David Harrow put out a release a month last year to celebrate his 60th birthday and his work rate remains prodigious- in May he released an eight track EP under his James Hardway guise and has followed it this month with an EP under his own name, five tracks collected under the title Platonic Solid. David does all sorts of music- dub, acid, techno, ambient. Platonic Solid is modular synth ambient, five pieces that span the gamut of ambient music- the opening track Dodecahedron is a languid seven minutes of gentle burblings, rising and falling synth chords and tinkles of piano, a lovely way to spend a few minutes sitting and thinking about not very much at all.
Hexahedron is livelier, with drum patterns and melody lines skittering about. Tetrahedron cuts the tempo, sounding like some of the Fourth World sounds of Brian Eno and John Hassell. Octahedron is more jittery, the modular synths dancing and what sounds like a clarinet floating around. As it plays imagery from the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi flashes through my mind and then Platonic Solid finishes with Icosahedron, the synths and drums pitter pattering, glassy notes dropping in and out, a dub sense of space and everything being pushed along, all sorts of sounds bouncing around. It's all very evocative, experimental but accessible, five tracks that soundtrack something I can't quite put my finger on- the film playing right in front of us every day maybe. You can get Platonic Solid here.
Jezebell's album Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 1 was one of 2023's highlights, an irreverent, illicit, dancefloor oriented twenty track adventure, Darren and Jesse freewheeling through their record collections and making new music from old, a collection of edits, remixes and their own productions that took in Alfredo, Talking Heads, Max Berlins, Julian Cope and D:Ream among others but was also very much its own thing- Jezebell. Apart from anything else, it was all huge fun.
Now they're back with Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 2, released on 11th July. There's a new track at Bandcamp, Geo Metric a taster of what's to come. Geo Metric is a low slung, sleazy delight, throbbing with nightlife and basement parties- when the drums kick in at one minute thirty it spins. Like of much of the rest of Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 2, Geo Metric is long, over seven minutes, the track given space and time to unwind, the rhythms twisting round and round, bumping and grinding.
Just as on Vol. 1, Vol. 2 has twenty tracks. Some of them have been released before- if you've followed Jezebell you'll already know their remix of Warriors Of The Dystotheque's Fitzroy Avenue, Joe Duggan's Northern Irish accent spun out over Jezebell's electronics. You'll have heard their beautifully cosmic remixes of Pandit Pam Pam and Andrys y Xavi, appearing on Vol 2. back to back and sounding like they were made for each other. There's new version of Dancing (Not Fighting), a riotous slice of electronic music sampling Mick Jones screaming at bouncers live on stage with The Clash from Rude Boy and my favourite track from the Trading Places EP is present too, Siouxsie showing up at 6PM with the jeepers creepers. Some of the tracks are their own work- Hung and Donkey from their single innuendo Cream Tease EP, Autostrada from the sleek krauty beats of the Weekend Machines EP along with their 2023 single The Knack plus their remixes of Perry Granville and Pete Bones.
There are new tracks too. As well as Geo Metric there is Japaneasy, a track with found sounds from Japan sitting inside its bullet train groove, percussion rattling and synths jabbing, all forward momentum. Red Black And Green is a slower take on the Jezebell sound and lit up by a stuttering synth sound, a synth doing an impression of a guitar, whoops in the background, electro and acid house bunking up. Perfect Din is built around some vocal samples, the hiss of the hi hat and a gnarly acid squiggle, the voices layered and looped- eventually jazz/ funk drums burst in and we're into new territory, Jezebellearic Afrobeat.
Jezebell have taken their sound out to crowds since Vol. 1 came out- they've played at The Social in London, at Pikes in Ibiza and at The Golden Lion in Todmorden. Jesse and Darren are musical sponges, soaking it all up and using it make new music and their own sound. Vol. 2 is twenty tracks long and most of the tracks are pretty long. It's a big piece of work. It can be taken track by track but works really well as a whole- one of the things about listening to Vol. 2 in on sitting is how well it does all work together, how their remixes, edits and own music has built into one coherent body of sound- insistent rhythms, nagging synth sounds, plenty of percussion, a sampledelic delight.
Where Vol. 2 really excels though is at the beginning and the end, a pair of tracks that bookend the album and sound like future Jezebell classics. The first, the album's opener, is Movimento Lento, a slow motion way into the Jezebell world, a sleazy drum track that feels like it's come from Serge Gainsbourg's apartment, the faint lick of wah wah guitar, a sleepy vocal sample, 'this is the greatest gift you're giving to yourself', and then some Beastie Boys, the stoned backing vocal refrain from 1992's Something's Got To Give... and heading back to that song via it's video, stealth bombers taking off and B- 52's dropping bombs on Vietnam, it does seem like we're stuck in a never ending loop. Movimento Lento is, as the kids say, a vibe.
Nineteen tracks later and Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 2 finishes with Turn It Yes. Electronic drums blip in and a echo laden voice emerges, 'language has the power to alter our perceptions...' The synths ripple, the sequencers sync and, 'the word is yes'. Uptempo and unashamedly optimistic, the topline wriggles around, messing with the synapses, the drums kick on and then Yoko Ono appears, talking about her conceptual artwork from The Indica Gallery in 1966, a ceiling painting, a ladder, a magnifying glass and a single word... Yes. It was famously an exhibition attended by John Lennon. he climbed the ladder and found the word and the pair were introduced as a result of that. Turn It Yes is all of that and more, the synths building like chiming indie- dance guitars, the drums kicking on and on and the two voices coming together, everything gliding on for the final few minutes before coming to an end, and again, that word... Yes.
Pre- order Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 2 here. You'd be daft not to- it's going to be a big part of the soundtrack to summer 2025.
Justin Robertson has been doing a mini- tour to promote the publication of his second novel, The Trial Of Jonah. He was at Head in Stretford last Thursday doing a reading, a Q&A with Stephen Molynoodles and then a DJ set. The novel tells the story of Jonah Plantaganet, a time travelling demon and cultural vampire, but also of Justin Robertson, a childhood in a small town in the Home Counties, a move to Manchester in the mid- 80s and a life in music and art. In the novel Jonah meets Roman legionaries, saves the life of John Lennon and turns The Beatles onto electronica, hangs out with King John after the Baron's rebellion of 1215- 1217, and zig zags through 20th century counter- culture. In the semi- autobiographical version of Justin's life, Jonah is entranced by the woodland near his childhood home, guided by an older relative into buying dub records, and bedazzled by the Hacienda in the mid- 80s. He also kidnaps Mike Pickering but I'm not sure we ever really got to the bottom of that particular story. I've not read the book yet so I may be mixing up some of the novel and what Justin talked about- but that seemed to be part of the point of it all.
Justin read two sections from the book and during the Q&A talked about everything that went into the writing of it and into Jonah- not least the struggle between originality versus influences and the act of creation as an act of possession. Stephen asked all the right questions and Justin is a relaxed and articulate interviewee, open, reflective and funny. Justin talked about the creation of music and the alchemy that comes from people who don't really know what they're doing but want to make music getting into a studio with machinery and equipment that enable them to do that and then misusing it, the genesis of both punk and acid house. Eventually we get to the phrase, 'it could have been worse', a very British response to things. You can buy The Trial Of Jonah here.
It's a fun evening, free and local. Justin sets up to begin playing and it's a Temple Of Wonders style set (a monthly radio show he does with a wide ranging musical policy). It's a work night, 11 PM, a lovely June evening, and Justin is playing proggy, folky psyche in a bar in Stretford.
Back in the early 90s Justin formed Lionrock with Mark Stagg and MC Buzz B and via Mike Pickering they signed to DeConstruction, one of the early/ mid- 90s key UK dance labels, one that put out records by K- Klass, Black Box, Bassheads, M- People and Kylie Minogue. Lionrock's first single was a self titled progressive house thumper with Justin's signature trumpets, a track that was inescapable in Manchester in 1992/ 1993.
Over at Ban Ban Ton Ton last week Dr. Rob wrote a post about various Sabres Of Paradise remixes, Selected Sabre Cuts. One of his selected cuts was the Sabres remix of Primal Scream's Jailbird, part of a 12" single released in June 1994.
Jailbird was the second single from the album Give Out But Don't Give Up, an album released in March 1994 that was it's fair to say, a tad divisive. In 1991 Primal Scream with some production and remix assistance from Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicolson as well contributions from The Orb and Jah Wobble released Screamadelica, an album that saw Primal Scream go day- glo acid house, long haired converts to the new sound (although the album contained some more trad Scream rock music too in the shape of the Jimmy miller produced Moving On Up and the strung out ballad Damaged). They followed it with the Screamadelica 12", Moving On Up plus the album's title track, a huge piece of symphonic wide screen acid house and a beautifully downbeat cover of Dennis Wilson's Carry Me Home. When the band returned in 1994 they had gone full on Rolling Stones, first with Rocks and then Jailbird (which opens Give Out...). The album came with a Confederate flag on the cover (a William Eggleston photo) and got the band the tag 'Dance Traitors'. Having rewritten what an indie guitar band could do on Screamadelica they went into reverse and indulged their Rolling Stone fantasies. At this point some of the Scream were living like Keith Richards and if you live like Keef long enough, you'll start writing like Keef.
I didn't take to Give Out But Don't Give Up when it came out. I was in the Dance Traitors camp although I liked Rocks just because it was so brazen. In 1994 I wasn't too fussed about bands who wanted to be in 1973. If I wanted to listen to Sticky Fingers I'd put Sticky Fingers on. Some years later I found it to be a better album than I did at the time but in 1994 it was too retro, too backwards looking.
The remixes on the other hand were where the action might be- after all Mr Weatherall had played such a key role on Screamdelica that surely the Weatherall remixes of any of the Give Out... tracks would be what we wanted. The Jailbird 12" was highly anticipated in this household and when I got it home and put it on, there was again, a sense of 'this is not what I expected..' about the pair of Sabres Of Paradise remixes clad in a bright red sleeve shot of Throb live on stage, guitar and crotch plus amp and Confederate flag. The first of the two Sabres remixes was this one...
The songs drumbeat looped up and running for thirty seconds, then a squiggly distorted noise, presumably Throb or Innes' guitar amp. Huge single descending piano notes, slowed right down and then some organ doing the same. An oscillating synth line kicks in, similar to the theme tune from The Sweeney (presumably where the remix title came from). This is Jailbird gone slow mo, out of it, no longer higher than the sun but very much damaged. We were indeed a long way from home.
The second remix (and the one Rob chose for his post last week) was a big one, nearly thirteen minutes long and where Andrew, Jagz and Gary went fully in with the dub...
The Dub Chapter 3 remix took some getting my head around too. Now, thirty- one years later, it's an example of Andrew's genius, his way of taking a song and deconstructing it completely, taking one or two elements from the original and constructing something entirely new from it (something he'd done on Screamadelica with Loaded and Come Together).
Dub Chapter 3 is long, dubbed out and full of production tricks that the three Sabres had been honing during '93/ 94. Echo, FX, rattling drum machine loops, a three note synth part, acres of time and space, whole galaxies of time and space, and eventually, half way through something from the original song turns up, not one of Throb's guitars but a snatch of Bobby's vocal used as a sound rather than a voice. It's an epic Sabres Of Paradise remix, with King Tubby and Lee Perry was the inspiration, a million miles from Screamdelica and a million miles from Jailbird too.
Further remixes were on the 12", one from Kris Needs and one by The Dust Brothers (later Chemical Brothers) and (I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind single had remixes from Portishead and Kris Needs again, but none of them go anywhere near what Sabres did with Dub Chapter 3. Stick it on a playlist/ CD/ mixtape along with the Sabres Gaelic dub remix of Peace Together's Be Still and the Squire Black Dove Rides Out version of One Dove's Breakdown, both ten minutes long and both from '93, and Sabres own productions Edge 6, Return Of Carter, Ysaebud and RSD, and you've got Sabres In Dub, a Sabres Of Paradise album that never was.
Cabaret Voltaire, Sheffield's pioneering industrial noise/ post- punk/ electro outfit, have announced a tour this November with gigs in their home town, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and London and are promising a gig that will take in fifty years of CV music. They formed in Sheffield in 1973, Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson and were a genuinely trailblazing band, innovative and influential. Some of you may have noted that founder member Richard H. Kirk is no longer with us. He died in 2021. The decision to tour without him (and Mallinder and Kirk had not worked together for some time when Richard was alive) has caused some dissent among the fanbase, some people saying that without him it's not Cabaret Voltaire while others and the two surviving members want to pay tribute with one last run around the block and blast the music out of big amps into small(ish) spaces. I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice. The gigs are sold out anyway.
Cabaret Voltaire were uncompromising. Initially they wanted their music to be difficult and to piss people off. They were happy with confrontation. They also wanted to make music without musical instruments and at first used reel to reel tapes, sound collages, oscillators and home- made kit. Later they brought traditional instruments in- bass guitar, guitar, clarinet. Their early punk/ post- punk connections with Joy Division and Factory, Rough Trade, Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA and via their Sheffield recording studio Western Works brought them press, gigs and a record deal. Chris Watson left in 1981 and Mallinder and Kirk carried on as a duo, navigating the 80s and becoming more accessible, more commercial, eventually finding common ground with 80s synth based artists and the electronic/ acid house scene. You can find a potted history of the various twists and turns here. I thought a Cabaret Voltaire Sunday mix was well overdue and there's a lot of music to go at so this doesn't do much more than scratch the surface...
Yashar is from 1982, originally appearing on a CV double disc 12" pack. A year later John Robie's remix came out on Factory, one of Factory's key mid- 80s singles (Fac 82 on Factory, FBN 25 on Factory Benelux). The sample that opens it- 'there 70 billion people of Earth- where are they hiding?'- is from the American TV programme The Outer Limits, a 60s sci fi/ horror/ mystery show. Yashar then judders and skips through the next seven minutes, 80s industrial electro, horns, synths, the chanted title- amazing stuff.
Don't Argue was a 1987 single, produced by the group and Adrian Sherwood. The vocal sample is from a 1945 American propaganda film directed by Frank Capra at the dawn of the Cold War, a film called Your Job In Germany aimed at US soldiers stationed in post- war Germany. Don't Argue is as accessible as CV got in some ways, a fusion of industrial and synth- pop.
Don't Argue then appeared on Code, their album from the same year along with Thank You America. The Thank You America (Kevorkian Bonus Beats) were remixed by New York legend Francis Kevorkian, stuttering beats, handclaps, echo. Cold War dread and paranoia, fears about the USA and nuclear weapons- it's almost like we've gone nowhere since 1987...
Just Fascination was a 1983 single, the B-side to Crackdown. Some Cabs menace and unease but not coupled with funk/ dance rhythms, with sequencers and keys. The album The Crackdown came out on Some Bizarre, the duo making their way through the UK's independent record labels one by one. The vocals are getting clearer and clearer, more willing to be heard.
Sensoria came out in 1984, a single from the Micro- Phonies album. Sensoria is thumpy, crushing mid- 80s synth, pounding dancefloor energy, men and machines in sync. The poster for the single is one of the posters on Ferris Bueller's bedroom wall in the film about his day off.
Sex In Secret is from the very first Factory Records release in 1978- the first music release that is. Fac 1 was a Peter Saville poster. Fac 2 was a double pack of 7" singles, with music from Joy Division, The Durutti Column, John Dowie and the Cabs. It was re- released on 1990's Listen Up with Cabaret Voltaire, a cassette compilation out on Mute that pulled together tracks from various one off releases- NME cassettes, videos, flexi- discs and a couple of unreleased tracks.
Colours was from 1991, a seven track mini- album. By the early 90s Mallinder and Kirk were separated by distance, Kirk in Sheffield and Mallinder in London, and both threw themselves into acid house and solo/ collaborations. Kirk made the first Bleep Techno record as Sweet Exorcist along with DJ Richard Parrot, the mighty Testone 12", a definitive 1990 record. Colours is acid house, bleepy and light on its feet, a day glo version of the Cabaret Voltaire sound.
Today is the 21st of June, the summer solstice. The sun will rise in the UK at 3.42 am and won't set until 21.42 pm (later the further north you are). Marking the solstices is a nice tradition, a link to a much earlier time. Five years ago Rich Lane released a track for June 2020's summer solstice- we were all deep into lockdown in June 2020, the world was a very different place in all sorts of ways. Five years on that period is half- forgotten by many people and some don't want to be reminded of it. Rich's Solstice comes in four versions, 12", 7", ambient and instrumental. All/ any of them are highly recommended- the Ambient Mix comes with a dawn chorus, ethereal chanting, long synth chords, a shimmering drone and then Rich's sweetly sung vocals.
In February 2021 Belgian duo A Winged Victory For The Sullen released an album called Invisible Cities, a gorgeous and affecting thirteen track dark ambient/ neo- classical record which contained this short but emotive piece of music...
Most Saturdays this year I've been posting about film soundtracks. The solstice film that came to mind was the 1973 folk horror classic The Wicker Man although the climax (spoiler alert) in which Edward Woodward is burned alive inside a giant wicker man as the locals on the remote Scottish island of Summerisle dance around singing an old Middle English song Somer Is Icumen In is actually on May Day not Midsummer's Day but the pagan, folk high summer feel of the Wicker Man and its legendary soundtrack get it the nod today. The songs for the film were written and recorded by Paul Giovanni and Magnet and many of them were sung by the film's cast. Willow's Song is the best known, mesmerising, haunting, a siren's call and a lullaby (not to mention some erotica/ filth in the last verse, lines about a maid milking a bull, 'every stroke a bucketful'). Willow's Song is apparently not sung by actress Britt Ekland but by Rachel Verney.
Willow's Song has been covered by loads of artists- in the 90s Sneaker Pimps did a version and Doves recorded it as a B-side. Sean Johnston's Summerisle Trio recorded a version for a Golden Lion Sounds 7" single in 2021. Last year Katy J. Pearson recorded it and there was this very tasty Richard Norris remix, a dub folk crossover that hits all the solstice spots.
The Wicker Man's soundtrack was heavily built around versions of existing folk songs. The opening song (sung by actress Leslie Mackie) and the song Corn Rigs are arrangements of Robert Burns ballads, nursery rhymes crop up and old English, Scottish and Irish folk songs provide tunes and melodies for many of the instrumental parts of the soundtrack. For some early 70s innuendo and Summerisle discomfort here's the Summerisle pub faithful singing The Landlord's Daughter... Happy solstice.
My recent trip back to Ultramarine's 90s albums and the recent re- issue of some unreleased recordings from 1996 led me to Weird Gear, the second track on 1991's Every Man And Woman Is A Star, a song with vocals by Brendan Staunton and a very well deployed string sample from 1983...
The bouncy folk/ techno groove and Brendan's soulful vocal are a dream. The lyrics are from a Kevin Ayres song, There Is Loving Among Us from 1972 and Kevin's Whatevershebringswesing album.
The swirling strings sample is of course from The Cutter, the second single from Echo And The Bunnymen's third album Porcupine- the Bunnymen and producer Kingbird (Ian Broudie) pulled out all the stops with The Cutter, Eastern strings, scouse psychedelia growing from their post- punk dread and some of Ian's best lyrics, lines about the seventh floor, hurdles approaching, drops in the ocean, Sellotape and knives and being the happy loss. What's it all about? I don't know. It's exhilarating and anthemic stuff though.
This earlier demo version saw the light of day on the Never Stop 12", also from 1983, a wonderfully rattly version with trebly guitars courtesy of Will Sergeant but lacking those distinctive strings.
