Friday night lights (off)

One of my current favourite electronic musicians, Dauwd, has a new remix out that I've been grooving to here in the office.  It's out on Ghostly records.

He's also got track on this free Ghostly compilation.

I'll post some more dancey stuff while I'm at it.  Floating Points is an artist I've heard of but only recently heard.  His most recent release is Nuits Sonores, and it's a pretty epic 12 minutes, featuring some nice acid squelches:


Going back a few weeks now to New Year's eve.  I was at home with my three year old, who had no idea that it was NYE, or even what that means, so there was no need for her to stay up til midnight.  That didn't stop us tuning into some UK radio though, and hearing their new year hit five hours before ours did!  There were a couple of great tracks leading up to the big moment, which I'll post for you below.  They're relatively route one, but still good.


 

Defy

In a week during which it seems like all Muslims have been placed into one big homogeneous box, here's Hanni El Khatib to mess with people's expectations.  Spooky video; I appreciate the normal America locales of multi-lane roads and big box stores.


The UK is so cool that this little track reached number one in 1978:

Digging the jazzy music in this new De La Soul track:


Lastly, if you work from home or are just able to listen to LOADS of music at once, you could do worse than check out this 1000 song playlist that Caribou's put together on youstube.  I took a listen earlier and didn't hear a single dud -- mind you, I barely made a dent.  He recommends putting shuffle on but I'm thinking it'll be easier to keep track of things if you go sequential.

Twee bags

The title of this post is a bit mis-leading, as I actually like both the tracks I'm about to post.  I was going to write about some club bangers I heard on New Year's Eve but I'll save those for now.  Today's been a snowy day here in DC, or at least it was this morning (the sun's out now).  That meant a slow day for me, so I started listening to this six hour mix by Floating Points and Four Tet.  The length of the thing would be a total turn off normally, but since it's a slow day I've been getting through it.  

I've written about H. Hawkline before, and now he's got a nice new track out.  Here's hoping he tours the US as he's got an album coming out in February.


This track by the Cardigans was the first one I ever heard by them.  It randomly came back to me today and I was happy when I realised I wasn't humming Lovefool to myself.

Listening to this has reminded me how much I liked the Cardigans 2003 album 'Long Gone Before Daylight'.  I think I'll see if I still do.  

Nowhere Human

I heard "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks twice in the last couple of weeks, and each time it gave me that sad I-want-to-go-home feeling.  Recently I've been pondering home and places to live and I've realised that I may never really feel at home.  This may be something I have in common with other emigrants/immigrants -- a feeling that home is now only a place that exists in my head, an amalgamation of geography with nostalgia and fantasy.  It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a fact really, but I'm starting to think that no-matter where I am I'll always feel like a bit of an outsider.

More Bangerz

Mostly from Jarvis Cocker's recently revived show this time (though I think it was a one-off).

First up, Dean Blunt, who seems like a bit of a mysterious chap.  Can't find a dedicated website, facebook, or anything for him, just artist pages at various music sites.  So a bit of a mystery for now, but I like this track and hope there's more goodness to discover by him.


Next, this bit of funky awesomeness by David Axelrod.  Jarv had this nicely mixed with a Kate Bush track, but it stands up just fine by itself too.


This I've been hearing all over Radio 6.  It's another Kate Tempest track, this time a collab.  I went a bit off her after I last posted about her, but then I read a bit more about her and learned she'd won a poetry prize, so she started to seem a bit more real to me.

The bloke she's collab'ed with, Loyle Carner, is pretty good on his own too -- very good actually:


OK, last up a new Oddisee track that he tweeted about.  It's quality, check it out.

Bangerz

The Christmas period is usually a good one on BBC radio, and this year is no exception.  There are great specials and wrap-up shows to be heard.  I haven't really been tuning in enough but when I have I've heard some great tunes.  I was discussing the amazingness of the BBC yesterday with one of my patients at work -- it's a bunch of non-commercial stations that don't really do government propaganda and we found ourselves asking... Why does it exist?  What do they get out of it?  They don't make any money, or profit I should say, so I suppose it's there just as a cultural good for the country (and for the world).  It's such a strange concept when viewed from America, where everything is basically profit-driven.  It's hard to imagine or remember that there's another way of doing things...

So, first up a couple of tracks I just heard on Gideon Coe's dance-themed show tonight.  Just nice songs really, nothing much to add, just listen and you'll get it.  Though I will say that I'm quite impressed by the number of great tracks I've heard that Malcolm McLaren's been involved with.




This next track I heard on Mark Riley's show tonight.  He's not one of my favourite 6 music DJ's, as he usually plays things on the weirder end of the spectrum and I'm not sure how my patients feel about some of his choices.  This track is dangerously twee but the jangly guitars save it for me.  Makes me think of summer, and sunshine, and grassy fields.


There's more to come, don't worry.  I'll leave you with some links to other media I consumed today -- I read this article about the current dance music scene in the UK, and I checked out this video about Jackmaster -- both good, and I'll be putting up more inspired by those two links later on.  

Ex-Hex

Short post.  Ex Hex are a local band who I keep coming across in a bigger way -- they're on Radio 6, they're on the Guardian's best of 2014 list.  I checked out their website and wasn't super-impressed by the tunes on there, but this song that keeps coming on the radio has grown on me.  The thing is, I want to like them, because they're local.  Maybe I'll give them another try.