Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Revaluation (A Warm Feeling)

My responses was Saint Etienne's revaluation of late 90s/ early 00s pop into their 2021 album I've Been Trying To Tell You (with Jane Weaver on board on remix duties) and Taking Heads way back in 1978 with New Feeling. 

The Bagging Area community came up with these: Walter with The Beastie Boys and Paul's Boutique; Ernie with Van Morrison's Warm Feeling; Rol and The Smith's Paint A Vulgar Picture; Al G and The Avalanches; Chris with Killing Joke; and Ardliz with a twenty minute Julian Cope extravaganza, Planetary Sit In, that you should know if you don't already...

This weeks' card says this- Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame

This is the first time I've turned an Oblique Strategy card over and felt that maybe Mr Eno and Herr Schmidt are taking the piss a little. 

Maybe it's time for this...

Eno Collaboration (Remix)

Half Man Half Biscuit back in 1997 on their voyage to the bottom of their road.

'Brian's not at home, he's at the North Pole but if you'd like to leave a weird noise'

Going back to the card and the suggestion that I make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame made me think about sleeves and artwork, pop music presented as high art- the Pet Shop Boys have been doing that since the mid- 80s but I wouldn't call their music blank, defitnely not the imperial phase they went through from '87 to '92. 

Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat...

Left To My Own Devices 

I wondered about bad music in good sleeves and, I suppose, the idea that Eno and Schmidt are hinting at; re- framing nothingness as a masterpiece. 

Talking Heads (them again) final album Naked came in a sleeve that played with this idea, a painting of a chimpanzee holding a flower with a heavy gilt frame around it, as if taken off the wall of a gallery. I don't think making Naked was a particularly happy experience for the band, they all knew they were splitting up. Guest stars abound- Mory Kante, Wally Badarou, Kirsty McColl and Johnny Marr among a cast of dozens. On (Nothing But) Flowers Marr plays genuinely brilliant, inventive African hi- life guitar, freed from straitjacket of The Smiths to do whatever he wanted. Meanwhile David Byrne sings about nature reclaiming the cities, a Pizza Hut all covered in daisies...

(Nothing But) Flowers

In 1971 Bob Dylan presented his masterpiece, a song that first appeared on an album by The Band, Cahoots, and then on the second volume of his Greatest Hits (a very odd selection of songs sequenced strangely too in a will this do? sleeve). 

When I Paint My Masterpiece

It's a typically laid back early 70s Dylan song, something quite ordinary in a way- ordinary for him I mean, it's not what I'd describe as blank but equally it's not the match of the songs from his 1964- 1966 purple patch and it's not a Blood On The Tracks song either. Having said that it's vivid and fully realised and streets ahead of some of the stuff he put out on Self Portrait. 

It was a song that Dylan discarded and then went back to, reappearing in his Never Ending tour setlists. When asked about it in an interview in 2020 Dylan said this-

'It's grown on me... I think this song has something to do with the classical world, something that's out of reach. Someplace you'd like to be beyond your experience. Something that is so supreme and first-rate that you could never come back down from the mountain. That you've achieved the unthinkable. That's what the song tries to say, and you'd have to put it in that context. In saying that, though, even if you do paint your masterpiece, what will you do then? Well, obviously you have to paint another masterpiece'. 

Feel free to put your own responses to Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame in the comment box. 

White Gardenias In Your Eyes

I've been enjoying Thurston Moore's 2020 album By The Fire recently, a double vinyl nine track record. Four of the tracks are really long- Breath is over ten minutes, Siren over twelve, Venus thirteen and Locomotives over sixteen. Around these lengthy guitar and electronics with voice songs are some shorter ones. Deb Googe plays bass ad ex- Sonic youth drummer Steve Shelley appears on Breath. Side One has two superb songs- the second is Cantaloupe, a heavy guitar tune with sludgy riffs and psychedelic fireworks, Thurston singing like it's late 1969, coming back to the refrain, 'white gardenias in your eyessssss'. Thurston's guitar solo is totally Hendixian. 

Before that is By The Fire's opening song Hashish- a slow burning introduction to the sound of the album, Television guitars and Black Sabbath riffing, more than a dash of Thurston's ex- band Sonic Youth and nicely ragged, drawled vocals.  

Hashish

Hashish is partly inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's 'derangement of the senses' and partly by Thurston's desire to present love as a narcotic state of being. 'Smoke it and see', he advises. 

Three years before By The Fire Thurston released Rock n Roll Consciousness which was led by the song Smoke Of Dreams. 

Smoke Of Dreams

Two guitars, one spindly and Sonic Youth- esque, the other a Neil Young style topline. Steve Shelley is there on drums again and Thurston sings softly. It's got a studio jam looseness, sounds live and like it was done in one take, Thurston drifting back through four decades of music making, sifting through the embers. 

Andrew Weatherall died in February 2020. Not long after a series of YouTube playlists came to light, Andrew's late night song selections, known as The Black Notebooks. There's a comprehensive post about them at Ban Ban Ton Ton. One of the songs in one of Andrew's black notebooks included was Smoke Of Dreams. 

The Mountain

Gorillaz released their ninth album back in February, a fifteen song set called The Mountain. It's a concept album, like all Gorillaz albums are, but this one's about death and grief and the question of what happens next. The two human mainstays of Gorillaz, Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, lost their dads within a week of each other while they were in India working on the album. Damon wanted to include Indian singers and musicians- Asha Bhosle (who has since died) appears along with Asha Puthli and Anoushka Shankar. Some of the album was recorded in Mumbai, Rishikesh and Jaipur and the Indian strings and classical instruments are all over the album and very affecting. 

The album was also recorded in London and Florida and there's a slew of guests with Johnny Marr playing on several songs and Idles and Sparks turning up. Once Damon started writing the album it struck him that if the songs were about death and loss, then some of the vocals should be provided by previous Gorillaz guests who had since died. He went back to the tapes and found vocals that hadn't been used on earlier songs, vocals by Mark E. Smith, Dennis Hopper, Trugoy The Dove and Bobby Womack. (Damon didn't get all the deceased contributions he wanted- Lou Reed's estate denied permission, Lou's dying wish was that there be no posthumous releases, Terry Hall's vocals had been wiped and MF Doom's had already been used elsewhere by Danger Mouse). Tony Allen appears as does rapper Proof. All these dead guests found their way into new songs, the voices reincarnated into new songs. 

It's supposed to be heard as a single album, a full piece rather than cut up into digestible chunks to backdrop perpetual doom scrolling. Like all Gorillaz albums, some of it hits and some doesn't. At times Damon's electro- pop smothers the Indian instruments and there's a lot of stuff going on- as ever in Gorillaz world there's a lot of content. But there are several songs that are very good and rather affecting. The opener, The Mountain, is based on an Indian folk song Albarn heard at Rajasthan and reworked with the Hindu Jea Band Jaipur in Jaipur. It's a lovely song, the Indian melodies and instruments doing their thing with Dennis Hopper's voice in there too. This eight minute cartoon segues The Mountain with The Moon Cave (with Bobby Womack and De La Soul's Trugoy) and album closer The Sad God and is a good snapshot of the album. The animation is a joy too, Murdoc, Noodles, 2D and Russel in Disney Jungle Book style.

Last weekend Gorillaz played some stadium gigs in London. This photo turned up on Johnny Marr's social media him and Paul Simonon on stage together, side by side on guitar and bass. A dream guitar- bass combo. 

Johnny and Paul appear on one song on the album together too, Casablanca. It doesn't sound much like either man's former bands, with little trace of either The Smiths or The Clash in it. Johnny's way with a chord sequence is right there though among Damon's electro-pop and enervated vocal, the drum machine pushing away and a choir of voices ascending. Along with a few of the other songs on The Mountain, there's something about it that I find quite moving. 

Casablanca

City Red Hot

Even typing is hot work at the moment. I'm not one to moan about hot weather, we get precious little of it in the north of England and once a year go abroad seeking it, but it does make doing everyday things difficult. As Lee Scratch Perry noted in 1977, city too hot.  

City Too Hot

Lee's solution was to go 'go cool out/ upon the hill top' which makes perfect sense especially when chanted over the top of one of those spacious, otherworldly rhythms he conjured up in the Black Ark in the 1970s. Eight sweltering minutes of dubbed out rhapsody. 

In 1990 Mark E. Smith set his sights on British people in hot weather. We're not really prepared for it are we? One hint of sunshine and there are men walking round with their shirts off, moorland fires started by people with disposable barbecues and an array of milk bottle legs and hastily dug out shorts. 

British People In Hot Weather

The song turned up on the B-side of Telephone Thing. Mark clearly found it all too much. 

'British people in hot weather/ Fill green envelopes and send them to you/ On train ride remarks tracks/ Play Walkmans loud behind you/ Demonstrate on Oxford Street/ About what the hell they couldn't tell you.... 

...people in shorts drunk before you/ Beach wailing Wapping/ His armpit hairs are sprouting/ Designer tramp goes grrrrr/ Looking jolly from Stoke as he walks through/ And makes up titles like this to order/ They're well off their trolley/ Smoking like a chimney/ The spectacles stared out/ British people in hot weather'.

In 1993 The Fall and Lee Scratch Perry came together with The Fall's Why Are People Grudgeful?, a splicing together of two Jamaican singles, Lee's 1968 single People Funny Boy and Joe Gibbs' answer record People Grudgeful. Mark took lyrics from both and combined them as the then current version of The Fall cooked up a post- punk/ alt indie skank.

Why Are People Grudgeful?

Nuclear Summer, Blame And Crunk Funk

Our accelerated 21st century post- Brexit and climate change culture continues. Keir Starmer resigned yesterday morning, his support rapidly shriveling up like that tomato I left on our garden table last night.Two years ago he was a new Labour Prime Minister with a huge majority in the House Of Commons and seemingly a mandate to bring in change. Now he's gone, widely reviled for reasons that aren't entirely clear- his vibe was off *. He was unable to communicate the good things this government have done and doubled down on the bad by, say, arresting hundreds of pensioners for protesting. In the end a huge parliamentary majority that should have given him the freedom to govern for five full years has to be tempered by the fact that he won only a fifth of the electorate at the 2024 general election. The big win two years ago was a Get The Tories Out vote in reality.

Sincerely, I hope Andy Burnham can galvanise people and turn things around. He's a genuinely popular figure (at least round here he is- and there aren't many of mainstream politicians with genuine popularity), has a relatable personality and a back story as Mayor of Greater Manchester that works. He needs to present some policies soon that hit the spot. There's no doubt the familiar right wing media will swing into anti- Burnham mode quickly.

Meanwhile we're baking under temperatures that are entirely beyond the average. Trump's view of Starmer's failure was that he failed on immigration and energy (Open North Sea Oil!' he typed, a view which is part of the problem). I hope his reflecting pool continues to filled with algae.

Some new music to soundtrack societal collapse. First, Daniel Avery remixing Fluke's Atom Bomb, a breath of fresh apocalyptic air- gorgeous synth chords, rattling drums, whispered vocals and big rumbling bass. The Nuclear Summer remix has Avery proving once again he's a master of this kind of thing, ambient techno and rave dynamics. Fluke are mining their back catalogue for updated versions and modern remixes with more to come. Music to soundtrack the shadow of the mushroom cloud. 

Second is OBOST, otherwise known as Bobby Langfield, a young man making music beyond his years. His newest track is Blame, four minutes of dancing synth melodies, the thud of the kick drum and a woozy vocal. In the the second half of blame the energy levels rise, arpeggios and piano blasting out while the voice carries an Arthur Russell- esque feel. Blame (JAB) strips the track down, more acidic, abstract and distorted. Blame is at Bandcamp for less than the cost of two pints of milk. 

Thirdly, Secret Soul Society have a two track EP out this Friday, a collaboration with Flash Atkins, that is aimed squarely at summer dancefloors even if dancing this week is likely to bring on heat exhaustion. Crunk Funk is lighter than air and loose at the seams, breathy and fresh, a lovely groove and insistent chords with a distant vocal. Sunrise, sunset- either will be improved by Crunk Funk. Get it at Bandcamp. 

* There are reasons: he didn't bring enough change quickly enough for people's liking; he was poor at presenting policy and telling a story; he was blank and flat when speaking in public; he U- turned several times which looked weak; some of his policies seemed to hit people Labour should be supporting; he lost left wing support to the Greens due to his pursuit of Reform- friendly policies; he made the disastrous Mandelson appointment; he became a lighting rod for right wing Facebook group politics (the Save Our Kids, flags and hotel mob, the 'two tier' policing critics, the free speechers who want to be able to promote racist views in public with impunity, the far right echo chamber that view him as a communist, the daily battering from the Express and Mail, The Telegraph and The Times). These things come with the territory but the hatred and venom people have for Starmer is a little bizarre.

Monday's Long Song

Justice Tonight/ Kick It Over was The Clash's first full on experiment into dub, done in Wessex studios in London while mixing London Calling (they recorded their cover of Willie Williams' Armagideon Time on 5th November, bonfire night). The two halves are two separate dubs of Armagideon Time, spliced together into one eight minute long slab of righteous Clash dub. 

Justice Tonight/ Kick It Over

Justice Tonight starts with Mickey Gallagher's ghostly organ and then the skanking rhythm with Strummer in the distance, 'A lot of people won't get no supper tonight/ Justice tonight'. The band sound superb, Topper's drums and Paul's bass to the fore and Mick learning the ropes at the production desk with Bill Plant and Jerry Green engineering and mixing. There's some liberal application of space echo and FX, Joe and the instruments dropping in and out and then the pause at four minutes ten seconds as we segue from the first half to the second, from Justice Tonight to Kick It Over. 

The Kick It Over dub goes further, the bassline pumping and a melodica carrying the tune all the way through to Joe's on mic shout of, 'OK, OK, don't push us when we're hot', a response to Kosmo Vinyl intervening as the band strayed over the two minute and fifty eight seconds mark. Joe and Kosmo had agreed that the band shouldn't go beyond the three minute mark on any songs, hence Kosmo's interruption, and Strummer barked at him as the band were smoking and in the groove- the shouting voices and fireworks going off all adding to the fun. Kick It Over drops out to leave just two piano chords, fading. Magnificent.

Thirty Minutes For The Summer Solstice

A thirty two minute mix for the summer solstice, the longest day and the shortest night. Here in the north west of England sunset will be at 9.42 pm, at which point Monday morning will be encroaching a little but it'll well worth sitting out in the fading light, making the most of it. This mix, a blend of ambient and trippy wonky acid house, might make a decent half hour soundtrack to any gnostic solstice ceremony you may wish to perform. 

Summer Solstice Mix

• A Winged Victory For The Sullen: Every Solstice & Equinox
• Arrival featuring Kevin McCormick: One (Solstice Mix)
• Manfredas: Meshuga
• Rich Lane: Solstice (12" Instrumental Mix)
• Sheila Chandra: Raqs (Zillas On Acid Mutation)
• Julian Cope: Head (Long Meg And Her Daughters Mix)

Every Solstice & Equinox is from A Winged Victory For The Sullen's 2021 ambient masterpiece Invisible Cities. The Brussels duo made the album to score a ninety minute theatrical version of Italo Calvino's 1972 novel of the same name, premiered at Manchester International Festival in 2019. I didn't go. I didn't even know about it. I should have and wih I'd gone because the album is stunning.

Arrival's 12" One/ Common Place came out on Before I Die in Janaury and I'm going to keep mentioning it here throughout the year because it deserves to be widely heard. Arrival are from Stockport. Kevin McCormick is a veteran Manchester guitarist now resident south of the city where it becomes fields and lanes. The Solstice Mix of One is an ambient glide with Kevin's guitar playing drippled like musical honey.

Multi Culti is a abased in Montreal who have released several compilation EPs under the name Solstice. Multi Culti Solstice I came out in 2021 and featured Manfredas, Red Axes, Tyu and Zillas On Acid. The text that accompanied the first Solstice EP said 'post- pandemic lockdown inspiration can be found in the great planetary balancing act that has taken place since a cataclysmic impact with an asteroid caused mass extinction and set our earth's orbit off axis'. The solstice and equinox series of releases are delivering 'sonic support at peak moments of cosmic significance'. Which as sleeve notes go is better than just, 'we'd like to thank our partners and the record label for their support'. From Solstice I I've chosen Manfredas and the wonky, otherworldly Meshuga and from Solstice II Zillas On Acid's Arabian flavoured acid freakout of Sheila Chandra's Raqs. 

Rich Lane's Solstice EP came out in June 2020, a slo mo chuggy dub disco treat that came in four versions. Get it at Bandcamp. 

It didn't seem like a Solstice mix would be complete without Julian Cope's involvement. The Long Meg And Her Daughters Mix of Head came out in 1991, a remix by Hugoth Nicolson. Long Meg herself is pictured at the top of this post, photographed when we visited in the summer of 2020. The track and this mix both come to a very sudden stop.