Andy Meecham’s Emperor Machine project debuted on DC Recordings in 2003 with the ‘Pro Mars’ 12″, but it was Vertical Tones And Horizontal Noise – a series of six 12″s released between 2005 and 2007 and collected on an album of the same name – that caused the world really to really sit up and take notice. Combining pure analogue experimentation with aspects of cosmic disco, smack-rock, kosmische, free jazz, ambient and house, Meecham created something akin to a total, all-encompassing psychedelia. These days the ‘Machine isn’t simply a solo studio project: it has a live band incarnation, which toured to great acclaim last year and will be hitting the road again this summer, including a date at Glastonbury. Space Beyond The Egg reflects – to some degree – the more organic, improvisational direction that The Emperor Machine has take, without compromising what made it great in the first place.
Nice new release out on Kompakt tomorrow
KOMPAKT.fm // Third Hand Smoke // Various ArtistsMonsieur Seb’s Daily Music Suggestion: Happy Birthday!
Well, I once was told “it’s OK to boast every now and then, for if you don’t blow your own horn, who will?”
So, today’s music suggestion celebrates the one year anniversary of the release of Cosmix: Second Orbit, which I just added yesterday to this under-construction-blog o’mine! 🙂
You can stream the mix Monsieur Seb’s Cosmix: 3, 2, 1, liftoff! or “right-click/save as” on the image to download it.
My Facebook “domain”
I am now officially official 😀
Monsieur Seb’s Daily Music Suggestion: Discosoulnewnewsuperheavyfunksexmachineyeeeeow!
Get Up Off of Me
Probably one of my favourite JB track — well, outside his classic catalogue from the 50s and 60s, obviously —, it comes from a rather obscure 1975 album of his, an album qualified by certain commentators of Brown’s last gap at trying to stay on top of things and keeping his own myth alive.
Overall, I agree, but this one track stands out of the lot, in my opinion, with its heavy groove and bluesy funk. My intuition here is that Fred Wesley’s touch — he’s credited as co-compositor — is all over the thing.
I’ll let you be the judge:
Another music suggestion… Kinda.
Audible is giving away the audiobook on the Beastie Boys’ album Paul’s Boutique from the renowned 33 1/3 series of essays on important albums in the history of modern music.
Don’t deny yourself this pleasurable opportunity to learn about what went on behind the scenes before this incredible album was released!
Get it here.
Monsieur Seb’s Daily Music Suggestion: nostalgia?
While driving my daughter to school this morning, I was playing some of my recent acquisitions and started to see a pattern emerging: there definitely seems to be a return to “classic” sounds.
Of course, one could argue that there is no pattern, that it is simply my personal taste orienting my purchases in this direction. Sure, if I had the IQ of a zebra mussel, but anyone who knows me knows my musical tastes are as eclectic as can be.
I am proposing two example of this here, but there are many more.
Will Be Mine, feat. Alexander East (Arto Mwambe Vocal Mix) – Manuel Tur (Freerange Records)
Will Be Mine, feat. Alexander East (Arto Mwambe Vocal Mix) – Manuel Tur (Freerange Records)
First Manuel Tur, out on Freerange. Tur is a top notch producer in his own name, but it is Arto Mwambe here who deserves our attention, because he’s is definitely, in my mind (so far), one of the spearheads of this return to classics, as his few releases so far clearly prove (one of those, Telemetric by Telespazio, is featured on my recent mix, I Am Rhythm) and this one confirms, with it’s classic Chicago House vibe.
World Eater – Black Meteoric Star (DFA Records)
World Eater – Black Meteoric Star (DFA Records)
Second is a name I had never heard of before, until I researched this post, only to discover it is actually a side-project of Gavin Russom! True to their exploratory mission, DFA have released Russom’s “live in one take” acid house tracks which are totally classic sounding (read “true to the genre’s codes”) yet innovative in some strange undefinable way.
Monsieur Seb’s Daily Music Suggestion
Anorther blast from the past courtesy of my newly repaired SL1400: Voice Farm.
A rather obscure band (from my point of view, although I just learned that they had opened for Depeche Mode’s tour in 1990) from San Francisco, I have never heard from them since, even though Wiki tells us they were active until 1995.
One of their favourite tracks of mine was Lost Adults off their first album entitled The World We Live In.
Lost Adults
Not sure what to get me for my birthday?
Monsieur Seb’s Daily Music Suggestion
A large part of the genotype of Cosmic Disco (of which I am, humbly, the champion around these parts) is based on the Dub Mix, a concept that emerged in the late 70s and early 80s and which was borrowed from the Jamaican Dub, itself a product of the many technological breakthroughs in studio recording.
What, then, is a dub mix? It’s basically a dancefloor friendly remix of a track stripped down to it’s core elements, and back then, it’s the DJs themselves that created their dub version in the studio during the day in order to spin them at night. The luminaries of the genre are all well represented in the track selection (as well as interviwed in the generous booklet), with, first and foremost, François K(evorkian, a hero of mine), the legendary Larry Levan, Paul Simpson, John Morales and Nick Martinelli (as M&M), Shep Pettibone and Tee Scott.
BBE Music just released an amazing 3CD compilation of such seminal Dub Mixes from that era. CD1 is a mix CD by the Idjut Boys while CD2+3 contain 21 unmixed tracks in their full length glory. That’s 6 more in total than the mix contains! Now that’s value for your money — and if you buy it direct from BBE Music, the package only costs 9£ + 3.46£ S&H (to Canada), which, with a rough currency exchange rate, comes to about 25$!
I can’t stress enough the high quality of this compilation and it’s historic value, for most of these records are no doubt hard to find, to say the least.
The subtitle of the compilation is “a dubbed out collection of classic 80s dance music”, but I propose this one instead: “a priceless compilation of trippy disco and early electro mixes by the masters of the genre”.
Below, I propose to you one of the tracks that really flipped me out upon my first listening session of the Idjut mix. I’d never heard of this track or even the RAH Band (RAH standing for Richard Anthony Hewson) and it totally blew my mind!
The RAH Band – Clouds Over the Moon (Super Nova Mix)
The RAH Band – Clouds Over the Moon (Super Nova Mix)
Further readings
Further listenings
- Monsieur Seb’s Cosmix, 3, 2, 1, liftoffMonsieur Seb’s Cosmix, 3, 2, 1, liftoff
- Monsieur Seb’s Cosmix, Second OrbitMonsieur Seb’s Cosmix, Second Orbit
- Monsieur Seb’s Cosmix, Third Rock from the SunMonsieur Seb’s Cosmix, Third Rock from the Sun
- Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas Radio One Essential MixLindstrøm & Prins Thomas Radio One Essential Mix