Payday Pt. II

Just furthered my ongoing replace-stolen-CDs-with-wax project a bit:

Dave Angel – In Flight Entertainment EP [Blunted]
Born Under A Rhyming Planet – Analogue Heaven [Plus 8]
Richard Bartz – Sci-Fi [Disko B]
Depeche Mode – Construction Time Again [Mute]
Thomas Fehlmann – Flow EP [R&S]

…and a couple of bits these sellers had in stock:

Gemini – Le Fusion [Cajual]
Elegia – Basic [F Comm]

…and this one, from my friend Rory‘s recent mix, for Budapest By Blimp. Tune.

Thomas Dolby – Airhead

Payday!

Robert Babicz : Mister Head (K2/Kompakt Germany) – for Sondag, which Nick Craddock featured in one of his mixes a while back, and I’ve only just been able to track down

Robert Babicz : The Cloudpainter EP (Out Of Orbit Denmark) – more from him. Three solid tracks

Jus Ed
: Small Oak (Underground Quality US) – for the first track. It’s hot

Jenifa Mayanja
: Time Waits For No One (remixes) – From Stream Of Consciousness CD (Underground Quality US) – also for the first track. Also hot

New World Aquarium
: Twenty EP (Delsin Holland) – Five new tracks. Picking up where he left off

Non Stop DJs
: Retarded EP (Non Stop Recordings) – My North London boys doing Ghetto Tech proper like. This is sounding really tight

Jacek Sienkiewicz
: Narrative (Recognition Poland) – a reissue. The last track is the one

Terre Thaemelitz
: You? Again? (Mule Electronic Japan) – late 90s Thaemelitz house wares repressed on Mule Electronic last year. Seriously deep

Terre Thaemelitz
: You? Again? Vol 3 (Mule Electronic Japan) – same

Hydrology Plus 1 + 2

Had a bit of moolah in ye olde paypal reserves as a result of selling a few items via my Discogs page and eBay in recent months, so I repurchased Alan Wilder’s first two solo records as Recoil, 1+2 circa ’86 and Hydrology circa ’87. I used to own the CD which compiles these two records, but I believe it was one of the victims of the 2001 car thefts. At any rate, I now own it again for the first time on wax.

So who is this Alan Wilder you ask? He be the man that replaced Vince Clarke in Depeche Mode after Speak & Spell, then left in 1995, sometime around Dave Gahan’s heroin addiction by my faulty memory. To situate the music, you need first think of Black Celebration and Music For the Masses era Depeche Mode, without the singing, with a bunch of disparate vocals, from indigenous peoples to operatic shit. There are five tracks across the two records, ranging in length from 14 to almost 19 minutes, save the first track which clocks in at 7:43. Within these lengths he builds up some serious density, and roves a fair amount, often incorporating a few movements.

The result is totally coherent, and these were landmark works for their time. In my mind, nothing much approached this level of coherence, complexity and artistry in electronic music then. This was before Detroit Techno as we know it today – contemporary with its beginnings. It had little to do with it and less to do with Chicago house. It was its own electronic beast. I guess its most common style would have to be ambient stuff a la Eno and maybe Tangerine Dream, and I certainly hear some Reich in there.

That “Love on a Fast Train” track from Risky Business (which also accompanies the youngest boy in The Squid & the Whale) that I posted my surprise about a while ago is maybe fairly comparable. Maybe it sounds most like Global Communication’s 76:14 album (on which Maiden Voyage is the interpolation of Love on a Fast Train), but eight years earlier, and probably the superior work given how well it holds up 20 years down the line. I listened to this album hundreds of times in the 90s and never tired of it. I can’t recall the last time I listened to all of 76:14 straight through. Having it again now is a treat. If you’ve never heard it and love that middle era Depeche Mode like I do, definitely give it a go.

Next gig SPAM: Sud records 10th release party, with Portable and Cassy

We will be celebrating our 10th release with a very special party on the 31st of March ; our first party for 2007 , so not to be missed !

We are so so thrilled that Cassy will be joining us & helping us celebrate this release .

Catherine Britton aka Cassy, left England for Austria with her Caribbean father and Austrian mother in 1975.
She spent her childhood in Vienna and Lower Austria, starting to sing and study music at an early age. What happenned since has been nothing short of phenominal .

Cassy has become the toast of the electronic world . It’s no surprise really , with the kind of credentials , she holds .

She has collaborated with some of the most influential artists in Techno . Namely Ricardo Villalobos , Luciano , Steve Bug e.t.c. & holds a residency at the highly regarded , Panorama Bar , in Berlin ; & can sometimes be found working behind the counter @ Hardwax ; Berlin’s legendary record shop .

Her solo projects are worth a look in as well as they are rather good . ‘ My Auntie ‘ her solo debut on Perlon , is a personal favourite . She has also recently started , her own label , simply called , Cassy . If the 1st release on this label is any thing to go by , then expect some killer future releases .

What has trully lifted her profile , though is her mix Cd for Panorama Bar . The first for the club & artist alike . Titled ‘Panorama Bar 01 ‘ . This is a journey into the deeper side of Techno & House . No computer gimmicks , just the mixer , 2 decks & a great selection of tracks . This is most definitely one of the best mix cd’s of 2006 . An essential purchase indeed ! .

Anyone who has spent some time on Panorama Bar’s dancefloor during one of Cassy’s sets has witnessed what special kind of atmosphere and energy she manages to create with her House-Sound. When Cassy is behind the decks, sitting around or hanging at the bar never really is an option, as it is rather probable everyone finds themselves dancing. Her very own way of fusing deep, minimal and sexy records is highly exceptional and it creates a very intoxicating, special groove. Do not miss !

Cassy will be joined by Portable , who will be performing tracks from his forthcoming album , out on Sud , May / June .

Completing the bill will be our residents , Lakuti , Marco Shuttle , Nick Craddock , Special guests Stefano & newbie to Sud , Tristan Watkins aka Phonopsia .

I have been listening to Tristan’s mixes for quite some time now & they are great & i for one am looking forward to his Sud debut .

After the great visual display from Squint in December , he will be back again with Brittski .

We will be back @ the Rhythm Factory …16 – 18 Whitechapel Road , London E1 1EW .

10 pm – 6 am with a new & improved sound in Room 1 .

As usual , book your place on the £8 list by emailing :

[email protected]

otherwise it’s £10 on the door .

Cassy’s discography

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Cassy

Body Code @ Myspace

www.myspace.com/bodycodemusic

Looking forward to seeing you all !

Lerato / Lakuti

Busy weekend

Much ado in Saint Reatham this weekend gone. Must pack this in quickly and catch up on sleep.

Friday evening my new mixing console was delivered right after work. It’s a Soundcraft Spirit ES, which is a 10 stereo channel, 4 mono mixer, which is a rather unique configuration, but perfect to my needs, as I have/use more stereo devices than most people do. The mixer was recently taken out of production, so I had to do some serious hunting. I’m fairly certain I got the very last new one in the UK.

For the last month I’ve been struggling to get the new kit up and running together through my Allen Heath Xone:32, which is only a 3-channel DJ mixer, and I’d totally run out of space on my desk. The new keyboard was hanging out back on top of the turntables, and there was absolutely no space for a 21″ wide mixer on the desk. Basically I had to do a full-scale rearrangement, which has taken me almost all weekend, but all is done now!

Half-way through I convinced myself I would need to buy a new computer desk because I so fully filled my old one (which is fairly massive) with the musical kit, but I’ve managed to get around that and fit everything into a really compact space via the purchase of four new shelves for my Ikea Jerker. Now everything is within reach, all the cables are neatly twist-tied, and I even got the computer set up so that it tucks away while not in use (the whole aim of this reversion to hardware is to use the puter less). Most importantly I can use all my kit at once and the mixer sound dope. I even got the monitors/sub into a sweeter position today. After a few minutes of fooling around with it all for a bit today, I’m most pleased. I feel like I accomplished a lot this weekend. Anyway… have a gander.

Last night, before figuring out what to do with the computer

Now, with the computer added

Now, with the computer tucked away

We also officially kicked off the house hunt on Saturday. More news on that as things transpire.

2006 charts

Top 5 albums and compilations
Convextion – Convextion [downLow]
Herbert – Scale [!K7]
V/A – Lifeworks [Open Mind]
Stereolab – Fab Four Suture [Too Pure]
Traxx presents The Dirty Criminals – Collision Between Us And The Damned [Gigolo]

Top 25 12″s
John Beltran presents Nostalgic – Going Home EP [Groovia Sound Project]
D5 – Neutrino EP [Delsin]
Koss – Ra1030in [Mule Electronic]
3 Chairs – No Drum Machine [3 Chairs US]
Point B – Cutouts [SCSI]
Atjazz – For Real EP [Innervisions]
Marcellus Pittman – # 2 [FXHE US]
Move D – Silk & Shmoove EP [Compost Black Label]
T.O.M. Project – Renaissance [Sound Signature]
Monolake – Alaska Melting [Monolake]
Dabrye feat DOOM – Air [Ghostly International US]
Erell Ranson – Sleeping Beauty EP [Arne Weinberg]
Jacek Sienkiewicz feat Marek Raczkowski – Warsaw For Beginners [Recognition]
Pascal Schäfer – Day Return EP [Karaoke Kalk Pets]
Steve Spacek – Baby Baby [Jazzy Sport Japan]
Atom Heart – Repetetive Digital Noise [Recognition]
Alif Tree – Forgotten Places (Moodymann remix) [Compost]
DJ Yoav B – Language Of The Open Heart EP [Delsin]
Escort – Starlight [Escort Records]
The Mole – In My Song [Wagon Repair]
Chateau Flight – Baroque EP [Innervisions]
Dan Curtin – Tricks (part 1) [Tuning Spork Germany]
Redshape – 2084 [Music Man Belgium]
I:Cube – Acid Tablet EP [Versatile]
Steve Spacek – I Wanna Piece Of Ur Luv [Jazzy Sport]