Twenty Five Minutes Of Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2

Our second album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate, went on sale for pre- orders last week (as announced here on Monday and on various Flightpath Estate social media platforms). We are pressing 1500 copies. We did 1000 of Volume 1 and sold them all, something that still amazes me although it shouldn't- the music was so good it should have been no surprise we'd sell out. Flightpath and Rude Audio main man Mark Ratcliff has done a taster mix of all ten tracks for Volume 2, deftly sequenced and mixed, with the unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track making its presence known more than once. 

The unreleased version of Lick Wid Nit Wit stands alongside anything else Sabres recorded and released. It got it sole airing when Andrew Weatherall played it as part of his legendary 1993 Essential Mix at the BBC and even then that version is not the same as the one we have. 

As well as that track Mark has mixed in the nine other brand new tracks, music by Richard Fearless, Red Snapper, A Certain Ratio re-worked by Number, David Harrow, Bedford Falls Players, Dicky Continental, Richard Norris, Unit 14 and a cover of Two Lone Swordsmen's Sick When We Kiss by Sleaford Mods. Mark's mix, featuring excerpts from all ten tracks, can be found here. Mark has adeptly brought together mid- 90s dub/ techno skank, 21st century machine techno, Manc noir, North African percussion, chuggy cosmische, thumpy acid house, clattering Notts post- punk and much more into one sequence- you can play guess which track is which.

Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2, double vinyl clad in a beautiful sleeve courtesy of Personality Crisis, can be pre- ordered from Golden Lion Sounds and/ or the GLS Bandcamp. There are still some copies left but don't hang around- as with Volume 1 there will be no repress. When they're gone, they're gone. 

Forty Five More Minutes Of Edits

In recent weeks I've done two Sunday mixes made up of edits. Part One is here and Part Two is here. Today is Part Three, another forty five minutes of edits, this one largely dancefloor oriented and with an 80s feel. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Edits Mix Three

• Can't Cope (Cotton Bud Re- Master)
• No- Thing
• M&M Hardway Bros
• Swamp Shuffle
• Never Let Me Down (Hunterbrau Edit)
• Jackie (Cotton Dub)
• Longed

Can't Cope is from Jezebell's Jezebellaeric Beats Vol. 1, a dubbed out and spaced out way to enter into the mix, our friend the Archdrude Julian H. Cope sent spinning even further out into the cosmos than he was previously. Safesurfer is from 1991's epic Peggy Suicide, the start of Julian's imperial period. Swamp Shuffle is also from Jezebellaeric Beats Vol. 1, the closing track, this time David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison and Chris Frantz given the treatment by Jesse and Darren. 

No- Thing is from Resident Rockers, the in- house edit team at Eclectics. Heroes. Twin Peaks. Moby. Acid. No- thing will keep us together. 

The M&M Hardway Bros edit takes Sleaford Mods Mork and Mindy, a song from 2020's Spare Ribs, with Billy Nomates on guest vocals, a tale of a childhood spent in colourless suburban council estates, Action Man and Cindy and mum and dad being out, long afternoons with nothing to do. Sean monkeyed about with it and turned it into an ALFOS at The Golden Lion moment. 

Hunterbrau's edit of Depeche Mode's 1987 classic Never Let Me Down came out on Paisley Dark, dark disco/ slowed down sleek goth.

Rich Lane's Cotton Dubs are second to none. His edit of Sinead O'Connor's Jackie (from her debut, the Lion And Then Cobra) repurposes Sinead with an 808 while losing none of her power. 

Longed is an edit of All Day Long from New Order's 1986 album Brotherhood. The chopped, looped and edited version here, largely instrumental, is from an intriguing project I was tipped off about on Bandcamp, a highly unofficial edit service by Follytechnic Music Library. Longed is from a collection of New Order edits called Ordered 86- 93 but there's waaaay more there than just one album of nine New Order edits. Have a dig around, see what you can unearth. 

Too High Too Low

Some new songs to distract from the customary end of August dread that starts to sink in around this point of the year. If you like dark, intense, chuggy acid thump, this pair should be right up your alley. First up for today is the latest from Rich Lane, this time back with his Chug Norris hat on. The Dark And Sweaty EP has two tracks, Black Mass and The Ceiling. Coming in with a thudding kick drum and some acid whooshes, The Ceiling is designed for a dancing, specifically in dark, hot sweatboxes. After a minute of build up an impossibly deep voice interjects- 'You're drenched in sweat'-  and then the bassline takes over, grinding and bumping. A soulful voice joins in, Sheila Kerr singing about sweet reverberations and perspiration dripping from the ceiling. Machine music coupled with human voices, metronomic beats and emotional vocals. 

The Ceiling is available at Bandcamp. The Dark And Sweaty EP is there too. 

The second song for today comes from the combined talents of Sleaford Mods, Billy Nomates and Hardway Bros. Sean Johnston has done an unofficial edit of Mork And Mindy, a song from Sleaford Mods' 2020 album Spare Rib, one of Jason Williamson's transmissions from failed state UK, this one starting off on a council estate in the early 80s with Action Man and Sindy getting it on on a Sunday afternoon while his parents are out. Billy Nomates guests, singing 'Too high too low/ It doesn't make a difference I know'. Sean switches the vocal parts around and pumps up the drums and the acid, bringing a new slow burning, thumping energy to the song. The M&M Hardway Bros Acid Edit is a track that works extremely well in a hot, sweaty, low ceilinged building. You can get it at Bandcamp as part of a four track EP of edits, Beyonders Present: Case Edits Vol 1. All four are worth the price of admission (£3.96), Sean's especially. 

The video for the original version of Mork And Mindy is memorable, Jason, Andrew and Billy in a house with a box of toys and some musical equipment, the smell of Sunday afternoons in the 80s drifting through the screen.

Tell Them A Story

A three for one offer at Bagging Area today to celebrate the weekend, the yin and yang of music. First this song came out in mid- October, Orbital with Sleaford Mods and a coruscating, furious and perfectly timed piece of music called Dirty Rat. 

'Shut up, you don't know what ya on about/ You voted for 'em, look at ya!/ You dirty rat'

'Blaming everyone at the hospitals/ Blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/ Blaming everyone who doesn't look like a fried animal'.

Written for and about the people who voted for the shallowest talent pool the Tory party have ever fished in for government, the three Prime Ministers, one elected and two unelected, and the incompetent, mean spirited and downright dangerous cabinets we've suffered since 2019, the worst group of people to ever end up in power- this one's for you. 

If that seems a bit much, a bit too angry for your Saturday morning and you fancy something more uplifting, more chilled and in places a tad more spiritual, this is David Holmes at NTS eleven days ago, back with his two hour God's Waiting Room show. This one is a tribute to DJ Alfredo, the man who who DJed at Amnesia in Ibiza from the mid 80s onwards and who David and his friend Iain McCready encountered there in 1990, a DJ set that took in reggae, Grace Jones, The Clash, Italo house, Eurodance, Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, Brazilian flamenco and much more, pulled together effortlessly. Alfredo has recently suffered some poor health and is recovering from a stroke. David's show, two hours of Alfredo's Amnesia inspired Balearica, is here, an absolute joy to listen to. 

Bonus- if you needed it, here's Jezebell's summer stunner, Jezebellearic, eight minutes of blissed out beats and percussion, a lovely warm bassline, a sprinkling of hints of pop songs you might be able to discern and the voice of Alfredo talking about the people who came to dance to his music, the songs he played and how to make them dance 'you have to tell them a story'. Still available here for free. 

Cosmosis

There was a one day festival held in the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester last weekend- Cosmosis, a celebration of psychedelia with a line up that had me dithering for a while and then missing out- The Jesus And Mary Chain, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Sleaford Mods, Wire and The Raveonettes were the biggest names. Looking back at that I can't imagine why I dithered. What a fool.

I didn't go but I was contacted by a man I know virtually, Paul Husband, music fan, Mancunian and photographer. He has supplied me with the photos he took and I'm sharing them with you plus some music for each group. There's plenty here to dig around in. Have fun. Hassle with passes and bouncers meant Paul missed The Mary Chain. If you're after a photographer for an event or just want to look at some of his work, it's here. The selection of pictures below will give you an idea of his talents and a flavour of Cosmosis. I didn't go. Did I mention that?

Bones Shake- a dirty, scuzzy blues three piece from Manchester. 'Here to save your soul' they claim. Quite possibly true too. The song below kicks hard.

Paul's favourite band of the day were Cabbage, another up and coming Manc band. Satirical neo-post punk according to their Bandcamp page. There's something going on here. The single Kevin is ever-so-slightly demented but controlled and directed too.

You know about Brian Jonestown Massacre I'm sure, Anton Newcombe's merry band of psyche travellers, formed in 1988 and tripping out ever since.

What You Isn't is a feedback driven thump reviving the spirit of '69. Not Bryan Adams' '69, a murkier, more acid version of the end of the hippy dream. 

Sleaford Mods- you don't need me to tell you about Sleaford Mods. The voice of Cameron's Britain. An authentic response to austerity. Modern laptop punk. Etc. I like 'em. I'm just glad they're there. I first heard them on one of Andrew Weatherall's Double Gone Radio shows a few years back, a song with a chorus that included the line 'rinsing Screamadelica' which I know I've got somewhere digitally but can't find right now. I'll have a root around the hard drives.

I'd never heard of Freakout Honey. Manchester based again and they're certainly photogenic.

The only song I can find is this one, The Witch Surf, which is lovely stuff. Psychgaze surf is their own label and I can't improve on that. This song sounds better each time I play it. More please.



Last up are The Watchmakers.

Yet another Manchester group- who knew Manchester had so many psychedelic groups? Not me. I seem to be missing out. The Watchmakers Bandcamp page has a song called Kiss The Sun. Epic in a small way (that's a good thing). Reverb. More reverb. More reverb please.

Why didn't I go to Cosmosis?