Thirty Minutes For The Summer Solstice

A thirty two minute mix for the summer solstice, the longest day and the shortest night. Here in the north west of England sunset will be at 9.42 pm, at which point Monday morning will be encroaching a little but it'll well worth sitting out in the fading light, making the most of it. This mix, a blend of ambient and trippy wonky acid house, might make a decent half hour soundtrack to any gnostic solstice ceremony you may wish to perform. 

Summer Solstice Mix

• A Winged Victory For The Sullen: Every Solstice & Equinox
• Arrival featuring Kevin McCormick: One (Solstice Mix)
• Manfredas: Meshuga
• Rich Lane: Solstice (12" Instrumental Mix)
• Sheila Chandra: Raqs (Zillas On Acid Mutation)
• Julian Cope: Head (Long Meg And Her Daughters Mix)

Every Solstice & Equinox is from A Winged Victory For The Sullen's 2021 ambient masterpiece Invisible Cities. The Brussels duo made the album to score a ninety minute theatrical version of Italo Calvino's 1972 novel of the same name, premiered at Manchester International Festival in 2019. I didn't go. I didn't even know about it. I should have and wih I'd gone because the album is stunning.

Arrival's 12" One/ Common Place came out on Before I Die in Janaury and I'm going to keep mentioning it here throughout the year because it deserves to be widely heard. Arrival are from Stockport. Kevin McCormick is a veteran Manchester guitarist now resident south of the city where it becomes fields and lanes. The Solstice Mix of One is an ambient glide with Kevin's guitar playing drippled like musical honey.

Multi Culti is a abased in Montreal who have released several compilation EPs under the name Solstice. Multi Culti Solstice I came out in 2021 and featured Manfredas, Red Axes, Tyu and Zillas On Acid. The text that accompanied the first Solstice EP said 'post- pandemic lockdown inspiration can be found in the great planetary balancing act that has taken place since a cataclysmic impact with an asteroid caused mass extinction and set our earth's orbit off axis'. The solstice and equinox series of releases are delivering 'sonic support at peak moments of cosmic significance'. Which as sleeve notes go is better than just, 'we'd like to thank our partners and the record label for their support'. From Solstice I I've chosen Manfredas and the wonky, otherworldly Meshuga and from Solstice II Zillas On Acid's Arabian flavoured acid freakout of Sheila Chandra's Raqs. 

Rich Lane's Solstice EP came out in June 2020, a slo mo chuggy dub disco treat that came in four versions. Get it at Bandcamp. 

It didn't seem like a Solstice mix would be complete without Julian Cope's involvement. The Long Meg And Her Daughters Mix of Head came out in 1991, a remix by Hugoth Nicolson. Long Meg herself is pictured at the top of this post, photographed when we visited in the summer of 2020. The track and this mix both come to a very sudden stop. 

Soundtrack Saturday

Italian band Goblin have been releasing soundtracks since 1975 and still tour. Their music is a fusion of prog, metal and jazz- rock but don't let that put you off. They make the perfect musical accompaniment to the horror/ slasher/ suspense films that Italian director Dario Argento specialised in. Their debut was the score to Profondo Rosso in 1975, released as a half hour soundtrack album (and re- released in 2005 in an expanded format). The title track was released as a single and went to the top of the Italian charts, its vampy organ chords, rumbling, nimble bass, synth notes and crashing drums finding an audience in mid- 70s Italia and beyond. 

Profondo Rosso 

Death Dies is frenetic prog rock, the drums and horns battling with the guitars, a stop- start masterpiece. 

Death Dies

In 1977 Goblin provided the score to Suspiria- Mellotron, bazouki, tabla, Fender Rhodes, Moog synths, all finding space in the mix. DJ Shadow was surely listening two decades later. Suspiria is a supernatural thriller telling the story of a young American ballet dancer who takes up a place at a prestigious European dance academy but following a series of murders comes to the awful realisation that it is a front for a coven of witches. Don't you just hate it when that happens? 

Suspiria

Dario Argento's Zombi- Dawn Of The Dead came out in 1978, a re- edited version of George A. Romero's original zombie classic. Argento got Goblin in to re- score the film. There followed a slew of zombie films that claimed to be the sequel to Romero's original, an Italian movie sub- genre in itself- not a field I'm an expert in admittedly but Goblin's soundtracks and scores are fantastic. In 2018 this Zillas On Acid edit of Safari came out, Goblin re- tooled for the modern dancefloor, a delicious reworking that fills the dark corners. 

Safari (Zillas On Acid Edit)