The Night Before You Came

This is very nice, The Night Before You Came by Paresse, it's got a touch of the Bladerunner groove to it, sci-fi electronica (good luck with finding it on vinyl, seems to be sold out left, right and centre).



This Craig Bratley remix is a bit of a looker too..



And from yesterday there's a free download of a remix by Dave McSherry (Fila Brazillia),a whopping 65mb WAV file...

Little Bird

I've got three Goldfrapp albums- two bought in charity shops (Supernature, Seventh Tree), one in an HMV sale (Black Cherry). I don't know whether this tells you more about me or them. I've been meaning to get Felt Mountain for ages but haven't got round to it. There's a lot to be said for the electro-glam stomp of songs like Ooh La La or Strict Machine, the sexiness of Twist, the live shows with Alison and backing dancers wearing horses tails.... maybe I'll stop there.

The best one though, the most lasting one out of the three I've got, is 2008's Seventh Tree, where they moved away from the dance sound and towards something more subtle, more psychedelic, more baroque- more adult maybe (not that necessarily means more boring, just less instant and requiring a bit more concentration). As it is it seems like the forthcoming one may be down similar lines- go see Davy's post from a few weeks back for proof. Little Bird, the second song on Seventh Tree is a stunner- it wraps its way around you and digs into your soul. This live version in Bristol in 2010 is nerve tinglingly good.



Little Bird (Live in Bristol 2010)

Electric Elephant

Second mix of the day and you'll need to set a little time aside for this one- five hours of Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston doing their A Love From Outer Space thing at Electric Elephant in Croatia recently. EE plugs it as 'five hours of space age disco house music which truly defines the word 'chug''. Make a cup of tea, grab a couple of biscuits and relax.

Buzzing

This is more of a Saturday night post but by Saturday night I shall be on holiday, hundreds of miles away so it's a Tuesday morning post instead.

This superb hour long mix by Jon Hopkins via the ever reliable Fact has had me skipping about the room recently- there's a magnificent bit about twenty minutes in where the tsk-tsk-tsk drums starting to be overtaken by a buzz-buzz-buzzing noise, like a swarm of bees have entered the control room and are flying around in time to the music. And that's just the first twenty five minutes- it keeps getting better and better (and noisier and louder) after that. He worked with Coldplay via Brian Eno a few years back but there's no need for that fact to worry you here- this is full on electronic dance music of the minimal house-techno variety. Free download too (but annoyingly it won't embed).

There Will Be A Reckoning

Billy Bragg's album of this year (Tooth And Nail) has some good songs on it- this is one of them- and has some of the political bite and ire of his former work.

There Will Be A Reckoning

There's something about the album as a whole that doesn't quite work for me- a bit too one paced, a bit too samey. Maybe that's just down to me and a lack of concentration over full albums nowadays, especially ones that don't have too much sonic variety. But then not every lp can or should have dub, krautrock and free jazz spilling into it's grooves can it?

Klik Klak

Back in the old nightclubbing days you'd go back to someone's house or flat after the lights in the club had been rudely switched on and listen to records, partake in other activities and generally be very relaxed until the dawn arrived. On one such occasion, '93 or 94 I'd guess, I heard both sides of a 12" and enjoyed it very much. The next week, in a long deceased dance record shop in Altrincham, leafing through the 12" section, I saw the very record I'd enjoyed so much only a few nights before. Klik Klak was one of many aliases of Dutch producer Erik van den Broek. One side (below) was minimal acid-techno, bouncing bassline and acid squiggles and packed an almighty punch. The other side sounded equally good at both 33 and 45 rpms. As neither side had song titles printed on it and there was a generic blank sleeve the sides to me were called the dance side and the stoned side (especially if played at 33, the 'wrong' speed).

This isn't really Sunday morning music- not unless you're still up from the night before.



Klik Klak (Dance Side)

I'd love to let you have an mp3 of this track but nothing technological is working right now so a Youtube stream is as good as it gets. Sorry.

Saturday Night Fairplay Mix

 I seem to have sleepwalked into a regular Saturday night mix feature- so here's another one, this time from Timothy J Fairplay. Deep, dark, hot stuff. An hour long and free download too.

Mrs Swiss and I.T. are away for the weekend, just me and the daughter E.T. This afternoon we saw Monster's University at the cinema and now the evening is our oyster.



In the picture Bryan and Diana Guinness on honeymoon in 1929, looking about as aloof as it is possible to look. Diana was one of the notorious Mitford sisters. They divorced in 1932 after she had started an affair with Oswald Mosley, leader of the slightly comedic British Union of Fascists. But it can't have done much for a chap's self esteem. Bryan may have had the last laugh- Diana spent most of World War II in prison, interned on the advice of MI5.

Thirteen Minutes Of Fun

Here I am again blethering on about that forthcoming remix album of The Asphodells' Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust lp, due in September. This promo mix has appeared on Soundcloud which has the different remixes spliced together making a very fine thirteen minute piece of dub-influenced electronic dance music in its own right. As well  as cd/download the remix album will be out on vinyl, eight of the ten remixes only on spinning round black disc (no place for the Daniel Avery one or the Group Rhoda one).

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 114

One from Lux and Ivy's record box tonight and a pointer as to where Lux developed his Cramps vocal style from. In my research for some background details I came across commenters on Youtube, arguing about the relative merits of this record- gold or trash? Both.

Rockin' Out the Blues

Brighter

If you're reading this then I'm still here.
The aftermath of the recent Blogger purge leaves me feeling a bit uneasy. If they delete me from here I'll be at  baggingarea.wordpress.com where you'll find all the usual rubbish but with a different font and layout.

The Railway Children, Wigan's favourite sons (before Verve popped up in pursuit of knowledge and wisdom through psychedelia and then big anthems in pursuit of fame). They were led by photogenic Gary Newby and signed to Factory in 1986. Their best known single Brighter (FAC 167) was a Factory gem, all jangling guitars and melodic 80s indie charm. Chart success eluded them and they jumped ship to Virgin where chart success still eluded them. The drummer sold Mrs Swiss a Nissan Micra in 1998, at Nissan Wigan. I don't know what's sadder- that the drummer from a former Factory band had become a car salesman or that I was quite impressed by this at the time.

Brighter

Unknown Immortal

'I was once an immortal' sings Joe Strummer on this little known song from the soundtrack of Walker (currently out of print over here but you can get it on import from the US fairly cheaply, and worth getting). I was listening to it the other day, while sat in the garden sunning myself. After listening to it for a while (mainly Latino, jazzy instrumentals) Mrs Swiss asked who it was. I told her. 'Would you listen to it if it wasn't Joe Strummer?' she asked, adding 'especially that one with the saxophone'.

'Yes/no/maybe/I don't know', I suppose is the answer.

The Unknown Immortal

There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out

The good people at Google's Blogger service have deleted The Vinyl Villain today- not just a post, the entire blog. Two and half thousand posts, over six years work, gone into the internet wind. This is a cause of great sadness and of a lot of righteous anger. The record industry still can't see that music blogs are places that promote music and therefore the sale of music. They see us as the enemy. Important message to the music industry- we are actually helping you; you are going down the drain really fucking fast and we are helping you to stay alive, because we love music too. 

There's a post at Drew's place and a long comment conversation about it you could have a look at. Thankfully JC (The Vinyl Villain), an inspiration to a lot of music bloggers including this one, has fired up a new Vinyl Villain. You can find him here (and in the links below to the right). Pop in, say hello and offer your support if you like.

High Contrast

Continuing with the dance music theme which has been running on and on here for the last week or so and the occasional sporting theme I cast my mind back a year to when the London 2012 Olympics started with that still jaw-dropping opening ceremony, Danny Boyle's Isle Of Wonder- dancing Victorian industrialists, Kenneth Brannagh as Isambard Kingdom Brunel reading Shakespeare, cyclists with wings shooting out beneath Arctic Monkeys, Bradley Wiggins in yellow ringing that massive bell, the NHS, Dizzie Rascal, Fuck Buttons soundtracking the athlete's parade. And then two weeks (more once the Paralympics started) of success and bonhomie and 'we're all actually really in this together' (except wobbly jawed George Osbourne, booed by an entire stadium). That oft-reported night when British track and field stars brought home three gold medals and in a beautiful two fingers to the EDL and other assorted racists they were a black Somalian refugee, a heptathlete with a white mother and black father, and a pasty Scot. And, rewind, from the opening ceremony, in a moment that probably brought tears to many an aging raver's eyes, Underworld's Rez booming out, across a stadium and globally; an acid house Olympics.

Rez (High Contrast Remix)

Goldfisch

Kolsch, whose Der Alte track I raved about last September (and still do having recently found it on 12" vinyl) has an album called 1977 out now. I haven't heard the whole thing yet but this song- Goldfisch- was the lead off single from it. Goldfisch repeats the trick he pulled off on Der Alte with lovely housey piano, low tech beats and a sense of euphoria from start to finish. Minimal, repetitive bliss.



In case you missed it last time... (you need this in your life, you really do)

Der Alte

Dub Visions

There was a time when Mr Weatherall looked like this and produced myriad remixes alongside his mucker Keith Tenniswood, some of which if truth be told didn't do that much for me. There were some Two Lone Swordsmen remixes that were absolute crackers as well, but some just meandered along, clanking and clicking and bubbling away. This one, Visions by Slam, never turned my head much at the time but I played it the other day and really enjoyed it- a lengthy piece of machine funk with some metal on metal noises. Probably enjoyed best late at night after a special cigarette.

Visions (Two Lone Swordsmen Dub)

The Box

Orbital's 1996 single The Box was not their usual ambient loveliness but something a bit more disconcerting. Spread over four parts (on the 12", the cd had only 3 parts I think) it had breakbeats and a Russian sounding refrain. Part Four featured the vocals of the wonderful Alison Goldfrapp. Quaintly the back of the record sleeve has both an internet address and a real address to send an SAE off to in return for a leaflet detailing Orbital merchandise. Wonder if I can still do that- send an SAE off and get something back.

The Box Part 2

Le Tour finishes today with its customary race into Paris. Maurice Garin won the inaugural Tour De France back in 1903. A year later he finished first again but was stripped of his title for cheating. This is from Wiki...

The race aroused a passion among spectators, who felled trees to hold back rivals and beat up others at night outside St Etienne. Garin was one of the mob's victims. Pierre Chany wrote:

'In the climb of the Col de la Repulique, leaving St-Étienne, supporters of the regional rider, Faure, assault the Italian, Gerbi. He is thrown to the ground, beaten like plaster. He escapes with a broken finger...

... A bunch of fanatics wielded sticks and shouted insults, setting on the other riders: Maurice and César Garin got a succession of blows, the older brother [Maurice] was hit in the face with a stone. Soon there was general mayhem: "Up with Faure! Down with Garin! Kill them!" they were shouting. Finally cars arrived and the riders could get going thanks to pistol shots. The aggressors disappeared into the night.'

Misbehaviour was rife too between riders and nine were thrown out during the race for, among other things, riding in or being pulled by cars. There were claims, too, that the organisers had allowed Garin to break rules — at one stage being given food where it was not permitted by its chief official — because his sponsor, La Française, had a financial stake in the race.

The French cycling union, the Union Vélocipédique Française, heard from dozens of competitors and witnesses and in December disqualified all the stage winners and the first four finishers: Garin, Pothier, Cesar Garin, and Hippolyte Aucouturier. The UVF did not say precisely what had happened and the details were lost when Tour archives were transported south in 1940 to avoid the German invasion and never seen again. Stories spread of riders spreading tacks on the road to delay rivals with punctures, of riders being poisoned by each other or by rival fans. Lucien Petit-Breton said he complained to an official that he had seen a rival hanging on to a motorcycle, only to have the cheating rider pull out a revolver.

Tales were also said to include 'Garin taking a train', a claim confirmed by a cemetery attendant looking after his grave who, as a boy, heard Garin tell his stories as an old man. In December 1904 Garin was stripped of his title and banned for two years.

Saturday Night In The Boiler Room

It might be too hot to seriously consider dancing but this set from Ewan Pearson live in The Boiler Room in Berlin throbs and chugs and could cause your feet to start twitching ever so slightly. Free download. Meanwhile, I am off to a party in car park.

Stubborn Love

Once upon a time American alt-country was all the rage and I lapped it up, or some of it. Then it seemed the bands were ten a penny and I got bored with it. But I found this recently by The Lumineers, who I'd never heard before, and have been going back to it. The playing is good, nicely sparse, and the combination of the different vocalists- nice bit of hollering- and the cello is really lovely. Recorded live in session last year.

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 113

It's broken lads, you'll have to get the train.

Gin Gillette's Train To Satanville from 1961 is a spooky rockabilly classic and frankly I'm surprised I've got to 113 rockabilly posts without featuring it. One for the compilation tape this one. And before you ask yes it does sound like that- crackly, with a $5 recording budget and a vinyl cutter that had as much subtlety as a knitting needle. It's no worse for it either.

Train To Satanville

Hot isn't it? I'm not complaining- I love it.

I Follow Rivers

Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys reckons this is 'that fantastic combination of beautiful chords with really great moving lyrics'. He's not wrong. Summer bottled, compressed and stuck up on the internet (from back in 2011).



And in only a few hours time (12.05 precisely) I break up for the summer holidays. Fan-fucking-tastic.