Give a Damn

After the racist murders in Antwerp, a couple of weeks ago, some students made a special song to commemorate the occasion. They had a little jazz group called Patricks’s Hot Sugar Juice and in one afternoon they recorded a single at school. The benefits are meant to go to an organization for the protection of children’s rights.
They ask everyone who cares to give some publicity to this initiative. They supplied a version of the song at a low bitrate. A genuine version can be obtained at their website.

Luna On My Mind

Sad Old Men

...................After the High the Low

My hair is getting a little bit gray at the side. That’s no worry because it’s been like that for more than 10 years now, ever since I turned 21 but nevertheless, sometimes it makes me feel like a sad old man… at such moments it’s comforting to listen to some Sad Old Men who carry the load of the world and experience that it’s not that bad after all.

I’m a fan of David Sylvian [remember Japan, he used to have a fake föhned blond hairdo like all the big rock stars of the era but also a great voice] the hairdo has gone or dim but the voice remained. A dark sad melancholic tenor with a sparkle of light and a glance of hope to set the balance. He gathered a group of people to form a band called Nine Horses and released an album this year called Snow borne Sorrow.

Nine Horses (David Sylvian + Nina Nordenstam) - Wonderful world [Snow borne Sorrow 2006]

Daníel Ágúst is a member of GusGus, a Scandinavian electropop collective. He turned solo I guess or did a side project of some sort and released an album called Swallowed a Star. He’s touring around Europe to promote the album and got invited at the last edition of De Nachten at De Singel in Antwerp. That’s where I saw him perform this music with a little string quartet. It’s quite different from the music of GusGus. It’s very appropriate for the type of weather we’re having right now [and for my hair].

Daníel Ágúst – The Gray [Swallowed a Star 2005]

And last a song with a very appropriate title: Closing Titles by Tindersticks. A unique band if you ask me. You either love them or hate them. The singer’s voice tend to get unto some people’s nerves. I have to admit that I can’t always listen to it. Only when I’m in the right mood... What kind of mood if you hear a song like Closing Titles? This is definitely one of my all time favorite songs. I find it very comforting and I can imagine that some people would want to play it at their or anybody’s funeral.

Tindersticks – Closing Titles [Trouble Every Day OST 2002]

Pauline et Paulette

Just, for no reason at all... apart from the fact that my mother looks a bit like Paulette in the movie en my sister’s daughter is called Pauline and the music is simply gorgeous. What more do you want?

Docteur Nico & Orchestra African Feiste - Pauline [Golden Afrique Vol. 2 2006]

Balla et Ses Balladins - Paulette [Golden Afrique Vol. 1 2005]

Sonderangebot

Hi there folks! Because of the last post about Barbara Morgenstern and the simple fact that Miss Kittin is playing at Petrol tonight , I was getting aware of some kind of theme there…

Today’s post is about leading ladies in dance music [who happen to speak German - Miss Kittin is actually French but she lives in Berlin though -]… Ellen Allien, Miss Kittin, Barbara Morgenstern, Ada,… I like all of their music.

Ellen Allien is making music and playing dj for many years now. For me she’s a kind of reference - what German dance music is concerned - and well wouldn’t you know… she has a new record out this year in collaboration with Apparat called Orchestra of Bubbels. It’s featured in many top 10 lists and will probably popup again in some final end lists as one of the best albums of the year.

Ada is maybe unfamiliar but I saw her spin records at the fuse last year and she’s just great. She has a record out called Blondie, also from last year.

Miss kittin still has a great summermix2005 on her site. Check it out under HEAR ME at http://www.misskittin.com/

Miss Kittin – I.com
Favourite remix (got a lot of airplay on Stubru radio) and song of the album.

Happy Violentine (Marco Passaranis San Valentino mix)
Kiss Factory

Ellen Allien
3 albums. Thrills is strictly dancefloor, the other 2 are more radiofriendly.

Cloudy City

Funkenflug Der Träume [2001 - Stadtkind]
Wolken Ziehen [2001 - Stadtkind]
Data Romance [2001 - Stadtkind]

Stadtkind (Barbara Morgenstern remix)

Alles Sehen [2003 - Berlinette]
Sehnsucht [2003- Berlinette]
Wish [2003 - Berlinette]
Abstract Pictures [2003 - Berlinette]

Your Body Is My Body [2005 - Thrills]
Naked Rain [2005 - Thrills]
Ghost Train [2005 - Thrills]
She Is With Me [2005 - Thrills]

Ellen Allien + Apparat
50/50 match of Ellen Allien and Apparat but 200% outcome.

Turbo Dreams
Way Out
Jet
Do Not Break

Ada - Blondie
Take your time to listen to these tracks because they intend to evolve slowly but nicely into varies directions and moods.

Eve
Blindhouse (each and everyone) - yes an EBTHG cover
Our Love never Dies

Next time, I promise, no more dance music :-) but I’m just in a dancing mood … blame it on the weather.

Barbara Morgenstern 13.05.06

One of my favourite electronic albums of last year was Tesri, a collaboration between Barbara Morgenstern and Robert Lippok from To Rococo Rot. I only knew Barbara Morgenstern from remixes she did for other people but that album was reason enough to go and see her play live at Petrol as a opener for DAAU.
She’s doing a promotion tour for her new album The Grass is always Greener. While she’s best known for makin’ electronic music her new album is largely made up of acoustic songs, a kind of up tempo piano ballads. I could say that what comes close is someone like An Pierlé, only this time in German. Her songs work well live because of the enthusiasm with which she delivers her songs but on the album they are a bit flat, more like sketches. But still, there are a couple of great acoustic/electronic tracks on it that make it still worth while.

Tesri

Please Wake Me For Meals + Sommer

Grass is always Greener

Die Japanische Schranke + Quality Time

The Urge to fly

As a kind of alternative Eurovision contest, some rare grooves from one of my favourite compilation albums The Urge - volume 1 from 2002. I'm still waiting for volume 2.

Ocells del Més enllà (part II) - Jordi Sabatés [Spain 1977]

Turtle Soup - Chakachas [Belgium 1973]

Casa Forte - Isabelle Aubret [France 1971]

If you guess that most of this sounds very Brazilian than you're right. But than again, the world championship soccer is coming soon. You may guess again which team I'm going to support.

Il tempo viene per chi sa aspettare

Yes... all things come to those who wait. Hi, it's been a while. I've been really busy workin’, being ill (damn cold weather and airco) and abroad but now I’m back on track. I found out that some links were dead. Sendspace is very handy for uploads but apparently not reliable for downloads. Box is easy for downloads but a painstakingly endeavour for uploads. Anyway, I fixed the dead links and replaced them with better ones.
So because of all this fixin’ about I had no proper time for new ones. But I will not leave you empty handed and give you these handsome Scandinavian blokes who play Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart.
They are Norway's most famous kitchen appliance band and I like their crazy stuff. If you want more of it, they have an Official Site and you can follow some hilarious mockumentary adventures on their present American tour right here (beware this is an actual Ford ad).
All of a sudden that group Lordi from Finland isn't that strange anymore. Lack of sunshine can do strange things to ya so come and meet Hurra Torpedo.

Everything you always wanted to know about electronic Music…

… you will just find here…



… and right here.

petits lapins au chocolat

By the way... happy Easter y'all!

Coldcut live @ AB, Brussels 15/04/2006

Hi, I’m back! Back from a demanding, challenging, exhausting, arduous wearing but also refreshing walking trip to the green valleys and mountains of El Andaluz and the city of Grenada. My mind is totally empty now and ready for some new challenges in a new year because I’m also one year older… and deeper in debt.

I had quite some surprise waiting for me when I got back home... a great Coldcut concert as a birthday present on Saturday (thanx Ann!). I’ve been a long term fan of Coldcut ever since they redefined the term ‘remix’ with their classic rendition of Erik B & Rakim’s Paid in Full ‘mashed-up’ with Ofra Haza and Mantronix’s Pump up the volume and they still haven't lost their edge. As a temporarily memorial for this memorable concert I've added some old-time favourites and a couple of tracks from their new album Sound Mirrors.

Coldcut – Timber

Coldcut – Atomic Moog (tha bomb)

Coldcut – Atomic Moog 2000

Coldcut – More Beats and Pieces

Coldcut feat. Jon Spencer & Mike Ladd - Everything Is Under Control

Coldcut feat. Roots Manuva - True Skool

Erik B. & Rakim - Paid In Full (Coldcut Remix)

I saw some cameras flying about at the concert so after a quick look on the internet I found some footage from it on YOUTUBE. If you haven’t heard of YOUTUBE before this is your chance to find out what this great site is all about. Basically it’s a system to share your videos and films.

Coldcut live @ AB, Brussels 15/04/2006 - Paid in Full

Coldcut live @ AB, Brussels 15/04/2006 - This Island Earth

True skool [video feat. Roots Manuva]

Timber [video]

Atomic moog [video]

More to come at Coldcut tv.

There are also some high quality videos at the site of Ninja Tune in Quicktime format.

timber

atomic moog 2000

Las Alpujarras... Here I come

I'm gone now for some very well deserved and useful days off... so no posts next week. I'm going to see Grenada, drink an awful lot of sherry and climbs some mountains in the Sierra Nevada (not necessary in that order). A fine mix of culture and nature, if you ask me. See ya!

My little brother just discovered R‘n’R …

… or music weblogs. I’ve been roaming the web looking for music for quite some time now and I must say, the amount of wonderful - but up till then - unknown music that I discovered this way, is really tremendous. Some names keep reappearing on different sites and they made their way to other media like radio and music magazines by now. Among them these 3 bands who came to ‘stardom’ partly or mainly through support on the internet. They all play what you could call Rock but with a fresh approach that is deeply rooted in music history. One can hear the fifties, sixties garage or folk, passing by but also punk and new wave or more likely all of this together.

Isistor - Tapes ‘n Tapes

Medicine - Sons and Daughters

Headlights Look Like Diamonds - The Arcade Fire

Indira Bombay

Today I bring you some music from the movie capital of India… Mumbai better known as Bollywood.
In Bollywood everything is larger than life. The amount of films, the songs and dances, the stories and the status of its stars. I don’t know the exact figures but the film industry of India has an annual output which is a multiple of its American and European counterparts put together. Every Indian movie features a soundtrack with an album worth of material so this means really a whole lot of music. Almost all of it is recorded by a hand full of so called playback singers while the actual actors lip-synch. Basically it’s just as fake as you can get but it all ads to the magic and fantasy world which the try to create to carry the mostly poor mass audiences away from their everyday life of misery… at least for the length of the featured film.

I had the pleasure to witness what Bollywood means for the average Indian. I first visited India back in 1995 while being still in school. Back then I had never heard of Bollywood or its music. I just knew some classical Indian music, mostly sitar and of course Ravi Shankar. It was in a small village up north at the feet of the Himalaya where I first encountered this musical phenomenon. I had already heard the music on arriving in India. It’s virtually impossible to avoid those soundtracks. They’re just everywhere but I couldn’t place it.
In small villages going to the movies is like going to a circus. A large tent with a big screen travels from one village to another and carries a couple of the latest blockbusters. Because the music is already for months on the radio the people know the songs by heart before they actually go see the movie. Today the songs work like a kind of promotion for the movie. If the songs are any good the movie will be not to bad either. People in India are really into cinema. They go, not once but twice or if necessary even five times in a row. Often to the same movie. They bring along their entire families and gather around with neighbours and friends in these travelling cinemas – most of these tents are really bad constructions with big and small holes all over the ceiling but the light that comes in this way creates a special atmosphere – while watching the film everyday family- and village live goes on. They cook while watching, play with their kids, talk to the neighbours and when one of the stars on the screen feels a song coming up everybody, young and old, start to sing along. This way all kinds of social and cultural matters are brought up in these small societies and they are being discussed afterwards. Sometimes the older ones don’t find the lyrics appropriate or to explicit. The young ones love this and tease their parents and grandparents by singer them harder or repeating over and over and over again.
So going to the movies in India was sort of… fun for me. It also brought back childhood memories. My first encounter with the movies and Hollywood as a child was a film that was very similar to the average Bollywood film. While most people of my age grew up with Jaws or Star Wars I watched Grease. Do you remember… John Travolta and Olivia Newton Jones... Actors that didn’t mind to turn a scene into a big song and dance show looked pretty normal to me. Big was my disappointment when I got around to see my second movie. The impact was much less to the extent that I still can’t remember which one it was.

Anyway, you either like this stuff immediately or you just hate those highly pitched nasal female voices. In my case it was love at first sight. The last day in Delhi I bought as much tapes as I could find, thinking that it wouldn’t be possible to find any of it back home, but on arriving in Antwerp I discovered that it wasn’t that difficult to find. The city has a large Indian community because of the diamante industry and Bollywood is one of the things that keeps them in touch with their homeland. There were even specialised stores where you could buy or rent videos. But I also found out that back in those days this was rather special because this type of music wasn’t that popular or hip in those days, at least not as much as today because of movies like bend it like Becham, or the Panjabi MC’s reworking of the Nightrider Theme and others. In fact the only place where you could find stuff like that back then was London and some cities in Holland.

Now back to the music. Music from Bollywood is best known for the old classic soundtracks from the fifties up to the seventies that feature the likes of Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar. Their recorded output is situated somewhere around 10,000 songs each… you find them in the Guinness book of records.
More recent films are mostly regarded as cheap rip-offs of the old classics. It’s the same what the music is concerned. I made a collection of songs to proof that this is not the case. The sheer size of the output over the years is a guaranty for enough quality. The beats and melodies that come out of Bollywood form a soundtrack to the lives of billions of people all over the world. These movies are shown throughout entire Asia, the Middle East, Eastern-Africa, some West-African countries and the former Soviet Union. After the Taliban in Afghanistan came into power, the first thing they did was putting a ban on Bollywood movies. The impact of these films and their music simply can’t be overlooked or denied.

01 Panjabi MC’s - Mundian To Bach Ke

02 Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnit, Sukhwinder Singh & Srinivas – Mitwa [Lagaan / Once Upon a Time in India 2001]

03 Jaspinder Narula, Sudesh Bhosle & Sonu Nigam - Sona Sona [Major Saab 1998]

04 Kavita Krishnamurthy & Sudesh Bhosle - Jooma Chumma De De [Hum 1991]

05 Sukhwinder & Sapna Awasthi - Chaiya Chaiya [Dil Se / From the Heart 1998]

06 Alka Yagnik - Dilbar [Sirf Tum 1999]

07 S. Kaliwalia - Kahendeh Neh Naina (A Singh & El Niño mix)

08 Nazia Hassan - Aap Jaisa Koi [Qurbani 1980]

09 Bollywood Breaks & Funk- Lover's Paradise [‘70’s]

10 Trickbaby - Neelaa

11 Asha Bhosle, Udit Narayan, Vaishali & Chorus - Radha Kaise Na Jale [Lagaan / Once Upon a Time in India 2001]

12 Alka Yagnik & Hema Sardesi - San Sanana [Asoka 2001]

13 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Tere Bin Nahin Lagda (Partners In Rhyme mix)

14 Manjula Guru - Yerida Gunginalli [Rajadi Raja 1992]

15 Udit Narayan, Kavita Krishnamurthy - Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast [Mohra 1994]

16 Kavita Krishnamurthy, Alka Yagnik, Amit Kumar, Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan, Jatin Lalit - Bole Chudiyan [Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham / Sometimes Happiness,
Sometimes Sadness 2001]

For the entire collection at once (minus n° 16) , you can find a zipfile right here.

Bubblegum 1

There's nothin' wrong with plain straightforward pop music but obviously there's more to life than just your everyday pop charts. Sometimes you can have really great pop sounds with enough commercial appeal to make it in the charts but for some reason just don’t make it. In order to prevent these treasures from getting’ lost I’ll send them out into space for everyone to enjoy!

Lo-Fi-Fnk - Wake Up

Bumblebee Unlimited - Lady Bug
(there's a great Larry Levan remix that I will post later on... when I find it back)

Starbuck - A Fool In Line

A quick one with quite some words to it

Today I've only got time for just a quick post. I like all kinds of music but there's one big current throughout my entire music collection and that's Black Music. I don't fancy a definition of what Black Music exactly is but almost anything that's Afro-American, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian, Jamaican, ... ethnic or popular, acoustic or electronic ... and that's being made by black people or by those who try to be or sound like it, is just right up my ally.
Among this spectrum of everything black the golden nuggets that go by the name of Rare Grooves are the favorites. I've been trying to prepare a series of posts but because of lack of time this will be something for the near future (let's say a month or so).

For this moment, I'll stick to what I'm listening to right now. I'm a fan of Curtis Mayfield (see right here for more info on Soulwalking).
One of my favorite Curtis songs is Right On for the Darkness from his first album after the Superfly soundtrack. It's from 1973 which is the year I was born in - maybe not a great year for wine but definitely one for the groove. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Silicone Soul sampled the glorious orchestral ending of this song, a couple of years ago, for their dance floor track Right on. It's one of those endings that is just much to short and gives way to an entirely different piece of music. It's a big cherish on top of a delicious cake that deserves a rightful place of it's own. That's what Silicone Soul did. They've created a hypnotic groove based on some smart editing of the strings combined with a vintage WahWah rhythmguitar Curtis Mayfield is famous for.

I've got two versions of it but I can't decide which one of them is the best. They're very similar. I'll just post both of them together with the original song.

Right On for The Darkness - Curtis Mayfield 1973 [Back to the World]

Right on 4 tha Darkness - Silicone Soul 1999 [Soma Quality Recordings - Volume 6]

Right On, Right On - Silicone Soul 2000 [Soma Compilation Seven]

As a way of contrast... somethin' else. Friends know that I'm really into country music and they make fun of me. They don't get it, but I don't care. I know that 99% of it is just plain garbage but I go for that 1% which is as good as anything else on this planet.
A recent discovery is a female singer called Neko Case. She's been around for quite some time now but she's mainly known as a member of The New Pornographers. People who make a living out of it call this kind of music alt. country or alternative country. Basically it's a bunch of young people who rediscovered the qualities of traditional music and handle it with a do-it-yourself punk attitude and they stay far away from the big companies in Nashville Tennessee. She's got a new album out called Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and from this album comes a song.

The Needle Has Landed - Neko Case 2005 [Fox Confessor Brings the Flood]

To end, a song that I don't know anything about but that's been bugging me for days now. It's The Baldwin Brothers featuring Miho Hatori from Cibo Matto with a song called Dream Girl. Enjoy.

Dream Girl - The Baldwin Brothers featuring Miho Hatori

Tiefschwarz 25.03.2006

Because one of the guys from Tiefschwarz is playing a DJ-set at Dirtydancing in Brussels on Saturday... some tracks from they're album Eating Books and random stuff in advance.

Damage feat. Tracey Thorn

Fly

Issst (Dub)

Ghostrack

Acid Soul

String Delay 2

Here's another collection of electronic songs with an acoustic feel / acoustic songs with an electronic feel. Some similar names and some new ones. Make a note that this year the Domino festival at the AB in Brussels features Four tet/Fridge and B. Fleischmann. I would go there if I had the chance but I can't. I'll be spending a holiday in the south of Spain. Tuff luck...

Whatsafire - Cex

Fire Walk With My Pussy - Cex

Surface - Fridge

Glue of the World - Four Tet

Brandon - Manitoba [aka Caribou]

Rock on, Lovers - To Rococo Rot

People Eating Fruit - Manitoba [aka Caribou]

You Could Ruin My Day - Four Tet

Motoring Britain - Minotaur Shock

Spotlight (Aphex Twin mix) - Wagon Christ [aka Luke Vibert]

Sea Urchins - Yo La Tengo

Pass By - B. Fleischmann

If you want all of them, I will post a zip file through Rapidshare for ye in a couple of days.

Glocal Pop

I really need a holiday so now it's time for a trip around the world... not in 80 days but in 80 minutes which is the normal length of a standard CD. I collected a bunch of song from all around the world that reflect the change local music styles go through as a result of globalisation (whoaw heavy stuff)... or more simply stated: everybody likes Michael Jackson and one way or another this sense for everything pop ends up in the music people make.

Long Voyage - Hector Zazou feat. John Cale and Suzanne Vega

C’est comme ça - Les Rita Mitsouko

Varg Timmen - Hedningarna

Ya Tayr - Fairuz

Habibi Tawibi - Ali Hassan Kuban

Bassama - Abdel Gadir Salim

Samba - Les Amazones de Guinée

Makelekele - Fel Bocoum & Damon Albarn

Tèy Gedyèlesshem - Alèmayèhu Eshèté

Umkhovu - Mahlathini Nkabinde

Bayaty - Ashkhabad

Do Paljo Teri Aankhou Se - Asha Bhosle & RD Burman

Qur'an Koran - Soneta Group & Rhoma Irama

Shimaguwa Song - Shoukichi Kina & Champloose

10 Believers - Latin Playboys

1, 2, 3, 4 - Titan

Meu Ioruba - Vitto

Für Elise

Everybody knows those funny little noises scanmachines make. Apparently it's possible to make music with it, if you're able to do some state of the art programming. The exact technical details are here.

Elise, c'est pour toi :-)

Alim Qasimov

I've never been to Azerbaijan and I'm sure none of you has ever been there too or will be makin' plans in the near future to go there. Still, I would like to go there, ever since I've heard and saw Alim Qasimov perform. Alim Qasimov is Azerbaijan's most famous son and all over the (Arab) world loved and praised as the greatest vocalist in - to keep it plain and simple -classic Arabian / Persian music. At least since Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died. Here you hear Alim Qasimov perform a tributre to the late Qawali singer in a duet with his daughter Ferganah Qasimov, who's also a great singer.

Ey Encanlar [Tears Flow from My Eyes... Like Rain]

more info and downloads at http://www.azerimusic.net/old/mgn/alqa.htm