No.174- Cosmic Disco? Cosmic Rock!!!, Various Artists, 2008

Purchased at Sounds of The Universe, Broadwick Street, Summer 2008

I Keep my feet firmly on the ground- sometimes I need to know exactly where I stand

So begins Fra Lippo Lippi’s Say Something, the murkily marvellous Italo-House track that kicks off this terrific Daniel Baldelli compilation. This was one of the first purely groove-based records I ever bought, and damn hell is it groovy. Who needs tunes, you ask yourself as you listen to the ponderously satisfying rhythmic crunch of the best bits of Cosmic Disco. But then the record finishes, and you instinctively whack on the Ash record you wrote about yesterday and binge on melody til you can take no more. I’m feeling a little strange today, as you can probably tell. Unlike the good Fra, I have absolutely no idea where I stand (quite literally- I’m in an internet café somewhere in the suburbs of Marseille), and I’m actually rather happy about it.

No.69-Mala Parte, Various Artists, 2012

Donated to the cause by Sebastian Summers, February 2012

This is what I’ve been “grooving” to recently; it’s a compilation of (mostly) soundtrack music put together by my esteemed colleague and lodger Seb Summers. The record takes in everything from Lalo Schriffin’s classic Bullitt theme to Alice Coltrane (Journey in Satchidanada) to Jackie Mittoo and Django Rheinhardt. It’s a pretty exemplary mix CD, never jarring in mood or tempo, and is in itself a very nice thing to look at- the cover image, a still from Godard’s Le Mepris (aka “the one with Fritz Lang and Bardot’s bum”), is a perfect fit for the restrained cool of the music it packages.

Nicely done, lad.