Richard Norris' tribute to Andrew Weatherall came out on 6th April, what would have been Andrew's 61st birthday. It's a lovely piece of music, seven minutes of drum machine propulsion, dancing synths and pulsing sequencers, all soft glow euphoria tinged with the double edged sword of what and who has been lost. Buy Weatherall's Last Stand and the alternative version, the No Pads Dub at Bandcamp.
I'm reading Richard's autobiography- Strange Things Are Happening- and am only a few chapters in. It's the mid- 80s and Richard has one to Liverpool University (I went in '88 so we almost overlapped). By this point, his late teens, he has already been in two bands, had records played by John Peel, sold out 1000 copies of a single through Rough Trade, been involved with two record labels, one in London and in his home town St Albans, been on the fringes of various club nights and on arriving in Liverpool started a psyche/ freakbeat night at a nightclub in town. We've not even hit the acid house days yet and Richard's crammed more in than most people manage.
Yesterday saw the latest installment in the continuing adventures of our album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1. Every step along the way has been a leap into the unknown and it has exceeded our expectations at every stage, from David Holmes saying 'yes' to Justin Robertson sending us the first piece of music to the rest of the tracks coming in to Andy Bell at the eleventh hour sending us his cover of Smokebelch to Rusty's beautiful artwork to the first run of 500 copies selling out in a day to Lauren Laverne playing some of the tracks on 6 Music and making it compilation of the week to the actual physical records arriving to it appearing on Piccadilly Records website a couple of weeks ago... on and on it's gone, jaw dropping at every turn. Last week when I went to see ACR at Soup I called in at Piccadilly Records and was massively excited to see our album in the racks. Then, entering the venue, the man in front of me had a copy in his carrier bag. Yesterday, another amazing moment- Piccadilly Records gave us a full window display.
I've been buying records from this shop in three different city centre locations, since the late 80s. They are my first choice of shop for new music. To see thirty six copies of our album in the window was a fairly mind blowing experience. Me, Dan and Martin from The Flightpath Estate and Matt from The Golden Lion all attended- and here we are (left to right, Dan, me, Martin, Matt. Yes, Matt is bringing the average age down a bit). Twenty copies of the album went to Piccadilly but I believe they've all gone now. Ten went to Vinyl Exchange over the road (another shop I've been buying records from for decades).
With this long running Sunday mix series I usually try to come in at around thirty to forty minutes, occasionally going up to an hour. Today's mix comfortably tops any and every Sunday mix for running time, seven and a half hours of tracks and songs played by us at The Golden Lion at AW61 at the start of April. We played from Saturday afternoon to evening, kicking off at about 2pm with Baz, taking an hour each (my set ended with the AW61 auction and raffle, the first time I've DJed to support an auction of Andrew Weatherall's belongings which included a mug, some cufflinks and his stash tin). At about 7pm we began to play back to back, three tracks each and then two each, rotating on and off. It was brilliant fun, a wonderful experience. The sets weren't recorded but we've done our best to re- create them since. It's not entirely as was played- there are a few things missing that are currently unreleased and which can't be distributed more widely just yet (including one that's missing that may well be one of the tracks for what will hopefully be Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 but I'll say no more about that at the moment). Also, in my three I played David Holmes' remix of Sylvia by Lisa Moorish. I hadn't been paying enough attention to notice that Mark had played it earlier so to avoid repetition I've taken that out and replaced it with David's remix of X- Press 2 (which I had in my bag and was planning on playing later but didn't). Some of our memories are a little sketchy in places but it's fairly close to what we played between 2pm and 9.30pm on Saturday 6th April at The Golden Lion in Todmorden before Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray took over and lifted the roof tiles.
The entire seven and a half hour set is at Mixcloud here. I have an mp3 of it which is a whopping 1GB file and too big to host at my usual file hosting service. I've uploaded into WeTransfer and it will be live for a week from today if you want to download it. I haven't managed to recreate the auction and raffle- that really was a 'you had to be there' thing. It took place between me playing A Mountain Of One's Star (GLOK Starlight Dub) and David Holmes' Emotionally Clear and you'll just have to use your imagination or your memory, but it looked like this...
A few weeks ago I posted some tracks from Soul Jazz Records 100% Dynamite series, a sequence of compilation albums exploring records from Jamaica, every track a reggae/ dub winner. Soul Jazz expanded their mission way beyond reggae and the salsa and Latino funk they started out with. In 2005 Soul Jazz 111 was a two CD compilation titled Can You Jack? Chicago Acid And Experimental House 1985- 1995. The cover is black with a red circle which has the word ACID inside it. The first track is Maurice's This Is Acid and the last is Phuture's Acid Tracks. It's wall to wall acid. In between the start and finish it takes in lesser known acid tracks, B-sides and a few classics, wall to wall Roland 303 synthesisers, circa 120 bpm and endless variations on that bassline, the one that at deafening volume makes your chest pound and your clothes vibrate. Over the course of two CDs it can get a bit samey but equally if you need to clean your ears out and cleanse your palette, there are seventeen slices of powerful, raw, thundering/ minimal, swirling Chicago acid and house with jackhammer drum machine beats that caused something of a revolution when it arrived in the UK and across Europe, that will do just that. Here are three of those acid tracks, the two mentioned above (Maurice's vocal claiming definitive ownership, Phuture's twelve minute opus that is musically definitive and one from Green Velvet in the middle).
Electric Blue Vision released one of late 2023's best EPs, Jesse Fahnestock and Emilia Harmony's genre blurring widescreen Balearic psyche- folk/ indie dance track Other Skies. It came with three remixes that pushed it into other spaces, courtesy of Balearic Ultras, Tambores En Benniras and Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown. If you haven't got it, get it here. The debut Electric Blue Vision track was a self titled electronic swoon with Emilia's celestial vocals floating by and if you haven't got that one you should get that too here.
Now, today, comes the latest Electric Blue Vision release, out on Electric Wardrobe Records. Trance Stance was inspired by Emilia's outline for a song, one about the thrill of seeking someone out across a crowded dancefloor, the excitement of, 'waiting all night long just to rock your body down'. The music is a slow burning groove, chugging drums and bass, swampy guitars and some bleeps and bloops. Jesse made a connection with Emilia's lyrics to Joan Jett And The Blackhearts 1981 smash single I Love Rock 'n' Roll, Jesse's first ever single purchase and a record that probably provides all kinds of Proustian rushes for those of us of a certain age. As a result, a snippet of Joan ended up in Trance Stance (which also nods its head in the direction Dexys).
The smokey, late night club vibe of Trance Stance comes with three remixes, all of which spin the song off in new directions. The Time Machine Dropouts remix comes via Matt Gunn (Electric wardrobe's main man) and Chad Jackson, an irresistible phunked up version with loops of bass, a floor filling drum break and whooshes. San Francisco's Cole Odin hits the space rock buttons, a cosmic trip with the controls firmly set for going further. Lastly Jesse provides his own remix, done with his 10: 40 headgear on, the Haight Steppin Remix, stripped down, gnarly electronics with whistles. Trance Stance is at Electric Wardrobe Records here.
Joan Jett had form for rocking up with well chosen cover versions. I Love Rock 'n' Roll was originally released by Arrows in 1975. While on tour with The Runaways a year later she saw Arrows perform it on TV. Joan recorded and released a version with a pair of Sex Pistols, Steve Jones and Paul Cook in 1979 but then re- recorded it with The Blackhearts in '81. In 1981 Joan followed her hit single with another one, her cover of Crimson And Clover, a song that is peerless in early 80s pop- rock. It was originally a 1968 hit for Tommy James And The Shondells, bubblegum psyche- pop. Joan's version is totally badass, as they say.
More new music, guaranteed to put a spring in your step and a smile on your face- it did mine anyway- as spring springs, greenery is finally appearing on threadbare trees and there's an occasional glimpse of something called the sun.
Psychederek lives in Stretford and has made some wonderful tracks in recent years- the Space Arcade EP, Test Card Girl and At The Mountains Of Madness can all be found at Bandcamp and are all worth digging into. Last week he announced the release of an EP titled Alt!, four tracks digitally and on vinyl (all available from early June). There are two to listen to now here, the first a six minute technicolour throb that starts like it's already been playing somewhere else for a while called Nowhere To Nowhere, a song for a psychedelic Stretford, choppy guitars, motorik drums, wired guitar and synth toplines, chunky percussion and bumping one note bassline. The second is a cover of 808 State's Pacific, a song that I'm happy to hear in almost any version/ remix/ cover, a cover that sets out adrift on memory bliss, a tripped out mellowed out, slowed down, psyched out sunbaked cover with A Certain Ratio's Donald Johnson on drums. If the other two tracks on Alt! are as good, we have one of the EPs of the year looking at us.
A month ago Psychederek released Tongue- Tied, a single cut from similar (tie dyed) cloth, starting out all laid back with drifting vox but then picking up the pace when the drums kick in. Tongue- Tied is at Bandcamp with a pair of excellent Moodymanc remixes to boot.
That was to be the end of this post but I got in yesterday and a friend had tipped me off to this, Alex Kassian covering Manuel Gottsching's classic E2- E4, a twelve minute electronic ride into kosmiche/ Balearic/ cosmic disco from Berlin. If that's not enough there are two Mad Professor dub remixes (not available to listen to yet. The full release comes out in late May along with the 12" vinyl- and yes, I've missed out on the vinyl too. Listen etc here. Twelve minutes and twenty one seconds of your day you won't regret.
Alex Kassian's Spirit Of Eden came out in 2021, one of my favourite releases from that year, a record I do not believe I will ever tire of, a track that sits in a space somewhere between the sun sinking into a melting Mediterranean sea, cosmic dub jazz and the theme tune to The Rockford Files. But miles better than that sounds.
Nottingham duo Coyote are experts at choosing a vocal sample and setting against the backdrop of some very atmospheric music. Their latest EP, Every Forest Has A Shadow, has two slices of casual Coyote brilliance. First the title track...
The music is wonderfully evocative, a haze of reverb and FX, some synth chords, a tambourine, drums, all very organic and natural sounding. Aptly because the vocal sample is about environmentalism and the natural world...
'If you think along the lines of nature, one doesn't know what will change? Is it trees or is it the wood? One thing is sure, a great change is imminent... only a great danger exists with man himself'.
Know One Cares is a more psychedelic track with drums that pick up and push it on, tumbling synthlines and some acidic squiggle action, a gathering intensity, and a female voice saying, 'no one cares for me'. The hand drum that rattles in and out gives it some welly as the bass pads away.
Each track is also on the EP in remixed form, one remix courtesy of Sebra Cruz and the other by Vanity Project. You can get it at Bandcamp.
A Certain Ratio's new album, It All Comes Down To This, came out last week. Piccadilly Records and the band arranged an album launch where if you bought the album from them, for an extra £2.00 you got a ticket for a gig at Soup, a 200 capacity club in the Northern Quarter with a Q and A with Martin, Jez and Donald followed by ACR playing the album in full. At a time when £2.00 won't even buy a half of lager in the Northern Quarter this seemed a no brainer as they say.
The three long standing members of ACR have stripped back to a three piece for the album, their third since 2020, recorded with producer Dan Carey. Pulling the sound back to guitar, bass and drums plus Martin's trumpet has shifted the ACR sound again- they really do sound like a band re- energised, fired up, with something to say and the means to say it (thanks to the deal with Mute records). The Q and A is interesting and funny, with stories of drummer Donald practicing his skills as a young man in his front garden in Wythenshawe, and Rob Gretton giving him thumbs up or down when he passed by depending on whether he liked what he heard. Gretton would soon introduce Don to the drummer- less ACR and the band suddenly shifted from post- punk gloom to punk- funk. Asked who the best bassist in the band is (ACR gigs frequently see members swap instruments) all three say 'Viv', the youthful bassist they recruited last year to deputise for Jez (whose rheumatoid arthritis has forced him to stop playing the bass live.
After the Q and A we get the album, played in full and in order, the ten songs already sounding like ACR live favourites. The opener and title track thumps in, led in by a rat- a- tat- tat drum intro and Martin's guitar, trebly and right up close,with urgent Jez's vocals. Martin's guitar and Jez's bass form the sound of the album- Donald's drums absolute on the beat, Jez's basslines deep and rubbery while Martin's guitars slide around, clanging and bright. Second song Keep It Real thunders in straight away, choppy guitar riff and freight train rhythms.
The songs shoot past, both on record and at the gig, short, sharp bursts, transmissions from a band forty five years into a career and not content to rest or take it easy. Surfer Ticket rolls ominously, some of the early 80s Factory dread evident. God Knows echoes some of the poppier sound that they reached for at the end of the 80s, a melody line picked out on the guitar and some sweetly sung multi- tracked vocals from Jez. Out From Under seems to nod its head to Shack Up, their calling card, with staccato bass and chak chak chak guitar riff. Estate Kings is narrated by Don from behind the drumkit, a Manc noir reflection on growing up in M23. Final song of the album and the gig is Dorothy Says, a song inspired by the words of Dorothy Parker, Jez singing over a rolling groove and ringing guitar line, 'Well I've heard it said that beauty is only skin deep/ But ugly it goes clean to the bone', and later, 'I plan to die at the last possible minute/ I'm not myself I'm not really in it/ I can't seem to filter out the static/ And my self- doubt is automatic'.
The album, the gig and the songs show there's plenty of life left in ACR, a group who've outlasted many of their contemporaries and are making new music more alive and more vital than the ones who have lasted the course. They're on tour from this week ending up back at Manchester's New Century Hall in mid- May (two days before my birthday incidentally) playing the album and then a second set of ACR classics, and if you can, I'd get out and go to see them.
Back in 1992 Flowered Up, the London band whose live shows were seriously off the wall featuring dancer Barry Mooncult in a leotard and giant flower outfit, released Weekender. In some ways it was the group's last gasp. Their debut album A Life With Brian had been released to mixed reception despite good press coverage, and their label London Records turned Weekender down. They went back to where they started, Heavenly, a label who know a good thing when they see it.
Weekender is a thirteen minute epic, a rampaging baggy groove, guitars, synths and horns and singer Liam Maher regaling the listener with his criticism of those people who only go out at the weekend. The 12" single came complete with a photo on the front of a hotel room that Sid Vicious had smashed up. On Weekender the band seemed to be combining everything they'd done for the previous two years- everything- into one song on one side of vinyl, Pink Floyd meeting Happy Mondays at the set of Quadrophenia (two samples of Phil Daniels are on the song) as the mother of all comedowns kicks in. It's 1992. The party is almost over- but Flowered Up have got it together for one last spin round the floor. It was followed by Weatherall's Weekender, a pair of Andrew Weatherall remixes that twisted, extended and bent the original into all kinds of new shapes and places.
'Weekender, whatever you're doing, just make sure what you're doing makes you happy', Liam concludes, making some kind of peace with those who can't live the lifestyle 24/ 7/365.
A full length film video was made to accompany the song, a piece of art in it's own right, made by Wiz.
Flowered Up have lost several of their members over the years- sadly Liam and Joe Maher died within three years of each in 2009 and 2012 and Lee Whitlock, the star of the Weekender video died last year. Heavenly have just re- released Flowered Up's sole album, it's first re- issue since accompanied by Andrew Weatherall's remixes and various B-sides and versions and the group's contribution to the Fred EP. It also comes with a brand new remix of Weekender by Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, Richard Norris and Erol Alkan reanimating the song for 2024, a version that subtly breathes new life into the song.
One of the maddest aspects of my life in recent weeks has been the number of times I've been on social media, scrolling through the needless tidal wave of posts, and seen our album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1, pop up- from London to Scotland, from Ireland to Poland, Holland to Toronto, New Zealand and Australia, copies landing all over the globe, Rusty's eye catching artwork propped up next to turntables and record collections everywhere.
The first vinyl pressing of 500 copies sold out in a day in February. The second pressing, a further 500, is close to sold out- there are a few copies at Manchester's Vinyl Exchange and maybe some at Stranger Than Paradise (London) and Monorail (Glasgow). This week a box arrived at Piccadilly Records, a record shop in Manchester I've been frequenting since the 1980s, and there it is again, sitting in the racks at my favourite record shop. Unbelievable in so many ways, an album that started as a chat between three of us last June has become this actual, physical thing, packed from start to finish with amazing music and being played all over the world.
Back in the Golden Age Of Blogging (circa 2004- 2009) Moggieboy (Alan McGregor) wrote the legendary Ripped In Glasgow blog, one of the inspirations for this blog. Moggie posted dance music mainly, some indie and goth (The Cure and The Mary Chain both appeared), plenty of early 90s techno and lots of Andrew Weatherall's music. Around 2011/12 he pulled the plug on Ripped In Glasgow and called it a day and in an act of scorched earth blogging deleted the whole thing too. Not long after he re- appeared with a Ripped In Glasgow Facebook group which quickly became a forum for all things Weatherall. I only joined Facebook because of the RiG Facebook group. When Moggie closed the doors on that group Martin got in touch with me and asked if I wanted to co- run a new Weatherall related Facebook group and that was where, ten years ago this year, The Flightpath Estate was born. No Ripped In Glasgow, no Flightpath Estate, no album. All these things are linked.
I met Moggie/ Alan at AW61 at The Golden Lion a few weekends ago and as has always been the case, meeting bloggers/ internet friends in real life has always been a good thing. They say you shouldn't meet people you only know from the internet and I'm sure it's wise to be cautious (especially if you're in the world of online dating) but every time I've met someone that I've known through the internet hit's been a good experience and I've made many real life friends.
Moggie/ Alan returned to Glasgow after AW61 (he did Todmorden Park Run on the Saturday morning too while some of us were feeling the after effects of the Friday night at The Golden Lion) and this week did his Ripped In Glasgow radio show, an internet radio on Radio Buena Vida. Moggie's show is an hour long, he plays five of the tracks off our album and a few other AW61 related tracks ending with Radio Slave's massive version of The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum) and talks through his weekend at The Lion with some lovely words about us too, not least 'it's great to meet people off the internet who aren't complete nutters'. You can listen to Ripped In Glasgow getting Ripped In Todmorden here.
This Saturday series is jumping around all over the place, a celebration of the various artists compilation album, something that when done well is as good as any 'proper' album. Recently I've posted Lenny' Kaye's mid- 60s garage and psyche rock extravaganza Nuggets, a pair of Andrew Weatherall collated compilations (9 O'Clock Drop and Force Tracks), the Detroit techno classic Retro Techno/ Emotions Electric and Colleen 'Cosmo's Murphy's Balearic Breakfasts. Today I offer you a Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs modern classic, their 2022 compilation Fell From The Sun, an album that is very specific in its parameters spanning a period lasting two years (1990- 1991) and solely tracks that are at 98 beats per minute.
The lost in ecstasy face on the front cover, snapped at legendary London club Shoom, gives more than a hint at what's inside, fourteen slices of blissed out, shuffling, slightly woozy, indie- dance crossover/ straight dance music from the early 90s, a period where there seemed to be exciting, genre busting, record deck hogging 12" singles released weekly but also a time when tempos were suddenly cut, where the paced slowed and people took a breather before heading back to the floor. Bob and Pete were part of the scene, Saint Etienne releasing their own contribution to the scene in the form of their cover of Neil Young's Only Can Break Your Heart. Fell From The Sun opens with Primal Scream's Higher Than The Sun (Higher Than The Orb), a record that redefined Primal Scream as a band (something that Andrew Weatherall had already done not once but twice wit their previous two singles, Loaded and Come Together). If they'd stopped after Higher Than The Sun, it would have been enough, a sun dappled, sky scraping ode to becoming unlocked and going with the flow, of losing oneself in the moment. Bobby Gillespie isn't always the man I'd go to for lyrics but Higher Than The Sun is close to perfection, 'My brightest star's my inner light/ Let it guide me/ Experience and innocence bleed inside me/ Hallucinogens can open me or untie me/ I drift in inner space free of time/ I find a higher state of grace deep inside'.
Spaced out sounds and whispers swirl around, a faint pulse bumps in, and a rising synth line appears and then the rhythm gently kicks in, as Bobby coos 'I believe you get what you give', and then organ and drums and woooo sounds. Saxophone. Eight minutes of bliss.
After that Bob and Pete guide us through a version of 1990- 91 at 98bp, stopping off for the mighty Cascades by Sheer Taft, The Grid's Floatation, Saint Etienne's glorious B-side Speedwell, One Dove, Transglobal Underground, BBGs Snappiness and The Aloof and finding room for a few lesser known gems- Elis Curry's U Make Me Feel, Massonix's Just A Little Bit More, History and Q- Tee's Afrika.
The track titles alone conjure up the look of 1990- white Levi's, Travel Fox and Converse, long sleeved t-shirts, boys with centre partings and shoulder length hair, girls with short hair, dungarees, football shirts, Happy Mondays t- shirts, Spike Island and Kate Moss on the cover of The Face.
Towards the end of the album are this pair of tracks. Firstly, I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby by Soul Family Sensation, a British trio switched on by Chicago house in 1989. They split in 1992. Johnny Male went on to Republica. Guy Batson worked with Saint Etienne. Singer Jhelisa Anderson sang with The Shamen on LSI. None of them ever sounded better than on this song.
Fell From The Sun closes with Moodswings' Spiritual High, a cover of Donna Summer's State Of Independence, with a typically 1990 drum pattern, Chrissie Hynde, loved up synths and keys, bouncing bass, rattling rim shots, a wheezy organ, a choir, tumbling piano chords, and eventually, finally, Martin Luther King- Grant Showbiz (a former Smiths and Billy Bragg roadie) and drummer James Hood creating a sound that is the very essence of that period between early spring 1990 and autumn 1991.
Out today on Paisley Dark is this eighteen track compilation Shelter Me- In Crisis, an album released to raise funds for the charity of the same name that aims to tackle the problem of homelessness. Paisley Dark is based in Leeds- if Leeds is anything like Manchester homelessness is an issue that seems to have reached crisis proportions. We live four miles south of the city centre in a residential, fairly leafy suburb- there are people living in tents in the corner of a site that has been cleared for renovation, for a while someone was living on a roundabout and there have been living out of tents in the woodlands down by the Mersey. In the city centre there is a community of scores of men living in the arcade by the town hall. This seems to be an issue that people just accept, yet another aspect of modern life where we seem to have reversed and where our politicians shrug and make excuses. The current government don't seem to care at all and have pursued policies that have made the situation worse and worse.
There are eighteen different artists on the album, many of whom have been featured here in recent years- John Paynter has pulled in an all star cast and an A grade track selection for Shelter Me- In Crisis. Tronik Youth, Duncan Gray, Al Mackenzie, Cosmikuro, Hogt I Tak, Hunterbrau, James Rod, Ian Vale, Jezebell, Mr BC, Tecwaa, Warriors Of The Dystotheque and Joe Duggan (an Ed Mahon remix of their wonderful 2023 single Fitzroy Avenue), Shunt Voltage, Stylic and Keith Forrester and Mindbender have all graced these pages before and will do so again. All proceeds from the sales of the album will go directly to Shelter Me. You can buy it here. Not just good music but a purchase that will do some social good.
Tronik Youth's Dance With Me is five and a half minutes of urgent, propulsive, cowbell laden acid house with a massively distorted vocal shouting, 'dance with me!'
Al Mackenzie's A Morning On The Chase and Tecwaa's Whippy are at Soundcloud. Al Mackenzie's is a slinky slow burning chug. Tecwaa's Whippy is faster and darker, with rattling rim shots and a distant female vocal in the breakdown before everything goes strobe lit at three minutes.
Duncan Gray's The Remote Control Thief is yet another top class Duncan Gray track, a buzzing synth bassline, dark house groove and acidic topline coming together beautifully.
I've had a bit of a rough time recently, everything seems very close to the surface. The things that distract me- music, blogging, reading (and also these things aren't just distractions, they're the bread and butter of my life in some ways)- still do their job but the long road through grief is exactly that, a long road. Every time you think you've rounded a corner, you get whacked again. The last few weeks have brought all sorts of things up. I don't know why, it's unpredictable and sometimes inexplicable- there doesn't have to be an obvious trigger or an anniversary. Sometimes it's just bad again and I've learned that times like this just has to be accepted and felt and gone through. When other things are also tough- work for instance- it can replace the grief for a while but mainly it amplifies it. Two weeks ago I had a few days where I was utterly pissed off and quite angry- I'm not generally an angry person. Grief seems to turbo charge emotional responses and whereas in the early days and months I could shrug things off- some things, big to other people, seemed inconceivably small to me, no one had died so these things didn't matter. More recently I have been less able to do that. I don't think the saying about time healing is true- you just get used to living with it.
We decided recently that it was time to get Isaac a headstone. It's been a long story. We went very early on to a stonemason and it felt a bit like we were ordering a new sofa. We then left it for eighteen months, none of us able to deal with the finality of ordering a headstone, deciding on wording and seeing it put in place. There came a point last year where we just felt ready. We tried a different stonemason but for various reasons he couldn't get what we wanted. Two months ago we went back to the first mason, starting back at the beginning, ordered a stone and felt some relief. A few days ago we decided on the wording. We're hopeful it might be installed in the summer. Isaac's birthday and the anniversary of his death are both late November, then quickly comes Christmas and then a long winter into spring. Having the headstone erected in July and maybe marking it in some way, in the summer months with warmth and sun and late light evenings, feels like it might break the sometimes wintry feel we often have at the cemetery.
We go to see Isaac at least once a week, a visit to his grave has become part of our ritual. At first going to see him was tough but felt necessary but it did feel like every time we went we had to say goodbye to him again. As time has gone on and the rituals of visiting him have developed, going to his grave has started to feel like we go to say hello to him. We've tried to keep the flower pots and planters full of colour through the two winters he's been there, planting daffodils and white flowers, taking tulips and daffs for the vase and keeping the grave feeling fresh. In some ways when we go it feels like we're still looking after him. The pigs in the field behind the cemetery often come up to the fence. The pylons overhead buzz a little. More often than not the bus goes past on the road in the distance. All these things seems to be part of him now.
This song was written by Matt Johnson in the aftermath of the death of his brother Eugene in 1989 and recorded for The The's Dusk album, released in 1993. I hadn't listened to it for many years until Khayem posted it at Dubhed a few weeks ago. It seems to sit (partly at least) somewhere in the space that I am currently in.
'Me and my friend were walking/ In the cold light of morning/ Tears may blind the eyes but the soul is not deceived/ In this world even winter ain't what it seems'
I believe that the friend referenced in the first line is Johnny Marr. Matt and Johnny were walking in one of London's parks after a night in the studio recording.
'Here come the blue skies, here comes the springtime/ When the rivers run high and the tears run dry/ When everything that dies shall rise'
Our visits to the cemetery have changed, become a positive, part of a weekly ritual that we do for him. Sometimes it genuinely does feel like we go to say hello and that indeed love is stronger than death.
This section is longer and more complex, and you probably don't need my commentary on it, so I'll just leave it here.
'In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch/ All the thoughts unuttered and all the feelings unexpressed/ Play upon our hearts like the mist upon our breath/But, awoken by grief, our spirits speak: "How could you believe that the life within the seed/ That grew arms that reached and a heart that beat/ And lips that smiled, and eyes that cried/ Could ever die?"
Here come the blue skies/ Here comes the springtime/ Love is stronger than death'
This track was played by David Holmes at The Golden Lion's AW61 celebrations during his Friday night DJ set, one that sent the room into a bit of a spin, long forgotten memories of the 1980s reverberating round people's minds, singing along to a song you weren't sure how well you knew, a shared lost memory perhaps.
Absolute Body Control were from Antwerp, a duo of Dirk Ivens and Eric Van Wonterghem, dark but catchy synth- pop with deep, cavernous vocals, two fingered keyboard parts, synth squiggles, crunching drums and synth- percussion, with the vocal returning to the line, 'what was the name of the movie?'. Figures, the album this song is the title tack from, was released on cassette in Belgium in 1983, the pair's third album. In Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands this sort thing became known as EBM, electronic body music- a proto- house, dance music fusing sequencers, synths, punk and industrial. Electronic body music is a description that fits it perfectly.
Rich Ruth is from Nashville and makes highly emotive ambient music, some of which is the result of trauma of being held at gunpoint by carjackers. His two albums to date, Calming Signals from 2019 and I Survived, It's Over from 2022, use ambient as a starting point and veer off into cosmic space and free jazz, instrumentals that are sometimes in a blissed out meditative zone and sometimes wildly adventurous psychedelic trips, guitars and synths, loops and drones, sax and woodwind. Everything Rich does seems to be based on catharsis- for himself but also for us as listeners. He has a new album lined up for release, Water Still Flows, and the first fruits of it came out last week, a track called No Muscle, No Memory.
The video and the music seem very at odds with each other but the music is sublime, a transportative piece of music with a guitar solo at the start of it, a sax that replaces it, glass- like percussion and wood chimes and much more, a piece of music that somehow manages to be both heavy and light.
This is Angel Slide from 2022's I Survived, It's Over, six minutes of beautiful, ambient cosmic jazz that will give your day a different angle.
Yesterday was 14th April, Avril 14th in Aphex Twin world. That track, Avril 14th, came out on Richard D. James' 2001 album Druqks, a two minute piano piece that provides some calming bliss, a moment of reflection in an ever- speedy world, an almost New Age composition but with that Aphex Twin edge that shifts it into slightly uncomfortable territory, loss and sadness at the fringes and very much a track that suggests something about memory and reminiscence.
It was recored using a Disklavier, essentially a piano that reads MIDI data and thus plays the notes without a human pressing fingers on keys- Aphex Twin blurring the lines between machine and human and producing something that is still ineffably human and beautiful. It's been used all over the place, in various films and sampled by Kanye West. It has been streamed hundreds of millions of times but remains unknown and obscure all the same.
In 2018 Aphex Twin dropped two further versions and then deleted them the following day. Both add to the mystique.
Avril 14th (reversed music not audio) sounds like things are as they should be. There's a lot of reverb and the piano does sound like it's playing itself
Alt Delay makes time shift around and adds further layers of melancholy to the piano in ways which are difficult to fully express. Liable to cause the blinking back of tears at the sudden appearance of memories, at least in this quarter.
This is my hour's set from last Saturday afternoon at AW61 at The Golden Lion, Todmorden, re- created at home. The photo above shows my view from the DJ booth as my set ended and the auction and raffle began- you may recognise some of the faces getting ready to bid on items from Andrew Weatherall's studio.
Once we've got all the other sets and the evening's rotations recreated we can upload the entire thing but I thought I'd share mine in the meantime. It comes in at over an hour and I only played for an hour on the day- from memory, I mixed Biosphere's En- Trance out because the file seemed very quiet (even for an ambient track) and it is in the mix below too. I think I mixed out of Underworld's 8 Ball halfway through as well but just left it playing in full here because, really, what sort of person mixes out the second half of 8 Ball? I'd just faded the GLOK Starlight Dub of A Mountain Of One's Star in when Gig, the Golden Lion's legendary landlady, took the mic to start the auction (along with Lizzie and Sofia) so that track was left mostly unplayed- you'll have to imagine the auction and raffle taking place when you reach that point in my set (unless you were there in which case replay it in your mind). I played Emotionally Clear as the raffle ended and to provide my handover to Dan who was waiting in the wings.
Wixel: Expressway To Yr Skull (Long Champs Bonus Beats)
This Mortal Coil: Edit To The Siren
Bjork: One Day
James Holden: Common Land
A Mountain Of One: Star (GLOK Starlight Dub)
David Holmes and Raven Violet: Emotionally Clear
Western Revolution is Coyote's sublime edit of Gil Scott Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. I had half a mind to start with Lonely, which is from the same vinyl only EP out last year, Magic Wand Special Edition Vol. 2, but Mr Holmes played it the night before.
Bordeaux Sequence was on The Durutti Column's 1987 album The Guitar And Other Machines, a moment of genuine beauty from Vini Reilly. It is a re- recorded version of Bordeaux from 1983's Another Setting. A couple of people in the room gave me a 'thank you for playing Durutti Column' look.
Psychederek is from Stretford, just up the road from me. Test Card Girl was a digital only single from 2023 and I'm not over it yet
Loved was a single from Four Tet, also from last year and is now the opening track on his Three album. Another 2023 song that has stuck around well into '24.
The Birds is by Rick Cuevas, from a self - released, private pressing album called Symbolism that came out in 1984, an album described on Discogs as 'soft rock/ AOR'. I wouldn't necessarily call The Birds either- a friend once described it as 'Durutti Column on steroids' which I'm happier with. I'm fairly certain I only know of this song because of Andrew Weatherall referencing it in an interview or playing it on a radio show.
Biosphere's En- Trance is ambient/ techno from Belgium in 1994, an album called Patashnik. It's just some synth drones and an acoustic guitar- I say 'just', it's much more than that obviously. Shame this WAV file I have is so quiet.
Underworld's 8 Ball was on the soundtrack to The Beach, the Leonardo Di Caprio film from 2000. 8 Ball is a nine minute low key epic with fluid guitar playing and some of Karl's loveliest singing, lyrics about men with empty whiskey bottles and walkie talkies and flaming 8 ball tattoos on their arms, a man who eventually throws his arms around him. They gave this away to a soundtrack, a soundtrack where it was overshadowed a little by All Saints and Moby- most bands would kill for a tune this good and would make it a single or the track they built an album around. Someone in the Lion asked me what this was and took some convincing it was Karl on vocals.
Wixel are from Belgium (with hindsight, there's a bit of a Belgian theme running through this mix) and put out a cover of Sonic Youth's Expressway To Yr Skull in 2008, part of a seven track EP of Sonic Youth covers. The Long Champs edit turns it into a shimmering, semi -ambient haze that led to a couple of enquiries in the pub- and if you turn a couple of people onto something new to them, that's what it's all about isn't it.
Edit To The Siren is an In The Valley edit of Song To The Siren, This Mortal Coil's signature cover of Tim Buckley's song. Someone once told me this was sacrilege but for me its got a dubby/ Balearic splendour and is perfect Saturday afternoon vibes.
One Day is one of the key early Bjork solo songs, from 1993's Debut. The dubby bassline, house shimmer, Nellee Hooper's production and Bjork's delivery are all superb.
Common Land was one of the tracks on James Holden's 2023 album Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities, an album I still go back to a year later. The burbling synths, birdcall, techno- ish drums and warbling sax combine to create something very heady and transportative. It's also a tribute to the free party movement and early 90s rave and felt quite fitting for the Lion and Todmorden.
A Mountain of One's Stars Planets Dust Me was one of my favourite albums from 2022. Andy Bell's GLOK remix is a spaced out, sun- baked treat.
Emotionally Clear is from David Holmes' Blind On A Galloping Horse, 2023's number one Bagging Area album. Seeing David Holmes bidding at the auction at AW61 from behind the decks will take some beating in 2024.
Nuggets, a four sides of vinyl, twenty seven track Various Artists album, compiled by Lenny Kaye and released on Elektra in 1972, is one of the definitive compilations, a record that had a huge influence. Lenny Kaye pulled together the album with Elektra boss Jac Holzman, songs by American garage bands from the period 1965- 1968. In the liner notes Kaye uses the phrase 'punk rock', one of the first recorded instances of its usage. The record would influence successive generations of bands, guitar/ drums/ bass/ sometimes organ plus singer, a sound with fuzz guitars, over driven amps, three chord, three minute wonders, snarly vocals, sunglasses and denim jackets. Not much later Kaye would be the guitarist in the Patti Smith Band and guitar bands all over the world would be forming and playing these songs, looking for a way out of their garages. Its difficult to imagine the music world without Nuggets. Here's one song from each of the four sides...
Dirty Water is by The Standells from 1966, written by producer Ed Cobb, a tribute to the horrendously polluted river Charles that flowed through their home town Boston. The guitar riff is as good as any guitar riff ever played.
Pushin' Too Hard is by The Seeds, written by singer Sky Saxon and released in 1965, two chord electric piano and Sky railing against straight society/ his girlfriend/ the government/the man.
Psychotic Reaction is a 1966 single by The Count Five, punchy rhythm guitar and some harmonica, double time sections, Bo Diddley influence near the surface. Sexual frustration causing a psychotic reaction. We've all been there.
The Chocolate Watchband's Let's Talk About Girls (a 1967 song from the album No Way Out) is pretty self- explanatory- muddy guitar riffs, thudding drums, an electric slice of teenage druggy, punky garage rock.
This is the most recent digital release from Bedford Falls Players, the name used the magnificent DJ/ producer/ musician Mark Cooper (whose Friday night radio show at The 365 is essential if you're staying in on a Friday night). Beautiful Chaos (Dub Mix) came out a month ago and caused a little stir when Mark Ratcliff played it at The Golden Lion on Saturday night. It's eight minutes of electronic cosmic disco from Maidenhead, a tune that twists and turns, that has a kick and an energy but also moments of titular beauty, twinkling synth lines, long chord washes, burbling bass, piano and keys, acid squiggles, the full shebang. Get it at Bandcamp for just £1.25.
Mark has a thing for Twin Peaks. A few weeks ago I posted his recent epic Agent Cooper's Coffee Dreams along with Julee Cruise's song Falling and Angelo Badalamenti's Pink Room. Bedford Falls Players have previously released an EP on Night Noise called Moon (back in 2017), four more Twin Peaks related musical excursions including this remix of Chapter 3 of Agent Cooper's Black Lodge Excursion by Duncan Gray. Moon is here.
I can't remember who took this photo, maybe the wonderful Claire Dollers or possibly Neil Overall, Todmorden's Golden Lion illuminated by the heavens, a rainbow the least we could have expected for the AW61 weekender that happened last weekend. There's was so much that went on it's difficult to piece it all together, so many people gathered in one place to pay tribute to the departed Andrew Weatherall, to dance and enjoy the music of the various DJs and live acts, lots of people where we were able to put faces to names, lots of familiar faces from previous outings at The Lion, and many magic moments which could only take place in that particular pub in Todmorden.
Friday
Rotter and Rusty were in the DJ booth. Rusty designed the artwork for our Sounds From The Flightpath Estate album, a copy of which sat centre stage on the booth (as pictured here with me behind the decks on Saturday afternoon).
Rotter and Rusty played all sorts- country, funk and soul, cosmic stuff- perfect Friday afternoon sounds. As afternoon turned into evening and the pub filled, Matt Hum took over downstairs, some heavy sounding electronics, superbly mixed and sequenced. Upstairs a capacity crowd filled the live room as Keith Tenniswood aka Radioactive Man and former Swordsman played behind a bank of kit, mixer, synths, drum machines, FX devices and kicked up a storm of electro/ techno, basslines thumping and filling the room. The room was heaving, dark and sweaty, the floor bouncing, the kind of space and music that are perfectly suited for each other. I've no idea what tracks Keith played. This one is from his self titled 2001 Radioactive Man album.
Downstairs Matt Hum handed over to David Holmes, a man who has played the Golden Lion several times recently. He hit the ground running, a set that started out with music for dancing to and kept it going for four hours, plenty of deviations into disco in the first half, the second half having some crossover with sets played last year (a Galloping Horse remix, Rich Lane's edit of Jackie by Sinead O'Connor) but filled with new tunes, 80s electro- pop and acid house, Can's I Want More and the giddy synth ecstasy of Figures by Absolute Body Control from 1983 standing out, reaching a crescendo after 1am, the pub's mirror ball spinning, red lights dancing around the stone walls, the place filled with dancers and revellers.
Saturday
We arrived at 2pm for our marathon Saturday afternoon and evening sessions, five Flightpath Estate DJs taking an hour each and then playing back to back, two or three tunes each in rotation. The sets weren't recorded but we aim to recreate them at some point. Baz went on first, chilled afternoon sounds building to an end with White Williams' Route To Palm (first heard on an Andrew Weatherall BBC 6 radio show in 2008) and Andy Bell's cover of Smokebelch from our album. Martin followed, his usual eclectic and inspired selection of tracks. I played from 4pm to 5pm. You spend so long preparing for these sessions, selecting tracks, planning what to play and what to put next to what, and it's over in a flash. My afternoon set was woozy electronic music, ambient sounds and spaced out stuff- Coyote, Durutti Column, Psychederek, Four Tet, Rick Cuevas, Biosphere, Underworld, The Long Champs/ Weval/ Sonic Youth threeway edit/ cover, an edit of Song To The Siren, Bjork and James Holden. I had just cued up GLOK's spaced out remix of Stars by A Mountain Of One when the auction and raffle began, Gig (the Golden Lion's legendary landlady) and Lizzie (partner of Andrew at the time of his death) auctioning a select set of Andrew Weatherall connected items, accompanied by Sofia Hedblom (dressed as a cupcake).
Playing support act to this auction and raffle was a brilliant way to spend part of the weekend, bizarre and utterly Golden Lion. A mug from Andrew's studio was bid for and won by Moggieboy (Alan McGregor who used to write the superb Ripped In Glasgow blog, one of the inspirations for this blog back in 2009/ 2010). Among the lots there were a pair of Andrew's cufflinks, a Boy's Own bag with incense in it, a photograph taken by Lizzie and used for the sleeve of Andrew's The Bullet Catcher's Apprentice EP and a metal tin from Andrew's studio that used to contain his stash. The auction and raffle raised over £800 all of which went to Todmorden's Incredible Edible charity, a local urban gardening project growing, celebrating and sharing locally grown food. As the raffle ended I put David Holmes' Emotionally Clear on and handed over to Dan.
I missed most of Dan's set having moved to the restaurant area to get some food, a stomach lining being important ahead of the evening. Mark took over from Dan and played a customarily superb set of tracks, dubby and chuggy, pushing things up a gear. By a bit after 7pm we were ready to go back to back, four of us taking it in turns to entertain a by now busy and keen pub. Sons Of Slough played upstairs, an hour long live set with lots of new material. Downstairs we were pushing the tempos up a little- after Martin played a three, I went back and played Anzu by C.A.R., David Holmes' remix of Lisa Moorish's Sylvia (I think Mark played this earlier too, always a risk with so many people involved at the decks) and Orbital and Mike Garry's Tonight In Belfast, before handing over to Dan and then Mark and round again, but there were so many tracks that didn't get played sitting in my bag. Hearing The Light Brigade's Human : Remains pounding out of the sound system was a bit of a moment. In the run up to Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray taking over Dan, Martin and Mark nailed it, a blend of well known and obscure, Rich Lane's edit of New Order's Vanishing Point and Bedford Falls Players' Beautiful Chaos both pumping loud and clear through the speakers.
After 9pm Sean and Duncan took over and took the roof off. Often when they play together they play a lot of dub but this set went to chunky, pumping and spaced out, ALFOS style sounds quickly, thumping drums, synths, lots of vocals and many tracks that people couldn't place. Radio Slave's recent remix of Fun Boy 3's The Lunatics (HaveTaking Over The Asylum) caused some mayhem.
My memories are admittedly sketchy but at one point Sean dropped this monster from 1991 by LaTour, People Are Still Having Sex (possibly an edit of it)...
Vox Low's Something Is Wrong was played at some point and Awrite by Manakinz but there was so much going on its difficult to keep track. I spent some time down the front in the mass of dancers, a happy blur of faces and limbs. When the lights came on and people hugged and blinked and wiped the seat from their brows and grinned in the early hours of Sunday morning there was a pause and then Sean finished with one of his signature tunes from last years' ALFOS sets, Yame's As I Ran, a euphoric and giddy dancefloor gem from 2022, a squiggly topline, wayward synthlines and a section that breaks down into chanted vocals and then rattling snares driving back in and the synth melodies kicking back in. The sequenced bassline runs on and on, running round in your head long after the track has finished.
Remarkably there were still people back at the Golden Lion on Sunday for more, Curley on the decks all afternoon spinning ambient and some floor shaking dub and then Rico and Waka playing a Double Gone Chapel set of rockabilly, garage and punk. I was present for some of it, waiting around until I felt well enough to summon the strength to drive home.
Quite the weekend.
We had a blast, it was a great thing to be involved in and we, The Flightpath Estate team, all feel so honoured to be a part of it. Massive thanks to Waka, Gig and Matt at The Lion, Ian and Lizzie, all the DJs and acts. And a big thank you to the beautiful and brilliant Golden Lion crowd, all the dancers and fellow travellers. In no particular order and I know I'll miss someone out so apologies to anyone whose name should be here and isn't - Claire and Si, Annabel and Tessa, Rotter, Rusty, Emily, Sofia, Curley, Rico, Alan/ Moggie, Cat and Robert, Raphael, Dave Croft et al, James, John, Marc and Harriet and the Glasgow revellers, Ian, Hugh, Michael and the Liverpool contingent, Gill and Damo, Andrew and friends, Jono, Gary J, Dickie, Joanne and friends, Neil, Simon, Chris, Andy and Ruth, and all the people I bumped into on the floor, in the garden or around the decks whose names I can't recall right now. Thank you each and every one of you.
The Woodentops are preparing for an album release, a record that will be called Fruits Of The Deep. When they toured last month they played some new songs along with songs from their 80s releases and last year they put out the Ride A Cloud single. Last Friday Rolo and the rest of the line up put out a new song, Dream On, with a pair of remixes, all of which are hitting the spot, sounding laid back, sleepy and full of the promise of spring/ summer. Dream On opens with some very Woodentops sounding acoustic guitars, some dub space and an electric guitar riff. It's lovely stuff.
The remixes come in the form of a Rolo Dub and a Balearic Ultras remix. Dream On (Rolo Dub) extends it out, bassline to the fore, with backing vox and sound effects (a plane taking off, hitting an old leather arm chair for a drum sound, a large metal tray from Morocco, backing vocals recorded in a long concrete corridor), acoustic guitars and what may be a melodica. As I said of the original version, lovely stuff.
The Balearic Ultras Brooking Bass Remix is longer still, ambient intro, kick drum and snare rattle, padding bassline, isolated backing vocal, angelic sounds slowly gathering pace and then Rolo's voice drifts in, 'dreamer, dreamer, dreamer, waiting for the time to come...'- and again, lovely, lovely stuff, and ultra Balearic.
In time I'll post something up about the weekend's adventures at AW61 at The Golden Lion in Todmorden but in the meantime here's some Ban Ban Ton Ton related activities. I've been reviewing music for Dr. Rob's Ban Ban Ton Ton for some time now- Rob likes to have a variety of voices at his blog, he gets sent a lot of music and it's nice to be asked to guest write elsewhere. Back in January I reviewed an EP by a.s.o., a Berlin based collaboration by singer/ songwriter Aria Seror- O'Neill and producer Lewie Day. The EP followed the release of a self- titled album in 2023, five new mixes and versions of tracks from Lew E, Maara, Cousin and Purelink and takes in solar soaring thumpers, trance, dub and trip hop. My review is here and the EP is available at Bandcamp.
In February I reviewed the new Sedibus album SETI, an album that keeps on giving, old Orb friends Alex Paterson and Andy Falconer on an ambient trip into space searching for extra- terrestrial intelligence (hence the album title). The sweeping, enveloping ambient sounds combined with the vocal samples and use of acoustic instruments- pianos, strings, sax- and Niabinghi style drumming make it an emotive listen. I find it so anyway. Rob already penned some notes while listening it it and his musings are presented alongside mine here. This is an edited version of the closing exploration, SETI Part 3.
In March I reviewed Fred und Luna's The Future Sounds Of Kraut Volume 2, a seventeen track compilaiton of music inspired by or rooted in the sounds of 1970s West Germany- Can, Neu!, Cluster, Harmonia et al- by artists including Roman Flugel, Sordid Sound System, Thomas Fehlmann, Minami Deutsch and Kosmischer Laufer. The review is here and the album is here. Too many highlights to pick a favourite but It's About Time by Glasgow's Sordid Sound System is a groovy treat, experimental and funky.
At the end of March I wrote about a new six track compilation EP from Riccione, Italy- Tribal Italia started out in the mid- 90s, releasing tunes from Italy's eastern riviera. The six records re- presented on the new EP, Tribal Italia Breaks out now on Dualismo Records is a heady, far out mish mash of cosmic, Afro, trip hop, Italo and anything else the various producers fancied throwing in for dancing the night away on the beach. My write up is here. Again, difficult to pick a favourite but this one, Punjabi Fantasy by DJ Fary is a mid- 90s blast, combining hip hop drums, Andean pan pipes, and an Indian vocal.
Lastly and by no means least Rob celebrated Andrew Weatherall's birthday on Saturday 6th April with a lengthy, personal and brilliant piece of writing, a remembering of his adventures at Andrew's Sabresonic club held at Happy Jax, including three separate ninety minute mixes of records played there. You can find it here.
From 1993, signed to Andrew's Sabres Of Paradise label (release PT004), Musical Science were part of that shift from Balearic and house to techno, a pounding nine minute trance track with a voice intoning, 'musical science... earthly sensations'. This mix is from the Sabres Of Paradise compilation Deep Cuts.
