Funny thing about blogging is eventually the line between promoting someone else's music for fun... and posting about the music of people you like turns into the same thing.
Example: South Central.
South Central are my fucking boys. They produce banger after banger (in a non-Ed Banger way; I'm starting to get a little worn on that whole thing... not to say it isn't good guys; you know I love you) and are cool fucking dudes in the process. Doing a widely publicized remix for an up and coming band like Late Of The Pier, doing a fucking insanely sick mix for Kiss FM, and touring for Club NME would have most young duos/bands getting huge fucking egos and losing all their hard work to too much charlie and groupie head. These guys however just keep plugging along, making new tunes, and checking their ego at the door. Great tunes+great attitude=Eventualbigtimesuccess in my humble opinion.
So I present to you a wicked new remix that shows serious growth towards that goal... this tune is really different from their previous remixes but I reallllllllly like it...
On a different note.... The world also gets smaller when you blog a lot... eventually people you post about, if you spend enough time working to the heart of this music biz monster, are friends of friends (if they aren't your friends already).
Example: Herve
6 degrees of separation turns into 3 degrees. Herve has done two high profile projects with two of my friends... hopefully someday we will meet... who knows? I think it's fucking awesome though... makes me feel like the world is really small which is nice in an age where there is no community anywhere. Now his Machines Don't Care project is getting closer to having an album released so I'm giving you a track off it.
APPARENTLY Machines Don't Care isn't just a couple of names you'd expect to see next to Herve's. It's like a BUNCH of names... MACHINES DON’T CARE are Hervé, Sinden, Trevor Loveys, Affie Yusef, Toddla T, Fake Blood, Detboi & Drop The Lime?!?!? WTF? That boy Toddla T is making it happen I tell ya... I'm trying to get him back on the line but looks like he's hella busy lol...
This track was passed on from their website Machinesdontcare.com... go check it out...
I love this fucking track. It's like straight up acid, with an MC with a heavy accent, with strange vocal drops that I can't tell if they're watermarking or part of the track. It reminds me of current stuff, with a pinch of Josh Wink, and then the first half of Simon Reynold's book "Energy Flash" all put into one song. It's ravey and it's bonkers and I love it...
Speaking of ravey and bonkers... the video for my boy Larry Tee's song "Licky" (which appears to be the original song superimposed on top of Herve's remix) is finally out. It's weird to me the life of some songs. Like... "We Are Your Friends"? That song could still blow up a room right now. Doesn't matter how many times it's been played (other songs from the same time period as the original release I doubt we can even remember). Same with this track. I got it March of last year, it's been officially released, put on loads of comps, Santogold put a verse over it for Steve Aoki, and this fucking thing just keeps on ticking! It's a testament to how fucking truly genius the man is. Shit even I've posted about it in some form like 5 times. Check it out... Princess Superstar is awesome...
Let me say something real quick though before I end this post. Don't get me wrong for two seconds. This doesn't make me special. I wear a blue shirt and khakis, lift heavy shit all day long, am despised by my coworkers, and making barely over minimum wage in the process. I can barely ever pay for anything other than flowers for my girl and discounted "Ice Cream" trainers. I'm treading water like there's no tomorrow. But at least there is something exciting in the middle of that shit storm and it's knowing that almost every day some artist I like or someone I know has a new tune out... and I'm proud to help represent that. So it doesn't make me special... Simian Mobile Disco calling and waking me up last Friday was cool, but it didn't make me special. When I have an album done and people recognize that (if that ever even happens) then that's a whole 'nother something. But it in meantime I'm here to spread the gospel of other people's amazing work and enjoy doing it :)
But it's doubtful that you even question for a second whether you like The Verve.
When we look back at the golden age of British rock they were in the front line, along with other bands that are still making awesome records (Supergrass, Portishead etc). The Verve have always stuck out as being different than their peers... and now they are back.
So now, they've done shows together. Nick McCabe played out with previous postees, and Mancunian up-and-comers, Lowline. NME posted a session of work they were doing. They've been busy getting their profile up. And now I present you with this little gem...
I wish I could provide you with more info, and perhaps will throw up an old b-side later... but I had to get this up with the quickness.
You know I like to tell dumb little stories. Here's my Verve story. I had tickets to see The Verve and Massive Attack but Massive Attack dropped off the bill at the last second, and it was going to be hard to get to the show so I said, "Oh I'll see The Verve some other time."
For years I've been kicking my ass. Hopefully now I won't have to :)
However, I doubt I'll ever get to interview them. I'm sure Richard Ashcroft has actually transended space and time and floats on stage now... that's way above what I can handle lol...
So this has been an interview both you and I have been waiting on for quite some time! As their manager and label both know, like a 14 year old girl I've got Simian Mobile Disco and Black Ghosts posters right next to my bed (just in case you somehow didn't know, when Simian broke up one half went on to become SMD, and then their singer Simon Lord teamed up with Touche from The Wiseguys to create the Black Ghosts), so this was a big deal for me! Their smart ass nature shines right through in what was a fantastic interview... I really hope you enjoy reading it.
Wanna hear the crappy part?
I lost three minutes of audio somehow. Thankfully most of it was me gabbing! "Um, uh, I think uh"... but there we're some important bits that got clipped...
SO, I quickly transcribed the digital (f***ed up recording) as fast as I could while it was still in my memory. The digital recorder some how attacked my voice and Jas Shaw's while James Ford's was mostly unharmed. Sorry Jas. You'll probably never read this so it doesn't matter. Nor does it probably matter that on the playback I can't tell if you were saying "New York media" or what?!?!
Lesson Learned: Use analogue tape from now on!
INTERVIEW WITH SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO
Arcadia: This mix is drastically different from pretty much all your previous ones.
James Ford: Drastically?
Arcadia: Yeah, drastically! What influenced the track selection the most?
James Ford: To be honest it was kind of just stuff we were listening to at the moment. We wanted it to be stuff that we would actually play at Fabric, and maybe slip in some older weirder things that you wouldn't hear at Fabric but in a way that wouldn't break your stride, if you know what I mean.
Arcadia: It stuck me as flowing together really well. You had said in the past that Fabric is your favorite club to play at. Is there a particular club in America that sticks out as being what you would consider as a favorite?
James Ford: Probably Studio B in Brooklyn. Our friends Josh and Dave who we've done quite a lot of gigs with... (then a bunch of lost audio)
Arcadia:What was it like doing the SMD live show in America compared to your experience DJing America as SMD during your Simian days?
James Ford: I think we kind of really enjoyed some of (the shows) . We were just going to do a few, but then actually it went down really well, and we really enjoyed it, and we did a lot of touring really. So, we definitely plan to do more of the live thing. With DJing you get to go to a lot of different places, and get treated well, and people get you drunk so you can't complain!
Arcadia: James, I ran into you before your show in Chicago, and mentioned that Chicago audiences often don't dance at shows for thirty minutes or more. It has happened to Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys, really almost every band I've ever seen! Did you run into similar situations across the rest of the tour?
James Ford: Umm, I don't know. It was different in different places. I think, we kind of found, that generally we were pleasantly surprised by a lot of the shows out there really.
Arcadia: America seems to be pretty afraid of dancing on a whole. Do you guys care to speculate why dance music has never really caught on in the U.S.?
Jas: It's the media in New York (edit: I'm REALLY not sure if that is what he said. Does it make sense? Or should I have a competition to see if you can figure it out! Someone should win a prize if they can tell what the garbled audio says!) Isn't it in most clubs? At least that's what I was told...laughing...
James Ford: People go out and dance, but to a different sort of music. I don't know, I think now it seems like more European dance music is kinda making some inroads but I suppose there aren't the clubs or whatever. It's a really hard thing to answer.
Arcadia: Yeah, it is strange, I mean we've got Chicago house and Detroit techno...
Jas: Exactly! It all started in their clubs!
James Ford: I mean we came up with football and that's obviously caught on there (in America).
Jas: I'll tell you what's wrong...
James Ford: Oh, yeah, also San Francisco was really good! We had a really good time there...
Jas: All the places we went to there seems to be like small scenes going on but like maybe it just wasn't over ground and I don't see that as much of a problem really!
Arcadia: Yeah it was actually really nice knowing, when I saw you, normally I'd be surrounded by tons of people but there were, you know, 50 or 100 people in the bar that instead REALLY really wanted to be there...
James Ford: In America, a big thing is people wanna sit on their table and get a posh bottle of booze, or whatever, and sit and kind of look cool, you know what I mean? And that's definitely something you don't get in the UK and Europe.
Jas: What we need to do I think in order to fix this is just to flood America with pills.
Ford: Yeah drugs, we're going to bring loads of drugs to America!
Jas: Next time we come, yeah...
Arcadia: Yeah, bring backpacks full!
All laughing
Arcadia: Moving back to your music, your new remix album also has some kind of unexpected names on it. How did you choose the remixers? Are they friends or...
James Ford: Yeah, we just wanted to again go away form the obvious. We always try and make things different and it does work. We did that in Simian and it probably helped out success doing that. I think we basically wanted to make a remix album.. you know you got Chrome Hoof and people we like. There's an American band called Invisible Conga People... and there are other people we like like Joakim, and we've got Silver Apples on there who is a great hero of ours. We just thought it was more interesting than to just get the usual suspects there.
Arcadia: I really enjoyed the Pinch remix of 'I Believe'.
James Ford: Yeah, he comes from a totally different scene which unrelated to us, really, so we felt that it was really interesting... (more interesting lost audio)
Arcadia: Speaking of other artists, who are you guys enjoying most right now? What's getting played most on your personal stereos?
Jas: The Hercules and Love Affair stuff. That new DFA stuff. Yeah and they are touring over here at the moment.
James Ford: There's a new band called Telepath I like, and I think are an American band as well. There's a lot more indie music and rock music stuff going on at the moment and it's quite psychedelic and interesting; left field American music is doing well!
Jas: You know its crazy that American band come over to the UK and and everyone goes crazy for them, and they go back to the States....
James: It worked for Jimmy Hendrix...
Jas: ...they come over here and we get all excited about them...
Arcadia: Yeah, no one knows who the Gossip are in the U.S. but they blew up big time in the U.K....
Jas: Yeah, it's about the drugs!
Arcadia: Hey, I wanted to ask, are you guys at work on the new album? I know you aim to have it be spontaneous and not a routine, and this seems to be the first time you've had downtime in like 2 years...
James Ford: Yeah, we haven't had a lot of time what with dealing with the production and the live show and stuff. Time in the studio is precious to us, if you know what I mean, but that's the bit we enjoy doing the most really. In the last couple weeks we've made a start and we really enjoy it...
Arcadia: James, you've produced loads of albums in the last few years. By the way The Last Shadow Puppets album is fantastic! What's coming up next for you?
James Ford: The next SMD record is next on the cards, as well as the new Klaxons. (And this is the most important piece of audio that I lost... he said someone else important... but I haven't the faintest idea :()
Arcadia: Lastly, Mr. Shaw your baby doing?
Jas: He's old enough to be breaking stuff now, so yeah he's good!
Arcadia:Well, I'm sure that's all sorts of fun! Well hey guys, thanks for calling and you have a good rest of your day.
Both: You too! Cheers!
EDIT: Thank Simian Mobile Disco, their manager, and Fabric... I've got an EXCLUSIVE track from the forthcoming "Sample and Hold", the SMD remix album, which comes out July 28th! You guys know I love dubstep so I'm giving you the aforementioned Pinch remix. Enjoy! And please pick up both the Fabriclive and "Sample and Hold" albums when they are released :)
This will only be up for two weeks, so get it while the gettings good!
Here were the videos from the Chicago show I was speaking of...
If you want to catch them live you should still be able to... if you live across the world from me or have a huge bank account lol...
07-26 Stockholm, Sweden - Esque (DJ set) 07-30 Ibiza, Spain - Pacha (DJ set) 08-09 London, England - Field Day 08-10 Leicester, England - Summer Sundae 08-22 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival 08-23 Daresbury, England - Creamfields Festival 08-24 Reading, England - Reading Festival 10-31 Los Angeles, CA - HARD
Don't forget about this... coming out July 28th...
Sample and Hold:
01 Sleep Deprivation (Simon Baker Remix) 02 I Got This Down (Invisible Conga People Remix) 03 It's the Beat (Shit Robot Remix) 04 Hustler (Joakim Remix) 05 Tits & Acid (Oscillation Remix) 06 I Believe (Pinch's "I Believe in Bassline Therapy" Remix) 07 Hotdog (Cosmo Vitelli Remix) 08 Wooden (Danton Eeprom Remix) 09 Love (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve Remix) 10 Scott (Silver Apples Remix) 11 Clock (Chrome Hoof Remix)
And last but not least the Fabriclive mix... that you can get your hands on in August!
Fabriclive 41 Tracklisting:
01 Tomita The Firebird "Infernal Dance Of King Kastechi (Clean Version)" 02 Sisters Of Transistors "The Don" 03 Simian Mobile Disco "Simple" 04 Hercules And Love Affair "Blind (Serge Santiago Version)" 05 Smith N Hack "Space Warrior" 06 Discodeine "Joystick" 07 Shit Robot "Chasm" 08 Perc & Fractal "Up Tool" 09 Metro Area "Miura" 10 Worthy "Crack EI" 11 Moon Dog "Suite Equestria" 12 Fine Cut Bodies "Huncut Hacuka" 13 Bentobox vs Chordian "Aemono" 14 Jelo & DeadMau5 "The Reward Is Cheese" 15 Simian Mobile Disco "Sleep Deprivation (Simon Baker Remix)" 16 Popof "The Chomper (LSD Version)" 17 Raymond Scott "Cindy Electronium" 18 Paul Woolford Presents Bobby Peru "Erotic Discourse" 19 Moebius Plank Neumeier "Pitch Control" 20 Plastikman "Spastik" 21 Green Velvet "Flash" 22 The Walker Brothers "Nite Flights (Album Version)"
This has been the greatest post of my life. I hope you enjoyed it! I'll be back soon with more aural pleasures for you all!
Sorry guys. If you've read the comments recently you'll see that I, amongst other things, am a 'lying asshole' and all sorts of other fun things. Because of this comments will be disabled for now.
For those of you who didn't know... I'm getting married in a couple weeks :) Someone took issue with this, so I've had to limit my communication with the outside world, and have been too busy to write... so I'm sorry. I owe more to YOU the person, the other readers, the artists, the promo people, and my future to let that catch me up for tooooooo long.
So, let's get back in the saddle again shall we?
First off is a download of the new Late Of the Pier single "Heartbeat" which many of you know, from the Zarcorp Demos, is amazing. This version in the Erol Alkan produced version that is on the forthcoming album which will undoubtedly blow all our socks off! Don't know how long this is going to be "up" but I guess, get it while you can!
NEXT UP... this is a little bit of a rule bend... but I told you I'd be doing this a little more. I did it for Saturna, Romanthony, a handful of bands... they aren't British.... but... I feel confident about posting them. There are artists where I make exceptions to the rule.... well, they are bound to fit more into the scheme of British popular music (i.e. the way most people think of Placebo as a British band even though they aren't, based on the fact they are more popular there than on our own shores) so it seems to make sense to post their music!
Atomica Project have my support first off because they are from Chicago, which even though I don't live there anymore, I consider to be my 'home' to which I will eventually return. So, I gotta support Chicago people, that's just how it is (as long as they are good lol)! The second reason they have my support is because they are really good...
NOW... anything that could possibly fall under 'chill out' is almost completely put out of my head as soon as it is introduced (I think most of us can stand, what, maybe Air? And that's it anymore?)... and although Atomica Project are more subdued than the usual Arcadia fodder, they are certainly not just 'chill out' music. When I heard their song "Forecast" I was really blown away. I'm a big Everything But The Girl fan and I don't think anything (outside of Beth Orton) has really come close to filling that void (Lazy Dog, Cherry Jam, and Tracey's solo album don't count). Atomica Project, however, may have done just that. This song got so stuck in my head that I would leave the house, and as soon as I came back in from where I was, I would have to hear it immediately upon arriving home. In fact I think that Ben Watt should take notice and remix this... you heard me Ben... do it up lol!
Last, and certainly not least, are my boys GTA. The Oxford based duo are two of the only 'non-grime' emcees to make it onto this blog because, well, I find most Brithop boring! But GTA Oxford are more playful, sincere, and engaging than your typical American knockoff gangsta bullshit by a LONG SHOT. Here's a new snippet of their new single which I implore you to check out!
That ladies and gents is the wrap up for today. Tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning I'll be on the phone with none other than SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO so make sure you stay tuned for the interview we've all be waiting for!
Remember good old Heads We Dance? They were a fantastic indie pop group that led us to a young artist called Frankmusik and provided us with fantastic songs like "Love In The Digital Age" and "My Heart Is Set On You"!
Now, about a year after our first encounter and countless spins on my radio show THEY'RE BACK with new remixes to melt your ears off with an awesome ARCADIA EXCLUSIVE from Docteur Cauchemar (who has done remixes for the likes of Yelle)!
Pete from HWD said "the remix is by Docteur Cauchemar who was recommended to us by our good friend Tepr!"
Their debut single will be a double A-side featuring a brand new version of 'My Heart Is Set On You', as well as 'Love In The Digital Age'. Mixed by Simon Gogerly (U2, Gwen Stefani, New Order) and pressed onto very limited gold 7" vinyl, the single will be available exclusively through Pure Groove records (www.puregroove.co.uk) from Monday 16th June.
LTD GOLD 7" 'MY HEART IS SET ON YOU' / 'LOVE IN THE DIGITAL AGE'
Or if you are 'round Leeds you could go to the single release party over at THE LIBRARY on 19TH JUNE.
I really love these guys and think they deserve your support. A real fucking indie band with real songs and no fucking label. That's fucking awesome. This is the future of music. Bands like this. They deserve your/my cash/respect. Word.
Here's a little more background for those of you who missed the last time...
"Leeds based band HEADS WE DANCE write “custom chromed aerodynamic pop” (Losing Today) influenced by Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Roxy Music, Timbaland and Pet Shop Boys. Taking their name from a Kate Bush lyric, HEADS WE DANCE are inspired by the early sci-fi visions of ‘Metropolis’, Aldous Huxley and Philip K Dick, and a fascination with love, modern life and the internet. HEADS WE DANCE played their first show at the Dead Disco single launch in September 2006, three weeks after forming, and have since been described live as achieving “an unfathomably glamorous and energetic take on disco pop... damn, it's great to watch" (Tasty fanzine). A strictly limited 12" 'Love In The Digital Age' remix single is available now, while the debut HEADS WE DANCE single, a double A-side of 'My Heart Is Set On You' / 'Love In The Digital Age', will be released on 16th June 2008 on Ltd Gold 7"."
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