Countdown to London….. 1 DAY LEFT

While of course I am thrilled to be about to live with my man for five weeks (long distance relationships are a pain in the knob), I am almost equally thrilled that in just one day I shall be on the very same island as the creator of this, ladies and jellyspoons.

Yes, the ever-fabulous Minge is releasing his debut single. On Monday. The same day as I alight in Heathrow Airport, London, England, UK. The United Kingdom, no less, which includes Scotland, which is where the proto-star lives. Shall I take a train, nah, flight up north and stalk him? Seeing as he is on the actual cusp of superstardom quite literally?

While the a-side is wondrous, DJs should be brave and flip that vinyl round. The b-side is genius and, I believe, will be even more popular with ‘ver kids’. It’s called Come (And Be A Lesbian), and is credited to Whinge.

An article reacting to the leak:

Stylus report that Minge (vocals, words) is ‘the lovechild of Cicero and Edward McMurrow’ and that this download is ‘a hint that our European friends may yet be capable of some surprises’. NME.com have Whinge on tomorrow’s first ever splash page for the site, and Popjustice.com have put Whinge at number 10 in their illustrious PJ Almighty. But not everyone is happy. Sources close to Dannii Minogue say that she is ‘gutted’ that her vocals were not the one used on the final mix. Minge, speaking to pitchfork exclusively had this to say:

Dannii is a wonderful human being. I love how her presence in the media kept reminding us of her sister’s heroic struggle with cancer. That Dannii would let her comeback and Greatest Hits album slide into obscurity so quickly is a testimony to sisterly love. We agonised over leaving out her vocals but we thought, actually, she isn’t really hot right now, so who cares?

You can get the track here here. You are witnessing the next Arctic Monkeys/Lily Allen/Sandi Thom thing. Right. Now.

More Whinge action and tracks can be found at their website.

Countdown to London…. 2 days left

Ah, London. He who is tired of London is tired of life and all that malarky. I’m just looking forward to having nothing to do* for a few weeks and doing it in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities.

Speaking of Dolly Parton and Bent (which we weren’t), I rather belatedly discovered this little gem hiding away on Bent’s MySpace (ugh) site (MySpace is hella ugly - I can’t be in there).

I adore Bent. They have developed from being amusing kinda gimmicky, frenetic Lemon Jelly sample-heavy kinda thing on Programmed To Love to becoming rather mellower ‘leftfield electronica’ with country music samples on The Everlasting Blink to ultimately ditching the samples and going for fantastically rounded but atmospheric intelligent pop on Ariels.

All the while they’ve been coming up with beautiful, respectful remixes for others. Check out their remix of Speak Low by Billie Holliday or Winter Wonderland by Bing Crosby. Both are reverential, ornate, glistening and thrilling.

So, here they are remixing some obscure Dolly Parton album track from 1971. In contrast to the trailer trash facade that she happily cultivates (she understands the value of being a cartoon in order to reach the public consciousness), Parton is an understated songwriter first, a beautiful vocalist second. She wrote ‘I Will Always Love You‘, and in her mouth the track is a fragile thing, a million miles away from the overwrought bluster of Whitney Houston’s version.

Delicious melody, fragile vocals, country tinge… Bent smell a remix opportunity. If you like this (and you will), try ‘So Long Without You’ by Bent, which has Billie Jo Spears on it, she of ‘Blanket On The Ground’ fame. (God, growing up in rural Ireland in the late 70s, this shit was HUGE.) They also got BJ Cole to sprinkle his pedal steel guitar magic on the track (as he did on Pet Shop Boys‘ ‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk).

Download Early Morning Breeze (Bent remix feat. BJ Cole) - Dolly Parton (MP3 4.1MB)

Like this? Buy everything by Bent. Or Dolly’s Ultimate Collection (which has this delish track on!).

* There is that small matter of having to write a goddam paper for the goddam conference, but that’s not for here….

Countdown to London…. 5 days

Look at me gazing out over Trafalgar Square this time last year in London. And now I’m goin’ baaaaaack!

As ‘im indoors (nice man over there with almost-finished pint) lives in Blighty’s captal, I’m off to London in FIVE days! For FIVE weeks (minus Brighton Pride, a week in Santorini, Greece, a weekend in NYC and another trip to Greece to speak at a conference)! I cannot wait…..

To celebrate, I shall make available a heartbreakingly gorgeous piece of music by Edward Elgar. I first heard this piece on Neil Tennant’s Back to Mine disc, and it broke my heart just a litle bit. That recording was by Sir John Barbirolli conducting the New Philharmonic Orchestra. This one is by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Tate, and it’s equally beautiful.

Download this; you so won’t regret it.

 

Download Sospiri Op. 70 by Jeffrey Tate conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (Mp3 7MB)

Like this? Who couldn’t? Purchase Symphonies 1 & 2 - Cockaigne - Sospiri by Jeffrey Tate, conductor, London Symphony Orchestra.

Some Mixology for you 2: F**k Me, It’s Hot!

Thanks to David for not suing me for using this pic. Original version here

It’s summer, so it’s time for a new mix. Every so often, I take a fit of Mixology and need to let it out! This one went from conception to execution in 3 hours. It ranges from loads of remixed 80s shit to loads of Richard X mixes. And frequently these are one and the same.  It’s also 39 MB one track continuous type thang, so download, get some ice cold beers and frug wildly.
1. Clouds Across The Moon (Tiefschwartz Cloudy Vocal Mix): The Rah Band
2. Fugitive (Richard X Extended Mix): Pet Shop Boys
3. We Are Your Friends (Original Mix): Justice vs Simian
4. Same Man (Original Mix): Till West & DJ Delicious (totally demented)
5. Situation (Richard X Remix): Yazoo
6. Changes: Chris Lake (lovely HappySad house)
7. Lips Like Sugar (Way Out West Mix): Echo & The Bunnymen (quite an anthem!)
8. No More Conversations (Richard X Remix): Freeform Five

Download F**k Me, It’s Hot: Enda P Summer Mix 06 (39MB)

It’s a yousendit file, so 7 days or 100 downloads! Get it while it’s H A W T. 

Oooh! I’m in the charts!

Look at this. My blog is at the lofty heights of no. 23 in WordPress’ Growing Blogs of the Day!

And it’s down to Scritti Politti rather than Sufjan Stevens or the Great Gay Muslim Image Appropriation Wars. Kewl!

No. 1 is the amazing-sounding ‘don’t cuss. my mom reads this‘, but at least I beat ‘Mildew’ (The story of one person’s fight to grow vegetables that aren’t disease ridden). I shit you not.

“Spitti wha?”

… was the response I got back in 1999 from the young south Dublin man behind the till in Golden Discs, Liffey Valley Centre when I excitedly asked for the new album from Scritti Politti.

He was almost as excited as I was, and then he asked his colleagues, a young lady, I believe, for her assessment of the situation. “Never heard of ‘em”, she responded, reasonably. A third colleague, slightly older, said, accurately, that the band were “from the 80s”.

In the heel of the hunt, Golden Discs did not stock Anomie & Bonhomie. Nor did the nearby Virgin Mega(pah!)store. So, I had to wait even longer for another bus into the city centre and finally tracked down an overpriced copy in HMV. It was, after all, the first album from Paul ‘Green’ Strohmeyer Gartside and assembled sonicmeisters since 1988’s kinda dissapointing Provision.

A&B left me with a ‘WTF’ feeling on the first listens. Rappers all over the shop, rawk guitars and general chaos. Of course it emerged as Scritti’s best work, eclipsing Cupid & Psyche ‘85 by miles.

Unfortunately, nobody bought it. I bought two copies: CD and the HOT new format that almost changed the world: MINIDISC!

Roll on 2006, and Green emerges once again with a new album, White Bread Black Beer. My eyebrow raises, but I’m in no great rush to buy it the very moment it hits the shops. Not much leakage on the net either. I hear the first few minutes of potential single The Boom Boom Bap and shrug my shoulders. “Whatever…” and I order it from CDWow. I’m in no rush.

7-10 days later, CD arrives. I hate the cover. Album not immediately popped into iTunes for ripping. Instead I go out and go dancing. It can wait.

And then I eventually listen to it. It’s a bit.. well.. boring. And where is all of the expensive production? And the convoluted lyrics? Is this going to be like Pet Shop Boys circa Release?

White Bread Black Beer storms into the UK Top 75 album chart at number… oops. The single manages to get to number 10 on the, ahem, indie charts. It’s official, nobody cares any more. Not even me.

Adios Scritti, ’twas fun.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Why can’t I learn from past experience? I didn’t like any of Green’s stuff on first listen (except Wood Beez, when I was 11) and then it just gets into your head and bones and … goddamit! You look at it again and it says, “What? I was intelligent, sophisticated and extraordinary from the start. You just took your bloody time to realise it.”

That’s the thing with Scritti Politti. They make you wait for years for a new album and then when you get it, they make you wait even longer before you realise that it’s the most coherent and effortless album you’ve heard all year.
Nobody likes a smarty pants, Green. Except me. Roll on 2011.

Congratulations on your nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. Let’s hope you kick Arctic Monkey ass.

Download Snow In Sun by Scritti Politti (5.7MB)
Like this? Of course you do. Buy White Bread Black Beer by Scritti here.

I knew it…

‘What will your obituary say?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

Sooo, THAT’S how it’s done… (SUFJAN STEVENS)

Blog kids! You wanna double the amount of hits you get on your blog in one fell swoop? Easy. Just post something about SUFJAN STEVENS.

I’ve just recorded the most hits in one day since I began zis leetle blurg some months ago. Why? People searching for material about SUFJAN STEVENS.

Next time, I’ll post about “What I had for lunch and how it reminded me of SUFJAN STEVENS” or “Isn’t it cool to be a big homo, almost as cool as SUFJAN STEVENS?”

Excellent. Now all I have to do is work out how to embed Google AdSense code into these stupid WordPress templates, and I’m winning.

I wonder what SUFJAN STEVENS thinks about this? Or maybe PARIS HILTON has some insights?

Hot and bothered: Sufjan Stevens

Ah, from Muslims to Christians.

The indie darling Sufjan Stevens is a big wow amongst the cool/nerd set these days. He is literate, talented, ambitious - he has released two albums about US states and apparently intends to do the other 48 - Christian and, gulp, H A W T.

Soooo, debate rages as to his sexuality. Is he a Virgin Mary or just a sensitive Joe(seph)?

Here is a track to help (not really) you decide! It may be about Jesus or it may be about loving his best friend. You decide.

Download To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens

You like? You buy? Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise ‘cos it’s reallyreally good (after listening a few times)

Proud to be Queer & Muslim

Note; Annoyingly, a certain site has developed a love for my photos of Imaan at Europride. They’ve repeatedly appropriated stuff from my flickr pages without permission. Said site is now linking to this post, so I’ve removed the pic because I don’t feel very comfortable associating the individuals in the pics with the content of the other blog.

Hopefully, they’ll bugger off soon and leave me and me pics alone.

 

PS: The text below is fictional, so please don’t start quoting it out of context.

Here I am on the left with some proud Muslims!

My pal, Ubaid, is involved with Imaan, an organisation for GLBT Muslims, and he invited me to join them on their first float in Europride. “So, you want me, a lapsed Catholic Caucasian Irishman to join you on a lorry through the capital of England in the name of Islam with over half a million people watching?” I said.

“Yep”, he said, “and alongside some H A W T boys”.

“Sold”, I replied.

 

You can have a look at my adventures in this flickr set.

And here’s some semi-appropriate music in the form of those naughty Pussycat Dolls.

Download Pussycat Dolls - Beep (Arabic Remix) mp3

Like this, buy the original version of the Beep single on iTunes.