do you love your robot children?

patrick cowley & jorge socarras - robot children

From the forthcoming album "Catholic," recorded by Cowley & Socarras in the early eighties but never released until now. Eschewing Cowley's trademark psychedelic disco, pioneered on landmark mixes like Donna Summer's "I Feel Love," "Catholic" pursues an edgy robot-rock sound closer to Gary Numan or Brian Eno.

Jay Goes Cosmic

What's the opening sample on Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3," you ask? Why it's 'spirit' by Frederic Mercier, of course, from his 'Pacific' LP, a late 70s french cosmic-disco steam-roller with a head-nodding beat and glistening huge synths and, needless to say, a daniele baldelli secret weapon. Enjoy.

frederic mercier - spirit (RE-UP!)

Aluar Horns

Aluar Horns (Zaire/Uganda Border)

I got a record needle. The Gemini PT-2000 record player which now functions in my studio is the first fully operational vinyl playback machine which I has ever owned. This is because, I wager, sometimes one is afraid to be happy. Sometimes there is a happiness that hangs so clearly in your eyes, but you recognize its sheer destablizing force, the way it may also threaten to overtake you once you deign to open your arms to it, that you turn away, preferring to cast your glance instead towards inferior delights.

So lord help me, I have a record player now. And I have literally the worldest's goofiest collection, comprised almost solely either of out-jazz rarities or thrift store oddities acquired upwards of ten years ago when I worked in the Salvation Army, and which I have never ever listened to, but never discarded, fuelled only by my good faith in weird records.

This faith was rewarded when I for the first time played "African Ceremonial & Folk Musics." It consists almost entirely of pleasant, unremarkable chants and babbles, but then out of nowhere, there's an insane horn-section jam, which has such a weirdo-wobbly rhythm that I thought my new record player was broken and playing irregularly. The horns overlap in such a loopy, narcotized way, it sounds like Sun Ra remixed by DJ Screw. Or a beardo edit of New Orleans funeral jazz. One of the most surprise sonic bug-outs I've had in a while, a very solid "what the hell is this?" moment was the result, exactly the sort of experience which makes me hoard two dollar thrift store records for ten years.

Enjoy, you won't be disappointed. 

Fox

or, The Singular Pleasure of a Lost Diamond



Fox - The Juggler
Fox - Pisces' Babies

During a recent short-film jaunt to Finland, a friend turned up a copy of this 70s British rock LP in a used record store, the cover alone being reason for its purchase. After finding the album satisfying to listen to as well, she went to ebay for a second, so that when I surfaced in London after a woolly week of mountain glory, this find became mine, in a return gesture for some vinyl treats procured some time before. A surprise and thoughtful move: of the small but precious joys in this life, being given an old record about which I have no idea is one that will never wear thin on me.

The Fox sound is steeped in smooth, decadent dark echoey 70s rock vibes, like Fleetwood or "Brother Louie" by the Stories, aka shit I ride for, but with extra velvety synthesizers attached, plus singer "Noosha Fox" sounds a bit like Kate Bush. The two tracks here are my favorites. I have little clue as to what the buoyant, dreamy, slightly calypso "Pisces' Babies" is about, but the darker, driftier "The Juggler" is a beware-of-the-playa cautionary number that uses the slightly unintentionally goofy metaphor of juggling to depict the cavalier gentleman in question. Both are recommended.

Enjoy - download 'em, or pass them on to your girlfriend or boyfriend who likes Fleetwood Mac and pretend you discovered them. I won't let on.