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 Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do.

I opted for a JFK response, his 1961 speech about doing things not because they are easy but because they are hard. Steinski and Mass Media, The Wedding Present and Lou Reed all provided me with Kennedy themed songs. 

The Bagging Area community came up with some inspired choices- PTVL went for Genesis P. Orridge with Richard Norris and Dave Ball as Jack The Tab, arguably the UK's first acid house record, Ernie went for Lowell George and Little Feat, Al G with Mansun, Rol (arriving late after some serious jet washing) with The Walker Brothers and Walter with Nick Drake and Vini Reilly.

This week's Oblique Strategy cards reads thus- Is there something missing?

A obvious choice and one which has been in my mind recently is this...

Todd Terry's remix of Missing was everywhere in 1996, inescapable and irresistible, a crossover hit that deserved to be massive. Missing is a mood in song form. 

I also thought of Dub Syndicate's 1985 album, the mighty Tunes From The Missing Channel, Adrian Sherwood and Style Scott's hugely influential dub album that opens with Ravi Shankar Pt. 1 and with Jah Wobble appearing too, goes about pushing dub into sci fi/ ambient dub territories.

Out And About

But there's more to this Oblique Strategy stuff than just going with the most obvious, word related choices. 

Is there something missing?

Stephen Morris, drummer in Joy Division and New Order and authentic nice chap, has described the three surviving members of Joy Division in the pub after Ian Curtis' funeral. They sat their nursing their pints, not knowing how to talk to each other about death, suicide and loss, young men on the cusp of something big that has been wrenched away from them. A planned American tour cancelled. The second half of 1980 suddenly looking very different from what they envisaged. 

'See you on Monday then', one of them said as he left. 

'Yep, see you on Monday'.

Because they didn't know what else to do, they reconvened at Joy Division's rehearsal space in Little Peter Street and tried to make music as a trio. In Jon Savage's oral history, This Searing Light, The Sun And Everything Else, they each talk about the difficulties of making music with something (or someone) missing. Ian Curtis, frontman and lyricist, the object of attention at gigs, 'one of those channels for the gestalt' (said Martin Hannett), the intense and distinctive singer who set them apart from their peers, was gone. It was more than just missing a singer- he was a mate too and he was the rehearsal room ears and the editor. When the band jammed, Ian would pick out the parts that were good, get them to play that bit but put it with this bit and repeat it. 

They struggled on obviously- we all know the story. Ceremony (the last Joy Division song) and Movement (the last record they made with Martin Hannett). Movement is a sound, post- punk songs with a Hannett tone, but it lacks tunes. Apart from Dreams Never End (sung by Hooky ironically), nothing on Movement sticks in the memory for long. It's an album I have to play to remember what it's like. 

Dreams Never End

In 1981 they appeared on Granada TV, sonically moving forward with Gillian Gilbert on board but visually, physically, they all behave like there's still something missing. This clip has them playing, tentatively, five songs from Movement and Ceremony. The crowd, all local fans, look like they know this too. There's an absence, the band and the audience both feel it. 

They got there in the end of course. Discos in New York and Everything's Gone Green showing them a way out. 

Everything's Gone Green

Vini Reilly, mentioned above, had his own response to the missing boy...

The Missing Boy

'There was a boy/ I almost knew him/ A glance exchanged/ Made me feel good/ Leaving some signs/ Now a legend'.

Other bands have struggled with missing members. Is there something missing?

In 1998 R.E.M. tried to regroup following Bill Berry's decision to leave the group (a brain aneurysm onstage during the Monster tour being a key part of his decision). Bill admitted last year in an interview that he 'didn't regret it at the time but... sort of regretted it later'. Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Peter Buck experimented with vintage synths and drum machines and eventually made Up but it nearly broke them. Bill Berry wasn't just the drummer, he wrote songs too- the beautiful Perfect Circle for one and worldwide smash Everybody Hurts for another. Without Bill they were destabilised, nothing worked the same way. Michael Stipe memorably but none- too- convincingly commented, 'a dog with three legs is still a dog'.

Daysleeper

In 1985 The Clash, or what was left of them, released Cut The Crap. Topper Headon had gone in 1983 and Mick Jones was sacked by Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon (and Bernie Rhodes) in 1984. 'We fell to ego', Joe remarked. This Is England may well be up there with the rest of Joe's songs but the much of the rest of Cut The Crap most definitely has something missing. Mick Jones. Topper Headon. 

This Is England

Strummer's 1985 state of the nation address evokes strikes, unrest, police brutality, unemployment, divisive right wing politics, war in far off places, poverty, racism, protest, marches, football and asks 'when will we be free?'. 

Feel free to drop your own responses to Is there something missing? in the comment box. 

We Hold This Dear

Lines Of Silence, a Manchester/ Todmorden psyche- cosmische band played at Halle St. Peter's in Manchester last night supporting The Utopia Strong- full review to follow. A week ago Lines Of Silence released their second EP, Harmonise, for Sprechen, a radio edit of the kraut grooves of Lines In Opposition which kicks in with rapid fire motorik drumming, wobbly synth sounds and a chanted/ spoken incantation for a vocal. Guitar lines are beamed in straight from West Germany in the 70s and it all comes to an end with singer Andrea left alone intoning, 'we hold this dear'.

There are two remixes ahead of the imminent Lines Of Silence album, also called Lines In Opposition! The first is of album track Kinetik by Coventry's Stone Anthem, an industrial ambient version, with radio static, the threat of rumbling bass and fractured drums. Stretford's own, Psychederek, then completes the trio with his remix of Lines In Opposition, relocating Lines Of Silence into the cosmic chug machine with a driving post- punk bassline, bursts of synth and Andrea's vocal pushed to the fore.

Harmonise can be heard/ bought here.  

If you like that you should stick around for the album, Lines In Opposition!, eight slices of cosmic/ kraut that opens with the ambient drone and synth wiggle of Wolf, Klaus Dinger's Apache beat making its presence felt early on. Kinetik is a driving instrumental with fuzzed up guitars, the controls set for outer space but fast, and Come With Us (If You Want To...) is a psychedelic/ analogue dream. The ambient/ industrial drones re- appear on A Life Examined, a burst of transmission from distant places. Aesthetik counters it with blissed drones and FX, the guitars and synths eventually pulled in- sci fi for the FRG. Transcendental Radiation was the first single, released on the Radiate EP back in March, Moog cosmische with the space of dub. The album ends with the The Unity Drone, a spacey combination of drones, FX and melodies that feels like coming down.

Lines In Opposition! is here, on digital and vinyl- highly recommended and likely still be close to your turntables/ devices come the end of the year. 

Anatolian Edits

Anatolian Weapons is a prolific producer/ DJ from Athens, Greece whose music is wide and varied with self explanatory such as EPs called Immersive Greek Folk and Yellow Ambient Tracks sitting on his Bandcamp page. In 2022 he released Selected Acid Tracks which was one of my favourite releases of that year, long acid techno tracks to lose oneself in. 

Anatolian Weapons latest release is a four track EP titled Heart Of Asia, four edits that are inventive, engaging and funky as a mosquito's tweeter. The first one is an AW edit of Shamansky Beat's Heart Of Asia, chunky rhythms and Eastern/ Arabic sounds, very much in that early 90s Transglobal Underground vein of global dance/ acid house style and all the better for it. 

It's followed by an edit of Han'nya Shingyo by Japanese artist Soichi Terada, a rumbling, tumbling widescreen acid- global groove with synth stabs and chanted vocals. The AW edit of Rolling With Rai by Axis, a 1989 Ashley Beedle production, Algerian Rai crossed with hip hop beats and late 80s tribal house re- done for 2026.Lovely stuff. 

The fourth track is an edit of Tranquility Bass's ambient house/ downtempo/ trip hop classic They Came In Peace, eight and a half minutes of found sounds (birdsong and cicadas), ambient synths, breathing, blissed out chords, chopped up vocal samples, 'they came in peace for all mankind', and eventually, just prodding away deep in the background, the double bass riff. Perfect. 

Get Heart Of Asia at Bandcamp, free or pay what you want. 

The Mid- Week Special

Three newbie, one off single releases for mid- week to get you pumped up and in the mood for the local elections tomorrow, a soundtrack as you contemplate where to cast your vote. Maybe a more cosmic disco/ psychedelic approach to politics would benefit everybody at this stage in proceedings. It goes without saying that there is nothing remotely cosmic, psychedelic or Balearic about Nigel Farage and Reform and there's a lot to be said for voting with the sole intention of stopping Reform.

Pye Corner Audio tends to deal in dystopic, sci fi techno, acid and murky, subterranean ambient music. It's not all dark and edgy but much of it is. His latest track is very different and parallels the sunshine facing, optimistic sound of his forthcoming album (with Andy Bell's guitar on board), an album with track titles including My Shimmer, Euphoria, Rays Of Sunshine and Greet The Dawn. 

New track The Cool Breeze At Sunset came out on 1st May, an appropriately May Day sounding Balearic/ kosmische five minutes of music with percussive taps, wafty synths, some Mediterranean piano and whispery, almost jazzy 80s chord progressions. 

The Cool Breeze At Sunset is at Bandcamp, free or pay what you want. 

Brighton producer/ DJ Gordon Kaye follows his Galactic Ride single from last year with a new one, Garbage In Garbage Out. Uptempo cosmic disco with some lovely disco- birdsong screeches, a wobbly acid bassline and Gordon's daughter Gabriella singing. Nine minutes of heavenly, brightly lit psychedelic acid house. 

Garbage In Garbage Out is at Bandcamp. 

Jesse Fahnestock's music is always a pleasure, as part of Jezebell and on his own as 10:40. The latest 10:40 track is a one off edit, Winner. It kicks off with some very 10:40 synth sounds and a chunky drumbeat and then a familiar acoustic guitar riff, early 90s stoner folk/ hip hop mangled into new places. Get crazy with the Cheez Whiz. Soy un perdedor.

Get Winner at Bandcamp, free/ pay what you want. 

Ariadne is the name of a locomotive at Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, displayed in the newly re- opened Power Hall. Ariadne was constructed in the British Rail works in Gorton in 1954 and hauled carriages between Manchester and Sheffield until 1977 when the line closed and Ariadne was sold to the State Railways in The Netherlands (which is where this livery and eye catching double arrow logo are from). 

In Greek mythology Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. She helped Theseus escape from the labyrinth and the Minotaur by giving him a ball of wool which he used to retrace his steps. Later on Theseus abandoned her. 

Typical. 

Dionysus saw Ariadne sleeping and fell in love with her and they married. She became the mother of eleven children including Oenopion (who personifies wine) and Staphylus (who is associated with grapes). 

I spent some time seeing if I could connect any of this, all sparked by the photo I took in MOSI recently, with the music posted above but apart from some vague ideas about wine, partying, Mediterranean islands and the British and Dutch railway networks capacity for bringing people together I haven't really come up with anything. 

Gonna Keep It Underground

One of last month's books was Thurston Moore's memoir Sonic Youth, written during lockdown and published two years ago bit I only got around to it now. Thurston writes directly and economically but at length (Sonic Life is over four hundred pages). His memory is fantastic- he can vividly recall aspects of his life, gigs particularly. His life changed when his older brother exposing a very young Thurston to Louie Louie by The Kingsmen, the addictive joy of distorted guitar chords planting a seed that grew and grew in the pre- teen Thurston. He recounts his teenage years, the growing interest in leftfield and proto- punk bands in the early and mid 1970s. Tragedy strikes the Moore family with the sudden death of his father and the impact that has on himself and the family, Thurston briefly heading down a self destructive road of teenage delinquency. 

He writes of his teenage friendship with his best friend Harold and their trips to New York City in the mid- 70s to see the bands and singers they'd read about in magazines- the New York Dolls, The Ramones and Patti Smith- coupled with his first attempts at playing the guitar (inspired primarily by Ron Asheton's guitar sound on The Stooges and Funhouse). Thurston is above all a fan and his fandom, his love of bands and music and the associated culture- records, cassettes, posters, flyers, magazines, books, gigs- drips off every page. He loves experimental artists and noise, genuinely thrilled by artiness and one- off gigs that many people leave early from. 

His depiction of New York is also vividly drawn. Thurston moves there in 1978, looking to become part of the scene he's been tiptoeing into as an out of town punter. Pre- gentrification it was possible to rent an apartment in Lower Manhattan for less than $100 a month. Thurston notes the changes in the mid- 80s as bands, poets and artists and the various ethnic minority groups who live down there begin to get priced out by the arrival of people with money. For a while Thurston lives in a crime ridden but exciting post- punk playground where you had to watch your step- don't go out to buy cigarettes at 3 am he notes- but also where you could see Patti Smith and Ramones play at CBGBs and The Dead Boys at Max's Kansas City, the bands mere inches away from the crowd, where the fledgling New York noise of James Chance and Liquid Liquid rubbed shoulders with really obscure art- funk and punk rock. 

The early 80s scene which he gradually becomes a part of, first via his role as guitarist in The Coachmen and then by the beginnings of Sonic Youth (and playing as part of Glenn Branca's guitar orchestra), is filled with a vibrancy and energy and partly populated by people who become legendary in years to come- Madonna, Keith Haring, Jean- Michel Basquiat and The Beastie Boys are all doing their things in early 80s/ mid 80s Manhattan and in this creative maelstrom Thurston gives birth to Sonic Youth, meeting Kim Gordon and enrolling Lee Ranaldo. They go through several drummers before Steve Shelley takes up the drum seat permanently. 

Thurston's recall of these years, the details of gigs and recording studios, trips out of New York to play gigs elsewhere, several people crammed into vans with all their gear and no money, the connections made with similar bands doing similar things in other cities- Minutemen, Bad Brains, Black Flag- is incredible. He outlines Sonic Youth's artistic growth Sonic Youth as they hone their sound, the alternate tunings, with drumsticks and screwdrivers jammed into guitar necks, writing songs and lyrics, untutored and expressive, each album a step on from the previous one-  1986's Evol and 1987's Sister being breakthrough records and then the mighty Daydream Nation in 1988, putting the band on a level with the groups he moved to NY to see play. Sonic Youth's move to a major label and the 1991 tour with Nirvana brings the group to European festivals and big crowds and his friendship with Nirvana, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love is central to several chapters. Kurt's death too. 

There's warts and all as well as the rush of being in a band on the rise- his own (sometimes bratty) behaviour and the tensions between bandmates and crew jammed together in confined quarters is alluded to if not detailed. There's also the whole Kim Gordon situation- Thurston and Kim split in 2013 after a 27 marriage and even longer time as bandmates. In 2013 Kim published her own book, Girl In A Band, a book that opens with Thurston and his betrayal and makes their relationship central to her view of things. Thurston's book deals with the split, his relationship with Eva Prinz that led to it, and the end of the band, right at the end of the book- literally a few paragraphs in the last chapter. It's too personal to speak about in public is his defence. The end of the marriage ended the band and it ends the book too. 

I enjoyed Sonic Life- Thurston writes well and he really brings 80s New York art rock scene, the downtown hip hop/ art- world crossover and Sonic Youth's career to life, and (sign of a good book) it sent me scurrying back to their records and his endless enthusiasm for music, bands and records is genuine and palpable. But one of the things that struck me about Sonic Life is that it's really not a book about the people in Thurston's life. Kim gets a part and their daughter Coco does towards the end, his teenage friendship with Harold too, but I don't feel like I came away knowing anything about what Lee Ranaldo or Steve Shelley were actually like as people despite Thurston spending decades playing with them. Really, Sonic Life is about music and its attendant culture and its transformative effect on Thurston- other people's music, via gigs and records and shared stages, and Sonic Youth's music, music made by a fan of music. 

Kotton Krown is from 1987's Sister, the album where they married their experimental art- noise to tunes and really nailed how to write affecting leftfield, post- punk, where they transcend their influences. The lyrics on Sister are personal but oblique, sung by Thurson and Kim intuitively. Someone called it 'the last great album of the Reagan era' which rings true. Distorted guitars as a response to trickle down economics. 

Kotton Krown

A year later Daydream Nation distilled the Sonic Youth sound and songwriting into one of the best albums of the 1980s. It's an exhilarating blast of energy and electricity, it led them to a major label and Goo and Dirty and giant festival stages but remains at heart an album made by kids with scruffy pumps and ripped jeans. 

Hey Joni

Monday's Long Song

Back in the late 90s and early 00s there was a lot of Americana/ singer- songwriter music going on and I did my fair share of it- Howe Gelb, Giant Sand, Bonnie Prince Billy, Calexico, Smog, Ryan Adams (now disgraced and to be fair I got out early with him), Iron And Wine... I'm sure there are more I've forgotten about. As a result I don't often feel like I need to dip my toes back into the sandy desert of Americana/ Alt- Country but occasionally a song or an album comes along that catches my ear. 

Recently it was Bill Callahan, formerly recording as Smog, who a few weeks ago released a new album- My Days Of 58. Bill is approaching 60 and the songs on this album were all written during the year he was 58. I'm 56 in a couple of weeks so can relate to the feeling of turning 60 being a big deal. Bill Callahan is wry, deadpan, at times bleakly funny and honest in his lyrics. This song came to me via the algorithm and I clicked play without expecting to be surprised too much...

Why Do Men Sing is very familiar- Bill's voice is especially familiar, homely and warm- and the acoustic guitars are close up and woody. The song unfolds over seven minutes, growing into something sprawling and veering on uncontrolled with high pitched backing vocals bleeding in, an electric guitar and piano adding to the sound, and Bill asking questions, meditating on middle age and masculinity and why men sing. Why do men sing? What is this place that you took me too? 

Horns join in and Bill impersonates Lou Reed as a response to his question- 'let it ride let it ride'. I don't know if we find a definitive answer to the question but it becomes less of a problem as the song plays, the singing of the song instead becoming an answer in itself. 

Back in April 2000- and doesn't that seem a long time ago?- Bill was still recording as Smog and he released Dongs Of Sevotion, an album title that still takes some beating. The second song on it was this...

Dress Sexy At My Funeral

Bill was twenty six years younger then (weren't we all), in his early thirties with decades ahead of him. His electric guitar has a similar Lou Reed tone and his voice is recognisably the same, a little softer perhaps, less worn. He tells his wife/ future widow to dress sexy at his funeral, to wear her blouse 'undone to here' and skirt cut 'up to here', to wink at the minister and to regale the mourners at the wake with tales of their sexual exploits- doing it on the beach and on the railroad tracks. A younger man's meditation on life and death and memory. In 2013 Bill was interviewed about the subject of death in his songs and he replied that he tried to avoid it but that it was ultimately 'the big joke at the end of existence'. Maybe that's why men (and women) sing. 

Fifty Minutes Of John Martyn

 I was putting together this mix of John Martyn songs earlier this week, something I'd decided would start with Small Hours and finish with the Talvin Singh mix of Something's Better, when I saw a news article reporting that Beverley Martyn had died aged 79. Beverley was surrounded by music and musicans from a young age, was tuaght guitar by Bert Jansch, played in bands, wrote songs with Nick Drake, Levon Helm, Loudon Wainwright III and Wilco Johnson, went out with a young Paul Simon, released a solo album in 2014 and in the 70s married John Martyn. They had two children and performed together but she acknowledged it put an end to her career at the time. John's vices- drink and drugs- led to Beverley getting out of the marriage eventually, with accusations of John's domestic abuse part of the reason for the break up. 

This song, John The Baptist, was on Beverley and John's 1970 album Stormbringer! RIP Beverley Martyn

John The Baptist (Unreleased Version)

John Martyn's music has crept up on me in recent years. Drew from Across The Kitchen Table, a long gone and much missed blog, was a big fan and his posting of John's songs over a period of several years in the 2010s got me interested and I've subsequently picked up albums as I've found them- Solid Air and One World were my starting points and just last week at a record stall I found a copy of Grace And Danger, the 1980 album made during the period John and Beverley were getting divorced. John had to pressure Island records boss Chris Blackwell into releasing it- Blackwell said it was too depressing but Martyn insisted, calling it catharsis as well as the most directly autobiographical record he'd made. 

John's music began steeped in blues and folk and then took in a variety of influences- jazz, blues, reggae, and his sound and use of alternate tunings, echo and delay pedals pushed some of his songs into the ambient and Balearic worlds. Vini Reilly has said Martyn's guitar playing was a big influence. In the 90s John's music took in trip hop among other sounds. He died in 2009, his death caused by life long abuse of drink and drugs.  

John Martyn was by all accounts a difficult man, trouble with a big T. Drink, drugs, unpleasant behaviour, accusations of domestic abuse. It's difficult sometimes to separate the artist and the music. Drew (mentioned above) has stories of as a younger man being a barman in a pub that became Martyn's local for a period and having to kick him out on the landlord's orders, a man whose music he loved conflicting with the person presenting in front of him. 

A folk and blues background, pioneering and experimental guitar playing, 80s sheen and ambient production, (One World was famously recorded outdoors and a flock of geese made it onto the album's final song, Small Hours, found sounds stitched into the music)- it's all here in the mix below, fifty minutes that only really gives a small glimpse into the man's music. 

Fifty Minutes Of John Martyn

• Small Hours
• All For The Love Of You
• Anna
• May You Never
• Solid Air
• Johnny Too Bad (Alternate Take 2)
• Over The Rainbow
• Sunshine's Better (Talvin Singh Mix)

Small Hours is the last song on 1977's One World, eight and a half minutes of ambient- folk, Martyn's Echoplex guitar, the subtle Moog playing of Stevie Winwood, some percussion and the audible sound of geese on a lake in the early hours of the morning. Ralph McTell called it a 'nighttime hymn'. If nothing else of his back catalogue survived, this song on its own would be enough. 

All For The Love Of You is a One World outtake, recorded at home in November 1976 but not released until a 2008 box set. Acoustic guitar and voice, beautifully played and sung, and ending with the sound of snoring. 

Anna is from 1978, a song recorded for an Australian film called In Search Of Anna and played live around that late 70s and early 80s, but only released (I think) as an Australian single. It's got a fuller, band sound, drums and electric guitars, a heady brew. 

May You Never and Solid Air are both from his much loved, best known album Solid Air, released in 1973. The title track was written for Nick Drake, a friend to both John and Beverley, who died the year after the album's release. Danny Thompson's bass playing is a treat, rich and woody and John's guitar playing and singing are superb, a real late night record. May You Never is his best known song, written in his early 20s but sounding like the work of someone much older and experienced, making use of the dropped D tuning. 

Johnny Too Bad is from Grace And Danger, a cover of a 1971 reggae song by The Slickers that made its way onto the soundtrack of The Harder They Come. This take came out on the deluxe CD edition of the album. John's guitar playing is choppy, reggae distorted by guitar FX pedals. 

Over The Rainbow was 1984 single and on that year's Sapphire album, recorded at Compass Point in the Bahamas with some help from Robert Palmer and an Anton Corbijn sleeve photograph. It's a cover of the famous Wizard Of Oz song, written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg- I can never decide if I like it or not, the 80s synths, drums and keys sometimes too syrupy, too smooth but I included it here because occasionally it hits the spot for me. Sapphire's considered to be something of a lost classic after a couple of more mainstream ones. 

The Talvin Singh remixes of Sunshine's Better came out in 1996, a thirteen minute excursion into downtempo/ ambient/ Balearica and officially released on the Cafe Del Mar series (Volume IV). It's a perfect example of the art of the remix, testament to Talvin Singh's talent (and tabla playing), and one of Jose Padilla's sunset records. A blissed out, after hours psychedelic ambient classic.