Andria Lisle, looks at Memphis’ incredible musical legacy in today’s Guardian.

As the legend goes, if you plant your pocket change on the silty banks of the lower Mississippi River, copper and silver trees will spring up overnight. Maybe that’s not entirely true - but what Memphis, Tennessee lacks in monetary riches has, in musical wealth, been harvested a hundredfold.

It’s a great piece and especially poignant in light of Isaac Hayes’ recent passing.

I’d forgotten how much I loved his music till I listened to the Wattstax album again this week. During my first year of college, just getting into soul and funk in a serious way, one of my friends picked up a copy and we would listen to the Isaac Hayes section over and over (and over) again. Listening to it now, more than 10 years later, I still know all the changes, each note of the solos, it one of those records that has been aurally seared into my memory.

It’s a killer set and as close to the perfect example of live soul music as I’ve ever heard-amazing musicians playing the gig of their lives at the peak of their abilities. My only hope is that over time, Isac Hayes as ‘Chef’ and the easy media focus on ‘Theme from Shaft’ gives way to a better appreciation of his incredible contributions to popular music and that the Black Moses will keep leading us to back to the promised land of those halycon Memphis years.

For ever and ever.

Amen.

Isaac Hayes-Ain’t No Sunshine/Lonely Avenue (Live at WattStax)

Aint it Black, last night, was it’s usual explosive mix of eclectic music and up-for-it party crowd. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun deejaying, it’s like a massive, slightly mad house party.

The best thing about it, for me, is the people I’ve met. In a cynical and sometimes harsh city like London, it’s such a blessing to meet so many humble, generous and life affirming people (who love to party). Given that club culture can seem sometimes feel full of desperately self serving people, lacking any kind of integrity, constantly trying to hustle, Ain’t it Black is like some kind of tiny miracle.

Part of the night’s extended fam are an amazing Sarf London production crew going by the name of The Insomniax. They played live last month (and rocked it) and have just posted some serious edits on their myspace.

Check out their version of ‘Electric Feel’.

It’s all about that airhorn baby.

MGMT-Electric Feel(Insomniax mix)

There is a definite African flavour to this week’s Ain’t it Black Session, down at Favela Chic. Headlining are HOT Afro-Electro act Gazelle and there is added motherland pressure from Shrine deejay Rita Ray. To get you in the mood we are planning an special selection of African inspired music and posts this week.

(although events closer to home may well be intervening)

Either way here is a taster of what to expect on Wednesday night and hopefully there will be a whole selection of hl exclusives later in the week.

Gazelle-ShedidMein

image via

Back when we were younger, horse latitudes was full of plaintive love songs and mornfully, quixotic posts about things we couldn’t really express, let alone want to write about publically. Whilst I’m certainly grateful that the need to write that kind of post has passed, I sometimes miss the vibe.

This track by Emily Jane White takes me right back. It would have fit well into the mixtapes we used to send to each other, thick with conscious (and unconcious) subliminal messages that helping to alleviate (and highlight) the seemingly desperate waiting.

There’s more here and it all sounds amazingly fresh (especially to my 80s funk drowned ears).

It’s amazing how such a small bit of time can make past difficulties seem so distant as to be beautiful?

Emily Jane White-Wild Tigers I have Known

Damn! It’s all about Detroit this month. Fresh on the heels of innersound-boy jez’s killer ‘4am in Detroit‘ mix (one of my favorite mixes of the year) comes Brother Quaid’s seriously deep sci-fi soul adventure.

Mixing bladerunner sound fx with the soulful side of the motorcity and a whole host of new edits and versions from East London’s very own analog cylon. Or as the man himself puts it;

This is the re-imagined soundtrack to a Sci-Fi noir classic. One where
‘Deckard’ fronts a covert troupe of Replicant producers, searching for
their soul in the rain swept neon underground.

Also got to hear the first track from the forthcoming ‘Reflections on a Creations & Bass‘ lp this weekend-SICK!!!

Gonna be dropping it at ‘Ain’t it Black‘ on Wednesday if you’re local. (it’ll be the track with an enormous east london hiphop/synth freak vibe-and me & chris going nuts in the background)

In the meantime your Spinner awaits….

Joseph Quaid-Hand Raised By Robots

When we saw Grace Jones at the meltdown festival last month, this was the promo that opened the show. It managed to both half scare us to death and prove she still had her edge in four freaky minutes.

Maneater.

Manni’s blog ‘Those City Nights‘ is one of the best researched and consistently well written music blogs out there. The level of detail and work that goes into it, puts most blogs to shame.

Today there is a great interview with House pioneer Jesse Saunders who talks at length about the evolution of house from disco-it’s fascinating stuff;

So whenever I played, my first record on the turntable would be this bootleg ‘On & On’ record because that was like my signature tune. When I put that on, everybody knew that I was in the place because nobody else was playing that side but me, no one even knew what it was, and I wouldn’t tell anybody, even though there were a few people that had it. When I would go up on stage I would make sure that security cleared it so that no one would know what it was that I was playing. It was amazing to me that they hadn’t flipped that record over and found it themselves.

The bootleg, Mach’s ‘On & On’, was put together in Miami by a local Cuban club dj (hat-tip discomusic.com) but remained unloved till discovered retrosptively by music historians and deejays wanting to pay homage to the roots of house. DJ Rahaan certainly falls into the later category as the video above so vivdly illustrates, reminding us, if nothing else, that one man with ‘a b-side and a plan’ can change the course of music forever.

Gotta a lot of love for Blackjoy.

Both ‘Moustache’ and ‘Untitled’ got heavily caned back in the basilika love disco days.

I stumbled across their blog a few months back (probably via chris’ ever-heavy another night on earth blog) and it’s just the kind of thing I would love to see more of; artists using blogs to give out real quality unreleased edits and mixes.

To celebrate summertime they have released three Disco mixes to download.

So get busy people

And as a bonus here’s a snippet of an unreleased track I got from their myspace years ago (and have been known to loop up and filter to death)

Blackjoy-Anubis

My visits to the latitudes, leaving parcels of goodness at your door are getting fewer and farther between. If I keep going at this rate, l’ll soon be as illusive and as Father Christmas (though with a less predictable timetable) and with the way my belly’s swelling that red suit’s going to fit too.

As mentioned in our excuses for a quiet week last week we’ve got other things on our minds, one of which is spending less time with other people’s new music and more with our own.

This track which I came across whilst scuffing my toes on the internet the other day is kind of a prime example of the ensuing dilemma, its really, really great and this time last year I’d be going loop-de-loop crazy over it and resetting my ringtone - but much like the Wire has ruined regular tv for me by being too too awesome - so has living with one half of London’s greatest assault on boogie.

Tippy Toes seem to be the latest incarnation of New York supergroup with various members of DFA affiliates, Hercvles and Love Affair, LCD Soundsystem and Santogold spreading their funk around with sometime vocals from comedian Reggie Watts. There’s little else to be known about them, except this; that should Ulysses 82 get their ventilated, Kevlar driving gloves on this little beauty - I can only imagine how much more fantastic it would sound.

Like I said, its already great, and sure it’s already furnished with a lilting, heavy-heavy bassline, tremolo guitar, sweeping string, afro drum sound, psyche scrawl and something which sounds like the best noise i’ve heard out of an atari in years but let John-Baptiste and Je Suis C loose on this baby and who knows what damage it could wreak.

(Ulysses 82 get are set to get your groove jumping at Favela Chic (London) tonight, come down and support the revolutions)

Tippy Toes - Massive Mastif