2024 In Dub

The list making has started. Some of my blogging compadres have already pressed the Best Of 2024 button. At some point before Christmas I will post an end of year review and list. In the meantime, here's some of 2024's highest quality dubwise sounds wrapped up in an hourlong mix- there's much more that could have fitted into this mix too but in the end I wanted to keep it to under sixty minutes. Repetitive, bass heavy, echo- laden and spacious sounds for Sunday. 

2024 In Dub

• Coyote: Living In Heaven
• BTCOP: Sabre 540 (Rude Audio Remix)
• Five Green Moons: Garbage Van Exhaust
• Uj Pa Gaz: Roxy (Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown)
• David Harrow and Little Annie: End Of Times (Rude Audio's Immutable Remix)
• Hugo Nicolson and David Harrow: Revolvalution (Dan Wainwright and Rude Audio VIP Remix)
• Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s: In Minus Shadows
• The Woodentops: Dream On (Rolo's Dub)
• Richard Norris: Fever Dub
• Coyote: OMG

In early December Coyote released a dub 12", two huge dub tracks,Living In Heaven and OMG,  that are in their own description 'light as a feather- heavy as lead'. 

Living in Heaven sounds like it be from side six of Sandinista!, a massive compliment in this household- it also has a touch of the Sabres Of Paradise Ysaebud single. Rattling bassline, echo and vocal sample. Coyote add some strings. Lovely deep stuff

Rude Audio's remix of BTCOP's Sabres 540 came out on Tici Taci in February, a remix that Rude Audio's Mark Ratcliff thinks his among his best work. He's right. 

Five Green Moons is Justin Robertson's latest venture, a post- punk/ pagan dub excursion, an eleven track album that continues to reveal new depths with each play. Justin appears later on too, with a track from the EP he released on the excellent Pamela label in April, four tracks all to some extent infused with dub. 

Uj Pa Gaz is from Tirana, Albania, a Tici Taci recording artist, producer and DJ. Roxy came out in late July and appears here in Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown remix , heavy duty dub action from Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray. There is a very beguiling Middle Eastern melody line that plays out from the start, tumbling percussion, rimshots, delay and the deep hit of dub bass.

David Harrow has turned sixty this year and has celebrated with a release every month, a treasure trove of music emanating from his LA studio. His EP with On U legend Little Annie, the New York post- punk/ dub poet, had the original version of End Of Times, an instrumental, an acapella, and six remixes, two by Rude Audio- the Immutable and Protean Remixes. The Immutable is the dubbier of the two, a dubbed out rhythm underpinning Little Annie's poetry, 'this is not a happy hour'.

And Rude Audio turn up again, their third appearance here, now with the assistance of the wonderful Dan Wainwright. They took a track recorded by two former Andrew Weatherall cohorts- David Harrow and Hugo Nicolson and spun out into psychedelic dub complete with a brain melting ukulele solo. There are Sabres Of Paradise sounds scattered throughout it.

The Woodentops released a new album in April this year, Fruits From The Deep, a deep and rewarding trip under the sea. Dream On was one of the highlights, remixed in dub style by main Woodentop Rolo McGinty. Dream On (Rolo's Dub) starts and ends with an airplane taking off. Flying off to somewhere warm seems like a dream right now. 

Richard Norris' Bandcamp subscription service rewards on a monthly basis, a project that started with his Music For Healing ambient project but has blossomed into other areas, not least his Oracle Sound series of albums. Oracle Sound is (currently) three albums of superb, home grown dub. Fever Dub is from 2024's Oracle Sound Volume Three. 

Forty Minutes Of Andrew Weatherall

It's day three of AW61 at The Golden Lion in Todmorden today, a day of dub and the Double Gone Chapel with Curley, Sherman and Nicky General bringing the dub and Rico, Louise and Waka bringing the Double Gone sounds. At the time of writing I don't know how yesterday went but let's assume it was really good and The Flightpath Estate DJs pulled it off in fine style.

Today's mix is a tribute to Andrew Weatherall, with a selection of tracks that feature samples of his voice, a lengthy tribute from Kenneth Bager and an unofficial and unreleased oddity ripped from a radio show. As well as being a top class DJ, remixer and producer Andrew was a great interviewee, eminently quotable and entertaining. Most of the tracks below feature snippets from interviews he did during the 2010s, the topics under discussion including the importance of Factory Records, his A Certain Ratio fixation, and whether acid house is in the end 'just a fucking disco'.

Forty Minutes Of Andrew Weatherall

• Prana Crafter: Starlight, Sing Us A Melody
• Sabres Of Paradise: Clock Factory (Joe Mckechnie North Star Edit)
• IWDG: In A Lonely Place (David Holmes Remix)
• BTCOP: Just A Disco (Lights On The Hills Mix)
• BTCOP: Just A Disco (Blavatsky and Tolley Mix)
• Kenneth Bager: Late Night Symphony (Tribute To Andrew Weatherall)
• BBC Radiophonic Workshop: Electricity, Language And Me

Prana Crafter released Morpho Mystic, a six track album in September 2020. The album is the work of William Sol, a psychedelic/ folk musician. Starlight, Sing Us A Melody is a few minutes of gently psyche acoustic and electric guitars with the voice of Mr Weatherall appearing at the end. 

Clock Factory was a fifteen minute excursion into spooked industrial ambience on Sabres Of Paradise's 1993 album Sabresonic. Joe Mckechnie's edit is entirely unofficial, Andrew's voice dropped in to a shorter version of Clock Factory. Joe is a Liverpool based DJ, producer and remixer, formerly a member of 80s Liverpool band Benny Profane whose name was all over the city's gig posters in Liverpool in the late 80s, regularly supporting bigger names and the touring indie bands who passed through venues such as the Mountford Hall, the Haigh Building and Planet X. 

IWDG is Ian Weatherall and Duncan Grey (also known as Sons Of Slough who played at The Golden Lion last night). In 2021 they covered New Order's In A Lonely Place, a tribute to Andrew and to Factory Records. David Holmes was one of the remixers, sampling Andrew's voice as well as singing Bernard's words. 

Just A Disco came out in November 2022, a track built around a quote from Andrew where he mused on whether coloured lights, dry ice and trance inducing music was just a fucking disco or whether it's something more than that- a gnostic ceremony he might have said with a smirk. The Lights On The Hill Mix is ten minutes of ambient/ Balearic gorgousness. The Blavatsky and Tolley Mix is much thumpier with the title rattling round and round. 

Kenneth Bager is headman at Music For Dreams in Copenhagen. His Late Night Symphony is from an EP released in 2022 called Stones And Steel and is a ten minute long tribute to Andrew- no voice on this one but a very lovely piece of wonky electronic music all the same. 

Electricity, Language And Me is a 2013 collaboration between the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Andrew that remains unreleased. There are some unreleased remixes as well which I hope will see the light of day at some point. This is a short piece with Andrew providing a spoken word vocal, ripped from one of his NTS radio shows which were the gateway to so much music, both new and old. 

The Custom 88

The tidal wave of new music continues today with a four track EP on Tici Taci from BTCop and Rude Audio- I've been waiting for this one to be released for some time, it contains two new tracks and two remixes all from the top drawer. The Custom 88 has a pair of new BTCop tracks- Sabre 540 and the self referential B.T.C.o.P. with a Rude Audio remix of each. Sabre 540 is a slow starting, ambient wash of sounds and whispers, a full two minutes of build up before a drum makes an appearance, backwards sounds and enveloping melody lines dragging the listener in ever deeper. Truly gorgeous ambient house. 

The Rude Audio remix adds the thump of a kick drum, a juddering synth line and the space of dub techno, turning Sabres 540 into an entirely different beast- it blasts off at one minute eighteen with some classic Rude Audio rhythms, with the melody lines and synth strings adding some twinkle to the euphoric, widescreen dub- chug. 

B.T.C.o.P. is a heavy duty and slightly moody track, with thundering bass and drums, slo mo dancefloor stuff with vocals that swirl around at the edges of the mix. It thumps onwards gathering pace and intensity, breaking down and taking off again. The Rude Audio remix takes the dubbier parts, loops them, messes around with them and then springs into a rapid chug a minute in. Rude Audio don't tend to do things by halves or in small doses and the remix of B.T.C.o.P. sticks at it for nine minutes, the thumping rhythms, long synth chords and sparkling melodies, pushing and pulling at each other.  Likely to cause dancers to wear the carpet out at parties. 

The Custom 88 EP is out today at Tici Taci and you should be able to find it here. I'll update the link later on today and add any YouTube versions if they materialise. 

Edit: no Bandcamp for this one but you can buy at Juno. 

The BTCop tracks and Rude Audio remixes are represented at Brother Joseph's Sonic Treasures radio show, three hours of top quality music broadcasting out of Glasgow earlier this week. Joseph kicks off with the first part opening with Therapy? as remixed by Sabres Of Paradise and working his way through to Coyote with Rude Audio's remix of Sabres 540 visited along the way. Stephen Haldane takes the middle slot, an Andrew Weatherall dub- slanted selection (including The Asphodells, Andrew's remix of Steve Mason, the TLS dub of Saint Etienne's Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) and an Unloved remix) and then Joseph returns to the mix with more BTCop/ Rude Audio, the recent David Harrow and Little Annie smash (again remixed by Rude Audio) among others. It's a fine way to spend three hours of listening time. You can hear it here. 

Seraphim

Out today on Evil Plans Records is this six track EP from Man2.0, four new tracks and a pair of remixes, all dedicated to the art of acid bangers. Opening track Paperclip Theory opens with some intent, the hammer of a synth joined by the harder hammer of a kick drum and then a hi- hat. Various wigged out, synapse busting acid synth squiggles writhe around, everything streamlined and pointing in one direction. It's followed by Seraphim which doesn't let up and takes even fewer prisoners, bursts of siren- like bleeps and filters riding over four four drums. A robotic voice picks up, spelling things out. 

Seraphim is present in remixed form too, Blavatsky & Tolley on remix duties, a slightly less acidic , more electro- chug version, the robot voice pitched further up and sounding more unhinged than it did in the original. The Blavatsky & Tolley remix chugs on for seven and a half minutes without ever outstaying its welcome, synths and sequencers repeating their endless patterns. 

Blavatsky & Tolley, if you needed a reminder, remixed BTCop's Just A Disco at the tail end of 2022, a barnstorming, slow mo version of the original with a single vocal line, 'Just a fuckin' disco', inspired by an Andrew Weatherall interview where he pointed out that dancing in dark rooms to repetitive music with coloured lights and some was just that, but also so much more. 

                                               

The Seraphim EP continues with Vantablack, five minutes of acid wonkiness, and then You Turn To Stone, exhilarating raved up acid madness. The EP is completed by Ed Tomlinson's remix of Vantablack which lulls you into a false sense of security before everything loopy with wiggly synth lines, huge bass and cymbal crashes. An 808 acid squiggle and some laughter kicks in, more ascending synths, more cymbals, more drums, more laughter, more rave, more acid....

You can listen to and buy the whole thing here.

Arctic Sunrise And More

I could go on posting Underworld tracks and remixes but thought I better change course, variety being the spice of life and all that. I may return to Underworld next week maybe- I can feel a series coming on. Today I offer some new tracks for Friday, the third Friday already in January, a month that is still less than three weeks old but feels like it's been around for much longer.  

This came out ten days ago (although Bandcamp has the release date as 3rd February) and is one of 2023's best new tracks to date- Arctic Sunrise by Joe Morris. Given the blast of cold, cold arctic air we've had coming our way this week and the considerable amount of snow dropped and then frozen over between Tuesday night and Thursday, it's very appropriately titled too. Joe is a Leeds based DJ and producer whose 2021 album Exotic Language was a treasure trove with everything from Chicago house to to ambient, dub and Balearic. On Arctic Sunrise Joe's pulled everything that hit the spot on that album into one eight and a half minute place. It drifts in slowly, shimmering synths and washes of cold, dawn light. After a minute chunky drums kick in, throbbing synths, rattling hi- hats, an acid bassline and some lovely synth pow pows. It all freezes over briefly at five minutes and then a jumpy sequencer line runs in and it all builds back up again into some quite intense acid house action. I love it and think you will too. 

Two years ago Joe did a mix for Brighton's Higher Love label, run by Balearic Ultras, an hour long mix taking in tracks by several people who have been featured at Bagging Area before- Dan Wainwright, Duncan Grey, Original Disco Thing- and plenty who haven't. Ideal fayre for Friday- listen here. 

In a similar vein is this, brand new from Blavatsky and Tolley and Rude Audio, the latter outfit remixing the former pair (whose remix of BTCOP's Just A Disco I posted last year and is still rewarding getting lots of air time round here). The contrast between the deep voice intoning 'just a fuckin' disco', Weatherall in interview transformed, and the finger picked acoustic guitar part that pops up in the second half is beautiful. 

Dance Floor Killer is, like Arctic Sunrise, aptly named and Rude Audio's remix adds to the fun, firing bleeps and lasers from left to right while the chuggy dub techno thumps on. It's on Soundcloud and at Bandcamp. 

Just A Disco

More new music, part of the never ending flow of new sounds and songs that come our way via the internet- today's is courtesy of BTCOP, a London based musician and producer. His latest release is a four track EP called Just A Disco, a tribute to Andrew Weatherall whose voice comes is present throughout the track, talking about the similarities between ancient gnostic ceremonies and acid house, a room filled with smoke, coloured lights and music, four thousand years of people looking to achieving transcendence through dancing. There are four versions on the EP, the six minute original mix, the ten minute Lights On The Hill Mix and two remixes. You can listen and buy at Bandcamp with any proceeds going to Andrew's charities of choice (Motor Neurone Disease and Amnesty International).

The ten minute Lights On The Hill Mix is the one to reach for first, a slow chuggy start, long synth chords and twinkles, and gradually the gathering of a head of steam before breaking down as Weatherall appears to dispense his wisdom- 'there are depths in it but also many shallows'- and then piano chords come in to carry us into the second half. Lovely stuff, the sound of sunsets and sunrises, waves on beaches, tranquil and blissed out. 

Also on the EP are a pair of remixes, one from Blavatsky and Tolley and the other from Justin Robertson and his Deadstock 33s. Justin's remix is a dub techno acid mangler, squiggles, distorted bass, rimshots, bleeps and lots of dark delights. 

Blavatsky and Tolley take an in your face approach too, sticking a massive kick drum underneath, stripping things back and bringing the bassline to the fore. The string stabs add drama and a deeper voice intones, 'just a fucking disco', while a piano line dances away on top.