April Records/Music #5

Posted on April 29, 2012 by

I seem to have slowed down writing on here due to the recent writing work for other websites. This is not a bad thing however as this blog has given me the confidence and feedback to go out into the world of writing albeit writing for websites/publications, so I am not that bothered, however I do feel I sentimentally owe the blog a post. I thought I should do a “what I have been listening ” blog to keep the blog updated and ticking over, so here goes.

  • Konk – Your Life [4th and Broadway Records]

This has a kind of disco influenced NYC post punk record, Konk released records throughout the 80′s but this is by far their most popular and for me their best release. ‘Your Life’ has been heavily sampled due it’s Latin drum breaks, it also has a killer dance floor vibe throughout and it’s a bit nutty, but it works incredibly well, there is a lovely acid undertone which hold the track making it the sort of thing I love hearing loud.

  • Willie Hutch – In & Out/Brothers Gunna Work It Out [MoTown Disco]

“Brothers Gunna Work It Out” is my favourite side of this release. It features a spectacular intro, a great message and all what is good in black socially conscious music. Willie Hutch stayed actively producing music up until his death in 2005. His back catalogue is also worth a delve, those that enjoy good soul music which is funky as much as it is political should look no further.

  • Brandi Ifgray – Mono/Bones (Maurice Faulton Remxies) [Puu]

I heard this on Bill Brewster’s DJ History Podcast a couple of weeks back, it’s a cheap purchase at Discogs and like a lot of Maurice Faulton remixes like his popular remix of ‘The Rapture – House Of Jealous Lovers’ it holds a great party sound, his remix of Bones has a great bouncing slap bass. It’s worth tracking down, shame there is no YouTube video.

  • Smith and Mudd – The Delivery Man [Claremont 56]

The usual deep Balearic Sunday afternoon music from the mighty Smith and Mudd, I will one day have all the Claremont 56 releases.

  • The Commodores – Machine Gun (Situation Edit)

“Machine Gun” is one of my favourite funk tracks but I have always felt it needed some extra time to open up when playing it out, the build up before the famous clavinet instrumentation comes in is just as good if not better than the first big drop of tension in the track. The original intro was always my favourite part and was used brilliantly in the movie ‘Boogie Nights’. This edit by Situation is edited perfectly, proof that simple edits of great records is all that in actuality is really needed.

  • SessoMato – Sessomato [West End Records]

There is a great bit of info on Discogs about this record.

The very first release on Mel Cheren’s West End Records. For this release Mel asked the famous upcoming star DJ Jimmy Stuard, from a New York nightclub 12 West, to do the final mixing. Jimmy agreed and while listening to the master tape he discovered there was still some more space free on it. So after asking Mel if he could use that empty space to add some personal ideas, he played around with the tape, returned it, playing it backwards and ending up obtaining a weird loud and harsh scratchy sound which he instantly loved. With Mel’s agreement Jimmy managed to fit it in the song and thanks to the success of it, he is since known as the pioneer of a unique DJ technique that would be born out of this, the scratch! Grandmaster Flash remembered later on that this record was what brought the idea of the scratch, because many early hip hop DJ’s used Sessamoto in their sets and wanted to duplicate and recreate that great particular sound with other vinyls. Being the very first record mixed by Jimmy it was unfortunately also his last. During a fire at the Everard Baths in Manhattan in May 1977, he died while he was asleep. Before this US disco release, the track was already known as the soundtrack for the Italian Movie “Sessomato” out of 1973. The title then was translated in English as “How Funny Can Sex Be ?” Sesso Matto in Italian literally means Mad Sex.

The re-release comes with a Idjut Boys remix which is their usual style of dubbed out disco music, it’s a cool remix which works well but not as good as the massive original. Dangerous Minds penned a great post on the much loved Loft/Paradise Garage classic.

  • David Joseph – You Cant Hide (Your Love From Me) [Island]
A timeless UK Funk record that sounds of its time but still incredibly relevant. You can’t disagree either with a sleeve photo like that. I heard this through the much-loved Larry Levan remix, however after listening further to David Joseph’s work I think the original is by far the best. Check out below a live performance, found of course, on YouTube.

As a bit of extra shameless additional promo, I am playing the end of next month again at The Lord Clifden in Birmingham as part of Birmingham night “Collective”. The night is promoted by a good friend of mine and fellow local DJ “Steve Thornton”, whenever I have played at Collective its been always a good one, Steve makes sure the calibre of DJ’s fit in with his own personal tastes so it usually party music to start the weekend off. I love playing records there.

Hopefully you can make it too.

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Brum Notes

Posted on April 7, 2012 by

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I interviewed for local music magazine BrumNotes a few weeks back, I caught up with experimental/folk/post rocker Ben Holton from My Autumn Empire, that interview has been featured in the April edition of the magazine. I got some great answers, some of which could not be featured so I may upload the interview here soon.

On the 20th of this month at the Ikon there is a label showcase and album launch for My Autumn Empire and Waysides and Woodlands, going on the label releases and his last album it looks to be a good one. Only £5 in which is cool also.

If you can’t be bothered with killing the trees there is a digital editor of BrumNotes available here.

Happy Easter y’all.

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Finding a Halo

Posted on March 21, 2012 by

Yesterday I noticed on twitter that Hyperdub were tweeting and retweeting all the feedback they were getting concerning the fact that they had Laurel Halo signed for an album for the label, this meant nothing to me. I had never heard of Laurel Halo until yesterday, so I thought as I am a fan of Hyperdub that I should check her out.

Laurel Halo comes from Ann Arbor, she is 25 years of age, previously a college radio DJ, a classical pianist, an orchestra constituent and a noise maker. She has released two E.P.’s and is ready to release an album, she is also considered to be making some of the most interesting electronic music around by various websites such as Fact Magazine and Pitchfork.

I first had a listen to her Hour Logic E.P. earlier today – and it was a grand place to start, picture a mixture of voodoo Oneohtrix Point Never crossed between an industrial version band covering Can records and you could be just about there. It’s an evocative E.P. which is full of vaporous music that carries textured haunted modernist emotions full of cerebral blare that is chilling as much as it is joyous. “Head” my favourite track from the E.P. is fucking nuts, that’s all I can say on it really – just complete headfuckery that builds and builds into a gradual schizophrenic intensity and then drops into rhythms which are jazzy as much as they are interstellar.

Her previous “King Felix E.P.” is a more poppier affair, not nearly as barmy but still out of the ordinary and unique – there are more vocals this time which hit strange and baroque notes which makes its more strangely akin to Kate Bush in Wuthering Heights mode than anything, hyper and angelically edgy.

I am aware this blog post could maybe indicate that it’s a nerdy album which demands listeners attention, for me it’s the sort of music which is instantaneously ear grabbing and just the sort of music a muso would take pleasure in listening to for it’s freshness and modernity, this for me is in 2012 is becoming harder and harder to achieve.

For Laurel Halo to be signed to Hyperdub makes a lot of sense, what I really admire about Hyperdub as a label is how it stands up and continues to release records in new directions whilst taking accomplished and achieved risks. For me that leaves it being one of the most go-to labels around at the moment, something which will prove to be an asset to Laurel Halo as much as Laurel Halo will be to Hyperdub. We can look forward to a culmination of two very exciting fundamentals coming as one to make judders in music for 2012 – you have been fully warned, and you will be feeling the shock waves.

Here is an interview Laurel Halo did for The Quietus

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Some bits of writing

Posted on March 13, 2012 by

It has been longer than usual since I have updated here, this is because in between my usual day to day business I have been writing for a website and also some friends. I enjoy writing about music, it is something I want take a bit more seriously now so there may be a few more posts like this hopefully over time. I thought a few links to the pieces I wrote may be of some interest so here they are below for you to peruse.

This was a review of the new Marc Houle LP ‘Undercover’.

I also reviewed the much discussed Scuba album ‘Personality’ which I enjoyed listening to.

Beautiful weather isn’t it !

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A Hip Hop Comic Strip

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

I have been reading “Can’t Stop Wont Stop – A History of the Hip Hop Generation” by Jeff Chang over the past month, I like these sort of books which look at music culture and influence in an analytical process. Jeff Chang spent 10 years researching for the book, delving deep into the world of DJ Kool Herc’s New York Block Parties in the Bronx right through to South Central Los Angeles government legislation and its effect on street knowledge.

The book covers the 4 foundations of Hip Hop – Rapping, DJing, Graffiti and Break Dancing – whilst putting the whole genre of the music into context and relation to the world it came from. It’s a great read, not overly wordy but able to keep a flow of exciting stories and anecdotes from the founders as well as the fans. There are some unreal stories of Afrika Bambatta and his Zulu Nation philosophy right through to the effect of the 1992 LA riots and how close the gangs were to stopping the rioting before it happened.

Chang demonstrates the important need to reference history from the 60′s right through to the millennium with the political and social stance Hip Hop maintains, whilst taking you on a journey through the turbulent, joyous and world changing years of one of the most unique music styles to ever come out of America.

Anyway, I found this which I think is super cool. It looks at the roots of hip hop in a internet comic book style and it is by artist Ed Piskor, there are a few in the series but I like the one below in particular which loosely connects with the book I highly recommend if you have the chance to read.

Jeff Chang also has a great politics/culture blog, which is worth your time for sure. If I can point you to his excellent post on the relationship of libraries and used record stores in particular.

This is also a cool interview which coincided with the book release.of him.

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the 14th of February sends people nuts….

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

It is the 14th of February, which means the world is full of love filled, love lost folks, or people who don’t care about the date. I am stuck in the middle; I agree it’s good to be merry and that celebrating is healthy. I am just not certain of the constant ramming of who got the best valentines on Facebook values and the need to publicly consume and demonstrate your affection to someone. Understandably you don’t have to do these things but it does seem the majority follow this usually out of the ordinary behaviour.

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That said, I made this card, I thought it was pretty bright if I do say so myself.

I also found this on twitter, which I also thought was neat. It has an element of love which fits in nicely with valentines day. I seem to be showing a lot of video content on the blog at the moment, I’ll do some proper lettering when I find something to write about.

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Some of the records I have bought this month.

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

Usually I do a “music I like” post for each month, this month it’s all vinyl so it’s not entirely new music but more so things I have picked up from a few stores and online.

  • Gino Soccio – Try It Out

A disco classic which found it’s place at The Paradise Garage, great message, arrangement, horns and a superb funk bass line to top it off.

  • Johnny Bristol – Love No Longer Has A Hold On Me

The Idjut Boys did an edit of this which I am still trying to get hold of, nevertheless the original is pure break up emotion. I have played this every day since I picked it up, the original was more of a hit in Europe than in America which is surprising. Johnny Bristol has recorded with Earth Wind and Fire, Tom Jones, Diana Ross and The Supremes amongst others.  Hands in the air for this track.

  • Jay Dee ft Frank N Dank – Off Ya Chest/Take Dem Clothes Off

If you needed to explain a great J Dilla record through beats this would be the one, it came out on the Dillanthology 3 a few years back. Dilla in aggro mode, I love it.

  • 6th Borough Project – Do It To The Max [Instruments of Rapture]


This came out in 2009, just before everyone started going edit crazy. The A Side is an edit of Xavier’s – Do It To The Max and the B Side is of Hi Gloss – You’ll Never Know.  A bass heavy low slung house and disco amalgamation. Craig Smith and The Revenge are true masters at making great edits and bad boy club music.

  • Carly Simon – Why [WEA Records]

Chic played and made the music, Carly Simon did the vocals. You can tell it’s Chic straight away as it has the electro groove and funk credentials, the B Side is the instrumental and is just as good as the A side which in essence is a testimonial to Chic and their music. Another Larry Levan floor filler. Everyone knows it, everyone should own it.

  • White Elephant – Sir John [Redux]

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous Balearic music. White Elephant is Benjamin Smith from Smith and Mudd and Jim Baron/Chris Todd from Crazy P. A great partnership by description and a release which is all what you need in respectable balearic music full of guitars, krauty rock abstraction and a stonker of a Mark E remix to finish the package off.

That is about it from the vinyl side of things this month, there were some other buys but these were the ones worth shouting about. 

Happy Monday all.

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