old man winter

I've been living in Toronto for about 7 years now.  March has come to mean a few certainties to my life in Toronto. One is that our "beloved" Maple Leafs(ice hockey team) will be finally starting to look like a competitive team and strive for the playoffs only to fall short and miss them.  They have not qualified for the payoffs since I moved here and I'm starting to take it personally.  This year they decided to look like a team for the first hald and are now tanking badly.. sigh. 

The other certainty is (at least for the first part of the month) shitty weather. Today is a shining example that the lovely mild winter we have become used to this year was just a tease, as Old Man Winter decided to slap me around with some rather nasty hail on my way to physio this morning. Its the kind of weather that makes me want to curl up no a bearskin rug with a bottle of scotch and something that might sound like this first track, brought to my ears by the fantastic Marc Riley of BBC's Radio 6 Music.  I just downloaded one of those fabulous radio apps that allows me to get virtually any radio station in the world on my phone, and if you're a music fan... 6 Music is awesome.  They kinda stick to the theme of playing whatever they feel like. and have some very interesting presenters, like Mr Riley (formerly of Marc & Lard if you ever listened to Radio 1 about 10 years ago) and Jarvis Cocker has a show on Sundays which im very excited to listen to this week! Moving swiftly on... Im going to go grab that scotch and look for a bearskin rug now that I found the music..

Francois & The Atlas Mountains - Edge Of Town

I got sent this one by my buddy Josh who I have a little musical exchange going with and I've been meaning to post it for ages but something would always sneak in there.  I seriously hope this dudes name is a stage name... or he must've had a hell of a lot of teasing as a kid. Gorgeous track regardless!

Bonar Bradberry - You Were Away

a taxing time of year

I usually take my taxes to H&R Block for.  Its easy and you get your refund right away... mind you, you have to pay for (a lot if its a decent return) the service. This year I decided to do it myself and forgo all the hassle of arguing with the dear ladies at H&R who, in my experience, do not have English as a mother tongue, and also seem to have very little knowledge of how to complete a tax sheet.  After several bungled attempts at various programs and things I decided maybe my headphones would calm me down a little bit. So I panned through my iTunes to find something that might do the trick and settled on the timeless Mushroom Jazz series by Mark Farina. Its been too long.  An oldie but a goodie, from Mushroom Jazz vol. 4...

Sub-Conscious - Irreconcilable

and then after still managing to screw up my taxes..(i forgot to enter in the fact that I paid income tax already on the online form.. oops!) I needed a little bit of spirit lifting. A new friend in Montreal introduced me to this one, by one of my absolute FAVOURITE  vocal performers ever.. Roisin Murphy. She makes everything sound so much more exciting and sexy.

Roisin Murphy - Ramalama (Bang Bang) [Rob Mooney & Junior Gee Remix]

And lastly, if anyone out there can identify what this vocal sample is from I would be extremely grateful! I heard it at a party about 13 years ago and have been looking for it... then I heard it sampled in this track thats from 2007 but havent been able to track down what the sample is from.  Start this video at the 2:38 mark and you'll hear a woman's voice saying "All that jazz and Chicago" looped a couple of times. Knowing me its something I should really know but can't place... help!!

a little something a la mode

Theres so much music out there.  So many different genres & sub-genres, and different "styles" or whatever you want to call them.  Its impossible to hear everything that might move us or touch us in some way.  Chances are, your favourite song ever... you'll never hear it.  I mean I'm 32, and it seems to me that sometime in the last 30 years the executives in charge of the Big Business side of the music industry decided that rather than supporting the arts, they would suck it dry and replace it with repetitive glittery puff balls. I like glitter, but really,  someone tell  Simon Cowell to piss off already. Wow i kinda got lost on a little tangent there(escapé).  I think the point I was trying to make was I spend more time than someone who doesn't earn a living from music arguably should, online reading about music and listening to music and well, I'm a little bit obsessed and still stuff passes me by for years at a time. Like for instance this beauty from Antony & The Johnsons.

I love Antony & The Johnsons, this was apparently on a single only release in 2009 so I guess that its acceptable that I missed it.  And despite my little tirade in paragraph #1 about radio shlock... some of it is good.  I do, for instance, really like the original of this cover done by the parents of little blue ivy or ivy blue or whatever she's called.  And its fun to post something other than bangin' house tunes sometimes :)

Antony & The Johnsons - Crazy In Love

And I found this album that I downloaded about a year ago and had completely forgotten about hidden in a random folder on my desktop! Love it when that happens.  SomethingALaMode are a duet of classically trained French boys who grew up on club culture.  I'm a big fan of Albums as an art form all their own.  I think putting together a solid albums worth of material that is cohesive, and varied where each track compliments the other in some way is a skill that clearly, not everyone has. This is one of the more up-tempo tunes on the album, with several of the track being nice simple string arrangements with a little funk to 'em. Nice to see people with the skill and knowledge of music they have explore the other side of culture and put out music like this. Neato.

SomethingALaMode - By Your Side

Way back playback (cover/remix edition)

I've been trying to stick to only going to clubs where the music sucks so I won't be tempted to dance.  This might sound crazy, but my knee still isn't dancefloor ready, and won't be for quite some time.  Its kinda frustrating though, and yesterday I couldn't resist going out to Deko-ze's birthday party @ Footwork...and then maybe I went somewhere else too but in any case... it was great to be with friends and hear proper music & celebrate someone's birthday. What more could you ask for? How about inspiration for a blog post!

White Horse by Laidback.  I'm sure you all know the song.... did you know its by two, tall skinny white boys from Denmark?  Ever since I heard that song I've had this image of this funky group of black dudes from Brooklyn in shiny disco suits slappin' the bass and gettin' funky while they're playing this song.  Finding out that its these two rather dorky Danish guys COMPLETELY, and i do mean completely threw me for a loop.  So at this point I say, not only is that song amazing, but you should really check out Bakerman by them too(I think I may even have posted something about it on here when i started the blog?heres the video on Youtube directed by Lars vonTriers. actually.).  These guys were really a class apart in my books. Which brings me to the post. ahem.  Track #1 of 2 inspired by last nights outing(s): White Horse by Wonderland Avenue.  How this song was made 6 years ago and I never heard it boggles my mind.... actually maybe i did hear it but didn't have the advantage of the wondrous apps Shazam & SoundHound! So thanks Greg Gow, or as I like to call you, Greg Wow, for delivering it to my earzies.

 Wonderland Avenue - White Horse

And next up, a gent who was very prominently featured on all of the hand-me-down school binders I received from my sister when I started school, Mr Corey Hart. And ya thats right, I had binders with I love Corey Hart scrawled all over them courtesy of my sister who is 9 years my senior. Ask the 5yr old little boy starting school if he minds.. Hell No! he'd say, cuz he actually DOES love Corey Hart. So much so, that in my Grade 1 school photo I made sure I popped my collar as an homage to my (at that moment) musical icon. Its pretty hilarious really. Anyhoo, I'm not sure if this was Deko-ze's production partner on Disco Fans, Jerome Robbins who played this or the visiting from Germany Jay Frog, but thanks! They played a different remix of it that was a bit more techy (the D.I.M mix), but I've chosen the much more housey sound of Tocadisco for the blog post... Its just that kinda day.  Yes we all hate those jack asses with sunglasses on in the club, but this song- to me anyway, is so friggin bad ass. Maybe thats my 5 yr old ears listening?

Tiga & Zyntherius - Sunglasses At Night (Tocadisco Remix)

80s synth realness

So a friend in Montreal told me about this compilation album by Aeroplane called In Flight Entertainment with a bunch of cool artists on it... like Poolside(who did that Neil Young's Harvest Moon cover in one of my first posts on here), and these two as well.  If you don't like that whole throwback to the 80s sound that was sort of everywhere the last couple years you likely won't like this first one that much..

Cosmonauts - Snakes Head

And Stars on 33 give us a pretty groovin, funky instrumental.... when is it summer?  I love their name.  Its a total throwback to the old Stars on 45 LPs my mom had at home when I was a kid.


Stars on 33 - Something You Can Feel

balls are empty...

Man I really have to pull up the boot straps on this whole blogging thing.  I won't be posting any Whitney remixes(although there was an amazing remix by one of those big remixers back in the day-Hex Hector maybe??- of I learned from the best, that I used to LOVE).  I did however watch her funeral service, which really wasn't a funeral service.  It was a Church service celebrating a woman's life and ya I loved it.  If Reverend Winans did his service here in Toronto he might rival Deko-ze for Sunday morning attendance!- I said might. .. He'd really have to up the ante BPM wise...

I wish I could say I've been spending this time accumulating all kinds of wicked new tunes to post, but I haven't. I have however come across a couple little ditty's today that I will share with you :)

Easing in nice n slow is lightbluemover.  Sounds like a fancy name for a break-dancing smurf, but i like it. The track has this nice little slow burn to it with a bit of a harder funky side that wants to slap you around a little.. and I don't think I'd mind. If you want to hear it played a wee bit quicker.. check out Maceo Plex's Essential Mix.. its the 2nd track.

lightbluemover - Ddisko

Now, I'm not entirely sure what the lyrics are to this song... but I can definitely make out "balls are empty".  To be honest it really doesn't matter what the lyrics are...its a hard, deep, dirty, chugging beat.  And if the lyrics are what I think they are... then it's a match made in heaven..err maybe a brothel.

Martin Eyerer - Bells A Go (Sascha Sonido Remix)

Sad songs always sound so pretty

Ever notice how some tunes have this gorgeous beat and just hearing it is cheering you up, and then you start to focus on the lyrics.  I love me a good lyric, and for some reason I have always found that kinda melancholic,"depressing" music to be a bit cheerful.  Someone like say Fiona Apple. She doesn't exactly instil the average listener with glee, but something in the way her songs are structured or maybe its her voice.. I dunno, it just kinda cheers me up.  Then you get something like the couple of tracks I have for you today.  Pretty sounding songs with this underscored sadness and hate. I LOVE IT!

First up is Steffi.  Steffi is regarded as "The First Lady of Berghain",  so you would naturally assume mind assaulting German minimalist tech. But if you did, like me, you would be wrong.  This is the opening track from the  Panorama Bar mix volume 3, done by Prosumer... and given how nice the opening track was I figured I was in store for a really great mix. Well guess who is batting 0 for 2! Me. To each their own but... its all over the place, pretty off the wall track selection, theres no real flow to it and doesn't really feel like its going anywhere. This opening track however is great and serves as a great example of what I was talking about up there in paragraph numero uno.

Steffi - Sadness

And to really drive home my point....

GusGus - Hateful(Ada feat. Mayburg Mix)

Ridin On Da Riddim

So we've been experiencing this unseasonably warm winter here in Toronto, even by global warming's standards.  I found out its because of some pretty bad ass and rare wind phenomenon happening at the North pole which is basically keeping all that cold air in a constant spiral circling the pole, neat eh?  Here I was thinking its because there's so much hot shit music wise every where that the planet just can't take it!-Actually, I'm going to keep that possibility open.

Some new stuff I happened across in the past few days:

Fink.  This multi-instrumentalist fellow out of somewhere in the UK, safe bet that its Brighton.  I've heard a few things with the name Fink involved but i was not entirely sure they were the same guy because they are sooo different.  Apparently, they are. As soon as I saw the name Ninjatune associated I knew the depth and breadth of his catalog was entirely possibly produced by the same guy. Cool.

Fink - Move On Me (Alphapriest Remix)

I don't really know anything about this guy, however, a point of note. There is a new movie out with Tom Hanks.. something about 9/11, called Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.  Well there is also a song of the same name on the full length LP, which was released back in the fall. Anyway, that isn't the one I'm posting.  My friend Josh brought this one over and we both agree that the actual name should be "ridin' on da riddim" not Riding on The Rhythm... discuss.

Spencer Parker - Riding On The Rhythm

Lastly here is a, as of yet, unreleased goodie!  Toronto's Gavin Bradley has teamed up with DJ Meme once again for this clubby tune that just screams summer.

DJ Meme feat. Gavin Bradley - Call For Me (Original Club Mix)