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Back after a good while - I still dig Yahoo! Music Unlimited, especially for listening to albums I might like before I decide to buy them from Emusic, but it has to be said that the ability to find less well-known music through the service is still severely lacking.
But nonetheless, every now and again, I go back and do another label compilation, and here's the latest, 'I'm Totally Skint For It' [YMU link].
As I say: "Brighton, UK label Skint is best known for signing Fatboy Slim, of course, but they were at the forefront of the 'big beat' movement in the '90s, and some of the early highlights are here - from Hardknox through Lo-Fi Allstars and beyond, plus newer house/chill tracks from FC Kahuna, Freq Nasty, and the sublime X-Press 2." Enjoy!
Oops, it's great when you discover half-finished blog posts 3 months later - I just realized that I was most of the way through posting an Ether Music playlist back in January or so when I had to stop, and never started again.
Anyhow, here is the description for 'Into The Ether' [YMU link]: "Looking for Gilles Peterson DJ-ed material, I stumbled across a small cache of excellent music from small London label Ether Music, including several tracks from Peterson compilations, plus odd world music Nirvana covers from Kad and a neat album from Seu Jorge (recently notable for appearing in The Life Aquatic."
"So, lots of world (particularly Brazilian!) jazzy beats here, and it's well worth checking all the source albums."
Time for another label-specific mix for Yahoo! Music Unlimited, and I must say, there's _so_ much good material on YMU which it's practically impossible to find, due to the lack of good 'you might like X if you like Y' comparisons in niche genres, no label search, incorrect label listing for some minor labels, and similar issues.
So this means I ended up reverse engineering this playlist from the Discogs.com entry, but hey it worked - here's the blurb for 'Southern Fried Charm?' [YMU link]: "Norman 'Fatboy Slim' Cook's very own UK-based label Southern Fried Records started out as a place to release tracks by Cook alter egos such as the Mighty Dub Katz, but has morphed into an awesome big beat/house label in its own right.
Some highlights on this best-of selection include Scanty Sandwich's 'Because Of You', a sizable UK pop hit with its early Michael Jackson sample, as well as great tracks from chill-out dons A Man Called Adam and Prince-covering discohouse crazy Space Cowboy. All in all, most upbeat!"
Aha, the threatened return is here with my 'best of' picks for UK label Planet Mu, in 'Planet Mu's Elliptical Orbit' [YMU link] - worth noting that all of the tracks in it are taken from full albums also available on YMU, as well, so if you like them, there's plenty more to listen to.
Here's the blurb: "UK label Planet Mu, originally started by Mike Paradinas (Mu-Ziq) as a subsidiary of Virgin, has been doing wacky, often dischordant electronic music since the late '90s.
However, more recent material is mashing up early 1993-1996 jungle and its children in ever more interesting ways, straddling the line between breakbeat, pure noise, and even some grime - highlights include Venetian Snares, Remarc, Virus Syndicate, Hellfish, and more."
I'm working on another label-specific playlist, for the excellent Planet Mu, but in the meantime, I stumbled upon the very necessary playlist 'Arch Celebrity Weirdness Alert' [YMU link] - the official description is as follows:
"Want to hear some celebrities performing odd, strange, or just plain awful songs? Sure you do, that's why you're listening to this playlist!
Thanks to the Rhino 'Golden Throats' compilations (and Rhino in general!) for some of the inspiration, but there's everything from Laurel & Hardy through Paris Hilton on show here."
Some further notes - one of the great things is that, while the 'Golden Throats' compilations aren't on YMU, some individual albums are - so you can check out the full Cassius Clay album or even Buddy Ebsen's effort if you want - a great example of why YMU rocks. Oh, and I know Pat Boone is a singer, but he's a celebrity too, and that album ('In A Metal Mood') is just too good to leave out.
(Also, the William Shatner album 'Has Been', from which the cover of Pulp's 'Common People' is taken, is one of the most surprisingly good celebrity albums ever, partly thanks to Ben Folds' producing and writing chops. Highly illogical!)
Finally, a spare weekend, and the chance to come up with a specially themed playlist, with 'The Danger Of The Mouse' [YMU link], with the official description as follows:
"A compilation of tracks produced by Danger Mouse, the talented hip-pop producer best known for his Gnarls Barkley project with Cee-Lo and prodoucing Gorillaz' second album [and 'The Grey Album', of course!]
However, other recent production work for Sparklehorse and The Rapture is included here, as is material from his excellent Danger Doom album [with MF Doom] themed around Adult Swim.
There's also a very odd bonus track - a 'tribute' version of Feel Good Inc by the 'Gorillaz Tribute Band' - so a soundalike version of his production!"
Back after a short hiatus with a compilation of some of the female-vocal tracks that I particularly adore, in the form of 'Her Voice Of Summer' [YMU link].
As the playlist description explains: "A compilation of some of the more gorgeous female voices flirting with electronica, from former Opus III singer Kirsty Hawkshaw through the wonderful Imogen Heap of Frou Frou, and encompassing other great female-fronted vocal tracks from Lamb, Jem, EBTG, Morcheeba, Zero 7, and more."
Other than that, that's all you need to know - unfortunately, my all-time favorite album, Kirsty Hawkshaw's 'O.U.T', isn't up on YMU yet, but there's plenty of other goodness from both her and the spectacular Imogen Heap. Yum.
My new Yahoo! Music Unlimited playlist is the absolutely horrible 'This Beat Is Technotronic' [YMU link], and spans from some kind of minor breakdown I had when deciding what high quality mix I was going to do next for YMU Playa - and resolving to do a low quality one instead.
As the playlist description explains: "An absolutely horrific playlist, bookended by 2 tracks by Technotronic, featuring some of the cheesiest (or darn catchiest) pop-techno hits to come out of the early '90s. These are the songs, from 2 Unlimited through C+C Music Factory and even Rednex (ack!) that get played too often at sports stadiums, but we keep coming back for more - suckers!"
(Tragically, Haddaway's 'What Is Love', as used in the Saturday Night Live club sketch, wasn't available in its original version, but there's a cheesier newer version available instead.)
BONUS LINKS: an excellent 'Mojo Top Tracks Vol.1' mix [YMU link], presumably from the UK music magazine, by 'ad1s0n', and featuring awesomeness from Keane, Doves, Supergrass, Super Furries, etc. Plus I spotted that Samantha Fox's album 'Touch Me' [YMU link] is available on YMU, if you're into topless pinups transformed into bubblegum pop superstars. Which I'm sure you are.
