shinypixel.co.uk » Music

Just For Money

Rik — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:35:43 +0000

If I said to you “Paul Hardcastle”, then you’d probably reply “Who?” or “N-n-n-n-nineteen” and look quite pleased with yourself. If you were to be feeling particularly smug, you might mention the shocking cricket-based cover version of 19 by Rory Bremner.

It’s a bit of a shame that that’s all people seem to remember of Paul Hardcastle. Many years ago I possessed a second-hand Smash Hits tape which had been half taped-over by its previous owner, obliterating Big Fun in favour of various mixes of Hardcastle’s latest singles. Alongside 19 was Just For Money, this excellent synth track which my naive mind assumed contained samples of Del Boy & Rodney. After IDing and tracking it down on 12″ many years later, I was surprised to find that the actual samples are (in order of incredulity) Hardcastle himself, Bob Hoskins, and Laurence Olivier.

Worth a listen.

Paul Hardcastle (feat. Bob Hoskins & Laurence Olivier) – Just For Money

There May Be Glory Ahead

Rik — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:24:50 +0000

There’s a World Cup on, y’know. I approve of this particular World Cup song because – among other things – it contains brass, silly moustaches, ukuleles and a kazoo.

Dulwich Ukelele Club – There May Be Glory Ahead

(via The Londonist)

Your Music Is Killing Me

Rik — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:33:57 +0000

Not what most people say when they see my record collection, but instead an oldish album title track by The Young Punx. Appearing in video form on their free “digital boxset”, Get To Know The Young Punx, it showcases their genre-hopping style and has a corking Q*Bert-inspired video. Today’s pick, then.

The Young Punx – Your Music Is Killing Me

If You Do, I Do Too

Rik — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:32:41 +0000

There’s a lot of music out there – I dredge through hours of podcasts, on average, every day. Occasionally one track pops up and makes me grin from ear to ear from start to finish. If You Do, I Do is one of those, discovered via The Young Punx podcast late on a Friday while glaring at some errant code after a week in the office.

What could be better – or more unexpected – than a Japanese, slightly-too-fast, scratch-filled, electro-house reworking of Pomp and Circumstance (also known as Land of Hope and Glory to you ‘orrible lot)? Answers on a postcard, but only after you’ve been struck agog by what Armand Van Helden’s Koochy would sound like if it gatecrashed the Last Night of the Proms.

Fantastic Plastic Machine – If You Do, I Do

The Second Coming

Rik — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 16:30:48 +0000

Christ, what an interesting few months that was. Anyway, back once again as normal(ish) service is resumed with another Hardcore Lives! Records submission. This has been out for a while now, but being trapped in a cage has prevented its emergence here.

So here you have it: 26 MP3 files spanning a pick of the last few Hardcore Energy compilations (we’re up to 7 now – blimey), with their own special cover and a ringing endorsement from a man who just can’t let go of those mid-90s memories – me.

Hardcore Energy 2 – The Second Coming

Discogs Entry | Buy it at DJ Download

Hardcore Energy 7 Released

Rik — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:27:23 +0000

A quick note to mention Hardcore Energy 7, which was released a little while back. Although I’m a bit behind the curve, I heartily recommend going for the 2xCD version as it has an excellent tune which, despite rocketing to the top of my playlist, won’t be available separately as an MP3…

Most Played

Rik — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:35:42 +0000

Here’s a selection of what’s currently most played on my N900, which is listened to for at least 2 hours a day here. How representative it is of the tripe that I listen to is for you to decide.

1. Lindstrom – Grand Ideas

2. Edvard Hill – Indeed I Am Very Glad To Be Back Home

4. Cliff Wedge – Go Go Yellow Screen

6. Wang Chung – Dance Hall Days (Extended 12″ Mix) [Why? It's miles worse than the 7"]

9. The Vengaboys Megamix by Nick Skitz

10. Q-Tex – E-Creation ’95

15. Skatebard – Data Italia

16. Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’

17. WVKEAF – Jump (12″ Edit) [The link is mislabelled]

20. Terry Wogan – The Floral Dance

The Great Fashionista Swindle

Rik — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:19:08 +0000

Loads to say but not much time to do so, sadly. Most of my plans for this week have fallen through, mind you, so I might get the chance to exude some prose. In the meantime, here’s an excellent tune from a couple of years back which has been gracing the N900 a lot recently:

Dada Life – The Great Fashionista Swindle

This is the original mix – not the (worse) Laidback Luke mix that everyone claims is the original (but isn’t.)

As an aside, here’s what’s been keeping me up all night by rebounding around my head like a squash court:

Edward Hill – Indeed I Am Very Glad To Be Back Home

Aaaaarrgh!

Hardcore Lives! 014 + 015 Out Now

Rik — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:25:26 +0000

A little late with these, but y’know – better late than never. Those rascals at Hardcore Lives! Records are at it again, and I’ve parried their latest nu-rave releases with my Photoshop sword.

First up is a clutch of traditional old-skool sounding rollers from 1st Science, called the Planet Insanity EP:

Then there’s a Hardcore Lives! new style – some dark J-Tek jungle-esque moods from John Browne. So, a new style of cover for this one:

As usual, they’re available to buy and download at Hardcore Lives! Records now.

Encore Une Fois

Rik — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:55:32 +0000

I discovered this embarrassing-but-danceable slice on the Funky London podcast last week and it kept me humming all weekend. A pop-house rehash of Sash!’s ancient Mysterious Times replacing the original’s miserable overtones with a lot more fun. Maybe the 90s were worth something after all..

Sash! – Mysterious Times (Spencer & Hill remix)

Puttin’ On The Ritz

Rik — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:02:25 +0000

I may well have posted this before, but since I’m actually going to the Ritz today, here’s a YouTube video of Taco’s excellent synthy cover of Puttin’ On The Ritz from sometime back in the 80s…

Taco – Puttin’ On The Ritz

HCLD012 Incoming!

Rik — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:45:05 +0000

After a bit of a break for the festive period and waiting for muggins ‘ere to sort out which cable goes where, there’s a new free release from the Hardcore Lives! stable winging its way imminently toward the interwang.

I haven’t actually heard it yet for bandwidth reasons (mobile broadband soon to be ousted by much manlier ADSL), so you and I both will discover what it’s like when it appears shortly. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s on it:

MIHTEEL : The Bomb!

Rik — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:51:07 +0000

(This is the 3rd in an occasional series of Music I Hate That Everyone Else Liked – guaranteed to make you want to hit me with your record box. Enjoy!)

If there’s one word that can describe a lot of UK house music from the mid-90s, it’s flaccid. Whilst European ravers pummelled their ears with the massively tuned kick-drums of gabber, British clubbers bopped apologetically to beats that wouldn’t burst a paper bag. Leading this Charge of the Wet Brigade were The Bucketheads and their tedious anthem The Bomb!

Kenny Dope presents The Bucketheads – The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)

Another grand example of house glued together with irritating sound-effects, The Bomb!‘s repertoire comprises some kind of alarm noise and a clipped sample of some yelping ladies, presumably excited by the tune’s unique percussive stylings of a haddock being slapped against a clothes-horse. It’s the 9-minute version from the Positiva Classics series that’s forever etched on my brain; it’s not so much the eternal build-up that’s galling – though it’s bad enough – but the let-down when you get there. 4-or-so minutes of wiggling to a frenzied yet random arrangement of the aforementioned three samples should be paid off with a little more than a man with a bugle, and then some more of those three samples. Not even a vocal lifted from Chicago can lift it for me, guys. Sorry. Even after recent listening, why people ever liked this remains beyond me.

It’s not all bad news. Michael Moog took the basic melodic idea, chucked out all the FX, added some more sensitive percussion and released a more satisfying albeit cocktail-loungey version in That Sound. It has a chunkier if typical Full Intention remix-by-numbers on the flip and is generally worth seeking out if you’re desperate for some of this riff in your life.

Acid Folk

Rik — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:11:17 +0000

Crazy ginger vibrating Scotsman! Flying computerized bagpipes! What’s not to love?

Perplexer – Acid Folk

MIHTEEL : Black Legend

Rik — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:00:12 +0000

Looking back, the turn of the millennium was both the best and worst of times for dance music. Being in the thick of the dance explosion around the turn of the century has left me many happy memories which have outlasted the credibility of the music therein.

Today’s example was untroubled by any sort of credibility or appreciation from me, mind you. Click away and be reminded of this so-called “tune” while digesting my ensuing bile.

Black Legend – You See The Trouble With Me

I can see the trouble with you, Black Legend: you’re crap. Now, I’m all for contrasting elements in electronic music, but this is just a collection of random noises one after the other: a faux-live recording of Barry-White-lite, an echoing disco-hit sample, and a stunningly out-of-place off-beat sample of someone apparently doing plumbing really damn loudly. The latter’s particular brand of dull, resonant thwacking is perhaps my most hated sample in all of dance music, if not music itself. Mangled together with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, it’s as if someone on a roof terrace on a lazy afternoon thought “I wonder if I can make some music out of whatever’s on my desktop today.”

But it didn’t matter. The Ibeefa-drunk public lapped it up, and I found myself having to play it during gigs without ever really liking it, or actually even owning a copy – someone with worse taste always seemed to have one hanging around. They’re welcome to keep it. Or fry eggs on it. Whatever.

The terror doesn’t end there, though. A few years later, as pop and dance frenziedly ate themselves and each other in the face of the internet and Coldplay, Mad’House (ha!) purloined Black Legend’s exquisite pipe-hitting noise and slung Madonna through Autotune over the top:

Mad’House – Like A Prayer

This pop-tastic minor hit did in fairness tone things down a little, at least attempting to glue things together instead of leaving gaping 2-minute holes like Black Legend, but there’s some quite ropey drum syncing towards the end. I didn’t really mind it too much, and may have been seen “dancing” along to it in some Loughborough dive bar many moons ago. Those were the days, eh?

On The Move

Rik — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:37:34 +0000

The perhaps inevitable but still aggravating news has arrived that I can’t stay in my flat next year, so I’ve been out and about looking for hovels. Still staying in West London – I value my limbs – and so far I’ve got a few viewings lined up of chic-ish boudoirs. More news as it happens.

In the meantime it’s a great excuse to slide in this University classic from yesteryear:

Barthezz – On The Move

As usual, it’s gradually floated across the “cheese” line in the intervening years, but the associated memories of an entirely less qualified version of me throwing shapes across a club with friends still bring a tear to the eye. (Alternative mixes with more twazzling and more thonking also available.)

Of course, if I don’t find anywhere to live, I might end up like this plucky little chap, already firmly ensconced in la paddock du fromage…

The Littlest Hobo Theme
(Terry Bush – Maybe Tomorrow)

Mr. Roboto

Rik — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:58:21 +0000

During during a enjoyable late-night musical trawl beginning somewhere near Chicago and petering out between Toto and a Meatloaf ballad, I found Styx floating on the horizon in their own conceptual world with this early-80s synth-rock romp:

Styx – Mr. Roboto

Hardcore Lives! Digital 011 Released

Rik — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:12:07 +0000

Hardcore Lives! – the hardcore breaks record label that I shuffle pixels for regularly – are going to be releasing their 11th digital release within a few hours or so. Yup, it’s not even out yet – this makes this announcement - deep breath - an exclusive!

DJ L.A.B. is a new addition to the HCL Digital stable, and only had the briefest of listens has affirmed that the usual HCL crisp breaks are in residence alongside the large basslines and an accomplished sense of production that sands off the rough edges of early old-skool. Millenium-era trance fans will be pleased to know that a certain Sarah McLachlan vocal lays the foundations for Release The Silence, while Anti-Bass Neighbourhood‘s ragga stylings will please the jump-up teenager in you.

The HCLD011 release will be at Hardcore Lives! Records very soon…

AFK : Love Gemma

Rik — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:26:50 +0000

This is a lovely little tune by CatComplex which I find myself listening to quite a lot recently. “Pleasant” is a good word to describe it. As is “Italian”.

CatComplex – Love Gemma

AFK : Curses!

Rik — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:50:16 +0000

Moss Man is an old favourite of mine from the office stereo. The same MP3 of it that made it onto my player sometime around 2007 is still there now, and it appeared on shuffle just as I arrived home the other night.

Curses! – Moss man

Oohhhhhh-ohhhhh

Rik — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:16:57 +0000

There’s just no excuse for this, really.

Except that it’s awesome – especially the bloke with the moustache.

Bodies Without Organs – Chariots Of Fire

AFK : No Ordinary Morning

Rik — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:30:02 +0000

It’s not very often you listen to a song for the first time after over 5 years and it still sounds as good as it did the first time, but that happened to me the other day with this:

Chicane – No Ordinary Morning

AFK : O Superman

Rik — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:07:07 +0000

If you can’t listen all the way through to this song, I don’t blame you. If you can, then it might turn out to be one of the most affecting things you’ve heard.

More info at Wikipedia.

Laurie Anderson – O Superman

AFK : Gunman

Rik — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:06:57 +0000

Was this really 1997? Jeez… Damn, I’m old.

Oh well – an excellent slice of the short-lived UK Garage season, with a surprisingly good video to boot which I’d never seen until I happened across this YouTube video.

187 Lockdown – Gunman

AFK : Crowd Pleasers Vol. 1

Rik — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:57:02 +0000

Sampling Rob Acid’s “Happy Answer”, this particular tune was one of my fondest memories from the mid-90s. I only found out the name last week.

Crowd Pleasers Vol. 1 Side A