Out Here On The Perimeter, Nobody Can Hear You Scream

Celebrating Mark Stewart, 10th August 1960 to 21st April 2023.

I was preparing to put my head down for the night when the news of Mark Stewart's passing popped up on my phone. To say that I'm shocked, saddened and completely gutted is an understatement.

There will be a follow up post, where I try to articulate just why Mark Stewart is such an important figure in my musical education, to Bristol the place of my birth and to the world of music, politics and life in general. I just can't find the words right now.

In the meantime, here are 15 reasons why from the man himself, with The Pop Group, Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound, Dennis Bovell, Holger Hiller, Primal Scream, Jah Wobble, Keith Levene, Andrew Weatherall, Gary Clail, Daddy G... the list goes on.

Rest in power, Mark, rest in protest.

 

1) She Is Beyond Good And Evil (Single Version): The Pop Group (1979)

2) Baby Bourgeois: Mark Stewart ft. Nicole Bottazzi (2012)

3) Citizen Zombie: The Pop Group (2015)

4) Psychoville (Digitalism Remix): Mark Stewart & Martin Peter (2005)

5) Autonomia (Electro Edit): Mark Stewart ft. Primal Scream (2012)

6) Digital Justice (Dub Remix): Mark Stewart (1996)

7) Home Sweet Home: Adrian Sherwood ft. Mark Stewart (2006)

8) Crazy Dreams And High Ideals: New Age Steppers (1981)

9) Fatal Attraction (Extended Version): Mark Stewart (1990)

10) A Very British Coup (Single Version): Jah Wobble ft. Keith Levene, Richard Dudanski, Mark Stewart, Andrew Weatherall & Youth (2020)

11) All Of My Senses (K.K. Null Mix): Mark Stewart vs Mike Watt vs K.K. Null (2022)

12) Forever Now (Mark Stewart Remixxx): Textbeak ft. Mark Stewart & Janine Rainforth (2021)

13) Television (On-U Sound Dance Mix By Adrian Sherwood, Gary Clail & Mark Stewart): The Beatnigs (1988)

14) Apocalyspe Dub: Mark Stewart ft. Daddy G (2012)

15) We Are All Prostitutes (Crookers Remix): Adam Sky vs. Mark Stewart (2007)

1979: She Is Beyond Good And Evil EP: 1

1981: The New Age Steppers: 8

1988: Television EP: 13

1990: Fatal Attraction EP (promo 12"): 9

1996: Volume Sixteen: 6

2005: Psychoville EP: 4

2006: Becoming A Cliché: 7

2007: We Are All Prostitutes EP: 15

2012: Exorcism Of Envy: 14

2012: The Politics Of Envy: 2

2012: The Politics Of Envy / Experiments EP (ltd 2x CD): 5

2015: Citizen Zombie: 3

2020: A Very British Coup EP: 10

2021: Sick For Songs A Season Eats Remixes: 12

2022: VS: 11

Out Here On The Perimeter, Nobody Can Hear You Scream (1:16:22) (KF) (Mega)

The Strangest Days I've Ever Seen

Today's selection is a small selection of artists, songs and albums that I've discovered or rediscovered during 2022, either by diving into my vinyl or CD collection, digital purchases from Bandcamp or via the many wonderful posts from fellow travellers in the blogosphere, listed in the sidebar if you're viewing the web version. A special thanks to Charity Chic Music for introducing me to Blaze Foley and reminding me of the brilliance of I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight by Richard & Linda Thompson.

For the second year running, the rather wonderful 5CD New Age Steppers collection, Stepping Into A New Age 1980-2012, gets a look in. There have been some fabulous CD box set reissues in 2022. My favourites have included Satellite Life, collecting Billy Mackenzie's recordings between 1994 and 1996 on 3 CDs. The Times' run of albums from their first incarnation were represented with a ton of bonus tracks on the 6CD set My Picture Gallery: The Artpop! Recordings. It actually came out in 2021, but I didn't buy it until May this year. Ironically, neither artist features in today's selection.

Researching respective posts got me going back to several artists from my teens, notably The Jesus & Mary Chain, Ramones, Orbital and David Sylvian. David Holmes' new album with Unloved this year also prompted me to belatedly buy the soundtrack to Series 1 and 2 of Killing Eve, which includes a fair few 1960s and 1970s nuggets, including out there husband and wife duo Ramases and Selket (Kimberley and Dorothy to their neighbours).

 

There are a couple of artists from my birthplace, Bristol: Babyhead, who I rediscovered when reminiscing about the annual festival at Ashton Court and Emily Breeze, who I heard for the first time this year and have been a huge fan of ever since.

 

To bring things to a close, The Abyssinians with an unreleased 'extended mix' of a 1982 song, courtesy of the 27 Leggies music blog during the summer after yet another postponed gig. Fingers crossed it's sixth time lucky in 2023, Ernie.

 

Today's photo was taken in the Gloucestershire village of Wotton-under-Edge a couple of weeks ago. It's the tried-and-tested hairdresser/barber shop staple of using a bad pun for a business name, but this one made me smile. I've never visited, so please don't take this bit of free advertising as an endorsement. I've also not eaten at the Indian restaurant with the garish orange frontage a few doors down. Parking's a nightmare, though.

 

More 2022 highlights tomorrow.

 

1) Тютюнник (Tiutiunnyk) (John Peel Session): The Wedding Present (1987)

2) Clay Pigeons: Blaze Foley (1977)

3) Move Ya Loin: Roots Manuva ft. Lotek (2005)

4) Pulling Punches (Album Version): David Sylvian (1984)

5) Call In Sick Today (Album Version): Emily Breeze (2019)

6) Good For My Soul: The Jesus & Mary Chain (1992)

7) Drown: Karen O & Danger Mouse (2019)

8) Chime Crime (Remix): Orbital (1992)

9) Distraction (Radioactive Man Remix By Keith Tenniswood): C.A.R. (2020)

10) Good Voodoo (Gaudi Remix By Daniele Gaudi): Ganga Giri (2011)

11) The Bottle (12 Inch): The Tyrrel Corporation (1992)

12) My Whole World: New Age Steppers (1981)

13) Killing Time: Babyhead (2003)

14) I'm Not Jesus: Ramones (1987)

15) Screw You (Single Version): Ramases & Selket (1970)

16) Withered And Died: Richard & Linda Thompson (1974)

17) Praise Him / Praise Him Dub: The Abyssinians (1982)

 

The Strangest Days I've Ever Seen (1:14:48) (Box) (Mega)

Call In Sick Today: Emily Breeze

When I was young I thought I’d bring the world to its knees
Smoking skunk in the daytime, skim reading Socrates
Please....
Jesus said, I should get out of bed and I replied
Fly me first class to heaven in a neon pink cocktail dress
I don't get up for less

Because these are the strangest days I’ve ever seen
So give me C.B.T and sertraline
As I sashay through the decades on a vast indifferent sea

Lets get high in the cemetery,
Call in sick today
Waste a day with me,
I'm gonna start a cult
And you'll build a time machine
Let's go rob a bank
And go on a killing spree

Because these are the strangest days I’ve ever seen
So give me C.B.T and sertraline
Did you catch my million dollar movie?
It went straight to T.V
But I still believe, I still believe
That it's easy to bury reality
But hard to dispose of your dreams
So I still believe, I still believe
When I was young I thought I'd bring the world to its knees
Call in sick today baby waste a day with me
When I was young I thought I’d bring the world to its knees
And I still believe, I still believe
Call in sick today baby, waste a day with me
Cos I still believe, I still believe.

I Am The Sky, Who Are You?

With a nod to C's comment about New Age Steppers on Thursday, I'd been planning a dub flavoured selection for Sunday anyway and I was consequently nudged towards Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound.

The selection is book-ended by fresh music from this year, both by artists named Andy. The first features the late, great Andy Fairley, who departed in 1999 but whose voice and words were liberally used across On-U Sound releases in the 1990s, not least the incredible System Vertigo album released under his own name in 1992. This is one of two new tracks featured in the latest volume of the Pay It All Back series. The selection closes with Horace Andy, thankfully very much still with us and sounding in incredible form. Midnight Rocker is a highlight of 2022 and companion album Midnight Scorchers, out in mid-September, promises to be the same.

 

Another voice inextricably linked with On-U Sound is Bim Sherman, who pops up on Side Two twice. The first is a classic 10" side from Singers & Players, reworking one of Bim's songs from 1975 to great effect. Later, he features with Dub Syndicate with an alternate vocal version of Forever More, renamed Money Dealers. The original version was on 1984 album Tunes From The Missing Channel. This alternate version was finally made available in 2017 on the compilation Displaced Masters, which I bought as part of the Ambience In Dub 1982-1985 CD boxset. 

 

Speaking of CD boxsets, in 2021 On-U Sound released Stepping Into A New Age 1980-2012, a similarly beautifully packaged collection of New Age Steppers' albums. Problems is a cover of the 1977 song by Horace Andy featured on their 1981 debut Action Battlefield. Ari Up deftly goes from English to German vocals and back again, before the dub half drops like a ton of bricks, demolishing the song then building it back up. 

 

With African Head Charge, I was sorely tempted to draw something from My Life In A Hole In The Ground, their incredible album from 1981. I've gone instead for Voodoo Of The Godsent, released three decades later, Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and Adrian Sherwood's partnership showing no signs of slowing down. 

 

Speaking of partnerships, Lee 'Scratch' Perry & Dub Syndicate were surely a match made in heaven. Time Boom x De Devil Dead remains one of my favourite On-U Sound releases and I've gone here for the (almost) title track, which also supplies the name for today's selection.

 

A bit of a cheat as it appeared on Real World Records (founded by Peter Gabriel) rather than On-U Sound, but I felt I couldn't have an Adrian Sherwood selection without including a song from one his solo albums. Hari Up Hari is song two on Sherwood's 2003 debut, Never Trust A Hippy, and features pioneer of Indian fusion music Hariharan Anantha Subramani. 

 

Little Annie, previously Annie Anxiety, found a spiritual - and literal - home with Adrian Sherwood. According to her On-U Sound biog on Bandcamp, Annie lived in a shed at the bottom of Adrian's garden! Watch The World Go Bye originally featured on 1992's Short And Sweet, her third album and first under the Little Annie moniker. Watch The World Go Bye In Dub appears on the reworked, remixed and resequenced USA-only album, Short, Sweet And Dread, which you can also find on Bandcamp.

 

Rounding out the On-U Sound team is Audio Active, a Japanese experimental dub fusion band, starting as a solo vehicle for singer/songwriter Masa Osada before expanding to a full band in 1991. Sadly no longer active, several of the band's albums were produced by Adrian Sherwood, this track with additional programming support from David Harrow, another mainstay of the On-U Sound collective in the 1990s and continuing to produce his own wonderful electronic dub sounds to this day.

 

I've split today's selection into two vinyl-friendly sides with a full Dubhed Selection to squeeze onto a virtual side of a C90, if you want the whole experience in one go.

 

Side One

1) Your Best Tune: Andy Fairley (2022)

2) Problems (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood) (Cover of Horace Andy): New Age Steppers (1981)

3) Badman Plan (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood): African Head Charge (2011)

4) De Devil Dead (Album Version By Lee 'Scratch' Perry & Adrian Sherwood): Lee 'Scratch' Perry & Dub Syndicate (1987)

5) Hari Up Hari: Adrian Sherwood ft. Hariharan (2003)

Side Two

1) Danger (10" Version By Adrian Sherwood): Singers & Players ft. Bim Sherman (1982)

2) Watch The World Go Bye In Dub (Album Version By David Harrow): Little Annie (1992)

3) Dub In An Abyss (Album Version By Audio Active & Adrian Sherwood): Audio Active ft. David Harrow (1995)

4) Money Dealers (Version By Adrian Sherwood): Dub Syndicate ft. Bim Sherman (1984)

5) Watch Over Them (Album Version By Adrian Sherwood): Horace Andy (2022)

1981: Action Battlefield: A2 

1982: Virgin/Danger EP: B1

1987: Time Boom x De Devil Dead: A4

1994: Short, Sweet And Dread: B2 

1994: Happy Happer: B3

2003: Never Trust A Hippy: A5

2011: Voodoo Of The Godsent: A3

2017: Displaced Masters: Unreleased Versions From The Vault: B4

2022: Midnight Rocker: B5

2022: Pay It All Back Vol. 8: A1

Side One (22:16)

Side Two (22:54)

Full Dubhed Selection (45:06)

He Who Seeks Only Vanity And No Love For Humanity Shall Fade Away

One of my music reissue highlights of 2021 was New Age Steppers career-spanning box set, Stepping Into A New Age 1980-2012. In addition to their three albums from the 1980s and the 2012 reunion, there's an additional album of previously unreleased dubs and outtakes. 

I was only really familiar with their debut self-titled album and follow-up Action Battlefield, both from 1981, so it was a delight to immerse myself in the set as as whole and it's one that I've repeatedly come back to in the past year. The much-missed Ari Up and Bim Sherman add a unique vocal edge, as does Denise Sherwood and the then-teenage Neneh Cherry. Musically it's all underpinned by a red hot line-up variously including Style Scott, Bruce Smith, George Oban, Viv Albertine, Skip McDonald, Nick Coplowe and Doctor Pablo, and (of course) Adrian Sherwood at the controls.

 

You can buy the individual albums on vinyl or digital formats, or the 5-disc box set on vinyl, digital or CD via Bandcamp. Well worth every penny, as today's selection hopefully demonstrates.

Side One

1) Fade Away (Album Version) (1981)

2) I Scream (Rimshot) (1981)

3) 5 Dog Race (1983)

4) Love Forever (1981) 

Side Two

1) Abderhamane's Demise (Album Version) (1981)

2) The Worst Of Me (ft. Denise Sherwood) (2012)

3) Wide World Version (Dub By Adrian Sherwood) (Cover of 'My Whole World' by Bim Sherman) (1981)

4) Vice Of My Enemies (ft. Bim Sherman) (1983)

5) My Love (Album Version) (Cover of The Gaylads) (ft. Neneh Cherry & Bim Sherman) (1981)

 

1981: The New Age Steppers: A1, A4, B1

1981: Action Battlefield: B5

1983: Foundation Steppers: A3, B4

2004: Action Battlefield (Japan-only bonus tracks): B3

2012: Love Forever: B2

2021: Avant Gardening: A2, B3

Side One (21:15)

Side Two (22:01)

Now These Winter Skies Turn Blue And Bright

Again eschewing a 'best of' list, today's selection is a drop in the ocean of artists, songs and albums that I've discovered, found again after a very long gap or just replaced with a CD or digital version during 2021. Most of the 'new' discoveries are thanks to the brilliant blogs that have proved a lifeline for my musical and mental health, some of which are listed to the right. At the time of writing, my favourite reissue this year is the beautiful 5CD New Age Steppers collection, Stepping Into A New Age 1980-2012, followed very closely by the 2CD expanded reissue of The Beloved's Happiness. A belated purchase of SAULT's back catalogue at the same time as this year's 'NINE' has been a gift that keeps on giving. My bank balance hates me but, aurally speaking, it's been an embarrassment of riches this year.

1) We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal (Album Version): The Amorphous Androgynous & Peter Hammill (2020)

2) What It Is (Album Version): Angel Olsen (2019)

3) December Sunlight (Remixed 2020) (Cover of The The): Anna Domino (2020)

4) Men Like You (Album Version): Archive (2002)

5) The Sun Rising (Evening Session Remix): The Beloved (1989)

6) Touch (Album Version By Trevor Morais): Benjamin Zephaniah (2005)

7) Insomniacs Tonight (Extended Mix By Blancmange & Benge): Blancmange (2020)

8) She's A Mystery: Dot Allison ft. Keith Tenniswood (2012)

9) Hi-Fi Gets A Pounding (Pts. 1 & 2): Dub Syndicate (1982)

10) Heartbreak House: Hifi Sean ft. Maggie De Monde (2016)

11) Train Is Coming: Iklan ft. Law Holt (2020)

12) Charles XII Of Sweden (Tamworth Session): Julian Cope & The Teardrop Explodes (1989)

13) Wounded Animal: New Age Steppers (2012)

14) Positive Force Dub (Remix By Prince Fatty): Nostalgia 77 (2014)

15) Homage To A Memory (EKAC Demo): The Porch Song Anthology (2006)

16) J.J.'s: Port Sulphur (2020)

17) Tonight: Prince Fatty ft. Big Youth & Earl Sixteen (2019)

18) Andalucia: Psychemagik (2012)

19) Get Up (Live @ Orlando Arena, Florida, 29-30 April 1989): R.E.M. (1989)

20) Fearless: SAULT (2020)

21) Danger (Edit): Smith & Mighty ft. Kelz & Rudy Lee) (2002)

2002: You All Look The Same To Me: 4

2005: Naked: 6

2011: Songs For A Green World: The Classic 1989 Broadcast: 19

2012: Pioneers 01: 8

2014: Prince Fatty Meets Nostalgia 77 In The Kingdom Of Dub: 14

2016: Ft.: 10 

2016: Spell Of The Trembling Earth (Grande Edition): 15

2017: Ambience In Dub 1982-1985: 9

2017: Psychemagik Archive 2009-2017: 18

2019: In The Viper's Shadow: 17

2020: Album Number 1 Featuring Law Holt: 11

2020: Compendium: 16

2020: Connected Sequences: 21

2020: East And West/North And South (Collaborations 1984-2020) (Deluxe Edition): 3 

2020: Expanded Mindset: 7

2020: Happiness/Wolf Studios 1988-1990 (Special Edition): 5

2020: UNTITLED (Rise): 20

2020: We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal: 1

2021: Cold War Psychedelia: 12

2021: Song Of The Lark And Other Far Memories: 2 

2021: Stepping Into A New Age 1980-2012: 13

 

Now These Winter Skies Turn Blue And Bright (1:31:50)

My Heart, It's Beating Out A Song For You

I've been listening to New Age Steppers again in the last couple of weeks, a phenomenal band with an incredible pool of musicians. This is a particular favourite from second album, 1981's Action Battlefield, featuring Adrian Sherwood at the controls and Neneh Cherry and Bim Sherman on vocals. Neneh was 16 years old when this was recorded.

 

My Love: New Age Steppers (1981)

 

The song was a cover version, written by Harris Lee Seaton aka B.B. Seaton as originally released in 1971 as Can't Hide The Feeling by The Gaylads.

 

Can't Hide The Feeling: The Gaylads (1971)