RC 240: Mexican Monkey 40th Birthday Party!

It was my 40th birthday a few weeks ago and I’ve just about recovered. There was alcohol, there were cards, there were long beards, thou shalt always BBQ, the cake was not a lie, there was mexican monkeys – wait, what? Well maybe not Mexican Monkeys, the new track from Daft Punk. Well not that new, it’s been #1 for like 3 weeks. Current, eh?

And yes we go from Handel to hiphop, shoegaze to sixties, electro to eclectic, bootlegs to booty-shaking bears!

I also went to see Low and Handel’s Giulio Cesare (NOT at the same time, although I suspect they would be compatible) and saw Book of Mormon…and generally and gently ruminated about the nature of life, and being 40.

Mid-life Crisis? Or Mid-life Crisis 2: Opposing Gravity? (1:33 / 96Mb)

  • Daft Punk – Get Lucky (uAnimals Remix)
  • Beartraxx – Remember The Digital Love (Michael Jackson vs. Daft Punk)
  • John Grant – Ernest Borgnine
  • Manu Chao – Clandestino (DJ Yamin Remix)
  • Björk – Crystalline (Omar Souleyman Remix)
  • Dusty Springfield – Don’t Forget About Me (Mono version)
  • Snoop Dogg – Wet
  • Tony Banks – Bears Like Me
  • Twilight 22 – Electric Kingdom
  • The Knife – Stay Out Of Here
  • Seafood – I Dreamt We Ruled the Sun
  • Flying White Dots – The California Show
  • Marianne Faithfull – Beware of Darkness
  • Low – To Our Knees
  • Natalie Dessay, Emmanuelle Haïm & Le Concert d’Astrée – Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17: Atto Secondo – Scene 8: Se pietà di me non senti

RC 239: Afro-Arab Part One – Cellphones & Icecream

Recently I’ve been checking out what has been called Electro Chaabi (or Cha’abi/Shaaby/Cha3by/mahragan aka ‘festival music’), the new-ish underground hiphop/pop music in Egypt, which led me back to the show I planned after going to Egypt and South Africa in 2011. In fact this music wasn’t new to me, it was all over Egypt blasting from the shops and phone places off a laptop. My queries where to get it or buy it were met with baffled looks and the response ‘mp3!’ and even 2 years later still it’s underground, not played on the local radio and usually performed live or traded in MP3s.

I had to make do with some rather too-shiny and western-style Egyptian pop music, and some local South African house/electro music usually hiked up to silly prices cos I was a tourist. I wasn’t really happy with it, hence not doing the show then.

But when I read the Quietus articles about the scene it also lead me to the Congo via Konono Nº1, Omar Souleyman and back to Sahelsounds who I originally planned to play some of ‘Music from Saharan Cellphones Vol 1‘ back then, but Vol 2 and some other compilations such as Nigerian Bollywood music have been released, and it makes for a much more interesting 2-part show!

So follow me from the Middle East to Africa, the Egypt to Syria, to Nigeria to Mali and South Africa…

Leave Your Camel After The Tone (1:01, 62Mb)

  • Amadou & Mariam – La Réalité
  • ? – Saraa
  • Elbab – Elgedeed4
  • Konono Nº1 – Paradiso
  • D’Banj – Oliver Twist
  • Omar Souleyman – Dazeitlak Dezzelli
  • Mai Dawayya – Ololufemi
  • Hakim – Telefon Zoghayar
  • Amadou & Mariam – Sabali (Vitalic Remix Radio Edit)
  • Soweto Stokvel Septette – Ice Cream and Suckers No 2
  • Sunny Ade & His African Beat – Ja Fun Mi (Instrumental)
  • ? – Friday (from Music from Saharan Cellphones: Volume 2)

(photo was taken just by Tahrir Square, November 2011)

RC 238: The Witch Is Dead

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead! Munchkins Uprise! And Party!

Recorded last week, somehow I think Thatcher’s funeral has just slipped off the agenda *sigh*. We’re still paying £8-10 Million for it though, and 60% or more people in the UK think that’s a waste of money…which in supposed austerity, it is. But strange how we seemed in a week to have devolved to the 1980′s – football hooliganism, division, and now bombings. What next, the mullet makes a comeback?

This Lady Is For Burning (1:52, 115Mb)

  • Ban This Sick Filth – DINGDONGMOTHERFUCKER
  • Pete Wylie – The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies
  • Big Black Delta – IFUCKINGLOVEYOU
  • Ty – Like You Never
  • The Blow Monkeys – Digging Your Scene
  • Valerie Claire – I’m A Model
  • Al McCall – Hard Times (Original 12′ Mix)
  • V.I.M. – Maggies Last Party (Club Mix)
  • Benelux And Nancy Dee – Switch (Original 12′ Mix)
  • Freeez – Southern Freeez (Original 12” Single Version)
  • Ranking Ann – Feminine Gender
  • The Beat – Stand Down Margaret
  • Massive Attack – Better Things
  • UB40 – Madam Medusa
  • Glenda Jackson – Speech about Margaret Thatcher
  • Holly Herndon – Movement
  • christ. – Animus (Feat. David Mcgeorge)
  • Tracey Thorn – King’s Cross
  • Sinead O’Connor – Black Boys On Mopeds
  • Big Black Delta – Dreary Moon

RC 237: Pop is Dead 2 – Arseholes & Repetoire

Finally after over a year (!) the second part of the Pop Is Dead series. I promise to be more, well, quicker with the other parts…

This one is about two of our favourite people, the eternally dodgy A&R man and the usually shady manager.

Arista say they “love you but the kids can’t dance to it” (1:35, 90Mb)

  • The Alchemist – Industry Rule 4080 (Interlude)
  • Dale Wright – That’s Show Biz
  • XTC – Funk Pop A Roll
  • Bill Hicks – Satan Starmaker
  • Crumb – Record Company
  • Kitkat Band – Alien invasion
  • The Fall – Clasp Hands
  • Nick Lowe – I Love My Label
  • Stan Freberg – The Old Payola Roll Blues
  • The Kinks – Denmark Street
  • My Drug Hell – It’s good, but…
  • Gruppo Sportivo – I shot my manager
  • Stark Effect – The Beating Goes On
  • Sound of Sha’Bass – Take It Or Leave It
  • E40 – Record Company (Skit)
  • Sage Francis – Underground For Dummies
  • Jesus And Mary Chain – Write Record Release Blues
  • The Brakes – Heard About Your Band
  • Bruce Haack – Play Me Your Album
  • The Clash – Midnight To Stevens
  • The Sex Pistols – EMI (Orch.)
  • The Bonzo Dog Band – The Bride Stripped Bare by “Bachelors”