Flat Packed Dancing

We're of to see Ikea, the wonderful Ikea of Braehead. mmm...does not quite go with the Wizard of Oz tune. But yes, Ikea is the chosen destination today. I'm in search of cd storage of a Swedish kind while the lady is wanting to look, but not buy.

In honour of our journey to Scandinavia-Braehead here is a track from Finland which of course is Sweden's next door neighbour. Jori Hulkkonen released his first album on the french label, F Communications, in 1996(97?) and its really the sort of sounds you would expect to come from a country which comes across as clean, with still air, barren but graceful landscapes and a bunch of young techno fans locked in a bedroom until the sun comes out in June. Apologies for any geographical stereotypes there but I know little of Finland.

This track is my favourite because it reminds me so much of the theme to Assault on Precinct 13 (see previous post, Airwolf Awakenings). Being such a fan of John Carpenter's scores as well as films it was a cert that I would fall for this reptitive electronic industrial-crunch-fest with plenty of space for elegant synths. What does that mean. Dunno.

Jori Hulkkonen - Whispers

HD Killed The Analogue Star

Hey ho and away we go. Had a weekend away from the internet so I am eager to post up some new tunes. Still trying to choose the last track in my French experience but it will be up soon.

Anyhoo, I bought a nice new TV yesterday. 32" Philips LCD bundle of love for a decent price of £400. After a few start up issues I think it is looking good and sounding great. Who would have ever thought that TV audio contained bass!!!

So in homage to the new TV and all those I've lost and loved before (TV's that is) here are choice Tv intro tunes from my youth. First up it is The Man From Uncle. Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughan) was so much better than Bond. American for a start and seemed to succeed based largely on his perfectly combed hair. An interesting fact: two of my aunts play on these score. Aunt Chimpbeano took 420 shots of adrenalin to play the bongo's at such high speed and eventually lost the use of her hands and elbows. Aunt Illinios played the saxamaphone on the score and trained at Rob Lowe's Epic Sax college in Burma for 2 years in prepration.

Second up is E War Woo War as The Equaliser. As Robert McCall he was the nightmare version of Murder She Wrote. If you knew him you were totally fucked. Rape, kidnap, murder. All were better than being in the situation where you needed him.

Lastly its one of those shows which reminds me of stork margarine, muffins and jam. The Fall Guy was a tea time classic and brought together the previously no go cocktail of stunt work and private detectivery. The theme of course is sung by the star, Lee Majors.


The Man From Uncle

The Equaliser

The Fall Guy

Mac Daddy

Like aliens from space the users of Macs and Ipod are a mystery to me. They talk about computer, internet and mp3 stuff in a language very simlar to those of a pc or laptop user but with a differing dialect whihc makes it sometimes incomprehensible to others.

So anyhoo, some of my close Mac using friends have said there are some issues accessing the tracks I am uploading using 4shared. To honest before I found out about that 4shared was going to get the boot because I did not like the downloading page. Not intuitive and not user friendly. Temporaryily I will be using Freedrive which seems to be connected to Facebook. So may be crap. Not sure. I really hope that if you are looking to access the track it works. If not then let me know.

So, for the Mac users, I dedicate this track to them. The pentultimate post in my flashback to the 1996/97 French House imperialism. Sourcelab were one the most innovative but accessible of the French labels. I picked up their Sourcelab 3 compilation in the local Shelter Housing shop (more on that anothe time). The comp is a blend of house, electronica and heep hop beats. The track below is a swirling pink cloud of danceable squelchy noises and opens the comp on disc 1. A Bientot.

Fantom - Faithfull

Sunday Morning In Paris

My head a little achey, the gas is on full and I'm shattered after a day of booze in Glasgow. If only I could be waking up in Paris and preparing to wander down to a little cafe to have some orange juice, salad and first class omelette. mmmmm...

Anyhoooo, French house. Like a lot of the music I listen to and love, I stumbled across Dimitri From Paris. My flatmate at uni was the music editor of the student paper so he would get a load of promo cds. He liked indie stuff which was fine cause most of that was Brit Shit Pop. As he was not into techno, house or anything leftfield he kindly passed those onto me.

One of these was Sacrebleu by Dimitri From Paris. Simply describing it as French House would be unfair because there is so much going on in the album. If you can get hold of it I recommend tracking it down. The track below, Le Moogy Reggae, is an upbeat funky little number which should have your toes tapping and then your hips swinging.

Dimitri From Paris - Le Moogy Reggae

C'est Beaucoup

Allo' Allo' may have been my childhood introduction to France through the power of horrific sexual comedy (I laughed then but then again I also laughed at Cannon & Ball) but soon my thoughts of Franceland were less about boobies, stockings and camp salutes, and more about rumbling french house.

Before I listened to Super Discount, Daft Punk or Dimitri From Paris, there was Etienne De Crecy and Phillipe Zdar's Motorbass effort, Pansoul. I will admit that at first I did not get all of this this. Flying Fingers with its funky scratching and breaks was a bit more accessible but after opening to the vast French musical invasion of the 1996/97 Motorbass became a more and more essential listen.

Repetitive beats, languid pulsing bass and samples de francais, I could not advise you more strongly to search out this and consume. I have dropped a couple of tracks form the album below. A Bientot...

Motorbass- Les Ondes

Motorbass - Neptune

Calvados, £6.95

That's how much a small glass of Calvados was in the resteraunt me and the lady had dinner in last night. Mancini's on Great Western Road, Glasgow. Top food, Top surroundings.

Anyway Calvados is French apple brandy. It's not to sweet, got a lush thick feel and packs an almighty punch. First tried it on a trip to Paris with my friends Jackie and Gill. A cafe owner got chatting to us and insisted we try calvados. The addication began there.

That is a lovey feed into todays post and the subject of next few. France and its lovely late 90s house music. Starting off with legendery comp Super Discount which if you hae not heard....then you should.

Its beaming yellow, black and white cover contains the essential tracks of 1996. Everyone single one is worth a listen but I have chosen to share Prix Choc (Discount Price). The fact it was sitting in a folder in my laptop did it no harm either.

Hope you enjoy this. Rumbles along like a french steam ship containing a funky crowd cigar smoking models and gin drinking b-boys dancing to neverending set of french electronic beats.


Etienne De Crecy - Prix Choc

The French Are Coming!

I've got it in my head to dig around some of the brilliant french house music I seemed to buy each week in the year 1997. A little exaggerated but if you remember that was period where Etienne De Crecy, Dimitri From Paris, Daft Punk, Air, Philipe Zdar etc were producing the best and most danceable tracks around.

However, until I pull that together here is something a crunchier. Been listening to Hard Sell by Shadow and Cut Chemist and a little sad they are not playing in Glasgow, especially as Kid Koala is playing on the Hard Sell tour.

So in honour of beats, scratches and more beats here is a Kid Koala track, Shanky Panky, from his album, Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs, and Kemuri by DJ Krush (I know its been around for ages but its immense).

Kid Koala - Shanky Panky

DJ Krush - Kemuri

Airwolf Awakenings

Why the title? Well channel 197 (DMAX) is currently showing re-runs of Airwolf and apart from its theme and the constant warring against Libya, it just confirms the truth that 99% of shows we watched as kids should not be revisited.

However, a few weeks ago me and my lady were watching one which bizzarrely had a disclaimer that it should not be confused with the events of 9/11. More bizzarely was how anyonemay confuse the two. In the episode some white guys hijacked a plane and then landed it on the ocean where it sank and then lay there for some days while the occupants ate, drank and slept like it was New Years. Airwolf saves them.

Anyhoo is one scene a character was walking through the metal detectors at the airport and the guard had to ask her to remove any metal etc. He was Darwin Joston. Joston had played the antihero, Napoleon Wilson in Assault in Precinct 13.

It was definitely him. IMDB and wikipedia does not credit him which is a shame. I love Assault... and Napoleon and the cop Ethan are superb as the serial killer and black cop who save the day. The good news is that wikipedia does have links not only Joston, but on the character Napoleon. check them out.

And while you are doing that check out these two treats from the film's soundtrack. Scored by John Carpenter and supposedly highly influential to some of Detroit techno;s early pioneers the first is the closing theme and the second the score that follows the death of a young secretary. One is a sinister piece of proto-techno (just made that up) and the other tender electronica.

John Carpenter - End Theme

John Carpenter - Julie