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We will be in the East Village spinning records this Friday Oct-22nd... Same place, same good vibes and quality music!

Friday Oct-22nd
Delicious Records Monthly @ Bistrouge
432 East 13th St. b/w 1st Av. & Av. A
11PM - 3AM
Tel: 212-677-2200
Web: www.bistrouge.com
Facebook Invite: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=137909926256341

DEMF 2010 In Retrospect...

This year’s DEMF was a bit of a mixed bag… With cancelled headliners, paranoid cops shutting down parties every night and foul weather on Monday there were plenty of reasons to get upset, however, as with every year I’ve been to the festival, I ultimately had an excellent time. Here is a round-up of what we got into over Memorial Day weekend.

FRIDAY
We arrived at our chosen hotel, The Motor City Hotel & Casino, on Friday night. After hitting the room service for dinner we made our way over to Bookie’s Tavern for the annual Bang Tech party. Every year we’ve been to DEMF this has been the starting point for our weekend. While the Bang Tech crew may not have a ton of global headliner names, you can easily tell they have a ton of heart- gathering all of their DJs for one huge Movement pre-party every year. Spread over three floors of a sports bar, the surroundings for this techno party are always a total trip: flat screen TVs on ESPN and sports memorabilia hanging everywhere. However, what makes this space stand out is the awesome outdoor roof deck on the third floor. As we made our way up, an unknown DJ was banging out a house mix in pure old school style: scratches, back spins, rapid cross fader manipulations etc. While I never managed to find out who the guy spinning was, he gets mad props for getting the entire terrace moving and dropping one of my all-time favorite house classics: Black Science Orchestra’s “New Jersey Deep”.

Near 1am we decided to make a move to the next party. Divided between the Third Ear and Beretta party we chose the latter as all of us were eager to catch Omar-S in action in his hometown. When we got to the venue, the main FXHE man was just setting up on stage. Unusually for Omar-S he was sporting quite a large smile and looked quite satisfied with the large local and international crowd gathered to see him perform. Dropping a set which moved rapidly between vocal house and jacking techno, he had the whole place on fire.
At around 4am we decided we’d had enough for the night and took a leisurely stroll through a strange half-warehouse / half-residential neighborhood to get back to our hotel. After the crew made a bit of cash gambling we hit the beds round 5am for a few hours of shut-eye before the main event…

SATURDAY
Waking up with the usual DEMF hangover at 2pm on Saturday, we decided to skip a proper lunch in favor of getting to the festival early. We were rewarded for our efforts by being able to catch the latter half of Patrice Scott’s set at the Real Detroit stage. His mix of deep Detroit tech with tribal(ish) house was the perfect start to the afternoon. While I had a hard time recognizing the vast majority of what he dropped, I do recall him playing the beats version of Ferrer and Sydenham’s “Timbuktu” which actually sounded really powerful in the concrete Underground stage. The crowd was pretty decent at this point, with a good mix of break-dancers, ravers, chin-strokers and random locals and out-of-town visitors. Unfortunately Niko Marks failed to capitalize on the momentum generated by Patrice with his ‘live’ performance of classic house and techno tracks. While I can understand Niko’s desire to play a tribute to his favorite producers, hearing him sing over classic tracks such as “Sun Can’t Compare” was unfortunately not very exciting. I believe the crowd felt the same way as the dancers quickly thinned out to look for other thrills.

After leaving the Underground stage we wandered around for a bit between the stages with nothing holding our attention for too long. Onur Ozer almost put us to bed with his comatose mnml techno and later Ida Enberg looked very pretty in the sun but played progressive mnml house which failed to really connect with the crowd. Martyn had us going for a bit, dropping the classic UK garage track “128 Trek”, but unfortunately lost us when he wandered into uninspiring dub-step territory. After a few hours of aimless bouncing from stage to stage, we somehow ended in the middle of the main stage during Woody McBride’s set. While I have no idea who this character was previous to Movement, I must give him props for dropping a pretty killer set of hard techno (on vinyl)! Since guys like Adam Beyer and Chris Liebling are nowadays more interested in advanced computer manipulations than rocking a crowd, this was actually pretty refreshing! Dude kind of killed it!

The early evening was a bit of a mixed bag with talented Detroit DJs such as Rick Wilhite and Kyle Hall forced to play mostly heavy techno tracks due to the acoustics of the Underground stage. The one pleasant surprise was A-Trak’s tribute to J-Dilla at the Red Bull stage. After a lot of noisy, electro stuff, the Canadian DJ killed the music for a second before scratching up some Dilla beats while JD images and footage went up on the screen behind him.
At around 11pm it was time to head for the main stage for Richie Hawtin’s closing act as Plastikman. At this point we were pretty beat from running around in the sun all day, so it was no surprise that the onslaught of multi-colored lazers, static noise, crackles and syncopated kicks failed to really get us going. After “Panik Attak” was finally dropped to raucous screaming and applause, we quickly made our escape back to the hotel for some rest before the after-parties.

Arriving at Kai Alce’s annual ‘Deep Detroit Party’ at around 1am, it became clear to us that the party had grown enormously in popularity this year. While last year’s event had a pretty intimate feel, this year felt like an all out, crazy house party complete with a keg in the attic and tons of discount booze in plastic bottles. Kai dropped an impeccable selection of disco, italo and house and then Theo followed up with similar fare. The highlight track of the night proved to be the recently reissued Ron Hardy edit of Jamie Principle’s “Bad Boy”. Overall, ‘Deep Detroit’ managed to easily meet the high standards achieved by last year’s party and proved to be one of the best events all weekend.

SUNDAY
Sunday we got to the festival around 5pm in the afternoon and were immediately confused at the lack of quality music options available. DJ Pierre was moving gracelessly between tough acid tracks and commercial club hits, Ryan Crosson was playing dry, and uninspiring minimal at the Underground stage while our other options were Kid Sister (no) and Martinez Brothers (mehhh). Instead we chose to chill for a while, waiting for Larry Heard to take the main stage. Eventually the Chicago legend came on but failed to generate much crowd momentum as the dancers at this point were worn down from Pierre’s commercial onslaught. Things would start to heat up once Larry dropped Adonis’ “No Way Back” but for the most part his set failed to really grab our attention.

Eager for something with a bit more kick, we made our way down to the Underground stage where K-Hand was dropping all sorts of funky house business mixed in with techno. The crowd was eating it up and we quickly realized that, despite the poor sound quality, the real action today would be down in the concrete chamber.

After Kelli wrapped up, Anthony “Shake” Shakir delivered a fantastic set full of classic Detroit techno, with tracks such as Reese’s “Truth is Self-Evident” keeping the energy level up throughout the early evening. The only minor gripe was that Shake bungled a few mixes here and there, however, it was easy to put up with some minor sound clashes given the excellent track selection. Eventually Rolando took the stage and began pummeling the crowd with a mix of Detroit classics and more current underground productions such as Silent Servant’s “Lo Profundo” and Tony Lionni’s “Found a Place”. As expected (demanded?) Rolando dished out his hit “Jaguar” in the form of massive remix that seemed to last 15 minutes. As predictable as it was, the crowd reaction was fantastic with everyone screaming and dancing with total abandon.

Finally at 10pm the man we’d all been waiting for took the stage… Robert Hood looked dead serious as he set up his machines in the DJ booth. Focused and calm he laid down an initial 808 pattern. While we couldn’t see the equipment from our vantage point, this set was billed as a live show so we figured that Robert was up there doing some serious machine programming. The ensuing two-hours were surely the most intense of the entire Movement weekend: pummeling techno at its relentless best. With the temperature at boiling point and the lights shifting between being totally off to just entirely8 RED, the entire dance-floor felt as if it was suspended in a parallel dimension. Hood gave us all what we wanted, covering some of his best early work as well as newer material. “Unix”, “Station Rider E”, “Alpha”, “Omega”, “Museum”, “The Pace” all flew by with mechanical precision. Finally with the crowd in a sweaty mess and the evening ready to end, the well-known synth-line from “Minus” came on, hypnotizing everyone left standing before the final onslaught of kick drums arrived to send us home.

The Sunday night after-party scene was all about Soul Skate and we headed directly from Hart Plaza out to Northland Roller Skating Rink on 8 mile at around midnight. While I probably hadn’t skated in the last 6 years or so, I felt like living on the edge after the Robert Hood show so strapped on some wheels. While it was initially terrifying going out on a rink packed with talented local skaters, eventually I got the hang of it and had an awesome time rolling to classic jams selected by Moodymann. There is nothing quite like skating along to “Sharevari” while everyone is sporting a huge smile and top skaters are busting crazy stunt moves all around you. Overall Soul Skate definitely proved to be as fun as it is unique and I will most definitely be heading back for the next edition.

MONDAY
Monday was a bit of a struggle. Two days of dancing, drinking and screaming were finally starting to catch up with our bodies and to make matters worse, it was raining outside. Eventually we dragged ourselves back to Hart Plaza, heading for the nearest cover we could find from the rain- the Red Bull Stage. This proved to be a rather fortuitous choice as DJ Koze was playing some cool records such as Ron Hardy’s “Hiccup Track” and Robert Hood’s “Funky Souls”. His mixing was strangely out of sync but I imagine it was likely due to the sound engineers moving things around to keep the equipment dry. Next up was Michael Mayer who started off slowly with the melodic, soft-hued techno his Kompakt label is known for. While this scared off a good chunk of the crowd, I put my faith in Michael pulling a few choice selections out of his record bag. Having seen the German spin a few times, I was certain he’d deliver a quality set… We were definitely not disappointed! His mix of emotive techno and warm house ended up being the perfect complement to the rainy weather and the crowd ended up loving it as people crowd surfed and climbed on stage as the afternoon progressed.

After the sun set Simian Mobile Disco took the stage and started playing brash, electro tracks which we took as our cue to go check out some of the other stages. Over on the Beatport stage Chris Liebing was experimenting with kick drums on his laptops during what proved to be a pretty boring and repetitive set of nothing but drums and sound effects. Magda meanwhile was busy laying down a staid, mnml groove in the underground. Bored at our options and somewhat unimpressed with Kenny Larkin’s live show, we caught the beginning of Model 500’s set before heading home for a bit of rest.

The final after-party during DEMF weekend is always a bitter-sweet affair. On the one hand your body is screaming for you to give it a rest while your mind is slightly depressed that the fun is almost over. This year however we were to be treated to a very special Sarcastic Disco performance by DJ Harvey at the TV Bar. Unfortunately the Detroit Police Department had another idea as the party got shut down at 2am just as Harvey was hitting his stride- a truly sad ending to an otherwise amazing Memorial Day Weekend in Detroit.

Looking back almost a month on from the festival, only the positive memories really stand out for me. While the weekend had a few setbacks, I felt that there were no major problems that kept it from being a truly enjoyable experience. Having been three times now, I can say that this year definitely felt just as well run and orchestrated as any other time and that the sound at the Underground stage was markedly improved. That said, it would be fantastic if the Underground stage was reserved specifically for techno-focused acts as opposed to just generally Detroit artists. While Robert Hood and Patrice Scott’s set actually sounded pretty great down there, it was a true shame hearing the track selection of artists like Theo Parrish, Rick Wilhite, Minx and Kyle Hall sound completely muddled just because they dared play melodic house or disco. Besides the gripe with the programming of the Underground stage, the rest of the festival was well-run and enjoyable with the after-parties matching the excitement delivered at Hart Plaza. All in all, Memorial Day was once again Real Right in Detroit. Real Right.

Delicious Records Guest Mix: RED D – Messing with Your Emotions

Over the past two years deep house has become the most popular sound of the global club circuit. After mnml techno was denounced as ‘soulless’ by clued-in dance fans around 2008, labels everywhere seemed to turn to house as a means of preserving their credibility (and cash flow). Overnight, DJs that had been all about spinning the sleek, aerodynamic minimal sound were suddenly desperate for the raw and direct feel of vintage US house! In response to this phenomenon, many labels tried to cash-in on the trend by releasing tunes crafted in the mold of classics on Prescription, Cajual, Nuphonic and other great labels… While the majority of these copycat releases quickly proved to be throwaway records (or worse, throwaway mp3s), one label that managed to differentiate itself from the pack was We Play House.

Run by veteran DJ and producer Red D, the label carefully toed-the-line between playing homage to styles inherited from the 80s and 90s while keeping things fresh and exciting. Last year when trendy producers were releasing ‘deep’ records full of software-pack percussion and elevator jazz flirtations, WPH went on a limb and started putting out records with vocals… Mind, these weren’t ‘vocals’ as in samples of Black Panther speeches or sound bites of random conversations between African Americans, but heartfelt lyrics sung by real singers!

Out of the pack of records released by the Belgian label last year, the one which really blew me away was Dynamodyse’s amazing Christmas-time warmer “Gare du Nord”. Built on a chunky, syncopated house pattern, the beautiful vocals on this track were powerful enough to mix comfortably alongside the most classic vocal house tracks of the 90s.

2010 has seen a great slew of releases from the label, with FCL’s “Vocals for Everyone” standing out as one of my favorite records released so far this year. Now WPH have just released a new album-sampler EP from San Soda which is packed with emotive house music. Make sure to check out “Ode Aan De Verkeersdrempel” which fuses euphoric Detroit-techno style synths with a solid groove.

In celebration of our appreciation for this label, we are sharing an amazing funk, disco and house mix that Red D put together for the site. I asked him to make it extra funky and that’s just what we got! Gracefully shifting between vintage funk and disco to contemporary sounds, this is true house: not only in SOUND but in ATTITUDE. As the weather gets nice and warm in the northern hemisphere, make sure to rock this on your Ipod and take that spring-time warmth to the next level!

Messing with Your Emotions:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ejptg2

TRACKLIST:
1) Common Sense – Voices Inside My Head
2) Trus’me – Sucker For A Pretty Face
3) Sylvia Striplin – Give Me Your Love
4) San Soda – Birdies That Fly
5) Chez Damier – Why (D’s Deep Mix)
6) Unknown WPH…
7) Marcello Napoletano – What’s Going On Detroit?
8) Duckbeats – Repeat Prescription
9) FCL – More Than Seven
10) Tensnake – Come Cat
11) Argy – Sometimes I’m Blind
12) Chymera – The Rumours Of My Demise
13) San Soda – Home Alone Again
14) José James – Blackmagic (Joy Orbison’s Recreation)
15) Simian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intentions (Joker Remix)
16) Asusu – Small Hours

Things I am Grateful for from 2009

As mentioned in the previous post, this is probably the last wrap up of 2009 that you will want to read this year... While I initially meant to get this up earlier, I fell into the trap of over-thinking it and trying to capture all of the amazing music / events / mixes / producers that were tied to 2009. At the end of the day though, these are the items (of all kinds) which I was most impressed with and extremely grateful for.

Kyle Hall @ the Yard, Brooklyn
Kyle Hall came to New York City for his debut DJ set this past summer facing enormous expectations. His records on Wild Oats had triggered everyone’s curiosity… His unique syncopated and unconventional house rhythms sounded great on the home hi-fi but would they really work a floor? Luckily our man proved that he was up to the task. Easing the crowd into the weirdness with some vintage Italo, disco and deep house, he easily kept the crowd bouncing past sundown. I am extremely excited to hear more from him in 2010.


Levon Vincent
What can you say about Levon that hasn’t been said already multiple times? The guy delivered banger after banger all year. Fusing dub techno textures with 90’s house rhythms, his sound had the sultry intrigue of the darkest Basic Channel releases combined with the raw funk of vintage Strictly Rhythm and Nu Groove drum programming. His RA podcast was one of the best of the year and his DJing all over the world has been top notch.



Reissue Labels
2009 was a particularly fruitful year for reissues. As a newer collector of vinyl, I found this particularly fantastic, although it caused controversy for many older heads that had to witness the Discogs prices of their rarest holdings drop over and over again. Ultimately though, Crème, Rush Hour, Clone and Mojuba should be praised for their commitment to bringing modern audiences the best music from the past in high quality audio. THANK YOU!

Kai Alce & Chez Damier at Bert’s on Broadway DEMF Weekend
This was hands down my favorite event of the entire year. This DEMF after-party represented pretty much everything that I love about dance music…. Held at the mythical Music Institute building, this get-together was the definition of good vibes. Attracting local Detroiters as well as plenty of outsiders with absolutely no bullshit or arrogance- it was smiling faces and stomping feet all around throughout the evening. Unable to obtain a legit liquor license the promoters hid some kegs in the attic behind the DJ booth and periodically invited the crowd to make their way up for drinks. The beats provided on vinyl by Chez Damier and Kai Alce were, as to be expected, ridiculously funky and eclectic, serving up long work outs of deep house interspaced with disco. Overall when I think about how much elitism has crept into dance music with Berghain’s notorious door policies, label-only parties at WMC and ‘unknown artist’ records it was refreshing to see that in the home of techno some straight up real shit could still happen.

Trus Me vs. Moodymann Mix
I still do not know where this mix came from and who is truly the author… Floating in the RA forums at the beginning of the year, I downloaded it on the (almost unfathomable) pretense that it was truly a collaboration set between the Moodiest and Trus Me. However, the file came tagged as ‘Sports Rainier’ which would lead me to think it might have something to do with a club or DJ in France? In any case, if you haven’t heard this yet you owe your ears a favor… Comfortably segueing between boogie, disco, Omar-S, salsa, Marvin Gaye, Marcellus and just about all forms of funky music it manages to easily demonstrate the elements which bind all of these disparate style with enormous amounts of class and grace. Mixes like this are truly very, very rare so do not miss out on obtaining this wonderful selection before it vanishes into interwebs. Download below.
http://doddiblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/trusme-working-nights-release-party.html

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Patrice Scott’s Deep in Detroit Mix
Another mix that blew me away this year was Patrice’s ‘Deep in Detroit’ mix. When this popped up in the forums last winter, Patrice’s records on Sistrum were appearing in everyone’s sets all over the world. As a result this had maximum attention from all the heads… And rightfully so! This mix demonstrates the power of melody and harmony in house music like few others. If this is not sitting on you Ipod yet you need to give it a spin IMMEDIATLEY. Download is below for your enjoyment.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/forum-read.aspx?id=56930

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Modern Love Showcase @ Studio B
This was one of the last parties which ever happened at Studio B. While the venue will be (somewhat?) sorely missed, this was certainly one of my favorite parties I went to in NYC all year. Hours of beautiful dubbed out techno from all of the masters from Manchester. I won’t go into too much detail here but if anyone wants to refresh their memory check out the review I did for RA. Unfortunately 2009 was a bit of a mixed bag for Modern Love. While the individual 12’’s by Claro Intelecto, Andy Stott and MLZ were all exciting, functional techno, the label did not blow me away quite as much as in ’07 and ’08. Let’s hope the boys have something crazy planned for 2010.

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Three New Essential Labels: WT, We Play House and Lunar Disko
Of all the things that I am grateful for from 2009, perhaps the one that is most important is the amount of great NEW music that came out during the year. While several classic labels had a fantastic year, I was pleasantly surprised by the work of 3 newer labels: WT Records, We Play House and Lunar Disko. Each of these brought something fresh to the scene and had a phenomenally high hit rate with their releases. WT gave an outlet to brilliant yet woefully undiscovered producers, We Play House provided us with unpretentious, non-cliché vocal house and Lunar Disko kept the flag flying for Italodisco and REAL electro. Definitely three labels to closely watch in 2010…

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And that my friends is what I will remember 2009 for… a year which had a ton of excellent new music, fantastic represses and which marked the arrival of several new brilliant producers to the scene.

DJ Harvey @ Cielo

11/27/09 - On a freezing post-Thanksgiving night, I headed down to Cielo to shake off some turkey weight while having my mind expanded by the master Black Cock selector: DJ Harvey...Here is how it went!

Cielo has always had an interesting spot within the New York City house music scene. Blessed with an unbelievable Funktion One sound-system but sitting in the commercially-focused nightlife hell-hole that is the Meatpacking District, the club has always had a bit of a schizophrenic personality. Back when it first opened its doors in 2005 it was an ‘exclusive’ spot that just happened to play some quite excellent house music provided by residents such as Willie Graff. Access and entry during this period on weekends was consistently a tricky and / or expensive affair. Buy bottles or ‘know someone’ was the name of the game. However, even during this period the spot would still open its doors to real underground heads on weeknights for Francois K’s Deep Space on Mondays as well as We Are Robot’s seminal (and much-missed) Thursday techno extravaganzas.

As fickle NYC fashions changed, the club lost its spot on the list of places ‘celebrities frequented’ and investment bankers ‘had to be seen’ to be cool. While Mondays and Thursdays generally stayed solid due to the aforementioned weekly events, weekends fell apart. Forced to open their doors more liberally, the crowd became increasingly grimy (not necessarily a bad thing) but also unfortunately prone to violence and blatant drug use. For what seemed like an eternity Cielo became the place your girlfriend would fear attending on Fridays and Saturdays. Luckily, the last few months of 2009 have brought some very positive changes…

A fair entry policy, interesting DJ bookings, solid residents and a zero tolerance policy to drugs at the door has resulted in an overall well-balanced combination for the NY institution. It was thus with much excitement that I visited the old ‘candy-box’ dance-floor for Darshan Jesrani’s “Adult Section” party. Our host for the night was Harvey, a legend amongst collectors of rare disco and Italo records as well as a truly masterful vinyl-manipulator.

Launching his set with a bit of weirdo ‘Balearic’ jams, the bearded master wasted no time in heating things up my dropping Mr. Flagio’s amazing “Take a Chance”. Pitching the record up to pumping, house music speeds the floor became immediately packed with energetic dancers. Following this classic with a mass variety of disco, italo and proto-house records, Harvey had the place on fire. After an hour of solid disco eclecticism the man put everyone into a bit of a hypnotic groove using his own “Vinegar Drop” edit from the now infamous Black Cock record series.

The hypnotic / housier side of Harry was on display for another half hour or so before a brief interlude of what I could only describe as guitar-heavy “disco-rock” (?!). Already amazed at the energy Harvey had brought to Cielo, the British selector set it off one last time with his “Bermuda Triangle” edit. As the horns on the track blasted away, people were smiling all around me and jumping for joy- a scene I hadn’t seen in Cielo in several months. Overall a fantastic event and one of the best sets I’ve heard all year. Hopefully Cielo can keep pushing forward with these types of bookings. However, regardless of where he plays next time, I’ll definitely not be missing Harvey on his next visit! The veteran DJ really has a unique style that needs to be heard (and seen) to be fully appreciated. Quite simply, I don’t think there’s anyone out there mixing up disco, balearic and italo with as much energy and flare as the Black Cock man. Let’s hope for many more years of dance-floor weirdness and brilliant mixing from the Sarcastic Disco don.

-BBGB

Delicious Records Mix #1 !!!

Alright everyone as promised here is the first Delicious Records mix. I tried to represent the different styles of music which I aim to cover on the blog and included several of the 12’’s I wrote about here and for RA. The mix moves through funk, disco, italo, house and a bit of techno...a pretty big cross-section of dope dance music of all times. Overall I’m pretty happy with the results. While I’m still polishing my mixing I guarantee every damn track on this thing is 110% fresh! Anyways, if you love it give it to your friends. If you hate it, give it to your enemies ;-)

In other news, I have a new review up on RA for Will Saul’s Balance mix. Beyond that, as we are now nearing December, I have begun the annual exercise of trying to remember exactly what blew me away in the last year... This means I’ll soon be sitting down with my 2009 record box and choosing the cream of the crop to drop in my votes for RA. Will sure to take a bit more time over here to talk a bit about how the year felt for me.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ecgo2o

Tracklist:
1. Dexter Wansel - Life on Mars - Loft Classics
2. Chic - Funny Bone - Atantic
3. Mary Wells - Gigolo - Epic
4. The Revenge - Unfinished Edits Are Out of My Hands - Jiscomusic
5. David Vunk - Disco Voltage - Lunar Disko
6. BSTC - B.S.T.C. - All Natural Inc.
7. Robert Owens -Bring Down the Walls (Original Mix) - Jack Trax
8. Bernard Badie - Overjoyed - Mojuba
9. Hunee - Rare Silk - W.T. Records
10. Fudge Fingas - DinDins4Dada - Prime Numbers
11. Chez Damier - Teach Me, Keep Me - Mojuba
12. Moodymann - Joy Pt. II - KDJ
13. Omar-S - Flying Gorgars - FXHE Records
14. Arnold Jarvis - Take Some Time Out (Basic Soul Unit Remix) - Crème Organisation
15. Kyle Hall - I Love Dr. Girlfriend

ENJOY!

Fall Retro Records Round-Up!

As I mentioned in the intro to this blog, the purpose of this site is to not solely act as a medium for shining a light on new productions, but also on fantastic dance music of the past. I feel that this is important in today’s environment where listeners are constantly flooded with digitally-distributed tracks. While the low barriers to entry provided by technology have permitted a wealth of new artists to easily access audiences, they have also made it remarkably easy to ‘put out’ incredibly boring and uninspiring music. In the past, club music had different standards. With vinyl as the main medium for DJ-play, a record usually had to be promising enough to warrant the expense of pressing it to wax and physically distributing it. The result is that a great deal of dance music from the 70s and 80s naturally went through a harsh filtering process before being released and often had very high production values. Dance music had to be fit to press to wax! This is not to say that no bad pieces made it out but it does mean that there is a TON of fantastic music to dig for and celebrate. What’s more, a lot of this music actually still makes ‘sense’ on today’s dance-floors…
Anyways, without further nerdy philosophical posturing, here are some of the retro records I’ve been feeling this Fall…

Luv You Madly Orchestra – Moon Maiden
This is an incredibly bizarre record. Apparently Love you Madly Orchestra were a Salsoul production responsible for recording disco music composed by Duke Ellington. While this idea might lead you to think the music would have close associations with jazz this is not really the case... The A-side here is far more similar to the alternative disco music of labels like Ze or Sleeping Bag than any of Duke Ellington’s more traditional jazz productions. The composition combines slightly out of tune female vocals with cut up voices that keep exclaiming “I gotta…”. Every once in a while this is interrupted by some weirdly-pitched string flurries. Not surprisingly, on first listen it actually all sounds rather unpleasant. However, after a few spins you sort of begin to recognize the bizarre genius at work behind this composition. In my own personal case, I eventually fell in love with this weird slab of disco and now treasure it as one of my favorite recent acquisitions. Not surprisingly, it seems to have a decent fan-base, evidenced by its rather lofty price on Discogs. It also bizarrely made a recent appearance on Errol Alkan’s RA podcast. I honestly never thought anyone would ever think of playing this out in 2009 but I’m glad I’ve been proven wrong. Anyways, listen to it 2 – 5 times on youtube below for the full experience. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_edjnWcA4ZE
Discogs:http://www.discogs.com/Luv-You-Madly-Orchestra-Rocket-Rock-Moon-Maiden/release/1333900

Dexter Wansel – Life on Mars (off of Loft Classics II)
The Loft Classics series is a truly wonderful run of 12’’ records that attempts to gather some of the most famous tracks played by the infamous David Mancuso at his notorious NYC loft parties. Spanning jazz, disco, soul and house, everything I’ve found on these 12’’s has really only had one common factor: it’s all incredibly funky. While this edition of the series includes Street Life and Los Conquistadores Chocolates, the true stand out for me is Dexter Wansel’s “Life on Mars”. This record has got to have one of the coolest intros ever. In fact, it’s so damn impressive I don’t even want to describe it here. I’d much rather point you to the opening section of the Delicious Records mix which will be online shortly... (that, or just skip to utube if you can’t wait!) Hopefully you’ll be shocked by its brilliance yourself. As a minor side-note for hip hop fans, I recently discovered that this record served as the sample basis for Lupe Fiasco’s “The Cool” which was one of the best tracks on the Chicago MC’s debut album.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=086p5RAY30s
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=163349

Chic – I Want Your Love / Funny Bone
Chic records tend to have the high production values that I mentioned in the intro to this post and this is certainly no exception. The sound quality, live studio band arrangements and even the hot pink vinyl on which this was pressed are a testament to some nice record label quality control. While many might dismiss Chic out-of-hand for being associated with over-played disco hits like ‘Le Freak’, this would be a terrible mistake. The band actually has a fantastically deep back-catalogue of beautifully composed dance-floor jams. On this 12’’ “I Want Your Love” is the most recognizable hit, having been sampled by Moodymann for his classic “I Can’t Kick this Feeling When it Hits”. That said, “Funny Bone” is an often-overlooked classic disco jam. Low slung with funky bass guitar and gorgeously arranged strings; it’s definitely worth a close look and a potential collection purchase.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_N5zdQtxV4
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Chic-I-Want-Your-Love-Funny-Bone/release/1076042

Cymande (Self Titled)
I first learnt of 70s London-based Caribbean funk / reggae group Cymande through Innervision’s “Grandfather Paradox” mix CD. That release focused on giving an aural history of ‘minimalism’ and did a fantastic job of providing an intro to some seriously funky (yet experimental!) music of the past. While the cut on that mix (“For Baby Oh”) had some nice stripped down percussion, I was more taken aback by the warmth of the vocals and funky chorus: “We shall go down… we shall be found!” Anyways, being a bit of a long-term dub fan I was happy to accidentally come across this group’s debut at a local record store. It’s truly a fantastic LP that is 100% guaranteed to brighten your mood during the harsh winter days up ahead. Beyond the warmth factor though, this record distinguishes itself by managing to blend funk and reggae in equal doses to create a truly unique sound. It’s really a bit of a shame that this group remained out of the limelight as they certainly deserved a bit more recognition. Check for yourself by tuning into the below youtube links.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3Ds0JABsM&feature=related
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Cymande-Cymande/master/84158


Alright everyone that is my Retro wrap up for now! I have recently recorded a mix that uses many of the records mentioned on this blog. That will be available very soon… At the moment I am in Brazil for work but as soon as I am back in NYC that thing is getting uploaded. For now I’m going to use my free time down here to try and accumulate as much great Brazilian music as I can. Especially going to look for some 80’s MPB = Musica Popular Brasileira. That stuff is the bomb. Maybe also some Tropicalia although I’ve always felt that stuff was somewhat overhyped. Wish they had record stores down here but like most Latin American countries, it seems music on wax is pretty much extinct… Still, I’d love to be proven wrong so if anyone’s got a recommendation out there throw it on the comments!

Moodymann Spins in NYC & 12’’ Halloween Treats

Last Saturday afternoon NYC was blessed with a visit from one of Detroit’s most gifted house music producers- the one and only Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann. The last time KDJ was in NYC he played at Santo’s Party house in lower Manhattan. While this venue had a nice thick sound-system, its harsh concrete walls and busy main room proved to be a tad bit too impersonal for KDJ’s unique style of DJing. This time around the boys from Mr. Saturday Night got the arrangements spot on by booking Kenny Dixon for an afternoon set at the 12-turn-13 loft. This Brooklyn loft is probably the best spot to have a dance party in NYC at the moment. The main room offers enough space for comfortable dancing but is also dark and cozy enough to consistently generate the intimate, friendly vibes that distinguishes average events from truly great house music gatherings. Despite the weather not cooperating and dumping sheets upon sheets of rain from Friday through Saturday, the turn out for the party was large and enthusiastic. As I stepped in at 6pm, a large crowd was already gathered on the floor anticipating the arrival of Moody.

Coming on at around 6:30pm KDJ opened up with some nice bits of disco before dropping C2’s remix of Junior Boy’s “Like a Child”. As the long intro of the track played out, the Detroit DJ grabbed the mic and introduced himself to the crowd. Surprisingly everyone was enthusiastic that he was actually speaking to them. This differed drastically from the reactions I’d seen from this approach at other Kenny Dixon sets. Usually the crowd tends to get very confused when the DJ decides to literally address the floor. Luckily this group had enough hardcore fans and open-minded dancers to happily go along with Moody’s style and the result was a solid few hours of great music and interaction between the crowd and DJ.

The flow in Moody’s set was unlike that of just about any other contemporary, well-known DJ /producer. He truly is individual in his disregard for genre boundaries and his ability to keep a floor bouncing, even while interrupting his mixes every few tracks. He’s also (sadly) becoming increasingly unique for being one of the few major names out there still spinning close to 100% vinyl. Luckily for us wax fanatics he made it a point to announce his preference and love for the physical format multiple times. He also humorously suggested anyone pass along requests to the booth and that he would play anything if he had it on vinyl or ‘just drop some other shit like it’ if he didn’t.

Overall it was a great evening full of soul, disco and house RECORDS from every period of modern dance music history. Of all the great tunes Moody dropped, one in particular stands out to me: Yaz’s “Situation”. While this is a certified 80s classic it’s not the kind of ‘underground’ or ‘obscure’ record you’d associate with a producer like Moodymann. Still, for 8pm on a Saturday night to a room full of sweaty house-heads the effect was pretty damn epic with smiles all around and people screaming along to the lyrics. Always bringing the unexpected Moodymann is definitely one to look out for…

ALSO TWO GEMS TO LOOK OUT FOR…

Leron Carson on Sound Signature & Slow to Speak’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” (Unicarsal Epitaph Edit)
As some of you may know, 12-Turn-13 is dangerously situated steps from Dope Jams, one of NYC’s finest record stores. Of course I couldn’t help myself so I copped the above two release as a Halloween treat before dropping by 12-Turn-13. Both releases come highly recommended, in particular the bizarre Bela Lugosi edit from the good guys over at Dope Jams. Dissecting Bauhaus’ goth-rock classic into a droning mélange of reverb, guitars and wailing vocals, this edit is the ideal soundtrack to the grey, rainy days we’ve been having leading up to Halloween weekend. The guys also threw in some vintage screaming and wailing samples to spice up your mixes…

On a completely different tip, the Leron Carson is some truly mechanical Chicago house from the archives. Recorded to tape between ’87 and ’88, the reels were dusted off and engineered by Omar-S for release on Theo Parrish’ Sound Signature label. While several of the tracks are perhaps too dry to imagine them having a long shelf-life, a few have a deeper emotional depth that guarantees pretty much eternal value. In particular, “Red Light Bulb” has a gorgeous, melancholic vibe. While I appreciate the grit of the lo-fi recording, this is one particular track I’d like to see resurrected in full hi-fi. Overall a solid double-12’’ on Sound Signature worth adding to your shopping list.

So, after Halloween this weekend look for my Fall Retro records round-up and possibly a review of what I get down to on Hallow’s eve. I also still owe everyone a mix… Hope people are enjoying reading this!!!

-BBGB

FALL 2009 CONTEMPORARY SELECTION!

Kicking things off this fall is a round-up of contemporary disco, italo and house that I’ve been feeling as of late. I have tried to mention records which I haven’t seen pop up much in the electronic press but which I believe deserve some serious attention. I’ll be following this up with a section on RETRO records I’ve been digging lately too… Once that’s up I’ll hopefully be uploading an all vinyl mix that incorporates some of these choice cuts and other sick stuff. My hope is that after reading this, some heads out there will decide to check some of these out! Also, please comment… I’d love to engage and discuss some of my choices and what others are rating at the moment.
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Karizma – Necessary Madness / Drumz Nightmare
· I’d heard the name Karizma being thrown around house music circles for the last year. Several heads had mentioned he was coming out of Baltimore so I had ignorantly assumed he was more on the ‘bodymore’ type sound. For some reason or the other I slept on him until recently. Big mistake! Hearing ‘Drumz Nightmare’ on Joy Orbison’s excellent Doldrums mix got me on the hunt for his output. This two-tracker on British label R2 (of Floating Points fame), is a fantastically versatile 12’’. While both tracks would initially suggest a greater proximity to dub-step or “bass music”, their sparse and slowly building introductory sections and rich melodic content make them easily mixable in any adventurous house music set. In particular, “Drumz Nightmare” should be able to drop some jaws on the dance-floor. Combining staccato percussion with layered strings and acoustic guitar melodies, it really sounds like nothing else out there at the moment.
http://www.discogs.com/Karizma-Neccessarry-Maddness-Drumz-Nightmare/release/1816714

Marcellus – Unirhythm Green
· The mighty Marcellus Pittman returns! While the new Three Chairs EP is meant to be dropping stateside any day now, this will tide the deep Detroit heads over for a little longer. The A-side is a hypnotic drum machine work out sure to hypnotize you on your home hi-fi and push the bass bins at the club to the limit. Perhaps a bit sparse on first listen, the track reveals its rhythmic complexity upon repeat spins. The B-side gets down in a similar hypnotic fashion but with added melody for a housier vibe. Get this limited 12’’ ‘before it disappears. My copy is stamped 491 and theres only 500 so get on it... clock is ticking!
http://www.discogs.com/Marcellus-Pittman-Unirhythm-Green-1/release/1950316

Hunee – Tour de Force EP
· I reviewed this for RA a few weeks ago so there really isn’t much more for me to say here except that this record has proven very resilient to the passing of time… Yes, it’s only been out about a month but in dance music circles that’s akin to 10 years. Like the Karizma, this has a good cross-over of styles, in this case, a blend between Cosmic Disco and House. Highly recommended for those that like their music unashamedly melodic. William Burnett, the East Village Radio DJ who is running this label has clearly got some nice A&R skills having gone 2-for-2 in terms of quality releases thus far. This week I dropped by his radio show where he played one of the tracks from the next WT records release. Heavy on the synths and with a dark feel, it reminded me a bit of vintage Black Strobe or Legowelt... Something to definitely look forward to!
http://www.discogs.com/Hunee-Tour-De-Force-EP/release/1877889

The Revenge – Night Flight
· I first heard of Scottish disco producer Graeme Clark through his RA podcast. Having been on a disco binge as of late I was quite taken aback by his modern take on the genre. His edits are glisteningly ‘clean’ compared to the more classic operators of the genre such as Harvey or Gregg Wilson. While I generally have a reverence / obsession for anything ‘old school’ in the dance music world, I have to hand it to Graeme on this latest batch of edits. In particular, ‘Night Flight’ is a sublime late night jam. Editing Stevie Wonder’s 80s semi-ballad “Love Light in Flight”, the Revenge loops a tiny fragment of the original for 4 delicious minutes before Stevie Wonder enters the fray with some gloriously cheese-ball 80s love jam lyrics: Make me feel like I'm in paradise! Give me what I'm missing. Send me to the highest highs...take mup and away...". Beautiful stuff. The other edits on this are also seriously groovy and worth your time. Can’t wait to hear the Revenge spin Mr. Saturday night in NYC this November. Will make sure to drop a tidy review here.
http://www.discogs.com/Revenge-Night-Flight-Unfinished-Edits-Are-Out-Of-My-Hands-Savin-The-Day/release/1526679Savin-The-Day/release/1526679

Mark du Mosche & David Vunk - Dreams EP
· Italo Disco is likely one of the hardest types of electronic music to compose. Its outright embrace of cheesy lyrics and catchy synthesizer melodies means producers have to walk a difficult tight rope- One step in the wrong direction and a track will sound far too corny to be taken seriously. On this release for Lunar Disko, Dutch artist David Vunk has hit the nail on the head with regards to updating the Italo sound. Vintage drum machine and synth sounds abound on both his tracks, managing to evoke the wide-eyed sci-fi vibe of classic italo releases by Mr. Flagio and Charlie. Mark du Mosche’s contributions on the A-side are more restrained but still highly original: cinematic-style italo-disco which reminds me a bit of Giorgio Moroder’s soundtrack work. This is a very original EP which has sadly been overlooked by a lot of the wider electronic dance music community. Get it while it’s still out there…
http://www.discogs.com/Mark-Du-Mosch-David-Vunk-Dreams-EP/release/1883813

-BBGB

Hello

This is a blog about records.
More specifically: funk / disco / italo / house and techno records.
I live in New York City and dig for rare treats of the past and the sweetest grooves of the present. I feel the necessity to praise the records I uncover. It makes me happy to wax poetic about this music on wax!
Hopefully this activity will result in some light being shed on the underground producers who have put in their blood, sweat and tinitus-ridden ears into having their music pressed to vinyl.
In terms of format, I will try and kick it with monthly posts of what I have acquired and am currently feeling. These posts will hopefully be accompanied by mixes of the material discussed. With some luck, I might get some artist interviews or guest mixes up.
Here's hoping for a bright future.

BBGB