Feel my Bicep

Words of wisdom from one of the most important musicians and DJs ever coming out of Detroit: Mr. Derrick May – one of the godfathers of techno. Listen to him philosophising about how you pull the strings of life in the right way and right direction. Never dance to your own music. Don’t you ever dare to offer someone fruit with the promise how great the taste will be. Beware! There are a lots of shades of shit in an orange…

This interview with techno music pioneer Derrick May is part of a series created by the Red Bull Music Academy, click through for the full length version. RBMA have kindly created this editied version for feelmybicep.

Also including this awesome radio show at RBMA and from couple of weeks when Mr. May took over BBC Radio 6.

Derrick May @ BBC 6 Music – 6 Mix

Continue reading ‘Derrick May RBMA 2006′

Classic 1990’s techno, this kid was 14 when he produced this track! Trent’s father was a disco DJ. He recorded the track “Altered States” while still a high schooler, releasing it on Armando’s Warehouse Records in 1990. The track became a huge club hit among devotees of techno, despite Trent’s grounding in the Chicago house scene.  This classic detroit sound has had an influence on uk labels, especially lots of the earlier  Soma releases etc. Enjoy

Continue reading ‘Ron Trent – Altered States’

Outrageously camp jacking Hi NRG flavoured Disco from back in 1982. This appears to have been quite a big influence for tracks like Den Haan’s ‘Nightshift’

This track was actually produced by the legendary Patrick Cowley in collaboration with Parker, who coincidently shares both the 2nd name and giant ‘San-Fran Tash’ with the late Dennis Parker.

Great cowbell’s and relentlessly hissing hi hats assure that this is in keeping with plenty of  your peak time tackle. Enjoy, with a cocktail.

Continue reading ‘Paul Parker – Right on Target’

Here’s a deep little synth jam by the band Yes. Despite making their name with hits like  ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’, they always tried to maintain their status as a prog rock band. Perplexing. Their pop stuff was a lot better.

Continue reading ‘Yes – Dancing Through the Light’

NEU! is a German based Krautrock super group made up of Michael Rother & Klaus Dinger. Klaus Dinger played drums on the first Kraftwerk LP in 1971. The following year he joined forces with Michael Rother and they formed Neu!, releasing their self-titled debut LP on German label Brain. Their music was heavily innovative and influential, melting distorted guitars with metronomic drumming, noise effects and tapes.

As you can hear its some pretty trippy shit, perfect music to drive to epically if your nailing canisters of Mescaline and regularly swatting bats from your vision. Seen this second release of this for sale in a fleamarket in Prenzlauer Berg for €30, got it for £2 in Stoke Newington. Bargins!

Continue reading ‘NEU! – Hallogallo’

“‘Dragonfly’, is a Danny Kirwan setting of a W.H. Davies poem, catches the mood of the poem perfectly, and is typical Kirwan – wistful, delicate, and exquisitely melodic”

In an age here pretenders are at the forefront of ‘indie’ music it is worth looking back at the pioneers, perfect Winter tuneage.

Continue reading ‘Fleetwood Mac – Dragonfly’

Hands up who likes Italo of the disco kind! these guys defiantly have the sleaze factor and their synths pack more meat than those Turkish Kebab shops in Dalston *girthy doners*. Come on the guy on the left has been heavily inspired by Daniel-Son-Karate Kid and the right guy clearly stole Eddie Murphy’s haircut…All in all Amin Peck are win win.

Continue reading ‘Amin Peck – Running Straight’

Quality tribally looper here from the Talking Heads, as ever perfectly executed, on the wonderful Fear of Music album The lyrics are an adaptation of Dadaist Hugo Ball’s poem “Gadji beri bimba.” either way this is weirdly funky!

Continue reading ‘Talking Heads – i Zimbra’

Huge piano house remix of Kevin Saunderson’s ‘The Reese Project’  by underground resistance back in 1992, this helped propel them into the forefront of house and techno music.

Underground Resistance is probably the most militantly political outcropping of modern urban American techno. Combining a grubby, four-track aesthetic, an almost strictly DIY business philosophy, and an oppositional, militaristic ethos similar to Public Enemy without the drama (or the familiarity; the members refuse to be photographed without bandanas obscuring their identities), UR have redirected their portion of the Detroit techno legacy to social activist ends, trading mainstream popularity and financial success for independence and self-determination. Begun in the early ’90s by Detroit second-wave trinity Mike Banks,Robert Hood & Jeff Mills, UR adapted the flavor and kick of early Detroit techno to the complex social, political, and economic circumstances in the wake of Reagan-era accelerated inner-city decline, and was formed as an outlet for uncompromising music geared toward awareness and change.

Continue reading ‘The Reese Project – The colour of love (Underground Resistance remix)’

One of the godfathers of chicago house bringing us the original house music anthem, all the way back in 1986!

You’ll almost certainly recognise it from the various cheesy remakes, here’s the original.

Been listening to some Roni Griffith recently, dark undergorund ”Christian” aarpeggiated disco….It’s crazy that she gave everything up (her New York Music career) due to her faith?!?!

She resided in New York from the age of 19 until she was 23 years old, finding an amount of success within a short period of time. On the eve of her first music video and her launch on the new music media outlet MTV, Griffith decided to walk away from everything based on her morals and values as a Christian in the secular music industry.

In 1983, Griffith pursued a career as a Christian Contemporary artist. She appeared on The 700 Club and was also featured numerous times in her hometown newspaper, The Herald Times. In 2004, she released her second Christian Contemporary album, entitled Only You.

Don’t let this put you off, Enjoy!

Mondo Man

Spy

Hot Lover

Voodoo Man

Continue reading ‘Best of Roni Griffith’

This is quite simply one of ”the” sampled songs of the 1980s/1990s….The simple 4 beat ‘’shout and whoop” drum break (that quickly became the trademark of the ”Batlimore” house sound), appearing at 1″ 22 seconds has appeared looped in scores upon scores of essential early dance and hip hop, defining that ’sound’ that so many of us associate with early dance production.  Those sampling parts of the track including the drum break were Kool Moe dee, Roxanne Shante, Simon Harris, Rob Base, Hi Tek 3, Janet Jackson, Chubb Rock, Heavy D & the Boyz, De la Soul, Fpi Project, King Bee, Today, Greyson & Jasun, N.W.A, Slick Rick, Yuzo Koshiro, Das Efx, Mike Greene, La Bouche, John Cougar, Alizee, Kid 606, Kero one, Dizzie Rascal, Boy 8-bit, Dj Shadow A skillz, Don Omar & Hiedi Montag……to name a few!

Here’s the original!

Continue reading ‘Lyn Collins – Think’

Horrendously cheesy camp mexican cover of the 1980’s classic, Voyage Voyage by Desireless.

Continue reading ‘Magneto – Vuela vuela’

Paris’s answer to Annie Lennox…… Desireless composed “Voyage Voyage”, a camp dreamy synthpop song that topped the charts in many European countries. Big fan of a lot of 1980’s french synthpop, and this is up there with best. 

Pretty obscure edit here, don’t know who it’s by, but it’s one of the best version’s I’ve come across, along with the Brit mix. 

Italo edit

Brit mix

Continue reading ‘Desireless – Voyage Voyage (Italo Disco mix) edit’

“In its short lifespan, UK-based Dissident Records has developed a reputation for being elusive. Each limited-run release is shipped with little fanfare, on one-sided vinyl. Oh, and good luck finding the label on the internet—there’s no homepage, and a MySpace search will lead you only to a similarly-christened black metal operation. But the whole low-profile thing shouldn’t be taken as some kind of militant, off-the-grid posture: “We just hate the idea of joining in with the fake bullshit, ‘my new record’s the best thing ever and our label rules’ world,” says label owner Andy Blake. “It’s so crass and dishonest and not even a fun game to play anymore. We’ll talk to whoever wants to talk to us, we just don’t go chasing it.” Resident Advisor

Over the past 2 and a bit years Dissident has cranked out over 60 releases but still maintained the highest standard of quality control. Some of my personal favourites like “The Niallist – The Hots” or “Muravchix- Replicant’s Lament” probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day if it wasn’t for these guys. For me I love the concept behind the label and it converted me back from allure of the ’serato’ digital revolution, back to buying vinyl. With the awesome old school branding and design/ limited run you always thought you were part of something special, and actually getting what you paid for. Dissident has taken A&R to a new high, and their stylistic aesthetic approach to music will not be forgotten here.

Here is a mix from Andy Blake on Cool in the Pool, nice interview over there too.

check out some more of their ace remixes here