Potential

The second package I received as a paid up Last Night From Glasgow member earlier this year included The Bluebells: In The 21st Century and unexpectedly it's proved to be one of my favourite albums of this year. It's also gone down very well here at Casa K, which can't be said for many of my music choices and purchases.

 

I say 'unexpectedly' as apart from the ubiquitous Young At Heart and Cath (which both preceded and followed it as a single), I wasn't familiar with The Bluebells at all. So, I had no real preconceptions or prejudices but from the moment I opened up the parcel, I knew that I was holding something special.

 

The album itself is gorgeously packaged in a gatefold sleeve and inner containing lyrics to all twelve songs. I have the berry red vinyl - other flavours available - and it was a delight to place it gently on the turtable, lift the arm and drop the needle, settling back to hear the music begin. 

 

In The 21st Century is 45 minutes of pure pleasure, crammed so full of hooks, lush orchestration, tempo and style changes and singalong choruses that it's hard to believe that this is only The Bluebells' second album proper (third if you count 1992 Japan-only album Second). 

To illustrate, here are the official videos for second song Gone Tomorrow and Side 2 opener Anyone Could Be A Buzzcock.

 

 

As the album title suggests, this is not the sound of The Bluebells trying to recapture a moment in time from three decades ago. The beautifully lifting music belies some of the more reflective lyrics - shared amongst the band - that consider the passing of years, life experiences that have shaped them and the reality of the world as it is today. Ken McCluskey is in superb voice throughout, backed with glorious harmonies and melodies from brother David and Robert Hodgens.

 

It's imposssible to pick a favourite song. The album starts with Daddy Was An Engineer and i'd pick that, but then I hear the next song and the next song and so on. Orienteering is superb, Beautiful Mess is heart-tuggingly beautiful, but then what about The Ballad Of The Bells? And the closer, She Rises? I love this album more with each listen, it really is something special.

Today's post title is a line taken from Orienteering, "Do I have potential?" Taken out of lyrical context and positioned as a question regarding The Bluebells' capacity to gift the world with one of the year's finest albums, I wholeheartedly reply, "Yes!"

In The 21st Century and the reissued and expanded debut album Sisters are available with a selection of other lovely merch right here.

The Altruistic Southern Soul And Dub Sounds Of Happy People

Pama International and the Happy People label herald the return of some more recommendations from my 2023 shopping bag that may creep onto your Bandcamp Friday or Christmas wish lists.

 

"Hang on a minute," you might be saying, "why have you posted a YouTube clip of the opening titles and theme tune to Desmond's then?!"

 

Ah, glad you asked (well, imagine you asked anyway). Well, those lovely people at, er, Happy People also saw fit to release the theme song of the classic Channel 4 sitcom in 2021 and - somehow, I can't remember how - it was looking up this song that led me to Bandcamp and from there, discovering Happy People Records and Pama International. I enthused about the label back in April.

As an aside, what may have prompted the search was that Mrs. K and I have been revisiting Desmond's, the entirety of which is available on All4. The first series takes a little time to find it's way but it's brilliantly written throughout by creator Trix Worrell.

 

Norman Beaton plays the titular lead and also sings the theme tune, Don't Scratch My Soca, co-written by Trix and John Collins, who also produced Ghost Town by The Specials. Copies of the limited edition 7" vinyl are still available at a ridiculously low price or as a free digital download. 

 

But I digress, this is supposed to be about Pama International!

Discogs succinctly describes them as an "All-star Ska, Reggae and Dub collective starring members from The Specials, Galliano, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Special Beat, The Loafers, Pop Will Eat Itself based in London, UK" which is a good start. 

 

Core member Sean Flowerdew (ex-The Loafers) also co-founded the Happy People label with Lenny Bignell and for the full immersive experience - although I hope not literally - they also organise regular themed cruises on the Thames. If you're quick, you still be able to nab tickets for the London Intl Ska Festival Christmas Thames Cruise on 2nd December.

 

"Khayem, you're digressing again," you may be sighing at this point, "get on with it! What about the music?"

Ah well, my entry point to Pama International was a release from February this year, the rather wonderful Pama Int'l Meets Wrongtom In Dub. 

 

I'm a fan of Wrongtom's dub productions anyway, so this was a very easy purchase for me. It's a refreshing, energising listen over eight songs and half an hour, from the opening Nasty Dub (aka Lovely Wife) featuring Rico Rodriguez to the blissed out closer Dubbing In Outerspace (aka The Race For Inner Space).

Although released in 2023, the dubs were produced in 2008-09 and intended as a version companion to Pama International's 2007 album, Love Filled Dub Band. Thankfully, rescued from a dusty Peckham cupboard and available for the first time this year, Pama Int'l Meets Wrongtom In Dub has racked up many, many plays this year.

If this floats your boat, then you can also find similarly satisfying dub collisions with Pama Intl Meets Mad Professor and Pama Intl Meets Manasseh: Trojan Sessions In Dub

Don't stop there, though. Pama International's Southern Soul Of Jamaica was released last month...   

 

 

... with Return Of The Unity Rockers set to land in March 2024, alongside a promised UK tour. Bring it on!

 

For your further listening pleasure, I've re-posted the Dubby Happy People selection from April 2023.

Holmes' 13

This post was originally intended to represent a David Holmes mix CD-R circa 2005. It was all going swimmingly until I got to the final track and found that it's on a CD single, unripped to date and boxed away in a far flung corner of the attic. One for another time then but it'll be worth the wait, I promise.

Instead, here's a brand new 13-track, hour-long selection of tunes that were more readily available on my hard drive. It's a varied mix of music covering David's solo material, 'band' projects The Free Association and Unloved, soundtrack work, remixes by and for artists such as Primal Scream, Richard Sen, Ashley Beedle, Tim Goldsworthy and Secret Knowledge and a reciprocal remix to wrap things up by Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood aka Two Lone Swordsmen.

I like it, I hope you do too. 

Clan K are decamping to Valencia for a few days of cultural and culinary delights as well as some much needed R 'n' R. It's our first family holiday of any description for nearly four years - and it really feels like it - so I can't describe how much we're all looking forward to the break.

Rest assured, Dubhed dailies will continue in my absence: in a feat of unprecedented preparation, by the time you read this, I should have posts lined up and good to go. 

See you when I get back, sun-kissed, belly full, mentally and physically replenished and ready to foist fresh nonsense (my meanderings, not the music!) onto the blogosphere.

 

1) Boowaah: Unloved (2022)

2) Uptown (Free Ass Remix By David Holmes): Primal Scream (2008)

3) Sugar Daddy (Out Of Our Brains On The 5.15 Mix By Disco Evangelists aka David Holmes & Ashley Beedle) (Single Edit): Secret Knowledge (1993)

4) Why Not (Richard Sen Remix): Unloved (2020)

5) Lifting The Building: David Holmes (2004)

6) Bedroom: David Holmes (2002)

7) Lyman Zerga: David Holmes (2001)

8) My Mate Paul (Holmes & Goldsworthy Remix By David Holmes & Tim Goldsworthy): David Holmes (1998)

9) It's Not You, It's Me: Unloved (2019)

10) The Parcus And Madder Show: David Holmes (1997)

11) Salut La Dolce Vita Pt. 1: The Free Association (2002)

12) Minus 61 In Detroit (Full Length Version): David Holmes (1995)

13) Rodney Yates (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix By Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood): David Holmes (1998)

 

1995: Minus 61 In Detroit EP: 12

1996: Sugar Daddy '96 EP: 3 

1997: Let's Get Killed: 10

1998: My Mate Paul EP: 8 

1998: Stop Arresting Artists: 8, 13

2001: Ocean's Eleven OST: 7

2002: Analyze That OST: 6 

2002: Come Get It I Got It: 11

2004: Ocean's Twelve OST: 5

2008: Uptown EP: 2 

2019: Killing Eve, Season Two OST: 9

2020: Why Not EP: 4

2022: The Pink Album: 1

 

Holmes' 13 (1:01:35) (KF) (Mega)

'87 Heaven

A return trip to the 1980s, specifically singles troubling the UK Top 50 on 28th October 1987.

I was 16 and had just started sixth form college...for the first time, anyway, this one didn't last. I was sadly single, at the same college as my ex and was very attracted to a girl called Maria who shared a couple of classes with me. Of course, I was far too shy to ask her out for a date and besides, she'd expressed a preference for tall, muscular Italian men. I was a skinny weirdo from Bristol who had been to a gym and decided it wasn't for me.

Music never let me down, though. There was always something there for whatever mood or situation I found myself in. In October 1987, I was still pretty rooted in guitar music, leaning towards indie/goth, my mate Paul was introducing me to hip hop and rap and, much as I may outwardly protest to the contrary, I still loved cheesy pop, though Stock, Aitken & Waterman were a step too far most of the time.

The UK singles chart was a bit of a mixed bag in the week of 25th-31st October 1987. Bee Gees were at #1 with You Win Again, for the third of what would be a four-week run at the top. Amazingly, the song kept Faith by George Michael at #2 for this and the following week; I would have sworn the latter was also a #1.

This selection cherry picks seven songs that were heading up, down or just staying put in the Top 50, presented here in various 12" versions, my format of choice at the time. Spookily, pretty much all of the songs featured here had achieved their highest chart position in this week (excluding previous or subsequent (re)releases). I've put chart positions in brackets after each song.

 

For the price of admission, you will be entertained by Scarlet Fantastic and Fleetwood Mac respectively remixed by PWL stalwarts Pete Hammond and Pete Waterman, and John 'Jellybean' Benitez.

 

Bryan Ferry ropes in Johnny Marr on what is essentially a cover of Money Changes Everything by The Smiths, Ferry adding his own lyrics to Marr's original composition.  

 

Walk The Dinosaur by Was (Not Was) is a party song and 80s compilation staple. This is a much different, sample-heavy take on the song, which occasionally nods to the original.

Billy Idol originally released a cover of Mony Mony on his debut solo EP, Don't Stop, in 1981. Six years later, a live version was released as a single and cracked the UK Top 10. Tom Lord-Alge provided a couple of new remixes for the 12" single.

Blue Mercedes were a dance pop duo from the PWL stable, remixed here by Phil Harding & Ian Curnow. Whilst they didn't match the success of many of their label mates, debut single I Want To Be Your Property did manage the admirable feat of dropping for a couple of weeks after this week's peak of #47 then staging a recovery at getting to #23 the following month. Rumours that PWL A&R was giving children wads of cash to purchase multiple copies of the single from HMV and Our Price are unfounded.

Ending as it only can with the Queen of Pop, with a nearly 10-minute remix of Causing A Commotion by Madonna. The song was taken from the film, Who's That Girl, effectively a showcase for Madge's sidestep into acting. I'm sure I've seen it at least once but I frankly can't remember a thing about it. I love the song though I was surprised to find that the single peaked at #4 on 26th September and was on a slow and steady exit from the Top 40 by 28th October. Such was Madonna's impact at the time that I would have assumed that every single was a #1.

 

Today's image is from Doctor Who, specifically the story Paradise Towers, the 4th and final episode of which aired on 26th October 1987. It was Sylvester McCoy's eighth on-screen appearance in the titular role, an appointment arguably only slightly less controversial than the casting the previous year of Bonnie Langford as companion Mel. 

 

Although the show was 'rested' a couple of years later for nearly two decades, McCoy was able to establish himself as a great Doctor during his tenure. Bonnie's character rehabilitation took a while longer and via the medium of Doctor Who audio productions. The announcement in June this year that Mel will be returning to the TV show after nearly four decades was greeted with more joy than Bonnie could possibly have imagined in 1987.

 

1) No Memory (Extra Sensory Mix By Pete Hammond & Pete Waterman) (Edit): Scarlet Fantastic (#30)

2) Little Lies (Extended Version By John 'Jellybean' Benitez): Fleetwood Mac (#5)

3) The Right Stuff (Dance Mix By Alan Meyerson / Edited By The Latin Rascals): Bryan Ferry ft. Johnny Marr (#37)

4) Walk The Dinosaur (The Debunking Of Uri Geller Mix By Don Was & Jamie Muhoberac): Was (Not Was) (#10)

5) Mony Mony (Hung Like A Pony Remix By Tom Lord-Alge) (Cover of Tommy James & The Shondells): Billy Idol (#7)

6) I Want To Be Your Property (Daktari Mix By Phil Harding & Ian Curnow): Blue Mercedes (#47)

7) Causing A Commotion (Movie House Mix By Shep Pettibone & Junior Vasquez): Madonna (#35)

 

'87 Heaven (46:04) (KF) (Mega)

For your further entertainment, here are the official videos for each of the seven songs. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

 

Reinvent, Remix, Reveal

Marina & The Diamonds to round off the week, with a baker's dozen of remixes drawn from the three albums, The Family Jewels (2009), Electra Heart (2012) and Froot (2014).

Marina has performed and released records mononymously since 2018 but her earlier material is still fertile ground for reworks and re-edits. Interspersed with the contemporaneous remixes by 'name' artists such as Fred Falke, Benny Benassi and Blood Orange/Devonté Hynes, here you'll find some fan-based versions by Solitary Jewel, Gabrielle B, Exile and MATDMixes. 

 

Several of these bootleg mixes imagine a parallel universe where Marina was born twenty years earlier and became a huge star in the 1980s. Sounds odd - and the accompanying Photoshopped images are even odder - but strangely it works.

I've been a fan of Marina since hearing I Am Not A Robot for the first time in 2009. In an overcrowded world of pop, she's found a place somewhere between Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey that's unmistakably her own and continues to explore new territory with each album, whilst retaining the irresistible hooks of those early singles.

 

For more treasures, the official Marina website is chock full of visual and aural delights.

Oh, and a very belated happy birthday to Marina Lambrini Diamandis for 10th October.

 

1) Electra Heart (Alternative [Hard Rock Inspired] Version-Remix By Solitary Jewel) (2021)

2) Oh No! (Grum Remix By Graeme Shepherd) (2010)

3) Shampain (Fred Falke Remix) (2010)

4) Mowgli's Road (Mille Remix By Mille Ponken) (2009)

5) Froot (Synthwave Electro Remix 80s By Gabrielle B) (2022)

6) Obsessions (Ocelot Remix By Aaron Peacock) (2010)

7) Teen Idle (1987) (Exile 80s Ballad Remix) (2022)

8) Living Dead (Extended Mix By MATDMixes) (2020)

9) I Am Not A Robot (Penguin Prison Remix By Chris Glover) (2010)

10) Radioactive (Blood Orange Remix By Devonté Hynes) (2011)

11) Blue (Holychild Remix By Elizabeth Nistico & Louie Diller) (2015)

12) Hollywood (Monarchy Gliese Remix By Andrew Kornweibel & Ra Khahn) (2010)

13) Primadonna (Benny Benassi Remix) (Full Length)  (2012) 

Reinvent, Remix, Reveal (1:12:20) (KF) (Mega)

Projected Sounds, Electronic Sound, Plans Run Aground

GLOK aka Andy Bell is the latest addition to my far-too-long list of gigs that I bought a ticket for but subsequently didn't make it to.

 

I'm writing this on the morning of Tuesday (24th) and I would have been at Moles in Bath the same evening, to experience Andy, with support from the Bytes DJs and Bristol's own Minotaur Shock aka David Edwards.

 

An unfortunate and unavoidable convergence of events has meant that I will instead be ferrying Lady K to the far side of Bristol, whilst Mrs. K fulfills another commitment in Gloucestershire. And, when it comes down to it, there's no contest, that's the important stuff. Even so, a little gutted.

 

As consolation - or to rub salt in the wounds, depending on your perspective - Andy recorded a set for the magazine Electronic Sound in June 2022. GLOK is the second of (to date) sixteen Electronic Sound Live Sessions, spanning Blancmange, Ultramarine, Nik Colk Void, Scanner and Hifi Sean & David McAlmont. You need to be a subscriber to access the full content but at £1 for Week 1 then £5 per month thereafter, I'm sorely tempted to add this to my Christmas list.

 

The opening video is a taster of the set, Projected Sounds from the debut GLOK album, Dissident. Strobing lights, head down in Adidas bucket hat, a psychedelic mash-up of guitar licks and synth twiddles, it's all there in a mesmerising five-minute package.

Electronic Sound were so enamoured with Andy's set that it received an official release at the end of September. Gateway Mechanics is an eight-song album, reworking and recreating songs from the two GLOK albums into a seamless and satisfying whole. I went for the digital format available on Bandcamp, the limited edition of 500 pressed on yellow vinyl and available exclusively via Electronic Sound quickly sold out following release. 

 

As Bandcamp Friday is coming up again in November, a visit to the Minotaur Shock shop would also be in order. I'm also gutted that I'm missing David's set as I saw him live in concert for the first and last time way back in 2005, at the Fiddlers club in Bristol. I was a fan of the (then two) Minotaur Shock albums, Chiff-Chaffs and Willow Warblers and Maritime (the latter on 4AD, no less) and it was a great show as I recall. Here's hoping I'll get another opportunity to see Andy and David in the future.

Subsonic Sarnie

AKA Meat Beat Manifesto's 1996 two-hour magnum opus Subliminal Sandwich, re-sequenced and re-edited for a C60-friendly cassette experience.

The compilation which I recorded on 23rd February 1997 was pretty crude: I loosely drafted two 30-minute 'sides' and. apart from the opening and closing tracks of side two, I'm pretty sure I then hit the 'shuffle' button on my CD player and 'record' on my tape deck. The result was an interesting sequence of music, albeit with jarring jumps from one track to the next.

I wanted to try something different with today's recreation, particularly as the original compilation pretty much only covered the first of the two CD "limited edition double album". I've kept the 18-track and (more or less) hour-long running time; the beginning and ending is also identical. 

This time, however, there's a more balanced mix, with a third of the choices coming from the second, more experimental CD. I've also used Audacity this time - I didn't even have a PC at home in 1997 - to sequence the selection and provide a slightly smoother segue between tracks. You can still spot the joins at times but I'm happy that it's a more complete, immersive experience.

It's also allowed me to listen to the album again with fresh ears. Not one of Jack Dangers' most loved MBM albums, it appears, but I was impressed by it then and am probably more so now, not least because I recognise more of the samples and studio wizardry than I did over a quarter of a century ago. 

Oh, and that's supposed to be a brain on the cassette cover, by the way, a crude rework of the album artwork. I was working in a call centre in 1997 and this reminded me that I designed and drew several C90 sleeves 'on the job'. Sometimes the work was so mind-numbingly awful that this I guess was a mindfulness task before it was labelled as such. I don't miss the job itself at all but I met and worked with some great people and we managed to have a great time, in and out of work. Happy days.

 

1) Future Worlds (Album Version)

2) Sound Innovation

3) Tweekland (ft. Mark Pistel)

4) What's Your Name? (ft. Hell Louise)

5) 1979

6) Asbestos Lead Asbestos (Album Version) (Cover of World Domination Enterprises)

7) Long Periods Of Time (ft. Mike Powell)

8) United Nations (E.T.C.)

9) Set Your Receivers

10) Nuclear Bomb (ft. Daddy Sandy, Papa Levi & Tippa Irie)

11) Teargas

12) Mass Producing Hate

13) The Utterer (ft. Mark Pistel)

14) Assasinator (ft. Daddy Sandy, Papa Levi & Tippa Irie)

15) Plexus

16) Radio Mellotron

17) Cancer

18) We Done

Subsonic Sarnie (1:09:58) (KF) (Mega)

My Kingdom

My first Echo & The Bunnymen purchase was the Songs To Learn & Sing compilation, the limited edition vinyl with the lyric booklet and the free Zoo 7" of The Pictures On My Wall b/w Read It In Books.

 

I've no idea why I didn't get more deeply into the band as a teen as on paper, they ticked all my boxes. I loved Songs To Learn & Sing but even that wasn't a prompt to revisit their back catalogue.

 

So, it was roughly two decades later before I finally bought and properly listened to Ocean Rain (the 20th anniversary CD with bonus tracks) for a fiver at Fopp record shop in Bristol. 

 

It's also the first time I properly listened to the original album's penultimate song, My Kingdom (#9 of 17 on my CD), although I'm sure I must have heard the CD's penultimate track, a live version of My Kingdom broadcast on The Tube in May 1984.

 

It's a wonderful song, the opening few seconds reminiscent of Lunatic And Fire Pistol, a contemporary song released on Julian Cope's debut solo album. The song very quickly enters familiar Bunnymen territory, with Pete De Freitas' light brush fills coming in first, followed by Will Sargeant's guitar picks and Les Pattinson's bouncing bass. Finally, Ian McCulloch's unmistakeable voice and words,

I chop and I change and the mystery thickens
There's blood on my hands and you want me to listen
To brawn and to brain when the truth's in the middle
Born of the grain like all good riddles

By the time Will's guitar squall tears in after the first chorus, you're already halfway through the song and willing it not to end. A late discovery for me, but a song that grows in my affection with each listen. 

 

I've found a couple of live versions of My Kingdom on YouTube, themselves separated in time by two decades. The first is a performance for Spanish TV show La Edad do Oro ("The Golden Age") in 1984. Ignore the audio hiss and it's a riveting performance, Mac name checking manager Bill Drummond (lurking back stage) and coolly strumming his guitar. Pete, Will and Les are all in a line with Mac, front of stage, and looking completely in the moment and giving their all, even if the audience themselves seem strangely muted. A great performance.

 

Fast forward to 2008 and My Kingdom performed at The Albert Hall in London. I'm guessing from the visual edits that this is from a DVD release or a show that was broadcast on TV as there are lots of cuts and cross fades to the stage video backdrop featuring Pete De Freitas. The band are tight and Mac - in uniform shades and dark clothing - is in good voice, but perhaps inevitably it's the 1984 take that's the winner for me.

For the sake of completeness, here's the original album version from Ocean Rain, plus their recording for a John Peel session, the final of four songs transmitted on 24th October 1983. I had no idea of this last fact when My Kingdom popped up on a random shuffle and I originally drafted this post on Monday (23rd) but sometimes things just seem to fall into place, don't they?

The Fake History Of Dub Muzik

An hour long selection of Dub Pistols remixes, to bring the (big) beat back into your life and banish the blues of another working week. This one's dedicated to Mooz, creator of the awe-inspiring Moozler Music site, a repository of some frankly quite brilliant, genre-defying mixes.

Three weeks ago, I enthused about Dub Pistols' ninth and current album, Frontline. Mooz commented that he was new to Dub Pistols, bar a couple of remixes, and I made a note to self that I would trawl through my admittedly meagre collection of same to create a future selection and post. Typically, said post can take months, if not years, to appear so the fact that a mere two weeks have passed since I made that vague promise is bordering on the incredible.

Anyway, these pretty much cover a two year period in the late 1990s, when Big Beat was all the rage and Barry Ashworth's crew were one of the finest examples of this. The dub and dancehall influences are still in there but these mixes are all about giving it some welly in a nightclub and flicking that sweat all over the shop as you bust your moves. Or something like that.

Of the two remixes that Mooz mentioned, of Audioweb and DJ Spooky, I only own the former but the mix of Faker is superb so I had to include it. I'd argue that Hurricane #1, Bush and Limp Bizkit only sounded half decent when remixed and reworked to within an inch of their lives. I'd probably press 'skip' on the original versions of all of the songs featured here, but the Dub Pistols remixes elevate them to another level. Likewise, Moby's cover of the James Bond theme, unrecognisable as such here.

As for Korn, the All Mixed Up EP is the only release of theirs that I own and is likely to remain that way. Potty mouth precautions for this one is you have sensitive ears in proximity to your speakers. By contrast, we also have Natalie Imbruglia. So there.

I've had the Danmass single knocking about for ages but I've only just realised that it's Dan Carey and Massimo Bonaddio. I won't pretend I know anything about the latter, but Dan Carey is all over my record collection, not least for his work with Emilíana Torrini, Kylie, Róisín Murphy, Franz Ferdinand and Warmduscher, to name a (very) few.

Dub Pistols originally remixed Dust Junkys' Nothin' Personal in 1998. The version here, also known as Hooligan (Dub Pistols x Vega Remix), was re-edited and released by Vince Vega in 2016. One of Dust Junkys' founder members is Nicky Lockett, perhaps better known to you and I as MC Tunes.

 

In other undercover news, Girl Eats Boy is/was an alias for Lol Hammond (Drum Club, Slab). I discovered this one on a US compilation called Funk Off..! Vol. 1, which is an interesting curio of big beat and drum 'n' bass sounds from the UK. I don't think there was a Vol. 2.

Pop Muzik is an all-time classic and a fertile ground for remix artists. Dub Pistols first had a go in 2000, when Robin Scott (aka M) reworked and re-released the song as Pop Y2K. I'm not 100% sure but I think that the remix that appeared on the 30th anniversary celebration compilation in 2009 was an entirely new version.

 

I'm sticking with the late 1990s for tomorrow's Wednesday's* post.

 

1) Faces In A Dream (Dub Pistols Tornado Mix): Hurricane #1 (1999)

2) Napalm In Bohemia (Dub Pistols Mix) (Edit): Girl Eats Boy (1998)

3) James Bond Theme (Moby's Re-Version) (Dub Pistols Remix) (Cover of John Barry & Orchestra): Moby (1997)

4) Smoke (Dub Pistols Vocal): Natalie Imbruglia (1998)

5) Gotta Learn (Dub Pistols Sick Junkey Remix): Danmass (1998)

6) Good God (Dub Pistols Mix): Korn (1999)

7) My Way (Pistols' Dancehall Dub) (Remix By Dub Pistols): Limp Bizkit (2001)

8) Nothin' Personal (Dub Pistols Hooligan Riot Remix) (Re-Edit By Vince Vega): Dust Junkys ft. The Collective (2016)

9) Faker (The Dub Pistols Mix): Audioweb (1997)

10) History (Dub Pistols Mix): Bush (1997)

11) Pop Muzik (Dub Pistols/U2 Remix): M (2009)

 

1997: Deconstructed: 10

1997: Faker EP: 9

1997: James Bond Theme (Moby's Re-Version) EP: 3

1998: Smoke EP: 4

1998: The Woman I Love EP: 5

1999: All Mixed Up EP: 6

1999: Funk Off..! Vol. 1: 2

1999: Only The Strongest Will Survive EP: 1 

2001: My Way EP / New Old Songs: 7

2009: Pop Muzik: The Remix Album (iTunes Edition): 11

2016: Appropriation EP: 8

 

The Fake History Of Dub Muzik (1:01:07) (KF) (Mega)

 

* I changed my mind whilst drafting another post for this week, bringing it forward to Tuesday, for reasons which will become clear.

Hep Hop Excursion (Day Return)

Side 1 of a one stop tip top trip hop mixtape, compiled circa July to September 1996. Try saying that with a mouthful of muesli. 63 Sundays ago, I posted Side 2; now you can belatedly complete the set!

 

As with the previous side, this selection is skewed towards acts from or based in my birthplace Bristol; the final third features remixes by Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead.  

Red Snapper open up with a track from their second release, The Swank EP, although like many I first heard this on the Warp Records compilation of their first three EPs, Reeled And Skinned. Red Snapper were originally active between 1993 and 2002 and cane together again in 2007. The band released the rather excellent Live At The Moth Club album a couple of days ago.

In 1995, Saint Etienne teamed up with Étienne Daho to record and release the Reserection EP, featuring several previous singles and B-sides, reworked and translated into French. Jungle Pulse is a version of 1991 single Filthy, Daho replacing Q-Tee's original rap over a Hendrix sample and some appropriately dirty beats.

The Charlatans were no strangers to the art of the remix, with several collaborations with The Dust Brothers/The Chemical Brothers under their belt. Van Basten provide a rather fine remix of Feel Flows. Named after Marco van Basten, up there in the lists of the greatest footballers of all time* and who had retired at the age of 28 the year before this remix appeared. Whilst van Basten was born in Utrecht in The Netherlands, Van Basten the trio - Gary Everatt, Gary Webster and Martin Reilly - hailed from Milton Keynes.

As before, several of my favourite chanteuses, appear here with standout tracks: Plavka, Neneh Cherry and Beth Gibbons.

When I posted Side 2 in August 2022, the UK was experiencing an unprecedented heatwave, with temperatures of 33°C; no chance of that in October 2023, as the island recovers from the passing of Storm Babet. 

 

1) One Legged Low Frequency Guy: Red Snapper (1994)

2) Jungle Pulse (Remix of Filthy): Saint Etienne ft. Étienne Daho (1995)

3) Move Ya (Bedouin Ascent Funky Fix): Rising High Collective (1995)

4) Feel Flows (Van Basten Mix): The Charlatans (1994)

5) Blow The Whole Joint Up (Decks 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Mix By DJ Mek): Monkey Mafia (1995)

6) Manchild (Massive Attack Remix): Neneh Cherry (1989)

7) Boundaries (Tricky Mix): Leena Conquest & Hip Hop Finger (1994)

8) Sour Sour Times (Remix): Portishead (1994)

 

1989: Manchild EP: 6

1994: Boundaries EP: 7

1994: Jesus Hairdo EP: 4 

1994: Sour Times EP: 8

1994: The Swank EP: 1

1995: Blow The Whole Joint Up EP: 5

1995: Feel The Fire/Wanna Move Ya EP: 3

1995: Reserection EP: 2

Side One (45:06) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two here

* as I was writing this post, the news came in of Bobby Charlton's passing. Another of the greatest footballers of all time. RIP Bobby.