Bad Santa "talks about alpha male culture, the rise of the right, and Donald Trump, who is essentially Bad Santa. Andrew Tate, is in there too. These people are dangerous. I wanted to come at it in a more nuanced way, so sonically it’s a bit different for us. It undermines all that aggression. We filmed this live at JT Soar studios."
After her appearance with Sleaford Mods at last year's Glastonbury Festival, Billy Nomates had an hour-long set on The Park Stage at 3.15pm on Friday. On the back of a successful UK tour and a critically acclaimed second album, you'd think it couldn't get much better, right?
These were Billy's words after her performance:
"the level of personal abuse on @bbc6muisc socials for goin to work today is insane. I've asked for all footage to be removed. I know it's not for everyone what I do. I know lots of people don't rate me. But the level of personal abuse on that public page is too much. there will be no more shows after this summer. You wouldn't stay in a workplace that did this to you. Why should I."
It's another fine example of a sad minority of male sad sacks who feel so threatened by a woman writing, creating and performing great music that they are compelled to troll and attack and belittle them.
I like lots of music, I have very broad tastes and a passion for hearing and supporting new artists. There's plenty of music that I don't like and artists that I don't particularly care for, but I've don't feel the need to spend time online, tracking them down so I can denigrate and diminish them.
I've not seen Billy Nomates live in concert, but I had seen her several times on TV, firstly with Sleaford Mods on Jools Holland's show, performing Mork n Mindy, then a year later blowing the other guests away with Balance Is Gone from her current album Cacti.
Her first public performance was on 28th September 2019 at Longwell Records in Keynsham (about halfway between Bristol and Bath and a go-to place when I used to bunk off school, but that's another story). It's available on YouTube and it's brilliant.
The main issue that the music "fans" seemed to have is that Billy Nomates performed on stage without a live band and to a backing track. Despite the fact that Billy had created pretty much all of the music, written all of the words, was singing live and absolutely owning the stage - I've seen anyone else doing high kicks yet - these "purists" seemed to be griping that somehow the set wasn't authentic. Even if I could play a note of music (I can't) or DJ (I can't) or sing (I most definitely can't), I wouldn't feel justified in seeking out an artist just to tell them how shit they are. What is wrong with people?
It has been encouraging and heart-warming to see the huge outpouring of love and support for Billy Nomates. Sadly, some of the male muso turds have refused to flush away; I read someone mansplaining to The Anchoress why it wasn't really all that bad; there are acceptable levels of misogyny, apparently. Twits.
I'm hoping that Billy Nomates aka Tor Maries sees and hears the love and respect that people have for her and can heal from this experience. The least I could do was go and buy her albums, EPs and standalone songs on Bandcamp and write a few words of support.
This wasn't the post I originally planned for Sunday but this is the one that I needed to post. Today's selection is a hastily compiled three quarters of an hour based on a few songs that I'm pretty familiar with and others that I've heard for the first time in the past 24 hours. They're all brilliant and I hope one day to see Tor performing them on stage.
1) No (2020)
2) Vertigo (2023)
3) Supermarket Sweep: Billy Nomates ft. Jason Williamson (2020)
4) 22 Spring (2022)
5) Wild Arena (2020)
6) Heels (2020)
7) Deko: Disableton ft. Rosa Deko & Billy Nomates (2020)
8) Blackout Signal (2023)
9) FNP (2020)
10) Mork n Mindy (Live @ Glastonbury): Sleaford Mods ft. Billy Nomates (2022)
11) Making Plans 4 Nigel (Not Going To The Beach) (Cover of XTC) (2020)
12) Saboteur Forcefield (2023)
13) Right Behind You (2020)
14) Spite (2023)
2020: Billy Nomates: 1, 3, 5, 9
2020: Bits: 11
2020: Deko (by Disableton): 7
2020: Emergency Telephone EP: 6, 13
2022: 22 Spring: 4
2022: Live At Glastonbury: 10
2023: Cacti: 2, 8, 12, 14
Little Boy, Don't Think You Quite Understand (44:15) (GD) (M)
Orbital and Sleaford Mods have collaborated on a new single Dirty Rat, a precursor to Orbital's new album, Optical Delusion, in February 2023.
A big, dirty bassline, reminiscent of Leftfield's Phat Planet and Jason Williamson's opening lines,
"People talk about the right way to live.
Shut up, you don't know what you're on about!
You voted for ' em, look at you, you dirty rat!"
...launching into a perfect - and perfectly timed - meld of beats and polemic. Even the briefest look at the news seems to offer up fresh examples of why this song is right on the nose.
Of course, Orbital and Sleaford Mods have previous, the Hartnoll brothers remixing the Mods' I Don't Rate You just over a year ago.
Orbital have been around over thirty years, Sleaford Mods ten, both still painfully, urgently needed today.
This selection has been done completely on the fly this morning and entirely made up of new digital purchases in the past couple of days, mostly via Bandcamp Friday. It's a reasonably relaxed affair, with occasional musical prods to get your attention.
Swiss Adam introduced me to Andres Y Xavi last year and their collaborations with Rolo McGinty (The Woodentops) were fantastic. What Do You See In Me originally appeared as a dub and it's just been released as an EP, with two further Xavi dubs and a trio of excellent Balearic remixes from Max Essa. I've gone for the full vocal to start things off, Rolo in fine form against a gentle acoustic backdrop and the promise of a beautiful summer to come.
Dan Wainwright, another Bagging Area recommendation, released his latest album From The Ground Up in January. Two listens in and I'm loving it. In the promo info Dan describes this as a very personal record that "tells a story through metaphor about being neurodiverse and learning to accept and love [himself] as being unique". If you've enjoyed Dan's music as I have, then this album takes it to whole other level.
I stumbled across Ribas Abbas whilst down a Bandcamp rabbit hole, and I'm glad I did. Based in Amsterdam, Ribas' music appears to be a mix of originals and re-edits, all available as a free/name your price download. I've started with two re-edits, one by Christine & The Queens and the other, featured here, a re-edit of Pilooski's 2015 song Completely Sun, featuring Jarvis Cocker.
In fact, you get three divine JCs for your trouble (though sadly not this one). Aside from Jarvis Cocker, Julian Cope and John Cale both get the re-edit/remix treatment, courtesy of Paisley Dark Records and their excellent Edits Box series. As is there weren't reason enough to buy, on Bandcamp Friday all of the artists agreed to donate every penny spent on releases to the fund raiser United Help Ukraine, with the label match funding donations up to £100.
I enthused about the new Trentemøller album, Memoria, last month but after streaming it for the last couple of weeks, I have finally got around to buying it. Lisbet Fritze is the perfect choice of vocalist for the album, as evidenced in current single, No More Kissing In The Rain.
On a similar retro vibe, I belated picked up The Divine Comedy's most recent album, Office Politics. Not what I expected - in a good way - with Neil Hannon channeling his inner Goldfrapp on this song. This is preceded by Sleaford Mods, remixed by the Hartnoll brothers to great effect. Parental advisory: you might want to skip this one as, true to form, there's a lot of effin' and jeffin' going on.
Xan Tyler makes a welcome return to these pages, following 2021's collaboration with Mad Professor, Clarion Call, which I loved. Whilst I'm looking forward to a new Xan Tyler album this year, this selection steps back to 2020 and Let It Come Down, essentially a solo project by legendary producer Kramer. So far, just the one album - Songs We Sang in Our Dreams - predominantly instrumentals with Xan providing vocals on a couple of tracks, including this beauty.
Closing the selection is the wonderful Dnipro by Ukrainian duo Ptakh_Jung, which I discovered earlier this week, and the brilliant Catherine Anne Davies aka The Anchoress. Following last month's cover of R.E.M., here is a wonderful version of The Tradition by Halsey, Davies accompanied by Charlie Cawood to haunting effect.
A perfect way to close the selection, and a prompt to further explore the vast musical soundscapes these artists have created. Buy now.
1) What Do You See In Me (Max Essa Extended Vocal Mix): Andres Y Xavi ft. Rolo McGinty (2022)
2) Underwater Cities: Dan Wainwright (2022)
3) Completely Sun (Ribas Abbas Remix): Pilooski ft. Jarvis Cocker (2020)
4) I Don't Rate You (Orbital Remix): Sleaford Mods (2021)
5) Infernal Machines (Album Version): The Divine Comedy (2019)
6) No More Kissing In The Rain: Trentemøller ft. Lisbet Fritze (2022)
7) They Were On Hard Drugs (Matt Gunn Edit): Julian Cope (2022)
8) Hush Hush: Horton Jupiter vs. John Cale (2021)
9) Don't Let It Go To Your Head: Cleo Sol (2021)
10) Pennies: Let It Come Down (Kramer & Xan Tyler) (2020)
11) Dnipro: Ptakh_Jung (2020)
12) The Tradition (Cover of Halsey): The Anchoress (2022)
