V.A. Saturday

I'm trying to avoid making this Saturday series just a succession of compilations on Soul Jazz Records but since the 1990s they have become the standard setting label in many ways with what must be close to definitive various artist compilations in reggae, dub, ska, rocksteady, disco, kraut, acid, soul and funk. There are two post- punk compilations on Soul Jazz which came out at a time when sharp, angular, mutant funk/ noise was a big influence on new bands - one was the 2002 compilation In The Beginning There Was Rhythm, an eleven song gold standard compilation that I'll save for another Saturday. It was followed in 2003 by a sixteen song double vinyl/ single CD of late 70s/ early 80s music from New York, a compilation called New York Noise. As a document and round up of that scene it seems pretty comprehensive (although Lydia Lynch is missing) but it shows the influence of those artists on early 21st century hip hop, dance music, electroclash and disco- post- punk/ disco, groups like LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, all those bands that came through in the wake of The Strokes. 

New York Noise isn't always pretty or easy listening. It's intense and experimental and at times smells like damp basements, poppers and dry ice- but it always moves, its always invigorating and its always wants to tell you something is happening. As dance music it sometimes feels like its for the head as much as the feet. It definitely feels arty, the sort of music where you find people who are dressed interestingly- that's a good thing by the way- and that kind of thing can always topple into posing, but there's a time and place for posing and New York between 1979 and 1982 may be exactly that time and place. 

Across the seventy one minutes and sixteen tracks you get familiar punk- funk names- James Chance and The Contortions, The Bush Tetras, ESG, Mars, Theoretical Girls, Konk, DNA, and Defunkt. You also get this by Glenn Branca, a hugely influential wall of electric guitars and the power of repetition (a fundamental part of Sonic Youth's inspiration).

Lesson No. 1(For Electric Guitar)

There's also this by Dinosaur L from 1982, supremely funky and, yes, angular, sounds from Arthur Russell and Peter Gordon, a juddering post- punk bassline, sax and tape FX voices looped, rushing by in and out of time 

Clean On Your Bean

New York Noise opens with Liquid Liquid's Optimo, the title track from an EP that gave hip hop and early rap it's bassline in White Lines. By way of closing the circle Glasgow's Optimo, named after the track, did their own edit of Optimo, doubling the length and turning it up- cowbell, atonal sax, rumbling, thumping drums and percussion, Brazilian funk in early 80s New York retooled in Glasgow. 

Optimo (An Optimo Espacio Mix)

Forty Five Minutes Of Tim Burgess

Tim Burgess is an instantly recognisable figure as frontman, singer and lyricist of The Charlatans, the young man with the pudding bowl haircut of Indian Rope and The Only One I Know who has weathered the fads, phases and storms of the music industry and life and who still looks barely a day older than he did back in 1990. Outside The Charlatans he's written three books (including the brilliantly titled Tim Book Two), all three showing him to be a considered, thoughtful and witty writer. He has made six solo albums, from 2003's countryfied I Believe to the synths and FXed sax of Same Language, Different Worlds with Peter Gordon, with songs written and recorded with Lambchop's Kurt Wagner in between. He has a record label O Genesis which has put out solo albums by members of Factory Floor, by Martin Duffy and by The Membranes, among others. There is, it is fair to say, more to him than met the eye when he first shook his fringe with The Charlatans in January 1989. 

Today's mix is a selection of Tim Burgess solo/ with others/ outside The Charlatans that starts out with some gloriously frazzled, hazy ambient drift and ends with some block rocking beats and industrial thump. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Tim Burgess

• Stoned Alone Again Or (Seahawks Remix)
• Tobacco Fields
• Another Version Of The Truth
• Hours (Tandy Love Remix)
• Begin (Carter Tutti Remix)
• The Economy II (Prince Fatty Remix)
• Life Is Sweet (Album Version)
• White (Factory Floor- Gabe Gurnsey Remix)

Stoned Alone Again Or was a 2012 one off 12" single, remixed by Seahawks as a ten minute ambient epic, indie rock taken as far away from its roots as it can go. Seahawks are ambient/ Balearic duo Jon Tye and Pete Fowler, who have released umpteen albums and singles since 2010- I recommend Escape Hatch, Starways and Paradise Freaks as good starting points. 

Tobacco Fields is from Tim's 2012 solo album Oh No I Love You. It is a beauty, with barroom piano, a frazzled vocal and an ambient backdrop, co- written with Kurt Wagner. 

Another Version Of The Truth was on As I Was Now, a solo album recorded between Christmas and New Year in 2008 but not released until 2018- music that is experimental, krauty and pop. The group for the album consisted of My Bloody Valentine's bassist Debbie Goodge, Josh Haywood from The Horrors, Martin Duffy and Ladyhawke. 

Hours was on Oh No I Love You. Some editions of the CD came with a disc of remixes- the Tandy Love remix is by Andy Votel. Others on the second disc were by Tom Furse of The Horrors and Gabe Gurnsey of Factory Floor, whose remix finishes this mix. At the time Nik Void of Factory Floor was Tim's partner.

Begin is from Same Language, Different Worlds, an album made with New York avant garde composer Peter Gordon, a member of the legendary Love Of Life Orchestra. Begin was remixed by Carter Tutti, Chris Carter and Cosey Tutti of Throbbing Gristle/ Chris and Cosey fame/ infamy. Oh Men, also on the album, was remixed by Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, Peaking Lights, Grumbling Fur and Carter Tutti- that's quite the line up. 

The Economy II is also from Oh No I Love You, dubbed out in 2013 by the superb Prince Fatty.

In 1995 The Chemical Brothers released their debut album Exit Planet Dust. Tim had been a regular at The Social, the Sunday afternoon/ evening party thrown weekly by Heavenly Records and Tom and Ed at The Albany on Great Portland Street. Tim sang on Life Is Sweet, a song which became the album's second single. On an album not short of bangers, Life Is Sweet still stands out- a furious synth riff, crunching beats, whooshes, sirens and a dirty bassline, and Tim's vocal, a celebration of mid- 90s hedonism. The Chemical Brothers returned the favour by working with The Charlatans on 1997's Tellin' Stories, most notably on One To Another.

Monday's Long Song

This came out back in 2013 and I posted it back then and again in 2014 but it was among the piles of records that I was sorting through when the big sort out/Kallax construction took place recently and I thought it would fit this series perfectly. Beachcombing is a fifteen minute collaboration between New York composer Peter Gordon, a man who worked with Arthur Russell and Laurie Anderson, and Nik Void and Gabe Gurnsey of Factory Floor. Beachcombing sounds a bit like a 45 rpm record slowed down to 33, the pitter-patter of a drum machine, slow and warped tones, woozy almost inaudible vocals from Nik and waves and surges of analogue, modular synths and sweet bursts of saxophone. It  builds and holds a trance-like state that is easy to get lost in and if it doesn't improve your Monday morning, I don't know what will.

Beachcombing

Impulse Begin

Some forward thinking electronica from 1982 from the combined talents of Chris And Cosey, then fresh out of Throbbing Gristle and enjoying the freedom of their independence. Chris Carter pioneered the use of all kinds of equipment, not least the Roland 303 bassline synth and Roland 808 drum machine, back before most people had even heard of either.

Impulse

They've never really stopped and in recent years have made some wonderful remixes. This one is a case in point, a sweetly euphoric version of a Tim Burgess and Peter Gordon collaboration from 2016.

Begin (Carter Tutti Remix)

I'm part way through Cosey Fanni Tutti's autobiography, titled art sex music, and without giving too much away she has lived an eye-opening life, a life lived as art, and in the 1970s put up with some very shitty behaviour from Genesis P. Orridge.

Begin

In 2016 Tim Burgess (Charlatan) put out an album he'd recorded with Peter Gordon (Love Of Life Orchestra and Arthur Russell collaborator). It was a funny record, full of hidden treasure- synths, drum machines, saxophone and Tim's sweetly sung vocals. This remix of the opening song by Carter Tutti (formerly Chris and Cosey and of Throbbing Gristle) is lovely, gliding by, leaving you better than it found you.



It was on free download on Soundcloud for a while but isn't any more (but you might find it here).

Around

Tim Burgess and Peter Gordon's Same Language, Different Worlds album is full of low key pleasures, little analogue synth parts burbling away, sax drifting in, Tim's hazy vocals. This remix of Around by Sonic Boom adds further tension, loops and some chopped up, repetitive parts.

Unguarded

Tim Burgess has done an album with Peter Gordon, due out on Tim's O Genesis label in early September. Tim's work outside The Charlatans is full of surprises, from various guest vocal performances to his solo album written with Lambchop's Kurt Wagner. This is the furthest from Madchester and Britpop yet- and it seems unfair to continue to pigeonhole both Tim and The Charlatans with those two labels. Peter Gordon is a New York based composer, experimental jazz, film scores and so on. He worked closely with Arthur Russell and his own Love Of Life Orchestra recordings are well worth checking out. The first song from Same Language Different Worlds came out digitally in June and is a little wonder, pitter-patter drumming and a drifting sax, swirling aquatic melodies and Tim's hazy vocals floating along on top.



A second song, Begin, has appeared online this month- metallic percussion, some synths and more phased vocals. All in all, it's a long way from Knebworth 1996.

Oh Men

Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, the two members of New Order who don't hate each other, have done a remix of a Tim Burgess solo song, Oh Men. Tim co-wrote the song with Kurt Wagner (Lambchop) and Peter Gordon (Love Of Life Orchestra). The Other Two remix sounds a bit late era New Order, a bit Kraftwerk. It is sprightly and out now on vinyl (along with the wonderful Peaking Lights remix and versions from Grumbling Fur and Carter Tutti). There are only 500 copies worldwide. They've still got some at the ever brilliant Piccadilly Records.

No-one falls out quite like Manchester bands do they? Bernard and Hooky, Morrissey and Marr, Morrissey and Rourke, Morrissey and Joyce, Ian Brown and John Squire, Ian Brown and Reni, all of Happy Mondays, Liam and Noel... I'd like to see an Mcr loathing-each-other supergroup. Put them all in a rehearsal room and see what happens.

Beachcombing

This 12" came out last year, from the combined talents of Peter Gordon and Factory Floor. Listening to it on the bus back from Belgium late on Monday night, through headphones, was close to a religious experience especially round the nine minute mark- and not entirely due to sleep deprivation. Ebbing and flowing of sounds, pulsing waves and oscillations and discordant saxophone (an instrument often I can't abide). Full on.

Beachcombing

Condo 33

It's amazing what a bit of internet research pissing about on the net can bring you- Peter Gordon was the founder of Love Of Life Orchestra, New York avant garde ensemble, with ties to Steve Reich and Laurie Anderson and Arthur Russell, heavily influencing DFA and all those kinds of people. The song above is Condo- but slowed down from 45rpm to 33rpm- and is utterly wonderful.

Beachcomber

I found this recently at Just Press Play blog, an always reliable source of good leftfield electronic stuff, and it is a cosmic belter- Beachcomber is fourteen minutes of New York veteran Peter Gordon and Factory Floor making some beautiful links between stellar bass, wonky synths and post-punk sax. Out soon on Optimo.