Sheesh! Not only have I not posted for a bloody age, but I'm about to sod off without doing what I intended. I've been meaning (and trying) to make a new mix for about a month. But somehow it hasn't gelled. The mojo has gone AWOL. The mix was meant to be taken out to the Nevada desert to gift to wild-eyed hippies at Burning Man. And also, of course, to be given to you lot. Turns out I'll have to think of something else to placate the dusty and unwashed Freaks of the Playa. For you guys, I've got some tunes I've been listening to a lot recently.
Jamie Principle's Waiting on my Angel is one of those 'possibly the first house tune ever' kind of records. It's got a wonderful sense of alchemy to it. Glacial European new-wave has been melded with the campness of Prince for sweaty, outcast disco dancers in a basement on the wrong side of the tracks. But that's the beauty of the genesis of house. Circa 1984 it was being played off tape by Ron Hardy at the legendary Music Box in Chicago. It finally made it onto vinyl in 1985, with production by Frankie Knuckles. The two of them would storm on to make more bona fide early house classics like Your Love, and the totally filthy Baby Wants To Ride.
I don't know much about Fern Kinney. The Mississippi soul singer had settled down as a housewife before a disco comeback at the end of the 70s. Baby, Let Me Kiss You is off her 1979 album, Groove Me. It's in the same camp as Donna Summer's I Feel Love, and Blondie's Rapture - though there's a more sexual playfulness here. It's gloriously bubbly electronic disco which flirts with you mercilessly, like the school tease. You can find it on the superb Balearic compilation Down To The Sea And Back - which is well worth buying.
Cruisin' is one of those tracks you'd instantly file in the 'I'd rather tempura my own testicles' corner of your brain if someone described it to you. It's the picaresque tale Lucy and Ramona journeying through LA with their friend Sunset Sam. The song is the 1979 disco-rap creation of the ex-Monkee, Michael Nesmith, and it could charitably be ascribed to his 'when will the acid wear off' career stage. That said, there's magic here. It's irresistibly funky, and the video has to be seen to be believed. This way happiness lies... a total leftfield dancefloor bomb.
Anyway, I'm off to the desert for three weeks. I'll have another crack at that mix when I get back. Toodle pip!
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1 comment:
Sweet tune for a quiet Wednesday morning off MBK. Interestingly the word verification on this page is 'submuc', which must mean this tune is beneath dirty. I shall listen to some of your others too...
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