The Smiths - The Draize Train

The whole Smiths back catalogue has just received a much-needed remaster treatment by Johnny Marr. Included on the mega boxset edition is this particularly fine instrumental gem. A lot of Smiths fans (and indeed (probably) Morrissey himself) would like to ignore the fact but the band could lay down a pretty fantastic groove when the mood hit them. Here's a brilliant example with Rourke and Joyce (the most underrated ryhthm section in rock) perfectly complementing Johnny M's licks and synths (?!) on this very rare B side.

Nacht Und Nebel - Beats Of Love (Special Mix)

Recently covered by Villa (and splendidly remixed by Mylo) here's Beats Of Love by its original creators Belgian Electro-New Wavers Nacht Und Nebel. This special remix was a smash all over Continental Europe in 1984 and a massive record in the Belgian New Beat clubs. It's also a bit of a proto-Balearic classic!

4am

Making a rare foray into the literary world with a fantastic new book with a distinctly musical flavour from a first time author.

Set in the early 90's, 4 a.m. from Brighton resident Nina De La Mer, is the story of two best friends who are Army chefs at the Ballingfostel base in Germany by day but by night they leave behind the sweaty camp kitchens to enjoy the highs of Hamburg's rave scene and its attendant ecstasy culture.

This cracking read inspired me to dust off a few rave classics, raid the bathroom cabinets for some Vicks and, erm, 'ave it!

Free music - Papua New Guinea

Mc Lyte - Cha Cha Cha

Dope on plastic.

Dynastie Crisis - Le Corbeau Et Le Renard

Fantastique bit o' French funk rock from '72 - kind of inadvertently invents rap, too (what year was The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, again?)! Thanks again TOTP 1976 for inspiring this (long story!)

Yacht - Utopia (Miracles Club Remix) Free Official Download

Am still spinning (or should that be streaming?), Yacht's bonkers-but-great newish LP Shangri-La so a new (ish!) slew of remixes for single Utopia is more than welcome. Those kind folks at DFA Records have made the remix from Portland, Oregon Psych-Housers Miracle Club available for free download via Soundcloud. There are lots more streamable goodies from the label's Soundcloud page.

Utopia (The Miracles Club Remix) by DFA Records

Champ's Boys Orchestra - Tubular Bells (Murky Boy Edit) + TOTP

Recently, BBC4 in the UK have been showing, week by week, entire episodes of Top Of The Pops from 1976. Now, while there are many fine records from '76, you do tend to sit watching willing for Punk to happen and drop the proverbial bomb on all the light entertainment fare. Was watching this week's installment the other day though and up popped this absolute GEM! A mash-up (probably the first ever) of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells with the bassline from the previous year's dancefloor revelation/salvation Love To Love You Baby, French (?) disco collective Champ's Boys Orchestra mould Oldfield's synthline into the perfect get-down for Britain's long hot summer of 76 (and not-so-hot 2011!).

Here's Murky Water's ace edit and the actual piece of TOTP footage including 'interpretative dance' from the short-lived Pan's People replacing Ruby Flipper troupe during that scorching summer.

Champs Boys Orchestra -Tubular Bells (Murky Edit) by Murky Waters

Sheridan 10 Days Off Mix

Top notch discoist and all-round good chap Sheridan celebrates his appearance at the 10 Days Off festival (alongside DJing luminaries Moodyman, Richie Hawtin, Greg Wilson and Aeroplane) with this well-crafted promo mix of electronic disco.

Held in Ghent, the spiritual home of Belgian dance music, the 10 Days Off festival takes place over (surprise, surprise) 10 days from 15th to 25th July. Sheridan is playing on Monday 25th. Should be a cracker!

Sheridan by 10 Days Off

Tom Moulton Radio Interview

Legend alert! Tom Moulton, the man responsible for the modern art of the remix and to a large degree the 12" single discusses his career and influences in this excellent interview promoting his brand new Philly Groove Remixed 2 album. Cracking listen. Thanks to the excellent Disco Outcasts blog for bringing this to my attention.

Tom Moulton In Conversation with David Dunne by david dunne

Tensnake

Here's an artist I've been meaning to post about for a while now and his forthcoming live set at Glastonbury tomorrow seems to be the perfect opportunity to big up Germany's house sensation Tensnake. Hailing from Hamburg, Marco Niemerski has been bubbling under for a couple of years now but has gone firmly overground with remixes and productions such as his fantastic mix of Aloe Blacc's megahit I Need A Dollar and his re-rub of electronic legend Alexander Robotnik's Disco Sick.

His own stuff is pretty good, too, here's the fantastic video for recent single Something About You.



ALEXANDER ROBOTNIK - Disco Sick (Tensnake Remix) by Tensnake

ALOE BLACC "I Need A Dollar" (Tensnake Remix) Snippet by Tensnake

Happy Birthday, Prince! (Dirty Mind)

Prince - Dirty Mind from Vilosophe on Vimeo.


Many happy returns, Prince (53 today!)

Martin Rushent R.I.P.

Very saddened to hear of the passing of a production genius. He was behind some of the greatest records of the post-punk era; Buzzcocks, Stranglers, Altered Images, the Associates, the Go-Gos and, of course, the Human League's magnum opus Dare, all were touched by the magic hand of Rushent.

He also invented the remix album with his truly groundbreaking League Unlimited Album, Love & Dancing. A dub version of Dare, the record was painstakingly assembled over many many hours using tape splicing and became a smash hit in its own right, peaking at number 3 and going platinum. 

The Glitter Band - Makes You Blind (12" Version)

Flipping brilliant bit of (almost mutant) disco magic from a most unlikely source!

Sheridan - BCC Party

New, old, borrowed and blue disco-lover Sheridan brings us a Mayday (ish) mix featuring a fine selection of cuts, dubs n rubs.

sheridan-bcc-party

(Can't give away the name of the first track yet. But I believe it could be one of 2011's summer hits. It should be!) - Says Sheridan ...
x - x
max coveri - one more time (the robot scientists' instr edit)
tago mago - shoobeeda
daughters & sons - rice
talking heads - psycho killer (greg wilson edit)
theophilus london vs natural self - calypso blues (natural self's deep blue mix)
freeez - IOU
brioski ft svperfine - show biz (in flagranti rmx)
adele - rolling in the deep (villa remix)
got to have your dub (dicky trisco edit)
i wanna be your lobster (dimitri from stoke on trent nice one innit edit)

 Sheridan - bcc party by sheridan

R.I.P. Poly Styrene

Junior Boys - Banana Ripple

Lovely slice of (very!) early summer sunshine. Bodes well for the new album.

Junior Boys - Banana Ripple by DominoRecordCo

In Flagranti - Hallow Discourse (Single) & Worse For Wear (Album Preview)

Having come to our attention with their brilliant Brash & Vulgar single and plethora of re-edits (in particular their great re-rub of Chic's Dance Dance Dance retitled A Brag Mount) alongside many other top tunes, In Flagranti return with a fantabulous new single (and video), Hallow Discourse ahead of their third album, Worse For Wear.

LCD Soundsystem - Last ever gig @ Madison Square Garden

On Saturday night the curtain came down on one of the best bands of the last decade when James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem played their last ever gig to a spellbound Madison Square Garden. Pitchfork streamed the whole sad farewell live and the concert is available to view in all its 3 and a half hour glory.

Speaking of Pitchfork, they ran a piece on the legacy of LCD to coinicide with these final concerts. A great read and a great explanation of why they were so central to the Noughties underground dance scene and why their genre-busting approach helped change the mainstream (and influenced eclectically-minded DJs like our good selves!) . Click here.




Setlist:

Set 1:

2:10 Dance Yrself Clean (with "I'm Not In Love" by 10cc intro)

12:40 Drunk Girls

17:09 I Can Change

23:45 Time To Get Away

28:16 Get Innocuous!

35:18 Daft Punk Is Playing At My House

41:45 Too Much Love

46:53 All My Friends

55:30 Tired (with "Heart of the Sunrise" by Yes snippet)

—

Set 2:

45:33 Part One

45:33 Part Two (w/ Reggie Watts)

Sound of Silver

45:33 Part Four

45:33 Part Five (w/ Shit Robot)

45:33 Part Six

Freak Out/Starry Eyes

—

Set 3:

1:54:39 Us v Them

2:04:00 North American Scum (with Arcade Fire)

2:11:45 Bye Bye Bayou (Alan Vega cover)

2:16:30 You Wanted A Hit

2:24:07 Tribulations

2:29:15 Movement

2:33:48 Yeah (Crass Version)

—

Set 4:

2:45:30 Someone Great

2:53:06 Losing My Edge (With "Da Funk" by Daft Punk snippet)

3:03:36 Home

—

Set 5:

3:15:53 All I Want

3:22:18 Jump Into the Fire (Harry Nilsson Cover)

3:30:30 New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down (with "Twin Peaks Theme" by Angelo Badalamenti intro)

RIP - Loleatta Holloway

Very sad to hear of the passing of a true soul legend and disco diva.

Best known for her work with Dan Hartman most notably on the original Relight My Fire and Love Sensation (known to millions as the basis of Black Box's 1989 megahit Ride On Time) and on Salsoul records with the Salsoul Orchestra (in particular Runaway which was famously covered by MAW's Nuyorican Soul project in 1996), Loleatta Holloway was one of disco's most distinctive vocalists and one of its most sampled artists throughout the past two decades.

Chi-Lites - I Found Sunshine

Fantastic slice of funky clavinet action from 1972 by the Chi Lites.

Big thanks to Will Banks and his excellent Soul Prescription radio show for putting this funky gem on my radar.

'This Is How We Chill' ... Souls Of Mischief - '93 Til Infinity (Hannes Fischer Remix) & Original

Berlin-based producer Hannes Fischer twists the jazzy vibe of this classic 90s HipHop jam into a lovely laidback deep house instrumental groove.

  Souls Of Mischief - 93' til Infinity (Hannes Fischer Remix) by Hannes Fischer


And just because it's flippin' great, here's the original ... new material on its way from S.O.M. soon too! :)

Hercules & Love Affair - Moshi Moshi/6 Mix

Lubberly mix of wonky house n disco from Hercules & Love Affair's Andy Butler.

Tracklisting:

1. Giorgio Farina — Disco Cross
2. Arpadys — Monkey Star
3. Unknown Artist — Get Funky With U
4. Unknown Artist — Cosmic Rock
5. Roboterwerke — High On Tech
6. Yello — No More Word
7. Meat Beat Manifesto — Helter Skelter
8. Dubwise — Hold Me Real Tight
9. Sh** Robot — I Got A Feeling
10. King Cosmic — Freaky Queen (KiNK remix)
11. In Flagranti — Gimme
12. Wolfram — Unknown Track

  Moshi Moshi Mix II: HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR by moshi moshi music

Marvin Gaye - How Can I Forget?

Storming Stax -influenced stomper released in 1970 just before Marvin was to embark on his What's Going On - Let's Get It On - Trouble Man -  I Want You album odyssey.

Sparks - Beat The Clock - Number 1 Song In Heaven Album

In a random iPod shuffle moment the other day, up popped  Beat The Clock by the incomparable Sparks. Which got me to thinking that it was high time I posted on one of my favourite records and one of the most influential and largely unheralded LPs of all time, The Number One Song In Heaven.

Following two flop mid-70s albums, Ron and Russell Mael found themselves at a turning point in their career. In an attempt to break away from the traditional rock band format, they teamed up with electrodisco legend Giorgio Moroder to produce an album that pretty much invented the early 80s (along with Suicide's first two records). All the synth pop duos who followed in their wake owe the brothers Mael , Giorgio and this fantastic concoction of disco, electro and offbeat lyrical wit a debt of gratitude.

Here are the three amazing Top Of The Pops performances they made for the album's singles.










 

Discodeine Ft Jarvis Cocker - Synchronize + Album

Discodeine feat. Jarvis Cocker - Synchronize from Pschent on Vimeo.


Discodeine is the brainchild of Parisian producers Pentile and Pilooski (one of the Modern Masters of the edit best known for his notorious reworking of Frankie Valli's Beggin' and the Dirty Edits series). Their single Synchronize, featuring all round good egg and ex-Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker and a huge dollop of disco goodness, was one of the records of 2010 in my humble opinione.

They're back with a splendidly esoteric self-titled full long player, featuring Synchronize and and the similarly excellent Singular. 


More on Discodeine here .

  Discodeine – Synchronize feat. Jarvis Cocker (Extended Version) by Adn Memb

 

Retro/Grade Radio 1 Essential Mix

Tom Neville and Serge Santiago AKA Italo Electrodiscoists Retro/Grade had the responisibility of delivering Radio 1's first Essential mix of the new year and they did so in some style! With stunning home-made edits sitting alongside fresh new cuts (including previews of tracks from their forthcoming debut LP), R/G have set the bar high for '11 with a slamming eclectic mix.  Also included is their superb first single, Moda which despite being nearly 2 years old is still sounding as fantastic as ever.


Tracklist:

Vangelis – Albedo 0.39 [RCA]
Vangelis – Spiral [RCA]
Jimmy Bo – Sspank (SS Afica Dub) [Streetheat]
Nitro Deluxe – Letss Get Burtal (Ssuk Edit) [Cutting]
Roxy Music – Angel Eyes (Drum Dub) [Polydor]
Animotion – Obsession (RGEM Edit) [Mercury]
Gwen Guthrie – Seventh Heaven (Keys) [4th & Broadway]
Gonzalez – Haven’t Stopped Dancing (Conga Break Edit) [EMI]
Ecstasy, Passion & Pain – Touch & Go (RGEM Edit) [Roulette]
Anthony & The Camp – What I Like (RGEM Dub Version Edit) [Warner Bros]
Checko – Firelight (RGEM Edit) [Eyes]
Wired – To The Beat Of The Drum (Intro) [Underworld]
Carrie Lucas – Dance With You (RGEM Edit) [Solar]
Wired – To The Beat Of The Drum (On The Burn) [Underworld]
Raven Maize – Forever Together [Quark]
Fun Fun – Happy Station (Keys) [Polydor]
Lime – On The Grid (Remix Dub) [Prism]
Chic – I Want You Love [Atlantic]
Moodymann – I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits [Planet E]
Patrick Cowley – Mindwarp [Megatone]
Vocal – I Am A Computer
Dharma – Plastic Poll (Remix Instrumental) [System]
Táta Vega – Get It Up For Love (RGEM Edit) [Motown]
Bicep – Darwin (Retro/Grade Edit) [Throne Of Blood]
Stevie Nicks – Stand Back (Extended Mix Edit) [Modern]
Paul Parker – Don’t Play With Fire (SSUK- Edit) [Fantasia]
Vocal – Come With Me
Vocal – Don’t Go Away
The Todd Terry Project – Just Wanna Dance [Fresh]
Retro/Grade – Moda (Radio Edit RGEM Bootlegg) [Deconstruction]
The Todd Terry Project – Just Wanna Dance (Repise) [Fresh]
Methusalem – Robotism [Ariola]
Carol Jiani – Hit & Run Lover (Disco 4000 Edit) [Matra]
Retro/Grade – Zoid [Deconstruction]
Carol Jiani – Hit & Run Lover (Disco 4000 Edit Reprise) [Matra]
Retro/Grade – Escape Sequence (Intro) [Deconstruction]
Vandroid – Master & Slave (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
Étienne De Crécy – No Brain (Serge Santiago Remix) [Pixadelic]
The Rhythem Odyssey – Move Groove (Warehouse Mix) [Lipservice]
Sh*t Robot – I Found Love (Wild Geese Remix) [DFA]
Gino Soccio – Remember [Atlantic]
Retro/Grade – Escape Sequence (Album Version) [Deconstruction]
Boytronic – Bryllant [BCM]
Daft Punk – The Sun Of Flynn (X2) [Disney]
Black Devil Disco Club – The Devil In Us (SSUK- Edit) [Lo]
My Mine – Hypnotic Tango (Serge Santiago Edit) [Polydor]
Stephanie Mills & Witch Queen – You Can Get Over (Serge Santiago’s Bang The Gong Dub) [RCA]
Tom Neville – Intergalactic Romantic (RGEM Edit) [No Label]
Retro/Grade – Reset [Deconstruction]
Bronski Beat – Small Town Boy (RGEM Reset Bootlegg) [ZYX]
Azari & III – Indigo (Serge Santiago’s Rejected Remix) [Turbo]
? – Radio
 
RETRO/GRADE RADIO ONE 1 ESSENTIAL MIX by Retro/Grade
 
Retro/Grade - Moda by Deconstruction Records

Hercules & Love Affair - My House (Original & Leo Zero Mixes)

After their fantastic 2008 self-titled debut, it's been a long old wait for a new album from Andy Butler & co. but it looks like it's been worth it. First single My House has a slightly deeper house sound which bodes very well for 2nd LP Blue Songs.  The accompanying video has just been released and it's a splendid late 80s/90s TV dance show pastiche. Leo Zero has also done a nice 90s inspired remix, too,  which should hopefully get a full release.

Blue Songs will be released through Moshi Moshi records on 31st January.

The My House video is available to view exclusively on the Guardian's website .

Leo Zero's Mix

Hercules Love Affair - My House by Jrparado