A Different Donald

Celebrating Donald Sutherland, 17th July 1935 to 20th June 2024.

A brilliant actor, Martin over at New Amusements nailed it with a succinct and spot-on summation of his star turn in the 1978 remake of Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers, also a personal favourite. 

Donald brought an intensity to every role that he played, sometimes seemingly effortlessly, always enhanced by those piercing blue eyes. In ...Bodysnatchers, you could absolutely believe that Donald's character had gone for days without sleep and was running on empty...and that final scene. Stayed with me for a long time!

It was also a joy to see Donald appear in the video for Cloudbusting along with Kate Bush. Frankly, whatever he was in was better for his presence. Much is made of Will Smith's against-type role in 1993's Six Degrees Of Separation, but it stands or falls on the dynamic with the couple that his character encounters. It works because Donald and Stockard Channing were cast in the roles. Worth watching if you can track it down.

 

Which clumsily dovetails into the theme of today's selection. Unlike son Kiefer, Donald didn't release any albums or play gigs at the Cheese & Grain in Frome, However, he has appeared in many, many films, and there are plenty of songs in my collection that share titles. I've got form with this, having created previous selections based on the work of Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth Taylor and Juliette Binoche (possibly others, but I forget).

Unfortunately, no songs titled Six Degrees Of Separation (I do have a 12" by a band of that name, which I'll spare you) but I did run a few posts last year based on the fun variation Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon. 

 

So, an obvious starter for today's selection were The Comsat Angels, whose members include (the other) Kevin Bacon. Conveniently, they also recorded a song for 1982 album Fiction with the same name as one of Donald's most famous films. Don't Look Now, but I think I've got away with that tenuous connection!

It's an eclectic sequence of songs and artists, taking in Roxy Music, The Kingfishers, Black Uhuru, late period Ultravox and Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud collaborating with Anni Hogan and Thomas Lang. I've taken some liberties with spelling and the inclusion or omission of the definite article here and there. I've also crowbarred in a reference to Donald's starring role in 1971 film Klute, where the titular drum & bass artist appears in the song name. It also allows me to sneak Mogwai in through the back door. Just imagine if Donald had accepted a role in Gremlins, it would have been even better...!

I felt compelled to include Cloudbusting but at the eleventh hour swapped Kate Bush for a cover version that Neil Halstead (Slowdive, Mojave 3) recorded for a US compilation in 2010. I like it.

It seemed appropriate somehow to pick a fellow Canadian to close the selection, and Neil Young happily stepped up to the mark. Ordinary People was Robert Redford's directorial debut in 1980 and Donald is astonishing as you might expect. Timothy Hutton won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Donald was never nominated for an Academy Award, though he received an honorary Oscar in 2017.  

Not one to do things by halves, Neil Young's take on Ordinary People is an 18-minute chug-a-thon epic, with all the bells and whistles that you may expect, but doesn't feel a second too long. I don't know what Donald thought of Neil's music but I've just discovered that they did meet at least once, when they were both inducted into Canada's Walk Of Fame in 2000, along with Joni Mitchell, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short and William Shatner. Now, that must have been some dinner table conversation...!

Ninety minutes of music then that I hope will also get you looking up some more of Donald's films - Kelly's Heroes! - and rediscovering what singular, otherworldly talent Donald Sutherland is.

And the post title? Well, another take is that when I read the sad news, I wished that the Grim Reaper had come calling for a different Donald instead...

Rest easy, Mr. Sutherland, you did good.

1) Don't Look Now: The Comsat Angels (1982)

2) Casanova: Roxy Music (1974)

3) Instinct: Iggy Pop (1988)

4) Setting Sun (Edit): The Aliens (2007)

5) The Eye Of The Needle: The Kingfishers (2023)

6) Alone: Scanner & Anni Hogan ft. Thomas Lang (2016)

7) Fools Gold (7" Version By John Leckie): The Stone Roses (1989)

8) Heaven Help Us (Try) (Manyanamegamix): Zeke Manyika ft. Sylvia & The Sapphires (1984)

9) Ask The Dust: The Porch Song Anthology (2006)

10) Kelly's Heroes (Album Version): Black Grape (1995)

11) The Great Train Robbery (Dance Mix By Arthur Baker): Black Uhuru (1986) 

12) Cloudbusting (Cover of Kate Bush): Neil Halstead (2010)

13) Thee Eagle Has Landed: Genesis P-Orridge & Psychic TV (1994)

14) Summer (Klute's Weird Winter Remix By Tom Withers): Mogwai (1998)

15) Time To Kill (Album Version): Ultravox (1986)

16) Ordinary People: Neil Young (2007)

1974: Country Life: 2

1982: Fiction: 1

1984: Heaven Help Us (Try) EP: 8 

1986: The Great Train Robbery EP: 11

1986: U-Vox: 15

1988: Instinct: 3

1989: Fools Gold EP: 7 

1994: Ultradrug: 13

1995: It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah: 10 

1998: Kicking A Dead Pig: Mogwai Songs Remixed: 14

2006: Spell Of The Trembling Earth: 9

2007: Chrome Dreams II: 16

2007: Setting Sun EP: 4

2010: Sing Me To Sleep, Indie Lullabies: 12

2016: Scanni: 6

2023: Reflections In A Silver Sound: 5

A Different Donald (1:30:03) (KF) (Mega)

Movies, Memories, Mullets And Mohicans

On Monday, Fontaines D.C. dropped a second teaser from forthcoming fourth studio album Romance.

 

Favourite closes the album and it's possibly their most poppy effort yet. It's the first song of theirs that prompts me to think of The Chameleons, if they had decided in the mid-80s to make a conscious decision to crack the UK Top 40 singles chart. Grian Chatten sings over a jangly guitar line that evokes that era's perfect indie meld of melancholy and euphoria, with harmony lines and uptempo rhythm driving the song along. 

The video's a treat, too, mostly made up of snippets of family home videos, interspersed with the band having fun in Madrid. Starting off with (I guess) a young Grian singing the Nativity song Rat A Tat Tat before coming to a halt with "I don't know the rest", there's a rapid fire of nostalgic images before settling on the adult Grian in a Spanish skate park, strumming an acoustic guitar and singing, "Did you know I can claim the dreamer from the dream?" 

Quite a contrast from previous (but no less excellent) single Starburster.

But those Mullets and Mohicans, lads...! Whether ironic, post-modern or just a genuine attempt to reclaim history's most horrific hairstyles, it's 'nil points' from me.

 

Fontaines D.C. will be playing at Glastonbury next Friday, headlining The Other Stage. As a longtime armchair audience member, I don't need to suffer the anguish and conflict that IDLES are performing simultaneously on The Park stage as hopefully both sets will be available on BBC iPlayer.

   

Cable Tangles With Distressed Bacon

Chilly Gonzales aka Jason Beck returned last week with a new single, I.C.E., ahead of album Gonzo, which must be about his twentieth or so, adding in collaborations and side projects. 

 

Born in Montreal, Canada, currently residing in Cologne, Germany, I.C.E. is Gonzales' love letter to the latter.

They say every day is a school day but I.C.E. manages to cram in roughly a term's worth of German cultural references. I've tried to include links (mostly Iffypedia) where I could but frankly I couldn't keep up. 

 

I've also slightly modified and corrected Google's English translation of the German lyrics, though some bits didn't scan and are well beyond my failed German O-Level efforts. Walter, my apologies in advance!

I.C.E. is out right now, Gonzo drops on 13th September.

 

My German rap? Crazy idea 

But I'll do it anyway 

If you could see what I see 

Out the window in the I.C.E., I.C.E, I.C.E.

Ice, Ice

Ice, Ice

 

Small talk on late trains 

Sorry, I can hardly speak German 

Still have to practice 

 

(What is your profession?)

I am music 

I am art 

I am artificial 

I am punk 

I am punctual 

 

Hello, meal, hello 

I'm like Brahms 

A Clara Schumann groupie 

A quickie, Schumi 

Obsessed like Fitzcarraldo 

Wolfgang Amadeus 

Falco, hallo!

 

What's under the dirndl dress? 

Unity, discipline and hard work and cheap meat 

Climate strike at the butcher shop 

Stuck in the fourth Reich 

Haiyti, Deichkind, my circle of poets 

Chilly ice cold, 

Antarctica 

My art is degenerate 

I am Caspar David Friedrich in the mountains 

Superman Friedrich Nietzsche is my favorite comedian 

Cable tangles with distressed bacon 

German food is seriously underestimated 

My jokes are poorly translated 

Get rich or die tryin', 50 Cent

 

My German rap? Crazy idea 

But I'll do it anyway 

If you could see what I see 

Out the window in the I.C.E., I.C.E, I.C.E.

Ice, Ice

Ice, Ice

The prince in my veedel 

Jewish rapper MC Bagel 

From the stoner fog 

Struwwelpeter, with long fingernails 

I'm the villain without a cape 

Piano sound like Sturm und Drang 

Haters are hungry for my downfall 

You drink camomile tea 

I eat cameltoe 

Gonzo, porn 

Screenplay by Adorno 

Fame only affects me peripherally 

I go everywhere with a joint in my nécessaire

Tracksuit but chic 

I'm rich like Raniczki's head cinema is always kinky 

I am Christian like Klaus Kinski 

 

My German rap? Crazy idea 

But I'll do it anyway 

If you could see what I see 

Out the window in the I.C.E., I.C.E, I.C.E.

Ice, Ice

Ice, Ice

The fatherland is not a sad place 

Square Practical Good, Ritter Sport 

I used to live like God in France 

But it's sweeter here, marzipan soft 

I love you, but I'm critical 

This song is a love letter 

To the Federal Republic

I am never alone here 

On the I.C.E. from Berghain to Hildesheim

Sticky Beak>

Beak> are back!

 

Whilst there has been a lot of attention - and deservedly so - on Beth Gibbons return after what seems like an eternity, fellow Portishead genius Geoff Barrow, together with Billy Fuller and Will Young (<sigh> no, not that one) released >>>> at the end of May.

Their first album in six years, according to the promo the songs were recorded "in a house called Pen Y Bryn in Talsarnau, Wales [...] Remote and with only ourselves and the view of Portmeirion in the distance." The album was completed at Invada in Bristol and released via the label of the same name.

A video for The Seal was posted on You Tube last week and gives you a flavour of what to expect. >>>> ploughs a similar Krautrock/motorik groove as before, though none the less engaging or infectious for that. 

Another characteristic of naming songs after places in Bristol and neighbouring counties is also present and correct. >>>>'s contribution to this alternative road map is Windmill Hill. Not an usual name as of itself, lots of places use it, but I used to live near this one in South Bristol, which is home to a rather lovely city farm.

 

 

Here's another called Iron Acton, going back to their very first release in 2009 and geographically the closest to Casa K's current location.

 

 

Coincidentally, I was there at the weekend with Mrs. K, looking for another barrow, of the wheeled variety. No luck there but we came away with a bird bath instead. First world problems, eh? As a wee boy, my parents used to drive past the road signs for this place, which I would misread as Iron Action. The reality is there's not much action in Iron Acton but the music is great...!

 

Beak> have also recorded several sessions for Mark Riley's show on BBC 6Music which are worth checking out. In July 2019, they delivered a 4-song set, opening with covers of two Gary Numan classics, Cars and Films. Great stuff.

Beak> will be playing a few summer festivals and then touring the UK later this year, concluding with a hometown gig at SWX in Bristol on 14th December. I've got my ticket...see you there?

There's Always Help, If You Know Where To Look

Side 1 of a mixtape, recorded sometime in 1998. 

 

If it's Tuesday, it must be time for trance, with four epic slabs of sonic bliss. I posted side 2 back in February 2022, commenting that I'd discovered the track listing whilst sorting through a box of paperwork, the original C90 long since lost or given away. 

 

Starting things off is one of the best remixes that Underworld ever produced, Sound System by Drum Club stretched out over nearly 12 minutes with vocals from Wonder Schneider dropping in. 

Visions Of Shiva aka Cosmic Baby and Paul Van Dyk up next with a remix of L'Esperanza that ups the ante (and the tempo). The first Sven Väth record that I ever bought, fact fans.

The video for Liquid Cool by Apollo 440 was featured here in May, along with a YouTube posting of the 2CD single release with 9 - count 'em, 9 - mixes. Here's one of 'em, the 14-minute Space Colonization by Rhythm Of Space.

Finally, Suzuki K1 aka Keiichi Suzuki with Satellite Serenad, which I originally bought on CD without hearing a note, as it included a couple of remixes by The Orb which was reason enough to buy back in 1994. This version also came as a pair with - you guessed it - the Sunday Mix, both by Ryoji Oba and Simon Posford. All good, but I don't think I've heard any of Suzuki's music apart from this one song.

 

1) Sound System (Underworld Mix By Darren Emerson & Rick Smith): Drum Club ft. Wonder (1993)

2) L'Esperanza (Hope Will Move Mountains Mix By Visions Of Shiva aka Harald Blüchel & Paul Van Dyk): Sven Väth (1993)

3) Liquid Cool (Space Colonization Remix By Rhythm Of Space aka Steve Musham, Simon Lord & Jonathan Podmore): Apollo 440 (1994)

4) Satellite Serenade (Saturday Mix (With Japanese It's All Right Song) By Oba & Simon Posford): Suzuki K1 (1994)

 

Side Two (45:37) (KF) (Mega)

Side One here

Eclipsed By Smudges On A Hitlist

What little I've heard of Hamish Hawk has been courtesy of other music blogs, so I'm unfamiliar with most of his catalogue, but latest single Nancy Dearest caught my attention.

Previous single Big Cat Tattoos is equally pleasing. 

Nice production, big bass, strident guitar, urgent percussion and a deep, rich vocal, all done and dusted in a smidge over three minutes. Honours its influences whilst sounding fresh and energetic. 

Fourth album, A Firmer Hand, is out on Fri 16th August, with an in-store at Rough Trade in Bristol the same evening. Tempted.

And Suddenly! Once Again

Side 1 of a cassette compilation featuring The Teardrop Explodes, recorded 30th August 1993. With apologies to blureu for taking nearly a year to get to it...!

 

It's been a long while since Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes have featured here, so what better way to counter what's so far proving to be a rather cold, wet and miserable June in the UK (well, this part anyway).

As I told in my previous post, I was already deeply committed to Julian Cope's music...and yet, by the summer of 1993 I still hadn't bought a copy of the 'lost' third album, Everybody Wants To Shag....The Teardrop Explodes, which had come out a few years previously. 

I was also trying to stoke the fires of passion for the Arch Drude in my then-girlfriend and, being a penniless student and all that, not for her flowers, romantic dinners and ad-hoc trips away, oh no. What could profess my affection more than a C90 cassette featuring 26 songs by The Teardrop Explodes? Hmmm, on reflection, it's no wonder we split up the following summer....

So, another three quarters of an hour of Cope & co. brilliance, originally culled from vinyl copies of Kilimanjaro and Wilder, a secondhand bargain purchase of You Disappear From View on 12" from Plastic Wax Records in Bristol and, opening this selection, Count To Ten And Run For Cover from the 12" single on loan from my friend Stuart. 

 

Mirroring the previous cassette side, the big hit (Reward) is dispatched by track two, but there's no let up in quality for the remainder of the compilation. Imagining this as a double vinyl album, I think this works well as two distinct sides, with Poppies getting the second side (or phase, as Julian was wont to use) off to an equally strong start.

Several songs on the You Disappear From View 12" were remixed by Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum, including a lovely string-laden version of Suffocate, arranged by Nicky Holland. Suffocate and Ouch Monkeys (and Soft Enough For You on phase 3) all differ from the versions that eventually appeared on Everybody Wants To Shag....The Teardrop Explodes, Hughes exercising more restraint and less bombast than on his later work on Tears For Fears' Songs From The Big Chair.

Things have been a little quiet on the Julian Cope front of late, with only a 'new' Queen Elizabeth CD emerging recently and no word of gigs since the previous tour was curtailed by illness and the COVID lockdown in 2020. 

 

After completing this post, I popped over to Head Heritage as I regularly do and was delighted to see that Julian's just released #6 in his Cope's Notes booklet/CD series, this time focusing on his 1992 magnum opus, Jehovahkill. Always an essential purchase as far as I'm concerned, this one includes 13 demos and unreleased outtakes which I'm looking forward to hearing. 

 

Head Heritage has also made the Jehovahkill T-shirt available again. I originally bought one from the merch stand when Julian was touring the album but it's been lost a long time, so I added it to the shopping cart. It's what all the hippest pagans are wearing, I hear.

 

Phase One

1) Count To Ten And Run For Cover (Single Version By Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley) (1982)

2) Reward (Single Version By Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley) (1980)

3) Seven Views Of Jerusalem (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

4) Brave Boys Keep Their Promises (Album Version By Bill Drummond & David Balfe) (1980)

5) Like Leila Khaled Said (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

6) Suffocate (Baroque Version By Chris Hughes & Ross Cullum) (1982)

7) The Great Dominions (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

Phase Two

8) Poppies In The Field (Album Version By Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley) (1980)

9) Treason (It's Just A Story) (Remixed Version By Hugh Jones) (1981)

10) Ouch Monkeys (Remix By Chris Hughes & Ross Cullum) (1983)

11) The Thief Of Baghdad (Album Version By Bill Drummond & David Balfe) (1980)

12) Pure Joy (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

13) .....And The Fighting Takes Over (Album Version By Clive Langer & Colin Fairley) (1981)

 

1980: Kilimanjaro: 2, 4, 8, 11

1981: Treason EP: 9

1981: Wilder: 3, 5, 7, 12, 13

1983: You Disappear From View EP: 6, 10 

1990: Count To Ten And Run For Cover EP: 1

Phase One (24:05) (KF) (Mega)

Phase Two (22:04) (KF) (Mega)

 

Phases Three and Four can be found here.

I Broke The Bolt

Happy birthday, Rolo McGinty... or belated happy birthday, as I'm not 100% sure if it falls on the 14th or 15th June. Call myself a fan?!

 

Well...yes, I do, not least because earlier this year, Rolo gifted the world with a brand new album by The Woodentops, Fruits Of The Deep. Head off to Bandcamp to buy it straight away and later, you can read what I thought of it back in April.

 

To celebrate in slightly different style, I'm not posting a selection of The Woodentops' many indie classics from the 1980s, as you might reasonably have expected seeing as one of them popped up in yesterday's Indie Top 20 post.

 

Instead, I'm focusing on Rolo's beat-heavy excursions, taking in The Woodentops from 1990s and the past couple of years, and squeezing in several tracks from his other projects Pluto and Dogs Deluxe, the latter with Rob Miller. There’s also a collaboration with Andres Y Xavi and a remix for Dubversive, featuring Boy George, who also celebrated his birthday yesterday.

 

Several of the featured tracks have been gifted via Rolo's WebArchive page and remain otherwise unreleased.

 

I've chopped, sequenced, faded and edited tracks together to deliver an hour-long selection that will have you up, down, up, down...then staying down. Consider it your weekend workout!

 

Love and respect to Mr. McGinty, I hope the sun shines and all is fine. Have a good one, Rolo.

 

1) Dream On (Rolo Dub): The Woodentops (2024)

2) Stay Out Of The Light (Midi Mix): The Woodentops (1991)

3) Because Of You (Dub): The Woodentops *

4) Tainted World (Kid Batchelor Rub): The Woodentops vs. Bang The Party (1991)

5) Chainsaw: Ambient Mic **

6) Indian Runner: Pluto (1995)

7) Ambient Filth: Bad Apples ***

8) What Do You See In Me (Max Essa Dub): Andres Y Xavi ft. Rolo McGinty (2022)

9) Smokin' (Original Version): The Woodentops *

10) Police And Thieves (Dog's Deluxe Mix) (Cover of Junior Murvin): Dubversive ft. Boy George (1998)

11) Ride A Cloud (Xavi's Campfire Mix): The Woodentops ft. Kyoko Sato (2023)

12) Ride A Cloud (Rolo's Dub): The Woodentops (2024) 

 

1991: Stay Out Of The Light EP: 2 

1991: Tainted World EP: 4

1995: Rising: 6

1998: Police And Thieves EP: 10

2022: What Do You See In Me EP: 8

2023: Ride A Cloud EP: 11

2024: Dream On EP: 1 

2024: Ride A Cloud (Rolo's Dub) EP: 12

* Because Of You eventually turned up on The Woodentops' 2014 album Granular Tales. This dub and a vocal version date (I think) from the 1990s. The same goes for Smokin’.

** One of three "Experiments with video game play sounds" available online, date unknown. 

*** "A bunch of songs written with Richard Thomas and Konrad Kinard", which Rolo recorded with Richard in Somerset. Date unknown, poss. late 1990s/early 2000s.

 

I Broke The Bolt (1:00:13) (KF) (Mega)

Indie Top 20 Jukebox

Indie Top 20 was a visible presence on the record racks everywhere from your friendly neighbourhood record shop to HMV and Our Price, Woolies and WH Smith. 

A modest start in 1987 saw Volume 1 issued by Band Of Joy Music Ltd., stating that "This high definition Ferric Cassette contains 20 full length hits by the original artists selected from the National Indie Charts in the weeks immediately preceding this release." 

The cassette was repackaged and relaunched in conjunction with Melody Maker and Beechwood Music, the latter continuing with the series (and expanding to vinyl) until volume 23 in 1996. 

Volume 1, side 1, track 1 was Mickey Way (The Candy Bar) by A Certain Ratio. The final song on volume 23 was Andrex Puppy Love by Orange Deluxe.

Today's selection culls from volumes 1-10. Not an original idea, by any stretch of the mark: Beechwood themselves issued their own 'best of' in the 1990s and, before that, the self-explanatory CD88, the series' first shiny disc issue and an essential snapshot, in my opinion.

I wasn't an avid collector of the series, to be honest. I got a couple of the early issues but I pretty much bailed out after CD88 as by then I was more interested (and financially able) to pick up the individual singles and albums of the artists I liked. That said, I'd always pick up a copy of the latest issue for most of the 1980s, just to have a look at the track list.

So, why an 11-track selection? Indie Top 20 Volume 4 (1988) was issued in two separate volumes. Part 1, sub-titled State Of Independents, featured The Smiths, The Woodentops, Pop Will Eat Itself and The Wedding Present. Part 2, sub-titled House, was a nod to the inescapable wave of club music, so S'Express, Coco, Steel & Lovebomb and Smith & Mighty. 

The latter appear in my selection, though the remainder is more firmly rooted in the guitar-based alternative scene, whether jangly (Talulah Gosh, The Field Mice) or jarring (The Leather Nun, Thee Hypnotics). Some of these I will have first heard on the radio, courtesy of Janice Long, Andy Kershaw, Annie Nightingale or John Peel. Considering A Move To Memphis by The Colorblind James Experience was a Peel favourite and swiftly became one of mine too.

As the first volume noted, these songs were hits as far as the National Indie Charts were concerned, but none of the choices on this selection particularly troubled the UK singles charts. So, what better way to bring things to a close than with a bonafide smash hit from The Charlatans? The Only One I Know was their second single and on this day in 1990, was sitting at a high of #9, the second of three weeks in the Top 10. And it still sounds fantastic today.

1) Please Don't Sandblast My House: One Thousand Violins (1986)

2) Talulah Gosh (Single Version): Talulah Gosh (1987)

3) Lost And Found: The Leather Nun (1987)

4) You Make Me Feel (Album Version): The Woodentops (1988)

5) The Dark, Dark House (Special Re-Mix): Smith & Mighty ft. Jackie Jackson (1988)

6) I'm In Love With A Girl Who Doesn't Know I Exist (Single Version): Another Sunny Day (1988)

7) Considering A Move To Memphis (Album Version): The Colorblind James Experience (1987)

8) Preachin’ & Ramblin’: Thee Hypnotics (1989)

9) If You Need Someone: The Field Mice (1990)

10) One Of Our Girls Has Gone Missing (Album Version): A.C. Marias (1989)

11) The Only One I Know (Album Version): The Charlatans (1990)

Indie Top 20 Jukebox (44:10) (KF) (Mega)