Friday Night Music Club

Hello.

It’s Friday.

It’s what can comfortably be construed as Night.

Which means it’s time for some Music Club action.

Happy to oblige. Here’s Volume 4 of the monster that was the 4th part of the original mix, if that make sense.

Last week, I said this: “Volume 4 clocked in at 4:41 minutes, so to make it to a round hour, I either had to add 20 minutes or lose 41. You can guess which of the two won, I think.”

And this week you’ll see how those fruits are born, with a load of tunes which weren’t in the original 4:41 mix, but which – I think, I hope – sit just beautifully amongst it all.

For example, there’s Air, Robbie and the Pet Shop Boys at the top of the mix, and at the end a majestic Greg Wilson mash-up of Massive Attack, The Rolling Stones and Amerie’s 1 Thing, the latter of which is grossly overlooked because a) it happened to be released at roughly the same time as Beyonce’s Crazy in Love, and b) it sounds not entirely dissimilar to Beyonce’s Crazy in Love.

And yes, when I say Robbie I mean Robbie Williams – deal with it.

I’ll let you be the judge:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 4.4

And here’s your track-listing:

1. Air – Sexy Boy
2. Robbie Williams – No Regrets
3. Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield – What Have I Done To Deserve This?
4. Phoebe Bridgers – Kyoto
5. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Fresher Than the Sweetness in Water
6. Gruff Rhys – Sensations In The Dark
7. Wreckless Eric – Whole Wide World
8. Half Man Half Biscuit – Corgi Registered Friends
9. Goldie Lookin’ Chain – 21 Ounces
10. Donna Allen – Serious
11. Santogold – L.E.S. Artistes
12. M.I.A. – Paper Planes
13. Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise
14. Jurassic 5 – Concrete Schoolyard
15. Charles Wright & The Watts 103 Street Rhythm Band – Express Yourself
16. Greg Wilson – Two Sides Of Sympathy

I dunno what I did, but I don’t even feel the need to post my usual “there may be some fuck-ups” disclaimer this week. Sounds alright to me. Dig it.

More soon.

Late Night Stargazing

Regular readers will know that I love a band called Teenage Fanclub. They recently announced that Gerard Love would be leaving them, and then, shortly afterwards, that Euros Childs would be taking his place on their upcoming gigs.

There’s a bit of history here, Euros having recording an album under the moniker Jonny with Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub.

But there’s more: Euros was the main man in wonderful Welsh psych-folk-pop band Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, and it is to them that I turn tonight.

This is bloody wonderful:

Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Fresher Than the Sweetness in Water

A memory: we went to see Euros perform up at the Park Stage at Glastonbury one particularly muddy year. He played that tune. We found ourselves standing right next to Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals fame. Starstruck, most of us were too shy to say hello. But not Llŷr. Oh no.

Love you dude.

More soon.

A Traditional Easter

A quick show of hands please: who thinks I don’t post anywhere enough tunes by Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci?

And those who think I post far too much by them?

Well, that seems fairly conclusive.

This, then, is from  Barafundle, their still-sounds-as-wonderful-today-as-it-did-when-it-was-released-in-1997 album:

Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Cursed, Coined And Crucified

More soon.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

A few years ago (actually, now I think about it, 12 years ago. Ouch!) a mate of mine threw a birthday party (I think….) at his place in West London. It was a day-into-night affair, so there was a barbecue and lazing around and drinking in the afternoon, followed by a fair amount of substance abuse of one kind or another in the evening. (Can I just stress again that when I mention this kind of thing, I am not advocating their use? I’m just relating, s’all. Y’know, just in case someone sues me or something. Don’t shoot the messenger.)

There were 30 or so people there, but apart from the host and his wife, and the couple I’d travelled up from Cardiff with, I knew nobody. This makes what happens next fairly predictable.

There was a trade-off to being invited: all attendees were instructed to prepare in advance, and provide on arrival, a mix-tape, over both sides of a C-60. All cassettes were to be unmarked, no track listing provided, and they would provide the soundtrack to the party. For added fun (there were no prizes), attendees were then supposed to try and work out who had made which mix-tape.

I still think this is a cracking idea for a party, provided you’ve got a working tape deck to play them on.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I attacked this task with much vigour and gusto. What I needed to do, I thought, was one of my trademark mixes that slowly build to a climax, but at the same time pick songs which I liked but which the few people I knew there might not necessarily associate with me, so as to throw them off the trail when it came to identifying the creator of the cassette.

In other words, I over-thought it.

You’ll be even less surprised to learn that of the 30 or so attendees, only four of us bothered making a mix-tape, all of whom were male. And one of whom used a C-90, the dirty rotten cheat.

My selection caused much bafflement and scratching of heads, and I was delighted that nobody managed to twig which mix-tape was mine. I had won!! I was the Belle of the Ball!!

But then, much later, someone else turned up with a mix-tape that started with Dennis Waterman’s “I Could Be So Good For You” and everyone forgot about mine and hailed him a genius instead.

Dammit, I own that on 7″ single, why didn’t I think of including it?

I’m not bitter though. Oh no.

I wish I could remember all of the songs I’d included, but alas, I can only remember the first three, the ones which were sufficient to throw everyone off the scent, and they’re all perfect for posting here, so, well, here you go:

In order they were (and, in brackets, my reason for selecting them):

The 5th Dimension – Up, Up And Away

(Step 1: Pick some weird old 60s tune everyone kinda knows, but which nobody would associate with you. Unless they had heard any of my previous mix-tapes (which they hadn’t) which almost inevitably start off with something in this vein. A scene setter, if you like. Ladies and Gentleman, fasten your seatbelts, we’re going on a journey).

Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Patio Song

(Step 2: A journey to Wales. A stroke of genius this; the host of the party is Welsh, as are his wife and the couple I had travelled up from Cardiff with, but other than that, all English (as far as I can recall). I literally (not literally; metaphorically) cloaked myself with Welsh language psych-folk.)

Prince & The Revolution – Raspberry Beret

(Step 3: Then throw in a curveball, a tune by someone that you know at least one other person is bound to have a bit of an obsession with.)

It worked: there was much finger pointing after this came on in a “But this must be yours, you like Gorky’s and Prince!”, “So do you!” kinda way, but none in my direction.

Much, much later that night, as it got darker and colder and people started to either drift off home or, at the very least, into the house, I found someone frantically hunting around the tape deck. I asked what they had lost.

“I’m trying to find that tape that had the balloon song at the start,” they replied.

I allowed myself a smug smirk, and pointed it out from the pile. “Good that one, wasn’t it?”

And no I’m not going to play you “I Could Be So Good For You”. Well not yet, anyway.

That should get your Sunday morning off to a breezy start, alright.

More soon.