Inner Flight

When Alan McGee told Primal Scream to turn their run of singles in 1990- 1991 into an album the end result was Screamadelica. The singles that led to it were era- defining and a total change of course for a band who were first 60s indie janglers and then Stooges style rockers. Taken together the singles- Loaded (I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have remixed/ demolished by Andrew Weatherall), Come Together (an epochal Weatherall mix and a summer sun kissing, Elvis referencing Terry Farley version), Higher Than The Sun (various Weatherall mixes and an eight minute Orb mix) and Don't Fight It, Feel It (Weatherall and Hugo Nicolson again at the helm, no guitars, no Bobby, Denise Johnson singing)- are a compilation released together. Add Movin' On Up, a Jimmy Miller Rolling Stones/ gospel fantasy made real, and you still have a series of singles. Slip Inside This House almost sounds like another single, a tripped out acid house cover of The 13th Floor Elevators with Throb singing. It's the rest of songs that turn Screamadelica from an all- the- hits 1991 compilation to an album, sequenced to work from start to finish, a trip/ journey unfolding over four sides of vinyl. I'm Coming Down and Damaged are a pair of ballads, one a Pharaoh Saunders influenced hit of  comedown and the other a country blues, a pair of album tracks that give the album a different pace and vibe. The glue that holds it all together are the other two Weatherall / Nicolson songs, Inner Flight and Shine Like Stars. I'll come back to Shine Like Stars, the perfect closer for Screamadelica another time- instead here is Inner Flight.

Inner Flight

Hugo Nicolson provided the studio nous and production skills for Weatherall to translate the spirit of the times and his encyclopaedic record collection into recordings. Inner Flight is a trippy, Pet Sounds on ecstasy instrumental, floating in and floating on, a circling melody line and some stellar, wordless ooh ooh ahhh backing vocals drifting in (sampled partly from C.B. Cook along with some drums from Dr. John's Gris Gris). If you listen to the last forty seconds of this 1974 song from Brian Eno you'll spot where Andrew pilfered the sound effect from for Inner Flight's intro as well. 

Dr. John Is Gone

Every week seems to bring another RIP, another musical maverick gone. This week brings the news of the death of Dr. John (Mac Rebennack). In 1968 he recorded the album Gris Gris, a debut that built a completely self contained world, swampy rhythm n blues, Louisiana voodoo, New Orleans funk and psychedelic rock. Sonically it is far out, voices appearing suddenly out of the mix, ominous and acidic, with tales of witchdoctors and curses, Dr. John's slurred drawl winding its way though the songs, the lyrics a mixture of Creole, patois and slang. A spooky listen if played late at night in the gloom but a brilliant, innovative and individual record. This song works on any compilation or mixtape, a genuinely brilliant song- 'Je suis the Grand Zombie... with the King of the Zulu'

I Walk On Gilded Splinters

He reappears in my record collection a few times- a CD compilation album spanning his career up to the 90s with Iko Iko, Right Place Wrong Time and Junco Partner. In the 90s he played on Spiritualized's Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, a record that deals with drug addiction, something Mac Rebennack knew about having fled to London in the 80s to kick his own heroin addiction. In 2012 an album recorded with Dan Auerbach which recaptured some of the Gris Gris spirit and sound. RIP Dr John, the Night Tripper.

Dr And Spaceman

Dr John, the Night Tripper, released Gris Gris back in 1968, still the spookiest New Orleans, gumbo voodoo rock album ever. Not rock music at all really, more a bad but funky r'n'b trip. Walk On Gilded Splinters is in a field of it's own. He's got a new album out called Locked Down, recorded with The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, which I haven't got but am tempted by come payday. Which is today. Hurrah!

This song Gris Gris was given away on an NME cd in the late 90s, remixed by another psychedelic explorer J Spaceman of Spiritualized (who also have a new album out, which I don't have but am tempted by). I'm sure I've got the cd somewhere but couldn't find it. I found the remix at ireallylikemusic and I hope the original poster doesn't mind me re-presenting it.

Gris Gris (J Spaceman Mix)

But I Know They Must Be Crazy

To compare and contrast here's the Dr John version of I Walk On Gilded Splinters, from his deranged Gris Gris album (1968). This is bizarre voodoo music, with chanting, voices jumping out of the mix, Dr John's own gravelly vocal, tom tom drums, weird instrumentation and general craziness. Late at night, in semi-darkness, a little wine imbibed, this song can spook a little.

i_walk_on_gilded_splinters.mp3

Some People Think They Jive Me

That Weatherall Screamadelica show on 6 Mix on Sunday night revealed a wide range of influences on the making of the album, from PiL to dub, Can, proto acid house, Eno, The Delfonics, Suicide and Dennis Wilson and more. It's widely available at blogs all over the place (have a look at the links on the right, or head straight to the reborn Ripped In Glasgow). One of the tracks Weatherall played was this one- I Walk On Gilded Splinters by Johnny Jenkins. I've had the Dr John original for years, an 18 carot gold song if ever there was one, but had never heard this version by Johnny Jenkins from his Ton-Ton Macoute! album. So a little internet jiggery-pokery and voila- I Walk On Gilded Splinters by Johnny Jenkins. Jenkins employed a young Otis Redding, and later played with Duane Allman, who contributes some wild guitar to this. Top stuff.

Johnny Jenkins - I Walk On Gilded Splinters.mp3