Decadance I: 1991

Side 2 of a made up mixtape, focusing on the Nineties. Today we arrive in 1991. 

Guitars are beginning to creep back into the mix, but today's selection is still very much about getting on to the dancefloor, whether of the club or indie variety.

Looking at the best-selling UK singles of 1991, there was clearly a collective madness permeating society as far as record buying was concerned. How else do you explain Bryan Adams spending four effing months at #1? Or The Simpsons also hitting the top spot and having the 5th best seller of the year? Is there any rational explanation for the existence of Color Me Badd?!!

I spent a large part of 1991 in Australia, whose singles charts were arguably just as bad, though I was at least spared The Stonk by comedians Hale & Pace. 

Continuing with the info on each single's peak (UK) chart placing and date throws up some interesting observations. As with yesterday's selection, 1991's dozen songs include eight UK Top 40 hits and four that, well, weren't.

Just the one #1 this time and that a cheeky piggy back on a re-release of Should I Stay Or Should I Go by The Clash thanks to a jeans TV advert. Mick Jones had regrouped and relaunched Big Audio Dynamite II the previous year and included a reworked and renamed song from their debut album. Change Of Atmosphere became Rush and it gave Mick another hit single...though it made little if no difference to the chart fortunes of follow up album The Globe.

The selection opens with Intastella, a band I loved but for whom commercial success seemed elusive. Century, despite a 12" remix from Adamski, peaked at #70 and proved to be the second highest charting single of their career in the UK. A shame, as they had some cracking tunes, including this one.

Today's MAW (Mandatory Andrew Weatherall, not to be confused with Masters At Work, although he's equally deserving of the label) is a monumental remix of 101 by Finitribe. Even the 3:20 single edit is a masterclass, to the extent that this was the album version selected for An Unexpected Groovy Treat the following year. 

Released in July 1991, as far as I can tell 101 managed to scrape to #171 by the end of August and that was it's peak. As I said above,  clearly a collective madness permeating society as far as record buying was concerned.

Apart from the aforementioned Big Audio Dynamite II stowaway, the only other song from 1991's Top 20 best sellers is Sunshine On A Rainy Day by Zoë. Quite an achievement given that the original 1990 version failed to make the same impression. All I will say is that returning to the UK and seeing the leather trousered, barefoot Zoë throwing all manner of shapes on Top Of The Pops made a lasting impression on me.

An unexpected delight whilst I was on the other side of the world was hearing Bristol-born boy done good Gary Clail cracking the Top 10 with Human Nature. I was already a fan of his work with Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound System, but the additional boost of an in-vogue remix by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne made all the difference. Hearing Gary's Bristolian burr ("put their hands in their pockets") alongside the dulcet tones of the legendary Alan Pillay still makes me smile.

Poor If? though, they really did try. They had some great tunes, seemingly tapped into the zeitgeist with their lyrical subjects and had impeccable taste in remixers, including Leftfield and Justin Robertson. Sadly, people just didn't buy any of their records. They had three goes with Saturday's Angels between 1991 and 1992, the 2nd being the best, with a peak of #83. This radio-friendly remix by The Grid aka Dave Ball and Richard Norris didn't in fact feature on any of the three attempts, instead tucked away as a B-side on another undeservedly flop single from 1991, Open Up Your Head.

Unfinished Sympathy was Massive Attack's first big hit...except it wasn't. Following a frankly bizarre edict regarding band names that might be triggering due to the ongoing Gulf War, the BBC banned a load of songs during this period.

The list apparently included Atomic (Blondie), In The Army Now (Status Quo), I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen), State Of Independence (Donna Summer), Walk Like An Egyptian (Bangles) and When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going (Billy Ocean).

The record label dodged this potential issue by renaming Massive Attack as Massive for this one single, but it seemed to work, although I sure that there were some music lovers out there devastated this this wasn't in fact a belated follow up by Massivo ft. Tracy.

Intastella weren't the only young upstarts, however. Saint Etienne, Flowered Up and The Mock Turtles were all establishing themselves, though arguably I should have made some room here for James or Manic Street Preachers. 

 

However, there was another band who showed some early promise, by the name of Blur. I wonder what became of them?

Be here next Saturday for some 1992 action. I'll be as surprised as you to find out what makes the final twelve.

1) Century (7" Version By Chris Nagle & Mike 'Spike' Drake): Intastella
2) 101 (Sonic Shuffle Edit By Andrew Weatherall & Hugo Nicolson): Finitribe
3) Nothing Can Stop Us (Album Version): Saint Etienne
4) Sunshine On A Rainy Day (7" Radio Mix 1991 By Youth & Mark 'Spike' Stent): Zoë
5) Do What You Feel (Dum Dum Vocal Edit By Dave Lee): Joey Negro ft. Debbie French

6) Human Nature (On The Mix Edit By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne): Gary Clail / On-U Sound System ft. Alan Pillay

7) Saturday's Angels (Elevator Heaven Mix By The Grid): If?

8) Unfinished Sympathy (Nellee Hooper 7" Mix): Massive Attack ft. Shara Nelson

9) Take It (Album Version): Flowered Up

10) Rush (Edit): Big Audio Dynamite II

11) Can You Dig It? (Extended Mix By Martin Coogan, Pete Smith & Karl Madert): The Mock Turtles

12) There's No Other Way (Album Version By Stephen Street): Blur

20th Jan 1991: Saturday's Angels EP (#83): 7

3rd Mar 1991: Should I Stay Or Should I Go EP (#1): 10

10th Mar 1991: Unfinished Sympathy EP (#13): 8

14th Apr 1991: Can You Dig It? EP (#18): 11

21st Apr 1991: Human Nature EP (#10): 6

12th May 1991: Foxbase Alpha (#54): 3

12th May 1991: A Life With Brian (#34): 9

12th May 1991: There's No Other Way (#8): 12

25th Aug 1991: 101 EP (#171): 2

8th Sep 1991: Sunshine On A Rainy Day EP (#4): 4

17th Nov 1991: Century EP (#70): 1

17th Nov 1991: Do What You Feel EP (#36): 5

Side Two (47:18) (GD) (M)

What Power Do You Bring Back Here?

Side 1 of a cassette compilation recorded as a gift from my brother, sometime around March-April 1991. 

 

Some New Beat and some not-so-new beat, generally speaking. As mentioned when I posted Side 2 last year, two key albums for this mixtape are the compilations New Beat, Made In Belgium (1989) and The Third Mind (1990). I might go so far as to say that my brother was either getting bored or tired towards the end of this side and opted to lift the latter's closing two songs on Side 1 to complete his own Side 1 of this compilation. I don't have a copy of The Third Mind and haven't been able to source the Son Of Sam track St. Augustine Said online, so I've instead plumped for a previous 12" aside, which I think sits reasonably well with the music on either side.

The selection kicks off with Psychic TV with the (kind of title track) from their acid house album Towards The Infinite Beat (released with a remix companion titled Beyond The Infinite Beat). From there a brace of classic Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne remixes, followed by Paris Angels' finest moment (from the original 1990 12", not the subsequent major label remix and re-release).

 

I guess you could describe English Boy On The Loveranch as a 'supergroup in reverse', comprising Dave Ball, Jamie Fry and Nick Sanderson. Dave of course had found fame and notoriety with Soft Cell and would again with The Grid. Jamie and Nick later co-founded World Of Twist and Earl Brutus. English Boy On The Loveranch only released a couple of singles in 1987 and 1988, but they're both worth tracking down.

A couple of New Beat contributions from 101 and Moments Of Ecstasy, featuring Jos Borremans, Maurice Engelen, Nikkie Van Lierop and Oliver Adams, who also variously recorded as Praga Khan, Lords Of Acid, etc. I was bit unkind about the latter last time, but there's no denying New Beat's allure.

I know next to nothing about Faction but according to Discogs they appear to be the same Faction that backed Nico on her 1985 album Camera Obscura. A nice way to come down from the relentless beats that have preceded it. 

I've no idea how my brother crammed all of this onto one side of a C90, but this is more or less as he originally intended.

 

1) Infinite Beat: Psychic TV (1990)

2) Pro>Gen (Land Of Oz) (Remix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne) (Album Edit): The Shamen (1990)

3) Human Nature (On The Mix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne) (12" Version): Gary Clail / On-U Sound System ft. Alan Pillay (1991)

4) All On You (Perfume) (12" Version): Paris Angels (1990)

5) Rock To The Beat (Original Mix) (Cover of Reese aka Kevin Saunderson): 101 (1989)

6) Sex Vigilante (Deadly Weapons Mix By Flood): English Boy On The Loveranch (1988)

7) You And Me (Edit By Maurice Engelen): Moments Of Ecstasy (1989)

8) One Thousand Beats Per Minute (Deejay's Edit): Son Of Sam (1987)

9) Noa Noa: Faction (1990)

Side One (47:58) (KF) (Mega) 

Side Two here

Liars & Hypocrites

Sometimes the news headlines suggest the playlist...

 

If it's not galling enough that these lying, entitled scumbags are in government, their value on the consultancy and after-dinner speaking circuit has no doubt increased on the back of their increasing infamy.

 

Just stop pretending that you are representing "the people" and not the selfish, grubby interests of yourselves and your cronies. I did not vote for you and you do not represent me.

1) Devil Is A Liar: Kode9 & The Spaceape (2014)

2) Liar With Wings: Andrew Weatherall (2009) 

3) Hypocrite: Matumbi (1978)

4) Two Thieves And A Liar: Gary Clail / On-U Sound System ft. Bim Sherman (1989)

5) Liar, Liar (Cover of The Castaways): Deborah Harry (1988)

6) Burn The Liars: The Earlies (2007)

7) Reeling The Liars In (Cover of Swans): Cold Specks (2012)

8) Liar: Kelsey Lu (2016)

9) Liars A To E (Single Version): Dexy's Midnight Runners (1981)

10) Hypocrite: Lush (1994)

11) Fakes & Liars: The Wolfgang Press (1992)

12) Liar: Sex Pistols (1977)

1977: Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols: 12

1978: Seven Seals: 3

1981: Liars A To E EP: 9

1988: Married To The Mob OST: 5

1989: End Of The Century Party: 4

1992: Queer: 11

1994: Hypocrite EP: 10

2007: The Enemy Chorus: 6

2009: A Pox On The Pioneers: 2 

2012: Dancing Coins EP: 7

2014: Killing Season EP: 1

2016: Church: 8

Liars & Hypocrites (43:41)

Wise Up! Again

Side 1 of a mixtape, recorded between December 1991 and January 1992. When I posted Side 2 last August, I mentioned the use of a couple of tracks from Keeping The Faith: A Creation Dance Compilation and there's another here. I didn't buy either of the two 12" singles of Come Together by Primal Scream at the time, but the excellent Hypnotone remix opened Side 2 of Keeping The Faith and remains my second only to Andrew Weatherall's unassailable mix. 

 

The other reference point on this mixtape side is Renegade Soundwave's debut album Soundclash. Excellent though it is, I think the real reason two tracks appear here is that I had been lent a copy by my friend Stuart and ended up cramming songs onto various mixtapes before returning it. 

 

There's also a heavy Adrian Sherwood vibe on this side, with production and remix duties for Cabaret Voltaire, Gary Clail / On-U Sound System and Tackhead. The full length version of False Leader featured on the album The Emotional Hooligan, whilst this edit was a B-side of the Escape remix 12". The Tackhead remix of Dangerous Sex was edited to squeeze onto the cassette side, so I've done the same here to preserve the original running time.

 

A Certain Ratio's Martin Moscrop remixes opening instrumental Bendy, which initially appeared on the Intastella single People; my copy resurfaced on the limited edition "Intastella Meet Adamski" remix 12" of follow-up Century. This is my favourite version of the song.

 

Killing Joke's Youth remixes Pop Will Eat Itself, dropping the BPMs and stretching the song out to over five minutes. Again, this one has the edge as my preferred version and - no surprise - provides the mixtape with its title.

 

Lastly, the song that introduced me to Colourbox. I picked up the Vertigo-Sampler from a record stall in St. Nicholas' Market in Bristol a few years previously, a Canadian import double vinyl compilation from 1985. If I'm honest, most of it is dispensable: late-period Boomtown Rats, Big Country, Dire Straits and - even more dire - Mark Knopfler solo, twice! However, there are a couple of sides of alternative and indie music: Cocteau Twins, Love And Rockets, This Mortal Coil and Colourbox, which made the price worth a punt. 

The Colourbox track is listed as Sex Gun (Instrumental Version) but is identical to the version (re)titled Just Give 'Em Whiskey on their eponymous debut album. The vocal version of Sex Gun made it onto the free extra album that came with limited quantities, though the one featured in today’s selection is far and away the best version out there, heavy with samples from Westworld and The Prisoner.

 

1) Bendy In The Disco (Remix By Martin Moscrop): Intastella (1991)

2) Biting My Nails (Album Version By Flood & RSW): Renegade Soundwave (1989)

3) Thank You America (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Adrian Sherwood): Cabaret Voltaire (1987)

4) False Leader (Edit By Adrian Sherwood, Doug Wimbish & Skip McDonald): Gary Clail / On-U Sound System ft. Big Youth (1991)

5) Head Like A Hole (Album Version By Trent Reznor & Flood): Nine Inch Nails (1990)

6) Come Together (The HypnotoneBrainMachine Mix By Hypnotone): Primal Scream (1990)

7) Wise Up! Sucker (12" Version By Youth): Pop Will Eat Itself (1989)

8) Blue Eyed Boy (Album Version By Flood & RSW): Renegade Soundwave (1989)

9) Sex Gun (Instrumental Version) (aka Just Give 'Em Whiskey): Colourbox (1985)

10) Sex Overdubs (Remix By Adrian Sherwood, Doug Wimbish, Keith LeBlanc & Skip McDonald) (Edit): Tackhead (1990)

 

Side One (45:59)

Side Two here

Watching How The Other Half Lives

Having posted an Adrian Sherwood mix earlier this week, fate, coincidence, serendipity, whatever you wish to call it, determined that this would not be the only Sherwood/ON-U Sound post this week.

 

Idling on BBC4 last night, watching Island At The BBC, a compilation of Island Records artist performances, I then drifted on to the Top Of The Pops repeat, this time from 28th March 1991. I was in Australia at the time so I didn't see the original broadcast, though I'm not sure I was particularly watching the show in the early 1990s. It was much as to be expected: Dannii Minogue, Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, Chesney Hawkes, effing Jive Bunny, but there were some saving moments from James, Definition Of Sound and Scritti Politti featuring Shabba Ranks (the latter nowhere to be seen in the video).

 

And 'live' in the studio, making his debut at #25, was Gary Clail / On-U Sound System with this song:

 

Human Nature (Live On TOTP): Gary Clail / On-U Sound System ft. Alan Lanah Pillay

 

Bruno Brookes, atop the studio scaffold, introduces Clail as only he can: "Here's a guy who started his career as a scaffolder in Bristol and is certainly somebody who's got a head for heights..." I'm guessing he was predicting the song's Top 10 placing and nine weeks in the charts. 

 

The song originally appeared as a promo 12" on Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto label, heavily featuring samples of American evangelist Billy Graham. It's a great version as it was, but clearance issues meant that Clail adapted the lyrics based on Graham's speech and recorded them himself, to the song's benefit. However, what really lifts the song to another level is the appearance of unexpected guest vocalist, Alan Lanah Pillay. With Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne on the mix, it's a perfect combination of social commentary that you can dance to. And, having been born in Bristol, hearing Clail's West Country burr on a Top 10 hit still prompts a happy smile.

 

An added bonus of Human Nature's success was that it meant that the mighty Bim Sherman also achieved a UK Top 10 hit, albeit featuring on the single's B-side, Rumours.

All of which has prompted me to ditch another planned post this morning in favour of a Gary Clail / On-U Sound playlist, mainly focusing on the 1989-1991 singles.

 

1) Human Nature (On The Mix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne) (DJ Promo ft. Billy Graham) (1991) 

2) False Leader (Pay It All Back Version By Adrian Sherwood & Doug Wimbish) (ft. Big Youth) (1991)

3) Another Hard Dub (Remix By Adrian Sherwood) (1995)

4) Beef (The Future Mix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne) (ft. Bim Sherman) (1990)

5) Rumours (ft. Bim Sherman) (1991)

6) Two Thieves And A Liar (ft. Bim Sherman) (1989)

7) The Emotional Hooligan (Dubwize Mix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne) (1991)

8) Human Nature (On The Mix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne) (ft. Alan Lanah Pillay) (1991)

 

To complete the On-U connection, Alan Pillay appeared solo on Volume 3 of the excellent Pay It All Back compilation series with this song:

Spirit Soul: Alan Pillay (1991)

And many years later, when crate digging at Plastic Wax Records in Bristol, I discovered this brilliant song on 12":

Pistol In My Pocket: Lana PIllay (1986)

 

Lanah P is still very much an active artist and performer and she was interviewed earlier this year in the Camden New Journal. 

Gary Clail gave a short interview for Bristol Archive Records in 2014, around the time that he released his last album, Nail It To The Mast. Gary Clail Soundsystem was due to appear at Springkell 2021 in Lockerbie, though I believe this is has now been moved to 2022. Hopefully still on will be his 30 Years Of Human Nature show in Manchester in September. 

 

Following their 2018 collaborative single, Electric Skies/Twisted Love, Gary Clail has also been recording new material with Tony Rafter (Glaxo Babies, Maximum Joy) and plans to play "the whole new album from start to finish. Including the dub outtakes" at the Dublin Castle in London on August 20th.

Watching How The Other Half Lives (46:17)

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