Van Morrison - An Irishman in L.A.

I don't usually like live albums. Most times the songs are just the same as the studio versions except in poorer quality. But yesterday on Soulseek I discovered this gem, a 1973 Van Morrison bootleg. I'm thinking that it must have been recorded with a view to being released as the live album which eventually was 1974's It's Too Late to Stop Now. The quality is amazing, the playing is transcendent in places and the version of Sweet Thing is one of the finest things I've ever heard.
Download it below in .zip file before it gets taken down and Van sends me to jail.

(And if you're thinking "ah man, a feckin' .zip file, so much hassle", it's worth it like you would not believe.)

http://boxstr.com/files/5149866_70fgi/Van%20Morrison%20-%20An%20Irishman%20In%20LA.zip

Daryl Hall & Chromeo

This is SO good. Chromeo join Daryl Hall from Hall&Oates in his house with a bunch of other musicians. There's a couple of minutes of talking to skip through before the action starts.

Tricot Machine

It's Easter, so, of course, a Christmas song is called for. Luckily, this one is sung in French and doesn't feature sleighbells so it's ok anytime of the year, I think.

Tricot Machine are from Montréal and you can hear for yourself just how good they are here.

The Golden Fliter

Based in New York, The Golden Filter are two people.....and, well, actually that's about all I know about them. Here are two huge remixes they've done of pop chanteuses Little Boots and Polly Scattergood.

La Roux, Little Boots, Polly Scattergood etc. etc......their own music is pretty lame, to me anyway, but their vocals and melodies lend themselves rather splendidly to these sort of epic electro-pop treatments.

http://discodust.com/files/Little%20Boots%20-%20New%20In%20Town%20(The%20Golden%20Filter%20Remix).mp3

http://discodust.com/files/Polly%20Scattergood%20-%20Please%20Don't%20Touch%20(The%20Golden%20Filter%20Remix).mp3

Diana Est - Le Louvre

Diana Est is Italian and, from what I can see, only released a couple of singles in the early 80s.

This video is from 1981, I think, when she would've been 19 years old. Check out her hypnotically sexy disinterested dance moves. It's like she's a teenage girl absent-mindedly singing into a hairbrush in front of the mirror on a Saturday evening as opposed to a teenage girl singing on TV and in front of what looks like about a million people.

Oh, and it sounds crap to begin with but stick with it for the huge Euro-anthem chorus. To my mind, one could imagine Mussolini's troops marching off to war singing it (probably with different lyrics).

Jaki Whitren

From 1972, a song called Give Her The Day.

This was Tony Blackburn's Record of the Week on BBC Radio when it came out.
I'll say no more.

http://boxstr.com/files/5118687_w0lk8/07%20-%20give%20her%20the%20day.mp3

April 7 2009

http://boxstr.com/files/5118672_h7glp/HBE2009.zip

Tesla Boy

http://discodust.com/files/Tesla%20Boy%20-%20Spirit%20Of%20The%20Night.mp3

http://myspace.com/teslaboysound

Tesla Boy manage to combine sounding like your favourite 80s video game, cheesy anthem and inspirational movie scene all at once on this track.

www.myspace.com/teslaboysound

Overnight sensation...

It never ceases to amaze me that such beautiful songs as this one can exist in this world for so long and not become well known.

This tune makes me stop what I'm doing and stare wistfully at the ground every time (a good thing) and is originally by 60's folkie duo Fraser and Debolt. Here it's covered here by Meg Baird, a member of the band Espers.

http://boxstr.com/files/5103230_4nguk/A%20-%20Waltze%20of%20the%20Tennis%20Players.mp3

Fatlip+Breakbot = FatBot

French genius re-imagines Fatlip's self deprecating tune from quite some years ago. After a few listens you'll be singing along "I go out like a sucker almost every day, in the back of your mind you probably thinking I was gay..." and feeling oddly satisfied about it.

http://boxstr.com/files/5100941_dtvh9/fatlip-whats-up-fatlip-breakbot-remix.mp3