Jive Presents In-House Volume 1

December 12th, 2012

I used to think Jive Records was dogshit, but that was just as much their fault as it was mine. Shit, you know what? It was way more their fault than it was mine.

They’re the ones who subjected the world to Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and N-SYNC. As a teen in the late 90s it was nearly impossible to turn on MTV and not see their name at the bottom of some video I found atrocious by some vapid pop act who I thought was sucking the lifeforce out of popular music. They didn’t do much to improve their image for me in the 2000s either, signing artists like T-Pain, Eamon (fuck you Eamon, I don’t want you back), Joe, Nick Carter and probably dozens of other shitty pop acts I can’t even remember. In 2011, when it was announced that their parent label RCA Records would be dissolving the label and shutting it down, I didn’t shed a tear for their demise.

It wasn’t until recently that I discovered their important role in the history of new wave, hip-hop and dance music. They were the first label to new wave/big hair pioneers Flock Of Seagulls, and they were also the home to golden age rap legends Whodini. As their influence grew in the late 80s, they signed other important hip-hop artists like KRS-One, Schooly D and A Tribe Called Quest.

Digging through their discography on Discogs, it seemed to be around this time that the label also got into the habit of releasing compilations geared towards the clubs and the dance floor. At first these records were mostly hip-hop focused, but as time went on, the label eventually started to embrace the then new sound of house music.

I focused on one of these releases a few months ago, the awesome Jive Presents Acid House, but tonight I’m going to put the spotlight on the labels’ very first house compilation, 1988’s Jive Presents In-House Volume 1. While Jive had yet to attach the “acid” moniker to the music on this compilation, many of the tunes on the In-House album are clearly some of the earliest examples of the acid house sound making its way into the pop dance scene. It’s not all the way there yet, much of In-House lacks the edge and attitude of acid house that would come just a year later, but it’s clearly hear, and its fascinating to hear a genre really finding its footing, getting ready to claim the first half of the 90s for its own.

Enjoy, and if you have any insight as to other super-early acid house compilations or releases (aside from “Acid Trax,” I am aware) please let me know!

Samantha Fox
I Wanna Have Some Fun
While it’s not credited as such on the linear notes, this is a remix of Fox’s biggest hit, one that is double the length of the original and has an overall production feel that is less “poppy” and more pure dance. It’s still a silly, cute song though.

Culture Clash Dance Party
Love Fever (Fever Mix)
THIS SONG IS AWESOME AND I LOVE AND IT’S REALLY GOOD AND I WISH I KNEW MORE ABOUT CULTURE CLASH DANCE PARTY BECAUSE THEY SEEM PRETTY RAD.

She Rockers
Get Up On This
The She Rockers aren’t the world’s best rappers, but they got attitude that more than makes up for it. This shit sounds like an edgy Technotronic. I love it.

The Wee Papa Girls
We Know It
The worst named act in late 80s acid house is back! The Wee Papa Girls also appeared on the Jive Presents Acid House album, but this song is much better than the tune the contributed to that album. Expect some more from the Wee Papa Girls next week.

Children Of The Night
It’s a Trip (Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out)
Children Of The Night contributed one of my favorite tracks to the Jive Presents Acid House album, so it’s not surprising that they deliver another great banger here. This is the first track on the album that really sounds like acid house in both style and lyrical content (especially thanks to its parenthetical title). A great song, the best on the album if you ask me.

Adonis And The Acid Slaves
House Will Never Die
Adonis and the Acid Slaves is Michael A. Smith, a DJ/producer who first started releasing music in the late 80s. According to his Discogs page he has about a billion aliases, including Black Balls, Jack Frost, Percy Richblood and The Circle Jerks (no, not the punk band). He is also responsible for the mixes of “Love Fever” and “Get Up On This” that appear on this very album. Of all the tracks on this record, this is the one that sounds the most like acid house, complete with squelching “acid” sounds and constant references to acid slaves. It also has the best lyric of the album: “Do you want house? Or do you want bluegrass?”

If I saw this dude live back in the day I would have been the asshole to say “I want bluegrass!”

Posted in Adonis And The Acid Slaves, Children Of The Night, Complete Albums, Culture Class Dance Party, remixes, Samantha Fox, She Rockers, The Wee Papa Girls | 2 Comments »

Nearly Free Speech.Net is a rip-off run by assholes and you shouldn’t use them.

December 12th, 2012

That is all.

Post with music coming tonight.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Justify My Madonna

December 10th, 2012

I am definitely the only person on the planet who spent their Sunday afternoon crafting a semi-intelligent analysis of Madonna while watching footballs.

Madonna
Justify My Love (Orbit 12″ Mix)
Justify My Love (Hip Hop Mix)
Justify My Love (The Beast Within Mix)
Erotica (Kenlou B-Boy Mix)
Erotica (Jeep Beats)
Erotica (Madonna’s In My Jeep Mix)
Erotica (W0 12″)
Erotica (Underground Club Mix)
Erotica (Bass Hit Dub)
Remember when these songs were controversial? Oh, the 90s seem so long ago now.

I still maintain that both of these songs would have been far less controversial if they were, well, better. Neither “Erotica” nor “Justify My Love” are particularly great, especially compared to the stuff that Madonna was putting out just a couple years earlier (“Vogue,” “Like A Prayer,” “Express Yourself”). Shit, “Justify My Love” is barely a song, it’s more of a spoken word rant with some trip-hop grooves tacked on. I’ve always thought that if you want to challenge your audience with your message or lyrics, then the music that accompanies it better be damn good, or at least be catchy. As interesting, experimental and brave as these songs are musically, they completely fail as pop recordings. No one, not even Madonna, can challenge their audience both thematically and musically and expect to get away scott free, especially when the thematic challenges are as controversial as the ones found in these songs.

As uneven as these songs are, I will say that their minimal and sparse nature certainly help lend themselves to some interesting remixes. All of these mixes are pretty good, and some, like William Orbit’s “W0 12” mix of “Erotica” are great reworkings. Even if you’re like me and don’t really dig on the original versions, you should still check out these mixes, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Posted in Madonna, remixes | 4 Comments »

Prince! And Prince Related Material!

December 7th, 2012

Prince!

Prince
Somebody’s Somebody (Ultrafantasy Edit)
Somebody’s Somebody (Live Studio Mix)
“Somebody’s Somebody” is a lesser Prince work, released in 1996 as a single for the 3CD epic Emancipation. I think I listened to that album in its entirety at some point in my life, I’ll have to re-visit it sometimes. At three hours in length and with 36 tracks, I’m sure that there has to be a few winners hidden in there.

While I’m having a hard time hearing any major differences between the single version and the “Ultrafantasy Edit,” I am loving the “Live Studio Mix” of the song. It sounds way more organic and funky than the final version, no doubt due to it’s live nature. It also tones down the ridiculous overpowering bassline of the original. That shit is just too much, I prefer when a song lets you find its funk, instead of thrusting its funk upon you.

Did that make any sense? I’m tired.

Mazarati
Player’s Ball (Extended Version)
Mazarati was another in a long line of Prince “associate” acts, and they were a lesser one at that, at least in terms of popularity and critical acclaim. Mazarati’s self-titled debut album came out in 1986 to little fanfare or sales, despite Prince’s involvement as a producer and songwriter on a few tracks. The group soldiered on without Prince, releasing the follow-up Mazarati 2 in 1989, but it apparently had even less of an impact than their debut, and the group hasn’t released anything since (although apparently a new album remains in the works).

If the wiki for the band is to be believed, then probably the most interesting thing about Mazarati is the two songs they recorded but weren’t released as Mazarati songs. One was “Jerk Out,” which was re-recorded and turned into a top 10 hit by The Time. The other was “Kiss,” which Prince literally took, added his own vocal track and guitar solo, and put on his own album Parade (although they received credit on the release). Damn. I guess you run that risk when working with the Purple One.

I took this version of “Player’s Ball” from the 12″ single for the song. It’s out-of-print, of course, as is everything else by the group. I dig the tune though, so if anyone out there has a digital copy of the band’s first album that they are willing to share, let me know please. I’ll do you a solid in return.

Posted in Mazarati, Prince, remixes | 6 Comments »

Madonnarama Continued

December 4th, 2012

A quick news update on the news I mentioned a few weeks ago.

I am still planning on launching my new site very soon. I was actually planning on launching it today, I have articles ready and everything, but I ran into some technical snafus that have forced me to postpone it a week or so. It’s definitely coming along though, and I think I’ll be able to get things rolling there relatively soon. I’m pretty excited about it and I hope you all like what I have in store.

I’m actually pretty happy with how things are going right now with both the new site and this one. I got some cool stuff lined up here, and my readership has gradually been increasing for the past few months, which is pretty rad. My last post, the one with the Alec Empire mixes, was actually one of my most popular posts in months, no doubt in thanks to Alec Empire himself, who retweeted a link to the post. I always love it when I get some sort of approval from the artists I’m posting. Makes me feel somewhat validated, especially since the number of posts I’ve gotten approval on more than doubles the number of posts that I’ve had to remove because of DMCA notices.

Although I doubt Madonna would be one of those artists. Just a hunch. So no one tell her!

Madonna
Secret (Allstar Mix)
Secret (Junior Luscious Club Mix)
Secret (Junior’s Luscious Club Dub)
Secret (Junior’s Sound Factory Mix)
Secret (Junior’s Sound Factory Dub)
Take A Bow (InDaSoul Mix)
Take A Bow (InDaSoul Instrumental)
Take A Bow (Instrumental)
Take A Bow (Silky Soul Mix)
More Madonna! And these mixes of “Secret” are some of my favorite.

I’ve always found these remixes to “Secret” interesting from a production standpoint, for a variety of reasons. First of all, they’re vastly superior to the original album version, which is way too slow and subdued. Secondly, the vocals on a few of them  are sped up in a very unique way. Typically when a song is remixed and they want to change the tempo, the pitch of the vocals is affected as well, giving the whole song a “chipmunk” feel. Here, they do some interesting audio editing, snipping out bits here and there, to make Madonna’s pace slightly faster all while keeping her vocals sounding the same otherwise. It’s fascinating to me, and I bet it was even harder to do back then, with digital production techniques just starting to become more sophisticated.

As far as the mixes for “Take A Bow”…man, remember New Jack Swing? These mixes New Jack Swing the fuck out of that song, which was already kind of New Jack Swingy to begin with, Babyface did produce and co-write it after all.  They’re pretty dated. Still a good song though.

Posted in Madonna, remixes | 3 Comments »

THE TIME. IS RIGHT. TO FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!

November 29th, 2012

I wrote the majority of this post on Tuesday without any knowledge that today, November 29th, 2012, is the 40th anniversary of the release of Pong and that Buzzfeed has published an excellent article about the game entitled Atari Teenage Riot. Serendipity doo!

Alec Empire
‘The Destroyer’ DHR Mix Tape Side 1
‘The Destroyer’ DHR Mix Tape Side 2
Alec Empire is the frontman of Atari Teenage Riot, the German electronic band that Mike D of the Beastie Boys once declared to be the most punk rock shit ever. That’s a hell of an endorsement, but it was inaccurate. They are the most hardcore shit ever. So fucking hardcore that they had to make up a genre (digital hardcore) to properly categorize their more hardcore than hardcore, louder than louder, noisier than noise sound. When forced to describe the abrasive, acidic sound of ATR, I typically say “imagine if someone took all of the heaviest Slayer bits, put them in a sampler, and then hit the sampler with a fucking sledgehammer.” To date, ATR is the only band that have actually given me a headache.

I fucking LOVE them.

Sometimes you just want to go there, y’know? You want your head rattled, your brain smashed in, your sense of what constitutes music and what constitutes noise to be shaken to its very core. I listen to a lot of music, and the most in-your-face ATR or Alec Empire solo work still takes me places few other songs can, even it makes my head explode a little bit sometimes.

This mix is a combination of ATR”s greatest hits, random movie/anime samples, and in your face noise (and a Frank Zappa sample). All scratches, pops and hisses you hear on this mix are from the original source material and are not mistakes made by me during the recording process. From what I can gather, this mix is rare as shit, only about 200 or so copies were pressed to vinyl. I bought it for five bucks in a shitty NYC record store that was charging $80 for run-of-the-mill Tangerine Dream albums. There’s some irony or justice there somewhere.

If you have never heard ATR before, be warned, this might not be a good jumping on point. This is the most bone-jarring thing I have ever posted on The Lost Turntable. To the unprepared it might sound like the phone call from Stephen King’s The Cell or that broadcast in that film The Signal, and may induce a similar madness. After listening to it nonstop for about two hours I want to run outside and punch a cop in the face.

You have been warned.

Posted in Alec Empire, Atari Teenage Riot, Complete Albums | 6 Comments »

Madonna-Rama

November 28th, 2012

I’ve been blabbering on about Madonna all week on Twitter. So without further ado…

Madonna
Cherish (Extended Version)
Keep It Together (Shep Pettibone Mix)
Into The Groove (Shep Pettibone Remix)
Supernatural
Spotlight (Dub)
Where’s The Party (Dub)
Drowned World/Substitute For Love (BT and Sasha’s Bucklodge Ashram Remix)
Sky Fits Heaven (Shasha Remix Edit)
Live To Tell
If you see that list of tunes and think, “Oh God not more Madonna!” then you’re going to have a really rough month reading this blog. I recently bought about 12 or so Madonna singles, about five hours of remixes total, and over the next few weeks I’m going to be posting all of them. Because Madonna is awesome. That’s not a statement that can be debated here. I don’t have a lot to say about these songs though other than the fact that I really like most of them, so instead I’ll just break down where I got them all and some details about each mix.

The extended mix of “Cherish” and “Supernatural” are both from the “Cherish” single. The extended mix is about a minute longer than the original version of the song, and two minutes longer than most single edits. Such a great song, it could be twice as long and not get old. “Supernatural” is a weird little b-side, an odd upbeat romantic pop song that has a strange “spooky” sound to it, with plenty of ghostly metaphors for love.

Shep Pettibone’s mixes of “Keep It Together” and “Into The Groove” are both from the single of “Crazy For You” that was issued to promote the release of Madonna’s greatest hits collection The Immaculate Collection. Not a big fan of “Keep It Together,” but I like this mix more than some other remixes of the song that I’ve heard. The “Get Into The Groove” mix is excellent, with an awesome extended breakdown in the middle that stretches it out to over eight minutes.

The dub mixes for “Spotlight” and “Where’s The Party” are both from a promo only single that also has extended versions of those songs. However, those remixes are both on the 1987 remix album You Can Dance, so I’m not including them here. Dub mixes are a little boring, but I like to be through.

The Spanish version of “You’ll See” is from the 12″ single for that song. I assume that was an A-side in some Latin speaking markets. The live version of  “Live To Tell” is also taken from that single. “Live To Tell” is one of my favorite ballads by Madonna (I generally prefer her more upbeat stuff) and this live version is great. However, there’s some simbilance on the live recording that I couldn’t get rid of. Sorry about that.

Finally, there are the remixes of “Drowned World/Substitute For Love” and “Sky Fits Heaven,” both of which appeared in their original forms on Madonna’s Ray of Light album. They’re both great songs from a great record, and these remixes do them both justice. I especially love the nearly 10-minute version of “Drowned World/Substitute For Love.” Too often remixes take a song like that, a great pop tune with amazing lyrics, and strip out the vocals in favor of the beat. Here, BT and Sasha let the lyrics stay, while at the same time stretching out the instrumental parts of it to great effect. A best of both worlds scenario.

 

 

Posted in Madonna, remixes | 3 Comments »

If you’re having hosting problems I feel bad for you son…because I can identify completely.

November 26th, 2012

Okay, I got my hosting problem resolved, and in case you’re wondering exactly what the hell happened, I’ll explain.

For several years I’ve been using Dreamhost as a hosting service for Lost Turntable. In fact, even before I moved my blog away from Blogspot I was using the Lost Turntable URL and server space provided by Dreamhost to host my MP3s. I chose Dreamhost, quite frankly, because they were cheap.

Well, you get what you pay for sometimes. While Dreamhost is dirt cheap, they’re about as reliable as the Raiders starting QB (oooh a sports reference!). Ever since I signed up with them, not a month would go by without at least some sort of temporary outage or disruption in service. If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t you really should – see that button up in the top right corner, why don’t you click on that?) then you’ll know that whenever this happened it drove me nuts.

A few weeks ago someone at Dreamhost must have spilled a cup of coffee on the wrong power cord or something, because my site went down for over 48 hours. That was the last straw for me. Sure, I don’t make money with the Lost Turntable (in fact it costs me money), but I like to keep a reliable site up for my readers, and I do use it as a reference for potential employers sometime, employers who don’t mind liberal use of swear words and casual piracy.

With the help of a friend, I migrated my site to Nearly Free Speech (NFS) another hosting service. I chose NFS for two reasons. One, they have a very hands-off approach to the sites they host, so I would never have to worry about them shutting me down, and two, because of their unique pricing system.

Hosting services like Dreamhost sell their services as a flat rate. That’s great it you need a lot of bandwidth and a ton of storage, but if you just need a little bandwidth and not that much storage, it’s kind of a waste. I thought that my site didn’t take up that much bandwidth or storage, so switching to a service that used a pay-what-you-use model made sense to me.

Okay, that was my mistake.

Turns out that you fuckers download a lot of music from me. How much?

About 7 to 10 GB a day.

That’s a lot of bandwidth. Furthermore, because of my generous nature (I know, I know, I’m great) I typically have about 6 GB of files hosted on my site at any time. With that much bandwidth and storage, I was looking at a monthly bill of about $130 from NFS, that’s more than what I paid Dreamhost for a year of hosting.

Now, I like you guys, but not that much. I needed to change severs and fast. But one problem, ICANN (the governing body of the Internet, yeah there is one! Crazy huh?) says that a site cannot change hosts twice within a certain timeframe, something like 60 or 90s days. Meaning that my site is stuck at NFS for the the time being.

I found a workaround though! Using a third hosting service (which will remain nameless at the moment), I registered LTfiles.com, and then I moved ALL the MP3s I’m currently hosting to that server, which i’s the server I’ll be using for the foreseeable future. So from now on, when you download an MP3 from The Lost Turntable, you’ll technically be downloading it from LTfiles. It’s not an actual site though, so don’t bookmark it or go there. It’s just a placeholder.

It’s kind of a roundabout solution, but it was the best I could come up with. And, actually, thanks to the deal I got at that hosting service, I’m still going to end up saving money on the whole thing. All my hosting combined should only be about $100 for the upcoming year. So while I appreciate the offers for donations, they won’t be necessary  Besides, I’m kind of morally opposed to anyone asking for donations if they run a site like this. I don’t own these songs. No one is making me post them. If I can’t afford to do it or find someway to make it work on my own, then I feel that I really shouldn’t be doing it. But whatever, I’d rather not drag other site’s names through the mud just because I don’t agree with how they operate.

And besides, if you really do want to help me out, may I remind you that I am currently selling some of my records to get some cash for my trip to Asia. Why don’t you check out what I have for sale and make an offer?

See what I did there? I’m clever.

Anyways, enough of this boring nonsense, how about some music? Kind of a lean most musically tonight, but don’t worry, I got some cool stuff planned later this week.

Soundgarden
Come Together
I’ve heard this cover on the radio  since the mid-90s, and it goes back even farther than that. I grabbed it from the 12″ single to “Hands All Over,” which was released in 1989, I don’t know where it first showed up. One thing I do know, however, is that it has never been issued on a proper Soundgarden album, which is fucking crazy considering how great it sounds and how well known it is.

Shelia E
A Love Bizarre (Parts I and II)
Save The People
Let’s take these songs one at a time.

As far as I can tell, there are three versions of “A Love Bizarre.” The album version, which is over 12 minutes long, a brief single edit that runs a slight three minutes and forty-six seconds, and this version, which is smack dab in the middle at seven minutes and sixteen seconds in length. I would assume that this means the full 12-minute version is the three-part version, and that final part is the part that has been removed from this slightly abridged one, I don’t own that uncut version though, so I’m not sure. Regardless the song kicks ass, and is one of Shelia E and Prince’s best (the track is pretty much a duet between the two).

As great as that song is though, “Save The People” really blows it out of the water. Lyrically, the track is very simple, with the only words being the occasional repeated chorus of  “save the people/feed their hungry eyes/save the children/don’t let them die” (surely a Live-Aid inspired message). But the lyrics are nearly inconsequential to the rest of the tune, which is an eight and a half minute funkified epic of face-melting guitar riffs, amazing drum solos and a blistering bassline that would make Les Claypool do a double take. It’s brilliant funk, something right out of a Funkadelic album. Amazing, awesome, spectacular stuff. The kind of track that makes me happy that I collect vinyl, and even more happy that I have a site like this where I can share it with you all, enjoy!

 

 

 

Posted in B-sides, Shelia E, Soundgarden | 2 Comments »

Sigh.

November 22nd, 2012

Okay.

So I moved my site off Dreamhost to another service. However, that service (a pay per gigabyte service) ended up being FAR more expensive than I thought it would be.

So until this is resolved I won’t be posting any music. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take longer than a week.

I appreciate your patience. And if anyone out there has any suggestions for good RELIABLE webhosting on a budget let me know.

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

Smashing Mondays

November 19th, 2012

Hey!

News to me, the Super Deluxe edition of The Velvet Underground & Nico came out last month. I just bought it. Expect an review (with delicious waveforms) later this week or early next week.

News from me: I finally got a good interview lined up for my first feature on the new site. Details to come (on the new site).

News for everyone else: Music!

Smashing Pumpkins
1979 (Moby Mix)
1979 (Cement Mix)
In just a few weeks Billy Corgan will be re-releasing Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as a massive 5CD+1DVD box set filled with demos, B-sides and other rarities. One would think that this would be a perfect time for Billy to re-release these 1979 remixes. That would make sense. That would be a good value to the consumer. That would be something a normal, rational human being  would do.

So of course, Billy Corgan is not doing that! Nope. These 1979 mixes will not be on the Mellon Collie re-issue. More perplexing (I mean, stupid) is that there will be some random brand new remixes of other Mellon Collie songs done by superstar DJ/producer/composer BT. Nothing against BT, I like BT (shit, I met BT once, and he’s a super-nice dude), but those new mixes do not belong on a re-issue that is supposed to be a representation of that album and the era around it. It reeks of a lame cash grab and for die-hard fans like me who want all their classic Pumpkins, stupid remixes and all, in one easy-to-find package, it’s a big downer.

But whatever, thanks Billy, for keeping your head firmly up your ass and making sites like mine relevant.

Also, these are some weird-ass mixes of “1979” and have almost nothing to do with the original song. You’ve been warned.

 

Happy Mondays
Sunshine And Love (Far Island Mix) 
Sunshine And Love (Junior Mix)
Sunshine And Love (12″ Remix)
Stinkin Thinkin (Boys Own Mix)
Stinkin Thinkin ( Junior Style Mix)
I don’t know how many people out there are begging for remixes of Yes Please! era Happy Mondays tracks – but a complete lack of relevance, demand or acclaim (even from myself) has never stopped me from posting music before!

The best of the bunch here are the 12″ Remix of “Sunshine and Love” and the Junior Style Mix of “Stinkin Thinkin.” They’re solid dance mixes, both keeping what is good about the originals while making them ideal tracks “for the club.” The other mixes, especially the other “Sunshine and Love” mixes, just strip out damn near everything about the original versions and turn them into near-instrumental house tracks. And while I love some instrumental house tracks, I want a bit more from my Happy Mondays remixes, thank you very much.

Also, I don’t know about the entirety of Yes Please!, but “Stinkin Thinkin” is a great fucking song dammit and I don’t want to hear anyone say otherwise.

 

Posted in Happy Mondays, remixes, The Smashing Pumpkins | 6 Comments »

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