#196 – La La La

I’m fairly confident you’ll have heard the news that Snoop Dogg is no more: he is now Snoop Lion. Swapping one cool animal moniker for another cooler one (animal, that is), could it be that his music is taking a step in the same direction?

Music For Horses no. 27

Once again I find myself writing a post for this Music for Horses playlist, which, considering it was an in-joke that I expected to last all of about three weeks, I find a little surprising. It’s now been running almost as long as this blog, but I still find songs that I want to include.

Moving on to the good stuff though. The first song is a beautifully engineered piece of electronic music; dark, moving and sophisticated, it’s got all the ingredients for a good song. The song begins as a quiet drone and quickly builds as the different layers come in to play. The main melody flicks between guitar and piano and could be a case study in simple perfection. It comes from his 2006 album The Humbucking Coil, and the song is called ‘Phones And Machines’.

B. Fleischmann – Phones And Machines [Buy]

#176 – Escort

This the band Escort, originally a production duo that has grown into a seventeen piece live band, who make some awesome ‘nu-disco’. Except it’s all done live, by such a large group that their tour bus is probably a double-decker bendy bus. And I can imagine that booking them isn’t all that easy, as it means finding a backstage area enough to hold them all as well as putting them all on stage at the same time.

However, if we stop concentrating on the minutiae, you’ll see/hear that they are really bloody good. I stumbled across them on my iTunes library, while listening to some Errors and spotting the song ‘Cocaine Blues’, which I got about two years ago from RCRD LBL. One listen and I was kicking myself for having missed it first time ’round. This song is a cover of Dillinger’s 1976 song ‘Cocaine In My Brain’, only instead of being a chilled reggae song it’s been turned into a funky slice of disco that sounds like it’s from the 70’s itself.

Escort – Cocaine Blues [Buy]

#109 – The Trojan Appreciation Society Lives On

It’s back! After a break of lord only knows how many years and many a compilation album, the first stop for Reggae-lovers the world over is back. You can read all about the new society here and sign up for their newsletter to get updates and the usual. As well as kicking the Appreciation Society back to life, Trojan have got a new compilation album coming out on Monday. It’s got a mix of old classics and a whole host of unheard reissues/re-releases, as well as some never-before-heard stuff. I’ve been lucky enough to hear the tracks and you won’t be disappointed. The fact that it comes out just after Carnival means if you’ve not quite had your fill of Island music, then you know where to go. More info and a pre-order link: here.

For now, here are a couple of tasters off the album

#104 – Remix O’Clock

Here we go with another roundup of remixes, old and new, that I’ve been listening to over the past week or two. I am going to start with something off the Wugazi mashup album. It’s rare for mashups to be any good at all, let alone comparable with the original songs. Yet somehow Cecil Otter  and Swiss Andy have managed to pull this off. Picking one song off the album is a pretty much impossible task. So rather than simply listening to this one song, head over to www.wugazi.com, download the album and listen to all of the songs. Lots.

Wugazi – Shame On Blue

Having put Rihanna’s latest song up on Sunday I started relistening to a reggae remix of Rude Boy I found ages ago. I don’t have a clue who it’s by, but it’s about as summery as it gets.

Rihanna – Rude Boy (Reggae Remix)

#99 – Rizzle Kicks

I’m about to break what I would imagine is a cardinal rule amongst bloggers and proper journalists, I’m aiming this post at a demographic of one; and that one just happens to be SF&L’s editor Sacha.  In addition to a carefree attitude towards rules I’m also blessed with a character flaw that I often like to excuse as a pro-active imagination. I find that, quite involuntarily, whenever there are gaps in my knowledge of any particular subject I have a tendency towards plugging them with guess-work and fabrication passed off as actual fact. This has led me to the decision that from what I do know of Sacha’s music taste I ‘know’ Rizzle Kicks will be the perfect distillation of said taste.

Rizzle Kicks

#87 – Sorry It Was So Quiet

Hello all. Sorry about the hiatus but I’ve been up to all sorts, don’t you know. Here are 3 songs I’ve been listening to on my travels and three songs from my (rather backed up) inbox.

This old Bedouin Soundclash song is a classic in my book. Dancy yet rootsy, it is immensely listenable. And I listened to it a lot.

Bedouin Soundclash – Natural Right (Rude Bwoy)

Next is a disco classic. Which isn’t necessarily a great thing… That said, this song is (or should be) on everyone’s guilty pleasure list. If I ever hear this on a night out I think I will try and kiss the DJ, irrespective of gender and the subsequent fallout with my girlfriend. We also imaginatively changed the lyric “Baby give it up / Give it up, baby give it up” to “Ollie Ollie Hope / Ollie Hope… etc”. Sung in a Mancunian accent, there really is no better way to let a good friend know we’re thinking about him. Although I’m not sure he appreciates it as much as we all do.

KC & The Sunshine Band – Give It Up [Buy]

My final choice from the songs I’ve had on rotation the past six weeks is from German minimal duo Booka Shade.

#76 – Because It’s Sunny Out

Well, it is. And it has been for rather a long time. While it makes me wonder what on earth is going on with the seasons, ultimately it works out pretty nicely for me. Here are some songs that should be listened to while drinking a (fancy) cider in one of the Queen’s Parks with your friends. Maybe even in one of the sun loungers, if you’re prepared to get fleeced.

Toots & The Maytals – Take Me Home Country Road [Buy]

Barrington Levy – Here I Come [Buy]

I think I fell in love with this song because of Anchorman. In fact, I know I did. So, Mr Ferrell & co, thank you.

#23 – Gentleman’s Dub Club

On Tuesday night a bunch of our friends finished their semester at uni and decided that it was a prime opportunity to go out and drink more alcohol than responsible future doctors ought to. Being the easily led fool that I am, I followed them blindly around until I too was somewhat drunk. We ended up in Tuesday Club where a live band were playing. Gentleman’s Dub Club have played plenty of times before but I’d never made it to one of the shows they were headlining. A nine piece band with horns, sax, great drums and some heavy, heavy bass, they played for an hour and a half and blew the place apart. I got it on reliable authority that it was the best set they’ve played at Sheffield. Apparently. The lead single at the moment is Fire, which starts out as a really empty dub/reggae song and breaks into a ska ending that it is impossible not to dance to.

#10 – Revolutionary Music

Vive La Revolution!

I’ve been in Bordeaux this past week and they’ve been making a right racket about these reforms to the pensions. In a nutshell, the government is trying to up the retirement age to 62 from 60, and up the age when you can claim a state pension from 65 to 67. Obviously the unions are pretty upset about it and so they’re doing what the French do best… Striking.