The Letter U And The Numeral 2

This came up in my downloads folder while I was looking for something else and it made me wonder why I haven't posted it before- and there's no time like the present. Negativland were/ are a US group with a core of four members, Mark Hosler, David 'The Weatherman' Wills, Peter Conheim and Jon 'Wobbly' Weidecker. They have been making experimental music since 1979- sound collages, sample based music as well as tracks with conventional instruments. In the 80s they were on SST along with the cream of US indie- punk. They were very much a hardcore and underground concern until in 1991 they were sued by U2's record label Island Records.

In 1991 Negativland released an EP called U2. The sleeve had the letter U and the numeral 2 in big type and the word Negativland in very small print. Island believed the group were infringing U2's trademark at a time when the Dublin band's fanbase were waiting for the latest U2 album to hit the shops- Achtung Baby and that confused U2 fans might buy the Negativland record by mistake (and thus be accidentally exposed to underground experimental music- the horror!). 

Island Records were also upset about the content of the track...

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Special Radio Edit)

The track sampled radio DJ and TV host Casey Kasem, caught in off- air moments- Kasem reading out a dedication to a family who's dog, Snuggles, had died and Kasem declaring about the Irish band, 'these guys are from England, who gives a shit?'. There are other sampled voices too, radio phone ins, a man repeatedly saying 'bullshit' and Kasem saying he doesn't understand and wittering on about Top 40 radio, and various people saying 'fuck you'. Meanwhile Negativland play a primitive synth/ keys version of U2's massive 1987 hit, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. 

There was also this version of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, the A Capella Mix, which goes further, coming back to the line 'the letter U and the numeral 2' and taking the piss out of Bono's lyrics, sampling Bono from the radio and U2's crashing drum sound, humming the vocal melody line to the song. Casey Kasem keeps flipping back in, 'I don't know what to do, I still haven't found it, I still haven't found it, I'm looking for it but I still haven't found what I'm looking for....'

The band found themselves both being sued and in the news. They withdrew the EP and deleted it. A year later their record label SST, who gave the band no support during the lawsuit, sued the band too. In 1992 two members of Negativland were able to interview U2's The Edge anonymously and posed some questions to the guitarist about fair use sampling before revealing themselves as members of Negativland. The Edge said the U2 themselves were unbothered about the record and the sampling, and that Island had largely pursued Negativland without the band's agreement. The whole story chimed with the then current debates about sampling and copyright, something that the record industry and artists were still getting to grips with. 

I also found this and am not sure why I have it as I'm not a fan of the band or the song- a Leo Zero edit of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, a far less irreverent version of the song than Negativland's. 

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Leo Zero Edit)

U2's egos needed puncturing in 1991- the pomposity of The Joshua Tree and Rattle And Hum, Bono's  'rock 'n' roll stops the traffic' persona, their humourlessness and dour sincerity all rubbed many up the wrong way. Ironically the band had realised this themselves and the album they were about to release- Achtung Baby- used sampling, synths and dance rhythms and was at least partly inspired by the musical and cultural revolution of the 1988- 1991 period. Even Better Than The Real Thing came with Paul Oakenfold dance remixes and was played in clubs. It reinvented the band for the 90s. They discovered irony. I'm not a fan of U2 but there are parts of Achtung Baby that I could listen to if required and I think we can all agree that Johnny Cash's cover of One, released in 2000 on his Solitary Man album, is rather good. 

One

And that's without even getting to Half Man Half Biscuit's Achtung Bono...

The Drums

I read Mike Joyce's autobiography The Drums on holiday- it was a quick read, I did much of it on the flight to Malaga and finished it by the pool the next day. Mike is engaging and open, conversational in tone, and saw the rise of The Smiths from the drum stool. It starts with a fairly conventional telling of his childhood in Fallowfield, south Manchester (just up the road from where I grew up but a decade earlier- there were lots of local references I recognised). His childhood is interrupted by a stay in hospital following a very nasty head injury and once recovered gets into the idea of playing the drums. 

Eventually teenage Mike moves out of the family home and into a flat in the Crescents in Hulme, the 1960s housing development near Manchester city centre gone wrong. Streets in the sky and huge sweeping concrete blocks of flats. Flat roofed pubs. Poorly built, unmaintained and unloved. By the early 80s they were an alternative community for those who wanted to live 'elsewhere'. Rent wasn't paid. There were cockroaches in the flats. The council left those who lived there to it. It turned into an enclave for young/ youngish people who wanted somewhere cheap to live and who weren't too fussy and those original residents who were trapped there and couldn't get out. The Kitchen was a legendary post- club venue found in the Crescents, two flats knocked into one with DJs playing all night in the kitchen. They've been knocked down and replaced since. 

Mike joins a punk band called Hoax after seeing an advert- he had no previous experience and offered merely his enthusiasm, a red drum kit and his drumming style- fast, faster or fastest- and then joined Victim, who toured and made a record, and played a memorable gig and night out with a bunch of anarchist hippies in Italy. The story changes when Mike joins the nascent Smiths, turning up to the audition (invited) on mushrooms and playing with Johnny Marr, the singer Steve and soon to be dismissed bassist Dale Hibbert. Johnny is impressed. They gel quickly and Mike is in awe of his bandmates, Johnny's abilities on the guitar and skills as a songwriter evident from the first meeting and the singer clearly odd but talented and different. Shortly after Andy Rourke joins on bass and they step up a gear. 

Mike sees the four as connected by their Irish Catholic heritage, all four Smiths the children of Irish immigrants, all part of the Mancunian- Irish diaspora. His account of The Smiths rise from their rehearsal room on Portland Street (in Joe Moss' clothes shop Crazy Face) to the mad tours of the US in 1986 is genuinely great to read- in all happens quickly in a rush and they write, record and tour, write, record and tour and gain a huge and devoted following. None of this is news but he brings it to life vividly. He covers the difficulties too- their unmanageableness, the financial and contractual issues, Morrissey's quirks and behaviours but balances it with his love for the band, his bandmates, their songs and their uniqueness. He notes as well how the band's stubborn northern Englishness and vegetarianism makes them stand out like sore thumbs in the high octane world of the US music industry. This gets them into trouble when they don't do as expected. He writes glowingly of Morrissey as a frontman, vocalist and lyricist despite everything that went down in that court case. Mike also writes about Andy Rourke and his death from cancer in 2023. The two clearly had a strong bond and friendship. The book more or less ends after Morrissey's free concert in Wolverhampton, Mike and Andy and Craig Gannon backing Morrissey solo at a wild gig in December '89 and a couple of solo singles (Last Of The Famous International Playboys and Interesting Drug). 

In a quirk of coincidence I'd attended a party where Mike was DJing just a few days before I read the book. Cork Of The North is a wine shop/ bar owned by DJ Tin Tin (Marc Hough). Marc is New Order's tour DJ and among other gigs DJed alongside Dave Haslam at Yellow at the Boardwalk in the 90s ( a night I attended regularly but I didn't know Marc then). Marc's son was in the same primary school class as my daughter Eliza so we've known each other since then. Marc held a party at the Heaton Moor branch of Cork Of The North a couple of weekends ago to celebrate the bar's tenth birthday and Mike Joyce was the headline DJ. 

Mike played a most un- Smithslike set of dance music and disco and on the way out me and my brother cornered him for a photo...

Mike's obvious enthusiasm and joy at being in a photo with me (left) and Josh (right) is second only to his enthusiasm for being the drummer in The Smiths, as described in The Drums. 

The Queen Is Dead (Extended Version)

DJ Tin Tin played both before and after Mike and located the Sunday afternoon sweet spot with among others tracks by A Certain Ratio, A Guy Called Gerald, New Order, Deee- Lite, Bassomatic and this 1990 single from Depeche Mode which sounded superb in the Sunday afternoon sunshine...

Enjoy The Silence

Swamp Thing

I've been revisiting Alan Moore's Swamp Thing over the last few months. Between 1984 and 1987 Moore took over as the writer on the DC Comics series Swamp Thing. He was relatively unknown at the time, having done some writing on British comics (2000AD, Marvel UK) but the big time was the US comics industry and the twin giants of DC and Marvel. Swamp Thing was a minor character, way down the DC priorities and close to being cancelled. Moore took his developing and highly distinctive writing and outlook and plotted a run of thirty six comics that would take a man- monster into new areas and helped create comics that were marketed as being 'For Mature Readers'. Watchmen, Dark Knight et al started with Swamp Thing (and Frank Miller's run at Daredevil too). 

Moore turned Swamp Thing into a true monster, a sentient plant creature, a swamp organism with a human consciousness. He then plotted a series that went into Southern Gothic, horror, science fiction and environmentalism, episodes of psychedelic and hallucinogenic exploration, an inter- speices love story between Swamp Thing and Abby Cable and a meditation on what it means to be human. At times the writing is so good, so strong, you could remove all the artwork and visuals and just print the words. The artwork, by a variety of comics artists including Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, becomes increasingly out there too, matching Moore's singular vision. In some issues the artwork spins around, the reader having to rotate the comic book to follow the story, with graphic renditions of the hallucinogenic trips, Swamp Thing's consciousness and cosmic, existential battles between heaven and hell. 

The horror elements are truly horrific- there are traditional gothic horrors with werewolves and zombies and a terrifying creature with his head sewn on backwards and a scene at Mornington Crescent tube station that kept me awake for a while after reading it. There is an ecological strand, pioneering for comics in the mid- 80s, and the nuclear/ industrial poisoning of local small town America.  Swamp Thing's partner Abby is arrested and he turns a city into a green wilderness in response, he visits the Parliament Of Trees, is blasted into space and bounces around other worlds and eventually returns to earth with the knowledge he needs- be aware of your power, be wary of anger. 

There are music references all over the place. The character John Constantine is based physically on 80s Sting. The are issues with song titles as their titles- Loving The Alien, Another Green World. Abby's friend Chester is a 60s hippy fond of quoting Bob Dylan and blasting out The Grateful Dead. 

Alan Moore has disowned most of his 80s comic book work. He deconstructed the form with Swamp Thing and then the superhero completely with Watchmen. He felt that everyone misunderstood want he was doing and that film studios and comic book companies missed his points completely. There's an interview here  for more on that and also Moore on writing , literature, fiction, magic and nostalgia. 

I'd like to think he retains some residue of love and affection for Swamp Thing, a forty year old comic book character that retains a lot of power when read today. You can pick up the anthologies, all six of them republished as Saga Of The Swamp Thing, cheaply second hand- very much worth a trip.

In 1989 Pop Will Eat Itself knew the score...

Can U Dig It? (LP Version)

As did The Chameleons three years earlier...

Swamp Thing

And it took The Grid to Top Of The Pops...

Monday's Long Song

Another Monday, another Four Tet post- I come back to Kieran Hebden's music repeatedly at the moment and he keeps dropping new releases into the world. A few weeks ago he released a new album under his unpronounceable Wing Dings alias- ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ, with eight equally unpronounceable tracks that I still haven't got around to writing about and then he goes and releases an new two track Four Tet EP at the end of July- Human Voice. 

Human Voice and T246130ish Electribe Plaits came out on vinyl four months ago and made it onto Bandcamp a week ago. The second of the two, T246130ish Electribe Plaits, is the one for today, an eight and a half minutes long piece of electronic music that has all the trademark Four Tet sounds but still manages to do something new with them. 

A low key first minute, a loop and a synth part, bleepy and brisk , that suddenly kick into a louder, new focus , pushed to the foregournd. Some long keening backdrop synth chords work their way in and Kieran keeps his hands busy, filtering and FXing. The beats keep the pace fairly fast but the music seems much slower- a trick Aphex Twin pulls off very well too- and the various layers and elements are subtly changing in emphasis as we go on. There's a pause at four twenty five where you think it might be over but the drums and synth wobble return and off we go again, swept along by the momentum. Unexpectedly and dissonantly it all dissolves into guitar feedback at the end. 

Human Voice and T246130ish Electribe Plaits can both be bought, heard and downloaded over at Bandcamp.

I'll come back to the recent ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ album another time. 

William Orbit RIP

On Friday news arrived of the death of William Orbit. He died on the 23rd of July aged 69 and leaves behind him a rich, wild and varied back catalogue of music that reaches from the early 80s underground to worldwide fame and success with Madonna and All Saints via some essential acid house and ambient records. His trademark sound- bubbling, liquid, in motion, widescreen and trippy, like staring at a sunflare- lit up a huge number of artists, his own music and production and remix work for others. In some ways 69 seems young but he packed a lot into those years and lived the life to go with it. Until recently he was still producing, reworking and revisiting his own music and releasing it as an album on Bandcamp titled WFO and an EP called Starbeam in 2021. 

This fifty minute mix contains some of the big hitters from his back catalogue with that Orbit sound running right through the middle of it. 

Fifty Minutes Of William Orbit

• William Orbit: The Story Of Light
• One Dove: Breakdown (William Orbit Stereo Odyssey)
• William Orbit: Water From A Vine Leaf (Xylem Flow Mix)
• Torch Song: P2E Remix
• Les Negresses Verte: Zobi La Mouche (William Orbit Remix)
• The Shamen: Hyperreal Orbit
• Madonna: Ray Of Light (Liquid Mix)
• Bassomatic: Fascinating Rhythm (Soul Odyssey Mix)

The Story of Light is an ambient classic from William's third album in his Strange Cargo series, Strange Cargo III, produced at Guerilla Studios while he was knee deep in the Guerilla Records label, one he set up with Dick O'Dell and John Gosling. Progressive dub house records clad in a distinctive camouflage sleeve. The Story of Light is bubbly and warm, a swirly sound with chunky drums and bass, pianos and guitars and a 'let your love shine on me' vocal refrain.

One Dove are no strangers to this blog, Morning Dove White and its singles being at the core of my musical life. Andrew Weatherall's production and William Orbit's remix on Breakdown are a perfect 1993 combination. 

Water From A Vine Leaf was a single and also the centre piece of Strange Cargo III with Beth Orton on vocals. Epic, swirling, liquid ambient acid house. There were several essential remixes, Underworld's twelve minute thumper for one and the Xylem Flow mix I've included here by Spooky, as good as anything else that came out in '93. If you want a new version of Water From A Vine Leaf, San Francisco producer Marshall Watson has one here, his Endless Motion Edit. 

Torch Song were Orbit's first outfit, an early 80s ambient/ electronic he formed with Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert. P2E Remix was featured on Andrew Weatherall's 200 compilation Nine O'Clock Drop which brought a number of early 80s bands back to the surface, A Certain Ratio, 400 Blows, Shriekback, Quando Quango, Chris & Cosey among them. 

Les Negresses Vertes are/ were a French band, alternative rock/ folk from Paris- they were sometimes referred to as the French Pogues. Orbit's remix of Zobi La Mouche is a fantastic record, just the right amount of Balearic/ acid house edge added to the original- I played it not that long ago in one of our sets at The Golden Lion and it sounded superb on the Lion's sound system. Paul Oakenfold was listening- he borrowed some of it for his remix of Happy Mondays' WFL.

The Shamen's Hyperreal came out in 1990, a key moment for the group as they shifted from psychedelic guitars and samples to full on electronic. Massive techno- pop/ house with multiple remixes. 

In 1997 William Orbit when overground with Madonna, becoming the producer on what's probably her best album, Ray Of Light. The title track along is a huge record, soaring, adult pop. Orbit sometimes went further in the studio than Madonna wanted him to, producing endless versions and remixes. The Liquid Mix is a wonderful synth- pop version of Ray Of Light. The song took four and a half months to create, Orbit returning to the multi tracks time and time again, adding, mixing, removing, remixing, playing guitar, manipulating sounds, repairing broken computers- all worth it in the end. His work with Madonna began when he remixed Justify My Love in 1990, a remix and song that are both such a key part of 1990. 

Also in 1990 Bassomatic appeared on BBC 2's Dance Energy, miming to Fascinating Rhythm in front of a youthful and enthusiastic crowd. 

Bassomatic was William Orbit's breakthrough, a late 80s/ early 90s house/ acid house collective that took him to the charts. Fascinating Rhythm is one of 1990's best singles, totally of its time but enduring too- chunky, optimistic pop with acid house and rap sewn into it. There's a bass heavy Renegade Soundwave remix I nearly included but this version, a piano led Balearic elegy felt right for he finale and to remember him by. 

RIP William Orbit. 

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Don't be frightened to display your talents.

I wrote at some length about Talk Talk's 1988 album Spirit Of Eden, side one particularly, a three song suite that displays the talents of Mark Hollis and Tim Friese- Green, not to mention the other musicians that play on the songs- The Rainbow, Eden and Desire. 

Out in the Oblique Saturdays community Walter suggested The Slits and their cover of I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Jase went for Daft Punk's Discovery, Rol firmly in the Dexys camp with Show Me, C with Hendrix doing Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, Ernie playing his wildcard again with Splodgenessabounds and Michael Booth's Talking Bum, Al G with The Modern Lovers and Pablo Picasso (whose childhood home in Malaga I visited last week, first floor flat in the building below )...

... and Mrs G who went with PJ Harvey's 50 ft. Queenie. 

Pablo Picasso

50 ft. Queenie

I would like to hear PJ Harvey cover Pablo Picasso. I think she could take it to places new. 

This week's card, turned over yesterday when I got back from Spain, is this- Be less critical more often. 

I turned this over in my mind a couple of times and ended up with Minutemen, the 80s band from San Pedro, California, who were inspired by punk to get up and do something. Formed by childhood friends D. Boon and Mike Watt, Minutemen pulled in George Hurley on drums and wrote songs, made records and toured, all three incessantly until tragedy brought them to an end. Watt and Boon gave everything they did a lot of thought- they weighed up the meaning and value of things, of how to be a band and how to go about doing it the right way, how to relate to each other and to the world. They were critical of themselves and each other but also madly supportive and encouraging (of each other, of themselves, of other people). If the key message of punk was 'do it yourself', then they absorbed that fully, added a massive dose of work ethic ('if you're not playin', you're payin', they stated in their Jam Econo theory, driving round the US in a van playing gigs here, there and everywhere, seeing records as a way to promote their gigs, building a network and a community of like minded souls in every town they played) and worked out their political stance- anti- commercial, anti- rockist, independent. 

Their music was everything except hardcore punk (despite being very much part of that world), an ultra- democratic sound (the bass and guitar stayed away from each other's areas). They were punk funk and folk punk, art rock and spoken word, unconventional and inspirational. They fused Wire, Pere Ubu, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Pop Group, Gang Of Four, Captain Beefheart with the spirit and feel of 80s US indie- punk (contemporaries like Black Flag, Husker Du and Sonic Youth).

In 1984 they released their opus, Double Nickels On The Dime, a forty five song double vinyl masterpiece that saw each Minuteman select a side and the forth side collated from the remaining songs from the sessions (which they called the Chaff side- be less critical). It is a magnificent achievement, one of 80s punk's key albums.

By 1984 Minutemen were being less critical, were creating more songs, writing songs about anything that amused or interested them- Michael Jackson, Vietnam, racism, the poor, James Joyce and Ulysses and shit from an old notebook. 

Shit From An Old Notebook

In their songwriting, D. Boon and Mike Watt had freed themselves from external criticism. If it was valid to them, it was worthy of writing a song about. Double Nickels is autobiographical, is left wing, is funny and passionate and inspirational. 'Our band', D. Boon sang in History Lesson Pt. II, 'could be your life'. 

History Lesson Pt. II

While writing Take 5, D Boon told Mike Watt his lyrics were 'too spacey'. Watt agreed and re- wrote them, responding to criticism in an egoless way and writing new lyrics that were 'more real'. He based them on a note he found from a friend's landlady complaining about a leaky shower.

Take 5, D

'I hope we can rely on you not to use shower/ Hope we can rely on you not to use shower/ You're not keeping tub caulked/ Caused both downstairs bath ceilings and walls to be soggy/ Tub has to properly caulked prior to any shower/ Walls are drenched/ I'll refer plumber here/ Had to pay for two service calls/ Water drips from all around/ Kathy's ceiling, my ceiling/ Don't use shower/ Don't use shower'.

D. Boon died in December 1985 when the band's van, being driven by his girlfriend while he slept in the back, broke its rear axle, veered off the road and threw him from it killing him instantly. RIP D. Boon. 

I'm not 100% sure how I'm connecting all of that with Be less critical more often but it's where my head went with the Oblique Strategy suggestion- and that's what this series is all about. 

Feel free to drop your own responses into the comment box. 

Box This Sound

Time for my periodic posting of songs by The High, a late 80s/ early 90s Manchester band who were swept along on the wave of record company interest in all things Mancunian when the Hacienda, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State and  Factory blew up in the 1988- 1989. 

The High were signer John Matthews (formerly of Turning Blue), guitarist Andy Couzens (an early/ foundational Stone Rose who quit suddenly in 1987 when manager Gareth Edwards and the John Squire and Ian Brown pairing announced all songwriting would be handled by them and therefore would be credited to Squire/ Brown. Andy was also in the pre- Roses groups The Patrol and The Waterfront with Squire and Brown), bassist Simon Davis and drummer Chris Goodwin (also in The Waterfront, then early Inspiral Carpets and also Buzzcocks F.O.C.). They signed to London Records in 1990 and released several singles and an album that year- the album was Somewhere Soon, one of the period's minor classics. 

The first single was Box Set Go, a gem of a song with spiralling, chiming guitars, tumbling rhythms and softly sung vocals, one of the songs of summer 1990- dreamy psychedelic guitar pop. 

Box Set Go

Before the release of the album the group had recorded sessions with Martin Hannett including this version of Box Set Go- murkier and a little spikier. The full Hannett sessions came out for Record Shop Day in 2020.

Box Set Go (Martin Hannett Version)

Hannett was not a well man by 1989, had fallen out with Factory, produced Happy Modnays Bummed in '88 (to great acclaim) and various bands of the late 80s came looking for some of the Hannett magic. Hannett was as willful as ever. On one occasion he told drummer Chris Goodwin to start playing, set the tapes rolling and disappeared to the pub. Hannett pondered the problem that had caused him to walk out- two overhead ambient microphones- and suitably refreshed returned to the studio, placed a cigarette butt between them (Embassy No. 1, Hannett was very specific about such things), and then carried on with the session. 

I saw them play at the Haigh Building at Liverpool Polytechnic in 1990, a gig that sticks in the memory. Not long after they turned up on Granada TV, one of Tony Wilson's much missed late night music shows, playing Box Set Go and several others. 

They were back at Granada in July 1990 playing Box Set Go and PWA, loose and very much on the vibe. 

Modern Moonlight

The Early Years have released their third album in twenty years- Modern Moonlight. Their debut came out in 2006 and was followed by II in 2016, ten year gaps the norm for the band. The London based four piece take the cosmische and Mototik sounds of the West German guitar/ kraut groups and mix them with nods to Bowie, mid- 80s Creation (The Loft and The Weather Prophets), The Only Ones, Brian Eno (including some use of the Oblique Strategies cards...) and the shoegaze/ psychedelia of early Verve. First song A New Way Of Living bursts into life sounding like all of those at the same time, Roger Mackin's guitar a Heroes style drone. 

On side two The Gift is a highlight, a song with a groove and a collision of guitars and disco, post punk/ punk funk, echoes of LCD Soundsystem, a heady dance floor brew. 

Modern Moonlight finishes with Silver Lips (Champagne Eyes), a soaring cosmische ballad, Julian Cope's East Easy Rider gone for a glow up with a guest spot from singer Lorena Quantanilla (from Mexican duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete).

The remaining seven songs match these three, a sublime marriage of guitars and synths, live drums and vocals, loops and drones and proper songs. One of the albums of the year- get it at Bandcamp and other reliable record shops. 

Sound Tracks

This came out last week, a limited edition C60 cassette featuring the music of Matt Gunn, an hour of electronic adventuring titled Sound Tracks 1. Matt's music spans the range of electronica, from ambient to chug, synth pop and psychedelia, underpinned by the song based sensibilities of someone who spent their youth in guitar bands. 

The eight tracks on Sound Works 1 are sequenced as a journey. Slip the tape into the car's tape deck and as you pull away from the curb the ambient synth twinkles fade in. By the time you've got to the main road the drums have kicked in and the bass is pushing. Sleeping Thru The Movie segues into Trapped Water, the topline melodies dancing and spinning, the chuggy rhythm matching the speed of your car. The drums fade out and the ambient soundscape reruns, sampled voices make you flinch, sounding like there's someone in the car with you. There's a change of tone, things get a bit spacier, more Orb- like with Ring Road Repeat. Choral voices chanting. Squiggles. The drums re- enter, the beat takes over again. Side one concludes with Tempestuous Days, a bumping piece of oompty boompty. The traffic jam you're stuck in melts away as the music fills the car. 

Flip the cassette over, in and out of the car's tape deck, clunkity click. Side B starts with Safe Harbour Jazz and the sound of waves. Washes of synths fade in, a tugboat's horn and seagulls, a long and languid ambient piece that becomes Return To The Drohne, Eastern sounding melodies and crunching drums. Electronic psyche. You're on the move again now, slipping onto the ring road. More voices, repeating and urgent. Tinned Water comes next, laid back ambient house, a slo mo groove and stellar synth sounds. Things pick up with Tonky Redux, a shape shifting piece of music, slipping between acid house and chug, rolling drums and flickering sounds, chanting voices and distorted synth bass. You pull over, destination arrived at and sit in the driver's seat, hand on the ignition key, waiting for the tape to finish playing so you can turn the engine off. 

Sound Tracks 1 is at Electric Wardrobe's Bandcamp. 

Crypto

The return of Beastie Boy Mike D is along with the return of the Durutti Column a massive musical highlight of 2026, both completely unexpected until a couple of months ago and both very welcome indeed. Mike's album Thank You is out at the end of August. So far he's put out four of the songs onto the internet- What We Got, Switch Up, True Colours and now Crypto. 

Crypto is a blast, distorto vocals, a ton of echo, fuzz guitar, primitive drum machine beats, space invader samples, rumbling bass- he's not playing it safe or pulling any punches, this is Mike and his sons' band The 5D doing exactly what they want to do. There was more good news recently with the announcement of a gig in Manchester in October. 

There's never a bad time to revisit the Beastie Boys so here's your bonus track from 2004's To The 5 Boroughs, an album the three Beastie Boys made that was very much a response to 9/11 and a love letter their home city and call for unity and community. 

An Open Letter To NYC

Monday's Long Song

Spanish Monday long song or Canción larga del lunes en español (I hope that's correct, Google Translate can't always be relied upon).

This is from The Orb's Aubrey Mixes album, released and deleted the same day on 2nd December 1991. Bought by me on the day of release in Probe in Liverpool. The original version of Spanish Castles In Space (on Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld) was fifteen minutes long. This mix is a comparatively concise nine minutes, remixed by Youth and with bass by legendary session bassist Guy Pratt. Ambient house in excelsis with a more uptempo feel than some of the original mixes.

Spanish Castles In Space (Castles In Goa Mix)

August And Augustus

Some songs for August on the 2nd day of the month. August is high summer in the UK, the month of summer holidays, those endless days as children when school had vanished, the sun shone and the possibilities were endless. September and everything it brings- change, the back to school rhythms, autumn- is weeks away. As a teacher I've kept these school days rhythms all my adult life and August always feels like this.

August is named after the Roman Emperor Augustus, the month it is said of his greatest triumphs (the conquest of Egypt among them). Augustus Pablo shares a name with the Emperor and while he may not have achieved the same imperial feats the Emperor Augustus did not record any seminal dub albums, the 1976 King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown among them. Is Jamaica's influence on music the equal of the Romans on the history of the world? All empires fall but dub will last forever. 

555 Dub Street

In 2023 PJ Harvey released I Inside The Old Year, Dying, an enigmatic, poetic and forbidding record and one that only she could have made- a triumph in many ways. The album's first single was this-

A Child's Question, August

Echo laden folk, piano, a guitar and drum and her voice, softer and more tender than sometimes. It feels as old as the hills. 

This one is from 2022 by Turkish composer Ozan Tekin. I know little about it or about Ozan- a minimalist pianist/ musician, born in Istanbul and resident in Cologne. This track starts out as a piano piece, slightly Satie- esque, and dissolves into distortion and feedback at the end. From an album called Anarya.

Knots (Ballad Of August) 

Shrag were a Brighton based five piece group, post punk/ c86 indie, who made three albums between 2003 and 2013. Sharp and raucous live wires with pointed and funny lyrics. 

Tights In August

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Change instrument roles.

I went with the change in using the Roland TB- 303 by Phuture and Marshall Jefferson that led to acid house and also with Luke Schneider's ambient pedal steel guitar. In the comment box it all kicked off with Ernie bringing the funky jazz bagpipe sound of Rufus Harley, SRC with Carlos Alomar and David Bowie in 1980, Le Petit Mort and possibly the ultimate Oblique Saturday sound of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, C with New Model Army, Rol with the brilliantly named Twat Union, and on social media Chris Zen Arcade with A Guy Called Gerald's Voodoo Ray, an otherworldly and seminal record that was probably influenced by Phuture's 303 experiments a couple of years earlier. 

Voodoo Ray

This week's card say this- Don't be frightened to display your talents.

In 1988 Talk Talk released Spirit Of Eden, a record which is very much a display of talent and vision. Mark Hollis, Lee Harris, Paul Webb and producer Tim Friese- Greene made the album at Wessex Studio in London in 1987 and 1988. It sounds nothing like anything else made in those years, existing in its own world and context and on its own terms. The songs that make up side one- The Rainbow, Eden and Desire- run into each other, instrumental passages from the end of one song becoming the next and as such it's best taken as one piece...

Spirit Of Eden Side One (The Rainbow/ Eden/ Desire)

The short hand genre descriptions are usually post- rock, ambient, experimental, art rock combined with the influence of free jazz and folk but these labels don't really describe the three songs on side one of Spirit Of Eden. As Andrew Weatherall said, 'Don't get hung up on genres'. Spirit Of Eden is Spirit Of Eden

The three musicians (Hollis on guitar, organ, piano and melodica, Webb on bass and Harris on drums) plus Friese- Greene (harmonium, piano, guitar and production) were joined by umpteen other musicians who would be brought into the blacked out studio, in almost total darkness (oil projections and strobe lights were deployed to increase the disorientation). They were played the track as it was at that point through their headphones and asked to contribute. Under these circumstances there were presumably lots of takes and parts which were unused and unusable but what they coaxed out of the players and created between them is an astonishing piece of work. 

The Rainbow opens with a burst of a horn and then strings, a saw and woodwind. Some piano notes waft in. It's all tone and texture, the start of something, improvised and loose but clearly the work of someone with a vision. We drift along, the darkness of the studio reflected in the sound. An electric guitar picks up and then a harmonica that cuts right through. Three minutes in, there are suddenly drums and a groove and Mark Hollis sings- 'Oh yeah, the world's turned upside down...'.

The Rainbow is nine minutes long. It stops and starts, unhurried despite the harmonica's attempts to drive it. The long end section fades into Eden, followed by bursts of noise, a wah wah guitar maybe, some feedback, and then a shift as Eden starts. Acoustic guitar, softer and gentler for a while but with the propulsion of drums, bass and a guitar riff. Hollis sings again, somewhere out in the wilds, somewhere in the darkness looking in. 'Everybody needs someone', he settles on. 

The segue into Desire comes after seventeen minutes- organ, woodwind, a horn maybe- and then the guitar is back, clipped and woody. More piano. Not jazz but there's an echo of jazz of a kind in it and some of John Martyn's folk too. Hollis sings again over this freeform improvisational piece. I'm not sure I've ever fully made out all the words and I'm not sure how much it matters. The voice and sound of the words as part of the song are just as important as what he's actually saying- again, tone and texture. There's an explosion of noise, guitars, bass and harmonica, and the drums kicking up a storm. An electric guitar sandstorm. Shakers. 

There's something so unknowable about Spirit Of Eden, so mysterious, so difficult to pin down. The music is physical, its real but it also hangs in the air, slightly out of reach. It can't really be described as chill out or ambient- the bursts of guitar and noise are unsettling (the post- rock label comes from these parts- Spiritualized, Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Tortoise, Radiohead, Low and others were all listening to Spirit Of Eden at some point). You can listen to side one (or the whole album) many, many times and continue to find something new in it each time, a different sound or feel, a new angle, a part you hadn't focused on before or hadn't noticed. It seems like a different record sometimes to the one you'd listened to before. Mark Hollis was at full tilt on Spirit Of Eden, unleashed and exploring what they could do collectively, what they could achieve. Entirely unafraid to display his talents. 

Feel free to drop your own response to Don't be frightened to display your talents in the comment box. 

On Islands

Out today- a new EP by Birds Of Pandaemonium called On Islands with an album on Sprechen to follow. On Islands is a dream- a swooning psychedelic and Balearic crossover dream, a drifting along the beach and loosing oneself in the night kind of dream. Chuggy drums, soft pads, stellar synths, a laid back vocal, hypnotic bass, handclaps, a child's spoken word part, a reference to Andrew Weatherall, orchestral strings... it's got it all. 

There are three remixes by Hardway Bros- the Stereo Odyssey, the Steppas Dub and the Hardway Bros Dub. All three are very good. The Stereo Odyssey is the place to start, a spaced out and interstellar version that goes straight to the Balearic/ indie- dance/ psychedelia sweet spot. The Steppas Dub is a fuzz and bass version with bells on and the Dub strips it back to bass, bleeps and rhythm, hints of strings and voice. Blissed out to the max.

On Islands is at Bandcamp. 

On Islands is a cover of a 1980 song by New Musik, a song that sounds weirdly contemporary for something that came out forty six years ago. New Musik were from South London, formed in 1977 and called it a day in 1982. The band look like they could all have been in Hot Chip.

Espana

Y viva Espana! We're off to Spain today for a few days, going to Granada, Nerja and Malaga. There are lots of songs with Spain or Spanish in their names in my collection. Let's go with cuatro songs for today's post. 

Hinds are a Spanish, all girl group with four albums to their name- the most recent, Viva Hinds, was one of my favourites of 2024. They covered The Clash's Spanish Bombs in 2020 in fine style. Joe Strummer's lyric dealt with the Spanish Civil War, 70s separatist Basque terrorism and mass tourism. 'The hillsides ring with 'free the people'/ Can I hear the echo of the days of '39?', Joe asks, harking back to the civil war and the days of one of his heroes, the poet Federico Garcia Lorca (murdered by Franco's forces in 1936). In the chorus Joe declares his love for Spain, 'Yo te quiero, oh mi corazón' ('I love you/ Oh my heart'). 

Spanish Bombs

In 1967 Jimi Hendrix's second album with The Experience had a song called Spanish Castle Magic on it, a glorious slice of '67 blues/ psychedelia, Jimi's guitar raw and raucous, the bass locked into the crunching guitar chords and doubling the riff, Mitch battering the drums. I don't think Jimi ever sang better than on this song.

Spanish Castle Magic

The Spanish Castle wasn't actually in Spain, it was a roadhouse on the outskirts of Seattle where a young Hendrix was sometimes found jamming with local groups. 

In 1999 Gorky's Zygotic Munki released their sixth album, Spanish Dance Troupe. The title track is gorgeous, absurdist, lilting Welsh psychedelic folk. This is Gorky's first appearance at Bagging Area which seems a bit of an oversight. 

Spanish Dance Troupe

Last for today, Galaxie 500 and the B-side to their debut single Tugboat from 1988. In King Of Spain a man inures himself from pain and hurt by becoming the King of Spain, safely isolated as a powerful man but he ends up alone and lonely. Galaxie 500 may have refined their songs and sound over the three years they were active after they released Tugboat/ King Of Spain but almost everything that made them so special is present on this single. 

King Of Spain

I've set posts up for the time I'm away so there'll be no break in service. Bagging Area's commitment to blogging knows few bounds.  

Dicky Two Times

Dicky Continental is one of Rich Thair's alter egos, a one man project away from his main band Red Snapper and Red Snapper's offshoot Number and his role as drummer and percussionist in the rejuvenated Sabres Of Paradise. Dicky Continental appeared on Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 with his Andrew Weatherall sampling Large Bongos, Andrew's voice appearing over some low fi dusty funk on side one, very much holding its own next to the previously unreleased version of  Sabres' track Lik Wid Nit Wit.

Dicky Continental have two new releases. The first is a single coming out in early August called Hostile Environment, ahead of an album called Queer The Pitch. Hostile Environment is a dubbed out gem with some typically cool percussion (conga and djembe), a sample from pirate radio, and Cardiff rapper/ poet Tia Zakura on vocals, a laid back and easy vocal style asking the right questions- 'Tell me what's the difference between existing and living?'

Recorded and produced at Buntys studio in Swansea and mixed in Hastings, listen and buy at Bandcamp. On the EP there will be a dub and an instrumental version to go with the vocal mix already available.

Meanwhile, The Secret Garden (Alex Vickers) have a track out called Weekend Away, remixed by Dicky Continental and featuring the vocals of Ioan Omar. Dicky's remix is a jazzy, summer sounding tune, keyboards to the fore and live drums and bass pushing it on. 'Call the collective', Ioan says, again like Tia above in a laid back vocal style- the tune and vocal flow press buttons that call Soul II Soul, Ballistic Brothers and Acid Jazz to mind. Find Dicky Continental's remix of Weekend Away at Bandcamp. 

Strangers On The Shore

In the 2010s gentrification pushed Michael Smith, his partner and their infant son out of London and down to the south coast, the family settling in St. Leonards- on- Sea, a down at heel town next to Hastings. Smith is an author and flaneur* who wrote The Giro Playboy and Unreal City. When he moved to St. Leonards they decided to open a wine shop/ bar and the local community of artists and characters adopted this as the place to be. Michael found himself with a very young son, in a town he didn't know, staring out at the English Channel and sometimes wondering what on earth he'd done. Then came Covid and lockdown. 

In time he turned this part of his life into a book, Strangers On The Shore, published last month by White Rabbit. It's not a novel, it's not exactly a memoir, it's informal in tone and traces his life in St. Leonards and much more besides. The strangers on the shore are often himself and the young Raf, killing the days, making a few pounds go as far as they will. The book heads from the decision to move to St. Leonards and the early days in the town into all sorts of areas- Aleister Crowley, Michael's disgust with end stage capitalism, gentrification, mobile phones, excursions into philosophy via Diogones and quantum physics (light particles and sausage dogs), owls, items that appear before him falling out of the cliff face, his realisation that there are things cannot be explained rationally, 'perfidious Albion on speed', signs and symbols, Raf's early life and how he sees the world, fatherhood... hopping from one vignette to another, all linked by Michael's distinctive voice and life in St. Leonards. A psychic flight of fancy grounded in the very real and every day aspects of life interrupted by a global and national emergency.

There are encounters with Andrew Weatherall, a dream encounter some months after Andrew died and some real ones too. In one of them Michael talks to Andrew in Weatherall's East London studio bunker, telling him how much the song Shine Like Stars means to him, Andrew tells Michael that he really should hear the unreleased remix of Shine Like Stars (released by Primal Scream after Andrew's death). 

Shine Like Stars (Andrew Weatherall Instrumental Remix)

Copies of Strangers On The Shore bought from Gnostic Sonics came with an exclusive print and a pamphlet which describes teenage Michael's life in the north east of England, his discovery of acid house (and acid) and his first meeting with Andrew. In the pamphlet Michael writes about Andrew, his craft and talent, and his abilities as a 'weather controller' (which comes from a Weatherall story in the early 90s about him being atop Silbury Hill, out of his mind on psychedelics and trying to control the weather). Michael books Andrew to play his bar in St. Leonards and the young Raf is introduced to the alchemy of a Weatherall DJ set and the power of dub. It's a evocative and very moving addition to the book, one of the best pieces of writing about Mr. Weatherall I've read. 

Back to Strangers On The Shore- Michael writes at one point that 'it's not easy trying to write your way out of a mid- life crisis'. I'll say no more but it's a highly affecting book, tender and funny, scabrous and rooted in very real life. St. Leonards becomes not just a 'rundown drinking town with a fishing problem' but the psychic motherlode. It's a book that stays with you after you've finished it, a book infused with 'magick with a K' (as Weatherall put it) a very human and readable memoir. 

In 2013 when Andrew Weatherall was Faber's artist in residence the company published Unreal City, Michael's second book. Andrew introduced himself to Michael and said he'd like to work with him. Together with Nina Walsh, Andrew created an ambient soundscape soundtrack for Michael to read Unreal City over, a spoken word/ ambient Weatherall album (which came in a beautiful special edition with annotated margins, a CD and a 10" single). 

In 2021 I strung all the different tracks together and uploaded them to Mixcloud. You can find it at Mixcloud here (with a comment from Michael himself and a link to more of his writings about the making of the album).  

Michael more recently recorded an EP with Ride bassist Steve Queralt, spoken word ruminations on modern life, mushrooms and Chaldean oracles with shimmering ambient backdrops. It's highly recommended as is the subsequent remix EP. Both are at Bandcamp. 

Michael's disgust with modern cities and 21st century lifestyles/ gentrification bleeds through on the track Glitches where he is flaneuring away in London and finds himself in a new part of the city, a re-developed hyper- capitalist shopping centre (Westfield in Stratford I think) surrounded by shops, flats and skyscrapers, glass and steel, cardboard cut out policemen in shop windows to ward off shoplifters, permanent bright lights and twenty four hour advertising selling a lifestyle that is for most people utterly unobtainable. Michael sees the city mutating in front of his/ our eyes into a megacity, people become permanent consumers, where the windows of shops selling suits promise that you are 'living the dream of a beautiful tomorrow'. As the track builds, Michael cuts to the chase, asking in his Hartlepudlian tones, 'What kind of a cunt's dream is this?'.

Indeed. 

* Flaneur- one who wanders aimlessly through city streets observing the surroundings and people with no specific direction or goal. I can quite easily slip into it myself.

Monday's Long Song

Coyote return with a new EP and more wisdom dispensed via well chosen vocal samples. Blue Bird is six minutes and forty four seconds of laid back ambient sounds, chilled bass and life advice-

'Focus on you/ People come and go/ If you don't control your mind,someone else will/ Sometimes the things that break your heart end up fixing your vision...'

In the second half it kicks up a bit, drums coming in and the bass pushing a little more, and there are choral backing vocals that coo like tiny angels. 

'Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo... no regrets just lessons... life is too short... the calmer you are the clearer you think'.

There's a Polcari remix, a dub, that strips it down to electronic drums, bass and those backing vocals and a third track, Ode To Penguin, abstract Balearic ornithological ambience, layers of detail that reveal a little more with each play. Coyote's Blue Bird EP is at Bandcamp. 

R.E.M.: A Twenty Minute Film And A Fifty Minute Live Mix

When they started out playing parties for their friends in abandoned churches and then rapidly became a proper band R.E.M. defined themselves as much by what they said 'No' to as by what they were for. One big 'No' was videos. Their label I.R.S. would have been happy with something that could have been shown on MTV, which was rapidly becoming the way Americans consumed their new music, but the band weren't comfortable with it and Michael Stipe refused to mime. Their early 80s music was drenched in mystery and for Stipe, a visual artist who was naturally drawn to the avant garde, making a brash, lip syncing promo just wasn't something he was prepared to do. They didn't really play the MTV video game until The One I Love in 1987. 

In 1983 when R.E.M. released their second album Reckoning Stipe secured some funding to make a film to coincide with Reckoning. An Athens, Georgia filmmaker James Herbert was brought in to direct and Stipe's vision was that the band would be filmed at the farm that belonged to a local folk artist R.A. Miller, Whirligig Farm.

Between them, Herbert and R.E.M. they ended up with a twenty minute film. Herbert was used to making twenty minute films and was reluctant to edit his footage down to four minutes for just one of Reckoning's songs. The band decided that the film could accompany all of one side of the album (side one,labelled on the disc as the Left Side. Side two was the Right Side- hence the film became Left Of Reckoning). As well as some snippets of studio audio verite and Little America to start and finish it, the film provides visuals to Harborcoat, 7 Chinese Brothers, So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry), Pretty Persuasion and Time After Time (Annelise).

Herbert used slo mo, close ups, time lapse, silhouettes and a process called rephotogrpahy which used the same image twice with a slight time lag, cutting in and pulling out. It's an impressionistic but watchable film, very of its time and place, a time capsule of a period when for many artists pop videos and MTV were an enemy. MTV didn't show Left Of Reckoning- they weren't really into twenty minute art films of long haired indie rockers wandering round a hillside with some windmills and whirligigs. 

I used to own Left Of Reckoning on an R.E.M. VHS compilation called Succumbs and there was a time when I would often put Left Of Reckoning on and sit and watch it, the visuals and music giving a glimpse into a world that I'd never visited and only knew through books and films- and this was a version of the south that was different from the one those books and films portrayed. A post punk Southern Gothic with jangly guitars, indecipherable but emotionally connecting lyrics, denim jackets and long hair. 

Between releasing Chronic Town in August 1982 and Document in September 1987 (their last for I.R.S. before heading off to major label Warner Bros) R.E.M. put out four albums, each one a little bigger than the one before, each one adding something to their sound and style and their songwriting. They also  played thousands of gigs, starting out at tiny venues in Athens and ending up in 1987 on the verge of big stages in big concert halls. They'd end up in arenas by 1995. 

Today's Sunday mix is R.E.M. recorded live at various gigs between 1983 and 1987, the band powering through those songs from Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning and Fables Of The Reconstruction. The audio differs a bit due to the nature of how and where it was recorded but it holds together pretty well and demonstrates in fifty minutes, what a fearsome and life affirming live band they were- the speed, thump and melodic power of Peter Buck,  Mike Mills and Bill Berry and Michael Stipe's words, vocal melodies and presence. 

Fifty Minutes Of R.E.M. Live In The Eighties

• There She Goes Again (Live at Larry's Hideaway, Toronto, 9th July 1983)
• Radio Free Europe (Live at The Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, 7th July 1984)
• 7 Chinese Brothers (Live at Larry's Hideaway, Toronto, 9th July 1983)
• Ages Of You (Live at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, 13th July, 1983)
• Harborcoat ((Live at Larry's Hideaway, Toronto, 9th July 1983)
• Life And How To Live It (Live at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands, 14th September 1987)
• Sitting Still (Live at The Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, 7th July 1984)
• Talk About The Passion (Live at Larry's Hideaway, Toronto, 9th July 1983)
• Pilgrimage (Live at Larry's Hideaway, Toronto, 9th July 1983)
• Little America (Live at The Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, 7th July 1984)
• Second Guessing (Live at The Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, 7th July 1984)
• We Walk (Live at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, 13th July, 1983)
• 1, 000, 000 (Live at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, 13th July, 1983)

R.E.M. were in the habit of covering The Velvet Underground both in the studio and live. In 1983 they often opened gigs with Femme Fatale and on the Green tour they often encored with After Hours. Three Velvets songs turned up as B-sides and then compiled on the Dead Letter Office album- Femme Fatale, Pale Blue Eyes and the one I've used as the opener for this gig mix, There She Goes Again (from the Velvet's 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground And Nico). 

Larry's Hideaway was a bar in the Prince Carlton Hotel in Toronto, Canada, one of the first venues in Toronto to open up to punk and New Wave acts. It was originally a restaurant and then became a jazz club in 1961. The list of bands that played there is impressive- The Cramps, The Bad Seeds, Sun Ra, Killing Joke, The Fall, The Cult, Billy Bragg, John Cale, Black Flag and Bauhaus all trod the boards at Larry's. It closed in 1986. The hotel stayed open but was raided by police due to a series of robberies and assaults taking place on the property. It closed in 1988 and the building was destroyed by a fire in 1991. It's now the off leash dog section of Allan Gardens Park. 

The Aragon Ballroom in Chicago opened in 1922 and has a long and storied history ever since hosting bands of all descriptions, from the Big Band era onward, as well as wrestling, roller skating and boxing, another life as a disco and its appeared as a location set in films and on TV. When R.E.M. played there in July 1984 they were supported by The Dream Syndicate. 

The Paradise Rock Club in Boston opened in 1977 with a capacity of 900, close to the university. It's still open today- The Charlatans will play there in September. The plumbing may have been a bit off in 1983 however. In the final song in the mix/ set above, as the band power into Chronic Town's 1, 000, 000, Stipe cautions the crowd, 'Don't drink the water'.

Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht, Netherlands, was a 5000 capacity venue which shows the step up in audience and venue size R.E.M. took between 1983 and 1987. The building was demolished in 2008 and a new concert venue built on the site which opened in 2014. The version of Life And How To Live It they played there has a long introduction by Michael Stipe, where he describes the Athens man the song is about and the house he lived in, followed by the band absolutely flying through the song at the height of their 80s powers. 

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was A very small object. It's centre.

I went all atomic with Quando Quango and Mark Kamins, Juan Moreno, and Massive Attack, all loosely tied together by Carlo Rovelli and quantum physics. Out in the Bagging Area community there were the usual array of fantastic suggestions- Newcleus from Michel Houellebecq's Petit Mort, Suzanne Vega from Trail Of Bread, They Might Be Giants from Rol, Chapterhouse and Badly Drawn Boy from Al G, Soft Cell from Chris, The Incredible String Band from Ernie and sneaking in at the end Mrs G with Tinie Tempah with a tribute to stars and teenagers. 

Here's Chapterhouse's very small object, swirling shoegaze from 1991.

Pearl

This week's card says this- Change instrument roles

The Roland TB- 303 is a bassline synthesiser, produced by the Roland Corporation in 1981 and designed to replace the bass guitar and to accompany the 808 drum machine. It was considered a commercial failure and discontinued in 1984. 

Over in Chicago a group called Phuture had a 303 and had been seeing what they could do with it, what the instruction manual didn't tell them. By abusing the machine they discovered they could do much more than make a synthesised bassline- they could change the sound completely, making a squelchy, liquid, otherworldly sound that became the foundation stone of what a couple of years later became known as acid house. 

Acid Trax

Phuture were DJ Pierre, Spanky and Herbert Jackson. Marshall Jefferson helped out with the production of  Acid Trax and in getting it released. Phuture had in turn built on the house sound that DJ Ron Hardy had been playing at Chicago's warehouse parties, the mayhem of those parties Hardy DJed at and the thump of the rhythm and the effect it had on the crowd. The acid squelch took it up to another level. When it was released in 1987 it made its way to the UK, to London, Manchester and Nottingham. That squelch, that distinctive, futuristic, face melting sound that warps its way through Acid Trax is what happens when someone changes instrument roles. And kick starts a revolution. 

Nashville's Luke Schneider has taken an instrument usually associated with country and western and the Grand Ole Opry, the pedal steel guitar, added some FX and changed the pedal steel's role completely- in Luke's hands the pedal steel is an ambient instrument, layers of drones and ringing sounds, an enveloping soundscape. This is from 2020's Altar Of Harmony, as good a place to start as any. 

Mundi Tuum Est

Feel free to drop your own responses to Change instrument roles into the comments box.