tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64081949084623055232024-03-19T08:47:53.261+00:00Bagging AreaSwiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.comBlogger5658125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-81106904360812315112024-03-19T08:00:00.089+00:002024-03-19T08:00:00.352+00:00Sylvia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIsuwnHH94luXzBFUnPSjxpzd64K6Z3VM0dNu1eWdulbGr-8u5PTUeULD9KLDjHuuk9coMCBtSPamTnhnFSd3_pJ361PV6vNwclqAT4RqOXeryydShKGEGtUosh6QqEnqZbM935cYWcEXWwfGxft9pLpc54Y-idMM21KFP2H3CMPp7gWybbhL1LNb068/s600/birchwood1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIsuwnHH94luXzBFUnPSjxpzd64K6Z3VM0dNu1eWdulbGr-8u5PTUeULD9KLDjHuuk9coMCBtSPamTnhnFSd3_pJ361PV6vNwclqAT4RqOXeryydShKGEGtUosh6QqEnqZbM935cYWcEXWwfGxft9pLpc54Y-idMM21KFP2H3CMPp7gWybbhL1LNb068/w400-h300/birchwood1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Lisa Moorish, singer with Kill City back in the early 2000s, has been out of the music industry for some time. She's been drawn back in writing a solo album called Divine Chaos, out later on this year. It's been led by a single released a couple of weeks ago, an electro- pop song about Sylvia Plath. Two decades ago Lisa was told she bore a strong resemblance to Sylvia Plath, something that sparked a dive into Plath's books and life and the uncovering a number of parallels between Sylvia and Lisa. The song has been remixed by David Holmes, so frequent a visitor to these pages he's practically resident, and the pair of remixes are a joy, David going full on acid house on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTzjdSgQTfU">the remix</a>, the squelch and kick drum alongside Lisa's vocal giving it massive dancefloor vibes. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LTzjdSgQTfU" width="320" youtube-src-id="LTzjdSgQTfU"></iframe></div><div><br /></div>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdmf5u-0b_k">Dub Mix</a> strips the vocal away, concentrating solely on the mirror ball action, eight minutes of unfettered, strobe lit wonder. You can buy both remixes and the original version at <a href="https://jacksaidwhat.bandcamp.com/album/sylvia">Bandcamp</a>.<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tdmf5u-0b_k" width="320" youtube-src-id="Tdmf5u-0b_k"></iframe></div><div><p>Incidentally, if you're interested in a small but beautifully packaged, meticulously researched and beautifully written account of Sylvia Plath's time in Paris in 1956, Dave Haslam's My Second Home is still available to purchase from <a href="https://www.confingopublishing.uk/product-page/pre-order-my-second-home-by-dave-haslam-7-in-uk-9-50-outside-uk-inc-p-p">Confingo Press</a>. Dave's series of books for Confingo are all worth collecting, small enough to fit in your pocket, an essay zooming in on a detail in pop culture from the past but with something to say about the present too. Dave's books include Picasso in Paris in the early 20th century, All You Need Is Dynamite (the story of an early 70s terror cell the Angry Brigade based in Manchester's Moss Side), Courtney Love's sojourn in Liverpool in the early 80s, and the life of Cressa, a Mancunian face and former Stone Roses dancer/ associate. The next one in the series is out next month, the tale of the time Grace Jones turned up at Strawberry Studios in Stockport to sing with A Certain Ratio. </p><p><br /></p></div></div>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-85194901142386241012024-03-18T08:00:00.033+00:002024-03-18T17:58:54.496+00:00Monday's Long Song<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOD4O9M_Q1Z2cOVI17SAbkfCT0h8iw7-LoWpW0lwONcsRL-QzJvwPag5z9JqlLb65CpVA6p8d4BBZpjFdRs7pAXkfkQL2mDUkJWyKgmTVeFkbAIkrJ4GNoO_ngEh7NEqAQFl3YjP49AFzyfTcU-3TgOigmqDTeiGkxvtc14-Oenmzb78dZcW1YGyLz2Us/s2048/styalwoods8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOD4O9M_Q1Z2cOVI17SAbkfCT0h8iw7-LoWpW0lwONcsRL-QzJvwPag5z9JqlLb65CpVA6p8d4BBZpjFdRs7pAXkfkQL2mDUkJWyKgmTVeFkbAIkrJ4GNoO_ngEh7NEqAQFl3YjP49AFzyfTcU-3TgOigmqDTeiGkxvtc14-Oenmzb78dZcW1YGyLz2Us/w300-h400/styalwoods8.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>Fluke's 1997 12" single Squirt came with a remix of Slid, a track from 1993. The Modwheel Mix is ten minutes of late 90s progressive/ deep house, a track that has some of Underworld's DNA running through it. Modwheel is Tom Middleton of Global Communications, a man whose work is always worth listening to. This is a dancefloor number, easily slipped into any part of a late 90s DJ set, the vocal providing a slight contrast to the soaring, sunny day drums and synths. Never mind all that pre- millennial tension, this is infectious and optimistic dance music. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C2a2Sr5HXi3Vtybw-1gHlkcKDkAYiz2e/view?usp=sharing">Slid (Modwheel Remix)</a></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-53253589452299632052024-03-17T08:00:00.274+00:002024-03-17T12:24:05.197+00:00Pete Wylie And Wah! Live At The Deaf Institute And A Forty Minute Mix<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqhfGatpTOkR4aEQbx16LTK9rwalQI2XDThgqTdmWLfZG6mJdL2Q-eKhGN-Nh1w837pGgGW3hSWlG6WoDzLQlEw1cQMg4oI6goA7HY-HctkDaEYZiC21MsAsPK9DHguAFX_KbB_DlCFiltBZoIabI70w40haUFx3TOQIkfElRnMmRKJsYcHcnMuk08Xck/s2048/PeteWylieDeafInstitueMarch24.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="922" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqhfGatpTOkR4aEQbx16LTK9rwalQI2XDThgqTdmWLfZG6mJdL2Q-eKhGN-Nh1w837pGgGW3hSWlG6WoDzLQlEw1cQMg4oI6goA7HY-HctkDaEYZiC21MsAsPK9DHguAFX_KbB_DlCFiltBZoIabI70w40haUFx3TOQIkfElRnMmRKJsYcHcnMuk08Xck/w180-h400/PeteWylieDeafInstitueMarch24.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><p>Pete Wylie is touring again, playing the hits and the misses of his and Wah!'s back catalogue with a full band, promoting along overdue Best Of album, Teach Yourself Wah! Pete may not have the biggest back catalogue and has had a few bumps in the road over the last four and half decades of making music, but his best songs are as good as anyone's and there are several which I hold very dearly. We arrived at The Deaf Institute last night before 8.30 to find Pete and the band on stage, Pete mid- anecdote (Pete Wylie is perpetually mid- anecdote, his stand up/ stories/ tales are as much part of the Wah! live experience as the songs and he is sharp, funny and candid). It was a bit frustrating to arrive late and it became clear we'd already missed Come Back (a favourite of mine and I was gutted not to hear it) and the room was packed, so we ended up crammed in by the door, unable to move much or get to the bar and constantly bumped into as people came and went including a bouncer who caught me off balance and sent me careering into the couple standing next to me. <br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ed0_xgg9z2hgyk50ExJi6U6Z_b3iFPHXuiAH7aDtjbApFAVXFmvMxGMSP4ds-JSatgS35x5tGgahSnPCe319pVoyFTz3Ai-BvWuWwRphnCXadiQchqi5_OOLBAN8VXaWRTnG_xo2AuOH2-HpKBsK8ZpLzTsHhC-F3wqizAQRDPyI_Lsihr9G-IbXZaw/s2048/PeteWylieDeafInstituteMarch24c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ed0_xgg9z2hgyk50ExJi6U6Z_b3iFPHXuiAH7aDtjbApFAVXFmvMxGMSP4ds-JSatgS35x5tGgahSnPCe319pVoyFTz3Ai-BvWuWwRphnCXadiQchqi5_OOLBAN8VXaWRTnG_xo2AuOH2-HpKBsK8ZpLzTsHhC-F3wqizAQRDPyI_Lsihr9G-IbXZaw/w400-h300/PeteWylieDeafInstituteMarch24c.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The first song Pete played after we arrived was the 1983 single Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me), Pete in fringed cowboy shirt, leather kecks, top hat and green Telecaster, and in good voice. The songs are legendary, one after another, Pete prefacing each with the comment, 'the record company thought this would be a big hit... it wasn't' followed by laughter. There is much laughter at Wylie gigs, he's a natural raconteur and story teller- sometime sits difficult to tell if its songs separated by talk or talk separated by songs. The songs are full of love and heart, Pete mentioning friends who have gone before many of them- an emotive FourElevenFortyFour is dedicated to Josie Jones. The first song of the encore, Seven Minutes To Midnight is dedicated to John Peel and he speaks warmly and movingly about his friend Janice Long before singing for her. He tells a long and very funny story about Tony Wilson's funeral and the enormous bouquet that arrived with the message With Love From Liverpool accidentally ordered in two foot high letters, dominating every other floral tribute at the funeral, Peter Hook approaching him with the words, 'you wanker'. Disneyland Forever is done solo on acoustic guitar, a song written after meeting Gerry Conlan, one of the Guildford Four, backstage at a gig GMex in the early 90s. Gerry told Pete how much John Peel's radio show meant to them when they were in prison and how Pete's songs were part of that. When Pete asked Gerry what he was going to do after being unjustly imprisoned for sixteen years, Gerry replied he didn't know but it would be Disneyland forever. </p><p>Pete launches into The Day Margaret Thatcher Died, the Prime Minister who was on record as saying she wanted the 'managed decline' of Liverpool, with as much venom as ever, ending it with Michael Gove, Jacob Rees Mogg and Esther McVeigh inserted into the song. Mid- set they play Sinful, my favourite Wylie song, guaranteed Bagging Area catnip, and trailed with the remark, 'the record company thought this would be a big hit... and it was!' Arms aloft, everyone cheers and amusingly they then mess the opening up, have to stop and start again. Behind him there are projections and loops of videos and clips from TV, young and beautiful Pete Wylie and Josie Jones from the 80s looped as 2024 Pete sings and plays. They play is hometown epic Heart As Big As Liverpool, a song that a room full of Mancunians (and a good number of scousers) respond to enthusiastically. 'It's a song about community and belonging', Pete says, 'and optimism and we need that today'. Free; Falling In Love With You from 2017's Pete Sounds is Pete and Wah! channeling Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Wah! do the encore without leaving the stage, Pete saying the steps to the backstage are too much for his knees. Seven Minutes To Midnight is electrifying, urgent, clanging 1980 Cold War dread repositioned for 2024 and we finish, with the curfew approaching, with The Story Of The Blues, Pete's biggest hit and the song he'll always be known for. If it was the only song he'd ever written it would be enough.</p><p>Today's Sunday mix was a fairly obvious choice. Pete solo, in various Wah! incarnations and with friends, songs of strength and heartbreak as one of his albums had it. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j5k38SHygZZ-jJzIWcqxacPvunC6piJK/view?usp=sharing">Forty Minutes Of Pete Wylie And Wah!</a></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Imperfect List (Version 1)</li><li>Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me)</li><li>Don't Lose Your Dreams (Excerpt From A Teenage Opera Part 154)</li><li>Sinful (Tribal Mix)</li><li>Come Back</li><li>FourElevenFortyFour</li><li>Make Your Mind Up (Time For Love Today)</li><li>Talking Blue (The Story Of The Blues Part Two)</li></ul><p></p><p>Imperfect List, a 1990 single, was a Wylie record done with Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie and Josie Jones as Big Hard Excellent Fish. For the 12" it was remixed by Andy Weatherall , four mixes under the title Rimming Elvis The Andy Weatherall Way. Josie recites a list of hates, some universal, some very 1990, some very specifically Liverpudlian, all very relatable. Pete's story about Morrissey's usage of it as walk on music and his associated anecdotes about the singer are very funny and on point. </p><p>Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me) was a 1983 single, backed with a cover of Johnny Thunders' You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory. Wah! do pop soul.</p><p>Don't Lose Your Dreams was under the name Pete Wylie and Wah! The Mongrel, a 1991 single and hasn't made either the tracklist for the Best Of or the setlist for the gigs. Which is a shame as I love it, massive early 90s guitars and synths, Pete at his optimistic best, 'Don't you ever lose your dreams/ No matter how far you may tumble/ When people criticise your schemes/ Your wild extremes/ Don't ever lose your dreams'. Another Wylie song that mentions Jack Kerouac. Should have been a massive hit. </p><p>Sinful was a 1986 single and a big hit. Pete promoted it on Top Of The Pops and on Wogan, memorably aided by Josie on Paul Weller's pop art guitar and three dancing nuns, the Sisters Of The Anfield Road. The Tribal Mix is even better, seven minutes of dancefloor gold, a thumping proto acid house drum track and Pete's vocal. The Tribal Mix was remixed by Zeus B. Held. </p><p>Come Back is a magnificent and stirring love song to his city and a plea to those who have left to look for work elsewhere in the unemployment ravaged early 1980s, a 1984 single and the emotional centrepiece to the Word To The Wiseguy album from the same year. A massive if Springsteen was scouse sound and a hugely, defiantly northern record. </p><p>FourElevenFortyFour was on the 1987 album Sinful, an overlooked album. This song has some very 80s production but gets away with it, a love song with a title and chorus that references the enigmatic 4- 11- 44 number. </p><p>Make Your Mind Up (Time For Love Today) is the opening song on 2017's Pete Sounds, an album partly crowdfunded by fans- I was one of them- and recorded at Pete's Liverpool studio Disgracelands. A friend tells me Pete has a piece of carpet from the actual Gracelands. </p><p>Talking Blues (The Story Of The Blues Part Two) is the second half of the 1983 smash hit The Story of The Blues, Pete talking over the looped Phil Spector sound, talking about people being thrown away, about those with power, about hope and pocketbook psychologists, class struggle, love and everyday life and 'something Sal Paradise said'. That's the story of the blues. </p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-84176332542909292132024-03-16T08:00:00.081+00:002024-03-16T16:33:51.108+00:00V.A. Saturday<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzPJbZo9SXauW56inXR8q2Asnk5tPUxEMNNq9hoYObb4k4U5Z0WJi2dpBxId0XHU8Qy-cCy20ciNuCZuV-M-q8RCP9CL2jvj4XiG4NEbDMUYcd4-SilglFUpjqlO9wyxIq2f4Dr7xH7RkNGaR6L9ktRA05LIn0rsdopDcCwGfj1M2F0fyAwZ_USs44m1g/s2048/canallymm2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzPJbZo9SXauW56inXR8q2Asnk5tPUxEMNNq9hoYObb4k4U5Z0WJi2dpBxId0XHU8Qy-cCy20ciNuCZuV-M-q8RCP9CL2jvj4XiG4NEbDMUYcd4-SilglFUpjqlO9wyxIq2f4Dr7xH7RkNGaR6L9ktRA05LIn0rsdopDcCwGfj1M2F0fyAwZ_USs44m1g/w400-h300/canallymm2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Soul Jazz started out in 1991 doing reissues of old albums, before switching to compiling various artists compilations. Their Nu Yorica album from 1996 complied 60s and 70s salsa, Latin and funk and sold a lot of copies. In the cross- pollinated, crate digging world of the 1990s, people were lapping up this kind of thing up, opening ears and minds. Soul Jazz cared about the music, the sleeves were always well put together, the music was always well chosen and of high quality. In 1998 they release 100% Dynamite, a double vinyl reggae compilation, which was the kick starter to series of Dynamite albums as well as a seemingly endless deluge of Studio One albums. Soul Jazz turned the reggae compilation into an artform, a university of reggae according to Chris Blackwell. <p></p><p>200% Dynamite came out in March 1999, a quarter of a century ago. My copy is well thumbed and played, the soundtrack to many nights at home and out. It has a host of legendary names- Jackie Mittoo, Augustus Pablo, Dawn Penn, John Holt, Toots And The Maytals, Prince Buster, Tommy McCook, The Upsetters- all represented by lesser known but infectiously brilliant tracks. Soul Jazz spread the net wide too not confining themselves to the classic sounds of early 70s Jamaica but heading into the 80s. The second track on 200% Dynamite is Tenor Saw's Ring The Alarm, a 1985 dancehall smash...</p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/11_xptKES3iTF44r1fNM9SJvuV3sUgVxO/view?usp=sharing">Ring The Alarm</a></p><p>Herb Man Dub by The Skatalites, was recorded at Black Ark and mixed at King Tubby's, a decade earlier, 1975. You won't hear a better instrumental that this today.</p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DfQ6iE9myXwj1IoofWG02zMO8F0CqZNk/view?usp=sharing">Herb Man Dub</a></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-7373410787938395252024-03-15T08:00:00.140+00:002024-03-15T08:00:00.152+00:00Big Weekend Incoming<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCKewPDtRb6Uv7EuhJnm5cu_QdOcmGnGi5ZEKzJZxuFJJQ4nM6nCR-Wg_7phNNYKqrd2WOlJYJ4ZNri-ofVKNIHHspt4fX4qiGc2SOf-RJaxz27JeGfawTmiHVBRA7rz36Jv0quAas9aMtE_DtJknqFu2alxOO1xpvXH9h318NkcTdMvObjXtX4i3Kxg/s1080/BlossomStFlightpathEstate3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCKewPDtRb6Uv7EuhJnm5cu_QdOcmGnGi5ZEKzJZxuFJJQ4nM6nCR-Wg_7phNNYKqrd2WOlJYJ4ZNri-ofVKNIHHspt4fX4qiGc2SOf-RJaxz27JeGfawTmiHVBRA7rz36Jv0quAas9aMtE_DtJknqFu2alxOO1xpvXH9h318NkcTdMvObjXtX4i3Kxg/s320/BlossomStFlightpathEstate3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>It's a big weekend of music related activity coming up, starting tonight and running though until Sunday evening by which point I will be in need of a lie down. We'll go in reverse order. As the flyer above shows on Sunday The Flightpath Estate DJs (on this occasion Martin, Dan and me) are returning to Blossom Street Social in Ancoats for our third mission there, playing records from 3pm until 8pm. We are joined by guest Rob Fletcher, the man responsible for legendary 90s Manchester techno and electronic music club night Herbal Tea Party. The four of us will be playing back to back, three tracks each and then switching and it will be a seamless showcase of our track selection and turntable skills. Obviously. </p><p>If you're in Manchester on Sunday afternoon, please come down and say hello. Dan has a test pressing of our forthcoming double vinyl album Songs From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1, the album we're putting out with The Golden Lion featuring Two Lone Swordsmen, Justin Robertson, Andy Bell, The Light Brigade, Justin Robertson, Sons Of Slough, 10: 40, Richard Sen, Rude Audio and Hardway Bros, so some of those tracks, if not all, will get their first airing in public. </p><p>On Saturday night I'm at Manchester's Albert Hall to see Echo And The Bunnymen who are touring to celebrate 1985's Songs To Learn And Sing, Mac, Will and the rest of the current line up playing two sets with a short gap in between. I've seen them a few times in the last ten years and when they're good, they're very good. 'Lay down thy raincoat and groove', was the advice of the Bunnymen back in 1983 on the release of Never Stop- decent advice still. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kkw1gqx3v8-VPztqRRLeXTII1OiEnJN3/view?usp=sharing">Never Stop (Discotheque)</a></p><p>The night before the Bunnymen (tonight in other words) we're at Manchester's Deaf Institute to see a second member of The Crucial Three, Pete Wylie, on tour with a full band promoting Teach Yourself Wah!, a Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! best of. A small venue, Wylie's between song storytelling and patter, some of the best songs of the 1980s, good reviews coming in from other gigs on the tour.. . I'm really looking forward to it. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n3GE7pGXOqZFbE9sxXzDWMtI42YBqabJ/view?usp=sharing">Seven Minutes To Midnight</a></p><p>Seven Minutes To Midnight came out in 1980, the second/ final single of Wah! Heat, a clanging, clamorous post- punk single written in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent moving of the hands of the doomsday clock to 11.53. In the intervening forty three years the clock's hands have moved back and forth a little and were altered most recently in January 2023, now set at ninety seconds to midnight. That apocalypse just creeps closer. </p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-77276591251110828142024-03-14T08:00:00.246+00:002024-03-14T08:00:00.239+00:00Endtroducing...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilAoWbUXV7wb6DAAkyo1gEu9zSsESVlQyhGCqv0rcc_CYYJYX7tZAVTs4Lga7n2iKr89tsKInKios5qCsPCuhXrSTkJWE64J98NzSpM6IVT1iUT9B69LEQwj5zGZB1MaKBF4FDMNoS9jZDEyYssUQK5Tf8XU-mt-gn4GXfBe_84TMe7GoHprcQTjNu8aE/s2048/styalwoods5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilAoWbUXV7wb6DAAkyo1gEu9zSsESVlQyhGCqv0rcc_CYYJYX7tZAVTs4Lga7n2iKr89tsKInKios5qCsPCuhXrSTkJWE64J98NzSpM6IVT1iUT9B69LEQwj5zGZB1MaKBF4FDMNoS9jZDEyYssUQK5Tf8XU-mt-gn4GXfBe_84TMe7GoHprcQTjNu8aE/w400-h300/styalwoods5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>There were a lot of good albums released in 1996, a year that doesn't necessarily jump out in memory as being a vintage year. I'm not sure why this thought occurred to me recently but it did. There were a good number of well above average albums in 1996: Two Lone Swordsmen's The Fifth Mission (Return To The Flightpath Estate) was released, a double album that redefined where Andrew Weatherall's head was at; Everything Must Go by the Manics was a big guitar album, full of post- Richey songs about renewal and escape; Beck's Odelay, a pick 'n' mix record everybody loved; New Adventures In Hi Fi, the last R.E.M. album by the original line up and their last essential lp for me; Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds; Underworld's Second Toughest In The Infants; Richard D James by Aphex Twin; Millions Now Living Never Die by Tortoise; Belle And Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister; Stereolab's Emperor Tomato Ketchup. These are all albums that I can still pull out and listen to, none seem too dated or attached to that part of the mid- 90s as to be timebound and some of them have moments that could be contemporary. </p><p>Of all the albums released that year few had the impact that DJ Shadow's Endtroducing... did, a record that broke new ground, crossed over, opened doors, and moved the music it originated from onto somewhere new. Created by Josh Davis using a single AKAI MPC60 sampler, a Technics turntable and a tape recorder, Endtroducing.... is the result of years of crate digging, of finding drum breaks, strings stabs, basslines, guitar parts, organs and horns, snatches of vocals and voices from TV and film, of plundering bargain boxes for unusual records and avoiding the obvious sources, finding samples in funk, jazz, soundtracks, psychedelia, and from Bjork, Tangerine Dream and Metallica. DJ Shadow found the records, sampled them, chopped them up, looped them, layered them and made something new. It's ostensibly a hip hop album, that's the world Shadow was coming from, but it's as much sound collage as rap. Endtroducing... was released on Mo Wax in the UK, a label which was very cool and on a roll in 1996. It took longer for his native US to catch up. From the sleeve on in, a gatefold photo of Josh scouring the racks at Rare Records in Sacramento, to the four sides of vinyl it's a fully realised and self- contained world, the kind of album that should be listened to in a single sitting, from start to finish. Here are three slices of sound from it...</p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/17-HHYdI665VGvnbKx7bYBDvZ5qFEnI7B/view?usp=sharing">What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)</a></p><p>What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4) starts out like a lounge- jazz instrumental interlude that becomes a slow paced trip hop track, built around a sample of The Vision by Flying Island. Josh drops in some scratching and flute, choral voices and a sax. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/11sYGAFf0Fy5deWlg0jpJSbdUoaZvYWFS/view?usp=sharing">Stem</a></p><p>Spooked out and on edge, a walk round the block in an unknown part of town after dark, Stem is constructed around a descending acoustic guitar part and contains a sample of Love Suite by Nirvana (not that Nirvana, the British 60s Nirvana). Strings and rapid fire drums eventually shatter the mood before it finishes with some screeches of violin. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MnNtGIeA9lR-3HS5Hfr0HmgvIWGw8RyT/view?usp=sharing">Midnight In A Perfect World</a></p><p>Midnight In A Perfect World was released as a single in September 1996, opening with a burst of vocal, and centred on some electric piano, sampled from a David Axelrod song from 1969, The Human Abstract. There's a slow paced hip hop drum break, various bits of vocal (one from Marlena Shaw), the word 'midnight' looped over and over, a bassline from Pekka Pohjola, creating a tense and mournful atmosphere, and ending in a stuttering conclusion. </p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-62290622080325725682024-03-13T08:00:00.110+00:002024-03-13T08:00:00.155+00:00Anzu <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY6s5j69NvSPkmnXeEAY53Dw3TGnD7w0jkfsFbHLN2_V2mLKjzMgW6z1ohdkJfjtq8QO3Cb3mA-oVM5rt5mth02ikAO5ZciiT3pafh6Pnrub8c2Y8nSzgLAqxa2ehfG1wp8gXcSzTbxMiE14c1Eq0pC5E_Y7bXBEye4TFFpApyScvxqZgo1OQQw4E5cwg/s2048/vineyardnotts.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY6s5j69NvSPkmnXeEAY53Dw3TGnD7w0jkfsFbHLN2_V2mLKjzMgW6z1ohdkJfjtq8QO3Cb3mA-oVM5rt5mth02ikAO5ZciiT3pafh6Pnrub8c2Y8nSzgLAqxa2ehfG1wp8gXcSzTbxMiE14c1Eq0pC5E_Y7bXBEye4TFFpApyScvxqZgo1OQQw4E5cwg/w400-h300/vineyardnotts.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>One of my favourite singles of last year came out in mid- December- it got a bit overlooked as a result but has grown and grown as 2024 has gone on, taking up more and more of my listening time. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcCjU-1kwOY">Anzu </a>by C.A.R. is electro- pop perfection, throbbing acid house/ dance pop. It has wobbling synths, a smokey vocal telling tales of adventures in a pub now lost to market forces, singer Chloe weaving lines of personal history, hedonism and squalor into something quite moving. There's a darkness in the song, a yearning, and then the synths change, there are rippling toplines and chord changes and everything surges forwards. Drums thump in and Chloe picks up her theme, 'walls close in... guerrilla shadows, hopped on having fun'. Totally infectious and emotive dance music. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HcCjU-1kwOY" width="320" youtube-src-id="HcCjU-1kwOY"></iframe></div><p>When it was released back in December it came with a GLOK remix, Andy Bell stripping it down and building it around a two word phrase from the lyric, 'basement sounds'. Last week a pair of Hardway Bros remixes came out, pushing Anzu further on into the disco. The<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_7PYFfFioA"> Hardway Bros Remix</a> is crunchy and cosmic, a four four stomper for souls dancing under the mirror ball or in the kitchen, Chloe's vocal on top of Sean's shimmering synths and arpeggios. Seven and a half minutes and not a second too long. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l_7PYFfFioA" width="320" youtube-src-id="l_7PYFfFioA"></iframe></div><p>There's a second version too, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd9uHhqI6ZU">Hardway Bros Conqueror Dub</a>, all wobbly oscillations, signature Sean synth sounds, funky drums, acid squiggles and heavy bottom end, Chloe still there singing of 'cigarette smoke' and giving half glimpses of the past. Buy them both <a href="https://c-a-r.bandcamp.com/album/anzu-hardway-bros-remixes">here</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qd9uHhqI6ZU" width="320" youtube-src-id="Qd9uHhqI6ZU"></iframe></div><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-78362591544734317412024-03-12T08:00:00.144+00:002024-03-12T08:00:00.236+00:00Wild God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj89Dq2jsC4qYg1nrrpHhCKFYPG8vFLzoLRpsx11MNkcT2bnYBpkjbs2dALQ73LAPR8IjW2bWXtLYKm13XEHtTLvCMWwa16eLoU8xqfxqqXU0mDW_Haurj1tMDqAw3Pj_xx9sXUShwvIXamW7T2ulrBohZPDiPYoepX7vuPFQOIIYaVCPw-8b52ZSxChH8/s2048/padfield3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1153" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj89Dq2jsC4qYg1nrrpHhCKFYPG8vFLzoLRpsx11MNkcT2bnYBpkjbs2dALQ73LAPR8IjW2bWXtLYKm13XEHtTLvCMWwa16eLoU8xqfxqqXU0mDW_Haurj1tMDqAw3Pj_xx9sXUShwvIXamW7T2ulrBohZPDiPYoepX7vuPFQOIIYaVCPw-8b52ZSxChH8/w225-h400/padfield3.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><p>A new Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds song was released last Wednesday. It took me a few listens to fully get it but now I can't stay away from it. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAgsn7la3jg&t=170s">Wild God</a> starts out slowly with what sounds like the end of another song, then begins to gather pace and oomph, the musicians setting out slowly and quietly and swelling as the song moves onwards. Nick's words seem to tell of a man looking back from his life in a retirement home, a wild god, but there are plenty of obtuse and currently unexplained lines as well as a reference to Jubilee Street (from 2013's Push The Sky Away) and a girl who died in a bedsit in 1993. The explosion just after three minutes in as the choir kicks in and Nick sings, 'bring your spirit down', packs a powerful punch, lifting the song and the listener- well, this listener for one. The sound becomes big and orchestrated but it's clearly Bad Seeds too, with the drums shifting things away from the synth oriented music of his recent albums with Warren Ellis. Wild God's long ending is full of passion and joy, an ecstatic finale with Nick still singing, 'here we go', as it fades out, the song sounding like it could go on. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uAgsn7la3jg" width="320" youtube-src-id="uAgsn7la3jg"></iframe></div><p>A while ago, being interviewed for a film, Nick said that after several years of grieving the loss of their son Arthur in 2015 and all the awful trauma that came with it, Nick and Suzie made a conscious decision to be happy. </p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">'It's strange reading those scripts back, those lyrics from my son brought back. </span><span style="background-color: white;">And, you know, they're ok, t</span><span style="background-color: white;">hey're actually kind of beautiful, really. </span><span style="background-color: white;">But at the time they never revealed themselves as such. </span><span style="background-color: white;">I just thought that I was writing a lot of rubbish. </span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">That was one of the things I lost. </span><span style="background-color: white;">That was one of the things I lost hard, a</span><span style="background-color: white;"> sense of belief in myself, like I'd fucked up bad, t</span><span style="background-color: white;">hat me and Susie had looked away for a terrible moment, and this reflected savagely on everything else. </span><span style="background-color: white;">A belief in the good in things, in the world, in ourselves evaporated. </span><span style="background-color: white;">But you know, after a while, after a time, Susie and I decided to be happy.</span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">This happiness seemed to be an act of revenge, a</span><span style="background-color: white;">n act of defiance. </span><span style="background-color: white;">To care about each other and everyone else a</span><span style="background-color: white;">nd to be careful, t</span><span style="background-color: white;">o be careful with each other and the ones around us.'</span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">That's what Wild God sounds like to me- a conscious decision to be happy, to record the joy and euphoria that can be found in music. I'm sure the album will tell more. At the Red Hand Files this week he said that Wild God (also the title of the album) is a 'series of complex and interlinking narratives' and that 'an acutely vulnerable and mysterious 'event' resides at the heart of the album's central song, Conversion'. Wild God is also a song that seems to reveal a little more each time I play it, something new seeping out with each play. The album isn't out until the end of August which seems a long way off from here. </span></span></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-73062994570054652262024-03-11T08:00:00.038+00:002024-03-11T08:00:00.130+00:00Monday's Long Song<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYGxDsZl4kJlqlSL7CY6gaXETzva6dvJ-HGxD8etxadFRbJcyRzjK1Qs-owwPN1tzO6FjP_8gxhtBn6vVMzYqF64QrDflezyiecgSO8RdS5bV-ynHkJS8NX3V6A0Ir7GfYIcu0JkQEKIwgIYxi8BoE-7mri8PGbLaBf8X6Qn-GeWauhUUcK38FKJ1HNqA/s2048/cemrainbowdec23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYGxDsZl4kJlqlSL7CY6gaXETzva6dvJ-HGxD8etxadFRbJcyRzjK1Qs-owwPN1tzO6FjP_8gxhtBn6vVMzYqF64QrDflezyiecgSO8RdS5bV-ynHkJS8NX3V6A0Ir7GfYIcu0JkQEKIwgIYxi8BoE-7mri8PGbLaBf8X6Qn-GeWauhUUcK38FKJ1HNqA/w400-h300/cemrainbowdec23.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br />Two weeks ago I posted a Monday long song by Marshall Watson, an epic ten minute science fiction ambient/ house/ cinematic/ progressive ode to the cosmos called Astro Pan. The post is <a href="https://baggingarea.blogspot.com/2024/02/mondays-long-song_0154585616.html">here</a>. Last week Marshall followed it with this, Orbit Atrophy, another interstellar electronic epic, but this time laced with strong, dark acid. It's available at <a href="https://marshallwatson.bandcamp.com/track/orbit-atrophy">Bandcamp </a>and makes a perfect partner to Astro Pan; play them back to back and they make a grand, far out twenty minute trip. </p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-67341109552495637772024-03-10T08:00:00.177+00:002024-03-11T20:28:15.753+00:00Forty Minutes Of The Cramps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-FafBvekqZi27Mg9k6t8P74zVgURqHe5-QLysPunNnZ3A6yZy64b9bdBNXGKPELpA0ZfOlcVW2JMh_i55BYiVPvM0maeD9UHGTwjVQneAs0fyk9zDOAmkwsVkxQKGD6pMNHXx_PYNKRSvXgudd_e3eZYB63UFw1bPfzhHSz2GQuZKBgzqSWyPRhfDYE/s2048/McrtowersFeb24b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-FafBvekqZi27Mg9k6t8P74zVgURqHe5-QLysPunNnZ3A6yZy64b9bdBNXGKPELpA0ZfOlcVW2JMh_i55BYiVPvM0maeD9UHGTwjVQneAs0fyk9zDOAmkwsVkxQKGD6pMNHXx_PYNKRSvXgudd_e3eZYB63UFw1bPfzhHSz2GQuZKBgzqSWyPRhfDYE/w400-h300/McrtowersFeb24b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The Cramps, in some ways, are the perfect rock 'n' roll band. The took everything that punk, 60s psyche, 50s rockabilly and the cartoon magnificence of sci fi/ horror/ comics offered and turned it into a thrilling, high octane, nerve shredding, electrifying blast of guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Lux and Ivy treated it as both the most important thing in the world and something that was always tongue in cheek- serious fun. </p><p>The Cramps formed in 1976 after Lux and Ivy met in Sacramento in 1972. There are two main bursts of recordings- the first in the late 70s and early 80s and a second in the mid 80s/ 1990 with three further albums in 1994, 1997 and 2003. Lux died in 2009 which brought the group to an end. The Cramps are the very essence of punk infused rock 'n' roll and every so often they are exactly what I want to hear. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/14fJxO4TkUb9Er2mvVYXvZ0FBTfHdBUz-/view?usp=sharing">Forty Minutes Of The Cramps</a></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>New Kind Of Kick</li><li>Drug Train</li><li>Bikini Girls With Machine Guns</li><li>Love Me</li><li>Bop Pills</li><li>Mama Ooh Pow Pow</li><li>Cornfed Dames (Peel Session)</li><li>What's Inside A Girl?</li><li>Journey To The Centre Of a Girl</li><li>All Women Are Bad</li><li>You Got Good Taste</li><li>Her Love Rubbed Off</li></ul><p></p><p>'Life is short/ Filled with stuff', Lux sings on New Kind Of Kick. Minimal guitars and drums thump away behind him. There's a surge of nasty, brutish and short energy and a pun about Judy and Dick. New Kind Of Kick was the B-side of The Crusher, a 1981 single. </p><p>Drug Train is from 1980, a 7" single. 'You put one foot up/ You put another foot up/ You put another foot up/ And you're on board the drug train'. </p><p>Bikini Girls With Machine Guns is from 1990's Stay Sick, my favourite Cramps album, the sound a full on rush of Ivy's guitars, thumping Nick Knox drums and Fur Dixon's bass playing. Lux was at his best, lyrics combining sex, 50s horror and rockabilly, black leather and high heels. It's a rush of high energy rock 'n' roll and laugh out loud funny at the same time. Mama Ooh Pow Pow (an ode to spanking), Journey To The Centre Of A Girl and All Women Are Bad are from the same album. Given Ivy played guitar, co- wrote the songs, produced and co- managed the band, we can take Lux's view that all women are bad with a pinch of salt. Bad meaning good I think. Bop Pills is a cover of a 1956 song by Macy Skip Skipper (released on Sun Records) and is the opening song from Stay Sick!, a manic appreciation of amphetamines and dancing. In Amsterdam a few years ago I found a Dutch copy of Stay Sick! with a slightly different cover photo and bought it on the spot. </p><p>Love Me is a cover of a song by The Phantom from 1960. The Cramps' version was the B-side to Drug Train, an artefact from 1980. </p><p>Cornfed Dames is from 1986's A Date With Elvis, the classic line up making a classic Cramps album. This version is from a Peel Session from the same year. In Cornfed Dames Lux finds sex on the farm, 'whip that cream til the butter comes' he sings, before concluding, 'I ain't no farmer'. </p><p>What's Inside A Girl? was a 1986 single and also from A Date With Elvis and contains some of the best lyrics of the 20th century- 'well you can say it by satellite but baby that's cheating/ The President called an emergency meeting/ The King of Siam sent a telegram/ It said 'a wop bop a loop bop a wop bam bam'.</p><p>You Got Good Taste is from the 1983 mini- album Smell of Female, a second hand record shop mainstay, recorded live at The Peppermint Lounge, New York in February 1983. Despite Lux introducing it as being about Gucci wearers, I think it's actually about cunnilingus. </p><p>Her Love Rubbed Off was originally by Carl Perkins in 1969, a bonus track for those who bought Stay Sick! on CD in 1990.</p><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-27825026789313134002024-03-09T08:00:00.234+00:002024-03-11T18:18:04.654+00:00V.A. Saturday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGd6Kue5zR4qFtCyMsityYQXQqbSjtYR7XTbe2zVZUy-9fICzHjPONZrH2HpJzQKuwCY6GwsyQzqbnzvxtH_ZWBcpY9VTm5UJzKrNk9VDzLREEeS7W2jx-wu5ppQG7CrOO8draMIByItHYKM4oazuQrMRpT5wGEQGrrMQdcEJimJbVmdD7IVChD5KgA44/s1624/birchwood5b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1624" data-original-width="1279" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGd6Kue5zR4qFtCyMsityYQXQqbSjtYR7XTbe2zVZUy-9fICzHjPONZrH2HpJzQKuwCY6GwsyQzqbnzvxtH_ZWBcpY9VTm5UJzKrNk9VDzLREEeS7W2jx-wu5ppQG7CrOO8draMIByItHYKM4oazuQrMRpT5wGEQGrrMQdcEJimJbVmdD7IVChD5KgA44/w315-h400/birchwood5b.jpg" width="315" /></a></div><p>One of the features of the 1988- 1992 period was the indie- dance Various Artists album, often a cheaply packaged affair rounding up the big hitters and also rans, compilations called things like Happy Daze, sleeves adorned with daisy age, day glo rave graphics. These compilations were often TV advertised, aimed at the mass market and casual buyer, the people that hadn't bought all the 12" singles. </p><p>Today's VA is from 1991, a double disc set simply titled Rave 1, and was put together for the German market, young indie- dance kids in Cologne and Berlin, all loved up in the newly re- united Germany. Across two discs you get exactly what you'd expect from a 1991 indie- dance compilation- Happy Mondays and Kinky Afro, The Soup Dragons and I'm Free, The Farm and All Together Now, EMF's Unbelievable and I Believe, James and Lose Control, Northside's My Rising Star, Primal Scream's Come Together, Jesus Jones and Right Here Right Now, The Shamen with Make It Mine and Inspiral Carpets with She Comes In The Fall are all present and correct. What makes Rave 1 a little different is that these are all represented by the 12" versions, extended mixes and different takes, and in some cases mixes and versions that weren't widely available. There is also a very under the radar and very of its time cover of Come Together (Beatles not Primal Scream) by Howie J And Co. </p><p>Exhibit A: The Charlatans.Then was a fantastic early Charlatans single, easily the equal of The Only One I Know, powered by a Martin Blunt Motown bassline and some Rob Collins organ, Tim cooing on top. The Alternate Take is slower, looser and more groovy, less a pop song, more a 60s/ 90s psyche groove. It was on the Then 12" and CD single, released in September 1990. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cVgiqLkIc99VFz_Dx7XIEgWzGhgzHhtT/view?usp=sharing">Then (Alternate Take)</a></p><p>Exhibit B: My Jealous God were signed to Rough Trade and released Pray as a 12" in 1990, led by singer Jim Melly who developed a bit of a motormouth reputation. My Jealous God got a fair bit of press from NME and Melody Maker although I think the backlash hit them too, accusations of bandwagon jumping. The band were from South London and had a follow up on Rough Trade and then a single in 1992 on Fontana but their album was shelved. Pray is wah wah driven indie- dance. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DBw4W5bdPGZji1zKItxtq865OiFLEIYp/view?usp=sharing">Pray (12" Mix)</a></p><p>Exhibit C: Flowered Up and Phobia, a November 1990 single from the London band, a five piece led by Liam Maher who made some real period piece records. The Paranoid mix is from the 12" single and was remixed by Marc Angelo who is the brother of glamour model Linda Lusardi and who cut his production teeth on the UK reggae and dub scene working with Dennis Bovell, Prince Far I and Creation Rebel. Phobia was Flowered Up's second single, following on the heels of It's On. Their debut album has recently been re- issued for the first time by Heavenly. The Paranoid mix shuffles along nicely, the funky bassline to the fore, percussion and drums giving this version a proper indie- dance groove. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P01qHILVmVDzzUp4KrA04xIuI04XFzUb/view?usp=sharing">Phobia (Paranoid Mix)</a></p><p>Exhibit D: Primal Scream. The Hypnotone remix is the lesser known remix of Come Together, fading into the background a little compared to Terry Farley's Suspicious Minds version and Andrew Weatherall's genuine ten minutes of genius version. The HypnotoneBrainMachineRemix is a superb version in its own right though, Tony Martin's raved up take chopping the band up, looping vocals, horns blaring out, synths to the fore, bubbling bassline and drum machines, everything louder than everything else, breaking down for the shout, 'This is a heist!' (or 'This is the hype!'), more looped shouts, this time of 'Bass! Bass!', and some tumbling drums. This is a remix that sounds like a Primal Scream record being played at the same time as a Public Enemy record and an Altern- 8 record. Yes, that good. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h7NiMaE_1Q_85O8s4FW7anOizDqb72ge/view?usp=sharing">Come Together (HypnotoneBrainMachineMix)</a></p><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-52903237435493838552024-03-08T08:00:00.219+00:002024-03-08T17:38:20.159+00:00Pamela One To Four<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0QRaSeN_UUkJiUJ3Io4Rlt4i52KOZvmP2wg-IvUivMVOjlSoWezNus05HAio5nHxRVRQXgS1VVtSos79CbjQt5g-oBdj0xulqw3zYGwI_emlo8Z4mAXezJVUWQSg2iJa8bxqF6crsmz1rBFTRmiHZiA2S3PPmgrDu-iHzXqsPgZh958DtNdfdeuUljk/s2048/blackpoolJan24d.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0QRaSeN_UUkJiUJ3Io4Rlt4i52KOZvmP2wg-IvUivMVOjlSoWezNus05HAio5nHxRVRQXgS1VVtSos79CbjQt5g-oBdj0xulqw3zYGwI_emlo8Z4mAXezJVUWQSg2iJa8bxqF6crsmz1rBFTRmiHZiA2S3PPmgrDu-iHzXqsPgZh958DtNdfdeuUljk/w300-h400/blackpoolJan24d.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>Pamela Records is a London based label with to date only four release to its name (three already out and one to come shortly), run by Dave Jarvis and Darren House. Pamela is a sister label to Moton Records (and hence the joke of the name, which I think is Tamla Motown pun). Pamela 001 was one of the last releases by Andrew Weatherall before his untimely death in February 2020- in fact if memory serves Pamela 001 arrived on my door mat just a few days after Andrew's death. The EP has four Andrew Weatherall and Nina Walsh tracks, led by the track The Moton 5 (another Motown. Jackson 5 pun I'm guessing). <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAUaYQz6x90">The Moton 5</a> is a slinky number built around a deeply chuggy groove and some machine based noises, occasional bursts of timpani and synth chord key changes, and a huge descending, slightly Eastern sounding synth string part. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HAUaYQz6x90" width="320" youtube-src-id="HAUaYQz6x90"></iframe></div><p>The other three tracks on Pamela 001 show how high Andrew's quality control was- all three are the equal of the lead track and all stand alongside anything else Andrew recorded under his own name. Slap And Slide has the inclusion of a burst of slap bass, something fairly rare in Weatherall world. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un_1DhllBDY">March Violets </a>sees the return of Andrew's steam powered drum machine and some very WRF bleeps and FX (and is named after one of the novels in Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy,highly recommended if you fancy some detective fiction set in Germany in the 1930s). The Moton 5.2 finishes the EP off, a further deconstruction of the lead track, uberchug, chug as a way of life. </p><p>Pamela 002 didn't appear until three years later, in the summer of 2023, a four track EP by Jo Sims titled Bass- The Final Frontier. It came with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyBb7uYouQ0">David Holmes remix</a> that was one of my favourite pieces of music from last year, seven minutes and twelve seconds of wobbly, slo mo, supercharged sci fi acid house. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pyBb7uYouQ0" width="320" youtube-src-id="pyBb7uYouQ0"></iframe></div><br /><p>The flipside of the 12" had two further tracks, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3RuJANW1ag">Demons Of Dance</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7AlDnr52wc">Mumbo Jumbo</a>. The former is a bass led beast, a fuzzed up electro crawl. The latter is a wiggy and spaced out treat pushed onwards by a rattling drum track. </p><p>Pamela 003 followed a few months later, an EP from Anthony Teasdale called Tango de la Boca. Once again, four tracks across two sides of a 12" single, with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdjdmqNYE6A">the title track</a> a chunky, sundown moment with a rippling piano line.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MdjdmqNYE6A" width="320" youtube-src-id="MdjdmqNYE6A"></iframe></div><p>The EP also featured A Pavement In Palma and Deep In The Forest Something Stared and was completed by the Balearic sounds of<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf6sY9r_vOY"> It's 5am Somewhere</a>. </p><p>Pamela 004 is next, four tracks from Justin Robertson. I pulled together a fifty minute mix of Justin's recordings as Deadstock 33s a few Sundays ago (it's <a href="https://baggingarea.blogspot.com/2024/02/fifty-minutes-of-deadstock-33s.html">here</a>) and by happy coincidence his Pamela EP comes out at the start of April. Justin's EP keeps the standards high, not just of the Pamela back catalogue but of his own releases and recordings from recent years. There's plenty of wired dub basslines, chuggy drums and spacey FX, a wonderful four track, twenty five minute release. Opener In Minus Shadows is a dubby delight with a front foot bassline and some guitar that could come from an early New Order record. The distorted effect on the voice makes the vocal sounds like its been beamed in from some other world, and is a close cousin of the track Justin gave us for The Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1. The snares rattle and echo while the kick drum thuds away. It's followed by Endless Motorcade, propelled by a faster, pumping drumbeat, with revving engines and a foreground synth bassline. Sci fi bleeps and FX swirl around. Cup Of Silence follows, basement chug, thumping kick drum, melodica, shakers, flutters of flute and more disembodied vocals. The dub bass returns, a Sabres Of Paradise style speaker shaker. Of Ghosts rounds things off in fine style, drum machine gainfully employed and plenty of squelch and filters bouncing around. Washes of synth chords come in, again recalling early 80s New Order, the promise of an imaginary Factory electronic dub offshoot from 1983, and then bleeps riding over it all. </p><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-44501363929684930202024-03-07T08:00:00.153+00:002024-03-07T17:24:50.723+00:00Further Galloping Remixes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMghaDX0vnksWY9VWG1htETU3GCJEhWErvDsy8YXdWoPPamQHlkqed83paXM1DZDrvASn1BoM-Z2AjYskJzvdNbmqC0MGaB53PdTkZrZu1Rjpx8yIIzwy3KGgKUdb0T1mrp-nNdFE8T8t6z85y9fKi4U9YIXZuT-IBXOwEo8ABEsK9BHxYQ8urtMH3mo/s2048/morrishall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMghaDX0vnksWY9VWG1htETU3GCJEhWErvDsy8YXdWoPPamQHlkqed83paXM1DZDrvASn1BoM-Z2AjYskJzvdNbmqC0MGaB53PdTkZrZu1Rjpx8yIIzwy3KGgKUdb0T1mrp-nNdFE8T8t6z85y9fKi4U9YIXZuT-IBXOwEo8ABEsK9BHxYQ8urtMH3mo/w400-h300/morrishall.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>David Holmes' remix project continues to gather pace, an almost bewildering number of remixes of songs from his 2023 album Blind On A Galloping Horse being released (and this week Heavenly putting some of them out on vinyl). So far the roll call of artists who have taken David's songs from the album and reshaped them takes in Daniel Avery, Die Hexen and Ruth Bate, Timmy Stewart, Darren Emerson, Lovefingers and Heidi Lawden, Working Men's Club, Hardway Bros, Skymas, Decius, Phil Kieran, Robin Wylie, Lovefingers (again), Sonic Boom and Panda Bear, X- Press 2, Jordan Nocturne, The Vendetta Suite, Horse Meat Disco and Colleen Cosmo Murphy. Last week three new remixes saw the light of day, the first being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvlgaxswonM">Rich Lane's remix of Yeah x 3</a>...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bvlgaxswonM" width="320" youtube-src-id="bvlgaxswonM"></iframe></div><div><br /></div>Rich's remix is an unashamedly acid house banger, the bassline burbling away with the instantly recognisable sound of the 303's drum settings, the 303 deployed to fine effect, while Raven sings of the power of positivity, personal freedom and that love is a mystery. There's a turning up of the heat in the last two minutes, acid bleeps at the fore, bassline pulsing and intensity rising. I'm particularly fond of this remix- this blog played a part in connecting David and Rich in the autumn of last year following a post in the aftermath of Sinead O'Connor's death which led to David suggesting Rich remix Yeah x 3. There's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiNBygkI6kE">Rich Lane Dub </a>too which strips Raven back and pushes the acid even further to the front. <div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CiNBygkI6kE" width="320" youtube-src-id="CiNBygkI6kE"></iframe></div><br />Hardway Bros return to the remix frontline with a remix of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCfjs49eB7E">Too Muchroom (Too Much Acid Dub)</a>, a heavy duty seven minute Sean Johnston dubbed out dance remix, the vocals turned into a ghostly echo whispering away behind the insistent throb of the bass and drums and bounce of the synths-'If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room'<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HCfjs49eB7E" width="320" youtube-src-id="HCfjs49eB7E"></iframe></div><br /><div>Finally, for the moment, unless David has another slew of artists ready to further deconstruct his album, there is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2L1uit_qEo">GLOK remix of Agitprop 13</a>. Andy Bell's recent GLOK remixes have been wide ranging affairs, taking the GLOK sound into deeper waters. This one is a slo mo pounder, disembodied and backwards vocals bouncing round the mix, synths as pulses, basement sounds (as his remix of C.A.R.'s Anzu at the tail end of last year stated) ending in a rather lovely and low key as the tinkling music box melody repeats to fade. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E2L1uit_qEo" width="320" youtube-src-id="E2L1uit_qEo"></iframe></div></div>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-43834285834816322522024-03-06T08:00:00.137+00:002024-03-06T08:00:00.139+00:00Don't Say Goodbye<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdiYlfNBb0UnMSgZ9yBNUndVwDjqYMvUWiWgbqIrITm0u5M1Zg9Cmrxzl4ZcFpCVWRC1l2bPiVuq2C-mz5dfWvcLFDYokLdS1kOlZOSYJKbT6mcLYotId_NWdC_9lVR9HwcoOWt69sVpz5Me-rghlOS518RIjBNk8XoPWaRZ7MXJzSltglttjlK_m6vG4/s2048/birminghamfeb24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdiYlfNBb0UnMSgZ9yBNUndVwDjqYMvUWiWgbqIrITm0u5M1Zg9Cmrxzl4ZcFpCVWRC1l2bPiVuq2C-mz5dfWvcLFDYokLdS1kOlZOSYJKbT6mcLYotId_NWdC_9lVR9HwcoOWt69sVpz5Me-rghlOS518RIjBNk8XoPWaRZ7MXJzSltglttjlK_m6vG4/w300-h400/birminghamfeb24.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>A month ago I wrote a couple of posts about a pile of CD singles found in a box while looking for something else (last weekend while digging through a different box of CDs I found my copy of Spiritualized's Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space, the CD version with the blister pack which I've been looking for since their gig at New Century Hall last September. Maybe I need to rationalise/ reorganise my CDs and their storage). Two of the CD singles from the first box were an Elliott Smith single from 2002 (Son Of Sam) and an EP from The Coral, same year, Skeleton Key (complete with sticker, still currently unstuck). Along with Skeleton Key was another single from the Wirral band, Goodbye. </p><p>Goodbye is a fantastic song, four minutes of 60s psyche rock re- dug for the early 21st century, led by a piercing guitar line, some classic minor and major chords and singer James Skelley's old before his years voice. It's The Thirteenth Floor Elevators and The Byrds transported through time and space to West Kirby. The breakdown in the middle, thundering guitars and drums, sudden increase in tempo and wig out are all superb, especially when you consider some of this band were barely out of their teens at the time (Ian Broudie was producer but the band seem to have had a clear idea of how they wanted to sound). Goodbye also has a countdown section, a heavily reverbed vocal countdown from ten down to one, backed by muffled organ and guitars- countdowns always make songs better. <br /></p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E7SpNg9FWgc8353DqM7Ji5VhulvHAkJf/view?usp=sharing">Goodbye</a></p><p>Goodbye was always one of the standouts from The Coral's debut album and it's no wonder they released it as the album's second single. Somehow the intervening twenty two years have made the song sound even better than it did back in 2002. </p><p>This CD single was an Enhanced CD. Not only did it have two B- sides but if you popped it into your computer you could watch the video, in those pre- Youtube days an exciting thing. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atGPiczuf-8">video </a>is a fantastic promo for the song, the band shot at night in North Wales, opposite the Wirral peninsula, with some Wicker Man shenanigans taking place. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/atGPiczuf-8" width="320" youtube-src-id="atGPiczuf-8"></iframe></div><p>These were the B-sides...</p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xSuQR80Xui2viG-Z5vpHl-rBIXFS8ueY/view?usp=sharing">Good Fortune</a></p><p>Good Fortune is two and a half minutes of acoustic guitar, buzzsaw guitar, 60s melodies and cosmic scouse energy. The fact they put this on the B-side of a single shows how strong the group's writing was at the time and how soon they hit their stride.</p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KenUAdGNLTwjqNq6w7vK2xMLHT1pzoII/view?usp=sharing">Travelling Circus</a></p><p>Travelling Circus, fairground guitar and organ lines, breaks down for a question and answer section- 'what shall we do with the foolish people? Hang them from the church's steeple!'- before zipping back into its 60s psyche/ fairground crossover ground. </p><p>My CD was CD 1. There was a CD 2 which I don't have, which had two live in session songs (Goodbye and Dressed Like A Cow, from a session at XFM) and The Coral Mini Movie, a ten minute tour documentary from 2002, a fairly unfiltered view of the group on tour, some fun in a children's play centre, and the world they were creating and inhabiting at the time. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-2aksyNs99U" width="320" youtube-src-id="-2aksyNs99U"></iframe></div><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-66513544562555607172024-03-05T08:00:00.164+00:002024-03-05T17:54:38.601+00:00Mighty Twice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEintQgJOIUeI8U6lyGM4wvmsFCZy7bUUc_LZrifBmJqH0D9NUqHuqxRCfKL83xrCKSL5YozfDGAgdagAVU87wznos-qhTw1-iCKasKP1HD-J8LWRtENafxsEbZKM5gUXR2sbglphqiZF9YMMKVYwzpANI8sInBkKqlfwFqMUM_coPH5C_JZPfTGS_124Bs/s2048/merseymarch24.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEintQgJOIUeI8U6lyGM4wvmsFCZy7bUUc_LZrifBmJqH0D9NUqHuqxRCfKL83xrCKSL5YozfDGAgdagAVU87wznos-qhTw1-iCKasKP1HD-J8LWRtENafxsEbZKM5gUXR2sbglphqiZF9YMMKVYwzpANI8sInBkKqlfwFqMUM_coPH5C_JZPfTGS_124Bs/w400-h300/merseymarch24.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>A pair of albums from Exeter's Mighty Force that are uniformly excellent and well worthy of exploration- they work as home listening and I imagine would do so in a much louder more immersive environment. They certainly work in the car eating up the miles while commuting between home and work. First is the latest Mighty Force 33 compilation, the initial offering from the label celebrating its 33rd year of business. It started by releasing the first Aphex Twin record- Analogue Bubblebath (and let's be honest, having put that out you could just stop at that point and rest on your laurels for the rest of time)- and has been resurrected in recent years with a deluge of acid techno/ electronica/ ambient. MF33 Volume 1 will be joined later in 2024 by Volumes 2 and 3, each one made up of eleven tracks, totalling thirty three by the end of the year. Volume 1 lines up a couple of the artists I've posted reviews by here over the last couple of years- Paddy Thorne and Fluffy Inside- along with many I haven't including Myoptik (whose track Nuclear Trafficlightz is a ten minute trip into an acid techno otherworld), I- hyperacusis (and their track Minimal Pulse, a bleep and echo delight) and Pushkin (whose Horce Acid Mix is strong stuff). All eleven are first rate, experimental and forward thinking tracks, the 303s and 808s front and centre. Get MF33 Volume 1 <a href="https://mightyforce.bandcamp.com/album/mf33-volume-1">here</a>. This is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivrPTWD0L7o">Once In A Life</a> by Barce, a lovely, fluid piece of electronic music pitched somewhere in the centre of a Venn diagram with three interlocking circles, acid, techno and ambient. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ivrPTWD0L7o" width="320" youtube-src-id="ivrPTWD0L7o"></iframe></div><p>At the end of January Mighty Force released an album by SubDan called Inhale, Exhale, Repeat, ten tracks by Dan Schock that are tailor made for late night headphones listening, the attention to detail, subtleties and nuances really standing out when listened to closely and immersively (my spellcheck doesn't like immersively as a word but I'm sticking with it). Wake Up! kicks things off, a three note synth pattern and chords joined by rattling drums and a whispered voice, the sounds of the ambient techno revolution of the early 90s updated and reinvigorated for 2024. By the time we get three tracks in, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSbg3Zg4WpM">Thin Air</a>, is totally enveloping, a kick drum and synth pattern bringing some drama and tension, the pulsebeat keeping it moving ever forwards. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sSbg3Zg4WpM" width="320" youtube-src-id="sSbg3Zg4WpM"></iframe></div><p>Inhale, Exhale, Repeat is a joy that keeps giving, confident and experimental, melodic and innovative. By the time the final track arrives, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPvzqFxvfgo">Bring Back The Music</a>, a familiar vocal sample buried deep within it, the temptation is to let it pay out and then go right back to the start. Buy the album from <a href="https://mightyforce.bandcamp.com/album/inhale-exhale-repeat">Mighty Force</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MPvzqFxvfgo" width="320" youtube-src-id="MPvzqFxvfgo"></iframe></div><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-91008059076611769672024-03-04T08:00:00.055+00:002024-03-04T17:06:09.423+00:00Monday's Long Song<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5vo6DDwEV9VB_9Opbgq3rNW6F5VSGpx4ykIcu27cTT-bL3xS0RZGA7qPzXrhgrCO0Kg8Bn4Cq9P-iz0YbTiE4f067tmne4royPBS8-THza1TVaxXoNCOW4a4GdIwxozj4qd8MqRkaiQf5tGrwit0M4pt2Q5T0QwoaUOlsvpkd8VZIAAvRLVvRz40uWM0/s2048/remembrancewoodfeb24b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5vo6DDwEV9VB_9Opbgq3rNW6F5VSGpx4ykIcu27cTT-bL3xS0RZGA7qPzXrhgrCO0Kg8Bn4Cq9P-iz0YbTiE4f067tmne4royPBS8-THza1TVaxXoNCOW4a4GdIwxozj4qd8MqRkaiQf5tGrwit0M4pt2Q5T0QwoaUOlsvpkd8VZIAAvRLVvRz40uWM0/w300-h400/remembrancewoodfeb24b.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>Mildlife, Wikipedia informs us matter of factly, are a 'Melbourne based, Australian psychedelic jazz fusion group'. They have a new album out- I haven't heard it yet but will report back when I have. Last year they released a single called Return To Centaurus, a nine minute voyage into psychedelic/ cosmic space music with echoes of Giorgio Morodor and Sun Ra, music for the birth of the universe. It's ridiculously good. I only heard it a few weeks ago. The EP with the original version and two remixes can be bought <a href="https://mildlife.bandcamp.com/album/return-to-centaurus">here</a>. The remix here is by Lovefingers, a fourteen minute slow jam with cosmic surf guitar, bongos and timpani, spaced out vocals and a long growly spoken word section that is very much a bathhouse odyssey. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/189ijI7PeLuZ8MD6RCnj8tYG_lxNTUNex/view?usp=sharing">Return To Centaurus (Lovefingers Bathhouse Odyssey)<br /></a><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-18546614474956508162024-03-03T08:00:00.214+00:002024-03-03T08:00:00.127+00:00Forty Five Minutes Of Rheinzand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhicVP0JAIB2peE8K97SsaVI1YcUvFGms2BZ_27eJGuVCDT4OLt2_X5HeotwkM5-OI2OLiq3clzQjCnJ4G-TXXdAdfsVny3FT8_YiBUpbt7-JjuRCtxhUEe84tItzlw-momoM_ZTB9jQwRdSxhRFcO-DrzkMmRIWpzGMDCOHHB_tgXveqLvXbxQEzek3JQ/s4624/pigscem130224.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3468" data-original-width="4624" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhicVP0JAIB2peE8K97SsaVI1YcUvFGms2BZ_27eJGuVCDT4OLt2_X5HeotwkM5-OI2OLiq3clzQjCnJ4G-TXXdAdfsVny3FT8_YiBUpbt7-JjuRCtxhUEe84tItzlw-momoM_ZTB9jQwRdSxhRFcO-DrzkMmRIWpzGMDCOHHB_tgXveqLvXbxQEzek3JQ/w400-h300/pigscem130224.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>In the five years they've been releasing music Rheinzand have racked up an impressive back catalogue- two albums, a bunch of singles and a slew of remixes (the remix package of tracks from their debut album ran to twenty three- there's that number again- different remixes by twenty two other artists and one by themselves). Straight outta Ghent, Belgium, the three piece group consist of singer Charlotte Caluwaerts, multi- instrumentalist and producer Reinhard Vanbergen and DJ/ producer Mo Disko. The slick, sleek and irresistible sound they make pulls from house, disco, Balearica, soul, funk and pop, building on dance music's history while aiming for the future. I love them- you should too. This mix tries to not just feature four- four dancefloor bangers but offer a slightly blurrier, out of focus selection of Rheinzand songs, a little off kilter but with hooks and beats aplenty. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s4Mx0ie7c-9z4s8VtkkOxlM2r_eIIAdk/view?usp=sharing">Forty Five Minutes Of Rheinzand</a></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We'll Be Alright (Single Edit)</li><li>Break of Dawn</li><li>Obey (Hardway Bros Live At The SSL Dub)</li><li>Kills And Kisses (Skylab Remix)</li><li>Electrify Me</li><li>Slippery People</li><li>Porque</li></ul><div>We'll Be Alright was a single released in October 2021, a song written as the world emerged from lockdown and released as a point of optimism, a message that things might just be ok. It flutters and dances about, minor piano chords and a rising bassline pushing forwards. Charlotte's vocal soothes and soars, 'high tide, low tide, we'll be alright'. Synths and a sitar float around. We'll Be Alright is a gently psychedelic pop song- heady stuff at the time and since. </div><div><br /></div><div>Break of Dawn was the opening song on their self titled debut, released in March 2020 just as the world began to shut down due to Covid and a record that is among the best of that strange year's albums. It fades in in a blur of sound and bass, sounding not a million miles from an early 80s Talking Heads offcut, before some slide guitar appears. </div><div><br /></div><div>Obey was a 2019 single, remixed by a trio of excellent people- Scorpio Twins, SIRS and Hardway Bros. The Hardway Bros Live At The SSL Dub is a dubby take, the burbling synths and a two note guitar line riding on top of a growing groove, the sinuous bassline always at the centre of things. Sean Johnston is in no rush, as ever, and stretches things out for over eight minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kills And Kisses was a 2019 single, also like Obey on the debut album. Skylab's remix was on the mammoth remix package from 2021 along with remixes by the best names in the business- loops, chopped up vocals, thumping rhythms, stop- start sections, head spinning dynamics. </div><div><br /></div><div>Electrify Me is a nine minute epic from Rheinzand's second album, 2022's Atlantis Atlantis, a song that sounds like an explosion at a disco factory with Barry White narrating while the tempo speeds up and slows down like the drum machine's got a mind of its own. </div><div><br /></div><div>Slippery People is a cover of the 1984 Talking Heads song, from the 2020 debut album- as good a cover of Talking Heads as any I've heard with a distorted buzzing bassline, disco strings and chanted playground vocals. Porque is from that album as well, a gorgeous dance - pop song, Charlotte's singing of the word 'porque' worth the price of the record alone. Porque is Spanish for because, which is as good an explanation of what Rheinzand do as anything else. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-72199790473902706092024-03-02T08:00:00.197+00:002024-03-02T11:48:29.449+00:00V.A. Saturday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQAuzazjt-yNqzEFm8HpTElCenoScF8Y092JJcHdL01Xui2PITMD6UA3oNSdhyOy905V0b-xRDP0AByjEkYDOlKM-8FG6bUSHzrvxFTLaKedFQVftZ7zQMTOp1zRhQ9w-EAOYNlLi1D5R4dBUCOXQ01nvda2HlLBXU4sVyq2oqMb85QOWv9I90VKgJkY/s2048/birminghamfeb24b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQAuzazjt-yNqzEFm8HpTElCenoScF8Y092JJcHdL01Xui2PITMD6UA3oNSdhyOy905V0b-xRDP0AByjEkYDOlKM-8FG6bUSHzrvxFTLaKedFQVftZ7zQMTOp1zRhQ9w-EAOYNlLi1D5R4dBUCOXQ01nvda2HlLBXU4sVyq2oqMb85QOWv9I90VKgJkY/w400-h300/birminghamfeb24b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>In August 1988 Creation Records released a fifteen track compilation called Doing It For The Kids, a summary of the label's then roster and a statement of intent, with a sticker on the front reading 'An LP for the price of a 7" single'. Doing It For The Kids is one of the definitive statements of that scene and period, as much as any record from the summer of '88 that has guitars at its core. You wouldn't guess from listening to it that the musical world was changing, there is no hint of the Summer Of Love, acid house, Detroit techno, Screamadelica, The Roses and the Mondays within it's grooves. Doing It For The Kids is Creation in all its pre- acid house indie glory, all winkle pickers and black leather, feedback and 60s guitars, groups that are quintessential Creation bands, that lived, gigged and released records entirely within that world- The Jasmine Minks, The Weather Prophets, The Jazz Butcher and Biff Bang Pow all appear, Alan McGee and Richard Green selecting the then best songs these groups had written and recorded. Felt's Ballad Of The Band is up there with that band's best songs. Primal Scream's All Fall Down is as good as any of the songs from their indie phase. Along with My Bloody Valentine (represented here by the mighty, head spinning Cigarette In My Bed), Primal Scream would go onto to bigger things sooner or later. </p><p>The House Of Love's Christine is the opener to their debut Creation album, a perfect three and a half minutes marriage of Guy Chadwick's classicist songwriting and Terry Bickers' guitar playing. They wouldn't last the course, throwing everything into a big money deal that never really worked out for them. Briefly, in this pre- Manchester indie summer world (Bummed came out in November 1988, Made Of Stone in March '89), they looked like the future. The sound Bickers' gets in the intro, that insistent, drilling guitar noise, is worth the price of admission along, never mind the sigh as the chords and Guy Chadwick's voice descend in the 'and the whole world dragged us down' part and the subsequent rise as he grits his teeth to song the song's title. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1irkpgvc70Y6EtvMHsIBfs6Mu2btFolEv/view?usp=sharing">Christine</a></p><p>Heidi Berry and Nicki Sudden both stand out from the indie guitar boys. Heidi's songwriting and folk styles saw her release albums on Creation and 4AD. She had connections with the Creation massive, Pete Astor and Martin Duffy played on her two Creation albums, Firefly and Beneath The Waves. North Shore Train is a piano and cello song, reflecting Heidi's love of Nick Drake and Sandy Denny.</p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/15flVYwgs2pyu_9uKYSt8mqZ5eqP0JH4O/view?usp=sharing">North Shore Train</a></p><p>Nicki Sudden was in post punk band Swell Maps with his brother Epic Soundtracks. Nicki 's solo career saw him zig and zag through the 80s, the records of Johnny Thunders never far away. He recorded with Mike Scott, members of R.E.M. and Rowland S. Howard. Sadly Nicki died in 2006 aged just 49. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-j7x0_oplPdte8uJMCdVAL_TWZMoE1kV/view?usp=sharing">Death Is Hanging Over Me</a></p><p>Side Two drifts about, collating the outliers in the Creation team- Pacific (with Jetstream, a song about the sinking of the Belgrano by the Thatcher government), a group that hint at the electronic sounds coming just around the corner, Momus (a one man Pet Shop Boys- the song on Doing It For The kids is A Complete History Of Sexual Jealousy Parts 17- 24, a rather brilliant song), the lo fi, DIY Reflect On Rye by Emily and finally Brighter Now by Razorcuts, one of those songs that is tailor made for homemade compilation tapes, lovingly complied for prospective girlfriends/ boyfriends, twelve string acoustic guitars, reverb and wistful vocals.</p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IutKA2uvu04BjLVU058RmYGKjmic95E-/view?usp=sharing">Brighter Now</a></p><p>Creation knew exactly what they doing in August 1988, a fifteen song summation of what made the label great, singles and songs pulled together that balance and complement each other, songs that push and pull, available at a budget price. Cramming fifteen songs onto two sides of vinyl may not have made for sonic perfection but that didn't really matter- these songs weren't made for audiophiles or high end equipment. A pretty much perfect V.A. compilation. </p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-77252287712902139432024-03-01T08:00:00.231+00:002024-03-01T17:09:03.634+00:00Music From Two Mats<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUpEBdHEmu-CS0QzHjPjvqv5uP1WwcsrT5tPKQlsLxvxnNihd00eDjlE-1g8rHw5ltaGG048_lBBxsnB0cAuafvFHtidZtHUXWj-yO9X5C8xRbwszDplAwRonjJ9z7iWBaHfAkWmblU09qyufi86ikR2lvp2uYcw6Wb2iekZZhpzWhEQtfhvJ_jeB_NY/s2048/McrtowersFeb24c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUpEBdHEmu-CS0QzHjPjvqv5uP1WwcsrT5tPKQlsLxvxnNihd00eDjlE-1g8rHw5ltaGG048_lBBxsnB0cAuafvFHtidZtHUXWj-yO9X5C8xRbwszDplAwRonjJ9z7iWBaHfAkWmblU09qyufi86ikR2lvp2uYcw6Wb2iekZZhpzWhEQtfhvJ_jeB_NY/w300-h400/McrtowersFeb24c.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>The first day of March is the first day of meteorological spring, the emergence from winter. It feels like it's been a long winter, the dark mornings and evenings hanging around for a long time. I've been unwell this week, spending two days off work and in bed. And last week I did this to my finger (ring finger, left hand)...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ97VCD2dc6-jkehl04pMU_LTOjV17kS1k2DAy0p5oq4GrhnBZZMv73G3IvySuSGwpDR17chOV9UaipYPrWXlZqPVvgKiKfq5DuzvshDfniOUkY3wtjvZe5BEh-cv97WWTKowUBXtcUuZr-Zvy6SkrzmxyTPm9stHlXjP1ZlZH4o0Z7BzJB_ewuSrbUOc/s2048/adamdislocatedfingerfeb24.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1896" data-original-width="2048" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ97VCD2dc6-jkehl04pMU_LTOjV17kS1k2DAy0p5oq4GrhnBZZMv73G3IvySuSGwpDR17chOV9UaipYPrWXlZqPVvgKiKfq5DuzvshDfniOUkY3wtjvZe5BEh-cv97WWTKowUBXtcUuZr-Zvy6SkrzmxyTPm9stHlXjP1ZlZH4o0Z7BzJB_ewuSrbUOc/s320/adamdislocatedfingerfeb24.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>That x- ray shows my dislocated finger, done playing football when the ball struck my hand end on. Straight away I knew it was bad, not an injury I would just run off. I got to A&E at Wythenshawe at just after 10pm last Tuesday night and was told there was an eight hour wait, that I'd be better off going home, trying to sleep and coming back at 8am the next morning. The following morning a very nice A&E nurse sent me for an x- ray (above), diagnosed a dislocated finger and brought in the gas and air for me to inhale while she pulled my finger back into socket. 'Ooh, I felt a click, did you?', she said at one point. I can confirm that gas and air is first rate as a pain killer and can make a patient feel quite light headed. Also that yes, I felt a click too. A visit to hand clinic last Thursday saw me leave with a splint. It's been badly bruised, swollen, various shades of purple and painful ever since. But obviously better than it was in that x- ray where two thirds of my finger are very much not where they should be. </p><p>This week on Tuesday morning I took yet more painkillers and felt nauseous straight away. I went to work and got on with things and took more pain killers near lunchtime. Later on I was sick in my classroom bin (thankfully not in front of any of my classes- memorable for them maybe but not something that I'd choose to happen). Whether I've overdone the pain killers or picked up a bug that the medicines I've been taking reacted with I don't know, but by the time I got home on Tuesday evening I was done in and spend most of Wednesday and much of Thursday in bed. I'm also currently taking an anti- histamine for my chronic sinusitis and eustachian tube dysfunction (long standing and ongoing, possibly an after effect of Covid, possibly an allergic reaction to something) and statins (inherited high cholesterol, diagnosed last summer). Pills 'n' thrills and bellyache, as the Happy Mondays had it on their album of 1990. </p><p>Enough of my moaning- today is therefore not just the first day of spring but the first day I've felt any better this week so here are two different recent releases from varying ends of the electronic music spectrum. First, some calming and beautiful ambient/ modern classical music from Mat Ducasse. Mat was once Matty Skylab, one of the four people in Skylab along with Howie B, Masayuko Kudo and Toshio Nakanishi. Their back catalogue is full of weird and wonderful electronic delights, experimental mid- 90s trip hop and electronica. In recent years Mat's solo recordings have been excursions into deep listening, ambient soundscapes. His latest release is two versions of Song For David, a track recorded in memory of a friend who died of prostate cancer. Both versions, one with bells and the other without, are sublime, with oscillations, washes of synth, long chords and brightly hued ambience. You can find Song For David <a href="https://matducasse.bandcamp.com/album/song-for-david">here</a>. </p><p>In 1997 Mat Ducasse remixed this song along with William Orbit, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSHgXbughUo">Psyche Rock</a>, by French pair Pierre Henry and Michel Colombier, a song oringally from 1967, a leftfield, rocking late 90s update on mid 60s Franco- psychedelia. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BSHgXbughUo" width="320" youtube-src-id="BSHgXbughUo"></iframe></div><br />It provides a nice link to Elexperimental by Matt Gunn, a four track EP that came out yesterday, described by Matt as 'akin to Kraftwerk and LCD with a bass after a night on the sauce'. This is music that is vibrant and up for it, music that thumps out of speakers and blows the dust away. Golden Graham is breakbeats and fuzzed up synths over a white knuckle bassline, kicking and jerking around. Bingo's Crime (with Louis Gordon)is electronic funk and long keyboard chords beamed in from Dusseldorf four decades ago, bleeps riding on top. Third track, Drive Thru Century, starts with the sound of cars spinning their wheels and revving their engines, a souped up take on Autobahn, then more drum machines and synths/ keys from West Germany, a lovely padding bassline and the sound of the future, then, now. The EP finishes with We Are Ninja, in collaboration with Toffeetronic, mid 80s electro- pop, fizzing, bubbling synths, needle scratches and a vocal chanting the title. Lots of fun, something for everyone and also tracks that never quite do what you expect them to do. Buy the Elexperimental EP <a href="https://mattgunn1.bandcamp.com/album/elexperimental-ep">here</a>. <p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-4170946555928137832024-02-29T08:00:00.116+00:002024-02-29T11:00:53.635+00:00When We Were Beautiful And Young<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVZhul1oOyFwhQ_tEQ7UF4fjuy13CIDnhlalB7k_ABRab-ctoFPi-wzsvp26OY7nPkBz8rVcnpou5aGSxV2jjIG_18WnY7IiTj2DulGlz4aLU59eLAbhLBk7SjrEdNbAANXaXCYqWYrMikn_qR0W1P7HwjWSza48WjZPO2ODmzBPTHlTJHtB08C_WwwEo/s2048/alberthallpaint2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVZhul1oOyFwhQ_tEQ7UF4fjuy13CIDnhlalB7k_ABRab-ctoFPi-wzsvp26OY7nPkBz8rVcnpou5aGSxV2jjIG_18WnY7IiTj2DulGlz4aLU59eLAbhLBk7SjrEdNbAANXaXCYqWYrMikn_qR0W1P7HwjWSza48WjZPO2ODmzBPTHlTJHtB08C_WwwEo/w300-h400/alberthallpaint2.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>This song has featured at a few blogs over the last week, a new song from Mick Harvey called When <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV9r1Fm5ppk&t=60s">We Were Beautiful And Young</a>. It's dusty, mournful and slow paced, acoustic guitar and organ and Mick's time worn vocal eventually joined by cello and horns. As the video plays, a montage of Mick and friends in younger days from the 1970s onwards, Mick's lyrics unpick the sadness and regret of looking back and the loss of those who have not survived the journey- former bandmates and friends Anita Lane, Tracy Pew, Rowland S. Howard and Conway Savage. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RV9r1Fm5ppk" width="320" youtube-src-id="RV9r1Fm5ppk"></iframe></div><p>Mick isn't being entirely nostalgic here, although with lines like 'When we were beautiful and young/ there was time for anything/ And the days slipped through our fingers like golden sand... a thousand verses not yet sung', he's certainly nailing the arrogance and surety of youth, the not caring about the future or of what may happen down the line. He ruefully acknowledges those Bad Seeds who died along the way and the role drugs played in that- 'It all just turned to junk... and there were some who came undone'- and having looked back he concludes that he's fine where he is, late middle age has it's benefits- 'I'm having my time in the sun/ Now I'm not beautiful and young'.</p><p>Stirring stuff. You'd expect nothing less from a man who served time as a key member of The Birthday Party, Crime And The City Solution and as a Bad Seed from 1983 to 2010, Nick Cave's co- writer and arranger, a multi- instrumentalist and key driver in the group. When We Were Beautiful And Young is on Mick's forthcoming solo album, Five Ways To Say Goodbye, out in May, a mixture of new songs and covers that you can find <a href="https://mickharvey1.bandcamp.com/album/five-ways-to-say-goodbye">here</a>. </p><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-38468081236695194732024-02-28T08:00:00.107+00:002024-02-28T11:43:44.123+00:00Underneath All The Thundering There's Magic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP54ooYHZqZmKNidDlkvfAPnevK56NTZdh7RaHKG97ANK4eoBwt_R4JAyaJZSbM-tMBhpJLIJM8daLSOHe6Xq4cjKmYB76yEKiFviYWQvuQRAzkMS5wFUEqmGuqA6Mh65Ep1r9h14v31SNvV_We5js04T0XFaAoQ8aMKyGlWaxQoNXGBhsF6nvJzGZk5w/s2048/alberthallpaint.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP54ooYHZqZmKNidDlkvfAPnevK56NTZdh7RaHKG97ANK4eoBwt_R4JAyaJZSbM-tMBhpJLIJM8daLSOHe6Xq4cjKmYB76yEKiFviYWQvuQRAzkMS5wFUEqmGuqA6Mh65Ep1r9h14v31SNvV_We5js04T0XFaAoQ8aMKyGlWaxQoNXGBhsF6nvJzGZk5w/w300-h400/alberthallpaint.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>This came my way recently (although it came out in November last year) and blew the cobwebs and the years away- you can get to a point where you think that there's nothing new under the sun and then something turns up. Kneecap are from Belfast, three young men who make hip hop, rapping in Irish and English with lyrics that make their support for republicanism very clear along with a truck load of satire, piss taking, and references to casual drug use (one of the many things they talk about that would get them kneecapped by older, more frightening men). On their debut single in 2017 they talked about C..E.A.R.T.A, (rights, as in of the human variety). On their album they have a song called Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite. They rap about their mums and about being real. They have said they don't want to 'box themselves in with masculinity all the time'. They seem both completely irreverent and utterly serious. </p><p>On <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSnF7RaeoXE">Better Way To Live</a> they share their spotlight with Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten, a man who has his own brand of street poetry and real life lyricism. Grian's half sung/ half spoken vocals go like this...</p><p>'Underneath all the thundering there's magic. If there's a better way to live I've gotta have it/ Because I think all but when I drink I'm OK/ It gets further away every time I try to grab it/ Underneath all the chattering there's heaven/ I gotta peak one day made me feel like I was seven/ I know it exists but I can't stop getting pissed/ One more thing I'll be adding to the list/</p><p>Much of Kneecap's verses are in Irish and though I don't know what they're saying I think I know what they're on about. The combination of English and Irish, the flow of the words and the rhythms of the grinding bass and drums, are matched by the video, the all day drinkers and the world inside the pub.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KSnF7RaeoXE" width="320" youtube-src-id="KSnF7RaeoXE"></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-5409176869902153752024-02-27T08:00:00.092+00:002024-02-27T08:00:00.130+00:00Ways Of Seeing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfSQwPCmjQaNgetMubxk1KeZ3xEHWZJ_PKojEcpmPhjlqt7U4pmDlGV2Be6tlHLteTwobuq2Ut8rlUFjaU524Hwvq6Qcgtu8zw_dyT-CZRek8QG0IU-SGNxx6t3WNqordn2ED6phgUTaILHGg1yuQGj3HA-elG5_Io39rgAoWv7JLokVCp7qkkF0uSyI/s2048/cupboard%20wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfSQwPCmjQaNgetMubxk1KeZ3xEHWZJ_PKojEcpmPhjlqt7U4pmDlGV2Be6tlHLteTwobuq2Ut8rlUFjaU524Hwvq6Qcgtu8zw_dyT-CZRek8QG0IU-SGNxx6t3WNqordn2ED6phgUTaILHGg1yuQGj3HA-elG5_Io39rgAoWv7JLokVCp7qkkF0uSyI/w400-h300/cupboard%20wall.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>This is the wall at the back of our cupboard under the stairs, one of those cupboards that when you open it everything- the ironing board, the hoover, the stepladders, a pair of shoes- falls out on you. Or at least it was- it's been sorted now. Sorting it revealed the wall which looked to me like an abstract expressionist painting from the 1950s. It's gone now too, painted white. <br /><br /></p><p>This pair of songs are both new, came out recently and although they don't sound much like each other have become linked for me- I've been playing them back to back and they evoke similar feelings in me. Firstly the latest song from Khruangbin, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTcHbELHYCk">May Ninth</a>, a promise of springtime coming. Someone said recently it's beginning to feel if not like spring then at least like the end of winter. May Ninth makes me feel exactly that. It is just over three minutes long, the sonic equivalent of sunshine, the delicate guitar playing, the notes ringing and rippling like a happy Vini Reilly, the drums just so on it as to be perfect and the bass padding away as the words waft by, 'Waiting for May to come... Just another day'. Something very close to pure feeling in a song, an emotional hit and a few minutes of optimism for the end of February.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sTcHbELHYCk" width="320" youtube-src-id="sTcHbELHYCk"></iframe></div><p>I've been pairing it with the latest single from the forthcoming Ride album, an Andy Bell song called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR31bfYn3NM">Last Frontier</a>, four minutes of soaring, chiming indie rock with an early 90s New Order feel (if this song had been on Republic it would stand alongside Regret as the album's best moment). Over streamlined bass and drums and twin guitars Andy songs of 'Ways of leaving/ ways to say goodbye/ Ways of seeing/ Seeing eye to eye/ Without losing our way'. Like Khruangbin's May Ninth, it's emotive and inspiring, music that makes you feel something. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KR31bfYn3NM" width="320" youtube-src-id="KR31bfYn3NM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-67371045763532745172024-02-26T08:00:00.081+00:002024-02-26T19:38:59.298+00:00Monday's Long Song<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWw_Tvtyud-U-7fCxAYi1CCqBfpmwugGszZh1T_R11A3ZASS4Sm9skwSShHXRNtn19cPmwaWwXsfPYDw-jOGzTFGvK9rqi-Y5eE9pXi3J1VcSqmYXfKjncPgu92-MMSPGEgQdyRWv6jjhsrPXW5TiKnK3gy7KJQR4GcVsyfsMOTN7Q7hLMSaeyGFP-Qg0/s2048/wernethlowjan24e.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWw_Tvtyud-U-7fCxAYi1CCqBfpmwugGszZh1T_R11A3ZASS4Sm9skwSShHXRNtn19cPmwaWwXsfPYDw-jOGzTFGvK9rqi-Y5eE9pXi3J1VcSqmYXfKjncPgu92-MMSPGEgQdyRWv6jjhsrPXW5TiKnK3gy7KJQR4GcVsyfsMOTN7Q7hLMSaeyGFP-Qg0/w300-h400/wernethlowjan24e.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>This came my way last week and instantly improved my life, an eleven minute epic from Marshall Watson called Astro Pan. It is a piece of music that evokes all sorts of imagery and visions, a soundtrack and a journey, an extended prog/ acid/ ambient/ cinematic ode to the cosmos; a layered, expansive interstellar long song. Halfway through voices appear among the organs, synths, drums and FX, an Alpha Centauri choral ensemble. Magical stuff from Marshall. It could easily be twice as long and not overstay its welcome. Get it <a href="https://marshallwatson.bandcamp.com/track/astro-pan">here</a>. </p><p>Marshall is from San Francisco, a composer, sound engineer and producer. Last year he released an EP with Cole Odin that was one of my favourite tracks of 23, the shimmering indie- dance of Just A Daydream Away, and a five track mini- album of blissed out Balearica called <a href="https://marshallwatson.bandcamp.com/album/foothills">Foothills</a>, complete with a Seahawks remix. I recommend both fully. And if you want/ need a brand new Marshall edit of Iko Iko, the New Orleans song recorded variously since 1953 Sugar Boy Crawford and his Cane Cutters, The Dixie Cups, Dr. John, Natasha, Captain Jack, The Belle Stars and Justin Wellington, then you can get that <a href="https://marshallwatson.bandcamp.com/track/eye-co">here</a>, renamed Eye Co. </p><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-89954732961132827162024-02-25T08:00:00.175+00:002024-02-25T08:00:00.136+00:00Fifty Minutes Of Deadstock 33s<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZE4rZmAUZ9aKDoP5SfxbhUQm4lsvjuLxMgoBhaKKTaDSgjWQottzTBGOovn0l1rZknqC0NcdmlnhO2ikuwwu_4qtYiNWqWiABqziSuGGmiBvH9CiHHBA-ZcfDgcERRlqSiysgRIJFJLbXtAQE1kvZ6NmU0402Mizx7D5PBGYJcr6qmk2TlbggotzdTqo/s2048/LeekDec23c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZE4rZmAUZ9aKDoP5SfxbhUQm4lsvjuLxMgoBhaKKTaDSgjWQottzTBGOovn0l1rZknqC0NcdmlnhO2ikuwwu_4qtYiNWqWiABqziSuGGmiBvH9CiHHBA-ZcfDgcERRlqSiysgRIJFJLbXtAQE1kvZ6NmU0402Mizx7D5PBGYJcr6qmk2TlbggotzdTqo/w300-h400/LeekDec23c.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>Last May I did a Sunday mix of Justin Robertson remixes from the 90s, forty minutes of trumpets and acid house/ indie- dance. It's <a href="https://baggingarea.blogspot.com/2023/05/forty-minutes-of-justin-robertson.html">here</a>. I always intended to come back and do a more recent mix of Justin's music and having struggled with a completely different Sunday mix for a couple of days- it just wan't coming together and the segues were difficult to get right- I thought today would do for a return to Mr. Robertson and specifically his music and remixes as his Deadstock 33s. There are eight tracks in today's mix coming in at around fifty minutes, plenty of dub influence, lots of chuggy drum machine rhythms, a few New Order- esque moments, some cosmic motorik grooves and some lovely wired and weird synth and FX flying around. On top of all that Justin is always faultlessly turned out, has a fine array of headwear and always comes across as a thoroughly good chap. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p4P_JUfRs5pmNGiS-XmvWv4AwdYUVTFb/view?usp=sharing">Fifty Minutes Of Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s</a></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Mercury Project</li><li>Magnetic</li><li>The Confidence Man (Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Remix)</li><li>Dark Endless</li><li>Brix Goes Tubular</li><li>Lone Raver In Dub</li><li>The Circular Path (Asphodells Remix)</li><li>One Lone Rider</li></ul><div>Mercury Project came out on a 2013 compilation titled Treasure Hunting, released by Astrolab, and a rather good round up of chuggy cosmic disco/ house from a decade ago with Hardway Bros. Tim Fairplay, Toby Tobias, Scott Fraser, Daniel Avery, Mugwump, Marc Pinol and Ana Helder in the list of artists included. Something of a forerunner in that sound/ scene. </div><div><br /></div><div>Magnetic was from an EP with Daniel Avery and sounds like early 80s New Order wired up to the nearest electricity pylon, a very smart piece of 2012 motorik psychedelia, released on Optimo.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Confidence Man was a stand out song on Andrew Weatherall's solo album Convenanza. The remix album that followed it, Consolamentum, saw Andrew remixed by Justin along with Unloved, Heretic, Duncan Gray, The Emperor Machine, Red Axes, Tim Fairplay and Scott Fraser. On the sleeve there was a very Weatherall quote- 'delights are stronger the longer they remain secret' (by Joseph Roth).</div><div><br /></div><div>Dark Endless was on a digital only compilation released by Spun Out Agency in 2022, a tribute to Mr. Weatherall, that went under the title More Of That Frightful Oompty Boompty Music. Justin gets on the cosmische tip on Dark Endless, a throbbing bassline and swirling sounds setting the controls for the outer limits. </div><div><br /></div><div>Brix Goes Tubular was a Bandcamp only single from 2022, three tracks recorded by Justin and Brix Smith (with a dub mix). I'd forgotten about it until pulling this mix together and really like it, Brix and Justin finding a musical sweet spot in the space somewhere between dub, Tom Tom Club and surf. </div><div><br /></div><div>Lone Raver In Dub is a bouncing, rocking dub- flecked tune from September last year, part of the ongoing Deadstock 33s Unreleased series at Bandcamp, a goldmine of music. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Asphodells (Andrew Weatherall and Timothy J Fairplay) remixed Deadstock 33s' The Circular Path in 2013. The remix is ticking, clanging, metallic space motorik with a spluttering topline and acres of echo and wobbling synth oscillations. </div><div><br /></div><div>One Lone Rider came out in summer 2023, a massively distorted bass drum and frequency test synth line, six minutes of hypnotic sci fi dub/ acid house.</div><div><br /></div><p></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6408194908462305523.post-81273973405747978512024-02-24T08:00:00.226+00:002024-02-24T18:09:50.666+00:00V.A. Saturday And The Woodentops Live <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBP0qXhk_RcXANxDDa-QVYTsrK4K0MLAb9hyKWouc0gj44yZ9s_7k8dEMPNyvZYBn-T6dGOh8sqvyfEcFII3-ALjyo57HTwGJ_fTFvmTlsmv-NOCRw-Fvia7z5IaiNj9D1BMjqs6SUCch_SdRqag-LR_EB2wQ_EYXxKXjE_FJlDHphylpqAfYoWd7wEM/s2048/canallymm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcBP0qXhk_RcXANxDDa-QVYTsrK4K0MLAb9hyKWouc0gj44yZ9s_7k8dEMPNyvZYBn-T6dGOh8sqvyfEcFII3-ALjyo57HTwGJ_fTFvmTlsmv-NOCRw-Fvia7z5IaiNj9D1BMjqs6SUCch_SdRqag-LR_EB2wQ_EYXxKXjE_FJlDHphylpqAfYoWd7wEM/w300-h400/canallymm.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p>Back in 1988 Trevor Fung, Pete Tong and Paul Oakenfold came home from a summer on the White Isle and filled with the spirit of Ibiza, the anything goes approach of the DJs out there and the desire to do it in London. In September of 1988 they complied a Various Artists compilation record, Balearic Beats Vol. 1 (complete with legendary Dave Little sleeve art, multiple acid coloured single eyes and some Terry Farley liner notes). Balearic Beats Vol 1 pulls together what have become ten set texts of late 80s acid house, with Mediterranean house, Stock, Aitken and Waterman pop stars, industrial groups, Belgian New Beat and EBM rubbing shoulders with proto- indie dance, Code 61 and Thrashing Doves, Nitzer Ebb and The Residents, Mandy Smith and Fini Tribe, Electra and The Woodentops. Play whatever you like as long as people can dance to it. </p><p>Balearic Beats is a classic VA compilation, an attempt to pull together the sound and energy of a time and place onto black vinyl. For those of us in the UK who didn't make it to Amnesia or Pasha and who soaked this sort of thing up second or third hand, here was a primer, a record or tape to play over and over and a raison d'etre. In some ways, the anything goes spirit of this album, is what this blog and what the compilation tapes, mix CDs and attempts at DJing I've messed about with ever since, are all about.</p><p>Incidentally, at Ban Ban Ton Ton Dr. Rob posted an extensive interview with Trevor Fung and a follow up post where Trevor outlined the tracks he submitted to Oakenfold's label FFRR for the album, some of which didn't make the cut. Trevor's Balearic Bonus Beats can be found <a href="https://banbantonton.com/2022/06/30/trevor-fungs-bonus-balearic-beats/">here</a>. </p><p>Of those songs on Balearic Beats Volume 1 the one I was most familiar when it was released was Why Why Why by The Woodentops, a track that appeared on the album as live recording. The manic energy of The Woodentops, the acoustic guitars not so much being played as scrubbed, the hubcap and wood block percussion hits and Rolo McGinty's chanted lyrics, 'Are you ready now?... why? why? why?', was a step away from the indie world that they seemed to come from in 1986- it was t- shirts and shorts, sunglasses and suntans, a song made for dancing to as well as for listening to in a bedsit/ halls of residence. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ruh5hdJrlDKAHaZt9rhlnf7ZpOcxE5l1/view?usp=sharing">Why Why Why (Live)</a></p><p>The Woodentops are currently part way through a short tour of the UK. They opened it with a gig at Night And Day in Manchester on Wednesday night, a cold and wet night lit up by Rolo and the band who gave their all and looked like they were enjoying themselves. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmZfRj1vC0tr3SrIhPDBc2uF6s8Um6Or6VrftBtrE1tl75c4prYkMklqOjXBPz4WSk6RQ1FvLTjwA0Laol8fplCO73f0U7F-sXUWic7M-eQT0J4vcXhM8EFcd9g3aa-G9l93kgKjdz6UCCxEC64nxKjDD4ulcF-YP7VJQwX5hMIn84b29r1SKoAQFcz8/s2048/woodentopsnightanddayfeb24.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmZfRj1vC0tr3SrIhPDBc2uF6s8Um6Or6VrftBtrE1tl75c4prYkMklqOjXBPz4WSk6RQ1FvLTjwA0Laol8fplCO73f0U7F-sXUWic7M-eQT0J4vcXhM8EFcd9g3aa-G9l93kgKjdz6UCCxEC64nxKjDD4ulcF-YP7VJQwX5hMIn84b29r1SKoAQFcz8/s320/woodentopsnightanddayfeb24.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The first couple of songs felt a bit like it was the first night of the tour, a little time needed to warm up possibly, but they kicked into gear and kept going, quick fire drums bubbling basslines and Rolo's rapid strumming. In the midst of guitars, drums, keys and cellos and the group's songwriting chops, the sounds of influences such as Can, The Clash and Talking Heads can be heard. Why Why Why gets a cheer mid- set and Love Train rattles by like 1986 was just a few days ago. The recent single Ride A Cloud, surely a chart hit somewhere, is a delight, the chilled guitar lines and breathy feel changing the energy and feel completely, a Rolo spoken word section describing the actions of astronaut Mike Massimo, a man with a lifetime ambition to work on the Hubble Space Telescope and who at the moment of achieving his lifetime ambition, broke the hatch and watched the screw float away into the depths of space. I guess it's still out there somewhere. My memory of exactly what they played on Wednesday night is patchy and I wasn't taking notes but near the end they played Good Thing, a stand out from 1986's Giant album, the African highlife guitars sparkling. This version is from the 1987 live album Live Hypno Beat, an album recorded live in Los Angeles in '86, a live album that can be returned to and played over and over again. </p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/109rtEBF6XMpVd6aBkbsuL6TjQ6x-Zpez/view?usp=sharing">Good Thing (Live)</a></p><p>My friend Darren and came with me took this photo of Night And Day,, a small venue that is a Manchester institution and that has played host to some amazing gigs over the last three decades, from bands big and small, known and unknown. I've seen Carbon/Silicon (Mick Jones' post- BAD group), Pete Wylie, The Orb and Damo Suzuki play there among others. Doves, Johnny Marr and Manic Street Preachers have all appeared on the small, square stage. It's currently awaiting a legal hearing about it's future due to a complaint from a resident who bought a flat above Night And Day, a bar and live venue, and then complained a bout the noise. I really hope it wins and stays open. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJv0VyHpFW1vApPD2FeZL0Z85LThSEImugIhEj9V3InNd8FVrK72bT5Ahfg55p2lZ6YtIUNki8tkwKs4NCGm7dbi7ss4IdqbSNJc5s4_mxOsQ5ifY4JBR-7BGs54znjv3gXluzhmnID1ZCNo9rpIex-Lga1MF2ujroXb6p9SlZDmgit6fKU7Hic4DVDg/s2048/nightanddayfeb24daz.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1463" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJv0VyHpFW1vApPD2FeZL0Z85LThSEImugIhEj9V3InNd8FVrK72bT5Ahfg55p2lZ6YtIUNki8tkwKs4NCGm7dbi7ss4IdqbSNJc5s4_mxOsQ5ifY4JBR-7BGs54znjv3gXluzhmnID1ZCNo9rpIex-Lga1MF2ujroXb6p9SlZDmgit6fKU7Hic4DVDg/w286-h400/nightanddayfeb24daz.jpg" width="286" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Swiss Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13119322217065850020noreply@blogger.com2