Alboy's Best of 2011: #7
2012-03-26 by The Mighty AlboyJoy O- “Sicko Cell”
Aha! finally a tune actually released in 2011!
And this was the first track that made me go out to a record shop, seek out and buy an actual freshly minted slab of vinyl. A very nice slab of 180g vinyl it is too.
Awesome tune from Ray Keith’s nephew David O’Grady- formerly and amusingly known as Joy Orbison, now simply Joy O.
Following in the tradition of a long line of tunes about over-indulgence, for which I have always had a soft spot.
Other greats include:
4Hero’s Mr Kirk’s Nightmare
Adonis Too far gone
Any others????
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Alboy's Best of 2011: #8
2012-03-22 by The Mighty AlboyRamadanman- “work them”
So these are the best tunes that I didnt post in 2011. I think pretty much everyone else posted this one (probably in 2010 when it came out), but just for completeness and in case you missed it- a nice bit of “post dub step” goodness from Ramadanman (excellent name!) aka Pearson Sound aka David Kennedy.
Having been for me- as well as every other 30yo+ was-there-back-in-the-day-and-everything-was-better-then commentator- generally (with a few exceptions) dubstep is an undeniably deep, but otherwise poe-faced and joyless genre. 2011 was the year that dubstep- or post dubstep or whatever- thanks to labels like Swamp 81 and Hessle Audio started to become fun, and even fun-ky.
I’ll bang up a couple of others that fall in this category.
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Alboy's Best of 2011: #9
2012-03-21 by The Mighty AlboyLCD Soundsystem- “I Can Change” (London Session)
Thought this was from 2011, but dammit, it was released in Nov 2010.
This is just a great tune- James Murphy’s lyrics are splendid, and musically it’s highly reminiscent of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (who are still going, can you believe?). This from the London Sessions recordings, which are particularly fine- found it hard to choose between this and all my friends.
2011 was a poignant year for LCD Soundsystem. Frontman James Murphy had turned 40, and he had previously said “I’ll just do this until I’m 40, and then I’ll do something else” which he duly did- so 2011 saw LCD play their last gig- at Madison Square Garden NYC. The place was packed out, and a friend of mine told me he left at the end of the set to beat the rush. This was after the first hour or so- only to find out on the way home that the show had gone on for another two hours. Strictly no re-admissions, unfortunately…
Here’s a live performance of this tune on Jools HollandDownload MP3 (0:00min / 0MB)
Alboy's Best of 2011: #10
2012-03-20 by The Mighty Alboysoz adams- “eyes forlon (original mix)”
Ok- so the first thing to clarify is that this top ten is not necessarily of tunes released in 2011, but of tunes that I first heard in 2011. In some cases, demonstrating quite how out of touch I am, and also my more solipsistic tendencies, but those are the rules.
Which is as well, else I wouldnt be able to start with this- from June 2007.
I know next to nothing about it, except that it’s minimal, bleepy, weird, almost not music, and I like it.
And that’s what matters, really- it is my top ten, after all…
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Love is Everywhere
2012-03-19 by The Mighty AlboyPharoah Sanders – “Love is Everywhere”
A beautiful piece of melodic free jazz here from Sun Ra protege Pharoah Sanders, from the 1973 (very good year) love in us all album.
I first heard this on a madlib blue note mix years ago, but only sourced the track thanks to the magic of Shazam. Damned clever stuff.
So I never heard it in its full 19’54” glory. Showing more of the influence of John Coltrane, less of the more difficult Sun Ra- though he’s in there too.
Hope you enjoy.
Next up- my long awaited “best of 2011”. Didn’t want it to get lost in the flurry of retrospectives in January
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- pharoah sanders homepage
- check 'im out!
- wiki entry
Paul B - 'Blues'
2012-01-09 by T PotJust 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 :)
Happy Birthday Mr Bowie
2012-01-08 by Hal BerstramDavid 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.
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- David Bowie's website
- Buy the track
- on the "Best of Bowie 1974-79" compilation
Nexus 21 - Real Love(Obsession) [1990]
2011-12-22 by T PotJust 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.
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6 Hour SEBA mix !!! Merry X-mas
2011-12-19 by T PotAs 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 KDJ 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.
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