The weather is beautiful, and the summer is edging closer and closer. Certain things always sound best, or indeed only work, when it’s like that outside, not least uplifting slabs of terrace house like this…Sebastian Leger’s new version of UR’s seminal ‘Knights Of The Jaguar’.

Sebastien Leger – Jaguar (2008)

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On a similar tip, but with a much deeper, more disco-conscious sound, is this one from Joey Negro’s Sunburst Band project, a live band featuring members of Incognito, Jamiroquai (!) and Kyoto Jazz Massive. Uplifting analogue warmth. 

The Sunburst Band – He Is (Ian Friday Tea Party Mix)

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Sonar Kollektiv have just released the second volume of their acclaimed Computer Incarnations For World Peace series, and whereas last year’s first volume blew the dust off a crate of nearly-forgotten electric disco dispatches, this time around they’ve cast their eye over the growing number of current producers indebted to those early italo and cosmic sounds. As a “state-of-the-scene” document, it’s pretty faultless – all the usual suspects have been round up: Ray Mang, Todd Terje, Prins Thomas, Chateau Flight, Smith & Mudd, Daniel Wang and so on – and stands easily alongside Lo’s Milky Disco or Bear’s recent Rools For Rules collections.

Maurice Fulton ’s deep and funky rework of Rollmottle’s ‘Take A Break’ is the pick:

Rollmottle – Take A Break (Maurice Fulton Remix) (2008)

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Phew…sorry about that. Posts should be a lot more regular from now on. Two heavy new Belgian cuts to get us started.

1. Lullabies In The Dark is the new project of deep disco honchos Jim Adam and Vito de Luca, who have just put our their first single on Permanent Vacation. On this remix, de Luca’s other band, Aeroplane, watch on as the Balearic-afterglow of the original gives way to a balmy, blanketing darkness. Inevitably, it pulses…cosmically. Key change at 3:20 is lift off.

Lullabies In The Dark – Song For Marie and Elise (Aeroplane Remix) (2008)

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 2. Ghent’s Glimmer Twins have just released their new tour-only album The Glimmers are…Gee Gee Fazzi, in which they enlist the help of Ray Mang, Princess Superstar, Padded Cell, Freeform Five, Lindstrom and Prins Thomas to put together an hour’s worth of originals and covers. It’s a rather wry affair, as you might imagine. This cover of Australian pop tartlet Olivia Newton John’s Physical is the pick, though the knowing look of its creators is so obvious, my iTunes seems to stare back at me with one eyebrow raised whenever I put it on. That’s not to say I don’t like it, merely that thwacking me round the head a few times with a two-by-four marked “IRONY” in a big Acme font might have been more subtle.

The Glimmers – Physical (2008)

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Sorry for the lack of posts.

Back to normal next week.

The neo-classical disco movement revs its engines, eschews Moroderist throb. Your move, IDIB.

Al Kent presents The Million Dollar Orchestra – Dontcha Wanna Get Down (2008)

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Arcade Lovers – Fantasy Lines (In Dub) (2008)

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Escort – Love In Indigo (Extended Version) (2007)

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You know, if there’s one thing that the internet is short of at the moment, it’s badly made, fad-ragging remixes of M.I.A. tracks. In fact, if I die without hearing someone finally doing the OBVIOUS and crimping off some baile/B-more/electro/fidgit/bassline/mashup versions of Bamboo Banger or Paper Planes, then this, dear friend, will surely have been a life half-lived. I really hope Discobelle or Palms Out Sounds get on the case soon.

Perhaps sensing the blogosphere’s frustrating poverty in this regard, XL/Interscope have turned out a few “official” remixes for us to cop. Thank heavens!

To be fair, DFA, Diplo and Afrikan Boy/Rye Rye somehow manage to dodge this enormous shitbullet and come out of the whole thing surprisingly well.

M.I.A. – Paper Planes (Afrikan Boy & Rye Rye Remix) (2008)

M.I.A. – Paper Planes (DFA Remix) (2008)

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Expose want you to run away with them, presumably to the land of assembly-line Latin dance-pop, where candy-coloured 808s frolic ‘tween the bubblegum blue bushes that proffer forth their bitter-yet-sweet berries of melodramat…oh, never mind.

Expose – Come Go With Me (1986)

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OK, I don’t really know who Villalobos thinks he is, but it would certainly take a pair of swinging great balls of almost heavenly dimensions to release a track that essentially does nothing in its seventeen minute length (SEVENTEEN!) over and above what it manages to do in the first ninety seconds. Piano, click track, chant, filter. And loooooooooooooooop. Yet, somehow, about seven minutes in, I think I actually begin to take off. From that point on, all I can think of is me on some fluffy white cloud wearing angel wings, and Ricardo and his improbably proportioned knackers cold schooling me on the importance of repetition.

Ricardo Villalobos – Enfants (Chants) (2008)

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More forward-thinking bass transmissions from Hyperdub, and another welcome blow for dubstep formulism. This time new girl Ikonika is on the boards. Old 8bar grime 12s that have warped in the sun, pulsating Detroit drums, steel-hammering clank, and lolloping sublow vibrations. Essential purchase.

Ikonika – Please (2008)

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Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Riot In Lagos’ is one of my favourite tracks from the more avant end of early electro – brightly-coloured Japanese melodies that are both plonky and wonky, without being cloying – Mario-cute rather than Hello Kitty-cute perhaps. Unlike the self-consciously robotic Afro-futurism of Cybotron, Hashim et al, it stands out for being firmly grounded on Planet Earth – a rejection of the cold steel geometric synths of ‘Clear’ or ‘Al-Naafiysh’ in favour of slip-sliding, detuned and human-handed playfulness. Montreal techno hope Stephen Beaupre’s new track ‘Fish Fry’ appears to be a very obvious, but very welcome, homage to ‘Riot In Lagos’, with its emphasis on etch-a-sketched electro riffs and breaking drum patterns. Could be quite hard to fit into a set without crowbarring, but maybe some of the more daring minimal DJs will try. Highly recommended.

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Riot In Lagos (1980)

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Stephen Beaupre – Fish Fry (2008)

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 p.s. Optimo was great. I can’t remember a lot of what they played now, but a few things do stick out…‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag’, ‘Ring My Bell’, Cymande’s ‘Bra’, ‘Blue Monday’ (at half speed I think, which was pretty druggy), and even a couple of dubstep things, like ‘Poison Dart’, surprisingly. And they ended with that old one-two of ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ and ‘Virginia Plain’. I hope they come down south soon.