May You Never... forget John Martyn - click to download.

A sad day, one of music's most barmy and most beautiful figures passed away this morning.

CM remembers him with the classic 'May You Never'.

Thank you for the music John.

You'll be missed.

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! - click to download Jetstream

Doves are back with a new album, due in March and produced by Mr Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers and the legendary John Leckie.

CM nearly wet herself with excitement when she found out that Jetstream was available as a free download from the Doves own website - www.doves.net.

It might be black, cold and raining outside but it's warm, green and filled with cider and joy over here.

Tour dates start in March.

Roll on Glastonbury!

There is a God.

The Old Man's back again.....

Bat For Lashes new album 'Two Suns' is out on April 6th. That's very good news.
Even better news is that it features CM's favourite crooner Mr Scott Walker himself on the final track, titled 'The Big Sleep'.

Listening to Walker is like slipping in to a hot bath in the late summer in the middle of a forest. Can't wait.

Well done Batty.

Bring the rave... at Selfridges

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Maggie Thatcher, the mullet and banging good Es. Remember '88? CM was 10 in the summer of love, so not really. But culturally we've all seen how the rave revolution changed music, fashion and our social scene forever.

ArtCore is a visual documentation of this unique and incredible era; A historical exhibition celebrating the visual side of 20 years of dance culture featuring a lot of the artwork from the most iconic clubs and raves over that period. These include the Hacienda, Sanctuary, World Dance, Spectrum, Love Ranch, Beyond Therapy, Big Love, Raindance, Shoom, Trade, DIY, Back To Basics, Sign Of The Times and many many more.

The exhibition will be open to the public from Friday 13th February at Selfridges Ultra Lounge and will all be auctioned on the 26th February.

Safe.

Is this the best dance routine ever?

CM doesn't normally spend precious time on random YouTube stupidity, I leave that to the b3ta geeks, but this really takes some beating...

Napoleon Dynamite had my vote for some time, but for sheer effort, flexibility and the best damn entrance I've ever seen this takes the prize.

Miss Tandi Dupree you rock my world.

The Twelves give Groove Armada a good seeing to... click to download

Another belter courtesy of Bacardi, this time it's in the shape of a Twelves remix of 'Drop The Tough', a track from the forthcoming Groove Armada EP released by this increasingly credible Latin booze brand.

Groove Armada aren't normally CM's cup of tea but this remix takes the already pretty catchy hook from the original and bastes it with the Twelves warm, electronic juices.

The first track from the EP, titled 'Go' was available via B-Live Share from 20th January.

Go Bacardi.

Ronnie and Serge kissing in a tree....

All hail the Rocket! Winner of his 4th Master title on Sunday, managing a century break in his 6th winning frame....

The east ender went for a curry with beautiful idiot Serge from Kasabian beforehand.

Hot stuff.

Tears and shapes a plenty at the last ever Bugged Out! at The End

This is the end of The End....

Another sad time for London's clubbing masses, another legendary venue dies a death to make way for real estate.

Saturday night saw the last ever Bugged Out (featuring Black Rabbit in AKA) at this underground institution, which has played host to dance music's biggest names over the last thirteen years.

The kids gave it some real welly with not a dry shirt in the house, girls on shoulders, hands in the air, klaxons, nosebleed techno and some unfeasibly wide eyed raving til 8am.

Here are some thoughts from Justice, who played alongside Erol, JoJo de Freq and Skull Juice, on their last night in the booth.

JUSTICE:
“A farewell is always tough, so we re gonna aim to refrain tears and spread joy, fun and happiness.”

Do you remember playing Wham’s Wham Rap at Bugged Out in November 2005? Is it still in your record box?

“Hey yes, I’m impressed by your memory. Sure we still have it, on a CD that we called "uptempop" which is admittedly the worst play on words ever, but it makes the cd browsing easier and faster. I remember we were warming up in the lounge so we wouldn’t play hard stuff and that's quite a perfect Saturday-night-hedonist-youth party starter, isnt it?”

What will you miss most about playing at The End? What did you like about the venue?

“To be honest we're not really attached to the walls, we like this place because we love Trash, Durrr and Bugged Out of course. These are the only parties we've played at The End, indeed (and the only parties we've been hanging in without playing) and this is what we’ll miss. Another special thing about The End is that we've never played there without Erol, so thank you for applying the rule one last time.”

Will you be leaving in a police car at the end of the night?

“It’s so hard to get a cab in London at night that we’ll happily use any private transportation to get back home.”

Go to buggedout.net to read some more thoughts from those who saw it til The End.

For those with some rave left in them there's a full week of parties until the final, final night on Saturday 24th. Visit www.endclub.com for full info.

Witch and Wolf

Tilda Swinton is going to appear on Patrick Wolf's new album. A fan of his other worldly musings, Tilda is likely to be offering a narrative vocal to a few tracks.

CM would rather not give Wolf anything more to be smug about but we love Tilda all the same...

Who Made Who are back - click to download

Woop Woop!

New album out on March 2nd. The single 'TV Friend' is a slice of 80's synth joy, with their inimitable dance floor bass line.

Hot Chip remix is killer too.

The Beeb's Big'uns

The BBC have released the final artist in their Sound of 2009 poll today.

So here's how the shortlist looks (and there's some old CM friends here):

1. Little Boots
2. White Lies
3. Florence & The Machine
4. Empire of the Sun
5. La Roux

The longlist which includes Dan Black, Master Shortie, Frankmusic and Passion Pit can be seen here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7758169.stm

And because we love them and it's freakin' freezing out there, here's some cosmic prog pop from Empire of the Sun, larking about in Asia.

Maybe it's because it's 6.30am but anyone else think this looks like a young Dom Joly and a thin Will Ferrell taking the piss?

KATASTROPHE!

Florian Schneider, one of the founding members of Kraftwerk, has announced he is leaving Kraftwerk after 40 years.

Nein.

Only one original member left now....

Cashmere Mixtape - Vol. 3

1. Plastic Little - Brooklyn
2. Grace Jones - William's Blood (Aeroplane remix)
3. Spank Rock - Loose feat. Amanda Black
4. The Cocknbullkid - Mother In Our Bed
5. Apparat - Holdon
6. Oranges & Lemons - Texican
7. Kool & The Gang - Open Sesame
8. Skyy - Call Me
9. Q
10. Kathy Diamond - All Woman
11. Pointer Sisters - Automatic
12. Flight Of The Conchords - Inner City Pressure

Happy New Ears.

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