The Final Transmission

Here's a Weatherall mix that somehow passed me by- back in 2014 he spent a year as the Faber Social artist in residence and this was his last post for them, an hour long mixtape titled the Final Transmission.



The tracklist...

Suite of Culto Solar - Luis Perez
Life Child - Rameses
Dreamworld - The End
Estergon Kalesi - Baris Manco
Viens Dans Ma Vie - Kenan
Beyond the Realms of Dub - Mad Professor
Mocking Bird Dream - Patrick Cowley
Troll - Tank
Blues - Opia
#2 Hit Jam - Dead Radio
Old Gospel Medley #1 - Luther Dickinson

Redefining eclectic.

The Worm Has Definitely Turned For You

The Madchester Rave On e.p. is best known for the musical dance riot that is Hallelujah but there were three other songs on the disc- Holy Ghost, Clap Your Hands and the one here which gave the record its name. Rave On is a swirl of keyboards and guitars mashed together by Martin Hannett, some funk slap bass, massively echo laden drums and Shaun Ryder giving it the full on stream-of-consciousness through his centre parting vibe. Various phrases bubble up- we know how to do it, you're a walking miracle, well the worm has definitely turned for you. I can't decipher it all, I may have misheard some of these (for the last twenty seven and a half years) and the usual lyric websites aren't much help and maybe that's for the best because the not knowing and the guessing is all part of the fun. I suspect they're mainly about taking drugs. No one else sounded like this then and hasn't since really.

Rave On

All Exits Final

Today is the day an unelected Prime Minister with no mandate, desiring only to suck up to the Daily Mail, the right wing of the Tory Party and a slim majority of those who bothered to vote last year, pushes the button to start the process of isolating the UK from European political and economic union.

Don't worry, I'm sure it will be fine.

Rowland S Howard was in Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party with Nick Cave and also Crime And The City Solution before making a couple of excellent solo albums. He died at the end of 2009.

Exit Everything

Triumph Of The Gods

This should have been posted this morning but it didn't happen. My fault.

Here is something epic and funky to welcome Tuesday. Epic and funky are two very overused words but in this song's case both are accurate. Psychemagik came up with this spirit raising, smile inducing instrumental for a Phonica sampler back in 2014. Two internet friends put me onto it last week for which I am very grateful.

Triumph Of The Gods

Damage And Joy

An hour and a half in the company of The Jesus And Mary Chain is a good thing at the moment. They turned on their own brand of charm on Saturday night, sounding engaged, interested and on some sort of mission. The opening one-two-three of Amputation, April Skies and Head On set us up nicely for what followed- some hits, some album tracks and some new songs. They were ragged enough for it not to seem too drilled or professional- Jim had to speak to the audience in gap after the opener due to a technical problem with William's sound and he ran out of things to say pretty quickly. They had three attempts at getting The Hardest Walk off the ground and at least one other song had a false start too. I like this slightly shambolic edge, it adds to the proceedings, reminds us of who they were. William's guitar is loud in the mix, often overpowering the rest of the group except for Jim and the snare drum, and he peels off the chords and top lines from behind his mess of hair, backlighting and dry ice. Those three sounds are what I want from a Mary Chain gig- Jim's voice, William's guitar and some drums. Teenage Lust is heavy and dark. Darklands highlights Cherry Came Too and Nine Million Rainy Days sound brittle and menacing. Some Candy Talking is fuzzy and tense, building to a staccato end. Reverence is long and overdriven. The encore brings a mini-Psychocandy, Just Like Honey, The Living End, You Trip Me Up and Taste Of Cindy before finishing with War On Peace, another new one. This slow approach to the reunion has done them some good, not rushing in and pushing it. Making an album, by their own admission a stressful experience, and managing to remain on speaking terms shows some growth. These miserable, uncommunicative but maybe now slightly more grown up middle aged men have found a way to make it work. Long may they have the blues.

British Summertime

At least from today onwards until October the clock in my car will be telling the right time. British summertime starts today- you did remember to put your clocks forward didn't you? Yesterday's sunshine made it feel like the seasons had changed at a stroke. Everything feels a little better with some sun on your face.

It gives me a good excuse to post this Ultramarine song from 1991.

British Summertime

In Between Days

While looking for something else on the net I found this picture of fans of The Cure from 1985. It was an easily obtainable look for those willing to go the distance with the crimpers.

This 1985 single by The Cure couldn't sound more like New Order if Hooky played the bass and Stephen Morris was on the drums. No mistaking the voice though, it couldn't be anyone other than Robert Smith. A song about regretting the mistakes of a love triangle and losing the girl he wanted with the finest pop melodies and the jauntiest rhythm.

In Between Days

A song I've posted before, back in 2012 it seems, making reference to the New Order comparisons. Round and round....

Always Sad

The new Jesus And Mary Chain album is out today, not words I necessarily thought I'd end up typing when I started this blog. I'm reasonably excited about the new album, tempered slightly by the fact that seven of the fourteen songs have been recorded and released by one Reid brother or the other in previous post-split incarnations- I've heard half of the album before, but still, new Mary Chain is new Mary Chain. This single from February is one of the new new ones and is good enough. Tomorrow night they're on at Manchester Academy and I shall be in attendance. Hopefully they'll still cut it live- they certainly did on the Psychocandy tour a couple of years ago.

Bubblegum

And as chance would have it here's a new Weatherall remix, fresh on the internet today and a free download too. Bubblegum by Brisbane duo Confidence Man taken on a trip.

MNFE

Andrew Weatherall, mentioned once or twice previously in this parish, has been back at NTS for Music's Not For Everyone.



The tracklist includes Cowboys International, Peter Hook, Siouxsie And The Banshees,  a new one from himself and later on a new remix of Frank Butters by himself again, Jah Shaka, Dub Syndicate, Eat Light Become Light, Dinger and many others. Even if all I do after these shows is buy the records Weatherall makes or remixes it costs me more than I can afford.

How About Some More Ether?

Acid Ted posted about this the other day but it was on my mental list of stuff to write about and it's all in a good cause. Steve Cobby must have had some time on his hands recently. While looking back at his own Solid Doctor compilation spanning music he made and put out between 1990 and 1995 he decided to remaster it for a re-release. Then, due to his own lax methods of labelling tracks he discovered a few unreleased ones that actually sounded really good. So he's putting them out as well. The whole thing adds up to fifty eight tracks, six and a half hours worth of music, spread over six cds and now available from Bandcamp as either a cd box or a download. There is way more here than I can get my ears around at the moment, tracks ranging from properly chilled out loveliness to Balearica to 90s trip hop and to digital jazziness to fifteen minute long tranced out repetitive bliss. You just have to dive in and start swimming. This track is my current favourite- an answer phone message, some sampled Phillip Glass strings and the funkiest rhythm. Just wait for the bleepy bit at two minutes fifty and then...bye bye.

Straight To Your Heart

There was a time when I didn't really see why One Dove's beautiful and mysterious Why Don't You Take Me needed remixing, even though it was Underworld (and Secret Knowledge) doing said remixing. Weatherall's production and Dot's vocal were so right mucking around with them or removing the vocal seemed wrong. But the first Underworld remix, a slow one and a long way from the usual throbbing pulsing Emerson sound, is really good, building slowly over eleven minutes with a repeated synth part.

Why Don't You Take Me (Underworld Remix)

And the second one is nearly fifteen minutes of throbbing and pulsing and dark corners and dry ice- those hi hats and kick drums keep pushing it on and on.

Why Don't You Take Me (Underworld Up 2 Down Remix)

And while neither of them are as wondrous as the original, they exist to do a different job.

Tow Trucking

I'm trying to fight the blogger's feeling that you should comment on every death in rock 'n' roll and have something to say about it. Chuck Berry died over the weekend- he invented rock 'n' roll, he invented the riff and the lyrical concerns of the song. Mrs Swiss and myself danced to You Never Can Tell at our wedding back in 1995 (we were both in our mid 20s so it wasn't quite the teenage wedding of the song). Other than that there isn't much I have to say about Chuck Berry. He was by all accounts an appalling person but in music we often have to separate the artist from the art, as unpleasant as that can be.

1995 was also the year that Sabres Of Paradise put out a series of remixes by other artists of songs from Haunted Dancehall, released the previous year. Chemical Brothers, LFO, Nightmares On Wax, In The Nursery and Depth Charge all had goes at reworking the work of Weatherall, Kooner and Burns. This Depth Charge version sounds very 1995- dusty, wired and with a big beat.

Tow Truck (Depth Charge Mix)

Rotter

Volume 3 of Weatherall's Rotters Golf Club Archive Hour is up, with songs from these fine artists

1. Restless Spell – The Wolfhounds
2. Desperate Man Blues – John Fahey
3. Rock Run Blues – Leon And Carlos
4. A Little Star – The Orient Express
5. The Problem – Jackie Leven
6. London Dub – Ruts D.C.
7. Inheritance Dub – Pama International Vs. Mad Professor
8. All Cats Are Grey (Peel Sessions 1981) – The Cure
9. The Suburban Westland – Twilight Royal
10. U.S. Centurion – Applecraft
11. Spanish Stroll – Mink DeVille
12. The Last Love Letter – Comet Gain
13. Don’t Forget About Me – Arthur Russell
14. Let’s Make Some Plans – Close Lobsters
15. 1991 – The Fauns
16. The Gold At The End Of My Rainbow – Be-Bop Deluxe

Higher

Last weekend BBC4 showed the Screamadelica classic album programme, an hour long celebration of 1991's best album with contributions from many of those involved. One of the discussion points was whether Higher Than The Sun should be on the album in its edited or 12" form, shorter or longer. Andrew Innes went for the shorter one for the sake of the flow of the record and everyone agreed this was right, with the proviso that the 12" was the one for full tripped out enjoyment. Alex Paterson, who produced it as The Orb, reckons along with Little Fluffy Clouds it is the best thing he's done. But there's also another version of Higher Than The Sun, which goes further, a little bit longer, a little but higher, a little bit further out...

Higher Than The Sun (Higher Than The Kite)

Want To Join In A Chorus?

The Clash, day five. I've tried to avoid the obvious songs but for today I'm going with one of their best songs and a high point of the later years. In Straight To Hell Joe delivers a state of the world address, taking in Thatcherism, industrial decline, unemployment and racism in verse one, abandoned children, cultural imperialism and the Vietnam War in verse two and the lives of immigrants universally in verse three. Mick comes up with the guitar hook and Topper thumps out a sort of Bossa Nova with a lemonade bottle with a towel wrapped around it banged against the bass drum. This is the longer version which was edited down for Combat Rock, complete with extra lyrics- at seven minutes long it is possibly Joe's finest hour lyrically and vocally. From the Sound System remasters, this is the version you want/need.

Straight To Hell (Unedited Version)

Clash Piano

Clash week day four. Two songs from round the old Joanna. When the Clash On Broadway box came out in 1991 one of the unreleased songs was a cover of Every Little Bit Hurts, Mick at the piano and giving it loads with a reverb drenched, soulful vocal. According to the booklet it was recorded during the Sandinista! sessions after Chrissie Hynde had dropped in. Mick and Chrissie used to sing it together and Mick gave it a go in the studio a few days later, with Norman Watt Roy on bass (which dates it to when Simonon was away filming Ladies And Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains) and Topper splashing away on cymbals and percussion.

Every Little Bit Hurts

Originally sung by Brenda Holloway in 1964 it was covered by The Spencer Davis Group which is where Mick knew it from. A couple of years earlier The Clash had been the subjects of a film, Rude Boy, a semi-fictionalised account of the life a roadie called Ray Gange. The film is a brave but flawed stab at documenting life in 1978-9 in Britain. But it does also feature some of the most incendiary Clash live footage committed to tape/celluloid which still makes the hairs on the back of neck stand up and the blood pump a little faster. In this section Joe finds a piano and starts hammering away while Gange stands around drinking beer. After a minute and a half and some muttering/swearing from Gange about Sam Philips and Elvis Joe breaks into Let The Good Times Roll, a Shirley and Lee song from 1956.



Give 'em a piano and a couple of minutes and both Joe and Mick would reel out the pre-punk songs. What Year Zero?

Return To Brixton

Paul Simonon realised after a while that the money was in songwriting. During the sessions for what became London Calling he worked up a tune into what would become one of the group's most recognisable and best-loved songs, thanks in large part to 'the bassline of the twentieth century'. The swagger of Guns Of Brixton comes from the swing of the bassline and Paul's rough and ready vocal, the ripping sound at the start (velcro being peeled off the studio chairs apparently) and the chanted backing vocals. One of my favourites.

In 1990 Norman Cook borrowed the bassline for his number one hit Dub Be Good To Me. Without asking permission. Paul and Norman settled in a cafe and according to Paul at the time the cash injection was much needed. I happen to love Dub Be Good To Me, an updating of The SOS Band's Just Be Good To Me with harmonica pinched from Ennio Morricone and the rap half-inched from Johnny Dynell.



CBS, sensing a hit, decided to get a top dj to remix Guns Of Brixton, for the club scene. Jeremy Healy was the dj and a 12" single with three new versions (two are below) was put out. It stormed into the charts reaching number 57. I don't remember the clubs and bars of 1990 being awash with this version either. Well done CBS, good work.

To be honest I quite like the remixes, they present the song a bit differently, give it something else. They're not as good as the original no, and yes, they're probably for completists and the curious only.

Return To Brixton (Extended Mix)

Return To Brixton (SW2 Dub)

Jeremy Healy was in Haysi Fantayzee previous to his dj career. I've been watching the Top Of The Pops re-runs from 1983 this year and the January editions had Haysi Fantayzee on several times doing Shiny Shiny,a sort of pirate, nursery rhyme, tribal, glam, anti-nuclear thumper. Having recorded it, I re-watched it a few times too. Two words- Kate Garner.

Pressure Drop A Drop On You

Don Letts is a man who looms large in The Clash story- the dj who played dub for the punks, the man who dressed the bands who couldn't afford Malcolm's clothes, the film maker who went with them to New York and the cover star of Black Market Clash (later expanded into Super Black Market Clash), a compilation of B-sides and assortments. One of the highlights inside these two albums is Pressure Drop, an amped up take on the Toots And The Maytals song (and originally the b-side to 1978's English Civil War). The Clash's enthusiasm for reggae was a gateway into Jamaican music for many fans. Joe often worried about covering reggae songs, stung by Lydon's criticisms, and he referred to them as trash reggae but this cover is way more than that.

Pressure Drop

Something About England

Following Saturday's feedback I've thought about having a Clash week over the weekend. There doesn't seem much point just posting five obvious Clash songs and I don't know what I've got to add to the story of The Clash- on the other hand their music and history is so rich and full of people, characters and songs that there is always something else to focus on. They are a band that still mean a huge amount to many, many people. Joe's death means that they haven't sullied their legacy by either reforming for pots of cash or making a water treading album (they did that after sacking Mick and releasing Cut The Crap). Apparently they were on the verge of reforming for the Hall Of Fame induction but it didn't happen (Paul said no- well done Paul). Their back catalogue is so large and there are so many lesser known Clash songs that doing a week of Clash posts that skirt the outer edges shouldn't be too difficult. So I'll start with this.

Bernie Rhodes insisted that their songs should be about something, and that as a writer Joe should look at the world and engage with it. Joe was at times dismissive of Mick's more straight love songs and considered that the subject of love was largely covered. Instead Joe wrote some songs that dealt with things very simplistically (White Riot say) and some that were more complex and showed more depth. Something About England is tucked away at the end of side 1 of Sandinista! and it's one of the most complex songs the group wrote and performed. The song is a conversation between Joe's narrator (sung by Mick), a man looking at life in late 70s Britain, and a homeless man in a dirty overcoat. Mick opens the song with Joe's attention grabbing first verse

'They say the immigrants steal the hubcaps of respected gentlemen
They say it would be wine and roses if England were for Englishmen again'

Sound familiar?
Mick continues, noticing the old man as the sirens wail and the bars close for the night. The old man (Joe) then joins in, berating Mick's young narrator...

'You really think it's all new
You really think about it too?
I'll tell you a thing or two'

Then the song lurches from a dark piano music hall tune into something more urgent and Joe takes over...

'I missed the fourteen-eighteen war but not the sorrow afterwards
With my father dead and my mother ran off
My brothers took the pay of hoods
The Twenties turned, the north was dead
The hunger strike came marching south
At the garden party not a word was said
As ladies lifted cake to their mouths'

In full flow now and the next verse takes in the Second World War and then the men returning home limping around old Piccadilly and Leicester Square, the world rebuilding itself and architects who 'could not care'.

The penultimate verse finds Joe/the old man raging against the follies of government and people, sending young men to die in wars and 'photos in wallets on battlefields', the English class system of 'masters and servants and servants and dogs' and the gap that the country has never closed. The old man winds up, addressing Mick for the final time...

'The memories that you have dredged up
Are letters forwarded from hell'.

The song plays out and Mick's voice returns to conclude as the lights go out down the street and in the bedsits- 'old England was all alone'.

In a world of Trump and Brexit and Farage and Breitbart and countless other revivals of the hatred and divisions of the 1930s Something About England rings as true and as important in 2017 as it did in 1980. The people that blame the immigrants for their own woes and misfortunes are still with us, quietened for a while but now loud again. We still need The Clash.

Something About England