These Richard Sen remixes of John Grant's songs Disappointing and Voodoo Doll were done back in 2016 but not released until recently- why they weren't released is a bit of a mystery given how good they are. The Sen remix of Disappointing is classic ALFOS material, slow burning, chuggy and transportative, electronic dance music with an emotive core, John Grant's deep voice riding on top of the low slung groove, synth strings sweeping with some dark disco drama.
Richard's remix of Voodoo Doll sets off with a squelch and kick drum, more synths, some backing vox and then John's descending vocal line. The breakdown, with acid burble, thudding kick drum and then the vocal re- entering, John singing 'break into my house and read my diary if you need some proof' are a joy. Happy- sad dance music of the best kind.
There are instrumental versions of both remixes as well as the vocal ones. The whole package can be found at Bandcamp- it seems I've missed out on the vinyl though, which is as John himself notes, disappointing.
Richard Sen's album India Man came out on Bandcamp at the end of August following a limited vinyl release earlier in the summer. Richard's life in the counter culture goes back to the mid- 80s and his career in music spans three decades. In the 80s he was a graffiti writer, using the tag Coma- he became aged eighteen the first person in the UK to be jailed for graffiti writing. He immersed himself in the late 80s acid house scene and has made music as Bronx Dogs, Padded Cell and Hackney Vandal Patrol as well as under his own name. He DJs and has a Masters degree in Criminology. He painted the sleeve art for Sabres Of Paradise's Smokebelch and contributed the massive sounding Tough On Chug, Tough On The Causes Of Chug to Sounds Of The Flightpath Estate Volume 1 earlier this year.
India Man is in part an album about his roots, about his family background, ethnicity, his father and grandfather who both came to the UK from India, and his own life as the fourth generation of India men. It's also an album that merges the house/ cosmic disco/ electro of his own music with the music styles of India and the Middle East. India Man kicks off with Eleven Eleven, a tribute to Charlie Bones, the founder of Do You!! Radio where Richard has a residency- chunky, slowed down chug with cosmic twinkles and blasts of bass. Moksha speeds things up, a thumping four four rhythm and squalls of sax and acres of bottom end. Indus Symphony brings the funk, joined by Bollywood strings and a vocal sample. Leaving no electronic stone unturned, Parsi Princess goes to the basement, moody electro- machine funk with menacing synth strings.
The second half slows things down again, a funky drumbeat driving Proto- Dravidian, another Indian vocal on top, sultry and seductive, the music and voice gaining intensity. Magadhan Empire glides in on synth and piano, eight minutes of dark cosmic disco with chanting, ideal for early doors at ALFOS. It's followed by the throbbing electro of Mysteries Of Meluhha, rattling snare and sequenced bass. India Man concludes with Hills Of Kashmir, an epic, sweeping electronic drive, bassline pumping out and synth melodies wigging out.
India Man is out at Bandcamp digitally and there are a handful of limited edition vinyl copies with art print left. Get either/ both here.
Today is the summer solstice, midsummer, the longest day and shortest night, a celebration of the sun that has been observed since the Neolithic era. To mark this event I thought I'd add to my recent Bagging Area Book Club posts with some solstice adjacent reading material. In May 2019 the first edition of Weird Walk was published, specifically timed to coincide with May Day (Beltane in Gaelic). Since then there have been a further six editions, with the Number Seven in 2023 the most recent although as the photo above shows I only have issues one, three and seven so far. Weird Walk was started by three friends 'walking and engaging with the British landscape and its lore'. Forty pages printed on good quality card, well designed with quality photographs and illustrations and packed with interesting articles, Weird Walk is a treasure trove to be dipped in and out of. The first page of the first issue quotes Julian Cope in The Modern Antiquarian- 'people don't go anywhere unless there's a signpost'- and from that point has included articles on Medieval graffiti, dolmen, Dungeon Synth, flat roof pubs, a walk around Avebury, a feature on the life of 'seminal Tudor loon' William Kempe, an interview with writer Ben Edge, the folklore of booze and of cheese, explorations of portals in Wiltshire, acid folk, author Benjamin Myers writing abut Lindisfarne, and the pastoral ambient cassette sounds of the label Verdant Wisdom.
Weird Walk is well worth looking out for and can be bought online from their website, each edition available for £5.50.
I thought I'd throw in some more sounds for the solstice, some acid house rather than acid folk, recent releases to soundtrack tonight and beyond. First up is Temples remixed by Jono from Jagwar Ma, originally released in 2014 for Record Shop Day and recently made available at Temples' Bandcamp page. Shelter Song (Jagwar Ma Jono's Wrong Mix) takes Temples psyche rock and gives it an electronic thump and pulse, the synthline twisting its way round and round.
Richard Sen, who compiled one of the best compilations of last year and a superb remix EP to accompany it (Dream The Dream) and who appeared on our Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1 album with the speaker shaking sounds of Tough On Chug, Tough On The Causes Of Chug, is set to release a debut solo album later this year, an album called India Man. To lead into it he's released a single, Hills Of Kashmir, a cosmic disco/ acid house thumper that goes on with little let up in intensity and is very good indeed.
Richard also turns up today at the latest release by teenage wonderkid OBOST who's debut album Er... Hello? I wrote about a month ago. Sen has remixed Don't Want To Be Alone, a star sailing, bleepy, dynamic version of the song with Bobby's vocal on top. The EP is out today at Bandcamp. Richard's remix is worth the price of admission alone but you also get OBOST's own Jittery remix of the song and a new track, Take The Message. Happy solstice.
2023 has been a year of 23s for me in many ways. I've written before about the number and its occurrence, its relationship to us since Isaac died and the tattoos the three of us got done in October. This is my end of year post, a list pulling together what has been the best of 2023 for me. Inevitably there are 23 entries (but much more than 23 artists, singles and albums) and as I was writing it I realised that today is 23rd December (I planned to post this today before thinking about what date it would be). I have heard so much new music this year and so much of it has been really good- my long list of albums of the year came to thirty albums without much thought, a new album for every ten days of the year. And while much of this year has been a real struggle with grief and the long aftermath of Isaac's death, I've had some great nights out at events that were (almost) entirely about the music- the grief never goes away, it sits inside me or hovers above me but music- recorded music, live music- often has the power to transport me in a way nothing else does.
This is a list of my favourite musical things of this year. It's not objective. I haven't heard everything I should have done and I'm sure there are records that I'd love if I had more time and more money. Usually I find something early into the new year that instantly screams 'best of last year' to me. Also, ranking art and declaring one album 'better' than another is inherently subjective but end of year lists are fun and looking back and putting it all into one place is a good way to mark the end of the year. The year of 23.
Twenty Three: Venue Of The Year
No contest here- The Golden Lion in Todmorden and a fitting place to start the list. I've enjoyed several superb nights out at The Lion this year with the honour of DJing on a few occasions. ALFOS in June was very hot and memorable, David Holmes' album launch party in November was a 2023 highlight,
Dan Donovan’s Casbah Club in August (sadly Paul Simonon was unable to attend), our Sabresonic celebration and Q&A with Jagz
Kooner and Gary Burns and Jagz’s DJ set (videos of the Q&A to follow shortly), the Tici Taci Party in August with Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray DJing downstairs after a blistering set from Sons Of Slough upstairs, Red
Snapper rattling the fittings in November and the legendary, untouchable AW60 in April with a beautiful cast of artists and revellers and a huge headlining set from Justin Robertson.
Twenty Two: Label Of The Year
There are lots of independent labels putting out loads of good music, keeping things in house and small scale- not that there's anything small scale about the music- with digital and physical releases. These three have kept me busy all year with singles, EPs and albums, one offs and compilations- a three way tie for first place. Leeds based label Paisley Dark has put out releases by Warriors of The Dysthoteque, Jay- Son, The Machine Soul, Hogt I Tak and James Rod, all top notch electronic psychedelia. Duncan Gray's Tici Taci has had a year long celebration of ten years in the business with a tenth birthday party at the Golden Lion, a series of compilations, Decades Volumes 1 to 4 with outstanding new releases from The
Long Champs' 'Nostalgia For The Future', Jack Butters' ‘Shake It Off’ and singles and EPs from Mystic
Thug, Uj Pa Gaz, Viper Patrol and Mr BC. Along with those two is Exeter's Mighty Force, the label that back in the early 90s put out Aphex Twin's first 12" single, reborn for the digital age. Mighty Force have sent all of these into the ether and all are excellent electronic music- Yorkshire Machines ‘Firing Up’, ‘Fluffy Inside’ by Nylon Corners, M- Paths' ‘Hope’ AP Organism's EP ‘Space Docks And Moon Rocks’ David Harrow's ‘Jitter’ and ‘Described Spaces’ by KAMS. Long may all three labels continue.
Twenty One: Gig Of The Year
I had the pleasure to see some great gigs this year, several of which lived long in the memory. Spiritualized at Manchester's New Century Hall were genuinely breathtaking. Red Snapper at the Golden Lion kicked up a storm of cosmic jazz, trip hop and downtempo. Eyes Of Others at The Castle on Oldham Street were great, another great Heavenly Records artist. Chris Rotter and Andy Bell's two man set on Saturday afternoon at AW60 playing songs from Andrew Weatherall's A Pox On The Pioneers was a gem.
But the win goes to A Certain Ratio who I saw live three times this year. They toured twice, released a superb new album, 1982, and an EP, celebrating 45 years of making music and they're still
forging ahead with new music and ideas. Their gig at New Century Hall earlier on this year, the free
one outdoors at Factory International in June and the two set 45th
anniversary celebration at Band On The Wall at the start of this month were all brilliant, a dance floor blend of youth and experience, post- punk/ punk funk/ jazz funk, the old and the new.
Twenty: Compilation Of The Year
I've already mentioned Tici Raci's four volumes of Decade, several hours of chuggy sci fi, nu disco, house, techno sparkle. Aficionado's 25 Of Aficionado is a celebration of a Manchester institution, the anything goes, genre free spirit of Jason Boardman and Moonboots pressed onto four sides of vinyl is right up there with Colleen Murphy's Balearic Breakfast Volume 2 not far behind. But the stand out compilation of the year was Richard Sen's Dream The Dream: UK Techno, House And Breakbeat 1990- 1994, a perfectly pulled together and superbly sequenced set of tracks from the early 90s that show what a fertile period that was and how much was going on in the underground.
Some of my favourite tracks of this year have been edits- do edits count as new music? Or old music? New versions of old music, rejigged for the dancefloor. Jezebell's Jezebalearic Beats Vol 1 is a masterclass in this area and will appear further on in this list. Jezebell's Diavol Edits Vol 7 as a four track joy. Beyonder's Present Case Edits Vol 1 was a stunner, not least Hardway Bros edit of Sleaford Mods' Mork And Mindy, the M&M Acid Edit. Peza's Rock The Spectre, a layering of Joe Strummer's vocal from Rock the Casbah over Mystic Thug also hit the spot for me. But just pipping all of these for me were the pair of edits on the A- side of a recent vinyl only 12" by Coyote, their reworking of Monsoon's Ever So Lonely as Lonely and Gil Scott Heron as Western Revolution lighting up December for me.
Eighteen: Andy Bell
Pretty soon from here there will be some proper lists and less wittering from me but first Andy Bell who at first glance seemed to have had a quiet year after all his solo albums and GLOK activity in 2020- 2022. Even so he put in a tour, released a lovely ambient/ free jazz mini- album with Masal, Tidal Love Numbers, and a ten minute live cover version of Neu!'s Hallogallo (also with Masal), a live in session album for Electronic Sound called Gateway Mechanics wearing his GLOK hat, two sides of soaring kosmische electronics and guitars, a bunch of remixes for other artists and put out a fanzine, Volume, Fuzz And Delay (which contained my review of his gig at Gulliver's in April 2022. Which, as the man on The Fast Show used to say, was nice). The fanzine came with a download code for three hours of live recordings from Andy's Space Station gigs, live versions of songs from his solo albums and as GLOK, all of which are stunning.
Seventeen: EPs Of The Year
All of these wereessential listening for me at various points this year, all of them somewhere between the single and the album, with Sons Of Slough's chug and cosmic wallop recorded live at Convenanza in September, Jezebell's messy day and night out in the sun with Siouxsie on Trading Places, the three remixes of Unloved's Polychrome album, Justin Robertson's rocking dub especially, and at the top the wondrous Magic Hour EP by Wigan's Mark Peters, resplendent on 10" yellow vinyl.
11. Whitelands ‘Remixes’
10: Steve Queralt and Michael Smith ‘Sun Moon Town Versions’
9: Yorkshire Machines ‘Firing Up’
8: Woodleigh Research Facility: Apparently Solo 4 Borderlands
7: Sons Of Slough ‘Live at The Castle’
6: Chug Norris ‘Dark and Sweaty’
5: Richard Sen ‘Dream the Dream’ remixes
4: Andy Bell and Masal ‘Tidal Love Numbers’
3: Jezebell ‘Trading Places’
2: Unloved ‘Polychrome’ Remixes
1: Mark Peters ‘The Magic Hour’ EP
Sixteen: Albums Of The Year Numbers 30 to 8
30: Laurel Halo 'Atlas'
29. Red Snapper 'Live At The Moth Club'
28: Young Fathers 'Young Fathers'
27: Dicky Continental ‘Uh?’
26: House of All 'House Of All'
25: Goat 'Medicine'
24: Boxheater Jackson ‘Indigenous State Of Mind’
23: Konformer ‘Konformer’
22: A Certain Ratio: 1982
21: Slowdive ‘Everything Is Alive’
20: The Coral ‘Sea Of Mirrors’
19: David Harrow ‘Rare Earth Technology’
18: Steve Cobby ‘The New Law Of Righteousness’
17: HiFi Sean and David McAlmont ‘Happy Ending’
16: Woodleigh Research Facility ‘Phonox Nights’
15: Andy Bell ‘Gateway Mechanics’
14: The Thief Of Time ‘Where Do I Belong?’
13: Coyote ‘I Hear A New World’
12. Grian Chatten ‘Chaos For The Fly’
11: Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright ‘Psychedelic Science’
10: Jezebell ‘Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1’
9: Richard Norris ‘Oracle Sound Volume 1’
8: Yo La Tengo ‘This Stupid World’
Fifteen: Singles Of The Year Numbers 23 to 8
23: Four Tet ‘Three Drums’
22: Woodentops ‘Ride A Cloud’ and Coyote remix
21: Hurdy Gurdy and the Local Psycho ‘The Hurdy Gurdy Song’
20: X- Press 2 ‘Phasing You Out’ David Holmes remix
19: Rude Audio ‘The Grinning’
18: Warriors Of The Dysthoteque and Joe Duggan ‘Fitzroy
Avenue’
13: Islandman ‘Godless Ceremony’ plus the Hardway Bros Remix
12: A Man Called Adam ‘The Girl With A Hole In Her Heart’
11: Aphex Twin ‘Black Box Recorder 21f’
10: Psychederek ‘Test Card Girl’
9: Jo Sims ‘Bass- The Final Frontier’ David Holmes remix
8: Katy J Pearson ‘Willow’s Song’ Richard Norris remix
Fourteen: Album Of The Year #7 Eyes
Of Others ‘Eyes Of Others’
Eyes Of Others debut album is a heady collage of electronics, synthpop, dub, acid house, early New Order and John Bryden's singular world view.
Thirteen: Album Of The Year #6African Head Charge ‘A Trip To Bolgatanga’
Bonjo and Sherwood back on the African Head Charge express, ten songs built over Bonjo's drumming, chanting and dub.
Twelve: Album Of The Year #5 10:40 ‘Transition Theory’
I first heard Jesse Fahnestock's music a couple of years ago, an edit of Spacemen 3. This album, a complete piece of work, each track containing the seeds of the next one, an eleven song trip through the 10:40 world roaming in the spaces between ambient house, chuggy electronics, indie dance, psychedelia, bleepy dub and atmospherics, floating in inner/ outer space.
Eleven: Album Of The Year #4 JIM
‘Loves Makes Magic’
Surprise of the year for me, a Balearic song based album that lit up summer- the hot, sunny summer we didn't really get this year.
Ten: Album Of The Year #3 Sonic
Boom and Panda Bear ‘Reset In Dub’ by Adrian Sherwood
Sherwood and the On U Sound collectiveproving they've lost none of their power, sending Sonic Boom and Panda Bear into echo heaven.
Nine: Album Of The Year #2 James
Holden ‘Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities’
This album came out in March, an album that is endlessly innovative and entrancing. Holden recorded it partly as a memory of 90s rave and the free party movement but it works way beyond nostalgia, twelve tracks that never become predictable, never settle, always looking to twist and move somewhere else, melodies and squiggles, birdsong and synths. I played it again recently and it sounded as fresh as it did in March.
Eight: Single Of The Year #7 Cole
Odin and Marshall Watson ‘Just A Daydream Away’ versions plus Hardway Bros
remix
Shimmering indie dance from the West Coast of the USA, in two versions, both equally great and a wonderful Hardway Bros remix serving up ten minutes of cosmic indie chug (a trick Sean repeated with remixes of Holy Youth Movement and Islandman's Godless Ceremony.
Seven: Single Of The Year #6 Electric
Blue Vision ‘Other Skies’ plus remixes
Jesse Fahnestock has been on fire in 23, a flood of music and ideas (see above, number 13). Other Skies is a song that has that magic, the magic that transports and transcends, Emilia Harmony's vocal about being lost and going home a key part of it. The remixes, all three of them, sent it into new places with the Hardway Bros and Monkton's dub version bringing the bass and melodica front and centre.
Six: Single Of The Year #5 Khidja
‘Do You Know This Record Marius?
Two weeks ago this wouldn't have been here but it shoved its way in and won't let go- trippy, spinning electronic psychedelia from Romania that has been on a loop at home and in the car.
Five: Single Of The Year #4 Dirt
Bogarde ‘Heavy Blotter’
Dirt has provided several tracks this year that have pushed me forwards but this one has an oomph, an electric charge and a big acid house sound that rattles my speakers and hits me in the chest.
Four: Single Of The Year #3 Matt
Gunn ‘Learning By Loops’ Bedford Falls Players Remix
I wrote about this last week, a remix that has been in my ears since the early summer, and one I'm not remotely tired of hearing. A crunch of drums, long vocal sample about binary systems, time travel, the voice of Jesus and shit like this with a ringing guitar part looped in and out.
Three: Sinead O'Connor and Single Of The Year #3 David Holmes 'Necessary Genius'
There have been a lot of high profile deaths this year, the losses of David Crosby, Tom Verlaine, Bobby Charlton, Jane Birkin, Steve Mackey, Spot, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mark Stewart, Andy Rourke and Shane McGowan all moments of sadness. But Sinead's death in July was shocking and brought a wave of heartfelt tributes and genuine bereavement from many, her death, coming a year after the loss of her youngest son Shane. I read her book Rememberings last year and the knowledge that Shane would die after the book was written made reading it very moving.
Back in July when I posted my own tribute to her I included a link to an edit Rich Lane did of Sinead's song Jackie. A friend sent my blogpost to David Holmes who in response sent me the track he played at his own tribute to Sinead at NTS radio, his remix of Orbital's Belfast with Sinead's vocal from Nothing Compares 2U over the top. David also then got in touch with Rich and asked for a copy of Jackie to play when DJing (which he did and which David played at The Golden Lion in November, a moment that made me smile when it came over the sound system and I thought about how it got there). David also then asked Rich to do a remix for him which should be coming out soon. Sinead's face was on the art for David's Necessary Genius single and a print included with the Blind On A Galloping Horse album. She's been a presence all over the second half of 2023, a beautiful and fearless soul and it seemed right to include her in this list. Hopefully the album she recorded with David Holmes will see the light of day eventually.
Necessary Genius was close to the top in my list of singles of 2023, a rollcall of talent and inspiration with glorious synths and drum machines. But it missed out to this...
Two: Single Of The Year- Fontaines DC 'Cello Song'
I thought long and hard about this, about whether I really think a cover version should be my single of the year and whether given almost all the music above is electronic, a rock 'n' roll rumble in the top spot is right- but in the end it is the song I've gone back to time and time again. Nick Drake's original is my favourite song of his, a song of acoustic and poetic beauty, and in some ways the words have become associated with Isaac for me in the two years since he died. Fontaines DC take the song and do something new with it, a squeal of feedback, a rockabilly drumbeat, acres of Dublin street swagger and Grian Chatten's deep hit of voice breathing new meaning into Nick's words. Back in July I put together a forty minute mix of Nick Drake songs which opened with Nick's version and closed with Fontaines. Here it is again.
One: Album Of The Year- David Holmes 'Blind On A Galloping Horse'
The album I've been waiting for since the first single from it appeared in 2021, Hope Is The Last Thing To Die. Fourteen songs long, seventy minutes of music, a proper album from start to finish with contributions from Keith Tenniswood and Tim Fairplay, the voice of Raven Violet and the spirits of Andrew Weatherall and Sinead O'Connor. Songs that take in the personal and the political, the emotional and the righteous, the psychedelic and the electronic, over four sides of vinyl housed in a beautifully designed sleeve. Everything we wanted and more and as someone said to me, exactly the album we needed at exactly the right time.
There were a slew of remixes to support the singles, all of them worth hearing and some of them right up there with the best music released this year, a case of more is sometimes more. Shout outs to Sonic Boom and Panda Bear's remix of Yeah x 3 and both Vendetta Suite's versions of the same song, Colleen Murphy's acid disco remixes of Stop Apologising, and the remixes of Necessary Genius by Decius (a riot in a sweaty basement), Lovefingers (a slowed down piano dub groove) and especially Phil Kieran's eight minute electronic kraut hammer remix.
In August I wrote about Richard Sen's compilation album Dream The Dream, a ten track collection of UK ambient techno/ progressive house/ tribal house/ breakbeat. The labels don't really matter too much- the music's what matters and it's a brilliant snapshot of early 90s underground dance music, spaced out sci fi sounds, thumping drums, glassy synths, trance rhythms, music that is the result of a revolution taking place and full of wide eyed wonder at what new technology can do. Richard Sen has remixed three of the tracks from the album and they're out as an EP, available digitally at Bandcamp. All three are keepers. Unable to remix using the individual stems, Richard sampled various parts of audio and then added his own synths and drum parts, keeping the spirit of the original track but with his own essence added.
The first is UVX's Elevator, a ten minute remix with pounding drums, bleepy synths, whirly FX and ghostly backing vox, a remix that is both moody and euphoric.
The second track is Sen's remix of Bandulu's Amaranth- Love Lies Bleeding, eight minutes of dark ambient techno fun, an insistent throbbing synthline, propulsive drums, rattling snares and lasers.
The third is the hardest, built on a punishing kick drum and massive wigged out topline- Mind Over Rhythm's Kubital Footstorm, the sort of thing that causes crowds to lose their collective minds.
Smokebelch, the Sabres Of Paradise track that will most likely outlive all their others turns thirty today. The 12" single was released on 20th September 1993. The fact that this is three full decades ago will make some of us feel very old. In some ways the intervening thirty years have gone in the blink of an eye but in some ways the release of this record and the world as it was then do feel a very long time ago. I was twenty three when it came out (there's that number again), just starting my teacher training course. Looking back at who and where I was then and who and where I am now it does feel like thirty years. At the same time I can clearly recall buying the 12" in HMV on Market Street, a small quantity of them in the rack at the back of the shop. I can clearly remember taking it back to the flat I shared in Altrincham and playing it over and over. It's remained close to me ever since- in December 2021 we played the Beatless mix at Isaac's funeral, at the graveside.
In tribute to the record and to celebrate its thirtieth birthday today I thought I'd sequence the various version together, fifty minutes of Smokebelch. It's not exhaustive- the Flute Mix is missing (originally appearing on the B-side of the David Holmes remix 12" and I don't have it digitally) and so is the later, Two Lone Swordsmen version done in memory of Ali Cooke for the Cut The Crap three CD compilation.
Sabres Of Paradise- Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns- based the track on LB Bad's New Age Of Faith, a 1989 release written by Lamont Booker. Keyboards on Smokebelch were played by Les Jumeaux, a duo also known as In The Nursery who remixed Sabres' Haunted Dancehall in 1994. The painting on the sleeve was by Richard Sen, graffiti artist, raver and DJ/ producer in his own right. The names came from Andrew noticing smoke pouring from cooling towers (someone,somewhere on the internet had a fuller version of this anecdote but I can't find it at the moment).
The Beatless version came out later on in 1993, a 7" single given away with initial quantities of the album Sabresonic (also thirty this year, in a couple of months time. I'll come back to that nearer the time). It is four minutes of ambient gorgeousness, the twinkling melody notes pulled out and dancing like the light from the stars.
Smokebelch I also turned up on Sabresonic, a echo- laden rhythmic monster, kick drum banging away with metallic cymbals and distorted bassline. Darker and with some '93 Weatherall techno menace, the light only appears halfway through with the alternating long synth notes. Meanwhile the drums power onwards.
The Smokebelch 12" single, thirty today as I keep saying, came with two versions- the Entry and Exit versions, each coming in at nearly twelve minutes. The two mixes contain those same sounds put together in a different order- the ticking, matchbox percussion, that warm bassline, the squelches, rumbling timpani, synth strings, the dancing woodblock topline, the pianos and synths, snares and thumping kick drum. Nothing fades in or out slowly, everything is lightswitch style, turned on and off, in and out, the different elements layered perfectly. We noticed over the months that followed that it worked in multiple situations- it was euphoric and ecstatic in clubs and in a crowd and could be reflective and more melancholic played at home or in a lower mood. The Exit version is pacier and taken at a greater speed.
The David Holmes remix came out a week later clad in a yellow sleeve rather than the red one, a fuller, more intense version made for mutating dancefloors into seething messes, an acid squiggle added to it, whistles, rattling marching band snares, breakdowns, more piano and the majorettes carrying us down the road for several minutes at the end.
One of this year's best compilations is Dream The Dream: UK Techno, House And Breakbeat, 1990- 1994, a double album compiled by Richard Sen. The most well known name on the ten track album is Bandulu, whose 1992 track Amaranth- Love Lies Bleeding is on side one, but otherwise its mainly long lost acts and names from the world of ambient/ ambient techno, progressive house, tribal house and early trance- obscure UK records. Centuras, Strontium 90, Orr- Some, Biff' um Baff'um Boys, Epoch 90, Mind Over Rhythm, Dream Frequency, As One and UVX. The selection and sequencing is perfect, the album working not as a series of unconnected records but sounding like a whole, a document of a time that in lots of ways still sounds like the future.
Tokyo by Centuras opens the album, a track originally from a 1994 EP Ascension, ten minutes of slowly building ambient techno, glassy synths and layers of spacey sounds, sci fi and futuristic, with drums finally not making an appearance until three minutes in and even then taking their time.
When he was DJing out in the Czech Republic in the mid- 90s Richard discovered that in Czech his name Sen translated as Dream. The name of the compilation, Dream The Dream, is a loop in itself. The sleeve art features his long filed away photos from the KAOS weekender rave in 1990, the pictures having a dreamlike quality too.
The Asphodells formed when Andrew Weatherall and Timothy J. Fairplay realised that they had recorded enough material for an album, songs that eventually became Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust (named after a poster for a shlocky 50s gay gladiators film). The album came out in 2012, a fully realised collection of tracks with a typically diverse and eclectic set of Weatherall interests- dubby leftfield disco with New Order- esque basslines, John Betjeman, Tony Wilson quotes and AR Kane. Around the time of the album there were a slew of remixes by The Asphodells, alongside other ones from the same period but credited to Andrew Weatherall with Tim co- producing and engineering (the difference between a Weatherall remix and an Asphodells remix largely depending on who was paying and how big the cheque was apparently).
Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust took up semi- permanent possession of my turntable for a while, an album that still rewards a decade later. It was followed by a remix album with members of the Scrutton Street Axis and wider Weatherall network on remix manoeuvres- Scott Fraser, Phil Kieran, Black Merlin, Hardway Bros, Justin Robertson, Richard Sen, Ivan Smagghe, Daniel Avery, Daniele Baldelli and DJ Rocco and Group Rhoda plus Wooden Shjips for a Record Shop Day 12". There was way too much material to cover all of this in one Sunday mix so this is a just a selection for today.
200 a single by Baris K, a DJ and producer from Istanbul with an interest in disco and 60s Turkish psyche. The 12" came out in 2013. The remix and dub are trippy, Middle Eastern chug of the highest order with a huge synth arpeggio and whooshes riding on top of a particularly gnarly bassline.
Glock'd is by C.A.R., Chloe Raunet's musical outlet. Chloe was previously in Battant with Tim. Andrew and Tim's remix is one of the highlights of the entire period, a slow motion, glam rock/ sci fi stomp with Chloe's French accented vocal on top. Retro but utterly modern too.
Beglammered was the opening track from Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, remixed by Justin and released on the remix album. Another Lonely City with its Power, Corruption And Lies bassline (played by Andy Baxter) came from the album too.
Needed You was a remix of Berlin based band She Lies, post- punk/ dark disco. There are some lovely wobbly, throbbing sequencers and synths on this one.
Songs Of Pressure was by Richard Sen whose links with Andrew went back to Sabres Of Paradise (he painted the sleeve art for Theme). For the dubbed out splendour of the remix Andrew added a vocal part- Andrew's vocals were a distinctive part of The Asphodells, and it seemed right that they should finish this mix off.
Perry Granville continues to roll through 2022 at a rate of knots. Back in July he released Lumux and before that the still heavily played round here splendour of Dexter In Dub (and the joyous Bedford Falls Players remix). I've posted Dexter In Dub before and make no apology for putting it here again, six minutes of sunset seeking Balearica.
At the end of August Perry let Cleveland Sunday loose, a juddering acid house/ techno bleepfest complete with a supercharged Pete Bones mix that sets out for the outer limits. You can listen and buy at Bandcamp. Perry followed this with an end of September release called Grain Underground that wears Perry's formative influence of hip hop on its tracksuit top sleeve, a breakbeat led track with squiggly acid lines and cymbal splashes and melange of voices. Richard Sen provides a rib rattling remix, bassline and rimshots, and then after several minutes some gorgeous rippling synth lines while keeping the funk flowing.
Back in 2020 Perry released Sailing Ships, a long, transportative, dancefloor oriented track with samples from U.S. TV news about the origins of house music, a screwed acidic bassline, some massive synth riffs, chopped up stuttering backing vocals and a thumping big drum track.
The remix EP is about to make its appearance on vinyl, with some heavyweight names on remix duties- Hardway Bros meets Monkton Uptown (Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray) and Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s. You can order it here if the sound of that floats your boat/ sails your ship.
The Convenanza festival held at Carcasonne in south west France is in its third day today, the first festival since 2019 and the first since Andrew Weatherall died in February 2020. Convenanza started as an Andrew Weatherall and friends three day festival held inside the walls of the Medieval castle, organised by Bernie Fabre with a hand picked line up reflecting Weatherall's singular and eclectic worldview- acid house, dub, space rock, gnostic sonics, leftfield literature, artists painting the castle walls in trippy yellow stripes and performances from Andrew as DJ and as Woodleigh Research Facility with sets over the years from the likes of Silver Apples, The Liminanas, Red Axes, Baris K and Curses. This year the three nights have seen headlining sets by David Holmes with support including Glok, Ian Svenonius, The Utopia Strong, Manfredas and Sean Johnston/ ALFOS. I've never been to Convenanza, it's the wrong time of year for a teacher to be flying to south west France for a weekend of debauchery, but one day I shall no longer be bound by school holidays and if Bernie still puts Convenanza on, I shall be there. In the meantime I live Convenanza vicariously through updates from friends who are there. In tribute to the festival and Andrew Weatherall todays forty minute mix is a Convenanza friendly set of Weatherall remixes from the last decade, the hissy drum machine, space echo, arpeggiator and sequencers all deployed, setting the controls for the heart of le sol.
Richard Sen: Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells Remix)
The Venetians: Son Sur Son (Andrew Weatherall Edition Uno)
Silver Apples: Edge Of Wonder (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
Heretic: Pollux (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
The Twilight Sad: Videograms (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
Andrew Weatherall: Intro
We are making our own pilgrimage today, to Childhood Wood on the edge of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. The MPS Society, the charity who look after children and adults born with the set of genetic diseases, have a piece of woodland where they invite families to plant a tree in memory of those who have died. We're going there today to plant an oak sapling for Isaac and to see him added to the memory board. Another moment of grief and remembrance in a year full of them.
I'm surprised it's taken me thirteen weeks to get around to posting this theme but here we are. It's a bank holiday weekend here in the UK (and I'll pass over all the nonsense of the platinum jubilee other than to say I think that democratic nations should elect their leaders, even ones with no real powers). But as a bank holiday bonus I thought we'd have a bumper edition of the Saturday Theme theme with not one, not two, not even three or four but five versions of Theme (or The Theme) by Andrew Weatherall's magnificent 90s dub/ techno outfit The Sabres Of Paradise, all sequenced together in order in one mix.
Theme was released as a 12" in 1994, a Richard Sen graffiti adorned sleeve housing a massive piece of music, almost eight minutes of crunchy hip hop drums, distorted guitar and a blaring horn sample (which a Discogs user has spotted as being from Yello's Jungle Bill. Weatherall/ Sabres previously remixed Jungle Bill in 1992). There's some clattering percussion halfway through and the repeated build up of bass and horns. The long fade out with sounds twisting round and round themselves, ricocheting round the speakers is very nice.
Theme II came out via a freebie magazine cassette giveaway, the long gone Select Magazine Secret Tracks tape, attached to the front of the magazine in April 1994, a six minute version of the original, taking the less obvious route and with some metallic percussion straight from the Haunted Dancehall sound bank and a load of reverb laden sounds at the back of the mix.
Theme III was on the Theme CD single, a five minute version that starts out like underwater dub, the sound of wire being stretched, a muffled kick drum, percussion distorted and bent so much they're turning in on themselves, the two note bass throb isolated at the fore and a lot of echo and hiss- the drums eventually break through but it's all slower and hazier
Theme 4 was on Haunted Dancehall, and picks up where Theme III left off, a sub- two minute ambient/ dub take, the original completely deconstructd, a version of a version of a version. At the time Weatherall said PiL's Metal Box was a big influence and you can hear that on the multiple versions of Theme, especially II through to 4, the ghosts of Lydon, Wobble, Levene and various drummers making themselves known.
Theme (Underdog Vs. Sabres) is a remix by The Underdog which came out on 10" in 1994, following the release of the original 12". It starts with some uptempo house allowed to run for a few bars before a needle is abruptly pulled off the vinyl and drums burst in, and rapper Dominick takes the mic, South London pirate radio style all over the Sabres, ragga vocal and samples dropped in ('move and groove like a pit bull', 'you could get a slap for that'), gunshots, a grinding bassline, some of the original's horns and guitar surviving the makeover. Apparently Underdog (Trevor Jackson) believed Sabres to be a straight house act (hence the piss take opening section of his remix) and thought the original Theme was a half arsed attempt at hip hop. He sent back a remix which showed them how to do it properly. Weatherall reportedly thought this was hilarious, ensuring that the remix came out as a standalone 10" release.
Richard Sen, an old school graffiti writer turned DJ/ producer, has recently released a three track 12" led by a nine minute electro- funk A-side titled My Definition Of Funk. Built on a pulsing sequencer line, kick drum and synth stabs, the rhythms build getting chunkier and tougher. At one minute thirty a huge descending/ ascending bassline bounces in and vibrates round your speakers. Break beat and wonky synths come in with squealing topnotes. At five minutes there's a breakdown and Richard adds some Plastic Dreams style organ and then brings that rubbery bassline back, more sirens, breakbeat, rinse and repeat. It's a massively exhilarating piece of music, the sort of thing that leads to drinks being spilt and floors being ruined at parties.
Richard Sen's past includes music made as Hackney Vandal Patrol and Padded Cell and numerous one off singles for a variety of labels. In 2015 his Songs Of Pressure was remixed by Andrew Weatherall- one for another day perhaps. Back even further, in 2008, he remixed a track called Toys by Hedford Vachal, a crunchy piece of day- glo 00s acid house/ dark disco, a choppy guitar riff and bleepy synthline over looped bass and drum machine. A distorted vocal sings 'I remember a time/ when we were young/ so unsophisticated/ now everything has changed'. The synths go all wonked out and the vocal returns, warning about girls and boys hurting each other. The breakdown comes and is all filtered FX, handclaps and buzzing synths, before it all goes off again as the bass and drums come back in.
It turns out that Ghent, Belgium is the actual centre of the dance/ Balearic/ electronic/ indie/ disco world, the place where all the lines converge. Rheinzand, a trio from that town, made one of last year's best albums, a cross pollinating, shiny, slinky record, vivid, alive and brightly coloured that pushed all the right buttons and sounds equally good played through headphones while walking, in the car while commuting or on your home stereo system at volume. Strange World is a builder, growly and insistent with some Spaghetti Western whistling and a red hot slow motion glow.
A four track remix EP came out recently with four different songs from the album tackled by four different, sympathetic remixes- Hardway Bros, Red Axes, In Flagranti and Richard Sen. Sen's version of Strange World is here at Bandcamp, a ten minute odyssey built around an acid house sequencer and drum machine, making the song more streamlined but just as out there. Bells ring, strings swoop, the bassline hypnotises, drums pad away.
David Holmes' Unloved project is a 60s via the 21st century sound, L.A. girl groups and Jack Nitzsche filtered through his thirty year DJ/ production/ soundtrack career. To date Unloved are two albums in, several singles and remixes, and a large part of the soundtrack of BBC's Killing Eve. There's a nine track remix e.p. available with reworkings of the song Why Not by Gwenno, Phil Keiran, Hardway Bros and The Vendetta Suite plus this, almost nine minutes of throb, echo and mystery via Richard Sen (there's a remix and a dub version).
Phil Kieran's remix is shorter, just shy of six minutes, but it's a blast, a funked up 60s spy film bassline, some horns, clattering percussion and a mad, driving energy. Occasionally it surfaces, vocals drifting in, before everything submits again to the pulse of the rhythm.
The Hardway Bros, Vendetta Suite and Gwenno remixes, it goes without saying, are all excellent too. Buy the whole package at Bandcamp. There's a limited four track vinyl release too which may well be sold out.
Glok's Dissident album was one of my favourites of last year. It has just been joined by a companion album, eleven remixes of songs from the original. One of them, the Leaf edit, came out last year but the rest are all new and of a very high standard. It occurred to me when the vinyl arrived that this will be one of the last times a new track is released bearing the words Andrew Weatherall Remix in brackets after it. Andrew's remix of Cloud Cover is a slowed down, chilly, electronic groove, ghostly synths and deep bass and a rattling snare drum, the sound of high rises and underpasses.
There's plenty else to get into across the double vinyl/ eleven digital songs. Andy Bell's own fifteen minute remix of Pulsing is a joy, quarter of an hour of ambient/ shoegaze crossover. The Minotaur Shock Remix of Weaver and C.A.R. remix of the same song take the same source material and end up in very different places with it. Timothy Clerkin's new version of Projected Sounds is a stunner, an intense acid crawl with trippy backing vocals and buzzsaw synths.
Richard Sen's eight minute remix of the title track opens the album, a dark, heavy groove with guitars and spaced out sounds bouncing around, the wah wah riff dropping in and out, skyscraping solo notes and a juddering bass riff, a remix designed for soundsystems in the woods long after dark.
It's difficult to know where we are with isolation any more. Many people seem to be acting like it's all over, parks are full of groups of people and social distancing is a thing of last month. The daily death toll doesn't seem to be diminishing that much and in the north west we currently have the highest regional infection and death rate in the country. As the government brings about the end of lockdown in favour of the economy and to distract from the horrors of their mismanagement of the entire period, some people I'm sure will stay in and stay distanced. In our household we are shielding so our lives will carry on as before for the moment. God only knows where we go from here.
Isolation Mix 9 came partly from a comment I made at The Flightpath Estate, an Andrew Weatherall Facebook group where I promised a Weatherdub mix, and partly from Isolation Mix 6 three weeks ago, an hour of dub that had several of Lord Sabre's fingerprints on it. There's some crossover between that mix and this one but I chose the other Steve Mason remix and dropped the Sabres Of Paradise dub of Regret by New Order just for variety's sake. This mix, an hour and a quarter of dub business from Andrew Weatherall as a solo artist, aided and abetted by Nina Walsh, as a remixer, as a Sabre Of Paradise and as an Asphodell, spans thirty years taking in songs from 1990 and 2020. There's loads more that could have gone in but I thought I'd keep it compact.
Sabres Of Paradise: Ysaebud (From The Vaults)
Sabres Of Paradise: Return of Carter
Steve Mason: Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 1)
Andrew Weatherall: Unknown Plunderer
Saint Etienne: Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Andrew
Weatherall Mix)
Sabres Of Paradise: Edge 6
Andrew Weatherall: End Times Sound
Meatraffle: Meatraffle On The Moon (Andrew Weatherall Dub)
Richard Sen: Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells Remix)
Andrew Weatherall: Kiyadub 45
Lark: Can I Colour In Your Hair? (Andrew Weatherall Version)
Trax was the legendary Chicago label that put out early house records, tracks like No Way Back by Adonis, Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles' Your Love, Can You Feel It by Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson's Move Your Body and Phuture's Acid Trax- pretty much the records that invented the scene.
In 2011 with the involvement of Bill Brewster, a DJ and writer who knows his onions, they put out an album of re-edits. Seven years on the album is a bit hit and miss although some of the reworkings sound pretty good (it'd be difficult to make a complete mess consdering the source material). Some of the re-edits are a bit too safe, missing the weirdness and WTF-ness of the original tunes, too reverential. In most cases you'll want to hear the original straight after, just to confirm its mid-80s brilliance. The re-edits also tend to sound a bit samey, using the same kit and software that was then the cutting edge in 2011. But there are some worthy efforts in the double cd. Ron Hardy was as much as anyone at the centre of the mid-80s Chicago house scene, DJing with twin turntables and a reel to reel tape-deck and producing tracks too. Richard Sen's re-edit of Sensation is a juddering monster with synth stabs...
Plus Instruments were an early 80s industrial/electronic pop outfit, the work of Truus de Groot and whoever else was around (this included Jim Sclavunus from Grinderman with Nick Cave). After thirty years out of the game Truus returned recently and now Love Is Enough has been remixed for a 12" by Khidja, Luke Solomon and Richard Sen. In a piece of happy synchronicity Richard Sen did the cover art for Sabres Of Paradise's Smokebelch 12" which I posted a few days ago. I chanced upon the Sen remix yesterday, a dark house reworking with a thumping kick drum, trippy strings and icy vocals. The video is pretty hypnotic too.
Harriet Andersson starred in yesterday's cover star Ingmar Bergman's 1953 film Summer With Monika. I saw this still and others from the film and thought, phew, blimey etc.
This has just come out on 12" vinyl, Richard Sen's Songs Of Pressure. Driven by a massive bassline with sound system dub effects all over it. There's an even more dubbed out Asphodells remix on the other side that I posted last year. Richard Sen started out as a graffiti artist, recorded as Padded Cell and Bronx Dogs, djs and remixes, and collects pine cones which he classifies and displays according to size, shape and colour. I may have made that last bit up.
There's a burst of Weatherall related activity here currently- what's new? you might ask.
This is an Asphodells remix of a new Richard Sen song. I think Weatherall may be singing on it- quite dark and dubby.
