Thursday 30 July 2009

Zachary - In Control

Wow, great new house music alert, 'Evolution Pro' on side A feels like a candidate for tune of the year! Buy one here, limited edition and vinyl only, apparently.

Wednesday 29 July 2009

The Carstairs - It Really Hurts Me Girl



Fascinating thread over there at the DJ history forum discussing the legendary Blackpool Mecca, centred on the memories of Ian Dewhirst and other DJs. Well worth a read, especially Ian's tales of digging in America in the early 70s. If only ...

The 'Out On The Floor' compilation on Inferno was my introduction to this tune as a wee London mod, in 1979.

T-Coy - Carino

I THINK this was the highlight of Todd Terje's set at East Village ... memory is a little hazy. It was a great night with Stuart Patterson and Todd playing deep, high quality house and the Lovebox crew dropping disco in the bar. In any case, here is a ground-breaking British release from 1987 sounding ridiculously basic today but revolutionary at the time and still a fantastic groove. Sorry for the crackles.

Friday 24 July 2009

Shit Robot - Simple Things (Todd Terje Remix)

Todd Terje riding high with a great remix of Shit Robot, out now on DFA so buy it here. Serge Santiago has turned in his own brilliant take on the same tune, available on a separate 12" here. Wonder what Todd will play tonight at East Village?

Keep Love Alive Top Five Todd Terje Moments:

1. Camino del Sol (remix) - Antena
2. Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes (re-edit) - Paul Simon
3. Another Station (TT mix) - Lindstrom
4. Balearic Incarnaton (remix) - Dolle Jolle (TT remix)
5. Plastik (remix)- Simon Baker




Thursday 23 July 2009

Dennis Parker - Like An Eagle



Todd Terje at East Village, London tomorrow night, woohoo! Here's a favourite of the Norwegian disco dude, 'Like An Eagle' by Dennis Parker. Mr. Parker was apparently a porn star in the 70s (well of course, with that 'tache!) who caught AIDS then blew his brains out with a shotgun. Great video!

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Visual - The Music Got Me

Electronic dance music perfection from 1983. A monstrous, murky bassline and fizzing hats support a typically "Garage" sounding vocal. Produced by Boyd Jarvis and Timmy Regisford, both still making great music today, and mixed by Tony Humphries with a mighty dub on the flip. Here is the vocal, a Keep Love Alive spin for, oh dear, more than 20 years now.

Monday 20 July 2009

Sandy Mercer - Give Me Your Love

Funky boogie track with great drum breaks. Seem to remember the instrumental getting played by people like Trevor 'Madhatters' Nelson and Soul II Soul but the vocal is pretty cool.

Sunday 19 July 2009

Saturday 18 July 2009

Thursday 16 July 2009

Mr. Fingers - What About This Love

Timeless, mellow music from the legend Larry Heard. Simply beautiful, an end of night favourite.

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Toby Tobias - Space Shuffle (remixes)

New vinyl additions to the Keep Love Alive collection are more and more rare these days (mostly downloads now, ssshh) so here is a round up of 2009 so far. Toby Tobias' Space Shuffle was one of the best albums of 2008 and here is a great batch of remixes. While Tensnake are deservedly getting lots of attention right now the winner is Dave Ellesmere's mix of Schoon, a no-nonsense house track for big bassbins. Tough skippy drums with all the right repetitive stab sounds that I'd love to hear played at the little Secret Sundaze wood at Love Box although I'm sadly not going this year, boo. Buy one here and perhaps you too could enjoy a 'head pressed to the speaker stack in the living room' moment soon.

Meanderthals - Andromeda (Idjut Boys mix)

What do you get when you cross the UK's finest proponenets of deep and laid back electronic sounds ...

... with one of Norway's finest proponents of deep and laid back electronic sounds?

You guessed it.

Dan and Conrad team up with Rune (see previous post) for an album as the Meanderthals and what you get is all pretty chilled. This remix is hardly uptempo but there's something about the heavy drums and tribal sounding percussion that reminds me of Soul II Soul at the Africa Centre (circa 1986??) So classic sounding dance music that deserves to be rumbling on a big sound system stack somewhere this summer. Buy it here

Rune Lindbaek - Bonat Synthesiser

Rune is a leading light of the Norwegian nu-balearic-cosmic-call it whatever scene, though apperas to be much less prolific than fellow Scandinavians such as Lindstrom, who is a collaborator here. A collection of brilliantly wonky, wierd, squelchy nu-balearic-cosmic-sounds where even the most 'up' moment on 'Nautilus' is still pretty laid back. Check it here

House of House - Rushing to Paradise

Expensive but worth the investment, these Whatever We Want releases seem to be pressed in limited quantities. This is the best of the bunch so far for me, a steadily building, deep house track that exlodes with a rousing vocal and piano finish. Seems to be sold out from the places I normally shop ...

The Doves - Kingdom of Rust (Prins Thomas mix)

More from the bearded Scando-house mafia. A decent Doves outing gets a folky, funky, electronic makeover from Prins Thomas and backed with a great Still Going remix too. Worth tracking down.