My Random Music Blog

Sunday, 14 October 2018

Kruder & Dorfmeister @ The Roundhouse

Back in 2010 Kruder & Dorfmeister played their first live gig in London. Unfortunately I was away from London that particular weekend so couldn't go. I thought that me have been my only opportunity to go and see them, but this year they did their 25th anniversary tour which included 2 nights in London, so I finally got to see them last night.

When I received the tickets I discovered they were being supported by Coldcut, someone else I like but have never seen in concert. However they had to pull out due to one of the members being in a car accident.

With no replacement support act, Kruder & Dorfmeister were on stage at 8pm and played for 3 hours. Normally when talking about a music act you can point out a tune they are best known for, but with Kruder & Dorfmeister it's a bit more difficult. They are probably better known for their remixes than their original compositions. In fact on their "K&D Sessions" album which is a double album and arguably their best known album, they only have two original compositions.

If I had to pick a favourite record of theirs I would say their remix of "Useless" by Depeche Mode. As 11pm approached the music stopped having been played continuously for 3 hours, it seemed the set was over but this was just a short pause before the final tune of the night, their remix of "Useless" by Depeche Mode. It would seem I'm not alone in my music preferences.

It was exactly what it said on the tin, a load of their tunes spanning the last 25 years. They went on the stage, played their music then gave the audience a wave and went back off again. Not that I'm saying musicians talking to the audience between tunes is a bad thing, but this kind of no nonsense just play the music approach can be really refreshing sometimes.

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Top of the Pops: 11/10/2018

What's this all about?

Top 40 Countdown

Number of eligible records: 14
New (37) MK ft Jonas Blue & Becky Hill - Back & Forth
New (30) Dj Snake ft Selena Gomez, Cardi B & Ozuna - Taki Taki
New (21) Lil Wayne ft Kendrick Lamar - Mona Lisa
New (13) Lady Gaga ft Bradley Cooper - Shallow
⬆ (11) Dean Lewis - Be Alright
⬆ (9) Freya Ridings - Lost Without You
⬆ (5) Dynoro ft Gigi D'Agostino - In My Mind
⬆ (2) Marshmello ft Bastille - Happier
(1) Calvin Harris ft Sam Smith - Promises

Missing Out
New (28) Lil Wayne ft Xxxtentacion - Don't Cry
⬆ (33) Bazzi ft Camila Cabello - Beautiful
⬆ (12) Panic At the Disco - High Hopes
⬆ (18) LSD ft Sia, Diplo & Labrinth - Thunderclouds
⬆ (17) Sigala ft Ella Eyre, Meghan Trainor & French Montana - Just Got Paid

Sunday, 30 September 2018

25 Years Since....September 1993

Time to go back 25 years once again. I found it difficult finding 5 songs from the charts that I was enjoying at the time because as I was now anti-Pop Music, but I just about managed it:

Pet Shop Boys - Go West

We begin with a song that's as far away from Rock and Heavy Metal as you can get. I didn't exactly keep it a secret that I liked this song, but I wasn't exactly vocal about it either. I remember people at school saying this song was shit, but I'd just keep quiet rather than stick up for it.

I've gone through a lot of phases in music throughout my life but the Pet Shop Boys have been one constant so you can pretty much guarantee they will always feature in these posts.

This is obviously one of their better known songs but it never made number one, it was kept off the top by Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince and spent two weeks at number two.

Rage Against the Machine - Bombtrack

The third and final single from the self titled debut album of Rage Against the Machine. This didn't have much swearing in it but still had the same aggression that appealed about the band.

I went on an activity holiday with the school around the time and one of the instructors there wore a Rage Against the Machine t-shirt. When we discovered he was the one DJing at the disco we had on the trip we had to request a Rage Against the Machine song and this was the one he played.

It would be another three years until we'd see Rage Against the Machine back in the charts, by which point I'd moved onto Rave.

Belinda Carlisle - Big Scary Animal

It was hard to tell at the time whether it was considered acceptable to listen to with the Rock and Metal crowds. It is a guitar based song, but it wasn't exactly comparable to the music we'd listen to generally speaking

I wasn't aware at the time that Belinda Carlisle was once a member of the Go-Gos which would have made her more credible in that respect. Maybe others did know that, I do remember one of the anti-pop people at school singing this and maybe that was his justification.

Whatever the rights and wrongs were, this is a good song which I enjoyed at the time and still like it now.

Radiohead - Creep

I wasn't sure whether or not to include this song. I did quite like it but do remember thinking it wasn't heavy enough. That was partly to do with someone saying that Radiohead were a Heavy Metal band who had been around since the 70s and their music was considered to be very heavy.

Of course that was nonsense, it turned out he was thinking of Motorhead. This was a relatively new band who debuted with "Anyone Can Play Guitar" earlier on in the year and singles wise at least this is probably their heaviest song.

Generally speaking I find Radiohead's music rather boring but this is different to pretty much everything I've heard them do since and is a lot better.

Stone Temple Pilots - Plush

One thing me and the other Rock & Heavy Metal fans genuinely thought at the time was that we were listening to music that wasn't popular, it was music just for people like us. That is despite the fact some of the bands we were listening to are bands that pretty much everyone has heard of.

Amongst my peers at school, in terms of the major Grunge bands, everyone knew Nirvana, most people knew Pearl Jam, everyone who considered themselves a Grunger knew Alice in Chains and probably half of those knew Soundgarden (this was before "Black Hole Sun"). Then there was Stone Temple Pilots, a band that I knew of and talked about without hearing any of their music.

Then this song appeared on Top of the Pops and I was happy to have finally heard a song of theirs. Obviously being on Top of the Pops meant millions of other people had now heard them, but I'd talk about how I was the first to discover them. Obviously the reality is that anyone who knows a thing or two about music has heard of them. Despite that though, this was their on UK Top 40 hit.

Top of the Pops: Q3 2018 Review

For the majority of the weeks since the beginning of July we have had enough eligible records to fill a show. There were only two weeks where their wasn't enough eligible records.

However this isn't because we have more records entering the charts, it's mainly because we are having more records slowly climb the charts. Once a record plummets down the charts after 9 weeks it allows the records immediately below it to climb a place and therefore become eligible for Top of the Pops after staying in the same position for weeks.

One example of a record slowly climbing is "Panic Room" by Au/Ra ft Camelphat. It entered the Top 40 in early July, two months later it had climbed to number 30.

The rule of capping the number of songs per album eligible for the charts to 3 has stopped artists flooding the charts when they release a new album, but it is becoming more common to see 3 new entries from the same artist when their new album comes out.

Monday, 24 September 2018

Record of the Year 2005: Mylo - In My Arms

I've already picked a record that Mylo sampled for a previous record of the year and now for 2005 I'm picking a record by Mylo himself.

Of the singles from his excellent "Destroy Rock & Roll" my personal favourite is "In My Arms". It samples "Waiting For A Star To Fall" by Boy Meets Girl and "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. Unlike many of the other Dance records sampling old records at the time, this was more of an instrumental sample than a vocal sample, with just the "In My Arms Baby" line being sampled from the Boy Meets Girl record. The result is fantastic, it sounds like a proper tune in its own right rather than a blatant rip off or a blatant mash up.

If you haven't heard the album I seriously recommend you take a listen, it is definitely one of the best albums ever released in my opinion. I would say the other three singles to be taken from the album, "Destroy Rock & Roll", "Drop the Pressure" and "Muscle Car" are probably my three least favourite tracks on the album, that's how good the album is.

Unfortunately he is yet to release a follow up album but still remains active in the DJing world. He also posted some new music through social media a year or 2 ago which is also worth checking out.