The first Lady of UK

Just a little one for you. Literally.

Lady Sovereign is one of the brightest stars in the UK. Not just in Grime, not just in Urban music, full stop.

I know nothing about her, I've read nothing about her in the music/style press (although there has been plenty of press) but I feel I know all about her through her music. How many people can you say that for?

I know everyone's all over M.I.A. At the moment (I'm resisting the obvious joke), and I'm in her corner too, but to me Sovereign is more real, less affected and way more vital.

Of course, whether she makes it or not is another matter. It's about horizons. Where are Lady Sovereign's? Hopefully they are beyond her manor, beyond London and beyond keeping it 'real' with those currently supporting her. If she's got the balls – check her records, she's got them – and isn't scared to be called a sell out once more than a small clique nod heads to her tunes, the UK has got a star.

Here's her new track, Random.

Lady Sovereign, Random

Questionable moisture



Hello my pretty, it's been a long time but rest easy. Here are some songs.

I'm going to rapid fire.

A coupla weeks back I had the enormous pleasure of seeing Comets On Fire play on a boat in Bristol. They were supported by the excellent Fuzz Against Junk, local boys that play the kind of acid-fried, high decibel mind-meld that pisses love onto your skull.

My hearing was wrecked for two days following the gig, but my tinnitus chimed in a way that kept me smiling. If you are even slightly inclined toward music that walks into a dinner party (late) goes "arggggghhghghghhmofffokok", has questionable moisture stains about its person and then falls into the trifle, I'd check out the unwelcome house guest that is Comets On Fire. Go get.

It was observed 'pon said evening that Comets On Fire possess a colossal drummer who maintains rhythm in the midst of chaos. When all about him were losing theirs, he was the still beating heart of sound. Listening/watching made me realise drums are the reason for everything.

Which leads to Dinosaur Jr. By god I used to love this band. But while all the indie boys and girls mimicked Mascis in front of bedroom mirrors, was it only me who thought Murph majestic? He may only be a drummer but listen to how he holds it together. C'mon! Surely!?

All of the Dinosaur Jr back catalogue is being reissued (at some point) this year. I'd head straight for You're Livin All Over Me, from which I think The Lung is the yes.

There's a Slint reformation. Alright. Dust down the vinyl, get yr awkward nerd haircut and pretend that you always knew about Slint and didn't stumble on them via the KIDS soundtrack. But while you lucky bastards head to All Tomorrow's Parties, don't forget some of the music that fell from the Slint family tree (sonically, rather than formally).

Here's some Codeine for ya. The line about the coffee... Oh yes... It takes me back.

Comets On Fire, Wild Whiskey, Blue Cathedral
Dinosaur Jr, The Lung, You're Livin All Over Me
Codeine, Realize, Barely Real EP

House-themed posting



This site is turning crap. I’ve been remiss in my updates and have neglected.

I have excuses, but mainly I’ve been dealing with FUCKING INGORANT INCOMPETENT COCK NOSES for the past three weeks. A word of advice: never try to do anything, especially move house, if you can’t afford a mortgage and are self-employed. Do I have the AIDS? Am I of leprosy?

Seemingly, the fact that I don’t sit in an office, idling time, adhering to the nonsensical pretence of presenteeism, makes me some kind of untrustworthy pseudo-criminal. My rent will be £400 per month ferrchrissakes, but in order to reassure the estate agent that I can cover this I have to supply references from everyone who has ever known me. I swear the fuckers were rummaging through my bins last night.

Simply supplying contracts that demonstrate how much I will earn and how long I will be earning for isn’t good enough. Rather, I have to convince friends to tie themselves into contracts and make themselves liable.

And don’t even get me started on Prince Harry dressing up as a Nazi, or the ridiculous ‘should we legalise drugs?’ documentary on the BBC last week, or – and this goes even further back – the fact that the media actually felt sorry for David Blunkett! I’m glad to see the back of the reactionary bastard, he was the embodiment of this country’s nasty, vile tendency toward banning anything and everything that doesn’t sit easily with whoever the fuck is ‘the average man on the street’. Grrr.

Something good has happened though. Last night I dreamt I was fronting the Happy Mondays in Hyde Park, I sang Under The Boardwalk and the crowd rejoiced. Yeah.

Also, I am now mere moments away from entering a seven day party in New York. The floppy dollar means that I am suddenly a rich man. It’s double your money time for foreign tourists! Woo-hoo.

Here’s some music. Dance to it. It’s monstrous.

LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (Soulwax Shibuya Mix), DFA 12”

Basement Jaxx, Oh My Gosh

Ha- ha- ha- ha

Happy hiatus!

Haven't been here for a while. Never mind.

January has all the makings of a crappy month, tax returns to be returned (and paid for), a new house to be found (and paid for) and other stuff. Tsk.

Anyhoo, never one to gripe or moan here's a couple of tracks from an album I've only just picked up.

I-Wolf & Burdy Meet The Babylonians was released late(ish) last year. Mind you no one told me or – as far I can work out – much of the UK music press. Luckily, I picked up a free download from someone or other and liked what I heard.

However.

I've listened the whole thing a few times and am much like a drunken dog on an icy path, walking down to the vets just a few days after having all its legs taken out of plaster. Unsure.

The first time, smashing. It sounded like a better version of DJ Rupture's Special Gunpowder. All the flavours of the world, rhythmically stewed together to create a slurping great feast of inter-racial bonhomie.

The second time, Urban Gipsy (featuring the excellent G. Rizo and Karanoila) sounded like Boney M, A Modern Life (with Atta and M’Cinok) sounded like a great Prince hook ruined by inane Chicks on Speed-style sloganeering.

In short, I began to wonder if I-Wolf & Burdy are actually the underground's Moby. Or Faithless.

The third time. I'm somewhere in between. So, because I am incapable of forming an original opinion, I give you my two favourite tracks: USA and They Don't Care. I would have also given you Money Money which features a great return to form by Shaun Ryder. But that would be too much so back up.

I like USA because they rap in French and Polish, which is cool any which way. Although I have a horrible fear that if I ever had the faculties to translate, the lyrics would be embarrassingly inane Chicks on Speed-style sloganeering about how terrible the USA is, man.

I really like They Don't Care because it's yet another track that soars due to the presence of Warrior Queen and The Bug. If Rachel Stevens ever got together with these two, no chart would be safe. Top of the rass claat pops.

Anyway, feedback my good people.

I-Wolf & Burdy, USA (featuring Kwal, Zingaman, Binzen and RQM), (Meet the Babylonians)

I-Wolf & Burdy, They Don't Care (featuring Warrior Queen), (Meet the Babylonians)

Tonight it's about the rum. I'm drunk while typing. I don't care. Grrrr. Thump thump. I grew up in Peterborough. Yeah. Fuckin' c'mon then. Bitch.

Oh.... It's Christmas. I love you. Hear these tracks. Y'bastards.

This is it until I come back. Happy Christmas and ting. Myself and Enzo will be seeing in some kind of new year in London town. I hope the rest of you all have an equally good time wherever and whenever. (And I actually mean that).

Once that's out of the way, I'm polishing myself for a trip to NYC. End of January. Excited isn't the word.

So, to combine the feelings of hatred, drunkenness, violence, small town paranoia and dreams of New York glamour, here's my latest.

They're all good – especially the Mu track – so enjoy.

Covenant, Bullet (Le Dust Sucker Mix), (Bullet 12")
Nathan Fake, The Sky Was Pink (Icelandic Version), (The Sky Was Pink 12")
Dave Clarke featuring Chicks On Speed, What Was Her Name (Black Strobe Mix)
Mu, Paris Hilton, (Out of Breach – Manchester’s Revenge)
Ying Yang Twins, Salt Shaker (Remix)
Kiki, Luv Sikk Again, (Run With Me)

Artists, insomniacs and abcesses

Despite my best intentions, I find myself tippety-tapping onto this bloody keyboard once more.

I've just finished watching Basquiat, which BBC2 thoughtfully aired late at night for us insomniacs. An excellent film. By that, I mean I enjoyed it. I've no idea what makes a good film or otherwise, but I enjoyed this one for much the same reason as I enjoy reading about musicians, or artists, or authors or anyone who kind of fucked up their life and that of those around them in pursuit of some romantic ethereal goal.

It's the kind of myth we'd all like to be part of so long as we get the lead role. No one would want to trail in the wake.

Anyway, this lumbers me toward the song I'm posting. For those old hip hop heads, the break dancin' neck snappin' folk out there, it will be no surprise that I’m going to post Rammelzee vs K Rob's Beat Bop.

Beat Bop was released in 1983, in a land before samplers, bling, Crunk juice or grime. Coming out at a time when it would probably have been labelled electro, it is also one of a legion of releases that paved the way for hip hop to really grab the mic and take centre stage. Mind you, if you listen closely, there's a whole host of strangeness that elevates this above a mere progenitor of any particular genre.

Pick out the 808, Latin percussion, drones, languid funk and the disorientating vocals that sweep in and out of focus, swamped intermittently by globs of reverb. That's before you even try to bend your ears around the lyrics.

The link back to Basquiat is that he financed this track and is credited as the producer. I don't know how much influence Basquiat had in the final sound of Beat Bop, but either way I'm a huge fan.

I wish some of today's rap superstars would pay this some attention. It couldn't hurt.

Rammelzee vs K Rob, Beat Bop




Switching things completely, here's a song that came my way via the postal service. An envelope dropped invitingly and asked to grab a slot on Lickety Spit.

Mygrolshy's Pilonidal filters Blumfeld, processed beats and bass and ends up creating something that's strangely disconcerting... I'd be interested to know what you think...

C'mon, I'm sat here at 2am providing you with some music, the least you can do is give the unsigned some constructive criticism!!!

Until tomorrow.

Mygrolshy Pilonidal

Squelchy bag of Catholic guilt

I've not posted for a while. No excuses. Just some heavy duty fauna that found its way to me and decided to derail me for the past, uh, week.

A good Catholic, I realise that I must repent. Consider this bumper bag of electronic squelchiness my sackcloth and birch.




The first track is by Ping Pong Bitches. I only came across Beat You Up recently, but it was first released on Alan McGhee's Poptones back in 2001. It has also appeared on This is Electroclash, a US compilation featuring all the luminaries you'd expect.

The Ping Pong girls - Pray, Hell and Wong - also provide vocals on Prodigy's Girls which featured on their gargantuan flop Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned.

While the Bitches are currently out of contract, rumour has it that Beat You Up is being polished up ready for a fresh assault.

I s'pose their sound may be over and done with, Electroclash something everyone denies ever liking, but I still like this track, in a stoopid kinda way. Check out the Donna Summer.

Ping Pong Bitches, Beat You Up (12" & This is Electroclash)




Steady now, here comes Linus Loves. Night Music was released on Breastfed in September. It's electro house, it's Linus Loves, it's on Breastfed, it's what you'd expect and none the worse for that. Play it loud, pull some crackers, have yourselves a merry little Christmas.

Linus Loves, Night Music (Night Music 12")

Oooh. Now I like this. Here's something that sounds like Underworld's Cowgirl but with more electronic gadgetry attached to its knackers. I personally can't imagine a time when this wouldn't be welcome on a dancefloor. But if it happened to be a very loud, very bright, very refreshed dancefloor, I think it may work best of all.

Again, it's unsubtle, it's stoopid, it's a killer.

Released two weeks ago (but having been slipped out on various occasions throughout the past two years), the track also features in the film Super Troopers. The scene this soundtracks is of two pretty Germans speeding through a city. Vroom vroom. I can see it working.

Bubbles, Bidibodi Bidibu, (Bidibodi Bidibu 12")




Being a sneaky little monkey, I've saved the best until third from last. Just to see if you were paying attention.

One of Germany's best labels (and the band that runs it) locking horns with some chancer called James Murphy. No, me neither.

However, if this track is anything to go by I predict big things for Munk, Munk's label Gomma and Murphy. You heard it here first.

This is the first release from Munk's debut album, Aperitivo. Munk is the combined talents of Mathias Modica and Jonas Imbery, and the album features cameos from DJ Chloe, The Whitefield Brothers, Bobby Conn, Midnight Mike, James Murphy and Nancy Whang.

The version of Kick Out The Chairs I'm delivering to your juicy ears is the Tomboy Remix. I likes it, I hope you likes it too.

Munk, Kick Out The Chairs (Tomboy Remix), (Aperitivo)

Hey kids, don't go to bed yet! Here's Black Strobe, with the rug-munchingly trrriffic Chemical Sweet Girl.

I nearly posted the Alter Ego remix, which I thought I liked but then realised I didn't like. So you got the original.

Does anyone not know about Black Strobe? Please? I'm bored of typing and it's cold. Also, I'm getting hungry and this blog thing takes way longer than it should...

Here's the music.

Black Strobe, Chemical Sweet Girl, (Chemical Sweet Girl 12")

Here's a track which was recommended to me a few months back. Practically fucking impossible to track down, I finally snatched up What Happened earlier this month.

The tune is by Abe Duque and Blake Baxter, it was released earlier this year on Abe Duque Records, self-styled as "The most underground label in the world".

Abe Duque knows that nothing screams "sell out" like damn stupid stickers. That's why you won't find no freakin stickers on Abe's records. Nope. He's gonna scratch the info right onto the vinyl. Uh-huh.

Consider Losing My Edge while listening to this...

Abe Duque featuring Blake Baxter, What Happened (Deep House Mix), (What Happened 12'')

Tumbleweed rollin' thru Oldham County?

Subcribers to The Wire will have heard the latest in the ever-excellent Wire Tapper series of free CDs. This time around it’s a double disc packed full of tasty morsels. Random glimpse: Githead, Aesop Rock, Carter Tutti, DJ Rupture, Damon & Naomi, Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players.

The CD also houses a new Bonnie 'Prince' Billy track, Bed Is For Sleeping. It’s a collaboration with Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Zwan) and will be released on January 17, 2005. The new album is called Superwolf.

Bed Is For Sleeping trots through territory more similar to Master And Everyone than to Greatest Palace Music. But there’s the problem. Billy seems to be dependable.

Playing a Will Oldham record (whether as Palace, Oldham or Billy) used to be exciting, different, a challenge. Vocals askew, timing ripped asunder, songs clattering to unexpected ends. As a listener, you’d be willing the track to its inevitable thundering climax only for the wheels to fall off. Sonically, Oldham was as arresting and as challenging as his lyrics.

Recently, I ain’t been getting that same buzz.

Admittedly this is but one song from a whole LP, so I could be premature. But just for comparison, listen to the new track alongside a couple of alternatives. The first is Will’s collaboration with Sage Francis, it’s called Sea Lion and is on Francis’s new album, out in February.

Second, we’ve got an older Oldham collaboration. This time the music is supplied by Tweaker (better known as Chris Vrenna, drummer and programmer with Nine Inch Nails). Happy Child is on Tweaker’s The Attraction To All Things Uncertain and was also released by Oldham as a single.

To my ears, the collaborations are way more representative of what Will Oldham means to me. What do your ears think?

Bonnie Prince Billy & Matt Sweeney, Bed Is For Sleeping, (Superwolf)
Sage Francis Featuring Will Oldham, Sea Lion, (A Healthy Distrust)
Tweaker & Will Oldham, Happy Child (The Attraction To All Things Uncertain & Happy Child/Forest Time 7”)

Tet Offensive

I don’t want this to become a blog where we just slag off the useless bands we happened to endure last night, but Lickety’s mission is to probe new musical orifices, and if they turn out to taste of stale onions then we feel duty bound to warn you off suffering the same experience.

The Bays are a four-piece house/techno/breakbeat improv band who never release records and only ever play live. Alarm bells rang for me when I discovered their drummer was Andy Gangadeen who used to twirl sticks for Incognito, M People and, er, The Spice Girls (I know this thanks to a miserable spell working in the same office as Rhythm magazine many years ago). However, six of my friends, some of whom I even occasionally trust for musical recommendations, returned from a Bays gig last month with faces aglow. So I figured it was worth a shot.

It didn’t help that the support band played a funky flute and everyone in the venue looked like Gilles Peterson listeners. The Bays weren’t as bad as all that, and they did have a couple of nice synth hooks, but the stinky muso atmosphere was all-pervading. Evidently the idea of live, improvised house music was their novelty, but the concept seems redundant in an era of Ableton Live and four-deck mixing. I don’t want house music to be humanised (especially by a bloke with a goatee and a Zildjian sponsorship); I prefer it to be alien.

The weekend was redeemed by an excellent party under the arches at Elephant And Castle hosted jointly by the Werk and Soundslike labels. The ambience was perfect and the people clean but the music filthy. Kieren Hebden in particular played such a mercurial DJ set of dubstep, electrohop and grimeclash that Mark felt compelled to shake his Hobbitty hand for what seemed like several minutes afterwards.

In tribute, here are four wonderful Hebden-related tunes: one from his old band Fridge, a Four Tet remix of Aphex Twin’s ‘Untitled’ (the first track from ‘Selected Ambient Works 2’), a track by Cyne – a Miami hip-hop outfit who Hebden has collaborated with and championed on various occasions – and a selection from Four Tet’s recent ‘Another Late Night’ compilation.

Fridge ‘Kinoshita’

Aphex Twin ‘Untitled (Four Tet Remix)’

Cyne ‘Steady’

Manfred Mann’s Chapter 3 ‘One Way Glass’

I Can't Believe It's Not Beta

Sorry for the title of the post. That's what my friend suggested the Beta Band tribute act should be called. There'll be a vacancy in four days time when the real Beta Band lay down their bongos for good.

On Tuesday they played their last ever London gig at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. It was a strangely distracted affair; we expected palm trees and ponchos, but the band wore shirts and ties and opted for a minimal stage set. For a group that have spent much of their career attempting to confound their audience, often at the expense of writing a decent tune, I suppose it was a fitting finale. There were flashes of genius: ‘Inner Meet Me’, ‘Lion Thief’, ‘Assessment’, ‘Dry The Rain’, ‘Dog’s Got A Bone’, ‘B & A’... and the astonishing percussive onslaught unleashed in the encore only made you more frustrated that they spent a sizeable proportion of their ‘greatest hits’ set wrestling with weedy half-songs.

In December 1997, I watched the Beta Band play to thirty people in Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms, when it genuinely seemed like something strange and wonderful was coalescing around them. Seven years on, and most of their best songs were the same, but with the magic diminished by a combination of obstinacy and flakiness. The Beta Band complete their farewell tour in the same Edinburgh venue on Sunday, and tickets have been going on eBay for over £75 each. I reckon I got the best deal.

They didn’t play ‘To You Alone’. It’s not really a live-sounding number, but it is the best thing they recorded outside of the three EPs. Steve Mason reckons he’s got a number one single in him. Listen to this and you almost believe him.

The Beta Band ‘To You Alone’




Obviously I meant to post the Beta Band stuff yesterday. But unlike Mark and his decadent lunchtime shiraz, I've had to work. So now I've pushed his latest post down the page. But you really should keep scrolling to hear a tremendous new LCD Soundsystem track.

Meanwhile, the Lickety Spit team will be out in force this Saturday night, at a party "somewhere in Elephant & Castle" at which Herbert, Brooks and Four Tet are DJing. Let’s hope their combined boffinry doesn’t preclude shaking of fulsome booty.

Herbert ‘Back To The Start’