Today's selection shines a spotlight on guest vocalists. All of the nine tracks have electronic leanings, veering from club to dub along the course of under an hour.
There will be some familiar names - Boy George, Texas, Elizabeth Fraser, Guy Garvey - and some less so, but they all add something unique to the song, even when put through the remix rinse.
Most of the artists will also be well known, with a couple of surprises tucked away. Cabana was a one-off collaboration between superstar DJ Sasha aka Alexander Coe and long-term producer Tom Frederikse. The former went on to global domination whilst the latter swapped music for law in 1999, specialising in Digital Media.
The most unexpected pairing is perhaps Paul Weller and Boy George on One Tear in 2017. I haven't fact checked this at all, but was this their first time in the studio together since Band Aid in 1984? Whatever, it was worth the wait...!
1) Red Alert (Jaxx Radio Mix): Basement Jaxx ft. Blue James (1999)
2) Music Matters (Axwell Extended): Faithless ft. Cassandra Fox (2007)
3) Bailando Con Lobos (Goodmen Fresh Dub): Cabana ft. Sheila Schwok (1994)
4) Battle Box (Remix): Battle Box ft. Guy Garvey (2012)
5) The Hush (67% Mix): Rae & Christian ft. Texas (1998)
6) One Tear (Club Cut Alternative Version): Paul Weller ft. Boy George (2017)
7) Empire Ants (Miami Horror Remix): Gorillaz ft. Little Dragon (2010)
8) Group Four (Security Forces Dub) (Remix By Mad Professor): Massive Attack ft. Elizabeth Fraser (1998)
9) Strange Addiction (Bud Addiction) (Remix By Charlie May & Duncan Forbes): Spooky ft. Celestine Walcott-Gordon (2005)
The Sun Has Come Again To Hold You (58:22) (Box) (Mega)
Note: After yesterday's fiasco of accidentally leaving off Touch Me by The Doors from the Whatever Happened To Reg? selection, (running) order has been restored and you can now listen to/download the full playlist as intended. If you didn't notice the omission yesterday, please ignore this note and I may just get away with it...
Side 1 of a cassette compilation, recorded 2nd December 1989 by my friend Stuart for my 19th birthday nine days later.
I read the sad news on Sunday that Tom Verlaine passed at the age of 73, with some of my fellow bloggers posting tributes to him and, by default, Television and in particular Marquee Moon. In 1989, I don't think I had heard a single note of music by Television. In fact, it was probably 1993, when I sent a cheque in the post to Melody Maker and received by return a CD compilation, Rebellious Jukebox.
Commenting on C's wonderful Tom Verlaine tribute at Sun Dried Sparrows, Swiss Adam said that the title track of Marquee Moon "is one of those songs that when you hit play,
you're in for the duration, no way you're going to turn it off before
the full thing has unfolded".
I know what he means. Marquee Moon closes Rebellious Jukebox but it's not the original album version, a relatively brisk run through, stopping just shy of ten minutes. Oh no. This is a live version, clocking in at fourteen minutes and forty five seconds. Quite an introduction to the band, let me tell you.
Which makes the appearance in 1989 of Tom Verlaine's mug on the homemade (by me) sleeve to this cassette inexplicable. Verlaine - either solo or with Television - doesn't appear on the compilation at all! I guess I'd taken a cutting from a music rag and decided that Tom looked "Reg" enough to adorn the cover. So, this is my personal if somewhat irreverant tribute to the great musician. So long, Tom, you were something special.
Returning to the selection, being a 19th birthday present, you get a snippet of Paul Hardcastle's big hit before thankfully cutting to one of Pixies' finest moments. What seems so surreal now, thirty-odd years later, is that this was very 'now' compilation, most of the tracks having come out in 1989 or the year before, with the odd smattering of older songs. Stuart was into U2 and Cactus World News, we had a shared love of O.M.D., Talking Heads, The Sugarcubes and The Doors, and he was introducing me to R.E.M.'s incredible back catalogue. We'd been to see The Jesus & Mary Chain live for the first time at the Studio in Bristol the previous month and Stuart was raving about The Stone Roses' debut album, which at that point I hadn't yet heard.
This might have been the first mixtape that Stuart did for me and it's a good one, even if it did require a bit of fast forwarding at the end to get to Side 2. It's a snapshot of a time in our lives where the decade (and our teens) was coming to an end and anything seemed possible. Happy days.
And who was "Reg"? There was an inscription on the cassette: "Smarmy Reg Varney". Neither of us were fans of On The Buses or Mr. Varney, it has to be said, but it was knocking around as one of those meaningless catchphrases at the time. Sometimes, that's as deep as it goes...
1) Intro / Bone Machine: Paul Hardcastle / Pixies (1988)
2) Touch Me (Album Version): The Doors (1969)
3) UV Ray: The Jesus & Mary Chain (1989)
4) The Beginning And The End: O.M.D. (1981)
5) Unchained Melody (Cover of Todd Duncan): U2 (1989)
6) The Book I Read: Talking Heads (1977)
7) Just A Touch (Album Version): R.E.M. (1986)
8) Bee: The Sugarcubes (1989)
9) Reconcile (Single Version): Cactus World News (1989)
10) What The World Is Waiting For: The Stone Roses (1989)
11) Riders On The Storm (Album Version): The Doors (1971)
In
1994, MLO aka John Tye and Peter Smith released their second album - and
second of that year - on Rising High Records, eight tracks of
understated beauty called Io.
The opening song, Wimborne, is named after the market town Wimborne Minster in Dorset, in the South West of England. It's a gently transporting,
transformative tune, prime material for chillout compilations and mixes.
In researching this post, I've found that the Music From Memory label
released a MLO compilation in 2021 titled Oumuamua and again featuring
the original album version of Wimborne as the opening track.
MLO
also released the Wimborne Revisited single in 1994 and, as I was a fan
of Rising High Records, I bought it at the time without having heard
anything by MLO previously. The fact that the line up of remix artists
included Wagon Christ aka Luke Vibert probably swung it for me.
The
CD contains the album version plus five remixes, clocking in just shy
of 80 minutes. The aforementioned Wagon Christ, Spacetime Continuum
(Jonah Sharp) and Starfungus (Brian Douglas) all deliver downtempo
excursions that don't deviate too far from the original path, whilst MLO
themselves offer up a remix that briefly ups the tempo and extends the
song to over 16 minutes.
None of that compares to Daniel Pemberton's mix, though. An expansive, meandering mix over twenty five and a half minutes that, on listening, feels considerably less than that. If you're going for a walk, have a stack of tedious chores to do or have a rare opportunity just to relax today, stick this on and it'll take you to a calmer place.
It was lovely to discover via Swiss Adam's excellent series of Sunday half-hour mixes over at Bagging Area that John Tye is still making great music - this time with Pete Fowler - as Seahawks. Although they've been releasing music as Seahawks since 2010, I've only just been catching up to them since last summer.
I haven't been able to find out much about Peter Smith, post-MLO, and Discogs is frequently an unreliable source - there are over one hundred Peter Smiths listed. However, I think that it might be the same Peter Smith that's been a staple member of Band Of Holy Joy since their 2014 album Easy Listening, contributing synths and a multitude of other instruments.
Daniel Pemberton's career has been much easier to track, building up a sizeable CV as a soundtrack composer for film and television. The jaw-dropping fact that I learned whilst writing this post was that when Daniel released his first album, Bedroom, and delivered his astonishing remix of MLO's Wimborne, he was sixteen years old.
Celebrating Sylvia Syms, 6th January 1934 to 27th January 2023.
Not to be confused with American jazz singer aka Sylvia Blagman, Sylvia Syms was born in London, got into the acting profession and built up a hugely impressive body of work in a career spanning more than six decades.
The handful of tributes I've read have inevitably been drawn to Sylvia's bravura performance in 1958 film Ice Cold In Alex, made familiar to a whole new audience in the 1980s when Carlsberg repurposed a clip for a hugely popular ad campaign. There's also mention of her latter performances, particularly as The Queen Mother in Stephen Frears' 2006 film The Queen, appearing with Helen Mirren in the title role.
For me though, one of Sylvia Syms' standout performances, mentioned if at all only in passing, was in Doctor Who in 1989. In what subsequently became the final series of the original run, Sylvia appeared as Mrs. Pritchard in the three-part story Ghost Light. Should this ever come up a pub quiz question, the very last scene to be recorded for the original series's 26-year run featured Sylvia Sims and Katherine Schlesinger.
Personally, I
think it's one of the best Doctor Who stories of either incarnation,
with a brilliantly gripping yet frequently oblique story and standout performances not only from the leads Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, but guest stars including Ian Hogg, Sharon Duce, Carl Forgione and Frank Windsor. Sylvia's realisation of Mrs. Pritchard is sublime, adding a depth and nuance to the character that less skilled actors would have missed.
Long suffering readers will recall - possibly with horror - that I've occasionally posted a selection of songs drawing on a particular actor's career in film and TV. Previous victims stars have included Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth Taylor and Juliette Binoche. Today's selection with apologies is a dubious tribute to Sylvia Syms.
Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, no-one had yet to record and release a song called Ice Cold In Alex and I had to shoehorn in a Ghost Light song, breaking my usually strict rule of 'namesake' songs only. By coincidence, there's another Doctor Who reference in here: Frazer Hines appeared in the show as a hugely popular travelling companion in the late 1960s; his short-lived pop career was arguably less, er, popular.
I couldn't decide between the two choices for Together (which I think was Sylvia's final film role, released in 2018) so I included them both, topping and tailing the selection. Both very different, it has to be said.
Another tough choice was Absolute Beginners: the film's title track by David Bowie or the 1981 single by The Jam? Weller won out.
Before today, you may not have realised you needed a nearly-ten minute version of Love Story by Andy Williams. From today, you may realise that you don't need a nearly-ten minute version of Love Story by Andy Williams. It's a kitsch keeper for me.
Sylvia Syms' CV is such that a twelve song selection could easily accommodate some much-loved (by me) artists such as Tim Bowness, The Jazz Butcher, Soft Cell and Tom Robinson.
And then there's No Time For Tears by The Marvelettes, a pure pop classic that was a mere B-side - a B-side!!! - back in 1965.
All in, just over fifty minutes of music as a thank you to a brilliant, beautiful actor.
Rest in peace, Sylvia Syms.
Today's selection is also dedicated to Rol, of the wonderful My Top Ten blog.
1) Together (Edit): Nine Inch Nails (2020)
2) Lost In The Ghost Light (Giallo): Tim Bowness (2017)
3) Love Story (Where Do I Begin) (Long Version): Andy Williams (1979)
4) Absolute Beginners (Single Version): The Jam (1981)
5) The Human Jungle (Extended Mix By John A. Rivers): The Jazz Butcher (1985)
6) Blue Murder (Album Version By Todd Rundgren): Tom Robinson Band (1978)
7) Original Sin (Dance Version By Nile Rodgers): INXS (1984)
8) Punch And Judy Man: Frazer Hines (1968)
9) Run Wild, Run Free: Claudine Longet (1970)
10) No Time For Tears: The Marvelettes (1965)
11) Where The Heart Is (12" Version By Mike Thorne & Harvey Goldberg) (Early Fade): Soft Cell (1982)
12) Together: William Shatner ft. Lemon Jelly (2004)
Ghost Light (A Tribute To Sylvia Syms) (52:24) (Box) (Mega)
When I walked into HMV in Bristol to buy the 12" single of I Feel Love by Donna Summer, little did I know that it would blow my 12 year old mind.
Officially, it was to be a present for my older brother. I don't remember whether it was for Christmas or his birthday but this would place the shopping trip somewhere between December 1982 and February 1983. The single in question was the 'Special New Version Remix' by Patrick Cowley which had propelled it back into the UK singles chart, peaking at #22 in the lead up to Christmas.
Of course, I was familiar with the original which hit #1 in July 1977 but the 1982 version demanded to be bought, even if it was for someone else. My brother was heavily into synthpop at the time. I'm not sure I knew or sought his opinion on Donna Summer, but I didn't let the fact that he didn't own a single one of her records deter me.
What blew my mind when I picked the single from the rack was that the sleeve boldly proclaimed that this was the 'Special New Version 15 Min Remix' by Patrick Cowley. You what? Not only that, but flipping the record over revealed that they were understating somewhat: the A-side was a whopping fifteen minutes forty five seconds long! And the B-side featured a 'Megamix Edit' at a mere eight minutes and fifty seconds!!
I think my brother was pleased with the gift but, let's be honest, I borrowed it from him a lot, added both versions to numerous mixtapes that I compiled and, when he left home a few years later, I got my own secondhand copy to add to my growing vinyl collection.
After all that hype and build up, you may be disappointed to learn that today's Donna Summer selection doesn't feature I Feel Love. Oops.
What that purchase kick started for me though was an appreciation of Donna Summer's music. Being specific, for me that's really only her 1970s and early 1980s material; the subsequent team up with Musical Youth was cute and the Stock Aitken Waterman years are best hidden in small doses in 1980s pop selections.
Summer's work with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte is something else though, and they were masters of the long-form, whole-side-of-vinyl extended excursions. Patrick Cowley's Megamix of I Feel Love feels like a brisk run through compared to the likes of Love To Love You Baby, Macarthur Park and Try Me, I Know We Can Make It that all push past the sixteen and seventeen minute mark.
Today's selection picks a half dozen album and 12" single versions from 1975 to 1980. The aforementioned Love To Love You Baby and No More Tears (Enough Is Enough), Donna's collaboration with Barbra Streisand, account for more than half the running time; the rest never drop below seven minutes.
I'll be listening to Donna at the Disco on my commute this morning. If you happen to be in Gloucester and spot a middle aged man with headphones doing some crazy/sad shuffling as he's walking, that's probably me.
1) On The Radio (Special Re-Mixed Version By Giorgio Moroder) (1979)
2) With Your Love (12" Version By Giorgio Moroder & Pete Bellotte) (1978)
3) No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) (12" Version By Gary Klein): Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer (1979)
4) Love To Love You Baby (Album Version By Pete Bellotte) (1975)
5) Walk Away (12" Version By Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte & Harold Faltermeyer) (1980)
6) Last Dance (Full Length Version By Giorgio Moroder & Pete Bellotte) (1978)
I was introduced to the music of Richard Wayne Penniman aka Little Richard at a very early age via my parents' (admittedly meagre) record collection.
Dad doesn't listen to a lot of music these days and has long since got rid of his vinyl records, but back when i was knee high to a grasshopper, I became familiar with Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis. Chuck Berry (his favourite) and of course Little Richard.
It's simplistic to say that Little Richard courted controversy throughout his career: from a strikingly effeminate stage persona, all pancake and bouffant, both proclaiming himself as one of the first gay music stars to come out and later denouncing homosexuality and transgender identity on several occasions, not to mention his history of substance abuse and voyeurism off stage. And Richard's complicated relationship with faith is a whole other story in itself.
My Dad was ignorant of all that, though, probably still is to a large extent. All that really mattered back when I was a kid was putting the vinyl on the turntable, placing the needle on the record and the sonic blast that would erupt from the speakers a second or two later.
Many, many years later I bought The Very Best Of Little Richard for a few quid: 2 CDs, 50 songs, over 120 minutes of rock 'n' roll gold. Today's selection whittles it down to an even dozen, edging a few seconds over half an hour.
You won't find Little Richard's monster hit Tutti Frutti here, but - for this listener at least - there is one cracker after another from the 1950s, culminating in Every Hour, which I think is the B-side of his very first single, Taxi Blues, way back in 1951. An incredible and inspirational body of work.
In July 1991, The Psychedelic Furs released what would prove to be their first and only album of new material in the 1990s...and 2000s...and 2010s. In fact, it was something of a surprise and delight when in July 2020, they released a further album, Made Of Rain.
World Outside is a far better album than history suggests, tucking it away as the last gasp of a band struggling to keep up with the changing times and sounds. The two singles accompanying the album - Until She Comes and Don't Be A Girl - are cracking, even if the latter does come across like Happy Mondays' more snarky older cousins.
The 12" single of Don't Be A Girl came with a trio of remixes by Youth, including the Dancehall On Fire mix, which I featured on a 1993 cassette compilation. If you didn't know of the original song or the band, you'd be hard pressed to identify the remix as a Furs song but it remains one of my favourite songs touched by the hand of Martin Glover aka Youth.
I thought I'd posted at least one side of a cassette of The Psychedelic Furs from the early 1990s but apparently not. It's that or a recreated set list from one of the three times I've seen them live in concert. Either way, watch this space, the Furs are coming back (fairly) soon.
This is the second time I've posted about Tennis aka married couple Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley. The first time was last August, when I discovered YouTube series What's In My Bag? via an entertaining episode with Matt Berry. One of his picks was Need Your Love from Tennis' 2020 album Swimmer, a satisfying slice of pop that evoked the 1970s but also sounded very now.
Sixth album Pollen is out on 10th February and it promises to be another much needed burst of sunshine, this time transporting the listener back to the 1980s. Second single Let's Make A Mistake Tonight came out earlier this month and it's another dose of pop perfection.
Given the band name, a casual internet search will throw up all sorts of musical red herrings: Jack Tennis, Tennis Pagan, Hooton Tennis Club (remember them?) and the official Tennis website does little more than advertise merch, tour dates and social media links. YouTube is a reliable treasure trove though, not limited to Tennis' own channel.
Tennis sound pretty good live too, as this 2020 performance "In The Void" of How To Forgive demonstrates.
They can also do a good turn at stripped down indie guitar tunes too. 2014 single Bad Girls retains echoes of their second album Young & Old, which was produced by The Black Keys' Patrick Carney.
In fact, it was The Black Keys that first introduced me to Tennis back in 2014, with their compilation CD The Black Keys And Friends, given away free with Mojo magazine. This currently remains the sole song in my collection by Tennis. Taken from Young & Old, here's a gripping live performance of It All Feels The Same for the eTown online radio show from March 2013.
Coming back to the present and forthcoming album Pollen, Tennis' lead single was released in December, another should-have-been massive tune called One Night With The Valet. It's lush, cascading sound and cheesy-but-cool video belie the fact that the song is over and done in under two minutes.
Tennis have been releasing music since 2010 so I have a bit of catching up to do but the back catalogue shopping starts now.
On Friday, Björk released a remix of Ovule, the third single from current album Fossora. The original version (and video) came out last September to coincide with the album release. For the remix, Björk teams up with Nuxxe label founders, Shygirl and Sega Bodega aka Blane Muise and Salvador Navarrete.
The album version is very much what you'd expect from latter day Björk, lush strings and skittering beats, vocals dancing around but not married to the song. The remix retains elements of the strings but drops in more beats and more structure with a 'chorus' from Shygirl that ties the whole song
What I'd pay to give you a minute of this
All I feel is bliss when I think of you
I love it. You can view, stream or buy Ovule (Sega Bodega Remix ft. Shygirl) and Fossora from all the usual places. Pay a visit to Bandcamp and you'll find them both along with Björk's back catalogue; I'd also recommend stopping by the Nuxxe label page.
Woke up this morning With a funny funny feelin' And that feelin' Was an unusual feelin' Inna my bone yeah It inna my blood Inna my toes Coming up to my brain Went to the doctor To check out what's matter I Went to the doctor To find out the matter Doctor said, "Son, You have a Reggaemylitis" I said, "What" Doctor said, "Son, You have a Reggaemylitis"
I've been prescribed an hour of reggae and dub, twice daily, for the next week.
Apologies to Peter Tosh for pinching the lyrics to Reggaemylitis and then not having the common decency to include the song in today's selection. Reparations are due.
1) Walking In The Sun: Candy McKenzie (1977)
2) Workshop (Red, Gold And Green): Burning Spear (1976)
3) Monkey Spanner: Dave & Ansel Collins (1971)
4) I Don't Want to See You Cry: Ken Boothe (1976)
5) Jah Love Light: Horace Andy (1980)
6) Time After Time: Sylvia Tella (1981)
7) Cool Dub: King Tubby ft. U-Roy (1975)
8) What Colour?: Carroll Thompson (1981)
9) Soulful I: The Upsetters (1969)
10) Chant Down Babylon: Freddie McGregor (1978)
11) Wiseman Dub: The Roots Radics ft. Gladstone Anderson (1982)
12) No More Will I Roam: Dennis Brown (1975)
13) The Way I Feel About You: Marcia Griffiths (1979)
14) Pick The Beam: Yabby You (1977)
15) Feel No Way: Janet Kay (1980)
16) Drum And Bass Line (Live @ Notting Hill Carnival, London): Aswad (1983)
Been Losing Long Enough To Know (58:23) (Box) (Mega)
As mentioned when I previously posted Side 1, this
is the second volume of Fluke cassettes, somewhat confusingly titled (Singles),
with volume one being (Mixes). Both compilations are similar in that they're a bit of a free-for-all
of single (re)mixes, album tracks and remixes for other artists.
Unlike Side 1, which only featured one Fluke single, Side 2 justifies the cassette compilation title slightly more, with four. There's an alternative remix of Philly from the 12" single, plus Bullet and Atom Bomb, which respectively reached #23 and #20 in the UK chart, the highest placing of any of their singles.
Side 2 starts off with another single, Joni, Fluke's wonderful tribute to Ms. Mitchell, sampling Big Yellow Taxi. This is the slightly more polished version from their debut album The Techno Rose Of Blighty.
Top Of The World and Wobbler are highlights from follow up albums, Six Wheels On My Wagon (1993) and Oto (1995), both of which sold respectively but just missed out on cracking the Top 40 UK albums.
The final track is a remix of an obscure Tears For Fears song, the B-side to Advice For The Young At Heart, released in March 1990 and peaking at #36. In February 1991, a pair of Fluke remixes of Johnny Panic And The Bible Of Dreams were released as a single in their own right. Tears For Fears were not explicitly labelled as the artist on the sleeve or label, although a peek at the small print credits would have given the game away. This wasn't an unusual practice in the early 1990s and although it's success as a single was limited - 2 weeks in the UK chart at #70 then #72 - it was another excellent calling card by Fluke.
Jon Fugler, Mike Bryant and Mike Tournier called it a day as Fluke in the early 2000s, apart from a one-off live performance in 2009. A hugely underrated and underappreciated act in my opinion, Fluke didn't enjoy the same level of acclaim as, say, The Chemical Brothers or Underworld, but in their singles, albums and remixes they perfectly captured that feeling of optimism, togetherness and unbridled, bouncy joy of the 1990s.
1) Joni (Album Version): Fluke (1991)
2) Atom Bomb (Atomix 5): Fluke (1993)
3) Top Of The World: Fluke (1993)
4) Bullet (Bitten): Fluke (1995)
5) Wobbler: Fluke (1995)
6) Philly (Jamoeba Mix): Fluke (1990)
7) Johnny Panic And The Bible Of Dreams (Mix One By Fluke): Tears For Fears ft. Biti Strauchn (1991)
Side 2 of a cassette compilation, recorded 22nd January 1990 and looking back on the 1980s.
Whereas Side 1 was firmly rooted in the first half of the decade, Side 2 is split 50/50, slightly favouring 1986 to 1989 and 7" and 12" single versions. A few songs have appeared previously, others albeit in different versions/remixes, whilst some I'm surprised to find haven't featured before now. Incredibly, this is the first time that Faith No More have been on this blog, full stop. Introduce Yourself, indeed.
I realise I could have waited a couple of days to post this on the 33rd anniversary of originally recording this compilation but I saw that I'd previously uploaded Side 1 on a Friday and I decided to do the same here. Let's face it, Side 2 is definitely more Friday than Sunday listening!
This one's for Dave. Fourteen years and still miss you lots.
1) Burning Down The House (Album Version): Talking Heads (1983)
2) House (Flashback Mix): The Psychedelic Furs (1989)
3) How Soon Is Now? (Single Edit): The Smiths (1985)
4) Spellbound (Album Version): Siouxsie & The Banshees (1981)
5) We Care A Lot (Album Version): Faith No More (1987)
6) River Euphrates (Single Version): Pixies (1988)
7) Never Let Me Down Again (Tsangarides Mix): Depeche Mode (1987)
8) All We Ever Wanted Was Everything: Bauhaus (1982)
9) Deus (10" Remix): The Sugarcubes (1988)
10) Kiss (Leeds v. The Bronx) (Remix By DJ Chakk) (Cover of Prince): Age Of Chance (1986)
11) Perfect Blue (Album Version): Lloyd Cole & The Commotions (1985)
1981: Juju: 4
1982: The Sky's Gone Out: 8
1983: Speaking In Tongues: 1
1985: Easy Pieces: 11
1985: How Soon Is Now? (7" single): 3
1986: Kiss (Jack-Knife Remixes) (limited edition 12" single): 10
1987: Introduce Yourself: 5
1987: Never Let Me Down Again (limited edition 12" single): 7
Postponed from Wednesday, today's selection features Tricky aka Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws.
And about time too. Although, having said that, if I've done a bit more homework in preparing this, I might have delayed it just over a week and posted it on 27th January to celebrate Tricky's 55th birthday.
Sod it, he's waited long enough for a Dubhed selection, let's do it.
The above title refers to Knowle West, the south Bristol suburb where Tricky was born, five and a half decades ago. I was born a few years later but was living in a neighbouring - albeit rapidly gentrifying - suburb in the mid-90s and was well familiar with the term. The first time I remember seeing reference to The Bristol Bronx in print though was in the CD/Book series Volume. Number Ten to be precise, which previewed a song by Tricky (You Don't) from his then forthcoming debut album.
How much has changed since then. Tricky has swapped Bristol for Berlin and following that astonishing debut has released a steady stream of albums under his own name and a variety of aliases, Tricky's most recent project being 2021's Lonely Guest.
This selection of a dozen Tricky songs spans a twenty year period from 1995 to 2015. It skips the ubiquitous debut album, Maxinquaye, and cuts off at 2015 (which, in Tricky currency, converts into at least five albums and numerous other releases). What I love about Tricky is his endless hunger for collaboration, for blurring the boundaries between hip hop and pop, rock and rap and this selection provides a dizzying tour of the world.
To make up for the absence of anything from Tricky's debut album Maxinquaye, here's the video for Overcome, which I feel is often overlooked in favour of Aftermath, Ponderosa or Hell Is Round The Corner. The third of six (!) singles from the album, it was the first to crack the UK Top 40, entering at #34 in late January 1995.
I think I've only seen the video a couple of times previously, on TV, but it's a visually stunning few minutes directed by Mike Lipscombe, whose CV includes Inner City Life by Goldie, Angel by Gavin Friday, Deeper Underground by Jamiroquai and The Everlasting by Manic Street Preachers.
In December 2022, SWC over at No Badger Required wrote a brilliant post about Maxinquaye as one of the "Nearly Perfect Albums" series. If you'd never heard the album before, you'd read the post and want to rush out to buy it. If you had heard it before, you'd read the post and want to buy the album again. It really is that good.
I featured Lonely Guest here last July, proof if any needed that Tricky has not stood still since hanging with The Wild Bunch in the late 80s, constantly growing and developing as an artist. Hopefully, this selection gives a brief snapshot.
It's 30 years in March (I think) since Tricky dropped the first white labels of Aftermath. I'll aim to come back to the Knowle West Boy then with possibly a more ambitious career-spanning selection.
In the meantime, if your appetite has been well and truly whet, check out Tricky's False Idols label on Bandcamp.
1) Broken Homes (Album Version): Tricky ft. PJ Harvey (1998)
2) ESP: Tricky ft. Liz Densmore (2003)
3) For Real (Hip-Hop Remix By Dame Grease aka Damon Blackman): Tricky (1999)
4) Same Old Song: Tricky ft. Ajeya (2015)
5) Ghetto Youth (Album Version): Tricky ft. Sky (1995)
6) Scrappy Love: Tricky ft. DJ Muggs & Grease (1999)
7) Somebody's Sins: Tricky ft. Francesca Belmonte (2013)
8) Puppy Toy (Album Version): Tricky ft. Alex Mills (2008)
9) Hakim: Tricky ft. Hakim Hamadouche (2010)
10) Bury The Evidence: Tricky ft. Hawkman (2001)
11) 360º: Tricky ft. Martina Topley-Bird (1998)
12) Cross To Bear (Remix By South Rakkas Crew): Tricky ft. Hafdis Huld (2009)
