Summer Feeling...

As we're halfway through the year, it's time to pause and enjoy the music that's been assailing my senses in the first 26 weeks of '26.

So, 26 songs split into two volumes, today and Sunday. And, unsurprisingly, a fair few mention summer, sunshine and sunsets. Ironically, it's pretty overcast as I create this post in the Cotswolds.

But what would we feel like, without summer? To answer that question, Maggie De Monde is back with a fab album as Scarlet Fantastic, ably assisted by Hifi Sean. The answer? Like being without someone you love, obviously.

Song Of Siraba by A Space Age Freak Out has already appeared on an earlier Dubhed selection of 2026 highlights, but both the original and the ten (count 'em, ten!) accompanying remixes are so good, I make no apology for this. Last time, it was Cosmikuro's take, this time I've gone for Viper Patrol.

Fluke's unexpected and very welcome return in 2024 has been gathering momentum, leading to the release of The Second Bite, a glorious double album reworking classics from their catalogue. Not only that, but Daniel Avery has delivered the first of two remixes of Atom Bomb. This is a dreamy delight, not least for showcasing Leah Cleaver's updated vocals.

Justin Robertson remixed Fluke back in the day and he's still turning it on, most recently as Five Green Moons on a wonderful overhaul of Freedom by Das Druid. They bang on about national treasures on the TV all the time. Justin's a national treasure, as far as I'm concerned, even if he hasn't received an award from Carol Vorderman to prove it.

Speaking of which, Mr. Richard Norris. His latest album is a soundtrack to a clutch of 8mm films that he has acquired, both described as "reflective, atmospheric, lo-fi, a bit wobbly". I've picked Dreamtime, the most blissful two minutes you're likely to experience today. 

In amongst these are a mix of sounds from King Ayisoba, produced by Adrian Sherwood (thanks, Ernie!), Erin Farley and Stephen Clarke 1980, Wrongtom, Kolegos, SAULT, 6161 and The Rotations, Nothing particularly in common, but all finding their own place and space on this selection. It perhaps shouldn't work, but it does.

The sun sets, appropriately enough, with Sunset by Doublespeak, an electronic supergroup comprising Neil Arthur, Vince Clarke and Ben Edwards aka Benge. Happy 66th birthday for yesterday (3rd), Vince!

Hopefully, this has whet your appetite for tomorrow's 13-song selection, including a couple of today's artists, back for more. But who?

1) Without Summer: Scarlet Fantastic (From Montreal To Rotherham)

2) Song Of Siraba (Viper Patrol Remix By John McIver): A Space Age Freak Out (Song Of Siraba EP)

3) False Tongue: Erin Farley & Stephen Clarke 1980 (PSC#001: The Beautiful Flowers Wait For Peace)

4) Love, Refrain (Reprise): The Rotations (Gung-Ho)

5) Bemba (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood): King Ayisoba (Pure Confusion)

6) Atom Bomb (Daniel Avery Nuclear Summer Remix): Fluke ft. Leah Cleaver (Atom Bomb EP)

7) Freedom (Justin Robertson's Five Green Moons Remix): Das Druid (Das EP)

8) One Man Army (First Dub Part II): Wrongtom Meets The Rockers (One Man Army EP)

9) Dreamtime: Richard Norris (8mm)

10) Arbeit: Kolegos (ALG EP)

11) Fulfil Your Spirit: SAULT (Chapter 1)

12) Up (Ben Nascosto Remix): 6161 (6161 (Remixes) EP)

13) Sunset: Doublespeak (Sunset / Strange Weather EP)

Summer Feeling, No Sweeter Genius Vol. 1 (58:47) (GD) (M)

Live It Well

Not a lot of chat today as I've been plagued by power cuts whilst composing this post and it's accompanying selection. Only brief ones, but they've knocked out the PC every time and it's taken increasingly longer to get everything up and running again. And it's raining again.

"Arse!" as Father Jack was inclined to say, well, shout.

In that spirit, here's some joie de vivre courtesy of a dozen songs that have already brightened up my 2026; some only just so as they were released for Bandcamp Friday.

Again, I've found myself with an embarrassment of riches and have compiled 12 of them for your listening pleasure today, and this weekend.

Spare Snare's cover of Say My Name by Destiny's Child has been knocking around since 2001, but it's just reappeared on brand new compilation, Love Your Later Stuff, so it gets in on a technicality. That, and it segues beautifully into the dub of Jezebell's Turn It Yes by Justin Robertson's Five Green Moons.

It was a chance check in with the official Gavin Friday website that led me to the David Holmes remix of The Church Of Love, which snuck out earlier this year. 

And if you enjoy the song by Al MacKenzie (D:Ream) which gives today's post it's title (well, half of it at least) I will be coming back to the Evil Acid Barons album, which is an early contender for compilation of the year... and only a handful of tracks have been released so far.

1) Protector: SAULT (Chapter 1)

2) Life Is Short, Live It Well (Vocal Mix): Al MacKenzie (Evil Acid Barons)

3) Program 70: Pye Corner Audio (Program 70 EP)

4) Love To Watch U: A_M_B_O_S_S (Machine X Human EP)

5) Nothing Ever (Tom Sharkett Remix): GLOK / Timothy Clerkin (Alliance Remixed)

6) Surrounded By Spies (Richard Norris Dub): Placebo (Surrounded By Spies EP)

7) Song Of Siraba (Cosmikuro Remix): A Space Age Freak Out (Song Of Siraba EP)

8) My Electric Dreams (Airsine Remix): Pete Bones (My Electric Dreams EP)

9) The Church Of Love (David Holmes Remix): Gavin Friday (The Church Of Love And Dancing EP)

10) Say My Name (Cover of Destiny's Child): Spare Snare (2001) (Love Your Later Stuff)

11) Turn It Yes (Justin Robertson's Five Green Moons Dub): Jezebell (Turn It Yes Remixes Vol. 1 EP)

12) Môgôya (BOM Nation Remix): Namian Sidibé (Remix EP)

Live It Well (1:07:07) (GD) (M)

Stocking Fillers? Or Floor Fillers?

Or both? Another bag full of Bandcamp boogie and beats that will give Santa's sack a run for its money.

 

After featuring Charlotte & Reinhard in yesterday's selection, it's back to their day job with Rheinzand for the first goody, the 'Sonic Refurbished' version of their album Atlantis Atlantis which proved to be a summer highlight. 

 

Pete Blaker's 'remixes' of Facciamo L'Amore and Ibiza Macht Frei had been released as standalone singles in 2023, and they both appear here alongside four other extended reworks. This is no mere 'remix' album though, as indicated by the fact that Blaker receives an artist co-credit with Rheinzand.

Pete got the band back into the studio to record new vocal and instrumental elements, which were dubbed and layered to create a fresh incarnation of each song. The shortest song on the album is eight and a half minutes, the longest - a version of Level 42's 1981 hit Love Games - nearly twelve and a half. 

The Gift Of Love is nearly twice the length of the Atlantis Atlantis original, retaining the former's languid melody, adding some bass from the bottom of the ocean and taking the listener on an even deeper dive.

 

From Pete Blaker to Pete Bones, here as The Shaker with the excellent 3-track single You Ain't Seen Me from April. I previously featured the Black Octopus remix, so I've gone for Serge Santiago this time, a heady mix of samples, synth stabs and fat beats dragging you back to the late 80s like the party never ended. All three recommended, to be honest.

 

Greendoxyn is Alen Delon (or Alen Ari, according to other t'internet sources) from Kazakhstan. I'd not heard any of his music or remixes before but the Roaming EP was released on the excellent Nein Records, which was good enough for me to take a punt. I did not regret it. 

Three tracks, Roaming, Closed Gamer and The Shark, with a remix of the latter by Elninodiablo aka Stephanos Pantelas. Titled the Close Encounter Remix, which immediately calls to mind a John Williams film score, with a title like The Shark, there is inevitably a nod to his earlier classic, Jaws. Nein were so impressed that the remix is also included on their Best Of 2024 compilation.

 

Portland, Oregon-based label Boomarm Nation released Family Album 2024 on January 1st, the fourth such compilation but the first since 2018. Again, another punt on a label and artists that I was mostly unfamiliar with, on the strength on the sole contributor that I had heard of, StinkyJim. His offering Lie In King, is a dubby, bubbly warm hug of a song and worth the price of admission alone.

Jim's in good company, as evidenced by the bass-heavy, dub colossus that is the 10-minute extended version of Ancient Atoll by Ulrich Troyer. Nineteen tracks in all, available as a name your price download. I mean, why wouldn't you?

 

Returning to planet Nein, and Walentin Pauer. What can I tell you about Walentin? Well, he's based in Bucharest...and that's about all I've got. July saw a 4-track single featuring Maat Mons and Voyager III, with a remix apiece by Stockholm Syndrome (Iain Mac, Australia) and From Beyond aka Alex Wastnidge, England). Here's the latter.

 

Getting down to the indie disco with Spare Snare, who handed their excellent album The Brutal over to other artists, resulting in the rather wonderful Mix Up, out in November. And what better way to kick of than with HiFi Sean's superb Echoplex Dub of I Have You? The bar is set high and maintained throughout.  

 

 

I've been subscribing to Richard Norris' Bandcamp for a few years now and the amount of music that's come my has been staggering, with 2024 being an especially fertile year. An almost impossible task to pick just one, the quality being so high, but I've gone with April's standalone single Weatherall's Last Stand, simply because it's a beautiful tribute to a much missed collaborator and friend.

 

Given the season, a reminder that Paisley Dark Records released the superb compilation Shelter Me - In Crisis in April. Eighteen tracks by top notch artists such as Al Mackenzie, Duncan Gray, Jezebell and Zillas On Acid, all for fifteen quid. All proceeds go directly to the account of UK based homelessness charity, Crisis. 

Again, a tough one to pick from, as they're all so good, so I've taken the easy option by choosing A Space Age Freak Out aka Paisley Dark Records co-founder John Paynter. His contribution Song Of Siraba is remixed in full effect by Mindbender aka Mårten Attling. Buy the whole album now!

  

We Can’t Deal With Culture We Don’t Understand

The news that there had been rioting, violence and looting following the tragedy in Southport was sadly not surprising. 

 

And when media outlets reported incidents "across the UK", in fact it appeared to be concentrated in England, with Belfast making the news but no mention of similar disturbances in Scotland and Wales, as far as I could see.

I was also sad to see Bristol named as one of the cities but then, given it's prominent anti-racist activity, it's often been a magnet for the far right. And goodness knows we have enough of the morons who were born and "bred" in the city. I grew up with, lived in the same street as and worked with a fair few of them. 

The Sky News screen grab above features a few of these fine examples of homo moronus in Bristol on Saturday, facing off against the police. Maybe you recognise some of them. If you happen to serve them at a cafe or takeaway any time soon, hawk a big flob into their food or drink with pleasure.

 

The mobs are described in the news reports as "protesters". That's far too kind a word for them. As a group gathered at a city centre hotel, I assume in the hope of forcing any immigrants within to go back where they came from, a larger group blocked them, chanting, "We are many, you are few. We are Bristol, who are you?"

 

There seems to have been some needless social media ripostes about how many of the counter group were in fact from Bristol, which I think is missing the point, or at the very least missing the scene from this classic film. On Saturday, those who turned up to challenge hate and violence were all Bristolian. 

 

I hadn't planned to write this when I started today's selection, it was supposed to be an fairly innocuous round up of some 2024 musical highlights that I haven't covered in previous posts. The post title is a line from one of the featured songs, Too Muchroom by David Holmes and Raven Violet. That, and a sense of horror at the TV news reports, seem to have guided my fingers at the keyboards as I started to type.

 

You may read some deeper meaning into some of the music choices today but I promise that any themes or connections are purely coincidental. What does link them however is that they represent what continues to be a great year, aurally speaking.

 

Fluke have been one of the comeback success stories of the year. Jack was released in May with another new song possibly titled Real Magnificent 'coming soon'. 

Jesse Fahnestock has never been away and here he is again, with two cracking collaborations, firstly with Emilia Harmony as Electric Blue Vision (and remixed by himself as 10:40). Then, Jesse returns to close the selection with his partner in crime Darren Bell as Jezebell, delivering the fruity tune Citric, freshly squeezed from their Weekend Machines EP.

Sean Johnston also makes a couple of appearances as Hardway Bros. Alessandro Sarsano aka DJALE remixes Functions For Machines from the excellent My Friends EP. Sean later reunites with Duncan Gray for another Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown excursion, this time the aforementioned David Holmes and Raven Violet track.

Richard Norris released an exclusive 4-track EP (album?) in June, only available to subscribers, presenting music he'd created for a show at Paris Fashion Week. Each of the 4 mixes runs to nearly 14 minutes, so I've created a crude 8-minute edit of Mix 3 to include in this selection. 

I've been subscribing for a couple of years now. It's superb value for money and also raises funds for mental health charity MIND. I cannot recommend it enough.

Paris In The Summertime aside, Richard has a vast catalogue available on Bandcamp and in fact all of the music featured in today's selection is available to purchase there. If you like what you hear, go track them down, you will not be disappointed.

The penultimate song by Third Attempt samples from Louis Malle's 1981 film My Dinner With Andre

"You see, I keep thinking that what we need is a new language, 

a language of the heart."

 

The quoted lines are spoken by Andre Gregory, who appears opposite Wallace Shawn (if you don't know the latter's name, you will instantly recognise the face). The film is essentially two friends sharing anecdotes over a restaurant meal for the best part of two hours. They don't make 'em like that anymore. 

If you made it to the end of this post, many thanks for indulging me and I hope the music is sufficient compensation!

 

1) Jack: Fluke ft. Leah Cleaver (SW18 Sessions)

2) Trance Stance (1040s Haight Steppin Remix By Jesse Fahnestock): Electric Blue Vision (Trance Stance EP)

3) Hell Below: Acid Klaus ft. Lias Saoudi (P.T.S.D By Proxy EP)

4) Song Of Siraba (Mindbender Remix By Mårten Attling): A Space Age Freak Out (Shelter Me: In Crisis)

5) Paris In The Summertime (Mix 3 - Khayem's Olympic Edit): Richard Norris (Paris In The Summertime)

6) There’s Dust On It: Pye Corner Audio (There’s Dust On It EP)

7) Gold Rush (Dub): Break Mode ft. Nuri Orman (Boomarm Nation Family Album 2024)

8) Functions For Machines (DJALE Last Song Remix By Alessandro Sarsano): Hardway Bros (My Friends Remixes EP)

9) Waif Mentality: Orbury Common (Waif Mentality EP)

10) Too Muchroom (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown Remix By Sean Johnston & Duncan Gray): David Holmes ft. Raven Violet (Blind On A Galloping Horse (Remixes Vol. 2))

11) Language Of The Heart: Third Attempt (Offshore Sunsets EP)

12) Citric: Jezebell (Weekend Machines EP)

We Can’t Deal With Culture We Don’t Understand (1:09:56) (KF) (Mega)