"Of what went on there, we only have this excerpt."
"I Miei Ricordi", by Marco di
Marco. Fender Rhodes. Upright bass. Drumming as light as a feather. What more
could you want as the mercury creeps into the high thirties? (Yes, that would be Celsius.)
"See Saw (Club Version)", by
Jamie xx + Four Tet. And so, in January 2017, enigmatic pop music trio The xx
re-emerge with their third long player. It's a tricky balancing exercise for a
band to be able to move away from what made them distinctive in the first place
without becoming merely ordinary. Early indications, to these ears, anyway, is that
they might just have gotten away with it. The new album kind of triangulates
the first The xx album with Jamie xx's "In Colour", which is a fair place to have landed. In the meantime, here's a "Club
Version", whatever that might be, of a track from "In Colour",
with assistance from Four Tet. That got you interested.
"Razrushitelniy Krug", by Kedr
Livanskiy. Swoon.
"ESC (Prins Thomas Remix)", by
Lauer. Evidently this gets played in "DJ sets". You got me.
"Sisters (Boards of Canada
Remix)", by Odd Nosdam. This month's obligatory Boards of Canada remix. To
be honest, after the first couple of seconds this doesn't carry too many overt
traces of the Boards themselves, but it's got an enticing hint of mystery about
it.
"Retox", by Essaie Pas. Yes, this
has "DFA" written all over it. Also "coldwave",
"minimal wave", "synth wave". So many waves. I know, we've
heard it all before. But when has that ever stopped me?
"Can't Hold Back (Your Lovin')",
by Kano. If you ask me (as if you would), this hits some kind of sweet spot
between peak Chic and early-eighties funk/electro. Boom.
"Let's Groove", by Earth, Wind
and Fire. Because it was there.
(Bonus: album cover of the month.)
"If You've Got It, You'll Get
It", by The Headhunters. And then this happened ...
"I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun",
by Nuyorican Soul. We don't often step into the mid-nineties Latin Jazz
revival. No, I can't explain it either. Anyway, welcome. From here, you can
either go forwards to the 4Hero remix, which throws some (it
says here) tasty drum'n'bass into the blender, or backwards to the 1971 original, by Rotary Connection,
featuring Minnie Riperton on vocals. Either way is fine.
"Sunshine Lady", by Chris
Smither. Hard to fathom how the album from which this song sprang forth could
have languished in unreleased-record limbo for 30 years. The songs are fine.
The musicians who played on it amount to a who's who of who's who circa 1973.
Chris Smither is, like, the man. In short, they don't make records like this any more.
"Elinor", by Bob Lind. This song
variously appears as "Elinor", "Elanor" and
"Eleanor". There may be others. 1966 never sounded better than
this.
"I Ride The Wind", by
Lightdreams. Some kinda drugged-out post-hippie avant skeez -- heck, I don't
even know. From Canada, would you believe.
"Sexspurt (Ricardo Villalobos &
Max Loderbauer Remix)", by Kerrier District. Kerrier District is aka Luke
Vibert. The others you know. Extreme down-the-rabbit-hole remix weirdness over
12 minutes. You have been warned.
