Musica

Here are a couple of mixes I've recently done for other folks. The first is a sort of unofficial mixtape to mark the release of the new album by my old mates The Memory Band, with whom I played bass for a couple of years during the noughties. I like to think it's in keeping with the general aesthetic of the band, and even though it's a bit on the long side, I think it makes for a nice, leisurely listen.



Tracklisting:
Intro (Pearls Before Swine: Trumpeter Landfrey)
The Youngbloods: Darkness, Darkness
Nelson Angelo & Joyce: Um Gosto De Fruta
Soft Cell: Youth (Memory Band Remix)
Elliott Smith: I Didn't Understand
Bayete: Free Angela
Patto: The Man
The Memory Band: Demon Days
Bon Iver: Skinny Love
Four Tet: She Moves She
Aphrodite's Child: Break
David Crosby: I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here
The Accidental: Wolves (Mighty Love Remix)
Gary Bartz: I've Known Rivers
Alice Coltrane: Sita Ram
John Martyn: Solid Air
Nadia Cattouse: Mr. Tambourine Man
Jim Sullivan: Rosey
The Memory Band: Blackwaterside
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66: After Sunrise
Laura Nyro: Gibsom Street
The Memory Band: Come Wander With Me
Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger: I Know You Love Me Not
Liam Bailey: I Belong
Eddie Kendricks: People Hold On
Pharaoh Sanders: Japan
Talk Talk: The Rainbow
Robert Wyatt: Free Will And Testament
Ronnie Lane & Slim Chance: Roll On Babe
The Memory Band: By The Time It Gets Dark

I also did another one for the Slugrave Facebook group, which isn't so much laid-back as comatose. You can stream that one here. Tracklisting is...

Intro
Gigi Masin: Clouds
The Memory Band: Come Wander With Me (didn't realise I'd doubled this up with the other mix...)
Doves: Birds Flew Backwards (Chris Watson Remix)
War: Four Cornered Room
Barefoot Jerry: Friends
Hiss Golden Messenger: John Has Gone To The Light
Bob Welch: Future Games
Bob James: El Verano
Roy Buchanan: You're Not Alone

Enjoy.

Something to listen to

I haven't done one of these for quite some time.

80 minutes' worth of tunes old and new (ish), mostly with a somewhat melancholy vibe, to complement the long, cold evenings as we head towards winter. Enjoy.

Ennio Morricone - Cosi' Come Sei (Postludio d'amore)
Cousteau - The Last Good Day Of The Year
Corinne Bailey Rae - Are You Here
Dungen - Vara Snabb
The Durutti Column - Madeleine
Grizzly Bear feat. Michael McDonald - While You Wait For The Others
Emmylou Harris - Till I Gain Control Again
Mark Capanni - I Believe In Miracles
Player - Baby Come Back
DJ Shadow - I've Been Trying
Jim Sullivan - Rosey
The Grateful Dead - Dark Star (7" version)
The National Gallery - Diana In The Autumn Wind
The Paradise - In Love With You
Duran Duran - The Chauffeur
The Bees - Winter Rose
The Coral - 1000 Years
The Youngbloods - Darkness, Darkness
Lee Moses - California Dreamin'

Groovin' With Jesus

Being something of a lapsed Catholic, the thing I most associate with Easter these days is the shops actually being shut of a Sunday. Since this has left me with a little more time on my hands than I anticipated, I've thrown together another mix for download. I originally intended for it to follow a vaguely seasonal theme, but I soon got bored with that, so it's all pretty random stuff. I wasn't going to make a habit of doing these, but a very old friend of mine has recently started a regular podcast thingum (to which I suggest you subscribe), so I thought this would be an excuse to follow his splendid example. Sort of.

Dig in, and Happy Easter.

Intro - Mighty Love: Spam Piccolo
Humble Pie: Groovin' With Jesus
Redbone: Judgement Day
Queens of the Stone Age: I'm Designer (Adrian Sherwood & Primal Scream Remix)
Bob Dylan: Most Likely You'll Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine
Lee Perry: Cow Thief Skank
Roxy Music: The Bogus Man
George Harrison: Beware of Darkness
The Beach Boys: The Trader
David Ruffin: Heaven Help Us All
Elvis Presley: Mystery Train
The Steve Miller Band: Superbyrd
The Adverts: My Place
Ila Van: Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
Joe Cuba: Bang Bang
Gene Page: All Our Dreams Are Coming True
Gabor Szabo: Love Theme From 'Spartacus'

'Groovin' With Jesus' (Easter '09)



PS: If you're reading this on Farceberk, click on 'View Original Post' - you should be able to work out the rest for yourself.

Winter into Spring.

It's a nice day in London today and, while out in the back garden earlier, I noticed some early-flowering cherry blossom on the trees just the other side of the garden wall, which usually means another winter has finally come to an end.

Since I haven't posted any music for a while, I quickly put together a mix in a couple of hours this afternoon. It's all fairly laid-back, mellow swag (are we still allowed to use terms like 'laid-back' and 'mellow'?) which I hope will make it good iPod food for those early-spring walks, commutes or whatever.

(Incidentally, if you're reading this on my Facebook page rather than the blog itself, and you can't see the download link, then just click on "view original post" at the bottom and you should be good to go.)

Instructions for use; download, skin up (optional), uncork/crack open a bottle, sit back, listen and (hopefully) enjoy.

Tracklisting:

Steve Tibbetts: The Big Wind (excerpt)
Bobbie Gentry: Hurry Tuesday Child
Darondo: Didn't I
Gal Costa: Borzeguim
Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges: Cravo e Canela
Walter Murphy: Afternoon of a Faun
Del Richardson: Jigsaw
Karen Carpenter: It's Really You (Cole's Funk Down Mix)
John Martyn: Go Easy
The Ju-Par Orchestra: Is Anyone Listening?
Jeff Beck: The Pump
Theo Parrish: The Motor City
Kenny Rankin: In The Name Of Love
Alan White: Ooooh Baby
Joni Mitchell: Help Me
The Hollies: Draggin' My Heels
Ned Doheny: A Love Of Your Own
Isaac Hayes: I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You
David Crosby: I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here

Winter Into Spring (March 09)

Enter the scene, DJ Supreme...

No, it's not a post about Hijack.



DJ Mr. Supreme a/k/a DJ Supreme La Rock has been a big wheel on the Northwest Pacific DJ/record digging scene for a good while now. I wish I'd been able to find a picture of him showing off his legendarily deep collection, said to number between 60,000 - 75,000 pieces's worth of A-list swag, but record nerds worldwide will be able to tell from the ringwear that it's an original copy of the rarer-than-hen's-teeth "East Of Underground" that he's flossing in the accompanying photo.

Anyway, Supreme's CV is pretty impressive; globetrotting club DJ, founder of Conception Records, one-half of the Sharpshooters, co-creator (along with his Seattle homeboy Jake One) of the much sought-after Conmen series of mixtapes, and perhaps most impressive of all, contributor to the soundtrack for The Wire. He was also the presenter of the Soul, Style and Truth internet radio show on the now-defunct Groovetech site. He's made available an mp3 of one of those shows, along with permission to share it far and wide if anyone's so inclined (and I am). I've no idea of the date, and I only recognise a handful of the tunes, but it's all top-quality 80s dancefloor soul/boogie/gospel. Dig out your Bally slip-ons, yer Farahs and yer Gabicci v-necks and get your Kashif on.

DJ Mr. Supreme: Soul, Style & Truth radio show (boogie edition)

Brazil, Nuts.

It used to be that, as far as Brazilian music was concerned, my familiarity didn't extend a great deal further than Sergio Mendes, "The Girl From Ipanema", the handful of Jobim tunes everybody knows, the correct pronunciation of "batucada" and who Bebel Gilberto's dad was. Thanks mainly to guidance and suggestions from numerous friends, or DJs like Gilles Peterson, Patrick Forge and Jez Nelson, and Soul Jazz's superb "Tropicalia" compilations, but particularly to the sterling work of the good people who maintain blogs and websites such as Loronix, Um Que Tenha, Brazilian Nuggets and Sabadabada, this is no longer the case. I now know a bit more about the differences between MPB, Tropicalismo and Jovem Guarda (or even that there is a difference), or that the Roberto Carlos who played full-back for Real Madrid isn't the only famous Roberto Carlos to have come out of Brazil in my lifetime. I can even tell you which track from the first O Terco album was sampled in Madvillain's "Untitled". Oh, well done, I hear you say. Bully for you. We're supposed to be impressed by this why, exactly? Well, you're not, not really. But you might be impressed by DJ Nuts. Nuts is a native of Sao Paulo, has been a key player on the city's hip-hop scene since the early 1990s, and is considered to be the leading turntablist in the country. In short, this fella is pretty much the Brazilian equivalent of someone like J-Rocc or Babu, with skills to match. Except that he also has an ace or two up his sleeve, the nature of which may become apparent from this clip.



Now, while I was busy acting all pleased with myself a paragraph ago, I neglected to mention that I hadn't even heard of DJ Nuts until a few months ago, much less heard any of his astonishing mix CDs. Then I discovered that Nuts can haz blog, whereupon he'd posted half a dozen of the bleeders. However, he'd chosen to host them on Zshare, which used to be a reliable enough host, but has become increasingly shonky in recent months, so unfortunately you can't download them from there until Nuts fixes the links. However, thanks to the efforts of another Sao Paulisto who posts on the Soul Strut messageboard under the handle MoogMan, I can now share a few of them with you, and trust me, you've never heard Brazilian music played like this. Being that Nuts is essentially a hip-hop DJ, he plays the music of his home country just as you'd expect a hip-hop DJ to play it - Disco e Cultura Vol. 2, for example, features sixty-three tracks - and the breaks-heavy, ADD, quick-mixing style he often utilises, particularly on 2004's face-melting Cultura Copia, may not be for everyone. Similarly, if you download any of them in the expectation of an hours-worth of variations on "Mas Que Nada", you might be disappointed. But if you can set those considerations to one side, then not only are these mixes great fun, but they also feature plenty of fabulous and often quite beautiful music.

Cultura Copia comes partially tagged, with a full tracklisting in the zip file, but Disco e Cultura Vols 1 & 2 (both 2005) are untagged, and 2006's Disco e Cultura Vol. 3 (which is chocka with classic Brazilian dancefloor jazz) is just one big file, so please be aware of this when opening them in iTunes or wherever. All come with gorgeous artwork, should you want to burn them to CD. If I happen upon full tracklistings for any or all of the Disco e Cultura volumes, I'll post an update as soon as. In the meantime, get stuck in.

DJ Nuts: Cultura Copia (2004) - 105mb

DJ Nuts: Disco e Cultura Vol. 1 (2005) - 142mb

DJ Nuts: Disco e Cultura Vol. 2 (2005) - 142mb

DJ Nuts: Disco e Cultura Vol. 3 (2006) - 171mb