Decayed II: 2003

Side 2 of an imaginary mixtape, documenting each year of the 2000s.

2003 saw the USA invade Iraq and, by year end, capture Saddam Hussein. The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere, with the tragic loss of seven astronauts. Iconic aircraft Concorde made it's final flight. Someone cheated on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? And Jemini, the UK's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, came last with nil points.

Much as I'm drawn to the musical underdog, I'll manage your disappointment by saying now that Jemini do not appear in today's pick of dozen songs from 2003. Instead, it's the usual eclectic mix of hits and misses and hopefully a few surprises.

Kicking off with an unexpected partnership, The Chemical Brothers returned with one of two new singles for a 'best of' compilation, featuring The Flaming Lips. Wayne Coyne is on fine form on The Golden Path, narrating a tale of the afterlife that is propelled along on a sea of beats in a very pleasing way. 

Another nostalgia fest is 70s 80s by Nightmares On Wax, rapper LSK aka Leigh Kenny recounting childhood memories of Doc Martens, racism, riots, Crackerjack and Jim'll Fix It. It was nearly a decade later before the horror of the latter was exposed via Operation Yewtree.

Electric Six seemed to come out of nowhere with a crazy video and a crazy song that was strangely compelling. I bought the remix single as I was a fan of Stuart Price aka Jacques Lu Cont aka Les Rythmes Digitales aka The Thin White Duke (the other one). Actually, the best remix on the CD turned out to be by Finnish trio Kilogram aka Mikko Viljakainen, Timo Kaukolampi and Tuomo Ilmari Puranen. Danger! High Voltage is a great song, in any variation.

The two big hitters of the year for me were Crazy In Love by Beyoncé, featuring her paramour and future husband Jay-Z and built upon the brilliant sample of Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So) by Chi-Lites. Still Beyoncé's defining moment, in my opinion.

The other was OutKast, who effectively released two solo albums as one with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Hey Ya! came from the latter, Andre 3000 creating an unforgettable tune (and video) that put everything else that he (and Big Boi) did in the shade.

Back to ingenious use of samples and David Holmes was also in on the act with his new combo The Free Association. Holmes had previously included Johnny Jones & The King Casuals' cover of the Hendrix classic Purple Haze in his excellent Come Get It I Got It mix. Here, the sampled riff underpins Everybody Knows, vocalists Petra Jean Phillipson and Sean Reveron swapping exchanges over the top.

Speaking of covers, Canadian DJ/producer Tiga recorded a cover of Hot In Herre by Nelly which was initially released by !K7 Records in 2002 as part of their DJ-Kicks series. It was picked up the following year by Skint Records, home of Fatboy Slim and Lo-Fidelity Allstars, for release in the UK with remixes by Richard X and Radio Slave. The original is still the best, featuring a guest spot from Jake Shears, who managed a higher UK chart position later the same year with his band Scissor Sisters. More of them next time.

18 was Moby's follow up to the ubiquitous Play album and, whilst there was a similar licensing frenzy to get his music into commercials everywhere, the music and the album as a whole didn't quite have the same impact, despite some impressive guest stars.

Jam For The Ladies wasn't officially released as a single in the UK, although it was readily available on 12" and CD from your friendly neighbourhood record shop. I went for the latter, not least because Moby brought along Princess Superstar to join Angie Stone and MC Lyte from the original album version. Angie was sadly lost to us in March this year.

Another friendship that bore fruit was Beth Gibbons and Paul Webb, the latter recording as Rustin Man. They'd known each other for a decade, when Beth wanted to be vocalist with Webb and Talk Talk bandmate Lee Harris' project .O.Rang. The rise of Portishead meant that Beth only got to record a little with .O.Rang, but when the former went on hiatus, an opportunity presented for Beth and Paul to record again, delivered the stunning album Out Of Season.

On a related indie tip, Turin Brakes enjoyed a Top 5 hit with Pain Killer, which prompted me to catch up with them and their second album, Ether Song. Lyrically, the imagery of cycling in the rain and catching a cold shouldn't be as uplifting as it is, but the song is an absolute joy.

As is Soldier Girl by The Polyphonic Spree, headed by Tim DeLaughter and a seemingly literal cast of thousands (later including Annie Clark aka St. Vincent). Soldier Girl is presented here in its radio edit/single form, and is essentially a two-and-a-half minute chorus, Brilliant stuff.

Closing with the future retro sound of Danish dynamic duo The Raveonettes, namely Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo. Fantastic names all round. I love them and That Great Love Sound is as good a calling card as any for what The Raveonettes are about. That Great Love Sound first charted in August 2003 and was released the following year with brand new remixes by the man of the moment, Jacknife Lee. Incredibly, the single performed worse the second time around, failing to reach the Top 40. Proof perhaps that The Raveonettes got it right the first time...

And that's it for another year and another weekend. 

What will next week have in store? Well... three #1s, one #100 (!), several 1980s and 1990s artists making an unexpected return, plus plenty of fresh young faces. Oh, and lots of lovely guitar riffs.

1) The Golden Path (Edit): The Chemical Brothers ft. The Flaming Lips

2) Danger! High Voltage (Kilogram Remix): Electric Six

3) 70s 80s (Radio Edit): Nightmares On Wax ft. LSK

4) Crazy In Love (Album Version): Beyoncé ft. Jay-Z

5) Everybody Knows (Album Version): The Free Association

6) Hot In Herre (Radio Edit) (Cover of Nelly) : Tiga ft. Jake Shears

7) Jam For The Ladies (Radio Mix): Moby ft. Princess Superstar, Angie Stone & MC Lyte

8) Hey Ya! (Radio Mix / Club Mix): OutKast

9) Pain Killer (Album Version): Turin Brakes

10) Tom The Model (Album Version): Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man

11) Soldier Girl (Radio Edit): The Polyphonic Spree

12) That Great Love Sound (Album Version): The Raveonettes

12th January 2003: Fire (#2): 2

23rd February 2003: Ether Song (#5): 9

2nd March 2003: Mind Elevation (#76): 3

9th March 2003: Out Of Season (#70): 10

6th April 2003: David Holmes Presents The Free Association (#74): 5

6th July 2003: Dangerously In Love (#1): 4

20th July 2003: The Beginning Stages Of... The Polyphonic Spree (#26): 11

27th July 2003: 18 (# n/a): 7

24th August 2003: Chain Gang Of Love (#34): 12

31st August 2003: Hot In Herre EP (#46): 6

21st September 2003: Singles 93-03 (#17): 1

8th February 2004: Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (#3): 8 *

Side Two (45:12) (GD) (M)

* Hey Ya! was a new entry at #6 in the UK singles chart the week of 16th November 2003. It then spent all but one week of the next four months in the Top 20, peaking at #3 on 8th February 2004.

If you enjoyed this, you may also wish to check out my previous selections for 1983 and 1993.

Holmes' 13

This post was originally intended to represent a David Holmes mix CD-R circa 2005. It was all going swimmingly until I got to the final track and found that it's on a CD single, unripped to date and boxed away in a far flung corner of the attic. One for another time then but it'll be worth the wait, I promise.

Instead, here's a brand new 13-track, hour-long selection of tunes that were more readily available on my hard drive. It's a varied mix of music covering David's solo material, 'band' projects The Free Association and Unloved, soundtrack work, remixes by and for artists such as Primal Scream, Richard Sen, Ashley Beedle, Tim Goldsworthy and Secret Knowledge and a reciprocal remix to wrap things up by Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood aka Two Lone Swordsmen.

I like it, I hope you do too. 

Clan K are decamping to Valencia for a few days of cultural and culinary delights as well as some much needed R 'n' R. It's our first family holiday of any description for nearly four years - and it really feels like it - so I can't describe how much we're all looking forward to the break.

Rest assured, Dubhed dailies will continue in my absence: in a feat of unprecedented preparation, by the time you read this, I should have posts lined up and good to go. 

See you when I get back, sun-kissed, belly full, mentally and physically replenished and ready to foist fresh nonsense (my meanderings, not the music!) onto the blogosphere.

 

1) Boowaah: Unloved (2022)

2) Uptown (Free Ass Remix By David Holmes): Primal Scream (2008)

3) Sugar Daddy (Out Of Our Brains On The 5.15 Mix By Disco Evangelists aka David Holmes & Ashley Beedle) (Single Edit): Secret Knowledge (1993)

4) Why Not (Richard Sen Remix): Unloved (2020)

5) Lifting The Building: David Holmes (2004)

6) Bedroom: David Holmes (2002)

7) Lyman Zerga: David Holmes (2001)

8) My Mate Paul (Holmes & Goldsworthy Remix By David Holmes & Tim Goldsworthy): David Holmes (1998)

9) It's Not You, It's Me: Unloved (2019)

10) The Parcus And Madder Show: David Holmes (1997)

11) Salut La Dolce Vita Pt. 1: The Free Association (2002)

12) Minus 61 In Detroit (Full Length Version): David Holmes (1995)

13) Rodney Yates (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix By Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood): David Holmes (1998)

 

1995: Minus 61 In Detroit EP: 12

1996: Sugar Daddy '96 EP: 3 

1997: Let's Get Killed: 10

1998: My Mate Paul EP: 8 

1998: Stop Arresting Artists: 8, 13

2001: Ocean's Eleven OST: 7

2002: Analyze That OST: 6 

2002: Come Get It I Got It: 11

2004: Ocean's Twelve OST: 5

2008: Uptown EP: 2 

2019: Killing Eve, Season Two OST: 9

2020: Why Not EP: 4

2022: The Pink Album: 1

 

Holmes' 13 (1:01:35) (KF) (Mega)

It's Time To Free Associate

The Free Association popped up on my playlist again, a live session recorded at Maida Vale studio on 6th December 2002, broadcast on Breezeblock with Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC Radio 1 on 13th January 2003.

 

David Holmes' music is never far from my ears. This year alone he's released a highlight single with It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love, as well as a third outing for Unloved with The Pink Album and associated singles. And that's before you consider remixes of Orbital's classic Belfast and, released just last week, the Radical Mycology Remix of The Sky Without You by Andy Bell. And I haven't even touched on his stunning God's Waiting Room mixes for NTS Radio.

This is a rousing, energetic session, an exciting romp through songs from The Free Association's debut full-length album plus a Nina Simone cover version at the end which I don't think ever appeared elsewhere in recorded form.

I previously wrote about The Free Association in June 2021, including a 'Free Ass' mix by Pablo Clements from Psychonauts and my very own Dubhed selection. Links have been down for some time, but I've reinstated them in the original post, if you'd like to pop over for a listen.

1) Free Associate
2) (I Wish I Had) A Wooden Heart
3) Don't Rhyme No Mo
4) Whistlin' Down The Wind
5) La Dolce Vita
6) Everybody Knows
7) Pushin' A Broom
8) Paper Underwear
9) Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter (Cover of Nina Simone)

Breezeblock Live At Maida Vale (38:22)

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)

Nothing More, Nothing Less, Love Is The Best

Today is a special day for a very special person. We've been to relatively few gigs together over the years, but they've always been special occasions.

 

Sometimes she didn't like the act (PJ Harvey), sometimes I haven't (Meat Loaf), sometimes the band have been damned awful on stage (Simple Minds), sometimes it's been possibly an emotional and brilliant experience (McAlmont & Butler, Green Gartside).

 

Regardless, it's always been all the better for the person at my side. 

This one's for you, Mrs. K.

 

1) At The River: Groove Armada (1999)

2) We Belong In This World Together: Stereo MC's (2001)
3) Bring It Back: McAlmont & Butler (2002)

4) Everybody Knows: The Free Association (2002) 

5) New Religion: Duran Duran (1982)

6) Black Cherry: Goldfrapp (2003)

6) Teardrop: Massive Attack (1998)

7) This Is Love: PJ Harvey (2000)

8) Spacehopper: Julian Cope (1987) 

9) New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84): Simple Minds (1982)

10) The Boom Boom Bap: Scritti Politti (2006)

11) Paradise By The Dashboard Light: Meat Loaf (1977) 

12) Suspicious Minds (Cover of Elvis Presley): Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra ft. Roland Gift (2013)

13) It Must Be Love (Cover of Labi Siffre): Madness (1981)

Footnote: Today’s selection is made up of songs we heard at gigs between 2001 up to & including Madness, postponed from 2020 but hopefully going ahead in June. 

With the latter exception, all of the songs featured in the set lists and are presented here in the order that we (first) saw them live. Julian Cope’s the only act we’ve seen together multiple times. 

Stereo MC’s & Simple Minds were both unlikely headliners at the Bristol Community Festival aka Ashton Court Festival. The latter really were appallingly bad.

Roland Gift was the guest vocalist when we saw Jools Holland’s band at Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. And bloody good he was too. 

Goldfrapp supported Duran Duran at the NEC in Birmingham for their first (only) reunion tour with the original line up including Andy Taylor. 

Preacher Beats

Today's selection is a David Holmes mix CD that I did for my friend Dave way back in March 2005. Dave and I met in 1998 when I joined the careers service in Bristol; he was one of the ICT team. We immediately bonded over a shared love of music, clubbing and gigs and over the years swapped a ton of mix CDs and DIY rips. David Holmes was a particular favourite, although in hindsight gifting Dave with 5 different homemade CD-Rs might have been a little excessive...

This is the third in the series, mostly collating Holmes' remixes of other artists from the years 1994 to 1999, and I love it. It's a good example of how exciting David Holmes was back then and why he's still up there today, creating music and DJ sets that make you pause and wonder at the brilliance of it all. I saw him perform live several times in the 1990s and 2000s, including a gig by The Free Association which I wrote about in a previous post. David Holmes' latest single, Hope Is The Last Thing To Die, is one of my personal musical highlights of 2021.

The other thing that Dave and I have in common is the same birthday, today. Dave sadly succumbed to cancer in 2009 and I think of him and miss him a lot. We knew each other for a little over 10 years and I will be forever grateful for that. Every birthday, I raise a drink to him and listen to music, some which came out after he passed, but which I know would make him smile and move. This one's for you (again), Dave.

1) Talk About The Blues (For The Saints And Sinners Remix By David Holmes): The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (1999)

2) Wish You Were Here... (David Holmes Vocal): The Aloof (1996)

3) Blow The Whole Joint Up (Let's Slash The Beats Mix By David Holmes): Monkey Mafia (1995)

4) Smoked Oak: David Holmes (1995)

5) Die Laughing (David Holmes Mix 1 By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Therapy? (1994)

6) Failure (David Holmes Remix): Skinny (1998)

7) Hoops (David Holmes Mix): Ruby (1996)

8) I Thought I Caught (David Holmes Remix): Delakota (1998)

9) Live From The Opium Den (David Holmes Main Mix By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Justin Warfield (1994)

10) This Is Fascism (Experimental Plastic Racism) (Remix By David Holmes) (Cover of Consolidated): New Fast Automatic Daffodils (1996)

11) The Holiday Girl (Don't Die Just Yet) (Remixed By Arab Strap): David Holmes (1997)

Preacher Beats (1:19:18)

Everybody Knows It's True

For a brief period in 2002 to 2004, David Holmes had a real live band, The Free Association. Debuting on his 2002 mix CD Come Get It, I Got It, they followed up the same year with the full length original album David Holmes Presents The Free Association followed by a 2004 soundtrack album Music From The Film Code 46. In between, there were a few singles mainly inspired by tracks featured on Come Get It, I Got It. Everybody Knows heavily sampled Johnny Jones & The King Casuals' cover of Purple Haze by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. This was followed in September 2003 with a straight up cover of Sugar Man by Sixto Rodriguez, their biggest 'hit' peaking at 53 in the UK singles chart.  

I got to see The Free Association live at the Bristol Academy in November 2002, the opening of a 7-date UK tour. Interviewed by NME the previous month, David Holmes stated that "the whole point of the live show is that it has to be something to really look at. Like Parliament and the performance of OutKast – just this amazing energy on stage". It was a great show, but didn't quite live up to the hype. Singer Sean Reveron took sagging to an irritating new level, which was an unwelcome distraction from his vocal performance. Co-performer Petra Jean Phillipson, who strangely seems to have been edited from Discogs as a key member of the group, was perhaps the most compelling on-stage presence aside from Holmes himself. Yet, great though the music was and good though the band were, there was something missing from the performance. Maybe it was the Academy, which has rarely brought out the best of any acts that I've seen performing there. I'd seen David Holmes DJ at the Blue Mountain a short while before with his little box of 7" singles and the impact of playing Purple Haze there compared with the performance of Everybody Knows at the Academy was strongly in favour of the former. But none of that detracts from how bloody brilliant The Free Association were on record. 

I picked up a promo CD in around the time of the debut album, from the much-missed Replay Records in the piss-stinking underpass known as the Bear Pit in central Bristol, linking the main shopping area of Broadmead with Stokes Croft and the city's bus station. The shop is sadly long gone, but it was a go-to place to buy new and used records from the late 80s to early 00s. This promo CD was labelled (Mix) and "Mixed by Psycho Pab" but otherwise had no other info. Discogs be praised, it turned out to be a 19 minute megamix by Pablo Clements from Psychonauts, with cuts & scratching from DJ Ziggy, largely drawing from the debut Free Association album. It's a work of art and a mix CD that I regularly revisit.

With my usual ham-fisted dexterity, I've collated a 'tribute trawl' through The Free Assocation, mainly drawing from Come Get It, I Got It, the eponymous album and a couple of singles to give you just under an hour of damn fine psychedelic beats and rhymes, alongside Psycho Pab's far more professional mix.

 

1) Everybody Knows (Children Re-Mix) (2003) 

2) Don't Believe A Word (2002)

3) Le Baggage (2002)

4) Start Of Something (2002)

5) House Music (2002)

6) Everybody Knows (Album Version) (2002)

7) (I Wish I Had A) Wooden Heart (Space Hog Dub) (Remix By Roots Manuva) (2002)

8) Salut La Dolce Vita Pt.1 (2002)

9) Effectin' (Single Version) (2002)

10) Paper Underwear (2002)

11) This Could Be Your Sister (2002)

12) (I Wish I Had A) Wooden Heart (Radio Edit) (2002)

13) Pushin' A Broom (2002)

14) Everybody Knows (Edan Instrumental Re-Mix) (2003)

15) Don't Rhyme No Mo (2002)

16) La Dolce Vita (Album Version) (2002)

17) Free Ass O-C-8 (2002)

18) Somedays (2002)

 

Everybody Knows It's True (58:55)

Free Ass (Mix) Mixed By Psycho Pab (19:42)