faded seaside glamour

Watching this video this afternoon i couldn't help but feeling a bit sentimental.The song is a pure beauty it's self but i had never come across the video.The footage from New Brighton is breathtaking.I kept wondering how can a place i have never visited trigger so many feelings of nostalgia.Watching the cars drive in the dusk of this small seaside city near Liverpool and the city light fade in the horizon over the rooftops makes me feel a part of me is there.Upon visiting Brighton a few years ago i had this weird feeling again.To be honest Brighton felt like a scenery that existed only in some kind of a movie set rather than a real place.Neglected hotels on the beach,fish and chips with mashed peas the ghost of Phil Daniels and taking photographs on the peer.I keep wondering how it would be like to grow up in a place like this.I guess the real success of a work of art either this is a song,a video or a photograph is to vaguely travel you in a new imaginary world that exits only for a while.I can't help but thinking why is people find it so hard see that the real beauty of life lies in simple things like listening to a song like this one and daydream.I guess the answer is the same to the question why bands like It's Immaterial never made it big.Nevertheless ''Song'' is such a beautiful record.This band could sound so British and so international at the same time and i believe this is one of the reasons that made them so unique.I guess that international feeling is what makes the sound so balearic to my ears,sitting on the same self along with bands like The Blue Nile.

As far as i can see the lights are down,an out of season look about the town...an out of season look..

the lost weekend mix

This is my new mix that features some famous unknown songs from the 80's.Bands that were big,bands that should have been big,bands that should have been bigger and bands you should know and maybe you don't.Nice haircuts,loafer shoes,seaside weekends,make up for men,Expo 1985,Ibiza,Les Disques De Crepuscule,YMO,Paul Haig,Paninari,Italo,pop bands from Australia,Malcom McLaren,driving in my parents car,holiday postcards,Stock Aitken and Waterman,Nick Heyward.

Lost Weekend Mix

paranoia

This record is what you could easily describe a secret weapon.Majestic hypnotic balearic house that hides in the b-side of a record that is trashy as hell.

Don Pablo's Animals-Paranoia

ost 1

From "Par-Delà Les Nuages/Beyond The Clouds"
(Michelangelo Antonioni, Wim Wenders, Italy)
PASSENGERS - BEACH SEQUENCE

bachelor kisses

Well i guess you can't really comment much on this masterpiece.Maybe just say it paints the skies blue forever.

woozy with cider by james yorkston

I Watch the park quieten from the hotel window, I hear you softly sleep amongst the cars and saluting songbirds,
For a city whose size had scared me for years right now it's a feeble evening row, not un-similar to a beach evening ending
On the table to my left there's a magazine with a picture of dead money, making a mockery of what I'd call art
But what would I know about the scene in the city that has swallowed up friends lovers and family,
Just give a village the size of a teacup
You're happier here spread out with your eyes closed,
I feel I should order a drink in celebration to welcome the summer, whose first day is ending
Should you wake you'd catch me of course and ask me the wisdom of drinking once more
I cast me mind back to yesterdays wedding where we got drunk and fell over
I did my best to be polite to a family I'd never met, but on numerous occasions, I guess, I could have tried harder
Of course by the end of the night I was a best friend with everyone and every ones wife but right now I couldn't remember their names no matter how hard ii try

As the sun glares through the hotel window I wonder of our future and where it will lead to,
I wonder if you'll be laying there 10 years 20 years 30 years down the line
I'll still be staring out at the street confused about love and life,
It'll be interesting to see if anyone every bought those songs of mine if anyone heard those words that I never got quite right,
I think I can be honest in presuming the world is not exactly going to be leaping out its bed to make me rich using my songs in adverts selling oranges or lemons,
Who knows I may end up owning the whole street, or more likely sleeping under tree in the park opposite
Would the runners keep me awake or would I keep them asleep
I'd hope I have the sense to move back home, as lovely as today is, I‘d imagine the winter would be rather cold

I'd been told for years that the devil had the best tunes and that the devil lived down here whereas us country folk weren't worth the salt from the road
Ex pat magazine editors who choose to loose their temper on the easily persuaded northern town dwellers
And sure enough 99 percent of the people I meet have scant regard for entertaining me, it seems I'm too old too slow too quiet and just wrong
And I'm glad. In their cocaine fuelled electronic cabarets I'll be the man at the bar drinking overpriced whiskey from a bar maid who's to good to catch my eye
She only works here two nights a week, the rest of the time she's a singer on a rock and roll band
I bet she'd change her tune if I told her my album had peaked at number 172 and that I also had friends who worked in bars and that didn't define who they are
Though it certainly helps their capacity to drink.

But I've stayed off the subject
Now I'll be leaning over and waking you up, and you'll squint at me through the cracks between your eyelids, woozy with cider
As if you're asking exactly where we are and exactly what I wanted.
And I'll be happy because we won't be taking anything too seriously.

on vocals mr Steven Patrick

Vini Reily on guitar with Moz on vocals.A nice little song that ends in laughter.

VINCENT GERARD & STEPHEN PATRICK - I KNOW VERY WELL HOW I GOT MY NOTE WRONG

The Chaplin Band-Angelina

musica dal vivo mix

Internet..A good thing..where a lot of us find out
more about music,music that would probably not
have been exposed.
In the way for many of us to transfer sound files
ideas and,in some cases,important thoughts
about what we might have for dinner to the masses.
Whiskey..The role of whiskey will be made clearer
later.For now let me just say that it is an invaluable
asset to me in the creation of this mix.

Mixtape Musica dal vivo mix ENJOY

somnambulism

Here is a new mix i made last night while experiencing creative ''insomnia'' after drinking some Meisel Weisse beer.During my midnight travels i visited the French village Tourtour,listened to the song of a whale,i celebrated life,paid Dr Calculus a visit,chatted with Vangelis,tuned in to Minneapolis radio,fought under the sun with a french man,saw the ocean,wandered through Tokyo on high heels,and walked on air.Well that's too much excitement for one night i guess.

Somnambulism Mix

music is freedom from repetition!

If you love Sakamoto's "Before Long,"
you would like this one.
That piano melody is MAGICAL.
Great band.
DREADZONE - OUT OF HEAVEN

WHY DO PEOPLE CLAP

This track makes me want to live forever.
JEAN LUC PONTY - MIRAGE LIVE AT SEMBER OPERA

softcore

This is a piece of sun drenched slow motion Italo action that can take you on a trip to a secret little summery place where you can sooth your dry lips on the wet body of a girl that just got out of the sea.I know it's the middle of winter but dreaming is free so immerse with no hesitations.

Reeds-in Your eyes-Soft Version

liverpool 1

Wonderful balearic pop from Liverpool courtesy of Mr Ian Broudie.

Care-My Boyish Days

inside you

This track is an absolute killer.Not enough ways to describe this slow motion Italo monster with a balearic feeling all over.The drums are massive,the vocals are pure bliss,amazing heart felt vocals and climax that makes the song blow up towards the end.Enough said.Enjoy.

Giak-Inside You

this is a page from my diary

It's a fact that the last week was quite a busy one so this is the reason for the lack of posts.I'm sorry about that but i promise i will try and make up for that within the next days.At least there was Dr Rob's amazing mix to keep you company while i was not around.This is some exquisite northern pop from one of my favourite Factory bands that were a blueprint for hundreds of cut copies during the 80's.The Wake hailing from Glascow produced some quintessential singles on Factory and evolved from early gothic New Order zealots to jangly etherial pop heroes.This kind of sound reached it's peak on their masterpiece of an album ''Here Comes Everybody" released in 1985.One of my favourite tracks of the album is ''O Pamela'' which is the perfect example of where bands like the Field Mice drew their inspiration from.

THE WAKE - O PAMELA

dr rob-with godz on our side

Dr Rob is one of those people that earns your respect quite easily with his really polite ways and a really natural unforced modesty when it comes to praising his work.Rob's Tokyo to Kissa hosted on Test Pressing was without a doubt one of my favourite mixes of 2009 and one that touches a certain chord in me every time i listen to it.The wonderful words that accompanied the mix describing Rob's adventures in Japan was reason enough to make this mix a special one.Rob's mixes are always top quality so when he offered to do mix for us i was more than happy to host it.Once again emotional,sincere and dreamy Rob delivers a spiritual take on balearism with the suitably titled ''With Godz on our side''.Rob posts some great stuff on Test Pressing and holds a great radio show on Samurai Fm that you can check out here.

With Godz On Our Side

Neville Brothers – With God On Our Side

John Abercrombie – Timeless

Stumo Yamashita – Native

Foxx & Guthrie – Stroboscope

Micheal Head – Queen Matilda

Ry Cooder – Cancion Mixteca

William Ackermann - Visiting

DSK – Winter Lane (Drumless)

Kajagoogoo – The Garden

Nabowa – Open:2 (Mudd`s mix)

Thermomoderm – Radium Writes Its Name

Eno & Fripp – Swastika Girls

Stephan Jurgen – Smiling Penguins

all the time

DO PIANO - ALL THE TIME

calculator

Although the calendar tells me it's the 7th of January and we were supposed to be in the heart of winter,Athens continues to feel like a tropical city when it's 18 degrees outside the moment i'm writing these words.I know for most of you out there this will sound rather fascinating but for me it starts to feel a bit weird.Wish i could wear my new duffle coat and walk out to winter but that's just a fantasy for now.Today's post is not about the bloody weather in Athens though os lets move to the musical part of it.Stephen Duffy has to be one of my favourite people since i was a kid.Either as a solo artist or with Lilac Time he never stopped to surprise me with the diversity of his musical output.The prize for his most prolific ans weird release goes without second thoughts to the record he releases using the Dr Calculus alias.Designer Beatnik is a record that needs some hard effort to be described.Light years away from everything else he has produced ,it is a mix of euro,ebm,electro,Chris and Cosey,brass,new beat,surreal lyrics,oriental.The easiest way to get the vibe is to listen to the record yourselves.Quite a hard task that is though as the record i quite rare,so here is one of the tracks of the LP I find quite interesting.

DR CALCULUS - DREAM MACHINE

the jet set junta

A great Interview with Bid from the Monochrome set.One of my favourite bands and a truly underrated band that influenced the bulk of british bands that were active during the 80's.A small tribute to the unsung heroes of intelligent pop.