Back from vacation and I’ve been making up for lost time by delving into my usual Youtube video surfing. Tonight, after hearing Everlasting Bass on KDAY, I fell into an electro derive mostly focusing on electro hip hop groups from Los Angeles. It was a gorgeous day today and perhaps I was feeling a bit of city pride. And then I came across this song Burn by Dupont. It was created for an obscure breakdance documentary called Breakin and Enterin (1983) and never released.
What an odd song! It’s much faster and more new-wavish than the traditional breakdance fare of the 80s. The beats are really ahead of the their time and the weak vocals give the song an almost future retro feel. It’s as if Ariel Pink were transported back to the 80s to create something funky. It gets all dark with those odd chords during the chorus and then lightens up with detached double beats. It’s bizarre and almost bad, but somehow has this charm that pulls you back for repeated listenings. I don’t know, I really don’t know what to make of this song.
I come from a family of vinyl junkies, musicians and DJs. On my dad’s side of the family, I’m the only one who hasn’t made money from some kind of music related venture. I did try for awhile to involve myself in the professional Flamenco performance scene but it was shark tank I was not willing to swim in. So yeah, I continue to be an amateur.
These past few months, I’ve been culling my sizable vinyl collection, getting it ready for an upcoming vinyl swap/sale I’m organizing. I’ve come across a number of albums I’ve borrowed and secretly nabbed from my father’s collection. He is a prolific collector, at one time his vinyl collection was more than 5,000 albums and his CD collection is probably close.
As a DJ in the late 70s/early 80s he’d spend the weekends visiting the record shops spread out across Los Angeles with my little brother and I in tow. We were allowed to pick out a set number of records; he’d say to us: “You can pick out this many used records” and with his fingers designate a stack about 3 inches tall. Because I always wanted expensive import vinyl (The Smiths, Depeche Mode etc.), I’d only be allowed to take one or two pieces of vinyl compared to my brother’s armful.
As I got older and my musical tastes expanded, I ended up borrowing a good chunk of my dad’s new wave, reggae, Brazilian samba and flamenco albums. It’s always a small delight when I come across the markings he’s left on the album covers such as the ones on this Spandau Ballet album. My dad would listen to each song and mark those he thought would be good for DJing. He’d make notes of the BPM so that in the midst of the mix, he’d easily know which song would match the other already playing. He’d also leave more detailed notes especially on the salsa or cumbia albums that would say “good for dancing” or “fast.”
Despite my father’s earnest efforts to teach me the family business of mobile DJing, his attempts at passing on his record-spinning, MC-ing legacy was lost on me. Shyness and insecurities plagued me throughout most of my youth, limiting me in my opportunities and explorations. As The Smiths would say: “Shyness is nice. And shyness can stop you, from doing all the things in life you’d like to.”
Nonetheless, I would accompany my dad and my brother to many of his gigs carrying the smaller pieces of gear. I’d then try to stay out of the way, when the set-up began and the dizzying amount of cables begin to wind their way through the various pieces of audio equipment. I was so amazed that they could remember how everything went. Then I would watch as the folks would come alive with certain music my dad played and how he knew how to play just the right song to get different crowds dancing. I often wondered if the folks who hired him for their birthday parties, weddings, quinceñeras, bat mitzvahs and baptisms looked askance at presence of my brother and I. I figure if they did say something, he would say we were helpers. Little did I know at the time, he was teaching us valuable skills.
Often times he’d set up a vinyl mix for me, I’ll I’d have to do was slide the fader over but I was much too shy to even do this. He tried to push me and I resisted. I regret not trying. Glad shyness is something you can outgrow. Our family love for music and vinyl still continues and while I may not have it made it a profession like my brother and dad, I can still share my musical experiences on this little blog. Thanks, Dad!
Adam Sky vs Mark Stewart – We Are All Prostitutes (2009 Mix)
I quite like this remix! And these lyrics are still so true.
We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
And you too will learn to live the lie
Aggression
Competition
Ambition
Consumer fascism
Capitalism is the most barbaric of all religions
Department stores are our new cathedrals
Our cars are martyrs to the cause
We are all prostitutes
Our children shall rise up against us
Because we are the ones to blame
We are the ones to blame
They will give us a new name
We shall be
Hypocrites hypocrites hypocrites
Lots of thoughts come to my mind about this song. First it sounds like it’s a bunch of other songs shoved into one song but “shoved” sounds bad, right? Let’s say it’s like a collage of other good songs I’ve posted recently and all the mixing resulted in a little something nice for everyone. There’s echoes of Austra (also Canadian), especially in the beats. I particularly like the Felix Da Housecat-ish drop at 2:26, super touch! And it’s awesome to hear women using their full range of voice nowadays. Speaking of her voice, I haven’t heard such a unique sounding one since Joanna Newsom or is it Pebbles? Okay, so that reference totally dated me, whatever. Interestingly, both indigenous Mexican women and Eastern European Gypsies sing with the same kind of voice.
Grimes aka Carla Boucher is on tour with Lykke Li right now so you’ll have a chance to hear her live on May 31 in Los Angeles. Hmmm, you can always hang out in the lobby during Lykke Li’s set. Uh, maybe I’ll check to see if Grimes is doing a solo show. Sorry but there is just something about Lykke Li’s music that is a little too treacly for my tastes. Sure, she makes good pop music and is just the kinda artist that makes KCRW music programmers squirm in their pants but despite trying really hard, I just can’t enjoy her music.
And hey, did anyone notice how this video is sorta a more energetic, clothed version of Austra’s Beat and Pulse? Is it a Canadian thing? All I know, is that thanks to Witch House/Rape Gaze/Grave Wave and it’s all derivatives and spin-offs and denials, there’s some really amazing electronic music being made by women.
Grimes is weird pop influenced by styles such as R&B, Industrial, goth, hip hop and Western medieval organum. She is noted for simple but strong percussion, vocal virtuosity, and addictive melodies.
By the way, I think Grimes is named for the guy everyone hated on The Simpsons.
Carla Boucher is also an artist!
Grimes – Crystal Ball
Human League-like beats, melancholy melody and a harp solo, love it!
Hey you want a free massage? It’s available immediately at your fingertips. All you have to do is turn the bass way up on your speakers and press play on the above clip. Then sit back and wait for your chair to viiii…braaaa…ttte…
Spring is unofficially over in Los Angeles. The hills around Northeast Los Angeles where I live have turned brown, the weeds have gone to seed and the gray clouds that hover over the city for most of the morning have returned. In local parlance this weather effect is called “Gray May” which extends into “June Gloom.” Only in a part of the world where we have the most gorgeous winters could we have such a depressing lead up into summer, the season most other places look forward to. So what this melancholy in mind, I present these two songs, which reflect the morose steady pace of life I’m living these days.
The original version of this song is considered to be NuSoul or NuNorthern Soul and it’s a bit too “The Wave” for me despite the intoxicating guitar sample at the beginning. Mark E hardens it up with a fast house beat and makes it so you probably won’t hear it on the local “jazzy” radio station.
Com Truise – Polyhurt
“Bottom heavy style, slo-mo funk” yeah, that about explains this music. But it’s the sad, melancholy, the future shoulda been great but it isn’t kinda mood (is that called dystopia?) that I really like about this song. And the organ fiddling is pretty nice too. Check out Com Truise’s webpage for more.
New music from Falty DL, echoes of drum n bass with sweet vocals that are barely saccharine but not enough to distract from the military high hats and the heavy, heavy bass.
Junior Boys-More Than Real
“You make me feel more than real…”
In the mid-90s, there was a jazz renaissance lead by youth, the kind of youth that might be now considered hipsters, except hipsters didn’t exist back then. But perhaps it was this youthful interest in bebop jazz along with jazz related culture like the Beats and novels like On the Road that re-introduced ‘hipster’ back into the urban elite lexicon. All I know is that I was young and going to clubs in Hollywood to listen to other young people like myself try and play Miles Davis. But because I considered myself edgier and an anarchist, I didn’t listen to any old jazz, I listened to free jazz.
Ornette Coleman – Ramblin’
One of my favorites was Ornette Coleman, I admit that I am a devoted follower of melody and love it so much more when I am deprived of it. Hence, my love of flirtatious free jazzers like Coleman who only hints at melody and makes me wait, teases me me until the final semi-melodic resolve, oh! I like it straight on too like this Cannonball Adderly song Somethin’ Else, a song of exquisite rhythm – it pulls me in every time. Steady, steady until I’m lost in the beats and then come in all those wailing horns, plucked basses and pounding pianos. How could a girl not like this? Throw in some heroin and that’s excellence right there! Well, I don’t know if Adderly did heroin but it’s rumored Eric Dolphy did and sadly, he died young of heroin or diabetes, no one is quite sure. But before he moved onto the spectral plane he left behind Hat and Beard one of the finest pieces of music to have entered my ears. He’s another teaser, with all that chaos rubbing raw at the edges and then easing back into a cohesive collection of dissonant instrument noises. All the while his saxophone goes wildly on, and on.
Eric Dolphy – Hat and Beard
And for fun, The Art Ensemble of Chicago:
The Art Ensemble of Chicago – Theme De Yoyo
“Your voice is like a long fuck that’s music to your brain…”
