Another imaginary album. Previously I speculated about the Andrew Weatherall, Jah Wobble and Sinead O’Connor album that could have followed Andrew’s remixes of Jah Wobble’s Invaders of You in 1992 and the album that he was lined up to produce for The Fall in 1993 but which didn’t happen, as well as a re- united Joe Strummer and Mick Jones album c.1989. Today’s imaginary album is another Weatherall one, this time one that existed for a while on paper but was never followed through. In 1994 following the artistic success of Sabres Of Paradise’s Haunted Dancehall, the record company, Warp, were keen on a follow up with Sabres and some hand picked guest vocalists. The Chemical Brothers and Leftfield had both made records with guest vocalists by this point, including Beth Orton, Tim Burgess, Toni Halliday, and John Lydon and Warp felt Sabres should be getting in on the action. In an interview with NME during this period, possibly the dance music page Vibes (which Andrew’s friend Sherman edited and wrote), Andrew mentioned that he was looking forward to working with Ice T. Jagz Kooner has confirmed that Ice T/ Tracy Morrow’s name was on a list of names of people that Warp were hoping would take to the microphone on this mooted Sabres Of Paradise plus friends album.
At the Sabresonic 30th event at The Golden Lion last November Jagz and Gary Burns confirmed that a list of names was drawn up. Dot Allison and Bobby Gillespie were both on it, both singers with close connections to Andrew, Bobby via Andrew’s production on Screamadelica and Dot via Andrew’s post- Screamadelica production on One Dove’s Morning Dove White. There is a cassette that belongs to Chris from Soft Rocks, given to him by Andrew as a thank you along with a pile of records, that contains an unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track that goes by the title of Al Green (Revenge Of Dove). The track has that blissed out electronic dub sound that Andrew helped shape with One Dove, possibly even contains a One Dove sample, and although the cassette is not top quality in terms of sound, it’s a real shame it was never finished, it’s very much a lost Sabres track. I’d love to share it but I think doing so would get me into trouble.
The tantalising thing about the track’s title is the possibility that alongside guest vocals from Ice T, Bobby Gillespie and Dot Allison, the Reverend Al Green would be making an appearance. Imagine something like Sirens, above from One Dove's Morning Dove White, with Al Green singing on it.
According to Jagz the next name pencilled in by Warp was that of Tom Waits. Tentative enquiries were being made and it was at this point that Andrew got cold feet, getting the fear about working with some of his heroes, and kiboshed the whole project, not willing to put himself in a studio with someone who he regarded as highly as Tom Waits, a hero of Andrew’s since his teenage years.
Again, close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine Tom Waits' growl and gravelly tones, his gutter poetry, over the top of some mid- 90s Sabres dub. Think of the remixes that could have come from this imaginary album.
Andrew was quite vocal in interviews in the second half of the 90s about dance acts using guest vocalists, in a disapproving way, so he may have had doubts from the start but sitting here three decades later, the prospect of a Sabres Of Paradise album with Tom Waits, Ice T, Al Green, Dot Allison and Bobby Gillespie all singing on it feels like a lost opportunity, one that will have to live in our imaginations only.
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.
I got a very late offer of a ticket to see Manic Street Preachers at Castlefield Bowl in Manchester last Friday night- not the sort of offer to turn down. I missed Suede unfortunately, arriving at the gates to the venue at the exact moment Brett was on the lip of the stage,saying, 'thank you Manchester'. The Manics took to the stage at 9.15pm, the lights and projections in stark contrast to Manchester's slate grey skies, and powered into their calling card, You Love Us (a little affected by a few sound issues for the first few songs, 60% of it being James' Les Paul guitar solos and the bottom end a dull thud). Everything Must Go and Motorcycle Emptiness followed, a strong opening 1- 2- 3, the latter with the young Manics from the song's video projected behind them. James introduces their cover of Suicide Is Painless (Theme From Mash) with the remark that 'this is one of the most depressing cover versions of all time', but the mood is jubilant, the crowd and band reflecting a celebration of the music back at each other.
The Anchoress joins them on stage on vocals for Little Baby Nothing, a song with the some of the 'best lyrics Richie wrote', Nicky Wire tells us. The sound issues have been sorted, and the set thunders along- Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier and Walk Me To The Bridge all stand out. In the middle of the set they play A Design For Life, a song that never loses its power or appeal. James' voice is a roar, the projections play loops of footage from the 80s- England fans and striking miners- and the communal melancholy of the lyrics, 'We don't talk about love/ We only wanna get drunk', still glorious all these years later.
It's followed by La Tristessa Durera (Scream To A Sigh), the guitars sounding huge, a wall of mid- 90s indie- metal. Kevin Carter is as good as anything played tonight, the staccato guitar riff and harrowing subject matter of the lyrics a strange fit in some ways for an outdoor, mini- stadium gig. The Manics never wrote about fluff. When the words Culture, Alienation, Boredom and Despair appear on the screen behind them in letters ten feet high, there's another wonderful moment of dissonance- a band so loved by their audience and so warm towards their fans, playing to thousands. This isn't alienation and despair, it's community and love. They finish with If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, another outsider anthem, another heart on sleeve song, anti- fascism, Spanish bombs and A Homage To Catalonia all wrapped up in the Manic's widescreen indie- rock.
The latest release on Golden Lion Sounds is an EP by Acid Klaus, available digitally and on 10" vinyl at the GLS Bandcamp page. P.T.S.D. By Proxy is five tracks of electronic mayhem, 'dance music you can cry to', according to Klaus mainman Adrian Flanagan (who comes to Acid Klaus via The Moonlandingz and The Eccentronic Research Council). Opening track The Solution doesn't pull any punches or warm you up gently- it pumps in immediately, electronic bump and grind with a robotic voice intoning, 'The solution/ Is revolution'. Philly Piper guests on track two, Aerodromes, pulsing bass, dancing synth toplines and Philly's FXed voice talking about the death of conversation and class struggle while returning to the chorus of, 'You gotta get it/ Get get get it right', a Hi NRG/ acid house collision, arpeggiators firing off all over the place.
Pour Some Wood On The Fire brings vocals from Welsh singer/ songwriter Cat Rin. There's no let up in energy, the frenetic beats and sci fi synths blasting away. Losing Our Way has Roland 808 and the spoken word, Maxine Peake and Rosey PM despairing at the state of the world while the electronics bleep and bloop and the machine drums power ever forwards. Hell Below features Lias Saoudi from Fat White Family on vocals, a slightly slower, mellower track, some minor chord melancholy futurism.
There's a David Holmes remix of Aerodromes, exclusive to the digital package, with a video filmed in The Golden Lion (with some familiar faces in it), Homer fully on it with eight minutes of synapse twisting sounds, thumping drums, and not a little drama, the last song at the end of the night as the world burns.
On Thursday this week, 18th July, The Flightpath Estate DJs northern division (Dan, Martin and me) are playing some records at Head in Stretford, as guests of Club Solo. I've been going through my records, making piles and lists of probables and possibles, re- listening to some things and narrowing it down to something approaching a set. My recent Monday long song focus on DFA and LCD Soundsystem led me to go through my LCD records and I pulled out the 12" of Yeah.
Yeah came out in January 2004, in two mixes, the eleven minute Pretentious Version and the nine minute Crass Version. I put the Crass version on the turntable and wallowed in James Murphy's attempt to tell the story of dance music in one track, a track that Murphy says was difficult to make. The whole thing is an LCD Soundsystem tour de force, New York clubland pressed on wax- driving art- funk bass, Murphy and Nancy Whang chanting the word of the title, and then 'Everyone keeps on talking about/ Nobody's getting it done', his intonation somewhere between wired and bored. The synths flutter, the snares crack, the bass pumps like a marriage between Talking Heads and Liquid Liquid. The Crass version piles up and becomes increasingly intense, like being trapped in a washing machine with a power drill, the ultra- distorted, raw acid analogue synths buzzing at the very edge of music, noise and rhythm combined in ecstatic union. Fuck yeah!
I’m really
not a very patriotic person at all, it being as Oscar Wilde said, 'the last refuge of the scoundrel'. The markers of patriotism have always felt
like nonsense to me- the flag (either of them, the cross of St. George and the
Union flag), the national anthem, the monarchy, the Little England attitudes, the
English exceptionalism, all of it does nothing for me. It makes no sense at all
that someone who was born in Carlisle, Dover or Chester is in some way better
than someone born a few miles away in Wrexham, Calais or Dumfries. Pride in one's country and it's achievements is I suppose OK to an extent but that pride often tips over into nationalism and exceptionalism and has a habit of hiding or ignoring some parts of a nation's history too.
Supporting
the England football team has always been tainted with all of the nonsense too. It's not necessarily the team's fault, they're partly just the vehicle for it. Tabloid controversies about whether the players are singing the national anthem
with enough ‘passion’. Songs about winning two world wars, ten German bombers and no surrender to the I.R.A.
Grown men dressed as crusader knights. The England band (thankfully now missing). Car flags and cheap red cross on white background bunting sagging in the summer rain. The booing by their own fans of players taking the knee to protest against racism. The deluge of racist messages that Bukayo Saka,
Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho received after missing their penalties in the 2021
Euro final. This was almost the last straw as far as I was concerned, ‘fans’ who would
have been dancing in the streets if the penalty kicks had been a few inches one
way or the other, taking to social media to racially abuse the young men who
were taking part in a game was sickening and reflective of the wider culture-
of Reform and UKIP, of Tory Little England politics, of the immigration narrative
that Farage and Johnson and others fuelled by the tabloid press have spewed
into British politics and English culture, of the nationalist nonsense that is
only ever a sentence away from racism and the 'I'm not racist but...' brigade.
The football team have dragged
me back in over the last four weeks. I've tried to remain a bit arm's length from it, not get too invested. I boycotted the Qatar World Cup, hardly saw any of it, so it passed me by completely. But there was a sweet pleasure in watching the England penalties against
Switzerland last Saturday, as five black and mixed race young men calmly slotted
home their penalty kicks, the first and second generation descendants of immigrants putting England into a Euro
semi- final. Where, as someone asked on social media after the match, are the racists
now? Another of those children of immigrants, Ollie Watkins, scored the winner on Wednesday night, in the last second of the last minute of normal time.
Tonight, England
play Spain in the final of Euro ’24 in Berlin. This is a major achievement, the second consecutive Euros final. Those
of us who grew up watching England in the 80s and 90s have seen little but failure
from England teams. Sometimes they have been truly awful- the Euros in ’88, ’92 and 2016, the World Cup in 2014.
Sometimes they’ve been massively overinflated and departed meekly beaten by clearly
better sides- tournaments in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2012. Sometimes they’ve been engulfed by (in)glorious failure
with a sense of injustice- Mexico ’86, France ’98. Sometimes they’ve not even qualified
for tournaments- 1994, 2008. Very occasionally they’ve pulled it together and almost but
not quite got to the final- 1990 and 1996. But on the whole, even if you can ignore the nationalist bluster that surrounds them, they've been not very good.
Recently
they’ve been better and if nothing else Gareth Southgate has changed the story
around the England team, blocked out ‘the noise’ as he puts it. I’ve learned to
limit my expectations of England. Reaching Euro finals twice in three years is something
no other England manager or team has done. Hopefully, maybe, they can go one step
further tonight and put to bed the endless burden of 1966 and all that.
This is a thirty five minute mix of songs about England with a couple of England football songs. I'm sure some of you won't go anywhere near it but I like to think of it as the antithesis of Three Lions.
Shuttleworth ft. Mark E. Smith: England's Heartbeat (Brazilian Ambush)
The Vermin Poets: England's Poets
Big Audio Dynamite: Union, Jack
New Order: World In Motion (Call The Carabinieri Mix)
Billy Bragg's A New England is his 1983 calling card, a song about being twenty two and looking for a new girl, wishing on space hardware, and life in the early 80s. I probably should have included Kirsty McColl's cover which in some ways is the definitive version. In 2002 Billy addressed a load of the flag, nationalism, immigration, tabloid press, racism and England football shirts in his song Half- English- this only occurred to me while writing this part of the post.
Something About England is from The Clash's 1980 album Sandinista!, a song that opens with the more resonant than ever lines, 'They say the immigrants steal the hub caps of respected gentlemen/ They say it would be wine and roses/ if England were for Englishmen again...' It's a truly great song, one where ick and Joe sing in character, Mick a young man leaving a bar and Joe an old man huddled in rags in a shop doorway. They then give us a history of the 20th century, war, depression, class struggle, disaster, all set to Clash punk/ music hall. 'Old England was all alone', they conclude.
A few years later, Mick and Topper both sacked, Joe recorded the final Clash album, Cut The Crap. The only song you really need from it is This Is England, the last great Clash song, Joe giving a state of the nation address, five years into Thatcher's government, economic depression and unemployment, with drum machines, guitars and chanting football crowds.
Care was Paul Simpson (who will be back at this blog soon) and Ian Broudie. In 1983 Paul formed Care after The Wild Swans split for the first time. Sad Day For England was the B-side to the 12" My Boyish Days, one of only a handful of releases by the pair before they split in 1985.
Black Grape's England's Irie was an unofficial Euro '96 song, a song that brought together Shaun Ryder, bez and Kermit with Keith Allen and Joe Strummer (and Strummer's only Top Of The Pops appearance). Shaun delivers several memorable lines, not least 'I'm spectating my wife's lactating/ It's a football thing'. I'm not sure it's aged particularly well but I thought I should include it.
Shuttleworth were a one off band of Mark E. Smith, Ed Blaney and Jenny Shuttleworth who recorded this song for England's adventures at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Apparently the FA approached him to do it (!) but then decided against having an official song so Mark put it out anyway. Mark wrote a few football related songs- Theme For Sparta FC is a classic- and on one occasion read the full time results on the BBC.
In the 2010 World Cup England were dreadful in the group stage, finishing second behind the USA. They lost the next game in the knock out round to Germany, 4- 1.
The Vermin Poets were one of Billy Childish's many, many groups. Their album, Poets Of England, came out in 2010, garage rock/ psyche pop. I don't think it's among Billy's best work but anything by Billy is worth paying at least some attention to.
Union, Jack was on Big Audio Dynamite's 1989 album Megatop Phoenix, their fourth album and the last made by the original line up. 'Make a stand/ Before you fall/ You country needs you/ To play football', Mick sings, slipping in lines the empire, pints of beer, a green and pleasant land, and all for one. A Mick Jones late 80s football song that tries to re- imagine the football song after some terrible 80s ones sung by England squads with perms, mullets and in leisure wear. Mick would find himself trumped a year later though...
World In Motion needs no introduction really- New Order, Keith Allen, John Barnes, the summer of 1990, Italia 90, a dire group stage, wins against Belgium and Cameroon and then ultimately disappointment, penalties and Germany. This version is an Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley remix from the remix 12" that came out a week after the main one. New Order had wanted to reflect the zeitgeist of 1990 by calling the song E For England, a step too far for the FA. They had to settle for the chorus, 'love's got the world in motion'. The FA wanted it changed to 'we've got the world in motion' but New Order stood their ground and love it was.
In 2004 Don Letts compiled a various artists compilation for Heavenly, Social Classics 3 Dread Meets B- Boys Downtown. It was a hugely listenable sixteen track compilation recreating the summer of 1981 when Don accompanied The Clash and they took over New York with a residency at Bond's Casino in Times Square. The stories are legendary- the promoters oversold the shows, the fire department shut it down, The Clash promised to honour all sold tickets and ended up playing seventeen nights, an exhausting experience. While that was going on and Don filmed them, the band immersed themselves into New York's street and club culture, Mick Jones especially, and the nascent hip hop scene. Support acts for the group at Bond's included Grandmaster Flash, The Fall, Dead Kennedys, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, The Slits, ESG and The Treacherous Three.
Don's has various slices of old school hip hop (Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizzard Theodore, The Fearless Four, Fab Five Freddy, the Wild Style OST), some classic New York dance tracks (Babe Ruth's The Mexican and Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band's version of Apache), some cutting edge early 80s electro (Al- Naafiysh by Hashim), along with Malcolm McLaren, Kraftwerk and The Clash. It's wall to wall early 80s bangers and cutting edge too.
Grand Wizzard Theodore is from The Bronx, NYC, and is the DJ who is largely credited with inventing scratching.
Babe Ruth were an early 70s funk rock band from Hatfield, Hertfordshire. The Mexican was recorded at Abbey Road in 1972, a hugely influential song later on in the decade when the New York hip hop DJs picked up on it and played it, mixed it and sampled it to pieces.
The Clash were inspired by New York , it sent them into a spin they never really pulled out of. This Is Radio Clash was a standalone single and 12", fired up by New York. the city's sounds and radio stations. Outside Broadcast was a remix version of the main track, seven and a half minutes of dub sound effects, samples, traffic sounds, rapping and studio experimentation.
Malcolm McLaren's Buffalo Girls is an essential early 80s record, 1982 hip hop produced by Trevor Horn, after Malcolm saw what was happening in New York. He'd been in the city looking for a support act for Bow Wow Wow and went to a block party where he heard hip hop and scratching for the first time.
Fab Five Freddy is a New York hip hop legend, graffiti artist, film maker and face. In 1983 the film Wild Style was released,a document of New York's nascent hip hop scene in 1981 and the track Down By Law comes from the soundtrack. Chris Stein of Blondie worked on the soundtrack and the score too and Freddy would famously later on turn up in the lyrics to Rapture.
My contact in Sao Paulo, Eduardo Ramos, records as Pandit Pam Pam and is head man at a record label called Boston Medical Group. A few months ago he sent me a couple of new tracks he'd recorded including one intriguingly with Henry Olsen guesting, a track called Lago...
Pandit Pam Pam often blends electronics, ambient and more organic instruments and sounds. On Lago Eduardo has perfected it, finding a sweet spot where laid back Brazilian cool, gamelan and ambient blur together. Eduardo said that Henry was top class, a joy to work with bring, and that he brought so much to the sound and the songs.
Henry Olsen you might recall was the bass player for Primal Scream, between 1988 and 1995. He played bass on Screamadelica, the Dixie- Narco EP and Give Out But Don't Give Up as well as the self titled album they released in 1989. Before this while based in Manchester Henry played in Nico's band The Faction when on tour (a life detailed brilliantly and vividly in James Farmer's book Songs They Never Play On The Radio, an account of Farmer's time as Nico's keyboard player, while Nico lived in North Manchester). After playing with Primal Scream Henry played bass for Beth Orton. In the Classic Albums episode about Screamadelica Henry comes across as a thoughtful, articulate person, speaking highly of Denise Johnson especially.
Pandit Pam Pam's album Camburi came out last week with Lago as one of the nine tracks. It's a lovely album, opening with the analogue ambience of Verlaine, a track followed by a second collaboration with Henry, a chilled, percussive two minutes called Failed Gamelan with some muted trumpet by Joao Sousa. Most of the tracks are fairly short, mood pieces and sketches fleshed out into songs. The longer Burroughs And Associates has dancing synths and drone waves. Joao Sousa's trumpet playing returns on Neuva, a jazz flecked fanfare with ambient synths. The final song is named after Eduardo's new born second child Diogo, Diogo's Heart, and has Hamilton Beck's wonderful, emotive lap steel guitar up front, an excursion to the recent ambient- Americana sounds of groups like SUSS and Nashville Ambient Ensemble. This sounds in some ways like it shouldn't work- ambient analogue synths from Brazil with the former bass player from Primal Scream, with trumpet, gamelan and lap steel guitar as the lead sounds- but it does, it works beautifully, a superbly cohesive and moving album. Listen and buy Camburi at Bandcamp.
More music from a CD that came free with a magazine, this time (again) Mojo in 2020. The disc, titled The Cold Open, was a collection of tracks acting as a sampler for Belgian label Le Discques De Crepescule Factory Benelux and took in several Factory related artists- Section 25, The Other Two, Shadowplay, Stephen Mallinder- plus some Factory adjacent acts- Paul Haig, LoneLady covering New Order's Cries And Whispers, Pauline Murray- and a bunch of others. Tucked away at the end are two low key and moving pieces of music. Firstly, Alan Marks playing Erik Satie's Vexations...
Satie never performed Vexations in his lifetime- it only came to light in 1949. On the manuscript Satie left the note, 'in order to play the motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities'. Since the 1960s therefore it has been interpreted that the music on the sheet must be played 840 times but this may not be what Satie intended. I'll leave that decision up to you.
The second piece of music is a recording of The Durutti Column playing at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham in 2004, Vini playing guitar for a few minutes in his own inimitable style. No day is ever worse for having a little Durutti Column in it.
I saw The Durutti Column live a few times in the 00s, once at The Comedy Store in Deansgate Locks, Manchester (27th April 2003 according to the internet). Vini came on stage with a ghetto blaster, made a joke about telling jokes in a comedy club, and then played along to a tape backing. After a couple of songs he was joined by Bruce Mitchell on drums and a keyboard player, possibly Kier Stewart. The venue, not a large one, was only half full.
In December 2003 and again in April 2005 we saw them at Manchester Academy 3, a small room at the university student union that used to be called The Hop And Grape. Vini was in explosive form, building in volume and noise as the gig unfolded. I found this photo on the internet a while ago from the December 2003 gig. We saw Vini and DC play on a couple of other occasions too I think. At the time, like many things, we took it for granted that Vini would be playing small venues in Manchester to small but appreciative crowds of fans and that we'd be able to stand and watch him conjure up magic from his guitar.
In 1996 R.E.M. made what would turn out to be the final album made by the four piece band of Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry. The drummer, Bill Berry, left the group in 1997 and although they carried on as a three- piece until 2013 they never really reached the heights they did on the run of ten albums they made between Murmur in 1983 and New Adventures In Hi- Fi thirteen years later. Much of New Adventures In Hi- Fi was written and partially recorded on the road, at soundchecks while they toured Monster, a mixed bag of an album that saw them tour the big venues. Many of the songs on New Adventures... reflect the album's on the road origins, songs with titles like Departure, Leave, Undertow and Low Desert. There's also a sadness, a mournful quality running through it, countered by some brash riffing and Stipe continuing the rock star persona he developed for the Monster tour- Wake Up Bomb and So Fast, So Numb- but the melancholy pervades. The final song, Electrolite, makes sure that things finish on a high of sorts, a gorgeous song celebrating the end of the 20th century, Mulholland Drive, Steve McQueen, Martin Sheen and Jimmy Dean, that closes with Stipe singing, 'I'm not scared/ I'm outta here'.
It's an album I think of as a vinyl record, the four sides mini- albums in their right. By this point CDs were outselling vinyl and the record industry had scaled vinyl production right back. Bands were making CD length albums, not vinyl length ones. New Adventures.. is R.E.M.'s longest album. Most listeners I imagine think of New Adventures In Hi- Fi as a CD album, fourteen songs in succession but for me its always been a vinyl album with four distinct groups of songs. Side one of the vinyl opens with How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us, a typically untypical way to start an R.E.M. album, low key and led by drums and bass, piano providing the melodic backing to Stipe's vocal. Peter Buck's mandolin, his acoustic and electric guitars are nowhere to be heard until the second song, Wake Up Bomb bursts in with the big guitar riffs and a glam/ grunge stomp. Side one concludes with New Test Leper, the song on the album that sounds the most typically R.E.M.- led by acoustic guitar, with some understated Mike Mills organ and one of those universal Stipe lyrics, one where he plugs himself into the human experience and comes up with something that seems both personal and universal.
The lyric opens with a nod to Michael's heroine Patti Smith who kicked off Piss Factory with a line about Jesus. 'I can't say that I love Jesus', Stipe sings,'that would be a hollow claim'. He goes on to quote Christ, 'judge not lest ye be judged' and then laments the behaviour of a TV host and a live studio audience. Stipe was watching one of those TV programmes where members of the public and their deeds are paraded in front of an audience, an Oprah/ Jeremy Kyle type show. He found himself empathising with the woman whose life was being pulled apart for entertainment. Michael sings from the point of view of the woman, 'When I tried to tell my story/ They cut me off to take a break/ I sat silent for five commercials/ I had nothing left to say'. He then switches back to being the observer again and concludes, 'What a sad parade'. Buck's guitar jangles beautifully, backed by Bill Berry's drums and shakers and Mike Mills plays a superb lead bassline and that lovely ascending organ part that appears and re- appears.
New Test Leper was recorded at Seattle's Bad Animals studio, resurrected from a tape Michael had of the song from a soundcheck. A second version, acoustic and recorded live at the studio, was used as a B- side for Bittersweet Me. Stipe has said that New Test Leper is his 'crowning achievement' and its easy to see why he would see it that way- it's a song that displays his humanity and empathy and done in such a way that it strikes a chord whenever I hear it.
Back in early April when we DJed at AW61 we got to The Golden Lion in good time to start our sets, early afternoon. The booth had been occupied the previous night by David Holmes, who played a righteous set concluding with his splicing of Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares 2U with Orbital's Belfast. In the booth we noticed that David had left one of the CDs he was DJing from the night before. Having ripped this CD it turned out to contain, as you might expect, quite a few gems including this magnificent piece of Afro- funk...
Funkier than a mosquito's tweeter, shuffling rhythms but with a solid kick drum and percussion, life affirming horns, a Fela Kuti style guitars and groove and wondrous call and response vocals, it's a winning track, solid gold. Halfway through the brass section are given a chance to shine before the drums kick back in. Pembe was originally by Future Warriors back in 2005 and then re- edited for Orange Tree Edits by Belfast's Jimmy Rouge in 2017. A previously unreleased version of Pembe by Future Warriors can be found at Bandcamp, price £1, from the album Far Out Jazz And Afro- Funk which is also worth checking out in full.
The Monday long song slot LCD Soundsystem/ DFA takeover continues. Last Monday was LCD Soundsystem's Freak Out/ Starry Eyes, which followed the DFA remix of Le Tigre the previous week. Today, two further remixes but this time remixes of LCD Soundsystem by others, both from 2007.
Carl Craig, second wave of Detroit techno legend, remixed the title track from LCD's album of the same year, Sound Of Silver. James Murph's vocal refrain remains intact, 'Sound of silver talk to me/ Makes you feel like a teenager/ Until you remember the feelings of/ A real life emotional teenager/ Then you think again'. Around this piece of wisdom, Carl constructs a sleek nine minute machine ride with thudding drums, a synth drone at the top end that nags away, keyboard parts and not a little drama.
Soulwax remixed Get Innocuous!, ten minutes and one second of Belgian dancefloor nirvana, kicking off with just drums and then gradually bringing the keys in, Nancy Wang's voice, shiny 80s production, Murphy's Bowie- esque vocal, juddering synth stabs, the whole kit and caboodle.
Tak Tent Radio is a Scottish based internet radio station that broadcasts all manner of interesting, experimental, leftfield and niche shows by a variety of guests. I've contributed guests mixes for a few years now and last weekend the latest Bagging Area Tak Tent emission went out, my eleventh. You can listen to it at the Tak Tent website here or at Mixcloud here. It's a chilled out dubby/ ambient/ Balearic affair, mostly music released this year but with a vintage Andrew Weatherall and David Harrow track thrown in, their sole recording as Planet 4 Folk Quartet (for Warchild in 1995).
In 1986 NME issued a cassette compilation that spawned an entire scene, a twenty two track tape called C86. It invented indie pop, a subculture that was DIY, inwards looking, amateurish and underground and lo fi, it celebrated underachievement and became eventually a millstone around the necks of some of the bands involved. The indie scene that grew from it was all 60s anoraks, scruffy black 501s, lovebeads and bowl cuts, buzzsaw guitars, sing song vocals, gig posters and fanzines with photos torn from magazines and text done by Letraset, badly photocopied by whoever had access to a work photocopier- 60s guitar pop crossed with early 80s post- punk, defining itself partly by what it was against as much as anything else. It was anti- Phil Collins, anti- stadium rock, anti- Elton John and Queen, anti- big 80s gated snares, anti- rock star, anti- Thatcher and anti- heavy metal. All of these are good things to be anti.
Funnily, given that the indie scene that burst out of it became quite homogenous, the original line up of bands on C86 is by no means all classic C86 indie pop. Standard bearers Primal Scream are present (in their pre- rawk indie phase) hit the payload with the thrilling rush of their early B-side Velocity Girl (for some fans, still the best Primal Scream song). The Shop Assistants, The Wedding Present, The Bodines and The Soup Dragons are all classic C86 indie pop. But some of the bands are outliers in sound or outlook, unrepresentative of the jangle pop sound that came from the tape- Stump, Bogshed, bIG fLAME, A Witness, The Shrubs and The McKenzies are all more abrasive and less indie pop.
In some ways it's a great document and it has a real cultural significance in the history of British independent music, both as the springboard for a scene and then later as something to react against. It split the NME writers at the time, many of whom were pushing the paper towards covering hip hop and then house. The indie pop/ jangle pop scene was the starting point for several bands who'd go on to bigger things and was a scene in which women were heavily involved- as singers, musicians, fanzine writers, promoters and at labels.
The Soup Dragons would leave the indie ghetto, the new dance music sounds of the late 80s hitting the band hard. It's a continuing annoyance for the band, singer Sean Dickson especially, that they were branded dance music bandwagon jumpers when they were eighteen months ahead of Primal Scream's conversion to acid house. On Pleasantly Surprised they sound like the next step on from Buzzcocks.
The Bodines were from Glossop, a town nestled into the Pennines east of Manchester. Therese is indie pop gold, a breathless, trebly guitar pop swoon, by four young men with Doctor Martens shoes, flat tops and fringes, denim jackets and 501s with turn ups of exactly the right size.
bIG fLAME were a post- punk/ indie pop three piece from Manchester, a band who would take the phrase 'viciously trebly' as a starting point. The speed, velocity and attack have more in common with Minutemen and Husker Du than the shambling groups in some ways, and their angular, slashing chords more like Gang Of Four and a hundred post- punk singles. The song on C86 was New Way (A Quick Wash And Brush Up With Liberation Theology) but I don't have that on my hard drive at the moment so this one will do instead (and is from a 2006 expanded version of C86 called CD86 The Birth Of Indie Pop)
The Close Lobsters, Mighty Mighty, The Mighty Lemon Drops, Half Man Half Biscuit, Miaow, The Pastels, We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It, McCarthy, The Wolfhounds, The Servants and Age Of Chance all appeared on C86 too and there's no doubt it was instrumental in influencing various people who emerged from the indie scene in the early 90s- Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne, Manic Street Preachers and Heavenly Records all have origins that can be traced back to C86 in some way. The intense weekly pressure of four music papers competing against each other, jockeying to find bands, is one of the reasons C86 existed in the first place, NME placing a flag in the ground with the release of this cassette. Most of the bands, despite some negativity towards the album and the indie scene that grew out of it after 1986, have made peace with it now. In 2019 Primal Scream, who had long ignored their pre- Loaded records when playing live and when compiling Best Ofs, re- released Velocity Girl for Record Shop Day, a ninety second song that started life as the B-side to Creation Records release Crystal Crescent and has proved to have a very long tail.
In classical and Medieval literature Thule was a distant place, a place beyond the borders of the known world. To the Romans Thule was the most northerly location known to them- Orkney possibly, or Shetland. By the late Middle Ages Thule was Greenland or Iceland. Ultima Thule is beyond there. On 1st January 2019 NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by an object known as Ultima Thule, a lump of rock that floats in the Kuiper Belt, the farthest object in the solar system, a piece of rock now renamed 486958 Arrokoth. I'm not sure the renaming is an improvement but Ultima Thule is now somewhere else, I suppose, even further away.
In 1972 Tangerine Dream released a 7" single called Ultima Thule, an instrumental track split into two parts, one either side of the record. For this single the group were not fully electronic, and the track is not sonically in the same place as the group were when they made the pioneering kosmische of 1974's Phaedra and 1975's Rubycon. Edgar Froese's group has had over twenty members of the decades. In 1972 they consisted of Froese on audio generators and gliss guitar, Christopher Franke on keys, cymbals and analogue synth and Peter Baumann on organ, vibraphone and another analogue synth. Zeit, also out in 1972 but sometime after Ultima Thule, is slow-ish, atmospheric space music with cellos and Florian Fricke from Popul Voh guesting on Moog. Before Ultima Thule in 1971 they made Alpha Centauri with keys, organ and flute, dark, open ended space music.
Ultima Thule doesn't really sit in with any of these, although the questing, experimental, space music tags all fit. Ultima Thule is loud, led by punching, tumbling drums, aggressive and overdriven guitar riffs, loud psychedelia with kosmische organs pushing through in the mix. There may be a mellotron in there too. While the 7" single may not seem to be the place to find Tangerine Dream, it's obvious really that this track needed a separate release from what came either side of it, to mark it out as different from the music on Alpha Centauri and Zeit. Your Krautrock/ Kosmische folder is not complete without it.
It's a little strange that I've got several albums by Tangerine Dream and this is the first time they've appeared at Bagging Area. It's always good to find artists I haven't written about before, to add another name as a label and to keep moving things forwards. I don't know at the time of writing the scale of the Tory defeat at yesterday's general election. I wrote this post in advance and have taken a reasoned gamble that they lost and have my fingers crossed they lost heavily. In which case today is a new dawn, a Tory government free country. There were times it felt like Tory rule would never end. I'm sure a lot of you, like me, find a lot to celebrate in the fact that it's over, they've gone. Something to savour, for a few days at least.
Fourteen years of the worst government and worst leaders/
politicians this country has known since the extension of the franchise will
come to an end today. For a party that prides itself as the natural party of
government, the nature of the five Conservative Prime Ministers and their policies and
actions since 2010 has been staggering, an unending run of incompetence, lies, cuts, cruelty, corruption and criminality and a ceaseless (until today)
shower of men and women who represent the most overpromoted cabinet minsters we’ve
ever suffered. For anyone who suffers from imposter syndrome at their work, something we
all do from time to time I’m sure, just a glance at some of the people who’ve
held high ranking cabinet posts in this country since 2010 should cure you of
that- Liz Truss, Jacob Rees- Mogg, Dominic Rabb, Matt Hancock, Oliver Dowden,
Therese Coffey, Andrea Leadsom, James Cleverly, Kwasi Kwarteng, Kemi Badenoch,
Suella Braveman, Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, on and on it goes. Many of these people would
think twice about being able to run a medium sized outlet at a retail park. The Tory Party put them
in charge of the country.
Let’s run through their legacy briefly.
David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and
Rishi Sunak; between them they have made the country and its people poorer in every way,
from austerity to Brexit and beyond. They have diminished us all, made the nation smaller, meaner, grimmer and inward looking. There is little hope or optimism, no sense as there was in 1997 that things can get better. We have become a small, narrow minded, poverty stricken, regressive nation on the north west edge of Europe cut adrift by the Tories.
Between them, the five Tory PMs have cut funding to councils by up to
50% with the inevitable cutting of vital local services. Axed genuinely beneficial
services for young people like Sure Start and Connexions. Introduced the two
child cap on child benefit plunging families into poverty. Capped local housing allowance that has pushed
people out of renting and into homelessness. Cut the educational maintenance
allowance for 16- 19 year olds from poorer backgrounds. Tripled university tuition fees. Axed grants
for low income students. Cut the budgets of all government budgets leading to
underfunded schools and hospitals, threadbare public services, and violently overcrowded prisons. Overseen a
vast recruitment and retention crisis in teaching. Scrapped the Green Deal.
BREXIT. Labelled the judiciary as ‘enemies of the will of the people’.
Windrush. Prison ships to hold refugees and migrants. The illegal proroguing of parliament.
Restrictions to the right to protest. The Rwanda scheme. A housing crisis. The
crashing of the entire UK economy in 49 days in 2022. Stagnated wages. Falling living
standards. An increase in poverty. Approximately 3.6 million children are defined as living
in poverty. Widespread use of food banks. A 74% increase in rough sleeping.
Hospital waiting lists longer than ever. Ambulance waiting times longer than
ever. A crisis in GP services and dentistry. The state of childrens' teeth is worse than at any point since the introduction of the NHS in 1948. The awarding of PPE contracts to
friends during Covid. The breaking of the laws they made to protect all of us
and the refusal to acknowledge that there was anything wrong with this. A sense
nationally that in living memory things have never been worse, are still getting worse and that they can’t
see a way they’ll get better.
Whatever happens today, these people must be defeated. Not
just defeated- electorally obliterated, ground into the dust, humiliated, chased out of constituency after constituency, rejected so comprehensively that
the Tory Party is for a generation (at least) associated with the stink of their
failure, their policies and their defeat. They must tear themselves apart in response to this, shrink even further into right wing factions and strange regressive, nostalgic cults who get teary eyed over the sound of Spitfires and the words free trade.
I think for that reason that voting tactically is the
correct thing to do- we must vote to defeat the Tories. It’s that simple. If that means
Labour, vote Labour. If that means Liberal Democrat, vote Liberal Democrat. If
that means SNP, vote SNP. If that means Reform, vote... actually, don’t bother, go back home.
Reform have been canvassing in south Manchester, a handful
of local volunteers setting up in suburban town centres under their racist gazebos
and talking to passersby, trying to convince them to entertain Reform’s
outsider narrative. It’s no surprise that the last few weeks have seen various
Reform candidates come to light as cranks, conspiracy theorists and racists. They
may not all be racist, conspiracy theorists but there will be plenty of them- far right grievance politics attracts them. I
think there’s an argument that the concerns of the 12% or so of the population
who’ve been polled and say they're voting Reform during the last few weeks need addressing, their disaffection needs to be engaged with. But Farage himself is a chancer and a grifter, a posh, privately
educated former merchant banker who has portrayed himself as a man of the people.
‘He speaks the truth, he says what the others don’t say, he tells it like it is’
is a common fallback, fuelling the view that all of Westminster is ‘the same’,
everyone tarred with the same brush as the list of Tories who have lied and
shlepped their way through parliament since 2010. I see this at school where
Farage’s message is cutting through with some of the youth, 14- 15 year old boys who aren’t
old enough to vote yet- but will be next time. Farage is the pub bore writ
large. Disruption for laughs. Stirs up division, then goes home. I hope the people of Clacton send him packing.
'They put up a poster saying we earn more than you When we're working for the clampdown
We will teach our twisted speech To the young believers We will train our blue-eyed men To be young believers
The judge said five to ten but I say double that again I'm not working for the clampdown No man born with a living soul Can be working for the clampdown'
Farage’s politics are the politics of division, the othering
those who are ‘not like us’. In May this year he said British Muslims 'do not subscribe to British values', a comment that labels all British Muslims as them. He peddles the far right politics of resentment and grievance.
None of the main parties have tried properly to counter his narrative- that
migration has a net benefit for the UK, that our economy and services won’t work without
it, that illegal migration actually accounts for less than 5% of all migration
annually, that other countries have taken many more refugees than the UK has.
This has been the main success of Farage and the right wing press that amplify
him – to make immigration undiscussable in rational terms and to shift all the main parties into
anti- migration territory. The far right playbook is a massive concern- look at France and the US – and Farage pulls pages from it all the
time, being careful not to ay anything explicitly racist while fanning the flames
of racism. The prospect of Farage and a handful of Reform MPs in parliament is
grim but it says something about where we are as a nation that it’s a
possibility. Far right parties gaining the respectability that comes from being
elected representatives has a long tail, and history warns us that it doesn’t
end well. Labour and any/ all progressive politicians have to make the case against
them and keep at it. The voxpop narrative, fuelled by Farage for his own
benefit, that ‘they’re all the same, none of them can fix it’, is a cosy excuse
for voting for Reform. What's more, I don’t think it’s true-there are many people who go into politics
because they want to improve things, they want to make people’s lives better. I don’t
think many if any of the Tories who have been in power since 2010 have had this as a
motivation. I think, at the very least, Starmer probably does.
What about Labour? I have struggled to find much to be that excited about. Kier Starmer is not exciting, he doesn’t set the pulse racing or inspire. That could be a good thing- maybe a period of dull but competent government is exactly
what we need. He will have an enormous mess to deal with from tomorrow
(assuming he becomes PM) and the manifesto has made some vague commitments to
progressive policies (house building for instance) without really challenging the
economic and political orthodoxies that have been in place for decades and are
partly the reason why we are where we are- services that are underfunded and
don’t work, industries sold into private hands and run for shareholders rather
than the public, people who want the paradox of a low tax and low wage economy
with a well funded NHS. Starmer’s stance over some things has been downright
difficult to defend but I guess the bottom line is that five years ago no one
would have believed Labour could overturn a Johnson majority of 80 seats and
here we are, on what looks like the verge of victory. At the least, and it’s a low bar admittedly, a Starmer led Labour
government will at least not have the outright performative cruelty of the post- 2010 Tory ones- the sheer cruelty and barbarism of the Rwanda policy for example. I hope he and they find something to give us some cheer, that there are some fixes for the mess we're in and that they can give us some hope.
In the constituency in South Manchester where I live, we can
play our part in kicking the Tories out today. Since becoming aware of politics
in the early 80s there’s only been one occasion where I’ve been able to
celebrate a Tory electoral defeat- 1997. I’m hoping, praying and expecting that
today is number two, that we can watch the results come into tonight with a
growing Labour majority, Tory after Tory ejected and rejected, their legacy the
long bitter taste of defeat, laughing our way through the night as they get their comeuppance. And that tomorrow we wake up to something better.
At the end of May Jezebell released a track on The Ransom Note, the single minded dancefloor action of Weekend Machines. For much of the last eighteen months Jesse and Darren have created a Balearic soundtrack- their album Jezeballearic Beats Volume 1 borrowed the original Balearic Beats album's cover art, they sampled at length a monologue by legendary Ibiza DJ Alfredo, they pulled together samples and edits and rebuilt songs by Talking Heads, Siouxsie Sioux and Kajagoogoo, they purloined the 1988 Balearic classic Jibaro and Belgian underground classic from 1987 Max Berlin's' Elle Et Moi and on Jezeblue and Trading Places reimagined the Mediterranean sounds for 2023 into 2024. All this and more. A Balearic masterclass.
They're now edging away from this, away from the poolside and beach and towards the darkness of the strobe lit basement, music with the sole purpose of finding a groove and making people dance. The EP's lead and title track, Weekend Machines, has one of those acid 303 basslines that you could happily allow to play forever, providing some bottom end to everything you do. On top, the synths and arpeggios dance around. Beneath, the drum machine power on. The vocal samples, distorted robotic voices, tell of the coming of the machines. Enough already, as they say- just get on the floor.
The remaining three tracks on the EP don't let up. Autostrada is a motorik hymn to the Italian motorway system, a futuristic 80s journey from Rome to Milan, drum machine rhythms clocking up the miles on the tarmac, a sample by Italo house pioneers Mr Flagio providing the spark for Jezebell's krauty machine music. Citric is bumpier, a bouncing rhythm and bassline switching the flow from four four to shuffle, with gnarly guitars and synths. The EP finishes with a remix of the title track by Shubostar, cosmic DJ/ producer from South Korea but currently in Berlin. Her remix slows the pace slightly, drops the pitch and pulls the bass to the fore, and then achieves lift off with sci fi synth chords and bleeps, an 80s space TV soundtrack crossed with underground outer space chug.
All of which, without wanting to get too '80s TV nostalgia' on you, led to me thinking about Erin Gray as Col. Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century...
Sean Johnston as Hardway Bros has a new EP out, an unabashed return to house music sounds and a homage to Murk Records (Miami based, formed in 1991). On Murky Sean has called in the vocal talents of Beth Cassidy (of Section 25 and Sea Fever) and she adds a sensual edge to Sean's four four thump, wonky synths and rippling, melodic toplines. A robotic voice demands, 'come follow me bay- bee'. Beth's voice, much more human and sultry, instructs, 'P- L- E- A- S- E me', and 'you'll do it/ You'll say it/ You'll feel it...'. A song dedicated to the serious business of getting down and having fun.
There's more. Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, Richard Norris and Erol Alkan, are back in the remix game. Their seven minute re- animation of Fat White Family's Bullet Of Dignity is one of the best records of 2024 (vinyl edition limited to 300 copies out now). They've reworked Hardway Bros and Beth, cutting this item of clothing from very similar cloth, a piece of clothing that probably needs to be wrung out and hung up to dry- the Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Re- Animation of Murky is eight minutes of squelchy synths, insistent rhythms, bongos, sci fi sounds, non- stop propulsion and bounce with Beth chanting away on top. Magical stuff.
There's a stripped back Coral Way Dub too, named after a street near Miami Beach. All three versions are available digitally at Bandcamp for a few pounds.
Back to Fat White Family- the Bullet Of Dignity 12" comes with an Acid Arab remix on the flipside, Lias and the boys reduced to a pared down groove, low slung and bottom heavy, Lias' voice joined by a Middle Eastern pipe, a snake charmer wrapped round the lyrics, 'You say you're just thirty one/ what's that in cannibal years/ You'll be the laziest one/ Since words came in pairs'..
Coming from a similar start point and heading in a vaguely similar direction are a pair of new remixes of A Mountain Of One. AMOO's album Stars Planets Dust Me was of my favourite releases of 2022 and these remixes add a further twist to the sun-baked, cosmic beauty of the original record. Damian Harris/ Midfield General's Generalisation Dub of Surrender has writhing bass, ticking snare and hi hat, phased vocals, and eventually house piano, and feels like the heat rising from the tarmac in the evening at the end of a hot day.
Last Monday's long song, the DFA remix of Le Tigre, was a little on the short side, clocking in at just over six minutes. To atone for this today we have a twelve minute epic, from DFA main man James Murphy's headline outfit LCD Soundsystem. I could probably run LCD Soundsystem/ DFA songs in the Monday slot all summer without running out of either tunes or inspiration.
In the first decade of the 21st century LCD Soundsystem re- wired dance music, Murphy taking his influences- The Fall, Talking Heads, Bowie, Can- and infusing them with dance and electronic music. Their first single, Losing My Edge, was one of 2002's best, a still astonishing seven minutes. In 2006 Murphy made 45: 33, a 'conceptual jogging soundtrack', commissioned by a major US sportswear manufacturer (Nike), and some of that piece of music became 2008's Someone Great, one of the standouts from Sound Of Silver, an album that is as good as any released in the 21st century. In 2007 45: 33 came out as a CD single with three Sound Of Silver B- sides including this one...
Twelve minutes of limitless ambition, drums and bass, percussion, choral vocals, horns, groove- the first half is like a New York version of Screamadelica, amped up soul and slo mo dance music crossed with cosmische synthlines. The voices chant, 'If we do it again/ I'm gonna freak out/ So do it again', a phrase that reverberates long after the song has finished. At six minutes forty five there's a drum solo- a full minute and a half long, rolling round the kit drum solo- and then the second half begins, Starry Eyes. Wired keys and synths, Tom Tom Club style lyrics and vox and another chant, 'Starry eyes/ doot doot'. It's ridiculously, effortlessly, confidently cool, the sound of a band in complete control in the studio, a B-side that eclipses many band's A-sides.
LCD Soundsystem played Glastonbury on Friday, an early evening set on the Pyramid Stage. They were very, very good indeed. It's on the iPlayer for the next thirty days (if you're in the UK).
