Mount Kimbie (and Lily Allen)

Mount Kimbie previews here - be sure to listen to 'William'. Also, this is surprisingly good!?

'Two Suns' - out April 6th 2009

Bat for Lashes are back! Fucking A. See FACT magazine or Dazed and Confused for great articles with more interesting reflections on the new album than my own.

Daniel - Bat For Lashes

Oops

This one slipped under the radar! More clips and only a tenner here.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

We've received footage of The 39Steps' debut live performance in Leeds last Thursday and are now really excited about the prospect of them joining us at Üdio in May (fingers crossed). Kato, the beat-geek behind the outfit, can be seen blasting out one of his recent productions in the first video and he's joined by Sarah Johns (of Mr Beasley and Leftfield fame) for a rejigged version of Ghostwriting in the second clip. They are playing their first London gig at the Bad Sneaker's Showcase at Barden's Boudoir on Thursday 26th March along with Mr Beasley and some other talented folks from up north. See you there!

Kôze

Low swung late-night listening:

"Music for nonexistent dance floors? Not really! I think I wanted to do a mix like a good radio show. It's more to listen than to dance, but who's dancing to the internet?"

Mount Kimbie – William – Hotflush
Soulphiction – What's Your Name - Musik Krause
Moodymann - Freeki Mutha F cker - KDJ
NSI - Hassel - Cadenza
Lowtec - I Remember - Playhouse
Syncom Data - Beyond The Stars (Speedy J Remix) - SD
Ben Klock - OK - Ostgut Ton
Modi and Fegiz - El Solitaire - Vinylclub
The Missing Link - 911 - Wagon Repair
Lazy Fat People - Low Profile - Perspectiv Records
AntonZap - Pm Please - Underground Quality
Fail Forever - When Saints Go Machine (dOP Remix) - EMI
Lowtec - Workshop 006 - Workshop
Animal Collective - My Girls - Domino Recording Company

Codebreaker ft. Kathy Diamond

Fire (Jimmy Edgar Remix) from Erik West on Vimeo.
Great video and equally great remix from Jimmy Edgar. Is it real or animated? Hmm.

New Prefuse 73!

Wasn't too sure about his last effort ("Preparations") although his previous collaborations with School of Seven Bells have always been a great listen, for instance the track 'The Class of 73 Bells' which actually gets rejigged for So7B's debut album...



Mark Pritchard left behind a promo copy of Prefuse's new album when he played at the Gramaphone for Deviation on March 4th, and Euan who runs bookings at the venue left it behind for us to gawp over. Thank you Euan! I have listened to the album about three times all the way through now and feel confident enough to say this is a great return to form for the producer behind Prefuse 73, Guillermo Scott Herren. The entire time I was listening I was scratching my head over how he got the vintage sound of the album, and a bit of research on the Warp website provided me with an answer:

For the 29-track Prefuse album, Herren rejected the idea of straight digital recording and instead went the much more intensive route of recording to analog Ampex tape, giving the album the sound of a lost tape of exploratory studio musicians from the not-too-distant past. In addition to the recording process, Ampexian also differs in its composition, existing as a tapestry of tracks of varying lengths and moods, albeit with a remarkable linear flow and, of course, unmatched rhythmic bump.

The album, entitled "Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian", comes out mid-April and will not be posted on this blog so make sure you kop it otherwise you'll turn into a plum.

Trev's AcidFunkDisco antics: March 6th!

Thank u Trevor Jackson and the üdio massiv for another big fun night! We are back in May with something special, butt in the meantime keep checking back for new podcasts and other news, x

Astrofunk Adventures Podcast

We had a really good laugh doing this. There may even be an out-takes podcast to follow..

Anyway have a good listen because we're quite happy with it and would love to make a regular thing out of it so get involved people and let us know your thoughts! The podcast starts out with an impromptu phone-call from nice guy all-rounder resident Earfworm Jim who later comes through with a broad selection of dub-heavy music (or as he calls it 'dubby dubby disco'), but before that I put together a bunch of current favourites and even deliver a bit of poetry (you think I'm kidding don't you?). Hope you enjoy it!!

Syclops - The Abdoer (complete with Jim's ramblings about his college's super-dooper 25 quid project)
Ozo - Night Of The Black Mamba
Playgroup - Behind The Wheel
Beatsy Collins vs. Marvin Gaye - Holla
Micronauts - Jag
Eric B & Rakim - No Omega
Hell Vice - Crawfish (Pilooski Edit)
Zoot Woman - It's Automatic

>>>

Erol Dunkley - Satisfaction
Eurythmics - I've Got An Angel
Nite Jewel - What Did He Say?
Tekka - Didn't You Notice (Dub)
Vera - Take Me To The Bridge
Gary's Gang - Runaway (Dub)
Idjut Boys - Smokin' Balls
Hong Kong Syndikat - Come Together
Way Of The West - Don't Say That It's Just For White Boys

You can either listen here or alternatively you can download the podcast through iTunes using the link below. Nifty innit. Enjoy!

DestinationOut.com

This should be your first port of call for finding quality parties inside and outside of London. Signing up to their mailing list is a good idea as well because you'll regularly get the opportunity to win free tickets for great gigs and clubnights, and they could be your only way of getting in somewhere that's sold out. You can find our 6th March session here. They will be offering free tickets for üdio in the future so sign up quick sharp for your chance to duck out of the £5 entry you tight mo fo you.

Get Thy Bearings

One of those tracks that I wish I could keep for myself but it's just too good and needs to be heard. No point listening to this unless you're going to wait for the sax finale. It's the best song on the 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' LP which I also recommend, but I should probably mention that a lot of the album is quite different to 'Get Thy Bearings', instead falling into the brackets of [psych pop]. Enjoy.

Next up is Bjork's 'Army of Me' from her album Post. There's supposed to be a Donovan sample from 'Get Thy..' in here apparently? I just haven't got the foggiest where. But the video's one of Michel Gondry's finest and let's be honest, when has Gondry ever made a shit music video? What's your favourite?! Let us know and we'll do a Gondry special soon perhaps.

Notorious

Somehow I never really doubted that the new Biggie biopic would be anything but good. All in all the film's done quite tastefully. That said, the scene where Biggie is getting boned relentlessly by Lil Kim was a little bit harsh on the eyes. Apparently the street battle above was adapted for the movie but I don't have any recollection of this. Makes good viewing and listening anyway, especially the bit right at the end when his opponent casually slumps off.

Let's hope Notorious doesn't inspire a similar biopic about Tupac. What a numpty.

FPS

Love Me Like This by floatingpoints

Floating Points, self-confessed jazz fiend cum mad scientist, does a great job of rejigging Reel 2 Reel's 'Love Me Like This' into an addictive slow-bump proto-house jam and you can pick it up on EgLO records when it comes out on a limited edition 7" very soon. FPS has had mixes and tracks featured on the likes of Gilles Peterson's Worldwide show and also Mary Anne Hobb's, testemony enough that you should be keeping an eye on his future! The aforementioned Worldwide guest mix is below and the tracklist is as follows...

Tanganica - Luiz Carlos Vinhas (CBS)
So Chilled Yo - BadFx (CDR)
Barefaced - Teknical Devlopment & Hey!zeus (To:Am)
Payroll (Paul White Remix - street) - Tranqill (One Handed)
For You-floatingpoints (Eglo)
Beat 15/Tape16-Paul White (CDR)
Theme Music For A Pariah-K15 (CDR)
Understanding-Eric Lau (CDR)
Beat for Fatima-floatingpoints (CDR)
Love Me Like This (Nonsense Dub)-floatingpoints (eglo/R2)
Shanghai-SoundSpecies (CDR)
Mintleaf-Aaron Jerome (CDR)
Essence of Sapphire-Dorothy Ashby (Atlantic)

floatingpoints - GP WW Mix Dec 08 by floatingpoints

Day 'N' Nite

The Kid Cudi-approved video for the original version of Day 'N' Nite is finally here. The album, Man on the Moon: The Guardians is apparently coming soon.

Cudi also features on 'Welcome to Heartbreak', the latest single from Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreaks

Sample Spotting

>>>


Both great tracks if you ask me. I mean it.

Some news for whoever is reading: we've finally got our act together and recorded a podcast! Happy as Larry with the end result so keep checking back for updates or alternatively sign up to the podcast via iTunes using the link on our podcast page (see links on the right).

K-OS- 4,3,2,1

k-os - 4,3,2,1


Genre-defying Canadian emcee and personal hero of mine; K-OS, has dropped the video for '4,3,2,1'. This is the lead single from his fourth album Yes! (out March 31)

For those who don't know here a couple more videos from two earlier albums.

'Superstar pt.0' (Exit, 2002)



'Sunday Morning' (Atlantis: Hymns For Disco, 2007)

Half Asleep

... by School of Seven Bells from the album Alpinisms. You can hear more here.

Quirk

Some amazingly naff record covers here but also some ace ones too.. Get stuck in!

Üdio Returns - Friday March 6th 2009

This is what Greg Wilson had to say about our b'day party :
"Really enjoyed the night. You never know what to expect in January, but Friday was a brilliant vibe. Really good crowd you've got there – definitely a good thing going on. Perfect prelude for being back at the hotel listening to my mix going out live." Chuffed.

We're back on March 6th in the Gramaphone basement this time with special guest Trevor Jackson (Playgroup)! He's well known for his music productions under the guise of Playgroup (and remixes for The Gossip, Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture and more), his now defunct record-label Output (previously home to LCD Soundsystem, Four Tet, Black Strobe and mentalist bird Mu) and also his excellent graphic design work (campaigns for Soulwax, Vice, BMW, Nike and DFA Records amongst others). If you've heard his awesome DJ Kicks mix you'll know how much of a treat we're in for.

People interested in his graphic design work can see loads of it on his website but here's one of our faves (move away from the screen):

Son Is Shook

The 39Steps - Coming Clean from Bad Sneakers Records on Vimeo.

Holding onto something that was nothing in a dream....the universe of The 39Steps is calling. Scratchy horns and spring pianos, red reverbs and talk of ghosts- the details are sketchy but you know what they are saying.

The 39Steps are set to release their album Coming Clean in April on Bad Sneakers records and you can download the title-track on iTunes now. Since moving to Bad Sneakers their visual aesthetic has evolved and you can see just how on their new website and also their myspace.

Enjoy the video - it's worth watching just to see what Kato's up to when he's not making beats.

Eight-Oh-80's

Click me and listen to me nice and loud

Excellent CutTheFuckUp 80's party mix from Trevor Jackson (Playgroup) that he did in 2001 - 60 minutes of 80s disco punk funk breaks and more. Here's an excerpt of the tracklist:

...Rolling Stones - Miss You
Mikey Dread - Saturday Night Style
Pigbag - Papas Got a Brand New Pigbag
Double Dee & Steinski - Lesson 1
Coldcut - Say Kids
Afrika Bambaata & Jazzy Jay - Death Mix
Run Dmc - Sucker MC’s
Tear For Fear - Shout (Acapella)
Word of Mouth - King Kut
Biz Markie - Nobody Beats The Biz
EPMD - It’s My Thing
Schooly D - Saturday Night
Boogie Down Productions - South Bronx
Fred Wesley & The JB’s - Blow Your Head
Big Daddy Kane - Raw
Rob Base & DJ Easy Rock - It Takes Two
Sugar Bear - Don’t Scandalize Mine
Uptown - Dope On Plastic
Danny Krivit - Rock The House...

Following on from the best birthday ever back in January, our next session takes place on March 6th. Wonder who's playing..

Not your average pizza and lazer quest birthday

Utter elation must fall just short of an orgasm in an adjectives scale of positivity. Both would naturally precede "holy" with, i suppose other biblical terminology dominating that top portion. So then what, i ask are we left with to proclaim of Greg Wilson's gracing of the Udio den? To make a narrative of the whole thing I might begin with myself grinning in the back of the taxi all the way home (except as we are reversing here, back to the club). I would then recall the absurdities of a stunning patchwork of bubblegum pop (its ricky's party and he can cry if he wants to) and thunderous acid house courtesy of Ricky's closing set. Then but two funks of a clock earlier we have Greg's last few songs -being an extremely extended and particularly echoey Aint no Mountain High Enough, Voodoo Ray, Todd Terje's beefed up I Want Your Love and The voice of Q. Maybe then some time would be taken indulging in a compare and contrast of the different facial reactions to my distributing of Haribbo about the dancing bodies. Time of course must be taken out in remembrance of the cosmic/hiphop warm up, of Ali's successful deflating of each of our successully inflated balloons, and before that my pre party toilet extravaganza of nerves, hormones, anticipation and of course their secretion. 

jim 

G r e g * E l e c t r o F u n k * W i l s o n

Footage from various gigs to raise brows and get everyone nicely excited for our birthday this Friday!







Sign up here!

Üdio 1st Birthday with Greg Wilson!

Our last party was perhaps the best yet. We had Bill Brewster bringing some great afro-inspired house music to the Gramaphone basement and Sativo shaking the whole place nicely with his lively showcase of pitched-up bumpty hits. Massive thank you to everyone who came down and helped make the night what it was.

On the 16th Jan we are really happy to be celebrating our 1st birthday in the Gramaphone basement. We set up Üdio to push the funk (in all its incarnations... from deep funk to techno, disco to breakbeat) and with this in mind, who better to invite to help us celebrate our first year in London than one of the pioneers of the UK electro/funk scene... G r e g W i l s o n. There's loads of footage of him doing his live thing on youtube, suffice to say we are expecting a lovely night full of ace music and happy faces. Hope you can make it down too! The facebook event profile is here. Its rare to be able to see a dj of Greg's stature for a fiver in London but we are all about keeping the door prices down. We said that right at the beginning and there's been no deviation since.

I'm lucky enough to be following on from Greg on the night and have so much music that needs airing on the new improved Gramaphone soundsystem. You can see a couple bits on my phonica chart here. Just a slight correction... ignore the hercules LP right at the end - it was meant to be a nod to their "classique 2 / ROAR" EP. Most of the music is from later in the year because I didn't really have my thinking cap on but there's plenty of samples to get stuck into. Enjoy.

Happy new year!

Cherish The Day (Live)

Sade. Show some respect.

Full update to follow on our November 14th session which was an interesting night by all accounts and has got us nicely excited about our birthday party on January 16th.

My head is pounding from seeing Digitalism last night and I'm fighting off the temptation to use loads of nu-rave words in this post so that's all from me!

Exceptional Disco Headpieces

inspired by rose royce (see below)

odd outfits too. boney m forgo their normally bizarre lyrics in favour of snippets of suggestive male vocal (saucy) and a brass led instrumental disco funk workout thing.

Bauhaus, Hairspray, Bats, Edits

Having stumbled across Fernando's recent Bauhaus edit, 'kick in the eye' (on the Redux label) this sometime bloggers goth leanings have been stirring.... it's not quite as bad as it sounds, and doesn't involve any crushed velvet or floor length pvc macs (although bats and belltowers can come into it and there are some interesting Elnett hair edifices involved....)


the original version of 'Kick in the Eye' (in tuxes, throwing shapes, smoke machines, amazing)



and if you're still here, another classic goth punk song thing from sue and the boys

November 14th ÜDIO

We are really looking forward to this now.. Jamie Woon (whose live skills you can see in the post below) will keep things interesting during the early stages of the night and Bill Brewster will undoubtedly live up to his name later on. Support comes from friendly yank Sativo who somehow had the normally chilled upstairs bar jumping back at our April gig. This time around we welcome his charisma and flair to the basement for a block-party beatdown of crunkdiscofunk satisfaction. Sign up here

Jamie Woon - Spirits

Fantastic talent from London. You can read more about him here and also be sure to check out Burial's remix of Wayfaring Stranger. Can't wait to see him live.

Let The Spirit

Today I have that restless feeling that you get in the few hours before you see you're favourite artist perform live. It's all about Roots Manuva tonight who headlines at the Warehouse Project here in my hometown of Manchester. His current tour is, of course, in support of his latest (and possibly greatest?) album; Slime and Reason which has birthed his latest single and video; 'Let The Spirit'.

After the jump I've also included the only copy of Blak Twang's mid '90s tune; 'Queen's Head' that I could find online. It features a skinny Roots, in his pre-Manuva days as 'Baron Smith', outshining a rough-around-the edges Tony Rotton.

P.S.- Look out for Ty at the start of the video too.

Black twang ft roots manuva - the queen's head
Uploaded by dougpark17

Mahavishnu Orchestra

Finally got my hands on the Mahavishnu Orchestra LP The Inner Mounting Flame the other day and thought I would post up a live version of the standout track "You Know You Know". Watch Billy Cobham the drummer go mental around the 7 minute mark.

Üdio updates to follow soon..

Love Lockdown

LOVE LOCKDOWN from kwest on Vimeo.

Just as I was starting to wish unkind things upon T-Pain and the spread of his autotune influence, Mr. West went and released the video for 'Love Lockdown'. Whilst I couldn't get onside with the change in direction at first, the video, I think helps make sense of Kanye's new, refined sound. 'Love Lockdown' is the first single off 808s & Heartbreak out November 25th.

Universal Mind Control

It's a good thing he's no longer with the self-proclaimed Analogue Girl aka Erykah Badu, as she surely would not approve of this video. It's digital as a mofo!

The eagerly anticipated video for Common's 'Universal Mind Control'; the title track of his upcoming album, has finally dropped and it's looking sharp. Look out for Pharrell the robot.

Road To Where - Free Download

The 39 Steps are here to introduce you to what they call 'Dark Soul'. Leeds-based producer Kato has created a place where jazz, hip hop, psychedelia and filmscores collide. Built to a blueprint of bottom-heavy beats and guest singer Laura Fowles' spine-tingling vocals, their debut album Coming Clean showcases his manifesto of thoughtful and emotive music. Despite a low-key arrival onto the electronic music scene with no live output as yet, their studio project has been steadily acquiring interest on digital domains such as MySpace, where enthusiasts from all over the world variously described their music as 'awesome', 'melancholic' and 'beautiful'. Coming Clean is currently being prepared for release. Expect an album of hazy pianos, scratchy horns, confusion and clarity.

Massive congratulations to The 39 Steps on being signed by up and coming Leeds-based label, Bad Sneakers records. Surely a contender for best label name ever?

Before the album is released early next year there will be several goodies made available for you to enjoy such as videos and behind-the-scenes insights. To get the ball rolling, the label have very kindly released an excellent preview of the album in the form of "Road To Where". Download for free here!

Many Moons

If Kanye was to ever to get his wish for the Bible to be modernised, and rappers incorporated into its stories, then P.Diddy has got to be the hip-hop Samson. When Puff's shiny suits disappeared so did his musical relevance.

In an effort to acquaint his Bad Boy Records label with the term credibility, Diddy signed Janelle Monae in 2007 and made a lot of people nervous for the singer's career.

For those who don't know, Janelle Monae's quirky style brought her to the attention of Outkast's Big Boi which led to her appareances on the Idlewild soundtrack. Her underground following has grown ever since, hence the apprehension that greeted the news of her signing with Diddy.

Her debut video for 'Many Moons' however goes a long way to dispel the fears of her followers whilst announcing Janelle as a futuristic soul star to the rest of the world.

With a new material due out next year, check Monae's EP; Metropolis:The Chase Suite and the plentiful Youtube footage in the meantime.

Talk To Me

Man, you played the Johnny Cashcard.. Weepy old me is ducking out of this one as that video is the epitomy of a solid tearjerker (plus all I had was Chris Isaac..)

On a serious note though, there is a good reason for me to be upset tonight. I've just come to learn that DJ Vadim has unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer. I really hope the hardest working man in Hip-Hop will come out of this OK and my thoughts are with him and his missus, Yarah Bravo. In case you don't know of his work I've posted up one of my favourite beats from his most recent album "The Soundcatcher". Enjoy, and if you subscribe to the power of collective belief, read this and get involved.

Never one to back down...

...from a challenge. Mr Paul, I see your Rose Royce and raise you a Janet Jackson, circa 1997. Taken from Janet's The Velvet Rope album, 'Got 'til It's Gone' probably isn't in the tearjerker class but is gently affecting with a masterpiece of a video directed by Mark Romanek.

P.S.- I'dve posted up Romanek's video for 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go) if I'dve thought weepy Ricky could handle it.

Wishing On A Star

Not 100% sure why I'm posting this one up but it's Sunday night and it feels kind of right, so there you go. Make sure you stick around for the brief but excellent drum-break right at the end, and if anyone wants to step up and challenge this video with another tearjerker, give it your best shot!

Damme Chromeo

Grab a pen and take notes.

The Egyptian Lover Returns

This came out in 2006 on an album called Platinum Pyramids (Egyptian Empire Records). No idea what the rest of the album is like but if the artwork is anywhere near as good as the photo below, it might be worth investigating further. Listen to more of The Egyptian Lover on his Egyptian space.