Money, Success, Fame, Glamour.

“The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom...for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.” - William Blake

“Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.” - Voltaire

Hype is a very subjective thing, seeing a group of previously unknowns splashed across the face of every monthly magazine from Artrocker to Q. instills a sense of pessemism in my mind, and in a world dominated by multinational media conglomerates pushing their artists, on their record labels, through their magazines, their radio stations and their TV channels you can see why, for every Bloc Party there are ten Biffy Clyros.

These two things may seem completely unrelated, well for the past few weeks I've been courting 'Time To Pretend' by MGMT. Blogged relentlessly, these NME and HMV darlings produce perfect psychadelic synthpop in the vein of Arcade Fire on acid.
The lyrical content contemplates the age old cliché of rock & roll excess with a satirical tone screaming Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, Sid Vicious, have we learned nothing? Whilst expressing the conditioning by popular culture to admire this licentious yet luxurious lifestyle. This time the product is more than deserved of the publicity hysteria.

MGMT - Time To Pretend [Mediafire Link]



Continuing the debauched theme is the latest offering from Munk, a burning mid-tempo piano driven number featuring the sultry vocals of italian temptress Asia Argento. Releasing on the consistently fabulous Gomma, suggested to be the german DFA, here we feature the remix by their very own Juan Maclean. Continuing the fine form they found on their recent latin-piano laden beauty 'Happy House', the Juan Maclean inject the track with an epic spaced-out breakdown reminiscent of Cut Copy's Hearts On Fire.

Munk - Live Fast, Die Old (The Juan Maclean Remix) [Mediafire Link]


Photography by Melissa Rose // melissa.rose@hotmail.co.uk

The hype surrounding Manchester's club Clique reached an emphatic climax last september when it was voted Mixmag club of the month for the whole of the UK! Having moved from its original home at Joshua Brooks to the slightly bigger and more lavish Mint Lounge, some may have worried that Clique may have lost the intimate and friendly atmosphere that made it so alluring. Having visited his last weekend, disco's revenge can allay such unsubstantiated fears, friday night is still the glamourous melting pot of personalities, sexualities and digital dance-pop delights we have come to expect without a hint of pretentiousness, but with a brimming crowd and an even more splendidly stocked bar. A night worth visiting Manchester for in itself, so dress up and join us in dancing at their next event, the unmissable Glass Candy.



I leave you with a highlight from friday

Cut Copy - Far Away [Mediafire Link]

Much Love,

D.

Wasted British Youth

Good Evening, Parents.
Tonight, I'm going to take you on a tour of Club Mac;
where all the bad little kitties go,
and try to leave their bondings...
By various means of methods,
anything necessary,
Something that you won't quite be accustomed to.
So I've equipped each and everyone of you with your own individual camera,
so that you could take pictures of these bad little kitties doing bad little things...
for tomorrow's paper.
So whip out your fifteen dollars, and prepare to enter Club Mac.

We've been here not more than thirty seconds,
and already I see a bad little kid doing bad little things.
He is sucking on a balloon.
Now, this is not an ordinary balloon, parents.
It's a balloon filled with a gas called, nitrous oxide -laughing gas.
He, he, he, he, he, he, he, ha, ha...
but this is no laughing matter.
Cameras ready, prepare to flash.

Now over here we have Little Johnny and Miss Susie,
smoking on a joint!?
This is not the thing to do.
I think that we have to take pictures of these two.
Cameras ready, prepare to flash.

Now over here, we have some naughty, naughty kids.
They brought in their own liquor to the party.
Now we can not have that now, parents, can we?
Six packs and pints, I think not, so...
Cameras ready, prepare to flash.

Green Velvet - Flash [Mediafire Link]

The Final Frontier?

A vacation to venus, a journey to jupiter, where in the galaxy would you like to go?

The passengers whisper nervously as they prepare to be propulsed into orbit, the pilot gradually raises the fader on the intercom, a crisp rolling snare errupts around the cabin, followed by martian-esque squelch, 5...4...3...2...

The solid rocket boosters errupt into life and the amateur astronauts bolt into the sky closely followed by a screeching sonance as they break the sound barrier.

If you haven't got $200,000 spare for Virgin Galactic and its future competitors, don't worry Popof have recreated the experience for you.

Popof - The Chomper (LSD Version) [Mediafire Link]



Are we any closer to experiencing the sensation of soaring above the earth, who knows? But man's obsession with the galaxy has transcended culture throughout the centuries, and is nowhere more prominent than music.

Meet Space, a French Space disco band from 1977 originally fronted by Didier Marouani and influenced by growing up with the lunar-landing and the sci-fi epedemic that followed. They have sold over £12 Million copies of their first 3 albums all over the world. It is safe to say that Daft Punk were some what cosmically-inspired by what they saw and heard.



This phenomenal subgenre of Hi-NRG/eurodisco may have disintegrated at the speed of a stray comet hurtling through the Earth's atmosphere, but it has gone on to inspire waves of electronic artists over the past two decades.

Before you depart to seek out an old Korg synthesizer and a motorcycle helmet to customize, I leave you with a cover of Space's 'Magic Fly' from the galactically fabulous Felix Da Housecat and one of my favourite tracks of all time, perfect for star gazing on a warm night.

Felix Da Housecat - Magic Fly [Mediafire Link]

The Hasbeens AKA Alden Tyrell - Make The World Go Away [Mediafire Link]

Every Dog Has It's Day

So I went to see Feadz, Mehdi and Vicarious Bliss on Friday at Paradise Factory in Manchester. As the battle continues to rage for domination of the city's nightlife, Sankeys had gathered a particularly potent strikeforce in the shape of Herve and Simian Mobile Disco, leaving paradise factory fairly barren for a large proportion of the night. For me though, this one was a no-brainer, Feadz is quite simply one of the most ridiculously ambidextrous and talented DJs out there right now and Mehdi provides an unrivalled party vibe. Neither disappointed, bringing an arsenal of bombs which blew paradise factory's intimate atmosphere to smithereens.
A serious raucous was caused as Feadz dropped this absolute A-bomb.

SebastiAn - Dog

Sounding as though Hardcore stalwarts Terror have come rushing out of the trenches bayonets in hand only to be gunned down by the frenetic machine-gun cut up edit style of SebastiAn, this is shell-shockingly good.

VS

Upstairs was hosted by two of Manchester's finest electronic institutions Sex with Robots Vs. Prostitutes and Policemen. Despite the destruction taking place downstairs they managed to maintain a pretty steady number of comrades, punishing them with some of the most explosive sounds around...

Dusty Kid - The Kitten

Alex and Graeme have got some fantastic things lined up over the next few months included a double-header birthday party of Switch and MSTRKRFT & Les Petits Pilous, make sure you don't miss out by checking them out on myspace. Prostitutes & Policemen

Over and out,
Dan.

Welcome To The Pleasuredome...

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Johanatron Remix)

...and welcome to my one-man transit through what has come before and what is yet to come,

I don't want to bore you with the latest fad or hype the latest craze - though I can point you in the direction of many who do this very well - ,but simply procure my views and recommendations on northern nightlife & aural pleasures.

I expect that the music will speak for itself but be prepared for intermittent outbursts of musical monomania, the type that you just can't keep from bubbling over into your every day existence, like when you just want the world to know about things that you have consummate doubt they won't give a hoot about. "Did you know that Le Knight Club's 1998 dreamer 'Intergalactik Disco' actually samples the disco gem Look For Love by Cerrone?"



So welcome audio aficionados, this is the end of the beginning.

And for my next number...

Kris Menace & Spooky - Stereophonic