Bleep - the Final Frontier

2009-06-29 by The Double K

Xon – Dissonance

Following on from White Darkness, here’s some more from that man Richard H. Kirk, and yet another track from an old compilation LP. This is comes from 1990’s Bio Rhythm 2 LP, a compilation of bleepy techno on Network Records (we’ve already had a Model 500 track from the LP a while ago).

Xon were Richard H. Kirk along with Rob Gordon, one of the founders of Warp Records and a member of Forgemasters. With pedigree like that you know you’re in for something special, and this is deep, deep dark and spooky techno of the highest quality, especially for lovers of the bleep. A sharp and driving beat, dischordant bleeps and darkly atmospheric synths are punctuated by some sort of collective inhalation of breath (actually some reversed sample, possibly from “Techno City” I think). As the pitch of the bleeps gradually rises, so do feelings of claustrophobia and panic… this is techno with teeth that really means business. Yep it works great on the dancefloor but there is also much more to it musically. Pure class.

Download MP3 (4:53min / 8MB)

Shades of Grey?

2009-06-28 by The Double K

“E.E. Barnard’s photo of the North American Nebula, taken on September 4, 1905, illustrates what astronomers call “dark nebulosity” and what I am here calling “white darkness”. Is the phenomenon seen here the result of white light splattered on a black background, or blackness emerging from a white background?”

Sandoz – White Darkness

While I’m trawling these old compilation LPs, here’s another beautiful ambient track taken from Narcosis. Sandoz, AKA Richard H. Kirk, was a member of Cabaret Voltaire and (I surprisingly just discovered) Sweet Exorcist, and AKA about 100 other aliases too. His contribution and influence on electronic music cannot be underplayed, and I’m not even going to start to try to do the man justice in this blog post.

This track is in the same vein as Ob Selon Mi Nos, in that it draws the listener in completely and has a story to tell. The track opens with light pizzicato string chords and celestial atmospherics. After a while a bassline drops, which is shortly joined by a slow, heavy beat and an echoing vocal chant. This all gives way to some sparse, chugging mechanical techno, and then suddenly – out of nowhere and taking the listener completely by surprise – a fantastic, mellow, groovy, handclapping melody drops (this is my favourite bit of the tune). The elements from earlier are gradually re-introduced and then it all winds back down again. Magnificent stuff to be sure.

As well as being compiled on Narcosis, this track is also on the classic Sandoz LP Digital Lifeforms, which was re-released digitally last year (see the “buy it” link to get yourself a copy).

Download MP3 (9:12min / 13MB)

Brazil from Belgium

2009-06-27 by The Double K

Spectrum – Brazil

Following on from the David Morley mix of Kinetic, here is one of Morley’s early productions for R&S (in conjunction with Renaat Vandepapeliere, who is somehow my “friend” on Facebook), from 1990 and much less ambient than that Kinetic remix.

This is genre-defining Belgian Techno that absolutely rocked the clubs at the time. It’s got everything you could possibly want from a Belgian anthem:

BIG STABS! – MONSTER BASSLINE! – WHISTLES! – HANDCLAPS! – SIRENS! – HUGE CLUB ATMOSPHERE!

It featured on Reactivate Volume 1 – The Belgian Techno Anthems – yet another great compilation LP… seems to be all I bang on about these days! It was big with the Cardiff crew back then, and you can see why – every track is an absolute belter. If you dig this sound then go out there and get yourself a copy.

Download MP3 (5:35min / 8MB)

The Truth & Soul of Lee Fields

2009-06-26 by The Mighty Alboy

Lee Fields and the Expressions- “Honey Dove”

“Wow” was what I first thought when I heard this.

I thought I’d heard em all, but this guy passed me by. Lee Fields has a voice pitched perfectly between the raw emotion of Otis Reading and the sweet control of Al Green. He had a few well thought of, but hard to find (and believe me, I’m lookin’!) singles and an LP out in the 70’s, when he was somewhat limitingly described as “Little J.B.” on account of the similarity of his stylings to those of the GFOS, but that was it. Thankfully for us all- and thanks to the good folk at Truth & Soul records- he’s had a bit of a renaissance since mid-90s and has started putting tracks out once again, and he’s back with his own sound.

I first came across this track on the Truth & Soul compilation Fallin’ off the Reel vol 1 (which you should seriously check), and besides thinking “wow”, I couldnt work out if it was real old- it sounds like bona fide soul- or brand new- it’s too crispily produced to be the product of a 60s/70s studio.

Turns out it’s brand new- the work of Lee Fields and the Truth and Soul studio band called The Expressions, comprising members of El Michels Affair (who I swear Big J posted some time ago, doing a cover of Wu Tang’s C.R.E.A.M. but I cant find it to link)

A lot of talent is well in evidence, and there’s a lot more on the following records you really really must check:

Lee Fields & The Expressions- “My World”

El Michels Affair- “Sounding out the City”

Various Artists- “Falling off the Reel volumes 1 & 2” [Truth & Soul Records]

Download MP3 (3:43min / 9MB)

Here's one for the Glasto kids

2009-06-26 by Hal Berstram

The Fall – Two Steps Back

I know at least one of our intrepid bloggers is at Glastonbury this year so I wanted to post something topical – this track by The Fall is the nearest I could find.

The relevant line is: “Take a look at the free festivals – they’re like cinemas with no films”. That was written back in 1978, when they still had free festivals – I don’t think Glastonbury ever came into that category (although in the old days it was a lot easier to get in without paying by scaling the fence), but it still has a lot of that hippie spirit. The fact that Mark E Smith of The Fall, in the vanguard of the post-punk revolution, was writing about free festivals shows you that punk and hippy were not as much polar opposites as the cultural mafia who make those “I love the 70s” programmes would have you believe.

“Two Steps Back” is from The Fall’s debut album “Live At the Witch Trials”, recorded in one day in December 1978, and still sounding wonderful. It’s got a rather different sound than anything they did afterwards, and yet is still recognisably one of the best British groups of all time.

Interesting bit of trivia: the line “Julian said ‘How was the gear’” is a reference to fellow rock eccentric Julian Cope. Or at least that’s what Cope says in his 1994 autobiography “Head On.”

The Fall is of course the brainchild of Mark E Smith, one of the few bona fide geniuses (albeit often irascible) in rock, and his autobiography “Renegade” has to be read to be believed. I can’t say much about it other than that you should definitely read it. Piles of ‘em are available in Fopp for a fiver so there are no excuses.

The Fall’s most recent album “Imperial Wax Solvent” featured some of Smith’s best ever track titles: “Wolf Kidult Man”, “Senior Twilight Replacer”, and “Tommy Shooter”. Ha ha.

Download MP3 (5:04min / 7MB)

It's kind of dancehall, but it's kind of not...

2009-06-26 by The Mighty Alboy

Major Lazer-”Pon de floor [feat. VYBZ Kartel]”

Wanted to share a second track off the Major Lazer album, and something about this one grabs me. I think it’s the drums :)

Go buy it!

Download MP3 (3:36min / 8MB)

Barbed wire style

2009-06-26 by The Mighty Alboy

Major Lazer- “Can’t stop now [feat. Mr. Vegas & Jovi Rockwell]”

Halfway through posting this up, the screen on my PC went purple and all crashed out…”the blue screen of death” I’d heard of, but the “deep purple” was a new one on me!

is kind of similar to what’s been happening to me this week- came down with some flu over the weekend, and cos I’ve recently been out the country (holidays in Turkey), the NHS had a nurse come round and swab me for swine flu yesterday, which is even less fun than it might sound…

Will be able to let you know whether or not I’m a disease vector in a global pandemic tomorrow, apparently (I’ve been called worse things!)

Anyway- has given me a chance to put some overdue tracks on the blog at least, assuming nothing melts down this time…

This is a fine fine track from the long awaited Major Lazer project LP- the irresponsibly titled Gun’s don’t kill people, lazers do- a collaboration between two producers who need no introduction at DC- Diplo, Switch- and a whole host of shining dancehall stars- and Ms Thing whose auto-tuned nonsense spoils every track she guests on- but glass half full- there are a lot of belters. Or “heaters” as I believe the young people of today term them.

This one has obvious appeal from the outset- a chopped up, stepped on break from the VD-themed rocksteady classic Barbed Wire in his underpants provides the heavy riddim track- with sweet vocals from Jovi Rockwell and perennial fave Mr Vegas bringing the lovin’ flavour.

Sounds of the summer time, sounds of the summer time!

Download MP3 (4:05min / 9MB)

NOT Blanche, Rose, Sophia & Dorothy!

2009-06-25 by The Double K

Golden Girls – Kinetic (David Morley Remix)

This tune is tenuously linked to my recent Global Communication posting (in my mind at least) in that back in the day I had both tracks on a tape made up from my favourite tracks from the Narcosis compilation and the excellent Apollo Compilation, which was out around the same time, and which this track comes from.

Kinetic is a total classic of its time. There were many high-profile remixes of it (by people like Orbital, Frank de Wulf and Cubic 22), all of them good in different ways, so it’s hard to pick a favourite. This ambient David Morley mix has stood the test of time better than some of the others, which have a tendency to sound a bit too much like “old trance techno” these days.

The main hook in the better-known mixes of the track is the HUGE synth stabs, first heard here at about 4.28 (Morley held off the big drop for quite some time in this mix!), although they don’t feature at all in the original version by The Pied Piper (AKA Michael Hazell). It was only when Hazell teamed up with Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll to form Golden Girls that the big synth stabs were introduced to create the total dancefloor killer. (Although I really like the original version too, and the “Smythotts Remix” which follows the original and doesn’t have the synth stabs either.)

David Morley originally set up and ran the studio at the mighty R & S Records in Ghent, Belgium, at the time when people like CJ Bolland, Frank de Wulf and Joey Beltram were producing there. He’s since done a lot of work with Andrea Parker, and I think I remember reading that he now lives something of a reclusive lifestyle with a lot of big expensive old synthesisers.

And in a further tenuous musical link between Golden Girls and Global Communication, I can highly recommend grabbing a recent remix of Orbital’s Halcyon by Global Communication’s Tom Middleton over at Armchair Spasm. Middleton brings the sound right up to date while remaining 100% true to the spirit of the original – great stuff!

Download MP3 (8:14min / 19MB)

Movie Soundtrack Masterpieces (4)- Dead Man's Shoes

2009-06-24 by The Mighty Alboy

Aphex Twin – “Nannou 2”

This track comes at the end of the movie- difficult to say much about it without spoiling it, so I wont try, except to say that it is a very very beautiful and sad piano piece.

Has anyone got as broad a range as Aphex Twin?

Amazing…

Download MP3 (3:25min / 6MB)

Movie Soundtrack Masterpieces (3)- Dead Man's Shoes

2009-06-24 by The Mighty Alboy

Smog- “Vessel in vain”

Not quite in keeping with the previous two postings in this vein, as these tracks were not written specifically for the movie, but near enough to give me an opportunity to put out some stuff I’ve enjoyed listening to, that wouldnt normally sit well on DC.

The first of two tracks from the soundtrack of Dead Man’s Shoes comes from US singer/songwriter Bill Callahan, aka Smog. His output has apparently been described as “the soundtrack for throwing in the towel” and having listened to a fair bit of it since coming across this track in DMS, that’s pretty fair to an extent, except that the towel is generally thrown in with good humour.

This track features over a montage of home movies, at the start of the movie, introducing us to Richard and his brother and their arrival back in the beautiful peak district- the opening lines “I cant be held responsible” are pretty important to the concept of the movie.

The film is a powerful one, very similar in theme to Get Carter- in that it’s about a return to a home town and it’s about revenge. If you havent seen it, dont be misled by the cover images on the DVD which make it look like a kind of “Midlands Chainsaw Massacre”- it is violent and it is dark, but it is also very moving and insightful- not to mention full of humour (mostly pretty dark).

Co-written by Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine and apparently shot in around three weeks, it explores some of the darker goings on in small towns the world over- “atrocities commited in the name of leisure” as Considine describes them- that go unanswered.

They dont go unanswered in Dead Man’s Shoes…

Download MP3 (4:20min / 8MB)