This was easily my single of the year for 2008 and even though I have listened to it hundreds of times it still kills me each and every time. Emotive backing, solid lyrics and an arrangement to die for, this is modern soul music at its finest. Nothing much more to say than turn it up loud and drown in the beauty.
Janelle Monáe is destined to be absolutely huge, and I was introduced to her by Geoff over at Pass The Feeling On and what is abundantly clear is that this is pop music made perfectly with great arrangements that are as interesting as they are catchy, none of that watered down Britney (bar Toxic, which is a tune!) shit but rather a tune with a massive Northern groove and a singer who sings the cut to perfection. She has been nominated for a Grammy this year and anybody who lists her influences as Judy Garland, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Jackie Wilson, Grace Brown, Karen O, Lauryn Hill, Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder, Outkast, Nona Hendryx, Bach, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Fiona Apple, Björk, Anita Baker, and The Hives is ok in my book. Check her performing in the video below for some serious delivery and dance moves - I can't wait to see what she has in store for us in the near future. (Oh, and judging by her band and the clips somebody has thrown some serious cash behind her!)
This is quite simply the best edit that I have heard in years. All of those of you who take scissors to tracks let this be a lesson to you, he's kept the quality and feeling of the original in tact but at the same time he has given it loads of bite and this is screaming to be played to the heaving masses. Now just who is Eamon Harkin? Well, he's an Irish-born New York-based DJ who plays pretty much across the board because like he says, "In this day in age, with few exceptions, it’s really quite boring to hear the same genre played seamlessly all night." Never a truer word uttered. He's played alongside everyone from Afrika Bambaataa to Crystal Castles to The Glimmers to A-Trak everywhere from Paris to London all without selling his soul to the commercial devil and playing music true to his tastes, and with his edits appearing on Wurst and other projects on the horizon I think it is time that we took note of the man as he's on the verge of being very big indeed. This edit is banging!
The Superimposers are a band that should be a lot bigger than they are, what with them sounding like the bastard love child of The Beach Boys and The Mizzell Brothers and on this single The Northern Song they have been aided by studio wizard Ashley Beedle and the result is just the sort of thing that will sound absolutely incredible in the sun surrounded by all of your mates. Check their wonderful website and radio show, which recently featured he of impeccable taste Sir Moonboots, for more of the magnificence. Here is an excellent interview with the duo that you really should read. All around sublime stuff.
Now this piece of Italo-inspired goodness may not be to everyone's tastes but lately I have been playing this one mega-loud at 5pm when I get home from work and trying unsuccessfully to get my cats to throw some shapes with me as I make a vague attempt at turning my front room into a frankly rubbish recreation of Typhoon. Now this isn't even the sort of record that Bepe Loda would've played but it is definitely late-night heads down tackle that deserves Saturday night plays, so get on it if you haven't already. The guys behind the record Bernard Fevre and Jacky Giordano made this pretty much from scratch playing all the parts or so legend goes. I heard a rumour that the whole obscure found in a vault story is nothing more than their label trying to create legend in a bid to shift units but at the end of the day who cares really as long as the music is as good as this. Play it loud and drown in the synths.
Animal Collective are avant-garde musicians from Baltimore, MD who even when they're making tracks that may not be instantly palatable they never fail to make you listen and there aren't too many acts that you're prepared to lovingly sift through the dirge to get to the incredible and this is one of them. This is the last cut from their new album Merriweather Post Pavilion and was supposedly originally based around a sample of a Moodymann record but I can't hear it but this is the type of record that you could definitely play it towards the end of the night when a bit of clapping and jumping about is required before you step out back into the real credit crunched world after a night of intoxicated escapism. Buy the album, trust me.
This record was unearthed by Egon for his Now Again imprint a few years ago during his Mid-West funk digging phase (last I checked he is busy mining Korean and Turkish funk) and pretty much all I know about this superb energetic slice of get up is that they released two versions, one done in their native Indianapolis and one in Los Angeles which was the norm for touring bands eager to put their tracks out wherever they went. I can't help but wonder how many closets and storage vaults have masters to other touring bands letting off some steam at some pitstop on the way to the next dance. Actually Egon probably knows the answer to that and I'll ask him when he comes up here in February. Records like this reaffirm why I love music so much.
I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Scottish music legend John Martyn this morning. I have written about his epic track Don't Want To Know off the essential Solid Air on this blog previously here and truly words can't do justice to the big man who always thought that the music was way more important than the adulation or the fame, which is incredibly rare in the current music climate where people seem only content on getting famous and not taking the time to think of the longevity of what they are putting out - it is always a shame when people dilute the message. John's theme was life and all the ups and downs that go along with it and he did it in a way that made you think. I always play John when the mood calls for something serene.
I was introduced to this clip by Kelvin Brown a few years back and is what started me off on the road to enlightenment about our hero and is something that I've watched on plenty of occasions and seems appropriate for today.
Sheffield-based The Designers Republic were shut this week by what is effectively a perfect storm in the advertising world - they lost a few major pitches, a client owed them a massive amount of money, a huge tax bill came through that should've been rectified and they lost a couple of clients. You're pretty much dead in the water if one or two of those happen but if all four occur at the same time then you're done.
When I was at Michaelis, everyone in the Design & New Media department idolised Designers Republic simply because they were doing everything that we wanted to do, namely working with cutting-edge record labels on artwork where money wasn't an object (to a degree). I mean who doesn't want to work for Warp? 23 years in the business has seen them work from a multitude of clients that most agencies would give their front teeth to have, and especially have those same clients who pretty much gave them free reign which is almost unheard of. They were anti-establishment but at the same time they did embrace brash consumerism and this juxtaposition lead to arresting work that still catches the eye all of these years later. This is of course the agency that had the balls to open their own shop in Shibuya, The Peoples Bureau For Consumer Information™, in an area that is so heavily trafficked ideal space isn't the easiest to come by and did so with aplomb.
They've designed everything from record sleeves to the packaging for Wipeout to their own Swatch watch to rebranding an entire city, Quito in Ecuador, not bad, eh? How you ever get the chance to rebrand a city is beyond me. In an age where cutting-design slowed down and because dull and monochromatic they stepped forward and produced work that at times felt like someone was eating your brain out with a spoon - check the Aphex Twin 'Windowlicker' cover for further proof - and for that I salute them but this may just be a turning point in tDR story as Ian Anderson's parting words do give me a glimmer of hope that this great design institution hasn't had its last laugh just yet - "I’m looking out the window and it’s a lovely sunny day - as it always is in Sheffield - and I think there are a lot of plus points. The Republic is dead… long live the Republic."
Dustin Ross is an excellent New York-based photographer who recently went to the historic President Obama inauguration last Tuesday, and the above picture just shows the sheer size and scope of the momentous occasion. Check his other entries on his blog for more excellent work.
This past Friday, I had the pleasure of seeing Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings in San Diego and they were absolutely firing. Sharon is a master frontwoman who had no qualms calling up people from the crowd to dance with her all while showing off her impeccable timing and unbelievable charisma that had the entire mob who showed up well and truly eating out of the palms of her hands. They sang just about every tune that I wanted to hear off their three incredible albums all in just a shade under two hours and there wasn't one moment where I thought about ducking off to the bar or having a chat with my nearest and dearest. Easily one of the top ten shows I have ever seen in my life (which I have learned is a very American thing to do, walk out of a show and declare it in your "top ten ever", so fuck it, when in Rome). This remix by Ticklah who used to be in The Dap Kings but now front Antibalas is an absolutely gorgeous slice of soulful reggae that has had me dancing around my front room on many a morning before work. Definitely a label and a band that can do no wrong in my book and one that if you haven't invested in then buy all their albums, you won't be sorry.
Mali's Amadou & Mariam are two blind musicians whose music doesn't necessarily fit into any stereotypes that you'd expect artists from the region but who take a wide array of influences from all over the African continent and stick them into a blender that is equal parts groove and soul. This cut is from their album that they released late last year Welcome To Mali and is the type of tune that I could see burning through some of the more discerning dancefloors out there. Not a clue what they are on about but this is a record that is on serious rotation here at Casual Towers.
I'm a Cape Town boy who has been around the world and back and still hasn't found a place that I truly want to settle. I've written for numerous publications about all sorts of elements of popular culture. I'm a recordhound constantly on the search for "the perfect beat" and have come close a few times. I have far too many pairs of shoes and not enough pairs of pants unfortunately.
If you own any of these tracks and want me to remove them or you just want to get in contact for whatever reason then e-mail me at marc.kets[at]kumo-music.com.
