Tom Tom Club - (You Don't Ever Stop) Wordy Rappinghood (Island, 1981)

Lovely dubbed-out version.

Totally unclassifiable slice of alternative dancefloor joy. This b-side dub version let's the groove breathe, adding refractions of the keyboard squiggles, backing vocals and the chikka-chikka guitar to stunning effect.

Download Tom Tom Club '(You Don't Ever Stop) Wordy Rappinghood' (mp3) (Divshare)

The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers (DFA/Output, 2002)

Even more cowbell.

Total classic dancefloor abandon.

Driving, euphoric, unhinged.

Download The Rapture 'House Of Jealous Lovers' (DFA, Punk-Funk, mp3) (Divshare)

The Rapture - Get Myself Into It (Vertigo, 2006)

Need more cowbell? Check this out.

Shuffling punk-funking tune from The Rapture's third, gone-off-the-boil album. Not quite of the level of 'Olio' or 'House Of Jealous Lovers' (must post that too) but it's tight and gets into an insular dancefloor groove.

Wiggly sax in the chorus reminds of something but can't quite think what. Ace Of Base maybe?

Download The Rapture 'Get Myself Into It' (DFA, punk-funk, mp3) (Divshare)

Candie Payne - All I Need To Hear (Deltasonic, 2006)

Delightful noirish pop

Candie Payne seems to have disappeared since her ultra-cool post-Foxbase Alpha debut album in 2007. Maybe she's paying some kind of penance for working with Mark Ronson.

Like fellow singles 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More' and 'Take Me', 'All I Need To Hear' is rollicking 60s girl group dynamism meets Portishead spy theme moodiness whilst hanging out in an Art Deco cafe with Saint Etienne as they hatch a plan to turn Dusty Springfield's 'I Can't Wait To See My Baby's Face' into 'Nothing Can Stop Us'.

Class.

Download Candie Payne 'All I Need To Hear' (Deltasonic, pop, mp3) (Divshare)

New Order - Regret (The Fire Island Mix) (London, 1993)

Dancefloor melancholy

Almost Deep House smooth, this Fire Island remix really suits the laid-back, slightly melancholy feel of 'Regret'. Junior Boys Own's mastery gives the track some space and more propulsive beat but leaves the song pretty much intact, save for extended the instrumental coda.

Funnily, this is a more 'Balearic' sound than that of famously Ibiza-influenced 'Technique'.

Download New Order 'Regret (The Fire Island Mix)' (Alternative, mp3) (Divshare)

New Order - Sub-Culture (Record Mirror Version) (1986)

Peerless, baroque, electronic.

Posting the work of Chic led me back to New Order and this tune which always reminds of Sheila B. Devotion's 'Spacer' (written and produced by Chic).

This exclusive version of 'Sub-Culture' came as a 7" with Record Mirror magazine (don't look for it, it's not there anymore...) which was quite a treat for a freebie. The other EP in the series had Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode exclusives on it. How lucky we were back then...

Download New Order 'Sub-Culture (Record Mirror Version)' (Alternative, Indie, genius, mp3) (Divshare)

More great New Order stuff over on the Recycle Project.

Stereolab - French Disco (Duophonic, 1993)

Spectacular rush of frothing indie/Krautrock pop.

It's funny to think that this track was originally just track 4 on the 'Jenny Ondioline' EP. Yet it ended up on compilations including 'Classics From John Peel's All-Time Festive 50', 'Indie Top 20 Volume 19' and - yes - 'Generation X: The Definitive Sound of 90s Indie'. And onto Friday night TV on The Word.

'French Disco' is certainly a classic of Stereolab's own micro-genre. Splashy Farfisa, metronomic bass, jangling then crushing guitar and aloof vocals.

Sounds as fresh now as it did then

Download Stereolab 'French Disco' (Duophonic, mp3) (Divshare)

New Order - Here To Stay (Full Length Vocal) (London, 2002)

The last great New Order record?

It's all got a bit messy in New Order land but this track from the '24 Hour Party People' soundtrack can hold its head up against former glories courtesy of some production magic from The Chemical Brothers.

A gleaming, chrome-plated synthesis of alternative rock and dance with no bobbins lyrics, glorious propulsive beats, Barney's trademark guitar and some fine bass runs from Hooky.

Brings a tear...

Download New Order 'Here To Stay (Full Length Vocal)' (indie dance, mp3) (Divshare)

New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Get Better (Extended) (Playtime, 1991)

Corking, groovy indie funk juggernaut.

Long version of the opening track from New Fast Automatic Daffodils' debut album. It's a rhythm-heavy monster with a tight, bass-led groove. It's 'baggy' alright but more intense and taut and aggressive.

Download New Fast Automatic Daffodils 'Get Better (Extended)' (Playtime, Baggy, Indie Funk, mp3) (Divshare)

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Drop Out Orchestra Rework) (2012)

Another tasty Drop Out Orchestra remix.

Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer' given a gentle, rolling chilled House makeover.

The Chemical Brothers - Life Is Sweet (Daft Punk Mix) (Freestyle Dust, 1995)

Tasty slammer, made more slamming.

Daft Punk give Tim Burgess' vocal the heave and turn the twisty synthetic funk of the original into a straightforward juggernaut.

Download The Chemical Brothers 'Life Is Sweet (Daft Punk Mix)' (House, Big Beat, mp3) (Mediafire)

Luscious Jackson - Let Yourself Get Down (Big Cat, 1992)

Lo-slung, shambling funky hip hop girlz.

This album was actually the first release on The Beastie Boys' Grand Royale label, appearing in the UK on Big Cat, the label that put out Pavement's first releases over here.

The Beastie Boys reference is kind of relevant as Luscious Jackson deal in a funky, indie hip-hop sound. Later records got smoothed-out a little but the sound on 'Let Yourself Get Down' is groovy but a little lo-fi. It has a relentless flow and some neat sub-bass action and should still be heard on the most discerning dancefloors.

Download Luscious Jackson 'Let Yourself Get Down' (indie, hip hop, funk, rap, mp3) (Mediafire)

Belle and Sebastian - Legal Man (Jeepster, 2000)

Indie Pop meets Northern Soul hipshaker.

This record passed me by first time round despite coming from Belle And Sebastian's golden period of dressing up and doing things their own unique way. I only discovered 'Legal Man's splendour when someone asked me to play it at their wedding a few years later.

So I gave it a spin and found that it was a perfect fusion of Northern Soul and Indie Pop with a sardonic lyric that borrowed heavily from the missives of the band's legal counsel.

Frug.

Download Belle and Sebastian 'Legal Man' (indie pop, Northern Soul, mp3 download) (Mediafire)

The Supremes - My World Is Empty Without You (Drop Out Orchestra Remix) (2011)

Slow and sinister dubbed-up remix of The Supremes classic.

A great Motown original which was covered to great effect by Afghan Whigs (must dig that one out and post it).

This version is slow house jam with a gentle 4/4 beat, a simple, spartan Fender Rhodes line and deep bass creating a sensitive new home for Diana Ross' vocal.

Very, very nice indeed.

New Order - Round And Round (Detroit Mix) (Factory, 1989)

Prime New Order given Techno body kit.

Listening to some classic Inner City reminded me of this gleaming but fluttering makeover of New Order's 'Round And Round'.

Inner City's Kevin Saunderson stretches the track out adding flickering sequencer and percussion lines to extrapolate the dance side of the New Order equation.

Download New Order 'Round & Round (Detroit Mix)' (Factory, 1989) (Divshare)

Pop Will Eat Itself - Def Con One (Chapter 22, 1988)

PWEI embrace the Fon Force.

'Def Con One' is the point at which PWEI dropped the laddish cartoon Grebo-isms of 'Box Frenzy' and focused on a ciderdelic, sampladelic homebrew that did the groundwork for indie-dance. 

Sitting somewhere between Gene & Jim Are Into Shakes' 'Shake!' and Bomb The Bass' 'Beat Dis', 'Def Con One' hurtles along on a fuzz of guitar, a sleek machine-tooled rhythm with burbling bass and their inimitable take on That Rap Music. Samples from Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Beastie Boys and The Twilight Zone theme music are thrown into the mix/maelstrom for good measure.

The chorus lifts the riff from The Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' (not that I knew that at the time, of course) and boasts the classic refrain "Big Mac, fries to-go, Big Mac fries to-go, Big Mac fries to-go, Gimme Big Mac, Gimme fries to-go" long before that song about Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut.


Seminal.


Download Pop Will Eat Itself - Def Con One (Indie Dance, Grebo, 1988) (Divshare)

Rothko - Roads Become Rivers (Rivers Become Oceans - Four Tet Mix) (Lo Recordings, 1999)

Delicious, ebbing post rock with gently skittering washes.

Rothko's gently meandering warm bass patterns are given a re-rub with Four Tet's trademark melodic skittering.

Undulating bass weaves together the track with piano and tones pulsing across the sound before a lazily euphoric percussive breakdown takes the track off in a different direction - Tortoise playing a samba band in an underground bar in Rio.

Eight minutes of insidious wonder.

Download Rothko - Roads Become Rivers (Rivers Become Oceans - Four Tet Mix) (Post Rock, Electronica, mp3) (Divshare)

A Certain Ratio - Do The Du (Peel Session) (1979)

Early ACR stiff-funk.

Obviously, the proximity of Joy Division to A Certain Ratio in the Factory family suggests connections and comparisons. However, this really is like euphoric, loose-limbed take on Joy Division's post-punk.

'Do The Du' is lithe and sexy like a peephole overcoat, betraying the love of Northern Soul that would see them cover 'Shack Up'. However, it also has an angularity that places them in the post-punk egg of the musical Venn Diagram and leads us to the flat voweled funk of New Fast Automatic Daffodils.

This Peel Session version has a roughed-up edge and added looseness compared to the strictures of the album version. Twitch along.

Download A Certain Ratio - Do The Du (Peel Session) (1979)

Grace Jones - She's Lost Control (Long Version) (Joy Division Cover) (Island, 1980)

Sultry Joy Division gone dub action.
 
The pallid, skeletal angst of Joy Division's 'She's Lost Control' is given a blast of Vitamin D by Sly & Robbie on an unlikely Carribbean holiday and stretched out even further across this aptly named "Long Version".

Grace Jones' detached, aloof vocals are a perfect match for the detachment of Ian Curtis' lyric and the tune bumps along on a delicious dubby skank.

Download Grace Jones - She's Lost Control (Long Version) (Joy Division Cover, Dub, mp3) (Divshare)

One Dove - Breakdown (Cellophane Boat Mix) (Junior Boys Own, 1993)

A Dub House symphony. Epic. Beautiful.

'Morning Dove White' - also touched by the hand of Andrew Weatherall - is up there with 'Screamadelica' for me in distilling the emotions and dynamics of Dub and House into a sumptuous cocoon of sound. You could call it Post Club Soul. Maybe it doesn't need a label.

'Breakdown' is a teasing, irresistable web of shuffling beats, reverb-happy piano, meandering bass and dubbed-out effects, bouncing subtly around the soundfield. It settles into a laidback groove and Dot Allison unleashes an angelic soliloquy to lost love.

A perfect companion piece to the Dub Symphony version of 'Higher Than The Sun' and the Lemonentry Mix of Saint Etienne's 'Pale Movie'. A seriously under-rated album.

Download One Dove - Breakdown (Cellophane Boat Mix) (Junior Boys Own, One Dove mp3) (Box.net)