We Actually Like #21

 
Music

Planet Jumper – Bullet Proof EP

Well this was a nice turn up for events.  As ever, I had an inbox full of promos and having got so behind recently, I decided to delete an entire screen's worth of emails, but then felt sorry for them… it's like throwing away Christmas cards… it has to be done but you do feel slightly guilty about it… so to feel better about myself, I thought I would rescue just one of them from the trash folder, at random, and this was it.  Planet Jumper they are called, and they are from Australia.  That's pretty much all I know about their background, but as you'll hear from the music, there's a load of personality in it with quirky sampling but at the same time a 'live' experimental feel with more than a hint of funk about it… they certainly haven't been corrupted by dance floor/DJ formulae.  You'd play it in a Nu-Disco set, but it isn't Nu-Disco.  Lovely. (Mike)

 

A Number Of Names – Sharevari
 
Picked up on one of regular online forays to Honest Jons, this is one of those tracks that's regularly thrown about as 'the original' Detroit Techno track. Although I couldn't possibly comment on whether it deserves this auspicious accolade, I can say that it sounds pretty damn good. It certainly appears to be some sort of primordial soup of the elements of what would become known as techno and there's a definite rough charm to the inconsistency of the relentless arpeggios and the baffling vocal sample ("Some bread and cheese and fine white wine"?), with the track more than able to stand upon its own merits without having to rely on the resonance some sort of monumental significance. (Patrick)
 
 
Sout Al Khaleej Radio (The Voice of the Gulf)
 
Not a specific piece of music, more a whole global region's worth – this week I've been mostly listening to music from the middle east on the fantastic digital radio station, Al Kaleej. It's broadcast out of Bahrain and bills itslef as Pop music from the Arab World. I don't speak Arabic so I have no idea what they are going on about but the music and the voclas are often breathtaking. I have an idea that, as the cultures of the middle east become further embedded and intertwined with the west, we'll be hearing a lot of this music in the future. I grew up around it – having been born and bred around Golborne Road, which houses Britain's largest North African community and nearby to Edgware Road, the epicentre of London's arab communities. So in some way, the melodies and harmonic structures are familiar to me, but, compared to western music, they're actually pretty alien and very fresh on the ears. There is a drama in so much of the music that really resonates and the voices are often absolutely fantastic. Check it out via spectrum radio, or on your digi radio box. (Joe)
 
Justus Kohnche – Timecode – Tyree Cooper & Axel Bowman remixes
What more can you say about the original of this. This remix package landed in my virtual postbox mid-week and I all I could think about was boat parties on a sun-drenched Adriatic coast. Tyree Cooper turns in a fine remix and Axel Bowman Balearifies the whole thing even further with a blissed out bass heavy bounce. I'm just happy the original is getting an airing again.I hope it sells a stack load.  Right, now where's that sunshine gone… (Wil) no embed of remixes, Kompakt don't do shit like that… good on em too. Doesn't make your ears life any easier, I appreciate that that fact. Get your lugs around the original instead. That'll do  you reet: