Dub '96

An hour of dub not dub today, with a 10-song selection of remixes circa 1996.

Dub '96 follows the tradition of previous Dubhed excursions to 1983 and 1985 (twice), with a varied (re)mix of indie and electronic music, all put through the club/dub filter.

Everything But The Girl were partying like it was, er, 1999, teaming up with Spring Hill Jack for the drum and bass-infused title track of their Walking Wounded album. 

Dubstar called Mother... no, not theirs, the DJ/producer duo of Jools Brettle & Lee Fisher... to take their single Stars into space, a dub oddity if you will.

18 Wheeler on the other hand stayed on terra firma, getting Greg Hunter in to dub their single, transforming it into Beyond The Valley Of The Hours And The Times, in homage to Russ Meyer's 1970 film Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls.

Inspired by Dubstar, The Beloved were visited by one half of Deep Dish, the fortuitously named Dubfire (Ali to his ioved ones) to go even further with Three Steps To Heaven. Unfortunately, the record label didn't approve and the remix remained unreleased for many years.

Alter Ego proposed getting out of their heads on Mescal, or should that be Mezcal? You may be interested to know that all tequila is a type of mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila. Two Lone Swordsmen create a suitably out of body dub.

From out of their heads to Out Of This World by Republica. This remix was originally released as a promo 12" in 1994, back when The Chemical Brothers were still blagging it as The Dust Brothers, until The Dust Brothers found out and told them to stop. The dub remix turned up on a single in 1996... at least that's what it said on the sleeve. Turns out it was actually April 1997. Ooops!

Grace was a project for Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, who recorded Not Over Yet in 1993. It wasn't a major hit until 1995, by which time original vocalist Patti Low had departed. Subsequent singles were led by Dominique Atkins, although it was "all over" for Grace by 1997.

Innerzone Orchestra is a collective pulled together by electronic music pioneer Carl Craig. Bug In The Bassbin is perhaps their most well-known track, with a slew of remixes. I only released after I'd completed this selection that the Graphic Dub included here is supposed to be 5 minutes long. My CD rip is a smidge over 1 minute. Ooops!

It's that guy Steve Osborne again, this time remixing indie legends Lush. Again, another quirk in my digital music collection. The original running time was listed as 10:51, until I realised that the file was corrupted. One refresh later and the track is 6:31 as it should be. Housekeeping, eh?

To finish, The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown, Primal Scream teaming up with Denise Johnson and Irvine Welsh, for one of the best football related songs of all. This dub is about as close to the dub genre as you'll get today, no surprise when it's Adrian Sherwood at the controls.

Continuing the tradition of the previous Dub '80s posts, I've resurrected my shameless rip off of Rol's far more inspired Saturday morning quiz over at My Top Ten.

The only prize for participating is the knowledge that somehow you have made it to the end of the five questions (and this post) with your sanity intact. 

Answers will be posted in the Comments below on Monday morning.

1) Which band member, now an acclaimed author, denounced The Beatles as “the absolute curse of modern Indie music”, citing their favourite Beatle as Yoko Ono?

2) When asked what they would do when their music career slowed down, who said that they would take a 6-month course in dry stone walling and set up a 24-hour emergency repair service, using a 3-wheeled motor trike?

3) Whose autobiography is titled Patient?

4) Which song had three videos made, one in a disused swimming pool in Hackney, another in Badwater Basin in Death Valley, California, and the third and final one in a London studio, for it's re-release as a single?

5) Who appeared in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice whilst still in the womb?

1) Walking Wounded (Spring Heel Jack Dub Mix By Ashley Wales & John Coxon): Everything But The Girl (Walking Wounded EP)

2) Stars (Mother Dub Mix By Jools Brettle & Lee Fisher) (Extended Album Version): Dubstar (Disgraceful/The Mixes (Expanded 2CD Edition))

3) Beyond The Valley Of The Hours And The Times (Greg Hunter In Dub Mix): 18 Wheeler (The Hours And The Times EP)

4) Three Steps To Heaven (Dubfire's Paradise Dub) (Remix By Ali Shirazinia): The Beloved (X Remixed (unreleased promo mixes))

5) Mescal (2 Lone Swordsmen Dub) (Remix By Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood) (Full Length): Alter Ego (Peppered With Spastic Magic: A Collection Of Two Lone Swordsmen Remixes)

6) Out Of This World (Chemical Brothers Dub) (Remix By Ed Simons & Tom Rowlands): Republica (Drop Dead Gorgeous EP)

7) Not Over Yet (BT's Peyote Dub) (Remix By Brian Transeau): Grace (Not Over Yet EP)

8) Bug In The Bassbin (Graphic Dub) (Remix By Claude Young): Innerzone Orchestra (Bug In The Bassbin EP)

9) Last Night (Hexadecimal Dub Mix By Steve Osborne): Lush (Last Night EP)

10) The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown (Full Strength Fortified Dub) (Remix By Adrian Sherwood): Primal Scream ft. Denise Johnson & Irvine Welsh (The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown EP)

Dub '96 (1:01:38) (GD) (M)

And if that's not enough dub for one day, here are my three '80s dub selections to date:

Dub '83 (September 2023)

Dub '85 (January 2025)

Double Dub '85 (April 2025)

Un Autre Côté

Side 2 of a mixtape labelled "The Best Of Trance Europe Express" and compiled sometime in 1998.

Trance Europe Express was an off-shoot of the Volume book/magazine/CD series, with five 2CD volumes between 1993 and 1997, totalling 120 tracks, many of which were exclusive to the series.

 

As I said in my original post in June 2022, the mixtape is intentionally misleading, The quality throughout the five volumes remained of a such a high standard that calling this 13-track cassette a "best of" was a bit tongue-in-cheek. It's a good primer though, especially as you can track them down for a few quid these days. The book and the slipcase may be a bit battered but the quality of the music within will be intact.

 

Alaska was initially a duo of Laurent Garnier and Nic Britton, later music solely credited to Garnier and released on his own F Communications label. Unreleased Project 1 appeared on Alaska's Deuxième EP around the same time as Trance Europe Express 4. The EP version is eleven and a half minutes long, a couple shaved off for this exclusive TEE edit.

Pluto was another non de plume, this time for Rolo McGinty, better known for his work with The Woodentops. On this 1994 track, Rolo is joined by Leslie 'Bullet' Lawrence and Steve 'Dub' Jones. Rockefeller appeared (misspelt as Rockerfeller) the following year on Pluto's debut album, Rising.

Barbarik by William Orbit is another TEE-exclusive but containing all of the bleeps, tinkles, beats and spoken word sections that he'd made his stock in trade from Water On A Vine Leaf through to megastardom, producing Ray Of Light with Madonna. I love it.

Outcast (not OutKast) were Beaumont Hannant and Richard Brown. The former came to my attention via his superb remixes for Ned's Atomic Dustbin and his solo Tastes And Textures EPs. Whereas that music's closest and laziest comparison was trip-hop, Peach Taxi featured here is a much more housey affair.

Speaking of which, Glasgow legends Slam bring the house down with the mighty Soul Power. It's a testament to how much good music they were producing in the 1990s that this track would be a standalone TEE exclusive when other artists would have placed this firmly on a 12" A-side or album. The flow of new music has not slowed in recent years with Orde Meikle and Stuart McMillan still producing the goods, as June's Activate EP ably demonstrated.

Jörn Elling Wuttke and Roman Flügel formed Alter Ego in 1992, continuing with some success until a final album in 2007, with a posthumous remix album the following year and the release of a lost album in 2012. Sex And Gender is an exclusive track from their early(ish) period and a bridge between their first two albums.

Closing the compilation and bringing things full circle to the first volume of Trance Europe Express is the fittingly-named Trance Induction aka Tjeerd Verbeek. According to t'internet, these days Tjeerd is a biohacker and professional tai chi teacher, which seems a far cry from the urgent, pulsating N which seems purpose-built for a substance-enhanced club experience. 

 

Not your typical Sunday morning fare, but maybe this will transform your weekend chores and get the neighbours worked up. You know it makes sense!

1) Unreleased Project 1 (Trance Europe Express Edit By Laurent Garnier): Alaska (1995)

2) Rockefeller (Album Version): Pluto (1994)

3) Barbarik: William Orbit (1995)

4) Peach Taxi: Outcast (1997)

5) Soul Power: Slam (1997)

6) Sex And Gender: Alter Ego (1995)

7) N (Trance Europe Express Edit By Tjeerd Verbeek): Trance Induction (1993)

 

1993: Trance Europe Express: 7

1994: Trance Europe Express²: 2

1995: Trance Europe Express 3: 3, 6

1995: Trance Europe Express 4: 1

1997: Trance Europe Express 5: 4, 5

Side Two (45:47) (KF) (Mega)

Side One here

Joy Is The Ploy

The second of three David Holmes mix CDs that I compiled for my friend Dave on 13th March 2005. I previously posted volume three in December 2021 and according to the stats, it's proved to be a popular Dubhed selection, hopefully with human beings as well as blogbots.

 

This one spans David Holmes' career from his first solo single in 1994 to his full band excursions with The Free Association, taking in a slew of remixes along the way. Johnny Favourite, here in it's downtempo, ambient B-side version, is a prime contender for The Vinyl Villain's It Really Was A Cracking Debut Single series. I remember buying the 12" single at Way Ahead in Derby, getting it home and putting it on my turntable, placing the needle in the groove and...being transported. Both versions are essential listening, in my opinion.

There are a couple of rarer Holmes songs here. Jackson Johnson originally appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Bow Down To The Exit Sign in 2000. I picked it up in the UK the following year on the excellent London Xpress compilation. In 2010, it became more readily available on the 'best of' collection, The Dogs Are Parading.

A little harder to find is Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1 which (I think) is only available on 1996 compilation, The Science Behind The Circle, itself highly recommended as it features additional tracks from Andrew Weatherall, Carl Cox, Secret Knowledge, The Aloof and Ashley Beedle, to name a few. Both Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1 and Jackson Johnson are an indication of Holmes' prodigious output and the quality of his music that these didn't even make it onto official singles or albums. 

Delakota's version of Don't Die Just Yet takes the form of a short narrative about a toxic couple in the Australian wilderness and was a 'remix swap', Holmes repaying the favour with an excellent rework of their track I Thought I Caught, which appeared on volume three of my mix CDs. 

 

I can never quite decide if I like the Manic Street Preachers remix; I invariably decide that I do. The mix CD's title is taken from a second remix of You Stole The Sun From My Heart that Holmes did. It appeared on a promo 12" in the UK and a promo Remixes CD in the USA and I've never heard it.

The remix of Dawn Of The Replicants' Skullcrusher is a particular favourite, as is Gone featuring Sarah Cracknell, which came in a package of really strong remixes with Alter Ego's second take a standout. 

Closing track, the Children Re-Mix of Everbody Knows was the opener of The Free Association selection I posted in June 2021 and works well whether it starts or ends a selection.

 

1) Johnny Favourite (Exploding Plastic Ambience Mix By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): David Holmes (1994)

2) Sugarman (VV Featuring Chilly Gonzales Remix): The Free Association (2003)

3) 69 Police (Skylab Remix By Matt Ducasse & Duncan Forbes): David Holmes ft. Sean Gullette (2000)

4) Jackson Johnson: David Holmes (2000)

5) Die Laughing (David Holmes Mix 2 By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Therapy? (1994)

6) Swastika Eyes (David Holmes Mix) (Full Length): Primal Scream (1999)

7) Don't Die Just Yet (Delakota Mix By Cass Browne & Morgan Nicholls): David Holmes (1997)

8) Skullcrusher (David Holmes & Tim Goldsworthy Remix): Dawn Of The Replicants (1998)

9) Gone (Alter Ego Decoding Gone, Pt. 2) (Remix By Jörn Elling Wuttke & Roman Flügel): David Holmes ft. Sarah Cracknell (1995)

10) You Stole The Sun From My Heart (David Holmes' A Joyful Racket Remix): Manic Street Preachers (1998)

11) Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1: David Holmes (1996)

12) Everybody Knows (Children Re-Mix By Stephen Hilton & Pati Yang): The Free Association (2003)

Joy Is The Ploy (1:19:10)