La Haine

Thought I may as well back up that comment about La Haine by searching out one of my favourite clips from the film. Hubert, the guys who's cutting up the resin, really reminds me of a good friend of mine. But then so does Lenny Henry. Anyway I digress.. the Isaac Hayes cut at the start is called "That Loving Feeling" and is one of my favourite tracks by the big man.. but most people remember this scene for Cut Killer's special moment and not without good reason. Enjoy.

JR

I imagine JR will soon be tagged as the French Banksy if he hasn't been already. His work is mainly photo-based but he goes around sticking his pieces up on walls all over the world. Tempting as it is to come up with a real arty description of his work, I'm going to play it safe and just say that I really like the simple, nitty-gritty nature of his content. Check out more of his stuff here.. in particular check out his photo's of Paris (go to Themes on his website). His black and white stuff reminds me loads of Michel Kassovitz's movie La Haine (1995), which is something else you would do well to check out if you don't know it already.

a+

Gig : Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at The Albany 18/07/08

Last week I won tickets to go and hear HBE at the Albany courtesy of Destinationout.com (tidy club listings website). The Albany is a weird venue. Looks like the inside of a circus tent and the crowd was the most diverse I've ever seen at a funk gig anyway: old couples, young kids, divas, dreads, homies, homos and one geezer who bumped and grinded his way to the stage in an attempt to get the seated crowd dancing - which he did.

HBE have indie spirit in abundance, and considering the size of their collective they are doing really well to tour without the support of a record label. Check out their Myspace and pick up their live CD if you can.. Not much else to say except that they were exceptionally tight on-stage, skillfully navigated their way from afrobeat thumpers to astrofunk excursions and provided a great show at the same time.

Hypnotic we salute you.

Cool Outrageous Lovers Of Uniquely Raw Style

Sa-Ra on the beat!

Alice

Essential 7" for a lovely day like today. Listen to the samples here

brief ramble

It was a not so impressionable young boy who returned home from big lights of the bright city for this summer. A portfolio filled with nonsense and various creative activity banged against his supple calfs as he trudged through the front door of the pleasant suburban threshold which he once called home. Slowly it came back to him, the smell of cow, of unwashed cow and human living side by side. The people are shorter in my home town than in the city, less beef more leaf i expect. I was worn, dissilusioned and dirty. The city has probed me this year, its thick concrete has entered me and i am changed. More sceptical, weary of the fickle, the cool and the beautiful. 

  

Shocking Confession

Our Jim has been learning some next-level stuff at Art College this year. This is actually a "future self-portrait", says Jim.. "I keep thinking that one day like I'm just gonna end up a mess after listenin' to this italo disco muzik right, and just lie around for hours on end with me disco panties on - thinking: I could have made something of my life. If only I'd got off ma disco booty and posted some blogs on that eckshelent udio blog thing. Oh dear.."

Come on Jim. You have our support. Make something of your life.

x

Pandayoghurt

He's completed work for Amon Tobin, TM Juke, Cinematic Orchestra as well as other stuff that you can see on his homepage here

"You Guys Are Gonna Like This One"

Silent Distance

The recent post about Clara Hill's new single on the Wuzz blog reminded me that I have a little thing for her voice.. granted it's one of the most hit and miss voices ever, but she unmistakably nails it in Silent Distance.. don't you think?

By Your Side

I'm not sure how but I've just watched every second of that video and now I'm truly bamboozled. Is this guy a genius or just a bona fide plum? Anyway listen to the shmoozik.. Coco Rosie are making lovely sounds right now, check out their most recent ltd edition 7" here

Just attempted to watch it again.

Plum.

Üdio's Out for Summer

Image courtesy of Debbie Scanlan (Rogue Photography)

By midnight it was looking like the Shoreditch summer lull was definitely going to take its toll on our normally healthy turnout, however several dance-happy revellers came out of the woodwork to help us finish our fourth and final party for the summer in style. Following on from Nick V's disco-strut workout, Kato began the closing set of the night with the excellent Alphabet Aerobics by Blackalicious before launching into two hours of bugged out technotronica, with closure arriving in the form of Crosstown Traffic by good old Jimi!

We're chuffed to have raised £140 for the National Deaf Children Society and MIND, and we're definitely considering keeping the fundraising going in the future. In fact several potential changes are already at the forefront of our minds - there are some excellent ideas being thrown out there which will hopefully become more and more visible as we progress through the year. Suffice to say we already have some impressive malarkey planned for our next affair in October/November.

On the music front, we're pleased to announce that The 39 Steps project is now complete and the album release is imminent. Check the website here for samples and also more info on the release date. Also, Nick V has been kind enough to come up with a disco-heavy contribution for our podcast series which can be found on our podcast page here. Enjoy!

Keep checking back for more news and mixes as well as other important titbits.

Word.

Update for Friday's Session

Photo courtesy of Rogue Photography

Set Times:

Jonny5 9.30 - 10.30
Earfworm Jim 10.30 - 11.30
Desi Punk Contingent 11.30 - 1.00
Nick V 1.00 - 2.30
Kato 2.30 - 4.00

If you haven't done so already, get your names over to guestlist@udio.co.uk for fast and easy entry.

Hope to see you down there!

The Natural Yoghurt Band - Away With Melancholy LP

Huzzah, muthafudgers! A funk band emerge from the leftfield with an album composed of contemporary psych-rock infused hip hop for different purposes, be it dance-floor decimation or summertime laziness.

Listen to samples here

"I'm Supertramp"

A slight departure from normal posts on this blog, granted, but I saw this film and couldn't resist sharing it with you. It came through my letterbox a few weeks ago courtesy of lovefilm and since watching it I've tried to post it back to them a couple of times, however it still resides on my desk waiting to be watched again (and again..). I'm a stickler for films that you need to psych yourself up for and Into the Wild doesn't disappoint in this respect. Here's a quote that will hopefully raise a few eyebrows:

Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. - Alexander Supertramp May 1992

Invest.