Necronomicon

Sometimes the internet is a wonderful thing. Someone posted this on Facebook and I've been mildly obsessed with it for a few days now. In 1994 Nina Walsh launched Sabrettes, a record label that was an offshoot of the Sabres Of Paradise record label (she also registered the Sabrettes tartan seen above with The Scottish Register Of Tartans but that's a side issue here).

Innersphere made techno. In 1994 they released an album called Outer Works and three 12" singles. One of them, Necronomicon, was remixed by Sabres Of Paradise on one side and David Holmes on the other. This is the David Holmes remix but played at 33 rpm rather than 45 but then pitched up to +8, stretched out for over eleven minutes. It is head nodding heaven and totally absorbing- a looped bassline, some long keening sounds, a wiggly acid squiggle, all very hypnotic. You can lose yourself inside it very easily.



Just for comparison here's the Holmes remix played at the intended speed, 45 rpm- still good but considerably more banging in tempo and 1994 attitude.

Out Of Body

Innersphere's Out Of Body is a 1995 ambient classic- over nine minutes long, a shuffling drumbeat, rippling pianos, squelchy bass, spine tingling stuff all told. It came out on Sabrettes with an Andrew Weatherall remix on the B-side. Weatherall's version is a less optimistic, more paranoid take. There's a high pitched noise that is there more or less all the way through, like a radio not tuned in right, the pianos have been spooked and three quarters of the way through the whole thing turns when a voice asks 'Can I come in please?'

Out Of Body (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Repetitive Beats 2 (And Man Ray)

Also from the Repetitive Beats remixes e.p. came this offering from The Lords Of Afford (Weatherall and Dave Hedger). From the techno end of Weatherall's output. They don't call 'em repetitive beats for nothing.

Repetitive Beats (Wasteland Britain- Lords Of Afford)

Today's Man Ray portrait is celebrated Catalan sculptor and painter Joan Miro, sporting a haircut that might have got him sent home from school until it grew out a bit.

My monthly Boxnet bandwidth is now over limit so I've sneaked back to mediafire for the next couple of days.

Repetitive Beats (And Man Ray)

In 1994 the Conservative government attempted to crack down on rave culture by bringing in a piece of legislation making it illegal to hold a gathering of a people listening to music characterised by repetitive beats. That's right- they were looking to outlaw drum patterns when played in public. This led to various protests including a pair of e.p.s by a collective called Retribution (The Drum Club and Steve Hillage mainly, with Sabrettes' Nina Walsh). The track- called Repetitive Beats obviously, released on Sabrettes - was then remixed by a variety of repetitive beat offenders, including Andrew Weatherall, Adrian Sherwood and On U Sound, Secret Knowledge, and Primal Scream (who turned in a somewhat lazy, drug-rock cover version of The Clash's Know Your Rights). Adrian Sherwood's dubbed up remix here features the talents of vocalists Little Axe and Bim Sherman and is probably the pick of the bunch.

Repetitive Beats (Mind And Movement On U Sound)

Man Ray picture- Lee Miller, photographed here in 1930s Paris, who led an extraordinary life. Lee moved from the US to Paris, having modelled for Vogue in the early 20s, becoming a photographer after inventing solarisation with Man Ray (by accident), leaving him to become a fine art and fashion photographer and then becoming Vogue's European war correspondent during World War II, accompanying the US army across France and into Germany after D-Day. She was the only female photographer at the liberation of Dachau and Buchenwald. She also found time before the war to hang about with Picasso and Jean Cocteau. Not your average CV.

Boxnet bandwidth was at 95% last night so will shortly be exceeded I reckon. Get you d/ls quick if you want them.