Cobolt Carbon Potassium (hehe)

Awwww this Yasuko Agawa tune is such a dream, I love everything about it. The magnificent vibraphone pattering away, the Steely Dan-esque backing vocals, Yasuko's swooning singing, the hyper-tight rhythm section... This song is a total winner. That'll do.

Yasuko Agawa - L.A. Nights

Been giving the Almunia album a thorough workout and it's just as fine as I hoped and expected it would be. It slots into the Claremont 56 catalogue perfectly - you've got the slow-mo disco element, the gentle psychedelic vibe, plenty of warm melodious lead guitars with beautiful analogue synths providing the bedding. This track is one of my favourites - it's a bit bolder with percussion and drums sitting at the forefront driving things along, but it's still got the well crafted mesh of harmonies that makes the music so comfortable to listen to. Everything on the album is superbly arranged - carefully and patiently thought out. Quality.

Almunia - Moving Up Slowly [buy]

More cruisiness here in the form of a real fine AN-2 & Samos remix of a russian band called Pompeya. Well not a great deal has been done to the original song really, aside from cutting the lead vocals and padding things out with some tasty synths it's fairly similar. Still, this is the one for me. Perfect for an afternoon recline session. With just the backing 'oooh' vocals remaining I feel rather soothed and content with this spinning, wakka wakka guitars going about their business, bass plodding along. The other remixes are rather nice as well, this is definitely a solid record.

Pompeya - Cheenese (AN-2 & Samos Instrumental Mix) [buy]

Although this Futurism sampler record is pretty cheesy, the PBR Streetgang James Brown rework is fairly awesome. It really makes me think of something Theo Parrish would play - with all the hard filtering going on I can picture him doing his usual act of going bezerk on the EQ, and it's great! Properly thumping stuff, it's a whole heap of fun to play. Yeah that's pretty much it.

PBR Streetgang - J2ThaB [buy]

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND HEY?

Radio Shack

Oh boy, it's been an agonising week of having my net capped. Finally back in action...

I think I've forgotten how to blog. Let me see... This song by San Serac is really cool, I like it a lot. It is cute and funky and 80s-ish and stuff. It's from this groovy little release with a fab Morgan Geist remix. That is all.

San Serac - Night Works [buy]

OK I think i've got the hang of this now. The marvelous Rove Dogs has started this really hip edits little edits label, Small Time Cuts. Really digging this edit a big 80s Topo & Roby burner done by Get A Room! - a collaberation between Rove himself and Jeff Larson. Plenty of tasty reverb drenched powerdrums, grunty vocals and a nice thick bedding of deep analogue synth dickery. He's a man with a plan, really looking forward to seeing how this label pans out.

Get A Room! - Under the Vice [buy]

Mmm, all this 80s stuff is way too contemporary bro. Tirk have strangely, but welcomely, released a cool little remix EP of Space's first single Carry On, Turn Me On. The remixes mostly, like the original, have quite a light poppy air which isn't so common with most of the band's stuff that follwed, but it's certainly nice and refreshing. I reckon the AN-2 remix is the most interesting and offers the biggest change to the original, turning it into an tight and funky 11-minute low budget space odyssey - picture a charmingly crude papier-mâché star cruiser chilling in a plasticine galaxy. Soulful and adorable!

Space - Carry On, Turn Me On (AN-2 Remix) [buy]

Future Classic's delightful Après vinyl series is nearing release number four by Lithuanian producer Mario Basanov. Following a toy space gun shootout groove from Loin Brothers, a truly mixed bag of artists and [insert prefix]-house sounds on the second 12" and some indie influences from the likes of Sidwho? and Clubfeet more recently, Après 4 boasts a very fine simple-and-effective slow-mo synthy sorta house with some killer remixes from Downtown Party Network and 6th Borough. This remix is certainly not in any hurry to reach its destination - recommended lazy Sunday listening. Coming soon!

Mario Basanov - Do You Remember (6th Borough Vocal Mix)

Auckland cats - come to Cassette9 next Saturday (the 12th) as I'll be popping over to play a record or two and drink a beer or eighteen. Got some great records on the way so stay tuned!