Brilliant Colors‘ Jess Scott made a 10 track mixtape for Tough Love. It features the Close Lobsters and is therefore rendered ‘essential’ by default. Someone come canonise that band quick!

Follow the link below to download the zip.

Brilliant Colors also feature on a split 7″ with Girls Names that we released in conjunction with the peerless Slumberland a few weeks ago. Of the 300 copies we had, there’s now about 30 left. Click here to purchase.

DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE: Brilliant Colors Mixtape for Tough Love

Tracklisting:
1. Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes – “Splashing Along
2. Vic Godard and the Subway Sect – “Stop That Girl”
3. Close Lobsters – “I Kiss The Flowers In Bloom”
4. Felt – “Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow”
5. Razorcuts – “80 Times Around The World”
6. Look Blue Go Purple – “Cactus Cat”
7. The Great Unwashed – “Hold On To The Rail”
8. Livin’ Sacrifice – “Mentalsjuk”
9. La La Vasquez – “Buoy”
10. Proper Ornaments – “Recalling”

The Fair Ohs sound like Paul Simon, but, y’know, punk. It’s surprising, then, that drummer Joe is heavily into 80s R&B. Or maybe it’s not? Everyone hears things differently.

Since Eddy has already made a mix of African music for me for Platform, I asked Joe to do the same for the music he loves. There will be no favourtism here (Matt was going to do one too, but technology let us down). Perhaps it’s not that representative of Fair Ohs, but it’s Monday and these 9 songs of pure fire make the weekend sound like it goes on forever. Here’s Joe in his own words:

“This is a mix of 80s soul music that I grew up listening to through my parents and as an adult have listen to obsessively. The first three tracks are Jam and Lewis productions; my favourite producers. To me everything they touched in the 80s was just pure gold. The first track here by Alexander O’Neal is a slightly different style for them (made in 1990 where they were starting to develop a New Jack Swing influenced style) but shows how powerful Alex is when he is pissed off in contrast to the last track of his on this mix, ‘Sunshine’, where he is just as comfortable with a ballad. I love this man and still go to his shows whenever he is in town (I missed out on seeing him in the 80s, but what could I do, I was a child!).

The tracks by Cherrelle and SOS Band show more typical Jam and Lewis productions, with Terry Lewis’ idiosyncratic p-funk influenced bass parts and Jimmy Jam’s expert ear for amazing chords, and also their use of the 808 drum machine and Oberheim synths. The Womack and Womack track here I love becuase of how sincere and haunting it is . Luther Vandross’ ‘Give Me the Reason’ combines his technically perfect vocal delivery with jagged, almost industrial, drum programming, as does Teddy’s ‘I Never Felt Like Dancing’.

This music doesn’t really influence what I do with Fair Ohs (We got Paul Simon for that!) but I take a lot of influence from this for a futuristic soul group called The One . ”

Fair Ohs – Mixtape for Tough Love

Tracklisting

1. Alexander O’Neal – “Somebody Changed Your Mind”
2. Cherrelle – “Will You Satisfy?”
3. SOS Band – “Just The Way You Like It”
4. Womack and Womack – “Strange and Funny”
5. Bobby Womack – “I Can’t Stay Mad”
6. Morris Day – “Love Is A Game”
7. Luther Vandross – “Give Me The Reason”
8. Teddy Pendergrass – I Never Felt Like Dancing
9. Alexander O’Neal – “Sunshine”

(Photo: Kelley Smith)

On Monday 22nd March we’ll be releasing a split single featuring two jams each from Fair Ohs and Spectrals (which you can buy here). You probably know all about this since we’ve hardly shut up about it, but give me a break, it’s cos it’s really good. And you probably know a lot more about the actual release then what it sounds like – that’s cos it’s not out until 22nd March, dummy.

I’d like to think you’ve already found out for yourself, but FYI, Fair Ohs are on a “Paul Simon but punk” vibe and Spectrals sways with blue eyed soul and, according to the girl reading The Stool Pigeon over my shoulder last night, “Teddy Pendergrass and shit like that”. I’m not sure how she could hear that through the ink and paper, but Louis (who’s definitely a boy, Muso’s Guide!) is certainly into soul, doo wop, Motown, girl groups, that kind of thing. You can hear it coursing through the music pretty clearly.

That in mind, I asked him to make us a mixtape collecting together some of his favourite tracks. And he did just that. You can download the entire thing as a zip, with the tracklisting featured below. Thanks to Ralph Wilson for the artwork and obviously to Louis himself for sharing the wealth.

Meanwhile, with the release of said split single coming up quickly over that hill, time’s about right to remind you of this launch night happening in a few weekends time. And here’s that reminder.

Spectrals Mixtape for Tough Love

Tracklisting:
1. The Fascinations – “The Girls Are Out To Get You”
2. The Cleftones – “Heart and Soul”
3. Shirley J. Scott – “Goose Pimples”
4. The Shirelles – “Baby It’s You”
5. The Opals – “You’re Gonna Be Sorry”
6. The Duprees – “You Belong To Me”
7. The Chiffons – “He’s So Fine”
8. The Ronettes – “How Does It Feel?”
9. The Charmaines – “Whenever I Get Lonely”
10. The Capris – “Tears In My Eyes”
11. The Marcells – “Goodbye To Love”
12. The Vogues – “You’re The One”
13. The Jellybeans – “I Wanna Love Him So Bad”
14. The Chantels – “So Real”
15. Blue Magic – “Look Me Up”

It feels like a billion years ago now, but in 2007 we released a 7″ single by Disco Drive. Shortly after, the band released their second album through Unhip, but since then have been rather quiet. But they’ve not been doing nothing.

Guitarist and lead singer, Alessio moved to London and kickstarted his one-man-and-a-laptop project Banjo or Freakout, slaying blogs with a series of inspired covers, a xmas album and the most dreamy dreamwave video ever made ever. If you do a search on Hype Machine you can find about a million good songs (particularly loving the Burial cover)

Alessio is just about to shoot off to NYC to record the Banjo or Freakout debut album, but he had just enough time to put together a 10 song mixtape for us, the song selection reflecting the BoF aesthetic pretty much spot on – a heady mix of chill jams, blissed out euphoria and a little spastic magic (that’ll be Swing Kids).

You can download it below and if you’re so inclined, go to Half Machine and buy BoF’s new record (which also comes with a free Becoming Real remix).

Tracklisting:
1. Tones on Tail – “Lions”
2.Hard-Ons – “There Was A Time”
3. Joe Meek and the Bluemen – “The Bublight”
4. Black Eyes – “A Pack of Wolves”
5. Bridget St. John – “Back To Stay”
6. Moondog – “Viking I”
7. Workshop – “Fur Wen?”
8. Wolfgang Voight – “Zither und Horn”
9. Swing Kids – “Situation On Mars”
10. Palms – “New Moon” 

Banjo or Freakout – Mixtape for Tough Love

(Photo: Dark†Youth)