Paul B - 'Blues'

2012-01-09 by T Pot

Just found Paul B on Soundcloud. I suggest checking out his stuff.

Loving the really deep & minimal style of this track. Instant hit for me as soon as I heard it – didn’t realise its 3 years old !

Sounds great on the car sub :)

Paul B – Blues by paulbmusic

Happy Birthday Mr Bowie

2012-01-08 by Hal Berstram

David Bowie – John I’m Only Dancing (Again) 1975

Sorry for prolonged absence from this blog… I’ve returned to mark the occasion of David Bowie’s 65th birthday with a little tune from 1975, which (I think) was an outtake from the sessions for Young Americans. It’s essentially a funk remake of the 1972 single “John I’m Only Dancing”, and the basic musical structure was used with different lyrics and an additional main two-chord theme as “Stay” on Bowie’s 1976 Station To Station LP.

“John I’m Only Dancing (Again) 1975” was issued as a single in 1979 (in 7” and 12” versions – the version uploaded here is the 7 inch mix, largely because I didn’t have any mp3 copy of the 12 inch mix to hand, and my old 12 inch single of it is in storage at the moment). The 12” version was also an extra track on the early 90s CD reissues of Bowie’s back catalogue on Rykodisc (sadly the newer EMI reissues don’t have any extra tracks on them). I own it on an early 80s compilation called (strangely enough) “Rare Bowie” from which I might post another oddity soon…) Anyway I am to be more active here this year, so see yon soon.

note: the mp3 file begins with about 5 seconds of silence due to poor editing by me. Sorry.

Download MP3 (3:29min / 5MB)

Nexus 21 - Real Love(Obsession) [1990]

2011-12-22 by T Pot

Just digging through my old CDs. Found this old one from Network Records 1990. ‘Real Love’ by Nexus 21.

Quite a nice old skool cut. Nice strings.

Download MP3 (5:31min / 13MB)

6 Hour SEBA mix !!! Merry X-mas

2011-12-19 by T Pot

As the title suggests. A downloadable mix full of tunes by one of my fav all time dnb producers here !

Mav @ Scientific Radio – Show 023, 024 & 025 – Through The Eyes Of.. Seba (Full 6 hour mix) by Mav

Wicked man in Madenabena!

2011-10-14 by The Double K

DJ Dextrous & Rude Boy Keith – Wicked

Here’s one from the golden age of Jungle, 1994 to be precise. It comes from an EP called “The Kings of the Jungle Part One” on Suburban Base, but at the time I had this track on a mixtape bought from a man with a suitcase full of tapes outside Brixon tube station with nothing written on it except “Noodles – Razor Jungle Dub”.

The tune kicks off with the familiar “Ring the Alarm” reggae bassline and horns combined here with absoulutely tearing distorted and chopped breakbeats. The reggae then gives way to some absolutely devastating pure dark jungle bass with snippets of various vocal samples. The relentless beats carry on, there are a couple of great breakdowns and some spacey off-key synths add to the ruffness. Eventually the Ring The Alarm b-line and horns return as the tune draws to a close.

Pure ruffness – razor jungle dub indeed.

Download MP3 (5:24min / 8MB)

Completely awesome

2011-09-09 by The Mighty Alboy

Tune Yards – “Lions”

Am at a bit of a loss selecting the genre categories on this one, so I’ve just gone for “completely awesome”.

The Tune Yards- Merrill Garbus.

Kind of hard to describe, so you’ll just have to listen to it. Drums, bass, vocals- she has the most incredibly dynamic range, a voice of amazing subtlety and power- and of course, ukelele’s.

Not usual fare for DC but I stumbled across this on the weekend, and I’ve been listening to everything i can get my hands on all week, and it’s been a brilliant melange of lo fi pop, hip hop, indie, funk, african (and usually I instinctively mislike anything that could be described as “fusion”). Guess you’d have to say challenging too, cos it’s pretty in your face, a lot of it.

This is from the first album Bird Brains, released in 2008 originally recorded on cassette via a dicatphone (seriously), but then remastered still lo fi via a single mike and using top quality open source recording software Audacity when Tune Yards signed to 4AD- good to see they still have their ears out for great new music (even in DC’s appear to be 3 years out of date). New album who kill came out in April and is equally awesome.

So I thought it was all rather nicely produced in a garagey studio, in a lo-fi sounding kind of way, but there’s no chance it could be done live, with all the overdubbing and complicated progness of some of the tracks.

But lord was I wrong about that…

Just looked up some of the tracks on YouTube, and it’s live- the overdubbing and looping is all done ingeniously live, and the performance is draw-dropping. Just being able to sing and play the drums at the same time (see J Live below) is amazing, but- and it’s not so surprising, as she was formerly and may well still be a puppeteer- Merrill Garbus is something else.

[And that’s not to mention the bass player (Jermaine- sorry, Nate Brenner- also amazing)]

Check the performances below.

Seriously.

A puppeteer pulling strings of a different kind out there.

Absolutely no idea where the lyrics or the melodies come from, but sure it’s all way deep. And it’s Jazz, man…it really is!

Download MP3 (5:00min / 11MB)

Really creepy electro

2011-08-31 by The Mighty Alboy

Instra:mental – “Voyeur”

Been out a while but only just crossed my ears- and shortly after my turntables. This is an understated, sinister, belter of a tune.

The duo behind it- Alex Green and Damon Kirkham- have been producing quality electronic music for a good long while now, and have a bunch of strings to their musical bows, releasing electro, acid, dnb and non-classifiable things that get filed under “post dubstep” (whatever that is) going by a variety of pseudonyms and project names, including Boddika (Al Green), Jon Convex (D Kirkham).

It’s all well worth checking out, but this tune stands out cos it’s so thoroughly moody and not a little creepy.

Download MP3 (5:15min / 6MB)

Samooo - Wreckd

2011-08-29 by Big J

Bassline.

ahem…
How is everyone?
I’ve been buried knee deep in fatherhood and work.

Glad to report Hurricane Irene wasn’t angry with us here in Brooklyn.

Remix by Samooo on G.A.M.M. an extremely reliable label…

Download MP3 (6:02min / 14MB)

Curious Hardcore

2011-07-20 by The Double K

Haute Control – Dream Series

A couple of tracks here from the rare-as-rocking-horse “Future Stylin’ E.P.” from 1993 (only 24 people have a copy on Discogs, 113 want it, including me, and Hard To Find Records haven’t had a copy in since 2001).

Dream Series is an odd track, it’s hardcore but not quite as we know it… The combination of crisp breakbeats and heavy bass with really quirky samples and synths reminds me very much of the Wagon Christ sound. I have no idea who Haute Control are (this rare 12” is their only release), but the production quality on the EP is really very high throughout and I’d be surprised if this is the only release from whoever made it. You never know, it might even be one of Luke Vibert’s many pseudonyms.

Download MP3 (4:31min / 10MB)

The Sound Of The Future in 1993

2011-07-20 by The Double K

Haute Control – Future Stylin’

Future Stylin’ (as you might guess) is the opening track from the “Future Stylin’ E.P.” and is much more straight up hardcore than Dream Series, probably picked for the A-side as it would more instantly appeal to DJs. The opening bars of mellow piano soon give in to the high-pitched synth hook and a wicked breakbeat that varies beautifully throughout the track.

The super-crisp and intricately crafted beats mark this out as a cut above a lot of the generic hardcore that came out around the time. Quality.

Download MP3 (6:42min / 15MB)