Saturday Live

If we're accepting that a DJ playing records in a club- selecting a set that builds, mixing and cutting between decks, adding FX and making something new out of existing older music- is a live performance as much as a band playing a gig with instruments (and I am) then DJ sets qualify for this series as much as any other kind of live show. The only cheat with this post is that the set was not played live in front of an audience but is a recreation of those live club sets. In this case, this is an attempt to recreate the DJ sets by JD Twitch from Pure in Edinburgh back in the early 90s. This was originally released on cassette in 2021 and has just recently come out digitally as two downloads, forty five minutes each, and titled Raise Your Hands If You Understand. 

Twitch's set here is ninety minutes of sublime ambient house/ ecstatic electronic music, a counterpoint to the faster, more hardcore sounds played elsewhere at the time. Twitch sees this as E- Musik, a spacey blend of ambient, house, new age, utopian, tripped out, edge of trance, turning tribal music. The first half opens with a long ten minute wash of warm synths, joined after a while by a voice and then a eventually a heartbeat tempo drum kicks in. 'Come together in peace and harmony', the voice says as the rhythms pick up a little, the bass throbs and piano runs tinkle in. It's wonderfully evocative and progressive stuff. The two halves of the tape are available at a Free/ Pay What You Like deal but any money raised is going to the Glasgow food bank so every little helps. The cassette version from two years ago currently change hands for somewhere in the region of £30. You can get them here. 

Ten years ago JD Twitch turned up at the Parisienne website I'm A Cliche, a music label that gave away free edits. Twitch's gnarly, stompy, acidic version of Bill Callaghan's America was a highlight, the gritty guitar line running through it like an oil spill in a river.

Edit Service 22 (JD Twitch)

As half of Optimo Twitch remixed Jeremy Deller's version of Voodoo Ray. In 2013 Deller exhibited at the Venice Biennale, part of his ongoing exploration of rave culture. Twitch's remix of Voodoo Ray is a joy filled, hands- in- the- air version, the sleeve emblazoned with the hook from the vocal sample, 'Ooh- oo- hoo- ah ha ha yeah'.

Voodoo Ray (Optimo Remix)

Pacific

This came out last summer and I missed it or foolishly ignored it, only catching up with it last week after it appeared at some of the end of year round ups/ lists. This is Pacific 707, 808 State's Second Summer Of Love classic reimagined by Japanese artist Cruisic as slowed down, cosmic jazz/ space age walk on music. The bird chirpings are there, the sax blows and when the beat comes in at just before the minute mark it all comes together very nicely. The note bending and Balearic swell builds and builds before a breakdown, rebuild and then fade. It might not change your life but it's a good way to start Friday. 

If you're so inclined there's a swing jazz version too, both to be found at Bandcamp. There was a 7" single but it has long since sold out and the ones at Discogs are currently starting at £58.99. 

When 808 State released Pacific back in 1989 it was already on its way to becoming the Manchester anthem of the year, having been played on 808 State's radio shows and at the Hacienda for months before it was available in the shops for ordinary people to buy. The first official release was on ZTT, a single version titled Pacific 707. It became Pacific State on the EP Quadrastate and Pacific 202 on the album Ninety. This is the version from Ninety, their still superb sounding 1989 album. 202 kicks in quickly, the acid bassline squiggles and drums bouncing along as Graham Massey's topline sax floats on, meandering in and out. 

Pacific 202

This cover version by Jeremy Deller and the Williams Fairey Brass Band came out in 1997. Deller saw acid house and brass bands as both being 'authentic forms of folk art'. It works well enough, the Stockport brass band giving Pacific 202 a nostalgic northern glow.  

Pacific 202

Brass Shaker

Some sort of unholy trinity of artists going on here mixing up a classic house-acid brass delight. To clarify- Jeremy Deller's acid brass cover version of Voodoo Ray remixed by Optimo's JD Twitch, out on vinyl on Monday. And worth every penny I'd say.

Nice Brass

You can't think that having acid house hits played by a brass band (Stockport's Williams Fairey brass band) is anything other than a great idea can you? Yesterday's Kevin Saunderson track re-done under the leadership of Jeremy Deller. A Youtube user recommends playing the two together, one starting 30 seconds or so after the other. It takes a while to get the synch-up to work but it's well worth the effort. If you've got nowt else to do.

The Groove That Won't Stop (Acid Brass)

Acid Brass And (Man Ray)

One more Man Ray portrait, this time of poet and celebrity fascist Ezra Pound, looking as cool as a cucumber while contemplating a move to Italy and the policies of Mussolini. Possibly. To be fair, Ezra did say he regretted his pro-fascist words and actions later in life. Spending several weeks locked in a cage by US forces at the end of World War Two didn't help his mental state either.

Some unrelated dance music (or dance music inspired music) from Jeremy Deller's acid brass album from ages ago. Here the Williams Fairey Brass Band tackle techno classic Strings Of Life, Derrick May's Rhythim Is Rhythim masterpiece.

Strings Of Life

Out Of Our Minds On The Stage

World Of Twist came as part of the second wave of Madchester bands but didn't really share much with the rest of them except geography. A riot of northern soul, mod, psyche, homemade stage props (a giant shell, rotating newsagents signs) with a post-acid house groove, this was their finest moment- Sons of The Stage.

The song's a celebration of losing yourself dancing, being on stage and the euphoria of the crowd-

'The beat breaks so we pick it up
The floor shakes down but it's not enough
The beam is up and the kids are high
I've seen them move and it blows my mind
The floor's an ocean and this wave is breaking
Your head is gone but your body's shaking
There's nothing you can do 'cos there is no solution
You've got to get down to the noise and confusion'

The picture at the top is from Jeremy Deller's march through Manchester earlier this year, with a variety of unusual interest groups, We Miss The World Of Twist being one of them. Apparently King of the Dullards Liam Gallagher and his new band have recently covered Sons Of The Stage. Best to remember them this way.

02 Sons of the Stage.wma

Acid Brass 'What Time Is Love?' (Version K)

We've been away this weekend just gone, and spent quite a bit of time in the car. I made a cd for in-car entertainment and put this on it, having re-discovered it recently. I'm pretty sure the mp3 came from Moggieboy over at Ripped In Glasgow originally, so thanks/apologies to Moggieboy for re-presenting it here. It has fast become a family favourite.

The KLF were surely made for the internet- destroying piles of albums that never got sample clearance, burning stacks of cash, deleting their entire back catalogue, retiring from the music business. Click/dig around a bit and it's all out there. Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty made inspired records, with even more inspired reasons for making the records. If you havn't read them, and I know some of you have, any of Bill Drummonds books are worth reading, especially '45' and last years '17'.

Jeremy Deller is also inspired. He famously re-enacted the Battle of Orgreave from the miner's strike, recorded the Acid Brass album (you know, brass band versions of acid house hits) and last summer staged a procession through Manchester featuring scouts, goths, a musical fish and chip van, unrepentant smokers, mobile libraries, a hearse with a floral Hacienda and boy racers in souped up cars. With banners.

This then, to get to the point, is the Williams Fairey brass band (from Stockport) version of What Time Is Love? It is not a novelty track. It is an essential part of your download collection.

Parp parp par-par-par par-par-par-par par-par parp.

Acid Brass_What Time Is Love (Version K).mp3