Fish And Chips

Hot Chip (twice) and The Other Two (once), to be precise.

New music from Hot Chip is always a cause for celebration but the lads have really pushed the boat out for this one. Devotion is the precursor for an upcoming greatest hits compilation, Joy In Repetition, and it's an absolute delight. 

And the video, as you might expect from Hot Chip, is utterly brilliant.

If a three or four minute song goes on repeat, whilst reaching for your record collection or creating a playlist by the artist, then it's done it's work. Devotion excels in this regard, and I shall be listening to Hot Chip for the rest of this week (at least).

Even if you've only visited this blog a few times, you'll have sussed that I'm an advocate for the 'there's no such thing as a bad idea' approach to creating posts.

So when I was immediately inspired to post Hot Chip, the idea of a 'fish and chips' theme almost immediately followed. Rather than dismiss it as lazy, barrel scraping or indicative of a dried out husk of creativity, I leaned into it and well, here we are.

Rest assured, as quickly as the thought popped into my head, I just as quickly dismissed any thought of featuring Derek Dick aka Fish, either solo or in his Marillion days, somewhat contradicting my  'there's no such thing as a bad idea' mantra. Did I also mention that I'm inconsistent?

For me, there was only really one contender, a slice of joyous pop, like a distant relative of Devotion from thirty four years ago. After seeing Bernard and Hooky do their own thing with Electronic and Revenge, the other two from New Order (aka Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris) decided to take a bite from the cherry as The Other Two. Or, in this case, a Tasty Fish.

And rather conveniently, in 2015 Hot Chip remixed Tutti Frutti by New Order for a single release. The 12" features a vinyl edit at a smidge under nine minutes, but CD and digital formats contain the full length, eleven minute forty five second version, which is the must-have.

For added entertainment, I found an upload of Tutti Frutti (Hot Chip Remix) on YouTube that includes a still image of penguins. Thanks, vit3xxx!

And all cheaper than an actual portion of fish and chips these days. Now, isn't that satisfying? 

We Tried, But We Didn't Have Long

I haven't visited NPR's Tiny Desk Concert in a little while so I dropped by to find that Hot Chip played a 4-song 'greatest hits' set on Monday. And very good it was too.

 

0:00 Over And Over (2006)

05:46 Boy From School (2006)

11:00 Look At Where We Are (2012)

15:20 Ready For The Floor (2008)

 

As a bonus, here are the videos for each of the four original single releases, entertaining as always.

 

 

 

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)

What Have I Done? Where Have You Gone?

Today's selection features Caribou aka Dan Snaith and is a good example of one of the motivating forces behind this blog, a simple excuse to rummage around in my virtual record box and dust off some music that I haven't listened to in a while. 

Dan Snaith's been poorly served by my collection in that regard as I have relatively little of his music, far less than I thought to be honest, a few hours' worth spread across EPs, album tracks and remixes for other artists. Hardly anything from the past decade either, which I need to address.

I first encountered Dan Snaith via Jockey Slut, an essential read in the 1990s*. By the start of the 21st century, it was on it's last legs I guess but in those final moments it delivered a brilliant series of cover-mounted CDs across a year titled Disco Pogo For Punks In Pumps. Volume 4 (March 2003) kicked off with Hendrix With Ko by Manitoba, Snaith's original stage name.

 

By chance, I happened to be at a record fair shortly after and, amongst my music haul, came away with a promo CD of the Jacknuggeted EP by Manitoba. Shortly after releasing second album Up In Flames, Dan Snaith was subject to threats of legal action from Richard 'Handsome Dick' Manitoba and thus Caribou was born.

As both names suggest, Dan was born in Canada and I don't know if it's the foreknowledge of this but listening to his music evokes imagery of driving through forests, mountains in the background, passing by vast lakes and grasslands, a hint of hidden life deep beyond the trees that race past in a blur. Or sometimes, it just sounds like a modern take on Sixties psychedelic folk. Either way, there's something comforting yet uncomfortable about listening to his work. 

Over three quarters of an hour, you can find out for yourself, as Dan meets Hot Chip, Oh No Ono, Kelley Polar and Jack Tennis and revisits his old band before returning home with David Wrench to watch the sun go down and day turn to night. Beats a washed out Wednesday in the UK, in my book.

 

1) She's The One (Hot Chip Remix By Joe Goddard): Caribou (2007)

2) Eleanor Speaks (Caribou Remix): Oh No Ono (2010)

3) We Live In An Expanding Universe (Caribou Remix): Kelley Polar (2008)

4) Melody Day (Four Tet Remix By Kieran Hebden): Caribou (2007) 

5) Olé: Manitoba (2003)

6) Sun (Jack Tennis Remix By Tobi Schwermann): Caribou (2010)

7) After Hours (Album Version By Dan Snaith & David Wrench): Caribou (2007)

 

What Have I Done? Where Have You Gone? (44:56) (Box) (Mega) 

 

* In 2022, following a successful crowdfunder campaign, the creators of Jockey Slut launched a new twice-yearly magazine called Disco Pogo.

Is There Room In Your Life For One More Trip To The Moon?

In case you were disappointed by Friday's lack of beat-laden bangers, here's a suitably slipshod mix to see in Saturday. 

As usual, it's an eclectic mix spanning 1993 to 2022. It may not keep you moving, as k.d. lang implores, but you will hopefully get an involuntary twitch or jerk here and there. I would like to apologise for the cack-handed segueways and fade ins but if I did, I'd have to do so for each and every track. Hopefully, the quality of the tunes will encourage you to overlook my enthusiastic but amateurish approach...!

A couple of current loves in here, including one of many excellent remixes of the current David Holmes single and the latest in a consistent series of great one-off tracks by Pye Corner Audio aka Martin Jenkins. There are some reworkings of musical legends Gong, Kraftwerk and The Cure and - I couldn't resist - two helpings of Andrew Weatherall, back-to-back. 

The opening twofer by Baron Von Luxxury aka Blake Robin and k.d. lang remixed by Tony Garcia may be a bit of red herring regarding the subsequent direction of the mix, but I think it just about works. 

I've also dropped in a bit of uptempo Four Tet, from Kieran Hebden's excellent 2020 album Parallels, as well as Confidence Man. The latter track might be from 2017, but their current album Tilt is on constant rotation at Casa Khayem.

 

To close, another Dubhed favourite, Dan Wainwright. Dan and his partner Elle Redding have just released a new album, Mother Oak, which I received this week, so expect to a further appearance here in the not too distant future.

1) I'm Not Bad, I'm Just Drawn That Way (Instrumental): Baron Von Luxxury (2013)

2) Just Keep Me Moving (Wild Planet Mix By Tony Garcia): k.d. lang (1993)

3) It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love (Working Mens Club Remix): David Holmes ft. Raven Violet (2022)

4) A Sprinkling Of Clouds (Belly Dance Mix By System 7): Gong (1999)

5) Evidence The Enemy: Andrew Weatherall (2017)

6) Bubblegum (Andrew Weatherall Remix): Confidence Man (2017)

7) Aerodynamik (Intelligent Design Mix By Alexis Taylor & Joe Goddard): Kraftwerk (2007)

8) Wrong Number (Crossed Line Mix By Omid Nourizadeh): The Cure (1997)

9) Parallel 8: Four Tet (2020)

10) Dirty Window Of Opportunity: Pye Corner Audio (2022)

11) Nothing Ever Stays The Same: Dan Wainwright (2021)

Is There Room In Your Life For One More Trip To The Moon? (47:45)

A Crawl Around The Clubs Getting High

Dusting off some sorely neglected (by me, at least) club cuts, ready for the Friday dancefloor, personally these days a patch of carpet between the sofa and the TV. I'd forgotten how much I love these songs: the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Cortney Tidwell tracks are particular delights; Fred Falke and Mark Pritchard are guaranteed to get me shaking (although there's now a simultaneous creaking and rattling); the brief detour to Japan via 5th Garden & Pizzicato Five brings a smile every time; Prins Thomas, James Zabiela & DJ Q bring some serious beats and, to cap it all off, one of my favourite ever remixes by The Orb. The original version of Home by PWEI supplies today's post title. Happy Friday, everyone!

1) Carambola (Mark Pritchard Remix): Azymuth (2000)

2) I Feel Bonnie (House Mix): Hot Chip ft. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (2010)

3) Kanal (Prins Thomas Sure Oppstøt): Telephones (2010)

4) Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up (Ewan Pearson's Objects In Space Vocal Remix): Cortney Tidwell (2007)

5) Candy (James Zabiela Remix): Spooky (2008)

6) Animal (Fred Falke Remix): Miike Snow (2009)

7) Cooking (Arling & Cameron High Pressure Mix): 5th Garden (1998)

8) Love's Theme (Saint Etienne Mix): Pizzicato Five (1997)

9) R U Still In To It? (DJ Q Remix): Mogwai (1998)

10) Home (Orb Sweet Sin And Salvation Mix): Pop Will Eat Itself (1995) 

A Crawl Around The Clubs Getting High (1:16:17)