Black Ego - Digable Planets

From the depths of my collection; a couple of bands that, in my opinion, got passed over and lost in the shuffle…

Stare at the Sun - The Januaries

Black Transmission - The Januaries

Colour the Sun - Thou

Before We Get Lovers - Thou
+ hidden track

[bonus]

Undercover Mystic - Ju Ju Space Jazz

Duchess:2005:10:13 27.6mb 128kbps mp3
01 Crap Larynx [Stimmhorn] 03:32:15
02 girl anachronism [the dresden dolls] 02:53:49
03 U2 Special Edit [Negativland] 05:39:29
04 The Martian Chronicles: Nathaniel [Traktor2004] 03:00:18
05 Im Sorry That I Got Fat [Wesley Willis] 03:50:41
06 Wet Floors [Akufen] 06:14:40
07 SunsetSpirals [Exploding Plastix] 04:59:24

In the early days of music videos, this David Bowie Ashes to Ashes had a profound impact on me. Along with Talking Heads Once in a Lifetime it gave me hope for the short form as art piece.

The lanquid pace of the song fit the surrealism of the images and I was in love. Moody and self referential. Our dear spaceman makes an appearance, and hints that Tom isn’t doing so well.

But I digress; this post was meant to focus on inspired covers. Everyone knows I can’t get enough of cover versions… inspired or otherwise. I am addicted to the phenom Copy,Right and the Coverville podcasts. Here and there, good and bad co-exist peacefully.
Sometimes a cover rears its head that truly merits attention. First from Uwe Schmidt, the multi-persona artist responsible for Atom-Heart, Señor Coconut, lb, Flanger and others; brings a brilliant rendition of Ashes to Ashes.

Ashes to Ashes - lb

please visit Señor Coconut and look for a frenetic version of Michael Jackson’s Beat It free for the download.
The second from Dirk Dresselhaus who records as Schneider TM with a fantastic version of The Smiths track There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.

The Light 3000 - Schneider TM

And finally, still on a Smiths tip, Stars version of This Charming Man with a melancholy that made me really pay attention to the lyrics.

This Charming Man - Stars

Back to the good videos… the Palm Pictures director series is enlightening. Each focuses on a specific short form music video director. Highly recommend the one on Michel Gondry, and just picked up the Mark Romanek piece.
In my queue: Anton Corbijn, Jonathan Glazer, and Stephane Sednaoui.
The Gondry disc is rich in featurettes and lets you into his process. Somewhat dissappointed in the Chris Cunningham disc; extremely minimal in collecting just the videos without all the extras I crave… does have a behind the scenes of Björk’s All is Full of Love though.

Also available are volumes on Spike Jonze and Hype Williams.

duchess:2005:10:07 24.9mb 128kbps mp3
01 mexican loveliness [ancient astronauts] 04:33:59
02 matador [los Fabulosos Cadillacs] 04:27:40
03 big noize [Pressure Drop] 05:13:05
04 funky Nassau [lost and alive] 03:22:38
05 zona sul - samba [Arling & Cameron] 03:44:03
06 oohlala [wiseguys] 05:52:73

in the process of moving, so the home studio is in disarray;
as a result, production for the time being will be limited to simple mixes.

from some stripped down acoustic session in NYC 99

Secret - Tim Bennett

Certain Type of Girl - Tim Bennett

I’ll Wait for This - Tim Bennett

Breathe - Tim Bennett

now for some A/B comparison
an early version of Streamline from the acoustic session versus the more produced version

Streamline (acoustic)

Streamline - Civilized Tears

Flying Over America - Civilized Tears

Tim Bennett on myspace
… on karmadownload

Xavier’s Mixed Doubles Part 2 74.9mb 128kbps mp3
01 Hell Yeah [Beck] 03:26:43
02 Booty lala [bugzintheattic] 06:34:45
03 So Sexy (Chromeo feat Twista & R.Kelly) 04:22:02
04 The Stop [Lusine] 04:42:26
05 SuperRockinCuts [Tomas Diablo] 04:32:62
06 Sunshowers [MIA] 03:11:36
07 Just Let Go-Thin White Duke [Fischerspooner] 07:54:34
08 Dirty Boy [IQU] 06:09:38
09 setzer-remix [Ilkae] 05:04:48
10 Kika [Dim Dim] 03:16:11
11 Oh my gosh [Basementjaxx] 03:51:62
12 Drop the Pressure [Mylo] 05:11:02
13 Fracture [Iuno] 03:37:22
14 Got That Vibe [Afrika Bambaataa] 04:04:64
15 digitalworld [DJTAL] 07:39:59
16 technologic [daft punk] 04:42:53
17 New York groove [golden shower] 03:21:00