More Weekend Machines

At the end of May Jezebell released a track on The Ransom Note, the single minded dancefloor action of Weekend Machines. For much of the last eighteen months Jesse and Darren have created a Balearic soundtrack- their album Jezeballearic Beats Volume 1 borrowed the original Balearic Beats album's cover art, they sampled at length a monologue by legendary Ibiza DJ Alfredo, they pulled together samples and edits and rebuilt songs by Talking Heads, Siouxsie Sioux and Kajagoogoo, they purloined the 1988 Balearic classic Jibaro and Belgian underground classic from 1987 Max Berlin's' Elle Et Moi and on Jezeblue and Trading Places reimagined the Mediterranean sounds for 2023 into 2024. All this and more. A Balearic masterclass. 

They're now edging away from this, away from the poolside and beach and towards the darkness of the strobe lit basement, music with the sole purpose of finding a groove and making people dance. The EP's lead and title track, Weekend Machines, has one of those acid 303 basslines that you could happily allow to play forever, providing some bottom end to everything you do. On top, the synths and arpeggios dance around. Beneath, the drum machine power on. The vocal samples, distorted robotic voices, tell of the coming of the machines. Enough already, as they say- just get on the floor.

The remaining three tracks on the EP don't let up. Autostrada is a motorik hymn to the Italian motorway system, a futuristic 80s journey from Rome to Milan, drum machine rhythms clocking up the miles on the tarmac, a sample by Italo house pioneers Mr Flagio providing the spark for Jezebell's krauty machine music. Citric is bumpier, a bouncing rhythm and bassline switching the flow from four four to shuffle, with gnarly guitars and synths. The EP finishes with a remix of the title track by Shubostar, cosmic DJ/ producer from South Korea  but currently in Berlin. Her remix slows the pace slightly, drops the pitch and pulls the bass to the fore, and then achieves lift off with sci fi synth chords and bleeps, an 80s space TV soundtrack crossed with underground outer space chug. 

All of which, without wanting to get too '80s TV nostalgia' on you, led to me thinking about Erin Gray as Col. Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century...

What's up Buck?

You can get the EP at Bandcamp. 

Murky, Dignity, Surrender

Sean Johnston as Hardway Bros has a new EP out, an unabashed return to house music sounds and a homage to Murk Records (Miami based, formed in 1991). On Murky Sean has called in the vocal talents of Beth Cassidy (of Section 25 and Sea Fever) and she adds a sensual edge to Sean's four four thump, wonky synths and rippling, melodic toplines. A robotic voice demands, 'come follow me bay- bee'. Beth's voice, much more human and sultry, instructs, 'P- L- E- A- S- E me', and 'you'll do it/ You'll say it/ You'll feel it...'. A song dedicated to the serious business of getting down and having fun. 

There's more. Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, Richard Norris and Erol Alkan, are back in the remix game. Their seven minute re- animation of Fat White Family's Bullet Of Dignity is one of the best records of 2024 (vinyl edition limited to 300 copies out now). They've reworked Hardway Bros and Beth, cutting this item of clothing from very similar cloth, a piece of clothing that probably needs to be wrung out and hung up to dry- the Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Re- Animation of Murky is eight minutes of squelchy synths, insistent rhythms, bongos, sci fi sounds, non- stop propulsion and bounce with Beth chanting away on top. Magical stuff. 

There's a stripped back Coral Way Dub too, named after a street near Miami Beach. All three versions are available digitally at Bandcamp for a few pounds. 

Back to Fat White Family- the Bullet Of Dignity 12" comes with an Acid Arab remix on the flipside, Lias and the boys reduced to a pared down groove, low slung and bottom heavy, Lias' voice joined by a Middle Eastern pipe, a snake charmer wrapped round the lyrics, 'You say you're just thirty one/ what's that in cannibal years/ You'll be the laziest one/ Since words came in pairs'.. 

Coming from a similar start point and heading in a vaguely similar direction are a pair of new remixes of A Mountain Of One. AMOO's album Stars Planets Dust Me was of my favourite releases of 2022 and these remixes add a further twist to the sun-baked, cosmic beauty of the original record. Damian Harris/ Midfield General's Generalisation Dub of Surrender has writhing bass, ticking snare and hi hat, phased vocals, and eventually house piano, and feels like the heat rising from the tarmac in the evening at the end of a hot day. 

It comes with a Jonny Rock remix of Make My Love Grow, frazzled, shattered, broken down dub. You can buy both here. 

Monday's Long Song

Last Monday's long song, the DFA remix of Le Tigre, was a little on the short side, clocking in at just over six minutes. To atone for this today we have a twelve minute epic, from DFA main man James Murphy's headline outfit LCD Soundsystem. I could probably run LCD Soundsystem/ DFA songs in the Monday slot all summer without running out of either tunes or inspiration.

In the first decade of the 21st century LCD Soundsystem re- wired dance music, Murphy taking his influences- The Fall, Talking Heads, Bowie, Can- and infusing them with dance and electronic music. Their first single, Losing My Edge, was one of 2002's best, a still astonishing seven minutes. In 2006 Murphy made 45: 33, a 'conceptual jogging soundtrack', commissioned by a major US sportswear manufacturer (Nike), and some of that piece of music became 2008's Someone Great, one of the standouts from Sound Of Silver, an album that is as good as any released in the 21st century. In 2007 45: 33 came out as a CD single with three Sound Of Silver B- sides including this one...

Freak Out/ Starry Eyes

Twelve minutes of limitless ambition, drums and bass, percussion, choral vocals, horns, groove- the first half is like a New York version of Screamadelica, amped up soul and slo mo dance music crossed with cosmische synthlines. The voices chant, 'If we do it again/ I'm gonna freak out/ So do it again', a phrase that reverberates long after the song has finished. At six minutes forty five there's a drum solo- a full minute and a half long, rolling round the kit drum solo- and then the second half begins, Starry Eyes. Wired keys and synths, Tom Tom Club style lyrics and vox and another chant, 'Starry eyes/ doot doot'. It's ridiculously, effortlessly, confidently cool, the sound of a band in complete control in the studio, a B-side that eclipses many band's  A-sides. 

LCD Soundsystem played Glastonbury on Friday, an early evening set on the Pyramid Stage. They were very, very good indeed. It's on the iPlayer for the next thirty days (if you're in the UK).