The liner notes to Ross Harper‘s The Dark Album Remixes Volume 4 EP describes one of the tracks as “a DJ’s dream come true.” Really, the whole record is that.
Starting with Coast2c‘s (also properly known as Sofia Acosta) remix of “Something New,” the EP opens with thumping bass drum and sizzling electro-cymbals designed to yank people onto the dance floor…and then that thick synth-bass hits and there’s no need to yank people onto the dance floor, they are running to it. Developer‘s remix of “Hard Patience” (the “DJ’s dream”) is pulsating, throbbing, sweaty trance that gives you an instant rush.
Amorphic‘s remix of “Narcissist” is almost a hypnotizing mantra of bass hits, fast cymbals, and pulsating synths. Finally, DJ Emerson‘s remix of “Deep Life” – a fun track that mixes hand percussion with sliced up vocals sounds, goth-industrial bass, and racing video game synths.
All four tracks on this are scalding hot. Don’t miss this if you’re a DJ or just enjoy EDM.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Davisʼ self-titled debut — an electrifying artistic statement that launched one of modern musicʼs most revolutionary figures. To celebrate the visionary singer, songwriter, producer, and fashion iconʼs broadly influential career, acclaimed reissue label Light in the Attic is revisiting four essential titles from The Queen of Funkʼs catalog: Betty Davis (1973), They Say Iʼm Different (1974), Is It Love Or Desire? (recorded in 1976, released in 2009), as well as the first-ever vinyl release of Crashinʼ From Passion, which captures Davisʼ final 1979 sessions. All four tiles were produced in close collaboration with Davis, who sadly passed away in 2022.
Betty Davis, They Say Iʼm Different, and Crashinʼ From Passion were remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). For the aforementioned three titles, the accompanying booklets include a treasure trove of rare photos from the era, plus lyrics, and new liner notes by writer, ethnomusicologist, and Davisʼ close friend, Danielle Maggio, who integrates interviews that she conducted with Davis, marking her last-ever interviews. They Say Iʼm Different also includes a fold-out 24×36 poster. Is It Love Or Desire? was remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). The album includes liner notes from journalist, DJ, and professor Oliver Wang.
Each album will be available on CD, black wax, and in a variety of exclusive color variants. All titles will be released on August 25th. Read below for more information on Davis and the individual albums.
Far ahead of her time, Queen of Funk Betty Davis (1944 – 2022) defied the limits of gender, race, and genre during her all-too-short career. She innovated with her space-age blend of funk, R&B, and blues and enraptured audiences with her raw and powerful vocals – then shocked (and awed) them with her provocative, sexually liberated lyrics. Unapologetic and independent, Davis smashed glass ceilings with gusto. To count a few, she was among the first Black models to grace the covers of Seventeen and Glamour, while later, she became the first Black woman to write, produce, and arrange her own albums.
When Davis released her self-titled debut in 1973, she was already a force in New York, London, and Los Angeles. She had opened one of NYCʼs most vibrant private nightclubs, penned songs for The Chambers Brothers and The Commodores, collaborated with Hugh Masekela, and inspired her then-husband Miles Davis to create the roots for jazz fusion on Bitches Brew. While she received numerous offers from record labels in those early years,
Davis also recognized the power of retaining control over her music. Fiercely DIY, she eventually signed a contract with Woodstock organizer Michael Langʼs Just Sunshine imprint, under which she released Betty Davis (1973) and They Say Iʼm Different (1974). In 1975, she made her major label debut under Island Records with Nasty Gal. Davis would go on to record two more albums—Is It Love Or Desire? and Crashinʼ From Passion—both of which remained unreleased for decades.
Oen relegated to cult figure status and frequently misunderstood, Davisʼ album recording career spanned less than a decade. While her music earned critical acclaim and respect from peers, it was regularly banned or disregarded, due to its sexual nature. As a Black woman in an industry controlled by white men, Davis found herself in a constant battle for creative control, oen to the detriment of her career. Never given the chance to succeed commercially, a disillusioned Davis retired from the spotlight in 1980.
From a modern lens, the path that Davis forged can be traced clearly throughout the decades, traversed by those who pushed the needle farther and fought for equality in the industry. Many of musicʼs brightest stars have counted Davis as an influence, including Prince, Erykah Badu, and Janelle Monae, while rappers like Ice Cube, Method Man, and Talib Kweli have all sampled her work. In recent years, Davis has captured a new generation of fans, thanks to the use of her songs in such series as Mixed-ish, Girlboss, Pistol, and Orange Is the New Black. In 2017, she was the subject of the acclaimed documentary, Betty: They Say I’m Different.
“Motor Spirit” is the sound of a pummeling diesel engine on an out-on-control eighteen-wheeler rushing toward you from the top of a mountain that’s been cut in half for strip mining. Lead (and I use that term lightly) singer Stu Mackenzie sounds like he chugged a can of hot motor oil before he laid down the vocal tracks. The percussion during the bridge of this is outstanding, sending the track into stoner metal territory.
They’re “raising hell” on “Supercell,” and the entire album, really. The song runs along the razor’s edge between thrash and industrial. The groove on “Converge” almost hides the amazing double kick-drum work by Michael Cavanagh. He burned a lot of calories on this album. I hope his bandmates kept him well-fed and hydrated.
“Witchcraft” hits hard and, naturally, brings out the spooky atmosphere. It’s also a nice set-up for “Gila Monster” – which has become a popular track at their live shows. I mean, with an entire crowd chanting “Gila! Gila! Gila!”, how could it not become a favorite? Plus, the song is a fun song about a giant gila monster destroying everything in its path and eating people. It’s a blast. “What hath God wrought?” they ask on “Dragon,” in which they unleash hellfire through guitars and, if I hear what I think I’m hearing, Tibetan monk-style throat chants…and then there’s this weird, slow breakdown that’s like a dragon’s tail lazily swaying back and forth over a huge pile of gold…and then the dragon starts to awaken, and it’s hungry, and a bit annoyed at the noise of pesky humans trying again to break into its lair. “Flamethrower” is the sound of that dragon laying waste to everything in sight, which might include your speaker system and / or eardrums…and then it turns into a darkwave track with Mackenzie chanting “Motor spirit” again and again to link the record back to the first song (shades of Nonagon Infinity).
Depending on which version you get, the last track on the record is a spoken-word story about a dragon wreaking vengeance on the world that’s over fourteen minutes long. I’m sure it will inspire hundreds of Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
I haven’t touched much on the environmental symbolism on this record, which is everywhere – starting with the cover depicting the dragon (Or is it a lizard wizard?) with a wry smirk standing near an industrial facility churning out fiery smoke and toxic waste to pollute everything in sight. A lot of the album’s lyrics are about how we’re slowly cooking ourselves to death in a human-generated hotbox.
It’s another good entry into King Gizz’s discography and, like Infest the Rats’ Nest, one of the best metal albums of the year.
Dublin’s The Secret Book and Record Store, also known as Freebird Records, is a little bit hard to find. You have to go 300 meters from Grafton Street on Wicklow Street and look for this sign.
Then, go down this hall.
And, at the end of this hall, find this treasure trove.
That’s just some of the books, mind you. Most of those unopened boxes are full of books they haven’t yet shelved. Then, there’s the music…
Good grief, they pack in a lot of stuff into a reasonably small space. The place doesn’t feel cramped, however. It’s far enough off the busy street to be quiet and let you relax as you browse. My mother was with me on this trip, and she found a couple books she would’ve bought if she’d had more room in her carry-on bag. I had to limit myself to a small purchase, so I went with these.
I’ve been looking for that Faithless album for years, and that three-disc Slowdivecollection was less than eighteen bucks. Yes, please.
It’s worth walking away from the beaten path to find this place. You won’t regret it.
A pungent ooze emanates from the subway. As a sticky drum machine sequence rolls out like thick dark fog, ice cold synth swirls rise from the depths.
Since the debut album Europe By Night, one of the main references associated with Henrik Stelzer and his Metro Riders project has been that of cinema, and particularly the European genre films of the 1980s. With its seedy subject matters manifesting both in visual style and music, the vibe of that era has crystallized over time. Passed down to us from deteriorating video cassettes, it became an invaluable key to decoding our present day reality.
And this is true for his new album Lost in Reality, announced today for a September 29th release via Possible Motive. Stelzer does not hide the fact that he builds heavily on that vibe; referencing it through track titles and utilizing a particular recording setup consisting of a Fostex and a reel to reel in order to achieve and recreate the feeling of those soundtracks — as heard on magnetic tape rather than vinyl.
Hear it yourself on the new single “Spasm,” out today, and pre-order the album here.
The motion picture soundtrack as an arbitrary genre definition becomes, in the hands of Stelzer, a pair of X-ray specs for him to envision a kind of music that deals in grains and contrasts rather than hooks and choruses. And like Roddy Piper in John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live, he hands those glasses over for us to see the true face of our times.
On Lost In Reality, Metro Riders maps out an emotional geography of the cities at night, wherein the cinematic haze becomes a tool by which we can view the cities with new eyes. Not steering away from the darker alleys nor the harsh realities of modern day politics masquerading as progress. Yet escapism, in the end, seems the only viable option. But not as an endgame, but rather a stepping stone for building a new vocabulary for an utopian language.
Lost In Reality is the second album from Sweden based Metro Riders (real name Henrik Stelzer). Employing outdated software and now obsolete analogue recording equipment, Metro Riders conjures a suspenseful and gloomy, true to the era re-imagining of lost sounds. Metro Riders encompasses a very niche palette, everything from the prophetic visions of John Carpenter,to the warbled world of Troma films, to Italian horror flicks, euro-crime and the cybernetic sewers of The Skaters.
Today, Art Feynman — the recording alias of visual artist and producer Luke Temple — presents his new single, “Desperately Free,” from his forthcoming album, Be Good The Crazy Boys, out November 10th on Western Vinyl. Following lead single “All I Can Do,” “Desperately Free” keeps the grooves going, propelled by tropical-inflected percussion and infectious chants. “Something changed while I was sleeping,” the backing vocalists interject between Temple’s murmured incantations, “Somehow I feel different // as I go about my day.” Of “Desperately Free,” Temple adds: “I was thinking about the obsession with spiritual growth or with ‘curing’ death and the compensatory consequences that ensue as a result. We can’t cheat nature of which we are one and the same, she’ll find balance eventually.”
Until now, Art Feynman has strictly been a solo act, a way for Temple to explore surprising sonic landscapes without the burdens of identity. Be Good The Crazy Boys was recorded live in-studio with a full band. The result captures a spirit of restless anxiety, and recalls the most frenetic work by Talking Heads, or Oingo Boingo at their darkest. “Sonically, I was inspired by records that were recorded at the late Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas such as Grace Jones’ ‘Private Life,’ Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s Mambo Nassau, and Talking Heads’ Remain in Light.” Despite these callbacks, Be Good The Crazy Boys remains firmly rooted in modern concerns, with songs about fearing the end of the world and struggling with FOMO — narratives that would be relatable if they didn’t sound so completely unhinged.
Slightly twisted takes on Kosmische musik, worldbeat, and art pop can be found scattered across the Art Feynman discography, but with Be Good The Crazy Boys, Temple fully immerses himself into pools of collective madness. With Be Good The Crazy Boys, Art Feynman proves to be more than just a character. He represents the part of the modern, collective consciousness that’s struggling to maintain balance in a toxic, chaotic world. In less skilled hands, that concept could result in a very somber listen. Fortunately, when Art Feynman gets his hands on the chaos of the modern age, it simply makes you want to dance.
Temple explains, “To me, there was a lot of energy that needed to be released as the result of living in isolation for six years. It also seems to speak to a general anxiety we’re all holding, but it’s expressed in a cathartic way.” It’s this acknowledgement of general anxiety that separates Feynman from the other fictional personas that have been cropping up in the music world lately. Feynman doesn’t sound suave, confident, or even heartbroken in these songs; it sounds like he’s on the verge of a panic attack.
Thanks to all who listened to my Deep Dive of Alison Krauss on WSND. She’s a living legend, and the show was dedicated to my late wife, Mandy, who introduced me to her.
Here’s the set list:
Alison Krauss – When You Say Nothing at All
Dolly Patron – You’re the Only One
J.D. Crowe and The New South – Old Home Place
Foreigner – Head Games
Electric Light Orchestra – Don’t Bring Me Down
Gary Numan – Cars
Richard Greene – The Tennessee Waltz
Alison Krauss – Grey Eagle and Nick’s Noodle
Dan Tyminski – Carry Me Across the Mountain
Alison Krauss – Too Late to Cry
Alison Krauss and Union Station – Midnight Rambler
Alison Krauss – I’ve Got That Old Feeling
Phish – If I Could
Alison Krauss and The Cox Family – Loves Me Like a Rock
Shenandoah – Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart
Alison Krauss – Oh, Atlanta
Alison Krauss – Forget About It
Alison Krauss and Union Station – The Lucky One
Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch – I’ll Fly Away
Alison Krauss and Union Station – Choctaw Hayride (live)
Alison Krauss and Union Station – Unionhouse Branch
Brad Paisley – Whiskey Lullaby
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant – Please Read the Letter (requested)
Alison Krauss, Mark O’Connor, Yo-Yo Ma, and Edgar Meyer – Slumber My Darling (live) (requested)
Heart – These Dreams (live)
Nickel Creek – Smoothie Song
Alison Krauss – Down to the River to Pray
Next week, I go in a completely opposite direction with a Deep Dive of The Damned. Don’t miss that one.
