Posted by Budgie at April 18, 2004 08:36 PM

You just know a film called "Violent Shit 3 - Infantry Of Doom" is going to be a great film, likewise, if I mention Boom Selection, then you know that I'm going to treat you to something special.

Back to normal this week, no swearing celebs, just sweet, random scrapings from the musical pudding bowl.

Go. Feed your fat faces.

And choke.

Boom Selection has been around for a while now, it's also had it's fair share of ups and downs.

It was one of the leading lights on documenting the Bootlegging Scene and keeping everyone up to date on all the latest tracks that were appearing on the net and via p2p sites like the late lamented Audio Galaxy. Their popularity was at a high, but it all seemed to go wrong for them when they decided to collate some of the best of these bootleg MP3s and release them as a triple CD called, unsurprisingly enough, "Boom Selection". You could order these from Rough Trade Records in London or via the Boom Selection site, but after a short while people started complaining that they never got their orders and that it was all a scam. The site was ran by 2 people and one of them went missing in action, during this CD offer, thus leaving the other to pick up the pieces and send out the CD's as often as he could. The site slowly ground to a halt and had gained a bit of a bad reputation. But, late last year it sprang back into life and is back up and running to its former glory. What happened? God knows. Are the founders of the site talking? God knows. All you should care about is bookmarking the page and checkng up on it on a regular basis as you will be treated to gems like this...

Soulwax - "This Is The Excuse"

First track to be released, sorry, leaked... from their next album. It marks a different sound to their last studio album "Much Against Everyone's Advice" and actually sounds as though it could have been lifted from their infamous "2 Many DJ's" mix album. It takes a couple of listens, but this electro stomper, to my ears, sounds like a jam between the great LCD Soundsystem and Chicks On Speed and sounds nothing like Soulwax, the band, at all. If the rest of the album sounds like this, then we're in for a treat.

MP3

Osymyso - "Puckish Mix"

You all probably know about Osymyso by now. Apart from his love of palindromes (see his name and tracks like "A dog! A panic in a pagoda") and a love of intros to records (see the stunning "Intro-Inspection" track) this record producer has recently been responsible for mixing and producing the soundtrack album to the current "Shaun Of The Dead" film. So while the world waits for his second album to drop, he has slipped out another one of his excellent mixes (see his "Glass", "Wood", "BTTB X200" and "Breezeblock" mixes). This one, called "The Puckish Mix" seems to have one foot firmly in the 80's and after a start that sounds like a Hooked On Classic's style reworking of the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" he rattles through stuff by folk like Paul Hardcastle, Eddy Grant, Duran Duran and the Fine Young Cannibals. If the thought of this being an 80's mix, and if I tell you Coldplay's "Clocks" and 2 Unlimited also make appearances, puts you off, then shame on you as all this material is given a fine rub down by Osymyso himself and is well worth the big download (43mb).

MP3

Feist - "Mushaboom"

I'll start off by saying that this is not a bootleg, it's a proper track and it is one of the finest tracks I have heard this year. All strumming guitars, tinkled pianos, handclaps and sultry vocals. This is the sort of song that makes you wish that the good weather would just hurry up and get here. Leslie Feist is a member of the Canadian band Broken Social Scene and has decided to go it alone and release a silky solo album called "Let It Die" (out in May). It has been produced by Chilly Gonzales, yes THAT Gonzales of "Take Me To Broadway" fame, but if you are expecting electro fuelled funk and bizarre raps, then forget it as this is so-oo far removed from that. Just sit back and let this one caress your lug holes.

MP3

The three tracks mentioned above can all be found on Boom Selection. Just visit it.

Boom Selection Site

Culture Deluxe

CDX is another fine site that has been kicking around for a while now. It has always been a great source for tracks. Recently it has had a bit of make over and isn't that easy to find new tracks, you now have to kind of know what you are looking for and use the search facility to get the MP3s. This aside, the site has decided to become all charitable and offered some bootleggers a chance to bootleg a famous album. The album would then be made available to download via the site, but would urge users to make a donation to a charity (War Child, Future Forests and Cancer Research) in return for the tunes.

The album chosen was The Clash's "London Calling" and the fruits of this project are available here.

Some work better than others, but it was always going to be an incredibly hard task to try and improve on, or remix, such a classic piece of work. The ones I enjoyed best were Loo & Placido's remake of "Guns Of Brixton" (more a sample heavy reworking featuring Busta Rhymes, Christina Aguilera and many many more), McSleazy's sublime, slow motion, vocoder cover version of "Lost In The Supermarket" with added vocals from Freeland's "We Want Your Soul" and Jimmi James' bootleg of "The Card Cheat" with Christina Aguilera's "What A Girl Wants".

That Christina fair gets used a lot...

Anyway, feel charitable and then go download.

The Vector Warrior

Who is the Vector Warrior? Who gives a dogs dick who he is when he can let his music do the talking. This guy is an astonishing talent. He first came to prominence a while back when he remixed Fake ID's "I'm Not" track (sorry, I can't leave my Lionel Vinyl / Fake ID fixation alone). Since then, nothing was heard of The Vector Warrior. Until about a month ago when a mysterious track by the name of "Raul" appeared. "Raul" sounded like the bastard offspring from The Aphex Twin's "Girl / Boy" track from '96. It was like a fight between soothing strings and an incredibly complex mash of glitches and beats with none of them winning but the listener. Again, the question was asked, Who is The Vector Warrior? And like before, he slipped away as quickly as he appeared. Then last week he appeared again. Did he have a new track? Of course he did. But he also had 8 others to go with them. So, who is this masked music man? Well, I for one don't know anything other than he seems to be a friend of Lionel Vinyl, as his site is being hosted by him. If you were ever a fan of the early WARP "Artificial Intelligence" series (a body of work that highlighted a new movement in electronic music in the early to mid 90's and focused on people like, the afformentioned, Aphex Twin, The Black Dog and Autechre) then The Vector Warrior is for you. The 10 tracks available do vary though, from the frankly bizarre interpretation of Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger", the downright heavy and punky "Tony Hart" and "She's So Techno" to the absolute sublime "Dark Cambre" and "I Never Saw That Coming". Go visit his site and get your ears around his music, you need some Vector Warrior in your life.

Vector Warrior's Site.

Geoff Carpet - The Vector Warrior Vs Adina Howard

To confuse matters more, as if Lionel Vinyl didn't have enough alter ago's with his guise of Fake ID, he has a more chilled out one by the name of Geoff Carpet. Here Geoff is let loose over a Vector Warrior's track called "3 L's". A beautiful piano piece in which Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me" acapella is placed over the top. Yes, that 'pella has been used many a time, but none so as chilled out as this.

MP3

Kelis - Trick Me (Fake ID Remix)

And one last bit about Fake ID... (honest) Check his latest track which is a take on Kelis' "Trick Me".
It's dark, electro, house business.

MP3

Phil N' Dog - Comfortable Tiger

Right, I may be slightly tired (drunk) as I type this, but I'm liking this one a lot. A bootleg by Philmann's and Act Of Dog, it mashes Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger" with the Bee Gee's, sorry, Scissor Sisters cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb". Yes, like Adina Howard, the Survivor track has been used in many a bootleg (mixed with tracks by The Breeders, Coolio and Craig David) but if it works a treat, then don't knock it.

MP3
Radio Earwax Site

(if you can find it, search out Philmann's bootleg of The Muppet Theme tune with Electric Six's "Gay Bar" and, if my menory serves me correct, The Chemical Brother's "Electrobank". It's called "Gay Muppet Bar" and it's fucking brilliant.)

"It's time to put on make up, it's time to dress up right, it's time to meet the Muppets, AT THE GAY BAR, GAY BAR, GAY BAR!"

Right, that's your lot for this week.

Feel free to vent your spleen on my choices in the Forum

Budgie.

[ if anyone does not want me to link to their files, please let me know (via the forum) and I shall remove the link. ]