gotta love the bins.
a few months ago, a local record shop that i can access during my break from mortgage paying duties decided to clear out some dead stock.
they had masses and masses of random stuff going for 99 pence each.
needless to say i dived in on a regular basis and bought all manner of cds that would normally have been left unloved.
a lot of the stuff i picked up has already been filed away into the archive, but there were some real gems including a ‘best of’ compilation by a band called allez allez. prior to dropping the pound coin for the cd i had never heard of them, but a quick scan of the track list showed that tacked onto the end of cd were remixes by quiet village, aeroplane, optimo, and lindstrom and prins thomas. now, i don’t know about you, but anyone who can pull in that kind of list of remixers has clearly got to be worthy of some love and attention.
[not only that but there is a mighty fine blog named after the band .. ]
some quick-n-easy internet research indicated that the band were an art-funk collective from belgium who had an interesting history involving john peel sessions and heaven 17 !
the music is kind of in the same world as pigbag, with wild percussion, shout outs, and frantic bass lines. while that may sound chaotic, there are some fantastic grooves, with the 7 minute opus, african queen taking the crown as it features a slow drawn out groove with ice cool vocals providing the hook. kind of like grace jones dipped in a mojito, so, handing this classic over to quiet village (aka matt edwards aka radio slave) who specialises in gorgeous laid back sunset/sunrise moods was bound to result in something rather special.
hear for yourself, and remember : it pays to dig, and read the track lists carefully !