Been ripped off (again)

Cross post from Niallism.

So, somebody called Michael Trombley has started a new night in Detroit called Menergy. Hmm, "Menergy"... that name is familiar. OK, it's a Patrick Cowley song - we don't claim ownership of the name.

So, what is this new night's music policy? Italo disco and Hi-NRG, you say? Well, everyone loves disco! Right? Sure, can't take credit for that, especially when we admit to being influenced by well established club nights like Melting Pot and Horse Meat Disco. Only, we were one of the first clubs to focus strictly on Hi-NRG, a sound that is a huge and under-acknowledged part of Scotland's clubbing history (if you're in doubt about that, ask Optimo's Twitch about Fire Island or Bennets, or check out this Menergy guest mix from Stuart MacLean aka Frenchbloke)

But anyway, this must all be just a simple co-incidence. Oh, wait a minute...

Menergy Detroit poster (FEB 2012):



Menergy Glasgow Poster (JAN 2011):



Hmmm, ok. But that's a popular song lyric.

Sure.

So check this...

Menergy Detroit flyer (FEB 2012):



Menegy Glasgow flyer (NOV 2010):



Yeah, it's pretty obvious there's some direct "inspiration" going on here.

But I'm gonna let you in on a little something - my jaded tone of indifference to all of this (as opposed to fuming anger) has got less to do with a hipsterite archness and more to do with having experienced it before.

Since January of 2011 I have been promoting drag-and-disco parties in Manchester with my partner Joe Spencer. We go by the name of TRANARCHY. You can find out more about us at www.tranarchy.co.uk.

Imagine our surprise when, in December we found out about Sink The Pink presents TRANARCHY.

Here's one of our promo images from last year:



And here is theirs (low quality as it's the only one available):



Any similarities?

Oh well, just another co-incidence, I'm sure.

Just like how this article I wrote for the website Dangerous Minds (in April 2011)

So that makes you a square: In Defense of the Hipster

was absolutely no inspiration whatsoever on this article for Disinformation (from August, 2011)

In Defense of the Hipster

despite DM and Disinfo sharing staff members in the past who left very acrimoniously (including myself).
Yep. No "inspiration" going on there - just pure, blind co-incidence.

So. do you think I should be angry about all of this?
Because, surprisingly, I am not.

Maybe I'm just too jaded by the repeat experience, but I DO take being copied as a compliment. I take what I do very seriously, even if that is not apparent to everyone all of the time. I pride myself on being a writer and musician of intelligence and integrity who is often ahead of the curve (or on a totally different tangent to most other folks). This can work to my detriment sometimes, but I still put a huge amount of effort into all my endevours, because I believe a half-arsed job is not worth doing.

There's nothing I can do to stop people copying me, and conversely there's nothing copyists can do to stop me doing my thing. If someone else comes along and likes what I do enough to want to do it too, or even if they think they can do it better, that's their call. Because at the end of the day, when you bite me, it's a sign that I'm doing something right.

Happy Halloween! Free spooooky mixes

Yes, its that time of year again, when darkness spreads across the land and the midnight hour is close at hand, etc etc. Due to the venue we had hired going out of business, we have been forced to cancel this years Rock'n'Shock festivities, which is a shame, but there's lots of other options for Samhain revelling (personally I highly recommend the Cry Parrot Art School party with Gary War, Ben Butler & Ultimate Thrush, and the return of Optimo Espookio). To get you in the mood, here are some free spookilicious download-able mixes.

The first two are from our own Menergy gang. We made these mixes back in May to promote the Italo Horror Party, but they seem more relevant at this time of year. Mine is a comp of all your favourite disco versions of horror themes while KZ's is a more brooding, modern take on John Carpenter atmospherics. But with some gay disco thrown in for good measure.



Halloween II - John Carpenter
Cannibal Ferox - Fabio Frizzi
Zombi - Goblin
Amityville Frenzy - Lalo Schiffrin
Prom Night Theme - Zaza & Zitter
Phantasm - Captain Zorro
Phantasmagoria / Silver Sphere Disco - Fred Myrow & Malcolm Seagrave
NYC Theme - Budy-Maglione
Demons (Disco Beard Edit) - Claudio Simonetti
Friday The 13th Part III - Manfredini & Zager
Lust - Rinder & Lewis
Doin' It In A Haunted House - Yvonne Cage
Disco Blood - The Vamps
Soul Dracula - Hot Blood

THE NIALLIST Disco Argento Mix by Menergy Mixes



Actress- Paint Straw and Bubbles
Tobe Hooker- Haddonfield Fear Factory
Mr Pauli- The Crunch
Black Devil Disco Club- Timing, Forget The Timing
Pat Hodges- Fly By Night
Telespazio – Galileo – Rodion Mix
Goblin- Tenebre
Lory D – Bank Robbery
Bunker 2 – Dark Side of The Moon
Gique- Fulci's Rotting Children
Patrick Cowley – They Came At Night
Ajello and Daniele Baldelli – Cosmogony
The Immortals- Ultimate Warlord
Goblin- Suspira
Solenoid- Suspiriosm
Porn Darstellar- Holocaust

KID ZIPPER Cannibal Italocaust Mix by Menergy Mixes

Next up we have a special festive mix from our chums at the disco/house blog Feel My Bicep. The whole thing is three hours long and available from their website. There are loads of great tracks up on the to download too, so get over there and get clickin'.



There's no tracklist for this yet.

HORROR MIXTAPE by Bicep

And finally here's an epic four hour mix from the producer Frenchbloke. Put together for a friend of his who had only just discovered Cabaret Voltaire, it features lots of cold-wave and minimal electronics form the early 80's. This is not specifially Halloween themed, but it is great, and some of these tunes are deliciously creepy!



xeno & oaklander - saracen
psychic youth - the future is now
ciaran harte - love is strange
deux - felicita
nightmoves - transdance (uk disco mix)
fad gadget - the box
the eurythmics - take me to your heart
metal urbain - panik
robert rental - a.c.c
rude 666 - the 1000 year storm
palais schaumburg - telefon
victrola - maritime tatami
rema rema - instrumental
the normal - warm leatherette (mathew stone remix)
cabaret voltaire - seconds too late
das boomerang - suzanne
oppenheimer analysis - the devil's dancers
futurisk - poison ivy
missing scientists - big city, bright lights
hiroshima chair - tu
eddie and sunshine - lines
moderne - indicatif
dark day - no, nothing, never
gorilla aktiv - spiegelbild
monte cazazza - kick that habit man
the passage - xoyo
ami marie - spiel mit mir
our daughters wedding - lawnchairs (dance club version)
daf - kebabtraume
blah blah blah - in the army
john bender - 06-27b4 (rainy day sunshine girl)
martin rev - mari
conrad schnitzler - auf dem schwarzen kanal
severed heads - adolf a carrot
emak - tanz in den himmel
soft cell - bleak is my favourite cliche
der plan - rot grun rot
the gist - iambic pentameter
yello - there is no reason
bourbonese qualk - lies
das kabinette - the cabinet
die krupps - goldfinger
klinik - moving hands
hula - poison (club mix)
chris and cosey - october (love song)
he said - a.b.c.dicks love
neon - lobotomy
portion control - go talk
john foxx - 20th century
front 242 - operating tracks
i start counting - my translucent hands
kas product - loony bin
spk - metal field
silicon teens - sun flight
dorothy - i confess
hard corps - je suis passee
daniel miller & boyd rice - cleanliness to order
malaria! - tod
holger hiller- jonny (du lump)
heaven 17 - i'm your money
voice farm - sleep
die doraus und die marinas - fred vom jupiter

The re-education of cartelmike by frenchbloke

Halloween is coming - Rock'n'Shock 7!

Glasgow's best annual Halloween party is back!

Now in it's seventh year, Rock'n'Shock has seen an array of past guests in a variety of styles, from the slick disco of Den Haan and Ali Renault and the freak rock of Lummox and Gummy Stumps, to the haunting folk of Foxface and the Parsonage choir.

This year sees Rock'n'Shock team up with new kids Menergy to present the ITALOWEEN ZOMBIE PROM!



Special guests on the night are the London duo GOLD BLOOD, making their Scottish debut with an appropriately synth-punk-pop vibe, and a special spookilicious live set from THE NIALLIST. DJ duties are being handled by Team Little Rock & Molotov Disco, and Menergy resident Kid Zipper. Expect haunted house, demonic disco & terrifying techno!

This year's dress up theme is "Zombie Prom" so get your high school glad rags on and prepare to get messed up!



Are you the geek who blew themselves up in the failed lab experiment? Part of the football team that got wiped out in that horrendous bus crash? The goth kids who ended it all in a suicide pact? Or the cheerleader who was brutally murdered by that deranged serial killer? Whether you be a sporto, motorhead, geek, slut, blood, waistoid, dweebie or dickhead, be righteous and get down! There will as per usual be a prize for the best dressed.

ITALOWE'EN comes but once a year... BE THERE!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=162579300420225
Gold Blood: http://www.myspace.com/goldbloodband
The Niallist: http://www.myspace.com/theniallist
Menergy: http://www.menergy.tv/
Little Rock DJs: http://radiomagnetic.com/category/shows/little-rock/

Menergy HEATHERS Party Tonight!

And if you're not lucky enough to live in beautiful Brighton, if you have been cursed with the misfortune of living in Glasgow, why not come to Menergy at the Flying Duck tonight? It will sound absolutely nothing like Divorce and Comanechi, but I thought that link was so incredibly tenuous that I had to stick it in.

It's a special party tonight, in tribute to the classic 80's dark-teen flick Heathers, and me and Kid Zipper will be joined by fellow Shallow Raver Teamy. And as ever, mega-bitch Lady Munter will host the petition to blow up the club - oops, we mean get Big Fun to play! More info over at Facebook.

If you do wanna know what it will sound like, there's two promo mixes floating about to promote the night, one by me and one by Teamy.



HINRG TME "I'm A Veronica Mix"

Teamy's mix is part of the Wrong Island Show on Radio Magnetic. He hasn't supplied a playlist, the lazy bugger.



THE NIALLIST "Major Damage Mix"

Sebastian Tellier - Sexual Sportswear
Gold Blood - Don't Waste My Time
Detachments - Holiday Romance (T&A Remix)
Dana & Siriusmo - Meine Welt Ist Wunderbar
Dolby Anol - Heather I'm Dry (Edit)
Sabrina - Boys (Future Shock Less Vocal Mix)
Annie - Two Of Hearts (Skatebaard High Energy Mix)
Hard Ton - Flawless
Lady Gaga - Telephone (Niallist 86 Mix)
The Niallist - Big Man (Male Vocal)

More info on Menergy over at www.menergy.tv, and here's a sneak preview of my costume for tonight (a tribute to the late great Glenn Shadix who played the priest in Heathers).

MENERGY tomorrow! (+ 2 new Horror Disco mixes)

It's that time of the month again - time for blood, pain, lipstick and disco. Gay Dance Party MENERGY is back tomorrow night, back like Michael Myers, at Bacchus in Glasgow's Merchant City. This month there's a special Italo Horror theme and to celebrate Menergy residents Kid Zipper & The Niallist have each done a horror-themed disco mix. KZ's "Cannibal Italocaust" mix is a combination of old and new, leaning heavily on the kind of synth jams heard in classic 70's zombie stalk and slash pics, and the Niallist's "Disco Argento" mix is a compendium of some of the greatest of horror film disco cash in records of the 70's and 80's. Check out the track lists below, with download links attached...



Download "Cannibal Italocaust"



Download "Disco Argento"

My-My-My Telephone

There's a great article on boingboing.net about the telephone and how it is but an "abberation" in human history. Apparently the telephone has made us all slaves to other people's whims.

The article is basically just a quote from Rick Webb, but what makes it really great is the comments and the over-whelmingly anti-social nature of most of them. Now, I can get annoyed at my phone going off sometimes (a lot of the time even), but I don't think I am as extreme as some of the folk commenting here. I mean, where does the expectation come from that you MUST pick up your phone every time it rings? It's like TV, people - if it's pissing you off, turn it off!

This may be a good point to mention that I have just made a Hi-NRG remix of Lady Gaga's Telephone for Menergy, the subject of which is exactly what this article is about. Only now it is roughly 25-30% gayer than the original track.

See what I did there?

NIALLIST Menergy Mix

Just posting this here for all a y'all who didn't get it already -it's my first Menergy Mix! The kind of thing you will hear if and when you come to a Menergy night. Hi-NRG, Italo, Electro-pop, House & Gay Disco.



Patrick Cowley & Sylvester - Menergy
Earlene Bentley - The Boys Come To Town (Disco Beard Edit)
Starflight - Dance To The Beat
Azari & III - Hungry For The Power
The Human League - Gold (Bicep Edit)
In Flagranti - Brash 'n' Vulgar (Disco 3000 Edit)
Soft Rocks - The Devil Made Us Do It
Walter Murphy - Tocata & Funk in D Minor
Azul Y Negro - The Night
Den Haan - Night Shift
Patrick Hernandez - Born To Be Alive
Boystown Gang - Disco Kicks
The Ring - Savage Lover
Ronnie Dyson - All Over Your Face (Disco Plumber Edit)
Taylor Dane - Tell It To My Heart (Percapella)
Pet Shop Boys - Heart (Disco Mix)

MENERGY this Saturday!

It's Menergy time again - and this month we have moved to a Saturday night at the all new location of Bacchus, Merchant City, Glasgow.
To get you in the mood Menergy resident Kid Zipper hs done two brand spanking new mixes showcasing the kind of disco you will hear at the night. The mix comes in two parts, "Power Top" and "Vocal Bottom", both below.
There is a special "Fags vs Dykes" party next Friday too, as Menergy teams up with Lock Up Your Daughters at the Flying Duck, and I hope to have my own Menergy mix ready for then too. Flame on!

KID ZIPPER Power Top Mix

1.By The Riverside – Appleblim and Komonazmuk Remix
2.HarmoniaModerat – Rusty Nails- Shackleton Remix
1.Stereo Image – Dark Chapter
2.Caribou- Niobe
3.Magnus International – Mandass Morran Blus
4.Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood -Summer Wine- Accidental Instrumental
5.Fleetwood Mac - Big Brown Eyes – Easy Lee DJ Edit
6.Efedmin – Acid Bell- Martyns Bittersweet Remix
7.Burial and Four Tet – Wolf Cub
8.Arthur Russell – Keep Up
9.The Teardrop Explodes – Tiny Children
10.Goblin – Suspiria
11.Tunng – The Pioneers
12.Golden Panda – Back Home

KID ZIPPER Vocal Bottom Mix

1.Magnus International – Undulat
2.Cellophane Edit – Misalluba
.Dorothy's Fortress- Coupe De Ville
4.My Mine- Hypnotic Tango
5.Runaway- Black Lable Honey – TBD Remix
6.Invincible Scum – Rise of Invincible Scum
7.Motor City Drum Ensemble- Breath Control
8.Azoto- Exalt
9.Donna Summer – Lucky Me- Horsemeat Disco Edit
10.Lindstrom and Prins Thomas- Tirsdagasjam
11.Goblin- Tenebre- SSUK Edit
12.Depeche Mode- New Life
13.Mr Pauli- Le Crunch
14.Magnus International- Kosmetik
15.Alden Tyrell- What Your Eyes Can Do
16.Elton John – Funeral For A Friend

MENERGY tonight!

For anyone in the Glasgow area tonight, get yourself down to the Flying Duck for Menergy, where I shall be playing a bunch of high camp disco music! Lady Munter will also be there, in all her splendour, as will Menergy residents Kid Zipper and Gerard Black Leather. We'll have a gay old time!

We had a Menergy special on the Little Rock show the other week, where Kid Zipper did us an exclusive hour long mix, Tiga popped in for a naked oil wrestle, I played a bunch of music and Boag talked about the eternal questions surrounding Menergy. Here's the link, tracklist below: http://radiomagnetic.com/shows/little-rock/menergy/

Niallist track list
Patrick Cowley – Menergy (Reprise) – Megatone
Mark Du Mosch – Now Or Never – Cyberdance
Azari & III – Hungry For The Power – I’m A Cliché
Ben Butler & Mousepad – Infinite Capacity – LOAF
The Paraffins – Something Good (Ben Butler & Mouse Pad Remix Edit) – Ear Spook
Tiga – Mind Dimension – Turbo
Walter Murphy – Toccata & Funk in D Minor – Valentino Production Music
The Dark Esquire – Situation 7 Mix – Thisisnotanext
Detachments - Flowers That Fell (Gold Blood Remix) – Thisisnotanexit
A Number of Names - Sharevari (Instrumental) – Strut
Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intentions (Greg Wilson Remix) – Wichita
Milton Hamilton – Crystalized – Strut
6th Borough Project – Planets (The Revenge Lost Groove) – Instruments of Rapture
A Made Up Sound – Sun Touch

Kid Zipper in the mix
Von Spar – Hybolt – Italic Records
Trus’ Me – Sweet Mother – Prime Numbers
Diskjokke – Cearadactylus – Full Pupp
Guit.ar – Love Started to Shine
Runaway – Black Lable Honey (TBL Remix) – On The Prowl
Donna Summer – Lucky (Horsemeat Disco Edit)- HMD 02
Dorothy’s Fortress – Silencer – Destroy All Planets
NCAM – Handle This – Mystery Meat Records
Luca Belloni presents Cellophane – Music Colours Part 3 – Cellophane 1
Lisa – Rocket To Your Heart- Carrere
Le Jete – La Cage Aux Folles – Megatone Records
Combi – Tangled – Combi 05
Messalina 4 – Big Brown Eyes (Easy Lee’s DJ Edit)- Messalina