This is a perfect mix for the weekend. Some of you may know Bing Ji Ling from his work with Incarnations and also the Phenomenal Handclap Band with next up a new release from his Paqua project alongside Paul Murphy and Alex Searle on the Claremont label. Some hot debuts on this mix – the aforementioned Paqua, a Quantic/Alice Russell track that isn’t out yet, and a new PHB track that will be a B-side at some point in the future. Also on the mix is one of our favourites, ‘Toda Menina Baiana’ by Gilberto Gil. It’s a beauty of a mix actually. First out of the balearic traps for us this year and if we can post more like this I’ll be a happy man. The mix is called “Mex-i-coastin’” as he just spent six weeks in Mexico scouring the Pacific Coast from Mazunte, Oaxaca to Sayulita, Nayarit. We are about to do the Mexican tourist office a favour here (not that it needs one) and post some of Bing’s photographs from his trip. I need to get there. Download

Haven’t done a mix this year so happy to welcome Steve Kotey to get the ball rolling. I like the way when Steve sent the mix through he’d put the genre as ’1976 Porno Soundtrack’. If that doesn’t give you a clue where its going we are talking full on sleazy disco. Steve is pretty busy right now. Firstly, he is working on a new project with Andrew Meecham of Emperor Machine called Grand Corporation. It’s mostly analogue based house music with plenty of Chicago references. Releases coming on the ‘good to see them back’ Classic as well as 2020 vision / Redux. The Classic release has Jeremy Glen on vocals. Then there’s his Soiree project with Max Essa whose Zim Zim track I played a lot. Cheeky and funny but then with a serious edge apparently the new album has lots of crazy vocal action from Max. Steve says “if “Flight of the Concords” made New Wave, Disco and Krautrock it might sound like this”. It’s coming on Bearfunk in the summer. He’s then got his My Ambassadors Reception label with some great releases this year with new projects from Loud-E with ‘Loudefied Vol.II’, Albion returning with ‘Mixtura II’ [...]

SUN ARAW & M. GEDDES GENGRAS MEET THE CONGOS / ICON GIVE THANK / RVNG ITNL. / FRKWYS VOL. 9 Innergaze’s Not Not Fun groove, Hype Williams’ post-Aphex melodies, shards of King Sunny Ade Ju Ju guitar. Shattered into Morse. ON-U’s gotta be the obvious reference. ‘Some Bizarre’ or The Missing Brazilians. Bim’s work with the Singers & Players. Sweet vocals dodge bass detonations. Calm, confident footsteps through a minefield. This ain’t Reggae it’s a meditation. RVNG Soundcloud PAQUA / VISITOR / CLAREMONT 56 The music could be Smith & Mudd, but it’s the vocal that sets this tune apart. It’s bugging me, ‘cos it really reminds me of someone. Something. It`s not the Batteau brothers, because they sound like Weller. Or rather Weller sounds like them. A blue-eyed bossa with strong Jazz undertones. Terry Reid`s ‘River’, maybe. This is the sort of essential that Moonboots digs up. The sort of folk that Giles would play. The stuff they call Free Soul here in Japan. Claremont 56 Soundcloud NUEL / TRANCE MUTATION / FURTHER Gentle acoustic loops. Six strings and live percussion from Airto’s suitcase. Tambourines, finger bells, gongs and seashells lapping at a secluded shore. Wary of gathering storm [...]

For those of you with an iPad of if you just want the PDF then you can click this link and hopefully you’ll be able to download it. Download Test Pressing – A Random Function #1

This was an experiment. Something I planned to do last January after reading Jah Wobble’s “Memoirs Of A Geezer”. Then the events of last year took over, and it lost its place in the “To Do” list, but with the “Metal Box In Dub” gig coming closer I thought it might be good time resurrect it. I pulled out all the music that Wobble mentions in his autobiography and stitched it together. I wanted to see/hear it these influences made themselves apparent in his work. The rebel music of The Dublineers, El Chocolate and Marley. The dread of Big Youth, Augustus Pablo and John Martyn’s Compass Point LP. Miles’ claustrophobia, and the funk of The Isleys and Jimmy Castor (RIP). The heart and soul of Om Kalsoum. The African rhythms of King Sunny Ade and Salif Keita. And the bass-lines of The O’Jays, Larry Graham, Laswell, and Cecil McBee. I was quite surprised by the result, and this is likely a reflection of the honesty of the man. Geezer? I`m not sure. Where I come from “Geezer” would suggest more of a flick of the toes, more of a “ducker and diver”. Wobble never really comes across as that. A [...]

Classic classic cover of The Face here by Neville Brody from May 1984. Probably my favourite. I think its just the colours and huge brody type. It’s like the word ‘ELECTRO’ was made for him. So killer cover and a great piece. Their intro says it all really. “Rapid and solid, fast and frantic, the Electro beat is the new Sound of the City – as stimulating as the urban jungle that spawned it. Dismissed as a craze, a novelty, denounced as a sinister robot music devoid of ‘real’ emotion, it proved to be a tough see that took root on England’s pavements. And with it came a style and an attitude; a zany improvisation on the digital pulse of the age. David Toop tracks the rise of the Beat Box and asks: Wotupski, Bug Byte? Paul Rambali meets the Future Tribe, the B-Boys. B for British. Photographs by Steve Pyke and Patricia Bates.” (Excuse my bad scanning and comping work. Need an A3 scanner at some point.)

Dr Rob in the reviews corner with new releases from Scenario, Golf Channel, Andy Blake’s new In Plain Sight imprint, Jansen Jardin, Beard Science, Rogue Cat Sounds, Emotional Rescue (more on them to follow) and Claremont 56. PANORAM / ACCENTS / SCENARIO A fusion-influenced, less freaked, Dam-Funk. Maybe more concerned with modal than Rick James or Mandre. Keyboard feedback fizzes above thoughtful bass-lines. In some places, there is Pulsinger’s Dogmatic sequences, City Lights II, in it`s references and feel. Marc Moulin’s Placebo or Sam Suffy for 2012. A Sybarite gone Jazz not Modern Classical, if you’re looking for someone slightly more contemporary. This beat’s broken but it’s only whispering it’s pain. Scenario on Soundcloud. DOMINIK VON SENGER / ONLY LOVE / JUJU & JORDASH / JEWSEX / SPIKE / NEW GERMANY / GOLF CHANNEL Golf Channel has a load of stuff lined up for 2012, and the few things they have let us hear so far are pretty varied. Dominik Von Senger pairs up with Thomas Bullock on ‘Only Love Can Take Us Home’. A reverbed motorik pulse, shades of Holger Czukay and space rock guitars recalling classic Pierce and Kember. Like The Laughing Light Of Plenty, having taken the [...]

These are all taken from the highly recommended book The Graphic Language Of Neville Brody. As we’ve said before we have always loved his work, including his layouts and work on small icons around the pieces in The Face. These are six typefaces he developed during the periods of 1979 and 1986. Typeface One / 1979 Typeface Two / 1984 Typeface Three Typeface Four / 1985 Typeface Five / 1985 Typeface Six / 1986

Thanks to Phil Mison.

Thanks to Todd for putting our tune in this list. I didn’t cut and paste it at the top honest guv. You can see the whole piece at the Smalltown Supersound website. 35 TRACKS I PLAYED TO DEATH IN 2011 BY TODD TERJE Apiento – The Orange Place Phreek Plus One – La Spirale (Justin V mix) Agoria – Panta Rei (Balearic mix) Magnus International – Gamlefar Murphy Jax – It´s The Music (Alden Tyrell mix) Traks – Wild Safari (edit) Cos Ber Zam – Ne Noya (Daphni mix) Tanner Ross – B-Side Bobbettes – This Ain´t Really Love (edit) Doc Severinsen – Be With You (Harvey edit) Brass Roots – Good Life Say When – Save Me (edit) Men With Sticks – 3rd Eye (Dixon version) Fela Kuti – No Possible (Joystick Jay mix) Haze & Noir – Around (Solomun mix) Robag Wruhme – Donnerkuppel D.A.F. – Brothers Chagrin d´Amour – Eden Nouba (Joakim edit) Johannes Heil – From Within Dreamhouse – I Can Feel It Czerwone Gitary – Ucze Sie Zyc (Pink Disco Corporation edit) Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonrs – I Was On My Way To Hell Kwanzaa Posse – Musika (Murk mix) Sharon Bailey – Cosmic [...]

A Balearic Version Excursion, at their Satanic Majesties’ request. J.B.C – We Love You (Creation) 1990 Steven Proctor being boiled. An Andy Blake favourite. Ryuichi Sakamoto – We Love You (Virgin) 1990 Robert Wyatt on vocals and highlife guitars. West India Company – O Je Suis Seul (Editions EG) 1989 Dr Patterson & Mr Weatherall on the remix. Disconnection – We Love You (I.R.S.) 1984 Rolling Stones – We Love You (Decca) 1967 Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel? The Hardway Brothers – A Diabolical Liberty (I`m A Cliché) 2011 Good to know that Sean Hardway still has a strong sense of humour. You can hear the Joanna’s on this one.

As Rodigan gets his well earned MBE for services to broadcasting I thought I’d run this little interview that I did for a website I was working on for Kiss a few years back. David Rodigan is an industry legend, period. For the last 30 years he’s spread good, good reggae and dancehall to the masses, and since 1990 he’s done so on Kiss. Here he talks dancefloor democracy, the history of Kiss, Perry Mason and why it’s all about the guy in Hornchurch. How did you get into music in the first place? It was the 1960s, Ready Stay Go was the hit TV show, there was early ska music and I was a young mod. I heard Prince Buster’s ‘Ten Commandments’ and ‘Al Capone’, two iconic recordings at that time, and I got hooked. What turned me on to that music was the rhythmic pressure and this crazy beat that was the wrong way round. It was so infectious. Describe your style… I will play anything from the hottest dubplate to something from the early 1960s – I believe you should play across the board and entertain most of the people. What’s the buzz of being a DJ? [...]

A Trevor Horn record probably sits somewhere in your record collection or laptop so we decided he’d be the perfect producer to focus on in the first of our Producers Series for this year. Horn has had a very long career starting off working with disco acts Tina Charles and Biddu in his early days alongside Geoffrey Downes with whom he formed Buggles who of course had the massive hit ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ thanks in large to the newly launched MTV. From Buggles he got involved in the Yes set up, briefly becoming lead singer, before focussing on producing for them. From here it’s been a long journey of buying Island Record’s Basing Street studio from them and renaming it Sarm, being involved in the early days and creation of the Art Of Noise, the birth of the ZTT label, and producing truly ground breaking music for Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones and many others. He was clearly a lover of the synclavier, a hugely expensive keyboard that allowed one man to become an orchestra. This he used to fine effect on ‘Slave To The Rhythm’. He’s had hit a plenty and given nightclubs a sonic boom [...]

So here we go. We got in touch with some of our friends and asked for their round-up of the year. I feel like I should have a list in here but being honest I haven’t bought many records this year as I’ve been lost in a world of Compass Point records in a project I’ve been slowly working on so doesn’t feel right to just style it out. For me though COS/MES and Tiago have both shown there’s healthy new avenues to explore in our ‘balearic’ world and generally it feels like things are coming round to our way of thinking. Mison’s Originals compilation I wrote the sleeve notes on so am biased but it got played a lot and The Killing Series 2 was edge of the seat TV from Episode 4 onwards. Here’s some picks for the year from our friends… Release of the year: DJ Abel ‘Aegean Sea’ (Non, Nº.1)  Album: Hollie Cook (Mr Bongo) Film: Midnight In Paris Re-discovery: Swimming Label: Disques Sin Thomme Book: Philip Roth ‘Nemesis’ TV Programme: Game Of Thrones DJ: Lexx/Moonboots Release(s) of the year:  1. Michael Kiwanuka ‘Tell Me a Tale’   2. DJ Abel ‘Aegean Sea’     3. Torn Sail ‘Birds’ Album: John Stammers ‘S/T’ [...]

Dawdle & Hustle is the new label from Jun Kitamura, an ever-present smiling face on the Tokyo club scene. The man behind Capricious records Capricious Records and the currently dormant Outergaze, sometime drinking partner of Paul Murphy and Chris Duckenfield, and one of the hosts, alongside Max Essa, of the Higher Ground events at Club Loop. I always get the feeling that I terrify Jun. Me, enthusiastically/drunkenly barking cockernee at him, that even my fellow gaijin have difficulty following, whilst feigning with my right, and giving him a friendly one to the bread-bin with my left. But he sent me vinyl. Yep vinyl. That’s how fucking nice he is. The Hustle side, ‘Sunny Spot’, is　Cosmic funk. Think Stargard. Timmy Thomas’ Africano. Brass growling like camp tigers. Wah wah licks, soaring strings and restless natives. Sun’s up. I can hear Max playing it come 5AM, but ji-tsu-wa the Dawdle side, ‘Dream’, is the one for this disco hen-o-ji-san. The happy hypnotic groove of a Stop Bajon. Gentle ivory splashes. Ripples on a pond, as nagging guitar dissonance tugs at the corners of your consciousness. Jazz chords on a hollow-bodied six-string. And wham! Suddenly you’re in Issac Hayes’ ménage a trois. Barry [...]

We get sent quite a few amazing records and are pretty crap about reviewing them (see previous post) if truth be told so Rob took it on the chin and got down to listening and writing some words. Over to Rob… The New York City art underground is alive and well. Laraaji and Blues Control (RVNG Intl.) channel La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela`s Theatre Of Eternal Music. Blues Control’s drones recall the Stars Of The Lid. The pedal steel harmonics of BJ Cole. Laraaji, a Western Nusrsat Ali Khan, his restrained but ecstatic flights the nearest you`re gonna get to the Ananda Ashram or a Laughter Meditation Workshop on vinyl. A celestial vibration. Julia Holter`s forthcoming ‘Marienbad’ had me thinking of obvious comparisons, close to the RVNG home, like Julianna Barwick and Anthony Moore, but The Beach Boys, The Penguin Café Orchestra, The Art Of Noise, Twin Sister and Claire Hammil are all in there as well. Music for the modern chamber. I’m watching the Sun melt mountain snow. Jaki Whitren and John Cartwright`s ‘Go With The Flow’ (Emotional Rescue) feels like being let into a secret. Like hanging out at the bar, early doors, in `88. Knowning nods. [...]

Going for a minimal slant. Pretty pictures and web links. All good. Buy and please your ears. 5 tracker from Wonderful Sound to get you in the Christmas spirit. Finally coming on vinyl for the heads from Running Back we have this beauty. Label says it all on this one. Running Back doing good things.

One of the best record dealers out there is Nick The Record. Am sure many of you know him and have bought records from him. Long known for selling rare disco, cosmic and loft-style rock records he is hosting a pop-up shop at LN-CC in Dalston until Thursday, after which the chosen stock will go online. We asked for some of his favourites, and the rarest, that are up for sale and here’s what he pulled out. African Suite ‘African Suite’ (US MCA LP) Nr. Mint – looks unplayed – £30 Nick says – “Killer drum & percussion heavy set from RICHIE ROME – deep disco!” Bob Chance ‘It’s Broken’ (US MORRHYTHM LP) Sealed – £50 Nick says – “Amazing left of centre disco & funk lp out of California with ‘It’s Broken’, ‘Jungle Talk’ etc…” Bravo ‘Touch Me Now’ / ‘Look At Me Baby’ (US LAUNCH 12 inch) £15 Nick says – “Great uplifting Italian ‘real’ disco tune.” Dr. Adolf Ahanotu ‘Odejimjim’ (GHANA MIRABE LP) £50 Nick says – “Includes the killer mid-tempo tune ‘Idjere’ which has the same rhythm as ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’ and some crazy keys and horn section.” Giorgio Moroder ‘Foxes’ (US CASABLANCA) 2 [...]

Joel Martin is a man of principles and probably one of the most knowledgable people I know in the world of synth-based soundtracks. He’s also part of underground heroes Quiet Village who, as their name suggests, like to slowly get on with things in their own particular way. He’s soon off to Berlin to finish the 3rd instalment of their Maxxi and Zeu project for International Feel. Next up from Joel is a new project with Gerry Rooney from Black Cock where they have created two labels – Lucky Hole and Golden Hole. You can follow/like them at the Velvet Season & The Hearts Of Gold facebook page for updates and news. We’ve heard two of the new tracks and they are bottom heavy and sleazy as can be. They are also about to remix the new project from Mo Morris and Phil Manzanera (that sounds good already) War Cry. Busy in a quiet way. Download

New mix from Peter Visti here, a DJ for over 20 years and producer of releases on Music For Dreams, Eskimo and Mindless Boogie as well as one of the men behind one of the underground hits of the last few years ‘Stars’ alongside Jakob Meyland. Early next year he’ll release his solo album ‘Illusions Of A Twisted Mind’ on Bearfunk. Look out for that one. Download