Alden Tyrell

Due to an infatuation with Todd Terje and a host of other recent new disco music makers, I have started diverting my attention from straight techno and minimal to this revived art form. Alden Tyrell approaches disco from its 80s incarnation as Italo House. The beats are more pumping and the sound distinctly electronic, yet it still has a wistfullness for the groove and the disco ball. Its easy to see how Italo could go on to spawn genere's as diverse as EBM and trance once the gay euphoric elements are removed and all that is left is the sense of futurism and the relentless beat.
This track is off the recently released compilation of his work for Clone Records. Times Like These compiles his releases from 1999-2006 on one convenient package.

Alden Tyrell - Knockers


How can you not like a guy with all that gear and a giant robot on top?

Cluster

In a somewhat different vein from the minimalism and maximalism that has dominated my posts recently, I bring you Cluster. Sometimes grouped in with the Krautrock movement in Germany, I find the tag kosmische music more appropriate. In my limited understanding of German I believe it better describes the ambient tendencies these guys had in contrast to the metronomic insistance of most krautrock. In any case, Cluster went through many periods from pure ambient noise to an almost dub influenced sound. Cluster also had many illustrious collaborators. They worked with Michael Rother from Neu on a project called Harmonia and with Eno on a series of albums during his Berlin period (which was around the time he worked with Bowie on Low).

Cluster - Im Suden (from Cluster II)

Cluster - Hollywood (from a great Tigersushi comp called More MGM which also has Maurice Fulton and Metro Area) Update: {This file got weird and I had to remove it, sorry.}

Oh Fuck

This is going to be a tease but damn what a good tease. I just heard that Carl Craig and Basic Channel did remixes for the latest Rhythm & Sound 12." Since I have been ranting on Craig's greatness recently I was dying to check it out. So far all I have found are these snippets from Hard Wax, but damn if they don't sound good. The Craig track sounds like jacking dub(?) and the Basic reshape sounds positively epic.

Poor People Must Work - Rhythm & Sound (Carl Craig Remix)

See Mi Version - Rhythm & Sound (Basic Reshape)

Try your local record emporium or click on the Hard Wax link up above to order direct. So far I have not found them for sale as digital tracks.

Nathan Fake

I just wanted everyone to know that they could do a lot worse than picking up the latest album by Nathan Fake. Drowning in a Sea of Love has been a continual joy for a couple of weeks now and I will do my best to throw a few tracks on here soon. I had initially had expectations of it being Ulrich Schnaussy but it is so much more than that. This boy really loved My Bloody Valentine and not just the pretty parts either, some of that album had dense guitar work that was actually kind of heavy and this shares some of those moments.

Peace

Gabriel Ananda & Cio D'or

Well, its a rainy morning here in LA, but listening to this you would never know it. I have been coming around to Ananda's interpretation of house/techno for a while now. It is very similar to Dominik Eulberg's expansive interpretation of what techno can be. I remember reading somewhere that Eulberg was directly influenced by Sven Vath in the mid 90s and wanted to reinterpret that sound for today's dancefloor. Discogs says that Ananada had a similar experience with Vath and his tracks have many of the hallmarks of that mid 90s trance sound particularly the build and heavy use of melody. The difference is all in the bpm. The sound today is noticably slowed down and given more room so that a groove is allowed to develop, in contrast to the Eye Q stuff that is between 10 and 20 bpm faster.

This track is a collaboration with Cio D'or on the ace triebstoff records imprint. The 12" is a single sided vinyl with a textured back that is signed by both artists. Have at it collector scum!

Gabriel Ananda & Cio D'or - Lauschgoldengel

Germany, where the past is the future

So many things start here. Bambatta made electro from this album. Solvent's sound is just a mutated gene away from this place. The suprising thing is that unlike many classic albums when you put this on it sounds as fresh as the day it came out. The sound is bright but not too tinny and the sounds themselves just sparkle. On Futurama some of my favorite bits are when they try to imagine what the past, our current time, is like. Can you imagine what someone digging this album up in a thousand years will think? "Wow, they were more ahead in 1981 than anyone thought! I didn't think they even used computers till the 1990s and these guys are writing love songs to them."

Kraftwerk - Computer Love

John Tejada

John Tejada is one of those odd producers that are difficult to pigeon hole. He does a lot of progressive tech house sounding stuff, straight minimal tunes, indie electronica in fact it is a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes like with last years "Sweat on the Walls" he hits the nail on the head perfectly. The track just jacks and the vocal sample just makes me think of all the sweaty warehouses I have danced my ass off in. That feeling of being lost on the dance floor and then suddenly its raining from all the condensation. MMMMMM. Lost in music. I cherish those memories as if they were religious. With this track he is going with more of a progressive edge. The feeling is more anthemic than jacking with a tight little melody that runs through the whole tune. Apparently the press release is saying that this will be his last tune ever before going on to a job in the real world, but somehow I doubt it.

John Tejada - The end of it all

Matt John

Look at that sweaty gurner. That is a face that knows the dance floor.

Although I have heard very little by Matt John and liked even less, i am really digging this tune right here. His remix of 25 Bitches didn't seem different enough from the original to get too excited about but this minimal groover I found the other day is nice.

I am home with a sick baby today so the post will be short and sweet check out the tune and if you like it buy the EP.

Matt John - Hologramm

Stolen from Boing Boing because we all need to know this

DOJ moves in dark of night to quash EFF wiretapping lawsuit
Kurt sez, "Early Saturday morning, in the darkest hours of the night, the Department of Justice made good its threat to file a motion to dismiss our class-action lawsuit against AT&T, contending that AT&T's collaboration with the NSA's massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications (which violates the law and the privacy of its customers)--despite being front page news throughout the United States and the subject of government press conferences and Congressional hearings--is a state secret. The motion was accompanied by declarations by Lieutenant General Keith B. Alexander, Director, National Security Agency and John D. Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence. We will vigorously oppose this motion. Donate to EFF and help stop the illegal spying!" Link (Thanks, Kurt!)

Furry Plant

Richard Woflsdorf - Buena Onda

Nice to see him working with a 4/4 kick again.

{In case no one figured it out this is Villalobos working under a different name, check out the 12" the other side is a 5 min remix that is a bit more to the point}

Growing up

I was really fortunate to grow up in the home I did. We had our ups and downs but at the end of the day my parents thought about their kids before they thought of themselves and that makes all the difference in the world.

I think that I got my love for music in the home. We always had a decent stereo and in 80 or 81 my family moved into a house that my dad had the foresight to have wired for sound. You could listen to what was playing in the living room throughout the house and although the speakers were pretty basic it thrilled me to no end as a kid. TECHNOLOGY.

My dad loved the Beatles, Barry White, and of course FM radio. I remember disco and rock radio being on most of the time providing a steady backbeat to my childhood.

Here is one of Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra's offerings from those days.

Love Unlimited Orchestra - Strange games and things

Another great memory from those times is roller skating. In what I guess was my first connection to clubs, my parents used to drop me and my brother off at the skating rink on Fridays to spend a couple hours skating around in a circle and attempting not to bust our asses. I wasn't really interested in girls at the time but always felt kind of odd when I had no one to skate with for couples skating. I can just see the lights going low and the disco ball casting its reflection on the smooth wooden floor when I hear this Earth, Wind and Fire track.

Earth, Wind and Fire - Fantasy



I can't say that I was fortunate enough to have my family blasting Marvin throughout the house through the 70s. We were a little hip but by no means cool. However, when my dad hit his middle age/seperated blues he took up driving a fast car and listening to 80's R&B. Sade, Anita Baker, Marivn, as long as it was loving music my dad rocked it. At the time I was a little shit about it and wanted to blast the Butthole Surfers whenever I got in his car. In the end I think we ended up influencing the other more than we thought. I got into the R&B later on and he likes New Order and the Cure. He loved the Sexual Healing era Marvin but this track is pure Balearic bliss.

Marvin Gaye - After the Dance

Drifting

Since it has never been my intention to make this site an exclusively dance music centered blog, I am going to divert today and play a few tracks that at their heart retain the qualities of repetition and beauty that I enjoy most in dance music.

First off is the old man to the left. John Cage was a towering figure in experimentalism during his lifetime. If you know it or not his ideas have influenced how all of us perceive sound. Dance music and its branches have been particularly shaped by the ideas he had about sound as an end in itself.
Neveretheless I am not playing one of his more experimental works. I really love this piano piece that he did early on in his career. It is very melodic and restful and sometimes that just hits the spot.

John Cage - In a Landscape

From Cage I want to move on to more contemporary themes. As I mentioned my love for repetition (like a monkey with a cymbal, the joy of repetition is really...) above I wanted to post a couple of tracks that could easily be considered "rock" but to me seem so much more.

Ghost is a band that I posted about on my first week on. Since hardly anyone was paying attention at that time I don't feel to bad about coming back to their music. The review at the link I posted on their name will do a much better job at informing you about them than I could so don't be afraid to click through. The least information you need to know is that they are Japanese hippies that can jam. Repitition is a big part of what they do but not as much as the following group.

Ghost - Ganagmanag

Finally there is Circle. This band is still somewhat of a mystery to me. I have two of their albums and a number of free floating tracks, but the albums differ quite greatly in production quality and to a degree style. At some points they use a syth as an arpeggiator and at others its just a full on Krautrock/Finnish experience. This album shows more of their jamming rock side but will take you on a trip nevertheless.

Circle - Alotus

How did I miss this?

Just picked this up for a fiver and it suprised the hell out of me. I guess I missed the hype on Mr. Bucci, if there was any. Apparently he is from the Chilean axis of evil that counts Luciano and Villalobos among its members. You can hear the connection in the programming in a couple of the trackes for sure. Lovely polyrhythms and a deep understanding of the psychedelic mindset.

This track kind of reminds me of what Dexter might have sounded like if it were influenced by deep house more than techno.

Pier Bucci - The R-8 Mooger

Like the Bucci track above, some recent tunes have really been opening up my appreciation for space within the confines of techno. The recent Carl Craig remixes are unreal. The Delia and Gavin track is good but I think the Theo Parrish I talked about here last month is just as strong and both are so wide open. The mood is so blissful.

Speaking of Villalobos here is an oldey but goody that reminds me of West Coast deep house a lot.

Ricardo Villalobos - 808 the Bass Queen (Queen of Bass Remix)

Isolee

Isolee, what can you say about a guy that makes music that would cause even a robot to shake his ass. When Beu Mont Plage came out everyone loved it. That shit was an instant classic. Western Store is just a collection of his 12"s before his first album, with a couple of remixes thrown in for good measure. Use these to enjoy your weekend and go pick up the album you cheap bastards!

Isolee - Lost

Isolee - Beu Mont Plage (Freeform Reform Part 1 & 2)

why is it I like it when Freeform remixes and is remixed but not their own stuff?

Carston Jost

I first came upon this man thanks to Lawrence. The first few Lawrence records were released under the Dial label which Jost co-founded. Their dreamy sound drew me into Dial's orbit and I was lucky enough to have a friend get an unexpected infusion of cds from a devotee in San Francisco. He burned me this album and I was lost for quite a while. Jost had obviously heard Basic Channel and his work combined their understanding of space with a bit of an emotional hook.

Carsten Jost - Krokus


Strangely, I can't hear the name Krokus without thinking of these guys. Ahh the odd blessings of growing up with Middle America FM radio.

Gotta check out this man

Thanks to a comment, I went and checked out Cameron's site electro-lights and lo and behold like a gift from the heavens is a track that has had me salivating for months now.

Go on pay a visit. He has wonderful taste.

Matmos

Matmos always seemed a little too arty for me. I admire their ability, for it takes great patience and skill to do what they do. The level of complexity they bring to electronic music is something to be admired, but it lacks something. Its a bit like the precociousness that a really talented jazz musician has on a massive solo. Sometimes it can make you feel wonderful and blow you away with skill. Other times its just a display of skill for its own sake and although I like to masturbate as much as the next guy I don't necessarily like watching it for entertainment.
Soft Pink Truth has done some great stuff though. That is Drew Daniel's(the younger member) side project. It functions for the dancefloor and he makes some killer tunes. On Matmos's new album The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth of a Beast they bring a much more melodic sensibility to their music that seems influenced by Drew's side projects. Like the last Soft Pink Truth album, which was a collection of punk and hardcore songs done in a microhouse style, the new Matmos album is a bit of a tribute. They write songs to heros. This one is done to the memory of Lerry Levan. I think it is what he might be playing if he's lived to the 21st century. A cut up druggy disco tune.

Matmos - Steam And Sequins For Larry Levan

Thanks Misty

Thanks to my wife I have a new graphic for the site. I think it expresses the feel of the site far better than my previous "flowers behind static" graphic that I cooked up at a moments notice. Lot of things going on in the world today, but first a big shout out to Stephen Colbert at the Colbert Report for doing what pretty much is a roast of Bush at the White House correspondents dinner. Here is a direct link to the speech. Check it out. Its worth it if just to hear the nervous laughter of the crowd as Bush is mocked to his face.

As far as music goes lets start off the week on a melencholic disco note with a track off of Triple R's compilation Flashback. This is Mondo Cane.

Youthanasia - Mondo Cane