Hello Sunshine!

Hello! Yes, i’m back from the swamp. And three days later i’m still sore, dazed and more exhausted than i’ve been for years. Glasters came up trumps as usual though, despite the unrelenting mud.

The gloopy mud tends to put the skids on seeing too many bands… it would be quicker to go round the circle line than to get between some of the stages. But I managed to have quite enough ‘moments’ for any weekend. Which combined with the constant hilarity that Glastonbury enduces, means I still have a nice fuzzy glow right now. Although there may be other reasons for that.

So who was good? Well the three undoubted highlights for me were: Super Furry Animals; Bjork & Shirley Bassey. When you’re buried in the mire, it tends to be the acts that take you away from it all that go down the best, winning out over introspective fare such as Editors.

Friday saw me watching some of Gogol Bordello on the main stage, before a fortunate break for hot cider with cider brandy left us cowering under tarpaulin as the rain came down with a vengeance. Amy Winehouse was on after that, and was pretty awful to be honest. She looked like a rabbit trapped in the headlights, and failed to lift the crowd at all. Fortunately the evening saw an awsome triumverate of SFA, Arcade Fire and Bjork on the Other Stage.

SFA are I reckon my favourite band, and watching them playing under blue skies left me singing ‘Hello Sunshine’ for the rest of the weekend. No doubt to the constant annoyance of anyone nearby.

Co-incidentally their new album seems to have just leaked onto t’interweb. Unfortunately at this moment it’s not grabbing me very hard, but as usual there are pop gems scattered about. This is one of the two new songs they played at the weekend. Which I think might be the first single.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS - SHOW YOUR HAND

And an old favourite that rocked on Friday:

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS - RECEPTACLE FOR THE RESPECTABLE

There’s not much to say about Arcade Fire, except that they were of course brilliant.

Bjork was a different matter though. The beauty of her is that not having seen her for many years I didn’t really know what to expect. What a show though, and what a voice. This was the best moment of the gig… Hyperballad… which unexpectedly gave us ‘Freak’ by LFO pounding out of the speakers half way through. I presume it’s Mark Bell on stage making the electronic noises, and the table he was fiddling with during the gig left us constantly fascinated. What the hell is that thing? And where can I get one! You can see a bit of it from about 3:20 in this clip:

After the usual all-night madness I managed to rouse myself on Saturday for CSS & Klaxons. CSS put a smile on my face straight away; while Klaxons did their thing pretty well. They seemed to get a little swallowed by the huge stage though. The evening was another belter though. First of all !!! seemed to find their spiritual home in The Glade, and led the assembled masses through a into a drug-fueled space-funk odyssey. They loved it & so did we. So then to Iggy & The Stooges.. which ended up being absolutely hilarious.

I saw them at Lowlands in Holland last year, and during ‘Cool Time’ he invited people from the audience on stage. About 10 people joined him, danced like crazy, then politely left at the end of the song. He did the same thing at Glastonbury, but i’m not sure he expected quite the stage invasion that resulted. There must have been a couple of hundred fucked up muddy people up there at one point. It was fun to watch, but not half as amusing as seeing Iggy trying to get rid of them all. It must have taken 10 minutes to remove the ‘muddy motherfuckers’.

Sunday (or Shirleyday) I saw Phil Hartnoll do his dated ‘techno in a gym slip’ thing. Which wasn’t much to write home about. Kissy Sell Out did his ferocious cut-up electro thing. Which was much better. And Vitalic do his mosh-inducing electrotechno thing. Which was great fun. The day was all about Shirley Bassey though, and as usual the old legend they get on the pyramid stage on Sunday afternoon showed the rest of them how to work a crowd. The youtube clip seems to be of the only part of the show without the hits (Goldfinger; Diamonds are Forever; Light My Fire & Big Spender for instance); but still shows off her voice pretty well. We were right down the front & it was awesome.

Other than that, apart from The Sunshine Underground in the Guardian tent, the evening was a bit of a damp squib. I watched Fat Freddy’s Drop against my better judgement; and to finish it all The Chemical Brothers were pretty poor - certainly in comparison to Daft Punk the previous weekend. An average set, with average lights and nothing to make it stick in the memory. Still, I managed to find Chas & Dave in Lost Vagueness afterwards, along with the usual nutters; so that was a good finish!

Although i’ll no doubt be back again next year, I found the lack of noise late at night a bit annoying. There used to be soundsystems & parties springing up all over the place in the middle of the night, but this time round I seemed to do an awful lot of late night walking in order to watch DJs playing records very quietly.

The festival does still just about hold on to what makes it special, but each year as the rigmorole of buying a ticket gets harder (Pre-registration? Photo-ID? 9am Sunday internet sessions?) and the noise restrictions get tougher, I am on the verge of finally conceding that it’s not as good as it was. Obviously keeping the hundreds of thieves out is a good thing, but I do miss the anarchy. On the same tip, this Radio 4 show was quite funny….

You can also watch a shit-load of live sets over on the BBC website.

We’re in ‘igh spirits

I was hoping to do a post tonight, but i’ve got no time. Been packing for the annual trip to Pilton, and having a laugh at some of the footage of last Glastonbury. It was nuts. I’ve never known a storm like it.

Anyway, for once i’m properly prepared for all eventualities this time. And the weather forecast is shit. Bring it on!

I require a shrubbery

Swedish electro popster Robyn has been getting a lot of blog love, but apart from ‘Konichiwa Bitches’ i’ve not checked her out much. This forthcoming single is great though, and will no doubt lead me to investigate further.

The original version of “With Every Heartbeat” has ‘Ibiza Anthem’ written all over it, and when flicking through the radio the other week I heard Pete Tong make it his record of the week. It’s the kind of thing that you imagine will get people a little weepy on the dancefloor. Before swiftly returning to a hard night’s gurning, and a gulp of their £6 bottle of water.

I’m enjoying the Rory Phillips remix as well though. Rory is one of the residents at Our Disco, and was also resident at Trash with Erol Alkan. Perhaps this has rubbed off on him, as this version is reminiscent of Erol’s balearic re-rubs of Hot Chip, Scissor Sisters & Klaxons.

ROBYN - WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT (RORY PHILLIPS REMIX)

More girl pop comes from the latest ‘I Can Count’ compilation. I have to say that overall it’s a little disappointing compared to the non-stop glory of the first one… but there are still plenty of great tracks. My favourite being the pop rush of “Saturday Night” by Brighton’s Beauty Skool Dropout. I fully approve of anything that can pack this much of a punch with a casio & a cheap drum machine.

BEAUTY SKOOL DROPOUT - SATURDAY NIGHT

The album is only 4 quid from the I Can Count website, which makes it a right bargain. Not as much of a bargain as volume 1 though… which is limited to 500 copies and has 18 brilliant tracks for a fiver. Check the t-shirts while you’re there.

I’ve been meaning to write about Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya for a while, but needed an email kick up the arse with a new track to actually get round to it.

You can probably surmise from the name and picture that it’s gonna be some kinda bleepy sleazy electro pop rock. And you’d be right. There seems to be rather a big beat influence creeping into the tracks though… a genre that’s probably ripe for revival now that the corpse of the 80s has been thoroughly violated.

BITCHEE BITCHEE YA YA - BEFORE

The band have apparently just signed a record deal, and this will be their first single. It sounds a little like CSS accompanied by a very loud drummer. Which can only be good ya ya.

BITCHEE BITCHEE YA YA - FUCK FRIEND

Off The Hook

I’m still buzzing about Daft Punk, as no doubt is everyone else who was there.

Clearly I didn’t see the Stones in Hyde Park in ‘69, however I can’t believe that they blew a fraction of the number of minds that DP did on Saturday. It was quite fantastic.

Here’s the clips from the TV highlights… not by any means the highlights of the set, but neck tingling stuff all the same…

One More Time / Aerodynamic:

Da Funk:

Unfortunately they only showed 2 songs on the telly, and didn’t capture the best bits… being the almost unsurpassable segue of ‘Around the World’ & ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger’ into ‘Burning’… and the actually unsurpassable finale of ‘Together’, ‘Music Sounds Better With You’ and ‘One More Time’ - by which time the light show had wound up to levels of retina burning insanity, and the drunk twats who’d spent an hour taking it in turns to stand on my feet had buggered off to the pub!

Slightly less spectacular is a video that I helped my friend Becky put together. I’m rather embarassed about my my first and last appearance in front of a camera, although after studying Alex Zane’s efforts at interviewing on the telly when I got home, I think I look like Parky in comparison! At least I didn’t accuse James Murphy of being from LA. Anyway it was pretty good fun, although having to find people to interview meant I missed most of the other stuff going on

From what I saw of them though, CSS were brilliant.

For one of the Daft Punk tracks as ‘Darlin’, and the first track by Phoenix, head to L’Iglootone.

Thanks to Andre for the top picture

‘ave it!

Ah, back to ‘91, eh! Raving in a field, eh! God the drugs were good in those days. And wasn’t Keith looking well.

Competition Results

So out of 2000 visitors today, only 10 people entered the contest. And co-incidentally 3 got the answers correct, and will be sharing the 3 prizes! Maybe the questions were a little tough, but I thought i’d make it a bit harder than just going to discogs or wikipedia & getting the answers…

1: Which British groop’s label put out the first record by Thomas & Guy-Manuel?
It was Stereolab. Thomas & Guy-Manuel’s first release was a track on ‘Shimmies in Super 8′ - a 7″ compilation on the Duophonic label. They recorded under the name ‘Darlin’, which was changed after a Melody Maker review described the track as ‘Daft Punk’. I’ve never heard the track, so if anyone could fire me an mp3 across i’d be chuffed!

And yes, Soma did release the first record as Daft Punk - ‘The New Wave’. But that wasn’t what i was asking! ,-) Sorry if it was a bit of a trick question….

DAFT PUNK - THE NEW WAVE

2: What was the name of Guy-Manuel’s now defunct record label?
Twas Crydamoure. As everyone correctly identified. The records looked like this

And sounded a bit like this

LE KNIGHT CLUB - SOUL BELLS

3: Which cheesemonger, responsible for some of the worst records of the last couple of years, stole one of Thomas Bangalter’s tracks for his surprisingly good debut album?

I’m afraid it wasn’t Eric Prydz, but Bob Sinclar.

I honestly think ‘Love Generation’ is the worst record i’ve ever heard. I mean what is all that? Feel the love generation? Seems to me like there’s more war than love in the world right now, but then again I don’t live on a yacht in ibiza. Christ, words can’t describe how much I hate that song. The new one is fucking terrible as well. Gah!

But a while back, in 1998 in fact, he released his first album and it was bloody good. If you overlook the fact that he reputedly stole the Jane Fonda-sampling ‘Gym Tonic’ from Thomas Bangalter… who was credited as a ‘programmer’. Whatever that is.

What goes around comes around though, and Gym Tonic was itself stolen by a band called ‘Spacedust’, who removed the funk from the track and took it to number one, as ‘Gym and Tonic’. And thus ensured that I could never play the original ‘good’ version again. Until now that is! Time for the revival….

BOB SINCLAR (OR IS IT THOMAS BANGALTER?) - GYM TONIC

There’s obviously a slight novelty aspect to that track, but the rest of the album is full of excellent disco-tinged house grooves. There’s a number of tracks that used to go onto my turntables regularly (Check ‘Visions of Paradise’, ‘Ultimate Funk’ or ‘Disco 2000 Selector’), but this one has probably stuck in my mind the most…

BOB SINCLAR - THE GHETTO

Anyway, without further ado, I have literally just pulled the winner of the tickets out of a hat (a natty brown corduroy number), and the winner of the tickets to Daft Punk at Wireless is…. Liam Pomponi!

Goodie bags go to Rob House & Alex Hoffman.

Well done for being so clever.

And thanks to the good people at Modular for sorting the prizes.

Here’s a (two part) Daft Punk interview in Japan I found quite interesting:

Modulate

So Justice have made the transition from superstar DJs to a live act, and gave us a taster of what that’s all about at the Astoria last night.

Other than the fact that they were performing in front of a comical wall of Marshall Amps, and behind a blinding white cross, I can’t say there was too much to distinguish it from a DJ set. Except that it was a particularly good DJ set as all the tunes were by Justice!

The guys played with their ableton loops, while folks screamed and cheered as snatches of their favourite tunes appeared in the mix. My particular favourite has always been “Let There Be Light”, and that set the place off jumping early on…. but there was in truth very little letup during the whole course of the set, as banging tune followed banging tune. The crowd lapped it up, while our Gallic chums did their best to nonchalently suck on their Gitanes.

Predictably the biggest reaction was saved for ‘Never Be Alone’, a track which to be honest Simian must be a bit annoyed about since Justice seem to have adopted it as their own. The only downside to a scintilating set was a rather pointless encore, during which they briefly reprised a few of the tracks they’d played earlier. I got the sense that the crowd kind of switched from screaming for more to checking their watches for the last train. They say that the first rule of showbiz is to leave them wanting more, and I think maybe they should have adhered to that & stopped on the last fart of “Waters of Nazareth”. Up till then though it really was great, and it was impossible to stop yourself from D.A.N.C.I.N.G.

So for today’s Justice fix, here’s a copy of their Essential Mix from the weekend. It’s 2 hours long & i’ve not made it the whole way through, but it’s superb so far. They throw plenty of older tracks into the mix, which is something I wholeheartedly approve of. Plus the hard sounds are broken up with some great poppier moments. I would like more ‘blog house’ djs to drop Gilbert O’Sullivan tracks please.

This is on Megaupload, so let me know if you have trouble downloading it and i’ll stick it up on my server. The tracklisting is at the end of this post.

JUSTICE - ESSENTIAL MIX 11/06/07

ACE COMPETITION ALERT!!!!

London seems finally to be waking up to the fact that Daft Punk are landing their spaceship in Hyde Park on Saturday night…. sure to be one of the most memorable gigs of the summer. I’m sure you know the score: Daft Punk; LCD Soundsystem; Klaxons; New Young Pony Club; Plan B; Simian Mobile Disco; CSS; Metronomy and so on and so on.

Well the big news is that Modular records are organising the bash & they’ve given me two tickets to give away as prizes. Nice! Two runners up will get a ‘Modular Goodie Bag’. I’ve no idea what that is so don’t shout at me if it’s crap! If it is just a bag, at least you can look fashionable carrying your groceries back from Sainsbury’s.

So as this is a pretty decent prize, i’ve decided to try & sort the robots from the cyborgs with THREE (count ‘em) reasonably tough questions. If you want to enter, the rules are as follows.

• You have until midnight on Wednesday to send the three correct answers to james at headphonesex.co.uk
• You have to be able to make it to Hyde Park on Saturday
• That’s about it
  

So, without further ado….

THE QUESTIONS!!

1: Which British groop’s label put out the first record by Thomas & Guy-Manuel?
2: What was the name of Guy-Manuel’s now defunct record label?
3: Which cheesemonger, responsible for some of the worst records of the last couple of years, stole one of Thomas Bangalter’s tracks for his surprisingly good debut album?

You have 24 hours.

If you just can’t stop dancing, Modular are also organising the after-the-hyde-park-party at Canvas once the outdoor shenanigans are over. Whether or not you’re Daft Punking it looks like a good crack…

Justice Tracklisting:
Earth Wind And Fire ‘In The Stone’
Janet Jackson ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’
Prince ‘Earthquake’
Dmx Crew ‘Unknown’
Daft Punk :’Musique’
Busy P ‘Rainbow Man’
France Gall ‘Musique’
Justice ‘Valentine’
Alan Braxe ‘In Love With You’
M83 ‘Run Into Flowers (Jackson Remix)’
Les Rythmes Digitales ‘Sometimes’
I Robot ‘Spacer Frau (Boys Noize Remix)’
Hall And Oates ‘Private Eyes’
Chromeo ‘Tenderoni’
Tepr ‘Minuit Jacuzzi (Data Remix)
Chic ‘Everybody Dance’
Midnight Juggernauts ‘Shadows’
Goose ‘Bring It On’
The Proxy ‘Destroy’
Zongamin ‘Double Dostiev’
Zombie Nation ‘Tape Me’
Boule Noire ‘Super Lady’
Chemical Brothers ‘It Doesn’t Matter’
Tc Crew ‘Unknown’
Surkin ‘Unknown’
Dj Mehdi ‘Lucky Boy (Surkin Remix)’
Vamp ‘Outlander’
Fields ‘Unknown (Sebastian Remix)’
Feadz ‘Sekstyle’
Jamelia ‘Something About You (Mr Oizo Remix)’
Jesse Velez ‘Fire’
Justice ‘D.A.N.C.E’.(Live Version)
Surkin ‘Radio Fireworks’
Soundhack ‘Freakin’
Justice ‘Stress’
Zzt ‘Lower States’
Justice ‘Stress’
Scenario Rock ‘Both Gotta Move On’
Vanessa Paradis ‘Be My Baby’
The Ronettes ‘Be My Baby’
Breakbot ‘Happy Rabbit’
Jacques Dutronc ‘Les Cactus’
Justice ‘Dvno’
Kavinsky ‘Testarossa Autodrive’
LFO ‘Freak’
Mr Oizo ‘Lotus Suite Koln’
Autorepeat ‘Most Keys Are Auto Repeat’ (Soundhack)
Midnight Juggernauts ‘Into The Galaxy’
Buggles ‘Elstree’
Das Pop ‘Underground’
Gilbert O Sullivan ‘Alone Again (Naturally)’
Human League ‘Things That Dreams Are Made Of’
Savas Pascalidis ‘Defend It’
Rainbow Brothers ‘Unknown’
Chromeo ‘Ah Oui Comme Ca’
Leonard De Leonard ‘Leonizer’
Ian Pooley ‘Chord Memory –(Daft Punk Mix)’
Human League ‘Don’t You Want Me’
The Prodigy ‘Girls’
Klaxons ‘Gravity’s Rainbow (Soulwax Remix)’
Paraone ‘Liege’
Daniel Balavoine ‘Vivre Ou Survivre’
Miss Kittin ‘Requiem For A Hit (Gegm Remix)’
Mr Oizo ‘Stunt’
Handycap ‘Murphy’
The Rave ‘Mother’
Fancy ‘Inside Of You’
Syreeta Wright ‘Sweet As Candy’
Modest Mussorgsky ‘Night On A Bald Mountain’
Joni Mitchell ‘California’

Bummer in the Summer

So i’m just back from catching the awesome Justice live show, and reeling a bit from 5 nights out on the trot. But i’m also feeling rather guilty about neglecting the blog whilst frugging away in various enclaves of London. So let’s see if I can’t knock something out before crashing for the night.

The latest thing that i’m going to be overly obsessed with for about two weeks, before doubtless never listening to again, is this new single by Scout Niblett. This, I must say, is mainly to do with the hilarious lyrics penned by David Shrigley, and taken from his ‘Worried Noodles‘ book - a kind of concept album without music.

We’ve all been in Scout’s position before… you’re getting set for a big party at the weekend, but your Dinosaur Egg hasn’t hatched; your robot slave is showing no signs of sentience, and the entertainment (a tortured spirit) is nowhere to be found.

Bummer.

SCOUT NIBLETT - DINOSAUR EGG

Incidentally the other two tracks on the single (Just do It & Just What I Needed) are extremely good also. You can & should listen to them on Scout’s myspace.

I’m a massive fan of Shrigley’s twisted brand of humour, and neglected to mention his first foray into ‘music’ last year - a primarily spoken word album called ‘Forced to Speak With Others’.

Many of the tracks were compiled from the b-sides of those ‘Late Night Tales’ 7″s - backing tracks by Flaming Lips; Belle & Sebastian; Four Tet & Nouvelle Vague (I think). And i’ve posted what’s probably the best track, ‘Don’ts’ already. However with festival season upon us, the relentlessly cheerful ‘Rock Festival’ seems appropriate….

DAVID SHRIGLEY - ROCK FESTIVAL

Unique 3’s bleep anthem ‘The Theme’ was a huge influence on early Warp records, and thankfully out of a new batch of remixes one was coaxed out of Autechre. Warp’s bleep sound had largely come to an end by the time Autechre released their first record for the label, however they have clearly remade this with a great deal of affection for the original.

It starts off reasonably faithfully, before morphing into some low down analogue acid. As the track evolves the bass takes over and emits some terrifying frequencies that I can only assume would be emptying bowels if played over a system with a bit more guts than mine.

The best thing Autechre have done for years….

UNIQUE 3 - THE THEME (AUTECHRE REMIX)

Luckily I ordered my copy on Friday, but there are only 500 & it seems to be sold out on Boomkat already. Good luck finding one!

Right that’s yer lot for now. I need sleeeeeeeeeeeep…….

Do the Bartman

The appalling new olympic logo has created a righful amount of derision. It’s the crappest piece of sub-80’s yooth tv design i’ve ever seen. The comic sans font is a bad enough starting place, but to incorporate a map of Australia is worse.

Guardian commenters partook in an entertaining orgy of slagging off yesterday, where it was quickly spotted that the picture looked rather like Lisa Simpson giving some oral pleasure to her brother.

Thanks b3ta.

They’re Getting Up Slowly

It’s glitchy, it’s French & it has loads of overdriven synths. WAIT!! Come back. There’s life in this old dog yet. Not that ‘old dog’ will appear near Yelle’s name very often…. certainly not wielding a keytar like this!

It’s inevitable that Yelle will be compared to Uffie, and i’m not one to turn my back on a lazy comparison. She’s French. She’s sexy. She raps… reputedly rather filthily. After the excellent baile funk-tinged ‘Je Veux te Voir’, I found the original version of her follow up single a bit disappointing though. Well that’s what remixers are for, is it not? Riot in Belgium bring the noise, and also some rather Jarre-ing synths.

YELLE - A CAUSE DES GARCONS (RIOT IN BELGIUM REMIX)

Here’s ‘Je Veux te Voir’. You may wish to apply your sunglasses first.

While we’re on the subject of noisy Frenchies, Kidz by Colette have a Justice mix up on their site right now. Seems like it’s recorded from a radio show, however since the world seems to have gone Justice-mad recently, you may be experiencing cold French turkey, and have a junkie’s hunger to satiate. I’ve not listened to it myself yet though, so don’t blame me if it’s crap.

Offshoot of Lo Recordings, Lo Experimental Beats (LoEB) has proved a label to watch over its first four limited 12″s. We’ve had Luke Vibert vs Jean Jaques Perry; Black Devil Disco Club; James Holden, Nathan Fake… and now this new single by ‘The Chap’ featuring a surprisingly deep remix by Hot Chip. Out of the four mixes on the single though, my favourite is this one by Crosstown Rebel Pier Bucci. I haven’t really listened to his stuff much, despite the constant love he receives from Kiran Tape, but this is really nice. As warm and satisfying as a nice cuppa.

PIER BUCCI & THE CHAP - SPACE = TIME

I cannot for the life of me stop confusing Goodbooks and Good Shoes. Goodbooks have no space, and did the utterly fantastic Leni last year (which Kissy Sell Out turned into disco gold). Good Shoes have a space and did ‘All in my Head’. I will never not get them mixed up though.

Anyway this time i’m writing about Goodbooks again, for they have an excellent single called ‘Passchendaele’ forthcoming. Clearly after iLiKETRAiNS, history is now the new Rock & Roll. Passchendaele tells the story of two generations cut down in their prime by war, and lying dead in a Belgian field. Have we learnt anything? Well you’d think not. Except perhaps to shoot people from several miles away so they can’t fire back.

GOODBOOKS - PASSCHENDAELE

Goodbooks (not Good Shoes, no space) have also remixed the new single by the marvellous Hot Club de Paris. It’s surprisingly guitar-free, and surprisingly rocking. There’s a pretty relentless drum beat that should get feet moving & asses shaking, and after hearing an endless number of grimy electro remixes of indie bands, it just sounds pretty fresh & fun.

HOT CLUB DE PARIS - CLOCKWORK TOY (GOODBOOKS 9V REMIX)

The single also features a Metronomy remix (it’s good), and a cover version of ‘You Can Call Me Al’. So that sounds good doesn’t it. Moshi Moshi don’t let you down.

So, is it time to think about the weekend yet? Well it’s nearly Tuesday, so i’d say the time is now. Well, how good does this look! After all the headphonesex rhythm & blues revue will be teaming up with tony sluttyfringe for some tag team techno terror. Or Madonna mayhem. Or electro ecstacy. Who can tell!

This looks good on Thursday n’all. Whitey live is not to be sniffed at!