J Dilla - Sniper Elite (feat MF Doom) (unreleased)
Clue to Kalo - The Infinite Orphan (Lily Perdida, Mush 2008)
The Rectifiers - Climbing Giant Numbers (Playtime for John Mountain, Sensory 2008)
Julianna Barwick - Dancing With Friends (Sanguine, Florid 2007)

Inquiet - High-P Low-D (live)
Inquiet - Fresh Flesh (live)
Inquiet - Pestle (live)

selections by guest Sam Szoke-Burke of Inquiet:
Djaly Ibrahima Seck and Fatou Mbaye Diop
Ishola Adepoju - Olokose (Popular Ishola Adepoju and His Native Blues, Gbalaya Records 1978)
Philip Glass - Train 1 (Einstein on the Beach)

Inquiet - Rose Rose (Inq Beyong, Brother Sister 2008)
Pikelet - There Will Be Others (Dictation EP, 2008)
Stina - Lune (Smell You Later, 2008)
Children of the Wave - Children of the Polka (Carapace, Sensory 2008)
Max Richter - Berlin By Overnight (24 Postcards in Full Colour, Fat Cat 2008)
The Time and Space Machine - Buffalo Roam (unreleased)
The Dutch Rhythm and Steel Show Band - Down by the River (Soul and Steel Show, 197?)
The Chap - Ethnic Instrument (Joakim remix) (Ethnic Caution EP, Lo 2008)
Mark-Henning - Sick Note (Sick Note 12″, Cynosure 2007)
Jackson and His Amazing Computer Band - Arpeggio (Smash, Warp 2005)
Bostro Pesopeo - Falls (unreleased)
Max Richter - From 553 W Elm St (24 Postcards in Full Colour, Fat Cat 2008)
Gerling - Windmills and Birdbaths (When Young Terrorists Chase the Sun, 2001)
Lullatone - Bedroom Bossa Band (Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous, 2006)

Radiothon 2008! If you enjoy listening to our show, please consider becoming a subscriber to our radio station 3RRR, which relies heavily on listener pledges to fund not only for its day-to-day operation, but also to pay for important expansions like our live performance space (which will soon be host to Lucky Dragons, amongst many many others), our brand new website (coming in October), and vital but difficult-to-make-sound-interesting things like new transmitters and new computers and shit.

This was our second Radiothon show and we relished the chance to temporarily assume the mantle of 3RRR mouthpiece by doing our best impressions of Sandy Roberts and Andrew O’Keefe on Telethon day. A big huge sexy thanks to those who called up during our show to subscribe, and to those who singled out To and Fro as their show du jour, that’s simply just bloody marvellous. Maybe they’ll let us stick around for a little longer, who knows.

Its not too late to subscribe - help keep our radio station and our show on the air, and also be in the running for an absurd amount of great Radiothon prizes (take as examples: ‘beer for a year’; a $2000 book voucher; an 11-day outback safari; and about 20,000,000 CD packs from the best record labels around the country). Simply call (03) 9388 1027 or visit rrr.org.au for more information.

Coming up next week - a live performance from, and no doubt some thoughtful conversation with, Sam of Inquiet.

Air France - June Evenings (No Way Down, Sincerely Yours 2008)
Theatre of Disco - On the Train (Theatre of Disco EP, 2007)
Daedelus - Get Off Your Hi Hats (Love To Make Music To, Ninja Tune 2008)
Datassette - Damage Report (Datassette, 2008)
Stereolab - Diagonals (Aoi remix) (myspace.com/mattholamew, 2008; original track from Dots and Loops, 1997)
Flying Lotus - Parisian Goldfish (Los Angeles, Warp 2008)
Kelpe - Bread Machine Bred (Ex-Aquarium, DC Recordings 2008)
Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities - Hay W’Happens (Lucas, Ghostly 2007)
Fanga - Natural Juice (Natural Juice, 2007)
The Emergency - Shock Wave (myspace.com/theemergency, 2008)
The Tallest Man on Earth - Pistol Dreams (Shallow Grave, 2008)
Yes - Countryside (Tormato reissue, 1978/2004)
Scott Walker - The World’s Strongest Man (Scott 4, 1969)
Four Tet - Ribbons (Ringer, Domino 2008)
Jackson and His Computer Band - Utopia (Smash, Warp 2005)
RAC - Sonic (Springyard Zone) (2008)
Moonbeam - Spring Story (2008)
Birth Glow - Transatlantic Homesick Blues (Ultimate Relief, 2007)
Speck Mountain - Blood is Clean (Summer Above, Peacefrog 2007)
Fontan - Early Morning (Early Morning, 2008)
Cream - World of Pain (Disraeli Gears, 1967)
Ross McLennan - Christian Love Made A Monkey Out of Me (Sympathy for the New World, Mistletone 2008)

MP3: Part 1 | Part 2

Madame, I have horrible news. Tim was in Sector 56 during de-condemnation of circuits. The vacuum valve interlock had just been enabled to start the cryogenic instrumentation when there was an unexpected and catastrophic particle discharge. He was instantly vaporised. He died doing what he loved - screaming in brief but immense pain. However, we were able to detect the Higgs Boson in the particle cloud where he once existed. So it’s not all bad news.

Never fear! We can rebuild him! We have the technology! But for this week, it was just me, me and only me. I did it my way.

We opened up with a sweet little track from the new Rectifiers album, following on from the Livewire Brian Wilson special. I took full advantage of the big chair by playing a wonderful and verboten Camille remix - not to mention much later a bit of commercial R&B much later from Lloyd. Major labels akimbo! A great slice of extreme name-check hip-hop from the Plantlife album has been tickling my rap-bone recently, and then we went all eighties with serious one-word-name revivalists in Pacific! and Chairlift, before biting the bullet and playing real old-skool. Man, what a chorus.

In the middle of the show, a contemplative bracket which I enjoyed immensely. It was book-ended by balearicists Studio and A Mountain of One, before descending via early-80s electronica to the depths of ambient. I’ve played a lot of the Brael and Tokyo Bloodworm, but that’s because I can’t really find a weak track on the album. The Luluc is lovely, and Twine does that low-key ambient electronica thing pretty well.

Then up again for the last part of the show. The Hole in the Sky label gave us some more good local beats, and some usual gay-disco names like Polar and Dear before ending with more huge revival sounds with Soft Rocks.

Fun!

Radiothon next week, bitches! Be there or don’t, yeah?

The Rectifiers - Brother John (Playtime for John Mountain, Sensory 2008)
Envelopes - Boat (Here Comes the Wind, Brille 2008)
Camille - Ta Douleur (Al Usher vocal mix) (Ta Douleur Remixes 12″, EMI 2007)
Plantlife - Time Traveller (Time Traveller, Easyleague 2008)
The Templates - Daylight (Bus RIde to the Zoo 7″, Hole in the Sky 2008)
Chairlift - Evident Utensil (Does You Inspire You, Kanine 2008)
Pacific! - Silent Running (Reveries, Caroline 2008)
The Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes (1979)
Brennan Green - Escape from Chinatown (Version by Studio) (Yearbook 2, Information 2008)
Sauveur Mallia - Baby Robot (Automation, Tele 1980)
Brael and Tokyo Bloodworm - Moss Grown Weary (Living Language, Moteer 2008)
Grouper - Heart Current (Cover the Windows and the Walls, Root Strata 2007)
Luluc - A Whisper (Dear Hamlyn, Shock 2008)
Charge Group - Vice’d (Escaping Mankind, Remote Control 2008)
Twine - Halo (Violets, Ghostly 2008)
Ozo - Anambra (long version) (Anambra 12″, Flexx 2007)
A Mountain of One - Our Eyes (Collected Works, 10 Worlds 2007)
Pikelet - Err on the Side (Dictation EP, self-release 2008)
Mashmakhan - Afraid of Losing You (Cherrystones Hidden Charms, Family 2004)
The Canyons - Big City Lights (The Lovemore EP, Hole in the Sky 2008)
Fig Leaves - Cygnus Ohh Crane (Fig Leaves, self-release 2008)
Kelley Polar - Rosenband (I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling, Environ 2008)
Lloyd - I’m Wit It (Lessons in Love, Universal 2008)
Matthew Dear - You Know What I Would Do (Body Language Six, Get Physical 2008)
Soft Rocks - Black Magic (Disco Power Play III, Soft Rocks 2008)

MP3: Part 1 | Part 2

Tonight’s show - perhaps best described as the Pikelet Spectacular, but we’ll get to that soon enough - started off with a few interesting things happening around town. Australian purveyors of pristine electro-acoustics Solo Andata have just had one of the more beatific moments from their debut record (released a couple of years back on Chicago’s Hefty Records) lifted for use in a Calvin Klein commercial. The ad features Eva Mendes - of course - and has been banned on certain TV networks, something to do with Eva’s nipples or perhaps just an aversion to the subversive wiles of Solo Andata, who knows. Check it out here. Also, new sounds from Brothersister fringe-folker (and SE Asia lost pop anthropologist) Inquiet, and Melbourne’s own master of dysfunctional melancholy masked in melody Mark Barrage.

We were then joined by Evelyn Morris aka Pikelet, who played us just a few of her loop-pop gems, chatted with us about all things Pikelet, and then stuck with us as guest DJ for the rest of the show. Her picks included her current “best song of all time”, “Figure in Your Dreams” by 70s prog folk collective Comus, Tasmanian troubadour Anthony Rochester and Melbourne’s pneumatic pop jester Extreme Wheeze. Elsewhere in there, Dave continued to scratch his growing synth itch - surely now its a rash - via a transcendent analog freakout from Ohio’s Steve Hauschildt and another track from a lost library record, the synth-symphonica of Stringtronics. Big thanks to Evelyn for hanging out with us.

Solo Andata - Together Apart (Fyris Swan, Hefty 2006)
Inquiet - Middle of the World (Inq Beyong, Brothersister 2008)
Mark Barrage - Hindsight (Delays, Mistletone 2008)
James Blackshaw - Gate of Horn (Litany of Echoes, Tompkins Square 2008)
Tame Impala - Skeleton Tiger (Modular 2008)

Pikelet - Toby Light (live in 3RRR studio)
Pikelet - Swooping Buzzards (live in 3RRR studio)
Pikelet - Pillowcastle (live in 3RRR studio)

Steve Hauschildt - Indoor Travel (2008)
Comus - Figure in Your Dreams (To Keep From Crying, 1974)
Jeffrey Lewis - Back When I Was 4 (It’s the Ones Who’ve Cracked That the Light Shines Through, 2003)
Anthony Rochester - Interplanetary Relationships Can Be Problematic at the Best of Times
Peter Joseph Head - allthesongsthatyousing (http://whatsinalable.com/pjh, 2008)
The Danny Taylor Trio - Theme from Shaft (Our First Album, 196?)
Dutch Rhythm Steel and Show Band - Theme from Shaft (Soul Steel and Show, 196?)
Edu Lobo - Viola Fora de Moda (Edu Lobo, Odeon 1972)
Yes - Countryside (Tormato, 1978/2004)
Extreme Wheeze - Poison Goldfish Squad (2008)
Stringtronics - Freedom Road (Mindbender, 1972)
Buckingham Nicks - Long Distance Winner (Buckingham Nicks, 1973)
Syrinx - ?
Low Motion Disco - Things Are Gonna Get Easier (Keep It Low, 2008)

MP3: Part 1 (with Pikelet) | Part 2 (also with Pikelet)

Our guest this week is one of Melbourne’s most innovative 21st century pop progenitors Pikelet, known to her parents and selected others as Evelyn Morris.

Keen of mind and unique in sound, Pikelet’s renowned live show has long incorporated Casio tones, acoustic guitar and bona fide accordian all mixed up with her own angelic harmonies weaving into and out of a loop pedal. More recently Pikelet has evolved into an actual band, courtesy of a most relaxed rhythm section that conjures up unexpected slo-mo disco sounds (and occasionally gargles water through delay units) and a synth man who perhaps was raised in a log cabin in the Andes. Pikelet’s self-titled album released on Chapter Music last year is still winning fans - Evelyn’s most recent EP, the homemade Dictation EP, can be bought at gigs - check the myspace for gig details.

Evelyn Morris joins us to play live - our first live performance on To and Fro - and to talk about her music and stuff, this coming Tuesday night. Here’s a taste of what it might sound like courtesy of Shoot the Player:

Video: Pikelet - Pillowcastle

While Dave went to Darwin, I went to 1982. A track from unsung German synth alchemist Harry Thumann, a MIDI pioneer who was crafting weird synth-pop in his bedroom with Fairlights and Commodore 64s. Something from French mood music maestro Roger Roger, and a classic from Kid Creole’s “Tropical Gangsters.” Heading further back, a couple of tracks from 60s NYC freaks Lothar and the Hand People and a 1978 outtake from Yes that should now be your second favourite Yes track of all time. 25 years ahead, some brand new hazy pop from Melbourne’s Inquiet. We only recently discovered that Sam from Inquiet runs a blog that is well worth discovering, where he unearths rare Cambodian and Thai pop. Also - manic Japanese MC Kaigen releases his debut record, with production from Curse ov Dialect (check him lining up with Curse’s Raceless on the included Architecture in Helsinki b-side), and there’s more from Qua’s improvised collaborative EP (recorded with Lawrence Pike from Pivot) and from Aoi’s CD-R of wonky beats.

Dark Meat - Success (Diplo remix) (Success single, 2008)
Nomo - All the Stars (Ghost Rock, 2008)
Kandinsky - Movement 02 (Traskomi Elcaast, Gaffer 2007)
Tuna Laguna - My Lunar Boots (Ripples and Swells, Guano 2007)
Pivot - O Soundtrack My Heart (O Soundtrack My Heart, Warp 2008)
Harry Thumann - Sphinx (Andromeda, 1982)
Lothar and the Hand People - Machines (Presenting… Lothar and the Hand People, Capitol 1969)
Jonathan Richman - Egyptian Reggae (1977)
Roger Roger and Nino Nardini - Informatic 2000 (Informatic 2000, 1982)
Inquiet - Middle of the World (Inquiet, Brothersister 2008)
Emperors of Blefuscu - Savage Customs (A Fifty Gallon Drum…, Brothersister 2007)
Kaigen - Curse ov the Kaigen (Curse ov the Kaigen, 2008)
Architecture in Helsinki - Love is Evil (feat. Filmmm, Raceless and Kaigen) (Do the Whirlwind single, Moshi Moshi 2005)
A Mountain of One - Warping of the Clock (Collected Works, 2007)
Caribou - Melody Day (Four Tet remix) (Melody Day single, 2007)
Yes - Countryside (Tormato, 1978/2004 remaster)
The Moody Blues - Don’t You Feel Small (A Question of Balance, Deram 1970)
Kid Creole and the Coconuts - I’m Corrupt (Tropical Gangsters, 1982)
Qua - Silver Red 2 (Silver Red, Someone Good 2008)
Aoi - Bad Times (Lo Tracks Era cd-r, 2008)
The Canyons - Yesterday the Dog (2008)
Karman - Poker (Poker 7″, 1982)
Nightbirds - Undertow (Hot Massage 12″, Injection Disco 1984)
Bogdan Irkuk - Jewel of the Black Sea (The Coastal EP, 2008)
Air France - June Evenings (2008)
Lothar and the Hand People - Ha (Ho) (Presenting… Lothar and the Hand People, Capitol 1969)

MP3: Part 1 | Part 2

Tonight, something resembling a descent into madness… things started innocently enough, new tones from Ann Arbor-based “post-afrobeat dance explosion” Nomo; something new from Stereolab certain to pour fuel on the eternal debate over just when it was exactly that they were putting out good records (for those playing at home, the answer is ‘eternity’); and something completely soulless yet enchanting, hollowed-out but intriguing, absolutely completely empty and yet so edible, ie what we’ve come to expect from the man who is no longer there (never was), Beck.

Maybe Beck’s psychopathic emptiness should have clued us in to the depraved insanity that was to come. Even with the voice of Evan Mast from Ratatat sounding throughout the 3RRR studio - all politeness and graciousness as he discussed the recording of LP3 having just come off stage from a rowdy London gig - Dave and I knew there was another presence in the room. A familiar presence: a devilish ghost flitting between the walls, waiting to corrupt our mind-tanks and warp the space-time around us. Indeed, it was the ghost of Metatron, travelled all the way from the planet Ogg Vorbis, to settle an old score.

The soothing chamber-folk of Melbourne’s Luluc (associates of local heroes like Wagons and Laura Jean) couldn’t protect us; I tried pulling out a one-hit wonder from 1982, a Belgian synth pop hit about poker, but it was no use. Not since the Spindle Wars of 2274 had we seen Metatron manifest as Jean Michel Jarre, but here he was again, his wacky glances to camera and evil Gallic charm holding us at his whim. Suddenly, all around us - hideous, depraved calypso from 1990, all synthetic steel drums and eerily lame vocoders. Clinging to sanity, I tried to appeal to Metatron’s innate humanity with the heavy-handed moral teachings from the Book of Zager and Evans, Chapter 1969, “In the Year 2525″… “in 10,000 years, men have cried a billion tears,” Dave cried out to Jean Michel-Metatron. It was no use. We blacked out.

When we came to, we realised we had again been taken to Planet 10, the planet of Ogg Vorbis. Somewhere in the distance, a faint sound across the winds of the Plains of Fraunhofer, I thought I could hear the doomy synthy drones Oblio, their decaying synth tones echoing our impending destruction. Then appeared the evil demiurge Roger Taylor, enchanting us with his love theme from the soundtrack to 1980 film Flash Gordon entitled, of course, “In the Death Cell.” As we sat in the death cell, staring mortality in the balls, Dave called on the druidic teachings of Blackshaw, curling 12 guitar strings to form a sanctuary circle around us. Against the cell bars I beat rolled-up gig flyers in the interval of four, carving out the polyrhythms of Tussle like a mantra of groove. Slowly, a soothing bright light warmed around us….

And there he was, moustachioed - Mo, not No-mo - and resplendent in the grand civic garb of a Sofia town crier. Indeed, he had heard our call. Bogdan Irkuk, grand vocoder wizard of Bulgaria. To save us, he’d travelled to the mystical lands of Finland - a land which only children dream of, and which was lost to most of us years ago, very much like that place in that movie The Neverending Story, you know where the dude has to save the princess but leaves his horse to die in the swamp - Bulgari had rallied the robed disco-folk of Paavoharju, ending their centuries of in-fighting by offering them a cheeseburger. Together, they banished Jean Michel-Metatron and Roger Taylor, liberating the people of Ogg Vorbis. Phil Lynott was then cryogenically revived, and he ruled the lands of Ogg Vobris for two and fifty years until tragically choking on a Dorito.

Nomo - Brainwave (Ghost Rock, Ubiquity 2008)
Pivot - Sweet Memory (O Soundtrack My Heart, Warp 2008)
Stereolab - Pop Molecule (Molecular Pop 1) (Chemical Chords, 4AD 2008)
Beck - Youthless (Modern Adult, 2008)

Interview with Evan Mast of Ratatat

The Hasbeens - Ain’t the Same as Before (Keep Fooling Yourself 12″, Clone 2008)
Grupo Fantasma - Cumbia de los Pajaritos (Sonidos Gold, Aire Sol 2008)
Eden Express - Ocean Samba (Tristeza) (Que Amors Que, Holy Mountain 2008)
Luluc - My Midnight Special (Dear Hamlyn, Shock 2008)
Karman - Poker (1982)
Jean Michel Jarre - Calypso (En Attendant Cousteau, Disques Dreyfus 1990)
Zager and Evans - In the Year 2525 (1969)
Oblio - A Radical Change in Orientation (The Crux of the Matter 12″, Codek 2008)
Queen - In the Death Cell (Love Theme) (Flash Gordon OST, 1980)
James Blackshaw - Infinite Circle (Litany of Echoes, Tompkins Square 2008)
MRR-ADM - 011 (untitled 10″, 2008)
Tussle - Night of the Hunter (Cream Cuts, Smalltown Supersound 2008)
Strangelets - Riot on Planet 10 (Nobody Knows Anything, Supersoul 2008)
Bogdan Irkuk - Jewel of the Black Sea (Ultracity remix) (The Coastal EP, 2008)
Grouper - When We Fall (Dragging a Deer Up a Hill, Type 2008)
Map of Africa - Western Love (Map of Africa, 2007)
Paavoharju - Kevatrumpu (Laulu Laakson Kukista, Fonal 2008)
Thin Lizzy - The Sun Goes Down (Thunder and Lightning, Warner 1983)
The Beatles - A Day in the Life (Brassica remix) (2008)

MP3: Part 1 | Part 2
To download mp3s, right-click the above links and select “Save as…”

This week, we talk to Evan Mast from Ratatat about recording their most recent album LP3 over 40 days and 40 nights at Old Soul Studios in upstate New York.

Evan: Our last record took two years to make, this one was just a really different thing. We weren’t expecting to be recording or to make a record or anything - we kinda discovered the studio through a friend and it happened to be open for two months. The guy who owned it was going on tour, so we just decided we’d go for it. It happened really quickly; the first day we were there we made two songs and then each day after that we were making a song a day. That never happened before, it was always like we’d spend weeks on one song. This time it was very quick and really, really good fun.

Tune in to 3RRR to hear the rest, 102.7 FM or streaming online, Tuesday night from midnight.

Video: Ratatat - Flynn

She wants to multiply, are you gonna do it? Map of Africa opened proceedings with their cruisy groove-rock designed to unsettle, and then we went headlong into RRR’s Album of the Week, LP3 from Brooklyn’s Ratatat. Department of Eagles have a new album coming out soon and the first taste of it is floating around, so we took a bite and passed it on to you, in doing so also passing on that nasty contagion we picked up when we were last hanging with Datassette, Quark and Odo in the Delta Quadrant. There’s also a new full-length coming out soon from NYC kraut-funk combo Tussle - we took this as an opportunity to revisit one of our favourite albums of the past 12 months, “In Light” released by ex-Tussle member Alexis Georgopoulos under the name Arp. He’s currently hunkered in a studio working on album number two which is very exciting.

After Arp, its hard to avoid moving on to Kraftwerk - and at this time of year, its practically impossible to ignore one of the shining moments of the whole Kraftwerk catalogue “Tour de France.” Also tonight - heaps of local sounds. Pivot’s first album through Warp completely lives up to the promise of their recent live shows, all strong-arm electronics and seamless organic/electronic cyborg. In places, its what I thought the Battles record was going to sound like when everyone was crapping on about it - energetic, fascinating, alien.

Something from Melbourne’s self-anointed beardy torch-bearers The Emergency; new folk from one-man blog machine Peter Joseph Head; soulful crooning from local songwriter Nathan Hollywood and some intriguing hypnotic a capella from vocal duo Soteria Bell. Then some ambience from sources well-known and not - Pretty Boy Crossover’s Jason Sweeney is about to release an album of daunting haunted ambience under the Panoptique Electrical moniker. And out of Queensland, a man named Heart Flew Like An Arrow is salvaging forgotten stand-up organs from op shops and committing their drones to tape.

This is a good time to mention that if you are an Australian act and you like our show, please feel free to send us your material! We want to champion the unheard and the progressive… and the fun. The postal address - that of our radio station 3RRR - is in the sidebar. We want to hear you.

Map of Africa - Map of Africa (Map of Africa, Whatever We Want 2007)
Ratatat - Falcon Jab (LP3, XL 2008)
High Places - Head Spins (Allez-Allez remix) (2008)
Air France - No Way Down (No Way Down, Sincerely Yours 2008)
The Emergency - Vanishing Prize (2008)
Secondo - Macula (A Matter of Scale, Soul Jazz 2008)
Pivot - Fool in Rain (O Soundtrack My Heart, Warp 2008)
Nomo - Fourth Ward (New Tones, 2006)
Datassette - Pluck (Datassette, 2008)
The Rectifiers - Blackbird (Playtime for John Mountain, Sensory Projects 2008)
Little Pictures - This House Can Fit Us All (Owl & Owl, Lil Chief 2008)
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park (In Ear Park, 2008)
Arp - St Tropez (In Light, Smalltown Supersound 2007)
Tussle - Night of the Hunter (Cream Cuts, Smalltown Supersound 2008)
Kraftwerk - Tour de France (Tour de France radio edit, 1983)
Closer Musik - Departures (Kompakt 2008)
Bogdan Irkuk - Space Reflecting on the Bosporus (The Coastal EP, 2008)
Professor Genius - A Jean Giraud 1 (A Jean Giraud 1, This Is Not An Exit 2008)
Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (The Beat Goes On) (Remain in Light, Sire 1980)
A King/J Mathews - Pots and Pans (Nuggets: Luke Vibert’s Selection, Lo 2001)
Nathan Hollywood - Mockingbird (myspace.com/nathanhollywood, 2008)
Peter Joseph Head - How to Rest (whatsinalabel.com/pjh, 2008)
Soteria Belle - Wood Have Ears (44 Sunsets, 2008)
Panoptique Electrical - A Vast Wilderness of White (Let The Darkness At You, Sensory Projects 2008)
Festival - Bind Us All (Come Arrow Come, Language of Stone 2008)
Heart Flew Like an Arrow - Somewhere Better Than Here (www.myspace.com/heartsflew, 2008)
Brael and Tokyo Bloodworm - Blue Fields (Living Language, Moteer 2008)

MP3: Part 1 | Part 2
To download mp3s, right-click the above links and select “Save as…”

Gold we touch turns to everything! Dave’s dangerous ongoing flirtation with things disco continues to warp and contort - “King of the Cut” Flemming Dalum from Aarhus, Denmark edits an old Italo rarity from Transport (thanks to Keytars and Violins for the tip); we dip our toes into the krauty Modular-branded mood music project from Eine Kleine Nacht Music (from the man also known as Riton); and Russia births a man heralded as a future synth composition all-star Ilya Santana. Conversely, my dangerous ongoing flirtation with fringe music from the 70s and 80s continues to confuse and confound - UK 70s pop group Sailor (think 10CC and you’re on the right track) made nautically-themed music utilising their custom built instrument the Nickelodeon (essentially an amalgam of various synthesisers built into the shape of the prow of a ship); Dan the Banjo Man was not named Dan and didn’t play banjo, but was actually a 1974 album of fuzzed up instrumentals by Phil Cordell (Springwater); and Robert Palmer was a man who spent a lot of time partying in the Bahamas. In the liner notes to his 1979 album “Secrets” he thanks “all the girls who cooked.” If you ever wanted to know what its like when Robert Palmer crashes your party, it looks like this and it sounds like steel drums and Prince.

Also in there - we continue to imagine ourselves as Scandinavians with Air France and Fontan, and we go back to the well with some of our super favourites including Glaswegian beatnaut Kelpe, psyched-out Black Moth Super Rainbow (rumoured to be coming Australia later in the year - though we may have started this rumour in a kind of “if you build it, they will come” style), and Mistletone’s Bachelorette and Ross McLennan.

Ben Butler and His Mouse Pad - Mouse Pad (myspace.com/benbutlerandmousepad, 2008)
Air France - June Evenings (No Way Down, Sincerely Yours 2008)
The Hood Internet (Lykke Li vs Gui Boratto) - Beauty Flies (thehoodinternet.com, 2008)
Gang Gang Dance - House Jam (XXXchange remix) (2008)
Fontan - The Bird (Aktionskammarn, Best Before End 2006)
Usher - Dat Girl Right There (instrumental) (2007)
Black Moth Super Rainbow - Zodiac Girls (Zodiac Girls 12″, 2008)
Edwin Starr - Get Up (Pilooski edit) (2008)
Transport - Computer World (1985 Computer edit) (Italo Edits, Moustache 2008)
Dark Meat - Success (Diplo remix) (maddecent.com, 2008)
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park (In Ear Park, 2008)
Mandu - To The Shores of His Heaven (To The Shores of His Heaven, Aztec Music 1974/2008)
Ross McLennan - Pete Best (Sympathy for the New World, Mistletone 2008)
Bachelorette - Duet Minus One (Isolation Loops, Mistletone 2007)
Tune-Yards - Fiya (Bird-Brains, 2008)
Sailor - Harbour (Various Artists: Instrumental Nuggets Vol 1, 2002)
Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - Feverprobe (Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, Modular 2008)
Friend - Dreams (2008)
Secondo - Ought To Say (A Matter of Scale, Soul Jazz 2008)
Robert Palmer - You Are In My System (Pride, Island 1983)
Kelpe - Bread Machine Bred (Ex-Aquarium, DC Recordings 2007)
Padded Cell - City of Lies (Night Must Fall, DC Recordings, 2008)
Au - RR vs D (Verbs, 2008)
Dan the Banjo Man - Dan the Banjo Man (Dan the Banjo Man, 1974)
Ilya Santana - From Uranus to Mercurius (Arcanus EP, Manuscript 2008)

MP3: Part 1 | Part 2
To download mp3s, right-click the above links and select “Save as…”