like a rat in a cage / pulling minimum wage

Here are some more songs, (almost) as they played today:

LCD Soundsystem – New York I Love You (DFA) …in which Murphy and Goldsworthy issue the first truly great song for the ages for 2007. And if these is any doubt that they are the best rock’n’roll band in the US of A right now, this, and the accompanying album, should, by all rights put that to rest. It’s staring them in the face, as they moan about collapsing sales (22% down on last year now…sheeeit), and the Americans don’t even know it. The song, the lyrics, the performance, and that fucking great bounce back ¾ of the way through, bellow classic.

Isaac Hayes – I Can’t Turn Around (Hot Buttered Soul)….one of those songs you need to revisit every now and then, if only to re-iterate to ones self how much house / techno are a bigger part of the grand tradition of black rhythmic music going back to Leadbelly and W.C Handy. It’s a bloody great song too…

Echo & The Bunnymen – All That Jazz (Korova)…I like E&TBM when they are at their most strident…and this is strident on steroids….slicing guitar over staccato toms

Human Resource – Dominator (Joey Betram mix…of course) (R&S)..I’m bigger and bolder and rougher and tougher…..I didn’t really think I’d be smiling in a Balinese garden to the sound of wailing rave fifteen years later, but here I am. And I can’t even find my glow-stick….there is nothing like a roaring hoover loop in the sunshine….wanna kiss myself / wanna kiss myself

Eric B & Rakim – My Melody (Marley Marl 808 Remix) (mp3)…I found this on the net somewhere a few weeks ago, it being a mutant radio only remix, with the kitchen sink thrown in, done by Marley a couple of decades ago (somebody suggested that this may be on the extended version of the Paid in Full album (which I don’t have), but I don’t think so, as this is a good thirty seconds longer).

Arthur Russell – See My Brother He’s Jumpin’ Out (let’s go Swimming #1) (Audika)….from the album of unreleased material released in 2006, a dubbed out re-working of the classic Lets Go Swimming, sounding for all the world like Arthur working out with The Junkyard Band. Its well cool….

Faze Action – In The Trees (Carl Craig C2 Remix #1) …..yes it sounds like Carl, very Angola (the second half), in that measured mid tempo way, almost a slow grind, that also feels like parts of The Detroit Experiment album (now that was a masterpiece), with the melancholy moodiness of the original strings laid over the top and climbing into the mix very subtly, and organically. How does this man do it?

Blue Magic – Look Me Up (Atco)….I like the cute intro on this poppy Norman Harris production from one of Philly’s finest seventies vocal groups, although for a moment it begins to feel like one of the lesser Spinners' hits from the same era. It is pop after all, and slightly more lightweight than many of the other tracks from this group but it completely redeems itself towards the middle when it breaks down to a percussion fest, and then the swelling MFSB strings come rotating into the mix, layered with soft brass and a little, I think, electric piano. Bliss.

Mike Clarke – Let Your Love (Charles Spencer mix) (Third Ear)…..the line between house and techno is not only a hard one to define, it’s also a pointless one. As this record so neatly illustrates…I don’t know if this track could be exclusively claimed by either genre. I found this tucked towards the end of the Detroit Beatdown Remixed album, which I’ve played a lot over the past months. I’d never really heard much Mike Clark apart from an EP of disco re-edits I’d bought somewhere a while back. He’s one of a swag of lesser players from motor city and this song really crept up on me which surprised as it’s, on first listen, a little faceless, and sounds like the sound formless looping sub disco that has plagued Chi-town in recent years. But that’s the joy of music….it's the one you least expect…

Big Youth – Hit The Road Jack (Trojan)…..with a killer bass line that poor old Ray Charles could never have imagined in his most inventive (or indeed chemically induced) moments. Twisted Jamaican versions of things like this are a particular fetish of mine, and I dig the way he drops into What The World . I can thank Paul Weller for this, I found it on his Under The Influence collection

Catherine Miller – Hunchin’ All Night (Heavenly Star …via Sussed)….I’d never heard this until I found it on the recent Ian Dewhirst complied Deep Disco Culture Vol 1, a fabulous (you can use words like that for disco) collection of obscure as phuck tracks from the golden era of humanoid dancefloor anthems (before the machines truly kicked in). This is one odd record, it really is….addictive & dirty (hunchin’ being a by-word for, you know, with lines like hard times / so sore / baby, ain’t gonna give you no more); and mixed (I think) by Patrick Adams (the credits are vague on this) in a spacey (both in terms of the space in the mix and the actual cosmic-ness of the sound produced) way, albeit with addictively haunting real strings, and a mid tempo, almost post Disco, groove.

Wire – Mannequin (Harvest)…tell me / why don’t you tell me…perhaps the perfect punk single, from the perfect punk album, from the perfect punk band. In the spirit of Pink Flag, I’ll keep this brief.