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The Weekly Froth - November #3

  • Published in Columns

The Weekly Froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week:  ‘What’s Your Name’ by David Bowie (LNTG’s Hypnotizin funk remix)

How about a slow funker by mister Late Nite Tuff Guy? He knows how to do a nifty little edit like no other, and here he takes on Bowie’s delightful ‘Fame’. He starts out by slowing it down to a trotting pace, with first just that funky guitar bit, then coming with the bass, and then adding a downpour of ice cold utterances of “fame”, after which the bass and guitar take over again. And you don’t just get that funky guitar line, but he adds some of that solo guitar as well. The way this guy plays with all those guitar sounds is just amazing, using it for all sorts of things, and in the mean time that track just keeps on going in that slow funk. About 2:30 in you get the Bowie vocals like we know them from the original, and they juxtapose the soul that is in the funk so well. The vocals are still from that American soul era, but they still feel like fame has sucked the life out of it and put the mechanical in. After the vocal bits, again, that lovely interplay between the different guitar lines, not to mention the bass, and near the end he throws in another stretch of vocals with Bowie asking if it’s any wonder that he rejected all that fame at first. I always look forward to LNTG’s edits, and this is again a perfect reminder why.

 

 

 

‘TR 707’ by Dabuell feat. Holybrune

Are you kidding me with those vocals? That is just pure genius, right there. It just feels like one of those power R&B ballads from a couple of decades ago. It’s got the male and female vocal interplay, it’s got all kinds of throwback instrumentals, and it’s got this lovely slow pace that gives all of it plenty of time to come through the way it should be coming through. The title, likely, a nod to the TR 707 Roland, which I’m assuming was used to get some of those sounds in (and no wonder it sounds throwback in that case, as the TR 707 is from about the 80s I reckon). I like the fade out ending as well, with some piano thrown in there. It is just a lovely, old-school sounding pop track that hits all the right marks as far as I’m concerned.

 

 

 

‘Invisions’ by Luca C & Brigante feat. Roisin Murphy

The song starts out with a deep beat, but that’s immediately juxtaposed by a very light, bell-like sound. After that the track quickly veers more into dance pop territory, with that catchy, poppy synth that underscores Murphy’s vocals, which just about fit on top of everything. The second verse gets some extra oomph by a new bassline as well, and in the chorus Murphy gets all kinds of help. When the vocals come back in again there’s just this awesome stretch that just epitomizes catchiness to me, and that synth line just doesn’t let up. And rightfully so, if you’ve got something that works, ride it. And if you do need to bench it for just a moment, there’s no better sub to throw in there than that bassline. Which works in two ways, as the bass is deeper, and it gives you some extra variety. It is a nice, catchy track that mixes the dancefloor with a nice topping of pop vibes. Not sure where the entire track has gone to on SoundCloud, but here’s at least a BBC radio rip to get a bit of an idea.

 

 

 

‘Pick You Up’ by Lxury

This is really comes out of the gates with a bang, with the strong vocals immediately singing/shouting that “I’ve come to love you” on top of a house beat. So if that doesn’t get a track going, I don’t know what does. About forty seconds in Lxury reigns it all back a bit, going for an instrumental, synth-based web-o-atmosphere, after which he immediately dives into the dancefloor feel again with the vocals and some snappy, quick percussion dictating the pace. Floating underneath those two elements there’s still a dreamy synth line, though that one soon gets drowned out by the more straight-up house elements. After about two minutes in there’s again a little break in the action, but luckily a totally different one than the way he did it earlier on. So loads going on in the mere four minutes this track runs, and if you do it like this perhaps it’s a good thing that it doesn’t go on longer as that would definitely overdose anyone listening. But it sounds like a very modern approach to take some of the characteristics of house music and condense that into a 4-minute modern tune that can also (will primarily?) work outside of the club.

 

 

 

‘It’s All About You’ by Kim Ann Foxman

Kim Ann Foxman you might know as the jumping-jack on the Hercules And Love Affair stage, touring as a member of that troupe for their first couple of tours. Now she’s doing her own thing, and she is definitely leaning more towards the tech-house side of the spectrum. There are certainly vocals in there, but they are more haunting than soulful, and it’s definitely not vocal driven, with the tech sounds coming through in spades. And the girl knows her dance, that’s for sure, so this is one to get some of that late night clubbing done to. It ticks all the boxes, it’s got a danceable beat, it’s got the percussion, the synth for flavor, the vocals for good measure, and some extra sounds like that one at about 3:25 that adds some ownership to her sound. Not to mention she’s got the structure down pat, adding extra lines when needed, and coming with that quick, momentum building percussion to indicate a change is going to come. Just a well-executed dance track from Foxman, who has just started her own music brand that we will undoubtedly be hearing from in 2015, especially on the club side of things. Not one to water the club sounds down for radio play she is, from all I’ve heard coming from her thus far.

 

 

 

‘Holding On’ by James Fox (The Revenge remix)

I love the way the vocals start this one off, with a female voice saying that she doesn’t want to lose control. A nice, bassy synth line is slid underneath that, and you can already hear some percussion coming through, and after about a minute in you get this lovely beat. I love those drums, I really do, especially combined with that bass, it just has this awesome attitude and flavour. And The Revenge surely does know how to build it all up. The female vocals have moved into actual singing by this time, exclaiming that The love you had before, burns inside of you. The “don’t want to lose control” line is kind of tongue-in-cheek I reckon, as the whole thing about dancing is letting go of any control and rigidness, and they sure do their best to let you dance with those a-typical drums. The second part has some more lighter synth sounds, and I like the different ways the singer is using her vocals, adding something different every time she comes on. A lovely, layered track by The Revenge, which shines in terms of structure.

 

 

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Mick Rock - Exposed

  • Published in Books

For over four decades Mick Rock has been photographing the great and good of the music industry, as well as those not so famous, and the best of these images are now available in his new book. 

Rock is known as "The Man Who Shot The Seventies" mainly for his work with David Bowie, in his Ziggy Stardust days, along with classic shots of the late Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.

Many of these images are captured in Exposed and they paint a pretty graphic account of the hedonistic days when rock ’n’ roll was very much about doing everything to extremes. One image of Iggy Pop doing a backbend is, according to Rock, "the most rock and roll image".

However, Rock has included a number of images of models that show his ability to do straight-up studio work as well which disproves the claim made by some over the years that he was lucky and just in the right place at the right time. Not so - he clearly has an eye for a good image and happened to meet the right people, giving him access to some of the most recognisable faces in music history.

Muso’s Guide caught up with Rock at a book signing event for the paperback release of the book, which originally came out in 2010, in the Pretty Green store on London's Carnaby Street and times have definitely changed as Rock had nothing stronger than a large coffee from a well-known tax dodging outlet sitting next to him, "Yes things are different now, it's different times. I'm older but I still love it."

Asked how he settled on the selection of images in the book he said "I wanted a mixture showing the full range, a number of them are unseen before and, of course, there's the classics in there too." These days Rock has moved to digital as it's "easier" which means the modern images have lost some of that grainy and gritty appearance that is so typical of his older images.

Rock continues to expand his range of collaborations and his current one sees some of his most iconic images of Ziggy Stardust adorn a limited run of t-shirts produced by Pretty Green.

Palazzo Editions Ltd, ISBN-10: 0957148348, 256pp

Exposed is available from amazon.

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