"The Fastest Finger On The Remote Keyboard"

Forget Arctic Monkeys… THIS is the most exciting musical talent I have seen in years.

New Bands Tent

It’s been a while since my last venture into ‘International A&R’, so it’s about time for some new music that’s been sent to Headphone Sex House.

First up a band called ‘Nately‘, who I saw play at the Clapham Grand a couple of months back. They’ve built up quite a fan base in the area after playing a number of gigs there, and went down a storm the night I went. Particularly, so it seemed, with girls in flouncy dresses.

They play unpretentious blues-y rock, and I really like this track in particular from their demo CD:

NATELY - THROW ME A SMILE

Now that they’ve conquered Clapham, the band have their sights set on a Northern Invasion… with a gig at Kings Cross Water Rats on Friday August 5th. They are also playing at Bestival on the Isle of Wight in September… check ‘em out if you can.

Next up is a great ditty from Chris Price, sounding like it comes from the same kind of ‘bedroom electro’ mould as Hot Chip, Erlend Oye or the Junior Boys. I don’t know too much about Chris, except that he’s written a great little pop song. Give it a listen:

CHRIS PRICE - CHARGE ME UP

Finally I received a really nice CD this morning called ‘There is a Problem With My Tape Recorder’ by Build Buildings, (AKA New Yorker Ben Tweel). Like for instance Matthew Herbert, he uses ‘found sounds’, but in this case used to create glitchy electronic landscapes.

Every synth has been painstakingly distilled from organic instruments and samples, and every rhythm has been intricately assembled from household sounds, self-designed drum machines and random noise.

‘….Tape Recorder’ is Ben’s third album, and was described by The Wire as ‘.. recommended listening for Agoraphobics everywhere’. I can imagine the album would sound great on your headphones wandering around the city, transforming the noises of buses and aircraft into things of beauty. Although every sound seems carefully and deliberately placed, the music has at the same time a real disordered organic feel bringing to mind the fluttering of dragonflies or the edgy movements of crickets. Although it sounds good in the background, this is music that rewards careful listening.

This track threatens at times to become dancefloor-friendly, before reverting a more ambient feel. It’s not entirely typical of the rest of the record, but is probably my favourite track.

BUILD BUILDINGS - TEST ME

If you like the sound of it, you can buy the album here.

I’m sure all these guys would appreciate some feedback, so do leave a comment if you enjoyed any of these tracks…….

And if you’d like to send me your music, the details are on the right. Are there any girls making music out there?

Warp News

1: BOC = OCT

2: You can watch ‘Rubber Johnny’ - the disturbing Aphex Twin / Chris Cunningham collaboration - here.

(It didn’t stream too well for me… but you can right-click and save it. You’ll then have to watch it via your web browser.)

3: New French signing Jackson might well be delivering a killer album… check a track out over at Music For Robots.

Anyone who says Warp is losing it (a view frequently put across here) needs their head examined. We’re only half way through the year & have already had incredible albums from Maximo Park & Jamie Lidell - plus blinding singles from Chok Rock and !!!. And there’s Boards of Canada & Jackson to look forward to….

Fackinell.. new Boards of Canada in 3 months!!!!!!!!

Expensive Plastic

A new remix by a man i’ve been mentioning a lot lately.

I should hate the guy though. I lost my glasses at Glastonbury this year after a girl got a bit over excited during his set in the Lock Tavern, and punched ‘em off my face in the middle of a seriously packed out dancefloor. They’re the second pair that Glastonbury has claimed from me over the years (the first being during Blur’s headline set on the NME stage many years ago).

Now I can’t see very well without me specs, but I could see well enough to see them flying through the air in a graceful parabola to some point about 10 people in front of me. After lunging for the floor after them (wiping out a couple of unfortunate bystanders) I managed to recruit about 5 people into helping me search for them in the darkness. After many agonising minutes of dancefloor disruption (and people saying ‘you’ve lost ‘em mate’ and me saying ‘fuck off’) a helpful guy who I really wasn’t nice enough to managed to salvage the wreckage.

Reminds me of that ‘Pete & Dud’ sketch.

Peter Cook: You are deficient in the leg division to the tune of
one. Your right leg I like. It’s a lovely leg for the role. As soon as I saw
it come in, I said, “Hello! What a lovely leg for the role!”

Dudley Moore: Ah!

Peter Cook: I’ve got nothing against your right leg.

Dudley Moore: Ah!

Peter Cook: The trouble is — neither have you.

Yes, unfortunately I was deficient in the lens division to the tune of one. As a result i’ve spent the last month squinting through a seriously scratched up, woefully under-powered old pair (my decent old pair was unfortunately lost in Bali) until I could scrape together the £350+ for some new specs. You would not believe how much two lenses cost for a blind beggar like me. Seriously fucking ridiculous.

Well luckily I just managed to flog a Bloc Party demo CD on ebay for a fair wedge of cash.. so hopefully I can get the opti-extortion process rolling by visiting the opticians this week. Said optician, upon receipt of my enormous wad, will then instruct the master craftsmen of Nikon in Japan to switch on the ‘cutting a wee bit of plastic into two £150 bits of shaped plastic’ machine. The lenses will then be flown first-class to London accompanied by an army of Geisha Girls, who will upon arrival place them for safe keeping in a Coutts safety deposit box. After paying Coutts for a month the optician will arrange them to be hand delivered to him by a posse of supermodels and premiership footballers*. He will then fit them into the cheap and nasty frames that is all I will be able to afford.

Sorry.. going off on a bit there. An unfortunate side effect of a lifetime giving vast sums of money to creepy opticians. Come on James, focus…..

So to get to the point, here is the band that paid for about half of my new glasses remixed by the man who lost them in the first place. It would have been beautiful if he’d been playing this at the time it happened, but to be honest he could have been playing the Wombles theme for all I can remember.

BLOC PARTY - SHE’S HEARING VOICES (EROL ALKAN’S CALLING YOUR DUB RE-EDIT)

Incidentally I like this mix very much. There are 200 copies floating round on 12″. I may splash out on one if I can find any (£20 on ebay at the moment…. ). I believe it will then feature on the upcoming Bloc Party remix album - which looks like coming out on 29th August.

Whoops.. looking at the tracklisting I’ve realised that i’ve now posted 3 tracks from that album here… that’s slightly against ‘mp3blogrulez’ I guess. But I suppose it indicates that it’s an album worth buying.

* surely this is the only explanation for the incredible expense?

Back in Blonde

Congratulations to Patrick & Marit….. as a great philosopher once said, ‘Live Long and Prosper’.

Sweden is a truly beautiful country, and I was lucky enough to travel a long way North to experience midnight sunsets near the Arctic Circle. It was a stunning location for the wedding, overlooking the mystical-looking Lake Tiljan.

Had a great time in Stockholm as well.. surrounded by gorgeous (and friendly) girls, endless soothing expanses of water, and of course Volvos.

I also enjoyed the fact that Sweden’s biggest tourist attraction is a ship that sank 300m after setting sail. I think any other country may have tried to keep it quiet! I suspect that is why they decided to get rather good at building cars and planes instead. Certainly the navy has had a quiet time these last 300 years!

I ended up having a right session on Thursday night ending up on an Ibizan style terrace blasting slightly rubbish house music out over the water . Met a lovely lass called Jessica (Hello if you happen to have had a look here….. I can’t remember if I mentioned it). Tried to work out what I was supposed to do with my drink if I couldn’t bring it outside with me to have a fag. Did a lot of laughing and joking with strangers. Spent a ludicrous amount of money. Yes Sweden fills your heart with joy… until that is, it’s your turn to go to the bar. Good grief. How can a country claim to be civilised when they charge that much for booze?

So I was hoping to return with some great Swedish music, but I can only remember two songs. One: ‘The Final Countdown’, courtesy of the wedding disco. What a classic. (!) Two: This song by The Concretes, which rocked up on my ipod a couple of times courtesy of the ‘Bugged In’ disc of DJ genius Erol Alkan’s new mix album.

I was wondering whether this was a cover of the Mirwais track (the Les Rhythmes Digitales mix of which I posted a few weeks back) or vice versa, when I realised of course that The Stones did this originally. How could I forget Mick Jagger’s na-na-nanananana’s on their late-70s disco stomp along.

So this is that, but done in a Swedish Indie-Pop style.

It’s nice.

THE CONCRETES - MISS YOU

Wow… I just found this on my computer as well. Not sure where it came from or what it has to do with Ms Ross… but it’s great.

THE CONCRETES - DIANA ROSS

I am contractually obliged to mention that the new album by The Concretes is out soon.

Elsewhere on the infowebs, I can’t recommend highly enough R Kelly’s ‘Trapped In The Closet’ (yes, really!) - a Hip-Hopera in 5 Parts. It’s got more twists and turns (and overacting) than an episode of Poirot. And more importantly it’s hysterically funny. Go here & click on ‘Video’. Trust me….!

Finally, apologies for linking to her yet again, but Smacked Face has provided what can only be described as an orgy of sweet soul music. Now armed with the awesome power of mp3, this is gonna be one dangerous lady.

Lovely Bit of Pine

I’m imminently off to Sweden for a few days for Patrick’s wedding… I’ve not been to Scandinavia at all before, so i’m well looking forward to the few days I’ll have drinking expensive beer while looking at Volvos and blonde girls.

In the absence of any Abba on my hard drive, and since I can’t think off-hand of any suitable Swedish songs to post up, here are a couple of great new remixes I picked up last week by Norweigan Pop Goddess Annie.

ANNIE - ALWAYS TOO LATE (¥€$ PRODUCTIONS REMIX)

I have heard that this remix is something to do with Richard X (who also produced many of the tracks on Annie’s essential debut album ‘Anniemal’).. but there is no mention on his website, and ¥€$ seems to be rather Google-unfriendly… anyone know anything about him / her / them?

Whoever it’s by, this is an excellent Neptunes-style rework, full of freaky noises & pop goodness. I got it on a sampler CD with an order from the 679 Records website… I don’t think it’s available on vinyl at all (at the moment).

ANNIE - HAPPY WITHOUT YOU (RITON VOCAL REMIX)

This next mix is from the first in a series of twelves organised by superstar DJ Erol Alkan. Like the Alan Braxe mix of ‘Heartbeat’ I posted earlier in the year, this takes the original & turns up the pop to 11 and the disco to 12. The single also includes a rocking mix by Sebastian which is well worth checking out.

Sorry (once again) for the brevity… but here’s me gabbin’ when I should be packin’…

Catch ya next week.

Reasons to be Miserable.. 1. 2. 3. (4. 5. 6……..)

I had begun to outline the combination of minor miseries that had led to me feeling a bit down the past few days. However I need to get out of work & get down the pub. So i’ll cut to the chase.

OTIS CLAY - THE ONLY WAY IS UP

Yes, it is the original version of ‘that Yazz song’. Yes it is tremendous.

If this don’t get the serotonin flowing nothing will.

Have a good weekend.

Some Things I Do Might Be A Little Bit Funky

As you’ve probably noticed I’ve been having a bit of an indie phase recently. But enough! The heat is rising, and it’s time to listen to something other than pasty boys whining about pasty girls.

I first heard this record at Herbal a couple of years ago. Escaping an extraordinarily tedious electro-house set downstairs (something to do with the evil Groove Armada empire) I began to head up… and was greeted on arrival by the goddamn funkiest record I had ever heard. I virtually mugged the DJ to find out what it was…

I had never previously heard of O’Donel Levy, however by all accounts he’s a bit of a name in the world of jazz. He headlined the Montreaux festival; he’s played with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie; and he’s written for Luther Vandross (RIP) and Herbie Mann. He’s also responsible for this marvellous album sleeve… !

I can’t believe anything else he’s been involved with could be as good as this though.. it’s got a real afro-beat flavour that’s just perfect for dancing on a hot summer’s evening. So much funk in one song should be illegal. This is dangerous.

“Your heart just goes out through the strings,”

“It’s like everything you want to say you always seem to be able to say it better, speak better, through [the guitar]. You know: emotion, your deep down emotion. There are no words to describe what comes out of the strings.”

O’ DONEL LEVY - BAD, BAD, SIMBA

This track comes from the album ‘Simba’, which also contains the interesting sounding ‘Sad, Sad, Simba’. I eventually tracked it down on a ‘Pulp Fusion’ compilation, but you can get ‘Simba’ on import.

O’Donel Levy released a new album this year. Looking at the cover he seems to have metamorphosised into Rick ‘Supafreak’ James.

Now did I mention pasty boys whining? Well that sounds like fun. In the last week I’ve given you exhaustive Live 8 coverage, an exclusive track from the new Super Furry Animals album, a Sigur Ros track it would normally cost you 50 quid to get hold of, the best new band I’ve heard in years, revealed my near death experience and had nearly 2000 visitors. Total comments: 7. And one of those was by me. In fact looking back it’s been over a month since anyone’s actually commented on a track I’ve put up. Is anyone actually listening to this stuff?

It’d be nice to get some feedback on what i’m posting. Whether you like it or hate it do let me know. Hopefully I can give you more of what you like and less of what you don’t. Or alternatively do something more useful with myself than sitting in front of a computer screen….

Super Hot Shit

I have seen the future. And it’s cold. And it’s simian.

They are four. And they are Arctic Monkeys.

And they are fucking amazing.

I don’t know much about them except that 1: they are young 2: they are from Sheffield 3: I have spent the last week and a half, despite my best attempts (and despite a new Super Furry Animals album) listening to little else.

The lyrical genius of singer Alex Turner has already been recognised by The Gaurniad. The effortless way he seems to throw out memorable lines reminds me of Morrissey or John Lennon.. yeah I think he’s that good. It’s a novelty, as that article points out, to hear a song and immediately click what it’s about. And to immediately identify with it. Observational tales of chavs, prostitutes and grumpy girlfriends .. stories that everyone sees around them but few can articulate. Screaming girls (and boys) will be hanging on his every word before long.

The track mentioned in the Guardian, ‘Fake Tales of San Francisco’ is probably their best so far. Every track on their demo album is a winner though. Take this:

ARCTIC MONKEYS – SCUMMY

And look here comes a Ford Mondeo
Isn’t he Mister Inconspicuous
And he don’t have to say ‘owt
She understands she’s here to get picked up

And she’s delighted when she sees him
Pulling in and giving her the eye
Because she must be fucking freezing
Scantily clad beneath the clear night sky
She don’t stop in the winter

Take a look at the video for the incredible ‘Fake Tales of San Francisco’ on the AM website. You can get a taste for quite how good this lot must be live.

‘And yeah, I’d love to tell you all my problem
You’re not from New York
City, you’re from Rotherham
So get off the bandwagon’

I tell thee… I’ve not been this thrilled by a band for years. I’m considering paying stupid money to go and see them live in August… their upcoming tour is well and truly sold out (well except Hull for some reason - truly the one and only time i’ve wished I lived there!) So it looks like ebaysville for me.

Unless anyone reading has spare tickets for the Oxford gig ,-)

Last Night

Wot She Said

Well nearly. Although on the whole this was a captivating show I would probably have mentioned that for a couple of songs in the middle I began to get a bit fidgety.. wishing that they could use their sonic experimentation to occasionally plough a slightly different furrow. I would love to hear Sigur Ros attempt to write a more conventional verse chorus verse rock song. I’m sure the results would be marvellous.

But when it was good it was very good - amplified by the warm night, gorgeous setting and crystal clear acoustics. The performance was also a lot more powerful than I expected. The noise assault was reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine at times, and watching Orri attack his drums whenever called upon was a sight to behold. In fact the whole band were good to watch… whether marvelling at Jonsi’s extraordinary vocals - particularly when singing through his guitar pickups - or working out whether string-quartet backing group / support act Amina could step in at a Spice Girls reunion (We got as far as ‘Saw Spice’ and ‘Ginger Spice’).

There’s not a great deal I can add to Jen’s review, so i’ll skip straight to the music. I was going to post up ‘Ny Batteri’ (New Batteries), however I will also include ‘Rafmagnið Búið’ (which of course means ‘Electricity Over’) - essentially the extended intro to ‘Ny Batteri’ that came from the CD single. I was going to try & record them into one extended MP3, however frankly I can’t be arsed. iTunes will do it for you anyway. It’s worth listening to them together though… the long build-up makes it even more dramatic when the bassline kicks in.

Best served in a darkened room:

SIGUR ROS - Rafmagnið Búið
SIGUR ROS - Ny Batteri