Vapour Trails And Dub Clones

Some new music to brighten up Thursday. Two weeks ago Matt Gunn released a new track, Dub Clone Rising, ten minutes of early 90s beats and distorted synth sounds, cosmic dub, like a remix of a remix of a guitar band that you bought on 12" in Our Price in 1991 after reading a review in NME or Melody Maker. You can listen and buy at Bandcamp.

Newly out on Coyote's Is It Balearic? label is a four track EP from Wrekin Havoc with super smooth vocals from Greg Bird and remixes courtesy of Wolfy and Gold Suite. There are two songs, both grounded in the 1980s but built for 2024. Vapour Trails is melancholic 80s pop sliced with Italo disco, lyrically making the suggestion that we should stop, look, and take care of things- the vibe is an episode of Top Of The Pops from 1987 you've never seen and without the shrieking presenters and all the inanity. Gold Suite's remix turns the summer feel up, a Balearic remix for long hot evenings (not that we've had any really yet so far up here). 

The second track is Broken Wings and sounds tailor made for dance floor out on one of the Mediterranean islands with the hint of some acid in there too. Seductive stuff. Woolfy brings his Californian touch, stripping it back and adding a more electronic groove to proceedings. It's a vinyl release and I can't find any digital to share but there are some clips to listen to at Juno. 

Back in 2021 Coyote and Woolfy collaborated on their Return To Life EP, a five track. On Save Me Coyote provided the slow mo Balearic beats and Woolfy the blue- eyed soul vocals. 

Saturday Sets

Sean Johnston has been keeping the A Love From Outer Space flag flying high this year with ALFOS nights running in London, Glasgow and various points in between (not least Todmorden). When not playing out Sean sometime sets up at home and DJs on a Friday night, broadcasting live to an online audience, a habit that stated in lockdown and he's kept going irregularly since. At the end of November Sean played ALFOS Emergency Broadcast System 43, five hours of chug/ acid house/ nu disco/ cosmic disco/ whatever else you want to call it as long as it's got a pulsing rhythm, opening with an edit of Police And Thieves by The Clash and finishing with Lindstrom. It's well worth five hours of your Saturday, either in one sitting or in chunks. Listen at Mixcloud. 

Sean's compiling a list of the big 2023 ALFOS tunes which will I'm sure contain this monster, a dancefloor wrecking tune, Stay On Top by Living In Ghosts featuring Woolfy, the Hardway Bros Dub, which throbs and bounces as the bass grinds and the vocal chants, 'work!'. Highly effective and impactful under red lights and a mirror ball. 

Return To Life

Coyote are Timm Sure and Richard Hampson, a duo who met at the legendary Nottingham nightclub Venus in the late 80s and went on to DJ there, and then make their own music together. Their latest release is a five track EP led by a slow paced, easy going Balearic dream called Return To Life. 

Californian Woolfy adds vocals to two of the songs (Save Me and very laid back grooves of Wonderful).  Closing track Cafe Con Leche drops spoken word samples- 'when all this is over/ I plan to go north', a female voice says, over acoustic guitars, washes of synth and some bongos. The whole thing is available to buy here. 

Their album Buzzard Country, a 2020 release I missed and only began playing a few weeks ago, has a similar palette, seven songs built around dubby basslines, shuffly rhythms, Spanish guitars, pianos and shimmering synths. Last song, Feedback Valley, is especially good, a languid glide around the coast on the edge of a desert, the heat of the day pouring upwards out of the tarmac. Get it here.