the earlies - "sweet dreams (my l.a. ex)" (MP3)

mark's already filled a fair bit space (and brought a little tear to my eye) with his moonboots love, so this is just a quick one from me to say if you head down early doors tomorrow you should be lucky enough to catch the earlies (or at least giles and john-mark, having all of them down would probably run the risk of any bar hitting capacity) djing from 4 till 9, and i reckon they'll be playing something along the lines of the folk/prog/psyche wierdness that anyone who's heard their secret broadcasts will be aquainted with. for those of you unfamiliar with the earlies, they're simliar in scope to the flaming lips, everyone loved their debut album, and so should you. and i've been sitting on this rachel stevens cover for a while now, and it seems as good a time as any to share it out.

as all you common/best foot forward regulars should know by now, we have our first special guest this saturday the 1st of october. aficionado’s moonboots will be joining us, and for me personally, it couldn’t start much better…

me & a few mates had our first aficionado ‘experience’ over 5 years ago now. after a hectic previous evening we decided on a trip down to zumbar on oxford road (now known as zumeba) ... perfect venue, eclectic crowd and great music ........ however, this was the night that i also discovered the mighty (yet lethal) beverage known as hoegaarden................so after several pints of this newly discovered brew, instead of remembering how great the music was, i could only remember how great the hoegaarden was, and still is.....

moonboots, and his partner in crime, jason boardman, have been running aficionado for over 7 years now.........from their humble beginnings at aqua (???), they have moved onto pastures new on various occasions, zumbar, ponana, fat cat, kro 2 and one central street but at last, they seemed to have found their spiritual home in the form of arch bar in hulme.........which, despite the odd breeze block being thrown through the window (surely such an event adds character?), it has been, a more than successful venture .......... wherever aficionado has ended up, the music and guests have always been consistently spot on, the music can range from laid back vibes to old acid house tracks to latin/brazilian madness.......and being partial to a guest or two themselves, aficionado has seen the likes of todd terje, elliot eastwick, greg wilson, phil mison and acr’s martin moscrop on the turntables, as well as many many others.

being a regular over the years to both aficionado and one tree island (moonboots used to guest there), i must confess to being somewhat of a dj pest….on various occasions i have tried to accost moonboots (and jason) into telling me what this tune is or what that tune is .......... so in honour of my persistence (and their patience), i have compiled a top 5 list of accosted aficionado tunes……



1. chaplin band – il veliero
2. dubtribe sound system – equitoreal
3. sebastian tellier – la ritournelle
4. will powers – adventures in success
5. io – claire


as well as his aficionado residency, moonboots is also responsible for an excellent mix cd on x:treme records…….the ridiculously balearic soundcolors 4* is a 12 track compilation of organic house music, latin rhythms and jazzy downtempo cuts………do beware though, the idea of listening to this compilation on a winters day is not recommended, as it will more than likely induce the thought of booking a lovely (yet expensive) summers holiday………...………….personal highlights on this compilation are the first track, su-paka-poohs ‘kurage’ and the third track, aubrey presents phil owen ‘inner feelings’, just wait for that guitar……….
* (discogs is wrong, phil mison mixed soundcolors volume 3...not 4)

anyway that’s enough from me………feel free to add comments about your love for either aficionado, moonboots or hoegaarden……………….we hope to see you all down at best foot forward this coming saturday where, fingers crossed, not only will it be a small step for moonboots (from arch bar) but it should hopefully be a giant leap, for best foot forward……………

david mccallum - "the edge" (MP3)

i've only recently cottoned onto the genius that is david axelrod thanks to the recent capitol compilation, compiled by stones throw head honcho egon. the recordings from the 60s and 70s show a fantastic combination of jazz, funk and soul and have been pushed through numerous samplers by many 90s crate diggers including mos def, lauryn hill and madlib. however, my personal favourite axelrod sample is taken from the piano line from "the human abstract", which can be heard perfectly augmenting the dark atmosphere running throughout dj shadow's epic "midnight in a perfect world".

this track is taken from a recording done in 1966, in which mccallum (taking a break from playing a russian spy in tv thriller "the man from u.n.c.l.e.") teamed up with axelrod to record the album "music : a bit more of me", which has since gone on to become a cult classic. axelrod said that working with mccallum finally provided him with the ability to "fuse rhythm and blues into jazz and classical music", and this track is perhaps best known for providing the sample for the ubiquitous dr dre hit "next episode". enjoy!

oh and by the way, mark's teeing up a great saturday night preview. it was all ready to go, but wouldn't you know, it got lost in the vast wilderness of the internet. stay tuned ...

well to those of you new to this type of thing (and hopefully that could be a few of you, because I've not seen many nights with a strange website like this) here's how this thing will work. instead of a static webpage talking about "what our night is like" (which you'd read once, then never look at again) me and mark are going to keep this page updated regularly with all sorts of tidbits, including instances of us getting giddy over our favourite records ... which is exactly what this post is. the difference in this website from a normal one though is that we want to give you all a chance to enjoy what we're enjoying, and get a feel for the night through the stuff that we're playing. and of course the only way to really do that is to share it out ...



lindstrøm & prins thomas - naa er druene paa sitt beste (MP3)


for those of you not in the know (and woe betide you for coming to the party so late), lindstrøm & prins thomas are currently riding high on the norwegian wave that some of us like to call scando-med cosmic disco, and this is a track from their self-titled debut album soon to drop on eskimo recordings. it's another slow-mo balearic beauty, in the vain of hans peter's six cups of rebel ep. the album is completely dope, half super cosmic stylee, half beautiful blissed out grooves like those heard here.

it's going to drop in a few weeks on cd and 3 x lp, and words can't express how much love i feel for it already. be sure to head for your local independent and pick it up, or turn up on a saturday night and i'm quite certain you're sure to hear something from these guys.

feel free to share your love of norway in the comments below ...

Hola.... Internet blogging world..........just checking this 'blogging' thing actually works. My good friend Techno Boy aka Wolfy aka Kev aka my partner in crime for Best Foot Forward has just showed me the ropes and issued me with my username/password etc etc, so i thought id show some initiative (Kev will be so proud) and submit my first 'Post' ......................So here we go..........Over the coming months we will be adding updates about our night, Best Foot Forward, we will be adding MP3's and doing charts of whats hot and whats even hotter. We will also be telling you about the amazing guests we have lined up, Mr MOONBOOTS being our first (1st October)......... So be sure to keep checking back................Peace N' (shit loads of) Disco..................

this is now a very rough copy but you can sort of see the idea. it's easy for either of us (me and mark) to log into a website and type out a message like this, and add any pictures or mp3s, as well as keeping new top 10's updated all of the time. i quite like having the "what we like" things on the side, it gives people a good idea of the night. we need to get our little logo all over this page, i was thinking wherever you see the >>>> arrows thing there could be our bff geezer. anyways, tell me what you think, it's easy to do it just by clicking "0 comments" underneath, go on get the ball rolling ...

right, that's a fair bit for tonight. chris, feel free to add the hyperlinks on your goings on page to link to this location, but we'll probably move it once we get on our feet. feedback would be appreciated!

this is very very early days folks, but stay tuned for much more to come ...