Little late arriving into cyberspace so sorry to all those who missing their influx of Boots weekly bizniz
Cuki back on his soap box...........
Sweden is not Wack! No territory is wack for that matter! So chill ya boots Mr Mad Mats! OK, what's the problem here folks. Why does Cuki feel the need to get on his high horse once more! Yep its those wonderfully pretentious music journalists again. You know the ones! The ones who slate the new Koop album calling it 'snobbery for acid jazz people'. Yep, it came to my attention that some reviewers in Sweden didn't actually like the new Koop album! One called it 'perfect airport music'! And its from Sweden too! Well, that's when Stockholm's DJ Mad Mats saw red and wrote to me. So what's new, we've been here before boys and girls. Coltrane got it, Sanders got it (even from other jazz musicians, even Stevie got it when he changed direction. It sums it up pretty good when they actually call it 'snobbery for acid jazz folks' or 'pretentious coffee table music'. Then you know who you are dealing with. Personally I stopped reading these magazines years ago, they know bugger all about our music, they never have and they never will! They don't understand it because its of a higher intellect then their little pea for a brain can ever take on board. One more brain cell and maybe they really could be a plant! I've never really understood either why record labels or promotional companies get so excited about sending new vinyl to the mags. I mean they wouldn't even know what speed to play it. I once read a review for a Jazzanova record and immediately knew that the reviewer had played it and reviewed it at 33rpm (the wrong speed). He was probably confused by the other side actually being at 33rpm (the right speed). I wrote to him to tell him of his miss judgement. He wrote back asking me not to tell him about his job and to do something unprintable to my mother! That's when I stopped reading his magazine and others! What about the time some crass writer who criticised London Elektricity as 'worthless breakbeaters who can't spell'! Think Fabio and Jumping Jack Frost would have something to say about that. What about all those lovely writers who dreamed up the phrase 'Zero 7 are the UK's answer to Air'! Real originality there boys! Yep, I'd rather read 'Gardeners world'.
So does this make me a reviewer! Each and every week I try to get together a gathering of fine tunes for this circular. Give worthy descriptions so you know what's it about! Mmmm, maybe I am a reviewer!!!! Anyway, it's done out of pure love for the music and respect for the artists and labels. I don't get paid for this and don't expect to. These are the tunes I play in clubs, on my minidisc walking the wonderful city of Vienna and at home when I'm chilling dem boots!
You know, our scene is very small, very selective, we get off on music like no other. We bust the bank to get the latest tunes, our girlfriends come and go when they realize that they will always be second best, yet we persevere in the quest for the perfect beat or ultimate musical high. The music that we follow is of an awesome quality. It pushes boundaries and envelopes like no other dance music around. Just like Coltrane and Sanders did way back when. It's timeless! And time will be the universal judge of this! Not some Andy Pandy music writer or reviewer who got bullied at school or rejected by the police force. Just think about all those cool cats in twenty years time digging the crates and how happy they will be to find a copy of the Waltz for Koop album. I can see their faces now :)
This week in Wonderful Wien. I'm gonna inform ya about one of my favourite record labels in town. A place where size doesn't matter.
Least of all with a label like Klein Records.
Bigger, faster, louder? Not necessarily. Klein records, the name already defines the agenda (Klein meaning 'small' in German)
Klein Records came to life in the mid-nineties. Somewhere in the grey area between club culture and the indie scene, there was an untapped melting pot of guitar-based pop and digital, electronic sounds - influenced by Creation and Warp, The Fall and Public Enemy, dope beats and feedback, different worlds of sounds that sometimes merged and sometimes just co-existed right next to each other. There was no place there for purism and blinkered ideas, no fast food on dubplates for desperately trendy DJs. Instead, this was a game played simultaneously to all the different rules of various musical codes on an open pitch without lines or markings. Music made to be played and heard equally in clubs, on the radio or in the bedroom.
The idea of Klein Records is all about keeping up the momentum. So much so, that incalculable risks become part of the plan. It's about aural eclecticism and community spirit instead of a slick mainstream masterplan. And in the process, all those lazy clichés of Viennese "Gemütlichkeit" get a good kicking. While around them, some may have got stuck in their complacent bohemian lifestyles, Klein Records are still far from satisfied with those all-too smooth ways of the Vienna groove scene. They feel more akin to the spirit of anarchism than that of the coffee-table chic brigade.
It's no easy spliffin' on the shag pile carpet, more like toing and froing between the familiar and the alien, the obvious and the obscure; sometimes comfortable, at other times decidedly not so. And if the music frays around the edges, so much the better. That's what gives it its identity, its character. Be it the Sofa Surfers' tar-spitting, grease-spilling dub sounds or Mika's naively playful electro-pop, Uko's nocturnal funk, Mum's thunderstorms of ballistic beats or Seelenluft's weird easy listening soundscapes.
Following the vision of creating their own sound, Klein Records have evolved continually. With release after release, what at the beginning seemed like a plethora diverse projects, moves to join up to a unique picture in which all those kinds of music that record shops like to file under neat labels like "headz", "breakbeat", "downbeat", "trip hop", "dub", "electronica" or "avant garde" are somehow included. And in the end, it is that continuity which marks out the music on Klein Records.
The music will evolve and keep on moving. So much is for certain.
Yep, check Klein records at http://www.kleinrecords.com/ Check also one of the funkest sites around on http://www.seelenluft.com/ and get ready for the new Seelenluft album (awesome too) due out in early April. Finally, due very very soon, the new Sofa Surfers long player. Check them at http://www.sofasurfers.net/welcome_ie.htm
Luv ya boots to Jani and the crew at Omoa music Detroit. Do check the forthcoming Ayro single early in February. You can get a taster at www.omoamusic.com Also, get ready for a monster remix from the man for the Jazzanova boys. The new single will feature the awesome track 'Let this' too.
Much luv to Koichi and Junya in Hiroshima and Tokyo for finding a certain twelve that Mr Weston has been hammering of late!
Now I get some great mail each and every week but this one I gotta share wit ya. It's from my ol' pal MK Ultra, the king of hair creams, gels and all general emotion lotions. Did we laugh at his top ten hair products of last year. Anyway it reads as
''Hope tings is cookin' in Vienna I need you to let me know when you're next over so that I can find a slot for you at Bionic Boogie (Charterhouse) I hope that we can still afford you, now that you're a jet setting DJ, playing all over Europe.... and before you ask, no we don't pay in Euro's, just the Queens Sterling and if it's good enough for Prince Harry's dealer, it's good enough for you. Hope you can make it over soon, big bro and the Funk Coalition are missing your Evisu clad boots!
Say hi to all the lovely European females and let them know that MK Ultra reckons that haircare is the 'new lick' and if you ain't dealing with it fortnightly, you ain't got a prayer baby. Speak soon, peace and big love. Big Bro MK''
Luv ya boots too big bro
Cuki forgetting to add a 'uk' to the link last week for Manchester's Grand Central records. Here's the real deal to get to those wonderful Mancunians. http://www.grandcentralrecords.co.uk
Dr Boots prescribes the following for your forthcoming aural pleasure.
*Nu Bitz this week
1. Sun Ra - The Satellites are spinning (Zero dB mix)(Mo Smog) CD-R
6 in the am. Flex regulars leaving the very first party of December 01. But wait, the P_EACE man has one more tune to drop. In the back ground crashing drums and horns introduce an exclusive. Someone too is calling planet Earth. Could that really be June Tyson? Er, it's at this time that we totally lose control of our boots! Neil and Chris watch on in amusement. So here it is, the maddest, the craziest remix of the year already. Zero dB excel themselves with this, their most outrageous remix. Some how and in some place far from this planet, the Ra is dancing his cosmic boots to the Z dB! Respect to the Ra, respect to the dB.
2. Joseph Malik - Diverse (Compost)2xLP & 12"
The second great album of the 02. The first is on Compost too. Every damn track hitting Cuki's neurological, biological and physiological systems. Wow, upbeat, downbeat, nubeat, even beats with drum n bass in it. It's all here and it's all very very good. This is an awesome album, it really is. What a talent. Start saving your local currency now brothers and sisters!
3.* Microfish - Keen/Its me (Stereotyp mix)(Dialog) 12"
Excellent moody music from the Sonar Kollecktiv group including that man from the 18th district Mr S/Typ on remix duty. In fact its the B side that kills ya with Stefen's mix and a beautiful ballad featuring Mr Meitz on keyboard duties and Onna on the vocals.
4.* Art Konik - Vendetta Society (Comet) CD
Excellent long player from Parisian based drummer and percussionist Nicolas Gorge. He's giving us a bundle of awesome twelve's these last few years on the ever consistent Comet label and now 10 tracks sit nicely in the CD player. More educated nu jazz for the headz!
5.* Donnie - Clouds/You've got a friend (Giant Steps) CD
Stevie sound alike oozing class every time and surely only a matter of time before the big time arrives! 'The Coloured section', the album, one of the most anticipated joints forthcoming in the 02. 21st century soul music it really is.
6.* John Kong & Moonstar - Future Visions (Zero dB remix)(Fluid Once)
This time Chris and Neil giving Toronto the treatment. The ZdB take their imperial measurements to the 'Movement' man and last years dance floor secret weaponery in Moonstar and deliever another top form remix for the true nu jazz collective. Soon come.
7. Vikter Duplaix - Sensuality (K7) CD-R
Taken from Vikter's forthcoming comp for the DJ kicks series with this the exclusive track stealing the limelight. We though have to wait for a twelve as it didn't hit the finished version of the vinyl album. Without doubt Philli's finest ladiez man in ridiculous form. If 01 was big for Vikter then 02 gonna be even bigger. Check this for the start of it.
8. Nuspirt Helsinki - Album (Guidance) CD-R
It's been a long time coming but Thomas, Kasio, Lil Tony and the crew finally finnish (no pun intended) this their first long player. Anybody that got off on the Compost twelve or the excellent releases for Guidance surely in need of this. Cuki getting excited by the nice down tempo tracks too.
9.* Kasar - The newcomer (Crippled Dick) CD
Monster remix track from the 'Iron Curtain' revisited remix album project. Other tracks on the album (including Les Gammas & Kabuki) cut the mustard but this one the Cuki choice for moving the floor with minimal amount of ease and maximum amount of wastage on the foot wear.
10.* Koichi Ozaki & Hiro Nakamura - In the mood (Eurasian Suite) CD-R
We diggin a little left field music outta Hiroshima. Subtlety for sure as gentle tribal rhythms and drums lead you into a conscious move. Bottom and mid notes from the piano hypnotize you into a state of air and freeness. Yes, we getting airborne with this little groove.
11.* Aardvarck - Find the cow (Delsin) CD
23 tracks that make you think very hard about what you are listening to. If you can get through to the music then the result is very rewarding. It really is electronica, ambient meeting broken beats. And with each listen it gets more intresting too. Give it a go.
12. Jackson 5 - Get it together (4 Hero mix)(Universal/Japan) 12"
Ta to Alex for getting a twelve over to Austria for me. 4 Hero, this time in top hip hop form bring the Jackson's into the 21st century. The most obscene bass line and the sharpest snare tap bringing mucho head nodding from all that get to hear this wonderful remix.
13. Twitch - Blow your Blues away (Key) 12"
In Hungary they play the national anthem at midnight on new years eve! This is the record that you play 1 minute past midnight! Firecracker bizniz. Wow, what a tune to bring in the new year and much love and thanks to Gabor aka DJ Shuriken for slipping this into my box! DJ Simbad and F McQuinn are the guys behind this, the perfect blend of Jazzy Afro American groovy madness straight outta the sixties. Bring ya thickest soles!
14. Meikbar - Feelings (Rushhour) 12"
Moodymann meets Patrice Rushen? Absolutely no info on the artist, its where about's and release, but boy is this funky monkey. If this ain't Moodymann then it is sure one helluva of impostor! Pure Detroit house bizniz outta my favourite label at the mo, the Dutch 'Rushhour' imprint. Clocked at just over 112 bpm's but maximum wastage on the soles of your shoes guaranteed.
15. Miss Bombay - Hindustan Ambassador (Mantis) 12"
I really thought Andy and Martin were taking the pee here but its all true. Ex Indian beauty queens getting tricky with the 4/4. Well if Moodyman meets Patrice in the last record then this gotta be Moodymann meets Bollywood! Check this flip for a wired up and very left of centre house groove.
16. Partial Arts - Canopy (Out of the Loop) 12"
Great little label getting stronger with every single release. This maybe the finest yet. Is this really Russ Gabriels label? Anyway check this for a infectious groover with all the right ingredients to shuffle dem boots.
17. Frederic Galliano & The African Divas - Super Boujueor (F Comm) CD-R
Murderous groove that bangs on in the carnival spirit. It dosen't do much in the way of changing direction but it sure does move feet. The divas take a rest on this one but can be found in other areas of the album.
18. Koop - Waltz for Koop (JCR) 1xLP
You know, I actually get more a kick from seeing this record in all it's glory sitting on a shelf in my local Virgin record store then receiving it in its 'hush hush' form all those months/years ago. It belongs to the masses, not just a few upfront DJ's. Respect to JCR/Compost/International rescue records for finally getting out the album that was a favourite in everybody's CD-R collection. A timeless album outta Stockholm Sweden and the perfect combination of new meeting old. Check out a twelve too for solid remixes of 'Summer Sun'.
19. Boswick Gates - You are the remix (Colourforms) 12"
Gotcha! Had to work a little hard to track this baby down! Probably a little old for those who know about it but just getting into Cuki's toolbox and well worth featuring on this page. Minus 2 on the slide but still motoring along at 130 bpm. Funky little techno number that boogied my boots many a time at Flex. And we got the track called 'Toronto' in the box too. Check Truby Trio DJ Kicks comp for that baby.
20. Bebel Gilberto - Tanto Tempo (Peter Kruder remixes)(Ziriguiboom) 12"
And just when you thought it was safe to pigeon hole another certain producer! See, It's not all about smoked out affairs in the G-Stone campus! So many musical sides to the P_EACE man, and he takes this track on a completely different journey. A brave move turning a beautiful Brazilian ballad into some psyched out 80's electro monster but somehow PK manages to pull it off. Holding tight too for the monster outta Paris, another outta Philli and one daddy monster out of Munich.
21. Gerardo Frisina - Saeta (Pt 2)(Schema) 12"
Cuki get wit it bro! You been sleeping on this little baby for too long now! Yep it happens, it arrives courtesy of the nice people at Family Affair a couple of weeks back and some how finds its way into a pile of records that I just didn't investigate. Enough percussive pressure and old school samba running's.
22. Kaos - Rimini (Compost) 12"
Taken from the forthcoming 'Renegade' EP. DJ Kaos returns home to where it all started, Compost Records! Bootsville residents enjoying the floating Rimini track with it's excellent and very warming vibraphone and Rhodes.
23. V/A - Black Coffee Vol 4 (Ecco Chamber) CD
My favourite series of chill out comps! DJ Scheibosan selects another top notch batch of organic and long lasting flavas. No preservatives an or artificial involved in his brews! He doesn't pick the obvious, he doesn't pick what the others pick, he selects only the finest beans available. Do not expect to hear this in Starbucks! Now where's my melange.
24. The Shiba Experiment - Magnus Steps (Bambola) 12"
We digging the spooky jazz flip that's sounds like Art Konik/Erik Trufaz/Miles Davis. Others may enjoy the dancier 'Hanadokei' A side which wets Nik's whistle. First outing for this a new label out London. Good luck Mr Luscombe
25. Snorre Seim - Brassespark/ Stokka Boogie (HiFi Terapi) 12"
Our favourite Stavanger resident collaborates with our favourite Oslo playboy. Number two in the HiFi Terapi series and setting the standard for the fine releases outta Scandinavia in general. Throbbing bass, strings, horns, scats, twisted keys and south American flavoured percussion all add to another monsteroony, and thats just the A side! The Butti 49 boy on a roll.
26. Ne Grove feat Marcus Begg - Movements in Space (Pure Filth) 12"
The warmer side of West London! Leroy and Co deliver another soulful excursion into the 21st century. The sublime vocal talent of Marcus Begg as always leading and taking the groove into the spiritual zone.
27. Stereotyp - Gazzui Matter (Ecco Chamber) 12"
There's a mad car chase going around the 18th district! Dinner at Puglia's but quickly back in the car! We have to catch the man! We drive with the Scheibosan but follow the protégé in his custom built speedstar! His car has more knobs then ours so we never catch up! We enjoy the chase though! He has no mix tapes in his car either as the mentor informs me! No distractions! The spookiest soundtrack of the year just found it's way onto a slice of vinyl & the best record Kraftwork never made!
28. Fauna Flash - Confusion (Compost) 2xLP & 12"
Remix album hits the streets and Kyoto Jazz massive, Salavdor Group, dZihan & Kamien and a few others add their groove to last years Fusion long player. Don't over look the twelve too with Vienna's finest, the P_EACE man and the disciple, bum rushing disco's and nuff booty calling.
29. Jol - V/T (?) CD-R
Hanging out in a Gonkyburg studio and now it all makes sense! A CD-R that has been doing the rounds and still needs a home of its own. 23 year old sounding like he be doing this for 43 years. Late night music for the headz. Awesome
30. Karime Kendra - Lovely brown skin (Score) 12"
I missed the little red hat. I missed the voice that came with this beautiful head piece. Lovely brown skin, dark soothing tones, what else could I ever need. She sent me to sleep for many a moon with 'Too Much'! So she's back. KK my favourite singer from out west. She doesn't sing as often as I would like but when she does, goosebumps get goosebumps. No sleeping this time though, a Landslide production see's to that. Feel a chemical imbalance coming on! A good one. I miss ya boots KK
This weeks Java Joint.
Gil Evans - The individualism of Gil Evans
Verve V6-8555 (1963)
One of my favourite jazz albums of all time actually. I remember I lost the sleeve to this many years ago and it's been tucked away in a white cardboard sleeve for far too long. Cuki happy to dig it out and give you the low down. Too many fine musicians to list but its big in every way, super arrangements and compositions, musicianship and variety. Crossing the boundaries of be bop, model and film scores. This guy really should have produced some film soundtracks. Some consider Evans the best Jazz arranger of all time. It' a shame. Cuki chillin' dem boots to the tracks 'Spoonful' and General Assembly' in particular. Yep, check your albums to see if you got these tracks cause the UK market got a double album on with the best two bullets. Check the album that came out later in the 'Previously unreleased' series on Verve in 1973 (V6-8838) with more of the same and these two tracks. All tracks produced by Creed Taylor.
Bussi babba's, stay lovely and luv ya boots
Till the next time
The one sweet daddy
Mail to Alan Brown/Cukipapa
Pillergasse 7/20
1150
Vienna
Austria
Mobile/SMS 0043 699 1260 4000
Home/Fax 0043 1971 2439
Those wishing to continue mailing me in London
c/o Reka Fabian
75 Salsbury Road
London NW6 6NH
UK
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Feb 01 2002 - 16:24:17 CET