Funky Friday Play List

A slightly different approach to Funky Friday today - a Spotify playlist! A few vintage jams, some remixes and a bunch of current faves. Fire up your Spotify and get the beats to move your feets!

Funky Friday!

It's baaaaaack! After a long break, it's the return of Funky Friday. Today, a fresh crop of beats for your feets - new Neon Indian, Rapture and Holy Ghost! (with Michael McDonald!), a couple of bitchin' covers of Duran Duran (Tinpong) and Cherelle & Alexander O'Neal (Toro Y Moi), and a groovin' Adele remix by the Buffetlibre team that bumps up the dance factor. Oh yeah - DJ Jazzy Jeff & Ayah have made an album of hip hoppin' r'n'b that is actually pretty damn good. The best part? It is available for you to download for free here.

Neon Indian - Fallout
Tinpong - New Religion
Toro Y Moi - Saturday Love
DJ Jazzy Jeff & Ayah - Back For More
Adele - Someone Like You (Buffetlibre Remix)
Holy Ghost! feat Michael McDonald - Some Children
The Rapture - How Deep Is Your Love? (Emperor Machine Remix Edit)

Your Loft

Your Loft by Death In Vegas
Your Loft is the new single from the forthcoming Death In Vegas album Trans Love Energies. It features Katie Stelmanis from Austra on vocals, and marks a return to the dark electro sounds of their early career. The album drops on September 26th on Drone Records.

Death In Vegas / Facebook / Soundcloud

Channel Pressure

Ford & Lopatin - Emergency RoomMy new favorite record this week is Ford & Lopatin's Channel Pressure. Formerly known as Games, Joel Ford & Daniel Lopatin have created the '80s record of your dreams. They've taken all of the sounds that were so revolutionary back in the early '80s and made one hell of a groovy pop record for the oughties. I hear echoes of so many good things - Scritti Politti, Junior Boys, Jan Hammer's Miami Vice soundtracks, Harold Faltermeyer's electro themes, and even a bit of Neon Indian's chill wave-y goodness. There are straight up pop songs, abstract instrumentals, loads of funk and plenty of vocal trickery. It gleams and glistens in all the right ways. LOVE. And while it is a love letter to the sounds of the '80s it holds up as very well as the sound of Summer 2011 too!

Channel Pressure by Ford & Lopatin

Billy Super Duper

This is a great find for you T.Rex fans - free T.Rex! Billy Super Duper is Marc Bolan's unfinished rock opera. Some of the songs have been previously released, and a few have never been out before. I am totally digging it. It has all of the glam-tastic riffing you love, and some of this stuff is also pretty damn funky - which I love. Anyway, listen, and if you like go to the Bandcamp page and download it! For free!

Saturday Love

Toro Y Moi - Saturday LoveI am a big fan of Toro Y Moi, the nom de plume of musician Chazwick Bundick. His music reminds me of MGMT, but a kinder, gentler, and much funkier version. His latest album Underneath The Pine came out in February and I have been playing it ever since. He is about to drop an new EP called Freaking Out, and it features a bitching cover of a Minneapolis funk classic, Saturday Love. The original song was recorded as a duet by Alexander O'Neal and Cherelle, and it was the bomb tune back in the day. I love that Chazwick has decided to cover it - he does a great job of bringing his chillwave flavor to it. Bonus video action of the original below...


Cherelle & Alexander O'Neal - Saturday Love

Yasercise

Yasercise are a relatively new band that has popped up from Minneapolis' always fertile rock scene. They have played a few shows around town over the last few months, and have also been spending some time in the studio recording. These two tracks are the first to leak out from those sessions and they are pretty sweet. Both are cool, atmospheric indie rock songs topped off with the lovely and sultry vocals of front woman Yasmina - who just happens to be a co-worker of mine! Anyway, I dig and hope you will too. Like 'em on Facebook and follow them on Soundcloud...

Yasercise - Lights on For Gaza

(image courtesy of Keri Carlson)
Yasercise - Charlie Machine
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Facebook / Soundcloud

Hurricane

Grace Jones - Sunset SunriseHallelujah! Grace Jones' 2008 album Hurricane is finally being given a US release on September 6th by PIAS (America). Produced by Jones and Ivor Guest, it marked a pretty successful return to form. I bought the EU import version a couple of years ago and loved it. It might not be a classic like Nightclubbing but it covers a lot similar ground. There are plenty of tough reggae riddims, some sleek electronica and a hint of rock guitar. I do wish that there was more uptempo, clubby material on it, but I am ultimately satisfied with the record. Best part of this news? Not the new artwork, but the newly added second disc - a dub version of the record. This has me psyched - can't wait to hear it!

Dance By Accident

Halloween, Alaska - Dance By AccidentThe Minneapolis quartet is gearing up to release it's 4th album in August. Called All Night The Calls Came In, it sees the band moving further away from the electronic, ambient soundscapes they are known for and into more of a live band driven, ever so slightly rocking direction. Dance By Accident is a tightly grooving beast. Dave King's drums drive everything, then the band layers scratchy guitar and gentle keyboards over it all, and top it all off with the melancholic vocals of James Diers. Lovely. Can't wait to hear the rest of the record.
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Halloween, Alaska / Twitter / Facebook

Forever Young

Joakim - Forever Young (Discodeine Remix)
French producer and artist in his own right Joakim is putting out a new album in September called Nothing Gold. I'm a big fan. My first exposure to him was as the producer of Panico, and over the years I have grooved to his remixes for the likes of Goldfrapp, Late of the Pier, Cut Copy and Friendly Fires, as well as his stellar production of Poni Hoax. The first single from the new album, his 4th, is this delightful track, Forever Young, which has been remixed by Discodeine. Joakim describes the song as the "soundtrack to a late beach sunset on an Indian Summer's night, a setting where time is meaningless, yet quickly fades away." All know is that I like the synthy propulsiveness of it and the nice '80s melancholy feel.
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Joakim / Facebook / Tigersushi

Safari Disco Club

Yelle - Safari Disco Club

RIP Martin Rushent

One of the great music producers of the '80s died this week. Martin Rushent started out as working as an engineer on records by T-Rex, ELP, Yes and Fleetwood Mac. However it was a producer that he made his name. He helmed the first 3 Stranglers albums, as well as records by The Buzzcocks, 999, Generation X, XTC, The Rezillos, Téléphone and Rachel Sweet. He produced Altered Images, Intaferon, Leisure Process and The Associates too. It was his fascination with the newest synth technology that brought him his greatest successes, first with Pete Shelley's Homosapien album, and most notably with The Human League. Dare and it's companion remix album Love And Dancing were pop music at it's best, gleaming and modern. I thought he was a production genius. I used to buy records just because his name was on them. He made a bit of a producer's comeback in the 90's and was also involved in records with The Pipettes, Kila Kella and Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whose lead singer James is his son). He was a production genius and a legend of the mixing board. Rest in peace...

The Human League - Love Action

The Human League - The Sound of the Crowd [Extended 12" mix]

The Human League - Seconds

The Human League - Don't You Want Me