Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Always first steps. 

My steps took me up to Snapped Ankles, The Flaming Stars, Bocca Juniors and The Boo Radleys. The Bagging Area Oblique Saturdays squad excelled themselves with a bumper collection of songs and responses- from the top, The Babies (via Disco Spider), The Ventures (from Ernie), Caetano Veloso (Mmmmmmbop), New Kids On The Block (thank you Al G), Joe Jackson and his KORG drum machine (from John Medd), NKOTB and Public Service Broadcasting (Mrs G), New Age Steppers (from C), Mogwai (Beerfueled), The First Steps (courtesy of Rol), Stereo MCs (cheers Jase), early New Order (danke Walter), Chris and Cosey and Andrew Weatherall (both from Macdiddly), Mary Poppins (an unexpected one from Jake Sniper), The Incredible String Band (via The Swede), Smith and Mighty (from Khayem) and Acid Klaus (Chris ZenArcade's contribution). Amazing stuff, thank you all of you- and the first time that New Kids On The Block have ever darkened these doorways. 

I don't have any Caetano Veloso but have followed up Mmmmmmbop's suggestion and listened to Caetano's 1973 album Araçá Azul online during the week, an experimental album blurring tropicalia, psychedelia, musique concrete and samba and folk, a record that, as Mmmmmbop said, shakes a fist at the repressive Brazilian state and passive consumerist muzak. I do have this Gal Costa song from the same year, co- written by Caetano Veloso and from Gal's 1973 album India. 

Relance

This week's card, which I turned over on Wednesday evening, says this- What are you really thinking about just now?

And I'll be honest, it caught me unawares and startled me a bit. What was I really thinking about? Rather than sit on the suggesiton for a while as I sometimes do the card demanded an immediate response so I started typing almost straight away. 

I'd been going round the blogs and catching up with the daily posts from other music bloggers and one of the thoughts in my mind was what an incredible thing JC is doing at The Vinyl Villain, an 800 song countdown of songs that are important to him, a huge undertaking as a celebration of the upcoming 20th anniversary of The Vinyl Villain. 

I was thinking about going and finishing marking some essays on the use of propaganda in Nazi Germany that I'd brought home and which had a rapidly approaching deadline. 

I was thinking about the songs on Short Stories For Pauline, the Durutti Column album I'd been listening to in the car and which I was about to start writing about (for a piece that I posted two days ago). 

And I was thinking too about the fact that November is bearing down on us, just under six weeks away, and bringing with it on the 23rd what would have been Isaac's 28th birthday and a week later on the 30th what will be the fifth anniversary of his death and the moment I turned the card over I acknowledged to myself that I've been able to feel it physically again in recent weeks, that feeling of being a bit out of sorts and a bit aggy, a bit narked. The dull thud of grief sitting in my chest again. At least, I think that's what it is. I can usually recognise it now. 

So writing this Oblique Saturday's post started there and then with this rundown of what I was really thinking about 'just now'. 

Here's The Charlatans in summer 1995, thinkin' things over, needing a set of vows. 

Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over

What are you really thinking about just now? And do you have a song to go with it? As usual, feel free to drop it in the comment box. 

Can't Be Sure

I've recently become a member of a Whatsapp group album club started by one of my brothers who has a little time on his hands and thought it would be good to introduce a lot of his friends and family to each other (online though some of us have met in real life) and to music we might not have heard. Each week a member of group (chosen alphabetically) suggests an album to the group and the group members then have a week to listen to the album and provide some feedback- did they like it, what did they make of it and so on. 

My brother- let's call him Josh- occasionally intervenes if the group's gone quiet to 'drive engagement' and 'keep people interested' which is probably a good idea because we can all easily forget to reply to messages. I know I can. So far we've done Felt's Forever Breathes The Lonely Word, Sonic Youth's Sister (my suggestion, bit of an opinion splitter, noisy and unconventional in places), Tom Waits' Raindogs, Keith Jarrett's The Koln Concert (completely new to me and one I'll definitely come back to here both to listen to and here at the blog) and The Sundays 1990 album Reading, Writing And Arithmetic.

I haven't listened to The Sundays first album for a long time but still have a copy on vinyl so pulled it out and played it last Sunday night. Several members of the group were huge fans back in 1990 and were transported back to their sixth form days, The Sundays filling a particular gap in the indie world the aftermath of The Smiths splitting up. I remember going to indie nights at Liverpool University in the 1989/ 1990 period where half the girls present were dead ringers for Harriet Wheeler, the quiff/ long hair combination hairstyle, the Levis 501s cinched in at the waist with a brown leather belt, DM shoes. Looking like Harriet Wheeler, in 1989, was no bad thing at all. She had looks and voice that could melt you at twenty paces. 

I enjoyed listening to the album although it felt very time locked to me, very much part of 1990 and a very distinct kind of indie music that was being eclipsed by acid house and Manchester, which is where at that time my head was at. I kept waiting for The Sundays rhythm section to toughen up and kick in but on the whole it's not that kind of record. It's bookish, it's jangly, it knows the way to the library. The singles are all fantastic especially the debut, Can't Be Sure. 

Can't Be Sure

Tom toms, David Gavurin's chiming guitar straight out of the Johnny Marr songbook and Harriet's lovely voice singing of love, luck and money, England's miserable weather, England being as happy as England can be and how desire's a terrible thing. The words are striking, clearly meaningful to her, heartfelt and poetic. 'It's my life/ And though I can't be sure if I want any more/ It will come to me later', she concludes. 

The other singles are really strong- Here's Where The Story Ends and I Won- and I Kicked A Boy is a good song. At the end of side two the closing song Joy delivers a final punch, with Gavurin playing a Vini Reilly sounding guitar part, the bass and drums locked in and Harriet singing loud and clear on top. They push on at the end with a minute to go, the guitar, drums and bass all competing to be at the fore and Harriet repeating 'joy, joy, joy/ Work harder, harder, harder', and just when you think they could easily keep going, go round for a few more bars, really reach a crescendo, they kill it dead. 

Joy

Next week is Madvillainy by Madvillain, a 2004 rap record by MF DOOM and Madlib. An album as far as I know I have never heard.  

Short Stories

One of the best albums by The Durutti Column was recorded in 1983 and then shelved at Tony Wilson's request. Wilson, Vini Reilly's manager as well as his label boss at Factory, heard the track Duet and told Vini that this was what he should be pursuing and at Wilson's encouragement the planned album, due to be released on Factory Benelux and titled Short Stories For Pauline, was put to one side. The new album was Without Mercy, a two sided 12" release marrying neo- classical, Vini's guitar and electronics. 

Duet

Duet is the neo- classical track that caught Wilson's ear, a two instrument piece with Vini's piano playing and a viola, the sound of a late night bar in Belgium just before closing time, the patrons about to wend their ways home though the streets of Brussels. Duet is achingly pretty and with more than a dash of drama too. It was previously released as La Doleur on Lips That Would Kiss. 

Over the years many of the songs  that would have been on the unreleased Short Stories For Pauline turned up elsewhere- on B-sides, FBN CD compilations such as Lips That Would Kiss (some with alternate track names) and on the Durutti Column album Circuses And Bread, out in 1987. An enterprising DC fan could assembly a version of Short Stories... from their own collection and access to a C90 and tape recorder or CD burner. 

In 2012 Factory re- issue label FTM put out a new version of Short Stories, fourteen songs opening with At First Sight and ending with A Room In Southport. They'd all been released ebfore in one verison or another but on Short Stories... were rpesented together as intended for the first time. Across the songs, most of them instrumental, Vini and Bruce hit the heights, guitar parts and drums in melodic sync, a clear step on from the LC and Another Setting albums. Vini and Bruce sound confident and emboldened and the songs are filled out with piano, violin and trumpet, played by guest musicians from the recordings in Brussels, Blaine Reininger, Alain Lefebvre and Anne van den Troost. On Take Some Time Out Vini sings, something Wilson always tried to prevent him from doing, and sounds good, his voice having grown in confidence since the early albums. Take Some Time Out stands alongside much of the rest of Vini's 80s songs. As does this one, A Silence, which he sings on too...

A Silence

Tumbling Bruce Mitchell drums, Vini's chorus/ delayed guitar, a full and rich sound with viola and Vini's voice, a little low in the mix, 'You don't say what mean/ You don't mean what you say'. The songs rises and falls, Vini singing about dreams and love, Bruce as always playing for good of the song. It's got that Factory juxtaposition of sadness and happiness coming together at the same time. 

A Silence came out on the CD re- issue of Circuses And Bread in 2007 and as a longer instrumental track on an expanded version of Without Mercy. But I think it belongs best on Short Stories For Pauline, an album now rightfully restored alongside with the rest of Vini's Factory works and in its correct place. 

23rd September

Today, 23rd September, is the end of summer in astronomical terms and also the autumn equinox. Harvest festival time. The start of autumn. It's strangely non- autumnal here in Manchester, very mild, warm on many days, and the leaves are still green and are on the trees. The shifts in our seasons, weather and climate, seem increasingly pronounced. 

It is also 99 days until the end of the year, something you might or might not want to be counting. 

Derry musician/ producer outfit Autumns released an album in 2024 called Dyslexia Sound Source with a track on it titled 23 Summers which seems appropriate today.

23 Summers

Autumns make minimal ambient/ industrial, post- punk/ dub. 23 Summers is two minutes and thirty nine seconds of drones and static with a sax squawking somewhere in the distance, dissonance and noise as music. It's an interim track really, an interlude between two others. 

Earlier this year Autumns made a track with Belfast DJ/producer Black Bones, a thudding dark disco industrial delight called Cruising. A bassline so taut you could walk on it. Percussion to match. Someone yelling intermittently. Find it at Bandcamp.  

And because I tend to post it most autumns and because it's a total mood shift and contrast to the two above, here's Yo La Tengo's magnificent and beautiful Autumn Sweater, an indie rock hymn to escape and withdrawal. 

Autumn Sweater

'When I heard the knock on the door
I couldn't catch my breath
Is it too late to call this off?

We could slip away
Wouldn't that be better?
Me with nothing to say
And you in your autumn sweater'

Edit Selection

Some recent edit and remix offerings today from a variety of Bagging Area repeat postees and appearances from Lou Reed, Timothy Leary, The Rev. Gary Davis and Jimmy Dean among the voices dredged up from old recordings. 

First up (and not one for the purists I'll wager) is Leo Zero with an edit of Lou Reed's Walk On The Wildside. A free download at Bandcamp, and as Leo says 'made with LOVE/ FOR FUN and for DJ sets'. Probably best to enjoy it for what it is, a dark disco/ late night Balearic version of Lou Reed's 1973 calling card. Lou would either love it or hate it. 

Cardiff's Secret Soul Society continue to ply edits and remixes from deep within the rich tapestry of popular music. Following recent Paul McCartney and Lulu inspired outings the new reggae edit Bukkle Up is a groover, very much one to keep. There's also a new this week, a Balearic disco spliced with dub edit called What About Dub? that sounds like the sort of thing the DJ at the bar in a cosmic/ kitsch sci fi film might be spinning as the hero/ heroine enters the night club. 

Find both at Bandcamp where there's loads more Secret Soul Society edits and remixes to explore. 

Dublin's 100 Poems likes to work in threes- his Balearic trilogy of 2024 has been followed by a trio of albums themed around Americana and the Old West, cowboy songs and country and blues. Last year there was the first of the three, Let The Horse Run Free, and then in late 2025 Rodeo Disco. Mike Wilson now completes the triplet with End Of The Trail, eight edits/ remixes/ versions of songs that take Johnny Cash, Timothy Leary, the Rev. Gary Davis, Bessie Jones, Alan Lomax, Planxty and Jimmy Dean and send them into altered states- cosmic country, Balearic Americana, blues and an undercurrent of dub. 

Three picks from the third of the series. This Record Is Not For You takes a Timothy Leary sample from 1966, Leary's album Turn On, Tune, Drop Out. Leary's advocacy of LSD as a way of life and a marker of a generation gap brought him a certain amount of notoriety. Leary's voice, calming saying that for anyone over the age of forty this record is not for you, is laid over some squelchy acid house and is unexpectedly supplemented by a banjo solo at four minutes, Mike freewheeling with an anything goes, whatever works for the song approach.

Rev. Gary Davis was a blues and gospel singer and player who pioneered a highly influential finger picking guitar style. Mike borrows Gary's song If I had My Way for an epic piece of sundown cosmic blues, Gary's voice echoing down the years from 1967 to 2026. Slow motion dub and FX drenched tune Big John features the voice of Jimmy Dean, American folklore from the days of mining and outpost towns. End Of The Trail can be found at Bandcamp, seven tracks plus an eighth that mixes them into one continuous piece with Elvis, The Clancy Brothers, Lightnin' Hopkins and Ennio Morricone thrown into the casserole pot for good measure. 

Monday's Long Song

Last week Dr Rob at Ban Ban Ton Ton posted a review of a re- issue of a 2003 album by Pharoah Sanders and Bill Laswell, a four track album called With A Heartbeat. It was new to me and I clicked play after reading Rob's words.. The first track, Across Time, began to play and I sat there, entranced for the time it took to play out- seventeen minutes and six seconds. 

The album's core as the tile suggests is the human heartbeat. The resting heart rate pulse beat kicks in, the Pharoah Sanders sax drifts in over the top, a sound that goes all the way back to John Coltrane and the 1950s and Bill Laswell's expansive dub informed sound constructs a world around the two elements, the heart beat and the saxophone. A dub bassline comes in that pushes the track along and there are tabla to add percussive colour. The instruments drop in and out, sometimes leaving just the heartbeat. Sanders sax blows across the top for most of the track's running time, a signature sound riding its own wave, the free form melodic counterpoint to the bass, until at fourteen minutes a sitar picks up the lead. Across Time fades out with the sitar drone and then just the heartbeat. 

A trip through time, part spiritual jazz, part ambient dub, part future music, part meditation. There are three further excursions on the album- Morning Tala, Alankara (Beats Of The Heart) and Gamaka, but at the moment I'm stuck on Across Time. With A Heartbeat is at Bandcamp, out on vinyl for the first time. 

Half An Hour Of Lost Baggy

In 2015 Jon Savage put together a compilation called Perfect Motion- A Secret History Of Second Wave Psychedelia 1988- 1993. Jon pulled together the threads of guitar bands, rave outfits and pop groups who were creating a new wave of psychedelia, not a definitive survey but a snapshot. It very much chimed with my record collection with several Andrew Weatherall tracks, a backwards Stone Roses B-side, songs by The High and Shack, Dee Lite, Electronic, 808 State and Saint Etienne plus Joi, DHS, Northside and a bonkers Pet Shop Boys B-side.

In 2023 the label that released Perfect Motion, Caroline True Records, released a cassette only follow up, limited to just 100 copies, called Never Change- Baggy The Lost Tracks 1988- 1993. I never liked baggy as a descriptor but it's one that's was widely used at the time and has stuck. 

The cassette had an hour of music over two sides of a C60, sixteen songs sequenced together by John K with some extras spliced and mixed in (Loaded's famous sample from The Wild Angles opens up Side A). Some of them are fairly well known- World Of Twist, Stereo MCs and A Guy Called Gerald are all on Side A while Primal Scream and The Stone Roses are on Side B but there are also some very less well known artists and songs on the tape so Lost Tracks is a pretty accurate description. This is an uptempo stew of indie guitars, funky backbeats, a Rolling Stones cover, sampling, Hare Krishna chanting, acid house, Mancunian rap and Bruce Hornsby. 

Never Change Side A

• Sinister Groove: Perfect Person
• World Of Twist: She's A Rainbow
• The Apples: Eye Wonder
• Stereo MCs: What Is Soul?
• MC Buzz B: Never Change
• Joi Bangla Sound: Taj Ma House
• Baby Ford: I Love It
• A Guy Called Gerald: Hot Lemonade
• Sunsonic: Driveaway

Sinister Groove released a four track EP in 1991 on 12" vinyl. One of those very much lesser known EPs from the time. The band were previously known as Bounce The Mouse but sensibly changed the name (not that it made them any better known). Perfect Person is the second song on the EP, a perfectly pitched piece of 1991 guitar pop, funky drummer drums, chiming guitars and a northern sounding vocal. As far as I know they released nothing else. 

World Of Twist were an amazing band who released one album, Quality Street, that wrapped up indie, guitars, Northern Soul, northern psychedelia and a love of kitsch in one package. Their cover of The Stones She's A Rainbow was released, re- released, remixed and promoted in search of a hit. They split a few years later having promised much. 

The Apples were an indie dance band from Edinburgh who released Eye Wonder in 1991. Other than that, I know nothing. 

Stereo MCs would make it big supporting/ blowing the Happy Mondays off stage every night in 1992 and then crossing over with Connected. Before that they had two albums, Supernatural in 1990 and 33- 45- 78 in 1989 from which What Is Soul? is from. In 1989 they constructed their tracks from scratch, sampling records onto tape, pressing pause, winding the record back and letting it go again. Painstaking. Sample spotting fun- Eno and Byrne, Ben E. King, Van McCoy...

MC Buzz B (Shorn Braithwaite) was a rapper from Hulme, from a time when UK hip hop was very undeveloped. Never Change makes liberal use of Bruce Hornsby's That's The Way It Is and showcases Buzz B's positivity and inventiveness. Never Change is from the album Words Escape Me. 

Joi Bangla Sound were a DJ/ production duo, Farook and Haroon Shamsher, from Bradford. They took the sounds from their Bangladeshi upbringing and mashed them together with late 80s street sounds- house, sampling, rap- and released Taj Ma House as a white label in 1988. Desert Storm was NME single of the week in 1992 when that accolade meant something and they performed at WOMAD and signed to Peter Gabriel's label. They became festival regulars and played thousands of gigs in the 90s. Haroon died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1999 and Farook has since continued alone. 

Baby Ford is a UK acid house original, releasing singles including Oochy Koochy, Children Of The Revolution and Beach Bump. I Love It is from 1989 on the label of the day Rhythm King and the album Ford Trax. 

A Guy Called Gerald. You know who Gerald is. Co- writer of 808 State's Pacific State. Voodoo Ray. Emotions Electric. Some of the best and most important UK house singles of all time. Hot Lemonade was recorded in Manchester in 1989 and missed out on the kudos it deserved in that year's run of records that captured people's attention. 

Sunsonic were previously indie band The Flowerpot Men who left guitars for electronics in 1989 and made three singles and an album in 1990/ 1991. Driveaway was the third/ last. Their first single Kind Of Loving (1990) has a B- side called Innocent Man which is a lost ambient classic (but that's a different tape/ mix/ album entirely). 

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics. 

I converted this suggestion into The Ramones in 1976 and roped in Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie too. Out in the internerland/ real world the Bagging Area community came up with Smokebelch by Sabres Of Paradise (Rickyotter), Buzzcocks (Boredom courtesy of C), Jah Shaka (Ernie), The Cocteau Twins (Spencer), 808 State's Pacific (Al G), Tool (Mrs G), Camper van Beethoven, (Rol), Buzzocks (again, Oh Shit, The Swede) and Mont Kimbie (Chris ZenArcade). And there's nothing wrong about any of those choices, they make a fine Saturday morning mixtape in their own right. 

Boredom

The Swede works in a supermarket in Beccles, Suffolk, the home of Brian Eno (and formerly the town my maternal grandparents retired to). I'm encouraging The Swede to have a brief word with Mr Eno the next time he sees him down the bread aisle or by the deli counter and see if he'd like to drop in and contribute to the fun. If you're reading Brian, welcome. 

This week's Oblique Saturday card is this- Always First Steps.

Snapped Ankles took 3 steps to a development in 2019. Post punk/ psychedelic electronic band vibe, (unhinged in a good way), weird hyperactive 80s crossed with scuzzy Fall influences. 

3 Steps To A Development

The Flaming Stars took 39 steps on their Named And Shamed album in 2004. A Bad Seeds and Gallon Drunk kind of band. You'll like them. 

The 39 Steps

In 1990 Bocca Juniors, the Boy's Own inhouse band of Andrew WEatherall, Terry Farley, Pete Heller and Cymon Eccles, took 63 Steps to heaven. Anna Haigh on vocals singing Weatherall's Aleister Crowley inspired lyrics. A screech of tyres, a massive piano riff calling Thrashing Doves to mind, crunchy drums- a  roof raising record. 'Boy am I gonna wake you up!'

Raise (63 Steps To Heaven)

One shouldn't live in the past but within seconds of Raise playing my initial thought is almost always, 'oh man, take me back...'

In 19943 The Boo Radleys took Giant Steps on their album of that name, a record inspired by John Coltrane's Giant Steps (an album I own on vinyl but don't have digitally). The Do Badleys finally broke their reputation as the band Creation Records couldn't sell with a genre busting, spirit of Screamadelica record. On Lazarus a shoegaze band from Wallasey go dub reggae/ experimental that then becomes trumpet led MBV inspired pop. This is the first time Boo Radleys have appeared at Bagging Area. 

Lazarus

Feel free to drop your own responses to Always first steps into the comment box.

14 Rodney Street

14 Rodney Street, Liverpool. Unlike the childhood homes of The Beatles there is no blue plaque on the outside of the first floor flat and it hasn't been preserved and restored by the National Trust either. In 1978 Paul Simpson moved into the first floor flat, paying a grand total of £7.50 per month in rent. It was in this flat that the early and unnamed band Julian Cope had formed with Simpson, Dave Pickett and Mick Finkler were discussing names. Paul picked up a copy of Daredevil that was lying around, recently found in the basement flat recently vacated by an actor, Ozzie Yue. Paul found a frame with Daredevil and Spiderman facing Submariner in a showdown and the caption, 'the Teardrop Explodes!'

The rest of the band were unconvinced but Cope jumped on it, claiming it to be 'psychedelic brilliance!'. 

Paul's flat was according to Cope 'a hangout and port of call for both the cool people and the crazies'. Paul would be a member of The Teardrop Explodes in their early days and left to front his own group, The Wild Swans. The Wild Swans single Revolutionary Spirit came out on Bill Drummond's legendary Zoo Label, and was Drummond's favourite single on the label. The recording of the song was paid for and produced by Bunnymen drummer Pete de Freitas who accidentally recorded it in mono. Revolutionary Spirit is one of the wonders of its time, a shimmering and drama laden song with lines about the Delta of Venus, Saint Sebastian and the quiet places where angels fear. 

Revolutionary Spirit

The flat at 14 Rodney Street was shared by Paul with his school friend Will Sergeant who like Paul was member of the Eric's scene, Liverpool's punk circle and guitarist in nascent Echo And The Bunnymen. Paul and Will had an on/ off band called Industrial/ Domestic. 

Read It In Books (Peel Session)

In his memoir Echoes Will recalls that despite their love of psychedelia the band rarely dabbled with anything stronger than brown ale.  Paul's autobiography, also called Revolutionary Spirit, describes an occasion where Paul and Will accidentally imbibe 'heroic quantities' of magic mushrooms in the first floor flat at 14 Rodney Street, a trip that had Will pinned in his chair, the wallpaper moving around in front him. The Liverpool police force somehow became convinced that Paul's flat was the epicentre of Liverpool's drug trade and raided it, finding nothing illegal but destroying Paul's carefully put together montage of photos cut out from magazines.

Courtney Love turned up at one point having been told by Julian Cope that she could stay with Paul and Will. Paul shared a flat with her elsewhere in the city later, Courtney's own brand of chaos witnessed up close and first hand. Will moved out to a top floor flat at 19 Aigburth Drive near Sefton Park, with Les Pattison and Pete, a flat that became Bunny HQ. It does not have a blue plaque either to the best of my knowledge. 

I'll Search The World Over

In 1999 Heavenly released the third in a series of DJ mix CDs Heavenly Presents Live At The Social, a double CD package with an Andrew Weatherall mix on disc 1 and Richard Fearless on disc 2. The previous two had been block rocking excursions, big beat and breakbeats courtesy of The Chemical Brothers on Volume 1 and a genre busting blur of reggae, hip hop and electronics by Jon Carter on Volume 2. 

Weatherall and Fearless offered up something a bit different. Now, be prepared for a shock but I'm about to commit a heresy. I've always preferred the Richard Fearless mix over the Andrew Weatherall one. Andrew's is very good, technically brilliant and seamlessly mixed, an eighty minute deep house set with some undeniably great tunes- Marshall Jefferson and Noosa Heads' Mushrooms (Salt City Orchestra Out There remix) for one and Ashley Beedle's remix of Ryuichi Sakamoto's Salvation for another- but for me it doesn't ever really catch fire in the way his 90s techno sets did or the scuzzy electro of the early 00s that come either side of it and the deep house he plays isn't as deep and dubby as the stuff he was playing at his Blood Sugar nights. There, I said it. 

Richard Fearless delivers though- a superb late 90s record box dive into electro and techno that totally captures the excitement of being in a small room with a great DJ playing records. He plays an Andrew remix (the Two Lone Swordsmen remix of Primal Scream's Stuka) and some classic 90s techno tracks- Ron Trent, E- Dancer, Slam, Model 500. Fearless opens his set with this....

Eurotrash Girl

Chicks On Speed were a trio, three women from New York, Munich and Australia converging in 90s Berlin, a feminist art/ punk/ electro/ techno group who as much as anyone became known under the banner electroclash. Synth pop plus techno with a dash of post- modern punk. Their cover of Cracker's Eurotrash Girl was their second single, a fantastic slice of tongue in cheek, end of the century art/ pop. They have said that techno producers would always turn the vocals down so on Eurotrash Girl they placed the vocals front and centre- they also saw themselves to some extent as the Eurotrash Girls of the title. 'Well I've been up to Paris/ And I've slept in a park' the Chicks intone, 'I'll search the world over/ For my angel in black', over throbbing, minimal electronics.

And in the middle of his set, track eleven, Fearless mixes this track by Miami's Jackal & Hyde out of Model 500 and then a few minutes later into Slam, energising robotic techno funk...

Get Down To My Technique

XTRMNTR LVE

The last time I saw Primal Scream play live I didn't have a very good time and I wasn't really in a rush to go back for more. The band have been touring XTRMNTR recently, an album released in January 2000 and one that is the flipside of Screamadelica, an inversion of the 1991 album's blissed out celebration and fusion of acid house and rock 'n' roll. XTRMNTR was made at a time when the band were at the peak of their powers as a live act, having been joined by Mani on bass, Kevin Shields on guitar and pedals, with contributions from The Chemical Brothers and Bernard Sumner and various producers at the control desk- Brendan Lynch, David Holmes, Jagz Kooner, Hugo Nicolson and Dan The Automator. 

Although XTRMNTR came out prior to the geopolitical messes of the 00s it seems to prefigure them, a squally, noisy, ragged, fucked up but highly focused album. It's one that I played a lot back in 2000 and showed the band as forward thinking and open minded again after their detour into Stonesy rock 'n' roll in the mid- 90s, embracing the futurism of noisy guitar rock cut and shut with hip hop and electronic/ industrial. They'd got back on track with 1997's Vanishing Point and then came XTRMNTR. They pitched up in Manchester last weekend for two nights at New Century Hall, a venue at which I've not seen a bad gig to date. 

I wasn't aware that they were being supported by Escape- Ism and was disappointed to arrive at NCH to see Escape- Ism t- shirts on the merch stand and Ian Svenonius talking to fans by the merch desk. Their album last year, Charge Of The Love Brigade, was one of my favourites so it was galling to miss an opportunity to see them play songs from it. Always check who the support are is my takeaway from this error. I also missed the opportunity to say hello to Svenonius as he disappeared again just before the lights went down. 

Primal Scream arrived on stage and played XTRMNTR in full, in order. The only two surviving members from the late 80s are Bobby and Andrew Innes but they have benefited from the recruitment to the ranks of Sabres Of Paradise guitarist Phil Mossman on bass. All in black and wearing a hat he brings not just some style to the frontline but some punch and power to the bass playing. Kicking in with the mutant electro noise funk of Kill All Hippies, the Linda Manz Out Of The Blue sample loud and clear, they show they mean business, all rough edges and distortion and sneery fury. Accelerator is The Stooges compressed and overloaded through an FX pedal and Exterminator sounds huge, gnarly and messy. 

Swastika Eyes is played twice (as on the album), once in the Jagz Kooner guitar version, Phil's bass and the twin guitarists creating a racket and again later in The Chemical Brothers version- the second one is possibly the highlight of the night, lights flashing, films and images projected behind them, the turbo Chemicals synths crossed with guitars punching though and Darren Mooney's drumming. It's not subtle. It's not supposed to be. 'End genocide/ End apartheid/ Free Palestine' is left n the screen behind them as the song dies away. 

Swastika Eyes (Remix)

Bobby leaves the stage for the XTRMNTR instrumentals, the seedy, downbeat, cop show jazz of Blood Money and the MBV Arkestra version of If They Move, Kill 'Em. Both are brilliant, the band clearly buzzing off the songs and each other. A broken, ragged Keep Your Dreams also hits deep, Bobby crooning the end line 'I'm going down to the underground/ As deep as I can go'. The XTRMNTR set finishes with Shoot Speed Kill Light, an epic noisy finale, the guitarist in front of us and Phil coaxing the distorted krautrock out of their instruments. 

The second half is a mix of hits and deeper cuts. Vanishing Point is dedicated to Mani, the first song he played on with the Scream, and they do their cover of I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time, 60s garage rock originally by The Third Bardot that came out as a Scream B-side back in 2000. 

I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time

They do I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have, a genuine surprise- I don't think I've seen them play it live for a very long time. The first time I saw Primal Scream was in July 1989 at Planet X in Liverpool, a tiny basement club and they played it that night, Bobby kneeling on the floor, long hair covering his face, howling into the mic. I wouldn't have guessed seeing them at Planet X that night that I'd be seeing them play live 37 years later, playing one of the same songs. I'm Losing more..., as Bobby points out, is important to them. It became Loaded, which they play next. 

They encore with the big hits, crowd pleasing singalongs of Movin' On Up, Rocks and Country Girl, Bobby doing the full on audience participation frontman thing, taking it down and building it up. All good rock 'n' roll fun but for me the real deal was the first half of the night, the scabrous early 21st century, wired and switched on electronic- punk/ noise rock they conjured up in the Bunker on XTRMNTR. 

Blood Money

Not Even Stevie Nicks

Fleetwood Mac. Since some time in the 00s, or the 90s maybe, there have been lots of prompts and suggestions that we should be listening to Fleetwood Mac. Their 70s albums- Rumours, Tusk- are routinely held up as works of genius now, a revisionist view of the wisdom that I grew up with, a post punk and indie rejection of their psychodrama, cocaine California soft rock. The monthly heritage rock magazines have been all over Fleetwood Mac-their lengthy career and story is ideal for their format. More recently their 1987 album Tango In The Night has crossed over, winning the hearts and minds of both a younger generation, who seem to be all over the songs. back in 1987 Tango In The Night was the opposite of what I wanted to hear although I know there's a strong Balearic thread running through it and I'm sure songs from it were spun in Alfredo's sets in Ibiza. 

For a long time I have stood my ground. Fleetwood Mac- I'd rather jack. On occasion I'd relent and see if they could do anything for me and approaching YouTube with an open mind I'd hit play on Dreams or Go Your Own Way or see if Rhiannon or Don't Stop did anything for me. And every time, they just didn't. A while ago channel surfing after a glass or two or red wine I happened upon a live concert from 1982, and it was OK, the crowd were definitely into it and it had an energy and a vibe but also it didn't send me rushing to the Fleetwood Mac back catalogue. 

It turns out on earching through my files and folders that I have this, a Psychemagik extended disco/ house/ Balearic edit of Everywhere. It is a 2020s synth update that I can imagine could work very well in the correct circumstances.  I'm not sure I'd be the man to drop it in a DJing environment but I probably would play their edit of This Must Be The Place by Talking Heads that they paired it with on the release. 

Everywhere (Psychemagik Remix)

I have however developed a soft spot for Stevie Nicks' Edge Of Seventeen. I can't explain it- I think it's the guitar riff (which I realised Beyonce borrowed for Bootylicious). This is a Mojo Filter edit of the song...

Edge Of Seventeen (Mojo Filter Edit)

Stevie wrote it for her uncle who was dying of cancer and for John Lennon, shot the same week her uncle died. The title came from a conversation with Tom Petty's wife Jane who said she and her husband met at 'the age of seventeen' but her southern accent made age sound like edge. 

The only other Stevie Nicks song I have is this one by Calexico from 2003, a song which mentions her name in the title which is bleakly beautiful and rather bereft. The man in the song drives off a cliff and not even she, the priestess, the voice of Stevie Nicks on the radio, not even that could save him. 

Not Even Stevie Nicks

Monday's Long Songs

In 2006 Nightmares On Wax released In A Space Outta Sound, a classic of its kind, mid- 00s Warp records bleepy/ dubby electronica. To celerbate the 20th anniversary of its release in March this year a new version came out, an Adrian Sherwood reworking of George Evelyn's entire album (and haven't we we've sped from March 2026 to September 2026 in the blink of an eye).

The original album contained a bunch of tracks that were aimed at the centre of the unconscious, tracks that operate in a very chilled out, downtempo state. I Am You is six minutes forty two seconds of spaced out dub cut with jazz, soul and slow, stoned hip hop. Minimalist but filling the room when played at some volume with singer Mozez adding a deep vocal. 

I Am You

On the Sherwood remix album, Inna Space Outta Dub, I Am You becomes Looking At You Dub, the On U sound and players stretching the song out and finding new spaces to play- a heady dubbed out excursion that seems to go on much longer than its six minutes twenty seconds running time. 

Looking At You Dub

Fifty Five Minutes Of Andrew Weatherall v Primal Scream

Andrew Weatherall's 1989 meeting with Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes changed the lives of all involved. Andrew travelled to Exeter to review the band while they were on a last ditch tour to promote an album no- one was interested in. This led to Loaded where under the band's encouragement, he (to quote Innes) 'fucking destroyed' the source material- the emotionally wrought ballad I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have- and built a dance floor, indie- dance crossover monster. From there they went to Screamadelica, much of which Andrew produced in the studio with Hugo Nicolson as his right hand man and a series of remixes that defined 1991 for both him and Primal Scream. 

Andrew's work with Primal Scream went on after that for the rest of his life. He went to Memphis with them where they made thee more songs together, remixed Jailbird from Give Out But Don't Give Up as Sabres, remixed numerous tracks from Primal Scream's bunker years with Keith Tenniswood as Two Lone Swordsmen (where the 'just fucking destroy it' attitude was taken to the nth degree- the TLS remix of Kill All Hippies is a razing to the ground of the original song), produced songs from Evil Heat and then remixed several Scream songs under his own name in the 2010s. 

There is way too much to fit into one mix but this one is a starting point, almost an hour of tracks from the AW v PS back catalogue, starting and ending with the Screamadelica era and in between visiting some outliers and lesser heard ones.

Fifty Five Minutes Of Andrew Weatherall v Primal Scream

• Inner Flight
• Higher Than The Sun (American Spring Mix)
• A Scanner Darkly
• Substance D
• Some Velvet Morning (Disco Heater Dub)
• Stuka (Two Lone Swordsmen Instrumental Mix)
• Jailbird (Sweeney 2 Sabres Of Paradise Remix)
• Goodbye Johnny (Andrew Weatherall's Nyabinghi Noir Mix)
• Don't Fight It, Feel It (Scat Mix)

Inner Flight is from Screamadelica, one made in the studio when the run of remixes from Loaded to Don't Fight It, Feel It turned into an album. Inner Flight is gorgeous, an acid house crossed with Pet Sounds glide through the outer reaches with samples that dig deep  into combined Weatherall/ Gillespie record collections- Brian Eno (The Great Pretender), Dr John (Gris Gris) and CB Cook and Alan Lomax (Whoa Buck). It's virtually an instrumental. There are some cooing backing vocals early on but Inner Flight is all about the music which swirls and floats around your speakers. 

Higher Than The Sun was the third pre- Screamdelica single, a breakthrough for everyone involved and had lots of involvement from both Andrew and The Orb. The lesser heard American Spring Mix was produced by Andrew, a spooky harpsichord and echo- drenched led version takes the ecstasy and rhapsody of the original versions into a darker, morning after place. Named I've always assumed after the 60s girl group duo American Spring, produced and co- written by Brian Wilson. I think it's fair to assume Hugo did a lot of the work on this under Andrew's direction- he was very much the man with the studio knowledge and expertise at this point. 

A Scanner Darkly is from 2002's Evil Heat, a follow up to 2000's blistering XTRMTR (which the band are touring currently- live review to follow this week). Evil Heat is a bit scatter shot with tripped out blues, Stooges style rock 'n' roll, synth- rock and at its best Andrew Weatherall and Keith on production. They produced Autobahn 66, a soaring kraut/ cosmische song, and A Scanner Darkly, included in this mix. Named after a Philip K. Dick book, A Scanner Darkly is a fairly demented electronic rock instrumental. Numb Motorik drumming, synth squiggles, a huge Mani bassline and guitars that push their amps to the edge. Andrew and Keith keep all of this in check and manage to streamline it into a hypnotic kraut/ synthpunk track. Substance D (from the Autobahn 66 CD single) is Andrew's remix of A Scanner Darkly that takes the numb, endless drum beat and fucks everything up a bit more. Including it in this mix along with A Scanner Darkly is probably a tad gratuitous.

Stuka was on 1997's return to form album Vanishing Point. Andrew and Keith remixed it, an electro TLS remix peak with Bobby's vocal transformed into a nihilistic Dalek. Deep and dark electro with bonus World War II dive bomber flirtations.

Some Velvet Morning is from Evil Heat and a bit of an opinion splitter, some reviews/ fans hating it and some not. Kate Moss sings the lead, the Nancy Sinatra part and Bobby plays Lee Hazelwood. The Disco Heater Dub is the Two Lone Swordsmen remix and came out on the 12" in 2003. The album version was co- produced and mixed by Jagz Kooner. David Holmes, Lydia Lunch and Rowland S. Howard all get thanked on the sleeve- Rowland and Lydia covered the song themselves in 1982. 

Sweeney 2 was one of two remixes Sabres Of Paradise did of Jailbird, a single from Give Out But Don't Give Up era. Primal Scream and Weatherall had gone off in different directions at this point, Andrew deeper into techno and Sabresonic and the Scream into Rolling Stones- esque rock. The music press labelled the band Dance Traitors on the release of the album, a tag that stuck for a while. Whoever came up with the line clearly hadn't seen the band on the 1989 pre- Loaded tour. Sweeney 2 takes the drumbeat, isolates it and goes downbeat 70s cop show crossed with King Tubby over the top of it. The 12" came with other remixes- a Dust Brothers one and a Kris Needs version and there was a second Sabres remix, the superb, speaker rattling twelve minute dub odyssey of Weatherall Dub Chapter 3.

Goodbye Johnny is from 2013's More Light, the first album they made after Mani left to rejoin The Stone Roses and one with David Holmes at the producer's desk. Goodbye Johnny is a cover of a Jeffrey Lee Pierce song originally on The Gun Club's seminal debut album Fire Of Love. Andrew's remix, the Nyabinghi Noir Mix, came out on a Jeffrey lee Pierce tribute album and is a bit overlooked in the 2010s Weatherall remix world. Starts out as slowed down rockabilly and becomes a seven minute African Head Charge inspired psychedelic dub excursion. We're definitely not in Kansas any more.  

Don't Fight It, Feel It needs no real introduction from me. The fourth of the singles that led into Screamadelica, one that saw Bobby not even on the song with the much missed Denise Johnson on vocals. For the Scat Mix Andrew and Hugo chop Denise's vocal up into kaleidoscopic fragments and the music is a long long way from Ivy Ivy Ivy of only eighteen months before. Rama lama lama fa fa fi....

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Not building a wall but making a brick.

I made bricks with Goldfrapp, Jimi Hendrix, Circus Underwater, Lee Scratch Perry, he Comet Is Coming and Moon Duo. Suggestions came in from the Oblique Saturdays brick making community- Ernie with Dexys and the walls of heartbreak, Jake Sniper with Jacob's Optical Language, Braynemeout with Chicago 's Wesley Willis, Walter and Nirvana, Rol with the Ben Folds Five and Chris with Pixies and their red bricks. 

This week's Oblique Strategy card reads like this- Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics. 

Which when I read it left me cold. Nothing. No response. Zilch. A cursory search of song titles containing the words ambiguities, convert or specifics brought little too, very uninspiring. 

So I thought about it a little and took some internet advice and settled on this. Removing ambiguities and converting to specifics is a suggestion to simplify things, to streamline and to focus on the bare essentials. To get down to brass tacks. To lessen the abstract and go for the straight ahead choice. 

'Hey ho let's go....'

Blitzkrieg Bop

February 1976 and four pretend brothers from Forest Hills, Queens, rewrite music history by inventing punk rock. No frills, no ambiguities, no extras, just the specifics of a brilliantly dumb chant, three chords and a pulverising guitar, bass, drums combo. Blitzkrieg Bop still reverberates down the years, half a century later, still sounds like the manic and basic thrill of picking up an electric guitar and plugging it into an amplifier and hitting the strings....

Later on that year The Ramones recorded a cover of California Sun for their I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend single and then put it on 1977 album Leave Home (released 10th January 1977- by 11th January the Ramones had already released two albums). 

1- 2- 3- 4 ....

California Sun

California Sun was written by Henry Glover and the most well known version in the 60s was by surf- rockers The Rivieras. It was later seen as the last American rock 'n' roll hit before the British Invasion. 

Pete Seeger said of Woody Guthrie, 'Any damn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple'. At least I think he did. It gets attributed to Woody too and to others. Here's one of those unfinished/ unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs that Billy Bragg and Wilco recorded.

Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key

Feel free to make your own suggestions and responses to Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics in the comment box. 

Fragile Time

More music from Mighty Force, a label reborn in 2019 after a period of inaction and whose current mission statement reads 'We just release music we think is good'.

The latest album in the roll call of music which is good comes from Paddy Thorne, a twelve track opus called Fragile World. The techno of the first and second wave of Detroit artists rings down the line in Paddy's work, the futuristic and science fiction sound of drum machines, synths and keys, that emotive machine music. Back in 1988 Derrick May described techno as 'George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator' and that collision of Black American dance music crossed with European synthpop going upwards is very much at the heart of Fragile World. 

Highlights? They're all highlights... the fourth track Space Between Breathing is gorgeous, breakbeat techno with synth chords that pull at the heartstrings. Nine tracks in First Signals sounds like a series of communications from outer space, digital transmissions underpinned by dancing melody lines. The final track is Fragile, Still, a synthesized meditation on existence with a chuggy rhythm that suggests perpetual motion, departure and (I think) the possibility of escape. It's optimistic music, despite the times. 

Fragile World is at Mighty Force's Bandcamp. 

While you're there you could do worse than check in on fellow act D3 who released an album in late July called Time. D3's music is also techno. On the opening three tracks, there are thundering breakbeats and big synth chords. Trust takes a breather rhythmically, with bleeps and long chords and a whispered voice, before the breakbeat kicks in at one minute forty. Chill! slows things down, some sinister distorted chords and more veiled voices. Electro influences sit alongside the techno ones and again, as with Paddy Thorne (and other Mighty Force artists) there's a sense of futurism. Final track Time is an epic piece of breakbeat acid techno.

Techno has been around for four decades now but the sounds and possibilities of it are endless and Mighty Force don't appear to be merely retreading old ground or reviving old sounds. The possibility of the new is written all the way through both Time and Fragile World. 

Time is also at Bandcamp. 

Tower Of Babylon

Andy Bell (Ride/ GLOK) and Masal promo-ed a new album (Common Primitives) two months ago with a new track called The Morning Of The Trip. They've followed it recently with the next one, Tower Of Babylon. Andy plays guitar and with GLOK and maybe Masal too some synths/ keys. Masal are an Anglo- Turkish duo, Al Johnson and Oslem Simsek, who blend synths, found sounds and electronics with harp, theremin and Oslems's Turkish folk influences, a fairly unique and interesting coming together of three musicians.

That being said I sometimes get to the point where I listen to instrumental music- ambient/ cosmische/ shoegaze/ psychedelia- and am blown away by it and then come here to try to describe it and.... end up repeating myself, using the same old phrases and imagery. 

Tower Of Babylon has fluttering harp, a sharp and bumping rhythm, distorted guitars and/ or synths. The music builds and loops, breaks down and re- assembles. The harp returns and then the buzzing starts again, the drums return. It's a trip of its own making, a dreamlike detour. 

Oslem grew up in Turkey studying classical harp and when she moved to England met Johnson who found common ground in ambient/ electronics and world sounds. They supported Andy at a gig in 2020 and began to work together after that. In Turkish the word Masal means fairy tale or folk story which feels relevant to the music that they make. Al has referenced Pharoah Saunders and Vini Reilly as key influences (as well as a Turkish folk song Oslem remembered from growing up) on the forthcoming album, which comes out in October, nine tracks on vinyl or digital. 

Non- Konformism

Sunday night in Stockport at The Red Bull, an end of tour gig for Nuremberg's Konformer and a Before I Die party. Jason Boardman's Before I Die has become a must- purchase label, every release guaranteed to be first rate outsider and outlier music, the label capturing the stuff that happens in the margins and away from the bright lights. Putting on a label party in a Stockport pub on a Sunday night, just because, and filling the pub is testament to what he's put into BID over the last few years. 

There were DJs from 4 pm and by the time I arrived at around 6 pm J-Walk was on the decks spinning Sunday evening tunes. J-Walk released a 7" single on Before I Die earlier this year called Never Go Home- blissed out Spacemen 3 style indie on the A, King Tubby style dub on the B. It's one of the singles of the year- you can listen to it here and grab one of the four remaining copies of the vinyl if you're quick.

Before that in 2024 there was an album, Broken Beauty, made in Stockport. Tonight J-Walk steps out from behind the decks and plays a set of four songs so new no one has heard them yet, Martin on synth and guitar, FX pedals and vocals, finding a sweet spot where early 80s New Order met King Tubby. The four songs will fingers crossed end upon the next J-Walk release on Before I Die. 

Konformer are a three piece group from Nuremberg who have been in the UK for a tour playing grassroots venues with open minded bookers and crowds. Margate's Music Hall, The Golden Lion in Todmorden and Manchester Psyche Fest plus Bristol, Barrow in Furness, Deptford and Liverpool. By the time they open up at The Red Bull they are a well oiled machine, their heavy motorik grooves, layers of droning krauty keys and synths and Hooky- esque basslines rocking the pub's wood panelled walls,

Konformer's second album, Konformer II, came out in the summer and the band motor through the tracks from it, Mont Ventoux, Marseillel, Todmorden and the album's opening pair Konfectio Suite I and II. All instrumentals, no vocals to distract from the sound, the bass guitar leading with Kristian Krauss' synth/ keys adding the drones and cosmische textures. Mont Ventoux shimmers and pulses, drummer Andreas Berg absolutely on the beat and Rainer Ruder's bass climbing and looping round and round. At the end of the gig it's smiles all round and then trying to find a way home by public transport from Stockport on a Sunday night.

Unsteady

Jezebell are celebrating five years since they got together and started making tunes, an adventure born like many things out of lockdown. Darren and Jesse have made two albums are umpteen EPs in the time since 2021 and the fifth anniversary present is a track called Unsteady, out on Bandcamp last Friday. Traditionally, fifth anniversary presents are supposed to be wood- this one is digital. 

Unsteady is a buzz- synths squiggling and fizzing, arpeggios, dancing melody lines, thumping kick drum, nods to 80s Balearic house but filtered through a 2020s outlook. Jesse's piano playing (and he's not going to thank me for saying this) calls Bruce Hornsby's 1986 big hit to mind (this is a compliment by the way). But, that's just the way it is. 

Last year Jezebell released their second album, Jezebellearic Beats Volume 2, a twenty track smorgasbord of edits, remixes and original tracks. In March this year the album's closing track, Turn It Yes, was released as a single with remixes including this one by Hardway Bros where Sean turns everything up and sets the controls for the heart of a hypothetical cosmic dance floor, one where Underworld and Beatles wives are spinning round and round, locked into the dance.

'Language has the power to alter our perception/ A single word can change our reality/ And that word is yes'

Monday's Long Song

The town of Dover was without warning subjected to a march by a large group of black clad, balaclava wearing men on Saturday who blocked the roads and the port while chanting 'stop the boats', 'the country is ours' and 'England 'til I die'. Dozens of Blackshirts marching and making claim to the nation, its identity and its streets. Dangerous times we're living in. 

In a quirk of coincidence just a day before this event, this album came my way via reader and friend of the blog Spencer, a reliable source of leftfield, lesser known and outré music. From The Edge is an album about Dover and one that is part of a project to see Dover differently. 

From The Edge is a two track album by Richard Bundy and Anna Phoebe, each track around twenty minutes in length but made up I think of many shorter tracks. The tracks are inspired by Dover, the town, its buildings, history and atmosphere. Dover is a town on the edge, built into the cliff face of southern England, a gateway to Europe and also at times a barrier. The Dover Unlocked project, which From The Edge is a part of, is a work that is imagining and uncovering a different side of the town, its historic buildings- the castle, Napoleonic steps (the Grand Shaft) and others- and its people. 

Side one of From The Edge is called The Immersion and is a blending of guitars, bass, drums, piano, a DJ, Bundy on piano, keys and synths, strings and horns and sampled voices. A twenty two minute long piece that goes through several stages, ambient and found sound sections, piano led sections and string quartet parts (that reminded me of Durutti Column's 1984 classical piece Without Mercy). 

The other side, Unspiralling The Rock, kicks in with drums and synths, drones, layers of noise and then five minutes in flips the switch into the neo- classical strings again, a stitching together of experimental, classical and cinematic sounds. Half way through the band come back in and it turns into krauty cosmische before a long slow ending. Evocative, spellbinding and yes, from the edge. 

You can find From The Edge at Bandcamp. 

Forty Five Minutes Of White Label's Voices

In 2011 a bootleg album called Stolen Voices appeared by a Scottish trio who called themselves White Label. The album featured vocals from unreleased, lost or demo recordings with entirely new tracks recorded around them. The voices belonged to Jean Terrell of The Supremes, John Lennon, Todd Rundgren, Billy MacKenzie, Jimmy Scott, Billie Holiday, Jean King, David Bowie, John Martyn and Dennis Wilson. Stolen Voices was cheeky, unofficial, illegal and audacious and highly acclaimed. Eventually White Label were advised to stop selling the album via their website although by that point the horse had bolted. I first heard about it via Drew's Across The Kitchen Table blog. The stolen voices were given full new backing tracks, a sumptuous blend of soul, psychedelia, synth pop and house. 

By 2017 various musicians and artists had shown enough interest that the band could make a second album- Borrowed Voices- using officially sanctioned vocals or producing remixes. Borrowed Voices featured the voices of Paul Weller, Mark Eitzel, Aphty Khea, Billy MacKenzie (again), Hannah Peel and Emma Pollock among others and then in 2023 White Label put out Other Voices, an album with Weller (again), one of the last recordings Bim Sherman made, Linda Lewis, Jill O'Sullivan and Syann among the line up. Other Voices is a remix album that sounds like an early 70s psychedelic experiment where a crack orchestra, Laurel Canyon Americana, 60s soul and 90s ambient house had a baby. Lauren Laverne, Don Letts, Jarvis Cocker

This is a just under forty five minute selection of eleven tracks from the three albums, the kaleidoscopic and psychedelic sounds of White Label and a load of singers in one mix. It's very much a Sunday morning, staring into your coffee and ruminating selection of songs. 

Forty Five Minutes Of White Label's Voices 

• Paul
• Jean 1
• Still Moving (feat. Linda Lewis)
• Billy 2
• Mark
• Do You Believe (feat. Bim Sherman)
• Syann
• Aphty Khan
• The Sea's Out At Night (feat. Paul Weller)
• Turn Down The Noise (feat. Syann and Billy MacKenzie)
• Emma

Paul is from Borrowed Voices, the Paul being Paul Weller who showed an interest in White Label back when the bootleg Stolen Voices came out. The post- 22 Dreams Weller is a maverick, open to experimentation and recording in a bewildering array of styles. Paul (the track) is sophisticated 70s soul, Weller sounding very at home. 

Jean 1 is from Stolen Voices, a Northern Soul reworking of a vocal from a 1972 Supremes song produced by Jimmy Webb. Jean Terrell's voice was taken from a scratchy 7" single, recorded onto a c60 cassette and then dropped into the new track.

Still Moving is from Other Voices, Linda a veteran singer who has sung with Bowie and Basement Jaxx. Slow motion, widescreen Balearic pop. 

Billy 2 is Billy MacKenzie, the much missed Associates singer who died in 1997. Billy's voice is from an unreleased song, Tallahatchie Pass (posthumously released in 2022), a homage to the cinematic 60s country of Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell. Billy 2 was on Borrowed Voices. 

Mark is Mark Eitzel, American singer songwriter from American Music Club. The song is We All Have To Find Our Own Way Out from Mark's 2012 album Don't Be A Stranger redone as orchestral soul/ folk. 

Bim Sherman's voice is on Do You Believe from the Other Voices album, a vocal from 2000, the year Bim died. On Do You Believe he is surrounded by subtle backing vocals and tripped out soulfulness. 

Syann and Aphty Khan are both from the Borrowed Voices album, Aphty's psychedelic- Greek funk and Syann's orchestral soul reworked/ remixed complementing each other very nicely. 

The Sea's Out At Night is the opening song on Other Voices, a Paul Weller song that is as far from The Jam as anything he's done- atmospheric and orchestral. The White Label pair Anth Brown and Tom Doyle wrote and produced a song on Weller's Fat Pop Volume 1 album (Glad Times). 

Turn Down The Noise is Dundee singer Syann, combined with the sampled vocals of Billy MacKenzie in dramatic 60s soul style. White Label's Steve Aungle first met Billy in 1979, when he was a drummer looking for a band. Steve's story is here in his own words. 

Emma is from Borrowed Voices, the Emma being Emma Pollock (solo artist and former Delgado). Her vocal is from her haunted torch song A Certain Compulsion, re- imagined here like the song from a Cold War spy thriller finale where a doomed pair of lovers have been trapped either side of the Berlin Wall. 

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Spectrum Analysis.

My spectrum analysis took me to Sonic Boom and Spectrum, Aphex Twin and Sewell and The Gong. Further analysis came from Dumdedumdumdum (Oh! Gunquit), Ernie (The Dells), Khayem (Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons, Solid Space, Creation Rebel, Florence and her Machine and Seahawks with Prins Thomas), Al G (World Of Twist, Matt Berry), Mrs G (the ZX- Spectrum and Space Raiders), Weird Al (Pac- Man v The Beatles), Jase (Rain Tree Crow), Walter (Billy Cobham and Massive Attack) and Rol (more ZX- Spectrum, Jet Set Willy and Joni Mitchell).

From the above suggestions, here's World Of Twist covering The Rolling Stones...

She's A Rainbow

This week's Oblique Strategy card reads like this- Not building a wall but making a brick.

How are bricks made? I asked the internet. 

The main ingredient is clay. Another key component is sand. Sometimes other additives such as lime, iron oxide or magnesia might be used. The final crucial ingredient is water. The dry material is crushed. The soft wet clay is shaped by a mould. Once the brick has been shaped it is left to dry- the removal of excess water is important. The brick is then fired in a kiln. 

Clay

Clay is from Goldfrapp's 2013 album Tales Of Us, a lovely collection of folky album/ electronic songs. Clay tells the story of a doomed soldier during World War II writing a letter to his lover, Dave. 

Castles Made Of Sand

I don't think Jimi Hendrix ever sounded better than on Axis: Bold As Love- loose, electric blues, psychedelia. Castles Made Of Sand has some wonderful free flowing forwards guitar and bursts of backwards guitar, a tripped out solo and some autobiographical lyrics from Jimi about impermanence. 

I Wash My Hair With Limes

Obscure 1984 outliers Circus Underwater. Dreamy laid back psyche/ ambient. Stunning. 

Throw Some Water In

Lee Perry in 1978 and his Roast Fish And Collie Weed album, his first album to consist solely songs sung by Scratch himself. 

Summon The Fire

Body shaking, addictive astro- jazz/ dance- psyche from The Comet Is Coming is 2019. 

Unfortunately I can't find a song with the word kiln in the title. Killing on the other hand is very well represented. This is Moon Duo in 2009.

Killing Time

Feel free to contribute your own constructions in response to Not building a wall but making a brick in the comment box.