nigh

For the last post, I thought I'd skip E and move straight along to two tracks from folky electronica giant FourTet. These are both taken from a 12inch released just prior to his breakthrough album of 2001, Pause, though they weren't included on the album. So maybe there are those of you out there for whom they're new.
The first is about as laidback and stripped down as its possible for a song to be - the looping of fret buzz and the sound of finger-on-guitar-string are pretty inspired, I thought.
The second is more poppy than Keiran usually gets, though this is off-set by a pensive, almost melancholic mood. A really beautiful track.

FourTet ~ Look after your mermaid

FourTet ~ Warmer places

Well, that's it lads n lasses. It's been a nice experiment over the past year, and I'm grateful for your comments, time & attention. I may be back sometime in the future with a new blogging adventure, but that's it for now.
Take care.
J x

save this page

retro void

This is a track that will be immediately recognised by anyone with either a passing aquaintance with De La Soul or with US children's TV of the 1970s. Or both.
It was re-released on Blue Break Beats Vol4 - that is, the fourth collection of old Blue Note tracks sampled by hiphop and other artists. But that's a bit of a swizz, as this track, to the best of my knowledge, was written by Bob Dorough for the Schoolhouse Rock series of children's-ed cartoons, and never actually released on Blue Note.
No matter, it's a great track, if a little weird during the counting sections...

Bob Dorough ~ Three is the magic number

You can buy a hold host of Bob's tunes here, or at his homepage here.

And here's the great animation for all you retro-voiders



save this page

on weather

I've posted some Daedelus before, but he's a nice man making some very nice music, so here's some more.

This first track is from a dublab various EP that also includes tracks from the like of Sa-Ra, Nobody & Prefuse73 (an alternate take of the 'Rain Edit', the Perhacs sampling track from Surrounded by Silence). I'm not sure that anyone else could fuse the sources he does on this song without making it sound like a right dog's dinner, but he succeeds. A really lovely song, (unless you have issues with The Cure being sampled):

Daedelus ~ A touch of spring

And speaking of Prefuse 73, a slightly different version of this remixed Daedelus track was included on his One Word Extinguisher album, but cited as a Prefuse tune. Which I thought was a little cheeky, and for a while made me think they were, in fact, the same bloke. Anyway, enough jibbajabba, here's the song:

Daedelus ~ Busy Signal (P73 remix)

And another brilliant track from his '03 Household EP. This should be liked by fans of the Dirty Projectors, as it reminds me of their more electronic songs...

Daedelus ~ Snooze Button

Enjoy


save this page

mama feelgood

This track is the ultimate party tune! A fine, fine break that's been sampled by everyone from the London Funk Allstars to yo mama. If this don't get you movin, you better be dead, or in jail.

Recorded during the 'coke and chants' period of James Brown's musical career, and I think it's a real pity that it doesn't go on longer. Most of his tunes pick up a groove and just hit it (and don't quit it) for close to 8 minutes, but no such luck here. They're in an out in under 3 1/2 minutes - so short in fact that when I played it at parties I used to cut a second copy in at the 2 1/2 minute mark when you hear that weird 'booiiing' sample.
A classic...

Lyn Collins ~ Rock me again and again and again

save this page

crash the boards

I've decided to give it a rest on this blogging lark. I've enjoyed posting for this past year, and I've definitely been introduced to some great music, and music lovers, though this site. But I'll soon get to my 100th post, and I think I'll use it to bow out. I mean, with floodwatch droppin knowledge like this, how the fuck are the rest of us meant to compete?!..

Back to today, and I'm amazed that I haven't posted anything by the Cali Agents yet. I always found their music really intriguing, as I always thought they sounded like they were from the East Coast. - Their music was usually stripped down to the bare bones of perhaps a piano loop, bass, a couple of vocal samples, and a clean beat, it all sounded more like Premo than the stuff coming from the West at this time. It all made their name seem pretty ironic to me.

Here's three great tunes from their 2000 album How the West was One. Listen to this first track - ain't that a straight East Coast beat?..

Cali Agents ~ The Good Life

Cali Agents ~ Neva forget

And the album title track:
Cali Agents ~ How the West was One

Oh, and here's a track that Planet Asia recorded before he hooked up with Rasco

Planet Asia ~ Fresno state of mind

myspace
a good interview by DaveyD

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update:
when I complimented floodwatch above, I didn't mean to suggest that blogging should be competitive. It shouldn't be, even tho some folk are trying to make it that way. I just meant that I think others' blogs are way better than this one.
~ For 'droppin knowledge' blogs, floodwatch is one of the best; I also definitely recommend domino rally, durutti, from da bricks and souled on.
- For 'diggin through the crates, enthusiasm-for-music' type blogs, obviously you should go to dilated choons, and pop register
~ And for 'new music' blogs you can't go far wrong by ch-ch-checking out FUCKING DANCE, analog giant, get weird turn pro and just press play.

Something for all the family in that list, I think.
Take care

save this page

remove these clouds

The career of Judy Clay never really took off in the same way as many of her (usually less talented) contemporaries. Some of that is as a result of her being, by some accounts, a right-royal pain in the arse to work with - refusing to play the Harlem Apollo for less than a truckload of cash, for example, which effectively sunk the promotion of her '69 comeback single and caused Atlantic to drop her from the label.
But she remains an important figure in the history of soul, and for more reasons than just the quality of her vocal performances. Along with white soul singer Billy Vera, she was one half of the first interracial duo signed to a major label, for example. -Another move that didn't do her career much good, as the major TV networks refused to broadcast them singing together, such was the sense of the time...

Possibly the track she is most famous for is this belter, recorded with William Bell for Stax:

Judy Clay & William Bell ~ Private Number

and on the 12-inch version I've got, there are also three other really nice tunes. Here's one of them...

Judy Clay & William Bell ~ Left over love

save this page

jackobooty

I bought this bootleg remix of Brandy's 'What about us' about 3 years ago in Sheffield. I think it's better than the original, perhaps because they shift her vocal by half a beat, so it no longer comes in on the upbeat.
I'm not sure who was responsible for it, but you can still buy it here at Boomkat, along with a pretty dodgy (but still funny) cover version of Michael Jackson's Thriller on the flipside.

Brandy ~ What about us? rmx [right click]

save this page

puro teatro

From one Pedro to another, and a bit of a change of pace.

In '98 my sister bought me the collected 'Songs of Almodovar', knowing how much of a fan I was of his films. (It was actually only the second CD I owned, being a longtime opponent of the Devil's shiny beermats...) And I still haven't tired of the charm and beauty of many of the tracks. Sure, a few of them push the boat way out into camp-land - too far for me to share my love for them with you here. Others just dip their foot into such territory, like these three gems...

Luz ~ Piensa en mi [Think of me, while you're fucking her], taken from High Heels

Chavela Vargas ~ en el Último Trago [In the last sip], taken from The Flower of my Secret

Maysa Mataraso ~ Ne me quitte pas [Don't leave me], taken from Law of Desire

Buy!

save this page

kept my high from the second one

Pedro's second full length album is about due to drop over in the UK, a full 6 months or so since some kind of scheduling error meant it was released in Australia.
There's much to admire in this album, and some tracks that I love already. I must keep in mind that it took me a couple of listens to really love his first eponymous album, so I guess I shouldn't rush this one. Still, I would have loved more of the broken piano-based tracks that lit up that first release and a few less tunes featuring bleating saxophone that feature here.

I'm sure that some will draw comparisons between the music that James makes as Pedro and folk like Four Tet, Manitoba, Prefuse 73 and others in that glitchy-folktronica ilk. I kind of get these comparisons, and it is difficult to write about his stuff without using the word 'reminiscent', but still I think that he is doing something a bit different. Similar but different. God it feels late, here's some of his nice songs...

Pedro ~ Hope is a happieness


Pedro ~ Hope is a happieness [right click save as]


Pedro ~ Spools


Pedro ~ Spools [right click save as]

mehspace
Buy!

save this page