22311 West 8 Mile Road, Detroit, 2007. Rollerskating with Kenny Dixon Jnr

The front of Northland Roller Rink, viewed from 8 Mile Road

Northland Roller Rink (Inc) was built in 1986. As Roller Rinks go it seems to be a pretty decent one, offering lessons for old and young alike, and catering for freestyle, inline and jam skating. Getting in will cost you five or six Dollars, and another two if you need to rent some skates. Northland’s facilities and staff have earned it a respectable four-and-a-half out of five stars from the readers of Rinktime.

Some of the enticements outside

Northland is on the famous 8 Mile road (or ‘8’ as it’s often known locally), which separates the city of Detroit from its suburbs. It’s called 8 Mile road because it’s eight miles from the intersection of Woodward and Michigan Avenue. One mile further into the city you hit 7 Mile road, and so on until you get to downtown. Simple. Town planning enthusiasts can read more on the Mile Road System here.

There are a number of rules that must be observed at the rink

We knew that Soul Skate would be at Northland prior to arriving in Detroit, and had already sorted out tickets for the event before leaving the UK. As neither a skater nor a resident of Detroit I didn’t know what to expect from Soul Skate, other than that there would be food and Moodymann would be playing records. Generally I only need one out of those two to make a trip worthwhile, so the combination was, as you can imagine, irresistible.

Residents of Detroit got to buy their tickets from Kenny

Movement (the Detroit Electronic Music Festival) itself had a predominantly young, white, attendance. Having spent all day with them it was pretty much the type of people I expected to see at Soul Skate. A rollerskating themed extension of the festival, with Moody playing records. This was not the case. On arrival we found ourselves queuing for the extensive security checks and scans with a crowd of all ages. Lot’s of people arrived with their own skates, costumes, wigs and other paraphernalia.

Roller Rinks across the world all have something in common

It quickly became clear that this was much more about skating than it was about electronic music from Detroit. What’s more, keenness to take part in a real Detroit experience meant that we’d overlooked a general lack of rollerskating expertise. Putting on the skates and staggering over to a locker to secure my trainers I realised how drunk I was and how fast most people were moving round the rink. However, the music was playing loud and Kenny was drawling over the tannoy, so, when in Rome…

Detroit's skaters warm up for the competition

After a single, shamefully slow and unsteady lap I was off the rink and out of my skates. Skating was clear for skaters, and it was time for the less sober and coordinated party goers to get out of the way. There was also free food up on offer while supplies lasted. Freshly de-wheeled we headed off to the snackbar, which also had a healthy line of inflatable hammers, soft toys and other things a skater might need.

The snackbar at Northland also sells hammers

By the time we were ready to leave the competition was in full swing, with teams of two to three skaters performing carefully choreographed routines. There were clearly people here for whom synchronized roller-skating was a major past-time. There’s a video of the winning team at the end of this post. The quality of the footage isn’t great but around 2:25 the team pull out some tricks.

The entrance to Northland Roller Rink

Waiting outside for the others I got a light from a couple of guys and chatted to them about the evening. I told them I was here with friends, and we’d mostly come over from London. This was met with a mixture of surprise, confusion and gratitude. ‘Thank you for coming to Detroit.’

Dealer's car. Camera shake due to poor lighting conditions and uncertainty

As we talked a bit more, about music and the sad pride of the city, the noise of an approaching car grew louder. It sounded like the end of the world. As it rumbled past to get into the car park at the back of Northland I took a picture of its medieval-looking rims. The window rolled down and the driver called me over to see if I wanted to buy any pills. He didn’t give the impression they were very good.

[Giacomo]

Streatham Island Discs No.1 – Thomas Dolby: Airwaves

Tim Hayter is a friend and record collector of note who may or may not be familiar to some of you. With good ears and a wonderful record collection, he is a trusted source when it comes to quality music across the board. I have asked Tim to get involved in Test Pressing and post the odd song when he feels like it so here we go…

Thomas Dolby is clearly some kind of genius in the studio: you only need to hear production work with Prefab Sprout to realise that. But sometimes the technical genius gets in the way of his songwriting – listen to ‘Hyperactive’ or ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ for evidence. The gimmicks, for me, are distracting.

Not on this track though. It’s a demo of ‘Airwaves’ – cheap drum-machine, treated piano, bass & vocals. No gimmicks. I’ve no idea what it’s about, but I think it’s lovely. From 1980.

Thomas Dolby: Airwaves (Demo)
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[Tim Hayter]

Mix: Joey Negro – Eclectic Mix (Part One)

Dave Lee a.k.a Joey Negro a.k.a Raven Maize a.k.a Akabu a.k.a The Sunburst Band a.k.a Doug Willis a.k.a Z Factor a.k.a Sessomato is a leg-end. In his own front room at least. Dave started Republic Records, released great compilations and wonderful twelves, closed Republic, started Z Records and did it all over again. He has safely kept the flame alive for true disco for nearly 25 years and is probably one of the only UK disco producers featured on Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 (as picked by that poisoning chef Heston Blumenthal). I asked David for a mix for Test Pressing and he gave me a cast off that he already has on a player on his site (worth a look) but as it’s Dave the quality is top drawer. Second part to follow soon. Respect is due.

Joey Negro Eclectic Mix: Part One
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[Apiento]

Another Weatherall Radio Show…

So what better on a Monday in these financially gloomy times to lighten the mood than an old Andrew Weatherall radio show. This one comes from a time (1994 to be precise) when acid jazz almost meant that, Sabres Of Paradise were the new way and trying to be a band (we did try and support), East London was coming alive and techno still had melody and wasn’t split into twenty genres and part of London got the hang of doing what soul and jazz heads had been doing for years – digging. It was almost a balearic revival on a jazz note.

Andrew Weatherall – Kiss FM 1994
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[Apiento]

Life & Times: No.1 – Curtis Mayfield

I love an obituary, mini-biographies that they are, and was discussing with my colleague the other day that it would be great to have a place to pull together obituaries from across the board. Obviously to Test Pressing this means musical heroes and cult figures through time so here we go. First up we are taking a look at the gentle genius of Curtis Mayfield. The following obituary, written by Spencer Leigh, first appeared in The Independent newspaper, and as I couldn’t find a better one here it is as it was published. Following this is a lovely radio show from the good Dr Bob Jones bringing together some of the great mans work – solo, with The Impressions and some of his many productions. This was aired in 1999 on Greater London Radio (GLR), just after Curtis passed away. Press play and read on…

When Curtis Mayfield sang, “I’ve got my strength and it don’t make sense not to keep on pushing”, he was singing his own epitaph. He may not have had much success in the UK record charts, but he is among the most influential musicians of the past 30 years.

Mayfield was born in Chicago in 1942 and was raised by his mother as his father left the family home. He criticised parents who have left the family home and a sense of family pervades his own work. His mother wrote poetry and encouraged his sense of rhythm and verse. In 1996, he dedicated his book of lyrics Poetic Licence to her. Mayfield was singing publicly from the age of seven and was soon teaching himself to play guitar. He commented, “I was writing songs from when I was 12. My songs always came from questions that I need answers for.” He also said, “My fights and arguments, even with God, went down on paper.”

When Mayfield was 14, he met Jerry Butler, who was three years older, and sang with him in a gospel group, the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers. They befriended a vocal group, the Roosters, who had come, chasing success, from Chattanooga to Chicago. Butler joined them as a lead singer and Mayfield sang tenor and played guitar. Their first performances as the Roosters were not successful as the audiences would crow as soon as they heard the name. They became the Impressions and secured an audition with Chess Records. When the receptionist would not let them through, they went to Vee-Jay Records and recorded one of Butler’s songs, a soaring ballad, “For Your Precious Love”, and its style was a considerable influence on the 16-year-old Mayfield.

“For Your Precious Love” made the US Top Twenty but the billing on the record label, “Jerry Butler and the Impressions”, created friction. After a promotional tour, Butler went solo but he retained his friendship with Mayfield who wrote several of his records, notably “He Will Break Your Heart”, a No l R&B hit in 1960, and “Find Another Girl”.

Mayfield with the brothers Richard and Arthur Brooks, Sam Gooden and Fred Cash made further records as the Impressions for Vee-Jay, Bandera and Swirl, but their break came when they signed to ABC Paramount Records in 1961. Their US hit single “Gypsy Woman” contained erotic imagery (“Her eyes were like that of a cat in the dark”) and was the first of many tender love songs that they took on to the charts. Their gospel influence showed in their biggest US hit, “It’s All Right”, which climbed to No 4 in 1963.

Despite the British invasion of the US charts by the Beatles and their acolytes, the Impressions did remarkably well in 1964 and each single was a classic: “Talking About My Baby” (No 25), “I’m So Proud” (14), “Keep On Pushing” (10), “You Must Believe Me” (15) and a stunning arrangement of the gospel song “Amen” (7). Mayfield also wrote for Major Lance and one of the songs, “Um Um Um Um Um Um”, was a UK Top Ten hit for Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.

With his sublime sense of melody and sensuality, Mayfield could have become a leading pop songwriter, rivalling the tunesmiths in the Brill Building. However, he was impressed by Bob Dylan, who had brought civil- rights issues into popular songs, but Dylan was white and Mayfield wanted to present songs from a black perspective. He believed in the creed “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”, and he idolised Martin Luther King. Both “I’m So Proud” and “Keep On Pushing” reflect his philosophy, but he became more explicit with the years, releasing an inspirational single, “Choice of Colours”, backed with “Mighty Mighty Spade and Whitey”, in 1968. His music was more melodic and less raucous than James Brown’s and, hence, less threatening to a white audience.

Mayfield’s greatest moment is with the stunning “People Get Ready”, a US hit for the Impressions in 1965. It is both a gospel song and an anthem for the civil-rights movement. Bob Marley and Rod Stewart are just two artists who have recorded successful versions.

Mayfield wrote many songs that were successful for other performers, notably “Mama Didn’t Lie” (Jan Bradley), “The Monkey Time” (Major Lance), “I Can’t Work No Longer” (Billy Butler and the Enchanters) and “Just Be True” and “Think Nothing About It” (both for Gene Chandler). Mayfield and his business partner Eddie Thomas set up publishing companies so that he could control his own work and they established their own label, Curtom.

His first solo album, Curtis (1970), was a poignant picture of ghetto life including three of his best songs, “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Gonna Go”, the UK dance hit “Move On Up” and surely one of the best song titles of all time, “We the People Who are Darker Than Blue”. He followed this with a stunning double album, Curtis/ Live (1971), where his spoken introductions are as moving as his songs.

In 1972 he was asked to score a “blaxploitation movie”, Super Fly. As with Isaac Hayes’ Shaft, the soundtrack was far better than the film and Mayfield used the film, which centred around cocaine deals, to comment on America today. Both “Freddie’s Dead”, which was banned by the BBC, and the title song were US Top Ten hits.

This led to Mayfield’s scoring other black films, often working with other performers. They include Claudine (1972) and Pipedreams (1976), both for Gladys Knight and the Pips, Sparkle (1976) with Aretha Franklin and Let’s Do It Again (1975) with the Staple Singers. He had difficulty with the Staple Singers as their leader, Pops Staples, refused to sing the word “funky” as he disliked its sexual connotations.

Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On is a key album of the early 1970s and Mayfield expanded Gaye’s concepts with Back to the World (1973) and the ironic There’s No Place Like America Today (1975). In 1978 he produced a second album for Aretha Franklin, Almighty Fire.

In 1983 Butler, Mayfield, Gooden and Cash reunited as the Impressions for a tour and LP. He toured regularly and he became involved with British politics when he attacked Thatcherism in “(Celebrate) The Day After You”, which he recorded with the Blow Monkeys in 1987. This might have become a significant hit record but it too was banned by the BBC.

In August 1990 Mayfield was paralysed from the neck down when a lighting rig fell on him during a concert in Brooklyn, but he determined to continue with his music. He wrote songs for Erykah Badu and in 1996 was nominated for a Grammy for his album New World Order, which he had had to record one line at a time. In 1998 he contracted diabetes and had a leg amputated.

Mayfield was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of the Impressions and once as a solo performer. In 1998 the Georgia House of Representatives honoured him calling him “an undisputed genius of modern music”.

His songs have been used in contemporary films and Ice-T sampled his “Super Fly” recording for The Return of Superfly in 1990. One of his older songs, “Giving Him Something He Can Feel”, was a hit for En Vogue in 1992. Mavis Staples summarised his work – “There’s a beauty about him, an angelic state. Everything he wrote had a whole lot of love.”

Curtis Mayfield, singer and songwriter: born Chicago 3 June 1942; twice married (10 children); died Roswell, Georgia 26 December 1999.

(Originally published in The Independent on Tuesday 28 December 1999)

Dr Bob Jones: A Tribute To Curtis Mayfield
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[Apiento]

(Thanks to Andy Crysell for help with the idea.)

Comment: 10 Ways To Start A Fight On A Music Forum

Adam’s back, and this time he’s aiming his sights firmly at those lovely message boards we all can’t help reading.

10 Ways To Start A Fight On A Music Forum.

1. On a dance board have a user name which involves the words ‘DJ’. ”Funk’ Funky’, ‘The Funkanator’, ‘Funk You For The Music The Songs You’re Playing’ or ‘Kool Bones Frankie Bones’. On a rock board refer to yourself as ‘Sir Rocks A Lot’, ‘Rockarolla’, The Rockanator’ or ‘Cliff Richards’. On Latin boards call yourself ‘Mr Big Bongos’ or ‘You Wouldn’t Believe The Size Of My Bongos’. On a jazz board call yourself ‘Modal Mover’, ‘Pyramid Scientist (nu-jazz lover)’ or ‘Eton educated, for gods sake mum hide the green wellies, we‘re living on the front line here (Sanderstead) listening to Tabitha’s Alice Coltrane triangle solo’ etc…

2. Find out who is the godhead artist or DJ which the message board is built around and announce how they’re not as good as they were. In fact ‘back in the day no one thought they were much cop’.

3. Slag off a radio DJ that specialises in the genre loved by the board or a Heat Celebrity – pick a side first. Are you ‘they are brilliant and really nice in person (I’ve met them loads) and suffer media intrusion’ or ‘culture-sucking vortex piece of shit’.

4. Indicate your support for the Palestinians. Nothing sorts out a complex international quagmire than 30 people whose knowledge stretches to what they’ve heard in a pub, what they remember from a sixth form general studies lesson, or through a friend of a friend who knows someone in Amnesty. You’ll be amazed at how many people who are bang into fidgit house but have never ever posted before, run down some pretty comprehensive pro-Israeli talking points (‘but of course I’m only here to talk about the latest Dubsided release’).

5. Get some key facts about the musical genre the board is all about – wrong. For example, ‘Herman’s Hermit’s owned the States well before the Stones and were mates with Muddy Waters’, ‘Tony De Vit bit his style from Eddie Halliwell’, ‘Balearic started off in Leeds in 1990 at the Shaven Monkey club – I should you know as I was the muppet playing Matt Bianco extended mixes!!!!?!! (lots of laughing emoticons)’.

6. Indicate that Margaret Thatch was not all bad – ‘When Sade sang about the sweetest taboo she wasn’t talking about getting it up the laundry chute but fondly remembering the milk snatcher’.

7. Talk about ‘chicks’. Mention that the old love life is not going to good with vague implications that you don’t understand women but hey does anyone? Use an emoticon of a pacman stabbing a female pacman then an emoticon which is winking. If irate female posters (all three of them) get really stressed just edit their posted responses so they all start, ‘As a woman….’.

8. Big up a track that has never come out and never will cos you made it up and stick Henrik Schwartz’s name behind it as one of his early spec mixes.

9. Indicate that your take on things ‘back in the day’ is VERY different to what people with lots of posts think.

10. If on a UK board, stick up for a region fanatically and include its musical output. Don’t pick the South West as no one gives a monkeys.

[Adam Khan]

Jon Savage Kicked My Desk Over Once…

He did. Whilst pogoing to some daft record playing in our office. And he’s also on this great documentary about Rough Trade by the BBC. From the shop to the label, the creation of the Cartel (the UKs independent music distribution network), bankruptcy, getting back on their feet thanks to The Smiths, bankruptcy again, getting back on their feet thanks to The Strokes, this is a great story with early footage of The Normal, The Raincoats, Scritti Politti, The Fall and others.

As Geoff Travis says, ‘It’s kind of flattering that people are interested in what happened in the past and what used to happen, but that’s not really of much concern to us. We live in the present and the only thing that’s important is what happens now and what happens next’. Seems to be a reoccurring theme with the future makers.

It’s available on the BBC iPlayer until 20th March and is highly recommended. Also available until the same day is a ‘Rough Trade artists at The BBC’ compilation hour.

[Apiento]

Mix: Rocky, Diesel & Ashley Beedle – It’s Not How It Used To Be

I was looking through old tapes the other day and came across one with ‘new house mix’ written on it. I put it on and ‘Odyssey’ by 7th Movement came out of the speakers. And it sounded good. Really good. I was going to upload it but being honest, I can’t find it.

Anyway, Rocky, Diesel and Ashley Beedle were behind 7th Movement, so I got in touch with Rocky, and asked him for something for Test Pressing. In the course of conversation I remembered the three of them had made some balearic mixes, long before the scene with no name made it’s reappearance, and here they are. To me they sum up what this music should really be about. A mixture of tough edges, pop, ambient, disco, mellow, a bit of cheese and some odd electronics, all put together in a way that makes girls want to dance. These mixes go from Bowie to Teddy Pendergrass to Pink Floyd with lots in between. Heavily influenced by Alfredo, they make good listening.

It’s Not How It Used To Be (Part One)
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It’s Not How It Used To Be (Part Two)
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It’s easy to forget how much they have done between them In the past twenty years, so time for a quick appraisal. It goes something like this; sound system culture, Rocky and Diesel’s balearic beats, Sound Factory anthems with X-Press 2, Ashley’s ‘New Jersey Deep’ (one of the best UK house 12’s in our opinion), Black Science Orchestra keeping the disco light alive, Rocky’s rapping, being on the front end of the down-tempo wave with the Ballistic Brothers, Diesel’s nu-disco on Nuphonic and the continuing Moton, being the sole participants in the failed hip-house revival, making an old-school reggae record so authentic that David Rodigan couldn’t get his head round the fact it was new, and generally being the opposite of ‘Lazy’ (sorry). I think people forget but it’s all out there. The three of them have a new show on London’s Kiss 100 that’s well worth a listen. Get on it.

[Apiento]

Postcards: No.1 – A Day Of Toasts

A good friend of Test Pressing, ‘The Correspondent’, has recently moved to Georgia, a small country located between Europe and Asia. It is bordered by the Russian Federation to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia to the south, and Turkey to the southwest. We asked him to keep a diary for us covering his new life, the situation over there, and the people that he meets along the way. Over to ‘The Correspondent’…

“Today is the eighth of March, International Women’s Day, and I therefore propose the first toast to all the women in the world”. Spartak raises his glass with home-made wine and the rest of us at the table join in. As is customary in Georgia – according to some sources the birthplace of wine making some 7,000 years ago – the glasses are downed in one go, and almost before they are put down on the table again they are refilled by our friendly host. I take a quick look at the table: bread, cheese, sausages, omelette with a special sauce made of plums, small fishes from Batumi down by the Black Sea, and pickled vegetables of all sorts, including jonjoli, a delicious flower-looking one that I’ve never seen outside of Georgia.

Suddenly the sound of an explosion penetrates the air and with South Ossetia only a few kilometers away I do feel a bit uncomfortable and look nervously at Spartak. But he just puts on a slightly sad smile and sighs: “nothing to worry about, we hear that more or less every day. Probably some kind of exercise. Or just bored soldiers.”

Perhaps he knows what he’s talking about. In 1985 he did his military service in the Soviet Army and was stationed near Lake Baikal in Siberia, where the temperature by the way goes down to below -50° during the long winters. As many Georgians, Spartak speaks Russian as his second language. So do I and that’s the reason why I am in Georgia since about a month ago monitoring the situation after last summer’s war with Russia.

Spartak is a big, good-hearted farmer in a remote village up in the mountains near the administrative boundary line that now divides South Ossetia from the rest of Georgia and because of the war he can no longer sell his products in the market that is on the wrong side of the line on the map. “Life’s tough, but we’ll survive.” It didn’t take long after we arrived in the village until we met Spartak, who almost immediately invited us to his home, “a much better place to discuss things than out in the rain”.

It’s rude to not accept an invitation in Georgia and even worse to not participate in the toasting that plays such a big part of the Georgians’ well-known hospitality. Luckily I manage to just sip on my glass when the next toast comes, this time for peace. Spartak tops my glass up and we have another toast for our health. We talk about the conflict and how life in the village has changed, then have a toast for children all over the world. And another one for my little nephew who was born just the night before. And of course one for our friendship. Then one for ourselves.

There are a few more before Spartak reluctantly accepts that we have to leave and continue our work. I’m glad I’ve managed to just sip my way through the last few toasts and even more so that our driver managed to persuade Spartak that he could only drink lemonade. As we drive away on the same dirt road that took us to the village I can’t help thinking about how unnecessary conflicts like this really are. I study the amazing landscape and think about how beautiful it will be when spring comes in a month or so. I’ll definitely try to go back then.

[The Correspondent]

RSS Feed

We know most sites have this and we are a bit slow at Test Pressing towers but we have now added an RSS feed. We are also getting a fax machine. Info on that coming soon. Anways, add us to your feed if you like.

[Apiento]

Radio Show: Massive Attack – Kiss 07:09:94 (Part Two)

Massive Attack – Kiss 7th September 1994 (Part Two)
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Part Two of Massive Attack’s guest spot on London’s Kiss FM here for you. Carrying on where we left off in part one we go from Blondie’s ‘Rapture’, to some Dennis Coffey Band, and into ‘Eurochild’ from their then unreleased album ‘Protection’. Nice to hear them playing ‘Get Stupid Fresh Part III’ by Mantronix and The Artifacts graffiti tale ‘Wrong Side Of The Tracks’. Mushroom cuts it up in the last third in true old-school style. Nice.

[Apiento]

Comment: Do You Pass The Rockist Test? Part One

Our mate Adam Khan likes a rant. So much so that we invited him on board at Test Pressing to let him rant in public. He can rant about anything so look out for more coming your way. In the cross hairs today are bands muddying the waters and Giles Peterson. Duck and cover.

As you are reading this chances are you are part of the enlightened few whose tastes in music are catholic and meandering. When asked what your favourite music is you probably shrug your shoulders and answer uneasily because your choices, ‘Err, downtempo music, krautrock, Stevie Wonder, Moodyman, early Cure, Brazilian, dub, electronica’ (although saying the word ‘electronica is like drinking vinegar) make you sound like a liberal democrat architect. You can’t easily convey the breath and enthusiasm for different sounds that a love of dance music in all its forms (not just the current form smeared with white jeans, parched eyes, 80s haircuts and let’s all move to Berlin can do) has opened your ears too.

Lined-up against this is the rockist attitude. A Calvinistic strain present in those unhappy many listening to the internal monologue of plodding drive time Virgin Radio and the monthly Coldplay marathon. Rockism is the ultimate genre specialism, rock without the roll, or any discernible blackness (right on Norman). Current symptoms, a love of bands not any bands but BRITS nominated “bands” and routinely a firing four piece.

Four people together is an unhappy car trip or a crap party, not the musical equivalent of prime numbers. This is a farmers market of, insipid, clueless wonders caked in shit. Q magazine cover stars – The Killers, Muse, U2, Coldplay, Keane, Kings Of Leon – we’ve all heard Jeff Buckley but you and I didn’t go off and write anthems of personal insufficiency about a French exchange that went wrong (‘Oh Didier why hast thou forsaken me’). Bands who don’t just take the moral high ground but built a fucking tax dodging, sanctimonious, carbon free palace on top of it.

Rockist attitude is like IBS. Latent until some stressful event triggers full combustion, i.e. visiting the Virgin Music festival AND being disappointed that KT Tunstall has cancelled because she’s taking lessons from Annie Lennox on how to exist as a twat.

So why care? Because rockism is pervasive and everything culturally is viewed through this monocle of mediocrity and half-cut power ballad. Rockist journalists peddle the “no personalities or opinions” of dance music or the gaudy materialism of black music or flippancy of pop as a catch all rejection, whilst wondering aloud how the Kooks can follow their last opus ‘Jammin’ on a groove and shit’. It’s got to be U2 or speak and spell Radiohead, everything else is contemptible.

The musical wing of rockism is just headline dog whistles. At the kernel is an innate conservatism, a distrust of the other and a passive acceptance of join the dots culture. Actually while here, when Giles Peterson bangs on about joining the dots does he realise that most join the dots pictures are actually blindingly obvious pictures of parrots or pirate ships? Well they were last time I looked at my four year old’s colouring book. What colouring book has Gilles got? One that was produced by Jazzafuckingnova that’s what.

Anyway, after trashing Michael Howard for ‘having something of the night about him’ (i.e. please insert your own form of bigotry), Anne Widdicombe went off to see Embrace supported by Starsailor at the Forum. Even she was disappointed by the sexless atmosphere.

This rockist attitude shows a lack of passion and no real enthusiasm for anything other than a dirge. Some lacklustre criticism from rockist journalists has landed on “landfill indie” as the cancer eating our souls, but that lets too many off the hook and we shall come for them later. We all know that every time Neil Young appears on a magazine cover an angel dies.

So what’s it got to do with me? Well the upshot of this is that we must celebrate our different-ness, the many paths in music and culture, reject press pack collusion, embrace our love of immigration even if this means Somalian pirates washing your car window at Staples Corner, mourn the death of John Martyn, 1000% tax on Paul Weller, or sit on the sidelines making rude gestures.

[Adam Khan]

Test Pressing Is Learning To Fly

Test Pressing is growing. It’s happening slowly but new writers are coming on board to share opinion, write about what matters to them, and keep the wheels turning. In the coming weeks we hope to bring you stories on finding the only record collector in deepest Georgia (the one in between Azerbaijan and Russia), review some new releases, a report on visiting Moodyman’s Soul Skate in Detroit and bring you more tapes from the vaults.

Last week Giacomo made himself known with a lovely piece on visiting Submerge in Detroit, and this week we are happy to announce the arrival of our new columnist, Waldo (D.R) Dobbs. Waldo arrives with tongue firmly in cheek but with opinions to go. Who knows where this is all headed but as long its forwards it’s all alright with us.

[Apiento]

Guerilla Records In Drum & Bass Influence Shocker

Lemon Sol were a band signed to London’s Guerilla Records that released a very heavily Detroit-influenced album named ‘Environmental Architecture’. The first track on the album was called ‘Sunflash’. This Danny Bukem took on to make one of the templates for intelligent drum and bass. Most people know Bukem’s record ‘Horizons’, but not many people have heard where he ‘took’ the inspiration from… Classic.

Lemon Sol: Sunflash
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[Apiento]

Mix: Jose Padilla – Café Del Mar (Volume 7)

Lovely old tape from the café for you here. You know the coup by now. Here, Jose Padilla selects anything from classic electronic sounds through to a mellow version of ‘Found Love’ by Double Dee (yes really) and mixes them together in his inimitable naive fashion. Anyone got Tape 1? Get in touch if you do. Big thanks to Phil for digging this one out.

Jose Padilla: Café Del Mar 7
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[Apiento]

On The Porch, 3000, East Grand Boulevard, 2007. Mad Mike Sighted Without Mask

The way in

Viewed from the street, Number 3000 East Grand Boulevard just looks like someone’s house on a fairly normal (a little long by European standards) street.  Take a right out of the door and pretty soon you hit Woodward Avenue. Make a left onto Woodward and it’s pretty much a straight run down to Hart Plaza, where the Detroit Electronic Music Festival is held, as and when it’s running.

Typically cheery UR imagery

3000 East Grand Boulevard isn’t a house though. It’s Submerge; the ‘Somewhere in Detroit’ that UR gives as its address, or headquarters as they’d probably prefer it described. I’d spent a few hours there, having just come from Hitsville, which was another house (albeit with a museum inside), in another normal looking street. We had turned up on the off-chance it would be open to the public. Thanks to the festival (often referred to as ‘Techfest’ by the locals) it was.

You will probably have heard sounds from this machine

On the second floor of Number 3000 there was a viewing in progress of an exhibition, featuring local art, paintings by George Clinton and various bits of Roland kit that had been (and in some cases were still being) used by producers like Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Jeff Mills. There was also a modest buffet. I hadn’t anticipated much about the trip, least of all chewing a mouthful of quiche, while reading that that particular 707 is still used by various members of UR to supply Latin perc sounds.

Building bridges within the techno community

Downstairs in the basement my friends and I all gingerly stepped over the enormous bulldog sleeping in one of the aisles to pore over individual Axis, M-Plant and KDJ racks that were larger than your average London record shop’s entire ‘Detroit’ section. A test pressing by UR 061 was being played on a turntable on the counter, by the producer. The walls were covered in signatures and dedications – just like we’d seen in countless magazines, documentaries and youtube clips.

Note price of lightswitch. Houses in Detroit are available at auction for $800

Having loaded up on rarities and merch we went out to wait for a taxi to appear. The street was dead, so we were waiting for a while, but the weather was nice and we’d just crossed a big one off each of our musical to-do-lists, so no-one was in a rush to go anywhere. There were a few other people sitting on the steps, so we got chatting to them, on the usual ‘where are you from, why are you here’ theme. One of them had recently been to London, and told us about how he’d been shopping in Oxford Square, spent some time in Old Town, and had a look at the river Euphrates.

Even school trips take in Submerge

After some small talk and some cigarettes we learned we were sitting with, amongst others, Alton Miller, Nancy Gavoor and, very briefly, a guy called Mike. Mike had stepped out to find out if anyone was going to Derrick’s house later on. Nancy would be, but Mike couldn’t make it ’cause he was busy in the studio, so he asked her to say ‘hi’ to Derrick for him, made his goodbyes and stepped back inside Number 3000.

Could one of these be Mad Mike's car?

Our taxi arrived, we got in the back and were pretty soon heading back downtown through derelict blocks, with Kraftwerk on the radio.

[Giacomo]

Exclusive Tracks: Freeway Audio

Post-modern classical music (stay with me) coming your way now on Test Pressing courtesy of Freeway Audio. I once set up a record label with some friends (we managed to release one record), but one of the projects I wanted to release was Freeway Audio, an artist I stumbled across via a friend in Sweden.

Freeway Audio is Jil Christensen. She studied at the New England Conservatory, wrote a piece for the American Symphony Orchestra, scored an opera, plays in a jazz ensemble, lives in North Carolina and makes modern classical music influenced by the likes of John Cage.

I asked Jil if we would be able to post some of her unpublished work and she has kindly given us four tracks from a soundtrack she produced. One of our favourite tracks here, ‘Maadi’, features vocals from Yazarah, a singer who has worked with Erykah Badu amongst others.

Anyway, you get the idea. This is forward thinking classical music, full of thought, and a melodic intent. Credit where credits due.

Freeway Audio ft. Yazarah: Maadi
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Freeway Audio: Zamalek
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Freeway Audio: Emmett Till
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Freeway Audio: Heliopolis
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[Apiento]

I Saw The Bloke From The Art Of Noise In Vision Express…

Title of this post sounds like a bad mix tape but I did. Weird thing is each time I go to Oxford Street, twice this year, I seem to see Paul Morley. Anyway, so from there it was a short stop to go and pick up a CD I have been meaning to get for a while. Anything described as ‘the Penguin Cafe Orchestra meets jazz’ sounds good to me, and even though I am six months late on this one, the Portico Quartet’s (above) ‘Knee-Deep In The North Sea’ seemed like something to support.

On listening, I am not sure I’d compare it to the PCO, but it does have a lovely little bonus track at the end, which lets be honest is something you don’t hear on jazz albums. Here it is…

Portico Quartet: Pompidou (Bonus Part)
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[Apiento]