Dream On

What a fantastic ANTHEM!
"Dream On", sung by great, Swedish pop-star Robyn and The Ark member Ola Salo first appeared in 2006 on Christian Falk´s solo album "People Say". This is the original video for the single that was only released in Sweden:



Thugs and badmen
punks and lifers
locked up interns
pigs and snitches

Rest your weary heads, all is well

You won't be strip-searched, torn up tonight
you won't be cut up, bleeding tonight
you won't be strung out, cold, shaking to your bones
wishing you were anywhere else but right here
So dream on

Thieves and muggers
tricks and hustlers
cheats and traitors
scum and low-lives

Rest your weary heads, all is well

You won't be sad or broken tonight
you won't be squealed on, ripped off tonight
you won't be back-stabbed, double crossed, face down
teeth knocked out, lying in a gutter somewhere
So dream on

So dream on

Freaks and junkies
fakes and phonies
drunks and cowards
manic preachers

Rest your weary heads, all is well

You won't be pushed or messed with tonight
you won't be lied to, ruffed up tonight
You won't be insane, paranoid, obsessed
aimlessly wandering through the dark night
So dream on

So dream on

You won't be insane, paranoid, obsessed
aimlessly wandering through the dark night

So dream on

Late last year, the single got remixed and re-released, dropping Ola´s vocals while focussing on Robyn. I think the new video is a bit crap. But still: ANTHEM!

Vicious Pink - Techno Psycho Poppers

I still can smell the vanilla-scented fog that would sweep over the dance floor when "Cccan´t You See" was played. As soon as the first, thinly sampled choir would come up, everybody made a beeline to the floor. Poppers, goths, the fetish-set and the riff-raff of every sexual preference. Vicious Pink united everyone for a few minutes.


Aptly named "Techno Psycho Poppers" by the press, Vicous Pink were catering first and foremost to the clubs. They started out as backing performers for Soft Cell and just went with the sleazy image. They had quite the imaginative merchandise for a club act.

Crushed by the Wheels of Industry

Syncopation for the nation now:


Heaven 17: Name borrowed from "A Clockwork Orange", young professional socialists with the latest technology, penthouse and pavement, crushed by the wheels of industry, dreaming of saturday night, buy this, unterzeichnen sie hier..., the luxury gap.

Kaufen sie diese:

Dreams of Saturday Night: Rhodes to Freedom

Not much to see in all these drum ´n bass clips, but who needs visuals for music that is so lush and beautiful?! Ambient D´nB really was the music of the future, when it emerged out of dark jungle and hardcore. Of course, much derided by the true innovators who saw this evolution of new-agey, middle-of-the-road-fluff as a dead end street, it was also the instant soundtrack for millions of boutiques and trendy cafés around the world, which might be a reason why the 90s are so undervalued. Most tracks here hail from 1995 when this music suddenly exploded everywhere.

Everything by LTJ Bukem is great and he, along with Omni Trio, was probably the kickstarter of this new sound. Bukem´s music does really stand the test of time as he is a fantastic musician who managed to combine great musicianship with amazing sound and production techniques.

LTJ Bukem: Rhodes to Freedom


LTJ Bukem: Watercolours



PFM (Progressive Future Music) did a couple of 12" and a bunch of remixes with one very impressive sound set-up. Their epic tracks slide along the edge of ambient kitsch but who cares as long as they sound like sonic waves sweeping over you. "Hypnotising" with the often used, but always wonderful "music is hypnotising"-sample was the b-side of their second single. PFM also did a great 9 minute version of Saint Etienne´s "(Down by) The Sea".

PFM: Hypnotising



Goldie had proven that jungle/drum and bass could as well be seen as a new form of soul music when he released the phenomenal "Inner City Life" in 1994. The use of sung vocals was relatively rare in the genre but some of the attempts were outstanding and often became moderate hits.

Saxophonist Courtney Pine and vocal diva Cassandra Wilson teamed up for the beautiful "I´ve known Rivers" which got the d´nb treatment by the slightly overhyped 4 Hero. I wish they would have always been as good as this.

Courtney Pine with Cassandra Wilson: I´ve known Rivers (4 Hero remix)



Another great d´nb vcal track and almost hit came from Soundman & Don Lloydie with Elisabeth Troy. "Greater Love" is amazing in the way it merges the sweet vocals of Mrs. Troy with the abstract and de-constructed beats. Later in 95 the three released an equally good follow-up on the great SOUR-label with "Let me be".

Soundman and Don Llyodie with Elisabeth Troy: Greater Love



Things get a bit rougher with this masterpiece of sonic energy. "Amazon Amenity (Chameleon Dub) by Link is a product of the fruitful partnership of Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton.
In 1992 they released a fantastic EP of Detroit techno, which also included "Amenity". Later they reworked that track into the lush balearic anthem "Links" by Chameleon, which then evolved into "Amazon Amenity". The drum programming towards the end of this epic is simply breathtaking.
"...Life moves pretty fast. If you don´t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Link: Amazon Amenity



Recovering from the hectic d´nb with this wonderfully relaxing abstract re-construction of Japanese outfit Soft Ballet. Once more, Middleton and Pritchard (as Global Communication) show their superiority.

Soft Ballet: Ride (Global Communication Remix)


Check out LTJ Bukem´s label Good Looking for recent d´n b.

Dream Leif

When I was made for dancing (Super Maxi Disco Version) was a big, global hit I was still too young to see a disco from the inside. So I had to keep on dreaming of Saturday nights filled with dry-ice fog, glowing plexi-glass dance-floors and percussion breakdowns.


Major teen heartthrob Leif Garrett would later rely on disco versions of rock ´n roll standards and after the disco backlash his life was spinning out of control.

He has actually released a new album recently, probably trying to cash in on the shocking mugshots that brought him back into the public eye two years ago.

But who wants to see that when you can marvel at all these pseudo-pedo-california-white-trash-pics at the height of his fame?!

Dreams of Saturday Night: Moi...Lolita

"Moi...Lolita" is the sound of a million beach nightclubs. From the Cote d´azur down to Italy and Greece; to Thailand and some suburban bar in Germany. It plays early in the night, when the dancefloor is almost empty, you can hear it blasting from some jukebox after the last orders have been made. It´s euphoric and endlessly sad.

Alizée: Moi...Lolita


Released in june of 2000 "Moi...Lolita" stayed a record-breaking 73 weeks in the French charts, and became the most successful foreign language single in the UK.

Written by Mylene Farmer and partner, it is a masterpiece of mind-reeling self reference, exploitation and liberation. In short: one of the best pop songs ever! Yes, EVER!

Farmer, decided to get somebody younger than her to sing it in order to make the song more believable. So they did a casting and found Alizée. Bam! Instant goosebump inducing, timeless classic! I can listen to this for hours on end and still be amazed by it.

This revised excerpt is sort of a re-post from a longer entry about French-Pop I made in July.

Dreams of Saturday Night: Larry Heard

One of the first names in house music, Larry Heard has just released a phenomenal new 12" EP called "25 Years From Alpha".

The 15 minute title track is a delicate work of sparkling and pristine 808-beats, a bubbling bassline, sleek pads and sci-fi strings.
I always admire his ability to create deep and intriguing tracks with sounds that are this close to resemble Casio pre-sets.

As a St. Nicolaus gift you should listen to the last track, Feathers Floating.
The title gives a hint at the fragile ambience of this warm, relaxed and amazing piece of beautiful music. I have this on repeat for hours! It´s the perfect escape-pod from the dreary winter weather.

"25 Years From Alpha" is available from "Black Market International" and Larry´s own label "Alleviated".

Dreams of Saturday Night: Meat Beat Manifesto

I really think that 1988 was indeed a musical year that tore down many barriers. The explosion (and implosion) of Hip Hop and Acid House brought new and radical sounds and the public was more than ready to listen while dancing their asses off.

Mark Stewart and the Mafia, Public Enemy and Meat Beat Manifesto were working at the edges of music with their brutal methods of decomposing sound and rhythm.


Give Your Body It´s Freedom! is the most radical version of Meat Beat Manifesto´s third single "Strap Down".

Everything in this track is designed to jump in your face: the stupendous bassline, the insane whistles, adventurous drum-programming and a harsh mix make this an adrenaline rushing disco-destroyer that sounds like a work-out program for malfunctioning robots. After listening to this at maximum volume you feel exhausted.

I was eagerly awaiting MBFs first album which was then lost in a studio fire. The re-recorded album was actually a double-12" with four songs in four versions. While "Storm the Studio" was very good, it lacked the energy and boldness of tracks like this one.

As true forefathers of Prodigy and Chemical Brothers, the band released a new album in 2008.

Dreams of Saturday Night: Muzik Xpress

Music! Music! Music! Wohoooo!
Judging by the comments and my own memory on "Muzik Xpress", everybody remembers when and where they had heard this dance classic for the first time. I danced to this awesome track at various clubs in Germany, London and NYC back in ´93 and the reaction of the crowd was the same everywhere: They went batshit crazy!

Rightly so!
"Muzik Xpress" by X-Press 2 is one of the most effective and infectious dance records ever. The slightly bouncing rhythm and the two simple vocal samples are creating an immense positive energy that promises a massive release from the very beginning. And when this release/breakdown finally comes (shamelessly fired on by screaming crowd noise) it tears up the roof of every club and people are screaming their heads off.

It´s one of those timeless dance tracks that completely revolves around itself. It is functional, calculated and actually it is not even music, but it has a soul of its own!

Muzik Express

Countless similar tracks were following the pattern of "Muzik Xpress" and the build-up/big breakdown soon became a tired cliché. Even X-Press 2 tried the formula again with the great "London Xpress" but it misses this mystical quality of its predecessor that made people all around the world smile and scream on the dancefloor.

Dreams of Saturday Night: House! What is House?

What is House? (Intro)
What is House? (LFO Remix)

"House! What is house? Technotronic, KLF or something to live in?! To me house is Phuture, Pierre, Fingers, Adonis, etc.
The Pioneers of the hypnotic groove!
Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and the Yellow Magic Orchestra. This is dedicated to you.
House!
In the future we hope our music will bring everyone a little closer together. Gay, straight, black or white. One nation under a groove..."

This was an anthem at the height of the "nerd groove". The clubs were small,the bass was big and guys did not try to impress each other with the size of their cars, but with the deepness of their bass.

Dreams of Saturday Night: Austin Bascom aka. Ax:us and Aba-cus

I am officially an old fart now! When I recently became aware that a deep-house revival was about to take off, my initial reaction was "What Revival? It just happened!" This "just happened" was of course ten years ago. Time to admit that I had locked my ass on the deep-house groove and that I pulled a "Patsy & Edina" ("Get your clothes from the dry-cleaner and it´s a `Revival`") in my ignorance to the passing of time.


By the end of the nineties quality deep-house productions became quite rare. Flagship labels like Guidance, Paper, Prescription and Naked closed shop or became increasingly irrelevant. Electroclash upped the tempo, the ante and -admittedly- the party. I was always more interested in minimal, which in its best moments was a continuation of the sound that I loved.

And now, with the rising demand for new deep-house output, some of the original producers are back with stunning new material (not that the stuff from ten years ago would sound in any way dated!).

Austin Bascom, a Canadian living in London, released some great stuff as Aba-cus and Ax:us on the creme-de-la-creme deep house labels.

He just did a remix for Canadian Jazz-Funk outfit King Sunshine. His "Abacus Rethink Dub" of their "Love your brother" is one of the finest, classic deep-house excursions I have heard in a long time. Perfect and timeless.

Listen on a good soundsystem:
Love Your Brother (Abacus Rethink Dub)

Enjoy classic "My Planet Rocks" by Ax:us. This mid-nineties track oozes with layers and layers of pristine synthesizer-brilliance:
My Planet Rocks

End (or begin) your journey with this blissed out remix of Chaser´s "Blue Planet"
Blue Planet (Abacus Remix)

Austin Bascom has relaunched his Re:Think Recordings label and with his "Love your Brother"-Remix he has set the bar incredibly high. Good times for old farts and many more dreams of saturday night...

Dreams of Saturday Night

Sharp attire, smooth mooves, a tight band and Go-Go-Girls. Nothern Soul dreams of saturday night.

Major Lance: The Beat