Le Techno Croissant

2010-02-04 by The Mighty Alboy

Suburban Knight – “The Art Of Stalking (Deepside Remix)”

Been doing a fair bit of digging for tunes off mixtapes of late- ongoing winter bringing an onset of nostalgia.

This track is a remix by Ludovic Navarre from Deepside and St Germain, bringing some frenchy flavour to James Pennington’s the art of stalking. Beyond being tough and dark and sounding like it was recorded in a large aircraft hanger, there aren’t too many obvious similarities- other than it’s also very good.

It’s off the Laurent Garnier mix at Universe in 1993- we’ve had a couple of other postings from this mix on DC in the past- see the links below- but this one never emerged.

The beats were getting ever more nippy in 1993- the set clocks in at a pretty steady 139 bpm throughout. I think Laurent had a double of this one, cos he drops it back in (a bit faster) after the tune fades out at the end. And then mixes it into Robert Armani’s screechy belter ambulance, with typical insouciance and savoire faire.

Ooh la la!

Download MP3 (3:37min / 3MB)

pizza hut i don't do...

2010-01-30 by The Mighty Alboy

A completely compelling song about fried chicken and chips- amazingly catchy, hilarious and completely bonkers!

:)

peep this…

One more tune!

2010-01-30 by The Mighty Alboy

The Diceman- “Quad (Spookys Magi Remix)”

Not the Diceman as in the Aphex Twin, but as in Colin James from Meat Beat Manifesto. A lovely little dubbed out house number…

Download MP3 (6:50min / 16MB)

While we're at it...

2010-01-30 by The Mighty Alboy

Megatonk- “Belgium”

Two more from the most played mix-tape from 1992- Universe at Newport, DJ Sasha with MC Joe Peng, before the term “progressive house” was invented and when everything was fresh as a daisy :)

Download MP3 (11:34min / 16MB)

In advance of tonight's Eno documentary...

2010-01-22 by Hal Berstram

Bang On A Can All-Stars – Music For Airports 1/2 (live)

I’m very excited about the BBC4 Arena documentary on Brian Eno tonight. Eno is one of only a handful of musicians (the others including Miles Davis, John Cage, Sun Ra, Richard D James and er… William Shatner) who have changed the way I think about music by producing stuff that was simultaneously completely off-the-wall and also very listenable.

The general record-buying (maybe these days that should be “music-downloading”) public will know Eno best as a producer for bands like (at various times) Talking Heads, U2 and Coldplay. But anyone reading this who is not familiar with the guy’s recorded output needs to get hold of his 1978 LP Ambient 1: Music for Airports pretty damn quick. The album is four long tracks based on different combinations interlocking, repeating, shifting piano, synth and vocal patterns. It’s a classic of ambient music, as the title would suggest. (His 1975 LP Discreet Music is arguably even better).

“1-2” (side 1, track 2 on the original LP) consisted of vocal tape loops with different length repeats on them so that the same combination of notes and timing would only occur once every few days. It’s probably the best track on the album although there is stiff competition. In this version, the New York based avant-garde ensemble Bang On A Can arranged the piece for live performance at an actual airport – London Stansted – in 1998.

Eno hadn’t thought that Music for Airports was performable live because live musicians “would never allow the long gaps that occur”. But in fact he was bowled over by the performance. In a recent interview in Mojo magazine he said:

You had a piece that was essentially made by machines – tape loops, that sort of thing. And s soon as humans try and reproduce it, they can’t help but be human. When they are not trying to be passionately human but they are trying to restrain themselves, whatever comes through, it’s the irrepressible part of being a human.

So they’re all trying to act like machines, but they don’t sound like machines at all, they sound like people and it’s quite touching when that appears.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to that Arena documentary.

(Note: this is an edited-down version of the track, which is actually about 9 minutes long. But it’s enough to give you a flavour.)

Download MP3 (4:51min / 7MB)

Anybody for the Keith Emerson synth sound?

2010-01-21 by Hal Berstram

Like-A-Tim – It Ain’t Perfect Till It’s Perfect

Strange little track, this, primarily because it combines a minimal, D’n’B-ish techno backing with a lead synth sound from an entirely different arena – prog rock. And it was in the arenas that you were most likely to see Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) complete with large Moog modular system – which was probably the most interesting part of the band.

The late, great John Peel described ELP as “a waste of talent and electricity” and he was certainly right. I mean, I will listen to quite a bit of prog – I’d die in the last ditch for early Yes, for example – but most ELP LPs are unlistenable pomposity. Brain Salad Surgery is the only one I can listen to for pleasure. But I can confirm that Keith Emerson’s favourite solo synth sound (which I think was included as an example patch in the Minimoog user manual?) is reproduced faithfully on this track.

“Like-A-Tim” is an alias for Timothy van Leidjen who has been doing fairly bonkers techno for many a year now (his other pseudonyms include A Bald Lunatic…) this is taken from his 2000 LP Red and Blue Boxing as well as the Rephlex records (the Aphex Twin’s label) compilation Rephlexions (which is where I found it.) The whole compilation is recommended if you like this sort of off-the-wall thing. Which I do.

Download MP3 (2:15min / 3MB)

Going way back, and also quite deep...

2010-01-20 by The Mighty Alboy

that kid chris – “keep on (pressin’ on) (didn’t i show ya luv)”

Excuse the long break- Must be too cold to blog or something

From back in the day, when a lot of tunes had titles, plus two other things written after them in brackets- That Kid Chris from 1992, as featured on the wicked Sasha set from Universe in Newport.

Still sounding fresh 18 years on…

Have a good 2010!

Download MP3 (6:41min / 15MB)

No Chimps Please...

2010-01-11 by The Double K

Tikkle – Bubbles (Original Mix)

I can’t tell you an awful lot about this tune other than it was released on Chicago-based label House Jam Records back in 1991, it has a super-warm rolling b-line and some laid-back jazzy piano going on, and I’m very much enjoying it at the moment. Hope you do too.

If you feel a need to investigate further try the Tikkle page on Discogs, but there’s not really much to go on.

Download MP3 (4:55min / 11MB)

RIP Willie Mitchell (1928-2010)

2010-01-09 by Hal Berstram

Al Green – I Didn’t Know

Received the sad news earlier this week that one of THE great soul producers of all time, Willie Mitchell, had passed away aged 81.

Mitchell started out as a jazz trumpeter then moved into production at the Memphis-based Hi Records in the 1960s. As Al Green’s producer for 9 albums on Hi from 1970 until 1976, and developed a distinctive production based around a razor-sharp drum sound, innovative string and horn arrangements and organ and guitar work that could be fiery or smooth as the mood demanded. The Hi backing group – featuring such brilliant musicians as Teenie Hodges on guitar, Charles Hodges on organ, Leroy Hodges on bass and drummer Howard Grimes – were an indispensable part of the sound. With them, Green and Mitchell produced at least half a dozen classic soul albums in that time period – Al Green Gets Next To You, Let’s Stay Together, Call Me, Al Green is Love – the list goes on.

In the 2000s, they hooked up again for I Can’t Stop and Everything’s OK, two albums sounding like they could have been recorded in 1974… which was just fine with me. The old magic was still there.

Al Green albums always used to feature a long, slow track – usually a cover of an artist who would not normally be associated with the soul genre, but whose work was transformed in Mitchell’s hands (e.g. The Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” or Kris Kristofferson’s “For The Good Times”.) The track featured here, however (from Al Green Is Love) is a Green original. Although I like Green on uptempo or downtempo numbers equally, there’s just an amazing intensity about these long cuts that you will not find many other places in the whole of music. And the production is just perfect.

You’ll be much missed, Willie.

Download MP3 (7:49min / 11MB)

Still needing some warmth...

2010-01-07 by The Double K

Lenny Fontana – Spirit Of The Sun (Steve Gurley Remix)

Snow covers the ground and we’re in the middle of the worst cold snap in x-amount of years, but the sun is shining here in London and it is bright out there, so this tune is less unseasonal than you might think at first!

Following on from Body Heat here is another devastating 2-Step Garage lick from back in ‘98: skipping syncopated beats with a couple of big bass Waaaaarps and some “heeey yeah”s is all we get by way of introduction, then Shine on! Shine on! Shine on!, the awesome bassline drops along with one of the sharpest 2-step beats ever and the tune is away.

Despite being over ten years old the overall effect here sounds totally futuristic to my old codger’s ears, and probably always will, no matter how far into the future we actually get.

I’ll sign off with a slightly belated Happy New Year to you all! Hope you had fun over the festive season and that 2010 has plenty of good things in store!

Download MP3 (5:58min / 8MB)