Nitzer Ebb live - Edinburgh February 1989

This is another of Chris Low's collection of tapes he has generously loaned me.  The recording is not super amazing, but it's still great to get a feeling what a live industrial/EBM concert sounded more than 20 years ago.  I think Chris recorded this by carrying a boombox into the venue.  Check out the parties he's doing now.

Industrial and EBM music is having a bit of a moment now with parties like the Endurance party which has happened a few times at the Korsan Bar on Kingsland Road.   We used to play some of this stuff at the Come parties we did back in 2008 in Dalston and I've been djing New Beat and industrial stuff for a while now cause the raw synth sounds are amazing.  I like to pick the stuff that is slightly more poppy cause some of it can be a bit hardcore for the unitiated.  Another track I really like right now is Fire by Dance or Die.

FYI, Douglas McCarthy did some projects recently with Terrence Fixmer who was a key part of the Electroclash scene on International Deejay Gigolo records, for those that remember.

Anyhoo, enjoy.  I've ripped out a live version from this set of the track Hearts and Minds and also included the version off the album so you can compare.  But pop over to itunes and buy the complete Belief album.  This set was from different albums from 85-90 - my favorite era.  Can you believe they started in 1983?!!

Merry EBM Christmas!!




Side A
(yousendit) (rapidshare)

Fitness To Purpose

Warsaw Ghetto

Violent Playground

Let Beauty Loose (not on tracklisting)

Blood Money

Hearts and Minds

Join in the Chant

For Fun

Murderous

Side B

(yousendit) (rapidshare)

Let Your Body Learn

Control I'm Here

Hearts and Minds (album version) (buy from Itunes)

(direct link)

Hearts and Minds live version in Edinburgh 1989

(direct link)

DJ Quark mixtape - Tex Mex

I have a lovely friend called Yasmina Dexter who writes the blog Pandora's Jukebox.  She is also a fashion muse (meaning she works for and has her claws in a variety of unimpugnable fashion lights).  She also djs as Pandora's Jukebox and on occasion has deigned to do so with me.  Knowing that I have a thing for the little tapes she finally gave me a bit of a collection she has.  Most them were made by her old flame DJ Quark, known by his mother as Jono and currently incarnated as Ping Specialist.

All I have ever wanted to be is a dj who can play all kinds of music together in a way that surprises and delights.  So people always ask me what kind of music I play, and what I really want to say is, "Just lots of great stuff" rather than "house music" or "drone rock".  Whether or not I can actually do that is a matter for history to decide.  But Dj Quark actually mixes together an unusual but fabulous variety of oddities and rarities from trip hop to acid dub darkness beatz.  I could only identify the Future Sound of London track on Side A.  But DJ Quark helped me to identify a few of the other tracks.  A number of them come from the Irdial label which had an interesting philosophy of putting its music out to download for free.  You can read about Irdial catalogue here and find more to download here.  One of their seminal artists, Insync's track Storm I have also made available for download below.  Air Liquide is another great artist with a mix of ambient and acid sounds.  And there's some really good slightly electronic dub from the Club Meets Dub compilation vol. 01 you can buy here.

The Future Sound Of London - You're Creeping Me Out (buy on Itunes)

InSync - Storm

Air Liquide - Liquid Air

Dubolition - Blaah

The Disciples - Cool Down

Side A - listen or download

Side B - listen or download

Taras 3000 and Schleusolz

Some new music has come my way.  This first track is from my friend Dima who djs and throws the best parties in Moscow.  He is also known as Taras3000. He probably thinks this track is too cheesy and pop, but I think it's some of the best work he's done.  You can read about his Idle Conversation party here. And more here.  The band is called Slideshow Park from Xuman records, which looks like a cool little label.

Slideshow Park - Shining (Taras3000 remix)   (yousendit)

Schleusolz is a Frankfurt, Germany band that contacted me out of the blue on Myspace.  They exhibit a trait I often find in German bands, they use something from the past in a clever new way.  Here are 60's sort of sounds looped in a sort of Pilooski-ish way.  Very catchy.  Check the latest songs on their myspace as well cause this is the only free one they sent me.

Schleusolz - Polyphobia

live sets from Armando and Farley Jackmaster Funk on WBMX 1987-1988

Not much to say here and I don't have a tracklist but these are both excellent early house mixes in decent quality sound.  One side is Armando (also referred to as Land of Confusion Capital One) and is quite intense amazing analog sounding acid.  The Farley set is more fun but not necessarily as good quality sound.  I found this different Farley set (search for the DHP mix 600 with Joe Smooth in it) with tracklisting that is really great with Ten City tracks etc. (by the way, isn't it amazing how much Byron Stingily sounds like Sylvester in Ten City).

Armando live set on WBMX Chicago 1987 direct download

Farley Jackmaster Funk live set on WBMX Chicago 1988 direct download

Frankie Knuckles live mix from WBMX Chicago 1986

This is a mix by Frankie Knuckles mixing live on the Chicago radio station WBMX on a saturday in 1986. Frankie Knuckles was one of the seminal djs who helped build house music. But when you see this tape titled "deep house" you may think of what you know as deep house today. This is actually a mix of excellent mid 80s soul-disco and jackin' and acid-ish house (which is probably what you would expect from this era). I love listening to these mixes to see the development from really good hard disco into house - it is this crux which has long term been one of my favorite sounds. What's also exciting is that while there are a few other Frankie Knuckles live mixes from this time in the internet it looks like this one is not available.

This tape is part of a collection of excellent live mixes from amazing djs like Jeff Mills, Ron Hardy, DJ Sneak and others that were lent to be my Chris Low, an excellent dj in his own right from back in the day (and no, not the Pet Shop Boys dude). His biog is here. Here you can check out his Edinburgh party Benetti & Low. I am very excited/grattitudinous for this donation and you will get to hear lots of great stuff in the next few weeks that is so far not widely avaiable. You can read more about Chris hear and catch up on one of his regular dj gigs.

Tracklisting info - this mix starts off in the middle of Future Brain - Den Harrow, then cuts into a lengthened version of Baby I'm Scared of You by Womack & Womack, which is really the high point of this mix. I had forgotten that the second half of the track has this great driving break with kind of a breakbeat and the male/female vocals going back and forth. The original track is only like 5 minute long but here Frankie plays it out more than 8 minutes and it's also sped up which makes it sound much better. Then it breaks into We Got The Funk by Positive Force and then into an early house track I don't recognize. B side has First Choice - Let No Man Put Asunder and some other excellent early jackin house stuff.

The thing that strikes me as I listened to this is that it really feels like the djs were playing in a groove where the crowd was meant to just dance and dance and dance in ecstasy to a track for a hours on end. Whereas most of the dj sets I see these days are either really hard or really catchy/ironic. There's no long term groove. Even when it's disco, it's italo which is less groovey. Someone's got to bring that back in a space that's cool. We need you Paradise Garage. Maybe it's going on at Horse Meat Disco - I gotta get down there.

Baby I'm Scared of You ripped from mix with radio announcer (direct download)
Buy on itunes.

Side A

Side B 

Rap History 2007 mixtape

This blog has generally been known for posting music that is either rare or at least not recently in the spotlight. This mixtape on the other hand is essentially a mix of some of the top chart hip hop pop from 2007 - so it might seem like an odd choice for the blog. But I've been suddenly feeling like I've not heard any hip hop for a long while and in 2007 I was DEFINITELY mostly ignoring this genre. It is also a very good selection. So even though it includes 50 Cent, Lupe Fiasco, Kid Sister, and Cool Kids, it emphasizes my philosophy on music - there is no such thing as a bad genre of music or a bad time for music, no matter how recent - there is only such a thing as boring music. And that's a personal issue.

Given to me by artist friend Sam Porritt, who borrowed it from a friend's car who he was temporarily using. I think it's of Swiss origin - from raphistory.net, though I can't tell who CNDR or Motorcycle John are. Download, plug in, ride the tube, listen. Enjoy. Then probably next month I'll be droppin more Das EFX and Black Uhuru in my sets.

Side A - direct link (Rapidshare)

Side B - direct link (Rapidshare)

I'm also djing tonight (Thursday, the 22nd) at the Old Blue Last at the corner of Curtain Road and Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. And on Sunday I'm djing at 8 pm at the Dogstar as part of the Oxjam Festival. I'm particularly proud to be part of this as my blog and djing has been linked to Oxfam from the very beginning (though really only by name only :)). I might choose to play a set of tracks which only come from tapes I've bought in Oxfam shops. It's the only UK show of A-Trak for some time and Annie Mac, Isa GT, David Sugar and many others are also playing. No guestlist as it's a charity event - more info and ticket links here.

First ever blog Minimix

I have done a number of podcasts that were recorded live at Durrr (also here) or other parties. And I've done radio shows live for Diesel you can find on the blog previously here. But it's a very different thing to make a podcast where you carefully mix the tracks and pick each track to fit together within a theme, not considering the live element. I finally learned enough Ableton to do this mix and even though the mixing has got a hitch or two here or there, I'm really happy with this first mix (podcast if you wanna call it that).

At first glance this may just seem like another high energy or disco mix and you may think that's a bit tired as disco is all over the place since last summer. I chose these tracks however because I think each of them is unique from the average disco track, even from most high nrg, and because they have all stuck in my head and those of my friends over the last few months. Each track is also quite rare and hard to find. For me this is the essence of a great mix, hearing a sound that stands out for the quality of each of the tracks, while also being unknown and new to the listener. This is also pretty much the mix I played last Friday at the Catch bar 10th birthday party where I opened for Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve (Erol Alkan's other project).

Track Listing

Tone Band - Tokyo Twist (12" version) - I discovered this track on the Smylonylon 30 tape posted on this blog. I had to order it from Germany as it was nowhere to be found for download. It's surprisingly fast but somehow has a hypnotic driving pattern as well as the hilarious Japanese discussion. An ideal for this sound, sort of like Telex.

Nena - Nur Geträumt - everyone plays 99 Luftballons, but this is the best one, especially if you listen to it on vinyl, for the driving disco bit on the break. Also the vid is hilarious and hot. Yet another chick who prefers guys who look like Richard Marx to me.

Lori & The Chamelons — Touch (Casey Jones Eurodance Disconet mix) - I ripped this out of the Casey Jones mix done for Disconet available on No Guts No Glory here. This is significantly better than the original, which is a bit too 80s and dry. This one has got fantastic little synth punches throughout. But still the best thing is the amazing sexy vocal and how she loves Japanese boy Kato.

International Music System - Bonus Single "Joke" - International Music System is one of those bands that everyone talks about in the New Beat/Italo vein as being SOOOO amazing. Most people love the An English track from the same LP, but I was listening to the vinyl recently and suddenly heard this track and thought WHOA!

Secret Service - Flash in the Night (Casey Jones Eurodance Disconet mix) - OK, a bit unfair to rip out two Casey Jones remixes, but they are both just soo good. When the heavy wave of synth strings come in at the beginning of this track . . .

Nick Straker Band - A Walk in the Park - I have loved Nick Straker's A Little Bit of Jazz and Up Jumped the Devil for years now, but only recently did I hear this one on a comp. Somehow more eurodance than the others.

Golem Edits - La Toubana - this is an edit (though I can't quite tell the difference from the original) of Kassav's Lagué Moin. A good way to end the mix as I am also known for having a big heart for African influenced beats. This really sounds like NY early 80s disco, but it's actually by an african band and has a bit of a soca structure to it. Perhaps a bit odd for the rest of the mix, but I really love the track if you listen to it for a while the synth guitar gets under the skin.

Dalston Oxfam Shop blog first Minimix - October 2009

photographs from old Zoom and Glamour mags

When I was in Marseille last weekend I picked up a bunch of old Glamour and Zoom (photography) mags from the 80s and early 90s. In addition to djing and writing about old rare cassette music on this blog, I do a lot of amateur photography. There were so many amazing old images in the mags that I decided to post some of them. I am particulary interested in creating the really saturated color film effect you get in some of the 70s photographs. But I understand that it's partly from film and processing that you can't get amymore, like slow speed Kodachrome.

The image of Grace Jones is from an article about the design of some of her album covers by Jean-Paul Goude. I also love the image from Goa of the white kids worshipping one of their own on drugs.













The following images were all from Glamour mags. I think if I was to be a woman, my ideal style would be the woman on the motorbike. So now. In contrast the outfit Naomi is wearing, I don't see that coming back anytime soon but maybe I'm missing something.

NME 021 - Pogo a Go Go!

Here is another of the rare NME cassettes released with the magazine in the early 80s, a number of which you can find elsewhere on this blog. These tapes featured a variety of styles from jazz, pop, reggae, even african, to punk, which is what they tape is. Each of them has a lot of tracks from bands that are quite obscure and impossible to find elsewhere. This one has unreleased tracks from the Sex Pistols and The Clash that are not released. Even though this compilation came out on CD, the unreleased tracks were not included. So this is the only place you can find them.

Unfortunately, the cassette quality is not so amazing. Some of the last tracks on the B side, such as the Buzzcocks track have a slight waiver in the pitch and the Sex Pistols track has a bit of a buzz in it now and then. But it's great to hear the Sex Pistols guy say something at the end of the demo recording. And the tracks by The Fall, Elvis Costello and The Slits are all good quality and also fantastic tracks. "Part Time Punks" is also great for its tale (even when punk was big) about people who do Punk for the aesthetic, not for the principle. Aesthetic is my principle, though, and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm a punk in other ways.

A1 Sex Pistols - Satellite (Suburban Kid) (unreleased version)
A2 Undertones - True Confessions
A3 Nipple Erectors - King Of The Bop
A4 Television Personalities - Part Time Punks
A5 Sham 69 - Borstal Breakout
A6 The Damned - Stretcher Case Baby
A7 Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Watching The Detectives
A8 The Stranglers - Choosey Susie
A9 Victim - Strange Thing By Night

B1 The Clash - 1977 (demo)
B2 Johnny Moped - Incendiary Device
B3 Slits - Typical Girls
B4 Alternative TV - Love Lies Limp
B5 Swell Maps - Read About Seymour
B6 The Jam - In The City
B7 The Fall - Bingo Master's Breakout
B8 Subway Sect - Ambition
B9 Wire - Dot Dash
B10 Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict

DJ Tom T rave tape - early 90s

Another excellent rave tape made by the unknown DJ Tom T in the early 90s. This was sent to me by Mel who sent me the Tynynyny tape from the previous blog post. He told me he collected this from the early 90s in the Washington DC area but that's about all the info I have. Any tips would be encouraged about Tom T or the tracks. There is one track in particular that I have ripped out from the middle of side A that is really stand out. I'd love to find the whole track (it appears to have a sample of Dux Dux Featuring Nikki Carter ‎– Yes, You Got Her Keep On Pushing Harder.

Side A

Track ripped from Side A

Side B

Also I want to direct your attention to a genuine new talent. Hounds of Hate (my Hackney neighbor Stan) has produced a complete mixtape which you can buy (says it's sold out). The tape is a collab with Hype Williams. Once again, first featured on this blog, now featured on the NME. In my opinion, his standout track so far is Phantasy Re-Up featured on No Pain in Pop.

tynynyny volume two sixties spage age bachelor pad pop

This is 60s pop, or as it is often described "spage age bachelor pad music". This came out around 95-96 done by the same guys that did Smylonylon (also now part of In Flagranti) and you can see a similar style in the early Smylonylon tape posted on the blog here. Around that time there was a big upswing in interest in 60s hipster parties, especially in NY and Hollywood, which also coincided with the release of the early Vince Vaughn movie Swingers. I moved to NY in 1996 and just caught the tale of this party scene where I met some of my best friends. Tynynyny was one of the parties and another was the 999999's which used to go on at Flamingo East in which Penelope Tuesdae, my very favorite friend Lasia, and DJ Fancy were involved (Dj Fancy later appeared as the genius behind fantastic girl group Fannypack). I also met Chris McClary there who since moved to Cali and is behind the great website See Spot Ride featuring dogs riding in cars.  There is even mention of this party in the mid 90s in the New York Times. This was originally unhip spage age according to this New York Times article and the music was often put together to demonstrate the technical capacities of new equipment that had just been released.

First track on side A is the intro to the german version of Sesame Street called Der, Die, Das, and I believe it originally came out on this album called "Sesamstraße - Der, Die, Das - Und Andere Lustige Lieder Und Lernspiele", in case anyone wants to send it to me.

But the most amazing 2 tracks appear in the middle of side A and I haven't been able to Shazam the names of the first one so any help would be appreciated. I've ripped them to listen to as individual tracks below. The second one is very well known Popcorn track by Hot Butter.

The first track on side B is the great Sunshower track linked below by the same band that did Cherchez Le Femme.I want to thank the very lovely fashion god Mel Ottenberg for sending me these and other cassettes. I will be featuring a rave cassette he sent me later in the week.

download Side A 

download Side B

Side A track rip 1 (name?)

Side A track rip 2 (Popcorn by Hot Butter) Listen to 79 (yes 79) versions of the same song on WFMU here, including version by Prodigy, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin. I like the Klaus Wunderlich version best.

from Side B - Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Sunshower

D-Frost 20 Global Dance Warnings

You've been warned!! (cause they're global dance warnings - get it? ;))

"My name is Barbarella. I'm from planet earth." This is Sven Vath work from when he first started playing techno. Great story of his about how he built up clubs and developed himself in Frankfurt in the mid to late 80s. I was at Dorian Gray in 91.

I think side A of this cassette is a bit lame, but side 2 has a number of hits I've posted individually below. I particularly love the Dreams of Heaven, which was from an Australian one hit wonder, and rumored to play in the nightclub scenes of soap opera Neighbors.

Complete side B - listen streaming here

B01	West End	The Love I Lost
		Featuring - Sybil
B02	K.W.S.	The KWS Hitmix
B03	System 7	7:7 Expansion
B04	Naughty By Nature	Hip Hop Hooray
B05	Jump	Funkatarium
B06	Ground Level	Dreams Of Heaven
B07	Praga Khan Featuring Jade 4U	Phantasia Forever
B08	A Separate Reality	I'll Take You There
		Featuring - Shelley P
B09	Air Tattoo	Synaesthesia
B10	Barbarella	Barbarella 2 (sharebee) (direct link)

goodbye Michael - we'll miss you

As an indication of my admiration and respect for Michael Jackson I'm just doing a one off post to say goodbye. I don't care how weird you may seem to the mainstream - weirdness is usually what makes people extra special and successful.

Below is the remix of thriller made by Hampus Drake (I believe) which I used to play all the time and one of my favorite tunes of all time. And the vid above is probably one of my favorite for the way he dances.

G-Rock- Thriller

Live interviews with bloggers - Diesel U Music radio show

I did a radio show in Diesel U Music on Monday and interviewed bloggers from the following big blogs in between playing tracks they recommended and some of my own. We discussed lots about the blogging world, how it works, how they choose tracks, the music industry, etc.

PROGRAM

Ground level - Dreams of Heaven
No Name - Cosmic Rave (Aeroplane chart)

[interview with Lukas - WFMU blog]

Anne-James Chaton / Andy Moor - Dans le monde
Djemila - L'Homme a la Moto

[interview with Austen - Palmsout blog]

RGBs - STAR JUMPS (Urchins remix)
Duck Sauce - Anyway

[interview with Clive - ylow.blogspot.com]

Perry Ernest & The Afro Vibrations - Ozioma (Message)
Farce Majeure Team - Doe't Voor Het te Laat is
U K W - Sommersprossen

[interview with Amy - Trash Menagerie blog]

Black Box - I Don't Know (KINGDOM REMIX)
Blue Beat Allstars - Something Like That

[interview with Martin - discobelle.net blog]

L-vis 1990 - United Groove

Something for Your Mind - Speedy J

[interview with Stuart - 20jazzfunkgreats blog]

Ritalin (Taras3000 remix) - Twices

listen streaming below

Listen live NOW to other great programs on Diesel U Music here.

a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. - pullover '92 Belgian techno acid mixtape

This is probably my favorite cassette I've posted on the blog right now.  It's such the sound I'm looking for.  I feel like disco is starting to get overplayed and  there are rarely new discoveries that are amazing that I don't know.  Electro bangers are fine, but that's been going on for a while now.  Pop-synth stuff is great, but there are few and far between tracks that are great.  So 1992 Belgian techno acid just sounds so fresh to me.  I am not as crazy about the big hardcore sound right now that I've previously posted on here, things like James Brown is Dead, etc.

I found this cassette in a thrift shop behind Hackney Central.  The Pullover side appears to be almost a duplicate of side 2 of the Serious Beats 4 cassette.  But I can't identify the tracks on the a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side so any track id tips would be lovely.

 

a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side

sample track from a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side ("I wanna be your finger")

Pullover side 

Here are a few tracks from the PULLOVER side.  They are slightly different versions than in the  mix.

DHS - House of God (Unholy version)

I also want to hype the UK Soundclash ipod competition coming up this Tuesday, the 9th. I've been invited to compete in a team with Matthew Stone.  Lots of other good djs competing with us such as Crookers, Girlcore, Nova and others.  I  think Matthew and I will go for the conceptual vote.  It's all about the popularity though so come down and scream for us to win.  Winners are measured by the loudness of the crowd.  Tickets here.

various news - live radio show - Diesel

Just a quick note to say that I just did a live radio show on Diesel radio with new music personally recommended by writers from Discobelle, WFMU, Palms Out Sounds, Big Stereo, 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Trash Menagerie and Ylow blog.  I also played some of my own favorite tracks including some classic house, rare italo and new beat.  You can listen here at 3-5 am Sunday morning the 17th (that's tomorrow morning) and also 9-11 pm on Sunday the 17th.  I will do another show at some point and this one will be posted here to download.

click on "radio" to hear the show here:  http://cult.diesel.com/radio

Also I'm djing tomorrow night at the Lock Tavern (Sunday evening, the 17th) for Kai's party (from Mystery Jets).  Details are the following.  I'm on from 9-11.

Madhouse Urban Jungle at the lock tavern, Sunday 17 May. Featuring: The Jacks, Is Tropical (ex Ratty Rat Rat) and Nick Mulvey (Portico   Quartet), with Dj sets from Madhouse Djs, Blonde Ambition and Special   guest Todd Hart (Dalston Oxfam Blog). Bands from 7 pm. Free entry +   Special Sunday Surprises

And last night we went to a local party Can't You Want To put on by various punk/garage friends with Pandora's Jukebox (Yasmin) djing.  It was fantastic music and the band Not Cool played live.  They were REALLY tight and a great live show. So keep an eye out for them - you can listen to tracks on their myspace but you should really hear them live to appreciate how tight they are.

Rough Trade C09 cassette

Rough Trade just put out a new limited edition cassette in the vein of other NME cassettes such as C86 from back in the day. So even though almost all the tracks have been widely blogged (check hypem.com) I simply had to cover it (considering all the similar cassettes that I've put up here) and Rough Trade had sent me a copy, and I like them :). The only track that appears to fairly exclusive is the Clark Kunt's remix of Micachu. In the end I couldn't extract a recording of the cassette that was quality enough (even though sometimes, such a with the african cassettes, the tapes sound fantastic) so I compiled the mp3s from other blogs.

All in all, the music on here is really good. My favorite track has to be (hands down) the Cure cover by the Mystery Jets. Such a good track. I dj'd with Will and Kai from the Mystery Jets in Ghent last weekend and they played a fantastic banging set (with excellent mixing skills). Will is going to come down and dj with me downstairs at Catch this Thursday at 22 Kingsland Road in Shoreditch. It's free if you want to come along.

[edit: I've put the Micachu track up now cause it's exclusive to this blog and this cassette]

A1 Jarvis - Angela
A2 Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen In Your Dreams
A3 Micachu - Lips (Clark Kunt's Heavy Mental Mix)
A4 Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - Whistle Past The Graveyard
A5 Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me
A6 Little Joy - Brand New Start
A7 God Help The Girl - Musician, Please Take Heed
A8 The Decemberists - The Rake's Song

B1 Super Furry Animals - Inaugural Trams
B2 The Veils - Three Sisters
B3 Antony & The Johnsons - Shake That Devil
B4 Mystery Jets - In Between Days
B5 1990s - The Box
B6 The Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis
B7 British Sea Power - No Man Is An Archipelago

djng this week in Nottingham and Ghent, Belgium

I'm so lame that I've been so busy to actually post music, which is too bad.  Last weekend at the Land of Kings festival, Lou & Nova rocked it out, as did Rory Phillips and super special guest Disco 3000 (Erol Alkan).  I got lucky to play just before Erol so I tried to lay down a disco set. It was amazing to play for that kind of crowd and play whatever I wanted, which happened to be mostly new synth disco.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm playing for the Liar's Club 6th Birthday.   All around the lineup is fantastic, but I want to give a special mention to Maria & the Mirrors which is actually one of my favorite live acts right now.  I can't explain it other than I feel like they could have stepped out of Warhol's factory.  Read about them on my previous review here.

I'm also djing on Friday night, the 24th at the Make Up club for I Heart Niyi's party in Ghent, Belgium.  More details on the party's facebook page.

Luckily for both parties I've been told that anything goes.  It so happens that I'm crazy about this track right now.  I just kind of works, especially if you listen for a while.  I think one of the reasons I love Empire of the Sun so much is their very excellent production.  I think the songwriting is just very well done, but the production is out of this world.  I like this other track by Dream Academy, which is quite similar, which might also seem quite naff, just because the production is excellent.

Empire of the Sun - We Are the People (cagedbaby remix)

Dream Academy - Love Parade

Land of Kings Festival in Dalston this Thursday and Friday

I'm behind on my posts here cause I have a great idea but it's taking me a while to post it. I'm going to post a mix I've made of new music that I'm crazy about before I go back to posting some more cassettes.

In the meantime, come to the Land of Kings festival this Thursday and Friday, the 16th and 17th of April. I'm djing on Friday night with Lou and Nova and Rory from Trash/Durrr along with a special secret guest who can't put up with Disco from our millenium so he has to go for the year 3000 (yeah!). We're playing at the Stone Cave from 11 pm (111 Kingsland High Street). It's a freaky cave restaurant so should be good. Also playing at the festival are An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, David E. Sugar, Serge Santiago, Colouring In, Kathy Diamond, Allez Allez and many more. It's cheap and you can get tix on the day. You've come a long way baby Dalston! You can read more about it by clicking on the picture above which is my first full page article in Timeout.

WJLB - Live at the Warehouse with Spin Doctor Kim James - 1999

This is a gift from my friend Bohdan who is from Detroit and used to listen to this station, WJLB all the time on the weekend. He recorded this in 1999. It's full booty/ghetto/hip hop recorded live at the Warehouse in Detroit. The tracks are fantastic but even better is listening to the dj Spin Doctor Kim James work the crowd - calling out the playas and the hoes and pointing out girls he thinks are hot. All around it's an energy that I feel like I don't hear in clubs in London these days. I know that booty made a bit of a round on the dj circuit maybe 2-3 years ago, but this is like I've never heard it. Anyone who can name check some of the tracks, like the track where she says "if it's the last thing I do, I wanna go down on you", please post names in the comments. I gotta have it. I've posted one track from Dj Godfather which is in the mix with the great line "you got dem PHDs, dat's da 'playa hate disease'".

I'm off tomorrow to Miami for two weeks for the Winter Music Conference and to have fun. Going to go to Erol Alkan gig's, the Durrr gig and the disco pool party at the Gansevoort. If you're in Miami shoot me an e-mail. And if you want me to dj, I'll have my stuff with me. I got all kinds of freaky music, you know me. And I play for fun, not money :)

listen below.

side 1

side 2 

DJ Godfather and Coon Daddy - See U No More

EDIT: I managed to get my friend Pierre to identify the other track I like which you can download below.  I think you need to speed it up a bit to get the right effect.

Aaron Carl - Down (original mix)

Planet Rock 1 - various dance mixtape 1997

Finally emerging from an African cave where my musical ear has been for the last two months. I bought this fresh cassette a few months back at a car boot sale in Dalston from a guy called Paddy Austin.  He told me these were some of his favs for auto cruisin and I would need to return what I didn't use. Here's to you, Paddy, cause the first one reminded me of some of the great tracks that were out in 97, things like Aphrodite, Cornershop, Primal Scream, Fatboy Slim, and Propellerheads.  I so much love the Aphrodite - Bad Ass track that I dropped it at my dj set at Catch in Shoreditch last thursday - and the crowd asked for more!

Planet Rock 1 - side A (download/listen)

Planet Rock 1 - Side B (download/listen)

I also want to mention a lot of other things that I like right now, things I've seen recently, and things that are coming up.  

DJ GIGS

I'm djing at the Land of Kings festival on 17th of April.  Lots of good djs/bands at the festival so check the lineup - Kathy Diamond, Rory Phillips, Lou and Nova, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, Allez Allez and others.  Then the following Tuesday I'm also djing at the 6th birthday party of the Liar's Club in Nottingham with Health (live) and Banjo Freakout playing.  I hear they get their freak on in Nottingham, so I'm waiting to see.

NEW BANDS

I'm also creamed to the brim at randomly meeting two new musical projects in my neighborhood (that would be Hackney, creative center of the universe) that I really like.  One is ColouringIn (which sounds a lot like Empire of the Sun, which is totally the sound of now and my tip for the BBC Sound of 2009).  ColouringIn is "Love Minus Zero head honcho Tom Neville and opera singing former student of the Royal Academy turned electronic-upstart Henry Bennett" (plus a few others I think, such as my friend Marnie Hollande).  In other words, beautiful music with a fab operatic voice.  They've let me post a track below and I'm sure the record labels are panting.

Intergalactic Romantic (demo radio edit) - ColouringIn

The other band is a new project by uber mad synth fan neighbor Stan.  We hang out now and then and he just popped up the idea that he's working on some music last week and I was like "oh my god, here we go again, some lame ass project I'm going to have to be nice about but ignore".  But the music is beautiful and fantastic.  It's not a dance floor piece, more like a catwalk piece, or something to play in the background when you're working in your fashion studio not getting paid but filling your resume and lightly tapping your foot along.  Reminds me of that LCD Soundsystem track that was big - Someone Great.

Tumble Down Slow - Hounds of Hate

ART/OTHER THINGS

First of all, you have to check out this hilarious project Dollar Van Demos that someone sent me by e-mail (it's on youtube).  It's basically a taxi mixed with new artist shows.  The taxi is cheap and you get to check out some new artists.  Notice how different the vibe is in Brooklyn than in London.  Go Sally Connors.

I also saw some art I really liked at the Perrotin gallery in Paris a few weeks ago and as I'm increasingly interested in how undeveloped my taste in art is, I thought I would post some of my favorites so people can tell me why I have bad taste.  I really like Tatiana Trouve, and particularly this piece.  I also really like Jose Levy's show that was at Perrotin's gallery, but I guess he comes from fashion and it's not called "art" but rather "design" on the web page.  humph!  The chessboard of little mice he made was really great.  Finally, my fiance and I have been fans for some time of Rosa Loy, so now you know what I want for my Easter present.  I think it's because I'm somewhat drawn to the slight fairytale imagery, particularly stuff like this.

That's all for now.

Old is Gold vol. 1 - more Soukous

Well this is one more soukous cassette I brought back from Tanzania.  After this I'm going to go back to posting some other types of music but I will post more Tanzanian cassettes in the future.

This one is full of huge names and all of them have that dancey soukous sound I love.  I played a bunch of these at our Manifesto party last thursday night which was a smash pot of fun.   Thanks to those who came. We had more than 400 people in the Double Club that night and Taxi Pata Pata (Zong Zing in disguise) rocked it out.  Pictures here.  Fiston who plays in Taxi Pata Pata and Zong Zing told me that he used to play with Samba Mapangala, so you can get an idea of what it was like by listening to the tracks below.

Side A

Kabibi - Sam Mangwana

Marina - Samba Mapangala

Muzina - Tabu Ley

Ngandempa - P Adams

Cheche Dezo - T. Muana

Side B

Mboungou - Mayaula

Tojours Ok - Franco & Sam

Double Double - Nyboma

Dandy - Victoria Eleyson

Soukous Soukous - compilation tape

This tape is a compilation of some more amazing Soukous. I assume most of this is from Congo because it's not in Swahili, and the tracks are more of the soukous sound I love. Unfortunately even though there are lots of great names on the cover such as Danny Engobo and Pepe Kalle, none of the songs are tagged by artists. So I encourage anyone who reads this to tag the songs in the comments if you know them. I only included the songs which I like better. I think any one of them would make the dancefloor sizzle but I'm especially drawn to Soukous Tonic because of the fantastic guitar work.

Side A

Egide
Young Africa
Amina
Aziza
Pousse Au Fond

Side B

Soukous Tonic


Susie
Adie Amie
Salomon
Vacances Au Pays

I am also including a Soukous tape because we are finally doing another of our Manifesto parties and it's all about the SOUKOUS!! It's been almost a year since our last one and in the meantime lots of other parties have sprung up doing african music. The Double Club also opened, which is a big chic venue sponsored by Prada themed on the Congolese culture. We have been invited this Thursday, 5 March, to do Manifesto at that venue. With the help of some amazing musicians, including Fiston who plays in Zong Zing (who have played twice at Manifesto) and used to play in Samba Mapangala, we have booked the legendary Taxi Pata Pata which has been called one of the best Soukous bands in the world. Read all about Taxi Pata Pata, who was a big hit in the 80s, and come down and see them live. Details in the flyer below.

Vijana Jazz Band - Zilizowika

Another Internet virgin. This album is not mentioned anywhere on the Internet. Vijana Jazz Band are one of the biggest Tanzanian groups in the Muziki wa Dansi category though generally were later than some of the other bands (according to Wikipedia).

One of the tracks was too badly recorded for me to include it here, and I think Kapu La Mjanja has the best combo of vocals and instrumental on this tape.

Mundinde

Aza

Kapu La Mjanja
(listen below)

V.I.P.

Bunjumbura