Cosmic

Chris Massey's Sprechen kicks off 2026 with a new EP from The Thief Of Time, Chris' cosmic disco/ new wave band now joined permanently by Lady Lady (Sally Summers). The new single, Cosmic, is a decades old demo updated by Sally and Chris, all 80s synths, soaring vocals and sci fi dreams. 

Cosmic comes with two remixes- one by WH Lung's Tom Sharkett and the other by Frederik Hendrik, a new Sprechen signing. Tom loads up big breakbeat, isolates the synthlines and heads for the rave at the end of the universe, six minutes of fun with a breakdown at four minutes filled with garbed voices and then a finale with laser beams and synths firing off all over. Frederik's remix is cosmic disco/ Italo house, builds slowly, achieves lift off, breaks down, re- enters, and then continues to fly. Find Cosmic at Bandcamp. 

In 2024 Tom Sharkett's band WH Lung released their third album, Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates, a really well put together nine song set of cosmische indie, both atmospheric and with fully realised songs. The songs pulse with synths and guitars, motorik drums and soaring melodies, that sound like lots of other bands best bits and also like themselves. This song ended the album in fine style, a big emphatic, widescreen kiss off.

I Will Set Fire To The House

In 2020 an album of remixes of songs from Incidental Music was released including remixes by Kid Machine and Fijiya and Miyagi. In 2019 Piccadilly Records made Incidental Music their album of the year and the CD of remixes was a bonus disc for punters who bought the album at Oldham Street's finest record shop. The Fujiya and Miyagi remix fits in very well alongside the WH Lung one above and The Thief Of Time EP, all very cosmic. 

Second Death Of My Face (Fujiya and Miyagi Remix)

WH Lung are named after a Chinese and Asian supermarket on Upper Brook Street, Manchester, open seven days a week.

Take Your Baby By The Hand

In 2022 Peak High released a single that was one the best of the year, the magnificent Was That All It Was, a cover of a 1979 disco/ soul song by Jean Carne. Peak High (Jim McCall) then sent his version to Sean Johnston who remixed it twice, the first time pulling all the ALFOS/ Patrick Cowley levers, synths and drum machines set for the cosmic disco/ chug heart of the sun, the second going early 90s Sheffield bleep house. Now they've done it again.

The new release is a cover of Wang Chung's 1983 hit Dance Hall Days, a song for summer and late nights, the sequencers and synths throbbing and pulsing. Don Gomez's sweet vocal sends the song closer to perfection. All the labels apply- cosmic disco, Italo, Balearic, chug house. Once again Sean is on remix duties, his Hardway Bros remix toughening up the drums and sending it to a sweatier, darker place, most likely a basement. 

The Peak High and Hardway Bros versions are at Bandcamp. The video for the original song was directed by Derek Jarman, with some of the footage from Jarman's father's home movies. The toddler is Derek. 

Sean is back in his remix partnership with Duncan Gray as Hardway Bros Meets Monkton very shortly, the pair remixing the latest song from the Tici Taci label, a superb EP from Uj Pa Gaz, coming all the way from Tirana in Albania. The Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown remix of Roxy is a six minute dub version, bassline leading the way, very much Uptown. The original version of Roxy is a gorgeous, woozy slice of electronic music, laid back Adriatica. Also on the EP is The Cove, six slo mo minutes, percussion, chugging drums and a keening topline that pulls at the heartstrings. There's a clip of the remix of Roxy at Soundcloud  and one of Roxy here. More excellence from Tici Taci- the EP comes out on 31st July. 

Back in 2018 Uj Pa Gaz remixed Fujiya & Miyagi's brilliant ode to middle age and its attendant physical shortcomings, Extended Dance Mix. 

Extended Dance Mix (Uj Pa Gaz Remix)

While I'm here, can I remind you about Duncan Grey's full length album from earlier this year, Five Fathoms Full. It's twelve tracks of wall to wall supercharged ALFOS- style cosmic disco/ indie dance and hasn't been heard by nearly enough people. Find it here. 

Isolation Mix Fourteen

Isolation Mix 14 or Songs The Lord Sabre Taught Us. Fourteen songs, an hour and a quarter mix of records played by Andrew Weatherall. Most of them, not quite all but most, I heard first because he included them in a set or a mix on the internet or one of his radio shows, for 6 Mix or Music's Not For Everyone, or he referred to them in an interview. The quality of the songs and the breadth of genres and styles tells you everything you need to know about his taste and ear for a tune. The selection of songs here spans 1956 to 2019 and covers rockabilly, blues, 60s modbeat, post- punk, weird southern blues/ rock/ gumbo, 80s dance and proto- house, krautrock, Paisley Underground guitar heroics, 21st century fuzz rockers and electro- cosmische funkers, ambient- drone, avant- disco and a 70s country tinged ballad. Something for everyone.



Tracklist-
Cowboys International: The ‘No’ Tune

James Luther Dickinson: O How She Dances

Wayne Walker: All I Can Do Is Cry

The Animals: Outcast

Johnny Jenkins: Walk On Gilded Splinters

The Dream Syndicate: John Coltrane Stereo Blues

Crocodiles: Foolin’ Around

Liaisons Dangereuses: Los Ninos Del Parque

Fujiya & Miyagi: Extended Dance Mix

La Dusseldorf: Rheinita

AMOR: Paradise

Piano Fantasia: Song For Denise (Maxi Version)

Rich Ruth: Coming Down

Donnie Fritts: We Had It All

Pumping An Electric Current Through The Leg Of A Dead Frog

A couple of weeks ago, just as social distancing began to be a thing we were in Stockport on a Sunday afternoon. Up the hill from the town centre is Stockport Civic Centre, a concrete modernist complex with buildings, landscaping, forecourts, steps and this structure, a sort of concrete bunker but above ground, hiding something. There wasn't a soul around. Wandering round and taking some photos it felt like the world had already shut down.

This should provide some cheer. In 2017 Fujiya and Miyagi, the Brighton based band electronic, kraut, indie- disco pioneers, released an new album. At its heart is this magnificent song, titled wittily Extended Dance Mix, the musings of a middle aged man in a band who may have peaked in popularity and questioning whether there's any point in continuing, the state of the music scene and the ironic navel gazing of a man dealing with the onset of arthritis, acid reflux, dermatitis and middle age spread. All of this, the band's career trajectory and relevance and his own health, is compared to 'pumping an electric current through the leg of a dead frog'.



Highlights of the lyrics include vocalist David Best worrying about his joints-

'My ankles sometimes involuntarily click
Do you think that’s normal or potentially arthritic?'

And the band's then- current marketplace position and the groups coming through-

'On social media platforms, the general consensus is
Our popularity has declined since 2006
Now playlists are full of privately educated kids
Singing in falsetto about the over privileged lives that they live'

In some ways this is very much a wry, very British take on LCD Soundsystem's Losing My Edge-

'Pumping an electric current through the leg of a dead frog
Just to see the muscle kick sort of reminded me of
The last ten years and what that's consisted of''

More physical ailments set to the pumping, sparse rhythm-

'As the kick drum flexes its metaphorical muscles
My acid reflux flares up through my oesophagus then bubbles
It's the last piece of my aching bodies puzzle
As our dreams collide with reality and then quickly buckle'

Mid- life lifestyle gets a kicking too, no more tours and clubs but daytime TV and weight gain (very spring 2020) - 

'I’ve put on weight and that’s down to a sedentary lifestyle
Well, that and consuming more calories than I burn whilst enjoying Columbo or Magnum P.I.'

Before finishing with the reality of having to face the camera and the continuing existence of the band

'Sucking in our guts...
Are they still going? Are Fujiya and Miyagi still going? …why?'

Lord Sabre Day

Today is April the 6th, Andrew Weatherall's birthday. Two Lone Swordsmen's excellent and krauty remix of Fujiya and Miyagi is your present. Blow the candles out and make a wish.

Electro Karaoke (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix).mp3#1#1

Ventriloquism

Fujiya and Miyagi, Brighton's dancey and krauty fourpiece, have a new album out later this month. I've quite liked a lot of their stuff in the past without ever totally loving it, although there is a rather nice Two Lone Swordsmen remix from several years ago I've played a lot. This is the B-side (is it a B-side? Or just an extra track in a digital bundle? Not sure), where they get remixed by Erland And the Carnival, about whom I knew nothing until a few minutes ago when I googled them and found out they do English folk music and contain a former member of The Verve and the Good, The Bad And The Queen (Simon Tong). I've not knowingly heard anything by them, so can't tell you whether this remix is typical or not, but I do like it.

Ventriloquizzing (Carnivalisation (Remixed By Erland & The Carnival)).mp3