Death Before Disco

There is no way of connecting these two tracks apart from the fact I was recently sent them both and they are both rather good.

This first one is by Dead Disco… who certainly seem to hang round with the right folks. The single is produced by James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco) and the video is done by Saam Farahmand - who did both the Klaxons videos. They also seem to have the main ingredients for success worked out… hot chicks, a good bassline, lots of eye make-up, and a single coming out on Fierce Panda - the label that seems to uncover more gold than a raid on Jimmy Saville’s jewelery box. (But can they be forgiven for Coldplay?)

I have an mp3 of the track as well (sorry about the poor bitrate….)

DEAD DISCO - AUTOMATIC

I also found lurking on my computer a Metronomy remix of their previous single. As you may know, I’m rather fond of Metronomy, and he does a great job here of isolating the pop and putting some nice electronic noises around it. Buy the Metronomy album. It’s great.

DEAD DISCO - THE TREATMENT (METRONOMY REMIX)

You can hear the original version of that, plus some other tracks, over on their myspace. So go & say hello….

All you ravers out there might be more taken by this great new tune by French producer Danton Eeprom. Crisp beats, lush synth washes, some seriously phat bass noises and an insistent noodley riff at the top-end - all ingredients for a whole load of shapes on the dancefloor. Preferably performed in a cloud of dry ice.

It reminds me a bit of Claro Intellecto…. and this easily matches the best stuff he’s put out. It’s hitting the shops in September on Delta B records, so keep your eyes & ears peeled.

DANTON EEPROM - LE CAPRICE DES TEMPS

Here’s the obligatory myspace link….

Is myspace the flakiest website ever? I have never known one to be broken quite so often. It’s most infuriating.

I Just Want To Be Left Alone

I’ve just been having a good chuckle, as ever, to the b3ta newsletter. Take a look at these:

I never thought i’d find a Star Wars parody funny again… this is great - editing in lines from other James Earl Jones films to make Darth look like a raving psycho….

‘Oooooh. Baseball.’

I really really want to spend a day in stop-motion. Like this guy did.

Ah, look at these sweet little chavs trying to kill each other:

I dance like this.

(Really)

But i’ve not yet kicked myself in the head.

And finally…. great reaction from mum….

Let’s Move On Now

It was another super-sweaty Bromheads Jacket gig last night. And possibly better than the last one. The band were tighter; the venue hotter and the crowd even more mental. They tore through their set in a quickfire 30 minutes leaving everyone breathless & gasping for more….

I decided to take a couple of videos, but didn’t realise my camera cut out at 30 seconds. So here’s a couple of clips that should give you some idea of the craziness….. but do excuse the brevity, the darkness and the sound quality.

This is forthcoming single Lions On The Prowl. Which although great, doesn’t come close to capturing the rush of the Bromheads live experience.

BROMHEADS JACKET - LIONS ON THE PROWL

They’re a truly great live band, and I urge you to try & catch them at one of the following dates:

AUGUST
Sun 20th Aug - London @ Adventures In The Beetroot Field Party at the Lock Tavern. THIS IS FREE!!!
Thu 24th Aug - St Albans @ The Horn FESTIVAL WARM UP SHOW
Fri 25th Aug - Reading @ Carling Festival
Sat 26th Aug - Leeds @ Carling Festival

SEPTEMBER
Tue 12th Sept - Chatham @ We’re taking Over, Tap n Tin
Wed 13 Sept - Cambridge @ Soul Tree
Thu 14 Sept - Bedford @ Roar Club, Esquires
Fri 15 Sept - Darlington @ Club Strut
Sat 16 Sept - London @ Frog, Mean Fiddler

Don’t take a jumper.

I have to say I was quite impressed as well with support band ‘The Natives‘. They’re not exactly what i’d normally listen to, but if you’re into the kind of indie music that hits the top of the album charts I think you’ll like them. They had an natural togetherness & presence on stage that reminded me of Oasis; some very catchy tunes; and a devoted fan club chanting & going generally apeshit down the front.

THE NATIVES - FROGGY’S TUNE

Actually i’m liking this more the more I hear it. Take a listen….

I’d also recommend checking out ‘Bright Lights’ over on their myspace.

EDIT: Actually Soho is fuckin’ ace as well. Check this lot out for sure…..

The Bleepfiend

Since i’m looking at other blogs, i’m very sad to see that Gutterbreakz seems to have decided to call it a day.

“…and that’s me finished for the summer…and possibly for a lot longer…maybe forever. We’ll see.”

Nick was a massive inspiration for me setting up this blog, and also a great help in getting my file hosting etc. sorted out. Although I didn’t read the blog so much after he got so immersed in Dubstep - a genre i’ve really tried to enjoy but which hasn’t quite clicked with me yet - his enthusuasm was still inspiring.

I guess the end was on it’s way when Nick decided to disable comments on his site, but i’m still surprised. He seems to have become quite a player in the dubstep scene.

His other passions are really in evidence on a truly magnificent podcast i’ve just been listening to. The music is incredible, the mixing and interludes are great, and the accompanying text a fascinating read. Great evidence for why I have so much respect for Nick, and why i’ll be sad to see Gutterbreakz closing its doors (if it is to be the end).

Truly brilliant stuff, and a must-listen. Check it.

Disco Pogo

I should have directed you to the Daily Growl about, ooh, 7 episodes ago. He’s doing what I had vaguely planned to do at some point and picking out the best tracks from the amazing cover CDs given away by Jockey Slut in its last year of existence.

Jockey Slut was the best magazine ever, and I bought it religiously for about 10 years (as it grew from black & white fanzine to glossy quarterly). I have still not quite recovered from the fact that it went under….. I bet they wished they’d stayed in Manchester rather than seeking pots of gold in The London. I know I do.

Anyway I discovered a ridiculous amount of fantastic music via these amazing CDs. Check the tracklistings here and bear in mind that this was back in ‘02, when most of these artists were unknown.

All five tracks you can download here are beyond essential. I can’t even pick out one as a MUST HEAR…although if I was picking out 5 tracks from this CD I would certainly have included J.A.M.’s filtered French Disko classic ‘Number One’ at the expense of the Nextmen.

Flaming Groovies

Miaow! This is great.

I was trying to work out how to describe it, then remembered that Pure Groove (on whose recommendation i’d bought it), had called it as pretty much like a Chemical Brothers remix of ‘I Feel Love’. And since that’s about spot on i’ll leave it at that.

It’s in fact a remix by Michael Ivins, bassist with The Flaming Lips. Quite what it’s doing tucked away on the b-side of a 12″ by Detroit rockers The Come Ons i’ve not quite worked out yet. I can only assume that they did a cover and then Michael Ivins remixed it? Whatever. That’s not important right now. All you need to know that it’s Moroder & Summers’ classic pulled and distorted through a dirty mangle. THAT bassline remains of course, but it’s augmented by overdriven wah-wahing guitars and a pounding kick drum.

It gets me going anyway.

THE COME ONS - I FEEL LOVE (MICHAEL IVINS FEEDING TUBE MANGLE MIX)

I think this is a pretty limited twelve, as I was struggling to find it last week. Fortunately Pure Groove got some more copies in & I snagged one… not sure where you can find it now though. I had a quick scout of the usual places without turning anything up. So good luck vinyl hunters!

I Love. The Noise.

Luke Vibert, the pseudonym-happy Cornishman you may also know as Wagon Christ, has come back with a couple of great new releases on Aphex Twin’s label Rephlex (probably my favourite imprint).

The first, Amen Andrews vs Spac Hand Luke, features two of his own pseudonyms in an album-length face-off.

Amen Andrews first appeared in 2003, in a series of 5 fantastic 12″s of pure unbridled junglist revivalism. I was assuming that this album would be compiling the best tracks from the singles, but it seems like entirely new stuff.

As the name suggests, the Amen Andrews tracks are completely obsessed with the Amen Break, and a little obsessed with, err, Eamonn Andrews.

The track i’m enjoying most is this one, ‘Intelligent’, as its ridiculous bass line makes me smile.

MAKE SOME NOISE!

AMEN ANDREWS - INTELLIGENT

The Spac Hand Luke tracks are harder to categorise. The bass is still there, but the beats are a bit more funky, and the tracks are sprinkled with humourous samples of people like Tom Baker.

The first track on the album is the best example of this…. sounding like an entire Coldcut DJ set in a single track. I completely love it. If you love music (and London), you should too.

SPAC HAND LUKE - LONDON

2003 also saw Vibert unleash some shimmering Metro Area-style disco with a superb album released as ‘Kerrier District’. It went down a storm - particularly opening track ‘Let’s Dance and Freak’ - so it’s great news that Kerrier District 2 is out now. And it’s even better than the last one.

Released on a budget 6-track CD or two 12-inch vinyls, it appears to consist of 6 mixes of the same track, which i’d guess is ‘Let’s Dance and Freak’, but it’s not immediately obvious.

This ‘Ce Porte Mix’ is probably not my favourite, however its lush mirrorballed groove should act as a nice counterpoint to the beats above. Also worth a listen are the slightly more jacking ‘Disco Nasty Mix’, and of course the great version by headphonesex hero (and Squarepusher’s brother) Ceephax… where he manages to retain the funk whilst injecting the track with a nice dose of Ceephax mentalism. And a splash of acid. Much like Squarepusher used to do when he was good in fact.

LUKE VIBERT - KERRIER DISTRICT 2 (CE PORTE REMIX)

Actually scrub my previous comment, this probably is my favourite mix. Lush is the word. I dig.

I am so hot right now

I’ve done a new mix for y’all. Woo!

You can download it here:

HEADPHONESEX - RADIOCLASH

This is what’s on it:

FUJIYA & MIYAGI - TRANSPARENT THINGS (2006, Tirk Records)
JOHN SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION - MARS, ARIZONA (DFA REMIX) (2006, DFA Records)
BETTY BOTOX - MUSIC IS MUSIC (2006, Botox Records - G4 Faggot LP)
YELLO - BOSTICH (1981, Stiff Records)
RICHIE HAWTIN - MINUS ORANGE (1999 M_NUS 12″)
POPULAR COMPUTER - NEXT LEVEL POPE (2006, Kitsune Maison 2 LP)
AUDIO BULLYS - WAY TOO LONG (SWITCH REMIX) (2003, Source Records 12″)
RUEDE HAGELSTEIN - WAVE (2005, Lebensfreude 12″)
SPEKTRUM - KINDA NEW (Tiefschwarz Remix) (2003, Playhouse 12″)
DIGITALISM - JUPITER ROOM (MARTIAN ASSAULT MIX) (2006, Kitsune Maison 2 LP)
FELIX DA HOUSECAT - SILVER SCREEN SHOWER SCENE (STATIC REVENGER REMIX) (2002, City Rockers 12″)
THEO PARRISH - FALLING UP (CARL CRAIG REMIX) (2005, Third Ear 10″)
3 6 MAFIA - STAY FLY (MAD DESCENT REMIX) (2005, Hollertronix 12″)
JOAKIM - I WISH YOU WERE GONE (JK DUB) (2006, Kitsune Maison 2 LP)
BETTY BOTOX - I’M AN INDIAN THREE (2006, Botox Records - G4 Faggot LP)
THE CLASH - THIS IS RADIO CLASH (1981, From Disco Not Disco 2 LP)

The old mixing’s definintely getting a lot better… which is a stroke of luck as I seem to be DJing at Turnmills next weekend!

Exploration’s Last Great Prize

I’m really surprised that the recent mini-album by iLiKETRAiNS has come out virtually unnoticed, for they’re one of my favourite bands around at the moment… and certainly one of the most interesting.

This is the stunning video for recent single ‘Terra Nova’ - charting Robert Falcon Scott’s tragic & ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Where they were not only beaten to The Pole by Roald Amundsen, but they all died for their trouble as well.

This is amongst the most moving 5 minutes in puppet cinema history:

Last year’s ‘A Rook House for Bobby’ - which I mentioned in December, was easily in my top ten singles of last year. It really conveys the unimaginable burden Bobby Fischer must have felt as an unwilling pawn in the cold war.

“All this talk of a war,
well it’s only a game.
All I ever wanted to do was play chess with you”

The MP3 i’m going to post is probably my favourite song by the band - and originally featured as the b-side to ‘A Rook House for Bobby’. It’s unlikely that many bands would have taken the nationalisation of the British railway system as inspiration for a song, however if you’ve ever felt that ‘Progress’ has actually turned out to be a step (or six steps) backwards you will be able to identify with the sentiments.

Reform. Reform.
Oh you are taking apart,
what we made with our hands and our hearts.

The chanting, beginning about half way through, is truly breathtaking. And seems to represent both the will of the people, and their helplessness in the relentless march of change.

iLiKETRAiNS - THE BEECHING REPORT

These three tracks all feature on ‘Progress Reform‘, along with the equally excellent ‘No Military Parade’ and ‘Stainless Steel’ (’Please don’t go in the kitchen, That’s where the knives are. And I won’t be held responsible’)

Just to prove that they’re not all about historical anti-heroes, here’s the two-part video for their debut single ‘Before The Curtains Close’, where an obsessive, jealous stalker promises of his rival ‘i’ll extract his teeth and make them into a necklace for you. A small token to apologise for the pain i’ve put you through’

Then in part two he escapes from the asylum….

Basically this is some of the most compelling music i’ve ever heard, so go buy the album now before they achieve the enormous success that is sure to be coming their way.

Insert Herb Pun Here

I got a cool CD in the post the other day from a band from Sarf London called Rosemary. I’m not too keen on the name but gave it a listen and hey, it’s pretty bloody good.

It’s a 2-track demo in advance of their (very limited edition) debut single out on August 7th.

Both songs are really strong, and i’ve spent the last week trying to work out which one to post. But I think i’ve settled on the the title track, ‘Suburban Kings’.

It’s a bit reminiscent of the Libertines, but the two singers work together well and when I heard it played before one of the bands at ACTH on Friday I noticed it induced quite a bit of head nodding and hip shaking.

ROSEMARY - SUBURBAN KINGS

I really like the b-side as well, which has a bit more of a Kinks vibe about it. They sound like they’d be pretty fun live…. you can and possibly should catch them here and then:

13th July – The Attic, Manchester, Kloot Clubnight
14th July – Brickyard, Carlisle + supporting the Fratellis
20th July – Tap’N’Tin, Chatham – Suburban Kings club night – the Rosemary residency
7TH AUGUST – PLEASURE UNIT, BETHNAL GREEN – SINGLE LAUNCH PARTY -
12th August – “Basstonbury” Festival, Kent + The Bishops
13th August – Brixton Windmill, Brixton – Lady Panda Alldayer with Lupen Crook + Mules + more
30th August – Water Rats, Kings Cross – Club Fandango