Y Brawd's Disco Gold - Various

Going out to Edo at the mighty Know Your Conjuror...taken down this day.


One
01 Boogie Nights - Heatwave (aint no doubt we are here to party)
02 Le Freak - Chic (young and old are doing it I'm told)
03 I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor  (as long as I know how to love, I know I'll be alive)
04 I'm Coming Out - Diana Ross (got to let it show)
05 Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas (fighting...lightning...frightening...it's an ancient Chinese art)
06 Knock On Wood - Amii Stewart (the way you love me is frightening)
07 You Make Me Feel Mighty Real - Sylvester (love me like you should)
08 Born To Be Alive - Patrick Hernandez (it's good to be alive)
09 D.I.S.C.O. - Ottawan (desirable...irresistible...super sexy...(such a) cutie...oooooh)


Two
01 Hot Stuff - Donna Summer (sittin' here eating my heart out baby)
02 Funky Town - Lipps Inc (keep me groovin' with some energy)
03 Fantasy - Earth, Wind And Fire (all your dreams will come true miles away)
04 I Feel Love - Donna Summer (I feel love)
05 That's The Way I Like It - KC and the Sunshine Band (uh-huh uh-huh)
06 You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate (I believe in miracles)
07 Get Down On It - Kool and the Gang (get your back up off the wall)
08 Car Wash - Rose Royce (it's better than diggin' a ditch)


Oddi wrth y brawd

Mary Never Wanted Jesus - Genesis P-orridge & Thee Majesty [2005]

Art project Christmas the fourth.


Fluxus rooted artist John Armleder's Villa Magica label showcases Christmas record obsession: festive music conceptual, kitsch and literal. John invites invites Genesis  to contribute. Disarmingly charming.


01  Mary Never Wanted Jesus 
02  Have Mercy 
03  Dramaqueen (Mary) 
04  Only Love Can Break Your Heart 
05  I Like Thee Holidays 
06  Jesus Walked On Thee Water 
07  Rudolf Thee Red Nosed Reindeer 
08  Little Drummer Boy 

Oddi wrth y brawd
GOP

Bummed - Happy Mondays [1988]

 

A right pisshole, long hair, beatniks, druggers, freeloaders, Happy Mondays, tsk...Happy Mondays. Petty thief louts about to go very large indeed. Call Mad Cyril.

Oddi wrth y brawd

we likes that, turn it up

E2-E4 - Manuel Göttsching [1984]

30 years ago this month Manuel Gottsching recorded a long - 59m20s - track called E2-E4. 

Pump's & Sounds' own David Elliott:
"I was living sur le continent at the time and, with my friend Wolfgang, met Manuel exactly a month before (in Cologne, playing a concert with Klaus Schulze) and exactly a month after (in Berlin, interviewing various musicians). We got wind of the track, but it didn't get released until two and a half years later in 1984 on Schulze's In Team label, split over two sides of vinyl. I gave it 5 stars in Sounds. It's a wonderful piece of music - racey sequencers, just two chords and some fine guitar - but it wasn't until 1989 that it became 'known', courtesy of the Italian Sueno Latino club remix".


Meant only as something to listen to on a flight to Hamburg, it's since been  compared to Eno, Reich et al and in The Wire as "in its own unassuming way, one of the most revolutionary and important albums ever made". 


You better believe it. Disco minimalist heaven. 

Oddi wrth y brawd
cabin doors to manuel

The TIE Fighter of Love - Darth Phader [2010]

From the dark side, with a smile. Sorcerer's psychotropic ways bring new hope at 142.25 BPM.


Must listen; search your feelings, you know it be true.

Oddi wrth y brawd

x wing of peace

The Singles 81 - 85 - Depeche Mode

Y brawd unleashes la pop we likes to call synth...

Dreaming of Me - Deadpan vocals, programmed rhythm rejoinders n candyfloss melody 

New Life - Tinky bonk excursion groping in dark for switch to torchlight o success 

Just Can't Get Enough - y brawd can, you will

See You - Vince splits, world gasps, Depeche fade, No? No!

The Meaning of Love - Lead melody line musically identical to last hit

Leave In Silence - Heard more melody coming out o Kenny Wheeler's arsehole

Get the Balance Right - Have often wondered why God bothered with Depeche mode

Everything Counts - And the bland played on...

Love In Itself - Continuing willingness to puncture preconceptions

People Are People - Laughed the first time it came on

Master And Servant - Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy versus the Red Baron"

Blasphemous Rumours / Somebody - Routine slab o gloom; God gets given ticking off

Shake the Disease - Football hooligans as sensitive wimps

It's Called A Heart - .....

Young lads from Basildon and their urgent dancing...

Oddi wrth y brawd

get enough

It's a Feedelity Affair - Lindstrøm [2006]

Hans-Peter Lindstrøm gets his space, dance, electronic, psych-out synth climax thing on; rounding-up greater and lesser-known tracks off earlier vinyl releases. Clinically crafted retro-disco sound that's as much home listening as dance floor friendly. Deft melodic hooks and lying in wait at epicentre: ten-minute Moroder monster There Is A Drink In My Bedroom.


Ace.

Oddi wrth y brawd
cane it

Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat - Charanjit Singh [1982]

Not le festival du fromage suggested by "disco beat" come on. Instead, prescient and enormously satisfying feast of raga upp'ed Giorgio Moroder arpeggiated synth lines. 


Here's Geeta:


"Last week, some friends of mine in New York and London — friends with very good taste in electronic music — told me I absolutely had to listen to 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat, a new reissue on the Dutch label Bombay Connection. The word going around the Internet is that this album, full of 808-driven beats and TB-303 squelches, was recorded by a Sikh fellow by the name of Charanjit Singh in India in 1982 — predating the Chicago acid house revolution of the mid-1980s. To put the year 1982 in perspective, the Detroit techno godfathers Cybotron released “Alleys of Your Mind,” their first single, just one year before, in ’81. 1982 was also the year that MIDI, the “musical instrument digital interface,” was introduced — but it wouldn’t be until 1983 that the MIDI was actually being used; the first synths to utilize MIDI were the Prophet 600 and the Roland JX3P, both in ’83. Electronic music as we know it now had some way to go.


The album — stripped-down, instrumental electronic arrangements of traditional Indian ragas — is fantastic. ‘Disco beat’ is a bit of a misnomer. Most of the ragas here feel like they clock in at around 130 bpm. This is techno speed."

Oddi wrth y brawd

gear

The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre - Black Devil Disco Club [2009]

Copping new mixes of material from Fevre's 1975 album of library music salvage The Strange World of Bernard Fevre. Attractively old-fangled in a future now stylee. Musty analog synth abounds. Tracks restored, replayed and reinvigorated. Students of Belbury Poly take note: master at work.

Oddi wrth y brawd
cosmic rays

Go Hawaii - Casino Versus Japan [2000]

Casino Versus Japan is Erik Kowalski, purveyor of intelligent dance music, baroque melody and distorted trip-hop beat. Samples of children's voices, sparkly synth lines, and a general air of nostalgia permeate the music. No darkness in these defracted memories  - unlike say,  Boards Of Canada  - and more than a few Eno-esque moments of prettiness. Nice. 

Oddi wrth y brawd
lie dream

Kick Ass [Music From The Motion Picture] - Various

Top quality sherbet. Fruity dialogue - sadly, children swearing remains funny - intersperses a well chosen collection of the revived, recent and re-tooled:

01 Stand Up - The Prodigy layer big big beats over Manfred Mann's Earth Band's One Way Glass.

"It's fucking awesome"

02  Kick Ass - Mika vs Redone R Hi NRG

03  Can't Go Back - Primal Scream find their mojo (one more time).

 "I never said Batman"

04  There's a Pot Brewin' - The Little Ones er....play

05  Omen - The Prodigy are manic - i.e. at their twisted best.

"Bring it on"

06  Make Me Wanna Die - The Pretty Reckless are.... pretty average.

"I'm just fucking with you daddy. Look, I'd love a French made model 42 butterfly knife"

07  Banana Splits - The Dickies are even worse than memory serves.

"It's in the shape of a giant cock"

08  Starry Eyed - Ellie Goulding is ahem, starry-eyed

09  This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us - Sparks demonstrate how once singles could be both pop-tastic and envelope pushing. Still fresh as fuck.

"Out of Kick Ass and Red Mist, who do you think would win in a fight?"

10  We're All In Love - New York Dolls sound disconcertingly like Blue Oyster Cult on this 2006 "come back"

11  Bongo Song - Zongamin is left-field dance producer Susumu Mukai; there be bongos here

12  For a Few Dollars More - Ennio Morricone, 'nuff said.

"Play time's over kid"

13  Bad Reputation - The Hit Girls do a fair imitation of a Runaways/Suzie Quatro

14  An American Trilogy - Elvis Presley would definitely win in a fight (air kara-tay). Oh, and 'cos he da king.

"Show's over motherfuckers"

Oddi wrth y brawd

no power, no responsibility

Touched EP - Blondes

Analog synthesizers with a kosmische patina. Mining and muddling musical genres from decades past. Hypnagogiac blissed-out, vintage vibes. A twilight realm of gooey synth lines and twisted vocal loops slathered atop a patient 4/4 pulse.

On their 2010 debut, Blondes take several cues from Lindstrøm’s space-disco marathons, but condense them into more digestible, diverse pieces, lying at the intersection of indie and dance. Electronic pop rules throughout, with a double whammy discoid jam kick off courting compatibility with all things Balearic and chillwave.

Gertcha.

Oddi wrth y brawd
get touched

Dirtbox EP - Harmonic 313

Towering, seismic basslines pit against needling, crumbling turn of 70s synths, bent vaguely sinister. Beats smothered in bass sparking the rumble of a 747 (landing on your heart) while vintage Moog bleeps and burps. Detroit techno, dubstep, and instrumental hip-hop mixed into a half melodic sonic palette. Lovely.

Oddi wrth y brawd

investigate dirtbox

London Zoo - The Bug

Here we have 2008's applauded London Zoo, wherein raucous dubstep, deranged digi-dub and truculent techno from The Bug, aka Kevin Martin.

Massive production, angry BPM, tectonic shifting bass and a gallery of wisely chosen guests. No weak links, instead, a colourful menagerie of top-level toasters.

1. Angry - Tippa Irie, Kevin Martin 

2. Murder We -  Ricky Ranking, Martin 
3. Skeng -  Killa P, Flow Dan, Martin 
4. Too Much Pain - Ricky Ranking, Martin
5. Insane -  Warrior Queen, Martin 
6. Jah War -  Flow Dan, Martin 
7. Fuckaz -  Spaceape, Martin 
8. You & Me -  Roger Robinson, Martin 
9. Freak Freak -  Martin 
10. Warning -  Flow Dan, Martin 
11. Poison Dart -  Warrior Queen, Martin 
12. Judgement - Ricky Ranking, Martin

The Bug is infectious. Raging and ferocious.
 
Oddi wrth y brawd
infected

Soul Mining - The The

Risible review at allmusic.com does nothing to unpack the wonder of this stunning debut:

"On The The's first album, Matt Johnson crafted a pleasant but unengaging set of dance-pop just barely hinting at the experimentalism he would develop on later records like Infected and Mind Bomb."

Those who have ears, let them listen.

Oddi wrth y brawd
for harkers

Where You Go I Go Too - Lindstrøm

Norway's Hans-Peter Lindstrøm has been referred to, somewhat preposterously, as "the king of neo-future-retro-disco". The 29 min title track points the way. Opening with Tangerine Dream cosmic ambience, morphing into a slow building motorik Banco De Gaia groove, before -  hey presto!  - we're blind-sided by Jeff Wayne War of the Worlds synth flourishes. From there we settle into a long satisfying series of polyrhythmic patterns and melodic riffs.

The other two tracks, though shorter in length, share the template: growing layers of kaleidoscoping instrumental textures fleshed out with a retro palette taking in balearic, soundtrack synth pop, new age, electro-cheese, lounge pop, all worked up into an eccentric disco lather. Not half as barmy as that might sound and highly palatable.

Oddi wrth y brawd

grand ideas

Zombie - Fela and Afrika 70

Eno:

There were three great beats in the '70s: Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, James Brown's funk and Klaus Dinger's NEU!-beat.

Oddi wrth y brawd
observation is no crime

Last Train to Lhasa - Banco de Gaia

Tomorrow Y Brawd flies to Shanghai. Expect possible intermission in posts owing to China Inc.’s block on Blogger. A work around will be attempted but, just in case, here’s a little something apposite to tide us over. Super intelligent dance music from Toby Marks.

 Join free Tibet

Oddi wrth y brawd
last
train