The Day Of The Onion

.. and some more house music (it's summertime, after all).

Analog synths, drum machines and sound effects from the man who gave us 'Move Your Body' back in 1986. A rather unknown album, released through KTM Berlin, the housey cousin of Tresor.

Marshall Jefferson - 1996 The Day Of The Onion
Info here.

Heavy Hitters. Time 2 Jackk

A request fulfilled. Chicago jack from Disko B, as you'd expect it.

VA - 2002 Heavy Hitters. Time 2 Jackk
Info here.

Best Of Westbrook Classics

A Tresor compilation of 1988-1990 material, with contributions by Mike Dunn and Armando (not forgotten).

Bam Bam - 1995 Best Of Westbrook Classics
Info here.

'Where's your child'... I remember the goosebumps when the synth line kicked in... Now I'm about to have one, it sounds a bit scary... Times do change.

Imaginary Landscapes

A 1989 documentary on Brian Eno, in swf stream.

Big thanx to Those City Nights blog for letting us know.


Imaginary Landscapes

And while you're over there, check all documentaries in general and this one in particular.

The Deepest Shade Of Techno Vol. 1 & 2

Selections of unreleased and rare Detroit tracks, deep and moody and soulful.

Compiled by the legendary 4 Hero and Alan Oldham, include tracks by UR, Octave One, Eddie 'Flashin' Fowlkes, Claude Young, etc. etc., even an early Morgan Geist. Not exclusively Detroit artists as you'll notice, the mood is there though.

You know... Get them now.
VA - 1994 The Deepest Shade Of Techno Vol.1
Info here.

VA - 1996 The Deepest Shade Of Techno Vol.2
Info here.

The two volumes were re-issued by SSR in a less rare 2CD box.

A hidden track (#11) is included in Vol.2; for the sake of completeness, as it's only silence if I trust my speakers (and ears). I noticed it only a few months ago, didn't have the means to analyze it further. Maybe someone else will have the patience to do it...

P.S. A Passenger kindly shared with us Vol.1, a rip I was trying to find around the net for ages with no luck, so I had to update the post to the form it was really intended all that time. Thanx again.

Little Green Lights And Four Inch Faders

The first John Tejada album and the last A13 release at the same time.

John Tejada - 1998
Little Green Lights And Four Inch Faders
Info here.

Another scary cover...

Buckingham Palace

The other day I found this one in a stock-shop for less than a euro. I knew LA Synthesis (*) and Clatterbox (*), so I gave it a try.

I knew nothing of District Six. From what I gather, they were a London-based label with loose connections to the underground electronics network of the time. Its artists also had releases in Clear, Evolution and legendary Irdial (see Anthony Manning) - later on in Ai, Touching Bass, Hydrogen Dukebox and Delsin. Another famous artist here is Metamatics, there is a very early appearance by Deepart, while another key figure seems to be Andy Jaggers (this bio explains things a bit). Still, even though many of its artists did more or less well, the label itself mustn't have spread its fame much outside UK - it's apparent from the inside notes that they had other plans, yet this is their only compilation (a rather common case at the time).

The inlet also informs us that 'District Six was a notorious slum area at the foot of Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town' (in South Africa, more crucial info here) - and that 'Buckingham Palace was a row of five cottages in the heart of District Six', where lived a 'community of bizarre, close friends. it was an island in a sea of apartheid and was their own to live life as they pleased'. Since I sense no direct connection to the area, I can only guess that the label's name was inspired by the book of Richard Rive with the same title. Anyway.

The reason I post this one is... that it's weird. It's late '90s british electronics, ambient techno with an acid touch. It sounds mostly analog-based and rather minimal, simple yet serious music for listening. And there are no 4/4 tracks, all beats are electro- and breaks- infected, even the more energetic ones. The results are like a cross between Irdial's experimentalism, the accessible melodies of early Black Dog and techno funk dipped in Detroit juice. Interestingly, a similar blueprint was drawn by the dutch (see Delsin, etc.) in their version of post-Detroit or neo-Detroit or call it what you want - yet the deephouse/ dubtechno influences where stronger there than the british IDM and techfunk background of this one.

So, this one's (not only) for the '90s electronics and UK tech fans. If someone has more info on this scene or similar stuff (say the early Deepart 10"s), please drop a hint.

VA - 1998 Buckingham Palace
A District Six compilation
Info here.

Back In 10 Minutes

...there was once this thing...

...you know what I mean...

VA - The Classic Music Company
presents Back In 10 Minutes (2000)
Info here.

FYI, 'Oneiro' means 'dream'.

Versus

Check this video stream:

October 18, 2008
VERSUS: Carl Craig
At Cité de la Musique, Paris, France

Carl Craig teams up with Francesco Tristano (and Moritz von Oswald) in Paris to combine his music, beats and a full orchestra (see Jeff Mills' earlier attempt 'Blue Potential').

I won't judge. My love for these artists is granted.
Mills' DVD I've watched once, not in full if I remember correctly. This one kept me for more, still it got awkward at times. The 'ReComposed' excerpt was really good, 'At Les' likewise; but over all it sounded... just interesting. That is, nice to listen to once, possibly a few times more - but that's it. And I'm a big fan of orchestral sounds; yet I felt that both these attempts had something missing there...

Anyway. What you ought to do is watch the 'Credits' section, where at the end of the show Carl Craig shakes the hand of each and every one of the orchestra musicians on stage. All of them. Then draws the Man out of the curtains, gathers everyone in front for the people to give them credit for the concert, then quietly leaves. Watch it.

P.S. (2009-09-15) Another Craig attempt, this time combining his electronic sounds with jazz improvs by Marcus Belgrave, Doug Hammond and Harold McKinney. Here.

Liquid Funk

When I started buying dance records for real, I was more into Hood and Mills and stuff, a techno fan lost in a land of psytrance and vocal house. I had to make do with deep Chicago stuff, few 12"s from Detroit and the occasional Tresor vinyl (no internet back then, and postal orders were more than expensive and totally insecure). Then I discovered a british label called Offshoot, mostly due to the magnificent 'Style Wars' EPs by Bushflange aka Leftfield's collaborator Nick Rapaccioli.

At the same time, I frequently came across 12"s from a guy named Aubrey. I liked most of them; I bought some, mostly Solid Groove stuff. But what I distinctly remember is that when I mentioned his name to the guys at the record shops, I always received the same answer, more or less something like: "Ah, Aubrey, yes, well, we grew up listening to him". All of them, house mongrels that they were. But I learned, and understood.

As I had promised there, I had to present this album (his only one as I just found out...). Most of the stuff I wrote there also apply here.

No need for a bio, just check his discogs page or HisSpace here. His time was the '90s, later he withdrew for some reason I'm not aware of. His music is placed somewhere between Detroit techno, UK techfunk and house. Or not. Cause he's also into funk and hip hop. And disco. And samples everything he likes, loops it and toys with it for six minutes in the purest Acid House tradition, over solid beats and funky basslines, creating mesmerizing technoid gems from out of nowhere. Or just plays some honest, down to earth house music.
In this record he exposes most of these tendencies, creating a sound of his own. Not thanks to his outstanding production skills or his avant-guard experimentations - he just has this gift, to merge all these elements into a coherent formation, to use familiar sounds and tricks to create unexpected results. In a conventional, clubby way; yet he succeeds.

He recently had a digi release, hope he returns better than ever - a lot of his classmates do, anyway.

Aubrey - 1999 Liquid Funk
Info here.