>>stuff<< and things

As my life has taken up temporary residence within the confines of an overstuffed suitcase – I believe ’between houses’ is the term used in polite circles – blogging opportunities have fallen by the wayside… until now! Here are some recent bits:

New(ish) review of Lorn’s debut single for Brainfeeder. Definitely feeling a late-90s Mo Wax vibe from this Small Town, Illinois resident.

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Also new-ish is In Flagranti’s Through The Rabbit Hole, a super sized package of wonky weird disco with some buffed up and presentable remixes that you can take home to mother.

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…and the brand new release from Swedish label Kontra-Musik. After being branded onto my consciousness via Jason Fine’s debut album, it’s been interesting to hear the results of the label’s devotion to the development of the young Detroit producer. Now, former psy-trance (amongst other things) artist Gunnar Jonsson has joined the Kontra cause, and has casually dropped an EP of loose organic house goodness, that stops off at various points on the spectrum (deep, dubby, raw).

For the non music fans, I’ve also done a sideways shimmy into a spot of travel writing recently, for Easyjet’s inflight magazine Traveller. If you’re going orange on The Continent this month, on the way to Sonar or Ibiza or wherever, you can read it in its full tactile glory, otherwise you can check it out online or download the thing here.

today’s special: toy box

I heard about 90 seconds of this in a very fresh and fun disco/groove mix from Brainfeeder’s TokiMonsta a couple of days ago, and as the secretive lady didn’t want to reveal the tracklist (booooo!) a heavy period of investigation finally revealed that the tracks was by Sylvia Striplin, she of bona fide disco anthem “Give Me Your Love”.

“Toy Box” is from her 1981 album Give Me Your Love, produced by Roy Ayers and James Bedford. The lyrics are extremely cutesy and silly, but it’s frickin’ adorable, about toys getting down and having a disco in a toybox when the lights are out… HOWEVER despite the sweetness it still has a very slinky and grown-up disco-funk groove. Listen to this first thing in the morning, it will put you in a great mood.