I don't know an awful lot about this track beyond that it samples Van Morrison and came out on a mysterious white label back in 2002. Judging by the amount of mixes that it has appeared on and the reactions that it gets in the clubs that it has been well and truly well received by the bearded guardians of balearica. If anyone knows anything else about this record then don't hesitate to let me know.
To coincide with the launch of the brand new Stones Throw online store Egon, PBW and the rest of the set have put together what is in an incredible Madvillain package that will only be available through the website. I thought it would be best to use their copy as it says it best. Oh yeah, and get your hands on those Parra t-shirts as with the way how that man's career is going at the moment they could be worth something in a few years. I've also chosen Pearls off the album for all of you to listen as it is by far and away my favourite cut off the album. Enjoy.
Madvillainy 2: The Box
Some might say its sacrilege to revisit a classic album like Madvillainy. You know, like George Lucas messing around with Star Wars and digitally inserting Jabba The Hut rapping with Han Solo. But Madlib’s never been one to respect convention - and he made this one for headphone listening while on a ten-hour plane ride to Tokyo. But this reworking (we hate to say remix) was so good that, after we sat with it for a while, we decided that we had to make it available.
Yeah, we’re waiting for the new Madvillain too. Every once in a while we hear from DOOM, and he tells us he’s getting closer. Madlib still sends him beat CDs. DOOM always remembers our birthdays. But, we don’t have the sequel, and we know every nuance of Madvillainy. So we’ve been bumping this album while we’re patiently waiting. And it’s been good. Like visiting with a friend who you haven’t seen in years and remembering why you were friends to begin with.
So now you get a chance to get in on it too.
This album will only be available through our website - we just launched our own store. You know, cut out the middleman, fuck the establishment.... That type of vibe. So here we are, saying: “We’ve got something special. And we’re going to sell it to you in a big ass box full of cool ass shit that you won’t be able to get anywhere else.”
We’re manufacturing based on pre-orders. If you order it, you’re guaranteed to get one. If you decide to wait, well, you might not. These things are difficult and expensive to make. That’s why we’re selling them for a lot of money. And you’ve noticed the ship date right? They’re going to take a while to manufacture. So you’ll have to wait a little while. We’ll do everything we can to beat that ship date, but that’s a guaranteed date. If we don’t ship on September 15th, Peanut Butter Wolf will DJ at your house for you. Any day except Tuesday.
Madvillainy “2” The Box $125 plus shipping Pre-order: until August 15th Ship date: September 15th
THE BOX: 12x13x3 inches. Wrapped in silver like a mask.
7-INCH: “One Beer (Drunk Version)” Madlib's original 2004 version, lost until recently on the floor of his Bomb Shelter studio. If you saw the studio you'd understand.
CASSETTE: The Madvillainy Demo Tape. 12 tracks, 36 minutes. This is the first and only official release of the infamous Madvillain demo that “leaked into cyberspace,” while the album was still in progress, as DOOM alludes to in the lyrics of “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
COMIC BOOK: Meanwhile... the continuation of the All Caps video, included with the CD.
T-SHIRT: Nominated. Best Rolled L's. Madvillain shirt.
Quetzal is one of my favourite records, made by keyboard master Gerald Mitchell and DJ Rolando this uplifting but never cheesey techno epic has been always at the front of the box since it came out in 2002. It is one of those records that is fairly simple but the arrangement and melody make this stand above the rest of the run-of-the-mill techno plodders out there. This record is proof along with tracks like Jaguar that when it comes to techno then you should really be looking towards Detroit for the tunes that don't date after two weeks. I'll be playing this one in ten years.
This track samples I Feel Your Love Comin' On by CHIC who are of course the incredible production partnership of Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers and what 22 year old Norwegian Morten Sorenson has done is taken it kicking and screaming into the 21st century with a big room spacey sound that makes for a record that Paul and I would've been caning on the radio and in the venues if I was still playing Left Deck over in Manchester. It's big, it's loud and a sure-fire dancefloor destroyer. Play it and watch the place go off.
New York's Martin Denny is the king of Exotica whose sound takes in everything from smooth jazz to polynesian indigenous instrumentation to all sorts of other influences garnered from his trips everywhere from Hawaii to Burma. This track, which is a cover of Les Baxter's cut of the same name, is reputedly who Matt Edwards and Joel Martin named themselves after when they came up with their Quiet Village moniker. What I like about this record, and the album itself for that matter, is that it sounds like absolutely nothing else in my collection and I mean that in a good way. It's a record that instantly plants your feet firmly on sandy beaches with the waves lapping at the shore, cocktail in one hand surrounded by dancing women on some forgotten island. Basically what I'm trying to say is that this record is filled with sunshine and it feeds my overactive imagination, which is a awesome all round really. Another great thing about this record is that it is a cheapie, don't pay more than $7 for a copy. Unfortunately Martin passed away in late-2005 having spent the majority of his life living in Hawaii, which is the perfect place to listen to his music. Who is up for testing the theory?
I Love You More is a stone-cold classic and one that still gets people rushing up to the booth to ask what it is. Ian Pooley sampled it on the massive 900 Degrees that was the weapon of choice for many a deep house DJ in he 90s and more recently Low Motion Disco basically stole it hook, line and sinker on Love, Love, Love which is as blatant a rip-off as anything you're ever likely to hear but like all great records you can have imitators but inevitably it is the original that will be getting the most plays. In a year nobody will give a shit about the Low Motion Disco version but when those opening bars of the original come in there'll be hands in the air and smiles aplenty. A superb record that never fails to put me in a good mood.
Ryan and Jonny have decided to tread the murky waters of blogging by focusing on their genre-bending night Hoya:Hoya. This blog has loads of potential, as does the night, because the sheer musical knowledge and enthusiasm of the pair is second to none and I, for one, will be checking the blog daily. You can bookmark the site by visiting them here.
As an added bonus I've decided to repost Ryan's excellent Hoya:Hoya Vol. 1 mix for all of you to enjoy. As you can tell from the tracklisting Ryan charts all waters from soul to dubstep to afrobeat gluing the mix together in only a way a selector as talented as he could do. Download the mix from here. I've played it over a hundred times according to my iTunes counter and I still get gooseflesh when he mixes out of the Mala into the Tunde Williams.
Ryan Hunn presents Hoya:Hoya- Volume 1
1. Stan Lelowski- The Moon (Poljazz) 2. Joe Bataan- I Wish You Love (Part 2) (Fania) 3. Doug Hammond- Wake Up Brothers (Tribe) 4. King Tubby, Scientist, Prince Jammy and The Aggrovators- Harder Dub (Fatman) 5. Lloyd Coxsone- East Of The Rockfort Rock (Tribes Man) 6. King Tubby- Puppy Dub (Fatman) 7. 2562- Kameleon (Tectonic) 8. Skream!- 2-D (Tempa) 9. Mundo- Big Up (Dub Assembly) 10. Mr Scruff- Chipmunk (Ninja Tune) 11. Mala- Left Leg Out (DMZ) 12. Tunde Williams & The Afrika 70- Mr Big Mouth (Afrodesia) 13. Le Simandou De Beyla- Festival (Syliphone) 14. Dego & Kaidi Tatham- Got Me Puzzled (2000Black) 15. Daedelus- Sawtooth EKG (Ryan Hunn Edit) (Mush) 16. Scienz Culture- Ginsu (Son of Scientist Mix) (Sunshine) 17. James T. Cotton & Rodger Devine- ARAK (CD-R) 18. Luther Davis Group- You Can Be A Star (Soul Cal) 19. The Players Association- I Like It (Vanguard)
We've all had Feist's album shoved down our throats every time we've stepped foot in a shop as there seems to be some unwritten law that her album has to be played all the time! When I first heard the album I thought it was great but I've gone off it a bit in recent weeks due to overexposure but this popped up in my inbox today and my first reaction was to have a little groan but after listening to the loose drum work, the handclaps and the great afro-inspired horns I was smitten. New York's Escort have been releasing disco for a while now and having a full band can't have made touring easy but they've stuck with it and with cuts like Karawane, A Bright New Life, Starlight and their version of Tracey Thorne's It's All True have made them favourites on both sides of the Atlantic. No samplers, no gimmicks, just a tight band playing disco licks...hallelujah!
Swag have uploaded the parts to their tragically overlooked wonky disco outing Musicbox and want people to remix it for a possible future release. I'm going to have a go and you can download the parts from here. When you're done e-mail the results to djhistory[at]gmail.com.
We bowled England out for 203. Who said our attack is toothless?
If this blog grinds to a halt for the next few days it is because I have decided to ruin my sleeping pattern by waking up at 3am to watch South Africa play England in the test match at Headingly. Being a cricket fan in the US is a lonely existence as proven last night after our rounders game when I was trying to explain the game to a few of the locals, I pretty much gave up when they said that baseball players play more shots that cricketers do.
England are 70-3 at the moment and they have their last two recognized batsmen at the crease...BOKKE!!!
Eumir Deodato is a Brazilian Grammy award winning producer who has worked with everyone from Johnny Tropea to, erm, K.D. Lang, and to whom he has lent his undeniable musical charm and wonderful ear for melody and arrangement that have earned him plaudits the world over. His albums are absolute masterpieces that are best enjoyed with a nice bottle of red surrounded by nature. Having said that his records can be absolute dynamite on the dancefloor as well and this track, Skyscrapers, is the tune that I drop when I try to get a sense of who the steppers in the house are. I even played this at DRY201 in Manchester once and was immediately asked to stop playing the 'jazzy shite' which I took as a very good sign that it was going to be a good night ahead as they all were in that pit on Oldham Road. This track is by no means Deodato's finest but it is one that has seen a lot of deck time around here and one that is best enjoyed very, very loud.
Ralome is off of Plaid's standout electronica albumRest Proof Clockwork that totally blew my mind when it was unleashed in 1999. Plaid initially were a side project for Black Dog Productions but obviously as WARP took on the project and once everyone was drawn to tracks like Ralome and Rakimou the little brother soon became the main man. This track is as balearic as anything I have ever heard, if you're a fan of Tortoise, Voice of The Seven Woods, Broadcast and the like then you'll love this superb slice of sunshine electronica. Charles Webster recently included it on his compilation for 'Defecated' and it is just the sort of record that I'd given the chance play early doors on at 'Nado or at my new night Shaved Guevara (more on that later) but my only complaint is the frankly awful Kid Acne artwork that dated the moment it went to the printers. Dive in, the water is great.
Here is a real record collectors' gem, one of those records that defines the afro sound favoured by Beppe Loda and pals at Typhoon in Italy during the late 70s. I don't know a thing about John Ozila, and believe me I've been searching for information for a good hour now, but what I do know is that this record that I found in a dollar bin is actually worth in excess of $100 and gets everyone from Laurent Garnier to Gerd's knickers in a twist as it is one of those records that will make a dancefloor explode. If all of the new disco/cosmic producers would take a leaf out of John Ozila's book then we may not be wallowing in the sub-prog bollocks that seems to be littering the scene at the moment of which I see Aeroplane as the biggest culprits with their bog standard cosmic fodder that doesn't sound a mile away from records favoured by Sasha et al at the tail-end of the 90s. Funky Boogie could've been released last week and it would've started a revolution, somebody reissue it please because if people are going to ape a sound then make it John Ozila's for the love of good records.
South Out Louds are a Swedish Band who are one of a litany of bands from the shoegaze scene who seem to be making music that is catching my ears at the moment - I blame the wife. For this track they've employed everyone's favourite Scandinavian maestros to rejig their new single Impossible and to my ears they've made it sound like the best track that The Cure never wrote. It's all here, great production, swooning melancholy lyrics and the most balearic guitar work this side of Sant Francesc. A record for a sunrise if ever I have heard one - superb stuff.
It's been a trying week waking up at 3am to watch the test side grind out a draw against the Poms at the home of cricket and I'm spent, so I'm just going to link the videos to these records that I seem to be playing constantly at the moment. I'll stick the mp3s up later in the week once I've gotten some sleep. All of these records are easy to pick up and cheap as chips.
Hot R.S. - Slow Blow
Silver Convention - Fly Robin Fly
(I'm posting this one mostly because the lead singer is easy on the eye, track isn't bad and is a cheapie - don't pay more than $2 for it)
Sheila & B. Devotion - Spacer
Barry White - Its Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me
Probably the coolest man named Rupert alive, Photek has been at the forefront of dance music production since the halcyon days of drum 'n bass in the mid-90s when every production he put out was lapped up by enthusiasts the world over. His educated ear has helped everyone from Roni Size to the producers of the feature film Dreamland realize their musical vision for their projects and in addition to this Rupert had the balls to make a house album at a time when drum 'n bass was engulfed with a rent-an-amen-break tracks that made the scene so dull for a while. This cut featuring the voice of house music, Robert Owens, is off Solaris that proved what an incredible talent Photek is. It is a record that oozes quality, soul and progresses perfectly through the groove aided by Robert's superb delivery. Truly one of the great house records of all time. Let your ears drink it up.
Who are the Panthers? Well I don't have a clue as their website unbelievably doesn't have a bio on it, which is a rookie error if ever there was one, so all I have is the track to go by and that isn't a bad thing in all truth. New York's Holy Ghost! take the track to that 3am late-night vibe that'll make dancefloors erupt, especially with it's repetitive vocal refrain that will have the arms in the air and the hips shaking. This is one of those records that makes perfect sense in a loud nightclub on a thumping system and seeing as it was released the other day it should be doing that this weekend at various clubs the world over. Great tune.
This is the sort of record that I would generally sneak into the first hour of my radioshow when I would usually play records that were a little more left of the disco/house blueprint and this was easily one of the cuts that I loved to play. It was released on Rock Action Records home to bands like noise terrorists Mogwai and I'm not even sure how I found out about them, possibly my wife had something to do with it seeing as she is a fairly avid seeker of indie records - I'm sure she'll confirm later. Errors are a Glaswegian band whose atmospheric leftfield sound has been compared to the likes of Mogwai but they definitely have their own sound, one that traverses a glitchy, loop-driven groove that utilizes melody in an extremely fresh way. They also get extra points for calling their album How Clean Is Your Acid House?
Ace find by Jeffo, I was lucky enough to live in the city and meet a fair amount of these characters. Amazing city, brilliant people. (Click on the picture for a larger picture)
Here is an absolute treat for those of you proud members of the sub-100bpm club. Los Angeles' Cole Medina has take a pair of scissors to the Bee Gees' Love You Inside Out and done nothing more than elongate the intro turning into into a slo-mo slow-burner that should find favour with the BBQ set on these warm balmy summer days. This is one of those records that you can leave on loop for half an hour or so and be perfectly happy as it sunkissed groove inevitably makes your day shine. Superb stuff and one that should appeal to everyone from the soul set to the discoid dumpers.
Cole Medina - Love You Inside Out (The Pinches mix) (Removed)
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.
