I'm in the midst of listening to a profound mix by Squarepusher. I'm about halfway through and a distinct theme has emerged, a theme so specific that it's given me new appreciation for the art of DJing and the selector in particular. The sheer musical research and knowledge that Squarepusher must have is quite amazing. What's the big deal? you're probably wondering. Well this mix focuses on a very specific genre of music. You could call it early rap, but that wouldn't be specific enough. You could call it early UK rap, but that still wouldn't be specific enough. You'd have to go with early UK rap with a positive message and then you'd pretty much get there. Every record so far is an amalgam of sampled beats, housey sounds, and strangely positive rapping! Topics range from racial unity to standing up to the police to putting down drugs. It's just so... strange! Who on earth knew there were so many early UK rap songs that focused on these topics? And who has access to them all, now, 25 or so years later?! Squarepusher, that's who, and I must salute him. Oh balls. I just looked at the FACT mag page where this mix is hosted and realised that all the tracks are either by Shut Up and Dance or the Ragga Twins. So basically he could have a couple of best ofs and that'd be that. Oh well.
I heard this track on this radio a few days ago and I wasn't sure if I'd like it on a second or third listen, but I do! In fact it's grown on me every time I've heard it again. At first I thought FFSwere just some new band, but now I know that FFS is a collaboration between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks (you can read more about that here). So, below is the new single Johnny Delusional, as well as some Franz Ferdinand tracks because, well, why not?
It seems like a host of 90's music acts are making a comeback this year . First there was Blur, then Ride, now the Chemical Brothers and Leftfield are getting in on the act. To be fair, the latter two aren't reunions like the first two, but it's still been a while. See what you think of their latest efforts below. I wonder if these acts take a look at their popularity on social media sites and decide to have another go? It would make a lot of sense for Ride to say something like "Oi, we've got 125,000 fans on our unofficial facebook page! Time to get back together!"
As we've mentioned on the blog before, Jamie XX of The xx has been doing his own work outside of the band. He's remixed the likes of Adele, Gil Scott-Heron, and more, and has become a very good and popular DJ. He's released some of his own solo tracks before and now he's putting out his debut solo album next month, called 'In Colour'.
The first single is 'Loud Places'. I LOVE this tune. Its been on repeat all week. I also quite like the video, especially the cinematography towards the end. Here's what Jamie and Romy had to say about the video via The xx facebook page:
"Romy and I grew up skateboarding together, when I was thinking of
what the video for Loud Places should be, I kept coming back to the idea
of Romy and I skating in London, visiting the places we used to go to.
It’s a part of our friendship not many people really know about and it’s
something I wanted to share.” Jamie
"When Jamie
asked me If I was up for skateboarding in the video, I wont lie I did
hesitate, it’s been a few years since I was properly into it, but
skateboarding was such a big part of Jamie and I’s friendship when we
were growing up. We would literally spend every weekend from early in
the morning till late at night, skating and exploring the streets of
London. I guess it gave us an escape and a sense of freedom, which we
later found from making music." Romy
Here's the tune and video, oh do enjoy!
'Loud Places' has a terrific sample from 'Tracey In My Room' by Everything But the Girl, a group I fell in love with a couple years ago. Tracey Thorn responded to my tweet about the sample, have a look! https://twitter.com/tracey_thorn/status/596206757782953987
She corrected me and reminded me that 'Tracey In My Room' was actually a mash-up of EBTG's 'Wrong' with Soul Vision. Here's the wonderful mash-up :-D
AND here's the original version of 'Wrong' - its definitely more of a melancholy tune, but still quite good of course. Todd Terry also did a version. Here's the original though:
Ok now back to Jamie. There's a nice interviewwith him in Fader about his new album, and gasp, in one photo he's not wearing black, which is what The xx are known for. Here's a nice quote, and it expresses how I also feel about dance music:
"I don't think dance music is important in the big scheme of things to a
lot of people. But it's important to me because it just makes me happy.
There's not that many things that make me happy. I mean, that's why it's
important to a lot of people. It can be something that you listen to on
your own if you want, but really it's something designed to make people
happy, even if it's a sad song. The act of dancing is a happy thing to
do."
I'm not sure how I got word about his new album, maybe it was through browsing The xx facebook page. I also found out about his tour, and of course his NY gig was already sold out. But guess who got tickets today!! Hell yeah! I am so excited!! Here's a set from Jamie that's quite nice, I wanna download this set, unfortunately not allowed to embed the video but make sure to have a listen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YNkAUtwMB4
Yay. And happy birthday to my nephew Yusuf, who turned one year old today mashAllah :-D
I heard a song today that caught my attention. It's by the Belgian band Balthazar, who I don't know a whole lot about except that they're not particularly new, just new to me. I like the laid-back but funky sound on the two tracks I'm posting. I thought I was on to a good thing, but not all their stuff is as great.
New:
Old:
I also like the new Ghostpoet single, which showcases his "rock" sound a bit more. I'm not really qualified to judge musicianship, but his band sound just OK to me; I wonder what he'd sound like if backed up by a really great band, like Radiohead say. They could really up the sonic experimentation behind his lyrics and increase the weirdness level. As it is this song sounds good but the backing doesn't provide any surprises.
Have to keep it brief now, as I've go to go pick my kid up from daycare. I came across this via Vice and then heard it on the radio on the same day. William Onyeabor is a Nigerian musician from the 70's who I must hear more of!
A Dauwd mix at XLR8R led me to this remix of his, which is, as usual, great, though quite subtle (so's the mix by the way. Great I mine, not necessarily subtle... I can't remember if it's subtle or not, but it is great. Probably. I heard it a few weeks ago!):
And finally, thanks to the wonders of Soundcloud's algorithm, that Dauwd track led me to this John Talabot one; I remember checking Talabot's album out a couple of years ago, cos it was topping some end-of-year lists, but I wasn't that into it. I like this though:
Last night I finished Viv Albertine's autobiography 'Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys'. I wasn't at all familiar with her or her work with the Slits and beyond, but the book kept popping up with good reviews so I decided to check it out, and I'm glad I did. To boil it down to a very simple summary, she was around in 70's London when punk started to take hold, knew all the main people, and was part of one of the original bands, the Slits. When I say she knew all the main people I'm talking about all of the Clash, Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, and many, many others. She was around when they were all just kids who were starting out, and she presents them as they were -- (quite) normal people with certain ideas about music, politics, and what matters. She's had a very interesting and eventful life beyond that too, including stints as a film-maker and ceramicist, as well as lots of personal events that I don't want to give away.
A few things stood out to me in the book, the main thing being the sheer amount of abuse and even violence that she's gone through as a woman! I don't know if it was the time, the place, or just the people she was around, but it's shocking just how much she's put up with in terms of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. From words to slaps, from being stalked to chased to ganged up on; it doesn't stop in the 70's either, it carries all the way through to the late 2000's, and her friends and acquaintances all seem to have similar experiences. As shocking is how they take it in their stride -- some of what they go through is just seen as normal because that's what they expect from at least some men. I know I'm quite naive about these things but I really hope it's not that bad for every woman.
Another stand-out was her particular brand of feminism and the very real reasons behind it. She outlines multiple instances of being put down or held back by men, simply because she's a woman. She then details how she dealt with that, writing about her feelings and thoughts and the emotional toll it all took on her. It's a great read and I'm planning on buying a copy to have around for when my daughter's a bit older. I hope I never utters the words "because you're a girl" to her, especially not as a reason to stop her doing something -- not just because of Viv Albertine, but her book is a good reminder that things shouldn't be that way.
Reading about the Clash and all those other icons when they were starting out was great as I had a time period when I was quite into punk. I read a few books about the Sex Pistols and the Clash, watched 'Sid & Nancy'; I enjoyed seeing them through Albertine's eyes -- to her they're not icons, they're mostly just people she grew up with, and she doesn't go into any details about Sid Vicious' death, or Joe Strummer's. This isn't a book eulogising an era and sound, it really is a book about her particular life and experiences.
I've not really read a lot of biographies or autobiographies, but I am starting to see how inspiring they can be. Albertine's in her 50's now, and she went through a very normal period of life -- house, family, marriage, children, etc. I sometimes think that my life is basically domestic -- it's all about the kids and the time to really do things and experiment has gone. Albertine came to a similar conclusion, but then went beyond it and started doing different things, experimenting, find herself again. It was good to read about and reflect upon -- life doesn't end at 30, or 35, or 40, unless you let it. There's still plenty of time to do more and keep starting things, and it's ok to care about clothes and fashion too!
There's more to this book than what I've detailed above -- I enjoyed her introspection; her discussion of how she and her peers analysed music, what they listened out for; the details of her childhood and working-class life in the 70's; the life-long impact her parents divorce had on her. Honestly, reading about a whole life in a book is pretty amazing! I can only hope my life looks as interesting when I look back on it years from now (iA). I was going to read Kim Gordon's memoir, 'Girl in a Band', too, but then decided against it. I get the impression that it'll be a lot more po-faced than this, so Billy Idol's book is next on my hold list. Maybe I'll change my mind though; it could be interesting to compare the two.
I've had a fair few favourite bands in my time. The first one I can remember is U2, back in their 'Achtung Baby' days, but it's never been just one band for life. There have been different ones at different stages, including a pretty long period of the Clash. One from the mid-90's was the Prodigy; in fact, 'No Good' may have been the first piece of dance music I liked; before that I was all about the indie and rock sounds, but 'No Good' got me on board with electronic music. I lost track of the Prodigy after 'Fat of the Land' and the "electronica" push in the US, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who did. But they made a bit of a comeback a few years ago and I caught them live at the 930 club. I can't say I really paid any attention to their new stuff, but I didn't mind it; live it all seemed to slot right in with the hits. Don't get me wrong, I didn't go to the (sold-out) show just for nostalgia; I went because I knew it was the closest I'd come to a rave, and I wasn't wrong! They're back again now. I wasn't too impressed by what I heard at first, but this song has grown on me a little bit -- it's not very deep but it's got some classic Prodge elements to it and will probably sound good live.
Also back is Gaz Coombes. I've no idea why this track is called Detroit, but I like it -- I like the quiet bits more than the loud bits, they remind me a bit of Supergrass' 'Road to Rouen' album, which is a great one in my opinion. The video is just a bloke running in great scenery, with a silly bit in the middle (it is Gaz Coombes after all); makes me want to go for a jog somewhere nice.
Lastly, Oddisee's back with some solo stuff and it's rather good:
