Posted by Budgie at April 17, 2005 05:59 PM

Ah, it's been a while.

It's good to be back.

Miss me?

Doubt it.

This is the first of what is now the new, improved, whiter than white, additive free, fresh frozen and now, YES, regularly updated version of The Pipe.

No more trawling the net for me to bring you tunes. I'm now trawling my record collection.

You have been warned.

So what can be expected in the new Pipe? Well, I'm not too sure.

I hope to bring you a decent, eclectic mix of old and new tunes but with a nice slant on dance, electronica, ambient and more leftfield stuff, but pretty much anything goes, so expect the unexpected every now and then.

The music featured will be more or less the stuff I haven't really touched upon much on my "Back To Budgie's" compilations that are knocked up for the lovely degenerates over on Chutney.

Anyway, I'll roll up my sleeves, get a mouthful of coffee, get hunched over my keyboard and start, shall I?

Track : ALEX SMOKE - "CHICA WAPPA"

I've been loving this track since the tale end of last year. Soma Records have been at the centre of Glasgow club culture for nearly 15 years now and they have a great reputation and roster capable of putting out high quality tunes. "Chica Wappa" is one such tune.

The young Alex Smoke has been gaining a lot of acclaim recently with his tracks and remix work and is just about to release his debut album, "Incommunicado", in a week's time. "Chica Wappa" will feature on the album but in a slightly tweaked form.

This version is from labels recent "Soma Recordings 2004" round up and is a great rolling, simple, electronic house track with a nice chimey hook appearing out of the warm chords every now and then to truly lift it up.

Smoke claims this is the most optimistic track he will ever write and his music will never be this upbeat again...

Go Buy : Various Artists - Soma Compilation 2004
Go Visit : Soma Records / Alex Smoke

Track : JEROME SYDENHAM & DENNIS FERRER - "TIMBUKTU"

"Timbuktu", another dance record, mirrors "Chica Wappa" in as much as the hook is barely in the track.

The credentials of this are nigh on impeccable in Deep House circles, put out originally as a 10" on Jerome Sydenham's revered "Ibadan" label, home to such house luminaries as Joe Claussell, Danny Krivit and Kerri Chandler, this has the label owner teaming up with Kerri Chandler's occassional musical sparring partner, Dennis Ferrer, on an excellent deep, almost tribal, house track.

Featuring clicks, bangs and echoes, that wouldn't sound out of place on a Basic Channel record, "Timbuktu" just keeps building and building, adding great chords and what sounds like a cello until the time is right to drop the melody.

The thing I love about this is that the melody is never really there for that long and the record returns to what it once was and leaves you with a feeling of "what just happened there?".

So, you have to play it again.

Oh, and did I mention the "chant"?

I got this track on the BBE Music compilation "Beats And Pieces - Volune 3". A great label and a great series of compilations too. Well worth investigating.

Go Buy : Various Artists - Beats And Pieces Volume 3

Go Visit : Ibadan Records
Go Visit : BBE Music

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum.

Ta,
Budgie.