Echo and The Bunnymen are touring at the moment and walked into some difficulties last week with a few hit and miss reviews and a last minute cancelled gig in Manchester. They got back underway at Bristol and seem to be back on track but all is not well if you read between the lines. I've seen them several times in the last few years and always had a good night out- those songs, Ian in good voice, Will's guitar playing- but at some gigs others have attended Ian hasn't always been at his best and this seems to have been the case last week. Hopefully, he's OK.
In 2013 Will and original bass playing Bunnyman Les Pattinson formed a side band, Poltergeist, a trio of cosmic explorers with Will very much free to indulge his psychedelic guitar dreams. The eight instrumental songs on Your Mind Is A Box (Let Us Fill It With Wonder) are all worthy of the time spent with them, Will and Les mining 70s cosmische, 60s psyche and scouse adventurism to fine effect. Over half the songs on the album stretch out over six minutes- this one, Cathedral, opens the record and gathers a head of steam, Will's guitars shimmering and careering over some lovely bass playing from Les.
In the 70s, as Liverpool's punk scene spun into being Will lived on a flat with Paul Simpson (Teardrop Explodes, The Wild Swans, Care, solo, author, smart dresser) halfway between the city's pair of famous cathedrals. Leaving his front door and turning left or right would bring either the Anglican one or the Modernist Catholic one immediately into view. I've always assumed that this track is a tribute to one or the other or both.
Firstly I should probably admit to being in no way an expert on Arthur Russell. I've got various tracks and a handful of albums but don't feel like I've done much more than scratched the surface of his music and on top of that I always feel with Russell's music there's something unknowable about it, something just out of reach. Sometimes it feels like his songs drift by like they've been caught by the breeze. I often feel like I'm slightly out of step when listening to them- but when they hit though, when the penny drops, they have a deep impact.
Arthur was a cellist, producer, singer and songwriter from Iowa who moved to New York in the mid- 70s and became very much a part of the Manhattan avant garde scene and then New York's disco world. He recorded dance music as Dinosaur L and moved in circles with Peter Gordon, Talking Heads, Allen Ginsburg and Nicky Siano. He released only two albums during his lifetime- 1983's Tower Of Meaning (an orchestral piece) and 1986's weird and wonderful World Of Echo (cello and voice, dub disco and acres of space and echo) plus an album as Dinosaur L 24- 24. Arthur died in 1992 from AIDS related illnesses. In the years since his death a series of albums have been released, putting more and more previously unheard Arthur Russell songs out into the world and his reputation and influence have grown and grown. 2004's Calling Out Of Context is as good a place to start with the posthumous releases along with The World Of Arthur Russell from the same year.
This mix is based on my incomplete knowledge of Arthur's music and isn't much more than some of my favourites thrown together in an order that seemed pleasing.
A Little Lost jumps in with Arthur singing 'I'm a little lost/ Without You/ That could be an understatement...' accompanied by his cello and warm, wobbly echo. It came out on the posthumous album Another Thought, the first recordings released after his death in 1993 and is a good scene setter for Arthur's music- all those weird, non- obvious qualities that make his songs so unique. See Through Love is from the same album, a song that bubbles and echoes, as if recorded underwater.
In The Light Of A Miracle was another unreleased during his lifetime track, one that came out on Philip Glass's insistence on Another Thought. It was a Loft classic (David Mancuso's NY invite only underground dance party/ space) and has been remixed various times to transcendent effect. The version here is the original mix, a shapeshifting, otherworldly piece of music, impossible to pin down, floating in some space between avant garde, disco dub and house- while sounding like none of those.
Time Away is from Love Is Overtaking Me, a record that is an outlier in the Russell catalogue- no jazz inflected disco or avant garde cello and space experiments but more traditional songs, just voice and acoustic guitar. Time Alone is minimal and naive, a song about tidying up his room, Modern Lovers indebted perhaps. 'I'm taking time away/ To dream'.
Calling Out Of Context is a collection of songs Arthur recored between 1985 and 1990, released in 2004 and containing some of his most brilliant work- the title track blends voice, percussion, guitar and keys and boundless experimentation to create something really special. That's Us- Wild Combination is from the same record, a joyous anthem with Jennifer Warnes sharing vocals. It seems to me that one of the main presences on these tracks, the main sounds, is New York, the spaces and rooms and spirit of the world he lived in. I Like You! is also from Calling Out Of Context, a strange and murky stew, electronics, cello, percussion and voice.
In The Corn Belt was one of Arthur's Dinosaur L tracks, NY dance music remixed by Larry Levan, the man who DJed for a decade at Paradise Garage, splicing dub and disco, hugely influential and pioneering post- disco/ pre- house scene, playing records on turntables with live synths and drum machines.
Let's Go Swimming is the final song on World Of Echo, a short and simple meditation and a totally unconventional marriage of cello, folk/ disco, tape delay and voice-
'To the north part of it The country I was made to Cause were you been I go That's where you'll always go I'm banging on your door Up in the big blue sky When you let the water in'
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 card said this- Put in earplugs.
I went with My Bloody Valentine and Bob Mould, both of whom play really loud and earplugs are probably recommended. They hand them out to people entering My Bloody Valentine gigs. Jase and Darren both agreed about MBV. Walter said Motorhead made him wish he'd worn earplugs and Chris saw Pixies and compared it to the CIA blasting Noriega out of his complex with extreme volume.
Drazil went for a more considered approach and the idea that if you put earplugs in and then listen to music (or make it as Eno intended) then you start to feel the music around you- vibrations, muffled bass, texture. This made him think of Burial and the track In McDonalds.
This week's card is this... Disconnect from desire
In 1997 Italian artist Gala released Freed From Desire, a Eurodance single that was a hit across Europe. How far it is actually about being freed from desire I don't know- the lyrics are about Gala's love interest, who's 'got no money, he's got his strong beliefs' and how other people just want more and more but 'freedom and love/ that's what he's looking for/ freed from desire/ mind and senses purified'.
Free From Desire has since become attached to football matches, firstly from fans of various clubs including Bohemian FC of Dublin, Stevenage, Bristol City, Wigan Athletic and the Northern Ireland national side.
Being free from desire is a state I'd associate with those who enter monastic orders, Buddhists, people who renounce worldly pleasures in search of a higher level of being. Desire would equate with sex and lust, the longing for material goods, wealth, status and some of those deadly sins- lust, avarice, envy, gluttony. People who choose to disconnect from desire would presumably disconnect from music too- the purchasing of music in a physical form can't be compatible with being disconnected from desire, although I can imagine some music/ sound being useful for assisting in meditation. Gong baths and sound therapy are currently very popular and probably happening in a hall somewhere nearby.
Adam Yauch (MCA) of the Beastie Boys embraced Buddhism and on 1994 recorded Bodhisatva Vow, marking the New York threesome entering a more gentle and wiser state- 'As I develop the wakening mind/ I praise the Buddhas as they shine'.
On Bodhisatva Vow MCA's spiritual growth concludes thus...
'For the rest of my lifetimes and even beyond
I vow to do my best, to do no harm
And in times of doubt, I can think on the Dharma
And the Enlightened Ones who've graduated Samsar'
Which is some distance from fight for your right to party. On 1998's Instant Death MCA reflects on the death of a friend to a drug overdose and of his mother and hopes for something else- the musical box/ toy piano melody and soft acoustic guitar backing with whispered vocals make this possibly the most affecting Beastie Boys song.
I've been listening to Scritti Politti a lot this week, after the forty minute Green Gartside mix I did last Sunday. Early Scritti and Green had desire on their minds a lot. Some aspects of early 80s post- punk was anti- commercial, anti- consumerist, anti- sexist, anti- advertising. Being anti- desire fitted in to that somewhere, rejecting the products that capitalism wanted to sell you, using sex to sell to sell cars and lipsticks, lager and cigarettes.
In 1981 Scritti Politti released The 'Sweetest Girl' with its B- side Lions After Slumber. The title comes from a line by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1819 after the Peterloo Massacre which suggests the song is about revolution but the majority of the lyric is a list of desires and needs- diplomacy, security, hope and ice cream in the first line alone. Lions After Slumber was re- recorded for the 1981 album Songs To Remember, Green's loves and desires over a funk bassline and bright early 80s synth pop.
A year later Green returned to love and desire on the song Jacques Derrida. Green said the song was inspired by the French poststructuralist philosopher and about 'It's about how powerful and contradictory the politics of desire are. About being torn between all things glamorous and reactionary and all things glamorous and leftist. Then in the rap it dispenses with both in favour of desire'. The song, lighter than air and catchy as flu, is a total joy and in no way disconnected from desire. 'Desire', Green sings, 'is so voracious/ I wanna eat your nation state'
A return to Snub TV today, one from 1989 and one from 1990. In 1989 Texan experimental psychedelic punks Butthole Surfers arrived on Snub. The band pursued extremes to their outer limits- hardcore punk, noise, chaos, drugs, tape edits. They were not a mainstream band and were not looking for mainstream approval. Their appearance on early evening BBC 2 must rank as one of Snub's finest achievements.
Snub caught the Buttholes at their home studio and asked them some questions which were answered in absurdist style. Note the size of some band members irises during the interview section- substances may have been consumed. The band then play live, filmed at a gig where they take sludgy 80s slowcore punk to new levels.
In 1987 Butthole Surfers released an album, Locust Abortion Technician, a record that captures them somewhere in the midst of art rock, noise and weird metal. Sweat Loaf samples/ covers Black Sabbath and opens with some lovely chords and then goes seriously leftfield with an exchange between a father and a son...
'Daddy? Yes, son. What does regret mean? Well son, the funny thing about regret is that it's better to regret Something you have done than To Regret something that you haven't done And by the way, If you see your mom this weekend, will you be sure and Tell her... SATAN SATAN SATAN!!!'
Cabaret Voltaire were punk before punk, making their own instruments, sampling, looping tapes, using video and film, hitching a ride with punk but not really playing in the same park. 1981's Yashar and their adoption of synths and sequencers saw them move into new territories- Sensoria, Don't Argue, Hypnotised are all shown in this ten minute clip and all sound like they were leading while others followed. The interviews and footage in the Snub clip shows how ahead of their time they were, and in some ways, still were in 1990. Richard H Kirk played a key role in the development of techno with Sweet Exorcists' Testone.
More new music, the third new releases post this week. I was talking to another blogger recently and we agreed that continuing to find new ways to describe and write about new music can be difficult. There's only so many ways to describe a combination of drums, synths, guitars, bass, vocals, production and FX and there's always the risk that you just end up repeating yourself, writing the same lines over and over. Writing about older music is easier- there's often a story or memory attached or the song has a history to be traced. But there's so much new music out there and so much of it is good and worth sharing- that's the trick I guess, sharing the enthusiasm for new music that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Here goes with some more, two new tracks by unrelated artists but which have something in common, a similar tone maybe. A feel.
SUSS are an ambient- Americana trio who I have written about before. Their blend of synths, guitars and pedal steel creates a sound which is very much North American and often conjures up imagery of open roads, desert landscapes, tarmac unspooling in front a windscreen, the white line disappearing into the horizon, roadside truckstops, cactus and vending machines, and arriving somewhere in the middle of the night and there not being a soul around. The new album is called Counting Sunsets and there are ten pieces of music, all called Sunset and given a number.
Sunset II is slow and melancholic, a synth backdrop punctuated by acoustic guitar notes and keening pedal steel and according to SUSS is preoccupied with 'memory and the slow erosion of time'.
This side of the Atlantic Halifax/ Manchester trio The Orielles are gearing up for what could be one of 2026's most affecting albums, a record called Only You Left. On Tuesday they released the fourth song from it ahead of its full release at the end of this week. Wasp follows Tears Are, You Are Eating Part Of Yourself and Three Halves...
Wasp is more direct than those three, with foregrounded drums and bass and a staccato guitar riff that becomes full, fuzzy chords in the chorus. The three previous releases from the album all hinted at something, showed rather than told, improvisation but with song structure behind it, an ambient guitar crossed with noise feel. Singer Esme's words on all four songs released so far seem fairly free form, poetic and profound, lamenting something perhaps. Wasp maybe less so- the song was written in Islington Mill in Salford in a studio with a wasp infestation.
One of 2026's early album treats was Number's Pollinate, a ten track dance/ post- punk/ punk funk affair from the Red Snapper duo of Rich Thair and Ali Friend. This A Certain Ratio rework of Amber ratchets the buzz and the rhythms up a few notches too. A vinyl release of Pollinate is happening- get it here.
As well as Number and Red Snapper Rich Thair records as Dicky Continental and has recently remixed Hungarian artist Doktorhokashi and his track It's Still Boogie...
The drums rattle in like a New York subway train, the bass rumbles and a nagging synth part works its way through. The vocals, slightly lower in the mix, and a repeated 'Hey!' echoed by a softer 'boogie'. The sound of the Hungarian underground. Out on Budapest's Mana Mana Records and available here.
Officer John is from Dublin, a mysterious solo outfit (expanding to four for gigs) led by Niall Rogers, recording for the equally mysterious Dublin label Wah Wah Wino. Information is scarce and it feels like that's the way Officer John likes it. I was tipped off by a conversation at the Golden Lion recently and then a post at Ban Ban Ton Ton. The most recent release is a June 2025 song called Handle which drifts in on a bed of FX and then a nicely early 90s shuffly drum break. A fluid guitar line drizzles down and then a softly sung vocal. Psyche- Balearica anyone?
Over at Bandcamp there are a handful of other tracks. Stay kicks in with a beautifully distorted guitar and rattly drums and a Spacemen 3 level sleepy vocal. Pass is led by thumping drums, another cool guitar riff and some FX. The vocal sounds like the singer has been woken just a few minutes before the Record button was pressed. Blissed out indie dance from Dublin suddenly seems like a very good idea. There's more here plus dates for a tour in April which includes a stop off at the Castle on Oldham Street.
From Dublin to Muscle Shoals- Sister Ray Davies make shoegaze/ guitar dream pop, a duo from Alabama who released an album last year themed around Holy Island, Northumbria. Alabaman shoegaze based around 6th century Celtic Christianity is pretty rare on the ground and I really liked it- and then in the way that often happens in an accelerated internet culture I forgot about it. Last week Sister Ray Davies announced a new EP, Holy Island Baby which will come with two Pye Corner Audio remixes among its five tracks. It also has this one, Iona (Portside Dub), a shimmering, motorik, cosmische/ Balearic creation with dream state whispered vocals and a Spacemen 3 style fuzz guitar riff.
Iona (Portside Dub) is out now, the Holy Island Baby EP next month. Get both at Bandcamp. They're also touring in April with dates in both Todmorden and Yes in Manchester.
