Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Oct 1

Guts - And the living is easy
Black samuarai - Information critic
Sola rosa - Turn around - Suff daddy remix
Cochemea Gastelum - Dark city
Brass roots - Good life
Screaming meemees - Stars in my eyes
Snap - Sidewalk city
Little dragon - Ritual union
Vibes alive - Mantra
Conory Smith - Dangerous
Desmond Dekker - Israelites
Bush chemists - Realise dub
Roots radics - Babylon wrong
Macro dub - Who shot the sheriff?
Sweetie irie - Slim body girl
Garnett Silk - Tell me why
Lennie Hibbert - Real hot
King Errison - Conga man
Cochemea Gastelum - Arrow's theme
West st mob - break dance electric boogie
Grandmaster Flash and the furious five - The message
Sylvia - Pussycat
Krafty kuts - Come alive
Whitefield bros - Safari strut
Lord Echo - Thinking of you
Beat pharmacy - Drifter - dub mix

Spheres

Orchestra of Spheres are: Baba Rossa - biscuit tin guitar, sexomouse marimba / E=M303 - electric carillon / Jemi Hemi Mandala - drumkit / Mos Iocos - keyboard, gamelan.


"Born out of Wellington’s Frederick Street Sound and Light Exploration Society in 2009, the Spheres have developed a cult-like following in New Zealand. Playing house parties, dance parties, DIY shows and opera houses, the Spheres have built a reputation for musically and visually ecstatic live shows..." 


They are off to play at All Tomorrows Parties at the end of the year, after Caribou saw them play at Campus A Low Hum and invited them along (Caribou are co-curating ATP). They're also playing a handful of European shows while they're up over. Exciting stuff!

"As well as ATP, we're playing at Les Transmusicales festival in France, a festival in Utrecht, and other gigs in England, Germany, Czech Republic and elsewhere. European dreams: Hoping to check out lots of cool music. E=MC303 will be eating lots of cheese. Jemi Hemi wants to party and try heaps of new European fizzy drinks. Mos Iocos aims to twiddle the moustaches of 100 frenchmen. Baba Rossa would like to drive really fast on the Autobahn."

The Corner says " Orchestra of Spheres’ setup boasts a roots’n'phuture amalgam akin to Konono N°1 , a D.I.Y. mix of neo-traditional instruments jury-rigged from household objects (biscuit tins, mousepads, barbecue tongs, a futon slat) as well as the likes of the gamelan and theremin – it’s a heady brew..."

There's a tasty re-edit of one of their tunes coming out on vinyl (listen to an excerpt below), and their album is being released by Fire Records in early November, on CD/digital/vinyl....

WATCH: Orchestra of Spheres cover Bachelorette at the recent APRA Silver Scroll Awards.
READ: Q&A with the band over at Under The Radar.
LISTEN....





Orchestra Of Spheres - Hypersphere.mp3 by AwesomeFeelingFive

Orchestra Of Spheres - Hyperspheres (Daphni Edit) by resista

Orchestra of Spheres on Bandcamp.

R.I.P. Sylvia Robinson

Via Dangerous Minds blog... "Sylvia Robinson, 75, the founder and CEO of the Sugarhill Records label in the 1970s, died died this morning from congestive heart failure at Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, New Jersey, Sister to Sister reports.

It was Robinson’s idea to “sample” the sinewy bass-line of Chic’s “Good Times” and turn it into “Rapper’s Delight,” the first mainstream hip-hop hit. Robinson also produced “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five and was part of soul duo Mickey & Sylvia.

Hip-Hop Happens (a 2005 profile of Robinson from Vanity Fair magazine by DM pal Steven Daly)."

That story mentions that Rapper's Delight was selling 50,000 copies a day at its peak.

via Prefix Mag... "Robinson had a music career of her own as Sylvia. Her biggest solo hits include "Love is Strange" and "Pillow Talk," the latter of which topped the R&B Billboard chart for two weeks in 1973. It also received a mini-boost in recent times when it appeared on the soundtrack to 1998's 54. Hip-hop heads will recognize another of her songs, "Sweet Stuff," for its use in J Dilla's "Crushin'."

ADDED New York Times obit for Sylvia Robinson.

You can watch Robinson perform "Pillow Talk" on Soul Train below.

R.I.P. Dan Birch, Beat Rhythm Fashion

Just saw this via Failsafe Records on FB... "Some sad news today. Dan Birch, bassist and co-vocalist/songwriter for Beat Rhythm Fashion passed away today. Here's Dan taking lead vocal duties for their fantastic single Turn of the Century. Dan's brother said he was found asleep on his couch with a smile on his face and that's how we'll remember him, always with a wiry grin. Thanks for the great music Dan."

This is easily one of my favourite NZ songs of all time. 

Holy moley

Holy Shit - DJ Format & Mr Thing... "Holy Shit' is a mix of religious breaks,beats & music discovered mostly in charity shops and bargain bins of record shops over a number of years. I had been planning to do a mix of some of my weird & wonderful religious records for years and when i got chatting with Mr Thing about a new exciting discovery i had just made in a Leeds charity shop,it turned out he too had recently discovered the same religious LP!

"We decided to team up and do a mix together and Holy Shit was the result. Although some of the music is top quality and was cut up in a B-boy style,the mix was definitely supposed to be fun..hence the Monty Python bits! It was released as a CD in 2009(?) and is now available for free download for the first time...."  Hat tip to Groovement

Holy Shit - DJ Format & Mr Thing by dj format

Mr Fuemana, Mr Phil Fuemana

From 5000ways.... video shot at Cause Celebre from the look of it...

"The Fuemana family and Matty J are back with more of their smooth grooves, with influences galore, including a Monkees/Del Tha Funkee Homosapien reference with “Mr Fuemana, Mr Phil Fuemana”.

The video takes place in a day-lit club (or perhaps a cafe, which seems an Auckland ’90s thing). The group perform their song, with the Fuemanas being cool and Matty J trying to be cool.

When Phil does his keyboard solo, a very Catholic looking crucifix can be seen on the piano keys, implying that perhaps this song is about getting closer to God.

It’s funny to look at this video and think that within three years, one of the guys in this video was going to have a bonafide international mega hit single."

Pants

FREE DOWNLOAD (ZIP): JAMES PANTS BEAT ARCHIVE PT. 1

Over at Stonesthrow.

James Pants says "I bring forth the first installment of the Beat Archive; a 51-piece vast collection of oddities, soddities, and heresies from back in the days when I thought I could be a rap producer. Never worked out so well. But regardless, I hope you enjoy. Feel free to use for your own purposes, and spread around."

Sly Stone is homeless

photos: NY Post/ John Chapple

Sly Stone is currently living in a campervan, according to the New York Post.

"He lays his head inside a white campervan ironically stamped with the words “Pleasure Way” on the side. The van is parked on a residential street in Crenshaw, the rough Los Angeles neighborhood where “Boyz n the Hood” was set. A retired couple makes sure he eats once a day, and Stone showers at their house. The couple’s son serves as his assistant and driver...

"... The singer claims his money troubles escalated in 2009, when his royalty payments stopped flowing after Stone accused his manager, Jerry Goldstein, of fraud. Stone says he was tricked into signing a rotten contract with Goldstein in 1989, giving the manager control of his finances in exchange for a weekly paycheck.

Last year, Stone sued Goldstein for $50 million, alleging fraud and 20 years of stolen royalty payments. (Contributing to the singer’s dire financial situation, he foolishly sold his valuable music-publishing rights to Michael Jackson for a reported $1 million in 1984.) Goldstein did not return calls seeking comment.

The performer’s cash-flow problems forced him out of his Napa Valley house that he rented with money from a 2007 European tour and into cheap hotels and the van in 2009. Stone hopes to soon put the lawsuit and his other woes behind him..."




UPDATE: Bootsy Collins posted this on his Facebook page yesterday (Wednesday 27th)... "Here is the latest I've heard about our pioneer Sly Stone! 'hey bootsy: just to let you know about sly he is ok. he stays at my mom and dads because he feels safe there. he has a house that he is renting but he likes being around my brother who cares for him and watches over him. oh yea my mom cooks for him whenever he is hungry. as for the boys in the hood thing; my hood is very loving of sly and watches over him. thank you for caring. ps. he would love to here from you. keep the funk alive and god bless you. yours truly randy austin'." 

60s crate diggers

From What Record Stores Looked Like in the 1960s. More pics, follow the link.

Fabulous/Arabia

Free download. This is off the rather splendid collaboration between Lawrence Arabia and Mike Fabulous (Lord Echo/Black Seeds). Out October 3.

The whole album is streaming over at NZ Herald. Live shows - Oct 7, at Mighty Mighty Wgtn, Oct 9 at Kings Arms Akld, Oct 13 Nelson Arts Festival.