Several things happened at once on Saturday Night – I was compelled in many different ways to do things; marvellous things, like writing about music AND spread the love about what I found to be a most enjoyable experience at The Black Dove in Kemptown.

Now, I don’t get out much anymore and as this blog would suggest if you care to read back through the posts, I have pretty much hung up my headphones and archived the vinyl in favour of picking up real instrumentation again. Musically, you will now find me rehearsing with a three piece power trio in a very salubrious converted public toilet in the centre of Brighton rather than frequenting the bars of this fair town seeking out disco pleasures. The world is an ever changing place you know…

But I do every now and then surface from the deafening maw of the studio to reconnect with all things sparkly and Saturday gone I had a most pleasurable experience. Partner in crime Johnny Recess was having a birthday bash at The Black Dove, 74 St James St, Kemptown and I have to say it’s been a long time since I enjoyed a pub as much as I did. And get this – I was sober. As a judge. And I STILL really enjoyed myself (it is possible kids).

So, this place is intimate, has a decent sound system, bar staff that know what they’re doing, a brilliantly stocked bar, a cool little downstairs bit which is even more intimate than the upstairs bit, a nice outside bit with tables for smokers and a decor that says “I’ve been travelling the world (and the underworld) for 40 years and everywhere I’ve been I’ve brought a little piece back with me”, either physically, or emotionally I would say…

Perhaps my attraction to the place was the bar or perhaps it was the clientele, who for the most part had made exquisite efforts to dress nice. No, not nice, positively spiffing in a kind of vintage 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s oh who gives a flying fuck what decade it is let’s have a large G&T yes? kind of way.

And the music, provided by the hosts The Devil’s Music, was a real mix of stuff you just don’t hear played out enough – jazz, blues, swing… erm, as they put it themselves: “a low slung night at the best juke joint in town, come down and get your teeth swimmin’ to swinging speakeasy tunes and American Roots debauchery, dress up sharp enough to draw blood and shake a leg!”. Yeah, well, by midnight it was really hotting up and I was sad to leave. Highly recommended.

Also highly recommended is ‘seeing all your friends at once’ (Disco aficionados please note topical reference) in a great place. In the house were Ali ‘Go Bang’ Broadcast and general all round top bloke Tim ‘Acid House’ Rivers. Ali and Affy Go Bang have been ramping things up in their camp this year with regular nights at the Green Door Store just off Trafalgar Street and a little bit of production going on (go fellas – you iz gonna be massiv). The Green Door Store is another of those relatively new venues which I am massively rating and need to make more time to get to. Pride weekend will see some Go Bang shennanigans so check out their website for details (link below). Tim along with Steve KIW of ‘Steve KIW‘ fame (he’s played Royal Festival Hall don’t you know so does not require further introductions!) has been tearing up dancefloors at the ever-loyal-to-the-disco-scene Globe pub on Middle Street so check it OUT brothers and sisters.

Chewing the fat with partners in groove from times gone by was just such a fine way to spend an evening and it was so bloody NICE to find out that people’s projects and creative juices were still flowing and that people were reaping the rewards of their commitment to the higher funk.

I just feel so FUCKING POSITIVE! Summer rocks…

If you have any sense, check out:

1. The Devil’s Music
2. The Black Dove
3. Go Bang
4. The Green Door Store
5. The Acid House
6. The Globe

That is all!

x

James Alaska is a London based composer, producing intricate and delicate noise-infused soundworks as The Alaska None, using lo-fi obfuscated fragments from vinyl and tape which are muted, contorted and re-contextualized. In this mix, Alaska attempts to create an effortless flow of ambient soundscapes, creating a sense of contemplative narrative.

This was put together especially for the fantastic ‘Headphone Commute‘ site. Tracks by David Axelrod, Bj Nilsen, Andres Bosshard, Alva Noto, Vlk and himself; most tracks remixed or re-edited with Alaska flair – a fine end result…

Do visit the site, download and do leave comments!

x

Hello Recess people… small news from the inner sphere. Feb 15th will see our server contract lapse and so the podcasts on iTunes will no longer be available for download. We’ve shut up shop on DeepFrequency for the time being and are closing down operations for the moment. Time for a change…

If you’re a fan of the shows you can…

Subscribe to iTunes and download all the shows before they disappear or you can download or stream them from Deep Frequency (registration / allow popups required) where the shows will hopefully be up for some time.

It’s been marvelous broadcasting and blogging stuff over the last three years but all good things come to an end.

Big love and thanks for all the support

Rich & John

x

Get on with this….

November’s show finds us delving into deepest darkest autumn sounds and getting all downbeat on yo’ good selves. Definitely a show for kicking your shoes off to, rather than pulling on your disco pants… in fact, the disco police came knocking when we put this together because the whole 1.5 hours is devoid of cowbells and glitter balls. We travel confidently into some more alternative noise… expect BJ Nilsen, Serge Gainsbourg, Bowie, Jichael Mackson, Sub Version and more…

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1. War (Matty G Remix) – Bob Marley
2. AG (Tom Croose Inner Space Ski Boot Mix) – Worst Friends
3. A Nomad’s Retreat – Pantha Du Prince
4. A Zed & Two L’s – Fila Brazillia
5. Cannabis – Serge Gainsbourg
6. Les Visiteurs – Georges De La Rue
7. What Does Your Soul Look Like – DJ Shadow
8. Weeping Wall – David Bowie
9. Into It’s Coloured Rays – BJ Nilsen
10. Pussylicker – M83 vs Aphex Twin vs Khia
11. While Others Cry – Future Sound Of London
12. Make Sense & Loose (Ulrich Schnauss Mix) – I’m Not A Gun
13. Brandishing The Light Eternal – The Radiation Line
14. You Mean So Much To Me – Blondes
15. The Grass Is Always Greener – Jichael Mackson
16. So Derobe – Joy Orbison
17. Gone – Harry Craze
18. Free To Funk – Sub Version

© Richard Grabel

October is upon us and we have another marvelous mix for you. ‘Leftover’ aka Sibel Lagerdahl, is providing much needed Swedish Cement to hold us together in the darkening autumn – and I will be freaking you all out with some jazz… my god, and Norwegian jazz at that!

OK so it’s a Scandinavian invasion on your radio machine this month; most of the artists and all of the Leftover mix have been flown in from lands afar – we got some Lindstrom, Beatfanatic, Stockholm Cyclo, Arvid & Eerik Siikasaari and a whole lot more frosty fun… come and have a go… x

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Part One – Rich Recess Scandinavian Selection
1. Send In the Clowns – Kornstad Trio
2. Looking For What – Lindstrom & Christabelle
3. Turning Loose (Ron Basejam remix) – Bonar Bradberry
4. Inner Sunshine – Solar Bears
5. Little Bit – Lykke Li
6. Round the Moon – Summer Camp
7. Sing (Floating Points remix) – Four Tet
8. Inside Out – Kink / Neville Watson
9. Fot I Hose – Casio Kids
10. Byakuya – White Nights – Mika Pohjola / Yusuke Yamamoto

Part Two – Leftover: Swedish Cement Mix
11. Hett Bly – Skit
12. Automatic – Beatfanatic
13. Beginning People – Stockholm Cyclo
14. Phases 2 – Nonoman
15. A Lovely Day – Beatfanatic
16. Har Du Hört? – Sofi Hellborg
17. Sticky- Stockholm Cyclo
18. Shimmer – Arvid & Eerik Siikasaari
19. Twist In My Sobriety (Alf Tumble Re-Dress) – Tanita Tikaram
20. Tonite – Stockholm Cyclo

Hold onto your hats. Guest blogger James Alaska has gone and written another epic… this time we swap glitterballs and loft parties for men in makeup and some serious axe work – the rock never leaves you…

____________________

Here’s a gem I’ll wager you’d have passed over in the racks of Rounder or Sister Ray. I’m guessing this is one band you never thought you’d see on the Recess Radio Show’s web pages. Well, rest assured, I’m not about to extol or excuse the absolute dross and drivel that without exception characterised everything KISS touched from 1980 onwards. I’m going to rasp the praises of an album that is most definitely the unsung treasure of their largely overlooked early years; those Alice Cooper inspired New York Dolls-esque first few forays into the world of KISS in the studio.

I first bought this album on vinyl aged 11 in 1984, from Volume records in Newcastle (a truly legendary record shop, which sadly, of course, is no longer with us). This is back in the days when Lindstrom was a still a babyfaced nipper chasing his fisher price vinyl van round the nursery, and long before anyone would ever dream of using the words ‘post’ and ‘disco’ in the same sentence. Sinclair C5’s were ‘the future’ and Cubase was the stuff of a madman’s dreams.

From first listen this album stood out as an aural delight, stuffed to the gills with great basslines, beats and truly legendary production. I recently re-discovered it after spotting another vinyl copy in the dirty crates among several thousand schlager albums whilst on a sonic mission in darkest Bavaria. I dusted it off, packed it away safe, and carried it all the way home as a gift for my good friend Mr. Rich Recess. But what of the album itself……..?

Dynasty was the band’s seventh studio album, and is most definitely the last great stand of KISS mark one – the Star Child, the Demon, the Cat Man and the Space Ace, and it really was ‘somethin’ else’ in the best and in every sense.  It was released in 1979, at a time when the band badly needed a return to their former platinum selling days, having taken a two year hiatus and a few ill advised gambles, like choosing to release four solo albums on the same day in September ‘78 (many of which ended up in the bargain bins).

Dynasty was to revive their flagging careers, hitting top ten in the U.S. billboard chart and providing the band with their biggest selling single to date in the shape of ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You’. It marked a much needed return to form, and contains more than its fair share of choice cuts, that you might not have guessed were KISS had you taken the Pepsi challenge. Dynasty is also an A-1 spangly-shining example of the far reaching influence of dance music culture, Studio 54 and the gr**vy sound of America’s most darling (and later most despised) genre, having been recorded at a time when everything, it seemed, was reflected through a mirrorball.

The years 1977 – 79 saw disco come out of the black gay underground and become a worldwide phenomena. Post Saturday Night Fever, everybody wanted a slice of the honeypie, and in much the same way as had happened with psychedelia ten years earlier, A&R men were falling over themselves to sign anything featuring a cowbell or a string section which made as much as a passing reference to ‘New York’, ‘Saturday’ or ‘Nightlife’. Record companies had whole disco departments devoted to finding the next Bee Gees or Silver Convention, and for a while it seemed that the entire industry was run more or less on the disco dollar. Everyone jumped on the gravy train and ‘discofied’ hits were de rigeur, with the likes of Blondie, Queen, ELO, The Stones, Wings and Rod Stooart to name but a few, all doing their best, for better or worse, to go dance floor.

Thanks to Steve Dahl, the disgruntled Chicago rock-ist radio DJ, and his (Racist? Homophobic? shawly not….) Insane Coho Lips Anti-Disco Army, all of that came to an abrupt end one hot summer night in ’79. Dahl had previously been sacked from his rock show on Chicago’s WDAI Radio in 1978 after the station ‘went disco’.

Dahl wasn’t going to take this lying down, and being pretty pissed off at the way that rock had suddenly become yesterday’s news, he did everything he could to drive out the evil ‘fag music’. On ‘Disco Demolition Night’, July 12^th at Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox, Dahl blew up a mountain of disco records, causing a commotion in the process and making the headlines. Thousands of rock fans, invited via the airwaves, invaded the pitch chanting ‘Disco Sucks’ and making a bit of a nuisance of themselves.

This event seemed to effect a bizarre consciousness change in the American record buying public’s tastes and wallets, and has since gone down in history as ‘the Night That Disco Died’. Thereafter dance music went firmly back underground, and the painted face of the billboard charts would never look the same again. Dahl and his droogs ensured that D**co would be a very dirty word for a few decades to come, and their mantra of “Disco Sucks” would be the new ethos among A&R men and record company execs, as thousands were laid off, and those left were eager to hang onto their jobs.

This was all still to come, however, when our four native New Yorkers went into the studio to lay down Dynasty. Though it was about to have its day (at least as far as the mainstream went), in spring ’79 disco was still very much the word on everyone’s lips, and it’s all over this baby, baby.

Put the needle on the record, and you’re immediately sucked into some seriously satin covered version of 70’s rock. ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You’ is the album’s opening cut, and it’s most ambitious. Ace Frehley’s guitar work is the mutt’s nuts. Paul Stanley sounds like he’s been doing the night shift in Harlem. And Vini Poncia’s production, when coupled with Gene Simmons chugging bass, gives the whole track an almost Moroder-esque tinge, as if Metal Mickey were fronting a slightly tinny Temptations covering ‘I Feel Love’. The result adds up to a track that wouldn’t sound out of place in a DJ set by Greg Wilson or S**lwax.

A few tracks in, lies the most surprising track on the album, and for me, the highlight. ‘Sure Know Somethin’ is a weird hybrid of R&B, Soul, Rock and Disco, and has a bass line that’s just crying out to be sampled (it may have already – but not to my knowledge). It’s a slow builder, sounds a little like Smokey Robinson or the Chi-Lites, and has a trick or two up its sleeve. Just when you’re least expecting, it turns from a tender ballad into a foot-stomping-fist-pumping anthem then back again, via one of the best middle eights this side of ‘We Can Work It Out’. Harmonies flail back and forth, as the flange level is turned up to 11, and the effect is quite mesmerising.

Other highlights include the four to the floor funk-a-thon, ‘Dirty Livin’ where Peter Criss turns in some great drums and vocals, and Simmon’s bass playing is, well, er, ….really good, actually. It’s worth pointing out that right across this album Gene Simmons’ bass playing is pretty damn fine. The opening cut, and ‘Dirty Livin’’ both showcase a Simmons that has more in common with Bernard Edwards than his own ‘Eeyore’ style on later KISS albums. Though it’s a hard thing to swallow, (especially if your opinions of the man happened to include the word ‘feckless’ and the phrase ‘money obsessed misogynist with the worst ‘haircut’ in rock), this record shows that Simmons could at least play the bass once upon a time.

Highlights on side two include “Save Your Love” and “Hard Times” with Frehley’s nonchalant hustler style vocals adding a right old edge to the proceedings, and loosening up the KISS sound to great effect. Indeed, it’s only when we get into Paul Stanley & Gene Simmons’ efforts ‘Magic Touch’, ‘Charisma’ and ‘X-ray Eyes’ that we begin to hear signs of the turgid , same old, same old sound that would characterise their later efforts.

Even though Dynasty was to revive KISS’s flagging careers, commercial success couldn’t mask (if you pardon the pun) the irreparable schisms which were tearing the band apart. Peter “Catman” Criss, the band’s drummer, was clearly some way through his quota of nine lives, having partied pretty hard in the preceding years, and suffering a serious car accident just before the recording sessions. By 1979 poor old Pete was allegedly so strung out on booze and ‘ludes that it was all he could manage to be the drummer in KISS, but actually playing the drums seemed to be a bit of a tall order. He would routinely slow right down or stop the beat altogether during gigs, and during the recording of Dynasty, producer Vini Poncia (whose writing credits include the Ronettes, Darlene Love, and er…..Leo Sayer) decided to use session Drummer Anton Fig on all but one of the tracks. As a result, the only number he earned his dollar for was ‘Dirty Livin’. A quick listen to the drums and vocals on this track makes you wonder whether Poncia shouldn’t have tried a just a little bit harder to get Criss in the drummer’s stool on all the other tunes. Although the Catman was a de facto member of KISS for some time to come, he was effectively redundant and didn’t play drums on any of their subsequent (crap) records.

Meanwhile, Ace ‘Space Man’ Frehley the group’s guitarist, was certainly on a planet of his own, no doubt about that, as this interview clip from the same year shows.

In Paul Stanley’s own words “Ace was notorious for his bad balance” and it looks here like he was on some dangerous combination of Special Brew and helium. Frehley’s famous “Actually I’m a plumber!” line in this clip at 8:47 has to qualify as one of the best interview quotes of all time. It’s pretty clear that at this stage in the game, KISS was divided into two distinct camps – the serious and savvy Simmons & Stanley versus the Rock ‘n’ Roll animals Frehley & Criss.

Despite providing the vocals on three of Dynasty’s cuts, singing way more down ‘n’ dirty than Simmons or Stanley could ever hope to, not to mention his top drawer axe work, Frehley wasn’t to last much longer than Criss. He contributed less and less to the band, and was finally ejected in the early 80’s, going on to a respected if not prolific or profitable solo career. Incidentally, if you ever feel like a sideways foray around the groove’s peripheries, then check out Ace’s 1978 solo album. It’s the best of the bunch, far out-shining  Simmons, Stanley and Criss’s efforts. The Album includes the excellent single ‘New York Groove’ which sounds a wee bit like Bohannon’s rhythm section with a cat-litter gargling Cheech on vocals.

So there you have it: a great album which by no means wears its influences on its sleeve, but was most definitely a sign o’ the times. After listening to it, one can’t help feeling that this is a band that had a serious case of ‘Jacksonitis’ – i.e. if they’d jacked it in roundabout 1980 then they would have left a pretty credible musical legacy. Instead, they dragged their own name right through the mud, and continue to do so to this day. Ace Frehley and Peter Criss certainly never made the kind of money as solo artists that they would have in KISS, and both battled with their own demons for a while, but they both jumped ship (or were pushed) while the going was golden and can hold their heads high. The beard strokers among you will probably never go in for this band, but if you’ve always dug the rock, then their first few albums, and in particular, Dynasty, speak for themselves. Just put it on, ‘listen without prejudice’ as our favourite ram raiding stoner would say, and open your ears to one of the finest disco infused rock albums ever to make it onto wax.

Dig it! Mix from Leftover coming on October’s radio show…. x

“Heeeeeeeeeere’s Johnnnnny”… The man is back ya’ll. After five hot summer months flying solo on the airwaves, I have my wingman back, my Goose, my loose caboose. He still can’t say “Roy Orbison” properly though. No fear – I’ll have him sorted out in no time.

Right – this month’s show is something of a nude erection new direction. We’re going all round the musical houses, some departure from the usual disco fodder (John even managed to chuck in a Dubsteb track – check us out – veritable modernists). Oh yeah, and don’t forget that chance to win a tenner to spend at Beatport! Competition closes Sep 30th…

Pick us up on iTunes or stream / download from the Deep Frequency site (links up soon)….

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Track listing and links...

1. Blondes – You Mean So Much To Me
2. Joy Orbison – HYPH MNGO
3. Pantha Du Prince – Satellite Snyper
4. Linda Di Franco – T.V. Scene (Sensurround Mix)
5. Mim Suleiman – Bibi Na Mpu (Maurice Fulton Dub)
6. West Street Mob – Mosquito
7. Freestyle – Don’t Stop The Rock
8. Claude VonStroke – Vocal Chords
9. The Drums – Let’s Go Surfin’
10. Silver Columns – Always On (Caribou Mix)
11. JJ Cale – Ride Me High (Joakim Edit)
12. Big Bear – Social Services
13. Virgo – Do You Know Who We are?
14. Reso – Hemisphere
15. BJ Nilsen – Meter Reading