Best Foot Forward Hit Futuresonic
Manchester’s electronic music festival Futuresonic is coming to town this week, and as the theme this year is “The Social”, and networking butterflies that we are, we’ve been invited to a few shindigs to show off our musical prowess …
Beef 2.0 @ Common, Saturday 3rd May, 9pm-2am
For one night only the surprisingly good companion blog to Saturday night’s Best Foot Forward will manifest itself within the walls of Common in glorious lo-tech/no-tech goodness, with web and text requests, a pen and paper-powered comments wall, a constantly updating Polaroid top 8 , ticker line HTML updates and whatever else they can come up with before the night. Also, for those unable to make the event, there are also plans to broadcast the whole mess live (if we can find a big enough wire), with track-by-track Twitter updates, where you’ll be able to hit us up for requests!Bloggerpalooza @ Contact Theatre, Sunday May 4th, 6pm-12am
For the first-time ever, Manchester’s music blogging community unites to play the sound of their blog to a local and global audience simultaneously at Bloggerpalooza. The world will look in as we broadcast the event live to the planet. A live feed will deliver the sound of Manchester globally, inviting real-time participation from all corners of Earth. We are not alone. Blogs already confirmed include Black Country Grammar, Yer Mam!, Shoplifters, Best Foot Forward, Cosmic Disco and The Indie Credential.No music here today, sorry to disappoint! Move along, and see you sometime over the weekend …
When Your Body’s Telling You You’re Too Old To Party
As I sit here in my jim-jams at half four in the afternoon I’m certainly feeling the consequences of the first proper night out dancing I’ve had in literally years (Best Foot Forward doesn’t count). It was a fine evening though and the only-just-realised-he’s-getting-old Kev and I even managed to out-last the kids, a small victory.
So with my head capable of handling only the most pastoral of music, I thought I’d share a couple of lovely recently released gems which are also managing to not make me feel quite so sick at this particular moment in time. I apologise in advance for any poor grammar and spelling mistakes: they’re because my brain hurts.
Bon Iver (or Justin Vernon to his friends)’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago‘ is what happens when people of a certain disposition disappear to a cabin in the mountains of Wisconsin for three months with nothing but a guitar, some ancient recording equipment, a suspiciously well-timed visit or two from friends to perform the odd backing vocal or percussion duty and a big bag of achingly heartbreaking songs. ‘Re:Stacks’ closes the album in fine style.
‘All Is Well‘ is an album of traditional American folk songs recorded by one Mr. Sam Amidon. There’s neither pretence nor affectation in these subtle re-interpretations and their beautifully simple arrangements, just an almost naive honesty (that comes across nicely in his home-made video for Saro) that really does justice to these simple old songs.
I shall now leave you and crawl beneath the duvet I’ve temporarily relocated to the settee (and maybe have a little cry).
And When The Lamb Opened The First Seal…
Aphrodite’s Child - The Four Horsemen (MP3)
I’ll continue the Vangelis love-in with this fine Friday-afternoon face-melter from Aphrodite’s Child’s 666, the album that split the band thus allowing Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou to become the Vangelis we know, and Demis Roussos to become a master weakener of many a mum’s knee.
This must be played a good 10-20% louder than too loud and are Demis Roussos and Balearic Mike the same person ‘cos I’ve never seen them in the same room together.
Me Listen, Me Looky, Me Lykke Li
Lykke Li - Breaking It Up (MP3)
Spent an enjoyable evening being enchanted by Swedish chanteuse Lykke Li as her tour hit the Republic of Mancunia last night, with ‘Breaking It Up’ being a particular highlight, delivering the strange vocals through a shiny megaphone. If someone would have told me a while ago that there was someone out there that was the whole of Architecture In Helsinki rolled into one I’d have been all over it since forever!
Less enjoyable last night was realising how young everyone is getting after taking a detour through another Vice party that hit town. Christ, I feel old today …
I Am Vangelis, The Greek God Of Great Fucking Music…
Vangelis - Blade Runner Blues (MP3)
Vangelis - Rachel’s Song (MP3)
Vangelis - Blush Response (MP3)
There is not much more i can say about Vangelis’s Blade Runner score that hasn’t already been said by thousands of other blogs, music critics and fans. So I won’t (much)…
It’s amazing to think that this didn’t get an official release until 12 years after it was produced (not taking into consideration the New American Orchestra reinterpretation). The soundtrack, movie, and Mr Vangelis deserve much more than I am willing to write here; having just finished for the day, and with a small holiday beckoning, I’ll just have to let the music do the talking. Enjoy.
I Want You Each And All To Switch Your Tiny Mind On
Gotta keep chipping away at that list, even if it takes 11 years. Now just don’t anyone even think about mentioning THAT remix: no song deserved that.
From Heart To Hate And Back Again
More house music, this time from Letroset’s Herz Aus Glas EP released in January on Glasgow’s Point. One label. Less fey indie-disco camp and more staccato synth stab techno than my last post, but just as good for getting your groove on to (or however you like to put it).
Don’t hate: love.
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…
