More mutant nonsense, this time from Zillas On Acid remixed by Fantastic Twins. This is disorientating, paranoid dub. The tectonic plates present may seem a little ill-matched, but that’s this remixes genius. There’s about five different tunes here roped into one, and what holds them together is the steady beat of the drum. Great use of spoken word samples as well, giving it a very secret tapes cold war feel. Well, we’re back there aren’t we.
I don’t post many tracks straight from Bandcamp. However, I couldn’t find the video and this was the only way. And who minds advertising when the quality is this good and free? The ’Name Your Price Edits’ compilation is available for just that and this is one of its standout tracks. Chuggy, cosmic and dark. Redolent with menace and strong gothic overtones. Part of an alternative soundtrack to ‘The Seventh Seal’, I’ve got the scene with the flagellants in mind. Having said that, that just describes a normal evening in the town centre where I live.
If this isn’t sunshine music then I don’t know what is. The temperature suddenly soared yesterday afternoon, which coincided with me going to run a 5K with the remnants of a stinking cold. It was a tournament organised by the local running clubs here in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Herts. I’m happy to say that what was left of my malady was left on my shirt, which was soaking wet after the run. I also ran a very respectable 21:22, which is quite quick for an old fart like me. Anyway, on the walk back to the car we passed some kids playing cricket. This was around 8:15. They probably had another 45 minutes before bad light would stop play. Definite Augustus Pablo melodica ambience.
‘Angola, Louisiana’ comes from the album ‘Secrets’, an album I used to own but sadly don’t anymore. And the reason I’m posting this is because when I looked at the track list I had a bit of a Prussian rush. Honestly, there are a hatful of tracks I could have posted, but this one stands out. ‘Angola, Louisiana’ references a high security prison. More specifically, it is “A courageous message about the unfair trial against Gary Tyler who supposedly killed 13 yrs old Timothy Weber during the assault by white students against a black student's minority recently integrated thanks to new antiracial regulations in '74...GT is still in jail”. That was cut and pasted from a YouTube comment, so it’s a bit all over the place, but you get the picture. Black American music is full of such references. People literally getting away with murder and framing others if they can. “There are more than 6,000 men currently imprisoned at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola—three-quarters of them are there for life, and nearly 80 percent are African American. It's the end of the line for many convicted criminals in Louisiana, which has the highest incarceration rate of any state in the U.S.”
There’s not much to say about this track except that it’s possible to listen to it forever and not get bored. In spite of what feels like a simple structure, dub like this has the ability to suck you in and keep you transfixed. This is anything but smooth though. Because although there are tight boundaries, within those walls there is an elastic reality.
Title: Spectra
Artist: Robert Hood
Label: M-Plant
Cat Number: MPM52
Genre: Techno
A1: Spectra
A2: E. Dark
B1: Untitled (Spectra)
B2: Fiend
Even though it was released back in 2001, ‘Spectra’ may be a new tune to me as, although I bought a lot of the M-Plant stuff on sight, I think I’d stopped by 2001. Why, I have no idea. I mean I’ve got a lot of records so it could be in there, somewhere. In any case, in his heyday Hood was the innovator, alongside Mills. They both followed different paths though. Both onto their own specific artistic vision and while Mils pursued a sort of sci-fi aesthetic, Hood was gazing more inward. His minimal vision has always been a singular one and his production so crisp and physical that it is still amongst the most forward thinking music of its type today. On the face of things that may not be immediately apparent. However, once you’re locked onto the demented machine funk accordion of ‘Spectra’, you soon realise that this isn’t just any old process. There are myriads of different layers and inflections laid out which mutate with every different listening. It’s not all like that though. Both ‘E. Dark’ and ‘Fiend’ loop the loop and plough a relatively one dimensional furrow. They’re great at what they do however. And the quality of the production as well as the measured way that they let off steam means that they aren’t to be categorised with the normal fare enjoyed by the sweaty techno masses. ‘Untitled (Spectra)’ has a lot more about it. There are swirling phantom noises, for example, and even though it feels linear, there are small indentations which emphasise the fact that it is a coalition of off-beat chaos. The keys are pure Detroit, and then there’s a violin. This isn’t an easy thing to imagine, let alone make. No problem for Mr Hood though. The devil in the detail.
This track comes from someone called Jun, of whom I have no more information, and is on Capricious, a Japanese label. This has atmosphere. Composed primarily of a lilting sub bass and syncopated urgency, along with the inevitable beat to hold it together there is an atmospheric interloper in the form of whirling synth swathes. These elements combine to form a percussive tech monster which threatens to burst once it plateaus, it never quite does that thankfully. It would sound great coming out of yesterday’s TOTD, or the reverse.
One of the best and most menacing pieces of dance floor focussed dub techno in existence. I doubt there’s anything to beat it, but what do I know. Such a large full sound that would be equally at home in a big room or a front room. Has to be heard on the right sound system though. No half measures with the equalising. This was the first release on Deconstruct, a label Vincent set up with Anthony Parasole which, while it had a short existence, contributed more than the sum of its parts. Vincent’s insistent, linear and tribal beats remind me a lot of what Octave One have always done. And, coming from New York, there’s also the shadow of Danny Tenaglia in there as well. These are Levon Vincent’s beats though, and it’s a pity he’s not still churning them out.
B (if) tek, an all-female group out of darkest Australia who I’m just discovering, released this, an homage to Cliff Richard’s tune of the same name, back in the year 2000. I wonder if it sounded as futuristic then as it does now. I mean Cliff’s original back in 1981 with its roller skating video was avant-garde enough, but this. And as Australlia take part in Eurovision, why not B (if) tek? This would sweep the board. It might even be enough to get Cliff to crawl out from under his carapace and slither into the audience to beam his positive waves towards the stage.
I randomly grabbed this from the shelves and played it for the first time in ages. It comes with a couple of remixes, the other by Wolfgang Voight. This is the one I prefer though. The filtered looped vocal played over the wistful, bittersweet beats. It’s got great chug potential too. Well, almost everything on Kompakt with the schaffel stride has. Great track that takes you somewhere.
Title: Spells For Warding Off Evil
Artist: Plant43
Label: Silver Threads
Cat Number:
Genre: Ambient/Drone
1: Spheres Of Protection
2: The City Lies Silent
3: Broken Hex
4: Music For Surgery
5: Dreams In Viridian
6: Resisting Infernal Gravity
7: Haunted Fields
8: Prey Of The Nocturnal Raptor
9: Bittersweet Tears Fall
10: Dreams In Vermillion
11: Buried Codex
12: Embers Of The Old World Fade
Well, if it’s an immersive experience you want, listen no further than ‘Spells For Warding Off Evil’. The sound design of this album feels like an experiment in expressing a stream of consciousness through the layering of undulating drone patterns against a backdrop of emotive, sonic dissonance. The tracks seem to have the potential to overlay themselves as well, with each of them occupying a specific region of sound that is prone to movement and, as a result, containment. Some tracks are more robust than others: ‘Bittersweet Tears Fall’, for example, feels concrete and onomatopoeic. ‘Haunted Fields’ is the soundtrack to a Battle Of Britain dogfight in a parallel universe, while ‘Dreams In Vermillion’ is the soundtrack to demons being invoked through a short wave radio. That these frequencies operate in regions of the subconscious which have suddenly been rendered concrete. From the ominous, subdued, opening of ‘Spheres Of Protection’, the sound design of which is subtly augmented by ‘The City Lies Silent’. Through to the twin pillars of ‘Buried Codex’ and ‘Embers Of The Old World Fade’, the confrontational former blending into the uncertain and unsettling latter. This is a voyage into sound.
This is a cut from Surgeon’s debut album, ‘Communications’ and seems to blend the minimalism of Robert Hood with the scything bleeps of Neil Landstrumm. What’s goos about it is the way the bulk of the track retreats into the distance whilst the bleep remains in the foreground, only to come back of course, but maybe not into as sharp relief as the listener might like. It’s a lovely track to have on the headphones, in spite of its viscerally uncompromising stance and slices up the senses from a different angle compared to its Detroit overseers.
In some nightclubs in the mid nineties, the messy, druggy, decadent sound espoused by Tribal ruled the dance floors. Coming from New York, it had a certain depth and versatility about it which saw records on the label find their way into all sorts of DJ sets. ‘The Horn Ride’ was released as a double pack with a range of remixes, but I like this one the most, for its minimalistic darkness Tardis-like ability to invoke a sense of space.
One of the most memorable guitar riffs ever, which first appeared, if memory serves, on ‘Lipstick’ by Buzzcocks. That means of course that Pete Shelley gets a writing credit for this tune. It’s a monster, and this video, which I’ve posted on account of some great crowd expressions and Howard Devoto’s uncanny hairline (defo going through some sort of Roxy/Eno phase with it), is great. I don’t know it’s context though, so if anyone does feel free to let me know. I’ve a feeling it was filmed in Belgium or Holland not long after release. One of my all time most persistent eagworms, and I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve posted it.
Title: Exoframe
Artist: Shawescape Renegade
Label: Tresor
Cat Number: Tresor. 382
Genre: Electro/Techno
1: Light Years From Earth
2: Mechanise 9
3: Terraformers Warning
4: Terraformers Warning (Arpanet Terraformation Quanta Remodel)
5: Ignition One
Shawescape Renegade, aka Jeremiah Shaw is a new name to me, which just goes to show how out of the loop I am I suppose. Anyway, it’s an early Tuesday morning in Suffolk, the dog is being lazy and doesn’t want to go out, so I’ve started listening to ‘Exoframe’, his debut release on Tresor. And it’s stated well, apart, that is, from me typing “Shawshank” and having to go back and correct my mistakes. I guess a release like this represents a milestone of sorts in the evolution of electro as there aren’t that many new artists breaking through and coming from Detroit always carries extra kudos. However, no one gets a free pass so it had better be good. And, while it isn’t going to revolutionise the genre in one fell swoop, it’s everything that you want an electro funk excursion to be. The production is pleasingly heavy and crisp without being excessive. The bass is concave and economical filling a lot more space than might be apparent. And the emphasis is on the beats throughout, which are all strictly electro with the exception of ‘Mechanise 9’, where the steam hammers take over and the beat is ironed out. The Arpanet mix of ‘Terraformers Warning’ doesn’t differ that much from the original inasmuch as its trace elements are recognisable in a much more urgent, fidgety take which sounds like it’s been recorded inside a washing machine inside an echo chamber. The bookends, ‘Light Years From Earth’, and ‘Ignition One’, are the funkiest tracks on this release. Both of them coast through the twilit electro hinterland within the chassis of a metaphysical lowrider powered by their own beat flatulence, and who doesn’t like that?
This is one of a handful of releases I still have on Darren Emerson’s Underwater label from around the mid nineties. It’s the B side to ‘Prometheus’ and showcases a young Steve Rachmad effortlessly doing what he does best. This isn’t as complex as many of his releases from around that time, with his output on 100% Pure being particularly high quality, as well as that on Fragile. It is, though, as good as it gets for contemporary dance floor focussed techno that isn’t loop based. There are dubby, depth-endowing overtones to it, as well as good momentum (the two don’t always sit side-by-side). And, as you would expect from Steve Rachmad, great production and clarity. Lovely stuff.
I played this album own its entirety for the first time in ages today, and even though it’s pretty solid from start to finish, this track is the one that had me bopping around the kitchen more than any other. It’s also the one that, more than any other, evokes the album title. Listening to it puts me on a conveyor belt of slow, unfolding rave drives. Full up to the eye with beans while being taken on a tour of any city I happen to been. All control has been surrendered to the chauffeur. I’ve been on a few with perhaps the most surreal being one in New Jersey one hot and sticky Friday night. Literally on the wrong side of the tracks. Sliding silently past wooden houses with large porches, everyone put on them getting pissed in the middle of the night.
I don’t own any Pink Floyd records, but some tracks are so incredibly pervasive it’s impossible not to be affected by them in some way. And just seeing the cover of this album takes me back to the first floor of John Menzies in Liscard in the mid seventies. It was everywhere. I bought so many records there, but this wasn’t one of them. Having said that I wouldn’t have liked it at that age. My tastes weren’t more highly evolved than glam rock at the time. I think my proclivities were ok in that capacity though. Anyway this is a great piece of screaming. Never loses the focus and in doing so comes up with one of the most memorable pomp rock riffs. Probably.
‘Blue train’ has one of the most memorable and, consequently, whistled intros ever. During the eighties when I first started buying jazz Blue Note was obviously one of the places I started. And I think ‘Blue Train’ was the first album I bought by John Coltrane. The cover is amazing as well. Coltrane frozen in some sort of thinker pose. A friend of mine who has a talent for drawing sketched me this portrait and it hangs on the wall just outside my bedroom as the moment. The other thing about it is that John Coltrane looks like a young Frank Bruno. More in some photos than in others.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Cabs track. This is the opener from the last album, ‘Shadow Of Fear’ which came out own 2020 just under a year before its composer, Richard H. Kirk died. So it followed ‘The Conversation’ which had come out in 1993 as the two albums under his sole stewardship up to that time. And even though it was just him, it certainly doesn’t lose anything that make it unmistakably of its type. Many would say that its more genuine because of this. I’m a fan of the combo approach though and while I think RHK rarely put a foot wrong, a lot of my favourite Cabs offerings come from the Mallinder era. I don’t think anything they ever put out betters ‘The Conversation’. ‘Shadow Of Fear’ was a nice way to bow out, albeit unintentionally, and tracks like this embodies everything that CV came t be known for over the years. The funk, the sense of space and menace. The sample which ever so slightly dissonant. The undercurrent of middle eastern rhythm patterns, more pervasive than you might have realised.
I’ve had this in my head for the past few days and even though it’s the type of track that I wouldn’t have given much attention to when it came out, I can only hold up my hand and say that it was an age thing. The “Time keeps on slippin’’lyric is an ultimate ear worm and the track may not have been such a classic were it not for that. Anyway, it’s as funky as it gets, so when you’re shopping for chicken Kievs ion Tesco that’s all the matters. And is it Balearic?
I remember when I first heard this track. I bought the album on cd and also bought a portable cd player. A Philips. I took them both home, which was an ex-girlfriend’s flat in Palmers Green (had to move in after getting evicted from a squat). It was a Friday after work, knackered. Put it on and it did its job. There’s only one way to go once you start listening to this. It should be on the NHS for insomnia. Masterful. One of the most horizontal fitted minutes in music.
Although like ‘B-Movie’ very much of its time, ‘Adventures In Success’ couldn’t be more different. It’s tempting to call it a novelty record, but it’s really not. Sounding not too dissimilar to Tom Tom Club, it’s message may feel tongue in cheek, but it’s out there anyway and when it was released, even though the eighties were just underway, the self-centred message couldn’t be clearer. Not that there’s anything wrong with being successful if the ruthlessness that often goes with it can be sidestepped. Anyway, that’s enough gravitas. Tune!
One of those tracks that changed me a little bit forever. I first heard this on one of those NME giveaway cassettes. And at that time I hadn’t heard of Gil Scott Heron. However, this tune, produced at around the beginning of Reagan’s America introduced me to him and from then on I was hooked. As mentioned in a post I wrote when he died, I then went out and bought everything I could find by him from Reaction Records in New Brighton. I don’t have those records anymore but I wish I did. Anyway, the title refers to the type of film in which Ronald Reagan starred a lot and where someone often saved America at the last minute. A great track which summarises America in the 80s and continues the thread of conscious poetry/lyricism started with ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’.
Superior dark, sinister electro that I heard for the first time today. There’s so much scope and room to roam within this track. Everything hits perfectly. The beat is heavy, but skips off the firmament with more of a bounce than a thud. It’s the pervasive flange which is this tune’s calling card though. It sounds like a goth helicopter staring through a night sky full of freaks. Great sound design on this track.
If I could go back in time one of the first things I would do would be to go and see Talking Heads live. It is to my eternal regret that this didn’t happen when it was possible. Anyway, this is one of their best and I’ve posted the live version because, along with The Eurythmics’ ‘1984’, this album was on display everywhere when I last visited Berlin, in 1984. I say last because I’m going back there next month. I guess things may have changed a little. For the better or worse? When I went it was pretty raw, I went to the Dschungel, which was, I believe, a hang out of David Bowie and Iggy Pop a few years earlier. When I went ‘You Spin Me Round’ was on the wheels of steel and it was very hi nrg.
The second track from an album that I haven’t listened to from start to finish for a very long time. Most of the tracks are very well-known, but not all, and listening to this, then opening track, takes me back to a place when even though I had nothing, I was very happy. I guess getting stoned most days of the year for years played a part, and when I used to listen to this that was the order of the day. More because of the crowd I was hanging out with who liked this record more than anything else. Other friend groups weren’t quite so enthusiastic. Lou Reed was, in the early-mid 80s prime stoned scal fare. As was Bowie, Pink Floyd and Marillion. Loads of others of course. Anything went,
Part two of a great double header on the now long defunct LAN. Donato Dozzy gets together with Exercise One who, at the time, had similar sonic leanings, to produce a piece of minimal trance. The other side, ‘United Elements’ is much more typical of Dozzy’s general outlook and that of Exercise One at the time, which is more than twenty years ago. This is an interesting piece of work though, sort of channeling Dozzy and Dan Bell into a jerky, minimal masterpiece. This is the B side from a very overlooked release that isn’t much at all on Discogs. Yet.
Described as deep house, at least that’s what some of the comments say underneath it on YouTube. Not that it isn’t, but break beats, yelps and a very garage/murk style bass combine to upset the applecart in a variety of ways. This is a great track, once finished, never bettered. So simple. The closest comparison I can come up with is ‘Total Confusion’ by A Homeboy, A Hippie & A Funky Dread, which is more in your face and rave-tinged. Difficult to find a track as elemental and as complex as this though. One for the podium dancers.
Along with ‘I Travel’ my favourite Simple Minds track and, although I was never a big fan, in spite of seeing them in Liverpool at The Royal Court on the ‘Big Gold Dream’ tour, they’ve more than made their mark. Anyway, this track has always been amazing, but it really came into it’s own when it became a staple at Wiggle in the last nineties due to someone editing it to make it even more warehouse party friendly. It’s one of those tracks which can suit any transcendental experience, regardless of bps. So I’ve defo heard a chug version, which bookends both ends of the credible dance music spectrum nicely.
I was never a Japan fan, but they intrigued me. I remember the first time I saw them on Top Of The Pops and the first thing that jumped out at me was David Sylvian’s very obvious Brian Ferry vocal style. This didn’t go down well in initially. No big deal though. They still held my attention and what I found just as fascinating was Sylvian’s seamless transition from awkward pop star to relatively obscure arty purveyor of sonics. This film from The Old Grey Whistle Test is a goodie because it shows all of these aspects and puts across their positive incongruence.
‘In Flux’ by DJ Shadow back in the first half of the nineties was probably the record to get the trip hop thing off the ground, even though there had been tracks before coming out of Bristol, courtesy of Massive Attack and The Wild Bunch. I can’t remember exactly when the Mixmag article appeared which coined the genre, but it was 1994 maybe? Anyway, DJ Shadow and his cross-pollinated approach was pretty much out there as much as anything else ever. And when this appeared it was a ridiculously influential record. Nowhere mores than in Paris, where I was living at the time. This is another record I bought at the Bastille branch of Rough Trade where, as well as aficionados of house and techno hanging out, you also had the beat scientists like DJ Cam, etc. Anyways, I just thought of this track and I’m glad I did. Strap yourself in and put the headphones on.
After yesterday’s foray into indie rave pop with St.Etienne (note: they are playing Cambridge the same weekend as Convenanza, unfortunately), here come the combo who perhaps typify blissed out melodies more than most at the beginning of the nineties. The Beloved were embraced by ravers, maybe as part of a comedown ritual. No one’s going to be freaking out to this track, but it would definitely have an effect in the chill out room, and its obvious manifesto of loveliness took the hippy stuff one stage further than most. Anyway, this, and ‘The Sun Rising’ are the two go to Beloved tracks, and still do the business today and every day.
The third single from their debut album ‘Foxbase Alpha’ way back in 1991, and it’s difficult to imagine a more perfect piece of sun-kissed pop. The genius of this is that it’s all totally about mood. Lyrics are minimal and the melody combines the feel of the first and second summers of love. St. Etienne are finally hanging up their various bits and pieces this year, and are touring to commemorate themselves. I was at Harry Enfield at the Cambridge Corn Exchange last night and happened to notice that they are playing there in August. That should be perfect.
One of those tracks that’s currently blending a groove with trance. The overtones are obvious, but that doesn’t detract from this tune’s richness. Definitely one to elevate the mix to unscaled height. The only downside is that it’s not available as a digital file. Of course it’s the choice of the label to remain vinyl only, but all that does is limit the horizons of the music. Only a few people can own it and Discogs sharks eventually profit from it. I mean I love vinyl, but I’ve never known a scene to innovate whilst being wilfully stuck in the past.
Nice track from Brooks Mosher from Dolly’s relatively early days. I used to buy all of the releases, but now I’m satisfied with the digital files, in much the same way as I am to buy 95% of my stuff that way. This track has a nice dissonant energy, underpinned by a propellant beat. E erything is going off in all directions. It’s ace, but really needs to be cranked up.
This track opens Colin Dale’s most recent Abstract Dance show, which I posted two days ago. And it grabbed me right away. Great jazzy feel, vocals work well and wonderful summer energy. I’m all for escapism these days. Living in the present is it. And although there are certain elements of this track which I could possibly do without, they coalesce brilliantly. Dropped at the right time this will slay the floor.
Throughout their short existence, The Desperate Bicycles were perennial John Peel favourites and this track, ‘Skill’, which had equal billing with ‘Occupied Territory’ on their penultimate release, featured in a session that they did for his show in the summer of 1978. In spite of not owning the record, this is the track by them that I remember the most, mainly because of the slightly dissonant guitar riff that runs through it. I had the’New Cross, New Cross’ release, which is currently going for an exorbitant amount on Discogs. Hearing this track, however, instantly takes me back to listening to my radio between 10-12 on a weekday night, (not Friday when the ‘Rock Show’ was on), it balancing next to my ear, often in total darkness.
Superior jazz-inflected techno from Ian O’Brien, on Ferox. One of the best labels for as long as it lasted. You can feel the roots of the genre in this one. It’s an undulating flying carpet of machine funk. Machine funk that also crosses over into jazz and house. There’s a real Brazilian feel to the percussion and a great attention to modulated detail. The dynamics are amazing and the sense of eternity implicit. Wondrous stuff.
