(West) London Calling

I'm not sure where to start with this post. It's fairly self-indulgent but since I'm the only one doing any real blogging here now I'll give myself a pass. I was checking out Platform and saw some of these vids posted. Then I went here and found more. I'm focusing on a few that stood out to me, for varied reasons, below. They're all filmed in London, all are about the length of the songs that soundtrack them, and all involve young urban Londoners. Whenever I come across stuff like this I wonder about where I might've ended up if I'd not left London -- would have I have had earrings and a silly haircut? I think I would've been one of the uncooler kids, but you never know. Now I'm 32 the nostalgia for this time period is passing a bit, but I wonder about that too -- how would 32 yr old me who'd not moved be? A saddo in a hoody, driving an old Merc around West London? Perhaps. Check out the vids and the tunes that go with them; perhaps Hena will comment on the merits of the film-making?

This first one's about Southall, where we'd go in the back of Dad's Honda to get Indian groceries. Me and Feraz would usually have a big samosa in a paper bag to eat to keep us occupied. It hasn't really changed much. The track on the video is really good too:


The next one is the last day of school at a school in Harrow, in West London, also near where we used to live. I used to see the older kids writing on each other's shirts and think that it would be me one day, but that never happened. I like the diversity of the group here and the fact that they all seem so chummy, despite the differences. Multiculturalism at it's finest!


This last one I've put in cos it made me think even more about the diversity present in modern-day London. These are the Asians that don't really get talked about but here they are showing that they've got their own place in London's street and youth culture:


There you go then. All those vids make me feel old. There was another one that made me feel even older but I'm only going to post the music from that. Check out Solar Bears:
Children Of The Times by Solar Bears

so, has dance music finally gone totally mainstream in america?

You know, it's normal on pop radio and on the charts mainstream? I actually have no idea cos I don't keep track of the charts or listen to the radio, but I did come across this, which made me wonder. 10 million hits?? Someone is into this stuff, and it's quite amusing to watch Chris Brown dance with his hands while surrounded by a dozen rap cameos. The stadium dancing makes me want to go out. The tune isn't the greatest, basically fits in with all the David Guetta featuring whoever stuff, but if dance is finally mainstream I'm ok with that. Look at those happy dancing people in the club scenes; isn't that preferable to shots of expensive liquor and moody looking people being aggressive? I'm pretty sure this sound has been around for a while now, but still, it strikes me that the mainstreaming has come from an unexpected place. Back in the day, shows like 'AMP' on mtv and some of the radio shows on alterna-radio (such as 89x in Detroit) were clearly aimed at white people -- as were the big beat scenes that were promoted at the time. Even today, if you go to a festival like Movement in Detroit, the vast majority of the crowd will be very very pale (as confirmed by a friend who went to this year's event). Yet all that marketing never pushed dance over to the mainstream. Now it's being reclaimed by the demographic that invented it in the first place, through house and trance riffs on rap songs on to straight up cheesy dance a la the Chris Brown/Benny Benassi track. Full circle then! About time.

I am the paper above the skyscaper. + Massive x Gui Boratto

That GusGus post got me nostalgic for this classic track -- the first GusGus track I ever hard. I'm pretty sure I have this video on a promo VHS cassette somewhere -- if you're old you may remember the weird foam VHS videos some bands would give out as promos. I hope I still have it!



Also posting this not-new but still very good remix of Massive Attack's 'Paradise Circus' by Gui Boratto. Who is he/she? No idea, but you may be familiar with this track from the TV... it's on ads for a car company who I won't name cos it'll make the track seem less cool:

Massive Attack - Paradise Circus feat. Hope Sandoval (Gui Boratto Remix) by lucidonline

Icelandic Hi-Tech Soul

GusGus! Remember them? Polyesterday? A great track from yesteryear and then the band kind of -- went away. But not really, I just didn't hear about them. Turns out they've been signed to German dance music label Kompakt for a bit and are about to come out with a new album ('Arabian Horse'). I wouldn't really care except the track I've heard from the album is grrrreat! Smooth sexy vocal house, as good as their old stuff but with a better beat. I lowe it! Check it below.

GusGus - Over

I really really hope they come and do some live stuff now, cos if half their new stuff is as good as this track they will be amazing.

In other news, James Blake is going on tour again. I hope I get to the tickets before the scalpers this time.

Alarming (sorry)

So someone has made an album entirely out of the sounds made by an alarm clock. Yes indeed. That someone is Jon Brooks who's made a bit of an ambient record based off sounds from a classic Braun alarm clock like the one below:



Weird but kind of cool. He basically sampled and then manipulated the sounds until he had a full range of notes, so it's not as amazing as it may at first seem, but still beyond what I could do. How he did it is quite interesting ; you can hear him talk about that below, and listen to the entire album here.

Jon Brooks - Music For Dieter Rams - An explanation of techniques. by cafekaput

C H A D V A L L E Y

When I was growing up Chad Valley was the name of a Woolworths toy brand. I had a cricket set from them which was quite good. But people made fun of it and called it Chav Valley. Now Chad Valley's the name of a musician who's putting out some rather smooth dance tunes, like the one below. Times change, eh?

Chad Valley - Equatorial Ultravox - 05 Fast Challenges

That's taken from this EP:

Haven't heard a lot of his other stuff yet, but will be checking more out; as should you.

A belated Goodbye to the Streets

Aah, yes, the Streets are no more. Other than a few remaining tour dates, Mike Skinner's musical project are all but done with. 'Computers & Blues' came and went, and it was a mixed affair, like most recent Streets albums. Having said that I think I prefer it to the last few albums; there are some thoughtful and melancholy tracks that are well put together, but perhaps it's the knowledge that that's it that is adding some poignancy for me. Still, I think Mike is one of the best at reproducing the garagey sound with the female vocals added for an extra touch of sweetness -- street music that's for more than dancing to. The last track on the album is 'Lock the Lock's and it's one of the standouts. Here's a video that uses various Streets video-art to make a video -- proving that not only is Mike a great musician, he's a pretty good visual artist too. There's talk of him doing video and soundtrack work in the future, I just hope I hear about it and get to check it out. Only one US tour date has been announced so far -- it's in New York, in August, which is also when my baby is due, so I don't think I'll be going to that...