Whenever I find myself questioning the repetitive tendencies of dance music, I pull out this 2001 remix of an otherwise forgettable Telepopmusik track. The sounds are so well chosen, not only do I not mind the repetition, I never want it to stop. I did hear the song used in a car commercial not long ago, which is usually a deal breaker for me, but in this case it didn’t make me like the track any less, it made me like people who make car commercials more.
Though heavyweight producer Premier had all but cut of ties with Group Home for what was meant to be their final album, his influence can be heard throughout this standout track as looming strings and a cinematic sound design set the backdrop for a series of stories about being scared shitless walking the streets of Brooklyn at midnight.
Group Home – 12 O’ Clock4:10 mins/ 128 kbps/ 3.82 MB
When listening to the delightfully unobtrusive title track from Boards of Canada’s 2000 EP, the listener might imagine a pleasant country cabin or camping spot, a summer remembered through a warm haze of nostalgia, or perhaps something best depicted by an oil painting, but that listener would be incorrect on all counts. Actually, The “Beautiful Place Out In the Country” the song refers to is the Branch Davidian headquarters in Waco, Texas, where 54 adults and 21 children took their own lives as Federal Agents stormed the building.
I take no pride in admitting that I don’t love Sonic Youth as much as I should. Their genius appears to me like one of those novelty pictures where you’re meant to stare at psychedelic patterns until an image of a dolphin or a sailboat appears- I can sort of see it, but not as clearly as everybody else in the room. In all honesty, most of their music is so busy and fractious, my reaction is disturbingly similar to that of the Dad in the Twisted Sister videos, if you’ll excuse another dated reference.
But Sonic Youth is like a one night stand- when they’re good, they’re great, to the extent that I would never quarrel with the scores of people who rate them so highly. An example of such a high-point is this standout from their 2004 album Sonic Nurse, in which the band forgoes their sometimes intemperate angst for something soft spoken and bare, effectively stricken by a maudlin romanticism.
Performed live, this country ballad by Guy Clark offers an earnest romantism that few men of this generation could pull off so convincingly. The soft finger-picking of an acoustic guitar rises with emotion at each break until the last minute of the song when the homespun spoken-word story unravels into a simple but heart-wrenching chorus that is guaranteed to make even the most cynical of us weak at the knees.
Guy Clark – Let ‘Em Roll4:51 mins/ 128 kbps/ 4.44 MB
After a seven year hiatus (since their last proper album, they released the delightful “Topknot” single in 2004), British indie stalwarts Cornershop recently dropped their latest full length, “Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast”. While failing to meet the arguably unfair standards I set for the release, it compelled a trip through the band’s back catalog, which is wonderfully difficult to get ones arms around.
From the basement punk affected by a traditional Indian pedigree that became their signature sound on the first two albums, through the Beatles for the hip-hop generation (but in a good way) sound of 1997’s “When I Was Born for the 7th Time”, to their disco inspired side project, Clinton, which spawned the highly overlooked “Disco and the Halfway to Discotent” two years later; it’s admirable for a band to attempt such a range of genres, and almost unthinkable that they would pull it off so convincingly. Also, if they are touring the new album, I highly recommend the live show. I saw them open for Oasis years ago, which came off like Prince opening for El DeBarge.
For those unfamiliar with anything other than the Norman Cook remix of Brimful of Asha, this should act as the Coles Notes to a band worth knowing. For the superfans out there, however many might exist, the playlist pays particular mind to the band’s impressive battery of b-side and ep releases.
Sounds Super Recordings
Call All Destroyer
Jullandar Shere (Jeh Jeh Mix)
Wog
Camp Orange
Tera Mera Pyar
My Dancing Days are Done
Brimful of Asha
Easy Winners (Part Two)
People Power In the Disco Hour (as Clinton)
Slip the Drummer One
Wogs Will Walk
Music Plus
Buttoned Down Disco (as Clinton)
Sleep on the Left Side
The Dixons D90 Series
Hip-Hop Bricks (as Clinton)
Electric Ice Cream (Miami Jammy Jam) (as Clinton)
Topknot (feat. Bubbley Kaur)
Chamchu
Shut Southall Down
The Turned on Truth (the Truth is Turned On)
Good to Be on the Road Back Home Again (feat. Paula Frazer)
Electric Adolescence – Cornershop Mix60:00 mins/ 192 kbps/ 82.4 MB
While North American radio audiences and Nike commercial watchers alike were introduced to The Verve upon their success with the Bittersweet Symphony single, Urban Hymns wasn’t as much the band’s penultimate album as it was the start of Richard Ashcroft’s solo career. While integral guitarist Nick McCabe did contribute to the project, this mostly involved him playing accompaniment to songs Richard had written on his own. The result was not without its merits, though it was lacking the washed-out sound the band had refined under a more even collaboration.
This standout from their 1992 debut EP is a perfect example of the band’s trademark soundscape; a delicate and soulful take on the shoegazing sound being cultivated by their peers. Lacking the excruciating pretense that plagued Richard’s later work, this song is perhaps just as grandiose, but this grandeur is offset by a genuine, albeit MDMA inspired, sincerity.
UK Garage, Speed Garage, 2 Step… everybody spent about three years deciding what to call the genre, then lost interest altogether. While most of the output from the scene had the shelf life of open milk, Roy Davis Jr.’s angelic anthem “Gabriel” seems to have stood some sort of test of time. With progressive house vocalist Peven Everett giving a dialed down performance over passive beats and a rolling bassline, the result is perhaps the closest the genre ever came to timeless.
Roy Davis Jr. feat Peven Everett – Gabriel7:25 mins/ 192 kbps/ 10.1 MB
Attesting to this legacy, this recent cover by UK cosmic dance band “Kindness” pays tribute to the Sunday school vibe of the original with warm, gospel tinged vocals and rich pads made up of soft church organs.
Having posted the original on last month’s Sexier Than Lingerie mix, I have since come across this remix by British acid house pioneer Baby Ford, who provides a pleasantly ambling, stripped down rendering of the bridge and tunnel street sounds of original.
Having spent most of the seventies in diapers, I haven’t had much experience with Quaaludes. Someone purported to give me one once, but even my rudimentary knowledge of disco-era depressants tells me that ludes probably didn’t taste like oranges, and defiantly weren’t shaped like Fred Flintstone. That said, it is with brazen confidence that I describe this song by Portland DIY band Strategy as the audio equivalent to the Quaalude experience.
Back in the womb, Stop Spinning may have been a full on dance track, but somewhere between its birthing process and the formative years the song became a slowed down and washed out sound scape- an ode to the dance floor that asks nothing of those standing upon it.
Not that I completely dismiss peoples need for pharmaceutical anti-depressants, but I do believe there are alternatives. For example, for the price of a month’s supply of Paxil, a person could buy a new pair of sneakers and play this song on repeat while walking down a favorite high street. Like drinking before getting dressed, it makes you feel better about who you are and where you are headed.
Disclaimer: As with all Herbie Hancock based products, side effects can include unflattering head nodding, and making white people walk like they’re George Jefferson.
There is something wonderfully uncomplicated about summer- life seems to move a little slower and fewer things seem to happen at once, so it stands to reason that the feelings that arrive with the seasons end seem more complex: a collision between the effortless joy of summer and the exhilarating change that is the earmark of fall.
I expect this imprint was made during our school days; while I’m sure I was among the loudest to curse the end of summer vacation – waxing pessimism over stale trading card gum and cold Slurpees – the thrill of change that came with each new school year now feels more vivid in reflection. And so, this months mix is dedicated to the intangible feeling we shared on that first day of class, the elation that came with a freshly cracked notebook and sharpened pencils, contrasted by the sight of the sun still shining out the window and the realization that the Slurpees we lazily sipped would no longer taste so sweet.
The XX – Basic Space Passion Pit – Sleepyhead (Starsmith Remix feat. Ellie Goulding) Free Blood – Never Hear Surf Music Again John Forde – Stardance Osborne – 16th Stage Discolexia – How Long Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (Demo Version) The Alan Parsons Project – Eye in the Sky Erlend Oye w/ Morgan Geist – Ghost Trains Isolee – Beau Mot Plage Data 80 – Faded Photographs Joakim – Love & Romance & a Special Person The Phenomenal Handclap Band – All of the Above Boris – Buzz In (Nosajthing Remix) Flying Lotus with the Life Force – Auntie’s Lock DJ Enne – The Impatient Man Birk Storm – Resignation (Boom Clap Bachelors Remix) Nightmares on Wax – What a Feelin’ (Rae & Christian Mix) Dubble D & Rakim – Soul Squelch (Greg Wilson Mash) Yacht – Psychic City (Joe Goddard Mix) The XX – Teardrops Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You (Mux Mool Remix) Example – Watch the Sun Come Up (Joker & Ginz Remix) The Hasbeens – I Fall to Pieces The Knife – Forest Families (Live) Underworld – Confusion the Waitress Massive Attack – Unfinished Symphony (Kamoflage Loves Fred Remix) A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Life’s Great JJ – Ecstasy Pogo – Expialidocious Iori’s Eyes – As Always 94 East feat Prince – Better Than You Think
Far be it from me to attempt to diminish the influence Kompakt has had on this decade of dance music, or of the rate at which they have released notable and important singles, that said, many of the albums released on the imprint seem almost deliberately uninteresting. As a rule, the folks at Kompakt don’t just tolerate formula, they celebrate it, which is why so many of their LPs come off less like a label presenting wholly conceived works and more like a decorator offering swatches of paint- several versions of a single style, of which one or two would be chosen and the rest discarded without prejudice.
A notable exception to this is Matias Aguayo – previously one half of the duo Closer Musik, who produced the excellent One, Two, Three (No Gravity) back in 2000. Five years later, his solo debut “Are You Really Lost?” offered up a selection of songs that alter, however slightly, their tone and tempo, with vocal selections used sparingly and to great effect. The result is an album that conforms to the labels esthetic, while achieving the traditional intent of an album in that the collection as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Perhaps the most leftfield effort on the record is the Max Turner version of the opening track, where the laid back emcee offers contrast to the blissfully unintelligible verses held over from the original version.
Having been raised on New Jack Swing, it can be difficult for me to get mad at a D.J. playing Poison by Bel Biv Devoe, but it’s not impossible. I personally played the single out upon its release in 1990, and have lived though several resurrections, mostly played with an irony that I find unsettling. The sticking point for me is that so many have played the song to death with precious few having considered the rest of the album.
The unlikely pairing of the backup section of New Edition and the Bomb Squad production team, who were in the middle of their heyday working with Public Enemy, BBD’s début album provides more than one decent alternative to the overused title track. Also, while the remix album that was released a year later is patchy, it is worth a second look for its occasional and improbable resemblance to Fear of a Black Planet.
Though the Poison album spawned three singles, Let Me Know Something wasn’t one of them, even though it might have had the most mass appeal. Apart from the dopey rap, which does sound a bit dated, the balance of the track offers a favorable comparison to Michael Jackson’s better moments.
This primarily pop-centric Montreal band wears their hearts on their sleeves with this melodramatic account of two vulnerable thirtysomethings attempting to connect through a personal ad. With a sense of drama that plays more like a short film than a plaintive ballad, this is one of the few love songs that has you holding on for the ending.
