Some favourites 6b - Late Nite Tuff Guy (LTNG)

Similar to Duff Disco who I wrote about some months ago. Taking familiar motifs and turning them into something completely new. 'I Don't Like Acid' really is its own track (much as I also love the original) and creates a lot of head nodding in the pub where I play. The Kate Bush remix is more about nicely tarting up a clasic rather than creating something new. As with all my favourites, I'm sure he's done loads more great tracks but these are my faves of the ones I've heard.

Some favourites 6a - Viceroy

Summery, poppy reimaginings of classics, first from B.I.G, then Mark Morrison. Very dancefloor friendly.





Also, look for his remix of Talking Heads' 'This Must Be The Place' which has been removed from Soundcloud / Youtube by heroic law enforcers.

Some favourites 5 - Bicep

Bicep are getting more and more well known. I should've mentioned them before so I got some kudos as a talent spotter. My little monthly DJ gig doesn't really call for this kind of stuff but I try to slip them in sometimes anyway. They're from Northern Ireland and continue the classic tradition of house. My favourite stuff by them is the first eight minutes of this Soundcloud mix below. I wish the riff in the first 4 minutes came back at the 8 minute mark. Boys, if you're reading, what do you reckon???



Here's a couple of their awesome sounds on the Tube, 'Drippin' and 'You'

Ghost Capital

*sigh* As I rebuild by link list from memory, I suppose I might as well do a series of posts of those I remember (and discover). So first up is Ghost Capital. He or they popped up on my Facebook and just found out he or they is are from Oregon, same as JOMF, Valet and others. He's doing the same earthy hipster thing but with some world and retro thrown in the mix.









download this mix here

Teenage Fanclub

Was in the mood for some 90s indie the other day and reconnected with my old faves Teenage Fanclub. Though I'm glad to see they're still going I regret to say they don't seem to have the spark they used to. Very glad to see these two very early tracks, 'Speeder' and 'Primary Education' have been uploaded on Youtube recently. Rough and ready, riffs, close harmonies, silly noises, drum machines - just as it should be. On the B side of Everything Flows apparently, though I had them on an odds and ends comp called 'Deep Fried Fanclub' which was subsequently nicked along with my bag at The Railway pub in Putney. Harsh.





I met them in Valencia when I lived there (about 2006) when me and a mate hung around after a gig. Raymond said nothing, Gerard was a bit cold and Norman was extremely warm and welcoming (even giving us a couple of free cans of beer). I mentioned my preference for a more rough sound which didn't seem to go down well. The EP 'Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It', I seem to remember, was released to fulfil contractual obligations, but here again we see the lack of polish and experimentation (which I favour) which is lacking on the later records. Here's a couple of tunes from that - 'Everything Flows' and 'Starsign'






When I met them, I also mentioned my overall favourite album was Thirteen. This also didn't go down well as apparently the band weren't happy with the final mix. It still sounds great to me though. One of the best is this track 'Tears Are Cool'. Surely there's a US indie to be made with some geekycool guy or girl wandering about in the rain to this song?



They also did a lot of good B sides. How about this, where, (I realise now) they sound like BJM? 'Maharishi Dug The Scene' (very BJM title too)



My favourite B side (though I've still yet to explore the full back catalogue of their fertile early years) is this epic cover of Yo La Tengo. Moody postrock to rival Mogwai or Fridge.



This is not Teenage Fanclub as most people know them, I think. Songs From Northern Britain was critically acclaimed but was the start of something earnest, po-faced, and, it must be said, undruggy. The tracks I've linked to today I hope give an impression of the Teenage Fanclub that sometimes was, could have been more and I hope could be again. Someone send Norman a big bag of skunk, some mushrooms and some MDMA please. He can slip it into Gerry and Ray's single malt.

Pepper by David Meltzer

Art's desire to get it all said
to all who thought him dead
in the joint & beside the point

Art's struggle to sing it all
through jazz warfare & tell
everything he knew in brass
speed rap stir crazy utopia
of muscle chops push it in your face
rough unrelenting grace

fierce Art pitbull clamps down
pulls edges out in time to break through
scream knotty beauty
toe to toe w/ any joe
who thinks they know better

Art tattoos blue needles into moonlight skin
junk light makes mirrors perfect
Art's smoke aches out of wounds

L.A. Art burritos & bebop
black guacamole serge zoots
Central Avenue cat copping

Pepper at Club Alabam
in Lee Young's band
all the chicks & the hatcheck chick
have big eyes for Art's horn

From 'When I Was A Poet' by David Meltzer

Nuggets 2 - The Dead Ringers - Vertigo

From Télé Beats Volume 1, an unofficial release. I heard this mouthwatering breakbeat / easy thing on Gilles Peterson's show in 98, soon after he moved from Kiss. GP was going through a library phase and was coming up with loads of cool tunes like that before he went into neo soul and electro Brazil. I taped it, scrawled down its name on the cassette sleeve but wssn't sure I had the right name and never thought I'd hear it again outside that tape but via the magic of Youtube, here it is. Big up GA1r, the uploader

Shiba Wow

Brown Cardigan is the most consistently funny site I've ever seen, constantly updated with new obscene, weird stuff. Here's one of the tamer but completely wonderful recent posts.

Aaaargh

Was just editing my music link list and accidentally deleted the whole fkkin thing. Any ideas out there what I can do???

Nuggets 1 - Imo - Oluko Imo

I used to post zip files of nuggets (obscure, jazzy / funky / library / world things) but I think Youtube is pretty much the way forward now. So I'm gonna start a new series of posts of nuggets in no particular order. Here's something I discovered recently. A guy from Trinidad influenced by African music sometime in the 70s.

Christian Storm

The photo of the tree jumped out at me in Vice, so I looked up Christian Storm, who I found out is the photo editor there, and I'm really loving his stuff.

Some favourites 4b - DJ Ayers

I heard DJ Ayers' awesome mix 'Next Of All' at the clothes shop Urban Outfitters a few weeks ago (I recommend tuning in about 11:30) and I've since been looking all over the place trying to find more mixes and stuff by him.

Next of All by Dj Ayres on Mixcloud

It's all decent stuff but the 45 King v Wale remix is out of the park genius. I found it on soulseek and uploaded it into youtube myself. Proper hip hop and proper dance groove.

Basquiat Painting Live Downtown 81

Horizon (Five Pounds A Belgian) By John Smith

Stills from John Smith's work which I saw at Museum Of London Docklands. Mostly just horizon, greys, blues, wave sounds and gulls.

One For Blaise Cendrars by Charles Bukowski

Baudrillard on Loneliness

'Nothing can match the loneliness of a pianist in a large hotel. All around him is just a hum of cocktails and small talk; he is more alone with his melody than he would be on an island. Yet at a particular moment, he stops and people applaud. You are doubly astonished: there was an end to this music then, and people were listening? He was playing something and he was not playing in vain? He seems stupefied himself. But he well knows, in the secret depths of his soul, that this applause only breaks out because his music has fallen silent, a silence these wild things notice in much the same way they notice the sugar melting in their glasses. So, like the bald prima donna, he quickly starts up with a new tune.' - Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories (1990), p. 223

I'm requoting this from social historian Joe Moran's excellent blog

Image from Cosmicandshit now called Religioner.

Eric Duncan Mix at Coggles

C111 Eric 'Dunks' Duncan (Rub 'n' Tug) Mix by Coggles on Mixcloud

Recently found this link to an excellent mix by half of Rub N Tug, just after I'd done this post about him. I love all his mixes but this is especially worth a mention as it's a bit of a new direction. More spacious and atmospheric than usual but with the same joy of percussion, bass, riffs etc. Reminds me of Donato Dozzy in between his ambient and progressive moods.

Some favourites 4a - Them Jeans

Fresh vibes from Them Jeans out of LA. Can't get enough of his sound right now. One of Prince Language's remixes mentioned 'Them Jeans' - don't know if it's a coincidence or if they collaborated. Then I found his remix of Rihanna's Stay. Just adds a little clackety clack but makes it a much nicer track imho. I've enjoyed all his mixes and original tracks I've heard since then. Hope he blows up.

Moonlight by Blaise Cendrars

Pitching and rolling pitching and rolling
The moon the moon draws circles in the water
In the sky the mast draws circles
Points to every star
A young girl from Argentina leaning over the rails
Dreams of Paris as she gazes at the lighthouse outlining the coast of France
Dreams of Paris which she hardly knows and already regrets
These lights revolving steady double colored flashing ones remind her of those she saw from the hotel window on the boulevards and hold for her the promise of a speedy return
She dreams she will soon be back in France and live in Paris
The noise of my typewriter prevents her from completing her dream
My beautiful typewriter which rings at the end of every line and is as fast as jazz
My beautiful typewriter which prevents me from dreaming port or starboard
And makes me follow an idea to the end
My idea

M.K.

At the Wellcome Collection here in London there's a free collection of Japanese Art Brut / outsider art and this is my pick of the lot.