Just rounding up some interesting bits that haven’t been mentioned here so far and should be of interest to you all.
First up, Rush Hour have finally announced their retrospective of Detroit techno legend Anthony “Shake” Shakir on vinyl and CD. This is a long overdue reinvestigation of one of the most underrated of all the Detroit techno pioneers. Shake’s been involved pretty much from the start, with his early work appearing on the famous New Sound Of Detroit compilation that helped break techno in the UK and also contributing to releases such as Octave One’s debut I Believe. As well as his own label, Frictional, Shake has released records on Metroplex, 7th City, Klang Elektronik, Track Mode and others over the years. Always experimenting with diverse sounds and always bringing the funk. Indeed, for me, he probably represents the funk roots in techno better than anyone. Thankfully this isn’t a sign that he’s resting on his laurels as there’s also a new Shake release coming up on Frictional and the clips sound very promising indeed. If you want to read more on the man, check out our interview with him a few years back here.
Keeping on the Detroit reissue tip, Rush Hour are also reissuing the essential Rick Wilhite EPs put out on KDJ in the mid 90s. In particular, The Godson EP is easily one of my favourite house records of all time and has almost never left my bag.
Elsewhere, Pitchfork managed to get an interview with Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk in anticipation of Der Katalog, a box set of remastered Kraftwerk albums from Autobahn on. There’s also a DJ Deep column over on the Bodytonic site, featuring a brilliant but rather short Armando mix, I definitely recommend checking that out!
Finally, in local news, there’s 2 really exciting gigs on in Dublin this weekend. On Friday, the mighty DJ Rahaan returns to Dublin for a special one off gig with Downtownsounds in Kennedy’s. He killed it both times the lads have brought him over in the past and I highly recommend checking him out. BEAT THAT SHIT RAHAAN! WOOOOOOOOH!! 
If that ain’t enough, the next night sees a bumper line up of DJ Funk, Marco Bernardi, Jimmy Edgar and Gosub all in one night! And this only a couple of weeks after what was a fantastic DEAF festival.
shake’s “arise” was also just re released with a trus’me remix to boot.
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that Armando mix is soooooooooo hot, thanks for the heads up
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I picked up that Rick Wilhite reissue this afternoon. myself and the wife have spent the entire evening losing our shit to the moodymann remix.
also picked up scott f’s “chord pushing” on KSR as well as finally getting my copies of Lerosa’s “Plesso” and the Juju & Jordash album so it’s been a real ISM-my day round mine!
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kenny reply on November 11th, 2009 8:08 am:
Ha, was just gonna make a post about a lot of what was mentioned here! Good work, Gav. And to go along with what clom says that Moodymann rmx of Wilhite is unreal.
Shameless plug that doesn’t quite merit its own post: If anyone still fancies to go dancing the weekend after the upcoming shenanigans (i’m especially excited about the appearance of Gosub) I’m gonna be playing at the next installement of Discotekken, the new night being run by Dublin Bus Disco blogger Louis Scully. It’s on in The Mezz, a great little sweatbox situated upstairs in the Twisted Pepper, on Saturday the 21st. I’ll be finishing off the nights proceedings with plenty of Italo along with some disco, house and electro sounds. Any readers fancy it come on in and say hello!
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im getting sick of rush hour rereleasing old shit. its ruining my record collection.
they just through out the godson ep (with a new moodymann mix) and they gonna throw out the soul edge ep.
the doods in detroit have some blame to share here as well.
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gmos reply on November 12th, 2009 6:46 am:
ha, I’d say you’re not the only one pissed off!!
personally, I think it’s great, younger DJs have no excuse not to play the good shit
“the doods in detroit have some blame to share here as well”
the doods in detroit are entitled to make some money out of their work, especially when they see it going for so much on the 2nd hand market. I remember Carl Craig talking about this kind of stuff before he started reissuing his back catalogue. Someone pointed him to a copy of 4 Jazz Funk Classics going for over $100 on eBay and he was shocked, he had no idea that his old stuff was still so sought after (probably because it was mostly a European/Japanese market) and he decided then and there that he was going to reissue. He said his music was never supposed to be an exclusive product only availably to those with deep pockets.
I always wondered why the Andres and Rick Wilhite stuff was so hard to get on KDJ, especially when Moodymann rereleased his own stuff fairly regularly.
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also, at least you can say the reissues are legit and sound good – rather than being crappy sounding bootlegs. the moodymann remix is a nice touch too
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gmos reply on November 12th, 2009 8:54 am:
exactly, that’s another factor. when you consider that every other classic is getting booted anyway, is it not better for things to be done legit and with good sound?
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deeperthandisco reply on November 13th, 2009 3:35 am:
good point jonny5
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I have a lot of sympathy for deeperthandisco’s predicament here. It’s frustrating to have spent years plugging away ammassing a great collection only to find its value (in terms of its uniqueness rather than monetary) plummet due to reissues.
The only thing i can say to mitigate that is that you have years of a head start in terms of knowing how that fits with any number of the records in your collection. Maybe it’s me being a bit of a numpty but it takes me quite some time to figure out where a new record fits with all the other shit I have.
There’s no substititute for knowing your records, deeperthandisco is going to know their copy “The Godson” way better than I’m going to for a year or two yet!
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deeperthandisco reply on November 13th, 2009 3:42 am:
im not against re-issue or spreading the word of music at all. just I spent so much time and money finding these things (as did loads others)I dig a hell of a lot every weekend for hours. kinda frustrating at times. first comment was not said in malice but I have a right to say it.
And actually I think a lot of the time the reissue drives the price of the original up even more. For example, its definitley hiked up original theo and kenny wax and for sure transmat classics has made the originals more expensive.
With regard to blames the cats in detroit, of course allowed to make money and good for them we all wanna do it that way but its just all happenign at once from a lot of artists so its depleted a lot of my stuff.
I play both original pressing and re-issues btw
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It’s amazing that I still can’t spell amassing.
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gmos reply on November 12th, 2009 8:52 am:
I know clom, I’m amassed too ;0
I had both the Rick Wilhite’s anyway and I spent a decent bit for the Godson EP a good few years ago, but I’m quite happy to have a good quality replacement and a new remix, and for Rick to get another payday off what’s one of my favourite pieces of music. Even though I’m a collector I always try and look at these things from the artist’s point of view.
As I said to Kenny earlier, collecting records and future record values works the same way as any other investment. There is no guarantee that your investment will hold it’s value. That’s how it works.
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deeperthandisco reply on November 13th, 2009 3:43 am:
agreed, rick needs to get the props he always deserved. way too in the background for years
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and another factor is that stuff like the Shake comp and Rick Wilhite reissues should increase interest in their new material too, I’m sure that’s part of their thinking
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the other thing to consider is that often a reissue doesn’t really devalue the original anyway – you will always have your hardcore collectors who will only settle for an original issue….
personally i’m not overly precious about stuff like that and seeing as i only had the godson II on kdj…
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I didn’t have the Godson 12 on vinyl till now. So i’m stoked.
I think its a great thing to see the likes of Wilhite and Shake in the public eye because of this. Getting it out there to fresh ears is too important.
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Agreed, they paved the way, and did it way sooner and far better than many are doing today, great to see them coming out of the shade and getting recognition with reissues. I want to support them and be able to play it for others and point them to buy a copy and support the artists as well.
Fuck collector elitism, glad its on Rush Hour as well, will mean a decent amount of copies about for people to pick up. Fuck the limited edition pressing festish that is doing the rounds on many labels today as well but thats another issue for another day.
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Im not pointing fingers at anybody on this board..but this is a message to all the elitist record collectors
All this fluff talk about your personal sentiments with these records are null and void. You dont own the music so please dont bitch about it when it gets re-released. I personally gave up on trying to get my hands on Anthony Shakir – Happy to be here after searching high and low, since its rarer than living dodo..Im happy its being re-released and all credit is due to Rush Hour and Shake for realizing this dream for me. I dont care if you waited in line at the old submerge building to get your hands on the elusive sonic destroyer promo in 1993 or paid 10 billion dollars for a Drexciya release you dont own the music so dont be an elitist. To complain your record collection is “deperciating in value” is a bit of selfish act man..
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deeperthandisco reply on November 13th, 2009 3:46 am:
luckily most people don’t listen to you.
In any hobby or interest in life there is people who take it more seriously than others.
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“In any hobby or interest in life there is people who take it more seriously than others.”
ouch.
anyone who’s serious about music will have lots of important records that have been devalued by reissues or association. we all know that sickening sinking feeling you get when you hear hear a record you like to think of as your secret weapon appear on a fucking RA podcast or somesuch.
it’s not a competition (unless I’m winning).
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i’m not a hardcore record collector by any means. i like the idea that good music should be widely available. at the same time, i get great pleasure from going out and digging and hunting for some of those “special” records that are difficult to come by. i’ve seen three of my best Detroit house finds get the reissue treatment this year: Huckaby’s Deep Transportation Vol 2 on Harmonie Park had two of its cuts rereleased on his Deep Transportation label (i got that in 2004 for $4 in a local shop), Rick Wilhite’s The Godson EP (which i got from Rick himself back in 03 for $7), and Wilhite’s Soul Edge EP (which i was lucky enough to find not one, not two, but three copies of the UK pressing on Filth hidden in a US distro’s backstock list on sale for $2.50 each back in 04!).
it’s great to be able to think of the luck and timing necessary to get these records that were hard to find even then. getting a reissue new in a shop just doesn’t have that same fun to it for me, so generally i don’t do it. i will say that legit reissues are much better than a bootleg, if those “special” records are going to be back in circulation i would definitely rather have the artists get PAID for it.
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gmos reply on November 13th, 2009 11:41 am:
it’s certainly not as much fun or even as rewarding, I’ll give you that much. but that’s a different discussion than the merits of putting them out again. and your cheap 2nd hand finds don’t pay the artists either
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I’ve spent the day listening to the remastered vinyls of Trans Europe Express and Computer World. They have done a bloody fantastic job on them. Sound wonderful. Will be purchasing the rest of them soon.
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I have a written a number of increasingly fraught “Dear Santa” letters on the subject of the Kraftwerk reissues.
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Interesting discussion… Its funny because as someone who has only been buying and collecting for about two years I am very happy to have the opportunity to get my hands on reissues. At the same time, nothing beats the feeling of digging up a rare find at a store and treasuring it.
Also, there is some (limited) solace in knowing that your collection is ‘worth something’as you continue to pour more and more money and time into it…
There was an interesting conversation about this on RA when NWAQ’s ‘Tresspassers’ was repressed a few months back. ALOT of people were pissed about that one
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pipecock reply on November 19th, 2009 11:23 am:
that NWAQ is another one that came out just before my time of buying a lot of this stuff, but then i happened upon it in the stacks on the floor of Rick Wilhite’s shop brand new and unplayed for $9. lovely!
but yeah, i feel you. i haven’t been doing this as long as many people have, only about 7 years of hardcore collecting in the styles i play even though i bought some things before that and i knew about a ton of good shit from hanging out with the right people.
as far my collection being “worth something”, that doesn’t mean shit to me. i buy my records so i can play them. i take good care of them, don’t get me wrong. but the idea of selling them ever is just not even being considered. i want my son to take my collection if he so chooses. as of right now, i imagine he will want to! but who knows….
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