Everywhere you go, always take the Weatherall

Fuck me. Two days since my last post, during which time I've gone from the inarguable high of listening to Ivan Smagghe play at his tracky, filthy best, to the gruelling low of trying to rid my computer of the virus which is currently crippling it. I've basically given up, and as such I'm going have to put my machine's fate in the hands of the pale-faced samaritans that are University Tech Support. It's all very unmanning.

On a similar point, when viewing this blog from another computer, I noticed that there's loads of code all over the Top 50 tracks list; for some reason this is not visible on my terminal, so at this point can't do anything about it - apologies. As I say, the sooner Richard Carnage gets involved, the better.

Anyway.

Smagghe played a free party with Andrew Weatherall at the T-bar on Shoreditch High St on Thursday night. The crowd was your typical mix of art students, musos, Barleys, dopey Italians in sunglasses and the ever-present electro Clones - an infinite number of infinitely pretty girls with righteously angular hair. I mean, how many of 'em can there be? I, for one, am quite happy with the exponential growth of this curious strand of decadent humankind, but still...Weatherall was alright, though his set was, dare I say it, cringeworthy at times. I first saw him DJ at Benicassim in Spain, and based on that performance, have been desperate to see him play again ever since - but there've been diminishing returns. On Thursday he was a little bit, how does one say, a bit Chemical Brothers...Indeed, some mix of 'Galvanize' (Abe Duque's?) was pulled out, along with 'Snoop's Acid Drop' and though he had an enraptured dancefloor grooving away en masse, Lazerboy and myself were silently tempted to piss off around 1pm. Then Smagghe took over, looking more like a junkie Jesus than ever, and played REALLY, REALLY well. The first four five or tracks he played were unknown to me, so if these records that are yet to come out, 2006 looks like it's going to get very interesting for fat-bottomed narco-house. He played that Solid Groove of mix Hot Chip I'd been eager to hear, and it sounded as rude and satisfying as one would hope, but my critical faculties were seriously on the wane by this point - when I find the mp3, I'll stick it up here and we can all reappraise. Weatherall ended the night with some Primal Scream track off 'Give Out, But Don't Give Up', which didn't quiet work, but it was nice to see him dancing around and singing along (a footnote: his moustache as gone! He no longer looks like a childlike Rockabilly Hitler! He just looks like a childlike Rockabilly!).
To put the Barley cherry on the Barley cake (a cake which only Lazerboy can bake so well), we did some coke off a wheely bin with some San Franciscan lesbians outside the club, before briefly attending a bubbling afterparty on Brick Lane, where I ranged around blind plissed and trying to make the excellent DJ play Chardronnet. All in all, a good evening out - as the photo, posted above, that Lazerboy took of me at the end of the night, vigorously attests - I only wish I hadn't half ruined my leather jacket by trying to remove a beer stain from it with a 2p coin. You get what you deserve.

That was my first visit to T-Bar, and I'll be back - the soundsystem lacks a bit of a punch, but come on, it's free entry, it's Smagghe & Weatherall and you can't complain. They're hosting the Stink party on Monday 6th February - ostensibly run by Damian Lazarus and Michael Mayer, this monthly night is, I think, something of a Lazarusian vanity project (I won't have a word said against Mayer...). However, Mayer is taking a month off and in his place is sending - wait for it - DJ Koze. Koze is the jewel in Kompakt's crown, and widely regarded as the best DJ in Germany (no mean feat) - to see him playing in such a small venue on such a raw soundsystem for FREE is an opportunity not to be missed.

Right, and just for being good enough to listen to all that (if you were), I invite you to listen to these....Some Spectral dirty minimal nonsense from late last year, courtesy of 2AM-FM, and Koze's sublime 'Hicc Up', as featured on his LP 'Kosi Comes Around' and the compilation Kompakt Total 6. Enjoy.

Download: AM-FM - Poison Dart // Spectral Sound
http://rapidshare.de/files/11023536/2_AM-FM_-_Poison_Dart_-_Spectral_Sound.mp3.html

Download: DJ Koze - Hiccup // Kompakt
http://rapidshare.de/files/11023646/DJ_Koze_-_Hicc_Up_-_Kompakt.mp3.html


P.S. Have you seen the full-page advert for Output records recently? In was in Vice. A vitriolic attack on their 'best bands' who left them for majors without so much as a thank you - does that mean LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture? I guess it does. If I can, I'll put the ad up, but I don't have a scanner, and typing 'Output' and 'advert' and suchlike does not an effective search make. Here's a nice Output track instead:

Download: Colder - Crazy Love // Output
http://rapidshare.de/files/11023837/Colder_-_Crazy_Love_-_Output.mp3.html