Aaron Carl- RIP

2010-10-03 by The Mighty Alboy

aaron carl- “hateful (UR Mix)”

Sad news that after a brief fight with pancreatic cancer, outstanding Detroit house and techno producer Aaron Carl died on Thursday.

Mentored in composition and production in the mid-nineties by Mad Mike Banks, he went on to create stand out house tracks and founded Wallshaker music.

Another great artist whose life and potential has been cut short by cancer- a sad loss to his friends and family and the world.

“For years, I’ve noticed I was ‘hated’. Now at this time in my life, I realize that I’m actually loved.”

Rest in Peace

Download MP3 (5:15min / 12MB)

This one goes out to the Pope: welcome to our 3rd world country

2010-09-16 by Hal Berstram

BTSM – (We’ll Arrest You) When You Step Off The Plane

A little something topical for the kids now… those of you not on the Richard Branson space program probably know that the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope, is visiting the UK over the next few days.

Last month, three members of the Burning Lodge immersion composition group entered a rehearsal studio in Bermondsey to record a selection of freeform jams, sonic experiments and in-jokes. In other words it was very similar to the recording sessions for Guns’n’Roses’s “Chinese Democracy” album but took about a billionth of the time.

Around 2 and a half hours of material emerged from the sessions – ranging from in the sweet spot to 1-bit unlistenable. This 8-minute effort, excerpted from a longer 34-minute track, was the most topical ‘song’ of the day (with the exception of a track about 25 per cent spending cuts and odes to the late Tony Wilson and Mr Dave Smith, creator of the Evolver synth).

My colleagues Ben and Martin (aka Brothers Buffalo and Sewing Machine) acquit themselves wonderfully. Ben delivers the lyrics with considerable elan: it’s the best delivery since Hunter S Thompson’s story about 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern who went up to a heckler, put his arm round the bastard, and said “I have a secret for you… kiss my ass.”

The music is a fractured groove – a bit messy, but certainly something that could be worked on. I’m particularly proud of the mighty irritating synth arpeggiation that comes in at about 5 minutes in – funky funky. The weird Hawkwind-style background noises are courtesy of the Dave Smith Evolver – a truly untameable beast.

If you want to read a good article about the true purpose of the pope’s visit, Andrew Brown in the Guardian has a go(o)d hypothesis.

I was going to go on the demo this Saturday but not sure if I’ll have enough time. But maybe.

Download MP3 (8:00min / 9MB)

Timeless ambient techno

2010-09-04 by Hal Berstram

Sun Electric – Sarotti

I haven’t posted for ages – been ridiculously busy, but am beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel now, so I have been scouring emusic for some long-lost R&S classics and was very pleased to find this.

Sun Electric were a duo from Berlin (Tom Thiel and Max Loderbauer) who became friends with The Orb and Thomas Fehlmann after releasing a 12” single called “O’Locco” in 1990. That particular track has since gone on to about 200 different remix versions. The track featured here – “Sarotti” – is from their 1993 LP release Sun Electric (sometimes known as Natural Energy) on R&S Records , which Alboy had (along with just about every other ambient techno LP released that year and a good deal of non-ambient ones too.)

At least I think this release was an album – it may have been a double 12” single. At any rate it was album-length (about 45 minutes).

Due to my very poor tape-labelling skills I got somehow mixed up for many years thinking that this track was “O’Locco” and then got v confused when I used to pick up remixes of “O’Locco” on the net and they sounded nothing like this. (Most of them didn’t sound that much like each other either, so you can understand why I was confused…)

But whatever it’s called it’s a classic. 6 minutes 21 but it could have gone on for a whole LP side and not outstayed its welcome. Beautiful.

Download MP3 (6:21min / 11MB)

Ode to Croissant Neuf

2010-08-24 by The Mighty Alboy

Bon Iver- “Flume”

Myself and P Rice, accompanied by a number of friends and families, had the pleasure of attending the rather lovely Croissant Neuf festival in the lush valleys of Monmouthshire in Wales the weekend before last.

Croissant Neuf is an off-shoot of the longest running area at Glastonbury (besides the main Pyramid stage), and is a solar powered and chilled zone they have apparently been running since the 60’s. Unlike it’s mothership festival, it thrives on being small and sustainable- the organisers reckoned there were only about 1500 people there, and these of all ages and pursuasions.

Rather than getting in the big name bands to bring hordes of punters and ramp up the entry fee (eg this year’s festival was headlined by the Magic Numbers), C9 features a diverse range of sounds of generally high quality- I dont think I saw a programme as such, so no one really knew what was good and when it was playing, so instead we found ourselves pleasantly surprised to hear good music fairly regularly.

The site itself is beautifully located- there’s views across the Welsh valleys, and an Iron Age fort nearby- and because it’s so small, you cant lose your tent and you dont have to pack for the day out or trudge for half an hour to go from home to where the action is at.

Add to this a range of arts and craft type activities (I am the proud owner of a lamp I made out of twigs and some hairy string), circus types showing and sharing their skills, a nice selection of wholesome foodage and an amusingly named bar (the “Stumble Inn”) situated in an old barn selling only cider and real ale (neither of which I particularly like, mind) with real spit & sawdust on the floor, good friends and a nice break in the Welsh weather, and you’ve got a really good festival experience.

Highly recommended!

And to the ode- I was introduced to the track here by one of our campers who played it nice and loud on the last day as we were about to start packing up. It’s a bitter tune that fitted the end of a good time very nicely, lifted from an album called For emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver, who at the time the album was written, consisted of just one chap- Justin Vernon.

The album was conceived and recorded in a cabin in the mountains of Wisconsin, where Vernon had decided to isolate himself for the winter season in 2007, following a particularly difficult year where he suffered the break up of a relationship, his band and a severe bout of glandular fever:

“I left North Carolina and went up there because I didn’t know where else to go and I knew that I wanted to be alone and I knew that I wanted to be where it was cold.”

The resulting music is really achingly beautiful, featuring lots of rich guitar work, found percussion and overdubs of harmony and melody that are just stunning.

Not news to many, but news to me- thanks Rhys!

not usual fare for DC, either, but it’s so lovely I thought I would share…

Download MP3 (3:39min / 11MB)

A Rediscovered Groove

2010-08-23 by The Double K

New Grooves – 2 A.M.

This is a tune that I’ve loved for years and years but only just found out what it is. I know it intimately from an amazing Jon Da Silva tape from the Hacienda that got caned round my way back in 1992. If you’ve been keeping up with the comments on here you’ll know I recently read Peter Hook’s “The Hacienda: How Not To Run A Club”, where after all these years I finally found a track list for the tape (and also discovered that it was recorded at the Robs Records Party on Wednesday 4th March 1992). I’m currently in the process of tracking down some of the tunes that I’ve never identified up to now, and this is one of them.

It was released in 1991 on New York’s Nu Groove Records, and is one of those great tracks that sits right on the boundary of House and Techno (and in this case also Acid). After a short intro the groove builds as drums are gradullay added to the mix. Urgency is added to the already driving bassline as the awesome 303 acid line flitters in and out, and that’s about it – nothing too big or clever: just a great tune.

Download MP3 (5:30min / 13MB)

newport state of mind

2010-08-19 by The Mighty Alboy

many of you will have seen this already, but Ive only just come across it, and think it’s fantastic

Great Boo's Up

2010-08-04 by The Mighty Alboy

Boo Williams- “midnight express”

Apologies to our regular listeners for inactivity at DC- no posts here for a month, shocking indolence from me and our reduced roster of co-bloggers.

To make some small amends, here is a gem of a track from Boo Williams on the mighty Relief Records label

Born and raised on Chicago’s south side, Boo Williams’ career as DJ/producer, began back when house music was still creating an identity for itself. He was raised on a healthy diet of Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson, Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy, and over the years has become part of the house music foundation himself.

This track is a long time favourite of mine and various others of the dilate posse and crew. I remember a bunch of us first hearing it on the Colin Faver show on Kiss FM in the back of our mate Rob’s car as we headed home to our communal pad in Hendon- the awesome combination of huge, loose breaks with the tight-assed swing of the drum track and crazy synth madness got us all very excited, and had us dashing out to our favourite record stores to try and find it the next day.

Still a stone cold, stand out classic to this day…

Download MP3 (7:01min / 16MB)

To the Max

2010-06-30 by The Mighty Alboy

Gil Scott Heron vs DJ Asparagus- “Your Daddy Loves You”

A further tribute to the youngest addition to Dilated Choonz, young Max Shooter- this one perhaps more up Squeaker’s alley than the ruffness from Double K…

A smooth jazz house edit of Gil Scott Heron’s your daddy loves you by Stockholm’s DJ Asparagus. In this case a moving message of love to Gil’s young daughter, but I’m sure the sentiment applies to the Max Daddy n’all

Congratulations to mother and father- and to baby Max for finding such a fine family to be born into! Love to all…

x

Download MP3 (6:22min / 15MB)

Gimme an M!

2010-06-28 by The Double K

Tom & Jerry – MAXi(mun) Style

This is a post (actually 3 posts) in our long-running occasional series of tunes dedicated to the new offspring of Dilated Choonz crew members. This time it is the fecund loins of Tommy Squeaker that we’re celebrating, as he and his good lady were recently blessed with a baby boy, Max.

Squeaker steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the superiority of Jungle over other musical forms, despite the existence of tunes like this one by Tom & Jerry (an alias used by 4 Hero from '92-'94), which literally has everything you could possibly want out of a tune: it’s got soul, it’s got funk, it’s got shouty ragga vocals, it’s got flutey bits, it’s got an enormous fat bassline, it’s got spacey ambient noises, it’s got girls singing and it’s got a variety of breakbeats. I mean, what else could you possibly need in there? What other genre gives you all that in under 5 minutes? Absolutely brilliant.

Still, despite this oversight in musical taste, Tommy Squeaker is a great man, a true gent and the best friend anyone could hope to have, so I’m sure you will want to join me in congratulating him and wishing him all the best in his new role as a dad.

Download MP3 (4:57min / 5MB)

Gimme an A!

2010-06-28 by The Double K

Ordinary People – Baby You Make My Heart Sing

Here’s a tune I’ve been meaning to post for a while now, and this seems like an opportune moment for it, due to the Oooooohoooo Baby You Know You Make My Heart Sing! vocal that probably captures pretty much how our man Squeaker feels about little Max at the moment (I’m guessing he feels it minus the pounding, tuff-as-hell garage beat in the background though!)

The main man in Ordinary People is Jason Kaye, who, like Dilated Choonz favourite Steve Gurley, made the transition from the hardcore and jungle scene into UK Garage production: he was/is part of the legendary Top Buzz crew.

Download MP3 (6:27min / 15MB)