Sundial

Bicep's second album Isles is imminent and this new song just came out ahead of it, a simmering, slow burn piece of 21st century dance music. Sundial is built around a faulty Jupiter 6 arp and a vocal sample from a 1973 Bollywood film, sung by Asha Bhosle. For all the euphoria of Bicep's music, all the peaks and builds, there's also a sadness to it, the melancholic flipside of hedonism. They know nothing lasts forever and that the night always comes to an end. At the moment, given the state we're in, it's almost too much- there is no night out, no communal dancing, no shared moments- but they also manage to offer the promise of better days ahead. 

O Je Suis Seul

Here's another 'I was looking for that but then I found this' post. I was looking for an mp3 of West Bam's Alarm Clock and couldn't find it so did a search for 'West' and this came up- West India Company's O Je Suis Seul (remixed in 1989 by Andrew Weatherall and on the flipside by Weatherall with Alex Paterson). I wasn't intending to do another Weatherall related post so soon after the previous one but it's a go-with-the-flow time of year right now.

West India Company were an interesting mix of people, including Vince Clarke (from Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure, above left), Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe (from Blancmange, above centre and right respectively) and the legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle, and they set about making synth pop with Indian rhythms and instruments in the mid 80s. By '89 they were heading housewards. Weatherall and Paterson lived in neighbouring flats in Battersea and presumably they crossed paths somewhere. The Bhagwan Boogie Mix is a chuggy ambient house tune, peppered with Indian percussion and has an appearance of that 'Yep, I know that feeling' sample which Weatherall would re-use on Screamadelica. The Orient Express Mix is a bit more abstract and disembodied, more Orb-like in fact.

O Je Suis Seul (Baghwan Boogie Mix)

O Je Suis Seul (Orient Express Mix)