The sunshine has finally arrived in north west England this weekend bringing with it blue skies, heat and life lived outdoors. I appreciate some people don't like the heat and go bright red at the first contact with the sun but it doesn't half help to lift the spirits and make everything seem a little bit better. Manchester city centre was heaving yesterday- no one would say Manchester has a beautiful or even scenic city centre but its scruffy charm looks miles better with blue skies and the sun beaming down. A month ago all the trees were still bare- now they're all green.
This ten minute track by Mi Ami, first released in 2012 and then again as part of a compilation put together by Gatto Fritto in 2018 (The Sound Of Love International Vol. 1), is all summer sounds, percussion and drums and shimmering synth sounds, some dub FX giving everything a hazy wobble. Ideal for this kind of weather.
A few of Justin Robertson's early 90s remixes today, chunky beats and tempos, samples and trumpets- lots of trumpets- and indie bands transformed into dancefloor monsters. Ideal for the spring sunshine that has finally arrived this weekend in this part of the world.
The Sugarcubes: Birthday (Justin Robertson 12" Mix)
The Stone Roses: Waterfall (Justin Robertson's Mix)
Bjork: Big Time Sensuality (Justin Robertson Lionrock Wigout)
Lionrock: Packet Of Peace (No More Fucking Trumpets)
Yargo: The Love Revolution (Justin Robertson's Scream Team Remix)
Inspiral Carpets: Caravan (No Windscreen Mix)
Justin's remix of Birthday by The Sugarcubes turns singular Icelandic post- punk oddness into seven minutes of dub loveliness. Released on vinyl in 1992 along with remixes from Jim and William Reid and Tommy D.
I was of the opinion once that remixes of songs by The Stone Roses were totally unnecessary. I've come round to some of them, not least this remix of Waterfall, Reni's drums replaced by a skippy drumbeat, some echo- laden cymbal splashes and Ian's voice sitting above the music with John's guitar drizzled on top.
Big Time Sensuality was inescapable in 1993, not least in Manchester's clubs and bars, and enjoyed every time. I met my wife on the dancefloor at Paradise Factory dancing to it. Justin's remix, in his Lionrock guise, was a big hitter too, a slo- mo groove, with those massive trumpets and Bjork's barely contained sense of gleeful abandon.
Justin, Mark Stagg and rapper MC Buzz B were Lionrock. Packet Of Peace was their 1993 12". The remix here is Justin's own Lionrock remix of Lionrock and clearly by the title, he'd had enough of his signature trumpet sound by this point. I can keep enjoying those trumpets ad infinitum.
Yargo were Manchester's best kept secret, an urban funk/ soul/ blues group graced by the honeyed voice of Basil Clarke who are probably best known for their song of the same name being the title music to Tony Wilson's Other Side Of Midnight, a semi- legendary music programme from the late 80s (which The Stone Roses appeared on, playing Waterfall- see above). The Love Revolution came out as a 12" in 1990 with co- vocals by guest singer Zoe Griffin and samples the drums from Fool's Gold. Yargo's 1987 album Bodybeat is something of a lost classic. The follow up, 1989's Communicate, didn't manage to crossover outside Manchester but is (again,) one of the period's lost gems. As is this remix
I posted this Justin Robertson remix of Inspiral Carpets a couple of weeks ago, a 1991 acid house banger complete with the 'you play consciousness expanding material' vocal sample and general '91 madness. A numbered 12" vinyl release in a run of 10, 000. 10, 000!
The awful, sad news yesterday that Andy Rourke had died of pancreatic cancer aged just 59 stopped me in my tracks. He was a local lad, growing up in Ashton on Mersey just up the road from here and in bands with Johnny Marr from a young age. Johnny recruited him for The Smiths. Later on he lived in Chorlton and was a regular in various pubs and bars there and in town. He always seemed like a lovely man. The Smiths hit me hard in the 80s, c1986, and still can when I hear them now, songs and performances first heard in my teens that can cross the decades and drop me back in 1987, a bequiffed seventeen year old with The Queen Is Dead, Hatful Of Hollow or Strangeways blasting out of my bedroom ghettoblaster.
Whatever the importance of Morrissey and Johnny Marr to the band there's no doubt, whatever some might say, that the other two, Andy and drummer Mike Joyce, were absolutely essential to their sound, their image and their songs. Andy's bass playing is propulsive, melodic and dynamic, much more than just a bass player following the root notes and playing with the drummer. By the time Meat is Murder came out the band were stretching out musically and the basslines and the bottom end are as important as the words and the guitars. On this session version of Rusholme Ruffians Andy's rockabilly bassline opens the song and provides the twang and the railway rhythm.
Meat Is Murder is a full sounding, urgent, wide ranging album. On Barbarism Begins At Home, while Morrissey yelps and Johnny riffs, Andy is playing a lead funk bassline ripped from New York's discos and relocated to south Manchester, at the heart of the song and a million miles from the jingle jangle their detractors claimed they were (and never really were anyway), as this live version of Barbarism Begins At Home in 1984 at Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow makes perfectly clear.
This two song set from The Tube in April 1987 lives long in the memory, the late period Smiths in full flight, Sheila Take A Bow and Shoplifters Of The World Unite- and don't they look great.
It's my 53rd birthday today. They say that when going through bereavement and grief anniversaries are always tough and we've found this to be true- a friend with experience in this told me 'the first everything fucks'. The second ones do too I think. Isaac loved a birthday, his or anyone else's, so they're always going to be tinged with his excitement about them and maybe that's what I need to try to remember.
Glasgow record label 53rd and 3rd (named after Dee Dee Ramone's song about his experiences as a male prostitute in New York in the mid- 70s) was a brief but brightly shining beacon of indie nuggets, founded by Stephen Pastel, Sandy McLean and David Keegan. It released a total of twenty one singles and seven albums (two of which were label compilations) between 1986 and 1988 by indie royalty, the likes of The Shop Assistants, The Vaselines, Talulah Gosh, The Pooh Sticks and BMX Bandits.
Safety Net was the label's debut release, a 7" single from The Shop Assistants in 1986, the kind of record that entire scenes are built around. If it were the only record The Shop Assistants made it would be enough. Three minutes of rumbling bass, buzzsaw guitars and sing- song vocals from singer Alex Taylor.
Teenage Superstars was on The Vaselines 1988 EP/ 12" Dying For It, a song that is part feedback driven indie thrum, part manifesto (David Keegan, Shop Assistants guitarist appears on the EP, Stephen Pastel produces). Makes me want to wear tight black jeans, leather biker jacket and love beads and grow my hair long. Things are most likely not going to happen aged 53.
Out today is the new album from Galen and Paul, Galen being the daughter of Kevin Ayres and Paul being Paul Simonon. The songs are all acoustic guitars, reverb and twin Nancy and Lee style vocals with plenty of gap toothed Simonon charm. This one, Hacia Arriba, is sung in Spanish- much of the record was written in Mallorca, where Paul spent much of lockdown. He has busked in the streets of Palma in recent years, which would have stopped me in tracks if I'd happened to be there at the same time.
Two Heavenly Records acts played live in Manchester on Tuesday night, both bands surely ones that will go on to play bigger venues than the small but perfectly formed back room of a Victorian pub. The Castle Hotel is on Oldham Street, a long standing Northern Quarter favourite. The back room is a wooden panelled gig venue that has a capacity of eighty people (although that would be uncomfortably full). There were fewer than that number present lat night to see Revival Season and Eyes Of Others (whose debut album comes out tomorrow after a series of single releases since 2017 including an Andrew Weatherall remix back then and two sublime releases this year in the shape of New Hair New Me and Big Companies Large Tentacles).
We were there for Eyes Of Others and Revival Season, about whom I knew nothing pre- gig, were something of a surprise- two men, Jonah Swilley shaven headed and playing machinery, the other Brandan 'Bez' Evans, dreadlocked and rapping.
They burst into life from the stage, attacking the gig as if they were playing to a much larger crowd, Brandon's rapid fire raps and stream of rhymes fired out as he prowls the stage, eyeballing the front row and hollering. Not a man who reels his performance in for a small venue and small crowd, this is full on and exhilarating stuff. Behind him, bent over a small table with a synth, drum machine and sampler and a mic for occasional backing vox, Jonah keeps a barrage of beats, dub FX and noises, looping bits of vocal and prodding the pads to fire samples out. At one point Jonah finishes a song as Bez has wound up his vocals by adding simply, 'we're from Georgia'. Their excursions into dub add an extra layer to their hip hop and they were hugely impressive. This track, Chop, a slower jam than some of their set, came out a few days ago.
Eyes Of Others is John Bryden, an Edinburgh musician who makes 'post club music for people who can't get into clubs'. Synths and drum machine rhythms, swirly psychedelia with detours into 808 acid house, bits of guitar, handclaps and lyrics that suggest an underlying sense of disquiet and unease, the sense that living through late stage capitalism hasn't quite lived up to the promise. Tonight John is centre stage, a Korg synth and microphone with mate/ musical partner to his left on FX pedals, boxes, synth and occasional acoustic guitar.
The set is lovely, songs played and sung with only a few elements but fully realised and affecting, lots of space, slightly trippy, melodic and affecting. John is a little like a more subdued David Byrne, dancing on the spot and caught up in the act of performing, using different singing voices and catching you unaware at times- there are shades of early Beta Band on show too. One song is sung from the perspective of a cow waiting in line at an abattoir. New Hair New Me is deceptively simple, carried along by a funky bass riff, some catchy synth melodies and John's voice.
Once Twice Thrice is introduced as a song about deodorant- skittering drumbeat, rising and falling synth line and doleful vocals, an exercise in twitchy, dubby hypnosis.
Eyes Of Others finish with Big Companies Large Tentacles, a song I posted back in March and one which is a beaut, lyrics about being told he belongs on 'Freud's chaise longue', powered by an insistent drum pattern and with a sudden hit of acid house and 808 madness that definitely pops in recorded form and positively explodes on stage.
The tour concludes at Leeds tomorrow night, they play a weekender in Totnes at the end of the month and are then back in Edinburgh for a gig in early August. The self titled debut album is out on Heavenly on Friday too. Go see them while they're playing the small stages.
A chance encounter with this song two weeks ago brightened my day, a song I haven't heard for years, decades maybe. Don't Tell Me came out as single in March 1984, the third single from Blancmange's second album Mange Tout, a song from the mid-80s that sounds utterly fresh to my sometimes jaded 21st century ears. The tabla and Eastern keyboard line ride in on top of a chunky synth- pop rhythm and Neil Arthur's irresistible words and vocals, all howling wind, wounded stars, mountains, skies and devil's friends. The run into the chorus and the key change towards the end are ridiculously good.
I got an offer from my brother who had a spare ticket for ESG at Band On The Wall on Saturday night- a sold out gig in a small venue by New York dance/ funk- punk legends. That's not something to say no to. The sun shone on Saturday, town was busy with shoppers, drinkers, fans coming and going to and from Old Trafford and the general buzz of the first nice day of the spring. Unfortunately having a drink at Night And Day meant we arrived at Band On The Wall at 8.45pm only to be told the group had been on stage since 8.30 so we missed the first few songs but walking in it was clear that ESG were delivering the goods to a very enthusiastic crowd.
ESG's history with Manchester dates back over four decades, to 1981 when Tony Wilson saw the Scroggins sisters and friend Tito Libran playing at Hurrah in Manhattan. Three days later they were recording with Martin Hannett, a three track single released on Factory in June 1981 (FAC 34 catalogue fans). You're No Good had three songs on it, the title track, Moody and UFO, the last one recorded quickly because Hannett saw there were three minutes of master tape left unused and two minutes fifty four seconds of that tape went on to become one of the most sampled songs in hip hop history, its sirens, beats and descending guitar line recognisable in hundreds of records. ESG supported A Certain Ratio in 1980 when ACR played in New York (at least two Ratios, Martin and Jez, are present in the audience tonight) and Hannett was producing ACR's To Each... at the same time as the three ESG songs that came out on the Factory single. ESG played the opening night of the Hacienda. Accordingly they're welcomed here tonight like long lost relatives, honorary Mancunians.
Renee Scroggins is centre stage, seated, rapping and singing in her unmistakeable Bronx twang, a spit and snarl where necessary- 'I got sampled so often I decided I was gonna sample myself', she tells us by way of introduction to one of her songs tonight. Around her is that skeletal but funky, New York, mutant No Wave dance/ punk funk sound, all bass, drums and percussion, with the basslines clear and crisp and sounding huge through Band On The Wall's sound system. Stage right Nicholas Nicholas plays congas, cowbell, shakers, tambourine and woodblock, frequently breaking away from the percussion to dance around and across the stage, arms raised and with a big grin. Moody, from FAC 34, is played mid- set and the years are rolled away as the bass pumps and the rhythms clatter.
It's as much a celebration as a gig, ESG clearly enjoying themselves and the crowd completely onside. There's very little in the way of treble or melody, it's all about the bass and drums, music stripped down to a minimalist sound, a gleeful kinetic groove. Towards the end an audience member is helped up onto the stage to dance. She brings her friend up and they co- ordinate spontaneously, switching places on stage. At the end, as Renee is helped off stage, the bass and drums continue, Mike Giordano rolling round the kit and bassist Nicole exhorting us to join in the chant of 'ESG, ESG'.
Dirt Bogarde is from Stourbridge and makes the sort of music that really needs to be heard through a large and expensive speaker system at high volume- chuggy, acid house/ dark disco/ trippy Balearica with a huge emotional pull. Last month Dirt released Heavy Blotter, an nine minute tour de force with wobbly synths, thumping kick drum, rattling snare, a pulsating topline and bags of last track of the night feelings. When the female vocal and bassline kick in after two minutes and then a little later when the synths go mad, it's all almost too much. Seriously heady stuff.
It's available only at Bandcamp and costs just one pound. Dirt's back catalogue is worth working your way through too. Backroom Sunrise, from March this year, is a joy and from the end of last year Kuiper Estasi pulls at similar places, a six minute slice of dark, after hours dance music. Buy it here.
Some West German motorik cosmische musik for Sunday, from the combined talents of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger. Rother and Dinger formed Neu! in Dusseldorf in 1971, after both left an early incarnation of Kraftwerk. Rother, a calm, reflective man brought up in Munich, Wilmslow (!), Karachi and Dusseldorf played guitar and keys. Dinger, a lively, opinionated and extroverted drummer. In the studio Conny Plank produced and mediated between them. The clash of personalities and styles produced some of krautrock's greatest music- Neu!'s 1972 debut, their follow up a year later Neu! 2 and the third album '75.
Between them they forged a new sound- Dinger's motorik drums, a repetitive, gliding, four four beat (that he preferred to call 'endlose gerade', which translates as endless straight, and later on he renamed the Apache beat) with Rother's guitar and keys layered on top, a futuristic, non- blues based, Mittel Europa music. Hallogallo, ten minutes of sensational, perpetual momentum bliss, opens the debut album, Neu! sounding forever new. Rother went off in various directions, to Harmonia and solo, coming back to Neu! and then off again. Dinger formed La Dusseldorf with his brother Thomas and Hans Lampe. Rother's solo albums are all worthy of investigation, not least the first four and especially 1977's Flammende Herzen and 1979's Katzenmusik. The mix below is built around the forever sound of motorik drums and melodic/ rhythmic guitars and keys, a blissed out but insistent way to spend forty minutes on a Sunday morning.
Flammende Herzen is from Michael Rother's 1977 solo debut of the same name, a five song instrumental album recorded with Conny Plank and with Jaki Liebezeit of Can on drums. He really knew how to pick drummers.
Rheinita is from La Dusseldorf's 1978 second album Viva, an album a friend once described to me as sounding like 'a happy Joy Division', which it does. Viva is the title track.
Hallogallo opens Neu!'s 1972 self- titled debut, the sound of motorik announcing itself over ten glorious, relentless minutes. Hallogallo comes from the German slang word halligalli, meaning wild partying.
Isi was a 1975 single by Neu! and the opening track from 1975's Neu! '75, another example of the relentless, hypnotic interplay between Dinger's beat and Rother's music. By 1975 the pair had diverged, Rother's more ambient direction and Dinger's more rock styles coming back together to some kind of compromise, each directing a side of '75.
Fur Immer is the eleven minute opening track from Neu! 2, Rother's fluid, harmonic guitar playing pushed ever onwards by the drums. Somewhere, this song is still playing.
Minutemen, San Pedro's DIY punk heroes, live at The Metro in Chicago in 1985. No fuss, no frills, no backdrop or guitar changes, just D. Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurley playing their songs. This being Minutemen they rattle through their short songs in quick time, thirty five songs including many from their then recently release double album opus Double Nickels On The Dime plus covers of songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Blue Oyster Cult, The Who and Richard Hell. It's scratchy, grainy, trebly, life affirming stuff.
Also in 1985 they played Acoustic Blow- Out on public access TV. This is one of my favourite Minutemen live appearances, the three men sitting in a circle playing their songs for each other, slowed down and relaxed. Watt opens proceedings speaking directly to the camera, 'I never gave a damn about the meterman, until I was the man who had to read the meters, man' and then they're into Corona, Themselves, I Felt Like A Gringo, more covers, History Lesson Pt. II and Little Man With A Gun In His Hand. In many ways, a perfect band.
Sadly D.Boon died in December 1985, not long after Acoustic Blow- Out was filmed, falling out of the back doors of the van in Tucson as it swerved on a bend. Mike Watt, even today when asked what kind of bass player he is, replies, 'D. Boon's bass player. I'm D. Boon's bass player'.
Mark Lanegan's Blues Funeral, a 2012 album contained a few songs where he broke away from the gnarly post- grunge, industrial/ blues rock that usually accompanied his voice- a voice that sounded like it was carved from granite cliffs and blasted in an foundry- and moved into synthpop territory. On Ode To Sad Disco he did this so well, so perfectly, that it made me wonder why he didn't pursue this more often.
It must be seen as at least partly a homage to 80s New Order, happy/ sad dance music with sequenced basslines, descending synths and shimmering keys (plus a guitar line weaving its way through). On top of this celestial synthpop Mark sings of subterranean eyes, hollow headed mountains, a white horse that drowned on parade, diamond headed serpents, mountains of dust, Arcadian twists and other equally biblical sounding imagery. The drum machine kicks on, the synths shine, the guitar rings and Mark concludes, almost like Bernard does in Temptation, 'here I have seen the light' (in fact you can sing 'oh, it's the last time' quite easily over the end of Ode To Sad Disco). Glorious stuff- dancing with tears in our eyes as Ultravox put it.
At the end of May it will be eighteen month since Isaac died. I noticed recently that I've largely stopped noticing the days and dates- at first, every Tuesday was significant, each one marking the number of weeks since he died and the 30th of every month was loaded with importance. After the first anniversary of his death in November last year, the 30th of each month has been less marked for me. That, I suppose, is just the passing of time. Sometimes I think I've reached some sort of equilibrium with the loss, that in some way we are 'doing ok' and 'getting on with things' but it doesn't take much to be whacked without warning and plunged right back into the worst feelings of grief and loss. A couple of incidents recently have shown me just how close to the surface those feelings are and how easily they resurface.
There are days where I think I've been ok but I realise I've been on the verge of tears all day, and there's a crushing feeling that overwhelms me as I set off to drive home. A few days ago, I had a day spent back in the pits of grief but able to be distracted by work/stuff but I think that just pushed it a bit further down the road, to be dealt with later on. Last weekend, there was an unexpected incident (I won't go into the details here) that triggered the absolute worst feelings again, leaving me surprised and a little frightened by the strength of the emotions that were dredged up.
We all had a difficult time over the Easter holiday in April, feeling very out of sorts in different ways and at different times. At times, I can be fine and enjoy things- the AW60 weekend, the ACR gig, a few other social occasions, have been great and in many ways a break from the almost ever present, just below the surface sadness.
At the end of last week an envelope dropped through the letterbox, addressed to Isaac. It contained his college certificates, details of the courses and units he'd done while at college in 2019/ 2020. Someone must have been emptying a filing cabinet and posting uncollected certificates dating back to pre- Covid. Arriving completely out of the blue, it threw us off balance a bit.
On Saturday morning I pulled out my Manic Street Preachers compilation CD while pottering around in the kitchen and making breakfast. I think I wanted to play Repeat in honour of King Charles III. In the end I just put the disc in to the CD player and pressed play. Forever Delayed starts with a run of four songs- A Design For Life, Motorcycle Emptiness, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next and La Tristesse Durera- that got to me in both sad and happy ways, the emotion laden, 90s guitar heroics of the Manics hitting all me in all the spots, and that mix of feelings that the Manics could pull off in song, elation and despair, often at the same time. This song did me in a bit, 'The sadness will never go/ Will never go away/ Baby it's here to stay'.
It made me love James Dean Bradfield's massively overblown guitar solo too, which I don't think has been the case before. The fifth song on Forever Delayed is You Love Us. By that point that was playing I was laughing at the absurdity of it all, James, Nicky, Richey and Sean's 1991 glam- punk howl of self- adoration giving me a lift exactly when I needed it.
Steve Cobby's newest album- The New Law Of Righteousness- joins a long list of solo albums he's released in recent years, Sweet Jesus, Nostalgia Intensa, Stevie (written in Cyrillic script), I Loved You All My Life and Shanty Bivouac. All these albums are full of Steve's signature grooves, jazzy keys and guitar playing, pianos, acoustic/ folk guitar, mellotrons and Fender Rhodes, live drums and drum machines and bumping basslines, running the gamut from funk and jazz to ambient and Balearic. Each one is full of good tunes from start to finish as well as songs that have made huge connections with me- As Good As Gold on Sweet Jesus, Swimming In Amber of Nostalgia Intensa, both 45ft Tide and Life And Consciousness And Mind And Memory And Thought And All Creation from Shanty Bivouac and Dandylion Clocks on Stevie have all been big favourites round here and songs I go back time and time again.
The New Law Of Righteousness, available to listen and buy at Bandcamp, is no exception, ten songs long and the usual high quality of writing and playing evident from the moment you first click Play, an album with depth that really rewards playing through in its entirety. It seems unfair to pick out any of the songs over any of the others but these three are my current highlights-
Tang Ping starts out with synths and flute, a big 70s synth bassline and finger picked acoustic guitar. At one minutes thirty it finds a groove and turns into a lovely, languid summer soundtrack, a synth topline wiggling its way onwards.
Bernal Spheres is a warm and inviting four minutes, with a metronomic drum pattern, 70s synth sounds, electric piano and a lovely buzzing bassline.
All The Faith I Had Had Had Had No Effect has more of that fluid, folky acoustic guitar that decorates so many of his songs, eventually with two or three guitars playing with each other, melodies twisting and circling around each other.
A pair of remixes from Rude Audio to bring some deep dubby/ disco to Tuesday. The first is a remix of Sweet Spot by Perry Granville (previously available in unremixed form on the Higher Love Vol. 2 compilation from Brighton's Higher Love label). The Rude Audio remix (buy/ listen at Bandcamp) is ten minutes of low slung dub- chug, the railway- like rhythm thudding away slowly at goods train speed with all manner of dub FX. A fragment of wordless vocal floats in and out. Laid back, hypnotic and meditative, and very good indeed.
The original, from last autumn, is three minutes shorter, an ambient/ Balearic excursion (probably by boat across a deep blue sea to an island somewhere hot). It's a very persuasive and evocative six minutes forty seconds of music.
Meanwhile over at Leeds' Paisley Dark label Rude Audio have remixed James Rod as part of a seven track EP release titled Synthetic Glory, out at the end of last week. The Rude Audio remix of Arabiklan is a more dancey affair, starting out with bleeps and space. A drum machine kicks in followed by Arabic strings and some of those tumbling timbales- six minutes of dark Middle Eastern acid disco business. James Rod's original tracks, Arabiklan and the title track, are joined by remixes courtesy of Man Power, Mindbender, Hogt I Tak and Hunterbrau. The whole package is available at Bandcamp.
If the temptation of this languid, sumptuous, utterly absorbing ten minute Bill Laswell reworking of Bob Marley weren't enough, I could add that the source material for this mp3 is a pair of CDs Andrew Weatherall burned when he went to DJ at The Beat Hotel, two CDs of the highest quality dub you can imagine. The CDs were uncovered recently and shared with The Flightpath Estate and the mp3 of Rebel Music was copied from there to here- so there you have it, a coronation treat, your own Weatherall/ Marley/ Laswell ambient dub mp3.
The remix is originally from a 1997 album titled Dreams Of Freedom (Ambient Translations Of Bob Marley In Dub). I can recommend the whole thing, the entire eleven song album is an ambient dub treat- but the remix of So Much Trouble In the World, fading in with found sound and then hand drums and ambient orchestral strings is currently flipping my lid.
A week ago at The Golden Lion in Todmorden a very special event took place, the stars aligning and everything coming together just so, creating two days that will live long in the memory (or at least, the bits that I can remember- my recall of some of late on Saturday night is sketchy in places). AW60 has been pulled together by Lizzie, Andrew's partner, and Ian, his brother, over four venues that had big connections to Andrew. The fourth and final leg of the month was also due in no small part to the ever generous hosts of The Golden Lion, Richard and Gig, who run what can only be described as The Best Pub In The World. There are lots of other pubs, you may know them, that are brilliant, great places to go to drink, to eat, to socialise, to sit on your own or with friends, to chill out and have fun and that feel like homes from home. But The Golden Lion is something else,- a pub in a town in the West Yorkshire hills, that combines a proper pub vibe with a gig venue, nightclub, and Thai restaurant (plus a record label)- and also much more. AW60 pulled together a crowd of fans, friends and family of Andrew and threw a birthday party for him. I was lucky enough to be part of the DJ line up for the Saturday, the five man Flightpath Estate DJ team playing from 1pm through until Justin Robertson taking over at 10pm. We took an hour each in the afternoon and then took it turns to play three tracks each, rotating back to back after 7pm, a nine hour DJ set that flew by in the blink of an eye.
Upstairs a raffle, merch stall and exhibition were in full swing. Later on upstairs Timothy J. Fairplay played, an hour of synths and thundering drum machines that finished with Tim performing some of the songs he wrote with Andrew as The Asphodells, songs never played live before- Late Flowering Dub, We Are The Axis and One Minute's Silence. Over the road there were DJ sets by Dave Beer and Bernie Connor, both long standing friends of Lord Sabre.
Sunday saw Andrew's old friends Sherman and Curley take the reins at the DJ booth, playing some tremendous, earth shaking dub. In the evening Chris Rotter, the guitarist on Andrew's solo album A Pox On The Pioneers, played a set of songs from that album with Ride/ Glok's Andy Bell accompanying him on guitar. These songs have never been played live before either, Chris reworking them, singing and playing them pared down and full of emotion. It was quite a moment. Sunday night began to raise the tempo and temperature again as Heidi and Lovefingers DJed.
The atmosphere on the Saturday afternoon and evening were something else, with people arriving from all over- Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, London- and filling the pub. Our sets weren't recorded but we have spent part of this week recreating them. They may not be 100% accurate but they are there or thereabouts, versions of our hours, inspired by Andrew's own music, the music he played on the radio and at gigs and shows, and music in the spirit of his never ending quest to unearth more.
Me and Baz arrived at the Lion first, welcomed by Richard and then given the run of the DJ booth. Once we'd located the On button and got set up, Baz opened, an hour of songs beginning with Selective Walking, the instrumental that Andrew used to open some of his radio shows with. From there there's Two Lone Swordsmen, OMD, The Jesus And Mary Chain, New Order's Your Silent Face, a song that came and went throughout the two days in various forms, almost the weekend's theme tune, and plenty more.
Martin took over from Baz. His set is at Mixcloud. It kicks off with some ambient Weatherall/ Tenniswood and includes Coyote, Chris and Cosey, Ananda Shankar, Gene Vincent, The Pistoleers cover of The Clash's Bankrobber, The Summerisle Trio, Sabres Of Paradise and Section 25.
I took over from Martin and played a set that went something like this...
Andy Bell: The Sky Without You (David Holmes Radical Mycology Remix)
Sabres Of Paradise: Jacob Street 7AM
The Liminanas: Garden Of Love (Lundi Mouille Andrew Weatherall Remix)
Alex Kassian: Spirit Of Eden
The Vendetta Suite: Purple Haze, Yellow Sunrise (David Holmes Remix)
Durutti Column: For Belgian Friends
Andrew Weatherall: The Confidence Man
A Certain Ratio: House In Motion (Demo Version 1)
The Clash: The Street Parade
Madness: Death Of A Rude Boy (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
Meatraffle: Meatraffle On The Moon
This may not be completely correct because I'm sure I also played this in my afternoon set (unless I overran a bit which is entirely possible or maybe I played it later, memory fails me slightly here). Habbanera is a gorgeous slice of Italian prog remixed by Balearic stalwarts Leo Mas and Fabrice.
I know I played it because I took a photo of it as it span for some reason.
The excitement at playing, the nerves dissipating, the songs coming out of the sound system- I don't want to get too carried away and too breathless but it was incredible, the sort of thing that made you pinch yourself occasionally to check it all was actually happening.
Dan went next. His hour is also at Mixcloud. Dan's set flows beautifully, taking in a lovely Bob Marley/ Bill Laswell remix, Dominik von Seger and Montezumas Rache, Peter Gordon and Daniel Avery's tribute to Andrew Lone Swordsman, Dan's mixing absolutely spot on.
Mark picked up the headphones next and played for ninety minutes (being stuck on the decks while the rest of us got fed). The first half of his set is recreated at Soundcloud and features a forthcoming remix by his own Rude Audio (a little self promotion never goes amiss), Boy George and Spatial Awareness, David Harrow, Neil Young, Sabo, Acid Arab and James Rod (again remixed by Rude Audio). By this point we were heading into the evening, the pub was filling, excitement and anticipation growing, Mark's dubby dance keeping it building.
As the energy levels rose and the atmosphere with it, we went back to back, three songs each, and it all turned into a blur- at some point I played Mark Lanegan's Ode To Sad Disco, Roisin's All My Dreams, Bjork's Violently Happy (remixed by Fluke), the Soulwax remix of A Hero's Death by Fontaines D.C., the Tribal mix of Pete Wylie's Sinful and Sub- culture by New Order (the Lowlife version). What everyone else was playing in their three song sets is lost to me right now- Martin played Wilmot at one point in an attempt to pull the tempos back a bit. Photographer Scott took this shot of me as I scanned the display, about to cue something up...
And these pictures show four of the five of us at work/ play... (smiling obviously something that was beyond most of us when the shutter was clicked). Baz was elsewhere.
Edit: here's Baz at the decks.
At around 9.45 we had fifteen minutes until Justin Robertson took over from us. I had two of Justin's remixes in my bag which I decided we should play in advance of him playing. I'm not sure this was the coolest idea anyone's ever had but once I'd committed myself to it there was no going back. First up was his 1991 remix of Caravan by Inspiral Carpets, a chunky, dancefloor filler with a vocal sample intoning, 'you play consciousness expanding material', and some cracking pianos....
I followed it with Justin's Most Excellent remix of Saturday's Angels by If?, uptempo, progressive indie- dance/ house from 1992. By this point Justin was in the booth next to me, pulling the pitch control down slightly to cue this up with his first track (which turned out to be Andrew's remix of Soon by My Bloody Valentine which caused something close to mayhem).
Justin then played three hours of perfectly pitched dance music to a room of friendly, smiling faces, pausing briefly while sixty candles were distributed and happy birthday sung to an absent friend. The music kicked back in with Don't Fight It, Feel It. After that, well, after that my memories are mainly of dancing and being lost in it all. The tracklist Justin posted up midweek shows a mixture of music, old and new, by Andrew and others climaxing with Smokebelch, St. Anthony and Come Together.
It was quite the day and night. I was pretty nervous in the week leading up to it and needn't have been, everyone was friendly and there to enjoy themselves. I don't think anyone really noticed (or cared) if a mix or cue was slightly off. Someone said a day or two afterwards, we had the best time with the best people in the best pub with the best hosts, and that does sum it up. This picture, taken in the early hours and for some of us, in a state of some dishevelment, captures it too. The whole thing, from start to finish and top to bottom was, to borrow a phrase from the lovely Mr. Robertson, most excellent.
Left to right- Dave Beer, Justin Robertson, Tim Fairplay, Baz, Gig, me, Bernie Connor, Martin, Dan, Richard (Mark missing, somewhere in the Golden Lion).
Notts duo Coyote, Timm Sure and Ampo, have been in the business of playing and making music since meeting at legendary Nottingham club Venus. They have a new EP out next month, the second in a series of four special editions reelased on their re- edit label Magic Wand and they shared one of the songs from it a few days ago. Lonely is eight minutes of slowed down emotive perfection, Balearica meets psychedelia with a gently persuasive groove and a heartstring tugging vocal. The last couple of minutes are particularly affecting and entrancing, as the hand drums, layers of strings and synths, and hazy vocal combine. The sort of song you can't play just once.
Edit: Lonely is of course, as C pointed out, an edit/ restructure of the 1982 single Ever So Lonely by Monsoon.
As a DJ duo their live sets at Bodega, Nottingham are always worth dedicating some time too. Today, while all that pomp and circumstance nonsense goes on down in London and a man in a golden carriage inherits the right to be our head of state without any of us being asked, you could do a lot worse than sit back and play this, a three and a half hour set from Bodega in October 2022. The first minute and a half is like being there, voices and noises, the sound of drinks and conversation, and then suddenly the music kicks into focus and we're a million miles away from wherever you are. Listen to Coyote playing live at Soundcloud.
Duncan Gray has a story to tell in the musical world that orbits around Andrew Weatherall. As a DJ and producer and as a member of Sons Of Slough (with Andrew's brother Ian- they also released a 12" as IWDG, a cover of New Order's In A Lonely Place), as Jnr. Poon (who released the first 7" on Andrew's Hidden Library label) and as part of The Summerisle Trio with Sean Johnston and Sarah Rebecca. As well as all of that Duncan founded the label tici taci, ten years ago this year, a label that consistently releases superb leftfield dance music- chuggy, slinky, dubby, wonky floor filling dance music. Uz Pa Gaz's Tiranan Balearica Omo Can was featured here in April and various tici taci artists, including Duncan himself, Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright, Boy Division, The Long Champs, Jack Butters, Mystic Thug, Mr BC and Fjordfunk have graced these pages in the past.
Tici Taci is celebrating its tenth birthday with a slew of releases including Tici Taci Decade Volume One. Duncan asked me if he could take over Bagging Area for a day and say a few words about his favourite releases on the label. He was happy to answer a few questions too, about his musical life, his work with Andrew and Tici Taci.
Bagging Area: Where
did it all start for you musically?
Duncan: I'll be 60 this year, so my appreciation of music starts back in the 1970s. The
first band I ever saw was Tangerine Dream. It sounds cool to say that now but
at the time it kind of went over my head. I was in bands from the age of 16,
but what really stimulated me creatively was the advent of home recording and
the purchase of a cassette based porta-studio. That's where a lifelong
obsession with making music really started. Music has led me into all sorts of
scrapes over the years. I've made decisions which were (financially) poor in
order to pursue music. My life has been much more interesting as a result,
although there have been many times when I had to borrow money to pay the rent.
I started tici taci with the final scrapings of redundancy money from my last
proper job.
Bagging Area: tici taci is 10 years old. What’s the best thing about running a label?
Duncan: The best thing has to be watching it grow in popularity and gaining its own
identity, to the point where like-minded producers naturally want to get their
music released on the label. Then it becomes a case of other people making me
look good. Also there's been the DJing. I really thought my DJ days were over
when I started Tici Taci, but I was offered my first return gig at Slide
in Brixton almost right away, and from there the offers started coming in from
all over the place. It's a real shame how Brexit has killed the opportunities
to DJ in Europe. I used to get more Euro gigs than UK but now it's the other
way around.
Bagging Area: There’s
an Albanian connection with Tici Taci, artists from Tirana seem to feature
heavily and make some wonderful music (your remix of Pines In The Sun and the
recent Uj Pa Gaz release both come to mind). How did that connection come
about?
Duncan: Lindi (Uj Pa Gaz) was the original connection. I guess he heard the label
through Soundcloud and sent in a couple of tracks for consideration. Almost
more than any other producer on Tici Taci Lindi really understood the sound of
the label from the word go. From there, Genti Aliaj got in touch to see if I
would be interested in DJing in Tirana. Genti is Albanian but has lived in the
UK for 25 years, and offered to travel with me and chaperone me on my first
visit. Albania has this terrible cartoon reputation of being a dangerous place
based on tired Hollywood cliches in general and the Taken movies in
particular. In fact Tirana is one of THE friendliest places I've ever been.
I've had so many great weekends there, including the opportunity to play bass
for Damo Suzuki in a pick-up band which included both Lindi and Genti and the
very talented Bledi Boraku. The last time I spent any significant time with The
Guv was when he came to Tirana to DJ at Discobox in January 2020. A truly
memorable weekend.
Bagging Area: What’s next for tici taci?
Duncan: We have a ton of stuff to release this year. It being the ten year anniversary,
I'm hoping to have releases from all of our regular featured artists, plus a
couple of new signings. Our next release (after Decade Vol 1) is the debut from
Rule Six which is going down a storm, and at the end of June we have something
from another producer who is new to the label. Watch this space. There will be
an EP from the Long Champs, one from Mr BC, something from Jack Butters, more
from myself, a couple of new tracks from Sons of Slough, and maybe even
something from Boy Division. That lot should take us through to the end of the
year.
Bagging Area: Some
questions outside tici taci if I can…
Your guitar and bass are all over a lot of Andrew Weatherall remixes and
releases from a few years ago. What was working with Andrew like? What memories
do you have of him? What’s your favourite remix/ production you worked on with
Andrew?
Duncan: When Andrew invited me to play on some remixes it came at a very crucial time
in my life. I had been made redundant from the work I was doing in TV and film
post production, and could not find another job. Andrew really helped me get
through that time firstly by encouraging me and then helping me to set up the
label, and then by inviting me to play on some remixes. The first one was his
rework of Craig Bratley's Obsession where he asked me to add some punk-funk
scratchy guitar. It was a lot of fun working with him and Tim Fairplay at the
Bunker in Scrutton Street, and my playing seemed to fit well with the
Asphodells sound. I ended up playing on maybe half a dozen remixes until the
eviction from Scrutton Steet drew a line under that. The cool thing was that
Andrew really encouraged me to "play the sound" - it wasn't about
being a great guitarist (which is just as well because I am, at best, average),
it was about using the guitar and effects as a sound source, and that has
influenced my playing ever since. My personal favourites from those remix
sessions are Emiliana Torrini's "Speed of Dark" and Rock Section's
"Dayglo Maradonna" which, as many of you will know, is Julian Cope.
If someone had told my younger self that one day I would end up playing guitar
on an Andrew Weatherall remix of Moby I would not have believed it.
[coincidentally, this Andrew remix of Emilia Torrini's Speed Of Dark was spun by Mark from Rude Audio when we were DJing at The Golden Lion last weekend so Duncan picking it to feature here is a nice touch]
Bagging Area: What
else is going on outside tici taci? You seem to have a few projects on the go,
the dubtastic Hardway- Monkton remixes and Sons Of Slough are about to return I
believe….
Duncan: Since we lost Andrew, Sean Johnston and I have grown a lot closer and after
some initial dabblings we really found our collaborative voice with the Hardway
meets Monkton remixes. Uptown for Dub, Downtown for Disco. I think we've both
learned a lot from each other and I think it's fair to say we've produced some
pretty decent remixes and collaborations over the last three years, including
last year's "Enjoy the Day" for Phil Kieran and Green Velvet. We keep
talking about compiling our best work for release on a limited edition CD but
we've not managed to make that a reality yet. Soon come. We've also had the
opportunity to DJ together with 4 decks and effects (what we call "the
uptown thing") and I'm hoping we get to do a bit more of that. And yes,
the Sons of Slough are indeed a working unit once again. After we returned to
the studio a couple of years ago (for the mini album "Bring me
Sunshine") we did the tribute to Andrew as IWDG ("In A Lonely Place") and then thought we would retire the Sons of Slough brand but
continue under a different name, however.... We have been encouraged out of
retirement by the offer of some live work. We thought long and hard about it
but, I think I the cat is out of the bag on this one, we are going to be
playing some live shows together for the first time in 18 years. I can't say
too much more at this stage but we've been rehearsing and it is all systems go.
[again, coincidentally, I had a conversation with Ian Weatherall in The Golden Lion on Sunday about Sons Of Slough playing live last weekend- more news when we get it]
That's the interview. Now I'm handing over the rest of this post to Duncan...
Tici Taci Decade Volume One
The ten year anniversary of the label is the first time I'd considered putting
out a various artists compilation, so I went back through the archive to choose
my personal favourites. It's very Duncan Gray heavy, this release, because initially that's what the label was for - to put out my own tracks. There will be three
more compilations coming this year and the artist roster gets way more
diverse the further we go. But for now, here are my favourites from the first
two and a bit years of Tici Taci's history.
Duncan Gray - Electric Plum (2023 remaster)
Electric Plum was the first release on tici taci - initially it was vinyl only
and came with a remix from Kieran Holden. The original vinyl cut wasn't so
great so this version has been freshly remastered by Rich Lane in 2023. It's
never sounded so good.
Duncan Gray - Lychee (2023 mixdown and remaster)
The original version of Lychee was the first thing of mine that I heard Andrew
play at an ALFOS, back in 2013. Tim Dorney (of Flowered Up and Republica fame)
put in an extraordinary effort for his remix which, I think it's fair to say,
may have been overlooked by the tici taci faithful. Employing the services of
Republica drummer Conor Lawrence, Tim turbocharged the original and has done a
fresh mixdown from the original multitrack for this 2023 remaster by Rich Lane.
Future Bones - What U Want
I couldn't believe it when Leo and Stephen of Future Bones agreed to let me put out their
first EP on tici taci. All three tracks are absolute gems, and this low-slung
groover is probably the most sparkling of all. Signing Future Bones to the
label really cemented my belief in what I was doing and if they made any more
tracks together I would put them out in a heartbeat.
Will
Piecey - Jolt
Will's Jolt was the first outside signing to tici taci, although it was
released after the Future Bones EP, I am eternally grateful to Will for putting
his faith in my fledgling label. This track was championed by Ewan Pearson
which was another much appreciated show of support.
Future Bones - Pain Killer (Duncan Gray remix)
Future Bones' second remix and probably the first of my own remixes that I was truly
proud of. Initially it was released as a "tici taci remix" before I
realised that was pointlessly modest.
Mr Cogs - Wizard Prang
Mr Cogs was my nom de plume for stuff which was a bit more techno sounding.
Again, the whole alias thing didn't last long and I hardly listened to this
since release, but when exploring the back catalogue for lost gems I was
delighted to find out just how chunky this one sounded.
Future Bones - Dirty Profit (Mr Cogs remix)
Another tough sounding remix under the Mr Cogs moniker. Easy to get a decent
remix when the source material is so strong.
Duncan Gray - Chugboat (Rich Lane remix)
The first of the bona fide ALFOS classics. Rich Lane set the standard with this
one. It still sounds great, I played it at AW60 in Glasgow and it still rocks
the boat.
Duncan Gray - Slidden (Club Bizarre remix)
A remix of a track which never got released, but this magnificent rework from
Philippe and Sam became another ALFOS winner upon release. There's some great
video of Andrew and Sean playing it in Leeds with some amazing projected
visuals.
Nein and tici taci were both founded in 2013 and Neil and I exchanged tracks
for each other's labels. An easy decision when Neil's original came with this
head fizzing remix from Iniago Vontier.
Future Bones - Gone Again (Rich Lane remix)
The killer combination of the Bones and Rich Lane. This is so down and dirty.
It just bubbles away with a huge sense of menace until it it finally kicks the
doors in.
A Best Man Dead - Follow The Shoe
This acid nugget is as close as we'll ever get to a tici taci version of Winx'
Higher State. Play it in a set now. It will not disappoint. A stone tici taci
classic.
Kieran Holden - Parakeet
I love Kieran's work. I just wish he'd make more tunes! This is such an oddball
mix of bleep and ambience, there's really nothing like it.
Iko & Gibb - Praying Mantis (Peza remix)
The first of three releases by Maxime Iko and Markus Gibb - they're all great
cuts, but this one is particularly notable for being the first time I manged to
persuade Peza to get on the remix roster for tici taci. Needless to say all the
Peza hallmarks are there from all the way back in 2014.
Gemini Brothers - Eridu Eridu (Duncan Gray remix)
These two Romanian brothers were all over everything back in 2014 and 2015 and
boy were they keen to get a track out on tici taci. When we finally found
something everybody was happy with, it came out with (I think) 5 remixes. And
rather immodestly I have selected my own version as a favourite because (a) I
was dead pleased with how it came out (it changes direction in an unexpected
manner) and (b) because it was another one that the Guv really liked.
Thank you Duncan- it's been a pleasure. There's a sampler mix at Soundcloud you can listen to here, an hour of premium grade machine funk and quality chug, and this is the very latest Hardway- Monkton release, an eight minute disco- dub remix of Hardway Bros Here's To The Wild.
David Harrow's back story goes way back to the early 80s and his work with Anne Clark followed by time served with among others Jah Wobble, On U Sound, Psychic TV and Andrew Weatherall. In the 90s he moved to Los Angeles and found a second (or maybe third musical life) as James Hardway while penning Billie Ray Martin's Your Loving Arms. His releases in recent years take in ambient and dub, modular synths and deep bass.
His latest release is a two track EP for Mighty Force, two pieces of sweet sounding electronic grooves in a space somewhere between dub, acid and techno. Jitter is a five minute slice of dark dub grooves that twist and turn, never quite doing what you think it might. Quite jittery in fact but deeply rewarding too, music to get lost in. Jitter is followed by '97, a six and half minute dubbed out ride with squiggly bass, echoic synth sounds, clicking percussion and some real bounce to the rhythm. Jitter can be bought at Mighty Force's Bandcamp page.
Slipping back three and a half decades, Anne Clark's Sleeper In Metropolis, with David's spectacular analogue keyboards and synths, electronic drums and Anne's conversational/ spoken word vocal was recorded in 1985 and sounds utterly contemporary.
When I've got my head back together, no easy task given the excitement and excesses of the weekend, composed myself and the dust has settled I'll write a fuller account of AW60 at The Golden Lion on Saturday night and Sunday. Suffice to say, it was the best of times in the best pub in the world with the nicest people and the best crowd to play music to and in Richard and Gig the best and most generous hosts.
This track, an Ivan Smagghe remix of Canadian band Suuns from 2013, was played at some point in the afternoon (by Dan) and sounded superb. I was playing it at home recently and made a mental note to post it here so Dan's selection of it was a good prompt. Up Past The Nursery opens with an odd, trippy vocal humming over a single drumbeat, lots of reverb and then a ticking hi hat and a single guitar line- a masterclass in understated tension being built. An isolated voice sings, a little tense and nervous, as the drum continues to thump away and the guitar line repeats itself, all very hypnotically.
This is newly out, On And On (Again), a collaboration between Daniel Avery and Confidence Man, five minutes of bouncy techno/ rave pop which sounds tailor made for summer, a track that will light up everything from barbecues to festivals.
Last year Daniel remixed Confidence Man's Feels Like A Different Thing, a chunky breakbeat driven track with sirens and distorted synth sounds and one fragment of vocal looped up, 'You know I love it'- an altogether heavier, slightly darker affair.
In a similar area Underworld have a new single out too, a full on thumper from Karl and Rick, Karl intoning, 'And the colour red', as the drums kick up a storm, the bass pumps away and the synth squiggles flicker in and out.
The first day of May, a bank holiday and a new feelgood song from Balearic heroes A Man Called Adam. The Girl With The Hole In Her Heart in it's album version is six minutes plus of upbeat, pulsing, house with Morodor keyboards, early 80s Sheffield rhythms and a slice of electro- pop thrown in. It's one of those songs that will get played through until the autumn. Lyrically the song draws from Sally Rodgers' earliest memories and overhearing an adult talking about the girl next door having a hole in her heart, 'a wildly visual and evocative image for a child to comprehend' as Sally says.
At the band's Bandcamp page Sally writes about how their new album walks 'the ugly, lovely industrial coastline of the North East of England, stopping to soak up the breathtaking scenery and watch everyday life carrying on in the face of rapid deindustrialisation'. One of those beaches, Crimdon, is in the picture above from our visit last month and Sally is absolutely spot on.
