Deep In The Dark

The Platters Twilight Time

LAZERTITS: JANUARY 27, 2011

A new monthly, starting at Blizzarts. Wilcox & Promise, FoxNews, & Jay Watts III. Hosted by Lucas Corkum and Joshua Hornstein. Jam Support provided by the cast and crew of 3772. Totally free. Totally bloggable.

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Elli et Jacno - 'Je t'aime tant' 1982

Sanctified Women

Marvin Gaye Symphony
Marvin Gaye Sanctified Lady
Quincy Jones Body Heat
Fonzi Thornton I Work For A Livin'

The posthumous album has one of hell of a bad name (colloquially known as "cash-grab") with just about everyone except record executives, the unscrupulous producers who remix them, and any label-associated young buck who got to spit some lyrics along with Notorious BIG or Tupac, without any of the self-doubt that would come with being matched up with such a towering figure. Guy can't call you out on your weak lines - he's dead!

So, naturally, you gotta be skeptic when you come across an album like Marvin Gaye's Dream of a Lifetime, released in 1985, a year after he passed on to the other side. Thankfully, this is no collection of half-realized songs stretched out, with talentless hacks contributing vocal overdubs and other stylistic . It's a little rough around the edges, yes, but kind of awesome, too. And it's alternately raunchy and tender, with songs like Savage in the Sack, Masochistic Beauty*, and Sanctified Lady (a gospel electro-funk workout initially titled Sanctified Pussy) matched up with a smooth, rolling song like Symphony. And at the helm, long-time Gaye collaborator, Gordon Banks.

Another Gaye collaborator, Leon Ware worked with Quincy Jones on his 1974 sexually charged album, Body Heat, co-writing the title track.

And... From the soundtrack to the (bizarrely titled) film Soup For One, comes a spectacular R&B jam courtesy of Fonzi Thornton, produced by Chic with that same great piano, bass and guitar interplay that's unsurpassed in the genre.

On a similar tip, check out Rilly Guilty and Fiend's R&B and funk mix, hosted by the fine folks at Lookout.

* Sample lyrics: "If you do it right, you get the pipe." "It's my duty, to spank your booty."

Pleasure Principle

Bagarre Dirty Love
Bagarre For Your Pleasure

House-Making Cinema

The Maisonettes Heartache Avenue

Films Radio Zone

Films T.V. Phone Age

One-hit wonders The Maisonettes' hit Heartache Avenue, all Motown bluster and swagger, was most recently sampled to good effect by UK garage-ists Roll Deep, for The Avenue. Films were a Japanese new-wave group. Their first and only album Misprint bears paying some attention to, combining Abba-esque harmonies, new-wave fuzz, bubbly energy, and saccharine synth lines. In the case of Radio Zone, there's also some very liberal borrowing from an 80's hit for the verse that I can't put my finger on. (Give me a weekend).

Darker Memories

Photograph by Alison Scarpulla

Strawberry Switchblade Since Yesterday

Malocchio

Photograph by Aneta Bartos
Luxuria Redneck
Colin Newman Better Late Than Never

Luxuria was Howard Devoto's post-Magazine project.
Colin Newman is the solo outing of the Wire frontman.

Didion's Interminable Documentary

Brahms Hungarian Dance no. 5

"To have that sense of one’s intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent. To lack it is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference. If we do not respect ourselves, we are on the one hand forced to despise those who have so few resources as to consort with us, so little perception as to remain blind to our fatal weaknesses. On the other, we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out – since our self-image is untenable – their false notion of us. We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to please others an attractive trait: a gist for imaginative empathy, evidence of our willingness to give. Of course I will play Francesca to your Paolo, Helen Keller to anyone’s Annie Sullivan; no expectation is too misplaced, no role too ludicrous. At the mercy of those we cannot but hold in contempt, we play roles doomed to failure before they are begun, each defeat generating fresh despair at the urgency of divining and meeting the next demand made upon us.

It is the phenomenon sometimes called ‘alienation from self.’ In its advanced stages, we no longer answer the telephone, because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the specter of something as small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that answering it becomes out of the question. To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home."

- From On Self Respect, Joan Didion

The Impertinent Curiousity

Gina X Performance Nice Mover
Fad Gadget Ricky's Hand

YACHT ROCK: Mange ta Ville et LES SILLY KISSERS

You know, it's all great for Diamond Rings and all, but man, is that record boring. Put the Silly Kissers on the cover of Exclaim already, please.

Always

Elli et Jacno Je t'aime tant

666th Post - Grimes By Cotton Mouth

Grimes Devon (Cotton Mouth Remix)

"It's got samples from A Guy Called Gerald, Talking Heads, a miami bass group called Rican Crew, and most of the beat is from "Beat Bop" by Rammellzee and K.Rob, "produced" by Jean-Michel Basqiuat."
- Martin Horn, Cotton Mouth

Arbutus continues its long ascendancy to that great plane where crucial and relevant music is made with some more of their remixes. In this case, fellow Montreal-er and studio wizard (owner and producer at Digital Bird) Martin Horn, known to many as Cotton Mouth, takes a stab at Grimes' Devon and comes up with a beautiful Colin Newman-esque variation on an ethereal classic. 4AD or Mute should be on the phone in minutes.

Goldkicks Loves Arbutus Records

Silly Kissers You Could Even Like Me (Remix Pack)

I've never made a secret of my undying affection for the Silly Kissers (and the rest of the Arbutus Records stable!), and of course, it's an affection that's shared by others with more musical skill than I, which is why I'm really excited that this came to fruition. I'm super-pleased to present a special collaboration between Arbutus Records and three amazing artists, with minimal executive production assistance from myself. Jack Tennis, Sven Gully, and Martin Horn of Cotton Mouth contribute three different takes on You Could Even Like Me. Big-ups to Marilis Cardinal (super-PRista!) for making this all happen!

Manage Directionless

Linda Evangalista I Don't Get Out of Bed For Less Than $10,000 a Day
Nancy Nova No, No, No
Cristina You Rented A Space
Roberto Cacciapaglia My Time
Telex My Time

For more on early to mid-80's conceptual video-art and pop music, I refer you to a March post on Lynn Goldsmith's Will Powers project.

On October 2nd, I'll be moderating a discussion for the symposium portion of the Pop Montreal International Music Festival called From The Crate to the Dropbox. Panelists for the discussion include Jason Sigal, the Managing Director of the Free Music Archive; Yuani Fragata, Executive Producer of Radio-Canada's Bande à part program, Mike Silver (known to most as CFCF), and one more TBA. The event starts at 2pm, and takes place at the Agora Hydro-Quebec at 200 Sherbrooke Ouest.

Back To Reality

Soul II Soul Back To Life (12" Mix)

More of Having

George Michael Too Funky

L'Enfer

Flow Child Less Of It, More of Having

Visit Flow Child. From the Arbutus crew.

ConU

Linkwood Who La La?

I can't make the show tonight, but if you're in Montreal, do stop by Velvet tonight and check Linkwood out!

Business School Girls

Le Sport Business Girls