Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Yay for Fizgig!

Fuck speakers. Music sounds best on my headphones walking home from work. I work at a restaurant and spend hours listening to either, things I don't like, or things I like destroyed by an awful stereo. But the moment I step out the door things change. I've got about a 15 minute walk down quiet San Francisco streets with whatever tune I'd like holding my hand. My choice is usually left up to fate, or shuffle as its called on an Ipod. Sometimes that can be disastrous, track after track not meeting my listening criteria for the moment, often reaching home without hearing a whole song. Sometimes it gets it right away.

Tonight Fizgig (My girlfriend named the Ipod after the little creature in the Dark Crystal. She rules.) played this superjam re-edit by Prince Language. I don't know what its an edit of and Prince isn't giving up the secret. Starts off super funky, drops a little strings, a little Falco-esque rapping and then goes full Bollywood Disco Party. Awesome. Get the 12". Lee Douglas does a nice edit of Belle Epoque (same track that Mr. Flash samples on "Disco Dynamite") on the flip.

Prince Language- Yo Son

I love you Fizgig.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Summer Party

You know the end of Let There Be Light when it gets all pretty and chimey? Don't you wish it could last forever? Now with Breakbot it can! He just released the Happy Rabbit/Summer Party 12" on Moshi Moshi. Buy IT! I did. It rules.

I Dare You

So I thought I'd do something different for my hundredth post, I'm gonna post something truly awful. At first I thought I'd start a "Guilty Pleasures" series so I could post things that I loved under an umbrella of ironic safety whenever it felt appropriate. Then after consideration I thought, where do the Guilty Pleasure modifiers start and end? My boy Kellz? Mike Oldfield? Stuff I should feel guilty about but don't? Tracks that I started to like with a "wink wink nudge nudge, Pretty cool huh?" and ended up loving wholeheartedly? The term just seems too amorphous for my ridiculous tastes.

So here it is. I bought the Transformers the Movie soundtrack on cassette (to play in my sweet am/fm/tape clock radio) from Gemco when I was nine years old. Did work around the house washing the car, raking leaves and mowing the lawn to get the funds together to purchase this sure-to-be amazing tape. Damn, children are underpaid. Anyway, to ears and a brain that didn't understand the coolness factor, this was the raddest shit EVER! Bombastic cheesemetal, synthy air guitar madness and of course, Weird Al, whose contribution, Dare to be Stupid, is still one of my faves of his. Nobody touched me more than Stan Bush though. His best known song is "The Touch" from Boogie Knights, you know the one Dirk and Reed record when they decide to be coked up rock stars? That song was also included on Transformers but "Dare" is where its at. When I was 27 I decided to search out Transformers to enjoy in ironic fashion, but alas, I found that I could love "Dare" without a sarcastic laugh. I think it shaped me a lot without me even knowing. Arpeggiated synths. Check. Metal guitars. Check. Layered backup vocals. Check. Dare ended up in heavy rotation in my headphones, a go get em anthem that still riles me up. Yeah it sucks, but that's not the point.

Stan Bush- Dare

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Mt. Sexy Slow Jam

I don't know how much this ones gotten around the net already and I dont care. Braxe & Falke climbed and conquered Mt. Sexy Slow Jam and the people need to know. This was released in 2005 on some random compilation sometime after I discovered it during an intense Soulseek session. I sent it to Mike B shortly thereafter and he said "I want to have sex to this". Totally. Super slow, dreamy, packed with orgasmic synth thrusts and seamlessly intertwined talkbox guitar and vocals, it wants you to lay her down by the fire for a cybernetic lovecapade.

Alan Braxe & Fred Falke- You'll Stay In My Heart (feat. Savage)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Murphylikemenace

With remixes galore, solo tracks and the Trilogyy EP coming soon, Lifelike and Kris Menace are definitely not running out of work anytime soon. Thats good for us. Might they be to 2007 what Braxe & Falke were to 2005 and 2006?

Demon's return to form was definitely not what I was hoping for but at least I got this one out of the deal. Lifelike does his usual bittersweet jazzercise (I know I'm repeating myself) routine and then adds a harder bits of distorted bass for a change.

Demon- Happy Therapy (Lifelike Mix)

Here Kris Menace does his thing to Roisin Murphy of Moloko's HOT new joint, Overpowered. The original is a diva'd out acid jam. Sweet sweet acid. The Kris Menace mix is well... Kris Menace. What can I say about these guys? You know exactly what its gonna sound like.

Roisin Murphy- Overpowered (Kris Menace Instrumental Mix)

I can't resist. Roisin, don't hate me.

Roisin Murphy- Overpowered (Radio Edit)

Red Alert

I used to play this shit all the time. Miami bass legend DJ Laz put this out in '96 on the B side of Esa Morena. Laz tries his hand at rave with big synth leads, breakbeats and HUGE bass. Turn it up loud.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Put Them Uno Cards Up

I was rippin some records today and ran across this ridiculous song "Step Daddy" by Hitman Sammy Sam. It's a novelty Double Dutch style track that I heard once on the radio, thought it was hilarious, bought for a dollar and promptly filed away for 4 years. I saw there was an acapella today and well... joined another bandwagon. First a blog now this? I should be ashamed. But I'm not. Its a combo of the Hitman and AMAZING DSE Dub of Tracey Thorn's "It's All True" I copped over at Outside Broadcast (Thanks!) last month. Its my first mash/edit/whatever so let me know what you think.

True Step Daddy

Boring title I know, but I just couldn't figure out a clever one. Internet people, feel free to spread this one around if you'd like.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

That was Rome not Paris. This is Paris and You're Drunk.


I love European Vacation. This reveals itself in moments like when driving in a tight curve or roundabout I might say something like, "Big Ben. Parliament. Big Ben. Parliament.". Dondolo's album Dondolisme reminds me of European Vacation.

Fans of his past releases will be a little shocked. Things that came to mind listening to him today were Serge Gainsbourg, Giorgio Moroder's Gina and Elvira's theme from Scarface, Falco (don't laugh. dudes got some hot shit), new wave, italo and well, European Vacation, which featured Plastic Bertrand, Alexander Robotnick and of course Dr. Johns "New Look". Really just combine those three and you've just about got it.

On another note he seems to be playing up his Frenchness ala Plastic Bertrand or every Frenchman in European Vacation. Maybe its just because I'm not French and can't understand it, but I can't shake the feeling that he's winking at me from behind that baguette. Anyway, it's a bizarre and really fun piece of work. Dondolisme. Not European Vacation.

Dondolospace

Dondolo- L'amithomane
Dondolo- Le jour d'après

The Whole 12 Inches Vol 3

I'm not a big Front 242 fan so don't expect some big history lesson from someone in the know here. All I know is that I bought this record sometime in the late nineties and never really got tired of it. Three tracks of sweet arpeggiated synth bass, Kraftwerkesque bleeps and the disconnected analog warmth of early Depeche Mode. If you only walk out of here with one track today , Sample D is the one. Or Take One. Oh, just get em all.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

The Whole 12 Inches Vol 2

Ahh thrift stores. Most of them time you walk in, get your hands dirty, find something, buy it because the cover is weird, take it home and find out its total crap. We do it over and over because sometimes (I repeat: SOMETIMES) we find a gem. A couple weeks ago I picked this up. Normally I would not buy anything by a band called Saxophone (due to my general distaste of them) but this had ads for the Donna Laser Orchestra, Koto, Hipnosis and other awesome Italo groups on the back. Turns out its a sugary sweet Italo cover of OMD's already sugary sweet Souvenir. Score!

Saxophone- Souvenir
Saxophone- Souvenir (Instrumental)

and because I love you...

OMD- Souvenir

Skydiver


Heres my contribution to the new "Hughes House" phenomenon. Bumrocks dropped this at some point last year and despite my Ebaying Soulseeking and searching and searching I can't find anything else by this dude. Damn Bumrocks in all of its quiet uninformative brilliance. As expected from those familiar with Hughes House, it's chimey disco love spiced with crunchy guitars and spacy moments.

Ben Richardson- Diver No. II

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

1981 -

This is like the product of Enya and Mike Oldfield canoodling in the backseat of Robert Smiths car. I see triumphant african sunsets and slo mo jumping dolphins. As usual.

Woohoo Hoo Hoo

I woke up to this today and I'll tell you what, I feel a whole lot better. Original? Re-edit? Who cares? Its disco! Beautiful, over the top disco love.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Sea Breeze

Lexx put this lovely re-edit of Black Sabbath's Symptom of the Universe out last year. I'm a sucker for Black Sabbath, re-edits and cheesy ocean noises. Therefore I'm psyched. Feel the ocean breeze, undo your pony tail and let that hair fly. You dirty hippie.

Cha Cha Cha


If its as nice where you are as it is in San Francisco, will you please go to the park or beach, drink Coronas and listen to this song for me? I have to work. Thanks.

Booka Shade- Body Language (Senor Coconut Mix)

Soul Grabber

Soul Grabber. When I first heard it in '97 or '98 i was all, "Wow". It does nothing basically. It plays a Super Mario-esque bassline and has a beat. Then it filters, then it doesn't and sometimes theres sleigh bells. What can I say? It's a deceptively simple monster.

Bondo


Okay I rented the new James Bond. Didn't expect much but shit is kinda crazy. I mean seriously, usually Bond villains put him in complicated death traps or play killer head to head video games right? Not this time. The villain just strips him, ties him to a chair and whips his balls. HIS BALLS. So weird. Anyway this Maral Salmassi track would make a much better opening number for the new brutal Bondo than that horrid Chris Cornell thing. Big bass, acid and 007 style horn hits that whip you right in the nuts. THE NUTS.

Maral Salmassi- Fire Gem

WZAP. Happy Radio.


While the computer was out for fixin the records and I hung out a lot. Dusted this one off and have had it on repeat ever since. Off The New Zapp IV U album from '85 a song about a radio station thats probably very near WDPK on the dial. It's talkbox heaven. Heaven. Layers and layers and layers of em. Zapp fuckin rules. For y'all that don't know heres a little bio I stole from Discogs.

"One of the most underrated funk groups of the 1980s, Zapp revolutionized the computer pop of electro with their trademark vocoder talk boxes and bumping grooves, with a leader in Roger Troutman who was more than efficient at polished production. The family group, with brothers Roger, Lester, Larry and Tony Troutman, grew up in Hamilton, OH, influenced by hometown heroes the Ohio Players as well as Parliament and other funk groups. Tony was the first to begin recording, with an obscure single for Gram-O-Phon Records, "I Truly Love You," which scraped the R&B charts in 1976. Joined by his brothers (Roger on vocals and guitar, Lester on drums, Larry on percussion, and himself contributing bass) and christened Zapp, the group played around the Midwest and gradually picked up backing vocalists (Bobby Glover, Janetta Boyce), keyboard players (Greg Jackson, Sherman Fleetwood) and a horn section.
Zapp's following quickly gained notices, and Bootsy Collins himself was hired on to work with the group on their debut album. Released in 1980, "Zapp" hit the Top 20 on the pop charts, thanks to the single "More Bounce to the Ounce." The following year, Roger released his solo debut album, "The Many facets of Roger". His special cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," complete with vocoderized talk box, pushed the album into gold territory (as "Zapp" had done). "Zapp II" appeared in 1982 and proved just as popular as the group's first, including Zapp's only number one R&B single, "Dance Floor."
"Zapp III" barely made the Top 40 pop charts upon release in 1983, and Roger’s second solo album, "The Saga Continues", was also a (commercial) disappointment.
What can be considered as their best record, "The New Zapp IV U" fared slightly better after release in late 1985 (thanks to the single "Computer Love"), and in 1987, Roger’s third solo album, "Unlimited!", featured the group's biggest hit yet, "I Want to Be Your Man," a chart-topper on the R&B lists and a respectable number three pop. Though Roger and/or Zapp hit the R&B charts frequently during the rest of the late '80s, the unit had effectively halted recording with the 1991 Roger LP "Bridging the Gap". Roger continued to produce and play with other artists, and it was his talk box that graced Dr. Dre & 2Pac's Top Ten 1996 single "California Love." The 1993 Roger & Zapp collection All the Greatest Hits sold well, earning the collective their first platinum record. The Zapp story ended in tragedy on April 25, 1999, when Roger was shot to death by Larry, who then turned the gun on himself."

Damn. Where's Behind the Music when you need em?

Zapp- Radio People

Ooh. Bonus.

Zapp- Funky Bounce

That ones got a little Sesame Street pinball vibe.

Bounce Kick Twirl


This song makes me wanna dance like Molly Ringwald. Or with her. Whatever. I can't find any info on this band whatsoever but I can tell you that:
1. Its probably from around '81.
2. It sounds like a lot of early Depeche Mode before they got all sad. Speak & Spell in particular.
3. Echo & The Bunnymen have a song called Turquoise Days.
4. My girlfriend loves turquoise.
5. I love this song.

Turquoise Days- Grey Skies