The Battenberg Express

DO NOT TAPE OVER JAMBOREEISH MIX

2009-11-26T13:29:00.013Z

As a forerunner to the 12th, we've collected together a few swashbucklers for you to enjoy.

It's just about the right time to jog / wash dishes / sex it up...

To download - just follow the links

Tracklist

Atlas Sound 'Quick Canal'

The xx 'Shelter' (Them Jeans Drum Edit)

Radiohead 'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box'

Four Tet 'Love Cry'

Black Devil Disco Club 'On Just Foot Forever' (In Flagranti Remix)

Talking Heads 'Once In A Lifetime'

The Phenomenal Handclap Band 'You'll Disappear' (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)

Neon Indian 'Should've Taken Acid With You'

Metronomy 'Holiday'

Clint Mansell 'Welcome To Lunar Industries'

Kate Bush 'Running Up That Hill' (Ashley Beedle Edit)

Bat For Lashes 'Pearl's Dream'

Phoenix 'Love Like A Sunset' (Animal Collective Remix)

Friendly Fires 'Jump In The Pool'

Fuck Buttons 'Olympians'

Jamboreeish mix - Mediafire download

Fixing the speaker

2009-11-10T18:15:00.005Z

My speaker packed up just before the You choose jambo. It didn't work all night that's one of the reasons why the sound was a bit ropey. But it's all fixed now so the sound is gonna be class for the next one.

It was the coil that was knackered so we cut a bit out and resoldered the circuit board and now it plays bass again. Then I had to glue the coil to the circuit board with some UHU all back together.

In a Manner of Speaking - Tuxedomoon

Back in Black

2009-11-04T22:03:00.004Z

Been a while...

We DJ at the You Choose Jamborees. There's another decent night going on there on 12th December.

There's a few bands that you can vote for now. I'd put my weight behind Nick Mulvey. Saw him a couple of times and he's top class.

I've broken my speaker so I'll keep you updated on the health of that bitch - along with what tunes have been tickling our fancy.

Sleepyhead Remix

2009-07-11T07:55:00.004+01:00

I've finally finished my remix of Passion Pit's 'Sleepyhead'. The original is taken from their wonderful debut album 'Manners', as well as their EP 'Chunk Of Change'. You should buy both.

Take a listen!

Passion Pit 'Sleepyhead' (Joel's Inch From The Edge Of The Bed Version)

The ADN Project

2009-06-22T07:24:00.003+01:00

The ADN Project is basically radio without all the bollocks. No adverts, no Akon, and no annoying presenters who have more to say about the temperature outside than the record they just played.

Christian, Dan and Alex stream a show once a fortnight, and play pretty much what the hell they like then tell you why the hell they like it either side. This week, they kindly do both of these things with my Ion Square remix. Cheers!

Check them out here: http://adnproject.blogspot.com/

Do Not Mixtape Over

2009-06-03T06:35:00.005+01:00

We have made a new mixtape. It was not done in our living room, our dining room, or whilst wearing our pyjamas. This is a first. Download it here, tracklisting below:

Do Not Mixtape Over

1. Roxy Music 'Eight Miles High'
2. The Field 'The More That I Do' (Foals Remix)
3. LCD Soundsystem 'Hippie Priest Bum-Out'
4. The Units 'High Pressure Days' (Headman edit)
5. Curses! 'The Deep End' (Holy Ghost! Remix)
6. The Glass 'Wanna Be Dancin' (In Flagranti Remix)
7. Punkin' Machine 'I Need You Tonight' (Wrenchman Edit)
8. Lindstrom & Solale 'Baby I Can't Stop' (Aeroplane Remix)
9. Explorer 'Enjaw J'
10. Little Boots 'New In Town' (Fred Falke Instrumental Remix)
11. New Order 'Perfect Kiss'

You Choose...

2009-05-30T07:15:00.004+01:00

Live music. Supermarket booze. We DJ at the end. Hopefully. Utilise the wonderfully designed website below to sign up for guestlist...

http://youchoosejamborees.com

James Pants - I Choose You

Back From The Dead: Ion Square Remix

2009-05-12T06:20:00.004+01:00

That's right. Seemingly from nowhere, I have decided to resurrect the Battenberg Express with a brand new post. There is, however, motivation for this - and that motivation is posted below - I have finished my first ever production. A remix of 'Ion Square' by Bloc Party, as part of their Intimacy Remixed Competition. Have a listen...

Bloc Party - Ion Square (Joel's Bright Light's Don't Bore Me Yet Version)

Shouts to production wizard Lawrence Obertelli, music machine Warren Vickers and guitarist extraodinaire Matt Jaggar for the help on this...

Friendly Fires

2008-07-23T22:27:00.004+01:00

Finally, I have Friendly Fires' self-titled debut. First impressions? Very promising*. Two tracks in particular, 'Strobe' and 'Ex Lover'. *Gratuitous note: I predicted this.

Friendly Fires' set at Glastonbury was one of my highlights, mainly because it provided me with the rarest of occurrences. As the set finale they played a song live I'd never heard in my life before, and that song consequently ended up going round in my head for the rest of the weekend. I'd go as far to say it was the single defining song of the trip. I didn't even know what it was called. I do now.

Friendly Fires - Ex Lover

LIVE: 02 Wireless Festival, Fatboy Slim, Underworld, Cut Copy

2008-07-08T23:54:00.006+01:00

Like the Wireless Festival itself, this is going to be a lazy and short-lived review.

Good:

Hyde Park is close to my house.
I like Underworld.
Cut Copy played their summer defining album AND gave me a free t-shirt.
The lack of camping makes for good, clean fun.
Fatboy Slim is old but can still rock it.

Bad:

Three decent bands is not enough.
Don't put Underworld in a 1000 capacity tent.
How many Wireless festival-goers will waste their Cut Copy t-shirts by wearing them in bed?
Is fun clean?
Fatboy Slim is old and still rocking it?

LIVE: Glastonbury, June 2008

2008-07-01T22:45:00.006+01:00

I have a sun tan and feel like I’ve been on a proper holiday. Virtually everyone I’ve ever met was at Glastonbury in some form. Disorganisation was not an excuse and for that I thank Jay-Z for putting off people from buying tickets.

He then delivered them most incendiary show: highly political, expertly tight and achingly funny. He capitalised on a quiet year. Would Jay-Z have attracted the same amount of attention if Radiohead, Clapton or the Rolling Stones headlined another night?

Sometimes, though, the weakness of the line-up was evident and, as well as it's general shitness, there were sound problems at the John Peel tent.

The heat made camping a whole lot easier and late nights at Trash City were incredible. A Mad Max rave? I went every night. Music wise: Eddie Grant, Lightspeed Champion and Santogold didn’t disappoint.

But it's the whole festival experience at Glasto that's infectious. There’s beautiful food, exquisite company (both stranger and friend alike) and so many mad little events happen. I love it.

It’s hard to find anywhere to sit down though. By the end, even camping chairs seem comfortable. Still, I’d rather be squatting in Eavis' garden now, than be back in north London.

Polygon Palace

2008-06-23T22:14:00.003+01:00

This doesn’t happen very often. That rare occasion when a band comes along and every little piece of their work you can hurriedly indulge yourself with sounds great. So great you’re willing to take the time to enhance that superlative with italics.

Maybe I’ll regret rushing to this decision later but literally minutes ago I discovered Polygon Palace, so I thought I’d try and capture that initial excitement by posting this immediately.

Granted, Polygon Palace are ~~quite~~ very like Cut Copy. But I love Cut Copy, A LOT. So that’s fine. They’re Australian, they’ll probably sign to Modular – they’ve even recently remixed the Cutters, but that’s all fine. I’m leaving it at that. There is no shame here.

http://www.myspace.com/polygonpalace

Polygon Palace – Disko Unterhaag

LIVE: Stokefest, London, 9 June 2008

2008-06-08T22:38:00.014+01:00

I have a really cheap blind in my pokey London room. It's white and from Ikea and lets in all the light; including flashes from the speed camera opposite my room.

I woke up this morning, sun rays pouring through stronger than the ones in Tanerife, I thought I'd best venture outside. We went to Stokefest. It's this hippie-like festival in east London. There were loads of kids being fussed on by their media mums and doobie dads.

We spent most of the afternoon chatting shit in the rose garden.

Eventually, we went to the Raison D'etre tent. It was alright. We danced awkwardly to a bit of funk and later to a bit of Healer Selecta Sound System. It's a disappointing when the best bit of your set is a woman in a thong.

No money wasted on overpriced warm cider or impulse chilli ridden chicken shish though. Some friendly souls gave us dips, pitta and a bottle of coke. Raise a glass to the generousity of strangers.

Dark And Long Train: Duke Dumont

2008-06-06T14:18:00.003+01:00

I'm really impressed by this remix of Mystery Jet's 'Two Doors Down' by Duke Dumont. Normally I don't rate either the Duke or the Jets particularly, so I wasn't holding out much hope when I started downloading this from Discobelle as a way to alleviate my hungover boredom at work.

Talk about being taken aback! Sprinting in at a respectable 8:13, this is epic and sounds nothing like one of Dumont's usual straight up bangers. Thin techy beats, a loop of the Jets' lush harmonies, a simmering bass riff AND a stereo-tastic bleepy breakdown make this the biggest turn up for the books since yesterday's Stevie Wonder announcement!

Check it out here at Discobelle

LIVE: Primavera, Barca, 29-31 May 2008

2008-06-06T00:37:00.007+01:00

They do things differently in Barcelona: they speak Spanish, they don’t pay London prices for anything and they wank on the beach.

We saw it with our own eyes late on Friday afternoon whilst we were innocently strolling back along the waterfront for some Sangria. There we were mulling over the previous night’s jollities and then, “what is that guy doing!” –sure enough he was pounding away ...But that’s not why we went, at least I think not.

I’m not completely certain as to why the festival site (the Parc del Fòrum) was originally built, but just think huge lumps and structures of concrete and metal that were formed in 1989 inside giant thunder clouds up in the sky by a 70ft Spanish architect called Gomez – and then dropped from that great height onto 30 football pitches of tarmac.

There’s not much grass (so you don’t ever have to put on your galoshes) though we did find a green slope opposite the Estrella Damm stage which we quite aptly named Henman Hill – “Come on Tim!”.

In all I think there were 5 stages in total with a big variety of music. Highlights on the first night were the body pumping Public Enemy (Flavor Flav has still got the novelty time piece hung around his neck, but he’s starting to look like Bill Cosby) who were much better than I thought they would be. Hip Hop is so much more compelling when you have a ridiculously good disc jockey behind you spinning the discs and you’re not shouting mutha f**ka every other word. And they have some tunes that made me bounce ‘Don’t..Don’t..Don’t..Don’t…Don’t you eat the tripe’ (or something like that). But hats off to Caribou, listen to the album The Milk of Human Kindness if you haven’t heard them before. They were awesome – often utilising two drummers – with their electronic rocky poppy beats. Great job with the lights Spanish techy boys, we had an almighty boogie.

In fact lights and sound were fantastic all weekend. Though that couldn’t help the abysmal Cat Power on Friday night. I’ve heard her voice on the records and it can sound so beautiful, but it sounded truly awful here. She didn’t pull off anything and it was just embarrassing. I did enjoy Man Man, but there wasn’t much else that I can highlight.

We were back the next day after sleeping until 5pm. I should mention here that that’s another great uniqueness about the festival – it starts around early evening and goes through the night until about 6am every day. Cue early morning banter and partying on the tube back into town.

Saturday night was truly amazing. Such, such great music in the form of Shellac (I bumped into them on a mountain the next day), Throbbing Gristle (far out Avant-garde electronic experts with disturbing movies), Les Savy Fav (he dressed up as a plant).

My favourites were: Animal Collective have pretty much nailed being a threesome. They put on an incredible show full of melody, energy, rhythm and beauty. And some real treats including Grass, a reggaed remix Who Could Win a Rabbit and one of Panda Bear’s (one of the three in the band) songs Comfy in Nautica performed by the whole band. It would have been a good way to finish the festival, but there were still many hours left. So I bounded down the slope to where Simian Mobile Disco were playing. (in fact they weren’t able to do a live set as their instruments were smashed up in transit, hopefully not by an English Stagg doo) but their DJ set was absolutely top drawer particularly Hustler. I was pumped up to the max and dancing around like a maniac, trying to use my crude-rude beginner Spanish as best I could. I met a chico named Carlos who kept stealing my very necessary sunglasses. The music was just the best thing that could fill my ears at that very point, hard infectious beats, massive drops and a giant white rabbit acting like Mr. Motivator on stage. And the tune they went out on: Gene Wilder singing Pure Imagination from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Complete and absolute GENIUS! It had just started to rain for the first time all festival and as I danced in tandem with my socks pulled up to my knees, everyone in the whole festival made a bee-line for the CD Drom Stage (like an aircraft hanger). There is where it ended, thousands of sodden Spaniards (and they’re all beautiful) bearing their breasts and doing press-ups whilst DJs tried to emulate the untouchable Simian.

And then we went back to the apartment. In all this excitement I’d forgotten to tell you – there’s no camping! HOORAH! So you get to stay in the Gotic district (beautiful Old Town quarter) with your own bed, duvet, shower, water melon, and a roof above your head. All only about 25 min walk + tube from the festival gates.

Primavera Sound is a three day, annual festival at the end of May in Barcelona, Spain. For more information click here.

PHIL NOYCE

LIVE: The Black Keys, London Astoria, 29 May 08

2008-06-02T20:06:00.009+01:00

Walking into the Astoria last Thursday to hear the Black Keys play their own brand of low-down, dirty, blues rock, one might have thought that they had walked into a casting call for the latest series of ‘SKINS’- with day-glow hoodies and floppy fringes definitely being the order of the day. I don’t mean to come off as some crotchety old man who bemoans the youth of today, but when you spend the whole gig taking pictures of you and your friends instead of listening to the band, then perhaps you should go to a photobooth.

Combine this with lacklustre support in the form of Los Angeles rockers The Ettes and you have the ingredients for a less than invigorating atmosphere. None of this matters, as long as the headliners rock hard when they do appear. Right?

At 8.45 Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney punctually enter the stage and fall straight into a ballsy rendition of Girl Is On My Mind from 2004’s Rubber Factory. It is clear from the start that this is a band that knows what they are doing. Drummer Carney is especially impressive- relentlessly banging away like a chain-gang member chiselling away at lump of rock-hard granite. The Keys efficiently work through songs from Thickfreakness and The Big Come Up, but the greatest applause is left for those from 2008’s Attack and Release. Strange Times gets the attention it deserves and closer I Got Mine is arguably the highlight of the set, but as the band exits the stage after a tight 40 minutes; I can’t help but feel that something was missing from the night.

When a band consists of only two people, it is easy for them to lose some of their spark in the bigger venues and I feel that sadly, this was the case for The Black Keys. They may have pulled all the right moves and struck all the right chords, but when it came down to it, they didn’t really fill the stage the way I hoped.

LEE BACON

Five More Reasons Not To Care About The Mud

2008-06-01T17:13:00.011+01:00

Here’s five acts playing at Glastonbury that I’m excited about for differing reasons. Check out a track from each and buy some of their music before it all kicks off – 25 days to go…

The Set I’m Most Excited About: Cut Copy

‘In Ghost Colours’ is the best album of the year so far. I missed them at Coachella because they clashed with Vampire Weekend but according to Pitchfork they were much better. Like a true blogger I followed the hype… speaking of which…

Cut Copy - Unforgettable Season

Most Hyped Set: Vampire Weekend

Let’s set one thing straight – their self-titled album DOES live up to the hype. I gave it to my Dad who rang me up at midnight on a school night after listening to it just to tell me how amazing he thought it was. Their set at Coachella was fun and certainly a spectacle with the backdrop of palm trees and desert mountain ranges. At Glastonbury, they have two sets so there’s no excuses for missing them.

Vampire Weekend - Campus

Most Inventive Live Show: Holy Fuck

At Coachella I went into this having only listened to the album ‘LP’ once, and with the biggest Prince hangover of all time. They blew me away. They have a crazy set up that involves a table of homemade synths and other devices with wires. The lead man was modulating one of his synths by franticly feeding a piece of film back and forth through some sort of old projection device. Do not miss this!

Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen

Best DJ Set You’ll See All Weekend: A-Trak

Saw A-Trak at Stag & Dagger in Shoreditch a few weeks back, he is a genuinely talented DJ. Legions away from just playing records, this guy puts on a real show. And three more things:

His remixes/productions are great.
His brother is Dave 1 from Chromeo
Kanye West - Stronger (A-Trak Remix)

Acts Who Haven’t Released An Album Yet: Friendly Fires/Ladyhawke

Couldn’t choose between these two so it’s a joint award. Friendly Fires have just supported Kaiser Chiefs at their massive 30,000 capacity Elland Road show, so will be psyched for Glasto. They also have one of the best covers of all time under their belt with their version of Frankie Knuckles ‘Your Love’.

Ladyhawke is:

On Modular, so guaranteed quality control
Lucky to have had so many great producers remix her (see below).
A hottie

Friendly Fires - On Board

Ladyhawke - Back Of The Van (Fred Falke's Ultimate Beverly Remix)

BONUS: Friendly Fires - Your Love

Air Five: Glastonbury

2008-05-28T23:11:00.011+01:00

After a blinding Glastonbury last year, I thought I'd recommend some albums to get before heading to Somerset with the other 12 people that have bought a ticket.

5) Hot Chip - Coming On Strong

Hot chip’s first album. Lyrics are ace and the sounds are suitably crazy. It’s unlikely to feature much in their main stage set but it’ll be a mile muncher for the ride there.

4) Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

I wasn't convinced by their first album. I liked 'Saturdays'. I'm all for telephones in songs (see Chromeo and Dr Dre). So it was with some suprise that I discovered this to be a cracking album. It was recorded by Tim Goldsworthy in DFA's New York studios that he and James Murphy share. The breakdown in 'Hearts on Fire' wouldn't feel out of place on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems. In a good way. I think.

Roll us another fat one, Australia.

3) Santogold - Santogold

I'd much rather have Santo's synths over Winehouse's horns any Saturday afternoon. Her album cover is all golden and beautiful. Music to make the rain go away.

2) Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals

I loved that bass sound in 80s film soundtracks that totally disappeared. I was lamenting the loss of this just before I first listened to Yeasayer. First track on album has THAT weird bass noise AND handclap in it. I'm sold.

1) Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair

Barry "Papa" Knowles learned me well in disco. I was always obsessed with Greek Mythology as a kid. Then I studied Greek History at Uni. Antony and the Johnsons won the Mercury Music Prize whilst I was at Uni. I assume Antony and his mates have similar obsessions because Hercules and Love Affair combine all this and add a bit of DFA production glitter. Ultimate.

Here's the Hercules remix of Yazoo's Situation:

Yazoo - Situation (Hercules and Love Affair Remix)

(Also sampled by Frankie from S Club Juniors new outifit: The Saturdays. Ludicrous.)

Dark And Long Train: Supermayer

2008-05-26T21:06:00.006+01:00

Michael Mayer. Superpitcher. Until recently, these two names meant nothing to me. However, when the two powers combine they summon an almighty force – Supermayer. Fighting the battle for stripped back pop, an LP 'Save The World' was released last year. But what really grabbed my attention was their fantastic remix of Hot Chip (thanks Discobelle). It’s a real slow burning masterpiece, check it out here.

In order to exceed the 8 minute rule for Dark And Long Train though, we turn to the Supermayer remix of Rufus Wainwright. Not being a particular fan of any of the Wainwright clan, I didn’t quite know what to expect. The end result is a 13 minute monster of a track that starts off typically camp – how I imagined a Wainwright track would – but morphs into another slow burning tech monster complete with Riders On The Storm style thunderstorm sounds. Truly heroic.

Rufus Wainwright – Tiergarten (Supermayer Lost In Tiergarten Remix)

LIVE: Gatecrasher: Summer Sound System, Turweston, 24-25 May

2008-05-26T17:03:00.011+01:00

Angry. Tired. Wet. Disappointed.

The whole main stage was shut on Sunday. There were plenty of yellow jacketed heavies but none knew what was going on. It was pretty obvious what was going on...

Nothing.

No Hot Chip. No Pendulum. No Chemical Brothers. Some stewards optimistically predicted that the main stage might be ready for the Chemical Brothers. It wasn’t.

Pendulum did end up playing but the Drum and Bass tent was so packed it was pointless trying to get in.

The weekend started well enough. After watching Digitalism, we legged it over to catch the end of CSS and get in a decent position for The Prodigy. Confusingly, The Prodigy were already playing Breathe when we arrived at the main stage.

By the end of their set I’d lost my cap, my sunglasses and (temporarily at least) my right shoe; as well as all my friends. The anarchy continued from there.

At about 2 or 3 AM we tried to see Armand Van Helden. Only to be met by a wobbly wave of people quietly mumbling that someone might be dead. A white middle aged man died in that tent. It didn’t reopen.

There were positives. Soulwax/Niteversions/whatever were astounding. Chromeo were really fun. Boys Noize were perhaps the biggest surprise turning out a great set.

It was a complete rip off: £115 for a weekend ticket, beers costing £4.50 a pint, squirts of mayo cost a pound.

Going on the website now is depressing. The line up on paper was truly phenomenal. Unfortunately, that’s as close as we came to seeing any of them.

Soulwax - Too Many DJ's

LIVE: Girls Aloud, 17th May 08, o2, London

2008-05-20T15:38:00.004+01:00

The o2 is great. Apart from it being a tent with over priced chain restaurants in a part of east London that has nothing else in its immediate vicinity; it’s nice.

The acoustics are so much better compared to Wembley Arena or even the MEN. This is important if you’ve shelled out £30 to see someone play music. You’re not getting fed. There’s no free drink. For that price you want to at least see and hear.

Girls Aloud were tiny and skinny but, despite our ludicrously positioned seats, we could see and hear everything just fine.

And of course, the girls put on a decent show. There were fireworks, glitter cannons and a stage that moved like a roundabout.

Kimberly even commented on how far the o2 goes up. It is quite surprising. The dome does look like one of those saucer things you got free with Shreddies years ago.

A trip to the o2 is like a Marks and Spencer ready meal. Once you’ve accepted that you’ve been ripped off, you can enjoy a very tasty (if slightly processed) convenient experience.

Dark And Long Train: Underworld

2008-05-19T20:06:00.014+01:00

An ode to challenging, extended records that rebel against the 3 minute pop song, the aim of Dark And Long Train is to post songs that exceed the 8 minute mark without losing direction or becoming boring.

To kick things off it only seems fair to post the track that gave me the inspiration for the feature’s name. Coming in at a hefty 10.54, Dark and Long opens up Underworld’s 1994 LP Dubnobasswithmyheadman. The layering of sounds to create a hypnotic mood has been a hallmark of electronic music since Kraftwerk – but that doesn’t stop this from being my favourite Underworld effort. What’s funny is no one ever plays this track, not even in the classic ‘I need a piss so I’ll play a 10 minute record’ situation. In fact, the only time I’ve ever heard it outside of on my iPod is when I ‘saw’ Underworld at Global Gathering – we were so late arriving we heard the whole of their set from behind the stage in the car park whilst unloading. I blame CJJ.

Underworld - Dark And Long

THE SHOW IS ABOUT TO COMMENCE

2008-05-18T12:54:00.000+01:00

REMEMBER: You can take your food and drink to your seat

Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - 'Intro'