Man it feels great coming up on some GOOD records. Had been feeling down on my luck musically the past few weeks, actually since the last time i DJed at Delta. Definitely not as fun when familiar faces aren't around. Picked up some awesome records, a few which i had been looking for a while, which really brought my faith back into music. Found a Yaz and Midnight Star record for a buck a piece. I must say that i have become quite fond of the Ohio Post - Funk / Electric Boogaloo bands of the early 80's including P-Funk, Zapp and of course Midnight Star probably has something to do with their similarity to Chromeo i guess. Additionally came across a few awesome comps including the "Cold as Ice" comp which has some amazing tracks by Quando Quango. I aslo got my hands on a copy of straight out of compton, got the Nu Shooz "Poolside" LP, the Cybotron "Clear" EP, Debbie Deb "Lookout Weekends" EP, the Mohawks "Champ" LP and an EP by Susan Cadogan that i had been looking for quite awhile. Felt so good about these buys decided to of course to make something creative in dedication to a mentor: Giorgio Moroder, the image was stolen from his "from here to eternity" record.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

It's that time of year that feels less and less like that time of year. In short, I'm very ready to die. What's left?



We here at LETTHEREBENIGHT are prepared to deliver you a great new year. We started this blog only a few months ago, and thus far, have enjoyed minimal success, success nonetheless. A new year, new artists; 2008 will be a good year, and hopefully we will be there to sift through bad, to deliver the goods. As for now, I wish all our satisfied readers and friends alike a warm and enjoyable Christmas. If you celebrate a tradition other than Christmas, I hope that will be excellent for you as well. Drink a little, smile a lot, find someone beautiful and kiss them, and until next time, I leave you with this song. CHEERZZ!


Wham! - Last Christmas

Prose Before Hoes

These things start sneaking up on you at this age. When I was a kid, this kind of distance from christmas was still forever away. The other day I realized that sometimes songs can make me so happy that I have this weird desire to somehow give the song to friends as gifts. As though one song can be so good that it has the potential to match the status of a true gift that you buy in a store or make yourself. Anyway, the best things in life are free--and if not, they are often 50% off in select retail stores.

So, imagine you are a child and you descend the stairs allured by the magical glow of the christmas tree covered in tinsel, which you are sure was the work of Santa himself. You see what you perceive to be hundreds of gifts piled up one on the other. You take one box and hold it up to your ear. It is covered in a pure red wrapping paper; it feels heavy and perfect in your hands. You shake it. Then, overcome by anxiety you decide to open it, even though your parents aren't awake. You rip open the gift wrapping and peal back the cardboard box to reveal two recent podcasts by Alan Braxe and Todd Terje!

The once-somber house fills with the sound of quick guitars, disco-cooing, incredible transitions, and the Terje remix of Lindstrom's "Another Day." As you are dancing about the tree in a state of merriment, the finale of Terje's mix begins: a two-part Balaeric marathon, including a Terje edit of "Josephine" by Chris Rea! Your parents and sister, awakened from the noise and the first day's light, rub their eyes of sleep as they come down the stairs. Though normally they would be angered that you woke them up so loud, the music fills them with such holiday joy that they join you and as the sun rises you are enraptured by Alan Braxe's mix.

Subscribe to Together podcast

This time of year reminds me of France if I am not living there. They seem to celebrate winter much better than we do in America with the marchés noëls and all that. The night December 24th, 2004 comes to mind with particular clarity today. We had taken the night train from Bordeaux to Lyon. In the morning we woke up and found our hotel. We spent the day aimlessly wandering the city--found ourselves walking the streets at the heighest points and later, in the lowest alleyways. When the sun sank the sky's veins pulsed orange and purple that seemed almost too amazing to be true. The quiet square near our hotel was filled with the hushed echoes of people perhaps frightened by the show in the sky, not wanting to make too much noise.


Lyon-- Christmas eve, 2004

The Difference It Makes

A rainy monday morning and I'm a bit hung over. I'm riding it out with some green tea and some songs with a heavy beat, hardly any vocals and repetitive synths.

M83 - Don't Save Us from the Flames (Superpitcher Mix) [1] [2]

Lifelike (feat. Kris Menace) - Discopolis

alex (16:29:58): i told a friend of mine living in bordeaux to go to Hianta (fluokids)'s show
mateusz (16:30:17): theyre gonna play in bordeaux?
alex (16:30:23): Hianta lives there
mateusz (16:30:32): didnt know
mateusz (16:30:37): i'd go to her house
mateusz (16:30:52): "talk about music"
alex (16:31:19): yeah "for sure"
mateusz (16:31:27): heh
alex (16:31:29): she's "knowledgable"
mateusz (16:31:40): """probably"""
alex (16:33:01): i'm posting this convo
mateusz (16:33:16): ha

Some amazing mp3 blog things are happening around San Francisco within the next couple of weeks. I saw a flyer for this last night.



Writers Basura and Disaster from the Missingtoof blog are DJing which means it should be a good show. The fact that they can represent themselves as "Missingtoof DJs" is an incredible testament to the power of mp3 blogs. This is only bizarre to me because I've personally never heard anyone really discuss mp3 blogs at all. In any case, check this show out if you are in the area; I am going to try and go myself. I've been to the Rickshaw once before and it is a cool bar, with ample space for gettin' groovay.

Otherwise, it's time to make your plans for New Years. If you want something flashy, Diplo and Pharrell from fluokids is DJing here in the city. I don't know if Pharrell DJs or travels very often, but if he's from Orléans like his myspace site says he is, then he must be pretty psyched to be coming to San Francisco for this party. Orléans sucks!



CSS - Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (Diplo remix)

Le Tigre - After Dark (Diplo remix)

But I am not going to that show because Check McNugal (aka Amir) will be DJing at Edinburgh Castle on New Year's Eve. Here is a flyer I made myself. Excuse the poor craftmanship; I don't normally do these kinds of things.



Anyway, I shouldn't shit-talk Orléans. I was there for less than five hours and it was a Sunday. All I did was walk around centreville and eat at Quick, which was the only thing open. Honestly, it's a nice town.

Lost the Camera, Found the Pride

Last night I received a text message from a number I didn't recognize. I called the number and someone whose voice I couldn't quite place answered, "Alex?" "You texted me the letter, 'D.' Just wondering if you meant to tell me something." "Nope, just walking around the city." The conversation concluded and I hung up; in my drunkenness, I forgot to ask who it was on the other end.



From wikipedia: "A post-mortem photograph of a middle-aged man. The body is arranged so as to appear lifelike (ca 1860)."

We're all working on our year-end best of lists (even Albie?!). Yes, 2007 was a good year for the dance floor, but in the meantime, I want to bring it way back--way back to 2004. Lifelike--who's more recognizable next to his (I want to say, but I'm not positive) brother Kris Menace on tracks like Discopolis--has just put out a remix of Needy Girl by Chromeo, that tune you thought you were glad to retire once Fancy Footwork came out. Well, Lifelike breathes some new life into this one and it's once again infectious--and club-ready. See what you think.

Chromeo - Needy Girl (Lifelike) (streamed on Lifelike's myspace)

Which is funny because as I was dusting off the 1970's Peugeot I recently purchased, So Electric came on.

Lifelike - So Electric (zshare)



Holy fuck, these songs are good! I don't know why I haven't listened to them before--Holy Fuck are from Brooklyn and have already toured with !!!, Wolf Parade and Do Make Say Think: some of my favorite bands. What's more, according to wikipedia, they fit the musical genre as a "lo-fi improvisational electronica band." That description alone has convinced me to go out and buy their eponymous album. Long live lo-fi!

Holy Fuck - Frenchy's

Holy Fuck - The Pulse

The more I post to this blog, the more I realize there's so much good music to share and write about--it's overwhelming. But we try to keep up as best as we can.

The Ending of 2007, The Begining to Best Of

The end of the year is approaching. This means Christmas, New Year's Eve, and being hungover after New Year's Eve. For music, it means End-Of-The-Year lists. Ubiquitous Ed Banger label owner Busy P gives his favorite picks, including MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS , AJAX from Bang Bang, and Boys Noize . Check it out at XLR8R and enjoi these tunes. Catch the sample?

Comix - Touche Pas Mon Sexe

Busy P - Rainbow Man

Just What I Wanted

"After coming up with the idea of the piece in 1910 from a fantasy vision of pagan ritual (his fleeting vision of a young girl dancing herself to death) while composing The Firebird, Stravinsky began forming sketches and ideas for [The Rite of Spring], enlisting the help of archaeologist and folklorist Nikolai Roerich... After going through revisions almost up until the very day of its first performance, it was premiered on May 29, 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and was conducted by Pierre Monteux. Stravinsky would later write that a better translation to English would have been 'The Coronation of Spring.'

The Ballets Russes staged the first performance. The intensely rhythmic score and primitive scenario—a setting of scenes from pagan Russia—shocked audiences more accustomed to the demure conventions of classical ballet. Vaslav Nijinsky's choreography was a radical departure from classical ballet. Different from the long and graceful lines of traditional ballet, arms and legs were sharply bent. The dancers danced more from their pelvis than their feet...

The complex music and violent dance steps depicting fertility rites first drew catcalls and whistles from the crowd. At the start with the opening bassoon solo, the audience began to boo loudly due to the slight dischord in the background notes behind the bassoon's opening melody. There were loud arguments in the audience between supporters and opponents of the work. These were soon followed by shouts and fistfights in the aisles. The unrest in the audience eventually degenerated into a riot. The Paris police arrived by intermission, but they restored only limited order. Chaos reigned for the remainder of the performance, and Stravinsky himself was so upset on account of its reception that he fled the theater in mid-scene, reportedly crying. Fellow composer Camille Saint-Saëns famously stormed out of the première... allegedly infuriated over the misuse of the bassoon in the ballet's opening bars.

Stravinsky ran backstage, where Diaghilev was turning the lights on and off in an attempt to try to calm the audience. Nijinsky stood on a chair, leaned out (far enough that Stravinsky had to grab his coat-tail), and shouted counts to the dancers, who were unable to hear the orchestra (this was challenging because Russian numbers are polysyllabic above ten, such as eighteen: vosemnadsat).

Although Nijinsky and Stravinsky were despondent, Diaghilev (a Russian art critic as well as the ballet's impresario) commented that the scandal was "just what I wanted". The music and choreography were considered barbaric and sexual and are also often noted as being the primary factors for the cause of the riot...

The ballet completed its run of seven performances amid controversy, but experienced no further disruption."

--article from wikipedia

I was inspired to post this anecdote after listening to Radiolab's recounting of it. It's very powerful when they tell it. You can listen to it here.

Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor

This one is old, but it popped up on shuffle the other day and I just kept repeating it. Matt put this on a mix CD he made for me when I was living in Bordeaux.

Fischerspooner - Just Let Go (Thin White Duke remix)

Space: it's up there!!!

Duh! Who doesn't know that?

Perhaps you were quick to agree that space is, truly, "up there", but not everyone can be quick acknowledge who the Midnight Juggernauts are. We must travel far, perhaps to the edge of the ocean, to arrive at the homeland of this trio, the land which naively so, for me, remains a dream image somewhere between the thematics of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, dust and diesel, and the dreamy space landscape artists Midnight Juggernauts create in my mind. Like artists previously written about on this blog, Midnight Juggernauts hail from the current hotbed of nouvelle-vague artists, Australia. Take a glimpse at the cover of their first full length album, Dystopia, and you'll quickly understand a shade of their gestalt, a space-centric theme. What does Dystopia mean? It can be "a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror." Couple this definition with the idea of an infinite space, Korg synthesizers, and you have one of the top independent albums of 2007. Who's Radiohead? (Only joking!) In fact, outside of friendly cooperation with other artists and labels, Midnight Juggernauts have no formal record deal. With the gravity they have achieved in """"today's day and age,"""" to use that hackneyed phrase, their success is unique and commendable. Least to mention, they were picked up by Justice to open for their World Tour, and have gained the two French boys' vote as favorite album of the year.

If you want to make a memorable impression this season, I feel confident in recommending the purchase of this album for that not-so-musically-inlined friend, the one that likes all those bands from LA, with all those tattoos, you know? Did I mention LA? The Dystopia album may be purchased here. I also feel confident in communicating their appeal by only posting this remix of fellow OZ musicians, Damn Arms.

Damn Arms - The Cormorant (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)

As a bomus, enjoi this informal genealogy of sounds.

Electric Light Orchestra - Here is the News (1981)

Space Art - Onyx (1976)

They Don't Love You So Above You

As we all know, songs click into the gears of time; as the gears rotate the songs fall in the cogs and rotate with them. When we happen upon that same song moments, memories, friends and lovers who have come and gone, lost sentiments and hopes and dreams, all that that is nested in the cog is instantly recalled. Circumstances have that same power. Something as routine as walking home in the calm night, for instance, will conjure up all the cities, years and moments that you found yourself in the same situation. When you thought that the orange street lights were unique to this present moment, suddenly it reminds you of a previous walk you took alone three years ago in a city far away from the one you are currently in. Then, the sidewalk before you is no longer square cement blocks, but rather images of this or that year, this or that predicament you found yourself in at the time, or the themes of those walks that struck a chord in your life, no matter how routine they were. The German Shepherd that followed you in France, the stolen, stale white wine you took for the walk home in California, the girl you left, the light rain you took head on, the mighty tree you passed, the situations you imagined along the way, the songs you sung to yourself, the drunken and stoned visions you happened across. I find that if you do enough walking, at a certain age the walk home is no longer just a walk home; it is the elixir of memories. Similarly, at a certain point, a song ceases to be just a song, or a beat to dance to. If you play or hear it enough it becomes the walk toward the past.

Have I said it before? I tend to like any band that starts with Black... So it was just natural that I gave The Black Kids a chance. Judging from the amount of exposure they're getting on other mp3 blogs lately, they might be big stuff pretty soon, even though I don't think they've released an actual album yet. Here is my favorite on their supposed EP which I can't find anywhere.

Black Kids - Listen To Your Body Tonight

The thing about music of the 80s, in my opinion, is that one can boil it down to a select few synthesizers, themes and rhthyms. With the eighties revival still on the move, bands and musicians who know the equation of the 80s can gain quick notoriety. Miami Horror is one of those musicians, that DJ from Australia--Sydney I think--who remixed such upcoming-greats as Midnight Juggernauts and Codebreaker. He turns the newest songs into songs you are positive came out twenty years ago. This time he remixes a song by Grafton Primary, which is either one of the worst band names I've ever heard or one of the most creative names I've ever heard. Either way, this song is fantastic!

Grafton Primary - I Can Cook (Miami Horror remix)

It's an awkward way to do it, but I want to wish my good friend and business partner a happy birthday by posting one of my favorite pictures of him.



And a pinch to grow and inch:

Mr. Miyagi - Pick Your Poison (JFK remix)