It’s the end of an era over at firemusic with Disco Jesus release the final in his epic, and much loved, mix series. As he ventures to unconfirmed (but potentially very exciting) pastures neu-we are left with a classic selection of un-disco-vered gems and ‘only he could get away with this’ epics.

As usual it’s all mixed live and (for extra analog kudos) recorded on c90 (before being EQ’d in the basilika mixing desk). There’s no track listing, but this bio should give you all the info you need;

Psych, synth, left-coast, late-night sleaze with a sprinkling of stoner rock
and underground electro - Disco Jesus weaves another mix of his distinctly
personal take on the underbelly of late 70s/early 80s European
disco-inflected sounds: progressive gems with a classic quality that still
feel fresh today!

It’s been an education.

Disco Jesus-Papillon

To be frank I’m a little Prince-d out.  After a long summer gorging myself on concerts, aftershows and unreleased gems my purple-appetite was fully sated. More than that, what with it being the a full 20 years since his last decent album, the long standing rumours (and evidence) of unmetered control-freakery and those ‘PR friendly’ lawsuits against his own fans perhaps it is time to get some perspective.

Next week sees the release of Controversy A Tribute to Prince a collection of hit and miss cover versions. It’s an interesting selection, highlighting the complex relationship between song and songwriter and providing a useful insight into the influence of Prince’s persona has the music he makes.

There is obviously a fare amount of rubbish. It’s probably not in the best interests of most  musicians to invite direct comparisons with someone as gifted a Prince. It’s certainly hasn’t made me think any more of Blue States and Peaches who bring nothing to limp versions of Alphabet St and Sexy Dancer respectively, but elsewhere quality prevails. D’Angelo brings his voodoo funk to the lesser known ‘She’s always in my Hair’ and The Broadway Project’s version of ‘Dorothy Parker’ has been a long time favorite of mine (wasn’t it on another Prince cover version alvum ?)- both sound great. The Dynamic bring their patented ’surprising reggae cover version’ schtick to ‘Girls  and Boys’ *cough*one trick pony*cough* and Rob Mello does a version of Critical (??) which really wants to be Moodymann’s majestic ‘U Can Dance if you want 2′ ,but clearly isn’t.

Best of the bunch is Susanna and The Magical Orchestra’s take on ‘Around the World in a Day’s’ classic slow-y ‘Condition of the Heart’. Stripping away the psychedelic flourishes and the freaky Prince touches to reveal an intimate and melancholy love song, Susanna takes the song back to it’s wendy & lisa penned (?) origins. It’s a song that works better the more it reveals. Something Prince spends most of his time trying not to do.

You can hear it here.

Susanna and The Magical Orchestra-Condition of the Heart

amazing! and proof, if any were needed, that south central is the place to be.

via kottke

It’s about you don’t say as much as what you do

via coudal

some helpful perspective

Via somekind of rare astral alignment, the subject of today’s post and the track I’m most into are perfectly suited for each other. Usually, either we write something then search for the appropriate soundtrack or we are so excited by a track that the text is just an expression of love for that particular bit of music. Today, therefore, is like some one-in-a-million meta-post, words and music in perfect harmony.

It’s also the day after ‘the keynote’, our seasonal excuse to appreciate all infinite loop has to offer.As stephen fry has so sagely noted, apple seems to have the uncanny ability to engineer products of such functional and aesthetic beauty that they provoke an almost emotional response. It’s this reaction that is the cause of such extreme opinions of mac products.

There is a whole beige world out there that can’t understand why people act the way they do about mac and the arguments almost always boil down to the irrationality of it all. Why someone would pay extra for something that is even slightly intangible, can’t be benchmarked and serves a seemingly ‘higher’ set of needs.

I read today at the bottom of a huge argument over why the macbook air was doomed fail/ guaranteed to succeed, one woman write that she wanted to buy one because she knew that everyday she would open it up and smile at owning something so beautiful.

It’s hard thing to put a price on.

Not for me, I still cling to my reason to save me from heartfelt overspending, but a powerful thing to argue against.

Oh and that track-just one letter from absolutely nailing it.

Kenny Dope-Air Mac(k)s

Bad artists copy. Great artists steal

a message from the tribe-a radical approach to running a label and some amazing music-bout time someone blew the dust this model of creative collaboration.