Clean Up Your Messes

Since the invention of the camera phone (how quaint that sounds) everyone is now a photographer and that's obviously good news which results in some great pictures and the sharing of them. But being a photographer, a professional one, is a special skill that comes down to a bit more than just pointing your iPhone at something funny/beautiful/brilliant and clicking the shutter. Paul Husband is a Mancunian photographer I'm in touch with via social media and very good he is too. On Saturday night he went to a big gig at Victoria Warehouse headlined by Primal Scream with support from Black Grape, Badly Drawn Boy and a whole host of smaller, local bands. I was at my brother's wedding on Saturday night but Paul went and asked me if I wanted to share some of his photos. I'm more than happy to oblige- this one above of Kermit caught my eye. And so did these...

Reviews of the performance have been good, Black Grape reportedly upstaging Bobby Gillespie's group. Here, have a song from their debut album with characteristically great Shaun Ryder lyrics.

In The Name Of The Father

Lift Going Up

A couple of weeks ago I posted 808 State and Bjork's Ooops off 1991's Ex:el album. Ctel then posted a recent remix of In Yer Face from the same album so I went back and listened to the whole thing for the first time in ages. 1991 has been all over the internet in the last few days, mainly because September 1991 saw the release of Screamadelica, Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, Nirvana's Nevermind and A Tribe Called Qwest's Low End Theory amongst others. Not a bad month all things considered. In November My Bloody Valentine put out Loveless. Ex:el came out in May so pre-empted the autumn rush but what a good album it is. Both Bjork songs are superb, In Yer Face is techno heaven, then there's the Bernard Sumner sung Spanish Heart, Cubik, Olympic and the spooky Nefertiti. It also uses the Willy Wonka Gene Wilder sample- 'we are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams'. Tucked away inside Ex:el is this, Lift, a wonderful, uplifting, updating of Kraftwerk with rave drums.

Lift

Capricorn Constellation

In the comment box on my Sabres Of Paradise live post on Monday reader and occasional commenter Niv mentioned going to the Herbal Tea Party night's in Manchester, saying that they were the first time he heard David Holmes' remix of Smokebelch and Capricorn's 20Hz, 'Seminal moments in my life!' said Niv and who are we to disagree.

20Hz came out in 1993, the work of Dutch artist Hans Weekhout. It is a massive tribal techno record, melodic too, perfect for strobe lit, dry ice filled dancefloors. Hands in the air.

20Hz

Low Blood Sugar

Yesterday's Sabres live set led to a reader called KevM asking if any of Weatherall's Blood Sugar sets were online. I think I've got some as mp3s on another hard drive but haven't been able to check but instead I had a look on the net and found this...



If you go here there are several more, all from between 1998 and 2000. Deep and dark, subterranean minimal dub techno. Lots of hiss, echo and flutter. Slow and low. Rhythm and Sound. Head nodding, feet shuffling.

Blood Sugar was also an alias for Weatherall and producer Dave Harrow. They put out a double pack on red and white vinyl called Levels which I have downstairs but don't have a rip of currently. In 1995 a 12" came out where Blood Sugar remixed Soma's Percy X. Breakbeat driven techno.

-3 (Emissions 1)

-3 (Emissions 2)

Crossed Swords

In 1994 Andrew Weatherall put together a live band version of Sabres Of Paradise who played several sets around the country, Weatherall standing at the back twiddling knobs and smoking while Gary Burns, Jagz Kooner and Phil Mossman dealt with the live bass, keys, guitars and percussion. Until now no recordings of these live sets have existed on the interwebs.  Herbal Tea Party have found and uploaded a recording of Sabres Of Paradise playing live in 1994 at one of their nights in Manchester. The motherlode. The first half hour is Andrew Weatherall playing a down tempo, laid back set. Then Sabres join in and work their way through Bubble And Slide II, Tow Truck, Theme and a pounding, bent out of shape Smokebelch. Those of you who are Weatherall/Sabres fans will understand the excitement this recording causes.

Backside Of The Moon

The Aubrey Mixes: The Ultraworld Excursions was a remix album of The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, released in December 1991 and deleted on the same day, offering alternate mixes of seven of the tracks. All work just as well as the original ones, this one in particular being an expansive Sunday morning treat.

Backside Of The Moon (Under Water Deep Space)

Wedding Bells

My brother (the next one down from me in age, there are five of us pus two sisters) is getting married today in Manchester Cathedral, the building behind Joy Division in the picture. He lives in the centre of town so it is his local church. Good luck to the pair of you Z and C, may you be very happy together.

Back in 1987 LL Cool J released the single I Need Love. For hip hop loving B Boys like my brother I think this was the moment they parted company with Cool James. Have the intervening twenty nine years been kind to the song?

Nope.



If you want a much earthier, slinkier and more streetsmart rap love song you could do worse than Method Man and Mary J Blige's 1995 hit I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need To Get By, a reworking of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's from 1968. Headnodding beats and Method Man's delivery ('I got mad love to give') matched by Mary J Blige's chorus. Does this still sound good in 2016?



Yes it does.

Autumn Leaves

My diary tells me it is now officially autumn. This Coldcut track remixed by the Irresistible Force and produced by Mixmaster Morris is a wonderful sprawling piece of ambient house (some use the phrase chill out but I can't bring myself to do it). At first it doesn't sound that autumnal but as it unwinds and the vocal comes in, the sense of seasons changing and the sun diminishing becomes overpowering.

Autumn Leaves (Irresistible Force Full Length Mix)

Go Easy Step Lightly

Back to back Clash.
JC's continuing series of Imaginary Compilation Albums threw up his ten track Clash compilation a good while ago. I did a spin off, alternative version which drew solely from non-single releases and nothing that JC had included in his ICA as a companion piece (which I should have submitted there rather than posted here). Some time later following my B.A.D. ICA at The Vinyl Villain  I speculated about a Mick Jones sings The Clash ICA. Driving home recently listening to the extras discs from Sound System I was thinking that The Clash could have several other ICA's- a Clash In Dub ICA, The Clash cover versions ICA, a Sandinista! ICA (controversial maybe, many people feeling like Joe did that the thirty six songs should be left exactly as they are, warts and all). There may be others which just goes to demonstrate the band's quality, range and depth. The whole set could then be compiled in a massive Clash ICA box with trinkets and booklets.

The Sound System Extras pack is three discs, discs one and two covering non album releases and some unreleased bits (see yesterday). The third disc has various demos and finishes with six songs live from The Lyceum in London, December 1979. There are two gloriously spiky runs through City Of The Dead and Jail Guitar Doors, Cheapskates (not the greatest Clash song perhaps), English Civil War and then two absolute smashes. The first, Stay Free, is Mick's love letter to best mate Robin Banks and their time growing up in South London- the breakdown and Paul's bassline re-entry is every bit as good as it should be. The second is their breakneck cover of The Bobby Fuller Four song. Topper's drumming is breathtaking, the guitars squeal and spit, and then there are three way Joe/Mick/Paul vocals on I Fought The Law. On fire.

Stay Free (Live at The Lyceum)

I Fought The Law (Live at The Lyceum)

Midnight To Stevens

The Clash recorded and released a huge number of songs during their time together. In the space of just two years they put out London Calling (a double) and Sandinista! (a triple), Bankrobber as a single plus B-sides for the album based singles and found time to write and record Ellen Foley's solo album. There really doesn't seem to have been much left gathering dust unreleased and what there was has been bootlegged and compiled since they split. The Clash On Broadway boxed set included Mick's lovely cover of Every Little Bit Hurts and the more recent Sound System included two Combat Rock outtakes- the Beautiful People Are Ugly Too and Idle In Kangaroo Court, neither of which sound like it was a difficult decision to leave them off in the first place. Both boxed sets included the unedited version of Straight To Hell (pretty essential all told). Sound System had a magnificent extended version of Ghetto Defendant with much more Allen Ginsberg than made the final cut on Combat Rock and an extended version of Sean Flynn. The real treasure of the unreleased Clash songs is Midnight To Stevens, a tribute to the maverick dj and producer who created the atmosphere for the recording of London Calling and inspired that album. The song has a great Joe lyric, searching for and finding Guy in a pub coupled with a ringing Mick guitar line. It's heartfelt and true.

Midnight To Stevens

Denise Denise

Denise Johnson, so much more than a backing singer for Primal Scream, the voice of ACR since circa 1990, has a couple of songs on Soundcloud. This one, 2001, has a very cool, after hours Massive Attack feel and is really, really good.



Back in 1994 Denise released a wonderful single, Rays Of The Rising Sun, a lengthy ambient house number. This version remixed by The Joy is a joy.

America's Greatest Living Poet Was Ogling You All NIght

Back at the start of the year Iggy Pop released what may turn out to be his last album. Eight months later it still sounds like a good record and contains several songs that are as good as anything he's done for ages. It also sounds like a record he wanted to make rather than a contract filler or something to occupy some time. The lead song was Gardenia, opening with a great tremelo guitar part from Josh Homme and then Iggy's baritone voice comes in singing about Gardenia, a stripper he used to love/admire. The sound of the song harks back to Berlin period Iggy, mechanical and with groove. The line about 'America's greatest living poet' comes from a time when Iggy and Allen Ginsberg spent an evening in Gardenia's company, Iggy waiting decades to use this memory in a song.

Gardenia

We're Changing Our Ways Taking Different Roads

We went to see Peter Hook And The Light on Friday night at the Apollo. Some friends had double booked themselves and gave us the tickets gratis. I've taken a purist line about New Order recently, holding the view that New Order without Hooky isn't really New Order. I'm not sure where that leaves me re: Hooky playing without any other members of New Order but he's got as much right to play those songs as anyone- his bass is as much the sound of Joy Division and 80s New Order as any other instrument, maybe more so. It's a massive shame that Hooky and Sumner have got so far apart. I can't help but feel that if Rob Gretton had lived he'd have banged their heads together and sorted them out. But it is what it is and the promise of both the Substance albums played in full and some good reviews was enough to go.

The first half was New Order working forwards through Substance chronologically, the dance influence building from Everything's Gone Green and Temptation through to Bizarre Love Triangle and True Faith. One of the highlights of the gig is seeing Hooky and co performing New Order songs that the original band haven't done live for years- Thieves Like Us and Confusion are superb and The Perfect Kiss is enormous with its extended bass ending. Subculture and State Of The Nation both get welcome airings. First half set closer 1963 is almost better than the recorded version. There's a rawness to this band that stands in contrast to the other group and it's good to see and hear.

After a short break they return for the Joy Division set. Hooky tells us that the first time he played the Apollo was in 1978 supporting Buzzcocks and that the venue seemed a lot bigger then. He seems genuinely moved at the sight of a full house. There's a lot of warmth for him here and a lot of older gig goers willing him on, plus a few youngsters who clearly want to hear Joy Divison songs done live. The Joy Division songs are rough and ready, David Potts' guitar turned up loud and distorted, two basses (Hooky's son on one of them) and Hooky now fully confident on vocals. The vocals on some of New Order's songs are well out of Hooky's range and former Monaco bandmate Potts fills in but Hooky's gravelly voice is ideally suited to the JD material and he sings them like he means it. Inevitably after building a head of dance steam in the first half the tone changes as they work their way through early JD material, songs like No Love Lost, Komakino, Warsaw and Leaders Of Men, with a detour into a frenetic run through These Days. Things really get going again with Transmission and then the intensity of Dead Souls. Everyone knows what the last two songs will be- an emotionally charged Atmosphere (dedicated to the recently departed Alan Wise) and then Love Will Tear Us Apart (dedicated to  Ian Curtis, naturally). When the accounts are finally taken, the dust has settled and it's all totted up Love Will Tear Us Apart will surely be this city's anthem and it becomes a full on, audience joining in version. New Order have performed this song for decades now, reclaiming it from the dead back in the 80s. The Light with Hooky singing do it just as well as the current version of NO do. Hooky sings it better too. When the final chords ring out, guitars are dropped to the stage floor and a shirtless Hooky takes the applause before walking off to the dressing room, the crowd carry on the chorus for a minute or two, dragging the band back on stage for another bow. No encore. No need.

Love Will Tear Us Apart (Pennine Version)

First Love...

I found this on Twitter the other night, a list of books by Ian McEwan from the front of an Ian McEwan novel that reads like a poem in its own right. Accidental poetry.

Not really connected at all but the pick of Steve Cobby's 2015 Everliving album for me was Teleseme, a gorgeous, building, string laden tune that sent the listener ever upwards. Last July a remix by Hallo Halo was released which oriented it towards the dancefloor with a hypnotic, springy bassline. Hallo Halo are the legendary Jon da Silva and Jonas Nilsson. Eight minutes of fun.

I'll Take Care Of U

Since my car was condemned to the scrapyard I've been driving a different car to work. Ok, alright, I've been driving my mother in law's car to work. It has a CD player so I've switched from my in-car mp3 player and the world of shuffle to grabbing some cds from the pile next to the stereo waiting to be filed and working my way through albums instead. One of them is Jamie Xx's remixed version of Gil Scott Heron's I'm New Here, released back in 2011 as We're New Here. Jamie kept the vocals and reworked the music entirely, sampling some of Gil's older vocals too. The closing song, I'll Take Care Of U, an old Brook Benton song, is one of the best and the one that most successfully takes Gil's vocals somewhere else (London pirate radio).

I'll Take Care Of You

Play The Game

Andrew Weatherall's entered another period of activity with this remix of Craig Bratley's Play The Game coming out later this month. This is a cosmic trip, ten minutes long, with laid back beats, crashing guitar chords and a breathy vocal from Danielle Moore. Gimme more.

Dreamweapon

This font is called Rugby and was used in the mid-to-late 60s for records that had a certain tough psychedelic vibe- The Stooges and Shocking Blue for example- but also turned up on the soundtrack of For A Few Dollars More. In the late 80s Spacemen 3 used it, harking back to those days of lysergic adventure and sonic exploration. Both of those things can be found in spades on their 1993 release Dreamweapon, a three track compilation of live recordings. Side one/track one is a forty five minute drone out recorded live in Hammermsmith in August 1988, titled An Evening Of Contemporary Sitar Music. It goes on a bit never quite reaching a climax but definitely redefining the possibilities of the drone. I'm guessing you will either love it or it will do your head in. Maybe both. The other two tracks were equally self explanatory- Ecstacy In Slow Motion and Spacemen Jam, both from 1987.

Dreamweapon (An Evening Of Contemporary Sitar Music)

Acapella

This is a song for late Saturday night or the early hours at some point of the weekend, somewhere hot and sweaty, rather than a Tuesday morning on the way to work. Rich Lane has done a totally unofficial Cotton Dubs remix of Kelis' Acapella, vocal pitched down and setting the controls to the heart of the chug.



And it seems I have never posted Kelis before- which surprises me because Milkshake is a absolute floorshaker.

I'm Still Believing

The spirit and sound of 80s indie, proper indie mind, seems to be alive and well in this new song from Toy- the guitars are brittle, the vocals remind me of Lawrence from Felt and Pete Astor, all very Creation. Rather good and very catchy too. Even the press shot for the album has been done to look like a cassette inlay. It's got me wondering what happened to my suede jacket.

Samba

Brazil, Olympics, Paralympics, A Certain Ratio, Samba 123, Fila Brazillia remix, Rob's Records, Steve Cobby.

If you type the word Samba into a Google image search this is one of the few nipple and buttock free pictures. Try it. See? Thought I better keep it respectable- this is a family blog after all.