Every Single Tiny Little Imperfection Has A Beauty To Behold

What better way to kick off the first Saturday selection of 2026 than with 77 minutes of Fluke?

Hands down one of my favourite artists of all time, Fluke's comeback in 2024 was a triumph and I can't wait to see/hear what comes next.

In the meantime - and for the first time - I've pulled together a selection of a dozen tunes that draws on their rich back catalogue. I don't go all the way back to the first Fluke releases in 1988; the earliest song here is from a John Peel session transmitted on 26th January 1992. However, the selection does bounce around a lot, much like their beats.

Most of the picks are Fluke's remixes of their own songs but I have included a few remixes of other artists, namely Juno Reactor, Soft Ballet and Sensation (formerly Soul Family Sensation). 

I've also included a remix of Real Magnificent by Justin Credible, who had created and posted top notch unofficial remixes via YouTube for years, until Fluke gave him the nod in 2024 and made it official.

Resolutely unofficial is the closing song, a version of Insanely Beautiful by yours truly. There's no skill or artifice in this particular mash-up. I was curious to hear Jon Fugler duet with Leah Cleaver so I literally laid the original single version and Leah's Mix together. It's a busy mix, but I love it.

2026 will hopefully see more from Fluke. I dare to dream that it will be a full album, and some live shows including Bristol or Bath would be, well, insanely beautiful.

For now though, I'm going to spend the weekend with Fluke on constant rotation and turned up loud. Everyone needs some beauty to behold.

1) Bullet (Percussion Cap) (1995)

2) I Wanna Be (All Buttons In) (2025)

3) Amp (Geographic Long Mix) (1997)

4) The Allotment Of Blighty (John Peel Session) (1992)

5) Pistolero (Fluke "Hang 'Em High" Remix): Juno Reactor ft. Mercedes Luque, Taz Alexander & Steve Stevens (1999)

6) Absurd (Whitewash) (1997)

7) Real Magnificent (JC Remix By Justin Credible ft. Leah Cleaver) (2024)

8) Spindle (The Fluke Remix): Soft Ballet (1994)

9) Atom Bomb (Atomix 1) (1996)

10) Beautiful Morning (Fluke's Magimix): Sensation (1993)

11) Setback ('Oto' Album Version) (1995)

12) Insanely Beautiful (Khayem's Double Take Mash-Up ft. Leah Cleaver) (2025)

A Beauty To Behold (1:17:20) (GD) (M)

For your further Fluke fulfilment, I've reactivated links to the couple of mixtapes that I compiled in 1997:

Fluke (Singles) Side One and Side Two

Fluke (Mixes) Side One and Side Two

How Are You Feeling? It's A Beautiful Morning!

Keeping with yesterday's uplifting vibes, today's selection is a clutch of songs (mostly) from the early 1990s, packed into an open top car and taken on a remix road trip. Feel the sunshine.

Any such compilation and Andrew Weatherall is almost certain to be found. Here he, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns pop up twice as Sabres Of Paradise. First up is their masterful collaboration with One Dove on Transient Truth, seven minutes of sonic sweetness underpinning Dot Allison's voice. 

Secondly, all double bass funk and squelchy synths, is Red Snapper's classic Hot Flush from 1995. The music couldn't be more different from One Dove, yet Andrew, Jagz and Gary lend both an emotional heft that just can't be described in words. Well, not be me, anyway. This track originally featured on the EP of the same name, collected the same year on the Reeled And Skinned compilation which is an essential introduction to Red Snapper.

Either side of these tracks are a couple of groovy numbers. In reverse order, Fortran 5 are rinsed good and proper by Alex Paterson and Kris 'Thrash' Weston of The Orb. I loved the original album version but The Herbal Supper Mix is a feast of heavy bass, SFX and samples ("one spliff a day keeps the evil away") with Shola Phillips' sweet vocals weaving through. 

Fluke serve up Groovy Feeling, the 1993 single offering half a dozen remixes all named after ice cream varieties. The version here retains the vocal licks and bubbling beats that characterise the Fluke sound.

They pop up again later in the selection with a sublime remix of Beautiful Morning by Sensation, one of my favourites of theirs. The original song was a lovely indie-pop number but Fluke transform it into an energising, irresistible uptempo anthem that has me involuntarily shouting "yeah!" along with singer Johnny Male pretty much every time. Which can be embarrassing if I'm wearing headphones in a public space.

Also feeling the groove are Finitribe, who were so impressed with Justin Robertson's remix of their single Ace Love Deuce that it was the definitive version used on 1992 album An Unexpected Groovy Treat. The additional treat is that the album version is a minute or so longer than the one found on the 12" and CD single. If you're a fan of Justin Robertson's work from the early 1990s, you will not be disappointed.

Underworld come in towards the end of this mix and in such style. I can't remember which came first but their remixes of Water From A Vine Leaf (included here) and Human Behaviour by Björk just blew me away when I first heard them. Twelve minutes of beautifully structured electronic music that was built for the dancefloor yet for me has always worked as songs in their own right, away from the club environment. In both cases, the addition of a unique female vocal is that little push over the edge. In this case, it's Beth Orton (though I think I can hear Karl Hyde in there somewhere too, deep in the mix) joining William Orbit on an epic journey.

Sticking with William Orbit and taking a slight step back into the last year of the 1980s with a mix that pointed to the future. Balearic beats before I had a clue what that even was. Les Negresses Vertes were a Parisian band that I'd seen pop up on TV (the last gasps of The Tube, I guess) but I didn't know much about. I got this remix of 1989 single Zobi La Mouche on a secondhand copy of Beat This! a compilation of dance label Rhythm King originally given away as a cover-mounted CD with Sky Magazine in 1990. William Orbit is joined by fellow Torch Song collaborator Rico Conning, all acoustic strums and rousing calls that scream 'party!' I feel like I've glugged a bottle of red wine and jumped up on the table to dance just listening to it...

 

1) Transient Truth (Album Version By One Dove & Sabres Of Paradise): One Dove (1993)

2) Groovy Feeling (Nutty Chip Cornet): Fluke (1993)

3) Hot Flush (Sabres Of Paradise Remix): Red Snapper (1995)

4) Groove (The Herbal Supper Mix By The Orb): Fortran 5 ft. Shola Phillips (1991)

5) Ace Love Deuce (Justin Robertson Mix) (Album Version): Finitribe (1992)

6) Beautiful Morning (Fluke's Magimix): Sensation (1993)

7) Water From A Vine Leaf (Underwater Mix Part 1) (Remix By Underworld): William Orbit ft. Beth Orton (1993)

8) Zobi La Mouche (The Fly) (Club Mix By William Orbit & Rico Conning): Les Negresses Vertes (1989)

 

1989: Zobi La Mouche EP: 8

1991: Groove EP: 4

1992: An Unexpected Groovy Treat: 5 

1993: Beautiful Morning EP / Welcome To The Future²: 6

1993: Groovy Feeling EP: 2

1993: Morning Dove White: 1 

1993: Water From A Vine Leaf EP: 7

1995: Hot Flush EP / Reeled And Skinned: 3

How Are You Feeling? It's A Beautiful Morning! (57:27) (KF) (Mega)

You've Got Male

Happy 60th birthday to Johnny Male, born this day in 1963.

 

Your reaction to this may be, "who?!", whilst wondering why I didn't post instead about Kirsty MacColl, John Prine, Midge Ure, heck even Martin Kemp, who all share a birthday on 10th October.

 

Well, have a root around in your record collection and you may find that you have plenty of records on which Johnny appears as band member, guitarist, vocalist and/or songwriter...

As far as I can tell, things kicked off with Metro Trinity, a duo with Jez Williams (later of Sub Sub and Doves), who released a split 7" with Inspiral Carpets and one standalone single, Die Young, both in 1987. Michael Furey is the closing song on the 4-track 12" single.

 

A couple of years later, Johnny formed Soul Family Sensation with Guy Batson and Jhelisa Anderson and nearly cracked it with I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby in 1991. The single came with a bunch of Marshall Jefferson remixes but ultimately didn't become the smash hit that it deserved.

 

Whilst Jhelisa did find chart success with The Shamen, Johnny hooked up with indie dance act Airstream, who generated some interest, particularly with the Andrew Weatherall remix of Follow Through in 1991. Their sole album, Ricky Tick, was a misspelt nod to the Riki Tik bar in London, which Johnny co-owned. I'll Dream Of You was their penultimate single in 1992.

Undeterred by the departure of Jhelisa, Johnny and Guy's partnership continued, shortening the name from Soul Family Sensation to Sensation and releasing an album, Burger Habit, in 1993. I first discovered them via the single Beautiful Morning - Johnny's front and centre on vocal duties - which came with a pair of, er, sensational remixes by Fluke.

Male and Batson's songwriting has extended to other artists, one of my favourites being a co-write with Sarah Cracknell on this gem of a single from Saint Etienne's 1994 album Tiger Bay.

Johnny also reunited with Metro Trinity partner Jez Williams (along with Andy Williams and Jimi Goodwin) to write this rather fine single by Sub Sub, also 1994.

Chart success finally came Johnny's way when he joined Republica in 1994. Things exploded a couple of years later with a re-release of Ready To Go. The video for that one still induces nosebleeds when I watch it, so here's Drop Dead Gorgeous from 1996 instead. I think it's a better song and you get to see Johnny giving it some on the guitar, too. Johnny is still performing with Republica, though I don't think they've released new material since their second album, 25 years (!) ago.

In 1998, Thurston Moore released Root, which featured 25 reworkings and 'transformations' of guitar pieces which he'd recorded in New York the previous year. Amongst the eclectic selection was cheapglue, featuring - you guessed it - Johnny Male.

 

The band, comprising Male, Guy Batson, Henry Priestman and Pete Smith, released one album in 2002 called Sexyhorses, plus a few singles and promos. Song titles include Herr Madonna, Failed With Flying Colours and Absolutely No Point In Anything Anymore featuring Emilíana Torrini. Oh, and a lovely song called You Just Won Me Over reuniting Male and Batson with Sarah Cracknell.

Apart from the ongoing live gigs with Republica, I've not been able to find a lot more about Johnny's songwriting and performing in the past decade, but I did unearth another gem, which he co-wrote with Pete Smith and Cerys Matthews for her second album Never Said Goodbye in 2006. Open Roads was released as a single the same year and I've discovered Cerys performing the song at Rhos-y-Gilwen in Pembrokeshire, circa 2008.

 

Not a bad CV, all things considered.

 

Have a good one, Johnny!

Open Your Eyes, Open Your Mind

Side 1 of a Fluke mixtape, compiled 7th May 1997. To get it straight from the start, I love Fluke and their music, invariably chock full of rolling, pulsing beats and bubbling synths is guaranteed to take me to a happy place. I'm surprised it's taken me so long to feature Fluke in their own right, but what better way to see in a Good Friday?

 

This is the second volume of Fluke cassettes, confusingly titled (Singles), with the other being (Mixes). In truth, both are a bit of a hodge podge of single (re)mixes, album tracks and remixes for other artists. 

This was originally compiled a few short months before the album Risotto came out, so focuses mainly on the first three albums, skipping live mini-album Out (In Essence) and drawing on a trio of top notch remixes in the latter half of the selection. Only one single - Slid (a UK #59 hit in March 1993) - actually makes it onto this side.

Oh yeah!

1) Our Definition Of Jazz (John Peel Session, 25 November 1990): Fluke

2) Glorious: Fluke (1991)

3) Slid (Glid Edit): Fluke (1993)

4) Cut: Fluke (1995)

5) Ride On (Fight On) (Fluke Mid-Fi Surprise): Little Axe (1994)

6) Oh Yeah: Fluke (1993)

7) Celebrate (Moulimix By Fluke): Horse (1994)

8) Beautiful Morning (Fluke's Multipractic Mix): Sensation (1993)

1991: The Techno Rose Of Blighty: 2 

1993: Beautiful Morning EP: 8

1993: Six Wheels On My Wagon: 6

1993: Slid EP: 3

1994: Celebrate EP: 7

1994: The Peel Sessions EP: 1

1994: Right On (Fight On) EP: 5

1995: Oto: 4

Side One (45:59) (GD) (M)