oh europop... i'm sorry, girl.

i know i've been neglecting you lately. it's just that ever since nyplm shut down, i haven't been able to muster the energy to pay you much attention, even though there are some quality blogs that could probably save me most of the effort.

not that you're not worth it, don't get me wrong. it's those damn chileans, they've been taking up all my time lately. i know, i know.

but tonight is all about you. i'm glad you finally went out of your way to find me, and made something this awesome and ridiculous and slightly weird to win back my heart. i'm gonna blast it

• marco borsato – rood

on repeat for a few hours; it'll be just like old times.

and then maybe i'll finally go track down the new bodies without organs record. and then probably play some whigfield.

let's never fight again.

the third track i've heard from the pet shop boy's fundamentalism ep is perhaps my favorite.

michael mayer's remix of flamboyant is much more subdued than the other remixes i've heard (as my be expected). this is a good thing. i especially like the last 2 to 3 minutes.

the pet shop boys are getting old, but the people remixing their music aren't. trentemøller, richard x, michael mayer, alter ego - all on one 12". think i'll order it right now.

fugitive (richard x extended mix)

a friend turned me on to a few great tracks thursday night. so far my favorite is a thin white duke remix of four to the floor by starsailor (who the fuck is that?). don't know how it's possible i hadn't heard this before, given rmd's penchant for playing/posting jlc tracks.

great foundation despite the mildly irritating voice of the singer (i suppose most singers' voices become irritating after listening to the same track about 20 times in a row, otis redding excluded). not as complex as jlc's more recent work (see lose control, what else is there?), but more immediately accessible and danceable as a result. i think a recent dissensus thread was titled 'four to the floor ... my obsession' or something along those lines. the poster wasn't referring to this track, but i wouldn't blame him if he was.

the above link contains the remix on the cd single. there appears to be a longer 12" version that i would love to hear if anyone wants to ysi it.

i wanted to post the fantastic girls want to be with the girls from the talking heads' more songs about building and food, but i didn't have a digital version. i ended up ripping it from my lp, but my copy is old and worn out, so the quality isn't great. fortunately this suggests a potentially fantastic side project. one day i will become completely obsessive about remastering vinyl-to-mp3 rips using Igor. i use Igor in the lab to do lots of different things: modeling, discrete computations, simple programming, etc; but it has great potential as a sound manipulator/enhancer.

maybe this summer i'll be able to get back to this track after it's been remastered for comparison.

about the track: very catchy. typical light/filler lyrics from byrne. the magic's in the refrain. does the guitar remind you of anything? i swear it's reproduced on (at least) one of the early tracks from discovery.

have been updated again. obviously they've been moved of the front page. maybe that was dumb, since they're probably the best thing about this blog for anyone other than owen and i. i felt like paring things down though, so you'll have to (gasp!) click one extra link to see them. maybe i'll make it a policy to have some "featured link" or something, to highlight some place/person that's been particularly great lately. we'll see.

anyway, some stuff i've added:

• radio free narnia, mark sinker's seldom updated but nonetheless fantastically awesome blog/homepage. he also has an archive page with some great old peices up.
• the wire's archive page, which i mainly use to read old sinker/penman/toop essays without having to buy back-issues.
• it happens for a reason, simon (née silverdoller)'s new blog, wherin he takes on the monumental task of cataloguing and writing about everything he listens to (which is a lot).
• lacunae, douglas wolk's fantastic blog. dunno why this wasn't linked before.
• 'buked & scorned, mike mcgonigal's blog.
• mudd up!, jace clayton (aka dj /rupture)'s blog.
• 20 jazz funk greats, the only mp3-blog other than fluxblog and tape that i check regularly.
• tape, the verbose electrohouse– and "minimal"–obsessive mp3-blog powerhouse.

there's probably more that i've added, and more still that should be up there... as always to the non blog-obsessives out there, please please please go check out the links. i guarantee you'll be blown away at the amount of smart, informed (& informing), critical dialogue going on out there.

on the subject of links, and i guess as today's (or rather the last few month's) favorite link, i have to mention how fucking on fire mike powell has been lately. he is a window.

trentemøller remix of "sodom", off the new pet shop boys album. i'm really looking forward to hearing the whole disc. the rest of the remixes look pretty great too.

at the risk of setting off the guitar alarm, here's a link to free downloads of music by the portland pop/rock group at dusk. the drummer/singer lived in the same dorm as me when i was a sophomore in college. the band recently toured california playing songs from the new album you can know danger, and i had a chance to see them for the first time in several years.

the music doesn't really match my most recent tastes, but i've been enjoying the cd they gave me. particularly check out (in this order) tracks 3, 1, and 2 from the above mentioned album.

well, go ahead. it was an ok movie. i couldn't believe what a stupid jerk bob dylan was while i watched it, though. i haven't really heard or read a portrayal of bob dylan as an ass, so i thought that maybe my interpretation of his behavior was somehow screwed. looking for an alternative perspective, i read roger ebert's review and he had pretty much the same opinion.

i also read his review for the more recent dylan documentary no direction home and will probably give that a go in the next few weeks.

the list. where's pyf? wtf is up with that crazy list anyway? at entertainment weekly?

anyway fluxblog >> ilxor >> pitchfork. at least they got that right... soul-sides is up good and high, too.... never would have expected to see lemon-red or music for robots (i think rmd has commented before about how the site never lives up to its name).

not picking up the new(ish) matt john double 12" while i was at the record store. hot damn, how great is this track?

google translate in being really useful shocker! i just realized i can (sort of) read groove now. what i wouldn't give for a mag like this in english...

this in particular looks like the best resource ever.

i've been listening to a lot lately:

• ada – believer (wet cement mix)
  
• booka shade – in white rooms
  
• arthur russell – instrumentals vol. 2 track 1
  
• matmos – steam and sequins for larry levan
  

...and this.