As I add the new Kylie album to my itunes playlist I can’t help but pause reflect on that precise moment when she went from a guilty pleasure to a legitimate saccharine heart attack. I guess if I had to name a real clincher it would be “Can’t Get You Out of My Head:” remixed by Soulwax, covered by The Flaming Lips and beloved by the US top 40 audience (at least the first 30 times they heard it on the radio), the song was a tour de force and a perfect synthesis of sounds both warm and electronic. “Sensitized” is by no means the best track on the album; that dubious honor honor goes to “In My Arms.” It is merely a track in which Minogue expertly deploys the pleasantly ubiquitous “Bonny and Clyde” sample from the Serg Gainsbourg jam with Bridgitte Bardot. PS – you don’t even really have to say the Minogue anymore; everybody knows who you’re talking about. Here is the og version and another cheeky sample driven single by German Pop duo Stereo Total.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It’s hard to believe, and exciting as hell, that we’re on our 7th Providence Is Burning. The last one, Halloween, tore the fucking roof off the firehouse. Burned it down in fact. This time around we’re playing host to NYC’s Nick Catchdubs, a much-loved blogger, DJ and producer who’s been around the block and is now working with such unlimited talent as Wale, Mark Ronson and running his own label with A Trak (Fools Gold ya hear?). Last time I heard Catchdubs was at Certified Banana’s party in Cambridge a year or so ago. I’m not sure how much Hip Hop he’s going to play, but here’s a taste of the uncategorizable Black music he is known to throw into his sets.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It’s kind of bizarre that I haven’t yet posted a Plump Djs track since they are consistently releasing giant bangers on the Finger Lickin label. It was between this or the Missy Elliot-cribbing “Kinky,” but there is something really ill about the synth meltdown that breaks this thing into dancefloor-devestating bitesize pieces. It all begins with massive acid subs and the little b-boy callout hook. I can’t wait to play this on Dec 1 at Providence is Burning!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

When Craig David burst onto the UK Garage scene with his vocals featured on the hugely successful “Rewind,” he was an everyman and a crooner in a world that was alive with young talent. Soon enough the Artful Dodger became a passé pop fad and David failed to garner a repeat of the international success conferred to Born To Do It. His second full-length, Slicker Than Your Average was a huge step back artistically too. I try to keep up with him as he reinvents his sound in the parameters of radio-friendly Black music every couple of years, and I actually have to applaud him for realizing his own creative short-comings. Why else would he look to whoever is getting paid most to remix each time around? First it was Sunship in the halcyon days of UK Garage, then Akufen and DFA (who never actually took him up on the offer) and now it’s Touché. I don’t think Craig David would have gone international even if he had stuck to his roots in soulful Garage because trends in British music seem to fracture and spawn new sub-genre’s as soon as they get their own names. UK Garage is only just now enjoying a Renaissance thanks to its proximity to new work by artists like Burial, Bugz and even Lady Sov. I’m not expecting much from the Craig David album, but I’m thrilled that Touché is on remix-duty for the first single, Hot Stuff. Not much to say about this single except that it is one of those joints I’d play in the lead up to a banger, but isn’t quite a floor-filler itself.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I’m not one to be critical of Arrested Development. When Speech says that they left a void that still hasn’t been filled in Hip Hop, I kind of want to believe him. Yes, nobody credible (because their new shit does remind me a bit of The Black Eyed Peas) has that live-band sound fleshed out with sunshine samples and hands-in-the air Afro-centric vocals. Speech’s Vagabond records put out a couple of albums by a reincarnated AD after Zingalamaduni and the group’s breakup. I got a copy of Among The Trees off of some type of file-sharing service and was nonplussed, but Since The Last Time is actually quite a step up. Miracles is more a cover of the Jackson Sisters’ classic than a straight up sampling. I can’t get enough of that funky bass riff and horn line, so here’s a bonus Basement Jaxx bootleg from the Rendez-Vu single too.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.