A weekending, an ending, a beginning...

[ Dedicated to the "good guys" (you know who you are) for making the past 7 or so years one of the greatest blags ever. To Weesacks & Johnnyboy, all the best for the future and these tunes are for you. It was tunes like this and talking bollocks that made many a great night shift. Shame it'll never be repeated and it will be missed... Good luck and here's to new beginnings.]

Dedications aside, for the rest of you, enjoy this pair of atmospheric drum and bass rollers.

Track : KMC - "SYSTEM"

I always loved drum and bass when it first rattled onto the music scene. It was a total breath of fresh air from the usual dance stuff that was about. Bassbin bursting basslines, tiny snatches of melody and it all getting the crap beaten out of it by some ferocious breaks - or as my dad once described it, "the sound of someone kicking a biscuit tin full of stones up and down a close".

It was in the mid to late 90's though that my ears were brought to attention of LTJ Bukem and his Good Looking record label. Here was a guy, and his cohorts, who were creating this sort of music but instead of the chopped up drums being the main focus of the tune, not to say that that wasn't always the case, they seemed to lovingly smother the tracks with huge washes of ambience. It was done so well that at times you forgot about the beat and became totally immersed into the layers of sound that were ebbing and flowing over the top.

The LTJ Bukem compiled "Logical Progression" album from 1996, which was full of this sort of stuff, was to become the starting point of a fixation that lasted for years. If a record or compilation came out with either his name or the cheeky wee face logo of the Good Looking label on it, it got bought.

KMC's "System" appeared on Bukem's "Progression Session" mix from 1998. It was a blistering set of spacey drum and bass expertly woven together with Bukem's infamous choppy crossfader style of mixing. Unfortunately, the mix did take a lot of getting used to as Bukem had his mate MC Conrad freestyling over the top. Ok, it was suppoed to make the mix have a certain "live" feel about it, but in the home or on your headphones it sometimes got in the way.

This version, from Volume 8 of the Good Looking retrospective series of albums, "Points In Time", thankfully doesn't have MC Conrad jarring the atmosphere of this excellent track.

Track : MOTIVE ONE - "LOOP PROGRESSION"

"Loop Progression", from Volume 7 of "Points In Time", starts in a more familiar drum and bass style with it's raw break loop. This is soon softened by the addition of long chords and all sorts of production effects, but don't get too relaxed as a typical old skool style break soon joins in and a battle between the rough and the smooth takes place for the remainder of the track. It's up to you decide who you think wins...

Go Visit : Good Looking Records

Go Buy : LTJ Bukem presents Logical Progression Volume 1
Go Buy : LTJ Bukem presents Progression Sessions Volume 1
Go Buy : Various Artists - Points In Time

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

Ta,
Budgie.

The old ones are the best....

Is Trance music still Trance music whether it was made in 1992 or 1998 onwards?

This post is prompted by a thread over on The Pipe Discussion board about the origins of said style of music. (click the forum link at the bottom of the page...)

The Trance scene has been going for nearly 15 years now and I claimed that the genre's blueprints were more or less laid down around about '91 / '92 and that the general idea of the genre hasn't really progressed since then. Yes, in '98 it came back to the fore, but production values aside, was it really doing anything new?

I'm not looking down on the genre, I remember those heady days of '92 when I was getting off on it in The Arches and The Tunnel in Glasgow. It was when I returned to The Arches in '97 after a lengthy break that I was left cold by the stuff that was being played and since then I haven't really heard anything that has made me sit up and take notice. My only exposure to Trance now is via HoC's very own Sie and his productions.

But this post isn't to have a dig at the current trend, it's more of a fond nod to a long time ago and to the tracks that made my clubbing days enjoyable.

If you were to describe Trance, you would definitely mention breakdowns, heavy synths and atmosphere bordering on the euphoric. Well, back in '92 the songs below had all of this...

I should point out that both tracks are Jam & Spoon productions, the reason for this really was that I only intended to put "Stella" up to prove a point, but whilst digging around for it I suddenly remembered about their remix of the Age Of Love track and knew that it had to go up for a fresh airing.

Track : JAM & SPOON - "STELLA"

Yes, the story in the "Trance" thread on the forum is true. I did once climb the speaker stack in The Arches and start a whooping and a hollering like a Red Indian to this track. But hey, that's what drinking too much Sol and Purdey's does to a fella and I will always remember it as one of my favourite clubbing moments, what with my mates all beckoning for me to come down whilst trying not to piss themselves laughing. Happy days.

I'm not going to say too much about "Stella", or the following track, as the point is really to show that these tunes have had a huge influence on shaping the Trance sound. So let your ears be the judge.

I will say this, "Stella" is sounding bloody great for a dance record that has been kicking about for 13 years now...

Track : AGE OF LOVE - "THE AGE OF LOVE (JAM & SPOON MIX)"

As I said above, this track immediately sprung to mind whilst looking for "Stella". I hadn't heard it for a long time until tonight and, again for a record 13 years old, I can't believe how good it still sounds.

It's not as "airy" as "Stella" and is a lot darker and harder, but again the blueprints of Trance can be heard.

The beauty of this track, aside from it actually sounding a bit like a sped up Belgian New Beat track, is the incredibly long build up to the main business of the tune. When this was played out the anticipation in the crowd for it all to kick off was palpable.

Go Visit : The History Of Trance @ Jahsonic

Go Buy : Jam & Spoon - Tripomatic Fairytales 2001

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

Ta,
Budgie.

From the mind of Madlib...

He's The Bad Character, The Astral Traveller, The Loop Digga and probably the most inventive and prolific producer working in Hip Hop and some other fields today. In the past few years he has amassed a huge back catalogue of stuff with some of it released and some not. His work has crossed various genres with no sign of his output or quality control letting up. The word "genius" is often banded about when describing him. Is Madlib a genius? Time will tell...

Track : QUASIMOTO - "RETURN OF THE LOOP DIGGA"
Track : QUASIMOTO - "RAPPCATS pt.3"

I first stumbled across his work when he released "The Unseen" album a few years back under his Quasimoto guise. As most modern hip hop can be a bit dull, bland and lifeless, "The Unseen" harked back to the good old days but at the same time he was pushing things forward. Aside from the killer beats he had managed to find and the samples that dropped in when you least expected them, the thing that struck me most was the rapping. You have what sounds like 2 sometimes 3 guys all dropping words on top of one another with one of the guys sounding like he has been inhaling helium. It was impressive stuff. But what impressed me more though was that a few months down the line it turned out that all the vocal interplay was actually only one guy. Madlib was all the characters. It spun my head. Here was a guy who more or less has created his own hip hop world, producing the whole thing, and then taking turns with himself to rap whilst pitching the vocals up a bit on one of his alter egos and making it sound like it was the combined effort of a whole crew.

"Return Of The Loop Digga" is from "The Unseen". Madlib gets the boot in at lazy producers who use basic and overplayed hip hop breaks. It's a great example of what Quasimoto is about. You get the beats stopping, starting, changing when you least expect them and then you get the vocal skills of him and his alter ego bouncing off of one another.

"Rappcats pt.3", from the current album, "The Further Adventures Of Lord Quas", is Madlib paying homage to all the old skool rappers and producers that have influenced him. Although there is not so much of the high pitched one on this short track, he still manages to convey the feel of a crew of rappers while they flow over the top of some more inventive breaks and samples.

Track : YESTERDAYS NEW QUINTET - "TOO HIGH"

After Quasimoto flipped me out, the next thing I heard from Madlib was his "Angles Without Edges" CD under the guise of Yesterdays New Quintet. His love of Jazz was obvious from "The Unseen", what I did not expect though was that he would release a proper Jazz album. With more than a passing nod to the late 60's early 70's Jazz sounds, the album, though good, was a bit hard going. But hey, it's Jazz, that's what you expect. What I did not expect, after reading the sleeve notes and seeing the names of the band members, was again for it to turn out a couple of months down the line that it was all the work of Madlib himself. The band didn't exist. Even more astounding was the fact thet he set himself a challenge to see if he could do it, picked up some cheap instruments and then taught himself how to play.

"Too High" is from his second Yesterdays New Quintet album. This time, the self taught musician paid homage to Stevie Wonder by getting his ficticious band to give Wonder's back catalogue the YNQ treatment. Very impressive it is too with "Too High" being one of the highlights.

Track : MADVILLAIN - "FANCY CLOWN"

Aside from producing his own faux hip hop tracks, Madlib has been known to produce for other people. His album "Madvillainry" with hip hop artist MF Doom was well received and "Fancy Clown" was definitely one of the most memorable tracks on the CD. Unfortunately it only clocked it around about the 2 minute mark. The version above is an unreleased mix of "Fancy Clown" and is longer and better.

It gives MF Doom more scope to spin out his dissing rhyme, on himself, under his guise of Viktor Vaughan. The tale is of Vaughan having a go at his girlfriend who is cheating on him with Metalface, another of MF Doom's alter ego's. The beauty here is that this version being double the length features more of Madlib's phenomenal production skills. A great vocal refrain is chopped up over a piano loop to provide the backdrop for Doom's schizophrenic rap. Just when it starts to settle down the atmosphere is broken up with Madlib dropping a fight into the mix before the vocal kicks back in and everything returns to normal.

The above tracks are just a small insight into the musical world Madlib inhabits. There are numerous other things I could have posted, stuff from his "Shades Of Blue" compilation in which he remixed a handpicked selection of Blue Note classics, then there was his Reggae / Dub mix for Trojan records and not to mention his Broken Beat-esque guise of DJ Rels. He's a tremendously prolific and always interesting artist. His music has messed with my head and kept me entertained for years and long may it continue to do so.

Go Visit : Madlib @ Stones Throw Records
(worth checking out the Stones Thrown Jukebox as Madlib's mix from a couple of weeks agao for Gilles Peterson's Worldwide show is up for downloading and on the Video section is the psychadelic animated promo for Quasimoto's "Bullyshit".)

Go Buy - Quasimoto - The Unseen
Go Buy - Quasimoto - The Further Adventures OF Lord Quas
Go Buy - Yesterdays New Quintet - Stevie
Go Buy - Madvillain - Madvillainry

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

Ta,
Budgie.

Another Friday and another couple of tracks to settle you into the weekend...

Track : AVIA - "REBIRTH"

Making up compilations for friends can be both an enjoyable and mind numbing experience. You've got to get the fine line right between stuff they won't know, stuff they do and stuff you put on just to freak them out. Then you've got the hassle of getting the running order right and just what exactly is going to be the opening track?

"Rebirth", for me, was a track that for quite some time I bunged on a lot of dance compilations as the opener. I had taken ages to get my hands on it so I was making sure I was getting my pennies worth by putting it on as many CD comps as possible.

It came to my attention when Gilles Peterson opened up his then Wednesday night "Worldwide" show with it a couple of times. At the time it struck me as odd as it wasn't the sort of thing I would associate Gilles with, but it fair caught my attention as it was a great opening track. After months of fruitless trawling around record shops for it I finally gave up. Then by chance, long after I had forgotten about it, it turned up on Rob Da Bank's second compilation for his "Sunday Best" club. Granted, Rob didn't see it as the great opening track I thought it was and tucked it near the end of the album, but I was just happy to finally get my mits on it.

In essence the track could be classed as Ambient House, but it takes a while for a 4/4 beat to kick in. Before it does though, you are treated with long drawn out ambient chords, loops of drum fills crashing all over the place and the odd bit of spoken word from a guy reflecting on his life.

I find it quite a strange record, even though it is quite conventional, and I can't quite put my finger onto why I think so. But if you're making up a compilation of leftfield dance stuff, you can do no wrong in starting it with this tune.

Track : SODA INC. - "MORNING PRAYER"

Last week, in work, I was handed a CD called "Full Moon" by Soda Inc. by a colleague who knew that it would tick all the right boxes for me. He was right (cheers, johnnyboy!). It was promptly bunged onto my iPod and I have listened to it all this week - aside from the moments of madness when I was frying my brain with that Hippocamp Ruins Pet Sounds album... (cheers, SVC for the heads up on that one!).

I don't know much about Soda Inc except that I think they come from Germany and, going on the "Full Moon" CD, I can tell you that they make top quality atomspeheric and deep Tech House music. Their label, Plastic City, call it Neo-Trance and I can kind of see where they are coming from, but even though it uses some of Trance's musical conventions it's just too slow for Trance.

"Morning Prayer" clocks in around about the 120bpm mark but what it lacks in speed it sure as hell makes up for in mood. Plenty of layers with things going on, the odd loop of singing and plenty of dubby effects to keep me grinning from ear to ear.

If you like this track, you'll love the album.

Go Visit : Avia
Go Visit : Soda Inc.

Go Buy : Various Artitsts - Sunday Best Two
Go Buy : Soda Inc. - Full Moon

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

Ta,
Budgie.

The return of Poncho-Hetty and his pipe smoking tunes...

OLA!

Budgie has a let me choosing more records that makes me smiiiiile while I stand outside ma cabin a tooting on ma big pipe!

Track : MR SCRUFF - "CHICKEN IN A BOX"

Thees track iz a coming up for being 10 years a old now but eet still never fails to raise a smiley on ma cheeky face and makes my leggies go all twitchy for a dance. Meester Scruff has just released an album that has put together all hees hard to find early releases. "Chicken In A Box" iz ma favourite of all hees music az eet has a crazy beat, some happy strings and a funny robots voice.

Oh, I almosts forgets, THE PIPES! eet iz all about the man playing the blowy instruments. An' he a blow very fast!

Track : CASSETTEBOY - "HOES DOWN"

Sometimes on a weekend when I'm not a standing outside ma hut an' a tooting on ma pipe, I likez to goes to the city and a pick up Crack Ho's.

So praises be a going to Mr Cassetteboy who has supplied a handy guide on Crack Ho's on his latest spinning an' funny compilation disc, "Mick's Tape". Hees cut it up and pastey style makes me laugh, but this track I founds to be a very informative.

I now knows why they gets angry when I a pull out my lollipop stick...

Teel the next times, ADIOS!

TOOT TOOT!

Go Visit : Mr Scruff
Go Visit : Cassetteboy (no webby site, but a goes HERE for a handyfull more of his funnee things)

Go Buy : Mr Scruff - MRSCRUFF
Go Buy : Cassetteboy - Mick's Tape

Feels free to leaves a comment about a thees tracks in a The Pipe section of the forum.

Gracias,
Poncho-Hetty

(Budgie - I'm sorry)

As Ice Cube once said, "Today was a good day"...

I don't know what it's like where you are today, but the sun is blazing here in this normally wet part of Scotland that I live in.

Sunny days deserve sunny music, so get downloading before the rain kicks in.

Track : CHRIS BRANN - "JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE"

Chris Brann. A man of many names. The Ananda Project, P'Taah, The Wamdue Project, Wambonix, Wamdue Kidz and Wamdue Productions! (Wamdue is short for "What I'm Gonna Do")

Many names, but one thing links them all. Top quality house music.

"Journey To The Centre" is a fine example. A 9 minute multi-layered slice of real instrumentation going up against Brann's deep, soulful chords and electronic ambience. Hypnotic, soothing and full of bliss. Shut out what's going on around about you, get the headphones on and let this track seep into your head...

Track : JAZZTRONIK - "SAMURAI"

"Samurai" has been kicking about for around 18 months or so now and why this never made a bigger splash last year was beyond me. It's a great summer record.

Ryota Nozaki, the maestro of Jazztronik, first caught my ears when his stuff started to appear over here on compilations by fellow new Jazz influenced experimentalists Truby Trio and Faze Action. His stuff was always good and memorable but it was "Samurai" that blew me away. He raised the bar with this track.

It starts off with a great slice of broken beat and a subtle piano line and slowly adds tiny snippets of vocals and a daft siren noise. The piano keeps the mood grounded amongst the madness, and this isn't some sample, this sounds like Noyaki improvising over the top of the laid down beat. By the 3.30 minute mark a new melody line is added and Noyaki just lets the whole vibe of the track pass through him and onto those keys, all the while those sirens and effects are firing off all over it..

A stunning record for a sunny day.

Go Visit : Jazztronik

Go Buy : Chris Brann - Deep Fall
Go Buy : Jazztronik - Samurai

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

Ta,
Budgie.

Pipe #25 / 1 Year Older But None The Wiser...

I just realised today that The Pipe has been going for a year and has racked up 25 entries. Not bad at all, I suppose.

Back to the matter at hand though, todays tunes...

During the recent wasteland time of December and April, when The Pipe was in hibernation, there really were only two tracks, by two bands, that I wanted to post. They appear today as a comment made by Spoilt Victorian Child, within his latest entry on his Blog, has prompted me to get off my backside and put them up for you.

He, and quite rightly so, claimed, "it seems the whole world has gone New Order crazy".

It's true. The name New Order seems to be unavoidable just now. Ok, New Order have a new album out and they have just been honoured with a "Godlike Genuis" award by The NME, but the same magazine is keeping this current New Order buzz alive by basically, and lazily, comparing any new band coming up that plays guitars and uses synths to the Manchester legends. I mean do The Killers, The Bravery and Bloc Party sound remotely like New Order? I don't think so.

The reason I'm putting the following two tracks up is that although they don't really sound like the band New Order, they both have a spirit and energy about them that Sumner, Hooky and Morris would all recognise and acknowledge.

Track : CUT COPY - "FUTURE"

Cut Copy started off as a solo project for Melbourne's Dan Whitford. Alas it was short lived, as at an early gig his sampler broke. Not wanting that to happen again, he recruited some mates to form the band properly and together they have recorded one of this years great pop albums, "Bright Like Neon Love".

They have pulled off the feat of being able to record an album that sounds like it has been beamed in from the mid eighties, Dan claims he wanted his songs to be simple but given a big eighties, airbrushed feel to them. So with the aid of famous French dance producer, Philippe Zdar (Cassius, Motorbass, La Funk Mob), "Bright Like Neon Love" more than achieves their goal.

You may be familiar with their forthcoming single, "Saturdays", which is already being tipped to be a big summer record, what with it slightly echoeing that summer classic from a few years back "Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust.

"Future" though is different, although it is filled with electronic hooks and can be uplifting in places, it is the melancholy that drifts through it that grabbed my attantion. It's this that I feel is THE New Order spirit in the song and it's captured here better than some of the bands mentioned above.

I highly recommend the album as there are many more moments like this within it, and anyone who has scribblings of Giorgio Moroder, ELO, Guided By Voices and The KLF within their CD packaging has got to be good in my book.

Track : OUT HUD - "ONE LIFE TO LEAVE"

Out Hud to me sound like ESG playing Tom Tom Club songs that have been remixed by New Order. Influenced by Post Punk, House and Dub these part time members of fellow American indie dance band !!! (chk chk chk) make a right, tight, dance racket.

"One Life To Leave", from their current and second album "Let Us Never Speak Of It Again", starts off all funky, post punk New York style bass and drums with jaggy female vocals puncturing the groove, but then after a couple of minutes it melts into something that wouldn't sound out of place on New Order's classic "Technique" album. I mean, the original groove of the song is enough to have your head nodding, but it's when the electronics come in and add new rhythms and warmth to the whole affair that you wish you were hearing this in a club and not through your PC speakers.

The spirit of New Order, for me, on their album is that even though it's very polished and can sound like late 80's New Order, and other people too, in places, it's in the adventure of the experimentation that Out Hud are up to that reminds me of those great early 80's New Order dance excursions.

Go Visit : Cut Copy
Go Visit : Out Hud

Go Buy : Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon Love
Go Buy : Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak Of It Again

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

Ta,
Budgie.

A quiet start to the weekend...

...Two beatless excursions executed by HoC's SIE and Jimmy The Flid.

Track : SIE - "LAST TRAIN TO NOWHERE"

"Last Train To Nowhere" is a nine and a half minute ambient piece that would not sound out of place on Brian Eno's "Ambient 4 : On Land".

Sie comes up trumps by layering the track with plenty of atmosphere. Notes and noises appear and disappear over a background hum with the occassional introduction of some treated and distant acoustic guitar, piano motifs and an "On Land"-esque bass rumble.

Whilst listening to this for the first time I was anticipating a beat to come in. As I was half way through enjoying it I was keeping my fingers crossed that he showed restraint and didn't disrupt the mood by introducing one. Thankfully he did leave the beats well alone and has turned out another polished production.

Track : JIMMY THE FLID - "CURIOUS INCIDENTAL BACKGROUND NOISE"

*** Sorry - track removed at The Flids request ***

If you ever have the pleasure of hearing Jimmy DJ, you'll soon come to the conclusion that myself and his friends have made. Yes, he is enthusiastic about records and wanting to make records but he somehow gets THE FEAR when it comes to a good old melody or vocal. This has gained him the reputation of liking, what we've dubbed, "bleepy, bleepy, click, hiss music" or to put it another way, "Flid Music".

Actually, I'm doing him a disservice, he does listen to and play many different styles of music, but unfortunately the "Flid Music" tag has stuck.

And here is an example of "Flid Music", not just because it is indeed clicky and hissy, but because he has made it himself.

I've given the game away as to how this track is going to sound, but don't run away or avoid downloading. He has constructed a track that is akin to the ambient industrial soundtrack to David Lynch's nightmare, "Eraserhead". Above all the clicks and the odd piece of electronic shimmer he has added a spoken word segment from the audio version of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time". The story, about an autistic boy dealing with Asperger's Syndrome and his quest to find out who has killed his neighbours dog, is represented here with a snippet of the boy explaining just what makes a good day / bad day for him and gives a brief insight into just how his brain works. The inclusion of this lifts the track.

The Flid claims it is a work in progress, so once he has finished tweaking with it I'll put up the new version. For now, this is well worth a listen.

Go Buy : The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (Adult Edition)
Go Buy : The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (Audio Book)

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

Ta,
Budgie.

Blame it on the bassline...

...and what a bassline it is.

Track : AARON NEVILLE - "HERCULES"

"Hercules" is a track that the soul singer Aaron Neville made back in 1972. It's a bitter song, written by fellow New Orlean talent Allen Toussaint, about trying to survive the hard times in America. The lyrics may be bleak but hopeful, with Aaron sounding mighty fine as usual on vocal duties, but it's the backing track that's the star. More importantly, it's all down to that bassline. As soon as it kicks in at the start, your head is off and nodding. Compliment it with some restrained guitar, piano and horns and then back it all up with some great percussion and drumming lines and you're on to a winner.

But it's that bassline that sticks with you...

Track : YOUNG MC - "I COME OFF (THE SOUTHERN COMFORT MIX)"

Back in 1990, it don't think there was a bar in the centre of Glasgow or back room in any of the clubs that didn't play this Young MC track, it was everywhere. To me and my friends it was an anthem. When heard at the start of a night, or any time of the night for that matter, this always set us up and put us in the mood.

The original version was a fairly non-descript and typical hip hop bragging track and not a patch on Young MC's previous work, especially his "Know How" tune from a couple of years earlier. It took a little sprinking of some Balearic magic and the addition of the "Hercules" bassline to smooth it all out and turn "I Come Off" into a classic. "The Southern Comfort Mix" was the work of one time M/A/R/R/S collaborators and stalwarts on the London club scene, Dave Dorrel and CJ Mackintosh, and it is one of my all time favourite remixes.

Track : DUSTED - "WANT U"

Jump forward to the year 2000 and the bassline is still echoing down the ages. Dusted is the project of Faithless founder Rollo and his co-hort Mark Bates. "Want U", much like the majority of the tracks from their album "When We Were Young", is a great downtempo ambient piece. It takes a couple of minutes before the track really starts to get going with the introduction of a beat and a bassline, but it's when that bassline mutates about the half way mark into "Hercules" that "Want U" really starts to shine. The track soon becomes elevated with with some strings and a spoken / slightly sung male vocal but as it's just getting into it's stride, it sadly ends.

It may end too soon, but after listening to the tracks above, you'll never forget that bass...

Go Visit : Aaron Neville
Go Visit : Dusted

Go Buy : Aaron Neville - Ultimate Collection
Go Buy : Young MC - Stone Cold Rhymin'
Go Buy : Dusted - When We Were Young

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

Ta,
Budgie.