I Like French Ones

Someone, somewhere posted Flowered Up's single It's On the other day and it reminded me of its release back in summer 1990. The band had got some music press coverage, references to them being the London answer to Happy Mondays (whatever the question was). ITV's Saturday morning music programme The Chart Show had an indie chart segment, once every 3 weeks (switching between the dance chart and the metal chart). The programme trailed Flowered Up's appearance later on so we settled down on our rented sofa in our student house and waited for this up and coming band we hadn't heard yet.

It sounded really weird, all over the place. Vocals sometimes rose up in the mix and sometimes the instruments sounded like they'd been stretched out and a strange whooshing noise dominated. It was miles away from Step On.



It turned out the video tape that Heavenly had sent over to ITV was faulty, the band's first TV appearance screwed up. I don't know if it affected the sales of the single. It's On was released in a variety of formats, 7"s and 12"s, as labels did back then to fleece the fans out of their cash by getting them to buy multiple copies for that extra B-side. It's On is a good song, the rhythm lurching from one foot to the other, enough to disconcert at the indie-disco. There aren't many good songs led by pan pipes and keyboards, and then there's Liam Maher's stream-of-consciousness lyrical drawl- 'I like French ones, big French ones'. The extended version, It's On- Sonia, seems to exist in different versions as well, across multiple formats. This is the seven minutes plus version.

It's On- Sonia

Remember '99 On the Beach Where We Lay?

Here's some sweet and swoonsome Lover's Rock for Valentine's Day and a gig review to boot.

I went to see Hollie Cook at Gorilla on Sunday night- I didn't really get any decent photographs of the gig but earlier on in the day I saw this pair of shoes hanging from a tree in Old Trafford. It was snowing heavily when I set out and it kept it up on the way into town, not the best preparation for an evening of reggae and tropical pop. Gorilla is a brilliant gig venue, inside the railway arches on Whitworth Street, great sound and small and intimate. Despite the conditions outside and most people turning up in several layers of winter clothing Hollie's joyfulness at seeing a full room and subsequent set could warm the heart of the most curmudgeonly gig goer. The band are tight as you like and aren't afraid of wandering off into dubbed out versions during the second half of the songs, the delay pedal on top of the keyboards getting frequent use, bouncing chords and sounds around the room. Much of the set is taken from the new album, Vessel Of Love- this one, the single, sounding especially good, Hollie's voice floating on top of the band's reggaeton groove...



Hollie has released 3 albums now (plus a dub version of the debut), sung and toured with the reformed Slits and supported The Stone Roses at Heaton Park in 2013. She should be playing to bigger crowds than the couple of hundred who have turned out on Sunday night, a wide mix of ages from early twenties and students through to those in their sixties. They finished with a magnificent dubbed out version of this to close the set.

99

Xeper

The Trance Europe Express compilation I wrote about yesterday has given me a track I have kept going back to over the last few days and may be developing a mild obsession with. Warp recording artists The Black Dog wrote and released under a variety of names, putting things out under the umbrella name Black Dog Productions. The track on Trance Europe Express is by Xeper (a pseudonym for one of The Black Dog trio, Ken Downie). It starts sounding like it could be the beginning of an episode of Star Trek (original 1960s version) and then brings in a rattling drum sample. Washes of synth and some Sheffield bleeps fill it out before some piano chords work their way in, that almost but never quite turn into a full-on piano house riff. That description really doesn't do it justice- there's much more going on here than I can hope to explain adequately. It unfolds beautifully over the ensuing eight minutes. Just listen to it.

Carceres Ex Novum (Remix)

In case you're wondering Xeper (or Kheper) is a word from Ancient Egypt meaning 'to come into being, to change, to occur, to happen, to exist, to bring about, to create', associated with the Ancient Egyptian God Khepri. And if you Google it there's a whole load of increasingly deep and dark stuff connected to it which I shall steer well clear of. 

Gravity

Trance Europe Express was a double cd or quadruple vinyl compilation of early 90s dance music that came with a 192 page booklet (or it was a 192 page booklet about early 90s dance music that came with a double cd). It was an offshoot of the Volume series of compilations which had a broader focus musically. Both series were excellent, high quality songs, often unreleased or different mixes/versions. Trance Europe Express wasn't really trancey at all, more progressive house, ambient and techno. But none of them made sense in the title- Techno Europe Express?

I think I've expressed this view before but it struck me again- at the time we took this music for granted, imagining it would always be this good, that the innovation and leaps forward taking place here would be sustained (for most of the artists the culmination of several years work, of getting the best out of new technology, of watching what was happening on the dancefloor in clubs and at raves). Across disc 1 there are easily 5 or 6 tracks that are as good as anything else released at that time in that area- Orbital's Semi-Detached, Spooky and Billie Ray Martin's Persuasion, Celestial Symphony by Scubadevils (a David Holmes project), a jaw dropping track by Xeper (The Black Dog) and Midnight In Europe by 030. Outstanding work from everyone involved but the one from disc 1 that has turned my head the most is this one from Bandulu.

Gravity Pull (Remix)

A different version from the one on their Guidance album (released on Creation offshoot Infonet). Oscillating synths. Clattering rhythms. Abstract but with a sense of forward motion. Mind popping stuff.

Here is their remix of The Times' cover of Blue Monday, something I've posted before but which is ripe for a re-post. A remix that makes me feel like I'm gliding around underwater through bubbles and bliss.

Lundi Bleu (Bandulu 'Smiling' Remix)

If You Want To Know The Truth

More Sabres related stuff for Sunday. I was rooting through a box of cds (home made ones I burned and made covers for when I first started downloading mp3s, going back to 10 years ago). In the box was a cd of Sabres Of Paradise remixes of One Dove's 1992 song Transient Truth, one of many standout songs from their Morning Dove White album. Sabres remixed Transient Truth not once but six times. Two of the versions were officially released, The Old Toys Mix and Old Toys Dub, on the 12". The other four remixes turned up on a four track promo white label- the Paradise Mix, The Sabres Fuzz Dub, the Squelch Mix and the Death Of A Disco Dancer Mix. And that is how I soundtracked my journey to work on Wednesday and Thursday this week just gone, the variations of remixes making the miles pass by, repeated bits of bassline, synths and the Sabres rhythms and dub production flowing into one another. There are worse ways to spend forty minutes of listening time. The Paradise mix is possibly the pick, ten minutes and five seconds of 1992.

Transient Truth (Paradise Mix)

Tantrum

I found this Sabres Of Paradise advert for forthcoming releases on Weatherall's record label back in 1994 so it seemed to make sense to post a track they were promoting. I did Jack 'O' Swords cover of The Gift fairly recently so instead we'll have some very 1994 techno with a remix of Technova (David Harrow) from Innersphere (David Hedger). This track has withstood time pretty well I think - some early 90s techno can be a bit much now, a bit too bangin'- but this is still listenable and enjoyable.

Bastard Bunny began life in his own Dave Anderson drawn and written comic before becoming co-opted by Weatherall's label and Sabresonic night (underneath some railway arches near London Bridge station. I never went alas). Later on Bastard Bunny turned up in Deadline and then NME.

Tantrum (Innersphere Mix)

Sensation

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...

Sensation (Richard Sen Re-edit)

Toby Tobias and Sean Johnston's Hardway Bros add some sparkle and shimmer to Adonis' We're Rockin' Down The House...

We're Rockin' Down The House (Toby Tobias and Hardway Bros Re-edit)

Oh My Darling Who Wants To Be Free?

Valentine's Day is approaching. In 1977 The Slits turned the punk boys club upside down a little and lyrically turned listeners upside down a lot. Love and Romance is about male possession of women and how relationships can lead to loss of freedom with some killer lines- 'I'm so glad that you belong to me, oh my darling who wants to be free?' and 'loves a feeling and so is stealing' among them. Not traditionally how song writers approached the subject of love.

Love And Romance (Peel Session)

Fearlessness

Richard Fearless at the controls with an hour long mix for i-D Magazine. Starts out percussive and African-influenced before heading into techno territory. Rather good if this kind of thing is your bag.



Bob Holroyd "African Drug" 
Studio 1 "purple" on Studio 1 
Mutabaruka "Dis Poem" 
Mark Ernest’s meets BBC Version & Ngunyuta Dance by BBC 
Rvds "Afrika" 
Yak "Mido" 
Ishio Dai "Island Dub" 
Osbourne "Africa" 
Lns & DJ Sotofett "Jugando Con Fuego" (Percussion Mix) 
Dude Energy "Beat Desire"
Lns & DJ Sotofett "Jugando Con Fuego" (Sunrise mix) 
Eon "Ramadance" 
Richard Fearless "Sweet Venus" 
Richard Fearless "Cancan" 
Richard Fearless "Rex" 

Mogwai Fear Nobody

Mogwai came back to Manchester's Albert Hall on Sunday night to play to another sold out crowd (they'd played Friday night too). People who went on the first night said I was in for a treat and they were right. Mogwai were stunning. Making noise is easy. Making noise with beauty in it, controlling it and riding it is something else. Mogwai have also hit upon a sweet spot where they can make largely instrumental guitar-heavy music that has huge emotional resonance. Post-rock can sometimes be technically impressive but a bit bloodless, without heart. Mogwai's tunes, especially the ones off last year's excellent Every Country's Sun, hit the spot. Party In The Dark, surging psychedelia crossed with Peter Hook's bass, is a proper moment, getting me right there.

The group switch instruments around, swapping from bass to guitar or guitar to keyboards, shards of melody escaping through the FX pedal wall of noise. In the fairly compact space of the Albert Hall with its high roof space, Methodist chapel organ pipes still in situ above the stage, the rising waves of guitar cause a few whoops and arms in the air but mainly people stand in silence, swaying slightly. Their use of rhythms, bass and toplines, crescendo, peaks and troughs often make me think that this is a band who are not just post-rock (which is a rubbish description anyway) but post-house too. The lightshow, strips of colour behind them, strobes and spots, add to the intensity. Mogwai work their way through much of the recent lp plus some older ones, a magical Rano Pano and an epic Mogwai Fear Satan. The songs unfold slowly, still and quiet beginnings and endings, sections that create a vast noise, three guitarists and a bassist perfectly in tune with each other, who can then kill it dead. At times, there's so much going on in the mix that its difficult to tell who is doing what. At the end of the set three of them are on their knees at the front of the stage, manipulating their pedals, playing the howling feedback and distortion. At the close of the encore Stuart is last off, again fiddling with the buttons on his pedals before leaving and the roadies appearing to turn the amps off. My only complaint is that they didn't play The Sun Smells Too Loud. I'm not sure I can forgive them for that actually, as it would have taken the top of my head clean off given the form they are in.

Mogwai Fear Satan


I caught the last two-and-a-bit songs by support act, electronic trio Beak>, who were busy being very good indeed- live synths and samples, bass and Geoff Barrow's krautrock drumming. The new one they finished with, which they promised they'd get wrong, sounded ace- and they didn't get it wrong either.

That's What Gets Results

Who wouldn't want a Face magazine t-shirt as modelled by Siobhan Fahey from Bananarama? I'm half tempted to print out the cut out slip and send it off to the address and see what happens (I'd have to put a postal order in I think).

Bananarama have reformed recently. They kept appearing on the Top Of The Pops reruns (not the 1985 ones showing at the moment but last year's 1983 repeats). Cruel Summer sounded very good all these years later, a slightly off kilter pop song about love in oppressive summer heat in the city. The home-made dancing is refreshing too, a time when female pop stars weren't drilled to within an inch of their lives. And maybe some of us were suddenly reminded why Bananarama being on Top Of The Pops week in, week out when we were 13 years old was something of a visual treat...



They first hit the chart due to their backing vocals on the Fun Boy Three's 1982 hit single, It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It), which came about because Terry Hall saw an article on them in The Face and liked their look. They switched around for Bananarama's next single Really Saying Something with Terry, Lynval and Neville singing backing for Siobhan, Sara and Keren.

It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)

The song was originally written in 1939 by jazz musicians Melvin 'Sy' Oliver and James 'Trummy' Young. It says something about the Fun Boy Three's talents that they took an old jazz tune and turned it into a pop ska song, and then to number 4 in the charts (probably selling hundreds of thousands of copies).

Let The Evocation Begin

Kettle on- Weatherall's brewing up. It's that man again back at that radio station playing that high quality and eclectic mix of songs again. Includes two from the excellent new Liminanas album, an old Weatherall remix of The Shoes, a new one from Timothy J Fairplay, an unreleased one from the Woodleigh Research Facility plus the latest Fort Beulah release.



Tonight I'm off to see Mogwai go through their paces at the Albert Hall in town. I am expecting a night of intense but ultimately uplifting instrumental post rock from bearded Scots in black played to intense but ultimately uplifting bearded Mancs in black.

Night Dubbin

I missed this at the end of last year and have become somewhat addicted to it over the last few days. Nightmares On Wax have released 8 albums and various singles since 1989 (mostly on Warp). In A Space Outta Sound from 2006 was the last one I got, an album of laid back, downtempo reggae inspired grooves but somehow still seeming to be in a straight line from the bleep 'n' bass releases in 1989. There's a new one called Shape The Future out now. Back in December this came out as part of a remix 12" of the track Citizen Kane. The original is gospel-hip hop-soul. For this 10 minute excursion Ron Trent sets the vocal (by Mozez) to a skippy, propulsive Chicago house beat and allows the groove to whisk us away to a future where the machines have made gospel their own.

Stay Alive

Hollie Cook has a new album out now- Vessel Of Love. I haven't got it yet but her previous two albums, the dub album done with Prince Fatty and various singles have all been favourites of mine. Her lovely sing-song voice and Lover's Rock/pop reggae is top stuff. The new album was trailed by two songs last year and recently by a remix from South London's reggae outfit Hempolics. Grippa Laybourne's lo fi reggae stylings strip back Hollie's original track, adding some bounce and some 70s rhythms. This was available as a free download via Soundcloud but seems to have vanished - the track to stream and the free download. Hopefully posting it here won't get me in to trouble.

Stay Alive (Hempolics Remix)

So Much Confusion

'...When October comes around' said the Pet Shop Boys in My October Symphony. Later on Neil Tennant asks about whether we should 'remember December instead or worry about February?' I guess February just rhymed. I haven't got any songs on the computer named after February and can't think of many with lyrics referring to the second month other than this one.

My October Symphony is from Behaviour, 1990's PSB tour de force. Produced by Harold Faltermeyer using analogue synths it mixes full on pop, rave influenced pop, ballads and what got called adult pop- musical, reflective, lyrically grown up, classy instead of teenage (which could sound a bit dull but Behaviour is an album that could never be called dull. Inventive, subtle, wry, expansive but not dull). My October Symphony chucks many things into the pot besides Neil's lyrics- a blast of a male voice choir, house inspired backing vox, sweeping strings and a funky guitar part played by Johnny Marr. I always felt it's a song about autumn really (and wanting to move on and change) but according to a PSB fan site- 'Neil adopts the role of a Russian composer who has dedicated his life and work to the ideals of the revolution but now feels confused and betrayed in the wake of the collapse of Communism'. So there you go. On the same site Janet Street Porter claims it is about a lingerie model. Which one Janet?

My October Symphony

In 1991 they released a stand alone single, DJ Culture, partly to promote their singles compilation Discography, partly as a comment on the Gulf War and how George Bush borrowed from Churchill's wartime speeches just as artists sample each other (with a reference to Oscar Wilde's trial thrown in too), and partly because they'd recorded what was a very good pop song. As a single it kind of went missing, despite reaching number 13 in the chart.

Jacaranda Skies

Sorry for the break in transmission yesterday. It was Richard Branson's fault. The buck goes all the way to the top.

Yes it's late January and yes the weather is still a bit shitty but we can console ourselves with the thought that it is getting lighter for longer, slowly but surely, day by day. This new release from Leeds-based producer Joe Morris is Balearic through and through, the sound of beaches, sunsets and pine trees. Four tracks, none in any hurry to get anywhere but too busy to be ambient. Here's two of them.

Jacaranda Skies



The Lost Garden

Checkmate

I've been into Mark Rothko's paintings, especially the enormous Seagram murals, ever since I saw them at Tate Liverpool in 1988. I bought a print which was blue tacked to my wall throughout my numerous student/post-student house and flat moves. When Mrs Swiss and I moved in together we went the full hog and bought frames for pictures. A pair of Rothko's have hung above our bed ever since. Finding this photograph on the internet the other night was a little bit of mindblower for me.

There is no real connection between that and this. Today's music is by Kalli Ma, remixed by Timothy 'Heretic' Clerin. It is -
a) obscure (I'd not heard of the artist previously but had heard of the remixer)
b) quite out there sonically
c) unsettling but still danceable- the sounds are disquieting and freaky but the rhythms are for the feet
d) a free download



The blurb says ''Kalli Ma is an electronic ensemble influenced by DIY aesthetics to experiment and create forward-thinking music" and I am in favour of that. 

A Trip In A Flying Saucer

Just after Christmas I posted a half hour mix by Martin 'Youth' Glover, Joy Division versus Basement 5 combined in a mix for the longest night,  intense and full of dread. This one, A Trip In A Flying Saucer (Maya Jane Coles v Killing Joke In Dub) is a 30 minute mix more suited to Sunday mornings. A hypnotic, rolling groove, plenty of dub production and the vocals of Maya Jane Coles woven in and out. Given the laid back nature of this and some of the sounds within it, it is no surprise to find out that Alex Paterson was involved in the record selection in the studio.

Cream

A couple of weeks ago I was engaged in a chat on the Twitter with Drew and others and cassette bootlegs came up in conversation. Afterwards I went looking for my copy of  Andrew Weatherall Live at Cream Vol. 1. Drew had some tapes of Weatherall playing in Scotland at around the same time (c1993-4). We discussed those live bootleg tapes that used be sold in markets and student unions, terrible quality audience recordings of  The Stone Roses and The Fall and such like (Funny. I typed that sentence before MES died). The DJ tapes were at least recorded from the soundboard onto DAT. I found my tape in a box with some other tapes and posted it to Drew who has the facility to rip tapes. He then sent me the files. Thank you Drew. The tape is almost a quarter of a century old and survived both the Royal Mail and being turned into an mp3. The quality drops a bit here and there but is largely good.

What we have here is Weatherall playing the back room at Cream in 1994 (Cream pictured above), spinning techno and dub-techno, some acid, some sounding a tad dated in parts and some sounding still quite exciting elsewhere (but maybe that's just me. I'll be perfectly frank here- some of this tape made the hairs on the back of neck stand up and gave me butterflies. The potency of cheap music eh?). Lots of kick drums, snares, acid squiggles, the occasional spin back on the turntable (wubba wubba wubba wubba). And the vocal samples, which was I think the starting point of the conversation. The ones that stuck in my memory from way back were-

The one that goes 'Pressure, pressure, pressure... yeah, yeah, yeah' and then dissolves into 'give me chocolate'. I remember dancing to this and a girl telling me that when this track made her feel like she was having melted chocolate poured over her, as the dry ice whirled around us and the strobe flashed.

The one that goes 'New York- New York New York- New York New York- New York London Amsterdam' over ascending rave synth stabs and a 'ow huh uh' sample, before breaking down completely into a reggae rhythm and then speeding up again. Hands in the air folks.

The one that I think we decided is a sample from a Shamen record that goes 'Bang. To the beat of the drum. Bang bang. To the beat of the drum.' Fingers rat-tat-tatting in the air, pinging imaginary hi-hats. I was sure this one was on it but it isn't. In my head it is, he certainly was playing it around this time. Or maybe I had another tape. Anyway, regardless, back in time we go, to Cream in 1994 and Weatherall in the back room.

Andrew Weatherall Live at Cream Vol. 1 Part 1

Andrew Weatherall Live at Cream Vol. 1 Part 2

Head Down

I was thinking while driving home last night about The Fall and how they've been part of my musical life for over thirty years. When I first started properly getting into music- buying the records, going to the gigs, reading the music press, looking for the clothes, all that kind of stuff- The Fall were there (along with The Smiths, New Order, Talking Heads, and various other indie/alternative bands). And while I've never been a buy-all-the-records Fall fan, their music is undoubtedly part of musical DNA. In the 8 years I've been doing this blog I've posted about them 17 times. The songs- Theme From Sparta FC, Bill Is Dead (thrice), Popcorn Double Feature, Funnel Of Love, How I Wrote ''Elastic Man'', Bingo Master's Breakout, Two Librans, White Lighting, There's A Ghost In My House, Rowche Rumble, Big New Prinz, Wrong Place Right Time and Squid Lord (plus I Want You by Mark E Smith and Inspiral Carpets, Mark with Edwyn Collins on Seventies Night and Rhinohead by MES with Von Sudenfed). That looks like a pretty decent compilation album right there.

On top of those I could easily have posted these without much effort- Free Range, Hey! Luciani, Repetition, Industrial Estate, Edinburgh Man, Mr Pharmacist, Hit The North, Eat Y'self Fitter, Touch Sensitive, Victoria, Cruiser's Creek, Totally Wired, Who Makes the Nazis?, Telephone Thing, High Tension Line, Twister, Blood Outta Stone, Kimble, Trust In Me, Spoilt Victorian Child, Bremen Nacht, Dead Beat Descendent, Jerusalem and Get A Hotel. That's just the obvious ones off the top of my head. And this one, off 1988's The Frenz Experiment (a somewhat unloved album I think among the devotees but I treasure it. I think Brix really brought something to the gruppe).

The Steak Place

For a long time I thought there must be a subtext to The Steak Place but couldn't put my finger on it, something in the lyrics I couldn't work out. But on reflection I think it is just a song about a steak house.

'Cheap carpet lines the way 
Aluminium tack door handles 
Candelabra lions head 
Via butchers display too

The steak place

Via a carcass row
Things are brought forward and eaten,
I see the corners filled with hitmen,
Two young lawyers they are whispering, in

The steak place

I want to stay here,
I don't want to go anywhere,
I could remain here'

Drop That Ghettoblaster

Something a bit more in your face and full on, full frontal even, than yesterday's ghostly Rootmasters song. This 1986 release by Karen Finley was sampled by S'Express (where this post's title was borrowed from and also the phrase 'suck me off', which somehow Mark Moore managed to disguise slightly by smudging the first vowel sound and then sneaking onto Radio 1 and Top of Of The Pops). Over a rapid fire drum machine and then some long keyboard chords Karen opens fire (Karen was a performance artist and poet and is currently a professor at New York University). She starts out with 'you don't own me bastard, you fucking asshole' and then crams in pretty much every insult, sexual reference and swear word she can think of, also taking time to include your Granny and Belgian waffles. It's a tour de force performance and was produced and co-written by Mark Kamins (who most famously worked with Madonna in the 80s).

It is still pretty jaw-dropping to hear and should probably only be played loudly/audibly if you are very confident in those who are around you. Most definitely Not Safe For Work.

Tales Of Taboo

Here, so you can place those vocal samples in context, and also because this is one of the greatest records of the 1980s (and of any decade in fact) are S'Express having a lot of fun on Top Of The Pops.

Mark E Smith

I've just seen a post by Dave Haslam on social media saying that Mark E Smith has died at the age of 60. He doesn't seem to have been in the best of health recently but it is still sad and shocking news. He was a true one-off, a maverick, a wordsmith and a visionary. He will be missed.

Janis Joplin's Mum

                                            Above, left to right- Seth, Janis and Dorothy Joplin.

An obscure oddity for Wednesday from the combined talents of Alex Paterson and Nina Walsh, united as Rootmasters. It came out as part of an Orb compilation called The Orb Presents Tundra And Snowflakes (for a Russian label and bar, Ketama), a double album containing all sorts of oddities, rarities, cast offs and wastrels. The track came out originally on a Rootmasters e.p. from 2007 called Push Once.

What's it like? It's a beguiling piece of spooky, downtempo music, full of echo, crackle and hiss, built around a descending chord pattern. A sampled voice instructing us to open our eyes. Doors creak open and shut, accompanied by eastern instruments. Occasionally Nina's voice surfaces singing 'only the good die young'. Then it fades out again. More crackle.

Janis Joplin's Mum

Well Tempered

Fluke were a British acid house/techno group who put out a very good album on Creation (The Techno Rose Of Blighty, 1991) and went on to release several others and then went on to provide music for film soundtracks (The Matrix amongst others). But in some ways their best work was the remixes they did of other artists in the early 90s. They worked on several singles for Bjork's Debut including the definitive version of Big Time Sensuality and this magnificent, shimmering, rushing, dancefloor reworking of Violently Happy.

Violently Happy (Fluke Well Tempered)

This remix of  Spooky was the fourth single from their 1993 Republic album (and there is a sign of how things had changed- New Order on Factory would never have done something as major label as releasing 4 singles off an album). One of the (few) highlights of the album and its related singles were the 3 remixes Fluke did of Spooky.

Spooky (Magimix)

Tir Ha Mor

Gwenno has a new album out soon and this song/single Tir Ha Mor is a lovely way to promote it. Lots of little melodic touches, organs and synths pushed along by insistent drums and topped with her sing-song vocals (in Cornish). The song was inspired by a trip to St Ives and the Cornish abstract landscape artist Peter Lanyon.



Gwenno's last album was a psychedelic/motorik joy sung mostly in Welsh. One of the songs, Chwyldro, was remixed by our friend Andrew Weatherall in fine, wigged out, lengthy style.

Chwyldro (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Slow Fade

Daniel Avery has just released a new 4 track e.p. Plenty of hazy, calming white noise, FX, ghostly synths and echo-laden drums. Like walking through fog and then coming out of it. A new album, Song For Alpha, comes out in April and if Slow Fade is anything to go by it will be very good indeed.

Music For Dreams

Phil Mison, Balearic dj and producer, put out a compilation called Music For Dreams Vol. 1 back in 2014. As far as I can see it didn't have a physical release but you can stream it and download it at the usual places you might do those things (obviously if you like it you should buy it because streaming doesn't really pay anyone a jot unless they're absolutely massive).

Music For Dreams is a trip, 22 tracks from artists like Grassskirt, Kenneth Bager, Lulu Rouge, Cantoma, DJ Disse (a seriously laid back cover of Walk On The Wild Side), Frontera and Bliss. The vibe is relaxed, with a pulsebeat to keep the head nodding. Best of all, when you buy it there are the individual tracks and two fully mixed versions. This is a 20 minute preview mix. A truly gorgeous way to start Saturday morning.

Jukebox Babe

My love of San Francisco drone hippy-punks Moon Duo is well documented. They have a new 12" out today, a pair of covers. One of them is a version of No Fun by The Stooges that they worked up when appearing on 6 Music for Iggy's 70th birthday (and it gives me an excuse to use this picture of Iggy a friend shared on social media recently). The other is a cover of Alan Vega's 1981 single Jukebox Babe, an exercise in repetition and reverb that will take some beating. Both were recorded/produced by Sonic Boom, who knows a thing or two about repetition.

And So The Conversation Turned

I've said it before- sometimes you find a picture and that drives the post rather than the other way around. That is the case today. Having found this picture of Joanne and Susan from The Human League, snapped for The Face in June 1986, I couldn't not post it. The only Human League song on my hard drive is this one...

(Keep Feeling) Fascination

That's a properly joyous blast of 1980s pop and no mistake. I do have at least one, maybe two of their albums on vinyl, and also their 1978 single Being Boiled, a pioneering piece of synth-art opening with some white noise and the words 'Ok, ready, let's do it'. Being Boiled was from the days before Joanne and Susan were plucked from the dancefloor by Phil Oakey and turned into pop stars while still at school. I think it's safe to say that this would cause their school a few safeguarding issues today. Not to mention the tracking of their progress towards their predicted GCSE grades. The 1980s- a time when pop groups didn't have to worry about Ofsted.

Tapan

Tapan are a duo from Belgrade, about to release an album called Europa- stick that in your referendum Nigel. They veer all over the place, from Middle Eastern rhythms to dub to weirded-out post punk, but always a step ahead. Europa has been remixed by Timothy J. Fairplay, a beguiling eight minutes for Wednesday morning. The Youtube commenters know the score:

• crunchy beats 
• a gargantuan tune full of hyperconsciosness sent to us from Tapans hideout faaaar beyond our Oort cloud
• mhmmm
• filthy and fat
• (~)
• some heavy shit

Heat It Up

This will wake you up...



Wee Papa Girl Rappers were twins, Sandra and Samantha Lawrence (Total S and TY Tim), formerly backing singers for Feargal Sharkey, who had a few minor hits in the late 80s. Heat It Up (made with 2 Men And A Drum Machine) hit number 21, the double trouble rapping and chanting riding on a 1988 club rhythm (and coupled with a Kevin Saunderson remix). It got them on Top of The Pops. Follow up Wee Rule went top 10.



The version at the top is a recent re-edit from SanFranDisko and comes as a free download. I rather like it.

Nova, Nebulae, Aurora

Let's start the week with something very long, hypnotic and uplifting. In 1992 this single by Lemon Interrupt (aka Underworld) came out on Junior Boys Own, Big Mouth on one side and Eclipse on the other. Eclipse is the pick of the two for me- thirteen minutes starting out with chugging beats, sweeping strings and a voice intoning 'nova, nebulae, aurora'. As it unfolds the Underworld keyboard sound starts to phase in and it becomes progressively more acid, and progressively more absorbing. A bit like shooting through the Channel Tunnel but between planets. Thirteen minutes well spent.

Eclipse

The Lowlife Has Lost Its Appeal

Many words have been written recently on blogs about Morrissey and his views in interviews and pronouncements. His statements on all sorts of political and social issues are starting to stand in the way of the music, becoming a barrier to being able to listen to the songs. Not his solo career, which is patchy anyway, but the songs made by The Smiths between 1983 and 1987, which are among the finest made by anyone at that time. So, to try to counter that here are a couple of songs from the early days of the group. If you try hard enough, switch off from now, and allow yourself to listen properly, be immersed in the music of Marr, Joyce and Rourke and words of Moz, you can block out the shite and be transported.

These two songs, both from their early days have a busy, clattery, garageband quality. Morrissey's lines in Jeane come straight from kitchen sink drama while Marr finds space to play rhythm and lead, the repeated circular riff sparkling. The Smiths recorded their debut album with Troy Tate but then dropped almost all the recordings, switching to John Porter. Only Jeane and the Tate mix of Pretty Girls Make Graves survived as official releases. Jeane was the B-side to second single This Charming Man.

Jeane (Troy Tate Mix)

Recorded for a Radio 1 David Jensen session in June 1983, These Things Take Time was one of Morrissey and Marr's earliest songs, with some ear-catching lyrical lines and ringing Rickenbacker guitar lines. I think the John Porter produced version is probably superior but there's nothing wrong with this.

These Things Take Time (David Jensen Session)

Heure d'Or

Steve Cobby proving that he can do the visuals just as well as he can do the audio- there's some breathtaking time lapse photography in this video, filmed by Steve on location in Croatia, New York, Japan and Hull. It plays very nicely indeed alongside some liquid electronic funk from his latest album, Hemidemisemiquaver.

In photography the golden hour is a period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer than when the sun is higher in the sky.

Bordeaux Sequence

In 1987 Tony Wilson decided that Durutti Column needed modernising so he bought Vini Reilly a load of new electronic instruments and machinery- sequencers, drum machines and so on. Vini sat up all night trying to work out how to use them. The result was The Guitar And Other Machines, just recently re-issued in expanded form by Factory Benelux. I treated myself to it. The original album was one of the first DC records I bought and this expanded edition adds a lot to my now fairly worn vinyl copy. Vini's guitar playing and Bruce Mitchell's drums still dominate but set against the new sounds of 87. Occasionally it sounds a little dated, a bit too bright, or the sequencers judder a little, but mainly it sounds like Vini revitalised and energised, in touch with the then present. Like a lot of DC albums, there are great moments and a couple of so-so songs but the overall effect of the whole album from start to finish is the thing. At the heart of it is Bordeaux Sequence, a total joy, with some gorgeous cello halfway through and Vini's wife Pol on vocals. The drum machine pads away while Vini's fingers work their magic.

Bordeaux Sequence

How good is that?

The new box has 3 cds- the original album expanded with 3 bonus songs Vini recorded with Jez Kerr and Simon Topping of A Certain Ratio. One of them, 28 Oldham Street, pays tribute to the building that would become Dry Bar in 1989 (recently closed down). Another, LFO Mod, is a cracking piece of experimental guitar and drum machine. Disc 2 rounds up related releases including the wonderful Italian only e.p. Greetings 3, some 'sporadic recordings' from that time, the follow up to 28 Oldham Street (30 Oldham Street) and a cover of White Rabbit. Disc 3 is almost worth the price of admission alone, a recording of Durutti Column  live at The Bottom Line in New York in October 86 and two songs from their appearance at WOMAD in 1988. You can buy it here.

Five Foot One

At the end of the 1970s Iggy released his fourth solo album, New Values. His solo albums from this point on have a bad reputation- a pile up of major label issues, poor or inappropriate backing bands and/or producers and lifestyle choices. And drugs. New Values survives this slew of rotten records, partly because of the presence of former Stooges James Williamson and Scott Thurston on production and guitar, and partly because there are some good songs on it. It's a bit new wave in places, an attempt by Arista to shift some units (which failed, it charted at number 180). Let's be frank- it's not the equivalent of The Stooges albums and it's not the equal of his Bowie/Berlin albums but New Values sounds good. The title track, The Endless Sea, I'm Bored ('I'm the chairman of the bored') all stand out. And this one.

Five Foot One

Iggy takes his height and turns it into a strutting virtue, over squally guitar and bass and spare, rattly 1979 drums. The opening two verses set out Iggy's way of looking at the world...

'I'm only five foot one
I got a pain in my neck
I'm looking up in the city
What the hell, what the heck

I stare at the concrete
The girders eye high
The steel's above me
There's love in my eyes'

...and the chorus concludes...

'And I'm doing the things
A five foot one man can do'

There's a branching off into...

'And I wish life could be
Swedish magazines'

Iggy doesn't specify which Swedish magazines- it could be the Ikea catalogue but I suspect he was referring to more adult publications. More five foot one man perspective follows...

'I'm only five foot one
I got a pain in my heart
All the night I'm working
In the amusement park

With a bottle of aspirin
A sack full of jokes
I wish I could go home
With all the big folks'

Iggy finishes, aged 32, with the conclusion 'I won't grow anymore' and sings it like he wouldn't want any more height even if it was offered to him. 

While writing this post I discovered that there was a video made to promote it. He takes his shirt off in it. No surprises there. But the video and comments led me to some fact checking and the internet seems to be pretty sure that Iggy isn't five foot one, he is in fact five foot seven (171 cm) which is (according to a celebrity height comparison website) an inch shorter than the average celebrity (2-3 inches shorter than both Bowie and Lou Reed). So Iggy has reduced his height by 6 inches for the authorial purposes of this song, identifying as a shorter man than he actually is. 



I don't know where he put those missing 6 inches. 

See That Cat?

Fun House is the most conceptually perfect garage rock album. Side 1 has four songs built around stripped back repetition- repetitive guitar riffs, metronomic drums, reductive lyrics/vocals- recorded live in the studio and as electric and alive as any band has ever been. Down On The Street, Loose, TV Eye, Dirt. Iggy and the 3 Stooges absolutely on it. Side 2 is a little wilder- 1970, Fun House and L.A. Blues bring in a looser feel and Steve Mackay's punk rock saxophone. If there is a better recording and expression of being in a garage band than these 7 songs, I've yet to hear it.

From the Fun House boxed set, The Complete Fun House Sessions, this is the first take of TV Eye, opening with a run around the drum kit, some studio chatter, Iggy introducing the song and then the holler of 'Looorrd!'. According to Kathy Ashton, younger sister of the Ashton brothers Ron and Scott (guitar and drums respectively), TV Eye stood for Twat Vibe, slang among her and her friends to signal a man who was leering at them. Iggy took this and turned it into a song.

TV Eye (1st Take)

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).

Why Why Why

Back to it this morning- early start, work clothes, motorway etc etc. It's all a bit of a shock after two weeks off.

This Leo Mas and Fabrice version of The Woodentops' Why Why Why is one way to ease the pain and lessen the blow. Eight minutes of sun dappled groove.

Why Why Why (Balearic Militant Dub)

Avery

Daniel Avery turned in at NTS Radio on January 2nd and played an hour of tunes. This starts off gentle and beatless, gradually gathering pace and turning up the heat. He's going to be back on a monthly basis. Expect drones, washes of synth noise, minimalism and techno.



Tracklist-
Kurt Baggaley- Remembering Infinity
Uon- Kissing
Second Woman- IE/P
Aphex Twin- Xepha
Volruptus- Alien People
Iona Fortune- Kun
Versalife- QU/AD
Anthony Linell- Separated From Other Bodies
Opuswerk- Extensum
JK Flash- Exit Stance
Cassegrain- Decagon

January's Not For Everyone

Here we are, almost a week in 2018, and Bagging Area has been Weatherall free. Fear not- he was back at NTS on January 4th for Music's Not For Everyone with music from Thor And Friends, Erick Le Grand, Crypt Vapor, Peter Gordon and the Love Of Life Orchestra, Kolomensky, Thee J Johanz, Penya, The Diabolical Liberties, Basement 5, Joe Gibbs, Winston Edwards, Eye Of Others, The Walkabouts, Krzysztof Komeda, The Orb, Serpent Power, The Smoke, The Pretty Things, The Turnstyle and Toby Tobias. Proving, if nothing else, that Weatherall plays the bands with the best names.

National Pastime

Drew wrote a post a while ago saying that blogging often seems to be about exposing the obscure, bringing to light long forgotten songs and the ones that got missed. In the spirit of that here is an absolute lost gem, a Factory Records B-side by Stockholm Monsters, straight outta Burnage. This song was the flipside to All At Once, released in June 1984.

Opening with clattering drums and a low slung bass, then a beautifully naive topline and a wonderful non-singer's vocal. Produced by Peter Hook and lost by a record company who wouldn't pay for pluggers and promotion because they believed the music would sell itself. If this was the only song they'd released, they'd still more than deserve a place in a version of mid-80s indie scene. A little slice of perfection.

National Pastime

Over Again

The Charlatans 2017 album Different Days seems to have been a bit of an opinion splitter. A bunch of good songs with a few skippers is my view- not as good as Modern Nature but better than some of the albums that they put out in the 00s. The newest single from it, Over Again, came out on green vinyl just after Christmas (to match the green Sproston Green sweatshirt modelled above). Over Again is a breezy, lighter than air kind of song, driven by some early 90s drums.



It's been followed by a remix by Bagging Area favourites A Certain Ratio, a loose limbed groove with Tim's vocals intact and added whistles and squiggles. The end section in particular could have come straight from ACR:MCR. Put it with the Barry Adamson one they remixed last year.

This Wasn't Supposed To Happen

I was in Top Shop the other day- with my teenage daughter, just to provide some context- and this song started playing over the in-store sound system.

Hit

It took me a moment to place it but it sounded really good, thumping away over the bright lights and rails of clothes. Its unexpectedness, a 27 year old song in among what they'd been playing beforehand, was part of it. But it sounded good on its own terms too- the loose early 90s drums, the synth horns and funky guitar riff and Bjork's vocals (Einar's contribution too). I always think that as a band they never matched the songs on Life's Too Good but at the tail end of 2017 I was proved wrong. I'm happy to be proved wrong with music.

As a bonus here they are on The Word in December 1991 (the sound is a bit patchy I'm afraid).

January Mix

Early January. Well done if you actually know what day it is. My calendar tells me it's Tuesday but you could tell me it was any day of the week and I'd probably believe you. Reality has a habit of snapping back in in early January- my commiserations if you're back at work today.

This is a completely remixed version of Perpetual Dawn, done by The Orb themselves, for their 1991 remix album The Aubrey Mixes: The Ultraworld Excursion (the album was released and deleted on the same day). Starting out with a burst of noise and radio voices and turning down the reggae influences from the original mix, January Mix 3 transforms slowly, adding Gregorian chanting and finally gathering pace in the sixth minute, and ending with the screech of tyres. Good work Alex and Thrash, job done.

Perpetual Dawn (January Mix 3)

8

Morning. If it is morning when you're reading this. Hope you're feeling alright. On January 1st 2010 I published my first post here at Bagging Area. Today, 3441 posts and 9727 comments later, the blog turns 8. Thank you to all of you who read it, thanks especially to those who comment, and here's to a few more. I never really set a deadline or expiry date when starting out. I'll keep going as long as there is something to write about I  suppose. Like this...

Songs with 8 in the title aren't numerous. This is a 1985 R.E.M. song about a passenger train running through the southern states. The chorus goes ''and the train conductor says 'take a break driver 8, driver 8 take a break, we can reach our destination but we're still a ways away''. In 2008 Michael Stipe introduced Driver 8 live by saying 'this is a song that represents great hope and great promise, a song that represents the dream of the United States of America'. So it's about that too.

Driver 8

This is from 1990's still stunning 90 album this is a song that pays tribute to a drum machine. An attention grabbing intro followed by rave synths and beats with a great breakdown section.

808080808

In the days when football teams were numbered 1-11 number 8 was always a central midfielder- not the flash captain figure of the number 7 shirt and not the centre forward of number 9 but in between, a gutsy, hard tackling midfielder, someone who did the simple things well and chipped in with the odd goal. In the 90s Paul Ince and Nicky Butt were the number 8 shirt wearers at United. In the 80s the shirt belonged to Gordon Strachan and Remi Moses (and for a season apiece Ashley Grimes and Ray Wilkins). In the picture below Remi is to the left of Diego Maradona in a European Cup Winners Cup second leg at Old Trafford, one of the greatest games I've attended. Diego barely got a look-in all night. The first leg had finished 2-0 to Barcelona. The return leg was won 3-0 by United, with goals from Bryan Robson and Frank Stapleton, but the end to end performance of Remi was behind it. In the next round he marked and tackled Michel Platini of Juventus out of the game. Injury forced him to retire in 1988, aged just 28.