Summer jams

Yeah I'm jumping the gun, it's only spring, sue me. I went to the park last week with no socks on, that counts. Here's a grab bag of old favorites anticipating the warmer months to come. Four reasons why: 1. Beach Boys synthesized drumbeat. 2. Latee's vocal reverb. 3. Too $hort's album-cover warning, "DIRTY RAPPS INSIDE"! 4. Cymande's whole career.

Beach Boys - "Do It Again"

Latee - "This Cut's Got Flavor"

Too $hort - "Mack Attack"

Cymande - "Willie's Headache"

Quick Mix Vol. 6

Here's some new and old disco I've been listening to lately, including the latest 12" from Escort and two Editions Disco re-edits. Sloppy mixing but I think you'll get the idea.

Quick Mix Vol. 6

Escort - All That She Is
Lipps Inc. - How Long
Padded Cell - Faces of the Forest
Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes - You Can't Go (Edit de Prince Language)
Bumrocks - Thank Youse 7" ("Funky Stuff")
Le Pamlplemousse - Le Spank
Belle Epoque - Bamalama (Edit de Lee Douglas)

The Slits

The Slits, Typical Girls Won't Pay More Than $8.00 So Why Should You? (Basic/Typical 1980)
Two tracks from this live Slits bootleg plus the songs they were covering (plus the excellent New Age Steppers version of "Fade Away" with Ari Up on vocals). Great dub fx at the end of the live "Man Next Door." p.s. I didn't pay more than $8.00.

The Slits - "Fade Away"

Junior Byles - "Fade Away"

New Age Steppers - "Fade Away"

The Slits - "Man Next Door"

Dennis Brown - "Man Next Door"

Von Südenfed

Von Südenfed = Mouse on Mars meets Mark E. Smith to create Tromatic Reflexxions, out soon on Domino. Me = speechless-smiley-012.gif. Of the two sneak-preview traxx, "Flooded" takes it by a mile; the more rock-oriented "The Rhinohead" probably doesn't stack up against recent Fall, but hey, recent Fall's been pretty great. (Haven't even heard Reformation Post TLC yet, bastards are hard to keep up with.) Makes me want to pull out Infotainment Scan ...

Von Südenfed - "Flooded"

Von Südenfed - "The Rhinohead"

The Fall - "A Past Gone Mad"


"Fledermaus Can't Get It"

Hot links

Haven't done an around-the-web post in a while, been finding some good stuff lately ...

• Lee Douglas disco edit radio show on Beats in Space, plus his new 12" "New York Story" on myspace.
  
• "Komad," great track from Alex Delivery's forthcoming Star Destroyer on Jagjaguwar. Touring soon w/ Frog Eyes.
  
• And another on Jagjaguwar, Parts and Labor's anthemic "Fractured Skies" off their new LP Mapmaker.
  
• Sneak previews of the new single on Environ from Baby Oliver, "Primetime (Uptown Express)" b/w "Hypochondriac" ... love the b-side's vocoder action, sounds like Detroit Grand Pubahs + an Unclassic ...
  
• Robots in Heat new blog doing the track-a-day thing, cosmic grooves from all over the map ... check out the Johnny Mathis disco track, srsly ...
  
• Tailored Communication streaming Ame's new 16-minute epic, "Fiori" (scroll down, lime-green player on the right side).
  

Dr. Alimantado + Toots and the Maytals

Dr. Alimantado, Best Dressed Chicken in Town (Greensleeves 1978)
Somebody has to have sampled that intro to "Can't Conquer Natty Dreadlocks" right? If they haven't they should ....

Dr. Alimantado - "Best Dressed Chicken in Town"

Dr. Alimantado - "Can't Conquer Natty Dreadlocks"


Toots and the Maytals, Funky Kingston (Island 1975)

Toots and the Maytals - "Funky Kingston"

This bitter earth ...

If Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep (1977) plays near you (it's currently at the IFC Center in New York after being restored), it's well worth a look. It's a document of life in Watts, often seen from a child's viewpoint -- the scene above, where a little girl sings along with the record player, was my favorite -- although the main character is her father, who works in a slaughterhouse. The soundtrack of classic blues, jazz and standards features Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, Earth, Wind and Fire and others; it's as much a character as the men and women, with many scenes consisting of only music and a quietly observing camera. (The high cost of the music rights was also the reason the film never had a real release until now.) Watch the trailer here.

33/45 Mix - Darkstar

Did this basically in one take, I think it turned out pretty good. The intro/outro is from the John Carpenter LP shown above -- weird record, it's the entire audio track (music, dialogue, fx) from one of his early sci-fi movies. The rest is mainly a type of dance music that doesn't have a name that fits .... "minimal" has been the accepted term for a couple of years now, I guess, but tunes like Riton's "Hammer of Thor" (probably my favorite song at the moment) are way too anthemic to fit that description. These are all 12"s from 2006-07 except for the Carl Craig, Berg & Blender, and Westbam. Hope you like the mix. Listen loud.

Darkstar Mix
49:30, 70MB

John Carpenter - Dark Star
Matt O'Brien - Serotone (Radio Slave's Panorama Garage Remix)
DJ T - Lucky Bastard (Disaster Dub Mix)
Jona - North Love
Tiefschwarz - Fly (Steve Bug Mix)
Riton - Hammer of Thor
Carl Craig - Darkness (Main Mix)
Berg & Blender - Deep Driving
Prins Thomas - Fehrara
Tomas Andersson - Plan Deux
Westbam - Mr. Peanut