EMBED KODE

Here's a rather stylish video for an in-progress, untitled track from Kode9. The man himself is set to drop hip hop, reggae and (naturally) dubstep when he plays Friends and Family 20/06/08.

YEAR OF THE RATATAT?

The last time that new material from New York duo Ratatat was all over the internet was with 'Shiller' and, before that, via the leaked tracks known collectively as '9 Beats'. And then there have been those rumours that The Neptunes have expressed interest in signing them to Star Trak. Anyway, it's actually XL Recordings who are firmly in control on this side of 'The Pond' and they've just unveiled, latest track, 'Mirando': a preview of what's to come on Ratatat's July-released third album (the not-very-adventurously-titled 'LP3').

Enjoy the Predator-themed video above and help yourself to an MP3 by doing that funny old right click thing on this word here.

FIVE MORE

We'd have liked this extended weekend to go on and on and on. It's been fun.

Anyway, in some pitiful attempt to deny an awaiting dull midweek, we've got some more disco dancing music masquerading as "a mix". You will find it by clicking this red word here.

Tracklist:

1. Yazoo - 'Situation (Hercules and Love Affair remix)'
2. Hercules and Love Affair - 'Blind (Serge Santiago remix)'
3. Inner City - 'Big Fun (Simian Mobile Disco remix)'
4. Newcleus - 'Jam On It (Claude VonStroke remix)'
5. Al Usher - 'Gnanfou'

MY LITTLE PONI

Mancunians will be enjoying the sabbath this weekend with a plethora of wonderful musical events (and Goodgreef) taking place all over the city centre. The jewel in this Sunday's noisy crown however will be the performance of Poni Hoax playing upstairs at Revolution Oxford Road.

If you are not familiar with these equine superstars, Poni Hoax are the Joakim-produced dark disco five piece from Paris signed to too-cool-for-you label Tiger Sushi. Their sound, described as 'horror disco', is truly unique. Macabre italo basslines and harsh strings tango with Nicolas Ker's edgy vocals to create a spectacular mix.

Manchester's coup is seeing the band play in such intimate - if unusual - surroundings, so pick yourself up one of those wacky cocktail jugs, order a burger and chips and let one of the most exciting bands in Europe make you sing and shout until your voice goes a 'little horse' ... sorry.

CONVEXTION ACTION FROM FAKTION

Ahead of its next party at the School of Sound Recording with Berghain resident Marcel Dettman, the very promising Faktion has made available a 90 minute recording of Convextion's set (from last month's event). You can get that podcast here.

NINETEEN RECORDS

Strictly (read: pedantically) speaking this isn't nineteen records as some of the individual tracks were actually collected on one release.

Oh, and we've got an interview with, vocalist, Mapei that we'll be posting on the main site soon.

X MARKS THE SPOT

Our favouritest producer comin' straight outta Whalley, Lancashire is, quite naturally, Richard X. After dabbling with his own pop stardom, he's been busy working with the likes of Annie, Roisin Murphy, Sam Sparro, Saint Etienne and Ebony Bones of late. Meantime, his virtual home, Black Melody, has been spruced up with a pretty brilliant discography complete with some astounding trivia regarding those releases (from Mr X himself). You can find out just how butch Tiga is, revisit the ill-fated "Gareth Gatex" and hear all about M.I.A.'s earrings here.

'DON'T GO' - DO GO, THOUGH

Having one name in the UK and one name in America is a circumstance that I personally wouldn't fancy - saying that, I am still a little bitter that Opal Fruits were renamed to mimic their substandard Yank cousin. But sweets are sweets, and right now I'm talking about bands. And, in particular, one two-piece making some semi-waves with their "long awaited" comeback tour.

Yazoo, Essex's favorite synthpop chart troublers, were called 'Yaz' in the states [check LCD Soundsystems 'Losing My Edge' if you don't believe me] and they're soon to embark on a two week whirlwind tour of the UK stopping off at the Apollo 07/06/08.

Releasing two albums and literally a handful of singles in the early 80's, it's testament to the strength of their big hit 'Don't Go' and 'Situation' - a Hacienda favourite courtesy of an epic Kervorkian re-edit - that they are remembered 25 years on.

Check out Vince Clark and Alison Moyet on last weeks Jonathon Ross show. Is it just me or does Moyet look a bit like a chubby Kirsten Dunst?

THEME TUNES #9

This year we'll be celebrating 50 years since the invention of the laser. We're not sure how we should mark such anniversary but we've cobbled together a shortlist that includes Jedi fighting and teeth whitening. Radiohead, on the other hand, have been making a video for 'House of Cards' that's shot using a laser instead of a camera. Wow. Maybe it saves a rainforest or something.

MP3: S'Express - 'My Laser (Just Won't Function Anymore)' [Yousendit]
MP3: Jori Hulkkonen - 'Gentlemen Prefer Laser' [Yousendit]
MP3: Matmos - 'Snails and Lasers For Patricia Highsmith' [Yousendit]
MP3: Zero 7 - 'You're My Flame (Blunt Laser remix)' [Yousendit]
MP3: Hexstatic - 'Red Laser Beam' [Yousendit]

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

If there is one thing Channel 4’s popular property porno taught us - apart from that Kirstie Allsopp is an entirely beautiful and wondrous human being - it is that, in this life, location is everything.

Think about it: you wouldn’t go dancing in a shed full of shit, would you? No, a nice, shit-free locale is a basic prerequisite of a good night (which is why no one ever goes out in Rochdale).

Here at Northernights, we make it our business to tell you about nice places to go and dance in. Which venues rock and which merely shake. We’re good to you like that.

ANYWAY.

One venue you might not have expected to read about is Urbis, the big glass triangle over the road from oxygen-stealing misery hole the Printworks. We went recently to ‘check out’ their new night, Birds Need Trees, where bands, DJs and artwork literally (NB not literally) collide in the comfortable confines of the urban gallery.

But how does Urbis stack up as a venue for this sort of thing? Let’s have a look:

PROS:
:: Beautiful ‘futuristic courtyard’ surrounds
:: Friendly atmosphere
:: Pretty lights
:: Excellent DJs
:: They sell Sailor Jerry rum*

CONS:
:: You’ve got to walk a bit to get to the bar

So that settles it. Pros win. Pros win! Pros win! Urbis rocks.

FYI Birds Need Trees happens again on June 7. There is a Facebook Event for it here, if you’re all down with the kids and ‘Web Twenty’ and all that.

*possibly the nicest-tasting substance known to man.

ASBO SELECTOR

So what would have happened if Blazin' Squad had fucked off to Bolton with some Scooter "anthems" blaring out of their mobile phones?
Well, meet Blackout Crew.



Oh.

SHORT NOTICE(S)

Santogold plays The Roadhouse tonight.

Sam Sparro plays Night & Day tonight.

SOUND TAPE KILLIN'

The latest video from Toddla T is, of course, amazing.

Here's an older one from him too.

A QUICK CHAT WITH MIKE SIMONETTI

Glass Candy are in town this Thursday and playing the Star & Garter. They're good, aren't they? Anyway, we thought we'd ask a bloke who releases their records a few questions - him being Mike Simonetti.

Only he is pretty interesting in his own right: a stalwart of New York's club scene and a quality DJ plus he was previously found behind the Troubleman label before he began wooing record buyers with his so-so-fucking-cool Italians Do It Better logo. Y'know: the one responsible for Glass Candy; the one that regularly fuses vintage discotheque synths and new wave touches and all that. So, aside from saying hello and explaining who we are and what we were trying to do and then saying cheers and hanging up, this is pretty much what was said.

The Italians Do It Better name is inspired by both that vintage club sound from Italy and a t-shirt Madonna wore in one of her videos, isn’t it?

The Madonna shirt didn’t influence the name - I found a picture of that afterwards. The name is something I always heard growing up in New Jersey. And I think IDIB spans all genres of dance music - not just Italy’s cosmic sound. I do like that stuff, but I also like other genres too. I think we just want to release good dance music.

Oh, okay. The design for the releases look pretty similar to old disco records. Was it important to have that kind of authenticity?

The design is all Johnny from Glass Candy – who’s also my label partner. He puts almost as much time into the art as the music and it is very important. I don’t know if these records are themselves ‘classics’, but it definitely would be cool if they were ever considered so.

If you could sign any one artist to the label, who would it be?

Bruce Springsteen because he is just the best. Or maybe Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac.

A lot of people might see your peers as the DFA label, Lindstrom & Prins Thomas, The Emperor Machine and other leftfield disco types, I suppose. Would you agree? Do you like them?

I like all those artists you mentioned. I particularly love the Norwegians. And we are going to be working with them in the future.

When you DJ, do people ever say the music is too slow?

Well, I tend to go all over the place when I DJ. I don’t play “slow” music exclusively: it depends how I feel that night. There are times when I play all techno or house or disco or weird Balearic rock but my main job as a DJ is to get people dancing and having fun. I’m not DJing to show off my record collection. I have had the “play harder” complaints. However I don’t play the banging electro stuff so those people expecting that usually get angry and leave.

Fair enough. Thanks for that, Mike.

OLIVER $ MIX

After work alongside Jesse Rose, Oliver $ is someone we've been watching closely of late. He's now mixed the bonus CD of the Made To Play compilation which was released last week.

Sparing you a trip to the shops, you can also sample this recent podcast which follows a similar path (i.e. it's ace). Do that whole right click thing - yeah?

Tracklist:

1. Jan Driver - 'Kardamoon'
   
2. Underworld - 'Globe (Jesse Rose remix)'
3. Consistent - 'Crazy'
4. Unknown - 'Unknown (Solid Groove & Sinden remix)'
5. Hotchip - 'Ready for the Floor (Jesse Rose remix)'
   
6. Worthy - 'Crack-El (Justin Martin remix)'
   
7. Riva Starr - 'What the Fuck'
8. DS - 'One Force (Jesse Rose & Oliver $ remix)'
9. Armand van Helden - 'Playmate (Jesse Rose remix)'
   
10. Justin Martin - 'Ghetto Train (Oliver $ remix)'
    
11. Oliver $ - 'Double Whopper'
12. Unknown - 'Unknown'
    
13. Spank Rock - 'Bump (Switch Remix)'

FREE TIME

It's time to announce another one of those free Vice parties (Mint Lounge, 30/05/08). And it's possibly this exact point where you can start taking them for granted. Maybe you also want to begin some backlash - preferring instead to go out and spend loads of money on stuff. Because you're fashion. Right?

Or maybe you'd rather just enjoy the fact that someone or something has bothered to get together a few great acts and stick it in a room where drinks are available and others - within your neat little demographic - are just not charged to be a part of THIS! GREAT! THING! Albeit on the understanding that you might buy into some idea regarding a corporation or whatever further down the line. This latest party is sponsored by, clothing label, Fly53 so please do let 'the brand' enter your subconscious while checking out Bumblebeez, Mapei and, our favourite, Buraka Som Sistema. Listen, see, dance, conform, obey and sell what little remains of your youth and its 'culture', etc. But first register here for tickets, you great big corporate whore, you.


This post was brought to you in conjunction with Stupid Fucking Cynic: the sneer you can wear between meals without catching cancer.