I'm Not Immune, I Love This Tune

Five Fathoms by Everything But The Girl appears on their 1999 album Temperamental and was the lead single, released a couple of weeks beforehand.

Tracey Thorn later reflected that recording Temperamental following the birth of their twin daughters, in some respects she "ended up being guest vocalist on someone else's album", 

And yet, the songwriting partnership is inextricably Tracey and Ben Watt, the combination of words, beats, voice and music that had continually evolved over many years and culminated in their tenth album. 

Temperamental often feels like an overlooked and under appreciated record and there was a near two-and-a-half decade gap between this and Everything But The Girl's unexpected and brilliant return in 2023 with Fuse.

I love Five Fathoms and this random shuffle is a reminder to go back to the source and give Temperamental a long overdue airing.

 

I walk the city late at night

Does everyone here do the same?

I want to be the things I see

Give every face and place my name

I cross the street, take a right

Pick up the pace, pass a fight

Did I grow up just to stay home?

I'm not immune, I love this tune

I wanna love more

I just wanna love more

I wanna love more

I just wanna love more

I wanna love more

I just wanna love more

I wanna love more

I just wanna love more

I drag the city late at night

It's in my mouth, it's in my hair

And the people fill the city

Because the city fills the people, oh yeah

I cross the street avoid the freeze

A city's warmer by a couple of degrees

The smell of food the smell of rain

I'm not immune, I love this tune

I wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I just wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I just wanna love more

I wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I just wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I just wanna love more

Only way out is down

Only way up is down

The day's roll by like thunder

Like a storm that's never breaking

All my time and space compressed

In the low pressure of proceedings

And they beat against the sides of my life

Like fist against inside, in my life

And the roads all lead behind me

So I wrap the wheel around me

And I go out

(There's a river in my head)

(There's a river in my head)

(There's a river in my head)

I'll take you home

(There's a river in my head)

And make it easy

(There's a river in my head)

I'll take you home

(There's a river in my head)

And make it easy

Blue, Gene

Remembering Gene Hackman, 30th January 1930 to 26th February 2025.

Ernie Goggins at 27 Leggies posted Too Many RIPs on Thursday, noting the recent losses of Jerry Butler, Gwen McCrae, Ken Parker, Bill Fay and Roberta Flack (with Rick Buckler from The Jam also noted). "This has got to stop", pleaded Ernie.

Sadly, later the same day, news emerged that Gene Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa and one of the family dogs had all been discovered dead at the home on the Old Sunset Trail in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. 

I will add some words to this post at a later date, as there is a greater understanding of the tragic circumstances that led to this discovery, and to reflect on the impact of Gene's immense and varied acting career.

In the meantime, in time-honoured knee jerk tradition, I've responded by collating an hour-long Dubhed selection, all song titles drawn from Gene's film and TV career. With over 100 credits, there were no shortage of quality contenders, but I think the final 14 hit the spot.

No apologies for tracks 11 and 14, which shoehorn in the film via the subtitle, they were too good to ignore. Likewise, who will argue that the opening song drops the definite article when it's Joni Mitchell?

Farewell, Gene and Betsy.

1) Conversation: Joni Mitchell (1970)

2) Route 66 (Single Version) (Cover of Nat King Cole & The King Cole Trio): Depeche Mode (1987)

3) Bonnie And Clyde (Cover of Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot): Mick Harvey ft. Anita Lane (1995)

4) Misunderstood (Album Version): Leila ft. Donna Paul (1998)

5) Two Of A Kind: Superstar (1998)

6) The Mexican (Short Version): Jellybean ft. Jenny Haan (1987)

7) Downhill Racer (Kenny Dope Remix): Everything But The Girl (2004)

8) The Quick & The Dead: Ladyhawke (2012)

9) Twilight (Album Version): Hifi Sean & David McAlmont (2025)

10) Superman (Album Version) (Cover of The Clique): R.E.M. (1986)

11) Wish You Were Here... (Postcards From The Edge) (Remix By Ashley Beedle): The Aloof (1996)

12) Another Woman (Album Version): Moby ft. Barbara Lynn (2000)

13) Crimson Tide: Destroyer (2020)

14) Plug Me In (The French Connection) (Remix By Rick Phylip-Jones): Scarlet Fantastic (1987)

Blue, Gene (1:01:08) (KF) (Mega)

Decadance III: 1995

Side 2 of a time-travel mixtape, crashing in at 1995.

This series is whizzing by, more than half way through already and exactly 30 years ago. My brain cannot compute, so much of this music still feels 'recent' to me!

Very little evidence in this selection of Britpop, Trip Hop or Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop, although I think Scatman John was the sole proponent of the latter, anyway. 

However, in 1995 everything was big: the beats, the brass, the strings, the voices. And so were the hits: all but one of the songs in today's selection made the Top 30, four the Top 10, though the #1 position proved elusive for all.

Pulp nearly made it, with Common People getting all the way to #2, held off the top spot by effing Robson and effing Jerome, whose risible cover of Unchained Melody floated at the top like a turd in a toilet bowl for a mind-boggling seven weeks.

Several artists from Decade, my previous series of 80s mixtapes, make a welcome reappearance here: Marc Almond, Julian Cope and, perhaps the most surprising, Edwyn Collins. 

A Girl Like You was first released in December 1994 and didn't make much of a dent in the UK charts, but there was a groundswell of interest in Europe, leading to re-release here in June 1995. A month later and it was at #4. It also boosted the accompanying album Gorgeous George to #8 in July 1995, twelve months after it came out.

Leftfield had been tied up in contractual hell with their former label, which meant that they could little more than remix other artists for several years. Finally free to release their own material, their monumental debut album Leftism crashed in at #3 in February 1995. 

Leftism contained a version of Open Up, their 1993 comeback single with John Lydon, and collaborations with Djum Djum and Lemn Sissay. Leftfield's first single of 1995 was another collaboration, this time time with Toni Halliday of Curve on the sublime Original. Thirty years on, both it and the album sound as fresh and exciting as they did back then.

Another single by The Sabres Of Paradise for the MAW selection. Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns had previously remixed Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons music as The Dust Brothers. When the original Dust Brothers required Tom and Ed to cease and desist nicking their name, The Chemical Brothers were born.  

 

The Sabres Of Paradise remixed their debut single Leave Home, itself a Top 20 hit in June 1995. The previous month, the favour was (p)repaid when The Chemical Brothers refashioned Tow Truck, one of several tracks from Haunted Dancehall reworked for the Versus EP. When I say 'refashioned', it's basically a Chemical Brothers track, but the original Sabres components shine through.

 

Describing Fluke's beats as big and bouncy sounds smuttier than it's supposed to, but that's what always springs to mind when I think of their music. Ironically, The Dust Brothers (the original, that is, not Tom & Ed's knock off) remixed today's featured single Bullet, though nothing tops Fluke's own versions. In a box somewhere in the loft, I have Fluke promo plastic bag, which itself ripped off the Tesco carriers of the time. Never used it.

 

Thirty years before he released possibly the best album of 2025 with Hifi Sean, David McAlmont launched another wildly creative and successful partnership, with Bernard Butler. Yes was the perfect introduction, all Wall-of-Sound meets Sylvester meets Suede and a deserved Top 10 smash. 

 

Bernard of course used to be in Suede with Brett Anderson, who co-founded the band with Justine Frischmann, who went on to form Elastica. You'd almost believe I wasn't winging it and had some kind of plan, wouldn't you? 

Elastica were brilliant, even if they did have a habit of getting old rockers riled up and litigious over their songs. Waking Up is a case in point: who cares if it's reminiscent of No More Heroes by The Stranglers? Well, The Stranglers did obviously.

 

The music press were already getting into a lather about Radiohead, though The Bends was the album that hooked me in. There were tons of singles from the album, though admittedly it so full of great songs, that it was difficult to argue that none of them were worthy picks. It all started off with a double A-single of High And Dry and Planet Telex, the latter's abrasive squall offset by the former's soft-yet-brittle side. 

There was very nearly two helpings of Tracey Thorn. Reluctantly, Massive Attack's Protection had to go, justified by the fact that they appeared in the 1994 selection. Of the two picks, in the end it just had to be the Todd Terry remix of Missing by Everything But The Girl. 

I loved the original and the remixes that accompanied the single's original release in 1994. Todd Terry gave the song a whole new lease of life - and audience - when his remix rocketed Missing to #3 in the UK in November 1995. And with that, the confidence for Everything But The Girl to take a divergent musical path that led to a run of great albums in subsequent years.

 

Given the three decade anniversary, I was keen to include something from the UK Top 40 as at 16th February 1995. But jeez, the record buying public didn't half make it difficult.

 

Celine Dion and Annie Lennox at #1 and #2 respectively. Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex and cover of Total Eclipse Of The Heart (I mean, why?) by Nicki French in the Top 10. A few places down, Jimmy Nail and Sting both with songs about cowboys (though at least Jimmy's was written by Paddy McAloon). It's not until #20 that the first half decent song appears, with Mansize Rooster by Supergrass. 

Thankfully, a new entry that week at #38 saved the day. Down By The Water by Polly Jean Harvey was the first single from third album To Bring You My Love and ends this 1995 mixtape on a suitably sinister note.

 

It's no spoiler to say that next weekend will look at 1996 and 1997. Life-changing in so many ways...but was the music any good?

 

Well, if I mention Spice Girls, Babylon Zoo, Gina G, Elton John, Aqua and Teletubbies, you'll no doubt be thrilled to know that none of them will be appearing here!

 

1) Original (Radio Edit): Leftfield ft. Toni Halliday

2) Tow Truck (Chemical Brothers Mix): The Sabres Of Paradise

3) Bullet (Bitten 7"): Fluke

4) Adored And Explored (7" Edit By The Beatmasters): Marc Almond

5) Waking Up (Album Version): Elastica

6) Yes (Edit): McAlmont & Butler

7) High And Dry (Album Version): Radiohead

8) Missing (Todd Terry Club Mix) (Blanco/Eternal Radio Edit): Everything But The Girl

9) Common People (7" Edit): Pulp

10) Try, Try, Try (Album Version): Julian Cope

11) A Girl Like You (Album Version): Edwyn Collins

12) Down By The Water (Album Version): PJ Harvey

12th February 1995: To Bring You My Love (#38): 12

19th February 1995: Elastica (#13): 5

5th March 1995: The Bends (#17): 7

19th March 1995: Original EP (#18): 1

7th May 1995: Fantastic Star (#25): 4

7th May 1995: Versus EP (#77): 2

28th May 1995: Common People EP (#2): 9

28th May 1995: Yes EP (#8): 6

16th July 1995: Gorgeous George (#4): 11

23rd July 1995: Bullet EP (#23): 3

6th August 1995: 20 Mothers (#24): 10

19th November 1995: Missing EP (#3): 8

Side Two (46:11) (KF) (Mega) 

No One Gets Off Without Paying The Ride

A very happy birthday to Tracey Thorn, born 26th September 1962.

It's impossible to describe how much Tracey's voice, words and music have had over the years. Her body of work with husband Ben Watt as Everything But The Girl is immense and, as this year's Fuse album proved, unsullied by time.

Tracey's five solo albums are little treasures in their own right, each one offering something new and unique to that release, from 1982's A Distant Shore to 2018's Record.

Tracey's also been a superlative collaborator and interpreter of others' songs. This selection includes both, from John Grant and Massive Attack to covers of Pet Shop Boys, The Marvelettes and Kate Bush, the last seemingly untouchable and yet Tracey completely inhabits the song.

I'd been thinking about this post and had started pulling together a potential selection. On Sunday, Swiss Adam posted a frankly brilliant 40-minute mix of Tracey Thorn songs at Bagging Area that included quite a few overlaps with mine. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I started again from scratch and came up with a 30-minute selection that I hope acts as a decent companion piece to Adam's and taken together shines a light on Tracey's magnificence. 

And I haven't even mentioned Tracey's books. Buy them, read them, love them.

 

1) By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down And Wept: Tracey Thorn (2007)

2) King's Cross (Hot Chip Remix) (Cover of Pet Shop Boys): Tracey Thorn (2007)

3) Disappointing: John Grant ft. Tracey Thorn (2015)

4) Oh, The Divorces!: Tracey Thorn (2010)

5) The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game (Cover of The Marvelettes): Massive Attack ft. Tracey Thorn (1995)

6) Run A Red Light (Album Version): Everything But The Girl (2023)

7) Under The Ivy (Cover of Kate Bush): Tracey Thorn (2014)

8) Guitar (Album Version): Tracey Thorn (2018)

1995: Batman Forever OST: 5

2007: King's Cross EP: 2

2007: Out Of The Woods: 1

2010: Love And Its Opposite: 4

2015: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure: 3

2015: Solo: Songs And Collaborations 1982-2015: 7 

2018: Record: 8

2023: Fuse: 6

No One Gets Off Without Paying The Ride (30:18) (KF) (Mega)

Forget The Morning

On Tuesday, Everything But The Girl released another single and video from their upcoming album, Fuse. Both are, quite frankly, stunning.

The skittering beats and oscillating bass of opening track Nothing Left To Lose are followed (literally) by the second song on the album, Run A Red Light. It's a complete volte-face, musically speaking, a downtempo tune built upon minimal piano chords and soaring backing vocals and synth lines. Sonically, it provides a neat juxtaposition to what has gone before, a bold move so early into the album.

Lyrically, it's a perfect follow on and a theme begins to emerge. Nothing Left To Lose's narrator reflects that they "need a thicker skin [as] this pain keeps getting in" and resignedly asks "Tell me what to do / Cause nothing works without you". 

 

In Run A Red Light, the character is more assertive, urging the person they're with to

"Forget the losers, forget the morning 

Put a tune on, and put your feet up 

It was my idea, I hope you know that 

We’re gonna have this, I’m the one now"

 

The third song on Fuse, Caution To The Window, is available as a lyric video and completes the thematic trilogy, the voice of the song "Coming home to be with you / Coming home to be near you", imploring "Let me in, let me in, let me in", a note that all is not as it seems.

The beauty of Tracey Thorn's lyrics and her skill as a writer is in creating narratives and characters that are open to multiple, layered interpretations which inevitably means that the songs appeal to and resonate with a much wider audience.

Ben Watt is a perfect foil for this, providing a musical environment that is both sympathetic to the words and vocals but also transports them to an unexpected and interesting place. 

If this is what the first three songs on Fuse are like, then the full album will be very, very special indeed.

 

1) Nothing Left To Lose

2) Run A Red Light

3) Caution To The Wind

4) When You Mess Up

5) Time And Time Again

6) No One Know We're Dancing

7) Lost

8) Forever

9) Interior Space

10) Karaoke

 

Fuse is available to pre-order now, ahead of a full release on 21st April.

Do You Want Me Back? Am I Coming Back?

Which, when applied to Everything But The Girl, can only result in a resounding Yes! and YES!!

 

I was over the moon when Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt announced on Twitter last November that they had made a new EBTG album, their first together in 24 years. Fuse will be out in April and the first single was teased yesterday.

 

Nothing Left To Lose is a spectacular comeback, a familiar fusion of heartache and hard beats. When Tracey comes in with the opening lines "I need a thicker skin / The pain keeps getting in", it's like meeting an old friend for the first time in a long while but feeling the hurt in that separation, as well as the joy of reuniting.

The video, directed by Charlie di Placido and choreographed by Miranda Chambers, is spectacular on an intimate level. No cameos from Tracey or Ben, but the five dancers in a cafe in the depth of night brilliantly captures the essence of the song.

I cannot wait to hear what the rest of Fuse sounds like. This promises to be no nostalgia trip but exactly how Everything But The Girl could and should sound in 2023. 

Today's selection is a nostalgia trip, however, taking you back to the late 1990s and when Tracey and Ben were deeply immersed in club culture. I've avoided the obvious Todd Terry remix of Missing (Chris & James do the honours there) and gone for his rework of Wrong. You also get a healthy dose of BPMs courtesy of Darren Emerson and Peter Rauhofer as well as some pre- and post-club remixes from Brad Wood and Trevor Jackson.

The closing track is an older song, Everything But The Girl's cover of I Don't Want To Talk About It, which they released as a single in 1988, spending 9 weeks in the UK chart and reaching #3. Housemeister 69 put out a bootleg remix of the song in 2005, the same year that Virgin released the Adapt Or Die: Ten Years Of Remixes compilation. At that point, Tracey and Ben were doing their own thing - brilliantly, it has to be said - and six years on from the last EBTG album, even then the prospect of new music seemed remote.

 

It turns out the wait would be four times that but, if Nothing Left To Lose is anything to go by, boy is it worth it.

 

1) Single (Brad Wood Memphis Remix) (1996)

2) Missing (Chris & James Full On Club Mix) (1994)

3) Before Today (Darren Emerson Underwater Remix 2) (Full Length) (1997)

4) Five Fathoms (Club 69 Future Club Mix By Peter Rauhofer) (Full Length) (1999)

5) Wrong (Todd Terry Remix) (Full Length) (1996)

6) Driving (The Underdog Mix By Trevor Jackson) (1996)

7) I Don't Want To Talk About It (Housemeister 69 Mix) (Cover of Crazy Horse) (2005)

 

Coming Back (47:55) (Box) (Mega)

Far Too Much Trouble And Not Enough Time!

Side 1 of a mixtape, originally compiled 8th February 1997 and liberated during lockdown in 2021.

 

As mentioned when I posted Side 2 in July last year, this is possibly the closest I got to a "Now That's What I Call Dance Music" hits compilation, with all of the songs (bar two songs) enjoying success in the UK singles chart.

 

Insomnia by Faithless has troubled the charts multiple times: #27 in December 1995, it's highest placing of #3 in October 1996 and a return at #17 in September 2005. Further remixes and reissues, including a trademark rework by Avicii in 2015, have been less successful commercially speaking, but nothing detracts from the sheer majesty of the song. The album version is essentially a re-edit of the Moody Mix. To get around the cross-fade from the previous track and to align the running time with Side 2's duration, I've spliced the introduction from the single version of the Moody Mix, so you get a slightly extended take on the original mixtape opener.

 

Tori Amos had dabbled with remixes before - I've previously enthused about the epic remix of 1994 single God by The Joy - but it was another radical remix that finally got her to the UK #1 spot in January 1997, this time courtesy of Armand Van Helden. The garage overhaul of Professional Widow actually appeared first as a double A-side with the more characteristic Hey Jupiter, managing a first week peak of #20 in August 1996, before drifting down the charts. However, the growing popularity of the Van Helden remix was enough to convince label EastWest to re-release it in its own right, with additional (good, but not as good) remixes by Mr. Roy. History was made.

Likewise, Common People was the song that broke Pulp, perhaps in more ways than one. Smashing into the singles chart in June 1995, it spent the first 2 weeks at #2 and 10 weeks in the Top 40. Follow up double A-single, Mis-shapes/Sorted For E's & Wizz, achieved a similar first 2 weeks at #2 in October 1995, no doubt bolstered by the controversy surrounding the latter track and "drug wrap instructions" sleeve. By "controversy", I mean the Daily Mirror getting into a ill-informed media frenzy, but that's for another post. This follow up single also included a couple of remixes of Common People for good measure, including the Motiv8 Club Mix featured here. An odd one, in that it didn't seem particularly loved by my indie- or club-centred friends, who preferred the original version if at all. It sounds dated now, but I still like it.

 

Like Going South by The Wolfgang Press on Side 2, Lazarus by The Boo Radleys really should have been their breakthrough hit. Creation obviously believed so too, as they tried twice, first in 1992 and again in June 1994 with a slew of remixes from the likes of Saint Etienne, Secret Knowledge and Augustus Pablo. The record-buying public disagreed: it entered the UK chart at #54 and 3 weeks later dropped out of the Top 100 altogether, never to return. Lazarus is frequently my favourite Boo Radleys song and a key part of the stunning Giant Steps album. I saw them live in Derby around this time and they just couldn't do the song justice. I like all of the remixes, even the Augustus Pablo take. Martin Carr allegedly thought Pablo was taking the piss (& the money) by simply laying some reverb and echo over the original 12" version, but nevertheless it works. Even better is the remix by Ultramarine. I was big fan of theirs and this version did not disappoint. 

Ultramarine also provided an excellent remix of Missing by Everything But The Girl, albeit on the initial "flop" single release in August 1994, which scraped in at #69. Just over a year later, it was a completely different story, as Todd Terry's remix took off and the re-released single got to #3, spending a phenomenal 14 weeks in the Top 10. Great though it is, I prefer the original remixes, especially this one by Ben Watt.

Adored And Explored was the lead single from Marc Almond's 1996 album Fantastic Star. Not one of his better albums, though I've come to appreciate it more in recent years. I tended to buy the singles less for the lead track and more for the generous helpings of B-sides, session versions and remixes. Adored And Explored (#25 in May 1995) remains a Marc Almond highlight, however, and I enjoyed the remixes by Messiah, Beatmasters and X-Press 2. Andy Meecham, fresh from Bizarre Inc and a bright future with Chicken Lips and as The Emperor Machine ahead of him, delivers a brace of excellent remixes. This is my favourite of the two, with a beautiful clash of guitars and beats and an irreverent approach to Marc Almond's vocals, chopping them up and slowing them down. This song also supplies the mixtape's title.

 

Today's photo is another snapshot of my nostalgic wander around Bristol on Tuesday. I used to go to Lakota a lot back in the day, though I pretty sure that I would never have heard any of the songs on this mixtape played there. The club itself had been under threat many times over the years and there was national coverage in April 2020 of plans to close the club and convert it and the surrounding space into offices and flats. As at March 2022, the threatened demolition and further gentrification doesn't appear to have happened, but Lakota itself looks very much dead and gone. As ever, revisiting the past elicits mixed emotions.

1) Insomnia (Moody Mix By Rollo & Sister Bliss) (Album Version w/ Extended Intro): Faithless (1995)

2) Professional Widow (Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' Mix By Armand Van Helden): Tori Amos (1996)

3) Common People (Motiv8 Club Mix By Steve Rodway): Pulp (1995)

4) Lazarus (Ultramarine Mix): The Boo Radleys (1994)

5) Missing (Little Joey Remix By Ben Watt): Everything But The Girl (1994)

6) Adored And Explored (Andy Meecham's Slow Fat Dub): Marc Almond (1995)

Side One (46:32)

Side Two here

I Don't Get Where You're Coming From

Everything But The Girl released their final album, Temperamental, in September 1999 and the title track was the fourth (of five) singles, in February 2000. The album managed #16 in the UK but, at 4 weeks, a fraction of the chart time of it's predecessor, Walking Wounded. The single bounced in at #72 for one week and promptly dropped out. It deserved better.

Tracey Thorn's excellent autobiography, Bedsit Disco Queen, describes how motherhood - she'd given birth to twins not long before work on the album started - significantly impacted on her contribution, literally and lyrically. Personally, I love the juxtaposition of the hedonistic, going-out-clubbing music with the detached and introspective in-character lyrics, mirroring the different experiences of Thorn and partner Ben Watt at the time. 

I'd not seen the video for Temperamental until recently. It's directed by Mike Mills (no, not that one), whose videos for Sexy Boy and Kelly Watch The Stars by Air and Party Hard by Pulp I'd greatly enjoyed. Admittedly, none of these particularly visualise the narrative of the song and go off on their own track but the video for Temperamental seems to be completely at odds with the song, jarring rather than juxtaposing.

I'd recommend sticking with a live performance of Temperamental in London, originally live streamed in November 1999. 

This temperamental side,
The one you say that you can't hide.
Do you ever see yourself,
The way it looks to someone else?
This temperamental trick,
The one you say you can't predict.
You're like an empty cup.
Forgive me if I don't wait up.
I don't get where you're coming from,
What is real and what's put on,
What has stayed and what has gone.
How long will this thing go on and on?

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

You're like an empty cup,
But I can't fill you up.
What planet are you on?
Not the same one I am from.
Do I just waste my time?
You pour your heart on mine.
You say it screws you up.
Forgive me if I don't wait up.
I don't get what you're trying to say,
What is wrong and what's okay.
You beat yourself up one more time.
You trample on this fierce heart of mine.

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

I don't know what you want from me.
All this endless sympathy.
You beat yourself up one more time.
You trample on this fierce heart of mine.

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

Temperamental (Official Video): Everything But The Girl (2000)

Temperamental (Live @ The Kentish Town Forum, London, 18th November 1999): Everything But The Girl (1999)

7 To 10 Inches Longer

Side 2 of a mixtape, originally recorded 5th October 1997, collecting tracks from various 7" and 10" vinyl records, pops and crackles intact on several. Even more than an album or 12" single, there's something special about putting a 7" or 10" single on a turntable and listening to just one or two songs in succession. In the 1980s, music rags like NME, Sounds, Record Mirror and Melody Maker would occasionally tape a free 7" single to the front cover and these were often my first (and sometimes only) experience of an artist's music. 

 

Some tracks inevitably turned up on a subsequent album (Iggy Pop, Tom Waits) or deluxe reissue and/or compilation (The Woodentops, The Jesus & Mary Chain). Some remain rare and wonderful, such as one of the great lost B-sides from Prefab Sprout. The Jack Rubies and Westworld remain highlights, though I bought very little else by either of them afterwards. A quarter of a century on, for such a hotpotch of songs and artists, I quite like this collection as a whole. I hope you do too.

 

1) I Give To You (Elemental) (Remix By Barry Adamson & PK aka Paul Kendall): Nitzer Ebb (I Give To You 10") (1991)

2) Hey! Luciani (Original Version By John Leckie): The Fall (Sounds Showcase 1 7") (1987)

3) Move Me (Long Version) (Remix By Godwin Logie): The Woodentops (Everyday Living ltd 2x 7") (1986) 

4) Hot Meat (Single Version) (aka Coldsweat (Version)): The Sugarcubes (Regina ltd 7") (1989)

5) Vendetta: Prefab Sprout (Cars And Girls 10") (1988)

6) Vegas Throat Stomp: The Jack Rubies (Sonic Sounds 1 7") (1987)

7) F***in' Alone: Iggy Pop (Beside You 10") (1993)

8) Nasty 'n' Cheap (Remix By Mark Ferda): Westworld (Ba-Na-Na-Bam-Boo ltd 2x 10") (1987)

9) Hallelujah (In Out Mix By Steve Lillywhite): Happy Mondays ft. Kirsty MacColl (Madchester Rave On ltd 7") (1989)

10) Shake: The Jesus & Mary Chain (Happy When It Rains 10") (1987)

11) A Little Rain: Tom Waits (Goin' Out West 10") (1992)

12) Come On Home (Album Version): Everything But The Girl (Come On Home 7") (1986)

Side Two (45:17)

Side One here

Loop Da Loop

Side 2 of a mixtape, cobbled together in 1999, and capturing my love of rolling beats. Darren Emerson has produced a 2021 highlight with his remix of That Time Of Night by GLOK, which got me digging back into his excellent remixes from the late 1990s, presaging his departure from Underworld at the start of the 21st century. This was jumping on point for today's selection.

 

This selection opens with Ben Watkins aka Juno Reactor, with a single that I was surprised to discover actually made it to #45 in the UK singles chart back in February 1997. This song particularly appealed to me at the time as it sampled Watkins' previous band Sunsonic, who I also loved. The song in question, Kind Of Loving, only made it #83 when it was released in May 1990.

I won't pretend that I was a huge fan of Sasha at the time, although I vaguely recall seeing him DJ once at Renaissance at The Conservatory in Derby around 1994. However, I really liked his remix of Talk To Me by Hysterix and his own single Magic featuring Sam Mollison (a #32 UK hit single, no less).

 

By the 1992, Thompson Twins were finally down to the core duo of Tom Bailey & Alannah Currie and had 'gone dance'; the following year, they had teamed up with Keith Fearnley to become Babble. The Saint (#53 in January 1992) isn't bad, but I think I would have bought the single more for the David Morales mixes, which elevate the song considerably.

 

I love Everything But The Girl and Walking Wounded was a revelatory album when it came out in 1996. Before Today must have been the third or fourth single, managing a respectable #25 in March 1997. Darren Emerson did a couple of mixes and this is the best of the two, even at nearly 10 minutes, feeling too short. 

 

Go was Moby's global Twin Peaks-sampling smash, hitting #10 in the UK in July 1991. This remix, under his Barracuda alias, appeared in 1992 on The Ultimate Go EP, which I got a few years later on a German import CD single.

 

Age Of Love by Age Of Love first came out in 1990 but I don't think I would have become aware of it until I heard the Jam & Spoon remix around 1992. It eventually became a hit single in the UK in July 1997, peaking at #17, and has been remixed and re-released numerous times since. This version dates back to the original Belgian release and, at only a smidge over 5 minutes, feels like it should go on for at least twice as long.

1) Jungle High (Original Mix): Juno Reactor (1997)

2) Magic (Sasha's Voodoo Dub): Sasha ft. Sam Mollison (1994)

3) The Saint (8th Street Dub) (Remix By David Morales): Thompson Twins (1992)

4) Before Today (Darren Emerson Underwater Remix 1): Everything But The Girl (1997)

5) Go (Barracuda Mix): Moby (1992)

6) The Age Of Love (Boeing Mix By Roger Samijn): The Age Of Love (1990)

Side Two (45:52) (Box) (Mega)

Been Tryin' Hard Not To Get Into Trouble

Listening to 4 Hero's remix of Nuyorican Soul sidestepped me into Photek's remix of 4 Hero and so to today's selection. Rupert Parkes began releasing music under numerous aliases in the early 1990s, Photek emerging in 1994 and being the most enduring of these, still in use today. Part of the hideously named genre, intelligent drum and bass, like his contemporaries Roni Size, LTJ Bukem and Goldie, what really appealed to me was the complex rhythms and jazz inflections. As a nod to the latter, a track on Photek's debut album, KJZ, was an acronym for Kirk's Jazz. By the start of the 21st Century, Photek's sound had taken a turn into house and techno, though as this selection highlights, there is an identity and character linking all of Photek's music. I've lost track in the last few years, and I have read that Parkes has subsequently produced music for films, TV and games, his last album release being the soundtrack to EA Games' Need For Speed in 2016.

 

For this selection, I've focused solely on Photek's remixes for other artists. It's great to listen to these in one go, personal favourites being Loose by Therapy?, Destiny by Zero 7, I Miss You by Björk and the one that started this all, Star Chasers by 4 Hero. The remix of Paul Simon was a welcome return in 2018 and one of the few redeeming tracks on the otherwise questionable Graceland: The Remixes album. I hadn't heard Photek's remix of The Faint in 5 years and it struck how well it would sit in a mixtape next to songs from John Grant's latest album, Boy From Michigan, particularly The Rusty Bull or Your Portfolio. And how else to end but with Single by Everything But The Girl? The original version is sublime; Photek's remix provides a similar shiver down the spine. Twenty five years old and still sounding like it could be out right now.

1) The Lonely Night (Photek Remix): Moby ft. Mark Lanegan & Mindy Jones (2013)

2) Destiny (Photek Remix): Zero 7 ft. Sia & Sophie Barker (2001)

3) Alien (Photek Remix): Lamb (1999)

4) Total Job (Remixed By Photek): The Faint (2003)

5) Loose (Photek Remix): Therapy? (1995)

6) Ride (Photek B21 Edit): Lana Del Rey (2012)

7) Lie Down In Darkness (Photek Remix): Moby (2011)

8) All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints (Photek Remix): Paul Simon (2018)

9) I Miss You (Photek Mix): Björk (1996)

10) Star Chasers (Photek Remix): 4 Hero (1998)

11) Single (Photek Remix): Everything But The Girl (1996)

Been Tryin' Hard Not To Get Into Trouble (57:51)