For the love of...

It has been a long time since I blogged, mainly due to time issues, but now I'm back, and there is one overriding reason for my return to the blogosphere...I am absolutely livid. Literally (not...literally, but you know) spitting feathers here. The reason?

HELPERS - Genesis
Uploaded by HELPERS. - Sitcom, sketch, and standup comedy videos.

A charming, EU subsidised, propaganda campaign against smokers that seems to specifically target children (the age for signing up to updates is 10, and it looks like something you'd see on Nickelodeon).

Now I'm not a fan of smoking personally. I understand the health risks, and so it's not something I'm keen on. I'm also happy with cutting smoking down in public places wherever possible, as no-one should inflict their vices on others. I can even understand the concept of educating children that smoking is bad - hey, it's a drain on all of our wallets when the NHS has to treat smoking-related illnesses, but THIS?

This is the first in a series of what promises to be 12 episodes about smoking. The next episode depicts a smoker as a hocky mask-wearing, chainsaw-weilding, blood-spattered character called 'serkill'. The tagline? 'How to get an evil smoker to quit'. I mean HONESTLY! Quite apart from the ridiculously OTT and offensive characterisation of a smoker (hey puffers, you're all serial killers dontchaknow), the EU is now taking it upon itself to tell us smoking is EVIL?! I wonder what the church thinks about that - no need for the New Testament; no need to trot up Mount Sinai for the Ten Commandments, oh no. From now on, we can just wait for a pronouncement from the literal geographic opposite of the lowlands of Brussels to inform on our morality. What's next? A 10-part series from the EU on how, y'know kids, you shouldn't covet your neighbour's ass and all?

HERE's an idea EU. No, seriously, I've got a good one for you! If you REALLY want to stop our children from smoking, or even cut down on adults smoking too, how about cutting some of the THREE HUNDRED MILLION EUROS* you set aside to subsidise tobacco and tobacco manufacturers in 2008. How about that eh? Rather than bombarding our youth with your offensive, nannying and over-expensive media campaigns?

Eh?

EH?!

(*figures from The TaxPayer's Alliance...)

Sorting my CDs - Rage Against the Machine, Switch, Apples, and SebastiAn

“one from the vaults” on offer today for your listening pleasure, as well a couple that are a little more recent.

I’ve been getting more and more irked by the weight of my record bag when I DJ these days.  I thought moving onto CDs was meant to make everything lighter, but it would seem not!  As such, I’ve recently been trying to compile a small(ish!) selection of CDs that will cover most of the bases should I need to do a guest set, or a shorter than normal night.  Basically, it’s all the biggest club tracks I have in about 12 CDs, rather than the 300 I normally have to carry around.

Of course, the process has led to much soul searching, but also happily it’s led to me rediscovering some cracking tunes that I’d all but forgotten about, specifically remixes/covers of Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’ by SebastiAn and The Apples, and an awesome Switch remix of Hot Chip’s ‘Hold On’

Many many people have covered ‘Killing in the Name’ over the years – I used to have a funky house version by some outfit called Metal Fusion – and the trend doesn’t seem to show any sign of slowing down.  Even Pendulum keep promising a version, and we all wait with bated breath for that, but in the meantime two of my favourite versions are by Ed Banger’s SebastiAn and crazy Israeli-American jazzsters The Apples.

SebastiAn’s mix is as you would expect.  Loud, electronic, and very dirty.  It oddly reverts to the original track about half-way through, and the ending is a bit hit and miss, but you can’t beat the look on people’s faces when the overdrive synth kicks in for the first time at the start.

SebastiAn - Killing in the Name of SebastiAn

And now for something completely different!  The Apples are a jazz outfit from New York.  Their track ‘Killin’ was added as a bonus to their excellent 2007 album ‘Buzzin’ About’.  Basically it’s a Ronson-esque horn reworking of RATM’s song, with scratching, trumpets, bass and skiffle taking the place of any singing/shouting.  It also happens to be possibly my favourite cover of any song, ever.  I have never played this in a set without at least one person running up, inane grin on their face, to ask what it is.  Funky, fun, and great to dance to!

The Apples - Killing

Finally, a track that I was humming and hah-ing about sticking into my ‘best of’ CD wallet, Switch’s LA mix of Hot Chip’s ‘Hold On’.  It was the big bass drum and the live crowd noises that swayed me.  You have to have some live crowd noises, dontchaknow…

Hot Chip - Hold On (Switch LA Mix)

Enjoy!

Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve - Re-animations, Volume 1

Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve will be known to many by their alter egos Erol Alkan and Richard Norris.  Erol is one of the darlings of the underground electro scene, and the man behind legendary London club nights Trash and Durrr (both at the now sadly defunct End nightclub).  Richard will be best known as one half of The Grid (the other half was Soft Cell’s Dave Ball), who had a string of dance hits in the 90s, including the unforgettable Swamp Thing:

As with many other DJs, Alkan slips into a different moniker every time he wants to explore a different musical direction.  Unlike the pseudo-funk of Mustapha 3000, Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve sees him and Norris in full-on psychedelia mode.  Original tracks are split into their musical components, and then stretched, flipped, smoked, and put back together into something resembling much more the soundtrack to a lazy summer’s day than a simple reworking of the original.  Witness the reanimation of Late of the Pier’s ‘Here Come the Bears’, its running time extended by twice as much, and the original track almost lost amongst live elements that turn it into a trippy stomp around the campfire.  Going one step further, any trace of Franz Ferdinand on recent single ‘Ulysses’ is practically entirely removed, a single line from the track all that is left to remind people that Alex Kapranos existed at all, like a footprint stubbornly resisting being swept away by the incoming tide.

 It was actually the first track on the album, a dark, deep reimagining of the Chemical Brothers’ ‘Battle Scars’, that really got me into the duo, and this is the one I’m offering up today.  The straight bassline of the original is jettisoned in favour of a minor synth line, bongos and drawn-out cymbal splashes.  Whereas the original sounded introverted and personal, this is something else all together.  Portentous, the mood perfectly suited to the ominous lyrics ‘it’s the final charge, here come battle scars’.

Chemical Brothers - Battle Scars (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve Re-Animation)

Highly, highly recommended.  You can grab the album at HMV (other music outlets are available), or head over to the podcast page on Erol’s website to download a fantastic live mix from the duo at The Zodiac in Oxford.  It features several of the mixes from the album, and is the mix that got me into them in the first place.

Enjoy!

La Roux - In for the Kill (Twelves Remix)

A combination of two kinds of goodness on today's track.  Pretty much everyone will have heard of La Roux by now.  In the mix amongst most critics top 10 picks for 2009, Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid's 80s-themed synth has been making hipsters throw (very angular) shapes across indie dancefloors for the past few months. 

Today's track is a remix of their new single 'In for the Kill' by Brasilian boys The Twelves.  The Twelves might be slightly less well-known, but they have a remix back catalogue that reads like a great and the good of hyped indie/electro crossover bands - Black Kids, New Young Pony Club, M.I.A, Asobi Seksu to name but a few - and they've played live with the likes of Justice, LCD Soundsystem, Diplo, and Van She.  They are currently on tour across the US and Australia, but a trip to UK shores can't be far away.

The track is a corker.  Slowing down the track slightly, and taking the bass out at the start, it's a touch hard on the ears (all that treble) - but once the beat comes in, it's absolutely ravetastic in a 'Last Days of Disco' kinda way.  If the club has a discoball, it needs to be on for this...

La Roux - In For the Kill (Twelves mix)

Enjoy!

Korgis - Everybody's Got to Learn Sometimes (Laidback Luke boot)

So I have been trawling the musical blogosphere in an attempt to find some tunes to wrap my ears around for this afternoon's efforts at work.  As ever, the Young Punx's fantastic music blog Your Music is Killing Me does not disappoint, offering up this beauty!

For those that aren't in the know, The Young Punx are a collective of live musicians, DJs, producers, singers, anyone else talented, that make absolutely insane mash-up music.  House, electro, pop, DnB, the shipping report (yes, really) - it all gets stuck into a big musical blender, and pumped back out at high volume.   Checkkit...

As well as putting on a storming live set, Hal and Cameron - the producers and writers for the group - are also stonking DJs in a His Majesty Andre/Basement Jaxx/Laidback Luke kinda way (big filtered tracks, party beats, and lots of odd squelches!).  They often record their mixes to broadcast on their blog and, midway through a podcast of their recent set at Ministry of Sound, I was treated to a tasty Laidback Luke boot of Korgis' 'Everybody's Got to Learn Sometimes'.  It's one of my all-time favourite tracks, and this is a belter of a mix...

Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometimes (Laidback Luke boot)

All together now...'change your hearrrrrt, look arounnnnnd you'.

Enjoy!

Review: The Welcome Wagon - Welcome to the Welcome Wagon

The Welcome Wagon are husband and wife duo The Rev. Vito Aiuto and Mrs. Monique Aiuto…that’s right, a pastor and his wife….wait….no wait….come back!  It has to be said that when I have been recommending this album around –  and I have been, to practically everyone I meet – the fact that it is an American album of religious and quasi-religious folk tracks sung by a pastor and his wife has not been an easy sell.  However, see past such fripperies, and there is a fantastic album to be enjoyed.

WTTWW is produced by Sufjan Stevens, who also adds many of the instrumental elements to the album, and released it on his Asthmatic Kitty imprint.  Stevens will be a name well known to anyone with half an interest in the US independent music scene, a veritable folk titan who, amongst writing albums that deal with the Chinese Zodiac and his Christianity, has often spoken of his desire to write an album about every state in the US (so far, only the superb ‘Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lake State’ and ‘Come on Feel the Illinoise’ are extant).  

Stevens’ albums are full of lush orchestration hung around songs and lyrics which feel at the same time both intensely personal and utterly universal.  It is easy to see why SS band member Vito would have jumped at the chance to have such expertise available on production duties.  With Stevens’ presence, however, there is a danger that this album will come across as just another of his many musical side-projects.  Happily,  this is not the case.  Whilst some songs could indeed come straight from his Illionoise off-cuts album ‘The Avalanche’ (notably ‘Sold! To The Rich Man’) he sensibly allows Vito’s songwriting skills more than enough room to speak for themselves.

 

Highlights include delicate covers of the Smiths’ ‘Half a Person’ and ‘Jesus’ by the Velvet Underground, as well as the beautiful album-opener, ‘Up on a Mountain’.  Sung by Monique, it gently lulls you into the right frame of mind to enjoy the rest of what is a wonderful album.  

It would be churlish, however, to try and split tracks from one another.  This cd works best approached as a whole; imagine yourself amongst the youthful population of Vito’s church on a Sunday afternoon, alternately clapping along and listening as the Pastor offers up the fruits of his faith.  Or imagine yourself sat round a campfire in the summer - marshmallows, beer and a guitar.  Any way you imagine it, it's escapism par excellence...

Review: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes will probably be a name that rings a few bells, three-sheeted, as they have been, all over poster boards and TV/Radio of late.  Winning a place in most critics’ ‘Albums of 2008’ lists, and selling more than 100,000 cds in the UK whilst doing it, you don't seem to be able to get away from these Seattle boys...

Why the delay in writing about them then?  Sadly, they are a band I have always ‘not quite got round to’.  Thankfully, iTunes’ albums for under £5 sale was the remedy to this and, in the midst of a whole wealth of soundtrack purchases (‘Batman’, ‘American Beauty’, ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’, and ‘Blade Runner’), there was the album -  just waiting to be bought...and am I ever glad I did!

First, a bit of background.  Hailing from Seattle, the Foxes are a five-piece outfit that create, in their own words 'baroque harmonic pop jams'.  Originally going under the forgettable moniker of 'Pineapple', they switched to their more evocative current handle after a name clash with another local band (thank God...Pineapple?!)  The band were formed in 2006 and, building on positive word of mouth reviews as well as strong reactions from the Seattle music press, they released a number of well-received EPs in 06-07, before releasing their eponimous album in June of '08.

The album itself has echoes of Brian Wilson’s magnum opus ‘Smile’.  However, where Wilson’s work had its heart in the surf of California and Hawaii, Fleet Foxes evoke a feel far to the East of their Seattle home; the bluegrass and soft country of Appalachians.  ‘Sun Rises’, the first track on the album, could quite easily be straight out of the soundtrack to ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’, and there are nods to the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show and Chatham County Line.  It would be a mistake, however, to simply file this under 'country' or 'bluegrass'.  There is a country feel, certainly, but there is also folk, baroque, pop, and even shades of the irregular time signatures and sea-shanty guitar lines that indie math kids Hot Club de Paris have made their own.  

Although uniformly superb, when the album is at its best is in its transitions between the delicate and the expansive.  At one second, lead singer Robin Pecknold’s hushed tones interplay with a single guitar; the next, a full orchestra comes crashing in and the chord progression just soars.  Nowhere is this better seen than in the album's standout track 'Blue Ridge Mountains' - a piece which fights it out with Elbow’s ‘Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver’ as the most evocative, achingly beautiful piece of music this reviewer heard last year or this.  

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At only 39 minutes, the album should feel short, but in fact the minimal playing time only serves to accentuate how perfectly formed the collection is.  Besides, you'll want to skip straight back to the start and play it all over again anyway, so we're really talking about 1hr20, and I honestly can't think of many better ways to spend an hour and a half.  Stunning.