Carino

Two random and unconnected pieces of Twentieth century pop culture for Sunday. The picture is a photograph/mixed media collage by Man Ray from 1941 titled Les Filles des Noix (Nut Girls). Forty five years later came the song below- Carino by T-Coy- a delicious marriage of Mancunian house and Latin music, created by the magic hands and imaginations of Mike Pickering, Richie Close and Simon Topping. It still sounds as fresh as you like. Carino, which has the honour of being the first UK house release and existed as early as 1985 before being released on Pickering's fledgling Deconstruction label in 1987.

Carino

Shadow Of The Sun

Moon Duo , as mentioned yesterday, have a new album out, handily titled to fit in with the solar eclipse. Two fuzz guitar chords, a motorik drumbeat, drone organ, a wigged out guitar solo, flat and nasal vocals. It's not easy to do something so familiar and still manage to do something so exhilarating with it. This is the song Weatherall played on the radio- seven minutes of your journey to work well spent this morning.

Ice

Bonework

                                                   Salvador Dali by Man Ray, 1934

This is good, discovered and shared via two internet friends a few days ago. A lovely bass-led dubby deep house track (with a great acid bleep and whooshes), from Leftside Wobble. Nice vocal too. Listening to it makes me feel young again, despite physical evidence to the contrary.

Ankle Shackles

This eleven minute epic from King Creosote came out in August last year- motorik drumbeat, strings, fiddles, all sorts of stuff and Kenny's plaintive vocal. It's a stunner. It came on a vinyl only e.p. limited to just 400 copies. I saw a copy on Saturday and like an idiot didn't buy it (limited cash and I went for the Jeremy Deller/Optimo's Voodoo Ray 12 " and the William Onyeabor album). I will have to return to the record shop. In the meantime...



Ankle Shackles

Saturday Night Live

Mr Justin Robertson in fine form at the Warehouse Party, a short bus ride from here, for all your Saturday night dancing needs.



Tracklist

Pink Skull - Frottage Industry
Panama Disco Lights - The Mood I'm In (Rodion Nero Dub)
Los Pastores - Thank You Porvenir (Luke Solomon Remix)
Prins Thomas - Sat Klae
Nadia Ksaiba - Virtual Lover (Jimmy Edgar Remix)
Remain - Noses, Claudine and Horses
Tarjei Nygard - Hardkokt
Sanfuentes - Heatwave (Acid Dub)
DJs Pareja and Philip Gorbachev - Verish
Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s - Summon The Primitive
Los Mekanikos - Sentimiento
Dense and Pika - Backstage Mute
Shadowdancer - Hydrate (Photonz Remix)
Alejandro Paz - Duro (Diegors Dub)
V.M.R. - Bowie (Eskimo Twins Remix)
Canyon Cosmos - Fear of Plastic (Pilooski Edit)
Cheval Sombre - Couldn't Do (Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Remix)

When that finishes you can switch straight to this three hour live set by Daniel Avery at The Boiler Room (Avery pointed out on Twitter last night that the comments he received were hilarious- 'not much of a dj set if there is no mixing or dance music? Got any sick drops?'). Free Soundcloud download here.

Saturday Mash Up

Mark Vidler, in his Go Home Productions guise, proves that a mash up of Shannon's peerless Let The Music Play and The Stones' equally peerless Gimme Shelter go together as well as bacon and eggs on a Saturday morning. Jim Morrison turns up at the start to provide the fried tomato (liked by some, loathed by others). Stoned. Immaculate. Fried mushrooms.

Shannon Stone

In The Nursery

I haven't posted any old-school Andrew Weatherall for some time- at least I don't think I have, it's easy to lose track. This is a re-working of a Sabres Of Paradise song by In The Nursery and is lovely- laid back but slightly spooky- and really more modern orchestral music than dance music. It came out on one sided 7". My copy isn't in very good condition, too hissy. I keep meaning to replace it.

Haunted Dancehall (Performed By In The Nursery)

Come Save Me

As well as the beefy indie-dance Andrew Weatherall remix of Jagwar Ma's Come Save Me single there's this remix by The Pachanga Boys- euphoric is the word. An extended two minute plus intro of ascending keyboard notes followed by ten minutes of hands-in-the-air excess, pitch bending all over the place. Like eating way too much chocolate in one go.

Wolfgang

Nine surrealist artists about to head out for a night on the town in 1930. On the back row-Man Ray, Jean Arp, Yves Tungay and Andre Breton. At the front Tristan Tzara, Salvador Dali, Paul Eluard, Max Ernst and Rene Clevel. After a pleasant afternoon in a gallery, with some snarky criticism of some of the art, and a couple of quiet pints sitting on the pavement with the newspapers watching girls go by and thinking up new manifestos, things will turn sour. Salvador will get the hump and stomp off, following passive-aggressive messages from the wife. He only returns after a sub-group of surrealists cajole him back with promises of absinthe. After watching the evening match everyone is pissed off that Real Madrid won which puts a downer on it all. Then there is an argument over who pays what at the restaurant and someone is sick in a gutter and they are shouted at by the restaurant owner who threatens to call the gendarmerie. No one owns up but Man Ray's shoes are splattered with muck. Much later, following a spilled drink in another bar, Yves Tungay has to hold Breton back who is snarling and spoiling for a fight with a sailor on leave; 'leave him Andre, he's not worth it (and he's bigger than you)'. A disagreement about nightclubbing- some of the men just want to go to a bar with a dj but Tzara knows the doorman at a club and reckons he can get everyone in- two for one on drinks as well. They end up in the bar, where the girls are much younger than them and not really interested in a bunch of very drunk, balding surrealists whose suit and tie combos are looking a bit out of place. Plus, the dj is playing vapid happy house. Two taxis are needed to get home, causing further disgruntlement for the men waiting for the second cab, which inevitably is late.

The Wolfgang Press were 4AD's 'we are not goths' band. They were definitely doomy and erred on the darker side of things but also moved towards the dancefloor as time went on, creating some fine records in the process even if they're not the kind of thing I want to listen to all the time.

Ecstacy

I'm off to work today to see how far the government have instructed the exam boards to play politics with GCSE grades and young peoples' lives.

Two Different Ways

I just discovered this belter of a track by Factory Floor. It sounds a bit like a vocal from a lost Factory Records song circa 1983 played over something you could have danced to circa 1989.

She's Wicked

While looking for the rockabilly for last night I happened upon this ace slice of 80s garage rock revivalism by The Fuzztones. Led by Rudi Protrudi The Fuzztones came out of New York and have gone through several line up changes but keep ploughing on. This has fuzz guitar (natch), Mysterions style organ and great vocals about her.

She's Wicked

Try this She's Wicked

Beachcomber

I found this recently at Just Press Play blog, an always reliable source of good leftfield electronic stuff, and it is a cosmic belter- Beachcomber is fourteen minutes of New York veteran Peter Gordon and Factory Floor making some beautiful links between stellar bass, wonky synths and post-punk sax. Out soon on Optimo.

The Girl With The Sun In Her Head

I stumbled into this Orbital song recently and it sounded sublime. Real stop whatever it is you're doing and have ten minutes off stuff.

The Girl With The Sun In Her Head

Totally unrelated picture- Alexander Calder, wire sculptor and 'pioneer of mobiles' (hanging wire sculptures rather than early mobile phones), snapped by Man Ray in Paris in 1931.

Missing

Vini Reilly has had a rough time recently with health issues and major financial problems. One of his Durutti Column masterpieces LC is currently being re-released with twenty odd extra songs. LC is an lp I already own twice, once on vinyl and once in a 90s re-release version on cd. I don't think I'll buy it for a third time but if anyone from the Manchester scene deserves some cash to go with the talent it's Vini, so maybe we should put our hands in our pockets. This song was written for the missing boy, Ian Curtis. New Order, ACR, Durutti Column and Tony Wilson were all around a pool somewhere in the US in the early 80s and Vini said to Tony 'You know who's missing don't you?' As well as Vini's beautiful guitar this song features some very fragile Vini Reilly vocals..

The Missing Boy

LC stands for Lotta Continua- the struggle goes on.

Pushing

I haven't posted any Nuggety, 60s garage rock for a while so let's remedy that with The Seeds and their organ led classic Pushin' Too Hard.

Pushin' Too Hard

I once dj-ed at the wedding reception of friends of friends, fairly low key affair above a bar in town rather than some huge hotel room. The groom gave me only two playlist instructions- 'our first dance is Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell and at some point you've got to play The Seeds Pushin' Too Hard'.

Don't Be So La-Di-Dah

I happened upon this recently (thanks to  reader Paul Bob Horrocks) and rather like it- a song from a forthcoming Westbam album with the vocals of Richard Butler (him from Psychedelic Furs, still going somewhere near you). You Need The Drugs has a lovely skippy rhythm, wobbly bass and big synthy strings and Butler's vox ('Don't be so la-di-dah, you need the drugs'- quite). Find it at Soundcloud and lose part of the last working day of the week.

No d/l I'm afraid- listen only. Besides at the rate things are being 'listened to' from my Boxnet account I'll be out of bandwidth by the end of next week.

Neu Weatherall

Do you want to hear Andrew Weatherall's remix of Primal Scream's 2013 song? Thought you might.

There are some of the lighter aspects krautrock in this- Neu!ish keys, bass and guitars- before the breakdown around 4.44 and then everything gets thrown in, just short of the kitchen sink. Listen on Soundcloud via Fact Magazine. The pre-order advertised 12" has a dub mix mentioned too. Which I'm looking forward to hearing, buying and playing at considerable volume.

Sun Blows Up Today

There are Flaming Lips songs and albums I love with all my heart and Flaming Lips songs and records that I don't. The last album, Embryonic, didn't appeal to me at all. Previous one, At War With The Mystics, had two or three out-and-out winning songs. Yoshima and the Soft Bulletin are superb from start to finish. Wayne Coyne is interviewed in this month's Mojo and seems to be in the midst of some 50-something crisis but he always comes across as honest, a wide-eyed believer and a man who wants to keep doing something different. Which is good.

There's a new album, The Terror, out in April. Unlike Embryonic it's a concise nine song job, not a seventy-odd minute slog. If you pre-order it you get a bonus song as a download straight away- Sun Blows Up Today. Wayne has described the forthcoming lp as 'bleak and terrifying' but this bonus song sounds like the work of indie-punk chimpanzees on happy pills. Listen at Soundcloud. It's chuffing great. Apparently they performed it at the Superbowl (?) and gave it for use on a car advert(?).

Their 2006 song The W.A.N.D. was a George Bush baiting, Black Sabbath channeling, up, up and away thing of brilliance. Until this week I had never seen the video. Here it is.

Kill City

In total contrast to yesterday's Appalachian ghostliness here's a raucous, sex-infused noise. Kill City were an electro-rock band who released a mini-album in 2004 called White Boy Brown Girl, on Alan McGee's short-lived Poptones label. McGee's mate Andrew Innes remixes them in early 00s Primal Scream style. Big drums, white noise, heavy riffs, female vox, lyrics about inter-racial shagging. You know what this is going to sound like don't you?

White Boy Brown Girl (Andrew Innes Remix)

Another song on the lp was titled Cease To Exist- which was the opening line in Pixies' song Wave Of Mutilation (borrowed from Charles Manson/Beach Boys), which took inspiration from Luis Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou film. Luis Bunuel was photographed in the late 20s by Man Ray. Of course he was. Everyone who was anyone was.

That's My Story And I'm Sticking To It

I just found this and thought some of you might like it- a re-edit of The Mighty Wah's mighty The Story Of The Blues single, lovingly unwrapped over eight and half minutes, for a true Balearic end of night escapade where you want just one last song to send you on your way before you spill out into the streets to see the dawn. May or may not be the work of Ivan Smagghe.  At Soundcloud here and available for download.

You're my best mate you are.