Once a week high quality digital recordings of cassette tapes purchased at the Dalston Oxfam Shop in East London. I DO NOT WORK FOR OXFAM AND AM NOT AFFILIATED IN ANY WAY WITH THEM.
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 :)
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
