The Milky Bar Kid

Get Feety

2011-04-15T11:31:00.004+01:00

You see that little fleck of colour on the end of the big toenail? That's the last of the lurid pink toenail paint I had on for Burning Man 2010. This mix is in memoriam for its passing. It's a fitting tribute.

Now, it has been remarked on that maybe I don't wash my feet enough. I say 'pah!' to that. First of all that nail varnish was so indestructible I could have sandblasted my feet and it wouldn't have done diddley squat. Secondly, every time I've glanced down at those toes for the past 6 months I've been given a glorious reminder of my high jinks in the desert.

Dancing under the setting sun, the warmth and wonder of the Head Space crew, the new recruits, the wild and weird natives, the amazing food cooked by Wiley, bumpy bike rides across the arid lansdscape, the Jalapeno tequila, and the jaw-dropping spectacle of the Playa by night. All that was instantly evoked by a glimpse of a slightly embarrassing pink toenail.

So here's the Get Feety Mix.

DOWNLOAD

Tracklisting:
1. Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side (Holtoug Bootleg), 2. Space Dimension Controller - BBD Alignment, 3. Visions Of Trees - She's My Girl, 4. Azari & III - Into The Night (Nicolas Jaar Remix), 5. Curtis Mayfield - Love Me (Hunee Edit), 6. Hankat - Be The First (Flip & Simioni Remix), 7. !!! - Steady As The Sidewalk Cracks (Tim Goldsworthy Remix), 8. Joakim - Spiders (Ewan Pearson Remix), 9. De Signer - Suicide Girl (Crazy P Remix), 10. KZA - Goody Goody, 11. Jaydee - Plastic Dreams, 12. Four Tet - Pinnacles, 13. Murphy Jax feat. Mike Dunn - It's The Music (Alden Tyrell Remix), 14. Egyptrixx - Chrysalis Records

My Autumn Heart Mix

2010-11-10T09:32:00.007Z

If you're still here, then many thanks for waiting. My blog, like a small and sleepy hedgehog, seems to have been hibernating for a few months. It crawled into a pile of dry brown leaves and snuffled itself to sleep.

My excuses are the inertia that often seems to come with the change of seasons; an increased focus on my other main hobby, messing about with film cameras; and a creeping indifference to quite a lot of 2010's music.

But it often only takes the discovery of one or two great tunes to get the metabolism back up to speed. In this case those are the tracks that wrap up this mix: It Takes a Muscle by Spectral Display, and Just A Bitter Love by the Dead Rose Music Company. Both are wonderful slabs of heart-on-the-sleeve emotional electronic disco.

I tried to make the pulse of this collection deep, and almost melancholy. 2 Late 4 U And Me and Pain In My Brain are to my mind two of the best bits of deep house you'll ever hear. There's also twinge of nostalgia I think that's appropriate to London's recent colder weather. Speedy J and The Orb both got heavy play on my Walkman as a teenager, and I've been listening to them lots again. Things get a little new-school-old-school ravey with I Got A Feeling, and Dirty Cash can move ANY dancefloor. Enjoy.

DOWNLOAD THE MIX>

Tracklisting:
1. Nicolas Jaar - Mini Calcutta 2. Lindstrøm & Christabelle - Love Sick (Four Tet Remix) 3. Isan - 64 Fire Damage 4. Space Dimension Controller - SH-8040 5. Jamie Principle - Waiting On My Angel 6. Bagarre - Dirty Love 7. Speedy J - R2D2 8. Moody - 2 Late 4 U And Me 9. Ladyvipb - Pain In My Brain 10. The Orb - U.F. Orb 11. Shit Robot - I Got A Feeling 12. The Adventures Of Stevie V - Dirty Cash (Eli Escobar Edit) 13. The Dead Rose Music Company - Just A Bitter Love 14. Spectral Display - It Takes A Muscle (Get A Room Edit)

Back In A Bit

2010-08-24T09:20:00.006+01:00

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.

DOWNLOAD> JAMIE PRINCIPLE - WAITING ON MY ANGEL

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.

DOWNLOAD> FERN KINNEY - BABY, LET ME KISS YOU

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.

BUY> DOWN TO THE SEA AND BACK

DOWNLOAD> MICHAEL NESMITH - CRUISIN'

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!

Summer In The City

2010-06-29T16:27:00.004+01:00

Here's some music for urban heat. London's wonderful current spell of sizzle demands only one course of action.... move the boom box out onto the front step, grab a frosty bottle from the fridge, and sit enjoying summer pass by. These are tunes that just wouldn't feel right in the countryside. They need blaring car horns, yellow streetlights, and mile after mile of concrete to sound as they were meant to.

Quincy Jones' Summer In The City is perfect. The cover of the Loving Spoonful's most famous song has been sampled, pilfered from, and robbed blind umpteen bazillion times, but it still retains all its shimmery glory. Hazy keys, soporific bass line, purring female vocalist. It smells of blistered asphalt and lingering perfume.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Buy the album from Amazon

Detroit's Underground Resistance label make tracks as uncompromising as music gets. Its signature sound is purist techno that often sounds like misanthropic machines locked in a perpetual diatribe against humanity. However, The Jaguar is the bunch at their most delicate and humane. This track still bumps and rolls, but the soft bubbling synths and swung percussion give The Jaguar a beautiful sense of yearning. Perfect for a night time drive along deserted fly-0vers.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Buy the EP from Amazon

Attention all raving crew! Throwback is a scorcher. This could easily fit into any set of mongrel London bass music going back as far as 1991. Weirdly, despite its overpowering whiff of Croydon, it comes from Texas, and has only just been released. If there's an old pair of Reebok Classics lurking in your wardrobe, pull them out and get stepping. Then holler for a reeeeewind!

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Buy the EP from Amazon

And something sad to finish with. I'm a huge Nina Simone fan, but I'd never heard Baltimore until very recently. It's off her 1978 Baltimore LP and it's a reggae requiem for a dying city. Yup, Nina doing reggae. This Ex-Friendly edit from Nottingham's Justin Turford just gently turns up the dub a couple of skank levels, and adds a few swooshy effects. It draws the track out nicely and doesn't do anything to get in the way of Ms Simone's peerless voice. Melancholy magic.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

The Charmed Snake

2010-05-11T09:25:00.003+01:00

Sometimes when a musician is on a winning streak you've got to assume there's some sort of supernatural shit going on. In the 1920s the blues guitarist Robert Johnson was rumoured to have sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in return for his fiendish talent. I suspect Tensnake might have made some similar Faustian pact.

I've already posted from his most recent EP with the dancefloor monster, Coma Cat. And I've used a couple more of his tracks in mixes that I've made. Let's say I think the fella's got some chops. He just doesn't do lacklustre.

So his latest creation isn't out yet, and can't actually be heard in full form. But the available snippet shows this particular snake's charm goes on giving.

He's taken last year's camp house bomb Reckless With Your Love by Azari & III and alchemised it into a stadium dance smash that would fit perfectly into a Now That's What I Call Music compilation from 1989. That's a good thing.

I can hear Soul II Soul in there. There's definitely some of Snap's The Power... and maybe some Pet Shot Boys too. It's got cowbell. It's got uplifting piano chords. It's got an early house bass line. For the love of all that's holy, there are even airhorns in there! This will be waaaay too cheesy for the purists, but they never have any fun.

Basically the tune could end up totally owning your summer. I just hope Tensnake still owns his soul.

I Wanna Go Back...

2010-04-27T10:03:00.008+01:00

This was the last mix I ever did on vinyl. I think that was about 8 years ago now. I guess it's fitting that the content is nostalgic in nature too. All killer. No filler. Classic house music.

Chicago gave the world a wonderful thing in the mid 80s. That particular strand of machine-driven soul blew out of the Windy City, and changed the planet. House now comes from anywhere anyone has access to a drum machine or a computer. It's mutated and splintered and cross pollinated and distorted sometimes beyond recognition.

But in this mix I've used tracks from what I think is the golden age of house. Mr Fingers, Marshall Jefferson, Trax Records... that's the real deal. But also I've also used the European imitators who first picked up the baton and danced with it, those Britons, Germans, Italians who felt the beat and moved our feet. Rave on.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Tracklisting:
1. Mr Fingers - Can You Feel It, 2. Marshall Jefferson - Open Our Eyes, 3. Don Carlos - Alone (Paradise Mix), 4. Jomanda - Make My Body Rock, 5. Professor Funk - Move Your Acid, 6. Inner City - Good Life, 7. Fallout - The Morning After, 8. Curtis McClaine & On The House - Let's Get Busy, 9. Royal House - Can You Party, 10. Glam - Hell's Party, 11. Gat Decor - Passion, 12. Sublime - The Theme (Sublime Dub), 13. Robert Armani - Circus Bells. 14. (Hardfloor Mix), 15. ?-?, 16. Rising High Collective - Fever Called Love (Hardfloor Mix)

Just Say No

2010-04-09T10:12:00.007+01:00

Government agencies are always trying to come up with ways to keep us off the smack. They print leaflets, commission celebrities, send earnest young proselytizers into schools... It don't do shit. People are still getting high.

The thing is, the answer's been around for a while now but not one civil servant chump has twigged. Home Is Where The Hatred Is was on Gil Scott-Heron's 1971 debut album, and was covered by the soul singer Esther Phillips a year later. It's an utterly devastating song.

With Phillips wrapping her sweet, junkie's voice around it, the lyrics are like a rusty syringe to the heart. I can't think of anything else that matches this for desolate self-loathing. It would actually be unbearable if it weren't for her band's delicately funky restraint.

Seriously, play this to a bunch of impressionable teens and they'll stay cleaner than a spring breeze. Job done.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Eyesdown

2010-04-07T09:31:00.010+01:00

Bonobo's new single Eyesdown, is a classy package that manages to sound both timeless and bang up to date.

I bought it for the Floating Points remix, which was used instantly on my Musical Chairs Mix from three weeks ago. But the whole thing is a total gem, and I keep drifting back to Appleblim and Komonazmuk's treatment. This swings wonderfully deep and low. A stern chord progression builds the tension, while the sad vocal line and restrained flourishes of disco strings make this perfect for the melancholic dancer.

I really recommend buying all the tracks though. The original mix, and the aforementioned Floating Points remix drift through hazy sub bass, mournful brass, and a 2-step lope, while Warrior 1's effort injects a bit of carnival fire.

And if you're still feeling generous after that, Bonobo's album Black Sands, is out now on Ninja Tune. I haven't got that though, so I can't say what the whole thing's like.

DOWNLOAD MP3>
Bonobo - Eyesdown (Appleblim & Komonazmuk Remix) from The Milky Bar Kid

Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

Shari & Vari

2010-04-01T09:41:00.014+01:00

I have a lot of time for Shari & Vari, the two ladies behind the awesome The Number 20 blog. Here's why:

~ The music they post is invariably cracking
~ They keep it brief (which I most definitely don't)
~ The blog looks great
~ They obviously have a lot of fun

Recently Shari, who I think is quite new to DJing, posted a mix. It's called Things Are Going To Get Easier, and it's a wonderful blend of camp and star-spangled electronic disco. That's a good many of my buttons pressed right there.

So well done Shari, and well done also for letting me post it here so you good people can hear it.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Tracklisting:
Nicolas Jaar – Time For Us, NUfrequency – Fallen Hero (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix), Fortune – Highway (Eli Escobar Remix), Acos Coolkas – Untitled, Ali Love – Love Harder (Prins Thomas Diskomiks), Chaz Jankel – You’re My Occupation (Fromage Remix), John Daly – This Is A Lonely Beat, KRUSE, Florian ft SAARA – Thrill (Vincenzo & Elmar Schubert’s Satinsoul Remix), Mario Basanov & Vidis ft Jazzu – I’ll Be Gone (Downtown Party Network Remix), Sebastien Tellier – Things Are Gonna Get Easier

The Musical Chairs Mix

2010-03-12T15:33:00.012Z

I shouldn't be farting around with this. I should be packing. My plane for India leaves in a few hours and I've still got packets of wet wipes and hand sanitizer strewn all over my room. But I haven't done a mix for a while and wanted to lay down some of the music I've been enjoying recently. They'll hold the plane for me, right?

There's been a bit of a musical crisis going on inside my head in the past couple of months or so. I'm not feeling much of the disco that's been produced recently. There's the creeping feeling that I've heard it all before. I've been so in love with the form over the past 4 or so years that I'm taking this as a bit of a betrayal. In revenge I've been seeking solace in the icy embraces of dubstep and its myriad offshoots.

This is a mix that tries to get my old love, and my new one, in a room together to talk about how we can all work this one out. It starts all hushed and splintery, but gets warmer and groovier, and there's a even a party at the end.

No cover art yet - haven't got time. I'll do you some when I'm back. Hope you like it and see you on the flip side! I'll be the sunburned one.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Tracklisting:
Fever Ray with Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid - Here Before, Mount Kimbi - Vertical, Bonobo feat Andreya Triana - Eyesdown (Floating Points remix), Joy Orbison - So Derobe, Bei Bei & Shawn Lee - Make Me Stronger (Floating Points remix), Dorothy's Fortress - Neon Cities, Pixeltan - Scatter, Skatt Bros - Walk the Night, Tensnake - Get It Right, Cymande - Brothers On The Slide (Bonar Bradberry edit), Pantha du Prince - Stick To My Side (Four Tet version), Massive Attack feat Hope Sandoval - Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto remix), Spaghetti Circus - Still Going, Friendly Fires - On Board (Joakim Remix)

Versions

2010-02-09T09:25:00.007Z

When it comes to inventions, it's generally agreed that the wheel was a pretty good one. As such, any attempt to reinvent it has usually gone down badly. Unnecessary, is the usual criticism. Don't bother.

Luckily, music ain't like that. It doesn't matter if your song is great, someone is going to come along and have another go at it.

Often that reinvention is going to be a turgid pile of tosh. But sometimes a reinvention comes along that brings new life to the old. It isn't necessarily better, but it has things that the original didn't. That could be a different sense of space, a different mood, a different flow... whatever. So here are four remixes I'm really liking.

DOWNLOAD> Stoned Green Apples - Sugar K (Yura Yura Teikoku Remix)

Japan's psychedelic mavericks, Yura Yura Teikoku turn out a wonderful bit of doom-disco from the Stoned Green Apples' J-punk original.

DOWNLOAD> Spleen United - Suburbia (The Juan Maclean Remix)

The rubbery bass line in this remix from The Juan Maclean is going to have dancefloors losing their nuts. Chunky.

Massive Attack and Hope Sandoval - Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto remix)
++REMOVED ON REQUEST++
Gui Boratto puts some propulsion into Massive Attack and Hope Sandoval. This is sexy, uber-deep, spacious, and fizzy.

DOWNLOAD> The XX - VCR (Matthew Dear Remix)

Matthew Dear manages to make The XX sound fun! Some almost beatbox-like percussion, woodblocks, and other tasty bits and bobs really bring the funk to London's hipster darlings.

Too Slow To Disco

2010-02-04T18:37:00.010Z

Is it Sunday yet? Because this is a mix on the prowl for a lazy Sunday afternoon. In fact, it's basically cooking you eggs and bacon, tucking your favourite newspaper into your hands, and phoning your mates to see who's up for the pub later. That's how much this mix has its Sunday shit locked down.

Berlin resident Marcus Liesenfeld, aka DJ Supermarkt, has very kindly let me post it here for you people, and I think you should take full advantage of his generosity.

It's a wonderful collection of 70s soft rock gems and Californian singer/songwriter grooves. Interspersed throughout are the kind of radio jingles that instantly transport you to a time and place where handlebar moustaches are a must, aviator shades are a plus, and you've just taken your dad's Mustang without asking if you could.

DJ Supermarkt describes the delight inside as:

...an ex-monkee rapping, a weird erotic christmas song by georgie fame, the 70s 'super-studio-group' the attitudes, who played on thousands of records, Ned Doheny, Alessi Brothers, Rupert Holmes, Sanford & Townsend Band, Valerie Cartere, Paul Davis and commercial breaks by frank zappa, jefferson airplane, spliff (the nina hagen band), plus lots more other forgotten diamonds. enjoy and take the trip.

It slips down real smooth and nice. Like a chilled Mimosa. Thanks Marcus.

DOWNLOAD> DJ Supermarkt - Too Slow To Disco Mix

Too slow to disco (softrock-disco- radio-dj-mix) by dj supermarkt

Cometh the hour, Cometh the man

2010-01-25T12:14:00.009Z

Well that's a big fat phew! I was starting to get a bit sulky and petulant about my next post. Sometimes I go for a what seems like a worryingly long time without hearing anything to get really excited about. One starts to doubt one's faith... start cruising for other highs... contemplate foraging in bins. But then, WHAMMO! It all comes good. Cometh the hour, cometh these chaps.

Hot Chip's new album is out soon, and if it's all of the beauty displayed on Alley Cats, I'm going to be one happy punter. Alexis and Joe's voices blend perfectly as they so often do. Soothing keys, Arthur Russell-esque electric cello, and African sounding guitars combine in a deceptively simple composition. The lyrics are all about stroking stray cats, or something, and it's bittersweet and sublime.

It's been a long time since a new house track has excited me as much as Coma Cat has. Tensnake is a guy from Germany who channels the energy and enthusiasm of mid 80s Chicago, and fuses it with the best of Paradise Garage style disco and boogie. Not dancing to this is impossible. It's a wonderful testament to the durability of house that classic tracks like this are still being conjured up. I'm making this listen-only I'm afraid. Magicians like Tensnake deserve your money, so if you like it... buy it. It's out in the next few days.

Finally, everyone likes a bit of gay rape don't they? Well the Skatt Bros came up with a gay rape anthem. Recorded in 1980, I imagine Walk The Night was a bit of a hit in the sort of clubs where black leather dominates, and you don't want to look too closely at what's going on in the corners. The song's about a night prowler who'll do all sorts of unspeakable things to his prey. It's seedy, sinister, and very, very funky.

DOWNLOAD> Hot Chip - Alley Cats

PLAY ONLY> Tensnake - Coma Cat

DOWNLOAD> Skatt Bros - Walk The Night

Golden Afrique

2010-01-06T17:45:00.006Z

To welcome in the new year, here's the opposite of snow. Don't get me wrong, I like snow. It's nice seeing London all covered in white, and there's much satisfaction to be had in the journalistic creativity put into such unexpected headlines as 'Snow Causes Travel Chaos'. But these are small pleasures.

Sunshine. Ah, sweet hot sunshine. Think of cycling in a t-shirt... cold beers in the park... the smell of barbeques... bronzed skin... the sound of crickets... lying with your eyes closed on the beach. Let's face it, if sunshine is round the corner, snow better pull up those shorts and jog on.

The bitch is though, sunshine ain't round the corner. It's about 4 months away, punks. So if you need a little sunshine advance these tunes might help. They're off an album that I listen to an astounding amount considering I barely understand a damn word being sung. Golden Afrique is a totally joyful compilation of west African pop from 1971-1983. The guitars chirrup, the trumpets swing, the syncopated rhythms shuffle and hop, and the voices soar. In short, it's like tipping your head to one side, raising an arm, and pouring a large jug of high-proof sunshine into that lug-hole of yours.

I know very little about these two artists. Bébé Manga is a Cameroonian singer, and Ernesto Djédjé was an Ivorian who pioneered a musical style rather wonderfully called 'ziglibithy'... and that's about as much as I can tell you. 2010 should really be the year that I crack into African music, because from the little I've heard there's some absolutely magical stuff to be discovered.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

DOWNLOAD MP3>

You can buy Golden Afrique Vol. 1 from Amazon

Cold Comforts Mix Pt 2

2009-12-14T14:38:00.001Z

So do you have a nice log fire ready? Are you wearing your advanced Norwegian knitwear? Well get cracking, people, because the Cold Comforts Mix Pt 2 is a toasty treat.

This collection puts the emotional and the lovelorn before the hedonistic. It turns down the disco, and turns up the swoon. Sure, you'll find some rave here, but it's raving with an ache in the heart. This is the most varied mix I've done for a while. It's also the one I've been most excited about for a goodly time too.

I'm a total Björk fan boy. I'm not sure there are many musical geniuses left these days, but I know she's one of them. Fact. So I've kicked off with the gorgeous It's Not Up To You of her Vespertine album. Then there's a nod to dubstep with the so-hottt-right-now combo of The XX and Joy Orbison. Mmmm... bass. If there's one tune I just can't stop listening to at the moment it's Randy Crawford's early 80s smooth soul classic, You Might Need Somebody. So you get that and a super-sensual dollop of JJ Cale too. Then it's back to the dance floor. Tensnake's Congolal is a wonderful bit of romantic instrumental electro-funk, full of yearning synths and slap bass. And then there's Four Tet. Love Cry is his latest record and it's deep and hypnotic, and I can't praise it enough. Four Tet's done some great stuff over the past decade, but this is possibly his best. And to wrap things up there's a righteous dubby version of Yazz's Fine Time.

Tracklisting:
Björk - It's Not Up To You, Florence & The Machine - You've Got The Love (The XX remix), José James - Black Magic (Joy Orbison's recreation), Rubies - Diamonds On Fire (Pyramid Dub Version), Blaze - Lovelee Day (20:20 Soundsystem remix), Mayer Hawthorne - Green Eyed Love (Classixx remix), Randy Crawford - You Might Need Somebody, Social Disco Club - 4 Love, JJ Cale - Cherry, Electribe 101 - Talking With Myself (Frankie Knuckles mix), Tensnake - Congolal, Four Tet - Love Cry, Yazz feat. Colonel Mite - Fine Time (12" mix)

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Cold Comforts Mix Pt 1

2009-12-04T20:59:00.002Z

I've been rained on cycling about seven times in the last week. And I don't mean 'ooh, isn't that refreshing' rain. I mean 'tadpoles could flourish in my y-fronts' rain. I read some smugly optimistic tripe in a colour supplement once claiming if you cycled every day of the year, on average you'd only get wet eleven times. That journalist had better be calling in some serious prayers for a drought in 2010, or I'm going to be paying a soggy visit.

So this mix is supposed to be a nice warming one for rain drenched early December. Why not pop it on at your office Chrimbo party? I'm hoping to make it a two-parter, and follow up with some slower paced, more downtempo music - just right for plopping down in front of a log fire, clad in some advanced Norwegian knitwear.

Cold Comfort Pt 1 was recorded live, rather than pieced together over a week or so like most of my other mixes have been. Because of this there's a bit of a rough and ready hue to it, which I hope doesn't detract too much from the flow.

If you've been paying a visit to this blog for a bit there are a couple of tracks you'll recognise. There are some other corkers too... the Staple Singers get all gospel with their cover of Slippery People by the Talking Heads, Kariya's Let Me Love You For Tonight is a screaming bit of late 80s house, and Rory Phillips turns The Units' electro-punk classic into a proper mover. Also, if you are of the right sort of age to have thought the first Renaissance mix album made 1994 the high point of recorded music, then Slid by Fluke needs no additional comment.

Tracklisting:
Phoenix - Fences (Def Starr version), The Staple Singers - Slippery People, The Joubert Singers - Stand On The Word (Unabomber's Love Touch edit), Kariya - Let Me Love You For Tonight, M - Pop Muzik (Todd Terje remix), Fuke - Slid, Konk - Your Life, Feist - Sea Lion Woman (Pitto Bootleg), The Units - High Pressure Days (Rory Phillips edit), Connie - Get On Down, 40 Thieves - Don't Turn It Off (Brennan Green remix), Sandee - Notice Me, Crazy P - Stop Space Return (Unabombers Dub), Krikor & The Dead Hillbillies - God Will Break It All

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Return of the Mac

2009-11-04T11:40:00.012Z

It's weird I haven't been into Fleetwood Mac longer than I actually have. I've always been a sucker for that place where polished 70s rock meets pop. But my almost fevered current obsession has only really been burning for a couple of years or so. I think the catalyst was my friend Dom telling me he'd never copied Rumours to his iPod, because the only situation worthy of being blessed by the great album was after a night out, drunk, lying on the sofa. Since my addiction has blossomed I've never been able to practice such self restraint.

Anyway, I went to see them in concert last weekend, and they were absolutely wonderful. Age has taken the higher notes out of Stevie Nicks' voice, and Christine McVie quit back in the 90s, but this is a band that still loves to play. They've got a staggering collection of great songs, and such a tumultuous personal history that each rendition seemed like a cathartic autobiography being played out in front me. Possibly the most jaw-dropping moment was Lindsey Buckingham doing a virtuoso solo accoustic version of Big Love. It climaxed (almost literally) with a possessed Buckingham howling out the oohs and ahhs that come (whoops) at the end. It's a song that obviously means a lot to him.

So, I thought I'd post a song each from their four biggest albums: Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, and Tango In The Night. These aren't necessarily my absolute favourites, because there are too many of those, but they hopefully highlight the strengths of the band's three songwriter/singers.

Landslide is off the first album FM released after Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had joined. They were a romantic couple as well as a musical one - but they weren't getting on while Fleetwood Mac was being recorded in 1975. Landslide is Stevie meditating on their relationship, and it shows off her earthy, sensual voice beautifully.

DOWLOAD MP3>

When Rumours was being written everything was going tits-up in a huge way. Nicks and Buckingham were splitting up, and the band's other couple bassist John McVie and his wife Christine were also on ropes. Christine was fed up with John's boozing, and had left him for the band's lighting guy. So she wrote You Make Loving Fun for her new fella. It's a lovely uptempo groover. I wonder what John was thinking as he tapped out that bass line. Rumours is an album born of total disfunction between band members - and it sold absolutely gazillions.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Tusk is a bit more difficult to choose from as it's so much bigger. It's a sprawling double album of 20 tracks that was the most expensive record ever produced when it was released in 1979. By the standards set by Rumours, Tusk was a commercial turkey. But it's still a phenomenal piece of work. I wanted to put a Buckingham track up from Tusk (he wrote the lion's share of it), but I've gone for another Christine McVie song. She's sometimes described as the most conventional writer of the band - yet Brown Eyes is anything but. It's got a minimalist aesthetic, and paradoxically manages to be lush at the same time. The hushed, layered vocals, and metronomic high-hat cymbal make this a really hypnotic song.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

After Tusk, Fleetwood Mac were almost spent. Everyone was shagging someone they shouldn't have been, and writing songs about their twisted relationships with each other. And then there was the cocaine. Mountains of cocaine. Oh, and tranquillisers too. So Nicks and Buckingham drifted off for solo careers, and the next couple of FM albums, though strong in many parts, weren't classics. But in 1987 they managed to pull it back together for Tango In The Night. It's a very 80s album, full of synthesizers and pop sheen - and if you ever want to getting a wedding party jumping, play Everywhere or Little Lies. That sounds like faint praise, but it's really not meant like that. So here's Big Love, the Buckingham track I mentioned at the start, but in its original form.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

I really urge you to get these albums. Not because Fleetwood Mac need the money (they really really don't) but because they're the high points of one of the best and most distinctive bands ever. I can't think of any other that's combined such singing/songwriting breadth with such a unique interpersonal dynamic.

Buy them below:

Amazon.co.uk

God Will Break It All

2009-10-07T20:23:00.015+01:00

Oh my. This one's a monster. From the happy clappy gospel disco of the Joubert Singers to the stomping, goth disco of Krikor & the Dead Hillbillies. Yin and Yang, shall we say.

God is the lead character in both these songs, but they describe quite different deities. Here, He's the lord of destruction, not creation - undoing all His previous work like a child kicking in its own sandcastle. This could be the devastatingly funky soundtrack to armageddon. I can imagine an army of miscreant angels listening to this on paradise-issue ghetto blasters as they lay waste to the world.

Hell, I might join them. It sounds like fun.
DOWNLOAD MP3>

Buy it here, you sniveling little mortals. 
Amazon.co.uk

The horror, the horror!

2009-09-30T14:40:00.005+01:00

By the way, if you fancy a wangdoodle of a boogie this Halloween, come to this little hoedown.

It's at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill, London, on Saturday 31st October. And somewhere down the bottom of the list you'll see me! Yes, I will be DJing from 0030-0200, and hopefully winding the proceedings to a sweaty and debauched climax of fake blood, faux terror, and real spandex. You will almost certainly be hearing the Unabombers edit of Stand On The Word (see last post), as well as a number of other new acquisitions and tried and tested off-kilter party jams.

Early bird tickets for a tenner run out today so be fleet of finger, and get yourself and your mates some. Here's all you need to know from the wonderful people at Winterwell:

Winterwell couldn’t take itself seriously if a little spattering of fancy dress wasn’t on the agenda, and the theme for our Halloween special is ‘80’s Horror show’. Admittedly the 80’s were a bit of a horror show, so do the math and you got it- anything goes!

Top Cats – (Natty Bo’s 10-piece ska, rocksteady band)
The Monster Club
The Clean Boys – (4 dec trickery, one effects unit)
Count Sizzle
Mr and Mrs
Konal
The Jinks (80's party set)
Lou Young
The Milky Bar Kid

Visit our website to find out more... http://winterwell.co.uk/halloween and get your Early Bird Tickets (£10, Limited Availability).

Doors 8pm till 2am

Stand On The Word

2009-09-30T12:38:00.006+01:00

Sorry for the hiatus. I've been dicking about in foreign climes, and starting a new job, so posting music took a back seat for a bit. But I'm returning with two treatments of some Holy goodness.

I grew up in a totally godless house, so my exposure to religious music really only goes as far as a few dirgey hymns sung at school. Maybe if a bit more gospel had been thrown my way I'd have more of the spirit in me than I currently do. Sadly the plodding melodies and tempi of most Anglican musical worship was not ever going to inspire faith in this hoary heart.

So, the recounted history of Stand On The Word goes as follows. It was recorded in a church in Crown Heights, NYC, back in 1982 - but only for distribution among the congregation. A copy got into the hands of super producer (and born-again Christian) Walter Gibbons, who started playing it at his nearby record shop. This was where many of New York's finest DJs went to hang out and get their music, and soon it was being hammered in the Paradise Garage, Zanzibar, and the Loft. Thus an unlikely underground club classic was born.

Here's two versions for you; Larry Levan's early 80s disco remix, and a much newer edit from Manchester's the Unabombers. Both are fantastic, and get this otherwise committed heathen wondering if there are any benefits in putting cold rationality in the dustbin - and just believing.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

DOWNLOAD MP3>

The Indian Summer Mix

2009-08-26T10:18:00.007+01:00

Right you 'orrible lot. Here's the promised contraband. Would I welch on a deal? Of course not! There's only so long I could get away with fobbing you off with stale gear. So here is the Milky Bar Kid's Indian Summer Mix. It's fresh off the press - and I think it's a corker.

First of all, apologies and thanks to Mr Jonathan Moore from the awesome Leftside Wobble. He might be looking through this tracklisting thinking 'Erm, dude. Hands off my tunes.' He, and his Dub Disco Deli series have introduced me to many great songs, some of which I've shamelessly appropriated for this set. We share very similar tastes, and you know, imitation... flattery... etc.

I'm looking forward to busting this puppy out lying next to a pool in Spain. It's the kind of mix you need some slightly too tight swimming trunks, and a bottle of coconut oil for. Whip out your Jeffrey Archer novel, bask in the sun, and get swooney.

I've waffed on about it before, but I really think the Villa edit of Agnetha Fältskog's Wrap Your Arms Around Me is a thing of wonder. Yes, yes, I know she was in Abba, but this is the real deal. Big, lush, and emotional. Bobby Rush gets the treatment from Mark Very Disco, and boy is it a barnstorming slab of funk. There's also the ever-so-slightly-cheesy bouncy acid of Crazy P, and some darker, techier house towards the end. To finish things off you get the always lovely Sally Shapiro with a sumptuous bit of electro-pop.

I like this mix a lot. I hope you do too. Let me know what you think!

Tracklisting:
Black Sabbath: Planet Caravan (DJ Steef edit), Agnetha Fältskog: Wrap Your Arms Around Me (Villa edit), Noir Desir: Le Vent Nous Portera (Rubber Room rerub), Bobby Rush: Do The Do (MVD Swamp Funk edit), Shriekback: My Spine Is The Bassline, Jazzy Dee: Get On Up (Situation edit), Dorothy's Fortress: The Revenger Of El Santoro, General Motors: King Of Kong, Crazy P: Stop Space Return, Azari & III: Reckless With Your Love, Shit Robot: Simple Things (Serge Santiago remix), TBD: What Is This?, Sally Shapiro: Moonlight Dance

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Seeing The Light Mix

2009-08-17T10:49:00.005+01:00

I'm working on a new mix at the moment. But in the meantime, here's my oldest disco influenced mix. I made it in the spring/summer of 2005 - a stomper of a year for me. This was the first thing I gave my wonderful new girlfriend, and it was also what I took as gifts on my first trip to the Burning Man festival in America. I burned about 50 copies of it and brought about 42 back with me, so I'm obviously not as giving as I thought I was.

I was very into Arthur Russell at the time (and still am), so there are several of his tracks in various different guises. I kicked it off with his wondrous In The Light Of A Miracle. It's a gently ecstatic epic of a track that always manages to transport me and my head somewhere beautiful. I also used his totally uplifting Tell You Today, and the smuttily titled Is It All Over My Face? It's not all Arthur though. There's boogie, Italo, dub, and some mash-up filth to keep the censors busy.

Tracklisting:
Arthur Russell: In The Light Of A Miracle, Sinnamon: Thanks To You, Midnight Star: Midas Touch, Loose Joints: Tell You Today, Charlie: Spacer Woman, Colourbox: Looks Like We're Shy One Horse, Colder: To The Music, The KBC: Poisonous Emblem, Dopplebanger: Pussylicker, Kerrier District: Let's Dance & Freak, Loose Joints: Is It All Over My Face?, Freeez: I.O.U., Alexander Robotnik: Problems D'Amour

DOWNLOAD MP3>

If you're interested in the Arthur Russell stuff there's plenty available on Amazon and iTunes. I recommend starting with the Soul Jazz compilation, The World of Arthur Russell. Links below:
Amazon.co.uk

Here's a little plug for something else. Henry's Yuppy Disco Podcast is a facebook music page linking to some great mixes. I'm listening to the African Pop mix at the moment and I'm struggling with not leaping up to dance around the room. Sod it, I'm going to.

If There Is Something

2009-08-05T18:53:00.006+01:00

I'm back from Berlin and still in love with the place. It manages to conjure so much style from such basic resources. Case in point: Dr Pong. A bare concrete space of a bar, bottles of beer for sale in one corner, DJ in another, and dominating the space in the middle a table tennis table with 40 or so people playing game after epic game of Round-the-Table. What's not to like? Anyway, during one particularly gruelling match, If There Is Something by Roxy Music came on, and I decided to post it when I got back.

Roxy Music fans tend to fall into two camps. There are those who think the band turned belly up after Brian Eno left, and there are those who think he was too weird and stopped Bryan Ferry writing the great pop songs he was free to do once Eno walked out the door. For my sins, I'm probably more in the Ferry camp.

But this song has their two minds working perfectly together, and it's a reminder Bryan Ferry could be a pretty weird fish too. It's off their self titled first album, and I think it's a work of genius. The song moves through three distinct movements. A jaunty hillbilly rock'n'roll style kicks things off - but a couple of minutes in things take a turn for the melancholy. The middle section strips down to a lonesome drum beat, a walking bass guitar, and a wailing saxaphone solo. But it's the end that really gives me the goosebumps. Ferry's voice really soars, as the song builds to an anthemic climax of strings, fuzzy guitar, backing vocals, and piano.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Roxy Music - If There Is Something by milkybarkid79

Amazon

Willkommen...

2009-07-29T08:44:00.006+01:00

I'm off for a long weekend in Berlin, the city of the 24 hour party. I was wondering whether to put up some modern Berlin minimal techno as an appropriate post. But Christ, that stuff bores the tits off me most of the time.

So in a slightly different vein here's Liza Minelli's untouchable turn as Sally Bowles from the 1972 musical film, Cabaret. Set in the doomed and decadent glimmer of Berlin just before the rise of the Nazis, it's a film that manages to be both exuberantly joyful, and darkly sinister at the same time. In my view Cabaret is the best musical ever written. I can't think of any others that juggle such a potentially incongruous cocktail of totalitarian politics, sexual abandon, romantic love story, and cracking songs with anything near the humanity and skill that is pulled off in Cabaret. If you haven't seen it, do it. Schnell!

At the centre of it all is Liza Minelli. This was the role she was meant to perform, and by 'eck she puts some welly into it. She owns pretty much every scene she's in, and sings the shit out of every song she's given.

I grew up with the soundtrack to this playing often in the house, and it's now a constant companion on my iPod too. Masterful. So I'll be humming this along the streets and alleys of Germany's capital. Life is a cabaret, old chum.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Lisa Minnelli - Cabaret by milkybarkid79

DVD
Amazon

SOUNDTRACK
Amazon

It doesn't have to be like this...

2009-07-20T17:39:00.008+01:00

House music is undeniably hedonistic. But sometimes it can also be immensely soulful too. And Someday from 1987 is an absolute, no arguments, stone-cold, soulful house classic. It's instantly recognisable, with that Marshall Jefferson bassline and piano riff having been sampled infinitely down the years. His production on this is nothing short of immaculate.

But it's the words that give Someday it's beauty, sung by CeCe Roger's honey-dipped voice. Early house music often had a yearningly utopian message. It was music that reached for a better future. You know - one love, one planet - all that crap. It may sound cheesy now, but listen to Someday and you get the feeling maybe that future's still worth striving for.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

CeCe Rogers - Someday by milkybarkid79

Wrap Your Arms Around Me

2009-07-16T10:35:00.007+01:00

A little thought experiment for you. Try to imagine yourself as a big, burly queen who cries salty tears into his moustache at musicals, pampers his Chihuahua, and has a collection of leather sailor hats in his wardrobe. Not working?

OK, now play this amazing Villa edit of Agnetha Fältskog and then try again. There you go! Easy, wasn't it?

Thanks to the wonderful Oh, Baby I Like it Raw blog for putting this on my radar. There are a couple more Villa edits from the Mindless Boogie stable available for free download here.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Agnetha Faltskog - Wrap Your Arms Around Me (Villa Edit) by milkybarkid79

Better Safe Than Sorry

2009-07-01T12:21:00.000+01:00

And here's a new mix for y'all too. It's the most recent one I've done and I made it for my very good friend James' birthday. One of his many virtues is that he's very safety conscious. So I called it the Better Safe Than Sorry mix.

It starts pretty mellow with a bit of Fleetwood Mac (you can't beat The Mac!) and St Etienne, but this is certainly a harder edged mix than many I've done. It moves through some bumping, disco-y rap and pretty camp early house, before then getting a bit more deep and dirty.

I made this mix before Michael Jackson died, but now the inclusion of the Holy Ghost! edit of the amazing Get On The Floor seems very apt. It's Jackson at his most positive and effervescent, and Holy Ghost! wisely leave it mostly alone. It's just drawn out a bit, with a longer breakdown in the middle and a few well chosen effects to bring it up to date.

And if you recognise the last track, try not to think too much about its most famous usage. It's the song Buffalo Bill is listening to in Silence Of The Lambs when he's doing his make-up and trying on the human skin mask. But don't let that put you off. It's a beautiful song about countering cynicism and doomy nihilism. I love it.

Tracklisting:
Fleetwood Mac: Over My Head, St Etienne: Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Andrew Weatherall Mix), The Bangles: Dub Like An Egyptian (Todd Terje Edit), Monie Love: It's A Shame (Red Zone Mix), Q-Tip: Breathe & Stop (The Revenge Mix), Fox The Fox: Precious Little Diamond, Raze: Break 4 Love, Lil' Louis & The World: I Called You, Kink & Neville: Full Flight, Azari & III: Hungry For The Power, Inner City: Big Fun (Magic Juan Mix), Laura Winslow: Neighbourhood Romeo, Laid Back: White Horse, Den Haan: Release The Beast, Visti & Meyland: All Nite (Trentemoller Remix), Caroline Crawford: Coming On Strong, Michael Jackson: Get On The Floor (Holy Ghost! Edit), Q Lazzarus: Goodbye Horses

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Better Safe Than Sorry Mix by milkybarkid78

Perfecting the Groove. You bitch.

2009-07-01T11:11:00.000+01:00

It's a well known scientific fact that the elusive entity called 'the Groove' was perfected in 1982-1983. People had been having a go at it since the 1400s - but early attempts were stymied by the fact it's pretty much impossible to get your funk on with a lute.

The 50s and early 60s were too wired on speed to really dig 'the Groove', and in the late 60s they liked to call themselves 'groovy' - but that's not the same thing at all. By the mid 70s they actually started to really get close - but there wasn't quite enough dorkiness around to truly find the sweet spot.

Because that's the thing... perfection of 'the Groove' actually relied on just the right alchemy of coolness and nerdiness that the early 80s supplied in almost obscene quantities. Take the dudes on the right, for instance. You wouldn't have thought they were members of the high Magi who'd driven 'the Groove' to it's zenith. They're from Denmark. It's like spies, though. The best ones are the quiet dudes who could be lab technicians, but actually know 478 ways to kill you with a lavatory brush.

So in 1983 Laid Back released White Horse on the world. It's got a stripped back drum pattern. It's got weird, staccatto peeps and sqwacks. It's got jerky, spazzy synths. And then the bassline rolls in, scoops up all those dorky elements and fuses them into one motherfucker of a perfect groove. If George Orwell had known there'd be music like this in 1983, he wouldn't have written 1984.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Laid Back - White Horse by milkybarkid79

The Final Frontier

2009-06-15T15:04:00.003+01:00

Space. I think it's the best trick dub ever taught modern dance music. The sonic experiments of a handful of blisteringly stoned studio technicians in Jamaica in the 1970s exploded like a sub-woofered depth charge through the emerging street sounds of London and New York. Disco, hip-hop, electro, and then house all carried the ball passed from King Tubby, Lee Perry et al.

The tools are easy enough, but the effects are massive. A drenching of echo... a touch of reverb... and suddenly you're not in a musically flat plane anymore. You're in three dimensions and they stretch to the distance. Much rock music often sounds confined, like each instrument played comes from the same point in space as all the others. Dance music isn't immune from this problem either, but I often feel at its best it's braver at blasting through the studio walls to see what's outside. It has dub to thank.

I've chosen two songs I think use space particularly well. The first is Baby I Love You So by Colourbox. It wears its dub credentials firmly on its sleeve. In fact it's a cover of perhaps the best known dub track ever, King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown. But Colourbox weren't grizzled Kingston rastas, they were two ex-punks from south east London excited by the musical possibilities of sequencers and samplers. In Baby I Love You So from 1986 they drop a mournful vocal over that monstrous bassline. But woven through are the echoing horn stabs and gunshot ricochets from old Western films that really turn this into the wonderful, cavernous beast it is. A year later they'd flip club music on it's head as M|A|R|R|S with Pump Up The Volume, the first UK house single to reach the top of the charts.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Colourbox - Baby I Love You So by milkybarkid79

Amazon.co.uk

Next up is a much more contemporary track, the decidedly chilly Johan Agebjörn remix of Glassy Candy's The Chameleon. The icy synths and Ida No's monotonously seductive cooings about suicide set the tone. But then the song starts to slip away from you into the distance. No, it's not slipping away... you're following it... down into a vortex of sound that's so hugely spacious it's actually claustrophobic. This is one of those pieces of music that's beautiful and creepy at the same time. I went to see the Swedish vampire film Let The Right One In recently, and it's hung itself upside down next to this song in the same cold corner of my mind.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Glass Candy - The Chameleon (Johan Agebjorn Remix) by milkybarkid79

Amazon.co.uk

My Juicy Soul

2009-06-05T12:20:00.007+01:00

Now this song really fizzes. I think it's the combination of the drums and the piano. It's jazz, certainly, but there's a direct funkiness here a lot of jazz lacks. Every time I play this my hips involuntarily start to move. They can't help it.

Nina Simone had such a formidable voice its not that often you find her willing to let it take a back seat. But on Jelly Roll she initially lets her fingers do the singing for her. When she does open her mouth it's a burst of joy. Nina often sang about the difficulties of being black. But here it's all about the good stuff: eating sweet potato pie from the pan, drinking gin in sips, digging all the new sounds...

And of course it's about sex too. "I could go for a ride on your sweet jelly roll, but I wouldn't give nothing for my juicy, juicy soul. Aint that bad? Aint that black? And aint that fine?"

Jelly Roll is on a wonderful Simone compilation which majors on her blues and jazz output, and avoids all the ones you've heard a million times before. I recommend it. Click on the links under the music player to buy it.

DOWNLOAD MP3>

Nina Simone - Jelly Roll by milkybarkid78

Amazon.co.uk

The Solar Flare Mix

2009-06-01T21:22:00.011+01:00

DJs often get a bad rap. It's just playing other people's music, of course. And in these days of mixing programs and auto-syncing, most DJs can't really be arsed to mix. Fuck it, just press a button. That's what I do.

But for some DJs, the best ones, mixing is just a side issue anyway. What's really important is (and this is going to sound straight out of Pseud's Corner...) 'the Journey'. The legendary Larry Levan couldn't really be bothered to mix most of the time. It didn't matter. He was worshiped because his sets at the Paradise Garage took dancers on an odyssey through the night. He would ride them through disco, psychedelic rock, funk, european new wave, electro... anything. But it wasn't just genre box-ticking. He was the custodian of a mood.

I wouldn't ever compare myself to Larry Levan. I don't have the genius, the club, the sound system, the scene, or the drug habit. But I do try to give my mixes a structure, a flow that attempts to mirror the dynamics of a whole evening out. Of all the mixes I've done to date I think the Solar Flare Mix nails this the best.

It starts how I would want to start my perfect evening: sundrenched, slightly woozy, tropical. Antena's Camino del Sol is the sound of cocktails on sun loungers and relaxing in the last rays. The Balearic atmosphere continues through the dubby remix of Paul Simon's classic Diamond's On The Soles Of Her Shoes and JJ Cale's hip shakingly sexy Ride Me High.

When Alice Smith sings about the sun going down in Love Endeavor, it's time to stir and get the dancing shoes on. Under Escort's Starlight the disco really gets moving, before the DFA turn Justin Timberlake into Superstition-era Stevie Wonder. Then things get a little darker.

Optimo's breakbeat rumble makes Chris Isaak's yearning voice the perfect expression of laser-spangled dancefloor infatuation. Kathy Diamond gives you the woman's perspective - dancing as a declaration of independence, before !!!'s cautionary tale of taking hedonism too far. For LCD Soundsystem, the abandon of the musical moment makes you feel like a teenager.

And then it's morning. And you've possibly ended up with someone a bit too young. Is that wrong? Who cares, it's been a good night.

Tracklisting:
Antena: Camino Del Sol (Todd Terje Edit), Holy Ghost: Walk On Air (Sun & Moon Mix), Tangoterje: Diamonds Dub, JJ Cale: Ride Me High (Joakim Edit), Alice Smith: Love Endeavor (Maurice Fulton Mix), Escort: Starlight, Justin Timberlake: My Love (DFA Mix), Optimo: Wicked Turntable Games, Newcleus: Jam On It (4Track Reference), Kathy Diamond: All Woman (Maurice Fulton Mix), !!!: Must Be The Moon (Emperor Machine Mix), LCD Soundsystem: Sound Of Silver, Junior Boys: In The Morning (Hot Chip Remix), Junior Boys: In The Morning

DOWNLOAD MP3>

The Budget Airline Mix

2009-05-28T08:50:00.005+01:00

Making a mix can be tricky. Sometimes you want to go somewhere with it, but it takes you elsewhere. A bit like a budget airline. Actually this one went pretty much where I wanted it to, and I didn't find myself miles off-course with a heavy bag and a pocket full of the wrong money.

There's something I love about familiar old songs tweaked slightly for a more danceable mood. There are a few examples here: The wonderful Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve reworking of Roscoe by Midlake, Todd Terje's subtle oomph to America's psychedelic Horse With No Name, and the Cousin Cole treatment of The Boss. But there's plenty of disco ball here too. Every Dub by the Sunburst Band builds and builds until it literally bursts into sunshine, and Aeroplane use Kathy Diamond's slinky voice to such good effect on Whispers that I don't think they've bettered it yet. Cabin crew, seats for landing.

Tracklisting:
Midlake: Roscoe (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve Mix), America: Horse With No Shame (Wade Nichols Edit), Boat Club: Warmer Climes, Gameplay: Beirut Disco, Lykke Li: Little Bit, Bruce Springsteen: I'm On Fire (Cousin Cole's Bad Desire Remix), Sunburst Band: Every Dub, Beats International: Dub Be Good To Me, Eric B & Rakim: I Know You've Got Soul, Chic: I Want Your Love (Todd Terje Edit), Aeroplane feat. Kathy Diamond: Whispers, Prinzhorn Dance School: You Are The Space Invader (Optimo Espacio Mix), Charles B: Lack Of Love (Club Mix), Cut Copy: Lights & Music, New Order: Temptation (Secret Machines Mix)

DOWNLOAD MP3>