that kind of music that radioactive man plays.

You go to electronic music nights in london you mainly get pretty techy house, dubstep, some drum & bass and occasionally, about 1% of the time something a little weird that you can't really put a name to. A huge example of someone not giving a fuck about any fashions or trends that occur in dance music, it is Keith Tenniswood, also known as Radioactive Man and one half of the 2 lone Swordsmen with Weatherall. Tenniswood's Radioactive Man moniker has always proved to be that 1%, the music he plays stems from the detroit scene of the 80s.



Not only are you likely to hear any number of the Transmat records during a Radioactive Man set but you could also hear one of those nasty Acid Techno records that everyone else seemed to have left behind in 1993.



Much of what you hear a Rotters Golf Club night are re-edits and remixes of tracks that Tenniswood produces himself because there doesn't seem to be that many producers out there that would make the kind of music he would play, in turn there aren't that many DJ's who would pull out a Radioactive Man record from their box.



Although I would blatantly play this, if I could find 5 tracks of a similar speed to play beforehand.

There other artists who make similar music to him but its stuff you just wouldn't expect to hear in the main room of a commercial nightclub and as such he tends to be more at home in the sweatboxes in Dalston than in Ministry of Sound, although he is quite regularly at Fabric scaring the shit out of the tourists.

With tracks like this...



Or This...



and here is another prime example of the sort of thing he might play.



It is not really music that has a name but it has a very distinct sound, the disjointed jittery breakbeat, 135 to 150 beats per minute, vocodered robo-vocals and an incredibly industrial sound. there was a minor 'IDM' revolution in Berlin in the early 90s and clubs like Tresor would commonly play music like this, alongside the Acid Techno DJ's, then everyone started listening to synth pop and electroclash and this music sort of disappeared. Until the internet, of course.



(note the twisted David Bowie vocal sample)

It reared its head again when there was a Breakbeat revival in the early Noughties and Tenniswood would share billings with the Stanton Warriors and Plump DJ's but there were a million miles apart.

occasionally quite nasty dubsteppy or jump up garagy elements enter the mix, dubstep happens to fall at half the speed of this hybrid of breaks, techno and electro, so it doesn't sound out of place.



It's always nice to hear the vicious old 2 Lone Swordsmen tracks, particularly the more Tenniswood sounding ones, and they often get an outing too, but the quintessential track from this genre which I can only really call 'that kind of music that Radioactive Man plays' is this one...



His latest collaboration is with Techno legend Billy Nasty, releasing on Craig Richards new record label, at the moment only available on vinyl, which is pretty novel and retro and all those other kinds of kitsch values that come with a vinyl only release, here is a snippet from the ep.

Its about that time again...

Righty, so here goes.

10. Battles- Gloss Drop.

At no point has the re-establishment into music as the steel drum been as pronounced as it was in this album... you can also check out a few Jamie XX remixes to hear it, but its definately been popping up in lots of the dubstep mixes, I wasn't sure how it would fit into math rock but it managed, and it didn't sound that bad. 'Ice Creams' was the track which found its way onto adverts but my love of the album 'The Pleasure Principle' leads me to link the collaboration they did with Gary Numan. with the video of the man falling down the escalator.



9. Magnetic Man- Magnetic Man

I've never been a dubstep afficionado, so I don't feel guilty about having this on the list but I'm sure that it will upset the dubstep police, three dubstep heroes having a crack at the mainstream is the sort of thing that will upset the chin strokers, but still, a well produced album which not only helped Katy B hit the big time but also re-introduced the world to Ms Dynamite.



8. TV on the Radio- 9 Types of Light

This band are fucking awesome, they straddle the line between punk, electronica and downright funkiness. As much Prince as they are Radiohead, this year they lost Gerard Smith to lung cancer, which is why I've bumped their album up to number 8 out of sympathy.



7. Wild Beasts- Smother

I listened to these guys loads which means I should really pop them in my top ten of the year, an improvement on their last album and something that reminds me of the first Hercules & the Love Affair album but less disco-y, perhaps the singer sounds a bit like Antony & the Johnsons man and thats why, but there is a bit of Boy George about him as well, and a wee bit of Kate Bush in the songwriting. Its quite dreamy and a teeny bit camp.



6. Chromeo- Business Casual

Several albums in and I still can't work out whether these guys are serious or not. Joke band or otherwise I love them like they are my brothers albeit from another mother one one from Israel and one from Palestine and both with keyboard stands resembling ladies pegs... I feel like I am inside an episode of Miami Vice whenever I hear them. Here they are in all their glory with a dance routine from some scantily clad ladies in police uniform to boot.



5. M83- Hurry up, we're dreaming

Another dreamy, synthy, gorgeous band which I think is just 1 person, but I'm not here to research these bands, I just want to tell you I liked their music, I could tell you that this album took years to make and was recorded in a bedroom in Crewe after he went to a Yazoo concert and wanted to come up with the best album since Duran Duran, by Duran Duran, but I'd be making it up, so just enjoy.

4. Radiohead- King of Limbs

Yes it was good, yes it was great, they can do what they want whether that be a collection of folky tracks or a collection of flying lotus-esque noise-tronica, it wasn't as successful an experiment as Kid-A or Amnesiac but any album with a track like this on it can't be overlooked...



3.Jamie XX vs Gil Scott Heron- We're New Here

Gil Scott Heron never reached his full potential, spent too much time fucked on crack and heroin, and spent too much time in jail. He was incredibly talented and it was really sad that he died this year not long after releasing an album which was as vital and as relevant as 'the revolution will not be televised' was in its day. People dismiss it as middle class music for the starbucks generation, but they are cynical fuckwits who should head back to ITV1 so they don't miss a second of the X factor final. Jamie XX recreated 'I'm New Here' and made it a totally different beast, this track in particular is a poignant swan song.



2. Cats Eyes- Cats Eyes

I really regret all the horrible things I ever said about Faris Badwan when he was going out with Peaches Geldoff, it turns out he was actually a genius and I just didn't get him, his Cat's eyes side project absolutely blew me away. It was as close to Phil Spector as it was to the Cramps as this moving tribute to Broadcasts Trish Keenan will atest



Horrors- Skying

Yeah, so Faris Badwan again, I really don't want to like him, I want to pretend I prefer the Klaxons but these guys are just so fucking good... they remixed a Lady Gaga track and turned it into a masterpiece, they have been hanging out with Andy Weatherall which means that eventually there will be remixes or even a collaboration, its got a certain U2 circa Achtung Baby sound but combined with the obvious My Bloody Valentine etc et al, I guess what I am trying to say is that it is probably the most solid example of what a classic rock album should sound like. Here to finish us off is an extended version of the highlight of the album... moving further away.



Amazing.

Joy division are not shit.

Joy division are one of those bands that are like Bob Dylan, the songs are brilliant but the execution is a wee bit skewiff. Dont get me wrong, most of the factory records peoples are great and I do own everything ever recorded by joy division thanks to a really awesome box set, but lots of people dont like them, so this is an attempt to ease the people that think Joy division are shit into the world of the Ian Curtis & co.



Baron Zen... 'they walked in line'

Wavves like, isn't it? If you can give me a solitary reason why a song about the holocaust can't be turned into a naughties surf rock classic then fuck off and read a blog about how life isn't fair because people are turning songs about the holocaust into naughties surf rock classics, I'm sure one exists.





Technova... 'Atmosphere'

Lovely, anyone who knows anything about my taste in music will know that this song is the closest thing I will ever get to an orgasm since the accident that rendered me not only impotent but almost female, you don't have to listen to it if you have ever listened to Andrew Weatherall's Fabric album

*Side Note: I am aware that for my entire life I have failed to use the apostrophe correctly and for that I am sorry, if you go back and re-read all my other blogs, try to understand that I didn't mean 2 of everything, I meant it in terms of ownership...apologies.*



Low, the cheeky shoegaze (yes, sorry, shoegaze again) take it down a notch but keep it close to the melody of the original, but my fave version of this is an almost complete re-imagining by Billy Corgan... how I gish wish that I could hate the Smashing Pumpkins, but they are good, they are the pinnacle of grunge, (fuck off nirvana fans!) they took on the sound of bands like suicide and my bloody valentine and made it that bit more palatable, so here goes...



Here is Radiohead performing Cermeony, from the album Closer, as was they walked in line... nuff said.



Below is probably my fave version of Transmission I have ever heard, someone who I worked with once asked me if I had 'heard that cover of joy division on youtube' I knew exactly which one he meant when I heard it, but thats because we had that kind of relationship, this is also the reason why my bum hole is an inch wider than it should be, but that, along with the cucumber is a seperate story.



Shove that up your ears you bummers.

The Mercy Seat

Being discusted by the fact that Leona Lewis and the X factor stable have ruined a 'Hurt' which had become synonymous with Johnny Cash's final years, it, kind of made me want to electrocute Simon Cowell, not necassarily in an electric chair, but preferably so, so its a good job that Johnny Cash covered Nick Caves 'The Mercy Seat' which is about a man's skull being fried after being sentenced to death...

Loud Loud Loud!!!

I could have chosen a dozen tracks from this monumental double album, but before I tell you why, here is a bit of back story for you...

Demis Roussos, the big Greek hairy man, isn't what many people would call the epitome of cool, he might feature on a few of those I heart 70s type albums but its just for the cringe effect really, those soppy romantic ballads sung by a fat man, it just doesn't wash.

Similarly Vangelis is a bit naff too, bar the end credits of Bladerunner what is there to choose from? Chariots of Fire soundtrack? 1492 conquest of paradise soundtrack? No they can all fuck off.

But when you combine Roussos and Vangelis and go back in time in a time machine to 1969 they stop being shit and become the 2 coolest muthafukkin Greek muthafuckazs in the universe along with Lucas Sideras (drums and vocals), and Silver Koulouris (guitars) they become Aphrodites Child, who recorded the album '666' a huge double concept album about the book of revelations which brings us to where the blog started... its a little bit like that bit in Fight Club where Edward Norton has the gun in his mouth.



The track is a little spoken word interlude which is quite haunting... 'Four Horsemen' and 'the Beast' are more conventional rock songs, but this is nice too.

Is it safe?

These guys were a bit on the odd side, strange name for a band, the original video for this songs looks like a low budget Lord of The Rings BUT inspite of being the object of ridicule with Family Guy and Scrubs using it for a cheap laugh, its actually a monster of a track. I've posted the extended mix because you would only listen to the standard version twice if I posted that, and you've seen enough dwarfs recently, I know because I've seen your internet history, you filthy dirty bastards!

...and my last German track for the time being.

Siriusmo. Missed this one when it came out, but it looks like these guys are labelmates of the Mighty Modeselektor, and this might be the best dance record I have heard in forever...

and another thing.

...Fuck it. I am going to put on that Cluster track.

Can- I want more.

Been a long time since I left you, without a dope beat to step to, is what Eric B & Rakim opened their 'I know you got soul' ditty with, and the reason why I quote them is because I have not posted anything here for 4 months, which when you consider that at one point I was posting up to 9000 tracks a day, is pretty fucking poor.

Anyway, for the last 4 months I have moved out to Germany to try to embody the spirit of Bowie, Iggy and Lou, the holy trinity of music, from which all things came and to which all will go again. Of course I'm not actually a fan of Bowie, Iggy or Lou but I am trying to gain extra hipster points by namechecking them.



Lou's earlier outting with the Velvet underground was not only influential on Bowie or Iggy but also proved to be the starting point for German experimentalists 'Can' who not only managed to get the first velvets album but also managed to create a band with a similar sound. By the time the Velvets had disintergrated due to in fighting and drug addiction, the Cologne band had undergone several changes of their own, a name change from 'inner light productions' and the recruiting of Damo Suzuki had led to Can releasing an album which would cast a similar shadow to the Velvet Underground.



Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi are easily in the chin stroking realm that the 'Velvet Underground & Nico' or 'white light, white heat' inhabit, they are all revered with critical acclaim today and often feature in music critics Top 50 of all time, but at the time, no one bought them.




These albums turned on artists like Bowie Iggy and Lou to the music that was coming from Germany, German music at this time had such a profound effect on the 'magic triangle' (iggy, bowie, lou) that they all left New York to live in Berlin. Bowie apparently tried to recruit Ralf Hutter to record with him, while bands like Tangerine Dream gained popularity among the prog listeners of 70s Europe.

Krautrock, in general benefited from the attention it got from Bowie, as did Nine Inch Nails, Placebo and even the Arcade fire who Bowie dueted with on American TV to gain them massive popularity did- But unlike the latter bands, there is an obvious sense that Krautrock helped Bowie, Iggy and Lou develop as artists. All you have to do is listen to tracks like
'V2 Schneider' from Bowies 'Heroes' or all of Lou Reeds 'Metal Machine Music' (go on, I dare you.)

So in my search of the essence of what made Bowie Iggy and Lou so awesome, I have become bogged down in squelchy German progressive music from the 1970s, strangely, it sounds a lot more adventurous than 90% of the music I can find at the moment, but maybe that is just because I am becoming an old man.

Having gone a little bit too far in spouting pretentious bollocks about a genre of music very few people care about, I'll not leave you with the most obscure 'Cluster' track I can find, but a track that the Krautrock purist turns their nose up at because it was Can's crack at the charts, but the hook from it is used as the incidental music on BBC Radio 6 music, and for that reason, its as good a place as any to start with Can.

Wired for Sound

It's not easy being me. I'll be on a massive writing splurge where I can write about anything, and I mean anything, there was a point where I filled up 1000 words on the joys of 'paprika garlic and chilli powder' and I shit you not, It was fucking brilliant, one of the best things I ever written, it was so good that I won a pullitzer prize for it, but that is neither here nor there as I am here sat in front of a screen feeling like I want to write but not having anything to write, and that is the beauty of having a music blog, what I write is secondary and doesn't have to be so good. Which is why I am going to do something very very bad.

I'm going to tell you all about my guiltiest of guilty pleasures. That pleasure is 'Wired for Sound' by Cliff Richard.

The majority of people who would cite a Cliff song as their guilty pleasure would go for 'Devil Woman' which I don't think is fair because it is actually a great song that it would be acceptable to like if say, the stereophonics, or The Faces, or even Paul McCartney wrote... there is no saving 'wired for sound'... have a listen for your self.



The production, the video, the clothing, the fact that a 45 year old man is chasing women wearing roller skates, the fact that he looks like he might have HIV. it all smacks of something you should ignore, take out of your computer and physically bury in a garden in the hope that you neighbours dont see you.

Yet, I like it. I like the lyrics...

"I like tall speakers, I like small speakers"

So you like Speakers then Harold? Can I call you Harold, that is your name isn't it? Harrold Webb? No? you want me to call you Cliff? So you like Speakers then Harold, whatever the size? is that what you're trying to say?

No this song actually delves in deeper than that. it goes into the depths of abstract concepts like love...

"I met a girl and she told me she loved me"...

thats a bit sudden isn't it?

Cliff agrees, stating: "I said you know that to love me you must like, what I like..."

Who would have thought that Cliff would have such an astute knowledge of what lve is seeing has he has only had farcial relationships with sue barker that involved playing tennis and not having sex, and Olivia Newton Johns generally involved loving God.

Not only that, but his "Music is Dynamite"...

I've finished taking key lyrics of the song, but I will continue to sing its praises, the call and response of the guitar part, the bizarre 6/8 timing of the drums, the allusion to vinyl lyrically in the chorus and the fact that I think Cliff looks quite cool in the video. I think people should give me a break. Its not like I go around slagging off your Guilty pleasure choices.

twats.

Here is the News.

I'm suspending what seems to have been a constant uninterupted stream of shoegaze to talk about music that I don't actually have on my ipod, but a sub-genre of music which I have listened to all my life simply because it was way past my bedtime.

I know that Bill Bailey has already done this in a standup so I shall take a different angle by not being funny.



It is difficult to actually understand what music actually means if it is so deeply embedded into your psyche, but what a fucking CHOOOOON!! (okay so maybe choooon isn't the right word for a piece of music like this, but...) news theme tunes were serious pieces of avant garde time shifting scene setting soundscapes. it sets the tone for what is going to be a harrowing half hour. ecconomic problems, social problems and social problems, the absolute worst of all three as well, nothing you can do about it.



British news theme tunes are by there very definition the sound of the coming apocalypse, a key factor in the writing of these pieces of music would have been when they were written: Slap bang in the middle of the cold war. Of course they are going to sound apocalyptic, they were written during the brink of the apocalypse.

Before the wall came down BBC towed the line with post apocalyptic thing. Several rebrands during the late 80s and early 90s varied the BBC news theme, none of which remotely competed with either Panorama or ITN


Of course after the cold war ended and acid house and ecstacy infiltrated the BBC offices, we got the BBC news theme tune we know and love today.



In terms of dance music, this could easily have been released on Bedrock or Kompakt records, I have heard similar tracks at Fabric, Turnmills and the End.

There are a very specific set of rules which govern the themes of music shows, they all have to have shifting time signatures, it is helpful if they are performed with a horn section, not in a dixieland jazz way, but in an urgent and threatening manner. This may not be the sort of stuff I listen to on the tube on the way in to work, but it is a powerful and attention grabbing tool to get the grown ups watching.

Sugar Assault Me Now.

I have no idea why this guy never became a superstar, As far as I know he started as the bass player in Scouse matching outfit electroclash misfits Ladytron, but Levi left them to form himself. Hius first album was quality but dismissed by lazy music journo's as a crap version of Iggy Pop, but one listen of this song was enough to convince me. Hand claps, a crunchy bass riff and robo dancing in the video, his second album was just not as good and he dissapeared. It was great to see an NME journo singing his praises. Looking at previous posts I was worried that people might assume that I only listen to progressive rock and that my next move would be posting fanfare for the common man by Emerson Lake and Palmer. So shove this one up your face and eat it until it comes out of your bum hole. Then do it again.

Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra.

nancy Sinatra isn't exactly a legend. Her dad might have been, she has cameo'd in Soprano's which makes her a bit cooler, but lets be honest she'd probably not have made it as big if it wasn't for one man... BUT that man was not her father, Ol' Blue Eyes. It was the pot smoking outlaw cowboy Lee Hazelwood. This gangsters daughter and hippy combo may not have made waves when they first released songs with few hits, but they had a wide ranging influence on some of the bands that and albums that I totally love today.

Some Velvet Morning from Vanishing Point, by Primal Scream featuring Kate Moss being an obvious one, the track is a cover of Hazelwood and Sinatra and although radically different to the original, certainly has its own charm.



Anyone who has listened to any of the Isobel Campbel and mark Lanegan albums without consulting Hazelwood and Sinatra has not found the missing link between modern and classic and thus wont be aware that they are not appreciating the duo for what they really are... a Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra tribute act.

So have a blast of this, I realize I've just been lazily linking hotmail images so I promise to make it slightly more wordy just to bore you further. I was recently on holiday and the cheesy evening entertainment was cheerfully doing covers of all the James Last spectrum of hits, but in the middle of it was a version, albeit a crappy one, of this...



The fact that there are 72 dislikes of this youtube link means that there are at least 72 people on this planet who are total fucking idiots. Now lay back enjoy and click on all the related links apart from the crappy nu metal sweemo cover by the guy from HIM and the girl from Nightwish.

Pink Floyd. Let there be more light.

Kill Bill vol4.

Proof that the Germans do it best.

Moving Further Away- Horrors

Youtubes comments page is usually a hostile environment with a steady stream of trolls typing out poison, but on the comnments page of the bellow video, someone said

"this song shows the band has evolved way way further than the expected."

Let me shed some light on this, The Horrors appeared on the scene with 'strange house'in 2004 which was trashed by critics, and rightly so, it was an album of cramps pastiche tracks at best. Their lead singer bothered the tabloid gossip pages while dating one of the Geldofs, in esscence I prayed for them to fuck off and be dropped...

Then something happened. They recruited Geoff Barrows of Portishead to produce their second album Peaches Geldof married someone else whilst still dating Faris. Faris dropped the surname 'Rotter' and went with his real surname. They started to be more than a joke band for NME to poke fun at.



Some critics who perhaps felt bad about the thrashing they gave 'Strange House' gave this 'album of the year status' and it was cracking, well produced, well written yet quite inpenetrable in places- Perhaps they had something after all.

This is the highlight of their latest album Skying. It harks back to My Bloody valentine, Jesus & Mary Chain, Early Primal Scream and Death in Vegas, but it is a sound that is totally theirs. The song itself is good but it is not until 3min50 that the song stops being good and becomes great. As if its not good enough being a great song it goes on for the next 2 minutes being great, melting into a gorgeous synthline before that guitar part starts to sneak back in. at 6mins30 the song stops being great and the realization dawns that the Horrors might be the best band since the Beatles.

We are almost certainly dealing with Genius here. I dont remember feeling this way about a track since My Iron Lung by Radiohead.

Truly- Blue Flame Ford.

Of all the post Nirvana bands, these were the sludgiest and least grungy. Pretty sure it came out in 95. Closer to Kyuss than Anything off Nevermind.

Weatherall vs Ivan Smagghe back to back 3 hours of techno.

Andrew Weatherall & Ivan Smagghe Back 2 Back Live @ Nest, London, England - 24-06-2011 by R_co

Beatles Cover 1.

The point where the record company told the Beach Boys they were getting no more money.

My new blog.

I used to think that music blogs were lazy. They probably still are, but Having come across some pretty impressive music blogs recently, I intend to start my own, I promise to keep it void of political and social views unless the music I place on it demands it. For example, I might quite happilly highlight a bit of Gil Scott Heron or Sly Riot going on Era... black power will get mentioned, if I talk about army of lovers or magnetic fields, then there will be talk about homosexuality. There will be terrible pop, psychadelic gems, techno, folk, drug music, lots of kitch classics, banghra etc. I hope it is very much a blog version of Fred Deakins 'Triptych', an amazing mix CD from several years ago, or lives up to the same eclectic standard as John Peel. But fuck it, I'm rambling, and there is no way you will get this many words in future.