Monday's Long Songs

This bootleg re- orbited into my musical world last week, a 2021 cut- and- shut of Malcolm McLaren's Madame Butterfly and The Grid's Floatation by pflext, the two songs working together perfectly, Malcolm's 1984 marriage of opera and 80s r'n'b and hip hop spliced with Richard Norris and Dave Ball's 1990 Balearic/ ambient house classic, remixed by a then fledgling remixer Andrew Weatherall. Richard did point out in 2021 that the bootlegger pflext missed a trick by not calling it Floats Like A Butterfly. Listen here, eight and a half minutes of bliss. Pflext is Paul Flex Taylor currently based in Sydney, Australia. 

Here's the original of Madame Butterfly from '84, McLaren, Stephen Hague, Debbie Cole and Betty Ann White taking on Puccini and winning. The album Fans was six tracks long and included pieces from Carmen and Turandot over hip hop drums but madame Butterfly was the only one where he really nailed it.

Madame Butterfly (Un Bel Di Vedremo)

The McLaren/ Grid mash up led me to Paris in 1994, where Malcolm McLaren was still looking for the next big fusion, making an album celebrating the city in the form of atmospheric future jazz and synth pop with vocals from Catherine Deneuve. A second disc of remixes brought this seventeen minute ambient classic from Youth titled The Emotional Curvatone At A Given Moment In Time And Space Listen at Soundcloud or Youtube. It really is something special with Deneuve's softly spoken vocals, waves of rippling synths and endless flow. I posted it before in 2019, a year which is both fairly recent but also feels like many, many years ago. 

Broken

Friday the 13th- I trust none of you put any store in superstition (it's bad luck to do so I think). Death In Vegas' breakthrough album The Contino Sessions has several good collaborations on it, Dot Allison and Iggy Pop standing out. I loved this record at the time but can't help but feel some of it sounds a little dated now. I think with this type of record it's the beats that date- until a time comes around that those drum programs become fashionable again. This song has vocals from Jim Reid, on Mary Chain hiatus, doing a fine line in self-loathing over a bunch of noise.

Broken Little Sister

Twitchy

Following a tip off by the RiG contributors this a rather splendid, slow and funky electronic reworking of Bill Callahan's America by JD Twitch. Gets a bit messy in places. Free download from the I'm A Cliche people in Paris. Bob's your uncle.

Dog Years

I'm not fully sold on the latest Fuck Buttons album yet- they set very high standards with the previous one- but it's early days. I need to live with it a bit longer- the thing is, their music is not stuff you can ignore and I have to be in the right mood for their full on, electronic, wigout, melodic-noise assault.

Year Of The Dog

Space Scribble

A few months back Italian cosmic disco duo DJ Rocca and Daniele Baldelli released a remix e.p. of songs from their Podalirius album. The lead off was a suitably sumptuous spaced out job from our friend Andrew Weatherall. His remix of Complotto Geometrico is a beaut and together with that one of Speed of Dark by Emeliani Torrini and the indie-dance epic for Jagwar Ma make up a lovely summer 2013 remix triptych. But the Weatherall  one was only one of three- the Prins Thomas remix of Space Scribble is also very, very good. If you're familiar with Prins Thomas's subtle, elegant, minimal disco stylings, you'll have a good idea of what to expect.

Space Scribble (Prins Thomas Remix)

Where Did You Go?

There were slim pickings in Britpop if you were looking for good music. Too many derivative sing songs that were effective but not really much cop. I've always had a soft spot for this though- Slight Return by The Bluetones. The Rickenbacker guitars sound cool, all jangle with the right amount of fuzz, the vocals are good and the song just floats. It does seem to be a re-write of 'lost' Stone Roses song Where Angels Play, but it's a good re-write.

Slight Return