Monday, October 31, 2022
Portrait Of The Artist As A Superannuated Wideboy
The thing is, I’m the same as I ever was, except I’m not. When back in my home town last March to remember a friend who had taken his own life, I was confronted by someone in the pub who I used to hang out with a lot, up until the end of the eighties. I hadn’t seen him since I started university in 1989, but had been in regular contact on social media. Anyway, I’d actually bumped into him the day before, coming out of a supermarket. You know how you hear a voice and all of a sudden its like the previous thirty years hadn’t happened? My back was turned but as soon as I heard my name I knew who it was and felt transported back decades. In any case, in spite of us not having set eyes on each other for that amount of time, he was going somewhere with some others, and so was I, so we said we’d see each other the following day. Anyway, when that day arrived we chatted in the pub, and he looked at me saying “we haven’t really changed at all, have we?” And I’m afraid I was maybe a bit blunt with him. I knew what he meant. Here we (all) were, in the pub together for the same reason and, outwardly at least, things were pretty much the same as they’d always been. And while I could agree with that up to a point, (attitude-wise), on most other points he was wide of the mark. I think his judgement may have been clouded by the possibility that he was still in a state of coming to terms with a situation that he hadn’t planned for, but which had nevertheless happened and he had to deal with it. One of his ways of dealing with it could have been to seek refuge in nostalgia. I don’t see anything wrong with this approach, as long as it’s not the only one available. It always comes down to “whatever works for you”. And, unless I’m ever in a similar situation, I can’t say for sure what perspective I’d adopt. Having said that, I’m very much a person who lives in the present. I enjoy reminiscing. However, I try not to stay attached to the past for too long. The future has even less appeal. I mean I’m really looking forward to getting a dog in a few weeks, and I’ve always enjoyed Christmas. Generally though the future feels full of dread these days. I’m a natural optimist, and remember the halcyon days of the late 20th century. The focus on the year 2000 was immense from childhood. It was like some far off golden age of heightened technology and convenience. Everybody was going to work less and have flying cars, (flying cars will never be a thing). I knew how old I would be, (but still didn’t have any concrete career plans, rather like now), and imagined an ideal life for myself. And when comparisons are made with the global and political situations of the seventies and eighties, in spite of how bad it may have felt, it’s nothing compared to now. Being young helped of course. You are insulated against problems by virtue of having no responsibilities. Music was on an incredible upward curve, peaking with house and raving at the end of the eighties, beginning of the nineties. Has that time ever been bettered? Well, I don’t want to turn into a curmudgeonly old nostalgist, particularly after having earlier said that that’s what I’m not. So I’m going to sit on the fence and say that we’re in a constant state of flux and that while a peak of sorts was reached then, what has happened since is a perpetual, fluctuating line of development, that moves from side to side but not always forwards. For me at least, not being proficient in any sort of musical instrument, but being a self-appointed player of other people’s music and discerning selector, I’m always passionate and excited about what the future might bring, but find more than enough to occupy me in the present. The irony is that the forward-thinking world of electronic music would be lost without its past, and the ability to constantly pilfer and reshape it. I’ve got into a routine recently. A simple one, but something that constantly makes me evaluate my place in the world through the quantifying lens of underground electronic music. I get up in the morning, perform various household duties in the midst of those going out to work or school and, once the house is empty, shower, get dressed, and set off with one overriding objective; to buy a pain au chocolate from the local Lidl. Of course I may buy other things as well, but the pastry is the main focus. The ‘Lidl Loop’ is a round trip of around 35 minutes, stretches the legs and also gives me the opportunity to listen to a mix. I’m currently almost all the way through Jaye Ward’s spellbinding ‘Dimensions’ mix. Something that is uplifting and frightening in almost equal measure. It’s a dense soundscape of slowed down, pent-up acidic rage, with more technoid texture than a mid seventies feather cut; a veritable sonic rainforest of internal emotional combustion. And I’m walking around the supermarket looking at my fellow customers,- a lot of whom are of a similar age to myself, - wondering what they are listening to when they go back home. What structures their lives in a similar way to the way sound and imagination structures mine. And as is always the case, I’m looking into the eyes of men who look old enough to be my granddad, but whom I’m probably older than, and I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or ask if this incredible trip going through my ears can be broadcast through the shop PA. And what’s so, on the one hand frustrating, but on the other thankfully sets me apart. That, hopefully doesn’t come across in any way elitist. It’s just that I regard this music accompanying way of life as the most important thing. And the lifestyle is a very personal one. So, while I stopped regular clubbing a while back, (but am slowly reviving it), it’s all about complementary interests and pastimes and weaving them into the daily grind. Anything is fair game: sport, politics, pets, the arts, food, family etc. As long as it’s clear that these are the most important things in life and that you’ve found a way of prioritising them, nothing else really matters.
Matti Turunen - Radau (Cultivated Electronics Ltd)
Title: Matti Turunen
Artist: Radau
Label: Cultivated Electronics Ltd
Cat Number: CELTD011
Genre: Electro
A1: Aureum
A2: Xhante
B1: Radau
B2: Memnonia
This is a relatively rare solo outing for one half of Finnish electro titans Morphology. And Matti Turunen uses the opportunity to show that his razor sharp beats and panoramic soundscapes are not limited to his excursions with partner in crime Michael Diekmann. The track titles are suitably enigmatic, as is the overall production, not pinning itself down to one specific approach, aside from that honed over the years in the b-boy blacksmith’s. Both ‘Aureum’ and ‘Memnonia’ bookend the release with fluidity and depth, ‘Aureum’ particularly, whose deep, melodic hooks recall Plant43; ‘Memnonia’ has a similar mood but is more arpeggiated due to its undulating break beats. ‘Radau’ and ‘Xhante’ go harder; with the beats of ‘Xhante’ being underscored by a sporadic, descending bass, and those of ‘Radau’ going slightly off beat to a more fluctuating low end.
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Saturday, October 29, 2022
Friday, October 28, 2022
Thursday, October 27, 2022
96 Back - Cute Melody Windows Down (Local Action)
Title: Cute Melody Window Down
Artist: 96 Back
Label: Local Action
Cat Number: LOCLP024
Genre: IDM/Electronica??
1: Lounge ll
2: Wrong Warp
3: When U Stop
4: Cute Melody Window Down
5: Lovers Rock
6: Goth Stuff
7: Get Running
8: Flow Spam
9: High & Tired
10: Fresh Face
96 Back’s latest long player is, in fact, a random collection of cute melodies in the best possible context. ‘When U Stop’ made me think of Prince, and that’s before I’d noticed the “U” in the title. And, like its predecessor ‘Wrong Warp’, it changes identity half way through, becoming a completely different entity. The title track has a quirky, vaguely Celtic refrain that manages to stay the course and after this, the tunes start to open up, stretching out a little, with the exception of the transient ‘Get Running’. The album, in spite of its obvious synthetic condition, lives and breathes as a biological entity. It feels alive and imbued with its own life force. ‘High & Tired’ is one of those instances when it jumps off the psychiatrist’s couch and starts dancing around the room, another instance being ‘Lover’s Rock’. The tonal variety shifts from one composition to the next, cloaked all the while in a hazy half-light of optimism, the scope of which extends to the entire organism encompassing it. When I listen to this collection, my minds eye has me within a building that contains many rooms, each one a house for some abstract activity caught up in its own work. Something that is amplified by a pervasive sense of whimsy and allegory and soundtracks the Mr Dick that we all have within us.
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Terrace - Cocoonings EP (Delsin)
Title: Cocoonings
Artist: Terrace
Label: Delsin
Cat Number: DSR/EEVO 008
Genre: Techno
1: Janeiro Joy
2: Bass Star
3: Cocoons
4: Seismic Space
Terrace, perhaps Stefan Robbers’ most renowned nom de plume, makes a welcome return on Delsin. A label that he has found a home on recently by way of a rerelease conduit for Eevolute; to belch forth four tracks of unrivalled depth and danceablity. All new material, these compositions certainly reinforce the “if it ain’t broke” maxim and also that Robbers’ is like a fine wine, steadily maturing and tasting better with age. There’s no concept running through this release, just quality production. ‘Seismic Space’ is a break beat driven techno monster, with Detroit-inspired synths and a panoramic, boundless energy. ‘Bass Star’ comes from a similar situation, but is more patient and employs the 303 in all the right places. ‘Cocoonings’ is a moody, electric growl. It’s a more linear track and, as such, constantly unfurls like an infinite sound texture carpet, revealing new designs as it does. Great mixing fodder. ‘Janeiro Joy’ has no Brazilian influence that I’m aware of, except maybe for the percussion and a transient melodic flourish just over half way through For all its energy, it is quite understated, giving way to sundry other constItuent elements; notably some cavernous, electronic belches It’s a great track, like the other three, and further underlines the quality of this classy release.
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Cristi Cons - Black Swan EP (Adam's Bite)
Title: Black Swan EP
Artist: Cristi Cons
Label: Adam’s Bite
Cat Number: ADAM 006
Genre: Minimal Hoose!
A: Black Swan
B: Ahead Of The Curve
Minimal, possibly one of the most misunderstood and maligned house subgenres. I remember the mid ‘00s, when playing one Minus record on your community radio show would be enough to get you negatively stereotyped. Nowadays, however, there’s a lot more going on within the grooves though which, thankfully, just a cursory listen is capable of discerning. This double header by Cristi Cons being a case in point: once you’ve got past the long track lengths, perfect more mixing and layering, as they should be, any analysis of the music itself will tell you that it’s anything but minimal. This brand of house/techno, call it what you like is rich in content and subtlety. My favourite brand of techno is when it’s bpm is that of house, and I think that what artists like Cons do so effortlessly is blur the lines. They are also masters of mind control. These tunes are so obviously geared to mess you up and it’s testament to their purpose that their boundaries are limitless and the versatility boundless. Of the two tracks here, ‘Black Swan’ is the punchier, with ‘Ahead Of The Curve’ slightly less in your face. Only slightly though, as both tunes aren’t easy to pin down sonically, the pair of them using a host of devices to disorientate and surprise. Brilliant release, that deserves to be played at an illegal party, full of drugs, in a warehouse near you.
Monday, October 24, 2022
Sound Synthesis - Hum Of Human Dreams (Furthur Electronix)
Title: Hum Of Human Dreams
Artist: Sound Synthesis
Label: Furthur Electronix
Cat Number: FE 077
Genre: Electro
A1: Cosmic Nights
A2: Simpa Harmonies
B1: Amen Acid
B2: Feeling Hazy
C1: Flowing Dreams
C2: I Will Find You
D1: Memories Of You
D2: 115BPM
Sound Synthesis, aka Keith Farrugia, has been releasing music for just over ten years. And coming from Malta, is probably as good an example as any to suggest that while he is a product of his environment, the only limits that the creative process has are those of the imagination. This, his third album in four years also marks the culmination of a hectic release schedule that has seen him become exponentially prolific over this period, which is great; as he is, as the pundits say, in a rich vein of form. This collection is a chimeric assembly of delicate washes of synthetic colour draped over dampened electro beats with acid fragility thrown in for good measure. Nowhere is this more evident than within the confines of 'I Will Find You’, which has a pastoral, organic quality and feels like a sunrise national anthem. This bittersweet, emotional aspect infuses the whole album and is unquantifiable. The industrious, break beat propelled ‘Amen Acid’, with its dramatic, Land Of The Rising Sun synth washes is as direct as it gets here. Furthermore, there is immense stamina in the production, the genius of which imbues each track with it’s signature magic. The riff on ‘Feeling Hazy’ recalls Drexciya’s much more frictional ‘Surface Terrestrial Colonization’ while ‘Cosmic Nights’, which kicks things off is perhaps the most elemental electro offering here, but again it blends serendipitous acid and unreal atmospherics to create a tapestry which is both industrial and organic simultaneously. This is a stunning piece of work from start to finish, utterly addictive and already timeless.
Sunday, October 23, 2022
Saturday, October 22, 2022
Friday, October 21, 2022
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Boxheater Jackson - We Are One (Mighty Force)
Title: We Are One
Artist: Boxheater Jackson
Label: Mighty Force
Cat Number:
Genre: Cosmic Chug
1: Bring Back The Love (Mikey Young’s Master)
2: Intergalactic Lover
3: Don’t Complicate
4: A Place In Time
5: One Nation (Vocal Mix)
6: Bangin’ On The Walls Of Time
7: Pump Pump
8: The Awakening
9: Evacuation
10: Why Can’t You See
Boxheater Jackson is, according to the notes that accompany this release, Big Vern Burns. This is a person who has his acid house papers well in order and who is currently “hiding out in deepest darkest Cornwall making chugging cosmic Acid House.” This is, I feel, the perfect occupation for that type of person who wants to cloak their subversion under the auspices of normality. “What are you doing dear?” “Just pottering around the garden in between churning out space disco in the shed”. It’s a complete lifestyle when it reaches this stage, and its something for us all to aspire to. And these ten tunes that have emanated from the foothills of the mystical south west are in sync with the mind of he who made them just as much as the environment within which they were conceived. There’s a rave within us all, and this is no better illustrated anywhere than by these different facets of electronic pastoral hedonism. This album is full of highlights, all of which could be written about without a hint of contrivance. However, some random highlights include the slowed down sleaze of the vocodertastic ‘Intergalactic Lover’; the similarly vocal – distorting, but more deliberately anthemic ‘One Nation (Vocal Mix)’; the Marshall Jefferson inflected ‘Bangin’ On The Walls Of Time’; the epic ‘Why Can’t You See’ with its shifts and metamorphoses that are helped along by a very necessary spoken word; and ‘Don’t Complicate’, which repeats sage advice intermittently. It’s good to see that all of the tunes on this album are at least 6 minutes long, giving plenty of stress free space for mixing, and that they also have the acid house disco blueprint at their heart. Now all I need is a boxheater to complete the listening experience.
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Traynor - Kalessin (Traynor Music)
Title: Kalessin
Artist: Traynor
Label: Traynor Music
Cat Number: TRAYNORMUSIC03
Genre: Polyvalent
1: Kalessin
Traynor’s second release of the last few months, ‘Kalessin’, is focussed on the titular tune, better still to emphasise its individuality and versatility. Weighing in at a conservative five minutes, but having enough wind in its sails for a longer sojourn; the composition in question is a melodic excursion that takes in glossy cosmic disco atmospherics, a high end euphoric synth line, (one that you can literally feel being drawn in front of you), and has a playful energy about it. Lodged somewhere between Blancmange and the hallucinatory legacy of Bobby Crush on crack, this is turbo charged optimism made glistening flesh.
Track Of The Day: Propaganda - Dr Mabuse (ZTT)
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Passarani - The Dot & The Circle (Klakson)
Title: The Dot & The Circle
Artist: Passarani
Label: Klakson
Cat Number: KLNR 14
Genre: Electro
1: The Fixer
2: Complexalpha
3: Riding Time Waves
4: Radius Zero
The most recognisable aspect of this release by (Marco) Passarani on Steffi’s perennial Klakson is the beat programming. Throughout the whole release the pounding is steady and weighted. This is perhaps more emphasised on ‘Complexalpha’ and ‘Riding Time Waves’; the former a portentous, slowed down groove that, for the second review in a few days, puts me in mind of Drexciya’s ‘Surface Terrestrial Colonization’, but with more welly. ‘Riding Time Waves’ employs a similar heaviness, but the beats are countered by suggestive synth washes. Both ‘The Fixer’ and ‘Radius Zero’ are more straight up electro, the latter drawing out its tempo with the aid of an acidic bass, deadpan clunking and a phantasmagoric ambience. ‘The Fixer’ is more traditional in its approach, but still has a few tricks up its sleeve; a quivering layer of uncertainty underpins it to add friction to the runaway riddim. All presented on lurid/acidic (take your pick) yellow vinyl, it’s another essential Passarani pronouncement.
Monday, October 17, 2022
Bluetrain aka Steve O'Sullivan - Steady Pulse (Lempuyang)
Title: Steady Pulse
Artist: Bluetrain aka Steve O’Sullivan
Label: Lempuyang
Cat Number: LPY07
Genre: Dub Techno
1: Downtown
2: Timeshifter
3: Cherry Dub
4: Chant Down (Special Edition Dub)
5: Perfect Circle
6: Bare Grills
7: Headspace
8: Ramstrad Vibing
9: Step It Up
I begin by playing ‘Downtown’ at 45 instead of 33. A schoolboy error, the impact of which I only discover when the beats of ‘Timeshifter’ start hammering out too quickly while I’m stuck on the bog. Once the situation has been remedied, I’m ready to slide into the sensory deprivation chamber that is, surprisingly, Steve O’Sullivan’s first album as Bluetrain, a name he has been using since the late nineties, and one that has become a byword not just for quality dub techno but also has kudos as one of the originators of the genre. Bluetrain’s strength, for me at least, is in maintaining a balance between headspace and the dance floor. The ambience of this collection is balanced by an instinct to keep feet moving, which is no better illustrated than on ‘Chant Down (Special Edition Dub)’, a track that could have remained at Rhythm And Sound tempo, but is much better at its chosen speed. Mosaic artists Hidden Sequence are enlisted on co-production duties on ‘Cherry Dub’ and ‘Perfect Circle’, two tracks in which the percussion is seismically funky. Another co-production, ‘Step It Up’, this time with Another Channel, goes in the opposite direction tempo-wise, relying on a sparse kick to close proceedings, something that ‘Ramstrad Vibing’ sets the stage for. The album, is, on the whole, and exercise in tone and texture like all the best techno, and also one that whose uncomplicated marriage of disparate elements combines to produce a level of detail unparalleled in the competition. ‘Bare Grills’ is maybe the heaviest track here, (it feels like it is on my system anyway), and played in order, it contrasts nicely with the ever-so-slightly lighter ‘Headspace’. And the flexing of the dub biceps is something that characterises this collection when played in order of appearance; a respiratory approach that feels in tune with the listener’s similar instincts.
Sunday, October 16, 2022
Track Of The Day: Joyce Sims - Come in to my life (Club Mix) (Sleeping Bag)
Saturday, October 15, 2022
Friday, October 14, 2022
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Suburban Knight - Hi8tus (Deeptrax)
Title: Suburban Knight
Artist: Hi8tus
Label: Deeptrax
Cat Number: DPTX-032
Genre: Techno
1: Far Far Away
2: French Sisaque
3: FMFIHS
4: 2 Different Worlds
5: Spiritual Ride
6: Thy Will Be Done
7: Machete
8: Stalker Turned Electro
In a recording career that spans twenty five years, this is Suburban Knight’s third album. And I’m pleased to say it’s not in the least bit experimental or an exercise in art for art’s sake. It’s raw, honest techno and electro just the way it should be, which is deep, melodic and unmistakably of Detroit. For when it comes down to bare fundamentals there aren’t really that many artists from the motor city who can be said to properly embody its essence as well as James Pennington. Pound for pound how many? I could list the names of the (other) various members of UR and others, but the scene is relatively small, while its influence has a global reach. So, I for one am happy that a record like this is still being made in 2022 and that Suburban Knight is a patient chap. As for the music, it’s largely a collection built on break beats, either in the electro vein or the more fluid. The former is represented by ‘2 Different Worlds’ and ‘Stalker Turned Electro’, while the latter has ‘Far Far Away’ and ‘Spiritual Ride’ to call on. Falling in between the cracks is the jerky ‘Machete’, and the most interesting track on the album, the dark, reflective ‘FMFIHS’. While the loping ‘French Sisaque’ and ‘ Thy Will Be Done’ are possibly the two most straight up examples of techno here’. All in all though this is a dark, moody and slightly disturbing collection of tunes, all of which have great mixing potential and individuality. Pennington has distilled his sound across a range of tracks that provide a concise evocation of where he is at right now. It’s not a happy place by the sound of things.
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Decius - Show Me No Tears (The Leaf Label)
Title: Show Me No Tears
Artist: Decius
Label: The Leaf Label
Cat Number: DUX VIII
Genre: Techno/Acid
1: Show Me No Tears
2: Show Me No Tears (Extended Version)
Memories are still fresh of seeing this lot at Covenanza a couple of weeks ago, where they stole the show to a certain extent. And being a little bit out of the clubbing loop these days, (something that I will be attending to in the coming months), they were a new name to me. They seem like a nice bunch of lads anyway. Maybe the odd hang up here and there, but who doesn’t have one or two themselves? Anyway, their live set was a blistering piece of rabble rousing acidic confrontation that more than fulfilled its purpose, and it’s good to be able to hear one of the tracks they played in a different context. One only, as it’s two versions of the same, and while both are great, you’ve got to go straight to the extended version, whose acidic pulse is constant and understated. The vocals, (no doubt fetish related, I mean what else could they be about?), sit on top and eloquently harmonise with the machines. There’s a little hook that underlays most of the track, a clunky riddim, which is addictive and has you anticipating further sonic permutations along a length that unwinds in some sort of infinity loop of longing; I mean when you’ve got a vocalist swanning around wearing a black fishnet t shirt and a pair of cycling shorts, what do you expect? Lovely stuff!
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
UCSP lV - Luke Vibert & Posthuman (Balkan Vinyl)
Title: UCSP lV
Artist: Luke Vibert & Posthuman
Label: Balkan Vinyl
Cat Number: BV45
Genre: Techno/Electro
1: Luke Vibert – Still In Love
2: Luke Vibert – Android Webber
3: Posthuman – Grad
4: Posthuman – Forever Circles
It’s a game of two halves Jim, but not quite in the way I expected. Yes, this is a split artist release between Posthuman and Luke Vibert, but I prefer to view it as a division between chug and breaks rather than the more obvious. That’s because ‘Android Webber’ and ‘Forever Circles’ each bounce along on their own acidic essence; aided by the type of percussion that feels deceptively simple, but is all that is needed to remain conspicuous enough to make that critical minimal difference. ‘Forever Circles’ has a little bit more bounce, bass and propulsion, while ‘Android Webber’ reigns it in slightly in order to emphasise spacial drama. ‘Grad’, on the other hand, is a more aggressive and urgent piece of electro dissonance, and ‘Still In Love’ deploys break beats wrapped around a vocal sample underpinned by multiple rave ripples. All pressed on lurid green vinyl if you’re lucky enough to get a copy, and count yourself lucky if you do, because this is a quartet to savour.
Monday, October 10, 2022
Various Artists - Cosmic Picnic Vol. 1 (Two Tribes 7's Clash)
Title: Cosmic Picnic Vol. 1
Artist: Various
Label: Two Tribes
Cat Number: No Idea
Genre: Cosmic Chug
1: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – Y R We Here?
2: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero ft. Sacha Souter – Prayer To The Mother
3: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero ft. Marcel – Those Were The Days
4: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – Time (Pete Herbert Remix)
5: Justin Deighton, Pete Herbert, Leo Zero – Sentiments Of Soho Theatre
6: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – Humans
7: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – All Connected
8: Justin Deighton, Leo Zero – Roots Dub
One of the tracks that grabbed me more than the other on Sean Johnston’s recent ‘ALFOS EBS 35 Friday 3oth Sept’, was ‘Those Were The Days’ in which a slow, chugging beat is underpinned by the spoken word of someone who’s seen it all, but doesn’t come across as a smart arse. It’s one of four tracks, the others being ‘Time (Pete Herbert Remix)’, ‘Prayer To The Mother’ and ‘Sentiments Of Soho Theatre’ from this collection featured on said selection and is very much of it’s time, and of that time as well. Whatever that time may be is anyone’s guess, so I’ll be suitably vague. However, it’s fair to say that this collection fairly captures the chuggeist. In other words, it perpetuates a Balaeric/Cosmic lineage which is designed to make dancers lose their collective shit in amongst a sample heavy transcendental sonic undergrowth. I also think it’s true that music like this could only have sprung from these shores, no matter what the influences, as there’s something quintessentially British about the arrangements and the fact that listening to these tracks evokes dancing in a field as the sun is coming up. Of course the aforementioned ‘Those Were The days’, with its monologue that describes the experience of first-generation raving, sums this up in spades, and if I’ve heard that contrived arabic-inspired riff in ‘Time’ I’ve heard it a thousand times. It’s all good though, and the genius of tracks like these is using what, to many ears is a mundane sample or rhythm, but blending it skillfully enough to make it sound fresh and inevitable catchy. I think ‘Sentiments Of Soho Theatre’ was one of the highlights of Sean’s set at Covenanza for me, It may even be on one of my Instagram films. The piano makes it of course and, although it’s not an original riff at all, it has been absent from the collective consciousness for just long enough to explode into a new age without sounding hackneyed. This collection is on Bandcamp, every track is brilliant, it’s cheap as chips and it’s pretty much a blueprint for the next chug era. Buy it.
Sunday, October 09, 2022
Covenanza 2022
I’d never been to Covenanza before last month, let alone A Love From Out Of Space. However, having heard about it and feeling that it was something I should be a part of, I felt that I should be. So, back in a time when the world felt like a different place, December 2019, I bought tickets for myself and my other half. I remember the day well. For whatever reason I was taking the bus into work that day and on my way home, I came across the news that tickets were on sale, I bought them at the bus stop in front of Parker’s Piece, Cambridge on a shitty, grey, pre-Christmas day. COVID was a burgeoning news story, but still felt very far away. Anyway, I had the tickets, and something to look forward to on the wrong side of summer.
Chug forward a couple of months and everything started going pear-shaped. Andy Weatherall’s sad passing in February a portent of what was to come. Again, I remember everything with great clarity. Scrolling down my Twitter feed at work I saw the news but couldn’t quite believe it. A subsequent pile on confirmed it though and more so than the death of anyone else who I had had the pleasure to have beckoned into my life, this one resonated a lot more. A month later lockdown hit. Of course one is always slightly self-centred at times like these, wondering and hoping if the event will still go ahead. I thiought that we’d still get to Naples for Easter, but as that came and went it became increasingly obvious that Covenanza wouldn’t happen in 2020. The EBS lifeline thrown out by Sean Johnston over the coming months did offer realistic hope of it emerging from the chaos when the time would be right, as well as a critical lifeline to the isolated faithful.
The following year came and went with normality still a tantilising glimmer on the horizon. The French government was still making life difficult for overseas tourists to visit, and a sense of inevitability had set in long before. Towards the end of the summer, beginning of autumn, a sense of normality had begun to resurface and what had felt unthinkable mere months before began to assume solidity. We’d all been penned up for too long and needed some release. And, although clubbing and going out in general had been on its arse mere months before, there was a general feeling of revitalisation in the air. Not only that, lost time was there to be made up.
Fast forward to this year, which has passed in a bit of a blur. I can’t remember exactly when we could download our tickets, patience had never felt better rewarded. I had already cancelled rand been refunded flight tickets once, but got on the case again in late spring. Initially I had bought return tickets from Stansted to Beziers. This was because the flights to Carcassone had either sold out, or where much more expensive, I can’t remember which. Anyway, we went the Beziers route again. We have relatives who live there, so could kill two birds. Maybe Carcassone was available, but I didn’t stop to look.
Tickets were booked. Flying out on Friday the 23rd and coming back on Sunday the 25th. Next time we’ll stay longer to take in the peripheral events on the Thursday and Sunday, but this time it was to be a quick raid on the citadel. Our flight contained a healthy percentage of like-minded punters, something we realised when we saw some of them a few hours later within the chateau walls. After a delay of around 40 minutes on the runway we got in the air, landed without a hitch, took the bus into Beziers and then got on the train to Carcassone. As we sped through the countrysidethe sky got more and more ominous until the heavens let loose and it started to rain. It had stopped by the time we arrived, but only temporarily.
We checked into our hotel, a very nice room in what is really a hostel, and then started roaming. Food was necessary so after having walked for around ten minutes we came to Brasserie des Platanes. This is just the type of place I love to eat in: unpretentious, friendly and huge amounts on the plate. I had magret frites while Emmanuelle had salade de chèvre chaud. Really good and preposterously cheap. This was washed down with an espresso, which should have been a noisette, but the milk was just a reduced froth. I’m looking forward to next year just as much to visit this place again as I am to the party. Carcassone is a simple place to navigate, so once we left we easily found our way to the citadel. The music was audible from across the bridge, and every person we passed on our way was Irish.
So the first night passed, and there was much rejoicing. It had been a long time since we had been out dancing and, for me at least, the first time sober since God knows when. I was obviously surrounded by a variety of intoxicants and inebriates, which all contributed to the wonderful ambience and was, for many of those around me, something that was going to permeate their every waking hour. The next day we went for a cafe in the main square and it felt like most of the terraces had been taken over by ravers who, eschewing sleep, were pie-eyed and on the piss. It seemed that it was liquid lunches all round, only to be partaken of if the circulatory system is chemically enhanced. It’s all good though. We went off for a kebab, and then back to crash for a few hours, but not before we had reserved a table at Aux Delices de Tetuan, a small couscous restaurant in the street behind were we were staying. Now I’m quite proud of my home made couscous. However, what we had at this unassuming little place was superb. We each had couscous berbere, which is assorted veg on a bed of couscous with lamb brochettes and merguez. There was a subtle spicing at work which was detectable by a sixth sense of seasoning. It was brique to start, mine with chicken, Emmanuelle had tuna. Again, ridiculously cheap and excellent; like the night before.
Then it was full speed ahead to the chateau. The rain was a memory, but a fresh one, and we arrived just as Glok (Andy Bell) was starting his set. This was nice lead in and the calm before the storm. David Holmes then came on and played a short, but very enjoyable set before being followed by Decius; “when members of Trashmouth Records, Fat White Family & Paranoid London find themselves climbing out of a hole together at a disco after hours”, who were a revelation. A linear, tracky glitch in time egged on by vocals that were on the one hand a caterwaul, on the other a self-perpetuating instrument of their own ruthlessness, they came on like a technoid Kraftwerk conceived in mid nineties Chicago with lashings of gothic undertones. They had the crowd eating out of their hands by the time they handed over to Manfredas, who continued in the same vein. He played hard, tracky and synthetic: techno to the untrained ear, but much more was going on in between the lines. Coming on like some sort of human hurricane, the Lithuanian whirling dervish bent the music to his will, and was a very different, but no less satisfying, spectacle than Sean Johnston the previous evening. Both sets were eclectic, but were Sean’s was easier to sonically discern, that of Manfredas was flattened out into a dense throb of linear assumption. The funk was stretched wafer-thin until it was at breaking point. It was a more fluid set than Sean’s but only in timbre. The previous evening had been all about coming together and sharing some much-delayed gratification. Twenty four hours later this had metamorphosised into a sort of dark disco version of “you live by the sword, you die by the sword”. Both sets were excellent and took the party to the next level, and I’m trying to compare them, without comparing them, so I won’t. Just comments and observations which, because of the inevitability of the situations, sound like comparisons. In any case, all those complaining recently on social media about DJs dancing better hadn’t come and see Manfredas, if dancing is what it is. The sets themselves, composed as they were of a healthy proportion of impossible to id obscurities, each complemented each other and encompassed a cross-section of electronic dance music; traversing the annals of rave and disco in an effortless blend which rendered them homogenous, but also allowed breathing space and the chance to shine. As already intimated, were Sean’s set allowed for more twists and turns, Manfredas’ was a tracky wormhole of occasional dark despair. The two sets for me at least, embodied the rave aesthetic and wre flexible and malleable enough to contain the occasional interloper. And this is where the subtleties are largely lost on the vast majority who attend such functions. Not that the evening’s prime objective should be to study the DJs every move, track and flourish, but it’s unavoidable when they are placed centre stage. I’m a big fan of inconspicuousness in these situations, but it didn’t seem to register with the crowd who were wrapped up in their raving. Whether that person playing the music chooses to dance or not is surely immaterial. And, it’s fatuous to suggest otherwise. It’s generally the case however, that someone who does looks relaxed and that they’re enjoying themselves, while someone who doesn’t could be uptight and shitting bricks.
And so to Sunday. A cafe in the main square before getting on the train to Beziers and a lovely lunch with the in-laws on a sunny terrace, which feels a world away right now. We flew back to Stansted that evening while the festival was being wrapped up in the Bar de Vins, expecting to see some like-minded refugees on the flight. Just us though. Thankfully we were on time, getting back at around 9pm, only to find that we had no water due to a repair at a neighbours having gone wrong. We went to bed smelly, unshowered, and with teeth cleaned using Badoit. Getting up on Monday was agonising.
