Evolution of the 12

Back from my 5 year reunion, and overall I'd have to say it was a rousing success. Great to see so many different folks. One thing I knew I had to do during my time in the Lou was head to my old stomping grounds Vintage Vinyl. And it was everything I remembered and more; since I didn't have a turntable back in the day I had paid no attention to all the actual vinyl they had in stock. This time I started to make amends and walked away with a couple of different disco 12" singles. The key name on each label was one Tom Moulton, the originator of the 12" disco mix.

The two records I found (MP3's below) show an interesting evolution in disco. The Papa John Creach track (apparently one of the first disco singles ever released) is in itself a solid, solid track with a swirling, organic, almost rootsy disco feel. Two years later we get to ORS (Orlanda Riva Sound)'s Moon-Boots at which point disco had (to paraphrase the soundtrack to my weekend, the Juan Maclean's "Happy House") launched into space. In any case both are great tracks and for interested parties I highly, highly recommend Soul Jazz's 2xCD comp "A Tom Moulton Mix". The ORS track is on there, as is what is definitively my favorite song of all-time (and that's a lot of songs my friend): Patti Jo's "Make Me Believe In You." But I'm going to have to save that one for another day.

Papa John Creach & The Midnight Sun - Joyce (12" Instrumental Version)

ORS - Moon-Boots (Special 12" Disco Mix)

This Is(?) My Beautiful House

New mix time. This edition of Hump Fortnight is in preparation for my 5 year undergrad reunion, and to that end it's a reimagining of past classics. Anyone who's paid much attention knows I have an unhealthy love for the cover version, so this mix is chock full of covers, remixes, etc. of some stuff everyone should (hopefully) know. A taste of false nostalgia - bon appetit!

DJ Educated Foot - Hump Fortnight: Same As It Never Was

Opening Day

Back before my mind was filled with knowledge of songs, samples, producers and labels, my useless trivia quotient was met and exceeded by the minutia of batting averages, strikeouts and stolen bases. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the year for my beloved Cards, who will have an uphill battle in the NL Central against a loaded Cubs squad and the emerging Brew Crew. Maybe if they can tread water until they get a healthy Carpenter back (along with Agent Mulder) they'll have a shot at squeaking in. But I'm not expecting big things. In any case, to celebrate the season, here's a tangentially related track that is awesome in its own dark-disco way. Ballplayers, come out and play-ay!

Barry de Vorzon - Baseball Furies Chase

EL2 - OST

Hump Fortnight Special Edition! This one goes out to my dude Tyrion. Back in the day, a pinnacle of cinematic achievement known only as "Elias Lorenzo" was perpetrated upon an unsuspecting public. While the details remain hazy and possibly forever lost to time, this is the original soundtrack to the as yet unmade sequel "Elias Lorenzo 2." Meaning it's a little shorter on mixing and longer on funk instrumentals to score the imaginary scenes in my head (peep the ill shootout set to the Bar-Kays' version of "Hey Jude" son). Hope you still get a kick out of it.

DJ Educated Foot - Elias Lorenzo 2 OST

No One Ever Really Something Something

After Monday night's show at the Vogue, N*E*R*D's third record, due out this summer, officially reached most anticipated status. From the new stuff they played, it sounds like they managed to break out of the slightly AOR-rut of Fly Or Die and got back to the sense of adventure that made In Search Of.. one of my favorite albums of all time (hopefully lead single "Everybody Nose" is just a bit of an outlier trifle). In fact, I would argue that in some ways In Search Of... was a fairly prescient album for the naughties, what with its obsessions with fame, sex, sex tapes, and politics, all of which are coalescing nicley as we near the end of the decade. In any case, I unfortunately wavered a bit on whether or not I really wanted to go, then thought WW22YOJDD? And I knew 22 year-old JD would have stopped at nothing to see this show. All in all, I was rewarded as these guys put on a heck of a show (Chad was even there in appropriately goofy sunglasses & hat), and the live version of "She Wants To Move" is the truth. To commemorate, here's my favorite N*E*R*D non-album track as their big hit "Maybe" gets remixed by funky-electro-space-pirates Sa-Ra Creative Partners. Now if the band had busted out this version, my mind would have truly been blown.

N*E*R*D - Maybe (Sa-Ra Remix)

It was acceptable in the 80's

So I followed my curiousity and got burnt. But who could blame me? It sounded so promising; a strange, almost homemade looking record promising disco songs about trains with five guitars??!!! How could such a thing exist? And what in God's name does it sound like?

Overwhelmed by an insatiable need for answers to these questions I purchased the LP. Tony Rizzi and Disco Pacific? Oh, how you have let me down. Not only do you fail to utilize the FIVE guitars to add any muscle to your sound, you essentially made a record of smoove-disco-jazz, and not even something as promising as that sounds. But the most vile of your sins is even more simple and insidious - you made a boring record.

Fortunately, as a good record buyer should, I hedged my bets. I went with the closest thing I could find to a sure shot - Soft Cell's Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go? 12" and the lure of its 9 minute "Tainted Dub." Bingo! (see results below) And then there was the longshot; the band simply called Wah!, the record less simply called Nah=Poo-The Art of Bluff. Oh yes, this was the proverbial ticket. A surprisingly solid post-punk record, perfectly sequenced and solid throughout. I've shared my favorite track below - it's a little bit average for the first three minutes but then it gets all synth + beat = magic at the end. What did these records have in common? A decade that I am realizing I may have unjustly overlooked in previous record buying excursions - the 80's.

Soft Cell - Tainted Dub

Wah! - The Death of Wah!

I'm losing my patience, I just came here to bounce

New mix time. Creatively retitled Hump Fortnight (I waive any pretense this is a weekly mix series, and am now aiming for twice a month in a quality-over-quantity based decision), this mix is your soundtrack to woozy spring nights, with a gooey, cosmic-nougat middle sandwiched by some more pop leaning stuff (as in the songs have vocals). All in all, not a bad little mix. Plus I got to feature the song for my favorite video I've seen in a long time. Also, it's got a band called Shit Robot.

DJ Educated FOOT - Hump Fortnight/4 Capital Letters