God Save The Ing

...that is, if your thing is dancing, jigging, shaking or some other ing that involves moving, because the next hour and an a half is all about the beats. 

2023 has been a great year so far, musically speaking and as I hope this 14-track selection ably demonstrates. Several long-time favourites have returned with a vengeance: Cerrone, DJ Nature, A Man Called Adam and Four Tet; all delivering music as good as anything in their rich and varied catalogue. 

 

Others have done so in collaboration: Justin Robertson meets David Holmes' Unloved in the Temple Of Wonders; Telefís aka Cathal Coughlan (RIP) and Jacknife Lee holiday in Madrid with Howie B; Hifi Sean and David McAlmont take a dub excursion to another Happy Ending.

 

Some relatively recent discoveries continue to delight: Jezebell, Max Essa and Duncan Gray have all somehow managed to raise the bar with each successive release; how high can they go?

 

The rest are all artists that I've heard for the first time this year: Minus Yogis, Bárbara Boeing, Cee ElAssaad, DjClick and Masha Natanson; all very different, all worth further investigation.

Apart from Four Tet, I'm not sure if any of these artists will be troubling a stage at Glastonbury next week (though to be honest, my eyesight starting blurring after the tenth or eleventh scroll through the seemingly endless line-up page on their website). If they did though, I think they'd smash it.

 

1) A Part Of You (Club Mix): Cerrone

2) Follow Your Dreams: DJ Nature

3) Fruity Blues (Balearic Mix By Minus Yogis): Minus Yogis

4) It's Science Baby (Funkified): A Man Called Adam

5) Trading Places (6PM): Jezebell

6) Thrill Me (Justin Robertson's Temple Of Wonders Remix): Unloved

7) Short Haul: Duncan Gray

8) Beautiful (Hifi's Dub Excursion): Hifi Sean & David McAlmont

9) Baile Do Silêncio (Donald Dust Remix): Bárbara Boeing

10) Njalo (Full Length Version): Cee ElAssaad

11) Come Come The Rain (Club Mix): Max Essa ft. DC Mathias

12) Strawboy Supernova (Madrid Metal By Howie B): Telefís

13) Three Drums: Four Tet

14) 24022022 (Fluo Sobre RMX): DjClick & Masha Natanson

God Save The Ing (1:28:44) (Box) (Mega)

It's All Happening Here

Rounding off a spectacular week, I belatedly realised that I'd scheduled today's post for 7.30pm rather than 7.30am. Good grief.

Anyway, much later than intended but not too late to soundtrack the end of the weekend, here's a 45-minute selection of tunes that I've enjoyed so far this year. Not quite chilled out, the tempo is still relatively low, with a few dub inflections here and there and vocals dropping in and out.

Fitzroy Avenue by Warriors Of The Dystotheque comes with a slew of excellent remixes, which I've cruelly ignored here. Instead, I've laid Joe Duggan's isolated performance (a bonus track on the digital EP) over the opening minutes of Richard Norris' Spring - Alban Eilir 2 which, in it's original form, runs for a satisfying twenty minutes.

 

Andy Bell aka GLOK recently released a trio of remixes from his superb Pattern Recognition album. All three are very, very good as demonstrated by Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray's dubby rework of That Time Of Night. 

 

Next up is DjClick (born in France, based in Spain) and Masha Natanson (Poland), remixed by Transglobal Underground (based in London but without borders). DjClick's album Violins Against Bombs was released in 2022 and a remix companion came out at the beginning of April, available as a free download via Bandcamp.

 

I've recently enthused about Björk's remix of Shygirl and Más o Menos by Damian O'Neill, so they were a shoo in for this selection. I've gone for Kevin Sharkey's remix of the latter, which ups the Ennio Morricone vibe and mixes in a bit of a Mo' Wax vibe.

 

Emily Breeze is another favourite here. Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl is a highlight of her current album Rapture. Bristol legends Grant Marshall and Stew Jackson - better known as Daddy G and Robot Club respectively - transform the song whilst losing none of it's narrative thrust.

 

Things come to an end as they must with the aptly titled At The Turning Of The Tide, from another Dubhed regular, 10:40 aka Jesse Fahnestock. 10:40's album Transition Theory has been on regular rotation and I feel just as strongly now as I did when it came out in February. If you haven't bought this album already, then you really should. Right now.

 

As it's another day at the grindstone tomorrow, normal service (and scheduling) will resume.

 

1) Spring - Alban Eilir 2 (Edit): Richard Norris

1.1) Fitzroy Avenue (No Effects Vox): Warriors Of The Dystotheque ft. Joe Duggan 

2) That Time Of Night (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown Dub): GLOK ft. Shiarra

3) Rusalkas (Transglobal Underground RMX): DjClick & Masha Natanson

4) Woe (I See It From Your Side) (Björk Remix): Shygirl

5) Más o Menos (Kevin Sharkey Remix): Damian O'Neill

6) Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl (Daddy G vs Robot Club Remix By Grant Marshall & Stew Jackson): Emily Breeze

7) At The Turning Of The Tide: 10:40 ft. Emilia Harmony & Matt Gunn) 

 

It's All Happening Here (44:51) (Box) (Mega)