And Not Just Because I Heart Erlend Øye
Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix) (MP3)
Ohmygodohmygodohmygod… this is sooooooo good!
Rubicon co-making Frenchman Fred Falke remixes one of the best bits from the yet another can-this-man-do-no-wrong Erlend Øye project that is Whitest Boy Alive and IT’S EVEN BETTER THAN IN YOUR WILDEST DREAMS (I’m not sure that even putting it in capitals makes the point anywhere near as clearly as I’d like but check out the simply dreamy call-and-response between Erlend and his distorted vocoder counterpart; “there’s sadness written on every corner”).
I nearly passed on buying this earlier this week and I don’t think I could accurately put into words how truly glad I am that I didn’t (and that I’m now able to play it ad nauseam) and, I don’t know about you, but every once-in-a-while it’s nice to be reminded that “house” doesn’t have to be a dirty word.
Space Survivor…
Network feat. Rik DeLisle - Space Survivor (Instrumental) (MP3)
‘Space Survivor’ was released back in 1981 on the German label Hansa. Nestled away on the B side to ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ (a terrible cover of the Lou Reed classic), this is somewhat of a hidden gem (mid-tempo disco with a vocoder, space effects and a rolling bass line). This was one of those rare bargain bin finds where I went off the name alone and it actually paid off…
It’s A Jungle Out There…
Gaznevada - Living In The Jungle (Jungle Mix) (MP3)
Released in 1985 on the Italian EMI label, ‘Living In The Jungle’ was somewhat of a big hit for these guys. The track is pretty much everything you would expect; tribal chants, jungle sounds, and of course, shit loads of synthesisers. Not quite up there with ‘I.C Love Affair‘ or ‘Special Agent Man’, but a great record non the less…
Sugar
Gabriella Cilmi - Sweet About Me (MP3)(Track removed by request - or more like track removed by threatening letter to hosting company from IFPI who obviously don’t like their artists being spoken about on the internet)Something of a brief interlude to my protracted and unfashionably late review of 2007 by way of the song that was playing on the radio as I awoke this morning.
Those of you who don’t live in an insane musical bubble like me and are actually aware of the world of music that exists outside of a select few record shop weekly mail-outs, very few blogs, non-playlist radio and recommendations from friends might already be aware of Gabriella Cilmi . For my fellow dwellers within gloriously shimmering musical worlds of their own creation here’s a sweet little jazzy soul pop number with some genuine old-fashioned charm all the way from “the outside”.
But please, whatever you do, don’t check-out the video as she manages to thoroughly ruin things with her many and varied affectations*, and the more we try to forget (but can never forgive) her insipid and truly awful cover of Martha & The Muffins ‘Echo Beach’ the better (insert sound of shuddering).
*I said DON’T!
So That Was 2007 Part IV
I hadn’t picked up on Trans Am before I picked up on ‘First Words’ from the ‘Sex Change’ album the three gents in question released last year. Whilst the album as a whole is not bad, it’s more than a little schizophrenic and doesn’t quite fulfil for me the promise of its post-krautrock opening gambit, which I think is more than worthy of a mention here.
Getting A Little Nervous?
Frank Maya & The Decals - Too Nervous (MP3)
Something I downloaded from Midnight Mike’s currently “on-hiatus” blog 12am Maternal a while back, and have had on constant repeat ever since, this is a piece of post-punk which is perfect for those of you looking for something as equally as good (but a little more obscure) as those Talking Heads records you play to the cool kids at the local discotheque.
So That Was 2007 Part III
Jens Lekman - Your Arms Around Me (MP3)
Swedish big girl’s blouse Jens Lekman’s ‘Night Falls Over Kortedala’ wouldn’t have been in my end of year chart had we gotten around to putting together the fabled Best Foot Forward 2007 Round-Up last November or whenever it was going to be. Why? Because I only got a copy of it a couple of weeks ago, that’s why. Sure, I listened to the little snippets on Piccadilly’s and Boomkat’s mail-outs when it was released and, interest suitably piqued, I duly stuck it on my “to get” list but just never got around to it. Im sure you know how it is.
But for now it is that this lovely album of beautifully produced big camp indie pop songs has barely left my CD player and ‘Arms Around You’ is not only my favourite song on the album, it’s my favourite song about being taken to hospital by your girlfriend after she made you jump causing you to cut the end of your finger off whilst you were making a salad and, with “I was slicing up an avocado”, it’s given me my new favourite opening line to a song.
Step Around This Movin’ Sound…
Paul Hardcastle - Movin’ Sound (MP3)
British born Paul Hardcastle is best known for one thing; his Vietnam inspired recording ‘19‘. Personally, I don’t really know much about his other work, apart from that he was in the “fake LFO” (as opposed to the real deal - the Warp affiliated LFO)…
Anyway, I found this record a while back in a charity shop, it’s a track called “Movin’ Sound” and appears on the b-side to the 1988 single “40 Years”. It’s a somewhat Jazz inspired Balearic/Boogie type record. I kinda like it…
So That Was 2007 Part II
Barbara & Ernie - Play With Fire (MP3)
The best re-issue of 2007? Well that might just possibly be Barbara & Ernie’s Prelude To…
Ignored upon its initial release in 1971, it’s rarity and downright ace-ness pretty much ensured it became one of those ridiculously rare, and of course stupidly priced, records much sought-after by the Psych and Funk and Soul fraternities alike. Thank you then to Fallout Records for making it possible for us mere mortals to own a copy of our very own on either compact disc or the most deliciously heavy vinyl I’ve ever hefted onto a Vestax Handy Trax.
A brooding, sultry cover of Jefferson Airplane’s Somebody To Love along with a further seven Psych/Soul/Jazz/Funk numbers follow the belter of an opening track that offers the sort of advice Charlie certainly wouldn’t approve of.
So That Was 2007 Part I
And we had it all planned out: clever categories, highlights from a year’s worth of only-amusing-to-us musical anecdotes, celebrity contributions and oh so much more. It was going to be amazing, it was going to be the Best Foot Forward End Of Year Round-Up. But all the down-time, and the down-time-induced lethargy we were suffering just as we were hitting chart season pretty much put paid to that.
Or did it?
The sort-of enforced hiatus has meant that I’ve had plenty of time to pick up those last few 2007 releases that just kept getting pushed to the bottom of the list, as well as rooting through every man and his dog’s end of year charts for anything I might have missed of course, and now I’ve actually got some stuff worth telling you about I’m going to try and bash out as many posts as I can with tracks I deem worthy of note from the whole of the year that was 2007. Sticking to the format we’ve grown to love here at BFF, there’ll be one track per post to either represent an entire release or to, well, just represent itself, any accompanying editorial should suggest which.
The whole Balearic/Cosmic Disco thing really isn’t something I know too much about (what with it being music you can dance to an’ all), it’s very definitely Mark and Kev’s bag*. Luckily there don’t seem to be any facts for me to get wrong about the anonymous in all but name Talking Drums or their track Courage that either Jazzanova or Gerd Janson stumbled across in the depths of a Belgian record shop and stuck on ‘Computer Incarnations For World Peace’, one of my favourite compilations of last year. Swayed by one of the best album titles ever, unbelievably made even better by being rendered in glorious pseudo 1980’s vectors on the cover, if I’m honest I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t an album of early SID-powered pop music (okay, so maybe if I’d read the rest of the words on the cover** I might not have felt so misled) but luckily it turned out to be good anyway.
I might even play this at my first DJ outing of 2008, not this Saturday’s Best Foot Forward but the one after (I think, or it might even be the one after that, I’ll have to ask Kev).
* Yes I said “bag”.
** “Soulful New Wave”, “Dubby Rock” and “Jazzanova” - yep, I know they’re not exactly cryptic indicators but I was THAT mesmerised by the shiny geeky computery record sleeve.
