Self-improvement

So, 2007. It's shaping up alright. I've enjoyed the first week of it, at any rate. Not sure how I'll fare through a further 51 but, well, I must. We all must.

And not only must we survive, we must also improve. Or so I've been telling myself.

After a customarily hectic New Year's weekend, I've been pretty sober since the 1st; I've been staying in (hard to do in a city of infinite distractions) cooking virtually every night (only those unfortunate enough to be familiar with my kitchen 'skills' could understand what an achievement this is), sleeping the recommended 7.5 hours per night and generally focussing my attentions on being a better class of human being. I slipped slightly on Friday; having met up with some old friends in a pleasant(ish) bar and drained a few warm, soapy pints of Stella, I was convinced by said friends to accompany them to Trailer Trash, an emphatically awful clubnight that clings aesthetically, as you may have evinced from the name if not your own experience, to a tired ideal of 'sleazy' clubbing that had its heyday four or five years ago, and accordingly pedals the most grim, grinding and toothless electro-house (dotted with over-flogged 'anthems' like that Coburn tune we all used to sortof like) as a mere soundtrack/aural encouragement to the sexual exchanges of the lower class of liberally ecstasied bisexual buffoon [Note from Soft's lawyers: Mr Soft is not equating bisexuality with buffoonery] (the beautiful people having long since migrated elsewhere). God, I sound old-fashioned (and snide). Anyway, it was rubbish, and in my infinite foolishness I necked a bean to pass the time. After thirty minutes of half-arsed move-bustin', I was disturbed to find that the club had no seating whatsoever (I may've just been too fucked to find it), so did the sensible thing and got a taxi back home, where I found my pissed and stoned flatmates sofa-bound, watching 24. I'd never before followed Jack Bauer's terrorist-capping exploits pilled-up; I never wish to again. The reason I mention all this is, I woke up about five hours later, lamenting the fact that my much-feted health-drive had been obliterated by one cack(ish) night out; and so, unable to sleep, the rain lashing down outside, I did something I haven't done for, oh, four or five years. I put on my shorts and t-shirt and trainers, pocketed my ipod and went for a RUN. I was actually surprised at how much stamina I had, but a combination of Pop Ambient 2007 on the earphones and, presumably, a fair amount of e still in my bloodstream, made it more than bearable.* It was PISSING it down, which made the whole thing seem even more cleansing. I came home feeling more virtuous than I've felt in a decade.

...And get this. I did it AGAIN the next day.


Yes. And then later in the afternoon I went on a five mile walk along the Thames and back (Millions Now Will Never Die, The Blue Notebooks and Eureka on the 'pod - now that's therapy). And no, I can't feel my legs today and have the painful gait of Ed Norton post-shower scene in American History X. But fucking hell, I still feel virtuous. I'm here to share with you the track that made the second of my two jogs possible: 'The Porcupine' by Latex. Now, I'd heard this track carve up many a dancefloor before I realized what it actually was (Carnage played it to me months ago when I was all absinthed out - he may as well not have played it to me at all...), but only at the tail-end of last year did I work out what it was (helpful be-afroed trainspotter piped up when Mayer dropped it at Stink). Anyway, Crosstown Rebels' 'anonymous' Rebelone imprint has brought us some great tracks over the last couple of years (Silversurfer's 'The Mouse' as Nylon to me far betters all of his real-name productions; Ripperton's 'The Panther' as Rayon, etc, etc,...incidentally, anyone who knows who did Wax's 'The Crocodile' (a classic), Spandex's 'The Bull' or P.A.N.'s 'The Lizard' (underrated), please leave a comment - a geek like me should know their respective identities, but I don't), and it was man-of-the-year (in some quarters, anyway) Loco Dice who stepped up to the plate to bring us 'The Porcupine'. Driven by a xylophone-like melody, a jabbing synth and seasoned with a little wah-wah pulse that I can't help but associate with George Michael's 'Flawless', it's dancefloor/exercise/smoking/whatever dynamite, and the more I listen to it the more I feel it should have comfortably breached the top 5 of my Top 100 Tracks of '06. Anyway, no time for regrets. Here's a low-res (out of respect to people over at Crosstown who don't like their stuff being given away for free but remain very supportive and understanding of this blog and it's activity) mp3; if you like it, go out and buy it, though Phonica's reserves seem at this time to be dry, dry, dry.

Download:
Latex - The Porcupine // Rebelone


*This run lasted no more than (a solid) 20minutes. If all goes to plan, I should be able to last the duration of LCD Soundsystem's '45:33' by the end of 2007. Coming soon on DFA: LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 (Mr Soft's 19:20 I Haven't Got Off My Lazy Arse Since 2003 Edit).