playgroup - dj kicks

playgroup - dj kicks

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1. maurice fulton presents boof - we

2. ana rago - you're god (I: cube remix)

3. material - ciquri (discomix)

4. harlequin 4's - set it off

5. impedance - tainted love

6. random factor - broken mirror

7. cultural vibe - ma boom bey (love chant version)

8. metro area - caught up 

9. tiny trendies - the sky is not crying

10. smith n hack - to our disco friends

11. zongamin - tunnel music

12. charles schillings - no communication, no love

13. nigo - march of general (chicken lips conquest dub)

14. j-walk - buggin' becky (tim 'love' lee fully bearded mix)

15. kc flightt - let's get jazzy (dope dub mix)

16. Human League - Do or die (dub)

17. the parallax corporation - anti-social tendencies

18. playgroup - behind the wheel (dj kicks electroca$h radio mix)

19. ralphi rosario - get up, get out

20. bobby o - still hott 4 U

21. dexter - i don't care

22. wanda dee - gonna make you sweat (acapella)

23. the rapture - house of jealous lovers

24. the flying lizards - money b

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this is one of my favorite mixes ever. it first taught me what weird dance music could be. Trevor Jackson, the legendary UK DJ, put it out under his Playgroup moniker in 2002, right during the revival of 80's electro. It sounds like it would appeal to tastes at the time but it's way too singular and inspired to have its energies completely dissolve in the tides of cultural flux.  

it's one of those favorite-ever things that you can actually forget about for a long time. I remembered it because bret and I went to broadway east the other day to see lovefingers dj, and he played "mah boom bey" by cultural vibe and I kicked myself for a day or two trying to remember where I'd heard it, and then it hit me, back on this playgroup mix on which I know every single note by heart. spare, weird, captivating, it's full of sweet tunes you've never heard of but sound instantly good. like the harvey 'moonshadow' mixes that are some balearic deepness before most people got around to it, jackson's dj kicks is weirdo disco before such dancefloor oddness became jams du jour. a top-shelf eye opener that can take you down the rabbithole of occult electro-disco mysteries. let's hope you don't come back.

ridin' high podcast 12.30.08: cavalier

download link

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to bring the year to a close and counteract the chill of last week's holiday disco darkness, cavalier presents thirty minutes of lullabic, syrupy-smooth grooves and heavy-petting edits, which bottoms out in the vocals of terry callier's 'you don't care' as they unspool down to 50bpms, disappearing into a black codeine abyss of infinite retardation. roll into the new year in breezy easy-lover style. 

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file under: deep repeat, chilling hard, jammy sinking

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tracks 

andreas vollenwieder - caverna magica

joni mitchell - passion play (unknown edit)

fleetwood mac - never goin' back again (tom croose edit)

the delegation - oh honey (gold code edit)

venus gang - love to fly

plastic bertrand - stop encore (ron hardy re-edit)

jurgen paape - so weit wie noch nie  

seth troxler - love never sleeps

terry callier - you don't care (cavalier mix)

1. vollenwieder is a German new-age wizard. He is also, along with Martin Denny, one of the occult forefathers of Quiet Village: Vollenwieder's "Steam Forest," from the same album as "Caverna Magica" is one of the backbones of the second half of QV's Silent Movie, that heavenly medley of maritime delight that feels like you're face down in the sand at sunrise. feel the drift.

2. I forgot who edited this. If it's you, write in and let us know. You should be proud. 

3. I got this on 7" from Phonica. 

4. If this isn't a blue-ribbon make-out on the couch with your girlfriend jam, then such a distinction is meaningless. It's also nicely kind of chaste. It sounds like you're smooching fully clothed with two feet on the floor. A warm-up, as it were, literally so. The edit is by gold code, which is the excellent blog where I found this. Very nice work.

5. this is from an insane compilation of prog-disco madness by Jean-Pierre Massiera, a David Alexrod/Joe Meek type, who has a rather incomprehensible discography full of amazing pseudonymic efforts - "Sex Convention" being only the best of many greats. Massiera's entire output can be found here. "Love to Fly" by the Venus Gang is officially up there with "Ridin' High" by Faze-O as a jam so saturated with funky erotic bliss, you can't re-edit it. It's already too high, it may never ever come down. 

6. Hardy edit! 

7. Acknowledged Kompakt classic. One of the most soulful dance tracks ever. Really. Guess what? it sounds just as good at about 100bpm. Vocals are sampled from "Vielleicht schon Morgen" by Daliah Lavi, a smoking hot Israeli singer. Here's the original: 

8. Soulful, minimal deep house, one of 2008's best tracks. Has that kind of moody, murky, elegant atmosphere that feels like Wong Kar-Wai at the disco. Put it next to Luomo and Superpitcher and that. 

9. The only words to this song are the title phrase, which confuse me. Either way I can think of interpreting them is weird. Either the You is Me, and I'm being told I don't care, which sounds slightly brainwashy, or they're being told to someone else who doesn't care, in which case, why would that be such a great thing as to warrant this exceptionally smoothed-out yacht jam? In any case, it sounds great slowed down, like really slow. I mean it. 

The Laughing Light of Plenty - The Rose

The Laughing Light of Plenty - The Rose

Oh the good Lord, he knows when to shine. In advance of my set tonight @ Savalas I was able to learn of and track down this highly-limited release from Whatever We Want records. It involves Thomas Bullock, aka one-half of Map of Africa and Rub-n-Tug, and formerly of A.R.E. Weapons. Although it's based here in NYC, WWW pretty much just ships its hen's teeth-rare releases abroad like to Phonica in London, where they immediately sell out. This track is a striking example why - it's a swirling, psychedelic disco-rock anthem. If you listen to this, it will put you in a good place, and you will stay there. Bit of a Stone Roses /Happy Mondays dense & trippy vibe as well. Why is cosmic disco, to use the parlance of our times, so satisfying? Because it's well-dressed drug music, elegant and deeply bugged at the same time.