Once There Was No Time Just Once

A Certain Ratio at Band On The Wall on Saturday night, the end of a tour where they've played a pair of their 80s albums in full, Sextet and Force- something they've not done before and won't do again. They start with Sextet, their third album, released on Factory in 1982 when they were young men in their early 20s. Martin Moscrop tells us just before the end that revisiting these songs and albums forty years later has been a strange experience, getting themselves into the heads of the 21 and 24 year olds who made them. The recent tours have seen ACR play a mixture of songs from their recent albums and 'the hits' (favourites I suppose rather than hits). Tonight there will be no Shack Up, no Won't Stop Loving You, no Do The Du. A different ACR experience. 

Sextet doesn't sound like a forty five year old record as played live. They start with its first song, Lucinda, minimalist post- punk jazz/ funk of 1982, Martin on drums, Don on slap bass, Jez centre on keys and bassist Viv playing guitar and singing Martha Tilson's vocals, the 1982 monochorme Lucinda in blasts of colour (like Sextet's vivid orange and green sleeve). The rest of the album is brought to life with Don back behind the drums, Viv on bass and Martin swapping between guitar, percussion and trumpet. The trumpet is the key sound on many of the songs, Martin transporting a 70s Miles Davis sound, two note refrains, to early 80s and mid 2020s Manchester. Knife Slits water is full sounding punk funk and Rialto is urgent and alive. Jez introduces Waterline, added onto the end of the first set, as 'Andy Weatherall's favourite ACR song' and the band push and pull its weird off kilter funk around, funk rhythms and jazz atonality with their Thin Boys punk attitude. 

A fifteen minute gap and ACR come back for Force, the 1986 album with Jez's vocals and lyrics more central. 'I didn't like Force when it came out', he says, 'I didn't know what these songs were about... I do now'. 

Force was ACR moving towards a more commercial sound, a dance rock/ jazz hybrid with verses and choruses, the chillier, bleaker themes and tones of their early songs now coloured in with splashes of mid- 80s fluoro. Only Together and funk bass epic Bootsy open the second set, Mickey Way- a long time fan favourite- is another jazz trumpet funk tune, Martin's trumpet and the synths and keys all ascending as the bass slaps and twangs away. Force was the first ACR album I bought in real time on release, so it's always been a big one for me. ACR playing it tonight doesn't feel like mid- 80s nostalgia or a revivalism, it doesn't particularly evoke 1986. Manchester's changed beyond recognition in the four decades since then. The band aren't the people they were then. Nor are we. These are those songs, redone for now. 

And The She Smiles is dedicated to two much missed women, Denise Johnston and Danielle Moore, and then the Force set is expanded with album's title track (not released at the time) and The Runner (from 1986 but originally released on Italian label Materiali Sonori as the Greetings Four EP). Both sound great, hyperactive and driving, busy but cut through with the Factory feel. 

The Runner

They finish as they usually do with the Manc- Brazilian percussion workout Si Firmi O Grido, all those cowbells, congas, whistles, drums and bongos bouncing around the old venues walls. 

A Certain Ratio have released new versions of Sextet and Force. Sextet has been reworked by The Emperor Machine, 2026 updates of 1982 songs and Force has been re- issued in alternate versions, never heard before. The Joy Of Sextet is here and Force Majuere is here. 

Monday's Long Songs

In 1992 Underworld released Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You, a 12" single as good as anything else that came out that year. Skyscraper is a thirteen minute tribal/ techno/ progressive and ambient house tour de force with Rick Smith's synths and Darren Emerson's drum programming the perfect music backdrop for Karl Hyde's stream of consciousness mutterings and non- sequiturs. Hyde started the words on a plane coming in to land at New York. 

'Thirty thousand feet above the earth/ It's a beautiful thing'. 

He added more travelling round the city at ground level, a seemingly disconnected series of impressions and sketches. Porn dogs and Elvis and a little whipped cream. 

They moved music ahead with this release and 1993's album dubnobasswithmyheadman and sound like no one but themselves. It was a time when music felt as if it was in a constant state of progress and innovation. As well as the thirteen minute spectacular that also takes up much of side one of their 1993 masterpiece dubnobasswithmyheadman there were two further versions on the 12".

Telegraph is seven minutes long with a woman's voice saying the title and laughing. Bleepier and tougher, the tempo faster and into trance territory

Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You (Telegraph 6.11.92)

Jam Scraper is nine minutes, a bleepy synth squiggle over the top of those long Blade Runner synth chords and Karl's bending guitar note providing a long slow intro, anticipation that doesn't take off until two minutes in when the kick drum really starts to thump. 

Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You (Jam Scraper)

 

Thirty Five Minutes Of Ambient/ Folk Guitar Instrumentals

Not the catchiest title for a Sunday mix perhaps. The photo is of the Mediterranean Sea, taken from the beach near Nerja in the summer. As Storm Austen batters its way round the UK I can't help but think I'd much rather be in Spain. 

This mix came together via a post over The Swede's blog featuring a folk guitarist called Henry Parker whose EP The Dark Peak is a set of contemporary folk instrumentals on acoustic guitar inspired by the Peak District. The song Eowestre Clough sent me back to the Bert Jansch album Avocet, a 1979 set of acoustic guitar folk instrumentals, that I also picked up on via The Swede's blog, Unthought Of, Though, Somehow.

Playing the two tracks back to back led me to the rest of the set, thirty five minutes of guitar based, folk and ambient tunes, mainly from recent releases but with Bert Jansch opening it with a song from his 1979 album Avocet. I meant to include a Thurston Moore instrumental but forgot. Sorry Thurston. 

Thirty Five Minutes Of Ambient/ Folk Guitar Instrumentals

• Bert Jansch: Kingfisher
• Henry Parker: Eowestre Clough
• Andy Bell and Masal: Tidal Love Conversations In That Familiar Golden Orchard
• Kieran Hebden and William Tyler: Secret City
• Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider: The Story of Your Life
• Robin Guthrie: Coming Up For Air
• Sewell And The Gong: Patron Saint Of Elsewhere

Avocet came out in 1979, Bert Jansch at his best with an album of instrumentals inspired by British birds- all the song titles are named after birds, Kingfisher, Kittiwake, Lapwing, Bittern, Osprey and the twenty minute title track Avocet. Danny Thompson plays bass and is a huge presence throughout and Martin Jenkins plays fiddle. It's a bit of a late 70s gem, totally out of step with everything going on in 1978 and 1979 and in a way is timeless as a result. Much of it sounds like it could have been recorded at any point between the 1960s and this year. 

Henry Parker's The Dark Peak was new to me until this week and I've been playing catch up ever since. Sadly the vinyl is long since sold out so the digital will have to do for the time being. The Peak District is a place we visit fairly regularly, the national park between here and Sheffield. Parker captured some field recordings out in the Peak in March 2025 including some of the birds that Bert Jansch was writing about. The EP is a solo tribute to the moors and the wildlife and those wild, solitary places. You can listen/ buy here. 

Andy Bell and Masal have an album out this year, an ambient/ psychedelic work called Common Primitives. A previous one, Tidal Love Numbers, came out in 2023. Both have been compiled into a double disc vinyl set recently on Sonic Cathedral. Andy brings his guitar and Masal bring their analogue synths and harp. Tidal Love Conversation In That familiar Golden Orchard is from Tidal Love Numbers- mesmeric, folk/ ambient crossed with cosmic jazz. 

Kieran Hebden and William Tyler's 41 Longfield Street Late 80s came out last year, one of 2025's most listened to albums round here. William's guitar playing and Kieran's laptop and production in a Yin Yang situation. Spider Ballad is the final song from the album, a collision of synth drones, acoustic guitars and noise. 

Modular synth player and tape experimenter Jamie Lidell and Nashville pedal steel guitarist Luke Schneider released A Companion For The Spaces Between Dreams a year ago, experimental instrumental psychedelia born from their discussions about creating a soundtrack for Lidell's own ketamine therapy sessions. Luke's pedal steel guitar is a wonky delight on this track, the notes bending and shifting deliriously. Inner voyage music

Robin Guthrie's Bandcamp page is a treasure trove of tracks he left off other albums or which never saw the light of day for whatever reason. He's released two beauties this year, Cherokee and Coming Up For Air- the latter is on this mix, a gliding, sparkling piece of ambient/ post- Cocteaus shoegaze guitar music from 2015. 

A year ago I was deeply into Sewell And The Gong's Patron Saint Of Elsewhere, a seven track album of pastoral, cosmic, Balearic folk that still sounds as fresh a year later as it did last autumn. 

It is my wife's birthday, fifty five today. Happy birthday Lou. x

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 Get your neck massaged.

Which didn't spark too much initially in me by way of responses. Eventually I got to Oneohtrix Point Never, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Love Corporation. 

Out in the field the Oblique Saturdays team pitched in with the usual array of inspired choices- JM suggested Reef and The Sweet, Her Palid Reflection came up with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Jake (bouncing back to the previous week's big rooms) gave us Paul Horn, Al proffered Wu Tang, Trail Of Bread suggested The Wedding Present, Devo, Prong and an unsafe for work track from Khia, Mrs G went with Elvis, Chris Yardley offered up a Roxy Music remix, Rol went for Stevie Wonder, The Swede wanted Shriekback and The Pretenders, and Khayem gave us Echo And The Bunnymen.

Broke My Neck

This week's Oblique Strategy from Mr Eno and Mr Schmidt is this- What wouldn't you do?

1. Vote Tory. 

As Meatloaf said, 'I'd do anything for love but I won't do that'.

I could probably add more items to that list but the question posed on the card made me think of other musical questions. How does it feel to feel? What have I done to deserve this? What time is love? Why are you being so reasonable now? What's the frequency, Kenneth? What's my name? What for? What is love? What is house? What does your soul look like? Where is my mind? Where have all the flowers gone? Why can't I be you? What's going on? How soon is now? What's all this then? What have I said now?  How far can too far go? What's inside a girl? What do I get? 

Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? *

Why Can't I Touch It? **

That's enough questions for the time being. Maybe you can come up with some answers. As ever, feel free to play along in the comment box. What wouldn't you do?

*I think Khia has the answer to this question.

** And this one. 

Autumn Reached For Her Golden Crown

A couple of weeks ago we walked at Edale in the glorious October sunshine, too hot with our coats on and sat on the grass on this hillock to have a drink and admire the view. Since Wednesday night in South Manchester it has been pouring down, cold and the pavements are covered in the brown sludge of fallen leaves. It seems that autumn has finally arrived- not the golden crispy day autumn that we all like to think of autumn as but the real autumn. 

In 1969 Nick Drake recorded this song for his debut album Five Leaves Left...

Time Of No Reply

Time Of No Reply didn't make it onto that album and wasn't released until 1987 when an album of outtakes came out, named after that song. I bought it unheard after reading a review in Melody Maker. It's funny to think it's nearly forty years now since I first heard them. I'm not sure all of the album hit home with me immediately, it took a while for some of those songs to embed themselves in me, partly as I just wasn't really listening to English late 60s folk at the time- I'm not sure why the review made me buy it given it was outside my usual frame of reference for 1987/8 but I'm glad I did. 

Rider On The Wheel. Black Eyed Dog. Time Of No Reply. Imagine having songs that good and not including them on your albums. 

Time Of No Reply starts like this...

'Summer was gone and the heat died down/ And autumn reached for her golden crown/ I looked behind as a heard a sigh/ But this was the time of no reply'

.. and it's been running round my head all week. 

Reminiscences

I've been living with the new Dexys Midnight Runners album, Love, for a couple of weeks now. It's Dexys's seventh album, produced by David Holmes and released on Heavenly, and is apparently part of or maybe the final word from Kevin and Dexys. The last song on Love, My Life In England Part 2, in which Kevin exhorts the people of England to 'rise up' over swelling strings, finishes with Kevin saying, 'Goodnight'- which could clearly be taken as the last word. 

The album starts with My Life In England Part 1, a re- recording of an already existing Dexys song, one where Kevin tells his family history, his parents emigrating from Ireland to Wolverhampton and then moving to London, his mum's love of singing, Irish parties where rebel songs were sung, and the accents of the West Midlands and North London, and features Kevin's joyous singing of the chorus- 'My yi yi yi yi yi-yi-yi-yi , life in Eng- er- land'. 

In between the two versions Kevin and Dexys spin and dance around eight more tales of love. Once A Man, Twice A Child is a eulogy for his Dad and the time they spent together when his Dad was a very elderly man. Kevin's relationship with his father was a difficult one and this song seems to be a musical reconciliation. Holmes' production is deep and warm, sympathetic to the songs. Kevin knows what he wants to sound like and the songs are big and soulful, emotive, sometimes sentimental and lyrically very much a taking stock. Kevin sings about aging ('I used to wonder do old people fancy other old people? Now I know the answer', he sings) and about family, grandchildren, romance, grief... all the big stuff, all the lessons learned. Kevin Rowland is and has been a singular voice in British music since the late 70s and (although I can do without the Christmas song), he has earned the right to do what he wants. 

The song You've Got The Love was Love's second single and initial digital copies of the album bought at Bandcamp came with a David Holmes remix of the song. Homer's remix has now been released in its own right along with a pair of Steve Mac mixes. The Holmes remix is a joy, looped drums and bass and snatches of vocals, a track filled with dancefloor urgency, Balearic chords and a joie de vivre summed up in the song with the line, 'you've got the love that I need...' 

I saw Kevin's autobiography out on paperback recently so I've been reading that at the same time. It's called Bless Me Father and his relationship with his father is never far from the centre of the book. Kevin's entire life, from childhood, has been one wracked with anxiety and insecurity. He didn't always realise it was this- as a young man he was angry and lashed out at people, let them down, behaved in ways which confused and upset them. He thought his father was permanently singling him out for criticism. He fell into a life of juvenile crime, multiple court appearances and family arguments. Reading Kevin's story I couldn't help but feel that if he'd had someone talk to him properly, some counselling as a teenager or young man, he could have been saved a lifetime of internal pain and relationship strife. 

Kevin doesn't seem to have particularly enjoyed any of his time as a pop star, the period between their breakthrough with Geno and Young Soul Rebels and then the huge hits with Come On Eileen and Too- Rye- Ay, seem to have been fraught and miserable, constant arguing and second guessing, not trusting people, self sabotaging, falling out with band members and pushing them away. He describes his life in vivid and frank detail- at times you wish he could be a little less candid but I guess it's all part of the process of writing it. His description of his cocaine addiction is horrific. In the end there is redemption, relief, recovery, and some self awareness, a coming to terms with the anxieties and issues which have plagued him. That book and this album very much work as a pair, a reflection on a life that has been all over the place at times but that has given us some amazing songs and only now he's much older has he achieved some peace. Through it all though, he acknowledges towards the end of the book, it has often been that music is the thing that has saved him. 

Reminisce (Part One)

The Beautiful Kids On The Coast

Kim Deal's debut solo album Nobody Loves You More came out two years ago next month, an album I didn't pick up on until the end of year lists started to mention it- and then when I got a copy, I fell in love with it. Kim's voice and guitar playing, the breezy nature of some the songs- some of them indie rock, some bossa nova, some with horns- and the personal and clearly heartfelt nature of others, won me over on the first play of it. I went back to it recently and found that I still love it and that it's one of those perfect little albums, eleven songs in under forty minutes- turns up, sounds great, does its job. 

The title track comes in with a burst of strummed guitar and then throws you off a little, sweetly sung with an string quartet backing, and then goes all bossa nova pop in the middle. 

Nobody Loves You More

On Coast a trumpet and trombone parp away and the song sways about, lost in itself. Kim sits on a bench by the sea, looking out and reflecting. 'Abandoned plans for the good times', she sings and, 'Clearly all of my life I've been foolish', but, as she sees the young people playing in the surf she relaxes into the moment, watching, 'the beautiful kids on the coast'. 

Coast