PLANET REVEALED

Just to say that we drew the winner for the Sebastian Leger competition who will now be taking a guest to Sankeys tomorrow night.

The answer, by the way, was 'Earth'. That said, we were very tempted to award something to the cheeky scamp who claimed that the planet where you would locate Manchester, England was actually 'Uranus' on behalf of it "being a shithole".

MP3: Duran Duran - 'Planet Earth (Night Version)' [zSHARE]

WIN SEBASTIEN LEGER!

It's competition time!

Yay!

So, DJ/producer Sebastien Leger is bringing his electronic house selection to Sankeys 1st December 2007 and we - or rather they - can offer you and one guest the opportunity to dance the night away there for free! We'll even nip down to the post office and brave the inevitable queue to send you a copy of the man's own Planets album too! We love you that much.

To be in with a chance of getting on that guestlist, just answer this worryingly difficult question:

On what planet would you find the city of Manchester, England?

Just email your answer with the subject title 'Planets' to northernights at gmail dot com by midday on Friday 30th November 2007. UK entries only. Obviously.

Oh, and you can read an interview with Sebastien... erm, where did we put it?... ah, yes: here.

THEME TUNES #2

It's the Queen's Diamond Wedding Anniversary. And it is an achievement and everything, yet we can't help thinking that every couple might be able to have such longevity with such resources at their disposal.

Most of us probably wouldn't end up on Jeremy Kyle with a fair few million in the bank helping to alleviate any situation. With a big enough house, we could even cope with sixty years shacked up with our third cousin from Greece. Despite his racist outbursts. And Nazi connections.

Do you think that they still have sex?

MP3: Das Pop - 'Fool For Love (Aeroplane remix)'
MP3: Annie - 'Helpless Fool For Love (Patrick Wolf remix)'

NOT-SO-RANDOM YOUTUBE POST

It's The Whip and their wondrous new single 'Sister Siam'. Available from all good record shops, a few mediocre ones and also the world wide web for like 79p or something. Now.

BANGERS AND MASH-UPS

Mashups might be deader than Diana and the old Pope combined, but there was a time (b.1999 - d.2004) when they ruled a certain corner of the clubbing roost.

Global practitioners Soulwax may have stolen all the headlines with their swashbuckling pairings of Nirvana and Destiny’s Child (see below) and the like, but, as the various mp3s here show, there were plenty of other producers willing and able to match anything the Flying Dewaele Brothers could come up with.

MP3: Soulwax - Smells Like Teen Booty (zSHARE)
What’s better than listening to two of the best pop singles of all time back to back? Listening to them AT THE SAME TIME, obviously.

MP3: Lionel Vinyl - Hot Skye (zSHARE)
In which Tiga’s sparse cover of Nelly’s ubiquitous ode to clothes removal becomes twice as danceable, by virtue of a glittery new Agoria backing slapped on by Lionel Vinyl. Nasal crooning in the chorus is provided by Jake Shears, who would later go on to etc. etc.

MP3: Dunproofin’ - Simian Tronic Disco (zSHARE)
Witness the perfect pairing of two equally-overblown, hands-in-air type affairs, as Dunproofin’ repeatedly slams SMD’s ‘It’s The Beat’ into Technotronic’s ‘rave staple’ ‘Pump Up The Jam’, like God banging two planets together (NB. your ears might bleed a bit).

MP3: cry.on.my.console - YAear!!! Mix!! (zSHARE)
Never one for half-measures, two-step pirate Josh Console decides that instead of the conventional two song structure, he would much rather mash up THE WHOLE OF 2004 in just over six minutes. Which is impressive, if a touch undanceable.

THEME TUNES #1

The first in an occasional series ['occasional' in as much as we'll do it now, like, on a whim, and see how we feel about the idea in a week], here are some tracks linked by one particular 'theme'. (See?)

In this case it's 'Paris Hilton'. But before you go running from your computer bellowing like Heather Small escaping from pitchfork-weilding villagers, none of the MP3s below are by the rich but dim porny clothes-horse herself. We heard the cod-reggae one about 'stars' being 'blind' [which might have been about Stevie Wonder] and it sounded like an Ace of Base b-side. We've wisely decided to give Hilton's own material a miss since then.

So instead here's Maurice Fulton's missus with her Mu project where it's somehow appropriate to impersonate a chicken for the bonkers 'Paris Hilton'. Then there's CSS's 'Meeting Paris Hilton' and The Clik Clik with a song called... wait for it... 'Paris Hilton'.

Oh, and we were introduced to teen duo The Clik Clik by the wonderful Hip Young Gunslinger, by the way. Have a listen over at their MySpace too: they have this raw Jamie T thing but, in our opinion, are even better.

MP3: Mu - 'Paris Hilton' (zSHARE)
MP3: CSS - 'Meeting Paris Hilton' (zSHARE)
MP3: The Clik Clik - 'Paris Hilton' (zSHARE)

RANDOM YOUTUBE POST

Just reminded of this track when it popped up in a new mix that's available for download from the people at Modular. The video probably seemed like a really good idea at the time. But bet this lot ['Krush'] shit themselves when YouTube went and got itself invented.

BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED

Known for his activities as a Slippery Person (ie 'resident') at Naïve Melody, Andro has also been playing some of the key sessions at the likes of The Warehouse Project, Bugged Out and Tribal Sessions. Given how Naïve Melody is coming up to its second birthday and, this week, also has a great party lined up with Michael Mayer, Superpitcher and Hot Chip DJ’s, we thought you'd like to limber-up with this current mix from the man himself.

1. Supermayer – ‘The Art of Letting Go’
2. Grauzone – ‘Eisbar’
3. Fairmont – ‘Bikini Atoll’
4. Doppereffekt – ‘Sterilization’
5. Robot for Brains – ‘Space Junk’
6. UND – ‘Fox in the Box’
7. Dexter – ‘Raw!’
8. Yello – ‘Bostich’
9. Fancyman – ‘Fancyman (Le Orgue Electronique remix)’
10. Outlander – ‘Vamp’
11. Abe Duque – ‘Acid’
12. Throbbing Gristle – ‘Hot on the Heels of Love’
13. JPLS – ‘Green (Skoozbot remix)’
14. 2 Lone Swordsmen – ‘The Bunker’
15. I Robots – ‘Frau’
16. Modeselektor – ‘Unknown’
17. Dapayk – ‘Crrrrrrriiissssssspppp’
18. Zander VT – ‘Dig Your Own Rave’
19. Phil Kieran – ‘Pinhole of Light’
20. Redshape – ‘Dog Day’
21. Efdemin – ‘Bergwein’
22. LFO – ‘You Have to Understand’

MP3: Andro Elektronik Mix (Sendspace)

"GOT. GOT. NEED. SWAP."

Elton John & Kiki Dee, Queen & David Bowie, The KLF & Tammy Wynette, Run DMC & Aerosmith... um, Westlife & Mariah Carey? Collaborations can be fun, can't they? Ex-Mo' Wax label boss James Lavelle obviously thinks so and he collects his 'Unkle feat.' releases like Panini stickers. The shiniest from his collection would include work with Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft, Ian Brown, Josh Homme, Brian Eno, Slam and Badly Drawn Boy.



A bit back he also worked with Graham Gouldman of seminal local oufit 10cc. Seemingly drafted in to provide the same multi-layered vocal effect as demonstrated on, the classic, 'I'm Not In Love', the resulting 'In A State' was a spacious standout from the Unkle album Never Never Land complete with Mani (Stone Roses/Primal Scream) on bass. It also received a full release with remixes from the likes of Sasha, Total Science and The DFA.



Only Graham Gouldman's about to take 10cc out on stage again with a Lowry date providing an opportunity to hear his aforementioned ambient outing alongside the likes of 'Dreadlock Holiday'. Similarly Unkle play Academy 1 (although we dare say the big name vocalists heard in the studio work will be elsewhere). The vocal on 'In A State', by the way, comes courtesy of Lavelle's Unkle partner Richard File.


MP3: Unkle - 'In A State'
MP3: 10cc vs Destiny's Child [2 Many DJ's mash-up lifted from As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt 2]

"TWO FREE STAPLES WITH EVERY COPY"

"Two free staples with every copy" being the hilarious and seemingly 'popular' sales pitch from one of the city's Big Issue vendors. Although say you just happened to work in St Anns Square, it somehow lost its sheen when you heard the same thing over and over and over again. Same goes for the guy with the sax and his similarly limited repertoire.

"But what has this got to do with me?" you may be asking yourself. Well just wait one fucking minute as we're getting there. Sheesh.

Locally-based writer Gary Ryan is a friend of Northernights. Northernights is a big fan of Gary Ryan. We'd love it if he only contributed to the Northernights site/blog/massage parlour but that's not going to happen: he consistently argues that he needs to work elsewhere so that he can afford to eat occasionally [Haribo does not grow on trees, he'll sob]. Anyway, we've just spied something he's contributed to the latest Big Issue in the North about some of the exciting talent coming out of Manchester. He namechecks clubs like Tramp, Keys Money Lipstick, Contort Yourself, High Voltage and Clique plus bands like The Whip, The Tigerpicks, The Ting Tings and Daggers. You should buy it. It's available from all good homeless.

ORTZROKA'S REVENGE

Championed by everyone from Ewan Pearson to Agoria, OrtzRoka have been delivering some quality material of late. The single, 'Midnight/Black Magic' is pretty stunning, for example, plus there are also some brilliant remixes for Peter Bjorn & John, Dub Pistols and Robyn that have been doing the rounds.

Anyway, one of our current favourites is the re-jig of Simian Mobile Disco's 'Hustler' which we're streaming below. Meantime, if you're in London 21/11/07, they'll be playing a live set in support of Australia's lovely Midnight Juggernauts and you should also be keeping an ear out for their rework of a collaboration between Luke Vibert and French Moog darling Jean Jacques Perrey.

VINTE QUATRO DISCOS

Another mix. This one - '24 Records' - is a touch faster and features quite a few vocals that aren't in English. Mainly Portuguese but some German and Swedish in there too. It's also a bit shorter this time so shouldn't take as long to download as the last one.

Oh, and we spoke to DJ Gorky of Bonde Do Role this week and [in English - because we're crap like that] we asked him about his band's lyrics. We'd been told that the title of 'Solta O Frango' translates as "Release The Chickens" and he went on to explain that it's Bonde Do Role's very own 'Hakuna Matata'. Their "problem-free philosophy", if you like.

24 Records

1. React 2 Rhythm – ‘Intoxication (Guerilla In Dub mix)’
2. React 2 Rhythm – ‘Intoxication (Dubfield mix)’
3. Justin Martin – ‘Cicada (Claude VonStroke 17 Year mix)’
4. Plastic Operator – ‘Why Don’t You (Jesse Rose & Oliver $ remix)’
5. Skream – ‘Midnight Request Line (Switch remix)’
6. Radioclit – ‘Divine Gosa’
7. Bonde Do Role – ‘Gasolina (Crookers Crunk remix)’
8. The Chemical Brothers – ‘The Salmon Dance (Gtronic remix)’
9. Sinden & Count of Monte Cristal – ‘Tamborzuda (Bass & Beats mix)’
10. Hijack – ‘Trouser Jazz’
11. Edu K – ‘Gatas Gatas Gatas (Crookers remix)’
12. Dizzee Rascal – ‘Sirens’
13. Scarface – ‘Tony’s Back’
14. Jack Peñate – ‘Second, Minute Or Hour (Aaron La Crate & Debonair Samir remix)’
15. Bumblebeez – ‘Dr Love (Crookers remix)’
16. Maskinen – ‘Alla Som Inte Dansar’
17. Paul Johnson – ‘Get Get Down (Charlie Fanclub remix)’
18. DJ Znobia – ’13 Horas’
19. Mavado – ‘Weh Dem A Do (TREW Bmoreish remix)’
20. Jaymo – ‘Tuned In Live’
21. DJ Znobia – Tchilo (Diplo remix)’
22. Nick Deekline – ‘M.A.N.D.Y. vs DJ Assault (bootleg)’
23. Christian Bruhn – ‘Planet Der Kranken (Sirius Mo remix)’
24. The Human League vs Kissy Sell Out – ‘The Things That Dreams Are Made Of’

MP3: Various - '24 Records' (zShare)