This Film's Crap

How can it be that David Holmes' debut album is over 30 years old?!

This Film's Crap Let's Slash The Seats managed two weeks in the UK album charts in July 1995, peaking in its first week at #51. That said, not bad for a largely instrumental album, soundtracking imaginary movies that you may think twice before watching anyway.

The singles were no less uncompromising: Minus 61 In Detroit coming in at over nine minutes and album opener No Mans Land pushing the envelope even further, twelve minutes and forty five seconds of nerve tapping twitchiness.

Like Johnny Favourite, the non-album single that preceded them, neither single managed to break out of the Top 80 in their 1-2 week stay in the charts.

Record label Go! Beat played what I guess they thought was their trump card by following up with a third and final single the following April, with Gone. Another lengthy album track at just over eight minutes, Gone at least got a radio edit for the single release, although whether it could be described as 'radio friendly' is another matter.

Propelled by bass, guitar (courtesy of Keith Tenniswood) and a shuffling percussion, the key selling point is the guest vocal from Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne.

The lyrics are confined to a mere eighteen words

I'm gonna hide

She don't even know

I'm gonna run away

And you can never go on anymore

And you can never go on anymore

...although I'd always heard that final refrain as 

And you can never go home anymore

...which I prefer, but what do I know?

Gone fared slightly better than the previous three singles, although by 'better' I mean that it managed a single week in the chart at #75. 

Not that David appeared bothered in the least. Six months later, he was back with My Mate Paul, his first Top 40 hit, and a second album (Let's Get Killed) the following year, which did the same. And then he got properly into soundtracks, which was a game changer.

This Film's Crap Let's Slash The Seats is the David Holmes album I revisit the least, not because it's not much good but more that I need to be in a certain mood/frame of mind to listen to it. 

At the weekend, to mark a re-release of the album for Record Store Day, a video (and radio edit!) emerged of the kind-of-title-track Slash The Seats.

As a reminder of David's first album, and Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns' first major (co)production project following the part of The Sabres Of Paradise, it's an astonishing piece of music that still hits hard, three decades on.

Tell Me A Thousand Times

Happy, happy, happy birthday to Sarah Cracknell, born 12th April 1967.

Chanteuse, songwriter, mother, wife and all round fabulous person, today's selection celebrates Sarah's 58th with 58 minutes of Sarah singing. What could be better than that?

It's mostly Saint Etienne, with a couple of songs from Sarah's solo catalogue and collaborations with David Holmes and Mark Brown. 

There are also mixes from Masters At Work, Kid Loco, Richard X, Two Lone Swordsmen aka Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood, as well as Andrew's former compadres in The Sabres Of Paradise, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns. All very different styles and approaches, though Sarah's voice shines through.

Here's to you, Sarah, hiope you have a good one.

1) Aussie Soap Girl: Sarah Cracknell (1997)

2) Method Of Modern Love (Radio Edit By Richard X & Pete Hofmann): Saint Etienne (2009)

3) Nothing Can Stop Us (Masters At Work Dub) (Remix By Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez & 'Little' Louie Vega): Saint Etienne (1992)

4) Goodnight Jack: Saint Etienne (1998)

5) Message In A Bottle: Saint Etienne (1995)

6) Stop And Think It Over (Kid Loco Mix): Saint Etienne (2002)

7) Penlop (Album Version By Pete Wiggs): Saint Etienne (2021)

8) Some Place Else: Saint Etienne (1992)

9) Gone (Edit By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): David Holmes ft. Sarah Cracknell (1995)

10) I Threw It All Away: Saint Etienne (2012)

11) Sleepytown: Sarah Cracknell (2015)

12) Like A Motorway (Japanese Version): Saint Etienne (1994)

13) The Journey Continues (Vocal Radio Edit): Mark Brown ft. Sarah Cracknell (2007)

14) Andersen Unbound: Saint Etienne (2002)

15) Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) (Two Lone Swordsmen Mix By Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood): Saint Etienne (2000)

1992: Avenue EP: 8

1992: Nothing Can Stop Us EP: 3

1995: Gone EP: 9

1995: Xmas 95 EP: 5

1997: Goldie EP: 1

1998: Good Humor: 4

2000: Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) EP: 15

2002: Action EP: 14

2007: The Journey Continues EP: 13

2009: Method Of Modern Love EP: 2

2009: Now 4 EP: 12

2010: Finisterre (Deluxe Edition) (2x CD): 6

2012: Words And Music By Saint Etienne: 10

2015: Take The Silver EP: 11

2021: I've Been Trying To Tell You: 7

Tell Me A Thousand Times (58:22) (KF) (Mega)

If that's left you hungry for more Sarah, I've resurrected my 1997 Saint Etienne C90 side which I posted last year. You can find it here.

Hep Hop Excursion

Side 2 of an arguably more 'chiller' than 'chill out' compilation tape, recorded circa July to September 1996.

 

This selection is weighted towards acts from or based in my birthplace Bristol - Massive Attack, Tricky, Carlton, Earthling - and recorded following (and possibly as a reaction to) the proliferation of trip hop compilations in 1994/1995. The term trip hop was apparently coined by Andy Pemberton in June 1994 and first appeared in Mixmag when he reviewed DJ Shadow & RPM's single In/Flux. However, it also became seemingly inextricably linked with "The Bristol Sound", even though many of the tagged artists either had already or would soon transcend such a label.  

 

Renegade Soundwave deliver a suitably spine-tingling take on Pop Will Eat Itself's Underbelly. I remember hearing this over the Virgin Megastore PA when PWEI's remix album Two Fingers My Friends! was released and it was enough for me to shell out for the limited edition 2CD there and then. 

 

Another album I bought on spec, having read about but not heard, was ISDN by The Future Sound Of London although I knew exactly what I was letting myself in for. ISDN is a 15-track album edited together from various live broadcasts that FSOL had transmitted during 1994 to radio stations all over the world using ISDN networking, then a relatively new technology. 

 

Hot Knives featured on the initial limited edition (of 10,000) "cruciform velcro-sealed embossed card case with separate card sleeve". What the Discogs description doesn't mention is that visually ISDN is also a dead ringer for Spinal Tap's Smell The Glove (or original motion picture soundtrack album, if you're a pedant). ISDN was reissued six months later with a more conventional sleeve design and jewel case and a slightly different tracklisting, swapping out three tracks from the original issue, including Hot Knives.

Scorn was formed in 1991 by Mick Harris and Nik Bullen, both ex-Napalm Death and quite far removed from the music of their former band. I only have two CDs by Scorn, the Deliverance EP and Ellipsis. Both are remix projects so possibly unrepresentative of Scorn’s output as a whole, but sphincter-troubling electronic music all the same. By the time of Ellipsis, Scorn had become a solo vehicle for Mick Harris, the album mostly remixing tracks from their last album as a duo, 1994's Evanescence. I have no idea what the original version of Night Tide sounds like but here Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud rebuilds the track around his trademark use of mobile phone and police radio scanners to disturbing effect.

Finally, an honourable mention for several of my favourite chanteuses, all featured here with standout tracks: Martina Topley-Bird, Róisín Murphy, Sarah Cracknell and Tracey Thorn.

 

If you're feeling the heat again today - a peak of 33°C is expected in my neck of the woods - then stick this on for 45 minutes and you may start to experience shivering and goosebumps, which may help.

1) Underbelly (Renegade Soundwave Blackout Mix): Pop Will Eat Itself (1995)

2) Aftermath (Version 1): Tricky ft. Martina Topley-Bird (1994)

3) 1 To 1 Religion (Skankapella Remix By Dobie): Bomb The Bass ft. Carlton (1994)

4) Dominoid (Radio Mix): Moloko (1996)

5) Hot Knives (Live ISDN Transmission, VPRO Radio, Netherlands): The Future Sound Of London (1994)

6) Night Tide (Scanner - "Flaneur Electronique" Mix): Scorn (1995)

7) Gone (Alter Ego Decoding Gone, Pt. 2): David Holmes ft. Sarah Cracknell (1995)

8) Protection (7" Edit): Massive Attack ft. Tracey Thorn (1994)

9) Nefisa (Faraway Moses) (Remix By Plunderphonics): Earthling (1995)

1994: 1 To 1 Religion EP: 3

1994: Aftermath EP: 2

1994: ISDN (limited edition first issue): 5 

1994: Protection EP: 8

1995: Ellipsis: 6 

1995: Gone EP: 7 

1995: Nefisa EP: 9

1995: Two Fingers My Friends!: 1

1996: Dominoid EP: 4

Side Two (45:13) (KF) (Mega)

Trying To Make Sense Of My Life

Sometimes Saint Etienne say it all in a song title.

It was still light at 4.35 this morning and hotter indoors than out. I'm working from home today and already longing for bed and a decent night's sleep.

 

Carnt Sleep (Foxbase Alpha Version): Saint Etienne (1991)

Carnt Sleep (Foxbase Beta Version): Saint Etienne (2009)

4.35 In The Morning (Talkin' Blues Mix By Kid Loco): Saint Etienne (1998)

It's The Why, It's The Where And The When We're United

The long overdue return of an Andrew Weatherall remix selection to this blog, with a half-dozen lengthy reworkings, firmly rooted in the 1990s.

First up, the original version of Smokebelch II, which spawned - and continues to inspire - numerous versions and remixes. Still sounding beautiful and epic, three decades on. 

Andrew Weatherall's relationship with Primal Scream was such that it was an expectation  that he would in some way, shape or form be involved with each new release, whether as producer and/or remixer. I remember the thrill of getting the promo 12" of Stuka, the two mixes a highlight of the Vanishing Point era.

United was originally recorded by Throbbing Gristle in 1978, although I don't think I heard it until the 1990s, via a UK re-release of the 1981 US compilation, Throbbing Gristle's Greatest Hits: Entertainment Through Pain. In 1994, I came across an untitled remix credited to PT001 on The Sabres Of Paradise compilation, Septic Cuts. In 1995, Psychic TV released Sirens, containing 4 Weatherall remixes of the song, re-titled Re-United. Today's post title is lifted from the original Throbbing Gristle song, although ironically that line is cut from the two-part vocal remix included in this selection.

Gone saw Andrew Weatherall repaying a favour to David Holmes, who had remixed Smokebelch II to stunning effect a couple of years previously. Although credited as featuring Sarah Cracknell from Saint Etienne, you'll be hard pressed to find any trace of her in this beat-heavy minimalist mix.

It took me a long time to get hold of the Two Lone Swordsmen remix of Come Together but it was worth the time and effort. A dizzying, discordant trip way south of Spiritualized's original for nearly sixteen minutes, it's easily one of the best things that Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood produced in their time together.

 

As if that wasn't epic enough, the remix of Jam J that The Sabres Of Paradise originally delivered to James ran to thirty three and and a half minutes. The mix was released split into two sides of a vinyl 12" or in it's full, unedited glory as a single CD. I got the latter. The labeling of the mix described four distinct phases and you get the third phase here, the majestic Sabresonic Tremelo Dub, with off-kilter, shuffling rhythms, washes of squalling guitar and melancholic synth lines that, together, really hit the spot.

 

I've not attempted any ham-fisted mixing, beat matching or re-editing here; you get six sequenced songs in a CD-R friendly track list to listen to. Andrew Weatherall would have undoubtedly have spun this selection off into a completely new shape, but I think they're all pretty wonderful in their own right too.

 

1) Smokebelch II (Entry) (Remix By Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): The Sabres Of Paradise (1993)

2) Stuka (Two Lone Swordsmen Mix #1) (Remix By Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood): Primal Scream (1997)

3) Re-United (Mix 4 By Andrew Weatherall): Psychic TV (1994)

4) Gone (First Night Without Charge) (Remix By Two Lone Swordsmen): David Holmes ft. Sarah Cracknell (1995)

5) Come Together (The Two Lone Swordsmen Mix): Spiritualized (1998)

6) Jam J (Phase 3: Sabresonic Tremelo Dub): James vs. The Sabres Of Paradise (1994)

 

It's The Why, It's The Where And The When We're United (1:09:31)

Joy Is The Ploy

The second of three David Holmes mix CDs that I compiled for my friend Dave on 13th March 2005. I previously posted volume three in December 2021 and according to the stats, it's proved to be a popular Dubhed selection, hopefully with human beings as well as blogbots.

 

This one spans David Holmes' career from his first solo single in 1994 to his full band excursions with The Free Association, taking in a slew of remixes along the way. Johnny Favourite, here in it's downtempo, ambient B-side version, is a prime contender for The Vinyl Villain's It Really Was A Cracking Debut Single series. I remember buying the 12" single at Way Ahead in Derby, getting it home and putting it on my turntable, placing the needle in the groove and...being transported. Both versions are essential listening, in my opinion.

There are a couple of rarer Holmes songs here. Jackson Johnson originally appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Bow Down To The Exit Sign in 2000. I picked it up in the UK the following year on the excellent London Xpress compilation. In 2010, it became more readily available on the 'best of' collection, The Dogs Are Parading.

A little harder to find is Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1 which (I think) is only available on 1996 compilation, The Science Behind The Circle, itself highly recommended as it features additional tracks from Andrew Weatherall, Carl Cox, Secret Knowledge, The Aloof and Ashley Beedle, to name a few. Both Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1 and Jackson Johnson are an indication of Holmes' prodigious output and the quality of his music that these didn't even make it onto official singles or albums. 

Delakota's version of Don't Die Just Yet takes the form of a short narrative about a toxic couple in the Australian wilderness and was a 'remix swap', Holmes repaying the favour with an excellent rework of their track I Thought I Caught, which appeared on volume three of my mix CDs. 

 

I can never quite decide if I like the Manic Street Preachers remix; I invariably decide that I do. The mix CD's title is taken from a second remix of You Stole The Sun From My Heart that Holmes did. It appeared on a promo 12" in the UK and a promo Remixes CD in the USA and I've never heard it.

The remix of Dawn Of The Replicants' Skullcrusher is a particular favourite, as is Gone featuring Sarah Cracknell, which came in a package of really strong remixes with Alter Ego's second take a standout. 

Closing track, the Children Re-Mix of Everbody Knows was the opener of The Free Association selection I posted in June 2021 and works well whether it starts or ends a selection.

 

1) Johnny Favourite (Exploding Plastic Ambience Mix By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): David Holmes (1994)

2) Sugarman (VV Featuring Chilly Gonzales Remix): The Free Association (2003)

3) 69 Police (Skylab Remix By Matt Ducasse & Duncan Forbes): David Holmes ft. Sean Gullette (2000)

4) Jackson Johnson: David Holmes (2000)

5) Die Laughing (David Holmes Mix 2 By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Therapy? (1994)

6) Swastika Eyes (David Holmes Mix) (Full Length): Primal Scream (1999)

7) Don't Die Just Yet (Delakota Mix By Cass Browne & Morgan Nicholls): David Holmes (1997)

8) Skullcrusher (David Holmes & Tim Goldsworthy Remix): Dawn Of The Replicants (1998)

9) Gone (Alter Ego Decoding Gone, Pt. 2) (Remix By Jörn Elling Wuttke & Roman Flügel): David Holmes ft. Sarah Cracknell (1995)

10) You Stole The Sun From My Heart (David Holmes' A Joyful Racket Remix): Manic Street Preachers (1998)

11) Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1: David Holmes (1996)

12) Everybody Knows (Children Re-Mix By Stephen Hilton & Pati Yang): The Free Association (2003)

Joy Is The Ploy (1:19:10)