Sticking with the theme of anti drug messages that make you want to take drugs, this electro-house banger received an almost cultish reception upon its release in 2001, but hasn’t quite had the resurgence I would have expected from something so cheeky.
Green Velvet – La La Land 3:21 mins/ 192 kbps/ 4.61MB
While it’s easy to laugh at the Reefer Madness era of anti-drug propaganda, it has to be said that the eighties and nineties weren’t much more sophisticated. Nancy Regan’s “Just Say No” campaign was as memorable as it was ineffective, and the this is your brain on drugs ad didn’t change my mind about drugs either way, though it did put me off eggs for a while. Bizarrely, the PSA Paul Reuben made as a deal to get out of his own drug charges was painfully misguided- something about Pee Wee Herman looking deadpan into the camera telling me not to do crack made me want to do crack more than I ever had before or have had since.
Quite similarly, though perhaps deliberately, this appropriately named psychedelic funk band offers up an ecclesiastical warning that will make you want to go out and get a big bag of drugs.
Drugs – Brain on Drugs 6:59 mins/ 320 kbps/ 16.0MB
It’s possible that French remix duo Chateau Flight did just that when approaching their 2002 remix project, applying a delicate touch that sounds almost conspicuously laid back compared to the rest of their catalog- dedicating over half of the track’s seven minute running time to the hypnotic buildup before dropping a deep and unobtrusive beat.
Drugs Vs. Chateau Flight – Brain on Drugs 6:52 mins/ 192 kbps/ 9.45MB
Led by brothers Roger and Larry Troutman, Ohio funk band Zapp’s is perhaps better known to the next generation for how extensively they were sampled during the golden age of hip-hop, second only behind the Godfather of Soul himself- Brown being among the funk pioneers to receive a shout out on this tribute to the genre.
Tragically, in complete contrast to the songs title, apparently “it” did really matter as the two brothers perished in a gruesome murder/ suicide over a business dispute years later.
Zapp and Roger – It Doesn’t Really Matter 5:28 mins/ 192 kbps/ 7.51MB
I hadn’t thought much of minimalists Captain Comatose since back in 2001 when their single Comatose Captain was part of the rotation. Having heard this recent rendering of a single I apparently slept on, it has to be said that distance has made my heart grow fonder.
This minimal disco remix by Tobi Neumann and Thies Mynther under their Glove moniker is so mindnumbingly cool in almost makes me sick to my stomach, applying a post coital inflection to the 2005 original, which boldly asks the question, “how well can you dance with a drink in your hands?”
Captain Comatose – Up In Flames (Glove Mix) 7:30 mins/ 320 kbps/ 17.1MB
And while I’m waxing nostalgia, the Captains original overture as featured on Playhouse’s groundbreaking 2001 complication, Famous When Dead.
Captain Comatose – Comatose Captain (5-8 Mix) 6:47 mins/ 256 kbps/ 12.4MB
In contrast to an earlier post on Kompakt standout Matias Aguayo, my reaction to his recent single Rollerskate, like that of the accompanying album, has been somewhat mixed. On one hand, Aguayo assuredly reaffirms his position as the labels most innovative voice, crafting original compositions against the backdrop of a genre that fetishizes convention. On the other, where the production on his last album was a masterstroke of clarity and depth, the sonic style of its predecessor sounds deliberately thin, sometimes to the point of being frustrating.
This assessment was shared by friend of the blog Solomon, who has filled in the gaps of this otherwise remarkable single with an exclusive edit that skillfully realizes the force and depth the original composition demands.
And for a bonus selection of various rollerskating themed videos, visit the Electric Adolescence Facebook page
Matias Aguayo – Rollerskate (Solomon Remix) 6:05 mins/ 256 kbps/ 11.1MB
Deep and cold vocal tones express an odd view of friendship on this sadistic classic house track – the perfect antidote for those who have been exposed to too much Ibiza house, with its bongo drums and tepid lyrics about wine and joy and sunshine.
Phuture – Your Only Friend 4:46 mins/ 320 kbps/ 10.9MB
I don’t know what’s going down. When I tried to be down, down wasn’t around, so I went around and found that down went elsewhere. So I went there, then there came here, where here went became unclear, so I went back there and there went back elsewhere.
Perhaps elsewhere isn’t anywhere – it seems I’ve looked for elsewhere everywhere, and anyway everywhere could be anywhere, I fear. So if you find yourself there and wind-up finding elsewhere, then please find me, it seems I’m always here.
Tracklisting
Exile – Kiss You All Over (Brennan Green 6:59 Edit)
The XX – VCR
Pogo – Alice
The Bee Gees – Love You Inside Out
Rockets – One More Mission
Circuitry starring Sam Bostic – Computer
The System – You Are In My System
The Mary Jane Girls – All Night Long
Curtis Mayfield – Underground (Demo Version)
Loose Ends – Hanging On a String (Contemplating)
Sly & the Family Stone – Family Affair
Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts – Safety Meeting
The Phenomenal Handclap Band – You’ll Disappear (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)
OMD – Talking Loud and Clear
The Talking Heads – Psycho Killer (Live – Greg Wilson Edit)
Clapz II Dogz – Can You Stand the Rain? (Edit)
Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook (Gluteus Maximus Mix)
Enliven Dop Acoustics – The Dust (Enliven Deep Acoustics Remix)
Strobocop – Love is Music Music is Love
Magnum Force – Cool Out
Prince – Irresistible Bitch
KRL – Remember Donny
A Setting Sun – 33
Moodymann – Rectify
Herbert – Foreign Bodies
Massive Attack – Hymn of the Big Wheel
Oni Ayhun – OAR002-B
Faux Hoax – You Friends Will Carry You Home
Abakus – How Does It Feel To Be Real
Yoko Kanno – Radio Free Mars Talk 7
Nina Gordon – Straight Out of Compton
Electric Adolescence – Elsewhere Elsewhere 80:00 mins/ 256 kbps/ 146MB
You can color me surprised by my own reaction to the recent Whitney Houston single, or even that I had one at all. Being neither fan nor detractor of the songstress, I also didn’t pay much attention to her demise, through osmosis digesting some grizzly footage of her and Bobby Brown wallowing in a tepid pool of some sort of shared filth.
When perusing the Italians Do It Better blog, I came across label chief Mike Simonetti’s edit of Million Dollar Bill, and just assumed he had updated the production on a forgotten track from her back catalog. Then I saw the accompanying video and was as impressed to realize it was a new track as I was that Houston showed no signs of her time spent in the gutter. So I have to give credit where credit is due- in what could be the greatest crackhead comeback of all time, she has seemingly aged with the quality that makes us remember a time when the term “diva” meant more than just a cunt with a record deal. It’s Whitney, bitch.
Whitney Houston – Million Dollar Bill (Mike Simonetti Edit) 5:08 mins/ 320 kbps/ 11.7MB
At once both unassuming and brimming with confidence, this midtempo burner by minimal techno producer Luis Ortiz can be appreciated not just as a piece of music but as a work of fine craftsmanship, like a German engineered automobile or one of those chairs I’m meant to be impressed with. The snare drum, in particular, is so perfect that I’d like to take it out for dinner and finger it under the table.
LOD – Sabado Gris 6:26 mins/ 320 kbps/ 14.7MB
In compiling my forthcoming review of the decade series, I was reminded of this Rosemont Family Reunion song that quickly qualified as a genuine highlight. I could probably write a beautiful description of the attributes of this song, but the level of earnest sincerity I would have to tap into would undoubtedly trigger some sort of epiphany in my life, and I find myself more productive when encrusted in my signature shell of bitter cynicism.
The Rosemont Family Reunion – Ho Ho Ho 4:28 mins/ 192 kbps/ 6.22MB
A product of the Run DMC era of rock tinged rap, Schoolly D gets the Led out on this aggressive, homophobic, and almost completely incomprehensible tale of a pimp fucking with somebody’s shit, or something.
Remember that law where you had to put your shades on to feel cool? Well that’s still the law.
Schoolly D – Signifying Rapper 4:56 mins/ 192 kbps/ 6.77MB
For those of you who have spent days-on-end wondering what Spandau Ballet’s True would sound like if it was recorded in 2005 by an experimental Danish group, this lush pop ditty offers some tangible clues. Not speaking Danish, I have no idea what the lyrics mean, but I completely agree with whatever these cats are saying.
Boom Clap Bachelors – Combiner 5:44 mins/ 173 kbps/ 6.95MB
It would be difficult to exaggerate Angelo Badalamenti’s contribution to David Lynch’s body of work. Unlike other director/ composer teams such as Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herman or Stephen Spielberg and John Williams, where the music was written to existing film, this collaboration began when the stories were still part of Lynch’s meditations. Like a patient to a therapist, Lynch would describe moods and feelings, dramatic through-lines that were yet to be connected, with Badalamenti at the piano improvising a musical response. This might explain how the music feels so integrated within the films, seeming to know what transpired behind the white picket fences in the suburbs of Blue Velvet, or between the owls in the forest surrounding Twin Peaks.
Theirs was a perfect pairing of two men who were equal parts twins and opposites: Badalamenti found life in Lynch’s imagination, in turn, the auteur found a welcome restraint in the composer’s formality. The result is a union forged so seamlessly that it becomes impossible to determine where one of them stops and the other begins.
The following is a mix of collaborations between the two, as well as selected pieces of pre-recorded music from Lynch’s films, without which some of Badalamenti’s efforts might feel incomplete.
“My musical world is a little bit dark… a little bit off-center. I think of it as tragically beautiful. That is how I would describe what I love best: tragically beautiful.”
- Angelo Badalamenti
Tracklisting:
In Heaven – The Lady in the Radiator (Eraserhead)
The Elephant Man Theme – John Morris (Elephant Man)
The Prophesy Theme – Toto w/ Brian Eno (Dune)
Sandy’s Dream – Excerpt from Blue Velvet
Main Title – Angelo Badalamenti (Blue Velvet)
Mysteries of Love (French Horn Solo) – Angelo Badalamenti (Blue Velvet)
Love Letters – Ketty Lester (Blue Velvet)
Blue Velvet, Blue Star (Montage) – Angelo Badalamenti (Blue Velvet)
Frank’s Toast – Excerpt from Blue Velvet
In Dreams – Roy Orbison (Blue Velvet)
Twin Peaks Tapes (Excerpt) – Special Agent Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks)
Twin Peaks Theme – Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks)
Fire Walk With Me Poem – The One Armed Man (Twin Peaks)
The World Spins – Julee Cruise (Twin Peaks)
Just You – James, Donna and Maddy (Twin Peaks)
Best Friends – Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks)
Twin Peaks Tapes (Excerpt) – Special Agent Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks)
Sycamore Trees – Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks/ Fire Walk With Me)
Love Me – Nicolas Cage (Wild at Heart)
Be-Bop A Lula – Blue Caps & Gene Vincent (Wild at Heart)
Perdita – Rubber City (Wild at Heart)
Song to the Siren – This Mortal Coil (Lost Highway)
Blue Spanish Sky – Chris Isaak (Wild at Heart)
Rose’s Theme – Angelo Badalamenti (Straight Story)
Laurens Walking – Angelo Badalamenti (Straight Story)
A Man’s Attitude – Excerpt from Mullholland Drive
Dinner Party Pool Music – Angelo Badalamenti (Mullholland Drive)
I’ve Told Every Little Star – Jerome Kern (Mullholland Drive)
Crying (Llorando) – Rebekah Del Rio (Mullholland Drive)
For those wishing to delve deeper into the world of Twin Peaks, friend of the blog Tom Huddleston has co-written an outstanding guide to the series, including a particularly insightful essay on the feature length prequel, Fire Walk With Me.
Electric Adolescence – The Music of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti 100 mins/ 256 kbps/ 109MB
I like the girls who dance with the girls cause the boys won’t dance.
The Waitresses – The Comb 3:01 mins/ 320 kbps/ 5.51MB
Perhaps as beautiful a piece of music as has been recorded this decade, this centerpiece from Max Richter’s modern classical masterpiece The Blue Notebooks homage to an era when people who made music could read and write it too.
Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight 6:11 mins/ 192 kbps/ 8.5MB
Introduced with an excerpt of actress Tilda Swindon reading from Franz Kafka’s “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”, part of a series of literary interludes that punctuate the album, Shadow Journal applies a more modern production style than the above, laying a rich texture and pulsing sub bass under a subtle arrangement of traditional strings. The deep and dramatic result makes for an authentic accompaniment to Kafka’s diaries.
Max Richter – Shadow Journal 8:22 mins/ 192 kbps/ 11.4MB
After years of kids trying every variation on every established formula, applying vocals to any sort of dance music has become quite the cliché minefield. On one hand, a vocalist with too refined a set of pipes runs the risk of encroaching on diva or “deep sexy house” territory which, pardon me for saying, is technically gayer than two men having anal sex in a Mazda Miata. On the other hand, the rebellion of producers with flat voices singing because they can is about as refreshing as a joke about two men having sex in a Mazda Miata. I suppose there’s always a vocal option with the black guy saying random things about house music, but even that’s at the tail-end of a short-lived revival.
By contrast, Glaswegian minimal techno producer Alex Smoke manages to walk through this rainstorm without getting wet, offering poetically obtuse vocals not dissimilar in spirit to pieces from The Knife or Fever Ray. He has also proven to be good fodder for remixers, a fact which I will now prove beyond a reasonable doubt:
The occasionally outstanding Henrik Schwarz furnishes the track with his usual freeform percussion, which plays well off Smoke’s compelling ode to ambiguity.
Alex Smoke – Don’t See the Point (Henrik Schwarz Remix) 6:45 mins/ 320 kbps/ 15.4MB
Seatown’s own Lusine applies a battery of soft synths under the pitch-perfect vocal of the original.
Alex Smoke – Make My Day (Lusine Mix) 4:53 mins/ 320 kbps/ 7.58MB
Choosing which song to play when a girl comes over can be tricky business. On one hand, you don’t want to be too obvious by pulling out the Prince ballads, which is the audio equivalent of whipping your cock out. On the other hand, you don’t want anything too chipper- girls often move around when dance music is playing, which makes it difficult to pin them against the sofa.
While I have yet to try it out in the field, I expect this laid back funk jam by the otherwise unremarkable Natural Trust would make for the perfect first shot across the bow in the battle for sexual congress. Plus, at eleven minutes long you can have the whole thing done and have the girl in a cab before you have to choose a second track.
The National Trust – Making Love (In a Natural Light) 11:06 mins/ 192 kbps/ 15.2MB