Merka

At last the long-awaited debut album from Merka is in stores! The fruits of lots of hours of being locked away in the studio can now be enjoyed by us all!

Merka, aka Mark Ford, first came to my attention on an outing on Re:Connect Records - a two track single "Holding On" and "Flabbo", the former featuring on the Freestylers' FabricLive compilation.

Since then his output has crossed the "club breaks" and almost "trip hop" stylings with pure precision, showing just how versatile and talented a producer he is.

On "Beserka" Merka takes us back to the heady days of big beat but from a very contemporary standpoint, with the ability to hit you when you're not expecting it with a deep driving bassline or thundering breakbeat. That said it's still a very accessible album for those not into dance music or in particular breakbeat, with some jazzier laid back moments thrown in there for good measure, but not purposely. The man clearly has a diverse range of musical taste and influence which shines through from start to finish, making the album almost beyond "pigeonholing".

Highlights for me are "The Steam Room", "Our Secret", and current single "What Now", although that said I can't fault the album at all.

Find out more information on Merka and hear audio clips at his website www.merka.co.uk, and don't forget to visit his myspace page too for gig details (an extensive list), more audio, and the usual myspace shenanigans.

Buy the CD at Play.com.
Buy the vinyl from Know How Records.
Buy the download from DJ Download.

A quick techy blog...

Hey all!

I'm really trying to keep tabs on how this blog is being received, read, subscribed etc, and have burned the feed with Feedburner.

With that done, I've got a new feed, but to monitor things I'll need anyone that's already subscribed to any RSS feed from this blog to delete it and re-subscribe with the new Feedburner feed. It would mean a lot if you'd take a minute to do that.

The new feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/LikeMindedPeople.

Thanks!

Neil
like-minded-people

Future Funk Squad - De-mystified

The third and final single to be taken from the stunning debut album "Audio Damage" will be "De-mystified", featuring Tamra Keenan on vocals. This track is one of the highlights of the album, and sounds like it's come right out of a blockbuster movie soundtrack.

There's also a killer remix package for the clubbers, including mixes by Andy Page, Kickflip, Sono and Nuboy. You can hear the full package over at the band's Bebo page, and see the video (featuring Tamra in raunch mode) below:



As always, check out the Future Funk Squad Myspace page for the latest updates too: www.myspace.com/futurefunksquad

Buy the album from Amazon, or iTunes.

Judie Tzuke

A classic moment in music, from a highly underrated songwriter, Ms Judie Tzuke. I've blogged about Bailey Tzuke on here before, but it's high time Judie got some LMP coverage as well.

I became a huge fan of Judie's after being introduced to one of her more recent albums "Secret Agent", by my friend Kirsty. I instantly became hooked on not only the quality of her songwriting, but also the richness and warm maturity of her voice.

This is a clip of the lady herself performing (live I might add) her biggest and most well-known song "Stay With Me Til Dawn", back in 1979.



You can find out all the info you could ever need on Judie on her own website www.tzuke.com, and hear her forthcoming material and latest news on her (now obligatory) Myspace page.

Recommended listening:

Welcome To The Cruise, Judie's first studio album.

Buy from Judie's online store

Secret Agent, my favourite of Judie's albums.

Currently out of stock on Judie's store, but check it if you can.

The Essential Rocket Years, for those that like things digital.

Buy from iTunes

Nine Inch Nails

Went to see Nine Inch Nails live at Brixton Academy last night, thanks to an extra tickets procured by my good friend Willsy.

NIN are a band I've been into since their first album "Pretty Hate Machine", although I did get into it a year or two after release. However, I'd never got the chance to see them live, or missed out on tickets etc, so obviously I was pretty excited about seeing them.

They definitely didn't disappoint, and definitely surprised with the choice of set list. Most of the material was from "Broken" and "The Downward Spiral", with one brand new track from the forthcoming "Year Zero" album, and the singles from their last studio album "With Teeth".

Highlights of the night for me were "Wish", "Gave Up", "Only", "Hurt" (which sounded astounding live), and of course their usual closing number "Head Like A Hole".

Only one criticism from me was that at times the guitarist was drowning out the electronic side of things, which is part of what I like about NIN - the fusion of live instrumentation with electronic sounds. Didn't spoil the show for me though.

Trent Reznor (NIN's lead singer and main man) had to cancel a show the previous night and despite mentioning that his voice was troubling him, still sounded great.

I'm really looking forward to the new album "Year Zero", released on 17th April 2007. You can see a cool "trailer", and find out some more info on yearzero.nin.com. Tracks have already been leaked, alledgedly by Reznor himself by leaving mp3's on flash drives in the bathrooms at live gigs. These tracks have naturally made their way onto the net, and across radio stations. "Year Zero" is said to be a concept album, the marketing of which so far has been some of the most inventive use of viral methods I've heard of in recent times. I think I'll do another blog focusing on that in due course.

Anyway, here's the awesome video of the single "Only" from the "With Teeth" album. Clever, clever stuff!

Elliot Green.....An Appreciation Blog

Recently I've been digging deep in my music collection and checking out things from days gone by. One of the best albums I've found so far is by a band who used to live and perform regularly in the town where I used to live - Yeovil in Somerset.

Elliot Green's first and only album "United States" is one of those albums that's brilliant, but also makes you so frustrated at the fact that it didn't really get the recognition it so rightly deserved.

Elliot Green consisted (certainly for the most part, and for the recording of the album) of Steve Mobley (Drums), Paul Stevenson (Bass & Backing Vocals), and was fronted by vocalist and guitarist Gary Perry.

The two singles taken from the album, "Red Rum" and "Lonely Rider" were fantastic, but by no means were they the highlights of the album. Dig a little deeper, and songs such as "Come On", "Rectify" and "The Push I Needed" (to name but a few) could as easily have been succesful singles.

The album was released on the legendary, but now defunct indie label Playtime Records, headed up by Paula Greenwood, and a label that played host to many up and coming bands such as Bandit Queen, and early Inspiral Carpets material.

The album was, without wanting to pigeonhole it, very much the post-grunge, punk influenced, with just the right amount of "rarrrrr" factor. It was raw, edgy, yet able to cross boundaries. It should be noted that it was also produced by John Parish, of PJ Harvey fame.

Unfortunately (like all the best bands) they disbanded after some major troubles within the team, and never got round to recording a second album, but like they always say "it's better to burn out than fade away".

If you haven't heard this album you may well have missed out, although I think second-hand or old stock copies go on Ebay and Amazon regularly. It's definitely one to seek out.

Check out the single "Red Rum" here.

Or stream it here:


EDITED 06/10/09 - Buy the album from iTunes here. You won't regret it!

Edison Gem

Wow! Yet another recommendation - I've already fallen in love with the music of Edison Gem, and that was on first listen!

Edison Gem is the pairing of John O'Brien and Riana Riggs, and hail originally from North Carolina, USA but are now based in Los Angeles. Also known respectively as Orion and Jadis, they've had previous outings on labels such as Good Looking and Subtitles Music. They are currently putting finishing touches on their debut album as Edison Gem, and you can hear excerpts of their work on their myspace page.

If you like what you hear there, you should definitely check out their single "Time Stands Still", available now on iTunes. According to a blog on their myspace page, the album should be due release around Spring this year. I, for one, can't wait to hear it!

Anyone heading to the Winter Music Conference in Miami this year should definitely check them out!,

Lazaro Casanova & Shot Callin'

I haven't been able to find out much just yet on Lazaro Casanova, but all I do know is that a) he knows his stuff, and b) his music is sick. Meaning good.

Check out his myspace page here where you can also hear some of his tunes and remixes. I particularly recommend checking his remix of The Knife - Charity. It's rather good!

I can only really describe his music as twisted electro influenced house coming from the same sort of camp as Switch, LCD Soundsystem and MSTRKFRT etc, but check him out and make up your own mind.

For more words of wisdom, and more importantly music recommendations, mix downloads and tracks available, check out the man himself's blog Shot Callin'.