Let's wave goodbye to 2023 with the final Sunday mix of the year, this one stretching out with an hour and thirteen minute's worth of tunes from this year, not exactly a Best Of 2023 (although these are among the best of this year) more of a Some Of 2023. A mixture of trippy, dubby electronic music, throbbing dance tunes, chuggy indie dance, Balearic pop and Dublin guitar slinging sturm und drang.
Happy New Year. Have fun tonight however you're choosing to celebrate. Thank you to everyone who's come here this year, to read and comment. I don't think I write this thing with an audience in mind but it helps to know that there is one, and that the people that populate it and places like this one are defintely a community. The comments and responses, particularly to some of the more personal, grief related posts, are genuinely much appreciated and a real support. Thank you, all of you.
Something else I missed off my 2023 list is this single from Bill Ryder- Jones. It came out three months ago but I didn't hear it until I read about it at Khayem's Dubhed. Then I forgot about it and only remembered it again when reading an interview with Bill and went back to it. The song is completely at the edge, strings so close to the precipice they teeter, almost collapsing. Bill's voice sounds like he's on the verge of tears, and there's a video to match, the young boy (Lincoln McDonagh) running away from something, filmed in bleak British landscapes. It's emotive, big sky music but achingly personal too. I think (hope) there's some redemption or at least survival at the end- as the song says, this can't go on. This Can't Go On will be on the album Iechyd Da, recorded at Bill's West Kirby studio, is out next month.
Polish band Jazxing's Pearls of The Baltic Sea was one of my favourite albums of 2022- this year's remix version came out at the end of October, the eight tracks remixed by eight different artists and was a very worthy follow up. I missed including it in my end of year list last Saturday, a bit of an oversight because it's a wonderful album in its own right.
The Balearic Ultras remix of Shoegaze Dub is one of the highlights, a slow mo drift with piano chords, dub bass and snippets of conversation, people discussing shoegaze, sound, guitar FX and experimentation.
Bagging Area regulars Coyote show up with their Whirling Dervish remix of Vijnana that displays what they do so well, a layered, laid back but insistent version of the song, hazy but with a pulsing heartbeat, acoustic guitars, hand drums and an inclusive, everyone sitting round the fire on the beach feel.
Brighton's Andres Y Xavi take on Hyacinth, the ticking rhythm of an 808 with acoustic guitar and cooing voice conjuring up summer and long, warm nights, something that seems like a dream in late December.
Opening the album is Danilo Braca's remix of Fala. Fala was the track on the original album that first grabbed my attention, a huge cosmic groove with 80s sax. Danilo spins it out for over twelve minutes setting out with waves, gulls, and a sax solo but then shifting it towards the floor, drums and handclaps, kick drum, piano chords, synths and eventually heavy bass and some acidic touches.
These four are the current favourites- the rest of the album with remixes by Polotronic, James Bright, Das Komplex and Janca are all well worth investing in. You can buy the whole thing here.
We are now deep into the lull period between Christmas Day and New Year's Day, where it could be any day of the week and it doesn't really matter much which day it is. Apologies to those who are back at work- I appreciate it matters to you. For clarification's sake it is apparently Thursday. This is the best bit of Christmas for me, the day itself done with but the holiday very much in full effect. To celebrate, here's the distinctly unseasonal sounds of Mr. Fingers aka Larry Heard in 1986 with a record that brought forth a genuinely new sound into the world...
Washing Machine came out as a 12", a double A-side paired with the legendary Can You Feel It? Early house music, a sound that changed the world and the way (many) people heard music. Using a drum machine and a keyboard, FX and delays, Heard creates a record that has depth, real emotional pull and the sensation of one's head being inside the titular white good appliance, a giddy, spinning sensation. Off kilter, acid squelch. Electronic psychedelia from Chicago thirty eight years ago.
It's difficult for artists who create a technical and artistic revolution. What do you do next? Larry Heard has kept his fingers in the acid house pie, and added in new age, hip hop, four- four house, techno, cosmic house, jazz and r 'n' b to his music over the ensuing decades.
In 2016 he went full melodic trippy, acid techno with Inner/ Outer Acid and on 2018's Cerebral Hemispheres an album that showed contained everything Larry Heard could do. On Electron he transplanted mid- 1970s Tangerine Dream to 21st century Chicago and found the motherlode, again.
Vashti Bunyan's Winter Is Blue is a pretty dark song lyrically. The first two verses go like this-
'Winter is blue/ Living is gone/ Some are just sleeping/ In spring they'll go on/ Our love is dead/ Nothing is crying/ Love will not find even/ One more new morning'
Later on she sings, 'Winter is blue/ Everything's leaving/ Fires are now burning/ And life has no reason'. This version of the song came out decades after it was recorded. Vashti recorded it for Andrew Loog- Oldham's Immediate label but it was left in the vaults until 2007. The bleakness of the lyrics are countered by the sweetness of the arrangement, the finger picked guitar (said to be Jimmy Page) and strings, the sort of sound Loog-Oldham created for Marianne Faithful and tried to replicate with Vashti. It was re- recorded for Vashti's 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day, the album that sold so few copies on release that she packed up and left, moving to Ireland and then Scotland before being rediscovered in 2000 and giving her a second musical life, three decades after she abandoned the first.
This one minute thirty seconds long clip from the 1967 documentary Tonight Let's All Make Love In London shows Vashti at the mic in the studio and Andrew with Glyn Johns at the desk.
In 2020 The Avalanches returned with several singles that led to their third album, We Will Always Love You, a vast, widescreen, genre hopping double album. It included this sumptuous pop- soul song, Reflecting Light, singer Sananda Maitreya sharing the vocal space with a sample of Vashti (from her 1970 song Glow Worms), the two voices coming together for the line 'dreamers moving slowly through the reflecting light'. On Reflecting Light is as much a sound collage as a song, the synths, samples and soft padding drums conjuring up something genuinely cosmic.
Grian Chatten's Chaos For The Fly was one of 23's albums that I kept coming back to- at first the songs, the singles aside, felt a little subdued and low key but it rewards repeat plays, something quite refreshing in an age where attention spans are shorter than ever. There's lots to enjoy in the songs, Grian's voice and words, and the music, a marriage of folky tradition and electronics and underneath it all it feels quite adventurous, like he's pushed himself outside his comfort zone.
The Velvet Underground closing Loaded in 1970 with the cooled down, chilled out sounds of Oh! Sweet Nuthin', a seven minute tale of Jimmy Brown, Ginger Brown, Pearly May and the girl who ain't got nothing at all, Doug Yule taking lead vocals. Maybe that's why Lou was so pissed off at Christmas.
I haven't really felt much Christmas joy so far this year and all of a sudden it's Christmas Eve and I need to try to get into the spirit a little. Therefore, today's Sunday mix is a Christmas special, a little under forty minutes of Yuletide tunes to sing around the Christmas tree. Admittedly The Jesus And Mary Chain aren't particularly full of Christmas cheer but a little noise and self- loathing is all part of the season isn't it?
The picture, 'cos I know you're asking, is from a nativity scene that gets erected every Christmas about half a mile up the road from here. It's full of the Joyeux Noël spirit and is a feast for the eyes.
Sonic Boom: I Wish It Was Like Christmas Every Day (A Little Bit Deeper)
The Fall: Xmas With Simon
Saint Etienne: Her Winter Coat
One Christmas For Your Thoughts was originally released as part of a 1981 compilation, Chantons Noel, on Crepescule along with other festive tunes by artists including Aztec Camera, Paul Haig, Simon Topping, and Cabaret Voltaire. It then became an extra track on the various CD re- issues of LC, the 1981 Durutti Column classic- LC stands for Lotta Continua, the struggle continues. This is a particularly lovely piece of Vini Reilly guitar playing and let's face it, there's never a bad time to listen to Vini.
Basement 5's Last White Christmas came out in December 1980, dub/ punk produced by Martin Hannett. Post- punk dread as standard.
Birthday was a single by The Sugarcubes, their breakthrough record. In 1988 Jim and William Reid remixed it three times, each one with a Christmas title- Eve, Day and Present. Scuzzy Christmas sounds. Side A of the 12" is double grooved so when putting the needle on the record it was always a lottery as to which version you'd get.
Christmas In Cologne is on The Vendetta Suite's December 2019 EP The Wheel Turns, a festive krautrock treat from Belfast's Gary Irwin, Christmas a la La Dusseldorf.
Just Like Christmas has become one of the few seasonal songs I'll actively seek out around Christmas, the Minnesotan three piece releasing it as part of an eight song Christmas album in 1999. Sleighbells, Velvets drums and sweetly sung lyrics about driving from Stockholm to Oslo, it starting to snow and it feeling like Christmas.
Johnny Marr's Free Christmas was given away free from Johnny's website back in 2011. Chiming guitars, acoustic guitars, baritone guitars and some choral voices with Mr Marr wishing listeners a happy Christmas.
Sonic Boom's 2020 Christmas song was a reworking of another of his songs from the All Things Being Equal album and has Galaxie 500/ Luna's Dean and Britta helping out on vocals. Christmas as repetitive, trippy drones and a song specifically for a Christmas we all spent in Covid enforced isolation.
Xmas With Simon was the B-side to 1990's High Tension Line single. The Simon in question is Simon Wolstencroft, ex- Fall drummer who I bumped into at the Unknown Territories gig last weekend. Shame I didn't have the presence of mind to get a photo with him. The caption would have written itself.
Saint Etienne's Her Winter Coat was a December 2021 single, a rather beautiful Pete Wiggs song and production, a wintry blur of synths, sleighbells with the distinct air of melancholy. Just like Christmas.
2023 has been a year of 23s for me in many ways. I've written before about the number and its occurrence, its relationship to us since Isaac died and the tattoos the three of us got done in October. This is my end of year post, a list pulling together what has been the best of 2023 for me. Inevitably there are 23 entries (but much more than 23 artists, singles and albums) and as I was writing it I realised that today is 23rd December (I planned to post this today before thinking about what date it would be). I have heard so much new music this year and so much of it has been really good- my long list of albums of the year came to thirty albums without much thought, a new album for every ten days of the year. And while much of this year has been a real struggle with grief and the long aftermath of Isaac's death, I've had some great nights out at events that were (almost) entirely about the music- the grief never goes away, it sits inside me or hovers above me but music- recorded music, live music- often has the power to transport me in a way nothing else does.
This is a list of my favourite musical things of this year. It's not objective. I haven't heard everything I should have done and I'm sure there are records that I'd love if I had more time and more money. Usually I find something early into the new year that instantly screams 'best of last year' to me. Also, ranking art and declaring one album 'better' than another is inherently subjective but end of year lists are fun and looking back and putting it all into one place is a good way to mark the end of the year. The year of 23.
Twenty Three: Venue Of The Year
No contest here- The Golden Lion in Todmorden and a fitting place to start the list. I've enjoyed several superb nights out at The Lion this year with the honour of DJing on a few occasions. ALFOS in June was very hot and memorable, David Holmes' album launch party in November was a 2023 highlight,
Dan Donovan’s Casbah Club in August (sadly Paul Simonon was unable to attend), our Sabresonic celebration and Q&A with Jagz
Kooner and Gary Burns and Jagz’s DJ set (videos of the Q&A to follow shortly), the Tici Taci Party in August with Sean JOhnston and Duncan Gray DJing downstairs after a blistering set from Sons Of Slough upstairs, Red
Snapper rattling the fittings in November and the legendary, untouchable AW60 in April with a beautiful cast of artists and revellers and a huge headlining set from Justin Robertson.
Twenty Two: Label Of The Year
There are lots of independent labels putting out loads of good music, keeping things in house and small scale- not that there's anything small scale about the music- with digital and physical releases. These three have kept me busy all year with singles, EPs and albums, one offs and compilations- a three way tie for first place. Leeds based label Paisley Dark has put out releases by Warriors of The Dysthoteque, Jay- Son, The Machine Soul, Hogt I Tak and James Rod, all top notch electronic psychedelia. Duncan Gray's Tici Taci has had a year long celebration of ten years in the business with a tenth birthday party at the Golden Lion, a series of compilations, Decades Volumes 1 to 4 with outstanding new releases from The
Long Champs' 'Nostalgia For The Future', Jack Butters' ‘Shake It Off’ and singles and EPs from Mystic
Thug, Uj Pa Gaz, Viper Patrol and Mr BC. Along with those two is Exeter's Mighty Force, the label that back in the early 90s put out Aphex Twin's first 12" single, reborn for the digital age. Mighty Force have sent all of these into the ether and all are excellent electronic music- Yorkshire Machines ‘Firing Up’, ‘Fluffy Inside’ by Nylon Corners, M- Paths' ‘Hope’ AP Organism's EP ‘Space Docks And Moon Rocks’ David Harrow's ‘Jitter’ and ‘Described Spaces’ by KAMS. Long may all three labels continue.
Twenty One: Gig Of The Year
I had the pleasure to see some great gigs this year, several of which lived long in the memory. Spiritualized at Manchester's New Century Hall were genuinely breathtaking. Red Snapper at the Golden Lion kicked up a storm of cosmic jazz, trip hop and downtempo. Eyes Of Others at The Castle on Oldham Street were great, another great Heavenly Records artist. Chris Rotter and Andy Bell's two man set on Saturday afternoon at AW60 playing songs from Andrew Weatherall's A Pox On The Pioneers was a gem.
But the win goes to A Certain Ratio who I saw live three times this year. They toured twice, released a superb new album, 1982, and an EP, celebrating 45 years of making music and they're still
forging ahead with new music and ideas. Their gig at New Century Hall earlier on this year, the free
one outdoors at Factory International in June and the two set 45th
anniversary celebration at Band On The Wall at the start of this month were all brilliant, a dance floor blend of youth and experience, post- punk/ punk funk/ jazz funk, the old and the new.
Twenty: Compilation Of The Year
I've already mentioned Tici Raci's four volumes of Decade, several hours of chuggy sci fi, nu disco, house, techno sparkle. Aficionado's 25 Of Aficionado is a celebration of a Manchester institution, the anything goes, genre free spirit of Jason Boardman and Moonboots pressed onto four sides of vinyl is right up there with Colleen Murphy's Balearic Breakfast Volume 2 not far behind. But the stand out compilation of the year was Richard Sen's Dream The Dream: UK Techno, House And Breakbeat 1990- 1994, a perfectly pulled together and superbly sequenced set of tracks from the early 90s that show what a fertile period that was and how much was going on in the underground.
Some of my favourite tracks of this year have been edits- do edits count as new music? Or old music? New versions of old music, rejigged for the dancefloor. Jezebell's Jezebalearic Beats Vol 1 is a masterclass in this area and will appear further on in this list. Jezebell's Diavol Edits Vol 7 as a four track joy. Beyonder's Present Case Edits Vol 1 was a stunner, not least Hardway Bros edit of Sleaford Mods' Mork And Mindy, the M&M Acid Edit. Peza's Rock The Spectre, a layering of Joe Strummer's vocal from Rock the Casbah over Mystic Thug also hit the spot for me. But just pipping all of these for me were the pair of edits on the A- side of a recent vinyl only 12" by Coyote, their reworking of Monsoon's Ever So Lonely as Lonely and Gil Scott Heron as Western Revolution lighting up December for me.
Eighteen: Andy Bell
Pretty soon from here there will be some proper lists and less wittering from me but first Andy Bell who at first glance seemed to have had a quiet year after all his solo albums and GLOK activity in 2020- 2022. Even so he put in a tour, released a lovely ambient/ free jazz mini- album with Masal, Tidal Love Numbers, and a ten minute live cover version of Neu!'s Hallogallo (also with Masal), a live in session album for Electronic Sound called Gateway Mechanics wearing his GLOK hat, two sides of soaring kosmische electronics and guitars, a bunch of remixes for other artists and put out a fanzine, Volume, Fuzz And Delay (which contained my review of his gig at Gulliver's in April 2022. Which, as the man on The Fast Show used to say, was nice). The fanzine came with a download code for three hours of live recordings from Andy's Space Station gigs, live versions of songs from his solo albums and as GLOK, all of which are stunning.
Seventeen: EPs Of The Year
All of these wereessential listening for me at various points this year, all of them somewhere between the single and the album, with Sons Of Slough's chug and cosmic wallop recorded live at Convenanza in September, Jezebell's messy day and night out in the sun with Siouxsie on Trading Places, the three remixes of Unloved's Polychrome album, Justin Robertson's rocking dub especially, and at the top the wondrous Magic Hour EP by Wigan's Mark Peters, resplendent on 10" yellow vinyl.
11. Whitelands ‘Remixes’
10: Steve Queralt and Michael Smith ‘Sun Moon Town Versions’
9: Yorkshire Machines ‘Firing Up’
8: Woodleigh Research Facility: Apparently Solo 4 Borderlands
7: Sons Of Slough ‘Live at The Castle’
6: Chug Norris ‘Dark and Sweaty’
5: Richard Sen ‘Dream the Dream’ remixes
4: Andy Bell and Masal ‘Tidal Love Numbers’
3: Jezebell ‘Trading Places’
2: Unloved ‘Polychrome’ Remixes
1: Mark Peters ‘The Magic Hour’ EP
Sixteen: Albums Of The Year Numbers 30 to 8
30: Laurel Halo 'Atlas'
29. Red Snapper 'Live At The Moth Club'
28: Young Fathers 'Young Fathers'
27: Dickie Continental ‘Uh?’
26: House of All 'House Of All'
25: Goat 'Medicine'
24: Boxheater Jackson ‘Indigenous State Of Mind’
23: Konformer ‘Konformer’
22: A Certain Ratio: 1982
21: Slowdive ‘Everything Is Alive’
20: The Coral ‘Sea Of Mirrors’
19: David Harrow ‘Rare Earth Technology’
18: Steve Cobby ‘The New Law Of Righteousness’
17: HiFi Sean and David McAlmont ‘Happy Ending’
16: Woodleigh Research Facility ‘Phonox Nights’
15: Andy Bell ‘Gateway Mechanics’
14: The Thief Of Time ‘Where Do I Belong?’
13: Coyote ‘I Hear A New World’
12. Grian Chatten ‘Chaos For The Fly’
11: Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright ‘Psychedelic Science’
10: Jezebell ‘Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1’
9: Richard Norris ‘Oracle Sound Volume 1’
8: Yo La Tengo ‘This Stupid World’
Fifteen: Singles Of The Year Numbers 23 to 8
23: Four Tet ‘Three Drums’
22: Woodentops ‘Ride A Cloud’ and Coyote remix
21: Hurdy Gurdy and the Local Psycho ‘The Hurdy Gurdy Song’
20: X- Press 2 ‘Phasing You Out’ David Holmes remix
19: Rude Audio ‘The Grinning’
18: Warriors Of The Dysthoteque and Joe Duggan ‘Fitzroy
Avenue’
13: Islandman ‘Godless Ceremony’ plus the Hardway Bros Remix
12: A Man Called Adam ‘The Girl With A Hole In Her Heart’
11: Aphex Twin ‘Black Box Recorder 21f’
10: Psychederek ‘Test Card Girl’
9: Jo Sims ‘Bass- The Final Frontier’ David Holmes remix
8: Katy J Pearson ‘Willow’s Song’ Richard Norris remix
Fourteen: Album Of The Year #7 Eyes
Of Others ‘Eyes Of Others’
Eyes Of Others debut album is a heady collage of electronics, synthpop, dub, acid house, early New Order and John Bryden's singular world view.
Thirteen: Album Of The Year #6African Head Charge ‘A Trip To Bolgatanga’
Bonjo and Sherwood back on the African Head Charge express, ten songs built over Bonjo's drumming, chanting and dub.
Twelve: Album Of The Year #5 10:40 ‘Transition Theory’
I first heard Jesse Fahnestock's music a couple of years ago, an edit of Spacemen 3. This album, a complete piece of work, each track containing the seeds of the next one, an eleven song trip through the 10:40 world roaming in the spaces between ambient house, chuggy electronics, indie dance, psychedelia, bleepy dub and atmospherics, floating in inner/ outer space.
Eleven: Album Of The Year #4 JIM
‘Loves Makes Magic’
Surprise of the year for me, a Balearic song based album that lit up summer- the hot, sunny summer we didn't really get this year.
Ten: Album Of The Year #3 Sonic
Boom and Panda Bear ‘Reset In Dub’ by Adrian Sherwood
Sherwood and the On U Sound collectiveproving they've lost none of their power, sending Sonic Boom and Panda Bear into echo heaven.
Nine: Album Of The Year #2 James
Holden ‘Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities’
This album came out in March, an album that is endlessly innovative and entrancing. Holden recorded it partly as a memory of 90s rave and the free party movement but it works way beyond nostalgia, twelve tracks that never become predictable, never settle, always looking to twist and move somewhere else, melodies and squiggles, birdsong and synths. I played it again recently and it sounded as fresh as it did in March.
Eight: Single Of The Year #7 Cole
Odin and Marshall Watson ‘Just A Daydream Away’ versions plus Hardway Bros
remix
Shimmering indie dance from the West Coast of the USA, in two versions, both equally great and a wonderful Hardway Bros remix serving up ten minutes of cosmic indie chug (a trick Sean repeated with remixes of Holy Youth Movement and Islandman's Godless Ceremony.
Seven: Single Of The Year #6 Electric
Blue Vision ‘Other Skies’ plus remixes
Jesse Fahnestock has been on fire in 23, a flood of music and ideas (see above, number 13). Other Skies is a song that has that magic, the magic that transports and transcends, Emilia Harmony's vocal about being lost and going home a key part of it. The remixes, all three of them, sent it into new places with the Hardway Bros and Monkton's dub version bringing the bass and melodica front and centre.
Six: Single Of The Year #5 Khidja
‘Do You Know This Record Marius?
Two weeks ago this wouldn't have been here but it shoved its way in and won't let go- trippy, spinning electronic psychedelia from Romania that has been on a loop at home and in the car.
Five: Single Of The Year #4 Dirt
Bogarde ‘Heavy Blotter’
Dirt has provided several tracks this year that have pushed me forwards but this one has an oomph, an electric charge and a big acid house sound that rattles my speakers and hits me in the chest.
Four: Single Of The Year #3 Matt
Gunn ‘Learning By Loops’ Bedford Falls Players Remix
I wrote about this last week, a remix that has been in my ears since the early summer, and one I'm not remotely tired of hearing. A crunch of drums, long vocal sample about binary systems, time travel, the voice of Jesus and shit like this with a ringing guitar part looped in and out.
Three: Sinead O'Connor and Single Of The Year #3 David Holmes 'Necessary Genius'
There have been a lot of high profile deaths this year, the losses of David Crosby, Tom Verlaine, Bobby Charlton, Jane Birkin, Steve Mackey, Spot, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mark Stewart, Andy Rourke and Shane McGowan all moments of sadness. But Sinead's death in July was shocking and brought a wave of heartfelt tributes and genuine bereavement from many, her death, coming a year after the loss of her youngest son Shane. I read her book Rememberings last year and the knowledge that Shane would die after the book was written made reading it very moving.
Back in July when I posted my own tribute to her I included a link to an edit Rich Lane did of Sinead's song Jackie. A friend sent my blogpost to David Holmes who in response sent me the track he played at his own tribute to Sinead at NTS radio, his remix of Orbital's Belfast with Sinead's vocal from Nothing Compares 2U over the top. David also then got in touch with Rich and asked for a copy of Jackie to play when DJing (which he did and which David played at The Golden Lion in November, a moment that made me smile when it came over the sound system and I thought about how it got there). David also then asked Rich to do a remix for him which should be coming out soon. Sinead's face was on the art for David's Necessary Genius single and a print included with the Blind On A Galloping Horse album. She's been a presence all over the second half of 2023, a beautiful and fearless soul and it seemed right to include her in this list. Hopefully the album she recorded with David Holmes will see the light of day eventually.
Necessary Genius was close to the top in my list of singles of 2023, a rollcall of talent and inspiration with glorious synths and drum machines. But it missed out to this...
Two: Single Of The Year- Fontaines DC 'Cello Song'
I thought long and hard about this, about whether I really think a cover version should be my single of the year and whether given almost all the music above is electronic, a rock 'n' roll rumble in the top spot is right- but in the end it is the song I've gone back to time and time again. Nick Drake's original is my favourite song of his, a song of acoustic and poetic beauty, and in some ways the words have become associated with Isaac for me in the two years since he died. Fontaines DC take the song and do something new with it, a squeal of feedback, a rockabilly drumbeat, acres of Dublin street swagger and Grian Chatten's deep hit of voice breathing new meaning into Nick's words. Back in July I put together a forty minute mix of Nick Drake songs which opened with Nick's version and closed with Fontaines. Here it is again.
One: Album Of The Year- David Holmes 'Blind On A Galloping Horse'
The album I've been waiting for since the first single from it appeared in 2021, Hope Is The Last Thing To Die. Fourteen songs long, seventy minutes of music, a proper album from start to finish with contributions from Keith Tenniswood and Tim Fairplay, the voice of Raven Violet and the spirits of Andrew Weatherall and Sinead O'Connor. Songs that take in the personal and the political, the emotional and the righteous, the psychedelic and the electronic, over four sides of vinyl housed in a beautifully designed sleeve. Everything we wanted and more and as someone said to me, exactly the album we needed at exactly the right time.
There were a slew of remixes to support the singles, all of them worth hearing and some of them right up there with the best music released this year, a case of more is sometimes more. Shout outs to Sonic Boom and Panda Bear's remix of Yeah x 3 and both Vendetta Suite's versions of the same song, Colleen Murphy's acid disco remixes of Stop Apologising, and the remixes of Necessary Genius by Decius (a riot in a sweaty basement), Lovefingers (a slowed down piano dub groove) and especially Phil Kieran's eight minute electronic kraut hammer remix.
Today is the first day of my two week Christmas holiday. It feels like it has been a long time coming and that suddenly Christmas is on top of us. Today is also Mad Friday, the day the pubs will take huge amounts over the bar as workplaces empty for the holiday and everyone is out drinking. Tomorrow morning will see many sore heads and discarded Christmas jumpers. To celebrate all of that here's a bumper post, rounding up several recent releases, two of which are coming out today- who puts out music on 22nd December? Matt Gunn and Duncan Grey for two.
Matt Gunn's new release is the Sidestep EP, two tracks for those who want to celebrate the festive season with some chuggy, fizz bomb, 303 madness. Sidestep 303 is the sound of a swarm of bees inside a bass bin, the Roland's FX causing all manner of dancefloor mayhem likely to turn patches of carpet worn out and sticky. The second track, Blib Grunt, opens with chanting, which is then joined by a massive breakbeat. There's more synth knob twiddling loopiness, FX and filters, vocal samples and crunchy electronic excitement. Both are available here.
Red Snapper's 2023 ends with a Moist remix of Suckerpunch, a track recorded and released on their excellent Live At The Moth Club album and now remixed by Moist. This is low slung and murky, a trip hop groove that churns, what could be slowed down horns, and as above, Mr Roland's 303 kicking up an intense storm. Natty Wylah provides the vocals. At Bandcamp there's a vocal version and an instrumental.
Also out today and pushed into the Christmas rush is Tici Taci Decade Volume 4, the final compilation release celebrating ten years of Duncan Gray's Tici Taci label. Volumes 1 to 3 were uniformly superb, wall to wall sci/ disco/ house/ cosmic/ electronic chug. All four including Volume 4 can be found here. Volume 4 is at Bandcamp here. If you're looking for an intro to Tici Taci Decade Volume 4 or a soundtrack for your Mad Friday night, Duncan has helpfully done an hour long mix of all the tracks featured, all artists that have put out material on the label in recent years- Sons Of Slough, Fjordfunk, The Long Champs, Richard Sen, Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright, Martin Eve, Jack Butters, Craig Bratley, Mr BC, Boy Division and Duncan himself. It is the best hour long machine funk, indie dance, dub infused, nu disco mix you're likely to click play on today and I commend it to the house. Listen here.
Sometimes Lana Del Rey hits to the spot so sweetly and perfectly that I can believe all the press about her- sometimes her albums leave me with the sense that a lot of songs just wash over the listener, a minute after one finishes it hasn't left much behind but, when she gets it right, she really gets it right.
A&W came out earlier this year, on Valentine's Day, and is a psychedelic folk pop gem with a second half bolted to it that shifts everything elsewhere. A piano and reverb and an acoustic guitar fade in, clumsy at first, then taking shape. Lana sings in that breathy way she does, sounding like she's just woken up after a heavy night but swiftly a choral multitracked Lana flies in. There are some classic Lana lines- 'I haven't done a cartwheel since I was nine/ I haven't seen my mother in a long long time' and 'this is the experience of being an American whore' and 'called up one drunk/ called up another' among many.
Then the second half kicks in, a stuttering grimy drum machine and dirty bassline, sounding like they've come in from another record entirely. Now she sounds woozy, dislocated, a headful of pills. The experimental, skeletal hip hop drums and bass underpin Lana singing with a mouth filled with cotton wheel, 'Jimmy only love me when he wanna get high' and then with much more clarity, 'Your mom called/ I told her/ You're fucking up big time'.
C.A.R. make a return with a single called Anzu, Chloe Raunet's vocal describing scenes of past life, youth, excess and living in the shadows, an electro pop topline with a somewhat darker undertow. It's a beguiling sound, one that grows as the single unfolds over five minutes.
For the remix Andy Bell (wearing his GLOK hat) pushes the song further and deeper, way beyond where GLOK usually sit too with an anxiety inducing build up that keeps increasing the tension for over two minutes, a hiccup, a drone, skippity drums and a voice intoning 'basement sounds'. As the bassline weaves its way in, distorted way into the red, there's a drop out at two minutes twenty and then the bassline leads the way, even more messed up and mangled. Chloe's chopped up voice returns and then the drums and Andy sends it onwards into the darkest of dancefloors. Anzu (GLOK's Basement Sounds Mix, Arpless) is in a field of its own. You can buy both digitally here and there's a clear vinyl 7", only 50 copies pressed complete with tote bag and poster priced at £35.00.
The Eagle Inn is a pub/ gig venue just over the Irwell into Salford. On Saturday night Rikki Turner's latest/ final musical outfit played their first/ only gig there, a small but committed crowd turning out to see Rikki's last musical endeavours before he retires from the music industry (although like Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in Godfather 3, as soon as he gets out they keep dragging him back in). Unknown Territories are more of a collective than a band, a cast of vocalists led by Rikki on one mic and Esther Maylor, the owner of a powerful voice, on the other with spoken word contributions from Sean Crossey and ex- Inspiral Carpet Tom Hingley. Sean played support as DJ and performs his spoken word sections from behind the decks, the beats and music very much in a Massive Attack/ Tricky area, while Sean recites his words about the state he used to get into when he was a drinker- 'I was a bad pisshead', he tells us- and his route to recovery.
After a couple of songs Tom Hingley moves from the shadows to the centre stage, a man who has performed in front of thousands of people in the past, now in a much more intimate setting but still very much a pro, his words delivered with real intent. The beats get thumpier, Martin's synths sound like they should be heard in a much bigger room, Esther's singing and stage presence fills the space, and Rikki grins, overseeing everything from side of the stage. The gig is the latest Rikki Turner victory, after Paris Angels, The New Southern Electrikk and The Hurt, Unknown Territories are off and running.
Broken was Unknown Territories first release, a single out back in November with the album scheduled for next year. After the gig Rikki is all smiles. Last ever gig? Retirement? Time will tell....
Support came from Ruins, a Liverpool duo, with guitar and melodic New Order/ Cure inspired basslines and the superb falsetto voice of singer Lloyd Rock. This song, Way To Fall, stood out in their set but the rest of the songs they played were just as striking- dreamy, gliding indie pop.
This is one of several songs that have come to me at a late stage in the year and leapt up the list of the best of 2023. It came to me via David Holmes' recent NTS radio show, God's Waiting Room, sequenced late in his two hour slot. Do You This Record Marius? is the opening track on Transmissions Part 1, the first piece on a pair of EPs by Rumanian duo Khidja and is right up there in terms of intense acid house/ dark Balkan cosmiche, eight minutes of spinning, swirling heady trip music. The ten tracks were put out as two EPs, split across two releases, seventy minutes of dense, rhythmic, psychedelic experimental techno music. Get them here.
While starting to consider the end of year lists of records, singles, albums, EPs and gigs it struck me that much of what I've listened to this year has been very dub oriented, the rhythms and sounds of Jamaica and its 2023 diaspora very much near the forefront of everything. As my list making began and the scribbling lengthened and grew, it seemed that a dub stop off in advance of the main event might be a good way to fill this Sunday's slot, an hour of dubby tunes to ease into the day as the week of the shortest days and longest nights approaches. There's loads missing that could have been included, not least the dubs of songs by JIM and Richard Norris' Oracle Sounds album, so this isn't definitive, it's just a version.
Katy J. Pearson: Willow's Song (Richard Norris Ritual Mix)
Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright: El Qasr Dub
Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s: Lone Raver In Dub
Sonic Boom and Panda Bear: Edge Of The Edge Dub
Stinky Jim: Quiet Spillage (The Long Champs Remix)
Unloved: Thrill me (Justin Robertson's Temple Of Wonders Remix)
Whitelands: Setting Sun (AR Kane Initiation Dub)
Electric Blue Vision: Other Skies (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown Version)
Dot Allison: Unchanged (Glok Remix)
African Head Charge: I Chant Too
Katy J. Pearson's cover of Willow's Song came out in several new versions as part of a five disc celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Wicker Man in June. Richard Norris' dub mix is seven minutes of peak 2023 dubiness, the bassline and Katy's voice and that haunting horn all pushed to the fore. Richard's Oracle Sounds Volume 1 has been one of 2023's highlights, an album of first rate dub sounds and rhythms. Volume 2, due out in February, can be pre- ordered here.
Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright's Psychedelic Science is one of 2023's best albums, a dub centred collision of South London and North Wales with Ram Dass, David Bowie, Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs and The Grateful Dead stirred into their dub stew.
Lone Raver In Dub is one of Justin Robertson's from the vaults releases, out digitally as Part 4 of his Deadstock 33s Unreleased Volumes. Fast rocking dub from September 2023.
Sonic Boom and Panda Bear's Reset album was remixed by Adrian Sherwood in full, the 60s bubblegum pop fed through the On U Sound dub machine to fine effect. Like Oracle Sounds Volume 1 an album that really reveals itself fully on vinyl.
Stinky Jim's Social Awareness album came out as a follow up remix album in July, the original album remixed and dubbed out. Stinky Jim's dub comes all the way from Auckland, New Zealand, remixed in dub style here by Welsh wizard The Long Champs.
Unloved's Polychrome was a nine song album from early 23, a follow up to 2022's The Pink Album. The remixes followed a month later with Justin Robertson's taking the road to Scratch and Tubby, a rocking dub skank.
Whitelands are a shoegaze band on Sonic Cathedral. In June a 10" single with remixes by returning shoegaze/ dreampop heroes AR Kane found its way into the wild, Rudy and Alex finding acres of dub space in among the wash of guitars.
Electric Blue Vision, Jesse Fahnestock and Emilia Harmony, put out their Other Skies EP in November, an end of year hit in certain quarters of the internet, including this one. Hardway Bros and Monkton (Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray) often pull skanking rabbits out of dub hats when remixing together. This is among the year's best.
Dot Allison's Consciousology, also on Sonic Cathedral, is an indie folk/ psyche/ dreamy meeting of melody and poetic lyrics. For this remix Andy Bell in GLOK guise found the dub heart of the song, somewhere in the similar cosmos as Brendan Lynch's 1993 remix of Paul Weller's Kosmos.
Aftican Head Charge's A Trip To Bolgatanga is a 2023 high spot, ten of the latest stop off points on Bonjo's four decade voyage with Adrian Sherwood.
Sean Johnston has been keeping the A Love From Outer Space flag flying high this year with ALFOS nights running in London, Glasgow and various points in between (not least Todmorden). When not playing out Sean sometime sets up at home and DJs on a Friday night, broadcasting live to an online audience, a habit that stated in lockdown and he's kept going irregularly since. At the end of November Sean played ALFOS Emergency Broadcast System 43, five hours of chug/ acid house/ nu disco/ cosmic disco/ whatever else you want to call it as long as it's got a pulsing rhythm, opening with an edit of Police And Thieves by The Clash and finishing with Lindstrom. It's well worth five hours of your Saturday, either in one sitting or in chunks. Listen at Mixcloud.
Sean's compiling a list of the big 2023 ALFOS tunes which will I'm sure contain this monster, a dancefloor wrecking tune, Stay On Top by Living In Ghosts featuring Woolfy, the Hardway Bros Dub, which throbs and bounces as the bass grinds and the vocal chants, 'work!'. Highly effective and impactful under red lights and a mirror ball.
Some mid- December dancefloor action for Friday, mid- advent chug and throb of Balearica and acid house. I'm desperately resisting the urge to type the word 'madvent'- and have failed.
Back in April I clicked play on Heavy Blotter by Dirt Bogarde and was hit hard by it, nine minutes of speaker rattling acid house thump, tingles down my spine and overloaded senses. In June I played it at the Golden Lion, the Lion's sound system magnifying it to the power of ten. Since then Dirt has released monthly transmissions via Bandcamp, the latest coming out today. Out Into The Gap is another slide sideways, Dirt not content to repeat himself- low slung and squelchy, a dark drive through the city at night as seen through the windows of the back seat of a car. There's some Detroit in this one, Carl Craig circa Landcruising maybe, synth flutters and chords on top and a second half that punches back in, drums and synths going off all the place. Out In To The Gap is at Dirt's Bandcamp today.
Straight outta Windsor, Matt Gunn's label Electric Wardrobe Records is set to release a three track EP from Bedford Falls Players today, two BFP tracks and a Bedford Falls remix of Matt. Bedford Falls Players is Mark Cooper, DJ and producer, a man who really knows his stuff. The first track, Marmite Marimba, is a beauty, full of buzzing, fizzing sounds plus the titular instrument weaving a melody line on top. At two and a half minutes it suddenly bursts into ecstatic noise and then drops out into bass and then more marimba. Spellbinding stuff, musical sculpture really as much as music.
Matt Gunn's Learning Through Loops came out in April this year, a Mark Cooper, the man behind Bedford Falls Players, remixed the title track and sent me a version of it months ago, another track I played at The Golden Lion in June. I fell for it the first time I played it and it's lost none of its impact, a gorgeous Balearic tune with squelchy bass, chuggy drums and a guitar part that sounds like something John Squire put down on tape at Battery Studios back in early 1989 when recording the Stone Roses debut lp and then never used. Over the top of this Mark has laid a vocal sample taken from TV, a voice talking about sound waves, binary problems in quantum systems, core computers, voodoo, 'shit like this', hidden variables, time travel, determinism, party tricks and the voice of Jesus. It's been played constantly round here, one of my favourite tracks of 2023, and you should all get on it.
The third track on the EP is Matt's remix of BFP's Chug Hug, heavy duty chugging rhythm, gnarly guitars, bursts of synth and a surge in the second half as it all comes together for the climb to the peak. There are some clips of all three tracks at Soundcloud and I'll link to Bandcamp and Youtube later on today as and when things go live. Electric Wardrobe Records and the Three EP can be found here. Bedford Falls Players have a link to this time of year, something you'll no doubt be aware of if you've seen It's A Wonderful Life.
Previous posts in this irregular series have seen bands turning up on Wogan and Pebble Mill, flaunting their wares on daytime and early evening tv in the 80s, attempting to maintain some vestiges of alternative, indie cool under the bright lights of the BBC studios, singers and rappers on serious late night art and current affairs discussion programmes, groups in front of half built arenas, at theme parks, on Californian beaches surrounded by bikinis and beach volleyball and on the pitch at half time in football ground. Some groups can get away with this, their status undiminished by the environment, some cock a snook at preconceptions of cool, playing along with the audience and tv producers with a nod and a wink, and some look uncomfortable, wondering whose stupid idea this was and why they agreed to it in the first place.
In 1986 Liverpool had dredged the docks and begun the regeneration of the Albert Dock area, following the success of the International Garden Festival in 1984. The Albert Dock became a major tourist attraction, not least with the opening of the Tate Gallery. In 1986 the dock was used for a music festival, Rock Around The Dock, presented by Radio 1's Gary Davies, the most mid- 80s man in the world. An enormous stage was set up with banks of temporary seating, surrounded by the huge brock warehouses, ships and water. It all looks very incongruous. Then The Damned turn up, in full vaudeville goth phase, with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, to perform Eloise and Anything.
They pull it off, just about, delivering a huge version of their cover of Barry Ryan's Eloise but it all looks jarring and out of place, like someone's slipped through a gap in the fabric of space and thrown several random elements together. A dock in a northern city. Lights. Smoke. An orchestra. A punk band turned goth pop band. A very enthusiastic crowd. Gary Davies.
Other bands appearing at Rock Around The Dock in August 1986 included Cameo, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Chaka Khan, Five Star, Run DMC, UB40, Spandau Ballet and Status Quo. That line up is itself quite fear inducing, it makes me a little queasy just typing it. Some of those are tailor made for a floating stage, fireworks, wild enthusiasm and bombastic sound. Some less so.
I once taught a class of Year 9 students (thirteen and fourteen years old) which had a girl called Eloise and another called Kayleigh. We established quite early on that both had been named by their dads after mid 80s rock songs, one after Eloise by The Damned and the other after a smash hit from Marillion. It made taking the register more fun- for me anyway. Kayleigh once told me, with an eye roll and sigh, that her dad often 'sang' Kayleigh when he returned home from the pub. From her tone of voice, this seemed to be more often than she liked.
Talk Talk have attained a mythical status in the years since the albums they made between 1988 and 1991- The Colour Of Spring, Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock, their music way ahead of their time in some ways, going from pop to ambient/ experimental/ improvisation/ jazz/ classical/ uncategorisable. When Mark Hollis retired in the late 90s his reputation among a hardcore of fans and journalists was rising and his influence on artists since is enormous. In 1986, the same year as the Albert Dock was rocking, Talk Talk appeared on kid's TV, filmed at Alton Towers theme park miming I Don't Believe In You, seated in a faux French cafe area. Miraculously, the song and band's otherworldly nature and presence survive their surroundings.
Paisley Dark is one of the smaller UK record labels that has been coming up with the goods all year. Based in Leeds and run by John Paynter Paisley dark specialises in dark, electronic psychedelia. It's releases this year include chuggy, synapse twisting stuff from Jay- Son, The Machine Soul, James Rod, MAN 2.0 and Warriors Of The Dystotheque (whose single with Joe Duggan, Fitzroy Avenue, is a fantastic combination of Joe Duggan's Derry tones, acid house with a slew of great remixes). You can find all of those and releases from 2022 and 2021 as well here.
The latest emission from Paisley Dark came out at the start of the month, a seven track EP by Hogt I Tak made up of A Night In Siolim (with three remixes) and Coconut Grove (with three remixes). A Night In Siolim is not a track that is messing around, it gets straight down to business with a dizzying acid squiggle, kick drum and synths coming in sideways. Gnarly, tripped out acid house. Listen and buy here. The three remixes come courtesy of The Machine Soul (stripped down heavy duty acid), John's own Space Age Freak Out Remix (fairly self explanatory, both space age and a freak out) and this one from Keith Forrester, a deep, dark twisting journey into an acid underworld. Keith is from Urmston, not far from here and somewhere I know fairly well and not necessarily somewhere I associate with deep, dark acid underworlds.
Coconut Grove is cut from similar cloth, Hogt I Tak riding the sine waves and kick drums into an acid sci fi dancefloor, blinded by the lights and throwing shapes as the strobe goes off. Keith returns on remix duties and is joined by Mindbender who goes all in on the mindbending.
During the lifetime of this blog I've reviewed live gigs by A Certain Ratio more than other band. ACR have played a range of small and medium sized venues around Manchester in the eight years and I've been at many of them (with a foray to Blackburn a few years ago too). On Sunday night they finished their current tour with a gig at Band On The Wall, Manchester's oldest/ longest running gig venue, with two sets. It was the third time I've seen them in 2023 alone- previous gigs took in a memorable celebration of this year's album 1982 at New Century Hall and an outdoor set at Factory International in the summer at Dave Haslam's request, with Dave DJing afterwards. At both the outdoor gig (thankfully with a roof) and Sunday's night's at Band On The Wall it poured down in typically Mancunian style, driving rain and wind welcoming us as we traipsed out onto the dark streets having seen ACR provide the punk, the funk, the post- punk, the Latin, the jazz, and the Manc- noir and signpost the way to the future.
The tour, ACR45, is a celebration of the journey they've been on since 1978. The first set was the early songs, Martin Moscrop and Jez Kerr arriving on stage and kicking into debut single, 1979's All Night Party. It's quite the opening, the dark, scratchy, definitely inspired by punk sound of Martin's guitar and Jez's bass and doomy vocal standing out starkly- very early Factory. Halfway through the song Donald Johnson gets behind the drum kit and joins in, suddenly, both in the song live and back in 1979 when he joined the group, they change, the punk/ post punk dread instantly becoming fuller and funkier. Donald brought the groove to ACR and they never really looked back.
All Night Party is a seminal Factory single, numbered Fac 5 in the catalogue system, produced by Martin Zero (Hannett) at Cargo in Rochdale. All Night Party was so early, that the only Factory record that precedes it is Fac 2 A Factory Sample. Fac 1, 3 and 4 were all Peter Saville posters. In the late 70s cultural commentator/ style guru Peter York was shown a photo of ACR and said they looked 'early'.
'Early what Peter?', Tony Wilson asked.
'Just early'.
Back in 2002 when they reformed after a few years apart they played Band On The Wall to promote the album Early, a two CD compilation on Soul Jazz Records. Tonight, twenty one years later, they still have that feel, that feel of being early, of being pioneers.
As All Night Party ends ACR expand to the current six piece line up, with new bassist Viv Griffin giving Jez the freedom to concentrate on vocals, whistle, percussion and triggering samples, long running sax player Tony Quigley, keys/ synths player Matt Steele and Ellen Beth Abdi, vocals and percussion, a youthful foil at the front next to Jez. Their early songs, those singular Factory songs, singles and album tracks, sound superb- Do The Du, Flight, Shack Up and Knife Slits Water, all as dark as the night outside and cut through with that skeletal funk. In the middle the rhythm and drone of Winter Hill shows how far they could go. Wild Party and Lucinda bring the jazz to go with the punk funk. At one point the six players are cooking up a storm, the sound filling the room and the crowd bobbing and moving, with various percussion instruments, lithe bass, keys and saxophone- none of the trappings of rock 'n' roll, no squealing guitars and crashing drum solos, but instead an alternative, a cinematic, dancefloor soundtrack. Just to show they aren't doing a nostalgia show (and at no point does the gig feel like nostalgia or a revival) on Mickey Way they update the 1986 jazz funk with its atonal trumpet and sax parts with the appearance of a rapper, Chunky- and it works perfectly.
After a short break the come back for the second set. Jez is in good form, cracking jokes and muttering sardonic asides. He opens the second set by dedicating the first song to Denise Johnson- Won't Stop Loving You is as good a late 80s/ early 90s Manchester song as any of the others, and is lit up. Then they play a deep, dub house version of Good Together complete with Matt's freak out synth ending and then 27 Forever, a glorious piece of electronic pop from 1991. It's followed by their cover of Talking Heads' House In Motion, a song they recorded at Strawberry Studios in the early 80s with the intention of having Grace Jones on vocals. Grace made it to Strawberry but never put her vocal down. ACR released the cover in its demo form with Jez's guide vocal a few years ago. Hearing it played live tonight is worth the price of admission alone, Viv leading the way pushing Tina Weymouth's bassline into new spaces, ACR covering Talking Heads making perfect sense.
It's testament to how revitalised they've been in recent years and how much of a streak they are on that the new songs they play for the rest of the set stand alongside the older ones they've played up to this point. Their 2020 album Loco felt like the result of four decades work, a distillation of their sound, experiences and influences. Yo Yo Gi and especially the sleek, early 80s noir pop of Berlin are immense.
The title track of this year's album 1982, a love letter to the time the band spent in new York in that year, is a modern Manc funk groove. SAMO is clipped, driving hook heavy dance music, Ellen Beth Abdi all exuberance and cool vocals. At the end they bring on a trio of new, young co- vocalists for Day By Day, the newest song and a nod to the future, three early twenty- somethings crowded round the mics, ACR the next generation, with Ellen's lead vocal front and centre. The finale is the customary set closer Si Firmir O Grido, everyone on drums and percussion, a heady, good time groove, Jez blasting his whistle, Martin and Don swapping seats behind the drum kit and then back again. At Gorilla a few years ago when they played Si Firmir O Grido they marched off the stage and into the crowd, the crowd gathered around ACR's tightknit circle. Tonight they stay on the stage, the crowd's faces grinning back at them.
Earlier on between two of the songs Jez paid tribute to Alan Erasmus, the co- founder of Factory and co- manager of ACR in the early days. Alan turned up backstage before Sunday night's gig with a bottle of champagne for each member and apparently an apology for letting the band down in the early 80s. Looking at ACR tonight, it's difficult to see how they were let down- they've outlasted almost everyone else, they're making new music that is streets ahead of their contemporaries, have adapted and changed, bringing new blood in to update themselves and they look like they're having more fun than everyone else too. More power to A Certain Ratio.
Goat's Medicine came out in October, the Swedish group's latest album, a set of mystic psyche rock/ psyche folk with fuzz guitar, distorted wah wah, echo laden acoustic guitars, flute, synths, late 60s and early 70s energy all bundled up together. Medicine's eight songs explore the boundaries of the human condition, kicking off with the Impermanence And Death and concluding with Tripping In The Graveyard, the last one a seven minute flute and wah wah opus, expansive but mellow and focussed too, dissolving into chanting and ceremony. Get your Goat Medicine here.
Adrian Sherwood's career in music dates back more than four decades. You can dip into it at point since he started producing, mixing and making records in the early 80s and not be disappointed- there is no weak spot, no off period, no loss of quality; everything he touches is worth hearing and much of it is music of the very highest calibre. Various people have spoken about watching him in the studio, using the mixing desk as an instrument, throwing sound around the channels, pushing faders up and down, his use of echo and space and reverb creating music from somewhere else, inspired by Jamaican dub but identifiably British too. Through his label On U Sound he has released hundreds of records, Sherwood's golden touch for sound, space and rhythm all over many of them, a man with a sound that is always moving forward, always modern. As with The Fall a few Sundays ago, I could sit down a do another two or three Sherwood mixes without any bother at all- what is in this mix is just a selection of Sherwood recordings, productions and remixes.
Long As I Can See The Light (Adrian Sherwood's Dub Lightning)
Bless Those
The Way Of The World
Whirlpool Dub is from this year's Reset In Dub, Adrian's reworking in dub style of the entire Reset album, released by Sonic Boom and Panda Bear in 2021. It is one of this year's best albums. The vinyl arrived this week, a December dub treat.
Mark Lanegan has never sounded darker or more doomy than in Adrian's hands (and that's saying something. Mark made a career out of dark and doomy). This remix came out in 2017 on a Mark Lanegan mini album, Still Life With Roses (Gargoyles Remixes) along with remixes of Beehive by Andrew Weatherall.
Suns Of Arqa's Acid Tabla EP came out in 2016, produced by Sherwood and Wadada with the late Style Scott on drums (of Dub Syndicate). The bassline, tabla and rocking rhythms are all spot on. The original version of Acid Tabla was on Suns Of Arqa's 1980 album Revenge Of The Mozambites, Adrian credited as Adran Riddims.
I'm A Winner is one of the standouts on this year's Africa Head Charge album A Trip To Bolgatanga, an album where Adrian and Bonjo shift the African Head Charge sound yet again. When they set out with AHC back in 1980 the idea was create 'a vision of a psychedelic Africa'. They made several definitive albums between 1980 and 1990, dub, sound FX, samples and African drums fused in a mystical sound. In 1990 they released their pinnacle, the mighty Songs Of Praise. In 2020 an album of extras including unreleased tracks from Songs Of Praise came out including Dub For The Spirits.
Bim Sherman became one of the key figures of the On U Sound collective, a man with a golden voice. Haunting Ground was on 1986's album of the same name, an album which featured Dub Syndicate and Roots Radics. The dub mix coming out on one of the pair of CD compilations titled Sherwood At The Controls. Bim died of cancer in 2000. His 1996 album Miracle is one of the lost gems of the 90s, songs from his back catalogue given a Bollywood makeover, re- recorded with Indian strings and Talvin Singh's percussion.
Adrian dubbed out Primal Scream's entire Vanishing Point album, released as Echo Dek on Creation in 1997. Ju- 87 is a dub version of Stuka, a fairly uncompromising track in its original form. Adrian adds doorbells, and pulls rattling echo, deep bass, ricocheting bleeps and a scuzzy, screwed up dub to the fore.
Long As I Can See The Light was a 1998 single by Monkey Mafia, released on Heavenly, a cover of a 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival song. Monkey Mafia's cover is a lovely late night, downtempo cover. Adrian bends it into a new space.
Bless Those is from Pay It All Back Vol. 4, released in 1993. Pay It All Back is a long running series of compilations/ samplers dating back to 1985. Little Annie has been part of the On U family since the early 90s, with David Harrow, Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald all contributing music to Annie's vocals. A dense sound, distorted horns and dub FX.
The Way Of The World is by LSK and Sherwood, a track on Pay It All Back Vol. 7 from 2019. LSK is British singer/MC Leigh Stephen Kenny, born in Kent and now in Leeds. This track is a suitably dubbed out way to close this mix, two and a half minutes of digital dub, noise and samples, unease and LSK's honeyed vocal.
