So, as we roll towards the end of another year we thought it would be a good time to make like everyone else in the world and compile an enormous post full of lists of things that we did and didn’t like over the last 12 months. Pop the kettle on, sit back and take a deep breath ’cause this post is an epic…

Niles’ Top New Albums of 2007

Real new music from actual FOPPS and Virgins (Other music outlets are available) [Baggy] Does this have anything to do with these 2 retailers being located next to your place of work Niles?

• LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver A lot less obvious than the first album and no bad thing for it. This contained one of my tracks of the year “Get Innocuous” and a whole host of similarly synthy and sexy punk-disco work outs.
• Justice - + Yes it sounds like Daft Punk ripping off Daft Punk but that’s a good trait as far as I am concerned.
• Boys Noize - Oi Oi Oi This Sounds like Justice ripping off Justice ripping off Daft Punk ripping off Daft Punk. I think? Either way it’s another DaftPunCassiuSebastiAnDeCrecy album of superb filtered house.
• Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release More synth/acid/house biznizz but there’s been a lot of good releases this year. Poppy but still excellent club material - this soundtracked a particularly boozy night in Tenerife…
• Komputer - Synthetik TH15 15 TH3 50UND 0F R080T5 MAK1NG D0WNT3MP0 MU51C
• Eva Be - Moving Without Traveling I managed to sit on this for about 2 months without listening to it but once Simon played a few of the tracks on the radio show I was hooked in.
• Various (Jazzanova) - Computer Incarnations for World Peace Cosmic compilation from early in the year. This was the sound of me driving an Avensis around Essex. Spacey. [Baggy] Whilst making radio show notes on your mobile phone recorder, you massive geek!
• Various - Ed Recs Volume 2 Loud and banging French electro from the turn of 2007. This Ed Banger Records album frightened and annoyed Baggy in equal measure.
• Various - Kitsune Maison Volume 4 My better half’s favourite album this year. Top tracks from Hadouken, Whip and other shouty electro pop bands.
• Joakim - Monsters and Silly Songs Not the most immediate album ever but an absolute winner.
• Feist - The Reminder 1,2,3,4. That’s Leslie counting all of her Apple iMoney that is…

Baggy’s Top New Albums of 2007

Fopps? Pah! Piccadilly Records and Juno all the way here. (In no particular order…)

• Federico Aubele - Panamericana It’s pretty darn cold outside isn’t it? Well, pop this album onto your media player of choice, close your eyes and imagine you are kicking back on the beach, reclined horizontally on your sun lounger whilst sipping on a strawberry dakari. Sunshine vibes indeed.
• Sa-Ra Creative Partners - The Hollywood Recordings Spacey Nu-Soul/Hip Hop wonk at it’s best from Detroit’s finest. Wahwahahahahaaaaaaaa-woooonnnk (For those of you that don’t know, that’s a wonk bassline! - Sorry!)
• Sorcerer - White Magic After stumbling across his MySpace page and asking for an interview and mix last year we had no doubt that as soon as he heard Tirk were going to release a full length album of Dan Judd’s material this would be nothing but the bomb. Diver’s Do It Deeper encapsulates that whole West Coast vibe for me. Artist of 2007 - Nothing short of awesome!
• Studio - West Coast DJ History Forum and Piccadilly Records peeps were right on the money with this one. Straight outta Sweden, Studio sound like a cross between A Mountain of One and The Happy Monday’s. I’ve been hammering every track from this album and their remixes for other artists have been on the money also. Band/Producers of 2007? Certainly in my book.
• Map of Africa - Map of Africa Harvey does Karaoke. This got some mixed reviews on it’s release mainly due to fact that there was so much hype and expectation. (And the £20 gatefold LP price!) As it’s Harvey and Thomas Bullock (Rub ‘n’ Tug) who are the main forces behind the project it was to be expected but there’s no doubt it’s a Balearock 10 on 10. Here come the heads indeed.
• LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver Admittedly I was late to catch onto DFA but this cemented any doubts of palming them off as a trendy fashionista label, here today, forgotten about tomorrow. This is a strong step forward for James Murphy with a sound still taking from his obvious influences but much more his own as opposed to their debut long player. I’m always happy to be proven wrong and DFA are going to be putting out top notch releases for the unforseeable future.
• Chromatics - Night Drive A move from Troubleman Records to sub dance label ‘Italians Do It Better’ proves the right decision as the transition from punk to a druggy slo-mo, washed out disco sound perfectly encapsulates what I’m listening to right now. Label of 2007 without question. Nothing but brilliant!
• Glass Candy - B/E/A/T/B/O/X See above. Can’t wait for more output in 2008. European tour coming soon. Italians Do It Better RULE!
• Disrput - Foundation Bit We love a bit of dub here at Cosmic Disco. This is modern day King Tubby styled electronic Dub. Total echo chamber, dubbed out bass-bin treatment. Turn this up LOUD! Features loads of Sci-Fi film samples also.
• Eva Be - Traveling Without Moving More electronic dubbed out beats on Sonar Kollectiv with fantastic guest collaborations and sublime vocals. If I was a stoner, this would pretty much be my soundtrack. 2-step dub anyone?
• Tony Allen - Afro Disco Beat Leading afro percussionist and co-founder of Afro-Beat, Tony Allen gets the re-package treatment on Vampi Soul as all the music from his 1st 4 albums get nicely put together in one pack. Essential.
• !!! - Myth Takes With an eye for the dance floor, dance-punk revivalists Chk, Chk, Chk produce what is for me their finest work to date. Driving guitar and funky post punk bass combining elements of Disco, Funk, Punk, Dub and Hip Hop. Awesome live too.
• Life on Earth! - Look There Is!!! I wasn’t listening to just dance orientated beats this year. When the mood took I was partial to a bit of Nu-Folk? n’all. This Swedish outfit contains musicians from Dungen, The Works, Town and Country as well as Mai Doi Todd and is a trip into psychadelia ‘07 style.
• TomBoy - Serios WhoMadeWho drummer Tomas Barford produces what is one of the best electronically glitched out examples of modern cosmic disco perfect for ‘The Kids’.
• Various - After Dark Another belter on ‘Italians’. This time featuring some top notch remixes. Originally produced as a promo for the Glass Candy tour the tracks were compiled by Glass Candy main man Jonny Jewel featuring the labels main artists summing up the best of today’s Balearic, Cosmic and Italo. Check out the Glass Candy cover of Belle Epoque’s - Miss Broadway. Stunning!
• Heliocentrics - Out There A hard 4 years in the making, drummer for Madlib and DJ Shadow - Malcolm Catto mixes influences from funk and avant-garde electronica for this modern day album of cinematic styled soundtrack muzak. It’s pretty much up there with some quality work from the likes of Axlerod and Morricone. A future classic.
• Elmore Judd - Insect Funk The best white boy funk album I’ve heard in years. This album goes from New York glitz to African grime, Elmore twists it all together to make a totally fresh unique sound all his own. Honest Jon’s once again bang on the money. Another contender for label of the year.
• G and D - The Message Uni Versa More Hip-Wonk. The Stone’s Throw duo move across to Look to release one of the top 5 Soul/Hip Hop albums of 2007. Wonk-tastic.
• Kathy Diamond - Miss Diamond To You Sheffield songstress Kathy teams up with Uber-producer/DJ Maurice Fulton for what is the slickest album of modern disco available in 2007. The distinctive Fulton touches cross over beautifully and these tracks set dance floor’s alight all over the country. Even my girlfriend loves this album and according to her my taste in music is ‘Fucking awful’.
• Various - Deep Disco Culture Vol.2 It’s fair to sat that I have quite a fair chunk of rare disco on vinyl and I also have a fair few of the tracks featured on this compilation but had little choice but to snap this up as this x2 CD of long, unmixed tracks throws up some amazing underground disco. Worth getting for Bumblebee Unlimited alone.
• The Aliens - Astronomy For Dogs Former Beta Band members Gordon Anderson, John MacLean and Robin Jones reunite for this pyched out epic of an album. Robot Man pretty much blew the roof off a recent Aficionado party where Matthew and Jolyon played a blinder.
• Antena - Versions Speciales (Camino Del Sol) Tom Bohlin and Benjamin Frohlich of Permanent Vacation are the guys responsible for this excellent remix project bringing in the skills of some of the best producers on the scene today. The likes of Todd Terje, Phreek One and Escort remix early 80’s electro-pop classics such as Achilles, Camino Del Sol and Seaside Weekend to modern dance floor perfection.
• Various/Danielle Baldelli - Cosmic, The Original. A Collection of Classics 1979-84 Fantastic x2 CD booklet with amazing biog and imagery. 1 CD contains unmixed tracks at their original speed whereas the 2nd CD has been mixed live by Baldelli himself featuring his trademark change of speeds from 45-33 (And vise-versa), effects and amazing track selection. This is right up there with Levan’s ‘Live At The Paradise Garage’ mix. I paid £25+P+P from Italy only for Juno to sell for half that price a few weeks later. Cheers guys…
• Nicolas Courtin - Les Yeux Fermes Another tip from the very knowledgable folk over at DJ History. It was forum member ‘Javels’ who initially put me onto this album and what a stormer it turned out to be! CBS featured some of the tracks, especially ‘Le Voyage’ which received some serious air time. Purchased whilst sunbathing next to the pool (Wonders of Wi-Fi laptops) whilst on my summer holidays in Spain. I spent more money on music that week than anything else!
• Antibalas - Security I bought lots of Afrobeat this year also. This was the bands 1st release using an external producer (John McEntire of Tortoise fame). This Brooklyn based outfit bang out Afro as good as anyone out there. Their best album yet!
• Mudd - Claremont 56 I think I’ve unconsciously been collecting everything that’s ever come out on Rong but I would’ve picked this up regardless of the label. If you want to know what we mean when we refer to ‘Balearic’ then simply play this record. Druggy prog synths and top notch programming/engineering isn’t compromised one iota given Mudd’s output has been nothing short of breathtaking this year. Quality and quantity, not many people are in this guys league.

Niles’ Top Old Albums of 2007

Essentially this is a list of albums that I bought whilst rummaging around with Baggy in second hand shops.

• Digital Emotion - Digital Emotion Killer ‘hard-to-find’ Italo disco album purchased from Endless Music in Prestwich, Manchester next to some dubious Piano House 12″s.
• The Section - Forward Motion Great noodly Jazz-Rock vibes. It’s no Street Pizza but it’s a keeper nonetheless.
• Black Blood - Blood Brother Blood Sister Heavy Afro Rock album again picked up at the ever giving Endless Music in Prestwich.
• Mass Production - ‘84 Cosmic Boogie? Check.
• Giorgio - Knights in White Satin It’s basically Sex Music. [Baggy] Note the ‘Sooner or Later’ track as covered by Chaz Jankel/Steve Kotey earlier this year on Bearfunk. The Chicken Lips Dub of this should really be featured in the 12″s of the year.
• Lannie McMillan - Breakin’ Through Patchy album but contains the ace title track which it’s worth tracking down for alone.
• Bappi Lahiri - Kasam Paida Karnewale Bollywood version of Billy Jean makes this one of the best things ever.
• Mahavishnu Orchestra - Inner Worlds Listen to this. It’ll knock your socks off.
• Various - Boogie Tunes Strong early 80’s compilation worth picking up for the Milton Wright winner ‘Keep It Up’.
• Level 42 - The Early Tapes Ashamed to admit I didn’t have this album up until earlier this year.
• Puzzle - The Second Album Nick Lachey can swivel. The actual first white artist album on Motown (we think). Disclaimer : Nick Lachey seems like a nice guy. I’m sure he meant no harm when he made his claim.

Baggy’s Top Old Albums of 2007

At the risk of upsetting Niles’ missus (By getting him to spend yet more money on records) I dragged him out to a few of my favourite second hand record emporiums this year which resulted in him finding records I would’ve wanted for myself had he not found them first - Bastard! On a serious note it’s been one of my highlights getting out and about, discovering new music with like-minded mates and Niles and Mark have both put me onto some amazing music in the process. Long may it continue! Without going into too much detail, here’s a list of some of the albums I’ve picked up whilst scouring the North West’s scariest monkey towns…

• John Martyn - One World Featuring killer Balearic classics such as ‘Big Muff’ and ‘Dealer’.
• The Blue Nile - A Walk Above The Rooftops Amazing New Wave-Synth-Pop from this Scottish based studio outfit.
• Barbara and Ernie - Prelude To… Serious folk rock featuring production from Eumir Deodato and percussion from Ralph McDonald. Reissue
• Carlton Patterson and King Tubby - Black and White Dub ‘BAG-AT-THE-CONTROLS!!! Reissue.
• Arpydys - Arpydys Everyone should own this album, even if it is a bootleg.
• Terry Reid - River ‘Dean’ from this album ALWAYS gets checked when played out.
• Rinder and Lewis - Warriors Another timely reissue featuring the Beppe Loda classic ‘Willie And The Hand Jive’.
• Steve Winwood - Arc of A Diver Winwood is THE man. King of blue eyed soul. He reinvented himself as a contemporary artist with this album. He also plays all the instruments on it. Kinda’ like the white Prince… Anyway, this album features mega tracks ‘Spanish Dancer’ and try pitching down ‘Night Train’ for devastating effect.
• Chaz Jankel - Chazablanca I finally managed to track this album down from a Dutch seller on t’Bay. Up their with my all time favourite records.
• John Foxx - Metamatic Fellow Lancashire lad John formed 80’s mega group Ultravox. He then went to set up the label Metal Beat and released this record on it. It’s ace New Wave, Electronica.
• Crosby, Stills and Nash - CSN I can’t believe I hadn’t picked this LP up years ago (I knew what it was mind) as it’s got bombs such as ‘Dark Star’ and ‘Fair Game’ (As covered by Mandre) on it to name only 2. Shocking really.
• Nick Mason - Ficticious Sports Brummie Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason knocks out this top Rock album. I recognised it due to a track called ‘I Was Wrong’ that was featured on an excellent mystery mix by Bill Brewster (DJ History) some time ago. Also features vocals by Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine fame.
• Ralph McDonald - Sound of A Drum I pretty much pick up anything that features Ralph McDonald as one of the players. This is why!
• Yellow Magic Orchestra - Yellow Magic Orchestra Riuichi Sakamoto based group of Japanese cosmonauts making music from outer-space back in ‘78. Yet another Accrington find for pennies.
• Giorgio Farina - Discocross Loda fave reissued. Selected by the excellent buyers at Piccadilly Records.
• Wally Badarou - Echoes Good egg Peter Masters gave me this one. Wally is the man when it comes to synths, hence his nickname ‘Prophet’.
• International Music System - International Music System Piccadilly Records really do stock some amazing reissue albums. This has an Italo classic that was featured on the famous ‘Mixed Up In The Hague Vol.1′ mix by Loud-E.
• Hamilton Bohannon - Inside’s Out Mind blowing ‘Proto-Disco’ picked up for peanuts.
• NYC Peech Boys - Life Is Something Special 80’s Post Disco legends taken under the wing of no other than Larry Levan. Listen to them bang out some garage classics on this one.
• Sadistic Mike Band - Hot! Menu Yet another find from Accrington’s Custard Cube Records. Yet another Sakamoto project. Yet another great Japanese Funk Rock album.
• Grassskirt - Hey Music Lover Chill-Out for long lazy summer days.
• King Tubby - Roots of Dub It ‘Dub’nt get any better than this.
• Earth, Wind and Fire - Last Days And Time ‘Power’ is what it’s all about here.
• Parliament - The Clones of Doctor Frankenstein Right place, right time… A fresh collection dropped off ready for me to plough through resulted in me picking up the 1st seven Parliament LP’s for £5 a pop meant there was no way I was leaving them sitting in the box. This one is a choice slab of heavy P-Funk from the mothership.
• Laurie Anderson - Mister Heartbreak Spoken word, animal based, avant-garde weirdness. Features collaborations with King Crimson (Guitar) and Bill Laswell not only plays bass but produces for good measure. This LP features a Balearic monster in the form of ‘Excellent Birds’ that features a duet with Peter Gabriel.
• Music For Dancefloors - The Chappell Music Library Sessions Much sought after deleted compilation album on vinyl. I managed to find all 3 albums in this series, this particular one being my fave.
• KPM - Afro Rock More library magic featuring the talents of John Cameron and Alan Parker. Official reissue.

TOP 7’s/12″s/EP’s OF 2007

Baggy’s Selections

2007 has been one of the best year’s for new music in recent times. I bought an absolute bucket load of top new vinyl. Here is a simple list of what’s been getting heavy rotation over the last 12 months.

• Cage and Aviary - Television Train.
• Prins Thomas - Cosmo Galactic Prism Part 2.
• Sorcerer - Divers Do It Deeper.
• Whitest Boy Alive - 24K.
• Tony Allen - Kilode (Carl Craig Remix).
• Vaskustska Ryggdunksarkapet No.1
• Creative Use 004 - Divine Edits.
• Glass Candy - Miss Broadway.
• Tony Allen - Ole (Moritz Van Oswald Mix).
• The Dynamics - Music.
• Fujiya and Miyagi - Uh.
• E The Hot - Licence To Chill.
• Les Edits Du Golem #1
• Aeroplane - Aeroplane.
• A Mountain of One - Brown Piano (Studio Remake).
• Soft Rocks - Look East.
• Fre$hro - Arrow Highway.
• Reverso 68 - Especial.
• Dottores Kranky Disco Band - Street Beat 79.
• Fabrizio Mammarella - Allunaggio (Played at 33rpm+8).
• Gudrun Gut - Pleasure Version.
• Matias Aguayo - Argento.
• Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55 The Remixes (Black Ghosts Remix).
• Studio - Life’s A Beach (Prins Thomas Remix).
• Sly Mongoose - Bad Pulse.
• Various - Elaste.
• Simone Fedi - Belzebu Tales.
• Kylie - 2 Hearts (Studio Remix).
• Phoreski - Quiet Please.
• Wolfmother - Love Train (Chicken Lips Malfunction Dub).

COSMIC DISCO’S FAVOURITE EVENTS/GIGS/PARTIES OF 2007.

A list of times that we went out, got pissed up and danced around a bit.

• The Blockheads @ Burnley Mechanics Seminal. Chaz Jankel is a keyboard demi-god. Seriously funky and one of the best gigs we’ve ever been to despite the fact that it took place in what looked like a school gym hall (We actually attended a gig in an old school gym hall later in the year but no amount of Back to the Future nostalgia could get that night in the top 10). Their set had a proper interval half way through and everything! We even hung around after the gig like groupies just to speak to the man himself. He was genuinely shocked and told us great titbits about when he took Ian to New York and getting him into disco. Legend.
• The Great British R&B/Blues Festival - Colne. [Baggy] Niles, this is the gym gig you’re talking about yeah? This is probably my most memorable night out of 2007. I agree, for all the wrong reasons but looking back I had an ace laugh. I’m already booked for 2008.
• Matthew and Jolyon @ Naive Melody / Al Green & Candi Staton double header This won’t be the last entry for one of Manchester’s best nights but the combo of killer disco and a night at the MEN ’sing-along-ing’ made this a sure fire top 3 candidate.
• Todd Terje @ El Diablo’s Social Club, Manchester Very tall guy with good tracks.
• Uffie & Feadz @ Sankeys She is very sexy. He tw@tted out some ridiculously good house.
• Punks Jump Up @ Contort Yourself, Manchester [Niles] I felt about 50 years old and I think I’d walked into the filming of Series Two of Skins but this was ‘off the hook’. Ya Gets me?
• Tim Sweeney @ Tramp, Manchester Criminally under attended but superb night. “Get innocuous” was the highlight.
• Phil Mison @ Best Foot Forward, Manchester Very warm night with lots of beer and my [Niles] kid brother. Balearic.
• Beppe Loda @ Cosmic Disco, Manchester We’re biased but it’s not often you get to hear/meet a genuine real life, living legend and we are proud to say we were responsible for bringing him to England for what was unbelievably his first ever UK performance.
• Cosmo Vitelli @ Naive Melody, Manchester Told you they’d be back. Baggy did the unthinkable and hassled/pissed off the DJ. Mega-Stella alert!
• A Mountain of One @ Trinity Church, Salford - Amazing venue, amazing band and the after party was hosted by Studio and Best Foot Forward. Best gig of the year by a mile. Why can’t all night’s out be like this?
• Danielle Baldelli @ Electric Chair, Manchester - Played the back room to a packed out crowd who’d never heard of him. He totally blew them away!
• Aficionado @ Odder, Manchester - 2 of the UK’s best resident DJ’s (Moonboots and Jason Boardman) have been tearing the arse out of Sunday evenings every month for the last 10 years or so. We are so lucky to have this party in Manchester.
• Kings Of Leon @ Manchester Central - Free gig at Baggy’s place of work. An all standing 12,000 person performance with the majority of the crowd throwing pints of piss at each other (And the band!) all evening. Bring on the festivals…
• Azymuth @ Mint Lounge, Manchester - 3 old dudes playing the absolute shit out of their instruments. Give me 30 minute wig-out’s of ‘Jazz Carnival’ any day. They even played ‘Can I Have This Dance?’ It was at this point that Baggy’s head nearly exploded.
• I-F @ Naive Melody - Another amazing guest provided by the Naive massive. Manchester’s club of the year by a long way. With the demise of Electric Chair this is THE place to party in 2008. We can see them having to move to a bigger venue…
• Cosmic Disco @ Trof, Manchester - Only a few weeks in but we are mustard aren’t we!

LEAST FAVOURITE ‘tings a’gwan’ OF 2007.

This stuff is rubbish right.

• Leona Lewis
• James Blunt
• Matchbox 20
• Fall Out Boy
• Cascada
• Baggy’s flat
• Baggy’s hair
• Baggy’s clothes
• Baggy’s car
• Pete Master’s short term memory loss
• Mark’s ‘Makin Music’ record of attendance and general timekeeping
• Work

FAVOURITE PODCASTS OF 2007

Musical and Otherwise. Compiled by Niles.

• Russell Brand - Radio 2 Very, very funny stuff. Get’s Niles through many a cross country credit insurance sponsored trek.
• Beats in Space The pinnacle of what we’re doing I think. Consistently good guests and fantastic mixes. Tim needs to sound a little cheerier though and take a leaf out of our book.
• Smodcast Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier discuss sex. A lot. But in a very witty and dry mumbly American comedian cult director kind of way.
• Guardian Unlimited Football Can somebody please explain why does James Richardson not present Match of the Day?
• Tiga Haha. He’s a real dj with actual skills and he manages to make a worse job than us jokers. Excellent music and unintentionally funny content. The phone calls to James Murphy are great.
• Russ Howard - Radio 6 Music Funny stuff on a regular basis from the much maligned BBC.
• Ed Banger Records Ok it only ever amounted to one Busy P mix but it’s a cracker.
• Trash One for the kids. angry London music with guest mixes.
• Cosmic Disco - Makin Music Podcasts C’mon, you must think we’re good. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.

Last 5 posts by niles

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