Melodicablog 30 January 2012

30th January 2012 Comments Off on Melodicablog 30 January 2012 ,

More stuff about the music and stories on this week’s Melodica. All the shows are archived on the Chris Coco page at Mixcloud. There’s a new Melodica chart on Juno Download: here. Follow Chris Coco on MixcloudTHAT FUZZY FEELING: BUBBLE CLUB – IN CONSEQUENCE OF A WISH New spacy Balearic gear from Bubble Club on the consistently, um, spacy and Balearic International Feel records. This one kind of floats around in a lively Tood Terje / Harvey fashion and has a wonderful string drop that will work well in the sunshine. Released in March on their usual super fat 180g vinyl with deluxe packaging. PANORAM – ACCENTS A fine seven track EP/mini LP of abstract, leftfield, sort of jazzy electronica that is really rather fine. Bleep.com say: “6 tracks of warm, fuzzy fusion pinned down by some lead-heavy beats and idiosyncratic production nuances that recall some old school Major Force vibes. They are right, it has a really good atmosphere, groove and feel. GONJASUFI – MUZZLE The eccentric Gonjasufi continues to delight and annoy in equal measure with a distorted, grimy, beautiful new EP of guitar screeches, crunchy beats and great little melodies. MIGHTY SPARROW Strut just keep coming up with the retro quality. Here they track some of Mighty Sparrow’s finest and funniest moments from the 60s and 70s with the descriptively titled – Sparrowmania – Wit, Wisdom and Soul from the King of Calypso 1962-1974. It includes the end of the night classic What’s The Use Of Getting Sober (when you’ll only get drunk again). Excellent.

Melodica 30 January 2012

30th January 2012 Comments Off on Melodica 30 January 2012 , ,

Chris Coco’s weekly radio broadcast. An eclectic selection of brilliant new music starting with house and moving on to electronica, downtempo, acoustic and all sorts of other styles loosely connected to dance and electronic music. Let tastemaker Chris Coco guide you through his selection of the week’s best new music. This episode is all over the place – new house, new bass, a Bon Iver b side, new Bubble Club, some Balearic business and a song about being drunk. How good is that? [setlist] 1 Ultrasone – Here And So Far – Supplement Facts 2 Gongon – I Could Be There – Well Rounded Records 3 FCL – Let’s Go – We Play House THAT FUZZY FEELING (TUNE OF THE WEEK) 4 Bubble Club – In Consequence Of A Wish – International Feel 5 Crackpot – Star – Melodica Recordings 6 Panoram – Mute City Blues – Scenario 7 Gonjasufi – Nickels and Dimes – Warp STRINGS, WOOD AND A BOX OF AIR 8 Bon Iver – Bruised Orange (Chain Of Sorrows) – 4AD 9 Absence – March – We Are Disconnected 10 Larry Heard – Gentle Morning Sun (Wolf + Lamb Remix) – Distance 11 Black Sand – Can’t Afford My Love (Leo Zero Remix) – digital file 13 Mighty Sparrow – What’s The Use Of Getting Sober – Strut

CC @ IRF 2011

29th January 2012 Comments Off on CC @ IRF 2011

Here’s a video interview with Chris Coco from the International Radio Festival.

Analogue Blog

28th January 2012 Comments Off on Analogue Blog

or RetroFuturism So, it really is a cliché to note that everything is happening all at once but sometimes it is necessary to note the obvious, just to remind ourselves that it’s a cliché mainly because it’s true. You know, stuff like, Cameron is Tory scum who has no clue how to run the country. There, that’s better. But really, everything is happening all at once, the past and the future are colliding in the present, to create things like they were before, but different. So today we found out that vinyl sales are up, from a very tiny amount to a slightly bigger number that is still very small. Most music sales are now, of course, digital, not on CD or cassette, which means that most music now doesn’t actually ever exist. It just kind of floats around on drives, then gets lost. But it’s not just us old folk who still like handling big slabs of fat oil, the ‘kids’ are into it to. I think the best thing about vinyl is that it’s cost and weight act as a great filter. You have to really like a tune to spend £6.50 on it, then carry the dastardly thing around in a box just so it can give you six minutes of, admittedly high quality, sound pleasure, it’s much easier to just skip through it on Spotify or Youtube. Vinyl is as good and as annoying as it ever was but now we like it for a different reason, because there’s less of it, because it’s physical and expensive it limits our choice, in a good way. There, you see, everything’s the same, and different, at the same time. The same theory applies to analogue film. OK, it looks better than digital, but the really good thing is, when you use real film, you have to think about every shot, or the reel will run out before you get to the good bit. And when you get the pictures back they feel special, and there’s not so many that you just can’t be bothered to even trawl through them. Yesterday we bought a typewriter for the same kinds of reasons. It’s a beautiful object, with some great graphics on the instructions, and a genuine typed test page, with a special inky stamp, to prove that when it left the factory it was in working order. But when you use it, you have to really think about what you write, because when the ribbon runs out it’s hard to get a new one and if you make a mistake you can’t just go back and do it again, it’s there forever. H is going to use it for labels for her massage oil. I will type out the running order for my Freedom Street album project, then photograph it, using real film. The whole thing might even end up on vinyl if everything goes to plan. Now, that would really feel like an achievement, a thing of real value, well, a thing, a tangible, real thing at least. Now, that would be really retro, in a futuristic sort of way. Or is it the other way round?

Melodicablog 23 January 2012

23rd January 2012 Comments Off on Melodicablog 23 January 2012 ,

More stuff about the music and stories on this week’s Melodica. All the shows are archived on the Chris Coco page at Mixcloud. There’s a new Melodica chart on Juno Download: here. Follow Chris Coco on MixcloudTHAT FUZZY FEELING: CRACKPOT – ROBOPOTAMUS The next release on Melodica Recordings really tells the story of what the label is about. Moose, from the band, listens to the show in his home town of Melbourne, Australia. When he was in London on a Euro excursion he popped in to the Player, a bar in Soho where I play sometimes, to listen to some music and hand me a CD of his tunes. Now usually when this happens the music is, how can I put it, bloody awful. But in this case, the morning after the gig I put the CD in the player and listened all the way through, without skipping. The next week I played it on the show. So, when the label of the show started, Crackpot had to be one of the first signings. It all makes sense. THE MUSICIAN AND THE ACTRESS Underground wunderkind Nicolas Jaar has hooked up with actress and rather less underground sleb Scout LaRue for his latest internet giveaway. The song With Just One Glance, while definitely sounding like Jaar is a lot more commercial than his usual output. So is it a vanity project or pop genius? Listen to the tune on GorillaVsBear QUANTIC & ALICE RUSSELL This is the first fruits of an album collaboration between Quantic and his Combo Barbaro and singer Alice Russell. It’s super live, big, dramatic and very 60s in a cool way. The single is out on 10″ couloured vinyl in February, the album follows in April. JIM-E STACK Jim-E Stack is a 20 yr old producer from New Orleans, USA. He’s been into dance music since he heard Daft Punk when he was little. Here’s a quote From and interview with him by Sonic Router: “All the kids I knew in high school thought dance music was gay, so I was alone in my enthusiasm mostly. Now all those dudes want to fuck the guys from Swedish House Mafia, so it’s whatever…”