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ZZ Top: I've always wanted to do a little break out on ZZ Top’s '70s records, in fact, I had a partially sketched-out piece from a few years back that I dusted off for reference tonight. I'd been saving it for when I finally caught them live, since I always thought I'd get a chance … Continue reading ZZ Top
The native terrain of funk is undoubtedly the 7" single. Now don't get me wrong, there are stacks of great funk LPs out there, albums by original dons like James Brown and The Meters through seventies purveyors like Parliament, Cymande and The Beginning Of The End, and running right up through Zapp and Mtume in … Continue reading Sir Mack Rice – Dark Skin Woman
Tonto's Expanding Head Band: Machine Soul Pioneers In a year that's taken many of the greats from us, we've lost a true innovator of electronic music, Malcolm Cecil. Along with partner-in-crime Robert Margouleff, he formed Tonto's Expanding Head Band, the duo that did as much as anyone to bring electronic music crashing into the mainstream, … Continue reading Tonto’s Expanding Head Band
Daft Punk: The Dons of French Disco Just the other day, the rumors began circulating that Daft Punk had parted ways, and shortly after it was confirmed. I guess I'd always assumed that they would just go on forever, two robots unfurling wave after wave of digital disco into perpetuity. They'd certainly been a reliable … Continue reading Daft Punk
Clark Lofthouse (Planet E: 1995) The further the mid-nineties get to be in the proverbial rear view mirror, the more it seems like a golden era for a particular type of techno record, a type of record tucked away in a certain corner of the genre, a corner that's quite possibly my absolute favorite sliver … Continue reading Clark – Lofthouse
This list came about naturally enough a couple months back, when my sister-in-law Leah decided that she'd like to do a 'top 45 of the '70s' list for her 45th birthday. Although she's Gen X to the core, the 1970s were crucial in shaping her musical tastes — which roughly put center primarily on canyon, country, and … Continue reading 45 From The 70s
Silver Apples: Machines In Glorious Motion The original oscillator man Simeon Coxe died earlier this week, the man who was one half of legendary electronic duo Silver Apples, a duo that conjured up a working sketch of the future way back in the late 1960s. Their debut album appeared in 1968, its strange combination of … Continue reading Silver Apples
Man Parrish Special Disconet Remixes (Ram's Horn: 1983) Soaring through the skies and landing somewhere on Earth, we discovered an alien. He was not made of flesh, he was not made of stone, he was... check it out humans: man made. Man Parrish, In The Beginning In the continued narrative of machine music, one of … Continue reading Man Parrish – Special Disconet Remixes
Kraftwerk: At the way station to the future With Florian Schneider’s passing this spring, one of the great institutions of modern music was laid to rest. Kraftwerk’s reputation truly precedes them, to the point that introductions are hardly even necessary at this point. Suffice it to say that the group took all of early krautrock's … Continue reading Kraftwerk
Motion 004: Infoworld Motion 004 happens at the axis of electronics and rhythm. Taking its name from Juan Atkins' key track in the transition from the Model 500 eighties to the Infiniti nineties, this mix draws its inspiration from the lost highway sound of Infoworld (Magic Juan's R-Theme?). Conceived just as the heaviest rainstorm of … Continue reading Motion 004