The Healing

Deeply Armed are a trio from Belfast who released a debut single earlier this year- The Healing. They have the support of Scottish author David Keenan who writes about them at their website where he and they promise 'Neu! tripping on a Northern Soul loop with Sonic Boom setting the controls for the heart of the sun'. The Healing is six minutes of magic that go a long way to meeting that description, shimmering analogue synths, a very mid- 70s West German motorik groove, some noise and distortion and eventually a guitar riff that pulls at the heartstrings. As the guitar gets you, the voices come in, singer Michael and sisters Sinead and Mairead all singing round one mic. The drummer messes with the groove, shifting to a military rat- a- tat- tat before dropping back in and the voices and synths combine, conjuring that late night, low lit, basement flat feel.

There are remixes, one from Andrew Innes and Brendan Lynch, one from Lone Swordsman Keith Tenniswood and most recently Richard Fearless of Death In Vegas. On the Born To Go Mix Innes and Lynch pump it up, turbo- charging the groove and the bass and pulling the backing vox to the fore, the motorik going to the go- go and coming in at under three minutes for those lovers of short 7" single length songs.

Keith Tenniswood strips The Healing down, a blip and a bloop over a low fi drum machine and padding bass, some synth wobble and glockenspiel. Hazy and spaced out, there's a warm glow about Keith's  eight minutes mix. It cold go on for longer and it'd be no problem at all. All three versions can be bought at Bandcamp, digital and 12" vinyl. 

The Richard Fearless isn't out until 5th September but is a ten minute machine music remake, very much in the vein of Fearless' recent releases, his Death Mask album from earlier this year and his Haywired track on Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2. 

 

Two Love

Le Volume Courbe is the musical vehicle for French born, London based musician Charlotte Marionneau. Charlotte has released two previous albums, I Killed My Best Friend in 2005 and I Wish Dee Dee Ramone Was Here With Me in 2015. Now there's a new album, Planet Ping Pong, eleven songs recorded while Charlotte was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. The cancer diagnosis led to a burst of creativity, it became 'a vital thing' (Charlotte's words). There are some big names on the album too- Noel Gallagher plays on the single Two Love and the late Terry Hall sings a duet with Charlotte on a cover of Daniel Johnston's Mind Distorted. Two very Bagging Area adjacent names also crop up- Mat Ducasse/ Matty Skylab and Chris Rotter both appear as co- writers. 

Planet Ping Pong is out on Stereolab's Duophonic label. Stereolab's 60s experimental art- pop is a good reference point as are some Gallic singers and sounds, Serge and Jane, Brigitte, Francoise et al. There are hints of the songs of Broadcast and Syd Barrett too, some baroque pop and nods to the likes of Silver Apples. Two Love is a gem, with shuffly drums, ambient noise and a prodding bassline and Charlotte's very Gallic vocal. Noel plays piano, sounding as far from Oasis as he ever has. Primal Scream's Andrew Innes is in there too, on programming. There are samples of ping pong balls, bursts of shaker and the occasional miaow. Tres bon.

Stay Down

In all the excitement about the 30th anniversary of Sabresonic the 25th birthday of Stay Down got a bit overlooked. Released in October 1998 Stay Down was Two Lone Swordsmen's follow up to the four sides of vinyl explorations of 1996's The Fifth Mission (Return To The Flightpath Estate) but doesn't sound anything like it. Like all the TLS releases, Stay Down sounds like it exists in a world of its own, it's not a staging post on the journey to another album, it's not part of a progression, it's an album that is in and of itself. It's also the Two Lone Swordsmen album which I think has grown the most since its release, revealing new depths and nuances. 

Stay Down is twelve short tracks, each one a self contained piece of ambient techno. The sound is deep, submerged, subaquatic ambience with drum loops and sub bass, and twinkles, bloops, blurps, stutters, synth stabs, bleeps, strings and samples, Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood operating like the pair of deep sea divers on the cover, drifting in a world far below/ aprt from the one everyone else was living in in 1998. It's analogue, ambient and noodly but focussed too, one track flowing to the next. The section where We Change The Frequency kicks in is a moment of excitement, a change of pace and tempo, but mainly it flows by, like the slow motion bursts of squid ink and spine bubbles that two of the tracks are named after.

The track titles are themselves a series of cryptic, tantalising Weatherallian clues to be pondered and pursued. Two of them have taken on a poignancy not intended on release, both beautiful, low key ambient moments - Light The Last Flare and album closer As Worldly Pleasures Wave Goodbye... The opening track Hope We Never Surface sets the tone as far as song titles go, a suggestion to stay below, to stay within the grooves of this record, to be present inside it. The Big Clapper, Alpha School and Ivy And Lead all conjure up vivid imagery. Mr Paris's Monsters is a mystery. We Discordians (Must Stick Apart) is named after Discordianism and everything that that entails, the number 23 included (I was told recently that when producing numbered vinyl editions and art prints Andrew always kept number 23 for himself). No Red Stopping was named after Andrew arrived for a DJ gig in a newly liberated nation in the former Yugoslavia and was picked up by a driver to take him to the club, who then sped through every red light at every junction between airport and nightclub. Eventually, knuckles white and tension rising, Andrew asked the driver why he didn't stop for red lights. Snipers, was the reply. 

We Discordians (Must Stick Apart)

There's precious little information on the sleeve other than the track titles and recording details- recorded at Rotter Golf Club, copyright Warp Records, made in England, mastered by 'amidst very unprofessional behaviour' Frank Arkwright- and Andrew's very recognisable handwriting. The only extra is a quote via Primal Scream's Andrew Innes and the source of the record's title, Andrew's advice in what to do in conflict situations- 'sometimes in a fight it's best just to stay down'. 

Cascades

I posted this song way back, one of my favourite records of the period 1990-91- Cascades (Hypnotone Mix) by Sheer Taft. It came out on Creation and was on the killer Creation dance comp Keeping The Faith. Cascades is an acid house influenced, hypnotic and trippy adventure from the imagination of Glasgow's Sheer Taft. I make no apologies for posting it again- you'll love it, if you don't know it already.

The picture above shows Sheer Taft with Bobby Gillespie at Glasgow Barrowlands in 1991, presumably at Primal Scream's gig there on the Screamadelica tour. The day before yesterday there was a comment left at the Wordpress version of this blog (which is just a back up version really, in case blogger ever pulled the plug on this one which has happened to other bloggers in the past). The comment was left by the man himself, Sheer Taft, in response to another anonymous comment asking if there was an earlier version of this song and how much input Hypnotone had. So Taft has helpfully cleared it up for us.

'The original version was recorded by myself (Sheer Taft) and Andrew Innes from Primal Scream in a flat in the east end of London.
We then recorded further versions of the same track at a studio in Fulham.
Hypnotone ie Tony Martin was involved along with me in remixing the track with a great deal of input by Thrash from the Orb answer a few suggestions from Brian Enough who was working in the same studio in Berwick Street at that time.'

Thanks Sheer Taft. It freaks me out a  little when the people who make the music comment on the blog but it's good too.

Cascades (Hypnotone Mix)

We are going away for the weekend, it being a Bank Holiday. We are camping. In a tent. With a load of other people. In tents. A few weeks ago when the sun was shining and the temperature was nudging 18 to 19 degrees, this looked like a brilliant idea. Now the wind is blowing, the night time temperature is close to zero, rain keeps sweeping in, and there was hail falling from the skies yesterday. It doesn't seem such a brilliant idea anymore. it seems a bit stupid. I'll let you know how we got on when we get back- supposedly on Monday. Have a good weekend.

Kill City

In total contrast to yesterday's Appalachian ghostliness here's a raucous, sex-infused noise. Kill City were an electro-rock band who released a mini-album in 2004 called White Boy Brown Girl, on Alan McGee's short-lived Poptones label. McGee's mate Andrew Innes remixes them in early 00s Primal Scream style. Big drums, white noise, heavy riffs, female vox, lyrics about inter-racial shagging. You know what this is going to sound like don't you?

White Boy Brown Girl (Andrew Innes Remix)

Another song on the lp was titled Cease To Exist- which was the opening line in Pixies' song Wave Of Mutilation (borrowed from Charles Manson/Beach Boys), which took inspiration from Luis Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou film. Luis Bunuel was photographed in the late 20s by Man Ray. Of course he was. Everyone who was anyone was.