Tales of Synthpop and Homeless Fat-Shaming from Canada

August 18th, 2013

Shit!

I didn’t update this blog at all last week, did I?

It’s not my fault! I was in Canada. Blame Canada! (That South Park reference was entirely unintentional I swear.)

But what the hell was I doing in Canada, you ask?

Well, funny story…I’m not going to tell it. It’s top secret. But I will share with you some songs off of crazy weird CD singles that I bought whilst in the land of the rising moose.

Gary Numan
This Wreckage (Metalmorphosis Mix)
Are ‘Friends’ Electric? (Metalmorphosis Mix)
Toronto isn’t really my kind of city. The traffic is hellacious, and despite their “oh, we’re just a bunch of nice people in denim that love hockey, eh?” reputation, big city Canadians are just as dickish as their American counterparts. Example: while I was walking around the city looking for record stores, a homeless guy asked me for some change. Not having any Canadian money on me, let alone change, I walked on by, at which point he said “hey,why you so fat?”

That, of course, led me into a yelling match with a homeless guy, because I’m classy like that, that ended with me saying something along the lines of “yeah, I got this way by eating food! I can buy food because I have money. And since I have money I’M NOT FUCKING HOMELESS YOU HOSER!”

Sure, that might not have been one of my finer moments, but seriously, fuck that dude.

Oh yeah, these remixes are from a CD-single to “Rip.” I like most of the industrial remixes of early-era Numan, so I dig these.

New Order
Crystal [Digweed & Muir Bedrock Radio Edit]
Behind Closed Doors
Sabotage
Someone Like You (Funk D’Void Remix)
So after my lovely confrontation with the smelly homeless man in a Blue Jays jacket (hah, Blue Jays) I ducked into a bar, lured in by the promise of half price wings. The wings were good. The bloody marys were better. The place was pretty dead, so I got into a conversation with the bartender. The bar was playing some pretty rad funk (lots of George Clinton and Morris Day) and I commented on the quality of the radio station. She said, “yeah, you can tell it’s satellite and not a Canadian station.”

I know that Canadian stations have some “Canadian content” laws, meaning that a certain percentage of the music they play must be Canadian. So I asked, “Oh? Not a lot of good funk from Canada?”

To which she replied, “You ever hear of ‘Canadian funk?'”

Point taken.

These are from some CD singles that I also found in Canada. I may have posted the “Funk D’Void” mix at some point, but this copy sounds better.

Posted in B-sides, Gary Numan, New Order, remixes | 3 Comments »

A Japanese Woman Covering a Weezer Song Just Seems Super-Meta

August 7th, 2013

Sorry for last night’s random foray into drunk self-loathing. It won’t happen again…for at least a few more months.

Totally didn’t plan for another all-Japan post tonight. It just kind of worked out that way. I actually should have some interesting 80s/British/New Wave/dance stuff in the coming weeks. Grinding through a major backlog of records right now.

Pizzicato Five
Love’s Theme (Automator Mix)
Love’s Theme (Saint Etienne Mix)
Maybe someone more in the know can than me explain this to me: How the hell did Shibuya-kei music get ever-so-briefly popular in America during the mid-90s? Why that genre? What was so special about it? Remember when Cibo Mato and Pizzicato Five were on American MTV? How the hell did that happen?

Don’t get me wrong, I love both bands, but what made them the breakout stars? How come America couldn’t get behind X Japan? Or YMO? Or Boom Boom Motherfucking Satellites? Did someone from the Beastie Boys really dig Shibuya-kei or something? I assume it had to be a “this American artist likes this foreign music so let’s all like it now” kind of thing.

These remixes are from a 12″ single I found last week. I’m really digging them both, super chill. I need more stuff like that right now.

Akiko Yano
Tong Poo
Dogs Awaiting
Coloured Water
Say It Ain’t So
Akiko Yano is a singer who first starting releasing music in the mid-70s. While I don’t think she ever achieved super pop star idol status in Japan, she’s managed to maintain some level of success throughout her career, continuing to this day – a rarity in the Japanese pop scene. Throughout her career she’s also collaborated with countless other musicians of note, including Little Feat, David Sylvian, Thomas Dolby and Swing Out Sister.

One of her most notable collaborations, at least in my opinion, was with Yellow Magic Orchestra, who worked with her extensively on her 1982 album Dinner Is Ready. All three members play on the record, and Sakamoto produced the album (the pair also married around this time), pretty much making it an unofficial YMO album with a different lead singer. The album even featured a cover of YMO’s “Tong Poo,” which I’m featuring here, as well as a pair of other songs from the album that I especially love.

I’m also including her 2010 cover of Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So,” because damn.

Posted in Akiko Yano, Pizzicato Five, remixes | 2 Comments »

Oh It’s Such A Shame

August 6th, 2013

Jay Reatard
Oh It’s Such A Shame
Post with actual rare music tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Last Night A DJ Saved My Blog

July 31st, 2013

I wrote review of Rolling Thunder, a crazy movie you can watch on Netflix if you like disgusting-yet-oddly-satisfying revenge flicks with questionable moral lessons.

And I got a ton of stuff on eBay, in case you might have forgotten.

Trying to get some money together for something big, if you were wondering why I was unloading so much stuff. That, and I came upon the realization that there’s too much stupid shit in my house, and I got to make room for the good shit, like my Japanese import copy of Styx’s Kilroy Was Here.

Y’know, the real gangsta shit.

As for what the “something big” is, you’ll just have to wait and find out.

Linda Imperial & Patrick Cowley
Diehard Lover
Diehard Lover (Instrumental)
More rare Cowley classics. Linda Imperial is no Sylvester, but she has a hell of a voice. Found these from a random 12″ single I bought in a budget bin.

Sylk 130
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (Last Night The S-Man Saved The Mix)
Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (DJ Saves The Dub)
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (Prophecy Mix with Rap)
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (Prophecy Mix Instrumental)
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (Prophecy Mix)
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (Prophecy Mix A Cappella)
Sylk 130 is apparently someone named King Britt, whose real life actual name is…wow, it’s King Britt. Damn, his parents sure felt highly of him.

Anyways, I know little about King Britt. Apparently he’s released a ton of stuff, served as a producer on a ton more stuff, and remixed tons and tons of stuff. I didn’t buy these two separate 12″ singles of this song because of him, I bought them because “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” is one of the ultimate late-era disco club bangers of all time, regardless of who’s performing it. We need more songs about DJs. There’s this, that weird David Bowie song and…”Request Line” by The Black Eyed Peas, and that’s it? Well, at least all of them are fucking fantastic.

Yes, that Black Eyed Peas song is fucking fantastic. I will not hear anyone say otherwise. The Black Eyed Peas used to be good, and don’t forget it.

Well, maybe forget it, it’s just easier that way.

Posted in King Britt, Linda Imperial, Patrick Cowley, remixes | 7 Comments »

Hot Rap Tracks from Movies that even Steve Guttenberg Turned Down

July 25th, 2013

Tonight’s post is going to be rather brief, but I think the quality will make up for the lack of quantity.

Oh, did I say quality? I meant, “complete and utter fucking stupidity.”

But if I don’t post the 12″ remix to the theme song to Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, then who will?

Probably some asshole. Fuck that.

123

Grandmaster Melle Mel & Van Silk
What’s The Matter With Your World (Club Mix)
What’s The Matter With Your World (Radio Mix)
What’s The Matter With Your World (Instrumental Mix)
Grandmaster Melle Mel was an original member of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. He was the primary songwriter and performer behind the hits “The Message” and “White Lines (Don’t Do It).” He was one of rap’s first true stars, and one of the first to take rap and help to inch it towards the mainstream.

Nine years later, he was rapping the theme song to Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, and they couldn’t even bother to spell his name right on the cover to the 12″ single.

Life can be really harsh sometimes.

And by the way, I found this while scouring a bargain bin soundtrack section looking for the soundtrack the Village People movie, Can’t Stop The Music.

I am history’s greatest monster.

Posted in Melle Mel, remixes, soundtrack | 2 Comments »

Mo’ Sakamoto

July 22nd, 2013

I reviewed the 12″ single to “Get Lucky.” Because if I don’t who will?

Another post dedicated entirely to Ryuichi Sakamoto. I should just turn this site into a Yellow Magic Orchestra fanpage.

Ryuichi Sakamoto
Forbidden Colours
The Last Emperor
Little Buddha
Wuthering Heights
Replica
El Mar Mediterrani
All of these tracks are live, taken from the album Cinemage.

The first four are excepts from musical scores and soundtracks that Sakamoto worked on. “Forbidden Colours” being the theme to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, while the others are all self-titled from the films they appeared in. This version of “Forbidden Colours” does feature Sylvian’s vocals, but I suspect they were dubbed in later and not performed live with the rest of the music.

“Replica” is the only track on the album that is not taken from some sort of project, it is lifted from the Japanese version of Sakamoto’s solo album Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia. Next to “Forbidden Colours,” it’s probably my favorite track on Cinemage, thanks to its regimented, minimalist feel that echos Phillip Glass.

Finally, there’s “El Mar Mediterrani,” which was composed for the 1992 summer Olympic games. It’s 17 minutes long and crazy. That Olympic theme that John Williams did doesn’t have shit on this.

Bonus Sakamoto!
Jungle LIVE Mix Of Untitled 01 – 2nd Movement – Anger
I put up a ton of remixes from Sakamoto’s album Dischord a few weeks ago and since then a reader sent me along this mix, which he snagged off a promo CD. I love it, it’s just barely removed from pure noise at parts. As a narcoleptic who has built up a near-immunity to caffeine, I really find that comes in handy at times.

Posted in Complete Albums, live, remixes, Ryuichi Sakamoto | 5 Comments »

Switched-On Gershwin

July 17th, 2013

Quick reminders/shameless plugs/pleas for cash!

I wrote this review of the Maniac vinyl by Death Waltz over at my other website! It’s really good! (The record, I mean…although yeah, my website is pretty rad too.)

I wrote this little piece about audio warnings you’d find on old CD-ROM games at my other website too! It’s really dumb (The article I mean…although, y’know.)

I’m selling a bunch of stuff on eBay, if you like Criterion discs and really really low price (and I mean LOW) check them out!

Finally, I’m still trying a sell a TON of records, while I’ve been adding a few to eBay every now and then, I’d still prefer to sell them direct via my website. So if you’re interested, head on over to this post to find out more about that.

Now for Moog covers of Gershwin songs.

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Gershon Kinglsey – Switched-On Gershwin
Rhapsody In Blue
I Got Rhythm
Porgy and Bess Introduction And Opening Scene I
Summertime
My Man’s Gone Now
It Ain’t Necessarily So
Clara, Clara
Crown’s Killing
In America, three people are widely credited with bringing early electronic music into the pop realm; Wendy Carlos, Dick Hyman (hehe) and Gershon Kingsley.

Wendy Carlos took electronic music and made it mainstream with Switched-On Bach, creating the first best-selling and Grammy award-winning electronic album, while Dick Hyman, who was already an accomplish jazz musician, took electronic music and made it respectable with his all-Moog albums full of original material.

However, sometimes I think that Kingsley gets lost in the shuffle, as he (along with with collaborator Jean-Jacques Perrey) were experimenting with the Moog and creating electronic pop music years before either Hyman or Carlos.

Carlos’ Switched-On Bach came out in 1968. Hyman’s first all-Moog album debuted in 1969. Perrey And Kinglsey’s debut album, The In Sound From Way Out, came out in 1966. The same year that The Beatles released Revolver, the same year that Tom Jones won the Best New Artist Grammy (really), these two crazy bastards were experimenting with previously unheard of electronic instruments, literally creating a sound that no one had ever heard before.

And they were doing it with mostly original tunes, not covers or interpretations of classical material. They were breaking ground in every way imaginable. It’s really amazing when you think about it. Of course, the true innovators never get the credit they deserve, and it was Wendy Carlos who broke electronic music through to the mainstream with Switched-On Bach. It makes sense though, better to expose modern audiences to electronic music via a sound they know than one they don’t. And Switched-On Bach is an amazing record, one that still sounds awesome and futuristic to this day.

It also inspired a legion of rip-off “Switched-On” albums. For some reason, in the coming years the term “Switched-On” came to mean “electronic music” and artists were releasing “Switched-On” country music, Beatles covers, showtunes, you name it, it got a “Switched-On” treatment.

It was such a popular trend that even innovators like Kingsley cashed in on it with Switched-On Gershwin, which as you can probably guess from the title, offers a selection of George Gershwin pieces redone as Moog tracks.

However, this “Switched On” albums differs from many imitators in a few ways.

Firstly, it wasn’t always a “Switched On” release. The record was first released in 1970 under the name Gershwin: Alive & Well & Underground, and may have come out so close to the original release of Switched-On Bach that it’s probably not fair to call the album a cash-in on that other record’s success. Kingsley’s decision to cover Gerswhin tunes was most likely independent of the success of Carlos’ LP.

Secondly, it’s not an entirely all-Moog album. The showcase track of the record, the 14-minute take on Gershwin’s classic “Rhapsody In Blue,” employs ample piano performed by Leonid Hambro. It may seem like a minor thing to mention, but the track’s constant interplay between the traditional piano and the more experimental, modern Moog effects really makes it stand out in a way that other Moog albums can’t lay a claim to. It also wonderfully showcases the playful and upbeat feeling of the original piece.

Finally, and most importantly, while most “Switched-On” records were bland and unoriginal albums created by people without a creative bone in their body, Switched-On Gershwin is fucking amazing.

Kingsley may be performing someone else’s music here, but he interjects as much originality and creativity within the confines of those songs as humanely possible. These tracks are layered with all kinds of sound effects and really showcase the power of the Moog far more than Carlos’ album did. It’s obvious listening to this record that Kingsley probably knew more about the Moog and what it was capable of than nearly anyone else who was using it at the time, radically altering these tracks and making them his own. Listen to his version of “I Got Rhythm” or “Porgy And Bess Introduction And Opening Scene I” and tell me they’re mere covers. You can’t. He transforms them into something entirely unique and beautiful. It’s really incredible.

And that cover is fucking DOPE.

Posted in Complete Albums | 2 Comments »

Pet Shop Boys – Relentless

July 14th, 2013

Pet Shop Boys
My Head Is Spinning
Forever In Love
Kdx 125
We Came From Outer Space
The Man Who Has Everything
One Thing Leads To Another
In 1993, the Pet Shop Boys released Very, an amazing album that contained some of their greatest singles, including “Go West,” “I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing,” and “Can You Forgive Her?”.

Very is one of the band’s most well-known and best-selling albums, and has never gone out of print since its original release. It was put on iTunes at the same time as the rest of their catalog, and was even remastered and re-released in 2001 with an added disc of bonus cuts and B-sides.

However, when the album was first released it was made available in two different versions; the standard single disc edition that most people know, and a limited edition two-disc set that featured a bonus disc called Relentless; this version is often just called Very Relentless.

As far as I can tell, this version, the most complete and comprehensive version of the album, was only released once, right when the album first came out. In the 20 years since, none of the songs on it have ever been remastered or re-released at all. Not on a greatest hits, not on a rarities or b-sides compilation, and not as a standalone release. You cannot get the songs on iTunes, you cannot get the songs on Amazon, you simply cannot get the songs.

If there was ever an example of a record label/artist forcing you to steal their music, this would be one.

I feel like it happens a lot though, whenever an album is released in multiple versions with different tracks, the most basic, cheapest one is the one that becomes part of their official discography. The versions with more tracks, with added video content, or extra-cool packaging, they’re the ones that vanish into the bargain bins of time.

It makes no sense, like the record labels are actively telling you that they don’t want your money, but whatever, makes it easier for me to pick tracks to share here.

Relentless is a great collection of tunes that would work fine as a standalone Pet Shop Boys release. It’s just six tracks long, but with an average track length of around six minutes, the album still fills out to a hefty 37 minute running time.

Musically, the album is a bit different than Very. Both are dance albums for sure, but while Very is a pop record you can dance to, Relentless is a dance record through and through, one that I suspect was influenced heavily on the growing dance scene that was spreading across the UK at the time of its release

Like I said before, the songs on Relentless are long, and they don’t conform to the typical pop structure that Pet Shop Boys usually operate in. Don’t expect at lot of Neil Tennant’s trademark vocals here. Sure, he pops up from time to time, but this is largely an instrumental affair, focused instead on hard-driving, pulse-pounding beats made to make people get up and dance.

I don’t know how different Relentless is when compared to the entirety of the Pet Shop Boys discography (I collect their singles more than their albums) but as someone who has always liked their remixes and dance versions more than their short single edits, I love this record.

Additionally, it is the ultimate synthpop workout record.

Posted in Complete Albums, Pet Shop Boys | 11 Comments »

Mission Beat Manifesto

July 10th, 2013

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I do, what I want to do, and how I should do it.

I recently launched that other website to expand my writing a bit (and make a super tiny bit of money along the way) and that’s been great, although I still think that has a lot of growing pains to go through. I need to update that site a lot more, along with this site. New posts have been scant for a bit now, and I apologize for that, family stuff and some extended travel have really put a crimp in my writing schedule as of late.

Additionally, the shocking death of Ryan Davis really got to me in a way that I did not expect. That man (and all of the Giant Bomb crew) has been a massive influence in what I do for the past few years now, and losing him has been pretty brutal on me.

And, not to fall into the most horrible of all cliches, it kind of made me think. I got to get going on my goals, you never know when your time is going to be up.

Journalism has been on the skids for a while now. Shit, the demand for writing as a whole has been on a pretty steady decline for years now. I’ve been trying not to accept it, but it’s pretty hard to deny. Like a silent film star faced with talkies, I have to look at the future head on and realize that for the most part, people aren’t interested in reading one man’s views about random movies, video games and music anymore.

That’s not to say that I want to quit doing that. People might not be interested in what I have to say about new wave bands and acid house acts, but that doesn’t mean I’m no longer interested in writing about them. If my sites both peak out at a few hundred readers a day, then whatever, I’ll live with that. Writing has always been an outlet for me, and it will continue to be.

But pride, and my unending desire to create something that people actually fucking care about, have made to to decide the time is right to try something new. Maybe it’s time I sit down in front of a camera.

So stay tuned…I guess? I got some ideas.

If my timetable with Mostly-Retro was any indication though, expect something around late 2015.

Meat Beat Manifesto
Dog Star Man
Still Falling
Dog Star
Dv8
Transmission (Stately Pleasure Dub)
Transmission (Burning Fire Mix)
Mad Bomber/The Woods
Semi-serious mission statement about my own personal future follwed by tracks by a band whose name is a disgusting masturbation reference.

The Internet is stupid.

Posted in B-sides, Meat Beat Manifesto, remixes | 5 Comments »

Electro > Most Other Things

July 2nd, 2013

Music music music music.

Mark Shreeve
Legion (Razor Mix)
Legion (Single Edit)
Legion (Satan Mix)
Legion (Space Mix)
Mark Shreeve was an early electronic musician/composer who put out a lot of stuff on Jive Electro during the 80s. He also wrote a lot of Samantha Fox’s stuff from that time period as well, which I assume made him a shitload more money than anything with his name on it.

This is a damned weird song. It’s like Afrika Bambaataa by way of Hellraiser. I don’t know if the “Call me Legion!” snippet at the beginning of the track is a sample from a film, or something that Shreeve recorded himself, but it’s creepy nonetheless, although not as creepy as the freaky-ass laugh that pops up from time to time. Seriously, this sounds like break-dancing music from hell.

You think Pinhead could do the worm? I’d pay to watch that.

Oh, and also apparently a version of this song is in the 1986 film The Jewel of The Nile, which is pretty damn random. I actually saw that move in the theaters when it came out, but I was six at the time, so I don’t remember much. Doesn’t Danny DeVito walk on hot coals or something like that? Whatever, flick was a total Indiana Jones rip-off.

These next four tracks I snagged from a vinyl copy of Disco Not Disco 2, a compilation album that features more “leftfield” dance tracks from the late-70s and early-80s. I’m only featuring these four because everything else on the album is in-print elsewhere.

Alexander Robotnick
Problems d’Amour
Alexander Robotnick (of no relation to Sonic villain Dr. Robotnick, at least I don’t think so, he was MIA for most of the early nineties…) is a godfather of 80s electro, thanks in large part to this amazing track, which is a killer combination of electro and disco. It’s great, but if you want to hear something that’ll really melt your brain out of its pure awesomeness, check out Robotnick’s “Analog Sessions” project, his collaboration with Ludus Pinksy. Just two old dudes in a cabin rocking out with a mountain of old-school analog gear. Shit is epic.

Material
Ciguri
Material is yet another side-project of mega-productive bassist Bill Laswell, who has been in more bands and produced more records than I care to count. Some of his highlights include his production work with Herbie Hancock during his electro phase of the early 80s; and Praxis, an experimental supergroup that featured him, Buckethead and Parliament’s Bernie Worrell.

Material appears to be a Laswell-centric project, with other members coming and going through the years, including Bootsy Collins, Sly & Robbie, Fred Firth, Buckethead, the Jungle Brothers, William S. Burroughs, Ginger Baker and even Whitney freaking Houston.

Material’s genre, as you can imagine, is pretty hard to pin down, but if I had to name it I would probably go with “music that James Murphy ripped off 30 years later.”

The Coach House Rhythm Section
Timewarp
According to Discogs, The Coach House Rhythm Section was an alias for Eddy “Electric Avenue” Grant. And if that’s the case, then damn, I have to give that dude some credit for range. This sounds nothing like his reggae work, and is straight-up avant-garde, new-wave inspired dance music that’s really unique still.

But it’s no “Electric Avenue.”

OY!

Connie Case

Get Down

Is “lo-fi electro/disco” a genre? Because that’s what this sounds like.

I got no clue as to who this is. So if anyone wants to help me out go for it. All I can find on her is that she worked on an album called Extra Funky that featured not one, but two versions of a song called “”Haven’t Been Funked Enough.”

I guess she never met Sylvester, he would helped her out.

Posted in Alexander Robotnick, Connie Case, Mark Shreeve, Material, remixes, The Coach House Rhythm Section | 6 Comments »

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