The Letter U And The Numeral 2

This came up in my downloads folder while I was looking for something else and it made me wonder why I haven't posted it before- and there's no time like the present. Negativland were/ are a US group with a core of four members, Mark Hosler, David 'The Weatherman' Wills, Peter Conheim and Jon 'Wobbly' Weidecker. They have been making experimental music since 1979- sound collages, sample based music as well as tracks with conventional instruments. In the 80s they were on SST along with the cream of US indie- punk. They were very much a hardcore and underground concern until in 1991 they were sued by U2's record label Island Records.

In 1991 Negativland released an EP called U2. The sleeve had the letter U and the numeral 2 in big type and the word Negativland in very small print. Island believed the group were infringing U2's trademark at a time when the Dublin band's fanbase were waiting for the latest U2 album to hit the shops- Achtung Baby and that confused U2 fans might buy the Negativland record by mistake (and thus be accidentally exposed to underground experimental music- the horror!). 

Island Records were also upset about the content of the track...

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Special Radio Edit)

The track sampled radio DJ and TV host Casey Kasem, caught in off- air moments- Kasem reading out a dedication to a family who's dog, Snuggles, had died and Kasem declaring about the Irish band, 'these guys are from England, who gives a shit?'. There are other sampled voices too, radio phone ins, a man repeatedly saying 'bullshit' and Kasem saying he doesn't understand and wittering on about Top 40 radio, and various people saying 'fuck you'. Meanwhile Negativland play a primitive synth/ keys version of U2's massive 1987 hit, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. 

There was also this version of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, the A Capella Mix, which goes further, coming back to the line 'the letter U and the numeral 2' and taking the piss out of Bono's lyrics, sampling Bono from the radio and U2's crashing drum sound, humming the vocal melody line to the song. Casey Kasem keeps flipping back in, 'I don't know what to do, I still haven't found it, I still haven't found it, I'm looking for it but I still haven't found what I'm looking for....'

The band found themselves both being sued and in the news. They withdrew the EP and deleted it. A year later their record label SST, who gave the band no support during the lawsuit, sued the band too. In 1992 two members of Negativland were able to interview U2's The Edge anonymously and posed some questions to the guitarist about fair use sampling before revealing themselves as members of Negativland. The Edge said the U2 themselves were unbothered about the record and the sampling, and that Island had largely pursued Negativland without the band's agreement. The whole story chimed with the then current debates about sampling and copyright, something that the record industry and artists were still getting to grips with. 

I also found this and am not sure why I have it as I'm not a fan of the band or the song- a Leo Zero edit of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, a far less irreverent version of the song than Negativland's. 

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Leo Zero Edit)

U2's egos needed puncturing in 1991- the pomposity of The Joshua Tree and Rattle And Hum, Bono's  'rock 'n' roll stops the traffic' persona, their humourlessness and dour sincerity all rubbed many up the wrong way. Ironically the band had realised this themselves and the album they were about to release- Achtung Baby- used sampling, synths and dance rhythms and was at least partly inspired by the musical and cultural revolution of the 1988- 1991 period. Even Better Than The Real Thing came with Paul Oakenfold dance remixes and was played in clubs. It reinvented the band for the 90s. They discovered irony. I'm not a fan of U2 but there are parts of Achtung Baby that I could listen to if required and I think we can all agree that Johnny Cash's cover of One, released in 2000 on his Solitary Man album, is rather good. 

One

And that's without even getting to Half Man Half Biscuit's Achtung Bono...

The Drums

I read Mike Joyce's autobiography The Drums on holiday- it was a quick read, I did much of it on the flight to Malaga and finished it by the pool the next day. Mike is engaging and open, conversational in tone, and saw the rise of The Smiths from the drum stool. It starts with a fairly conventional telling of his childhood in Fallowfield, south Manchester (just up the road from where I grew up but a decade earlier- there were lots of local references I recognised). His childhood is interrupted by a stay in hospital following a very nasty head injury and once recovered gets into the idea of playing the drums. 

Eventually teenage Mike moves out of the family home and into a flat in the Crescents in Hulme, the 1960s housing development near Manchester city centre gone wrong. Streets in the sky and huge sweeping concrete blocks of flats. Flat roofed pubs. Poorly built, unmaintained and unloved. By the early 80s they were an alternative community for those who wanted to live 'elsewhere'. Rent wasn't paid. There were cockroaches in the flats. The council left those who lived there to it. It turned into an enclave for young/ youngish people who wanted somewhere cheap to live and who weren't too fussy and those original residents who were trapped there and couldn't get out. The Kitchen was a legendary post- club venue found in the Crescents, two flats knocked into one with DJs playing all night in the kitchen. They've been knocked down and replaced since. 

Mike joins a punk band called Hoax after seeing an advert- he had no previous experience and offered merely his enthusiasm, a red drum kit and his drumming style- fast, faster or fastest- and then joined Victim, who toured and made a record, and played a memorable gig and night out with a bunch of anarchist hippies in Italy. The story changes when Mike joins the nascent Smiths, turning up to the audition (invited) on mushrooms and playing with Johnny Marr, the singer Steve and soon to be dismissed bassist Dale Hibbert. Johnny is impressed. They gel quickly and Mike is in awe of his bandmates, Johnny's abilities on the guitar and skills as a songwriter evident from the first meeting and the singer clearly odd but talented and different. Shortly after Andy Rourke joins on bass and they step up a gear. 

Mike sees the four as connected by their Irish Catholic heritage, all four Smiths the children of Irish immigrants, all part of the Mancunian- Irish diaspora. His account of The Smiths rise from their rehearsal room on Portland Street (in Joe Moss' clothes shop Crazy Face) to the mad tours of the US in 1986 is genuinely great to read- in all happens quickly in a rush and they write, record and tour, write, record and tour and gain a huge and devoted following. None of this is news but he brings it to life vividly. He covers the difficulties too- their unmanageableness, the financial and contractual issues, Morrissey's quirks and behaviours but balances it with his love for the band, his bandmates, their songs and their uniqueness. He notes as well how the band's stubborn northern Englishness and vegetarianism makes them stand out like sore thumbs in the high octane world of the US music industry. This gets them into trouble when they don't do as expected. He writes glowingly of Morrissey as a frontman, vocalist and lyricist despite everything that went down in that court case. Mike also writes about Andy Rourke and his death from cancer in 2023. The two clearly had a strong bond and friendship. The book more or less ends after Morrissey's free concert in Wolverhampton, Mike and Andy and Craig Gannon backing Morrissey solo at a wild gig in December '89 and a couple of solo singles (Last Of The Famous International Playboys and Interesting Drug). 

In a quirk of coincidence I'd attended a party where Mike was DJing just a few days before I read the book. Cork Of The North is a wine shop/ bar owned by DJ Tin Tin (Marc Hough). Marc is New Order's tour DJ and among other gigs DJed alongside Dave Haslam at Yellow at the Boardwalk in the 90s ( a night I attended regularly but I didn't know Marc then). Marc's son was in the same primary school class as my daughter Eliza so we've known each other since then. Marc held a party at the Heaton Moor branch of Cork Of The North a couple of weekends ago to celebrate the bar's tenth birthday and Mike Joyce was the headline DJ. 

Mike played a most un- Smithslike set of dance music and disco and on the way out me and my brother cornered him for a photo...

Mike's obvious enthusiasm and joy at being in a photo with me (left) and Josh (right) is second only to his enthusiasm for being the drummer in The Smiths, as described in The Drums. 

The Queen Is Dead (Extended Version)

DJ Tin Tin played both before and after Mike and located the Sunday afternoon sweet spot with among others tracks by A Certain Ratio, A Guy Called Gerald, New Order, Deee- Lite, Bassomatic and this 1990 single from Depeche Mode which sounded superb in the Sunday afternoon sunshine...

Enjoy The Silence

Swamp Thing

I've been revisiting Alan Moore's Swamp Thing over the last few months. Between 1984 and 1987 Moore took over as the writer on the DC Comics series Swamp Thing. He was relatively unknown at the time, having done some writing on British comics (2000AD, Marvel UK) but the big time was the US comics industry and the twin giants of DC and Marvel. Swamp Thing was a minor character, way down the DC priorities and close to being cancelled. Moore took his developing and highly distinctive writing and outlook and plotted a run of thirty six comics that would take a man- monster into new areas and helped create comics that were marketed as being 'For Mature Readers'. Watchmen, Dark Knight et al started with Swamp Thing (and Frank Miller's run at Daredevil too). 

Moore turned Swamp Thing into a true monster, a sentient plant creature, a swamp organism with a human consciousness. He then plotted a series that went into Southern Gothic, horror, science fiction and environmentalism, episodes of psychedelic and hallucinogenic exploration, an inter- speices love story between Swamp Thing and Abby Cable and a meditation on what it means to be human. At times the writing is so good, so strong, you could remove all the artwork and visuals and just print the words. The artwork, by a variety of comics artists including Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, becomes increasingly out there too, matching Moore's singular vision. In some issues the artwork spins around, the reader having to rotate the comic book to follow the story, with graphic renditions of the hallucinogenic trips, Swamp Thing's consciousness and cosmic, existential battles between heaven and hell. 

The horror elements are truly horrific- there are traditional gothic horrors with werewolves and zombies and a terrifying creature with his head sewn on backwards and a scene at Mornington Crescent tube station that kept me awake for a while after reading it. There is an ecological strand, pioneering for comics in the mid- 80s, and the nuclear/ industrial poisoning of local small town America.  Swamp Thing's partner Abby is arrested and he turns a city into a green wilderness in response, he visits the Parliament Of Trees, is blasted into space and bounces around other worlds and eventually returns to earth with the knowledge he needs- be aware of your power, be wary of anger. 

There are music references all over the place. The character John Constantine is based physically on 80s Sting. The are issues with song titles as their titles- Loving The Alien, Another Green World. Abby's friend Chester is a 60s hippy fond of quoting Bob Dylan and blasting out The Grateful Dead. 

Alan Moore has disowned most of his 80s comic book work. He deconstructed the form with Swamp Thing and then the superhero completely with Watchmen. He felt that everyone misunderstood want he was doing and that film studios and comic book companies missed his points completely. There's an interview here  for more on that and also Moore on writing , literature, fiction, magic and nostalgia. 

I'd like to think he retains some residue of love and affection for Swamp Thing, a forty year old comic book character that retains a lot of power when read today. You can pick up the anthologies, all six of them republished as Saga Of The Swamp Thing, cheaply second hand- very much worth a trip.

In 1989 Pop Will Eat Itself knew the score...

Can U Dig It? (LP Version)

As did The Chameleons three years earlier...

Swamp Thing

And it took The Grid to Top Of The Pops...

Monday's Long Song

Another Monday, another Four Tet post- I come back to Kieran Hebden's music repeatedly at the moment and he keeps dropping new releases into the world. A few weeks ago he released a new album under his unpronounceable Wing Dings alias- ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ, with eight equally unpronounceable tracks that I still haven't got around to writing about and then he goes and releases an new two track Four Tet EP at the end of July- Human Voice. 

Human Voice and T246130ish Electribe Plaits came out on vinyl four months ago and made it onto Bandcamp a week ago. The second of the two, T246130ish Electribe Plaits, is the one for today, an eight and a half minutes long piece of electronic music that has all the trademark Four Tet sounds but still manages to do something new with them. 

A low key first minute, a loop and a synth part, bleepy and brisk , that suddenly kick into a louder, new focus , pushed to the foregournd. Some long keening backdrop synth chords work their way in and Kieran keeps his hands busy, filtering and FXing. The beats keep the pace fairly fast but the music seems much slower- a trick Aphex Twin pulls off very well too- and the various layers and elements are subtly changing in emphasis as we go on. There's a pause at four twenty five where you think it might be over but the drums and synth wobble return and off we go again, swept along by the momentum. Unexpectedly and dissonantly it all dissolves into guitar feedback at the end. 

Human Voice and T246130ish Electribe Plaits can both be bought, heard and downloaded over at Bandcamp.

I'll come back to the recent ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ album another time. 

William Orbit RIP

On Friday news arrived of the death of William Orbit. He died on the 23rd of July aged 69 and leaves behind him a rich, wild and varied back catalogue of music that reaches from the early 80s underground to worldwide fame and success with Madonna and All Saints via some essential acid house and ambient records. His trademark sound- bubbling, liquid, in motion, widescreen and trippy, like staring at a sunflare- lit up a huge number of artists, his own music and production and remix work for others. In some ways 69 seems young but he packed a lot into those years and lived the life to go with it. Until recently he was still producing, reworking and revisiting his own music and releasing it as an album on Bandcamp titled WFO and an EP called Starbeam in 2021. 

This fifty minute mix contains some of the big hitters from his back catalogue with that Orbit sound running right through the middle of it. 

Fifty Minutes Of William Orbit

• William Orbit: The Story Of Light
• One Dove: Breakdown (William Orbit Stereo Odyssey)
• William Orbit: Water From A Vine Leaf (Xylem Flow Mix)
• Torch Song: P2E Remix
• Les Negresses Verte: Zobi La Mouche (William Orbit Remix)
• The Shamen: Hyperreal Orbit
• Madonna: Ray Of Light (Liquid Mix)
• Bassomatic: Fascinating Rhythm (Soul Odyssey Mix)

The Story of Light is an ambient classic from William's third album in his Strange Cargo series, Strange Cargo III, produced at Guerilla Studios while he was knee deep in the Guerilla Records label, one he set up with Dick O'Dell and John Gosling. Progressive dub house records clad in a distinctive camouflage sleeve. The Story of Light is bubbly and warm, a swirly sound with chunky drums and bass, pianos and guitars and a 'let your love shine on me' vocal refrain.

One Dove are no strangers to this blog, Morning Dove White and its singles being at the core of my musical life. Andrew Weatherall's production and William Orbit's remix on Breakdown are a perfect 1993 combination. 

Water From A Vine Leaf was a single and also the centre piece of Strange Cargo III with Beth Orton on vocals. Epic, swirling, liquid ambient acid house. There were several essential remixes, Underworld's twelve minute thumper for one and the Xylem Flow mix I've included here by Spooky, as good as anything else that came out in '93. If you want a new version of Water From A Vine Leaf, San Francisco producer Marshall Watson has one here, his Endless Motion Edit. 

Torch Song were Orbit's first outfit, an early 80s ambient/ electronic he formed with Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert. P2E Remix was featured on Andrew Weatherall's 200 compilation Nine O'Clock Drop which brought a number of early 80s bands back to the surface, A Certain Ratio, 400 Blows, Shriekback, Quando Quango, Chris & Cosey among them. 

Les Negresses Vertes are/ were a French band, alternative rock/ folk from Paris- they were sometimes referred to as the French Pogues. Orbit's remix of Zobi La Mouche is a fantastic record, just the right amount of Balearic/ acid house edge added to the original- I played it not that long ago in one of our sets at The Golden Lion and it sounded superb on the Lion's sound system. Paul Oakenfold was listening- he borrowed some of it for his remix of Happy Mondays' WFL.

The Shamen's Hyperreal came out in 1990, a key moment for the group as they shifted from psychedelic guitars and samples to full on electronic. Massive techno- pop/ house with multiple remixes. 

In 1997 William Orbit when overground with Madonna, becoming the producer on what's probably her best album, Ray Of Light. The title track along is a huge record, soaring, adult pop. Orbit sometimes went further in the studio than Madonna wanted him to, producing endless versions and remixes. The Liquid Mix is a wonderful synth- pop version of Ray Of Light. The song took four and a half months to create, Orbit returning to the multi tracks time and time again, adding, mixing, removing, remixing, playing guitar, manipulating sounds, repairing broken computers- all worth it in the end. His work with Madonna began when he remixed Justify My Love in 1990, a remix and song that are both such a key part of 1990. 

Also in 1990 Bassomatic appeared on BBC 2's Dance Energy, miming to Fascinating Rhythm in front of a youthful and enthusiastic crowd. 

Bassomatic was William Orbit's breakthrough, a late 80s/ early 90s house/ acid house collective that took him to the charts. Fascinating Rhythm is one of 1990's best singles, totally of its time but enduring too- chunky, optimistic pop with acid house and rap sewn into it. There's a bass heavy Renegade Soundwave remix I nearly included but this version, a piano led Balearic elegy felt right for he finale and to remember him by. 

RIP William Orbit. 

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 frightened to display your talents.

I wrote at some length about Talk Talk's 1988 album Spirit Of Eden, side one particularly, a three song suite that displays the talents of Mark Hollis and Tim Friese- Green, not to mention the other musicians that play on the songs- The Rainbow, Eden and Desire. 

Out in the Oblique Saturdays community Walter suggested The Slits and their cover of I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Jase went for Daft Punk's Discovery, Rol firmly in the Dexys camp with Show Me, C with Hendrix doing Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, Ernie playing his wildcard again with Splodgenessabounds and Michael Booth's Talking Bum, Al G with The Modern Lovers and Pablo Picasso (whose childhood home in Malaga I visited last week, first floor flat in the building below )...

... and Mrs G who went with PJ Harvey's 50 ft. Queenie. 

Pablo Picasso

50 ft. Queenie

I would like to hear PJ Harvey cover Pablo Picasso. I think she could take it to places new. 

This week's card, turned over yesterday when I got back from Spain, is this- Be less critical more often. 

I turned this over in my mind a couple of times and ended up with Minutemen, the 80s band from San Pedro, California, who were inspired by punk to get up and do something. Formed by childhood friends D. Boon and Mike Watt, Minutemen pulled in George Hurley on drums and wrote songs, made records and toured, all three incessantly until tragedy brought them to an end. Watt and Boon gave everything they did a lot of thought- they weighed up the meaning and value of things, of how to be a band and how to go about doing it the right way, how to relate to each other and to the world. They were critical of themselves and each other but also madly supportive and encouraging (of each other, of themselves, of other people). If the key message of punk was 'do it yourself', then they absorbed that fully, added a massive dose of work ethic ('if you're not playin', you're payin', they stated in their Jam Econo theory, driving round the US in a van playing gigs here, there and everywhere, seeing records as a way to promote their gigs, building a network and a community of like minded souls in every town they played) and worked out their political stance- anti- commercial, anti- rockist, independent. 

Their music was everything except hardcore punk (despite being very much part of that world), an ultra- democratic sound (the bass and guitar stayed away from each other's areas). They were punk funk and folk punk, art rock and spoken word, unconventional and inspirational. They fused Wire, Pere Ubu, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Pop Group, Gang Of Four, Captain Beefheart with the spirit and feel of 80s US indie- punk (contemporaries like Black Flag, Husker Du and Sonic Youth).

In 1984 they released their opus, Double Nickels On The Dime, a forty five song double vinyl masterpiece that saw each Minuteman select a side and the forth side collated from the remaining songs from the sessions (which they called the Chaff side- be less critical). It is a magnificent achievement, one of 80s punk's key albums.

By 1984 Minutemen were being less critical, were creating more songs, writing songs about anything that amused or interested them- Michael Jackson, Vietnam, racism, the poor, James Joyce and Ulysses and shit from an old notebook. 

Shit From An Old Notebook

In their songwriting, D. Boon and Mike Watt had freed themselves from external criticism. If it was valid to them, it was worthy of writing a song about. Double Nickels is autobiographical, is left wing, is funny and passionate and inspirational. 'Our band', D. Boon sang in History Lesson Pt. II, 'could be your life'. 

History Lesson Pt. II

While writing Take 5, D Boon told Mike Watt his lyrics were 'too spacey'. Watt agreed and re- wrote them, responding to criticism in an egoless way and writing new lyrics that were 'more real'. He based them on a note he found from a friend's landlady complaining about a leaky shower.

Take 5, D

'I hope we can rely on you not to use shower/ Hope we can rely on you not to use shower/ You're not keeping tub caulked/ Caused both downstairs bath ceilings and walls to be soggy/ Tub has to properly caulked prior to any shower/ Walls are drenched/ I'll refer plumber here/ Had to pay for two service calls/ Water drips from all around/ Kathy's ceiling, my ceiling/ Don't use shower/ Don't use shower'.

D. Boon died in December 1985 when the band's van, being driven by his girlfriend while he slept in the back, broke its rear axle, veered off the road and threw him from it killing him instantly. RIP D. Boon. 

I'm not 100% sure how I'm connecting all of that with Be less critical more often but it's where my head went with the Oblique Strategy suggestion- and that's what this series is all about. 

Feel free to drop your own responses into the comment box. 

Box This Sound

Time for my periodic posting of songs by The High, a late 80s/ early 90s Manchester band who were swept along on the wave of record company interest in all things Mancunian when the Hacienda, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State and  Factory blew up in the 1988- 1989. 

The High were signer John Matthews (formerly of Turning Blue), guitarist Andy Couzens (an early/ foundational Stone Rose who quit suddenly in 1987 when manager Gareth Edwards and the John Squire and Ian Brown pairing announced all songwriting would be handled by them and therefore would be credited to Squire/ Brown. Andy was also in the pre- Roses groups The Patrol and The Waterfront with Squire and Brown), bassist Simon Davis and drummer Chris Goodwin (also in The Waterfront, then early Inspiral Carpets and also Buzzcocks F.O.C.). They signed to London Records in 1990 and released several singles and an album that year- the album was Somewhere Soon, one of the period's minor classics. 

The first single was Box Set Go, a gem of a song with spiralling, chiming guitars, tumbling rhythms and softly sung vocals, one of the songs of summer 1990- dreamy psychedelic guitar pop. 

Box Set Go

Before the release of the album the group had recorded sessions with Martin Hannett including this version of Box Set Go- murkier and a little spikier. The full Hannett sessions came out for Record Shop Day in 2020.

Box Set Go (Martin Hannett Version)

Hannett was not a well man by 1989, had fallen out with Factory, produced Happy Modnays Bummed in '88 (to great acclaim) and various bands of the late 80s came looking for some of the Hannett magic. Hannett was as willful as ever. On one occasion he told drummer Chris Goodwin to start playing, set the tapes rolling and disappeared to the pub. Hannett pondered the problem that had caused him to walk out- two overhead ambient microphones- and suitably refreshed returned to the studio, placed a cigarette butt between them (Embassy No. 1, Hannett was very specific about such things), and then carried on with the session. 

I saw them play at the Haigh Building at Liverpool Polytechnic in 1990, a gig that sticks in the memory. Not long after they turned up on Granada TV, one of Tony Wilson's much missed late night music shows, playing Box Set Go and several others. 

They were back at Granada in July 1990 playing Box Set Go and PWA, loose and very much on the vibe.