Lovefingers? Hatethumbs!

For those yet to sample the delights of Lovefingers - a website devoted to unearthing obscure musical gems on a daily basis and providing them for you or I or yer Uncle Tommy doing a five in Walton for twatting that midnight who blew up his Spanish baccy fiddle to listen to free of charge - this is our less technologically advanced version, hilariously entitled Hate Thumbs.

That's about as funny as a joke about finding the chief constable of Manchester dead at the foot of Snowdon with a punchline that goes 'pigs can't fly.' Anyways we've cobbled together a bunch of tunes from various CDL playlists and mixes which you CAN'T fucking download for nish because that takes time and energy and possible legal agreements with various publishing companies and who can be arsed with that? But if we could do something similar to the marvellous Lovefingers (www.lovefingers.org), then these are some of the tunes we'd put up.

LOVE FINGERS

Night Of The Hunter’s Moon - Sally Oldfield (Bronze)
Tomorrow I May Not Feel The Same - Gene Chandler (Chi-Sounds)
These Are The Laws - Judy Tzuke (Rocket )
Cucumber Garden - China Crisis (Inevitable)
Bullet - Renaissance (Island)
Little Red Fry-Up - Greenslade (Warners)
Slow Down - America (Warners)
Sealed With A Kiss - Jim Capaldi (Polydor)
Trash 2 - Roxy Music (Polydor promo)
One Minute More (Version) - Tony Gee (Mass Enterprise)
We Can Make It Happen (Sexy Licks Mix) - Prince Charles & The City Beat Band
Thinking About Your Love (Instru) - Skipworth & Turner (4th & Broadway)
Only Praise (Laker Boy Mix) - Praise (Epic)
Casual Ocean - Ananta (Touchstone)
Why Can’t We Live Together - Sade (Epic)
Osamu’s Theme (Kyoko’s House) - Philip Glass
Another Willingly Opened Window - Bill Nelson (Mercury)
VCL XI - OMD (Dindisc)
Baby Dub - Charles Augin (Malaco)
Fast Car - Foxy Brown (Charm)
Year Of The Cat (album version) - Al Stewart (RCA)
Blue Café - Style Council (Polydor)
Blue Riff - Stanley Turrentine (Blue Note)
Vjento Del Arena - Gipsy Kings (Telstar)
Sweet Revenge - The New Tony Williams Lifetime (CBS)
I Want You - Carmen McRae (Atlantic)
Do It Do It - Rose Royce (Whitfield)
Lay It Down - Demis Roussos (Philips)
Let’s Turn Out The Lights - Charles Aznavour (Mfp)
Let’s Love & Feel Free - Candi Staton (Sugarhill)
Lovers (Live A Little Bit Longer) - Abba (Vogue)
Yassassin - David Bowie (RCA)
Sky – Xango
Emerson Lake & Palmer – Take a Pebble
Shakti – Bridge of Sighs/George Carlin – People I Can Do Without
Peter Green – Skabo Day
Clive John – Summer Song
Focus – Crackers
Curved Air – Back Street Luv
John Martyn – Big Muff
The Neville Brothers – With God On Our Side
Traffic – Don’t Be Sad
Alan Parsons Project – Dream Within A Dream
John Travolta – Easy Evil
Nazareth – Morning Dew (Prins Thomas Edit)
Lynsey Buckingham – Johnny Stew
The Beach Boys – Long Promised Road
London Symphony Orchestra – Life On Mars
A Foreign Place - Japan (Hansa)
Secret Party - Masami Tsuchiya (Epic)
On My Own (Robin Guthrie version) - Ulrich Schnauss (Independiente)
All Of Me - Swell Session v Mark De Clive-Lowe (Freerange)
Be Suspicious - China Crisis (Inevitable)
Discover Your Life - Stylus (Prodigal)
East 6th St - Aquarian Dream (Buddah)
Sittin’ In The Park - Bobby Thurston (Epic)
Swimming (Dub Mix) - Nick Holder Feat Zaki (NRK)
Open Your Heart (Dub) - Madonna
Murphy’s Law (Instru) - Cheri (Venture)
Trust In Me - Vicki Sue Robinson (RCA)
Crocodile (Innervisions Orchestra Mix) - Underworld (Different)
Salacid - Luke Vibert (Planet Mu)
I’m Corrupt - Kid Creole (Ze)
Come On - The Real People (CBS)
Straight Lines - Suzanne Vega (A&M)
Attitude Dancing - Carly Simon (Elektra)
Letting Go - Wings (Capitol)
An infinite number of monkeys - Bob Newhart (Warners)
No Sound In Space - Tomita (RCA)
Bliss - Chick Corea (Happy Bird)
Twilight Of Idols - Fashion (De Stijl)
Inspiration - Grace Jones (Island)
Je T’aime (Moi Non Plus) - Donna Summer (Casablanca)
At Tension - Hall & Oates (RCA)
Floating Seeds - Ozric Tentacles (Snapper)
Fohat Digs Holes In Space - Gong (Virgin)
Moongerms - Billy Cobham (Atlantic)
Jacaranda - Sailor (Epic)
Toyota City - Human League (Virgin)
Herbie Hancock - The Eye Of The Hurricane (Blue Note)
I Feel Sanctified - The Commodores (Motown)
Space Princess - Lonnie Liston Smith (Columbia)
Big Change In The Weather - Gerry Rafferty (UA)
More Girls - Moments & Whatnauts (All Platinum)
No Matter What Sign You Are - Diana Ross & The Supremes (Motown)
Tell The Truth - Ike & Tina Turner (Warner Bros)
The Burning Sword Of Capua - Triumvirat (Harvest)
Don’t You Feel Small - The Moody Blues (Threshold)
Naked - Shackleton (Skull Disco)
Happy Monday (September Mix) - Undo (Factorcity)
I Remember You - The Eurythmics (RCA)
Italian Song - Jon & Vangelis (Polydor)
Fisherman’s Daughter - Daniel Lanois (Opal)
Wholly Humble Heart - Martin Stephenson & The Daintees (Kitchenware)
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Elkie Brooks (A&M)
In A Stranger’s Arms - Yvonne Elliman (RSO)
Day Or Night - Little Feat (Warners)
Affirmation - George Benson (Warners)
The Hustler - Crusaders (MCA)
Watch It Go - Summer (Touchstone)
Zambo Montuno - Daiquiri (Sono-tone)
White Witch - Andrea True Connection (Buddah)
Magnetic Fields Part 4 - Jean Michel Jarre (Polydor)
Let It Happen (Instrumental) - Lindstrom (Feedelity)
River People - Weather Report (CBS)
Outer Space - Atmosfear (Elite)
Cicero Park - Hot Chocolate (RAK)
Life’s A Beach (Todd Terje mix) - Studio
Starry Eyes - LCD Sound system (DFA)
Let’s Go All The Way (Diamond Dub Mix) - Sly Fox (Capitol)
The Gospel (Instrumental) - Dizzi Heights (Parlophone)
Crimson As Murder (Punks Jump Up Can U Dance Remix) David Gilmore Girls (Relish)
A Brass Band In African Chimes - Simple Minds (Virgin)
Don’t Burn Down The Bridge - Gladys Knight & The Pips (Buddah)

HATE THUMBS

Lindisfarne - Clear White Light
Caravan - Aristocracy
The Higsons - Touchdown
Silver Apples - A Pox On You
Bill Hicks - LA Falls
Incredible String Band - Water Song
The Yardbirds - White Summer
Mercury Rev - Lincoln’s Eyes
D’arcangelo - Stepping Out
Aril Brikha - Anna’s Theme
Laurent Garnier - M-Bass
The Jam - Ghosts
Fun Boy 3 - The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum
King Biscuit Time - Kwangchow
Lenny Bruce - To Is A Propisition, Come Is A Verb
Urban Tribe - Frequency Scan
Aleksi Perala - Black Leicester
Ceephax - Dreamer
Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back & Forth (Icarus Remix)
Technasia - Eternity Is Almost Forever
Mudd - Crayfish & Deer
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Nummer Fire To
Andreas Vollenweider – Over the Wall, under the gardens, behind the tree
Dufus – Right On
Seals & Crofts – Sweet Green Fields
Paul Simon – Diamonds (Terje Dub)
Akabu – Akabu Theme
Simply Red – Love Fire (Big Red Mix)
Jerry Harrison – Worlds In Collision
George Carlin – People I Can Do Without/Steve Hillage – Octave Doctors
Map of Africa – Bone
Cal Tjader/Charlie Byrd – Tambu
The Sorcerer – Surfing At Midnight/Cheech & Chong – Lardass
A R Kane – Love from Outer Space
John Paul Young – Standing In The Rain
Magick Edit Allstars – Voices
Beyond The Wizards Sleeve – Bubble Burst
Mary McCaslin - Blackbird
Mtume - Breathless (Intro)
Dead Can Dance - Music Eternal
Roxy Music - Sultanesque
Giorgio Moroder - Leopard Tree Dream
Hawkwind - Opa Loka
Eurythmics - Monkey Monkey
Fehlfarben - Jar Jar (Es Geht Voran)
Des Allstar - Gone West
ROC - Cheryl
Gramme - Rehab
Steve Hillage - Unidentified (Flying Being)
Patrick Moraz - Impact
Fashion - Alternative Playback (Full Frame)
Dance Disaster Movement - The Shots
D.A.F - Der Rauber Und Der Prinz
Tangerine Dream - Fly & Collision of Solas
Propaganda - Dr Mabuse (A Snatch Thereof)
Mark Stewart - Contagious
Wendy Carlos - William Tell Overture (Abridged)
Les Nouvelles Polyphonies - Introitu
Daniel Lanois - Still Water
Tommy Guerrero - 100 Years
Cat Stevens - The Hurt
Steve Winwood - Spanish Dancer
B+ - B Beat Classic
Carole King - Spaceship Races
Robert Wyatt - To Mark Everywhere/Monty Python & the Holy Grail
Money Mark - Maybe I‘m Dead
Herbie Mann - Toot Stick
Coldcut - Autumn Leaves (Irresistible Force Mix)
Horace Andy - Girl I Love You
Jon & Vangelis - State of Independence
Steely Dan - Black Cow
Rhythm Heritage - Skippin‘
Demis Roussos - Let It Happen
High Feelings - Leave Norway
Thompson Twins - Vendredi Saint
Parliament - Presence Of A Brain
Neil Diamond - Crunchy Granola Suite
Steve Miller Band - Wild Mountain Honey
Poco - Sitting On A Fence
Sutherland Bros & Quiver - When The Train Comes
The Mighty Flyers - Blood For Blood
Four Seasons - New York Street Song (No Easy Way)
Steely Dan - FM (Reprise)
Peter Frampton - Doobie Wah
Cher - Flashback
Little Feat - Two Trains
The James Gang - Walk Away
ELO - Last Train To London
Billy Joel - Get It Right First Time
The J. Geils Band - Flamethrower
Boz Scaggs - Lido Shuffle
10cc - Blackmail
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around The Bend
Chicago - What’s This World Coming To
Bread - Fancy Dancer
Dr Hook - Doin’ It
Robert Palmer - Fleshwound
Elkie Brooks - Nightbird
The Alan Parsons Project - The Voice
America - Sandman
Wishbone Ash - Time Was

Allez Allez

Best Of Allez Allez - Allez Allez (Eskimo)

Only the other day I bought a ropey compilation, mainly for a Vince Montana track but the stand-out tune was Allez Allez’s ‘Flesh & Blood’ with its ‘You Should Be Dancing’ horn coda and early 80s scratchy white funk. To be honest, Allez Allez must’ve passed me by, so I did a spot of googling and youtubing and the very next day this compilation was posted from the good people at epm. Serendipity? Co-incidence? Or something much stranger? Who gives a fuck?

Anyways, this compilation is a must for anyone with a penchant for post-punk faux funk. Opener, African Queen sounds so much like Grace Jones circa Nightclubbing that I think it’s perhaps a tribute to Queen Grace herself.

Allez Allez has a lyric that sounds like “Help me, help me, Gary Barlow!” I’m sure it doesn’t say that but it should. It’s ace and gets two remixes from heroes of the hour, Aeroplane and Lindstrom & Prince Harry of Helmand.

She’s Stirring Up has elements of Debbie Harry’s shite rapping on Rapture set to a frantic Haircut 100 backbeat whereas Marathon Dance is Defunkt meets the Gang Of Four with a splash of Talking Heads thrown in for good measure.

Turn Up The Meter is a Rip Rig & Panic meet UB40 style groove and Valley Of The Kings is the sort of corny cod-Egyptian concept track T‘Pau would‘ve based a whole double album around.

Wrap Your Legs (Around Your Head) is of course a play on the Gap Band’s ‘Oops Upside Your Head’ but in its delivery sounds far closer to the great bootboy chant ‘Boots Wrapped Round Yer Head.‘ Were Allez Allez familiar with the mating rituals of the Anny Road or the Scoreboard Paddock? I certainly hope so but somehow doubt it.

Flesh & Blood is next in all its magnificent slinky disco glory with a vocal that sounds like Billy MacKenzie fucking Minnie Ripperton and a boss mandolin solo competing with a cartoon woggawoggawogga sound effect.
Next comes the remixes. Quiet Village do their Quiet Village thing on African Queen, stripping back almost every element to leave the bare bones of a tune, which is, let’s face it, what Quiet Village are so good at. It never really gets going or goes anywhere but does so delightfully with eerie jungle sounds and monastic chants. Like staring at flock wallpaper without blinking, it becomes hypnotic after a few minutes.

The Aeroplane remix of Allez Allez does that Aeroplane thing that Aeroplane do so well, creating a gorgeous piano house groove that goes on for several centuries before the black plague kills everyone horrifically. Next up we have Optimo (Espacio) doing their Optimo (Escapio) thing on a ’Drum Attack’ mix of She’s Stirring Up which stretches the groove so far that it circles the sun and comes home in time for tea (fish fingers with winter mash).

Lindstrom & Prince Michael of Kent complete the Eskimo All-Star remix challenge with another rather L&PT-centric remix of Allez Allez. For the life of me it sounds exactly like a Lindstrom & Prince Nazeem Hamid remix of an Allez Allez track called Allez Allez track should sound like. The descending piano riff gets its coat on, takes the dog for a walk and makes a packed lunch for the old folk down the road’s day-trip to Llandudno before climbing onboard a bus, going to town for a browse around Primark and having a swift bevvy in the Beehive before calling in on his cousin to watch The Wire series three in one sitting.

Or something.

As St Etienne fans once sang ’Allez Les Verts’ but that’s neither here nor there.

April Fool's Rekkid Reviews

Mental Overdrive - You Are Being Manipulated (Love OD/Smalltown Supersound)

This could well be a lesson in how electronic music has evolved over the past 30 years, from the proggy opener, Intro through old skool electro (Elephantastic), Euro-disco (Europa), synth-pop (R.I.P.P.E.R), house (Run To The Hills), techno (Spooks) and break beat (Original Material) You Are Being Manipulated, whether consciously or not, tends to unfold chronologically track by track until Molina’s Theme where it devolves back to Italo and proggy flavoured moodscapes with Mysterio and the epic The Rage. By the time of closing track, End, we’ve touched almost every conceivable electronic marker and back again which is credit to Per Martinsen’s taste and dedication to pushing boundaries whilst openly acknowledging his influences.

Release date 28 May

Bochum Welt - R.O.B (Robotic Operating Buddy) (Rephlex)

A 2 x CD release that could almost be a parody of Rephlex’s techno-nerd tendencies, what with its perhaps self-deprecating title (Robotic Operating Buddy? Come on!) and Rephlexesque pseudo-scientific un-titles such as 8221SB, DR2D and HC-012 (maybe he’s in competition with Autechre) yet there is greatness to be gleaned from these grooves. CD one features new tracks and mixes and after a regulation android-tech-funk start with Flag, the tone becomes more melodic and ambient, but in a good way. R.O.B is the sort of music to seduce a toaster to. The second CD compiles rarities from Bochum’s back catalogue and with 20 tracks called things like Avtomaticesk, B2, Paph and Feelings On A Screen we‘re in familiar territory. Never a genre that’s gonna convert anyone but the most hardcore of post-tech noiseniks, nevertheless we should still be happy that people such as Gianluigi Di Constanzo are providing a travelogue to the outer edges of the sonic universe.

Release date 7th April

Low Motion Disco - Love Love Love Part 1 & 2 (Eskimo)

Like Fernando Torres, Low Motion Disco are Eskimo’s hot new signings that will brighten up an otherwise up n’ down season. With mixes from the likes of Still Going, Aeroplane, LSB and Soft Rocks to accompany the original version this is an opening salvo worthy of El Torro himself. Perfectly in keeping with the blissy-hissy nu balearia blueprint, Love Love Love is set to rock floors all summer long. LSB’s mix grafts pulsating disco strings and a Do Ya Think I’m Sexy coda for a chuggy mid-tempo groover whilst Soft Rocks go for an even more sedated Boz Scaggsy vibe but it’s the superb Aeroplane mix that really rocks my yacht Roman. We love Love Love Love here kidda.

Release date 21st April

Bliss - Big Freeze Volume 2 (Platipus)

This double CD is so chilled even wooly mammoths would be asking for lecky blankets. Now I’ve got a lot of time for ye olde chille oute scene, as guest DJ at many Big Chill events and a residency at Tromso Public Baths between October and February, I know what it’s like to play Boards Of Canada records to crowds of frost-bitten frenzied Lapps but this is something else. Bliss - fuck all to do with that bint from Faithless - give us a compilation that effortlessly fuses their classical roots with contemporary and classic pieces from the likes of Cantoma, Dubtribe Soundsystem, Mudd, Trentemoller and Charles Webster. To be honest, these compilations are becoming a tad predictable with the same old names appearing with alarming regularity, as if all those Ibiza Chill/Marks & Spencer Ambient Moods Vol 5/Lidl Sunset Strip Classics 37 never happened. That isn’t to say it’s not expertly programmed and pleasurable to listen to just a bit zzzzzzzzz.

Release date 14th April

Thanks to Jonas at epm for review copies.

Talacre FM Jukebox

Alien - Japan (Hansa)
Hills of Katmandu (played at 33 rpm pitched up to plus 8) - Tantra (Automatic)
House Of The King - Focus (Polydor)
Total Panic - Human League (Virgin)
Boo’s Boogie - Betty Boo (Rhythm King)
The Women - Village People (Mercury)
Back Together Again - Hall & Oates (RCA)
You & I Part 2 - Fleetwood Mac (Warners)
Crazy Pages - John Glover (Electric Record Co)
Dig Dis - Hank Mobley (Blue Note)