Sunday, January 30, 2011

Billy Childish & The Blackhands - The Original Chatham Jack


So here it is again, dear listener:

Billy Childish, having heard the Blue Fields Express, wanted his own broken down engine of a group and put out the word. And so they came, from near and afar. Kyra, practicing her Spanish and rattling the pots and pans. A man who didn’t normally drum to play drums. A trumpet player nursing several stitches from having a glass thrust into his face the previous night in a dubious drinking den at the wrong end of town. Miss Ludella Black, dropping in to sing a few numbers during her lunch break from selling fruit and veg on the high street. Shamus, from south of the Thames – having never met the rest of the ensemble, getting lost in the streets of Medway, banging on the wrong door of the wrong house in the wrong town for 2 hours then whipping out his accordion and busking along regardless. And then of course Billy, stringing up his fathers 1910 banjo, picking in open G and singing in what he imagined were the tones of the lost looking for solace.

Thus are great moments born and sometimes recorded for those of us who like our music – as well our bread – stone ground and cut thick with the crusts.

GIT IT!
BILLY CHILDISH & THE BLACKHANDS

Friday, January 28, 2011

8 bit Come to Daddy


Not usually a fan of 8 bit covers of things, they're often just boring, gimmiky and shite sounding. This one is a bit of genius though.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Hit it and Quit it Radio

Some of you may have seen this already. Blog and massive repository of top quality mixes and radio shows from Detroit hero Recloose and friends:


Hit it and Quit it Radio.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Glasgow's Most Unlikely Hitmakers ~ Los Tentakills

LOS TENTAKILLS - A MANY TIMES WORSE



Garage psych reworking of a folk standard about the dangers of drug addiction.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Mogwai - Rano Pano

I got the new mogwai album and essentially stopped once i reached this track. Utterly amazing and fantastic video too which you can see here:

vidyo

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution

3 hour long, pretty comprehensive documentary about Kraftwerk and the birth of electronic music in Germany, from sixties Krautrock to eighties Synth-Pop and all the mad shit in between. Well worth a chunk of your time.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Ennio meet The Orb

Now Then,

I just had another 'this came from that' moment, which made me smile.

The Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds sampled Ennio Morricone's Man With a Harmonica from Once Upon A Time In The West (just a bit, right at the beginning).

I love that moment when you've just heard the original source of something you've heard in its sampled form hundreds of times. Am I alone in being surprised when a sample is revealed as being a sample? I guess my assumption is that most stuff is original, despite listening to sample based electronic music for over 15 years.

The Orb



Ennio



Bonus Ennio that I've always had a soft spot for



Cheers

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

If You’re Not Getting Older, You’re Dead


So having turned 30 just a couple of weeks ago, my thoughts have naturally turned to aging and maturity in a slightly morbid yet calmly resigned way. I wasn’t really bothered about being 30 in particular, reckon I’ve felt older than that for some time now, but it’s one of those pre ordained landmarks at which you’re meant to think about these things so in the name of good old fashioned traditional orthodoxy, think about it I did. And I started looking out tunes that revolved around the theme of getting older and sticking them on. Another word for this sort of contemplation is ‘wallowing in it’. You can’t have a right good wallow without digging through your tunes (at least if you’re me) - So here is a compilation of tunes about getting old, being old and eventually snuffing it. It’s a wee bit depressing perhaps and worryingly close to my Dad’s taste in music – although I think that all makes sense, given the theme. And ‘When I’m 64’ was just too obvious, in case you wondered. The cheery title was contained in a happy birthday text from a mate of mine, who’s a psychiatrist and therefore knows about these things.


Tracklist

01 Done Got Old - Heartless Bastards
02 Jack Oblivian - Honey- I'm Too Old For You
03 Howlin' Wolf - Getting Old And Gray
04 Tom Waits - I Don't Wanna Grow Up
05 LCD Soundsystem - Losing my edge
06 David Bowie - Golden Years
07 Dusty Springfield -Goin Back
08 Leonard Cohen - Tower of Song (live)
09 Ann Peebles - Old Man With Young Ideas
10 Bill Withers - Grandmas Hands
11 Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes
12 Sammy Davis Jr - The Folks Who Live On The Hill
13 Squeeze - Labelled With Love
14 Nick Drake - Time Has Told Me
15 Bob Dylan - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
16 The Monsters - Digging My Grave
17 Blue Oyster Cult - (don't fear) The Reaper
18 Peter Hammill - Pushing Thirty
19 Captain Beefheart - Old Fart at Play
20 Scott H Biram - Open up them pearly gates-(traditional)-(live)
21 Ralph Stanley - O Death
22 Dr Ross - I Am Not Dead
23 Penny Goodwin - Too Soon You're Old
24 They Might Be Giants - Older

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Pour la tĂȘte



Tasty Essential Mix from Fourtet on iPlayer at the mo.

It's being rebroadcast from January last year, I'm guessing because it won/got nominated for Essential Mix of the Year or somesuch, dunno really. It's ace anyway.

I'd not really listened to any of his stuff until fairly recently, prompted by the delightful single 'Moth' that he did with Burial, which was probably my favourite tune from 2009 (not that I'm very good at favourites). Still kills me that one though, every time.

Anyway: he seems to have done all sorts of stuff in the past, Warp-style electronica, hip hop, breaks, jazz, folk. Everything I hear from him these days though seems to have a general 4/4 pulse to it, with elements of other stuff splashed around all over the shop. I really like it, but I get the feeling his earlier stuff isn't like that. Is that correct, has anyone got any recommendations, and where's a good place to start with his albums?