Weatherall Remix Friday Fifteen

The idea of Weatherall Remix Friday when I started it a few months ago, was to feature some of the less well known, less celebrated Andrew Weatherall remixes. Andrew produced hundreds of remixes during his lifetime- under his own name (with a range of studio conspirators including Hugo Nicolson, Steve Boardman, Timothy J. Fairplay and Nina Walsh), with Sabres Of Paradise and with Two Lone Swordsmen. There are some artists he came back to time after time, remixing their songs across the decades- Primal Scream for one and David Holmes for another. David's first solo album since 2008's The Holy Pictures is out today on Heavenly, a record titled Blind On A Galloping Horse, one which I've been eagerly waiting for since Hope Is The Last Thing To Die came out in October 2021. There's a launch party night at The Golden Lion on Saturday night with David DJing. The last time he played there, in October last year, was very memorable indeed. Hopefully Saturday will be similarly roof raising. 

Andrew's remixes of David, in reverse order, take in his versions of Unloved (Devils Angels from 2019, a Weatherall remix of When A Woman Is Around from 2016 and two remixes of Guilty Of Love in 2015), the wonderful Andrew Weatherall remix of I Heard Wonders (from 2008) and then before those two remixes of Gone, a song with Sarah Cracknell on vocals from Homer's 1995 debut solo album This Film's Crap, Let's Slash The Seats (an album recorded with Andrew's Sabres Of Paradise partners Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns co- producing. Jagz, Gary and David were three members of the four members of a 1993 one off group/ record Four Boy One Girl Action which I might come back to at some point soon). Lots of links and connections between them then resulting in lots of music. It's the remixes of Gone I thought I'd focus on here today, both dating from 1996.

This Film's Crap... was a double album, very much made under the influence of being active for half a decade in 1990s club music, a dark, moody, downtempo album with nods to techno, trip hop and house and the signs of David's future work in film soundtracks there to see. Gone, with Saint Etienne's Sarah on vocals, was an obvious single, one of the few tracks on the album with a vocal, Sarah lamenting, 'I gonna hide/ She don't even know/ You can never go home anymore'. 

Andrew and Keith Tenniswood had just begun to release records as Two Lone Swordsmen. They released their first full length album, The Fifth Mission (Return To The Flightpath Estate), the same year and these remixes sound like they came from similar sessions and times. Gone came out as a single with various remixes in March 1996, several months before The Fifth Mission in August. TLS had released a pair of 12" singles- The Third Mission and The Tenth Mission- ahead of the album, but the Gone remixes are some of the first fruits of the Swordsmen sound.

First Night Without Charge is a sublime, subtle, atmospheric early Swordsmen, those submerged and subaqua TLS sounds and motifs appearing, with double bass bassline and breakbeat taking the lead- not dissimilar to the sound and feel of The Fifth Mission. Sarah's voice is nowhere to be found- as Jagz and Gary confirmed at our Sabresonic Q&A last weekend, vocals are the first casualties of the remix. In the fifth minute a horn bursts through the smoked out jazz club murk.  

Gone (First Night Without Charge)

Second Night Without Charge is a different beast, opening with kick drum and the rumble of sub- bass, more tense, with some bleeps riding on top. A minute in the percussion and snare hit and they raises it up a notch. The track then winds and unwinds, various sounds entering and exiting, for the next seven minutes, all the time the drums and bass pushing on- for want of a better description, abstract deep house. 

Gone (Second Night Without Charge)

When This Film's Crap, Let's Slash The Seats was released on CD in the US in 1998 it came with a second disc of extras, the remixes and B-sides from the UK releases in 1996 compiled into a second album bookended by the Two Lone Swordsmen versions of Gone, opening and closing things in a way that made it sound like they were planned to do exactly that.

More Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be

After a hiatus of a few weeks the Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be series returns. Previous outings have included bands appearing on unlikely tv programmes- Echo And The Bunnymen on Wogan, Ice T on The Late Review, Aztec Camera on Pebble Mill At One, that sort of thing- and a few weeks ago JC of The Vinyl Villain blogging fame wrote a Scottish bands guest special. Today we find ourselves in the early/ mid 90s and some televisual feats that made many of us blink, rub our eyes and question what was going on. 

In 1993 New order released Republic, an album that was made under forced circumstances (to prevent Factory from going bust- it didn't work and the single and album came out on London, irony of ironies) and which features some fairly uninspired songs, especially on side 2, but the lead single was classic New Order, released in April 1993. It was the first new New Order song since World In Motion, a long three years earlier, and had a Bernard Sumner guitar riff, deadpan lyrics, Hooky's bass clanging through and all seemed well with the world. The band found themselves promoting the single in the USA and in a Top Of The Pops live satellite link up, appeared from Venice Beach, California, the set of early 90s swimsuit show Baywatch, a recording complete with an appearance by David Hasselhoff (a man who tried to take some of the credit for the fall of the Berlin Wall). 

New Order don't look dressed for the beach or for Baywatch. They look more dressed for Dry Bar on Oldham Street. They proceed to mime their way through Regret in bright sunshine while California's beach bums sun themselves and play volleyball. Hooky is wearing leather trousers. Gillian is all in black. Everyone ignores everyone else. Hasselhoff roams the beach. A kayakist paddles past. Dissonance reigns supreme. 

In 1992 the Premier League took over top flight football in England. One of the innovations of this brave new world was Monday Night Football. In September 1992 the crowd at Highbury and watching at home/ in the pub were treated to the bizarre spectacle of The Shamen performing their chart topping single Ebeneezer Goode at half time, the launch night of Monday Night Football

Colin Angus and Mr C give it a go, all wrapped up in black plastic and leather, techno guitars and a song that most definitely wasn't a celebration of taking ecstasy. Another Sky innovation, a cheerleader troop called The Sky Strikers dance in the centre circle. Mr C looks a bit like he already knows this is a bad idea. As the performance went on the crowd chanted over the top and booed (Mr C is a Chelsea fan and this was well known to some of the Arsenal faithful). 

The match went on to finish one- nil to Arsenal, Manchester City being the losers, so not all bad eh? Sky dropped both The Sky Strikers and half time musical acts within six months. Given the rapacious nature of hyper- capitalist 21st century football, this all looks quite quaint now but again as with New Order at Baywatch, who thought this was a good idea?

Psyched

I've posted a few odds and ends by Psychemagik previously though nothing since 2017. Back then I posted this track, Triumph Of The Gods, a piece of music first released in 2017, that is epic in scale, starting with piano, then drums and sweeping strings, and which has the feel of a major 1960s film soundtrack with undertones of  David Axelrod. 

Triumph Of The Gods

In late 2021 there was a 12" release with two remixes of Triumph Of The Gods, one by Richard Norris and one by Prins Thomas- a 12" I found recently while going through my records and had forgotten I owned. Given everything that was going on then, there are probably quite a few things from late 2021 that I missed. Both remixes are very good and neither seem to be on the internet so you'll have to take my word for it for the time being. 

A year ago Heavenly released volumes 5 and 6 of their remixes compilation series. On Volume 5 was the Psychemagik dub remix of Mildlife's Automatic, another huge sounding piece of music that is cinematic in scope and full of spine tingling and hair raising moments. 

Snappered

I was back at Todmorden's Golden Lion on Saturday night for a gig by Red Snapper, the four piece halfway through a tour that continues next week with shows Tunbridge Wells, Hertford, Ramsgate and London. Rich Thair and Ali Friend have been playing together as Red Snapper since 1993, starting out riding on the early 90s acid jazz wave but then branching out into spaces way beyond that. They signed to Warp in 1996 and released the compilation Reeled And Skinned in 1995 and then Prince Blimey a year later. Since then they've released a further seven albums, and most recently a live album recorded at The Moth Club last year. The Golden Lion is sold out for the gig, an audience of Red Snapper devotees getting the opportunity to see them very close up, and Red Snapper do not disappoint, firing on all cylinders and Ali Friend's bass and Rich Thair's drums showing the benefit of playing together for so long, a telepathic understanding clearly evident between the two. 

Ali's stand up bass (perilously close to the light fitting in the ceiling at times) is at the centre of the sound, almost lead double bass. They kick in from the off, with sudden bursts of energy and the dynamics of a rock band. Rich Thair switches between rhythms and tempos and at the back of the stage Tom Challenger plays keys/ synths and wigged out saxophone. On the left is a relatively recent recruit, the ridiculously young and effortlessly cool guitarist Tara. Opener Wanga Doll lures us in slowly, bass line and hi hats, and then building into a dubby jazz/ psychedelia. After that they move between space jazz, trip hop and downtempo, each track drawing the crowd further and further in. Ali Friend, centre stage, occasionally steps forward to provide vocals but its largely instrumentals, at times the band so locked in and heavy they threaten to become a jazz Zeppelin, the front row losing their cool and dancing. Highlights include the self titled Snapper, the dubby skronk of Space Sickness (from Prince Blimey), the dark funk sci fi of B Planet and Tarzan (both from last year's Everybody Is Somebody album) and a wonderfully chilled cover of Bowie's Sound And Vision. At one point, the bass and drums locked into a lovely slow and low groove, the ghost of Beth Orton's Galaxy Of Emptiness drifts past (a track Ali Friend played on back in 96). As the gig nears its conclusion, a night after the Sabresonic 30th anniversary (and with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns both still in the Lion with Jagz ready to DJ after the gig), Ali pays tribute to Andrew Weatherall, who supported the band early on and remixed Hot Flush, a key Sabres Of Paradise remix. Hot Flush, with its jazzy double bass line, acres of space and wandering 60s spy film melody line, fills the stone floored, red lit pub. This version of Hot Flush is on last month's Live At The Moth Club album...

After Hot Flush we get the one- two of Wesley Don't Surf and Suckerpunch, the former dating from the early Warp days and a wild ride through areas groups such as A Certain Ratio inhabit and the latter, the finale, low slung punk funk with clipped guitar, sax and insistent rhythm. The band depart and then reappear at the stall, selling and signing merch. Jagz Kooner begins his second DJ set in two nights, spinning electro and hip hop- unfortunately get to I don't hear it all, I have a train to catch to get home. Waiting at the platform Todmorden's old style British Railways platform sign stands out in the darkness, a roaring lion standing over a wheel.

Sabred

Our Friday night at The Golden Lion went very well. We, the admin team at The Flightpath Estate, had the idea a while ago that we should celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Sabresonic, the debut album by Sabres Of Paradise. We got Waka at The Golden Lion on board, approached Jagz Kooner, and decided we'd hold a Q&A followed by a Jagz DJ set. Jagz then said the third Sabre Of Paradise, Gary Burns, was happy to join us. I agreed to host the event, act as compere and ask the questions. We had two former- Sabres, a venue and a set of questions written by us all (with lots of input from Dr. Rob of the Ban Ban Ton Ton blog via email from his home in Japan). All we needed was a crowd. 

Thankfully a crowd turned up. The Q&A was filmed so at some point we'll be able to share that- I've seen a couple of clips and watching yourself and hearing your own voice is a bit uncomfortable. The Q&A session went really well, Jagz and Gary were lovely, engaging and chatty and happy to talk about anything and everything connected to Sabres Of Paradise, Andrew Weatherall, Sabresonic and various related topics. We talked for over an hour with questions coming from the audience as well as the ones we wrote. There are some Sabres related plans being hatched for next year and beyond which I can't spill the beans about at the moment but if you're a Sabres/ Andrew Weatherall fan, there's a lot to look forward to and eventually, hopefully, some exciting news. 

Some highlights of the talk...

Jagz and Gary were working together before meeting Andrew. They both lived in West London and were in the nascent acid house scene, Jagz was DJing and into production from a young age, building a home studio during his teenage years, and Gary could play anything- guitar, bass, melodica, keys, piano and whatever else he happened to pick up. They'd been working as The Aloof with Dean Thatcher and Rich Thair, releasing the Apocalypse Now! sampling 1990 classic Never Get Out Of The Boat. Jagz and Gary met Andrew in a club, at a point when he was a rising star in the DJ world and the veteran of producing Screamadelica and various era defining remixes. Andrew said they should work together and, as Jagz and Gary tell it, they both nodded and said yes, not expecting it to actually happen. They got the call the next day, Andrew asking them if they like to work on a remix of Jah Wobble and Sinead O'Connor he'd been asked to do. Visions Of You came out in 1992, Andrew, Jagz and Gary producing not just one remix but three, almost thirty minutes worth of music, half an album. 'We liked to give value for money'.

The working process in the studio was a topic of conversation. When they got commissioned to do a remix, a studio would be booked and if there was time left, they'd start to record their own music. This music, from a variety of sessions and studios in 1992 and 1993, is what became Sabresonic. Gary would play all the instruments. Jagz would be programming, sampling and arranging. Andrew would have the big picture ideas, the ears to pick out the parts to hone in on, the overall and specific vision for sounds, tracks, and eventually the album. Jagz and Gary would often be working with Andrew for a week, then they'd be off doing The Aloof or working with others, David Holmes for example. When they came back Andrew would have listened to all the tapes and have a clear plan about reworking tracks or moving onto new ones. Jagz described the studio set up, all three men with eight channels on the mixing desk, an instrument or sound on each channel. They'd set the tape rolling to record and then do the remix or track live, each one of them fading sliders in and out, mixing it live. When it was finished, they'd try another version, maybe dubbier, maybe more ambient, maybe faster or slower. As a result when they did remix work they often ended up with three or four versions, which would be submitted back to artists and record labels. Three remixes of Bjork's One Day, four versions for the Stereo MCs, and so on. 

We talked about the first Sabres release, their remix of Psychic TV's United, released as PT001, the first time the name was used. We talked about he origins of the name, either a 1960 book about pre- revolutionary Russia by Lesley Branch or a Haysi Fantaysi B-side- or both. PT001 is a record where Andrew did an abrupt about turn and presented a new sound (and not for the last time in his musical career). Gone were the Balearic sounds and tempos and pianos. PT001 was a dark, industrial techno remix. 

When the band signed to Warp, the label suggested an album might be a good idea. Jagz describes a shelf of DATs which Andrew went through and cherry picked eight tracks for what would become Sabresonic and we spent some time discussing individual tracks: the dark, thumping, moody opener Still Fighting (a remix of a remix of Primal Scream's Don't Fight It, Feel It); Smokebelch I (and of course Smokebelch II, not on Sabresonic but very much from that period); the fifteen minute spooked ambient sounds of Clock Factory; the dub infused RSD and Ano Electro. Jagz and Gary both said they'd had to spend some time recently listening to the album- neither had heard it in full for three decades, they were working so much and so fast that by the time tracks were finished, they simply moved onto new ones. They weren't even sure what the names were- all the track titles came from Andrew. The name Smokeblelch came from Andrew seeing some cooling towers as they passed Nottingham in a bus. The Sabresonic DATs, containing the released tracks and multiple other versions, sadly, all ended up in a skip. One of the Flightpath claims to have a cassette somewhere with three unreleased mixes of RSD on it- Jagz says this is very likely, they often recorded multiple mixes and versions. So, Mark- get up into that loft and get looking. 

We talked about the Beatless mix of Smokebelch, Gary playing the twinkling opening part on a guitar. We talked about David Holmes remix of Smokebelch, a remix Gary and Jagz did with David. We talked about the One Dove album, Morning Dove White, a record produced and remixed by all three Sabres, one which was delayed by the record label for a year who dithered about the mixes and spent time getting Stephen Hague to produced shinier, poppier versions. We talked about the mythical, never released, never even heard of Sabres remixes of Gary Clail. 

We talked about their recoding techniques and practices, Jagz and Gary recording the sounds of hitting a scaffolding pole with a spanner to get those metallic Sabres drum sounds and how Gary emptied a box of matches onto a metal tray and shook it, a sound that became a signature percussion sound on Smokebelch. Both men all the way through said how much fun they had, how much they did and how fairly they were treated by Andrew, who insisted everything was split three ways. 

We talked about the how Warp were keen for a Sabres Of Paradise album with guest vocalists and how they started to line some guests up. The album (if it had happened which it didn't- Andrew got the fear about the prospect of working with some of his heroes) would include Ice T, Tom Waits, Al Green and Bobby Gillespie. We talked about the remixes they turned down, at a time when record labels were paying huge amounts, £10, 000 to £15, 000, for a remix. The list of artists turned down includes both Madonna and U2.

We talked about the Sabres Of Paradise live band, a group that Andrew did not play on stage with- as a non- musician he would hang around the mixing desk smoking or stand in the crowd watching. Gary and Jagz recruited Rich Thair, Phil Mossman (later with LCD Soundsystem) and Nick Abnett (who also played with The Aloof) and set about learning how to play the songs live. They played only about a dozen gigs, some on a short tour of their own and then supporting Primal Scream on a UK tour. After the Q&A we played the only live recording of the Sabres live band that exists through the Lion's soundsystem, a set captured at Herbal Tea Party in Manchester by Rob Fletcher, a recording Jagz had never heard before. Jagz listened intently, smiling. 'We were pretty good', he said with a grin. That live set can be listened to here, the first thirty five minutes of the set being the live Sabres band before Andrew takes over on the decks. 

Jagz and Gary both said going on tour with Primal Scream in the mid 90s was exactly as you'd imagine it would be. Jagz told us that at the same time he took a phone call from Noel Gallagher, who wanted Sabres to go on the road with Oasis, at the exact same time as they were touring with Primal Scream. 

We talked about remixes, their favourites and the memorable ones. I asked how much of James remained on the four tracks that became Jam J. Both men smiled sheepishly. 'Not much'. Jam J is essentially a Sabres Of Paradise record. Gary said vocals got removed first. Jagz agreed, saying that with music that is essentially for dancing to, for creating a trance- like state, vocals often don't fit, apart from the odd repeated phrase. And in a re- appearance of the number twenty three in my life, Jagz recounted how the twenty third track on a mixing desk or tapes was the one that was never used

We talked about all of this and so much more. I'm sure there's loads I've missed out in this account- eventually when the film is edited, we'll be able to watch it all back. Both Jagz and Gary talked with so much fondness, love and respect for Andrew Weatherall, about how important he was, how inspiring he was to work with and how much he gave to them and about how brilliant Sabres Of Paradise had been. When I asked them what their favourite Sabres moment was, they both said without hesitation, 'all of it'. 

Here we all are, left to right, Baz (Flightpath Estate), me, Jagz (Sabre Of Paradise), Gary (Sabre Of Paradise), Martin (Flightpath Estate), Rob (Herbal Tea Party) and Waka (Golden Lion).

After a short break Jagz took over with a DJ set inspired by Sabresonic and the sounds of the period. The Sabres remix of  Red Snapper's Hot Flush and the recently posted here Leftfield remix of Renegade Soundwave both featured as did Andrew's remix of Soon by My Bloody Valentine and his remix of S'Express. Jagz finished, fittingly, with the David Holmes remix of Smokebelch, the crowd at the Lion, a pan- generational mix of eighteen to sixty- something year olds, a mess of sweaty and euphoric faces as the snares and pianos took us through to closing time. 

Smokebelch II (David Holmes Remix)

My final question of the Q&A had been a sort of homage to the Manchester acid house magazine Jockey Slut, which liked to ask DJs and musicians 'had they ever ridden a horse?'. It turns out Jagz has but Gary hasn't (Gary did say he been faced down by a few police horses when going to Chelsea in the 80s). It was decided by popular agreement that Andrew hadn't. A few hours after I asked this vital question, as the pub was being wound down for the evening and people were preparing to go home, a man arrived in the pub accompanied by a horse- the sort of thing that could only happen at The Golden Lion. 

Forty Minutes Of Fac

In the 1980s Factory Records was the best record label in the world. Based on Palatine Road, a stone's throw from where I grew up, managed as a Marxist art project, bankrolled by New Order and home to a bunch of sullen, wilful experimental artists who famously signed no contracts and owned all their music, it put out record after record, almost none of which were hits. Today's mix is a small selection of the magnificence that came out of Factory in the mid- 80s (deliberately leaving out New Order), a period where the combined talents clustered around the table at 86 Palatine Road produced such life affirming and ground breaking music. 

Forty Minutes Of Fac

• Cabaret Voltaire: Yashar (John Robie Remix)
• Quando Quango: Genius
• Stockholm Monsters: All At Once
• Section 25: Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix)
• Marcel King: Reach For Love
• A Certain Ratio: Mickey Way (The Candy Bar)
• Durutti Column: For Belgian Friends

Yashar (John Robie Remix) by Cabaret Voltaire is Fac 82. Cabaret Voltaire released just this single 12" for Factory. 

Genius by Quando Quango is Fact 137. Quando Quango were formed in Rotterdam by Mike Pickering with Hillegonda Rietveld and Reinier Rietveld with former ACR singer Simon Topping joining on percussion. 

All At Once by Stockholm Monsters is Fac 107. Stockholm Monsters are the best band to come out of Burnage. 

Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix) by Section 25 is Fac 108, released in 1984, and still sounds like the future. It was produced by Donald Johnson of ACR and Bernard Sumner of New Order as Be Music. 

Reach For Love by Marcel King is FBN 43, released in 1985, and should have been number one in every country in the world. Also produced by Bernard Sumner and Donald Johnson. 

Mickey Way (The Candy Bar) by A Certain Ratio is Fac 168 from 1986. It was also on the album Force, ACR's last album for Factory (Fact 166). 

For Belgian Friends is by Durutti Column and first appeared on A Factory Quartet, Fact 24, in 1980 and then on Valuable Passages, a Durutti Column compilation from 1986 Fac 164. Donald Johnson plays drums. Vini Reilly is one of the true geniuses to be found on Palatine Road during the period. He still lives nearby. 

Saturday Live

Back in January I started this series of posts featuring live gigs and sessions with a 1992 performance by Verve at Camden Town Hall, a band who conjured up an expansive psychedelic guitar experiment- four young, thin men from the wilds of Wigan with suede jackets, scuffed boots and long straggly hair, playing in the outer reaches. This is in the pre- The Verve days, just Verve. There's another long form clip on Youtube of the band a year later at London Astoria, recorded for late night music TV programme The Beat on a Monday night in October 1993. There are fours songs played from what was clearly a longer, full length gig- Star Sail, Slide Away, Virtual World and Blue. 

It is, and this isn't a word I like to use often, epic stuff, from the time of their first album, the psyche/ shoegaze/ indie masterpiece A Storm In Heaven. In the twenty minutes shown here the four men play from within a bubble of noise crated by Nick McCabe's guitar and pedals, an atmospheric and engulfing stormcloud of feedback, notes, distortion and melody. The drums, bass and Richard's vocals all come from within that, the four elements in some kind of perfect balance. 

After I posted Verve at Camden Town Hall I was gifted a bundle of early demos and recordings which included these two versions of Slide Away. The first was I think recorded in Wigan in 1990, very lo fi and with a peeling wail of feedback running through it as Simon Jones' bass rumbles away with that familiar undertow groove. 

Slide Away Demo #1

Slide Away Demo #2

The song eventually came out in September 1993, on 7" and 12" and CD single. The video has our intrepid starsailors lost in the wilderness a long way from home. 

Sabresonic At Thirty Tonight

Tonight at The Golden Lion in Todmorden, Sabresonic at 30, a celebration of Sabres of Paradise's 1993 album with a Q&A in the pub with not one but two former Sabres, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, from 7.30pm (hosted by me, which would have had twenty three year old me in 1993 scratching his head and wondering how the fuck that turn of events came about). After the Q&A/ listening party, Jagz is DJing, playing a set partly inspired by the sounds that inspired Sabresonic. It should be quite a party, it's free and if you're in the vicinity it would be lovely to see you there. The Q&A is being filmed so there's a possibility I may share it here at some point, depending on how much I can bear to watch myself hosting an interview in front of a crowd. 

This was a Sabres track that didn't get a vinyl release until a re- issue in 2018. Lick Wid Nit Wit originally came out on Volume, a CD/ book/ magazine series. This is full of typically '93 Sabres sounds, dub techno pitched somewhere between the club and home with punchy kick drums, rimshots, rolling hand drums, acres of echo, a big dubby bassline and a melodica solo in the middle that nods towards Wilmot.

Lick Wid Nit Wit

Clear And Present

One of the joys of the in car mp3 player in shuffle mode is those totally unexpected tracks thrown up on the journey to and from work. Last week, out of the digital ether, it filled the car with the sounds of Paperclip People...

Clear And Present

The car's speakers struggled with that bass but as soon as those synths jump in the rattle and distortion was overcome by the magnificence of Carl Craig's 1996 masterpiece, The Secret Tapes Of Dr. Eich (an album he revisited and remastered in 2012 which is where this version is from). Carl blurs the lines on the twelve tracks between the gritty bounce and thump of nightclub music, the more clinical, scientific world of Detroit techno and the propulsive good times of disco. On most of the tracks the techno wins. Dynamics and science fiction techno pushed to the edges that demands to be played loud- steam hisses of hi hat, glorious long synth chords, thumping drums, sub bass. 

Eighties Gig Double Feature

I've been to two gigs recently, both a little unexpectedly, both 80s pop stars making hay while the sun shines. Last Friday I went to Buxton Opera House with my brother to see Lloyd Cole, touring with two Commotions in his band and playing a career spanning set. Buxton Opera House is a beautiful Edwardian venue, a proper theatre with stalls, circles, drinks orders taken for the interval and no alcohol served during the performances and as a result feels very civilised and not especially rock 'n' roll. Lloyd appears solo at first with acoustic guitar and is then joined by Commotions Neil Clark and Blair Cowan plus an outstanding female percussionist/ drummer. There are two sets with an interval and Commotions songs scattered throughout with a selection of songs from his back catalogue. 

I cannot pretend to have stuck the course with Lloyd Cole- I loved the three Commotions albums back in the 80s, Rattlesnakes and Easy Pieces especially but Mainstream too. I owned/ heard his debut solo album from 1990 and then bits and pieces along the way- but not knowing many of the songs he played doesn't stop me enjoying the show, he and they play well and he has a genuine rapport with the audience. Lloyd is very droll- after playing 1990's Undressed, a song with lines about him and her 'smoking cigarettes naked on the bare stone floor' he tells us that it's a 1990 version of him that is naked, not the 2023 one. Songs from recent albums, Guesswork and On Pain, are played along with Commotions songs- Mr Malcontent is played second song in, on acoustic guitar. As the band appear around him the sound fills out and after the interval Lloyd switches from acoustic guitar to electric bass, Neil Clark soloing on Strat. Lloyd Cole's 80s songs always seemed at least partly a guide to books, films and people you should have seen, heard and know about, lyrics peppered with Eve Marie Saint, On The Waterfront, Simone de Beauvoir, Arthur Lee and Norman Mailer, and those songs get a big reaction tonight. Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? closes the first set in fine style with Why I Love Country Music, 2cv and Rattlesnakes already played. Minor Characters, Perfect Blue, Brand New Friend and (of course) Perfect Skin all show up in the second half, perfectly crafted 80s pop but played with forty years of experience. 1990 debut single No Blue Skies, first song after the interval, is a welcome song and encore The Young Idealists skewers youth and middle age. In the all seated environment of a Edwardian opera house, this is classy adult pop, polite and well mannered.

Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?

Brand New Friend 

The week before I accompanied my friend Darren to The Ritz to see Haircut 100, the early 80s popstars who had a hit album, Pelican West, and several big singles. Singer and guitarist Nick Heywood really doesn't look like a man over sixty and the band consists of two former Haircut 100 players (Les Nemes and Graham Jones with drummer Blair Cunningham absent due to illness), a sharp three piece brass section and percussionist, Sian Monaghan. The crowd is very much there for the songs (and for the poster boys of their youth- 'we love you Nick', one woman calls out between songs. 'We love you too', he replies).  Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl), Love Plus One and Fantastic Day all get played, the choppy guitars and brass at times sounding like a pop, more polished version of Orange Juice along with Heywood's solo single Blue Hat For A Blue Day and a smattering of new songs. The encore was a frenetic version of Favourite Shirts, the 12" mix, played at the double, guitars being scrubbed as much as being strummed. 

You've Got To Let Go

This summer sounding house track came my way courtesy of Cal Gibson, whose Secret Soul Society have featured here previously a couple of times. You've Got To Let Go is by Pilots Of Peace, all sunshine and holidays, with skippy house drums, pianos, a happy go lucky feel and a sense that all could be right with the world if we just leaned in and listened to each other. It's out on French label Citizens Of Vice- releasing it in late October rather than early August seems counter- intuitive but given that the leaves have only just started to turn orange and brown everything seems a little off at the moment. Feel good and smile inducing music. There's an EP, Drop The Pilot, here.

Also out on Citizens of Vice is Meraki, a six track compilation EP at Bandcamp. Meraki starts out with some gorgeous, weightless ambience from Mass Density Human and follows it with Crooked Man's deep and dubbed out Illyiran Song, seven minutes of absorbing and entrancing music. 

Sons Of Dub's Sons Of Dub comes next, a disorienting and head spinning way to spend four minutes of listening time. With three more tracks, one each from Lanowa, Offshore And Coen and Stacattoman, Meraki is a high quality, value for money EP. Meraki is a Greek word that does not translate into English well but is something like this- 'you leave a piece of yourself, your soul, creativity, and love in what you do... to put a little bit of yourself into something'.

Monday's Long Song

Back to work with a bump today after a week off- and the clocks have gone back so soon it'll be dark at four. This is some aural balm to help ease those blues. A while back reader Spencer and myself were exchanging tracks for a project that never quite got going but it brought this to me, Body Blossom by CLAIR.

Body Blossom (Extended Version)

Body Blossom came out in 2022, the work of CLAIR, a six minute ambient/ experimental piece of music/ sound that blends found sounds and field recordings from the Yucatan jungle in Mexico with instruments- a warm modular synth or organ, some percussion and warm bass. There's a blissed out psychedelic feel to it, a euphoria, that I'm hoping may help lift the grimness of a cold morning in north west England in late October.  

Forty Five Minutes Of Renegade Soundwave

As promised last Sunday here's my forty five minute long Renegade Soundwave mix. Listening to them this week to pull this together was very enjoyable- they made many very good records, singles, remixes and albums, operating a little below the radar, but their sound would be picked up by acts that become much bigger and more successful (I'd be very surprised if both The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy didn't own some RSW records). Formed in London in 1986 RSW were a three piece outfit, Gary Asquith, Carl Bonnie and Danny Briottet. Their early records were a collision of hip hop, industrial and sampling with a large side order of dub. Over time the rhythms and sounds of acid house worked their way to the fore along with the breakbeats of early 90s jungle. In 1990 they signed to Mute and released four albums before splitting up in 1995. Renegade Soundwave seem very much a London act, the pubs, clubs, people, sounds and substances of the city transmitted onto black plastic. 

This mix only scratches the surface and I left out the Leftfield remix of Renegade Soundwave, possibly (as discussed earlier this week) the greatest remix/ club track of all time. Given that it's been on this blog twice already in the last seven days, putting it into this selection felt gratuitous. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Renegade Soundwave

• Renegade Soundwave
• Women Respond To Bass (12" Vocal Mix)
• Biting My Nails (Bassnumb Chapter)
• Positive ID
• Brixton (Sabres Of Paradise remix)
• Thunder
• Brixton (Dub Mix)
• Probably A Robbery

Their title track, a 1994 single, is led by acoustic guitar and a vocal about coming back from a house party with crunchy drums and cavernous bass. The song also features the deadpan Teutonic sounding woman intoning their name- a two word snippet of song that often pops into my head and has me  repeating the words 'renegade soundwave' apropos of nothing.

Women Respond To Bass was a 1992 single with a pilfered BMW logo on the disc and eye catching sleeve. Scientific veracity of the statement in song's title may be required- happily the bassline of this song is so good that everyone and anyone should respond to it. The woman saying 'renegade soundwave' appears in this song too. 

Biting My Nails came out in 1988, heavy and industrial, the sound of RSW before acid house hit them. 

Positive ID is one of my favourite RSW songs, a catchy and funky and released in an array of versions and mixes. The version here is the Radio Mix and it's a song which really should have got them some radio play. 

Sabres Of Paradise remixed Brixton, a 1995 12" single, Weatherall, Kooner and Burns going for the megathump with a high pitched top note and a single line of vocal, 'I'm checking out her rhythms'. The Dub Mix is by RSW. 

Thunder came out in 1990, sampling Perry Como and an early 90s classic with its sternum hitting bassline, crackles of guitar, enormous drums and wobbling synth sounds. In fact looking back now, its as good as anything else that came out in that year- and 1990 was by no means a fallow year for dance music. 

Probably A Robbery was the only RSW single that cracked the charts, a number 38 hit in January 1990. Rico Conning and Mute's Daniel Miller mixed it- the B-side Ozone Breakdown should have featured in this mix too. The vocal is very funny, a tongue in cheek celebration of a life of crime- 'Because its probably a robbery/ A bit of skullduggery/ The funniest thing I wanted to sing/ But the notes wouldn't come my way'. They made a video for Probably A Robbery too... 

Saturday Live

Standing in Probe Records in Liverpool on Wednesday afternoon, browsing the record sleeves, I had a bit of a moment. This may have been partly due to a sudden rush of emotions connected to it being Lou's birthday, Isaac being gone and being back in Liverpool, partly due to it being thirty five years since I first went to Liverpool as an eighteen year old starting at university there, and partly due to the in shop soundtrack, a live recording of The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed and the band making their singular, ramshackle and beautiful way through Beginning To See The Light (I'm assuming it was the post- John Cale, Doug Yule incarnation of the group). Everything piled up a little bit for me. I stayed there for a while, going through the racks and enjoying the Velvets in full flow c1969, another song came on (shamefully I can't remember which one now) and then the tremulous introduction to All Tomorrow's Parties kicked in and I had genuine shivers and went a bit teary. I pulled myself together and went outside. 

There is hardly any footage of The Velvet Underground playing live in the 1960s apart from this clip, the band playing outdoors at The Moratorium To End The War In Vietnam at White Rock Lake, Dallas, 15th October 1969. In the surviving clip the group play I'm Waiting For The Man and Beginning To See The Light but the audio is very patchy. In the clip below the uploader has taken the audio from the Matrix Tapes performance of Beginning To See The Light and overlaid it (the Matrix audio is from San Francisco in late November 1969, only a month later and therefore probably very close to how they sounded outdoors at White Rock Lake). 'Some people work very hard/ But still they never get it right/ Well I'm beginning to see the light' sings Lou and the guitars go for that VU all trebly and at the double sound, Mo thumps away with the backbeat and Doug plonks in the bass. In the clip people mill about, Sterling Morrison is pulled for an interview at one point and any members of the crowd that are there for the music stand around chatting, looking fairly unbothered that one of the greatest groups in the history of rock 'n' roll are playing on a balcony just yards in front of them.

There may be little film footage of the group but there are lots of recordings of The Velvet Underground playing live. The Reed/ Tucker/ Morrison/ Yule band played a double header The Matrix in San Francisco on the 26th and 27th November 1969. The versions of songs below are in some ways more relaxed that the recorded ones, the guitars are still beautifully trebly and a little wired but the feel is loose and smokey rather than amphetamines and feedback. Lou is in good form, joking with the audience about the songs. Before Rock 'n' Roll he asks them to 'imagine it with a hundred guitars'. No need- when you have Lou and Sterling, two is more than enough. 

I'm Waiting For The Man (Live at The Matrix, November 1969)

Lisa Says (Live at The Matrix, November 1969)

Rock 'n' Roll (Live at The Matrix, November 1969)

The Rub

This is the new track from Dirt Bogarde, The Rub, following hot on the heels of previous releases this year- last month's epic acid house chugger Peyote Plains, the post- punk dread of Tenth Floor Down, Cloud Walking, the magnificent, room filling, spine tingling Heavy Blotter and wobbly, speaker testing Backroom Sunrise. The Rub has some of Dirt's familiar sounds- the big synth sound, ghosts in the machine backing vocals, ripples of melodic toplines and thumping drums coupled a sense of wide eyed euphoria and some wonderful dynamics. When the breakdown hits, a distorted sax drifts in to take the lead and it pushes everything on for the last two minutes, stuttering synths, sax, hisses of steam sounds and that melody line dancing around again. Wonderfully evocative stuff from Stourbridge. Get The Rub here for just one pound. 

Short Forgotten Produk

The Soundcloud page belonging to user18081971 is widely recognised as belonging to Richard D. James, Aphex Twin. Every now and then he uploads previously unreleased material to it, presumably when recordings re- appear in front of him when looking through folders/ DATs/ tapes while searching for something else. Back in July this one was uploaded...

Short Forgotten Produk Trk Omc

Two minutes of fuzzed bass, a lazy drumbeat and some almost jazzy synth chords and keys. Just before the minute another synth part appears and shifts it into different territory before disappearing again and everything stripping back for the last thirty seconds, leaving just the bass. According to Richard  it was 'as promised to people that pm'd me. made approx 2006- 07'. It's not much more than a sketch, an idea slightly fleshed out, short and forgotten until now, but the AFX magic is located within it. 

If you want a further reminder of Richard D. James' ability to create transcendental music earlier this year he released an EP led by the track Black Box Recorder 21f, four minutes of electronic alchemy, dedicated to his parents both of whom he has lost in recent years, his dad in 2020 and his mum in 2022. 

Start Again

I took this picture two years ago today, of Sefton Park in Liverpool. We went over for the day for Lou's birthday- it's her birthday today, so happy birthday to you Lou. Eliza had just gone to university in Liverpool the month before, which was a huge change for all of us and she was excited and loving her new student life. The three of us, me, Lou and Isaac went over to see her, go out for lunch on Lark Lane and then into town for some shopping. We were still being really cautious about Covid, not doing much indoors and not taking Isaac into indoor public spaces. We had lunch sitting outside a cafe on Lark Lane in the October sunshine. It was the last time the four of us were together. Just over a month later we were all in hospital with Isaac who had Covid and which killed him, aged twenty three on 30th November 2021. 

Last year we went over again to see Eliza on Lou's birthday. We were all in a bit of a mess, going through the grief and the loss and having to navigate all the first anniversaries- our birthdays, his birthday (23rd November) and the first anniversary of his death. It was a difficult day, each of us in tears at different times but we managed to see it through and in the end had a good night out. 

We're going over to Liverpool again today, the three of us going out once again for Lou's birthday. Here's a scouse song to celebrate. I've been playing disc four of Echo And The Bunnymen's Crystal Days box set a lot, a CD mainly comprising songs from their Scandinavian tour of 1985 where they supported themselves playing covers of Paint It Black, Soul Kitchen, Friction, Action Woman, She Cracked, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue and Run, Run, Run. At the start of the CD there's a live version of a song called Start Again, recorded live in Gothenburg in 1987, the final tour for the classic McCulloch/ Sergeant/ Pattinson/ de Freitas line up. In the booklet Ian says they never really nailed the song which suggests they had a go at it in some studio or other but as far as I'm aware this is the only existing Bunnymen version. It's a rattling, driving late- 80s Bunnymen song, with sweeping strings, a Will Sergeant guitar solo and a rousing chorus, 'sinking shadows again... And one day/ I'll turn around/ Wonder when/ I'll turn around/ And start again'. Looking at the words it does seem like it could be a coded message, Ian signalling to the other three he would be off shortly. 

Start Again (Live in Gothenburg 1987)

Incidentally, the Bunnymen HQ was across Sefton Park from the photo above on Aigburth Drive, the road that skirts the western edge of the park, a flat at the top of a large Victorian house occupied by various band members during the 1980s. 

Ian recorded Start Again for his 1989 solo album Candleland, the lyrics going through some changes. Candleland was filled with a few Bunnymen sounding songs but without the fizz that the other three Bunnymen brought. Producer Ray Shulman brought a production sheen to Ian's songs, there is the lovely title track where Ian sings with Liz Fraser and the very New Order-ish Faith And Healing. Start Again closes Candleland- the album version is slowed down, with an acoustic guitar, cello, a wash of synths and Ian singing softly, 'wonder when', as the song fades out. It's some distance from the live version in Sweden, a very different take on the song. 

Start Again

Candleland was partly a reflection on mortality following the then recent deaths of both Ian's dad and Pete de Freitas, Ian singing start again as a way to move on from both of those bereavements. And sitting here typing this I realise it applies to us too, trying to finding a way to start again without Isaac. 

Thunder

The Leftfield mix I posted on Sunday sent me back to Renegade Soundwave, digging out their records and CDs. The Leftfield remix of Renegade Soundwave, included in my mix, caused a little bit of internet excitement with Jesse leaving the following comment on social media - 'The RSW remix is the greatest remix of all time, and maybe the best electronic club track ever. To do that much with only the dynamics - the build, the tension, the power - it's just sublime. There's hardly anything to the track, musically, maybe 2 and a half riffs, and it manages to be hairs-on-end thrilling from start to finish'. As a result I thought I should post the remix in its own right so we can all appreciate its magnificence. 

Renegade Soundwave (The Leftfield Remix)

There's no denying its got as much oomph, as much taut energy and sonic thump as anything else from the period. The first two minutes build to the sonic equivalent of a dam breaking as the beat kicks in- after that they keep it going, a torrent of Leftfield and RSW combined.

While I think about putting together a forty minute Renegade Soundwave mix here's another of their finest moments, Thunder from 1990. A high pitched string stab, some wobbly guitar, a breakbeat the size of Brixton and a bassline that does indeed sound like thunder. Crunchy industrial dub for a Tuesday during the October half term holiday.  

Thunder

Monday's Long Song

Underworld's latest single came out last week, an eight minute epic that contains everything that is good about them, a song that sounds like classic Underworld, more of the same perhaps but when your same is this good why not give more of it? Denver Luna opens with warm and wobbly synths and Karl's voice, layered and FXed declaring 'strawberry jam girl'. There's a pause, an inhalation of breath maybe and then a kick drum kicks in... and we're off. 

What follows is brightly coloured forward momentum, a psychedelic blur of synths, drums, rushing, whooshing sounds and Karl's endless lists and non- sequiturs, occasional breakdowns and re- entries and the sound of a duo who haven't given up but are moving onwards. The Drift project seemed to re- energise them, find a new way to be Underworld and now they are right back in the groove. I sometimes think of their music as being like a train, one of those Japanese bullet trains, speeding through the night, lights flashing past in the blackness of the windows, speed and progression, rushing forth and going somewhere, very linear music. This is all of that and more. The acapella section in the fifth minute, Karl's multi- tracked voices symphonic, on the borderland between melancholy and euphoria, is superb. 

'Sleeping girl/ Kiss the animal... siren siren... stonewashed jean man... pizza sermon... the satellite is coming... reflection flection inflection connection...'

Forty Five Minutes Of Leftfield

I was listening to Leftism recently, Leftfield's 1995 debut album, an album that takes in sublime ambient house (Melt, Song Of Life), bass heavy dub techno pounders (Release The Pressure, Afro- Left) and eye catching guest vocalists (John Lydon on Open Up, Toni Halliday on Original). It was this Top of The Pops repeat that had me digging Leftism out, a 1995 appearance with a blonde Toni moonlighting from Curve and looking every inch the goth- dance star...

The back to back pairing of Melt and Song Of Life, tracks three and four, were the two that struck me the most this time around, a gorgeous way to spend ten minutes. The closing 21st Century Poem also had me appreciating it anew. I began a Sunday forty minute Leftfield mix and immediately had the problem of too many songs, many that are eight, nine or ten minutes long plus a load of remixes. In the end I've gone mainly for mid- 90s Leftfield, Neil Barnes and Paul Daley's glory years, tracks from subsequent albums/ versions of the group left for another time. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Leftfield

• Fanfare Of Life
• Release The Pressure (Adrian Sherwood Mix)
• Renegade Soundwave (The Leftfield Remix)
• Nothing (Extended Version)
• Melt
• Release The Pressure (The Rough Dub)
• Original
• Open Up (I Hate Pink Floyd Mix)

Fanfare of Life is a version of Song Of Life, Leftfield's fourth single, out in 1992, a masterful piece of optimistic ambient house. The Fanfare version also showed up on Cafe Del Mar Volumen Uno, a definitive mid- 90s compilation. There are a pair of Underworld remixes either of which probably could and should have featured on this mix. 

Release The Pressure appears twice, once in its 2019 re- released Adrian Sherwood remix version. You can never have too much Sherwood. The Rough Dub came out on 12" in 1992, Neil and Paul with Earl Sixteen on vox, a dark and deep, epic thumper.  

Renegade Soundwave were a London three piece, much underrated and unappreciated in some ways. Their singles  Women Respond To Bass, The Phantom, Positive ID, Probably A Robbery, Renegade Soundwave and Brixton are all worth spending time with as are their albums, the 1990 In Dub especially. This Leftfield remix of their title track came out in 1994.

Sandals were a beat poetry/ progressive house group who I thought were great, briefly. Several singles and an album with Paul Daley and Neil Barnes producing, mixing and remixing. Nothing was a 1992 single, with the whispered line 'Old man, what have you done?' just as pertinent now as it was then. There are old men all round the globe making the world a worse place aren't there?

'The film starts/ the film ends', Toni Halliday says as Leftfield's heavy bass and beats stomp on around her on Original. Toni was the vocalist in Curve, a duo with Dean Garcia who made a run of electronic rock/ goth dance singles- they've been featured recently over at The Vinyl Villain. While the dance music guest vocalist thing quickly became standard Leftfield's collaborations with Toni and John Lydon were attention grabbing in the mid- 90s. They put John Lydon back on the cover of the music press, somewhere he hadn't been for some time. Lydon's vocal on Open Up is the stuff of legend, a reborn, angry and exhilarating vocal from the former PiL/ Pistol, stridently taking down Hollywood and the film industry. The I Hate Pink Floyd Mix is by Sabres Of Paradise slowing the song down to an industrial dub grind, a PiL influenced remix by Weatherall, Kooner and Burns.