Divshare giving me hell all over again. hang in there, quiet a few posts lined up...

open road

Ok, moving on ... Records like Batteaux's 'Batteaux', John Martyn's 'One World' and Kieran White's 'Open Door' are go to records on days when a guy needs a little sweet, life affirming melancholy from the well traveled minds of thoughtful men. There are others, of course, and these records have all found a special, easy to reach place on my record shelves.

Ex Steamhammer man Kieran White (born in Worthing, UK) recorded only the one solo lp 'Open Door' in 1975 after the bosses at Gull Music, where he worked, heard a demo of the track 'Hummingbird' which he was working on for another artist. Later on he would also work with Ian Carr's Nucleus (a recent obsession). I wanted to make some point about how one can hear the open road on Kieran's solo album, how it sounds more West Coast USA than South Coast UK, which is true enough, and then link it to the fact that he would later move to Oregon and become a truck driver, only i'm not sure that is actually fact (the truck driver part, he did move to Oregon). Check out the irrepressible album opener, 'Open Up Your Door', if you don't already know it...

kieran white - open up your door

Disco Engine

Darshan Jesrani, one half of underground hit makers Metro Area, released a new single for his label Startree under his latest moniker Cylinder, yesterday. The track 'Disco Engine' is pure fire; featuring vocals by Chelsea Adewunmi, 'Disco' is a hybrid beast of RnB, Disco and Techno with big love for New York based 80's beats... it's in the track's title if you think about it. Classic Metro Area is a testament to the value of being able to hear the human intent behind electronic instrumentation. Likewise here on 'Disco Engine' the warm beauty evoked in the combination of Techno sounds makes it both lush and seductive. The twist, if u like, is that it's a Disco soundtrack that emerges from the machines, an ass moving groove with blood in its veins, sweat on its brow and NY air in it's lungs. Adewunmi's striking vocal chant further sweetens the human touch. When asked about the name Cylinder, Darshan tells me that 'it was initially just a shot at trying to convey something sleek and futuristic. It also seemed a little funny and became the butt of a couple of jokes between Morgan and I. Later on I realized that it could also totally be a nod to Detroit, being the motor city and an acknowledgement that I'm exploring some Techno elements this time round'

I love this track, i been grooving all over the office to it for the last few days and we'll no doubt be hearing it all over diverse dance floors in the coming months. 'Disco Engine' is a well considered stand against the loss of humanity in a lot of today's machine fetishistic Techno, it's also a masterful Trojan horse designed to drop the love on colder dance floors, but more than that it's mesmerizing, catchy as f*ck and blistering hot hot hot. Vinyl will be in stores in a couple of weeks, digital is out now. Get it, put it on repeat and play it loud. Big track alert!!   
    

that's not all folks...

Any Breaks / Electro or even Hip Hop Dj worth his salt, will tell you that a copy of Break Dancers 'That's All Folks' will cost you serious $$'s, unless you get lucky digging in a spot owned by someone without the internet. My yelps would certainly cause any sharp eyed salesman to turn on his modem before i reached the checkout. The flip side's 'Merry Melodies', penned by Jean-Pierre Massiera, amongst others, is the track you and i would be after... Killer Disco from 1984 on the French only Magical Ring Records. Ki Ller!! 

break dancers - merry melodies

the limo must flow

Well maybe it's the end of days... or something epochal... or not... But if you'd told me several years back that i would post a track by Gino Vanelli up on anoe, i might have straight out punched you. He, amongst many, is the antithesis of everything i like about music... or so i thought. Probably some of you already know his early records and have already discovered the one or two surprises deep in his back catalog... look i still dont like the man, all that benign shlock MOR, the feather leather hair and curly black trousers... so imagine my surprise when hearing this track from his 'Brother to Brother' album... Two things... first off i'm surprised no one did an edit of this back when Phil Collins, Tina Turner, Fleetwood Mac et al were getting regularly sliced and diced and secondly, this got me rocking in my limousine tonight...

gino vanelli - the river must flow 

juice

There is no information that i can find on French producer Jean Baptiste Fiacre aka Yan d'Ys. At first i thought it might be a pseudonym of Jan Treger's, but it seems not and Discogs has only two records listed as having anything to do with the man. One of them, the profoundly brilliant Ovation by Ovation on the not so easy to find Freesound label. So instead of jabbering on about someone i know very little about, here instead is a road lovin, pastoral Psychedelic Funk Jazz gem with wonky Country stylings that is actually quiet beautiful and not nearly long enough... if u can believe that...

ovation - petrol flowin

it's Dilla didn't cha know ?

Speaking of Dilla, depending on how much of a fan you are, you'll probably know Tarika Blue's 'Dreamflower', which he used for Erykah Badu's 'Didn't Cha Know'. Tarika's 1977 eponymous album, from whence 'Dreamflower' begat, features a killer line up that includes amongst others, the ridiculously talented James Mason, the sublimely talented Ryo Kawasaki, the very prolific Hank o' Neal, and bass player Barry Coleman who wrote most of the record. The rest of the album is pretty damned fine if you like this sort of thing... i certainly do. Sunday night with a beautiful drifting gem then...

tarika blue - dreamflower

down down down

Delroy Edwards is the mutherf*ckin man!! Seriously! If you like mid tempo sliced n diced beats that distort and flow like sweet sweet cream in a 70's porn flick; and you love funky crunchy cassette cut Soul loops, fat fried Boogie bits and Prince and J Dilla and 2pac and Dam Funk and... , then Delroy has your mutherf*ckin number. Mr Edwards does next generation Dilla and then some, on his Slowed Down Funk tapes for LA Club Resources, all three volumes of which can be found here. Delroy is amazingly talented; he worked as an intern at A1 Records and then with Ron Morelli behind the scenes at Long Island Electrical Systems (aka L.I.E.S.), he's also released 3 EP's through the latter, all 3 of which are mad good (though quiet different from the Slowed Down Funk tapes). It blows my mind that he's quiet young, extremely versatile and over flowing with the flow... Anyway... check the man out. Delroy's Bobby Caldwell cut up (below), is deceptively simple and offers not much insight into the complex hybrids and slo mo potions that make up his 3 volumes of genius, but it's looping in my head tonight and perhaps that is the whole point??? Caldwell's 1978 debut album is equally  jammed to the brim with heat, but the lesser played 'Down for the Third Time' always gets me in the right spot.

delroy edwards - down 4 tha 3rd time

the speed of sound

It's kind of strange that i've never posted a track by Alan Hawkshaw on anoe, he's easily one of my favourite Library Music composers and producers. It's almost impossible to fathom how much music Hawkshaw has created and again it's almost impossible to imagine how one man can have consistently produced music of such high quality. There really are so many wonderful pieces by this guy, and so many records of his i wish to own. Of course he worked mostly for KPM but he also did music for Themes International, Bruton, Music de Wolfe, XS Records, Music House and many others. His hit making Disco outfit Love de Luxe had a number 1 on the Billboard charts with 'Here Comes That Sound'; he's worked with Bowie, Madeline Bell, Donna Summer, Alec R Costadinos (on 'Love & Kisses') and many others, he's also played in at least 6 or 7 bands. Personally i would love to read a highly detailed biography on his life and music.

Anyway... off the Bruton classic 'High Adventure', the astounding 'Speed of Sound'...

alan hawkshaw - the speed of sound

Emergency

Ok some new music... 'Mark E has a vivid imagination, and everyone knows it. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute'... or so it says on the center of his new 12" for the label. Everyone knows Mark E, that is certainly true; for awhile, in the early days of the Edit scene, he was king of the land. Later he stepped things up and took to creating fantastic original material and then just recently he's been turning out major heat (again!) with his E-Versions series for his own label Merc. That's the short story, he's a prolific beast and keeping up with him requires sharp eyes. Everyone knows ESP Institute also have a vivid imagination and by now you know the label for some of the finest, genre bending, experimental, original and mesmerizingly beautiful new 'dance' music released in the last few years. (eeeeu!! sorry the term 'Dance Music' gives me the creeps). Thus it is very exciting to hear Mark putting fresh beats through the esteemed ESP, and he's clearly channeling bespoke and frankly mezmerizingly beautiful new music with them. It's not like his other stuff, is what i'm saying... Well i mean it is and it isn't... Never mind, you're going to feel lifted and enchanted and entranced (careful! ed.) and blissed out by at least one of the tracks off this 12" on a dancefloor pretty shortly... The snippets below are really a tiny taste of the almost mathematical rapture present in both these beauties... keep an eye out girls and boys and don't say i didnt warn you... (mid Feb release date)

crystal love

Ok let's dig a little bit deeper. I don't know how familiar you are with Japanese Jazz genius Yuji Ohno. He's probably most well known for providing the score to the Anime TV Series 'Lupin The Third', as well as many other Japanese films and television shows. While doing some research on the man, i discover that almost every biography on Ohno mentions a Trio he was in with Miroslav Vitous... and yet no one names the band... anyone?? I would seriously like to hear that collaboration. Anyway, Yuji has produced well over 25 albums, from the mid 70's to around 2008, or so. I've only heard 2 or 3 of his records and of what i have heard, 'Space Kid' from 1978 is the only one i've managed to collect so far. I'm no expert on the man, but it seems he's tackled all kinds of styles and subjects and given the Manga nature of a great many of his works there is a kind of hybrid blending style to them (certainly with what i have heard), nearly all of it dripping in a future/retro nostalgia. Check out 'Prologue - Crystal Love' from the album 'Space Kid'... more from Yuji coming up. So from crystals of one kind to crystal love of another...

yuji ohno - prologue - crystal love

crystals

American re-issue label Love n' Haight put out a wonderful repress of Thom Janusz' heavily sought after 'Ron Forella's... Moves', a few years back. An original pressing will cost you up to $6K or thereabouts, fortunately the repress makes this pretty special collaboration between musician and dancer a lot more affordable. Beat junkies love this record, the drums are clean, crisp and ripe for sampling, while for the rest of us, it's funk and soul instrumental workouts are beautiful, clever and mesmerizing. It surprises me greatly that this is the only record from Thom Janusz (unless i'm wrong), clearly the man had quiet a talent. Anyway it's not easy picking just the one track from this beast, though i believe 'Crystals' is the reason the original record caused multiple cold sweats for diggers... What a track it is too... placed somewhere between Bluesy Jazz Funk and Yacht Rock, 'Crystals' is a classic warm and drifting gem!

thom janusz - crystals

sunburn

Last year Josh Cheon and his label Dark Entries put out the absolutely brilliant Patrick Cowley/School Daze compilation. The record received a great deal of attention from all sorts of quarters; it crossed over a bunch of niche or specialist markets, as it were, and was a resounding success as a result. There is some talk that there may well be a follow up. Whether you're a Disco fanatic, into 70's gay porn, a synth head, a goth or a library music fan, i'm sure you'll agree that that would be rather nice. I'm loving this slo mo, drifting, head music gem, thought to be produced by Cowley around the same time as School Daze. Ripped straight from a skin flick, the track has no known title and sounds as if it's cut short, but ...

patrick cowley - unknown

this is not a christmas song

Some people think it's a Christmas song, while others feel it on a whole other level. Either way it is a seriously uplifting beauty, designed to raise the spirits of even the most jaded individual. Chuck Mangione's 'Land Of Make Believe' featuring Esther Satterfield is a serious groover that got rolled out regularly at David Mancuso's Loft parties. Makes you feel like anything is possible... maybe it was the acid...  Edit: i got a message from a regular at Mancuso's Loft who says that while the man has definitely played the track, he'd never actually heard it played at the original Loft... there is a mythical story that he opened a set in Japan with the track while appearing in a cloud of smoke... the legend continues....

chuck mangione - land of make believe

Dom B Sensi

Jupiter Tuning Center have featured a great deal on these here pages in the past, Frank is one of my favourite remix, re-edit, cut n paste, and all round messin' with the blessin' Kings of sound. Of course he also runs a very fine digging spot in Berlin for those in the know. As a New Years pressie the man, under his Dom G Sensi guise, dropped this killer slice of deepness, a re-fiddle of Astral Travel's homage to Harry Whitaker... Grab it!!

beat around the bush

It's no secret i'm a huge fan of library records. I often find myself in a cold sweat when i think about particular labels and particular artists who frequently appeared on these sorts of records. That said i dont own nearly as many as some of the guys i've seen on Crate Diggers.. that also gets me in a cold sweat. A n y w a y... one i've been after for sometime is by Roots on the Music de Wolfe label from 1982, an album that goes by the name of 'Pussyfooting'. The record is a very Funky Disco type affair with lots of Piano and Brass all over it (not usually my favourites). Being that the music here was designed for TV use, the band visit a bunch of typically cliched scenarios; Spain, a casino, the cliff's edge and of course a nightclub. A lot of it sounds like a proto Shakatack and is pretty damned cheesy. As is often the case though, the record conceals a couple of moments (3 in fact) that transcend it's original purpose and is the reason desire to own and play it occurs in the first place... Disco on a Saturday night then...

roots - party people

aicelis

Roland Haynes' only solo album '2nd Wave', came out on Black Jazz Records in 1975. The competition for keyboardists was heavy; Bob James had released his second album and Herbie Hancock produced 4 albums in the same year. Joe Zawinul, Ramsey Lewis and Chic Corea were all on the scene too. It explains to some degree why he is lesser known. Though the album confirms his formidable talent, it lacks the kind of easy radio friendly hooks that James brought to play, or the innovation that Herbie has in abundance. '2nd Wave' is mostly fast paced Jazz and Funk played out with lush organic Rhodes keys, it's dense and warm production lend it a spiritual feel that's common on all Black Jazz releases... that said, i usually only play the one track from the album, here's why... more late night bliss for your soul...

roland haynes - aicelis

blue time

Anyone with a spare copy of German fusion band Ex Ovo Pro's album 'Dance Lunatic', please feel free to send it to anoe headquarters when u have a moment... If you've heard their first album and not had a chance to hear this their second, you'll find they hardly sound like the same band. According to a reviewer on Discogs, the late 70's Fusion scene in Germany was all about finding the latest hybrids and sounds, and in their search to remain amongst the avant garde Ex Ovo moved away from their Krautrock roots and changed up to some easy listening, spacey library record styled maneuvers. I'm sure many of their fans struggled to take their new direction seriously at the time; the same reviewer offers that 'many will find this record a hoot', because of it's 'funky grooves and wonky moog synth leads'. For me that just makes it special and definitely one to find. While a lot of the album falls deeply into fusion noodle soup, the Disco tinged title track, as well as the album closer 'Blue Time' get right under my skin. so... some very late nite lovin' for your ears...

ex ovo pro - blue time

new ears...

Well there goes 2014. And though I'm happy to see the back of it, this was a very fine year for music... across the board. It was also one of the most frustrating years ever, in terms of local Post Office strikes here in SA. I lost multiple packages with Records in them which cost me pride and pounds and a few bills from a local psyche dr who couldnt help me with recurring day and night mares. Loosing records is a particular kind of angst, a kind of cloying black hole of confusion and loss. 

Also Another Night On Earth has been shoddier than ever... resulting in perpetual boomerang questions colliding in my late night minds... like Do people even visit these kinds of sites anymore ? Grabbing a single song or an edit from a download is antiquated no ? No one has time for this shit anymore, right ? And the truth is there are really decent sites like Test Pressing and LWE and and and, that do an excellent job of spreading the word about quality sounds both new and old. Better than i could if i had the time.

So anyway, I resolve to continue digging for beats and occasionally dropping some here, I resolve to continue bugging dj's of consequence to record mixes for the site and i resolve to never forget the once heady days of anoe.... a site i love... Happy New Ears men and woman of the night....

teisco - white gladiator

Paqua - Akaliko

Paul 'Mudd' Murphy's Claremont 56 is such a class act, equally forward as it is backward looking, equally referential as it is original, and equally eclectic as it is precisely modern and sleek. It's a veritable haven for aging ravers, diggers and trainspotters, surfers and travellers, Harvey fans, bikers, Balearic dreamers, sunset aficionados and beards. The box set of tracks from their seminal 'Originals' series is one of the most exciting and desireable vinyl collections of overlooked gems in recent years, or ever... and it's a perfect example of the label's meticulous approach to substance and quality. The label is also, as i'm sure most of you already know, home to a host of exceptional music makers that include Bison, Alumnia, Torn Sail, Paqua and even a recent Hulger Czukay project... amongst others. But ok, this post isn't really about Claremont 56, instead it's about the first full length from Paqua entitled 'Akaliko', a Budhist word that means 'timeless', released on the label some weeks back. Being well late on this review has given me time to really live with the record, to hear it in a number of situations and settings and i can honestly say it's a classic in every sense of the word.

For those that don't already know, Paqua is a cross continental collaboration between Paul Murphy (Akwaaba, Mudd, Bison, Claremont 56), Phenomenal Handclap Band's Quine Luke (aka Bing Ji Ling), Alex Searle, Groove Armada's percussionist Patrick Dawes and Patrick Wood, also from the Phenomenal Handclap Band. Joining them on a few of the albums tracks also is celloist Robin Lee, one half of Faze Action. That's practically some kind of underground supergroup right there... and the album is a testament to the combined talents present on the record.

'Akaliko' is a beast of a thing! 8 superb tracks that remind one of any number of Adult Oriented West Coast Yacht Rock golden moments from back in yer mum's day, familiar...  and yet fresh with the ocean spray of recent summers on the Dalmation coast. You could say it's the revivified sound of The Hollies Folk Disco on 'Draggin' My Heels' meets The Doors, CSN, Brian Auger, Batteaux... only it's made by young men who've undoubtedly lived through Acid House, Madchester and Balearica. The beats are funky and modern, the crisp and free jangle of their guitars reverberate with the sound of heady holidays on exotic shores, and with hot spots of psychedelic shimmering beauty liberally scattered about, 'Akaliko' is far less than a sum of it's inspirations and far more the fresh beginings of a well travelled, savvy, attuned and cosmically inclined crew. Everything about this album is deeply pleasing and as such is essential to own.

A limited edition 10" called 'The Dubs' also hit the stores a couple of weeks after the album came out. Ray Mang and the Idjut Boys take on 'The Visitor', my current favourite track from the LP, and both deliver extra warm and now also essential beauties. The Idjut's version just barely takes first prize with it's dubbed out extended play, a bit like staring at the sun.

Get either or both records here and here, or hunt them down in your favourite spot. Oh and keep a look out for a further remix double pack with Emperor Machine versions of 'Late Train'