I'm back!! It's been a good 10 years since I've not posted anything new on this blog.  During that time I travelled a lot around the world and bought lots of unusual tapes.   But I'm back living in New York and I have a lot of music and tapes to share.  

When I first started this blog in 2005 you could buy amazing tapes everywhere.   And they often had fantastic tracks that were only on tape.  Now its seems that any tape worth posting costs a fortune and they're hard to find.  And every track ever released is already on youtube.  Even tracks I posted that were only available here are now resposted by someone else on youtube.  But I still have a number of old rare tapes and some mixtapes where the beauty is the choice of music, not the individual tracks.  AND, I'm going to start remixing tracks myself and posting them on here.  So the blog will take a slightly new and hopefully more exciting direction which also features my own work.

I purchased this tape from @maitreselecto.  I first heard about him from old friend @daviddarg.  I got in touch and this was the only tape he had at the time.  He does very limited runs.  When I listened to it, I realized that all of the tracks were amazing, some soukous, some soca, some french arabic stuff - and none of it could be identified on Shazam.  I've posted 2 of my favorites and remixed one of them.  Please tag the names in the comments or message me if you know.  @Maitreselecto got in touch afterwards and told me that the Arab French track is a Magreb pop track by Mohamed Mazouni.

The remix process was a big learning process.  So I won't say this is the most amazing remix ever.  But I've learned so much in a short period of time.

You can also check out our new instagram page @dostapes.

Greek Folk track 1

Mohamed Mazouni - Cherie Madame

DOStapes - unknown Folk tune - (dos mix 1)

Russian Pop and Trance tapes from Kiev Ukraine

This is my monster Kiev, Ukraine post. I went with Dima, Roman and their friends to dj at club Xlib a few weekends ago and it was really a fantastic time. They did a hilarious write up on me in Timeout comparing me to Benny Hill (not because I was the main dj, but because I was the only one not from eastern Europe). Masha who is the promoter at Club Xlib (probably the only good independent club in Kiev) and a dj in her own right took great care of us. You can see my pics here.

Anyway - after going to Moscow and Bulgaria in the last year, I can declare Kiev as the winner. It's got lots of old beautiful buildings, it's laid out really nicely with little hills and broad avenues and even some river space. And the people are really friendly. Most of all, the have a huge excellent flea market with lots of 80s clothing, old records and most of all . . . tapes.

I picked up a few and this trance one is quite enjoyable. I also got a compilation of Russian pop which will put up soon. Can't say I ever could quite swallow the full trance sound when it came out first time, but this collection of rather synthy trance has something I really like. In particular, the track Cyclone Tracy - Guide to Eternity is amazing.

Side A to come later in weekend

Side B

1 - Vertigo - Oxygene

2 - Cyclone Tracy - Guide to Eternity

3 - Energy 32 - Cafe Del Mar

4 - Central Seven - The Operea

5 - Technology Entertained - Electronically

6 - Mach1 - Roadrunner

7 - Robert Miles - In My Dreams

Jewel Ackah - high life from Ghana 1986

Here we have some very good hi-life from Ghana from the mid 80s.  Jewel Ackah is well known enough to have stuff you can by on Itunes but not this album.  I found this vinyl album in the Princess May car boot in Dalston, which is almost the equivalent of the Dalston Oxfam Shop (for me) these days because they don't really care any good tapes anymore.

It looks Jewel Ackah had albums dating back to '81 as you can see from his discogs site.  You can see some more recent albums of his (less to my taste) on itunes here.

According to his biography here, this is maybe his best album, recorded with Pat Thomas and A.B. Crentsil.

Onipa Dasa Ni

Smylonylon 9

I am excited to present another Smylonylon tape on this blog.  This is one of the ones that I did not have.  A lovely man named Alan Miller contacted me on the e-mail on this blog and sent it to me out of the blue.

This tape is earlier in the series of Smylonylon tapes when the music was more moog and 60s dance.  Starting with the tapes in the teens up to number 30 (the last one) the music was a lot more disco influenced.  

There are a lot of amazing tunes on here.  I have given you the option of buying many of the tunes on Itunes.  I particularly like the tracks Hey Hey by Gershon Kingsley and the track Silver Fingertips by Paul Mauriat, which I have included as a download.  I particularly am struck by how musical the tracks are in the sense that the musicians are clearly very good at playing instruments. It seems that music these days is all computer automated.

If want to particularly thank Alan for his generosity in sending the tape through.  And also happy to know that he's inolved with Optimo, where he is PR manager.  Check out his djing as DJ Hushpuppy here:

http://www.sohotheatre.com/whats-on/beats/

Or his personal links here.

www.mixcloud.com/hushpuppy/
www.subcity.org/shows/musicplease/

Side 1 (click to listen - direct download)

1 - John Keating - I Feel the Earth Move (itunes)

2 - Ray Davis - Fist of Fury

3 - Paddy Kingsland - The Earthmen (itunes)

4 - Mike Curb - Gas Hassle (itunes)

5 - Alen Tew - The Detectives (itunes)

6 - Paul Mauriat - Silver Fingertips (download direct)

7 - George Martin - Winchester Cathedral

8 - Lord Sitar - If I Were a Rich Man (itunes)

9 - George Martin - Hole in My Shoe

10 - Pierre Henry - Offering (itunes)

11 - Les Baxter - Shelly In Camp

12 - Candido - Jump Back (itunes)

13 - Dr. Bohme - Sudamerikanisches Medley

14 - Eduardo Zurita - Rico Mambo

15 - Don Tracy - African Waltz


side 2 (click to listen - direct download)

16 - Peter Thomas - Popular Myth (itunes)

17 - Theo Schuman Combo - Korallenriff (itunes)

18 - Peter Thomas - Stars & Rockets (itunes)

19 - Horst Kruger Sextet - Leopard

20 - Brigitte Bardot - Saint Tropez

21 - Ray Davis - Kojak

22 - Galactic Light Orchestra - Galactic Swan (itunes)

23 - Alan Hawkshaw - Fuel Injection

24 - Gershon Kingsley - Hey, Hey (itunes)

25 - Andre Brasseur - Saturnus

26 - Popcorn - Tap Moi-La

27 - Peter Moesser - Happy Time

28 - Perrey & Kingsley - The Savers (itunes)

29 - Fred Berlipp - Beating Street

30 - Dan Hill - Medley

31 - The Mohawks - Beat Me Till I'm Blue

32 - The Young Ones - The Black Queen's Beads

Ismael Isaac et les Freres Keita - La Paix

Ismael Isaac et les Freres Keita are a Reggae group from Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Ismael Isaac recorded this album in 1986 with the singing twins (seen on either side of him in the cover) Keita and Hassan Ousseini.

I got all the information above from Wikipedia and it doesn't have much else to say about him.  The sound on this track is incredible however. It's reggae but there's something else which is distinctly african about it.

I found this album in the flea market in Marseille and I hope you enjoy it.  You can buy the recording on Itunes here but I think my recording off vinyl is better.

(warning - I've posted an aif cd quality file so it's 50 mb)
Ismael Isaac et les Freres Keita - La Paix

Select - the Factory Tape

This is a rare compilation put out by Select magazine (other tapes of which I've featured on the blog) which features various singles from the Factory Records collection.  Factory Records were famous for people like New Order and Happy Mondays and have had a movie made about them.

The track on here which appears to not feature anywhere else is the Stephen Hague remix of New Order.  Stephen Hague was an american producer who gave a more 80s disco/synthop tinge to a lot of big tracks from people like the Pet Shop Boys.  Later he went on to work with Ace of Base.

When I first was researching this tape I was a bit surprised that there was an actual group called "Electronic" and I wondered how they could get away with that.  Then I realized it was probably some late 80s concept by these really heavy hitters,  Bernard Sumner of New Order and Johnny Marr of the Smiths.  If some random guy like me had put together a group called "Electronic" people would have scoffed.  But in the 80s big guys like these could pull it off.

This tape is on Discogs here.

A1	Northside –	Moody Places Instrumental
A2	New Order –	Bizarre Love Triangle (Stephen Hague Mix)
A3	Cath Carroll –	Moves Like You
A4	Happy Mondays –	Kinky Afro (Euromix 12-Inch Version)
B1	The Wendys –	Suckling
B2	Revenge –	The Trouble With Girls
B3	Electronic –	Lucky Bag (Miami Edit)
B4	Cath Carroll –	Next Time (Edit)
B5	Vini Reilly & Durutti Column –	Megamix

Mlimani Park - Kenya Soukous from the 80s

This is another tape that I purchased in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania in 2009. Mlimani Park (DDC Mlimani Park Orchestra being their full name) is one of the best known Soukous groups from Tanzania.  Unfortunately the tape was in relatively new condition when I bought it but the recording is not exceptional.

Strangely enough this tape has a song about Daniel Moi, the president of Kenya (not Tanzania) in the 80s.  I was living in Kenya in the 80s and remember this kind of music blasting out of every single shop everywhere all the time.

You can find similar music here, where I've written about other tapes I purchased.

Probably my favorite track is Nakubali Makosa, which means "I Remember Mistakes" in Swahili.  About half way through where the track switches to the dance break there is some great instrumentation.

Download full tape

Side 1

Dua La Kuku

Nakubali Makosa

Heko Rais Moi

Ukombozi Afrika

Side 2

Visa Vya Mwenya Nyumba

Amida

Majuto

Historia