Ben Drayton

DJ Ben Drayton gives us his top five dance tracks at the moment. You can hear him playing Sunday nights at Phoenix, Thursdays at the Newtown Hotel and at Bad Dog on 23 January.

SHOW ME RIGHT
DJ Ali and Tim Fuller
There are no samples. There are no loops. If Marvin Gaye and Prince were gay, were lovers, got married and had a son who wanted to be a singer, then he’d sound like this. There are also lyrics. All wrapped in a fiercely sparse atmosphere of tight bass lines, shimmering echoes and hypnotic percussion that could’ve come straight from outta space.

TAKE A LICKIN’ AND KEEP ON KICKIN’
Bootsy Collins
Bootsy’s a legend. No, really. He’s played bass for, amongst others, James Brown, Parliament and Funkadelic and had a big part in bringing sci-fi to funk. This is from his 1982 album The One Giveth, The Count Taketh Away. I just love this guy.

PSYCHIC A-GO-GO
Buffalo Daughter
More eccentrics, this time from a Japanese girl group, though they did bring a hot bearish drummer on their recent Australian tour. The lyric sheet lists four words in this song and it takes the best part of nine minutes to hear them and has gotta be the best nine minutes I’ve spent (repeatedly) all year.

TRIUMPH OF A HEART
Bj?/b>
From her current album Medulla, which is a bit of a challenge but I love that she listens to her creative voices and not those of her lawyers and accountants. I was listening to this album at Hum the day it was released, debating whether I’d buy it on the spot or wait until TV told me to, when this song came on. I bought it on the spot.