Sufjan Shuffle

I don't feature Sufjan Stevens here very often, which is borderline criminal. 

Sufjan doesn't release official videos to accompany his music very often, which I can't claim is borderline criminal. 

However, in lieu of a Dubhed selection (which, based on my current turnaround of idea and execution, will arrive sometime mid-2028) I'm posting five songs from the past decade which have been given the video treatment.

Enjoy!

1) Video Game: Sufjan Stevens ft. Jalaiah Harmon (The Ascension) (2020)

2) Will Anybody Ever Love Me? (Javelin) (2023)

3) Reach Out: Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine (A Beginner's Mind) (2021)

4) The Greatest Gift (The Greatest Gift Mixtape) (2021)

5) Tell Me You Love Me (The Ascension) (2020)

 

 

 

Hold Me Like The Morning Dew

Not For Radio is the project of Puerto Rico-born, Atlanta-raised and New York-based artists María Zardoya, perhaps better known as the front person of The Marías.

The irony of The Marias is that Maria is the only Maria in the band. The irony of Not For Radio is that, based on the Bloom EP at least, it's like Cocteau Twins, Cranes and Bat For Lashes mashed up and made for the airwaves. And that is no bad thing.

The Bloom EP is a proper, old school EP in that it comprises three songs - Kitten, Ache and Living Room - that could all be A-sides. There are videos for the first two, all moody lighting, flowing (or fluffy) clothing, amoke machines and dancing in the woods at night. The video for Kitten does indeed include a kitten, so extra cute points for that one.

I'm not quite sure about some of the lyrics - today's post title lifted from Kitten, for example - but the charm of the songs wins through.

For once, I'm not a decade late in finding Not For Radio, the debut album Melt emerged last October, and I've every intention of checking it out. In the meantime, the Bloom EP is added to my shopping list.

 

2026 Volts Of Holt

John Holt is a legend, pure and simple.

I was introduced to John Holt's music via Blondie's #1 single The Tide Is High, a song he co-wrote in 1967 with Tyrone Evans and Howard Barrett for their group The Paragons.

Going solo shortly afterwards, John expanded from reggae and rocksteady into lovers rock and roots reggae, becoming as popular for his cover versions as his original songs.

Today's selection is half and half self-penned songs and reinterpretations, spanning John's post-Paragons ventures in 1968, his groundbreaking 1973 album 1000 Volts Of Holt through to 1976 and the equally essential 2000 Volts Of Holt.

I've paired 1969 classic Ali Baba with one of the unreleased King Tubby dubs, created in the 1970s but unreleased for two decades. The selection also samples John's productive partnership with Arthur 'Duke' Reid, Bunny 'Striker' Lee and Keith Hudson, to name a few.

I was in a pretty good mood already, about ten times better for listening to this. Thanks, John.

1) The Treasure Of Love (Album Version By Bunny 'Striker' Lee) (1972)

2) Touch Me In The Morning (Album Version By Keith Bonsoir & Tony Ashfield) (Cover of Diana Ross) (1976)

3) Never, Never, Never (Album Version By Tony Ashfield & Trevor Newman) (Cover of 'Grande Grande Grande' by Mina) (1973)

4) I'll Be Lonely (Single Version By Arthur 'Duke' Reid): Jay & Joya (John Holt & Joya Landis) ft. Tommy McCook & The Supersonics (1968)

5) Pledging My Love (Album Version By Bunny 'Striker' Lee) (1972)

6) Ali Baba (Single Version By Arthur 'Duke' Reid) (1969)

7) Borderline Dub (Ali Baba Version By Bunny 'Striker' Lee): King Tubby & John Holt (197x)

8) Share My Rest (Single Version By Keith Hudson) (1970)

9) I Will (Album Version By Keith Bonsoir & Tony Ashfield) (Cover of The Beatles) (1976)

10) Girl From Ipanema (Jamaican Mix By Tony Ashfield & Trevor Newman) (Cover of Os Cariocas) (1973)

11) I've Been Admiring You (Album Version By Bunny 'Striker' Lee & Lord Koos) (1974)

12) I'd Love You To Want Me (Album Version By Tony Ashfield & Trevor Newman) (Cover of Lobo) (1973)

13) Rain From The Skies (Single Version By Prince Buster) (Cover of Adam Wade): John Holt ft. Prince Buster All Stars (1972)

14) Fancy Make Up (Single Version By Bunny 'Striker' Lee): Dennis Brown & John Holt (1971)

15) All The Love I've Got (Single Version By Bunny 'Striker' Lee) (Cover of 'Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got' by Jimmy Ruffin) (1970)

1968: I'll Be Lonely EP: 4

1969: Ali Baba EP: 6

1970: Change Partners/Give Her All The Love I've Got EP by Peter Austin/John Holt: 15

1970: Share My Rest/Allways EP by John Holt/Al Brown: 8

1971: Fancy Make Up EP: 14

1972: Pledging My Love: 1, 5

1972: Rain From The Skies EP: 13

1973: 1000 Volts Of Holt: 3, 12

1974: Don't Break Your Promise: 11

1976: 2000 Volts Of Holt: 2, 9

1994: Augustus Pablo Presents King Tubby: 20 Unreleased Dubs By The Late Great King Tubby: 7

2009: 1000 Volts Of Holt (Deluxe Edition) (2x CD): 10

2026 Volts Of Holt (44:05) (GD) (M)

The Heat Is On And The Funk Just Won't Leave Us Alone

Time to swap the football for a glitter ball, methinks....

A companion piece of sorts to my 2021 selection, I'll Surely Miss Your Tender Kiss, with seven stone cold killer disco cuts. And if you like The Brothers Johnson, then you'll feel spoiled as they appear on both!

Today's selection opens with a couple of covers, a Neil Sedaka B-side from 1959 and a Bee Gees album cut, then barely two years old. At the controls are legends such as Quincy Jones, John Luongo, Rusty Garner and, inevitably, Tom Moulton.

And fronting the disco explosion, the likes of Evelyn 'Champagne' King and Melba Moore (also today's cover stars), The Trammps and Tavares, Odyssey and Eruption.

Hmmm, maybe I should send a link to Thomas Tuchel...?

1) One Way Ticket (Long Version By Rusty Garner) (Cover of 'One Way Ticket (To The Blues)' by Neil Sedaka): Eruption (1979)

2) You Stepped Into My Life (Special Disco Version By John Luongo) (Cover of Bee Gees): Melba Moore (1978)

3) Shame (12" Disco Mix By Al Garrison & David Todd): Evelyn 'Champagne' King (1977)

4) Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel (Part 1+2) (Album Version By Freddie Perren): Tavares (1976)

5) Starvin' (Album Version By Ron Baker, Norman Harris, Earl Young & Tom Moulton): The Trammps (1976)

6) Native New Yorker (Disco Version By Sandy Linzer & Charlie Calello): Odyssey (1977)

7) Stomp! (12 Inch Version By Quincy Jones): The Brothers Johnson (1980)

The Heat And The Funk (45:45) (GD) (M)

You can find I'll Surely Miss Your Tender Kiss here.

Hits Like A Shot Of Ginger Beer

Cornershop has reunited with Bubbley Kaur for Bounce And Salute, which is a joy to these ears.

I've been fumbling for superlatives, but the official website/label has nailed it in their promo, describing Bounce And Salute as "a song guaranteed to bring out peak summer and everyday sunshine, with classic Punjabi folk lyrics backdropped by a Carnival 77 roots-based music. It’s immediacy hits like a shot of ginger beer and everyone deserves a bit of refreshment."

They are not wrong, and the official video directed by Phil Miller effortlessly captures this with a cheerily garbed woman dancing around a row of beach huts, cutting away to images of ice lollies and fairground rides.

There's a second official video, created from video footage recorded in 2003 at the Damont Record Pressing Plant in Hayes (which I'd always associated with Middlesex but which has apparently been absorbed by the London borough of Hillingdon).

Anyway, I digress. Ben Ayres used to work at the pressing plant, and Tjinder Singh filmed a documentary focusing on the music industry's transition from analogue to digital.

As a music lover who pored over the scratched text and messages in the inner circle of my vinyl collection, the name Damont is of course instantly familiar and it's sad to know that the factory no longer exists.

The promo notes for Bounce And Salute note that Bubbley's lyrics lament "a previous sweetheart that slipped through the destiny of her life", something that she will never forget, whilst the music itself provides an uplifting, optimistic counterpoint.

Beautiful.

Cornershop and Bubbley previously collaborated on 2011 album  And The Double-O Groove Of. If you don't already have this in your life, then you need to do something about that as a matter of urgency. If it doesn't change your life, it will at least significantly improve it.

Cornershop generously made videos for six out the ten songs on the album - click on the links to view.

1)  United Provinces Of India

2)  Topknot

3)  The 911 Curry

4)  Natch

5)  Double Decker Eyelashes

6)  The Biro Pen

7)  Supercomputed

8)  Once There Was A Wintertime

9)  Double Digit

10)  Don't Shake It

My entry point was the Cavemen remix of Topknot, featuring M.I.A., who was so taken with the original that she provided a rap to complement Bubbley's vocals. Cavemen were a duo comprising Steve Mackey (RIP) of Pulp and producer/polymath Ross Orton.

Due to popular demand, And The Double-O Groove was repressed and rereleased in 2025 (including for the first time on vinyl) and you can still buy copies from Cornershop's label Ample Play.

You can also purchase a download of Bounce And Salute for a quid at the same place.

What's With The Flowers In My Door? What The Hell Would I Want Those For?!

Looking for something a little more upbeat to get me through the latter part of the week, I stumbled across Sharam Jey's 2018 single and video, Dangerous Game.

Sharam is easily found in my music collection, as one half of beat behemoths Deep Dish, though I have considerably less of his solo releases.

Dangerous Game features the voice of Kat Frankie, a Sydney-born, Berlin-based artist with 20-odd years in the business. It's also the fourth and final single from the album Invisible, released in September 2018.

The other three singles also spotlight guest musicians: :Little Boots on Fridaycity, Dirty Vegas on Ready Or Not and KLP on Lost.

All good stuff, with enjoyable, linked-theme videos (below), and enough to make me want to track down the album. But how do you find something that is Invisible?

My go-to, Bandcamp, didn't come up with the goods, though I did find another Sharam Jey 'bootleg' of interest, which you can find at the bottom of this post.

My fall back is Juno Download, a vast virtual warehouse of older releases and deep cuts with good prices and decent discounts. Except I should have typed 'was' not 'is' as Juno recently pulled the shutters on their digital branch, focusing instead solely on physical releases.

I avoid the other big streaming and download providers, but it's difficult to navigate the others to strike a balance between availability of downloads to buy and a decent return for the artists.

So, I finally found Invisible, and it's remix companion, available as two separate volumes, on Beatport at a penny under 12 quid a pop. I'm going to stick with the former and skip the latter (two) for now.

 

 

One of the cited influences and inspirations for Invisible is Depeche Mode, especially circa the 1980s. My search for Sharam Jey on Bandcamp threw up Hot Stuff, one of his 'bootleg' PImp My Booty releases. 

Included within the mammoth 36 tracks are two mid-80s DM classics, one (surprisingly) an uptempo take on downtempo ballad A Question Of Lust. The other a standalone single to promote the first DM 'best of' and one of the songs that caused my friend Jayne to rechristen the band 'Depress Mode'.

With 36 songs, not everything is going to hit the spot but at two Euro for the whole thing (five and a half cents per track), it would be rude not to buy before you try.

If You Don't Control Your Mind, Someone Else Will

Six songs today, plucked from the plethera of recommendations that come my way every day. All worth your time and your money.

1) Disaster!: Neil Brogan (Near Broken Band)

Tags: alternative / DIY / indiepop / jangle pop / lofi / powerpop / Belfast

Neil: "I like making songs"

Me: "I like listening to your songs"

2) Walking Barefoot - Marche Pied Nu: Anne Gallien (single)

Credits: seagulls, Lucie the bass, thumb piano, egg shakers. scarlett 2i2, laptop, garageband. 

Anne: "stand up / you can do it / you got this!"

Me: "1980s Siouxsie & The Banshees/Pink Industry downtempo vibes, with a bassline to die for and gloriously sensual French vocals."

3) T H A M E S: The Woodentops (single)

Credits: Time stretching, digital toning Acoustic guitar and voice

Rolo: “Hi, a new release here, a long ambient piece with a touch of folk in the tradition of naval and sailor song, a continuous roll, like the river itself, with audio like light reflecting and depth of water. Its not rock or club or pop or beats of any kind. Its more a throb, or a pulsation, Hope you like the mood.! ®¬ <-Rolo”

Me: "Solo Rolo, with a near 16-minute companion piece of sorts to Bathyscaphe from 2024's Fruits Of The Deep. Superb, as you might expect.”

4) The Morning Of The Trip: Andy Bell & Masal (Common Primitives)

Tags: alternative / electronic / jazz / turkish folk / ambient / harp / indie / kosmische krautrock / psychedelia / shoegaze / London

Andy: "Playing [my] guitar “as if it was a waterfall""

Me: "The follow up to 2023 debut Tidal Love Numbers promises to be an even more satisfying trip"

5) No Compass Required (Puerto Montt City Orchestra No Direction Remix): Warriors Of The Dystotheque / Balaphonic (No Compass Required EP)

Credits: Jonny Mac, Sean Graham, Mike Rufolo, Nick Rufolo (WotD), Danny Ward (Balaphonic), Angus Murray, Tim Salter (Puerto Montt City Orchestra)

Them: "sailing round the Mediterranean in search of the Balearic Beat."

Me: "The original version, plus remixes by Chris Coco and Puerto Montt City Orchestra. will inevitably turn up on a Dubhed selection. Sheer bliss."

6) Blue Bird: Coyote (Blue Bird EP)

Story: Bluebird And The Coyote (Native American Lore)

Coyote: "Accept criticism, but never accept disrespect"

Me: "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) for 2026? Even better."

It Hurts And Hurts And Hurts So Good

Millie Jackson delivering a  super cool performance of It Hurts So Good on US TV show The Ebony Affair in 1975.

Millie released the song in 1973 as a single and although it failed to crack the UK charts, it featured in the blaxploitation movie Cleopatra Jones, the soundtrack album shifting half a million copies in the USA.

It Hurts So Good was originally a single by Katie Love & The Four Shades Of Black in 1971, released only in the USA...and Spain, it appears. Despite being a red hot Muscle Shoals  Production, it wasn't a hit in either country.

Susan Cadogan then ad a crack at the song, Lee Perry at the controls, retitled it as Hurt So Good and, in one fell swoop, created both the definitive version and the big hit that the song deserved. Hurt So Good spent 3 weeks at #4 in the UK singles chart in April and May 1975.

Twenty years later, Jimmy Somerville attempted the same with his take on the Cadogan/Perry version and whilst it was also a hit in the UK, neither the recording nor the chart performance could hope to match the majesty of the above.

The Bridge Outta Time

The days when I was on top of every Warp Records artist and release are long gone, so I've only just come to Kelela, who has been steadily releasing music via the label since 2013.

Kelela Mizanekristos, born 6th June 1983 (belated happy birthday!) in Washington D.C., released her fifth album (seven counting remix companions) new avatar last Friday and the two videos/singles have piqued my curiosity.

An immediate, if not entirely accurate, parallel universe comparison that springs to mind is Nellee Hooper creating Debut with Aaliyah rather than Björk. 

The Bridge is a duet with PinkPantheress, whilst Outta Time features A.K. Paul. There's a third collaboration on the album - New Life Forms with Fousheé - and nine other songs of pure, unadulterated Kelela...

...including this succinctly phrased song...

...all of which is reason why new avatar has pinged at the checkout. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the album.

Growing Up In Public

My knowledge of rap and hip hop is laughable, so it's no surprise that I know naff all about today's featured artist, Bow Wow.

However, as yesterday's post featured Bow Wow Wow, it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up a tenuous link, given that Bow Wow performed a Tiny Desk Concert less than a fortnight ago.

I was vaguely aware of Lil' Bow Wow, but I don't know when Bow Wow stopped being Lil', if you get my meaning. Shad Gregory Moss, as his mum named him, turned 39 in March and also celebrates his 33rd (33rd!) year in the music business. Shad first TV appearance was The Arsenio Hall Show in 1993, aged six (six!!) and the first Lil' Bow Wow album came out in 2000.

After retiring from music in 2016 - Shad tweeted at the time that “I just can’t see myself at 30 years old rapping" - the recent Tiny Desk Concert has clearly seen a change of heart (and/or fortunes).

Whatever the reason, this six-song set is apparently back-to-back hits, though I have to confess that I don'r recognise a single one of them. I haven't paid close attention to the lyrics during my single listen so far, but I like the vibe of the music, Bow Wow and the band seem to be having a great time, and it feels like a perfect listen for a relaxed Sunday.

1) Outta My System

2) "Fresh Azimiz

3) Shortie Like Mine

4) Bounce With Me

5) Let Me Hold You

6) Like You

Forced to choose, I'd probably stick with Bow Wow Wow, but this is a pleasant enough way to spend 20-odd minutes.