Recovery



I've just about recovered from my rather busy weekend, which saw me take in sets at Odder with Shoplifters and the Bay Horse BBQ with YerMam! and the Stop Making Sense boys. Of course, while I've been away, the intertubes have gone a bit crazy for the new TV on the Radio track. I've also been hearing a new Kings of Leon track on the radio for the last week and it's in my brain. And a tasty slice of Italo by Tullio De Piscopo landed in my inbox last week which is also keeping me happy. And roll on next week, as I've another week off. Awesome awesome awesome.

MP3 TV on the Radio - Golden Age

MP3 Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire

MP3 Tullio De Piscopo - E Fatto E Sorde! E?

Bank Holiday Customer Service.



My girlfriend has just got off the phone to Orange, to arrange for her mobile phone to be fixed. The guy she spoke to apparently sounded "really pissed off", and I suspect I know why. I'm guessing that the dude in question had been called in to work on his day off to cover someone he knows for a fact spent the weekend taking pills at Creamfields. He's also fed up because all his mates think he's got the day off, and his phone keeps beeping as different friends are sending him encouraging texts advising him that the girl he likes (you know, the fit one that likes him) will be at the pub this afternoon. And then, some retard (my girlfriend) has the bare faced audacity to phone him, at work, to ask for her mobile phone to be repaired. Poor guy, what a sucky day.

MP3 Nick Drake - Poor boy

MP3 PJ Harvey - Working for the Man

Has the music industry cracked it?



Bloc Party have released their new album, 'Intimacy', today using the web first, physical later model. You can get the album for either £5 for download today, £8 for delivery in October (with 3 bonus tracks), or £10 for download now and CD later. What's even cooler is that the files come in audiophile friendly 320kbps format. Click here to visit their site to download.

Like Radiohead, Bloc Party have tried to combat online piracy by announcing and releasing a product into the market quickly. By announcing the new album only three days ago, there has been no time for it to leak, and is a great way of creating an appetite for the finished product as the only way to hear it as close to release is to pay for it. Sure, it'll be shared throughout the P2P ecosystem as a black market will always exist, but I'm also pretty sure that this will appeal to the same people. What better way is there of capitalising on the buzz of a new album announcement? People just can't wait anymore. Just ask Steve Jobs.

MP3 Bloc Party - Trojan Horse

More Loving Hand.



Here's a quick late night post for you. Tim Goldsworthy is at it again, lending his loving hand this time in the direction of Prints and their track 'Pretty Tick Meditation'. The intertubes having been going pretty damn crazy for his mix of 'Little Bit' by Lykke Li, which for me is a mix that gets better with every listen, and I've been caining it for the last couple of months. Anyway, if you're fan of that, get your ears around this.

MP3 Prints - Pretty Tick Meditation (The Loving Hand Remix)

Interview: Xaver Naudascher (Supersoul Recordings)



DFA have got a brand new compilation out this week on their Death from Abroad imprint called 'Nobody Knows Anything', which is a collection of tracks from German label Supersoul. I caught up with label head Xaver Naudascher this week to ask him how the tie up came about, scoring for films, and what he's had for lunch.

Hey there, how's it going?

Good. Very busy atm. So you must excuse my short answers.

What's going on in Berlin? My friends got back from Melt a few weeks ago - looked pretty wild. Were you there?

No. I avoid festivals. I am 37 years old and i have done my fair share of partying and rolling in the mud, i'd like to make space for another generation when it comes to that.

How did the DFA collaboration come about?

They contacted me after my first 12" and told me they liked it very much. At first they wanted to simply license it for their then upcoming Death From Abroad label. Quickly after Jonathan Galkin (MD of DFA) suggested we make a compilation because he liked what kept coming out on Supersoul. They have been terriffic in terms of moral and practical support for the growth of my label.

Cool. What are your favourite tracks on 'Nobody knows anything?"

Of course i like it all but what keeps amazing me is the effect that Moon Unit Parts 1 and 2 have on a dancefloor. It usually doesn't matter what kind of crowd it is they all instinctively know from the first few bars that something great is about to happen. Pure euphoria.

How did you get involved in scoring films and TV?

I have been doing it since '98. Back then i was working as an audio engineer in one of Berlin's major studios called Trixx. The people that made the music for Run Lola Run (in particular Johnny Klimek) hired me to mix some stuff for the soundtrack and they liked my approach so much (even as a mixer i can draw from my musical background) that i was offered a publishing deal to start writing for film and advertising on a more serious level. In the next few months i will be arranging and producing the score for Julie Delpy's new film The Countess. She will be writing the music and i will step in as producer and arranger, probably also mixing the surround version of the score.

Have you had anything interesting for lunch?

Yes i did. There's a fairly new place in Berlin called Kitti that makes delicious crepes with ham, cheese and egg. Funnily something i just have had for the first time a few weeks ago in Britanny where it is a traditional dish for brunch/lunch.

Do you play many gigs in the UK? When are you next over?

Actually I haven't played in England yet. So far I was always so busy with studiowork that i neglected plugging myself as a DJ. I will be playing in Glasgow twice in the next months. First September 13th at the 1 year party of After Dark @ Stereo and then a live gig with Moon Unit (the band we have started after the collaboration for Part 4 with Ros) @ Optimo on October 5th.

What's next for Supersoul?

Lots of good new releases coming.

Walter Jones - his epic All God's Children was never released in it's full 17 min. version. It had to be done. Pure class deephouse.

Plastique De Reve (as known from the comp plus a dirty mix of Resist by Chicago kid DJ Rampage)

Sebastien Tellier (two tracks from the Sexuality album remixed by Strangelets, Record Makers have been kind enough to give us the go ahead to release the material ourselves)

Moon Unit - (one of the tracks from our forthcoming album plus a Ewan Pearson rmx)

...and there's more but you will hear about it soon enough.

And there you go. 'Nobody Knows Anything: Death from Above presents Supersoul' is out now.

MP3 Walter Jones - The Odyssey Sound (Mogg and Naudascher Edit)

Weekend excitement.



I'm well excited, as this week Shoplifters moves to Odder on Oxford Road in Manchester, for a weekly Saturday night residency. Me and James from Yer Mam! will then be DJing at the Bay Horse Bank Holiday BBQ on Sunday from 5pm til late. Both are free, so get yourselves down to one or t'other if you're in the area. Here's some tracks you can probably expect from me over the course of the weekend.

Mancunian electro poppers Modernaire have had a stab at remixing Metronomy's great new single 'Heartbreaker' and it's by no means a bad effort.

MP3 Metronomy - Heartbreaker (Modernaire Remix)

Parisian Instituber Surkin has a new single out titled 'Next of Kin' featuring a meaty remix by Todd Edwards. Check out the Chromeo mash of the following house gem at Surkin's MySpazz.

MP3 Surkin - White Knight Two

And finally, to celebrate the release of new compilation 'Brotherhood', the Chemical Brothers have pulled in little known Belgian duo Soulwax to remix 'Hey Boy Hey Girl'. I've also heard on pretty good authority that a version exists that replaces the "Superstar DJs" bit with "2 Many DJs... HERE WE GO!". Let me know if you find it.

MP3 The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl (Soulwax Remix) / Mirror

Hot.



Sky Larkin have gone and finally signed a deal with Wichita. I've been a fan of them for ages, so it's really good to see that they've gone and got themselves signed. To celebrate, they've released a new track which you can download from their website in return for your email address or you can also grab it below. Check it out.

MP3 Sky Larkin - Molten

Dough



Following on from including the Modeselektor mix of 'Black Barbie' in a post last week, I got an email from Jahcoozi member Robot Koch. Turns out he was quite happy about the track being featured, and gave us an exclusive of his own tune, 'Dough'. It's been "tearing up dancefloors" recently in Berlin, and really should be given a good rinsing in UK clubs too. Check it out.

MP3 Robot Koch vs Addiquit - Dough

Why no ZShare?



On average, I receive about 20 emails a day from PRs, artists and bands all asking me to feature their work on BCG. I also receive about 10 emails a week from DJs asking me to push their latest mixtape. The commonality between all these: Their music is distributed on filesharing site ZShare.net.

Since last week, some funny business has been going on with ZShare, making the site unusable for most customers of BT or Virgin Media (2 of the UKs largest ISPs). If you are a band, PR or DJ and you're trying to send me stuff for consideration, please post to another filesharing host, such as Yousendit.com. Sharebee.com is a good service, as it will upload to four different hosting options for you (including ZShare), meaning that you music will be heard by those you're trying to reach.

Rumour has it that this is part of the new drive by the BPI and UK ISPs to stamp out piracy. Fair enough, we all know that filesharing sites like ZShare are used to distribute albums by hard up artists like Madonna and Coldplay. But by stopping access to ZShare, the BPI are hitting the industry where it hurts - at grassroots level, where Artists, Bands and DJs who can't afford to host their own music use the service because they're aren't backed by a 6 figure marketing campaign.

As one door closes, another opens. But for all the petabytes of demos, mixes and E-PR that are currently inaccessible to many key members on the bottom rung of the industry ladder, as well as to the fans who use these channels to help support the next Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys or [insert your own music phenomenon here], this is a cruel blow. Especially when there are thousands of search engines, forums and blogs out there that are using other tools to illegally distribute content on a mass scale.

Combatting piracy does not mean closing down services people rely on. How long until MP3 blogs (like this one) are closed down or ignored by ISPs? And who decided that ISPs could dictate which content we could view and use anyway?

Disco flavour.



I've got an awful lot of music on my laptop. This isn't a boast, more a stark realisation that my hard drive is starting to creak a bit, and it's time to lose some weight before it buckles completely. I get a fair amount of stuff sent to me that I'm really not supposed to share, though in all fairness some of this stuff is at least 6 months old now, so I guess the coast is clear. These are all some tracks I'm thinking about chucking on a mix soon, so don't be surprised if you hear them again in the future.

Here's New Yorkers Escort with a disco jam from some point in the last 18 months. If you're a fan of their stuff and not heard this, it's a little more retro than their usual sound, but that's no bad thing. Worth a boogy.

MP3 Escort - Love in Indigo (Extended mix)

I'm not sure where I got this tune from. I suspect it's either the product of a late night Hype Machine raid, or has been put on my laptop by a certain James with the intention of playing out at one of the many gigs we've done together over the last 12 months. Well, it's mine now. Booty Luv covered it last year too.

MP3 Lucy Pearl - Don't mess with my man

This track ended up on a below par mix I put together on New Years Eve. It started off OK, but got a bit week half way through when I was distracted and started playing some minimal instead. It's a track I keep going back to, as while I don't know the original, this mix is pretty hot as the percussion keeps dragging me back for more.

MP3 Wolf and Cub - This Mess (Serge Santiago dub)

And finally, here's a track by Rodgriguez that I'm sure we've all heard on mixes before (notably David Holmes' 'Come get it I got it') and is a nice 70s jam all about narcotics. Enjoy.

MP3 Rodriguez - Sugar Man

Squeeze me.



This fidget-soul mix of Dutch DJ sorts Kraak & Smaak's 'Squeeze Me' by Machines don't care-r Trevor Loveys graced my inbox a few days ago. And aside from the fact I love it, that's all I really have to say. Check it out.

MP3 Kraak en Smaak - Squeeze Me (Trevor Loveys Skeezer Pleezer Mix)

Constructive Summer.



I've been of work this week, hence I might have posted with a better than normal frequency. It's been a busy old week in one way and another: I finally got round to building and launching the new Shoplifters site (head over there for a new mix), and I've spent a lot of time watching stuff on Pitchfork TV. They've got a cool rooftop session with the Hold Steady, which you should all try and catch if you can.

MP3 The Hold Steady! - Constructive Summer

Kids.



Here's something of an exclusive. Tronik Youth has had another pop at MGMT after his rather good mix of 'Time to Pretend', and reworded their new single 'Kids'. Check it out, and expect to see the kids go wild to it in a disco near you soon.

MP3 MGMT - Kids (Tronik Youth Shr-edit)

This Saturday, the World ENDS!



It's a good thing that Burial revealed who he is to the world, because when the World finally bites it on Saturday night, we'll at least all die knowing that he isn't Fatboy Slim or Aphex Twin. Phew, close shave that. Anyway, to celebrate our collective shuffle off this mortal coil, please let me know what your favourite End of the World tunes in the comments, and I'll do some kind of super "Last day of Humanity" post on Saturday. It should be fun.

MP3 Jahcoozi - Black Barbie (Modeselektor Remix)

MP3 Burial - Archangel (Boy 8-Bit Simple Remix)

Mystery Jets = Lightning Seeds?



Gav from work noted a couple of months ago that you can replace the "2 doors down" lyric (in the Mystery Jets track of the same name) with "2 nil down" and get an instant football chant. I've also noticed this with new single 'Half in Love with Elizabeth', which contains a "doo doo doo doo" chant which would sound just as at home at Stamford Bridge as it does on the track. Are Mystery Jets the new Lightning Seeds? Will they write the England World Cup song in 2010? Hmm.

MP3 Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (Pilooski Remix)

Tales of the Hard-drive: Shackles.



Previous attempts at themes have failed, yet I'm giving it another shot. Following on from yesterdays hard-drive raid, here's a radio belter thats been brought back into thinking by the Beebs recent talent show, Last Choir Standing. Some of you out there will have been forced to sit through this on a Saturday night, and if anything the choir that does a version of this is pretty goddammed awesome. Play this for your girlfriend: If she isn't a goth and is about 26 she'll think you're the fucking balls.

MP3 Mary Mary - Shackles

Hormony



I was given this about three years ago with the strict instruction "DO NOT SHARE". Quite who the giver thought I would share this with at the time I'm not sure, given that I didn't know what an MP3 blog was and all my friends were into indie, but still I've kept it sacred up until this point. It probably would haven't got an airing at all, if I hadn't been rooting through my external hard drive in the search of disco gems. This ain't one, but it's a nice bit of driving brokenbeaty house that would sit nice next to 'Star Guitar'. Worth a listen.

MP3 Trickski - Hormony

Be Your Own Pet SPLIT UP!



Like, WTF??? Nashville's noisy youngsters Be Your Own Pet have decided to call it a day. AND their last gig is at Dingwalls. They did play my 2006 gig of the year at the Roadhouse that January, and I do remember playing 'Fire Department' during my time DJing at High Voltage and it being one of the tunes I particularly liked at the time. Never mind eh?

MP3 Be Your Own Pet - Fire Department

Scared to go outside.



Another Saturday night, and another night that I've elected to stay indoors. I would have gone out, but the lurgy I've managed to kick has still left me feeling a bit cack. Not cack in the sense of ill, more cack in the sense of tired. That could also be age, but I'll whinge about that again once I reach an age worth whinging about. In any case, what with it being so late, my beloved has declared it too late either for the Paperclip People, or the Detroity goodness of Shit Robot's mix of 'Dragon' by Dondolo. So in an attempt to placate the situation, I've gone for a bit of Deerhunter. Party.

MP3 Deerhunter - Agoraphobia

City of Lights



Prins Thomas is back and remixing new London altcore scenesters City Reverb's new single 'City of Lights'. They've a tasty remixed package with mixes also coming from Reverso 98, Dr Strangelove and Machines Don't Care member Trevor Loveys. While Prins has been a little off the boil with his more recent stuff, this mix sees him returning back to his Scandi best. Check it out.

MP3 City Reverb - City of Lights (Prins Thomas Remix)


Music posted up here is for evaluation only, and only online for a limited time. If you're an artist, band or label that would like something removed, please get in touch. Otherwise, enjoy the blog!

About me

  • I'm jonthebeef
  • From Manchester, North West, United Kingdom



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