Sargasso Sea

Sargasso Sea by Salt Tank, a 1994 ambient adventure. Bird calls and seagulls over waves of synth and a Tori Amos sample. The Sargasso Sea is a sea within the Atlantic Ocean, the only sea in the world with no coastline. Seaweed, marine plants and rubbish collect in it, circling forever due to the Gulf Stream and other currents.

Sargasso Sea

Clamour

Steve Cobby seems to be having a vinyl offensive on multiple fronts, songs seeping out of Humberside. Clamour (with vocals from Isobel Helen) is a beaut and comes with a mass of remixes including this one by Pikes.



This remix by Balearic Gabba Sound System is even more laid back, unwinding slowly and easily. There's definitely something Balearic in the air at the moment, blissed out chickens coming home to roost two and a half decades on.

Deanne's Day

A shift of gear after all the '77 and Iggy Pop stuff. In 1996 Andrew Weatherall's Emissions label put out a 12" by Deanne Day, two tracks both over ten minutes long, from where techno met deep house (which was where Weatherall's head was at back then), precise and intense music. Both sides are great, smelling of dry ice and dark corners where the bass reverberates.  It might sound like these tracks are for the completists only but you should give these a go.

The Long First Friday

Hardly Breathe

Hardly Breathe samples Mancunian legend Edward Barton and some looped vocal parts from singer Smita Pandya, taken from the song Thousand Lives. Deanne Day was actually a pseudonym for Weatherall and fellow producer David Harrow (Deanne Day, D and A). Deanne had put out a 12" the year before called The Day After and there was a very limited remix 12" too but to my mind this was the one- in some ways this sound is what I think of when I think of '96-'97.

What's My Name?

I can't leave 1977 without doing punk and The Clash and a quick squizz round the internet brought me several celebrity Clash t-shirt wearers. From the top- supermodel Agyness Deyn, ex-footballer David Beckham and actor Kristen Stewart. I don't have any issue with Agyness wearing a Clash t-shirt. She's from just north of Manchester and lived in Rossendale, the place I had my first teaching job. She worked in a chip shop. She seems pretty real. I can believe she could be Clash fan. Plus, I like girls with short hair. David Beckham- member of the 90s United side, treble winner, generally seems like a nice chap. Not convinced he's a Clash fan though. Kristen Stewart- I have no idea, maybe, maybe not. But if she wants to pop round to discuss her love of the band, I'm in tonight.

The Clash's debut came out in 1977. In Sniffin' Glue Mark Perry said that punk died the day The Clash signed to CBS. But he also said that the first Clash album was 'LIKE A MIRROR. IT REFLECTS ALL THE SHIT. IT SHOWS US THE TRUTH. TO ME, IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ALBUM EVER RELEASED' (use of capital letters is Mark's). Listening to it right now, it must be the rawest, most unproduced album a major record label put out in 1977 or most other years. It was famously so raw that CBS in the U.S. wouldn't release it, saying the ears of American listeners couldn't cope. In What's My Name Mick's guitars could skin a cat. Joe Strummer is so alienated that even table tennis clubs won't let him in.

'I tried to join the ping pong club
Sign on the door 'all full up'
I got nicked for fighting in the road
The judge didn't even know

What's my naaaaaaame
Naaaaaaame
Naaaaaaame'

Even by 1977 punk standards this is short- one minute forty seconds. Co-written by Keith Levene this is the punkest, most Pistols like song on the album. And it's got very little to do with celebrities wearing band t-shirts.

What's My Name

Two Sevens Clash

Meanwhile, in Jamaica in 1977...

Two Sevens Clash

Culture formed in 1976 and recorded several singles with Joe Gibbs which had a huge impact, none more so than Two Sevens Clash. Released in 1977 it was picked up by John Peel and played at The Roxy by Don Letts ensuring its popularity with the London punk crowd. Two Sevens Clash predicted the apocalypse on July 7th 1977. Righteous roots reggae- the whole album is well worth your time.

I try really hard not to pour scorn celebrities wearing band t-shirts. I understand the knee jerk reaction when a celeb is pictured in a band t-shirt. 'I bet they couldn't name two songs by xxxx' we think, 'I bet they don't even know the name of the drummer' we mutter.It's a bit unfair- they might genuinely be a fan, they might love the artist's work as much as we do. And who's to say someone might not look at us in a band t-shirt and think the same?

But...

Yes, that's Paris Hilton.

We Learn Dances, Brand New Dances

I'm not sure if this is a 1977 themed week or an Iggy Pop themed week. Or if it's a theme week at all. In 1981 Grace Jones covered Nightclubbing, from Iggy's The Idiot- it was the name of the album as well as a cover of the song. Rhythm kings Sly and Robbie on bass and drums root the whole thing in dub coupled with a New Wave sheen and some hiss. In Iggy's version he's in the nightclub but dazed and distanced, an outsider looking in, numbed by party drugs. In this version Grace is imperious, glacial, in the middle of the dancefloor.

Nightclubbing

To Dusseldorf City

...meet Igy Pop and David Bowie.

The title track to their March 1977 release Trans-Europe Express. Peerless and perfect, a sound in motion. Invented pretty much everything that came after it.