It's All Happening Here

Rounding off a spectacular week, I belatedly realised that I'd scheduled today's post for 7.30pm rather than 7.30am. Good grief.

Anyway, much later than intended but not too late to soundtrack the end of the weekend, here's a 45-minute selection of tunes that I've enjoyed so far this year. Not quite chilled out, the tempo is still relatively low, with a few dub inflections here and there and vocals dropping in and out.

Fitzroy Avenue by Warriors Of The Dystotheque comes with a slew of excellent remixes, which I've cruelly ignored here. Instead, I've laid Joe Duggan's isolated performance (a bonus track on the digital EP) over the opening minutes of Richard Norris' Spring - Alban Eilir 2 which, in it's original form, runs for a satisfying twenty minutes.

 

Andy Bell aka GLOK recently released a trio of remixes from his superb Pattern Recognition album. All three are very, very good as demonstrated by Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray's dubby rework of That Time Of Night. 

 

Next up is DjClick (born in France, based in Spain) and Masha Natanson (Poland), remixed by Transglobal Underground (based in London but without borders). DjClick's album Violins Against Bombs was released in 2022 and a remix companion came out at the beginning of April, available as a free download via Bandcamp.

 

I've recently enthused about Björk's remix of Shygirl and Más o Menos by Damian O'Neill, so they were a shoo in for this selection. I've gone for Kevin Sharkey's remix of the latter, which ups the Ennio Morricone vibe and mixes in a bit of a Mo' Wax vibe.

 

Emily Breeze is another favourite here. Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl is a highlight of her current album Rapture. Bristol legends Grant Marshall and Stew Jackson - better known as Daddy G and Robot Club respectively - transform the song whilst losing none of it's narrative thrust.

 

Things come to an end as they must with the aptly titled At The Turning Of The Tide, from another Dubhed regular, 10:40 aka Jesse Fahnestock. 10:40's album Transition Theory has been on regular rotation and I feel just as strongly now as I did when it came out in February. If you haven't bought this album already, then you really should. Right now.

 

As it's another day at the grindstone tomorrow, normal service (and scheduling) will resume.

 

1) Spring - Alban Eilir 2 (Edit): Richard Norris

1.1) Fitzroy Avenue (No Effects Vox): Warriors Of The Dystotheque ft. Joe Duggan 

2) That Time Of Night (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown Dub): GLOK ft. Shiarra

3) Rusalkas (Transglobal Underground RMX): DjClick & Masha Natanson

4) Woe (I See It From Your Side) (Björk Remix): Shygirl

5) Más o Menos (Kevin Sharkey Remix): Damian O'Neill

6) Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl (Daddy G vs Robot Club Remix By Grant Marshall & Stew Jackson): Emily Breeze

7) At The Turning Of The Tide: 10:40 ft. Emilia Harmony & Matt Gunn) 

 

It's All Happening Here (44:51) (Box) (Mega)

Do They Even Know What It's Like This High?

It may seem a leap to go from The Cure to Shygirl, but there's a tenuous link in that respectively they have the capacity to make me want to dance and send a shiver down my spine in the same song.

I first heard of and posted about Shygirl in January this year, when she and Nuxxe co-founder and label mate Sega Bodega aka Salvador Navarrete remixed a Björk song, Ovule. I liked it a lot.

 

Björk's now repaid the favour by remixing and adding vocals to Woe, the opening track from Shygirl's debut album from last year, Nymph. Sub-titled I See It From Your Side, the song starts off quite ordinarily before left turning into more familiar Björk territory at 0:22. It's an unsettling ride, enhanced to unsettling effect by the video, directed by Sam Ibram. The remix was originally released last month and has been bundled and re-released with 3 other tracks as the Playboy/Positions EP.

 

According to Iffypedia, Shygirl aka Blane Muise creates music that "incorporates elements of dance music, industrial hip-hop, experimental pop, grime and deconstructed club. She has also been associated with the hyperpop music scene. I don't know what most of these genres are, to be honest, but there's something morbidly fascinating about the songs.

 

Each of the tracks has an accompanying video: Playboy/Positions is particularly weird; Heaven (ft. Tinashe) has a rather bizarre visual nod to TLC's Waterfall; Poison (Club Shy Mix) features Shygirl as an albino; lots of distorted mirror effects, variable lighting and strobing and jump cuts throughout.

If this has piqued your curiosity, the EP is available via Bandcamp and the usual outlets.

Oh, and an early happy 30th birthday to Shygirl for 4th May.

 

 

What I'd Pay To Give You A Minute Of This

On Friday, Björk released a remix of Ovule, the third single from current album Fossora. The original version (and video) came out last September to coincide with the album release. For the remix, Björk teams up with Nuxxe label founders, Shygirl and Sega Bodega aka Blane Muise and Salvador Navarrete. 

The album version is very much what you'd expect from latter day Björk, lush strings and skittering beats, vocals dancing around but not married to the song. The remix retains elements of the strings but drops in more beats and more structure with a 'chorus' from Shygirl that ties the whole song

What I'd pay to give you a minute of this  

All I feel is bliss when I think of you  

 

I love it. You can view, stream or buy Ovule (Sega Bodega Remix ft. Shygirl) and Fossora from all the usual places. Pay a visit to Bandcamp and you'll find them both along with Björk's back catalogue; I'd also recommend stopping by the Nuxxe label page.