Extended Play 300305 on George FM

Earth Wind & Fire-Running (Mr K Edit)-Columbia-2004 Amerie-One Thing (Mr K Vocal Edit)-White-2005 Sounds of Blackness-The Pressure Pt 1 (Classic 12”)-Perspective-1991 Out Hud-One Life to Leave (Requiem for a Requiem Mix)-!K7-2005 The Jam-Precious (12” mix)-Polydor -1982 The Temptations-Message from a Black man-Gordy-1968 Eddie Kendricks-Girl You Need a Change of Mind-Gordy-1975 Shay Jones-Are You Gonna Be There (Mo Soul Mix)-ID-1991 Soft House Company-What you need-IRMA-1990 A.Greenman-Sunday Love of Kind-Soul Jazz-2005 Main Source-Looking at The Front Door-Wild Pitch-1991 Nuance-Loveride-4^th & Broadway-1984 NYC Peech Boys-Life is Something Special (Levan vox)-Garage-1982 Yolanda / D HA-Soul Kitchen-Happy-1990 Kathy Diamond-Sunshine-Cottage-2005 DJ Pierre- Let the Music take you Higher (Wild Pitch mix)-Emotive-1994 Sydenham & Ferrer-Road to Calabar-Ibadan-2005 Paul Rutherford-Get Real (Happy House Mix)-4^th & Broadway-1988 Gary Numan-Cars-Beggars Banquet-1979 Ramiro Mendez-Angola (Carl Craig mix)-RCA-2003 Kikrokos-Jungle DJ (Prins Thomas edit)-Rong-2005 Jungle Brothers-I’ll House You (Todd Terry mix)-Idlers-1988 Karen Pollock-You Can’t Touch Me (Murk vox)-Emotive-1992 The Don-The Horn Song (Original mix)-Strictly Rhythm-1998 X-press 2-Muzik Xpress-JBO-1992 Primal Scream-Come Together (Terry Farley mix)-Creation-1990 Sub Sub-Space Face (Todd Terry jazzy dub)-Ten-1990 Lionrock-Roots’n’Culture-Most Excellent -1994

Elephants and Acrobats.........

I have seen hell on earth and it is also known as The Auckland Royal Easter Show.

I had a lunch with Pauly today, which we do from time to time and we’d both been forced by our offspring to go to the Easter Show on Monday last. Now the Easter Show is an Auckland institution (160 odd years it says). When I was a lad I remember the show as something special. It was vaguely magical and I remember being given bags of magazines by the Russian comrades at their impressively large display. Loads of photos of tractors and heroes of the revolution…it had an effect on a ten year old. There were boats and racing cars and planes and gadgets and competitions and happy people…

No more…don't let false nostalgic pangs fool you

I’ve been a few times over the intervening years with diminishing results, but now, sad to say, the poor old Easter Show has no redeeming features whatsoever, and Pauly agreed. We were both shell-shocked.

From the terrifying amateur artworks, which defy any description…I’ve never actually seen anything quite like them anywhere (and some have GOLD medals…the one with the naked maiden chained to the rock in the river with a knight riding over the hill to rescue her …all for $1800…was pretty special)…to the guy who, for some inexplicable reason advertises himself as New Zealand’s Own Michael Jackson (is he serious…what exactly does he do each day at 7pm, and to whom?)….to the sick looking, sparse in number, farmyard animals who look like they are looking forward to the works as some sort of relief…to the sad numerous Chinese massage and junk stalls which fill the space where the Soviet (and no doubt KGB) displays once sat (the cold war had its upside)…to the game sideshows complete with the sorts of prizes on display which haven’t been manufactured since 1980, with good reason- technology has moved on since plastic AM transistors…to the stall selling cat food (who on earth goes to the Easter show to buy bloody cat food)...to the rides which no person with any concern for their or their loved ones safety would even consider…..at least I don’t get hassled as Mr Bizarre as poor Paul does!

But the worst part (and I’ll get named as some sort of snob for this) seems to be the humanity and their poor kids (who don’t stand a chance sadly) that the show attracts. Parents with a fag hanging out..flicking the fag onto the ground still burning….screaming at Shervaughn or Jaedyn to come here then slapping them....spitting on the ground….aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. I think Brigid was the only shelia there without white boots or tassels

It costs a fortune, its unbelievably ugly and complete low rent shite and both Paul and I said over our Yum Char…..”never again…………..”

A 25%er

Inexplicably its now about a quarter of way through the fifth year in the 21^st century. I used to, as a young kid, think about how old I’d be when the next millennium hit and it all seemed so far away in some sort of vague never never land. When you are a kid, life seems to stretch on forever (like summer, but of course this year we’ve had one of those endless summers…I feel a Beach Boys session coming on…)…as you get older it seems so bloody short and often those things that used to matter so much drift off into insignificance, or at least they should. Someone needs to tell that to bean counters…it doesn’t fucking matter!! I guess we all want to live forever and, children aside, some of us will…I listened to Otis Redding singing the profoundly moving “Try a Little Tenderness” last night and with that 2 minutes the big man from Macon, Georgia will exist for all time…oh to create something that is one hundredth of that, or Marvin’s “Here My Dear” or to understand that when you succumb to Coltrane you are actually feeling his breath

BUT…that wasn’t supposed to be about that. I start typing and things happen. This was a LIST post. I like lists and its time for a few…25% of the year lists…sooooo:

Best bits of new 12” (and one smaller one) vinyl in 2005 so far…about 20 I think

1. A Greenman EP on Soul Jazz, especially track 2 which is like New Order on K
2. Amerie One Thing…I like the Danny Krivit edits, esp the organ dub..I really liked the vox until it was on George every 20 minutes
3. Matthew Jonson-Followed by Angels…unbelievably beautiful. I play it every day without fail
4. New Young Pony Club-Ice Cream…I like quirky 7” singles..everyone thinks I’m odd…
5. Roach Motel’s real old fashioned comeback from my 90s heroes..loud is way best
6. Vinny Troia-Expression (Abe Duque mix)…Abe still does no wrong
7. Out Hud-One To Leave…the big mix on the B side..punky funky blah blah
8. Blackjoy-La Stache….the French still make better house records than the British...always have
9. Carl Craig-Sandstorms..in fact the whole EP
10. Syclops-Mom, The Video broke…Maurice Fulton is a genius. End of…
11. NYC2….I love this but then again its just an old Nu-Groove thing tweaked and Nu-Groove did no wrong either. Best house label ever.
12. Quentin Harris-The Shelter Anthem…old fashioned house is quite fun sometimes
13. Kerri Chandler-A Demo by 6:23…ohhh,and I love this more and more
14. Herb Martin-Soul Drums…and this
15. Greg Churchill-Automatique…I know what GC is working on next and I wish I could say because…..
16. Yukari Fresh-Break…I think this is what Blondie would sound like in 2005
17. Sydenham & Ferrer-Road to Calabar…and this is what the Velvets would sound like in 2005
18. Blake Baxter & Marc Romboy-Freakin…I like Acid House
19. Frantic Flowers EP…and I like real techno..even looking at this record makes me quiver just a bit
20. Prins Thomas edit EP on Rong, especially the last track on side two, the sick French disco re-edit

Best newish albums..I’m not listening to albums too much..and I wonder why?

1. LCD Soundsystem album…
2. New Order LP….”you have the brightest future…writing songs on your computer..” must be the worst lyric ever…since “Ra Ra Rasputin / Russia’s greatest love machine” I love it unconditionally
3. The Veils- if Doug Hood hadn’t bought Shriekback to NZ a generation ago this album wouldn’t exist..sounds like it should be on Korova or Zoo
4. DFA comp 2…
5. Out hud…monsterously good east coast noise
6. Michael Mayer
7. trying hard to think of a local album this year that I’ve found myself listening to and I’m having trouble…anyone? Just to soothe my concerns, I did a spin through the Smoke Cds and Real Groovy sites…what happened to the explosion, the much touted local revolution? In fact if you want to get a grasp on why the music industry is in trouble full stop…but that’s another post…..I tried with the new Mark de Clive Lowe album but, like the last one it still sounds like all stance and no substance…still all credit to him, he is one hell of a musician and he at least is doing it….I just think he’s better on other people’s tracks. The Pluto album got really boring really fast..
8. really like the new Queens of the Stone Age track that B is thrashing but I still think they sound like The Kinks on bad acid…must get the album
9. I liked the Bloc Party for two plays but then impulsively gave it to someone else as something I’d probably not play again

They don’t fit anywhere else but I’ve had a whole bunch of CDs from local DJs and electronic artists, both mix cds and original tracks and I’ve played these pretty much non stop in the car..so respect…..

Old records, this year…god there have been thousands as always. Did a bit of an early Eno thing a while back, the first three albums still sound as cutting edge and as revolutionary as they did in the early seventies; Todd Rungdren- “Something / Anything” and “A Wizard a True Star”; lots of New Orleans / Philly / Miami / Detroit soul, but that’s always ongoing; DJ Pierre’s mid nineties wild pitch epics; Thelonious Monk, the early Blue Note stuff and Miles from the same period; Janet Jackson’s seminal (maybe I shouldn’t use that word around a Jackson family member…or that word either..sorry bad joke) Jam & Lewis produced “Control”..a phenomenal record that signposted early 90s US vocal house…actually I was led back to that by a post on a board from some dick stating that this record was worthless pop crap…I wonder how he feels having a neon over his head permanently flashing “I’m an ignorant fuckwit”. He also opined that there was no absolute good or bad, its all a matter of taste…the neon gets much brighter…if we don’t have absolutes, however grey the surrounding, then Porky’s becomes the artistic equivalent to The Battleship Potemkin

And I refuse to accept that…democracy has it’s limits….;

I’ve also had a hell of a time dragging out my seven inch records from the post punk period..labels like Fast, Postcard and Zoo in the UK, Missing Link and Au Go Go in Melbourne and lots of one offs. I’ve got dozens of these things tucked away and they all sound so vital, so electric and often the recordings of bands like Gang of Four, Orange Juice, Teardrops & Human League sound so much better than the later major label re-recordings.

Sadly I’ve only seen one new movie in the theatre in 2005, The Incredibles with Isabella..but going to the movies with a ten year old is the only way to do it..otherwise its all DVDs I’m afraid, and I’m having trouble with Hollywood in general. The Aviator is the first Scorsese film I’ve not rushed out to for years...Leonardo annoys the fuck out of me, and Gangs of NY was shite, so like De Niro (fire your agent bro), he’s lost me….

But I did see Carl Craig so all is well…..

Let's televise the revolution........

Carl Craig is pretty damn cool.. actually I think he’s a bloody genius, but lets not get too flowery or ahead of ourselves here, and…..on Saturday night, in the upstairs bar at the Studio, in front of about 150 people he was very very cool. The whole event was..just about- I was, as always disappointed by the ever disappointing Auckland crowds. There were / are a whole bunch of excuses you could roll out…badly promoted (ssssssshocking flyers), too pricey (it was, but $45 is less than many a meal out and I’ve would’ve been happy to pay if I’d had to…whoops (although to be fair to myself it was in return for a fairly large number of plugs over several weeks)…but we did turn up cash in hand for Brigid and they wouldn’t take it…I get offered a lot of freebies but I don’t ever really like asking) blah blah blah but for gods sake, this was Carl Craig. You know….Carl Craig….and I was surprised to see how many self confessed buffs didn’t make the effort. Maybe if they’d promoted it just a little more, or even just a little bit…using the obvious hook, the “Good Life” remix (he finished with a mix of that I’ve not heard…kind of a vocal dub), that would’ve convinced the masses a little more. Sometimes Auckland is a very funny backwards little pond..actually to be honest, quite often, and it does my head in. But to that later….

And the Studio has a way to go as a venue too…what’s up with closing the bar at 4am when the lead act has over an hour to go…AND…then refusing to serve even water to customers. Maybe some one should reacquaint them with the host responsibility part of the licensing act…and the fact that in a previous life the venue was where NZ’s first E related death happened. Talking of which…what ever happened to that nasty bit of NZ Herald scaremongering… I assume people still take the stuff and global civilization remains somewhat, despite the best efforts of GWB, intact.

On the upside, how often do you get top see someone of Carl’s reputation and pure genius in a living room type situation…right in front of your face. In Europe you’d have 2000 smelly bodies in front of you.

And this no smoking in clubs is fucking wonderful………wonderful...let me say it again...wonderful. Any thought that it might’ve killed the more hedonistic pursuits is just nonsense…they should’ve done it years ago.

Brigid was of two minds about CC. The name bought to mind those noisy things I play far too loud (for her at least, not me..or the cat who likes nothing more than to wander around grinning whilst “Jam the Box” shakes windows) on the decks in the living room...and yep, there is that..but, after much persuasion, I couldn’t actually extract her from the dancefloor (just to the left of the turntables…right in front of Carl….but she swears she didn’t fancy him….honestly).

So we did the Carl Craig thing, as messy as we might have been arriving from Anthony & Toni Gold’s wedding, where there was no food but six hours of solid drinking (and where Toni announced how proud she was to be taking Anthony’s name….but Gold isn’ t his real name is it???....who cares- it was a wonderful wedding, and they're wonderful people- despite someone throwing a beer bottle down eleven stories to Queen Street which unfortunately swiftly resulted in the policeman it almost hit climbing eleven floors to do something about it and leaving in horrified despair…)

I did a set at Grant Kearney’s Legend’s night at Morrison (terrible name for a party Gee..but a bit of fun) somewhere in the midst of all that, but I chickened. I was on early, by choice, so I could see Carl, so I backed down on my plan to spin a mash of punk and early rave and did a bit of an early house thing. I realised that after twenty years I’m finally over a lot of that stuff….for a week of two at least. I guess I’m in a new music mood this week, and the two dark and dubby singles on Soul Jazz, the amazing A.Greenman thingy, and the Rekid ep, plus the gorgeous Kerri Chandler “Demo by 6.23” are spinning my world right now. And all the new DFA bits. I also finally managed to track down the Mo Wax Liquid Liquid comp but that’s on hold for Monday onwards. The other thing I’m hanging out for is the Lou Rawls David Axelrod sessions I’ve got coming complete with a replacement copy of my long lost and lamented Allen Toussaint produced Mighty Diamonds’ “Ice on Fire”…JA meets the Cresent City and produces a lost underrated classic complete with “Country Living”

The poor old NZ Herald missed Carl Craig completely as part of their relentless campaign, in partnership with TVNZ, to mediocritize NZ..I mean, he’s only the most important electronic musician on the planet right now, so why bother…sad really

And that’s what scares the living daylights out of me in New Zealand right now…the willingness and desire to celebrate mediocrity in this country, and to place averageness on pedastal. We always have to a degree but a visit to Sydney or Melbourne or Singapore vividly illustrates it. There, you can feel it in the air and the buzz of the new, of innovation, of radical thought, is everywhere. You seen Rip It Up recently?........We used to have an undercurrent….we still do but the media furiously stomps down anything which threatens to push the envelope. Lets put naked Joe Cotton stories on our mag covers for gods sake. TVNZ is a prime culprit and the appalling Close Up program really nails it. Faceless, listless and pointless as is 98% of what’s on the state broadcaster. . I used to have such a high opinion of Bill Raltson..he rocked the boat, he upset people, he got banned from old Potato head’s (does anyone actually remember who National had as PM in the 90s..what a couple of faceless no hopers they really were) press conferences. He was smart and pushed the envelope. But they got him in the end and now he’s part and parcel, if not a key element of the great blanding down machine that is most commercial TV and radio in NZ in 2005.

Joe Cotton as a celebrity....reality shows on TV One...the failure to provide any news analysis or perspective whatsoever..and lets not even start on Breakfast (who's cousin is that James McConie and how on earth did he ever get on TV)...destroy the death star..sell the fucker off I say..its serves no real purpose anymore.....

Extended Play on George 230305

Yazoo-Situation (FK dub) -Sire-1982 New Young Pony Club-Ice Cream-Tirk-2005 Lidell Townsell-Get With U (Riot Mix)-Mercury-1992 Patti Labelle-Less Than Materiel (dub)-Restricted Access-2004 The Chi-lites-For Gods sake Give More Power to the People-Brunswick-1972 Roxanne Shante & Marley Marl-Wack It-Cold Chillin’-1988 James Ingram-Ya Mo Be There (Jellybean Club Vocal)-Qwest-1984 Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principal-Your Love-Trax-1985 Kathy Diamond-Sunshine-Cottage-2005 Blake Baxter & Marc Romboy-Freaking-Systematic-2005 The Beat-I Confess (12” Mix)-Go Beat-1981 Amerie-One Thing (Mr K Organ Mix)-White-2005 Aly-Us-Follow Me-Strictly Rhythm-1992 Caucasian Boy-Northern Lights-Strictly Rhythm-1993 Roach Motel-This Beat is Mine (dub)-JBO-2005 GU-The Chase / I Feel Love-White-1996 Unique-What I’ve Got is what You Need-Prelude-1983 Orange Lemon-Dreams of Santa Anna-Idlers-1988 Chez Damier-Can You Feel It (Chez Damier / Derrick May club mix0-KMS-1992 Chez Damier-Close (Promo mx)-Balance-1997 Prosumer-Storm-Playhouse-2005 Roy Davis Jnr-God of Israel (Origin of Man mix)-After Hours-1999 DJ Pierre-Let The Music Take You Higher (Vocal mix)-Emotive-1994 Kerri Chandler-Demo by 6.23-???-2005 Arne Wienberg-Acadia-Frantic Flowers-2005 Vinny Troia-Expression (Abe Duque mix)-Scope-2005 Sha-Lor-I’m In Love (Beat down mix)-Gertie-1988 Womack & Womack-Celebrate The World (Blaze People Unite mix)-4^th & Broadway-1989