Cold Comforts Mix Pt 1

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

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Return of the Mac

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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.
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Buy it here, you sniveling little mortals.

Amazon.co.uk

The horror, the horror!

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

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.

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