The Re-Edit

Re-edits are usually dancefloor gold. Theo Parrish's decision to finally release a new 'Ugly Edit' was met with warm regard and heavy expectation. He didnt disappoint (but oh my is it overpriced @£15.99!!!!). This together with Tiger & Woods' edit-heavy releases and widely lauded (and rightly so) recent Resident Advisor podcast means I just can't get enough at the moment. Oh yeah and The Revenge re-edits every track under the sun, and for the most part are pretty darn good. Enjoy my selection of mighty fine edits below. 

Small Pyramids-Look No Further 

Sugarhill Gang-Hot Hot Summerday (Theo Parrish Ugly Edit 05)

Bloodfire-Black

Change-Don't Wait Another Night (The Revenge (Re-Edit)

The January Transfer Window

Its “silly season” in the exciting world of English Football. This is a time where players can be bought and sold or loaned out for just one month only; which can have a large effect on a club’s eventual success or failure for the rest of the season. Chairmen and managers worry about potential incomings and outgoings from their club whilst greedy agents, players and the press all get a collective hard-on for the money, exposure and acclaim that they possibly could enjoy. Welcome to the January Transfer Window.

Even if you couldn’t give one solitary shit about football never mind which overpaid bellend any useless fucking manager wants to sign, you’re entrapped by it. If you’ve managed to avoid all the press by some stroke of genius or undeserved luck, a quick jaunt to the local shop will render you defenceless from the impending shitstorm heading for your ears. Your friends and acquaintances are more often than not the guiltiest parties. It’s in the pub, it’s at the dinner table and it’s most notably in the workplace, where the most un-athletic tedious bore always wishes to talk about it with anyone who’s unfortunate to be in ear shot. 

Sky Sports News are the chief architects of this month of nonsense. The channel essentially goes into overdrive during January. The bright yellow breaking news line at the bottom of the screen seems to be a never ending list of what may happen, what has happened, what someone thinks of what might happen and what someone think would happen if what may happen would eventually happen.  The BREAKING NEWS of a player taking a piss into a pot or whatever they assess on medicals suddenly becomes more important than the job cuts, the VAT rise and Jordan’s brand new divorce all put together.  It’s not only Sky Sports News that are to blame. Each daily newspaper has pages devoted to hearsay, insider information and expert analysis from columnists by people as intelligent as Ian Wright.

Their websites also include ‘Transfer Centres’ where in simply pressing refresh on your keypad you can catch up on all the transfer stories that have happened in the past nanosecond. It’s almost like watching the vidi-printer on a Saturday afternoon with goals and results coming through; except there are no goals and no results but only a regurgitation of what is spinning around every available media outlet about any potential transfer. 

The resident expert on the Sky Sports website is none other than Paul Merson. If anyone has ever sat down to enjoy Soccer Saturday with Jeff Stelling they will appreciate the word ‘expert’ and Paul Merson should never belong on the same page. He has an innate ability to think of one word to describe a player or a piece of play then sets out to repeat it over and over like a small child yearning for attention just because they’ve recently learnt how to wipe their arse all by themselves.  I just hope his ghost writer has some patience either that or a huge dictionary to hit him over the head with.

The most annoying part of the transfer window, any transfer window for that matter is how self-important and smug certain reporters on Sky Sports News become. The clear winner of biggest twat in the office must go to ‘chief football reporter’ Bryan Swanson. This guy is so pleased with himself that he probably thinks he shits diamonds. When he stands in front of his huge transfer board, he emits the prospect that he is in control of the football transfer market. Not clubs, players or agents. Oh no; they pale in comparison to the power and influence one cock of a sports journalist has with his huge shiny computer transfer board and his black book full of transfer window groupies.

A month long transfer window in January enforced by an control crazy authoritative board run by a sexist and senile neutral nutcase has now become a focal point now of any football season. Its importance to clubs, managers and players futures can make many act in haste signing players they don’t need or require or paying over the odds for someone they think will save their season. The importance that this period is exacerbated by the media tenfold where they control their supposed influence on events. Therein lays their problem. They don’t have any influence, they just purport to. They use all their new shiny gadgets, 10000+ presenters at every possible location; resident ex-players acting as experts; and smug self satisfying pricks like Bryan Swanson to make everyone believe that they matter. But we’re all drawn in, the maybes and possibilities of him, them, they of moving in out and elsewhere seems just too important to miss out on. Internet discussion forums teem with every fan wanting to have their two pence worth whilst phone lines on radio stations such as Talksport are rammed with callers wanting to air their opinion.  Sky Sports News promises all sorts of exclusives and what’s ‘coming next’ and we’re hooked. We simply can’t help ourselves. Anyway I must dash, its top of the hour and I want (downright have to) to catch the transfer gossip because, you know haven’t you heard…………………….?

Sunday Music #2

Second edition of music for a relaxed sunday. It's not as overcast out there today as the picture above but it's pretty bad. On a positive note theres six hours of football today to watch and I don't even have a hangover! Here's some music I am enjoying before I settle down to watch United v Spurs (the first four hours of footy is simply filling time) and put myself through 90 minutes of Andy Gray talking bollocks and Martin Tyler attempting to finally finish a sentence in less than 20 minutes. Unfortunately for Tyler none of the below are "LIVE".

Nicolas Jaar-Spectres of the Future

Red Rack'Em-In Love Again

Damien Jurado-Rachel & Cali

Gayngs-Cry

The Album Leaf-Falling From the Sun

January

 

I'm pretty skint at the moment, much like many people caught up in the early January lull. It's that lovely time of the year which often consists of eerily quiet town and city centre pubs and clubs, unkept diets and resolutions, the FA Cup, Tory bastard VAT increases (they've not cut something!) and the left overs of cheap retail sale garbage. There can be downsides to being really broke like considering left over cheese and hot sauce as a meal, but there are some positives such as scouring for music new and old; either it be from the web or taking a trip down to your favourite record store to listen to all sorts of stuff you unfortunately cannot afford to buy. I've been sticking to the positives (so far) and have been listening to all sorts of wonderful music. So as I find myself ensconsed in my living room I'd thought I'd share some of this music for you to enjoy whilst you contemplate that appetising meal of a bowl of salad with no dressing or meat,  no bread and definitely no bloody wine. Theres a bit of house, garage, dubstep, electronica and some late 90s hardcore (thats rock not scallies in shellsuits with a mouthful of pills-type music). Enjoy.

Floating Points-Shangrila

Wbeeza-Hang On

LV & Untold-Beacon (Mount Kimbie Remix)

Scott Garcia-It's a London Thing (London Mix)

Flako Feat. Dirg Gerner-I Want You

Far-Mother Mary

Discovered/Rediscovered Classics 2010

The internet together with a bunch of dedicated fans have made it all the more easier to discover music that either you were too young for; simply passed you by; or you were deafened in hearing anything of note by listening to absolute shite for a certain period of your life.

Blogging about music and the increasing use of USB turntables enable record pickers and collectors to share great music on the internet, much of it potentially out of print and forgotten; or it's that rare and expensive that it is out of reach to most of us (we are all aware that the illegal downloading for all music is also available and a larger issue that I won't be commenting on here). This is also in addition to almost every track in the world being on youtube in one way or another so we can try before we buy it (albeit in admittely terrible quality). Also thousands of online mixes are now widely available on the internet from professional big name DJs to bedroom bloggers. Websites have even surfaced to compile tracklistings for each mix, with happy contributors helping to plug any gaps that may appear. The ease to share so much music over the web only feeds the demand of the majority of music fans who want know about as much as possible for the genres they are interested in. They demand new music to be easily available for them whilst many also expect music from the past to be accessible in one way or another.

Whilst I was compiling my albums and tracks of the year, I thought it a shame that a list detailing what older music I enjoyed but only discovered in 2010 would not be shared. The tracks of the year took me a while and at one point I thought that I really couldn't be arsed sharing what I had unearthed from various blogs, DJs and lets not forget, poor old record shops. So below is a list of my twenty 'discovered/rediscovered classics' in 2010 (in no particular order). Enjoy.

1. George Morel-Let's Groove

I posted up this track a few months ago. An absolute stormer. Part of Strictly Rhythm's renaissance of 2010.

2. The Modern Lovers-I'm Straight

Jonathan Richman may be familiar to fans of Farrelly Brothers movies, however he's been around forever, first off in the hugely influential The Modern Lovers. 'I'm Straight' acts as a rejection of many artists/young people use and lifestyle of drugs in the early 70s and it's a beautiful sparse track that has led to many imitators over the last 40 years or so.

3. Toney Lee-Love So Deep (Instrumental)

This surfaced on a recent Resident Advisor podcast from Space Dimension Controller; however I've had it since the summer and it's a wonderful edgy track, quite scary that it came out in 1983. A classic instrumental.

4. The Wedding Present-Spangle

First heard a cover of this track about ten years ago whilst enjoying the EMO of Jimmy Eat World. I finally sourced the original and it's not suprisingly far better. Actually the whole album is excellent, very underrated when compared to Bizzaro or George Best.

5. Romanthony-The Wanderer (Temple Vox Remix)

Just like with Stricly Rhythm, other early 90s U.S house has also become popular again with DJs and fans alike. This beauty from Romanthony has been doing the rounds all year, especially the edgier deeper versions. However my favourite was this vocal heavy version, less designed for the dancefloor.

6.  Cyber People-Void Vision (Slow Version)

Whilst planning for our first Binary event, I was searching far and wide for 80s electro/digital/analogue tracks and found this beauty. The slow version is amazing, unfortunately the A side less so.

7. Bedhead-Bedside Table

Bedhead were a low key 90s act, noted for their sparse arrangements and distinct lack of distortion (when it was often the norm). This is an excellent track of their debut album WhatFunLifeWas.

8. Lowell-No Matter

Was always going to be an Italo track in here after the amount I've listened to over the past 12 months. I love the vocal on this tune.

9, Anthony 'Shake' Shakir-Get a Feeling

According to many 'Shake' finally got his exposure to a wider audience with the mammoth 3 CD retrospective set entitled 'Frictionalism'. Whilst many of the tracks on here transcended many genres, I loved the upfront 90s house sound of 'Get A Feeling'. A absolute banger.

10. Galaxie 500-When Will You Come Home?

Galaxie shortlived career in the late 80s and early 90s was reissued and remastered this year with plently of approval from media leeches such as Pitchfork. On Fire got 10.0, usually reserved for people like Kanye West. The lead singer Dean Wareham is embarking on a solo tour next month playing the songs of Galaxie 500. Definitely worth checking out.

11. Katie Kissoon-You're the One (You're My Number One)

The term 'boogie' usually sends shivers down my spine about the impending shitstorm heading for my ears. However there are exceptions, such as this midtempo boogie-funk track from Katie Kissoon. Even managed to play this on New Years!

12. Marcel King-Reach for Love

A gentleman sadly not with us anymore. This was released in the mid 80s, ten years previous he was the very young looking vocalist for Mancunian soul collective Sweet Sensation most known for their hit 'Sad Sweet Dreamer'. He re-emerged with 'Reach for Love' on local label Factory before sliding back into obscurity. Shame we couldn't get more of the man before he passed away in the mid 90s aged just 38.

13. Low-Sleep at the Bottom

For a band as prolific as Low, it was no surprise that in 2004 they released a 3CD B-Sides and Rarities box set full of hidden gems, fantastic cover verisions and reworks of some their own tracks. 'Sleep at the Bottom' as an eerie quality reminscent of early Verve. Why it took me till 2010 to get hold of this box sets god only knows. It really is truly special.

14. Pepe Bradock-Intriguing Feathered Creature

Every track I hear from Pepe Bradock is nothing short of amazing. Usually each track/release is different from what he has done before however many aspects tie each of them together. On 'Intriguing Feathered Creature', the usual stomp, multi-layered beats are there together with his own eclectic style/improvisation away from the norm.

15. Recloose-Soul Clap 2000

Recloose has over the last few years moved away from the sounds of where he started out on Planet E. Whilst his outlook may have changed, the quality has for the most part remained. This autumn, it was pleasing to hear Rush Hour issue a compliation showcasing his Early Works. 'Soul Clap 2000' is my highlight from the album which is a great start if you want to check out his now hard to find early 12" releases.

16. Jago-I'm Going to Go

Another 80s masterpiece full of a simple but effective bass line and deep synths. Another great Italo track, but wonderfully deeeep.

17. Mission to Burma-Outlaw

Upon reforming a few years back, Matador decided to remaster and re-release the best of Mission to Burma's great work of the early 80s. After only hearing snippets, it was briefly catching them at ATP that I thought I'd make a concerted effort to listen to their music and it started (and ended-I got sidetracked) with Signals, Calls and Marches. The influences on all sorts is all their to see, the choppy guitars and brutalism of 'Outlaw' is my highlight.

18. Roy Ayers-Chicago

One of my favourite tracks of the 80s. I actually caught hold of this one about 4 years ago, but then forgot about it and then rediscovered it again this summer. It's funky feel with stinging slap bass really hits the spot every time.

19. Refused-Liberation Frequency

Refused were another one of those bands that were repackaged andremastered this year. Their big hit 'New Noise' was doing the rounds when 'emo' had some meaning before piles of shite such as Finch, The Used etc took it over and layered it with tattoos and bullshit. It was always an excellent record, but the re-release is now almost downright essential and the live record is as about as close as you'll ever get to see them live, which I'm sure was always a special treat.

20. Chez Damier & Stacey Pullen-Forever Mix 2

Finally more early 90s house this time in the shape of old warhorses, Chez Damier and Stacey Pullen. Just how deep this track is quite unbelievable and it's no real surprise that it finds itself more relevant than ever today.