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Underground > Radio & Music >

Mix Tape Jam #2

10:42 / 13.11.01

intro:
dimitri from paris: prologue.

30 second introduction welcoming listeners to a lesson on how to talk "hip"

first track:
sons of silence: bobby dazzler

upbeat groovytune (kinda reminiscent of stuff like pizzicato 5 and the aforementioned d.f.p), with samples from a language lesson.

(nb: some of you may have had these two on a mix tape from me)

next!

12:32 / 13.11.01

Unrest - West Coast Love Story

I got this off a tape from you, Kooky.
It's a 90s lo-fi legend band (the source of that "You are indoors - in the record stores!" rant on the Lo-Fi Allstars track) with a serious early-60s, beatnik coooool thing going on.
This hip, upbeat number has a hidden vein of longing, and sounds like it could have been covered by the Strawberry Alarm Clock or a French-pop band from a Godard movie. The vocals are half-whispered. "I'll kiss you in LAaaaaaay....!" Break out the turtlenecks and dark shades!

13:38 / 13.11.01

The Velvet Underground - radio ad / Real Good Time

both from a rarities bootleg - the radio ad is about 40 seconds long and consists of snippets from 'Candy Says' and 'What goes On' with a slick voice-over man talking over the top saying vaguely scary things like "The Velvet Underground - it will tell you how to feel, it is you!"
'Real Good Time' lasts about 2 and a half minutes and is a really nice, simplistic pop song in which Lou Reed sings "We're gonna have a real good time together" over and over again to a seriously groovy rythym & blues backing. Possibly became an outtake simply for being too easy on the ears.

Ronald Thomas Clontle

14:31 / 13.11.01

"Tell You (Today)" epic 7 minute dance workout by Loose Joints (found on the wonderful Disco Not Disco compilation). starts off with insistant disco beat and a girl chanting "tell you tell you tell you tell you" then going into a bit with excellent happy horns then turning into the pop bit at the end with guy sing "walking down the street...etc etc"

happy happy, joy joy.

No star here laces

14:42 / 13.11.01

Aaaaah, the glorious Arthur Russell strikes again. My personal treasures unearthed by the evils of the compilers. Dammit, I'll have to buy the fucker now, cos I don't have that particular track. Poo.

To follow, how about:

Felix da Housecat - "Cosmic Pop"

An incredibly silly record that does indeed sound like cosmic pop. Very insistent, with three different intensely catchy, and vaguely ice-cream van sounding riffs weaving in and out over a steady 4/4 and occasionally weirdy synth noises.

08:19 / 14.11.01

if it does indeed have noises that would pass for ice-cream van chimes, then it can only be followed up with

jonathan richman and the modern lovers: ice-cream man.

low-key retro guitar pop with daft lyrics and background harmonising. fits in very well with the more poppy velvet underground canon, for starters.

12:02 / 14.11.01

Kooky, will you marry me?

RING! RING!

No star here laces

15:39 / 14.11.01

Hey kooks, I just downloaded that Sons of Silence thing - it's fantastic! Very fun, tho I think it'd be better without the language lesson. Is this still available? Can I get it on vinyl?

18:21 / 14.11.01

Dunno whether it's taking the whole desert theme too far, but I'd go into "Ice Cream" from the first Raekwon the Chef album. Classic Rza hip hop, eerieish pianos, one loop all the way, classy.

07:58 / 15.11.01

quote:Originally posted by Tyrone Mushylaces:
Hey kooks, I just downloaded that Sons of Silence thing - it's fantastic! Very fun, tho I think it'd be better without the language lesson. Is this still available? Can I get it on vinyl?

i picked it up (on vinyl) second-hand in berwick street. it's on leaf records, on the back on our heads ep. you might still be able to find it.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:22 / 15.11.01

Now we're on the hip-hop tip...

8. Jay-Z - 'Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love)' Brilliant use of an old soul sample over which Jay-Z mixes the usual "why is everyone so jealous?" musings with laments about his favourite bands splitting up. Like so much of the best hip-hop, listen to it when times are tough and it will make you feel like you can take on anything.

13:41 / 15.11.01

Also in the Spin 20 for December: "Jay-Z: A fucking GENIUS!" Li'l bro and I were particularly enjoying the "first the Fat Boys break up.." opener of that song this past weekend.

But moving on: I'm gonna seque us into whiteboy rap with the Beastie Boys' F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S "High Plains Drifter" from "Paul's Boutique."

Seriously, how can you BEAT such lines as

"Pulled over to the river
TO take a rest
Pulled out a pair of plyers pulled the bullet outta my chest
Fear and loathin' cross the country
Listenin' to my 8-track
I reached behnind the seat
And grabbed a Kool from the pack
A long distance from my girl
And I'm talkin' on the cellular
She said that she was sorry and
I said
'Yeah the hell you were!'"

You can't. You can't beat lyrics like that.

No star here laces

15:27 / 15.11.01

And I'm going to slam in some militant afrocentrism to follow that, with:

Mau Maus - 'Blak iz blak'

A tune that makes you bob your head until your neck breaks - a beat so hard it could shatter the stylus and the most insistent aggressive delivery. Here's the chorus:

quote:Who the crew? M-A-U, M-A-U, gun ready
Bout to attack the track when BLAK IZ BLAK
Well how black? BLAK HEART, BLAK MIND, BLAK SOUL
Mau Maus (HOOTIE HOO!) We was born to roll!
Who the crew? M-A-U, M-A-U, aim fire
Bout to attack the track when BLAK IZ BLAK
How black? BLAK WOMB TIL WE REACH THE BLACK HEARSE
What's black? - SHADE OF THE UNIVERSE

Also a tune I always have to listen to with a keen sense of irony, containing as it does lines such as:

quote:Aiyyo who that? Yo right there; blue eyes, and black hair
Kill 'em with a rhyme, or the bottom of my Nike Airs
So quick son pick one, you don't want me to finish
or I'll quickly take you to 1950 and do you like the British
Head on a spear, contusions ear to ear
For Africa Maxima, I'ma drive you out of here
Mr. 1/16th, born to kill your self esteem
Born from part devil, part cracker from Queens

07:33 / 17.11.01

There seems to be some sort of hip hop groove going on right now with this tape, but I must go against it all an put a non rap track down, yet still keep with the groove of it all.

"Pow to the People" by the MakeUp, which is easily one of the most danceable tracks I've ever heard in my life. Not to mention lyrics that sound like if the old Batman show was written by Castro's henchmen and you have yourself one of the best funk tunes to ever be played by a bunch of weird ass punk kids.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:24 / 17.11.01

(Actually, CK, ya don't have to worry about breaking the rap mood, since your song is track one of side two...)

Disco is My Class War

08:01 / 18.11.01

While we're in the funk, Sly and the Family Stone's 'In Time' would be a good track two. Or 'If You Want Me To Stay', which is the bestest Sly Stone track I ever heard.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:37 / 14.01.02

(Side Two, track) 3. Ghostface Killah - 'Walking Through Darkness'

Keeping up with the funk theme - although this isn't the best track on Bulletproof Wallets, it does have that swirly Curtis Mayfield style guitar (or is it in fact a Bobby Womack sample? who knows), and that kinda urgent, pacey, slightly faster beat than most hip-hop, the kind that Wu MCs like Ghostface do very well on...

No star here laces

15:03 / 14.01.02

Track 4: Dr Israel - "Inna city pressure"

Oh my goody goody gosh. Absolutely rinsin brock out from the man like the Israel.

Er yes, well...

I really really love this record but always forget about it, so I'm sticking it in here cos it kind of goes with the flow, but mainly cos I just remembered about it.

In case you don't know it (shame on ya) it's mostly gorgeous acapella sung in this great baritone reggae voice about how he's not going to let the city grind him down. And every now and then these great shuddery beats come in. But not that often - most of it is pretty calm. And incredibly powerful - there's this sense of suppressed force throughout the whole tune. A truly transcendent jungle moment.

19:47 / 14.01.02

In honour of a recent dream in which Lee Perry hired me as his apprentice, but freaked out when he realised that instead of genitals, I had a full-sized, live donkey's head in my crotch, I'm going to follow that with George Faith's "Guide Line" - great weary beats, slowly dragging themselves around the record player or your body, w/ Faith's voice perfect for the hard-working man lyrics, especially the refrain, "the load is so heavy/ no wonder we cannot breathe".