An Hour Of Music Inspired By David Holmes At The Golden Lion In November 2023

Last November I wrote a post about the launch party held at The Golden Lion for David Holmes and Raven Violet's album Blind On A Galloping Horse, a memorable night in all sorts of ways. Refresh your memory here if you like. Not long afterwards Jeff Barrett of Heavenly Recordings got in touch out of the blue. Heavenly have just launched  a zine, HVN zine, a beautifully put together and produced magazine with art, photos, lists, articles and ephemera by and from various people at Heavenly. Physical products are nice and the production of an A5 zine in a digital world feels like something worthwhile. HVN zine 1 was published in the autumn with the second lined up for January 2024. Jeff said that some people from Heavenly were at The Golden Lion that night, one of them had read my blogpost and said I captured the vibe of the night and could he publish it in HVN zine 2. Which I didn't need to think about for very long, obviously. 

You can buy it at Heavenly's Bandcamp for the princely sum of 50p or get it free with any purchase from them. It's a beautifully put together magazine, lovely to look, nice paper stock (these things are important) and made by people, who care about pop culture and more besides. 

Today's mix is an approximation, a version of some of what David played at The Golden Lion back in November. It's inspired by rather than an attempt to recreate- some of the tracks may not be the actual ones played but it pulls some of what happened that night together. 

An Hour Of Music Inspired By David Holmes At The Golden Lion November 2023

• Golden Bug ft. The Liminanas: Variations sur 3 Bancs
• Jo Sims: Bass- The Final Frontier (David Holmes Remix)
• Prince: Sign O' The Times
• Khidja: Do You Know This Record Marius?
• Roe Deers ft. Wolfstream: Can't Remember
• Pete Shelley: Homosapien
• Decius: Masculine Encounter
• David Holmes and Raven Violet: Yeah x 3
• Sinead O'Connor: Jackie (Rich Lane Edit)
• Roberto Rodriguez: Mustat Varjot
• Radio Slave Vs Audion: Mouth To Mouth

Variations sur 3 Bancs, a collaboration between Golden Bug and The Liminanas came out in 2021. The EP came with remixes by Pilooski and Superpitcher and this one, the original mix. This wasn't the first record David played that night, he played some spaced out sax jazz but this came on fairly early. 

Jo Sims Bass- The Final Frontier was a 2023 release on Pamela Records. One of my favourite 12"s of last year, for what it's worth. David's remix is supercharged sci fi house.

Prince's Sign O' The Times was a 1987 single and the title track of the studio album of the same name, a Fairlight synth, simple drum machine and clipped, blues guitar riff and Prince's take on the issues troubling the USA in the 80s- gangs, drugs, AIDS, poverty, space shuttle explosions, hurricanes, nuclear war. 

Khidja's Do You Know This Record Marius? came out in 2023 as part of an EP called Transmissions 1. I'm not anywhere near bored of it yet. I'm not 100% sure that this is the Khidja track David played at The Lion but he's played it twice at NTS since then so I think there's a good chance it is. 

Roe Deers and Wolfstream's Can't Remember came out in 2022, on an album I reviewed at Ban Ban Ton Ton. I'm not sure if this is the track David played but it fits in this mix well enough.

Pete Shelley's Homosapien was a 1981 single, a groundbreaking solo single for the former Buzzcock. I don't think this is the Pete Shelley song David played, I'm sure I would remember if this had been pumping out of the Lion's sound system, but I've got it digitally and again, it fits in pretty well here. 

Decius' album Decius Vol 1 was one of 2022's highlights, a basement/ bathhouse/sauna riot of electronic sounds and beats. I don't think Masculine Encounter II was the track David played but I can't remember which one he did play- just as likely it was off one of the three 2023 Decius Trax EPs.

Yeah x 3 is from David's Blind On A Galloping horse album, a hymn to positivity, family, friends and life and love set to a kosmische/ pop electronic/ Spector musical backing. There were a bunch of excellent remixes by X- Press 2, The Vendetta Suite, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom and Jordan Nocturne. 

Jackie was on Sinead's 1987 debut album The Lion And The Cobra, a song narrated by a ghost, written when Sinead was just fifteen. Rich did his edit to play at a gig. David heard it when I posted it here following Sinead's tragic death last year. 

Mustat Varjo is from 2012 and a House Of Disco four track compilation titled On The Latch. Classic 2010s nu house/ disco/ dance music, finding itself somewhere in the space between ecstasy and melancholy.

Radio Slave remixed/ re-worked Audion's 2006  minimal techno floor filler last year and it goes on and on, tension building, bassline buzzing, freakiness freaking, for over ten minutes.