Chilly + Vivian Vee

Chilly, Johnny Loves Jenny (Polydor 1983)
This track is EXACTLY where my head's at right now, totally weird rock-disco hybrid perpetrated by a buncha eighties-new-waver-looking doods (too bad I can't find a jpg of the back of the jacket). Excellent 9-minute Yardbirds cover collected on this German Polydor comp.

Chilly - "For Your Love"


Vivien Vee, "Give Me a Break" / "Remember" 12" (Emergency 1980)
I only wish I had that tiger cover, mine's generic sleeve. If you're not feeling the vocals skip ahead to 7:00 and watch Claudio get busy.

Vivien Vee - "Remember"

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Black Moth Super Rainbow, Dandelion Gum (Graveface 2007)
Sorry I haven't posted lately, got caught up in a beef with an unruly cablevision employee and got cut off from the lifeblood of the internets. Here's some woozy/hazy analog synth vocoder madness out of Pennsylvania ... with plenty more to be found on their website. Heavy maan.

Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Forever Heavy"

Black Moth Super Rainbow - "The Afternoon Turns Pink"

West Coast Pop Art + The Byrds

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Volume 3: A Child's Guide to Good and Evil (Reprise 1968)
Late-sixties California soft psych that goes along perfectly with Moby Grape, Quicksilver, and later period Byrds (see below). Because of their name I always thought these guys were more on the goofy side of things (e.g. Holy Modal Rounders) but they only occasionally get into that territory on tracks like "Our Drummer Always Plays in the Nude." Need to track down more by these guys.

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - "Eighteen Is Over the Hill"

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - "Ritual #1"


The Byrds, The Notorious Byrd Brothers (Columbia 1968)
I never picked this one up until recently because I thought it was past their heyday, but The Notorious Byrd Brothers has crept up to become my favorite Byrds record. They really just stepped on that coked-out whooshy phaser pedal and left it on, huh? Amazing stuff. And I'm not even posting "Draft Morning" or "Wasn't Born to Follow" ...

The Byrds - "Artificial Energy"

The Byrds - "Natural Harmony"

Mock & Toof + Ellen Allien + Studio

Mock & Toof, Digit 1, 2 & 3 12" (RVNG 2007)
Latest 12 from RVNG serves up a so-so Wire edit followed by two essential tracks, an 8-minute cosmic afro-beat excursion and this major Southern boogie space jam. Anyone know what this is?? It's like riiiight on the tip of my brain.

Edit: Ha, no it wasn't. But mystery solved, check the comments.

Mock & Toof - "Digit 2"


Ellen Allien, Fabric 34 (Fabric 2007)
Latest Fabric mix wins me over right away with "The Sun Can't Compare," the best vocal house song in ages (from the master Larry Heard). But really more of the mix feels like Roman Flugel's "Mutter," brooding dark textures shot through with flashes of color. (Or like the cover art, flashes of no color.) Tracks that aren't "minimal anthems" ... they creep lower to the ground.

Larry Heard Presents Mr. White - "The Sun Can't Compare"

Roman Flugel - "Mutter"


Studio, Life's a Beach! 12" (Information 2007)
This 12" is going to make me delve back into Studio's West Coast album, I feel like I "get it" now. Lush summery tracks from Sweden remixed by Todd Terje and Prins Thomas.

Studio - "Life's a Beach! (Todd Terje's Beach House Mix)"

Kelley Polar

"Chrysanthemum"

New Kelley Polar, just out on Environ. Hard to top Love Songs of the Hangin Gardens, but it's growing on me. Gawd this is even darker than Cerrone 3.

Slick Rick + Dana Dane

Slick Rick, The Art of Storytelling (Def Jam 1999)
Even make Saddam Hussein tell me where the weapon are.

Slick Rick - "I Own America Pt. 1"


Dana Dane, "Delancey Street" 12" (Profile 1987)
Next stop Delancey Street, step lively an uh, watch the closing doors. Bing, bong.

Dana Dane - "Delancey Street"

Foxy

Foxy, "Hot Number" 12" (T.K. 1979)
Title track is actually my least favorite on this smooth 12" from T.K. house band Foxy. "Call It Love" is perfect chillout material and "Give Me a Break" more than lives up to its title.

Foxy - "Call It Love"

Foxy - "Give Me a Break"

If you're in New York on Friday, this looks great ...


Party with Music For Robots and Slap You in Public (who has a new Curses!-related track posted up right now ... and try to hunt down "What I Need," so much fun). These guys have been putting on some great stuff lately -- DJ Kaos and Escort, Jacques Renault ... can't believe I haven't made it out for one of these yet :( The curse of nyc, too much to do ...

Music to Observe Electronic Sheep To Pt. 1

Description posted on Youtube by the creator of this piece and the video sampling software used to make it: This is the result an (actually impossible) attempt to fuse improv and minimal music. Using sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! I've first improvised 3 session of about 20 minutes each. the best one was choosen and minimalized (old fashion editing). Expect more of this stuff soon. www.popmodernism.org

Cerrone + Loleatta Holloway

I knew Cerrone was supposed to have some good tunes, but side 1 of this album contains some of the baddest disco music ever. I heard this out once (Tim Sweeney played it before Lindstrom came on, it slayed) and at the time I thought it was Goldfrapp ... whoops. Hey they only named their album after it and used it as entrance music in their concerts, I got confused. Just goes to show how modern it sounds. The lyrics are super-dark! Perversions of science create beasts who take their revenge .... see creepy-as-fuck album cover for further illumination. Wow.

These tracks run together on the LP so I ripped them all as one file:

Cerrone - "Supernature / Sweet Drums / In the Smoke"


Loleatta Holloway, "Hit and Run" / "We Keep Getting Stronger" (Gold Mind 12")
The fuzz guitar, the vocals, echoes, drums, keyboards ... an 11-minute tour de force of disco soul. Thank you Walter Gibbons. (Some interesting info at that link, I didn't know he not only mixed "Set It Off" by Strafe, he put out the record on his own label ...)

Loleatta Holloway - "Hit and Run (Disco Mix)"

Von Spar

Von Spar, Xaxapoya (Tomlab 2007)
Strange brew of Goblin, Tangerine Dream, post-punk, and aggro Rammstein rock from this German band whose second album comes out on Tomlab this month. The excerpt of "Xaxapoya" below is about half the 22-minute track. File next to Alex Delivery's recent 10-minute epic, "Komad."

Von Spar - "Xaxapoya (excerpt)"

Derby mix

Something a little different -- this is a playlist I burned for some friends to jam during their trip to Lousville for this Saturday's Kentucky Derby. Rather than upload the whole thing I'm just dishing out a couple key tracks. Be sure to grab the Beach Boys song down below, too, if you didn't get it yet ... I think that one kicked off one of my mixes years ago and it always gives me that electric beginning-of-summer feeling ...

Better grab some bourbon, watch some races and get ready to make some picks ...

The J.B.'s - Blow Your Head
Vampire Sound Inc. - The Lions and the Cucumber
The Easybeats - Friday on My Mind
The Pointer Sisters - Pinball Number Count
Stevie Wonder - I Was Made to Love Her
Chubby Checker - My Mind
Pere Ubu - Street Waves
Lifter Puller - Kool NYC
Polvo - Sure Shot
The Stooges - Down on the Street
Sonic Youth - Jams Run Free
The Vaselines - Molly's Lips
Times New Viking - Not High
Marnie Stern - Put All Your Eggs in One Basket Then Watch That Basket!!!!
Margo Thunders - Expressway to Your Heart

Edit: Great race!