Random Wednesday

March 18, 2020 — Leave a comment

I know that, nowadays, this just sounds like average electronic music but think about the context: about late 1998 we were just coming off the Spice Girls—which made sense in their own way—and going into all sorts of horrible pop what would dominate the airwaves until mid 2000s. Something like this was groundbreaking. Actually there wasn’t “something like” this, it was unique.

Back then there was no internet keeping artists communicated with the audience, and music just seemed to disappear from the mainstream. (I’m not sure how many people can fully understand the seriousness of that statement in today’s world where EVERYTHING seems to be in the mainstream and we’re informed of what the most obscure artist/band is up to, ad nauseam … )

Around late 1998, early 1999, the French electronic scene had gone quiet: Dimitri, Daft Punk, Cassius, Air, all seemed like figments of my imagination. And Rap was full into the fake-thug R&B scenario, monotonous material … I don’t quite remember the timeline but I remember that there was nothing representing real Rap except for the Beastie Boys, until Eminem came. (I remember Wu-Tang/Method and Cypress Hill somewhere around there and the Jason Nevins/Run DMC remix but it wasn’t enough to have a scene and, again, it seemed like music just disappeared.)

But one day I heard this. Wait …

• Fatboy Slim – Love Island

Too Good Monday

March 16, 2020 — Leave a comment

Tried many styles but the “free” one,
instead of writing a rhyme, I’d rather be one.

• Chemical Brothers – Get Yourself High (feat. K-OS)

“This is what happens when a record company and band gives me a video and says do whatever you want. It was assigned to me by the legendary UK commissioner Carole Burton-Fairbrother, now retired. I edited this on a laptop on a plane to Chicago. I rearranged the time sequencing of the actual movie. The bad guy with the big boombox is actually a minor henchman who dies in the first 30 minutes, but in my visual remix he’s the ultimate antagonist. The lip syncing was motion captured, then applied to 3D models of jaws. I didn’t know 100% if the technology was achievable with the time and money, nor did I know if we could actually get rights to a Chinese kung fu flick. It was a risky venture, but Carole gave me a check and then left me alone. She had some major balls.” — Joseph Kahn

Remix Friday

February 28, 2020 — Leave a comment

“Genius is an overworked term but I’m struggling to think of anything else that defines him [Andrew Weatherall].” — Irvine Welsh

• Saint Etienne – Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Andrew Weatherall’s A Mix In Two Halves Remix)

Future Thursday

February 27, 2020 — Leave a comment

“Though Weatherall turned in just the third ever BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix back in 1993, his 1996 entry is usually held up as not only his own best, but one of the finest in the series’s history, a masterclass in depth and poise. There are four cuts in the tracklist from Two Lone Swordsmen – his then recently formed group with Keith Tenniswood, which proved the most durable and creatively rewarding of all Weatherall’s many alliances – including an introductory airing to the classic Glide By Shooting. With a subaquatic melody, an undercurrent of wibbling noise and a haunted air about it, it is pretty strange for a deep house song. It also slaps, and sounds even more robust as it hurtles past early on in the mix – a testament to Weatherall’s ability to constantly improve on source material even when it was his own.”

• Two Lone Swordsmen – Glide By Shooting

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/18/andrew-weatherall-10-greatest-tracks