This Side Of Low Tide

It's been a crappy week, no work/life balance to speak of, and the prospect of more rain, more work and a stinking headache that refuses to budge.

I don't know about you, but music is both a distraction and a salve, so I've created a 63-minute selection to start my Sunday in the best possible way.

A mish-mash of, er, more gentle sounds featuring the usual suspects: Rheinzand, Jesse Fahnestock aka 10:40, Transglobal Underground, Andres Y Xavi and Coyote remixing Jazxing.

I've also brought in some heavyweight legends, with Kid Loco and Kruder & Dorfmeister (dubbing up Bomb The Bass), plus a few rarities/obscurities from Cagedbaby aka Tom Gandey and The Acorn reinterpreted by Four Tet.

No mixing, no crass fading, just a sequence of songs that seems to go well together. 

Conversely, the cover art has absolutely nothing to do with the mix title.

1) The Gift Of Love (Album Version): Rheinzand (2022)

2) Evolution: Cagedbaby (2005)

3) Tumbling Down: 10:40 (2023)

4) Winter: Transglobal Underground (2021)

5) Restoration (Four Tet Remix By Kieran Hebden): The Acorn (2010)

6) Pearloma: Andres Y Xavi (2019)

7) Templos Del Sol (My Friend Dario Remix By Dario Aiello): Tambores En Benirras (2025)

8) The Wrong Number: Kid Loco (1997)

9) Vijnana (Coyote Whirling Dervish Remix By Richard Hampson & Timm Sure): Jazxing (2022)

10) Bug Powder Dust (Dub) (Remix By Peter Kruder & Richard Dorfmeister): Bomb The Bass ft. Justin Warfield (1994)

1998: A Grand Love Story (ltd 2x CD): 8

1998: The K&D Sessions™: 10

2005: Cagedbaby Will See You Now: 2

2010: Make The Least Of The Day: No Ghost Reinterpreted: 5

2019: Vibraciones Y Sentimientos: 6

2021: After Cinnamon: 4

2022: Atlantis Atlantis: 1

2022: Higher Love Vol. 2: 9

2023: Transition Theory: 3

2025: Ondas Horizontales Remixes Two EP: 7

This Side Of Low Tide (1:02:41) (GD) (M)

Release The Beats

Immersed as we are in end of year round ups and best ofs, I'm swimming with the current and today's 64-minute selection rounds up some choice choons from the year to date. 

A couple of these tracks have appeared on previous selections, but are too good not to bring back in. 

Like Fire by Airsine came out on the ever-excellent Paisley Dark Records label in March and I've been obsessed with it ever since. Today's selection meaning that I've now posted all four versions from the EP, every one a winner, as they say.

Speaking of fire, Leo Zero has been on fire (musically speaking, not literally) with a truckload of releases that haven't skimped on quality. June saw Nebulon Systems Vol. 1, a 20-track monster of an album, with Orangutan placed smack dab in the middle, at track ten. Not only a great album, but a ridiculous bargain at £4.00 for the lot.

Another mind-boggling bargain was the Powder Wax Vol. 2 EP by Jesse Fahnestock, revisiting his 10:40 alias, whilst also delivering a dizzying array of music in 2025 with Darren Bell as Jezebell. 

Powder Wax Vol. 2 arrived in February as a 'name your price' purchase, comprising two songs, Beneath The Waves and Miracle Me. Both appeared on 2025 highlights selections in March and May, and Beneath The Waves makes a welcome return here.  

Pye Corner Audio have frequently dropped a new track in time for Bandcamp Friday, always an automatic 'add to cart' come the day. The Deep Cut appeared in March, one of five new standalone tracks in 2025, all of this calibre.

Orange Sunshine was originally on a flexi 7" with limited vinyl quantities of Hifi Sean and David McAlmont's album Twillight. In April, Orange Sunshine appeared as a standalone single, featuring rapper Sawlty (and David's nephew). Feel it!

In 2024, sLEdger provided Fluke with a superb remix of Fluke's single Real Magnificent. June saw the favour returned, with Jon Fugler and Mike Tournier's remix of Tweeba, sLEdger given a refreshing Fluke rinse. Wonderful stuff.

I've continued with The Future Sound Of London's 'calendar' compilations of outtakes and unreleased music for a few years now, and still get a buzz when each monthly link arrives, building up a 12-track collection by year end. PSUN K arrived in November, the penultimate piece from another cracking collection.

August saw the return of Puerto Montt City Orchestra with And We'd Be So Happy, a lovely slice of Balearic sunshine with a spoken word vocal by Kitty Salter, the daughter of band member Tim. The initial single was backed with The Cruel Mistress Mix, included here, with two further remixes from Balearic Ultras and downtownLOOP arriving a fortnight later. Sounds just as good in winter as it did in summer.

Fluke's spectacular comeback continued with May's release of I Wanna Be, a bouncing, life-affirming single in it's original form, and given a fantastic dub rinse by Justin Robertson's Five Green Moons. I am over the moon (all five of 'em) to have new Fluke music in my life.

Wrapping up this final round up of 2025's beautiful beats is Tambores En Benirras, who I splurged my cash on during Bandcamp Friday earlier this month, snapping up the entire catalogue in one go. It was worth every penny, not least for the trio of remix EPs accompanying the album Ondas Horizontales. 

It was almost impossible to pick just one, but I've settled with Steve Cobby's nine-and-a-half minute revision of Extensor Entregado from the inaugural EP. Highly recommended!

1) Like Fire (Mindbender Remix By Mårten Attling): Airsine

2) Orangutan: Leo Zero

3) Beneath The Waves: 10:40

4) The Deep Cut: Pye Corner Audio

5) Orange Sunshine (Single Version): Hifi Sean & David McAlmont ft. Sawlty

6) Tweeba (Fluke Remix By Jon Fugler & Mike Tournier): sLEdger

7) PSUN K: The Future Sound Of London

8) And We'd Be So Happy (The Cruel Mistress Mix): Puerto Montt City Orchestra ft. Kitty Salter

9) I Wanna Be (Justin Robertson - Five Green Moons Remix): Fluke

10) Extensor Entregado (Steve Cobby Remix): Tambores En Benirras

Release The Beats (1:04:11) (GD) (M)

More 2025 beats on prescription via these previous Dubhed selections: 

28th March: It's A Glamorous World 

11th May: Doused In Dopamine

4th July: Staring Into Air

9th August: Is It Obvious? Or Is It Delirium?

It's So Hard To Quantify

So this week's final look at my checkout choices for December's Bandcamp Friday covers the last seven from T to Z, namely

Tambores En Benirras

Urmet K

Viktus

Wagon Christ

Xavier Corbera

Yellow Ostrich

Zaatar

Tambores En Benirras aka Graham Newby came to my attention when he remixed Other Skies by Electric Blue Vison, Jesse Fahnestock's project with Emilia Harmony, in 2023.

Now Jesse's returned with his other partner in crime, Darren Bell, to deliver a lush Jezebell remix for the third and final remix EP of Tambores En Benirras' debut LP, Ondas Horizontales. Just the fact that it's a Jezebell remix is reason enough to buy, but I especially love the tempo changes in their take on Alma Hablando.

Buy this one and you get further remix excellence including 100 Poems and Leo Zero. Buying all three adds the likes of Aim, Andres Y Xavi, Steve Cobby and Marshall Watson. Wonderful.

According to the blurb accompanying 2023's (debut?) EP Unani Pendeza, Urmet K aka Kermann Urmet is a native of Estonia, and a fixture on London’s underground circuit. Having current experience of neither, I can only say that the track Summer Solstice is a banger. Flip side You Know How continues in a similar vein, and slightly edges it for me. 

Another recommendation for the Stereo MC's label Connected, too. They sure know how to pick them. 

Viktus is a rapper from Bristol... ot at least he was, he appears to have relocated to Brighton since I first featured him in my post in June, which by sheer coincidence also happened to be his birthday.

Big Dawg dropped in November, and all the characteristics are in place: driving piano chords, hefty beats and a rap that covers all the lyrical bases with plenty of effing and jeffing as you might expect. Vocally, swapping the Bronx for a Bristol burr will always get extra points from me.

I'm a huge fan of Luke Vibert's music, my entry point being his releases and remixes in the 1990s, particularly Wagon Christ. I've lost tough in recent years - I have a promo WC album preview from 2011, the last proper track dates back to 2004 - so I'm not sure if this is a Wagon Christ comeback or if I've just not been paying attention.

Planet Roll is a mammoth 16 tracks, so no question that you're getting your money's worth.

Is it a radical departure from the 90s/00s Wagon Christ sound? Hell, no!

Is it great to have a new Wagon Christ album unexpectedly drop in my shopping bag? Hell, yes!

Xavier Corbera hails from Spain and, on the strength of the album Last Exit To Music, is influenced by film soundtrack composers, not least John Carpenter. The album appropriately came out the day before Hallowe'en and features 9 electronic soundscapes. The pulsing Plank is my pick today.

If you believe Discogs, Yellow Ostrich played their final show in 2014. However, main man Alex Schaaf appears to have resurrected the name in 2021 and Trying is his second full length, full band album since. 

Lots of naggingly familiar reference points, but it's confessional style and earworm harmonies has won me over.

My final pick of the day and the week is Zaatar aka Marie Benaboud. Based in France, grew up in Morocco, three nationalities (Belgian, Swiss and Moroccan), a love of "blending EBM (Electronic Body Music), electro & North African roots into raw, genre-bending sets."

It certainly scratches my Front 242 itch, not least on the opening track of The Sound Of Z EP, Eyes Like Static. And I'm a sucker for record sleeves featuring big cats, especially when they remind of TV classic Manimal.

Happy shopping!