Street Sounds '87-3

This is another tape I bought in the Dalston Oxfam Shop.  Lots of urban dance stuff from 1987.  It features three artists that only had like one track out ever, which is on this tape - E'leesa, The Ebony Dukes and Ex-Sample.

Before I go on, let me just say that this is the website for the actual Dalston Oxfam shop.  Check it out.

My favorite tracks are the E'Leesa track Where Did Your Love Go? and the Ex-Sample track And So It Goes.  Both are really early house tracks and feature those simple deep analog beats with some disco samples so you can see the migration from disco to house.  The E'Leesa track was from Bassment records and was written by Barry Zeger and Craig Bevan who apparently wrote a number of early house songs but there is almost no information about them on the web.

The Ebony Dukes are also a band that only did this one track. It was produced by Jazzy Jay, a seminal king of hip hop who did the very first release by Def Jam with T La Rock.  I just discovered today that he is actually from a Gullah family.  The Gullahs are Americans who originated in Africa and have retained some african words and characteristics in their language.

I also just discovered that Jingo, which I know as a famous disco track done by Candido (also of Thousand Finger Man fame), was originally done by Santana.

Tracklist

A1	Mirage  -	Jack Mix IV
A2	E'leesa Weldon  -	Where Did Your Love Go?
A3	Ex-Sample  -	And So It Goes
A4	Eleanor Goodman  -	Sneak Preview
B1	The Whispers  -	No Pain, No Gain
B2	Point 3 FM  -	So Delicious
B3	Hashim  -	I Don't Need Your Love
B4	The Ebony Dukes  -	Girls
B5	Candido  -	Jingo

Eydie Gorme y El Trio Los Panchos

Another great tape actually bought from the Oxfam Shop.  Eydie Gorme is an American singer who did a lot of amazing 50s-70s style ballads, love songs etc.  In the mid 60s she did a series of albums with a very famous Mexican trio called Los Panchos that is apparently still famous in Latin America and who also appeared in many Mexican films.   This is beautiful sweet music and I love it.  Her most famous song from this album is supposed to be Sabor A Mi, but I also really like Noche de Ronda. The harmonies are amazing.

Anyway, Eydie has some incredible vids that are from a time that's gone. Check this out.




Side A

 

A1		Nosotros
A2		Piel Canela
A3		Y...
A4		Sabor A Mi
A5		Noche De Ronda
A6		Caminito

Side B

B1		Cuando Vuelva A Tu Lado
B2		Di Que No Es Verdad
B3		La Ultima Noche
B4		Historia De Un Amor
B5		Media Vuelta
B6		Amor

"O" - O'rgasm - 1991 EBM

I don't know much about this group "O" but it's one of the many projects of Martin Damm.  His aliases include (and I have to say I've not heard of a single one) -

909 Disco Babes, Alfred Chicken, Anodyne (4), Bad Blood, Badass, Bio Phobith, Biobreaks, Braindub, Chicks With Dicks, Creepozoids, Cyberchrist, Cyclo S9, DammBreaks, DJ Fistfuck, Dryfish, Earlenbeach Terror Squad, G/O, Headhunter, The (3), Headware, Insecticide, Kinky Bros., M.C.P., MAD (4), Manipulator, The (2), Martin Damm, Moldiver, Necronomicon (2), Null, Phase IV, Play Dead, Prince Of Pot, The, Q-Boy, R.I.C., Raindance, Red Bullfighter, S.C.U.M., Search & Destroy, Shapeshifter, The, Speed Freak, The, Spin, Steel, Subsonic 808, Synchroton, Trance Wonder, Violator, Wendy Milan, Y-Decibel.  Note that one of his projects started in 1997 is S.C.U.M., not to be confused with S.C.U.M. which is a hot band playing round London right now.

Play it loud.

Side A

O'rgasm (hetero-version)

Side B

Panic! (blackout version)

O'rgasm (S/M version)

Gangpol und Mit - Sylvain's mix

Sylvain Quément is the inimitable musical half of Gangpol und Mit.  I've liked them and dj'd their stuff for a few years now so I was delighted to see they were playing London recently for the first time.  The vid above is an example of some of their stuff I like best.  The show was fab and so I thought I might ask Sylvain to dj with me.  He sent me this mix that blew my mind - seriously!!  So many tracks I've not clue about and yet it's really poppy and fun at the same time.

Then he came down to dj with me at Catch 22 and it was exactly the same.  So he is my new favorite dj and he just moved to London.  So hopefully I can see him around shaking things up a bit.  I also am giving you a download link to a few of the individual tracks.  I especially recommend you check out Finnish band Aavikko.

Sylvain is also a contributor to the Cartilage Consortium blog which is really full of amazing finds such as this asian ethno pop, this fab Cameroon disco, and this mega mega Madrid band Retrato Robot.


V/A PLAONG selected
Fish lightnings for milk riots

DOWNLOAD LINK

Tracklist:

KANNO YOKO - CM works
ES ISLAND - Teku Teku Mummy
POLYSICS - I My Me Mine               (download)
PLUS-TECH SQUEEZE BOX - F(ake)
TOSHIYUKI YASUDA - Adeus
NORMAN BAMBI - Psychotic interstellar catastrophe
AAVIKO - Syntaksis                     (download)
THIAZ ITCH - Mingmiling Mahou
GASORMASS - Defenestration old friend
JUN TOGAWA - Angel Baby
A&E - Allo
SECRET CHIEFS 3 - Jãbalquã & Jãbarsã (my edit)
CANDIE HANK - Booty bank
PLASTICS - Copy, BUBBLE B remix
LES TUEURS DE LA LUNE DE MIEL - Nationale 7        (download)
E PAK SA feat. MAYWA DENKI - Fantasy
CAPTAIN AHAB - Punch Yourself in the Crotch
SONIC COASTER POP - Summer In The Pool
FELIX KUBIN - There is a garden
KUWABARA YUKIKO - love story theme

Oriantal Disco - Egyptian

I was loaned a batch of amazing african records by my friends Polly and Antony under the condition that I put some of them on the blog.  Unfortunately I have been slack at posting them.  But I finally went through and found an amazing 12" of Shakara with Fela Kuti and a fantastic LP from Yaka Lokito which I can't further identify.  I will put these up soon.  But firstly I was drawn to this great cover of Egyptian pop-ish  music from 1983.  It's not really western disco at all.  But I know nothing about this album or the artist.   The arabic on the cover translates as "rakasat" which means "dances" and "disco al sharq" which means means "disco of the orient".

Side 2

Ya Mealem

Oriantal Disco

Gozy 

Koot Hoomi is not a band sound that I would normally write about.  But anyone who claims to write a covers album of Hall & Oates performed with Sitars in a sort of eastern influenced folk style has got to have a little attention.  A few of their other tracks are on Hypem.com, so I'm posting others here.

Apparently this is the image of Koot Hoomi who was some theosophical master of some sort.  I seek to bring you a higher level of knowledge than just casual band info.








Say It Isn't So (ysi)

Maneater (reprise) (ysi)



I just also want to add quickly that I saw New Yoga perform recently and they were very good.  Hounds of Hate and their crew are really pushing the edge in the parties they are putting together and the crowds are getting better and better.  The music is quite experimental if you actually go down and listen.  It's not obvious or banging, it's layered synth fabrics.

Techno Technically - 1995 Nick Watts mixtape

This is a tape given to me by Yasmina Dexter of Pandora's Jukebox dj and blog fame.  It is put together by part of the musical group Dubolition, Nick Watts.  It is a collection of very hard to find sort of techno/trance/acid from the mid 90s.  I can't say much about it other than that Nick was very kind to offer me a playlist of side 2 with as many tracks as he could remember.  I managed to identify a track from side 1 as well.  So there are a few individual tracks in low quality to download and then the full mixtapes.  I really like side 2.

Side 1 (direct link)

    Exit 9 - Insync vs. Mysteron (download 128k)  (buy full quality from itunes)

Side 2 (direct link)

Side 2 tracklisting:

    1 ?
    2 Thee J Johanz
    3 Berkana sowelu-solid fuel
    4 Hardkiss
    5 Dubolition Gizmo
    6 ?
    7 ?
    8 Claude Young- concentration factor  (download 128k)  (buy full quality from djdownload)
    9 ?

Luxury Living

My friend Mario used to be in a band called Captain back in like 2005.  We used to see each around a lot, djing, maxin', relaxin', and generally trying to show our love of music.  Then he started doing the Pearl Flash synth disco concept party with this dope dude called Ben who I first heard dj at a great warehouse party in Shoreditch in like . . . 2005.  He was very serious, but had some arpeggiating synth knowledge for sure.  Anyway, Pearl Flash went on from from joy to joy and I dj'd with them now and then and I could see it was growing like a nasty poisonous mushroom under the floorboards into a full blown magnificent wonder angel of parties.

Meanwhile in 2009 Mario started to chat me up about his new band Luxury Living and I was generally like, smile, smile, pretend like it will be good.  I kept telling him to tell me when it was going.  So finally this last Saturday I went to see them play.  And it turns out I was LATE.  They had already been playing around town and lots of other people already loved them a lot.  And they were REALLY good.  Even my girlfriend loved them and she doesn't even really drink.  They only really have demos so far but this will give you an idea.  I personally prefer this epic disco stuff than the stuff that is probably more mainstream to the pop world right now like Everything Will be Amazing.  What they're good at is phrasing - songs have to go somewhere, up and down, etc., in the right places at the right time to keep you hooked.  Have a listen.

And I am djing for a new party called Fancy done by the Pearl Flash kids for the first time at Bungalow 8 next week, the 17th of March.

Kimberley (demo) - Luxury Living

Defao - Amour Scolaire soukous

I haven't put up an african tape for a while so here is another one I bought in Tanzania last year.  You can find more of them here.

I don't know really anything about Defao but you can read about him here.  Unfortunately this tape is not great quality but it's still rare and it sounds very raw and nice having been converted by my new RME Fireface analog to digital hardware.  It's another example of Congolese soukous music and features the following tracks:

Amour Scolaire
Santu Maria

Delly Pangola
Chakito Bakou

Side 1

Side 2

Dj Chip Dilla - Carbootie - ghetto house from 1997

Sorry I have not posted for a few weeks. I was in transition on my hardware and also travelling.  But the tapes will sound MUCH better now cause I'm working with this fantastic analog to digital unit - RME Fireface 800.

Anyway, this is another of those tapes from Chris Low I've written about previously.  This came out in 1997, about the same time as Daft Punk's first album, and it's mixed VERY well, with lots of DIY vocal improv.  It's a lot like this live radio show from 1999 I previously posted by Spin Doctor Kim James.  Once again, lovely little misogynistic lyrics ranging from the track "Let Dem Hoes Fight . . . " (side 1) to "If you Ride in my Truck, B*tch You Gonna F*ck" (side 2 - 12:40) to "The Girl, The Girl, The Girl is on fire - We Don't Need No Water Let The F*cking Girl Burn!" (side 2 - 9:50) (a play, of course on the 1985 track Roof is on Fire by Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three). 

This tape is slicker and has more of a house sound like the Daft Punk and DJ Sneak stuff from around that time (96-98) - whereas the Spin Doctor Kim James track is more pure booty and hip hop.  I've extracted a few tracks that are mashups of sorts with known house/disco house loops of that time.  One in particular is Ghost Town DJs "My Boo" mashed with Rollin' and Scratchin' by Daft Punk.  Trivia point for you - DJ Sneak did a collab with our own current london darling dj Princess Julia.

Side 1

Side 2

Snippet from side 1 (Ghost Town DJs "My Boo" mashed with Rollin' and Scratchin' by Daft Punk)

Snippet from Side 2

Gum Takes Tooth

I went to a gallery's anniversary party at MKII in Clapton last weekend and ended up moshing to this band - Gum Takes Tooth.  I don't write about many new bands but these guys are AWESOME and tight.  Again, two drummers (like Maria & the Mirrors) and some guy on synths.  One of the drummers is from Agaskadoo Teliverek which has that amazing Gay Hussar track.  All local folks.  Anyway, live gig is way better even than the tracks.  But here are a few.

Bottom line. If you can make 30 somethings mosh in a gallery . . . you got something going on.

Gum Takes Tooth - Strychnine Motive

Gum Takes Tooth - Tannkjøtt

In terms of great pop writing I haven't come across anything in London recently that I like as much as French Horn Rebellion which is out of the US.  Ok, maybe there's some really big well  known stuff but PR has sent me these tracks and they're not even showing in Hype machine yet.  Soooo good.  Make sure to look for the Twelves remix of Beaches and Friends (classic classic clasic chic style US disco) and also their remix of Tiger City - Ancient Lover - all on HYPEM.com.

I've given you a track here which is more mellow but very clever.

The Quatrain - French Horn Rebellion

A Bitch Called Johanna - I'm A Bitch vinyl

I have just purchased a collection of 800 new beat, house, etc., records from my friend Chris Low, old school dj, and guy who loaned me a collection of amazing tapes.  This is one of the first ones I have recorded.

According to discogs vocals in this track from 1990 were from Wendy Wild who was a NY 80s downtown fixture and did work with John Sex, though it looks like the Bitch Named Johanna may have been Johanna Jimenez. 

Some great early 90s house sounds here, and I'm sure the acapella could be used for a lot of great remixing.  I actually like best the Bitch to Bitch on the clean side for the trigger looping of the phrase "I'm a Bitch".  Check out her in a vid below from 91 in the legendary Pyramid Club in NY.  Looks like there was also a related track done by Johanna Jimenez.  And I almost prefer this later 1994 version by Olga.




Also some hilarious Wendy Wild vid here with John Sex.



"Fellas?  I don't wanna know what you DO.  I wanna know who you ARE!!"

TRACKS

X Bitch

Bitch Moaning

X ' Capella

Bitch to Bitch

article on music and money for lookatme.ru

I have started writing a column of sorts for Russian website lookatme.ru.  More and more I have felt a growing concern and frustration from seeing so many friends struggling as they try to survive and make money while trying to be artists - particularly in the music industry - and especially as the industry is changing so much.  So I tried to summarize my thoughts:

– originally written for Lookatme.ru (link)

12 Jan. 2009 

Many of my friends are musicians, artists or fashion designers.  But most of them don’t make much money.   In this article I’m going to discuss various reasons why I think this is the case and what it may take to make money.  I’m not proposing to have done any real research on the topic and I may be wrong – I’m just giving an overview of the way I see it.

The way to  make money in the arts (music, fashion, art, etc.) is to provide something that people really want or need that they can only get from you or which they can't get cheaper or easier elsewhere.  A really good live show is an example.  People may be able to easily find someone's music on the Internet for free. But they can only experience a live show by going to the show.  A great art piece is the same way.  Making it may take the same time as a great album, but the experience can't be put onto a little disc and shared with everyone for free. . . . continue reading

Exsanguination Blues comedy record

This is a little odd treat from my dad.  It's a comedy record recorded by an actual medical doctor in the 50s and put out by Colonial Records, which had a lot of success with comedy records from that time (the most notable to me being from Andy Griffith).  This one is pretty obscure but I remember my dad playing it to me when I was a kid.  I think the singer Doug Harrell was an actual doctor and probably did this side project and then never recorded anything else.

My dad asked me to record it to mp3 for him when I was in California over Christmas.   The music has kind of a southern folky flavor to it, and it's kind of entertaining, but mostly it's about the story and the humor - the kind your dad would probably like.  Enjoy.

Exsanguination Blues - Doug Harrell


Hospitality Blues - Doug Harrell

Warm Leatherette (Matthew Stone mix)

My friend Matthew Stone sent me a random  mix of Warm Leatherette by The Normal that was so good I decided to post it. I made the artwork to go with it cause he's too busy of an artist to make it himself :)

Matthew is a very special person.  In the years I've known him we have often dj'd together and I can say without question that when I do it is usually for some party so underground that there are sound system problems and no license or bar, and no one there that would see me play to hire me for real money - yet still somehow the very most fun I have ever have djing.  I think part of the reason for this is that we have similar taste and I enjoy playing stuff to try to impress  him and vice versa.   Matthew is also a rising art star - you can check out his ventures here.

He told me these are 2 of his favorite tracks right now.

Trentemoller & Margeir Bootleg – Kasper Bjorke vs. Jimi Tenor

And Chris Flatline's re-edit of Yazoo - Situation.  Youtube below.





Coincidentally, Warm Leatherette was on the only release ever put out by Daniel Miller [Edit: as the Normal] who founded Mute Records, and it's still one of the most amazing tracks ever.  I've always been looking for similar stuff without much luck - maybe a little early Human League but that's about it.

Enjoy.

Warm Leatherette (Matthew Stone mix) - The Normal

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 (download or listen)

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 (download or listen)

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