Workroom Playlist / KW39-2023

Here’s a little rundown of what’s playing on the workroom stereo this week (Kalenderwoche 39)

António Variações – O Corpo É Que Paga

A classic from Portugal’s New Wave meteoroid, António Variações. Growling synth bass and cute guitar flourishes, combine with António Variações’ fado-indebted vibrato, making for weird-pop perfection. 

Grace Jones – Warm Leatherette

Grace Jones’ cover version of The Normal’s JG Ballard-inspired synth-pop classic, Warm Leatherette, turns the original on its head. Where the erotic sound of the original version is derived from its sleazy, bleak electronics, Grace Jones –along with the Compass Point Allstars– channels a slower throbbing bass-heavy sound, with Grace Jones’ signature cat-like snarl “Hear the crushing steel, Feel the steering wheel”. The million-dollar sound of a limousine tumbling into a Caribbean ravine.

Low End Activist – Gossip is the Devil’s Radio

Metronomic dancehall from Cowley’s finest, Low End Activist. Jittering rythmik patterns scatter and spray under a cloud of smoked-out PlayStation ambiance.

Fatal Microbes – Violence Grows

It’s not often you get an opening line as good as “While you’re getting kicked to death, in a London pedestrian subway” is it? It’s visceral. A punch to the face! And when combined with a shimmering dreamy guitar and lurking bassline, it is utterly irresistible.

James Holden – Infinite Fadeout

On my walk through Neukölln this morning, I passed by what was previously Griessmühle –now some neolib-business-bro hellhole– and, as a predictable wave of saudade crashed over me, Infinite fadeout began to play in my headphones. The ever-growing synth pad. The saccharine lead, babbling and loose, untethered to the rest of the track. Reversing wind sounds and foghorn-like sax put me in the mind of Goldie’s ‘Timeless’, and I was transported back to The Bullingdon Arms, Port Meadow and Boars Hill Parties in Oxford, The Volks in Brighton, and all the various fields I’d happily misspent my youth in. I rode this wave of nostalgia all the way home and felt hope.

Achtung!!! All clips are cut to 1 minute, mega low bitrate. I do not own the rights to these recordings. If you see my shitty blog as a big risk to your gold medallions, jacuzzis and Ibiza beach houses, then contact me and I'll take it down!