SALSOUL 1 - VARIOUS ARTISTS - KISS RECORDS

The Salsoul sound is well known and has been endlessly sampled, including most recently in the big hit You're Nasty by Duck Sauce (Arman van Helden and A-trak) which, like many big house tunes, is mostly great because of the original disco hook.  I was surprised when listening to this tape that it has a number of really good Salsoul tracks that are actually quite rare.  The Double Exposure and Surface tracks are lovely and fairly well known.  Anyway, ain't no groove like a D-Train groove if you know what I mean.  This is like apple juice in the morning when you're hung over . . . .  sweeeeeeet.

Side A:

1. Jimmy Williams - All Of My Lovin

2. Arru - Are You Single

3. Loleatta Holloway - All About The Papers

4. Instant Funk - Can You See Where Im Coming From

Side B:

1. Double Exposure: Ten Per Cent

2. The Salsoul Orchestra - Take Some Time For Love

3. The Strangers - Step Out Of My Dreams

4. Surface - Falling In Love

Personal pleasures - the driving podcast

People often ask me what I really like to listen to at home. Truth of the matter is that I really love pop and dance and weird stuff, which is exactly what I dj.  That's kind of what I'm known for.  Recently I got asked by How The Other Half Lives blog to do a collection of tunes I've liked for a long time that maybe I don't get to dj that I might listen to when I'm working at home or driving on a trip.  Many of these tracks wouldn't really fit into a dj set of mine but in each case they have some kind of quality which allows them to hook me in and just go on and on and on - great for background listening.

This is a mix of sort of pop techno, trance-ish world music, great african soukous and classic instrumental disco.

The Micronauts - The Jag
Charanjit Singh - Raga Todi
Ongaku - Mihon 3
Elasticoculture - Container Dreams
Tomas Andersson - The Other Day
Rita Indiana - Platanitos
Samba Mapangala - Adija
M'Bilia Bel - Faux Pas
El Coco - Cocomotion
Love Unlimited Orchestra - Forever in Love

Listen and download on How The Other Half Lives blog.

Smylonylon 30 (the last one ever) + In Flagranti + Fabric

So here it is. The last Smylonylon mixtape ever made. This doesn't mean I won't post any more earlier ones, but this is a very special one. As I've said before, Smylonylon tapes were a series of special tapes made of rare 60s-80s pop, moog music, italo, disco, etc. They are a real special experience and a great place to discover lots of rare old stuff. I've posted previous cassettes here, as well as explained the link between Alex (half of In Flagranti) and the tapes.

When Alex gave me Smylonylon 1 he was surprised to find that I had a copy of Smylonylon 30, the last one. Then he told me the story - apparently about 6000 Smylonylon tapes were made and sold through the Centre for the Dull store in NYC in the 90s. Then in the fall of '99 he was in a restaurant in NY and someone was playing what sounded like a Smylonyon tape. But when he asked about it, the tape was labelled with someone else's name. With copycats in the wings, he decided it was time to get out of the Smylonylon business and start a band, which became In Flagranti. But he made one last tape, limited to 20 copies only, without a tracklisting so people couldn't copy. What makes this tape special even more than usual is that Alex speeds up a lot of the tracks considerably, or slows them down, and fiddles around lots with filters/eqs. So it becomes a very different mix than if you just listened to the original tracks.

I've managed to figure out and hunt down a few of the tracks on the tape. The first side is virtually impossible for me to identify cause it's mostly instrumentals. But the Android Sisters track is loopy (as in weird) and amazing. I had more luck with Side B and discovered a lot of tracks I'd never heard of. I never knew, for example, that there was a female french version of an early Fab Five Freddie (who Blondie raps about) track. And weirdly enough, I'd never heard of The Mood. Munich Machine is also an amazing track of theirs. I want to particularly thank the always amazing Saltyka blog where I found a bunch of these tracks.

I'm also posting this now cause In Flagranti are playing as part of a Durrr party at Fabric this Friday. So you can see the man who made these tapes play live on a fab sound system. And coincidentally I will be djing earlier in the night playing a lot of similar tracks. So come down and say hi - give me your nerdy tips for similar tracks you've discovered.

Also, check out youtube of the latest of In Flagranti's project Sounds Superb 5.

Side A (direct download)

Tracklisting
?
?
Visage - Visa-Age
The Android Sisters - Robots are Coming
?
?

Side B (direct download)

Tracklisting
The Mood - Don't Stop
Anne Clark - Our Darkness (12 inch version) (or Razormaid mix)
Kim Larsen & Jungledreams - Time Bomb
Buggles - On TV
John Cooper Clarke - Teenage Werewolf
? (instrumental)
Fab 5 Freddy (B-Side) - Change the Beat (female french version)
? (instrumental)
Rational Youth - Le Mailleur Des Mondes
Charles De Goal - Radio On
Altered Images - I Could Be Happy
Tone Band - Tokyo Twist
The Flirts - Surf's Up
? (something german)

Trance 3 Various Artists

This is not really like the trance I normally think - or at least not like commercial stuff such as ATB's 9PM (Til I Come) which was a huge scene when I first moved to the UK in 1999.  This is more like early progressive dance and is part of a series of tapes which include the seminal techno compilation Technovisions which I featured way back when I started the blog. 

Like many tapes I've posted on this blog, my reason for posting is that it's a genre of dance music which falls between the classics that are well known and the current dance scene.  These era is currently the most difficult to find but its sound is so fresh again.  This tape features the Stealth Sonic Soul track which was produced by Apollo 440 (if you remember them) and also the Dust Brothers track Song to the Siren, which was one of the very first Chemical Brothers releases in 1992.  The only previous release is something done by Rowlands called Ariel - Rollercoaster / Mustn't Grumble in 1991.  It also has remix work by Andrew Weatherall and in general it's one of the best tracks on this comp.  I also really like the Van Basten - Lizard King remix but no idea who these guys are and even though their name appears on discogs - they seem lost to history.

Side 1:

1. Soul Odyssey - Rapture
2. Blood Runs Dry - All Of Your Mind
3. The Dust Brothers - Song To The Siren (Sabres Of Paradise Mix)
4. Stealth Sonic Soul - Stealth Sonic Soul
5. Van Basten - Lizard King (Amsterjam Mix)
6. Mad - Hollow


Side 2:

7. Shi-Take - Perfect Virtue (Full Moon Over Maduri Club Mix)
8. Otaku - Percussion Obsession (Back To Basics Trucker Mix)
9. Morgan King - I Am Free (Soma Mix)
10. The Pressure - Amor
11. Tom Tom - 480 Degrees
12. Jagga - Na-Na-Na (Acido Latino Mix)

Total Shite Vol 1

Although generally it must be agreed that I post perhaps the most critically acclaimed music you could find, from seminal rare techno to forgotten essential congolese soukous, now and then I feel it is necessary to expose oddities which may not be quite critically acclaimed.   Whoever made this tape must have worked for EMI - looks like maybe a compilation of stuff that either they had received as submissions or else just some random stuff they found.  Either way, it's pretty special stuff.  Tracks like Jessica are actually a decent quality recording.  But most of these are in a league of personal expression of their own.  Which makes you wonder if the Internet and everyone being able to easily make their own music is actually a good or bad thing.


Total Shite side
1. America
2. Do i want you
3. If love can win
4. So long ago
5. Its Christmas for Jesus
6. Norwegian Wood
7. Girl of my dreams
8.Rude Skanker
9. We would have problems
10. This old heart of mine
11. Raindrops keep falling on my head
12. Why
13. ??!????
14. Get back
15. Where does Santa go in Summer
16. All that love you gave me
17. Killing me Softly
18. ?????
19. Close to you
20. Conversation in Surburbia


Worst Flatulence side
Underworld avenue / America - J.Spencely
Do I want you - M.Lett
Diamond of your mind - R.Kray
If love can win - J.Hudson
So Long ago - R.Corbett
Jean - R.Beard
Let him damce - R.Beard
Jessica - R.Kray

TANGA

I found this a few other tapes in a street cart in Modica, Sicily, one of those kind of carts that normally sell burgers at car boot sales.  It is special because it falls into the eurodance/italo category, but after the classic italo period and moving into 1986 when the Stock Aitken Waterman sound and Sabrina's Boys Boys Boys style were becoming de rigeur.  And it appears a bunch of the tracks are quite rare in that they only appeared on a single and this comp, including the tracks from Ka-Zan, The Winners, Marilytz and Animal Heat. Unfortunately, the original tape was not in great recording quality even though it was new when I bought it.

These are all direct links so you can click and listen immediately.

Side A:


1. KA-ZAN – Give Me Your Heart
2. THE WINNERS – Freedom
3. BRIAN ICE – Tokyo
4. CARRARA – S.O.S. Bandido
5. MECCANO –Activate My Heart
6. CIAO FELLINI –Nocha A Bahia
7. JESSITA – Maybe This Night
8. MARILYTZ – She’s A Bad Girl


Side B

1. REGGIE –On The Park
2. MARIANA – Talk About Love
3. ANIMAL HEAT – Honey Words
4. PAUL SHARADA - Boxers
5. MARK MC DEAN – Italian Girl
6. EUGENE – Free Your Life
7. HOT COLD – I Can Hear Your Voice
8. MAX COVERI – One More Time

Our Husband - new band

I just got an e-mail from this new Australian oufit Our Husband.  I don't like most of the stuff I get sent but somehow I liked this.  Maybe a bit twee but lovely.

Our Husband - Villages

Underworld Street - J. Spencely