Bourgie Bourgie

Without Voodoo (What Can I Do?)

2011-03-24T21:58:00.003+08:00

A new mix - something for the weekend, sir?

Download link

Tracklisting
1. Joyce - Aldeia de Ogum
2. Vangelis - Let It Happen
3. Delta House of Funk - Harry Coltrane
4. Manu Chao - Mentira
5. Gotan Project - Domingo
6. Dave Samuels - Dance Class
7. Pat Metheny - Are You Coming With Me?
8. Thomas Dolby - I Scare Myself
9. Babe Ruth - The Mexican
10. Bob Seger - Love the One You're With
11. The Band - To Kingdom Come
12. The Sisters Cole - Give Me Your Love (Danny Krivit edit)
13. Azymuth - Dear Limmertz
14. Eddie Hazel - Frantic Moments
15. D.J. Rogers - Bail Out

Enjoy.

A Taste of: Laurie Anderson

2011-03-02T22:02:00.001+08:00

Laurie Anderson in the 80s successfully crossed art and pop. More text to come.

Excellent Birds - excellent video

More Laurie - O Superman - pop art

Kokoku

A Taste Of: Orange Juice - Rip It Up and Start Again

2011-02-18T21:26:00.000+08:00

Orange Juice follow the arc of many of my favourite bands. Energised by punk but stuck in the provinces, they burst out (in this case in Glasgow, Scotland) full of verve, attitude and quirks. They grow out of punk into the 80s with an eye on the wider musical possibilities offered either by funk, hip-hop or reggae. Then things get overly complicated and they implode or fall on their arse with a drug problem and no record deal.

For Orange Juice, things got a little more tragic for lead singer Edwyn Collins. After a reasonably successful solo career (full of interesting sub-Dylan blues and then one massive, rather overrated hit 'A Girl Like You'), he suffered a stroke in 2005 at the age of 44 which led to a massive brain haemorrhage and aphasia. For a time, he was only able to say four phrases - 'Yes', 'No', 'Grace Maxwell' (his wife's name) and 'The possibilities are endless.'

Gradually, with speech and physiotherapy, he fought his way back, re-learnt his songs (the stroke meant he had forgotten them) and now performs live. He is still deeply affected by his incapacity, but his singing remains as strong as ever. You can watch the inspiring (and, at times, frustrating) story of his recovery here.

Two vids of Orange Juice for ya. I love the infectious homegrown funk of this classic in 1983. Orange Juice always made things sound unsophisticated, yet managed to be thoroughly post-modern at the same time. Artless artiness. That could describe the official video too - amateurish, yet somehow fitting. People never use tinfoil any more to simulate the future - shame that . .

Rip It Up

Back in the beginning, though, Collins and his mates were a bunch of fresh-faced college kids full of raw Undertones-like energy. This is their 1980 classic with a video made years later which somehow captures their fey indie spirit.

Blue Boy

Enjoy and I hope you will be "listening to the words being sung . . by little Blue Boy."

Born This Way

2011-02-11T22:00:00.002+08:00

A short post tonight. Currently, there's a lot of raving on t'internet about Lady Gaga's new single 'Born This Way'. Apart from being rather tepid and boring (like all Gaga's stuff), the title is clearly a steal of Carl Bean's 1975 disco classic. No, it's not a homage, it's only a homage if Lady Gaga comes out and admits it ('comes out' - geddit?).

Bean was a Motown soul singer who was also a gay activist in the 70s. He founded the Unity Fellowship Church Movement - a denomination which welcomes gay, lesbian and bisexual worshippers. To this day, Bean is a practising priest. So, let's give credit where it's due and acknowledge the chubby gay pastor (and the excellent production skills of legend Tom Moulton), before we go all 'Gaga' over the overrated glittered-up ('OMG, she's so outrageous') glam queen -

I Was Born This Way

3 of a Kind - Suicidal Singers

2011-02-09T00:01:00.001+08:00

Nothing like a little bit of midweek morbidity, so here's three classics from three talents whose lights shined all too briefly.

First, the princely and pallid folkster Nick Drake with his utterly morose 'Black Eyed Dog'. Most of his stuff is more upbeat and orchestrated than this, but there's something about the stripped down austerity of this tune which is equally powerful. Be sure to check out all of Drake's albums - 'Five Leaves Left', 'Bryter Later' and 'Pink Moon'.

BLACK EYED DOG

Next up is a rather obvious choice, but none the worse for it - Joy Division. Ian Curtis' brief life and career has been much documented, most recently in the slightly soap-opera like film 'Control'. I've chosen the song, 'Dead Souls', which I think really showcases not only Curtis' intensity and Joy Division's raw post-punk sound, but also the superb pared-down production of a certain Martin Hannett.

DEAD SOULS

Last up is a lesser light and, admittedly, someone whose work I'm less familiar with - Elliot Smith. By all accounts, he was a bit of an underground star in the US before his untimely demise, and drew inevitable comparisons with another singer who met an early end - Kurt Cobain. Here is 'Let's Get Lost' which I picked up on CD a long time ago. As well as the understated acoustic playing on this, I love the lyrics, where he candidly expresses his self-destructive impulse - "Burning every bridge that I cross, to find some beautiful place to get lost."

LET'S GET LOST

Enjoy. And don't feel too down.

As Heard On #1: Beyonce - Crazy in Love

2011-02-07T23:31:00.000+08:00

OK, here's an interesting little thread idea - tracing where samples in recent pop and R&B hits come from. We start off with Beyonce's huge 2003 hit 'Crazy in Love'. The main sample came from an early single from the Chi-Lites, a 70s soul and R&B outfit from Chicago, entitled 'Are You My Woman?' Here they are side-by-side -

Beyonce 'Crazy in Love'

The Chi-Lites 'Are You My Woman?'

And then another interesting twist - Beyonce's hit (and the Chi-Lites' sample) was then mashed again by the Beatconductor with a reggae slant -

The Chi-Lites didn't get a penny from the success of Beyonce's hit. Not meaning to make an issue of it - that's a whole can of worms - but it's worth knowing. The Chi-Lites themselves had a lot of success in the 70s by pioneering the 'Philly Sound' - rather soft, harmonised soul. But they also dabbled in disco and this is one of their best, 'You Don't Have to Go', from 1976.

[Excuse the rather silly dancing girls - believe it or not, the top UK pop chart show back then, Top of the Pops, would use this group of curvaceous dancing girls (called Pan's People) whenever they couldn't invite the artists to perform in their show.]

Now you know . .

A Taste of: Peter Gabriel

2011-02-05T22:26:00.006+08:00

People have a very fixed perception of Peter Gabriel - 70s prog rocker, 80s pop-meister and MTV favourite, 90s champion of so-called 'world music', present-day eco-warrior. For me, he's a fearless embracer of diversity. Since his Genesis days, he's worn his middle-class background on his sleeve and made bold, potentially career-ending innovations. Most of all, he embraced production technology, (from being one of the pioneers of the Fairlight synthesizer to being a part owner of Solid State Logic) yet managed to sound utterly authentic.

I'm going to give you a very brief taste of his music. I've skipped his Genesis days (criminal move, I know) and gone straight to his brilliant solo offering - Games Without Frontiers (from '3' released in 1980). Check out that opening - why no self-respecting Kanye West type hip-hop producer hasn't stolen it yet, I don't know. Interestingly, Gabriel recently made the song available in a competition to remix the song. Such luminaries as Massive Attack took up the challenge. I'm trawling through some of the ones uploaded on Youtube, but haven't found one yet that truly puts that intro to use.

GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS

In the 80s, Gabriel embarked on his most commercially successful period with the massive hit album 'So'. Everyone from that time remembers 'Sledgehammer' and the brilliant animated video. Again, Gabriel spotted the possibilities and potential of music videos, something all commercial bands now take for granted. I prefer this hit off the album, 'Big Time', which still moves many a Balearic dance floor.

BIG TIME

After the commercial success of 'So', Gabriel created what is, for me, his masterpiece. Asked by Martin Scorsese to soundtrack his controversial film 'The Last Temptation of Christ', Gabriel delivered the goods. He recruited musicians from North Africa, the Middle East and Asia to create a truly mystical feel, yet combined it with synthesisers and sequencers in an authentic blend. Thanks partly to DJ Jose Padilla and Cafe del Mar, the album is rightly credited as a classic and an album which re-invigorated the ambient soundtrack genre.

Listen to 'Passion' (from the album of the same name) and you hear music which Hollywood has now ripped many times - whenever they want to soundtrack some footage of the Middle East or Africa (usually showing hooded terrorists driving off into the desert). Pick any Ridley or Tony Scott movie (e.g. Black Hawk Down) and somewhere in the film, you will hear a rip-off of this 'Passion' moment.

PASSION

Just for You mix

2011-02-05T01:23:00.006+08:00

A new mix and re-launch for this dirty old blog. This will be my (new) permanent home for my many mixes, so expect more to come, including all my older mixes.

I'm also experimenting to see if I can use this blog to explore, share and discuss other stuff, too, so keep your eyes peeled. For now - this is just for you -

Download link

1. In My Mind - Maurice Fulton

2. Just for You - Peter Green

3. Penny Hitch - Soft Machine

4. Shulme - Smith & Mudd

5. Fly Like an Eagle - Steve Miller Band

6. Tribal Dance - Peter Green

7. The Space Between - Roxy Music

8. Tamiko's Groove (Instrumental) - Tamiko Jones

9. Cosmic Dust (Instrumental) - Sharon Bailey

10. Third World Service - Manfred Mann

11. Shinzo No Tobira - Mariah

12. Sample D - Front 242

13. Aeo (Parts 1 & 2) - Brian Briggs

14. The Mkapella - MK
15. Earthwire Line - Creation Rebel

16. Free - Robert Wyatt