Having spent much of the past two years conspiring with our fellow bloggers to destroy the music industry as we know it, we felt that 2009 was as good a year as any to pick up the pieces and rebuild it in our own image.

With that in mind, ladies and gentlemen we are delirious with joy to present to you our very own record label, Hot Pockets.

February 2009 will see the release of our debut 7″, and trust us it is great, three and a half minutes of sublime electronic pop music. Full details to come soon, but for now you’ll have to make do with a party to mark this momentous occasion. Apparently millions have already gathered in Washington to celebrate this historic day, now you can to. Friends can we change the music industry, YES WE CAN!

Join us for a night of raucous celebration on Saturday 31st of January at newly tarted up boozer Ivan’s Retreat in Brixton, where we will be spinning a very special slutty selection, bring your dancing shoes, you’ll need them.

If you’d like to join the all new Slutty Fringe / Hot Pockets mailing list and get news of our releases and parties, thoughts on the world and maybe some sneaky exclusive tracks delivered direct to your inbox then drop us an email here and we’ll hook you up.

So without wishing to earn a rep as  ‘that AIDS blog‘ and a support slot on the next Elton John tour, we bring you news of a new compilation ‘Dark Of The Night‘ released on 4AD, with all proceeds going to the Red Hot Organization – an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture.

Featuring the likes of Arcade Fire, Spoon, The National, Sufjan Stevens, Feist, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, The Decemberists, The Books & Hose Gonzalez, Iron and Wine, My Morning Jacket, Beirut, Cat Power, The New Pornographers, and Yo La Tengo, you have to say if scientists had spent half as much time and energy combating the AIDS virus as musicians have the past twenty years we’d probably be back to a golden age of rampant barebacked sex with strangers. Shame on you medical community.

Anyway, till the day they do get a grip on it you’ll just need to keep an even tighter grip on your junk and remember to bag up, no great hardship really. Remember you may only be able to catch it once but AIDS is no joke.

Here is a track off the compilation from The Dirty Projectors, most notable for featuring the dulcet tones of David Byrne. The album is out February 16th, you may wish to show your support by buying it.

Dirty Projectors feat. David Byrne – Knotty Pine

[audio http://sluttyfringe.com/media/knottypine.mp3]

In an entirely seemless segue I would now like to draw your attention to a re-edit that got hurled in our direction over the weekend from a chap named Sapo. Splicing and dicing the muy sexual ‘Get Down Make Love’ by Queen, he’s given it a loving spit and polish, perfect for sophisticated modern dancefloors.

Sapo also runs ESP Records and has just set up a new imprint Mad On The Moon which will be focusing on nu-disco, funk-cosmic and psychedelic stuff. Expect to see releases from some reknowned beards from that scene in the shops soon.

Queen – Get Down Make Love (Sapo Squeeze Mix)

[audio http://sluttyfringe.com/media/Queen%20-%20Get%20Down%20Make%20Love%20(Sapo%20Squeeze%20Mix).mp3]

A couple of years ago I made a pilgrimage to Zanzibar the birth place of the sainted Freddy Mercury, whilst there seemed some confusion as to the exact location of his nativity with every other local trying to convince me that their restaurant was built on the blessed plot. Still I enjoyed a pleasant night under the stars at Mercury’s in  Stone Town and had a very nice french onion soup, highly recommended should you be in the area.

Apart from that my experience of Africa is pretty limited really, consisting of the aforementioned and a brief nose around Egypt as a kid.  Even then time has dimmed my memory,  so that my entire recollection of Egypt consists solely of being tricked into eating a camel burger and my annoyance at not being allowed to climb the pyramids.

None of which though has stopped me enjoying this club banger courtesy of Houston’s Afrika (see what I did there, this is some primo journalism shizzle you’re witnessing) that dropped into my inbox on Saturday.

A former hip-hop troupe, they’ve abandoned the realness in favour of a more electro sound, though thankfully they’re referring to the kind of classic 80′s jams that you have you breaking out the lino rather than jumping around a club in Shoreditch with your dick in your hand.

If you like cut and paste, Mantronix style beats you’ll want to get on this.

Afrika – Move It

[audio http://sluttyfringe.com/media/move_it.mp3]

Right, lunchtime over, back to the grind.

Being a lesbian must be off the fucking chain. I should know I’ve watched enough, errr… documentaries on the subject.

Anyway Shunda K of Yo Majesty sure sounds like she’s having fun on this new EP, ‘Le Passion Yo’ she’s recorded with Brooklyn’s Kotchy. 4 Tracks of glitched up, electronic beats and breathless sleazy raps. 3 sleazy slow jams that sound like Rustie remixing Jam & Lewis, perfect for a little bump and grind and 1 more up-tempo number perfect for working up some girl sweat to. Club bangers one and all.

No release date as of yet so fill your boot with these 2 tracks for now. Right I’m off to get in touch with my inner girl in the bathroom.

Kotchy – Holla

[audio http://sluttyfringe.com/media/04.%20Kotchy%20&%20Shunda%20K%20(Yo%20Majesty)%20-%20Holla%20(Bonus%20Kotchy%20Track).mp3]

Kotchy & Shunda K – We Feelin’ Each Other

[audio http://sluttyfringe.com/media/03.%20Kotchy%20&%20Shunda%20K%20(Yo%20Majesty)%20-%20Le%20Passion%20Yo!%20(EP%202009)%20-%20We%20Feelin'%20Each%20Other.mp3]

Thanks to Mark at Civil Music for sending these over.

NYC duo Flagrant Fowl swiftly follow up their Canyon Dancing EP with the fifth release snappily titled FF005 which sees Cousin Cole and Pocketknife putting the pitchfolk favourite retouches to one side and instead focus on sublime danceteria refixes of hipster jerkoff favourites.

Cousin Cole takes on Pop Art’s most famous exponent and a man of uncrushed ego, Kanye West, and succeeds where others have failed in improving on that musical equivalent of marmite, Love Lockdown, a favourite with A Trak, with Cuz Cole’s uptempo acid disco rerub of Champion that was all over hypem a few weeks back also included for good measure.

Pocketknife contributes an extended version of his rejected remix of Lykke Li’s Breaking It Up, adding weight to the argument that some major labels lack even the smallest degree of musical taste when it comes to approving remixes (see the rotten egg CSS remix of Lykke Li for proof)

Lykke Li – Breaking It Up (Pocketknife Loosefoot Remix)

Vinyl heads in UK should will note it’s Record Of The Week status at  Piccadilly and the US based amongst you visit Turntable Lab to purchase.

Cousin Cole and Pocketknife also took part in the excellent Beats In Space radio show on Tuesday last week with typically excellent results, despite Mr Tim Sweeney showing audible signs of his NYE horse Meat Disco excursions catching up with him.

Those that indulge in Beats in Space podcasts will no doubt already  have enjoyed the show. Those that don’t might want to question where their life is going or maybe just take a listen

[audio http://www.beatsinspace.net/audio/2009/jan6/bis010609part1.mp3]

Beats In Space January 6th Part One – Pocketknife &  Cousin Cole

Beats In Space January 6th Part Two – Cousin Cole & Tim Sweeney

Get your podcast on here

Those of you who like to plan things well ahead may want to start reaching for a diary and a pencil as it has just been confirmed that Tony & I will be DJ’ing at Crazy P‘s concert at the Islington Academy in March (the 5th to be precise). This is what football pundits would describe as a bit of a result, especially as two of our favourite acts Line and Shock Defeat are also on the bill.

Tickets are on sale here and by all accounts selling nicely already. We have a pair of tickets to giveaway just email us and tell us what the ‘P’ in Crazy P stands for and we will randomly select one winner, hmmm… let’s say on Friday week (the 23rd).

If that wasn’t enough you can also wrap your ears around a little mix that Danni from the band put together for a radio show recently, we give and we give and we give.

Crazy P – 30 Minute Radio Mix

You ever go to the bingo as a kid? I still vividly remember many a night spent in chilly community halls in Cornwall, desperately working 10 different game cards in the hope of waltzing off at the end of the night with an oversized marrow. Great days.

In the quest for some wholesome, quaintly retro family friendly fun we decided to give our local bingo hall a go last year, but sadly it just seemed to be full of morbidly obese people shovelling coins into slot machines and bellowing at one another over the sound of Tammi from Bolton winning half a million via their televised live national link-up. Give me marrows, obliging farmer’s daughters and suspiciously out of date bottles of stout anyday.

A world away from Surrey Quays Gala Bingo lies DJ Zinc‘s Bingo Beats, who the last time I handed over good money for one of their records (Jammin’s ‘Go DJ’ back in 2001 fact fans) were pursuing a kind of hard mutated garage meets electro breaks route. Anyway out of the blue, a new mix from Zinc dropped into our inboxes this week and obviously I should have been paying more attention over the years as it’s packed full of the kind of blog friendly acts (Hot Chip, Boy 8-Bit, Fake Blood, etc) that you (lovely) slags can’t get enough of.

So just in case like me you might have missed this, correct yourself and grab it here… Tracklisting after the jump.

DJ Zinc – House Mix

[audio http://www.bingobeats.com/tunes/mixes/zincjan09mix.mp3]

More »

I know it can be sometimes hard to remember that there’s more to Brazilian music than chopped up eighties rock samples, the tamborzao beat and someone shouting about big asses but the country has produced some glorious music over the years, from bossa nova to the Tropicalia movement of the sixties and some punishingly loud thrash metal in the eighties.

One label who has been doing a pretty good job of documenting the more leftfield offerings from the country over the years is the excellent Far Out Recordings, who have just sent us the new EP from Rio’s Rabotnik entitled ‘Lounge Ass’. You see even when we stay well clear of the baile’s there’s just no getting away from the rump with these crazy kids, though to be fair if I spent most my days surrounded by Brazilian women there’s a fair chance I’d have devolved into some kind of rapacious cartoon wolf by now too.

Anyway back to the music, Rabotnik spurn their fellow countrymen’s love of cheap synthetic drums instead opting for something more expansive and experimental, this is darkly cinematic electronic mood music,  run through with a post-rock edge (I’ve just read that back and I apologise for the awful sub-OMM hack writing there, still it’s the best my brain can do today) all of which puts me in mind of the also excellent Capitol K, always a good thing.

Annoyingly of all the tracks I’ve heard, DDP, the one the label have let us put up is probably my least favourite. Still if you can ignore the one or two brief moments when it sounds like the guitarist from Thunder has accidentally walked into the studio it should give you an idea of what to expect from the rest of the EP. Right I’m off to Google at popozudas.

Rabotnik – DDP

[audio http://sluttyfringe.com/media/2%20DDP%201.mp3]

Oh, and since we’re on the subject of Brazilian music  if you’re in the mood from something a little different try hunting down Milton by Milton Nasciemento, recorded in ’76 with Herbie Hancock, it’s one of my favourite albums ever and not a fat ass in sight.

Thanks to R Whites, my childhood was blighted by nightmares involving a sinsister Roy Orbison lookalike creeping round my kitchen in the middle of the night to feed his lemonade addiction.

Thus to this day I treat Lemonade with the contempt most reserve for the plague.

Either Pure Groove affiliates Singleton & Stopmakingme are too young to remember this haunting advert or they’re made of sterner stuff.

This assumption is made as they recently decided to add some plinky acid line remix pzazz to Big Weekend by Lemonade, perhaps the twelth thousandth, six hundredth and thirty fifth hotly tipped band to surface from one of the districts of New York City since I woke up.

Lemonade – Big Weekend (Singleton & Stopmakingme Remix)

The next Dre$$ 2 $weat release sees the club loving Glasgow inprint fly out to Kansas City and knock on Tactic’s front door and offer them deep fried produce in return for tracks to boggle to.

Obviously exciting news, if only because it means Dre$$ 2 $weat don’t solely put out music by people whose name ends with E – Rustie, Rod Lee and Piddy Pee all being previous contributers to the hype label.

Tactic are so stoked they decided to edit the awesome Gel Abril track Spells of Yoruba into something that bangs a little harder and then shoot it out of a canon in the general direction of blogland.

[audio http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/85072/Spells%20of%20Yoruba_Tactic%20Edit.mp3]

Gel Abril – Spells of Yoruba (Tactic Edit)

With the mainstream media whipping itself up into a frenzy over 2009 supposedly being the year of the synth pop girl act (only yesterday the irritating Alexis Petridish used the Weekend magazine portion of the Guardian to fawn over Little Boots) the fact ickle Micachu is on the cusp of releasing her debut LP, Jewellery can be seen as something of an antidote.

Out on Accidental on February 2nd, Jewellery is anything but polished female sythpop, with a charming fuzzy veneer present over all 15 tracks. Matthew Herbert may have acted as producer but thankfully his slightly tiresome ‘let’s make a musically political statement with this avocado and a copy of The Sun” approach is entirely absent.

Jewellery has been soaking up the battery on my ipod for several weeks now and will undoubtedly feature on the Slutty Fringe 2009 best of lists which will be great this year, promise.

Here are two of my favourite tracks from the album, you can listen to more at the Micachu Last FM page

[audio http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/85072/07%20Abandon%20Ship.mp3]

Micachu – Abandon Ship

[audio http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/85072/06%20Golden%20Phone.mp3]

Micachu – Golden Phone

Those of you that consider yourself a fan of both Micachu and Late Of The Pier are in luck as the former is supporting the later on tour throughout the cities of the UK in February.

We’ve spent the past few months at home perched by our turntables, listening to Happy House on repeat and pondering whether the new album from The Juan Maclean could possibly replicate such awesomeness over the course of 11 tracks.

Annoyingly, those cheeky people at Scion AV have distracted  the cyborg disco outfit from achieving such a task by challenging them to remix Roy Davis Jnr’s I Have A Vision for their latest release.

Vociferous complaints would be made if the results weren’t a slice of typically splendid acid tinged space disco from DFA’s resident Iain Dowie lookalike.

Roy Davis Jnr – I Have A Vision (The Juan MacLean Remix) (via RCRD LBL)

Other artists tasked with moulding Roy in their own music include Freddy ‘The French’ Falke and Todd ‘ The God’ Edwards.

Big plans are afoot this year for Team Slutty Fringe, one of them being a long overdue site redesign (in part to appease cheeky Timeout writers) another being something that can’t be talked about just yet but is all very exciting.

What is certain is Team Slutty Fringe are starting to use our reputations as  highly skilled DJs with impeccable musical tastes, hard drinkers, heart breakers and Gents who generally know how to rock the good look to our advantage with the opportunity to entertain clubbers in London and beyond.

Words has already been written about Team Slutty Fringe doing the Be thing in Camden this Saturday along with a bunch of bands to fill the space left by last years next big things

But before I share a cab towards Camden with a driver who will invariably detail just how corrupt Indian police are, I’ll be warming up for Backyard Recordings Tronik Youth at the newly regarmed Victoria down Mile End way at the launch party for E3 Allstars, new night from NBA obsessives Radeo Vidio.

As promo the Radeo Vidio kids put together this splendid little mix as a taster of what to expect at a E3 Allstars party.

Radeo Vidio Business As Usual Tracklisting

1. The Beatles – Hello, Goodbye
2. Dragonette – Sharp Dressed Man
3. Beni – My Love Sees You
4. Gameboy/Gamegirl – Fruit Salad (Round Table Knights Remix)
5. MSTRKRFT – Bounce (A-Trak Remix)
6. Alex Gopher – Aurora (autoKratz Remix)
7. Yuksek – I Like To Play
8. Act Yo Age – Love Bounce Parade
9. JoJo De Freq – Welcome To Dalston
10. AIH – The Beep (Radioclit Remix)
11. Ace of Base – All That She Wants
12. DJ Assault – Yo Relatives
13. Rex The Dog – We Sleep in Daddy’s Car
14. The Glimmers – I’d Much Rather Go (Out With The Boys)
15. We Have Band – Oh (Micachu Remix)
16. Deep Dish – Flashdance
17. La Roux – Quicksand (autoKratz Drags to Riches Remix)
18. The Death Set – The Street (Bumblebeez Remix)
19. Mr Oizo – Cut Dick
20. In Flagranti – Genital Blue Room
21. SebastiAn – Momy (Erol Alkan’s Simple, Yet Effective Edit)
22. Thomas Bangalter – Roule Boule
23. Oh Snap! – High Top Fade
24. Cut Copy – Far Away (Damn Arms Remix)
25. DJ Mehdi – Pocket Piano (Joakim Remix)
26. A.D.A.M Baby – Hi Beam Baby
27. Breakbot – Summer Party
28. The Teenagers – Feeling Better (Don Roc Remix)

Download here [zshare]

For a taster of where Tronik Youth is at musically right now check out his forthcoming remix of Rex The Dog

Rex The Dog – Heartsong (Tronik Youth Mix) [myspace]

So as mentioned in my ‘painfully obvious review of the year’ I’ve become quite partial to the tasty treats served up at the Ambassador’s Reception, one of a clutch of superior re-edit labels that stood out from the crowd in 2008.

With sometime Chicken Lips DJ and full time Bear Funk’er Stevie Kotey and Dolan Bergin (who also runs the excellent Electric Minds label) in control AR was always going to be one to watch, that to date pretty much all the twelve inches released have been by Dutch disco obsessive Loud E just made it unmissable and guaranteed that every release has swiftly made it’s way into my shopping basket.

As befits someone who has been hunting down and playing out the choicest obscure disco cuts for several years now, most notably on I-F’s much missed CBS radio station, his re-edits are no mere cut and paste hack jobs of obvious floor fillers but instead perfectly refined slabs of dance floor devastation.

If you’ve been unlucky enough to have been cornered by me in a club in recent months you’ll already probably be sick of me going on about the last EP with the psychotically heavy ‘Afrika, Afrika’. Trust me you need this record in your life, if I was in the habit of driving drunk around Lagos in the middle of the night with just a bag of collie weed for company this would be in the tape deck every time. I don’t know where he finds the originals but I’d pay good money to tag along on one of his crate digging missions.

Anyway now after 11 releases on vinyl, the Ambassador has reached out to those that prefer to smear jam on their music and compiled 11 of Loud E’s heaviest unreleased bangers on to one CD, Loud E Fied. A collection that hangs together so well as a coherent whole that it further blurs the already rather hazy line between re-edited track and sample based ‘original’.

Ranging in nature from stomping Moroder-esque arpeggiated synth jams and lush orchestral maneuvers in the dark to slow-mo percussive tribal work outs and full on funk freak outs, the common theme running through all these tracks is the feeling that they could be sound tracking green skinned space vixens getting hot and heavy with some tentacled player at a discotheque on Venus.

I’ve been extensively road testing this album in clubs for the past month or so now and am happy to report that every track is a winner. With the last few years’ disco renaissance showing little sign of slowing up as we hurtle through into ’09, it’s highly unlikely this will be the last collection of re-edits you’ll be hearing about this year, but it will be one that you’ll still be going back to in 12 months to come.

[audio http://sluttyfringe.com/media/09%20Highway%20Haze.mp3]
Loud E – Highways of Haze

Released on the 23rd, Loud E Fied would be a worthwhile addition to any collection, you should be able to pick it up from any of the usual suspects, for their services to my own personal bankruptcy I’d recommend Piccadilly.

Whilst we’re on the subject of disco, a big slutty thanks to all of you who put NYE hangovers and thoughts of credit crunches and detoxes out of mind and came down to Cargo last Friday. Over 800 of you made it, which… well let’s just say we were very happy and slightly overwhelmed to see and judging by the happy faces on the packed dancefloor at the end of the night it was worth braving the cold for. A special big thanks to Soft Rocks, Bill Brewster, Jonny Burnip and The Romantic Motherfuckers for giving up the comfort of their homes and joining us.

Still no rest for the wicked and this Saturday (10.1.09) Tony and I will be spinning discs in between and after the likes of Let’s Wrestle, Tin Can Telephone and Cats in Paris at Be‘s night at the Proud Gallery in Camden. We’d to see some fringes in the crowd so if you drop us a line HURRR with names before Saturday we’ll stick you down on our cheap guestlist.