Shadow Dancer

I was really doubly extra pleased to see Shadow Dancer on the lineup for the next Kill Em All at Fabric on 20 May. I’ve been meaning to write something about them since the title track from their Murder Room EP exploded across dancefloors, then Tiga reminded me to buy the whole EP by dropping Parallax at the beginning of his 6 Music show.

Brothers Paul and Alan Farrier have also remixed a couple of my all-time favourites, including Chromeo‘s Needy Girl and Chilly GonzalesYou Can Dance, both of which add just enough dirty-dirty to funk them up further without ruining a great. After album Golden Traxe came out on Boys Noize Records in 2009 (very fitting as they so encapsulate the Boys Noize sound) they kept things ticking over until a resurgence of new material this year, with the forthcoming Macid EP also on BNR, and track Silver on the Boys Noize Presents Super Acid compilation.

Chilly Gonzales – You Can Dance (Shadow Dancer Remix)

AND in a perfect link-up to last week’s Beyond The Wizards Sleeve post, they start this vintage podcast for XLR8R with the BTWS remix of Franz Ferdinand‘s Ulysses, which is effing great. There are newer mixes a-plenty on their Soundcloud page, I just really like this one.

Shadow Dancer – XLR8R Podcast,  February 2009

Tracklist (42 records in 50 minutes)
01 The Parallax Corporation – “Whore of the Floor”
02 Franz Ferdinand – “Ulysses (Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve Remix)”
03 Grace Jones – “Williams’ Blood (Aeroplane Remix)”
04 John Carpenter – “The End (Part 1: Disco Version)”
05 LFO – “You Have to Understand”
06 Joe Smooth – “Promised Land”
07 Prince – “Controversy”
08 Elecktroids – “Future Tone”
09 Rainer Werner Bassfinder – “Minimal Scarf Fuckers Drown!”
10 Zapp – “More Bounce to the Ounce”
11 Telex – “Moskow Diskow”
12 Nightmares on Wax – “Sal Batardes”
13 Pet Shop Boys – “Being Boring (Extended Mix)”
14 The Paradise – “I’m in Love with You”
15 The Cars – “Candy-O”
16 Herbie Hancock – “Rockit”
17 Luke Vibert – “Propertronics”
18 Shadow Dancer – “Together”
19 Fantom – “Faithfull”
20 The Bucketheads – “Whew!”
21 Zoot Woman – “Living in a Magazine (Paper Faces Remix)”
22 Octave One – “Black Water”
23 Friendly Fires – “On Board”
24 Jedi Knights – “Public Funk”
25 Hashim – “Al-Naafyish”
26 Chromeo – “Needy Girl (Shadow Dancer Remix)”
27 Alan Braxe & Fred Falke – “Intro”
28 Infiniti – “Game One”
29 The Plan – “Escapism”
30 Clark – “New Year Storm”
31 Carl Craig – “A Wonderful Life”
32 Giorgio Moroder – “From Here to Eternity”
33 New Order – “Perfect Kiss”
34 Mr. De’ – “Superugly”
35 Silicone Soul – “Right on 4 Tha Darkness”
36 Ric Ocasek – “Jimmy Jimmy”
37 Superdiscount – “Fast Track”
38 Bandulu – “Weak Heart”
39 Clor – “Good Stuff”
40 Underworld – “Born Slippy”
40 Visage – “Frequency 7″
42 Daft Punk – “Superheroes”

Danger Mouse

A rare foray into the world of Hip Hop from us here at One From The Vaults, but I’ve loved Danger Mouse since my dear friend Bobby played me The Only One in our teens after the boys had brought their lino down to our local shopping precinct and had a break dancing competition (oh those days).

Danger Mouse has had a huge influence on all spheres of music, not only releasing his own material but producing greats such as Gorillaz‘s Demon Days, Damon Albarn’s The Good The Bad and The Queen, and Beck‘s Modern Guilt, and continues to produce under a variety of aliases. He’s been the thread over the years that has connected many of my very different favourites, such as his work with James Mercer of The Shins as Broken Bells (the beautiful self-titled album came out in March 2010).

Danger Mouse catapulted to world fame in 2004 with a postmodernist combination of samples from The Beatles The White Album and vocals from Jay-Z‘s The Black Album, which became DM’s edits collection The Grey Album. He then teamed up with Cee Lo Green to become Gnarls Barkley (the name actually started as a combination of parodies of Prince Charles and Bob Marley) with the first single Crazy going to number 1 on download sales before the CD was even released, followed by the St Elsewhere album in 2006, and The Odd Couple in 2008.

Something that will please the hip hop heads; he then collaborated with the mighty MF DOOM to form DANGERDOOM, releasing The Mouse and The Mask in 2005, and remixing Zero 7′s Somersault (beautifully – listen here).

Yet another string to his bow is the collaboration with Sparklehorse, producing an album called Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul, enlisting the legendary David Lynch for the photobook. Due to a dispute with EMI the album was not released officially until 12 July 2010, after Mark Linkous, the lead singer, killed himself in March of that year. Poetically anarchistic, there were rumours of plans to release a full illustrated jewel case with a blank CD-R included in it, labeled, ”For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.”

That brings us up to last year, with the wonderful Broken Bells. If you don’t own the album, you should download it this instant, it’s just the right side of dreamy and in this sunny spell we’re having it will give you a silly grin all day.  I’m immensely pleased to see that there’s yet another project about to come to fruition; a collaboration with Italian composer Daniele Luppi on a new album called Rome, out May this year, featuring vocals from Jack Black and Norah Jones. The lead single Two Against One is below.

I thought it was also worth revisiting the start of it all, this little gem:
Danger Mouse and Jemini – The Only One

Woody’s Roundup

Oh gawd. Even conveying to you the tip of the iceberg as far as this weekend’s Bank Holiday clubbing goes is going to make my head explode, so safe to say, Easter in London Town is always ridiculous and filled with line-ups that defy belief. What I love about special weekends is the collaborations between huge names, such as Turbo and Kompakt getting together tonight at Islington Metal Works (verrrrry nice – see above), with Gesaffelstein and Thomas Von Party among others.

So, here are a select few:
Tonight: Snap Crackle and Pop are coming to XOYO with The Martinez Brothers and Matt Walsh.
Tomorrow: bear with me here, but, Ministry. I know how we feel about Ministry of Sound but Simian Mobile Disco are doing a DJ set alongside Hot Chip and Mowgli for We Love…. Pretty monumental. Counter Culture and Pelski presents sees the return of Justin and Christian Martin, alongside Zombie Disco Squad‘s Nat Self and Hanne and Lore. A very nice line up in a fun venue with a house party vibe. Joy Orbison and Falty DL are at Cable for We Fear Silence, and KOKO has the delights of Uffie, Yuksek and Brodinski. If you’re heading Brixton-wards, Plan B hosts Raf Daddy and Jesse Rose for Community.
Fabric is outdoing itself with Saturday sets from Jamie Jones, Steve Bug and Andrew Weatherall, and Trailer Trash with Hannah Holland and Noze on Sunday. After last night’s offering from Carte Blanche and Tensnake they’re doing pretty well for Easter. Sunday also sees Metro Area at East Village.

This week’s tracks are a few new offerings from bands we like, and a few loud-and-shouties for going out.

Nat Self – When I’m Stoned I Miss You (my favourite Stones song)
Mitzi – All I Heard (Cassian Remix)
Gonzales – Working Together (Boys Noize Vox Mix)
Digitalism – Two Hearts
Holy Ghost! – I Know I Hear (Jacques Renault Remix)
French Horn Rebellion – Up All Night (Clubfeet Remix)
Sebrok – Don’t Forget To Go Home (Martin Woener Remix)
Woody 47.zip

Release-wise, for me there is none other than Turbo Century, part I out today. I love commemorative objects, especially in limited editions, and this just makes me go oooooooh. Precioussss.

Beyond the Book Club


Richard Norris has been quietly responsible for a lot of my musical education. Not only his more well-documented work with Erol Alkan as Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve, but also bringing to my attention on the Re-animations album greats such as Chemical BrothersBattle Scars, Goldfrapp‘s Happiness and Tracey Thorn‘s Raise The Roof. He wrote the official biography of Paul Oakenfold, he is one half of The Droyds (go and look up their take on Duran Duran- Girls On Pills. If you don’t know it, you should) and to top it all off, alongside Soft Cell‘s David Ball he is one half of The Grid, whose Swamp Thing was my first taste of techno. Most recently he’s been developing his psychedia and ‘freakbeat’ for The Time & Space Machine, and released the self-titled album on Tirk Recordings in March 2010.

Richard is out on the town this weekend, and this Thursday he’s playing for our good friends at The Book Club, alongside Leo Zero and Guilty Pleasures‘ Sean Rowley. Disco and party tunes at their best. See the event page here.

Here’s a little taster of what you can expect:
Richard Norris Minimix February 2011

Hercules and Love Affair- My House (Leo Zero)

Erol meets Metronomy


We were all pretty excited, understandably, to hear Erol Alkan‘s little tease; that he’d be remixing a band beginning with M, and after the immense hype for Metronomy‘s new album The English Riviera, including a booking for Glastonbury this summer, it could be no other. The album is beautiful and wonderful, and I’m even happier because the track Mr Alkan has chosen to rework is my favourite, The Bay.

There’s only a snippet to preview at the moment, but I’ve still got it on repeat. Could this be any more perfect???
Metronomy – The Bay (Erol Alkan’s Extended Rework) PREVIEW by Erol Alkan

Woody’s Roundup

It’s that middle-of-the-month syndrome where you’ve got to the point already where you can’t afford to eat, and strangely; when you most need to stay in and conserve funds and energy, you somehow end up blowing your last pennies on the biggest dirtiest rave-ups. I want to say a big thank you to the Queen of Hoxton for easing the pocket with a great rooftop opening party last night. The brand new roof space is ready for the summer and we partied like it was 1999.

Tonight we’re migrating eastwards to The Nest, to see a bevvy of our favourites DJ for Scandalism, The Magician, Russ Chimes and The C90s to name but a few. Warm bring Mark E and Cottam to Plastic People- greats both, and Mark E’s Deny This has been doing the rounds in the last couple of weeks, and has generally received hoots of delight as a forerunner to the new album on Spectral Sound. If your tastes bend towards parties of the warehouse variety, then BokBok and Egyptrixx are playing at a secret location for Beat Redemption.

Tomorrow it’s all about rave-and-save, as all proceeds are earmarked for the save Japan disaster fund. Head down to Corsica Studios for Horse Meat Disco, Idjut Boys and friends Digging Deep for Japan, and on the river Cable hosts Dance for Japan with the Zombie Sound System crew.

And let us not forget the mighty Record Store Day tomorrow across the country. Last year was steaming hot weather and we trundled merrily along to Pure Groove (sadly online only now, but still worth a visit) for a few drinks while we listened to and purchased some good music. Sounds pretty perfect to me, and there are events all day at Rough Trade East and West, among many others.

Some tracks for the week? Oh go on then.
Death from Above 1979 – Black History Month (Stopmakingme Remix)
MixHell – Antigalactic (Jokers of the Scene Remix)
Mario & Vidis feat. Ernesto – Changed (Radio Edit)
Nite Jewel – Am I Real? (Classixx TPS-L2 Mix)
LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem (Tommie Sunshine, Vande and Gross Edit)
In Flagranti – Worse for Wear (Punks Jump Up Remix)
Mark E – Deny This (Extended Version)
Woody 46.zip

NB: Rapidshare has taken to showing people a little message saying encrypted downloads cannot be started unless you upgrade to RapidPro. You can still say no to this and download as usual with the ‘slow download’ option. Ignore them: stick it to The Man.

 

 

 

 

Benoit & Sergio- Modern Day Storytellers


Picture the scene: it’s the first warm day of the year, your limbs feel like they’re moving properly for the first time in months, and you’re walking through tree-dappled sunshine early in the morning when there’s no-one around. A suitable soundtrack to that is the icing on the cake, and it happened to me when contentedly listening to Soul Clap‘s Social Experiment 002 compilation and Benoit & Sergio‘s Principles came filtering through.

I recognised the characteristically chilled sounds from another gem that Emily and I had been enjoying earlier in the month, the equally lovely Walk and Talk, with the unforgettable vocal My Baby Takes K All Day…

Anyway, a little bit of background. Benoit Simone and Sergio Giorgini are based in Washington D.C and Berlin (who isn’t dual-homed these days?), having grown up Benoit in Paris and Sergio in Iowa, and then meeting at a party in Washington in 2008. It didn’t take them long to produce something excellent, with their first EP release in 2009: What I’ve Lost, on Bruno Pronsato’s thesongsays label. This was followed on Spectral Sound with Midnight People. They then had the honour of the launch EP (Where The Freaks, including Walk and Talk, in February this year) for the IMMENSE Visionquest label (started by none other than Seth TroxlerShaun Reeves, Lee Curtiss and Ryan Crosson). They released pretty quickly after that on DFA, with Boy Trouble at the end of February.

Sergio’s also one half of NDF, a member of Birds & Souls, and has been releasing on Wolf + Lamb since 2007, so the pair have most definitely earnt their stripes in the dance production world.

If you want to try-before-you-buy here’s a little podcast from Benoit & Sergio on XLR8R this January. I’ve read often of these two being called ‘storytellers’ in their records, and this mix is a definite genre-journey through their likes and influences. The first two records are Principles and Walk and Talk respectively, so you can see just what I mean as you walk around in this beautiful sunshine.

Benoit & Sergio – XLR8R Podcast January 2011

Tracklist:

01 Benoit & Sergio “Principles” (Unreleased)
02 Benoit & Sergio “Walk and Talk” (Visionquest)
03 Lee Foss “U Got Me” (Hot Creations)
04 Bobby Caldwell “You Belong To Me” (Polygram)
05 Talking Heads “Sugar On My Tongue” (Sire)
06 Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Round and Round” (4AD)
07 LCD Soundsystem “I Can Change” (DFA)
08 Midnight Magic “Beam Me Up (Jacques Renault Remix)” (Permanent Vacation)
09 Deee-Lite “What Is Love?” (Elektra)
10 Adonis “No Way Back” (Trax)
11 Benoit & Sergio “Midnight People” (Spectral)
12 Daft Punk “Make Love” (Virgin)
13 Atlas Sound “Farmland Fantasy” (4AD)
14 Banjo or Freakout “Archangel (Burial Cover)” (Hyperdub)
15 Belong “October Language” (Carpark)

 

Track for the Day

I’ve been waiting for this little gem for a while now, and am pleased to announce that it was finally released today.

Amsterdam’s Auxiliary tha Masterfader is a specialist in adding the right amount of disco to electro-infused pop, and we first noticed him when we stumbled on his own productions, particularly Keep On Moving. He released his own Disco Bitch EP on Black Label in April 2010, and since then has been amassing a collection of remixes and originals full of big bass and disco vocals.

So Dear Paris are definitely a fitting choice, hailing from Stuttgart and describing themselves as ‘indie synthpop.’ Tokyo is part of the Synchronize Remixes EP, which you can buy here, and we’ve been lucky enough to get a download:

Dear Paris - Tokyo (Auxiliary tha Masterfader Remix)

Well worth a listen too is the Auxiliary tha Masterfader Remix of Feels Right by label-mates MeloManics, from March this year:

MeloManics – Feels Right (Auxiliary tha Masterfader Remix)

G’Day G’Day

It’s been a while since we talked about Cassian, but rest assured, he’s not been far from our minds. As one of the Bang Gang artists (his last EP I Like What You’re Doing was out on Bang Gang in February and is well worth a purchase) we pay him special attention, because as far as we’re concerned they can do no wrong. He’s a busy bee this year, with his YEW.S.A and YEWro tours after the EP (each with a mixtape to match), and remixing for everyone under the sun, including most recently Human Life‘s In It Together, released on fellow Aussie label One Love.

Does the man ever sleep? It seems not, as this morning he’s kindly offered us his G’Day G’Day mix,which is a recording of a set he did for the wonderful Triple J radio on 9 April, including his classic re-take on label-mates Bag Raiders, and oh sweet Jesus, his remix of Those Dancing Days by Monkey Safari.

God Bless you Australia.

Cassian – G’Day G’Day Mix
Tracklist:
G’day G’day Intro – Cassian
Phoenix – Daft Punk
The Freaks – Strip Steve
Caraibi (Tom Flynn Remix) – Mowgli
Reckless With Your Love (DJ Sneak’s Stereo Ganstaz Remix) – Azari & iii
Those Dancing Days (Cassian Remix) – Monkey Safari
Suffa Groove – Radio Slave
I Gave You Love (Adulture & Ghosts of Venice Remix) – Rampage & Nader
11% Acid – Feadz
Getting High – Cassian
Destination – J Paul Getto
What If You Wanted More (Tensnake Remix) [feat Joanna Christie] – Jake Island
More (Pirupa & Pigi Remix) – Star Traxx & Riva Starr
Muchness (KiNK Mix) – Tong & Spoon
I Like What You’re Doing (Nightriders Remix) – Cassian
Fall Away From Love – Danny Daze
Point – Nice7
Shooting Stars (Cassian’s Re-appropriation) – Bag Raiders
I Need You Tonight – Punkin’ Machine
Cheaters – Swivel Hips
Zooloo (Pleasurekraft Remix) – Saeed Younana
Colorado Strings (Cassian Remix) – Scuola Furano
You Can Dance (Shadow Dancer Remix) – Chilly Gonzales
Larrys Exotic Blend – Zappe
I Like What You’re Doing (Isaac Tichauer Remix) – Cassian (Hands Up Edit)