Hoping to coax Kane Jones out of the woodwork with this. That dude knows his fuckin' stuff.
ALRIGHT NO INTRODUCTION, STRAIGHT INTO THE GOOD SHIT!
Fire Star: Synth-Pop & Electro-Funk From Tamil Films 1984-1989I stumbled upon this once when the gorgeous cover art turned up on a totally unrelated image search. I had no idea that it would end up becoming a truly beloved collection of music. Western synth pop and disco had a big influence on Indian music around this time, especially in films, and Ilaiyaraaja compiles some of his favourites here, alongside three of his own songs. It's fucking wonderful. I've never played this in the company of friends without them wanting to know what it is.
Full compilation here.. If you want a track teaser,
Pattu Engey is sickly sweet electro-funk perfection. One of those tracks you could drop in the middle of a house set and make people lose their minds. Those fuckin' harmonies in the second half, my days what a SCORCHER.
Andy Votel - Hindi Horrorcore From The Bollywood BloodbathIn a similar vein, I copped this in a record shop once and knew it would be my shit. A 50-minute mix of Hindi horror music soundtrack stuff. Loads of fun. I'm unfamiliar with Votel's other mixes so if there's any particular bangers I should check then please post!
Full mix here.
Planetary Pebbles: Surfbeat Behind The Iron CurtainWhat can I say that these titles already don't? Well, I'll say this, hands cupped around my mouth like Tim Heidecker's On Cinema opening credit: THIS IS GREAT MUSIC! Far from a novelty, the stuff on this comp is sufficiently rare (although a little misleading, as around half the tracks were recorded in non-Communist countries) and hey I think we can probably all agree that surf is the most consistently banging genre of music ever made, can't we? Get the fuck in.
Full compilation here.
The Gaslamp Killer - HELL And The LAKE OF FIRE Are Waiting For YOU!An absolutely corking mix that flits around between wonky crunked-out instrumental hip hop, blues-heavy psych rock and contemporary dubstep circa 2007. "Big mood", as they're saying on Instagram these days.
I'd never heard of this chap when I discovered this disc upon its release and there's no tracklist on the fucker (I was sold on the cover art) but my pals and I were extremely pleased when I brought it home and realised it sat right in line with what we were listening to a lot of at the time. Apparently this thing is limited to 1000 copies but there's a lot of them for sale on Discogs for very cheap so who knows?
Full mix here.
Right then. Come on my selector!