My latest, extremely ill-advised purchases

Andres : Trues – 12″ [last of the represses to make its way into my cart]

Chicken Lips : Unreleased Dubs – 12″ [can’t quite recall what the dubs are of at the moment, but they are *big*. Diggin’ it]

High Skies : Sumatra – 12″ [4 remixes on Miso.The Atjazz mix is very nice. Think they were all pretty good though, if memory serves]

Vinny Miller : Breaking Out Of Your Arms – 7″ [getting into the habit of picking up more of these ?.99 indy 7″s. This one is new on 4AD. An amazing vocal on it]

Theo Parrish : The Twin Cities – 12″ [Chicago meets Detroit half way through. The dopeness. Kinda reminds me of ‘Falling Up’]

Russ Gabriel’s Audio Spectrum : The Other Side Project Volume One – 2xLP [missed this in the first shipment, but suffice it to say that I’ve been waiting for it for ages. Fuller review forthcoming I’m sure. Sounds slightly more techno-influenced than a lot of his recent stuff]

Skalpel : 1958 – Quantic Remix – 12″ [new thingy on Ninja Tune, but the Quantic remix is quite uptempo broken house with a twisted vocal treatment. Highly recommended by Dan Bean (ialityhifi)]

Rick Wade : Tracks From The Park Vol.1 – 12″ [reissue. Exactly what you’d expect from Mr. Wade, and would seem to be some of his finest moments]

Ongaku Kanaderu

It’s hilarious that when you translate the beginning of Dentaku into English you get:

Boku wa ongaku ka = I’m a musician

Dentaku katate ni = With pocket calculator in my hand

Doesn’t have quite the same ring as “I’m the operator of my pocket calculator”, does it?

Where the hell do you start when discussing a Kraftwerk show? Perhaps it’s best to have the visual reference first. These pics of the Kraftwerk show in Dublin seem to be about the best synopsis I’ve seen so far. I didn’t bring my camera for fear that they wouldn’t let me in with it.

After checking those out, you should definitely read my mate Toby’s excellent, 2000+ word reaction to it. I know that’s very long, but I bet you’ll find it illuminating. He is easilly the biggest Kraftwerk fan I know. He saw them at all three London shows last week, twice on Saturday night.

I’ll take up where I left off. There was a huge posse of us down the pub, and we made our way over in shifts. The queue was fairly enormous when we got there, but it was moving faster than any queue like that I’ve seen. I had never been in the Brixton Academy before. It is pretty damn big – holds about 4000. When we got in we headed for the bar and chatted with some of the die-hards that arrived early.

When we heard the music kicking off we headed front-right, as it seemed the easiest place to reach with a good view. It turned out to be kind of lame there though, so we wandered all the way over to the front left, where we assumed everyone would be (front and center seemed impossible). During this time they played a few songs from the new album. I’ve heard most of them before, but while I think they’re alright, the whole thing left me feeling a bit nonplused. It just wasn’t anything special, yet…

When they played ‘The Model’ things kicked off. There were these amazing videos of gorgeous 60s models playing in the background, and the familiarity of it triggered some excitement. Unfortunately, at this point we were stood in front of a guy who sung along to all the songs, knew only half the words, and whistled the bits he didn’t know the words to. Supremely annoying…

Just when I was about ready to kick him in the nuts we ran out of beer, so we hit the bar. Just then ‘Radioactivity’ kicked in, which was a completely sup’d up version. The sound in the bar was actually pretty good too, so I was really excited to head back in with full beverages on the strength of a few great songs in a row. We wandered to the middle of the floor this time, and miraculously everyone seemed to appear around us. It was just about this time that they started to play loads of my favorite songs, and the visuals were awesome for all of them. Some of my favorite moments included ‘Tour de France’, ‘TransEurope Express’, ‘Computer Love’, ‘Numbers’, ‘Pocket Calculator/Dentaku’ (awesome and hilarious culculator input visuals/sounds to go with them) and the ‘Music Non Stop’ finale. But far and away the coolest part was THE ROBOTS, which were sooooo f*cking cool.

Kraftwerk left the stage for a bit, and the curtains closed, although it was quite clear they were not done yet. After a bit, these strobes on the ground in front of the robots at 45° left and 45° right would flash in alternation, lighting up the robots behind the curtain. When the curtain was opened, you got to see them moving, which was so damn cool. My friend Matt took this (rather shaky) video. They were almost as cool as these dancing robots, but cooler since they were synchronized to Kraftwerk playing live. The afterparty coordination was rather a mess, and not worth going into, but suffice it to say that everyone had a good time, even if the party didn’t run all night long.

January and February Top 20

1. Ennio Morricone : Remixes Volume 2 – Compost 3xLP

2. Dani Siciliano : Likes… – !K7 2xLP

3. Kerrier District : Kerrier District – Rephlex 3xLP

4. Kai Alce : M-7 – Mahogani 12″

5. DJ Genesis : Back in the Middle (The Remixes) – Dynamite Soul 12″

6. Siriusmo : Sirius EP – Sonar Kollectiv 12″

7. Ursula Rucker : This – With Jazzanova / Tempest – !K7 12″

8. Rene Lowe + Paul St. Hilaire Faith – False Tuned 12″

9. John Beltran : Candela / Starlight Memories – Kirk Degiorgio Remix – Ubiquity 12″

10. $tinkworx : Los Gatos Lloros EP – Delsin 12″

11. Everyday People Feat. Loretta Heywood : I Can’t Sleep – Earth Project 12″

12. Talib Kweli : Get By (Blackbeard Reworks) – Yam Who 12″

13. DJ Kent : In The Bush (Theo Parrish Remixes) – Bear Funk 12″

14. Monolake : Cern / White II – Monolake 12″

15. Russ Gabriel : The Crossing – Soul on Wax 12″

16. Squarepusher : Ultravisitor – Sampler – Warp 12″

17. Osunlade & Nadirah Shakoor : Pride / Touched My Soul – Set 12″

18. Moodmusic Limited : Unreleased Vol.2 – Moodmusic 12″

19. Mark Force : Running In The Red – Archive 12″

20. Kathy Diamond : Sunshine – Cottage 12″

New chunes

Andres : Salvador De Bahia EP – 12″ [Repress. Hell yeah!]

Earth, Wind & Fire : Brazilian Rhyme / Runnin’ (Danny Krivit Edits) – 12″ [Mmmm…]

Madlib : The Beat Conductor – 2×7″ [Mmmm…]

Milanese : Vanilla Monkey – 12″ [New Arcola. Tasty]

Moodymann : Amerika – 12″ [Repress. Fillin’ holes in the collection]

Moodymann : J A N – 12″ [Never thought I’d get my mits on this one]

Moodymann : KDJ16 – Untitled – 12″ [A new one, not a repress. Rather nice]

Moodymann : The Thief That Stole My Sad Days… Ya Blessin’ Me – 12″ [This one includes a new mix]

Reese & Santonio : Bounce Your Body To The Box – 12″ [Mayday remix. Groovy]

Rhythim Is Rhythim : Icon / Kao-tic Harmony – 12″ [The only RIR I’ve never owned. Rectified]

Sigur Ros : ( ) – 2xLP [Very nice to get this on wax]

Sixtoo : Boxcutter Emporium (Bad Luck Comes In Threes) / Storm Clouds & Silver Linings – 12″ [Crazy new Ninja Tune from the Vertical Phorms dude]

Candi Staton : Candi Staton – 12″ [Album sampler. Old stuff, not disco]

Voices : Voices In My Mind – 12″ [MAW repress]

Yo La Tengo : Today Is The Day – 12″ [Buncha unreleased stuff]

Zero 7 : Home – 12″ [An indy-ish thing]

Various Artists : DJ Spinna Remixes EP – 12″ [Nice stuff. Old remixes from ’96 repressed]

I also took ownership of the following gems

Chicken Lips : Re-Echoed Vol 1 – Meet Me At The Freezer – 12″ [Reissue. Big Chicken Lips acid 80s business]

Claro Intelecto : Section EP – 12″ [Tasty. No Piece of Mind on this one, but still nice]

Joe Claussell / The Songstress : Je Ka Joe / See Line Woman – 12″ [Had Je Ka Joe on recommendation for ages. Another cool reissue]

Directions : Busted Trees – Carl Craig Mix – 12″ [People seem to have mixed opinions of this one, but I think it’s pretty sweet]

DKD : Future Rage – 12″ [Seriously dope. This is going to destroy shit this year]

Joe Dukie & Fitchie / Fat Freddy’s Drop : This Room / Ernie (Live) – 12″ [New Zealand dub/soul hybrid stuff. Been diggin’ them loads since seeing them open for Recloose last year. These two are excellent]

Earth The Californian Love Dream : In The Garden – 7″ [Some indy 7″ thingy. Was a nice find at £2.49 new]

Matthew Herbert : On Your Feet EP – 12″ [New varied destruction. One track with Dani Siciliano. A few wonky, spastic Herbert house cuts]

R-Tyme : Use Me – 12″ [Rare reissue on Trance Fusion, a KMS subsidiary. Wicked MK and Carl Craig remixes]

Urban Culture : The Wonders Of Wishing – 12″ [Another old reissue from Carl Craig on Eclipse. Also sick]

Wildchild : Wonder Years – 12″ [Stones Throw hip hop with a really nice remix. Peanut Butter Wolf concocting some beautiful shit]

Various Artists : Reworked 2.2 – 12″ [Hip hop cheeky re-edits. Hoping to get 1 and 2 as well. This one has Pete Rock and CL Smooth, plus Tribe Called Qwest’s “Once Again”]