Weekly Disco

Here's yet another lazy post with this week's Viva show tracklisting. As with most of the current shows, it's another excursion taking you from techno to disco and back with a few curveballs on the way. Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm alienating some of the more die-hard monogenre fans with shows like this, but to hell with it. Open your minds and ears, I say! We start with some deep, dark grooving business from Matt Edwards and the Dettmann/Klock collaboration on the so-on-the-money-it-hurts Ostgut Ton label, before taking things into the territory of wonk that I adore so much with Andy Freer's 'Super Galaxo'. Unfortunately, this track (featured on AI's 'New Town' label sampler) was his one and only released production, as I hear that he unfortunately passed away on his travels when a tsunami hit. This comes from the mouth of Puffin, and he's still not sure if this is actually true, but it makes perfect sense as someone this ridiculously talented would surely be cherished in today's techno scene.

There's more techno to follow from a mysterious Frenchman who goes by the name of Sarah Goldfarb (Selby Jr fans take note) which has an engaging stop-start structure that makes it stand out as one of the more innovative records from the tail end last year. Add to that the buried percussion and the 'Polar Shift'-esque drop and you've got a dancefloor winner. It wouldn't, however, send a certain Mr Soft into the level of manic whooping as the track that follows it. Unfairly looked over due to the excellent Radio Slave reworking on the flipside, Hell's mammoth chunky chugger deserves as much of a reappraisal as the aforementioned Edwards version. Now I'm sure that Und's cheeky cowboy stomper 'Rodeo' got quite a lot of play over on the continent (maybe I'm romanticising here, but I imagine a few of the European DJs have much more of a sense of humour than the ones over here) but got unfairly overlooked here in the UK simply due to its sheer silliness. Get jigging to those galloping hoofs and duelling guitars and remind yourself what having fun on the floor's all about.

Going away from all the 4s4 business, we've got a track from two of the Can members and bass guitar legend Jah Wobble (pictured above - read a fantastic interview with him from 2004 here). I don't really have to tell you how good this is, do? That bassline, the delayed piano stab... I could gush more, but I'll restrain myself. Ditto with Gang Of Four. Just pick up Entertainment! if you haven't already and let it wash all those mediocre indie bands from two years back from your memory. Yello's 'Daily Disco' is probably one of the saner tracks from their stupendously off the wall 'Claro Que Si' LP, and I have to say that it reminds me a little of classic Ian Dury in places. Ian Dury on crack, that is. Exclusive new stuff from LSB (yes, another Pete Herbert track on the radio show, but why complain when he's producing such quality at the moment?) follows the early 80s menta-pop, where Petey boy sets out to reinvent the rave whistle as the new cowbell. Chirpy chanting, feelgood horns, and distorted guitar chords come together to make a perfect anthem for those summer strolls down to the local shops.

I've been digging Lexx quite a bit over the past year what with his 'Sirocco' release, edits on Mindless Boogie, and a fantastic remix for Antena, but this remix of Compost's Zwicker (pick up his excellent Scratch'n'Sniff EP if you see it kicking about) really takes the biscuit. With arpeggiated synths akin to the ones on DFA's Soulwax remix (they sound so alike I even wonder if it's a sample), down and dirty low slung live bass, and all sorts of spangly cosmic effects, it's a total winner in my book. Lee Douglas is someone else who I've been loving ever since his 'Same Changes' dropped on Rong. Here he returns on the same label to drop his first ever remix for Simon James' Woolfy project. Kick out the cosmic jams and get ready to be sent into orbit. Lee'll also be doing a mix for Beats In Space in the coming weeks, so make sure to look out for that. After that comes a remix of Grace Jones from Ashley Beedle which is surprisingly louche for the X-Press 2 man's usual fare, but a feelgood anthem all the same. Just check that minimal percussion though - magic!

Avid readers will probably already be aware of my unquenchable passion for XTC (insert generic drug addict joke here), and here's one of their more experimental cuts from their vaguely electronic phase. Still, it's as poppily madcap as you'd expect from the boys and that's never a bad thing in my book. Things drop down a bit with Morgan Geist's bliss-tronic 'Lullaby' from 2001's Super EP. Boompty disco excellence as you'd expect from the man (who's been surprisingly quiet of late, no?). I've been giving the Gui Boratto album a good few spins lately, and even though I'm a huge fan of his first two releases on K2 and an even bigger fan of the Kompakt Pop ethos and sound, I'm struggling to enjoy this as a fully realised artist album. It's got moments of absolute genius (like the swirlingly beautiful micro-house of Mala' Starna which is featured here), but the dancefloor tracks on there (with Mr Decay being the notable exception) generally fail to excite. I've have, however, found much more favour with the shorter melodic pieces toward the end of the LP (Xilo and Acrostico being my other favourites).

It was Puffin Jack that first drew my attention to the Wighnomy's remix of Gustav from their Okkasion EP (well worth purchasing as the A-side 'Hankkofloppe' is a reverb-soaked dancefloor killer with a bass synth reminiscent of a K'd out Yello). I said sometime last year that Robag and Monkey really seem to excel when presented with a melodic song-based track to remix, and this is another shining example of that. Keep a look out for their forthcoming remix compilation, due out next month. We return to the discoid stylings with a song from 1984 by The Voyagers that, like the Andy Freer track, was the only one ever produced by the group. Multiple synths slowly duel and develop together throughout, whilst it's all brought together by the steady loping beat and longing female vocal. I've also really been enjoying A Mountain of One's debut EP on their own AMO imprint (expect the second one to drop in the next few months) since I managed to get a copy of the repress. Nobody's doing the psych-disco style quite like them at the moment, and it was fairly difficult to pick just one track from it to highlight it's brilliance. On another day I'd have probably picked their re-version of Ginny's 'Can't Be Serious', but I've plumped for 'Ride' with its virtuoso Spanish guitar, booming drums, and tense monotonal bass. Make sure you pick up a copy before the repress sells out! Lastly we've got a slice of silky (or should that be sickly?) smooth soul from Samson & Delilah, again from '84, Anyone for a slow dance?

TAPE Radio - Show #20: 'Weekly Disco'
1) Force Of Nature - Sequencer (Rekid Remix) // Mule Musiq
2) Dettmann & Klock - Dawning // Ostgut Ton
3) Andy Freer - Super Galaxo // AI
4) Sarah Goldfarb - Homodiskotekus // Treibstoff
5) Chelonis R Jones - Deer In The Headlights (DJ Hell Remix) // Get Physical
6) Und - Rodeo // Trapez Ltd
7) Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit & Holger Czukay - How Much Are They? // Island
8) Gang Of Four - To Hell With Poverty // EMI
9) Yello - Daily Disco // Do It
10) LSB - Fog // CD-R
11) Zwicker - I Get My Kicks At Nighttime (Lexx Dub) // Compost Black Label
12) Woolfy - The Warehouse (Lee Douglas Remix) // Rong
13) Grace Jones - Feel Up (Ashley Beedle Remix) // Strut
14) XTC - A Dictionary Of Modern Marriage // Virgin
15) Morgan Geist - Lullaby // Environ
16) Gui Boratto - Mala' Strana // Kompakt
17) Gustav - We Shall Overcome (Wighnomy's Okkasion Re(h)end) // Freude Am Tanzen
18) The Voyagers - Distant Planet // Discomagic
19) A Mountain Of One - Ride // AMO
20) Samson & Delilah - I Can Feel Your Love Slipping Away // Saturn

Listen:
TAPE Radio - Show #20: 'Weekly Disco'

Ok, so I haven't been so lazy this week, so I hope this makes up for me posting the tracklisting a bit late. It's ready for streaming at the above link, so get clicking!

I've also had a mail from long time reader Jewster asking where he can get the Caspa track that I played on the show a few weeks back. He wanted it as a paid digital download, but I was quick to explain the reason why you don't see dubstep available to buy digitally, this being the importance of the low end in the music (especially when played out) and the problems that there are with mp3 clipping as it affects the low frequencies a lot more than the high. In this modern day where laptop sets and CD-Js are now commonplace, its almost refreshing to have a scene with such strict analogue ideologies laid upon it - even playing tracks off CDs is frowned on, and that's from the wav files! Anyway, here's the Caspa track (yousendit again so don't hang around) for your mp3 leeching needs and I've copied in what I had to say about it last time around.

"Last year, if someone had told you that they'd heard a killer dubstep track that sampled Willy Wonka, you'd probably tell them to stop smoking so much crack. This is, however, exactly what Caspa has done as he marries the sample to a huge monotonal bassline and superbly rasping beats. One for the psychedelic bass freaks, methinks."

Download:
Caspa - For The Kids // Dub Police

But remember - buy the vinyl if you get the chance! I know that this is hard if you live somewhere where this music is difficult to buy, but drop Rooted a nice e-mail and they may even put some records aside for you until it makes it worth the shipping cost. Also, remember that it's Mutant Pop this Friday. Bit of a local tip this time around with sets from iDJ editor Sell By Dave (who'll be rocking the downstairs with me and Puffin), and Halo's James Hurley and Dan Reilly (who'll be upstairs with minimal magicians Mike and Gaz) who've been making waves in Bristol's after hours scene. Hopefully we'll see you down there!