Four Hundred And Seventy Times Six

A six song selection for Saturday, some strange bedfellows, but all committed to the groove.

Fortran 5 were formed from the ashes of I Start Counting, record label Mute perhaps hoping for a smidge of commercial success, given the proliferation of sample-heavy dance music in the popular charts. 

It didn't happen, and Fortran 5 remain an under appreciated gemstone compared to the diamond brightness of Orbital or The Prodigy. Crazy Earth was Fortran 5's debut single, one of many songs inspired by Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, specifically The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. The sample here is from The Gnome. Isn't it good?

The Men was an experiment by The Human League Mk. I, aka Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, to see if they could have a hit single. The disco-inspired 7" single I Don't Depend On You featured Phil backed by Katie Kissoon and Lisa Strike, wasn't heavily promoted and failed to dent the charts, but remains an ear-pleasing curio. 

In 2011, gkugno from Italy addressed the three-decade lack of a 12" version of I Don't Depend On You by creating an edit from the A-side and instrumental B-side aka Cruel, then posting it on YouTube. I think he did a pretty good job.

The mysterious mind behind MATDMixes has a similar M.O. What is less of a mystery is who their favourite artist is, as the YouTube page is dedicated to re-edits and remixes of music by Marina Diamandis aka Marina & The Diamonds aka Marina. 

I've featured their 2020 extended mix of Living Dead in a Marina-themed Dubhed selection, but it stands just as well in this mixed crowd. I'd recommend checking out the many, many MATDMixes available online.

Circuit, Lap 2 is the sole EP in my collection by Paris-based David Rubato, though he only seems to have released a handful of singles in the late Noughties and these days practices as a music teacher.

Circuit, Lap 2 is a companion piece to 2008 single Circuit, this one containing remixes by DJ Mehdi, Steve Moore, Siriusimo and - featured here - Aeroplane.

Personal Jesus has become one of Depeche Mode's best known songs. Even back in 1989, it marked a change of direction for the Basildon boys, and a precursor to their global smash album Violator.

François Kevorkian was their go-to for remixes at this point in time and as Depeche Mode singles came in two 12" vinyl varieties by default, there were multiple FK versions of this song, including the Holier Than Thou Approach and Telephone Stomp Mix. I've gone for the Pump Mix on the limited edition remix 12", the longest of the three and stretching out that pulsing electronic groove and dropping in a TV evangelist sample here and there. Great stuff.

Betty Boo may be an unexpected choice to close this selection. However - and with apologies to the fabulous Alison Clarkson - this remix by David Morales doesn't feature her voice at all....

Catch Me was a single from second album Grrr! It's Betty Boo in 1992, which couldn't match the chart success of her debut, but was a decent attempt to expand her songwriting and performance. Happily, albums #3 and #4 arrived thirty years later and the world is a brighter place for having Betty Boo back in it.

I will endeavour to keep the happiness going tomorrow....

1) Crazy Earth (Full Greenhouse Effect Mix By Edson Arantes Di Nascimento): Fortran 5 (1990)

2) I Don't Depend On You (Extended Re-Edited Version By gkugno): The Men (2011)

3) Living Dead (Extended Mix By MATDMixes): Marina & The Diamonds (2020)

4) Circuit (Aeroplane Remix By Stephen Fasano & Vito De Luca): David Rubato (2008)

5) Personal Jesus (Pump Mix By François Kevorkian): Depeche Mode (1989)

6) Catch Me (Def Version By David Morales): Betty Boo (1992)

1989: Personal Jesus EP: 5

1990: Crazy Earth EP: 1

1992: Catch Me EP: 6

2008: Circuit, Lap Two EP: 4

2011: I Don't Depend On You EP: 2

2020: Living Dead EP: 3

Four Hundred And Seventy Times Six (46:39) (GD) (M)

Guess What

A belated happy birthday to Marina Diamandis, born 10th October 1985.

My joy at the news that Marina is celebrating this - and 6th album Princess Of Power - with a UK tour, including a date at the Beacon in Bristol, was tempered at approx. 10.05am on Friday when I found that it had already sold out, bar a couple of 'reserved seating' tickets way back, going for £117 a pop. 

That's the challenge with multiple tour tickets going on sale simultaneously at 10.00am on Friday. My first stop had been to get tickets for Cabaret Voltaire's final tour (as I wrote about on Wednesday), then Marina, then Tinariwen. Two out of three ain't bad, as Meat Loaf once opined.

I'm consoling myself with the fact that the majority of tickets may have been snapped up in a pre-sale and my five minutes prioritising the Cabs sealed my fate.

A shame though, as I have no doubt that it will be a spectacular show in a venue that can manage big artists whilst feeling intimate at the same time. And Marina is big: all six albums have been Top 20 in the UK, five of them Top 10, three of them Top 5, one (2012's Electra Heart) went to #1.

Marina is often described as 'anti-pop', but that's missing the point. Her music is unequivocally pop, though pop that doesn't shy away from sharp lyrical observation and commentary, especially on the industry that she has been immersed in for half her life.

Sex Yeah!, the opening song on today's selection, sums it up perfectly:

Question what the TV tells you

Question what a pop star sells you

Question mom and question dad

Question good and question bad

If women were religiously recognized sexually

We wouldn't have to feel the need to show our ass-ets to feel free

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt

Sold my soul, and yeah, the truth hurt

Tired image of a star, acting naughtier than we really are

Listening to artists like Charli XCX and Wet Leg, I hear the influence of Marina, in the song narrative, hooks and riffs and spectacular vocal range. There's a fascinating interview with Marina for Harpers Bazaar, posted in June when Princess Of Power was released, which is well worth ten minutes of your time.

So, if like me you've missed out on Marina tickets and need cheering up, I've created an hour long, 15-song selection of pop gems. There are some gaps: I haven't yet bought Princess Of Power and I have also so far managed to miss her 2019 mononymous debut, Love + Fear.

Whilst the selection is heavy on her music as Marina & The Diamonds, it's a veritable treasure trove of album cuts, singles, remixes, demos and even a cover version of Rita Ora, performed on BBC Radio 2.

If you're unfamiliar with Marina, then this is as good a primer as any, and hopefully the start of your latest musical obsession. Enjoy!

1) Sex Yeah! (Demo II): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

2) Homewrecker (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

3) Obsessions (The Aspirins For My Children Remix By Daniel Barker): Marina & The Diamonds (2009)

4) Valley Of The Dolls (Lonely Hearts Club Tour Studio Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2013)

5) Fear & Loathing (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

6) Scab & Plaster (Demo II): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

7) Savages (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2015)

8) Purge The Poison: Marina (2021)

9) Primadonna (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds (2012)

10) I Am Not A Robot (Doorly Remix By Martin Doorly): Marina & The Diamonds (2010)

11) Froot (Album Version): Marina & The Diamonds

12) Hollywood (Gonzales Version By Jason Beck): Marina & The Diamonds

13) How To Be A Heartbreaker (Single Version By Benny Blanco): Marina & The Diamonds

14) Only Want You (Live @ Dermot O’Leary Show, BBC Radio 2) (Cover of Rita Ora): Marina (2019)

15) Girls: Marina & The Diamonds (2010)

2009: Obsessions EP: 3

2010: Hollywood EP: 12

2010: I Am Not A Robot EP: 10

2010: The Family Jewels: 15

2012: Electra Heart: 2, 5, 9

2012: How To Be A Heartbreaker EP: 13

2012: The Rejects: Demos (bootleg MP3): 1, 6

2013: The Lonely Hearts Club Tour (Studio Version) (bootleg MP3): 4

2015: FROOT: 7, 11

2019: Live At BBC Radio 2 EP: 14

2021: Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land: 8

Guess What (1:01:59) (GD) (M)

I managed to miss Marina's birthday in 2023 too, and similarly celebrated in belated style with a Dubhed selection of Marina's songs, remixed and reinvented. You can find it here.

Reinvent, Remix, Reveal

Marina & The Diamonds to round off the week, with a baker's dozen of remixes drawn from the three albums, The Family Jewels (2009), Electra Heart (2012) and Froot (2014).

Marina has performed and released records mononymously since 2018 but her earlier material is still fertile ground for reworks and re-edits. Interspersed with the contemporaneous remixes by 'name' artists such as Fred Falke, Benny Benassi and Blood Orange/Devonté Hynes, here you'll find some fan-based versions by Solitary Jewel, Gabrielle B, Exile and MATDMixes. 

 

Several of these bootleg mixes imagine a parallel universe where Marina was born twenty years earlier and became a huge star in the 1980s. Sounds odd - and the accompanying Photoshopped images are even odder - but strangely it works.

I've been a fan of Marina since hearing I Am Not A Robot for the first time in 2009. In an overcrowded world of pop, she's found a place somewhere between Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey that's unmistakably her own and continues to explore new territory with each album, whilst retaining the irresistible hooks of those early singles.

 

For more treasures, the official Marina website is chock full of visual and aural delights.

Oh, and a very belated happy birthday to Marina Lambrini Diamandis for 10th October.

 

1) Electra Heart (Alternative [Hard Rock Inspired] Version-Remix By Solitary Jewel) (2021)

2) Oh No! (Grum Remix By Graeme Shepherd) (2010)

3) Shampain (Fred Falke Remix) (2010)

4) Mowgli's Road (Mille Remix By Mille Ponken) (2009)

5) Froot (Synthwave Electro Remix 80s By Gabrielle B) (2022)

6) Obsessions (Ocelot Remix By Aaron Peacock) (2010)

7) Teen Idle (1987) (Exile 80s Ballad Remix) (2022)

8) Living Dead (Extended Mix By MATDMixes) (2020)

9) I Am Not A Robot (Penguin Prison Remix By Chris Glover) (2010)

10) Radioactive (Blood Orange Remix By Devonté Hynes) (2011)

11) Blue (Holychild Remix By Elizabeth Nistico & Louie Diller) (2015)

12) Hollywood (Monarchy Gliese Remix By Andrew Kornweibel & Ra Khahn) (2010)

13) Primadonna (Benny Benassi Remix) (Full Length)  (2012) 

Reinvent, Remix, Reveal (1:12:20) (GD) (M)

Some Days It Just Doesn't Pay To Get Out Of Bed...

It started off well enough. 

 

I woke up at 6.45am, fed the cat, made myself a cup of tea, checked some emails, casually mooched around the house.

Mrs. K entered the kitchen, looked at me, oddly I thought. I talked about some ideas for the day.

"You do realise that it's Friday, not Saturday?" she said.

Oh shit.

The day didn't get any better, believe me.

The post that I'd originally planned for today that was half written and due to be finished off this morning will now see the light of day on Monday. That's if I remember what day it is and post it...