Forty Minutes Of Spiritualized

I've been going back through some of this year's albums and playing them again. Spiritualized's Everything Was Beautiful is one of them, the second part of Jason's double offering to go with 2018's And Nothing Hurt. Both still sound like a real return to form, the guitars, horns and rhythms all exactly as they should be and Jason's spaceman voice more wracked than ever. Today's mix is a bunch of Spiritualized songs and remixes, not quite chosen randomly from my hard rive but definitely not intended as a best of, more of a set of songs that flow together. The back catalogue is so deep and wide that I have a feeling I could compile multiple Spiritualized mixes and not get near a definitive one- so it is just what it is, a set of songs that sound good together. 

Forty Minutes Of Spiritualized

• Goldfrapp: Monster Love (Goldfrapp Vs Spiritualized)
• Spiritualized: I Think I'm In Love (Chemical Brothers Vocal Remix)
• Spiritualized: Come Together (Live At the Royal Albert Hall)
• Spiritualized: The Mainline Song
• Cut Copy: Free Your Mind (Spiritualized Version)
• LFO: Tied Up (Spiritualized Electric Mainline Remix)
• Spiritualized: Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space (Original Unreleased Mix)

Goldfrapp v Spiritualized was one of the B-sides from a Goldfrapp CD single, Happiness, in 2008. 

The Chemical Brothers remix of I Think I'm In Love came out in 1997, one of the Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space singles. Spiritualized Live At The Royal Albert Hall is from the same year, a full on space rock extravaganza

The Mainline Song is from this year's Everything Is Beautiful. 

Jason's remix of the Cut Copy song came out in 2013, with a new vocal from Jason and guitars, organ, noise and repetition combining to produce what is essentially a new Spiritualized song.  

The remix of LFO, nine minutes of soundwaves, drones and oscillating ambient techno bliss is from 1994. 

The unreleased original mix of the title track of Ladies and Gentlemen... dates from 1997 and fell foul of the Elvis Presley estate who didn't like the borrowing of a line from Can't Help Falling In Love With You. More fool them. 

Slow Down Speedy

Back in 1992 LFO were the kings of bleep/ techno. This track was (I think) only released as part of a book with free CD (or CD with free book) series called Volume and manages to be both fast and slow (as the title suggests), dark Chicago house and Detroit techno re- envisaged in early 90s West Yorkshire. Bedroom technology and a deep mineshaft of imagination. 

Slow Down Speedy

Low Frequency Dub

Rich Lane has done this cover of LFO's mighty 1990 bleep 'n' bass track LFO, the 12" that showed British techno was something special and able to stand on its own two feet, with its own character and feel that stood apart from Detroit. Rather than just re-edit it or use samples Rich has rebuilt it from scratch, keeping the original's power and mystery but giving it a nudge into late 2018. The bassline alone is enough to improve my mood.

Low Frequency Oscilator

You could use all kind of superlatives to describe this record. Released in July 1990 it is a landmark British house record in the same way that Voodoo Ray is, a British version of a sound from elsewhere that could only have come from British bedroom and backroom producers fired up by the scenes of 1988-90. Warp Records was supposedly formed specifically to release this record, heavy on bass and bleeps, rattling drum machines and the voice intoning 'L.F.O.'. Warp would go on to release further great records in the aftermath of this one- Testone, Tricky Disco, Tuff Little Unit, other records by LFO- but they are all somewhat in its shadow. It was also a genuine hit, reaching number 12 in the chart (at a time when that meant selling tens of thousands of records).

LFO (Leeds Warehouse Mix)

Squeaky

I mentioned LFO yesterday so it seems appropriate to follow up with something from their back catalogue. LFO were a Leeds based duo (Jez Varley and Mark Bell) who put out bass heavy techno and bleep 'n' bass on Sheffield's Warp Records. This track is a monster, the first track on their 1991 ep What Is House? Not as sparse as yesterday's Testone, Squeaky has a long, winding, descending synth noise, tough drums and lashings of sub-bass. Pretty abstract and in many ways quite extreme.

Squeaky

Jez left in 1996 leaving Mark on his own as LFO. He went on to work extensively with Bjork, remixing her and becoming part of her band for her Homogenic and Volta tours. This remix of Possibly Maybe chops up and distorts Bjork so much it bears little relation to the original song. Sadly, Mark Bell died in 2014.

Tied Up

The 1990s frequently brought together strange bedfellows in remix terms- this 1994 release saw Spiritualized take on the Leeds bleep techno of LFO. Nine minutes of white noise and ambient drones. Lovely stuff.

Tied Up (Spiritualized Electric Mainline Remix)

Mark Bell

It's been announced today that Mark Bell of techno pioneers LFO died last week of complications following an operation.
RIP Mark.


Run out groove 'Mind those speakers'.