Funky Friday's Tasty Chicken In A Box


Andy Carthy AKA Mr.Scruff is a unique talent in the world of instrumental electronica. His tracks are typically lush, jazzy-breaks driven grooves festooned with strings, quirky loops and lots of goofy vocal snippets. There is also a rather odd fascination with fishies and large sea mammals that permeates all of his records. I have found the albums to be very entertaining, going from mellow downtempo chill out tunes to uptempo dancefloor fillers. The fine folks at NinjaTune records have just reissued his first album, Mrs.Cruff. It's a collection of assorted 12"s, and was originally released in 1997. It's very typical Scruff fare, and the track Chicken In A Box is the prototypical Scruff tune. It starts with the looped riff of a flute - Irish sea shanty or Indo-raga? - then those beats kick in, topped off with some gorgeous strings and a chunky bass riff. It's melody is beautiful, as much of his music is. I love it, and the rest of the record is pretty damn groovy too.

Return Of The Punky Reggae



Ari Up, former lead singer of post-punk icons The Slits, released a new album here in the US this week called Dread More Dan Dead.

The Slits were a bunch of teenagers when they got together in 1976. Singer Ari Up was a 14 year old, posessed of one hell of a scary set of pipes, screaming and warbling and yelping through a shambolic, dub groove heavy set of post-punk tunes. Their seminal 1979 debut Cut, produced by reggae star Dennis Bovell, is a record that has held up well. It finally got a US reissue this year with a few bonus cuts on it, including their stellar version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine. I love the tune Typical Girls, something that this trio were definitely not. It's got a great beat, terrific piano pounding, scratchy guitars and Ari's great vocals. We need more Slits reissues!

Over the last few years I've seen her name around a bit more. She did guest vocals on the German electronica act Terranova's 2002 album Hitchhiking Nonstop With No Particular Destination. There is no mistaking her voice on Mongril, a rocking electro dancehall tune.

The new album Dread More Dan Dead is a very entertaining listen. It's a mix of dub, reggae, hip hop, rock and post-punk flavors mixed up in a digital styl-ee (and there is also another collaboration with Terranova). Baby Mother kicks off the album in bumpin' style, with a cool clicky beat and sweet sample chopping, topped off with a nice toast-y rap from Ari. Her voice hasn't really changed, thought there isn't as much of the high pitched, shrill warbling she used to do. All in all I would sat that the new album is a very nice update of her old style for the year 2005.

I'm A Hustler, I'm A Full Moon


The Chemical Brothers' latest LP Push The Button was released earlier this year to generally positive reviews but seemingly little interest by the public at large. I have always been a fan but was feeling like at this point they were kind of played out. I picked up the record - with low expectations - but after a few spins found myself actually enjoying it quite a bit. There is nothing new to their formula on it and some of it can get a bit repetitive, but several of the tracks stood out to me - the Middle Eastern flavor of Galvanize with Q-Tip on the rap, Keke from Bloc Party's vocals on Believe and the track The Boxer. Featuring vocals from long time collaborator (and singer for The Charlatans) Tim Burgess, it is the latest single from the album. The CD5 features two new tracks (Giant & Spring), 2 remixes of Believe (by Erol Alkan & Mathew Jonson), a remix of Galvanize by Abe Duque, and this ab-fab remix of The Boxer by uber hipsters the DFA. They smooth out the original's stutter and actually bring the tempo down a notch, taking the tune from it's glitchy machine funk origins and turning it into a mellow, dubby, late night groove. Very tasty indeed.

Don't Look So Surprised



Vicious Vicious are a Minneapolis band led by Erik Appelwick who is also part of several other local acts including Alva Star and the hotly hyped Olympic Hopefuls. What began as one man and his four track has turned into a tight quartet. With bassist Heath Henjum, drummer extraordinaire Martin Dosh (Dosh & Fog) and studio whiz Alex Oana he's put together a 7 track album - or is it an EP? - called Don't Look So Surprised. It's a collection of sharp, literate pop songs that are all over the stylistic map. On a funky track like Here Come Tha Police I hear fellow Minneapolitans Prince & Iffy. Fans of Phoenix and the Fountains Of Wayne will find something to like on some of the mellower rock tunes. There are also moments that sound like Grandaddy or Beck, and on the album's first track, It's A Serious Thing it's like Modest Mouse mashed up with Weezer slathered with the new wave stylings of The Cars. All in all it's a fine little set of tunes, well crafted, nicely produced and pretty damn catchy.

Super Non-Stop Über Rocking Disco Party


The Brakes are a bit of a British indie supergroup, comprised of Eamon from British Sea Power, Tom and Alex from The Electric Soft Parade and Marc from The Tenderfoot. Their first single is All Night Disco Party, and it's an amusing little new wave disco track. It's got the funky, spongy, up and down bass, the syncopated disco beats, and goofy lyrics sung in a fairly goofy fashion. It also has some killer rock breaks in it. It's like Clinic might sound if they took a few E's and got happy for a change. It's sounds like it should be dreadful, but it's actually a lot of fun. The other two songs on the CD single are nothing like this, and the forthcoming album has been described as having an alt country flavor. Should be interesting.

Funky Friday's Music Makes You Lose Control



Missy Elliott is back with a new LP, The Cookbook. I've read a few reviews and they haven't been very positive - mostly a case of too little Timbaland involvement. I've given it a few spins now and I have to disagree with that line of thought. There are a few Timbaland tunes, a bunch of self produced joints, and a few guest producer spots too - the Neptunes, Scott Storch and Rich Harrison among them. Missy helms the boards for the big single Lose Control. It's pure electro magic, built on some vintage samples by Cybotron and Hot Streak, and guest starring r'n'b hottie Ciara and Fat Man Scoop. This is pure gold pumping out of my car stereo. I also really dig Can't Stop, where Rich Harrison takes his by-now-familiar blueprint - see Beyonce's Crazy In Love and Amerie's One Thing - of rough, percussive soul and lets Missy rip it up over his gritty groove. I think that it's this diversity of sound that I like about the album - no diss to Timbaland, because the tracks he brings are as big as always, but I like the change of musical pace on offer here.

You Make A Grown Man Cry



I have been a long time fan of Pink Floyd. Their balance of spooky, dreary insanity (Roger Waters, and to a degree, Syd Barrett) with glimmers of hope (Dave Gilmour) always moved me, as did their sense of space. I also liked the fact that they could get sort of funky in that classic rock kind of way. So you can imagine that I was glued to the TV for their Live8 reunion on Saturday. This was something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime - the end of acrimony, the burying of the hatchet between the members, Dave and Roger singing the songs as they were originally intended. Hell, I paid good money to see the fake Floyd twice, and here was the real thing. The house was full of kids yelling when their set began, and I slowly inched the volume up. By the time that they were starting the third song, Wish You Were Here, the house had magically grown quiet - the kids had gone outside to splash in the kiddy pool, and I was alone. Surround sound on? Check. Volume up? Check. Bit of a buzz? Check. Beer? Check. And then the strums of their guitars, the two of them singing those old familiar lyrics, the dedication to Syd Barrett, or any number of other reasons moved me to actually shed a tear. It was really a joyous thing, one of those few moments where the love of the music overwhelms you, and it was awesome. It also made my wife laughingly point her finger at me and call me "old man!", but that's OK, because it was pretty funny and true. Anyway, I know you can probably get this song in a bunch of different places now, but you won't get that goofy story to accompany it. Enjoy the mighty Pink Floyd, live at the equally big Live8 concert, singing Wish You Were Here.

It's Just Another Day On Earth



Brian Eno has a new album out called Another Day On Earth. It's his first vocal album since the late '70s when he went all ambient on everything. What to say about Eno that hasn't already been said - electronic pioneer of ambient music, Roxy Music and those outrageous outfits, David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2, blah blah blah. The man is a legend in popular music, his new record is a lovely, dreamy album of near lullabies, with a few songs having some vaguely funky beats. The title track is Just Another Day and it's a perfect example of everything that the man is about - a hazy filtered beat, banks of keys softly building, playing ethereal melodies, and his distinctive vocals floating over everything. Relax and enjoy...

The Dead 60s



The Dead 60s are a Liverpudlian combo who have recently released their self titled debut in the US. All you need to know is that The Clash have already made this record a few times. Musically it's a dub and reggae inspired run through post-punk that will remind you a lot of Sandinista and parts of Combat Rock - the vocalist even does a pretty good Joe Strummer. Get over all of that and what I've found is that it's a really fun listen. There's a great feel of space in these songs - the production is nice and clean. Riot Radio kicks off the album in rifftastic style. It's also a good indicator of what's generally on offer over the rest of the record. There are a few forays into straight up reggae, but it's mostly dance-y, skank inflected grooves like Nowhere. This thought occurred to me the other day when I was listening to the album - this is the record that I wish Radio 4 had made instead of Stealing Of A Nation. It's got that Gotham! kind of feel to it, only a bit more polished and reggae-fied. If you can get past it's derivitive nature I think you might just enjoy it as much as I do.

The Spirit Of Revolution


In honor of the fact that it's the 4th of July - happy birthday America! - I give you the totally unique and revolutionary rant of Mark Stewart. Former singer of the Pop Group, he pursued music after the dissolution of the band, both solo and with The Maffia AKA Tackhead. Pretty much everything he has recorded has been with dub meister Adrian Sherwood at the controls. The fine British label Soul Jazz got Stewart to compile a bunch of songs from his solo career as well as a few Pop Group tunes, including rare and unreleased stuff, and released them as Kiss The Future. It makes for great listening, the sharp art punk tunes of his old band and the digital, industrial dub of his solo stuff. The Pop Group was always a politically motivated band, and Mark continued that tradition solo. From 1989, Hysteria is one huge, dubby riff topped off with Mark's rants against the man and his distinctive shriek of "hysteria!" - no-one else sounds like this. One nice bonus on the CD is the inclusion of a new song, Radio Freedom. It's digital dub in the year 2005 stylee, featuring a fierce rap and some more politically charged lyrics - this dude's been yelling the same message for almost 30 years now, and it still a message that needs to be heard.

Song For Floyd

WOW! I added just a splash of color to spice things up around here and get away from yer basic black. It's a work in progress.



In memory of yesterday's Pink Floyd reunion at Live8 - I was verklempt like you wouldn't believe! - I say HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME!!! No, it's not Britney's version - it's by Fountains Of Wayne, taken from their 2CD set of outtakes/b-sides/rarities called Out Of State Plates. I love this version of the tune - they definitely bring their unique flavor to it.

And Floyd rocked my world. I can't believe MTV/VH1 cut to commercials in the middle of the Comfortably Numb guitar solo. Idiots! Bring on the world tour...

You're My Kind Of Climate



It's a funky Friday, and to end this week's '80s themed posts is a cool tune from Rip Rig & Panic. They were an offshoot of then recently defunct Bristolian legends the Pop Group. A jazz-funk combo, they left behind the art-punk of their old band, but held onto it's free thinking "no boundaries" attitude. From 1981 to 1983 they released three albums of funky, jazzy grooves with loads of anarchic SKRONK! mixed in. They are also notable because they feature the tough vocals of a young up and comer by the name of Neneh Cherry. It's her unmistakable flow you hear on You're My Kind Of Climate (Party Mix). This version is taken from another cool Virgin Records compilation, 1982's Methods Of Dance Volume 2, and was previously only available as a DJ promo 12". It's got a great big-band feel to it, Neneh is fierce on the vocals, and the dubby breakdown that happens halfway through is big - I love how it breaks down and then builds back up into a sax driven squall of noise before petering out.