If yesterday was the age of information, today is the age of trying to attract or employ people's attention. Indeed, leaders and managers in the business world face this two-fold problem daily, constantly seeking the attention of their customers and employees while managing their own limited supply. Declaring that "understanding and managing attention is now the single most important determinant of business success," the authors examine what attention is, how it can be measured, how it's being technologically constructed and protected, and where and how attention is being most effectively exploited.
Predictably, nowhere are these economics more important than in the realm of e-commerce. In the chapter entitled "Eyeballs and Cyber Malls," the authors discuss the strategies needed to gain and maintain attention "stickiness." The book contains numerous suggestions on how leaders can manage their own attention and that of their employees more effectively (and how to avoid and treat info-stress), but always with an eye on the ultimate goal: affecting the type and amount of attention your customers give you. Already, more money is often spent on attracting attention to a product than spent on the product itself (we're reminded of The Blair Witch Project, which cost a mere $350,000 to make and $11 million to market). And as our information environment gets increasingly saturated, holding a person's attention becomes an ever more difficult proposition; as the authors suggest, actually paying for someone to receive your information is a realistic prospect in the not-too-distant future. Indeed, the book's final chapter is devoted to what the authors predict will affect attention in the future, and how attention can and will be acquired, monitored, and distributed.
The Attention Economy is peppered with anecdotal pull-outs and "overheard" comments; though intriguing in as random factoids and zippy, little quotes, this sideline information doesn't always tie in with the authors' points and often seems distracting. The book is well written, though, and the authors, both of whom work at the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change, take an informed and well-balanced look at what is perhaps our society's most priceless, ephemeral commodity. --S. Ketchum
I love your site , man!
Jahsonic dot com is a fantastic site!
I was doing a little search about this fantastic Last Night A Deejay Saved My Life-book. And what I came across was Jahsonic! Great working there man! I'm discovering new (old) music, new movies, and lot's of great things that I didn't even knew about before your site came across. Like this wonderfull tune Barely Breaking Even by the Universal Robot Band. Should never have heard it if it wasn't for you , mate. Good analysis of things you have on your site too, great written wiews on all kinds of topics, not just dance, but on all kinds of culture. Keep up the good work!
Thanks
Charles, Sweden!
PS...
I don't know why you have put this Evil, Sickening , horryfying, and totaly lame song : Midnight Star/Starskee - "Midas Touch" at number 3 on your Top 4 singles for 2003. That song makes me want to go deaf. haha. No offense man, but it's really bad ! maybe the baddest song ever written!
With a total of 140 movies covering the years 1991 to 2000, this guide takes you from The Silence of the Lambs to Shall We Dance? to Magnolia, covering a wide range of genres, budgets, and cultures, and revealing details from behind the scenes.
Packed full of photos and film stills, Movies of the 90s is an opulent factbook that any self-respecting moviegoer shouldn't be without.
The same kind of skillful writing that brought respectability to the erotic works of Henry Miller and Anais Nin.
"Conversations concerning politics displayed a consistent pattern .... On election day, the strongest predictor of electoral success was not which party an individual privately supported but which party he or she expected would win."Six Degrees attempts to help readers understand the new and exciting field of networks and complexity. While considerably more demanding than a general book like The Tipping Point, it offers readers a snapshot of a riveting moment in science, when understanding things like disease epidemics and the stock market seems almost within our reach. --Therese Littleton
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.
Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like Future Shock or Chaos Theory, will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan for amazon.com
Ever wondered what live techno pioneers Rick and Karl listen to at home? Try the bittersweet R&B pop of TLC for size. How about a few headmessin' rave classics like "Horsepower" from CJ Bolland's Ravesignals series, Remy and Sven's "Piano Power" and even Aphex Twin's ballistic "Didgeridoo". Throw in plenty of Afro hip beat vibes and you have an un-pigeon-hole-able mix that really sums up where they've been, where they're at, and where they're going!
Out on Azuli Records in their Another Late Night series: Sly & Robbie's selection.
This excellent set of original roots Reggae from France's cutting-edge contemporary music connoisseurs Radio Nova is a superb collection of both old and new, blending the more "authentic" approach of reggae compilers such as Soul Jazz with a unique French perspective. From Calypso drums and Dancehall riddims, to Dub-wise smoke-downs and Ragga-bwoy toasters, Nova has covered all bases bringing us tracks from the heavyweights – Sly & Robbie, LKJ, Max Romeo & The Upsetters, The Heptones, Lee Scratch Perry, Jonnie Clarke and more! Recommended.
Hollywood is a purveyor of the sensational, the glossy, the pseudo-hip. So it was just a matter of time before themes of sadomasochism and fetish sex made their way into the movies. Beginning in the Eighties, movies gave mainstream audiences their first sustained look at the forbidden world of dominance, submission, and BD/SM. True, in most cases these movies offered sinister, heavy-handed portrayals, but the door to the masked chamber creaked open, and more than just a crack.
The decade of 9 ½ Weeks and Blue Velvet gave audiences more than just a glimpse through the peep hole. At least twelve movies in the Eighties centered on sadomasochism, erotic bondage, psychological dominance, voyeurism, or other kinky sex. More than a dozen others contained noteworthy scenes. Dominance and submission crept out of the dungeon and into theaters at local shopping malls.
[...]
Should we be surprised by Hollywood's treatment of kink? Not when one thinks of how the movie industry has handled the issue of homosexuality for decades, playing the subject broadly for laughs or projecting clichés and stereotypes onto the screen. Hollywood, for all its fascination with sex as way of titillating audiences, has great difficulty dealing with sex in a mature way. --william [...]
I bought five of these 1976 chairs by Enzo Mari. Made by Castelli, they are called "box chairs". I fell in love with them when I saw them. The seating is yellow and the back too. They have an eighties look and feel right to me from an architecture point of view.
Enzo Mari was born in Novara in 1932 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. While still training in the 1950s, as an artist he held one-man and group shows at the leading galleries and modern art museums. In 1963 he acted as coordinator for Italy's Nuova Tendenza group and in 1965 he organised its exhibition at the Zagreb Biennial. He also took part in the Venice Biennale and the Milan Triennale on several occasions. Parallel to this activity, he started working as a designer. Initially, he designed on his own, but later he collaborated with numerous manufacturers in the fields of graphic design, product design and exhibition installations. One of the traits of Mari's work, internationally renowned as some of the best Italian design, is the unending quest for, and experimentation with, new product forms and meanings. Sometimes he even moved consciously outside the mainstream of traditional industrial design. In 1971 he participated critically in the MoMA show: 'Italy: The New Domestic Landscape'. His singular role in Italian design is also revealed by the many publications devoted to his work, including two monographs Funzione della ricerca estetica and Enzo Mari Designer. Moreover, he has played a part in major institutions, such as the Industrial Design Association (he was its president from 1976 to 1979). He has been awarded significant prizes, such as the Compasso d'Oro (1967 and 1979); also, his work has been acquired by several modern art museums (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Musée du Louvre, Paris; Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf).
In 1976, at a total cost of £45, Nick Lowe's "Heart of the City" launched Stiff Records, a label that soon became one of the most influential record labels of the punk and new wave era. Unfortunately, some of their greatest hits--songs by the Damned, Elvis Costello, and Madness--are missing from this compilation, but there's still a fine litany of names here. Besides the enduring talents of Lowe, Costello, and Ian Dury (all of whom appeared on Stiff's awesome first tour), it was mavericks such as Jona Lewie ("Stop the Cavalry"), Wreckless Eric ("Whole Wide World"), and Lene Lovich ("Lucky Number") who made Stiff so special. It all still feels like pure pop for now people. --Patrick Humphries for amazon.com
Dub Sessions, Latin Club Sessions, Hip Hop Sessions, 80's Groove Sessions, Funk Sessions, Soul Sessions, Harlem Sessions, Blues & Soul Sessions Breaks Sessions, Soul Jazz Sessions, House Breaks Sessions, Drum & Bass Sessions,
Pete Gardiner seems to behind Union Square Music of whom Eric Goulden has to say:
So I was very pleased when Cowderoy got the boot and a man called Pete Gardiner stepped in. Pete is a true fan of the music, an ex-musician himself, and he's as appalled at the previous re-releases as I am. It hasn't all been easy – the tapes haven't exactly been that well looked after at times. The original master tapes are long gone and all that remains of my stuff are production masters, which are tape copies of the original ¼" two track mixes, with the compression and equalisation which was added when the tracks were originally cut for vinyl. The tracks were never properly listed – speeded up versions which Stiff thought sounded more "peppy" and youthful, but which did nothing for the feel and the throb of what the tracks were really about, they were included, and in the case of Take The Cash an engineers reference tape had been substituted. Interesting if you want to hear the vocal and backing track eminating from a distant trash can, and all the overdubs blasting in your face, but not something you'd want to dance to! All these had been transferred to DAT when the re-releases started happening in the early nineties. Because it was all fast buck stuff there wasn't much care and attention to detail. And this was the material that was given to Union Square for the quality re-issue that everyone's so eagerly awaiting.-- Eric Goulden (wreckless eric) in http://www.wrecklesseric.com/news007.html
Eighties soul and funk has long been overlooked by musical pundits who seem more keen to remember the excessiveness of 1970s disco or the acid days of house. Let the Music Play highlights those sandwiched between these eras, artists such as Shalamar, Imagination and Shannon who produced some of the most brilliant grooves ever. Let the Music Play--80s Groove is an overdue celebration of these tracks, uniting the familiar classics ("Hangin' on a String", "Fantasy" and "Ain't Nobody") with forgotten gems such as "Rockit" and "The Crown". Even though over a quarter of the songs on the compilation were actually released in the 70s, they all contributed to the development of this distinctive sound. In fact the legacy of the compositions lives on with Barry White's "Its Ecstasy When You Lay Down next to Me" being heavily sampled by Robbie Williams ("Rock DJ"), and Will Smith borrowing large chunks of "He's the Greatest Dancer" for "Gettin' Jiggy with It". The tracks are all joined together in a subtle non-stop mix, making the compilation perfect for blitzy 80s retro parties. --John Galilee, an Amazon.co.uk Review
Wow, this is one great album by the German rock diva, perhaps her best. It is more accessible than the debut, offers greater variety and some truly gripping songs. African Reggae is a powerful tour de force and by the way, a dancefloor classic, Wir Leben Immer Noch (Lene Lovich's Lucky Number) is a perfect pop song, and Wenn ich ein Junge war with its somewhat risque lyrics just about bursts with exuberance. Fall In Love mit Mir is another catchy number, but every track has its own charm. The great melodies and intelligent lyrics with enthusiastic playing by her band ensure the classic status of this album. In my opinion, this is her Opus Magnum. It demonstrates what can be achieved by integrating reggae rhythms into a rock format, while the rock songs remain top of the league. Her vocal gymnastics are less in evident than on the debut album, but her voice is still brilliantly utilised. An excellent, timeless classic! --amazon.com
Innovative travel writing by award-winning writer Stephen Barber as he guides the reader through the ultimate futuristic city: Tokyo. A cinematic portrayal of the city, from close-up portraits of individual citizens to panoramic descriptions of its vast avenues and immense digital image screens, from day to night, past to present, Tokyo Vertigo is visceral, exhilirating travel writing.
wikipedia is the world's largest, free encyclopedia, ranking 2,194 on alexa (an Amazon company) today. I use wikipedia straight from within Google by typing " macabre site:wikipedia.org " The previous query brings up the piece below on Danse Macabre or Dance of Death. Notice how the danse_macabre page also lists related products like Camille Saint-Saëns' music and Stephen King's eponymous novel.
Danse Macabre
La Danse Macabre, also called Dance of death, La Danza Macabra, or Totentanz, is a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death. La Danse Macabre consists of the personified Death leading row of dancing figures from all walks of life to the grave - typically with an emperor, king, pope, monk, youngster, beautiful girl, all in skeleton-state; the best-known Danses Macabres are frescos in French and German churches. They were produced under the impact of the Black Death, that reminded people of how fragile their lives were and how vain the glories of earthly life were. See also memento mori and vanitas.
Danse Macabre is the name of Opus 40 by Camille Saint-Saëns, written in 1874. The piece is a tone poem, depicting a skeleton playing the violin in a graveyard as his deceased companions dance around the graves. The piece makes particular use of the xylophone to imitate the sounds of rattling bones.
Danse Macabre is a nonfiction book by Stephen King on horror fiction and United States pop culture. Examining influences on his writing, it focuses on films and novels of the genre from a fan's perspective, discussing archetypes, narrative devices, and "the psychology of terror."
One small piece of history regarding "Emotional Rescue" is that a track called "Claudine" was written to be the album's opener. Because of the song's questionable content, the Stones' legal advisors suggested omitting the song from the album to avoid any lawsuits from Claudine Longet. Although this was definately a smart move from Mick and the boys, the album certainly suffers from the loss of this track. It would be very worthwhile to find an "import" release or MP3 of this missing number. "Claudine" could have made a huge difference in how fans received the overall album.
The rest of the songs on Emotional Rescue offer the listener a variety of styles, from a Village People-esq "Dance" to the bizarre title track (featuring Mick doing an Albert Einstein impersonation). The real winner on this album is "She's So Cold" (which really sounds like a Some Girls outtake and probably was). This is a fun album, but not a masterpiece. --A music fan from Vermont for amazon.com
1. Droge CX 9 2. The Lions And The Cucumber 3. There's No Satisfaction 4. Dedicated To Love 5. People's Playground Version A 6. We Don't Care 7. People's Playground Version B 8. The Ballad Of A Fair Singer 9. Necronomania 10. Kamasutra 11. The Message 12. Shindai Lovers 13. The Six Wisdoms Of Aspasia 14. Countdown To Nowhere
For diehard fans of low-budget cult cinema, Jess Franco is among the great directors--his style somewhere between European versions of Roger Corman's Mondo sexploitation and Andy Warhol's hardcore improv. His films Vampyros Lesbos, The Devil Came from Akasava, and Mrs. Hyde, She Kills in Ecstasy--all made in 1970 and starring Franco's doomed Spanish seductress Soledad Miranda--perfected "horrotica," Franco's melange of B-grade horror and twisted erotica. Collecting original music from the films' soundtracks, Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party pays tribute to Franco, Miranda (who died in a 1971 car crash), and the films they made together.
German composers Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab (recording as Vampires' Sound Incorporation) created music sufficiently groovy and go-go to accompany Franco's freaked-out vision. Their crazy sounds are a speed-hopped swinger's bash of blaring trumpet, booming trombone, slinky organ, and spacy sitar, with a beefy foundation of mod guitar, bass, and drums. Eccentrically titled instrumentals like "The Lions and the Cucumber," "Droge CX 9," and "The Six Wisdoms of Aspasia" manage to be psychedelic in the way of both the Doors' haunting rock and the Fifth Dimension's up-up-and-away pop. Music ripe for revival, Sexadelic Dance Party falls somewhere between the glorious lounge orchestrations of Esquivel and the cheap Casio-funk porn music championed by bands like the Beastie Boys. It's just one more nugget mined from the overflowing heaps of past decades' trash culture. --Roni Sarig for Amazon.com
Eric Nord is is hip hop's self proclaimed most prolific renegade journalist. His views are banned from Vibe, XXL, and The Source. From rap to religion... Eric is relentless.
You can read his weblog here.
He has written [2003Aug06] a piece on gay hip hop: "Let me officially start the countdown to when the first gay hip hop artist comes out of the closet. Are you a famous gay hip hop artist? Send me an email and I will tell the world your story. To find out if I am hip hop's most famous gay writer... keep reading.
This past Sunday, the New York Times Magazine ran a very illuminating article on the "Down Low" subculture. Basically, the jist of the article is that there are a bunch of black guys out there who take a thug approach to being gay. These "DL" guys look like your typical extra in a David Banner video. They have girlfriends, don't talk with lisps, and avoid tight-fitting clothes. But note the enthusiasm when "Baby Got Back" comes on."
NY Times "Double Lives on the Down Low"
"Rejecting a gay culture they perceive as white and effeminate, many black men have settled on a new identity, with its own vocabulary and customs and its own name: Down Low. There have always been men -- black and white -- who have had secret sexual lives with men. But the creation of an organized, underground subculture largely made up of black men who otherwise live straight lives is a phenomenon of the last decade. Many of the men at Flex tonight -- and many of the black men I met these past months in Cleveland, Atlanta, Florida, New York and Boston -- are on the Down Low, or on the DL, as they more often call it. Most date or marry women and engage sexually with men they meet only in anonymous settings like bathhouses and parks or through the Internet. Many of these men are young and from the inner city, where they live in a hypermasculine ''thug'' culture. Other DL men form romantic relationships with men and may even be peripheral participants in mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues and families. Most DL men identify themselves not as gay or bisexual but first and foremost as black. To them, as to many blacks, that equates to being inherently masculine." And here is a link to an article at gayhiphop.com. Gayhiphop.com is somewhat deceptive. Like most people, I was hoping to find out whether Redman, Method Man, Keith Murray, and Eminem are actually gay. Alas, no one has been brave enough to come out with it.
"Am I gay?" you ask.
No. But hip hop is. --Eric Nord [...]
"Art" has long functioned as a code word for erotica in certain contexts. Phrases like "art photos," "art films," "art house" have all been coopted by clever entrepreneurs to market porn — soft and hard — to audiences who could more easily accept the idea under this respectable rubric. (It was also one way to confuse law enforcement.) In the sixties the term "art film" could mean a Bergman masterpiece, an Andy Milligan sleazefest, or a tasty slice of Radley Metzger Euro-erotica.
Despite the convenience of the label, truly artistic erotica has always been a rarity in any genre. For every successful novel like Lolita or Terry Southern's Blue Movie, there are a zillion trash-pulp derivatives from Beacon, Beeline, Pad, Saber, and other legendary sleaze publishers. For every Mapplethorpe there are reams of tired commercial porn mags bulging on pornshop shelves. Cinema's no different. Of the volumes of material that poured onto grindhouse screens from the '50s on, only a handful even aspired to, much less attained, any significant aesthetic value. Radley Metzger, whose most productive period was the late '60s to the mid-'70s, is surely the standout in this select group. Image Entertainment has given us a good excuse to survey his achievements by releasing four of his major films on DVD — Therese and Isabelle (1968), Camille 2000 (1969), The Lickerish Quartet (1970), and Score (1976), with several more (including the legendary Eva Peron story Little Mother) soon to arrive. --Gary Morris
While their ministers were many -- a constantly evolving line- up guaranteed the elasticity of the band -- it is undeniable that high pope George Clinton wore the miter. From the cryptic, ridiculously bent versifying of the liner notes to the album sleeve art production (which narrated the genesis and mission of the band in a series of ongoing, albeit disjointed cartoons) to the inception and direction of the outrageous stage production -- a black sci-fi extravaganza / space party that could cost upwards of $350,000 [2] -- Clinton wielded the scepter of Funkentelechy, and wore the righteous robes of the Afronaut (actually Holiday Inn bedsheets covered with Crayola scribbles). --
Scot Hacker's Birdhouse Log with an excellent article on P-Funk.
Luc Deleu will exhibit five container installations on the new terrain of Middelheim Museum's permanent collection. Alongside a fresh view of previous constructions, a new work will also be on view for the first time. His motivation of wanting to erect this 'container monument', certainly amidst a sculpture park, is to jolt our perception of scale, or at least to render it more unstable.
Luc Deleu made his first container monument, "Kleine triomfboog" [Small Triumphal Arch] in Basel in 1983, shortly followed by his "Grote triomfboog" in Neuchâtel. The banal containers came to radiate a monumental and majestic power. Since then, Luc Deleu has regularly worked with container constructions in public spaces. He made his "Obelisk" in 1987 for Antwerp's "Monumenta" exhibition. Other container monuments have been erected in Barcelona, Hamburg, Hoorn, Limerick, Minamata, Nîmes, Paris, Nauerna, Tielt and Tokyo.
Don't miss is his work at the Braem Pavilion, which is in the Middelheim park itself.
Swiss painter H.R. Giger began with dark, detailed, mechanical works in "underground" publications, and attracted wide attention beginning in the '70s. He designed the visuals for the movie Alien and several others, plus many album covers. His work is often morbid, monstrous, filled with grotesque biomechanoids and occult imagery -- a merger of sadomasochism, science-fiction and Lovecraftian lore. [...]
I was slightly miffed by Simon's comments with regards to dancehall. Undoubtedly he's right to some extent: dancehall always is pretty productive, and I'm sure that one reason it's so popular right now is because it's carrying the torch for sonic-exoticism so prominently. But I can't be happy with Simon's airy dismissal for two reasons.
Firstly, I don't think Sean Paul's domination of the US airwaves and charts can be solely attributed to a lack of anything else exciting happening. It's true that within the context of most other stuff on the radio, "Get Busy" commands a certain fascination, a what-the-fuck factor that lasts beyond the first few plays - but this would be true if it had been released at any time in the last four years or so. Between Sean's thick-but-decipherable patois and the bizarre-but-enticing Diwali-based groove, the song unifies dancehall's (increasingly co-aligned) tendencies towards alienation and populism. This really should be seen in the context of an overall fetishisation of the culturally unusual within urban music that's been an ongoing process for a while now (I remember putting the infiltration of dancehall into everything as a top-new-trend in some ILX thread in mid-2001 I think - and I was hardly being particularly prophetic then); it's not a mere reaction to a lack of new trends, but a trend in its own right. (Hopefully Sean's new non-album track "Close To Me" - on the Rebirth riddim - will be released as a single at some point in the future; it's just as much a head-fuck and is even more poptastic)
Secondly, dancehall itself is in an even healthier position than it was three years ago, and the absurd fecundity of its creative impulses demands attention in its own right, regardless of what's happening in music elsewhere. It's certainly not just Dutty Rock - across the board there has been a stylistic expansion, a flowering of the genre that comprehensively outstrips even quite recent revelations that the genre has thrown up.
Contrast and compare Elephant Man's debut Comin' For You!" with his most recent album Higher Level and the shift is quite prominent: now, I like the former just fine, but in both sonics and delivery its a fairly monochrome assemblage, the skeletal digital beats and Elephant Man's gruff pseudo-gangsterisms pinpointing a certain model for roughed-up futurism that is incredibly effective on a track-by-track basis, but becomes punishing when digested in one session.
Higher Level meanwhile is one of the most addictive, consistently engaging albums I've had the pleasure of hearing this year, its near-kaleidoscopic array of sounds and grooves lending the album a near-definitive feel, as if this album could stand in as a representative for where exciting pop sonics in general are at right about now. Certainly I'm tempted to cheat by making it in my top five album list for the year, despite it coming out in late '02.
I can't begin to explain how warmly affectionate I feel towards Elephant Man when I listen to this album. It's such a bouncy, idiosyncratic, hyper-enthused collection of performances which, when strained through Elephant Man's increasingly unhinged, almost comical delivery, attains the same level of endearing mania that characterises Mystikal at his best (who I also began to feel almost personally attached to as a character somewhere between "Danger" and "Bouncin' Back"). Curiously, like Mystikal Elephant Man seems to drift further and further from overt gangsta idioms with each release. In fact much of Higher Level reflects the current craze for songs about dance (a craze which is just getting more and more pervasive: check recent tracks like Beenie Man's "Signal Di Plane" and Elephant Man's "Pon Di River Pon Di Banks", both of which make no bones about their purpose in their titles) - both "Approach" and "Online" are silly-verging-on-inane dancefloor workout kits.
Odd that my two favourite lyrical snatches from the album are both from these tracks: on the former EM grunts "step on di dancefloor and crush dem like roots!", while on the latter he yells "take to da dancefloor like ya step on crime!" It's these weird visualisations and/or literalizations of metaphors in aid of straightforward hysteria-incitement, not to mention the suspicion that Elephant Man is just saying whatever is coming into his head at the time, that make these tracks such infectious fun. But beyond just this sort of track, Elephant Man demonstrates a greatly expanded sense of humour: on "Run For Your Life" he complains about insane knife-wielding female fans, and the song's two best moments come from EM's use of patois to exagerrate the intensity of what he's singing. First there's the dismissal of the excited fan, "Okay ya know mi name/ANYWAY!", and then, when it starts to get ugly, the desperate rasp "Move outta mi way/MOVE OUTTA MI WAY!" Even more bizarre is "Tall Up Tall Up", an astonishingly camp patchwork quilt of brutally physical stripped down beats and sections of beatless pomp and circumstance fanfare (with Elephant Man wheezing along to the tune in a comical falsetto), which sounds like a tribute to the British Empire. It's hilarious and adorable. When is he gonna join Sesame Street?
From edgy rave to dazzling Indian motifs to sugary pop hooks to tense hyper-minimalism, almost every cutting-edge sonic approach is filtered through the (now quite relaxed and negotiable) dancehall template, and I'm left with the impression that this music could anticipate and absorb pretty much anything you throw it at it. There's even the occasional flicker of traditionalist influences (the piano riff counterpoint in the Threat riddim used on "Ghetto Girls" is pure Soul II Soul). It's hard not to focus on the Indian-flavoured tracks though, just for how single-mindedly they follow this particular avenue.
Elephant Man's swiping of the groove from "Get Ur Freak On" on Log On was not an accident: much more than hip hop proper, dancehall has become fully invested in digesting the underlying possibilities for groove-science that the urban/Indian fusion of "Get Ur Freak On" implies, but which subsequent examples of hip hop's India fetish ("Addictive", "Nothin'", "React") have downplayed in favour of a more cultural fetishisation (eg. Erick Sermon yelling "whatever she said then I'm that!" in response to a snippet of a Bollywood siren).
On riddims such as Egyptian (Elephant Man's "Egyptian Dance"; Vybz Kartel's "Sweet To Da Belly"'; Sizzla's "These R Da Days") or the astonishing Sign (Elephant Man's "Fuck U Sign" on his forthcoming Good 2 Go album; Beenie Man's "Work It"-aping "My Dickie") the focus is on the bubbly, bouncy tabla rhythms, which combine with the barely-there imprint of dancehall's rhythmic-template to create grooves that are both bizarre and compulsive. Sign in particular has the most confounding, head-wrecking groove of the year, its heavy kickdrum-like tabla hits reminding me of the more insane Amen-mashup jungle tracks of yore.
(There's too many good Indian-flavoured riddims to count, but at the very least you should acquaint yourself with such pearlers as Glue (Sean Paul's "Samfy I", Elephant Man's "Miss Matty Son"), Famine (TOK's "Wap Dem", Elephant Man's "Approach"), Ba Ba Boom (Chico's "Hail Di Gals Dem") and Snake (a dancehall version of R. Kelly's "Snake" that's best heard on Capleton's "Baghdad") - all of which spin new and exciting variations on the same basic theme)
Of course Indian tunes aren't the only attraction, and I'm equally enamoured with the more electro-flavoured, synth-based riddims such as All Out, Wanted, Mudslide, Knockout and 20 Cent. Crucially though, there's a real sense that this music could go (is going) in a hundred directions. And I bet when Elephant Man's next album appears in September we'll see a few more. -- Tim Finneyhttp://skykicking.tripod.com/
Amazingly, the original and easily the best synth-meisters are back in our music shops with original material. Kraftwerk, the musical power station who revolutionised music with Autobahn in the 1970s, release Tour De France Soundtracks. It’s a collection of 12 “soundtracks” that are, as you’d expect, largely instrumental save for the odd German or French computerised words spoken over the top of this wall of e-sound.
All the tracks roll into each other with effortless ease, making this a CD just short of an hour in length that has no real barriers, no real borders, just electronic themes and pop perfection. Twenty years after Kraftwerk released their landmark single, Tour De France, this is a logical progression of that celebration of the legendary French cycle race. Tour De France themes pierce the new album and can be found in tracks such as "Areo Dynamik", "Titanium", "Vitamin" and "Elektro Kardiogramm". Each track is cleverly thought out, combined with simple but effective sound effects and each has a distinct sense of individuality amidst an easily recognisable collective sound that penetrates the CD in general.
Some have called Kraftwerk the “electronic Beatles” because over the last 30 years their influence has been so wide-ranging. While this may be a title that takes some getting used to, there is no doubt at all that the Düsseldorf quartet have seen their musical excellence radiate out amongst a range of top names. In the 1970s, David Bowie and the post punk futurists pledged their allegiance, followed by New Order, Depeche Mode and a host of others in the 1980s. In the 1990s and beyond, Kraftwerk tunes have been sampled by everyone from Moby to Beck and The Chemical Brothers. It’s an impressive history and the new album is a welcome addition to what we have been presented with in the past. --peter naldrett for music-critic.com
In short, this double album features the original Aux Armes ..." + the dub and dj versions. Just heard it played on Radio Centraal and it sounds lovely.
1. Javanaise Remake
2. Aux Armes Et Caetera
3. Les Locataires
4. Des Laids Des Laids
5. Brigade Des Stups
6. Vieille Canaille
7. Lola Rastaquoere
8. Relax Baby Be Cool
9. Daisy Temple
10. Eau Et Gaz A Tous Les Etages
11. Pas Long Feu
12. Marilou Reggae Dub (Version Longue)
13. Planteur Punch (Inedit)
14. Marilou Reggae (Version Inedite)
15. Daisy Temple (Version Inedite)
16. Javanaise Dub
17. Dub Et Caetera
18. Dub Locataires
19. Des Laids Des Dubs
20. Dub Des Stups
21. Dub Rastaquere
22. Daisy Dub
23. Eau Et Dub A Tous Les Etages
24. Pas Long Dub
25. Marilou Dub
26. Javanaise Remake (Ft Brandy & Lmj) (Men Who Deceive You)
27. Aux Armes Et Caetera (Ft Big Youth) (Aux Armes)
28. Les Locataires (Ft Spectacular) (Sing It Like A Song To Me)
29. Des Laids Des Laids (Ft King Stitt) (Original Ugly Man)
30. Brigade Des Stups (Ft Mr Murphy) (Smoke All Night Smoke All Day)
31. Vieille Canaille (Ft Spectacular & Culture T) (You Rascal You)
32. Lola Rastaquouere (Ft Lisa Dainjah) (Lola Rastaquouere Is Back)
33. Relax Baby Be Cool (Ft Spydamn) (Be Cool)
34. Daisy Temple (Ft Rizzlamigo) (Problems)
35. Eau Et Gaz A Tous Les Etages (Ft Lone Ranger) (Settle The Vibes)
36. Pas Long Feu (Ft Telegram, Burning Spectacular, Culture T, Spydaman & President)
37. Marilou Reggae Dub (Ft Buffalo Bil) (Marilou A Dance Reggae)
38. Planteur Punch (Ft Dr Kex) (Out Of The Slum)
39. Lola Rastaquouere (Version Anglaise) (Ft Bruno Blum)
But needs must and times move on. After initial interest from various (UK) record companies, JOEY and I felt that REACT RECORDS should be the NEW natural home for our beloved Good Times project. And after meeting up with their enthusiastic and friendly, knowledgeable staff, we KNEW we'd made the right decision to join them. The've done a fantastic job in helping us with this compilation and we are both well pleased with the outcome - and this particular set and feel that's it's our STRONGEST (not to mention) BEST compilation effort yet!
Many months ago I submitted over 75 titles for possible inclusion on this set as it takes that long to 'clear' requested tracks. I also know it's never possible - for various reasons - to obtain ALL the tracks you'd like for a compilation (now that would be heaven!) but we are MORE than happy with this selection.
We encountered a few (expected) 'knockbacks' from certain major record companies for ARETHA and MARVIN stuff (not available or too expensive or both) and some classic hip hop tracks too. We also drew blanks on certain obscure underground US label material (lost masters etc) as well. The licencing departments simply couldn't (or wouldn't) trace certain producers/artists who owned the original copyright on certain tracks so that meant those type of tracks were out also.
It was an agonising decision trying to decide which tracks to leave out. In the end we managed to whittle it down to the following 30 tracks...
Good Times 3 tracklisting...
CD 1. 1. I NEED IT - Johnny 'Guitar' Watson 2. RIGHT ON - Clarenece Wheeler & The Enforcers 3. THINKING ABOUT YOUR LOVE - Skipworth & Turner 4. PRAISIN' HIS NAME - Jasper Street Company 5. TRAIN TO SKAVILLE - Ethiopians 6. RING THE ALARM - Tenor Saw 7. LOOKING AT THE FRONT DOOR - Main Source 8. IF I LOST YOU - Michelle Shapprow (previously unreleased) 9. SUNSHOWER - Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band 10. YOU CAN'T HIDE LOVE - Creative Source 11. CALIFORNIA SOUL - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell 12. LIVE IN ME - Rufus & Chaka Khan 13. I REALLY LOVE YOU - Heaven & Earth 14. MY FIRST MISTAKE - The Chi-lites 15. DROP IT (2002 re-edit) - Bushy CD2 1. THE PRESSURE (Part 2) - The Sound Of Blackness 2. LOVE FOOLOSOPHY (acoustic version) - Jamiroquai (previously unreleased) 3. I WANNA BE WITH YOU - Doc Severinsen 4. STORIES - Full Flava feat.Carleen Anderson 5. LOVE STORIES - Jennifer Holiday 6. WILD FIRE - John Holt & Dennis Brown 7. UNHOOKED GENERATION - Freda Payne 8. SUNDAY MORNING PEOPLE - Honey Cone 9. DANCE DANCE DANCE - The Casualeers 10. WISH I DIDN'T MISS YOU (Pound Boys Mix) - Angie Stone (previously unreleased) 11. I GOTTA HAVE YOU LOVE - Virtual Suspects feat.Gwen McCrae 12. YOU DAZZLE ME - Dazzle 13. I NEED YOU NOW - Sinnamon 14. WALK IN THE NIGHT - Junior Walker & The All Stars 15. IT'S GREAT TO BE HERE - Jackson 5The album will also be available on LIMITED EDITION QUADRUPLE VINYL containing approximately 16 plus tracks (tracklisting not known at present). There will also be a series of LIMITED EDTION collectable 7" SINGLES to compliment the release of the album as well. Again, the proposed titles are not known at present but as soon as I know - you will too!. So there you have it - a pretty impressive and eclectic collection we think. The album really does reflect what Good Times is all about. Can't wait till it's out there! Your comments/reviews will be most welcome. Just post them under the relevant thread in the crate diggers forum. laterz! Norman Jay MBE http://www.normanjay.com/html/roundup/13.htm
The Song "Beautiful You" is Featured on the European TV Ad for the Lacoste Perfume 'pour Femme'." Vincent Segal on Electric Cello and Cyril Atef on Percussion 'all Sorts' Improvise and Disrupt Musical Genres. This is Playfully Zigzagging Music that Defies Description. " Says French Mag Telerama. "Making a Name for Themselves with their Eclectic Vision of Musical Genres, These Two Virtuoso Musicians have Elected Celebration and Festivity as the Lynchpin of their Music" Says Liberation Magazine.
We've communicated before (whilst I was at Simply Vinyl) and my feelings haven't changed one iota since then. Namely, JahSonic is the best site on the net for classic dance music history. The good news is that I have now done a deal with Salsoul US to launch Salsoul UK and reissue the whole catalogue again on CD and vinyl! We're very much gearing up for the 30th anniversary of Salsoul next year, so in preparation for a lot of the information we will need, I would very much like to rape and pillage a great deal of the info from JahSonic. Naturally, we'll give you full creditation (including website info) and swap all sorts of valuable info with you. In fact, if it's any help, I've attached a couple of official Salsoul discographies, a Trax discography and a DJ International discography which you may find useful.
I'll be in New York from tomorrow to actually meet Ken Cayre, Tom Moulton and the rest of the gang but I'll back in the UK on Friday 8th August, so hopefully I'll hear back from you by then.
Kindest Regards,
Here are the discographies provided by Ian: IDSalsoul12.xls, IDSalsoulLP.xls, IDDJInternational.xls, IDTrax.xls. They are in excel format.
There's Bonnie and Clyde--then there's Martha and Ray. One-shot writer-director Leonard Kastle set out to make a film about lover-murderers that was everything Arthur Penn's movie was not. He succeeded. Consequently, The Honeymoon Killers, based on the Lonely Hearts Killers case of 1949, may be too lurid for some. But there's a heart beating inside its (tawdry) chest and Kastle clearly cared about these two crazy, mixed-up kids who should never have met. But met Martha (Shirley Stoler) and Ray (Tony LoBianco) did and proceeded to fleece several widows before doing them in. The film isn't graphic in its violence, but each murder is increasingly disturbing. Dramatic lighting and dark passages from Mahler keep the mood close and clammy throughout. Keep an eye out for Everybody Loves Raymond's Doris Roberts in a sharp cameo--and for shots directed by original helmer Martin Scorsese (fired for working too slowly). --Kathleen C. Fennessy for amazon.com
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