Forty Minutes Of Wobble And Weatherall

I had a different thirty minute mix in mind for today but then suddenly midweek it occurred to me that the Andrew Weatherall remixes of Jah Wobble in the early 90s would be an ideal way to ease in a Sunday in mid- February. I've left the Weatherall produced, massive dub bassline of Higher Than The Sun from Screamadelica off this, just because that would tip it towards an hour and it's not strictly speaking a remix. What you have here is the Weatherall remixes of Visions Of You from 1991 and the pair of remixes Andrew did with Hugo Nicolson under the Boy's Own banner of Jah's Bomba single from 1990. The 12" of Visions Of You, released as Jah Wobble and The Invaders Of The Heart in 1991 with Sinead O'Connor on vocals, was a real moment for me. I remember vividly buying it in Power Cuts, a massive basement record shop in Manchester just off Oxford Road (behind McDonald's and what used to be Rafters, a legendary venue in Manchester's music history due to its Joy Division connections). Power Cuts sold all sorts of stuff, cheap and piled high, including a lot of import records with either the corner cut off or a hole punched in the top right hand corner. Nothing cost more than a few pounds. The Visions Of You 12" was sitting there waiting for me, 99p I think. I got it back to my rented room and put the AW side on, a twenty minute  excursion/ reconstruction, almost half an album in its own right. 

The Bomba 12" came out the previous year but I don't recall picking it up until a year or two later in Vinyl Exchange, two remixes, one either side, with Natasha Atlas on vocals. The Miles Away Mix samples Miles Davis and his Sketches Of Spain album from 1960- it was a long time before I twigged the origins of the sample and title. Despite many of you being more than familiar with all the remixes here I hope you'll find them stitched together as one piece- a global, dubby, Balearic, acid house forty minute mix- as a fine way to see Sunday in. 

Forty Minutes Of Wobble And Weatherall

• Visions Of You (The Secret Lovechild Of Hank And Johnny Mix)
• Visions Of You (Pick 'n' Mix 1)
• Visions Of You (Pick 'n' Mix 2)
• Bomba (Nonsensicus Maximus Mix)
• Bomba (Miles Away Mix)

Jazz Club

Bagging Area doesn't know much about jazz and it's not even sure what it likes. Sometime ago I found a copy of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew on double vinyl in our local Oxfam. Lovely sleeve, highly rated etc. There's a lot of it I can't make head or tail of however. I bought Sketches Of Spain years ago and can appreciate some of it, but I kind of wish he'd stop tuning up and get to the point. Or the chorus. Maybe that's missing the point. John Coltrane's A Love Supreme? I like the bit in part 4 when the vocal comes in. Bagging Area may be a bit of a jazz philistine.

Recently I read two unconnected references to Miles Davis' 1972 album On The Corner, so when I saw it cheap in Fopp recently I bought it. On The Corner has a very 1972 'street' cover and features loads of electric instruments and unjazz percussion, like tablas. I think I like this. This track, Black Satin, sounds like it could have been recorded at any time in the last forty years, with it's looped rhythm track, brass parps and poops, electric bass, off kilter instruments, and James Brown and Sly Stone influences. Two of the tracks on this album are nineteen and twenty three minutes long respectively and I'd be lying if I said I can enjoy them all the through but parts of this are growing on me.

02 Black Satin.wma