Haven’t posted in a while, so thought may as well use this post to throw up my first mix for the site. Not gonna say much about it, its culled from old and new italo, a few edits and some other random bits n’ bobs from the early 80’s. Runs at just over an hour. Enjoy.

1. Simonettl/Morante/Pignatelli - Slow Circus
2. Jo Jo – Mind Games
3. Jive Rhythm Trax – 112bpm
4. The The – Giant (Pilooski Edit)
5. Brian Auger – Last Train to Nowhere (Instrumental)
6. Elitechnique - Spectral Escape
7. Alden Tyrell feat. Fred Ventura – Memories (State of Art Remix)
8. Kate Bush – Running up that Hill (Ashley Beedle Edit)
9. Supersempfft – Be A Man You Frog
10. Village People - 5 O’Clock In the Morning (C.o.m.b.i. Edit)
11. Trippy Disco – Frankfurt in Fifteen
12. Mr Master – A Dog In The Night (Instrumental)
13. English Electric – Drm (dicky trisco rmx)
14. Elitechnique – Microbot Melodies
15. Paulie v Alden Tyrell – Little
16. John Carpenter – The End (Theme from Assault on Precinct 13)
17. Doris Norton – Personal Computer
18. Simonetti/Morante/Pignatelli – Flashing
19. The Hasbeens – Make The World Go Away.

Sleeping Alone

Digging around for a Sun-Ra CD case last night (which I never fucking found!), I happened upon the book that got me thinking about the idea of zen and deejaying a few years back. Entitled “The Unfettered Mind, it was lent to me by my man Chris Schubert who is a big fan of the connection between dance music and eastern thought as well. The thing that is so perfect about this particular book is that most of it is taken from essays written by a zen master Takuan Soho to master swordsman, sort of an instruction manual on how to use zen in fast paced action. Some of the things he says are just fantastic, such as:

When this No-Mind has been well developed, the mind does not stop with one thing nor does it lack any one thing. It is like water overflowing and exists within itself. It appears appropriately when facing a time of need.

where the No-Mind is defined as such:

It is called No-Mind when the mind has neither discrimination nor thought but wanders about the entire body and extends through the entire self.

If that doesn’t perfectly define what happens during a good deejay set both for the selector and the dancers, I dont know what does.

This whole book is pretty great, and far less corny in its practical use than The Art of War or things like that. It is about becoming one with what you do, wholly and totally, and using it to rise above what would ordinarily be possible. I am going to be re-reading it in the next week or so, and I will try to post up other interesting bits from it. But I highly reccomend everyone just go out and buy a copy! Any decent deejay should recognize much of what he says intuitively, identifying with the swordsman. Dancers can relate more to the general concept of losing oneself in action….

Summer is starting to get to me, I think. The heat and humidity are beginning to get unbearable, my allergies are giving me a constant sinus headache, and I get to do fun things like go to court tomorrow at 8:30 AM for the trial of the prick who burglarized my house last fall. Hopefully my upcoming vacation will make things better, but in the meantime this mix is a nice comfort. Dark and cinematic, maybe this can help soundtrack your descent into madness as well as mine.

Tracklist:

Brian Eno - Becalmed
ennio morricone - cinema on fire
off the sky vs gyges - polaroidmanteaux
alex leon - instant grey
mono-poly - dark sun
julian priester - coincidence
lab rat xl - lab rat 4
klaus schulze - bellistique
der zyklus - Cherenkov-Radiation
tangerine dream - sorcerer main title
e.o.g. - requiem
unit black flight - no turning back (legowelt remix)
smackos - dreams of a lonely lighthouse
david bowie - sense of doubt
franz falkenhaus - the europa judgement
wicked messenger - III
the durutti column - pol in b

Download the mix here.

You can check out Meschi at his Myspace page and more excellent moody mixes by him at his Robotdj.net page.

Much thanks to Ryan Blackman for use of his photo, check his page out for more great stuff.

First off, apologies for being so quiet recently, but a recent move has kept me away from the decks and GTA4 has kept me from doing anything remotely constructive for the last month or so

Anyway, this is a belated audio companion to my earlier post on the recent series of excellent compilations on Soundway showcasing the afro scene in 1970s Nigeria. While Nigeria had the biggest modern music scene in the region at the time and also had the best recording studios, it was far from unique as many of the neighbouring countries also had incredibly vibrant scenes, fusing their own musical traditions with the music coming from America, Latin America (especially Cuba), Europe and, of course their various neighbours. In fact, Highlife music, which was one of the first modern West African musics originated in Ghana and they also had a vibrant and diverse afro music scene in the 70s.

Sandwiched between the 2 giants of Nigeria and Ghana are Benin and Togo. Benin is the land where Voodoo comes from. Drums are central to the Voodoo religion, and the contemporary influences of soul, funk, rock, afro-cuban, afrobeat, etc., were fused with the Voodoo traditions to create a unique Beninese sound. It’s a small country but there was a huge amount of quality music being produced there during the 70s, which is really only coming to light now thanks to some great compilations; Soundway released a compilation of Benin’s most famous band T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo in 2004, and this year Analog Africa put out African Scream Contest.

Now, the music! This mix mostly contains music from Nigeria, Ghana and Benin, but also includes tracks from Mali, Senegal, Togo and Guinea. It starts with some highlife and afro-cuban before moving onto heavier funk, afrobeat and afro-rock. The intention was to showcase the diversity of music in the region but to keep a reasonable flow to the mix too. For your interest, I’ve included the countries of origin for each track. And, once again, I want to emphasise that almost all the tracks I’ve featured are readily available on recent compilations, so if you like the music, please support, and go out and buy them!

1. Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National - Okwukwe Na Nchekwube (Nigeria)
2. Orchestra Baobab - Jin Ma Jin Ma (Senegal)
3. Godwin Ezike & The Ambassadors - Torri Wowo (Nigeria)
4. Orchestre Super Jheevs des Paillotes - Ye Nan Lon An (Benin/Togo)
5. Le Simandou de Beyla - Festival (Guinea)
6. K. Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas - Hwehwe Mu Na Yi Wo Mpena (Ghana)
7. The Funkees - Akula Owu Onyeara (Nigeria)
8. Hygrades - In The Jungle (Instrumental) (Nigeria)
9. Moussa Doumbia - Keleya (Mali)
10. Gabo Brown & Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - It’s A Vanity (Benin/Togo)
11. S-Job Movement - Love Affair (Nigeria)
12. Bala Miller & The Great Music Pyrameeds Of Afrika - Ikon Allah (Nigeria)
13. T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Hwe Towe Hun (Benin)
14. African Brothers - Self Reliance (Ghana)

West African Heat

It’s about 77 mins long, enjoy!

Photo by Nick Gutterbreakz

Mr. Carnage (that sounds like a good name for a super-villain!) from ye olde TAPE blog has blessed us here at ISM with yet another sweet guest mix. This one kicks off with a remix of a song that I love very much and continues through slow, hazy, melodic techno and house from all over the world, and throughout the past 25 years. I think I like this one even better than the first one he did for us!

Tracklist forthcoming in a week or so……

Download the mix here.

(more…)

So I’ve been a bit quiet of late, mainly because I’ve not had much work and consequently have been pretty poor, which has meant that I haven’t really bought any vinyl for a while. I’ve still been nosing round charity shops however, mostly coming away empty-handed, but today my luck changed… I was in one of my usual spots, looking through the same old rubbish they had last week, when on another rack, I spotted a Chic record. My heart quickened slightly, but I wasn’t too excited, because as brilliant as Chic are, their stuff does crop up in charity shops fairly frequently. So, I looked behind it, only to see a TK Disco sleeve. Behind that, another Chic record. Well that did it for me, I scooped up the 30 or so records in that section, got comfy sat on the floor, and started to flick. Anyway, you can probably guess where this is going, so here’s what I scored - most of these were £1, a couple were £1.50.

Worthy of first mention was something straight off my wants list, T-Connection’s “Do What You Wanna Do” on TK Disco, a much sampled disco bomb with superb percussion and synth work, and plenty of drama. Then, on the mighty Prelude, and again in near mint condition, was Sharon Redd’s “You’re a Winner”, backed with “Activate”, boogie action, nice! Next up, Third World’s “Now that We’ve Found Love”, produced by the legendary Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, unplayed copy!! It’s a nice mid-tempo disco number with a slight reggae feel, very cool. Now, Chic, as mentioned…. Can I take this opportunity to say that anyone who doesn’t dig Chic is probably not worthy of this earth, Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards are 2 of the greatest producers that ever lived! Firstly, and currently wowing the masses in the form of a Todd Terje edit, I found an “I Want Your Love” remix, backed with two other crackers - “Le Freak!” and “Chic Cheer”. Personally I’m not fussed about Terje’s effort, I will stick with the original and the superb “I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits”, a dazzling hypnotic builder which craftily sampled it, by ISM favourite Moodymann. Another Chic 12″ yielded something I’d never heard before, it’s called “Jack Le Freak”, and as the title suggests, it’s a version of the classic “Le Freak!”… basically this sounds like a Fast Eddie remix!! It’s got all the bumping bass attitude, the Chi-style drums, a looped up Jack-ja-jack-jack vocal, and of course the original track sliced and diced to pieces! What the fuck! This has house party written all over it. Now onto something that might divide opinions - I certainly know some people that hate it, but it melts my heart and I love it to pieces - the full, 10′45′ special disco version of Mcfadden & Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now”, the UK pressing, but I’m not too precious about stuff like that, it’s in great condition and is another one ticked off the wants list! I’ve been on the lookout for the LP with “There’s Only So Much Oil In The Ground” on it for quite a while, and while I didn’t find that, I did find another Tower of Power LP, “Monster On a Leash”, a much later album; this unfortunately sounds a little disappointing, although I’ve only had a brief flick through it so far. Also grabbed a copy of MFSB’s “Love is the Message”: obviously I already have this, but I thought it would make a nice gift for a friend who recently gave me a spare copy of a Stevie Wonder LP I didn’t have. I also picked up a copy of George Benson’s “Give Me the Night”, because although I’m not a huge fan of the title track (Quincy Jones or no Quincy Jones!), it has “The World is a Ghetto” on the flip, which I already have on his LP “In Flight” (Imo his best album), but this looks to be a better pressing, and I absolutely love that track. A Detroit Spinners 12″ came home with me too, on Atlantic, and in great condition - “Working My Way Back to You” (yes, that one!) Finally, a Diana Ross & The Supremes thing which has a medley on the A-side, which I suppose would be cool for weddings or something! But tucked away on the flip- a killer version of “Love Hangover”, with a kinda slow intro section that leads into a mostly instrumental version. Motown goodness…

In an interesting parallel to Theo’s comments, my wife sent me this link just now. I for one cannot believe it has been 20 years. The really depressing part is to think of how far black musical artists came in the 20 years preceding that album which surely has to be a pinnacle of political and social thought in art, drawing from what James Brown, Gil Scott-Heron, and Marvin Gaye (amongst many, many others) did before them. Consider the past 20 years. Looking out there now, all that you can see is clownish stereotypes of uneducated, drug dealing, gangbanger thugs who sing nursury rhymes and do silly dances while covered in diamonds from head to toe. And people wonder why it is that Theo Parrish is angry about the way black artists are handled by the white recording industry and music media? They have had their balls cut off and smashed into the ground.

Those negative stereotypes of black artists that are plastered all over have also helped perpetuate the idea that it is okay to be ignorant, regardless of the race of people listening to the music. Not all music needs to have a college degree’s worth of ideas behind it, but when there is nothing more serious than “superman that ho” to choose from, that shit is wildly depressing. Especially when the history of black musical culture in the US has had intelligence and awareness as part of its legacy for quite a while now, this continued emphasis on only the most ignorant music despite the presence of many other options throughout the underground is especially cynical and evil.

Also of great interest is the fact that PE will be performing the album for a Pitchfork festival. Quite an interesting turn of events that the “black CNN” is now simply entertainment for pseudo-intellectual priveleged white folks.

Having not one but two dancey gigs in the same weekend was pretty nice, especially since the past bunch of sets I have played were more like bars where I was playing lots of other types of records. I got to trot out a bunch of different things that I had either never played before, or hadn’t played in a long time. These are the cuts that either surprised me or are now stuck in my head, I  think they have all previously been mentioned here before:

On Friday night, the spot was kind of chill for the beginning of my set so I got into the really really deep minimal stuff, “Deep Hypnotic” on that new Fred P. on Soul People Music sounded especially nice loud so you can hear the sub-bass which really dominates the track. Later on I played Patti Labelle’s “Music Is My Way of Life” which I had completely forgotten how much I love. That track sums up the feeling of disco music for me perfectly.

The jam that really hit the spot for me both nights was Frankie Knuckles’ vocal mix of Hercules & Love Affair’s “Blind”. I guess it is kind of comparable to the Escort remix of Tracey Thorn (which I was obsessed with last summer, and really I still am) as it is the perfect mix of underground soulful dance with a pop vocal on it. I have seen people dissing Frankie’s mix of this, but they really couldn’t be more mistaken. As with the Tracey Thorn, I feel like the remix actually sounds more like what should be “the original mix” to me. The pads, pianos, and beats have such a smooth old school Chicago deep feeling to them but when the horns come in is when it all starts to come together. Antony sounds wayyyyy too much like Morrissey, it seems as though a vocal house track would be exactly wrong for his voice. But it isn’t, and Frankie’s dub effects on the vocals adds even more lushness to the mix. This is just about a perfect dance tune to me, and it has skyrocketed into pole position for track of the year as of right now. It really has a nice hot summer night feeling to it which makes it even better for playing around this time. Usually I don’t subscribe to the idea of a person’s production being “elegant”, but it is songs like this that make me reconsider. Lovely.

Moodmat dropped what they are calling a “one question interview” with Theo Parrish, and of course he has some interesting things to say about the question of race and gender in dance music. It annoys me to no end that they are not allowing comments on such a piece of writing As per Theo’s request, they turned off commenting, but I am more than willing to allow any discussion about it to occur here. So let’s talk about it.

Aside from a pretty ridiculous mistake in calling Rage Against the Machine an all white band (Tom Morello and Zach De La Rocha, the two dominant creative and political influences in the band are of mixed racial and cultural heritage including African and Latin American roots) I think he is 100% spot on. Being involved with the underground soul, hip-hop, and dance communities, I see the kind of pigeon-holing that bigger labels and the media pin on black artists who want to do something outside of the “acceptable” range. I think his argument can even be pushed further when you look at the kind of watering down that even the “conscious” rappers like Mos Def or Talib Kweli have had to do to achieve major label success.

The marketability of white artists mimicking black music and being more successful at it is also quite obvious. This is one of the most major problems in all of popular music today, but as he points out it is especially prominant in dance music even though there is less corporate pressure to do so. The lack of perspective in the media is one of the reasons we started this blog, to remind people of the roots of dance music and to try to do our best to not allow this mistake to perpetuate itself any more than it already has.