Chelonis R Jones

Ivan Smagghe needs to sign to Get Physical. I believe Justus Kohncke is a friend of the label.

So so hot!

Not Get Physical, but do you like Lopazz's "I Need Ya" Ronan? I've had it for ages on that Koivikko mix but I've noticed that it's been officially released with some remixes. It's pretty representative of everything that's great about that electro/disco/micro interzone that's firing right now.

amazing! had a weird experience at work today, this dude asked what was playing when I had the Get Physical mix on, I told him and he said maybe he'd come back, it sounded really good.

Then the strings in the above track kicked back in and I thought "jesus that's good, I wonder will he come back and buy it now". and he did!

YES!

DJ T-Phantomas is unreal, it's a 4/4 track which is a whisper away from schaffel, with the most minimal pitch bent acid bassline just droning through it. You know a track like this has done it's job when you feel you could listen to the "hook" for 15 minutes straight and the "hook" is actually 6 seconds long.

(NB this track probably sounds best in the context of the mix!)

The mix as a whole strikes me as a slightly sexier, slightly more mainstream version of the second Poker Flat comp - which perhaps isn't surprising as DJ T has released stuff for them too.

Barima otm btw, "Blackout" is great.

It's been released on 20/20 as "Get Physical Presents DJ T". Robot Riot is ace, similar to if not quite as good as "Phantomas", sort of electro bassline acid house again.

The Kohncke mix is ace, really shivery and slow-building.

This is point blank amazing! The DJ T live set I just downloaded is unreal, key track is The Jackals-Jack Ain't Back, which was released last year on Déssous.

If you have any love for Chicago House, and I know lots of ILM do you have to get this stuff, it's so exciting!

"Dislocated Genius"
1. BLACKFACE
2. MIDDLE FINGER MUSIC
3. VULTURES
4. THE HAIR
5. I DON´T KNOW
6. MYTHOLOGIES (myths I & II)
7. L.A. MATTRESS
8. NaNaNa
9. DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS (myth III)
10. ONE& ONE
11. DEBASER
12. LE BATEAU IVRE

p.s. I'm a fan of both TTD and this album

It's very good. fucking weird too! I recommend this album to pundits as diverse as Adam and Jed.

!

pundits

!!

2. Does he in fact "deserve all the credit"?

Does anyone else feel the bassline in "Mythologies (Myths 1 & 2)" sounds like "The Chain" by umm I don't know your archaic rock bands, Fleetwood Mac was it? The song that was on Formula One coverage on BBC for years.

"Deer In The Headlights" is amazing. Chelonis rapping!

Did anyone else notice Chelonis on the pics for "Body Language", wearing a t-shirt that says "I FUCKED CHELONIS R JONES"?

haha! NO!

Deer In The Headlights is THE track for me, right now. Listened to this on my commute this morning, so happy.

Deer In The Headlights (myth III)

http://s29.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1OGK3TQRLOS9L1SFREX44YR7HI

He complained at the end that the questions I asked were really hard to understand :-(

i hope the artwork for the chelonis album is as good as the dj t artwork.

He gave pretty good answers actually - talked a lot about what he saw as the difference between a house and techno sensibility, where he differs from the other Get Physical artists, why Germany dominates dance music etc. I was actually thinking it was one of the best interviews I'd had until he said that at the end.

(Where can we read this interview?)

He looks like he's in his late 30s but I'm not sure if that distinguishes him totally - Booka Shade were making tracks in the mid-nineties, and were apparently involved in Culture Beat?!? I forgot to ask him to confirm that unfortunately.

(the article isn't published online (it's for a local paper) but I'll put up a transcript somewhere when I've written it up)

Oh and "Oldschool Baby", when that came on he said "this record is hard for you to understand, it is a particular Berlin feeling".!!

Have you heard it Tim?

Sadly I'm stuck in no-downloading land. If it gets released here though I'll try to bag an early promo copy.

http://s16.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2UN3ZVY0KWFIJ32CU6XJ5W2BSD

Notice how I carefully avoided the obvious answer.

emotions run like.......carl lewis???

VOWELS MANGLED AT NIGHT??!!?

I really should start a great House-style lyricist (that can't be right) thread.

He did a thing with Oliver Huntemann that's just out, "Terminate The Fire", and it's not amazing I didn't think.

Black as a definition of death
Black as Langston Hughes, a space odyssey
Black as a stigma, as a lecture, as a volume, nah

She's phallic pictoral, a vaginal cave with teeth
There are rumor of her non being, inhumanity, unself
There are legends of an inner whiteness, brightness, uptightness
Black Sabrina never pushes nor shooves
She's a foot up your ass
She then questions why you walk so funny,
And utters "punk bitch" under her rum tinted breath
Black Sabrina is a poem, she don't give a damn about your disco dancing, designer prancing, showoffish bullshit.
She already knows what she's about, worth and what she will always add up to.
She might not even be a she
He might not even be a he
Black Sabrina is a fucking riddle, myth, legend, voodoo sorcery
Black Sabrina ain't even urban royal, ain't even intellectual, nor religious
Black Sabrina probably ain't even black
She's periwinkle psychedelic
She was there when the ultimate blackout arrived
Do you like her better in jeans?
Do you like her better in jeans?
Do you like her?
Yeah you do
Yeah you do
Yeah you like her
She was there when the ultimate blackout arrived
She's a movement
A movement.

(so so many thanks to Toby for hooking me up)

I still think Vince-Superworld (DJ T Dub), on Art of Disco is DJ T's best track. Check that out if you've not heard it Adam.

Booka Shade often sell themselves a little short with their own work, touching on overly retro sort of deep techno/tech-house, like say the Juan Maclean remix. It's very good but not amazing maybe. Though "Vertigo" and "Mandarine Girl" are both about as good as it gets. I never fully got into the album. Though I wouldn't say I'm fully into the Chelonis album either, I still think the best ones are the ones he had released already. Maybe I'll get into it.

The "Body Language" mix I like more and more with each listen, I don't know if I can overstate how good I think it is. It's up there with the best mix CDs I've ever heard I think. It changes direction so seamlessly, sometimes without even mixing. My only gripe is perhaps it's a tiny bit dry in the opening 7 or 8 tracks and I WISH they didn't use that Slam Wighnomys track, cos of the awful vocal. The Triola Polar Zipper thing would be so much better.

Everytime I sell a copy to someone who has no idea about Get Physical and buys it from hearing it on the shop system (and that's alot of times, to all sorts of people) my faith in humanity is restored.

Maybe it is actually!

"mandarine girl" is one my favorite gp tracks ever for sure.

Yes! "Aimless" is precisely the word to describe what bugs me a bit about that Tiefschwarz mix.

anyone know of any Seattle shops carrying these?

http://www.sanandamaitreya.com/interviews/ttd_sans_ego.html

http://www.askmen.com/toys/interview_100/111_terence_trent_darby_interview.html

Hopefully it makes up for your Superpitcher interview.

Definitely glad I paid for 2nd Anniversary Mix aka the CD I cannot stop listening to. By far my favorite thing in this whole vein; I like it more than the Mei Lwun mix, even, if just because the aesthetic is so consistent throughout. (Mei Lwun got a liiiiittle tacky at the end of the mix I thought, although the beginning is perfect.)

Stick with Body Language, I think it's an album that really grows with relistens, and the stuff that initially seems quite abstract (like the Guido Schneider "On & On" remix) eventually seems really catchy and populist! Sorta.

Actually one odd thing is that each time I've heard one of the tracks on the mix in another context, I've gone back and loved that part of the mix a lot more.

The Booka Shade album is v. good, worth it for the astonishing opening track "Vertigo" alone, though I also really like "Double Identity", "Memento", "Something Physical" and a few others heaps. It could do with a few more anthem tracks though (one of the most anthemic tracks on the vinyl, "Ain't Got Much To Lose", was left of the CD version).

Which made Chelonis R Jones’ emergence on Germany’s Get Physical label last year feel like quite an event: with a brace of anthem-ready tracks such as the bouncy falsetto One & One, the catty spoken word Blackout! or the devastating ballad I Don’t Know, Chelonis quickly established himself as the pre-eminent diva in a scene whose Chicago house revivalism has tended to the dry and techy side. Not that he necessarily likes this label:

“Chelonis R. Jones is an entirely different can of beans altogether! I have dangerous depth to my concept. I started as painter/novelist! This has nothing to do with diva, it's a fact! There is no one in vocal house singing the shit I'm singing; most don't have the balls, anyway! They keep going on about "everyone must be free"/"peace and harmony is the key" blah blah blah! I am a special case: I lived on the streets, for crying out loud!”

On his first album – bearing the unsurprisingly portentous title Dislocated Genius – Chelonis puts distance between himself and the diva with a succession of brittle, paranoid electro grooves and deadpan performances that recall Green Velvet, although again, such comparisons are not particularly welcome. This side-swerve into alienated eccentricity was a deliberate move for Chelonis:

“I was in a hospital to treat my wars with manic depression. I am well aware of my blessings and my curses; everything has its price! That's why my CD is quite dangerous to the average disco club singer... People can take a single look into my eyes, and just feel that I've been through it and mean every word and action! The public is not so stupid as most attest! I chose to keep the shady parts, even the mistakes, and paid close attention to leaving it all in the mix; that is the ultimate secret of Dislocated Genius. I chose not to polish/censor/whitewash or perfume my debut! I did nearly everything to get the CD adored, despised or banned.”

“I come from an extreme 70's/80's indie rock background, and this accentuates my eccentric position in vocal electro-pop. Until last year, I had no idea who Green Velvet was! I listened to no dance or electronic music whatsoever while working on Dislocated Genius... I just kept it harshly real, which most others aren't daring to do. I could've just sat back and sold my ridiculous face: people always compare me to the same 4 black musicians all the time. You know who they are! It gets tiring...flattering, but still tiring.”

Chelonis’s insistence on his own uniqueness perhaps reflects the convoluted path which has led him to his current incarnation, a path which took him from California to New York to Germany in the pursuit of a variety of vocations: “I was painting and songwriting in rock groups up until the very moment I met the highly charming Arno Kammermeier of Booka Shade; the rest is...history.” Booka Shade, the duo responsible for much of the music produced on the iconic Get Physical label, are Chelonis’s main production foil: “I guess, in a way, they were/are my sound/trend police hahaha. They know what's hot, and obviously what's not. I adore them for helping shape such a respectable start in the electropop ( yes, that's what it is) world. My ideas are presented in demo landscapes, they re-tone the hues and trim pastures.”

Between his already established anthems (“you are so kind to consider them club hits... I still wonder about this”, he avers) and the singular vision of his album, Chelonis is quickly earning the status of hot property, most recently providing guest vocals on the new Royskopp album. But, he insists, this modicum of notoriety hasn’t changed him: “Oh, I'm still the same, still a struggling artist. I don't drink crystal with Diddy… I'll never be number one, I'm not interested. Innovation is the key!”"

e.g. quite a few people here (who are more ambivalent w/r/t Poker Flat than I am) seem to rate label-owner Steve Bug's recent Bugnology very highly, but I rarely listen to it...

Chelonis is great.

bugnology is too perfect!

that is one of my favourite cds i think. even though i have never seen it on cd, if you see what i mean.

http://www.s-e-n.ws/cms/upload/images/pokerflat/news/pokerflat_news_205_pfrcd15_70.gif

sorry try this, and you will see what that is

I see what people mean about 'availability' re: this label. Mind you it is "limited edition".

i met chelonis in berlin. (i interviewed him for the german newspaper die tageszeitung...no clue if it's come out yet.) he's a really nice guy...we totally bonded. also: he's a huge smiths fan!

now that pfork has claimed all these blogger dudes for "this week in...", could i make a motion for tim finney to make a "this week in tim finney's electro-house bobbins" column? I, for one, would certainly pay tim in gifts, ala experimental videos/mixes and other doohickeys for such a column. All in favor, beg "please please please"...

me first... "please please please"

:(((((((((

Hint, hint, I want them up. But, if somebody else wants to do them for me.

also, this is one of the best albums i heard this year.

ONLYILISTENTOMYINNERVOICESONEDAYTHEY'REGOINGTOKILLMEALLTHOSEVOICESTHEYCOULDLASTWHENI'MAWAYTHOSEVOICESVOICESVOICESVOICESVOICES

dammit i was coming here to post the spelled out stuff and jaxon beat me to it by oh 3 months.

i was driving around with a friend last week with "middle finger music" playing and he complained (with this really bitchy tone of voice) that it was very "electroclash". so i mumbled something about prince and turned it up. what i should have said was something along the lines of how DG is post-electroclash and wipes the floor with nearly all of it.

http://www.dnm.se/default.asp?page=albumDet&aID=19&id=53

It's absolutely gorgeous, soft-hearted, weepy Chelonis.

Just a heads up for you Emusic subscribers, it available there (no promo).

I sat on the Huntemann feat. Chelonis single "Terminate the Fire" (on Dance Electric) for a while because I didn't like the sung choruses on the "A" side and felt the instro on the "B" to be missing the good vocal bits and noticeably so. Maybe it's too late, dancefloor tastes are so fickle, but I just re-edited the two sides together to get my ideal mix of vocals. Get it here if you're interested (320k).

Hell remix of DEEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS still kills the old way

4GOTTENFLOOR - The Forgotten Floor
Posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 4:16 pm to News

4GOTTENFLOOR is the new Chelonis R. Jones project. His velvety voice, laying somewhere in between soul and rock, has seen him compared by the international press to the likes of Prince and Lenny Kravitz and has seen him grace releases on Get Physical including his debut album ‘Dislocated Genius’ (2005) and guest on releases from Royksopp, Tocadisco, Marc Romboy, Booka Shade, Huntemann and Franz & Shape amongst many others. Neverlethess, until now, he has remained pretty much camera shy, yet Chelonis R. Jones is considered by many inside the industry to be the “next big thing“ of electro pop thanks to his natural talent, a volcanic creativity, a glamorous, intriguing and unconventional personality and that emotional voice.

On 4Gotten Floor he teams up with Italian production maestro and DJ Alex Dandi* (also known for his productions on Irma Records as Pinktronix) to bring us a new vision of electro-soul. Dandi has spun in hundreds of clubs in Italy throughout the 90s, emerging with his distinctive eclectic style and since 2003 he has released a countless number of 12”s and the album “Right On Delay” (Irma Records).

4GOTTEN FLOOR is the amalgamation of two different studio forces uniting as one on the floor…an abandoned dance-floor. The psychiatric ward of a Miami jail (ninth floor). A different debut album from everything one can hear on the radio or in clubs today. A different way to make pop, electronic music, soul, R’n’B and disco.

On ‘4Gotten Floor’ soul and R’n’B are freed from any stereotyped formulas and meet minimal and fragile electronica, captivating and sophisticated, outlining catchy melodies and enthralling grooves, even when taking on new experimental roads of sounds. At the end of the minimal tunnel, a glimmer of hope, a light, an emancipating renaissance, a cathartic gospel. The 4Gotten Floor.

*additional percussion played by Swayzak’s Francesco Brini.

this 4gotten floor thing is FUCKING GOOD

"a new vision of electro-soul"

tynan??

his tracks on the marc romboy record from this year are really good

compared by the international press to the likes of . . . Lenny Kravitz

Thanks for ruining Chelonis R. Jones for me.

Otherwise I think I might buy the deer in the headlights remix 12" this weekend, maybe.

it is a must.

'dislocated genius' easily still the best thing on GPM, so i hope the new thing is really good. lol @ electrosoul, tho.

that Tennis Hero song "Alone" is SOOOOO good, more like that would be awesome

Ha ha, Chelonis bit my head off when I made a reference to Green Velvet in an interview, I wonder how he would have responded to Lenny Kravitz.

New album sounds pretty good...

ned is that 'chatterton'? i didn't even realise he had another record coming out. (this one's on romboy's label.)

that's it, and yeah, it's nice.

Are people listening to Chatterton?

i am! quite an interesting and impressive record but at the same time kinda...not really fun to listen to repeatedly?

I too. Really enjoying it - Sounds like a cross between Terence Trent D'arby and Coil (circa Love's Secret Domain). Pity about the album cover.

New album preview:

http://soundcloud.com/systematicrecordings/sets/the-prison-buffet-preview/

I'm predicting that "How To Entertain Your Coloured Friends" is a track title that's going to pique a lot of interest on LastFM.

Dislocated Genius sounds really great in 2025, feel like it should be better known among younger people? idk? super great paranoid funky cyber house.

i agree! was listening to it frequently a few months back and included "one & one" in a club dj set. people enjoyed it