Moby's chicken revenge under disco ball

As you probably know by now, Moby had a disco album in the works. The first single is now out and the video is ready to do damage.

Do you have an uneasy feeling when political or social conscience blends with dance music. The scenario is this. You have a dance song with a beat obviously, so dancing equals party, but how do you party when watching chickens being slaughtered. Doesn't feel right. Are we supposed to boogie, laugh or think?

In other words, Moby attacks the iconic chicken colonel, that's his right - he follows Pamela Anderson, Russell Simmons, Sir Paul McCartney, Alec Baldwin and many others. And true, the meat industry does engage in cruel practices, there's plenty videos to back this up. Moby wants to raise awareness through a music video, it's been done before so what's the fuss? Does it work? Yes! And why not.

Well for some of us, the disco ball is sacred and have no place in a video of this nature. I'm all for Moby the artist (and person) and the cause but come on, blood splatter, Was that necessary?


Moby "Disco Lies" music video on YouTube
PETA's chicken display and celebs at GoVeg
Have fun and kick the bucket: Make your own sign display

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Tommy Boy 2008

How many record labels from the 80s are still around today? I'm amazed Tommy Boy still exist. Haven't seen much Tommy Boy vinyl releases in recent times, there was the Ultra Nate single "Love is the only drug" a year ago, some classic re-issues from Digital Underground, Naughty by Nature and Afrika Baambaata.

On the digital download front for late 2007 early 2008 comes remixes for singles by Ultra Nate, Bob Sinclar and Xpress-2. Promos have been issued on cds...
"Give It All You Got", the third single from Ultra Naté's gleefully received "Grime, Silk & Thunder" features ­singer Chris Willis, who wrote the hits "Just A Little More Love", "Love Don't Let Me Go" and "Love Is Gone" for French superstar DJ/producer, David Guetta. Delivered in a glittering package of top drawer remixes, there's a version of "Give It All You Got" to suit every taste. Redtop delivers downtempo retro-funk, a tough
little electro-inspired mix comes from Risque, the unstoppable Matthias
Heilbronn bring it with full on house heaven and big room mixes from
original producers Andy & Glen Evans and Chris Willis, the UK's Soulcast duo
and smoking production trio Bimbo Jones (Ciara, Annie Lennox, Gareth Gates,
S Club 8) are all on the money.

In the accompanying video, our delicious diva (ya, we can call her that),
continues to amp up the glam quotient. (How much did you love that
Automatic Video?) Working a serious glamazon/Mad Max vibe, Ultra once
again prevails, though instead of cracking a whip to keep frisky, oiled,
nude internet hotties in line, she prevails amidst flying fire-spitting
acrobatic muscle studs, spears, and not a little architectural mascara.

Out December 18th 2007
View "Give It All You Got" the video €

From the Bob Sinclar album "Soundz of Freedom", the single "Together" featuring Steve Edwards comes in various flavors with remixes by Robbie Rivera, Gregor Salto, DJ Madskillz, Eddie Thorneick, Friscia and Lamboy in addition to the original radio edit.

Out January 22nd 2008
View "Together" the video

"Give it" by X-Press 2 featuring Kurt Wagner sounds like a rehashed classic, it's not. Was quite surprised to find out there's no sampling there. It has that old country meets Gospel church 70s feeling, sort of like Joe "Cockerish". Remixes by Friscia and Lamboy plus the radio edit.

Out January 22nd 2008
View "Give it" the video

All are available on iTunes and various top
digital retail sites.

Thanks to Andy Reynolds for the Ultra Nate material

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Piano in the house

In the early days of house music, piano was the backbone typical of the genre, now play "Move your body" in your mind without the piano and the intro is gone.

House music has evolved since, some say it has lost its essence, it's been robbed of its soul and "blackness", true. What happened to the piano?

Want some piano then ... head to the jazz or lounge section genres of your favorite record shop. But we want dance floor piano, piano to make you move your feet, a hurried piano riff like in early house music records or in the disco days on numerous O'Jays hits, even Voyage, the French disco group had a killer piano disco monster in "Lady America" wayback in 1978 and like "Move your Body", the intro is the piano.

SK Radikals is a jazz-house group from the UK who never fails to deliver the goods, and I mention them here cause many times pulled out their singles "On the street" from 2002 and "Someday" in 2005, dropped them on the platters in order to get a dance floor piano high.

For 2008, BBE will be distributing "North Wind" by Rhythm of Elements bringing together the underground club heritage of DJ Uchikawa and classically trained jazz piano of Makoto Kuriya who played with some of the finest jazz musicians of the 20th century including Chuck Mangione, Nathan Davis, Billy Cobham and Donald Byrd to name a few. He has recorded numerous albums and performed across the globe.

The upcoming 12inch release will also contain the Disco Dub Remix and Dub Beats. Expect a deep tech house groove, laced and sweetened by fine musicianship from Kuriya.

Now let's move the piano from the lounge area and bring it on the dancefloor with a nod from Ray Charles up above.

image: Tribe 2 - North Wind by Rhythm of Elements upcoming 12 inch vinyl

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Space eye candy and dj mixes for your ears

In 2008, slappin' some mixes on a website is not enough.

With all things cosmic and space being the trend "du jour" (or is it?), we'd expect a pleasant graphical and interactive futuristic interface to listen to the latest dj mixes some time soon. YouMixIt.com is it and it was launched just last month.

You don't have to log in or register. There's a ... Weekly Top 15, the most played songs, or all available songs in random order. The site streams a wide variety of music styles. More info about the dj, the tracks, the equipment used can be found by clicking on the dj name.

Djs may upload their mixes by creating an account for free.

The latest buzz now is for djs to make their mixes available on web storage sites. The problem is that the download link is buried alongside tons of ads, it's arranged so that we accidently click a malicious or unwanted link, it takes 4 pages to get to it, pop-ups appear all over the place. It's like going into a forest and being attacked by insects.

If you're tired of being bombarded and attacked by ads, YouMixIt is the zen alternative, no forced ads, no mess, no pop-ups.

Listen to some dj mixes on YouMixIt.com

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Hammer launches dance video site

Hammer's latest venture is doomed to fail.

MC Hammer just launched a YouTube equivalent of "So you think you can dance".

Visitors are invited to "tape" their dance moves and upload the video to the website so that they can win a camera.

So if visitors need a camera to record their dance moves in the first place, why would they want to win a ... camera?

DanceJam.com requires visitors to have the very latest version of Flash.

In no time, the majors will sue the website since dancers will use popular songs to dance to, we assume the site hasn't made a deal with Universal Music unlike YouTube.

If it does indeed become successful, that'll restore Hammer's credit rating. Although Hammer's a cool guy and I wish him well, his venture should have been better planned. How about a 63 inch LCD screen instead of a cheap camera.

Did he abandoned his "career" as a reverend? Does he still dance?


Would have supplied a screen capture but made fun of an MC Hammer record instead.

Image source: Our mock-up of MC Hammer's Greatest Hits" at Amazon

MC Hammer's DanceJam.com

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Calvin Harris free download

What was the B-Side to Calvin Harris' "Acceptable in the 80s" 10 inch vinyl limited edition first single released late last year, 9 months ahead of the album release of "I created Disco"?

Don't recall? No problem! Calvin Harris is giving you "This is the Industry", the download for free.

Calvin Harris has contributed a few songs to Kylie Minogue's new album "X".

Evidently, there's a catch. You have to ... sign-up to his newsletter. Hurry! It's for a limited time.

Get Calvin Harris "This is the industry" download for free

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Blaze's Kevin Hedges leaves West End Records, Cheren retires

We do not know yet why Mel Cheren retired and what will happen next at West End Records. Here are excerpts from Kevin Hedges' farewell ...

"It is with sadness that we announce the retirement of a music industry legend, Mr. Mel Cheren, b.k.a. Uncle Mel."

"Mel's retirement saddens me because I will miss our daily conversations and his gentle management style. However, I am taking all that he has taught me and applying it to our new company, Blaze Imprints. With this new label, my team, Josh Milan and I will strive to continue to find, produce and distribute the very best Soul Music we can create and discover." ...

Blaze has remixed Dreamgirls "Family" recently with the fabulous voice of Jennifer Hudson

Blaze Imprints

UPDATE: Mel passed away December 7th 2007

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Return of Supermax on the dancefloor

The loving machine will be in town in a club near you (more likely in Europe).

Supermax is Kurt Hauenstein from Germany and the group behind Love Machine, the sleazy euro disco rock track that sold millions worldwide back in 1978.

Haunstein's career wasn't over after Love Machine, even though not much was heard of him stateside come the 80s, he continued performing and writing music well into the 21st century, dabbling with reggae, african grooves, soul and pop.

Supermax has just released the ... latest Vinyl and CD: REMAXED VOL. 2, only available for pre-selected Club-Djs.

In September 2007, a new double album with remixes of Supermax songs by the 20 best Djs, will hit the the market.

Supermax will perform their new remixed dancefloor music in clubs to be closer to the fans.

For those looking for Supermax Loving machine extended 12 inch version, we are pleased to announce it is included in the Disco Deutschland compilation cd wich we just reviewed this week on discostyle.com

Disco Deutschland review at DiscoStyle.com
Supermax website

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New Shapeshifter and Etherfox

The Shapeshifters, the team behind Lola's Theme, Back to Basics, Incredible and Chic's Sensitivity has come up with a new single and a new album is slated for release soon.

The new single "Pusher" should be out July 2nd. It's been on Rotation on BBC's Radio 1 thanks to Pete Tong. In tune with 2007, expect some electro style bass synth, if you haven't heard it already.

The Shapeshifters officially have a third member and female singer Jenna G, and will perform live with a 7 piece band for the delight of music lovers worldwide. Dance music with ... musicians is now the way to go, ask Basement Jaxx.

They have teamed up with the label Nocturnal Groove responsible for Etherfox's underground funky disco house monster track of last summer "Something to say" which will get the re-release and remix treatment.

Listen to both The new Shapeshifters single and Etherfox "Something to say" here

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Patrick Adams new cd released

Patrick Adam's vault has been bust open last year when he made available about a dozen previously unreleased tracks for downloads as it was reported in the news section of DiscoStyle.com.

They are now available on CD, here's the tracklist of Patrick Adams Gold School... :

• 1 Laptop Dancer
• 2 Sweetest Love
• 3 You Can't Hide From Love
• 4 Today Is The First Day
• 5 Just Another Motherfunker
• 6 D J Make My Panties Drop
• 7 Can't Let The Music Die
• 8 Dance And Shake Your Tamborine
• 9 Get The Wood
• 10 Universal Justice Movie Theme

The song he wrote in honor of Alicia Keys does not appear here though.

Preview all tunes here in lo or hi-def
Patrick Adams website

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New Level 42 DVD Retroglide Tour

For the bass guitar licks and the jazzy funk! ... and the hits.

The Retroglide Tour DVD has been available at the official Level 42 website since May 30th 2007.

The DVD is Region free(0), and NTSC so will play in all multi-format players anywhere in the world. It has true 5.1 surround and Stereo audio

Filmed live at the New Theatre, Oxford, England (October 31st 2006).

Tracklist:

1. Dive Into The Sun
2. To Be With You Again
3. Hot Water
4. Rooted
5. World Machine
6. Retroglide
7. Leaving Me Now
8. Kansas City Milkman
9. Starchild
10. The Sun Goes Down
11. Running In The Family
12. Lessons In Love
13. Something About You
14. Dune Tune Improv
15. Love Games
16. Sleeptalking
17. The Chinese Way
18. All Around (soundcheck)

Official Level 42 website

View Level 42 music videos and concert videos now

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Stay with Sexy Rexy tonite

Old school funk and R&B aficionados might remember 1983's "Stay with me tonite" by Jeffrey Osbourne, a former member of L.T.D. (re: Back in love again, Love to the world). Jeffrey Osbourne's "Plane Love" also from 1983 was remixed by Larry Levan and was a Paradise Garage fave, "Stay with me tonight" crossed over to the Top 40 charts.

If you heard something like "Stay with me tonight" with another singer delivered in Euro electronic Disco House style recently, you're not hallucinating... , It's a re-interpretation by DeMarco on the Sexy Rexy label owned by Tony Massera who runs the internet radio station Diva Radio Disco and Funk out of Europe.

De Marco "Stay with Me tonight" is one of 7 tracks off the Miami 2007 Sexy Rexy sampler, other tracks are in the funky disco house vein.


Check them out at JunoDownloads.com or
at Tony Massera's Sexy Rexy at Myspace.com

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Dance Music Hall of Fame update

2006 has seen the disapearance of both the House Music awards in the UK and The Dance Music Hall of Fame awards "states" side.

A few are concerned in regards to the Dance Music Hall of Fame, to keep it alive and sustainable on the long term. Word has it that Barry Lederer, disco dj pioneer and former writer of Billboard's Disco Mix column (preceded by Tom Moulton and followed by Brian Chin) is looking at ways to bring it back up ... with the help of heavyweights in the music industry. Stay tuned!

Barry Lederer at DiscoStyle.com

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New Bar-Kays House Party: 15 years too late

New Bar-Kays latest' House Party album is 15 years too late

"Oh damn! A new Bar-kays album", was curious and gave it a listen!

15 years ago, it would have been a hitter! Very Blackstreet, Suge Knight/Dre, Joe ... remember them? Too far ahead from '81 "Hit and run" or '82 "She talks to me with her body" or '84's "Sexomatic" and "Freakshow on the dancefloor". Frankly, it's quite good if you're into the 90s funk sounds. The cover is representative with sort of a "G" look; bling, dollar sign, palm trees for the California "thang".

For comparison... , the funny thing is, Musiq Soulchild's latest cd released last March '07 is very mid-90s, tired hip hoppy soul like most of today's R&B (no evolution in 15 years), Bar-Kays' House Party is way better 20 times! Go figure.

Glad to know they're still around recording and performing, it would have been nice to have it nu 80s style instead, in the meanwhile, we'll stick to their late 70s and 80s classics.

Listen to all tracks at Amazon.com

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Hed Kandi flying high

Da plane! da plane! Herve Villechaize would have said. Hed Kandi now have their own plane to fly clubbers from the UK to the islands of Ibiza.

Hed Kandi has long been famed for its glamour and extravagance but never more than now, as they boldly tread where no music brand has gone before with their very own aircraft. Their summer partnership with Monarch is a truly inspired alliance, which marks a first for both brands.

The stunning aircraft was unveiled on Friday 27th April 2007 at London ... Luton Airport for its inaugural flight and will be taking to the skies over the coming months as part of this sensational summer deal.

High quality, low cost flights, from 4 major UK airports, means you can travel in style to the white isle, with prices starting from as little as £38.99 (one way including all taxes and web booking discount). Hed Kandi CDs will be available to buy on all Monarch flights and Ministry Of Sound radio will be just a touch of a button away as you prepare for, or wind down from, the holiday of a lifetime.

Monarch flights to Ibiza from Manchester commence on 19 May. Flights from Birmingham, London Luton and London Gatwick commence on 24 May 2007

All about it at FlyKandi.com

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Nouveau Disco of Gus Gus

Judging by how they look like and where they are from, nothing says Gus Gus are disco until you hear their latest album "Forever" (their fifth). To make matters worse, its availabilty is extremely limited.

GusGus was established in 1995. It started as a film/art/music collective group of 12 and through the years has narrowed down to the divine number of three; Biggi Veira, Earth and President Bongo.

Pall Oskar, ("the discodiva # 1" they say), lends his smooth voice on "Need In Me", as well as on "Hold You" with the Detroit native Aaron-Carl. Omar Gudjonsson lays his calloused fingers over "You'll never Change" and inspires both President Bongo and Veiran to do handle their own guitar necks in "Forever". "Professor" Ottarr Proppe pukes out the welcome words to "Forever". Mr. The President himself graces golden larynx through the track "If you don't jump, you're English" flashing rusted guitar samples from the everlasting Icelandic 80's punk band Purrkur Pillnikk and hammered power hi-hats by Helgi "HitHat" Helgason.

The current single from FOREVER is "Moss" featuring former GusGus lead singer, Daniel Moss, whose solo album "Swallowed A Star" is out now.

Discover Gus Gus; view all videos, listen to streaming albums, read their news blog, etc. at www.gusgus.com

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The Deele in Cincinati

Grammy winning recording artists the Deele, wowed the crowd last month at the R&B Spring Jam in Cincinnati, Ohio. They put on a fantastic show for a sold out crowd, and brought them to their feet in a standing ovation. The suave vocalists sang such favorites as "Two Occasions," "Body Talk," and Shoot'em Up Movies," among other popular hits. They performed along with The Isley Brothers, featuring Ron Isley, and the S.O.S. Band.

This was the Deele's first performance since being signed to the Dallas based record label D-Town Records, with many more projects on the horizon. The label is currently in talks with the "Tom Joyner Radio Show" and the "Steve Harvey Radio Show" about the Deele performing in upcoming events. They are also bringing the group into the studio, to record a single with label-mates Keingz Ransom, an immensely popular R&B group out of Dallas.

"Babyface" Redmonds and L.A. Reid are their most prolific members, they left the group in 1988 to found LaFace records the following year.

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Greg Wilson Best of '82 mix cd

Greg Wilson's Best of '82 is a re-construction of his inaugural mixes for Manchester’s Piccadilly Radio in May and June 1982, courtesy of Pezz, former DJ at the DIY nights in the Midlands, but more recently the manager of the 3 Beat record shop in Liverpool. How Pezz came to re-do his mixes is a long story, which involves the birth of the band Chicken Lips – there's a booklet with the CD in which Pezz tells the tale.

The CD has been put together as a limited run promo to mark the 25th Anniversary of these mixes – the first of their type on British radio. The music featured includes tracks by US, UK and Italian artists, which were being played on the underground black scene at the time. Greg says:

"I'm not sure if anybody has ever re-created another DJ's mix before. Great for me to hear again in CD quality (rather than the hissy recording I have from the radio). Definitely a labour of love from Pezz!"


It is now available as a limited CD in 2 shops only:

Piccadilly Records and Fat City Records

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Alexander O'Neal soulful house track

Brand new song by Alexander O'Neal on the soulful house tip unveiled first on the BBC.

Sticky feat. Kyra & Alexander O'Neal - Hello was an arrangement by BBC's 1Xtra as part of their Electric Proms series for unsigned singer Kyra to spend time in a recording studio with 80s soul legend Alexander O'Neal and producer Sticky.

Watch the video and listen to the song here on BBC

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Gotta get some downloads from Super Jupiter

*FREE*FREE*FREE*

Super Jupiter are the new kids on the block on the electro-disco band scene.

Videos of their singles have been on YouTube since late 2006, "You know" has been pressed on pink 12 inch vinyl, it was picked up for inclusion in the RoboPop compilation series alongside Tiga and Goldfrapp. While the world is waiting for their first album, Super Jupiter is giving away for free remixes + the original version of "Got to get some" totaling 7 free downloads. Hurry while it last!

No sign-up, no registration, no newsletter, no log-in. All you have to do is go to their MySpace page, look for the mixes on the right hand side, right-click, save and enjoy! While you're there you may also listen to 3 new songs!

Discover Super Jupiter and get your free MP3s here

Talking about showing some love, artists truly love their fans, giving away free music is their way to do it and we on the receiving end, don't have to wait for our birthday or x-mas for the freebies.

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