Side 2 of my 'maginary 90s mixtape, focusing on 1993.
The carefree college days were drawing to a close, and final exams loomed.
I got to look at the work of Joan Miró, Antoni Gaudí, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso and many more up close and personal for the first time in Barcelona.
I went with my girlfriend, her best fried and boyfriend to the inaugural Phoenix Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon, where I saw, amongst others, Manic Street Preachers, Sonic Youth, Faith No More, Julian Cope (who I saw twice in '93), The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, Utah Saints, Back To The Planet, House Of Pain, Sandals, Senser, The Young Gods, Credit To The Nation, Ian McNabb, Sheep On Drugs, The Black Crowes and Pop Will Eat Itself. Only one of them makes an appearance in today's selection.
Poor old Pop Will Eat Itself. This is the second time that PWEI made it to the last 14 and failed to survive the final edit. They'll be even more gutted that on this occasion, the nearly ran was Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies! which was surprisingly a #9 hit in January 1993 and, perhaps less surprisingly, their only Top 10 hit. The window of opportunity is closing for the lads as 1994 would prove to be the last time they cracked the Top 40.
So which of the Phoenix Festival luminaries made it? Credit To The Nation of course, with their Nirvana riffing anthem that is Call It What You Want. Front person Matty Hanson was a compelling performer on stage, and they deserved bigger and better things.
Not the only rap to show up here, with Cypress Hill, whose song landed in my grubby mitts in 1994, courtesy of Reading Present, a cover-mounted cassette freebie with Melody Maker. Having no tolerance for potty language, of course, the UK single was re-titled When The Ship Goes Down (or Sh--, depending where you saw it promoted).
When it came to choosing today's Mandatory Andrew Weatherall...well, I couldn't. In fact, at one point, I nearly went for the triple with the squalling, spiky Sabres Of Paradise remix of Leftfield/Lydon's mighty Open Up. Instead, there's One Dove with White Love. There was a sanitised, radio friendly single verson, but the one to go for is the Guitar Paradise mix by Andrew and the band with Sabres compadres Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns. Much as I would love to include the full length album version, it's well over ten minutes, so here's the US promo edit, which was also used for the official video. Dot Allison is of course uber cool throughout.
The second MAW for 1993 is New Order's comeback single, Regret. I'll be honest, I didn't warm to the single when I first heard it, but Andrew, Jagz and Gary opened my eyes and ears to it's potential with a couple of next-level remixes. The Slow 'n' Lo remix is just shy of thirteen minutes, split into vocal and dub halves; this is the former, a sublime skank that suits Bernard's voice perfectly.
Also getting two bites of the cherry are Fluke, firstly with their remix of Björk's Big Time Sensuality, which she loved so much that it became the official single and video version. You can see why, it's four minutes of pure joy. I loved Fluke's previous music, but this tipped into something of an obsession in 1993, with the release of The Techno Rose Of Blighty, a slew of superb singles (including Slid, today's featured song) and tons of top notch remixes. As with Andrew Weatherall, I tried my darnedest to track down everything that had Fluke on it. Still love 'em as much now as I did then.
The same can be said for Justin Robertson, who expanded from DJing and remixing to releasing original music as Lionrock, accompanied by wordsmith MC Buzz B. Packet Of Peace was the second single and the first of four Top 40 hits.
Not that the rest of today's selection is anything less than excellent. No #1's this time perhaps but nine Top 40 hits is not to be sniffed at. And the ones that didn't make the Top 40 really should have.
1994 was a bit of a divergent path in my life, but what remained unwavering was my love for music. Some good tunes coming up? Probably!
1) Big Time Sensuality (The Fluke Minimix): Björk
2) Who Do You Think You Are (Single Version) (Cover of Candlewick Green): Saint Etienne ft. Debsey Wykes
3) When The Shit Goes Down (Diamond D Remix By Joseph Kirkland): Cypress Hill
4) White Love (Guitar Paradise Edit By One Dove & Sabres Of Paradise): One Dove
5) Walking In My Shoes (Random Carpet Single Edit By William Orbit): Depeche Mode
6) Regret (Sabres Slow 'n' Lo (Vocal) Remix By Sabres Of Paradise): New Order
7) Cannonball: The Breeders
8) Packet Of Peace (7" Edit By Justin Robertson & Mark Stagg): Lionrock ft. MC Buzz B
9) Slid (Glid Edit): Fluke
10) Call It What You Want (Single Version): Credit To The Nation
11) Animal Nitrate: Suede
12) Feed The Tree: Belly
17th January 1993: Feed The Tree EP (#32): 12
28th February 1993: Animal Nitrate EP (#2): 11
14th March 1993: Slid EP (#59): 9
18th April 1993: Regret EP (#4): 6
2nd May 1993: Packet Of Peace EP (#32): 8
9th May 1993: Walking In My Shoes EP (#14): 5
16th May 1993: Call It What You Want EP (#57): 10
23rd May 1993: Hobart Paving/Who Do You Think You Are EP (#23): 2
1st August 1993: White Love EP (#43): 4
15th August 1993: Last Splash (#40): 7
26th September 1993: When The Shit Goes Down EP (#19): 3
28th November 1993: Big Time Sensuality EP (#17): 1
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