Is That A 7″ In Your Pocket?

Having spent much of the past two years conspiring with our fellow bloggers to destroy the music industry as we know it, we felt that 2009 was as good a year as any to pick up the pieces and rebuild it in our own image.

With that in mind, ladies and gentlemen we are delirious with joy to present to you our very own record label, Hot Pockets.

February 2009 will see the release of our debut 7″, and trust us it is great, three and a half minutes of sublime electronic pop music. Full details to come soon, but for now you’ll have to make do with a party to mark this momentous occasion. Apparently millions have already gathered in Washington to celebrate this historic day, now you can to. Friends can we change the music industry, YES WE CAN!

Join us for a night of raucous celebration on Saturday 31st of January at newly tarted up boozer Ivan’s Retreat in Brixton, where we will be spinning a very special slutty selection, bring your dancing shoes, you’ll need them.

If you’d like to join the all new Slutty Fringe / Hot Pockets mailing list and get news of our releases and parties, thoughts on the world and maybe some sneaky exclusive tracks delivered direct to your inbox then drop us an email here and we’ll hook you up.

Chain Reaction

So without wishing to earn a rep as  ‘that AIDS blog‘ and a support slot on the next Elton John tour, we bring you news of a new compilation ‘Dark Of The Night‘ released on 4AD, with all proceeds going to the Red Hot Organization – an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture.

Featuring the likes of Arcade Fire, Spoon, The National, Sufjan Stevens, Feist, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, The Decemberists, The Books & Hose Gonzalez, Iron and Wine, My Morning Jacket, Beirut, Cat Power, The New Pornographers, and Yo La Tengo, you have to say if scientists had spent half as much time and energy combating the AIDS virus as musicians have the past twenty years we’d probably be back to a golden age of rampant barebacked sex with strangers. Shame on you medical community.

Anyway, till the day they do get a grip on it you’ll just need to keep an even tighter grip on your junk and remember to bag up, no great hardship really. Remember you may only be able to catch it once but AIDS is no joke.

Here is a track off the compilation from The Dirty Projectors, most notable for featuring the dulcet tones of David Byrne. The album is out February 16th, you may wish to show your support by buying it.

Dirty Projectors feat. David Byrne – Knotty Pine

In an entirely seemless segue I would now like to draw your attention to a re-edit that got hurled in our direction over the weekend from a chap named Sapo. Splicing and dicing the muy sexual ‘Get Down Make Love’ by Queen, he’s given it a loving spit and polish, perfect for sophisticated modern dancefloors.

Sapo also runs ESP Records and has just set up a new imprint Mad On The Moon which will be focusing on nu-disco, funk-cosmic and psychedelic stuff. Expect to see releases from some reknowned beards from that scene in the shops soon.

Queen – Get Down Make Love (Sapo Squeeze Mix)

A couple of years ago I made a pilgrimage to Zanzibar the birth place of the sainted Freddy Mercury, whilst there seemed some confusion as to the exact location of his nativity with every other local trying to convince me that their restaurant was built on the blessed plot. Still I enjoyed a pleasant night under the stars at Mercury’s in  Stone Town and had a very nice french onion soup, highly recommended should you be in the area.

Apart from that my experience of Africa is pretty limited really, consisting of the aforementioned and a brief nose around Egypt as a kid.  Even then time has dimmed my memory,  so that my entire recollection of Egypt consists solely of being tricked into eating a camel burger and my annoyance at not being allowed to climb the pyramids.

None of which though has stopped me enjoying this club banger courtesy of Houston’s Afrika (see what I did there, this is some primo journalism shizzle you’re witnessing) that dropped into my inbox on Saturday.

A former hip-hop troupe, they’ve abandoned the realness in favour of a more electro sound, though thankfully they’re referring to the kind of classic 80’s jams that you have you breaking out the lino rather than jumping around a club in Shoreditch with your dick in your hand.

If you like cut and paste, Mantronix style beats you’ll want to get on this.

Afrika – Move It

Right, lunchtime over, back to the grind.

On Yo Majesty’s Not So Secret Service

Being a lesbian must be off the fucking chain. I should know I’ve watched enough, errr… documentaries on the subject.

Anyway Shunda K of Yo Majesty sure sounds like she’s having fun on this new EP, ‘Le Passion Yo’ she’s recorded with Brooklyn’s Kotchy. 4 Tracks of glitched up, electronic beats and breathless sleazy raps. 3 sleazy slow jams that sound like Rustie remixing Jam & Lewis, perfect for a little bump and grind and 1 more up-tempo number perfect for working up some girl sweat to. Club bangers one and all.

No release date as of yet so fill your boot with these 2 tracks for now. Right I’m off to get in touch with my inner girl in the bathroom.

Kotchy – Holla

Kotchy & Shunda K – We Feelin’ Each Other

Thanks to Mark at Civil Music for sending these over.

Footloose

NYC duo Flagrant Fowl swiftly follow up their Canyon Dancing EP with the fifth release snappily titled FF005 which sees Cousin Cole and Pocketknife putting the pitchfolk favourite retouches to one side and instead focus on sublime danceteria refixes of hipster jerkoff favourites.

Cousin Cole takes on Pop Art’s most famous exponent and a man of uncrushed ego, Kanye West, and succeeds where others have failed in improving on that musical equivalent of marmite, Love Lockdown, a favourite with A Trak, with Cuz Cole’s uptempo acid disco rerub of Champion that was all over hypem a few weeks back also included for good measure.

Pocketknife contributes an extended version of his rejected remix of Lykke Li’s Breaking It Up, adding weight to the argument that some major labels lack even the smallest degree of musical taste when it comes to approving remixes (see the rotten egg CSS remix of Lykke Li for proof)

Lykke Li – Breaking It Up (Pocketknife Loosefoot Remix)

Vinyl heads in UK should will note it’s Record Of The Week status at  Piccadilly and the US based amongst you visit Turntable Lab to purchase.

Cousin Cole and Pocketknife also took part in the excellent Beats In Space radio show on Tuesday last week with typically excellent results, despite Mr Tim Sweeney showing audible signs of his NYE horse Meat Disco excursions catching up with him.

Those that indulge in Beats in Space podcasts will no doubt already  have enjoyed the show. Those that don’t might want to question where their life is going or maybe just take a listen

Beats In Space January 6th Part One – Pocketknife &  Cousin Cole

Beats In Space January 6th Part Two – Cousin Cole & Tim Sweeney

Get your podcast on here

It’s What You Do With It That Counts

Those of you who like to plan things well ahead may want to start reaching for a diary and a pencil as it has just been confirmed that Tony & I will be DJ’ing at Crazy P‘s concert at the Islington Academy in March (the 5th to be precise). This is what football pundits would describe as a bit of a result, especially as two of our favourite acts Line and Shock Defeat are also on the bill.

Tickets are on sale here and by all accounts selling nicely already. We have a pair of tickets to giveaway just email us and tell us what the ‘P’ in Crazy P stands for and we will randomly select one winner, hmmm… let’s say on Friday week (the 23rd).

If that wasn’t enough you can also wrap your ears around a little mix that Danni from the band put together for a radio show recently, we give and we give and we give.

Crazy P – 30 Minute Radio Mix

Full House!

You ever go to the bingo as a kid? I still vividly remember many a night spent in chilly community halls in Cornwall, desperately working 10 different game cards in the hope of waltzing off at the end of the night with an oversized marrow. Great days.

In the quest for some wholesome, quaintly retro family friendly fun we decided to give our local bingo hall a go last year, but sadly it just seemed to be full of morbidly obese people shovelling coins into slot machines and bellowing at one another over the sound of Tammi from Bolton winning half a million via their televised live national link-up. Give me marrows, obliging farmer’s daughters and suspiciously out of date bottles of stout anyday.

A world away from Surrey Quays Gala Bingo lies DJ Zinc‘s Bingo Beats, who the last time I handed over good money for one of their records (Jammin’s ‘Go DJ’ back in 2001 fact fans) were pursuing a kind of hard mutated garage meets electro breaks route. Anyway out of the blue, a new mix from Zinc dropped into our inboxes this week and obviously I should have been paying more attention over the years as it’s packed full of the kind of blog friendly acts (Hot Chip, Boy 8-Bit, Fake Blood, etc) that you (lovely) slags can’t get enough of.

So just in case like me you might have missed this, correct yourself and grab it here… Tracklisting after the jump.

DJ Zinc – House Mix

It’s All About The…

I know it can be sometimes hard to remember that there’s more to Brazilian music than chopped up eighties rock samples, the tamborzao beat and someone shouting about big asses but the country has produced some glorious music over the years, from bossa nova to the Tropicalia movement of the sixties and some punishingly loud thrash metal in the eighties.

One label who has been doing a pretty good job of documenting the more leftfield offerings from the country over the years is the excellent Far Out Recordings, who have just sent us the new EP from Rio’s Rabotnik entitled ‘Lounge Ass’. You see even when we stay well clear of the baile’s there’s just no getting away from the rump with these crazy kids, though to be fair if I spent most my days surrounded by Brazilian women there’s a fair chance I’d have devolved into some kind of rapacious cartoon wolf by now too.

Anyway back to the music, Rabotnik spurn their fellow countrymen’s love of cheap synthetic drums instead opting for something more expansive and experimental, this is darkly cinematic electronic mood music,  run through with a post-rock edge (I’ve just read that back and I apologise for the awful sub-OMM hack writing there, still it’s the best my brain can do today) all of which puts me in mind of the also excellent Capitol K, always a good thing.

Annoyingly of all the tracks I’ve heard, DDP, the one the label have let us put up is probably my least favourite. Still if you can ignore the one or two brief moments when it sounds like the guitarist from Thunder has accidentally walked into the studio it should give you an idea of what to expect from the rest of the EP. Right I’m off to Google at popozudas.

Rabotnik – DDP

Oh, and since we’re on the subject of Brazilian music  if you’re in the mood from something a little different try hunting down Milton by Milton Nasciemento, recorded in ’76 with Herbie Hancock, it’s one of my favourite albums ever and not a fat ass in sight.

More Props & Stunts Than Bruce Willis

Thanks to R Whites, my childhood was blighted by nightmares involving a sinsister Roy Orbison lookalike creeping round my kitchen in the middle of the night to feed his lemonade addiction.

Thus to this day I treat Lemonade with the contempt most reserve for the plague.

Either Pure Groove affiliates Singleton & Stopmakingme are too young to remember this haunting advert or they’re made of sterner stuff.

This assumption is made as they recently decided to add some plinky acid line remix pzazz to Big Weekend by Lemonade, perhaps the twelth thousandth, six hundredth and thirty fifth hotly tipped band to surface from one of the districts of New York City since I woke up.

Lemonade – Big Weekend (Singleton & Stopmakingme Remix)

Yoruban Soul

The next Dre$$ 2 $weat release sees the club loving Glasgow inprint fly out to Kansas City and knock on Tactic’s front door and offer them deep fried produce in return for tracks to boggle to.

Obviously exciting news, if only because it means Dre$$ 2 $weat don’t solely put out music by people whose name ends with E – Rustie, Rod Lee and Piddy Pee all being previous contributers to the hype label.

Tactic are so stoked they decided to edit the awesome Gel Abril track Spells of Yoruba into something that bangs a little harder and then shoot it out of a canon in the general direction of blogland.

Gel Abril – Spells of Yoruba (Tactic Edit)

Abandon Ship

With the mainstream media whipping itself up into a frenzy over 2009 supposedly being the year of the synth pop girl act (only yesterday the irritating Alexis Petridish used the Weekend magazine portion of the Guardian to fawn over Little Boots) the fact ickle Micachu is on the cusp of releasing her debut LP, Jewellery can be seen as something of an antidote.

Out on Accidental on February 2nd, Jewellery is anything but polished female sythpop, with a charming fuzzy veneer present over all 15 tracks. Matthew Herbert may have acted as producer but thankfully his slightly tiresome ‘let’s make a musically political statement with this avocado and a copy of The Sun” approach is entirely absent.

Jewellery has been soaking up the battery on my ipod for several weeks now and will undoubtedly feature on the Slutty Fringe 2009 best of lists which will be great this year, promise.

Here are two of my favourite tracks from the album, you can listen to more at the Micachu Last FM page

Micachu – Abandon Ship

Micachu – Golden Phone

Those of you that consider yourself a fan of both Micachu and Late Of The Pier are in luck as the former is supporting the later on tour throughout the cities of the UK in February.

Troubled Vision

We’ve spent the past few months at home perched by our turntables, listening to Happy House on repeat and pondering whether the new album from The Juan Maclean could possibly replicate such awesomeness over the course of 11 tracks.

Annoyingly, those cheeky people at Scion AV have distracted  the cyborg disco outfit from achieving such a task by challenging them to remix Roy Davis Jnr’s I Have A Vision for their latest release.

Vociferous complaints would be made if the results weren’t a slice of typically splendid acid tinged space disco from DFA’s resident Iain Dowie lookalike.

Roy Davis Jnr – I Have A Vision (The Juan MacLean Remix) (via RCRD LBL)

Other artists tasked with moulding Roy in their own music include Freddy ‘The French’ Falke and Todd ‘ The God’ Edwards.

We Get Around

Big plans are afoot this year for Team Slutty Fringe, one of them being a long overdue site redesign (in part to appease cheeky Timeout writers) another being something that can’t be talked about just yet but is all very exciting.

What is certain is Team Slutty Fringe are starting to use our reputations as  highly skilled DJs with impeccable musical tastes, hard drinkers, heart breakers and Gents who generally know how to rock the good look to our advantage with the opportunity to entertain clubbers in London and beyond.

Words has already been written about Team Slutty Fringe doing the Be thing in Camden this Saturday along with a bunch of bands to fill the space left by last years next big things

But before I share a cab towards Camden with a driver who will invariably detail just how corrupt Indian police are, I’ll be warming up for Backyard Recordings Tronik Youth at the newly regarmed Victoria down Mile End way at the launch party for E3 Allstars, new night from NBA obsessives Radeo Vidio.

As promo the Radeo Vidio kids put together this splendid little mix as a taster of what to expect at a E3 Allstars party.

Radeo Vidio Business As Usual Tracklisting

1. The Beatles – Hello, Goodbye
2. Dragonette – Sharp Dressed Man
3. Beni – My Love Sees You
4. Gameboy/Gamegirl – Fruit Salad (Round Table Knights Remix)
5. MSTRKRFT – Bounce (A-Trak Remix)
6. Alex Gopher – Aurora (autoKratz Remix)
7. Yuksek – I Like To Play
8. Act Yo Age – Love Bounce Parade
9. JoJo De Freq – Welcome To Dalston
10. AIH – The Beep (Radioclit Remix)
11. Ace of Base – All That She Wants
12. DJ Assault – Yo Relatives
13. Rex The Dog – We Sleep in Daddy’s Car
14. The Glimmers – I’d Much Rather Go (Out With The Boys)
15. We Have Band – Oh (Micachu Remix)
16. Deep Dish – Flashdance
17. La Roux – Quicksand (autoKratz Drags to Riches Remix)
18. The Death Set – The Street (Bumblebeez Remix)
19. Mr Oizo – Cut Dick
20. In Flagranti – Genital Blue Room
21. SebastiAn – Momy (Erol Alkan’s Simple, Yet Effective Edit)
22. Thomas Bangalter – Roule Boule
23. Oh Snap! – High Top Fade
24. Cut Copy – Far Away (Damn Arms Remix)
25. DJ Mehdi – Pocket Piano (Joakim Remix)
26. A.D.A.M Baby – Hi Beam Baby
27. Breakbot – Summer Party
28. The Teenagers – Feeling Better (Don Roc Remix)

Download here [zshare]

For a taster of where Tronik Youth is at musically right now check out his forthcoming remix of Rex The Dog

Rex The Dog – Heartsong (Tronik Youth Mix) [myspace]

Loud En Up Now

So as mentioned in my ‘painfully obvious review of the year’ I’ve become quite partial to the tasty treats served up at the Ambassador’s Reception, one of a clutch of superior re-edit labels that stood out from the crowd in 2008.

With sometime Chicken Lips DJ and full time Bear Funk’er Stevie Kotey and Dolan Bergin (who also runs the excellent Electric Minds label) in control AR was always going to be one to watch, that to date pretty much all the twelve inches released have been by Dutch disco obsessive Loud E just made it unmissable and guaranteed that every release has swiftly made it’s way into my shopping basket.

As befits someone who has been hunting down and playing out the choicest obscure disco cuts for several years now, most notably on I-F’s much missed CBS radio station, his re-edits are no mere cut and paste hack jobs of obvious floor fillers but instead perfectly refined slabs of dance floor devastation.

If you’ve been unlucky enough to have been cornered by me in a club in recent months you’ll already probably be sick of me going on about the last EP with the psychotically heavy ‘Afrika, Afrika’. Trust me you need this record in your life, if I was in the habit of driving drunk around Lagos in the middle of the night with just a bag of collie weed for company this would be in the tape deck every time. I don’t know where he finds the originals but I’d pay good money to tag along on one of his crate digging missions.

Anyway now after 11 releases on vinyl, the Ambassador has reached out to those that prefer to smear jam on their music and compiled 11 of Loud E’s heaviest unreleased bangers on to one CD, Loud E Fied. A collection that hangs together so well as a coherent whole that it further blurs the already rather hazy line between re-edited track and sample based ‘original’.

Ranging in nature from stomping Moroder-esque arpeggiated synth jams and lush orchestral maneuvers in the dark to slow-mo percussive tribal work outs and full on funk freak outs, the common theme running through all these tracks is the feeling that they could be sound tracking green skinned space vixens getting hot and heavy with some tentacled player at a discotheque on Venus.

I’ve been extensively road testing this album in clubs for the past month or so now and am happy to report that every track is a winner. With the last few years’ disco renaissance showing little sign of slowing up as we hurtle through into ’09, it’s highly unlikely this will be the last collection of re-edits you’ll be hearing about this year, but it will be one that you’ll still be going back to in 12 months to come.

Loud E – Highways of Haze

Released on the 23rd, Loud E Fied would be a worthwhile addition to any collection, you should be able to pick it up from any of the usual suspects, for their services to my own personal bankruptcy I’d recommend Piccadilly.

Whilst we’re on the subject of disco, a big slutty thanks to all of you who put NYE hangovers and thoughts of credit crunches and detoxes out of mind and came down to Cargo last Friday. Over 800 of you made it, which… well let’s just say we were very happy and slightly overwhelmed to see and judging by the happy faces on the packed dancefloor at the end of the night it was worth braving the cold for. A special big thanks to Soft Rocks, Bill Brewster, Jonny Burnip and The Romantic Motherfuckers for giving up the comfort of their homes and joining us.

Still no rest for the wicked and this Saturday (10.1.09) Tony and I will be spinning discs in between and after the likes of Let’s Wrestle, Tin Can Telephone and Cats in Paris at Be‘s night at the Proud Gallery in Camden. We’d to see some fringes in the crowd so if you drop us a line HURRR with names before Saturday we’ll stick you down on our cheap guestlist.

I’m Done With 2008 (part) Too

Here I sit three days into the year that is referred to 2009 huddled over an ancient Mac and rocking the Chesire Cat look (dimples and all) after a very pleasing evening of disco and danceteria at Cargo……

yet daunted by my own penchant for procrastination that has seen the hotly anticipated tonypoland rubberstamped end of year round up, wanky lists and all, put to the side over the festive period in favour of some, yes some, cultural enlightening, lots of naan bread and reading.

Without further ado, here be the hastily cobbled together list of things what my ears did enjoy in that last year

________________________________

Tony Poland Slutty Fringe 2008 Wanky List And A Spot Of Interviewing

Favourite Label – RVNG INTL

One of the many factors that comprise my love of New York City, RVNG killed it this year with some lovingly crafted 12 inch releases from Todd Terje, Jaqcues Renault & Greg Wilson; an astounding transatlantic punk revue mix package from JD Twitch; plus a website that informed us what The Dirty Soundsystems 10 favourite things about Spring were and what Greg Wilson’s 10 most read books were. No contest for these ears and eyes.

Honourable mention directed to the following

DFA, Tirk, D*I*R*T*Y, Fools Gold, Dissident, Social Registry, Mindless Boogie, Wurst Edits, Mad Decent, Tiny Sticks, Turbo, Rong Music, Italians Do It Better and all the other labels for raping my current account.

________________________________________

Top Ten Tracks Of 2008

Eamon Harkin – Innit // Wurst Edits
Juan Maclean – Happy House // DFA
DJ Mujava – Township Funk// This Is Music
Telepathe – Chromes On It // I Am Sound
Rubies Feat. Feist – I Feel Electric // IDIB
Richard Sen & Cabzee – Cat Dance // Autodiscotechuque
Syclops – Where’s Jason K? // DFA
Micachu – Golden Phone // Accidental
Glass Candy – Feeling Without Touching // IDIB
Late Of The Pier – The Enemy Are The Future // Zarcorp

___________________________________________

Top Ten Remixes of 2008

Chocolate Star Record Co – The Professor Is Here (Greg Wilson Remix) // Rong
Dave P & Adam Sparkles – Sunday Night In Glasgow (Twitch’s  I Watched My Bassbins In 91 Mix) //S.O.L.
Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane Remix feat. Au Revoire Simone) // XL
Pink Skull – Drugs Will Keep Us Together (Trevor Loveys Remix) // Savant Guard
Crazy P – Love On The Line (Unabombers Vocal Remix // 20:20 Vision
Sisters Of Transistors – The Don (Acid Girls Somthing Else Remix) // This Is Music
Late Of The Pier – The Bears Are Coming (BTWS Remix) // Zarcorp
Discodeine – Tom Select (Joakim Remix) // Dark & Lovely
Franz Ferdinand – Ullyses (BTWS Remix) // Domino
Kanye West – Champion (Cousin Cole Acid Dub Slow) // Flagrant Fowl

________________________________________________

Top Ten Fully Embracing The Disco Bandwagon Edits of 2008

Wade Nicholls – Wanda Rode Again // RVNG
Hell Vice – Craw Fish (Pilooski Edit) // Dark & Lovely
LSB – Shout // Super Discoteca
C. Denner – T.R.O.U.B.L.E. // Moxie
Rolling Stones – Miss U (Karizma Edit) // K2 Edits
Peter Visti – Summer In The City // Mindless Boogie
Chic – I Want Your Love (Hello Kenny Edit) // Supreme
T & T – Don’t Stop // Music Factory
The Amazing Bingo Band – Mars (Nitedog’s Lunar Lunch) // Blackdisco
Klein & MBO – Dirty Talk (Greg Wilson Edit) //Flexx

_______________________________________

Musical Hero figures in 2008 – Allez Allez

Allez Allez performed the fuction of musical enlightement for many in the last 12 months from their all encompasssing podcast series that featured the likes of Fourtet, Tronik Youth, OSCARR, Flagrant Fowl and Müm to rather special DJ sets that eschew obvious track selection for amazing songs you’ve not heard of.

Back in December I managed to get some words of wisdom from Sam & Steve Allez Allez on how 2008 treated them

Slutty Fringe: This year has seen Allez Allez parties slowly fazed out in favour of playing for other people. Was this simply to cut out the stress of promoting in favour of the superstar DJ lifestyle, or more a decision based on the current clubbing climate in London?

Sam – Our parties at the Amersham Arms were a lot of fun, but towards the end we felt that we’d exhausted all the guests that we really wanted to play for us (and were achievable given our budget / door price etc.).. Also, the DJing was always our favourite part of putting on our own night, and we’re fortunate enough that people are into what we do enough to get us to come and play for them! also making music / remixing has become a bigger part of what we do, so it’s important to allow some time for that too as we both still have day jobs, and there’s only so many hours in the day!

Do you think we will see a return of Allez Allez  in a clubnight format?

SAM – We have some very special events planned over the coming months, we’d rather do one off specials rather than tie ourselves down to a regular residency.
Allez Allez have played throughout Europe this year, which has been the party of the year for you?
STEVE – i reckon it got to be a toss up between playing a Bugged Out party in Paris in the summer – mostly for a couple of guys whose amazing Napolean Dynamite-type dancing somehow a conga going on the dancefloor – or playing the Moroder’s brilliant Cosmic Dancer party in Dresden. Great venue (a converted betting shop), really nice crowd and a bar owner who was detirmed that we sampled every beer he had on offer.

The Allez Allez podcast goes from strength to strength, the flagrant fowl was without doubt my favourite contribution to the canon in 2008, whose participation were you most impressed with?

STEVE: we’ve been lucky enough to have an embarassment of riches guest wise this year but i think Luke Abbot’s mix was a jem of a mix taking in many different styles but still making sense as a cohesive whole. Also i going blow Sam’s trumpet a little and say his recent ‘In the Pocket’ mix is outstanding.

Allez Allez have been dipping their pinky toes in the remix waters with some impressive re-imaginations of High Places and Heartbreak, which one track would you have loved to remix this year?

SAM – Panda Bear’s ‘Bros’, it’s such a great track, I really would have loved to have beefed it up and tripped it out a bit further to make it more dancefloor friendly… I’m super pleased with the High Places mix though, as it was such an absolute joy to do, and Mary (from High Places) has such a lovely voice that made it so easy.

What have been you three most loved albums of the year?

STEVE: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus Dig!  : best they been in years. Rachel Unthank & the Winterset – The Bairns : single handedly justified the existence of the Mercury Music Prize for me. I’m still listening to it constantly.Gavin Bryars/ Philip Jeck/ Alter Ego – The Sinking of The Titanic : only discovered this last week but its already jumped to be one of my favourite of the years. 72 minutes of genius. Not that Alter Ego (I checked).

Which record label have you consistently checked in 2008?

STEVE: Yikes! There are so many label out there doing amazing work that i’m always checking out. Naming one would be folly so to name a few Mule Musiq, Diynamic, Kompakt, 4AD and many more.

Who should we be keeping an eye and a ear out for in 2009?

SAM – The new Animal Collective album ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’, the new Antony & The Johnsons album ‘The Crying Light’ and the debut Allez-Allez single on Boxer Recordings!

Finally what do you want for Christmas?

SAM – An original Minimoog synth
STEVE – Something to fill the soon to be approaching West Wing sized hole in my life.

_____________________________________

Musical Heroine Figure in 2008 – Little Boots

Having spent a large portion of 2008 gushing over how much Slutty Fringe are fans of  Little Boots it was deemed only proper to award her the status of favourite female person what is involved in musics.

Victoria was kind enough to spare some time from reading all the newspaper articles espousing the rise of  the Female Synth Player in 2009 to answer some silly questions on how the last 12 months has beens.

Slutty Fringe: The year for Little Boots began with tracks being leaked on the internet mysteriously and ended with nationwide tours with heartbreak and obviously doing your bit for professional music journalism by answering these questions, was this all part of a masterplan schemed in your east london hovel?

Little Boots: Haha not really… when I first put stuck on repeat out there anonymously I didn’t really know what kind of reaction to expect… but looking over things now and when I think that this time last year I hadn’t even started using Little Boots I realise its kind of been a mad year. Hopefully 2009 is gonna be next level.

The early mystery over the identity of Little Boots has been adopted to varying degrees by other acts such as Fan Death, Fake Blood and The Golden Filter, can you see more acts going down this path in the future as a means to generate interest?

I don’t know, I never really did it to generate interest… at the time I’d only just left my old band and just wanted to do something quietly… also I didn’t want everyone to judge something by the image or a person or what they thought something was about… when you do something anonymously the music really does just have to speak for itself. It was quite funny seeing everyone get in a fuss over it though!

What is the strangest thing you have read about Little Boots on the internet?

Hmmm maybe that I should marry Frankmusik… I love Vince but that would be very weird!! Also someone wrote on my youtube page that they wanted to rape me with their one inch penis, not sure how that one would work…

Out of the several thousand Little Boots remixes done, which was your very very favourite?

There’s not that many! But hard question. Alexander Robotnick is a bit of a legend to me so that one is kind of special, and he gave it me as a gift because he liked the song so much which was amazing. The Treasure Fingers meddle remix is so good with the phone breakdown and the vocoders… but then the Designer Drugs 80s coke mix is also genius! God so hard, and you know Fake Blood is just a killer. What can I say I love them all.

The Little Boots band is now in full swing, what has been the highlight of your live shows to date?

Already so many… but the gigs in New York at CMJ were amazing, especially the last one at Fader Fort felt really special. And the Automatic Lovers tour we’ve just done in the UK was also great all the gigs were full which really meant a lot to me, the ICA gig in London the other week was sold out and had an amazing atmosphere I had such a good time on stage and it felt like a real defining moment… epic!

Will the fledgling Little Boots DJ career be left behind as a future in popstardom and competing with pixie geldof for bragging rights in the redtops awaits?

Haha… well I’m just about to DJ tonight in Rotterdam so its not stopping just yet… but I’ve had a bit of a realisation that I’ve been DJing about 10 months now and unless I seriously dedicate a lot of time and effort into getting really skilled and building up my record collection I’m just never gonna be as good as so many people I play with… and at the end of the day its not what I’m about, I love it and its fun but I’d rather spend time song writing and performing. So I’m sure I’ll keep doing it but more as a fun thing where I can just play what I want and have a fun time rather than worrying about doing a banging set and showing off!

Which have been your three most loved albums of the year?

Probably Hot Chip Made in the Dark, Metronomy Lights Out and Heartbreak Lies.

Who are you tipping for heavy coverage next year?

I think Florence & the machine will get a lot of coverage, and I really like Kid Cudi who does that Day & Night tune, still not bored of it! Personally I hope Heartbreak get bigger coz they really deserve it and are amazing, and there’s a band called The XX I really like what I’ve heard.

Finally, what do you want for Christmas?

A blue Roland SH 101 synth with mod grip. And I’ve been advised to get a rather large suitcase.

FIN

I’m Done With 2008

So we had a huge, spectacular end of year round up planned, the kind of thing that would be spoken of in hushed tones for years to come and would have been imortalised by future primitives, every word chiseled into tablets of stone. But real life intervened, it’s not like anyone pays us to do this (though if anyone wants to pay we can accept checks, cash, paypal and all major credit cards), and before you know it you’ve spent the last fortnight under a duvet, eating turkey and being shot at by 10 year olds on your new Xbox.

So anyway since my ego is currently Goodyear blimp sized after the piece in this week’s Time Out, I didn’t want my worthless opinions of what was good last year to go to waste. So from what little I can actually remember of it here is my best of 2008.

Oh and those of you not terminally bed bound and looking for one last blow out before you return to work on Monday, we are hosting a night of disco fun and frolics at Cargo in Shoreditch tonight. The line-up includes Soft Rocks, Bill Brewster, Capracara and The Romantic Motherfuckers, best of all it’s free to get in all night. Check here for more details…

John’s Slutty Fringe End of Year Round-up!

Label of the Year! – DFA Records

Painfully obvious maybe, but there’s no denying that DFA has been on FIYA in 2008, from the bath house sounds of Hercules and Love Affair, to Mock and Toof’s dubbed out disco and Juan Maclean’s euphoric club tracks it’s been all killer no filler all year. Throw in the excellent RongDFA and Death From Abroad labels and the choice was easy. With new releases from Capracara, and the Juan Maclean and Mock and Toof albums due next year, there’s a fair chance they’ll be occupying this spot again next year.

Runners Up
History Clock, Ambassador’s Reception

2008 was the year of the re-edit, and whilst there was a hundred new labels to choose from two stood out. Just 3 releases old History Clock, a superior re-edit label from Nathan Gregory Wilkins and Jonny Burnip has already established itself as unmissable. Taking the path less obvious the first three releases have taken in epic dark synth pop, psychedelic rock and space aged disco, essential.

Ambassador’s Reception coming to us from Amsterdam via East London has been another re-edit label happy to look way beyond the ususal, mainly thanks to the label boss Stevie Kotey and it’s chief splicer Loud-E. Loud-E’s debut album is out later this month till then though pick up Afrika, Afrika on twelve, possibly one of the heaviest tracks you’ll hear all year.

Single of the Year – The Juan Maclean – Happy House (DFA)

Since dropping through the letter box back in March Juan Maclean‘s epic, piano driven house number has never left my record bag. A turn for the euphoric from the ex-Six Finger Satellite man, this was a gorgeous update of classic house music and has made the new album one of the most anticipated of 2009. Even better on the flip was a re-rub from my favourite remixer of the year Prince Language who took the already rather heady original and with a dusting of cosmic snow launched the track into the cosmos on glittery wings of disco, undoubtedly the track of the year.

Runners Up
Glimmers – I’d Much Rather Go (Out With the Boys) (Diskimo), Franz Ferdinand – Ulysees (Wizard’s Sleeve Mix) (Domino), DJ Mujava – Township Funk (Warp), Little Boots – Stuck On Repeat, Loud-E – Afrika, Afrika (Ambassador’s Reception), Fan Death – Veronica’s Veil (Phantasy), King Cannibal – Aragami Style (Ninja Tune), Hercules & Love Affair – Blind [Club Mix] (DFA), Midnight Mike – Interplanetary Music (Ed Banger), Surkin – Next Of Kin/White Knight Two (Institubes), James Yuill – This Sweet Love (Moshi Moshi), Dez Dickerson – Modernaire (Citinite)

It really has been a singles year, either the Glimmers or The Wizard’s Sleeve re-rub of Ulysees could have taken the top spot, hopefully it is these two tracks that point towards where dance music is heading in 2009, stripped down, raw disco/Chicago influenced tracks that don’t turn into over driven, agro bangers for beery lads to get their dicks out on the dancefloor to. Seriously much as I personally have no animus towards Boys Noize, it was incredible how towards the end of the year their sound got co-opted by thousands of aggressive obnoxious jerks clubs the world over.

Still it wasn’t all bad for the French grind house collective, Ed Banger got major props for signing the wonderful Mickey Moonlight and Institubes released the incredible White Knight Two by Surkin, for someone born after most original acid tracks were made, he absolutely nailed the sound on this, beautiful stuff.

Elsewhere King Cannibal’s first release for Ninja Tune was one of the loudest sounds around and bodes well for his debut album, DJ Mujava updated the original bleep sound of Sheffield via South Africa’s Kwaito and clubs the world over fell for Hercules & Love Affair’s gorgeous Blind. Let’s hope 2009 matches up to its predecessor.

Album of the Year – Alexis Taylor – Rubbed Out (Treader)

Released with little fanfare back in October, the debut solo album from Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor was an understated affair in every sense. Still this modest, intimate set outshone every other release this year, including his own band’s effort. Bruised and emotionally raw it’s a perfect soundtrack for love and loss and the tender cover of McCartney’s Coming Up was one of the most beautiful things you’ll have heard all year.

We caught up with Alexis just before Christmas to see how his year had been…

Slutty Fringe: This year saw the release of both Hot Chip’s Made In The Dark and your own solo album Rubbed Out, throw in a few tours and festivals, and it’s been a pretty busy year for you, you happy with how it’s all gone?

Alexis Taylor: Yes really happy – glad to be busy playing and making records, and enjoying having met a lot of great musicians this year.

SF: Had Rubbed Out been planned for a while? Did you sit down and specifically write songs just for yourself or were they tracks that you’d written in the past but maybe didn’t feel right for the band?

AT: I tend to just write – and think about what it is I have written after it is done. These songs started to take shape together and feel better in their current state, rather than be turned into something else, something more ‘Hot Chip’. I felt like they had their own logic next to each other and also wanted them to come out quite quickly, without being toured for a long time before, during or after their recording, being shaped and reconsidered, or re-cast.

SF: Any plans to tour or just do some one-off solo shows?

AT: I think I will play the occasional show – but only when it feels fun to do that. With friends on the bill, or in interesting venues/settings i might not find myself in otherwise.

SF: What have you been listening to most this year?

AT: Swamp Dogg, Arthur Russell, comedian Steven Wright, Harry Nilsson,
Clipse, Syreeta, Peter Tosh, Rose Royce

SF: And which bands or artists would you tip or readers to look out for in 2009?

AT: Man Like Me, Pat Thomas!

SF: There’s been a few mentions in the press recently about the next Hot Chip album, how is it going? Will Peter Gabriel really be popping up on it? There was also some talk of you looking for a drummer, I’m sure he could put you in touch with his old band mate.

AT: Haha, Peter Gabriel would be welcome on any of our records, but there are no plans at the moment. Phil also would be welcome, but he would be our second drummer. I think if we have more than one drummer we would have to go one (or more accurately 11) better than the Boredoms and have 99 playing together, on the 9th of the 9th 2009.

SF: And what do you want for Christmas this year?

AT: Samuel Pepys’ diaries. Time with my wife, our cat, and my family.

Runners Up
Gonzales – Soft Power (Mercury), Metronomy – Nights Out (Because), Cut Copy – (Modular), Heartbreak – Lies (Lex), Pivot – O Soundtrack My Heart (Warp), Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair (DFA), Windsurf – Coastlines (Internasjonal), Lindstrom – Where you go I go too (Smalltown Supersound), Sportsday Megaphone – So Many Colours / So Little Time (Sunday Best), Hot Chip – Made In The Dark (EMI), Quiet Village – Silent Movie (!K7), Liquid Liquid – Slipping In and Out of Phenomenom (Domino), Allez Allez – Best Of (Eskimo), Veros Artists – Dissident Vol 1 (Dissident), Various – Dreams Come True (Domino)

To be honest I’ve probably spent most of this year listening to Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and The Byrds but in an effort to appear hip and ‘down with it’ I should mention Lindstrom’s dazzling 3 track cosmic masterpiece, Heartbreak’s glorious italo disco and Metronomy future pop classic, in fact all the albums on here are worth checking out, if they weren’t I wouldn’t have mentioned them!

Gig of the Year – Acid Mothers Temple @ White Heat

Without a doubt the live set of the year, Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno, the latest incarnation of Kawabato Makoto’s psychedelic troupe absolutely destroyed White Heat back in July. Pummeling drums, brain shredding psychedelic guitars amped up to 11 and booming throat chanting all made this a very special show, one that culminated in Makoto smashing his guitar into a thousand tiny pieces. Rock n’ fucking Roll!

Runners Up
Gonzales – ICA, Pivot – Be @ Proud Gallery, Specials – Bestival, Flaming Lips – Camp Bestival, Flying Lotus – Plastic People, My Bloody Valentine – Roundhouse

I could have filled this list with bands who have played at Be this year, but that would have been a bit dull so instead we’ll just find space for Pivot who slayed it. Elsewhere mention has to be made of My Bloody Valentine responsible for me losing my hearing for a few days over the summer, and the Specials (or at least most of them) whose surprise appearance at Bestival rescued what had been till then been the wettest, muddiest, grim weekends of the year.

Ones to Watch in 2009

I was going to tip Little Boots here but that’s just too painfully obvious, even for this round up, so let’s just assume that Victoria will be massive by this time next year and look elsewhere. Instead I’m opting for Capracara, whose belatedly follows up his classic acid jam from Soul Jazz back in 2006 with a release on DFA, Nottingham based Line, whose debut album ‘Hearts’ should catapult him right into the medium time in February, Rainbow Arabia with their psychedelic sounds of the souk, Radioclit and their global fusion of all things hype and Shock Defeat, one of the best new British bands I’ve heard in years.