Ocean Sliding

Over at Paisley Dark there's a second EP of Tougher Than Disco coming out later this month- Marshall Watson's Tougher Than Disco 1 came out in mid- October with remixes by L.A. Dysto, Mr BC, Viper Patrol and Airsine. The second EP has two Marshall originals, Dance Machine and High On,with remixes from Cosmikuro, Jay- Son and Ian Vale plus a pair of remixes by 10:40. 

The first of the two 10:40 remixes is the Ocean Machine Mix, where Jesse pulls together Marshall's original elements- synths, drums, keys- in a different order and drops in one of his signature spoken word vocal samples (a speech about evolution and aesthetics, man's highest possible goals and achievements), and so creating a completely new, exhilarating version of the track that soars, always building and reaching higher. Underworld- esque. You can listen to it at Soundcloud. 

Marshall's original version of Dance Machine is at Bandcamp now, a chuggy beast with vocoder vocals. When the EP comes out you'll also be able to enjoy Jesse's second remix, the 10:40 Tube Ride Dub. 

Over at Eclectics, another electronic music label that always delivers, comes an EP by Ian Vale called Panopticon. The first track is Sliding, a seven minute acid house that really nags away when the bassline kicks at one minute ten seconds and then the synth chords at one thirty. 

The Statues remix of Sliding goes all dreamy, a Giorgio Moroder- esque take on the track that feels like summer has returned, and you're dancing in an Italian disco, in Rimini perhaps, with a terrace that looks out over the beach. Everyone is tanned and golden. Everyone feels great. 

There are two more tracks on Panopticon- Setback is an intense acid hit and the Blavatsky & Tolley X Rated Remix pushes further, stripped back, juddering and strobe lit. The vocal is definitely Not Safe For Work (in case you're reading this in the staff room or canteen and are tempted to hit play). 

 You can find Panopticon at Eclectics Bandcamp site here. 

Monday's Long Songs

The Duchess Of York was a small grass roots venue in Leeds that opened in 1985, held 250 people and hosted pre- fame gigs by Nirvana (October 1989) and Oasis (September 1993) as well as early gigs by Manic Street Preachers, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Verve, Green Day, Pulp and Blur. One of those venues where there could be two people watching on a wet Wednesday night or a packed and sold out sweatbox. A stepping stone to bigger things. Back in the 80s and 90s these venues were in almost every town and bands would frequently play twenty or thirty gig tours, trouping round the country playing in the big cities but also in Northampton (Roadmenders), Buckley (Tivoli), Greenock (Town Hall), Widnes (Queen's Hall), Bath (Moles) and Burnley (Mechanics), not to mention the numerous polytechnic and university rooms and halls. 

The Duchess is long gone but the Leeds Civic Trust put a blue plaque up in 2024 to mark the site (now a branch of Hugo Boss) and the work of the man who opened and ran it, John Keenan. Carl Airsine has recently released an EP on Leeds label Paisley Dark named The Duchess, a tribute to the venue and its underground spirit. Carl's track, The Duchess, is a celebration, noisy, chuggy, disco- punk with distorted guitars and bass, thumpy drums and voices appearing out of the mix. It pulses and throbs with that energy that live guitar bands in small spaces do. 

There are three remixes. Ian Vale strips the track back, toughens the drums and darkens the mood. Belfast's Viper Patrol go acid- full on bassline squiggle and 303s with disembodied vocals and a post- midnight feel. The pick for me is by South London dub specialists Rude Audio, who take an alternative route to/ from The Duchess, finding a cosmic/ dub/ Balearic vibe with twinkling synths, dub space and drums and a letting in of the light. The Duchess is at Paisley Dark and can be found here. 

Nirvana's gig at The Duchess on 25th October 1989 was bootlegged and widely distributed on the bootleg cassette market. My friend Ian Lawton (Meanie) photographed the band for Kerrang and interviewed them in a nearby McDonalds. The tour was to promote Bleach, pre- Dave Grohl with Chad Channing on drums. This is the gig with one of Meanie's photos to illustrate it. Highlights include Love Buzz, Polly, About A Girl and Blew but they do not particularly sound like a band who within two years would become the biggest band in the world. 

Friday Dub Disco Party

Earlier this year Matt Gunn released an EP titled Nowhere, three tracks long and led by the long drifting dubby electronics/ guitars of Something Ain't Wrong If Something Ain't Right- a track that sounded a little like early Verve produced by Adrian Sherwood. Matt's finishing the year with a new EP, four tracks brought together as Electric Dub Cuts. Big Static has a digital reggae bounce, long slow synth chords and the kind of space and feel of The Orb. Wicker Dub is credited to Gordon and Gunn, a seven minute odyssey with chopped up voices from TV adverts, an oompty sounding kick drum, the kind of bassline that gets a nervous system response and synths that prickle the skin and make the hairs on the nape of your neck stand up. 

The third track- Someone Else's Dream (Matt Gunn Dub Mix) by Electric Wood- is a woozy, bluesy, late night howl with a thumping dub rhythm. Electric Dub Cuts concludes with Dub Electric- eight minutes long and the sort of dubbed out indie dance that used to take up all of side B of a 12" single, the results of a guitar band sent spinning into the cosmos by a talented remixer. Lovely stuff. Get all four over at Matt Gunn's Bandcamp treasure trove. 

Out on Duncan Gray's Tici Taci today is the latest EP from Uj Pa Gaz, four tracks out of Tirana, Albania. It's an Adriatic delight, the blissed out feel of Balearica crossed with the chuggy Tici Taci sound and something else, the Tirana magic ingredient. Outerdubelic is expansive and led by a wonderful guitar topline over twinkling synths and chunky drums. Simple Brain is cut from similar cloth, optimistic and forward thinking psychedelic dance music, long synth chords and bursts of acidic squiggle. 

Dissimilar Function is a slo mo treat, a heady, dancing under the stars kind of track, an acid undertow with a two note refrain that splatters itself across the mix, grin inducing, ecstatic stuff. ALFOS via Albania. Shok cuts the tempos again and shuffles in, a voice buried somewhere in the, keys and synths, maybe a guitar, chuggy drums, sunsets... wonderful. Get it at Tici Taci. 

Edit: due to an admin error the release of Outerdubelic is delayed by a few weeks. There are some clips of each track at Soundcloud.

In Leeds Paisley Dark continues to put out high quality releases. The latest comes from Viper Patrol, a wonky acid/ dark disco track called Dancing Voices. The original comes with two remixes, one by  Cosmikuro and one by A Space Age Freak Out. Cosmikuro heads for the darker edges of the dancefloor, shimmering shards of guitar and funky clipped riffs lighting the way. A Space Age Freak Out freaks out, a psyche dub extravaganza. 

The second track is Def Charge- more dark disco with a trippy edge. The remixes of this one come from Ian Vale and Airsine. Ian Vale's is bass heavy and percussive. Airsine's is propulsive and insistent, punctuated by rippling synths and shouts. The whole package is at Bandcamp. 

Monday's Long Song

The latest release on Paisley Dark, Leeds based home of electronic psychedelia, is a five track EP by Ian Vale. It opens with Many Times, six minutes and twenty five seconds of dark acid house, four- four drums, a bouncing bassline and shimmering arpeggios- dark dub disco action.

It's followed by an Al Mckenzie remix, ten minutes of wobbly, slowly building electronic music, a twisting and turning, rising and falling remix that keeps on giving- it really is where the action is. Get both and three other tracks- a Ben Hunt remix of Many Times, another Ian Vale track  Oh Malone and a Julius remix of that- at Bandcamp. 

Al Mckenzie is one half of D:Ream whose 1993 hit single Things Can Only Get Better has recently made the headlines again, pumped out of a speaker at the public end of Downing Street when Rishi Sunak stood in the pouring rain and tried to make it sound like calling a general election was a good idea for the Tory Party. From there, it climbed the charts again and Al and Peter ended up having to make a statement saying to Labour, 'please don't use this song'. They haven't got over it being used by New Labour in 1997- the decision by Tony Blair to invade Iraq alongside the USA did for the relationship between D:Ream and the Labour government (as it did for any people). Singer Peter Cunnah described the song as 'a very odd piece of gravity that you just can't escape'. Al added, 'There's no way- our song and politics, never again'. I understand that decision but in a way it's also a shame- the sight of Sunak, unable to even find an umbrella never mind run an election campaign, piss wet through as the song drowned him out was priceless. Given what Sunak's done since however, it looks like one of the slicker parts of his election campaign.