Cosmic (disco), aka Afro Cosmic, also Space Disco, adj/proper noun: originally an highly eclectic, down-tempo (90-105 BPM) style, which nowadays generally exhibits a lot of space, reverb and echo/delay in the production, bubbling synths, delicate keys, langurous guitars and percussion instruments more often found in world music than disco.

Origins: The Cosmic Club in Lake Garda, outside Verona, northern Italy, where Daniel Baldelli (pictured above) was a resident DJ, 1979 – 1984, and used to mix all manner of weird and wonderful, psychedelic nuggets from his collection, B sides and other music which was ‘not really made for clubs’, often playing records at the wrong speed to augment their ‘cosmic’ effect, including: Ravel’s seminal Bolero (which famously inspired a million acts of sexual congress, thanks to that scene in hit 1979 film 10) , Mike Oldfield’s Foreign Affair, Steve Winwood’s Spanish Dancer, Cat Stevens’ Was Dog A Doughnut, Killing Joke’s Requiem, XTC’s It’s Nearly Africa, Yellow Magic Orchestra’s pre-8bit/chiptune classic, Computer Games, Jean Michel Jarre’s Magnetic Fields, Monsoon’s Wings Of The Dawn, Depeche Mode’s Shout, Rah Band’s Electric Fling, Koto’s Italo classic, Chinese Revenge, Brazilian rhythm tracks and bits of Steve Reich, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba or Jorge Ben.  Baldelli’s contemporary, Beppe Loda, prefers to call the style Afro Cosmic, laying equal claim to its genesis, although it’s Baldelli who tours more successfully as a DJ to this day.

A couple of otherwise unheard of DJs from New York, Tom Sison and Bob Day, who bagged a residency at a club called Baia degli Angeli (near Baldelli’s birthplace in Cattolica, outside Rimini), 1974-76, were Baldelli’s main source of inspiration for the more technical style of DJing now known as mixing – until that point a technique completely unheard of in Europe.

Key figures: Norwegians Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas have been at the vanguard of the Norwegian cosmic disco renaissance of the last decade via their respective Feedelity and Full Pupp labels, with their own, tripped-out take also labelled ‘space disco’.  Fellow Norwegians Diskjokke and Todd Terje are also significant, though the latter is more famous for his re-edits of original disco classics and obscurities than his original productions.  Full Pupp is co-run by Stevie Kotey, formerly of Chicken Lips, who also releases quirky cosmic gems through his own Bear Funk imprint, while Chicken Lips’ brains Andy Meecham has ploughed a similarly psychedelic furrow as The Emperor Machine, alonsgide Padded Cell (both via DC Recordings).

An edited version of this feature was originally published in August 2011 by The List magazine.  It has been reproduced with their permission.

I’ve been a fan of TEED for two or three years now, playing his music at various Trouble nights.  But, having latterly heard that the solo artist behind it (the magnificently christened Orlando Higginbottom) hails from the same part of the world as me and is also the progeny of an Oxford academic (something else the two of us have in common), my respect and admiration for him has been confounded by a mild sense of envy.  Well, i’m only human.  In fact, Mo Wax/UNKLE impresario James Lavelle hails from exactly the same place (and also went to the same school as him, albeit about fifteen years earlier) and i’ve never been that envious of him.  Well, maybe back in the heady days of Mo Wax (although that was more awe than envy), but look at him now: hardly anyone cares about Lavelle any more – a definitive example of hubris and its consequences?  I imagine he was quite flush after flogging his baby to the majors but i wonder how he really feels about all that these days….?

Anyway, i digress.  This post is really meant to be about how TEED makes fantastic dance music with great, poppy hooks in it that are guaranteed to put a smile on everyone’s face and how his new single does this in a very big way.  It’s also about how he/his label (Polydor) have employed some of contemporary dance music’s most exciting talents to provide remixes (including John Talabot, Eats Everything and Casino Times – with C.T. also from Oxford, no less) and, unsurprisingly, they’re all decent, too.

However, the best of the bunch has been provided by MJ Cole, himself an ex-pop star of the club/dance music variety, following his timeless and peerless Sincere record (originally released in 1998 and consequently picked up by Gilles Peterson for his, now-defunct, Talkin’ Loud label).  Cole had been absent from ‘clubland’ for a while but re-emerged about two years ago with (among others) a floor-slayer called Volcano Riddim, itself a bona fide anthem at Wonky.

You can grab a copy of MJ Cole’s remix of Tapes & Money via the man’s Soundcloud. TEED’s original dub, available here, is also a very handy club weapon.

Footwork, aka [Chicago] Juke (see also [Detroit] Jit, Shangaan electro), proper noun: so-called because of the associated dance crazes – essentially a contemporary form of break dance; wildly uptempo (140 – 170 BPM), characterised by syncopated beats laced with manically looped, pitched up (or down) vocal samples, usually from soul/reggae/hip hop records, or film dialogue.  Generally more artistic than its Baltimore counterpart but often still emphasising crass or novelty elements.

Origins: Long-hailed for being the crucibles of house music and techno in the Eighties, America’s Windy and Motor Cities have also laid claim to their own, respective ghetto/booty house and ghetto tech / booty bass variants since the early Nineties, with characters such as Chicago’s DJ Funk (and the Dance Mania label) and Detroit’s DJ Assault (and his Assault Rifle, Electrofunk and Jefferson Avenue labels) at the vanguard.  In the last decade, the pitched-up Juke and accompanying Jit strains have emerged to take frenzied precedence, where Juke focuses almost entirely on the feet, hence ‘footwork’, and Jit encourages the dancer to move his/her arms as well.  Hip hop is also integral, with the vocal hook from Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Baby C’Mon being sampled for RP Boo’s pioneering 1997 hit, Baby Come On.

Juke is also a US slang term for a good party and, in the context of Juke Joints, has been a term used among African Americans for places of music/dancing/gambling/drinking since the late Nineteenth century.

Key figures: Among the old school are Chicago DJs Funk (pictured above, performing at Glasgow’s Sub Club, no less) and Deeon, and Detroit DJs Assault and DJ Godfather, plus Ann Arbor’s Disco D (RIP), who also co-founded world- famous label Ghostly International.  DJ RP Boo first raised the Juke bar and Traxman, PJ, Clent, Spinn, Rashad, Roc and Nate have followed suit via experimental tracks since the late Nineties.  Dude ‘N’ Nem’s Watch My Feet got brief MTV airplay, in 2007; Ghettophiles released Overkill, a Footwork compilation, in 2010; while British electronic experimentalist and niche club music guru Mike Paranidas, aka µ-Ziq, put out Bangs & Works Volume 1 on his Planet Mu label last year.  Bristol’s Addison Groove and London’s Girl Unit have consequently been incorporating elements into their productions.

An edited version of this feature was originally published in August 2011 by The List magazine.  It has been reproduced with their permission.

I first came into contact with Kiwi legends The Black Seeds in 2007, when they approached Trouble (the club-night-come-promotional-organisation I started with fellow DJ Erik d’Viking in 2002) about us providing DJ support for them at a trio of shows they were doing in the famous Spiegeltent during the Festival.

We’d had an amazing experience working on a sold-out show at The Liquid Room by another incredible dub-reggae outfit from New Zealand called Fat Freddys Drop, in 2006.  The Black Seeds had popped up on our radar simultaneously, due to third album Into The Dojo being released in Europe by Sonar Kollektiv (the label run by Berlin-based DJ & production outfit Jazzanova, who inspired us quite a bit in the early days and who have performed as guest DJs at various Trouble nights over the years).  The two acts are undoubtedly similar but The Black Seeds have distinguished themselves from their peers by bringing a different energy and rhythm to the proceedings, incorporating elements of afrobeat, funk and blues/rock in the mix with their native brand of ‘South Pacific soul’ and vintage reggae.

But, while this experimentation may have helped the band to broaden their fan-base in Europe and North America and also appealed to me personally (I’ve always had a real soft-spot for afrobeat and funk as well as artists who push the boundaries and fuse different styles in a modern way), ultimately, the band’s core soul/reggae sound seems to endear them most to their fans back home.  Reggae is basically pop music in New Zealand, indigenous music is given major airtime on national radio, according to local law, and The Black Seeds’ second and third albums (On The Sun and Into The Dojo) have both gone double-platinum over there.  So, new album Dust And Dirt (their seventh) sees them continue to work some of those other styles in but it sounds more rounded, more accomplished and perhaps more conscious of where their core audience lies.  Little wonder it’s already been tipped as their finest album yet.

Much like here in Scotland, New Zealanders are a very warm-hearted, proud race, unafraid to show their emotions.  If you then also factor in that there are lot of them living here, they are seeing one of their most iconic contemporary groups (who seem to get better with every tour) thousands and thousands of miles from home, you’ve got the recipe for an extraordinary atmosphere and a truly dazzling live show.

This an unedited version of an article published by The Scotsman newspaper on Thursday 19th April.

The original Heavy Weather was recorded one late-night session at Leo’s old Belle Villa studio in Hackney, early 2011, taking inspiration from the likes of Weather Report‘s River People and The Doors‘ Roadhouse Blues, plus a little bit of Basic Channel and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry among others.

It’s still a work-in-progress but, having completely loved the Feel EP she released via my friend’s Svetlana Industries label, I asked Nightwave (originally from Slovenia and resident in Glasgow for a while but now based in London) to remix the track for the forthcoming Trouble Tenth Anniversary Compilation and here is the stunning the result of her labour.  A future club weapon for sure.

Here is an as-yet-unreleased remix by JD Twitch (of Glasgow’s world-renown Optimo club night) of HRH, a live act currently making waves in Edinburgh.

HRH’s sound sits somewhere between the post-punk of PiL (front-woman Heather Craig’s tortured vocal style and impassioned live performances coming on quite literally like a twenty-first century, female John Lydon) and early Suicide, with all the new wave/synth/electronic, industrial and rockabilly aesthetics fed through a contemporary studio blender and some glam-rock thrown in for good measure.

Taken from the band’s debut album, The First (produced by Tim London), stand-out track Pinky Ring, ostensibly about an innocent item of jewellery, conjures up dark, suggestive imagery more reminiscent of a David Cronenberg film / J.G. Ballard novel, and samples Dusseldorf EBM heroes DAF.

Twitch homes in on the track’s industrial roots, adding a twenty-first century drone that will send heavy waves of bass rolling across the dance floor and promises to provide a bit of an early evening warm-up / late-night sizzle style of weapon for the club.  It should be coming out later in 2012 as part of a Trouble 10th Anniversary compilation album.

Check out the band performing the song live at Limbo right here.

The List Magazine asked four of Edinburgh’s ‘nightlife yodas’ to give their opinion on the current predicament the capital’s club and live music venues find themselves in. You can read them all (including Kris ‘Wasabi’ Walker, Rob Hoon from Out Of The Blue, Tallah Brash from Electric Circus, Rupert Thomson from Summerhall and yours truly, as well as the official line from G1 Group) here. Here’s a copy of my opinion:

There can be no doubt that Edinburgh University’s decision to force The Bongo Club out of Moray House a year before its lease was originally due to be renewed is disastrous for Edinburgh.  The Bongo Club occupies a niche of enormous importance for many, students and longer-term residents alike.  It took the venue two years to recover from its last eviction (with that land still derelict a decade later), and, if it really is impossible to let it remain, finding a good replacement space is imperative.  The Bongo is one of a dwindling number of vital cogs in the wheel that pumps lifeblood into the city’s alternative music and club scene(s).

The others (including Sneaky Pete’s, Electric Circus, The Voodoo Rooms, Henry’s Cellar Bar, The Wee Red Bar, The Liquid Room, Studio 24 and The Picture House) are either on a smaller or larger scale, while Cabaret Voltaire and the Bongo have occupied an essential middle ground for the last decade.  Of a similar size, The Caves would definitely be more vital if it wasn’t so expensive to hire.  A wide network of venues is fundamental, to offer a broad enough variety of audiences for whom acts can regularly perform their work and to hone a style of their own.

It remains to be seen exactly how the recent change of hands at Cabaret Voltaire will affect its programme.  But, given new owner Stefan King/G1 Group’s track record, we can be certain of one thing: Cabaret Voltaire will no longer be breaking boundaries in music.  The gap left here will undoubtedly be filled, though, by The Liquid Room’s new lower-ground-floor club, The Annexe (approx. 250-300 cap.), launching Sat 25th Feb, and its new basement space, currently projected to open at the end of 2012.  This last room could match the capacity of the main space (750 gig – 1000 club cap.), but a smaller size would clearly be the way to go, if credibility and longevity are its main objectives.  Negociant’s old basement, Medina (250 cap.), currently undergoing a soft re-launch as The Third Door, also has real potential.  If new owner Ellis Johnston can invest as required and employ an intelligent team, all of whom exhibit the kind of passion and savvy for the music scene to be found at the aforementioned venues, it could be realised.

So, things aren’t so bad that Edinburgh can’t recover (again).  However, it does take blood, sweat and tears, as well as real business nous, imagination and talent.  If a few more politicians also cared enough to understand how significant a part of the broader Cultural Economy this night-time trade is, by addressing these and related licensing issues, the whole state-of-play could be improved, and drastically.

Sign the Bongo’s petition.

Save The Bongo Facebook Page.

There was also a good article on the same subject by Bram Gieben in March’s edition of The Skinny, which you can read here.

Montreal’s Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, released her third album, Visions, via British indie stalwarts 4AD on Monday.  It’s a small leap forward from previous albums Geidi Primes (No Pain In Pop) and Halfaxa (Lo Recordings), her kittenish vocals embellished by much sharper electronic production than before.  However, a bit more Enya than The Cocteau Twins, her hippyish, Eighties style (with its enduring scent of patchouli), albeit at odds with her other-worldly image, will probably hinder the foxy Canadian from finding the kind of audience she may be craving for the time being.  Grimes’ vox are rarely that far away from Liz Fraser’s own, ethereal delivery on the Twins’ classic 4AD output, though, and the reference point makes sense of this surprise signing, seeing the label thus come full circle with its own heritage.

First ‘single’ Genesis is a bit of a killer, with its echoing vocal gymnastics and hooky, Oriental melodies.  But Oblivion‘s heavier bass, deft electro beat, eddying keys and Fairlight CMI-style/Eighties samples (think Art Of Noise) will no doubt experience greater, anthemic pop longevity.

Moombahton (moom-bar-tonn), also Moombahsoul, Moombahcore, Moombahstep, proper noun: midtempo style (105 – 115 BPM), characterised by the same shuffling rhythms (or ‘riddims’) of reggaeton, cumbia and dancehall with heavy bass and beats, plus electro/rave motifs such as build-ups and break-downs, electronic stabs, horns, sirens, blips, bleeps, whistles and vocal snatches often of a trashy or comical nature.  The derivative styles favour samples/themes from soul (Moombahsoul) and dubstep (Moombahcore/Moombahstep).

Origins: In Autumn 2009, Washington-based DJ Dave Nada (pictured above) was invited to play at a ‘skipping’ party (thrown by and for kids playing truant) in a friend’s basement, but instead of his conventional style (hard, fast, ravey electro), they were listening to reggaeton and other Latin American music.  Rising to the challenge, he opened his set with one of his regular tunes – DJ Chuckie & Silva Como’s ‘tropical’ electro shuffler, Moombah – pitched right down to the 110 BPMs of reggaeton: the party went off, Nada beheld his golden egg and, in barely eighteen months, Moombahton has gone global.

Key figures: Dave Nada and Matt Nordstrom record together as Nadastrom and run the Moombahton Massive night in Washington with DJ Sabo.  LA’s Dillon Francis and North Carolina’s Dave Heartbreak are fellow US champions alongside Philadelphia’s niche-scene-supremo and international tastemaker, Diplo.  Never one to miss a trick, Diplo has just released a Moombahton compilation by Dave Nada on his Mad Decent label.  New York singer Maluca and Dutchman Munchi are spreading the Moombahton gospel for those of Dominican descent, while French electro star Brodinski and Sheffield dancehall champion Toddla T are currently its highest profile European purveyors.

This feature was originally published in August 2011 by The List magazine.  It has been reproduced with their permission.

Can’t get enough of this cover of Wave Machines‘ mini-smash by new British pop chanteuse Joyce, who is apparently so fresh off the starting blocks, she doesn’t even have a web presence at the time of writing this…   And yet, she has allegedly been ‘snapped up from the web’ by Island Records ‘for her impressive songwriting and vocal talent’ (or so goes the PR spiel).

Perhaps it’s a soft launch for Joyce’s career just now as the label works out how best to market her, then.  As such, you may not be hearing/seeing much of her over the coming months but you can be sure this tune will be getting heavy rotation, with anthemic pop potential.  It was already a great song when Wave Machines made it but Joyce has taken it to a shiny new, bitter-sweet dimension that will work as well in the club as on the radio, especially following this incredible remixed version by New Jersey man of the hour Clams Casino.  Powerful club weapon!

There’s also this nattily shot and edited video by production company Beaucoup Films.