Tinkling The Ivories

Whether it's 'tinkling' or 'tickling' seems to depend on where you live, but in this neck of the woods, it's always been 'tinkle'. And in my experience, there has never been any confusion with the other application of 'tinkle', resulting in riotous scenes of grown men pissing on pianos with impunity.

But I digress. Today's selection collects thirteen songs that prominently feature the piano, although I suspect that some of you may also consider it's a lot of piss.

To focus my attention, I imposed three basic criteria:

1) songs released between 1968 and 1979;

2) UK Top 20 singles only; and

3) one song per artist or band.

Much as I'm happy to listen to Metal Machine Music, Throbbing Gristle or Coil, I am also not adverse to music that Mama and Papa K would find more palatable. I don't own a single album by Cat Stevens, Elton John, Supertramp, Billy Joel or Gilbert O'Sullivan. The Beatles and David Bowie are very well represented in my collection; Aretha,  Carole and Carly less so. However, they all have a place in today's lucky 13.

I decided to beat the Monday blues by booking today as holiday. In reality, I think this will just mean that Tuesday will feel like Monday at work, though I will have a shorter week to compensate.

And how will I be spending my precious day off? Replacing a toilet seat and some wall tiles, painting a door, and cancelling my credit card as some b'stard nicked my details and treated themselves to Dominos pizza and Uber rides in London at the weekend. 

What a rock and roll lifestyle I lead...!

1) Lady Madonna: The Beatles (1968) (#1)

2) I Say A Little Prayer (Cover of Dionne Warwick): Aretha Franklin (1968) (#4)

3) Killer Queen: Queen (1974) (#2)

4) Something In The Air: Thunderclap Newman (1969) (#1)

5) Morning Has Broken: Cat Stevens (1972) (#9)

6) Life On Mars?: David Bowie (1971) (#3, July 1973)

7) It's Too Late: Carole King (1971) (#6)

8) You're So Vain: Carly Simon (1972) (#3)

9) Your Song: Elton John (1970) (#4)

10) The Logical Song: Supertramp (1979) (#7)

11) Without You (Cover of Badfinger): Nilsson (1971) (#1)

12) Just The Way You Are: Billy Joel (1977) (#19, Feb 1978)

13) Alone Again (Naturally): Gilbert O'Sullivan (1972) (#3)

1968: Aretha Now: 2

1968: Lady Madonna EP: 1

1969: Hollywood Dream: 4

1970: Elton John: 9

1971: Hunky Dory: 6

1971: Nilsson Schmilsson: 11

1971: Tapestry: 7

1971: Teaser And The Firecat: 5

1972: Alone Again (Naturally) EP: 13

1972: No Secrets: 8

1974: Sheer Heart Attack: 3

1977: The Stranger: 12

1979: Breakfast In America: 10

Tinkling The Ivories (47:38) (GD) (M)

Dub '96

An hour of dub not dub today, with a 10-song selection of remixes circa 1996.

Dub '96 follows the tradition of previous Dubhed excursions to 1983 and 1985 (twice), with a varied (re)mix of indie and electronic music, all put through the club/dub filter.

Everything But The Girl were partying like it was, er, 1999, teaming up with Spring Hill Jack for the drum and bass-infused title track of their Walking Wounded album. 

Dubstar called Mother... no, not theirs, the DJ/producer duo of Jools Brettle & Lee Fisher... to take their single Stars into space, a dub oddity if you will.

18 Wheeler on the other hand stayed on terra firma, getting Greg Hunter in to dub their single, transforming it into Beyond The Valley Of The Hours And The Times, in homage to Russ Meyer's 1970 film Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls.

Inspired by Dubstar, The Beloved were visited by one half of Deep Dish, the fortuitously named Dubfire (Ali to his ioved ones) to go even further with Three Steps To Heaven. Unfortunately, the record label didn't approve and the remix remained unreleased for many years.

Alter Ego proposed getting out of their heads on Mescal, or should that be Mezcal? You may be interested to know that all tequila is a type of mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila. Two Lone Swordsmen create a suitably out of body dub.

From out of their heads to Out Of This World by Republica. This remix was originally released as a promo 12" in 1994, back when The Chemical Brothers were still blagging it as The Dust Brothers, until The Dust Brothers found out and told them to stop. The dub remix turned up on a single in 1996... at least that's what it said on the sleeve. Turns out it was actually April 1997. Ooops!

Grace was a project for Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, who recorded Not Over Yet in 1993. It wasn't a major hit until 1995, by which time original vocalist Patti Low had departed. Subsequent singles were led by Dominique Atkins, although it was "all over" for Grace by 1997.

Innerzone Orchestra is a collective pulled together by electronic music pioneer Carl Craig. Bug In The Bassbin is perhaps their most well-known track, with a slew of remixes. I only released after I'd completed this selection that the Graphic Dub included here is supposed to be 5 minutes long. My CD rip is a smidge over 1 minute. Ooops!

It's that guy Steve Osborne again, this time remixing indie legends Lush. Again, another quirk in my digital music collection. The original running time was listed as 10:51, until I realised that the file was corrupted. One refresh later and the track is 6:31 as it should be. Housekeeping, eh?

To finish, The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown, Primal Scream teaming up with Denise Johnson and Irvine Welsh, for one of the best football related songs of all. This dub is about as close to the dub genre as you'll get today, no surprise when it's Adrian Sherwood at the controls.

Continuing the tradition of the previous Dub '80s posts, I've resurrected my shameless rip off of Rol's far more inspired Saturday morning quiz over at My Top Ten.

The only prize for participating is the knowledge that somehow you have made it to the end of the five questions (and this post) with your sanity intact. 

Answers will be posted in the Comments below on Monday morning.

1) Which band member, now an acclaimed author, denounced The Beatles as “the absolute curse of modern Indie music”, citing their favourite Beatle as Yoko Ono?

2) When asked what they would do when their music career slowed down, who said that they would take a 6-month course in dry stone walling and set up a 24-hour emergency repair service, using a 3-wheeled motor trike?

3) Whose autobiography is titled Patient?

4) Which song had three videos made, one in a disused swimming pool in Hackney, another in Badwater Basin in Death Valley, California, and the third and final one in a London studio, for it's re-release as a single?

5) Who appeared in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice whilst still in the womb?

1) Walking Wounded (Spring Heel Jack Dub Mix By Ashley Wales & John Coxon): Everything But The Girl (Walking Wounded EP)

2) Stars (Mother Dub Mix By Jools Brettle & Lee Fisher) (Extended Album Version): Dubstar (Disgraceful/The Mixes (Expanded 2CD Edition))

3) Beyond The Valley Of The Hours And The Times (Greg Hunter In Dub Mix): 18 Wheeler (The Hours And The Times EP)

4) Three Steps To Heaven (Dubfire's Paradise Dub) (Remix By Ali Shirazinia): The Beloved (X Remixed (unreleased promo mixes))

5) Mescal (2 Lone Swordsmen Dub) (Remix By Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood) (Full Length): Alter Ego (Peppered With Spastic Magic: A Collection Of Two Lone Swordsmen Remixes)

6) Out Of This World (Chemical Brothers Dub) (Remix By Ed Simons & Tom Rowlands): Republica (Drop Dead Gorgeous EP)

7) Not Over Yet (BT's Peyote Dub) (Remix By Brian Transeau): Grace (Not Over Yet EP)

8) Bug In The Bassbin (Graphic Dub) (Remix By Claude Young): Innerzone Orchestra (Bug In The Bassbin EP)

9) Last Night (Hexadecimal Dub Mix By Steve Osborne): Lush (Last Night EP)

10) The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown (Full Strength Fortified Dub) (Remix By Adrian Sherwood): Primal Scream ft. Denise Johnson & Irvine Welsh (The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown EP)

Dub '96 (1:01:38) (GD) (M)

And if that's not enough dub for one day, here are my three '80s dub selections to date:

Dub '83 (September 2023)

Dub '85 (January 2025)

Double Dub '85 (April 2025)

Rewired, Reworked And Remixed

Danny Briottet has revived Renegade Soundwave with a package of upcoming 'rewires' by an impressive roster including Carl Cox, Leftfield, Don Letts & Gaudi, Mark Archer (Altern8) and Nookie. Kicking things off, Leeroy Thornhill, formerly of The Prodigy, transforms their seminal track Ozone Breakdown. 

Like Fluke's recently released The Second Bite and it's remix companion, Danny has re-recorded 15 Renegade Soundwave tracks and and handed the stems over. If Ozone Breakdown is anything to go by, Renegade Soundwave Rewired will be a must purchase.

Inspired by this, I've pulled seven other reworks and remixes from the last decade and a half that have floated my boat and are readily available on Bandcamp.

The selection starts with Special Request aka Paul Woolford taking on The Grid's epic track Floatation. Bearing in mind that Dave Ball and Richard Norris wrote it, Andrew Weatherall co-remixed the original, and Prins Thomas updated it, these are big footsteps to follow. No problem. Floatation becomes a 13-minute trip into space, NASA dialogue and all, that takes it's time but is all the better for it.

The remaining edits and remixes feature a diverse cast including Sparks, The xx, Leftfield, Jimmy Cliff covering The Clash, and Misled Convoy and Uncle Fester On Acid dubbing up Dub Syndicate and Bim Sherman covering Lloyds Parks.

Arguably the most unexpected of all is Leonard Cohen, not the first artist you think of when compiling a Balearic chill out perhaps, but hey if it worked for Chris Rea, why not? DJ Pantelis has (excuse the pun) hit the right note with his remix of Cohen's 1984 song Dance Me To The End Of Love. 

1) Floatation (SR Offworld Mix By Special Request): The Grid ft. Sacha Souter (2019)

2) My Other Voice (Kommissar Keller Edit): Sparks (2025)

3) Ozone Breakdown (Leeroy Thornhill Rewire) (Extended): Renegade Soundwave (2026)

4) Shelter (Nebulist Remix By Baz Popiolek): The xx (2014)

5) Not Forgotten (HUD Remix By Neil Hudson): Leftfield (2026)

6) Dance Me To The End Of Love (DJ Pantelis Remix): Leonard Cohen (2025)

7) Guns Of Brixton (Kinky Electric Noise Remix By Ken Arguelles): Jimmy Cliff (2012)

8) Mafia (Dub Remix By Misled Convoy x Uncle Fester On Acid): Dub Syndicate ft. Bim Sherman (Cover of Lloyd Parks) (2021)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like It Always Does

Happy birthday to Richard Melville Hall aka Moby, born 11th September 1965.

Whether you're aware of Moby as a musician, vegan, Christian, baldie, animal rights campaigner or a complete and utter twonk, it's hard to think of another artist that has combined all of these elements so successfully.

I was a huge fan of Moby's music throughout the 1990s and enjoyed the twists and turns of his career. Yes, I was one of the 472 people who bought his thrash metal (kind of) album Animal Rights on release in 1996. And liked it.

I haven't followed every release since then, but I have enjoyed the occasional dip back into Moby's 21st century albums. I must revisit Innocents from 2013, which I recall as being pretty good. 

The last Moby album I acquired was Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt in 2018 and, apart from the You & Me EP with Anfisa Letyago in 2024, I've pretty much no idea what he's released in this decade.

That said, I've still managed to come up with a (mostly) 21st century selection, ten songs moving from metal to machines and back again, also serving to showcase the vocal talents that Moby has collaborated with over the years. 

With the exception of Mark Lanegan, all female singers and likely ones that are undeservedly unfamiliar. Mindy Jones is a long-time musical partner of Moby, whilst others such as Rozz Morehead and Erin Marszalek made fleeting but significant appearances.

I've also thrown in a few remixes, courtesy of Torsten Stenzel, Photek and Moby himself.

Ten songs, all done and dusted in three quarters of an hour, just enough and not too much.

Have a good one, Moby.

1) E2D (Outtake From 'Play') (1999)

2) Don't Love Me (Album Version ft. Mindy Jones & Inyang Bassey) (2013)

3) Spiders (Album Version) (2005)

4) Porcelain (Torsten Stenzel's Edited Remix) (2000)

5) Move (Electro Mix By Moby ft. Rozz Morehead & Carole Sylvan) (1993)

6) Extreme Ways (Single Version) (2002)

7) Ooh Yeah (Album Version ft. Erin Marszalek & Luci Butler) (2008)

8) Come On Baby (Single Edit)

9) You & Me (Extended Mix) (Moby x Anfisa Letyago) (2024)

10) The Lonely Night (Photek Remix ft. Mark Lanegan & Mindy Jones) (2013)

1993: Move - The Mixes EP: 5

1996: Come On Baby EP: 8

2000: Porcelain EP: 4

2002: Extreme Ways EP: 6

2003: 18 DVD: Outtakes & Bonus Songs: 1

2005: Hotel: 3

2008: Last Night: 7

2013: Innocents: 2

2013: The Lonely Night EP: 10

2024: You & Me EP: 9

Like It Always Does (46:05) (GD) (M)

As it's Moby's birthday, here's some more Dubhed selections from the archives:

Another Green World (1999 mixtape, posted Jan 2023)

Kaleidoscopic Mind (2000 gig setlist, posted Feb 2026)

Somewhere Around (random selection, posted July 2022)

...things will go the way you want them...

Another entry point into a long-time career, I stumbled across Kutiman and You Will Shine, the title track of his forthcoming album, and second full length record this year.

You Will Shine is described by one online fan as "Tame Impala meats Röyksopp" [sic], which is fair enough. It reminds me of Dan Snaith and his work as Caribou and Daphni too; music that moves the body and strikes an emotional chord. 

Kutiman is Ophir Kutiel, a Tel Aviv-born, Surat Thani-based polymath who has been releasing music since 2007.

On a random YouTube trawl, Kutiman discovered Dunfermline-based singer Misha Sutherland and You Will Shine is constructed from an accapella vocal loop from one of Misha's at-home performances. What a lovely story.

Misha is currently available to "sing at care homes, birthdays, anniversaries, garden parties, weddings, [or] at any venue you require me at" from £65.00. Wouldn't it be great if her appearance on Kutiman's album was a game changer and opened up a whole new audience?

Return To The Other Side

From yesterday's working class hero to today's Working Men's Club and a new song and video, Devout.

First impressions, very good. I can't help but be reminded of Clan Of Xymox in their 4AD pomp, but Sydney Minsky-Sargeant's vocals are less aching and forlorn, more insistent and inviting.

The beats are pulsing and insistent, with lots of squalls and screeches to keep the listener present and not drift into a trance. I'm intrigued that Working Men's Club have worked with producer Atticus Ross on this one, who I'm familiar with from his collaborations with Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails, Barry Adamson, Jehnny Beth and Bomb The Bass. On the strength of this single, I hope there's more.

Heading over to Bandcamp to buy, I was put off by the eye-watering $9.00 price tag for the track, with no indication that this is a pre-order for an album, so I can only assume it's a typo and will be corrected.

In the meantime, head straight to WMC's label Domino where you can buy Devout for a much more reasonable 99 pence.

It Just Shows What Love Can Do

Once A Man, Twice A Child was released last week, one of the finest Dexys Midnight Runners of their entire span.

If Love truly is the final Dexys album, and Kevin Rowland calls it a day, what a finale. His voice, his lyrics, his ability to strike that emotional chord is undiminished. And David Holmes' production is light of touch and heavy on impact. What a collaboration.

I've listened to Once A Man, Twice A Child on repeat and I'm welling up. I might need a minute.

I'm glad I had those times with you

Made up for what we both went through. 

And it was so great hugging you.

In those last days days of you

I helped you button up your shirt

It somehow helped to heal the hurt

Gave me a closeness never seen

I was so glad you needed me

Once a man, and twice a child

Was so true for you

And that gave me chance

To get close to you.

I kissed your head before you slept

And when you died I never wept

It was all locked up inside

You taught too well how to hide

Once a man, and twice a child

Was so true for you

And that gave me chance

To get close to you

I don’t know what else I can say, 

but I thought I’d never see the day

When I could be at peace with you

It just shows what love can do

Once a man, and twice a child

Was so true for you

And that gave me chance

To show how I loved you

Remind Me Of A Perfect Plan

Calling a single Hit Song is a bold move, and not a guarantee of success, as Peter Murphy discovered in 1992.

His previous singles in the mid-late 1980s rarely troubled the UK charts, scraping into the Top 100 (just). Hit Song didn't buck the trend and vanished as quietly as it arrived.

I found the CD single in the Virgin Megastore bargain bins a while later. I was a fan of Bauhaus and I quite liked Murphy's earlier solo material, though I'll be honest and say that it was Anton Corbijn's striking photo of Peter on the cover that was the draw.

Hit Song clocks in at 4:45, about 45 seconds shorter than the version which closes Peter's fourth solo album, Holy Smoke. Not that I knew this at the time, as I didn't take time to catch up with his 1990s and 2000s back catalogue until many, many years later.

Hit Song is a good song, but as straight a ballad as perhaps Peter Murphy has ever recorded. In 1992, alternative music was getting grungier and angrier, and Hit Song was perhaps even more out of step than it might have been. 

A year later, Duran Duran enjoyed a Top 20 comeback with Ordinary World and Come Undone. Would this have benefitted Peter Murphy and Hit Song, if it had been released at the same time? Probably not, but time has been a little kinder to this lost tune. Or maybe I've just got older and more sentimental.

Walking in the street

Breath the only friend

Strangers pass me by

I'm moving, moving with the wind

Inside me now, the gold

The gold at rainbow's end

Stranger to myself, a stranger

Stranger till the end

Behind the closed door

The one we painted green

To remind me of the perfect plan

Wash my face in fields of green

Take me to the stars for free

Point me to the high wire call

Wake me true and wake me all

Walk me in the streets

Take me, to a view on high

To an empire state

Tease, tease and bake me dry

Swerve and turn on me

Melt me, melt me to the wall

Like an unspent fortune, I'm running

Running with the call

Behind the closed door

The one we painted green

To remind me of a perfect plan

Wash my face

In fields of green

Take me to the stars for free

Point me to the high wire call

Wake me true and wake me all

Choo Choo Choons

Eight long songs, all emptied from my Bandcamp Friday shopping bag, half and half new releases from 2026 and 'older' songs and remixes.

And by long, I mean long. Strap yourself in for track two, as Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer take you on an Electric Jazz exploration of Nightmares On Wax's 1990 classic Aftermath for nearly sixteen and a half minutes. And this is the 'short' version; the remix on the A-side is two minutes longer!

I must be especially fond of the Pye Corner Audio remix of Unificado by Lorelle Meets The Obsolete as, when I uploaded the song to my music collection, I belatedly realised that I'd already bought it a couple of years ago....! It's bloody good, though.

As is Fluke's combeck with The Second Bite, which revisited and reworked their back catalogue. Not content with this, they've also released The Second Bite Remixes where a bunch of artists get their hands dirty, including Daniel Avery and Nick Warren. Justin Robertson and Steve Cobby return to Slid and Tosh, which they first remixed in 1993 and 1995 respectively. Others are completely new to me. Of the latter, Feon aka Fionn Macdiarmid delivers a stunningly good remix of Bullet, which I've included here.

Mermaid Chunky are here for the third consecutive day, with céilí, the opening song of slif slaf slof, a whistle-driven chugger (or should that be chunker?) Did I say that I love this album?

Another welcome returnee to this blog is Dan Wainwright, with a new project called Peace & Dub Soundsystem. Imagine Lee 'Scratch' Perry reading Alan Sillitoe's 1958 novel Saturday Night And Sunday Morning and being inspired to make an album, and you're somewhere close to what Dan's achieved. On paper, Northern grit and Jamaican sunshine shouldn't work, but somehow it does.

Abstrakt Lake and Snapped Ankles were chance purchases, as I don't know much about either, nor The Pyramids Of Phobos aka Simon Bowler, for that matter. Crooked Man aka Richard Barratt is another matter, so I was pretty steady ground. Luckily it turned out that both were sound purchases, and a taster for further listening.

Finishing today's selection is 100 Poems aka Mike Wilson, with End Of The Trail, the final album in his 'Americana' trilogy, following Let The Horse Run Free and Rodeo Disco. I loved the previous entries and this one is just as good. I'm fascinated to hear where Mike goes next but for now I've plenty to keep me going.

And yes, topping the page is a dead-eyed statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, standing outside Temple Meads rail station in Bristol, inset in a photo of the Bristol Hippodrome that I ran through a kaleidoscope filter. Nothing goes to waste on this blog, and I will find even the most tenuous link between my mixtape titles and cover images.

Enjoy!

1) Kálvin Tér (The Pyramids Of Phobos Remix By Simon Bowler): Abstrakt Lake (2026)

2) Aftermath (Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer Electric Jazz Version): Nightmares On Wax (2014)

3) Work To The Bone (Album Version By Dan Wainwright): Peace & Dub Soundsystem (2026)

4) Bullet (Feon Remix By Fionn Macdiarmid): Fluke (2026)

5) céilí (Album Version By Mermaid Chunky & Joe Jones): Mermaid Chunky (2024)

6) Come Play The Trees (Crooked Play) (Remix By Crooked Man aka Richard Barratt): Snapped Ankles (2017)

7) Unificado (Pye Corner Audio Remix By Martin Jenkins): Lorelle Meets The Obsolete (2019)

8) Do You Want To Get To Heaven?: 100 Poems (2026)

2014: Aftermath EP: 2

2017: Come Play The Trees EP: 6

2019: Unificado EP: 7

2024: slif slaf slof: 5

2026: A Drop In The Ocean: 3

2026: End Of The Trail: 8

2026: Hemisy Pantos (The Pyramids Of Phobos Remixes): 1

2026: The Second Bite Remixes: 4

Choo Choo Choons (1:14:22) (GD) (M)

Choons Help You Breathe More Easily

Saturday morning started with a headache in bith the literal and technological sense, so I’m bashing away with my oversized fingers and thumbs on a comparatively small mobile phone screen, which means a relatively short post today. 

And yes, the only A.I. contributing to my blog today is of the Authentically Incompetent variety, i.e. me.

By way of compensation, here’s Mermaid Chunky.

I found artist pals Freya Tate and Moina Moin via a guest spot with Orbury Common, and I’ve been a fan of them ever since.

Mermaid Chunky is also the name of a variety of wool that Freya discovered in Shaws the drapers, in her hometown of Stroud Gloucestershire (yep, nearly neighbours with Clan K, give or take 20 miles)

Their debut album slif slaf slof was released in September 2024, I finally got around to buying it yesterday (Bandcamp Friday) and I’m hoping to catch them performing somewhere in Bristol during the Simple Things festival in November.

Nature Girl is (self) described as a “mucky, trippy dirge filled with stalactites of synth and squelch”. What’s not to like?