Was I Just Drifting Back?

Campus Christy emerged blinking into the Californian sunshine last November. My rheumy eyes landed on them for the first time in the Cotswolds nighttime about an hour ago, with the video for their second single, The Visit. 

Campus Christy is a new act perhaps but the names behind it are more familiar to me, a duo of Chris Manak aka DJ and producer Peanut Butter Wolf and multi-instrumentalist Brian Ellis.

 

The Visit is a cover version of a relatively obscure album track from 1967 by The Cyrkle, which was sampled by J Dilla (RIP) on his production of Get A Hold by A Tribe Called Quest in 1996.

It turned out J Dilla had been inspired by Peanut Butter Wolf's sample of another 60s song, Kites Are Fun by The Free Design, on his 1994 album Peanut Butter Breaks.

Chris Manak first had a go at a version of The Visit in 2001, subsequently forgot about it and, two decades later, found in Brian Ellis both the collaborator and opportunity to record and release a version and complete the, ahem, circle.

Debut single Very Complex is also a treat, wonderfully fat bass and a guest vocal from Piya Malik from Say She She, with another interesting video featuring family and friends.

Both songs are available to buy on Bandcamp though I'm going to hold off for the album, anticipated this year. 

 

Chris Manak is also the founder of the Stones Throw label, who have previously furnished me with delightful releases by Eddie Chacon, John Carroll Kirby, Washed Out, Automatic and, naturally, J Dilla. Well worth a visit this Bandcamp Friday.

We Have To Move Forward Before We Drown

Depeche Mode released a new single on Monday. Before We Drown is incredibly the 6th song to be lifted from 15th album Memento Mori since I posted Ghosts Again last March. Not bad for a 12-track album...

 

Memento Mori is another of those releases from 2023 that I've yet to buy or even listen to in full yet, but would likely have been raving about in my end of year posts had I done so. I haven't kept up with the single releases either but Before We Drown is a downtempo beauty with a video directed by - who else? - Anton Corbijn, who has worked with Depeche Mode for the best part of four decades now.

 

On Saturday, whilst I was having a whale of a time watching The Clientele at the Thekla in Bristol, my friend Mike was at the O2 Arena in London, experiencing Depeche Mode live in concert for the first time. As it happens, Before We Drown got it's live premiere on the very same night. Thanks to Luke Evans "Big Rig" Moments, we can relive those rather wonderful four minutes via You Tube.

I saw Depeche Mode for the first - and only - time at the Bristol Hippodrome in April 1986, on the Black Celebration tour. Suffice to say, Dave and Martin have come a heck of a long way since then. From the snippets I've seen, the O2 Arena concert looks and sounds incredible. 

 

All Depeche Mode singles come with a plethora of remixes as standard, usually a mix of established names and up-and-coming artists. The Memento Mori releases to date have been no exception, with versions by ANNA, Boris Brechja, Daniel Avery, Decius, Ela Minus, Gabe Gurnsey, Hi-Lo, Long Island Sound, Luke Slater, Matthew Herbert, Miss Grit, Rival Consoles and Wet Leg.

 

Official remixes of Before We Drown haven't yet been released but inevitably Depeche Mode fans were on the case as soon as Memento Mori was released, extending, editing, remixing and reworking tracks on the album. 

 

Here are four choice picks of Before We Drown for your listening pleasure. 

Before We Drown (Medialook Rmx 2023)

 

Before We Drown (80's 90's Remix By Maverick)

 

Before We Drown (Greg Esbar Rework)

 

Before We Drown (Spacelab Muzic Rmx)

Since Khayem Got Over Me

On Saturday, I ventured into Bristol to see The Clientele play the final night of their tour. As I ended 2023 at the Thekla, watching Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart, I was back in the bowels of the boat for my first gig of 2024, and it was another memorable night.

The photos, by the way, aren't mine. They were taken by the very talented (and well positioned) Brain, Heart & Eyes aka @egyptianreggae. They tweeted (yes Elon, tweeted) that Saturday night was "Honestly one of the best gigs [they'd] ever been to" and I have to agree. Brain, Heart & Eyes also managed to snag and snap a signed setlist, annotated with the additional songs played at two - count 'em, two - encores. More of that later.

The photos of James Hornsey, Mark Keen and Alasdair MacLean are great, aren't they? Much better than my effort as evidenced here, some way back and to the left of the stage, slightly shorter than several audience members in front of me.

 

What's that you say? This looks nothing like James, Mark and Alasdair? Ah, that's because it's not. This trio of troubadours are Bristol-based quintet Ead Wood.

What that you say? If Ead Wood are a quintet, why are there only three of them on stage? Well, turns out they were a last-minute support slot replacement and only three of them could make it to the Thekla for the gig.

What that meant was a lovely, stripped back 30-minute set by Ed Soles (vocals, guitar, writes the songs), Pete Woollaston (lead guitar) and Rob Fenner (pedal steel guitar). You can get a taste of the music on Bandcamp, as I did a couple of hours before the gig.

 

 

As it happens, I didn't recognise any of the songs but it didn't matter. Ed introduced one song as "Menu" then corrected it as "Me And You". Another was called "Cash Mountain", the working title for TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Ed packed a ton of amusing asides and facts into the between song banter but actually, the (West) Country-infused music spoke for itself: twangy, tuneful and making me think of wide open spaces rather than the windowless confines of a former cargo ship. Ead Wood were great and I'd love to see the full band in action in future.

A last minute addition Ead Wood may have been, yet they were a fortuitous complement to the sound of the headline act. I first heard The Clientele in the late 2000s, when my friend John sent a bunch of albums my way, included Strange Geometry, their second from 2005. 

 

The album immediately reminded me of The Byrds, not least a passing comparison between Alasdair MacLean and Roger McGuinn's voices and the beautifully melodic guitar work that underpins their music. Yet, the songs on Strange Geometry often fought against and broke free of the initially familliar forms and structures, going somewhere strange and unexpected, occasionally circling back towards the end. I loved it.

That said, I've not followed The Clientele much in the subsequent years. I went back for debut album The Violet Hour from 2003 and Suburban Light, the collection of assorted B-sides and one-offs that preceded it in 2000. However, I only acquired the odd track here and there from the later albums.

Despite this, I actually bought a ticket for The Clientele's gig before buying and listening to 2023's eighth album I Am Not There Anymore, or releasing that it was their first since 2017. Something told me before I'd heard a note of new music that I would want to be there on Saturday night.

The album is a maturation of The Clientele's music, rather than a quantum leap in style or genre. Five songs from I Am Not There Anymore were played on Saturday night, opening with Claire's Not Real, track 1 disc 2 of the double vinyl, with the rest scattered amongst the set list, with Blue Over Blue reserved as a guaranteed encore. The new songs sit comfortably with the older material, another 5 coming from Suburban Light including B-side Rain (aka "Monday's Rain") which according to James Hornsey, the band were playing live for the first time ever.

Since K Got Over Me, which sadly isn't really about me as we hadn't met until this gig, was played second and a real crowd pleaser though it's fair to say that every song got an enthusiastic response. Clearly a large proportion of the audience knew the songs, including the latest...which in fairness, has been out for several months, it's only me that got it late in the day. 

 

This was also reflected in the, what I can best describe as the respectful quiet from the audience when the songs were being performed. The Clientele's music is deceptively complex; notwithstanding the three-person set up on stage, stripping the lush string arrangements of the studio versions. At one point, Alasdair joked that this was the first gig where he could actually hear the amp when tuning up! 

 

But what it meant for the audience was a full immersion in the beautiful playing from all three members. I've read a fair bit about Alasdair's vocal stylings and Spanish guitar-inspired melodies and solos. Much is made (quite rightly) of Mark's delicate percussion and keyboard work, anchoring the songs but sitting quite low in the mix (no mean feat in a live setting, too). I've seen and read less about James' bass playing yet it's another critical element to The Clientele's sound and something to behold on the night. James and Mark left the banter such as it was to Alasdair and let their playing do the talking. And it was wonderful to see and hear, it really was.

I would have been very happy to hear E.M.P.T.Y., from Strange Geometry, but I would not have wanted to swap out any of the songs in the set. After about an hour, the band said thanks and farewell and left the stage, returning a minute or so later to perform another three songs, including a cover of Television Personalities' A Picture Of Dorian Gray.

Alisdair, James and Mark then left again, only to return another few minutes later to genuine delight and surprise. "I didn't think we were going to be called back again," Alasdair joked, "I'd started to run a bath!"

They played another of their "greatest hits", the wonderful (I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine and, as the audience appreciation was showing no signs of subsiding, asked if we wanted one more. Of course we did!

"We weren't expecting this," Alasdair said. "We don't have another song ready. Do you have any suggestions?"

After a few call outs, the band settled on Five Day Morning, the B-side of their very first single in 1998. A few "fuck ups" (as Alasdair put it) and fluffed lines meant nothing; this was something truly special and I found it hard to believe as they left the stage for a third and final time, that The Clientele had just played seventeen songs. It was all over too soon.

 

Thankfully, as mentioned above, Brain, Heart & Eyes managed to obtain and post the setlist on social media, so I have taken the liberty of recreating The Clientele's show for your listening pleasure.

As I only have three of the albums, which covers 13 of the songs performed, I've drawn on The Clientele's KEXP session in 2017 which conveniently accounts for 3 more songs. The last one - their cover of Television Personalities - is ripped from their concert in Paris on 1st October 2023.

As well as highlighting that, had I bought it sooner, I Am Not There Anymore would have been prominent in my 2023 favourites list Saturday night's gig has also set a very high bar for gigs in 2024. A fantastic night.

 

1) Claire's Not Real (2023)

2) Since K Got Over Me (2005)

3) Garden Eye Mantra (2023)

4) We Could Walk Together (2000)

5) Chalk Flowers (2023)

6) Lady Grey (2023)

7) Everyone You Meet (Live On KEXP) (2017) 

8) Reflections After Jane (1999)

9) Joseph Cornell (2000)

10) Bonfires On The Heath (Live On KEXP) (2017) 

11) Lamplight (2003)

12) The Age Of Miracles (Live On KEXP) (2017) 

 

Encore #1

13) Blue Over Blue (2023)

14) Rain (1999)

15) A Picture of Dorian Gray (Live @ Petit Bain, Paris) (Cover of Television Personalities) (2023)

 

Encore #2

16) (I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine (2005)

17) Five Day Morning (1998)

Since Khayem Got Over Me (1:03:45) (KF) (Mega)

 

I Belong Here Where The World Bends

A return to Gary Anthony James Webb, better known to you and me as Gary Numan.

Attempting a career-spanning retrospective, especially when you've allowed yourself between 45 minutes and an hour, is clearly a fool's errand. Luckily, I am a card-carrying cretin and this was no obstacle. So, here it is, 11 songs and 48 minutes of the (nu)man's work, from 1978 to 2017 (I haven't yet heard Gary's most recent album, Intruder, released in 2021).

The selection starts off with Faces, which was the B-side of the first Gary Numan single I bought - and an unlikely choice perhaps - I Can't Stop from June 1986. I liked it enough to buy the 10" and 12" singles, different mixes on the A-side but exactly the same B-side on both. Apart from a bit of vocodered vocal at the start which is probably Gary, the rest of the song drops in samples that appear to have been taped off of the telly. I don't know if it's more to do with familiarity but I've always had a soft spot for Faces.

 

I didn't get the earlier Gary Numan albums until well over a decade later. Up to then, I had a C90 crammed with choice picks ripped from my brother's copy of the 2CD Beggars Banquet compilation Exhibition, which came out in 1987.

Gary left Beggars Banquet in 1983 and released music on his own Numa label, apart from a couple of albums on I.R.S. in 1989 and 1991. From an ignorant person's perspective (yep, me again), the decade from 1984 to 1995 was something of a wilderness period. My only memories were the more distracting and less kind newpaper inches about Gary's flying (or landing) a plane, hair transplant surgery and support for the Tories and Margaret Thatcher, none of which did him any favours.

 

I generally haven't read much about Gary Numan's life but he has been quoted as saying that his "career was in tatters" by the early 1990s. Less surprisingly in retrospect, given the influence that they've had on his subsequent music but salvation came in the form of Depeche Mode's 1993 album Songs Of Faith And Devotion. A present from his wife, the album literally changed Gary's life, reigniting his love of music and setting him on a new course. Gary expands on this a bit more in a 2013 edition of What's In My Bag?

 

Admittedly, you have to dig deep at times but there are some gems to be found in this period, including Empty Bed, Empty Heart, the B-side of 1984 single Berserker, and the title track of eighth album Strange Charm from 1986. 

 

I only started to catch up with Numan's later output in the last decade. Sacrifice, released a year after Songs Of Faith And Devotion, was the "rebirth" album, a heavier, darker sound, consolidated on (lucky) 13th album, Exile. Again, no great surprise to find that another of Gary's What's In My Bag? picks is Nine Inch Nails. The stop-start dynamics, orchestral synths, merciless beats and lyrics that range from the deeply personal to the grand themes of God and The Devil. It sounds little like the super-smooth plastic soul sound of the previous decade, yet there is a thread that follows back to Gary's earlier attempts at a singular, angular sound through electronics and lyrical themes of alienation and isolation.

I thought that this selection may sound like the aural equivalent of a crazy quilt, bits stitched together but horribly mismatched. Yet, Everything Comes Down To This from 2013 seems comfortably sandwiched between two tracks from 1986, and the closing trio of Empty Bed, Empty Heart (1984), Pray For The Pain You Serve (2017) and The Joy Circuit (1980) seems a perfect complement and belies the nearly four decade gap between the songs.

Whilst my go-to albums will always be Replicas, The Pleasure Principle and Telekon (and the Living Ornaments live collection, whilst we're at it), there's much to enjoy in Gary Numan's subsequent work, up to and including his 21st century albums. This selection might send you off down a rabbit hole of your own.

 

1) Faces (1986)

2) Everything Comes Down To This (2013)

3) Strange Charm (1986)

4) When The Sky Bleeds (Sasha Raskin & Dolgof Remix) (2012)

5) Cars (DJ Coldheart's Mix) (2010)

6) Complex (Demo Version) (1978)

7) War Songs (1982)

8) Innocence Bleeding (Album Version) (1997)

9) Empty Bed, Empty Heart (1984)

10) Pray For The Pain You Serve (2017)

11) The Joy Circuit (1980)

 

1980: Telekon: 11

1982: I, Assassin: 7 

1984: Berserker EP: 9

1986: I Can't Stop EP: 1

1986: Strange Charm: 3

1997: Exile: 8

2009: The Pleasure Principle (30th Anniversary Edition 3x CD): 6

2010: Cars EP (bootleg MP3): 5

2012: When The Sky Bleeds EP: 4

2013: Splinter: Songs From A Broken Mind: 2 

2017: Savage: Songs From A Broken World: 10

 

I Belong Here Where The World Bends (48:30) (KF) (Mega) 

 

If that's not enough Numan for you, head back to my previous post in August 2023 for nearly an hour more of Gary goodness.

We Don't Really Need A Crowd To Have A Party

Another 45-minute selection of eclectic Eighties 12" mixes to shuffle in the weekend. 

I was an avid consumer of remixes as a newly minted record collector in my teens, spending a disproportionate amount of my hard-earned Saturday and holiday job money on 12" singles. My tastes were broadening from the outset: I had no problem parting with cash for Hi NRG, Pop, Goth, Electro, Rock, Indie or D.I.S.C.O., often within the same shopping trip.

For all that, I can say confidently that I didn't own a single one of today's selections until the advent of the internet, eBay, nostalgia-driven 3CD 12"/80s collections and as importantly, if not more so, music blogs.

Suddenly, things that had passed me by or were just out of reach were more readily available. Pre-Brexit and/or the sky-rocketing of shipping fees, I'd acquire tons of music from sellers in Europe and the USA. Without music blogs, would I ever have heard of Shona Laing? Or been able to deep dive into Joseph Watt and Art Maharg's Razormaid archive? Probably not.

Some of this selection may be familiar, it may trigger some fuzzy, happy memories or it may be music that you've never heard before today. If it's none of the above but it gets you shuffling and shimmying around the kitchen, then that's good enough for me!

 

1) Dancing In Berlin (Extended Version - Dance Remix By Giorgio Moroder & Richie Zito): Berlin (1984)

2) Flying North (Razormaid Remix): Thomas Dolby (1988)

3) So Bright So Strong (The Kissing Side) (Remix By Phil Harding & Paul 'Wix' Wickens): Nitzer Ebb (1985)

4) Big Fun (Juan's Magic Remix By Juan Atkins): Inner City (1988)

5) Work It Out (Acid Dub): Steve 'Silk' Hurley ft. M. Doc aka Marc Williams (1989)  

6) Beat Boy (Dance Dub): Visage (1984)

7) Soviet Snow (Meltdown Dub) (Remix By Justin Strauss & Murray Elias): Shona Laing (1987)

8) Our Darkness (Remix By Anne Clark & David Harrow): Anne Clark (1984)

We Don't Really Need A Crowd To Have A Party (46:22) (KF) (Mega)

2001: The Party, The Future

As an accidental companion piece to recent posts on Bagging Area and No Badger Required, I've been sorting out some CDs that I will no longer keep, having ripped them to MP3 some time ago. Prior to donating the CDs, I've been listening to each of them in their entirety. Some, including today's selection, have a tenuous link to NBR's excellent "Crossover Tracks" series (coincidentally, the artist in this morning’s final post also features here).

One of the (re)discoveries was two cover-mounted CDs released to accompany the Muzik Magazine Dance Awards 2001, respectively sub-titled The Party and The Future. With 'The Future' now being over two decades in the past, it's been a really enjoyable listen, both solid compilations and music that - to my ears, at least - hasn't dated as much as I may have thought. 

No surprise that Dot Allison was smashing it with the title track of her album, co-produced with Keith Tenniswood. Her current more pastoral music is excellent but this bass-heavy electro chugger is a welcome reminder of her dancefloor credentials.

From Edinburgh to Glasgow and a very pleasant surprise to find Monica Queen providing vocals to Chris Coco's All Of My Beautiful Friends. I got her 2022 album Stop That Girl as part of my Last Night From Glasgow membership and from there was belatedly introduced to The Kingfishers, little realising that Monica had been hiding in my collection all along. A reminder that I should also seek out the Chris Coco solo album that this track is lifted from.

Fellow Glaswegians Craig Morrison and Graeme Reedie aka Silicone Soul also pop up, a reminder of how good they were. Sadly, they appear to have called it a day over a decade ago. 

Another sadly defunct duo is Fort Lauderdale aka Steve Webster and Toby Jenkins. I've just discovered that they went on to form Higamos Hogamos in the late 2000s and Steve resurrected the latter to record and release an album, Generation Games, during lockdown. We Ain't Got No Money Honey is the opener of Fort Lauderdale's second album, Time Is Of The Essence, and it makes for a rather beautiful closing track too.

 

1) Mindset To Cycle: FC Kahuna (2000)

2) We're Only Science (Album Version): Dot Allison (2001)

3) Big Groovy Fucker (Edit): Plump DJs (2001)

4) Star 69 (What The F**k) (Wine 'Em Dine 'Em 69 'Em Mix By X-Press 2): Fatboy Slim (2001)

5) The Answer (Album Version): Silicone Soul ft. Melanie Clarke (2000)

6) All Of My Beautiful Friends (Album Version): Chris Coco ft. Monica Queen (2001)

7) Deeper Water (Wookiee Slut Extended Vocal Remix): PMT ft. Michelle Breeze (2000)

8) Darkness 01/01/01: Steve Mac & Yousef (2001)

9) I Feel Loved (Danny Tenaglia's Labor Of Love Edit): Depeche Mode (2001)

10) One For You (Original Mix): James Holden (2001)

11) We Ain't Got No Money Honey: Fort Lauderdale (2001) 

 

2000: ...A Soul Thing: 5

2000: Big Kahuna Kicks Two Sampler (promo 12"): 1

2000: Deeper Water EP: 7 

2001: I Feel Loved EP: 9

2001: Muzik Magazine Dance Awards 2001 Vol.1: The Party: 3

2001: One For You EP: 10

2001: Star 69 (What The F**k) EP: 4 

2001: The Drumbums EP: 8

2001: Time Is Of The Essence: 11

2001: We Are Science: 2 

2002: Next Wave: 6

 

2001: The Party, The Future (1:13:52) (KF) (Mega)

Do You Feel What I Feel?

Gossip are back with a new album Real Power in March, their first in over a decade. Thanks to Martin over at New Amusements, whose posting of lead-in single Crazy Again a couple of weeks ago alerted me to this fact.

Like Martin, I wasn't immediately won over by Gossip mainly because I'd read so much muso journo hype and feverish pronouncements that they were the future/saviour of rock 'n' roll that I was slightly put off before hearing a note of music. 

Worse, I remember hearing Standing In The Way Of Control for the first time and thinking that it all sounded a bit pub band. And I don't mean in a Dr. Feelgood way. And yet...

Standing In The Way Of Control was a real ear worm. And then there were the remixes. Everyone goes on about the heavyweight Soulwax rework - and it is excellent - but it's the Playgroup remix by Trevor Jackson and Le Tigre's dirty disco overhaul that sealed the deal for me.

And Beth Ditto, despite being a ubiquitous presence on TV at the time which can be as much of a curse as a blessing, was an unstoppable force of loveliness. I can't find any contemporary clips (after a whole 5 mins of trawling YouTube) but here's Beth picking out some records for What's In Your Bag? in 2018 which is a fun listen/watch.

My friend John gifted me a copy of 2009's fourth album Music For Men, which I loved and played lots and lots for a couple of years. However, I didn't follow up with 2012's A Joyful Noise which to all intents and purposes was Gossip's swansong. And yet...

Gossip are back and, having listened to Crazy Again and the title track of Real Power, released as a single/video last Friday, I'm looking forward to hearing the album. Everyone needs a bit of indie-dance-punk-funk-with-feeling in their lives. Well, I do at least.

Slight Return

A random shuffle threw up Does It Offend You, Yeah? who were one of those bands that briefly jabbed my consciousness in the late 2000s, along with Klaxons, Late Of The Pier and Bloc Party.

 

We Are Rockstars is one of a handful of songs I have, both in it's original and remixed versions. 

I wasn't sufficiently interested to check out their debut album, You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into..., and assumed that the band had dissolved before the end of the decade. Not so, apparently.

 

There was a second album Dontsaywedidntwarnyou and a headlining UK tour in 2011, then nothing until what was billed as a final gig on 12th December 2015, the last song of the set being We Are Rockstars.

 

Then, in September 2021, Does It Offend You, Yeah? announced a third album, We Do Our Own Stunts, was "coming soon". In April 2022, the band premiered lead single, Guess Who Just Rolled Back into Town.

 

However, in pulling together this post ("researching" would be really stretching the definition), I stumbled across The Band Before The Band Before an interview-based podcast which focuses on the "origin story" of bands and their musical journey up to the point of success, whether short-lived or sustained.

 

The series debuted in March 2023 with Does It Offend You, Yeah? co-founder and front person James Rushent. It turns out that host Chas Langston is an old mate, so the choice is less surprising. What was a surprise - well, to someone like me who had never Googled the band until 15 minutes before starting this post - is that James is the son of the legendary Martin Rushent.

 

I've only listened to a bit of the 75-minute podcast so far, but it's one I'll come back to, the brief extract a fascinating and moving insight into growing up as the son of a godlike producer. Rushent was believed to be bipolar (undiagnosed) which had a devastating personal cost for Martin, James and their family. Following a split in the 1980s, Martin Rushent remarried and had a fourth child. He and James worked together in later years, co-producing the Does It Offend You, Yeah? debut with the band. Rushent died in June 2011.

At the time of this post, We Do Our Own Stunts, is still "coming soon".

You Can Touch It But It Will Still Not Fade

Side 2 of a cassette compilation, recorded 11th January 1998.

When I posted Side 1 in July 2022, I described it as "eight remixes that I was unlikely to ever hear down the local indie disco, but which in their own way, kick ass." Side 2 is all that, and more.

 

If there's a duff remix of Planet Telex by Radiohead, I've yet to hear it. The UNKLE remix was possibly the first one that I heard, tucked away on one of the CD singles for Just, and it remains my favourite. 

 

Likewise, K-Klass took New Order's Ruined In A Day and elevated it to a higher plain, surpassing the original to the extent that I'm pretty sure that this was the version the band 'performed' when they appeared on Top Of The Pops. Or, at least if it's not true, that's how I prefer to remember it.

Arab Strap's reworking of Don't Die Just Yet by David Holmes has appeared here before, as well as in a guest post that I did in January 2021 for The Vinyl Villain. Again, a remarkably strong bundle of remixes from Mogwai, Delakota and Holmes himself and Messrs. Moffat and Middleton.

Mixed in are some trip hop beats from Attica Blues vs. Lightning Seeds, a bit of drum 'n' bass from Tamsin Elliott vs. Faithless and Lush taken on a gothtronica excursion by Spooky. And then there's Beck, put through the aural equivalent of a meat grinder by Aphex Twin and somehow surviving. 

 

Closing on a funky but rather more sedate pace is Jon Carter, shrugging off his Monkey Mafia mantle to mix the Manics. Phat beats and a trumpet, what more could you want?

 

1) Planet Telex (Karma Sunra Mix By UNKLE): Radiohead (1995)

2) You Showed Me (Attica Blues Vocal Mix) (Cover of The Turtles): Lightning Seeds (1997)

3) Richard's Hairpiece (Remix Of "Devil's Haircut" By Aphex Twin): Beck (1997)

4) Ruined In A Day (Reunited In A Day Remix By K-Klass): New Order (1993)

5) Reverence (Tamsin's Re-Fix By Tamsin Elliott): Faithless (1996) 

6) The Holiday Girl (Don't Die Just Yet) (Remixed By Arab Strap): David Holmes (1997)

7) Undertow (Spooky Remix By Charlie May & Duncan Forbes): Lush (1994)

8) Kevin Carter (Busts Loose) (Remixed By Jon Carter): Manic Street Preachers (1996)

 

1993: Ruined In A Day EP: 4 

1994: Hypocrite EP: 7

1995: Just EP: 1 

1996: Kevin Carter EP: 8

1996: Reverence / Irreverence (ltd 2x CD): 5 

1997: Don't Die Just Yet EP: 6

1997: The New Pollution EP: 3

1997: You Showed Me EP: 2

 

Side Two (46:02) (KF) (Mega)

Side One avaialble here

Significant Human Impact

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark are really on a roll. Fourteenth album Bauhaus Staircase, released in October 2023, hit #2 in the UK album chart providing their biggest chart placing since The Best Of O.M.D. in 1988 and beating Architecture And Morality (1981) and Sugar Tax (1991), both of which peaked at #3. Even if Bauhaus Staircase proves to be the final O.M.D. album, as Andy McCluskey has stated in interviews, not a bad achievement for a band going since 1978.

Bauhaus Staircase would have made my end of year countdown, other than I didn't get my hands on it until the festive period, with repeated plays into the New Year. It's a great album, very much in step with their 21st Century releases, History Of Modern (2010), English Electric (2013) and The Punishment Of Luxury (2017), and an invigorating listen from start to finish. 

There have been three four singles from the album, Anthropocene being the most recent. The title refers to the term sometimes used to simply describe the 'current' geological period of significant human impact on the planet. Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys have also released short 'song breakdown' videos, including one for this track.

Veruschka was originally a Paul Humphreys idea for the aborted second OneTwo, circa 2013. It resurfaced during the Bauhaus Staircase writing sessions and, after a Google search on the name, Andy was inspired to write a "film-noir ballad".

 

Slow Train is a brooding, pulsating glam electro stomp that immediately calls to mind Ooh La La by Goldfrapp. Andy took inspiration from songwriter Katrīna Kaņepe, who also provides signature backing vocals, to develop the scat lyrics into...well, it's still essentially a repeating verse with lots of Na Nas, Yeah Yeahs and Hoo Hoos, but it's also as catchy as hell.

 

The title track of Bauhaus Staircase was released last August and I enthused about it as great length at the time. It still hits the mark, nearly six months on.

 

But technically, it wasn't the first single after all. Don't Go was originally released in 2019 to promote the Souvenir singles compilation and box set and it's made it as track 2, side 2 on Bauhaus Staircase. If the song were a stick of seaside rock, it would have "classic O.M.D." written all the way through.

 

Mrs. K and I are seeing O.M.D. live in concert in just under two months' time. First time for Mrs. K, third for me and back at the venue where I saw O.M.D. first in 1986. I'm looking forward to the wave of feelgood from hearing them perform and I'm hoping that plenty of songs from Bauhaus Staircase get an airing, it's really that good.

How Many More Days Can We Take In The Hope Of Seeing You?

Belated happy birthdays to Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man aka Paul Webb. 

 

Beth celebrated her 59th on 4th January, Paul his 62nd on 16th January. Both were key players in seminal albums by Portishead and Talk Talk respectively, but when they collaborated on the 2003 album Out Of Season...bloody hell, it was magic. Sends a shiver down my spine just thinking about it.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see them live in concert but TooYube has come to the rescue again, courtesy of the mighty Mike Armstrong, who has generously shared this gig from the Paléo Festival in Nyon, Switzerland on Saturday 26th July 2003.

 

Prepare to shed some tears at the sheer beauty of it all.

 

0:00:00 Mysteries

0:04:39 Romance

0:10:20 Drake

0:15:02 Resolve

0:18:40 Spider Monkey

0:24:22 Tom The Model

0:29:09 Sand River (Autumn Leaves)

0:34:24 Funny Time Of Year

0:45:15 Candy Says (Cover of The Velvet Underground)

0:50:36 Show

 

[bonus tracks]

0:59:31 Tom The Model (Later...With Jools Holland, 2nd October 2002) 

1:03:19 Mysteries (Later...With Jools Holland, 2nd October 2002)

Paul has released two further albums as Rustin Man, Drift Code (2019) and Clockdust (2020), both available via his website.

Beth returned with Krzysztof Penderecki and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2019. Their collaboration was a singular reading of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3 (Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs) Op. 36, again available via her website.

 

The impact of both on music and its possibilities is hugely, hugely underrated. I'll be coming back to both of them during 2024, I promise.

 

And Out Of Season wasn't the first time they'd worked together either: Beth appeared on the song Jalap in 1997. It was a track from Fields And Waves, the second album by .O.Rang aka Lee Harris and Paul Webb. Now .O.Rang is deserving of a post all by themselves....