Some Mixology For You

I'd love to be a DJ.

But only as long as I wasn't responsible for mixing properly. I couldn't bear the responsibility for a heaving floor of dancers suddenly going 'WTF?' as one inexpertly attempted to beatmatch while ensuring that some hideous mismatch of keys didn't happen. So maybe I could be a radio DJ or better, one of those guys who play music where people don't dance. They get away with murder.
Anyway, this mix is a set recorded live yesterday in a really great club in Dublin. Except of course it's not. It was done in my living room over two nights, at least one of which saw me rather tipsy.

It's all very full on sexy female vocal anthems at the beginning then it gets all Scandinavian cool later after going through some hands-aloft disco.

Feargal, you can put this on your Nano for one of your jogging expeditions!

Tracklist:

1. Stand Back - Linus Loves feat. Sam Obernik
2. Speechless (Extended Mix) - Mish Mash feat. Lois
3. You Got the Love (Shapeshifters Main Vocal Mix) - The Source feat. Candi Staton
4. The Wings (Theme from 'Brokeback Mountain' (Gabriel & Dresden Remix) - Gustavo Santaolalla
5. E Samba - Junior Jack
6. Ooh! I Love It (Love Break) (Full Intention Club Remix) - The Salsoul Orchestra
7. What Else is There? (Trentemoller Remix) - Röyksopp
8. Discopolis (Original) - Lifelike & Kris Menace
9. For the Time Being (AlexKid Mix) - Phonique Feat. Erlend Oye
10. Clocks (Royksopp's Trembling Heart Remix) - Coldplay

Technical stuff. It's about 66MBs and it's all one continuous track. I used the unstable new version of Audacity to make this, so there are some erratic things going on (volume suddenly rises about 10 mins in etc).

Let me know what you think.

Download Spring '06 Mix - Enda P (1h08m 62.6MB)

Oh dear…

“It’s four in the mornin’…..”

self @ 33 March 2006 - 2, originally uploaded by Enda P.

Oh that Faron Young, he knew what he was talking about. No wonder Paddy McAloon wrote a song about him.

Ok, I wasn't awake last night until 4:30 in the morning for the same reasons as Mr Young, but these random insomnia sessions are bloody annoying.

Now, back to music.

Download "It's Four In The Morning" - Faron Young

Coldplay palatable?

As everyone else is getting sick of Coldplay (including themselves), I have to be contrary and suddenly be into them. Much as U2 tracks - individually-administered - are great,Coldplay have always been providers of Good Singles. I can't suffer an entire album of either stadium botherers though.

I witter. Coldplay for me have been rehabilitated by the remix. Several excellent remixes of 'Clocks' did the rounds , and it seems that the deliciously anthemic guitar riff from 'Talk' is proving similarly irresistable for DJs.

Soooo, today you can download the rather special Junkie XL remix of last single 'Talk'. It's rather large, so make sure you're broadbanded or downloading at work. Junkie XL, you may remember, is the guy who remixed Elvis a couple of years ago, slapping him back to number one with 'A Little Less Conversation'. That track was credited to Elvis vs JXL . It seems the Elvis estate didn't feel comfortable about having the word 'junkie' that close to Elvis. I digress again (but it's my blog) - download and enjoy!

Download 'Talk (Junkie XL Remix) - Coldplay'

Rodrigo y Gabriela?

I dunno. I Just don’t really get it.

Yes, I saw them live years ago when I was at the Mexican ambassador’s Mexican National Day party, but listening to their albums, I just don’t get it. It’s Latin-tinged elevator music, no? Take ‘New One’ from Re-foc for example - is this not easy-listening? File alongside Yanni and Panpipe Crapola.

So, unlike the population of Ireland which has sent their latest album to number one, they leave me cold. And a cover of ‘Stairway To Heaven’? Jaysus…… and indeed, yawn,….

If you fancy some Latin stuff which isn’t bland, try Nortec Collective - a group of Mexican electronica artists who genuinely innovate or MIS (Mexican Institute of Sound), who do interesting things with samples.

Thing is, Mexican music is a bit like Irish, post-colonial and apologetic. Alas, Mexico has a huge tradition of mawkish sentimentalism of the Juan Gabriel type (he’s like Cliff Richard merged with Daniel O’Donnell) as well as USA pop imitations (Flans, Paulina Rubio, etc) and it’s difficult to find the good stuff. In Ireland, we can see all sorts of groovy shit emerging; Julie Feeney, Bell X1, Joe Chester… peole who are messing about with genre and expectations -not doing covers of - yawn - ‘Stairway To Heaven’. Why not have a whack at Bohemian Rhapsody while you’re at it? Oh wait, that’s been done by G4. I rest my case.

Of course Juan Gabriel, el Mejicano mas grande, is a big poof, but that’s convieniently overlooked by the masses yet satirised by the narrow-minded. Flans et al are just total queso, but interesting stuff such as that by Morbo and Nortec Collective are marginalised back in Mejico as the indigenous audience are more interested in either super-saccharine Disney shite or American imitations.

Rodrigo y Gabriela to me seem to be the equivalent to rather accomplished purveyors of panpipes: it’s all technically very good, but rather unadventurous and ultimately rather boring. A bit like Celine Dion.

God, I love music so much, I am a little surprised that I write so vehemently about any artist, but R y G produce such aural wallpaper that it makes me angry that they are so sucessful in Ireland. If I had any kind of musical talent, as these two obviously do, I’d be making such fucked up cross-cultural exciting shit! Why do they have to be so polite and, well, boring?

Am I being harsh? Am I being a bit too Sunday Independent?

At last! The Guardian agrees with me…

After weeks of trying to get my choice on the Readers Recommend section of The Guardian, they’ve finally chosen not just one, but TWO of my choices!

As documented here, I went for McAlmont & Butler’s astounding Yes, which is one of my Top 20 tracks EVAH! And they also included the sublime Since I Left You by The Avalanches, whose album has to be one of the most life-affirming ever commited to zeroes and ones (despite - or because of - being pretty much entirely composed of samples).

Happy days.

PS: Please Mr Avalanches, release another album soon…. I miss you.

1-3 Sept 2006 - The Blue Nile to play Electric Picnic…

… along with Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Rufus Wainwright, Antony & the Johnsons, Massive Attack and Bjork (maybe…). Check out the Electric Picnic site.
Wow.

To celebrate the notion of non-prolific genii performing in a field in rural Ireland, I’m putting up a rare live version of The Blue Nile’s gorgeous ‘Stay’  which is sung not by Paul Buchanan, but some mystery lady.

Anyone know who she is? Have Googled in vain

Download Stay (Live) - The Blue Nile 

Microsoft iPod?

What if Microsoft had invented the iPod?

And it was commissioned by Microsoft themselves in order to make their design team feel bad help their design team look ‘humourously’ at the ‘challenges’ of marketing Microsoft products. More on The Guardian’s Tech blog.

Sexy House Podcast

DJ McLane has a rather slinky, sexy, sultry podcast called ‘We Love House’ available. It’s an hour long mix and weighs about 55MBs. Some delicious choices and nicely mixed too.

Put this into your Podcast software: http://mclanedj.free.fr/welovehouse.rss

Neko Case is Top Of My Pops

It doesn’t seem to have a melody and I’ve no idea what she’s on about, yet Ms Case has evidently grabbed me by the ears.

She has been around for yonks with all sorts of thrillingly-named backing bands such as Her Boyfriends and the New Pornographers. He website is rather lovely. And she looks rather cool too.

Would anyone care to give me advice on where to start with her back catalogue?