I am sure you're sick of all this disco nonsense, but one parting thought: is disco a good business idea? (via ILM). Love how she name drops Hercules and Love Affair and Chromeo. Which reminds me, I gotta pick up the H&LA album. From what I've heard of it, dance music suits Antony's voice very well.
About a year ago, when Sally Shapiro was about all I listened to, I was looking for a good italo disco compilation that inspired the music of Disco Romance. Last week, I found Disco Italia: Essential Italo Disco Classics 1977-1985.I listened to a few tracks in the store, and liked a few, including a Kano song called "Now Baby Now." Kano is one of the most famous italo disco bands, and its music is hard to find, with no proper reissues in sight. They're most famous for being sampled by Tag Team on "Whoomp! (There It Is)."
But to my disappointment, the collection overall is pretty boring. The songs are either extremely annoying ("Burning Love," "Tina Are You Ready") or try very hard to sound like American soul and funk ("Dreaming," "Love (Is Gonna Be On Your Side)." Red Dragon Band's "Let Me Be Your Radio (Part 1)", sounds oddly like The Rapture's "House of Jealous Lovers." This comp has little to do with what I enjoy about italo disco - that is: spacey, synth heavy, dramatic dance pop. The liner notes are very informative. I just wish they would have included songs by more of the artists they praise: Capsicum, Vivien Vee, Change and Capricorn.
I can't differentiate what I'm hearing on this comp with what I hear on Disco Deutschland Disco: Disco, Funk & Philly Anthems From Germany 1975-1980. It's a far more interesting listen, with fun gems like "You've Got The Power, Pt. 1" and "Fashion Pack (Studio 54)". Whatever genre you call it, Disco Deutschland did it better. To be quite honest, it's all just European disco to me.
A few months back, Disco Workout posted an interview with San Francisco DJ Bobby Viteritti, one of the most famous San Francisco DJ's of the late 70's and winner of 1979's Billboard DJ of The Year. There's an amazing piece of SF history: a free MP3 from a party at the Trocadero Transfer in 1979. This is the real thing -- what people really danced to in 1970's San FranDisco. I was surprised by the fantastic sound quality. Needless to say, there's lots of Donna Summer and Diana Ross.
Persimmon, 1964 (Source). I saw this beautiful collage/painting at the SF MOMA in 1999 with my friend Amanda. I never quite forgot it. Estate, 1963 (Source). Persimmon Coronation (Runts), 2007 (Source). The fruit revisited. His work in recent years took advantage of lots of white space. Winter Pool, 1959. One of the few mixed media sculptures I took a photo of at the MOMA in NYC April 2007. Speaking In Tongues, 1983. Not my favorite TH album cover design (despite the award), but certainly my favorite TH album!
One of my favorite artists passed away last week. Robert Rauschenberg was an artist I was genuinely excited about anywhere his work was exhibited. To me, his work was always alive, vivid, imaginative and exciting.
Listening to "Shove It" on Santogold's new album, I am taken back to 2005 when a lot of music fans had an investment in grime and British hip-hop, thinking it would breakthrough to American audiences in no time. I was definitely a believer, completely fascinated by everything I heard from Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Wiley, Lady Sovereign and all the young MC's on Run The Road.
Santogold is from New York, but Switch, a remixer and producer of the track, is British although I don't think he has any ties to the grime scene (M.I.A. is not considered a grime artist). "Shove It" has an East London dub sound that makes you smell the doner kebabs and see the track suits and trainers. I know she's really singing about the pride of poor creatives in NYC, but it drives my imagination. The song overall reminds me of Riko and Target's "Chosen One" from Run The Road.
Spank Rock makes an appearance on the track and for once, he keeps his rhymes relatively clean. He changes his flow on here as well, and I had to check the liner notes to make sure it was him.
Listening to Madonna's Hard Candy where she finally delivers on the promise of a completely disco, dance pop album that Confessions On a Dance Floor was supposed to be, I wonder what the queen of pop could have done by filtering the East London sound.
Hard Candy 's got the beep-beep's and whistles from Donna Summer's "Bad Girl", sweeping strings and lots of funky bass. I'm a fan of "Heartbeat," "Miles Away," and "Beat Goes On," especially when Kanye sings the pre-chorus after doing his rap. "Incredible" brings back her debut album singing voice.
After over a week of listening, I realize Hard Candy doesn't have the return listens of Confessions, the album with "Get Together," one of my favorite Madonna songs of all time. I understand her motives for making the album, but I'm not satisfied.
On my short (20 minute max) commute to work these past 2 weeks, I've been popping in Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours album and I am in complete heaven. It's an amazing album to start the day. That IS the power of music -- just one more thing to be excited about in the morning.
I've been listening to "Hearts on Fire" for what feels like a year now and "Lights and Music" has been saturated in my brain. The album mixes are longer and I'm falling in love with them again.
The real surprise is the incredible "Strangers In The Wind." It's a beautiful marriage of Fleetwood Mac's melancholia with mid-80's synthpop balladry. It was telling that they put Tusk-era Mac on their So Cosmic mix -- I just never thought it would take shape on their actual album. So haunted, indeed.
I've been hearing In Ghost Colours play at my local coffee shop. I've been hearing it through car windows (my apartment is on a deceptively loud street corner). And I've been seeing posters advertised everywhere for their show at Mezzanine this Saturday. This sold-out, dream team bill also features Simian Mobile Disco, and I will be fortunate enough to attend.
Check out their label Modular Recording's website, which has a curious display of "gay vague" Web 2.0 design.
Even though Morrissey's Greatest Hits album is fan exploitation of Bjorkian proportions, there are a few things I've enjoyed about its release.
The two new songs "That's How People Grow Up" and "All You Need is Me" are pretty good. The former is definitely a show stopper during his live sets. Something about the song sounds a bit forced, especially when you hear how natural "Everyday is Like Sunday" comes off. Still it's nice to hear how big, sweeping and dramatic the studio version becomes. "All You Need is Me" sounds a lot like Bona Drag's "Disappointed," and there's a beautiful vocal melody bit around 2:34 when he sings "You don't like me, but you love me, either way you're wrong." It also sounds like he's double tracking his vocals on parts of this song. Is this the first time he's done that? I like it.
The packaging is very nice. I like the the little icons created to represent each song, which are then patterned throughout. It's printed on heavy card stock and I think it's one of the best Morrissey album packages.
Still, there's no doubt this collection is a complete act of pop star narcissism. The cover photo and photo of his bare ass on the album sleeve are at least 15 years old -- never mind that the majority of the songs are from his last two albums. But you definitely get the feeling that he put this together, and that these are his personal greatest hits. These are the songs he's most proud of and that's probably what makes it interesting for any fan.
There's also an insert that says "Coming Soon. A very special Morrissey release" that will be made to order and not available in stores. What could this possible be? I hope it's not these new t-shirts.
I did a remix of Radiohead's "Nude" for their marketing experiment. It's my first ever remix, and I certainly had a blast putting it together. If you like it, please vote for it using the link above. I'd certainly dance to it.
About a year ago, when Sally Shapiro was about all I listened to, I was looking for a good italo disco compilation that inspired the music of Disco Romance. Last week, I found Disco Italia: Essential Italo Disco Classics 1977-1985. I listened to a few tracks in the store, and liked a few, including a Kano song called "Now Baby Now." Kano is one of the most famous italo disco bands, and its music is hard to find, with no proper reissues in sight. They're most famous for being sampled by Tag Team on "Whoomp! (There It Is)."
I can't differentiate what I'm hearing on this comp with what I hear on Disco Deutschland Disco: Disco, Funk & Philly Anthems From Germany 1975-1980. It's a far more interesting listen, with fun gems like "You've Got The Power, Pt. 1" and "Fashion Pack (Studio 54)". Whatever genre you call it, Disco Deutschland did it better. To be quite honest, it's all just European disco to me.
Spank Rock makes an appearance on the track and for once, he keeps his rhymes relatively clean. He changes his flow on here as well, and I had to check the liner notes to make sure it was him.
Hard Candy 's got the beep-beep's and whistles from Donna Summer's "Bad Girl", sweeping strings and lots of funky bass. I'm a fan of "Heartbeat," "Miles Away," and "Beat Goes On," especially when Kanye sings the pre-chorus after doing his rap. "Incredible" brings back her debut album singing voice.
I've been hearing In Ghost Colours play at my local coffee shop. I've been hearing it through car windows (my apartment is on a deceptively loud street corner). And I've been seeing posters advertised everywhere for their show at Mezzanine this Saturday. This sold-out, dream team bill also features Simian Mobile Disco, and I will be fortunate enough to attend.
Even though Morrissey's Greatest Hits album is fan exploitation of Bjorkian proportions, there are a few things I've enjoyed about its release.
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