Still listening

A lot's happened to our family in the last couple of years, hence why these posts dropped off. Still kept listening to music though.

As always, I get new tunes off of my favourite radio station, KCRW. Here are some recent discoveries from earlier this year.

Here's a nice, mellow, somewhat of a melancholy tune:

KaiL Baxley · Born In The Flood

A much more fun, dancey, and disco tune that I'd love to DJ one day (in person...):

fuck pitchfork · JOAKIM X EVANS X PASK - Never Gonna Leave You (Disco Mix)

Lastly, here's some South African house! Circa 1994 I believe. Great tune, great tune. Also filing for DJing.

Sandy B · Student Night

 

 

Leaving it there at 3 tunes, which could easily become 30, but, a woman's got other things to do (unfortunately).

Non-Hostile Environment

I've heard this Janet Kay reggae track at various times over the last few weeks.  It's popped up on mixes, on radio shows.  When I heard it, I assumed it was some obscure dusty thing that's been rediscovered somehow. I mean, it does sound a bit off, and Tom Ravenscroft is playing it on 6 Music.  Then I looked it up and it turns out it was #2 in the UK in 1979!  #2!!  A hit, in other words, and Janet Kay, the singer, was on Top of the Pops. 

This wouldn't be a very big deal, but given everything that's in the news these days, the hostility and anger, and how important identity, race, background, has seemingly become (at least online), it's kind of cool to go back to 1979 and a time when things were probably pretty bad, race-wise, and yet this slightly strange track made it all the way to #2 in the UK (it was apparently a hit around Europe too).  What does it mean?  I don't know to be honest... maybe that it doesn't have to be this way, that there are better parts of our nature we should be tapping into?  Or maybe it just means that a good pop song can transcend boundaries -- or at least it used to be able to.  Is pop culture the answer to our troubles?  It's possible (as an aside, when I looked up #TopBoy on Twitter, I came across quite a few users with England flag emojis in their name who'd enjoyed the show...). 

It also reminds me of just how important Black music is to pop music in general.  Especially in the US and UK, one could argue that without Black music there'd be no pop music, no rock music, no dance music, nothing; we'd be listening to skiffle boards, country (maybe?), folk, and who knows what else.  It'd be pretty shit.  So check out this video -- I hope it makes you smile. 



Also, on Tom Ravenscroft, I heard Metronomy do a live track and I have to say it sounded like... something from Flight of the Conchords.  And I like Metronomy.  I wonder if it's meant to be funny?  The official version actually sounds pretty good:

Tunes from earthquake/KCRW drive

So during last night's earthquake at 8:19pm I was having a very pleasant and relaxing drive to Pasadena, listening to...KCRW. Of course. They were playing these tunes back-to-back, and unlike the day before, I completely didn't feel or notice the earthquake, probably because I was so attracted to the music.

So first up was this tune (right as the earthquake happened) - really nice and smooth, one of the producers is Machinedrum. "Ocean Ppl" by J-E-T-S - sort of hard to find!

Next was this, "Weekend en Casa" by Intermittent:

My roommate phoned me and as I was driving on the 110 about to go through downtown, I didn't pick up, and also because this tune started playing. Really enjoyed this one. I realize now that the DJ was playing a joke - nice one DJ! I had no idea, later I heard the voicemail from the roomie, asking if I was alright post-earthquake (as I had no idea what to do, the day before, like a typical stupid outsider to Los Angeles). Her Mum texted me too. Hilarious. Anyway - this is a really nice one! "Faultline" - it's a remix, interestingly it seems DEDE is from Grizzly Bear.

This one is my favourite of the bunch of course. Great house tune. Makes me wanna clap my hands. Hope to DJ this tune soon! Will be playing this on repeat a lot, but I don't think my neighbours will mind.

This one was the last tune I heard as my drive ended. Thanks KCRW for distracting me during the earthquake and for all of this new music!

Is it over?

Over the last day or two I've been thinking about the process of making music, especially dance music, genres, and what it all means now.

When I first heard dance music in the early 90's (or was it the late 80's?) it did feel like "the future", and later on I bought into the idea that it was future music.  It kept evolving too, it didn't stay still, and I got into the mutations that came through, like jungle, garage, and then dubstep.  But I'm trying and I really can't think of a new genre or mutation that really got anyone's attention after dubstep?  I know there are always new micro-genres and distinctions, and there's EDM, which is basically an idiotic label for nothing, it's not new.  But there's nothing I hear now that seems really new or ground-breaking, and definitely nothing is having a massive impact like the genres mentioned above.

So is dance-music actually like rock music now?  Where people are just making their own take on what's gone before?  I feel like that's what's happening and that electronic dance music isn't really the music of the future anymore, and I don't think anything's replaced it.  That makes me a bit sad, especially as I've taken up producing my own dance music as a hobby.  Via that I realised that there haven't really been that many innovations in the sound or the equipment since the 90's, other than most of the process going "in the box" (ie being done solely on computers).  The people I come across online seem to mostly festishize old sounds and equipment too, new takes on old drum machines.

All this doesn't mean that good music won't be made, and isn't being made.  But I just think that thrilling edge has been lost, where I felt like what was being made and heard had never been done before.  I mean, imagine the feeling of hearing the first house record, or the first jungle record?  That's not happening any more; hopefully it will happen again, but there are no guarantees.

For me this means I need to get back to viewing my own producing as a hobby to be enjoyed -- no need to overthink it, just have fun.

Switching it up, after a long time, here's a commute tune from this morning's BBC 6 music with Tom Ravenscroft.  Bloody good it is too.  I think at this time anything I blog will be slightly biased by the fact that I'm looking forward to putting together a massive tAO playlist soon!

Pandering

Repeatedly heard a track I like thanks to an unlikely source, and that led to some thoughts.  The track is the Bambino Casino remix of The Time is Now by Moloko, and I keep hearing it at work, where we have Pandora radio on all the computers.  I've got one set to the Little Dragon station, and this track keeps coming up.

Streaming, and how it's changed my music consumption, is something I've been thinking about recently, as I signed up for the paid version of Spotify and immediately realised I'd probably never buy another CD.  Because more than one thing has changed -- the technology has changed, but so have my own habits.  The days where I'd listen to one album repeatedly are done, as far as I can tell.  Now I'm constantly listening to new things and moving on to more new things.  Partly because of technology, and hearing new things being so easy to do.  Partly also due to technology and the incredible amounts of information giving me ideas about what to listen to.  And also because there is so much new music out there too (which, I think, is also due to technology).  I think there's a negative to this approach in that it reduces the likelihood of me finding a new favourite album, for instance -- I just don't spend enough time with anything.  I also have this distracted feeling a lot of the time, which I think is due to this lack of focus -- or vice versa.  That has less to do with streaming and more to do with the internet and screen-time in general, but still. 

I also wonder what the point of music is for me now?  It provides a nice soundtrack to various tasks, and I also think I use it to preview shows I want to go to.  But it used to be I'd go and see acts live because I liked their music... now I think I go and see acts I like for the experience of going, but I'm not sure how meaningful that is?  Maybe it doesn't really matter.  I went to see Nick Cave despite not being a huge Nick Cave fan but I still really enjoyed it.  Supposedly we're in the age of experiences taking precedent over ownership, but is that true, or are we actually in the age of needing to do things so we can tell others what we did?  And show them via photos and videos?  There's probably a mix of reasons going on, but I don't think there's any denying the role social media, and the internet in general, is playing in changing my, and our, habits when it comes to music. 

But on the plus side are discoveries like this track, which I don't think I'd ever have heard were it not for the Pandora algorithm!  So algorithms, they're not all bad ya know.  Actually, I just realised this track is on the Moloko Back to Mine album... so in the old days I have picked that album up used somewhere and heard this ... As for the track, I loved the slowed down tempo, which I think enhances the lyrics.  I love the original track, but this is a great remix.

November commute tunes #3: Small lizard chronicles

Aah, lovely lovely songs.  And I think they're all linked??  Most of them anyway, by Little Dragon.  I first heard of them when they featured on a Gorillaz record.  They already seemed like a band I felt I should have heard of back then.  I can't say I've paid them loads of attention since, but they'll pop up on singles I like here and there. 

First up, here they are with BadBadNotGood.  Another band who have tracks I like, but I'm not necessarily a fan.  They're also an example of a band who I didn't like as much live -- I prefer them on record, their live show was pretty unenjoyable.  Anyway, I love this track, very atmospheric:



Now, here they are with SBTRKT; I heard this next one again today:



Now here's one by just them!  It's from their latest EP, which is meant to be a dancey and positive record.  This track definitely fulfills that mandate:



Ok, last track now, and it's destroying my Little Dragon link cos I don't think this person has any link to them (I could definitely be wrong).  This is by Jon Hopkins and it's pretty great.  I saw him live once, supporting the XX.  Can't really remember much about the show, but I think he'd be good on stage. 

More Commute Tunes - November 2018 #2

I completely forgot that I'd heard the Smashing Pumpkins new track during my drives!  I really like it, it's as good as their 90's stuff, and even the video is straight from that era!  Weird seeing that one guy in it (the one posted below starts after about two minutes of boring wank, but you can go back and see it if you want).

When I first heard this I actually thought it was the Manic Street Preachers until the chorus kicked in.  I'll post a Manics track below too, because why not? 





This next track has nothing to do with commuting.  I found it via my electronic music equipment purchasing hobby.  I was looking up a Korg synthesizer that came up on Craigslist and came across various artists who'd used only that instrument to make tracks and albums, including this EP by Deceptikon.  And below is a remix version which I quite like. 

Commute Tunes November 2018 #1

About time for another edition of commute tunes.  I should probably just start a Spotify playlist, but who would listen?  Not me, no time.  And then there'd be no writing for company.  I do find myself slightly overwhelmed by all the media choices I have right now.  Especially as I'm driving, which makes it a bit tuffer to take notes, or do searches right there and then.  First world problems, as Ian Brown would say (follow the link to the Ian Brown song that sounds like he took a Bontempi version of  Primal Scream's Loaded and changed the words). 

In fact, I just looked at my notes, and they're so bad that there's only one track to highlight.  Hardly seems worth it, but I will do it anyway.  It's "Offence" by Little Simz, and I love the way the drums bang and the tune's elements are pretty minimal but so effective. 



Here's a bit of news your may have missed -- Mike Skinner and The Streets are back, and you can hear their album on Spotify.  Not sure if it's elsewhere, his twitter linked to Spotify.  

All the good things I've heard since starting to commute again

Started a new job and have a commute again so that means back to RadMac on Radio 6!  I'm very pleased, only downer is that their daily show is supposed to end and they'll move to weekends some time soon.  But, that's what the iPlayer is for.  But honestly, thanks God for RadMac.  I'll start to think I'm over music, then listen to them and get into it all over again.  Thanks guys!  Thanks the BBC!  Thanks Blighty for your eclectic radio offerings and refusal to conform to commercial viability!! 

Just going to basically post tracks without a lot of commentary as time is limited.  Dev Hynes seems like a prolific character; I remember hearing about Test Icicles when they first came around some time in the last decade, but never checked them out.  I will now though, cos I like this track by Hynes aka Blood Orange:



I've featured BC Camplight on this blog before.  Don't know tons about him/them, but I do know the main songwriter is an American who's now based in the UK (Manchester?) -- always intriguing.  This track appeals due to it's dissonant sounds and it's 80's vibes.  There are at least two 80's tracks it reminds me of, but I can't quite put my finger on either of them. 



Just read a bit about my boy BC and turns out he's an American who sees himself as a Manc who got deported from the UK a couple of years ago and ended up living in his parents' basement, depressed.  He then got EU citizenship via Italian grandparents, only for the UK to vote for Brexit!  His latest album, Deportation Blues touches upon this.  See?  Intriguing. 

Gwenno is Welsh and does electronic music.  What more do you need to know??  Ok, this is off her second album, which is in Cornish, and she used to be in subversive indie throwback girl group the Pipettes. 



I'm almost done, but I'm not done.  Actually I'm only halfway through.  New Gorillaz track Tranz, I like it.  Surprised the band came out with album so quickly after the last one. 



I thought this was a remix of the Fall, but it was just them!  Can't take Mark E Smith for granted, or at least you shouldn't've, when he was alive.  People probably knew that though.



Never listened to a lot of Dinosaur Jr, which is a shame really, what I've heard I've liked.  Them, Sebadoh, and Pavement -- must make time one of these days.  Or one of these commutes. 

Ross From Friends

Ross From Friends is the funniest artist name I've heard in a long time. It's pretty genius, actually.

Here's a short bio from him:
"When a 90's sitcom character undertakes a new role as an electronic music producer".

I discovered him via listening to - what else? - KCRW, a few choice nights ago. This is the track I heard on the radio that immediately peaked my interest:

"Don't Wake Dad" is very unique. And good.

I found this excellent Fader mix that he put out a couple of weeks ago. It's been ages since I found a mix that is as superb. Mixes as grand and good as this one come few and far in between. Thank you Ross From Friends! I have a long flight in front of me and I will thoroughly enjoy re-listening to this, again and again.

IT IS SO DAMN GOOD. I'm not even done with my first listen yet, and here I am posting about it. Brava, Ross From Friends, nice one. Also he's from...LONDON!

 Here's the full interview with Fader. 

Tunes heard on KCRW PART FOUR

Not Garth Trinidad this time, this was the Metropolis show on KCRW, but still some big groovy tunes being played and heard over the airwaves. Honestly this radio station helps me to appreciate being in LA and SoCal more. Often when friends from NY are in town, they remark that the radio in LA is so much better, as NY is all Clear Channel'd out...

Here's what I heard tonight much to my joy and surprise, once again. I make youtube playlists for my films and scripts and often I add songs that I heard on KCRW - so thank you to those folks in Santa Monica, for enlightening and entertaining me - and influencing me - so much.

(I love the graphic on this one)

Tunes heard on KCRW PART THREE

My oh my oh my - yet more absolute and extreme deliciousness from KCRW. Who is the DJ again who is guilty of playing such gems that play over the airwaves as I wind my gari through the streets of Los Angeles? His name is Garth Trinidad. Thank you sir, thank you. 

THIS TUNE IS SUCH A DELICIOUS AND SMOOTH PLEASURE FOR YOUR EARS. WOW!

mind-twisting tune by...Steven Spielberg's daughter, produced by Nicolas Jaar

yah, more good shit

I actually have about 10 more tunes from my listening session tonight so there's gonna be a PART FOUR of this series! Yes yes yes

Orbital were one of the first electronic acts I got into as a spotty young'n.  I'm pretty sure the first tune of their's I heard was off of a free tape that came with Select magazine -- a live version of "Impact (the Earth is Burning)" that was recorded at Glastonbury.  I'm happy to say they're back and recording again and I do like the current single "Tiny Foldable Cities" -- it's got a pleasing weirdness to it that helps it stand out bit over the many, many electronic tracks out there.





I've blogged about Roisin Murphy before -- another dance music survivor who happily puts out off-kilter tunes.  She's appeared on DJ Koze's latest album, another one which Alexis Petridis persuaded me to buy, and one of her tunes is the one I keep going back to again and again.  "Illumination" is pretty great:

 

Tunes heard on KCRW PART TWO

So these are tunes I heard on KCRW just last night and this morning, probably a combined total of 20 minutes, that's it. I "shazam" all the time when I listen to this fantastic radio station. I wanted to keep listening both last night and this morning, but I was listening in the car enroute to things I'm actually supposed to be doing.

In my opinion they're the best radio station in Yankland. Just the fact that I found so many fantastic tunes from listening to them, even just for a few minutes, says a lot. Perhaps I also appreciate them more as radio stations are frequently appearing in the films I'm making...hehe.

Here's what I listened to and found!

Theme from

Mixed post today.  I watched all of 'Detectorists' on Netflix not too long ago and really enjoyed it.  It's a lovely, simple, gentle show about a couple of friends who are into metal detecting.  Great shots of the countryside and an easy, comforting, plot.  And I really liked the folky theme tune, which reminds me of some other theme tunes, so here we go -- a theme for the post, hah.  This is by Johnny Flynn:



Next, the theme to 'Family Tree' by Ron Sexsmith.  The show was cancelled after one season.  It was also pretty nice to watch, like 'Detectorists', but had a bit more going on. And it lacked the lovely scenery. 



And another -- I watched this cartoon with the kids and the track stood out -- it's by George Ezra, from the film 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt':



All of these remind me of Bibio.  And the general theme reminds me of this :) :

Twenty Eighteen

Well, the festive season is over, but it was a good one, for me anyway.  Some nice time to chill and do nothing of consequence, and I had the added benefit of the family leaving town, which meant I was actually on a proper vacation!  I used my time well, I must say -- did some record shopping and listened to some albums that I hadn't got round to, for one.  Christmas and New Year's is also full of great radio programming on 6 music, as well as the best of lists and articles all over the place.  To be honest, so far nothing's really stood out to me on the end of year lists, but I do need to check out some end of year podcasts as those discussions are usually pretty interesting.  And I'll have to try and at least listen to Thundercat's album, Drunk, as 6 music picked it as their album of the year.  If  you're looking for something to check out I recommend the end of year stuff by Jarvis and Gilles Peterson, as well as Tom Robinson's last show of the year, which is where I heard the next track. 

I've not listened to any Can really, but will try to now.  I really like this track, Vitamin C, and was surprised it was by Can -- it seems pretty contemporary, and it doesn't have the sound that I associate with krautrock -- probably cos that term is meaningless, and probably cos all pop music has already been made, or something.  It's from 1972!  That's when Bowie was Ziggy Stardust, and it's not long after the Beatles fell apart.  But it sounds so clean and fresh!  Impressive.



I've recently been opening up to new forms of listening to, experiencing, and enjoying music.  There's lots of ways to do it out there now; I still like my CD's, vinyl, and tapes, but streaming is alright too, and it's easy -- much better than owning or getting MP3's, etc.  So nowadays I might buy something on Bandcamp but then just stream it instead of actually downloading it.  Or I'll do online radio, youtube, see what's streaming at NPR, amazon, itunes.  And now I have yet another option, through my local library -- a service by the name of Hoopla, which is what I've been using to finally listen to Drake's mixtape, More Life.  I don't know what it is about Drake... I don't really care that much for his harder-sounding rap stuff, which mostly leaves me a bit bored. But I really like his more clubby music, and he seems to be really good at a certain romantic nostalgic sound -- the softer pop side in other words.  I like that he's into that, and that he's into different sounds from different places -- so he'll have references to Toronto's Caribbean community on his album, as well as English rappers like Giggs and Skepta.  And he'll give them credit too -- I really like this story about how being sampled for the track One Dance made a huge impact on Kyla.  So here's a few Drake tracks that give me the feels, as well as an amusing cover version (I couldn't find a way put up Get it Together, but check it out -- features an 18 year old singer from the Midlands, Jorja Smith, and housey production from South Africa):

"I had good intentions"

So since 2013 we've been blogging about Disclosure. It's funny to see how massive these brothers have become - MASSIVE. They're part of the mainstream in America, which is really saying something I think, for a dance act from the UK. But it goes to show how much ground house music has broken here in Yankland in recent years...and yes even though house music has been American all along, being born in the gay black scenes of Chicago.

For the last week or so I've been listening to both of Disclosure's albums. Laugh at me for writing this way late, way past when these albums have been released - but I don't care. "Settle" from 2013 really seems to be just 24/7 house, while "Caracal" is more pop and r&b focused. I won't post up the links to the songs here, since they're so well-known and easy to find, but my favourites from "Caracal" are "Jaded" (even though I think it has too many lyrics), "Good Intentions" (I infuse some Sufism into it) and the closing track "Masterpiece", which is a real surprise.

Excerpt from a pitchfork interview (laugh, I don't care):
"The thing that got us into garage was dubstep. And once you’re into dubstep, you just start tracing it back. Because dubstep is obviously stemmed from grime, and grime is from garage, and garage from house. That’s the path we found.
 

In college, I had loads of friends who were into grime and I went to grime and dubstep raves. After a while, DJs just started playing old house and garage records again! We were going to watch Oneman, Jackmaster, and Ben UFO, back in 2009, and those guys were dropping old-school garage records—every third song would be an absolute classic. And we had no idea what some of those songs were. That’s when we decided to buy all that stuff and learn about it. Just because we were 10 years old the first time around doesn’t mean we can’t listen to it now; even though we got to it late, we still discovered it naturally, through buying records."

Man, 2009 both seems like yesterday and also a really long time ago. Time is elastic, I've thought for a while now.

Gorgon City Rinse FM mix from February 2015

House music is THE BEST WORK MUSIC.

THE BEST.

I love mixes and I've loved this one since it came out. God, it's 2 hours of PURE BLISS.

ENJOY.

Thank you Gorgon City! Muah.
(I also have exciting news regarding music and me...ooh la la).

Memories of the Future*

* RIP The Spaceape

Self-loathing a go go

I grew up in the 80's and 90's and one thing I'm still pretty nostalgic for from my youth are tapes, cassette tapes -- TDK D90s and the like.  They have an appeal to me that vinyl and CD's don't.  I was at home today and I stuck on an old tape just to have something to listen to, one I dug out from a box in my parents' basement on one of my Michigan trips.  Didn't look at the tracklist or anything, just put it on.  While listening I guessed it's from the late 90's as most of the tracks seem to have been taped from CD's I was reviewing for my old college station.  All electronic, including some euphoric trance!  A couple of the tracks made me look at the tape to figure out what they were though.  First up is 'Rae' by Autechre.  I was surprised when I saw it was them as in my mind Autechre are very angular and harsh, where as this is a very pretty tune:



The other track I looked at the cover for is by an artist I cannot remember at all anymore -- Chistoph De Babalon.  Here are some nice breakbeats:

While I'm at at, I'll put something by Genaside II up as well.  A very mysterious act I came across on a cover mounted free cassette with the long-defunct Select magazine.  This was basically pre-internet so I never really knew a whole about them, but they had some crazy imagery, I remember that.  I'll do some digging tonight.  This version of the track, a vocal version, is actually hard/impossible to find outside of that cassette -- so hard that I've just recorded it to wav from the original cassette and am putting it on soundcloud (actually that didn't happen, so I'm using another random site, god knows how long this'll stay up).  Appreciate!



Try this link if the player doesn't work

Tunes heard on KCRW PART ONE OF SEVERAL

Whoa! Hey!
I'm back! Whoever reads this! (Somehow each post gets hundred of views? Who are you all?? Tell us).

I now live in the very sunny city of Los Angeles. I can't remember the last time it rained here. Earlier this week for 3 days it was at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Anyway, enough about the weather. As a resident of this city, like many I ended up getting a car and in said-car (I named her Mariana...and also one of my two protagonists in the next film I'm writing is also named Mariana...heh) I listen to the radio. The legendary KCRW plays some good stuff sometimes. Thursday night on my late drive home I realized that they play some electronic tunes and other cool things.

A couple of discoveries I made so far, the new Burial tune - which Fahad says he blogged or WhatsApp'd about before, oops. Check it out, it's fantastique:



Another one is by a band I never heard of, apparently they are a Australian "psychedelic rock" band. Well upon reading that Wikipedia description of them I may not get around to hearing more of their stuff, but this tune is great. Here's the longer version, rather than the radio version, of "Let It Happen" by Tame Impala:


More soon. I must say, Shazam is extremely handy.