I Want a Piece of Your Mind

Pink Grease, who produced my official #1 single of 2005 (’Peaches’), are back with some brand new sleazy glam rock for your delectation.

The superb new single, out on June 5th, is called ‘Ordinary Girl’. And you can see some footage of the band performing it in rehearsal right here:

The synth line’s a killer, and after a few listens you’ll definitely find this worming its way into your head…

Since you can’t bring youtube onto the tube, I also have a never-to-be-released demo of the single on mp3:

PINK GREASE - ORDINARY GIRL

Also sounding like single material is this second track, Carlights. If a picture paints a thousand word a video probably paints, like a thousand and twenty or something. So I will let it do the talking:

As well as highlighting the difficulty of singing in a recording studio without looking like Bono, both videos are well worth watching if only to catch a glimpse of the legendary MACHINE in action

It seems they are playing at xxjfg’s weekly hoe-down ‘The Do’ this Friday night. So if you’re in or near Brighton you should pay a visit…

As a couple of bonus track here’s the amazingly fruity Peaches remix of ‘Peaches’:

PINK GREASE - PEACHES (PEACH GREASE REMIX)

And another demo from the new record

PINK GREASE - ALIENS (REHEARSAL VERSION)

Dance Boy Dance

Co-incidentally I got this email today, so if you enjoyed the Alexander Robotnick mix & are looking to go out on Friday night….

Lost is one of London’s best kept secrets, but i’ve not yet been out to its Friday night incarnation. The monthly parties are incredible, and are generally the only place you’ll find Jeff Mills in London (he played last weekend for instance). Sign up at the website for details, as you won’t find any info about it otherwise…

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

ALEXANDER ROBOTNICK @ SPACEBASE This Friday 2nd June …….

LOST present SPACEBASE
Friday 2nd June

@ Plastic People 147 Curtain Rd EC2
10pm - 3.30am
£8

STEVE BICKNELL invite electro pioneer ALEXANDER ROBOTNICK ….

Tickets: www.lost.co.uk
info / reservations - Email - lost@lost.co.uk Tel. 020 7791 0402

Alexander Robotnick’s Problems D’Amour has gone from 80s cult worship to Italo Disco heaven and back and is now rightly hailed as one of the key tracks to spark electronic dance music into what we have today. Now twenty years later the track sounds as fresh as the day it was made. Acidic basslines,simple yet catchy synth lines and funky.pre-house rhythms all add up to Maurizio Dami’s Robotnick blueprint.

While Robotnick has gone on to make many albums from electronic to world and pop he is still highly revered as one of the key instigators of the 80s dancefloor revival.

At SPACEBASE you will experience alternative sets from Steve and his guests featuring a multi-dimensional set from Robotnick that fuses laptop,midi keyboard and microphone plus selective material from back in the day in an intimate surrounding!

Hours of Fun(k)

I just got an email from PigRadio, who have a couple of podcasts available online.

The first is a 4 hour (!) party hosted by the mighty Kitsune….

Check it here

Their most recent broadcast is a DJ set from electro pioneer Alexander Robotnick.

One for the electro-disco fans.

History_by Alexander Robotnick

01 Trucker & Santiago - Jack Theme
02 Mr. Flagio - Take a chance
03 Dance Reaction - Disco Train
04 Hugh Bullen - Alisand
05 Breack 3000 - Lights
06 BWH - Stop (Bangkok Impact remix)
07 Bobby O. - She has a way (DJ7 edit)
08 Doctor’s cat - Feel the drive (DJ7 edit)
09 Alexander Robotnick - ProblËmes d’amour (minimal version)
10 Alexander Robotnick - The dark side of the spoon (Bangkok Impact remix)
11 Sami Liuski - Taboo
12 Alexander Robotnick - Dance Boy Dance
13 Alexander Robotnick - The Game
14 DJ Rooster & Sammy Perlate - Shacke it(Steve Angelo rmx)
15 Sebastien LÈger - Take your pills
16 Jese Divina - Spiders & Friends
17 Martinez - Shadowboxing (Trentmoller rmx)
18 David Carretta - Kill your radio
19 DJ Traxx - promo
20 Deceive - deceive
21 Telex - On the road again (Marco Passarani rmx)

I’ve not had a chance to listen to either yet, so if you do & they’re good then let me know….

If neither of these float your boat, then check out the new Erol Alkan mix on Beats in Space…

Part 1 - Erol Alkan

1. Beyond The Wizards Sleeve - Before We Start -
2. Emperor Machine - Lift Up Chong - DC
3. Chaz Jankel - 3000 Synths -
4. 2 Men, A Drum Machine, and A Trumpet - Tired Of Getting Pushed Around -
5. Essireppedspp - Saleiri -
6. De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig - Watskeburt (Dexter Mix) - Clone
7. Cosmic Sandwich - Man In A Box - My Best Friend
8. Housemeister - Cheerleaders -
9. Missy Elliot - I’m Really Hot (Various Productions Mix) -
10. Mr. Oizo - Half An Edit - F Comm
11. Justice - Waters Of Nazareth (Erol Alkan’s Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr Re-Edit) - Ed Bangers
12. Revlon 9 - Walking Machine (Sebastian Remix) - Beacuse Music
13. Headman - Moisture (Mustafa 3000 Remix) - Gomma
14. - Kongo Thong (Mustafa 3000 Edit) -
15. Holher Czukay - Cool In The Pool -
16. - -
17. Hot Chip - Boy From School (Cosmic Sandwich Remix) - EMI
18. The Chromatics - Glass Slipper - Troubleman Unlimited
19. The Human League - Crow And A Baby - Virgin
20. Chris & Cosey - Useless Information - CTI
21. Joakim - I Wish You Were Gone (Dub) - Versatile

Part 2 - Tim Sweeney

21. Joakim - I Wish You Were Gone (Dub) - Versatile
22. The Juan Maclean - Love Is In The Air (Mock & Toof Remix) - DFA
23. Orgue Electronique - Texas Brooklyn Heaven - Clone
24. - Trust Track (Ron hardy Mix) - Parte Hardy
25. Depeche Mode - The Darkest Star (Holden Remix) - Mute
26. Isolee - Face B - Playhouse
27. M.E. - Ride - Trax
28. Aphex Twin - Windowlicker - Warp
29. Syclops - The Fly - Tirk
30. Moodymann - U Can Dance If U Want 2 - KDJ
31. Lil Louis - Club Lonely (Radically Lonely Mix) - Epic
32. X-Press 2 - Muzik Xpress - JBO
33. Dondolo - Dragon (Shit Robot Remix) - Tiny Sticks
34. BFC - Chicken Noodle Soup - Planet E
35. Capracara - Flashback 86 - Soul Jazz

What’s in My Ears

No MP3s from me today, but I got links to two tracks i’m really in love with right now…

First up is the new single by The Feeling, which if you live in this country you’ll be well familiar with by now - it’s apparently second only to Gnarls Barkley in radio play.

I really really want to hate The Feeling. They look so smug for a start, and I think the singer is mates with those annoying publicity whores Kate Moss, Jude Law & Sadie Frost. (I still have no idea what Sadie Frost is supposed to have done to justify the extraordinary coverage of her tedious exploits). I also think the guitarist is married to Sophie Ellis-Bextor. They’ve obviously been created to cash in on the whole ‘Guilty Pleasures’ phenomenon, and have clearly had MUCH record company dollar behind their imminently world conquering sound. Plus the singer sounds like the singer from The Kooks - and both bands strangely emerged from the same ’school of performing arts’ in Croydon. (Which has also been responsible for Katie Melua & Athlete. Gah!!!)

But… I just can’t stop listening to ‘Fill My Little World’. Is that wrong? I feel a little ashamed. It’s a Guilty Pleasure itself I suppose.

It makes me feel like i’m driving round Monaco in one of these

Rather than cruising round the industrial wasteland of the Thames Valley in a battered Ford Mondeo.

You can download it, plus previous top-10 single ‘Sewn’ from here.

The second track (in an attempt to restore my cool credentials) is the Simian Mobile Disco track from the new Kitsune compilation. It’s one of those anthemic electro numbers that’s gonna be played (alongside ‘Rocker’, ‘Washing Up’, ‘NY Excuse’ and ‘Geht’s Noch’) by every DJ under the sun. And you will love it every time. Electro glitches, a massive bass-fuelled breakdown and a voice imploring you to ‘push it, push it, push it’. It all adds up to a classic. I fuckin’ love it. Jack yr body!

They are your friends.

Visit Music For Robots for the download…

Learn to Walk Before You Crawl

You may remember about a month ago I went on the Camden Crawl. Well, mind you I can barely remember myself so I don’t see why anyone else should… but anyway with your wristband they give out a double CD of all the acts on the ‘crawl’, and i’ve been meaning to post some tracks from it.

To be honest the quality of the CDs aren’t nearly up to last year’s, but there were three (out of 44!) that really stood out for me.

This first track… well, just listen and as soon as the singing begins you will think, as I did, “Good grief, it’s the Beta Band”. Well it turns out that’s because it is, kind of. Since Robin Jones and John MacLean from the Beta Band are now both in The Aliens. (The other guy, Steve Mason, is now calling himself ‘King Biscuit Time‘ - which reminds me I must check them out.)

This track, from the band’s debut EP ‘Alienoid Starmonica’, really reminds me of Pink Floyd as well. Something to do with the appropriately spacey feel, and harmonised vocals. Let’s face it, it just sounds like a really great Beta Band track.

THE ALIENS - IONAS (LOOK FOR SPACE)

Next up is Plan B, with an acoustic version of one of his best tracks. Can’t remember hearing many rappers spitting it out over an acoustic guitar before, and this really works. Plan B’s definitely got the flow & the delivery…. and like Mike Skinner he’s actually got things to say. You’ll want to give this a few listens to pick out all the lyrics. Reckon they’re worth listening to.

PLAN B - SICK 2 DEF (ACOUSTIC VERSION)

Also if you’ve not seen last year’s AMAZING stop-motion video for Plan B’s ‘No Good’ then you should:

I didn’t see Plan B on the crawl, but I did manage to catch Sway, who was highly impressive. And also hilarious. I would post up his track from the CD but he’s for some reason bolted on a pointless and annoying skit about Usher at the end. Here’s some photos instead:

This last track is by Absentee, who i’ve noticed starting to get some attention over the last couple of weeks. It’s a great slightly country-tinged song with a verse highly reminiscent of Pavement’s ‘Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’ album, and a chorus that has a bit of the Magic Numbers about it.

ABSENTEE - BODY IN A CAR SOMEWHERE

Listen to new single ‘Something to Bang’ over on their myspace…

Every Kiss Begins With Headphonesex*

So I managed to survive a Tuesday night in Dalston with nothing worse than a bit of long-term ear damage and a punishing bout of tiredness.

Thanks for anyone who came along. Turned out to be a cracking night in the end, depite the ambitiously enormous venue!

The flash is busted on my camera, so I have no photographic evidence. I can tell you however that DJ Gorky was a bloody nice bloke & played some slammin’ tunes whilst also managing to master the dodgy CD decks. You gotta love the baile funk. If only I knew the names of some of those records…..

Laptop wizard Casper did a great job on the organisation and the warm up set. Thanks for the Hot Chip! (And thanks to Hianta for the chicken!)

I lived up to my reputation of top tunes, mediocre mixing.

(What I played: Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone; Shit Robot - Triumph; Tomboy - Samba; Bushy - Drop; LFO - LFO; Hot Chip - Boy From School (Erol Alkan Mix); Betty Botox - Music is Music; Justice - Let There Be Light; Test Icicles - What’s Your Damage (Alan Braxe Mix); Lordi - Hard Rock Hallelujah; David Gilmour Girls - HMMM; Delia & Gavin - Relevee (Carl Craig Mix); Franz Ferdinand - I’m Your Villain (Lindstrom Mix); Theo Parrish - Falling Up (Carl Craig Mix); Hollertronix - Stay Fly)

I quite enjoyed dropping a bit of Hard Rock Hallelujah in the middle there…. sounded good played nice & loud. Casper commented on myspace that he thought it was a MSTRKRFT remix!

Finally Skull Juice were fuckin’ awesome. It took me about 45 minutes to leave as I kept having to return to the fray for ONE MORE TUNE! disco pogo electro magic. These boys are hot. Book ‘em for your party. You will be the opposite of sorry. Aroused. Or something.

But enough about that. This was an mp3 blog once, and there don’t seem to have been too many recently. I’ll hit you with a couple of tracks I played last night that you won’t have heard here. Probably the only two in fact!

I have been LOVING the Fujiya & Miyagi album since picking it up a couple of weeks ago, and the first two tracks in particular have been on repeat ever since.

They’ve got an obvious Krautrock influence (bloke in Rough Trade while spitting doritos all over the floor “yeah mate, you may as well buy yourself a Can album instead. Exactly the same shit innit.”) but I think there’s a bit more to ‘em than mere copyists. Granted Can are a gaping hole in my musical knowledge, but although track 1 (the FANTASTIC ‘Ankle Injuries’) does indeed sound how I imagine Can sound, by the time you reach ‘Collarbone’ (track 2) most of the droning synths have been done away with and you’re left with some goddam funky-assed pop music.

Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes.

Listen, the cool kids have already been all over this lot & it’s one of my albums of the year so far. Check it out for you will not be disappointed. It’s called ‘Transparent Things’ by the way.

FUJIYA & MIYAGI - COLLARBONE

Other great songs: ‘Transparent Things’; ‘In One Ear & Out The Other’; ‘Cylinders’.

So this next song has been stuck on my turntable ever since I bought it. Words can’t express how fantastic it is. However since I seem to be proprietor of an mp3 blog I’m gonna have to try.

Betty Botox is the pseudonym of one half of a Scottish duo who likes to sneak out mixable re-edits of his favourite tracks in a limited and low-key fashion. I think he would rather remain anonymous however I think Betty’s identity is pretty widely known by now. Shit, reading that I sound like I’m presenting ‘Stars in Their Eyes’.

Anyhoo. This track is from Betty’s second album, ‘G4 Faggot’. If you could think of one way of improving Sister Sledge’s ‘Lost in Music’ what would it be? Well there is no answer to that. It can’t be improved upon. But hang on one moment…. what if we stretch out the intro & stick the sample from the beginning of Primal Scream’s ‘Come Together’ over the top. Well fuck me sideways, that sounds great! Press the fucker up!

BETTY BOTOX - MUSIC IS MUSIC

Skull Juice played the brilliant ‘I’m An Indian Three’ from the album last night - which I imagine is a version of this - and i’m also enjoying ‘Xantac’ a lot. Check it out if you can.

* Title courtesy of the slogan generator

Amanhã Noite

Just a reminder about tomorrow night’s hoedown in Dalston…

If you’ve not listened to it yet, you must download DJ Gorky’s mix from this site. It’s absolutely awesome, and rocked the post Eurovision celebrations on Saturday night!

Lordi are surely destined for #1 in the next few weeks?

Moshi Moshi?

As I mentioned last week, Moshi Moshi Records have been one of the best indie labels in the UK over the last couple of years. And I should have mentioned their latest label compilation ‘Can You Hear Me Now’ a while ago, as it came out back in February. It’s one of the best albums of the year, full stop. And only costs £4.99. Bonanza!

As well as highlighting some of the bands that Moshi Moshi have brought to our attention - from those that should be massive and are (Bloc Party and Hot Chip) to those that should be massive but aren’t (Architecture in Helsinki and New Rhodes); you get a chance to sample some of the lesser known names on the label.

Their most recent signing is ‘Hot Club de Paris‘

I don’t know how old they are, but this track has the musty smell of teenage thrills about it. Forget the rules, let’s have fun.

HOT CLUB DE PARIS - SHIPWRECK

As usual, myspace is the place to go if you want to hear more.

This track by LA’s Foreign Born is a real corker - a soaring, pounding anthem that sounds designed to be played as the last song on the Sunday night at Glastonbury. In a fight with Snow Patrol, the blood of the smug chart-toppers would end up cascading through the streets of Belfast. Streets lined with a cheering mob waving their lighters in the air, chanting “We Had Pleasure”.

FOREIGN BORN - WE HAD PLEASURE

Finally Roland Shanks, who must be the coolest band in the world as they have a drummer called James Woodley. Yeah, for real. But it’s not me.

If I ran an indie disco I’d play this every week and girls would kiss me.

ROLAND SHANKS - ANNIVERSARY

Basically every song on this album is a classic. You’ve also got the Broadcast-style chanteusing of ‘Au Revoire Simone’; the Lo-Fi Funk of, er, Lo-Fi Fnk; the Libertines spin-off band Yeti; Tap Rock sensations Tilly and The Wall; Scuzzy Electro-Poppers ‘Best Fwends’ and an incredible song from Aussies ‘The Grates‘ that is worth the money by itself.

If you can think of a better way to spend £4.99 i’d be interested to hear about it in the comments. Otherwise I suggest you snap it up here.

More Moshi Moshi tomorrow. Maybe.

Always Next Year

I’m a bit gutted right now, after losing out in the play-offs to Cheltenham last night. At the same time though I felt more pride than I have ever felt for the team & fans. So much so that I slept in my Wycombe shirt. Sad bastard!

The team gave it absolutely everything they had, playing fantastic football, but the ball just would not go in the net. It ended 0-0, so we couldn’t claw back the 2-1 defecit from the first leg.

The Wycombe fans were unbelievable though. Every one of the 1,500 there was on their feet shouting at the top of their lungs not just for 90 minutes but for half an hour before & after the game as well. With about 6 drummers pounding away relentlessly we didn’t hear a peep from the home fans all game, and I got home with my ears ringing as if I’d spent 8 hours in a club.

So hopefully we’ll be back stronger next year. At least we should be in the hunt for the title again judging by the appalling standard of most teams we’ve played this season. I’m looking forward to a trip to Accrington Stanley anyway!

I hope you don’t mind my occasional diversions, but lets face it there’s more to life than music.

There’s football as well.

There may well be a month-long musical hiatus here when the world cup starts!

Dance Dance Revolution

It’s a week to go until the hotly anticipated Blogger vs Baile Funk all star shoot-out.

Yep, next Tuesday (23rd May) get yr asses over to Dalston for a night of musical ecstacy.

It’s at

BARDEN’S BOUDOIR
38-44 Stoke Newington Road
N16 7XJ

It’s apparently a beautiful venue with a killer soundsystem…

Kick Off is @ 10pm (I think), and I believe the final whistle will be blowing at 3am. I’ll need to confirm this though…

It’s £2 to get in before 11 & £4 after. Sadly teh economics wouldn’t add up for it to be free.

Topping the bill is DJ GORKY - one third of Bonde Do Role. They are prime movers in the world of Baile Funk, having had the honour of the first release on Diplo’s new label, Mad Decent.

What’s Baile Funk? Well it’s basically crazy Brazillian hip-hop, with a more Miami Bass flavour. 80s hits & stuff like The Clash is often used as the backing, and it’s about the most exciting musical genre out there at the moment.

You can hear a track by Bonde do Role on my myspace page at the moment, and you can (and should) listen to a mix by DJ Gorky here.

It’s stunning. As you can hear he mixes the Baile Funk up with some electro hits / Daft Punk / Gorillaz etc. .. just check that first track, firing Alter Ego’s ‘Rocker’ into the mix. Yeah, the boy has skillz.

So it’s official…. Baile Funk rocks. And you can hear one of its best exponents in action. There was a good article about it in the Observer last year if you wanna find out more.

Also playing are the guys from the Skull Juice blog. They have a couple of incredible mixes online, the latest of which was played on John Kennedy’s show on XFM. You can download that from here. I’ve not heard ‘em in the flesh yet, but their web mixes are terrifyingly good!

Terrifying because i’ll be attempting to back up these fucking dj gods with some excellent records and not completely terrible mixing.

Casper from Fluokids has put the whole shebang together, for which you’ll be able to give him some love, as he graces the decks also. Not too much though, as he may be concentrating.

For sure there’s gonna be some seriously quality music, and some crazy dance fever going down, so I hope you can make it along. Party Anthems; Brand New Bangers; Brazillian Flavours and generally anything condusive to dancefloor action.