Friday, March 28, 2008

Powder Everywhere...

Thanks to everyone who got in touch while I was away - great to come back and find people have been enjoying the music. I'm aware that I've not been posting as regularly as I was, but life, baby, moving house and snowboarding have got in the way recently (Easter in the Alps - BIG dump of powder woohoo...). Must try harder (seem to have been hearing that since schooldays - soo long ago...

Special mention to American Athlete for posting the Caroline Crawford edit (here).

Will try and pick up the pace a bit, though I'm going to have to finish/clean up a fair few edits if I'm going to share them with the world at large...

Some of you have been asking about vinyl pressings - something will happen this year- really good to know which tracks people want to see on disc, so do email me and let me know if there's anything you'd like on a pressing.


Floorman - Ossum Boogie mp3 (YSI)


Ossum Boogie is an early track from the Floorman Presents Stack
album sessions, before things really kicked-off with Holly on vocals, when I planned to do an album of eclectic tracks with different artists. It's a cheeky flute-driven funk/folk/soul instrumental number that goes down really well on the dancefloor (the combination of Jimmy's smoky Hammond organ playing, Ming's fine Fender Bass and random Floorman percussion stylings vaguely reminiscient of early Primal Scream???). There's a great vocal version courtesy of Shrivastava, which never got finished, though I'd like to post it here at some point.


While I'm posting Floorman stuff, here's the closing track from the album. Featuring, as ever- Holly Backler on vocals (her opera training in full evidence here - all live, no autotune), Ming on bass, Jim Baron on keys- and the incredible pedal steel guitar of Dave Langdon (the Midlands' answer to BJ Cole). Dave's a pedal steel genius - he made his instrument from scratch, even casting the pedals himself, and is able to conjure up some amazing textures and soundscapes - a pleasure to work with him on this track. I believe the pedal steel to be a much-underrated instrument: capable of far more than country and western swoops...


Floorman - Travelling mp3 (YSI)


Coming up very soon - more edits!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Where did that month go??

Time seems to be running away from me at present, can't believe it's nearly a month since I last posted...

Today I have a few items from the Floorman vaults.

First up is:


Closer To Me - Floorman(YSI)


from the Floorman Presents Stack album on Bocajito. Shameless self-promotion, I know, but this track features the incredible talents of Holly Backler, on top form both lyrically and vocally; together with some deft keyboard wizardry from the one and only Jim Baron, and some astonishing bass action from the mighty Ming on his beloved 64 Fender Precision, Bootsy. Inspired by a lengthy solo Jim played over the rough instrumental version of the track, which in turn reminded me of Carl Craig's stunning remix of 'Out Of The Storm' by Incognito - can be found on Headphone Sex- which incidentally owes no small debt to Kool And The Gang's Summer Madness (youtube link). Holly was given a title and the rest just followed on from there. Probably my favourite track from the album.


Next we've a slow-burning unreleased disco dub I did a while back. Hamilton Bohannon is one of the all-time great disco producers, and IMHO this work with the glorious Caroline Crawford is his finest hour. The original track runs at around 130 bpm, but I wanted to take it down a notch, dub it out and extend things a tad. This reedit runs at 124 bpm, is tempo-sync'd for the lazier DJs amongst you, and at just over nine minutes long offers plenty of time to head for the bar/toilet/nearest girl before you segue seamlessly into your next dancefloor monster.


Comin On Slow (Floorman Dub) - Caroline Crawford (YSI)


Finally for tonight, another unreleased Floorman edit, which I did for a trip to Oslo to play at the one and only Nomaden last year (hello Tosh, hello Baktus, hello Rune), as covered by the Klaxons-


The Night (Floorman Edit) - Frankie Valli (YSI)


That's it for tonight, and possibly for the next coupla weeks - heading to the alps this weekend: big snow expected, hoping to stay on my plank of wood more than I fall off - back after Easter.