All At Sea Again

Echo And The Bunnymen played Manchester's Albert Hall on Friday night, the second of two gigs at the venue. Albert Hall has become the best gig venue in town, an old chapel with stained glass windows, a good stage close to the audience and tons of atmosphere. We arrived to an already packed downstairs room and the balcony also full. Picking our way down the right hand side we ended up close to the speaker at the front, the Bunny God projected onto the back wall. The Bunnymen appear at nine, lights down and the crowd are up for it, Ian later telling us (in one of the few onstage announcements where I can make out what he's saying) that we're 'the best crowd since whenever'. The setlist draws almost entirely from their classic albums, starting with the post- punk urgency of Going Up, Show Of Strength and All That Jazz. The band- Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant plus four younger musicians- are on it, Will's guitar fizzing and buzzing and Ian, black overcoat and sunglasses, is in fine voice, his voice up to the demands of those songs he wrote in the first half of the 80s. The only songs played not from those 80s records are Flowers, Nothing Lasts Forever and a new one, Brussels Is Haunted (which has some promise and sounds like they were fired up again while writing it). But it's their back catalogue we're here for and we get it in spades. Rescue, All My Colours (Zimbo) and Over The Wall all played with intent, Will switching between guitars, pedals and a synth. Six songs in Bring On The Dancing Horses is the first singalong moment, the band stopping playing completely while the Albert Hall sings the chorus, a trick they repeat during Seven Seas (Will strapping on his beautiful nine string teardrop guitar). 

These are songs which have been part of my life since I was a teenager, they're deeply embedded in my musical history. I've been out of sorts all week too, Isaac's death sending ripples and waves of grief through me every day, barely able to speak to people without being on the verge of tears. I'm already feeling emotional when they play Bedbugs And Ballyhoo, the song's groove cooked up nicely, dry ice pumping out, Ian going through the song's rhymes, chipmunks and kangaroos, rifles and cannonballs, the song slipping us and them back to 1987. Villiers Terrace follows. I once spent a day while in Liverpool as a student looking for Villiers Terrace (don't bother by the way, it doesn't exist). They do that Bunnymen trick of playing the song and then lurching into some covers, stitching together old Bunny favourite Roadhouse Blues by The Doors and Bowie's Jean Genie before cutting back into Villiers Terrace. When the opening chords of Nothing Lasts Forever come in I feel myself crumbling and as Ian hits the chorus, 'nothing ever lasts forever', I'm suddenly standing in a packed room, surrounded by people I don't know, tears streaming down my face, crying like a baby. My brother must have spotted it, he grabs hold of me and hugs me but I'm done for, the song bringing all that week's grief and tears to the surface. God knows what the people stood around me must have thought. Nothing Lasts Forever breaks into Walk On The Wild Side, Ian channeling Lou and getting away with it, and I recover myself a little. The two set closers are superb, a gloriously ragged Never Stop (one of my favourite Bunny songs) and a dark, driving romp through Lips Like Sugar, the song played how it should have been recorded back when they'd lost interest in themselves and each other. Two encores follow, the first giving us The Cutter, all spiky and raw, and then a drawn out, spare version of The Killing Moon, all that 1984 romance and mystery recreated on stage in 2022. They go off and then return again for Ocean Rain, waves of drama as Ian stands still, dead centre, crooning 'All at sea again/ Now my hurricanes/ Have brought down this ocean rain'. As the song finishes the closing lines seem to have shrunk the distance between 1984 and 2022 to nothing, 'All hands on deck at dawn/ Sailing to sadder shores/ Your port in my heavy storm/ Harbours my blackest thoughts'. 

Never Stop (Discotheque)

Ocean Rain

Monday's Long Song

Julian Cope has recently published the second in a series of Cope's Notes, a re- issue of his 1990 album Droolian with the original album on CD, expanded with extra tracks from the sessions and a forty- four page booklet written by Cope where he describes the period and the album. Droolian was written at a time when he was at loggerheads with Island about the release of Skellington, which the record company thought to be too lo- fi. They wanted bigger budget recordings. Julian was back in Liverpool at this time on and off, hanging out with old friends all reeling in the aftermath of Pete de Freitas' death in June and he also fired up by the Thatcher government's introduction of the Poll Tax. If Skellington was lo- fi, what he gave them next- Droolian- was even moreso. Recorded onto C90 cassettes in the front room of Pam Young's house in Liverpool with Donald Ross Skinner producing, over three days using a TEAC four track recorder. The album was mastered direct from the cassettes. In 1990 Julian discarded the leather motorbike clothes and began dressing new age for the new decade, new age hippy clothing, an attitude he said was summed up in one word- loose. Julian's writing in the booklet is characteristically superb, funny and incisive and very much in his voice. You can buy Droolian at Head Heritage. 

Julian said that the lo fi, one take approach was the way forward and that every album he made afterwards was in some way influenced by Droolian and the way he went about it. 1991's Peggy Suicide was a sprawling and brilliant record, full band performances and a big success. Island were pelased. In 1992 he gave them Jehovahkill, a record influenced by his love for krautrock and his newfound interest in neolithic sites. The cover features the Callanish stones, a prehistoric site in the shape of a cross (predating Christianity obviously). With Donald back on board and Rooster Cosby playing he goes full pelt on Jehovahkill- the lyrics are concerned with environmentalism, the goddess, the patriarchy, his desire to destroy mainstream organised religion, and prehistoric sites. There is lots of psychedelia and krautrock, acid (both rock and house), acoustic guitars, electric guitars, drums low in the mix, his voice high in the mix, spoken word sections, tribal rhythms, raves and folk freak outs- all the Cope tropes are being established here. Cope's own A&R man described the song Slow Rider as 'the worst thing he'd heard by anybody, ever'. Copey wanted it as it was. Island refused to release it. Cope recorded a further six songs, making the album heavier and more pagan. It was his last album on Island but if the breadheads at Island had had enough, no one else had- after Peggy Suicide's success the music press lapped up Jehovahkill, lauding it as inspired and a triumph and it sold well. He became a music press regular, front covers and interviews a weekly and monthly event. Towards the end of the album (a three sided vinyl release, side four being an etching of the site at Callanish) is the ten minute song The Tower, an epic tale about the fall of the Goddess and the rise of the patriarchy. 

The Tower

Thirty Seven Minutes Of Massive Attack

This week's Sunday half hour mix comes from Bristol courtesy of Massive Attack. It's difficult now to remember exactly the impact Massive Attack had back in 1991 when Blue Lines was released, instantly switching on the heads of people to the reggae/ dub/ hip hop (soon to be trip hop) sound. Ravers, house heads, indie kids, almost everyone, was suddenly listening to something else. They went on to make some stunning songs and records after that but maybe with slightly less of 'the shock of the new' that they had in spring '91 (a time when they also dropped the word Attack from their name due to the bombing of Iraq by the US led coalition). Protection and Mezzanine both had outstanding songs and moments (plus the various remixes and versions, not least Mad Professor's dub of the whole Protection album). After that my interest came and went and I've dipped in and out (dipping back in for the remixes from Heligoland and 2016's Ritual Spirit EP. 

The thirty seven minute mix below tries to avoid the obvious mixes even if it goes for some of the big hitter songs and has a dub vein running through it, ideal for making your Sunday breakfast too. I realised putting it together that it could be three times the length without any drop off in terms of quality. It takes in vocals from Horace Andy, Tracey Thorn, Liz Fraser and Hope Sandoval, remixes by Brian Eno, Mad Professor, Larry Heard and Gui Boratto and has the combined talents of Smith And Mighty, Johnny Dollar and Nellee Hooper at the producer's desk. 

Thirty Seven Minutes Of Massive Attack

• Hymn Of The Big Wheel (Nellee Hooper Mix)
• Protection (The Eno Mix)
• Safe From Harm (Instrumental Original Mix)
• Teardrop (Mad Professor Mazaruni Mix)
• Any Love (Larry Heard Remix)
• Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto Remix)

Purple Haze, Purple Sky

Of all the odd meteorological experiences we've had recently this purple sky at Salford Quays a couple of weeks is right up there- no filters were applied to this photograph, it is as it was. I mentioned this David Holmes remix a couple of weeks ago as well but didn't post it, a stunning version of Purple Have, Yellow Sunrise by fellow Belfast producer Gary Irwin (The Vendetta Suite). Clattering drums, layers of synths and keyboards, a guitar line and some unmoored backing vox, filters and FX tripping everything out into an acid house/ psychedelic swirl. Around five minutes in voices start to appear in the mix, just within earshot but not clear enough to hear properly as the synths stutter and fade. Quite the trip.  

There's No Point In Asking You'll Get No Reply

As if we - the population of the planet Earth- haven't collectively and individually suffered enough during the last couple of years you wake up one morning in late February 2022 to discover that the megalomaniac in the Kremlin has decided to kick off a war in Europe by invading Ukraine. It seems there often comes a point where democracies get hoodwinked by dictatorships, where the application of gradual pressure and due processes is shown up to be not worth anything when a dictator decides the rules don't apply to him (and it is usually a him). Putin has taken a long cold look at Ukraine, a country he believes doesn't really exist anyway- to him it's Russian- and decided that he's got little to lose and factored in that no one will stop him. The Ukrainians may fight but there's no one in the West willing to fight (understandably) and sanctions could take years to have any effect. He just takes Ukraine because he wants it, because he wants to turn the clock back and because his ego tells him he can. There's nothing much to say really is there? What can we do? It's not like this country has improved its standing in the realm of geopolitics and international affairs in recent years. I can't imagine the combined words and threats of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss played any part in his decision to invade. 

It sounds glib but we all stand with Ukraine don't we? Just words to make us feel a little better maybe there's depressingly little else any of us can do. 

In 1989 The Wedding Present recorded some songs for a Peel Session in Ukrainian due to lead guitarist Peter Solowka. I bought it on cassette in 1989, it came in a lovely box. My copy has long since vanished. This photo comes from the internet but shows what a well put together package it was. 

Peter formed a three piece group called The Ukrainians in 1991 to record punk and post- punk covers in a traditional Ukrainian style. He left The Wedding Present in 1992 and has been recording and touring as/ with The Ukrainians ever since. In  1991 they filmed a video in Kyiv, the first Western band to do so (this was in the days before Ukraine gained its independence from the USSR). In 2002 they released a three track EP of Sex Pistols songs in Ukrainian. This one is a hugely enjoyable romp through Pretty Vacant. 

Цiлком вакантный

In November 1981 the fledgling New Order played a gig in New York at the Ukrainian National Home, a venue and gig titled Taras Shevchenko (Shevchenko was a poet, writer, artist, folklorist and political figure and in 1847 was convicted for promoting independence for Ukraine, writing poems in Ukrainian and ridiculing members of the Russian royal family- a worthy stance to take then and if was still alive now). 

The group were taking tentative steps towards dance music, struggling with their equipment a little and incorporating the temperamental sequencers and electronic machines into their live performances. The setlist is half songs from Movement and half singles- Everything's Gone Green, Ceremony, Procession and an early version of the then unreleased Temptation. It was was released on VHS in 1983, titled Taras Shevchenko and given a Factory number (FACT 77) and later released as a DVD along with their 1998 performance at the Reading festival (a very different gig in terms of scale and scope). Despite the slightly shonky, nervous, at the edge of falling apart nature of Taras Shevchenko, it is one of my favourite New Order artefacts, well worth three quarters of an hour today. If you want to skip to Temptation, go to 35.35- anxious, out of tune, bum guitar notes and unfinished lyrics but gloriously, brilliantly alive.

Lightning Coming Out of The Speakers

The news came through on Tuesday night that Mark Lanegan had died aged 57 at his home in Ireland. Mark Lanegan is one of those people who had been around in one form or another since the early 90s and whose music had come in and out of my musical radar but when I heard him, he often hit really deep. From his grunge band Screaming Trees to his time with Queens Of The Stone Age to his various solo albums and his records duetting with Isobel Campbell he was always a huge presence, especially his voice- sometimes a deep raspy growl, sometimes an emotional soulful baritone- that sounded like a force of nature, vocal chords as old as time. 

It was a voice that told of a life lived too. His recent autobiography is a tale of childhood descent into alcoholism, theft, robbery, heroin addiction, guilt over his role in Kurt Cobain's suicide and his getting clean after an intervention by Courtney Love as well as his continuing adventures in music. He wrote a second book about his near death brush with Covid in 2021. Neither book is for the faint hearted although his description of Liam Gallagher, who he encountered when Screaming Trees toured with Oasis in the 90s, is hilarious, not to mention dismissive of Gallagher Junior. 'Where I was from', Mark writes, 'he [Liam] wouldn't have lasted a week behaving as he did. One day they'd simply disappear, their mangled body discovered years later, haphazardly tossed into a shallow grave somewhere deep in the woods'.

Rather than offer up one song I pulled a few from different albums and put them together into a thirty minute mix, a range of styles and sounds all centred around his voice, that I've titled HOney Just Gets Me Stoned after a vocal line in the remix Andrew Weatherall did of Beehive. Ode To Sad Disco is a particular favourite, a switch in 2012 from writing on the guitar to writing with a drum machine and synth that led to a beautiful and mournful piece of New Order- esque electronics. Snake Song is a cover of a Townes Van Zandt song, Bombed is desolate short song sung with his then wife Wendy. Hit The City is a crunching, distorted industrial blues with co- vocals by PJ Harvey.

R.I.P. Mark Lanegan. 

Honey Just Gets Me Stoned

• Isobel Cambell and Mark Lanegan: Snake Song
• Mark Lanegan Band: Bombed
• Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: Keep Me In Mind, Sweetheart
• Mark Lanegan Band: Hit The City
• Mark Lanegan: Ode To Sad Disco
• Mark Lanegan: Old Swan (Pye Corner Audio Remix)
• Mark Lanegan: Beehive (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

With A Torch In Your Pocket And The Wind At Your Heels

This is a record that was and is a bit of an opinion splitter. The Whole Of The Moon was recorded and released in 1985 when Mike Scott and The Waterboys were pursuing The Big Music and then gained a second life a couple of years later as an end of the night crowd pleasing favourite at various dance clubs, it having that widescreen, wide- eyed, anything goes Balearic vibe. It then gained a third life in 1991 when the record company (Chrysalis I think) decided it should be a big hit and indeed it was, crashing the top three in the UK charts. It became a bit ubiquitous at that point and radio stations the world over ensure that Mike Scott's royalty cheques must always be a pleasant surprise. Lots of people I know/ have known love The Whole Of The Moon. Some people, a minority perhaps, are vociferous in their dislike of it- I know some of them too. The sax, the fireworks going off after the 'You came like a comet' line, the dirginess of it, too much, too big.

Me, I love it. 

The Whole Of The Moon

Mike's told an interviewer recently that the song was written when a girl he was with asked him if writing a song was easy or difficult. 'Easy', he replied and came up with the line 'I saw the crescent/ You saw the whole of the moon' on the spot in the back of a taxi. He then finished the lyric back at the hotel. The final section is where he really takes flight, the words becoming a torrent of imagery-

'Unicorns and cannonballs, palaces and piers/ Trumpets, towers and tenements/ Wide oceans full of tears/ Flags, rags ferryboats/ Scimitars and scarves/ Every precious dream and vision/ Underneath the stars, yes, you climbed on the ladder/ With the wind in your sails/ You came like a comet/ Blazing your trail/ Too high/ Too far/ Too soon/ You saw the whole of the moon'

Malanai

Some more thoughts about bereavement. I'm not always sure sharing this stuff publicly is the right thing to do but writing it down definitely helps me and this seems a better place to put it than say Twitter or Facebook. If you just want the music, feel free to skip to the end. I really wouldn't blame you- this isn't necessarily what people come here for and I get that. 

It's now nearly three months since Isaac died. That feels like quite a long time without him- a quarter of a year- but in lots of ways it feels like it's passed very quickly and it's very recent. There are times now when I can go a period of time without feeling completely bereft or physically ill from it, where for the duration of a TV programme say or the time it takes to read an article or the chapter of a book it isn't at the front of my mind. When it comes back though, the grief, it still has the capacity to crush me. A memory or photograph can do it. At first looking at photos of Isaac helped, it made me feel closer to him. Not it's pretty painful to see them. One of the side effects of smartphones and social media is the memories function/ algorithm which pushes 'a year ago today' into your  timeline unexpectedly. Sometimes it makes me smile and sometimes it reminds me he's gone. I had a few fairly flat days at the end of the week before last, not good or bad just flat. On Monday night I saw a photo of Isaac and it sideswiped me, leaving me thinking (I almost said it out loud to myself), 'how are we ever going to get over this?'. And I think the answer is we won't ever get over this, it's just that over time, it becomes easier to live with. 

When a person with learning disabilities dies there has to be a review to check that everything happened correctly and that there were no concerns about their care and what happened. This would involve input from the hospital, the GP and the deceased's family. We were asked if we wanted to contribute and said yes. The meeting took place on Zoom and was pretty tough going for us at times (and we had no concerns about Isaac's care or how he and we were treated in hospital). The report was emailed to us recently and seeing it all in print was hard.

On Saturday we had our first big family get together since he died, an afternoon pub meal for my family for my Mum's 73rd birthday with twenty three of us present, ages ranging from six months to 83. It's the sort of event Isaac would have loved, all those people to speak to. It's the first time we've gone to one without him. I can never be sure how I'm going to be. Tears are never far away. I've cried in front of various people recently who I never would have before and usually I just say something like, 'don't worry, this happens all the time at the moment, just keep talking to me'. The birthday party was fine by the way. I felt a little out of it once or twice but on the whole it was a good get together and another hurdle cleared. But when we got home and sat down a wave of sadness broke onto me. When this happens I just go with it, accept it's all part of the process, but it's pretty heavy and it feels very like it did back in December. I guess three months isn't really very long at all. 

We've also had family to stay and I've been out with two different sets of friends, all of which has been good. It's good to see people and it's good to do things. It helps. That's where I'm up to I think. 

This came out last year and I thought I'd give it a bump to put it back out into blogworld. Private Agenda are a London/ Berlin duo whose six track EP Submersion last year was inspired by water, the sea, coasts and islands. Seahawks are a Balearic duo who have made some wonderful albums over the last decade. Their take on Malanai Ascending is a languid, floating beauty, shimmering synths and bubbling rhythms rippling ever onwards for six minutes. It could be twice as long and I wouldn't complain. Malanai I've just discovered is a trade wind and in Hawaiian translates as 'the gentle blowing of the northeast wind'. 

Malanai Ascending (Seahawks Remix)

My journey to work yesterday was disrupted by a lorry that had overturned on Barton Bridge, a flooded road with a car abandoned in it and a fallen tree that closed part of the A666, the effects of Storm Franklin blowing in on northwest England coming only a day after Eunice had battered the south. None of your gentle blowing of the northeast winds round here. 

Monday's Long Song

I wrote a piece for Ban Ban Ton Ton, the number one blog for all things electronic. Dr Rob, said blog's author, is a veteran of the scene, someone who was there at the heart of things in the late 80s and early 90s. He's been resident in Japan for some time and our blogs have grown closer, musically and spiritually, and a while back Rob suggested a blog to blog tie in or collaboration. A few days ago I wrote a piece for him about the most recent long form Richard Norris release, Chrome, a long form ambient piece where Richard's Music For Healing series has entered its third year. You can find it here. I've been a big advocate of Richard's ambient work and its therapeutic properties over the last few years, even moreso in the last few months. 

One of Rob's recent recommendations was Max Essa's work. This led me to Panorama Suite, a twenty minute long Balearic beauty, a very lengthy track where the entirety is one seamless piece of music but also made up of different musical sections, making a whole- synths and keys followed by pads and toplines, guitar lines taking over, basslines coming in and out, and then percussion and more, through to the end. Panorama Suite was re- released this month by Japanese label Jansen Jardin and you can buy it for a couple of quid here. Press play, let it go and then press play again. 

Thirty Minutes Of Moon Duo

Here's half an hour of Moon Duo, Portland, Oregon's finest cosmische, psyche three piece for Sunday. When I listen to Moon Duo (or Ripley Johnson's other bands, Wooden Shjips and The Rose City Band to some degree but Moon Duo just pip those two for me) I could quite happily argue there is no one currently making music who is doing anything better than this. Moon Duo's back catalogue stretches back to 2009, since when they've released seven studio albums and numerous singles and EPs. Putting together a thirty minute mix is not difficult- working out what to leave out is more so. What we have here is the slow motion blissed out beauty of In A Cloud from their 2015 Shadow Of The Sun album, an equally relaxed cover version of Black Sabbath from 2020, a crunchy guitar riff rocker Sevens from 2017's Occult Architecture Vol. 2, the twinkly, spaced out title track from 2019's Stars Are The Light and the monumental ten minutes of motorik pysche groove that is White Rose (2017, Occult Architecture Vol. 1).

Thirty Minutes Of Moon Duo

• In A Cloud
• Planet Caravan
• Stars Are The Light
• Sevens
• White Rose

Whistling In The Dark

There's an exhibition on at the Manchester City Art Gallery of the works of Derek Jarman, a wide ranging selection of paintings from his time at the Slade to his activist paintings on the 1980s and early 90s and some of his films. In one of the film booths there is a loop of various videos he made in the 1980s and 90s- the still amazing films he made for The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead, Panic, There Is A Light, Ask) which had the power to make me hear the group anew for the first time in ages. The pair of videos he made for the Pet Shop Boys were there as well- Rent and It's A Sin- plus videos he made for The Mighty Lemon Drops and Easterhouse. 

Easterhouse were formed in Stretford, just up the road from me, by singer Andrew Perry and guitarist Ivor Perry. Perry would later become embroiled in the messy ending of The Smiths when he was invited to play with the remaining members after Johnny Marr left. Perry wasn't much happy with the situation and according to Ivor neither was Morrissey. All this is besides the point of this post though which is that their 1986 single Whistling In The Dark sounded very good playing on a big screen and at some volume. In some ways they sounded (and looked) like the epitome of the mid- 80s indie guitar scene- trebly Telecasters, serious, political lyrics, signed to Rough Trade, quiffs and Levis 501s- but they served very well as a flashback to that time. 

Whistling In The Dark

Borderlands

 

Nina Walsh shared this yesterday, Borderlands, an unreleased Woodleigh Research Facility piece echoing many of the sounds that her and Andrew's previous thirty years had taken in, from Sabres and Sabrettes to the WRF. Borderlands is fifteen minutes long, taking its time to get where it's going and in no particular rush, with a drum machine driven impetus kicking in at about five minutes in and the haunting melodies winding their way around the rhythms. 

Straight To Your Heart

It is two years ago today that Andrew Weatherall died aged just 57 and it seems right that this blog pays tribute to him on the occasion- his work and music has contributed to 602 posts here, well over 10% of my postings. At The Flightpath Estate (a Facebook group that I'm co- admin of) there is a semi- regular feature called Sunday Social, a Sunday evening comment thread with a theme where anyone can chip in. A few weeks ago there was an event at the (real) Social in London with David Holmes DJing, a launch party for the pair of Heavenly compilations of Andrew's remixes of the labels acts. Many of the Flightpath's membership attended and on the Sunday night the Social was a thread where we suggested and posted links to songs and tracks that might make the ideal accompaniment for a hangover/ sore head/ comedown. The mix below is a group effort, the suggestions on the thread from the Sunday night. I've stitched them all together into one mix, an hour and a quarter of songs and tracks produced, written or remixed by Andrew plus one from Radioactive Man, Andrew's collaborator in Two Lone Swordsmen, Keith Tenniswood, in solo mode. It's slow and low, a downtempo mix, ambient in places, dubby in others and song based in yet more, laid out maybe rather than laid back. I hesitate to say it's Weatherall in chill out mode but it's definitely one for contemplation and reflection.  And I hope in some way it pays tribute to a man who is very much still missed. Stream at Mixcloud or download below. 

The Flightpath Estate Sunday Social Mix February 2022

• Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood: The Crescents
• Two Lone Swordsmen: Tiny Reminder No. 3 (Calexico Remix)
• Calexico: III (Two Lone Swordsmen remix)
• Percy X v Blood Sugar: -3 (Emissions 2)
• Beth Orton: It’s This I Find I Am
• Two Lone Swordsmen: It’s Not The Worst I’ve Ever Looked… (Lali Puna Remix)
• Sabres Of Paradise: Siege Refrain
• Radioactive Man: Goodnight Morton
• Woodleigh Research Facility: Somnium
• The Liminanas Ft. Peter Hook: Garden Of Love (Lundi Mouille Mix)
• Peace Together: Be Still (Sabres Of Paradise Remix)
• Two Lone Swordsmen: The Big Clapper (CPIJ Remix)
• Two Lone Swordsmen: As Worldly Pleasures Wave Goodbye
• Primal Scream: Carry Me Home
• One Dove: Why Don’t You Take Me

It's Over Now If We Run Out Of Love

David Holmes made one of 2021's biggest singles and now he's making a claim at doing the same for 2022. It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love came out on Monday, a Valentine's Day release, and it's a massive sounding, button pushing, soaring ode to youth and love. There's a sense of euphoria in the opening keyboard stabs, some big 80s sounding chords and then a juddering drumbeat. Raven Violet is on vocals again, a 60s sounding voice pitched into the 21st century on the song. David's Unloved band do that Sixties But Now sound so well and it's a sound he's drawing from here but it's bigger, with an end of the night, last song before the lights come on feel. 

The video (by Douglas Hart) celebrates the youth cults of the 20th century, the punks and the ravers, the rastas, rudies, mods and skins, the goths and rockers, the scooterists and the teds. It's all very much what we need right now. As Raven sings, 'I remember when we young/ They said the people's day would surely come'. The time has come. 

Jezebell Et Moi

Jezebell released a new four track EP for Valentine's Day, for all the lovers out there- fortunately, we can have the love every day not just on 14th February, so it's here today, a day late but still on time. Jezebell have re- imagined the 1987 Balearic classic Elle et Moi by Max Berlin's (there are various grammatical versions out there, Max Berlin, Max Berlins and Max Berlin's). The original Elle et Moi is a much sought after Belgian 12", and is slinky, clubby, piano- driven Belgian chanson/ disco, very much in Serge Gainsbourg territory but relocated to Flanders. 

Jezebell are Jesse Fahnestock and co- edit conspirator Darren Bell and have been posted here several times in the last year. The lead version on this release is Jezebell et Moi, a spacey, low slung affair that will keep you coming back to it, like lovestruck moths round fairy lights. It comes backed by three further excursions- Le Acide et Moi, Le Funk et Moi and Le Dub et Moi. All three are on the tip in their respective title- Le Acide has a lovely ringing topline, the sort that reverberates round the cranium for some time. Le Funk stretches out seductively. Le Dub has echoing rimshots and melodica, a Sabres Of Paradise style reworking or a reworking. You're going to want all four obviously. Name your price here. 

Monday's Long Song

It's been miserable round here for the last couple of days, relentless grey skies and pouring rain, the sort of days where you don't feel like leaving the house but know spending the whole day indoors won't be good for you either. I'm off work this week and from the forecast it looks like we'll be attempting to dodge the rain all week.  

I met a previously only online friend on Saturday afternoon for a few drinks and it was lovely. They say that you should be careful arranging to meet strangers from the internet in real life but my experience of it has always been good. Yesterday we had Sunday lunch with one of my brothers and his family- again, good to get out despite the awful weather. One of our subconscious responses to Isaac's death has been that we've bunkered in a bit, taken our collective foot off the pedal and just stopped doing as much stuff as we used to, sometimes finding ourselves unable to make plans or commit to anything. Spending parts of this weekend engaging has been good and maybe we should just get our biggest coats on and get out in the rain. 

This long ambient piece came out back in 1999, from Pan American, an artist from Chicago. Beautiful, gentle, minimalism with synth chords, some faint noises (like a pen being tapped on a radiator) as a kind of percussion and some strings, a cello or viola. Contemplative and optimistic, the sort of thing to set you up for the day. 

Both Ends Fixed

Forty Minutes Of Wobble And Weatherall

I had a different thirty minute mix in mind for today but then suddenly midweek it occurred to me that the Andrew Weatherall remixes of Jah Wobble in the early 90s would be an ideal way to ease in a Sunday in mid- February. I've left the Weatherall produced, massive dub bassline of Higher Than The Sun from Screamadelica off this, just because that would tip it towards an hour and it's not strictly speaking a remix. What you have here is the Weatherall remixes of Visions Of You from 1991 and the pair of remixes Andrew did with Hugo Nicolson under the Boy's Own banner of Jah's Bomba single from 1990. The 12" of Visions Of You, released as Jah Wobble and The Invaders Of The Heart in 1991 with Sinead O'Connor on vocals, was a real moment for me. I remember vividly buying it in Power Cuts, a massive basement record shop in Manchester just off Oxford Road (behind McDonald's and what used to be Rafters, a legendary venue in Manchester's music history due to its Joy Division connections). Power Cuts sold all sorts of stuff, cheap and piled high, including a lot of import records with either the corner cut off or a hole punched in the top right hand corner. Nothing cost more than a few pounds. The Visions Of You 12" was sitting there waiting for me, 99p I think. I got it back to my rented room and put the AW side on, a twenty minute  excursion/ reconstruction, almost half an album in its own right. 

The Bomba 12" came out the previous year but I don't recall picking it up until a year or two later in Vinyl Exchange, two remixes, one either side, with Natasha Atlas on vocals. The Miles Away Mix samples Miles Davis and his Sketches Of Spain album from 1960- it was a long time before I twigged the origins of the sample and title. Despite many of you being more than familiar with all the remixes here I hope you'll find them stitched together as one piece- a global, dubby, Balearic, acid house forty minute mix- as a fine way to see Sunday in. 

Forty Minutes Of Wobble And Weatherall

• Visions Of You (The Secret Lovechild Of Hank And Johnny Mix)
• Visions Of You (Pick 'n' Mix 1)
• Visions Of You (Pick 'n' Mix 2)
• Bomba (Nonsensicus Maximus Mix)
• Bomba (Miles Away Mix)

Dance To The Sound Of Time Running Out

Johnny Marr has a new album out soon, a double vinyl sixteen track opus (it's been dripped out too already as four, four song EPs). I hope this isn't too much Marr- sometimes sixteen song albums could be pared down to ten or twelve. The single Spirit Power And Soul came out last summer, a vibrant, uptempo guitars and electro- pop number, Johnny's increasingly confident vocals at the fore alongside the slinky guitar playing and pulsing rhythms. 

Johnny always comes over as one of the good guys. In interviews he is thoughtful, considered, enthusiastic and well read, deftly tying to avoid spending every interview talking about his first band and that band's singer, when he'd clearly much rather talk about other topics- science fiction, modernism, Aldous Huxley, The The or the Bhagavad Vita. His live shows are life affirming events with Smiths songs reclaimed and played and sung joyously, and Electronic songs dropped in along with his solo work and some well chosen covers. 

His solo albums over the last decade have contained some great sounding guitar pop songs. From 2013 The Messenger, Upstarts and New Town Velocity. Playland's Easy Money. Call The Comet from 2018 had Hi Hello, The Tracers and Spiral Cities. A compilation pulling the best of his solo work from the last decade may be in order once the new album has sunk in. In 2019 he put out this standalone single called Armatopia, indie/ dance pop about dancing at the end of the world as ecological disaster swallows us up. 

Armatopia

User Music

It's been nearly a year since Aphex Twin made an appearance round the Bagging Area way and a Friday in February seems as good a time as any to post some customary, casual Richard D. James brilliance. Richard has a Soundcloud page under the name user18711971 which he uses as a track dump, sporadically uploading previously unreleased music/ magic from his presumably enormous collection of cassettes and hard drives. 

Tha2 [world scam mix] is a moody, low tech thumper full of (as a Reddit user has it) 'pseudo- transcendent beats'. Mournful synth chords and acidic squiggles playing off against each and with each other over a distorted kick drum. I don't know why it's called the world scam mix and frankly I think I'd rather not. 

Tha2 [world scam mix]

The title of 34 ibiza spliff would seem to be self- explanatory. The music is otherworldly. 

34 ibiza spliff

General Public

Last week Dr. Rob at Ban Ban Ton Ton, the one stop shop for all things Balearic and related, posted a mix he'd done for the Eclectics label, his Balearic Bargain Bin Mix. The post and the mix (free download while stocks last) can be found here, two hours chock full of hidden treasures and delights- Wendy and Lisa remixed by The Orb, a Mediterranean summer cover of Waiting In Vain by one of Adam's Ants, his wife and Trevor Horn, Blow Monkeys, Brian Eno, Djum Djum, Shakespear's Sister, 808 State's Graham Massey, Fred Wesley, an ACR B-side, some Germans before they became Snap!, early Steve Cobby as Ashley and Jackson, some Spaghetti Western synth action, The Beloved and, as they say, much more. As well as all of this there's an instrumental by General Public. 

General Public were formed in 1983 by singers Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger as a new band when The Beat broke up. Various members of other early 80s ska/ punk groups joined- Mickey Bellingham and Stoker from Dexys, Horace Panter from The Specials and briefly Mick Jones after he was sacked from The Clash by Joe and Paul. Mick left partway through the recording of the album but is credited on the sleeve. In 1984 they released a self- titled single- General Public- a six minute dub- punk song, funky bassline, lots of reverb on the snare, monotone, socially conscious Two Tone vocals, surging into the bridge and then the chanted chorus, 'General public/ Uh huh/ General public/ Uh huh'.

General Public (Longer)

The B-side, Dishwasher, is the one on Dr Rob's mix. Dishwasher is a guitar led instrumental, not a million miles as Dr. Rob notes from the sound on Combat Rock, that kind of funky, crunching sound that you can imagine filling the floor at the nightclub in town when they let the punks, rudies, goths and other assorted outsiders in on a Thursday night. The piano line running through it and the tom toms also plant Dishwasher half a decade later, playing in bars and clubs in the Med as the sun goes down/ comes up. 

Dishwasher (Longer)