Harold Budd has died aged 84, of complications arising from Covid. He was a master of ambient music, a composer, pianist and guitarist who played an enormous role in developing what ambient music sounded like in the 1970s and 80s, often with Brian Eno (their joint albums Ambient 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror and The Pearl are incredible works, Harold's soft, atmospheric piano playing at the centre of the sound. If ambient music has a centre). Eno, Budd and Daniel Lanois made The Pearl in 1984, a highlight in the back catalogue of all three men, an album reprising the piano textures and treated electronics of Plateaux along with nature recordings. He worked with Cocteau Twins and then later with Robin Guthrie- their 2007 Before The Day Breaks album is a beautiful blend of treated guitars, FX and piano pieces. Ambient music, by definition, is supposed to be background music. Budd's works carry emotional weight that make it much more than wallpaper to chill out to.
The flipside to sunshine drenched Italian Balearica is austere, minimal dub- techno from German duo Basic Channel. In 1995 Basic Channel (Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus) put out a CD called BCD which compiled the series of 12" singles they'd released during the two previous years, a series of pioneering deep cuts. On the album was this- a six minute glide- by of bass, FX, insistent rhythm and heavy sounds- titled Remake (Basic Reshape).
Remake (Basic Reshape) originally saw the light of dawn under the name e2e4 Basic Reshape, a remix of Throw by Paperclip People (Carl Craig's brilliant dub- techno guise). Basic Channel remade Craig's track, which sampled Manuel Gottsching's minimalistic, hour long E2- E4 (the basis of yesterday's post, 1989's SueñoLatino). In doing so they pushed pushing Gottsching's 1984 album into new directions. Remake is a heavy duty, slow motion, bass led groove, a long way from the original and the '89 hit that sampled it. The melody has been filtered out and replaced with utterly absorbing layers of sounds. Dance music (for want of a better term) had a real sense of forward trajectory between '89 and '95, a constantly forward thinking form, the music of the future in the here and now. This still sounds futuristic.
Following on in an almost straight line from yesterday's Richard Wanfried post, a very long Klaus Schulze instrumental featuring E2- E4 composer/ guitarist Manuel Göttsching, this is the 1989 ambient/ Italo - house classic Sueño Latino, ten minutes of summer to banish the mid- December blues, bringing some colour and some warmth to our current world of cold, semi- permanent darkness. Sueño Latino were four Italians- Andrea Gemolotto, Claudio Collino, Davide Rizzatti and Riccardo Persi- who created this ten minute classic, built around Göttsching's E2- E4 and some birdsong, a hit around Europe and released in umpteen formats and countries. Discogs lists it as being released as a single in 1989, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001 and on no less than 243 compilations. None of which takes anything away from it, a song with all the right elements in exactly the right places.
A long song from 1981, that came to my attention via Dr. Rob (Ibiza/ London veteran currently resident in Japan) and his tribute to Jose Padilla and the Balearic sets he played at the Café del Mar. Druck is eighteen minutes long, the work of Klaus Schulze, a pioneer of West German cosmische music and briefly a member of both Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel. Schulze took on the alias Richard Wahnfried and had the good fortune/ good judgement to get Manuel Göttsching in on guitar, the man who recorded the legendary E2- E4.
Druck is led by Spanish guitar plucking and Schulze's spaced out synths and some gentle drumming, and then acres of rippling rhythms, blissed out sounds, an extensive guitar solo, more Spanish guitar, some echo- heavy percussion and a gathering intensity. All very organic sounding. Druck comes on a double sided record called Tonwelle, paired with the slightly longer Schwung. At some point after '81 a copy made it's way to Ibiza where Padilla wove it into the sets he played at sunset at the Café del Mar.
I've spent much of 2020 bouncing between Daniel Avery and Richard Norris. Avery's album in the spring, a collaboration with Alessandro Cortini, coincided with the chaos of March and the start of Lockdown 1. His recent one, Love + Light, came out digitally in the summer (as lockdown became local restrictions) and the vinyl arrived a couple of weeks ago, landing as Lockdown 2 kicked in. I hope he's got something up his sleeve for early 2021's Lockdown 3. The albums are full of the drones of white noise, layers of ambient sounds, a real emotional heft in places (as seen in his Lone Swordsman single) and some full on techno, hammering kick drums and synths- ambient, industrial techno made for dancing to in dark basements.
Phonica asked him to put together a mix and it is a superb hour of what Daniel calls 'the slow motion blur of 2020', some unheard recordings of his own, some demos, some released tracks, versions and studio experiments, put together in the metal shipping container he records in overlooking the river Thames. He explains it all in an interview here. A friend said he's found it perfect for listening to while driving to work in the wintery dark and for headphones in when out walking the dog. I don't have a dog but can endorse it's power as car music, the beats and melodies eating the miles up under the motorway lights and the physicality of it cutting through the ambient noise of traffic. It's here.
Into The Voice Of Stillness came out recently as part of a single package to go with the release of Love + Light and lone Swordsman, a version of one of the tracks on that album, the more tranquil flipside to the Phonica 78 mixtape.
I'm not completely sure what's going on here but I came across it on Thursday night and have found it to be highly addictive and a very effective way of switching off and letting your mind drift. It started streaming on Youtube at the end of October and has been streaming ever since. It's by Four Tet and the spinning, never-ending animation is by his friend Anna Liber Lewis (there was a Four Tet 12" of three songs done for an exhibition with Anna last year). I've no idea how long the loop goes on before it repeats itself or if there's some randomising element to it so it never plays quite the same thing twice or if in fact it's just an extremely long recording but there are several recognisable Four Tet motifs on there- whirring sounds, musical boxes, laptop beats, a vocal sample that may be Ellie Goulding- and it circles round and round endlessly. The way the melodies dance about over the rhythms with such a lightness of touch is so entrancing and hypnotic that I find it difficult to switch it off.
The only thing in the way of information apart from Four Tet and Anna Liber Lewis' names (and a link to Anna's online t-shirt shop) is this line of emojis. Make of that what you will.
The number and sheer quality of Andrew Weatherall's remixes in 1990 is staggering, from Loaded (not to mention his production work on Screamadelica that was going on that year and the Jesse Jackson sampling, ten minute euphoria of Come Together) to a few lesser known remixes such as Word Of Mouth, Deep Joy and West India Company. Then there's the speaker rattling/ ghostly vocals brilliance of My Bloody Valentine's Soon, Jah Wobble (Bomba, twice), the massive siren laden reworking of Come Home by James, remixes of World In Motion, skanked out heavy beats for Meat Beat Manifesto, two long blissed out remixes of Floatation by The Grid, the debut release on Jeff Barrett's fledgling Heavenly Recordings (The World According to Sly And Lovechild... and Weatherall) and the dub magnificence of his version of Saint Etienne's Only Love Can Break Your Heart. For a man new to the recording studio its an incredible body of work. He was alos part of the Boy's Own collective that released at least one classic record that year, Raise which has his fingerprints all over it. Fired up by the spirit of the times Weatherall brought his ability to spot a sample in his extensive record collection and a lorryload of ideas about how someone else's record could sound.
Andrew Innes of Primal Scream had encouraged him to remix I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have and described his disappointment as the first version Weatherall delivered was just too tame. 'Fucking destroy it', Innes told him. That seems to have become the process- take someone else's record to pieces completely, keep an element from the original so the spirit of the song exists, but stretch it out and send it to clubland. In 1990 Andrew's technical expertise was limited and he relied on the studio nous and engineering skills of Hugo Nicolson, the man who turned Andrew's ideas into reality on tape.
In 1990 That Petrol Emotion were in the aftermath of a line up change. Founding member, guitarist/ ex- Undertone John O'Neill had left in 1988 amid some tension and drummer Ciaran McLoughlin and guitarist Raymond Gorman took over writing songs with American skate- punk frontman Steve Mack. Their 1988 album End Of The Millennium Psychosis Blues was a mixed bag but in some ways prefigured what was about to hit- dance influenced rock music, guitar riffs and sampling, half- sung half rapped vocals. By the time they recorded 1990's Chemicrazy they had Scott Litt on production and were sounding a little like R.E.M., more alt- rock than dance- rock. But in 1990 it made perfect sense for them to be remixed by Andrew Weatherall.
The remix of Abandon that was released alongside the body of work listed above was credited to Boy's Own, technically a Weatherall and Terry Farley remix but there are tales of one person being far more engaged with the project than the other. That Petrol Emotion were also suspicious at first, not sure that they wanted their song picked apart and re- assembled with a 1990 drum beat slung underneath. At least one member of the group, Gorman I think but possibly bassist Damian O'Neill, positioned himself in the studio to keep an eye on proceedings, to ensure that the guitars weren't removed completely and that it wasn't a sell out of some kind. Apparently as soon as Andrew queued up the sample that opens the remix of Abandon, the voice of Yabby You, the TPE man relaxed and knew everything was going to be alright. When the drums come in and then the low- slung bassline we're into the forefront of indie- dance, a genre Weatherall did as much as anyone to invent (and then run away from). The crunchy guitars and snatches of Steve Mack's vocals are tailor made for the dance floor at the Thursday night indie/ alternative night as much as for acid house. This being a 1990 Weatherall remix we're in for the long haul, seven minutes more or less, the guitars featuring more and more prominently as the song builds with a nicely distorted guitar solo at the end and that rhythm, the bass and drums, chugging away. It may not be the best remix he did that year but it also doesn't sound like any of the others- read the list at the top again and then play them back- to- back and you'll see the variety in Weatherall's work that year too. Those remixes do sound like the work of the same person (people I should say, Hugo was hugely important) but they don't sound like each other.
In sales terms none of this- remixes, crossover potential, Scott Litt, line up changes- worked for That Petrol Emotion. The album stalled at number 62 and Virgin dropped them. Andrew went up and up, Screamadelica and a further slew of remixes on his to- do list and then Sabresonic and Morning Dove White. His remix of Abandon is just one of an astonishing list of records he made that year, the only limit seemingly his imagination.
Brussels duo A Winged Victory For The Sullen have just announced a new album, out next year and titled Invisible Cities. The music they make is an ominous blend of dark ambient sounds, drones and neo- classical sounding choral voices. The first track, Desires Are Already Memories, is something of a siren call, these particular sirens sitting at the edge of deep, dark whirlpools and sucking you in. It's beautiful but slightly un- nerving too. The album is at Bandcamp.
Earlier on this year I wrote about Manchester band Rig, one of the groups making a noise thirty years ago, caught up in the excitement of being in a city which had become the centre of the world for a while. Rig formed in south Manchester, the Didsbury/ Withington/ edge of Stockport part of the city and signed to Cut Deep Records. They supported Inspiral Carpets on a nationwide tour and contributed songs to two well received compilation albums, Home and Hit The North. Home had songs by Mark E. Smith, Milltown Brothers, New FADs, Paris Angels, World Of Twist, Rainkings, Swirl, What? Noise and Peter Hook's Revenge. Hit The North split it's two sides of vinyl into rock and dance sides had several of the above as well as The Man From Delmonte, Rowetta, Ruthless Rap Assassins, Krispy Three and a few others of whom I know nothing/ remember little (The Australians, The Bedflowers, The Jerks, All Of My Life). Between them they sum up something of the spirit of the times, lots of bands exploring new ideas, dance rhythms moving into rock music, guitar bands growing their fringes out, DJs and rappers, and some of the bigger players on the scene doing something on the side.
Killing time in lockdown Rig's guitarist Darren began to go through his archive of posters, flyers, music press clippings and photographs and put it all into one place (a blog, here). As he began to write about the story of the band and Tweet links to the posts, Rig's former record company Dead Dead Good got in touch and said they were interested in re- releasing the band's singles digitally. Dead Dead Good was set up to release The Charlatans early records by Northwich's Omega Records shop owner Steve Harrison but also had a massive hit in 1991 with the pop- rave classic Insanity by Oceanic.
One thing led to another and Darren began to tidy up Rig's back catalogue and got hold of the original master tapes, boxes containing DATs, reel to reel tapes and cassettes. He then came across the mini- album they recorded in the spring of 1990 at Suite 16, a recording studio in Rochdale previously used by Joy Division, Gang Of Four, The Fall and Teardrop Explodes. For some idea of the blue plaque worthy history of the place, Joy Division recorded Atmosphere there. Between February and April 1990 Rig recorded at Suite 16 with Manchester legend Stuart James producing and Swing Out Sister (and ex-ACR) Andy Connell playing keyboards on some of the songs. The songs were then shelved when Cut Deep Records were bust and Rig moved on to Dead Dead Good, re- recording some of the songs while also moving onto new ones.
Lost albums, thirty years old, recovered and restored are a great story, all part of the fabric of music. Rig's tapes were baked to remove the moisture from them, digitised and then Italian producer and engineer Matteo Cifelli remastered them. The six songs recorded in Rochdale, never previously released, have compiled alongside their cover of ESG's Moody which came out as a white label (produced by ACR's Martin Moscrop), the pair of songs from Home and Hit The North (B.R.O. and Thud) and another unreleased one called Spoilt Bastard. I posted Moody (Dance) back in September, a 1990 take on the Scroggins sisters early 80s punk- funk with a sample from My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts but it's well worth another airing.
On May 30th 1990 Rig played at the Richmond in Brighton. This video catches them playing V-Funk, all youthful energy, frenetic rhythms, noisy- funk and wah- wah guitar while singer Adam's stream of consciousness rides over the top. V- Funk in it's Suite 16 form opens the album, a big, brash blast of mutant south Manc indie- funk.
Rig's album, ten songs in total, was released by Dead Dead Good last Friday and with some typical Mancunian confidence is titled Perfect. It was recorded when the group were all twenty and is being released as they all turn fifty. It's available digitally from all the usual streaming sites and some download ones too here. It's funny how sounds and styles swing in and out of style. There's much on Perfect, given a buff and polish this summer, that really doesn't sound three decades old, that actually sounds very contemporary-the heavy duty rhythm section, the off kilter mutant sax and keys and the rapid fire, choppy guitars, Rig sounding like a band who have arrived thirty years too late but bang on cue.
I've been watching the Small Axe series of films on BBC, five films by Steve McQueen looking at the experiences and lives of black Britons, especially the West Indian communities of West London. The writing and direction are superb as are the performances of the cast. The first film, Mangrove, over two hours long, tells the story of the Mangrove Nine, racist policing in the late 1960s, institutional racism and the growth of black activism. It's a film that boils the blood in it's portrayal of the police harassment of Mangrove café owner Frank Crichlow and subsequent the court case and it's a visceral and powerful piece of film making.
The second film in the series is Lovers Rock, a different take on the lives of black West Indian immigrants and their children. It's set in Notting Hill, where a blues party unfolds almost in real time, from the removal of carpets and the furniture from the front room to make space for the dancers to the sound system setting up while three of the women cook goat curry in the kitchen while singing Janet Kay's Silly Games. Early on in the evening the front room fills with young women, dressed up and wanting to dance. The dancing to Silly Games and the spontaneous singing of the song by the crowd after the 7" single has finished is superbly done, music (reggae specifically) as a joyous, communal experience.
The film is a celebration of these people's lives but it doesn't flinch from the racism that's never far away in 1975. Lead character Martha briefly exits the party to follow her friend who's just left but goes only a few yards up the road before being racially abused by a group of young white men. She returns to the blues party, McQueen showing how the black community, excluded from the area's pubs and clubs due to the colour of their skins, are forced to make their own entertainment and run their own parties.
The second half of the film kicks in after an altercation in the garden between three of the characters. The sound system moves onto harder and tougher tunes and the men crowd the dancefloor. The Revolutionaries 1976 single Kunte Kinte is spun, a rocking dub, and the crowd demand a rewind. McQueen's direction of the dancing is incredible and the intensity of both the scenes involving the sound system and the dancers are incredible. If you haven't already, watch both.
Some more of that warm, enveloping ambient haze that has been sound tracking much of this year for me, today in the shape of a Richard Norris remix, very much in his Group Mind/ Music For Healing/ Abstractions mode. The original version of Hopfen is by Kams, from an EP full of found sounds, electronic weirdness, synths and field recordings. Richard paints yet more layers, adding drizzle, piano, drones, crackles and fug. Buy the whole release at Bandcamp. It's a perfect companion piece to Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns' new Stray Harmonix track, Mountain Of One, posted on Saturday.
If you're after a dystopic album to soundtrack your life-and given the state of the world why wouldn't you?- then you could do a lot worse than the new release from Sheffield's post- punk pioneers Cabaret Voltaire and the new one, Shadow Of Fear. The Cabs are now the vehicle of one man, founder and multi- instrumentalist Richard H. Kirk, who recorded the nine songs at the famous Western Works studio in his hometown. Whether it is really Cabaret Voltaire without long standing but now departed partner Stephen Mallinder is open to question I suppose but we'll let that pass. At first having read a couple of reviews and an interview I thought Shadow Of Fear might be a bleak and oppressive listen, impressive but not an album to return to very often but that isn't the case and while it's definitely ominous and industrial it's got dance rhythms and textures and some glints of light among the shade. Mechanised drums, sampled disembodied voices, dashes of acid, some fuzzy, distorted guitars and basslines and layers of noise. It's urgent and has an energy and shows the sixty- four year old Kirk still has something to say and still has the tools to say it with.
Back in 1983 Cabaret Voltaire released Yashar, a12" single on Factory. Yashar and the John Robie remix on the B side is one of the peaks of Factory's early 80s (and that's a crowded field). A record very of its time and ahead of it too.
Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns were the two members of Sabres Of Paradise who weren't Andrew Weatherall. Re- united in tragic circumstances at Lord Sabre's funeral this year they agreed to work together again. The first fruits of this were released yesterday, a cinematic, stately, ambient track with softly played piano dedicated to the man himself. Mountain Of One by Stray Harmonix is available at Bandcamp.
Back in the early 90s DJ mix tapes did a roaring trade in record shops, clubby boutiques, Afflecks Palace type places and outlets that sold poppers. Andrew was in the habit of running off limited quantities of mixes he'd done himself and handing them out to the first 50 punters through the door, a habit he kept up through Sabresonic, Blood Sugar, The Double Gone Chapel (moving to CDs) and A Love From Outer Space. This one, two sides of a C90 tape was given away in 1993 titled Sabresonic Slow Electric Vol. 1. At some point it became re- christened as Massive Mellow Mix, a most un- Weatherall name, but actually quite fitting given the music contained within. Twenty- seven years after Lord Sabre put it together it still sounds superb, the art of the DJ perfectly demonstrated.
Given the technical limitations of tape as a source material it sounds really good sonically. A timeless, chilled, trippy, electronic adventure- soothing science fiction soul (or something like that).
In 1984 Rick Cuevas released an album called Symbolism, a self- released private pressing. There's a copy on Discogs priced at £133.23 if you're interested. Rick's background was in AOR/ soft rock, and he had past history in Zru Vogue (early 80s post- punk, avant- pop from Palo Alto California) and Science Patrol (no idea). He self released another album in 1994 and a couple of singles and that's about as much as I know. This song came my way in the summer- trippy guitar, a drum machine and a laid back vocal, more lovely ringing guitar parts and then halfway through a synth solo where the song soars even higher. There's something incredibly unaffected about the song, even with all the FX and the synth, a song capable of lifting you for a few minutes out of your surroundings.
Diego Maradona died yesterday aged 60. I feared for him a few weeks ago when he was hospitalised with a blood clot on the brain but the surgery seemed to go well. A heart attack did for him in the end. In a way it's a marvel he lived as long as he did. His drug abuse and weight gain is well documented and anyone who watched the short documentary series about his time managing Mexican club Dorados will have seen the damage done to his body, some self- inflicted, some punishment meted out by defenders in Spain and Italy in the 1980s, punishment for being the most gifted footballer in the world, a man who on his day was unstoppable. He was a single handed force of nature. In 1986 he captained his national team to the world cup. In 1986- 7 he led Napoli to their first ever Serie A title at a time when the Italian league was the best and toughest in world football. He did it again and then took them to a UEFA cup win as well. In Napoli he found an underdog, a city and team who were the target of abuse from the northern giants of Juventus, Milan and Inter, emblematic of Italy's north- south divide. Naples and the south are sometimes referred to as Africa by the rest of Italy, which tells you a lot in lots of ways. In Napoli he is revered as a God, the man who gave the city a middle finger, plenty of tears, a week long party following their 1987 scudetto and some incredible football to wave in the faces of their rivals in the more sophisticated north. He also became so deeply entwined with the Naples mafia that his life began to spiral out of control.
At some point in 1982 I found an Argentina shirt in the bargain bin of our local sports shop. I suspect it was in there due to the sheer unlikeliness of selling it at full price due to the Falklands War and getting £3 for it was better than nothing- but there it was, pale blue and white stripes, embroidered badge and Le Coq Sportif logo, the same as the one Diego is wearing above. I bought it. I was the only person I knew who had an Argentina shirt and to be honest it did wind people up a bit. In a PE lesson a teenage peer stood behind me, gave me a shove in the back and said 'I'll mark Galtieri'. On holiday once some kids threw stones at me. It didn't stop me wearing it until I outgrew it. Diego Maradona's rise and the shirt were somehow tied together for me. In 1984 I was at Old Trafford aged fourteen when United played Barcelona and Maradona. Barca were two- nil up from the first leg and we weren't given much of a chance of winning the tie. Old Trafford was filled that night, fifty- five thousand and the place was bouncing from long before kick off. European football was a rarity in those days for Manchester United fans and I think it was my first night game too, the floodlights giving everything extra drama. United won three- nil, incredibly, and Diego barely got a kick. But I saw him play and I've loved him since around then.
Englishmen aren't supposed to love Diego Maradona. They're supposed to hate him for the crime of handball in 1986, a goal which played its part in knocking England out of the world cup. Diego said that in South America the art of getting away with it, of fooling the referee and the opposition is part of the game. To northern Europeans, it is cheating and that's that. The second goal he scored that day where Diego spins on a spot and then slaloms his way through the England team beating one man after another before slipping the ball into the net is worthy of winning any game. What the handball clips rarely show is the series of fouls he suffered from a largely prosaic, lumbering England defence and the full elbow in the face he receives. Somehow that was never seen as cheating.
I loved him in 1986 and the scenes when he lifted the world cup. I loved his return in 1994, the goal against Greece, the run towards the camera and then the disgrace as he failed a drugs test and was sent home. I love the grainy footage of him in Italy scoring goal after goal, outrageous chips and unnatural balance while Italian centre backs try to kick lumps out of him. I love his chaotic life after retirement, the holidays in Cuba at Fidel Castro's house, the carnage of the day out at the 2018 world cup when Argentina played Nigeria, the footage of him dancing in Naples nightclubs in the 80s and training on mudbath pitches. A flawed genius for sure, a life lived at the edge of reason also, but a life lived by a man who rose from poverty in the slums of Buenos Aries to attain genuine greatness, often almost single- handedly. He lit up the lives of millions and football and the world was richer with him in it.
RIP Diego Armando Maradona.
When Julian Cope published his existential, football hooligan, Neolithic, time travel/ road novel One Three One he created a slew of bands to go with it. The most full realised was the brilliantly named Dayglo Maradona.
Daniel Avery has released a new song, the one that is B- side to his Lone Swordsman track (first out digitally in September, out on 12" in January). Petrol Blue is a beauty, definitely not just an offcut or makeweight slipped onto the B- side to make up numbers. In the press release to accompany it Daniel describes the view from his studio, a metal shipping container overlooking the Thames-
'The views across the water without a single sight on the horizon always create a certain atmosphere in my mind, some kind of unknowing warmth. Real life seems pretty distant in those moments.'
There's something in those words that he has nailed completely in the music- the slow motion drum intro and tambourine/ shaker, the twinkling synth part and then the bassline. The washes of sound and keyboard melody on the top bring the 'unknowing warmth'. Lovely stuff. I think one of the things I've missed most this year has been the sea. In the summer, just before we went into Tier 3, we had a day out in Liverpool and walked down by the Mersey along Otterspool promenade. Hearing the waves hitting the seawall was much needed. We had two days in south west Scotland and walked on the beach at Southerness, despite the wind and occasional rain.
Just in case you needed a reminder this is Lone Swordsman, Daniel's tribute to to Andrew Weatherall, recorded the morning he heard the news Andrew had died. There are moments where it suggests Smokebelch by Sabres Of Paradise without ever quite going there and stands out as one of the most emotive and beautiful pieces of music released this year. There are still a few vinyl copies available for order if that's your bag.
One half of Two Lone Swordsmen and a solo artist in his own right Keith Tenniswood records as Radioactive Man, the name borrowed from Springfield's most famous family. His debut self titled album came out on Rotters Golf Club back in 2001- I'm amazed that this record is nearly two decades old, I bought it close to when it was released, and I can't fathom how it was nineteen years ago. Radioactive Man, the album, takes it's cues from Detroit and from Dusseldorf. Tough kick drums and snares, subsonic bass, Kraftwerkian melodies on top, long synth notes and the energy of Britain's underground club scene. It's an album that sounds huge on a booming club system but that also works well in a car driving round in the night. Opener The Mezz is unsettling, a Geiger counter and a drum machine and some ominous synths. Closing track Uranium is a voice talking about elements, some metallic noise and a feeling of surfacing after being underwater. In the middle of the album is four minutes of beauty- some looped, rippling melodies ending with a burst of skronky noise. Goodnight Morton is a tribute to Keith's beloved dog, named after the infamous Castlemorton free festival rave of 1992 that sent panic tearing through the UK government and Middle England, panic that resulted in legislation being passed to make it illegal to play music outdoors that is"sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats".
Duncan Gray has been responsible for many Andrew Weatherall and ALFOS approved pieces of music in the recent past, plenty of slo- mo, trippy chuggers with lovely grinding basslines and a dark heart. The latest is a tribute to Gong/ System 7/ solo artist Steve Hillage, nine and a half minutes of slow paced psychedelic magick. Bandcamp have Danucan's Steve Killage to listen to and to buy here. A much better way to spend Monday morning than getting in your car in the dark and going to work.
Even longer, twice the length in fact, is this Plastikman remix of System 7's Alpha Wave from 1995, Richie Hawtin sending everyone and everything into a state of hyper- realised acid techno mania. The build up for the first ten minutes is just absurd, endlessly building higher and higher, relentless stroboscopic action. There's a breakdown in the eleventh minute that makes you wait and wait, anticipating the inevitable, exhilarating rush of re- entry, which eventually starts to happen sometime around fourteen minutes before the dam bursts.
Today is our eldest Isaac's birthday, he turns twenty two. He'll be spending it in lockdown and still being shielded, as he has been since March. Some presents and cards, some neihgbours passing by the front of the house, a couple of Zoom parties, a drive through for lunch and a takeaway for tea. Happy birthday Isaac.
I got the bug for putting a mix together again recently and this is the result, an hour of largely ambient and Balearic with some 80s Manchester and 90s Liverpool dropped in. Despite the promise of the vaccine the situation still seems pretty desperate. Everyone seems determined to celebrate Christmas despite the fact that if it goes ahead 'as normal', people will surely die within weeks and a further lockdown in January will be inevitable. Taking refuge in music often seems to be the answer. I still can't get Mixcloud to embed but you can find my Lockdown Mix here.
Tracklist
A Man Called Adam: Book Of The Dead (The British Museum Mix)
Two Lone Swordsmen: Ink Cloud
Steve Roach: Spiral Of Strength
Richard Norris: Music For Healing 12
Moon Duo: In A Cloud
The Charlatans: Trouble Understanding (Norman Cook Remix)
Andy Bell: Cherry Cola (Pye Corner Audio Remix)
Future Beat Alliance: Tell Me About These Dreams
Big Hard Excellent Fish: Imperfect List (Uncensored Original Mix)
The Wolfgang Press were a post- punk band with industrial tendencies on 4AD who turned to face acid house in the late 80s and early 90s and made some avant- dance records up to 1995 when they abruptly stopped. They were labelled goth by the music press at times, a charge they always denied but there's no doubt that there's a gloomy element to their music. Unsurprisingly they benefitted from being remixed in the 90s, their sound lending itself to be being chopped up and rejigged by the likes of Adrian Sherwood, Barry Adamson, Jah Wobble, Apollo 440 and Sabres Of Paradise. I posted a song by them back in 2013, Ecstacy (released in 1985), but nothing since and bizarrely for this blog I've never posted either of the Sabres remixes.
The Sabres remixes are both from 1994, that stage were Weatherall, Kooner and Burns were making really stoned sounding music, remixes that reek of clouds of marijuana smoke, hip hop drum loops, lots of echo and a guitar line or synth/ organ part winding it's way over the top. Head nodding stuff.
The Jah Wobble remix of Chains is a different kind of fish completely, a very bright and spacey affair, BJ Cole's pedal steel guitar locating it way out west with the long whale sound noises and shimmering sound effects sounding like they're being beamed coming in from 50s science fiction film. A 90s breakbeat and sections of Michael Allen's growly vocals being dropped in, and Wobble's bass occasionally surfacing, make for a something very enjoyable, not unlike listening to several radio stations all playing at the same time but weirdly in sync.
