They Shoot Horses Don't They is a monthly Thursday night 'gathering' hosted by those nice chaps Matty and Ben. It's held at the Scolts Head in De Beuvoir (or 'Islington border' as they say down Foxtons) - a terrific boozer that has to be seen to be believed.
The Cosmic Truth are taking a load of records down next Thurs (2nd Oct) and doing a 5-man B2B session. And here records means records - no CDs, just good ol' fashioned vinyl. Really looking forward to dusting off some bits that don't get played in public too often.
Even though we didn't get around to it at the time, it would be wrong of us not pay our respects to the late, great Norman Whitfield, who very unfortunately died last week.
Whitfield was a hugely influential member of the Motown 'Hit Factory', penning such seminal tracks as Heard It Through The Grape Vine, War, and Papa Was A Rolling Stone, and producing artists such as Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, and the Temptations.
His story goes that he only ended up in Motor City because his parent's car broke down on the way home from a wedding in California, and so in Detroit he stayed. In 1961, Whitfield joined Berry Gordy's Motown lable as head of Quality Control, where he was tasked with the enviable job of listening to, and then grading forthcoming releases.
It was here that he must have honed his ear for a tune, and by 1964, he was writing and producing his own tracks, including Needle In A Haystack, by The Velvelettes.
By 1968, Whitfield's work, particularly with the Temptations had a noticable psychedelic influence, and Whitfield credited Sly Stone for showing him that production was the 'science of sound', a mantra that producers - be they funk, soul, disco, rock and roll, or electronica - have lived by ever since.
In the early 1970s, a trend for psychedelic soul had taken hold of black music, and once again, Whitfield pioneered the movement with his new project, The Undisputed Truth.
Amongst their eight album discography, was 1975's Cosmic Truth, a multi-layered, boundry-pushing LP of spaced out soul, drum tracks, acid folk, and soundscapes, including the hypnotic UFO, and a cover of Neil Young's Down By The River.
It was this LP, Cosmic Truth that made us realise that we did have our own take on what dance music meant, and inspired us to get off our arses and play the music we loved, whether people new it, or it had a 4/4 beat, or it was over 110 bpm or not.
You could say we were shown the Cosmic Truth...
And whilst the passing of Norman Whitfield is very, very sad, we have a huge amount to be thankful for. So instead, we'd like to celebrate his life... And to show what fun they were having in their hayday, here's a clip of the Undisputed Truth performing Boogie Bump Boogie, from 1976.
Norman Whitfield, born May 12 1941; died September 16 2008.
This Sunday we're returning to host the back room at top London shindig Secret Sundaze.
In the main room hosts with the most Giles and James are joined by Rekids main man Matt 'Radio Slave' Edwards - a producer at the top of his game and an amazing DJ to boot.
The party is the penultimate of the summer sundaze season, and is on at Ministry Of Sound from 2pm til 10pm.
Take Monday off work and get down! We might have some spare concs guestlist. Get in touch to find out....
The Secret Sundaze stable have a new mix CD out at the moment, mixed by Tobi Neumann. Seek it out and enjoy....
Wednesday afternoon... I'm still only about halfway recovered from our amazing weekend at Bestival. But it was seriously worth it!
We arrived on Friday night, halfway through the wetest 24 hours of the year so far. Good timing. having said that, the rain meant that a fair few punters decided to skip seeing My Bloody Valentine and Greg Wilson and come see us instead, since we had the luxury of a tent! It was a great set, and even better to see so many friendly faces! Loads of fun... Thanks you lot!
After a crazy day on saturday, that ended up having a party in a portakabin with the Horse Meat boys and about 20 other people, we finally made it back to the tent. If only we'd stopped there... At midday on Sunday we were back at the Havana Club, feeling extremely 'refreshed' after a long night's 'rest'. Disguises were extremely necessary.
But what a great day it turned out to be... By the time I dropped The Who 'Emminence Front' it was absolutely rocking! Me having a 'moment'...
Is this what they call tearing up the dancefloor...?
The Bestival weekend is shaping up to be a laugh, with any discerning music fan knowing that the Havana tent is the place to be.
The line up over the three days features lots of familiar faces from both past "Cosmic Truth" parties and from shindigs we've been invited to guest at. If i was a betting man I'd say there are some future "Cosmic Truth" guests kickin about too. Special thanks to Matty for the slots, and good work on the great looking line up.
The Cosmic Truth are doing three hours on the Friday night.
Unfortunately Dan's shooting off early on Sunday. However, Dickie and Baze will be saying Hi-Di-Hi campers and kicking off proceedings in the Havana tent with their 'Back Off: My Boyfriend Is A Sailor' set! (Apparently there is some kind of sea theme to the annual Bestival fancy dress code.)
Here is the line up in full:
FRIDAY (14.00 - 02.00) 14.00 - 16.00 Matty J & Ben Terry (Tirk Records) 16.00 - 18.00 Weirdo Police 18.00 - 20.00 El Harvo (Futureboogie) 20.00 - 23.00 The Cosmic Truth 23.00 - 02.00 Matty J & Ben Terry (Tirk Records)
SATURDAY (14.00 - 02.00) 14.00 - 16.00 Matty J & Ben Terry (Tirk Records) 16.00 - 18.00 Red Rack'em 18.00 - 20.00 James Priestley (Balearic Set) 20.00 - 23.00 Toby Tobias 23.00 - 02.00 Michael Cook (Lowlife)
SUNDAY (12.00 - 00.00) 12.00 - 14.00 The Cosmic Truth 14.00 - 16.00 Matty J & Ben Terry (Tirk Records) 16.00 - 18.00 Tristan Da Cunha* (2020) 18.00 - 20.00 Red Rack'em 20.00 - 22.00 Thomas Bullock (Rub N Tug) 22.00 - 00.00 Soft Rocks
*Tristan?? Hmmm. Not sure about this booking though. Last time we saw this chancer on the decks, on the Faith boat in Petrcane last year, we though he was well cheesy...
Ok, so here's the second part of our Croatian Elephant jaunt... This time, it's all about the music!
There were so many stand out moments of musical excellence over the weekend, but here's a quick attempt at narrowing it down to ten tracks. I might make a compilation tape out of this lot if I get chance. In the mean time, here's a few samples for you to listen to.
Here we go:
Sade 'Paradise' (Dreamtime remix)
First up, a dreamy start to the selection... You've got to love Sade anyway, but Mudd dropped the amazing Dreamtime remix of Paradise about half an hour before sunset on Sunday evening, just as the sky was turning warm pink, and we were all dancing bare-footed on the terrace, things couldn't have got much better.
Izzy Royal 'Corrie theme' (Ska Version)
From the utterly sublime to the mildly ridiculous, this little number summed up the fun we were having on bank holiday Monday. Most people were at home watching the Coronation Street omnibus. We were on a beach, listening to the Ska version. Eeeeaaazy now.
Karen Young 'Deetour'
If we ever release a Cosmic Truth compilation, this will certainly be on it. Deetour has been a massive tune for us since our very first party.
Moonboots played this in Barbarella's Discotheque just as things were getting going on Sunday night - If there was ever a tune to get a party started, this is it (This isn't the original, you'll have to find that for yourself, but it's still get the funk!).
Get dancing in your chair.
MIA 'Paper Planes' (DFA remix)
The first of many killer tunes from the Low Life boat party. This remix of MIA's Paper Planes seemed to bump along at the same tempo as the ship was bobbing along the Adriatic on our maiden voyage of 2008. Nice way to start the day!
Punkin' Machine 'I Need You Tonight'
A boat 'moment' for all aboard the good ship Low Life. Is that some CDJ trickery from DJ (Slip)Matt Burgess? Or a ghost in the machine? Spookily, when looking through collated video clips of the boat parties, it seems this track was when the filmmakers in attendence decided to get filming.
The final track of the Low Life boat brought on a singalong as we pulled in to the harbour and took time out from the seven seas til HMD vs HE.
EFNY were not exactly prolific producers in terms of quantity, managing only two singles in their blink-and-miss-it career. Like their contemporaries Punkin Machine (who knocked up a healthier four singles during their time in the fickle early-80s) it is definately a case of quality over quantity. If these acts had adopted a Madonna-like work ethic to churning out copious 'hits' then maybe these beuts would not have come about. Or, the other argument might be that we could potentially have a disco Beatles before us. Or maybe both acts had a massive case of beginners luck - who knows?? Am I rambling...
This clip (un)fortunately doesn't have the sing-along!
James Mason 'I Want Your Love''
No, not the Chic track.
In what was a Chair inspired event it was a surprise not to hear some of the more popular/classic/nostalgic/anthemic of the Una's clubnight and compilation tracks being played. [OK, we missed the Electric Chair Saved My Life boat!]. We did hear the closing track to the first Electric Soul album during the beach bar's impromptu Monday afternoon takeover. Beautiful low-slung sonic soul. And for some reason (!) it sounded better in the bazing sunshine with a flower vase of liquour than it did on my daily Central Line commute.
BTW - I don't know who played this, but if it was you please get in touch. The track before it was sublime on a similar future soul sound, but I was too horizontal to get up and ask what it was!
Tullio De Piscopo 'Stop Bajon'
This list is in no particular order, though it's fitting that we save this track for the end. Massive in the Cosmic Loft for years, perfect sunset tune, delivered by the man like Paul N Murphy, whooped along to by Baze!
Whoever said 'a picture tells a thousand words' wasn't lying...
No Photoshop trickery deployed here. This was the actual sky as seen from the beach bar.
Well well well... We return from the sunny climbs of the Electric Elephant in Croatia. Absolutely amazing scenez!
Mega thanks to Moggsy and all the organisers for putting on a brilliant party that had us all with our hands in the air and huge grins on our faces from Friday until Monday. Or was that just me... Erm... I'll post a link to the rest of the pics sometime, and also stick them on our facebook group site, but as you'll see, there was a lot of sunshine-fuelled, estactic joyful moments... All good clean fun, of course.
Too many excellent times to mention right now, but we'll add more in the week. However, it would be rude not to mention Mudd's amazing five hour beach bar set on Sunday- possibly the best selection of music we've ever layed ears on, Matt, Bill & Micheal's riotous Lowlife boat party, the Vauxhall - Mancunia face off of Horsemeat Vs Homo Electric, plus crazy escapades with the Dublin Downtown Sounds crew, Charlie and Rik To The Bone (nice tats, lads), ands all the other lovely people we met over the weekend. Not forgetting our gourgeous Cosmic Groupies either...
Disco love to you all x
Cosmic Wag brings up Dickie's rear...
Erm, too many cooks, lads, yeah?
Dan attempts to shuv Jim's head up James' bum...
"Bet you I can look more serious than you"
Facial hair: de rigur for the discerning disco holiday maker...
It was a great set, and even better to see so many friendly faces! Loads of fun... Thanks you lot!
But what a great day it turned out to be... By the time I dropped The Who 'Emminence Front' it was absolutely rocking!
Me having a 'moment'... 
Is this what they call tearing up the dancefloor...?
Facial hair: de rigur for the discerning disco holiday maker... 
Gratuitous shots of bikini-clad women...
Posts
