On heavy rotation

I picked some recordings that were at the popular end of dance music at HMV last Friday:

• Klaxons - Magick (SMD mix) - A one-sided single by the leaders of the new rave movement that consists of erm the Klaxons. The single is pretty jackin', though I don't know if this single is indicative of their general material
• Mync Project & Danny Rampling - Strobelight - Better quality material than would expect from Positiva, a good solid house tune in both normal and dub versions
• Freestylers - In love with you remix - For house heads the one to go with is the DJ Bomba and Senor mix

Sonar Kollected

I picked some great tracks on the Sonar Kollectiv's online shop:

Trickski - The Bat EP
ISoul8 - Give It Up
Markus Enochson - For You To See (get it for the Tiger Stripes dub)
Markus Enochson - Day And Night (w/ James Ingram)
Movementz - 29Calls (Birmingham in the house)

I had been buying a lot of old vinyl because I wasn't hearing a lot of stuff at my usual haunts that resonated with me, on a whim I checked out Sonar Kollectiv's online store and there was more excite within than a bag full of crack smoking pythons.

On line and on heavy rotation

I got sent a link to the Seventh Information Architecture Summit and found this map of the Yahoo! network (the different properties like astrology, news, finance, search etc that make up the Yahoo! portal) it would have been damn handy to have it when I was working there!

I picked up some choice cuts from the nice people at Phonica and ran into my old friend Freddy 'Love' Garcia who is now working at Vinyl Factory.

Franz Ferdinand - Outsiders (JD Twitch remixes) - Dominion Records. Despite being a bunch of Roxy Music wannabes who shop in thrift shops, their song Outsiders is polished into a gem with the touch of a skilled remix team.

Peech Boys - Don't Make Me Wait - TMT Records. Don't make me wait another night, tonight I want to love you... sampled to death and still sounds as good as the first time I heard it on a club sound system a couple of decades ago. The big disappointment is that the pressing doesn't feature the Larry Levan mix, but don't let that stop you from stocking up.

Onionz - If only I had a brain - Industry Records. Ok, I am biased I am a great fan of Onionz production, he seldom does a bad tune and this one proves the rule: a jacking title track and a hip-house tinged b-side. If this doesn't pack your dance floor, retire and go become a chef.

Maurice - This is Acid - Trax. The low-pitched vocals and 303 sound as fresh today as they did in 1988. Freddy said that 1988 is the sound of now, getting away from all this electro 80s stuff, I told him acid had never gone away

DJ Said & Hideo Kobayashi - Children Of The Drums - Chez Recording. A new fresh sounding house track, quality tune; a solid kick drum and a trippy groove that would fit in most sets.

The Clash - Rock The Casbah/Mustapha Dance - CBS. Ok so The Clash were punks, but the music had dance floor sensibilities, buy this for the dub of Rock the Casbah called Mustapha Dance.

Finally, this Bell South clip below is great despite the fact that is was obviously seeded by professionals rather than kids who had pirated it off their TiVO box, proving that the most subversive media channels are being taken over by the man.

On heavy rotation

A Hundred Birds - Black Water (Wave Music) Japanese artists cover the detroit techno classic using real instruments. It adds a depth to the track that original didn't have. This was recommended to me by Alec, apparently the number of texts to his radio show goes through the roof when he drops this. You can listen to samples and purchase it here.

White Collar Criminals - Wanting You (Jackin Tracks) The one to go for is the Johnny Fiasco mix on the b-side. A great mix of rousing soulful strings and samples with jackin' beats and acid lines makes the track something that the best producers from the Chicago house scene. More info here.

Terry Mullan & Bryan Jones - Reclaim Your Acid Heritage EP (Robsoul) Classic acid-style tracks with lashings and lashings of TB-303 sounds all over the place. Get your fix from Phonica before they sell out.

The Miami Winter Music Conference has started which means that its start of the music buying season again, if the rest of the year turns out like these tracks then we're in for a jackin' summer to take our minds off the hose pipe ban.

On heavy rotation: Where's the music?

Turntable
Originally uploaded by renaissancechambara.

I haven't bought new music for a good while. Dance music is seasonal in the run up to Christmas and until the Miami winter music conference and Ultra festival there is a dearth of good material.

I still kick the tyres of new records at Phonica but to be honest there isn't much there to interest me at the moment.

The business picks up steam once labels have had a chance to licence a few successes and then they become adventurous in taking risks with new tracks.

There is a surge in the run up to to the start of the season in Ibiza which is usually on the first Saturday in June, a lull during the summer when everyone is away and then full steam ahead to November when things go quiet again.

January and February are generally the best times to buy old records to fill out your collection as secondhand shops will be full of stock and have a lack of punters.

These shops rely on turnover to keep them going, so don't feel afraid of taking advantage. I have a consignment of three dozen records coming from a Norfolk-based record shop that I have picked up at 2GBP each rather than the 5 - 10GBP the records would have fetched at other times of the year.

On heavy rotation

• Streetchoir featuring Aretha Franklin - Rock Steady. Quality bootleg remix crew cranked out this reworking of the Aretha Franklin standard making it an essential track to drop on a dance floor
• Pink Floyd - Welcome to the Machine - Dirty Funker remix. Prog rock monster gets dancefloor friendly
• Paradise Soul - Spirit of the Turning Tables - Kinky Vinyl. DJ Rolando-style epic tracks - three mixes all really good

Miscellaneous modern culture artifacts

Recycling the past seems to be the big news in dance music at the moment. A series of Todd Terry classics have been re-released, my recommendation is the remix of The Texican on the flipside of Orange Lemon's Dreams of Santa Ana.

E2 E4 by Manuel Goettsching was a 6o minute piece of modern composition that got cult status from the early house and Ibiza DJs who threw everything in the mix if it worked; Prins Thomas captures the essence of it so that you don't have to hunt down a rare as rocking horse sh!t original copy and then sit through a mindnumbing 28 minutes a side.

Pink Floyd's Welcome To The Machine gets turned from pretentious rock meister werk to dancefloor monster by the Dirty Funkers with the help of a fistful of acid sounds and a 909 kick-drum. Pete Heller's Timewarp sounds familar but at the same time is new, go for the dub mix.

A couple of classics from Zoo magazine, first up their tips for modern living: how to fold a t-shirt shop assistant style and tips on getting the most out of your order at Subway - by saying the name of each ingredient with the air of finality as if it is the last ingredient that you will ask for so that the server will pile plenty of stuff on.

Living parody Tim 'Holla' Westwood's Pimp My Bride column in Zoo had me rolling around the supermarket aisle of Budgens laughing at his reviews of reader submitted snaps of young ladies and his agony aunt column. Just to give you a flava (sic) here's a quote from the Westwood translator at the bottom of the page

• "Gorilla pimpin' (noun) A display of bestial or atavistic sexual aggression, most commonly directed towards a 'shorty'"
• "Shorty (noun) Desired female sexual partner. Contrary to the epithet's connotations, she need not be deminitive in stature"

Just what we need: a middle-aged son of an anglican bishop being a role model for young chavs to smack their b*tch up.

This advice seems to run contrary to Tim wearing his agony aunt hat:
"Being drunk is some dumb sh!t. To get a girl you've got to have some game, some swagger, some bounce. Get your flow on, do you, be yourself - that's all you need. What you scared of - failing? So what? What have you got to lose? At least you tried and you won't torment yourself and be thinking about it next day. If there's a girl you like, go kick it with her. And if she disses you , you're better off without that b*tch. Just be respectful, confident and kick your game."

Update on Fopp Vinyl

Further to my posting regarding Fopp and its vinyl section. As you can see from the mail below they will still be keeping their LPs, it is only 12" singles that they are no longer selling.

Hi

just so you know it's just the 12" singles that were are losing not the LP's

Hopefully, you'll still shop at Fopp.

Cheers

Fopp
1 Earlham Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2H 9LL
T: 020 7379 0883
F: 020 7240 8355
E: earlham.street at fopp.co.uk
W: www.fopp.co.uk

THIS E-MAIL AND ANY ATTACHED FILES ARE CONFIDENTIAL, PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND MAY BE LEGALLY PRIVILEGED. If you are not the intended addressee or have received the e-mail in error,
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----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 11:01 PM
Subject: store_londoncoventgarden - Posted : 22:01:51 27/03/2004


=================================================
store_londoncoventgarden - Posted : 22:01:51 27/03/2004
=================================================
First Name : Rorsharch
Email address : rorsharch at rorsharch.com
=================================================
Enquiries
=================================================
Enquiry CD :
Enquiry Vinyl :
Enquiry DVD
Enquiry Book :
General Enquiry :
Hi, I was very disappointed to hear today that you will be getting rid of
the vinyl section. You have gone to the trouble of building it up and having
a top quality team to run it alongside a really good selection, not a pile
of crap like many stores. I go to Fopp because I can buy my DVDs, vinyl and
books under one roof. SAVE THE VINYL or I'll shop elsewhere. Who do I need
to take it up with at your head office?
=================================================

Tracks of the Week

Paul Raymond continues his super disco breaks series with volume three re-editing Chicago's street player and re-tempoing it for modern beat mixers (like me). For those of you who haven't heard the original, chances are you have heard Kenny Dope's Bucketheads project cut up 'the bomb'. The horn stabs, melody and vocals all came from street player. One to stay in the box as an intelligent and classy crowd pleaser.

Los Hermanos have recorded a very melodic techno record called Influence EP featuring 'my mothers guitarra' on the a-side. Pitch this down on the 1200s and you have a really good quality deep house groover. This is out on Underground Resistance (or you can go to United Rentals and check out some heavy plant.)

Disaster has struck, the nice people at the vinyl section in Fopp (corner of Earlham Street and Shaftsbury Avenue) are losing their space instore, this to allow them to sell more DVD's. In preparation for this three of the listening stations have already been removed. Now I like my DVDs but this is real loss:
- The guys down there are the most helpful record shop staff in London (well now that Anthony@Flying has disappeared on a Far East odyssey)
- They had really competitive pricing and a really good selection
- Many of the customers wont go and support other independent shops but are likely instead to go to Virgin or HMV

I have been been told by insiders that the beast of mammon (otherwise known as head office management) are intractable in their decision.