This came out last October, I missed it until December and then only really recognised its peculiar brilliance very late on at the tail end of last week/ last year. Eyes Of Others are Edinburgh based and recently signed to Heavenly. This 10", now sold out, is led by Well Thumbed Letters, a fast paced, leftfield rhythmic piece of music, post- pub music for people who couldn't get into the club (as Eyes Of Others describe their music).
Buy the digital EP at Bandcamp and take a look at Elevenses from May 2021 too- highly recommended, atmospheric, melancholic and catchy too, drum machines, dub basslines, post- punk keyboards and synths and doleful vocals- think early New Order, Fun Boy 3 and The Beta Band with Sherwood at the controls.
Death has been all over the place this Christmas and New Year. Just as the deaths of Peléand Vivienne Westwood had sunk in it was announced yesterday that Alan Rankine, guitarist and keyboardist and one half of The Associates, died at the weekend aged sixty four. He formed the group with Billy Mackenzie in Dundee in the late 70s and they put out a cover of Bowie's Boys Keep Swinging as their debut single, a move guaranteed to cause a bit of attention. Their three albums over the next three years- The Affectionate Punch, the compilation Fourth Drawer Down and Sulk- are essential documents of post- punk becoming synth pop/ new pop. Alan left The Associates in 1982 leaving Mackenzie to use the name through to 1990 although they re- united briefly in 1993. Sadly Billy killed himself in 1997.
Rankine went on to work as a producer, with a string of leftfield 80s artists including Cocteau Twins, The Pale Fountains and Paul Haig and he made several solo records. He also played a role in launching Belle And Sebastian's Tigermilk album into the world, helping students to set up the label Electric Honey at Glasgow's Stow College.
These biographical details are available at obituaries all over the internet. What they can't describe, or contain, is the sheer electrifying, world tilting shock of hearing Party Fears Two for the first time. Released in 1982 it made the top ten in the UK, and is truly a pop single like no other. Built around a piano riff- a piano that sounds like it's made out of shards of glass and crystal- the song swoops and soars, Billy's voice careering in all directions, something otherworldly and alien, while the piano and drums crash onwards, circling in a mad dash to get to the end. The song's title came from Billy's brother who described a pair of girls trying to gain entry to a party he was at, smashing windows and kicking doors with their stiletto heels- he called them the Party Fears Two and Billy took the name from there. The song seems to be about Billy's own anxieties and issues, about how he looked and dressed, set to a melody that is drama personified. Rankine said the song was about being outsiders, about never fitting in, about 'feeling alienated, like you don't belong and feeling also that other people seem to be doing it with ease', and that comes across fully in the sound, the words and the production.
There is the occasional let up- the line, 'So what if this party fears two/ the alcohol loves you while turning you blue', falls to a slightly lower pitch before climbing to the heights again as Billy cries, 'awake me!'. The piano riff becomes more obvious in the final section, more clear and present, sounding more like an actual piano, while Billy's voice seems to physically leave the record via the roof.
It's an astonishing piece of work, a piece of art pressed onto black vinyl, a pop record that is laced with hooks but weirdly unsettling, never quite doing what a pop song should do, in a time (the early 80s) where pop music was being redefined on an almost weekly basis.
Back to work today for me and many other people, not a day of much rejoicing for many of us. January is a horrible month on the whole, the vague feeling of freshness of a new year quickly becoming a month with five Mondays and seemingly six weeks until pay day, a month of unending cold and dark. Once we get to February- a much more civilised month, only four weeks long and with the promise of spring ahead- things start to improve. January must just be endured.*
If you're back at work today, I hope it goes well. Here are a pair of work songs from the mid- 80s to celebrate/ commiserate, one from either side of the Atlantic. In 1984 The Jasmine Minks, freshly signed to Alan McGee's new label Creation, recorded and released a slice of punk influenced indie on 7" single. Work For Nothing was the B-side to Think, the single bearing the Creation catalogue number 004 (only The Legend!, The Revolving Paint Dream and Biff Bang Pow! put out records on Creation before them). They were on tour with The Jesus And Mary Chain as Upside Down came out and as demand for the Reid brothers grew the Minks got a bit side-lined. This is a great piece of mid- 80s Creation indie.
In 1987 R.E.M. opened their final indie album Document with the work song, Finest Worksong, and put it out as the third single from Document in 1988. Finest Worksong is based around Peter Buck hitting a B string on his guitar while Mike Mills follows with a huge bass riff. Stipe always denied that the song was political or a protest but it can't help be seen in some way as a response to Reagan's America- 'The time to rise has been engaged', Stipe sings, qualifying it with 'I'm talking here to me alone'. It doesn't sound that way though, it sounds like it's for everyone, the massive Scott Litt production thrusting the song out of the speakers. The Other Mix came out as a B-side on the 12" in 1988.
Richard Norris' Music For Healing enters its fourth year with the release of two twenty minute pieces of ambient/ deep listening titled Winter Solstice 1 and 2. Winter Solstice inches forwards slowly with found sounds, synth washes, glacially paced rising and falling piano notes and what could be a choir/ could be a synth all coming together to bring some ambient warmth to early January. Halfway in a baritone instrument/ tone picks out a topline melody and then fades in and out of the haze. Some birdsong drifts in. Time passes. The choral sounds return. The synths become slightly more insistent and to the foreground. Winter Solstice can be bought here.
Next month Richard releases a twenty track compilation bringing together highlights from his recent electronic and ambient work, dating back to 2019, a collection called Deep Listening 2019- 2022. Much of the impetus for these recordings came from lockdown in March 2020 but they started before that, Richard using the creation of ambient and deep listening pieces to deal with the stress of the world outside his front door.
On New Year's Day 2010 I started Bagging Area- which has made it very easy to remember when the blog's birthday is if nothing else. Today the blog enters its teenage years, thirteen years old. There are several songs titled for what is often seen as the unluckiest number.
Big Star's Thirteen from 1972 is a celebration of teenage love. 'Won't you let me walk you home from school', it begins, the ache and pain of young love perfectly captured by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell.
Big Audio Dynamite's V Thirteen is from 1987, co-written with Joe Strummer who also produced the album it came from (Number 10 Upping Street, according to Joe, the home of 'an alternative, funky Prime Minister'). V. Thirteen's lyrics take in all sorts of stuff, not least Little Jamie who writes 'V 13'- I've always assumed this means writes as in graffiti- my copy of the 12" came with a stencil for spraying V. 13 onto walls and other surfaces, still unused. V. Thirteen is one of B.A.D.'s finest moments.
Teenage Fanclub released an entire album titled Thirteen, released in 1992 following the flush of fame that Bandwagonesque brought. Inevitably it felt like a bit of a slump, the songs not quite up to par, many being fragments and leftovers from 1991/2. The experience of making it wasn't a happy one for the group, it dragged on and became hard work. Drummer Brendan O'Hare left after they toured the album. Time has been fairly kind to Thirteen I think, it sounds pretty good today, just not a great step on in any way. One of the key songs was 120 Minutes, a Raymond McGinley song, which the group recorded acoustically for their Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It EP, released in 1995
Andrew Weatherall's 2016 solo album Convenanza included a song called Thirteenth Night. The album was a wide ranging affair, spanning post- punk/ punk funk trumpets and featured Weatherall's vocals on many of the songs including references to writers Hans Fallada and Robert Walser (Fallada wrote Alone In Berlin, the true story of a German couple who leave a series of handwritten postcards around Berlin during the Nazi years attacking the regime and who then become involved in a deadly cat and mouse game with the Gestapo). Thirteenth Night was a slightly melancholic instrumental. For the remix album that followed- Consolamentum- Thirteenth Night was remixed by Andrew's Asphodell's bandmate and studio engineer Timothy J. Fairplay. The Asphodells' steam powered drum machine makes a welcome appearance.
New Year's Eve- I'm not sure what we're going to do tonight. New Year's Eve is a strange night at the best of times (unless you're young and in a club where all that happens is that the countdown to midnight is a brief interruption to a night of dancing). The reflective, verging on maudlin, aspects of it are too easily summoned at the moment but celebrating it feels odd too. Caught in no man's land.
But, still, Happy New Year to everyone who comes here for the music and the words, thank you for your comments and support, it means a lot. I hope you're having a good time tonight whether you're choosing to do something or nothing. See you all in 2023 for more of the same.
This is a mix I put together of tracks from 2022, made for dancing to. It's what I'd want to hear as the clock ticked towards midnight, if happened to find myself in a sweaty basement with a good sound system and a strobe light tonight- you never know, it could happen. Sean Johnston's work features heavily, turning up on four of the tracks. There are a couple of transitions where things are a little skewwhiff (one of them skewwhiff in a way I quite like, the beats and noises piling up messily and then clearing) and the BPMs may be a little out but I think the track selection is good enough. A bunch of dance records sequenced together for an hour and a quarter, with a slow spaced out ambient start, a dubby ending and plenty of dancers in between. Happy new year.
It would be overly dramatic to say that music has saved my life this year but there's no doubt it has been there to pull me through and has provided moments where I have been, temporarily, transported out of myself. Grief has been permanent- changing but still permanent- and music has been one of the ways through which I have been lifted out of it, even if only for a few minutes.
Back in December 2021, in the week or two immediately after Isaac died, I didn't listen to any music. The grief was so raw and so harsh, so present in my body. I never knew that emotional pain could be so physically painful, that it could actually hurt so badly. There was a Saturday afternoon in December were I sat in our back room. It seemed like it was dark all day and that that particular Saturday afternoon would drift on endlessly forever. Eventually I played a record from the pile near my feet, Promise by SUSS, which I'd bought not long previously (although it came out in 2020). SUSS play ambient Americana/ ambient country, and the album is a quiet wash of gentle drones and sounds, pedal steel, e-bow guitar, mandolin and so on, with loops. If I remember correctly, I just needed something to take away the silence in the room, ambient music to provide something else to focus on while sitting staring into the room.
As the afternoon wore on I was able to sit on the sofa and listen to wordless, largely ambient music and it helped in some way. I played both sides of Promise and when it finished I plugged my phone into the stereo and played what was then the latest in Richard Norris' monthly Music For Healing ambient releases, December. The music couldn't take the pain away but it seemed to provide something, a salve of some kind. After forty minutes of Music For Healing I pulled out a record from the pile near to me, the records that were either most recently bought or taken from the shelves because I wanted to listen to them- the pile was all from before Isaac's death. A few records in was the recent re- issue of Victorialand by Cocteau Twins. The gauzelike guitars, ambient-ish haze and Liz Fraser's voice all became part of that afternoon.
During 2022 I've been to lots of gigs, more than in any single since the late 80s/ early 90s I think, when gig going was cheap and weekly. Some were bought as presents last Christmas- we had no time to do any real Christmas shopping for each other in the aftermath of Isaac's death. In January I saw Half Man Half Biscuit at the Ritz. A month later we saw John Cooper Clarke with Mike Garry and Luke Wright at the Bridgewater Hall. I saw John Cooper Clarke again in November at the Apollo supporting Squeeze courtesy of a friend with a spare. A few weeks ago the same friend gave me a ticket for Stereolab at the New Century Hall. In between I've seen a revelatory Ride doing Nowhere at the Ritz, Paul Weller at the Apollo, Andy Bell upstairs at Gullivers, The Charlatans doing Between 10th And 11th in full and then the hits at the New Century Hall, Echo And The Bunnymen in imperious form at Manchester's Albert Hall, Ian McCulloch solo (with a band) at Nantwich Words and Music Festival, Pete Wylie and Wah! at Night And Day, Warpaint (also at the Albert Hall), Pet Shop Boys at the arena and Primal Scream at Castlefield Bowl. Quite a few of these were courtesy of the generosity of friends, something I'm really grateful for.
At some of these gigs I've cried, sometimes completely unexpectedly and overhwlemingly. At Echo And The Bunnymen in February the opening chords and first verse/ chorus of Nothing Lasts Forever reduced me to a mess of tears, I almost dissolved completely. In September The Charlatans' North Country Boy made me cry, Mike Garry's poetry did it, Pete Wylie did it more than once, Pet Shop Boys too with Being Boring. None of these tears have been a bad thing, they've all hit an emotional spot that connected me to Isaac in some way. As well as the tears (and the looks from other gig goers that a middle aged man crying at a gig can bring, followed by me shrugging and smiling) these gigs have provided moments where I've been transported out of myself for a while- for a song or for an hour. Good gigs can do that anyway, provide an act of communion between band and crowd, between music and people, but the act of being transported away somewhere else is a magical one and not much else has been able to do it this year.
In October I DJed at the Golden Lion in Todmorden as part of The Flightpath Estate group, five of us supporting and warming up for David Holmes. The memories of that afternoon and evening still linger and of Holmes' set in that packed pub, four hours of dance music, the transportative effect of music once again lifting me up and out of myself.
In a year where grief and pain have been ever-present, where the physical manifestations of bereavement have been there almost every single day, where the loss of Isaac has been such a huge sucking black hole in our lives, music in all its forms- that long ambient afternoon last December, experienced live at gigs, listened on record, streamed through the computer, listened to via headphones while out walking, bought from Bandcamp and burned to CD to play in the car, played on a tinny portable speaker on a balcony in Gran Canaria in July- has often been the answer. It won't bring Isaac back- nothing will- but at times it makes being without him something that can be borne or briefly make the loss and his absence fade for a while.
Vapour Trail, the final song from Ride's Nowhere when it came out back in 1990 and the set closer at the 30th anniversary tour, was a beautiful moment at the Ritz, a crowd of middle aged and their late teenage/ early twenties children singing along to the swirling guitars, pounding drums and Andy Bell's declaration of love. Music is the answer.
Yesterday 200 miles, today 200 bars. On Spiritualized's debut album, 1992's Lazer Guided Melodies, Jason closes an hour's worth of pain and beauty, spaced out symphonies and gliding garage rock, with 200 Bars. Over waves of organ and chiming guitars Kate counts from 1 to 100, the bars (musical) and bars (drinking) word play driven home as Jason starts singing/ whispering, 'I'm gonna lose my thoughts in 200 bars/ You know I've tried but now I'm tired/ I'm losing track of time in 200 bars'. The music comes to a stop and Kate closes things with, '200'.
In the same year, Jason's erstwhile bandmate Pete Kember, was moving on slowly as Sonic Boom/ Spectrum. Soul Kiss (Glide Divine) came out that year on translucent vinyl in a liquid sleeve. The ten songs housed in that liquid sleeve find Sonic in an even more dreamy, drifting spaced out place than Jason. Tranquil, dappled, blissed out, waves of sound.
Cowboy Junkies' 1988 album The Trinity Session was one that almost everyone seemed to be listening to when it came out, rave reviews in the NME, Sounds and Melody Maker enough to cut through to the different crowds of the late 80s. Recorded in the Church Of The Holy Trinity in Toronto with the musicians all round a single microphone and with Margo Timmins' vocal coming through the PA system left behind by the previous band to play in the church, the presence and natural reverb of the building is as important as the instruments and Margo's voice. The album was almost recorded in one session with no overdubs (except for Margo adding her a capella chanting for Mining For Gold a week later. As they ran out of time they had to pay the security guard on site an extra $25 to let them stay a little longer and record Misguided Angel).
The album is one of those perfect moments, a record they were never going to match again no matter what, where and when they recorded. The follow up, 1990's The Caution Horses, had some good songs but was more polished and didn't have the unique, one off beauty of that day/ night in that church in Toronto. This song, 200 More Miles, was inspired by the group's never-ending life on the road. Michael Timmins' scratchy lead guitar and accompanying pedal steel guitar are a joy.
The album gained a lot of interest because of the cover of Sweet Jane, but the version from 1974's 1969: Velvet Underground Live rather than the more familiar one from Loaded. Lou Reed is said to have preferred the Cowboy Junkies one to the Velvets' ones and who can fault him? I've posted it before fairly recently so instead offer this, a completely unofficial Mojo Filter re- edit of Cowboy Junkies cover. Your tolerance of it may depend on whether you think the achingly beautiful, spectral 1988 cover version needed an AOR sheen and mid tempo club/ disco drums- I can imagine situations where it could work.
Some gorgeous floaty serene ambient music for today- whatever day it is, I've lost track, the space between Christmas and New Year is the best part for me, the sense of having nothing particualr to do and no real idea what day it is.
Space Ghost is from Oakland, California but 4 AM is from somewhere out there, beyond Alpha Centuari. You can buy it here.
This is a digital recreation of tape made by Andrew Weatherall for a friend back in 1992. The tape was given recently to a member of The Flightpath Estate group (Mark) and then put together by Dan. It's a selection of songs from the left of the dial (as The Replacements put it) opening with the monumental Classic Girl by Jane's Addiction, one of the greatest rock songs of the 90s, a song that pins something down very precisely where Perry Farrell sings 'They may say 'Those were the days'/ But in a way y'know for us/ These are the days'. From there Weatherall's friend is on the receiving end of a tape that takes in Big Star, Nancy and Lee, Mazzy Star, American Spring (who gave him the title for an early Primal Scream remix), Cowboy Junkies, Grant Hart, The Replacements, Grant McLennan, Tom Waits, This Mortal Coil, Kris Kristofferson and many more, before ending at the end of side two with The Rolling Stones.
It's ideal Boxing Day fayre, good for playing while you're emptying the fridge of yesterday's leftovers and sticking it all in the oven to heat up and wondering if it's too early to have a drink. It won't scare the in- laws or frighten the kids. You can listen to it here or get it here.
Tracklist
Jane's Addiction: Classic Girl Big Star: Kangaroo Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood: Some Velvet Morning Mazzy Star: Halah American Spring: It's Like Heaven Buffalo Tom: Heaven Psychedelic Furs: Until She Comes Big Star: Femme Fatale Cowboy Junkies: Misguided Angel Hoodlum Priest: Rebel Angel Grant Hart: She Can See The Angels The Replacements: Sadly Beautiful Bill Pritchard: Pretty Emily Jack Frost: Thought That I Was Over You G.W.McLennan: Stones For You This Mortal Coil: You And Your Sister The Box Tops: The Door You Closed To Me Big Star: Take Care American Spring: Fallin' In Love Courage Of Lassie: Bang Bang Kris Kristofferson: Sugar Man Tom Waits: I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You Bill Pritchard: I'm In Love Forever Head: Me And Mrs Jones The Rolling Stones: Sleep Tonight
In 1981 Durutti Column released their second album LC, the first with drummer Bruce Mitchell on board and a record packed with seminal Vini Reilly songs, The Missing Boy, Sketch For Dawn I and II, Jacqueline among them. It had come out less than a year after the Factory Quartet compilation, a double album containing three Vini gems in the shape of For Belgian Friends, For Mimi and Self- portrait. When you're hot you're hot. The addition of Bruce had shaped the sound further, a real drummer and sympathetic player who became a life long friend for Vini (and co- manager with Tony Wilson).
Factory were sometimes in the habit of handing recordings to other labels to release. Joy Division's Atmosphere/ Dead Souls single first saw the light of day on French label Sordide Sentimentale, at Ian Curtis' insistence. Several Durutti Column recordings around this time came out on Le Disques De Crepuescule. Around the same time a Durutti Column single was given to Sordide Sentimentale to release, Danny backed with Enigma, two further moments of Reilly genius. I don't use the word genius lightly but it seems that Factory was blessed in the late 70s and early 80s with several people who can genuinely lay claim to that word and who coalesced around the label- Vini for one, Martin Hannett another, Peter Saville perhaps and Ian Curtis too.
In December 1981 a Durutti Column song titled One Christmas For Your Thoughts turned up on an album called Chantons Noel- Ghosts Of Christmas Past, a compilation which included offerings by Aztec Camera, The Names, Paul Haig, Cabaret Voltaire, ex- ACR singer Simon Topping, Thick Pigeon and Michael Nyman. Vini's song, at least two electric guitars with electronic drums backing him, is a bit of a minor/ lost classic with some gorgeous runs down the fretboard and repeating melodies and phrases that ebb and flow during the song's course.
If you ever find yourself in the car park hell of Asda in Stockport, a car park split over two multi- storey sites linked by bridges and with different walkways to enter the supermarket, take some comfort from the fact that even in these unpromising conditions a moment of joy can still arrive- someone painted this little devil on the wall in a corner. This has nothing to do with the post that will follow, it's just a disconnected intro.
As is traditional here is my end of year list, twenty two musical artefacts 2022 in list form, a list combining singles, albums and EPs into one countdown- you'll notice I've cheated, there are many more than twenty two releases contained within. In a year shot through with all kinds of personal difficulties caused by grief and bereavement following Isaac's death at the end of last year, music has been an area of solace and distraction for me and I have listened to and enjoyed a huge amount of new music this year. I know as well there are albums I haven't heard and should have- Working Men's Club and Fontaines DC come to mind- and hopefully I'll get to them eventually. So, with no further ado...
Number Twenty Two
Some albums that have made the year tick, in no particular order:
Coyote: Everything Moves Nothing Rests
Sheer Taft: And Then There Were Four
Société Étrange: Chance
Gabe Gurnsey: Diablo
Timothy J. Fairplay: Free Andromeda
Half Man Half Biscuit: The Voltarol Years
Rich Ruth: I Survived, It's Over
Wet Leg: Wet Leg
Red Snapper: Everybody Is Somebody
Tigerbalm: International Love Affair
Panda Bear and Sonic Boom: Reset
The Order Of The 12: Lore Of The Land
Spiritualized: Everything Was Beautiful
Warrington- Runcorn New Town Development Plan: Districts, Roads, Open Space
Jon Hopkins: Music For Psychedelic Therapy
Number Twenty One
Some singles and EPs that have been on rotation at the Bagging Area this year, again, in no particular order:
Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s and Brix Smith: Brix Goes Tubular
Sault: 10
Phil Kieran and Green Velvet: Enjoy The Day Hardway Bros Meets Monkton
BTCOP: Just A Disco especially the Lights On A Hill Mix
Matt Gunn: Disko Drohne EP and the massive remix package
The Vendetta Stone remixes 12"
Peak High: Was That All It Was Hardway Bros remixes
Perry Granville: Lumux and Cleveland Sundays
Confidence Man: Feels Like A Different Thing (Daniel Avery remix)
Cantoma: Alive Remixes EP
Unknown Genre: Elevator Ride
Dirt Bogarde: Triumphe De Liebe and So Far Away
Curses: Gina Lollobrigida
Orbital and Sleaford Mods: Dirty Rat
Hifi Sean and David McAlmont: All In The World (and just wait for the album that gets a full release next year, a stunning record- the title track alone is one of next year's best songs)
Number Twenty
Various albums by Various Artists
There have been a slew of great compilation albums this year, multi- artist releases containing umpteen gems and treasure- The Chill Out Tent Volume 1, a compilation from Warm titled Home complete with animal and bird sounds between the tracks, Spun Out's Oompty Boompty Music compilation, the Shelter Me compilation from Leeds based Paisley Dark label and the cream of this crop, Higher Love Volume 2 (from the Brighton label of the same name).
Number Nineteen
Fontan: Iriz
A 7" single released on Hoga Nord at the start of the year, a gorgeous spaced out, instrumental warm bath with slowly building drums.
Number Eighteen
Boxheater Jackson: We Are One
Exeter's Mighty Force label has had quite a year. Boxheater Jackson's ten track album We Are One is a sublime set of chugging, optimistic, cosmic acid house. Also worth checking out on Mighty Force are Golden Donna's The Truth About Love, lovely washes of ambient techno, and the funky acid house/ indie- dance crossover Pro- Oxidant by Long Range Desert Group.
Number Seventeen
Mark Peters with Dot Allison: Sundowning/ Richard Norris ambient remix
Mark's latest album, Red Sunset Dreams, is pointing away from Wigan and towards the wide open landscapes of the US. With Dot Allison on vocals Switch On The Sky was a highlight- and then Sundowning came out, shimmering instrumental floaty ambience with a superb pair of Richard Norris remixes. Dot also had a solo EP out with the final remix from Lee 'Scratch' Perry, a lovely dubby version of Love Died In Our Arms.
Number Sixteen
The Orielles: Tableau
Tableau is one of the year's most unexpected treats, a double album spanning spoken word, dream pop, 60s jazz, indie and whatever else the trio decided they could turn their hands to. The recent Eyes Of Others' remix of Darkened Corners was superb spun out psychedelia and The Orielles own remix of Unknown Genre's Elevator Ride an unexpected visit to early 90s ambient techno.
Number Fifteen
Anatolian Weapons: Selected Acid Tracks
Strong acid from Greece, 808s set to stun, seven tracks of mind bending stuff. Acid Research 63, Acid Research 20 and Desert Track 66 are the picks and so much more than their functional titles suggest.
Number Fourteen
Rude Audio: Big Heat
A five track EP with typically brilliant tracks and remixes. Big Heat is a low slung, throbbing, dub techno groover, straight outta South London.
Number Thirteen
Pye Corner Audio: Let's Emerge
The latest Pye Corner Audio album left the dystopic sounds of last year's Entangled Routes and looked towards the summer, as typified on the glorious Warmth Of The Sun single with Andy Bell adding guitar to the analogue synth ambience. Sonic Boom remixed three tracks from the album, released as an excellent EP, Let's Remerge. A PCA remix of Principles Of Geometry's First I Heard Color is in the same area.
Number Twelve
Rhenizand: Atlantis Atlantis
More brilliant Belgian dance pop/ Balearic pop, an album that lights up any room it's played in. They can do no wrong for me.
Number Eleven
Unloved: Turn Of The Screw/ Turn Of The Screw (Erol Alkan Rework)
The new Unloved album, The Pink Album, found David Holmes, Keefus Ciancia and Jade Vincent and their 60s Now! sound extended over four sides of vinyl, twenty two songs (with Raven Violet, Etienne Daho and Jarvis Cocker along for the ride). On songs like Mother's Been A Bad Girl the woozy, disturbed, reverb drenched sound hit the spot and on Turn Of The Screw they nailed it, a driving, urgent, psychedelic pop song with Raven Violet on vocals and in charge. The remixes were bang on too, Erol Alkan's remix of Turn Of The Screw especially (and it sounded huge when David spun it at the Golden Lion in October). There's' an exhibition of Julian House's sleeve art at The Social in London too if you're in that neck of the woods.
Number Ten
10:40: three EPs
Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40 has one of 2022's ongoing delights, a slew of tracks and remixes from the start of the year to it's recent advent calendar end. Kissed Again, a gorgeous piece of emotional slow motion Balearic dance first came out in 2021 but was released this year by Brighton's Higher Love as an EP with the equally lovely Fin and Coat Check. Thickener (both versions) and The Knack (three versions) were both wonky dancefloor oriented thumpers.
Number Nine
The Summerisle Six: This Is Something/ This Is Something (Rico Conning Remix)
Sean Johnston's Wicker Man/ Todmorden inspired psyche folk/ indie dance side project grew from a trio to a sextet for this release (Andy Bell, Jo Bartlett, Duncan Gray, Kev Sharkey and Mick Somerset Ward all on board) for one of the year's best 12", an indie dance floor filler. Rico Conning's remix, a ten minute blissed out sunset journey, is the remix of the year.
Number Eight
Jazxing: Pearls Of The Baltic Sea
An album of Polish Balearica that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Start with the sax led Fala and go from there.
Number Seven
Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band: Dear Scott.
Mick Head's latest wonderfully crafted and written set of songs, tales of life lived and lives observed, with typically lovely melodies.
Number Six
Daniel Avery: Chaos Energy
A double vinyl ambient/ industrial/ techno album- emotive and hard hitting human/ machine music.
Number Five
Jezebell: Jezebellearica
A nine minute tribute to DJ Alfredo, the White Isle and an open minded approach to music, Jezebellearica was the song of the summer round here. Jezebell's The Knack, Dancing Not Fighting, Et Moi and Concurrence were all worth mentioning here too.
Number Four
Decius: Vol 1
Decius's album is twelve tracks of heady, sleazy, minimal, techno, inspired by the proto- house of Ron Hardy, with it's tongue firmly in its cheek, single entrendres rubbing up against distorted synths and banging beats. I reviewed it for Ban Ban Ton Ton back in November. In a turn of events I wasn't expecting some of my review has been pulled out for the press release, where my words are directly below a quote from Iggy Pop. As a year end treat Decius have made an end of year mix available, a pay what you want deal, with many of the tracks from the album included in it. You can get it here.
Number Three: EP |Of The Year
Andy Bell: Untitled Film Stills and I Am A Strange Loop
Andy Bell's Flicker came out at the start of the year, a beautiful and fully realised solo album with songs spanning the range of his influences- backwards tracks, guitar songs reprising the chord sequences from the earliest Ride records, cosmic instrumentals and straight ahead guitar pop. During the course of the year cover versions and remixes appeared, compiled in the autumn onto two four track 10" vinyl EPs (with a third of acoustic versions) and extras available digitally. Untitled Film Stills is a beautiful way to spend twenty minutes, his covers of Pentangle's Light Fight, Yoko Ono's Listen, The Snow Is Falling and The Kinks' The Way Love Used To Be all right up there and the small hours, quiet devastation of his cover of Arthur Russell's Our Last Night Together capable of bringing tears. The remixes EP is superb too with David Holmes Radical Mycology Remix of The Sky Without You and Richard Norris' lovely slowed down, string laden version of Something Like Love the standouts.
Number Two: Album Of The Year
A Mountain Of One: Stars Planets Dust Me
Existential Balearica, yacht rock, symphonic dark pop- however I slice it this album has been the one I'v enjoyed and played more than any other in 2022. Bubbling synth basslines, FXed vocals, acoustic guitars, piano, tom tom drums, cosmic hippy questions with no answers, spaced out and widescreen sun baked music with Rolo from The Woodentops on board for good measure. The remixes of Star in the summer stretched things further still, the Glok remix linking this with Andy Bell (at number three).
It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love was released on Valentine's Day and has been there throughout the year for me, played daily at times. David's tribute to the youth movements of our youths- the mods, rockers, rastas, punks, soul boys, teds, ravers and clubbers- sung by Raven Violet is a triumph, its two note keyboard blast and boom- tish drums capable of lifting the spirits on the lowest of days and the lyrics- 'I remember back when we were young/ They said the people's day would surely come/ It's over now if we run out of love'- don't really need picking through. It's the best single/ song I've heard this year and hopefully at some point will, along with last year's Hope Is The Last Thing To Die, form the centrepieces of an album. But if not, on its own, it's more than enough.
There was a remix a little while later, the song being toughened up and stretched out for late night revelry- Darren Emerson's Huffa Remix and the Hardway Bros one were the pick of the bunch for me. Holmes has had quite a year, his DJ gigs in small venues have been on fire- the Golden Lion in Todmorden was particularly memorable not least because I was on the turntables that evening and handed over to him, a chain of events a younger me would struggle to comprehend. Friends who went to his gig at the Social in London in February raved about it as did friends who saw him in Glasgow more recently. A few months ago David released a 7" on Hoga Nord, the motorik/ Joy Division glide of No One Is Smarter Than History another highlight of 2022 and his remix of The Vendetta Suite's Purple Haze, Yellow Sunrise is another 2022 peak as is his remix of Orbital's Belfast, thirty years after the original. You'll notice David appears elsewhere in this list as Unloved and with a remix of Andy Bell too. When you're on a roll, just keep on rolling.
Coming quickly after the news of Terry Hall's death came the news that Martin Duffy had died aged fifty five following an accident at his home. Martin was the keyboard player in Primal Scream from 1989 onwards and before that was in Felt. He played Knebworth in 1996 with The Charlatans when they were reeling from the death of their organ/ keyboard player Rob Collins, an act Tim Burgess has said meant the band was actually able to go on. Martin recorded a solo album a few years ago released on Tim's O Genesis label and made a superb EP with Steve Mason as Alien Stadium in 2017. More than that, Martin has been described all over the various obituaries and tributes as a sweet, lovely, quiet and unassuming man who, when on tour, loved to take in museums and neolithic standing stones- he seems like a man after my own heart.
I've seen Primal Scream in venues large and tiny since 1989, from the cellar club that was Planet X in Liverpool when they toured Ivy Ivy Ivy to Castlefield Bowl in Manchester this summer and almost all points in between and it's impossible to imagine them without Martin's keys and organ. When they emerged from the various issues that derailed them in the mid- 90s and came back with first Vanishing Point and then XTRMNTR, the bedrock of the sound was Martin's keys and organ, his Hammond especially, as much as the twin guitars of Throb and Innes. He was able to play whatever the songs required and on Vanishing Point especially it feels like the band were grouped around him, playing off whatever he played.
Given that this Sunday is Christmas Day I probably won't do anything for my half hour Sunday mix series so thought I'd put those energies into today's mix, a thirty minute tribute to Martin Duffy.
Primal Scream: The Revenge Of The Hammond Connection
Primal Scream: If They Move, Kill 'Em
Alien Stadium: Titanic Dance (Lynch Mob Mix)
Felt: Primitive Painters
Primal Scream: Space Blues #2
Get Duffy is the second song on Vanishing Point, a Hammond organ instrumental sandwiched between the speed freak mod- rock of Burning Wheel and the gonzo Mani powered scuzz of the title track. If They Move, Kill 'Em is the centrepiece of the album, a track inspired by and sampling Sam Peckinpah's Western The Wild Bunch.
Duffed Up is Adrian Sherwood's dub version of the Get Duffy, from Echo Dek, released in 1997 a little while after the parent album.
The Revenge Of The Hammond Connection was a B-side from Kill All Hippies, a further take on the original Hammond Connection instrumental which was the B- side to Burning Wheel. 60s spy film soundtrack vibes.
Titanic Dance is from the four track EP Martin made with Steve Mason which is laugh out loud funny in places, two men enjoying themselves. The track here, produced and mixed by Brendan Lynch, breaks down after seven minutes into some Planet Of The Apes tomfoolery.
Primitive Painters was a 1985 Felt single, maybe their best release, a song pushed along by Martin's wheezing organ playing and adorned with Liz Fraser's backing vocals. This single is one of 80s indie's greatest moments.
Space Blues #2 closed 2002's Evil Heat, the third of the three albums they made around the millennium that feel like a trilogy of sorts. Evil Heat doesn't quite hit the same heights as the previous two but its pair of Weatherall produced songs (Autobahn 66 and A Scanner Darkly) are superb, Deep Hit Of Morning Sun is a opening statement of intent and Detroit and Rise both rock. Kate Moss sings on Some Velvet Morning and on Space Blues #2 Martin not Bobby takes lead vocal, singing softly- 'On the judgement day/ When your name is called...'- as the Hammond shifts notes behind him.
For as long as I can remember pop music being part of my life Terry Hall has been part of it. As kids at the tail end of the 70s The Specials were part of our world, their riotous, joyful modernised version of ska perfect for youth club discos- run around, bounce up and down, sing/ shout along. The fact that their songs said something about the world we lived in and saw on the TV made them even more special- songs about men at C&A, nuclear war, the rat race, contraception and doing too much too young were right up our streets. Ghost Town, blaring out at number one on Top Of The Pops the day after there were riots across the UK (including in Moss Side, just up the road from us) was not just a pop song, it was a reflection of the state of the country and the nation's youth- we were kids, I was eleven years old, I wasn't unemployed and didn't know anything about the Right To Work, but these records informed us, they were important. They were messages we received. How anyone could enjoy The Specials, sing along to A Message To You Rudy, and then say things and act in ways which were racist? Have you not listened to the songs?
Ghost Town's B-sides, Why and Friday Night, Saturday Morning, were important too. Why? was a list of questions put to violent racists. Friday Night, Saturday Morning a list of events that we were too young to take part in- nightclubs, bouncers, queues for taxis, women dancing round hand bags, stag dos, piss stains on shoes- but would be old enough for soon, and to be honest it all sounded like a mixed blessing.
When Terry left The Specials and formed Fun Boy Three with Lynval Golding and Neville Staple the music and the messages continued. The Telephone Always Rings and the Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum were strange out of kilter pop music with weird chord progressions and time signatures and at the centre the three voices humming and chanting, and Terry, always deadpan and serious, with that look on his face. Tunnel Of Love a single in 1983, made a huge impression on me with Terry's gimlet eyed lyrics and delivery; a couple meet, fall in love, get married and divorced in three minutes and six seconds and Terry's lyrics are full of adult concerns such as wedding lists, bottom drawers and trial separations. The song is so catchy too, endlessly singable and the first verse's lines, 'My ego altered/ Altered ego/ Wherever I go/ So does me go', were so puzzling to a thirteen year old.
While on tour in the U.S. with The Specials and with The Go- Go's supporting he began a relationship with Jane Wiedlin which led to them co- writing Our Lips Are Sealed, one of those songs I never tire of. The versions by both those bands are superb, the pure Los Angeles pop rush of The Go- Go's version, the lugubrious downbeat, almost out of tune post- punk of Fun Boy Three's version and the Urdu version from the 12".
It didn't hurt that Terry Hall always looked so cool too. In The Specials he was usually standing still as the rest of the group bounded around all about him, short cropped hair and Two Tone suit and then later on in The Specials and in Fun Boy Three with his crow's nest bleached streaked hair and demob suits. Terry was a match going Manchester United fan, often spotted in the crowd at Old Trafford. I bumped into him once, almost literally, coming round the corner of what used to be called the Scoreboard End but was changed to the more prosaic East Stand in the 90s. He stopped, checked the look on my face as I apologised and then realised who I was almost nose to nose with, and smiled as I spluttered out something along the lines of, 'Ooh, sorry mate, oh fucking hell, you're Terry Hall'.
In 2003 Terry made an album with Mushtaq (from Fun- Da- Mental) called The Hour Of Two Lights, a wild, thrilling melange of Terry's unique and doleful voice and presence combined with Arabic music, Bulgarian folk and 21st century electronics, a record full of personal and political statements (and of course further evidence to support the view that the personal is political and the political is personal).
Terry Hall has been there, a part of my world, since the late 70s and he played a big part in shaping my views and how I see the world. It's dreadfully sad he's died, aged sixty three. He had a life filled with its own difficulties and issues that would be enough to fell anyone but despite it all remained Terry Hall. The part in The Specials' Enjoy Yourself where he introduces himself sounding like the man least likely to enjoy himself at a social event (and doing it with the faintest trace of a smile on his face) is in many ways in itself, a microcosmic ideal for living and a design for life.
'Hi, I'm Terry and I'm going to enjoy myself first'.
You might think that by 20th December the musical year was pretty much done and dusted but then late on Sunday night Sean Johnston, fresh from a night DJing at ALFOS at Phonox in London, decided to drop two new Hardway Bros remixes onto the internet. Sean's remixes are of an artist called Peak High (who I really hope does live in the High Peak). Peak High (Jim McCall) sent his cover of Was That All It Was to Sean, who offered to remix it, and we should all be glad he did as it's an absolute beauty.
Was That All It Was was originally a slice of 1979 disco/ soul by Jean Carne, one of those pieces of happy/ sad dance music, dancefloor gold but with lyrics filled with regret and and the sharp pain of tears- 'Was that all it was/ A way to pass the time/ A momentary thing/ Not worth remembering in the morning'. Jean's version is all her vocal, disco synth drums, strings and late 70s pow pows.
It was covered by Kym Mazelle in 1989, a house update of disco a decade on. Peak High's version is at Bandcamp along with Sean's pair of Hardway Bros remixes, a pay what you want deal. Peak High's take on the song is chuggy house with a huge bassline, rattling 808, synth stabs and a wonderful vocal from Don Gomez.
Sean turned in two remixes, one a disco synth drum extravaganza with a throbbing Patrick Cowley- esque bassline, eight minutes of ecstatic abandon. The second, the Bleep Dub, sends the song via the Snake Pass to Sheffield in 1990, a Warp-ed/ bleep techno version that is nine and a half minutes of dark dancefloor delight. Both are great.
Back in the early 90s Verve appeared out of the wilds of Wigan, four skinny pale boys with straggly hair, suede jackets and desert boots, looking like the existed on a diet of cigarettes and LSD with the occasional bag of chips for nourishment. They were a swirling psychedelic monster, space rock that soared and swooped. Guitarist Nick McCabe didn't appear to be much interested in chord progressions and verse- chorus dynamics but in texture and tone, FX and reverb, runs of notes that were like pinpricks of light against the inky black heavens. The rhythm section thundered away, a bedrock that elevated the group's noise away from the shoegaze bands and towards the skies. As a calling card and statement of intent their debut single, 1991's All In The Mind and its B-sides One Way To Go and A Man Called Sun, is a hard to beat. This incarnation of the group got lost after the release of A Storm In Heaven in 1993 (although A Northern Soul has its moments too). They were forced to add The to their name. Inter- band relations and constant touring took their toll. Singer Richard Ashcroft, 'Mad Richard' in the press in the early 90s, began to be more interested in mid- paced, universal balladeering than stratospheric dream psyche. These things happen.
Gravity Grave, released in October 1992 is eight minutes of the above, a delay affected bassline, big drums and a squeal of guitar, then more guitar and FX and Richard singing into the wind, 'My life is a boat/ Being blown by you/ With nothing ahead/ Just the deepest blue'. The song shifts a few times, breaking down into bass and drums, some harmonica and then builds again, Nick McCabe playing like a Winstanley version of Hendrix but mainly it's all about the moment, being alive inside the song as the groove goes on.
In case you haven't noticed, over in Stockholm Jesse Fahnestock has been running an advent calendar of musical delights, his 10:40 recordings re- presented, clearing the decks ahead of a new album next year. On 3rd December, behind door number three, was a 10:40 edit of One Way To Go, that 1991 B-side dubbed out and extended, Richard's vocal going backwards and forwards, eventually meeting itself in the middle of the seven minute trip. You can get it here for free.
The entire 10:40 advent calendar of releases is free, a festival of music with releases- edits, original tracks and remixes spanning dubbed out rock, laser beam festival electronics, wonky hip hop, chuggy Balearica and Tom Waits boneshaker blues. It is going on every day until the big day comes this weekend. Dig in and feed your head here.
Wooden Shjips, one of three bands Ripley Johnson leads as guitarist and singer, are an ongoing psychedelic blur, Ripley's distorted, buzzsaw/ Crazy Horse guitar tone droning and riffing complemented by the motorik rhythms of drummer Omar Ahsanuddin and the swirly organ. The songs sound like the heat of high summer, the tranced out escapism of lying on your back staring at the hazy blue sky with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Ripley's voice sits somewhere inside the mix, a presence as much as a vocal.
Since 2006 they've released five albums (plus two compilations) with 2018's V a peak of spaced out, shimmering psychedelia. Red Line and Eclipse are both from V. I saw them play live at Gorilla when they toured to promote it- they were in the groove and on fire.
Contact was a standalone 7" single in 2009, a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg song (originally sung by Brigitte Bardot in 1968 which later on was up on David Holmes' Essential Mix). It was later compiled onto Wooden Shjips Vol 2.
Rising is a slow riot of backwards sounds and is on 2011's West, the album where their numbed out repetition began to become warmer and more polished. Crossings is from West as well and was remixed by Weatherall, the 12" seeing the light of day in 2012. It's one of the pinnacles of his later remixes, a version that strips Wooden Shjips sound down, adds a hissy drum machine and some of his dubby/ sci fi sounds and a huge loop of bass guitar.
Back To Land is the title track from their 2013 album, The Velvet Underground if they'd come from San Francisco and not New York.
And if all this psychedelic rock isn't festive enough for you here's the band doing O Tannenbaum, adding sleigh bells to create a nine minute long, minimal, motorik Christmas, organ drone.
This is Isaac's name on the Covid memorial in London, and his heart too, recently renovated by a friend. It was his funeral a year ago today. The recent anniversaries of his birthday and a week later the first anniversary of his death weighed very heavily on us for weeks before and there was quite a hangover after too. The anniversary of the funeral hasn't had the same effect.
The day of the funeral itself, a year ago,was awful- the waiting for the hearse, the drive to the crematorium, the wait I had to stand up and read out the eulogy I'd written, the walk to the grave... all of it. It's not something I'd ever wish to live through again.
The wake afterwards was a blur. I spoke to some people and barely to others. We found ourselves asking each other, 'was so- and- so at the wake? Did I speak to them?', for days and weeks afterwards. The number of people who attended either or both events was testament to Isaac and the effect he had on people. The friend who wrote the epitaph on his heart at the Covid memorial got it exactly right.
These are the five songs we played at the funeral, sequenced into one mix in the order that they were played. They've all changed for me since that day, the songs and their meanings shifting in ways big and small. I guess that was inevitable.
The Sabres Of Paradise: Smokeblech II (Beatless Mix)
Back in 1998 a friend, Neil, bought Isaac a copy of North Country Boy on 7" when he was born and it's a song I've associated with him ever since. Isaac was after all a north country boy. When we walked into the chapel as the drums and slide guitar kicked in I did briefly shudder and think to myself, 'Oh shit, what have we done, I'll never get through this song'. Some of the lines have an extra resonance now. You can probably work out which ones. In September this year I saw The Charlatans play it as part of their hits set at New Century Hall in Manchester. Quite a moment.
Vini Reilly's music has been part of my life since about 1987 and I wanted some of it played at the funeral. There was a section in the service where a slideshow of photos of Isaac played and Sketch For Summer was the accompanying music, Vini's wonderful guitar and Martin Hannett's production and synths filling the room. Originally I wanted to use Otis but the sampled vocal, 'another sleepless night for me' was too much.
You & Me Song was Eliza's choice and I can't hear the song now without crying. She has a print of the lyrics on her wall in her room. It's her song, and his, forever.
Race For The Prize tells of two scientists competing to find an un- named cure, with the pay off line, 'they're just human/ with wives and children'. The strings swoop and swell and it careers to its ending. It's a glorious song, emotional and inspiring. Back at the turn of the millennium my brother- in- law Harvey used to film everything. When we went on family holidays or met up he'd shoot loads of camcorder footage and he'd then edit it into short films with songs over the top. There's loads of footage of Isaac, his cousin Orlan and Eliza being children. In 2002 we went to the north east for a week in August and stayed in a cottage near Alnwick. Isaac had spent the period 1999- 2001 in and out of hospital, including in 2000 a long period of time undergoing two bone marrow transplants. Isaac's transplant was cutting edge, revolutionary stuff, only the second of its kind in the world. It saved his life and gave him the next two decades with us. Two scientists racing for the prize. Harvey's film of Isaac aged three and Orland aged two running around the garden in the sun with Race For The Prize playing, a beautiful coming together of images, music and words stuck with me, and it made sense to play the song at the graveside even if the meaning was unknown to almost everyone there.
Smokebelch II- Weatherall's moment of beauty from 1993. I've lost myself a few times to that song. I will do again I'm sure.
Rheinzand's second album Atlantis Atlantis is one of this year's favourites at Bagging Area. Rheinzand (Reinhard Vanbergen Charlotte Caluwaerts and Mo Disko) are from Ghent, dance/ house/Balearic/ nu disco pioneers. Earlier this year Mo and Charlotte appeared at the northern launch night for Disco Pogo, the new revived and updated version of the legendary Jockey Slut magazine, published twice yearly. The event was at Electrik in Chorlton and Mo was DJing. At one point I caught him as we passed each other in the bar and I told him how much I loved the album- he broke into a massive smile and gave me a huge hug.
Rheinzand have just released an expanded version of Atlantis Atlantis with two new extra songs- this one, the nine minute dark disco odyssey of Electrify Me is a stunner with a bouncy, ascending bassline, dark synths and twin vocals. Buy the album and the new songs here.
Our boiler packed up last night leaving us with no radiators while the temperature dropped to minus five outside, and little hot water. Despite my best efforts at defrosting the condensate pipe (standing in the garden alternating between pouring hot water on it and aiming a hair dryer at it for two hours), it remained resolutely un- defrosted. So either it was too frozen or I didn't do it for long enough. Or the boiler's broken. One of those moments where you think everything's against you.
