These tracks have all been buzzing around the blogosphere this week, and in fact some of them are so epic that I’m going to pipe down and let them do the talking. Here they are all together for you to judge for yourselves. Woody XIII
Tensnake – Keep Believin’
Hot Toddy feat. Jennifer Rhonwen – Down To Love
Bibio – Lovers Carvings (Catz n’ Dogz remix)
Visitor – Love (Club Edit)
MF Borat – Tower of Ears (feat. Diana Ross) – MF Doom produced by Sacha Baron Cohen. Yes, it’s true.
Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill (We Have Band Remix)
Monarchy – Love Get Out Of My Way (Holy Ghost [feat. Dixon] Remix)
Bart B More – Brap (Preview) - OH MY GOD!
Monthly Archives: June 2010
It’s A Kinda Magic
Abracada really are getting it right. They seem to be plucking releases straight from my happy place and putting them out there every fortnight.
First we had The Krays, then Poni Hoax, now The Aikiu – with remixes of course from Azari & III (it would be a faux pas to release without an Azari & III remix these days, non?) and the mighty Mighty Mouse.
The label is brand new, and was set up by Manu Barron and Dirk De Ruyck in April 2010. Both are absolute party royalty, Manu being responsible for the rise to fame of Brodinski and Das Pop, as well as A&R chief for our favourite Social Club, and Dirk launching Eskimo Recordings and managing both Villa and Aeroplane (and I think we all know how I feel about them).
There’s a little self-conscious reflection on the website about introducing another label into an already-crowded market: “You may ask yourselves; does the world need another record label? Isn’t the music industry a smoking pile of rubble, relentlessly battered during the digital revolution and toppled like house of cards on a windy day in downtown Chicago?” but the difference lies in the level of skill attached to this new venture, and the blurring of boundaries of the genres it encompasses.
The first five Abracada releases are as follows:
17 May: The Krays feat. Ebony Bones – We’re Ready When You Are
31 May: Poni Hoax – We Are The Bankers
14 June: The Aikiu – Just Can’t Sleep
28 June: Villa feat. The New Sins - Beats of Love
12 July: MikIX the Cat feat. Shannon – The Key
I asked Dirk why they’d chosen these as the first records to represent the Abracada mission and he said: “The most important thing for us is to be wide-ranging, not 100% straight-up dance music, and secondly that we build a platform for the artists we manage, what we like and what we want to support.” So pooling their contacts and combining artists under their management umbrella with interesting and topical remixers brings the collaborative element to the fore and produces an ever-dynamic sound.
As for The Aikiu, it’s not hard to see how this made the grade. Alex Aikiu, Julien Vichnievsky and Cedric Pilooski are the maestros behind this new act, formed in Paris after Nile Rodgers (of Chic fame) told Alex he was like ‘Madonna with a dick…but with the voice of Simon Le Bon.’ His haunting new wave vocals are put to good use tackling the subject matter of Just Can’t Sleep: the paranoid, hedonistic glamour of 70s and 80s New York.
So with Villa’s excellent collaboration with The New Sins (responsible for It Doesn’t Work Like That, and keyboards for New Young Pony Club) and MikIX the Cat including remixes from Kingdom and Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team it looks like Abracada is already fulfilling its destiny of uniting the disco with the breaks with the dubstep with the house with the rave to give us one hell of a party.
Exclusive: The Krays ft. Ebony Bones – We’re Ready When You Are (Manaré Remix)
Poni Hoax – We Are The Bankers (Renaissance Man Dub Mix)
The Aikiu – Just Can’t Sleep (Stupid Human Remix)
Pre-order The Aikiu Just Can’t Sleep EP here.
Can you ever have too much clarinet in a dance track?
Well, can you? I don’t think so. I feel like I’m in an episode of Jeeves and Wooster, (looks like I am: check the name of this one) and I like it.
Round Table Knights have done us proud with their latest EP Cut To The Top with vocals from Reverend Beat-Man. Out on Made to Play on 19th July.
MTP031 Round Table Knights – Cut To The Top – ‘Cut To The Top feat. Reverend Beat-Man’ by Made to Play
Party Street
This mix reminds us of the twisted ‘boozecore’ dancing we can’t help but do when we hear a Camel mix, and the tribal beats of the likes of Solo and Renaissance Man that we’ve missed a little bit while we’ve been waving our arms in the air to some floaty disco. It’s a welcome journey we take here through Alistair Albrecht’s old Western harmonica, into the dark corners of Shir Khan’s remix skills, and seamlessly out into the light with a little Four Tet.
Catch Kenko at Thursday’s Dyslexic Street Party at Manchester’s already-legendary Fac251 alongside A1 Bassline and resident AudioFun, and in the mean time here’s something to bounce to.
1. Sky Motel – Loose Shus
2. Loot – Dollkraut
3. Speakeasy (Renaissance Man Remix) – Manaré
4. Heureka – Vincent Thomas
5. Harm – Alastair Albrecht
6. Cry All Night – Daniel Steinberg
7. Atom Seed (Solo Remix) – Funkasaurus
8. Kiss Kiss – Parov Stelar
9. In Nightclubs (Camel Remix) – Malente & Dex
10. Divisive (French Fries Remix) – We Have Band
11. Drive-In (Drop the Lime’s B-Live Mix) – Thunderheist
12. La Musica (Shir Khan Remix) – Munk
13. We Want Your Gypsy Blue – Nelski
14. 1999 (Tim Green Remix) – Cassius
15. Una Pena – Stimming
16. Sing – Four Tet
Picture for the day
Woody’s Roundup
Warehouses! Oh how we love them, and I must confess, I’ve not been to Bocking Street warehouse in London Fields, the site of tonight’s Dollop party. It’s Chrome Hoof‘s album launch, so they’re playing live, with DJ sets from Simian Mobile Disco and Andrew Weatherall. Consider carefully your choice of evening entertainment this weekend, because there’s a bevvy of beauties to pick from. Modular are having their Summer Sundance at Cable on Saturday, and the lineup is pretty much poetry – Tensnake, The Swiss, Treasure Fingers, Mighty Mouse, and The c90s. The ever-fabulous Jac The Disco are playing at Orlando Boom at the Queen of Hoxton, and Stopmakingme is playing at Be@Proud at Proud Camden. Eeek!
These songs make us happy. Grab them all zipped up here: Woody XII
Acid Washed – General Motors, Detroit, America (Black Strobe Remix)
MGMT – Electric Feel (Aeroplane Remix)
Snowden – Black Eyes (Le Castle Vania Remix)
Mastiksoul feat. Carla Carlim – Baila Bonito
Mighty Mouse – Song for Ellen
The Hundred in the Hands – Ghosts
Kele – Tenderoni (XXXchange Dub) - from Kele Okereke’s new solo album The Boxer, out 21 June. If this is the nice little electro-vibe, we’re excited.
Hot Boys, Dancing
Yay! A new mix from Stopmakingme. Dan Avery’s been pretty busy working on the Kill Em All nights and record label, and finding time to write for Dummy Magazine too, so we’re doubly pleased that on top of all that we’ve got a little mix, recorded at Hot Boy Dancing Spot at Dalston Superstore. Munk’s La Musica and Poni Hoax’s We Are The Bankers sound pretty great.
Stopmakingme – Recorded live at Hot Boy Dancing Spot (May 2010) by stopmakingme













