Monday, February 1, 2010

The Nilpferd A-listers- The Electronic/Disco Cuts



Timber was the first piece of music I got A-listed, it works best as an audio-visual experience, one of the first and best Hexstatic collaborations.

Dexter Wansel - Life on Mars
DJ Shadow - Midnight in a perfect world
Coldcut - Timber
Portico Quartet - Monsoon
Coldcut - Mr Nichols

There's a visionary aspect to this week's selection. Philly legend Dexter Wansel orients our gaze towards the red planet with his 1976 disco/funk classic, before we skip to the nineties and some classic ecological turntable bricolage with the Coldcut/Hexstatic team.
DJ Shadow conjures up some magic out of his own vinyl collection as the clock ticks down to midnight, and while Portico Quartet's hang influenced sonic world isn't actually electronic, it doesn't sound much like acoustic jazz, either.
Coldcut and Saul Williams then make an emergency return in an awesome and moving attempt to talk the disillusioned Mr. Nichols down from the ledge of doomed corporate capitalism.

11 comments:

steenbeck said...

AAAHHHGGGHHHH!!!! Such a busy day, no time to listen. I remember loving most of these when they came up on RR. Tomorrow...

saneshane said...

smart list..

do you like anything that's..
you know... 'cheesey' will they be in the third installment?

first time I saw timber was at a club night with live cutting of visuals/music by coldcut-hex.. they went into this about 40 minutes in.. blew our minds.

did saul williams/coldcut - 'pledge to resist' get an a-list (can't see it in protest or war)

Abahachi said...

Yes, the relentless good taste and coolness does start to pall after a while...

nilpferd said...

Thanks steen and shane.. I do cheesey, sure- I've got a processed slice of U2 lined up next week for my Rock and Pop bands slot.. would have loved to have seen a Coldcut/Hex club night, nearly caught them once in Heidelberg (or somewhere else nearby and hipper than Stuttgart) but it didn't work out unfortunately.
The Marconium says, no A-list for 'Pledge to resist' yet.

nilpferd said...

Aba, I see I'll need to do a TB/DD style "why oh why did this track never get A-listed" post and wheel out my naff fusion-rock collection, Singers Unlimited- the greatest hits, Mel Torme swings Schubert Alley and of course the first (and only) two pieces of vinyl I ever owned, "Henry Mancini plays his greatest hits Vols. 1 and 2".

Shoegazer said...

Got a feeling I'm going to like these even more than the last batch. Just shows what can be done if rr players take a little more care with their suggestions. Kudos.

nilpferd said...

Cheers Shoey! Though I'm not really all that restrained, as I said last week, it's more the fact that the gurus ignored all my crappier suggestions. I do feel there's room for a bit more turntablism and breakbeat on the A-list, have enjoyed your angle on these genres recently too.

steenbeck said...

Hey, Nilfperd - Sample alert!

http://open.spotify.com/track/67Ik1NKkj7hgeYDwdPKuAU

nilpferd said...

Awesome.. good spot, and a great use of the sample.
Didn't you nom that Lupe Fiasco track for an RR theme? I really have to spend some time on Spotify checking him out, I think.

steenbeck said...

Yes, I think I got it in the list for Ghosts. When Lupe Fiasco is good, he's very good. BUt I recently listened to one of the albums for the first time in a while, and there were one or two tracks I...well...I skipped. I feel disloyal saying it, but there it is. Don't tell him, I wouldn't want to hurt his feelings.

nilpferd said...

Yeah, I remember being surprised by one of his tracks you'd nommed once, because the others up until then hadn't really done much for me, then there was one which was suddenly amazing- Hello/Goodbye, if I remember correctly.