I have to say that I was very excited when I first heard of this release, the first new Model 500 record in over 10 years. The truly legendary innovator Juan Atkins has been releasing records on his Metroplex label since the mid 80s and a number of them are among my all time favourites.
Add to that the fact the Mad Mike has joined in along with some of his Underground Resistance acolytes and I really didn't need any more convincing. I was so certain it would be good that I bought it without listening to it first. I was not disappointed. I picked it up in rubadub almost a week ago now and I have been playing it over and over since.
OFI shows the new line up have updated the classic Model 500 sound of bassline, processed vocals and electro percussion. But what a bassline this time! Only UR make this kind of wonky electronic funk, and it's been a while since it was as fine as this.
The breakdown comes from nowhere and disappears as fast, but the melty synths that come in are so sweet. Then it's back to the bassline and the boom. This all adds up to a stunner for me, if a little odd in places.
Mad Mike remixes OFI on the same side where he strips it back, boosting the vocals and arpeggios and a adding a wee bit of acid burble. Very Kraftwerk. Very good. I love the way he twists the arpeggio around, it sounds a bit like he could be playing guitar to me, but who knows?
On the other side you'll find Huesca, which sounds so Detroit it hurts. It's more 4:4 than OFI, and the overall effect puts me in mind of top notch Red Planet or Galaxy 2 Galaxy, but still with a distinct Model 500 flavour. Right up my street.
This is a fucking awesome single and I really hope I don't have to wait another 10 years for the next one. This collaboration has brought the best out in everyone and reminds me why I love Detroit music so much.
Detroit electro/techno or technobass or somesuch from a few years back. I used a borrowed version of this to have the track Backslash on a mix years ago, so I couldn't resist this at less than the price of a pint.
This really is fairly ancient. First released in 1994,a time when trance wasn't a bad word. I remember hearing both sides of this record loads during the time I was first getting into clubbing and partying. I thought it was about time I picked it up.
For me its mainly about Jeroen Verheij's remix of his own track, although I still have a soft spot for Joey Beltram's remix, despite the fact its really starting to show it's age.
Half day at work then off to get the records. I picked a discogs order and got something from a shop as well. A few beers along the way and now I'm home to take it easy as I've got plans for tomorrow.
I'll start with a selection from the discogs package. I got a load of old stuff that I've planned to get for ages off the rubadub discogs. There was plenty of temptation, generally going pretty cheap and I had to restrain myself a little. I threw a load back after my initial trawl. I was also tempted to pick up some stuff I've already got because I'm sure I could punt it again for more. I guess you can take a boy out of the 80s, but.........
It's ages since I bought a Jeff Mills record, but I've been meaning to pick this one up for a while. It features on the Beer for Breakfast mix that my brother and I did a few years back. It was one of my brother's records and it came out around when I stopped chasing the Axis / Purpose Maker sound so I didn't have it.
A bit of a mistake really as this is an excellent 12. It was Cubango that we used on the mix I mentioned. The other tracks are all solid Mills techno that make me wish I could beatmatch.
Another Discogs purchase. Took a wee while to get here, but it was worth the wait.
Cottam is a fairly new act to me. I picked up the first 3 white labels (well, they were all coloured but had no info, so you know what I mean) and have become a big fan of his slow motion house and edits of R&B and african stuff.
I've been playing Cottam 2 and Cottam 3 a lot recently, while Rothko has been mixing Cottam 1a fair bit. All great stuff.
Cottam has a really excellent SoundCloud page. It's got most of the stuff he has released, including this new single, plus loads of demos of stuff the will hopefully come out later. You can even download some tracks. It's mostly un-mastered versions, so the vinyls sound better, but the difference isn't so great as to make them unworthy of a listen. I've already messaged him begging for Afro Edit 3 to get released as a single.
This new single has an excellent afro edit, an R&B style one and a couple of cool percussion and sample tracks. They've all got his trademark hypnotic, slow motion grooves and I look forward to getting to know them better.
I've added a video from youtube, but the song is wrongly named (it's actually DH-13) and is very low fidelity. It might be better to check the sound from Cottam's SoundCloud page. The EP is made up the four tracks with 'Story#3' in the title
The 13th release on Appleblim's Bristol Based Apple Pips label. I have to confess that I have picked up all of them so far. Some of them have been amongst my favourite releases over the last couple of years. They tend to be from artists that I had never heard of before and are generally a bit of a different take on Dubstep, or UK Funky or whatever. Whether they are top rated favourites or not they are consistently intersting and different releases, that give me some excitement when I see there is a new one around.
I took to the A-side of this immediately. I almost think it's quite light and poppy, with it's light breakbeats, smooth techno chords and smatterings of fat bass. Don't even mind the hints of vocals dusted around. It has a strange break in the middle with what sounds like a sample of 808 State.
I played it at the Art School, but unfortunately it managed to clear the dance floor! Shit happens though, so I haven't suddenly decided it's rubbish. I'd prefer to explain what happened with reference to 'other factors'. Anyhow, I've added a link for it so you can make up your own mind.
The second of my pre gig purchases from yesterday.
Apparently a limited edition of 100, with hand written numbers. I got number 43 of 100. I bought this mainly for the Modeselektor track, but the Ramadanman and Bok Bok contributions are both interesting as well. VW Jetta, the Modeselektor A-side is a bass heavy, acid driven stomper. I've been following their releases for a good while now and love the really consistently high quality of their releases, and the excellent sound they achieve with their production. This is no exception to the their recent string of belters.
If this is as rare as indicated, I'm not sure whether there will ever be good links to get to hear this. I've added a link to the rubadub page where you can at least get a sample. I'll change it if I can get something better later. Modeselektions Volume 1 My love of SoundCloud just keeps growing:
I popped in to rubadub on my way home from work yesterday as I like to get something new before I go out to play. I picked up 3 tasty titles. The first of them was this set of reworks on the Night Slugs label. I was only dimly aware of the label before, but I reckon I might be check it out it in a bit more detail now.
The A side is far and away the best track on this EP. Awesome chords, mammoth slabs of bass and crazy drums. What more could you ask for?
Both Rothko and I got this within the last few days, so we did have to consider who should get to play it at the Art School gig. However, since he got his first, I thought it only fair to let him have the honour and didn't even take my copy out. It really sounded great booming out of the soundsystem there.
The label shown on this video is for the original version of the track, but the audio is the right tune.
I'm playing a gig next week with a host of other luminaries. Should be quite fun. I expect it to be pretty leftfield and I plan to play a selection of favourites from the more alternative rock and electronic side of things. Not quite sure what yet, but I plan to work that out tomorrow!
This is the other internet purchase that I got delivered today. I've loved the first track, 'Commando Mix' for years. An old flatmate of mine used to play it a lot and I eventually overcame my resistance to 'industrial'. It has been on my 'to get' list for ages, but I finally cracked and bought it for 2 reasons. First, I found a nice cheap copy on Discogs, and second I think there is a good chance that I will play this at an upcoming gig.
My record buying tends to come in spurts. I get paid on the last day of each month, so I tend to go a bit crazy over the first couple of weeks of the month. I start out with the stuff I can pick up locally from Glasgow's fine shops, and I'll usually have a few things I've found on the internet. Obviously the delays involved in mail order stuff from the internet means that these turn up a bit later, and usually in dribs and drabs.
I was very happy to have my hangover interrupted this morning by the postie carrying two of those instantly identifiable packages.
The first one I opened happened to be this compilation of singles from James Brown's People Records I've already got most of the tracks from this LP on the totally awesome JBs Anthology Volume 1and Volume 2. However, there are 4 Lyn Collins tracks on this LP which made it well worth getting for me. I rationalised it as basically buying a Lyn Collins 12", and since the price was about right for this, I didn't mind duplicating a few tracks.
I've added videos for a couple of the Lyn Collins tracks and another for one of the JBs classics.
I actually bought this album last weekend, but forgot to post about it at the time. Bad habits starting already!
I went out full of excitement, looking forward to checking out the 2 new Underground Resistance singles. Unfortunately I didn't really like either of them. This was a big disappointment for me as I have consistently bought all of their releases for years now. I'm working on a separate page dedicated to my love of UR, so that might give some hint of how this hit me.
In an attempt to get over this I went off in search of alternatives to use the money I had expected to spend on UR. I bought 2 Prince LPs and a 12" of OMD Enola Gay for buttons, and then saw the vinyl of the new Arcade Fire.
I loved their first LP, but never took to the follow up. Rothko has been raving about this new one and I've liked the songs I'd heard from it so I decided to take a punt.
I've played it a few times and I'm quite impressed. I don't often listen to albums from start to finish these days, but I have enjoyed playing this one through. There is quite a range moods on this album and it certainly carries you along. I've gone a bit crazy for one of the last songs Sprawl II. Its totally atypical of the rest of the album, but its really got me hooked. I've added a couple of videos. One for Sprawl II and another for the single Ready to Start which is a bit more of a representative selection.
Almost embarrassingly, I did not have this Clash classic before now. I have most of their other albums already, but I was waiting to get the US version of this album to get the slightly different tracklist from the original UK release. The additions are drawn from singles which were released around the time.
Most important for me was White Man in Hammersmith Palais, not only one of my favourite Clash songs, but one of my favourite songs of all time. There is so much good stuff on this album that I have added videos for a dose of the tracks.
Finally managed to pick this up. I mentioned my Hyperdub obsession before and this record specifically. I liked one of the tracks off the last cooly g single so much that I bought this one without listening to it first.
I'm not too sure about the A side as it's a wee bit R&B for my taste, but the B-side is a winner.
