Few highlights from this weeks new CD releases. The Prins Thomas live mix CD is the best mix I've heard in months!  - Oliver

Prins Thomas
Live At Robert Johnson Vol. 2 (CD)
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This is the second volume in a 4-part CD compilation series celebrating the 10th anniversary of Frankfurt's Robert Johnson club. Volume 2 has been selected and mixed by one of Norway's best: Full Pupp label head, DJ/producer, and versatile disco Viking, Prins Thomas. In the studio, Thomas sprinkles everything from the Junior Boys and Studio through to Justus Köhncke and techno classics on R&S Records with his lively drum-bass-organ magic. As a DJ, he works his sets from front to back, from loud to quiet, and from one genre to the next, through all various shades of grey in between. This is probably the only CD in the whole world on which Ricardo Villalobos dances to "Afro Punk Reggae Dub" by Steel An' Skin with his house band Cos/Mes, where a Playhouse classic from Roman Flügel performs an Acid Test in the "Gallery Oslo" by Kåre & The Cavemen, where synth-rock by Trans Am glows like a fixed star, and where Bjørn Torske makes it clear who was the first to polish the Norwegian disco ball (the Idjut Boys claim this title for England). Also on this mix, Closer Musik evokes wistfulness and Sébastien Tellier argues about beard lengths with DJ Harvey of Map Of Africa. Twenty-seven breathtaking gems, some of them affectionately edited by Prins, but always with two hands, a Urei mixing desk, two CD players and turntables, the mischievous Korg Kaoss Pad as well as an in/out insulator, and mixed with that unwavering, killer DJ instinct of his. And of course, everything is done live in one take so as to evoke the feeling of a Viking longboat on a stormy sea. Other artists include: Arpadys, Cage & Aviary, Capracara, Rub N Tug, Trans Am, Babytalk, Frankie Valentine, Isoul8, Low Motion Disco, Still Going, James Yuill, Dogs Of War, Anarchic System, Argy & The Mole, Martin Circus, Opolopo, Domu, Mathew Jonson, Samos, and Lindstrøm.

Get em now while you can! Early Techno classics!!

Model 500 Records Coming Back In Stock:

-Model 500 - BE BRAVE 12" RS98135 EXC

-Model 500 - BE BRAVE REMIXES 12" RS98135X

-Model 500 - CLASSICS DLP RS931LP EXC

-Model 500 - DEEP SPACE DLP RS95066 EXC

-Model 500 - I WANNA BE THERE 12" RS96084 EXC

-Model 500 - MIND AND BODY DLP RS99145 EXC


Also, New Electro 12"s Coming In This Weekend:

Deepgroove - THE CLOCK 12" (remix by JAMIE ANDERSON)(Rekids)
REKIDS037 EXC
"This one's idiotproof," laughs JOSH WINK. "THE CLOCK" is pure tech house magic, with a dancefloor stormer remix from BEN KLOCK. DEEPGROOVE & JAMIE ANDERSON also record under IDIOTPROOF, and carry the same sensibility over to their housier productions. This is an anthem!

Delphic - COUNTERPOINT 12" (R & S)
RS0903 EXC
DELPHIC are the missing link between CHEMICAL BROS & NEW ORDER, between UNDERWORLD & MUSE. On "COUNTERPOINT," they offer an epic, ravetastic moment produced by EWAN PEARSON. Includes a tech house bumper remix from THE CHAIN and PAUL WOOLFORD offers a heavy hitting techno mix. Incl. a dub.

If you are in the Bay Area there is one really great lineup at the Demon Days party at club Mezzanine in San Francisco tonight featuring legendary Detroit producer/DJ Carl Craig along with Gamall (Demon Days, NYC), plus the Bay Area's own longtime UK transplant Jonah Sharp under his Spacetime Continuum moniker featuring Nigerian drummer Sikiru Adepoju. And to top it off, local turntable crew [KONTROL] DJs featuring Alland Byallo, Nikola Baytala, Craig Kuna, and Sammy D will also be spinning throughout the night.

Carl Craig, accurately described as "the forefather of the second wave of Detroit techno," picked up where Juan Atkins and company started with that strain of electronic music in the Michigan city. In addition to being a super-talented, dedicated producer/DJ/remixer, Craig is also a committed cultural anthropologist and in 2000 was chosen as curator of the first Detroit Electronic Music Festival (something he since discontinued, as curator but not as a performer). As is evident in the above recent interview with the artist by UK based dollop, Carl Craig is always aware of and giving props to his city of Detroit and all the artists who have hailed from "the motor city" over the years including Kevin Saunderson, Bob Seger, Iggy Pop, and the White Stripes.

A direct descendent of American Bandstand, and the older, cooler cousin of Dance Party USA, Detroit's own televised dance show The Scene ran from the mid-70's until the late 80's, giving local urban teens a place to strut their stuff and be seen by nearly everyone in the metro area - literally. The show's popularity was so high at its peak that its ratings outshined all competitors, including the six o'clock news. The Scene was the focal point for local kids, as is evident by the enthusiasm of these young dudes:



More pertinent to this blog (and interesting to me) is that The Scene was popular during the birth and growth of Detroit's last enduring gift to the world: Techno.

The show aired on Detroit's only black-owned TV station, WGPR, and had its roots in the swinging disco Seventies, as you can see in this short piece from Detroit local news:

As disco "died", it was replaced by electro, boogie, and the eurodisco now commonly referred to as Italo-disco in the early Eighties. Its use of synthesizers would directly influence Detroit's black youth, not to mention the Belleville Techno triumvirate of Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Case in point: Scene-sters dancing suavely to Kano's "I'm Ready".