it goes ”Sliiiiiiidddeeee”…and then it goes all twisted like

I managed to convince myself I needed the afternoon off today from the GST and stuff and the infernal heat. Actually I was nominally working on the project that Andy Pickering (that link is a completely different person btw) and I are working on..which is top secret, but in case you were wondering it’s a book..so if anyone has any photos of NZ clublife they think are any good…we’re keen. Fire me an email…..simonDOTgriggATgmailDOTcom….

So, yes, I actually did do something on the book, and a bit on the updated, fresh, Suburban Reptiles page I’m gonna post next week, and I messed around with a whole bunch of Screaming Meemees photos Chad Taylor returned after a decade or so..I might do a new page for them ‘n’all…

But mostly what I got around to was drinking coca cola, editing interviews with Peter Urlich and Mark Philips and listening to records..12” slabs (with one exception) of black stuff with a hole in the middle and a warm feel. I’ve found the most audiophonic (is that a word..you know..where it sounds good) spot on the couch for the speakers and all I need is the laptop…

So…..in rough order…..Gil Scott-Heron “Re Ron” which isn’t his finest moment but I just picked up the 12” for a couple of dollars at Real Groovy, and is nicely of it’s time and has a fine Bill Laswell production; Mathew Jonson “Followed by Angels” ep, two sides of epic warm lush techno in his trademark style; Designer Music “Good Girls” (or is it the other way around..never really figured it out) which satisfies my banging Carl Craig urge (no..I do not want to bang Carl Craig..you know what I mean) and leads perfectly into: Carl Craig “Just Another Day”, four brand new tracks of mostly beatless electronic textures that couldn’t be anyone else and really are close to sheer perfection- raw, sexual, and devasting..then I played both sides of that one again..and and once more; Quentin Harris “The Shelter Anthem”, a lovely classic NYC garage groove from the bright young thing of the Shelter scene; both sides of the second Moxie edit 12”, my favourite disco edits series, the killer on this one for me being the edit of Denis Coffey’s “Wing of Fire”, but they all work; so on a redit thing….the NYC2 does things to old Rheji Burrell tracks from the late eighties and is monumentally deep. These two add a little to the originals but not a lot..I loved these in 88 and I love what these unnamed Italians have done to them; Cabaret Voltaire “Sluggin’ For Jesus” came out on a Belgian label in 1981 and is another that, 24 years later sounds as though some NY label could have tossed it out yesterday; Loose Ends “emergency (999)” (Dub) is another longstanding personal favourite, a loosely funked out boogie from the greatest UK soul act of their decade..this one sounds like it came out in 84 and that’s part of the appeal and Nick Martinelli is really a forgotten talent these days which is a bloody crime.. I’m a big fan of his post Philly sway; New Young Pony Club “Ice Cream” is the second release on Tirk (formerly Nuphonic)…kinda like Debbie Harry meets Bangkok Impact and on 7”..only 300 pressed so the story goes; Starship 727 ”It all Depends On You”, Italian retro acid that is just so damn good..actually I used to dislike this record but then it clicked; Chelonis R Jones “One & One”, Tom Ward turned me onto this electro Prince soundalike from a year or two back..love it; Blackjoy “”La Stache” French nuvo disco played live..fucking cool indeed; Jimmy Castor “It’s Just Begun” because I needed some funk by now; LCD “Disco Infiltrator”, the best track on the best album of 2005 (apart from the Abe Duque album..its a tie but I think the title of Abe’s album sucks, plus the fact it’s mostly old tracks, so its LCD and it rocks); Lindstrom’s “There’s a Drink in my Bedroom and I need a Hot Lady”, a big post disco favourite from last year; the new S2 EP on Underground Resistance…..it goes ”Sliiiiiiidddeeee”…and then it goes all twisted like..love it; finally Brigid came home with the dinner (Fettuccine Alfredo from Prego indeed), berated me for drinking most of a big Coca Cola and I threw on Mr Fingers’ sublime “Stars” before I drifted away….

Lies, lies and more propaganda Courtesy of Russell Brown, whom I'm now making more of an effort to read daily as I'm missing too much stuff otherwise (and I need trustworthy people like RB, Peter Mac and Dubber to do my digging for me..where do these guys get the time...) is this link, worth a squizz in light of the euphoric pronouncements in the well tamed US media over the Iraqi vote on expelling US forces

Extended Play on George 02 feb 05

Aretha Franklin & Luther Vandross-Love Me Right (12” mix)-Arista-1983 The Jones Girls-You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else (12” mix)-Philadelphia Int-1979 Patti Jo-Ain’t No Love Lost (Tom Moulton mix)-Scepter-1975 Arts & Crafts-I’ve Been Searchin (Walter Gibbons mix)-Jus Born via BBE-1985 LA Mix-Don’t Stop (Jamming)-A&M-1987 Dennis Coffey-Coffey Break-Moxie-2003 Roger-(Everybody) Get up (EPMD Diesel mix)-Reprise-1991 Digital Underground -The Humpty Dance (Norman Cook & Streetsahead mix)-BCM-1990 Seduction-Breakdown (C&C Club dub)-A&M-1990 Caress-Catch the Rhythm (Mr K Edit)-Strut-2003 Club Ice-Manhassett (Larry Heard mix)-BMI-`1992 Ten City- Devotion (Bam Bam House Mix)-Atlantic-1987 Kim Beacham-Trouble (R&B Vox)-111 East-1992 Prins Thomas-Edit #1 (SOS)-Rong-2005 Metro-Straphanger-Nu Groove-1988 NYC2-Brownstone Express (edit)-???-2005 Quentin Harris-The Shelter Anthem -Restricted Access-2005 Peter Shelley-Homosapien (Dance Party Dub)-Genetic-1982 Kerri Chandler -Ladbroke Grove-Large-1997 Kerri Chandler-Back to the Raw(Dark mix)-DRH-2004 Lisa May-The Curse of Voodoo Ray (FK Smoothie mix)-Juice Groove-1996 BFC-It’s a Shame-Fragile-1990 Carl Craig-The Floor-Planet E-1996 Ferrer & Sydenham-Road to Calabar-Ibadan-2005 Roy Davis jnr-Mind Power Roys Blunt mix)-Guerrilla-1992 DJ Pierre-What is House Music (Wild Pitch mix)-Emotive-1994 Royal House-Can You Party (B Boy mix)-Idlers-1988

I came across this the other day. Sad? funny? bizarre...actually most of these people I don't really give a toss about (this isn't about to drift off into one of those "what happens after the fame things"..it is what it is and enjoy it while it lasts...at least Pauly can say he had a US Airplay number one, which is more than pretty much everybody else on the planet and there is no point getting bitter and twisted when its gone) but I really did feel for poor old Martin Fry and ABC. Not only did the poor bugger almost snuff it from cancer (diagnosed as terminal I think) from which he made a recovery, he also was one of the flagbearers for a pop revolution, and along the way produced at least half a dozen of the greatest singles of the eighties. Now they will come and have supper and "talk through the old days"....it bought a tear, it really did. Not only that, he's bringing Glenn Gregory, from the almost as esteemed Heaven 17 (had a drink at the Wag Club once with GG I did)...fuck oh dear... Those poor maligned 1980s. The decade has been trashed and abused and generally ostracized. With good reason too...the decade was not kind to fashion, to mainstream cinema (with the odd exception, and independent cinema thrived of course..). It was the decade of the bloody legwarmer, Don Johnson and Peking Man... Musically it was both an irredeemable disaster and a goldmine. I don't need to extoll the virtues of the decade's house, soul, funk or the Jamaican work of Gussie Clarke or Sly & Robbie and a swag of others, but the world would've undoubtedly have been a richer place if Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Cindi Lauper, Jon Bon Jovi etc had taken different career paths and never made a record. Sadly for the whole decade white American pop / rock was pretty much the aforementioned irredeemable disaster.

But the ABC thing above drove me to put on the 12" of "How To Be A Millionaire" and from thence into an eighties brit-pop thing for an hour or two. It was a particularly strong (and innovative) time for the great British pop single. We all know about New Order....their singles, one after another were the shit and they still are, but there are dozens. ABC...the obvious ones of course, but also "Be Near Me","The Night They murdered Love", "Millionaire", "Smokey", and Martin Fry's masterpiece "Get Real" by ex-Frankie Goes to Hollywood dancer, Paul Rutherfood; Heaven 17's "Fascist Groove Thang" and "Lets all Make a Bomb" (best in its album mix); ex Buzzcock Pete Shelley's "Homosapien" (check the dub); Wham's 12" of "Everything She Wants" (with "Last Christmas" on the flip...hate it or love it, it is still a beautifully crafted piece of work); the series of Scritti singles that started with "Sweetest Girl"; "Roadblock"; the first few Pet Shop Boys records; Elvis Costello, Smiths, Style Council, Culture Club (yes indeed..."Church of the Poison Mind" is genius); The Cure..I could go on but no one really wants me to..but you get the gist.. American white pop on the other hand was a wasteland outside NYC and maybe Ohio & San Fran, and pretty much still is..it's really not hard to work out why....firstly punk didn't happen stateside as it happened everywhere else in the world (they had a go at it in the late eighties but you can't leap on a revolution ten years after it finished..they've yet to catch up..and the bands that grunge produced were just younger dirtier versions of those they were trying to replace) so the bloat simply hadn't been exorcised...in Britain Bon Jovi were just a big selling irrelevance, in Ohio they were still cutting edge. The other thing is the racial divide. In Britain's inner cities young people mix more racially...they live, work, play and romance together far more than they do across the Atlantic. A phrase such as "the biggest black owned business" has no relevance....go to a club in Hackney..look at the crowd.......racial pride is one thing, but separtism is another... Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a treatise on race relations or anything of that ilk, rather an aside about some overlooked tracks...nothing too profound I opened the mailbox on Monday last to find a package from BBE in the UK..lots of bits of pieces. There is nothing better than opening the mail to find a whole bunch of new music..especially when its actually good (got a great deep techy mix CD from Tom Ward this week too that hasn't left my car yet...). Amongst the bits and pieces was the "Kings of Disco" double cd from Joey Negro & Dimitri. I have to be honest I'd walk a country mile in a 30 degree heat to avoid having to hear a new record by either of these guys in 2005 but their taste on these sorts of things really is impeccable. Joey in particular has massive respect from me, not only for the fact that he recorded for Nu Groove, and for the stuff he released on his mighty Republic label, but for also for the Disco Spectrum series he so carefully crafted with Sean P. I've looked at this album in Real Groovy a couple of times and though "I really need to own that" but couldn't quite make it fit the credit card that week....and I did need it, not least for the mythical "I've Been Searching", very rare Walter Gibbons remix, by Arts & Crafts, that I've read slavishly about but not heard..and now I own it..on a comp at least Well happy.... Finally..this story in the NYT states the obvious but puts it rather well and is at least vaguely optimistic unlike the UK terminal doom & gloom fluff in the last few months...electronic music is alive and well and, if not thriving, is fine thank you