Funky Friday 4 + 2

Today's music is all about white boys with the grooves to make you move...

Hot Chip - Careful
From their excellent sophomore LP The Warning, full of quirky grooves and memorable tunes. This record is getting more and more play each week.

King Biscuit Time - C I Am 15
From the long awaited debut album Black Gold. Former Beta Band man Stephen Mason drops the killer handclappy beats, some strummy guitar, spacey keys and one of his trademark sing-songy melodies. And then tops it all off by going dancehall, with some toasting directed at Bush and Blair.

Scritti Politti - The Boom Boom Bap
From the soon to be released in the US White Bread Black Beer (out July 25th) , Green Gartside is back. At first I was unimpressed, but I stuck with it, and now I'm hopelessyly hooked. That honey croon, squelchy electronics, classic Scritti melody. This one is going to get the serious summertime action.

Fujiya & Miyagi - In One Ear & Out The Other
I don't know anything about these guys, except that they're not Japanese. The sticker on the front of the CD had endorsements from Optimo, Trevor Jackson, Tiga, and this one from Andrew Weatherall - "Defies even the best snappy one liner desriptions on any album sticker." I bought it, and it is good. Krautrock, Beck-hop, indie rock and electronics all feature. Fantastic. Nice cover too.

Pete Shelley - Telephone Operator / Many A Time (Dub)
Pete Shelley - If You Ask Me / Plenty Of Time (Dub)
Shelley's XL-1 has just been remastered and reissued with these as the extra tracks. If you're like me and you loves you some Martin Rushent dub-remix-love action circa 1983 then this will fit the bill. Play them with no gap as they run nicely into each other.

Fundamentalism

This week finally brought the US release of the latest Pet Shop Boys' LP Fundamental. Produced by Trevor Horn, it is all that a PSB album should be - shiny, witty, camp and full of biting commentary. I picked myself up the 2CD set which comes with a second disc called Fundamentalism. It features a couple of new songs and a bunch of remixes from Richard X, Trentemøller, Michael Mayer, Dettinger, Alter Ego, Melnyk and Stuart Crichton. My fave tune right away is Minimal (which I posted a few weeks ago as part of a funky Friday fourpack) which is a blissed electro pop song in the style of New Order. From the remix disc here is Minimal (Lobe Remix). Lobe makes it even more blissed out and shimmery. Very nice and very catchy. Not too sure about the Elton John collabo on In Private though...

Chocolate Swim

One of my fave hip hop albums of the last year is the Dangerdoom album The Mouse And The Mask. The interludes (and a few songs) feature many of the characters from the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block of programming. There has since been another Dangerdoom/Adult Swim collaboration called the Occult Hymn EP that has been available for download since June 1st. Today I got clued into another new free EP from the network, this time in collaboration with hipster indie hip hop label Chocolate Industries. It features new original music and/or remixes from Kovas, Lady Sovereign, Ghislain Poirier, Mos Def & Diverse, and Vast Aire (ft. MF Doom), and is called the Chocolate Swim EP. It comes in a handy dandy zip file with art for each track. Both EPs are worth investigating if you like your hiphop on the underground tip.


Further Freebies

Alice Smith - Love Endeavor - Freeform Five Remix - a nice bit of breezy, summery funky fun.

File Under : RAWK!

I recently got hep to the Eagles Of Death Metal. I've known of them for a while, I've just never bothered investigating any of the music. A side project of QOTSA mainman Joshua Homme, they traffic in hard rockin' catchy tunes that musically are sort of rooted in what QOTSA do. Instead of the spooky creepiness of QOTSA lyrics the Eagles are all about the classic rock cliches of good times, girls, big moustaches and rock'n'roll. I like it a lot. From the latest album Death By Sexy... - fab title! - enjoy these fine examples of hard rawkin' goodness, I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News) and Cherry Cola.

Here is the vid for I Want You So Hard - lots of fun with brief cameos from Jack Black and Dave Grohl...

So What



This is a smoking clip of Miles Davis & John Coltrane live in 1958, playing the classic tune So What. Personnel on this clip: Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums), plus Jimmy Cleveland and either Bill Elton, Rod Levitt & Frank Rehak (trombone). Perfect for chilling out on this fine Sunday, and just a thrill to see and hear. Thanks to David for pointing me in the direction of this...

Here's the original version of So What from the superior 1997 remaster of the classic album Kind Of Blue. Personnel on this recording: Mile Davis (trummpet), Cannonball Adderley (alto sax), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Bill Evans (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums).

Funky Friday Has Beats To Move Ya Feets

It's a funky Friday four pack with three tracks of leftfield electronic tastiness and one track of blazingly funky Afrobeat...

Rekid - Retro Active
From the debut LP Made In Menorca this is a bumping little techno house number with some nice dubby spaceout bits and tasty synth washes. A delicious album of largely downtempo goodness.

Tony Allen - One Tree
Tony was the drummer in Fela Kuti's band, so his pedigree is immaculate. This is a track from his new LP Lagos No Shaking, and is a shimmering, uptempo groove that floats on multiple percussive grooves. This is the kind of Afrobeat that David Byrne and Brian Eno were so enamoured of back in the late '70s - many guitars and beats colliding, topped off with big horns and soulful vocals.

Isolée - I Owe you (Remix)
From Isolée's latest Western Shore, a collection of typically blissed out rarities and oddities and remixes from this German electronicist.

Minotaur Shock - Vigo Bay
This is from 2005's Maritime which I have only just gotten around to buying. Quirky leftfield goodness on the glitchy folktronic tip - lots of nice organic instrumentation is thrown into the mix here.

Stranger On The Sofa

Barry Adamson has been active in the music biz for close to 30 years now. He began in the late '70s as bassist for Howard Devoto's Magazine. He did a stint in the New Romantic supergroup Visage. He then helped Nick Cave start up the Bad Seeds, and played bass with them until he began his solo career in 1988 with Moss Side Story. Mute Records was his label for about 14 years, and he released seven or eight albums of his unique blend of soul, rock, jazz, and noir spy themes. The initial albums were instrumental affairs, and then over the years he began to sing on some of the songs. This last year has seen him leave his longtime label Mute Records and start up his own label, Central Control International. First order of business? A new album called Stranger On The Sofa. It is a typical Barry Adamson record. There are a few dark instrumentals, some jazzy numbers and a few songs. The sound of this record is a bit of a departure from the last few in that it emphasizes the rockier side of Barry, and a few of the songs sound like some of the most commercial stuff he's ever done. I like it. You Sold Your Dreams is one of the poppier songs, and it's chorus reminds me a hell of a lot of Franz Ferdinand, which is kind of nutty. It's tough and rocking, with some killer slide guitar and piano vamping. Free Love is the album closer, and is a dubbed out bit of skank-tronica that might remind you of something Nightmares On Wax would do.

Message To The Boys (And Girls)

I'm on vacation all of this week - from my real life, that is. The job and the blog have taken second place to the wife and kids as we sleep in late and putz around the house. So far it has been great. I have a 30 minute window of opportunity here so I'm doing a quicky post. Minneapolis' The Replacements are one of the city's great rock bands. Formed in the early '80s when they were a bunch of kids, drunken and obnoxious, they reeled around the stage and studio, and in the process created some great songs and a few pretty good albums. The shift from indie to major label in the late '80s was the beginning of the end of the band, resulting with slicker records and disillusion. Rhino has just released a great 20 track best of called Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?, especially notable for it's two new songs. Yes, new songs from secret sessions in Minneapolis over the winter with the surviving members all playing a part. It is a rockin' ride from start to finish, with lots of songs from the early years and the better songs from the later years. Today you get one of the new tunes, Message To The Boys. It's pretty typical Replacements fare - fast paced, gritty yet tuneful riffage, with Paul Westerberg's rough vocals. Very nice.

Funky Friday - Franz Ferdinand Remixes

The final day of vinyl rips come courtesy of the rocking Scots' latest vinyl only set of remixes. Called Remixes - good one, eh? Take four tracks from the last album (The Fallen, I'm Your Villain, Do You Want To, Outsiders), give the tapes to four of the biggest names in the electro-remix-biz right now (Justice, Lindstrøm, Erol Alkan and Isolée), and let the funky remix action begin. I really like these two a lot...

Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen (Ruined By Justice Remix)
Franz Ferdinand - Outsiders (Isolée Remix))

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Random Photo Fun
Gnarls Barkley as Cheech & Chong.

Wes Montgomery

Day 4 of "ripped from the vinyl" week brings another posting of some jazz, this time from guitarist Wes Montgomery. Known for his distinctive style (playing with his thumb instead of a pick), he began his career as a sideman to Lionel Hampton. His early solo records were more traditional jazz fare, quartets and quintets playing originals and a few covers. His mid period, mid '60s recordings for Verve began to show him drifting towards pop, and experimenting with orchestral accompanyment. His late '60s recordings for A&M Records saw him turn almost solely to covering the pop hits of his day. Today you get a taste of early and late era recordings and both are nice and breezy - no pun intended.

Blue Roz (Take 3)
(Wes Montgomery)
Milt Jackson - Vibes
Wynton Kelly - piano
Sam Jones - Bass
Philly Joe Jones - Drums
Recorded December 18, 1961

Windy
(Ruthann Friedman)
Herbie Hancock - Piano
Ron Carter - Bass
Grady Tate - Drums
Recorded June 6-8 & 26, 1967

Boomtown

Day 3 of "ripped from the vinyl" week continues with a couple of killer tracks from David + David's one and only 1986 album Boomtown...

One of my musical guilty pleasures is the occasional dose of good old classic American FM rock. I love Steve Miller and Tom Petty, Steely Dan and The Eagles - hell, I even own a couple of Don Henley albums! When David Baerwald and David Ricketts' debut single Welcome To the Boomtown hit the radio I knew I had to have it. A slightly different take on the classic rock thing, this was slickly played and produced rock music, but with a gritty edge to it. The songs were dark and moody, about sex, love, alchohol and drugs. Boomtown reeks of the seedy side of LA, of shattered dreams coming to a tragic end. The lyrics are backed up by one gloriously moody track, with atmospheric keys and the metallic clank of the beat. Several of the tunes make good use of vaguely funky ryhthms, and the duo were unafraid to use keys to embellish, usually in a way that compliments the overall vibe. Check the funky groove of A Rock For The Forgotten, another tale of sad barflys, but with a buoyant, empathetic backing track. While listening to this the other day I was amazed at how good it still sounds, and how it's too bad that they never put out another record. Baerwald has done solo work, but is best known for kickstarting Sheryl Crow's career on the Tuesday Night Music Club album which he co-wrote a bunch of. Some people might curse him for that, but I like that record too!

Sister Cheryl

Day 2 of "ripped from the vinyl" week continues with a smokin' bit of jazz courtesy of Wynton Marsalis.

Sister Cheryl is from the legendary trumpeter's jazz debut, 1983's Wynton Marsalis. This was the first outing as bandleader for the 19 year old prodigy, and he surrounded himself with some serious talent - pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams are all on it. Several of Wynton's peers are on it too - saxophonist Branford Marsalis, pianist Kenny Kirkland, and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts (who composed today's offering). Sister Cheryl is a breezy track that coasts on a a crisp, tight beat. It has a lovely melody, and everybody on it gets a chance to show their stuff. I have always loved this tune - something about the melody grabs me, and the tight syncopation keeps me listening. Like I said at the top, smokin'.