This double 12″ features some pretty healthy bangers. Vinyl only I’m afraid, on Viewlexx sub-label Murder Capital. This is exactly the kind of evil freak electro that we could imagine getting caned in the Test warmup if Test still existed.
This next record from the Diagonal label is one of the oddest bangers we’ve encountered in a long time. Proper weirdo music. Top.
Bit late to the party with this next one from a couple of years back. Top dads Neil Landstrumm and JD Twitch of Optimo/Pure fame (whose solo productions keep getting better and better incidentally – some new solo bangers imminently about to drop from him, watch this space). Anyway this EP is awesome. Nice combo of Neil’s classic bleeps with Keith’s more latin/house flavas…sounds like a Warp classic with modern shiny production values, and a wee synth stab straight out of the Tom Tom Club.
Pianos were the first synthesizer, in that even a moron with no musical ability can just monkey about and make nice noises.
Here’s 10 big piano tunes, some of which will make dads cry. Many of them pretty obvious really. Feel free to share less obvious ones.
1. Derrick May – Strings Of the Strings of Life
Don’t need to say much about this…do we? Other than – I think the story is that Derrick had his mate over and he played the piano bit. Then May made an entire career out of it. This is a nice kinda chill out room version. Bit long. We actually had Strings of Life on our first ever rave tape which we obtained in 1990 when most people still didn’t really know what a rave was. It was an unbelievably hissy copy of a copy of a Pure tape and Strings of Life was the first tune.
2. Marshall Jefferson – Move Your Body
Another one we dont need to say much about really. Chicago. House. Etc.
3. The Hypnotist – The House Is Mine
This one would also go in a top 10 massive rave drops category for the big noise that bursts in. RIP Caspar Pound. Stole the piano vamp from Richie Havens…see below.
4. Suburban Knight – The Warning
Spooky UR batcave techno. As in a lot of rave music the piano is sampled and pitched weirdly so it almost doesnt sound like a piano any more. This is a lot more morose than rave music tho. Always liked morose techno rather than happy stuff…Classic from the Test days, remember Shandy dropping it in the ‘warmup’ at the Sub Club with far too much smoke going on.
5. Awesome 3 – Don’t Go
Had to pick at least one big piano pop rave tune. This is awfully cheesy admittedly but there’s something about the break…sounded awesome blasting out the huge warehouse rave sound system at Rezerection and begs for a bit of turbofoot rave dancing. All the big rave DJs used to play it. XL records.
6. Richie Havens – Going Back To My Roots
We were actually lucky enough to meet the great man himself one time a few years back. Lovely bit of disco soul for that sun coming up good feeling 6am party vibe, that supplied the piano riff Caspar Pound sampled for The Hypnotist tune above.
7. Jeff Mills – Changes Of Life
It’s kind of interesting how many of these tunes are really obvious. This is a monster tho. One of those turn the lights on at the end of the night numbers…as is the Hypnotist. Something about a big piano riff.
8. Paul Woolford – Untitled
Had to have SOMETHING new on this list just to prove we’re not dead. This is a summer hit from Northern dude Woolford on Hotflush…dangerously close to being generic tech house gubbins. HMm. Is it any good? Actually not sure now…you decide.
9. The Juan McLean – Happy House
This became a bit of a staple of Techno Dads’ more housey/disco-y sets a few years back…and we still play it sometimes. Usually slow it down a bit tho as you can hear here.. Kind of a cover version of Do It Now by Dubtribe Sound System, by New York DFA dude Juan McLean.
10. Cannonball Adderley – Come Sunday
Finishing up with some piano jazz. One of the things about being an old cunt is you start to realise that stuff like this is not half bad. Round about the same time you stop worrying about whether it’s OK to wear a cardigan.
This appears to be a Belgian news programme attempting to explain house and techno to the squares.
Features 808 State, Jon Da Silva, Paul Oakenfold back when he used to play decent Frank De Wulf records – and featuring Frank De Wulf himself in his studio wearing a lovely navy jumper. And CJ Bolland playing in Bridlington – the vid cuts off just as he’s dropping Mescalinum United We HAve Arrived…on the news! Check the pony-tailed Yorkshire bloke introducing him. Funny stuff.
Some brilliant Flemish consonants peppered with the odd English phrase like ‘repetitive beat’ , and of course genius Belgian New Beat/techno sounds.
Starting off the list with something big and angry. And it mentions Woman’s Hour.
2. Wevie Stonder – Ton Wah
Watch out. There’s a bollard. Yes Kirsty that’s right. A BOLLARD.
Nice motor.
3. Lydia Lunch – Dear Whores
The ultimate redundancy tune. Send it to your boss.
4. Joe Meek & The Blue Men – Entry Of The Globbots
Put this on for the long slow intro, sneak out of the dinner party and time your return for the drums, brazenly wearing a pair of incongruous ladies’ knee high boots to do a creepy little Cossack dance. We’ve all done it.
5. English Muffin – The Blood of an English Muffin
Industrial Strength insanity from Lenny Dee. You need at least one gabba tune.
6. Thomas Brinkmann – Concept 1 96-VR Track 1
Thomas did a mad thing, he built a turntable with two arms. Then he played Richie Hawtin’s uber-minimalist Concept techno records on it and mixed between the 2 signals. What a mentalist.
7. Hawkwind – Master Of The Universe (Space Ritual Version)
Fuck you all, dad’s having a freakout to himself and listening to Hawkwind at top volume. A version of this is on some bloody car advert at the moment. The world has indeed gone mad.
8. Beltram – Energy Flash
When we’ve all gone senile from the years of serotonin depletion and are living in old folks homes, we’ll do a special dribbly head nod dance to this when it comes on Radio 2’s old time retro techno hour, which will be presented by a toothless Dave Clarke live from his underground base on the moon. You know it’s true.
One of the big things from back before rave came along was goths. Goth was a response to advances in hairspray technology and the invention of snakebite.
Here’s a reminder of how brilliant they were. Superb pathetic dancing in a Phoenix Nights style club with really bright lights like you get at a proper ceilidh.
Your modern goths are not as serious. Nowhere near as skinny as 80s goths who all had those spindly preying mantis legs that you could only get from a truly dedicated amphetamine habit.
In the 80s it was quite common to lose your virginity to a goth. We always wondered what proper goths did on hot summer days. Did they hibernate?
A mix dedicated to those special moments after 6AM when all the best parties really get going.
–
Heres the tracklist for the kind of folk who like that sort of thing.
Plez – Can’t Stop [DMR Zone Miz]
A Guy Called Gerald – 202
Chantal – Dernier Volta
Jichael Mackson – Freitag Abend
The Residents – Kaw Liga (Stripped Mix)
Intruder – You Got Me
Linkwood & House Of Traps – Barely Eagle
Mouse On Mars & Herbert – DJ Collapse
Daniel Wang – Not Feeling It
Mungolian Jetset – Milano Model
Escort – Cocaine (Greg Wilson Edit)
Phil Kieran – Snakes Crawl (East Village Mix)
?Andrew Weatherall? Not sure, random digital acquisition
DJ Boom – Kinda Kickin (Ark Mix)
Locussolus – Berghain
Zombie Zombie – Illuminations (DJ Sottofett’s House Chugging Tuff Tripp Mix)
Super_Collider – It Won’t Be Long (Vogel and the Lidettes remix)
Baldelli & Dionigi – Mutant Wisdom
Daniel Avery – Movement (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
Marquis Hawkes – Higher Forces
DJ Sotofett – Åsså Med Den Derre Fløyta (Video Bootleg Med Den Elektriske Fløyta)
Mr Vast – Ecstatic Caravan
This is just like your average family Christmas, if your average family somehow ended up down the Berghain. The coffee table thing is the new dad living room headphone DJ style. Needs must.
Tracklist – not much dadcore, mostly recent-ish stuff, sorry.
Burial & Four Tet – Moth
Junior Boys – You’ll Improve Me (Caribou Remix)
KiNK – Rave Signal
Boards of Canada – Olson (Midland Remix)
Laurent Garnier – Flashback (Smith and Webbah 3am mix)
Benoit & Sergio – Where The Freaks Have No Name
Pfirter – The Dub Track (Len Faki Remix)
Factory Floor – Two Different Ways (Perc Mix)
The Soft Pink Truth – Confession
MMM – Nous Sommes MMM
Martyn – Viper (London Arches Mix)
Miaoux Miaoux – Hey Sound (Auntie Flo & Esa’s Remix)
Reade Truth – Another Dilemma
The Black E – Ho Ho Ho
Jeffrey Mills – Jingle Bells
Pleated Lemon – Yuletide Logs
Great find from DJ Surgeon, in a dusty tape box…from Neil’s raw early distorted Chicago-influenced phase when he was releasing stuff on Peacefrog, distorted kicks, squeaky noises, always with killer drum fills and insane energy levels.
For those that don’t know, House Of God was a proper techno club in Birmingham…we always thought of it as a kind of sister club to Test as they put on a lot of the same guests of the nasty techno variety. Generally very nice people, despite making such evil music. Neil himself being a case in point…this tape is RAW.
Here’s what Neil says about this (copied from his Facebook):
‘Surgeon just mailed me this tape recording of a live set i did at the House of God in Birmingham in 1995… If memory serves me correct that was the first time I performed there. Anyways its live on hardware (as was the only choice then) rather nasty but still fun..Tr-909, S950,Tb-303, Sh-101, Sequential Circuits Pro-One, Tr-606,, Atari ST and some other crap….The Peacefrog and Sativae acid years….’
Taking a leaf out of the KLF’s book, The Shamen in 1992 decided to use the pop charts as a medium for having a bit of a lark. Nobody really does that any more, do they?
Though the song itself has not dated very well, and the wisdom of Mr C taking to a microphone is questionable to say the least, the video is still quite good. I remember getting quite excited as a 20-year-old watching Top Of The Pops, and explaining the lyric to my mum, who thought it was quite funny.
Bizarrely the video features not-safe-for-TV genius comedian Jerry Sadowitz as the eponymous Ebeneezer – if Frankie Boyle is the soggy sausage supper of Glasgow offensiveness, Sadowitz is the prime fillet steak of filth. He is also the least likely person in the Universe to advocate a love drug.
This is just like your average family Christmas, if your average family somehow ended up down the Berghain. The coffee table thing is the new dad living room headphone DJ style. Needs must.
When techno went glam
techno dads 