The Eccentric Grooves of Logan 5

I used to think that on most things, David Byrne and I agreed. Brazilian music, good. Disco music, good. Drum machines, good. Director Jonathan Demme, good. But then he did a whole art project in Microsoft powerpoint, and I wasn’t sure anymore. I loathe powerpoint. It’s a sad crutch for bad presentation skills. If the teaching’s good, you don’t need powerpoint! At the least, powerpoint should consist of black slides alternating with actual content, instead of being a steady barrage of useless, poorly conceived charts and bullets. You know what bullets do? They kill education. But back to David Byrne. And the Talking Heads. Remember how great Talking Heads cover art is? Let me refresh your memory. The Talking Heads record covers are high pop art - so revolutionary each that they’ve been parodied and duplicated many times since, so fascinating that they remain etched in my mind when I hear songs from each album. So today I went out looking for what DB’s been up to and happened to rea...

A huge thank you to the disconuts and disconaughts who brought the energy I love on friday the 28th, and thanks also to Future/Now crew for putting me on the bill so long ago that we had just barely met. I had a great time, dancing the night away long after my moment on the wheels, and generally spent a weekend in blessed recovery. More on your upcoming recovery options in a little bit… in the meantime, here’s my set from the evening: April 28, 2006 @ Future/Now Donna Summer (the original one) - Spring Affair [Casablanca] Patrick Cowley - Primitive World [Megatone] Phantom Slasher - Boys Cheese Done Fell Off His Cracker [Noid] Was Not Was - Wheel Me Out [Ze] The Quick - Zulu (instrumental version) [Pavillion] The Strikers - Body Music [Prelude] Kerrier District - IlLogan [Warp] Marques Wyatt - For Those Who Like to Get Down [Om] Dave Zee - I Have a Feeling (Soul Purpose Remix) [Airtight] Jeff Samuels - Awt [Spectral] Hakan Lidbo - Dimm the Lights [Force Inc.] Egoexpress - Aranda (...

So I’m out of town for a week for work conferences, but I had to leave you with a sweet, nostalgic treat for the week. I’ve been walking around wearing my atari shirt proudly all day, and played some Pacman at a taco joint on Thursday, so when I came upon an unmarked whitelabel record in the store today, dropped the needle and heard video game music remixes of Beck, it was as if the Universe spoke with the voice of the  Wozbot  and told me, “go forth and spread the lo-fi funk” - and so I’ve come with crunchy coin-operated choons for you. Download 3Z8bit here .  (8 MB MP3) Maru & Comix  - “3 SIDs In A Computer” There have been several compilations in recent years of music either made on Commodore 64 computers or made using the synthesizer technology they contain called the SID chip. In fact, the SID sound has become so popular you can buy kits to build your own SID synth, as well as synths made from 4 SID chips all working together to craft deliciously crystal...

A Disco Ex Machina Re-shaeffel, Minimal Danish Muslim Dance Music and the Great Michigan Drum Pattern Compromise: Download 3Z-7 here .  (10 MB MP3) Liquid Liquid - “Bell Head” (Liquid Logan Re-Shaeffel) Disco Ex-clusive! So we start with my own hasty but tasty re-edit, which I’ve wanted to do for a while. Anyone who’s witnessed my disco sets knows that the live drumming thing is a lot of fun, but it can be the bane of my existence when I’m trying to really work it live. But I’m quite fond of mixing the stuff, so I appreciate re-edits that quantize the music without sacrificing the character of the music. Detroit electro masters Ectomorph have made a nice little stream of records called “Secret Mixes and Fixes” on which do some blazing reworks (check out #4’s Prince “Controversy” re-edit — Aireon 51 knows what I’m talking about) while also fixing some disco/electro/techno classics to be more mixable. Liquid Liquid’s “Bell Head” has always been such a track for me: such raw drum-c...

We're at the end of a 3-part journey into the land of pirate treasure. And as we open the treasure chest full of bounce, we find the three more important cities in modern booty: Detroit, Baltimore, and Rio de Janeiro. Three cities connected by economic circumstance, long musical traditions, urban decay, love of a good party, and violent pedigree, leaving their indelible marks upon sweaty asses from Amsterdam to Capetown: Download this svelte, 7MB threesie right  here . Malha Funk - Nova Dança Buy Vinyl The ghettos of Rio have the best views; built upon hillsides too step for roads, these homemade- blah, blah blah, you've seen City of God and Bus 174 and Black Orpheus and you're down with Nacao Zumbi. This is the sound of the favela parties, the "funk balls" (isn't that uncomfortable?). By the way, they pronounce words ending in "k" a little differently, so it's really called baile fonkee. It can be repetetive, low-fi, completely resampled, an...

It's no secret that American music in all its forms (except Native American music, for some reason) has been hugely popular the world 'round. Our soul inspired reggae. Our funk inspired techno-pop. And our responses to techno-pop such as electro, detroit techno and chicago booty house have been heartily embraced the world over, including one little low-lying hotspot: Holland. Yes, windmills and dikes and clogs are what you learn growing up about the Lowlands. Then you get older, start collecting records and now your impression of The Netherlands is: legal drugs at reasonable prices, sad imported prostitutes (at reasonable prices), and awesome electronic music scenes. In 2003, the dutch electro scene saved us all: when it seemed like trashy, transparent electroclash was going to edge out the burgeoning resurgence of true electro and electrodisco appareciation, Bunker/Creme unleashed an incredible blast of deeply informed and lovingly crafted music that has certainly outla...

This is more like 3 songs with a whole bunch of extra electro shake thrown in the bag for good measure (ahem). Kicking off pirate treasure week on Disco Ex Machina, it's 12 minutes of mid-80's electro/rap: Get your linoleum, jimmy hats and a towel: download threesie #5 right  here . Alex Murphy - How Far Can You Go?  Buy Vinyl I promised we'd start with west coast electro, but is this really from Beverly Hills? Who cares. The point is that when I was a kid, there were two main inspirations for my love of electro. This was one of them, but I bet you've never heard the rap before, just like you're not falling for the banana in the tailpipe. Uncle Jamm's Army - Yes, Yes, Yes  Buy Vinyl And this was the other: in my suburban hometown of San Jose, CA we had a hawaiian-themed roller rink whose weekend DJ seemed to play nothing but the finest in electro and freestyle. They had these gigantic sinister tiki masks on the walls from which emanated rays of colored ligh...