alphaville

I have been really enjoying the bits of the new Bryan Ferry stuff that have been popping up here and there over the last few years. Bryan is the former lead singer and main songwriter for Roxy Music, a band that lived from 1971 - 1983. I hadn't heard of them before Greg Wilson put out an edit of 'Love is the Drug', then i discovered that alot of artists are remixing Roxy Music. There are 4 official Roxy Music remix EP's - the fourth one came out in February with some very nice space disco remixes.
Brian Eno was even a band member of and central contributor for Roxy Music in its first two albums, so I think i should go back and do a proper survey of their catalog. Or maybe i will start with their greatest hits.




Anyway, Bryan Ferry always had a solo career alongside the rise and fall of Roxy Music. He is quite well known for doing excellent covers. In 2007 he put out an album of only Bob Dylan covers called 'Dylanesque'. Recently he has been very suscessful contributing his voice, lyrics and songwriting to popular artists. For example, he co-wrote and sang on arguably the deepest cut of the impressive new Groove Armada album 'Black Light'. The Groove Armada track is called 'Shameless', but on his upcoming solo album he does a version of it as 'Shameless (Rock 'n Roll Desire'




Last year, his track 'U Can Dance' with DJ Hell, was huge and made it onto many top ten lists. "It was the mambo talking, it got a lot to say"



There were many remixes of this track - Carl Craig's remix was the biggest I'd say, but I prefer the Tim Goldsworthy remix.




Tim Goldsworthy founded and ran DFA Records alongside James Murphy up until February when RA reported that he left the labels' base in New York and kind of split from the DFA music and sub-culture machine. Regardless, Tim Goldsworthy is and will continue to be a major player in the nu disco scene. Check for his edits and releases with Tim Sweeney (T & T), and his remixes under the Loving Hand and Mustang aliases. Discogs can help you with this.


So the track that inspired this post is the Leo Zero remix of 'Alphaville', maybe the first single off the upcoming album. Very nice!

Bryan Ferry - 'Alphaville' (Leo Zero Remix) by Leo Zero


Eventually I will do an in-depth feature on Leo Zero, as he is someone that has over the past 3 years been steadily and quietly killing it in the growing world of nu disco remixes and edits.

Check out Bryan Ferry's website and myspace for the release date of his new album and for up coming remix packages.

cccp

If your in Berlin and free tonight come by the new CCCP Bar Rosenthalerstr 71.
I'll be playing with a friend Jason a.k.a. La Jeunesse Doree [WHITE/LJD]. I think there will be some serious gem dropping.

INXS - Need You Tonight (Proper Songs Re-edit) by propersongs

say hello

Really loving the original 1984 extended 12" mix today.



Thanks Bicep for turning me on to this.. and for fronting the download.

foster the people

These guys are new, from L.A. and penetrating the blog world hard at the moment with this song, 'Pumped up Kicks'.

Light, breezy, shiny, contemporary summer pop.



The BBC's Alt Blog wrote a piece and posted the song for download

arcade fire

Arcade Fire are one of my favourite bands still evolving (indie) rock. They come from Montreal, Canada - a city that didnt quite make it for electronic music, but has been nonetheless steadily producing fine indie rock for a while now. Arcade Fire is a case in point. They are a 7 piece indie rock band fronted by Win Butler and his wife Régine Chassagne. They formed in 2003 and made a self-titled demo Ep they sold at shows (fans called it Us Kids Know Ep). They were quickly singed to Merge and in 2004/5 they released their debut album 'Funeral'. To this day it is one of my favourite front-to-back albums. It was nominated for a Grammy and was on the top of everyones end of year lists. At first it was a hipster thing, then wider audiences came around and they got real big real fast... so maybe you've heard of them?!
If not, 'wake up'





They bought a church outside of Montreal and turned it into a recording studio where they recorded 'Neon Bible', released in 2006.


the Neon Bible pre-release parody promotional video.



Although it was not as good as their near perfect 'Funeral' (how could it possibly be?!), it was still a hugely successful album, full of hits and deep cuts.

...hits like the Springsteen sounding 'Keep the Car Running'



(which they actually ended up performing with Springsteen himself
)

...and 'No Cars Go'


.and deep cuts like the epic 'My Body is a Cage'



...and the politcal 'Windowsill'


And just for kicks, here's Arcade Fire and Springsteen doing 'State Trooper' (I know there are better quality versions of this song up but this one is special with the commentary and slow intro and Win's solo melody :)





Now the new album 'The Suburbs' is almost out


Its first US single 'Ready to Start' will be out Aug 3.




In the UK the first single released will be 'We Used to Wait' and it will be out Aug 2.




onethirtbpm brought to my attention the news that the b-sides to the singles surfaced.
'Month of May' and 'The Suburbs'. Liking this one alot.





They are touring this summer and likely in the fall so check their website for dates and go see them live. If you are in Berlin, they play August 31 at Tempodrum.

Arcade Fire Myspace

BONUS: check out the full 15 min (basically-one-take) clip of Arcade Fire preparing for the elevator shot, playing 'Neon Bible' (which you saw above) and then walking out into a crowd and play 'Wake Up'. Nice.


#41 - Arcade Fire - Neon Bible & Wake Up
Hochgeladen von lablogotheque. - Sieh die neuesten vorgestellten Musikvideos.

more greg

I know I recently blogged about Greg Wilson, but I just heard this mix and had to share as it's a great example of both the kind of deep crate digging he is known for and the kind of smooth and remixes he can produce.

BESTIVAL BLOGCAST (by greg wilson for bestival) by gregwilson

Tunes to watch for are ::
T-Coy - Carino (Greg Wilson Edit) @ the start {{i guess Omar and Stevie Wonder used a T-Coy sample in their new hit 'I'm Feeling you') }}

Rocha - Feel the Love (Greg Wilson edit) @ 32:00

Florance and the Machine - Rabbit Heart (Leo Zero edit) (Greg Wilson edit)

The XX - Night Time (Greg Wilson edit) {{Soon to be released!!}} @ 45:50

William DeVaughn - Be Thankful for What You Got (Onur Engin edit) @ 18:54

William DeVaughn - Be Thankful for What You've Got (Onur Engin Edit) by Onur Engin


Here's the original



Check out Onur Engins souncloud for more sweet edits.

And Greg is constantly uploading new sets to his soundcloud page, and answering most comments and track id requests. If you have the time, its always a rewarding place to mine for gems.

i work for no one

but if i did, it would be sir james.

On july 16, LCD will release the new single 'I Can Change' on itunes, with this nice Stereogamus remix:
LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change (Stereogamous Remix) by theinsound

also (and for no more than completeness) check out both the grimey, banging (and average and outdated) soulwax remix of 'You Wanted a Hit' on pitchfork and the Wooden Shjips rough wash shoegaze cover of 'Drunk Girls' on covert curiosity. meh.

disco

'A film about the creators of Disco and the Philly Sound. Featuring the Founder of Sigma Sound Studios, Joe Tarsia. As well as the legendary Earl Young of the infamous Baker, Harris, Young Rhythm Section. Additional footage of Vincent Montana and Bobbi Eli, Jimmy Williams and Tom Moulton. Hear the real story about the music that changed Dance and Club Culture. A BBE Music Production © 2010'

blues

Skip James - Hard Time Killing Floor Blues


Chris Thomas King - Hard Time Killing Floor Blues


Denis Olivieri - I Cry in the Morning


Talk Talk - The Rainbow


Don Cavalli - Going to a River

funk

some kind of intermission



things are moving fast now.
got some key posts brewing in the drafts bin..
stay tuned.
happy solstice.

focus

at this moment in time i am at cross-roads with this blog... one in which more than two roads cross. it seems there are 4, with varying degrees of importance.
so, in no particular order, the first, is about content; should i stick to weekly lengthy posts or should i post regularly and mostly (but not always) briefly?
the second is about the artist; should i link to uploaded music?
the third is about the name; should i change it?
the fourth is about my callous disuse and inconsistent use of capital letters, and poor grammar in general.... should i follow the Proper Rules of English?

regarding the first, content, it seems i have started a trend toward more lengthy and personal posts. after thinking about it, i decided to try to write one of those once a week and post shortly and randomly more often. this will mean more variety, but that is not always a good thing. i will, of course, try to maintain the highest standard of quality, but when posting brand new stuff, that sounds good after 2 listens, this may slip a little. i mean, we all know what its like to get excited about a new song and then go back to it a week later and wonder whats up. so this just serves as a note of caution. but i will try to make every song count.

regarding the second, the artists, i feel i am not informed enough to make a sound moral judgment on this issue. the music world and its economics is just too overwhelming. i feel a years worth of lectures from many social, technical and legal specialists would be needed. what i see is that online file sharing is the cd-burner, or napster of today. the law, it seems, cant keep up with technology. but ever since you or your friends could rip (at no, or very little, loss of quality) music, it has been free and the law has been sketchy, for seemingly sketchy reasons. and today the law still seems sketchy, fighting what seems to be an impossible battle. so with this situation we are hit in the face with the questions, what is music worth? and what is the appropriate place for musicians in society?
there are as many answers to these questions as people. in short, mine would be a version of the i keep forgettin blog: i didnt post the music, i just found it and linked it. i link to it for 'evaluation purposes only' - to promote great music so that people can discover and enjoy it and so that the artist can become more well known and liked. what the artist does with that notoriety is up to him or her. i would hope they would tour and play in the same room as the people who like them, and basically live off that. the better you are, the more people come, the more money you make. we cant control for equal advertising budget and skills, but these advantages are both widely available and luck dependent, so there's no sense getting worked up about them.

regarding the third, the name, i had wanted to start posting for a while but was held back by lack of name. so hastily, i took a street where some nice music gets played and added 'sessions'. but i know if i thought about it more i could come up with something better... anyway, if i do, i will change it without being too obvious and showy about it. (UPDATE:: the name will remain for no reason other than the fact that reasons aren't always, or even usually, motivating).

regarding the fourth, use of english, it was brought to my attention that having inconsistent use of capitals and (...)'s everywhere looks juvenile and unpolished. i kinda agree. so i will be better at capitalizing appropriately. as for the triple dot ... i will continue to use it/them more sparingly. but there is a time and place for it... right?

ok. now that that's all cleared up, i feel better.
Lets Celebrate!

stimming

Martin Stimming has to be one of the most talented and interesting electronic musicians today. His live sets are short (just over an hour) but epic and emotional. I saw him play live twice this year and both times i was floored. But i have come to realize that with stimming, the nights lineup is key. Both times i saw him he was slotted inbetween dj's that play nothing like him (and poor in general) thus jarring the audience, and in my opinion, creating an awkward on stage scene. It seems to me that he is an hilariously impossible act to follow.
The first show at M.I.K.S. he absolutely killed it and the crowd was into it and so was he. I had nearly a religious experience and was, like most in the audience gutted and surprised when after 1 hour he finished and some dimwit came on the turntables and without any foreplay, began beating us with compressed high hats and a fury of cheezy synth stabs. That moment in time and the crowds reaction was priceless. even the dj himself couldnt hide his consciousness of the awful situation.
I went directly home to find if someone had uploaded a recording of a recent live set, and was ecstatic to find a good quality recording of a set performed a month earlier in which he played almost the same songs

Stimming Live PA - Phonanza FM - 15-01-2010 by R_co

The first song (i discovered by rushing to him and asking in the first minute) is a new track called 'fell forever' that still, sadly, doesn't have a release date. Regardless i used it as the opening track in my spring promo mix (which i will plug and spam you with later :)
The second show at maria was great music-wise, but the crowd didnt get it. I think mostly because they came expecting the usual mindless tech or minimal house and no idea who was actually in the line up. I managed to talk with him both before and after the show, and both times i could see that he wasnt happy this night. After the show he even said to me that he had prepared 3 more tracks to play, but cut his set short because the people werent into it. It pained me to hear that, but i understood.
That night he didnt open with 'fell forever', but a more upbeat and housey jam. The highlight was his then-unreleased remix of the new Ost & Kjex single 'continental lover', a track that appeared last year at the end of the mostly boring Panorama Bar vol 2 compilation mixed by Tama Sumo. The Ost & Kjex continental lover ep came out a few days ago, on Diynamic, and the Stimming remix is just as rad as i remembered it from the show. (i will be doing a full Ost & Kjex post in the next week to bring you up to date with their unique brand of awesomeness.)
I'm too tired to steer you through Stimming's past releases and relay the importance of his productions, so I will just tease you with some huge jams in trust that you will do the leg work yourselves and discover this genius on your own terms.
Una Pena is a massive track sampling famous chilean singer Violeta Parra's song 'Arauco Tiene Una Pena'. i really love them both!





In february Stimming and Ben Watt released 'Bright Star' featuring Julia Biel, in 2 flavours, sunset and sunrise..
I prefer the sunset:

Stimming, Ben Watt & Julia Biel \ 'Bright Star' (Sunset Mix) (Extract) by buzzinfly


In 2009 he released 'Reflections' a very coherent and intelligent full length album with not many standout tracks, but that nonetheless managed to be a standout album. My favourite song there, for sure, is 'silver surfer'. sweet sweet guitar sounds/samples


Littlewhiteearbuds.com is hosting the mp3 - right click here


'Melodica' is super sweet too, though not on the album

Melodica by stimming

Stimming keeps his myspace and a soundcloud up to date
He will be playing this evening at Bar25 - a venue that will, i am sure, welcome him warmly. See you there! oder if you cant make it, tune in to the show on bar25 radio

greg wilson and the SDC

if you havent already met, let me introduce you to disco don, greg wilson.
he is credited as the '1st UK Dj to mix live on tv'.... 1983 baby!



he was just a teenage dj

From his myspace: "Greg began DJing in 1975 and is regarded as one of the most important figures on the UK dance scene. He enjoyed hugely popular residencies in the early eighties at Wigan Pier and Manchester's majorly influential Legend. He was a pioneer of mixing in the UK and in 1983 he became the first ‘dance music’ DJ hired for a regular weekly session at Manchester's now legendary Hacienda club. Greg was instrumental in breaking the new electronic, post-disco records coming out of New York, a sound he has dubbed ‘Electro-Funk’.
In 2003 he set up his own website electrofunkroots to document this crucial era in the evolution of dance culture and, having retired from DJ work at the end of 1983, Greg returned to spinning tunes two decades later, receiving plaudits for his red-hot appearances at renowned nights including Electric Chair, Horse Meat Disco, Fabric, Back To Basics, Ministry Of Sound, Asylum, Melting Pot and the Sub Club, to name but a few. Before long he was picking up an ever increasing amount of bookings throughout Europe and, more recently, worldwide.
In 2005 Tirk Records released ‘Credit to the Edit’, a compilation of re-edits spanning Greg's entire career, some even original tape edits from way back when (Greg still uses his trusty old Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape machine when DJing out). This wasn't his first compilation either, having collaborated on most of the tracks to appear on the Street Sounds ‘UK Electro’ LP in 1984, as well as being the selector behind the ‘Classic Electro Mastercuts’ LP in 1994."
And now we have Credit to the Edit vol 2 - a stellar compilation featuring megajams 'Dont Turn It Off' and 'Secret Sunday Lover'; both required listening for anyone curious about 'nu-disco' or hip swinging in general.




BTW: the 40 Thieves funkflex 'dont turn it off' is a cover of the 1979 track of the same name by Hot Chocolate and it famously appeared in the 2005 Rub 'n' Tug set recorded at Campfire, New York that Eskimo then made available but with the cover warning(?) that "All skips,feedback and distortion are just part of the night so make it nice!"


here is a sweet sweet version he put out of 'the way you move' from the up and coming and hotly tipped Social Disco Club aka Humberto Matias... so smooth. yeow.



While we are on SDC you have to hear this funky burner from last year that i just cant not play out. The original is hot, and at home in the james murphy and pat mahoney fabriclive mix.

Gichy Dan's Beachwood No. 9 – Cowboys & Gangsters (Social Disco Club Re-Edit) by Social Disco Club


and check out this symphonic disco edit they put up 8 days ago, coming out soon on Hands of Time. flip up your collars and break out the queso!

Daft Funk by Social Disco Club

here is an interview and podcast greg did in sept 2008 for RA
SDC have a blog and a myspace

the rose

"...eeelectric shadow, a full moon in my bed."
The Laughing Light of Plenty - The Rose by piece together music

It appears that the Laughing Light of Plenty (LLOP) have only 3 songs. Their 'hit', is 'The Rose' - an absolutely epic classic-rock-soaked piece of space disco (or just cosmic rock).
The track was huge last summer (amongst those of us who are into this kind of shit) but I think it needs to come out again this summer. this kind of music has a long shelf life so it wont (easily) age... its like the past and the future here in the present... or not.
anyway, the analogue break gets a bit too squelchy and psychedelic for perfect-song status, but its close.

LLOP is apparently "a collaborative project between Rub'n'Tug's Thomas Bullock (who also records as Bobby Marie and Map of Africa for WWW) and Eddie Ruscha (who spent time in Medicine, Maids of Gravity and Future Pigeon)".
Rub'n'tug (DFA, NYC) is a a disco outfit consisting Thomas Bullock and Eric Duncan. Their stuff is pretty good.. a bit hit and miss though. As mentioned by Eric Duncan on Beats in Space they have an album coming out soon... and with outtakes like the first 10 mins of this I think it could be one to watch out for.

Their remix work can sound a bit like this:




I think their best work however is their edit of Chicago's 'I'm a man' found on the top notch and still very relevant Glimmers DJ Kicks Compilation. Yeah.

Keep an eye open here for news of the hot new rub'n'tug album.
Also look for Eric Duncan side projects, under the Dr. Dunks and the excellent Still Going alias'.
Spaghetti Circus by Still Going is a high energy disco mega blast and a personal favourite of mine from last year. Opah!

for the annoyingly cheerful

"Tests prove the drug is effective at reducing a range of symptoms, from squealing loudly when a friend calls, to use of the phrase 'cool beans', and excessive hugging"

oh you

So I forgot to mention that that outstanding new lcd soundsystem album had 2 bonus tracks with it if you bought it through itunes.
The first, 'throw', is a cover of carl craig's paperclip people song and redthreat is hosting a highres mp3 for those of us who paid 16 euros for the physical cd and who therefore didnt get the bonus tracks. right click here
The second, 'oh you (christmas blues)' also appears on the greenberg soundtrack (james murphy wrote nearly the whole thing - 12 out of 18 tracks). it also appears here

so while I am pumping murphy's tire (again), i might as well tip you off to the pretty fun holy ghost remix of 'this is happening' lead single 'drunk girls'

LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls (Holy Ghost! Remix) by Hypetrak



if you havent bought the album yet, just do it. currently i am really into 'dance yrself clean'.. dont mind if i do!

>

ps. f*%$ off kid cudi. make your own beats to 'rap' over.

sweet dreams

here The Big Pink do an amazing cover of Beyonce's "sweet dreams"... epic!

the melophone is hosting the mp3... right click here
check out their myspace here