Out to Lunch

Electrofolly

picture by Masha

It was a surprising weekend, this one. I found out that Sébastien Tellier is going to represent France at the coming Eurovision song contest. Well I be damned!
I’m curious what will happen. Coincidently I’m going to see and hear him play live in the middle of May. Eurovision can use a bit of hip and cool. I take this at heart right now because I started to reflect on what my very first musical experiences were, after someone asked me how I got to have such a diverse even odd musical taste. After a painful mental exercise it struck me that it all started back in the mid 70’s with children programs, ads, classical music, my big sis’ disco music and this event that today is known as a mekka of mediocrity and circus of cheap taste. But in the past it was all much better, wasn’t it? Many people are nostalgic for the days when the final winner, second and third lasted a bit longer than one could say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious…

So as a result I’ll be spending some time recollecting old soundbites and wiping off dirt, to document my coming of age, music wise. The music that made me who I am. That’ll be interesting.

I’m also currently facing some problems with my computer again. Bluescreens a gogo seems to be the case. I’m a victim of a Trojan horse of some sort even though I’m protected by mister Norton himself. This is the last time that guy sets a foot in my house. All sorts of ads pop up for spyware software and bogus reports about illegal or pornographic content on my computer. I knew it was bunny time right now, with Easter and everything, but I didn’t know that this year it’s playboy bunnies that fall from the sky. As a result I’m at this very moment not enjoying myself on the dancefloor over at Petrol, as I intended to do, but instead shifting data from my computer to external hard disks, just to make sure I’m not losing anything when that final crash occurs. I hope not too soon.

I already had my share of body movements on Friday. James Holden came to Petrol and brought with him Fairmont who gave a live set. Maybe it’s a strange coincidence that at my last computer problem, in January, I downloaded Fairmont over at Bleep. They were so kind to give me back my downloads after I contacted them and explained that my computer had crashed and I lost those files. They were the only ones; I did not receive any news from Juno and Beatport up until now after sending similar mails.

The Walkmen – Lemon Hill
Jaga Jazzist – Reminders (Dat Politics remix)
Lalalover – Step Out of the Dark
Fairmont – I Need Medicine (original mix)
Deise Tigrona – Injecão – Slum Dunk presents Funk Carioca
Be Your Own Pet – Super Soaked

I also went shopping for music on Saturday. I found some really great samplers of early electro hiphop on the Enjoy Records and Celluloid label. And I finally purchased me at Beatport a version of Chateau Flight’s seminal Baroque EP from 2006 on Innervisions. I’ve been looking for a vinyl copy but I couldn’t find any, so I gave up. There’s probably a copy somewhere on the internet, but I still have a principal problem with that. Anything is for sale on the net nowadays so there is no longer a natural barrier for spending lots of money on whatever one’s heart desires. I only buy something first hand and not something that has to be shipped off or worse, flown in on my request.

Chateau Flight – Baroque (original mix)
Chateau flight – Baltringue
Chateau flight – Baccula

I’m really happy with the electro tracks. Some were familiar but others are brand new to me and really great. If my memory serves me right – which is not that easy considering a certain amount of alcohol that was involved – one of the Manu Dibango cuts got played by Alex Barck from Jazzanova at the Mack-Up club a while ago. That gig was without any doubt one of my favourite club nights.

Manu Dibango – Pata Piya (original 12 version)
Manu Dibango – Makossa Rock (original 12 version)
Manu Dibango – Abele Dance (original 12 version)
Tony Allen – Home Cooking

Tribe 2 – What I Like (original 12 French dub version)
Timezone – Wildstyle original 12 version (Francois Kevorkian & Paul Groucho Smykle RMX)
Bill Laswell feat. Afrika Bambaataa & John Lydon – World Destruction (original 12 version - Bill Laswell RMX)
Grandmixer DST – Cuts It Up (original 12 version)

As a bizarre side effect of my malfunctioning computer and the long filenames that Box doesn’t seem to be handling well, some of these tracks don’t have the proper extension (mp3). No worry, just download them as you like and change the extension.

There’s more where this came from, so stay tuned.