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.