Now thats a swing for the books. Echo and the Bunnymen to Sister Sledge! That said, looking at it objectively, its not that great a leap, both tracks are almost perfect representations of their genre.

The original Lost In Music was released in 1979 and I think my 1 year old mind heard this and latched on from that point since this is easily one of my top ten tracks of all time. I LOVE Lost In Music. The Edwards and Rogers remix done in 1984 encompasses what made the original so great and then beefed it up to make it DJ friendly. This is why you not only get an extra 40% of Sledge time thanks to the extended edit but you also get better build-ups and bridge sections to make it easier to mix in and out of. The end result is a master-stroke of re-editing.

There is not much that hasn’t already been said about Lost in Music, it was the Sisters biggest track by a long way, appealing to people that would have usually looked the other way at a “disco” track. I’ve heard this played everywhere from a club to Dave Lee Travis dropping it on a Sunday afternoon on Radio One back in the 80′s. A track that genuinely has mass appeal and for good reason, it reminds us all about those hedonistic times we have all had, wrapped up in a beat, a melody, a bassline, completely oblivious to whatever is going on leaving just you, the dance floor and the music. Simply amazing.

I’ll confess, Echo and the Bunnymen are a secret love of mine. Every so often, when all that electronica is boiling my brain in my skull, I need to break away. Usually i’ll move into some soul maybe some disco or funk. Sometimes I go a bit bonkers and crank up the classical. However, quite frequently, i’ll fire up Ocean Rain from The Bunnymen and bask in its irreverent New Age madness. This being probably my favourite of the lot, with an incredible intro that just keeps on going and going until the track kicks in and cranks it into overdrive. LOVE IT.

Sasha classic and a great example of late 80′s gospel tinged House music. There are two killer mixes of this stormer, the one in the title is a decent house track punched up to 11 with the quality of that cracking vocal. Then there is the Tony Humphries mix which injects a huge slice of the New York scene into the original composition. Taking the best parts of the riff, kicking up the speed a touch and layering the soul into it like only the master can do. A guaranteed arm waving stormer.

Tony Humphries Mix.

From Discogs
If you’re a fan of the legendary Tony Humphries Kiss FM Master mixes from the early 90′s then you’re gonna need this 12″. This record is on lots of the aforementioned mix tapes I have from that era. The Tony Humphries mix is absolutely essential, and is probably overlooked by most as there is also a David Morales Red Zone mix on this 12″ too. In my opinion, forget the Red Zone mix and go straight for the Tony Humphries mix, you will not be disappointed!

Absolute classic, this got absolutely caned, summer 1996. You couldn’t move for it, it was on the most underground station you could tune to right through to Radio 1 and Leicester Sound! Definitely a showcase of the sounds of the time, the jungle was still firmly on the underground with the “intelligent” sound dominating 96 and 97. Did it help those summers were baking hot? We may never know but I’ll tell you this, there aren’t many tracks out there that bottle the sunshine like this. Awesome.

Another cracking release from Earl Grey on a heavy Jazzy DnB tip. Crisp breaks, crafty rolling basslines and truckloads of jazzy piano. Nothing not to love here, crank it up, make sure you bass is warm and you have a beer in hand. A tune to kick back with for sure.

From Discogs
This release came from Rugged at a time when it was building a reputation within the Jazzy Drum and Bass field. It represents a real summertime roller from the man like Earl Grey typical of the classic 1996 period! Both tracks are on a similar tip driven by lively Alex Reece style grooves, waves of string synths and punctuated with jazzy piano keys throughout! Fairly light tracks admittedly, and weren’t really breaking any new ground at the time but they are clean and well produced taking you on a really good trip back to a golden era which should bring a smile to any Drum and Bass aficionado’s face!

One of the smoothest disco funk tracks your ever likely to hear from one of the most gifted artists of the genre. I defy anyone not to tap their feet and nod their heads to this classic. Its been remixed a ton of times, some of them pretty good (I even up’d one on here way back in 08) but nothing beats the original. It was written by Rod Temperton, who’s other contributions to music include Thriller and Rock With You. Not bad for a pasty white Englishman!

Another milestone for 2012 is that last night we passed 8K unique views to “From The Cans”. Which is incredible since this site is just over 3 years old and I never thought anyone would read it other than Fiver! So thank you all very much and have a great 2012!

Its New Years Eve so allow for the sentimentality of this one. A track that really doesnt need any kind of introduction, its Derrick May’s seminal classic released some 24 years ago and still bumps as hard today as the day it was committed to vinyl. Many have tried to deseminate why the track touched and continues to touch so many people and a lot more simply dont give a shit.

Derek claimed in the documentary “Pump Up The Volume” that the track actually scared him, left him reflective and in his own words “Buck naked wandering around my place”. Surely a track that can have that kind of impression on the guy who composed it was always destined for great things. For me, despite the fact that its been remixed to death, the original still retains the most important components of any classic house record for me. A pounding kick drum, amazing strings and the catchiest piano riff you can imagine.

No matter where you are, what your doing or who your doing it with this New Years Eve, have a great great night.

Happy New Year!

From Discogs
I read somewhere that Strings Of Life is about the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. gave to the world. Perhaps in the Detroit of 1987 that dream seemed to have died with King but listening to this song, I know that cannot be true. There is an energy in this song, a sense of movement, that I have never heard in another techno song. Somehow the string stabs chafe against the piano line and the drums in a unique way that electrifies my body. Judging by the response I have seen to to this song in clubs, other people have the same reaction. You cannot stay still when the song kicks off after the short introduction, and if there is more than one person listening, something special will happen between the two of you.

Sometimes I feel sad when I look at Derrick May’s catalogue and see that he stopped giving us music after only a few magical years near the end of the 20th century, but when I listen through, I find it full of emotional explosions like this one. They are focused and cut like a scalpel to the heart. Maybe he got sick of the pressure, maybe he is lazy (doubtful), or maybe he just burned out after producing a dozen odd songs like this one. I want him to produce more music, but I also feel satisfied with what he has made so far.

It became a common sense the fact that ‘Strings Of Life’ was the most important Techno classic of the early period, most precisely the eighties. On this matter, this English Twelve Inch pressing of the tune by the label Kool Kat became among the main responsibles for the Techno explosion in Europe (together with ‘Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit’ compilation and the Inner City massive hits ‘Big Fun’ and ‘Good Life’). According to Mark Archer, ‘Strings Of Life’ (present in the ‘Deep Heat 89 – Fight The Flame’ compilation) was “one of the tunes of the year of 1989 and the tune of 1990”, though being conceived in America years before, in 1987. The Burden brothers from Octave One didn’t hesitate to claim that, “with Strings of Life, Derrick was the real precursor”, for “that was the track that started bending things”. They also said that, without this essential anthem, there probably would be no ‘Jaguar’ or ‘Blackwater’. The last track of the B Side of this single, ‘Nude Photo’, also released originally by Transmat in 1987, was included later on WARP 10+1 Influences compilation. All of these facts (among others) lead us to the conclusion that this English single, packed with a gorgeous sleeve cover of an android in the middle of musical notes, was one of the main reasons for the Techno definitive invasion in Europe.

I’ll confess, I know next to bugger all about The Blue Aeroplanes other than they have been around for donkeys years and their primary genre would be closer to Indie Rock than the track above. That said, this is a classic remix in the vein of Baggy Madchester turn of the nineties rock/rave music. Its not surprise then that this track is featured on one of my favourite Telstar compilations “Rave” also released in 1990.

The track holds a certain special place in my heart as I actually remixed the intro guitar solo when I was a kid writing modules in OctaMED on my Amiga 500. The laugh was I didnt have my two phono jacks in correctly and since the track is encoded in mono on my CD, I only got half of the guitar riff through the sampler. Needless to say, it was a wonderful and unexpected result that I crafted into one of my many extremely mediocre attempts at music production. If I ever get around to getting those tracks off the old floppy disks, rest assured I will upload them here!

So anyway, why this track today, well I was sat on the bus and on it came. While usually I would skip the track (and all the horrible music remix memories it holds) this time around I thought I would give it a shot. Reminding me how much I actually do love this track. Its a quality remix, catchy vocals and some incredible guitar riff work. Classic.

Would you listen to that, just another cracking remix from dangerDan. Heavy on the atmospherics but the synth work in this is fantastic. Really appealing tones, understated but guaranteed to get your head bobbing along to that cracking kick drum.

My apologies for the sporadic posts over the Christmas break, its been a whole lot of moving around as of late but hopefully due to stabilise in 2012!

So here’s a change of pace for you. Ive been hearing the name Bon Iver a whole lot over the past 12 months. He found himself on KCRW one morning which I thoroughly enjoyed but ive never given myself over to taking a full listen of any of his works. I have friends that have gushed about him all year long, people going crazy about how amazing he is live. Well, today I finally got around to queuing up a stack of tracks on YouTube and giving myself an Iver breakdown.

The Verdict? Awesome. If you are not listening to the above track right now, stop reading and hit play. Then go buy this guys self titled album as its an hour of audio bliss. I cant put my finger on what makes this so refreshing, I can hear all manner of artists weaved into the melodies. You have natural Royksopp/Sigur Ros comparisons on the vocal front, there’s some downtempo electronica courtesy of Modeselektor, Apparat and Trentmoller. There’s the folksy guitar business of a thousand backroom jammers. Iver manages to weave so many familiar sounds into his compositions that you dont have to try too hard to listen. They are perfect tracks to put on and sink into, absolutely cracking.