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. 

 

Martin Duffy

Coming quickly after the news of Terry Hall's death came the news that Martin Duffy had died aged fifty five following an accident at his home. Martin was the keyboard player in Primal Scream from 1989 onwards and before that was in Felt. He played Knebworth in 1996 with The Charlatans when they were reeling from the death of their organ/ keyboard player Rob Collins, an act Tim Burgess has said meant the band was actually able to go on. Martin recorded a solo album a few years ago released on Tim's O Genesis label and made a superb EP with Steve Mason as Alien Stadium in 2017. More than that, Martin has been described all over the various obituaries and tributes as a sweet, lovely, quiet and unassuming man who, when on tour, loved to take in museums and neolithic standing stones- he seems like a man after my own heart. 

I've seen Primal Scream in venues large and tiny since 1989, from the cellar club that was Planet X in Liverpool when they toured Ivy Ivy Ivy to Castlefield Bowl in Manchester this summer and almost all points in between and it's impossible to imagine them without Martin's keys and organ. When they emerged from the various issues that derailed them in the mid- 90s and came back with first Vanishing Point and then XTRMNTR, the bedrock of the sound was Martin's keys and organ, his Hammond especially, as much as the twin guitars of Throb and Innes. He was able to play whatever the songs required and on Vanishing Point especially it feels like the band were grouped around him, playing off whatever he played. 

Given that this Sunday is Christmas Day I probably won't do anything for my half hour Sunday mix series so thought I'd put those energies into today's mix, a thirty minute tribute to Martin Duffy. 

Duffy Mix

• Primal Scream: Get Duffy
• Primal Scream: Duffed Up
• Primal Scream: The Revenge Of The Hammond Connection
• Primal Scream: If They Move, Kill 'Em
• Alien Stadium: Titanic Dance (Lynch Mob Mix)
• Felt: Primitive Painters
• Primal Scream: Space Blues #2

Get Duffy is the second song on Vanishing Point, a Hammond organ instrumental sandwiched between the speed freak mod- rock of Burning Wheel and the gonzo Mani powered scuzz of the title track. If They Move, Kill 'Em is the centrepiece of the album, a track inspired by and sampling Sam Peckinpah's Western The Wild Bunch. 

Duffed Up is Adrian Sherwood's dub version of the Get Duffy, from Echo Dek, released in 1997 a little while after the parent album.

The Revenge Of The Hammond Connection was a B-side from Kill All Hippies, a further take on the original Hammond Connection instrumental which was the B- side to Burning Wheel. 60s spy film soundtrack vibes. 

Titanic Dance is from the four track EP Martin made with Steve Mason which is laugh out loud funny in places, two men enjoying themselves. The track here, produced and mixed by Brendan Lynch, breaks down after seven minutes into some Planet Of The Apes tomfoolery. 

Primitive Painters was a 1985 Felt single, maybe their best release, a song pushed along by Martin's wheezing organ playing and adorned with Liz Fraser's backing vocals. This single is one of 80s indie's greatest moments. 

Space Blues #2 closed 2002's Evil Heat, the third of the three albums they made around the millennium that feel like a trilogy of sorts. Evil Heat doesn't quite hit the same heights as the previous two but its pair of Weatherall produced songs (Autobahn 66 and A Scanner Darkly) are superb, Deep Hit Of Morning Sun is a opening statement of intent and Detroit and Rise both rock. Kate Moss sings on Some Velvet Morning and on Space Blues #2 Martin not Bobby takes lead vocal, singing softly-  'On the judgement day/ When your name is called...'- as the Hammond shifts notes behind him.

R.I.P. Martin Duffy

Half An Hour Of Weller Remixed And Live At The Apollo

Paul Weller played The Apollo on Friday night, I was there courtesy of a ticket from a friend (who also took the photo in the middle, capturing the curving sweep of the Apollo's balcony rather beautifully). Weller and his band took the stage at eight thirty and played a two hour set, long standing guitarist Steve Craddock present and at the front and two drummers. The first few songs were largely drawn from recent albums, White Sky and Long Time from Saturn's Pattern from 2015, Cosmic Fringes from last year's Fat Pop, sounding tough and very Seventies, lots of guitar and rhythms. From The Floorboards Up, with its Wilco Johnson inspired riff, kept the tempo up. From there Weller dipped in and out of his back catalogue: a slightly ragged Headstart For Happiness; a lovely, low key Have You Ever Had It Blue?; the 90s single Hung Up; recent songs like Fat Pop and Village set against older solo ones like Stanley Road; a dip into the later period Style Council with It's A Very Deep Sea, a song which has aged unexpectedly well. The crowd, many of whom seem to have been out all day in the warmth of some Good Friday sunshine seem a little subdued at times- maybe some are just waiting for the hits or maybe too many beers have sapped the energy (not the two blokes near us who were ejected by the bouncers following a couple of scuffles with people around them).  

The run in towards the end of the set- a trippy version of Above The Clouds, the circling psychedelia of Into Tomorrow, a raspy Shout To The Top, the quickfire blast of Start! followed by full on guitar heroics of Peacock Suit and Brushed- demonstrate the riches in his cupboards, songs from different decades and different parts of his life all sounding like the work of one person, a lineage despite the stylistic differences each one had when first released. When they band return to the stage for the first encore Paul sits at the piano, the fluid, rolling Broken Stones followed by You Do Something To Me (not a favourite of mine I should add), a crowd pleasing That's Entertainment (a definite favourite of mine I should add) and then the slowed down, folk tinged shuffle of Wild Wood. The second encore is the two song punch of The Changing Man and A Town Called Malice, the Apollo's crowd now dancing and singing along in full voice. Weller's reputation as a prickly character and as a traditionalist (the Dadrock tag of the 90s sticks to him) is undeserved- his albums over the last ten years have been full of detours into krautrock, psychedelia, drones and noise and whatever The Style Council were, the weren't unadventurous. His band tonight are young (mainly) and give the songs a thumping (two drummers should do that) but they're delicate when required too. Paul Weller himself doesn't seem to have any less desire in his sixties than he had in his twenties, a man who just wants to get the songs out, get them written, recorded and played. 

For today's thirty minute mix I've pulled together some of the remixes of Weller's songs, drawn from the range of his solo career and taking in trip hop of Portishead, the crashing noise and thumping beats of Richard Hawley's take on Andromeda, some lovely widescreen Balearica courtesy of Leo Zero and Drop Out Orchestra (on Weller's own mid 2010's Balearic groove Starlite), some psychedelic adventures with Amorphous Androgynous and Brendan Lynch's still stunning psyched out/ dubbed out version of Kosmos from 1993 (a record Weatherall used to play as a set closer to fried minds at Sabresonic). 

Thirty Minute Paul Weller Remix Mix

• Wildwood (Portishead Remix)
• Andromeda (Richard Hawley Remix)
• No Tears To Cry (Leo Zero Remix)
• Aim High (The Higher Aim) (Amorphous Androgynous Remix)
• Starlite (Drop Out Orchestra Remix)
• Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)

This blistering Two Lone Swordsmen remix from 2000 didn't seem to fit in the mix, Weller sent to some place where Killing Joke and krauty- techno co- exist, but I though I should share it again anyway. It's never had an official digital release and when it came out in 2000 it was a white label 12" limited to just 75 copies worldwide. One of which sits is downstairs from where I type this. 

Heliocentric (Swordsmen 4UR Mix)

Kosmos

Back in 1993 Paul Weller, then on the crest of a wave and reborn after his wilderness years, released a seven minute remix of one of his songs, a space rock/ dub monster with samples from NASA, rockets taking off, a wah wah guitar isolated and distorted, crunchy drums, sounds whooshing around the place, panning from left to right, squealing siren sounds and bass parts that sounded like your speakers were about to pop. It was picked up early on by Andrew Weatherall who used to play it at the end of his sets at Sabresonic (a sweaty, filthy dungeon underneath London Bridge on Crucifix Lane) and according to those present, it caused mayhem. Eventually, when everyone had lost their shit and tried to find out what it was, Weller released it on the Hung Up single. There was a promo 12" which claimed, not unreasonably, that the two versions contained within the black plastic grooves were 'a sonic aural explosion of dub beats'. 

Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)

Lynch Mob was the production name used by producer Brendan Lynch. He worked with Weller on his early solo albums and were both with Young Disciple bassist Marco Nelson, Indian Vibes, a one off project who had a bit of a splash with Mathur, psychedelic sitar dance music for the 90s, a Dave Pike Set cover. The 12" came out in 1994 with various versions and remixes and was a hit in France. 

Mathur (Extended Mix)

Mathur Adbutha (Lynch Mob Beats)

Isolation Mix Fifteen: Songs Lord Sabre Taught Us Part Two

Two weeks ago I posted my fourteenth Isolation Mix, Songs The Lord Sabre Taught Us, an hour of music from Andrew Weatherall's record box, as featured on his radio shows, playlists, interviews and mixes, mixed together seamlessly (vaguely). Today's mix is a second edition, fifteen songs he played, raved about or sampled, most of them first heard via him (I was listening to Stockholm Monsters before I was a fan of Mr Weatherall, a long lost Factory band who made a bunch of good singles and a fine album called Alma Matter and also the best band to come out of Burnage). It's a tribute to the man and his record collection that there are so many great records from his back pages to sift through and then sequence into some kind of pleasing order. Rockabilly, dub, Factory, post- punk, krautrock legends, Weller spinning out through the Kosmos...



Cowboys International: The ‘No’ Tune
Sparkle Moore: Skull And Crossbones

The Pistoleers: Bank Robber

The Johnny Burnette Trio: Honey Hush

Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze: Dubwise

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry: Disco Devil

African Head Charge: Dervish Chant

Big Youth: Hotter Fire

Colourbox: Looks Like We’re Shy One Horse

Stockholm Monsters: All At Once

Holger Czukay, Jah Wobble and Jaki Liebezeit: How Much Are They?

White Williams: Route To Palm

Paul Weller: Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)

A R Kane: A Love From Outer Space

Chris And Cosey: October (Love Song) ‘86

Kosmos

Back in November as part of the Monday Long Song thing he kicked off earlier this year Drew posted the nine minute version of Morning Wonder by The Earlies, a wonderful piece of music, sort of psychedelic folk with krauty rhythms. You can find it here with the download link still intact. In places it reminds me of this still amazing sounding Brendan Lynch remix of Paul Weller from 1993, Weller sent twisting around the kosmos by producer Brendan Lynch, on a dub- jazz- electronic mayhem trip.

Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)


Only a few years earlier The Style Council had their last hit single and Top Of The Pops appearance with their cover of Joe Smooth's house classic Promised Land. Everything about this clip is great- Weller and Mick Talbot on twin pianos, Dee's performance at the front, Mick's beard, the fun they all seem to be having.

Into The Cosmos

If you're at a loose end and want something to soundtrack ninety minutes of your life you could do worse than this mix from the Quiet Storm family, a blogmind compilation expertly sequenced by Mark. This one took suggestions of songs inspired by the cosmos, the moon and the stars. It opens with William Shatner, takes in a wide cast of stargazers including Prefab Sprout, Billy Preston, AR Kane, The Upsetters, David Sylvian, Chilly Gonzales, Billy Bragg, Declan O'Rourke, Stereolab, I Am Kloot, Mayer Hawthorne, Sandy Denny and Labelle and finishes with Rutger Hauer and the 'tears in rain' scene from Bladerunner. See if you can guess what I suggested.



And this didn't occur to me at the time but it could have been a fine addition to the mix, Paul Weller dubbed out and spaced out by Brendan Lynch back in 1993.

Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)

Sitar, Dub And Bass

As a follow on from Paul Weller's Indian Vibes excursion that I posted the other day, I went back and listened to the whole e.p. Death In Vegas mainman Richard Fearless' remix of Mathar is the stand out of the versions- some very cool electronic dub to wash over you.

Mathar (Richard Fearless Remix)

Sitar, Drums And Bass

A track from 1998 which sounds surprisingly good today- Mathar by Indian Vibes, with some very catchy sitar playing, and general 90s clubbiness (y'know, Sunday Social, Chemical Brothers, that kind of thing). Indian Vibes was Paul Weller and chums with producer Brendan Lynch. The 12" came with two remixes, one by Death In Vegas' Richard Fearless who took it dubwards and another by Primal Scream who turned in something very noisy indeed. There's much to enjoy in this extended version.

Mathar Extended 12"

To The Kosmos Men Dare

Back in 1993 when Paul Weller got his mojo and his audience back with Wildwood, it wasn't all Traffic, bucolic jams and the view from the countryside. His producer Brendan Lynch knew that what Weller really needed was a dubbed out remix of Kosmos with tons of delay, loud screeching noises and spacey beep-beep-beeps by the dozen. Experimental and out-there, this is a million miles from The Eton Rifles, The Paris Match and Stanley Road.

Green Fred Perry polo shirt from model's own signature collection, as ANCB cleared up last time I used this picture.

Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus beats)