The Test Pressing Information Service has returned to notify you that you can download Leo Zero’s mix of Weller’s new track here courtesy of the PR company. Nice work Elstob.
[Apiento]
Test Pressing Mind On The Run Take Over (Part Two)
January 16, 2010
Here’s the second part of our Mind On The Run takeover consisting of ten or so lovely tracks from across the board. As you may know, they are the guys behind the great Parlour 7″ which was released last year and this year will finally see a follow-up. As you’d imagine it’s more great psyche disco cosmische business and hopefully coming your way soon…
Randy VanWarmer: Losing Out On Love
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NRBQ: Magnet
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Prefab Sprout: Faron Young (Acoustic Version)
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Kvartetten Som Sprängde: Gånglåt Från Valhallavägen
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Merrell Fankhauser: I Saw Your Photograph
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Jackson Browne: Disco Apocalypse
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Dead Moon: Echoes To You
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Dick Khoza: Chapita
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Sjob Movement: Country Love
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Chris Isaac: Dancin’
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Sharon Ridley: Changin’
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[Apiento]
Tokyo Tracks 003: Osamu Kitajima – Thru Cosmic Doors
December 31, 2009
Fusion’s excesses give way to a new age. Instruments dance a ballet. In my head. A second-hand ticking. Time hurries by. A shakuhachi mourns its passing. Pleading. Calling it back. As if it were trying to prevent a lover from leaving. A koto marks the attempts at persuasion and the inevitable. A lyricon. The struggle.
The struggle with time.
There’s a photograph of my Nan attached to my Tokyo fridge door. It greets me every morning when I go to make the children breakfast. She’s all dressed up with somewhere to go. Black jacket, blue skirt, white thinning hair. She’s holding on to the handrail of the steps to her garden in Croydon for all she’s worth. When I look at this photograph I think of the eighteen years I spent living next door. I remember toy soldiers scaling the mountains of her stairs. Action man’s journey’s to the centre of the coal bunker. And a gold carriage clock high on the mantelpiece with a delicate mechanism too fascinating not to touch. I hear the constant banging of the gate between our house and Nan’s. At night, the wind conjuring up robbers and ghosts when I’d forget to lock it. I smell the roses in her garden and touch the rubber flowers on her rubber swimming hat. I share evenings baby-sat between Nan’s legs. Fan heater warming us. Stealing sips of Babycham and watching TV in the dark. Nan singing in Welsh and snoring through the opera on BBC2. There are no memories of scoldings. Only love and pride. I see another photograph of Nan. She has black hair and she’s holding me in her arms.
When Nan died, my childhood finally ended.
The shakuhachi defiant now. The figure more elaborate. Each dancer moving to a separate song.
Osamu Kitajima – Thru Cosmic Doors
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[Dr Rob]
Under The Radar No.10: Cheval Sombre – Little Bit Of Heaven
December 9, 2009
Tokyo Tracks 002 (From The Jazz Kissa): Casiopea – La Costa
December 4, 2009
Dr Rob’s back with more comment, reportage and music from Japan…
I’m a regular here now. A fixture if not an attraction. I only have to pay for the first cup of coffee. The other fixture here is woman in her forties who wears her hair in a beehive and seems to use the coffee shop as an office. She always seems to be here, holding court to a group of well-dressed younger women, while sipping beer and eating finger sandwiches. She’s sitting behind me. I always try to orchestrate such a position otherwise I find I end up staring and spiraling off into fantasies fueled by my failing hormones. The guy opposite me has that classic Japanese look. Smart black suit. Crisp white shirt buttoned to the top. No tie. It’s all publishing houses around here. My weekly trips with the kids to the McDonalds on this street have often been brightened by glamour models grabbing a quick shake between shoots, or a quick break to go over contact sheets.
Today the café owner is playing swinging jazzy versions of Christmas tunes. Today being the first day of December. “Great Tidings of Comfort & Joy”. Santa Claus is coming to town and Frosty the Yukidaruma. Ever in tune with my surroundings, I’ve picked out sunny Japanese fusion to listen to. The kind of stuff that was popular on pirate radio back when I was in Gabbicci knit wear and Farah slacks. Then, the records were imported and too expensive to buy. Now, I’ve been imported and I can pick them up for pennies. Can’t move for this stuff in Recofan in Shibuya.
Listening to Casiopea, which is something akin to Herb Alpert without the horn, I’m on a beach. Light catching the tops of afternoon waves. Maybe back in Malaga. Ecstatically watching the surf turn purple and break into fractals. Just prior to being pushed hysterical onto a bus packed full of bright green people, riding into a maze of busy narrow streets and noisy tapas counters. Everyone shouting in Spanish. Me mute. Eventually, off with Paco, to crazy parties in the hills.
Casiopea – La Costa
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[Dr Rob]
Under The Radar No.9: Mission Control – Outta Limits
November 15, 2009
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I was round the guys house that engineered the Bang The Party releases and we were going through his records. Within the standard genre sections (disco, funk, dub etc…) he had a further category for Murk. I liked that. Not really ‘Under The Radar’ but here’s my favourite Murk moment anyway.
[Apiento]
I’m sitting in a jazz café, or jazz kissa, at the junction of a four-lane highway about five minutes away from my kids’ sports (taiso) club. Sneaking in a coffee while they vault boxes and dodge ball. Seems a pity to drown the jazz out. Sometimes I pop in here in the morning and it’s melancholic covers of standards and suicide-inducing lounge versions of pop classics. Catering to the mums taking solace in stimulants after the school run and before the next round of chores. Now, in the afternoons, it’s office workers on the skive and students asleep in their books to a soundtrack of Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker. I guess if the owner could see me put my ear-pieces in he’d be offended. But the writing’s got to be done somewhere. And I can’t write without listening. Someone who meant a lot to me once said music is fuel.
I hear a Latin piano line full of the urgency of life. Understood by Mayday and Morrisey alike. Flamenco. Not the Gipsy Kings, but Pigbag doing over Paco De Lucia. A melodica carrying on like Lee Oskar’s trancendentary blues harp or Astor Piazzolla’s accordion. With a story to tell. A busy town square. 3 AM. The air thick with the promise of fighting and fucking. Sips of gut-rotting espresso while a Dexy-driven bordello band cynically play for a clientele for whom they are merely an accompaniment to the transactions being made. Their slept-in suits and blackened eyes privy to a thousand stories every night. Whores dance, drink and hitch up their skirts amid shouts of encouragement and cash changing hands. I’m back walking through the Old Town practically too drunk to stand, trying to hold onto something that has already gone.
Time, she goes by like a wave.
Copa Salvo: Wave
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Copa Salvo: Imperador Do Samba
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[Dr Rob]
Saint Etienne Revival Heading Your Way Soon
October 3, 2009
Wasn’t expecting to like this so much but Richard X has turned out a lovely mix of the Saint Etienne classic ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’. Featuring italo synths and a lovely low slung disco feel it really works. Big nod to Heavenly for getting it so right. More to follow apparently…
Saint Etienne: Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Richard X Version)
[Apiento]
The Bass Bin No.2: Mantronix – Get Stupid Fresh Part III
August 9, 2009
Streatham Island Discs No.9: George Cromarty – Flight
August 7, 2009
Head to the Numero Group site for info on this chap. They put this track out on their ‘Guitar Soli’ LP last year, and are threatening to release more of his stuff in the near future. It’s an amazing piece. I need to practice my guitar more…a lot more! Love the harmonics at the beginning.
George Cromarty – Flight
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[Tim Hayter]
This is from the ‘Off The Beaten Track’ LP. Not only does it have a pile-driving groove, but the mix (by Adrian Sherwood) is phenomenal – everything is constantly shifting and shimmering as he drops the various elements in and out. One of many highlights from the On-U catalogue.
African Head Charge: Throw It All Away
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[Tim Hayter]
This is one of the first Brazilian records I ever bought, and its still my favourite, nearly twenty years later. The credits on the back of the sleeve read like half a Brazilian football team – Joaozinho, Wagner, Dadi, Bidu, Gil, and Jorge. The flute arrangements are by the great Artur Verocai. A very special record.
Jorge Ben: Minha Estrella E Do Oriente
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[Tim Hayter]
I know very little about this track. It’s from an early 90s CD called ‘Medicine Compilation from the Quiet Lodge.’ Wherever that is.
Nonetheless, it’s a lovely rolling track, some afrobeat touches and a flavour of New Orleans piano.
Haruomi Hosono: Aiwoiwaiaou
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[Tim Hayter]
The Bass Bin – home for all those with that bottom end… First up, a Rick Rubin classic sampled by many but best in it’s original basic form of 808, bassline and some random shouts.
Original Concept: Knowledge Me Chant
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[Apiento]
1970 found Sly Stone holed up in a Bel Air mansion, the air full of post-Manson dread, and Sly’s brain slowly frying in a cocaine haze. As the recording sessions for ‘There’s A Riot Going On’ stretched out into the distance, Sly found time to release several side-projects through his own vanity label, Stone Flower.
Perhaps the oddest is this one from Joe Hicks. Sly’s new Rhythm King drum machine keeps the beat. There’s a killer bassline oscillating, as you might expect from the title, between the G and A notes. One note organ-stabs and Joe’s unhinged vocals over the top. Minimal as you like.
Second track is a re-edit of Chairmen of the Board’s later cover version. I did some very simple edits, just to tighten it up a bit. Sounds good, I think.
Joe Hicks: Life And Death In G & A
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Chairmen Of The Board: Life And Death In G & A (Tim’s Pause Button Edit)
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[Tim Hayter]
Dub Echoes
May 28, 2009
‘Dub Echoes’ is a new compilation and film recently released on the always good Soul Jazz Records. Everyone I know that has seen the film highly recommends so check the DVD if you have the opportunity. The CD brings together dub in it’s various forms from the traditional through to the futuristic sound of dubstep. Soul Jazz are quietly releasing so many nice bits at the moment, first their fine ‘Dancehall – The Rise Of Jamaican Culture’ book, then the ‘Steppa’s Delight’ comps and now the ‘Dub Echoes’ film by Bruno Natal and accompanying compilation. Respect.
U Roy & Francois Kervorkian: Rootsman
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[Apiento]
I can’t for the life of me remember why I bought this LP. It must have got a good review in the NME or something. In any case, I got it in ’81 or ’82, have never been quite sure what to make of it, but have returned to it every couple of years to give it another go.
This track is probably the highlight – great, building arrangement, killer bassline and a fantastic double-tracked trombone solo which unfortunately only comes in towards the end.
This version has been extended a bit. I think it works very well.
Pyrolator: Elefantendisco (Edit)
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[Tim Hayter]
Holger Czukay Interview…
May 11, 2009
Track: Albatross
May 8, 2009
To precede our forthcoming Dennis Bovell interview here’s a sweet version of the Fleetwood Mac classic ‘Albatross’. Mellow.
John Kpiaye: Albatross
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[Apiento]
Streatham Island Discs No.3 – Brian Eno: Mist/Rhythm
April 28, 2009
Not much to be said about Eno which hasn’t been said elsewhere, better. Have a look at Lester Bangs’ pieces about him here: it’s a good read. I like pretty much everything he did up to about ’85, and very little after that (although the ‘Another Day On Earth’ LP from 2005 was a pleasant surprise).
This track appeared as part of a retrospective box-set which came out in ’83. I think it’s an unfinished outtake – not sure from what, except that Daniel Lanois and Eno’s brother, Roger, are on it, so I’d guess it was recorded ’81 or ’82. It doesn’t do much more than set a mood, but the mood it sets is a good one.
Brian Eno: Mist/Rhythm
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[Tim Hayter]
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