Happy birthday, Rolo McGinty... or belated happy birthday, as I'm not 100% sure if it falls on the 14th or 15th June. Call myself a fan?!
Well...yes, I do, not least because earlier this year, Rolo gifted the world with a brand new album by The Woodentops, Fruits Of The Deep. Head off to Bandcamp to buy it straight away and later, you can read what I thought of it back in April.
To celebrate in slightly different style, I'm not posting a selection of The Woodentops' many indie classics from the 1980s, as you might reasonably have expected seeing as one of them popped up in yesterday's Indie Top 20 post.
Instead, I'm focusing on Rolo's beat-heavy excursions, taking in The Woodentops from 1990s and the past couple of years, and squeezing in several tracks from his other projects Pluto and Dogs Deluxe, the latter with Rob Miller. There’s also a collaboration with Andres Y Xavi and a remix for Dubversive, featuring Boy George, who also celebrated his birthday yesterday.
Several of the featured tracks have been gifted via Rolo's WebArchive page and remain otherwise unreleased.
I've chopped, sequenced, faded and edited tracks together to deliver an hour-long selection that will have you up, down, up, down...then staying down. Consider it your weekend workout!
Love and respect to Mr. McGinty, I hope the sun shines and all is fine. Have a good one, Rolo.
1) Dream On (Rolo Dub): The Woodentops (2024)
2) Stay Out Of The Light (Midi Mix): The Woodentops (1991)
3) Because Of You (Dub): The Woodentops *
4) Tainted World (Kid Batchelor Rub): The Woodentops vs. Bang The Party (1991)
5) Chainsaw: Ambient Mic **
6) Indian Runner: Pluto (1995)
7) Ambient Filth: Bad Apples ***
8) What Do You See In Me (Max Essa Dub): Andres Y Xavi ft. Rolo McGinty (2022)
9) Smokin' (Original Version): The Woodentops *
10) Police And Thieves (Dog's Deluxe Mix) (Cover of Junior Murvin): Dubversive ft. Boy George (1998)
11) Ride A Cloud (Xavi's Campfire Mix): The Woodentops ft. Kyoko Sato (2023)
12) Ride A Cloud (Rolo's Dub): The Woodentops (2024)
1991: Stay Out Of The Light EP: 2
1991: Tainted World EP: 4
1995: Rising: 6
1998: Police And Thieves EP: 10
2022: What Do You See In Me EP: 8
2023: Ride A Cloud EP: 11
2024: Dream On EP: 1
2024: Ride A Cloud (Rolo's Dub) EP: 12
* Because Of You eventually turned up on The Woodentops' 2014 album Granular Tales. This dub and a vocal version date (I think) from the 1990s. The same goes for Smokin’.
** One of three "Experiments with video game play sounds" available online, date unknown.
*** "A bunch of songs written with Richard Thomas and Konrad Kinard", which Rolo recorded with Richard in Somerset. Date unknown, poss. late 1990s/early 2000s.
Last Sunday's post about The Woodentops and the chasm between the cost of creating music and it's monetary value in a world of instant gratification provoked a lot of visits, interest and reflection.
A week on and I'm surprised and delighted to say that the eagerly anticipated album, Fruits Of The Deep, is suddenly here with us. Since receiving the mailing list announcement on Saturday afternoon, I've only had time for a few looped listens to the album so far but...wow, it's fantastic.
Thirteen songs, fifty three minutes and thirty six seconds, with a bonus fourteenth track taking the album into an hour of varied and wonderful sounds. As Rolo McGinty notes in the album release mailshot,
It is like any album form the Woodentops, a scattershot of different ideas, originality and stretching as much as possible the idea of a rock and roll band, from songs to the cinematic.
The opening quintet of Liquid Thinking, the singles Dream On and Ride A Cloud, then Too Good To Stay and Lately set the tone, indie pop par excellence bathed in the Balearic sunshine. You're hopefully familiar with the two singles by now, so you'll be right to sense that this 5-song set is an incredibly strong opening statement.
The cinematic adjective feels particularly apt when describing Hotel and City Wakes, both feeling like they're excerpts from a film, where things have become somewhat unhinged and unsettling for one of the lead characters. Hotel contains (to paraphrase Rolo) a "sad robot" vocal. City Wakes is an instrumental with deep bass horn from Jeff Miller, and Rolo's nighttime field recordings of trains rattling on tracks at the back of his home and the glass clatter of empties being tipped into the recycling bin at the local pub.
It's worth mentioning at this point that the Bandcamp page for Fruits Of The Deep also includes lyrics and sleeve notes which provide a brief insight into the origins, inspiration and recording of the songs. It's been a decade since The Woodentops' 'comeback' album Granular Tales, though elements of the songs on this album stretch back even further.
I Can Take It was developed and completed following a period where Rolo was studio neighbours with Richard Thomas, though the lyrics scribbled down by a 16 year old Rolo after a
week in jail. The accusation was false and the appeal was a success, but the words capture the period between the two.
Singing as a man
words written as boy [...]
It fed my resilience
You achieved nothing that day
when you put me away
I can take it
The closing song of the album is The Fishermen Leave At Dusk. In the accompanying notes, Rolo writes "I do not think I will ever write anything better than this" and you may be forgiven for thinking, "What? But what about [insert list of classic Woodentops songs here]?!"
But you know what? Rolo knows what he's talking about. He goes on to describe The Fishermen Leave At Dusk as "not a quick pop tune, its a more a movie with the visual content in your imagination" which is far better than anything I can come up with to describe it.
The song reflects on Rolo's long stay trip in the Paradise Beach cabanas in Tangalle, Sri Lanka. There he got to know the locals: the very young people in the lace
works along the shore; a man with a book autographed by Rick Stein, proclaiming his tiny seafood stall offers "the best hot seafood sauce in the world".
This would have been late 2004 as shortly after Rolo left, Indonesia was devastated by an earthquake and consequent tsunami that resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of a million people. Rolo's lyrics reflect on the people he'd met and the horrific though that, if they were going about their business that day, they will not have escaped.
It's a heart-wrenching eight minutes, swirling acoustic strums, found sounds, ringing keyboards and sad sax flowing in and out of the song. It's incredible.
The bonus track is also eight minutes, an instrumental called Bathyscaphe which as the title suggests is inspired by the deep sea submersible ("that magnificent machine") used to explore that alien world within our own world, still full of mystery, uncharted territory and life that evolved, survived and thrived in an environment that we could not without a thick metal shell around us, with oxygen pumped in, carbon dioxide pumped out and pressure regulated to keep us alive.
Bathyscaphe is driven by "drum hits" from Simon Goodchild and split into two sections (or "dives" as described in the notes) with a brief moment of calm separating the two. Rolo does everything else, including "razor blades to get between the wire wind of the strings" and it's an - excuse the pun - immersive experience. Fitting then, that this version is the stereo mix, with a Dolby Atmos total immersion mix of Bathyscaphe coming soon.
All of this as a digital purchase for a tenner. If you hear the album, you'll know that it's worth more.
I'm holding off my purchase for a little bit longer, partly because I don't get paid until the end of the month but also so that I can buy Fruits Of The Deep on Bandcamp Friday (3rd May). I know that this will impact on the album's first week sales performance, but I'd rather that as much of the money I pay gets to the artist as possible.
On which note, there was a helpful reminder on the back of last week's post to avoid using PayPal if you can. Whilst Bandcamp waive their fees on the titular Friday, PayPal do not!
I think I say this every year, but 2024 has been a brilliant year for new music so far and the addition of an album by The Woodentops has just made it so much better.
Earlier this month, The Woodentops released the single, Dream On, another hint at the forthcoming - and eagerly anticipated - album Fruits Of The Deep. Swiss Adam reviewed the single and the accompanying pair of remixes (by Balearic Ultras and mainman Rolo McGinty himself) on Bagging Area this week and he's spot on in describing the music as "full of the promise of spring/summer" and, more succinctly, "lovely stuff".
I didn't get to see The Woodentops on their recent run of live dates (though Adam did and you can read about it here) but I have been overjoyed that they have been releasing new music and, more, have an album's worth of new material to release into the world.
Much as I loved Dream On and it's accompanying remixes, I didn't buy
any of them last Bandcamp Friday. As it happens, I didn't buy anything
last Bandcamp Friday, but more on that later. As I commented on Adam's
post last Thursday,
I’m loving the music, but finding the £3.50 per track price tag a stretch too far for my budget, sadly.
to which Adam replied,
Yep, I know. I winced too.
What I wasn't expecting (and I'm guessing Adam wasn't either) is that Rolo had read the post and followed up on our comments with his own.
Hello Khayem.
its an awkward balance.I think maybe 3 pounds is right?
1 pound is ridiculous. these tracks cost about a grand each to make.
I don't mix from home usually but even if I do its days of full on work ,
People in general are used to listening then, well they've heard it, can return but don't need to buy, or, move to Spotify. How the hell can we make quality recordings if we know its going to earn 100 quid.
Perhaps on this, the price is not right?
I'm finding my way in this now cottage industry . But a dj who plays it on radio or in a club is earning a few hundred or more and a radio show is surviving on the quality of music it plays.
Thanks for your comment, I needed to read that, I was uncertain of the price.
Why don't you drop me a line and I'll send you something.
I know I'm biased. I've loved The Woodentops since I was a teen, and I've admired Rolo's musical ventures with the band, as a solo electronic artist and his collaborations, recently with Andres Y Xavi. But even so, what a considerate and kind response.
I have replied and it's also given me food for thought about my feelings about the value (and devaluing) of music and my role as part of the problem and how I can continue to change my attitiude and approach. In really basic terms, I want the artists whose music I enjoy to be able to continue to create and perform music, but I also want new artists to have a viable way of emerging and being seen and heard.
If you've read this blog previously, you'll have already guessed that whilst I've had a lifelong passion and appreciation for music, I’m very clearly a consumer not a creator.
I’ve never had the talent, the drive, the passion to create music, apart from a brief blip in my teens when I had a secondhand keyboard and my friend Stuart had a guitar and between us, we wrote some terribly po-faced lyrics and tried to make music. The fact that I could barely get beyond the opening riff of Just Can't Get Enough by Depeche Mode probably tells you all you need to know.
Yet there are thousands, millions, of people who do, seemingly in the face of overwhelming odds (and increasingly so) to be able to afford to do so. Actually making a living from music - whether your own or performing someone else's in a covers band - seems to be an impossible dream.
Despite the thousands and thousands of words that I've posted on this blog alone, I don’t have a personal insight or perspective to truly understand the blood, sweat, tears, the time, the hours, the cost that goes into creating and releasing music.
What I try to do is make sure that whatever money I’m privileged and lucky enough to spend benefits the people making it as much as possible. So, these days my spend is predominantly digital (Bandcamp Fridays or artist subscriptions only though) or vinyl (I’m a member of Last Night From Glasgow and also occasionally buy direct from artists) or by going to gigs (which I couldn’t do for years, but I’ve tried to make up for in the last few years, post-lockdown).
As a consumer of music, I recognise that I’m part of the problem. This is nothing new, but it seems more keenly felt these days that I am part of a population that wants - more, feels entitled to - instant gratification, having everything right now and for free or next to nothing.
Rolo's comments about the rough cost of producing each version of Dream On hit home, not least because I suspect that even this will still not be a true reflection of the hours and the other direct and indirect costs.
Also, I have no idea of what the reach of individual artists are. I always hope that there are thousands of people like me that buy music regularly, whether physical and/or digital formats, but the artists themselves will have first hand knowledge of how much - and how long - it will take to break even. And let's face it, breaking even is not a given or take several years. I'm thinking particularly of that obscure remix from 2014 that I've discovered on a Bandcamp Friday and paid £1 for. Is that even helping by that point?
It's also made me think about where I buy and what I'm 'prepared' to pay. I'm lucky enough that I've managed to be employed for pretty much all my working life to date, have a home and a family and can afford to indulge in my passion for music (although Mrs. K could reasonably comment that I spend too much!).
My music buying habits are almost unrecognisable from my teens and 20s, where I used to spend hours in record shops, buying new or secondhand vinyl and CDs, relying on the music press to give me a nod to new music from established and upcoming artists.
These days, it's pretty much all online, but I try to make sure that whatever money I’m fortunate enough to spend benefits the people making it as much as possible. The majority of my music purchases are digital and Bandcamp is the biggest source of these. That said, I only buy on Bandcamp Fridays, where fees are waived and artists get more money. The 'but' is that, acknowledging Rolo's comment above, I've frequently bought 'name your price' tracks or albums at a price that would work out at less than £1 per track.
I’m also in my second year as a subscriber to Last Night From Glasgow, which means that I get a set number of vinyl releases through the year from artists on their label. I also buy digital or physical releases direct from artists' official websites. I've been going to a lot more gigs, though I'm mindful that in terms of bar and merch stall spend, I'm making very little contribution there, neither of which necessarily benefits the artist significantly but will impact on the viability of the venue hosting gigs. In a recent BBC News item, the owner of The Fleece in Bristol acknowledged that tribute bands and club nights on Fridays and Saturdays sell more tickets and generate more bar spend, effectively subsidising the tours and new artists that perform there during the week.
I occasionally use Bandcamp or YouTube to ‘try before I buy’ but I don't use Spotify or other streaming platforms, and I think it's common knowledge how disgraceful their payment model is, which generates an obscene amount of profit for the owners and shareholders and fuck all if you're an independent artist trying to reach out to a wider audience.
James Blake made headlines recently when he announced that he had found a 'solution' to the problem of streaming revenues and has gone into partnership with Vault to launch a new way for fans to access unreleased music and engage directly with him.
Tom Vek is less convinced by this model and said so in The Guardian, though he has created his own solution - Supercollector - to add to the mix.
I follow Trevor Jackson on Twitter and saw that he added to the conversation, with some interesting responses.
Trevor also commented on Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin aka user18081971's act of making unreleased music available for free download via Soundcloud. He got quite a strong response to those comments, not least from RDJ fans but also those who pointed out previous acts by U2 and Radiohead, the latter 'pay what you want' model being adopted by Bandcamp.
Although I mentioned earlier that I only shop on Bandcamp Fridays, I also acknowledged that whilst I've never paid zero for 'name your price' music, the purchase price for a song or album has worked out at less than £1 per track. That's on me for thinking more about the end product, i.e. a digital copy as opposed to a tangible vinyl or CD copy that I can hold in my hand, without thinking enough about the cost of getting the music there in the first place.
There are exceptions: I subscribe to a couple of artists via Bandcamp which means that they receive a set amount of money from me every month and I get digital copies of new music when they release it. As it also includes access to the artists' full digital discography, then I think it's fair to say that the subscriber gets way over and above in terms of value for money.
In a similar vein to Rolo's comments, I follow the music of Catherine Anne Davies aka The Anchoress. Whilst I haven't taken the leap with her (or anyone, for that matter) and supported her via Patreon, I've been quite comfortable with paying the £2 per track for the run of cover versions that she's released over the past couple of years. When 10 of these were subsequently collected and (re)released as the brilliant Versions album in physical and digital formats, I didn't feel 'ripped off' because I'd effectively paid £20 for a collection of songs that were now retailing for half that for a digital copy. I thought instead that each month, I made a small contribution to Catherine's cash flow, that hopefully meant that she could pay bills, eat food, care for her family and make music.
I was mortified to think that Rolo may have read my comment about the Dream On single and thought I was saying that the music is overpriced or not worth it. I know in the past I have commented on the pricing of digital music.
On this occasion, I just couldn’t afford £10.50 for 3 songs and ending up buying nothing at all last Bandcamp Friday as I didn’t have any ‘spare’ money.
Much as I’d love to buy Dream On straight away, in reality I may get one or both remixes next month, and then the album the month after that (or later, depending on the release date). And that's okay.
I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, the latter a great time to be a teen, a music lover and a record collector, not least for discovering The Woodentops.
I lived through the Thatcher government, the bedding in of the 'greed is good' culture and the lack of empathy and compassion for others. You don't need me to tell you that in 2024 it feels like nothing’s changed. The internet has opened up the world for artists to reach a potential global audience in ways that were unimaginable 40-50 years ago, but it has also been a contributor to reducing the value of music.
Rolo asked in his reply, Perhaps on this, the price is not right?
It costs more than £3.00 or £3.50 to get a bog standard cup of coffee from a high street chain these days. I get so much more from a song, a remix, an album that I think it’s worth it. It may mean that I have to wait longer to buy in many cases, but pre-ordering or adding music to a shopping list to buy when I can
afford to is okay. If anything, it’s a reminder of that teenage me,
saving money from my Saturday or holiday jobs so I could go into town to
buy some vinyl.
Simply put some things are worth waiting - and saving up - for.
I realise that my financial contribution to enabling
people to make music and sharing it is relatively small and thinly spread. But it's right that I'm constantly reflecting on what and how my spend goes to best benefit artists trying to reconcile creativity and cashflow. It will be a sorry world if
that the capacity for music to thrive and survive diminishes further.
Thanks for bearing with me, this was a marathon compared to my usual blog sprints but something I felt that I had to express as best I could. I've just let the words flow and haven't gone back to edit this post, so my apologies also for typos, repetition or just plain nonsense at times!
I'm going to end as I began with The Woodentops and Ride A Cloud, their marvellous single from last year. It too is available on Bandcamp with a trio of wonderful remixes. And I've just discovered whilst writing this post that they have also made a brilliant video.
Side 2 of a mixtape labelled "The Best Of Trance Europe Express" and compiled sometime in 1998.
Trance Europe Express was an off-shoot of the Volume book/magazine/CD series, with five 2CD volumes between 1993 and 1997, totalling 120 tracks, many of which were exclusive to the
series.
As I said in my original post in June 2022, the mixtape is intentionally misleading, The quality
throughout the five volumes remained of a such a high standard that calling this
13-track cassette a "best of" was a bit tongue-in-cheek. It's a good primer though, especially as you can track them down for a few quid these days. The book and the slipcase may be a bit battered but the quality of the music within will be intact.
Alaska was initially a duo of Laurent Garnier and Nic Britton, later music solely credited to Garnier and released on his own F Communications label. Unreleased Project 1 appeared on Alaska's Deuxième EP around the same time as Trance Europe Express 4. The EP version is eleven and a half minutes long, a couple shaved off for this exclusive TEE edit.
Pluto was another non de plume, this time for Rolo McGinty, better known for his work with The Woodentops. On this 1994 track, Rolo is joined by Leslie 'Bullet' Lawrence and Steve 'Dub' Jones. Rockefeller appeared (misspelt as Rockerfeller) the following year on Pluto's debut album, Rising.
Barbarik by William Orbit is another TEE-exclusive but containing all of the bleeps, tinkles, beats and spoken word sections that he'd made his stock in trade from Water On A Vine Leaf through to megastardom, producing Ray Of Light with Madonna. I love it.
Outcast (not OutKast) were Beaumont Hannant and Richard Brown. The former came to my attention via his superb remixes for Ned's Atomic Dustbin and his solo Tastes And Textures EPs. Whereas that music's closest and laziest comparison was trip-hop, Peach Taxi featured here is a much more housey affair.
Speaking of which, Glasgow legends Slam bring the house down with the mighty Soul Power. It's a testament to how much good music they were producing in the 1990s that this track would be a standalone TEE exclusive when other artists would have placed this firmly on a 12" A-side or album. The flow of new music has not slowed in recent years with Orde Meikle and Stuart McMillan still producing the goods, as June's Activate EP ably demonstrated.
Jörn Elling Wuttke and Roman Flügel formed Alter Ego in 1992, continuing with some success until a final album in 2007, with a posthumous remix album the following year and the release of a lost album in 2012. Sex And Gender is an exclusive track from their early(ish) period and a bridge between their first two albums.
Closing the compilation and bringing things full circle to the first volume of Trance Europe Express is the fittingly-named Trance Induction aka Tjeerd Verbeek. According to t'internet, these days Tjeerd is a biohacker and professional tai chi teacher, which seems a far cry from the urgent, pulsating N which seems purpose-built for a substance-enhanced club experience.
Not your typical Sunday morning fare, but maybe this will transform your weekend chores and get the neighbours worked up. You know it makes sense!
1) Unreleased Project 1 (Trance Europe Express Edit By Laurent Garnier): Alaska (1995)
2) Rockefeller (Album Version): Pluto (1994)
3) Barbarik: William Orbit (1995)
4) Peach Taxi: Outcast (1997)
5) Soul Power: Slam (1997)
6) Sex And Gender: Alter Ego (1995)
7) N (Trance Europe Express Edit By Tjeerd Verbeek): Trance Induction (1993)
My introduction to the magnificence that is The Woodentops' Why Why Why was pretty innocuous.
I bought the double pack 7" single of Everyday Living on the strength of the title track and having the 12" mixes of Move Me and Well Well Well on the bonus vinyl. Rounding out the package on Side 2 was a track, singularly titled Why, which I'd never heard before.
Both the 7" A- and B-sides were remixed by the band with Adrian Sherwood. Both were good songs, the latter a fairly sedate chugger with crashing percussion but no hint of it's subsequent future as a Balearic classic.
I've never been to Ibiza so I missed the opportunity to hear the song played out there. However, the first inkling I had that Why Why Why was so much more than a B-side was hearing 1987's Live Hypnobeat Live album. Here, the acoustic strum and Rolo McGinty's insistent vocals come to the fore, creating an uptempo rhythm that drummer Benny Staples follows. Staples was a co-writer, along with Rolo and guitarist Simon Mawby, and it's a fascinating example of how the song evolved from it's studio origins to those exploratory live performances.
The video heading this post is from a later live performance at the Dominion Theatre in London circa 1988. It stretches Why Why Why out even further to over seven minutes but not a second is extraneous. Makes me wish I'd been there back in the day, it ust have been an incredible experience.
I've included three other versions of Why Why Why, starting with Adrian Sherwood's extended mix from the 12" single, just under eight minutes of On-U goodness.
Next up is the Balearic Re-Edit by Tony Johns & Dave Boreham, which appears to date from 1988 but I'm not sure if it had a release prior to it's appearance on the (excellent) Before During After compilation in 2013. Still sounds pretty fresh to these aging ears in 2023.
Last up and a first time discovery when putting this post together is A WTF Acid Dub Remix, one of eight commissioned by and released on Wall Of Sound in 2016. Despite the obvious interpretation, WTF is in fact an acronym for the remixers, Dan Wainwright and Trevor Fung. Trevor is a legendary DJ and key player in the Balearic movement of the late 1980s, whilst Dan has been a regular on this site for his glorious 21st century take on psychedelic electronica. The pair strip the song - and tempo - right back, with Rolo's vocal pared down to a titular chant and "are you ready now?".
Admittedly, none of the remixes can match the live performances but it's wonderful to see Why Why Why - and The Woodentops - continue to inspire three decades later.
The next few days will be highlighting some of my favourites from 2022, beginning with a selection of great remixes from the mass of singles that I've purchased (mainly on Bandcamp Friday) this year.
Albums by Mattiel, A Mountain Of One and Warmduscher have come recommended and appear in other 2022 countdowns in the blogosphere. I bought a lot of albums (mostly digital) this year but these are all still on my shopping list.
Continuing the 80s indie flavour, Andres Y Xavi make an appearance for the second year running with another track/remix featuring The Woodentops' Rolo McGinty. In a delightful and unexpected move, BMX Bandits' 2017 song Razorblades & Honey, co-written by Duglas T. Stewart and Anton Newcombe, was remixed by founder member, former Soup Dragon and DJ/producer par excellence Sean Dickson aka HiFi Sean. It's even better than you'd imagine it could be.
Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell are back as Jezebell (I warned you on Christmas Eve), breaking my own rule for this selection by appearing twice. In my defence, one is a remix of another artist (Ian Vale) and the other is a remix of one of their own songs by, er, themselves. Oh, why should I justify myself? They're both excellent!
In addition to an excellent album and clutch of singles with Unloved, David Holmes released the stunning single It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love featuring Raven Violet on Valentines Day this year, with a stunning remix package following at the end of March. Hard to pick a favourite to be honest, but Sean Johnston's brace of remixes won out.
Likewise, Richard Norris' pair of remixes of Sundowning by Mark Peters featuring Dot Allison released in late October are jaw droppingly beautiful. I've ditched the beats and gone for the ambient version to close this selection.
All of these are available digitally, some on physical formats, via Bandcamp and other retailers. All highly recommended.
More 2022 highlights tomorrow.
1) Subterranean Dub (Raf Rundell's Salty Man Dub): Mattiel
2) You Feed Me (Rude Audio Remix): Field Of Dreams
3) What Do You See In Me (Xavi Dub 2) (Remix By Steve Ellis): Andres Y Xavi ft. Rolo McGinty
4) Star (Yo Miro Remix): A Mountain Of One
5) Red Shift (Bedford Falls Players Remix): MAN2.0
6) Dimension Z (Pete Bones Remix): TR20
7) Razorblades & Honey (HiFi Sean Extended Revision): BMX Bandits ft. Anton Newcombe
8) Loft Music (Jezebell's DC Metro Mix): Ian Vale
9) It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love (Hardway Bros Live At The SSL Dub): David Holmes ft. Raven Violet
10) Wavygravy (GLOK Remix): Flyying Colours
11) Dancing (Not Fighting) (The Drop Acid Not Bombs Mix): Jezebell
12) Famous (The Reflex Re√ision): Parcels
13) Fatso (Joe Goddard Remix): Warmduscher
14) Sundowning (Richard Norris Ambient Remix): Mark Peters ft. Dot Allison
The Further You Fall, The Higher You Fly (1:27:08) (Box) (Mega)
More beat-laden beauties to banish your mid-week blues, three quarters of an hour (give or take a minute) of music from the 2020s to enhance your day.
I was encouraged to check out the Rough Diamond EP by TR20 aka Joshua Tobin and Jack Rutherford after they contributed to Hyena Hopscotch Remixes by Pete Bones & The Stones Of Convention. Pete returns the favour on the EP, as do Bedford Falls Players on the title track. The original version ofRough Diamond is described as an "ALFOS aligned chugger" and they're not wrong.
Yes Father are also a duo - Dino Lenny and Francesco Farfa - and I originally picked up Everything You Say last year via Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Remix. I went back this summer to get their own remix of the track, described as "modern dance music meets new wave disco jam that’s upbeat without compromising style". A banger, in other words.
I've dipped into Versions: Remixed by Archive, which is packed with goodies by Andy Bell/GLOK and Richard Norris. Lights was originally the eighteen and a half minute title track from their 2006 album, recreated as a seven minute opener for Archive's 2020 Versions album and remixed here by Darkstar aka Aiden Whalley and James Young as a three and a half minute ambient interlude, dovetailing nicely into...
...Jezebell's dub reimagining of Elle Et Moi by Max Berlin's as Jezebelle Et Moi. I'm a big fan of this track and I think I have now featured all but one of the four versions on this blog. Jezebell aka Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell have pulled out all the stops, delivering so many great new songs and remixes in recent months that it;s easy to forget that Jezebelle Et Moi came out in 2022. All highly recommended.
Walking In The Sun by Andres Y Xavi(Glenn Fallows and Steve Ellis to their family and friends) is another track that's featured here multiple times in various versions since the remix EP was released last April. Alongside remixes from Coyote and James Bright, there are are a couple of remixes by Xavi/Steve, including this lovely sunset dub.
From there, Sydney Minsky-Sargeant of Working Men's Club teams up with Russ Orton (ex-Fat Truckers) as Minsky Rock to take on Baxter Dury. Say Nothing is grabbed by the lapels and dragged back to the 1980s, this vocal-free version described by Dury as taking "the basic cells of a sleepy spoken word number and [turning] it into a bastard 80s electro animal". An apt description.
Sticking with the 1980s and Rude Boy's cover of M|A|R|R|S 1987 one-off single and global smash hit. Rude Boy is Lee Groves and Kardi Tivali, with Pump Up The Volume remixed by Robo Bass Hifi aka Markus Kamma as a dub-inflected electro chugger.
Rounding things off is the mysterious (to me, at least) From Beyond with Simulated Emotions, released on the excellent Paisley Dark Records in August 2021. The EP includes a braces of remixes by Bedford Falls Players (him again) and label boss John Paynter, delivering "A Space Age Freak Out Dark Paisley" version. I've gone for the original version of the title track, a low-BPM thing of beauty, all pulsing beats, bouncing keys and synth washes.
Just over forty five minutes later and you have arrived at your destination. I hope you enjoyed the ride.
1) Rough Diamond (Original Version): TR20 (2022)
2) Everything You Say (Dino Lenny & Francesco Farfa Mix): Yes Father (2020)
3) Lights (Darkstar Remix): Archive ft. Pollard Berrier (2020)
4) Jezebelle Et Moi (Le Dub Et Moi) (Cover of Max Berlin's): Jezebell (2022)
5) Walking In The Sun (Xavi's Dub): Andres Y Xavi ft. Rolo McGinty (2021)
6) Say Nothing (Minsky Rock Remix - Instrumental): Baxter Dury (2020)
7) Pump Up The Volume (Robo Bass Hifi Remix) (Cover of M|A|R|R|S): Rude Boy ft. Kardi Tivali (2021)
8) Simulated Emotions (Single Version): From Beyond (2021)
