Erlend Øye - DJ-KiCKS (Original Version)

Erlend Øye is best known as one half of Kings Of Convenience and the leader of The Whitest Boy Alive, but he has also worked with a number of producers and written some wonderful music on his own. His only solo album to date appeared in 2003, named Unrest, and featured a number of collaborations with electronic musicians like Morgan Geist, Prefuse 73, Schneider TM and many more, although their productions were far more relaxed than their traditional output to fit with his style.

Shortly after the success of Unrest, the Studio !K7 label approached Øye to produce a mix for their DJ-KiCKS series, though Øye felt his mixing skills were not good enough for such a project and decided to take a different approach. Receiving assistance on the mixing side from producer Phonique, Øye chose the songs and added a truly unique touch to the collection by singing a cappella over several of the songs, making it almost as much an Erlend Øye solo album as a DJ mix. Add to that the overall vibe of the mix, European minimal techno that sounds of the eighties while remaining current rather than nostalgic, and Øye's mix is a fast classic. It's something you can dance with but just as easily relax to at home or wash the dishes to. It's living music.

Prior to Øye's DJ-KiCKS compilation's release, promos were sent out specifying that a song by The Rapture had not been cleared yet and that the final track would feature Øye performing an a cappella rendition of Feist's then unreleased song, Intuition, over Ada's Luckycharm. The notes didn't specify that the Luckycharm/Intution medley wasn't cleared but something must have went significantly wrong as it was dropped from the final release of the album. As great as the released mix is, it was a beautiful ending sadly muted from the final release.

Prior to the album's release, while surfing a budget bin in a used record store, a copy of the mix appeared to me and I grabbed it, assuming it would be the same as the soon to be released final version. Guess I got lucky that day since the version I have has that extra track on it. The mix isn't terribly different without that final track but it's just as wonderful with it, so I figured I'd present it to you for your listening pleasure today. I'm also including an unmastered advance of Øye's Unrest for you to peruse. It features a different track order and a slightly unfinished mix of the Prefuse 73 collaboration, Every Party (Has A Winner and A Loser), but is otherwise mostly the same as the released version. If you enjoy these you should definitely pick up the final, retail versions. Unrest has particularly great artwork and the vinyl issue of Øye's DJ-KiCKS features unmixed versions of several of his a cappella performances from the mix. Wonderful stuff. Enjoy!


Erlend Øye - DJ-KiCKS (Original Version)

01 Jürgen Paape - So Weit Wie Noch Nie
02 Erlend Øye - Sheltered Life (Remix) / Fine Night (A Cappella)
03 Cornelius - Drop (Kings Of Convenience Remix)
04 Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
05 Jolly Music - Radio Jolly / Prego Amore (A Cappella)
06 Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - Rubicon
07 Avenue D - 2D2F
08 The Rapture - I Need Your Love
09 Uusi Fantasia - Lattialla Taas / Venus (A Cappella)
10 Justus Köhncke - 2 After 909 / Intergalactic Autobahn (A Cappella)
11 Erlend Øye - The Black Keys Work (Phonique Remix)
12 Jackmate - Airraid
13 Röyksopp - Poor Leno (Silicone Soul's Hypno House Dub) / There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (A Cappella)
14 Skatebård - Metal Chix / Always On My Mind (A Cappella)
15 Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter
16 Minizza - Winning A Battle, Losing The War
17 Morgan Geist - Lullaby / A Place In My Heart (A Cappella)
18 Ada - Luckycharm / Intution (A Cappella)


Erlend Øye - Unrest (early, unmastered version)

01 Ghost Trains (produced by Morgan Geist)
02 Sudden Rush (produced by Kompis)
03 Sheltered Life (produced by Soviet)
04 Prego Amore (produced by Jolly Music)
05 Symptom Of Disease (produced by Mr. Velcro Fastener)
06 The Talk (produced by Bjørn Torske)
07 Every Party (Has A Winner and A Loser) (not final mix) (produced by Prefuse 73)
08 The Athlete (produced by Minizza)
09 A While Ago and Recently (produced by Kilogram)
10 Like Gold (produced by Schneider TM)

October 2009 Mixtape: The Kitchen Sink

I put this together at one in the morning and thought it would be a good mix for the site despite being kinda discombobulated and suffering from the weirdness. As usual, it's mostly rare, unreleased or bizarre stuff that most people have never heard. The rule for my mixtapes has always been that they have to fit on an 80 minute CD, and this one barely makes the cut, coming in at 79:51 when I burnt a copy off this morning. Enjoy!


The Unheard Music - October 2009 Mixtape: The Kitchen Sink

01 Anal Cunt - Theme From Three's Company
Anal Cunt, yes you read that right, is the brainchild of Seth Putnam. I'm sure if you listen to their tracks that you'll find the word brain is used loosely in describing their music, but damn it if I don't find these guys entertaining as hell! Full of openly nasty and disgusting jokes, their tongues have been surgically implanted in their cheeks. Don't take much seriously about them, they're pretty fucked up. Check here for more info. That said, I'm not racist, prejudiced, homophobic or whatever nasty things these guys have been incorrectly labeled in the past, and I don't think they are either, so don't start looking at me sideways.

02 Jega - Fireball
If you didn't download the Variance: Roughs, this should give you an idea what you missed out on. Awesome shit! Also, anyone know what program I can use to create the Soundwave effect as sampled in this track? That's Soundwave from Transformers. Anybody? I wanna write a song with that vocal sound all over it!

03 Avenue D - My Dirty South
Avenue D are some kinky girls who write all about being sexy and doing sexy things. These girls are filthy and I love 'em for it! This is pretty good stuff, funky and funny at the same time. Don't play this at work or around the easily offended though, you'll be in deep shit. Actually, this whole mixtape is kinda like that. WARNING: PLAY IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR CAR, HOME, OR WITH HEADPHONES ON. ONLY PLAY IN PUBLIC WITH LIKE-MINDED INDIVIDUALS WHO FIND SONGS LIKE THESE ENTERTAINING! Unfortunately Avenue D have split up, but you can still hit their website and buy some stuff! All of their releases are now available on iTunes.

04 Dink - Green Mind (Pure Organic Edit)
Kent, Ohio's very own! God bless Bob Serpentini!

05 Anal Cunt - Escape (The Pina Colada Song)
There is going to be a post about these idiots at some point in their future. Their Howard Is Bald tape, which is less than ten minutes long, is hilarious. It's also almost completely devoid of noise, which is rather exceptional for them.

06 The Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy (Pete Rock Remix)
Apparently this was the version of Juicy originally slated for Ready To Die, but it instead was released as a remix. Puffy supposedly had the album version created after hearing this so he wouldn't have to pay Pete as much cash. Would anyone be surprised if that's true? As good as the album version is though, Pete's version is the winner!

07 The Pharcyde - Soul Flower (2 Tha 3 Mix)
I'll have to dig out the interview about this remix. Fatlip was directly involved with it's production and the group, as much as they loved it, figured there was no way this mix could ever get a proper release. It was issued on a promo-only 12" and later appeared on the Sold My Soul compilation, an import-only collection of rarities, b-sides and unreleased tracks. Great sample-heavy remix!

08 Boris The Sprinkler - Kill The Ramones
These guys were great and totally weird. Rev. Nørb was their frontman if that means anything. Actually, if you know who he is you probably already know who Boris The Sprinkler are, but if you don't, enjoy their pop-punk craziness. Also, despite this song's title, they really do love the Ramones. More on Boris here.

09 Tigerboy - With Attitude?
Tigerboy is really kid606. He put this thrashing of the Misfits' Attitude out as the b-side of his remix of NWA's Straight Outta Compton. The single actually credits kid606 on the a-side and Tigerboy on the b-side, and your guess is as good as mine as to why the kid had to complicate matters so deeply.

10 69 - Desire
I was saddened to pull down the 69 stuff. It really is some of Carl Craig's best work and I wish it was easier for people to get a hold of. Carl's PR people hinted that a track or two shouldn't be an issue, so I figured I could post the amazing Desire in this month's mixtape. Remember, if you like this, you can still order the 69 boxset at the Planet E website. This track is also available on a few compilations and, if you can find it, The Sound Of Music CD which compiles the 69 EPs Lite Music and Sound On Sound.

11 Jega - The Girl Who Fell To Earth
This is from the finished Variance album and is a stunner! Go to Bleep and get a download of this NOW!!! Awesome album!

12 Violent Femmes - Breakin' Up (Demo)
Recorded in the early eighties, the 1994 version is almost identical. Just shows that you shouldn't mess with perfection!

13 Anal Cunt - Stayin' Alive (Oi Version)
Yep, more stupidity.

14 Mi Ami - Echononecho
SHIT! These guys are awesome! Prepare for spastic dub/rock noisiness! I don't know too much about Mi Ami but they have a sweet album named Watersports and are formed from the now-defunct Black Eyes. Check 'em out over at Quarterstick Records' website. You can also get Watersports on iTunes or Amazon.

15 Apotheosis - O Fortuna (Apocalypse Chorus Mix)
I knew a guy in college who went nuts for this track. He made a music video out of stuff he taped off the Discovery Channel that documented the evolution of the human race, all set to this track. It's kinda cheesy in the way that a lot of early nineties rave stuff is, but it's still a cool track.

16 Ol' Dirty Bastard - Give It To Ya Raw (SD50 Remix)
SD50 are/were Dante Ross, John Gamble and Geeby Dajani. They did a lot of hip-hop production and remixes in the nineties and pretty much everything they touched was blessed. This remix appeared on the O.D.B.E.P. which is, as far as I can tell, an import and promo-only collection of Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version remixes and b-sides. As is the standard with ODB, prepare for the weirdness! Oh, how wonderful the weirdness that ODB and Wu-Tang is!

17 Anal Cunt - Theme From The A-Team
Seriously! The A-Team Theme! That doesn't make it good, but it certainly is notable!

18 Pete Rock & Large Professor - The Rap World
Awesome collaboration between Pete and Extra P! This appeared on the High School High soundtrack with a number of rather good tracks from members of the Wu, ATCQ, D'Angelo & Eryakh Badu (!!!AWESOME!!!), The Roots and a bunch of other great artists. Great soundtrack for a shitty movie, and I'm a fan of Jon Lovitz! Check the Discogs reference to see the track list for yourself.

19 Wilco - The Good Part
Wonderful leftover from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Jeff Tweedy cut most of the overly poppy tracks, like this one, from the album as they didn't fit with his vision, which is understandable, but when the tracks are this good they really should be released in some manner eventually.

20 Beck - In A Cold Ass Fashion
Beck wanted to name Mellow Gold after this track, but the label didn't want the word Ass on the packaging. Their loss. Essential track! I will eventually do a few Beck posts as I have so much of his stuff lying around.

21 Jahmbi Joe and The Pimps - This Song Is Called Uh-Huh
Explanation pending.

22 Anal Cunt - American Woman
Probably their cover that's truest to the original. That's not saying much though.