If I Stand Up, The World Will Spin Away

Andrew Weatherall has frequently featured on this blog, most recently in June with a selection of remixes. However, I think this is the first time I've presented a selection exclusively focusing on the music he's released under his own name.

Without further ado, here's a 10 song selection in a little over 70 minutes, bringing together (mostly vocal) songs and remixes from Andrew Weatherall's solo albums and various EPs and 12" singles.

Today's selection title is a lyric from We Count The Stars (track 9) which complements the photo of the giant wooden gorilla, snapped in the gardens of Bristol Zoo when Clan K visited on Monday. Every 30 minutes or so, the gorilla's left hand would raise to it's mouth, which would then 'spit' water all over the children (and some adults) below, to their screaming delight.

 

1) The Moton 5.2 (2020)

2) Built Back Higher (Radical Majik Re-Mix By Steve Boardman) (2009)

3) Disappear (Duncan Gray Remix) (2016)

4) Making Friends With The Invader (2018)

5) You Can't Do Disco Without A Strat (Single Version By Andrew Weatherall) (2006)

6) Confidence Man (Album Version By Andrew Weatherall & Nina Walsh) (2016) 

7) Miss Rule (2009)

8) Vorfreude 2 (2017)

9) We Count The Stars (Unloved Remix By David Holmes, Keefus Ciancia & Tristin Norwell) (2016)

10) The Last Walk (Album Version By Andrew Weatherall & Nina Walsh) (2016)

 

2006: The Bullet Catcher's Apprentice EP: 5 

2009: A Pox On The Pioneers: 7

2009: Andrew Weatherall vs The Boardroom Volume 2: 2

2016: Convenanza: 6, 10

2016: Consolamentum: 3, 9

2017: Qualia: 8

2018: Blue Bullet EP: 4

2020: Pamela #1 EP: 1

 

If I Stand Up, The World Will Spin Away (1:11:35)

The Idea Of Perfection Holds Me

Nadja are Berlin-based duo Aidan Baker & Leah Buckareff who, according to their Bandcamp biography, are purveyors of "atmospheric doom sludge". I first came across them last year when a re-recorded version of their take on Faith by The Cure appeared on a Mojo magazine freebie CD.  

Unfortunately, my CD skips so I've gone back to Nadja’s original recording, which features as the closing song on 2009 covers album When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV. As you might expect, it includes Nadja's reimagining of the a-ha song, alongside My Bloody Valentine, Codeine, Swans, Slayer, Elliott Smith and Kids In The Hall. 

 

I was impressed with Nadja's 2021 version, which stretched The Cure's original to ten and a half minutes. Their 2009 version goes even further, teasing the song out to nearly thirteen minutes of droning guitar, relentless percussion and calm-amid-the-chaos vocals. 

 

I enjoy both versions which really take you somewhere else but, as any good cover should, also lead you back to the original version. I probably didn't hear the Faith album until the mid- to late-1980s, when I was really getting into The Cure. Even then, it was a thing of ghostly, grim beauty.

In looking for a YouTube video of Faith to add to this post, I came across a re-recorded version that The Cure appear to have done in 2005. I know that the Faith album was re-mastered and re-released as a deluxe edition in 2005 but I don't think this new version was included and I've no idea if it was released in a physical or digital format elsewhere. It's not quite as good as the 1981 version though it stands up to repeated listens.

I've only ever heard The Cure live in concert on album, TV and radio. They are, of course, absolutely brilliant as the following YouTube clip demonstrates. I've not seen this performance of Faith before - if I've got my research right, this was from The Cure's gig at Arena De Dax, Orange, France on 8th April 1986.

The Cure are playing live in the UK and Eire in December 2022 (no, I don't have tickets) and Robert Smith has been promising at least one new album for ages - maybe we’ll get it in 2023, maybe not. 

 

Nadja recently played a few gigs in Glasgow, Birmingham and London (no, I didn't have tickets) and have a new album - their second this year - out next week called Labyrinthine.

 

Labyrinthine comprises four extended tracks of the aforementioned atmospheric doom sludge, each with a different guest vocalist: Alan Dubin (Gnaw, Khanate), Rachel Davies (Esben & The Witch), Lane Shi Otayonii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel) and Dylan Walker (Full Of Hell). You can buy Labyrinthine, When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV and their extensive back catalogue on Bandcamp.

100 Seconds

Bank Holidays are great for human beings but meaningless to cats. The hope of a sleep in were dashed by a mewling mog who had decided that they wanted to get out of the house at 5.00am this morning. Despite our best efforts, said beast has resolutely refused to use the cat flap, unless it is permanently fixed in the 'open' position. So, it is usually down to me to get up, strap the flap up with an old Doc Marten boot lace and let them run free. No return to bed, of course, because after an all-too brief patrol, the furry fiend is back, demanding food. All of this of course runs parallel to my attempts not to wake the rest of the household. I am a cat lover, in spite of all this. 

One benefit of an early wake up call this Bank Holiday Monday was that I hadn't prepared a post for this morning. I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants blogger at the best of times, often making it up as I go along, but so far I've yet to hit that brick wall of not having any ideas for a post. You will be the judge of whether it's more a case of quantity over quality.

As the title suggests, today's selection is a brisk run through of songs that (according to Apple Music at least) have a running time of one minute forty aka one hundred seconds. It's not strictly true: the vagaries of CD mastering and vinyl rips mean that there are inevitably longer gaps at the start or end of some songs, but you get the gist. So, for this selection, I present a dozen songs in just under twenty minutes.

A thing I really enjoy about these themed selections with self-imposed constraints and criteria is that they almost inevitably cause me to unearth and listen to songs that I've not heard for a long, long time. For example, according to Apple Music, I've apparently not listened to either Airport Girl's album Honey, I'm An Artist or the Zoo label compilation To The Shores Of Lake Placid in their entirety since 2015. I last played Kill by Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias in 2017. Julian Cope's The Jehovahcoat Demos, a collection of songs recorded in 1993 and released in 2011, has been similarly neglected. 

 

It's been great to dust off some double A-sides, B-sides and forgotten EP tracks by The Lemonheads, The Maccabees and Kenickie, songs which I've fallen in love with all over again this morning. And the selection could only really end with Dr. Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I saw live at The Bristol Hippodrome in the late 1980s.

 

The late August bank holiday always seems to foreshadow an ending: of school holidays, of longer daylight hours, of summer in general. Today, Clan K is off to Bristol Zoo, which is due to close for good on 3rd September. The Zoo itself has been gradually relocating to the Wild Place project, a couple of miles outside of Bristol, for some time so the conservation and education story will continue but, whatever your feelings about Zoos in general, it's the end of an era. 

 

Having been born and raised in and around Bristol, the Zoo has played a large part in my life, whether as a child, adult and subsequently a parent. For anyone growing up and watching TV in the 1960s, 1970s or early 1980s, Bristol Zoo was also a familiar sight thanks to Johnny Morris and Animal Magic. 

 

I've been ambivalent about the Zoo from an early age: I have childhood memories of being distressed by the polar bear enclosure and seeing these magnificent creatures pacing back and forth, visibly traumatised by their entrapment. The Zoo's contribution to conservation projects is significant, though. The new Zoo, fully opening in 2024, states that 80% of the species housed will be linked to conservation breeding and conservation programmes around the world, a higher percentage than any other UK zoo.

 

Opening in 1836, Bristol Zoo is the fifth oldest in the world. Yet, it was also constrained by it's location in Clifton, west of Bristol's city centre, limiting growth and modernisation of the facilities and environment. The sad reality is that, once the Zoo has vacated, the prime real estate will almost certainly be converted into a proverbial cash cow of unaffordable, eye-sore accommodation for those sailing well above the cost of living crisis that the rest of us are experiencing now and for years to come.

I digress. We'll pay our last respects and walk though a shared history today. I doubt very much the 100 Seconds selection will make it on the in-car playlist, but Traffic Light Rock by XTC has got to be a contender, surely?!

 

1) Bon Chic Bon Genre (Album Version): Campag Velocet (1999)

2) Kill: Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias (1977)

3) Being Around: The Lemonheads (1994)

4) Shine Like Stars: Airport Girl (2001)

5) Traffic Light Rock: XTC (1978)

6) El Sqwubbsy's Machu Picchu Revelation: Julian Cope (1993)

7) Snuff Movie (She's Gone): Guided By Voices (1995)

8) Iggy Pop's Jacket: Those Naughty Lumps (1979)

9) I Wonder U: Prince & The Revolution (1986)

10) The Real Thing: The Maccabees (2007)

11) Girl's Best Friend: Kenickie (1996)

12) Planet Schmanet Janet: Tim Curry (1975)

 

1977: Snuff Rock EP: 2

1978: White Music: 5 

1982: To The Shores Of Lake Placid: 8

1986: Parade: 9

1994: Mrs. Robinson/Being Around EP: 3

1995: Volume Fourteen: 7

1996: Millionaire Sweeper EP: 11

1999: Bon Chic Bon Genre: 1 

2001: Honey, I'm An Artist: 4

2007: Precious Time EP: 10

2011: The Jehovahcoat Demos: 6

2014: The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Absolute Treasures (40th Anniversary Edition): 12

100 Seconds (19:38)

I Am The Sky, Who Are You?

With a nod to C's comment about New Age Steppers on Thursday, I'd been planning a dub flavoured selection for Sunday anyway and I was consequently nudged towards Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound.

The selection is book-ended by fresh music from this year, both by artists named Andy. The first features the late, great Andy Fairley, who departed in 1999 but whose voice and words were liberally used across On-U Sound releases in the 1990s, not least the incredible System Vertigo album released under his own name in 1992. This is one of two new tracks featured in the latest volume of the Pay It All Back series. The selection closes with Horace Andy, thankfully very much still with us and sounding in incredible form. Midnight Rocker is a highlight of 2022 and companion album Midnight Scorchers, out in mid-September, promises to be the same.

 

Another voice inextricably linked with On-U Sound is Bim Sherman, who pops up on Side Two twice. The first is a classic 10" side from Singers & Players, reworking one of Bim's songs from 1975 to great effect. Later, he features with Dub Syndicate with an alternate vocal version of Forever More, renamed Money Dealers. The original version was on 1984 album Tunes From The Missing Channel. This alternate version was finally made available in 2017 on the compilation Displaced Masters, which I bought as part of the Ambience In Dub 1982-1985 CD boxset. 

 

Speaking of CD boxsets, in 2021 On-U Sound released Stepping Into A New Age 1980-2012, a similarly beautifully packaged collection of New Age Steppers' albums. Problems is a cover of the 1977 song by Horace Andy featured on their 1981 debut Action Battlefield. Ari Up deftly goes from English to German vocals and back again, before the dub half drops like a ton of bricks, demolishing the song then building it back up. 

 

With African Head Charge, I was sorely tempted to draw something from My Life In A Hole In The Ground, their incredible album from 1981. I've gone instead for Voodoo Of The Godsent, released three decades later, Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and Adrian Sherwood's partnership showing no signs of slowing down. 

 

Speaking of partnerships, Lee 'Scratch' Perry & Dub Syndicate were surely a match made in heaven. Time Boom x De Devil Dead remains one of my favourite On-U Sound releases and I've gone here for the (almost) title track, which also supplies the name for today's selection.

 

A bit of a cheat as it appeared on Real World Records (founded by Peter Gabriel) rather than On-U Sound, but I felt I couldn't have an Adrian Sherwood selection without including a song from one his solo albums. Hari Up Hari is song two on Sherwood's 2003 debut, Never Trust A Hippy, and features pioneer of Indian fusion music Hariharan Anantha Subramani. 

 

Little Annie, previously Annie Anxiety, found a spiritual - and literal - home with Adrian Sherwood. According to her On-U Sound biog on Bandcamp, Annie lived in a shed at the bottom of Adrian's garden! Watch The World Go Bye originally featured on 1992's Short And Sweet, her third album and first under the Little Annie moniker. Watch The World Go Bye In Dub appears on the reworked, remixed and resequenced USA-only album, Short, Sweet And Dread, which you can also find on Bandcamp.

 

Rounding out the On-U Sound team is Audio Active, a Japanese experimental dub fusion band, starting as a solo vehicle for singer/songwriter Masa Osada before expanding to a full band in 1991. Sadly no longer active, several of the band's albums were produced by Adrian Sherwood, this track with additional programming support from David Harrow, another mainstay of the On-U Sound collective in the 1990s and continuing to produce his own wonderful electronic dub sounds to this day.

 

I've split today's selection into two vinyl-friendly sides with a full Dubhed Selection to squeeze onto a virtual side of a C90, if you want the whole experience in one go.

 

Side One

1) Your Best Tune: Andy Fairley (2022)

2) Problems (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood) (Cover of Horace Andy): New Age Steppers (1981)

3) Badman Plan (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood): African Head Charge (2011)

4) De Devil Dead (Album Version By Lee 'Scratch' Perry & Adrian Sherwood): Lee 'Scratch' Perry & Dub Syndicate (1987)

5) Hari Up Hari: Adrian Sherwood ft. Hariharan (2003)

Side Two

1) Danger (10" Version By Adrian Sherwood): Singers & Players ft. Bim Sherman (1982)

2) Watch The World Go Bye In Dub (Album Version By David Harrow): Little Annie (1992)

3) Dub In An Abyss (Album Version By Audio Active & Adrian Sherwood): Audio Active ft. David Harrow (1995)

4) Money Dealers (Version By Adrian Sherwood): Dub Syndicate ft. Bim Sherman (1984)

5) Watch Over Them (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood): Horace Andy (2022)

1981: Action Battlefield: A2 

1982: Virgin/Danger EP: B1

1987: Time Boom x De Devil Dead: A4

1994: Short, Sweet And Dread: B2 

1994: Happy Happer: B3

2003: Never Trust A Hippy: A5

2011: Voodoo Of The Godsent: A3

2017: Displaced Masters: Unreleased Versions From The Vault: B4

2022: Midnight Rocker: B5

2022: Pay It All Back Vol. 8: A1

Side One (22:16)

Side Two (22:54)

Full Dubhed Selection (45:06)

There Is No Sound Other Than My Heartbeat

A change of pace for today's selection, with the long overdue return of Chinese singer/songwriter Sa Dingding aka Zhou Peng (周鹏). Sa Dingding made her first appearance in part 5 of the 50@50 series which kick started the Dubhed blog back in December 2020 and popped up again in 2021 when I featured a remix of her song Capricorn.

 

This selection draws from five albums: Alive (2007), Harmony (2010), The Coming Ones (2012), remix collection Wonderland (2014) and The Butterfly Dream (2015). It's very hard to track a comprehensive discography, many albums seemingly not formally released outside of Asia. Sa Dingding's debut came out around 1997 and, as far as I can tell, she has not released an album since 2015.

 

Sa Dingding sings in a variety of languages, mostly Mandarin Chinese, Lhasa Tibetan, as well as a self-created language on several songs. Only one of the 13 songs in this selection is in English and provides today's post title.

I've inevitably been listening to a lot of summery, Balearic, upbeat or chilled out music in the past few weeks and Sa Dingding seems to fit right in with what's been on my playlist of late. No surprise then that Paul Oakenfold took an interest, remixing Ha Ha Li Li in 2010 and co-writing Walking Around The Mountain (with a very familiar bassline sample) in 2012.

 

As a late convert in 2019, I'm still dipping in and out of Sa Dingding's music and continually discovering and enjoying new aspects and elements of her music. The fact that I don't understand what she's specifically singing about is irrelevant, the emotional and musical energy is more than enough. I hope that in the next hour you feel the same.

 

1) 飛鳥和花 (Flickering With Blossoms) (Chinese Version) (Album Version By Sa Dingding) (2007) 

2) 天地记 (Ha Ha Li Li) (Remix By Paul Oakenfold ft. Spitfire) (2010)

3) 转山 (Walking Around The Mountain) (Album Version By Sa Dingding) (2012)

4) 绿衣女孩 (Girl In A Green Dress) (Mandarin Vocal) (Album Version By Marius De Vries & Sa Dingding) (2010)

5) 任乾坤 (Yin And Yang) (Album Version By Karsh Kale & Gaurav Raina) (2015)

6) 神香 (Holy Incense) (Tibet Version) (Album Version By Sa Dingding & He Xun-Tian) (2007)

7) 反弹琵琶 (Oriental Beauty) (Album Version By Karsh Kale & Gaurav Raina) (2015)

8) 雀神 (Sparrow God) (Album Version By ConRank) (2014)

9) 来者魔蝎 (The Coming Ones) (Album Version By Sa Dingding) (2012) 

10) 幸运日 (Lucky Day) (English Vocal) (Album Version By Marius De Vries & Sa Dingding) (2010)

11) 如影随形 (Something Like A Shadow Is Following You) (Album Version By Sa Dingding) (2012)

12) 致尚爱 (Dedicated With Love) (ConRank Remix) (2014)

13) 錫林河邊的老人 (Oldster By Xiin River) (Self-Created Language) (Album Version By Sa Dingding & Zhang Hongguang) (2007)

除了我的心跳没有声音 / No Sound Except My Heartbeart (59:08)

Black & White

Well, what else could I do...? The logical, some (me included) may say ridiculous conclusion of this week's accidental monochrome theme is of course a 'Black & White' Dubhed excursion.

The selection kicks off with Dollar, a duo who it has to be said I disliked intensely when they had hits in the 1980s and loathed anew when they popped up like a turd you can't flush away in last-chance-saloon reality TV show Reborn In The USA in 2003. In the spirit of Kevin Rowland's recent rework of classic Dexys Midnight Runners' album Too-Rye-Ay, I present Dollar 'as they should have sounded', surprisingly coming across like an Andy Bell outtake from The View From Halfway Down.

Asian Dub Foundation get things back on track, with Jazzanova and David Holmes putting a different spin on Calexico and Doves respectively. Martha & The Muffins appear in their short-lived M+M guise with a song so 1984, it repeatedly mentions the year throughout, instantly freezing the song in time. I love it. 

 

A special mention for David Devant & His Spirit Wife, who I always associate with the late 1990s and was therefore surprised to find have kept going into the 21st Century, releasing their fourth album in 2019. Luckily for them, their song Black And White appears on the only single I own by the band, 1997's Lie Detector EP.

Closing proceedings is a wonderful live take of Black Man In A White World by the astonishingly talented Michael Kiwanuka, stretching out the original album version to nearly twice the length. If you were there, I'd imagine you'd have been quite happy if the song had gone on for 15 to 20 minutes.

 

As a nod to the trio of songs from 1980 by The The, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Elvis Costello & The Attractions, today's cover picture is made up of screen shots from The Blues Brothers, which came out the same year. A superb film with a spectacular scene-stealing turn from the brilliant, beautiful and greatly missed Carrie Fisher.

Happy Friday, everyone!

 

1) Hand Held In Black & White ('As It Should Have Sounded' Version By Khayem): Dollar (1981)

2) Black White (Brendan Lynch Mix): Asian Dub Foundation (1998)

3) Black Heart (Jazzanova's White Soul Dub): Calexico (2004)

4) Black And White: The The (1980)

5) Eve White / Eve Black: Siouxsie & The Banshees (1980)

6) Black And White: David Devant & His Spirit Wife (1997)

7) Black And White Town (David Holmes Remix): Doves (2005)

8) Black & White World: Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1980)

9) Black Stations/White Stations (Extended Dance Mix): M+M (1984)

10) Black Man In A White World (Live @ The Royal Albert Hall, London): Michael Kiwanuka (2017)

Black & White (47:52)

I'm Just Another Western Guy With Desires That I Can't Satisfy

You wait ages for a The The post, then two come along in the same month. What better way to celebrate Dubhed's 500th post?

 

if you've been following this week, you'll have noticed that I've been running with black and white videos, hopping back and forth in time from Danger Mouse & Black Thought (2022) to The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967) to Serge Gainsbourg (1962) and now The The (1986).

Slow Train To Dawn first appeared on The The's jaw-droppingly brilliant album Infected and was subsequently released as a single in January 1987, sporting a typically striking cover by Matt Johnson's brother, sui generis artist Andy Johnson.

Amongst an album of astonishing songs, Slow Train To Dawn is a particular standout because it features a duet with the wonderful human being that is Neneh Cherry. This was slightly ahead of her successful solo career, but the name resonated from a poster that I remembered from the early 1980s, almost certainly in Smash Hits, when Neneh was a member of Rip Rig & Panic. Thanks to the wonders of t'internet, it took less than two minutes for me to track down an image of that very poster.

The video for Slow Train To Dawn was directed by Tim Pope and features Matt and Neneh in a rather intriguing set up. There's the literal: yes, there's a big old steam train and yes, you could argue that it's going relatively slowly and yes, it may possibly be the wee hours of the morning. There's also a (kind of) homage to the tropes of the silent movie, with the 'damsel in distress' tied to the railroad track, whilst an oncoming train brings the threat of inescapable and horrific death. Of course, being a The The video directed by Tim Pope, the imagery and metaphor literally steam and drip with sweat.

 

In keeping with the Infected album as a whole, Slow Train To Dawn's lyrics are open to multiple layers of reading and interpretation and can be said to touch on themes of masculinity, emasculation, misogyny, racism and objectification. I remember poring over the lyrics printed on Infected's inner sleeve trying to interpret and understand the layers of meaning, as far as I was able at the time as a naive, angst-ridden, ignorant yet questioning 15-year old.

 

Whether the casual viewer of the Slow Train To Dawn video would pick up on any of the song's themes and nuances is debatable. What is striking is that, despite having to spend most of the video on her back, restrained and largely immobile, Neneh conveys a strength and steely determination that defies the precarious and questionable position that her character has been forced into.

 

When the needle hit side 2, song 2 of Infected and I heard Neneh Cherry's first words in Slow Train To Dawn, I was properly introduced to an incredible artist. Raw Like Sushi landed in 1988 and began a rather brilliant solo career. I also got to go back in time and discover Neneh's history with Rip Rig & Panic and New Age Steppers. Neneh's reputation and influence as an artist was cemented in June this year, with the release of The Versions, with reworkings, covers and collaborations featuring Robyn, Sia, Anonhi and Kelsey Lu. Good though they are, of course none of them can better Neneh Cherry, the true innovator.

 

Slow Train To Dawn (Album Version): The The ft. Neneh Cherry (1986)

Intoxicated Man

In May 1962, Serge Gainsbourg released his fourth album N°4, including the song Intoxicated Man. As far as I can tell, 60 years on, the album has never been available outside of France, apart from a reissue in Japan in 2001. 

 

My Serge Gainsbourg primer was the 2002 compilation Initials SG, which places Intoxicated Man alongside other classics such as Bonnie And Clyde, 69 Année Érotique, Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus and Ballade De Melody Nelson.

I've belatedly discovered a promo video for Intoxicated Man, filmed in February 1964 at the Palais des Congrés in Liège, Belgium. It's essentially Gainsbourg pacing up and down a room then going up some stairs, with a world-weary aside to camera at the end of each verse. It's an utterly compelling two and a half minutes, soundtracked by Hammond organ, double bass, drums and Gainsbourg's voice that sounds marinated in life experience at 34 years old.

 

Apart from a vague memory of hearing Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus on the radio growing up, my proper introduction to Serge Gainsbourg's vaster body of work was almost certainly via Mick Harvey's English translations over several albums and singles in the 1990s, Anita Lane fulfilling the role of Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin perfectly.

Another recent discovery is this short film by Don Letts from 2014, showcasing the reissue of two of Mick Harvey's Gainsbourg albums, Intoxicated Man and Pink Elephants. The rather harsh lighting and monotone don't do Harvey any favours, but stick with it - composer and collaborator Bertrand Burgalat is a delight - and the music speaks for itself.

 

The YouTube post of the promo for Intoxicated Man includes the lyrics in French along with a rather wobbly stab at an English translation. I think Mick Harvey's version is a vast improvment, evoking the spirit of Gainsbourg's lyrical skill.

 

I try to fit too strong a drink in
I spy elephants of pink in
The pattern on the left lapel of my dressing-gown
Creatures on the carousel of my living-room

You sigh and tell me what you're thinking
You're like a violet that is shrinking
Into the patterned left lapel of my dressing-gown.
Spinning on the carousel of my living-room.

Love tells me of bigger thinking
As well as elephants of pink in
These patterns on the left lapel of my dressing-gown
These creatures on the carousel of my living-room

 

Intoxicated Man: Serge Gainsbourg (1962)

Intoxicated Man (A Short Film By Don Letts): Mick Harvey (2014)

The End Of Time

Sometimes, the only experience you need is The Jimi Hendrix Experience...

 

This is a performance of Purple Haze from German TV show Beat Club, promoting the single's release on 17th March 1967. Even in a confined studio setting and broadcast in monochrome, Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding are on fire (no, not that one). It's a wonderful three minutes and eight seconds although far, far too short.

 

Choking warning: traces of Hairy Cornflake found at the start and end of the clip. 

From Cold Water To Fever

Thursday's mention of Danger Mouse's 2019 album with Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O is a good excuse to highlight his current, long awaited collaboration with The Roots' Black Thought. 

Cheat Codes came out in May, though I've only just come to it following a series of official videos, directed by UNCANNY aka George Muncey and Elliott Elder, popping up on YouTube in the last couple of weeks. 

 

The album is choc-full of guests, from Michael Kiwanuka, Kid Sister, Raekwon, A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels and the late MF Doom (has it really been nearly two years since he passed?) but none outpace Black Thought's erudite and articulate lead.

I've been a fan of Danger Mouse's work since the inclusion of Ghetto Pop Life, his classic with Jemini, appeared on a Jockey Slut covered mounted CD back in 2003 and grabbed my attention. Cheat Codes is going to be another contender for my end of year lists.

 

 

Aquamarine (ft. Michael Kiwanuka)

The Darkest Part (ft. Raekwon & Kid Sister)

Belize (ft. MF Doom)

Strangers (ft. A$AP Rocky & Run The Jewels)

Drawn And Quartered

Happy birthday to my oldest and dearest friend, Stuart. 

 

Friends since primary school and Julian Cope fans for nearly as long, there was really no other choice for today.

This selection is pure 21st Century Cope, from 2000 album An Audience With The Cope up to the newest, umpteenth album, England Expectorates, which was released on MP3 and CD on Friday. I'm holding out for the physical copy so I've included the lead single and closing track, which I posted about at the end of June.

This is the Arch Drude at his more melodic - I hate to say poppy - and mostly short and snappy songs, with one detour into his Brain Donor side project. Nothing longer than six and a half minutes, many under three.

 

There are a couple of live favourites that took a few years to make it onto an album: the aforementioned Cunts Can Fuck Off has been performed in concert since at least 2014, whilst Liver Big As Hartlepool 'only' took 3 or 4 years to make it from stage to studio, with 2017's Drunken Songs. And yes, the latter's title is a piss-take pun on this Pete Wylie song.

 

As mentioned many times here and elsewhere in the blogosphere, Stuart and I have been to many Julian Cope gigs since the late 1980s and was the last live music we saw together in 2020, shortly before COVID forced the UK into it's first lockdown. With things opening up and a new Julian Cope album released to the world, fingers crossed that the Arch Drude will be hitting the road sometime soon. 

 

This one's for you, dear friend.

Side One

1) Zennor Quoit (2003)

2) Billy (2020)

3) Paradise Mislaid (2013)

4) Gang Of Four (At Home He Feels Like A Tourist) (2009)

5) Get Back On It: Brain Donor (2003)

6) Cunts Can Fuck Off (Album Version) (2022)

7) The Everlasting No (Version) (2015)

8) Liver Big As Hartlepool (Album Version) (2017)

9) Soon To Forget Ya (2007)

Side Two

1) A Sassenach Tune (Recorded for the Robbie Burns Festival) (2006)

2) Feed My Rock 'n' Roll (2008)

3) Very Krishna (2018)

4) Blood Sacrifice (2008)

5) Mother, Where Is My Father (Cover of David Peel & The Lower East Side) (2009)

6) Holy Mother Of God (2000)

7) The Death & Resurrection Show (Finale Edit By Khayem) (2005)

 

2000: An Audience With The Cope: B6

2003: Rome Wasn't Burned In A Day: A1

2003: Too Freud To Rock 'n' Roll, Too Jung To Die (By Brain Donor): A5 

2005: Dark Orgasm: B7

2007: You Gotta Problem With Me: A9

2008: Black Sheep: B2, B4

2009: Floored Genius 4: B1

2009: The Unruly Imagination: A4, B5

2013: Revolutionary Suicide: A3 

2015: Trip Advizer EP: A7

2017: Drunken Songs: A8

2018: Skellington 3: B3

2020: Self Civil War: A2 

2022: Cunts Can Fuck Off EP: A6

Side One (31:26)

Side Two (31:09)

 

Drawn And Quartered (A Dubhed Selection By Khayem) (1:02:34)

The World Is Waitin' Just For You

Side 1 of a tape compilation featuring The Boo Radleys, recorded 22nd February 1997.

 

In 1994, I upped sticks and moved to Derby. Not a completely random choice as I ended up crashing with my friend Stuart and his then-girlfriend, who had moved up there a few months previously to study at the city's university. It didn't take much hindsight to realise how very selfish that was, particularly as I took far too long to find a job and my own place and give them the space that they deserved. At the time, it was all me, me, me but it was also another example of why, time and again, Stuart has been the best friend that anyone could wish for. 

One of the things that all three of us could agree on during that time was that Giant Steps by The Boo Radleys was one of the greatest albums we'd ever heard. Stuart had the vinyl LP and we would play it constantly, so when we found out The Boo Radleys were playing live at The Wherehouse, it was a no-brainer. If you've heard the album, you won't be at all surprised to hear that, try as they might, The Boo Radleys just couldn't capture the sprawling, squalling psychedelic genius of the album on stage. Even so, we still loved them.

When I eventually got my own place, a cold, damp bedsit with a grotty shared kitchen in the attic conversion and shared bathroom with a bath that relied on feeding 50p coins into a separate meter to get the boiler fired up for hot water. My immediate neighbour was a lovely guy, but with a taste for heavy metal and rock, played loud, and a sole concession to Kate Bush's greatest hits. We went out for a drink a couple of times though he was constantly on at me to go to his favourite late night joint - I think it was called the Blue Pineapple or something similarly awful - to "pick up" older women. I declined his kind offer and thankfully soon after met a lovely woman of similar age and taste in music, so nights out with him were off the (grubby kitchen) table at that point.

I worked night shifts at a local paint factory, 2.00pm to 10.00pm, Monday to Friday. The pay wasn't great but my unsociable working hours essentially meant that I had money let over from rent and bills to buy records and go out a lot. Anything better than returning to that cold, damp bedsit! I got my own copy of Giant Steps (on CD) and picked up The Boo Radleys' singles back catalogue on various jaunts to secondhand shops in Derby and Nottingham.

I was back living in the centre of Bristol by the time The Boo Radleys' follow-up Wake Up (and their big hit single) was released. I didn't buy it or any of the remaining albums until some years later. I couldn't resist getting the singles though as they were usually cheap to begin with or very quickly in the bargain bins, following their brief brush with the charts on the week of release. To be fair, The Boo Radleys were firmly committed to putting quality songs on their B-sides and EPs, so it was always worth a punt, even if the A-side was at times underwhelming.

So this selection largely draws on EPs, remixes and exclusive (at the time) compilation tracks. On the original mixtape, Blues For George Michael was an early version taken from the NME cover-mounted cassette, The Mutha Of Creation, which ran to under three minutes. Unfortunately, I can't put my hands on the cassette (or online equivalent) and the single version from the Wake Up Boo! EP runs to early nine minutes, so I've dropped an early fade in to keep the overall running time in line with the original compilation. 

And yes, Wake Up Boo! is included. Worse, you might say, it's the 12" version with the breakbeat muckabout Music For Astronauts appended. This remains my favourite version of Wake Up Boo! though as even the band themselves seem to have realised what a silly song it is and thrown everything they can at it including the kitchen sink by the sound of things. Or it's all Martin Carr's fault. Possibly. I love it, either way.

Coming full circle with my point, this post is dedicated to my friend Stuart for putting up with my nonsense for nearly five decades, sharing some fantastic, unforgettable experiences (and music) along the way and for being a really, really good mate. 

More tomorrow.

 

1) What's In The Box? (See Whatcha Got) (Album Version) (1996)

2) Hi Falutin (1995)

3) Blues For George Michael (Single Edit By Khayem) (1995)

4) A Part I Know So Well (1997)

5) Petroleum (1992)

6) Leaves And Sand (1993)

7) From The Bench At Belvidere (Single Version) (1995)

8) Reaching Out From Here (The High Llamas Mix By Sean O'Hagan) (1995)

9) Spion Kop (1996)

10) Wake Up Boo! : Music For Astronauts (12" Version) (1995)

11) At The Sound Of Speed (1992)

12) Fortunate Sons (Greg Hunter Remix) (1996)

1992: Lazarus EP: 5. 11

1993: Giant Steps: 6

1995: From The Bench At Belvidere EP: 2, 7

1995: It's Lulu EP: 8

1995: Wake Up Boo! EP: 3, 10

1996: C'mon Kids: 1

1996: C'mon Kids EP: 9, 12

1997: Ride The Tiger EP: 4

Side One (46:19)