Have A Horrific Halloween

Sorry for the long delay between posts, things have been busy as I have been collecting pieces of my costume from thrift shops around the bay, but I wanted to share a party and some music I have been quite stoked about for the past few weeks. Tonight Gun Club, the painfully hip party organizers are throwing a Halloween party and the guest of honor is Greg Wilson, the famed DJ from Liverpool. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in the UK dance scene and is recognized for introducing electro, or electro-funk, to the UK in the early 80s. The party is at the Paradise Lounge (a new place I believe at 1501 Folsom St) , starts at 10pm and goes til 4am. Regular Gun Club DJs Ryan Poulsen and Travis TK Disco will be in attendance as well SF resident The Beat Broker. I will be in attendance and so should you.

Recently I have bought several records with GW's edits, including the new release by DFA/Rong Music newcomers Free Blood, who are, surprisingly out of Brooklyn! DFA seems intent on acquiring more and more of these new punk funk acts LCD Soundsystem has spawned. Some of them shine through with a track or two, but for the most part fall flat in my opinion (such as The Shocking Pinks and Prinzhorn Dance School). But Free Blood is offering something slightly different and reminiscent of The Faint, a darker brand of punk funk that is less centered around noise elements and more around thick vocals that bounce back and forth between shouting and whiny. I picked up their Royal Family 12" and thought it would be a fitting contribution seeing as Greg Wilson shows up on it. So here are two tracks from the 12", the new single by Free Blood "Royal Family" and Greg Wilson's version of their track "Grumpy" which takes it in a funkier direction.

Free Blood - Royal Family

Free Blood - Grumpy (Greg Wilson Version)

Also here is the video for "Royal Family". I love it, primarily for the amateur dance moves, the desert setting and the mass amount of tape machines.

So please come out tonight and celebrate, cover is $15 but I assure you will not be disappointed, and Happy Halloween!!!

Live Medicine

Since I've begun posting I have been sharing a lot of dance music that comes off of the records I've been buying, but today I figured I'd share some of the music from the albums I have been listening to lately. In particular the music of a few artists that have released new albums this year that you should definitely go and search out if you like what you hear.

First up is a track off of the remix album //Disco by Los Angeles-based noise rock group HEALTH. The album is by no means disco, but features several different bastard children of the recent nurave/electro movement in a clusterfuck of distortion, acid, glitch, and haunting Crystal Castles-like vocals. All in all it is quite excellent. In fact Crystal Castles shows up on the album as well, so if they are up your alley then definitely check this album out. The remix here comes from Pictureplane (who according to their myspace, hail from Denver) brings in some serious flavor to the noise in their remix.

HEALTH - Lost Time (Pictureplane Remix)

Moving along with more genre-bending artists we have the duo from Brooklyn, High Places. They have been around for a couple years now creating music within the vein of "new primitivism" (according to them) and have released their new self-titled album earlier this year. I hear the music more as a surprisingly successful fusion of tribal drums, nursery rhyme folk lyrics, and bell-like electronics and percussion. The textures they create transport you to a jungle paradise where the rhythm of the water in the stream nearby combines with the faint voices of forest nymphs singing lullabies to each other in the setting twilight. Listen to this track off the new album and you will know what I mean.

High Places - The Tree With The Lights In It


Similarly inventive with sonic textures, yet achieving a completely different result, fellow New Yorkers Gang Gang Dance will release their new album this week I believe and it is quite possibly one of my favorites of the year. I first heard of this group on 20JFG, but was never really blown away until I heard their new material. Their new album Saint Dymphna (which is supposedly the saint born to an Irish pagan chief and his Christian wife in the 7th century) combines clever electronic production with tribal percussion, live drumming, indie vocals and subtle hip hop influences. Dance under the pagan moon with Saint Dymphna.

Gang Gang Dance - First Communion


As you dance the night away and lose yourself in the stars you can dive into the progressive disco of Kelley Polar's I Need You To Hold On Why The Sky Is Falling. The album came out earlier this year from Environ, the wonderful label on which nudisco gods Metro Area release most of their material. Polar leaves the binds of dance beats behind on this album for a more free-form canvas of tempos and structures, but succeeds quite amazingly. His classical training comes through in the meticulousness of his compositions, but that is also his greatest challenge on the album. His voice at first didn't sit well with me but the more I listened the more I became enamored with how the elements of his music fit piecewise together. However, the vocals on this surging track fit quite perfectly with the production and sweep you away to a cosmic landscape of lights and music.

Kelley Polar - Sea Of Sine Waves

While I linked you to several convenient online locations for the albums, please go buy them at your local record store if you get a chance, Rasputin, Amoeba, or whatever you have around the corner. Help support your local record shops and they will continue to help you access great music.

Disco Adventure Aftermath

Last weekend I saw Harvey at the Mas Disco party in Oakland (which happens the first Saturday of every month or so I have been told) at the Oasis Restaurant and Lounge. The venue is awesome, with an outdoor patio surrounded by windowless soaring cement walls attached to the dance floor. Harvey was amazing, as was to be expected, combining lost remnants of disco, electro funk and house together with incredible ease. Several of his aforementioned Black Cock edits were played as well including "Disco Adventure" which is featured on Harvey Sarcastic Disco. I hadn't been to this fun of a party for a while, I only wish it could have lasted longer.

Last week Alain Finklekrautrock posted two new edits by Pilooski, one of the most exciting edit producing DJs of the last few years, here on their blog. The first is quite an incredible edit of Elvis Presley's "Crawfish" which has been on repeat for me all week, definitely on the order of his Pointer Sisters, Del Shannon, John Miles, and Frankie Vallie edits. Both of the tracks have been leaked and I will be sure to let you know when they come out for purchase, but until then I will share with you the track "WCTBL" by Pilooski and Cedric Marzewski (one half of the exciting new Discodeine act) under the alias Pski. It comes off of the 7" WCTBL pressed on blue vinyl and I am unfamiliar with the sample, but the soulful voice of the woman singing combined with the churning fuzz and pops produce quite a little jam.

Pski - WCTBL

I never followed Badly Drawn Boy as much as I probably should have, but the other week I picked up the Promises Remixes release because of the three artists doing the remixes, Reverso 68, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, and A Mountain Of One. All three have been mentioned before on Disco Horror, and all three deliver in a big way on this release, giving distinct, amazing interpretations of the original "Promises". Today I've decided to share with you the Beyond The Wizards Sleeve remix, as I have shared a Reverso 68 remix and several AMO1 tracks before. Enjoy this beautiful rendition that where BTWS back off on the brash percussion and chopped song structure they often opt for on their other reanimations such as Simian Mobile Disco's "Love" and Late Of The Pier's "The Bears Are Coming".

Badly Drawn Boy - Promises (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Reanimation)

Lastly I'd like to share a few versions of the song "Why Can't We Live Together" by Timmy Thomas which my friend over at Robots In Heat shared with me last week and which coincidentally sprung up over at Dilated Choonz around the same time. First, Robots In Heat shared with me the hauntingly beautiful and sparse original version from 1972 with nothing but organ and a drum machine supporting Timmy Thomas' wonderful voice. Then RIH posted a version of the song by Sade from 1984 which adds more orchestration to the song with guitar, bass, and what sounds like live percussion, mellowing out the orgran but bursting into a funked out chorus later in the song. Then Dilated Choonz posted an exclusive new edit of the original by edit master Underdog here and then! they posted another version by Mike Anthony from 1982 which much more overt in energy and takes the song in the disco direction. Quite amazing to see the three interpretations of an incredible original.

I Feel Electric

I first heard of Rubies earlier in the year when I picked up their I Feel Electric 12" for a version by Studio of their track "Room Without A Key", which is absolutely brilliant, but I don't need to go on about Studio any more. That release also came with "I Feel Electric", an upbeat track with shimmering synths and sweet harmonies. Today I have for you a remix by Tiedye, the new act off of Italians Do It Better, who, like Studio, hail from Sweden (on an aside... why is everything out of Scandinavia so fucking cool?). Tiedye extend Rubies' original with verby guitars similar and beautiful vocals, but where the Studio version keeps the energy at a typically mellow level, the Tiedye remix builds to a momentous climax like a wave surging over you, sweeping you away to a tropical sunset. I really can't put it into words so just give it a listen, you will not regret it.

Rubies - I Feel Electric (Tiedye Remix)

Italian disco god Daniele Baldelli needs no introduction. He is respected as one of the greatest DJs of all time and revered as the father of cosmic disco. Earlier this year he released a mixed compilation on Eskimo with fellow Italian Marco Dionigi titled Cosmic Disco?! Cosmic Rock!!. While I haven't heard the mix yet, I did pick up one of the samplers (there are two) and it has enticed me to seek it out. The title is quite on the money with the three tracks included in Part Two so I won't bother you with a description, so here is one of the B-side tracks by electro, new wave group The Dream Syndicate off of their 1986 album Out Of The Grey.

The Dream Syndicate - 50 In A 25 Zone

Maurice Fulton has been a force to be reckoned with in house music since the late 1990s and now he has a new album released by DFA under the moniker Syclops, where he produces and works with several studio musicians. The new album, I've Got My Eye On You, has an organic feel for electronic music, including live drums, piano and acoustic bass in addition to wild synth work. At times it can be a little too progressive and freeform for me, but this track holds down the fort with a classic house feel that I am truly a sucker for lately. The track then drifts off into a jazzy realm that doesn't get too caught up in itself like other parts of the album.

Syclops - S Out