little dragon

little dragon - feather

stone cold dream-pop head-nodder. Like Glass Candy/Nite Jewel, airy and glistening, with bricklaid beats. recalls "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin, aka the best song ever recorded. Thanks to Matt at Blackout Bar last night for pointing out the Swedish group Little Dragon to me, as well as their recent release on Peacefrog, "Machine Dreams." Consider "Feather" on deep repeat at A/C/K/C/L.

Greenpoint newcomer Blackout Bar has already racked up visits by a number of salted local DJs, including James Murphy and Marcos Cabral from Runaway, not to mention an enlightening set last night from Future Hunter, which yielded this delight, a sort of half-speed glistening Blondie jewel. Blackout Bar is bedecked in the old-tymey dark-wood German/Dutch gemuetlichkeit style, popular these days as a respite from the suffocating posh of modern chic. On tap are multiple Koelsch beers, including the storied Gaffel, whose crisp, near-appley flavor is well-suited for a mid-fall friday.

sun ra - saga of resistance (theo parrish remix)

sun ra - saga of resistance (theo parrish remix)

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sun ra remix! by theo parrish! 

ra wants to make love in this club: nerds rejoice. 

seriously though, if only more dance music was this hip-shaking but gloriously eccentric at the same time. wonky, out of tune horn loops, frog-voiced guttural mutterisms. I like tracks that sound like the Tattoine bar scene in "Star Wars." 

so deep. unfortunately there's no one singing "space is the place!!! outttter spaaacce..." and no upside-down laser organ solos. don't let that dissuade you from riding the smoothed-out afro-groove submarine all the way to the deep-house ocean floor. 

The Mole People - Break Night

the mole people - break night

Armand van Helden released this trailblazing long-form monster under the Mole People pseudonym on Strictly Rhythm in 1995. It's an acknowledged deep house classic. Rudimentary tribal drums and two endlessly unspoiling laser loops, glowing with phaser swirl and traversing a shimmering expanse, opening up an endless void like in "Tomorrow Never Knows."

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I was speaking with brave about the latest Shed record and he said "it sounds great if I'm driving, but if I'm IMing people it just sounds like some beats." Which pretty well sums up the two kinds of attention you can pay to music, especially the heavily rhythmic minimal-beat kind. but it's not like one form is better than other form. Walter Benjamin (the implicit or maybe not so implicit forefather of AC) made a point of stressing how important distraction is in modern life as a form of experience. 

distraction is valuable in modern life because there's a lot of it. there's suddenly alot of things coming at you and most of the time you're not zoomed in on them, they appear in this shifting thicket of sensation, and when images or sounds or words sensed in distraction pass into your psychic self and begin to live there, they will be not as things you really remember or can identify, but as lurking, immortal ghosts.

so pay close attention to 'break night'. or put it on while you gchat. see if I care.

Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need A Change of Mind

Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need A Change of Mind

On deep repeat for several days now. Deep repeat: that state where you need a song like you need fresh water or a warm hug from someone who knows you well, and will always be there to do so no matter what. This cut from Eddie's meisterwerk People...Hold On is a heavenly long-form suite that is up there with the best from the curtis/isaac priests of stirring symphonic soul. It ebbs and flows exquisitely, and before you know it seven minutes have passed and it's serious rewind time. Gorgeous, sunshiney, impassioned, get into it, get up, get involved.