Cash Machine


Hard-Fi are one of the UK indie scene's rising stars. Their debut LP CCTV came out last summer in Europe to mostly postive reviews. They have been lumped in with the new wave of post-punk bands - the Bloc Maximo Chiefs crowd. There is a bit of that but these guys add a hefty dose of dubby skank to their songs a la The Clash, and in a few places I even feel the spirit of those early '90s baggydelic bands so dear to my heart - I think it's the keyboards. Lyrically it's all about the lad's life, a sort of indie rock take on The Streets. Last month saw the band reissue one it's early singles, the Cash Machine EP, and it also got a US release. It's three tracks from the LP and a track that is not on the album called Sick Of It All, which is one of the band's dub-rocker moments. A nice, skanking riff builds into a loud, fast and shouty chorus. It's a nice mix - super catchy melody couched in grimy roughness. Since this EP got a domestic release I'm hoping that the album will be soon to follow...

Funky Friday's Disco Triple Play

Three tunes guaranteed to get you grooving...

Jackie Moore - This Time Baby

Yesterday I sent you off to explore Jockohomo's Top 20 of 2005. Number 11 on that list is Freemasons' Love On My Mind. It's a tasty disco-house track with a big catchy vocal hook. One of my co-workers (and a fellow disco afficionado) said he recognized the vocal hook, and mentioned that it was lifted from some classic disco tune. He came to work today with a CD for me, and on it was Jackie Moore's This Time Baby. It is seven minutes of gorgeously orchestrated disco heaven, straight outta 1979. This is some classic shit - big beats, lots of percussion, those horns and strings and Jackie's husky vocal all make it a real stomper. Spot the bit the Freemasons lifted of it for their hook, and see how the lyrics make up the title of their track. It's fantastic. Thanks to Greg for the sample spotting!

Bob Sinclar - My Only Love

Last night I had a sudden urge to listen to some Bob Sinclar. Today being funky Friday I took his 1998 LP Paradise to work to mix into the 5 disc shuffle. It's a fun set of retro flavored Franco-disco, slickly produced and packaged with tongue in cheek '70s soft core porn shots. The big hit was the Jane Fonda workout sampling Gym Tonic, but one of my fave tracks is My Only Love - feel the funk of that popping bass and the smooth soulful vibe of Lee A. Genesis' vocals.

Towa Tei - Time After Time

Another record making it into the 5 disc shuffle today was former Deee-Lite member Towa Tei's second solo LP Sound Museum, also from 1998. Best known for Kylie Minogue's vocals on GBI, where she sexily intones what it's like to be a font - German Bold Italic to be precise, I also really dig the mid tempo disco vibes of Time After Time, which feature the dulcet tones of singer Amel Larrieux.


BONUS BIT
The Juan MacLean video for Give Me Every Little Thing is nuts. A tremendously funky song, the video is a crazy ride involving hookers, aliens and some graphically animated virtual reality sex scenes - definitely not appropriate for the workplace!

I've Got My Own Hell To Raise

Bettye LaVette is an old school blues, soul and r'n'b singer. She had her first hits in the '60s - “Let Me Down Easy” and “He Made a Woman Out Of Me.” She has a great, growling voice that can be soft and vulnerable or loud and angry. The Epitaph Records sublabel Anti- hooked her up with singer/songwriter Joe Henry to record an album of covers called I've Got My Own Hell To Raise. The songs are all by women - Fiona Apple, Lucinda Williams, Dolly Parton, Sinead O'Connor and Aimee Mann are some of the more prominent names. It's a gripping set of songs, played out in low-key, alt.blues-rock fashion. Henry is here as producer and guide, and his understated style is felt. I'm not normally a big fan of this kind of music, but when everyone (not just the blues geeks) at my record store is talking about how great a record is I know I have to check it out. They're right of course - it's a fine record. My fave track right now is the lovely, tough rendition of Joan Armatrading's Down To Zero, a track from her 1976 self titled LP. Originally acoustic, here it's a full band in countrified blues mode, with some great piano and a pretty smokin' guitar solo. Bettye's voice will slay you. A great record.


Twenty Tasty Tracks
Somebody with whom I share a great deal of musical taste is fellow blogger Jocko. He has posted his top 20 tracks of 2005, and it is as varied and fun as anything you'd find here. Do yourself (and your music collection) a favor and check out Jocko's Top 20 of 2005.

Ghost Of Love
Ola Frick and Carina Johansson are the Swedish duo Moonbabies. Their 2004 album The Orange Billboard was easily one of my fave records of that year. I loved it's mix of electronica and shoegaze-y rock and sunny, psychedelic pop. The two of them harmonize beautifully, and the songs ranged from full on raging to blissful space outs. It reminded me of Folk Implosion and Sparklehorse and My Bloody Valentine, and even a bit of the melancholic power pop of bands like Snow Patrol. In July of 2005 they released a mini LP called War On Sound, a stop gap release to tide us over until the next album is done. I only just got my hands on a copy of it last week. The title track is a real gem, picking up where they left off and then some. The rest of the record is not as strong as that first tune, but still pretty damn good. There's a demo of The Orange Billboard, a couple of other new songs and two very interesting covers. New song Ghost Of Love starts off with an enormous, arpeggiating synth riff, and then gradually adds layers - first a beat, then the blissed out vocals, then more synths, and finally some classic, Kevin Shields style shredding guitar. Then, about 2/3s of the way in the big rock drums pound in and it's gone from moody electro to raging rocker. The covers are inspired choices. Pink Floyd's Arnold Layne is whimsical and trippy like you'd expect. The most surprising one for me is their version of Midnight Oil's Stars Of Warburton. I was a pretty big Midnight Oil fan back in the day, so this impressed me. It's a relatively obscure album track from their 1990 album Blue Sky Mining. How many bands do you know that have covered Midnight Oil? I can't think of any. Moonbabies turn in a lovely version of this song, which is a mellow, melodic rocker with a lovely chorus and a melancholic feel to it. A great little EP that has me wanting more...

Funky Friday - Hiatus On The Horizon

Matt Chicoine, AKA Recloose has finally released a new LP called Hiatus On The Horizon. It's the long awaited follow up to 2002's Cardiology. Originally from Detroit, famously discovered by Carl Craig (Matt worked in the deli where Carl got lunch and slipped his demo into his lunch bag) he is now living and working in New Zealand. His music is electronica - techy, house-y, leftfield, all of it infused with some major jazz chops - sampled horns and piano and bass lines everywhere. The new album picks up that thread, and spins it into some deep, soulful music. It's also largely vocal - songs with real singers, not instrumentals with samples. There's a lush feel to everything, a combination of smooth Detroit house, Philly soul vibes and even some of that old school Sly & Robbie & Gwen Guthrie disco vibe from the early '80s. Some of the more leftfield electronics have been dropped in favor of a smoother flow, but I don't mind. The jazz factor has been amped up too. There are boatloads of snazzy, snappy horn charts, all live and not sampled, including sax as played by Coleman Squakinz - great name. It's a beauty of a record. Still Beyond Me reminds me a lot of Padlock, the '80s disco project put together by Sly & Robbie & Gwen Guthrie. An uptempo disco jam, it's got a tight beat, smooth vocals by Hollie Smith. warm Rhodes awash in reverb and some smokin' horn riffs, not to mention the jangly guitar. Mana's Bounce is the tune that made me run to the stereo when this was in the 5 disc shuffler. It's a fantastically skanking jazz-ska-house hybrid - reminds me a bit of some old Lionrock tunes - that also features some cool, wiggy scratching. I love it. The album is out now as an import on Peacefrog Records, and it's totally worth dropping import dollars on if you're a fan of good, inventive, modern dance music. A sweet choice for the final Funky Friday of 2005!

Say Hello To My Little Remix


Back in March Beck released Guero, an album pitched somewhere between the party vibes of Odelay and the more adult themes of Sea Change. Reviews were mixed but I found myself liking it quite a bit. A couple weeks ago a remix album appeared, entitled Guerolito. Remixes are done by a broad palette of electro-stylists - Air, Adrock from the Beasties, 8Bit, Diplo and Subtle are just a few. Air bring their laid back vibe to Missing, retitled Heaven Hammer, and Diplo lifts a big chunk of The Beat's Twist & Crawl to use a backdrop for his remix of Go It Alone, retitled Wish Coin. Both are great versions. As a fan of the remix, I'm very happy with this set - some of these could even be seen as an improvement on the originals, which is so often not the case with remix albums. Ghost Range (E-Pro Remix By Homelife) is all over the place - there's twangy banjo plucking over jazzy vibraphone fighting the fuzzed out bass with swoony orchestral strings, and then fiddles come in and it's like a hoedown in the barn, except with some hip hop beats. Scarecrow (Remix By El P) is one I think is better in remixed form - El P brings his dark crunk to the song, with big clattery beats, key stabs and lots of fuzzed out guitars. Much head nodding goodness.

Dimanche A Bamako


I'm a big fan of Manu Chao. I loved his band Mano Negra - "the French Clash". They sang songs in French, Spanish and English, and their multi-culti rock music was a captivating mix of folk, punk, reggae and pop. After they split up in the '90s, Manu put out a couple of solo albums and a live set. Their spirit was the same, but it was stripped down and more acoustic. He has now taken his unique style and applied it to the new album from Malian duo Amadou & Mariam, called Dimanche A Bamako. They are a blind couple who have been recording together for over 20 years in west Africa, creating a tasty blend of Afro-pop and folk rock. This is their 10th album. Manu co-writes, sings and produces (a sticker on the CD cover has his name on it - it made me take notice of the CD and start paying attention to the reviews, mostly positive) and his imprint is unmistakable. The mix is full of sound - lilting, strummy reggae with street noises and voices punctuating everything. The duo sing beautifully of love and politics and their homeland, and Amadou plays some glorious guitar, ranging from surf rock to folk to scratchy and funky. It's a sunny set of songs that really benefit from Manu's collaboration, and I'm hooked. Here are a couple of tasty tracks for you to enjoy -
Beaux Dimanches
Senegal Fast Food

The Days Of Mars


The DFA label has been home to some of the coolest music being made these last few years - records by The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, The Juan MacLean and Black Dice have fused punk-funk and electro with a hefty dose of experimentalism and "artiness". Back in October saw the label release The Days Of Mars, the debut album from Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom. The duo are New York based artists who work a lot with visual media as well as music. They also collaborate as Black Leotard Front - their 15 minute dance opus Casual Friday from earlier in the year (and also on last year's DFA Compilation #2) is still getting played at my house. Those of you looking for "DFA-beats-as-usual" will probably be sadly disappointed with the album. It is four tracks, each about 15 minutes long, all of it ambient electronics. Taking the spirit of Vangelis, Steve Reich, film maker John Carpenter's eerie synth scores, and the numerous '70s Italian electro-proggers like Goblin as the blueprint, the duo construct gently pulsing grooves that meander through the speakers. There is not a beat to be found. Some of you will find it very tedious, I'm sure. I have always enjoyed a bit of meandering aimlessness, and it abounds here. Rise has been previously heard in DFA remixed form on the afore mentioned Compilation#2, with beats added. It is a lovely bit of spacing out music. The rest of the record is more of the same - variations on this theme. Not for everyone, but a few of you might like it.

Funky Friday & I'm Feelin' Festive

I'd like to take a moment to thank all of you for making this such a good year for my little corner of the blogosphere. Traffic has grown by leaps and bounds, and it's been great hearing what you have to say about the tunes. You make it worthwhile for me to keep doing this little music geek thing here, and I thank you for your kind patronage. I hope this eclectic little four pack of holiday songs brings some joy to your day. Thank you...

Thornetta Davis - Funky Drummer Boy
The Waitresses - Xmas Wrapping
Miles Davis & Bob Dorough - Blue Xmas
Los Straitjackets - Here Comes Santa Claus

Merry Christmas - Happy Hannukah - Happy Kwanzaa - Happy Winter Solstice - Happy Whatever-it-is-you-do-or-do-not-celebrate!

Walking With A Ghost


The White Stripes have a new 6 track EP out called Walking With A Ghost. It's one new recording, the title track Walking With A Ghost (which is a cover of a Tegan and Sara tune) and then 5 live cuts - all songs from previous records. I don't know the original (I think I've only ever heard one Tegan and Sara song and it didn't move me), but several reviews have said that it's a pretty faithful rendition. It seems to me that it fits what the White Stripes do well - big riff, big drums, catchy chorus, trippy guitars. it's all there. The live tracks are also what you'd expect - stripped down and raw. Not an essential recording, but still kind of interesting.

π


It only took 12 years but it finally happened - Kate Bush released a new album last month, a 2CD set called Aerial. I have always had a bit of a "hit and miss" thing with prog queen Kate, loving some things and not feeling others. Reviews of Aerial have been pretty positive, and the bloggers seem to like it too, so last weekend I took the plunge. It's only been played a couple of times this week, and that is nowhere near enough time to have an accurate review/opinion. That having been said, right away I knew I would like it. One of the first songs to "jump out at me" (does a Kate Bush record ever really "jump"?) is from disc one (subtitled A Sea Of Honey), and is called π (Pi). Yes, infinity has been transformed into a gently undulating pop song, full of burbling beats, a snaky bass line, blippy keys, gently strummed acoustic guitars and Kate actually sings the string of numbers. I get a real kick out of that leftfield approach, and here it's couched in such a beautiful piece of music that it transcends it's artiness. I look forward to getting to know the rest of this record.

Juicebox


About a month ago I was in the car pulling into the driveway when a song started to play on the radio. I sit through the whole thing. It starts with a gigantically thick and chunky bass riff over pounding drums, playing an almost "Peter Gunn" like spy theme. Then some furious guitar kicks in. I'm thinking "is this the new Fever track? Or maybe the Moving Units?" Then the singer starts. It's clear that it's Julian Casablancas - this must be the new Strokes single. It is - there's no mistaking their style. It rocks. It's produced by David Kahne, and it sounds harder and meaner than they ever have. I like it. I buy the CD single this week. I like the b-side too - it's a tune called Hawaii. The single also contains the video for Juicebox but I haven't watched it yet. Anyway, here is your daily recommended dose of music to rock out to - enjoy The Strokes' Juicebox, a taster from their new album out the first week in January.