Thursday, January 24, 2008

One Hundred Project : Danny Northernights



What is on your stereo at the moment?
Right now I'm pretty much alternating between the Kelley Polar and Hercules & Love Affair albums plus the latest Bobby Peru long-player from Paul Woolford.

3 records that changed your life. Why?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five – Greatest Messages

I bought this at Quarmby's in Chorlton when it had a toy shop upstairs and a little record section down the back of the ground floor. Just past the art supplies. Anyway this album contains the seminal 'Adventures on the Wheels of Steel', of course. That was my favourite - even though I was just a kid with really limited knowledge of all this hip hop malarkey. The sleeve – where they looked like rap's Village People – might also have had more of an effect on me than I care to admit.

Urban Shakedown – Some Justice

I could have picked loads of records from early Chicago house onwards as being pivotal. There are tracks and tracks from years of clubbing that I've forgotten too. Yet this sampled Cece Rogers' 'Someday' vocal so it gets extra points. And then there's that bendy bass. When this came out I was probably more submerged in house and techno than those products of the post-hardcore rave scene but this still made a huge impression.

Spank Rock – Bump (Switch remix)

The problem with picking records that changed your life is that I hear things all the time and do consider them to be life-changing. Compared to war and famine or whatever, they're not, of course. But, still, they matter a great deal in their own way. There will probably be another life-changing record this time tomorrow but, for now, let's pick this. I've liked a lot of Switch's material but this seems to break all the rules. And those Amanda Blank rhymes are filthy.

What are you looking forward to?
A lengthy trip around the US later in spring. And Cloverfield.

What couldn't you live without? Why?
Oxygen. Water. Food. That kind of thing. For obvious reasons: i.e. 'the lack of which would result in death'.

Most memorable gig?
With the Electric Chair closing, I'd recently been asked to do some obituary-type pieces for a couple of publications which had me recounting a special Francois Kevorkian date there some years back. It was my birthday so I was naturally hammered. And, after hypnotising everyone with some seamless dubby technoid stuff, Kevorkian unexpectedly dropped Lauryn Hill's Everything Is Everything. At least that's how I remember it.

Who/what are your influences?
I'm constantly floored by talented, inspirational people. I was talking the other day about how Terry Callier and Nina Simone would probably be top of the list. But then I also get excited by kids wearing stupid clothes who choose to pogo around in basements to 'their' music. That enthusiasm keeps me going.

What is the best and worst thing about the city that you live in?
Manchester's an amazing city. Best thing is how it's always changing and that its population is quick to react to something that's becoming boringly commonplace with something new. Worst thing is those who seemingly haven't realised how that is actually the driving force behind the city's creativity: so, yeah, all those bores who insist on pushing their dreary Madchester and Hacienda agendas. And all those unfortunates that are stupid enough listen to them.

Given the accelerated pace of modern culture, what are we due a revival in?
Something that's probably in the midst of a furious backlash? Hard-Fi? But surely nobody wants that, do they?

Hero? Why?
I was going to say Alan Turing and Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe but, really, it would probably be my mum. "Without her…" and all that aside, she does a proper and fairly thankless job that actually helps other people.

Is there anything else that you feel that we should know?
The capital of Mongolia is Ulan Bator.

TRACKLISTING

1. Fields – Song for the Fields (Ewan Pearson vocal remix)
2. Fox N Wolf – Claws Against Knives (Todd Terje remix)
3. Recloose – Dust (Induceve remix)
4. Jesse Rose & Oliver $ - Wake Up
5. Jesse Rose – Everyday This
6. Ben Westbeech – Dance With Me (Switch remix)
7. Alphabeat – Fantastic 6 (Radioclit remix)
8. Buraka Som Sistema – Wawaba (Radioclit remix)
9. DJ Znobia – Eue

Download it here.

For more on Danny check his superb site here.

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