Saturday's Alright For Alighting

A bumper selection of train-themed/titled songs for you to steam into the weekend. It's been done before - and undoubtedly better - elsewhere in the blogosphere, but when I have ever let that stop me in the pursuit of an unoriginal idea?!

So, two volumes to neatly fill a C90 cassette, 25 songs across an hour and a half, criss-crossing the globe as we go and ignoring the logistics of traversing those pesky oceans, seas and rivers.

All aboard!

 

Volume One 

1) Rail On: Julian Cope (1989)

2) King Of The Track: Dennis Alcapone (1974)

3) Ur Train: Leila ft. Luca Santucci (2008)

4) Can't Catch The Train: Soulsavers ft. Mark Lanegan (2009)

5) Beside The Railway Tracks: The Divine Comedy (2010)

6) Mule Train (Cover of Buz Butler): Count Prince Miller (1970)

7) Roots Train (Album Version): Junior Murvin (1977)

8) The Last Train: Josh Rouse (2005)

9) Last Train To Lhasa (2k2 Mix): Banco De Gaia (2015)

10) Railroad Man: Eels (2005)

11) Train Of Thought (Remix 7" Version): a-ha (1986)

12) Last Train To Satansville (Satansville Revisited) (Album Version): Swervedriver (1993)

Volume Two

1) The Gravy Train (Nightmares On Wax Mix - Delayed Departure Edit By Khayem): Ian Brown (2002/2024)

2) No Train To Stockholm (Cover of Lee Hazlewood): Erlend Øye (2002)

3) Long Empty Train: The Gadgets (1983)

4) Night Train To Lichtenstien: Dawn Of The Replicants (1998)

5) Stop The Train: The Wailers (1970)

6) Blue Train: The Bluebells (2023)

7) Long Black Train: Richard Hawley (2001)

8) It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry: Bob Dylan (1965)

9) Railroad Blues: Beastie Boys (2000)

10) Dead Grammas On A Train: Thin White Rope (1985)

11) Victoria Train Station Massacre: The Fall (2017)

12) Train Is Coming: Iklan ft. Law Holt (2020)

13) Lame Train (Single Version): Flesh For Lulu (1983)

 

1965: Highway 61 Revisited: B8

1970: Mule Train EP: A6 

1970: Stop The Train EP: B5

1974: King Of The Track: A2 

1977: Police & Thieves: A7

1983: Blue Album: B3 

1983: Roman Candle EP: B13

1985: Exploring The Axis: B10

1986: Train Of Thought EP: A11

1989: China Doll EP: A1 

1993: Mezcal Head: A12 

1998: Hogwash Farm (The Diesel Hands E.P.): B4 

2000: Country Mike’s Greatest Hits: B9

2001: Late Night Final: B7

2002: Remixes Of The Spheres: B1*

2002: Total Lee! The Songs Of Lee Hazlewood: B2

2005: Bedroom Classics Vol. 2 EP: A8 

2005: Blinking Lights And Other Revelations: A10

2008: Blood, Looms & Blooms: A3

2009: Broken: A4

2015: Last Train To Lhasa EP: A9 

2017: New Facts Emerge: B11

2020: Album Number 1 Featuring Law Holt: B12

2020: Bang Goes The Knighthood/More Sordid Details (Expanded Edition): A5

2023: In The 21st Century: B6

* This is essentially the main vocal mix, with the first 90 seconds of the instrumental mix tacked onto the front to provide an extended intro.

Volume One (46:10) (KF) (Mega)

Volume Two (45:33) (KF) (Mega)

 

Today's cover photo is Queenstown Road Station in London, snapped and written about by 'Joe Blogs' in August 2010.

In A Season Of Light We Can See Forever

Billy MacKenzie introduces today's long song selection, down on the tempo, up on the electronic emotional dial. 

 

Recorded and released with Loom in 1996, the opening song actually dates back to the aborted Associates reunion with Alan Rankine in 1993, the song initially demo'd as Edge Of The World and appearing on the Double Hipness compilation in 2000. Billy would revisit the song several times, with versions titled Anacostia Bay or At The Edge Of The World appearing on various posthumous solo compilations, including last year's essential Satellite Life: Recordings 1994-1996

 

Despite the mix title, this is the only version of Eagle to appear on Banco De Gaia's 1995 Last Train To Lhasa, which is still a satisfying, immersive ambient experience, nearly three decades on. 

 

Blue Pearl were good but never quite as good as I wished/hoped they would be. Youth aka Martin Glover at the controls and Durga McBroom's vocals which, to be honest, were an acquired taste. However, the trio of remixes by The Orb on the Mother Dawn 12" single are pretty great; this is the first, clocking in at 12 minutes and 45 seconds and still not the longest of the three!

 

Today's loose theme easily presented an excuse to post yet another version/remix of Smokebelch by The Sabres Of Paradise. Is there a bad version of this song? I've yet to hear one.

 

As a coda to this selection, a brief burst from Justin Warfield, vocal free and hinting at another party about to kick off next door. 

 

Five songs, fifty minutes, play through headphones for the maximum experience.  

1) Anacostia Bay (At The Edge Of The World) (Original Version): Loom ft. Billy MacKenzie (1996)

2) Eagle (Small Steppa Mix): Banco De Gaia (1995)

3) Mother Dawn (Buckateer Mix 1 By The Orb): Blue Pearl (1992)

4) Smokebelch II (Exit) (Remix By Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): The Sabres Of Paradise (1993)

5) Tequila Flats (Ghosts Of Laurel Canyon): Justin Warfield (1994)

 

In A Season Of Light We Can See Forever (50:00) (Box) (Mega)

Another Brief Excursion In The Underworld

Side 1 of a mixtape, featuring "13 ambient adventures" and originally assembled 10th January 1998. 

 

When I presented Side 2 on 3rd August 2021, I literally had nothing else to say in the accompanying post, which seems very unfair in retrospect. I'll put it down to the post going out on a Tuesday at the beginning of August and it being relatively early on in my routine of daily posting. I'd either had a very heavy Monday at work and/or very limited time the following morning to finesse a post. 

 

These days, whilst it's still very rare for me to prepare a post days in advance - although I'll often carry an idea or may know what I want to post on a particular day - I usually set aside more time for writing the post, over and above any prep for the musical selection itself.

 

A Brief Excursion In The Underworld's subtitle is a bit misleading. Yes, there are 13 tracks; no, it's not an ambient mixtape; I'll leave you to be the judge of whether it's an "adventure" in any way at all. What it is, is a home for a bunch of off-kilter music that I liked but which didn't fit onto any other of my electronica, dance or ambient compilation tapes at the time.

 

I've previously featured Side 1 of "The Best Of Trance Europe Express" and it's no spoiler to say that Pleidean Communication by A Positive Life aka Stefan Pierlejewski doesn't appear on Side 2. However, it's another misleading mixtape title, as TEE was chock full of excellent music, including this track. A slightly longer version of Pleidean Communication appears on the 1994 album Synaesthetic, which was re-sequenced and re-released with lovely new artwork late last year. For those who prefer physical formats, you can pick up the original issue on CD via Waveform Records or the reissue on double vinyl via re:discovery records. Either way, it's well worth a listen.

Polygon Window is one of the many, many aliases of Richard D. James, releasing a clutch of singles and promos and just one album, 1993's Surfing On Sine Waves. Again, you can pick up a digital re-release of the album with a couple of bonus tracks via Warp Records. Whilst you're there, I'd also highly recommend Polygon Window's Quoth EP, which features the brilliantly titled Bike Pump Meets Bucket.

In the mid-1990s, Banco De Gaia seemed to be the ambient/chill out act that my friends liked, even if they otherwise weren't into that kind of music. I particularly got into Banco De Gaia in early 1994, having seen Toby Marks DJ during my first experience of a Megadog night in Derby. I went on to buy the limited 3CD, 13-track album Last Train To Lhasa in 1995 and although I don't listen to it as often as I should these days, it's not lost any of it's impact. No surprise that you can pick up a special edition of Last Train To Lhasa on Bandcamp. The re-release covers CDs 1 & 2 of the original physical release - including the version of China featured here - plus 5 bonus tracks. 

Rising High Records was founded by musical polymath and innovator Caspar Pound, who tragically succumbed to cancer in 2004 at the age of 33. It's fair to say that his list of achievements and influences on electronic music are too great to list here. A couple of personal favourites were the excellent Further Self Evident Truths .. compilations and Rising High Collective, where Pound collaborated with Marc Williams, Peter Williams and singer Plavka, then known for her work with Jam & Spoon and providing vocals on The Shamen's classic Hypereal. Caspar Pound's daughter Sapho has been responsible for the Rising High legacy in recent years, which has seen much of Rising High Collective's singles and remixes available again in digital format. The version of Move Ya featured here, remixed by Bedouin Ascent aka Kingsuk Biswas, doesn't appear to have been reissued as yet and is exclusive to the first Further Self Evident Truths .. compilation.

Two Lone Swordsmen aka Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood should need no introduction, especially if you've been a regular visitor to these pages. In fact, I love Glide By Shooting - and it's parent album/EP Swimming Not Skimming - so much that I've featured it here previously. I think the music speaks for itself on this occasion. Simply stunning.

I'll admit that I've not had a great deal of interest in Jon Anderson's career, whether with Yes, Jon & Vangelis or as a solo artist. Yet, he manages to constantly enter my consciousness with music that demands my attention. I'll admit that I was equally ignorant of 1994 album Deseo and have remained largely indifferent to it since, but I was drawn to 1995 companion The Deseo Remixes. Aside from the appeal of the lenticular cover (remember those?) which sadly cracked when I moved home a couple of years later, the CD featured remixes by Transglobal Underground, Deep Forest and The Future Sound Of London, as well as a couple of beauties by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton as Global Communication. Bless This is one of the few tracks on The Deseo Remixes to retain the track title from the parent album and, in both cases, closes proceedings. The version here is a shimmering, echo effects-laden chorus with a rhythm that evokes the drum machine from Vienna by Ultravox, seven minutes passing by in a flash (or should that be haze?).

If you enjoy what you've heard here, check out Side 2 which features more goodies (not to be confused with The Goodies) by The Shamen, Scanner, The Art Of Noise, The Grid, Moby, David Toop and Cosmic Baby.

 

1) Pleidean Communication (Original Version): A Positive Life (from Trance Europe Express², 1994)

2) If It Really Is Me: Polygon Window (from Surfing On Sine Waves, 1993)

3) China (Clouds Not Mountains): Banco De Gaia (from Last Train To Lhasa, 1995)

4) Move Ya (Bedouin Ascent Silicon Grooves Mix): Rising High Collective (from Further Self Evident Truths .., 1995)

5) Glide By Shooting (Remix By Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood): Two Lone Swordsmen (from Swimming Not Skimming, 1996)

6) Bless This (Remix By Global Communication aka Mark Pritchard & Tom Middleton): Jon Anderson (from The Deseo Remixes, 1995)

Side One (46:09)

Side Two here

Conchoidal Fracture

Mondays can always be a challenge at work and yesterday seemed particularly full on. Dense fog predicted for this morning's commute, so here's just over an hour of soothing sounds for today, although you will find some BPMs tucked away in there somewhere.

Starting off with an ambient excursion from Tony Thorpe, we then explore the aural soundscapes of Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia, before taking the last train to the darkside, courtesy of Toby Marks. 

 

Today's post title was inspired after looking up an article on obsidian on the Wonderopolis website. It's a term used by geologists, describing how "obsidian breaks into pieces with curved surfaces that are razor thin and extremely sharp". I learn something new every day.

1) Arrival: Voyager (1993)

2) Obsidian (Single Version): Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia (1993)

3) 887 (Darkside Return): Banco De Gaia (1995)

1993: Transmission: 1

1993: untitled 2x 12" (USA promo): 2

1995: Last Train To Lhasa (ltd 3x CD): 3 

 

Conchoidal Fracture (1:01:27) (GD) (M)

101

When I started this blog on 7th December 2020, I didn't really have any thought of how often or how long I'd keep going with posting music. After a fairly relaxed start, I gradually built up some momentum and started posting daily from mid-May and today I bring you post #101. Even a casual glance around at the many blogs that I enjoy and have been inspired by, who have been going for years, decades even, and have thousands of posts to enjoy, means that this is no big deal in the scheme of things. If anything, getting this far has made me admire them even more. I really appreciate everyone who stops by to visit and read my offerings to cyberspace and it's great to receive your comments. Thanks to you all.

On that note, here's a little 101-themed playlist. Yes, arguably another excuse for yet more Andrew Weatherall. My positive bias aside, Weatherall's prodigious work as an artist, remixer, producer and DJ is such that you could probably play Six Degrees Of Separation with my music collection and find him in three. As a counter for Weatherall's ubiquity on this blog, I am pretty confident that this is the only time you'll see Sheena Easton here. Unless there's a Prince-themed post at some point in the future.

 

1) Electribal Memories: Electribe 101 (1990)

2) 101 (101% By Scooby Doo & Shaggy 2): Finitribe (1991)

3) Karma Sitar: 101 Strings (1972)

4) 101 (Def House Mix (Extended Club Version) By David Morales): Sheena Easton (1989)

5) 101 (Intensity Mix By Andrew Weatherall) (Full Length): Finitribe (1991)

6) 101 Rainbows Ambient Mix: Caustic Window (1994)

7) The Golden Age (CD101 Version) (Cover of Beck): The Flaming Lips (2002)

8) Desert Wind (Interstate 101 Mix): Banco De Gaia (1994)

9) Bossa Nova 101: Money Mark (1998)

10) Keys To Your Heart (Khayem's Reverse Reprise): The 101'ers (2021)

 

101 (1:01)