End of Year Charts - Lists, Lists and More Lists

As Nick Hornby knows lists, apart from shopping ones, are fun and a necessity to the music and film lover. The end of the year is always a good time for lists as you assess the 12 months that has just raced by and although Old Is The New Neu only started up in October I’m still going to look back over the past year.

So here is the Old Is The New Neu end of year charts. I’ve invited along some of my fellow blogers in the shape of Innersounds, Did You See the Words and Planet Mondo to contribute some of their faves and newly discovered wonders of the year gone by.

Old Is The New Neu Albums of 2007

M.I.A. - Kala

M.I.A.’s second album, coming back with power power as she chants on the opening track Bamboo Banger. On first listen Kala seemed disappointing not offering the immediate buzz of her previous album Arula there was not quick fix quite like the Rocky sampling Bucky Done Gun. Diplo again produced several tracks though this time fidgit house master Dave Taylor aka Switch also produced. Tracks such as Bollywood sampling Jimmy and the anthemic Paper Planes showed a fresh, mellower side to M.I.A. while the international feel to the album was even more passport busting than Arular, taking in Brazilian, Indian, African and Aboriginal influences, this was real world music. Uber producer Timberland produced the albums closing track Come Around maybe hinting on M.I.A. breaking into mainstream America but very much keeping things on her own terms.


M.I.A.-Bamboo Banger

The Good the Bad and the Queen

After working with the cartoons for the last few years Damon Albarn wanted to be in a band again and what a band to put together. Enlisting Paul Simonon the bassist from the Clash and Afro Beat pioneer Tony Allen on drums. The band was named after their album full of dark songs set in a post millennium London, with the feeling of a country at war yet often seemingly unaware of it. Live they simply played the album from start to finish but did so perfectly. If Tony Allen’s drumming lacked his afro beat flourish it was because here was a band very much in service to the music they had created together. Hopefully another album will come from this group but it seems more likely this was a one off experiment. An album that will mature nicely and increase in importance in years to come.

Radiohead - In Windows

All the talk was about the innovative distribution method, the pay what you want download, but the music was much more important. Very much a return to form, Radiohead continued to explore electronica yet were very much focused on the songs again. They produced a album of euphoric melancholy as only they know how. The album track All I Need perfectly balanced the varied dynamics of the Radiohead sound, being as good as anything they have previously produced. The chatter across blogs and the media at large showed however they wish to sell or give away their records Radiohead are still more relevant than any of their contemporaries and the have a fanbase that will follow them down whichever road they wish to travel.

Mathew Dear– Asa Breed

If 2007 was the year minimal techno become the new progressive house i.e. drawn out tracks all sounding the same, it was also the year it crashed fully into the mainstream conquering Ibizian dance floors. Prog house DJ Dubfire, of Deep Dish fame, moved into the M_Nus camp and Villalobos released a Fabric mix completely made up of his own production work. Meanwhile the most interesting minimalist Mathew Dear aka Audion and Flase released a song based album, Asa Breed, a sort of minimal goes pop it owes as much to The Human League as Robert Hood. Dear hit the mix just right.

Map of Africa

If the whole Re-Edit, new Balearic, cosmic disco ‘scene with no name’ that has bubbled away on the DJ History board, music blogs and more diverse dance floors throughout the year, has an unelected scene leader it must be DJ Harvey. Harvey is the type of cult DJ whose track selections become canonised, but collaborating with Thomas Bullock of Rub and Tug he has also made one of the albums of the year, not a collection of super rare Black Cock style disco re-edits but a tribute to 70’s coke rock in the shape of Map of Africa. Released on the super cool Whatever We Want Records, in the words of Alan McGee ‘the future of dance music', the vinyl pressings soon became fought over by crate diggers going for £65 a go on Ebay and coursing fist fights in record shops. Mistakenly labelled as a dance record this is mostly sleazy rock at it’s finest, leather pants and moustache territory and all the finer for it. Here’s the Doorsesque instrumental Ely Cathedral.


Map Of Africa - Ely Cathedral

Tinariwen - Aman Iman

Tuareg Blues, beautiful joyful music. Tinariwen’s third album Aman Iman, the title means ‘water of life’, brought them to a wider audience taking in European festival dates through the summer and facing off across the studio floor from the Artic monkeys on an edition of Jool’s Holland’s Later. Still their work is criminally under presented in the media if you have not heard them, of all the music on this list you really should check them out. Tinariwen’s songs often tell of the Tuareg rebels fighting for independence from the government of Mali, but to the non French or Tamashek speaker they just speak as deeply soulful pieces of music. Here is the album’s opening track.


Tinariwen - Cler Achel

Fabric Live 36 – Mixed by James Murphy & Pat Mahoney

James Murphy’s dance rock outfit LCD Soundsystem pretty much ruled in 2007 with their second album Sound of Silver making it to the top of most year end charts, as well as their impressive Nike sponsored 45:33. I wanted to focus instead on Murphy’s DJ mix for the Fabric Live series. Murphy joins LCD’s drummer pat Mahoney to mix a selection of New York underground disco cuts finding the source of the cowbell heard in so many LCD productions. Opening epically with the Love Of Life Orchestra's - "Beginning of the Heartbreak" the mix takes in Chic, Was Not Was, NYC Peech Boys as well as neu disco from the likes of Daniel Wang and of course LCD themselves, all mixed up using a vintage Bozak DJ mixer for that authentic Paradise Garage vibe. The long running Fabric mix series can often fail to impress with well mixed but less than stunning track selections, though the LCD mix looks set to be a future classic.

Mountain of One – Colleted Works

Not really a debut album but a collection of their previous EP’s. Leo Elstob’s group mine a type of Balearica first found in the late sixties, early seventies psychedelic records of Pink Floyd such as More. Add in Krautrock and ambient influences and they create southing yet often melancholic epics. You don’t so much listen to their songs as float through them. I hope an album project is not to far of in the future.

Burial - Untrue

Dubstep aimed very much at the brain rather than the feet. Burial’s second album Untrue had more in common with Aphex’s ambient records or Massive Attack’s darkest work rather than “hold tight London” pirate stations. Although not as dance floor conscious as the work of Skream and Digital Mystics this was just as much about the evolving sound of dubstep as their work.



Burial - Raver

Best of 2007 (and some of 06) Mixtape

With New Year's fast approaching here are some of the years biggest singles for Old Is The New Neu, the ones that have got the heaviest rotation. A bit of this a bit of that, mostly aimed at somewhere on the dancefloor.

Best of 2007 (and some of 06) Tracklisting

M.I.A. – XR2, (XL Recordings)
Chemical Brothers – Do It Again, Olav Basoki dub (Freestyle Dust)
Samin – Heater, Diplo Mix (Get Physical)
The Dub Pistols – Rapture, Prins Thomas Diskomiks (Sunday Best)
Sasha – Coma, (Emfire)
Plastikman – Spastik, Dubfire rework (M_Nus)
Radio Slave – Bell Clap Dance, (Rekids)
Kraftwerk – La Forme, Hot Chip Remix (EMI)
CSS – Let’s Make Love, Streetlife DJ’s Rappinhood Remix (White)
Coyote – Too Hard, Aeroplane Remix (Is It Balearic? Recordings)
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – Beggin, Pilooski Edit (Dark & Lovely)
Skream – Midnight Request Line, DJ Zinc Remix (Bingo Beats)



Best of 2007 (and some of 06)

Innersounds End of Year Chart

Innersounds is one of my favourite music blogs, always diggin up a interesting selection, it's introduced me to some great new music this year and very kindly the site has been a supporter of Old Is The New Neu. I recently contributed a interview to the Innersounds brothers on the side series so I had to get the Innersounds take on 2007! A mix of old and new and some great health advice as well! First Innersounds on Innersounds....

"Innersounds grew out of my selfish need for my own space to play my own records. On the main Innersounds is my record collection though I am open to bribes and if some new music is really good I will post things that are forthcoming. I generally only post from my vinyl sources, but laziness is big in my house, and sometimes I rip from CDs. I ran the blog as a kind of test in the Summer for two months and it went really well so I started again in the Autumn and hope to keep running for some time to come, or until the records run out..."

7 ALBUMS FOR 2007

A Mountain of One - Collected Works (having bought all the EPs it made sense to buy the collected version of them on one CD. An easier and less stressful way of lending the music to friends too...)

LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver (I believed the hype and got a pre-release digital version so I could help hype it EVEN more

Sorcerer - White Magic (my daughter was born to the sounds of this CD...)

Studio - West Coast (big thanks to friends on DJHistory for pointing me in this direction (I may even have got it in '06 I can't remember...) anyway, this and all subsequent remix 12"s have been huge at my house. So good I bought it twice. Vinyl and CD.)

Chromatics - Night Drive (Beautiful music and a band I will keep an eye on.)

Elmore Judd - Insect Funk - (I have always had a soft spot for Judd's music.)

Mudd - Claremont 56 - (Mudd is the man, I've really enjoyed all his releases and this too had some excellent remix 12"s off it. May the Mudd continue!)

AND 3 FROM THE MISTS OF TIME:

Peter Green - Watcha Gonna Do? - ex Fleetwood Mac, I bought this after hearing one of the tracks in A Mountain of One's live DJ set. Beautiful music.

Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me - there's a track on this album called 'Keep On Going' that a mate had in a mixtape and blew me away. Then a few months later another track from it - 'Hypnotised' was on a Peter Visti mix. An album you can listen to all the way through, with some great moments for dancing too.

Isaac Hayes - New Horizon - As posted up on Innersounds a few weeks ago. It was one of those albums I never bought, even though I saw it a lot, and then I heard 'Moonlight Dancin' - Menage A Trois' and that was it. I had to have it.

TOP 5 SINGLES OF 2007

Jape - Floating [Prins Thomas Diskomix]
Marcello Giordani - I Am No Blade Runner
Findlay Brown - Losing The Will To Survive [Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve mix]

Lee Douglas - New York Story
Glasscandy - Miss Broadway



And, my final list is:

10 Things You Never Knew About Heart Disease...

1. Laughter is therapeutic.
Doctors from the University of Maryland School
of Medicine found that watching a funny movie for even 15 minutes can increase
your blood flow. Remember to laugh every day—it can keep your heart happy
and healthy.

2. Heart disease is a leading cause of death in women.
A recent survey found that fewer than one in five physicians knew that more
women than men die each year from the disease. Be your own health advocate.
Ask your doctor to check your blood pressure and blood cholesterol level.

3. Chest pain isn’t the only warning sign of a heart attack.
Symptoms for most heart attacks include mild chest pain, some shoulder
discomfort, or shortness of breath. Other signs can be nausea, lightheadedness,
or breaking out in a cold sweat. If you experience these symptoms, call the emergency services.
It could save your life.

4. Know your numbers. If you’re over 20, you should know your blood cholesterol
number. If it’s high, there are treatments (including medication and exercises)
that can help. You should also get your blood pressure and your blood sugar levels
checked regularly.

5. Less is more.
Researchers found that people tend to eat everything on their plate.
Since maintaining a healthy weight is important for heart health, watch those calories!
Measure out your servings and use smaller plates for automatic portion control.

6. Restaurant portions are getting larger—and so are we.
The average pasta portion 20 years ago was two cups. Today your plate is loaded with twice as much.
Have an appetizer as your meal, share an entree, or ask the waiter to wrap up half of the meal to go.

7. Diabetes, a major risk factor for heart disease, is affected by what
you eat.

Research has shown that eating more fruits, vegetables, and fiber
can actually change the blood’s sensitivity to insulin within as little as two weeks.
So listen to what your mother told you and eat your veggies!

8. Walking (or dancing!) can save your life.
A recent study found that a sedentary 40-year-old
woman who begins walking briskly half an hour a day, four days a week, can enjoy
almost the same low risk of heart attack as a woman who has exercised regularly
her entire life. Start walking! Your heart will love you for it.

9. Even children can suffer from hypertension.
About five out of every 100 children have higher than normal blood pressure. Make sure to get your children’s
blood pressure checked when they visit their doctor.

10. Childhood obesity is becoming an epidemic.
The percentage of overweight children has increased substantially in the past two decades. Get your family off
the couch and reduce the amount of time spent in front of computer and TV screens.
Walking, biking, or playing active games are great ways to spend some quality time together.

Did You See The Words 2007 Charts

Next straight out of Paris is Did You See The Words The blog always has a fine selection of music and some interesting video's from the past present and future. Acording to its writers it's all about 'metal music machines, girl/boy songs and pet sounds' cest manifique.

Sounds 0f 2007

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver, 45:33, live shows, Fabric 36,...
Matthew Dear - Asa Breed
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Electrelane - No shouts no call
!!! - Myth Takes
Pilooski &: D*I*R*T*Y Edits
Alive 2007
The Field - From here we go sublime
Chromatics & Italians do it better "After Dark"
Zombie Zombie

Movies



Control
The Assassination of Jesse James
Inland Empire (Dir. David Lynch)
No Country for Old Men (Dir. Joel Cohen)

Videos of 2007



Black Dice - Kokomo

Battles - Atlas
All The Take Away Shows
Animal Collective - Live at Midi Festival
Principle of Geometry - Colfax


LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends


Radiohead - Ceremony (Joy Division Cover)

Planet Mondo 2007 Charts

Planet Mondo is a great retro blog always a sure bet for some decent soul music on a Friday afternoon. Here we have mondo's charts for 2007 a mix of new stuff and whats been discovered in the archives this year. First the world acording to mondo.

"Planet Mondo is all about fizz, puffery and pop culture bytes that get
the thumbs up. As the slogan goes - "Anything goes and it's all going
on". This can include anything from Northern Soul stompers and Shakers,
Soul, Funk and Punk nuggets, rare bootleg and electro remixes, youtube
treats and my own hand made bespoke mini mixes".

Top Ten Albums and comperlations for 2007

Little Barrie - Stand Your Ground
The Bongolian - A Psychedelic Trip To Outer Bongolia
DennisHopperChoppers - Chop
Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
The Wolfmen - mini LP (promo only)

Various - Las Vegas Grind Volume 2 Various - Hipshaker
Various - Working Man's Soul
Various - Vertigo Mixed by Andy Votel
Various - Decca Originals 'The R and B Scene'

Top 5 Soul stompers of 2007


Luther Ingram - If It's All The Same To You Babe
Bobby Fuller Four - The Magic touch
The Supremes - Love is Like an Itching in My Heart (instrumental)
The Younghearts - A Little Togetherness
The M.V.P'S Turnin My Heartbeat Up

Sweding

Michel Gondry’s latest is heading this way, lots of clips are up over at the Be Kind Rewind website. In Gondy’s new film Jack Black and Mos Def (yes that Mos Def) run a video store which has all it’s stock erased, something magnetic wipes the tapes, which of course gives them the chance to remake the most popular movie in their own DIY style or to Swede the films in the movies own terminology.

Here are “Sweded” versions of Robocop and Ghostbusters. I’m looking forward to catching this, it looks commercial but hopefully with enough of a Gondry vibe to keep some of his crazy genius.





Meanwhile Gondry has directed the video for Declare Independence the latest single from Bjork’s album Volta. It is the first Gondy/ Bjork collaboration since the video to Bachelorette which was made ten years ago. It’s always good to see these two work together, hopefully there won’t be such a long gap between projects next time.

Christmas Wishes and Goodbye Oscar

Merry Christmas one and all. I’m not a great lover of Christmas songs but I’m always a sucker for this one, it must be the Irish in me, plus amazingly Shane McGowan celebrates his fiftieth birthday this Christmas day, so even hellraisers like him can hit the big 50. Here's Fairytale of New York……




Must pay respects to the passing of jazzman Oscar Peterson who has passed away at the age of eighty two. Another link to the golden age is lost, goodbye and thank you Mr. Peterson for your music.



Next up best of 2007

Eclectic Garnier

Back in Novemeber Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space show had Laurent Garnier on as a guest, I’ve only just got round to listening so its not exactly fresh news. Its always nice to hear Garnier on a more eclectic tip, earlier in the year he hosted a edition of Worldwide while Giles Peterson was on holiday that showcased his wide range of sounds. For someone who is seen primarily as a techno DJ Garnier is such a devout music lover he is open to everything. When he is DJ’ing in full flow such as his six hour sets at clubs like the End, he will go from the darkest Detroit techno to drum and bass, hip hop, disco, rock, soul and funk. He connects the dots and traces a musical DNA from be bop jazz to underground resistance electro, its all good. A great DJ, label boss and producer but most importantly for his audience, be it dancers or head nodders, a real music lover.

Garnier has his own radio show via his website on this he just presents his deep selection of cuts no mixing just tunes, its well worth checking out. I have put up part of a epic five hour set from a live date at Moscow’s Gorod club in 2005. Just in this section of his set he takes in classic Chicago traxs, deep house, Detroit, minimal, Blur and Nirvana, the Prodigy and Max Romeo, Herbie Hancock. It sounds like it was a good night, you even get to hear Laurent on the mic! Sorry no track list.


Laurent Garnier - Live @ Gorod,Moscow 28:10:2005

Shane Meadow's King Of The Gypsies

The official fansite for British film director Shane Meadows has posted up a little Christmas present in the shape of Meadow’s rare 1995 short documentary King of the Gypsies. I cant recommend his work enough being, I reckon at least, one of the most interesting and enthusiastic filmmakers working in the UK today. The writer and director of this years excellent This Is England, his films have a great mix of realism and humour, hilarious one second and shocking the next. He seems really enthusiastic about staying in the UK and making films about British life, yet having the style and sensibility of an international filmmaker. His films are very honest yet discard the social realism that can really weigh down British cinema.

King of the Gypsies is a short documentary about the legendary bare knuckle boxing champion Barley Gorman. Meadow’s is writing a script with Paddy Constantine for a film based on Gorman’s life,whihc could be pretty epic. Check out the documentary below and at shanemeadows.co.uk



Here's a great Shane Meadow's interview held at the National Film Theatre earlier in this year from the Guardian.

There Will Be Blood

Paul Thomas Anderson is getting some great reviews for his new film There Will be Blood, with his lead actor Daniel Day Lewis attracting a fair amount of Oscar buzz for a typically intense performance. It’s a departure from Anderson previous films such as Boogie Night and Magnolia being a period piece, adapted from Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil. Set in Southern California in the early 1900’s the film follows the fortunes of Day Lewis character, Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector who will stop at nothing to find success and riches. From the film’s trailer it looks pretty dark intense stuff gaining comparisons with Welles Citizen Kane and John Huston’s Treasure of the Sierra Madre with their stories of the destructive corruptive power of capitalist greed.

There Will Be Blood trailer

Radiohead’s Johny Greenwood has written a brooding soundtrack to the film. It’s worth checking out his previous soundtrack work scoring Simon Pummell’s 2003 documentary Bodysong. A epic dialogue free film made up entirely from archive footage depicting life through the 20th century. Below is the opening piece from There Will Be Blood titled Open Spaces and a trailer for Body Song.


Open Spaces - Johny Greenwood

Bodysong trailer

little boston news
cigarettes and red vines

M.I.A. Live

M.I.A. is in the middle of a short UK tour before heading back to the U.S. and I caught her show the other night. Luckily it was better than the whole live on Letterman disaster. It would be great if she had a full live band but the M.I.A. live set up is her and singers with a DJ, horn and gunshot FX a plenty. She turned a pretty reserved crowd into the closest you could get to a baile party on a freezing cold December evening.

Both M.I.A.’s albums take in the ‘real’ world music of today from Rio funk to African and Asian sounds. As a performer M.I.A.’s smart and sexy enough to succeed in America without being repackaged as a Timberland girl, not that she would ever go for that anyway. On first listen Kala seemed disappointing compared to the immediate fix of her Diplo produced debut Arular. But hearing Kala’s tracks live with the full visual show takes you on a world wind tour of a world and culture that is left out of the mainstream. M.I.A.’s music is that rare thing today, dance music with real political thought behind it. She seems incredibly focussed on getting her message across her own way, much to her benefit.

Her new single Paper Planes has the most crossover potential of all the tracks on Kala apart from the contentious gunshot sounds that MTV apparently don’t like. Below is the new video for the track. If it seems a bit tame M.I.A. originally wanted to shoot it in Ecuador but due to time constraints touring the States, the video was made on a day off in New York. So it’s kind of MTV friendly but you do get a cameo from Adam Horovitz and Mike D of the Beastie Boy’s. I’ve posted up Bamboo Banger a highlight from Kala, M.I.A. opens her set with the track and it’s a pretty good way to start it.

Paper Planes Video


M.I.A.-Bamboo Banger

Kala at Amazon

M.I.A. website

Seventh Tree

Goldfrapp are returning with a forth album titled Seventh Tree. It’s a return to the more ambient lo fi sound of their debut album Felt Mountain after the glam rock and disco of Black Cherry and Supernature. Goldfrapp are one of the better acts putting out pop electronica, they seem to get attention both in the US and at home but its nice to hear Alison Goldfrapp’s vocal talents again at the fore front with a less complicated sound. There’s no denying the quality of her vocals and with the right material she can produce stunning work. Some of it becomes a bit too much ‘coffee table chill out’ but it’s enough of a development from their last two albums to show Goldfrapp are an interesting act to follow. The album is due for release in February with the single A&E the same month. Here is a album track called Happiness that I would imagine has been earmarked as a single with some dance floor friendly remixes due at some point.


Goldfrapp-Happiness

Goldfrapp offical site

Moroder Mixtape

Giorgio Moroder could vouch to be the godfather of Italo disco so here’s a Moroder mini mix. As a producer Moroder has worked his genius on everyone from Donna Summer to Sparks through to David Bowie as well as soundtracking some classic films. Below is a very seventies video of the Italian disco master at work, getting excited about vocoders!


Moroder Promo Video

Although far from being constantly great, Berlin’s Top Gun anthem Take My Breath Away and the theme to the Never ending Story being some of his cheesier moments, he must be one of the most creative producers of the late seventies and early eighties. His film work produced some classic scores, winning him the Oscar for his work on Alan Parker’s Midnight Express in 1978. His foreboding opening to DePalma’s Scarface sets the tone perfectly and the rest of the soundtrack is instantly recognizable to anyone who has spent too long playing Grand Theft Auto 3. Perhaps his most interesting soundtracks were to two films directed by Paul Schrader , Cat People and American Gigolo, both critically undervalued films with complex themes and great music. Below is the intro sequence to American Gigolo with Blondie's Moroder produced Call Me, playing on the soundtrack.

American Gigolo intro

Here’s a mixtape of soundtrack work and disco stuff featuring David Bowie sounding like a Bowie impersonator and wait for it….Bonnie Tyler!

Moroder Mix Tracklisting

Tony’s Theme (From Scarface)
Putting out Fire (From Cat People) - David Bowie
The Chase (From Midnight Express)
What a night (from the album E=MC2)
From Here To Eternity
Here She Comes (From Metropolis) - Bonnie Tyler
Hello Mr. W.A.M. (From American Gigolo)


Moroder Mix

I couldn’t do a Moroder post without that perfect piece of eighties pop, the Moroder produced Together In Electric Dreams, one of Phil Oakley’s finest moments and probably the only film to ever feature a love triangle between a man, a woman, and a home computer.

Together In Electric Dreams

Giorgio Moroder official site

Viva Italo

For the uninitiated Italo Disco can be a catch all term for a early 80’s European take on disco, epitomised by the production style of Giorgio Moroder. This was a more electronic sounding disco using synths, vocoders and drum machines, sounding very different than the likes of Salsoul’s output. The sound as the title suggests was most popular in Italy though spread throughout Europe. The tracks work as pure pop, the lyrics often meaningless or lost in translation into English, Italo songs have been written with choruses about peppers or frogs. Even now they have a futuristic spacey feel to them, also often a sadness instead of discos traditional euphoria. Probably best enjoyed at a early eighties beach disco in Rimini or the club featured in the Moroder soundtracked Scarface.

Munich’s DJ Hell, boss of the International Deejay Gigolo’s label has been a long time devotee of the Italo sound, influencing the electro clash scene the label pioneered in the mid nineties. Hell has mixed the Hellboy compilation that puts together some outstanding Italo clasics and is well worth tracking down. After circulating as a promo copy for the last 16 months the mix has finally been fully cleared and released on Gigolo records. Among others the mix takes in Patrick Cowley’s intense mix of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, Moroder’s The Chase and the Italo classic Mr Flagio – Take A Chance. Take a Chance sounds like the essence of Italo featuring vocodered vocals, spacey effects and a great bass line. Every disco in the world should play this once a night and everyone should dance to it wearing sunglasses. Here’s the track in all its sparkling glitterball glory.


Mr Flagio-Take A Chance

International DJ Gigolos
DJ Hell- My Space

Rave on and on and on

Does the world really need an old school rave revival? Moby seems to think so. His new single Everyday It’s 1989 leaves any subtly at home and gets out the piano loops and airhorns sounding very, well very 1989. It’s the first single from his forthcoming album Last Night, a step away from soundtracking dinner parties returning to dirty fields and sweaty ravers. I’m not going to defend rave music as anything other than nostalgia but the helium vocals, frantic breakbeats and cheesy synths were the soundtrack to a generation having the time of their lives glowsticks included, even if it bypassed all musical taste and decency.

Moby does have plenty of musical heritage in this genre. Although Go might be his most famous track others like Feeling So Real are firmly in old rave territory. He actually has the world record for the fastest track, the Gabba beating Thousands, coming in at a 1000 BPM a long long way from the lush ambience of his Heat closing track God Moving Over The Face of The Water

Since his huge hit album Play, Moby has seemed stuck in a rut, a very profitable rut probably with all the commercials and films that use his music, where he moves from here I don’t know but going back to rave cant be the right direction. Saying all that when the vocals and synths hit on his new track and I can’t help but smile. The new album promises more electronic music than his last few releases inspired by Moby’s recent return to DJ’ing perhaps this is more than an act of nostalgia and old rave will become new rave in 2008. See what you think.


Moby-Everyday It's 1989

Moby Website

Jose Padilla Essential Mix 1995

Staying with the Balearic vibes here’s a 1995 Essential mix crafted by Ibiza's chill out king DJ Jose Padilla. Padilla is of course a Ibiza legend,being synonymous with the Café Del Mar having sound tracked many a San Antoni bay sunset, as well as compiling the first six Café Del Mar compilations. When first working there he would serve drinks as well as DJ’ing and sell tapes of his mixes from the DJ booth.

This mid nineties Essential Mix, originally broadcast as part of Radio 1’s first Ibiza weekend, is a fine selection as ever from Jose. Only two tracks in it features the sublime Nightmares on Wax’s Nights Interlude, a track absolutely played to death but I think it’s has had just about enough time out of the limelight to sound fresh again. There’s much more than just down tempo being played the mix takes in deep house, some piano groovers, Californian acid funk from Young American Primitive, a Speedy J track that wouldn’t sound out of place in a current minimal set and a early version of Robert Miles trance anthem Children. I hope I can just about get away with posting that here. Go on, give trance a chance, the mix is from 1995 after all.

Jose Padilla - Essential Mix 1995 Tracklisting

As One Reflection - "Meridian" (New Electronica)
Nightmares On Wax - "Nights Interlude" (Warp)
Ballistic Brothers - "A Beautiful Space" (Junior Boys Own)
The Metaluna Mutant - "Blinky Blue Eye Sunrise" (React)
Slowly Ming - "Nimble" (Chill Out)
Index - "Gota Get It" (Black On Black)
Psychik Warriors Ov Gaia - "The Key" (KK)
Green Baizw - "Toxicology Room" (Oversky)
Acupressure - "We Are The Future" (Party Rocking Recors)
PK - "Reste Suz Moi" (Note De Blues/Sony)
Maz 404 - Quidity - "Evolute Musik"
Young American Primitives - untitled (white label)
Likethemes LM-3 - "Turd" (Likemind)
Oceterine - "Remain" (Organice)
Speedy J - "2" (Warp)
Nova - "Nova EP" (F Communications)
artist unknown - "Nail Benson EP" (white label)
Robert Miles - "Children" (white label)
Model D - "House Natives" (white label)


Jose Padilla - Essential Mix 1995 DOWNLOAD

Well Balearic

A Short Film About Chilling was made in 1990 for Channel 4 in the UK. It was the first film to delve into the Ibiza scene growing up around British DJ’s, promoters and club goers heading to the island each summer. The cosmopolitan mix of people and stunning beauty will surprise anyone who just knows the package holiday excess that Ibiza later became famous for. This is a very different Ibiza.

Referencing Krzysztof Kieslowski’s morality play in its choice of title is about as dark and probing as the film gets, being a snapshot of the hedonism of Ibiza before the hordes filled the clubs, a magical place where anything seems possible. Much like The Streets, Weak Become Heroes the hopes and dreams of a scene in its infancy are captured. The film shows a time when anything seems possible, the idea that with good vibes, one nation under a groove and strong MDMA the world will be a better place. If it seems to be a bunch of cockney chancers, scousers and mancs taking over the island that’s because it probably was, it must have been a golden time for the Balearic scene with enough British promoters and clubbers to feel like a home from home but before most of the 18-30 bunch would venture outside of San Antonio. It’s “Disneyland for the club goer” as someone remarks.

The film has a fantastic soundtrack with live performances by 808 State, The Farm and A Man Called Adam. The mix of Balearic with acid house that had so impressed the first wave of British clubbers to visit Ibiza had now inspired the indie dance hybrid of Primal Scream, St Etienne etc. and the remixes of DJ/Producers such as Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley. To the first time visitor to Ibiza the island is probably still as magical and im sure if you look for it some of the island seen in a Short Film About Chilling still exists. As the film ends to the uplifting sounds of Primal Scream’s classic track Come Together accompanied by a beautiful sunset the last interviewee tells us “everything is good here”

Apologies for the bad quality video and sync problems.


A Short Film About Chilling


Primal Scream-Come Together


Primal Scream's Screamadelica at Amazon

Hot Chip's Joker

Bits of the new Hot Chip album, Made In The Dark, are starting to appear like the video for a song called Ready For The Floor. Probably taking inspiration from next years Batman film The Dark Night featuring Heath Ledger as the Joker , Alexis from Hot Chip has donned full Joker get up for the video. The song gets it's way into your head as usual for Hot Chip, heavily referencing Prince and Talking Heads but doing something quite original at the same time. For a while they were grouped with the ‘neu’ rave brigade but they have quickly outstretched this, doing something much more interesting than the likes of the Klaxons. With the new album released in Febuary, 2008 could be the year they move into the mainstream. Below is the video for Ready For The Floor and a preview of album track Shake a Fist.

Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor


Hot Chip-Shake a Fist

Hot Chip My Space

Chemicals on tour

Chemical Brothers-Battle Scars (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Remix)

The Chemical Brothers are heading out this month for a short UK tour and have been pretty much touring solidly since the release of We Are The Night. The Chemical’s latest album holds together as their best in years, much more than just a few ‘big tunes’ and filler, combining dark acid house and psychedelic folk with the likes of Willy Mason and Midlake contributing guest vocals. Their live show is about as impressive as its ever been and if it leaves some of their more mellow tunes at home in favour of the rave monsters it makes up for this with a truly astounding visual show.

Below is part of their triumphant set headlining the Other stage on the last night of Glastonbury back in June.



Often remixes of their work fall a bit flat in my opinion, probably because the originals tracks have often been pushed as far as they can be towards the dance floor. For the album track Battle Scars they have enlisted Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve to give more of a psychedelic spin working beautifully with Willy Mason’s laconic vocals. Hopefully the likes of Mountain of One and Studio might get their hands on some of the more downbeat album tracks for some remixes.

UK Tour Dates

06/12/2007 - Manchester Apollo, Manchester
07/12/2007 - Birmingham NIA, Birmingham
08/12/2007 - SECC, Glasgow
09/12/2007 - Liverpool Aintree Pavilion, Liverpool
12/12/2007 - Brighton Centre, Brighton,
13/12/2007 - Brixton Academy, London,
14/12/2007 - Brixton Academy, London,
15/12/2007 - Brixton Academy, London,

Battle Scars at Phonica

Chemical Brothers Website

Scorsese, Hitchcock and Cava

With that long sought after Oscar for the Departed, finally on the mantelpiece you might expect Martin Scorsese to relax, put his feet up and crack a beer but he seems to be racking up as many future projects as he can. There his Stones doc Shine a light, another music documentary on George Harrison, Shutter’s Island with Leonardo DeCaprio, a Theodore Roosevelt bio and his long planned adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence. In the meantime he has turned his hand to shooting a commercial, something he has done in the past for American Express and Armani this time it’s for a Spanish brand of Cava, it probably brings in a handy bit of extra cash coming up to Christmas. The Spanish company Freixenet often hire American stars to feature in their Christmas commercials but this is the first time they have got a ‘star’ director to take the helm for them.

Scorsese has had a lot of fun and lovingly made an eight minute long Hitchcock homage called The Key to Reserva, right down to Saul Bass style credits, the use of Bernard Herrman’s score from North By Northwest and lovely Technicolor photography. I’ve no idea what Scorsese says when it cuts to his cameo as he is dubbed in Spanish but would love to know.



The Key to Reserva

Story from the Guardian

UPDATE

here it is, with no Spanish dub and some behind the scenes footage, it all becomes clear now!

Kids with Guns

Gorillaz - Kids With Guns (Quiet Village mix)

With the Gorillaz compilation D-Sides now out it’s a good excuse to put up the brilliant Quiet Village remix of Kids With Gun's that I wanted to on my original D-Sides post.

The picture above is a Banksy print called Kids on Guns. Banksy is holding his annual Santa's Ghetto exhibition in Bethlehem this year and has been stencilling the West Bank barrier which runs beside Bethlehem.



Banksy website
Quiet Village My Space

D-Sides at Amazon

El Maestro : Morricone mini mix

Does he really need any introduction? In a career spanning over fifty years Ennio Morricone has composed the soundtracks of more than 500 film and television productions. Best known for his legendary collaborations with Sergio Leone, a school classmate who he would later form one of cinemas most successful director/composer partnerships with, though his lesser known films provide plenty of great music as well. Exploring his work from the sixties and seventies you continue to find treasures, a great starting point is the blogg Morricone Lover for a wide range of Ennio odds and ends. Below is a short 15 minute selection of some great Morricone soundtracks without a harmonica to be heard.

Morricone Mixtape Tracklisting

1. Barbablu Romantico from Bluebeard (1972)
2. My Name is Nobody from My Name is Nobody (1973)
3. The Heart of a Mother-Ricreazione Divertia from Cuore di mamma(1969)
4. The Sicilian Clan from Le Clan des Siciliens (1969)
5. Sacco and Vanzetti from Sacco e Vanzetti (1971)


Morricone mix download

Here is a clip of Morricone conducting his orchestra with a rendition of The Sicilian Clan live in Torino, and getting a great reaction from the home crowd.
Ennio Morricone live at Torino

Perhaps the best combination of film and score in his career is the duel sequence at the end of Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood square off in the desert and the music and images build the tension to boiling point. Morricone's score Sixty Seconds to What? was sampled for the 'speed garidge anfum' 187 Lockdown's -Gunman and for the beautifully balearic Sixty Seconds by Audio Deluxe.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Duel

If you ever wondered what Morricone would sound like on a ukulele here are the brilliantly eccentric Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain with a rendition of the theme to The Good The Bad and The Ugly.

Ukulele Orchestra of GB - The Good the Bad the Ugly