Friday rolls around and I feel like posting what I had planned on posting a few weeks ago, so today’s the day.  I’ve been feeling particularly tropical lately, listening to a ton of Herb Alpert and Tullio de Piscopo and dressing like Dr. Jacoby from Twin Peaks.  Also, my monthly night at Laszlo is drawing near (next Tuesday) and I will be DJing with none other than Dan Judd aka Sorcerer, master of analog tropical vibes.  Dan will be sharing the best of his beach boogie collection as well as some of the footage he has scoured countless thrift shop VHS bins for that you commonly see in his most radical self-made music videos.  So come by cause it’s FREE and the best thing I know of to do on a Tuesday night!

The video to Sorcerer’s “Push to Freeze”.

I picked up the Versus EP a month or two ago because of the Stallions (Lovefingers and Lee Douglas) track on it, but was pleasantly surprised to find this B-side jam that I have been playing out nonstop.  It’s a Findlay Brown (indie/folk rocker who I know nothing about) track produced by Lynchmob (this dude Brendan Lynch who has been around forevskis but about whom I know nothing).  But it jams man, and takes me back in time and space to a cabana in the Caribbean circa 1978.

Findlay Brown – Nobody Cared (Lynchmob Version)

Then there’s this dude that Erik found on DJ History and turned me onto Zarrylade.  This dude channels Sting without sounding like a gimmick and brings me back to the days when I first heard the Police.  Seriously amazing jam that I have been playing on repeat.  The release also features a fleshed out remix by Leo Zero.  A tropical electronic dance session in order.

Zarrylade – Eyes Above Your Head Part II (Leo Zero Version)

Changing pace a bit I have been listening to Quiet Village’s remix of Jonathan Jeremiah’s “Happiness” quite a bit lately.  RCRDLBL posted this track last year and it was a jaw-dropper in my opinion.  A tribute to the lush string ballad production of days past, truly the sound of paradise.  It sounds to me like the soundtrack to the most beautiful sunrise.  One of the best things Quiet Village have done in my opinion, and that’s saying a lot.  Enjoy happiness.

Jonathan Jeremiah – Happiness (Quiet Village Remix)

More beachin tunes to come.

Me and Erik were chillaxin on the DiscoHorror yacht a few months back smoking peyote when the heavens broke loose with a torrential thunderstorm that broke the yacht to pieces and left us washed up on an island beach somewhere in the Mediterranean.  But it was then that the clouds parted and the mighty dance god Thunderbeard appeared to us and he spoke in vocoded brilliance: YOU SHALL MAKE ME A MIX WORTHY OF THE BEARDS.  We quickly jotted the message down on our iPads and began to craft our raft by which to return to our records and begin crafting our mix for the gods.

And so we set to do as Thunderbeard requested and this is what came of it.

Ash & Erik – Thunderbeard Mix

Lately and less lately I’ve picked up and been given some awesome dance tunes that exist in the etherial realm of dark disco psychedelia. These are the songs I wish to share with you today.

First comes a long overdue posting of a track off of Pink Skull’s wonderful album Endless Bummer released by our best of friends at RVNG, released late last year. RVNG was kind enough to share the album with us. It’s a warped descent into experimental dance madness, a storm of synths, horns, and guitar over galloping drums that unravel into bizarre ambient psychedelic breakdowns. The album begs for second and third listens. I really, really dig this album and to my surprise it’s still available for sale on RVNG’s site! So pick that shit up already if you missed the boat! Here’s a taste but go go go get it if ya dig.

Pink Skull – Chicken Dream Inside Egg

Next comes a pounding beast from Precious System, a dude about whom I know jack. He has an assortment of aliases on discogs, but nothing I’ve heard of before. Either way, his latest release on Gerd Janson’s Running Back, the label that brought you the best 12″ of 2009, Tensnake’s “In The End (I Want You To Cry)”, brings you a haunting masterpiece of percussive dungeon house heralding the arrival of extraterrestrial agents from planet LOVE. Personally, this track takes me away to a rave in a deserted island prison in French Polynesia during the arrival of the creepiest-sounding but best-intentioned cosmic invaders from planet LOVE.

Precious System – The Voice From Planet Love (Original Mix)

My dudes and ladies. The vast amount of rad progressive disco and house and electronica that has been released over the past year can only mean one thing: the dudes producing this music cannot be from our planet. They must actually be shape-shifting disco prog demigods disguised as humans to live among us. The music they make is their means of communicating with their home planet and with my remote viewing abilities I have been able to decipher the messages hidden within their music. They are planning an invasion and our only hope lies in a pregnant woman, Dennis Quaid and a non-descript English actor whose mild success in films has qualified him for a lead role in our apocalypse. This is the only plausible explanation. That or I fell asleep to the trailer for Legion after taking too many painkillers.

Either way, I decided to give you guys some tracks so you could have a soundtrack to dance your apocalyptic troubles away. Only the best will do, so first off let’s start with Joakim’s massive new remix of Naum Gabo’s Pictur. This remix only affirms the Frenchman’s standing as one of the few extremely capable producers who can successfully bridge the gap between disco, house and electro. The 12″ comes with Joakim’s remix as well as a Naum Gabo’s own reworking of his dark nudisco. But Joakim’s strung-out epic of warped wobbly synths is what you get today. Beautiful artwork as well on the sleeve.

Naum Gabo – Pictur (Joakim Remix)

The other track comes from one of my favorite disco edits labels, Moxie. These dudes have really figured it out and have released so many quality edits from a celebrity panel of dance producers. The latest is no exception and comes from an unknown audio assailant. Two edits of a Prince-inspired space disco track come in Male and Female Versions. Today I share the Male Version, so get it while it’s hawt.

Unknown Artist – Holy “Invasion” (Male Version)

Ok so now you’ve been cruisin on an astral dance plane of fog and lasers for several hours and as you begin to tire you look to the back of the warehouse to the folding chairs situated against the wall. You turn to your friends, shout something about taking a break and begin to weave your way through the crowd towards the back. A peace settles across the dance floor as one of Mark’s pressure dubs starts to cook. You collapse in the foldable chair with your friends, but the simple synths progression and the hi-hat start to gain momentum. The snare drops and a high pitched whine begins to rise out of the dark. You begin to move in your seat and before you know it you are itching to get back on the dance floor. It’s unfair really, when DJs pull that, all you want is rest, but they make you dance, they MAKE you dance. But it’s delightfully tortuous and sore feet and achy legs are a small price to pay for a night of escapist debauchery. Enjoy perhaps one of the best Mark E tracks out there from the Juno 10th anniversary series. Simple. Clean. Patient. Perfect.

The Detroit Experiment – Think Twice (Mark E Pressure Dub)

Now the finale. The recently released edit off of Under The Shade (parent label Jiscomusic) that I have played at every party I’ve DJed in the past few months and another epic from Mark E’s RA Podcast. The B-side is a rad housey edit of “Frankenstein,” the artist of which I can’t recall right now. On the A-side is Mark’s edit of Grace Jones “La Vie En Rose” is minimalist, but perfect in it’s simplicity. It ends every night well and I’m not going to say much more about it. Enjoy.

Mark E – Freakin Shriekin

Erik
This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren
Fleetwood Mac – Hypnotized
Tensnake – Can You Feel It
Mick Karn – The Sound of Waves
Lindstrom & Christabelle – Keep It Up
Anton Zap – Alice Miracle
Thomas Dolby – The Flat Earth
Durutti Column – Bordeaux
Florence & the Machine – Rabbit Heart (Leo Zero Remix)
Eggs Over Easy – Arkansas

Jimmy
Still Going – Untitled Love
Lindstrom & Christabelle – Baby Can’t Stop
Mark E – Freakin Shriekin
Jackpot – Jungle Gym
Abe Vigoda – Wild Heart
Linkwood – Tears
Rheingold – Dreiklangs-Dimensionen
Amon Duul II – Soap Shop Rock
Can – Yoo Do Right
Dr Hook – Penny (Galleon Trade’s Hooked On Penicillin Version)

Max
Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Lovesick
Lindstrøm & Christabelle – High & Low
Saint Etienne – Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Richard X Extended Mix)
Tensnake – Holding Back (My Love)
Al Usher – Lullaby for Robert (Bogdan Irkük Remix)
Sly Mongoose – Snakes ‘n Ladder (Rub n Rug Remix)
Prince – If I Was Your Boyfriend
Kite – Hills
Washed Out – Feel It All Around
Bobby (Boris) Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers – Monster Mash

I have a Whole Foods down the street from me and on Saturdays I like to go free-sampling in typical poorgeoisie fashion.  I can usually get a good fill by making my way around the store, but when you’re baked on a Saturday morning and you haven’t eaten anything, free samples can’t always satiate your hunger.  Plus I’m a compulsive shopper so I usually end up with a few items in hand and when I’m checking out, the cute hipster girl working the Express counter asks if I brought my bags.  A flicker of guilt sparks in the back of my mind and begins to creep over me.  I didn’t bring my bags because I was stoned and wasn’t going to buy anything, but I AM eco-conscious TRUST ME.  Not like in the I-crap-in-my-backyard-to-fertilize-my-organic-garden-Berkeley-eco-conscious, but I ride my bike places and I recycle.  But now it’s decision time and I just bought orange juice, eggs, chips, salsa and some weird marinated cheese item that was a free-sample.  Admirably I refuse the paper bag, hoping on some level she will acknowledge my sacrifice for the planet and go out on a date with me.  But instead I end up carrying all this heavy shit I bought up the hill back to my house.

I guess that was a bit of a Sedaris-esque post, but I couldn’t really think of a lead-in for this record.  Peep “Bagwan Boogie” from The Soft Rocks EP off of the impeccable Blackdisco.  This is the second most recent release from the label and has some real winners.  More recent is Abel’s EP, but I think the Soft Rocks release really kills it.  Definitely worth the buy so seek it out if you dig the track.

Soft Rocks – Bagwan Boogie

Then another track for you that has been on repeat for me recently.  A change of pace to Abe Vigoda’s melancholy noise rock.  The album Reviver from earlier this year is pretty fantastic in my opinion and “Wild Heart” in particular is great.

Abe Vigoda – Wild Heart

Tensnake, hanging out with Samuel L. Jackson

K, so I had this whole blog post planned here, where I was going to take the names of certain DJs and producers totally literally, like, what if Rub-n-Tug was actually, literally, a massage parlor handjob that was a DJ, and, like, what if Mudd was actually just mud, that, like, made music, or, you know if DJ Harvey was Jimmy Stewart’s invisible best rabbit friend. But it turns out it wasn’t all that funny and got kind of tired after the first couple jokes and besides it might be kind of offensive in the case of Air France, what with the plane that crashed last year, and how some people hate the French.

The real reason for this “joke” was that I was going to post some tracks by Tensnake, and then (you might be able to see where this is going), write about how what if all these tracks were produced by a group of ten snakes, and each one was operating a different element of the production, like one snake was on the faders, and another snake was hitting the drum machine, and this other snake was, like, singing, or something, and wouldn’t that be funny. And to be honest, I still stand by the idea that a singing snake is pretty funny (actually I’m kind of laughing at it right now, in my head. The snake is singing, guys! Singing!) But y’all: I know the drill. I get tired of my dumb jokes too, probably more even than you guys get tired, because I literally live with my own stupid jokes, whereas you guys are mostly just comment spammers and, for some reason, British people.

Plus, if all these tracks were actually produced by ten snakes, they probably wouldn’t name themselves Tensnake, because then their secret would be obvious, and no one would listen to them, because, you know, snakes. They would probably call themselves something like, “DJ Tom” or “Tables and Chairs,” or something more traditionally stupid and boring. Possibly “DJ Frederick Robot.”

Anyway: we already posted some Tensnake for you earlier this year—the delightful title track from the “In the End (I Want to Cry)” twelve-inch—but because I’ve been on a kick with this dude (or, possibly, these snakes), I wanted to post a couple more tracks. “Holding Back (My Love),” a gorgeous, shimmering late-night/early-morning bit of wobbly house, is from the “In the End” 12; “Battlehymn for the Children (Tensnake Dub Remix),” a glorious disco-ball explosion, is a remix of everyone’s second-favorite midwestern goths the Faint (the first-favorite, obviously, is Insane Clown Posse); “Congolal,” which sounds like the score to the best 80s action-comedy never made, is from the internet somewhere. I don’t know anyone besides Aeroplane doing the pop-house-sheen as well as Tensnake right now, so get “on the snake” before you look stupid for being late to the game.

Tensnake – Holding Back (My Love)
The Faint – Battle Hymn for Children (Tensnake Remix)
Tensnake – Congolal

Not sure which one of these people is the actual saint

I have been misled before, you know—Saint Vincent, the “independent music artist” is not actually a saint, despite what this young man (who uses the “n-word” in a transgressive way) on U-Tube.com says—and I don’t want to get into another argument with my priest about this kind of thing, because I would rather not go to jail again, if possible.

But here is my dilemma, guys: If Saint Etienne is not actually a saint, whose special saint-power is to make good music, does that make me a blasphemer every time I listen to him, because I am calling him a saint? Also, if my religion (Christianity) does not think that Saint Etienne is a saint, does this make my religion wrong/for idiots?

I think I am going to start a new religion, called “The Church of St. Etienne.” You can join if you want, unless you have swine flu. We will meet every Wednesday and Sunday at my apartment and read each other testimonials about when we listened to St. Etienne that week, and maybe drink white wine with ice cubes and laugh at each other’s jokes. Sometimes someone will bring a small plate of home-baked cookies, and we can eat them while we talk about our religion, and grow closer to each other as friends.

There is already a controversy in my church that I just made up five minutes ago: what to do about this new version of Foxbase Alpha, which is called Foxbase Beta, and is a “remix” of the original album, Foxbase Alpha, by the famous American civil rights activist and Nation of Islam leader Richard X. Let me put this in a way everyone can understand: what if your holy book, the Koran, or Qu’ran, or whatever, was “remixed”? And instead of the Surah about Mohammed flying to the dome of the rock on a donkey, or whatever happens, instead Mohammed was turned into a 110-bpm slow-burning balearic piano jam. And what if you totally liked it more than the original Koran, like maybe, all the Koran ever wanted to be was this super thick cough-syrup house with jungle sounds. Wouldn’t that be controversial, if that happened with Saint Etienne?

Well guess what: it did.

And it tore my church apart.

Saint Etienne – Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Richard X Remix)

Ok here’s the next in my series of Mark E trax. As the night creeps on, you’ve had a few drinks, inhibitions are dwindling, and when this track comes on you just start to lose your shit and don’t care what you look like on the dance floor anymore. A funky incarnation that drives the self-confidence-o-meter to new highs as you groove to the house beatz. I hate that term because it makes me think of the late 90s when house music was cheesy and dudes referred to their records as wax, but I felt it fit here. Enjoy the AA side of Mark’s new release on his own label Merc.

Mark E – You