Manifesto again - Afro Rave!

It's time for another african party. And we are excited about this because it seems there is a growing interest in african rhythms. Bands like Vampire Weekend and Congopunq are bringing fresh interpretations to the old rhythms and Radioclit is putting african rhythms into a lot of their mixes ((listen to their Nelly Ti Picou if you want to know what I'm talking about) . Plus people are getting tired of the same music all the time and so much african music is inaccessible or hard to find so it really is something new. I will be djing my collection and delivering you a monthly cocktail of real live bands and djs. This week we have the 8 member Zong Zing Allstars - check them out here - in a posh members club in Mayfair. If you're in London come by. If you're not, and you want to be involved in next month's party, e-mail me.

See, even Bjork agrees that it's time for Africa.



And for all you mp3 seekers, I have been gifted by a party mix by one of London's hot new bands, The Cleft Palettes which I'm posting because they have at least one african animal in their graphics :) Check their myspace for some great tunes.



The Cleft Palettes - Gravetendo party mix

(track listing - snippets of ;))

Baile Intro
D.E.E.T - Best Fwends
Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Danca Da Ventuinha by Bonde Do Role
Dolls by Crystal Castles
South of Heaven by Slayer
Babylon Burner by Roll Deep (Breeze 16bar)
XR2 by M.I.A
Searchin' for my Rizla by Rat Pack
Eastenders by We Smoke Fags
Stand Up Sonic by The Cleft Palettes
Super Mario - Level 1
Dust Off Ya Classix by Goldielocks
Club Action by Yo Majesty
Pussyhole by Dizzee Rascal

Cold Sweat - 1992 pop club hits

I will not deny it. This is some of my favorite music. I remember when some of this first came out and I just think it's some of the best music to dance to. Totally reminds me of New York. To some it may be overplayed, but oh well.

Trivia: Clivillés & Cole are C+C Music Factory, and are both Americans. It's a Fine Day was a cover of the song by the same name, a beautiful mellow folky number, by Jane and Barton released on Cherry Red records. Cameron Saunders, who was part of one hit wonder New Atlantic is now part of the quite good The Young Punx, who do mashup style stuff (sample it here) and will be playing at Glastonbury.

But face it, Side 2 is much cooler than Side 1. My favorite on this whole cassette is the No Fortuna. But the Orbital - Chime track is also very good. It appears there is almost no information about the No Fortuna - Traumatic Stress band or Miss Fortuna, but it looks like this track featured almost only in this compilation. The sample used in the track is "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana which first came to life musically from Carl Orff in the mid-30's and has been HEAVILY used in various pop culture as you can see here, including 6 different rave-era songs (such as the more famous Apotheosis track in my blog here), the movie Excalibur, the band Ministry, the evil puppy on the Conan O'Brien show, Ozzy Ozbourne, as warm up for numerous sport events, including the Norwegian football team Lillestrøm, and in the opening of the movie Jackass. A special treat goes to anyone who sends me the new Trans-Siberian Orchestra version of the song.

A1 Clivillés & Cole      A Deeper Love (Radio Version)
A2 Love Decade      I Feel You (Naked Club Mix)
A3 Digital Orgasm      Startouchers (Edit)
A4 Opus III      It's A Fine Day (Edit)
A5 Shawn Christopher    Don't Lose The Magic (7" Morales Mix)
  Mixed By - David Morales
A6 New Atlantic      I Know (Love Decade Remix 7" Edit)
  Remix - Love Decade
A7 The Pasadenas      I'm Doing Fine Now
A8 Sounds Of Blackness    Optimistic
A9 Ultra Naté      Rejoicing (Turn Up The Radio Mix)
   Producer - Basement Boys, The
A10 Kym Sims      Too Blind To See It (Hurley's 'No Rap' House Mix)
   Mixed By - Steve "Silk" Hurley 

B1 Altern 8    Evapor 8 (Inciner 8 Mix)
B2 Toxic Two    Rave Generator (Radio Edit)
B3 Zero B     Lock Up (Edit)
B4 R.A.F.     We Got To Live Together (Club Mix 7" Edit)
B5 Traumatic Stress    No Fortuna
   Featuring - Miss Fortuna
B6 Orbital     Chime (Ray Keith Mutation)
   Remix - Ray Keith
B7 Isotonik    Different Strokes (Edit)
B8 Sunscreem    Pressure
B9 Mr. Fingers    Closer
   Mixed By - Frankie Foncett
B10 Alison Limerick    Make It On My Own (7" Flying Rule Book Edit)
   Remix - Steve Anderson

Plus, Matthew Wowow sent me this lovely remix of It's a fine Day.

African faves for the new raves

Do you feel like all the parties have a similar flavor . . . more electro, booty, indie, disco, grime chase the new tune, blah blah blah. Well here's your chance to try something genuinely new.

If you live in London I am launching tonight a new African music night for the hipsters :) It's not a world music party with tivas and jeans. It's about live music and djs playing stuff you've never heard for people who love the sounds and fashion of Africa in a posh venue in Mayfair. Launch party tonight and monthly gigs thereafter.

Manifesto - Burlington Club - 12 New Burlington Street
24 April 2007
9 pm to late - live band at 10 pm.

Sample the sounds of tonight here:

Maitre Gazonga - Les Jaloux Saboteurs

Secret Tracks 2 - 1994 comp

This comp was given to me by my friend James Price who is my friend because he's very funny and a nice guy, but who is also the hot new vid director. Damn, he's directed the good new songs from Simian Mobile Disco, Shit Disco and Lost Penguin (playing at Durrr on Monday, by the way). So he knew that his E27 postcode East London zone was where the good cassettes were from so he got me . . . a 1994 comp with Oasis on it. Yeah, that's some rare shit;)

Anyway, so truth be said this is one of the eras and genres of music that I know the least about. I was not into this music when it first came out. But I do like the Lush track and I know that Primal Screen, Aphex Twin and The Dust Brothers (aka Chemical Brothers) are marquee names. Enjoy.

A1 Primal Scream Don't Fight It, Feel It (Alive in Tokyo)
A2 Frank Black Freedom Rock
A3 The Boo Radleys Lazarus (Saint Etienne Remix)
A4 Echobelly Father, Ruler, King, Computer
A5 Ride Let's Get Lost
A6 Idha I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have
A7 Aphex Twin Phlid

B1 Saint Etienne Like A Motorway (Chekhov Warp Vocal Mix)
Remix - The Dust Brothers
B2 Kristin Hersh The Key
B3 Oasis Fade Away
B4 One Dove Transient Truth (Original Version)
B5 Velvet Crush This Life Is Killing Me
B6 Lush The Childcatcher
B7 Lisa Germano Energy

Plus something new. Now that I'm a big blogger man, this band sent me some of their songs. I know nothing about Sir Salvatore other than that their songs are catchy in a Strokes kind of way. But now and then you need a good fun tune to listen to. Their myspace says they do Zouk Zouk Zouk. If only . . .

But only in London
is a pop man
often a contrarian.

Sir Salvatore - Hooray This Projector

1989 Personal mixtape from Prague

I went to Prague a few weekends ago and found a few hilarious cassettes in the flea market. Most of them were so horribly bad that they didn't meet the admittedly low standards of this blog. But I found this one at least mildly amusing. Unfortunately, the quality of the cassette was so poor that I couldn't record and post. Instead, I have done you the favor of finding good quality versions of some of the lesser known songs. Should be popular with fans of SAW (Stock Aitken and Waterman) songwriting. Most of the rest of the songs are surely part of your personal library already.

Especially for you - Kylie and Jason

Automatic Lover - Dee D. Jackson

Good Life - Inner City

Macho Macho - Rainhard Fendrich

Be My Lady - Vanessa

Josephine - Chris Rea

Nuit De Folie - Debut de Soire

Four Letter Word - Kim Wilde

Biorhythm 2 - early house/techno album

Visiting my good friends Vicky and Darren (who often dj with me at my party at Catch 22 in London every Wednesday) over the weekend and always amazed at their deep knowledge of especially certain pockets of music from the early 90's. Darren volunteered a cassette that has genuine critical cred instead of something that I happen upon in the Dalston Oxfam Shop bin (there are a few Celine Dion and M People cassettes in case anyone is looking for them). Hence, Biorhythm 2. Lots of august names on here. For those of you who don't know, Model 500 is techno legend Juan Atkins, Energise is Dave "Joey Negro" Lee, Nexus 21 is Mark Archer and Chris Peat, also known as legendary nu-ly cool again rave-sters Altern 8 and finally, Rhythim is Rhythim is none other than Derrick May. So this is quite a cassette. And what does all this go to show? . . . I can do wonders with discogs ;)

A1 Rhythmatic   Frequency (Depth Mix)
A2 Fade To Black  The Calling
A3 Energize*    Report To The Dancefloor (Electro Mix)
A4 Heychild    Heychild's Theme
A5 Rhythim Is Rhythim  Drama
A6 Psyche    From Beyond

B1 Model 500    Info World
B2 Nexus 21     Together
B3 XON     Dissonance
B4 Constant Ritual   Hard Way To Come
B5 Suburban Knight   The Worlds
B6 C & M Connection   Flutes

I personally am preferring this sound below right now (one of my current fave rave tracks). But I know that if I listen to the stuff on Biorhythm 2 enough it will seep in.

Bass Selective - Blow Out (part 2)

Durrr set - podcast

On Monday the 19th of February, I played dj before and after the Joakim show at Durrr. Durrr is the new party which replaced legendary Trash and Chandra is the doyenne of the club. She continues to bang together the slick lineup every week because she knows EVERYONE. You can download part of my set on the Durrr site here. You can see pictures of the club here. Definitely going to check out the Lost Penguins live show on 16 April. Kevin from Lost Penguin is playing down at my party at Catch this Wednesday. My Durr podcast set list is below:

Fourteen Days - Lex

I Love A Man In A Uniform (Yeah Yeah Yeahs Remix) - Gang Of Four

Kiss Kiss Kiss (Peaches Remix) - Yoko Ono

Let's call it off (jd twitch's optimo remix) - peter bjorn and john

Lovemachine - Supermax

Twilight Zone - Manhattan Transfer

Kamikaze Rock 'N' Roll - Rettore

That's Good (extended Disconet edit) - Devo

Reactor's Party - Shitdisco

Guten Tag/Die Reklamation (Selbstverwirklichungsremix) - Wir Sind Helden

Drop the phone - Shy Child

I Feel Love - Klaus Nomi

After Dark (Diplo Remix) - Le Tigre

El Manana (Metronomy Remix) - Gorillaz

Bolton Wanderer - Planningtorock

Boi Da Cara Breta - Stereotyp

http://www.myspace.com/durrrclub

NME's Mad Mix II - 1983 cassette comp

When I walked into the Dalston Oxfam Shop on Sunday, sitting on the lip of the tape bin was a much sought after cassette compilation given out free with the NME in 1983, and it's in excellent condition. It's almost like someone left it there for me ;) Some really good tracks on here. I had never heard the Frank Chickens track Shellfish Bamboo, and the Pussy X and Associates tracks are also very good. Plus, The New Black Montana track is a good poppy african number - unfortunately no info exists about them on the Internet.

The Frank Chickens appear to be an interesting japanese/anglo band that had that Japanese performance art/social commentary aura. This track must be rare because it's not listed as a pop hit, maybe as hard to find as . . . hen's teeth ;) Pics below - love the album cover.



Side A

1. James Brown - Bring It On
2. Aretha Franklin - Get It Right
3. The Eurythmics - Satellite Of Love
4. Sandii & The Sunsetz with David Sylvian - Living On The front Line
5. Frank Chickens - Shellfish Bamboo
6. Kas Product - Pussy X
7. The Kane Gang - Small Town Creed
8. NYC Peech Boys - Don't Make Me Wait
9. The New Black Montana - Magumede
10. Yellowman - Who Can Make The Dance Ram

Side B

1. U2 - Two Hearts Beat As One
2. You've Got Foetus On Your Breath - Halo Flamin' Lead
3. Xmal Deutschland - Sehnsucht
4. The Associates - Agressive And Ninety Pounds
5. Bonsai Forest - The Great Escape
6. Prefab Sprout - Lions In My Own Garden
7. The Special AKA - Lonely Crowd
8. JoBoxers - Crime Of Passion
9. JBs All Stars - One Minute Every Hour
10. Cabaret Voltaire - Why Kill Time
11. The Style Council - Party Chambers
12. Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years

Dalston Oxam Shop at Durrr tonight

I will be djing tonight at the incredible new party Durrr in London. Joakim will be playing live with his new band. Come down and check it out.

Details here: Durrr Club every Monday Night.

Rave Tape - Mickey Finn 1992

Once again, a rave tape which I cannot identify - a gift found in the bin by my friend Matthew. It says Mickey Finn 1992 on it, but no idea what this really is. Hopefully someone will identify it for me as they did the Dj Randall tape in my previous post. I only recorded one side here because the other side wasn't so great and seemed to be from another dj. I will try to rip some tracks from this as I have time.


Rave mixtape 1992 - Mickey Finn (slower, more reliable link)


Click on the picture above to see my pictures from the first birthday of the All You Can Eat Rave :)

Make 'Em Mokum Crazy - gabba showtunes

Discovered this in some cds a friend sent and it's too hilarious to not post. There is something about this which I find highly amusing and even enjoyable when played for a brief period of time or in a set of other great tunes. This is probably on the edge of Gabba. But I know you will think I've lost the plot. Listen and complain :)


1 Technohead I Wanna Be A Hippy (3:17)
2 Technohead Headsex (Mobile Mecca Mix) (5:08)
3 Party Animals Hava Naquila (3:46)
4 Party Animals Wapperdewap (1:37)
5 Milk Bar Friday Night Can Kill Ya (4:17)
6 Technohead I Wanna Be A Hippy (Ilsa Gold Mix) (5:22)
7 Party Animals Aquarius (3:13)
8 Back 2 Bass I Wanna Be With You (3:39)
9 Soap (2) Happy Tunes (3:31)
10 Party Animals Have You Ever Been Mellow? (3:05)
11 Technohead Happy Birthday (Timitico's Party Blast) (5:11)
12 Search & Destroy Deep In The Underground (3:34)
13 Wildchild (3) All Together (3:25)
14 Zieke House Loose Fragments (0:18)
15 Back 2 Bass I Wanna Be With You (Spoetnik Mix) (5:43)
16 DJ X-Play Dreams (5:43)

Rave Tapes - Dj Randall 1991-1992

Proper RAVE!! Not new rave, not new electro sampling rave. This is proper real old school rave. The promising art star Matthew Stone, part of the art collective Wowow, rescued a bunch of private rave tapes made between 91-95 from a thrift store dump and gave them to me. So upcoming will be the ones I like. Some Mickey Finn, some other weird stuff.

When I first posted this, I did not know much about this cassette. But the lovely Kevin from dilate choonz blog enlightened me on Dj Randall and this cassette. Turns out this is the cassette, "Yaman Studio Mix 2", made in 1992. Apparently DJ Randall is more of a drum and bass dj now. Here's the track listing and cover.



Side A

01 ??
02 Bass Balistics - Fantasy
03 Hedgehog Affair - Parameters
04 Krispy Krouton - Beef & Tomato
05 Bodysnatch - Hey I Cant Explain It
06 Skeleton Krew - Luv To Luv Ya
07 Doc Scott - NHS ( Heavyweight Remix)
08 No Control - I Know I'm Rushing (original mix)
09 Terra Incognita - Phalanx
10 Tek 9 - Just a dream : Part 2 (Manix Remix)
11 Kaotic Kemistry - LSD
12 Andy C - Outer Limits

Side B

01 Lemon D - Kinetic State
02 Hypno-Genesis - Take Control (Jungled Up To F**k Mix)
03 TrueBlood - Roots & Culture
04 Waxdoctor - New Direction
05 Metalheadz - Sinistery
06 3 Thieves & A Liar
07 The Moog - Jungle Muffin (Mickey Finn Remix)
08 Force Mass Motion - Collision Course
09 Bad Influence - Sudden Impact 10 3 Rude Bwoy - Rude Bwoy Rambo (Roast Gun Mix)

Unfortunately I was not listening to this music around that time. To me now it sounds like nothing else, fresh and fantastic. I think the reason I like this is that it has jungle beats, but also lots of synth sounds that are almost like happy house from that time. Unfortunately, this cassette is not as good quality of a recording as some other posts on this blog.

I especially love the synths on side 2 at the beginning and at 19:42 mark.

I think this is Dj Randall's myspace page.

Dj Randall - side 2 (this was erroneously labelled as Side 1)
Dj Randall - side 2 (speedyshare link)

Dj Randall - side 1 (this was erroneously labelled as Side 2)
Dj Randall - side 1 (speedyshare link)

I plan to rip out some of the clips from this mix that I think stand out. Here's the first track from side 2.

Hypno-Genesis - Take Control (Jungled Up To F**k Mix)

Kazzabe - Garifuna Punta music from Honduras

So I was gone on vacation for 3 weeks and meanwhile got props in One Week to Live and Timeout London about my blog and there it sat for about a month with no posts. I have been busy having fun, so too bad. But lots of posts coming up, including a bag of lovely old private rave mixes that the Pied Piper of Wowow-ness gave me.

About 3 weeks ago now, I was on the beaches of North Honduras, enjoying the New Year with my relatives who are saving the world, but who also go to bed at 8 pm with their kids. So girlfriend and I decided to walk down the beach in the evening to the local village to see what was going on and we were blessed with one of the experiences like christmas at the trailer park, something you dream about for a long time, and then it surprises you when you don't expect and it's everything you hoped for. We waded a little river and walked up the beach to a little wooden shack in the dark with beer being sold for less than a pound and a huge loud soundsystem, a dirt floor and no doors. About 25 people were milling about from grandmas to kids doing some kind of odd side to side hip dance called the Punta. And it was just like winter London dream of hot weather in the twilight, with loud pumping tropical sounds you don't know, on the beach with friendly people and cheap beer.

They were playing the latest album from Kazzabe, a local garifuna band. The Garifuna are mostly black Hondurans and you can read more about the music in english and french here. I'm not super crazy about samba music, which this seemed to remind me of. But like Baile Funk, when played really loud it sounded good. And with the constant search for new musical influences in pop/dance music I thought it good to bring a little Punta to the blogs. The tracks posted are the ones I like best.

Track 2 - Gurinbiuwa
Track 3 - Africa
Track 5 - Keymon Liyumonduna

HI-NRG personal collection

This week I decided to post a few of the rarities from my own vinyl collection. These are all the kind of thing you play late on a dark sunday night for people who know they should be at work tomorrow, but don't really want to let go of the weekend yet. I bought both of these records in a stack off of Brick Lane by my flat one day and had never heard of this. It's a varient of Il Veliero, a great italo disco number by the Chaplin Band. It's taken from the compilation pictured above and I can't find any detail about this track or find it for sale anywhere.


Lama - Love On The Rocks



The next two tracks are somewhere better known but also great hi-nrg taken from the compilation featured above which was part of this great collection I bought on Brick Lane. I think they are special remixes for this compilation, but don't really know.


Simone - Him / My Man Must Be American

Sylvester - Trouble In Paradise

THIS IS THE HOTTEST MUSIC ON THE NET RIGHT NOW.

Electro's great, baile funk's great, indie punk/rock whatever is great. But none of it sounds this fresh.

EDIT: sorry the masalacism link above is finished, but here is the next great kuduro mix (video in new page).

mad decent worldwide radio # 11

LOOOOOVE it.

Edit - some Kuduro-ish I like.


Bowungakanani? w Msawawa

Luky Gomes - (baka) zeze e toto kuduro remix

Tchutchuca (kuduro mix)

You can buy some of these tracks and the Sweetie My Lovely on the Calabash music website.

Hit Mix 86 - continuous mix of 1986 hits

I probably chose to post this mostly because of the design of the cover. I do love 80's groove, but most of these tracks are a bit too cheesy for me. And unfortunately, each track doesn't last very long. But for a good image of 1986 charts, it's quite excellent. I particularly like the moment where Colonel Abrams' Trapped mixes into The Whispers' And the Beat Goes On. I have listed at the bottom of this post mp3s for some of the tracks I prefer from this mix as standalone tracks.

Side A Mix
1 Sly Fox-Let’s Go All The Way
2 Nik Kershaw-Wouldn’t It Be Good
3 Paul Hardcastle-Don’t Waste My Time
4 Amazulu-Too Good To Be Forgotten
5 Princess-Say I’m Your Number One
6 Belouis Some-Imagination
7 Thompson Twins-You Take me Up
8 Samantha Fox-Touch Me, (I want your body)
9 Baltimora-Tarzan Boy
10 Kate Bush-Running Up That Hill
11 David Grant & Jaki Graham-Could It Be I’m Falling In Love
12 Kajagoogoo-Too Shy
13 Nik Kershaw-I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me
14 Shalamar-A Night To Remember
15 David Grant-Watching You, Watching Me
16 Phil Fearon-I Can Prove It
17 Paul Hardcastle-Just For Money
18 Break Machine-Street Dance
19 MC Miker ‘G’ and DJ Sven-Holiday, (rap)
20 Boris Gardner-I Want To Wake Up With You
21 Latin Quarter-Radio Africa

Side B Mix
1 Ruby Turner-If You’re Ready, (come go with me)
2 Wally Badarou-Chief Inspector
3 The Real Roxanne with Hitman Howie Tee-Bang Zoom, (let’s go go)
4 Whistle- (nothin’serious), - Just Buggin’
5 Change-Let’s Get Together
6 Kenny G-What Does It Take, (to win your love)
7 Run DMC-King of Rock
8 Midnight Star-Headlines
9 The Real Thing-Can’t Get By Without You
10 Jaki Graham-Set Me Free
11 Skipworth & Turner-Thinking About Your Love
12 B B & Q Band-Dreamer
13 Rah Band-Clouds Across the Moon
14 Grace Jones-Pull Up To the Bumper
15 The Real Thing-You To Me Are Everything, (remix)
16 Millie Scott-Prisoner of Love
17 Aretha Franklin-Who’s Zoomin’ Who
18 The Three Degrees-The Heaven I Need
19 Pointer Sisters-Automatic
20 Colonel Abrams-Trapped
21 Whispers-And the Beat Goes On
22 Colonel Abrams-I’m Not Gonna Let You
23 Dhar Braxton-Jump Back

I would love to post The Real Thing - Can't Get By Without You if anyone wants to send it to me.

And another treat not from the mix that is in a similar vein (from 1988) which I just discovered:

Womack & Womack - Teardrops (Jeansbjorn & Fisken mix)

Drop Acid - private mixtape

Also found in the Dalston Oxfam Shop tape bin some time back but I didn't record till now because unfortunately one side of the cassette is mono, it only works in one channel. But I went back to it recently and realized I really am feeling this sound right now so I posted the one side that sounds ok.

This is a private mixtape done by someone probably very late 80's maybe early 90's and there's no tracklisting but it's someone in the comments put the following tracklisting (thanks).

Good life (one of the mixes on the US 12") - inner city

work it to the bone - LNR

----?----

in the name of love - swan lake (champion) 

pump up london - mr lee

Acid Man - Jolly Roger 

Ride the Rhythm - This Ain't Chicago

---?---

can u party - royal house (champion)

---?---

keep me hangin on - kim wilde (?)

Illusion - R-Tyme

But the most bangin of all is the Jolly Roger - Acid Man track.  I can't believe after all this time that it's not even available on the US itunes store.

Listen to the whole thing as it gets much better about 3/4 way through. This obviously done by the same people who did this earlier Acieed cassette I posted. If anyone has any info on who did these, I'd love to know.

Side ? - Drop Acid mix

Clip of Jolly Roger - Acid Man from mix.

Also, I'm into ghetto tech right now and have been djing this lately. Here it is as requested by various friends.

High Powered Boys - Hoes Get Down

A good bit of the tracklisting is in the comments below.

Street Jams Electric Funk Part 4

Guest Post!!

I was on the hollertronix bulletin board discussing various views I had on hardcore, et cetera, and a guy called Steve PMX got in touch with me (this is he) about the excellent loveliness of my blog and we started shooting the shit and then . . . boom. He's hosting a guest post on my blog!! Mostly I decided to let him post a cassette because he had this gif on his myspace.


He's a back in the day throwin parties from DC (as in crack mayor DC) kind of guy and has a radio here. So here's his selection and writeup.




Street Jams - Electric Funk - Part 4 (Rhino Records 1994)
This silly looking Rhino tape comp fully represents the underestimated magic of the 99c tape bin. Most people walk right by these tape bins, but there are gems to be found once you take a second to dig through the membrane of Meat Loaf and Joan Jett tapes on the surface. It's called Street Jams, and it's basically a VERY quirky compilation of dope 80s Freestyle/Electro/Pop(?) tracks created for the neon-lit 80s nightclubs and cardboard on the streets/sidewalks alike.

I was too young to experience the neon nightclubs, but I *definitely* remember the ghetto blasters and street dancers on cardboard mats in the early-mid 80s. One day in particular that stands out is going to see Breakin' 2 in some movie theater in Washington DC when I was 8 years old. Went with my mum and older brother, and after the movie let out I remember seeing this mad scene on the streets with tons of kids breakin on cardboard mats - battling and shit. It was so surreal and like "futuristic" - in retrospect I'm convinced that particular day dictated the direction my life/musical obsession would eventually follow. So without going too deep, this tape brings that feeling back when I hear it. Standout tracks for me are both the Freestyle joints, 'Rock The Planet' by Megatrons, 'Computer Power' by Jamie Jupitor [aka Egyptian Lover] and 'Dance' also by Egyptian Lover. 'Dance' kinda reminds me of Skinny Puppy a little, as far as the percussion and moody synths in the production. I've always seen a big link between Electro/Freestyle and Industrial music, and you can really hear the similarities here.

'White Horse' by Laid Back (pictures above) is another great tune on this compilation, which apparently got alot of support from Prince (weird); and 'Technicolor' by Channel One [aka Juan Atkins/Cybotron] gets points for paving the way for 'Baby Got Back' 6 years later (peep first 16 bars)....

Side A

1 Freestyle Don't Stop The Rock (5:29)
2 Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force I Wonder If I Take You Home (Extended Version) (6:40)
3 Laid Back White Horse (5:43)
4 Connie Rock Me (5:23)
5 The Megatrons Rock The Planet (6:21)
6 Jamie Jupitor Computer Power (6:57)

Side B

1 Channel One Technicolor (Long Mix) (6:48)
2 ABC How To Be A Zillionaire (Wall Street Mix) (7:32)
3 Egyptian Lover Dance (5:31)
4 Freestyle It's Automatic (5:51)
5 World Class Wreckin' Cru Juice (6:39)
6 L.A. Dream Team Rockberry Jam (5:14)

Star Taxi Music 3 - 1988 South African taxi pop

Have you ever taken a minicab in London and loved the music playing and asked the taxi driver if you could buy it off them? I have.

In the bins at Dalston Oxfam Shop this week I discovered two tapes made by SABTA, the South African Black Taxi Association. I can't find virtually any information about them on the net, but they are musical compilations made of mostly South African pop from 1988 interspersed with some hilarious ads and commentary, intended for taxi drivers to play for their passengers during rides. This is not just irony in action, however. Some of the tunes are really great and this cassette and music will not appear anywhere on ebay or the net. I think my favorite track on here is Siyaya E Jerusalema by the Holy Spirits Choir, but also very good are Money by Splash and Ushukela Mningi Lapha by Ashiko. But you have to listen to some of the interludes as well.

This post was featured on BBC6 on 26 Oct. :)

Side A
(download all of Side A in one file here)

Interlude 1
Splash - Money
Interlude 2
Brenda Fassie - Party Time
Interlude 3
Sox - Don't Call Me
Interlude 4
Kamazu - Ju Ju Lady
Interlude 5 (interview with Rebecca)
Rebecca - Cheated
Interlude 6
Alexander O'Neal - Criticize
Interlude 7
The Jets - I Do You
Interlude 8
Mordillo - Cry Peter Tosh
Interlude 9
Peter Tosh - Equal Rights
Interlude 10
Coyote - Who's the Lord of the House
Interlude 11
Holy Spirits Choir - Siyaya E Jerusalema
Interlude 12
Vusi Shangi - Remake the World

Side B

Interlude 1
Chimora - Some More My Cherry
Interlude 2
Ashiko - Ushukela Mningi Lapha
Interlude 3
New Taxi - Don't Play with Fire
Interlude 4
Pat Shange - Undecided Divorce Case
Senyaka - Jordaan
Interlude 5
Gladys Knight & The Pips - Love Overboard
Interlude 6
Umoja - Money Money
Interlude 7
United Congregational Church Choir - He's the Only Way
Pure Gold - La Hao Le Teng
Interlude 8
Mr. D & the G Men - She Doesn't Live Here Any More
Interlude 9
Bibi Nsomi - What Kind of Love is This?
Interlude 10
The Rockets - Everlasting Love

HOST PROBLEMS

VERY SORRY.

I had problems with my file host and had to get a new account. In the meantime, all files have been taken down and I will have to re-upload in the next day or so. But keep your eyes open because I will be posting a compilation of South African pop prepared for Taxi drivers in the next few days.