Celestial Soul

Glastonbury was glorious as ever. I’ve been to a fair few festivals in various countries, but Glastonbury is by far the best. There’s such a special atmosphere.

I was hoping to give you a bit of a taste of the festival however I haven’t had time as yet.. I have some pretty nice photos as well so I’ll try & sort them out in the next few days.

In the meantime here’s something completely different.

Last week I rediscovered the magic of this track by As One - the most common pseudonym used by Kirk Degiorgio. Kirk has been recording under names like Future/Past, Esoterik and Elegy for nearly 15 years, however is probably most famous for his early 90’s label Applied Rhythmic Technology (A.R.T.)

The first few releases in particular became fiendishly sought after, after only being pressed in runs of 1000. Once Carl Craig had cut his first release outside Detroit for the label (and reissued ART 1 on his own label), its legendary status was secured. Putting quality above quantity, a small roster of artists accounted for all of the label’s output - Black Dog, B12, Stasis, Carl Craig and Kirk himself. I completely fell in love with this sound -techno music you could listen to as well as dance to - and most acts went on to bigger things as part of Warp’s ‘Artificial Intelligence’ Disco Assault Squad.

If you can find it, the first label compilation ‘The Philosophy of Sound and Machine’ is an essential purchase. Produced in association with Rephlex, it also featured exclusive tracks by Aphex Twin and Kosmik Kommando, and is for me the defining compilation of
that era. Every track just oozes quality, and most can’t be found elsewhere.

As well as the label (and its successor OP-ART), Kirk has produced some fantastic tracks himself, on labels such as Mo Wax, Clear and Ubiquity as well as his own. He has a passionate love of jazz and soul, and infuses his music with elements from these to create complex rhythms, warm strings and an injection of ass-shaking funk. One of his albums is called ‘Celestial Soul’, which is a pretty good description I reckon.

This track, ‘Mihara’, is from his first solo album ‘Reflections’. Listening to it I want to dance, laugh, lie down and cry at the same time. Those drums mess with your mind.

AS ONE - MIHARA

Kirk Degiorgio is still going strong. I recently picked up an amazing (but
horrifically packaged) mix album called ‘Check One’ in which he seamlessly
mixes up jazz, drum’n’ bass and electronic techno. It’s quite brilliant.

In the last couple of years he’s also released two solo albums on West London downtempo label Ubiquity as well as several singles. If anyone can recommend any tracks to me i’d be interested to give ‘em a listen.

At the moment you can find another classic As One track over at the reborn and very exciting looking GabbaPod. The original site was a real inspiration to me, and I was shocked when I heard of originator Nick Kilroy’s tragic death. After laying dormant for about 6 months, the site has now been revamped and revived, with the great idea of allowing registered users to post up tracks themselves. The result seems so far to be an endless stream of great music. Check it out.

I’d also recommend an interesting classical Aphex Twin cover at Moebius Rex - as well as the DFA remix of Soulwax’s ubiquitous ‘NY Excuse’.

My damn FTP has stopped working again. Windows has probably loaded the update I told it not to load. This is making updates tricky. Again.

stop it

off to Glastonbury very shortly
-stop-

no time to stop and chat
-stop-

but here are some songs
-stop-

The Magic Numbers - Love Me Like You

The Brakes - All Nite Disco Party

Death From Above 1979 - Luno

DJ Mink - Hey! Hey! Can U Relate

be good
-stop-

see you next week
-kisses-




EDIT - And make sure you pay a visit to Fluxblog for the upcoming Goldfrapp single….

What i’ve been doing

- Having a car crash.

- Buying a pair of adidas ‘table tennis’ trainers. Goddamn they’re sexy. As my eyes caught them winking at me across a crowded shop my only thought was… I. Must. Have. Those. Shoes. For a brief moment I knew how it felt to be a woman.

- Listening to the superb new albums by The Magic Numbers and Jamie Lidell.

- Sweltering in the sunshine.

- Getting (even more) excited about Glastonbury. Weather forecast… Scorchio!

- Catching up on the fantastic ‘Soul Deep’ series. The episode about Stax & Otis Redding in particular was inspirational.



- Revelling in the Aussies’ humiliating defeats to Bangladesh. And England (twice). And Somerset. But especially Bangladesh.



- Realising that England finally has a cricket team to be proud of. Vaughan, Strauss, Flintoff and Harmison are absolutely world class, and we finally have the players to back them up as well. And OK he’s South African really, but have you seen that boy Pieterson hit a cricket ball? There’s been nothing like him since Viv Richards. International one-day average: 162!



Surely The Ashes are coming home at last? Either way I can’t wait.

- Hoping that the ridiculous charade that is Formula One (Or Formula ‘line Bernie’s pockets’) will have finally shot itself in the foot after yesterday’s fiasco. Ho ho ho!

- Missing Dr Who. DOH! I will have to wait until this evening for the series finale….

Jacques Your Body

After offering to send Sunny at Polloxniner a couple of Zoot Woman / Les Rhythmes Digitales tracks I found myself unable to stop at just one or two. Has anyone rocked dancefloors as much in the last few years? Certainly my vinyl copies of the tracks you’ll find there have had plenty of wear. Anything with a Jacques Lu Cont / Thin White Duke / Les Rhythmes Digitales remix is a guaranteed purchase for me.



So if you head over to her site you will find an orgiastic selection of classic tunes. Download them all. You will not be disappointed.

After all that you will probably be gasping for more. If so, go & buy ‘Darkdancer‘. Classic track after classic track. A pointless remake of ‘Jacques Your Body’ is being (re)released after being featured in that ‘Dancing Robots’ Citroen advert, so you’ll be sick of that soon enough. The rest of it is quality though. As is his Fabric mix CD - just check the mix from ‘2001 a Space Odyssey’ into the Eurythmics, or his chaos pad filtering on the Pixies’ ‘Gouge Away’. Class.

Since i’ve just finished putting the page together, if you’re interested you can find some (slightly censored) photos from Riga here. I didn’t have my camera with me much so they’re mainly from the hotel!

El Stag:

Happiness is a cold drink:

Fix It?

Like most people I wasn’t impressed with the Daft Punk album, and ‘Technologic’ (’Techno Logic’? ‘Disco Very’?) was one of my least favourite tracks. So it was with some surprise that I heard it was to be the album’s second single. Perhaps aware of the weak source material they have roped in the remix A-Team to fix it up though, and heavyweight contenders Vitalic, Basement Jaxx and Peaches have stepped into the ring to attempt to salvage something decent. It was inevitable that one of them would be boss… but the only one that really does it for me is the Peaches version. I love it.

It’s fairly similar to her version of the Pink Grease single (still my favourite this year). It’s possible that it’s similar to her last album, but since I haven’t heard that I don’t know. It’s a real foot stomper, and I love the stereo effect on the vocals - particularly as it means doing away with the tedious computer speak of the original. Although this perhaps contradicts the whole concept of the track it’s undeniably brought a sense of excitement to the show that’s entirely missing from the original. Even when the track turns into ‘No Limits’ by 2 Unlimited half way through (seriously.. they should sue) i’m still shaking my head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You go girl.

DAFT PUNK - TECHNOLOGIC (PEACHES NO LOGIC REMIX)

How Good

Has this series of Dr Who been?

I can’t wait for next week. The Doctor vs 500,000 Daleks



Psychbloke can give you the expert analysis. I’ll just give it a big grin.




I had special techno love for the Transmat transporter in the last episode. Are The Daleks secret Detroit Techno fans? Transmat was (is) of course the name of Derrick May’s legendary label - which in turn took its name from this incredible track by Juan Atkins. Released in 1985, this was the B-side of the second release on Metroplex, and was a remix of the title track ‘Night Drive (Through Babylon)’. It still sounds incredibly futuristic, and is I am sure what the Doctor would have pumping out of the stereo on the T.A.R.D.I.S. (If he can get stop Billie taking over & repeatedly playing ‘Because We Want To’ of course). I wonder if the Sonic Screwdriver doubles up as an mp3 player? It seems to be able to do everything else.

MODEL 500 - TIME, SPACE, TRANSMAT

As a reminder, Juan Atkins’ Metroplex retrospective is out now. Every home should have one.

Fucking Cunts

Excuse my language, but FUCK IT ALL TO HELL.

Besides, it’s my blog and i’ll swear if I want to.

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKITYFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKKNICKERS

I stayed in tonight as i’m totally skint, only to have a knock on the door at 10pm and a neighbour asking if I was aware my car window was broken. Lo and behold some little shit has thrown a brick through my car window - not only taking out the passenger window but the windscreen as well.

I had a phase last year where some feral runt had got hold of a ball bearing gun and thought it would be a laugh to take my side window out 5 weekends out 6. Nothing had happened for about a year though, so I had hoped my £100 a week car window bills were in the past. Fucksocks. I really can’t afford this

It’s fucking typical… I got back home last week absolutely brassic (to be honest mainly due to finally buying myself an ipod and also from losing a ton at the casino) to be greeted by my car insurance renewal notice (£350). My existing insurance doesn’t cover glass, so I’m gonna have to fork out £200 or so tomorrow to get it fixed. This must be the 8th time in a year now…. i’ve also had to replace a cracked windscreen twice. Maybe I ought to fork out for the glass cover this time……

I wouldn’t mind so much if they’d bother stealing my stereo (which would only be a matter of leaning in through the window) but they don’t even bother. They just seem to do if for a laugh.

Ha fucking Ha.

So it’s at times like these I stick on something like this:

BAD COMPANY - FOUR DAYS

Bad Company are the baddest motherfuckers in drum ‘n’ bass. This was the lead off track from 1999’s ‘The Fear EP’, which despite being mindblowingly amazing from start to finish (’The Fear’ in particular is also rocking) also marked the end of my love affair with D’n'B. This was as far up the darkside I wanted to go, however most producers seemed to disagree with me, and the last six years has predominantely seen an endless succession of inferior versions of these tunes - including plenty by Bad Company themselves. What once seemed like the most exciting music I had ever come across, with seemingly endless possibilities available, has dug itself into a tiny corner that no-one seems brave enough to jump out of.

Ah sod it.. .have ‘The Fear’ as well. It would be rude to keep it to myself.

BAD COMPANY - THE FEAR

Just be careful not to (ab)use these tracks in front of small children.

TURN. Up. LOUD.

Bollocks, almost forgot about the car for a minute.

Anyone need a kidney?

There’s a Hole in my Pocket

Riga was absolutely fantastic. I have spent the last week convalescing but still feel like i’ve done 5 rounds with Ricky Hatton. My body clock has been knocked right out of shape and my liver and wallet have been pummelled worse than Kostya Tszyu’s chin. (Nice one Ricky!)



I’m a bit puzzled as to why Hard-Fi seem to be looked down on by a lot of people (or do I just mean the NME?). Particularly when the likes of Coldplay, The Libertines (yawn), Babyshambles (get me a gun) and Razorlight are apparently our current rock ‘n’ roll saviours. ‘Hard to Beat’ is indeed Hard to Beat. It’s being re-released in a couple of weeks (20th June) & should go Top 10. It’s bloody fantastic (one of the singles of the year without a doubt), and you can download it at the moment from Moebius Rex. Go and do so. (but come back…)

I should given this lot a shout a good while ago, since I am vaguely aquainted with the singer, Richard Archer, through his brother (hello Steve!). They were in a band called ‘Contempo’ together, who I was invited to see a couple of times but somehow never did.

It seemed that the demise of Contempo would be the end of Richard’s pop dreams.. but no! Out of aversity he’s come back better than before & primed for world domination. Their album ‘Stars of CCTV’ was great in its first incarnation, and although the edition of 1000 is long since sold out it’s being re-released on July 4th with extra tracks (including excellent single ‘Tied Up Too Tight’) so should be even better.

It’s about time Staines was back on the map.

East Side.

I’m gonna post up their first single, ‘Cash Machine’. It’s also superb - as long as you can get past the first 20 seconds, which bring up horrific flashbacks of Groove Armada. Unsurprisingly it’s a tale of being skint in a suburban shithole. Something I can well identify with.

HARD-FI - CASH MACHINE

Please watch the video as well on their site . It’s a fantastic guerrila style version of Snatch / Lock Stock set round Heathrow Airport. I’ve just been laughing out loud after seeing the security guard on the toilet hiding a copy of the NME inside Razzle! Top stuff.

I’ll be pogoing down the front to Hard-Fi on Sunday Afternoon at Glastonbury…..hope you can join me. And sorry about my duff tip about Scissor Sisters headlining. I was delighted to find I was wrong & it’s now Basement Jaxx & Primal Scream closing things off. That’s more like it…..

EDIT: Here’s a link straight to the Cash Machine video (Windows Media Style). Make sure you check it out.

3..2..1

Just a quick one before I leave.

This is a bootleg floating around at the moment of Soulwax’s already classic (and soon to be released properly as a single) ‘NY Excuse’ mashed up with Lipps Inc’s (Lip Sync… geddit) 80’s hit ‘Funky Town’.

It’s rumoured to be done by the Soulwax boys themselves. Not sure if there is any substance to this.. it may just be a rumour based on the fact they drop in the riff from ‘Funky Town’ when playing ‘NY Excuse’ live.

It’s fun & definitely worth a listen, however not a patch on the original IMO.

SOULWAX - NY LIPS

Hopefully i’ll be back next week with tales of debauchery and derring do (although more likely just a large credit card bill & a sore head).

xx

Im Baltica

I’m off to Riga for the weekend. That’s in Latvia don’t you know.

If any of my 12 visitors from Latvija are reading, we will probably be in a club called Depo on Friday night. Look out for the tall drunk Englanders. I would like to say that the rest of the time would be spent soaking up the local culture. But I would be lying. We will more likely be soaking up this apparently revolting concoction.



I’ll try & post a track up later.

But i might not have time.


Until then give this a listen… it’s from the marvellous Kitsune X compilation, which has probably been blogged to death by now but is still great. This is one of the highlights - some top notch electro-disco.
Woo!

THE MOGS - KELLY BLAME (VOCAL)