hot blood - soul dracula (mp3)

halloween brings back fond memories. what, with all that trick or treating, free sweets, the occasional bit of 'dollar' and of course lots of mischievous behaviour...

however, as you get older you realise that the young whipper snapper that you once were, has now turned into a right little annoying so and so who, makes no effort what-so-ever to dress up (unless a bin bag counts); rings your door bell more times than is necessary; abuses you on your own doorstep; expects you to pay them for the privilege - and if you don't, they run off whilst throwing something at your window (stones/eggs/mud) - or is this just my old neighbourhood...?

anyway, to 'celebrate' this momentous occasion, hot blood drop some 70's spooked out disco in the form of 'soul dracula'. now go answer that door bell...

bright spark - take a look at your life (mp3)

there's very little i can say about this record that will add to the transcendent experience that will fall upon you after listening to it, so i'll just fire a few things you need to know now ...

1) this might be the strangest record you hear on this, or any other music blog, this year. i can almost guarantee this.

2) i think it's a side project by mc pitman, but there's really no way of knowing for sure. ooh some fresh information from "dee" has popped up in the comments below, and apparently this is a side project of bent! the nottingham accent should've been a dead giveaway ...

3) this song contains more swearing than is feasible for a 2 minute record.

4) this will leave you feeling simultaneously gleeful and melancholic, and pondering on the big questions.

ok. now listen to it, and please please please tell me what you think in the comments - i don't think i'm wrong in shortlisting this for single of the year, but would be relieved to know that i'm not simply losing my mind.

snatch - another brick in the wall (mp3)

pink floyds 'another brick in the wall' has been covered more times than i care to remember. however, one of the better versions comes in the form of snatch and their superb slice of 80's disco boogie...

released back in 1980 on millennium records, the snatch 'team' add a note of seriousness to the record with a vocoder voice arguing, 'yes, you need an education'. education or not, this a top notch record that brings back fond memories of stevie kotey and his bff appearance a while back...

japanese telecom - japanese animation (mp3)

we're fans of drexciya side projects here on the beef blog and this is something from the only other confirmed member gerald donald (although this particular project is in fact uncredited and unconfirmed, but the scarily thorough drexciya research lab says it's by him and i think it's probably safest to just agree).

having released music as arpanet and dopplereffekt, this is something from gerald's concept album dedicated to japanese telecommunications company ntt DoCoMo called quite simply 'japanese telecom' (i really wish i was making this up - although, if you're brave enough to have delved into the drexciya research lab site, you'll find that this is probably one of the least daft concepts drexciya have come up with) - and you could only wish that it was mere coincidence that the ep was re-issued last week on the intuit solar label.

it's a very definitely more perky outing than the previously-posted sublime lifestyles of the laptop cafe from the late james stinson, drexciya's only other confirmed member, and has more than a touch of yellow magic orchestra about it, particularly 'japanese animation', in whose oh-so-serious company i now leave you whilst i get back to my kylie records.

elephant foot - dreaming (mp3)

after seven weeks in my new found homeland, it pains me to say that i haven’t stumbled across a single 12” record, or in fact, a single legitimate cd store...

the main reason for this is simple. the piracy trade out here is rife. normally this would bother me somewhat (a man with scruples running an mp3 blog, surely not...?), but you see it doesn’t, it doesn’t bother me at all. why? well simply because 100% of these cd’s are either r-kelly/puff daddy/scooter/shakira or some other ‘run-of-the-mill’ drivel, which on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, are polluting my ears - if it’s not on the radio, it’s in the supermarket, the bars, the clubs, the restaurants, the god damn buses...

now i am generally a man with a high tolerance level, but there’s only so much a man can take till breaking point – and if i am being honest, that point is near. so, in an extremely selfish and nonsensical way, my only slight bit of enjoyment from this constant annoyance, is the fact that the people who put out this tripe are in some way or another getting ‘done over’…

so, with my ‘stevo’ esque rant over, imagine my delight when i was away last weekend, and i actually saw a legitimate, non generic cd for sale...

having a ‘get away from it all’ weekend in a beach town called hikkaduwa, i stumbled across a stall selling albums by local bands, the band in question here, ‘elephant foot’. hailing from a sleepy surf town on the south coast (near hikkaduwa), the three brothers and ‘their buddies’ have, apparently, been making music for many a year. their new album ‘dalu – the feelings of percussion’ has - so the sleeve notes tell me - ‘crafted sounds harmoniously so they drive away the cold and bring sunshine into your life’. on my first listen, i could not agree more. combining african rhythms with both western and eastern influences, this album is perfect listening for a lazy day on the beach. the track ‘dreaming’ is my personal favourite from the album, and i think you will agree, it’s got a certain bit of the ‘andreas vollenweider’ about it…

now, don’t get me wrong. this album is not going to win any awards for innovation, or creativity. but considering i am in a country where it’s hard enough trying to find a box of frosties, milk that’s in date, and cheese that isn’t processed slices; finding a cd that beholds tunes that aren’t in the european/us top 40, then this is what you might call ‘an achievement’…

so, to make sure these guys get their dues, why don’t you pop on over to this site and buy their album on line (oh, the hypocrisy)…

mos def - new world water (mp3)

new world water make the tide rise high,
come inland and make your house go "bye"

with mos def's rant on the environmental and social impact of big business ringing in your ears, here's a few music related things that both you personally and the music industry collectively could do to reduce it's environmental impact ...

1. buy more digital music, and less cd / vinyl - a study by digital europe suggests that a downloaded album has a "ecological backpack" less than half the size of one that you buy in the shops. (the muso inside is screaming "you should still buy lots of records" right now!).

2. buy a solar powered radio for your shed / garage / office!

3. is your ipod broke, or deemed useless by an upgrade to a newer model? send it back to apple to be recycled - they'll send all the components away to the right people to be disposed of correctly.

4. try to only go to one music festival next year. hopefully this will lead to a reduction in the overall number of festivals (most of them just rehash the same line-up anyways). or go the other way completely, and have more festivals, with bands joining together (like the curiosa festival in 2004) and reducing the carbon footprint of live music by sharing the logistics involved in a live gig.

5. venues can do a lot to shoulder the responsibility involved - how about only issuing e-tickets, or having all food and drink served in biodegradable kit? many bands have gone to the trouble of paying for their gigs to be carbon offset, but venues could try to provide some power by renewable sources.

6. another idea that i've been thinking about lately is idea of "kitsurfing" - much like it's close cousin couch surfing, this would be where bands, large and small, sign up to the scheme. then if my band, let's say "the christ punchers" go play a gig in new york, we can fly out there with only a little bit of kit (our guitars, for example) and then we can get to the city and meet up with a local band who will allow us to use their kit. then when someone comes over to manchester to play live, they can use out stuff. clever eh?

this post is best foot forward's contribution to blog action day, where 15,000 blogs will post today on the topic of the environment.

the superimposers - seeing is believing (mp3)

i love the superimposers...ever since hearing the impeccable 'would it be impossible', on the jazzanova compiled 'secret love' album, i have been hooked...

hailing from devon in the uk, the duo of dan warden & miles copeland hooked up in 2003, releasing 'over the bridge' as a limited debut 7". following on from this were a further 3, 7" singles, and then they released an album of said singles on their 'the superimposers' lp in 2005. my favourite off the album - 'seeing is believing'...

i think these guys are touring at the minute. i suggest you get on over to their myspace for a butchers...

thurston moore - silver blue (mp3)

so this week i was lucky enough to see mountain of one play a 45 minutes of what could only be described as brain-bending-intensity. our party went off without much of a hitch, and afterwards was a blur of great disco, free baltika overflowing throughout and the covering of fire lights. the real highlight of the weekend however came on saturday night, when mo morris, he of mountain of one fame, once again pushed common's world class sound system to it's limits with this, from thurston moore's recent solo project. containing all the vitality of a sonic youth smasher, with the grace and poise of a buckley classic (tim or jeff, take your pick), this is hair-on-back-of-neck stuff ...

pictures of the night can be found over at our facebook group - ooh, get us!

laurent voulzy - le mirror (mp3)

unfortunately, the french singer/songwriter laurent voulzy is probably best known for one of two things -

1. his terrible, 1977 rock inspired pop medley, 'rockollection'...
or
2. his collaboration with the unbearably annoying irish contingent, the corrs...

the latter of the two cannot be helped (or forgiven). however, if you happen to own or stumble across the 'rockollection' 12", than you can seek solace in the wonderfully penned, french pop b-side - 'le mirror'...

with a spare four minutes on his hands, mr voulzy takes you on a somewhat balearic 4 minute insight into his bathroom habits. not the ideal topic for a song, but hey, who cares, he didn't...

kylie minogue - confide in me (mp3)

i love this song.

i don't really know what else to say.

written and produced by brothers in rhythm, 'confide in me' was the lead single from ms minogue's 'kylie minogue' album, her first since leaving SAW and signing to deconstruction in 1993 in search of artistic freedom and credibility. i think it's pretty safe to say she's not done too badly since and even managed to produce some pretty good records like this, as well as some truly terrible ones like this.

most of the album sounds a little dated now but this, and 'put yourself in my place', has aged as well as the diminutive antipodean herself.

i nearly posted the french version in some misguided attempt at i-don't-know-what but, bizarrely, she doesn't sound anywhere near as sultry singing in french.

justin robertson-lovemovement (ulrich schnauss remix) (mp3)

we've given german ear-lover ulrich schnauss a bit of love previously, but after digging through an old pile of records that i thought were lost forever i came across this beauty, released on bugged out back in 2002. it's preempts nathan fake's "the sky was pink" by a good three years, creating a downtempo controlled explosion within your heart.

phoenix - if i ever feel better (mp3)

presumptuous i know but i thought you might like to help me celebrate my finally getting my mitts on a vinyl copy of phoenix's 'united'.

anyone who knows me knows of my love for this particular french foursome (seen 'em live in paris an' everythin') and anyone who's tried to get their first album on vinyl will know that it's as hard to find as a balearic rock or cosmic disco 12" in sri lanka at this particular moment in time. what makes me all the more pleased is that the copy i found is a promo in a lovely white-with-navy-writing sleeve and no, it's none of your bloody business how much i paid for it; i don't have to answer to you.

and what finer way to mark this occasion than to enjoy 'if i ever feel better' in all its album-only full-length glory (and preferably at a volume that makes the neighbours think they've momentarily been transported to montmartre).

* of course i could but, well, i do feel pretty special right now.