Wooooooooooolfy

Bored at work on a Friday -> two posts today, enjoy

Some live updates for alls yous out in the world wide web... who also live in San Francisco. Tomorrow night Darshan Jesrani (one half of Metro Area) is playing at The Triple Crown at 1760 Market. Cover is $10 and it's a pretty nice space, haven't heard the system, but it should be good fun. And then next weekend there are two events you should be aware of: First is Gun Club's 3 Year Anniversary on Friday night (March 6th) with Maurice Fulton at Paradise. $10 presale, tickets here. Then on Saturday, Mas Disco is hosting Woolfy at Oasis in Oakland (Harvey played there in October and rawked it). $5 before 11, but be mindful it's a DJ set not a live show :(.

In honor of the beardy man himself, I thought I'd share a few remixes I recently picked up of some of his material. First up we have one of the two remixes by In Flagranti on this Oh Missy 12" (there are two - one with In Flagranti remixes, the other with mixes by Whatever Whatever). I've learned the original is from this comp that was released in 2006, but now is getting rereleased with these mixes. Both In Flagranti remixes take the track in opposite directions. The xenon mix is a steady italo house mover in the typical flagrant style, but the meat-packing mix is all over the place with samples from the original chopped up into a whirring maelstrom of dirty, bloody synthwork, like a finely cooked dance meatloaf. Mmmmmmmm.

Woolfy - Oh Missy (In Flagranti's Meat-Packing Mix)

Then there is this remix 12" of the two big tracks off of Woolfy vs. Projection's amazing album from last year The Astral Projections of Starlight. Here we have a mellow reworking of "The Return Of Starlight" by Invisible Conga People (they have a rad 12" Cable Dazed/Weird Pains on IDIB). It pretty much sounds like A nice mellow follow-up to the sex-on-acid-in-a-dark-euro-club-meat-packing-mix above.

Woolfy vs. Projections - The Return Of Starlight (Invisible Conga People Remix)

Breaking down the doors of hell... with your bare fists

Well maybe that's a bit of a dramatic title. Actually, no it's not, because Zombi's new album Spirit Animal deserves something far more epic than that. This album should be the soundtrack to an animated epic by Boris Vallejo (if he did such a thing I might flip) about a war between good and evil at the gates of hell, where demons clash with holy warriors clad in white armor. This is what horror film music should sound like! Ambient metal electronica that jams and rides arpeggios out in a thrashing that wears on you the way a drawn out silence does before the zombies burst through the door and start chewing on people. Sure A.E. Paterra and Steve Moore (aka Lovelock) are paying massive tribute to Goblin and the Dario Argento's horror masterpieces of the late 1970s, but who cares, they do it really well! This shit makes me want to spend a week in the desert tripping on peyote and find my spirit animal. You can find the title track here at 20JFG and there is also a split album they did with Maserati that is pretty dope, but for now here is the second track from the album, and one of my favorites.

Zombi - Spirit Warrior

Also check this recently released remix of Zombi's "Sapphire" by Escort (the track of theirs that appears on Prins Thomas' Cosmo Galactic Prism). It adds a pinch of balearic guitars to the mix and you should probably put it on when you decide to head back to civilization and leave the desert mountains behind. Otherwise, you might get lost in the wilderness forever.

Zombi - Sapphire (Escort Remix)

SCIENCE: IS VANGELIS’S ‘EARTH’ BETTER THAN SEX?

Cross-posted at Mind Grapes

LOL: remember when you were in high school, and your favorite bands were Minor Threat and Chain of Strength, and you actually got in arguments with people about NY vs. NJ hardcore, and you had an email correspondence with that one dude from Kid Dynamite and cuffed your jeans all the way up to, like, your knee and told people you were going to get a tattoo that said “Poison Free” and you were a sanctimonious little prick who hated hippies and prog rock and mellow-ass grooves?

Newsflash: that was you being corny. This is you being cool: taking up carpentry; buying a poncho; smoking a ton of weed; growing a beard; owning some kind of mutt dog that follows you everywhere; giving the dog a bandana; carving, like, walking sticks, or something; worshipping the sun; curing your own meat; going to the sweat lodge; listening to Vangelis’s Earth on your hi-fi (note: this is the only thing you actually need to do to be cool).

The real deal is: you sitting there, listening to your Lindstrøms and your Mountains of One and your Sebastién Telliers, you are listening to Vangelis records, and you don’t even know it. Homie: Vangelis is it; the guy who invented all the music you listen to. I say start with Earth but anything before, say, ’86, is undeniable. Be cool again, dude. Be a Vangelis fan.

Vangelis - The City

Vangelis - We Were All Uprooted

RAVE OR DIE!!!

Nobody loves a good rave more than me. Putting on my platform leather boots, strapping on my cookie monster backpack filled with glowsticks, Vicks vapor rub, pacifier, cat ears, and orange juice and showering myself in glitter before going to a stadium show with eye piercing lasers and listening to some good ol PvD! Of course then there's the nu ravers, which aren't really ravers at all but just kids in LA who like to rage blacked-out to blog house and Flosstradomus.

Marrying the two somewhere along the way is the French label Institubes with their prodigious young producer Surkin, one of the only producers out of the nurave scene to seriously check out (I don't post much on this genre any more but I would also recommend his labelmate Para One, Digitalism, and Boys Noize). It deserves some serious blasting and a large arena filled with a throng of dancers. Or you can do what I do and blast while dancing around your room on a Monday night until your roommates tell you it's 930 and their walls are shaking. Either way this is anthemic awesome rave music which originally came out about a year ago, but has now gotten a remix release with Chromeo adding vocals over the original production. I'll throw both in cuz right now I love you man, I mean we don't say it enough, but I really love you and we really should become the best of friends! Btw can I have some of your water? What's your name again?

Surkin - White Knights Two


Surkin - Chrome Knight (feat. Chromeo)

HUGH MASEKELA, MORE LIKE, HUGH MASEKELAWESOME

Cross-posted at Mind Grapes

I don’t know that much about South African music, or about jazz, so I’m not going to embarrass myself by trying to drop some knowledge about how Hugh Masekela is the greatest jazzist ever born on the Dark Continent. What I do know about, is being mellow as fuck, so I feel qualified to say: I Am Not Afraid is the raddest, mellowest album from the year 1974, which was a pretty mellow year, all things considered, and it might be the mellowest album of all time.

There’s a temptation with shit like this to be all, oh, life, in Africa, is so relaxed, and authentic, and, like, sunny, all the time, that obviously, Africans would just make music that sounds like that. And I am tempted! But the deal is—South Africa was not, um, a particularly mellow place in the 1970s, or really, any time at all, for black folks especially. And Hugh is not an apolitical dude, for what it’s worth. But. But. I Am Not Afraid is 100% mellow, beautiful and relaxed, with grooves aplenty; its an album that goes everywhere an nowhere, the musical equivalent of bullshitting over brunch on a Sunday afternoon. I love this album, unreservedly, and someday I’ll write 8,000 words about it, but right now I recommend you pack a bowl and kick it with “In the Market Place,” which is about being in a market place, I think.

Hugh Masekela - In the Market Place

Also, in case you're interested, here's an Oscars write-up I did over at my site Mind Grapes. I laugh, I cry, I call Danny Boyle Scottish, the internet gets mad at me. What a life!

Durrrrrrrrtttty

So hopefully by now you've heard Pilooski's edits of Elvis' "Crawfish", Del Shannon's "Gemini", The Pointer Sister's "Send Him Back", or, now famous for its use on an Adidas commercial, Frankie Vallie's "Beggin". If you haven't, then shame on you, because as the genre of "disco edits" balloons with posers looping intros and outros to tracks, dubbing out the vocals, or bootlegging the latest obscure disco track they heard from a Harvey mix, Pilooski is one of the names that shines through for his spectacular work truly reinterpreting music from the past. The 12"s of these tracks released on Dark & Lovely are now impossible to find and are selling for ridiculous amounts on second hand markets worldwide.

But the D*I*R*T*Y label that brought you Dirty Space Disco comp (with the edit of John Miles' "Stranger In The City" - which is incredible), have also released compilations of these edits with some additional nuggets thrown in for good measure. Latest to receive release is Dirty Edits Vol. 2, which rumor has it will be the final release of edits from the Dirty Soundsystem crew (they have other newer projects from artists such as Discodeine). The comp contains the Del Shannon and Elvis edits along with the oddball house Holger Hiller b-side edit from that 12". I have no idea where you can buy the compilation, but search the internet a bit and you should be able to find it pretty easy. But I wanted to share this track with you today: an edit of Jackson Jones' "I Feel Good, Put Your Pants On" (which should win an award for the title alone). You may recognize it from James Murphy & Pat Mahoney's Fabriclive mix. Groovy beardy magic that strings out the original.

Jackson Jones - I Feel Good, Put Your Pants On (Pilooski Edit)

Also, last week I finally watched The Night Of The Hunter, a pretty incredible film from the 1950s, also title of Tussle's new album. This track appeared on Dirty Edits Vol. 1 and is an abridged version of the charmingly haunting track played in the film, highly recommended.

Mono Puff - Pretty Fly

Knee Deep

This was another score from the trip to Rasputin the other day. It's funny because I used to play and be into jazz in a very pretentious way (those days are now over), but when I first read the review for this album on allmusic.com it tore into it. Whether the album is as eclectic as Hancock's more avant-garde works or as timeless as his first trips into funk on Headhunters or Thrust, the reviewers tone was what got to me. After giving the record a measely 1/5 stars, he writes "Herbie falls hook, line and sinker for the disco fad and submerges his personality underneath the plastic vocals and four-on-the-floor disco beat." WTF is that supposed to mean? Is disco beneath him? What a dick thing to say. Either way Hancock's shortlived journey into disco yielded some seriously funky hits (perhaps cheesy at points, but dripping with gospel and smooth vocoders) and I'm sure the disco community was happy to have him. The hit off of Feets Don't Fail Me Now was "Tell Everybody" but there is another b-side slower mover that I was intrigued by, "Knee Deep". Today I feel like sharing both so enjoy these two from 1979.

Herbie Hancock - Tell Everybody

Herbie Hancock - Knee Deep

Also, for a change of pace, the other day spotted this on ILM. The video to Fever Ray's "When I Grow Up". Bizarre video, so naturally I love it. Also check the vimeo site for the video to "If I Had A Heart". Supremely dark and lovely videos that make your skin crawl.

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

Je T'Aime

I picked through Rasputin's used records last night and stopped by the new electronica section as well. Usually I'm not crazy about the selection, but I spotted this Je T'Aime 12" by Armand Van Helden that features a Simian Mobile Disco remix. SMD is one of my favorite acts of the last few years, amazing live sets and Attack Sustain Decay Release was an incredible album. Bring back this kind of acid funk dance goodness. The rest of the 12" is some of the most predictably boring and forgettable house music you can lay your hands on nowadays, but the SMD remix is dark ambient goodness with some boomy lowend synths covered on top by sine wave effects that rise up before dipping below the deck of the bass drum's thump. Oh and I just found out they are touring the west coast in March, coming to the Mezzanine on March 15th, so prepare yourself.

Armand Van Helden - Je T'Aime (Simian Mobile Disco Remix)

I saw you dancing with the human

So I first heard of The Juan Maclean from his monstrous anthem of a little more than a year ago "Happy House" (some might dispute this song is a major rip of Dubtribe Sound System's "Do It Now", but I don't care because I heard "Happy House" first and it is awesome). He's been around a while, previously as a member of Six Finger Satellite, but his recent work on DFA is what's getting me all giddy. I wasn't really anticipating the album to be any good, but The Future Will Come is actually totally rad. I was worried more funky drawn out house with Nancy Whang from LCD Soundsystem singing indie lyrics about robots over cheesy string and piano synths might get boring, but it does not disappoint! Sure it's got your driving anthemic indie house tracks like the aforementioned Happy House and Juan's other single "The Simple Life" plus a new mover "One Day" (you can hear it on RVNG's playlist for this month). But my favorite parts of the album come when he keeps the tempo below 125, particularly the title track, "Accusations", and this groover that grinds out a funky acid synth line. So shut your mouth and enjoy the jubilant casa, oh and Happy Valentine's Day.

The Juan Maclean - No Time

Love is all you need

Forgive the hippie title, but I was getting tired of Happy blah blah blah holiday titles for blogs and felt like being cheesy. But that's besides the point, I finally managed to get a recording I'm moderately pleased with of this mix I've been conjuring up over the last few months. It has a few shaky mixes, but it's chocked full of some of my favorite tracks, disco edits and originals with some newer material thrown in for good measure. It was one of those annoying mixes where I starting stringing tracks together and then spiraled into something completely different about a hundred times before I chose the tracklist. This one is meant for the more upbeat bearded nights so enjoy!

Fear The Beard Mix


Jacques Renault - Bad Skinned Effect // RVNG
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Please Mrs. Henry // Polydor
Hell Vice - Crawfish (Pilooski Edit) // Dark & Lovely
Soft Rocks - Slowdown // Soft Rocks
L.E.B. Harmony - Feeling Love // Elaste
Sylvia Love - Extraterrestrial Lover (JAZ Edit) // Beard Science
Mighty Pope - Sweet Blindness // Warner Bros.
Gordon's War - The Rock Is Gonna Get You // Rusty's Dusty Disco
Douglas Sound - Do Right // Wurst
C. Denner - Not The Indian // Moxie
Loud-E - Y.O.Y. // Ambassador's Reception
Bonar Bradberry - Tumbledown // Mindless Boogie
Jackmaster Dahle - Vesuvio (Prinsens Disko Deluxe) // Full Pupp
Mudd & Pollard - Scaffold // Claremont 56
Nite Jewel - Artificial Intelligence // Gloriette Records

House Of House

So I have some unfortunate news. The 222 Club in the Tenderloin has closed. I am not sure why but apparently the owner has made the decision and it's truly unfortunate because Jaxon and I were quite looking forward to venues for our Beards Of A Feather party we were planning on throwing there at the end of the month. But now we are back on the lookout for a new venue. I hate the promotional aspect of DJing but I guess it comes with the territory. Anyways, if you know any venues that would be fitting for a beardo dance party please email me!

I do have a treat for you today though. Whatever We Want Records has released another monster track on us that blows away all other piano house anthems created over the past few years. Appropriately named, the label's new member House of House, is Olivier Spencer and Saheer Umar. Both tracks on their 12" Rushing To Paradise are absolutely incredible, my favorite material on the label since Map Of Africa. I wont even attempt to describe it to you, I just want you to stop reading here and listen to the genius behind this new epic, the b-side isn't too shabby either, enjoy!

House Of House - Rushing To Paradise (Walkin' These Streets)
(removed as per artist's request, listen here. Buy here!)

VISION CREATION UGHGGHG I JUST KILLED MYSELF

Cross-posted at Mind Grapes

So like a lot of fairly well-adjusted people I am skeptical of anyone who is 'into music.' For the most part I cannot distinguish between these kinds of people and people who are 'into porn' and do things like go to porn industry conventions and discuss pornographic movies extensively on the internet. At least with porn freaks there's some element of--well, sexuality is part of human nature, or something. Music, it's just like--no. Just, no.

Anyway I bring this up because the new Boredoms Super Roots is out. The Boredoms are one of those noisy Japanese punk bands worshipped by every director of web content and freelance writer from Clinton Hill to Echo Park; their shows look like a plaid shirt convention and are probably the worst places on the planet to find a boyfriend. You know: they're one of those bands that people who are 'into music' like.

Except they're actually pretty rad. And who am I kidding, anyway; you're reading about music on the internet, which means that unless you're Ash's mom or something you're 'into' music and you know who the Boredoms are, and you're probably masturbating right now in your Throbbing Gristle t-shirt and listening to a leaked copy of Super Roots 10. You gross me the fuck out, but whatever. So this is what I wanted to share: there's a Lindstrøm remix on this one (you can find it at 20JFG, among other places), and it basically kicks ass. But it's not the first time EYE (you know, the Boredoms dude) and Hans-Peter have crossed paths. Here's EYE's remix of "Contemporary Fix," a shifting, stuttering, funny little thing, a 3 a.m. middle-of-the-set game-changer, one of those tracks that winds you up, and down, at the same time. Suggested drug: mushrooms, caffeine, banana peels.

Lindstrøm - Contemporary Fix (EYE Remix)