KILLER KUTS #27

Part two of my killer scores at the FMU record
convention... When I saw this one i was also like
"what the fuck"?? I have only heard of this one
existing, but never actually seen one. The music
is soulful disco- almost Motown or Philly like.
But John Davis produced both sides, and added
his signature percussion to both sides, and the
result is a monster disco break. The break comes
out of the blue actually- towards the end. The
break sounds very similar to Apache or Scorpio,
so it's definitely a surprise considering the music
is straight soulful disco up until that point. The
a-side ("When Love Is New") is also awesome,
and similar- with a nice disco break. This is
definitely an oddly produced record, and a
nice one for me since i am on this disco breaks
kick these days...

I dj'ed EVR with Roy...

last night I dj'ed my man Roy Dank's radio show on East Village Radio.
Look for his new label featuring a release by Jacques, as well as other
shit. We are doing a "Mystery Mix" mix cd with Roy as well. Anyway,
Mike starts about half way into the show, and attempts to dj without
headphones (he forgot his), but Roy shows up with headphones and
saves the day. You can tell when this happens when the records actually
start to blend together in true "dj" form. Also, good friend Piotr throws
down a few recods as well. Roy is a maniac. Here's the link:

URL for show: http://eastvillageradio.com/modules.php?name=evrshow&ordinal=35
XML for podcast: http://www.eastvillageradio.com/podcasts/1277/35.xml

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KILLER KUTS #26

This will be part one of my FMU record convention scores.
This was on my want list for pretty much EVER. When I
found it for $5 buried between crappy freestyle records I
almost shat myself. For real, those who know this record
and how awesomely rare it is can understand why i freaked
out. Just look at Ebay and it's $200+ pricetag...
First of all, Little Scotty is a blues legend. Somehow Peter
Brown squeezed a 4-song disco 12" out of him. Of all the P&P
related records, this has to be the most fucked up, and
thats saying a lot. (anyone remember Sweet Naomi's
drugged-out off-time rap 12"?) The track everyone will
know is "Shout at the Disco", mainly because it has a
famous breakbeat that all the djs want... But let's
talk about the track "Acid Freak". The title says it all.
Its a total Love-inspired super psyched-out and just insane
song. Pretty heavy acid rock- but the song falls apart at
the end. The drummer suddenly starts to play off-time
right before the song ends. The guitarist tries to catch up
but it doesnt work. Its the most insane thing I have ever
heard. It just makes no sense! Why would Peter Brown
keep the take??? Any sane man would scrap the song
and try again. A total trainwreck, and a total AWESOME
song!

KILLER KUTS #25

If you know me, you know I have a warm spot in my heart
for Daft Punk, so when I found out Daniel Vangarde is the
father of Daft Punk's own Thomas Bangalter, I was pretty
stoked. Its great to know Bangalter has some legitimate
disco history behind him!

Both sides of this record are great. The a-side is "Intersidereal
Message", an uptempo spacey little number with a nice killer
break. But it's the b-side that particularly slays. Starbow was
the team of Kluger and Vangarde, who were part of the Paris
disco scene along with Cerrone, Don Ray, Claude Carrere, Alec
Costandinos, Ralph Benatar (who produced this track...) The
French were definitely down with the 'cosmic' sound early on,
and this track nails it straight on. Plus, it has a nice disco break
beat, something I love as well. Like most AVI releases, the
production is not bass heavy,and it tends to lend itself more
towards orchestration and songwriting instead of making a heavy
sounding record. On headphones, this sounds KILLER though.

Also, Kluger and Vangarde were the principle songwriters for
Ottawan, who had some big hits in Europe- but in America they
remained pretty obscure.

Mike's selling his records....

... at the WFMU Record Fair this weekend.

I'll only be selling on Friday (Nov 4), so if you want to buy my doubles and triples- now is the time to do it. Bring shit if you want to trade as well. Bring food (vegetarian). All they have is pizza and that gets old quick.

KILLER KUTS #24

If there was ever a "sure thing" - this is it. We all
know this is an all-time classic, and over time it has
even been considered a 'hit' by some DJs who refuse
to play it because it isnt obscure enough, or because
the "Bridge And Tunnel" crowd is totally 'getting down'
to it... Well, i say FUCK THAT SHIT! Seriously, how
many twelve minute songs out there are good enough
to play from beginning to end, or good enough to
play from any part of the record? How many records
out there do not warrant a god damn edit? Not many-
but this is one of them. The burning question is-- is
this a live song? It's on the live album? Do they think
they can fool us by beginning the song with some fake
crowd sounds?

This song always confused me. Why is a 12
minute studio disco song stuck on side D of a double
live record? AND it was a huge hit. I guess we'll never
know. Either way, it sounds perfect sandwiched
between Madonna and Michael Jackson...

KILLER KUTS #23

Georgie Auld is an old-tyme jazz legend who had an early
avant-garde jazz band in the 1940's. "Song Of India" is a jazz
standard as well. So, why the hell are these two elemeents
transformed into a super funky disco-break laden 12"? Super
obscure and mysterious record with a crappy B-side ("Disco
Boogie") that has that one seldom seen aspect of the late 1970's:
a killer disco breakbeat. Nice smooth sounds as well.
Unlike the raw funk of the early 70's, there is a refined and
produced quality that only the late 1970's could invented. Perhaps
one of you know more about this? The internet yeilded few
results. One of these days i will get ym ass in gear and get
samples up. :(

Mike's Halloween plans, for those who are interested...

...as Danny Glover said in Lethal Weapon, "I'm Getting too old for this shit..."

-----


Mike Simonetti is djing Halloween weekend twice in one night (god help me):

Friday Oct 27 Mike is djing LIT in NYC from 12-4am- downstairs, and its free---

---and then he will be leaving Lit, jumping in a car, and djing from 4:30- ??? at Rubulad in Brooklyn with Chris Catalyst. Last time we played Rubulad we set a record for the latest they ever stayed open- 10 am. if you want info on the party, check out Jim's website:
http://djsmallchange.com/news.shtml
- do a Google search to find out more about Rubulad.


-----he is then driving to DC on Saturday to DJ Mike and Maya from Double Leopards
wedding on Sunday.

KILLER KUTS #22

Who are these so-called "Occupants"? Apparently, the folks at
Danger Records appear to think these "Occupants" were a dancey
synth band with some other-wordly names as Tom Campbell and
Charlie Erickson. Oh well, at least the music is good. The track
everyone wants is "I Want To Function With You", which is your
synthy/dancey/ vocoder deal. But the track that gets to me is "Its
Time To Become Robots", which sounds like an outtake from
"Discovery" (but Daft Punk would have added more heavy guitars!).
But nonetheless, this needs to be recognized because of the fact this
existed in Minneapolis in 1982, not New York or Germany. Not too
shabby Charlie!

KILLER KUTS #21

***guest review by Patrick Billard

I picked this up for 59 cents at the Salvation Army 
on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg a few months ago. 
Who would have thought that you could find good, rare 
italo right in the bustling epicenter of  all things 
hipster?

This is produced by Giancarlo Meo of Capricorn/Goblin
/Easy Going fame, only this time without his partner 
Claudio Simonetti. Meo really shines here as both sides 
of this are top-shelf italo disco.

The a-side is a fantastic paranoid look to the future...
10 years into the future that is the wonderous world of 
1993!  The lyrics are all about being lost in technology...
a "maze" of "computer days". Then there's lots of "space" 
and "universe" terminology thrown in. It's not really clear 
what they are getting at but apparently in 1993 we will all 
be either living in outer space or inside computers.

The b-side is the real gem and probably of the most interest 
to italo collectors. It's a cover version of the Chaplin Band's 
"Il Veliero" entitled "Love On The Rocks". It's got gorgeous 
female vocals with more great lyrics like "Love is on the 
rocks,  love's a hurricane". It's pretty true to the original 
Chaplin  Band version, although a bit more polished and dreamy and
definitely less quirky. I like it. Thanks Salvation Army!

contact Patrick:
crazypoprock@hotmail.com

this weekend's festivities...

mike simonetti's dj schedule:

this Friday at Lit (downstairs) 12-4am
this Saturday at Rated X @ Luke & Leroy in NYC 11-4am. hosted by Michael T of Motherfucker fame.



--still working out the mp3 thing. to be honest, i am very busy and barely have time to do anything these days. anyone wanna help run a blog?? (no, i'm serious)

KILLER KUTS #20

*** guest review by Jacques Renault

This is something Mike and I can agree on. Disco LPs. 
Singles are great but they don't always have cheeky 
artwork and they don't let YOU decide what the hit is. 
This LP is a great example. Anytime or Place was the 
single on Modulation (so I have the Canadian version - 
don't judge me because I don't have it on Italy's Vedette 
Records and this is I.D.I.B.) and then there's the Rams 
Horn remix and everything - big hit whatever. ANYWAYS, the 
real winner for me is Soft Emotion. It kinda just hits where 
you want it to. It's a little more upbeat: a true party gem 
with great vocals. Not that Anytime or Place doesn't feel 
good too tho - don't let me lead you in the wrong direction. 
It's just nice to know that you can't be shy of LPs - you 
may never know what you'll bump into.

KILLER KUTS #19

*** guest review by Emily Ryan

QUESTION: when was the first time you heard this track? 
i heard it for the first time on KMEL jams in the east 
bay back in the day - the clean FUNK DAT mix - sometime 
in high school, and it wasn't until my friend darren gave 
me the 12 inch two years ago was i able to hear the RAW/
EXPLICIT mix, originally purchased new from a random bay 
area record store at the time of release...perhaps Streetlight
but more likely Rasputin? It's one of those tracks that is 
immediately memorable for his conversational delivery and the 
way he pronounced "reh-dee-OH." well i couldn't believe how 
scathing the REAL MIX IS! He sounds like someone you know's
relative blasting the following dinner topics: mainstream 
radio, rave flyers,relationships, and race relations, in the 
wake of rodney king. Each verse is followed by a recognizable 
horn sample in a 60's reject blue note vein. also - this
single is legendary for inspiring tons of record and club 
reviews that started with "why is it, that every ! time i turn 
on the radio, the dj is playing the SAME five songs fifteen 
times a day for three months...FUK DAT," each review thinking 
that it was the first one to reference it! another interesting 
note: the clean version takes out the references to whoopi, jay 
leno and crack.

contact Emily:
www.emily-ryan.nu

...So Mary Climb In

yet another reason why he is God... because he DID NOT do a sellout disco record.

KILLER KUTS #18

***guest review by Ben Manzone

My favorite types of records lately are those grey area records. Ones made by Jazz artists (ie.Idris Muhammad) but sound more like funk but are kind of like disco, a little bit of soul but are really just an evolution of jazz but not even really. I mean jazz purists hate these type of records and most new jack disco heads think those records are too “deep.” Anyway the cut in question ‘Singing a song for you’ off the Revelation Lp is not an instant gratification type of song. It starts off on a very deep, cerebral, almost somber tone with a sweet jazz guitar line and underlining sustained keys. The groove is subtle but building and then tempered by the chorus of “Singing a song for your.” The groove proceeds while Earland does his solos on keys and the guitars sit there nicely in the mix plucking in the background. So the groove builds and builds and then explodes into this monster Harvey Mason percussion jam out… where you catch yourself going “holy shit this is sick.” This cut features horn work by the Brecker Brothers as well as guitarist Eric Gale who equally have a more then impressive track record playing on a lot of landmark jazz, funk, soul and disco records. The album cover artwork is amazing too!

contact Ben:
benjr60@yahoo.com

KILLER KUTS #17

Was this really released in 1984??? This is some forward thinking shit right here. Nowadays this is considered an underground classic, but a few years ago it was terribly underplayed and unrecognized by those outside of the old school disco scene. This pressing has 2 different versions. The "Short Version", and the "DJ Master Mix" , which was mixed by Timmy Regisford and Boyd Jarvis. The Regisford/Jarvis mix is a much longer and chopped up version of the song. This is a weird song to say the least. The bassline is HEAVY. The synths are dark, and the drums sound like they are tuned down-- plus, the underlying drum machine sounds like it is off-time (not to mention the almost demonic intro monologue!). BUT on the other hand you have the happy house-esque piano and Nucleus-style robot vocals... This is some weird shit, but it balances itself out well. At 9:08 , this song seems like it never ends--- an excellent remix that sounds like five songs in one. People have called this proto-house, but it seems to go a little deeper than that.

MIKE SIMONETTI & TIM SWEENEY....

are djing together this week.
Thursday October 5.
at APT (downstairs) in Manhattan.
419 West 13th Street
10-4am. admission is free.
drink special involving some sort of Rum Punch!!!

www.aptwebsite.com

should i post audio samples??

tim and jacques both mentioned that i should post audio samples of the songs... what do you think? post some comments and we'll see how it goes. if enough of you want audio maybe i'll add audio. but if noone comments, i'll continue as it is. peace in the middle east.

KILLER KUTS #16

I always preffered the 7" version of "Bellhead" over the album version. It was re-recorded a while after the 12" came out. Its much tighter and a little faster, and more "groovy" (what a lame word!!), but definitely has more of a groove. the b-side is a re-recorded version of "Push" that is also a little faster. The story behind this 7" is that there was a local NYC bar with a jukebox and Liquid Liquid wanted their record in the jukebox, so they re-recorded these songs and pressed a few up. Legend has it 150 copies were pressed, and only about 20 have the small hole, since most were punched out for jukeboxes. The catalog # is 99-11EP7, for all you nerds out there.

BUT- this isnt the only Liquid Liquid 7" out there. There is a 7" by the band "Liquid Idiot", which is pre-Liquid Liquid, and is more of a noise record (its not on 99- its self released). Maybe i'll dig it out and scan that shit for you as well.

KILLER KUTS #15

So, Benguin was at my house and he was looking through my shit and he pulls this out and he's like "this is good!" and i was like "yeah, it is, but i have too many records and i lose track of shit".
Well, Ben was right. This shit smokes hard. People tend to label this 'Latin Disco', but to be honest i dont really get it. Granted, Guarare is indeed related to the Guarare Orchestra- the Latin combo that was popular in the 60's and 70's.. But this is pure 100% heavy and hard driving disco! The break in the middle has one hell of a sick bass line. The bass line is HARD, and it goes on for a long time. OK, i hear the Latin influence, but it is definitely more disco to me.