25 For 25, Part Two

Following up from last week's first half, today's 13-song selection rounds out the 25 For 25 highlights of the year so far. 

 

I've been fortunate enough to see two of these artists live on stage in the last couple of months, and with any luck by the time year end comes around, I'll have seen another two, also for the very first time.

 

I had an opportunity to see another this summer, with tickets for a "secret", "intimate" 5k capacity gig in Bristol, which I thought Lady K might be interested in going to. When I broached the subject, she gave me a withering look and said that they were "stuck in the 2010s".

 

I don't know what made me feel older: Lady K's reference to the 2010s - which I consider to be yesterday - as ancient history, or Mrs. K suggestion that a middle-aged man going on his own to a show with potentially a predominantly teen audience might draw attention for all the wrong reasons. I didn't go.

 

I leave you to hazard a guess at the opportunity that I passed up. 

 

Speaking of older, I've previously seen three other of today's featured artists, all who crashed into the public consciousness in the 1980s and/or 1990s. and have released great new music in the past 12 months.

 

Things change over time and my enthusiasm for certain things in my youth may have waned somewhat in passing decades, but my passion for music remains undimmed. 

1) Waiting: Yvonne Lyon & Boo Hewerdine (Things Found In Books)

2) Slow Emotion Replayed: The The (Slow Emotion Replayed EP)

3) Monday Murder: YUNGBLUD (Idols)

4) Rubber Inner Tube: Mark Rae ft. Heidi Haswell (New Town Ghosts)

5) Space Station Mantra: Andy Bell (Pinball Wanderer)

6) Metrosexual Man: Davey Woodward (Mumbo In The Jumbo)

7) Kicking Up Dust: F.O. Machete (Mother Of A Thousand)

8) On The Missing: Later Youth ft. Lissie (Living History)

9) Being Baptised (Piano Version): Manic Street Preachers (Critical Thinking (Deluxe Edition))

10) Portland Town: Heavenly (Portland Town EP)

11) pond song: Wet Leg (moisturizer)

12) Fuckboy: Billy Nomates (Mary And The Hyenas OST)

13) Moonlight Hotel: Charlie Noordewier (Moonlight Hotel EP)

Side Two (45:21) (GD) (M)

Is It Obvious? Or Is It Delirium?

Last Sunday's post summed up some of the great music in 2025 so far and tomorrow will complete the 25 For 25 set.

That selection has focused on what I would loosely describe as 'alternative' music, whereas I have featured several selections this year that are more electronic / beats based.

And there's so much of it, I can't keep up, to be honest. Exhibit A: another 90-minute, 15 song pick that refuses to be pigeonholed.

There is something of a nostalgic feel to this one. The All Seeing I have released an expanded version on their 1999 album Pickled Eggs And Sherbert, including 4 reworkings by founder member Richard Barratt aka Crooked Man, which you can also buy as a standalone EP. Of course I had to pick 1st Man In Space featuring living legend Phil Oakey.

Phil's in good company. The following song La Musica was originally released in 2014 by Munk and re-released this year as a collaboration with Kapote...although they are one and the same person, Mathias Modica. The version here features George Kranz, heavily incorporating his 1983 song Din Daa Daa.

Oh, and Yoko Ono pops up in the next song by the brilliant Jezebell,  Dub Narcotic Sound System's 1994 single Fuck Shit Up gets a makeover by hi-falutin' Hifi Sean and you'll hear a familiar snippet of Peter Fonda amongst the guess-the-sample offering by Follytechnic Music Library aka Paul Southgate. Paul's seemingly unstoppable output of edits and mash-ups deserves a post of its own. I must get to it.

It's not all reflective, though. If you've been following this blog all year, you will have twigged that I like Airsine's Like Fire EP. I mean, a lot. Three of the four versions have now appeared on 2025 round-up selections, so I guess I'd better save the remaining one for the 'best of the year' round up.

senses appear for the second time in a week with the same song. The original 'indie' version has a charm all of its own, but there was no way I was leaving out Andy Bell's GLOK remix. 

Likewise, Let Yourself Go by Una Camille & Dr. No (well, Richard Norris in disguise actually) popped up previously with one of his own remixes, but I had to make room here for the super Acid Mix by Leo Zero. 

Leo's been pretty busy himself this year, as I found to my (literal) cost last Bandcamp Friday, so there will be more from him here soon. 

Other gifts that keep giving since their release are albums by Hifi Sean and David McAlmont and 100 Poems aka Mike Wilson. Hugo Nicholson is in a real purple patch at the moment, Pete Bones too, here with a remix of Nick Hook for a charity fundraiser EP.

Relatively recent discoveries are Greendoxyn (here with Lyubava), via the ever reliable NEIN Records label,  and London duo Mermaid Chunky, who I found via their collaboration with Orbury Common in 2022.

Rounding things out is sLEdger, who got my attention with an excellent remix of Fluke in 2024, and have kept it with some top notch and brilliantly titled releases. Trippy Ass God Funk indeed.

Please come back on Sunday for more 2025 highlights.

1) 1st Crooked Man In Space (Remix By Richard Barratt): The All Seeing I ft. Phil Oakey (Return Of The Crooked Cat EP)

2) La Musica (Din Daa Daa Version): Munk & Kapote ft. George Kranz (La Musica EP)

3) Turn It Yes: Jezebell (Jezebellearic Beats Volume 2)

4) Like Fire (Single Version): Airsine (Like Fire EP)

5) Spanner: Hugo Nicolson (Black Stick EP)

6) have you ever had a broken heart? (Andy Bell/GLOK Remix): senses (have you ever had a broken heart? EP)

7) Sleeping Pill (Album Version): Hifi Sean & David McAlmont (Twilight)

8) Waiting For An Angel: Greendoxyn & Lyubava (Waiting For An Angel EP)

9) Viva Palestina (Pete Bones Remix): Nick Hook (Viva Palestina (Dance For Peace Remixes) EP)

10) chaperone (Peach's 2Good 2Be Remix): Mermaid Chunky (chaperone EP)

11) Fuck Shit Up (Hifi Sean Mix): Dub Narcotic Sound System (Fuck Shit Up EP)

12) Let The Horse Run Free: 100 Poems (Let The Horse Run Free)

13) Surfer Man Got Loaded: Follytechnic Music Library (FML25 Baggy Ravers 3)

14) Let Yourself Go (Leo Zero Acid Mix): Una Camille & Dr No (Let Yourself Go EP)

15) Trippy Ass God Funk: sLEdger (Funk From The Portal EP)

Is It Obvious? Or Is It Delirium? (1:30:45) (GD) (M)

And if you missed the previous 2025 So Far selections...

28th March: It's A Glamorous World 

11th May: Doused In Dopamine

4th July: Staring Into Air

How Can You Hate The 808?!

'Cause I certainly don't.

Happy #808 Day!

1) Spastik (12" Version By Richie Hawtin): Plastikman (1993)

2) Xtal (Album Version): Aphex Twin (1992)

3) Voodoo Ray (Original Mix): A Guy Called Gerald ft. Nicola Collier (1988)

4) (You Are My) All And All (Take Twelve) (Remix By Kurtis Mantronik): Joyce Sims (1986)

5) The Way You Move (Club Mix By Carlton Mahone, Jr.): Outkast ft. Sleepy Brown (2003)

6) It's Tricky (Album Version By Rick Rubin & Russell Simmons): Run-D.M.C. (1986)

7) Musique Non Stop (Album Version): Kraftwerk (1986)

8) French Kiss (The Songbird Sings Long Vocal Mix): Lil' Louis ft. Karlana Johnson & Shawn Christopher (1989)

1986: All And All EP: 4

1986: Electric Cafe: 7

1986: Raising Hell: 6

1988: Voodoo Ray EP: 3

1989: French Kiss EP: 8

1992: Selected Ambient Works 85-92: 2

1993: Spastik EP: 1

2003: Speakerboxxx / The Love Below: 5

How Can You Hate The 808?! (47:02) (GD) (M)

afxkrgfnk5n4dl33chn

Or, AFX with a video for Korg Funk5, directed by Nadia Lee Cohen.

As you might expect from Aphex Twin aka Richard D. James, aurally it's a bonkers track, coming in under four minutes and delivering the title's promise of Korg and funk.

Nadia creates an equally bonkers visual narrative involving a dancer (Nadia herself) repeatedly dying and replicating, travelling from a dance studio into the streets and navigating an array of colourful characters along the way.

Korg Funk5 is an old track, first emerging on the 14-track digital-only release Korg Trax+Tunings For Falling Asleep in 2017.

Korg Funk5 more recently popped up in December last year, simultaneously on the 5-track 12" & digital EP London 19.08.2023, and Music From The Merch Desk (2016 - 2023), a whopping 38-track collection for a mere 20 notes. 

Another Reason Why Now

The reality that Saint Etienne's upcoming 13th studio album, International, will also be their last is starting to sink in. 

I love the music that Sarah, Bob and Pete have created over the past three decades and it's sad that we are mere weeks away from a point when they deliver their last collection of new material.

At the same time, how often do we get to see beloved artists bring things to a close in a manner of their own choosing? No acrimonious split, bitter recriminations or artists flogging a dead horse and regurgitating and recycling ideas that seemed tired and worn out the second or third last time they did it.

If the second single, Take Me To The Pilot, and preceding lead single Glad are any indication, then International is Saint Etienne at their best, instantly recognisable as them, but pushing the concept of the band and their sound into new shapes.

A co-write with Paul Hartnoll of Orbital (why hasn't that happened before?), Take Me To The Pilot is it's own field, but feels complementary to a couple of previous singles: Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) (and especially the Two Lone Swordsmen remix by Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood) from 2000, and Who Do You Think You Are, specifically the 'Quex-rd' remix by Aphex Twin aka Richard D. James from 1993.

 

Glad is very much in the template of Saint Etienne's pop hits, though also very much in the 'now' of 2025. As ever, the videos for both are mesmerising, enhancing not distracting from the listening experience.

International is available for pre-order now, with a full release on 5th September and I may just have something in my eye on that day... 

Oh Deary Me, 'E's A Wrong 'Un

Adam Buxton has released a single and video. 

Doing It Wrong will either make you smile or get your hackles rising.

I'm firmly with the former. 

Not sure that I feel strongly enough to buy upcoming album Buckle Up, though. 

If you do, it's available for order now and all yours from 12th September.

As a bonus, here's Adam and Joe Cornish with Louis Theroux in 1990, dancing to Groove Is In The Heart by Deee-Lite. 

And why not?

I Feel Sometimes

A very happy birthday to Vini Reilly, born 4th August 1953.

I posted my first - and to date only - selection of The Durutti Column on 4th August 2022, to mark Vini's 69th birthday. A 13-song, 48-minute collection split into a vinyl-friendly two sides and spanning a decade from 1979 to 1989.

For Vini's 72nd birthday, I've expanded this Dubhed selection to 18 songs and 72 minutes, to neatly fit on a CD-R (if you're still into it).

The scope has also expanded to music from the last 30-odd years, including a song from Vini's last album of new recordings by The Durutti Column, Someone Else's Party in 2003.

Three years on from that post, I'm still discovering Vini's music, each listen revealing more layers and nuances, but all coming back to the fact that he is one of the most astonishing guitar players and composers of our time. 

Hope you have a good one, Vini.

 

1) Lips That Would Kiss (Form Prayers To Broken Stone) (1980)

2) Falling (2001)

3) Enigma (1981)

4) Home (1990)

5) Telephone Call (1983)

6) Woman (Album Version) (2003)

7) Mello Part One (2001)

8) One Christmas For Your Thoughts (1981)

9) Never Known (Four Track Home Demo) (1981)

10) Messidor (Album Version) (1981)

11) Otis (ft. Pol) (1989)

12) You've Heard It Before (1983)

13) Jazz (1980)

14) Buddhist Prayer (1989)

15) Catos Con Guantes (1987)

16) Sleep Will Come (1980)

17) Snowflakes (1983)

18) Goodbye (1985)

1980: From Brussels With Love: 16

1980: Lips That Would Kiss (Form Prayers To Broken Stone) EP: 1

1980: The Return Of The Durutti Column: 13

1981: Chansons De Noël: Ghosts Of Christmas Past: 8

1981: Enigma / Danny EP: 3

1981: LC: 10

1983: Another Setting: 12

1985: Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say EP: 18

1985: Scottish Christmas / Christmas For Pauline EP: 17

1987: Our Lady Of The Angels EP: 15

1989: Vini Reilly: 11, 14

1990: Obey The Time: 4

2001: Rebellion: 2, 7

2003: Someone Else's Party: 6

2009: Demos/Studio: 9

2012: Short Stories For Pauline: 5

I Feel Sometimes (1:12:30) (GD) (M)

You can find Sometimes I Feel (Sides 1 & 2), my previous selection of The Durutti Column,  right here

25 For 25, Part One

As far as I'm concerned, 2025 has been a great year for new music, some long-term favourites returning with new albums, others discovered for the first time. 

In fact, I struggled to come up with a single 45-minute selection, so sod it. I did two. More by accident than design, the second one came in at 13 songs which, added to this dozen, conveniently delivers 25 highlights from 2025. So far.

I'm going to hold onto Side Two until next Sunday. In the meantime, surround yourself with some wonderful songs from some wonderful albums (and two singles).

1) Patient Has Own Supply: Constant Follower (The Smile You Send Out Returns To You)

2) Dating A Model: Emily Breeze (Rats In Paradise)

3) The Blue: Mumble Tide (Might As Well Play Another One)

4) Who This World Is Made For. (Mindful Edit): Ellen Beth Abdi (Ellen Beth Abdi)

5) Burning Bridges: The Cowboy Mouth (Faultlines)

6) have you ever had a broken heart? (Album Version): senses (all the heavens)

7) Old Oak Road (2025 Mix): Mike Smalle ft. Cathal Coughlan & Jah Wobble (Ghosts EP)

8) 1st World Blues: Bright Eyes (1st World Blues EP)

9) Signs: Olafur Arnalds / Talos (A Dawning)

10) You Know It Ain't Right: Pearl Charles (Desert Queen)

11) Good To Cry: Robert Forster (Strawberries)

12) I Materialize: Destroyer (Dan's Boogie)

Side One (45:29) (GD) (M)

Nomates Put A Foot In It

Metalhorse by Billy Nomates is a standout album of 2025, and Nothin' Worth Winnin' a standout song.

Good news therefore that it's been officially released as a single. Not only that, but with a brilliant video directed by Tia Salisbury and co-starring the inimitable Paul Foot. 

It all starts with an exchange of phone messages.

Tor: "Hey Paul, not heard from you in a while. Had a thought. Me and you, let's go to the fair. Let's get on some rides, let's play some games, just go and have some fun."

Paul: "Hi Tor, thanks for your message. Would you mind if we didn't go? I'm just really not in the mood for that sort of thing. Um, if you really, really want to go, I will go with you, um, but i would really rather not. Thanks."

They go, of course.

A superb video to complement a superb song. Possibly the best music you'll see and hear all day.

Friday Camp Out At The Shops

In other words, it's Bandcamp Friday and I am poised to purchase.

I already had a long list, including

‘Aphex Meets Some Simple Minds Uptown’: sLEdger

Disturbia: Phonolab (Gaudi & Eraldo Bernocchi)

Don't Leave Me This Way (Cover of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes): Crooked Man

La Musica (2025 Version): Munk & Kapote

Vertigo: Michele Mininni

Wise Music In Dub: Dennis Bovell

...and here are five more new releases that have jumped the queue from Bicep, Bright Eyes (gone ska!), Cardiacs, Adrian Sherwood and Daphni aka Dan Snaith.

Tame Impala's new single isn't available on Bandcamp, but it's so good I had to include it. And, based on the shite weather in this neck of the woods in the past few days, calling the song The End Of Summer perhaps wasn't as premature as I first thought...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Does Your Misfortune Give Me Such Pleasure...?

Baxter Dury has had a rum deal on these pages. I've only featured him once previously, as part of a Dubhed selection in November 2022 and even then it was an instrumental!
 

Back then, Minsky Rock - aka Sydney Minsky-Sargeant (Working Men's Club) and Russ Orton (ex-Fat Truckers) - took  "the basic cells of a sleepy spoken word number and [turned] it into a bastard 80s electro animal". 

This time, Baxter has teamed up with Paul Epworth, who first piqued my curiosity with his remixes as Phones in the early 2000s, including Banquet by Bloc Party and The Futureheads' cover of Hounds Of Love by Kate Bush. In 2025, similarly exciting music has resulted.

“I don’t want to say it’s contemporary,” Baxter drily observes. “Because I sound like a c**t using that word. But it does sound really contemporary."

If I'm honest, new single Schadenfreude reminds me more of those heady early years of the 21st century, but that's no bad thing. Baxter inhabits this new musical clothing like a well worn suit and his world weary narrative plays off well against the pulsing, exuberant melody. 

Guest vocals from JGrrey aka Jennifer Clarke add to the feel and the Gareth Bowen-directed video seals the deal.

Baxter's ninth album, Allbarone, is out in September and, after twenty plus years of dipping in and out of his music, it's shaping up to be my first.

And if the album title conjures up some exotic Mediterranean setting, separate it into three three-character words and it'll bring it somewhat closer to home and a less salubrious setting...

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

I was in a hotel in Stockholm

Waiting for you to call

But you were off with that doughnut

Laughing behind my back

Then I read a bitter review

About a band you're in

To be honest

I got schadenfreude

Déjà vu on the hotel foyer

Ignored the thing you said

Back flips on MDMA

An aisle seat on a cheap airline

Trying to get to Lithuania

I think of you to calm my nerves

A busy stage will solve my pain

And you'll be another ghost

That never knew how much I thought about...

Thought about...

But I still got schadenfreude

Déjà vu on the hotel foyer

Ignored the thing you said

Back flips on MDMA

Ignored the thing you said

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

I got schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

I got schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude 

We’re Both Losers Too

We Don't Count is a collaboration between Yves Tumor, a longtime favourite here, and NINA, who is completely new to me. 

A quick look on Discogs reveals that We Don't Count was released as a limited edition one-sided vinyl 7" for Art Book Fair 2025 at ArtCenter College Of Design in Pasadena, California, which ran from 15th to 18th May.

Thankfully, Warp Records are making it available to a global audience via the usual channels, describing We Don't Count as 

"Less a duet than a shared hallucination 

— a hook-dense piece in which Yves Tumor and NINA 

lean into bass-driven post-punk, 

melding propulsive rhythm 

with serrated guitar stabs and hypnotic vocal melodies, 

unveiling a new side to both artists’ oeuvres."

Yes to all of that. Or, in other words, it's on the shopping list for tomorrow's Bandcamp Friday.

Yves Tumor aka Sean Bowie has been releasing music for over a decade, on Warp since 2018, spanning multiple styles and genres, all never less than interesting, so a delve into the back catalogue is recommended. 

And, if you didn't catch it first time around, Yves' performance at Glastonbury was a highlight of 2022. Stick to the closing song, Secrecy Is Incredibly Important To The Both Of Them, just brilliant.

And, a little keyboard tapping and skim reading reveals that NINA is Nina Cristante, born in Rome, based in London and an "artist, musician, nutritionist & personal trainer". An interesting combination, for sure.

Unsurprisingly, it's another case of me coming extremely late to the party, as NINA has been releasing music for at least as long as Yves Tumor,  with four self-released albums - including collaborations and two soundtracks - between 2015 and 2025.

Fortunately, NINA's catalogue is well represented on Bandcamp with the perfectly timed and self-explanatory Compilation added to the list last month. If you like We Don't Count, odds are that you will enjoy NINA's solo music and that of her 'other' job in bar italia.

Fingers crossed that there's more to come from Yves and Nina's partnership.

 

Culture Clash

Listening again to Monkey Mafia's dub-infused cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival at the weekend, go me thinking about another of Jon Carter's excursions into Jamaican culture.

This in turn prompted a delve into the archives of my old blog, and an album review from 11th February 2007, namely Two Culture Clash, an intriguing compilation first issued 23rd August 2004. 

What did my younger self think of it? Over to, er, me.

This Wall Of Sound release purports to be an innovative creative pairing of electronic music producers with (predominantly Jamaican) reggae/dancehall greats. The sleeve notes even go so far as to sniffily dismiss other efforts as a “half-baked, ham-fisted assemblage of dancehall vocals grafted onto electronic beats in a studio on the other side of the Atlantic”. 

So, has bringing the producers to Jamaica and locking them in a studio with the island’s “lyrical wordsmiths” produced the “unprecedented” success that writer David Katz clearly believes it is? Well, of course not. 

There are some undeniably great moments on this album, but be under no illusion that Two Culture Clash has resulted in something completely new. Instead, the producers seem to have moulded their sound to complement the performers, most of whom dish out the lyrical clichés that both characterise and damn the musical genre. 

If you can accept that this won’t be the earth-shattering, life-changing album that the hype suggests, then you can settle back and enjoy nearly an hour’s worth of good music. 

How Do You Love? is a deliberate shot at the charts, with Jon Carter bringing out the best in vocalists Patra (who guested on his Monkey Mafia single Work Mi Body) and Danny English*.

The two Jacques Lu Cont tracks - …And Dance and Na Na Na Na – are perhaps the album’s dancefloor highlights, with a minimal, pulsing beats that prove impossible to resist. General Degree provides vocals on both, but the addition of Ce’Cile on the latter is like a pumped up version of Cookies by Ciara. 

It should be no suprise that Roni Size doesn’t disappoint on Knock Knock, a muscular rhythm suiting Spragga Benz’s rough monotone delivery, whilst West London Deep’s Rudie No! featuring Big Youth comes on like The Specials in space. 

There are inevitably a couple of disappointments. Kid606 seems uncharacteristically restrained on This Anuh Rampin’ and it’s left to Switch on the subsequent Love Guide (featuring Ms. Thing) to take the sound in an abstract direction that the Kid is usually more than capable of. 

Phillipe Zdar (Cassius/Motorbass) injects Get Crazy with an infectious, pulsating rhythm, let down only by Innocent Kru’s tired (and tiresome) lyrics. But these are small gripes. 

Elsewhere, Howie B. and Horace Andy team up for Fly High, a dub extravaganza that is arguably the best song that Massive Attack never recorded, whilst Justin Robertson’s retro dancehall ballad Save Me closes the album. 

Showcasing a vocal from Nadine Sutherland and Ernie Ranglin, Save Me is guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine… and get you skanking uncontrollably. 

As long as you skip the sleeve notes' hyperbole , then Two Culture Clash is a great album. It's not as ground breaking as it's instigators think it is, but it is worth more than a casual listen.

As a 2025 footnote, I recall buying this CD via eBay for a few quid, as part of my quest to plug gaps in my collection of Justin Robertson's music (which I'm still trying - and failing - to do today). A look on Discogs reveals that you can still easily pick up a copy for less than a fiver, postage included.

* I was sad to discover when creating the artist links that Danny English aka Donald Cox died on 23rd January this year, aged just 54. 

You Haven't Found A Way To Kill Me Yet

Jehnny Beth has featured here plenty of times as the host of the excellent ARTE Concert series, but not once as frontperson of Savages or as a solo artist.

Time to redress that criminal oversight with a trio of songs from Jehnny's upcoming album, You Heartbreaker, You, crashing into our lives - and ears - on 29th August.

All three videos are co-created with Jehnny's partner, Johnny Hostile, and are a perfect complement to the primal energy of the music. 

Play loud, scream louder.

Immediately prior to the album release, Jehnny willl be performing two nights at the Rock 'n' Roll Circus in Sheffield. The week after, she will be in Liverpool, Nottingham, Bristol and London for a series of Rough Trade in-store signings, followed by a European tour.

 

 

Covered Dub

Back in April, I posted Under Dub Covers, a selection of reggae and dub cover versions and it was well received, so here's the follow up!

Fourteen tracks this time, a 50/50 split between reggae and dub, 60s-90s and 21st Century, but 100% certified excellent. Well, the tunes, if not the sequencing!

Some of my all-time favourite singers are featured, opening with Pat Kelly and Marcia Griffiths, taking in Horace Andy, Dennis Brown and Jackie Edwards and, more recently, Shniece McMenamin.

Sly & Robbie, Adrian Sherwood and Lee 'Scratch' Perry feature heavily throughout, whether up front or in the studio.

This week in 1985, I Got You Babe by UB40 "with guest vocals by" Chrissie Hynde first entered the UK singles chart at a modest #22. It was Top 5 a couple of weeks later and #1 a couple of weeks after that. 

There was a dub version on the flip side but no extended version on the 12", so I've taken the liberty of creating my own edit for this selection. I've literally spliced the dub intro and outro with (most of) the vocal version. A dub sandwich, if you will, crackles and all.

1) Stoned In Love (Cover of 'I'm Stone In Love With You' by The Stylistics): Pat Kelly (1979)

2) It's Too Late (Cover of Carole King): Marcia Griffiths (1974)

3) A Wonderful Version (Cover of Louis Armstrong): Rhoda Dakar ft. Natty Campbell (2023)

4) Safe From Harm (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood) (Cover of Massive Attack): Horace Andy (2022)

5) Night Nurse (Dub With Vocal) (Remix By Mick Hucknall) (Cover of Gregory Isaacs): Sly & Robbie ft. Simply Red (1997)

6) To Love Somebody (Album Version By Lee 'Scratch' Perry) (Cover of Bee Gees): Busty Brown (1969)

7) The Model Dub (Cover of 'Das Modell' by Kraftwerk): Prince Fatty ft. Shniece McMenamin (2020)

8) Chase The Devil (Adrian Sherwood Dub) (Cover of Max Romeo): Dubblestandart ft. Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Coshiva & Emch (2014)

9) I Got You Babe (Dub Sandwich Re-Edit By Khayem) (Cover of Sonny & Cher): UB40 ft. Chrissie Hynde (2025)

10) Long As I Can See The Light (Adrian Sherwood's Dub Lighting) (Cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival): Monkey Mafia ft. Shirzelle (1998)

11) Dock Of The Bay (Cover of '(Sittin' On) The Dock Of Tthe Bay' by Otis Redding): Dennis Brown (1972)

12) Everything I Own (Dub Version By Stewart Levine) (Cover of Bread): Boy George (1987)

13) All Shook Up (Cover of Elvis Presley): Jackie Edwards (1979)

14) Exodus (Dubvisionist Dub) (Remix By Felix Wolter) (Cover of Bob Marley & The Wailers): Tackhead (2011) 

1969: The Upsetter: 6

1972: Superstar: 11

1979: So Proud: 1

1980: All Shook Up EP: 13

1987: Everything I Own EP: 12

1997: Night Nurse EP: 5

1998: Long As I Can See The Light EP: 10

2011: Exodus EP: 14

2014: Dubblestandart In Dub: 8

2015: Play Me / Sweet And Nice (Expanded Edition): 2

2020: Disco Deception Dubplate LP: 7

2022: Midnight Rocker: 4

2023: What A Wonderful World EP: 3

2025: I Got You Babe (bootleg MP3): 9

Covered Dub (59:23) (GD) (M)

You can find Under Dub Covers here

A few cover versions that didn't make today's final selection were produced by the legend that is Dennis Bovell. That didn't sit right with me so, as compensation, I've restored links to the two DB-themed selections that I've previously posted. With the above, that's pretty much four hours of dub nutrition!

Weakened/Weekend In Dub (August 2023)

From Conception To The Grave (October 2021)

Two Party System

"Another Gecko Production" compilation CD-R, circa 2004, featuring some seriously heavyweight tunes.

Gecko is one of the aliases used by my brother for his mixtapes and CDs in the early 21st Century. He was living in Japan at the time, and we'd continue to swap DIY compilations with each other as a shorthand musical postcard of where we were at.

Spanning South West England to West Coast America and some wild zig zags in between, it's a reminder of how much exciting new music was coming out in the early 2000s. There are also plenty of nods to what had come in the decade before. Listening to the NaS track for the first time in a long while sent a shiver down my spine.

I've tweaked a couple of the versions included here, either because I don't have the album versions or because the remix alternative is so good. In the mid-2000s, I discovered McSleazy aka Grant Robson, who posted a load of bootleg mash-ups and remixes online. I particularly liked his darker take on the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and today's pick by Kelis. 

Likewise, the version of Dreamy Days by Roots Manuva is a low slung relick by Lotek aka Wayne Bennett that appeared on the Exclusives!, a NME cover-mounted CD in 2001.

Harmonic 33 is one of the many nom de plumes used by Mark Pritchard, after Global Communication and way before he started making music with Thom Yorke. Harmonic 33 is a collaboration with Dave Brinkworth and not to be confused with Harmonic 313, another of Mark's solo ventures. Honestly, you need a sat nav to find your way through his vast body of work...!

Great to hear Definition Of Sound again, who should have been massive beyond the handful of hit singles.  My fact-obsessed brain was fascinated to discover that Pass The Vibes - and second album Experience - was co-produced by Chris Hughes (Adam & The Ants, Tears For Fears) and Jack Hues (Wang Chung). Every day is a learning day!

The mix opens heavy with Massive Attack featuring Mos Def and closes with a Serge Gainsbourg-sampling classic from David Holmes. Not a second wasted from start to finish.

1) I Against I: Massive Attack ft. Mos Def (2002)

2) Where Have They Gone: Harmonic 33 (2002)

3) The Seed (2.0): The Roots ft. Cody ChesnuTT (2002)

4) Trick Me (McSleazy Remix By Grant Robson): Kelis (2004)

5) Dreamy Days (Lotek Bonanza Relick) (Remix By Wayne Bennett): Roots Manuva (2001)

6) What Goes Around (Album Version By Salaam Remi): Nas (2001)

7) Natural Mystic (Ital Mix By Matt Green): Bob Marley (2001)

8) Solid As A Rock (Hexadecimal Edit By Steve Osborne): Bim Sherman (1996)

9) Year 2000: Smith & Mighty ft. Niji 40 & Louise Decordova (1999)

10) Evolution Revolution Love (Album Version): Tricky ft. Ed Kowalczyk & Hawkman (2001)

11) Television, The Drug Of The Nation (Album Version By Jack Dangers & Mark Pistel) (cover of The Beatnigs): The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy (1992)

12) Pass The Vibes (Album Version): Definition Of Sound (1995)

13) California Love (Long Radio Edit): 2Pac ft. Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman (1995)

14) Temple Head (Zenana Mix By Aki Nawaz & Paul Tipler): Transglobal Underground (1991)

15) Don't Die Just Yet (Album Version): David Holmes (1997)

1991: Temple Head EP: 14

1992: Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury: 11

1995: California Love EP: 13

1996: Experience: 12

1996: Solid As A Rock EP: 8

1997: Let's Get Killed: 15

1999: Big World Small World: 9

2001: Blowback: 10

2001: NME Exclusives!: 5

2001: Remixed Hits: 7

2001: Stillmatic: 6

2002: Extraordinary People: 2

2002: Phrenology: 3

2002: Special Cases EP: 1

2004: Trick Me (bootleg MP3): 4

Two Party System (1:13:35) (GD) (M)