“I’ve finally (finally) compiled a mix tape for 20JFG. And it is a mixtape in the most literal sense of the word. From my Technics 1200 to my Nakamichi deck to Audacity (for the digital transfer, of course) to you. So, no crossfades or beat matching, but plenty of strange cassette malfunction. It’s called Static Gravity for the Chrome track that starts the mix. Hope you find something you like in it.”

It seems we have tele-transported to a planet of understatements, and humbleness. This compilation by comrade Matt RVNG is power that doesn’t corrupt, beauty that doesn’t fade (or beauty that in fading, becomes even more beautiful). Enjoy it, and give us track names on the side.

IGETRVNG Static Gravity Mixtape

So, the lovely folks at RVNG have come up with the goodies once again, this time it is Purple Brain (aka Bumrocks and Jason from Hey Convict!) at the helm of the transdimensional space jetty who sail across murky wormholes eventually arriving at the darken lair of the funk butcher, this is a mix which doesn’t pummel but seduces, ebbing and flowing like the unpredictable tides of mesmerising swamp lands, or acrobatic pirouettes in and out of bizarro freudian landscapes, think of an incredible voyage inside the mind of the Holy Mountain’s alchemist- ju ju drums, Aztec sacrifices and teutonic codeine sturm und drang. We knew but a handful of glittering bones that lie under the fertile grounds of this burial mound, join us in a trip of love, death and discovery.

Here is but a taster, heart-rending South-African piano agit-funk by the Bahumutsi Drama Group as edited by the Purple Brain Folks, and included in a 7” which is being released together with the mix. Soul sorcery.

Bahumutsi Drama Group- To the Comrades (PB Edit)

I toyed with the idea of posting another tune excised from the mix for you to revel in, but fuck it, you are going to have to pony up for the rest of the package, right here. For now, I am going to leave you with a couple of tunes endowed with the sort of glorious mystery that would have made them worthy of inclusion, I hope you enjoy them.

GDFX‘s ‘Choose your Emanation’ is the melancholy kosmische beginning of a gravitational ascent into an orgone-powored lunar elevator, it bristles with the foreboding beginning of a Hawkwind mushroom trip glimmer & vibrato, and it does definitely take you into a strange black zone where golden specks of cosmic dust swirl in their eternal hex dance, causing a mild erosion in your left auditory channel which is the echo of alien transmissions projected from beyond a star that perished aeons ago.

GDFX-Choose Your Emanations

And if Eastern Esoterica is what you smoke, then you should make sure you grab yourself a copy of Sir Richard Bishop’s very latest, The Freak of Araby. After much good humoured wise Saharan coyote loping & revelling up and down the curls of silken dunes which are also strings and resonating drum skins, or the awed pink laser gaze of a deathhead Lawrence of Arabia, the album ends with a ominous stomper,which rattles like Burning Star Core covering Omar Korshid to soundtrack the confrontation between Father Merrin and that gnarly Babylonian stone devil at the onset of the Exorcist, but way deeper. Heavy smokes indeed.

Sir Richard Bishop- Blood Stained Sands

Gino Soccio’s never less than awesome compositions tend to lie somewhere in between the smooth pastel and cream of Studio 54 disco classicism and the no holds barred coke addled onslaught of true blue italo. Say, ‘Dancer’ or ‘It’s Alright’ are more of the latter, and ‘Turn it around’, which we are dropping in your lap with a smile of anticipation rrrright now is the former. There are at least three ‘woah’ moments in this tune, i.e. when the boogie bass-line kicks in like some sort of hip dislocating poltergeist, the satin tale  of unrequited love and regret of the chorus, and the saxophone solo, ah, the saxophone solo. Take your white suit to the dry cleaner kid, because after listening to this, you might want to take it for a spin.

Gino Soccio- Turn it Around

In Flagranti are the late-night equivalent of a black swan, i.e., some afro’d gold toothed wraparound shades wearing straggler who turns up from God knows where without knowing anyone and turns a conventional soiree into some sort of archetypal elysian party the likes of which haven’t been seen since the heyday of the big apple 80s, how, by chopping and screwing with whatever record collection happens to be available, banging on pots and kettles at all the right moments,  and running from behind the improvised decks into the improvised dance-floor to have an epic Capablanca-style boogie with a bunch of people who didn’t know they had it in them to swing like maniacs in some filthy lounge until the sun comes out, and beyond.

Anyway, they are behind the latest instalment of the eminently collectable and ever-so party enhancing RVNG of the NRDS series which you should of course fetch ASAP, if you need further reasons just check this out, AOR drums whiplash!

Aural Yaw- Send

Now slow it down for a sec, we think the Bielorusian/Glasgow/mysterious province of Black Space populated by an eternally reconfiguring population of silver diamonds is where it’s at, and Dollskabeat has arrived to take us there with her first release out in May on Optimo Music. Yes, we are talking about our cultural heroes’ record label, you know it’s going to be aces, check, illuminated synth-pop infected with heavenly vocals about foreboding developments in the astral plane, it sounds like the Knife going mid-tempo italo, or an esoteric bubblegum pop version of ‘Sweet Surprise’ by Chris and Cosey and Eurythmics. Take your silver-lined sorceress cloak to the dry cleaner, because after listening to this, you might want to take it for a slow-mo spin.

Dollskabeat- Zodiac Rising

After the barbarian tide of punk rock hit the grey walls of reality and rolled back, leaving behind a battlefield covered in tabloid headlines and furious music, there came post-punk. Grim-faced kids stared at the evil spires raising in the toxic mist, and realising that the demolition of existing structures was nigh impossible they decided to create another reality instead, out in the wilderness. They camped in swamps and hills and forests, and using whatever technologies they could find, pre-capitalistic models of exchange based on barter and gift, developed a DIY scene root of all the good indie music created since then. Inspired by the reckless spirit of punk, different tribes mingled promiscuously, the outcome of these efforts would be a thousand weird and beautiful flowers, no wave, disco punk, hardcore, industrial music.

Listening to 60 Minutes of Fear, a mix put together by true DIY renaissance man JD Twitch, and available in a ridiculously awesome package from 20JFG fave NYC purveyors of modern underground culture RVNG International, has made me think of all these things. Of the fury and the funk, of the hope and the loathing, of how indie music can, nay, should be fiercely political, true to its origins in the wild spaces outside of the fortresses of self-interest and commerce. 60 Minutes of Fear is a document that contains not just a treasure trove of beautiful, crazy, falling to pieces yet ever so strong music, but also a stark, lucid and often humorous portrayal of the times when it was created, times of fear indeed, but not so different from those we live in right now. I miss this in the indie music of these days, I would struggle to find, even amongst those bands I love the most, any sort of message which, say 30 years into the future, would help the kids understand the social and political conditions in which it was created.

We should aspire to more than psychedelic abstraction, esoteric introspection and oblique commentary, after all, when you make music you are making history.

Fatal Microbes’ Violence Grows came out almost 30 years ago, it worries me that it is more relevant to the times we live in now than any contemporary song I can think of.

Fatal Microbes- Violence Grows

The 60 Minutes of Fear mix is accompanied by a beautifully presented 10” with four edits by Twitch. They are, as you would expect, truly magnificent, we leave you with his reconfiguration of Zounds’ War, a totally pumped tribal stomper of rumbling bass, serrated guitars riffs and dialectical wailing that builds up in a brutal progression that should set any dancefloor worth its salt into righteous, revolutionary fire.

Zounds-War (JD Twitch Extended Edit)

So you know what kids, go to RVNG and order a copy of 60 Minutes of Fear. Put your money where your mouth is, the world needs more statements like this.

Gotta love Ghostface’s moccasins. And this music, coming from those underground stalwarts who are claiming back the dancefloor for the freaks to boogie tres classy.

The arrival of a Permanent Vacation promotional device to the halls of thee 20Jazzfunkgreats curmudgeons is celebrated with the kind of effervescent and merry somersaults others devote to Olympian victories, scientific breakthroughs or the deciphering of complex codes in esoteric scrolls dug out off the ruins of dead cities in the midst of the cruel desert (we are partial to the last). This is of course a consequence of the immaculate track record of this most excellent Bavarian record label, which has in the past delighted us with sweet servings of Sally Shapiro, Holy Ghost!, 40 Thieves or the gobsmacking Space Oddities Comp (you still have some time to get a sweet tee from their website!)

Anyhow, let’s get to the point and answer the question you must be asking yourself by now, this is, what is the new treasure that Permanent Vacation has left by your humblest’s door?

It is Bostro Pesopeo.

And remember the name, because next time you find yourself in some techno temple somewhere in the midst of the barren concrete landscapes of Eastern Berlin, surrounded by a sweaty mass of believers, and a martial Whorehouse beat creeps under your skin like a morse code message from the psychedelic Gods that hover semi-transparent over the tumult of any righteous party, eventually deciding to jump resolute on the back of that riddim and ride it gallant like Valkyries climbing towards the event horizon of a blinding breakdown (that wicked synth riff proof of the devastating power of the Arpeggio when used right), then, after the delirious explosion of total hands in the air styles, someone is going to ask you, ‘what the fuck was that?’, and then you shall reply,

That was Bostro Pesopeo.

Bostro Pesopeo- Falls

Or music that pounds epic like Isolee battling Force of Nature over the cliffs of Sparta.

You can listen to the lovely Hercules and Love affair remix on the mixtape we have made to commemorate the good life, at the bottom of the post.

Let us continue our stroll down the avenues of label class by referring to wonderful Thisisnotanexit, who have recently released ‘Fear no Fear’ by ghostly post-punk outfit The Detachments. The whole package is of course aces, check out Naum Gabo’s remix, who kills it in a memorable synth melancholy way.

Today we are going to leave you with the original track, a masterpiece of oppressive dirgey modern dance music which draws from the same sort of 80s bleeping euro-techno dark sources as The Knife’s ‘Like a Pen’, if only our favourite Swedish phantoms had spent some time flexing their muscles in the EBM halls of pain of a black prison obelisk towering over the furious waves of the Northern Sea.

It all ends up in blood, sweat and tears, as the murderous progression culminates in an apocalypsis of cadaveric Carpenterian melodies and gnarly bass ululations the likes of which we hadn’t been blown away by since Motiivi Tuntematon’s 1939, more pressure, and darker.

The Detachments- Fear no Fear

We look forward to hearing the album, which Detachments are currently working on with Trevor Jackson.

I don’t know what good deed I performed in a past reincarnation to deserve the joy of receiving those RVNG OF THE NRDS 12” in the post, I guess I must have put some goat milk’s butter on Jesus’ dry loaf of bread as he was roaming the desert haunted by Lucifer’s melodious voice, or else. Because every single one of these eminently collectable releases brought to us by the igetrvng crew bristles with dizzying goodness, and justifies in itself the existence of edits as a space of delightful surprise, as well as starry-eyed tribute to good times past. Exhibit one above, this is, their new reference by talented savant Jacques Renault is shining proof of the previous statement. Just get it.

Jacques Renault- Bad Skinned

Arrive home, slide this yummy slice of vinyl in the stereo, place the needle on the groove with a warm feeling of anticipation and smile as a luxurious explosion of gold, coffee and honey blasts from the speakers, sweet funk music strutting smooth past the velvet curtains of the disco with a riotous bassline wicked enough to drive one to a life of crime, and a percussionfest which rattles like a diaspora of beautiful ghosts laying waste to the wooden floor of my lounge, particularly after a breakdown obviously engineered by someone who knows what rocks the dance ecstatic. This is the kind of stuff that disco dreams are made off, keep it strong you loving & caring nerds.

And so we sort of (but not quite) finish the post with a track included in Cosmo Vitelli’s Parisian label I’m a Cliche’s new ‘Cliche Breaks 12′. I shit you not, this motherfucker of a tune has enslaved the souls of your 20jazzfunkgreats fiends like the seductive neon emanations from some dreamed-of unholy collaboration between Barry de Vorzon, Jan Hammer and Fleetwood Mac, with anthemic riff antics dropped in the breakdown for extra whiplash inducing headbanging oomph.

This is our new theme tune.

Cliche Breaks- Straight my Time

Now seriously, after the infamous events conveyed to us in Walter Hill’s documentary, the Warriors decided to leave Coney for sunnier lands, and as they were driving down south it was this kind of bad-ass shit that was blasting total AM radio from the speakers of their graffittied van, ‘lots of pussy down there in Miami’ muttered Ajax while stroking his bulging biceps.

(what would we do without Tommy Boy?)

And this is where we finish the post with a new mixtape including songs we like ersatz-mixed with the help of Apple’s own contribution to the 2.0 revolution, Garageband, and no skills whatsoever. There is some choice stuff in there, however, do particularly check out Egyptian Lover’s remix of Dez Dickerson’s Modernaire soon to be released by awesome Citinite, and Zongamin’s codeine percussive remix of Mickey Moonlight’s anthem ‘Interplanetary Music’. Good times, as we said.

Commemoration of good times mixtape tracklist

1- Ennio Morricone- Theme of Ali

2-Soft Rocks- Black Magic

3-Alain Goraguer- Deshominisation I

4-Black Devil Disco Club- With Honey Cream

5-Venise- Playboy

6-Jellybean Benitez- The Mexican

7-Tom Tom Club- On the Line Again

8-Bostro Pesopeo- Falls (Hercules and Love Affair Remix)

9-Decadance- On and On (Dub)

10- Memory Control One- Counter

11-Dez Dickerson- Modernaire (Egyptian Lover Remix)

12- Brand Image- Are You Loving

13-Loose Joints- Tell You Today (short version)

14-Mickey Moonlight- Interplanetary Music (Zongamin Remix)

15-Vangelis- Let it happen

20JFG Commemoration of good times Mixtape

The image of Snake Plissken advancing stealthy down the mesas, sliding in between the small flows of life that flourish in the desert at night like a shark tracking down the scent of his prey in the air so still, desert foxes, coyotes and wild dogs staring on his wake like a visitation from a world even more feral than theirs, all of this while the sun starts announcing its arrival with lines of blood-light in the eternal horizon is one that 20JFG would pay dearly to see.As it is, the soundtrack for that potential scene will have to do, but then, what a fucking soundtrack this is.

Ass- Escape from NY (Main Title)

Ass’ ‘My Get Up and Go Just Got Up and Went‘ is the sound of John Fahey looking at the skies with the eyes of some kosmische sorcerer, and then reporting back slow and furious battle between constellations.

It is RVNG OF THE NRDS time again, so get ready for something good.

Wade Nichols, alter ego of one of our favourite edit wizards out there steps in the ring of fire in the new 12” that these defenders of everything that is good and beautiful are putting out. In this occasion the source of joy are three ridiculously awesome edits of AM radio classics, so far we have identified two of them, America’s ‘A Horse with No Name’ and Canned Heat’s ‘Wanda Rode Again’, here you have the latter, where the mournful country blues one-two one-two of the original is skilfully transformed into a barnyard stomper racing metronomic through highways of loneliness to show us an epic western landscape covered in white clouds like the hands of god were stretching to comfort us, somewhere in between Bill Calahan’s demesne of despair and Black Mountain’s Appalachian hut, frankly incredible stuff, get it here.

Wade Nichols- Wanda Rode Again

Oh, and if you are in Scotland this week, you could do waaaaay worse than go to this

If your astral body were to elevate into the sky and further, past cotton clouds, outside into the last confines of the atmosphere, and float there like Christ in that Dali painting, surrounded by metal teardrops and satellites of love with the blackness of space from which dad pulls the strings above you, to behold the beautiful Earth below with a gentle smile of bearded understanding, then you might see crackling and shimmering ley lines of spiritual energy joining a constellation of recording studios where the wizards of Kosmische cast spells of breath-taking beauty, and bless them, forgiving their paganistic obsession with night-clubbing and german prog. We have done it and we advise you to follow suit.

No, we don’t use LSD airlines, we just have highly developed imaginations and a well populated Sci-Fi library.

Now, welcome to space, here you have some more gems of changelling disco. Enjoy!

In the new Chinatown 12” you find two pieces of slow mo disco which, upon placement over the wheels of the steel, and activation of the hyperspace drive (tip: press ‘play’), shall summon will o’ the wisps of analogic love which burn like pink haloes over the speakers, Brennan Green’s Escape from Chinatown is a thrilling affair with a tip of the hat cheekily targeted at Master Carpenter, and participation from 20JFG fave Daniel Wang, while Green’s own version of Studio’s East Side takes slow introspection into new zones of spatial bliss, sounds are compressed using a DIY particle accelerator, atomic chains of melody interlock initiating a colossal synth reaction bound to leave the club full of neon-glowing skeletons dancing ecstatic in literal disco heaven.

Studio- East Side (Brennan Green Version)

The new rvng of the nrds release hot from the tasteful vaults of our soul brothers IGETRVNG (now we go way back with these guys) finds Lovefingers getting deep into the sound, his edits advance with glorious parsimony drawing a map between hidden beaches where each sunrise glimmers blinding like the birth of a new universe, you will know him from the trail of burned brains.

Zoysia is our choice cut, snippets of an intimate conversation between enamoured synth lines taking place in the classy dancefloor of a latin disco circa 1979, Hot on the Heels of Love no need to sweat it, you can be sure they are going to catch it, this is how they roll.

Get it HERE.

Lovefingers- Zoysia

And let us finish with an edit of Barry de Vorzon’s knuckle dusting classic Warriors Theme carried out by an expert in the field, The Beat Broker, who takes our rowdy bunch of bravos away from the rough streets of NYC into a new dimension populated by silvery spaced-out disco stations orbiting around alien worlds.

The muscles of the original remain nevertheless taut under a new surface of aerodynamic polymer alloy, in this version of Odyssey 2001 the belligerent monkeys have Baseball Furies make-up, the Discovery One is covered in cholo tags and HAL yells ‘CAN YOU DIG IT’, CAN YOU DIG IT?

Sure we do!! Let’s smoke a few Starship Troopers, mano.

The Beat Broker- Warriors (in Space)

From the Light Up the Night 12.

Couple of things

-We have Zombie Zombie playing in Brighton on the 11th of December at the Greenhouse Effect. Those of you who don’t know them, well. Get on with it, you need the fear.

Check out their aces podcast at our comrade’s Allez Allez

-Alexis pointed us in the direction of VideoThunder, go and check it out it’s winner. I wish more people rocked the Egyptian Lover look.

-And if you’re in Brighton on Saturday, do go to the SO LOUD! bash at the Volks with Digital Mystikz vs Boy 8-Bit. HEAVY.