What a month, part 1.

So i've been pretty buy over the last month, what with tryin to kove to London and having no computer for much of that time. Hence the extreme quiet on the blog front! This has meant i've felt ridiculously out of the loop for this period of time and have only started crawling back to some kind of knowledge of what is going on in the music world in the last few days! It's not all been a waste of time though, i have spent the last two weeks working for ATC Management, who are a top bunch of people, thanks a lot guys, i hope to see you all again in the future.


Firt off today, i want to talk a little about the Deadly Syndrome who i have been meaning to write about for, oooo, maybe six months now and never gtten around to it. And to be honest, there's still not a lot (or anything) i really now about them. You can visit they're homepage here - The Deadly Syndrome. Playing a stunning brand of indie that is incredibly beautiful. Songs like Eucalyptus are pehaps those that naysayers might write off as merely depressing indie nonsense. But this is the same kind of pointless and possibly ingnorant dismisal that irritates me in the same way as it does when people address it towards radiohead. Yeah, it's not the most upbeat thing in the world, get over yourself. It's still a fantastic song!

Anyway, yeah, check them out!

The Deadly Syndrome - Eucalyptus

I'd also like to touch on LA Priest briefly. During a swift chat to Dan the Carnivore (Of Bolt Action Five fame) i discovered that this name i've been hearing a lot recently is none other than Sam Eastgate of Late of the Pier notoriaty. Turns out that his solo stff is just as good as the LOTP band stuff. Songs such as "Engine" have all the energy of LOTP tracks but are clearly designed with one purpose in mind, slaying dancefloors rather than gig venues. Maintaining a simialr sound to that of his day band (innevitable i suppose as he is LOTP's principal songwriter) yet removing the harder, rock based influences and focussing purely on electro craziness, you can't help but throw some angles when this comes on. He also has a new 12" out soon/now, i imagine it's pretty limited so i'll race you to my grubby mitts on a copy!

LA Priest - Engine
LA Priest - Swing Youth

A quick nod to some of my favourites over the last 12 months, Tapedeck are currently working on new material, some of which is apparently going up this weekend so keep your eyes peeled for that, they've been doing some awesome stuff lately and have a remix coming up for Late of the Pier which i expect is going to fully grimey and very good! Anyway, what's really been rocking my boat over the last couple of weeks is their mix of The Secret handshake's Summer of '98. It definitely one of those tracks that you can't help putting on right before you go out as it it's so upbeat it really puts you in a great mood for the evening, thoughit's works well at anytime!

The Secret Handshake - Summer of '98 (Tpaedeck edit)

Oh, and go check out their lkabel, Meal Deal records, they've got some ace releases coming out soon! Including one from Nottingham's own Lillica Libertine.

Anyway, reckon that's enough for one post. Keep your eyes peeled for part 2 over the next couple of days when hopefully i'll manage to jot down some notes about brodinski and a remix of a band i hate, but has been worked into such a different style i love it!

take care,


Chuck

Xxx

AHA!

Christ. Dave and I saw The Tough Alliance live this evening, and i don't know quit how to describe it. Hopefully we'll get back to you with some tunes et cetera, but now i'm semi lost for words. I've never seen a show like it. zanything approaching your usual live set was abandoned an the two guys from the band spent the set running around inciting as much havoc as people were prepeared to incite! In all honesty it's hard to describe the tough alliance experience in words. All one can say is thier set was possibly as good as a Daft Punk set, except that they only palyed for 20 kins and made no pretence of playing anything. So please, next time they're down come join the chaos, or miss out on what might be the best night of your life.


It's your choice...



Xxxxxx

The Tough Alliance in England

Back to London tomorrow, and this time i do believe i have a house sorted for myself. Excellent stuff. It seems soon i might have a permanent home and a better base from which to continue with this on a more regular basis.


Anyhow, so i leave for London tomorrow due to the fact that The Tough Alliance are playing The MacBeth tomorrow evening. I'm ridiculously overexcite dabout this, and even more so, perhaps, about seeing Late of the Pier in Fabric on the weekend. Woop. So all in all it should be a good week. I can't beleive some oif the press that Late Of The Pier have been getting recently, and i'm so happyu for them becasue they such top guys and so good as well. I think they deserve everything they get. Go check 'em out, breadface.

Other than that, all's been a biut quiet on the music front of late, i've successfully not made it to any gigs recently which is probably why i'm so excited about this week. I did pick some records up the other day though.

On the list were:

Nathan Fake - You are Here 12"
Skream - Sub Island 12"
Hatch & Benga - 10 tons Heavy 12"
Uffie - First Love 12" (finally!)
Shackleton - Blood on my Hands (Ricardo Villalobos edit, so epic it covers both sides of the record!)
Simian Mobile Disco - Sleep Deprivation 12"
and something i've apparently forgotten...

Then yesterday from Rough Trade:

Late of the Pier - Bathroom Gurgle 7"
Bobmo - Let's Go Bobmo 12"(again, finally!) Bobmo - To The Bobmobile

So that's good times, i'll see if i can't upload a few of those now.

Finally, our new friend Plimsouls has put up a new batch of stuff on his myspac page which, quite frankjly, is ace. Havn't managed to acctually get my hands on the tracks yet, bt i can still say that perhaps his best yet. There is a distinct change in style from the older more minimal and quite cold electro stylings, he seems to have gone for a much warmer, more 8-bit (almost) sort of sound which seems to utterly befit this delightful September we're having so far. I urge you to go check out thi snew stuff, trust me, it's a strong look!


Oh, and go check Skream remix of Klaxons- It's Not Over. It's pretty fucking bass-tastic!


Anyway, to all you wonderfull people who are even faintly interested in my life, or take the time to examine what i've been listening to of late; thank you so much and take care, i'll atch you soon.

Chuck.

Xxx

it's been a while

My contributions to the blog recently have been, well limited. Apologies. It's been a busy couple of months with the finishing of uni, Ibiza, moving back to Leeds, moving to London, finding a house, finding a job etc. etc. and of course all the required raving in between.
I feel this should be resolved.
Chuck has mentioned a lot of stuff, events, gigs etc. I was there for most of them, however they do not need mentioning again. One thing he didn't mention and one of the best things I've been to this summer was Gui Boratto at Plastic People, Shoreditch. A truly awesome gig, one of just a couple of UK dates that Gui has played this year. Low ceilings, absolutely no lights and some fine west German minimal. I think its safe to say that the periphery was certainly circled that evening.

Gui Boratto - The Blessing

Tube and Berger feat. Vanity - Funky Shit (Gui Boratto rmx)

Here's a bunch of other tracks which I loved this summer. In no preferred, significance or chronological order; just songs that sum up summer '07 for me.

Riton - angerman (jesse rose rmx)

Matthew Dear - Don and Sherri

Robert Babicz - Sonntag

Snax - Honeymoons Over (Konrad Black rmx)

Chung King - Voodoo (Hot Chip rmx)

Modeselektor - The White Flash (feat. Thom Yorke)

Gui Boratto - Shebang

Also a couple of new ones for you. Two truly awesome tracks that I've blogged recently, does anyone think that bonde do role sound like M.I.A on the urlspracht?

The Knife - Pass this on (M.a.n.d.y and Booka Shade Knifer remix)

Bonde do Role - Solta O Frango (Ladytron remix)

I promise it won't be so long until my next post. Promise!

dav

England!

Back from holidays with a weekend in London under the belt, excellent.

Canada was pretty ace and relaxing with one quite spectacular hangover smack bang in the middle resulting in my lack of attendance from a little dub/reggae festival, oh well.

First night back on Friday, August 24th and off i went to watch my friends in The Daze play at 333/Mother Bar, whatever it's called these days. That was pretty, with many old friends i hadn't seen for a long time appearing for the party. Though it could be said the evening went rapidly downhill shortly after the set... Without delving into any details one could say that unpleasantries occured...

SUnday brought an afternoon barbeque downb Kingston way and much Champagne, always appreciated. Ha. Then, of course, TDK in the evening.

As an event it was great fun, though the organisation was not all that great, it has to be said. I think I had to queue around 54 seperate tims before i'd entered the festival. Then couldn't find anyone selling (i've now accepted the terrible fact that one will always have to pay extortionate ammounts to find out simply who is playing and when...) laminates with the details of stage times on them, thus meaning the night turned into somewhat of a lottery. Still, i managed to make my way to see Alex Under (live) soon after arrival, with some friends, and his dark throbbing techno made a good start to the proceedings. I moved soon though (upon hearing that a lot of acid was being swallowed around me (more on that later...) and fucked off next door to the band room and found my friends in To My Boy knocking ou a cracking set with few people watching and being vastly unnapreciated. A tragic shame, as these guys nevr fail to put on a llive show that is anything less than thrilling, yet seem to frequnetly to be playing to only a small number of people. This needs to be rectified shortly. So check this out,

To My Boy - Outerregions

Knowing that Shitdisco were on son after To My Boy (i hoped... fearing they may have been before) I waited around and grabbed a beer, which i found out were £4.50. Ouch. Luckily Shitdisco did play next, and were probably the best thing i saw all evening. Playing most of the songs from their album, Kingdom of Fear as well as their cover of (what i can only assume) Oxide and Neutrino's "No Good 4 Me" The room had filled out a lot more by this point and the crowd were dncing quite enthusiastically to the likes of "Reactor Party," "I Know Kung Fu" and recent single "OK". Top stuff and i was exhausted by the end. ANd it was only 12:30/1 o' clock at this point!

Shitdisco - OK

After this point, due to the lack of a laminate, i'm not fully sure of what i saw for a while. But to the best of my knowledge it was James Holden, Jamie Jones, Green Velvet and ISSST djs, anything else has been lost in a haze...
James Holden, as expected, packed the room to the rafters and knocked out a killer set of his own brand of wareped eletro and techno. Seriously, go see him, it was really quite special! Jamie Jones is another character to watch out for, i think 2008 could really be his year. Having made a name for himself accross the techno map with regular slots at Fabric and recent slots for nights such as Product in Nottingham. Playing it in the Mulletover hosted room we found him playing a set of severely wonky techno and incredible, wobbly bass lines that had us enthralled the instant we stepped through the door. I intend to see a full set by this guy as soon a s i possibly can. Awesome. I think we took a break for a while after this beofre cathcing the end of Green Velvet, which seemed good, though i swear some of it was verging a little too close to Trance regions for my liking. Next up was Kevin Griffiths of ISSST fame Knocking outa style of electro that would be to the genre what Jone's set was to Techno. Really good stuff, as you'd expect from one of the men who run the rapidly becoming infamous ISSST nights. Booby M, also behind the decks, seemed quite content to merely dance behind the decks, though may have taken to the decks later.

Basically, great evening, marred by overpriced beer, too many people making moving between stages a truly tiring experiencer and a good friend of mine having to take an acid riddled friend to the local hospital.

Tales of the Jackalope was a very simialr story, a great day marred by the same problems with beer, seemingly no provision of free water (though it turnbs out there was a tap doing such, hidden in a corner undiscoveed until Sunday morning, thougbn luckily we'd brough our own). Highlights of the day were Late of the Pier who were the first band of the day to really get things going. They played a great set, again, though tracks such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" and "Random Firl" seem to be getting little airtime these days... Shame, though we were treated to a new song which takes a completely new direction and needs a little work on it, but sounds promising.
Also, don't forget thier new single, RELEASED ON SEPTEMBER 10TH (in the UK), Bathroom Gurgle. Here's a couple of Old Demos...

Late of the Pier - Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Late of the Pier - Random Firl

(apologies for the poor quality, i believe they are quit eold demos, not sure how available they are, so... give them a try).

They also once again provd themselves to be charming gemtlemen as well.


Uffie, who i only managed to catch half of (reasons later) seeme dto be in good form and "Pop the Glock", "Ready to Uff", and "First Love" sounded wicked. And she looked good, as always. Ha.

Fucked Up easily ruled the day with a mere 3 songs, bneing dragged off after this due to noise complaints and the bouncers having no idea how to deal the the insanity that was unfolding before them.

They appeared around two hours late (at 2:15 rather than 12:00) at exaclty the same trime as Uff, so i had to split both sets and it sems i chose about right, catchingall of Fucked Up's short set and only missing "In Chrarge" and most of "Hot Chick" from Uff's. Oh well. So, Fucked Up take the stage, singer Damien Dressed in Big basketball shorts and a wrestling mask (oh yeah, and his nipples taped up) and prceeds to ditch the mask while jumping onto a fold out table and decimating it beofre jumping off stage and sending the crowd into a frenzy. Three songs later i was off to see Uffie and it seems they were back off to Canada, soon to be followed by me.

Others, such as Chromeo, Shy Child, Tapedeck, The Fall, Get Shakes, Autokratz (recently signed to Kitsune) and the Neon plastix also rocked it, but the abovew three were what i came to se and i did not leave dissapointed. The rest of the night ws spent dsancing around the campsite with an Ipod and minispeakers to Chromeo and Daft punk. Cool...


Not much else going on at the moment aside from trying to get a place in London and then finding a job (fun stuff, eh?), so we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, i think i'm going to be heading to see LAte of the pier at Fabric on the 21st and then to see Passions at Dollop in Nottingham in October (i think). Dollop is a great night in friendly and intimate surroundings, by the way, so if you're around please head down, it's cheap and Sam's always offering cheap list all over the place so keep your eyes open.

Oh yeah, i found some big and some wierd stuff recently. For instance, Fucked Up covering Justice and Soulwax Nite Versions doing their thing with that French duo as well.

Fucked Up - Stress (Justice cover)

Justice - Waters of Nazareth (Part 2) (Soulwax Nite versions mix)

Then there's that whole indie-dubstep crossover thing i mentioned. Over the past few weeks i've decided that i do like that Skream/Plastician (though i always wonder if they mean Plasticman, as i'm sure Plastician is a collaberation between Holden and someone i've forgotten... Hawtin or someone like that i guess, or maybe Hawtin and Acquaviva) remix of The Black Ghosts.

The Black Ghosts - Some Way Through This (Skream and Plastician Remix)


And, of Course, Hot Chip's summer anthem that seems to have been crimianlly underplayed so far:

Hot Chip - My Piano


Take care people.

Chuck

Xxx

Holidays

So I'm in Canada at the moment, visiting my sister and generally maxing out across the water. Thus, no posting for a good two weeks at least, i figure my sister won't want me logging weird music on to her compute in case any of it happens to be virus ridden or something.

Anyhow, i hope everyone's doing ok. Back on the 23rd for TDK cross central that weekend etc.

see you around.

Chuck.



Xxx

Transformers

One of my friends has proclaimed this "the most important 2 hours 20 minutes of hius life." The fool clearly didn't pay attention when we watched the original but a few days before. Oh well. I've heard the soundtrack is like Nikelback trying to play like Van Halen. Makes you want to shoot yourself, doesn't it.

Anyway, this month has been kind to me. I've seen Bolt Action Five twice, and once with Late of the Pier and Neon Plastix (that was pretty special) and at then Filthy Dukes run night, Kill 'em All at the Camden Barfly las weekend. Woop. They were, of course, great both times, though i think the second perfromance i enjoyed more, purely due to the fact that there were other poewple dancing around. However, they played "Can the Freedom Regulate the Volume" (new single, out in October, AA-side "Think Fast." DO IT!) at the LOTP night... Hard choices.

Also over the last week, that very kind young fellow, Plimsouls sent me a few tracks to have a listen to. The first, a cover of Shitdisco's Reactor party is a good first effort for a remix, certainly the best first attempt i've heard in many monhts i think, though is let down at the middle. It starts off with a long and interesting build up untill little past the two minute mark, and while the drop is by no means bad and woiuld certainly keep most dancefloors (exclude, i'd imagine the ones full of purists. Read: boring people) moving, it something about it seems a touch off... though i can't quite put my finger on it, perhaps the wonky melody running through it seems slightly out of time or something, i'm just not sure. Fuck it, it's still good, using the vocal sparingly which seems to be the otion of choice for some of the better remixers of late. Check it out

Shitdisco - Reactor Party (Plimsouls' Cataclysmic Mix)

The other two tracks i recieved were two new productions of his own, Malc (i assume short for Malcolm) X and Not today. The first, Malc X, represents a sharp improvement in P[limsouls worksounding quite fantastic from the very first listen. It's a fine piece of electro with strong tech influences that would sit comfortably alongside any of the darker Kitsune releases, whilst retaining a distincly British air about, possilby the haunting, almost melancholy , melodys and vocal samples he uses. Anyway, it's quite something.

Not today is a slice of something quite different with a strong lines and beat running through and building slowly throughout the song, this track seems to rely more on stabbing and whirring/swirling electronics through which to crete dancefloor destruction, my guess is that it's a succes, before dropping into a mean throbbing bassline which thenn morphs into something that sounds as though it could have been produced by Mr. Oizo, not a 19 year old. And that... is a serious acheivement i think. Both these tracks mark, as previously mentioned, marked a step in Plimsouls prduction levels with these tracks easily outstriping the older tracks, though this is not undermining those so much as stating the quality of newer stuff as i'm (surprise!) a fan of it all, old and new. Carry on my friend, and we look forward to seeing where things pan out from here and wish you the best of luck.

Plimsouls - Malc X

Plimsouls - Not Today


My friends in Ou Est Le Swimming Pool have also finally managed to produce stuff to a level they felt was adequate enough to put up on their Myspace page. First track, Umbrella is, well, a cover of Rhianna's Umbrella. It immediately outstrips the original (in my opinion) by cutting out the Jay-Z, a man i can't stand, vocal line. That aisde, it's great so go check it!.

Also up are Haddon's Bastard, an brilliantly obscure piece about a drink invented after some exceedingly quaint substances had been drunk at a party. THere's some ammusing references in here also, if you can spot them.

Lastly is All in All... is a track written purely by one Charles Alfredo Haddon, minus thehelp of his usual partner in song, Mr. Joseph Hutchinson. Written in under a week, it's a catchy piece of indy-pop that should sit well with most people.

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Umbrella

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Haddon's Bastard

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - All in All...

Another couple of tracks i've stumbled across and loved are the MSTRKRFT mix of Chromeo's Tenderoni (though the original and Sinden Mix are good also), which is, it has to be said, in a very simialr style to their D.A.N.C.E. mix, though this is no bad thing or even a complaint. Merely an observation.

Chromeo - Tenderoni (MSTRKRFT mix)


Prins Thomas have done a nice and simple remix of SMD's I Belive. A nice gentle elctro re-work that'll keep dancefloors and headphone heads happy alike.

Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe (Prins Thomas Remix)

Then there were a few people that i am entirely new to, Janedge, Riva Star and MESH. Here some samples which range fromincredibly dirty electro to pure dancefloor bangers and some seriously wonky tech-house. Ace!


Riva Star - Thizzle

Janedge - You Sampled That

MESH - I Want to Start

And for a extra bonus some randon Daft Punkery:

Daft Punk - Da Funk (Casio Inc. Mix)

This weekedn is Tales of the Jackalope which i'm far too excited about, what with the likes of Dizze Rascal, The Fall, Late Of The Pier, XX Teens, Errors, Kissy Sell Out, Uffie & Feadz, Shy Child, Foals and DJ Mehdi amongst others. Then i'm off to Vancouver Island for a couple of weeks. Happy times. Catch you all on the flip side of August.

P.S. This lot are playing Jackalope and, along with LOTP, are going to slay the place!

Fucked up - David Comes To Life

Chuck

xxx