don ray - standing in the rain (mp3)

in manchester we are used to the odd shower or two. so, with the bank holiday weekend upon us, and a decent free street festival to go to, you would hope that the gods might actually favour us for a change. unfortunatley not, the lovely dianne oxberry, has just informed me that its going to piss it down. so in honour of our great british weather, here's a classic rain (and cerrone) affiliated track...

mr oizo - flat beat (mp3)

mr oizo - stunt (mp3)

ark - le magicien d'os (mr oizo remix) (mp3)

uffie - hot chick (mp3)

in the continuing adventures of our beginners guides, prepare to get squelched to within an inch of your life with an entertaining (i hope) overview of m. quentin dupieux aka mr. oizo.

back in the mists of time (the late 1990s to be a little more precise), french director / producer mr. oizo had released a few well received releases, when levi's approached him to extend a short film he'd made (starring a then unknown jim henson muppet named flat eric) into a full advertisement. as clichéd as the following phrase may be, 'the rest is history' - it was the ad that launched a thousand yellow dolls, and the accompanying track was an instant hit, with dupiex's trademark ms-20 squelch and flat eric's erratic hand motions imitated in school yards, pubs and clubs throughout the know universe

but he's not just a one trick pony is our dear mr. oizo (as opposed to flat eric himself, who was confined to many a dusty attic, charity shop or maybe even dustbin) - after a short hiatus he was back, releasing more of his own stuff and taking on the tracks of others, with the choice pick of these remixes being the ark track 'le magicians d'os' (french for the wizard of oz kids!), 2 minutes and 52 seconds of pure mental beauty. too short, that's for sure, but i don't know many people who could handle a full seven minutes of such madness (by the way, if you only download one track from this post, make sure as hell that it's this one) ...

his next big thing came in 2004 when f comm released 'stunt'. listening to it know, it still packs as big a punch as it did the first time it set your mind on fire back in the club, and you can just see blog-darlings de jour justice with their hands in the air at parisian hot-spot kill the dj shouting "what the fuck!" at each other. lo and behold, 12 months later came 'waters of nazereth' and a the noisy french squelch was back in a big big way. justice in fact paid their dues to mr. oizo by remixing his next big single 'nazis' in 2006.

so quentin is hot property again, what with him some sort of jesus figure to the current ed banger massive - a devotion further enforced by his knob-twiddling for hot chick uffie, co-producing a vast majority of her upcoming album, and generally making the sorts of noises that you'd get kicked out of class for. thanks for the noise quentin, and long may it continue!

on & on - summer in sydney (vocal) (mp3)

following on from a previous, more controversial post, i thought i would try and keep the mash-up/cut and paste debate alive...

it would seem, like most people, that the mention of those evil words is enough to run shivers down your spine, enough to make you go trample on your grandma’s precious flower bed, enough to - as chris beautifully put it - ‘stomp on fluffy animals’. i agree. in fact, i agree so much it hurts, it hurts bad. so why, you might ask, have i posted up just that – a dirty, stinky, nasty bootleg?

well, its for no other reason, than the fact that this particular bootleg is nothing beyond implausible. it takes quincy jones’s perpetually sublime track ‘summer in the city’, and exquisitely blends it (yep, that’s ‘blends it’) with the acapella of erykah badu’s ‘on & on’...

lets not lie, the guys who did this had a pretty easy job - take two already faultless records, and make, errrrmm…...another faultless record - its not nuclear physics (or fashion marketing for that matter), but it’s a bloody good record...

conclusion. mash-ups are bad. blends are good.

leila - won't you be my baby, baby (mp3)

brian auger's trinity & julie driscoll - break it up (mp3)

there's something really satisfying about tracing a sample and finding something that's just as good, if not better and that you're pretty sure you'd never have heard otherwise. i've a few good examples i'd like to share and i think these two songs are as good a place as any to start.

it started with this leila track from a select magazine cover cd from some time around 1998. it's from her album like weather and is some lovely lo-fi shuffliness with her friend luca doing a cracking job on the singing.

the shuffly beat is a scratchy sample from a song by proper jazz maverick brian auger and more specifically from his 1967 incarnation with his band trinity and singer julie driscoll. leila sampled something from the first four seconds or so, after that this song goes somewhere completely different.

the picture? meet the best foot forward research team; these are the guys (and girl) who find all this out for us.

scott walker - the old man's back again (mp3)

i caught the last three quarters of an hour of a rather good bbc rockumentary on scott walker last night which prompted me to post this little quickie.

i think like most people, i'm pretty well aquainted (thanks mum) with the walker brothers (they weren't actually brothers though, nor in fact were any of them even called walker - lying bastards) but i knew absolutely nothing of scott's (real name noel scott engel) solo stuff until i bought air's excellent late night tales compilation which has this from scott's fourth solo album, and his first composed entirely of his own songs, 1969's scott4.

it's the bass, no the strings, no the chanting, no his voice: okay, the whole thing's truly awesome. it's just a monster of a song, it's immense, it's phil spector does ennio morricone and it makes me wonder how on earth i haven't picked-up on any of this until now.

he was a good looking lad too, what with is mark scholes hair.

margaret singana - why did you do it? (mp3)

t-coy - de me mas (mp3)

chico chico - bamboleo (spanish summer mix) (mp3)

bargain bins. love them or hate them, every half decent record store is burdened with them. they entice you in with their crate busting amount of records, their cheaper than cheap prices, their dusty persona, and of course, their low gravity positioning...

but, in the wonderful world of record shopping, there’s nothing more enjoyable than spending hour upon hour sat on a ludicrously uncomfortable floor. as you frantically sift through the multicoloured box’s, desperately looking for 'that' record that will makes those achy limbs, cut fingers and potential haemorrhoid attack, all but a necessity. so, the question lies - is all that time, effort and those constant visions of joan armatrading really worth it?

well, these occasional ‘tales from the bargain bins’ are here to help prove that it is. in times of despair, these scribes are here to give you hope and faith. that even after 3 hours of searching, with nothing but a constant reminder of how much you really did (and still do) hate dj luck and mc neat, that you've got to keep on going. keep on going, because 'that' record you really want, is probably just around the corner, wedged in tightly between a babylon zoo picture disc, and a big beat megamix...

so, to start things off, i am going to share with you three recent ‘bargain bin’ finds. nothing particularly ground breaking, but good records none the less...

first up is ‘why did you do it’ by margaret singana . originally released way back in 1975 by stretch, this is a top notch cover version by the south african born, ms singana. appearing on her 1977 album, ‘tribal fence’, it is worth getting for this track alone…

second up is from t-coy, called ‘de me mas’. as well as releasing the still played to death ‘carino’, they also dropped this cheeky little track around the same time. loads of horns and piano. top tune…

third up is the borderline ridiculous ‘bamboleo’, by chico chico. i am not going to lie, this is cheesier than a cheese board, but for some reason i really, really dig it. this record is a great example of, if in doubt, just buy it for the picture sleeve. a massive guilty pleasure...

willie colon - set fire to me (latin jazzbo version) (mp3)

super quick one from willie colon tonight...

'set fire to me', is a massive latin tinged house track that was released way back in 1986. with its menacing piano stabs and soulful vocals, this is just total dance floor dynamite. if you've not got it, then why not? go buy it now. oh, and just by coincidence, there is one for sale here. shameless...

unknown - jungle clipse (mp3)

the bootleg/mash-up craze which started soon after the millennium was quite a delight. the scene's advancement came somewhere from amalgamation of the sample-heavy status of much late 90's hip-hop, alongside with advancements in technology that meant anyone with a half-decent sound card a a bit of computer wizardry could splice two songs that sounded good together ... although in many cases they ended up sounding quite horrific!

most of the big-hitting "releases" of the bastard-pop scene left you unable to hear the original again without making the blend in your head - to this day, anytime i listen to the opening refrain from the stroke's 'hard to explain', the 'genie in a bottle' lyrics start to form in the back of my mind - and soulwax's legendary 2manydjs mix opened the floodgates for a whole lotta cubase kids to do their thing.

in the spirit of "in memory of the mashup", here's one of my favourite blends, a much lesser known track taking kool and the gang's 'jungle boogie' and letting king of the re-up clipse talk some trash over the top.

sandra rhodes - sowed love and reaped the heartache (mp3)

something else on a northern soul tip.

recorded in 1972 in sun studios by sandra rhodes, who did backing vocal work on dusty's memphis album as well as on numerous al green records. ms rhodes not only sings, but also plays a cracking guitar on this proper little northern soul stomper.

break out the baggy trousers and the amphetamines, now if only i could pluck up the courage to venture into beatin' rhythm!

al foster band - night of the wolf

just a quick one today, seeing as i haven't contributed for a week! the amazing night of the wolf is a bit of a hear no evil favourite and has rocked many a revolution in its time! it's also an absolute classic and is credited as being one of the records that apparently caused a split in the northern soul scene of the mid 1970s.

al foster was a jazz drummer that played for many artists, including miles davis, but along with his band he released this beast in 1975 on the legendary roulette label. this used to be a ridiculously cheap record, until it found huge popularity on the re-emerging funk scene of the 90s, getting plays from the likes of keb darge and mr scruff.

this has been a huge favourite of mine since the very first time i heard it a few years ago and is always in the bag!

oh, and just for the record, this record has nothing to do with a certain kev maguire.

alithia & donna - up town top ranking (mp3)

big record down at bff. bit of an obvious one, but a good one...

'up town top ranking' is alithia & donna's big reggae hit from 1978. growing up in jamaica, alithia forest and donna reid, were young school girls when this was released. although being somewhat of a one hit wonder, they gained massive acclaim in both the uk and jamiaca for said tune...

pete shelley - witness the change (mp3)

a quick track from the buzzcocks frontman today...

after major success with the buzzcocks, pete shelley went solo in the early 80's. moving away from the buzzcocks's punk sound, he hooked up with the oh-so-fun looking, martin rushent of the human league fame. with rushents pevious projects in mind, its quite clear that shelley was going for a more synth-pop, dance floor orientated project...

'witness the change' is exactly that. appearing on the flip side to the 12" entitled 'i don't know what it is', its pretty much everything you would expect from a rushent production - heavy bass, guitar effects and copious amounts of synth's. think the league unlimited orchestra meets john carpenter and you are pretty much there...

p.s. for anyone who has not, go buy the new mudd 12" with the quiet village mix on it. its sooo good...

p.p.s. i have had a couple of e-mails in the last few days requesting me to put this track up again. so being the nice guy i am, here it is...

tadd mullinix - enfant dans la chambre respirant (mp3)

james t. cotton - the drain (mp3)

dabrye - no child of god (mp3)

everyone knows of my love for detroit music and in particular tadd mullinix, the man behind the dabrye moniker. however, not many people are familiar with mullinix's other alter egos. before dabrye (mullinix's hip-hop project) came an electronic album his own name, called winking makes a face.

he also produces techno under the name james t. cotton and ragga jungle under sk-1 guise. through collaboration he also forms part of 2am/fm (jakbeat techno and house with d'marc cantu), tnt (low budget dance music with todd osbourn), saturn V (with techno legend traxx) and the dirty criminals (with various of traxx's partners in crime).

his production is just incredible, as is evident from the tracks i've selected to put up. the opener is probably the most accessible from tadd mullinix's debut made all the way back in 2001, when he was just 21. later that year he released the groundbreaking opener to the dabrye trilogy, one/three.

the second sees mullinix in full on jtc mode. "the drain" really is incredible, albeit not everyone's cup of tea. pure full throttle techno, but done so well that it just falls on the right of side of being a little too much.

the final selection is from the dabrye "instrmntl" album, which was a side project to the original dabrye trilogy. it was recorded for scott "prefuse 73" heron's eastern developments label. not many people are as aware of this as they are of one/three or two/three, although it does include some of the best stuff mullinix has done as dabrye. well worth checking the album out peeps!

happy end - しんしんしん (mp3)

buffalo daughter - earth punk rockers (mp3)

yamasuki - kono samourai (mp3)

in the spirit of continuing "doing my bit for foreign relations" (please, for the love of god, just ignore me when i'm drunk) here's a super special, bonus, japanese themed triple bill post just for you.

following some research after loving 'kaze wo atsumete' on the oh-that's-how-you-do-it soundtrack to lost in translation, i found myself in possession of two albums by japanese 1970's folk rock band happy end. despite being one of the first rock groups to sing in japanese (it was generally thought that it just wouldn't sound right), this is far from clumsy pastiche. "しんしんしん" is definitely my favourite from both albums and if anyone can provide a translation of the title then i'd love to know what it's about.

what with the recent interest in the metalchicks' 'conspiracy' track i thought some of you would be interested to hear something by buffalo daughter, suGar of metalchicks' proper band. from their third album 'i', 'earth punk rockers' should help fuel kev's recent dirty love-affair with all things ROCK. watch out for the break-down and dirty, dirty riffage at around the 2 minutes 45 seconds mark.

finally, reaching somewhere around a nine out of ten on the bonkers-ometer, here's a track from the 1970's franco-japanese psych rock opera album "le monde fabuleux des yamasuki" (or "the fabulous world of yamasuki" for those without the might of my grade c in gcse french). re-released on andy votel's generally-to-be-relied-upon-for-weirdness label finders keepers this really is too fabulous to be done justice to by mere words. i was struggling to choose any one track but in the end decided that 'kono samourai' has the best sing-along chorus.

frank zappa - sleeping in a jar (mp3)

madvillain - meat grinder (mp3)

it's nice to see ryan settling into a prolific posting style already, and by dropping a taste of my favourite hip hop album of recent years, i thought i'd follow up with another sampled/sampler pairing from madlib and mf doom's superlative defying madvillain project. first up is frank zappa's 50 second psychadelic freak out "sleeping in a jar", followed by the sample-containing "meat grinder". roll on the madvillain follow-up!

zz hill - that ain't the way you make love (mp3)

madvillain - fancy clown (mp3)

i was at home looking through some records the other night and found an album i forgot i had, by soul legend zz hill. i thought, "hmmm... i wonder if this is the one with.."

yep! the sample from madvillain's "fancy clown", taken from arguably one of the best hip-hop albums of the new millenium, madvillainy. madlib chops up hill's soul ballad in such a great way, i thought i'd post up both tunes in case any of you hadn't heard the orginal, which is great as it is!

zz hill recorded so much incredible music i could go on for pages talking about it. so, to learn more about him, click here.

lucio battisti - el velero (mp3)

we all know, and adore, the epic 12 minute version by the chaplin band. so i thought i'd share with you, the original, by the so called italian john lennon - lucio battisti. most of his early work is recognised as his best, and 'il veliero' comes under that category. appearing on his 1976 album 'la batteria, il contrabbasso, eccetra', it was considered such a good tune, that he re-recorded it in spanish - the version appearing here. classic...

and now for a shameless sales pitch. after moving house, i am gradually selling off loads of stuff, including records. so, if you are interested, mosey on over to here...

rosinha de valencia - summertime (mp3)

ellen mcilwaine - born under a bad sign (mp3)

marsha hunt's 22 - (oh no!) not the beast day (mp3)

keeping up with kev's campaign to get throw out synths and pick up guitars, i've decided to share three corkers that feature a bit of female guitar action! first off is the killer 'summertime', by the amazing female brazilian folkstress, rosinha de valencia. pretty rare orginal, but has been comped a few times, most noteably on the wonderful brazilian beats compilation. this tune really is beautiful, great guitar work, amazing build up and sweet, sweet strings, this is a real treat.

next up is a belter from blues legend ellen mcilwaine. there were so many tunes to pick from her catalogue, but i chose this live recording because it's just so apparent how incredible she is. even if she is quite obviously bonkers.

the third and final selection is a fat slice of british afro psych funk from marsha hunt's 22. released on vertigo in 1973, everytime i play this someone comes up and asks what it is, because it's that good! i don't think marsha hunt actually plays guitar on it, but her vocals are awesome and the tune is ridiculously guitar heavy.

enjoy!

djuma soundsystem - les djinns (trentemoller remix) (mp3)

after being away for the last month, i am trying to get a post in every day for the next two weeks. so, due to me plodding off to work in about 10 minutes, this is going to be short and sweet...

after having phil mison on a few months back, he kindly gave me a compilation cd from a danish restaurant called 'morten's kro'. compiled by music for dreams artist dj disse, it's pretty much as you'd exect - super chilled - then, right at the end 'less djinns' kicks on. borderline breaks, this trentemoller remix just totally kicks ass, so much so that i had to get my hands on it...

oh, and the original by djuma soundsystem is also pretty ace. check their myspace here...

roy haynes - quiet fire (mp3)

milton nascimento - para lennon e mccartney (mp3)

phat kat - nasty (mp3)

haywood tucker - i need your love (mp3)

after proving my balearic worth, whilst remaining beardless, the wolfman and the spaniard have let me hijack their rather lovely blog and completely ruin it with my input. so, i thought i’d ease myself in gently by pulling out four classic tunes, old and new.

so i begin with the mighty ‘quiet fire’ by legendary jazz drummer roy haynes, yes I know, first tune i put up is a jazz one. recently used for the recent ‘kings of jazz’ series, this tune is so powerful but so simple. drums, bass, piano, bongos. and that’s it. haynes has recorded and performed with the likes of sarah vaugan, dizzy gillespie, miles davis and thelonious monk to name just a few, over a 60 year career. make sure you check the lp ‘thank you, thank you’, to see good old roy wearing the most hideous pair of trousers ever seen, whilst the sleeve notes inform you that he once one the ‘best dressed man’ award for esquire magazine!

following it up is another classic, this time from brazilian legend, milton nascimento. ‘para lennon e mccartney’ was nascimento’s tribute to the beatles and is one of the best things he did. he still records and tours, and is enjoying a new wave of success thanks to a new generation discovering brazilian music.

the third in this little selection of tunes is taken from the most recent phat kat 12”, that has already become a classic due to the awesome production from the late jay dee. the beat on this tune, the flip to ‘cold steel’, is one of dilla’s best, big drums and heavy on the juno, this will be played for yeeeears!

and i round up my selection with a beautiful indie modern soul gem from late 80’s atlanta. ‘i need your love’ is the standout from the only haywood tucker lp that I’m aware of. i can’t even describe how good it is, so i won’t try. i’ll just let you listen and, hopefully, enjoy.

so there’s a little beginning’s guide to hear no evil. thanks to mark and kev for letting me rave on about tunes i like. who knows, i may even add a few more soon, providing i haven’t overstayed my welcome!

mindless boogie - stripper (lexx edit) (mp3)

as part of our ongoing campaign to get people picking up guitars and chucking their house records in the bin, here's a rather balearock offering from the much-loved mindless boogie camp. i've no idea what this is an edit of, so any help in tracking down the original would be gratefully appreciated (we have a winner - 'stripper' by michael quatro apparently!). this 12" (mb003 to you record-hunting nerds) is now unavailable, and well it should be as lexx has created 3 edits that are our favourite thing to come out on this consistently brilliant label.

there's not a lot that can be about the record itself - this is simply a riff, that rocks, and then just won't stop.

k.t.e - calypso of house (paradise version) (mp3)

after yesterdays non stop sunshine, i was inspired to dig out this k.t.e record. 'calypso of house' is a super balearic piano house record, and according to the ancient scriptures of balearica, it should only ever be played when the sun is shining. it's supposed to be played at 33 1/3, which is just ridiculously too fast, so i have pitched it right down. hope you enjoy...

caroline loeb - c'est la ouate (mp3)

finally back on line after a month of hectic proportions. apart from the stress of moving house and then losing my job, i have had to contend with numerous dumb wits at british telecomm, who decided that it would cost me 130 quid for a phone line, when after 4 weeks of waiting for the 'engineer', it turned out i already had one...

anyway, that's enough ranting from me. i am going to (re) start proceedings with a slice of french synth pop. 'c'est la ouate' was released back in 1986 by the boy george look-a-like caroline loeb. as well as getting an extended 12" release, it also appears on the album 'loeb c.d.', which surprisingly enough (i was) contains a couple of other noteworthy tracks...

by default, i think this has become kev's favourite record of the moment. this is mainly due to me not taking it out of my record box for about the last 4 months. some might call this lazy, i like to call it consistency...

jesus and the mary chain - just like honey (mp3)

sister vanilla - can't stop the rock (mp3)

with the recent news of scarlett johansson singing backing vocals at the first jesus and the mary chain comeback gig, i thought it would give me four good reasons for a post ...

reason the first (and the foremost) - you may not have seen this image, and the others of scarlett dressed as a pussycat doll.
reason the second - if you haven't heard 'just like honey', then you're in for a massive treat, and if you have heard it, well it never gets boring does it!
reason the third - the jesus and the mary chain link, the great new single from the mary-chain-side-project sister vanilla.
reason the fourth - this list format allows me to write a super-quick post, as free time is a luxury i haven't really had for the past 2 weeks since starting a new job with these guys!