Honolulu coming back from vacation. So, as usual, instead of visiting all the local tourist spots, we immediately headed over to the thrift store (charity shop, as they say here in the UK) on the wrong side of town. I managed to pick up a vintage Matsuda men's jackets (sweet) and then we decided to walk back through the local cars-parked-on-cement-blocks hood to reach our hotel on the beach. On the way we lucked out with a random yard sale run by two sisters (who had a LOT of loving to give) selling their old school late 80s RnB dance tapes.

Late Nite Magic had only one track out according to discogs and I can't find any more info. The cover says it was produced in LA. But I can't really find much info about the artists or the remixers Rock Vee or Teddy and John Bolden.

Late Nite Magic - Huneez (Magic Radio Mix)
Late Nite Magic - Huneez (Magic Radio Mix - TV Track)

Again I can't really find much info about Sunni and she had only a few more tracks out that Late Nite Magic. She had a bit of a Paula Abdul moment on the fresh youtube dance moves. You can find some early 90s house remixes of this track here. But this track was produced by Chris Barbosa and Mark Liggett who were key producers in the Freestyle genre (wikipedia). Their track Fire and Ice was the original which Shannon covered to become the huge hit Let The Music Play.

Sunni - Why Did My Baby Get Over Me (12" mix)
Sunni - Why Did My Baby Get Over Me (single mix)

As for Seduction. I don't have to say much about them because they were produced by Robert Clivilles And David Cole of C+C Music Factory fame. This has some nice dance touches to it though the group never got very big.

Seduction - (You're My One And Only) True Love (Club Mix)

Finally we have this "funk rock" tape which is actually mostly what I would call "electro" - the real original electro, not the Benny Bennasi circa 2005 type. It's got a bunch of great tracks on it such as (Notin' serious) Just buggin', Boogie Down Bronx, Egyption Lover, Rockberry Jam, We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off and more. I think it's a recording of a radio show and lots of the tracks sound really good, maybe special radio mixes.

Honolulu yard sale "funk rock" electro tape.

more vintage The Face magazine fashion April 1986

2008-10-14T18:19:00.005+01:00

I bought a bunch of The Face and I-D mags recently from the mid 80s and early 90s hoping to find yet more interesting fashion ideas (and music) in the never ending hunt for something inspiring which I haven't seen in the over infused mining of the past we got going on now. Surprisingly there have not been many fashion shoots that I have been gaga about. But this one from 1986 features more of the Ray Petri Buffalo style, more of which you can find here. Designers featured here include Gaultier, Michiko Koshino, Judy Blame, Byblos, Takeo Kikuchi and others. I will post a new cassette by the weekend.

Pagan Babies

2008-09-28T20:00:00.012+01:00

I really have to warn you - the music on this tape is not even up to the low standards we maintain on this blog :) But I had to post this cassette cause it's sort of African music by a Hawaiian band recorded in Papua New Guinea which I bought in the Oxfam shop in Swansea, Wales. It was too much of a mix of weirdness and the cover makes me laugh. Most of the tracks sound like they were knocked out on a cheap kid's synth at a wedding reception. But the tracks Wasara and African Typic are not too bad for fun african party numbers.

The Pagan Babies of Hawaii, U.S.A.

a1 - Hat, Hat, Hat
a2 - Jungle Beat
a3 - Sebe Allah-ye
a4 - Fire in Belize
a5 - That's My Blood
a6 - Natives are Restless
b1 - Bidimbo
b2 - Could You Be Loved
b3 - Wasara
b4 - African Typic
b5 - Forget About You
b6 - Hot, Hot, Hot

I also want to talk about some new bands. We here at the Dalston Oxfam Shop blog are not content with rave rare cassette postings and hot dj gigs - we also WANT TO BOOK LIVE BANDS. Yeah. I was asked to book the dungeon room at the last People on Horses party and instead of just getting more djs, I thought it would be fun to turn it into some weird freaky band-fest. I had just seen Maria & the Mirrors play at Offset festival where I had been djing and my friend Hannah from The P.I.X. tipped me off to the hot new show put on by the FANTASTICALLY named An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (named after a classic painting). Both of them had an great sort of raw rock/punk/tribal drumming thing going on with a theme of girl-bands-who-drum-standing-up.

Here's a track by An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump - Lights Out. They're 3 english girls, one of Nepalese descent and two filipino sisters. And they make really good RAW sounds. They've recently played with S.C.U.M., Pre and Selfish Cunt and are solidly booked for gigs as you can see on their myspace and are currently playing in Berlin. The youtube vid doesn't really capture the experience.

Maria & the Mirrors is probably a bit lesser known, but their live show has something which is like an avant-garde art/music wet dream. Two girls standing playing drums in sync like some east london aboriginal tribe reborn followed by seagull calls and screams interspersed with the electric bass/loop stylings of their male force with occasional rants from him as well. I couldn't find a good quality track as of this posting, but check out the hebrew symbolistic referential (to equinox) Tekufah on their myspace. Honestly, I have been telling people left and right to book them. The artist Martin Creed obviously agrees with me as they are playing with his band on the 14th Oct. at The Hub on Goulston Street (east london). Pic below is from Offset festival. Somehow at the gig they managed to pull a whole bunch of the Friday night 333 crowd downstairs because it was such a strange yet wonderful sight.

Finally I would like to draw attention to another musical project which is similar to the above in its sense of rejecting the whole "my this is a good vintage, a '98 Chateau Margaux red" with nose in the air approach to musical craftsmanship, favoring instead a sort of Lambrini and poppers freestylin in ye olde squat down the lane. Squallyoaks is the womb of much creativity in London, as it is the fairly inexpensive residence of Karley Sciortino and her mates. I don't know her mates very well, but Karley has been behind the fantastically written Slutever blog, the international slam dance girlcore, which along with other parties she has booked, has made Catch the hot spot again in Shoreditch. She also dates a mysterious, sweet and very talented indie chart star, has her own band Indie Boys Don't Boners, is a hottie, has been in French playboy (as an article, with her clothes on, duh) and was key to the success of my blog as she put me up in lists of good sh*t in like Dazed and such. And she probably still thinks she's not up to anything.

Well she and her fellow Squallyoak-ians decided to put together an album and actually there are some really good ideas on it. It's sort of keeping with the ideas over polish theme in this blog post. Not sure where you can get the cd, but message Karley. Do not assume that the other tracks are like this one.

Squallyoaks - Ridiculous

another Diesel Radio show - DISCO!

2008-09-16T23:14:00.002+01:00

I got asked by Diesel U Music to do another live radio show last Saturday. This is a temporary radio station broadcasting live on 106.6 fm in Glasgow and on the Internet here. I felt because of the wave of disco crashing around me from this summer in London that I would try to feature some Doctorates of Disco so I got in Paolo of Tutto Matto and Super Disco Paolo as well as Dan Beaumont of the hit party Disco Bloodbath. They brought a few of their special records and we had a great time chatting. As a matter of fact that was the best part of the show - talking about their perceptions of disco's history and their current perception of music and the scene. Download link and tracklisting below.

DOWNLOAD (megaupload)

01. Forces - Cinnabar
02. Biscuit - Zoo Zoo
03. Cafe Society - Relight My Fire
04. Chaka Khan - Any Love
05. Boiling Point - Lets get Funktified part 1
06. Margie Alexander - Gotta Get a Hold on me
07. Brief Encounters - Rocking
08. New York Express - Hot On The Cue
09. Natures Divine - Natures Divine
10. Sunshine Megamix
11. Lola - Wax The Van (Kenny's Club Version)
12. Mott The Hoople - Bastard (Mountain Of One Edit)
13. Lama - Love on the Rocks
14. Karen Young - Deetour
15. Willie Colon - Set Fire To Me
16. Bunny Brown - Strawberry Letter 23
17. David Rubato- Cuircuit (Aeroplane remix)

In addition we have the following excitement coming up. On Friday I am hosting the basement room of the People On Horses party at 333 club in Shoreditch and we have the exciting bands of An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump and Maria & the Mirrors. I am quite excited about both of them. I saw Maria & the Mirrors when I was at Offset Festival and loved them and my friend Hanna of the P.I.X. magazine luckily put me on the trail of An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump. They have played recently with The Horrors and S.C.U.M. The bands have a them - both of them involve girls playing drums standing up. I'm big on themes because I think they show something - but it's for you and me to discuss what they show. I will also be djing as well as Suzanne of No Bra (and if you've never heard her dj, you're missing out).

And then on Saturday the 20th we have a our COME party again with Matthew Stone, Yasmine of Pandora's Jukebox and the lovely enigma Theo. No matter that I kept the location secret before, it still has turned into the hottest party of East London this summer. If you're on the scene, you probably know where it is, otherwise e-mail me.