Radio / Tour: Legends Of The Dancefloor: A Piece Of Paradise / A Tribute To Larry Levan European Tour 2011

Here’s a quick heads up to check out the various events in honour of Larry Levan happening at the moment. First up are two programs on Radio 1 / Radio 6 dedicated to Larry Levan. The documentary ‘Legends Of The Dancefloor – A Piece Of Paradise’ finds many US & UK’s artists and DJs who were in one way or another connected to Larry Levan, including David Depino, Michael Linder, Vince Aletti, Manny Lehman, Michael De Benedictus of the Peech Boys, Nicky Siano, DJ Harvey & Heidi Lawden, Paul Oakenfold, Judy Weinstein, Justin Berkmann, John Morales, Tom Moulton, Taana Gardner & Victor Rosado. There’s also a four hour recording originally aired on WBLS during the second anniversary of the Paradise Garage with commentary by iconic radio DJ Frankie Crocker, the ‘Chief Rocker’. This 1979 recording with Levan in the mix, plus live shows by Loleatta Holloway, Dan Hartman & Sylvester sounds pretty special. More information here.

Secondly there is a tour with Victor Rosado (who was schooled by Levan) & Lenny Fontana with warm up from DJ Alex & Johnny Chingas. Rosado was one of the few DJs that played at the Garage so expect the Garage aesthetic.

Tour dates at present…

23rd July in Dublin @ Crawdaddy
28th July in Oslo @ Jaeger
30th July in London @ Fabric
4th Aug in Berlin @ Cookies
6th Aug in Manchester @ Soup Kitchen

Check here on Facebook for further information.

[Apiento]

Radio Documentary: Radio 4 / Ibiza Documentary

Life is funny sometimes. I have had the book, ‘The White Island (Two Thousand Years Of Pleasure In Ibiza)’ by Stephen Armstrong on the bookshelf for about five years and kept thinking, I’ll read that one day. Last week I picked it up and have been really enjoying it. The best bit for me was the chapter I read last night on the arty contingent of authors, actors and artists, that moved to the island from the 60s onwards.

Today our friend Jolyon sent us this documentary from BBC Radio 4 that focuses on those very people. The hippies, the arty contingent and the original community from the 60s. True fact, Joni Mitchell used to live in Ibiza. As did Nico. As did Terry Thomas who apparently had a car with little flowers painted all over to match a shirt he had. Terry Thomas also says in an interview about why he likes the island so much that ‘I don’t speak Spanish so I can’t get bored of anyone.’ Anyway, the interviews are brilliant ranging from one of the original hippies to Sandy Pratt the legendary barman from Sandy’s Bar. Good music too.

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Thanks to Jolyon Green.

[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 025 / 1969 Part 6

This is the last part of Jon Savages 1969 series – a very important year for him and music in general. Only four more shows to go in the series.

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[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 024 / 1969 Part 5

Sundays = Jon Savage in our house (and a new Phil Mison mix all going to plan). Here’s part 5 of the 1969 series. Crazy depth.

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[Apiento]

Radio Show: Noise In My Head

While we are on the subject of radio here’s another one from a friend of the family. Celebrating its 5th anniversary, Noise In My Head is a weekly show that airs every Sunday night on Melbourne based community broadcaster Triple R (102.7FM) before being archived online here at the Noise In My Head site.

Hosted and programmed by Michael Kucyk, the show is pretty broad taking in all styles. Mixes and other involvement has so far come from Lovefingers, Juan Atkins, Danielle Baldelli, Nozaki DJ, Abel, Justin Vandervolgen, Beppe Loda, Basso, DJ Garth, DJ BRKA, Chee Shimizu, Ronny & Renzo, Hey Convict! and more. You get the idea.

We asked Michael what the Noise In My Head site was about and the focus is on representing whats happening in the Melbourne club scene, championing events like Bamboo Musik and providing a platform for their lesser known, more interesting local DJs – Misha Hollenbach, Roman Wafers, Steel Bonus, Biscuit, Canyons and Gordy Zola. Going on the music we have heard coming in from Hey Convict! and others from that side of the water it’s a scene worth checking. If any of you Melbourne people want to do something for us just shout at the email to the side.

[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 022 / 1969 Part 2

Part 2 of the 1969 series here with Savage kicking off talking about the first gigs he ever went to that year – Spooky Tooth and The Who. This show kicks off with The Jeff Beck Group’s ‘Plynth’…

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[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 021 / 1961 Part 1

After a few weeks away here’s Jon Savage back in full effect. It’s the first of six shows that focus on the year of 1969, a year that Savage thinks is very important. As he says in the introduction – it’s the year of the moon landings, Woodstock, Charles Manson’s murders, Altamont, the 60s coming to a head and more. This show focuses on album tracks from that year…

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[Apiento]

Radio: The Balearicist’s Guide To The Revolution (What Is Balearic?)

This seemed to be the perfect post to follow the Amnesia videos. We spoke to Alasdair McGregor, one of the producers behind the documentary, who along with Mark Jackson (ex-Eastern Bloc) made this around ten years ago with various people discussing this history of balearic, what it means and what it’s all about.

The voices you hear in no particular order are Fred Deakin, Alfredo, Sally & Steve from A Man Called Adam, Chris Coco, Martin Brew, Pino from Madrid, Nancy Noise, Lenny Ibizarre, Morgan Geist, Lucinda Mason Brown, Rob Da Bank, Moonboots, Txema from Ses Salines, Phil Mison, Pathaan, Hugh Bryder, Balearic Mike, Justin Robertson, Oscar from Trax, Trevor Fung, Emily Nightingale and Nicky Holloway. Quite an extensive list.

49 CDR copies were made which, laid out together, made up one big hand drawn picture by the artist Gill Rocca. They started it in 2001 and it was finished sometime in 2004. Alasdair tells us it has never been broadcast anywhere, and was just made for the hell of it really with the goal to find out the answer to that elusive question – What is Balearic?

The guys are currently working on a part 2, a sort of ‘What’s Not Balearic?’, of which they’ve already recorded interviews with David Mancuso, Cosmo, Soft Rocks, Leo Elstob, Jolyon Green, Sean P, Jeremy Gilbert, The Idjut Boys, Euan Pearson, Rune Linbaek, Lindstrom, Prins Thomas, Greg Wilson and Kenneth Bager with another 10 or so to get, so it may be a while coming.

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Thanks to Alasdair and Mark. And Mike for the previous information.

[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 016 / Moon Songs 3

Sunday means Jon Savage and here’s this weeks show, the third and final part of the Moon Songs trilogy. From Nick Drake, to Bowie, Can and Byrne and Eno…

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Tune in weekly to ByteFM for the Savage Music shows.

[Apiento]

Radio: Essential Albums Of The 90s – Primal Scream ‘Screamadelica’ / Inner Flight (Live)

Here’s more on ‘Screamadelica’ with the essential albums of the 90s show from BBC 6 Music with Alan McGee, Andrew Weatherall, Noel Gallagher and others discussing the making and impact of the album. Following that is ‘Inner Flight’ live from the Olympia show last week sounding as fragile as ever.

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Primal Scream: Inner Flight (Live At Olympia)

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[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 015 / Moon Songs 2

Sunday means Jon Savage and here’s this weeks show, the second part of the Moon Songs trilogy.

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Tune in weekly to ByteFM for the Savage Music shows.

[Apiento]

Radio: Andrew Weatherall – The Music That Made Screamadelica

Here’s the Andrew Weatherall show that was on 6 Music on the weekend working through the music that inspired the Primal Scream album ‘Screamadelica’. It’s still a great album – play ‘Higher Than The Sun’ loud and it’s still got it.

We also posted a piece a while back which was Weatherall’s tour diary from the Screadelica tour that originally ran in The Face in September ’91. Click here if you fancy reading it.

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While on the subject of Weatherall someone has started a group to get the BBC to give him John Peel’s slot on Radio 1. As Ashley Beedle says, “Andrew Weatherall taking over the John Peel slot would be so natural and so righteous – this man has knowledge, scope, a deep love of music and is one of the great raconteurs of our generation. Come on people – let’s make this happen before Andrew decides to turn left!!” Click here to make your ‘like’ heard.

[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 011 / 1966 Live

It’s Savage Sunday. This time it’s 1966 that gets the overhall, the reason being that in Savage’s eyes ’66 was one of the best pop years ever with the end of mod and the start of psychedelia and is a pretty dark year before the hippy movement kick in in ’67. This one starts with the 13th Floor Elevators and moves from there… Bootleg central.

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Tune in weekly to ByteFM for the Savage Music shows.

[Apiento]

Arthur Jeffes & Penguin Cafe: BBC3 Prom

If you like the original Ibizan balearic sound there is a fair chance you have moved through DJ Alfredo’s record box to Jose Padilla’s Cafe Del Mar sound and along the way been introduced to ‘Music For A Found Harmonium’ by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, a dream pulled to life by Simon Jeffes, were a band that created pieces that moved from avant-garde to hugely melodic – the idea being to take classical music to the masses and seemingly to have a nice time along the way. My mum likes them, my sister likes them and their albums seem to suit all occasions from early morning to late at night. Simon Jeffes passed away over a decade ago (the anniversary concert at the Union Chapel was suitably special) and his son Arthur now continues the sound with Penguin Cafe which includes a host of new players and some new music, whilst also playing original pieces by the PCO. Here’s Jeffes junior and friends at the BBC prom.

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This is a little bit more illegal than normal for us so if you’ve a problem with us posting this please let us know and we’ll pull it down – Ed

[Apiento]

Underground Resistance Special On WDET (Detroit) With Mike Banks Interview

Our Giacomo is a mysterious chap. He rarely surfaces but when he does it’s with the best in techno. He’s back, and with some underground goodies…

WDET broadcasts out of Wayne State University. Billing itself as ‘Detroit Public Radio’, the station has been around in one form or another since 1949, when it was set up by the United Auto Workers Union.

Back in 2004, Underground Resistance had been around for about 15 years. As part of a monthly segment called ‘Electronic Focus,’ WDET’s Liz Copeland and guest presenter Clark Warner broadcast a UR special, complete with a lengthy and interesting interview with Mike Banks.

Mike talks about the history of UR, the role of Ron Murphy, meeting Kraftwerk, a Swiss dynamite factory, misperceptions of ‘the Ghetto’ and so on. If you’re into techno, or merely want to get some mid-noughties Detroit slang to work into everyday speech, it’s well worth a listening. There’s also, obviously, some great music. Current favourite with us is the X-102 tune. A bit more on X-102 from Jeff…

Rico Passerani uploaded the interview, which we came across via Technopodcast.com

Here’s the tracklist:

Underground Resistance – Elimination
Underground Resistance – Riot
Mad Mike – Death Star
Underground Resistance – The Theory
Nation 2 Nation – 303 Sunset
Underground Resistance – The Punisher
Mad Mike – Jupiter Jazz
X-102 – OBX-A
Underground Resistance – Metamorphosis
Red Planet – Stardancer
Underground Resistance – Hi Tech Jazz
Underground Resistance – Acid Africa (Roots Electric Mix)
Drexciya – Wavejumper
Chaos – Afrogermanic
Kraftwerk – Expo2000 (Underground Resistance Remix)
Underground Resistance – Electronic Warfare
DJ Rolando – Knights of the Jaguar
The Suburban Knight – Marooned
Timeline – Time Sensitive
Underground Resistance – UR-046
Aquanauts – Spawn (Genetic Continuation Mix)
Andre Holland – Vector Research
Underground Resistance – A Thousand Questions
Gigi Galaxy – One Step Beyond
Underground Resistance – Inspiration
M.I.A. – All I See
The Suburban Knight – Nocturbolus
Underground Resistance – A Moment in Time
Underground Resistance – Black Strategy (DJ Dex Edit)

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Warning: The file is just over 200MB so may take a minute. Well worth it though. x.

[Giacomo]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 001 / Meridian 1970

Image: Aubrey Mayer

Jon Savage is one of the UK’s most respected music journalists, authors and social historians. Many of you will know his classic book on punk, ‘England’s Dreaming’ and it’s recently released companion, ‘The England’s Dreaming Tapes’, which consists of many of the source interviews for the book including all four original Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Chrissie Hynde, Jordan, Siouxsie Sioux, Viv Albertine, Pete Shelley, Debbie Wilson, Tony Wilson, Jah Wobble and more.

He also wrote ‘Time Travel: From the Sex Pistols to Nirvana – Pop, Media and Sexuality, 1977-96’, the highly recommended book on youth, Teenage, and edited the Factory focused The Hacienda Must Be Built.

We were doing some work with Mr Savage recently in the office and were given some of his radio shows which I was totally unaware of. Jon records the shows for Germany’s ByteFM, the Savage Music shows appearing here. They are, as he says in the first show, ‘just a way of putting a lot of great music together’. To be honest they are a bit more than that. They are a treasure trove of music and knowledge with the character, stories and honesty of Savage at the helm.

Bit of background on the station these were originally recorded for. ByteFM was founded in January 2008 and covers many different genres, from alternative rock to country, techno to dubstep, reggae, French chansons and many other styles. The shows are presented by around 80 radio music journalists from all over Germany, many well known within their fields and they have won many awards. I think it may be a bit of an untapped source.

Everyone I shared the Savage Music shows with has thoroughly enjoyed so we spoke to Jon, as well as Klaus and Ruben at ByteFM, to ask for permission to use the shows on Test Pressing. Kindly the chaps have all said yes so here we go with the first show. By way of introduction here’s a brief Q&A with Jon.

How did this series come about? What was the original thinking behind it? How did you meet the ByteFM guys?

I was asked to do it by Klaus Walter after I did a long interview with him in Hamburg to promote the German language England’s Dreaming. Klaus is a friend of my translator Conny Losch.

We hear you have an amazing record collection at home, have you kept most of the music you have been sent over the years?

Well yes and bought music I like as well. I still buy records. I’ve been reviewing records since 1977. Mmm, quite a long time.

How do you catalogue? By artist? Genre?

Periods, artists and genres.

When it comes to prized pieces of vinyl or cassettes please could you list your top three.

First Velvet Underground Album mono promo.
Acetate of Byrds’ Eight Miles High.
White label of Sex Pistols “Never Mind The Bollocks” US – formerly the Ramones’ copy. They hated the Sex Pistols so it is barely played.

What’s next for you?

Script for feature documentary of ‘Teenage’ book and starting plans for new book. Working on exhibition of Joy Division materials this summer. And on Punk Graphics book for Rizzoli.

I think one of your most underrated compilations to date has been the Dreams Come True – First Wave Of Electro on Domino. What were the first records you heard form this scene and how did you come to it. Was it through the electronic/industrial side of things or more the disco side?

Big cross over between black American dance music and white avant-garde in the early 80s. I DJ’ed at the Hacienda in 1982 and so was exposed to a lot of early Electro/Rap thanks to Hewan Clarke and Mike Pickering. But I was going that way anyway. Then a bit later Vince Aletti showed me the true delights of Disco, which of course you were not allowed to like during the punk period (although I Feel Love and Magic Fly escaped the fatwa).

Favourite record of last year?

Oh something on Kompakt. Anything on Kompakt.

Back to the shows, I understand it is to be a series of 100 shows? Why?

Not necessarily 100. Maybe yes, maybe no.

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Tune in weekly to ByteFM for the Savage Music shows or stay tuned for the next update. Forthcoming shows include Queer Noise, Songs About The Sun, Moon Songs, Motorik and more.

[Apiento]

Radio: DJ Premier Malcolm McLaren Mix

This is good…

[Apiento]

Radio: Phil Mison And Citizen Kane on Beats In Space

As you may know Phil Mison is friend and part of the Test Pressing firm so it’d be rude not to mention that he, alongside Citizen Kane, was the guest on Tim Sweeney’s always good Beats In Space radio show last week. Dig in here if you missed it. As you may know his new Cantoma album is coming in May with a twelve released just before with mixes by our man Lexx and the Idjut Boys. On the subject of Lexx look out for his new releases coming soon. We’ll speak with Phil about the album nearer the release date but until then enjoy the show.

[Apiento]

here

Back In The Pirate Days: Kiss 94 Newsletter – July/August 1988

Before going legal the pirate radio station Kiss was going under the name Kiss 94 FM. This newsletter comes from deep in the Ninja Tune vaults and was sent out to members of the mailing list (of 3500) to inform on the DJs, parties, merchandise and more. Kiss had such a ridiculous line up back in those days – Jay Strongman, Norman Jay, Rampling, Richie Rich, Mannasseh, Coldcut, Trouble, Jazzie B, Colin’s Favor & Dale and Patrick Forge – all playing the best in underground dance.

Interesting to read the thoughts on who was breaking the signal of the station then, ‘The reason for the breaks in transmission are many. It’s hard to pinpoint precisely who is breaking the transmission, we know the D.T.I are responsible for most of the busts, but we have reason to believe that ‘outside forces’ are also at work’. Danny Rampling was Danny Ramplin and known for his ‘lively presentation!’. Does this mean whispering “balearic” across the airwaves of London? Anyway, more to follow.

Thanks to Strictly Kev.

[Apiento]

Radio Show: Coldcut Deconstruct ‘Paid In Full’

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[Tim Hayter]