video drop

Today, a compendium of YouTube videos that I've been re-playing again and again, with little anecdotes.

First up, the ladies of Mai Tai, performing their 1985 hit, "History." Excellent old-school video!



My friend Nick from Teengirl Fantasy is pondering a rework of the track in a style similar to Quiet Village Project-- just imagine the extended version below slowed. It is a pure balearic treat, let me tell you, and one that I was treated to pretty constantly during my week in Ohio.



Next up, a 1986 live performance by Farley "Jackmaster" Funk and vocalist Darryl Pandy on 'Top of the Pops.' Would that music like this were still on Top 20 charts!



Man, can Pandy sing!

Now, a jump to a 2005 performance by Paul Randolph, wrongly labelled as a Moodymann performance by the poster. This track is called "Break By Stone," and really, who the hell can argue with a man who is playing bass behind his head, singing, and dancing all at the same time? This video makes you want to go out and do something amazing.



Finally, a jump back to a 1969 performance by Nina Simone, whom I've been really digging to no end in the past couple of months. A pretty famous performance, but worth posting nonetheless.



Tomorrow, some digitized deepness for you. Have a good Sunday!

enjoy it now

While in Oberlin, Ohio, last week, I made a venture to Cleveland with some great friends to see Tortured Soul, and it turned out to be one of the best live concerts I've ever seen. It wasn't just the fact that a live band was playing so perfectly a music that is traditionally made with synthesizers and drum machines, it was the sound itself-- a soulful, funky, jazzy and emotionally resonant house that forces asses to shake. I highly recommend seeing them play live. Just watch this and you'll understand:



And below, a track of theirs that just screams a perfectly deep mix of Morgan Geist, Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan-- truly uplifting, and a real floor-shaker to boot.

Tortured Soul- Enjoy It Now

More deep stuff tomorrow.

the way

Been gone awhile! A solid week of partying with some of my best friends in a beautiful town in Ohio set me back a bit, but now I am back in San Francisco and ready to keep giving the goods.

There's been a lot of debate going on recently about the current state of the genre known as dub-techno, a sound pioneered by Basic Channel and the artists of Chain Reaction, now being taken up by such followers as the boys over at Echocord and Modern Love. Many have grown to think of the genre as "samey," consisting mostly of atmospheric ambient hiss, booming-yet-buried kicks, synth swells here and there, and climaxes much too minute for any sort of dance floor. In other words, the genre's detractors have found that the powerful music of Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald has plateaued into a genre that is completely uninteresting and stuck in the musical signs of being dub-techno, rather than expanding the genre's sonic and dancefloor capabilities. While I agree with this negative assessment in some ways-- much too much same-old shit has come out in the past few years-- I still believe that there are some great artists doing things with the genre, and the best of them is undoubtedly Luke Hess.

Hess' new album Light in the Dark is exemplary of a dub-techno album that doesn't simply rely on formula. Rather, there is a great amount of variation, with tracks ranging from the dark, lush ambient of "Reflections" to the Omar-S-like techno syncopations of "The Way." While there is certainly a mood contained within the album, and is isn't necessarily a sunshiney one, the album as a whole is a breath of fresh air, with enough swelling, delayed synths to keep the dub-techno purists happy and enough pounding grooves to keep the Detroit tech-heads happy. Releasing one of the great albums of 2009, Hess is most definitely among the more interesting and precision-oriented producers out there. Check out his summer podcast from last year on MNML SSGS, too-- it is quite nice.

Luke Hess- The Way

More coming at you later tonight!

Marc Kinchen

Between 1992 and 1996, Marc Kinchen shit gold all over house music. He produced hundreds of remixes for freaking everybody, and they were all awesome. His trademark technique was to edit all meaning out of the vocal track and let the voice emote abstractly. I think that every house head probably has their own favorite MK dubs. Now, his famous sounds - the cut up vocals, the melodic basslines, and the synthesized brass stabs - are tied to that era, but they still sound good.

If, like me, you ever believed that Kinchen literally shit gold, a new interview at Soul Clap may bear you out. Here he speaks about the creation of "Push the Feeling On (The Dub of Doom)," his big hit for The Nightcrawlers:

My studio was a mess. I was kinda mad that they didn’t like it, so I did [a new] one real quick, in like 30 minutes. I didn’t like the vocals so I just cut it up. Everything I did was a first pass, from the horns to the keys to the sample. Plus, I was working out of only one speaker. I just did the mix sent it to my manager and I was out.

...

I try to take that approach when I do dance stuff. I don’t put alot of thought in to my dance stuff. It’s more just a feeling, so I just go for it and hopefully it ends up working for whatever reason.

He also says that he was making one remix each week for 15-20 thousand dollars each. Here's some of that gold.

His dub of Agolo by Angelique Kidjo:

This next one is less adventurous than normal for Kinchen, but I guess it's hard to figure out how to change something perfect. It's basically a house remix of Alicia Myers's great love song "I Want To Thank You." The vocals have been rerecorded by Latrece B. Kinchen, so I guess this is a family affair.

- Leo

Dr. Mbee & Dr. Duda

I first became aware of the new musical waves that are stirring in South Africa when my friend Dean invited me to participate in a Cool Places Radio episode focusing on Kwaito, house and dance music in South Africa, Zambia, and the surrounding area (see the playlist here). This is one mix that I didn't get around to playing on the show, but it has been continuously blowing my mind ever since. A combination of early 90s British house and African rhythms, with a huge buildup of phaser barreling its way through the middle, splooging its way into one ear and out the other...

Enjoy,

Camilla

homing in

So, after a couple of lovely days in New York City (including an ultimately disappointing Dopplereffekt performance), I am heading to my alma mater, Oberlin College, for a few days. Will definitely be updating the blog and cajoling others into doing some posts as well, so keep checking back...or put us on your feed, or your Google Reader.

Today, a piece from a release that made my best-of-year list from 2008: "The Road Home" from Bvdub's Return to Tonglu. A dreamy, elegiac ambient-dub piece that is perfect for planes, trains, and coming back to a place that feels very much like home. So dig, and tomorrow, an old techno bit that will sum up a week of drunken debauchery quite nicely...before the week is even out.

Bvdub- The Road Home

OHIO HO!

he is dancing

Chris Fortier's Fade Records imprint usually deals with a more noisy, glitchy, experimental side of techno and house, so it came as a surprise that his second official release for the man known as One of Them included some deep, rolling grooves. "He is Dancing in New York" is a mid-tempo house number with wet handclaps, deep kicks, and synth syncopations that are quite nice. The melancholy, minor-key piano work that rides over everything provides an airy feel to the track, bringing to mind the early summer evening in New York, when the weather becomes bearable after a long day of garbagey heat. With a bit of Ibadan flavor bubbling throughout, "He is Dancing in New York" is certainly my favorite piece thus far from One of Them, and among the best releases on Fortier's label thus far.

One of Them- He is Dancing in New York

Seeing where tomorrow leads me-- I'll be in New York until Sunday, May 17th. Will I see any of you at the Dopplereffekt show at Le Poisson Rouge on Saturday night?