Anyway, I think I'll avoid linking to "Bustin' Loose", and embed this clip of his 1984 single "We Need Some Money". (thanks to user MrBaldheadslick, who uploaded this clip).

My first encounter with go-go (long after the '80s) was via these compilations: Paradise a Go-Go and Go-Go: the Sound of Washington D.C. The latter had even fewer top tier acts on it than the first, yet it was that one that really sold me on go-go. Rather than being a collection of the latest hopeful singles, it repackaged one live album (by Redds & the Boys) and two live E.P.s (by Shady Groove and Petworth). So, rather than songs, it could show off one of go-go's assets: the extended groove supporting various calls and responses: I think all the best go-go songs are the ones that retain the shape of a jam session (and a call and response routine). Hence, embedding the long version of "We Need Some Money".

Anyway, after that, it was just a question of checking out the top tier acts - at least when I could find the f**king releases - Trouble Funk, Rare Essence, E.U (aka Experience Unlimited) and -yep - Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. And the stuff I liked (predictably) was the earlier end of it, late 70s to mid/late 80s: the stuff that had most in common with JB-style funk, old-school (real old-school) hip-hop and latin. Though of course, Chuck Brown also reminds me of '60s rhythm and blues too (the soul and funk thing, not the Stones), which is fair, given that's where he started out.

Okay, here's some Trouble Funk from 1986. 'Cause we're talking about go-go and it's a great song (thanks to user VespaPX2001981 for this one). It's an actual video this time: check out the extended line-up (which is typical for go-go, and I guess one of the things that made it different to hip-hop...)

As for defining go-go or the go-go rhythm, well.... here's a quick way to do it: the Bar-Kays' "Holy Ghost" back to back with a cover version by Rare Essence. I'll admit that I prefer the Bar-Kays, but Rare Essence still make an almighty funk out of the song. First up, the Bar-Kays...

Then, Rare Essence (live, always good - you can sorta see how this is part of a bigger amorphous groove).

(and thanks to users LikeCarbon and EBJ0424 for uploading those...)

So it wasn't much of an obituary, but you could say everything go-go is a part of the man's legacy. Anyway, for something more considered here's some proper obits, from the Washington Infomer, and the Guardian.

Posts on other perfomers whose work I like but have just died, like MCA or Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, probably not forthcoming... Stop dying, alright?

(Or you can name a price for it, if you're so inclined, but if not, just name $0.00 as your price)

The downside is that John Heighes is stepping down from hosting the show himself. This is a real shame, as John has really revitalised Deep in his time both as a Dj and co-ordinator for the show. Kudos to him, and let's hope the rest of us do him proud...

Just a little demo I'm working on (it's as long as it's gonna be, it just ain't finished yet...)

The Deep show plays every tuesday night from 11pm-1am. Motto: "the sound of sound". It streams from Active's website, and if you're in Wellington NZ you can pick it up on 88.6 FM.

Heres a link to the Deep blog, which has playlists, and access to podcasts (though those may not be working at the moment...). If you aren't already listening, it'll give you an idea of what the show is all about.

It ain't about the kind of music I write, but it is about all kinds of music I like. These are some of the labels I've seen used for things that I'd play on Deep: ambient, electronic, glitch, drone, post-rock, acoustic, electro-acoustic, experimental, field recordings, musique concrète, non-music, noise... I might not use those labels myself... some of them are positively misleading...

For the gear-heads, the thing I'm playing with in that photo is a Pioneer DJM-909. It'sthe first time I've used it, and thought I should be restrained with it. In retrospect, I reckon I should've been ridiculous with it. But what the hey, there's always next time.

(Thanks also to Chris for taking this photo and then letting me use it.)

My set (or rather, what I remembered to record of my set) is available on While You Were Sleeping's Soundcloud account as a single track. The same applies for each set from Malty Media, Panoramica and Counting Waves+. Thanks to Dan for putting that together.

Leslie Nielsen's death gets me thinking about Police Squad and Flying High, but it also gets me thinking about the 1956 film Forbidden Planet (featuring the first entirely electronic soundtrack in movie history).

Check out this clip on Youtube (it's the best short representation of the score in its intended environment, but I can't embed it...) For a clip I can embed, here's "Robby, the Cook, and 60 Gallons of Booze". This piece was sampled for Biggie Smalls' track "Kick in the Door" (though obviously the main break in Smalls' track is lifted from Screaming Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You"):

Well, that should be enough. It's not really about Leslie Nielsen anymore. So here's Nielsen's musical chops.

• 4pm-10pm, Sunday 14 November
• Bettys, 32 Blair Street, Wellington
• $5 before 6pm / $8 after 6pm
(some encouragement for people to come early and not miss half the acts...)

The line-up has

• Group 5
• Malty Media
• Counting Waves+
• Panoramica

Plus DJs DJ Mayhem and Some DJ Guy, and VJs Yetimon and Hallucinagenius

Here's the full write-up at whileyouweresleeping..org.nz

Jet Jaguar is well-known for the (often award-winning) remixes he's made over the years, but this is the first time he's had remixes done of his original music. This means I can safely say that these are the best remixes of Jet Jaguar that are currently available. The original Biddy Bids can also be downloaded for free from the Monotonik net-label.

I hadn't intended this as an EP, but I just had a go at every track because every track offered an opportunity to do something new and fun - whether it be making the gentle evanescent ambience of Jet's 'Disasters in Reverse' into a raw (but gentle) soul / blues jam; or turning the sly funk (as opposed to Sly funk) of 'Enjoy Mask Aesthetic' into an uprocking (but sly...?) block party jam and a psychedelic dub excursion (apologies for the copywriter language).

Once I'd remixed every track, I realised I could make them all available, and once I had decided to make them all available, it seemed a short step to make them available together. And once I'd set that up, it seemed a shorter step to put some cover art on Bandcamp. Even though a day ago I didn't want to give it a cover. I haven't made it an "official" Angry Rabbit deal, but at this rate who knows?

And finally, here's a video for the original track 'Red', made by Ned Wenlock. It got an honourable mention at the 2009 Handle The Jandal competition (it came 16th out of 200+ entries, but only 15 videos make it to the final - so it was as well placed as you can get without actually winning something). Here's what Ned has to say about it.

And if for some reason you haven't heard Biddy Bids yet, I guess it'll give you the chance to compare the original to the remix...

PS: This is an edit: it runs for 2' 20", while the version on Biddy Bids is 3' 48"... keepin' it short and simple...

--Beat Bop: Rammellzee & K-Rob (1983)

The next clip is also dated 1983: live at the Rhythm Lounge - Rammellzee on the mic, with Toxic as DJ, and Basquiat on visuals. This is why I love that old-school vibe: awesomely minimal beats while Rammellzee keeps his flow up for seven minutes. You get similar sorta stuff n the Wild Style soundtrack, where it's all about the live scene, and everyone's cutting over the same bit of Fab 5 Freddy's 'Down by Law' (worth noting that Rammellzee appears on both the Wild Style and Style Wars soundtracks, and he's all over the bonus features of the Style Wars DVD).

--Rammellzee /Toxic /Basquiat @ Rhythm Lounge (1983)

And for some denser writings (on things like his theory of graffiti), here's Rammellzee's own website, Gothic Futurism.

Have a listen:

The bonus EP I mentioned back here has grown since then. It now runs to 42 minutes, which in the old parlance makes it an LP. It's only available if you download Great Days but you can listen to the tracks:

• Distant Stations (Group Five Self-Remix)
• News Of The World
• In Camera (Original EP Mix)
• Flat Land
• Cook Strait
• Wintering Out
• East India Company (Jet Jaguar's Nordsee Mix)
• In Camera (Jet Jaguar's Exit Interview Mix)
• Distant Stations (Jet Jaguar Remix)
• A Small Photograph (Aquaboogie's Photo-Eater Mix)

Jet Jaguar's remix of 'In Camera' was previously released on the In Camera EP (and was available on his website nonwrestler.com before that), while the 'East India Company' remix first aired on the Malty Media show in July last year. His remix of 'Distant Stations', and Aquaboogie's 'Small Photograph' remix were both custom-produced for this release.

First up: in early March, I'll be releasing a remixed / remastered package of the In Camera and Distant Stations EPs. It's called Great Days, and it'll be a digital download, at a price of NZ$10 for the complete album. The deal-sweetener is that if you download the whole thing rather than individual tracks, there'll be a bonus EP with some remixes by Jet Jaguar, a few alternative mixes by me, and maybe some more remixes TBA.

In other news, collaborations are in the wind. Non-disclosure 'til there's something to show for it. Watch this space.

Although I've talked about springcleaning my Myspace page, I won't be doing a lot more to it than I've already done. By all means visit the page, and I'll try to make it at least a little rewarding. But my primary reason for having a Myspace page was so I could upload my music. As I can now provide music on my own site, I have less reason to focus on Myspace.

I have no firm plans for live gigs this year. That's not to say it wouldn't be fun, and maybe I should be doing something to promote since I haven't done anything to promote Retrenching.

I plan to blog more often. More frequently than one post a month/every six weeks. As this is my second post for January (though only just), I may be getting into the habit.

One thing 2009 will be remembered for is dead people. I'm not going to bother naming the biggest dead guy of the year (I still like Off The Wall and Thriller), but did you know that Allen Klein died ten days later? I thought I'd mention it. You can choose for yourselves whether or not to cheer. At first I also thought I'd say something nice about Klein - or at least I'd try to avoid demonising him. But there's nothing nice to say. At least you can say nice things about Howard Morrison. I just wish there were more obituaries that tried playing something other than 'How Great Thou Art'. Anyway, I'm sure there are more dead people to list (thankfully Chris Knox isn't among them), but rather than list them, I'll just use deadness as a launching point into the albums I was going to talk about.

J Dilla: Jay Stay Paid

It's been quite a year for Dilla, though it's three years since he died. BBE / Rapster have put out three - three - best-of compilations under the name Dillanthology, one every three months. There's some logic to doing it in threes (and not just a numerological obsession with the number): the first was the best-of-Dilla-working-for-other-people, the second was best-remixes, and the third, finally, was best-of-Dilla-solo.

But the best Dilla release of 2009 was Jay Stay Paid, a collection of all sorts of scraps, executive-produced by his mother and mixed together by his idol Pete Rock (that's a nice touch). It's mostly an instrumental beat album, though I think it shows off more of the crisp soul-coloured sound of Welcome 2 Detroit rather than the rougher-than-Ruff-Draft sound of the instrumental Donuts. At 28 tracks, of course, it's mostly still choppin' it out at Donuts' pace; only four tracks make it past the 3-minute mark. There are more than four tracks with vocals though, and the guest list is mostly who you'd expect on a Dilla album: Black Thought, DOOM or Raekwon for the world-famous type; Frank Nitty or kid brother Illa J for the, let's say, regionally-famous type.

A final note about the two producers of the album: there's a whole lot of backstory about Dilla's estate not going where he would've wanted it. I haven't really followed it (this article covers some of the murk) but I believe part of the aim for Jay Stay Paid is that it might see Jay's family stay paid too. Even if not, this is the most interesting proposition for Dilla releases in 2009.

The Clip: 'KJay And We Out' is the album closer. The title relates to the radio-broadcast theme that Pete Rock uses to keep the album flowing, and he gives a disc-jocky-style shout-out to cap things off...

Madlib: Beat Konducta vol.5-6: A Tribute To...

This one is closely related to the last album, since it's a tribute to Dilla (it ditches the dot-dot-dot and says "a tribute to Dilla" inside the cover). And it's also closely related since it's another instrumental set, clocking in 42 tracks in just over an hour. And it's related because Dilla and Madlib were major influences on each other, notably after their Jaylib collaboration. One example of that is simply that this is a part of Madlib's Beat Konducta series, which he didn't get going on until after Dilla's Donuts, even if he'd already been doing that beat-tape thing outside commercial release for years.

You might ask how you do a tribute without vocals, but that hardly matters: it's fairly easy to convey mood instrumentally, and that seems to be the essential. It helps that a lot of Dilla's musical tastes ran to the plaintive end of soul, so that Madlib can produce music that gets the right reflective tone for and also sounds Dilla-esque (pastiche being an obvious form of tribute). Likewise, the prominence of Donuts in Dilla's catalogue means that "instrumental" is taken as Dilla-esque even if most of he time he worked with singers or MCs, or rapped himself.

Of course, while A Tribute To... is nominally an instrumental album, there are fragments of vocals in the samples: the album opens with the line "since you been away so long" on a loop, and the effect is just as strong as if Madlib had written his own rhymes. On top of which, some of these fragments are snatches of Dilla himself. And there's also an occasional sample of someone screaming in frustration. Just to drive home the point.

The Clip: A Tribute To... really doesn't lend itself to a single selected clip. Individual tracks always sound like something's missing when they don't flow into the next track. It's a sum-total job, and works best for me playing volume 5 (the "Dil Cosby Suite", tracks 1-22) or volume 6 (the "Dil Withers Suite", 23-42) in one sitting. I'm not linking to all that though. But I thought I could link to two tracks instead of one. 'Dirty Hop (The Shuffle)' may sound a little aimless when it's not aimed at the track following it on the album, but it reminds me enough of Jaylib that it seems a perfect way to show off the tribute-by-reference side of the album. The other track, 'Rolled Peach Optimos (Call Day)', is no less Dilla-like but shows off the album's plaintive side. And both tracks have another recurring vocal sample: Indian vocal percussion (don't remember the name for the technique).

Oh No: Dr No's Ethiopium

Continuing from the last album, Oh No is the younger brother of Madlib. Continuing the dead people theme (this is getting specious) Oh No's real name is Michael Jackson. Ignoring that, his new album Dr No's Ethiopium is a sort of sequel to Dr No's Oxperiment of 2007. Both are "regionally based" instrumental albums. Beat albums (again). Oxperiment limited itself to Turkish, Lebanese, Greek and Italian psychedelic rock samples. Ethiopium limits itself to sampling from... well, you can work out where. The genres he touches on include funk, jazz, folk, soul and rock, from the 60s and 70s. Think of the Broken Flowers soundtrack. At this stage I'm not sure which of the Dr No albums I prefer, or rather, I keep switching which one I prefer. It might be a good thing that the next few projects he's got lined up are well removed from the Dr No idea, so he's keeping things fresh, but it's the Dr No stuff I like best.

(These aren't the only themed-sampling albums he's done: Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms was sampled entirely from the music of Galt McDermot, composer of Hair - actually, it doesn't say "sampled from", it says "made with". McDermot's name is as prominent as Oh No's on the inside cover, and McDermot made it to the photo shoot too.)

The Clip: I've grabbed a clip with two tracks, 'Concentrate' and 'The Funk'. They appear in reverse order on the album. It's Stone Throw's call to put them back to front here, not mine. But it doesn't matter anyway.

International Observer: Felt

Last year I mentioned the reissue campaign for the Thompson Twins. This year former Twin bandleader Tom Bailey released Felt, his fourth (ish) album as International Observer. International Observer is a dub project that he started while still living in Auckland. And though he's moved back to the UK, you can still see traces of the New Zealand connection. For example, he released an album (All Played Out) on local label Round Trip Mars, he decorated the cover of the roughly-equivalent UK album (Heard) with pictures of tui, and he got a single from the latest album remixed by Pitch Black (actually, that makes another kind of sense: Pitch Black and Paddy Free release their own stuff on the same UK-based label).

Dunno if there's anything particularly New Zealand-y on Felt though. If anything, this album has a more of an international (ping!) feel than ever. Be it through track titles like 'The Death of Karamov', 'Neelkanth' or 'Lampedusa'; or through the instrumentation - slide guitar, accordion (as distinct from the obligatory dub melodica), zither, tabla... some of the guitar work is more like country or western-folk music too.

(A quick note on the title Felt. The first Observer album was called Seen, and I've mentioned Heard. Nice theme. This time Bailey used the title "felt" in the sense of fabric as well as sensory perception (a track called 'House Made of Felt', a photo of felt on the disc). And there's definitely a tactile quality to the sound. But where to from here? "Tasted" could work, but "smelt" doesn't seem so catchy.)

The Clip: 'House of the Rising Dub' is the opening track on the album, although the version I've linked to has a two-minute country-like acoustic guitar intro that's not on the album version. It's a cover of what you think it is. But it might not be what you expect.

Electric Wire Hustle: Electric Wire Hustle

Back to the Dilla connections for this one. Not only is the sound of this Wellington soul band a little indebted to Dilla, but three of the four guest performers are Dilla alumni: Georgia Anne Muldrow, Dudley Perkins (AKA Declaime), and Stacy Epps. The first two are both signed to Stones Throw, same as Dilla. Stacy Epps is actually more of a Madlib alumnus, but there's still a Dilla connection. Anyway, that's by way of the three-degrees-of-separation game, but hopefully it's pointing to international opportunities too.

Anyway, the album is just damn nice. It's what the Wellington Sound might sound like if the Wellington Sound sounded like the Wellington Sound is supposed to sound like - at least if we're thinking of soul rather than dub / reggae (though without ruling it out). Case in point is Mara TK's voice: his Marvin Gaye-isms show him stretching out beyond the usual croon that passes for soul-singing. Maybe it's a subtle distinction, but you'll feel it when you listen to one or the other for the length of an album. Likewise, his lyrics try for something other than the sort of banal (and usually content-free) lectures that pass for profundity. "I lose myself daily... but I'll stay here with you/ please bear with me" seems righter and deeper than certain other soul lyrics I've heard this year.

Hmm, anyway, let that pass. (Name no names, even if it means you make no case...)

The Clip: A song called 'Perception'. They did a video for it. It isn't my favourite number, but they did a video for it. And even if it isn't my favourite number, it's still representative of E.W.H. doing their thing and doing it well...

Brötzmann/Kondo/Pupillo/Nilssen-Love: Hairy Bones

It's not really a favourite for the year, but it's kinda fun anyway, and a total change of pace from everything else I've covered. Hairy Bones is Peter Brötzmann and Toshinori Kondo, the horn section of the Die Like A Dog Quartet, with young'uns Massimo Pupillo on electric bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. The effect is a bit like a cross between Die Like A Dog and Brötzmann's old band No Exit. Well, maybe. Where No Exit was a sort of "free metal" outfit, this is more like "free acid jazz" (or "acid free jazz"?) especially in the interplay between Kondo and Pupillo. But it earns the right to the word "acid" more than any acid jazz I've heard. I guess that means it's nothing like acid jazz then after all. It's kinda funky, even though it's never On The One (if there's even a one for them to be on). As always, Kondo is the best electric trumpeter since Miles Davis in the '70s. And that's funky, in a scaring-the-animals way.

The Clip: Hairy Bones is a live document, so the stuff on youtube is live footage too, and it sounds like it was filmed on a cellphone. So instead of that I'm just gonna link to a clip of Peter Brötzmann on Polish TV in the 1970s, playing Brecht and Eisler's 'Song of the United Front', backed by Alex von Schlippenbach, Peter Kowald and Paul Lovens. There's a story that Brötzmann cracked a rib once with the force of his playing. You could believe it watching this, but if it's true then the real question is what did the music sound like?

(If you still want to hear Hairy Bones, this is the best-sounding clip I've found. You'll want a little patience: the quartet doesn't come together as a whole 'til five minutes in, things don't reach critical mass 'til over six minutes in, and then the clip cuts out mid-tune at nine minutes in)

Other Stuff, including Jet Jaguar and Malty Media

I should really mention the Jet Jaguar and Malty Media EPs that came out at the end of the year, as well as my own EP. But we all have no youtube clips! Well, not for these EPs anyway. Maybe that'll be an exciting new development for my roundup of 2010. Anyway, here are links for hearing/downloading Jet Jaguar's My Life In The Bush Out The Back Of My Place, and Malty Media's Buk Buk Buk.

Personal favourites from My Life... include the electrofunky 'Gomennasai' and the bewildering 'Barberpole Rhythm': it slows down and speeds up at the same time, all the time; and yet it might even be possible to dance to it (not that I've dared try). So yeah, My Life... is definitely trying out new moves, while it's still got the clippy blippy mellow warm'n'funky Jet-Jag thing happening. And it's out on Angry Rabbit! (yes, I guess that's a vested interest, though I don't make any money from it....)

Malty Media (my buddies Stuart / Aquaboogie and Michael / Jet Jaguar) put out Buk Buk Buk on the Monotonik netlabel (thus I am entirely impartial this time). Personal favourite (today) would be 'See To Her', which combines the kind of cinemascope psychedelic-ocean-pastoral-backwash groove they've been making together for years for private consumption, with extraordinarily fruity dialogue from Oedipus Rex (in English translation...)

So that's some of what I enjoyed this year. There were other things from other years that I've discovered or rediscovered, or just listened to more than in previous years. There were books about music, and films about music, and music in films, that all fired my enthusiasm. I could write about all those things, but maybe another time (or a number of other times). Wrap-up! I guess I could review (or just plug) my own Retrenching EP. But then again, if you're reading this, you're halfway to finding it anyway. So let's call it a day. Happy new year.

Have a listen: