Blackwing Puzzles.

This is it the last of the British Hardys* and quite the contentious one at that. This is the book I should have started with back then, as it covers another of my special interests. Butterflies. If you're wondering what I did start with, that would be book 7 The Melted Coins. 

Contentious, how you may ask? The boys are called to an old mansion out past Bayport bothered by a flying ghost, the owner was a man called Moray Thaw, an old slave ship owner that bought up the mansion that was a stop on the underground railroad leading runaway slaves to a new life in Canada and the non slave owning northern states. 

I could see this being cancelled by some weirdo lefty types but that would be a shame, as its very good. Also its highly likely he was done in by his former crewmates after ripping them off and running with the money. 

The butterfly angle of course is Chet's new hobby and along with an enthusiast Drexel there is a reward up for a missing Cethosia myrina specimen. The weird ghost machine is based on another butterfly Prepona deiphile and a item of jewellery found is also based on this species. Finally a few species are mentioned none can really tie down the location of Bayport as they have a wide range over the US. These include the Great Spangled Fritiliary, the lovely Great Purple Hairstreak and mentions of the **Camberwell Beauty aka Mourning Cloak which is a bucket list item for me to see. 

You can read the US and UK versions here and here, though there are no differences between the texts.

Edit Links now live, 

*Danger on the Diamond is actually the final book released here.

** One of those species that is said to come in low numbers in the UK but our winters are too wet and mild for them to overwinter. I sub to a few migrant lepidoptera groups and have never really seen them show up. Striped hawkmoths however. . . 

Kew and the Titan

 Don't know if I've posted this but, its been an exceptional year for plants, here, especially at Kew, where they've had not one but two Titan Arums flower. 

I've seen both but came too early for the first, as I could only get the day off a few days before it opened, but a Facebook notification got me to see the second bloom, as they posted on a Friday and said it'll be open for the next 24-36 hours. 

So we decided to head on down to West London and have a look. A disclosure for those, I also wanted to have a butchers at their Agave montana which was also going to flower, but am far too early for that, its in the same general area but outside near the alpine house. 

Love that this is marked as the Agave Death bloom

There's another Agave in bloom this one is marked as X Leopoldii and Wiki has it as a hybrid between filifera and schidigera. You can see that outside the front of the Princess of Wales conservatory.

x leopoldii in bloom

The Titan itself is of course inside the tropical zone and while over now, is huge. I'm guessing at most 3m / 10ft 5 tall but can see it easily over 2.5m 8ft. I couldn't determine a smell but supposedly its bad, and the typical rotten meat stench to bring in the pollinators. More on that below. 

Amorphophallus titanum 

You can't go all this way and not check out the arid zone, especially if your a cactus nut like myself. A few mesembs are out including a Lithops and one of the shrubby Cephalophyllums but the two I'm singling out are the popular starfish flowered Stapelia grandiflora and the unknown Pyrenacantha malviflora.

Couldn't smell this one either, but you get the idea.

I'm guessing this is what was going on inside the titan arum, but made more clearer to see from this Asclepiad (and on a much smaller scale). The flower attracts flies to pollinate it and while it doesn't have the size advantage of the titan or broadcast range, this will still bring them in the dry South African desert. 

Not to be confused with Pyracantha or firethorn

This Pyrenacantha was also flowering, but this weird caudiciform hasn't got much in the way of flowers, those long catkins are what passes for its bloom. You can see the fruit form in the corner and from what I've read could be viable. It may need a male and or female or its flowers could be Bisexual (having male and female blooms on the same plant) its not clear.

With the main halls done, I had a look outside before taking the long bus ride home back to the suburbs. 

Jackdaw, not common in London

Some Mario's for you

 For some reason there is a Sega Master system version of Mario now, as part of the SMSPower's summer of Homebrew, the original Super Mario Bros has been ported over in either enhanced mode or original flavour. 

While not being quite the insane port that the C64 version was, this is still quite the feat, and it means that the humble SMS gets a quality platformer to join Wonderboy 3 and Psycho Fox.

Oh and if you're wondering about the other direction, there's also an Amiga version of Sonic in the works as well as Somari for the NES. The latter had a thread on RHDN where they were slowly turning it back into an actual Sonic game for the NES.

World 2-1 SMB SMS.

I'll leave you with a screenshot of it running in Ares.

Croyd- gone

 Took a trip down to Croydon yesterday for the first time in ages, and damn if it isn't a ghost town now. 

I can understand the antisocial behaviour and vast amounts of immigrants and that which made it look like it was Africa with trams, but I've never seen it so empty before.

Going through the Whitgift centre and noticing that half the shops are boarded up and closed down. I know the rain kept most people of the streets apart from the Hare Krishna lot who gamely set up a drum circle to preach. But this used to be busier, we had Kangz before along with ever flavour of weirdo Christian and Ispamist. The only nice thing I've seen was a mural of birds you'll never see, including a Shrike, Dartford Warbler and Goldcrest, along with the more attainable Grey Wagtail and Ring Necked Parakeet. 

Full birb mural for you.

Left there empty handed and didn't even check Beckenham because of the rain. 

This is a Saturday it should be packed.

The thing is, back in the day it used to be amazing, posh and upmarket. Went to see Father Christmas in Allders back in the day and in the 90's was a place to buy stuff in the sales. You could get there from Woolwich with either a 54 or 75 both services are much shortened now. I can't understand why this is not on par with Bromley as a hot location in South London. 

Voodoo Plots

 This one must have slipped my net. The Voodoo Plot is basically Hardys go Jazz, as a series of thefts from antiques boutiques lead them down to New Orleans. 

It's a bit more involved than that. The Voodoo comes from a sub plot where a friend of the boys, Peter Walker, has his grandpa threatened so he won't play on their basketball team. It seems that his Grandad is also quite a renowned jazz player with his own club. And of course the two cases are involved when it turns out that the voodoo gang threatening him are also in league with the thieves.

This is also the first time I'd ever come across the no step on snek / Gadsden flag as the American revolution was never covered here in detail. And, yes, there are elements of this in this story too, as someone is dressed up as the Swamp Fox and another as George III. 

Anyway you can read both the UK and US versions here and here. Though there are no differences between them. 

Happy 80th

 As the net is fucked yet again, I'm having to do this as if I'd on holiday, via the phone. 

I will give a big shout to my mum who turned 80 yesterday. Thanks for all you did for me, may there be many more years to come.

Some arcade hangovers

 We have had a nightmare journey to Folkestone today took two hours and stuck in traffic, next to a lorry going and some stop start bits down the M20 going home. It was OK there (Never been) but, fuck this am not waiting in traffic again. 

As an aside. this is a quick update. Mostly for two games I've seen back in Mallorca and never really noticed anywhere else. 

A Whack-a-Mole called Ghost Hunter, seems to be Spanish in origin. Some Engrish, but apart from that, crickets online.

Ghost Hunter

Next is a Japan cab called Dino Land 3. 

Some googling on Jim Breen's Japan Page, gets a Chinese translation of the Kanji / Hanzi on above coin part as Lottery Ticket Outlet. So this I'm guessing is some sort of ticket redemption machine where you win tickets and redeem them for prizes

A bit more searching gets you a ticket redemption mech by Yenox on BeGay. And a search for redemption game gets you Dino land a ball shooting game for kids. Not by Yenox who seem to do parts instead. 

Zombie Trax

 The Track of the Zombie or the Hardys join the circus. It's half right as they are hired to look into the case of a zombie of a Hessian soldier setting fires close to an old house in Burlington, Vermont.

The circus case is one of sabotage, and has almost the entire retinue of Hardy chums working on this. It's also a coincidence that said circus is rolling into Burlington itself. 

Its not a bad case either, not a stand out nor Witchmaster's key bad. It does rely a bit on a detectives kit the boys have but not as much as Trapped at Sea. 

Oh and the only difference is now sic is put in the UK version. You can read both here and here. 

Necrolog Kevin Keegan.

 One of those straight out of the blue posts. Someone you didn't think about for absolutely ages and then, bam, he's dead. A good sort by all accounts, and who's loss will be felt across Newcastle as well as the larger Tyneside area. 

The real reason I've highlighted Kevin Keegan is here is because of two games. Both the same titles, sort of, and both with surprising bits. 

The first is a home computer version of Kevin Keegan's player manager, a  middling management title officially released for the SNES back in the day, but thanks to games that weren't was going to get a PC and Amiga conversion. But that is neither here nor there. The real reason is this.

Half Keegan half Leslie Grantham

Saw this on Bluesky ages back when the proto surfaced, but this bug eyed Kev is one of the images that come into my mind from time to time. 

The next post set it all off for me. Its the PS1 update called Premier Manager 99 endorsed by Kev himself. That is not why I'm posting, though. 

Imagine logging onto Facebook after work and coming across a post by one of your favourite band's The Black Dog. There is a post saying that they worked with Kev on this in some capacity. Going down to the comments you find its artwork rather than the soundtrack. Although was hoping for something from their Spanners era. Anyway proof below.

Nestalgia

 Forgive me if I've done this one before but after 800 odd posts I've got the right to repeat myself. It seems the clowns at the Metro have done a piece on the NES. Some of it is accurate others are less so, you'll want to drop down to the comments for the true experience of what it was like being a NES owner back then. 

First of all pricing. 

Your average NES game was £30-40 here, only two games stick out as being priced at £50, this would be Star Wars and Maniac Mansion. The black box line of games and Donkey Kong Classics (in its orange box) were priced at £20. Oh and for the equivalence on 8bit home micros. £2.99 for budget stuff and £10 for full price stuff.  As games cost big bucks back then, it was essential to read reviews in Total and NMS (Mean machines originally) before purchase. Couple this with the rise of the Boot sale and you'd get games cheap, from stalls from like 1993 onwards. 

The NES was distributed by Mattel who also did Barbie as well as Nintendo themselves later on. It  was mostly sold through Argos and Index aka Littlewoods. The games were pretty much sold everywhere and while moderately popular weren't quite ZX Speccy or C64 popular, which were genuinely sold in the 80s. One final fact is that I may have misremembered from back then was that they had a HQ in Fleet, Hampshire. At least that's what was printed on the cards for Club Nintendo back then. 

Secondly popularity.

 It was never an 80's console here, it really hit around 1990, and twinned with the Ninja Turtle craze did well enough but was a distant second to the Master System which was a very distant second to the Home Micro's we had. Best I can say was it was locally popular and coupled with an extensive swapping system in place meant that you could play a lot of games and not get any you leant out back. I lost Donkey Kong Classics and Gradius which genuinely was a shame. 

Thanks to the half life of it all it remained a cheaper alternative to the SNES for a long time as was the Master System, can remember seeing games for both long after both systems were coughing up blood and the PS1 era came out. 

Thirdly. Games

Never owned the original of either Zelda, Megaman or Castlevania, did own the sequels and went down like this. Zelda 2 from a bootsale, Megaman 3 first ever import when I got my NES converted in Terry's games in Sidcup and Castlevania 2 I think was a full pricer. 

You skipped out on Bubble Bobble (Never a duff port) and Kid Icarus, which was tough but fair. Beat this when  Bryan Adams was Number one here for a decade or so back in 1991. Metroid I got from a swap with no instructions. It's also quite poignant as we had our family cat, Whisky put down on the day I managed to work out how to open the missile doors.

Oh and one final thing before posting. If I was to sell this pile of trash at CEX, I would get my money back. Rock hard and slow, and yeah, because you had no choice you persevered with it. One of those games I wish had been traded out then 

Back home round up.

 Now we are fully back home and don't have to rely on me tapping out posts on my phone, I can explain a bit more of how it went. Stayed in Palmanova in Mallorca, not far from the beach and near the supermarket. Which if you've seen my previous post, contains a chicken.

Sadly had to spend most of my time with the French, which seem to be prevalent in this part of the island. Some are hot, but mostly they are a drag and are the most miserable race on the planet.

We have three beaches, our main beach, the Playa de Palmanova, Platja Son Maties to the left and Punta Marroig which is our local dog beach and leads around the bay to another strand of sand. Saw a big Rotley there swimming in the sea with its owners and a lady with a Greg Mitchell on another occasion.   

 

Punta Marroig

 A few good places for drinks and such, the fish restaurant / bar Il Chiringo  and Diana's beach bar which is also nice but more expensive. 

We were served quite well for travel links and while expensive, you can get to Palma for under 5 euros via the local bus services.

We saw a few nice things out there. A few cats, an octopus, and a massive crab which means I've got sod all chance of finding this online. Also the usual fish plus a massive mullet.  Not so many plants this time, but what I did find wasn't bad, a few cacti and stuff to keep me entertained. 

TV. Never really had it on but, can confirm that, they were showing Doraemon still on Spanish TV, whenever I did. Oh and this channel (and link) turned out to be both German and folk music.

Hotel is good, and if you are into food, well worth a stay. Be warned the lifts are small and slow and you won't get a pool view (no one does) but the views we do have are great. 

Is this love?

Eroski carpark chicken.

 We're come to realize that our local supermarket here, has a big white cock living in the carpark.

It's  a big chicken with it's own bowl for food and I for one would love to know how it got there.

Is it someone's pet? (unlikely) Part of a farm? (there seems to be none local) Or something else entirely.

It's not there all the time, but when it is it seems to rule the roost.

Holiday

 So, we finally got away. We're in Palmanova in Mallorca and having escaped the heat back home are enjoying the weather here. Jumping through a billion hoops just to post, means a full write up will have to wait til I'm back, of course. But, let's just say it'll do.

Mummys case

 Getting down to the last 3 book released in the UK, here. FYI only Track of the Zombie and The Blackwing Puzzle to go. 

The boys are tasked with escorting a mummy back, via ship to Cairo, where it'll be unwrapped for the museum* but of course attract trouble along the way. One of those being, putting down a coup in the made up Mediterranean island of Rubassa, as part of a case their dad is investigating.

They also take in the sights of Egypt, getting a glimpse of the boy king, Tutankhamun's mask. Karnak and Luxor and later fly over Amarna, the heretic kingdom of the pharaoh Akhenaton or rather Ikhnaton as the book has him.   

Rubassa is an odd case that along with it's sister island Milbin, the book bills it as an ex British commonwealth possession in the Med. It seems to be a stand in for Malta and by dint Gozo, which are British territories in the Med. It's capital city is Loma and is on the cusp of a revolution. Probably when this  book was written it was referencing Cyprus, which the boys also visit as part of their guard duty. 

Sadly for them, Nicosia remains resolutely landlocked, which means their sailing up to dock is rather moot at this point.

There is only one change between UK and US editions, a line that says save your breath is now, don't hold your breath. You can read them here and here. 

Pi Slide scanner.

 Sorry to get your hopes up, but is this actually feasible*. Can we actually Frankenstein this out of parts such as  a light box and camera. I say this as I have an actual slide scanner that I use from time to time in windows. It does slides and some negatives along with some proprietary software to drive it and take stuff.

I've not taken it apart to see how it works, but I'm guessing its a small scanner with a light box at the base to highlight the slide and a button on top to capture. And I'm wondering, could this all be done with a Raspberry pi. 

Looking on line it seems I'm not the only one to have had this idea. See here, here and here, but the way I was looking at doing it was integrating a light box and a Raspberry pi with a camera module to capture stuff.  The caveat for this is, I've barely thought this through and most of the stuff uses an external camera for capture rather than the Pi camera module and board. 

I'm well aware that this probably won't work and would need some sort of external program such as S.A.N.E in Linux for it to run. But it just struck me whilst scanning in stuff. Couldn't they use the camera and mount to take shots of the slide and sent it to a pc for processing. 

The Greatest House Tracks of all time. The final.

Lil Louis on birthdays.

 

I must say that this has been the hardest thing I've done. If I were to do this again it would be near enough the same but possibly not the same order. Here goes then, from 10 down to 1. 

10 Joe Smooth Feat Anthony Thomas DJ International 1987

Can't believe its taken this long to get a DJ International track represented. Rocky Jones was no Larry Sherman, he didn't rip off his artists or cheap out on his pressing either. It also helps that this is the quintessential Joe Smooth track as well. Gospel for those who aren't church people, and just edged out Inside My Mind which was down for the longest time on my list. Oh and for some reason, I never knew this got a video to it either. 

9 Roy Davis Jnr Feat Peven Everett Gabriel Large Music 1996

For those wondering what edged out Inside My Mind, its this. I know we could have  had some of his acid stuff as part of Phuture or independent releases on Sex Trax. But its this quality slice of garage house and one of those tracks that split UK / Speed Garage / Two Step from the old US Garage that had been bubbling along since the late 80's. Gabriel with its horns and funk groove so deserves its spot on here, and I'm happy to give this a go every time.

8 The Night Writers Let the Music Take Control Danica 1987

One of those epic cowbell work outs, and epic synth work tracks that will take you there. Frankie Knuckles and I think Ricky Dillard (now a preacher) on vocals. It got updated in the 90's thanks to the rave boom, with a hardcore version on FFRR. My own copy came from a water damaged collection tossed out at a local boot sale last year, we also got Promised Land from the same batch. One of the greatest finds ever and a star track. 

7 Sweater On Polo The Creation L.I.E.S. 2026

This is the most modern track on here. Terrence Woodward A.K.A. Sweater on Polo, is know for harking back to the classic era of house and with the Creation channels Larry Heards Mr Fingers project for this old skool heater. Cost me £35 from Phonica, and I have to say worth every penny. Half the joys is working out the influences, a bit of Faces Drums here or Fingers Inc there, and when you're done just sitting back to enjoy it as a whole. 

6 Mr Fingers Feat Mr White Sun Can't Compare Alleviated 2006

I know I've had to lay off putting acid tracks on here, I promise this won't be the last on here or even the last Larry Heard track. You should all know what that is. Anyway acid with vocals in are not common and one's done in the mid 2000s even rarer. To hit the jackpot and make it sound as if it came out in 1988, that is the real genius of this track. I'm currently listening to a remake of this by some guy and it holds up so well. For a modern take also by Larry Heard, there's a remix of a Hercules and Love Affair track that sounds remarkably similar I've seen floating around instaspam, that seems to hit all the right buttons. 

5 Fast Eddie My Melody DJ International 1988

For piano acid what do you go with? Acid Over by Tyree which got a release or this from the DJ Fast Eddie which is just an album track. You still get epic pianos and a tetchy acid bass roll in this, but damn, if it doesn't just kick so much ass. I know I could have gone with Acid Thunder but with acid house I have to show restraint, its my first love, but this track is so mental and well produced, its got to be in.

4 Jamie Principle Bad Boys Original Demo by Ron Hardy Trax rerelease 1986, this version 1983

I know people want to call everything queer in relation to the gay community, but this, this is the antithesis of the pretentious, sexless appropriators of modern wokery, that turn the rainbow into grey sludge. A song about picking up a rent boy for sex shouldn't be a banger, but the original demo version is far away one of those goosebump tracks. Full of raw sex appeal and with nods to Prince and now I see it Patrick Cowley in his Fox porno score days. One for all those folks lost to AIDS from the original scene.

3 Adonis Lost In The Sound Jack Trax 1988

A track I always feel is way before its time. And yes I know there are more famous tracks by the acid buddha. The Poke, Lack of Love, Te Adoro Acido on Mathematics. But its this machine track I come back to. I wonder if there are any more edits / mixes of this as Adonis kept all his own recordings and like Gene Living In a Land Hunt is a regular pack rat for preserving.

2 Mr Fingers Can You Feel It Desire 1989 Originally Trax 1986

In the beginning there was Jack and Jack had a groove, while one day viciously throwing down in his box declared let there be house. The words of Chuck D were not originally on this but hearing them out loud you know that bassline would creep in. Jack indeed is the key to the wiggly worm and the one who Whops your body, both dances and for the life of me would love to see someone dance the *Whop. I know its etymology is from Italo which is a backbone of house, maybe some old heads could dance it for us on Youtube for old times sake.

1 David Guetta Feat Bebe Rexha Blue  Yeah, no. 

1 Jamie Principle Your Love Persona 1984 Original, 1986 Frankie Knuckles version.

Sorry, couldn't resist. But you all knew this is coming. Whether its the original version, You got the love bootleg with Candi Staton and John Truelove that gets played a lot. A credible remake by the Horrors and whatever the fuck possessed Florence and the Machine to cover this. This is near enough the perfect crystallization of what house is. The original with its raw loops and vocal, and Frankies version with the synth line everyone knows. 

And You got the love the mash up to end all mash ups, still gets played on heart and proved what a good ear Eren's / John Truelove had. 

*Edit the Whop / wop can be found here in this video of hip hop dances.

Top 50 greatest house tracks of all time pt4

Finally we're down to the top 20. Every track here has earned its place here.

20 Robert Owens I'll Be Your Friend 1991 Perfecto

Of course we start off with one of the best house vocalists of all time. Needs no introduction of course, but suffice to say every track he's sung on is a certified banger.

19 Thee Madkatt Courtship Pray For a Star 1999 FFRR

Felix Stallings JR, better known as Felix Da Housecat. I had some hesitancy whether to put this or In Thee Dark We Live from Aphrohead on here but this edges it out. Its a wistful house sung by an uncredited Harrison Crump and all the tracks on this single are worthy of your time. Felix himself also sung on Pierre's Pfantasy Club Dreamgirl when he was just fifteen. 

18 Florian Kupfer Feelin' L.I.E.S. 2012

Either this or DJ Seinfeld Winona for an example of how new artists can make, old school house. The drums and bass complete with hi-hat ride are its back bone, but when the vocal drops in then its magic.

17 Frankie Knuckles Presents Satoshi Tomie Tears FFRR 1989

I'm not a real good actor, I've had so many tears over this track over the years. It's another Robert Owens vocal masterpiece, with the bass coming through strong along with the vocals. It proves such a foundation house can be for a good singer.

16 Velma Wright You're Not Right Supertronics 1989

Telstar's Deep Heat compilation series has given me a few bangers over the years. The Today's People track from part one and this. A house on fire vocal performance of a woman catching her partner in the act with his lover. The drum programming alone along with piano is just another reason this has to be included.  

15 Pleasure Pump Fantasize Me State Street Records 1987

One I remember from back in the day and again another vocal performance tour de force. But this time there is some argument who sung on this. Most of State Street releases were done by Carl Bias Edward Get Down Crosby and Liz Torres, but apparently this isn't Liz on vocals here and no one knows who is. 

14 Humanoid Tonight Radical Records / Westside 1989 

The highest placed UK house release here and its one that I'll remember from time to time. Humanoid is of course Brian Dougans who would release as Humanoid Stakker and Cry Baby which is always included on acid compilations. But its this track that draws me back, Sharon Benson on vocals and a more acid house feel to this overall than the more acid work outs of Slam (with Phats from Phats and Small) Stakker and Cry Baby. 

13 NGLY Speechless Tape L.I.E.S 2018

Not the last L.I.E.S. label release on here and not the most recent either. This is an absolute chiller and is probably a borderline edge case of it being techno / deep house. Whatever the case, this is one deep dark track.

12 Victor Romeo Love Will Find A Way Dancemania 1988

This is from before the time Dancemania became a Ghetto House label but still released tracks that could kick ass. Its another acid style banger but with a heavy rimshot / hi-hat based rhythm track. The vocals by Letreece Brown are just the icing on the cake. One to track down.

11 Moodymann I Can't Quit This Feeling When It Hits 1996 After Midnight Records

House is done well when its just a simple beat and a vocal or cleverly used sample. In this case its a loop from Chic and a few understated keys and drums but Moodymann AKA Kenny Dixon JR has crafted an epic around this. Theo Parrish for his Ugly Edits are another recommendation .What am I gonna do?

Top 50 greatest house tracks of all time pt3

 So we reach halfway in our list and its getting harder and harder to separate the good from the greats, but let it be known that these are not middling tracks, but would be classics (and indeed are) if the top twenty weren't absolute bangers.

29 Daft Punk Da Funk Soma Quality Recordings 1995

First saw this on MTV with the iconic vid to this, think of a man with a dogs head walking around the streets with a boombox. Knew I'd have to get it straight away when that monster acid line came in full force. I know folks would go with around the world or bigger harder faster stronger. But the above makes it my choice. Proves once and for all that the French could do house. 

28 A Guy Called Gerald Spend Some Time Demo 1988 ish

Part of a bunch of rarities that were released in 2006 as Attick Attack and file only at that. You get the much better known Voodoo Ray as a demo here but this is the one. 9 minutes of minimal voice and 808 drums distilled down into something raw and dubbed out. Exactly what house should be.

27  Virgo / ME School Hall  Trax 1989

There used to be a place in Bromley in the 90's that used to sell over stock tapes down by Bromley South station, where I picked this up and the Fingers Inc album. A classic of deep house by Merwyn Sanders, all deep basslines and sparky hats. Rush Hour put out a full album of this and the unreleased stuff he did if you want more.

26 Bipo Why Jump Street 1988

One of those records you hear and can't work out what is going on. Sure its a woman lamenting her man cheating on her. But listen on its with a guy, he's given up the love of his life for a fling with a fella. Also I'm never quite sure if he calls her queer or green in this, which only feeds into its ambiguity. Needless to say this is a personal fave. 

25 Fingers Inc Mystery Of Love Alleviated 1985

A monster of a bassline and either Harry Dennis or Robert Owens on vocals. I can feel it chills down my spine taking me there. No drugs, just that bass and piano taking me up. And this is only halfway.

24 The Beloved The Sun Rising WEA 1989

Another Ibiza track and one based on a sample of O Euchari by Hildegard of Bingen. There are later mixes that are drum and bass or make it more chilled out. But the originals on WEA from 89 are where it's at for me. 

23 808 State Pacific State Creed Records 1988

I know I should have gone with their acid tracks from Newbuild or the Rephlex comp Prebuild of demos from the mid 2000's. But its this from Quadrastate, I'm on about. Purely because I heard it in Ibiza from a bar in Es Cana that had a guy playing Marley on ukulele (he was terrible) and this came on one night as I went past. Everything clicked and for a brief second my life didn't suck.

22  James Jackrabbit Martin Only Wanted to be YOTON 1988

This guy died stupidly young in 1990, leaving a body of work that should be studied further. Only wanted to be is on here but his stuff as Jacquarius felt like tracks that could have come out in the mid 2000's his acid skills were that advanced. There is a retrospective in 5mag I'll link about him. 

21 Frankie Knuckles Whistle Song Virgin 1991

The first entry from the one and only Frankie Knuckles. Known as one of the house pioneers where he had residency at a club called the Warehouse. House can be mellow and chilled as well as for getting on the floor and this track emphasises this. The "flute" used to good effect, worked to an inch of its life as the beat plays under it. One of the best bent pioneers of all. 

Crimson Flames

 A quick update as we'll be continuing our top 50 countdown on Sunday, but you have a new book to get through.

The Crimson Flame is quite the ride, the boys head to Arizona to work on a ranch after saving a rancher called McVay from having his priceless ruby stolen from him. They also head to Thailand, after his jewel was stolen and spend a time trekking through the jungle after the crooks, before the case leads back to Arizona.

The most strangest thing though now is that it starts off in New York with the boys planning to look over the city from the top of the World Trade Centre!

Also there is a very minor difference between the two versions where it all the cattle brands become four cattle brands.

You can read the original here and the UK version here. 

top 50 house tracks of all time 2

So here is part 2 of  my top 50 house tracks. Its been hard to narrow it down, but am confident that this is my final line up.

40 Plus One Feat Sirron It's Happening 1990 MCA

One of these forgotten old school tracks. Not really going to branch into Hip House on here though we do have entries for Tyree Cooper and Fast Eddie, but this UK entry with its rap is a fave of mine and can easily hold its own against what the US had to offer. 

39 Jaydee Plastic Dreams 1993 R&S Records

We band the word classic about many tracks, but this actually deserves it. I know its been released and remixed over the years but I'm talking about the original here and at a pinch the original Cha Cha slide that used this before it was released as it was. I guess it was the bass line in this, those notes you just know what it's going to be, and that makes it a classic.

38 Fet  et Moi Paris is For Lovers 2009 White Label

A lot of things happened in the mid 2000's that make it a dark time in dance music. America finally woke up to the fact that it made dance music and that clubland existed outside of its dreary rock / hip hop hegemony. Therefore it rebranded it as EDM an slur almost as bad as queer is for the gay community.

What you want to know is that this slaps, has a bootleg vocal by Justin Timberlake and a killer bassline again. Its a team up of two DJ's Fetisch and &me, and you may have seen the a version of this where a super car races through Paris.

37 River Ocean Feat India Love and Happiness (Yemaya y Ochun) Strictly Rhythm 1994

Love and Happiness by Al Green is one of those stand out tracks of soul, that somehow ended up as a house rework with an iconic bassline to rival that of Jaydees Plastic Dreams up above. While this Love and Happiness is not that love and Happiness its still one hell of a track, and shows what an absolute force Strictly Rhythm was back then. 

36 Marshall Jefferson Move Your Body The House Music Anthem Trax 1986

Mailman (former) Marshall Jefferson is the first person credited with introducing piano into the house music pantheon with this release on Trax. What I didn't know till recently is that the vocals on this was Curtis McClain. So this link above is a credit and a thanks to right that wrong.

35 A Man Called Adam Barefoot In The Head Big Life 1989

One of those leftfield house tracks that were definitely part of the Balearic sound, a mix of euro / disco and leftfield bits and pieces inspired by the white island Ibiza. I know I'm linking to the Head mix of this but, really any version will do. 

34  Arnold Jarvis Take Some Time Out Fourth Floor Records 1987

Another garage house heater, and along with Someday Ce Ce Rogers one of the foundations of that sound. Produced by Tommy Musto, who is better known for his collaborations with Frankie Bones, makes his long overdue mark on the list.

33 T.O.T. What U R DFM 1989

I'll rip myself off on this one as I wrote all those years ago is that it sounded like an E trip, beside the point, that at that time I had never tried ecstasy and TBH never really wanted to either. I guess acid should be on this list as we've already had one entry from Nathaniel Jones Phuture project. This track, along with 808 state proved the UK could produce great acid tracks. Vocals are by Carol Morley sister to journo Paul Morley according to Discogs reviews. 

32 Ron Hardy Shooting Stars 1984 ish, Reel To Reel?

An edit of Steve Silk Hurley I Don't Know done by the one and only Ron Hardy. One of those three big icons of house, an absolute fucking master of the decks. He was DJ at the Muzic Box club in Chicago and it has to be said a personal hero of mine. His attitude, how he'd make the crowd Jack, and work the floor and that he would play records from young producers just to see if it would work. Acid tracks, was the one along with others. Let's go Ronnie.

 31 DHS The House of God 1990 Hangman Records

A track that along with Radio Babylon by Meat Beat Manifesto that is way ahead of its time and rather like Plastic Dreams above, has never been bettered. I know that Green Velvet Preacherman did the whole evangelical preacher thing better, this came first. In hindsight he sounds a lot like Donald J Trump begging for cash on here.