Posted by Budgie at April 25, 2004 08:35 PM

If you thought the Gary Coleman* MP3, from a couple of weeks back, was "wrong", then wait till you hear what I have in store for you this week...

* Check out the above Gary Coleman link. Scroll to the bottom and read the "personal quote" section...

And here are some more dots..............................................................

Is there a theme to The Pipe this week?

Nope. It's just its usual shallow mixture of old tunes, new tunes and some bootlegs and generally what I have been listening to over the past week.

First up...

Omar - There's Nothing Like This (Electroretro's Omar In Dub Mix)
Omar - There's Nothing Like This (Sie's Reconstruction)

You should of course, by now, know these as you all frequent the forums here and on Chutney's.

Jimmy The Flid had an idea whilst driving home about making a traditional dub mix of Omar's 1990 jazz soul hit. But not having arms long enough to muck about on his PC to do this, he asked Electro and Sie, and a few others over on Glasgow's Sub Club board, if anyone was up for the challenge.

Electro was first past the post with a cheeky sped up version featuring Eric B & Rakim's "I Know You Got Soul" plopped across the top, but this was not to be the finished article. He then delivered what the task required, a killer dubwise selection featuring lots of echo chamber madness and ricocheting drum nonsense, a sprinkling of bizarre samples, a chunk of Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)", oh, and of course the infamous bassline from the original Omar track.

Sie, on the other hand, decided it would be better to redo the track from scratch, so he took the bassline, sped it up a touch, added some house beats and then introduced a lush piano line. His take on it would kill if played at the Cafe Del Mar. A beautful chill house track. He did go for the bootleg option and knock up a version with the Kelis "Milkshake" acapella, but, although it was executed well, it just distracted from the original instrumental version of his track.

MP3
MP3

Low - "I Remember (Empire State Human Mix)"

Who would have though the usually quiet and moody Low would ever have an edge like this? Empire State Human takes Mimi Parker's sublime voice and places electronic beats and spacious ambient chords over the top to create a beautiful, yet slightly dark, take on the incredibly sparse original.

(I should point out that the file below is zipped)

MP3
Empire State Human's Site

The Nectarine No.9 - "Constellations Of A Vanity"

The Nectarine No.9 are Scotlands best kept secret. They are a band very much on the outside of things and will probably never cross over. A bunch of strange and very clever men who have been kicking about on the Scottish music scene since the early 80's. Back then they were known as The Fire Engines and musically they followed the post-punk route and churned out jaggy, noisy and difficult records, including a rough as a badgers arse cover version of Heaven 17's "We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thang". Then, in the mid to late 80's, the became known as Win and released 2 criminally ignored pop albums called "Uh! Tears Baby" and "Freaky Trigger". When I say "pop", they could easily have been a popular band, but Davey Henderson, the main songwriter and force of the band, seemed to relish in the fact of making pop tunes that were so out there, in terms of lyrics and arrangements, that it was no wonder they were ignored, well south of the border anyway, as they had a big hit in Scotland when their tune "You've Got The Power" was used in a McEwans Lager advert. Once they were dropped from Virgin they disappeared again only to resurface years later on the relaunched Postcard Records, which was the seminal 80's Scottish indie label responsible for bands like Orange Juice and Aztec Camera. This time the band were known as The Nectarine No.9. This time around they seemed to fuse the sounds of their previous projects but crank up the out there lyrics and add a dash of Captain Beefheart craziness. They have released a number of albums, including their infamous "Sea With Three Stars" album (the sleeve had the word "C***" written on it) and their stunning, but yet again ignored, "Saint Jack" album. Their fifth album "I Love Total Destruction" came out a couple of months back.

The MP3 below is probably The Nectarine No.9 at their poppiest. It features all the things that make them great, repetative guitar motifs, Henderson's lyrics ("I'm back and I'm singing potatoes! / HEY POTATOES!") and a groove to make you nod your head.

The track, "Constellations Of A Vanity", is from their "Received, Transgressed And Transmitted" album.

Enjoy.

MP3
Epitonic Site
Nectarine No.9 Site

Usher - "Yeah (Fujikato Mix)"

German wunderkid Fujikato, gets his electro hands on that Usher tune that sat at the top of the charts a month or so back. You'll know the vocal well and Fujikato's crisp electropop backing just gives the track a new breath of life.

MP3
Taken from the Blog site Oorsmeer (be warned it's in Dutch)
Fujikato's Site (be warned it's in German)

Scritti Politti - "Woodbeez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)"

80's Flashback Alert. It was nice and sunny today and its songs like this that are just made for these sorts of days. A true classic. Light 80's white boy funk with Green Gartside's unmistakable vocals.

The site this is from, Bubblegum Machine, is well worth a visit as it contains some pure pop gems, lost classics and records you wished had just stayed lost, and the writing on the site is worth it alone. Go see.

MP3
Bubblegum Machine Site

One-T & Cool-T - "The Magic Key"

The best hip hop record I have heard this year. Kiddy hip hop that is so catchy that the chorus will haunt you for days. But how can a record this upbeat be all about death?

MP3
Taken from the Blog site Fluxblog (check it out, and bookmark it, as it is one of the best music blogs on the web)

Rolf Harris Vs Madonna

Rolf Harris is great isn't he? To people of a certain age, namely my own, he is a star. We've watched him on television telling us to swim ("Kids And Water, They Love It!"), we've had birthday presents of huge Rolf Harris endorsed cardboard wobble boards and xmas presents of his spacey Stylophone contraption. We've sat glued to the telly whilst he tells us about some Tom And Jerry cartoon whilst he draws us a picture of Tom getting his head caved in by that negro woman's broom, and we've shed a tear along with Rolf as he's watched some mangy ole dog getting that fatal injection. Well, now it's our turn to shed a tear...

Thanks to a guy going by the name of Mutant Miscreation, he has taken Madonna's "Secret" tune from her "Bedtime Stories" album and over the top he has Rolf Harris singing.

Is it "Two Little Boys"? No. Is it his cover version of "Stairway To Heaven"? No. It is a cover though. A cover of, fellow aussies, The Divinyls, 1991 hit "I Touch Myself".

Listen and weep.

With laughter.

MP3

Feel free to discuss the above selections in the Forums.

Budgie.

[ if anyone does not want me to link to their files, then let me know and I shall remove the link ]