Tuesday, August 01, 2006
hello.
 following last weeks pain, can i please introduce  you to the latest kid on the blogging block : 
  rss feed : 
  the archive has been dragged over, all links are  active, and so after a week or so i will delete this one, so please update your  bookmarks/rss feeds. unless you care not.
 onwards !
 mark e
 
    Monday, July 31, 2006
gosh : blowback
well that one got posted !
 so here's some more.
 you know when you wander into cool, beautifully  designed clothes/record shops and think, why cant there be magazines like this.  
 especially free ones.
 well, of course, there is  : blowback.
 blowback magazine is a half size  magazine but still packs it all in. beautiful art and design, funked up visuals.  all over the place writings and so much more, and yes in the archives are a  few words here and there written by yours truly (the akira the don interview was  my career highlight !) 
 until recently, blowback was a printed pleasure  only. 
 however, recently they pulled their fingers and  launched a proper website.
 admittedly, the use of embedded frames can be a  little tricky, but work with it as there is all manner of goodness on  offer.
 next up : drones and thrones.  maybe.
 mark e
 
    testing the waters: circlesquare
after last weeks disastrous attempt at blogging -  here's another one.
 a day or two in london has provided all manner of  interesting things to absorb some of which may be mentioned here, however, there  is probably a lot that wont. 
 did you realise i was such a grisly  tease?
 but all of that tittle tattle pales into  insignificance when placed alongside the glorious fight sounds ep by  the artist known as circlesquare.
 deep empty space infultrated by bleeps, monotonic  vocals and drum machines on low power never sounded so perfect.
 i mean really, go find, buy, or otherwise :   now.
 circlesquare : website
 m.e/ireallylovemusic
 Thursday, July 27, 2006
as heard ..
.. .on the chris moyles show this morning of all places !
new signing to the beats label, example gives lily allens 'smile' the old fashioned response treatment.
so being the public service provider i am, here are the details
onwards
mark e
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
dance your ass off
people.
 if this posts makes it through the blogger.com  system i'll be somewhat aghast considering the grief the bloody thing has given  me recently.
 however todays chunk of words is to tell you that  things @ ireallylovemusic hq are in a new mood.  
 as i have mentioned previously, i go through  periods of disinterest. normally when this happens, i fall back on certain  forms of comfort music, reggae is a good one, or in my case, my old  madness records, though more recently this has been replaced  with rachel stevens last cd ! 
 well earlier this week i started to feel a little  fed up with the current pile. nothing was really doing it for me. 
 then out of nowhere i received an email from a  techno label, rednetic.
 having a dig around their nice and minimal site, i  came across the detail that one of their tracks ('life in widescreen' -  by mint) has been licenced to the recent steve  lawler mix, viva. so i dug the mix out, and gave the relevant  disc a spin. wow. 
 i loved the pure simplicity of the grooves, with  modern synthetic ambience, massive widescreen productions and the deeper than  deep beats and bass lines. 
 i didn't have to care about the vocals, there  aren't any, nor do i have to respect the variety in cutting edge  production, styles etc. tis just a great set of pounding machine made noises  (sometimes not so pounding) that work really well. no weird experimetal laptop  crunching, no major sonic twists and turns, and so the mix became a wonderful  addition to the current pile to work to.
 this sonically induced pleasure then made me dig  out the other dance mixes i have received recently, and, ever since, i have  thoroughly enjoyed them on constant rotation to the point of concern to others  around me. it's possibly something to do with the non-human aspect of the groove  music, my head aint being battered by blokes and gals telling me all about their  problems, or giving cause for their anger. this is perfectly disco-nnected music  for the head, pure technology enhanced music where bad moods need not  apply.
 in fact, a lot of this is almost like ambient  music. its just there on the headphones making my head bop, but not really  engaging on any other level other than a rhythmic enjoyment. it has been a long  time since i enjoyed pure dance music as much as this, but these mixes have  totally been spot on this week : 
 steve lawler - lights out  3
 james holden - at the  controls 
 hernan cattaneo -  sequential
 john digweed -  transitions
 dave seaman - the masters  series - vol 7
 damian lazarus/matthew styles -  get lost (disc 1 especially - disc 2 gets a little too weird and strange !)  
 steve lawler - viva (disc 3 is  a more ambient set than you'd normally expect from steve)
 so, please forgive the lack of updates, i'm off to  have a little dance, well in my head that is.
 ta.
 mark e
 
    Tuesday, July 25, 2006
typically glorious.
that previous post got through !
 so with no nonsense. no frills. 
 here's the music
 band :  diefenbach
 track : glorious
 remix : silent running.
 it's good.
 enjoy.
 mark e
  alternatives to blogger.com ?
go on then. i give up.
 any suggestions - especially if i can suck all  the blogger.com postings over ? 
 i have emailed so many postings recently - all into  the ether.
 guess its time to move on. 
 this party is obviously over.
 mark e
  Friday, July 21, 2006
friday treat - part 1
folks.
 another treat to beat the heat to.
 this time it's a little special for anyone who  chilled out way back in the 90's to the masters of the spaced out instrumental  hip hop groove skylab.
 matt ducasse, aka skylab, is now involved with the  live band for new electro kitten anne booty, aka coco  electrik.
 so, for the forthcoming single, apple pie,  matt has revived his much loved alter-ego, and applied his trademarked sugar  dust coating, giving the delicate stripped down electro of the original, a  certain widescreen glitterstomp beat, that will make fans of goldfrapp grin like  cheshire cats.
 more detail : coco electrick : 
 apple pie : skylab remix :  
 oh, the coco electrik album, army behind the  sun, is due any day now.
 fun fun and some more fun.
 mark e
 ireallylovemusic
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
archive : again : mp3
hello.
 in the uk things are hot hot hot at the moment. so  much so that it feels unnatural to listen to fast-n-furious disco-electro-punk'd  up dance music and the need to keep the groove somewhat mellow. with this in  mind, i started digging through my archives when i remembered  archive.
 a band which originally started out as a trip hop  band who released a couple of well received albums on a major (island records)  and then from the casual fan disappeared.
 however, the story didn't end there. the band  changed personal, regrouped, and somehow released a third album, 'you all  look the same to me' on hangman records.
 the packaging was wonderful, so whenever the album  was in the bargain bins i always looked and wondered exactly what the record  would sound like. eventually, curiosity got the better of me.
 so i cracked the seal on the cd and read the notes.  the album consists of 7 tracks, 2 of which are over 16 minutes, and the rest  never fall below 5 !
 hmmm. something had changed.
 within the thank you notes i think there is a clue.  'dave gilmour'. having listened to the awesome 16 minute opener,  'again', recently, the debt to pink floyd is hugely  obvious. 
 the slow build up, the use of sci-fi production,  the swelling hammond organ riffs, the timeless epic nature of the music  makes this rather special. gone are the trip hop timestamps, gone are the girl  vocals, cliched raps, and instead the band have stepped aside from the usual  chart bound musics. 
 the rest of the album has nods towards more  experimental noises (ambient, industrial soundscapes are often referenced in the  sonic detail), showing that they had a desire to delve into machine based extras  alongside their grandiose mix of talk talk and massive attack.
 basically, if you see this album looking lonely in  the sales racks, i cannot stress enough how you should give this album a  try.
 so to tease you some more, and to celebrate  ireallylovemusic getting a chunkier chunk of webspace,  here is the full length version of 'again' : here
 kick back, relax, open a magazine and let this  slice of excellence help you drift off.
 oh, and to finish off. the band are still going.  just that no-one uk-side seems to be interested as their latest album has been  released on the french division of warners, with no definite plan to  release the record locally. so head over to the bands site and practise your  french.
 thank you.
 mark e
  