Fresh Eyes

(Assorted works of Athanasius Kircher 1602-80)

Ma Dove, Oh Lasso Me – Monteverdi Madrigals Book 3 (Delitiae Musicae & Marco Longhini)

Missa Papae Marcelli: I. Kyrie – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Jeremy Summerly, Oxford Camerata & Scholar Cantorum of Oxford)

Das Modell/The Model

A friend once told me that Kraftwerk were so anal about their recording conditions that the phone in their studio had no ring. If you wanted to call them you had to arrange a very precise time and they would agree to pick up the receiver when that time struck. Hopefully when they picked up you would be on the other side of the line. Why they didn’t just call you when they had time is not clear, but one can only assume that they had considered such an option and concluded that it was unsatisfactory.

Overproof Soundsystem supplied a superb dubby remix to Das Modell that came out on 12″ a couple of years back. Thankfully they gave the lyrics a little bit of an overhaul as the original ones have the charm of a pair of nine years olds dutty whining in the drum n bass tent.

The Model – Overproof Soundsystem

The Piano Never Cries

Overnight – Gonzales
Metamorphosis: Part Two – Philip Glass
Chopin Nocturne in C Sharp Minor performed by Fou Ts’ong

Imagining Imagination

Imagination formed in 1981 and left us with a lot of lush disco-soul to enjoy on our hi-fis. Arguably the best thing to ever come out of Dalston they were well-known back in their zenith for their esoteric album sleeve notes and Top of the Pops appearances in ostentatious dress. Erol Kennedy the drummer from the band still resides in London and plays cover songs at weddings.

Changes (Larry Levan Mix) – Imagination
Flashback – Imagination
Just An Illusion – Imagination
In and Out of Love – Imagination

And a word from the boys themselves on the sleeve notes of a “Best Of…”

Cool and clear – gliding through Oceans of Mist – swooping down from heavens – speeding into barries of sound – smooth, silky, seductive – the meeting of the minds. We became one with our first album. We went through changes on our second. Together we find ourselves in a new dimension...

(Potential) Nightclubbing: Liverpool

Nina Fischer & Moroan el Sian Phantom Clubs, 1999

Nightclubbing: Berlin (Mitte)

Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani Phantom Clubs, 1997

Turning Turk

One of the most striking features of the two neighbourhoods I have lived in the last two years is their large Turkish communities. In fact, I can proudly claim to have lived in the two areas that have the largest Turkish populations outside of Turkey. For those who don’t know that’s Kreuzberg, Berlin and Haringey, London. I’m unexceptional in that the most obvious way in which Turkey impinges on my urban existence is via its food. In this way I’ve been spoiled. Even though I haven’t experienced the true spectrum of authentic Turkish cuisine in my regular visits to budget Turkish eateries, I reckon I’ve got a pretty good idea when it comes to what’s good for your few Euros/Quid. I don’t usually like to give “city tips” on this blog, as the idea of writing something akin to a travel blog premised on a young Brit going to Berlin and having a good time is abhorrent to me, but I’ll briefly transgress my own standards of dignity anyway.

The best Döner in the world ever can be eaten at Hisar, Yorckstraße, Berlin.
The best Sish in the world can be eaten  at Antepliler, Harringay, London.

Back to the music… I’m usually too busy deafening myself with a regular kick drum to pay much attention to any enticing sounds that might be floating out of neighboring flats or houses, so the musical dimension to Turkish culture has tended to pass me by.  However a good friend of mine turned me on to a gloriously fresh mix the other day of psychedelic Turkish funk, which I’m hoping is going to be the starting point for some new exciting music hunting. Obviously it’s not fresh fresh as the tracks I believe have been kicking round for a good thirty or forty years, but it’s fresh in the sense that it’s very good or fly or of a high quality or something like that. Mixcloud is on the goods again for this one…

Psych Turkish Funk Pt. 1 by Karriem Diggins

Eat.Work.Whale.Music

I once saw a rather tired looking man in HMV with about twenty “chill out” compilations under his arm. I think they were mostly from Ministry of Sound and had dramatic sunsets in soft tones on the front. If he’d happened to ask me for one though, this is what I would have prescribed him…

DOWNLOAD EAT.WORK.WHALE.MUSIC
or STREAM ON MIXCLOUD

1. Winning A Battle, Losing The War – Minizza
2. Ready (Herbert’s Steady Dub) – Charles Webster
3. Tomorrow – Superpitcher
4. Carry On – Woolfy vs Projections
5. This Sweet Love (Prins Thomas Sneaky Edit) – James Yuill
6. What Did He Say – Nite Jewel
7. Out West – Eliot Lipp
8. Strings Of Life – Francesco Tristano
9. Wenn Musik Der Liebe Nahrung Ist – Markus Guentner

Thanks to Frankfurt Kunsang and Major Lucy for some tune donation.

Best Of The Cloud

Mixcloud has been here for the chosen few for a while but it’s recently opened its gates to all. It’s a site run by Nico Perez and fellow Man Making Music Nikhil Shah. It’s a mix hosting site, with a simple interface that has in recent months managed to attract an unrivaled quality of DJ mixes.

Highly recommended for those who want to push a little selection they’ve put together as well as those who just want to keep abreast of what others are playing. I’ve picked out a few Mixcloud highlights that should serve as a good starting point for anyone who likes the stuff on this blog…

Ben UFO Mix for Ruffage

Great example of that energetic, plosive blend of garage and dubstep that Ben has become known for.

Fresh Meat’s Super Mega Blast Mix

Techno and house to warm the soul from Berlin’s Mitte Institute.

Erol Alkan Disco 3000 Part 2

The first part of this mix series was posted on this blog a while back. Amazing selection of hard-to-find disco cuts.

Allez-Allez Sounds Amazing Mix

Short mix of a variety of ethereal tones from the boys who never seem to put a foot wrong.

Rub44 by The Rub

44 records in 70 minutes.

—–

photo by Lizzy of a rainy night in Berlin

Juice Shop 001

Learning German isn’t easy for me. I’ve lived in Berlin for a year now and feel about as apt in German as a sixteen year old who just scraped a pass in his GCSE German exam. For all the non-Brits reading this, that’s crap. In rough terms this means I have the same mastery over the German language as a slightly stupid three year old does over his mother tongue. Admittedly my vocabulary is concentrated in odd areas for a toddler, but my knowledge of basic sentence structure, or lack thereof, means that I am limited to expressing only the most basic things.

I’m not proud of this. England’s dominance in linguistic terms is more extensive and far reaching that its empire ever was, and it seems to inadvertently render those who only speak English as chauvinist, colonial has-beens.  Us English speaking mono-linguists are perceived as reveling in the idea that we never need learn anything about another culture; only we need do is impose our will and we’ll be fine! But of course, unlike the good old days, when people really did bow to British intimidation and colonial oppression, the picture now isn’t so rosy. Most young Brits must have experienced this, intruding on a conversation amongst people whose first-language isn’t English and on your arrival them effortlessly switching to English. Here the act seems closer to an act of pity than of submission.

Despite the fact that the learning experience has been slow, and occasionally painful, it has, for the most part, been enjoyable. I like the sound of the German language. I like its esoteric grammar and its odd austerity. But perhaps what is most exotic in German to the English speaker is its directness. This directness can clearly is clearly exhibited by German nouns. Why have a plethora of different basic nouns for things that exhibit roughly the same physical properties? Take the English word “nipple” for example. In German the word is Brustwarze – which I guess literally means breast wart. I mean call a spade a spade. We can continue in this vein. The word for that bumpy area around the nipple  (does it have a name in English?) is of course very aptly called the Warzenhof – literally wart-yard or even wart-court! Why not? We can continue with anatomical examples of German directness and turn to the word Schwanz. The English translation for this is tail, and I’ll leave it as homework to work out what else its commonly used to refer to.

Anyway this long-winded post that’s turned more in to a confessional diary of modern mono-linguist was initially just meant to be about my new mix. It’s more German than most I’ve done before – lots of lovely austere and moody tech-house and it’s called Juice Shop. A juice shop in German is Saftladen, and is used colloquially to refer to a place as a dump. I think the rationale behind this is that you’re saying this place whould barely be capable of serving a bit of squashed orange even if it tried! Perhaps not the German language at its most direct, but just another wonderful facet of that slippery beast that I doubt I’ll ever master.

So here it is… (right click below to download)

JUICE SHOP 001

1. Don’t Give Up (Bodycode Remix) – Portable

2. Eclipse – Onur Ozer

3. Rituality – Dj T.

4. This Used To Be Our Playground – Concolor

5. Isolate (Sebo K Remix) – GummiHz

6. Kleine Nachtmusik – Stimming

7. Over The Top Of My Shoulder – Anthony Collins

8. Raid A La Joya – Rebolledo

9. Roberta Flack (Martyn Remix) – Flying Lotus

10. Ruptured (Surgeon Remix) – Scuba

11. Life Soundstrack feat. Dj Bone – Deetron

12. Pacey Lynn – Marcus Meinhardt

13. Kitch In – Tim Green

14. Pina Colada – Jr. Rodriguez

It’s can also be streamed from my profile on the lovely Mixcloud which is rightly getting a lot of heat at the moment and is more than worth quick a visit.