Thank Ya, Thank Ya!!

It’s a day for giving thanks so let’s give thanks for two absolutely slammin’ jams that display gratitude in a very excellent fashion. First up is Sweet D’s absolutely banging Chicago house classic from ’86. This was the work of the legendary Chip E. — a man responsible for some early and innovative jackin’ moments — and Danny Wilson, who worked with the likes of Farley Jackmaster Funk, Victor Romeo and DJ International head Rocky Jones. For an early house jam it’s pretty well put together and has a real uplifting feel with this is not a moody, deep or acidic number, this one is brimming with bright, joyful keys and a driving bass line that could still rock a dance floor.

This one smacks of what Chicago house was all about, synthetic disco, and you need disco to synthesize in order to have the ersatz version. The disco tune that begat or inspired “Thank Ya” was Cheryl Lynn’s blinding 1978 number “You Saved My Day” from her eponymous debut album (the one which contains that Marina chick perennial “Got To Be Real”). No doubt this one was a favorite at the Music Box, The Warehouse and on the WBMX radio station. Sweet D’s imitation of Miss Lynn’s flawless soul nugget is a reminder that the soul needs to be put back in the mix. It’s good to remember r&b and soul in all its incarnations, but who’s gonna bring it back for the next phase? Hopefully one day we’ll be thanking some people for that.

Orr

New EP by Larry Heard.

Larry Heard - 25 Years From Alpha [Buy It Here]

Larry Heard has a new one out on his own Alleviated label in conjunction with Black Market in the UK. It’s a three track EP called “25 Years From Alpha” and as you can expect it’s a bit of a keeper. It was released yesterday so it should be showing up in the specialist stores pretty damned soon. On it Heard covers a range of moods, with the title track, a fifteen minute plus pulsathon and excellent dj tool, sounding like his take on Italo disco – not that his track “Stars” under the Mr, Fingers monicker didn’t do the same thing back in ’87. Track two, “Mercurian Funk,” is a kicky fusion of sleek electro, deep house and Fela sounding keyboards. And the final track, “Feathers Floating” is delicate like its title and displays the kind of subtlety that made his Sceneries Not Songs, Genesis and Alien albums so essential.

If you’ve been a fan of Larry Heard for many years then this one solidifies his reputation for creating beautiful electronic soundscapes that you can dance or chill to. Keep an eye peeled for this one as it’s a worthy addition to his already legendary canon of work.

Orr

Another New Bear Funk Rekkid That's Rather Pleasant And Other Thoughts Of That Ilk!

It hasn’t been that long since I wrote about the last Bear Funk release by Italian producer Arturo Capone (and Capone has an album coming at the beginning of December). This time around the pressure comes from British musician Alex Cordiner aka Lusty Zanzibar. I imagine when his EP, For My Friends, (4 tracks on the wax, 6 tracks digital) drops on December 1st it should create quite a stir with the djs and dancers who have been getting kicks out of the stuff that the likes of Aeroplane have been putting out recently.

Once again this music is being thrust into ready made genres like Nu disco and Balearic (yeah Chris Rea and Mister Mister would sound dope next to “Pacific Air Race”) but the truth is that it is just great, well produced dance music, which happens to be melodic and nicely arranged. Melody is for airheads as minimal techno’s dearth of music and abundance of whooshy noises has sagely proven. Why bounce around to a tricky bass line with lush strings when you can stroke your chin to a two note bass line and no strings? And don't get me wrong there's a fair bit of minimal that I like, Konrad Black is the man, Heartthrob has done some nasty tracks, Dan Bell rules from on high, Kompakt can do no wrong and Will Saul is on point. It's just that there is a lot of it that's plain boring. Sorry.

I think you can almost map the direction that electronic dance music is taking: the melody of Italo, disco and Cosmic gear is being deftly absorbed into modern productions by artists like Reverso 68, Phreek Plus One and Aeroplane, and that is all set to crash into a just bubbling fixation with a diverse amount of late ‘80s and early ‘90s gear, ranging from Weatherall remixes and Balearic bombs from the likes of Sheer Taft and BBG to the NY garage nuggets which are being given the twice over.

Lusty Zanzibar’s killer EP from Steve Kotey’s Bear Funk label is another step in the right direction. It’s driving, yet extremely musical and uplifting. No pianos. but I’m sure those are just around the corner, when someone in NY gives the Baldelli chinstroking a miss for a second, puts down that Steel Mind record and picks up an FPI Project 12 inch it’ll be on like Donkey Kong. Now a prayer,

Dear Father who carts in obscene
amounts of obscure rekkids, hallowed
be thy slightly worn copy of LB Bad’s EP
on Nu Groove. Will thou send us a party
thrown by people who aren’t proprietary
and who aren’t generic with their music, and
give us rekkids with melodic synthy bits,
strings and girls singing about life affirming
stuff. You can also ditch the banging electro,
irony and no name djs from LA who can’t mix
but are real handy with traktor. You can send
some that can mix and that might be handy with
a tractor (like a John Deere peut être ).
Amen!

Nice one Steve Kotey. Keep em coming, and keep on keepin’ on and on (Fears Keep On).

Orr

New stuff, old stuff and Sideshow

Sometimes it takes me a minute to get inspired and it’s hard to be all perky when the economy is going down the drain and you’ve spent the entire decade having your self-esteem downsized, struggling under the imbecile prince. Also the very tiring fixation with the ‘80s is beginning to seriously wear thin and that includes the slavish hunting for rare boogie, Italo etc. When you’ve gone through some music like three times in your lifetime — when it was released, when it was exhumed in the ‘90s and when the carcass is finally flogged in this decade — then you know it’s time to move on.

However if you're a younger vinyl junkie then you are where we old, jaded vinyl whores have been and we enjoyed every second of it and so should you, whether you're reading blogs, checking discogs or chancing on the tunes at used stores and thrift outlets. There's worse things to be doing than scooping old toons and may all the Mid Airs, Samson & Delilahs and Assos fall into your sweaty mits like manna from heaven. Plus you'll have the joy of turning up all the tunes we missed!

Time for some new shit perhaps, or time to shift up a gear to fixate on the records that came out after the boogie, Italo and raw house. And lo and behold there are some dope new records coming out, and though they may tip their hat to the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s so what. The great thing about slavishly hunting down old records is that their ideas and the joy you feel at scooping them can be projected into making new music yourself.

If you haven’t checked the Control EP by Ecce, which I wrote about on Sunday, please do so. The more I listen to both the original and the Justus Köhncke remix, the more excited I get about this kick ass record. The same can be said of the forthcoming Sideshow record, which will be dropping in January 2009 on the impressive British label Aus Music. A full length will follow in February, and this, first, single is a wicked piece of work. It features remixes from both Chateau Flight and Appleblim & Komonazmuk, with the digital release giving you two more mixes than the wax; a dub of the original mix and an Appleblim & Komonazmuk dub.

What more can I say about this frigging fantastic record? Well the Chateau Flight dub is outstanding, it’s a minimal techno thing that isn’t boring (a rare thing indeed), is very dubby and rather dancey. Also Paul St. Hillaire aka Tikiman — who sang on all those dope Rhythm & Sound and Round records — sings on this here record, I thought I’d leave the best to last. The A & K mixes are no miss either, fast, dubby and uplifting, they’ll sound good pitched back a tad too. Keep an eye out for this, it’s definitely a keeper.

Orr

The Rapture come correct with a kick ass mix!

I’m always on the look out for a good mix cd, and to be honest they don’t come around too often. Howeverz, !K7 have just dropped a doozy in the shape of The Rapture’s Tapes mix. OK, it’s been out for a minute, well since the end of October — that explanation is for people who regard a record old if it has been out for more than four months. I think a record is old if it’s been out for more than four decades. It’s obvious that The Rapture feel the same way as the playlist touches on a number of decades, and a number of genres…thank god!

There’s a lot to be said for the non-generic mix, but a lot can be condensed down into one tried and tested truism, variety is the spice of life. It works for food, and so “If music be the food of love, play on,” to quote the great scribe. As I keep saying, generic stuff bores the knickers off me: house all night — unless it’s played by the likes of Tony Humphries —is tiring, minimal techno mind numbing and so on. And a surplus of generic retro leaves me similarly fatigued, be it boogie, disco or Italo.

Dance music is a continuum, and Djs like Humphries, Levan and Hardy knew that in the mid ‘70s. Now we have three more decades of it to cherish, program and rock. On The Rapture’s Tapes mix this passion for dance music down the ages is displayed in spades, with tracks from the ‘70s sharing space with tunes that dropped a month ago. Plus dance is viewed in a broad sense, in that genres like hip-hop and Go Go make an appearance too, showing that the essence of this mix is completely in tune with the spirit of eclecticism that gave rise to music forms like house, techno and hip-hop.

The current uber-penchant for pigeon holing yet still referring to the music as underground has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Pigeon holing, in reality, is deference to corporate label niche marketing and that is at once irritating and treacherous to the underground. Wanna keep the underground alive? Mix it up. Scoop this CD a listen to how it’s done properly. That a rock band should be showing the dj community the correct use of dance music is definitely food for thought… and deed, indeed. It’s a kick ass mix and will hopefully inspire a new wave of djs to drop the top 40 mash up shit, and mash up the club classics of the past and the present. So come and join the future!

Orr

Ecce - Control EP

Sorry for the delay in posting some new material. I’ll admit it, I’ve had a block and so I spent the time compiling a humungoid mailing list from the seven years of emails that I have saved. I’ve only gotten as far as the ‘Js’ so there’s a lot more to do. However, what’s the point in having a mailing list for yer blog when there’s nothing new written? So true!

To that end let me tell ya about a new rekkid that crossed my path. It’s called the Control EP by an artist named Ecce. It’s on a label called August Day Recordings, which is a sister label of Tirk, a UK label that has given some some gorgeousful music in the past and evidently continues to do so. Ecce is a pseudonym used by Nicholas Lisher, whose music was discovered by ex-Cure keyboardist Roger O'Donnell. O’Donnell released a couple of Lisher’s tunes on his “Nothing Concrete” 99x/10 label sampler.

Lisher has been producing more material, and his music is a subtle fusion of shoegaze rock, krautrock and electronics. This new EP, out on November 24th is just that and more. Plus German minimal star Justus Köhncke provides a kicky and melodic mix of the title track. The other three tracks are lush, layered with crisp and ever so English vocals. Great stuff actually, and lyrically engaging. Can’t wait for a full length!

Orr

Spirit Catcher at Mighty this Friday, November 14th.

The more I listen to these Belgian electro types the more I like 'em, and their performances — of which there are quite a few on youtube — seem really passionate. I'm looking forward to throwing down some tunes with these guys. Once again more quality entertainment from Mighty, arguably the best club in San Fran thus far!

Orr