Stand Up...You Can Do It...You Got This!

More top tunes from this year so far, including a few from last week's Bandcamp Friday haul.

I like to imagine that there's someone out there who rips my selections onto a CD or cassette, which is why most of my compilations hover around the 45 to 60 minute mark.

Today fits the bill, with 10 songs at a smidge under 47 minutes, spanning multiple moods and genres.

I always look forward to new music from Duncan Gray and he's spoiling us in 2026 by releasing a track every month. Duncan's also got a bit of a funky groove going on, as evidenced on July's offering Netbacks. A tease at 5:24, this could run on a loop for hours and never get tired.

I enthused about Bounce & Salute by Cornershop and Bubbley Kaur a month ago, and my feelings haven't changed. I described it as "a joy to these ears" : swirly keyboard, dub effects and the melodic voice of Bubbley all combine perfectly. This should be the smash hit of the summer, in my opinion. 

In my round up of new releases, my one-liner for Blue Bird by Coyote was "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) for 2026? Even better."  Well, of course it is, it's Coyote.

I've been obsessed with Blue Bird and it's words of advice for the age of madness we're currently inhabiting. My favourite right now is

"What other people think of you is none of your business"

I should start applying these mantras to my own life.

Too Good To Stay first appeared on The Woodentops' fabulous 2024 album Fruits Of The Deep, a song which my review at the time labelled "indie pop par excellence bathed in the Balearic sunshine."  A 'Nightclub Mix' appeared at the tail end of last year, stretching the song and the vibe out over seven minutes.

In last Friday's BF shopping trip, I added the newly released Moongoose remix of the song, I know next to nothing about Moongoose aka David 'Yorkie' Palmer, but this is a cracker. A slow fade in (and out), building up an electronic throb, layered synths and guitars and the inimitable voice of Rolo McGinty. It's fantastic.

dee eye why's Bungalow Legs EP came to me via my subscription to Roberta Fidora's Neighbourhood on Bandcamp; she also gifts vocals to the opening song. dee eye why aka Mel Houghton operates in the same wheelhouse, straddling indie and electronica. Like A Winner leans to the former, pleasingly so.

Mindbender and 100 Poems is an unexpected but very welcome team up. Mårten Attling and Mike Wilson. Like Coyote's contribution, the songs is structured around a spoken word piece, this time from Irish poet Emmet O'Brien. That's where the similarity ends, especially on Mike's 100 Poems remix.

Dirty Dublin is "a postcard from the back streets [a] love letter to a city that refuses to become tidy." The remix provides an acid rain dance rinse that will leave you feeling energised, if a little grubby and segues perfectly into...

....Don't Stop by Bristol rapper Diz Undone, produced by Tom Caruana. The radio version files down some of the sharper language but the power and potency of the narrative is untouched. I'm looking forward to the album Love & Rage later this year.

A moment of chill, thanks to Richard Norris and Lol Hammond's collaborative project Moon Dust. Scarlet Traces is the closing track on Memories, Dreams, Reflections, an album that finds new shapes and forms from deceptively simple structures. One to lose yourself in.

My Electric Dreams has already appeared in a 2026 'round up' selection, back in March. My get out is that last time it was superb remix by Airsine; this time it's the original single version by Pete Bones. The Tubeway Army sample is used sparingly but effectively in this compact 4:39 banger.

And the selection comes back down again one final time for the closing song by Bristol-based, French-born voice-over artist, actor and musician Anne Gallien. Walking Barefoot / Marche Pied Nu is a one-off single, an irresistible mix of throbbing bass, sensual vocals and - the clincher for me - thumb piano and egg shakers. 

1) Netbacks: Duncan Gray

2) Bounce & Salute: Cornershop ft. Bubbley Kaur

3) Blue Bird (Single Version): Coyote

4) Too Good To Stay (Moongoose Remix): The Woodentops

5) Like A Winner: dee eye why

6) Dirty Dublin (100 Poems Acid Rain Mix): Mindbender & 100 Poems

7) Don't Stop (Radio Version): Diz Undone X Tom Caruana

8) Scarlet Traces (Album Version): Moon Dust

9) My Electric Dreams (Single Version): Pete Bones

10) Walking Barefoot / Marche Pied Nu: Anne Gallien

Stand Up...You Can Do It...You Got This! (46:57) (GD) (M)

Hits Like A Shot Of Ginger Beer

Cornershop has reunited with Bubbley Kaur for Bounce And Salute, which is a joy to these ears.

I've been fumbling for superlatives, but the official website/label has nailed it in their promo, describing Bounce And Salute as "a song guaranteed to bring out peak summer and everyday sunshine, with classic Punjabi folk lyrics backdropped by a Carnival 77 roots-based music. It’s immediacy hits like a shot of ginger beer and everyone deserves a bit of refreshment."

They are not wrong, and the official video directed by Phil Miller effortlessly captures this with a cheerily garbed woman dancing around a row of beach huts, cutting away to images of ice lollies and fairground rides.

There's a second official video, created from video footage recorded in 2003 at the Damont Record Pressing Plant in Hayes (which I'd always associated with Middlesex but which has apparently been absorbed by the London borough of Hillingdon).

Anyway, I digress. Ben Ayres used to work at the pressing plant, and Tjinder Singh filmed a documentary focusing on the music industry's transition from analogue to digital.

As a music lover who pored over the scratched text and messages in the inner circle of my vinyl collection, the name Damont is of course instantly familiar and it's sad to know that the factory no longer exists.

The promo notes for Bounce And Salute note that Bubbley's lyrics lament "a previous sweetheart that slipped through the destiny of her life", something that she will never forget, whilst the music itself provides an uplifting, optimistic counterpoint.

Beautiful.

Cornershop and Bubbley previously collaborated on 2011 album  And The Double-O Groove Of. If you don't already have this in your life, then you need to do something about that as a matter of urgency. If it doesn't change your life, it will at least significantly improve it.

Cornershop generously made videos for six out the ten songs on the album - click on the links to view.

1)  United Provinces Of India

2)  Topknot

3)  The 911 Curry

4)  Natch

5)  Double Decker Eyelashes

6)  The Biro Pen

7)  Supercomputed

8)  Once There Was A Wintertime

9)  Double Digit

10)  Don't Shake It

My entry point was the Cavemen remix of Topknot, featuring M.I.A., who was so taken with the original that she provided a rap to complement Bubbley's vocals. Cavemen were a duo comprising Steve Mackey (RIP) of Pulp and producer/polymath Ross Orton.

Due to popular demand, And The Double-O Groove was repressed and rereleased in 2025 (including for the first time on vinyl) and you can still buy copies from Cornershop's label Ample Play.

You can also purchase a download of Bounce And Salute for a quid at the same place.

Decayed II: 2002

Side 1 of a made up mixtape series, bounding through the first decade of the 21st century.

In the year 2000, Robbie Williams duetted with Kylie Minogue on the phenomenal crowd pleasing single Kids. in 2001, Kylie pushed the envelope further with the brilliant Can't Get You Out Of My Head. But what about Robbie?

2001 was pretty good to Robbie too, with three singles, two of which hit the top spot. 2002 saw just the one single, Feel, reaching #4 at the end of the year. Not that I was really all that bothered. 

What interested me more with his guest spot on My Culture by 1 Giant Leap. It's a really good song and deserved to be a hit, but would it have been a Top 10 hit without Robbie and Maxi Jazz from Faithless on it? 

Well... follow-up single Braided Hair featuring Neneh Cherry and Speech from Arrested Development managed one week at #78, whilst the eponymous debut album fared slightly better at #51. Which is a shame as 1 Giant Leap is a really good album. People were sadly more interested in buying the latest steaming slop by Blue and Celine Dion. 

Likewise, Cornershop had followed up a #1 hit single and Top 20 album in 1998 with a great album, Handcream For A Generation, and a rifftastic lead single in Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III. Although neither could be considered a flop, with a Top 30 and Top 40 placing respectively, Cornershop never again  enjoyed the UK chart success of the 1990s,. Didn't stop them making fantastic music, though.

Another legendary artist that consistently delivered wonderful music for frustratingly little reward is Edwyn Collins. His 2002 album Dr. Syntax is chock full of tunes that his contemporaries would sell their souls for, and Johnny Teardrop is in my Top 5 favourite Edwyn Collins songs. It's the perfect distillation of everything that makes Edwyn such a superb songwriter. And it got to bloody #192! Were there really 191 better singles on sale in the UK that week?!

The previous week, Sugababes were back with a vengeance - and their first UK #1 - with Freak Like Me. Having just watched the excellent Girlbands Forever documentary series on BBC2, I appreciated just how much was on the line for the group. Founder member and childhood friend Siobhan Donaghy had left, and Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan were teamed up with new member Heidi Range. Sugababes had been successful, but without a #1 single or album to date, it was make or break time.

DJ and producer Richard X has gained notoriety, not least for his bootleg mash-up of Freak Like Me by Adina Howard and Are 'Friends' Electric? by Tubeway Army. Sugababes and Richard X were paired up in the studio to record a commercial version for single release. It turned out to be a smart move for them both. 

Another mash-up artist who exploded in 2002 was Mark Vidler aka Go Home Productions. The Weather Episode is a glorious melding of The Next Episode by Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg and Weather With You by Crowded House. When a mash-up works, it really hits the spot and this is a prime example.

I am completely disregarding the rules here, as The Weather Episode was released as a free bootleg MP3 download and therefore ineligible for the Official Chart in the UK. I'm applying the "played by Zane Lowe on his XFM On-Air radio show" rule to sneak this one into its rightful place in today's selection.

Other great songs in 2002 by Radio 4, Badly Drawn Boy and Amorphous Androgynous also gave a nod to producers that were gaining recognition in their own right, namely The DFA aka James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy, Four Tet aka Kieran Hebden, and Jacknife Lee aka Garret Lee.

Another remix that I loved was by dub legend Scientist aka Hopeton Brown, taking the title track of Death In Vegas' third album, Scorpio Rising. The second Top 20 single for Richard Fearless and co, their previous #9 hit had a guest spot from Iggy Pop and Scorpio Rising repeated the formula by featuring a certain Liam Gallagher.

I'm not a fan of Oasis or, generally speaking, the exploits of the Gallagher brothers in or out of the studio, so I was bought this single purely because it was Death In Vegas and Scientist. I don't think even a diehard Liam fanatic would deny that this is far from his best vocal performance, but I love Scientist's game attempt to wrestle it into a dubtastic shape.

Unlikely collaborations were plentiful at his time, yet X-Press 2 teaming up with David Byrne was a real surprise for Lazy A deserved #2 hit in April 2002, I was pleased to see Lazy included in Byrne's stunning American Utopia live set on the Sky Arts channel a while ago.

Another unlikely collaboration, and even more unlikely reunion in 2002, was David McAlmont and Bernard Butler. Bring It Back - album and single - proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the magic that peppered previous hits Yes and You Do was still there. This partnership also holds a special place in my heart as they were the first gig that Mrs. K and I went to together. They were utterly fantastic, of course. 

Concidentally, I saw McAlmont and Butler perform live again in 2025, albeit not together. David was with current musical partner Hifi Sean, Bernard with James Grant and Norman Blake. Sadly, Mrs. K was unable to join me for either as I think she would have loved them.

Another welcome return for the Pet Shop Boys and Johnny Marr, who have both appeared in the previous 'decade' series. Home And Dry signalled a more reflective PSB and one which signalled and embraced their - and their audience's - transition from Radio 1 to Radio 2. Johnny had collaborated with Neil and Chris previously and his trademark guitar lines add class to a classy song.

And so, we've suddenly come to the end of another year and, if you ignored most of the Top 40 most of the time, another great year for music. 

Could 2003 hope to find some gold amongst the grit? Join me on Sunday to find out.

1) Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III (Radio Edit): Cornershop

2) Freak Like Me (We Don't Give A Damn Mix By Richard X): Sugababes

3) Dance To The Underground (Edit By The DFA aka James Murphy & Tim Goldsworthy): Radio 4

4) Something To Talk About (The Four Tet Convention Remix By Kieran Hebden): Badly Drawn Boy

5) Johnny Teardrop (Remixed & Radio Edited): Edwyn Collins

6) Bring It Back (Album Version By Bernard Butler): McAlmont & Butler

7) Lazy (Radio Edit): X-Press 2 ft. David Byrne

8) Home And Dry (Single Mix): Pet Shop Boys ft. Johnny Marr

9) The Weather Episode (Original Version): Go Home Productions ft. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg & Crowded House

10) My Culture (We Love This Mix (Video Edit)): 1 Giant Leap ft. Maxi Jazz & Robbie Williams

11) The Mello Hippo Disco Show (Jacknife Lee Mix): The Amorphous Androgynous

12) Scorpio Rising (The Scientist Mix): Death In Vegas ft. Liam Gallagher

10th March 2002: Handcream For A Generation (#37): 1

24th March 2002: Release (#14): 8

14th April 2002: Muzikizum (#2): 7

14th April 2002: 1 Giant Leap (#9): 10

28th April 2002: Angels With Dirty Faces (#1): 2

5th May 2002: Doctor Syntax (#192): 5

16th June 2002: About A Boy OST (#28): 4

23rd June 2002: This Was Pop (2002-2007) (# n/a): 9

11th August 2002: The Isness (#68): 11

3rd November 2002: Bring It Back (#36): 6

24th November 2002: Gotham! (#94): 3

22nd December 2002: Scorpio Rising (#14): 12

Side One (46:42) (GD) (M)

If you enjoyed this, you may also wish to check out my previous selections for 1982 and 1992.

Decadance V: 1998

Side 1 of an imaginary 90s compilation cassette, spooling out in 1998.

This selection went through several last minute changes as I discovered that several songs, whilst listed as or appearing on albums in 1998, weren't released or charted as singles until 1999. You may see some of those tomorrow, but the short list was already rather long, so maybe not...

Not the substitutes were sloppy seconds and, in what I think is a record for this series, a third of the selection all hit the UK #1 spot. Mind you, this was at a time when new releases would crash into the Top 5 in the first week and promptly disappear without trace the next. I'm not even sure that the guaranteed Top Of The Pops appearance carried all that much weight by then.

This was the first time I struggled to fill the MAW slot in this series. In 1998, Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood's cuts as Two Lone Swordsmen tended to be glitchy, queasy electro numbers, either very short or very long and with little or no vocals. 

The only real contender for me was their epic remix of Come Together by Spiritualized. The only problems being that it was over fifteen and a half minutes long, with not the faintest trace of Jason Pierce to be found. 

My solution - Lord Sabre forgive me - was to create my own vocal edit. I found a bootleg MP3 of the filtered vocal of Come Together and with some painstaking cutting, editing and sequencing, ended up with a version that comes in at just over four and a half minutes. The sound quality is shonky. the editing amaterish, but it's not as awful as I thought. Please feel free to disagree, I will not argue!

Cornershop were one the surprise #1s, entirely thanks to Norman Cook who was everywhere at the time as Fatboy Slim. Brimful Of Asha was a (very) modest hit in 1997, but Norman liked it, wanted to include it in his sets but needed to speed it up a bit. Cue the trademark big beats and carousel swirls and a chart topper was born. I still quite get over Tjinder Singh sounding like a member of Alvin & The Chipmunks and I will also prefer the original over the remix, but I'm happy that it gave Cornershop (and their album) a well-deserved boost.

A fair bit of rap here, from the masters Run-D.M.C. to new kids on the block Jurassic 5 and superb homegrown talent in Asian Dub Foundation. 

Roni Size Reprazent, er, represented my birthplace and, fresh off of winning the 1997 Mercury Music Prize, ploughed the prize money straight back into Bristol. Not the only Bristol artist though: Massive Attack return, this time with Elizabeth Fraser for Teardrop. Even the truncated promo edit featured here is phenomenal, and seeing it performed live last year was a real 'pinch me' moment.

Madonna returned with William Orbit at the controls for Frozen, with a Chris Cunningham-created video that had Madge looking her Gothic best. A slew of remixes accompanied the single as you might expect, though Stereo MC's version was head and shoulders above the rest.

Just outside the Top 30 was Don't Die Just Yet by David Holmes, sampling Serge Gainsbourg with aplomb. David remixed Failure by Skinny, label mates with Dido who also provided backing vocals on the song.

Speaking of samples, somehow Italian duo The Tamperer aka Alex Farolfi and Mario Fargetta managed to clear a hefty sample of The Jacksons' 1981 hit Can You Feel It? for their own song. 

Frankly, the sample does all the heavy lifting, but American singer and actor Maya Days gamely adapts lyrics from Urban Discharge's 1995 single Wanna Drop A House (On That Bitch), including the unforgettable line, "What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her?"  They don't write 'em like that anymore...

As a counter to all of the hits, 1998 closes with a 'flop' single from what proved to be one of my favourite albums of the year, by the wonderful Solex aka Elisabeth Esselink. Solex vs. The Hitmeister featured 12 songs, every single one featuring Solex in the title. I hadn't heard any of the music, but was so taken by the review I read that I tracked it down and bought the CD. A fabulously quirky album and a perfect way to round off the year.

Amazingly, sadly (for me at least), Sunday will see the final instalment of this alternative tour of the 1990s. Pre-millennium tension? Not 'arf!

 
1) Black White (Brendan Lynch Mix): Asian Dub Foundation

2) Concrete Schoolyard (Clean Radio Edit): Jurassic 5

3) Failure (Radio Mix): Skinny ft. Lee Stevens, Dido & Pauline Taylor

4) Watching Windows (Roni Size Vocal Remix): Roni Size Reprazent ft. Onallee

5) Brimful Of Asha (Brighton) (Norman Cook Remix Single Version): Cornershop

6) It's Like That (Drop The Break Radio Edit): Run-D.M.C. vs. Jason Nevins

7) Feel It (Blunt Edit): The Tamperer ft. Maya

8) Frozen (Stereo MC's Remix Edit): Madonna

9) Don't Die Just Yet (Radio Edit): David Holmes

10) Teardrop (Edit): Massive Attack ft. Elizabeth Fraser

11) Come Together (Two Lone Swordsmen Meet Khayem Downtown) (Vocal Edit): Spiritualized

12) Solex All Licketysplit (Album Version): Solex

4th January 1998: Don't Die Just Yet EP (#33): 9

22nd February 1998: Brimful Of Asha EP (#1): 5

1st March 1998: Frozen EP (#1): 8

8th March 1998: Watching Windows EP (#28): 4

15th March 1998: It's Like That EP (#1): 6

5th April 1998: Failure EP (#31): 3

12th April 1998: Solex vs. The Hitmeister (#n/a): 12

3rd May 1998: Teardrop EP (#10): 10

24th May 1998: Feel It EP (#1): 7

31st May 1998: The Abbey Road EP (#39): 11

28th June 1998: Black White EP (#52): 1

18th October 1998: Concrete Schoolyard EP (#35): 2

Side One (46:56) (GD) (M)

Still Watching, Yet Not Wanting

Side 1 of a cassette compilation, compiled 8th August 1998. If Side 2 stretched the C90 capacity to it's limit, Side 1 must surely have snapped the tape...

Your ride begins with Trust by Money Mark, from his 1998 album Push The Button. I knew of Money Mark from his association with Beastie Boys but this record saw him veering into - in my mind, at least - Elton John territory at times. Though thankfully by that I mean Elton's imperial 1970s phase, not the then-contemporary Something About The Way You Look Tonight/Candle in the Wind 1997, which remains the all-time best-selling single in the UK. Money Mark's track is building, rabble-rousing instrumental, much more in keeping with what follows.

 

Barry Adamson versus Skylab, Kid Loco taking on both Pulp and Saint Etienne. I previously described the mixtape as "dirty, downtempo beats" and this was very much the style du jour in the late 1990s.  

 

Theo Keating continues to release music as Fake Blood but when I recorded this cassette, he'd released a single called Ooh La La as The Wiseguys. It entered - and peaked - the UK chart at #55. The song's subsequent use in a Budweiser commercial saw it released a year later in June 1999, where it did rather better, entering at #2 and spending 5 weeks in the Top 30. His remix of Desire by Mulu is really good but had little positive impact on it's own chart placing, managing just 1 week at #84 in November 1997. 

 

My introduction to Trembling Blue Stars came by my jangly indie music-loving girlfriend, who was a big fan of The Field Mice and followed Bobby Wratten's subsequent band. I'm very glad she did. I'm only familiar with Trembling Blue Stars' two albums from the 1990s (there were two more before they disbanded in 2010) and they're both things of understated beauty. The Rainbow was released as a single and really shines in it's longer (album) version.

 

A small confession #1. The original cassette featured an alternative mix of A Little Soul by Pulp, from the CD single. I haven't unearthed and uploaded the shiny disc, so swapped it out for the Kid Loco. It's to blame for the ridiculous running time though I think the segue into Desire by Mulu works better than the original sequence.

 

A small confession #2. This is the second appearance of The Box (Part Four) by Orbital, following a previous appearance in my Boxing Day selection in December 2021. However, as the link for that one is long dead, I'm glad to represent the song here.

Also making a second appearance on this mixtape is Justin Warfield. On Side 1, he's hiding in plain sight as One Inch Punch; here, he's a guest of Cornershop. 

Moby ups the ante with a remix of Honey, his 'comeback' single in 1998 following his thrash metal phase. I've not counted, but I'm assuming the 118 in the mix title refers to the beats per minute. Try making a cup of tea whilst dancing to this one and not making a complete mess. Maybe that's not what Moby intended.

Bringing things to a close is Leila with a track from her astonishing debut Like Weather. It's typical of the album as a whole: beautiful, simple yet stirring chords and synth washes with moments that push the needle way into the red, just in case you were getting complacent.

I'll sign off with an apology to Walter at the excellent A Few Good Times In My Life blog. He left some very kind comments on my original post in April 2022, to which I replied, "I'll try not to leave it too long before posting Side One...!" I think at a little over ten months later, it's fair to say I tried and failed. Sorry, Walter, I hope it was worth the wait...

 

1) Trust: Money Mark (1998)

2) What It Means (Skylab A Smokin' Japanese We're Chicken In Moss Side Mix): Barry Adamson (1998)

3) A Little Soul (Lafayette Velvet Revisited Mix By Kid Loco): Pulp (1998)

4) Desire (Wiseguys Remix By DJ Touché aka Theo Keating): Mulu (1997)

5) 4.35 In The Morning (Talkin' Blues Mix By Kid Loco): Saint Etienne (1998)

6) The Rainbow (Long Version): Trembling Blue Stars (1998)

7) The Box (Part Four) (Vocal Reprise): Orbital ft. Grant Fulton & Alison Goldfrapp (1996)

8) Candyman: Cornershop ft. Justin Warfield (1997)

9) Honey (118 Mix): Moby (1998)

10) Piano-String: Leila (1998)

 

Side One (47:37) (Box) (Mega)

Side Two here

You Can Touch It But It Will Not Fade

Side 1 of a mixtape, compiled 11th January 1998.

Following on from yesterday's post, this selection remains in the 1990s and features eight remixes that I was unlikely to ever hear down the local indie disco, but which in their own way, kick ass. What better way then to usher in the weekend?

 

In order to squeeze all the tracks onto a side of a C90 cassette, I originally cut Cornershop's Jullandar Shere in half with an early fade. For today's selection, I've kept the remix by Richard Norris (The Grid) and Choque Hosein (Black Star Liner) in all it's full, joyous glory. 

 

Conversely, I think the edit of Ain't No Longer (The Lost Riff) is possibly unique to a Select magazine cover-mounted CD. The full length version was intended for FPS-2, a remix companion to Dodgy's third album Free Peace Sweet, which was never released. FPS-2 was eventually snuck out on 1999's Ace A's + Killer B's compilation as a limited edition bonus disc and reappeared earlier this year on the gargantuan 8CD box set The A&M Years. Ain't No Longer (The Lost Riff) was also one of four tracks on a promo 12" of FPS-2 released in 1996, but I'm not heard it so I'm unsure if it's the edit or full length version.

Fans of Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon (which originated in 1994) will be disappointed to find that the titular Hollywood actor is not responsible for track 5's Audioweb remix. This Kevin Bacon is the former Comsat Angels bass player who teamed up with Floy Joy's touring keyboard player Jonathan Quarmby to form a successful production duo.

Without doing a disservice to Primal Scream, Fluke and Natacha Atlas, the final mention goes to Andy Bell, who delivers a remix (possibly his first?) of Ride that takes the original, Rolling Stones-indebted song to the moon and back. A precursor to his future music as GLOK, Andy Bell has also continued to record and release music with Ride and as a solo artist, including one of 2022's best albums so far, the majestic Flicker. I really must get an Andy Bell selection up here soon...

 

Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, have a rocktastic weekend, everyone. More tomorrow.

1) Jailbird (The Toxic Trio Stay Free Mix By Kris Needs & Bent Recknagel): Primal Scream (1994)

2) Familus Horribilus (Mega Wob 1) (Remix By Jah Wobble): Pop Will Eat Itself (1993)

3) Jullandar Shere (Jeh Jeh Mix By Richard Norris & Choque Hosein): Cornershop (1996)

4) Absurd (Headrillaz Vox): Fluke (1997)

5) Faker (I, Mental Mix By Manna aka Kevin Bacon & Jonathan Quarmby): Audioweb (1997)

6) Ain't No Longer (The Lost Riff) (Remix By Jerome De Pietro) (Edit): Dodgy (1997)

7) I Don't Know Where It Comes From (Apollo 11 Mix By Andy Bell): Ride ft. The Christchurch Cathedral School Choir (1994)

8) Yalla Chant (The Lesson Four Edit By Youth): Natacha Atlas (1995)

 

1993: Familus Horribilus / RSVP EP: 2 

1994: I Don't Know Where It Comes From EP: 7

1994: Jailbird EP: 1 

1995: Yalla Chant EP: 8

1996: Jullandar Shere EP: 3

1997: Absurd EP: 4

1997: Faker EP: 5

1997: Vrooom! Motorcycle Loveliness (Select magazine promo CD): 6

Side One (50:36) (KF) (Mega)

Oh Gosh, Oh Gosh, I'm Juliette Binoche!

Another in my occasional series of song selections named after an actor's films, Juliette Binoche follows in the footsteps of Faye Dunaway and Elizabeth Taylor.

At first, a tougher call than you might think. I mean, who on Earth would record songs called The English Patient, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being or Three Colors: Blue (or Red or White, for that matter)?

Thankfully, there were plenty of other selections to encompass her debut, 1983's Liberty Belle right up to this year's Fire, the latest film by Claire Denis and one that is unlikely to be screening at my nearest cinemas which are currently dominated by Tom effing Cruise.

Perfect timing, with Kate Bush securing her first UK #1 in ages with Running Up That Hill, that her debut single gets a look in here, still as stunning now as when I heard it as a 7 year old. This is followed by Vanessa Contenay-Quiñones, better known in the 1990s as Espiritu, with the only French language song in this selection. A bit of cheat here as Juliette Binoche starred in 2005's singular Caché, but I'm pretending that it was so good that I watched it twice...

 

Juliette is mentioned in the Earthling song 1st Transmission, which also provides today's post title. In a nice touch, the album version and remixes by Plunderphonics and Portishead name check a different location, taking in Ilford, Bombay, Stokes Croft in Bristol and, in the version featured here, stopping off at Woodstock.

 

Diamond Hoo Ha Men and The Magnetic North are both aliases/side projects for other artists. The former are better known as two thirds of Supergrass and this grungier version popped up on the Bad Blood single in 2008. The Magnetic North are a trio comprising Erland Cooper, Hannah Peel and Simon Tong, remixed here to atmospheric effect by White Label, another trio including Steve Aungle, who worked with the late Billy MacKenzie and has done much to keep his musical legacy alive.

 

Quite an eclectic selection again, which includes arguably Binoche's career nadir Damage - the Yo La Tengo song is much better - and several songs that I could easily imagine being used in a film soundtrack, assuming they haven't already. This one's a keeper.

1) Chocolat: Cornershop (1997)

2) Liberty Belle (Remix By Mario Caldato Jr): Super Furry Animals (2004)

3) Wuthering Heights (Album Version): Kate Bush (1978)

4) Cache Cache: Vanessa Contenay-Quiñones (2020)

5) 1st Transmission (Acoustlick) (Remix By Plunderphonics): Earthling (1994)

6) Bad Blood (DHHM Version): Diamond Hoo Ha Men (2008)

7) Let The Sunshine In (Recorded Live @ Maida Vale Studios For Lamacq Live On Radio 1, 4th October 2002) (Cover of The 5th Dimension): Badly Drawn Boy (2002)

8) High Life (White Label Remix By Steve Aungle, Anth Brown & Tom Doyle): The Magnetic North (2017)

9) Rendez-Vu (Album Version): Basement Jaxx (1999)

10) Fire: Black Pumas (2018)

11) Damage: Yo La Tengo (1997)

12) Paris: The Anchoress (2021)

1978: The Kick Inside: 3 

1994: 1st Transmission EP: 5

1997: I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One: 11

1997: When I Was Born For The 7th Time: 1

1999: Remedy: 9

2002: All Possibilities EP: 7

2004: Phantom Phorce: 2

2008: Bad Blood EP (by Supergrass): 6 

2017: Borrowed Voices (by White Label): 8

2018: Black Pumas: 10

2020: Voodoo Girl: 4

2021: The Art Of Losing: 12

Oh Gosh, Oh Gosh, I'm Juliette Binoche! (43:27)

Everybody Needs A Bosom For A Pillow

Side 1 of a mixtape, compiled 14th February 1998. 

 

I have no memory of this particular day so I can only hope that I'd woken early (as I do) to record this mixtape, rather than it being one of the least romantic Valentine's Days ever. I hasten to add that, either way, my girlfriend at the time was not the currently long-suffering Mrs. K.

This was definitely an attempt at an 'upbeat' selection, starting off with a Manchester two-hander from 808 State and Intastella, the latter remixed by A Certain Ratio's Martin Moscrop. Things then take a veer left(field) with possibly one of the maddest singles The Times/Ed Ball ever released, and that's including I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape. 

 

Next up is Mucho Macho's remix of Cornershop's Brimful Of Asha, from the 'flop' first release of the single in 1997. I had to check the dates but, a mere two weeks after this mixtape was recorded, Brimful Of Asha was re-released with a Norman Cook remix and went straight to #1 in the UK, where it remained for a further 12 weeks, 11 of those remaining above the #60 peak of the original release. Spooky.

 

Planetary Sit-In is Julian Cope in string-drenched pop-with-a-message mode, his last ever UK singles chart hit, #34 in October 1996. 

 

Stay was 18 Wheeler's biggest UK hit, charting at #59 in March 1997. Wikipedia damningly cites their biggest claim to fame as being the band that Oasis were supporting (at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in 1993) when Creation head honcho Alan McGee discovered the latter. Being on the same label clearly did 18 Wheeler no favours.

Fellow Scots The Apples fared similarly poorly with the record-buying public, managing just one UK #75 single, which isn't this one. This version appeared on the CD single, mis-labelled as the Stereo Guitar People Mix by Pete Lorimer. Ironically, this remix by James Reynolds is actually heavier on the guitar so you can understand the mix up. Reynolds arguably enjoyed much greater success, not least being the 4th Baronet of Woolton, having succeeded to the title in 2015.

Freak Power (aka Norman Cook & Ashley Slater) took two goes to have a hit with Turn On Tune In Cop Out, #29 in 1993 then #3 in 1995. Ashley Slater went on to appear in 2014 with his partner Scarlett Quinn as Kitten And the Hip in an excruciating X-Factor audition, which YouTube has preserved for posterity). Having survived this ordeal, the pair continue in a reformed Freak Power.

 

Not much to say about Groove Is In The Heart, other than Deee-Lite were a breath of fresh air in 1990 and this song still has the desired effect, three decades on.

 

Last but not least, the mysterious collective, The KK Kings. I heard this song originally on the soundtrack to the wonderful 1993 film Bhaji On The Beach. I think this was their only official single, though they'd previously released a promo, Justified & Ancient, which together with their prodigious use of samples, led to comparisons with The KLF. It's so much better than that and a shame that we didn't get to hear more from them.

 

As a final note, the mixtape title comes from a key line in Cornershop's Brimful Of Asha, which itself is the hook of the Mucho Macho remix. Despite all this, I still managed to write Everyone Needs A Bosom For A Pillow on the cassette sleeve. Again, either a case of not enough sleep or the worst Valentine's Days ever. Amazingly, I was in the same relationship the following year, but I have no record of whether Valentine's Day 1999 fared any better. It couldn't have been any worse, could it?

 

1) Lift (7" Version): 808 State (1991)

2) This Is Bendy (Remix By Martin Moscrop): Intastella (1991)

3) Finnegans Break (Edit By Ian Shaw & The Big Noize Supremists): The Times ft. Tippa Irie (1993)

4) Brimful Of Asha (Mucho Macho Bolan Boogie Mix): Cornershop (1997)

5) Planetary Sit-In (Album Version): Julian Cope (1996)

6) Stay (Radio Edit): 18 Wheeler (1997)

7) Beautiful People (Silver Sky Mix By James Reynolds): The Apples (1991)

8) Turn On Tune In Cop Out (Radio Mix By Norman Cook & Simon Thornton): Freak Power (1993)

9) Groove Is In The Heart (Peanut Butter Mix): Deee-Lite (1990)

10) Holidays (In The United KK Kingdom) (Extended) (Remix By Mikha K): The KK Kings (1994)

 

Side One (45:25) (KF) (Mega)

Watching, Not Wanting

Side 2 of a mixtape, compiled 8th August 1998.

 

Some dirty, downtempo beats for you today, with a selection of tracks from the 1996-1998 period. Goodness knows how I managed to squeeze this onto a C90 cassette side, but...

Starting off with a superior demo of Blue Mug by GusGus, which subsequently appeared on their 1999 album This Is Normal and ending with a swampy remix of Massive Attack's Teardrop by Primal Scream, featuring the superlative vocals of Liz Fraser. In between, you get a couple of early 90s rappers - Justin Warfield and MC Tunes - in their respective new groups, One Inch Punch and Dust Junkys. 

 

Solex vs. The Hitmeister was one of my favourite albums of 1998 and Solex aka Elisabeth Esselink was a great live act, as was Laika, both of whom I saw at the time, to undeservedly modest audiences.

 

New Forms by Roni Size Reprazent was ubiquitous in 1998, yet more than lived up to the hype around it. The same can be said for When I Was Born For The 7th Time, Cornershop's 'surprise' hit on the back of a number 1 single with Brimful Of Asha.

 

I only have this one single by Rare and undoubtedly bought it for the Justin Robertson remix, not included here, but quite liked the other versions on the CD. As an added bonus for fact fans, Rare was a short-lived band from Derry, Northern Ireland, featuring none other than John O'Neill (credited as Seán Ó'Néill), formerly of The Undertones and That Petrol Emotion. The following year, Rare disbanded, The Undertones reformed without Feargal Sharkey, and continue to this day.

 

1) Blue Mug (Demo Version): GusGus (1998)

2) Metaphysics (ft. Mannish): One Inch Punch (1996)

3) Watching Windows (Album Version): Roni Size Reprazent ft. Onallee (1997)

4) Looking For The Jackalope (Single Version): Laika (1997)

5) The Foundation (Album Version): Thievery Corporation (1996)

6) Your Selfish Ways (Album Version By Mark Van Hoen): Locust ft. Zoe Niblett (1997)

7) What Is Happening: Cornershop (1997)

8) Solex In A Slipshod Style: Solex (1998)

9) Mind My Make-Up (Dust Junkys Remix): Finitribe ft. Katy Morrison (1998)

10) Seems Like (Bang Bang Mix By Xavier Jamaux): Rare (1998)

11) Teardrop (Scream Team Remix): Massive Attack ft. Elizabeth Fraser (1998)
 

Side Two (46:56) (Box) (Mega)