Dilated Choonz

Le Techno Croissant

The Mighty Alboy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:17:00 +0000

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!

get the laurent garnier mix ::
dave angel tune from lg mix :: squeaker's post
original mix :: p mcdiddy's post
ron trent tune from lg mix :: double k's post

File Download (3:37 min / 3 MB)

pizza hut i don't do...

The Mighty Alboy — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:23:00 +0000

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

peep this…

One more tune!

The Mighty Alboy — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:58:00 +0000

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…

File Download (6:50 min / 16 MB)

While we're at it...

The Mighty Alboy — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:55:00 +0000

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 :)

File Download (11:34 min / 16 MB)

In advance of tonight's Eno documentary...

Hal Berstram — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:51:00 +0000

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.)

Buy "Music for Airports (live)" here :: from the Bang On A Can store
Brian Eno interview :: Mojo magazine, March '09
information about the Eno documentary :: on the BBC website

File Download (4:51 min / 7 MB)

Anybody for the Keith Emerson synth sound?

Hal Berstram — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:08:00 +0000

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.

Discogs page for 'Red and Blue Boxing' ::
Like-A-Tim website :: includes a couple of free download tracks
Minimoog patch settings :: for Keith Emerson's trademark lead synth sound - signed by the man himself!

File Download (2:15 min / 3 MB)

Going way back, and also quite deep...

The Mighty Alboy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:34:00 +0000

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!

that kid chris' website ::
and myspace ::

File Download (6:41 min / 15 MB)

No Chimps Please...

The Double K — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:52:00 +0000

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.

File Download (4:55 min / 11 MB)

RIP Willie Mitchell (1928-2010)

Hal Berstram — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:27:00 +0000

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.

Available from Rough Trade :: on reissue vinyl! Nice
Willie Mitchell and Royal Studios website ::

File Download (7:49 min / 11 MB)

Still needing some warmth...

The Double K — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:58:00 +0000

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!

File Download (5:58 min / 8 MB)

Blu Mar Ten mixes

T Pot — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:44:28 +0000

Happy new year ! First post by me. Just a heads up for the Blu Mar Ten mix page. Lots of decent downloadable stuff here, and some of the recordings are excellent. The older mixes tend to have an ambient / ibiza / chillout flavour, and the newer mixes more on the dnb tip. enjoy !!

Blu Mar Ten mix page :: Blu Mar Ten mixes

Merry Christmas Everybody

Hal Berstram — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:06:00 +0000

Brother Typewriter – Merry Christmas Everybody

Now, I must let it be said here that I’m no great fan of Christmas-themed songs in general. They’re either lame tracks by artists who are usually good, or super-lame tracks by artists who are usually lame. Even The Wedding Present’s “No Christmas” is weak compared to their other output.

So I decided to do a Slade cover – but not as we know it, Jim. Now I’m not gonna diss Slade as they were probably the best of the early seventies glam rockers (not difficult many of you might say, but have you managed twelve number one singles in a row, or whatever it was?) but ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ represents probably their worst track – if you had one seventies track that you could delete from the timeline and never be listened to again, it might well be that (god knows though, it’s got serious competition). Just imagine December 1973. Flared trousers, the 3 day week and then “Merry Xmas Everybody” at Number 1 – how did anybody make it through alive?

So this is unpromising material to cover and I’ll admit that with no qualms, but I have attempted to use the ‘record the words backwards and then play it forwards’ technique as pioneered by Michael J Anderson – aka “Little Man From Another Place” in Twin Peaks – and it’s worked OK. I forgot to say “So here it is… ” at the beginning (or in fact “si ti ereh os” at the end) but never mind.

Next year – similar treatment for Wizzard’s “Wish It Could Be Xmas Everyday”. Or, in fact, not.

...ydobyreve eno doog a evaH

File Download (1:27 min / 2 MB)

In need of a little Body Heat...

The Double K — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:31:00 +0000

2 As 1 & MJ Cole – Body Heat

As snow falls heavily here in London and with temperatures set to plummet over the next couple of days here’s something to warm the cockles, and hopefully a few other places too…

An absolutely wicked garage cut from back in 1998, with the inimitable touch of MJ Cole who brought magic to so many great tunes for a few years back then. I so love the way that garage can be both lively as hell and incredibly laid back at the same time, all depending on your mood (much like the best jungle), and this is a perfect example. Have a listen – the beats skip along at quite a pace and it’s got that wicked bouncy dancefloor-devastating bassline but at the same time the spacey sounds, beautiful melodies and ultra-smooth production allow it to wash over you like the mellowest ambience if that’s what you need.

I particularly love the vocal bit following the into at around 1.00 minute in – “I’m gonna take you to my world boy, just me and you…” and the way the beat seamlessly drops right back in at full pace without jarring in the slightest. Pure class.

Oh, and I should take this opportunity to wish a very Happy Christmas to all our readers/listeners – apologies once more for the sporadic service but stick with us, you know it’s worth it in the long run!

File Download (6:34 min / 9 MB)

If you're gonna be a bear...

The Mighty Alboy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:14:00 +0000

Grizzly Bear – “While You Wait For The Others”

Had to post something from these guys, as they’ve been solidly on my playlist ever since I was somewhat randomly introduced to them on Halloween, when I saw them play at the Barbican with the London Symphony Orchestra. Random happenstance caused by a longtime associate of german/greek extraction, given to equally random and happenstance appearances.

Never been a massive fan of fusion experiments, and the rock/orchestral combo didnt do a lot to change my mind, but it was interesting listening. The band drowned out the orchestra a fair bit of the time, and given there’s already a good deal of harmonies and depth to Grizzly Bear’s tracks- and the fact that their one-man-band bassist plays everything from the bass to some weird kind of sax whilst singing flawless falsetto- there wasnt a lot the orchestra could bring.

It’s like if you have a band that pretty much make a wall of sound type sound, there’s not much point in putting another wall of sound behind it. And cumulatively, the effect was likened by my associate to being spoon-fed heroin.

Anyway, it was a memorable night for various reasons, and I found myself caught on a number of their tracks over the next few days, leading to me buying their latest album Veckatimest which is pretty awesome. And also is on Warp Records a long time personal and DC label of choice.

So here is a good example- an off-kilter somewhat soul-enfused number off their latest long player. Worth checking more- and especially the video for Two Weeks, linked below…

File Download (4:30 min / 10 MB)

Mark Blanco

Big J — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:45:00 +0000

December the 4th is the three year anniversary of the death in suspicious circumstances of a very good friend of mine, Mark Blanco.

There is much I could say about the loss to me and those who loved him but more pertinent is the lack of closure for Mark's mother and younger sister who are still campaigning to find out what happened and bring those responsible to justice.

What is without any shadow of a doubt is the CCTV footage which can be viewed below. In it you can clearly see Pete Doherty seeing Mark's body after he plunged to the ground and running away. Mark later died in hospital.

Secondly Doherty's bouncer Johnny ‘Headlock’ Jeannevol confessed to killing Mark, but later retracted his confession due to being “on drugs”.

The police closed the case and no-one was interviewed as a suspect.

What is utterly clear to me is that the police are either hiding their incompetence at bungling the investigation or have been paid to make this go away.

Now I know that isn't an outlandish claim for readers of this blog, but to experience it so personally makes me sick.

Doherty is about to start a tour, Jeannevol is continuing his everyday life and I will never see my friend Mark Blanco again.

Again, any loss I feel pales compared to the suffering of Mark's mother Sheila and sister Emma.

Mark's mother has personally funded a continuing investigation and desperately needs your support in any way, any small donation, any information or just plain simple moral support and awareness.

Please, please take the time to visit, and donate if you can
http://www.justiceformark.com/

File Download (5:41 min / 8 MB)

Bass Oddity

Hal Berstram — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:54:00 +0000

David Bowie – Crystal Japan

No posts for a while so I thought I’d come through with a little something for the weekend. David Bowie is a rather divisive figure among Dilate Choonz bloggers – some of us think he’s a genius, others think he’s a complete dud. I must admit that listening to 80s albums like Tonight and Never Let Me Down would swing one towards the latter category fairly quickly, but if you look at his 70s work, he put very few feet wrong.

Browsing at a car boot sale back in the summer I picked up an RCA compilation album I’d never seen called Rare Bowie. It’s a real mixed bag to be honest, with amusing but inessential fare such as an Italian version of “Space Oddity” (called “Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Sola”), an alternative mix of “Young Americans” that sounds almost identical to the original and a live version of “Panic In Detroit” from the infamous “Philly Dogs” US tour of ‘74 that yielded the highly inessential David Live album.

However, I do like this particular track. Originally recorded in 1979 and released in 1980 as a Japanese-only 7-inch (backed with his cover of Brecht/Weill’s “Alabama Song”), it got released in the UK in ‘81 as the B-side of “Up the Hill Backwards” (the least successful single from the Scary Monsters lp).

It’s a nice instrumental tune, falling stylistically somewhere between the ambient instrumentals Bowie recorded with Brian Eno on Low and “Heroes”, and some of Vangelis’s work. The slight wobble in tone isn’t synth modulation but is an off-centre pressing courtesy of RCA records.

“Crystal Japan” was unavailable for many years before being reissued as an extra track on the Rykodisc reissue of “Scary Monsters” in the early 1990s. WhenIn a shocking turn of events, when EMI remastered the Bowie albums in the early 2000s, they decided to rip the customer off by removing all extra tracks from the new versions of the CDs. They then reissued some on new compilation albums – “Crystal Japan” turned up on a compilation of instrumental Bowie (and Bowie/Eno) pieces called “All Saints”. It was a goddamn rip-off, but there you go.

Discogs page for Rykodisc release :: of Scary Monsters
Buy here :: from EMI downloads site if you aren't lucky enough to find Rykodisc
Discogs page for original Japanese single - :: superb cover photo!

File Download (3:10 min / 4 MB)

"It has always been there, you just have to discover it".

Hal Berstram — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Robert Leiner – Aqua Viva

I’ve been transferring a bit of vinyl to FLAC & mp3 over the last few weeks and there some great records I forgot I even had. Octaves/Tremeloes by Sonic Boom is one. Visions From the Past from Robert Leiner is another. And this is one of the best tracks from that long player, going all the way back to 1993 or thereabouts.

Robert Leiner is a brilliant Swedish electronic artist who was capable of both ambient techno and a drop of the harder stuff. Visions… is more on the ambient side, but is not afraid to get a bit beaty on us. It starts off with quite airy, flutey synth with a beat that is pretty much house to my (admittedly rather untrained) ears, and some nice sequencing right in the background. Around halfway, here comes the sequencing and suddenly it’s a little bit more acidic and the spirit of Klaus Schulze pours us another. A long track that doesn’t outstay its welcome.

The rest of the album is just as good – been out of print for yonks but now available on emusic (as well as several other places) for download, along with Leiner’s contemporaneous (but slightly harder) The Source Experience. Amen to that.

The posting title is written on the back sleeve of the record, by the way!

discogs page for 'Visions of the Past' :: Nice to have the original vinyl if you can find it... complete with limited edition 'Source Experience' white 7-inch!
emusic page :: for those who prefer the non-physical form

File Download (12:07 min / 17 MB)

Teenage Genius

Hal Berstram — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Daniel Pemberton – Phoenix

A nice slice of ambient here to ease us into November, from Daniel Pemberton, who was just 16 years old when Pete Namlook’s Fax label released his debut LP Bedroom in 1994.

The album was recorded in Pemberton’s bedroom (doh!) with only a 4-track tape recorder, a Korg Wavestation synth, an old Yamaha Portasound keyboard and a Boss effects unit. For all of us who have been constantly claiming that we would be able to make good tracks “if only we had that extra piece of gear” – this is proof that you can do without. Those shifting, colliding sheets of sound are certainly the Wavestation in full effect…

After this amazing start, Pemberton moved into the composing for TV – he produced the classic “Pip Pop Plop” which anoraks among us will know was the theme tune for Series 1 of the classic Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show (replaced from Series 2 onwards by Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta”).

But given Fax’s penchant for endless series of sequel CDs (Dark Side of the Moog 11, Jet Chamber 5 etc.) it’s a real shame there’s never been a Bedroom 2 – and also, that the original has never been reiussed. (Another track from the album, “Antartica”, is on the Ambient Cookbook quadruple CD compilation.)

discogs page for 'Bedroom' :: Long out of print but reasonably priced 2nd-hand...
The Daniel Pemberton Orchestra presents TVPOPMUZIK :: compilation of Pemberton's TV work including original 'Peep Show' theme

File Download (5:04 min / 7 MB)

"Synth Britannia" tribute

Hal Berstram — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:51:00 +0000

The Human League – Flexi Disc

This post was inspired by the BBC4 documentary “Synth Britannia” which aired last Friday (still available on the BBC iPlayer for UK residents) – a good documentary on the late 1970s and early 1980s UK ‘synthpop’ scene. Well worth 90 minutes of your time.

Synth-”pop” started out as a bunch of geezers in industrial locations such as Sheffield, Liverpool and East London influenced by science fiction and early Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream records. The Human League were right up with the best of them. This is from the commercially unsuccessful, but more quirky and probably more interesting ‘Mark I’ line-up which featured frontman Phil Oakey plus Ian Marsh and Martyn Ware (who later became Heaven 17).

‘The Dignity of Labour’ was the Human League’s second release (1979), a 4-song instrumental ep with a picture of the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on the front. It wasn’t really what you’d call ‘commercial’ – certainly not compared with the reasonably catchy debut single ‘Being Boiled’. In an attempt to boost sales, the group decided to include a flexidisc with the single. For the benefit of anyone under about 30, flexidiscs were one-sided flexible vinyl sheets with a music track pressed into them which could be played with a standard record player – although the quality wasn’t great (as you can hear on this track, which was included on the remaster of the League’s debut LP Reproduction as a bonus track – sounding like it’s been remastered from an original copy.

In an inspired move, the flexidisc track features the group deciding whether to have a flexidisc or not (and what to put on it). It’s a piece of self-referential humour which shows that the League could just as easily have been an alternative comedy group as an experimental pop outfit. Oakey’s line at the end is inspired:

“What we’ve got in this is not simple like everything else, and it’s not even complex… it’s MULTIPLEX. The picture of Yuri Gagarin isn’t just about the Russian space effort and it’s not just about Russian society… it’s about the individual as opposed to the group, and it’s about human frailty; no matter how big you are, you’re gonna be dead pretty soon.”

Well you can’t say fairer than that.

Blind Youth :: fansite - lots of info about the early Human League and other related Sheffield outfits
Buy 'Reproduction' :: from Rough Trade - including 'Dignity of Labour' and other bonus tracks

File Download (4:11 min / 6 MB)

Free Dust Science!

The Double K — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:38:00 +0000

Here’s a quick heads-up to let you know that to celebrate the launch of their new website Dust Science (home of The Black Dog, along with many other great techno artists) are giving away their latest EP for a limited time.

You can download the EP (in various digital formats) from duststoredigital.com. Get over there quick because after 5th November you will have to pay for it!

Tracklisting:
A1. The Black Dog – Tesco (Dark House)
A2. Carl Taylor – Walk On By
B1. Grievous Angel – Show Love v1
B2. The Bass Soldier – You Still Live With Your Mum

So far I’ve only listened through it once so can’t give a detailed review, but all four tracks sound wicked on first listening and I highly recommend the download. The “A Side” tracks are beautifully spacey, laid-back house-tinged techno (or possibly techno-tinged house…). The “B Side” tracks then ramp up the energy with a couple of bass-heavy tracks that I guess are best labelled Dubstep – the Grievous Angel is quite uptempo with a real garage-y feel to it, whilst the Bass Soldier is a heavy woomp-woomp bassline monster.

Dust Science main site ::
Dust Store Digital ::