Like Ground Up Diamonds Fired Through A High Pressure Hose

Celebrating Keith Levene, 18th July 1957 to 11th November 2022.

I returned home yesterday afternoon to news of Keith Levene's passing, sad news in what has been a pretty awful week, both in respect of losses to music and life in general.

I've pulled this post and selection together early on Sunday morning, so I'm still processing how much Keith Levene meant to me and I can't find words to articulate this better than the hundreds of posts, Tweets and tributes that I've read in the past 12 hours or so. 

 

From the first time I heard Public Image by PiL in the mid-1980s through to his reunion with Jah Wobble on 2020's A Very British Coup, Keith Levene has featured on so much of the music that has influenced and shaped my interest and fuelled my passion, whether on guitar, keyboards, as a songwriter, collaborator or occasionally singer.

Keith Levene's guitar playing was like something transmitted from another universe. Andy Bell described it beautifully in his Tweet tribute, my clumsy paraphrase providing the title for today's selection.

 

As with pretty much all of my cobbled-together-at-short-notice selections, the ten songs featured don't begin to do justice to the breadth and sheer jaw-dropping wonder of Keith Levine's contribution to music. I've inadvertently not included anything from the 1990s and 2000s, so the selection is roughly split 50/50 into 1970s/80s and 21st century music. There's a lot missing that I would have liked to include but it would have made for a 4-hour plus selection! Instead, here's just under an hour of music to celebrate a true genius.

RIP Keith.

 

1) Dark Matter (Keith Levene Remix): The Membranes (2016)

2) No Birds Do Sing: Public Image Ltd. (1979)

3) Yin & Yang: Jah Wobble & Keith Levene (2012)

4) Gang War: Mark Stewart ft. Lee 'Scratch' Perry & Keith Levene (2012)

5) Bit Of Prague Comp: Keith Levene (2014)

6) A Very British Coup (Video Edit): Jah Wobble ft. Keith Levene, Richard Dudanski, Mark Stewart & Youth (2020)

7) Nuclear Zulu (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood): New Age Steppers (1981)

8) Beef (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood): Gary Clail / On-U Sound System ft. Bim Sherman, Jah Wobble & Keith Levene (1989)

9) Wish: Cowboys International ft. Keith Levene (1979)

10) Haile Unlikely By The Electric Dread / Unlikely Pub: Don Letts, Stratetime Keith, Steel Leg, Jah Wobble (1978)

1978: Steel Leg v The Electric Dread EP: 10

1979: Metal Box: 2

1979: The Original Sin: 9

1981: Action Battlefield: 7

1989: End Of The Century Party: 8

2012: The Politics Of Envy: 4

2012: Yin & Yang: 3

2014: CZ2014: 5

2016: Inner Space/Outer Space: 1

2020: A Very British Coup EP: 6

Like Ground Up Diamonds Fired Through A High Pressure Hose (52:49) (Box) (Mega)