Spring Has Sprung

A few months after we'd moved in together, Mrs PM and I bought a soft top 'Jeep' - not a real Jeep you understand - no, no a Romanian version - the Dacia Duster 'Roadster'. Sleek as breezeblock, and tough as a Tonka Toy. Spring and summer weekends were spent spinning around country lanes with the roof off, and pitching a tent somewhere rural. Although the Roadster could be hopelessly unreliable to the point of near fatality, and any sunny fun was always tempered by moments like: screaming down a hillside in the Brecon Beacons, a lead-foot on the brakes, the smell of steaming brake pads,and no slow down as a high altitude hairpin bend blurs towards you.

A handful of top-off tunes soundtracking our Duster days came from Corduroy's debut album Dad Man Cat, and if there's any track completely that captures the swing of spring it's.....

Corduroy - Skirt Alert



Or this from the first Frank album I picked up - Sinatra at the Sands. Arrangments by Quincy Jones, and backed by The Count Basie Orchestra.. it is for me, still the definitive Sinatra performance..

Frank Sinatra - You Make Me Feel So Young (live at the Sands)

Funky Friday - Plug and Play

It's 'Bring Your Dad to School Day' at the youngest Mini-Mondo's Junior School today. An annual event where the dad's in attendance typically demonstrate a hobby, hands on activity or an area of personal interest for the kiddies to tuck in and try.

For some it's football, others guitar lessons and occasionally even fruit smoothie making. I've had my orders for this year - "bring superhero comics". We've got an over-populated loft bulging (to the point of ceiling cracks) from my collection of comics, annuals and graphic novels.

But, on previous years I've taken along a mic, a pair of headphones and my Kaoss Pad for some junior funtime. The Kaoss Pad is a highly tactile TARDIS of electrickery - buzzing with sampling software, synthetic sounds, drum patterns, vocoder variations and endless FX to be looped, layered and replayed in limitless combinations. Or with the simple swish of a finger any voice can be morphed from the rich rumble of Barry White to the helium squeak of Mickey Mouse or the manic quack of a Dalek.

It's just as easy to build a bed of backbeats and bleeps using a few clicks or tricks, and who knows - perhaps with some extra study and application create an electric confection like...

Jean-Jacques Perrey - Soul City



Peppers - Pepper Box



Gershon Kingsley - Paperback Writer



Kaoss Theory applied live - (not me BTW)



PS there's a couple tasty Billy Preston space race nugg's right here

Aérospatiale

Artwork by Coop from Pinhead 45

What is it with synthétiseurs and the French? They seem to be a nation hard-wired with the talent for turning out the sleekest of space-race synthscapes and Skylab designs

France's rich history of sci-fi/hi-fi sounds and styles launches in 1902 with Le Voyage Dans La Lune , and runs through Pierre Boulle's - Planet of the Apes, Andre Courreges 'Moon Girl' collection, Concorde, Fantastic Planet, Jean Jacque Perrey, Jean Michelle Jarre and Space's - Magic Fly to Air, Cassius, Daft Punk, Etienne De Crecy and the fat analogue arpeggiations that Source records specialise in.

Docking in the 21st century a poignée of contemporary French solo artists have teamed-up to form an electro-collective 'Valerie' downloading their output into the mainframe via their myspace site ..valeriejetaime

It's also well worth space-hop to the Valerie blog for a freebie download of the thumping Can You Kiss Me First (1928 remix)

And when he's not busy bleeping and squeaking with Valeriens, Maethelvin makes his own blend of bubbling inter-planetary pop which sounds like this..

Maethelvin - Delight



While another French space cadet Kavinsky, seems to specialise in imaginary film and TV themes..

Kavinsky-Testarossa Autodrive

Funky Friday - Bolly Mixtures

Perhaps it was being in Brick Lane (the UK's - Little Bangladesh) on Wednesday and not having a curry, that's got me all fired up for something saucy, sweet and spicy. So today I'm serving up three sizzling dishes of classic disco doo-dah, refried and reheated with authentic Asian flavours and fragrances as Usha Uthup re-makes/re-models....

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
Chhupke Kaun Aya



I Will Survive
Lelo Dil Mera



And
I Feel Love



And for anyone who's not seen Bollywood's take on Thriller yet - you really must fill your boots below..

She Moves In Mashterious Ways

Marvel's Irish Superheroine, Shamrock

Now retired and "the most sought-after hairdresser in all of Europe" - apparently

I've never really been 1 for U2's arena-anthems. Bonio's boomy chest-beating and The Hedge's guitar tone is all too cloying, gloopy and reminiscent of Simple Minds and Big Country crowd-bouncers for me..

But how would they sound with a girl guest vocalist facing front - perhaps....

Alison Moyet
Go Home Productions - YazU2



Whitney Houston
GHP - I wanna Dance With Some Bono



Not U2, but to completete the St Patrick's hatrick..

Ultra Nate and Thin Lizzy team-up for
GHP - Ultrathin

Judge Dredd and Judge Joyce ( personally my preference is Beamish or Caffreys over Guinness)

Funky Friday the 13th EP

How's Your Luck? Are you a superstitious sort - a ladder-dodger who says "hello" to Magpies and treads stealthily to avoid pesky pavement cracks? What's your take on black cats - good or bad luck? More importantly will you be taking time off and keeping yourself cocooned indoors, reducing the probability of pitfalls, pratfalls or possible hospitalization.

Wherever you are, whatever condition you're in - why not lend an ear bruised, bandaged or otherwise to these Friday the 13th anthems...

The Ventures - Superstition



Ella Fitzgerald - Knock On Wood



Jeff Beck(featuring Rod Stewart and Ron Wood)- I Ain't Superstitious

Knickerbocker Glorious

Why not pop on over to Piley's place for some more retro-choco treats

So following on from Friday's ice cream themes, here's another two scoops of creamy goodness

The Knickerbockers - Lies

Sounding for all the world like a Beatles For Sale outtake - I say BFS, as Lies takes the sugar rush and bubbly buzz of Beatlemania and tempers it with an early twist of bitter Lennon.



And a nugget of hi-randomness, originally employed as a backing track by Burlesque Dancers...

The Fabulous Tempoes - Nut Sundae



Do you remember Dayvilles Ice Cream Parlours? Oh those flavours.... apple strudel, cherry cola, and some minty-blue sorbet all dished up in coloured sugar cones - not the re-shaped wafer style..

Funky Friday - Kiss Me Quick

It's a new look you on the Mondo blog, as my cyberspace scrapbook's been given a fancy new header thanks to the ever Dee-Lightful Chocolate Girl 64(a fellow Southender). Choco' 64 has snapped and snipped every letter from an assortment of Arcades that line Southend's Golden Mile - you can see C64's Flickr portfolio right here..

So in the spirit of Awaydays, Novelty Rock Emporioums, sand in your sarneys and Peter Pan's Playground - how about two seaside specials..

Lee Moses - Day Tripper



Herbie Goins & The Nightimers - Cruisin'



Not strictly Southenders - more swamp-dwellers really , Canvey's Eddie and The Hot Rods were co-stars to a couple of key punk moments..

12th February '76
Support for Eddie and The Hot Rods Marquee gig, comes from the Sex Pistols who trash the main band's PA and fire off the "We're not into music, we're into chaos" quote to Journalist Neil Spencer

21st August '76
EATHR play the first Punk Rock Festival - at the Mont De Marsan bullring, France along with The Damned. Hot Rod bassist (and Southender) Paul Grey later joins The Damned for two albums - while Damned keyboard player Roman Jugg relocates to Southend after leaving the band in the late eighties

Eddie & The Hot Rods - Do The Monkey Man



The Beatles, the Stones, The Who and Hendrix all gigged in and around Southend - sadly the Pistols had their Southend/Kursall date - 18th December '76 - pulled after the explosive 'The Filth and The Fury' Bill Grundy interview

New Tunes That Help You Breeze More Easily*

What's that you say - have I got something new, fresh and fruity - but with all the ready-to-wear familiarity of a long forgotten favourite?

Made from melodies - as soulful and sweet as a spring meadow, with a splash of backbeat and breaks full of funk and thump - and perhaps some hot Hammond on top?

And you'd like it drizzled with silky strings, punchy trumpets and driven by a tempo that gallops like a gazelle and twirls like a Northern Soul dervish?

Well, in that case Myron and E's Cold Game may be the very thing you're after...

Myron and E - Cold Game



Cold Game is brought to you by Helsinki's Timmion Records

* Note To Continental Viewers - this title is a painful pun on a seventies advertising tag for 'Tunes' Lozenges

* Note To Domestic Viewers - did you know Tunes are made by Mars, and a medicinal cousin of those most glam rocking of boiled sweets - 'Spangles'?