i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

19. wings - letting go

its no secret that i’ve been on something of a mccartney bender for the past month or two. it all started with, heres that name again, robots in heat posting an old wings throwaway that set off memories deep in my skull. standing on milk crates trying to reach up to the pool table, getting my little hands around the cue, dad and steven drinking beers and laughing, “venus and mars” was always the soundtrack.

“letting go” is, of course, by paul mccartney’s 70s post-beatles project wings, and is from their album “venus and mars”. about two months ago, sitting in a little edit suite next to glenn ridge’s garage, i listened to this song on repeat for about 2 hours and it probably has to be one of the most emotionally visceral experiences of my entire life. now this means a number of things. it means i am prone to hyperbole. it also means that i need to get out more, and i probably need take more drugs, in particular, or less. but honestly. the first time paul mccartney eeks out an “oh” in letting go is likely to make you wince with heart ache and longing - the fiftieth time you hear it, you’ll be in tears. what do you hear? i hear regret, longing. dreams slipping away. loneliness, desperation. the loneliness of pragmatism. i seem to inhabit these modes too often, never more so when this track is on. so i guess in that way “letting go” is very very good for me and also very bad.

and as the “oh” is the sound of longing, those giant new orleans horns are the sound of release. i’m not sure there’s been a more important horn blast in the history of recorded sound. ending my r&d mix with this track was easy - what was hard was resisting the temptation to submit a mix for r&d that was simply this track on repeat for 2 hours.

when my wings urge really kicked in i went on an urgent hunt for venus and mars via p2p networks and accidentally found some bootleg versions and demos, things like that, another version of “letting go” which is pretty damn interesting to hear alongside the original. anyway, thats all for this series of posts. enormous thanks to declan and r&d for letting me put this mix together for them. if you enjoyed these mix notes, please let me know. i don’t often ask for your feedback but if you’ve been into anything you’ve heard here and want to chat, feel free to email me at tim@iamfauxpas.com, i’d love to hear from you.

MP3: Wings - Letting Go

MP3: Wings - Letting Go (demo version)

MP3: Wings - Lunch Box/Odd Sox

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

18. augustus pablo - stop them jah

i think its fair to say that i’m criminally uneducated when it comes to augustus pablo, and i think its also fair to say that i’ve come to the works of augustus pablo from perhaps a relatively unlikely direction - like many around melbourne i’ve been enthralled by the dub-meets-shaggs experimentation of melbourne indie duo fabulous diamonds, who list augustus pablo as their first influence on their myspace page (and what greater show of musical indebtitude is there than that)

fabulous diamonds:

MP3: Fabulous Diamonds - 1:53

fabulous diamonds are part of melbourne’s wonderful mistletone family of artists.

i’ve downloaded an augustus pablo more or less at random, and gave it some repeated listens. i want to hear more but don’t know where to start - his catalogue, like so many legends, is overwhelming enough to seem impenetrable. so if anyone wants to let me know where to start.. ? how do you come at the works of a proliferous icon? its easier when you’re introduced by a friend, a fan who knows the ins and outs, where to start.

like, i could probably tell you where to start if you want to be introduced to ween’s vast back catalogue? the answer? anywhere! its all so fucking awesome!

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

17. cassetteboy - trippin out

cassette….

BOY!!

bonus beats:

MP3: Curtis Mayfield - Trippin Out

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

16. cleptoclectics - interstellar taste lapse

cleptoclectics is tom smith, originally from canberra, now in sydney. his textural take on cut-up instrumental hip hop is really intuitive and immediate, and he is a sampler with respect for the processes he’s employing. i found out about him through a compilation cd put out by australian leftfield music magazine cyclic defrost last year.

“What counts has never been to go along with some related movement, but to make one’s own movement. If no one starts, no one will move.” Gilles Deleuze

i’m exceedingly happy to say that cleptoclectics have turned in the very first remix of a faux pas track ever, and that it sounds great. in fact, he’s turned in two of them, and they are both pretty special. i’m gonna sit on them for a little bit longer, like a hen sits on an egg, like john howard sits on the toilet and excretes shit like so much coalition policy. actually not like john howard.

in the meantime, here are two tracks taken from cleptoclectics’ debut release for feral media which is called “poignancy beats volume two” - you can find out more about that here.

MP3: Cleptoclectics - Bit Rate Blues


MP3: Cleptoclectics - Fahrenheit 4/4

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

15. nino ferrer - looking for you (faux pas edit)

another one from robotsinheat.com, and another track that i felt compelled to fiddle with. i think this track is still mutating, but is fun enough in its current form. i think the more i play with it, the less it becomes a re-edit and the more it becomes its own track. it is exceedingly difficult to work out where this line is drawn, given the kind of music that i make. the agitation free re-edit i posted last week i would never consider that a ‘faux pas’ track.. whereas this one, its heading towards being in the same ballpark as the other stuff i have released as ‘faux pas’, where a debt is owed to the sampled material obviously but the new track has enough of its own distinct identity that i feel comfortable separating it (in name) somewhat from its origins.

at the end of the day i try not to think too much about these kind of things, and just get the music out there. sorry this post is a little introspective and rambling, my head’s a little full of other things at the moment (the reasons why should become apparent soon - lets just say, you can officially start getting excited… now– if faux pas related things get you excited, that is)

nino ferrer was something of a reluctant superstar in his native france. he had some smoky hits in the 60s but it seems he never quite was convinced by this image of himself, a cynical and seductive crooner 10 years senior to the young starlets and hunks coming through the emergent pop machine of the late 60s and 70s. hmmm. there’s a lot you can assume about a guy from a thorough wikipedia entry. he moved to italy and became a cult tv presenter.

Video: Nino Ferrer - Le Telefon (1967)

MP3: Nino Ferrer - Looking for You

MP3: Nino Ferrer - Looking for You (Faux Pas re-edit)

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

14. pyrolator - die haut der frau

the first of two tracks taken from robotsinheat.com. robots in heat is the best - it is galaxies, its disco, its psychedelic, its spandau ballet.

you can find out more about pyrolator (and buy pyrolator cds) here. an excerpt:

Kurt “Pyrolator” Dahlke. Specialist for music and computer. Founder of the record label and music publishing house atatak (more than 150 publications since 1979). Member of the groups “Der Plan ‘ and “Pyrolator”. He produced more than 150 records and CDs and was active on 40 publications as a composer, musicians and software programmer. His main instruments are the “Thunder & Lightning II” built by the Synthesizer-Pioneer Donald Buchla, with which he is controlling the music by the movement or the pressure of the hands. Productions, concerts and installations since 1980 in Korea, Japan, the USA, Argentina, West&Nord Africa, central and Eastern Europe.

the thunder & lightning, from what i understand, are midi controllers - touchplates that respond to tactile pressure and wands that effect sound based on what direction they are pointed and their relationship in time and space to each other. spacetime.

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

13. roger roger - sounds industrial 2

roger roger - his real name - made music for film and television from the 1950s right through until the mid 1970s. if roger were alive today (he sadly is not) he would be 95 years old.

Usually he recorded his own music in Paris, and the unique studio sound added to the special charm that these works possessed. In addition to his brighter numbers, he was also required to create pieces of a more serious nature, including some heavy, repetitive tracks that could be used as accompaniment for industrial scenes in documentaries. A composer of mood music has to be able to write for almost any kind of subject, and this presented no problems for Roger.

it is well worth reading the rest of this well-written biography of roger roger, from which i have taken the above paragraph. my friend wally gave me the roger roger album “sounds industrial”, he found it somewhere online, i’m not entirely sure where. its an engaging listen - sixteen tracks at more or less 2 minutes each. here are a few more of them.

MP3: Roger Roger - Sounds Industrial 7

MP3: Roger Roger - Sounds Industrial 13

MP3: Roger Roger - Sounds Industrial 16

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

12. the kinks - people take pictures of each other

this song is almost 40 years old. it is one of the greatest songs of all time. there are some songs that literally never fail to put me in a good mood - there aren’t many of them, but there are some. this is one of them. the kinks were geniooses.

i couldn’t resist throwing a bit of a synth line over the top of the end of this track, in the mix, please forgive me kinks fans! its done with respect, albeit without much skill. hoo hah! the kinks. this song. yeah.

Picture of me when I was just three,
Sucking my thumb by the old oak tree.
Oh how I love things as they used to be,
Don’t show me no more, please.

this is exactly how i feel about memories, and i don’t have a great memory of my childhood. i remember things mostly through pictures. or through stories that other people tell me, my memories are their memories, retold to me. i love nothing more than to think long and hard about how great things used to be, whether they really were or not, the things i did or never did. when i get really sucked in to nostalgia - my childhood, last year, the multitude of pasts i did or didn’t have - i find it completely overwhelming, my guts get sore, don’t show me no more please. yeah. so anyway, memory is joyous and painful. this isn’t exactly news. thankyou kinks.

MP3: The Kinks - People Take Pictures of Each Other

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

11. the sylvers - i’ll never be ashamed

palms out sounds has a regular feature called sample wednesday where they dig out the tracks sampled by artists such as basement jaxx, m.i.a, daft punk, missy elliot, jazzy jeff. a few weeks ago they did rjd2 which i enjoyed a lot. i’m a big fan of the first two rjd2 records, those albums were definitely an influence on me. i particularly liked the second rjd2 album “since we last spoke” where you could really hear him extending his reach and trying new things with great success. i haven’t heard the third album, i’m resolutely avoiding it. i wish i’d had the same forethought when it came to star trek: nemesis - but no, i went to the movies, i saw it, and it damn near destroyed my experience of the entire star trek franchise. now i know better.

this track by the sylvers is, of course, sampled in rjd2’s track “cutting out to FL”. head here for more rjd2 sample spotting, or dig the whole series of sample wednesday posts over at palms out.

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

10. made in sweden - little cloud

another great find from hip blog undomondo (straight outta turkey)…

Made In Sweden were probably the first exponents of progressive rock in Sweden, showcasing the jazzy guitar style of Georg Wadenius (sometimes reminiscent of Alvin Lee in his jazzier moments, although the actual influence was Wes Montgomery). The first album has several nice instrumentals, including an excellent, relaxed interpretation of Lennon & McCartney’s “A Day In The Life”. — from alexgitlin.com

this track comes from made in sweden’s second album “snakes in a hole” from 1969. believe me when i say that i am far from an expert on prog, kraut rock, psychedelic music, 60s music or the 60s in general - but this track has a great sound.

here are a few other things i’ve wandered across on this old internet, that were released in 1969:

MP3: Bergen White - Let Me Stay With You Awhile

MP3: The Free Pop Electronic Concept - Planetary Gospel
this track comes from an album called “a new exciting experience” - awesome! keen followers of faux pas will recognise elements of this track. i downloaded it somewhere on the net, good luck finding it now (start at google, thats a hot tip). or else look for it on vinyl - apparently it sells for US$110. “EXTREMELY RARE ITEM, JESS & JAMES BUT TOTALLY SPACE JAZZ GROOVE PSYCH DRONE WITH ALL INGREDIENTS, MOOG, MELLOTRON, PIANO, FX AROUND THE RECORD, GROOVE DRUMS, HOT PERCUSSION, WHA-WHA GUITAR EXCURSIONS, FUNKY BASS, LONG TRACKS PLENTY OF PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS FOR DANCEFLOOR. ¡¡¡DJ’S ALERT!!! STEREOLAB HAVE THIS RECORD 100% SURE……”

MP3: Wilson Simonal - Meia Volta
a classic slice of brazilian tropical cheese, parts of this track might also be familiar to anyone who has had more than a cursory listen to my album. i’m lettin it all hang out