Two bands stand astride The Atlantic. One, from the UK, never puts a foot wrong, and has been constantly innovating, reshaping, and challenging their audience since the early 90s. The other, from the US, has for the best part of ten years been providing nothing short of unbridled joy in the form of music – […]
Category: James Poole
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Fac 501: Tony Wilson
A post from earlier in the week, about DJing in Berlin, was ostensibly about the enduring love that people of a certain age, and born in a certain geographic location, have for the music of Manchester. Anyone who has been a semi-regular visitor to this site, or who has ever set foot near to one […]
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Tony Brown: The Black Art
Some music deserves more ears. I’ve brought you a few such examples on this site over the past few months. From unreleased music from Nicola Bright-Thomas, to lost classics from Laura Yeger to bang up to date underground output from Sappho’s Journey. Finding new music – or at least music that’s new to me – […]
‘Can you play something more up to date, like from the 2000s?’ Can you be more specific? ‘Something from the 90’s’ Well, this is brand new. ‘Something like Salt-N-Pepa’ I think it’s fair to say that some people really don’t know what they’re after when they go to ask a DJ for ‘some music’. Another […]
Earl Zinger? Check. Johnny Pate? Check. Japan? Check. Some of the normal favourites managed to sneak through and into the set for freethinking berlin this weekend. It’s fair to say, however, that the night was a slightly different proposition to the regular freethinking nyc idea. A very good mate of mine turned 40 this weekend. […]
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The Kush years
Let’s call them the Kush years. DJ Prestige and I kicked this off in May last year, and we had some bloody good nights at Kush through the balance of 2010. We had a summer party, a Christmas bash, a sojourn to Brooklyn, and even a night where Kevin Spacey rocked up. On the eve […]
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Shaun Ryder matters
So Shaun Ryder is having a bit of a resurgence in popularity in the UK. Thanks to his reality-show appearance at the back end of 2010, he’s probably also found a new audience in the UK. People who are not really going to know about ‘Kinky Afro’, or ‘Mad Cyril’, or ‘Freaky Dancin’’. Tunes, all […]
the freethinking movement is about innovation. It’s about doing things differently – and not just catering to the lowest common denominator. It’s about pushing forward, and celebrating the good stuff. And so, as we enter 2011, we will also be doing things differently… First of all, DJ Prestige now lives in Brooklyn, baby. He’s showing […]
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Defending The Dan
I’m not ashamed. Steely Dan are good. I was in a bar last night, and felt that I had to defend my position. Picture the scene: The evening starts off with what seemed like the entire King of Leon back catalogue being played out at ear-crushing volume. Follow that with Led Zeppelin – clearly knocking […]
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It was only a matter of time…
I’ve been biting my lip for a little while now. The idea of the freethinking movement is to celebrate good music, to recognise innovation, and to highlight some of the overlooked heroes who should be more well known than they are. I recognise that it’s all a matter of taste, and that just because I […]
Support bands at a Prince show have a rough old time. To be fair, people at a Prince concert are normally interested in one thing: Prince. For the performer, slogging through a support slot at a Prince show must be at once thrilling (‘my god – I am on the same stage that the wee […]
Talkin’ Loud was pretty much always reliable. From the heavyweights of Omar, Galliano and the Young Disciples through to the lesser known artists like the K-Creative – in the early 90s there were few labels which you would look to for a safer bet. It was with this in mind that I remember picking up […]