mp3 : c86 meets northern soul

fortuna pop have squeezed out a lovely little ep featuring 4 bands (kicker, the butterflies of love, comet gain, airport girl) each covering a lost northern soul gem, released under the banner 'more soul than wigan casino'. i neither know the originals, nor other stuff by the bands on offer .. but damn i like this one : 'since you left' by kicker : here 3 perfect minutes of classic girl fronted guitar pop. onwards! mark e ireallylovemusic

aoc + earl brutus + grand mal + joy zipper

folks. last few days have been manic. first things first : age of chance andrew collins highlighted their debut album '1000 Years of Trouble' on 6 Music last week as a lost classic ! was great to hear someone else preaching the glories of this oft forgotten missing link between hip hop and rock. superb. then word reaches me about tDR exhibition involving all sorts of fun(k) - look carefully : http://pho-ku.com/exhibit/index.html notice the reappearance of my other fave bunch of grumps with machines and guitars - Earl Brutus ! what a night. then i received email from Grand Mal's bill whitten that after a long period of silence the band are due to cut more tracks with longtime cohort Dave Fridmann (mastering the results soon !). yes. i loved maledictions and bad timing, both albums were chocka with glammed up excess and classic rock-n-roll riffs. their return can not come soon enough for ireallylovemusic hq. and in other news : joy zipper are touring the uk! details are all over their redesigned website, along with a rather bizarre rundown on each of the tracks on the new album 'the heartlight set'. an album which has just been reviewed by a certain lo-tech website located not too far away from here. that's enough for now. but if anyone goes along to the tDR evensing, please report back to me, and make me wish i had gone along onwards! mark e ireallylovemusic

bassomatic - old school revival

hello. on the day the world discovers if the hype for the new gorillaz album is worthy i have decided to take it right back. right back to 1990. innocent days when house, reggae, hiphop were blended to make quality pop songs, when bands and characters like neneh cherry, bomb the bass, s'express and baby ford stormed the charts making the world a lot more smiley, colourful and downright funky. during this william orbit created bass-o-matic - a dayglo, acid house, ibizia fuelled collective. the first album was pure genius mixing klf like trance epics ('set the controls for the heart of the bass') all the way through to the glorious ska'd up 'fascinating rhythm', via the genre busing 'ease on by' that has the most melting mash of soul and dubbed up bass lines to have hit my stereo. i'm certain massive attack were listening. gorgeous. unfortunately the second album, 'science and melody', didn't continue the chart dominance factor, despite have a couple of cracking tracks, so william went off to play around with world music, ambience (the 'strange cargo' trilogy) and various production masterpieces ('one dove') before being brought back to the pop world by madonna many years later. even so .. let us rejoice in the glory of those 2 long gone classics, here in slighty remixed forms. > ease on by - ram factor 10 mix : here > fascinating rhythm - claudia cannigga mix (remix by renegade soundwave) : here onwards mark e ireallylovemusic

stuff and nonsense for a grotty thursday

got all sorts in the pile .. so here's a quick rundown > maximo park - the new album out on warp now. first listen saw me rattle an email off to the PR saying how shit it was. ooops. should have held back on that ! i now love the album. the excessive northern-ness in the vocals, the spiky (ooh. go on then .. 'angular') guitars, the odd dash of cheap and cheerful synths has made this a firm fave this week. > jamie liddel - multiply - new album out soon .. as with maximo park - this is a warp release, priving that the label are seriously out to obliterate the tagline 'techno label', and what with the indie boys in t'park and now this white boy funk protege the labels process is complete. coming on from the drop out of twisted midi fu(n)k of super_collider jamie has a voice that impresses/soothes and contorts .. amongst the strange soundscapes are some drop dead classic tracks. full review tba > wordsmith - the roadman showcase - a uk hip hop album from the excellent son records stable. straight and mean. not the mans proper album, more a work in progress style of release. its good, despite the fact i spotted a rick wakeman sample ! > garrett - demos - you want more of that punked up noisy stuff with a dash of funk. then drop your firefox browser to this bands site and see what you think. i know what i think, and its favourable. > akira the don - aaa ep. part 2 in the mans quest to take over the world. with the big names coming into the action in later parts of the game check out this fruity loops enhanced ep with tales of loss, hope and rejection all while being plugged into future .. other stuff : drinkme - noisy electropop styled madness from this new london hope, and of course there is the small matter of the gorillaz album next week. but that's another story. till next time. mark e ireallylovemusic

<< joy zipper - the heartlight set >>

well this appeared out of nowhere ! after the long protracted drawn out hassles with the band last album 'american whip' the new album is set to appear in the first week of june, and this time it looks like its actually going to happen as planned. having listened to the album twice i can now confirm - it's ace. but then what else would you expect from me. buzzy fuzzy guitars, sunshine kissed harmonies, girl-boy vocals = result yes .. tis a new Joy Zipper album. oh. and the bands website has all sorts of new stuff : here also this week i have been rather chuffed to get a chance to hear the last album by the house of love, featuring guy chadwick with his guitar hero terry bickers .. ok, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since they were on top of the world, but there are several classic House of Love moments ('kinda love'), making you want to go into the archives and dig out the bands classics. and the weirdest thing i have heard : DFA 1979 doing a cover of Bloc Party's 'luno', having never heard DFA 1979 before this one could take some getting used to. other mentions : One Self (Vadim + pals) - gorgeous soul/hip hop, the scaramanga six new version of 'horrible face', and my ongoing love for the album from The Departure. but hey thats all out of the window for a few days while i get back to joy zipper land. i may be gone some time. mark e ireallylovemusic

an update : foetus, lcd soundsystem, and more ..

hello. after years of being a follower of the fun and games by he who is known as FOETUS i have amazingly been given some answers to some basic q's (afterall this aint The Wire), then within hours of posting that personal highlight, i was sent a wonderful article about LCD Soundsystem by ireallylovemusic's scribe on the road, John Doran. both are now online in the q&a section of ireallylovemusic oh, and reviews for all sorts of news bits and pieces, including son records compilation of excellent uk hip hop, novamutes latest techno hero, 'lawrence', the guitar loaded album by the boxer rebellion, the return of thomas leer, temposhark, new warp funk from chok rock. current listening : lovely album by pilots of japan, four tet, excellent new mixtape by james lavelle's unklesounds project. too much fun ! mark e ireallylovemusic