We kick off our first instalment of our Recent Finds section with Going Good’s Brian not Brian.
Belfast-born, Brixton based Brian not Brian is one of the purest and most intense characters of the modern electronic scene. With over twenty years of research and dedication, corroborated by his work experiences infamous London record stores such as MVE, Phonica Records and Kristina he has become the fine and eclectic artist and knowledgeable selector that he is today. Brian doesn’t follow trends and works for quality, not for cataloging. In only a few years his label Going Good who he co-runs with Salik Z has gained attention and value worldwide with releases from great artists such as Moon B, Cloudface, Yoshinori Hayashi, The Mystic Jungle Tribe, Nummer and Aquarian Foundation. It’s rare you’ll meet someone with this guy’s knowledge, take note and check out his latest digs below:
1. Moreno – ‘Tá Na Hora’: This is one my favourite recent finds. I had no idea who Moreno was, or about any of his music, I saw the LP at a record spot I frequent and decided to take a gamble. Looks like he only cut 2 LP’s in Brazil and they both came out on Polydor. ‘Tá Na Hora’ is the track I keep coming back to, taken from his 1980 LP entitled ‘Moreno E O Bambalacha’. It’s got a super mellow groove and has everything I like about Brazilian music going on within it, it sounds like something that might crop up on a Loda mixtape or something. Also the copy I found came with a lovely black & white press photo of him and his band looking ultra-cool.
2. Claude Jay – ‘Find Your Light’: I love records like this, independent, tiny label Disco 12″s. As far as I can tell the label this came out on (Purple Majic) only had 3 releases and they’re all by this dude Claude Jay. ‘Find Your Light’ is a total bomb, a roof raiser, pure peak-time Disco ecstacy. It took me a long time to ID this one and then to physically find a copy. Luckily I managed to get a lovely, flawless copy and have literally been playing it over and over again since I brought it home! It has it all, lyrics rooted in deep positivity, uplifting lo-fi production values. A total underground Disco gem.
3. Tortoise – ‘Gigantes (Mark Ernestus Version)’: This one I’ve had for ages but recently pulled it out again, played it and sorta went ‘shiiiiiiiit!’. Yep, Ernestus does the business on this remix. It’s insane. I’m a sucker for anything with good drums, literally, I could sit and listen to them all day and ‘Gigantes’ has some amazing drums. There’s points in this remix where some of the drones and bass noises just go straight through your body, I remember I played this in room 1 at Corsica studios a few years ago and it felt like a 747 was taking off over the dancefloor!
4. Wooden Shjips – ‘Contact’: My girlfriend and I have been playing this one to death at home, such a great cover version. Sounds amazing late at night or early in the morning, whatever takes your fancy! Wooden Shjips are a modern day psych group out of San Francisco and here they take on Brigitte Bardot’s incredible Gainsbourg produced 1967 b-side ‘Contact’ and stretch it out into an extended galactic journey. Like I said, we just keep playing it and going ‘wow’. A truly supreme version of an already great record. I think Serge and Brigitte would agree:
5. Bell Le Roy & Larry Leaba – ‘22-04-16 (Warmy Parm Mix)’: This one I totally missed when it came out last year on Anthony Naples’ Proibito label. Utterly sublime dubbed out afro-tropical niceness. Honestly, up there with the best Chain Reaction stuff in my opinion, giving Hallucinator a run for their money. It sounds like some sort of longform jam and drifts along blissfully. You can get lost in this track (and the rest of the EP is amazing too). I asked Anthony who the heck these guys were and he wouldn’t tell me! I’m kinda glad in a way, it keeps the mystique alive.
📷 Rachel Martinez
