strictly vibes

There's nothing quite like some silence in order to ponder the grander aspects of life. I've been pretty busy front-loading the rearing of my latest offspring. Like any project it's easier to do the graft at the start in order to allow for an easy run in later on. That's been the case with the latest little fella. After eight weeks of intensive parenting the results are beginning to show. He's already managed to sleep through the night for the last few evenings. Apparently some parents have not experienced this event until their kids are one and sometimes two years old. I've several theories on this but this is a music blog and I don't want to elicit the wrath of any parents who can only begrudge my skilful rearing of children. All four so far were sleeping through the night by about eight weeks old. Anyway this paragraph so far has merely served to act as an excuse for not posting as regularly as I usually would. Then again I'm not sure why I'm even excusing myself, you're getting all this for free in any case.

I have managed to pick up a few things over the last week or so. The first I should mention is the new album by M83 which is a throwback to a mix of several sounds of my youth. There's loads of reviews of it already so go and read them instead.

I'll go through some of the more recent releases on the seven inch format that I've picked up. The first comes from a band who seem fond of some choice language given that they're called 'Holy Fuck'. They hail from Toronto, I believe, and they're the latest craze if the music press are to be believed. You can read an interview with them in the online edition of new Irish music magazine, State. The a-side is called 'Lovely Allen' and its a nice job but I'm more fond of the b-side which has a tune called 'Super Inuit' on it. It reminds me of seventies kraut-rock a la Neu. It's a great tune.

Next up is a tune that was released a couple of weeks ago. Its reminiscent of some dreamy pop from another age. There's a great synth hook that runs most of the way through it. It's unnoticeable at first but have a closer listen and you'll see what I mean. It's called 'Happiness' and is the latest release from Goldfrapp. The flip side has a great remix by Metronomy.

Another band that I've seen a lot written about is Neon Neon, a collaboration between Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys and freaky beatmeister Boom Bip. It's another one that is like a throwback to the early eighties synth laden pop of Vince Clark. It's a very simple affair and therin lies its beauty. I've yet to listen to the rest of the album so I'm not sure if the beauty would extend to a full album of similar material. The b-side is a remix of the tune that adds a bit of Afrika Bambataa and Jan Hammer into the mix. Heavier beats and and a meatier synth riff are the order of the day.

I also picked up a few older tunes, the first being the timeless classic, 'Everybody Dance' by Chic. It's a bit crackly but it still rocks the joint. They knew how to write a bassline back in those days. I also bought 'Sixteen' by Musical Youth. This tune features Jody Watley on guest vocals, is from around 1983 and was penned by Motown legend Lamont Dozier. It's a nice slice of lovers rock but the b-side is much better. It's called Strictly Vibes and was written and produced by the band themselves and iot doesn't feature on any of their other records. It's a fair reflection of what the band were about.

The last two records of any note are a re-pressing of 'You showed me' by The Turtles and a reggae reworking of 'What's going on'. The first tune might be known to a lot of my generation as it was covered by The Lightning Seeds. Broudie did a grand version, but to be honest, when you compare it to the original its pretty lame. The second tune is a kind of soul reggae mashup but it somehow works. The b-side is another mashup featuring Edwin Starr's War and Sean Paul's Gimme the Light. Its fucked up but I like it too.