Last week, the good people at Dossier Journal threw a release party for their ninth issue at NYC's recently-opened Le Baron in Chinatown. Music for the night was provided by Caroline Polachek, better known as the vocalist in Chairlift―one of our favorite pop bands around right now―and, of course, she wore a pair of the silver eskuché 45s while DJ'ing!
Last week, we asked Morgan Geist to choose a track for our Classic Cuts series. It only seemed appropriate to check in with his Metro Area partner, Darshan Jesrani, for this week's installment!
This is from the album Travelogue, which I got on cassette from the local Caldor when I was a freshman in high school. My musical life has always been this back-and-forth between rock 'm' roll/new wave influences and R&B/dance music, and around this time the musical pendulum was swinging back toward the former. This tape got serious play on my sister's Walkman, which I used to borrow, and on my boombox. Like every other song which has been a touchstone for me, this one conjured in my mind a complete aesthetic universe that I wanted to live in and contribute to. I was also into hacking computers and phones around this time and I found music like this to be the perfect counterpart to my illicit activities. It seemed beautiful and escapist, suggesting other themes within it that were really attractive to my teenage mind, like technology, intrigue, isolation. This song, to me, contains the essence of not only a John Carpenter theme itself, but also the visual scene it would be set to. Although it was tough to decide between this one and "Toyota City" (from the same album), if you can avoid thinking of "Don't You Want Me" when you hear Phil Oakey's vocal, this song is a bit more rewarding.―Darshan Jesrani
The sharp-edged, sexy, dance-leaning duo, the Hundred In the Hands, is soon to release LP2, and boy are we thrilled about it. We hit up the male half of the duo, Jason Friedman, who plays guitar, to give us a Classic Cuts selection and, not surprisingly, he chose an excellent jam.
I was just listening to the Carter-Tutti-Void record that came out on Mute this year and that got me thinking about Throbbing Gristle again so I’ve gone back to 20 Funk Greats recently. I love the way the mad industrial chaos gets absorbed and dubbed out into the stripped mechanical minimalism of a track like “Hot On The Heels Of Love,” which ends up like fractured Moroder disco. It’s so light and still aggressive.―Jason Friedman, the Hundred In the Hands
About a month ago, Cosmo Vitelli came to the U.S. for a few gigs, including one in Brooklyn, New York for Let's Play House. Shortly thereafter, we asked the Parisian DJ, producer, and label head for a Classic Cuts selection and he certainly delivered one!
I've had this EP forever (I actually bought it on CD in the early 90s in a cheap secondhand store). I completely forgot it and found it by chance, checking again my CDs a few years ago. It's typical of Andrew Weatherall, with a Balearic touch, the expected piano house riff, and the unmissable early 90s breakbeat. What makes it special is Weatherall's dubby treatment, and its rock flavor. It's really what I'd expect to hear on a late night set.―Cosmo Vitelli
Last Saturday we teamed up with the homegrown Origami Vinyl in the quaint neighborhood of Echo Park close to the eskuché headquarters in East Long Angeles. Fans came from near and far not only to dig through crates of their favorite jams but to show support for Record Store Day, the time we pay homage to the small, medium and even the big-box patrons of music. We caught up with a few loyalists to find out what was in their record bag and to hear what they had to say about this unique day.
