Hi,
I’ve recently set up a little blog for photograph’s that I take out & about.
Check it out Message From the Future.
First set are some snaps from Cosmic Disco’s favourite Floridian Theme Park ‘Epcot Center’.
Laters.
Good day to you Cosmonauts.
I’ve recently put together a little mix of Italo and Eurodisco for our very good friends at El Diablo’s Social Club which is currently up on their blog for your aural consumption.
There are tracks from Cat Gang, Klapto, Digital Emotion and plenty of other poppers inspired top’s off merchants so go, get stuck in and check out the other superb mixes on their blog (including a tremendous mix from our very own Baggy).
Myself and Simon’s lowdown and dirty El Diablo’s Bank Holiday Backroom set should also be appearing in the not too distant future on the Frequency Without Control blog.
Hope you enjoy the mix.
x
One of our all time favourite Spandau tracks has been given the disco re-rub treatment by Flash Atkins as part of the ‘Fags and Booze’ EP and features the brilliant vocal talents of Danielle Moore as she does her best Tony Hadley impression on Chant No.1 (I Can’t Keep This Pressure On).
The stems and parts can be downloaded HERE to remix and re-edit with the best efforts to be released by We Are Woodville so get cracking as the deadline is January 1st 2010. Email your entries to ben at recordlabelservices.com
Listen to the original version HERE and find out more about the majestic Flash Atkins HERE.
Over a year ago I came across one of the best EBM/Industrial and Synth Wave mixes i’ve possibly ever had the pleasure of listening to. This mix was created by a gentleman called Ian Martin and as direct result I just had to make contact with him and obtain a new ‘Cosmic Disco Exclusive’ mix so our subscribers could hear what all the fuss was about. Well, if you missed this mix the first time around back in January go grab it again HERE.
Ian has been producing his own material for a number of years and are very pleased to inform you that Ian’s first mini album is now available to purchase, containing 6 tracks of atmospheric and melancholic deepness. Ambient, Experimental, Industrial, Deep House. Musique concrete as Ian himself puts it!
This album is now available via Godspill. Head over and click on the CD Player for soundclips.
In additional, Ian now hosts a new show on the mighty Intergalactic FM called SEER Radio which airs every Friday at 21:00hrs CET on IFM3, focusing on Experimental, Exotica, Ambient and Electronic music. Make sure you pop across and add to your bookmarks.
For previous shows click HERE and for info and tracklistings of previous shows, click HERE.
After last weekends fantastic ‘Synth Brittania‘ documentary on BBC4 there’s no better time to introduce Wilberforce’s second Cosmic Disco mix with some words from the man himself…
By the late 1970s, as musical technology such as synthesisers, sequencers, and drum machines became more accessible, so white rock musicians previously limited by the guitar-bass-drums format mined this expanded sonic palette to evolve a stark and angular form of dance music. Of course, Kraftwerk were the pioneers of what was dubbed ‘Synth-Pop’ (Personally, Id call it Electro-Dance), but as the 70s became the 80s, many others followed suit, with even ‘Real’ instruments given a synthetic makeover.
This development probably peaked around 1983, when musicians were still using the technology rather than the technology using them. But as the 80s wore on, that situation was sadly reversed: as far as Im concerned, the death knell sounded when samplers had become cheap and powerful enough for any fool without an ounce of musical imagination to sample a few bars of other peoples music, loop it, and then rap over the top.
Despite that, a great legacy has been left: there are plenty of tracks that have become classics of the kind (New Orders ‘Blue Monday’ immediately springs to mind), but here Ive put together some perhaps-less-well-known-butequally-good-if-not-better-in-my-opinion material.
Back in April we received a stunning mix from a mysterious character known only as Darklord.
Well, we are very pleased to present volume 2 of the Darklord’s Il Suono Scuro mix series, now available at Cosmic Disco!
We are going to keep the tracklisting a secret for the time being but if you fancy doing a little spotting, click on the image at the top of this post for some clues, as you will notice the back of the album covers used to compile this mix. A distinctly more dubbed/psyched out effort than the soundtrack influenced Vol.1, the drugs kick in at around the 20min mark and start to wear off just in time for a helicopter ride above the jungles of Vietnam.
Perfect for a foggy evening (Or running for your life in an abandoned subway station!), Il Suono Scuro 2 features tried and tested favourites as well as some seriously off the radar material.
Enjoy!
Tracklisting currently unavailable. Get spotting!
Oki-Ni have got together with Japanese label Mule Musiq to celebrate the launch of KZA’s (Force of Nature) first solo album D.A.E (Dig and Edit).
Not only are Oki-Ni stocking the album 2 weeks in advance of any other stores, they are also producing a small run of limited edition box sets which contain:
All items are housed in a matt-finish yellow and black heavy duty card box with Mule Musiq logo on the lid and silver embossed Oki-Ni text on the underside.
Limited run of 30 boxes. BUY HERE.
KZA is half of ‘Force of Nature’, one of Japan’s most influential electronic production outfits. ‘Dig and Edit’ is KZA’s first solo album and was produced with Endless Flight artist Kiniyuki aka Koss. The 11 tracks on the album have strong parallels with the Force of Nature sound and are made from samples of KZA’s favourite finds of obscure records ranging from Jazz, Rock and Disco.
Andy Blake, head honcho of London based record label Dissident, has graced us with an exclusive mix titled ‘This Ain’t No Disco – Music for a World Unknown Volume One’.
Together with Joe Hart (Boddyhammer), Andy is starting a promising new night called World Unknown. Here is a taster of what you can expect from man of the moment and one of the labels of the year.
Remember, there are still copies available of various Dissident releases over at Juno.
Tracklisting? Well, Mr Blake is expecting us to spot those tunes so hands on…
Vibraphone and keyboard player, master arranger and bandleader, Mulatu Astatke is one of the all-time greats of Ethiopian music and the creator of his own original music form, Ethio jazz.
Through the acclaimed Ethiopiques album series and through featuring on the soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers, his music has belatedly reached a global audience and a new, younger generation of fans. In November of last year, he recorded an inspired new album with London psych jazz band The Heliocentrics for Struts Inspiration Information studio collaboration series. Now, Strut are proud to present, for the first time anywhere, the definitive Mulatu career retrospective covering his landmark 60s and 70s recordings.
Mulatu is a true pioneer of African music. He was the first Ethiopian musician of his generation to travel extensively and to record abroad he studied in the UK in Wales and at Trinity College Of Music in London, cutting his teeth on the buoyant London jazz scene of the early 60s. He became the first African student to attend Harvard and he lived and recorded in New York, developing a unique sound that fused Western jazz with traditional Ethiopian melodies. As Mulatu says, It took a long time to get the balance, to let the colours and the feelings of the Ethiopian modes shine through. Returning to Swinging Addis during the late 60s, he became a pivotal figure, arranging for many of the countrys top vocalists and developing rich, dense textures in his own music during the final years of Selassies reign and the mid-70s rule of the Derg Communist military junta.
Tracing the progression of his Ethio jazz experiments with full access to all of the labels for whom he recorded, Mulatu Astatke: New York-Addis-London is the essential Mulatu. Covering his first recordings in the UK during 1965, his groundbreaking fusions for the small Worthy label in New York and his key 70s recordings back in Addis on Amha, Phillips and Axum, the album features comprehensive sleeve notes by Miles Cleret, boss of the excellent Soundway Records imprint, and rare, previously unseen photos from Mulatus personal archive.
The Malatu Astaki Anthology is available from October 27th On Strut
Q-Burns Abstract Message has provided us with his own blurb for this weekends mix so I’ll hand it over to him.
In between days of constant super-villain scheming and nights alternately spent fighting crime I was able, in the twilight time, to record this DJ mix suitable for chunky solar system travels.
Conspicuously titled “The Magic Hour Mix”, referencing the photographer’s favorite time for warm light and long shadows, it might also be a splendid time for making a DJ mix, or listening to one … and here it is.
Shadows replaced by tape delay echoes and hue substituted with sudden shots of reverb. Songs I dig found within. My mix, your hour. Enjoy.
I don’t think you can argue with that.
Enjoy.