Sea of Bees - Songs For The Ravens 2010
4 outta 5
A lovely set of acoustic friendly tunes.  Kinda one part Victoria Bergsman, one part Camera Obscura, with a little extra fuzz thrown in once in a while.

Land of Talk - Cloak and Cipher 2010
4 outta 5
Pleasantly surprised by the new Land of Talk album which I didn’t know was due out. Solid, if not including any standout tracks. Gets loud at times which is always a treat, but mostly pretty relaxed.

Various Artists - Kompakt Total 11 2010
4 outta 5
Another solid overview of recent Kompakt output. Love the quirky nature of many of the tracks. Nothing straight ahead or obvious here and a bunch of stuff I had yet to hear. 

Various Artists - Sixteen Candles Soundtrack 1984
3.5 outta 5
31 tracks of summer vibes from the 70s and 80s among other classics. A solid soundtrack for a remarkable film which I watched start to finish for the first time earlier this week. Silly, I know.

Booka Shade - More! 2010
3 outta 5
Every once in a while I hear a Booka track that makes me think I’ve been missing out by not giving their albums a proper listen, but for every top vibe like Donut there are an equal amount of tracks straight outta dullsville. Stick to the singles. 

Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle 2010
3 outta 5
Sounding more and more like playing Phoenix about 40 bpm slower. Or maybe I’m just being distracted by the fey chanteuse. Either way, just enough of a refresh from the last album to keep me interested.

Monarch - Monarcy 2010
2.5 outta 5
Nothing on here that matches their first single, The Phoenix Alive, which can be heard in June’s 126 Melancholy Mix. The rest is just too soft, loose; not the same energy or drive. 

Betty Davis - Is It Love Or Desire 1976
2.5 outta 5
It’s a funk explosion of crazy. As much as I’m amused by Superpitcher’s “Lap dance, I wanna lap dance” hook on Kompakt Total 11, it sure doesn’t compare to Betty’s Whorey Angel.

Klaxons - Valley of the Calm Tress 2010
?? outta 5
Yikes! This is all over the place. Not sure if it’s interesting or horrible. It’s sure no Myths.

Charles Krafft now represented in Canada by Show & Tell Gallery. See more.

Running. Back home. You can too. Click. Click.

Listen and download at PDTN or snag the podcast on iTunes.

Today’s story: I felt like making some noise. Full details from PDTN.

Took an unfortunate mental break mixing Lauryn Hill into K-OS, but this is an otherwise nice collection of funkier late night beats, from ‘62 to 2010. Enjoy!

Now live on People Downtown. Listen and download.

Track list:
Rascalz - Top of the World ƒ Barrington Levy & K-OS 1999 
K-OS - Crabbuckit 2004 
Lauryn Hill - Final Hour 1998 
Naughty By Nature - O.P.P. 1991 
Charles Hamilton - Brooklyn Girls 2008 
Gorillaz - Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach ƒ Snoop Dogg & Hypnotic Brass Ensemble 2010 
Fela Kuti - Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am 1972 
Baaba Maal & Taj Mahal ƒ Kaouding Cissoko & Antibalas - Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am 2002 
CacheFlow - Flowebot ƒ Brer Rabbit (Machinedrum Waterfall Dub) 2008 
Crystal Fighters - Xtatic Truth (Magistrates Remix) 2009 
Brother Jack McDuff - Screamin 1962 
Parliament - Flash Light 1977

Stoked for this Friday as Abdul Smooth and I are joined by the Hot Sauce cru for some late night shenanigans. Two rooms and the cozy 2nd floor patio mean you can chill, chat, or get down to your hearts content. 

RSVP for the late night event on Facebook.  

Or get started early with Patio Friday sunset before the musey groove.

See you there!

Escape from the city. North of the city. Scotch and Canadian whiskey dock dippy.

Help support Rhino’s lagging business by picking up this three album Joy Division box set on LP for the bargain desperate fan price of $250US. With free shipping on any order of $50, this is quite a steal. Of course, you’ll be one of just 3000 people to procure this gem, though you won’t know which one since the sets aren’t numbered.

Perhaps there’s more to this than the 1500 word description on Rhino’s site suggests (you know, 1500 more words than are printed on the artwork-less box set). As Eric Greenwood wonders, “Does the ghost of Ian Curtis pop out of the box and perform fellatio whilst doing his signature dance?”. No, no, we can be sure Rhino will save that for the 50th anniversary edition re-re-re-re-release.

Grave. ✓ 
Spinning. ✓

Before:

After:

Awesome!