I've found salvation. Embraced in the arms of soft wafty pop and the soothing moonage daydreams of FC Kahuna, Jon Hopkins and Ulrich Schnauss. Waddya mean Ulrich who?
Although it's Memory Cassette who have been the real spoonful of sugar. Something like a cosmic Cocteaus glitzed with a downbeat disco shimmer. Lend an ear and melt into the magic.
How can anyone feel glum after a blast of this bubblegum booty from the Grand Master of mash ups. Released yesterday (as part of a three way whammy)and grabbable here
I've always been slightly agnostic about football. I have tried to see the light - even signing up for a year's membership with Southend United in the early 90s. Although lower-league hoofing and thumping, 8-0 maulings (Crystal Palace) and mid-week aways to Swansea and suchlike would test the faith of a saint.
The World Cup though, is literally a different game. Italia '90 was the tournament that reeled me in with it’s internationally tall tales: Cameroonian stories of snake oil leg-rubs and voodoo doings. Colombia with the fantastically be-afroed Carlos Valderrama and that scorpion kicking-keeper. Eastern European units snapping and nipping about like terriers. Alien dangers unknown in our domestic setting: altitude, heat and humidity - the need to neck down salt tablets?
Don’t worry if you're already suffering from football fatigue, I won't be grinding on about it too much. But as England go up against the USA (formerly Team America if I remember - who I'm sure briefly appeared on TV in the 70s) for perhaps their most public set-to since the Boston Tea Party, I couldn't let the occasion go unblogged could I? For balance I'll fire up something tasty from both nations.
A Manchester band with an instrumental for our national drink and Little Milton's corner shop conundrum (what are grits BTW?)
And perhaps a combo of UK Sports theme teamed with Motorcity Soul - you can catch Mark Vidler's notes (exclusive to this blog) on his football booty right here
Following in the tradition of festive specials Piley and I bring you a bumper edition for the Christmas Podrophenia : 10 tinsel tunes, 8 celebrity messages (can you spot them all) and 2 special guests as Marmite Boy and Coops join us for a sleigh ride through cyberspace..
Brian Setzer, Sufjan Stevens, Shonen Knife and Barbara Streisand are a few of the tunes hand-picked for the playlist. While in other news there's a cracker consumer test, possibly the most miserable Christmas song ever, retromania with Burley aftershave, Ronco adverts and Avon Boosters. A Wood Watch update and find out which one of us has, ermm, 'fiddler's fingers' ~ I say!
It's perhaps rowdier than our usual poddies as assorted other halves, 2 Mini-Mondo's and 1 Tiny Piley add some background clatter to the goings on ..
Serving suggestion - play it while you're writing or delivering cards, wrapping prezzies, enjoying a glass of egg nog (what is egg nog?) or trimming the tree. Whatever you're doing fill your boots and raise a glass ~ or is it fill a glass and raise your boots? ~ for Christmas.
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....
As Bing Crosby sang "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". But, does it sound a lot like 'Christmas'? How many times can you hear - year in, year out - the same ol' creaky Christmas crooners and overplayed tinsel-tunes before you start tuning them out?
Personally I really will pull this sort of a face, if get anywhere near another whiff of Phil Spector, 'Fairytale of New York' or East 17's 'Stay' and Frankie's 'Power Of Love' (and who in the name of Chris Chringle ever decided the last two had any sniff of Christmas spirit about them anways)..
So let me introduce to you ...a grab bag of goodies, a sackful of bootleg remixes and festive flavored funky nuggets that should get your jingle boots a'bopping and your cosy toes a'tapping. All have been masterfully mixed by the super heroes and heavy hitters of cut-and-paste-pop into fun size, mini-medleys of panto' season playfulness where ....
A couple of rock's heaviest hitters have both released new albums within the last few days:
McCartney (as The Fireman) with 'Electric Arguments' Axl Rose (as Guns N' Roses) with 'The Chinese Democracy'.
But what would the results have sounded like if they'd put their collective noggins together for a team-up (Maxl's Metal Hammer?) Perhaps something like...
DJ Jimmi James - Sgt. Pepper´s Paradise (short version)
So let me introduce to you - a couple of other G N' R connections to the bands appearing in these two metal based booties.....
Guns N' Roses covered McCartney's 'Live And Let Die' on their "The Spaghetti Incident?" album
Axl was married to Erin Everley, the daughter of one of Macca's musical heroes Don Everly.
Matt Sorum drummer for G N' R and Velvet Revolver is a former drummer of The Cult, who, had Guns N' Roses as their opening act on a US tour in the eighties.
If this post doesn't get me blog-whacked nothing will.
For as long as DJs and remixers have been recycling rock, rap and pop scraps into home made hybrids and patchwork tracks - I've been collecting them.
The King of cut and paste pop isMark Vidler/Go Home Productions (the legendary 'Ray Of Gob' and 'Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head' are both GHP creations) whose brand new booties 'Spliced Krispies' have been rocking my noggin for the past two weeks. And as if he's not busy enough making mashups and a full set accompanying videos, Radio One appearances, magazine features, podcasts guest spots and a new album - the Grand Master of Mashups himself Mr Mark Vidler is here, right here to give us some exclusive snap, crackle and pop on a selection from his latest tasty treats 'Spliced Krispies' -
"Wouldn't It Be Nice To Have A Finger Of Fudge"
OK, I was born in the original Summer Of Love (not the attempted ecstacy-fuelled 80's version), pre-Pepper by a month yet the smell of Strawberry Fields was still strong, if you get my drift. So...that means I grew up in the Seventies:
Space Dust, Planet Of The Apes, The Double Deckers, Krazy Comic, Horror Bags crisps, Top Deck, Space Invaders, Glam Rock, Punk Rock, New Wave, Mod Revival, Texan Bar, Curly Wurly, Finger of Fudge (got there in the end).
The Cadbury's Fudge jingle / TV ad appeared at the tail end of the 70's and well into the 80's, so if you're of a certain age you'll either remember it fondly or dismiss it for being a mild irritant. I guess I'm somewhere between the two camps but back in April when I started creating the "Spliced Krispies" album, I always knew I was going to 'doctor' it in some way. It's light and breezy feel (mostly a capella) and school boy charm was just crying out to be bastardised with something from another universe (in musical terms).
Fact 1: Mike D'Arbo (formerly of Manfred Mann) wrote the jingle. Fact 2: I originally matched it up with Nirvana's "Teen Spirit".
Thank God I didn't stick with that idea though. It's one of those 'For every 5 gems, there's 50 shit ones' scenarios. So I continued trying to find Fudge a partner well into the wee small hours, fuelled by a bottle of Columbian Gallo and roast chicken (Hong Kong style), until Pet Sounds came calling from the corner of the room. It was purely accidental If I'm brutally honest. I was listening to 'Let's Go Away For A While' earlier in the week, so the CD was close to hand. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" seemed to good to be true. One of those 'goosebump' moments when I could hear that Fudge worked effortlessly with it...
I guess it's the one track that's getting the most attention since releasing "Spliced Krispies" to an unexpectant public in May. Chris Moyles (Radio 1 DJ) picked and played it 3 times on his breakfast show. Fair play, he gave 'The Vidler' and 'Go Home Productions' website a very massive plug, questioning my sanity for even contemplating the 2 songs together yet describing it as genius. The phone was hardly on it's hook that morning. Funny what a 'finger of fudge' can actually do for you...
Throughout March this year I was aquiring and listening to a hell of a lot of KPM Library Music, probably fuelled by my sudden 'trying to reclaim my youth' mood that was taking me back to the Seventies, so I was consuming a lot of Alan Hawkshaw, Keith Mansfield, Brian Bennett etc and dragging out my Blow Up compilation CD's, DeWolfe comps and TV Themes albums. I felt like I was living out an episode of every BBC / ITV production between 1973-1979. Very weird but very enjoyable at the same time, so it was hardly suprising that something would filter through and end up on the album. The full Grandstand theme is quite simply a work of art. It's probably Keith Mansfields' most well known. The addition of the Supremes is probably not too much of a surprise really. I think the surprise lies in how well the vocal fits with the backing track at certain changes. It took a bit of editing and shuffling around but I think that my decision to leave the song length the same as the opening titles was right. In the end it was probably more a case of making the music to fit the video that I was creating at the same time. Funnily enough Moyles played this track on his Breakfast show as well...
I can't leave the Sex Pistols alone.They are my regular fix of energy and attitude, reference point and inspiration. See, I was too young to be a punk in 1976/1977. I was only nine years old and more into supporting my beloved Arsenal and playing with my Six Million Dollar Man doll than following bands or pop stars. I watched Top Of The Pops from a very early age (apparently) but never went out and bought records until I was 12. I can remember Gary Glitter, Slade, The Sweet, Suzy Quatro, The Bay City Rollers, Osmonds and T.Rex but I never indulged in the sacred plastic. Those bands seemed a bit cabaret to me at the time if I'm honest. Anyway, I witnessed the Pistols on the Grundy show and that definitely left an impression. Janet Street Porter's 'Punk' documentary for the London Weekend Show was another slice of legendary TV that I caught as well, but it wasn't until 1979 that I jumped right in and started buying the stuff.
By then the Pistols had run their course and the new wave was settling in but I bought 'Never Mind The Bollocks' and am still amazed to this day by it's awesome production and energy. It's the best album to put on when the sun is out and the windows are open. It's pretty well known that "Ray Of Gob" (Pistols vs Madonna) gave me the foot-up into the Music biz back in 2003, so I just felt like doing another one for a laugh and see what turned up. This one came about pretty quickly. In fact the video took longer to make because I spent so much time watching all my Pistols DVD's for source material...I mentioned elsewhere that I had to bolster the bottom end by playing the bass part and mixing it back in but I think the track works well enough now and it's quite strange how nicely female vox fit with a Pistols song.
Mark. I'm sending out extra special soul salute to Mark for finding the time rustle up with a great bowlful of goodies of for my blog - so please speed on over to Go Home Productions and fill your boots with his boots..
So here are a couple of cut and paste cuties both formed from the same Caribbean cloth - using 'Double Barrel' as a musical bed and backdrop, with kittenish girl group vocals smoldering center stage.
Shortly after their 1980s chart ram-raid and debut album, the Beastie Boys dropped off my musical radar (me being into long hair, leather jackets and all things R.O.C.K at the time). Until - via the digitally doomed channel UK Play's heavy rotation but limited library of approx' twelve music vids (Kylie, Beastie Boys and Fatboy Slim etc...), I eventually picked up on the Beasties brilliant promos for 'Body Movin''(Fatboy remix), 'Three MC's and One DJ' and ''Intergalatic''.
The Beastie Boys are one of a handful of bands almost fully formed for their own Hanna-Barbera style musical cartoon series ( see also - The Damned, the Spice Girls and Motorhead) with their fizzingly inventive vids, triple wallop wordplay and stealthy scrapbooking of obscure samples (dropping The Sweet's "She thinks she's the passionate one" into 'Hey Ladies' being a double rap whammy). And if that grab bag of goodies wasn't enough the Beastie Boys sneakily leak acappela tracks into the public domain almost endorsing the idea of mashups and bootleg remixes - you'll find three of my personal faves below.
Alan Hawkshaw's 'Beat Me'til I'm Blue' bolted on to 'Alive'..
If Mark Vidler/GHP is the Mozart of mashups, then Soundhog is the Beethoven of bootleg remixes, with a darker dynamic to his fast and furious bastard pop.
This 8 minute extract from his 'Superchunk' mix is a collection of component parts that really shouldn't fit together, but have been pieced into pick n' mix musical mosiac so stunning that it outshines any of the originals. The shift from Destiny's Child/'Old Grey Whistle Test' theme to Liberty X by way of Primal Scream and onto Breakbeats backing the retro riff from 'John Craven's Newsround' is pure mashup magic.
Here's the track list for this clip
Area Code 615 - Stone Fox Chase Destiny's Child - Bootylicious Primal Scream - Loaded Liberty X - Got To Have Your Love Donovan - Barabajagl Elizabeth Knight - excerpt from 'How To Give Yourself A Stereo Checkout' John Baker (BBC Radiophonic Workshop) - New Worlds Martin Rushent - excerpt from 1985 'Micro File' interview Renegade Soundwave - Biting My Nails
This week on Funky Friday it's a couple of cheeky New Wave dance routines and two punky based booty remixes.First up ..
Hot Gossip - The Hardest Part
Hot Gossip were always cheeky, funky and futuristic but their romps and routines never quite captured the swish, sparkle or understated 'oomph' of Pan's People.'The Hardest Part' was a low level hit in the U.S for Blondie - the original vid' with Debbie Harry strutting like a dark haired dominatrix is here
Hot Gossip - 'All stood still'
'All Stood Still' is probably the only Ultravox track that's not too jarring to these ears. The 'Goss's video is painfully 80's( but loaded with some spectacular leg actions) and seems to filmed in the sort of club that would fire up the 'dry ice' and 'laser display' at 10:30 of an evening.
Go Home Productions/Mark Vidler is the Big Boss of bootleg remixes', these two Punk/New Wave 'bastard pop' pieces are a couple of his obscure but outstanding tasty treats that really should have been huge international hits.
XTC - 'Making Plans For Nigel' and Tweet - 'Oops (Oh My)' get bunged in the blender for.. Making Plans For Vinyl.mp3
And the Sex Pistols 'No Feelings' and Cher's 'Believe' get refitted and recycled as ... No Fun 4 Cher.mp3
This track is one of those mashup moments where the Professor of Pop, Mark Vidler (Go Home Productions) is at the Golden Section of his intergeneric genius.
On paper, attempting to build a Frankenstein of funk from this role call of rockers;
The Beatles, Jet, Joe Walsh, The Jamms and Mud.
Should end up as a musical disaster movie, but the Mozart of mashups creates an action stacked masterpiece that packs more wallop than a bare knuckle ruck.
I've been tempted several times to drop this in to various mixes, comps and occasional DJ spots, but being such an explosive 'banger' it’s almost impossible to find anything to follow up with.
If you enjoyed this get on over to GHP and fill your boots.
