The second Bicep album, Isles, came out at the start of the year. The singles that led up to it were real favourites of mine- Atlas especially but Apricots too- but the album felt a bit flat to me, a bit samey. Maybe listening to it in the dark days of January with everything that was going in lockdown wasn't right, and the highs and lows of Isles, the euphoric synths, neon waves and clubby rhythms might be better heard now the days are getting brighter. I need to go back to it and give it another go. Bicep have since added another three tracks to the album to expand it into a deluxe edition. Siena, with vocals from Clara La San, is a bit of a turnup, a breakbeat and slow moving moody synths drone and then Clara's breathy vocal building for the first minute before the bassline takes over. It could easily spill over but the Bicep pair show some restraint here, holding back the temptation to go big instead keeping it a bit darker and more interesting.
Light is all synth stabs, chopped up vocals and hi hats. There's something about this one that reminds me of 808 State, a similar approach to beats and sounds, hard edged with tough melodies.
Meli is all textures and atmosphere, gradually growing in intensity, the bleeps and waves of sound folding in on each other, and could easily be twice as long without losing anything.
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.
In March London via Belfast duo Bicep released a new track. Inspired by their globetrotting DJ and gigging exploits it was called Atlas. After the brilliance of their 2017 album and songs like Glue and Aura at first I found Atlas a little underwhelming, a tad too familiar. Since then I've stuck it onto various mix CDs and playlists and it sounds like one of this year's gems...
A rolling beat, distant female backing vox, those euphoric/ heart tugging synthlines, it was made to be played through huge sound systems to fields of young people going nuts at sunset. Instead it has soundtracked the madness of 2020 and the world we're now in, somewhere between the last lockdown, the loosening of the summer (in some parts of the country at least, not so much round here) and whatever is coming next week- another lockdown of some description.
Last week Bicep announced the release of their second album, Isles, early next year and put out another track to complement Atlas. Apricots has a sharp kick drum, some cavernous space around the percussion and vocal samples borrowed from some traditional Malawian singers and the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir. I'm sure this kind of trance/ rave is aimed at people younger than me but it's definitely pushing my half century old buttons at the moment.
Bicep have returned with a new single, Atlas, an attempt to sum up the euphoria of their live shows from the last few years in one single nugget. Bicep deal with a very specific kind of euphoria, synths rising and falling, lights strafing the crowd, peaks and troughs, communal experiences, arms raised together. For the moment we'll all have to experience those things remotely. At first I thought Atlas was in danger of retreading old ground but it's sunk deep in now and daily plays are an isolation necessity.
It's the vernal equinox today, the first day of spring. From this point the days get longer and the nights shorter, winter's slushy greys being replaced with colour and warmth. Hallelujah.
Bicep celebrated spring on their 2017 debut album, an upbeat tune with a snappy breakbeat, piano and a haunting vocal sample.
In 1990 St Etienne's debut album also had a spring song, a sublime marriage of 60s lounge, jazzy vibes and a late 80s house rhythm. In 2009 Richard X reworked all of Foxbase Alpha, adding slightly here and there to bring it up to date. I've got to say, I don't prefer it to Foxbase Alpha, an album that stands on its own two feet just fine, but on its own terms Foxbase Beta works well enough.
This time last year two records were released, one of which I missed out from my end of 2018 list which shocks and appals me as it is a stunning piece of work. It is this one, Four Tet's remix of Bicep's Opal, an eight minute beauty built around a stuttering riff, bells and happy-sad synths. There wasn't much that came out last year that topped this.
I also re-found this, a track from Daniel Avery's Projector e.p., also out in March last year following his Song For Alpha album. There's a new album out in April, Song For Alpha 2, that pulls together all the remixes and e.p. tracks plus nine new ones (from the hundred or so he recorded that he then created the original album from). The one which grabbed me again recently is Shadow Mountain, a slow moving late night thing with waves, reverb and a snare but which turns towards the strobe part way through and becomes seriously intense.
One of the remixes included in Song For Alpha 2 is Jon Hopkins' rework of Glitter. This is a monster, centred on a massive rattling, brooding kick drum and tension that builds in waves around it. At about three minutes Hopkins starts to drip some repeating melodies in that dance around like moths circling a naked flame. Everything drops away five minutes twenty, the kick resurfaces, and then after a few seconds explodes in a burst of light and colour. Magic.
This came out last August but I only found it recently, a John Talabot remix of Marie Davidson. John Talabot is a Catalan DJ and producer who has remixed the Xx as well as releasing his own album way back in 2012. Marie Davidson is a French- Canadian producer and musician who put out an album last year called Working Class Woman on Ninja Tune (which includes a track called Workaholic Paranoid Bitch). House music from Barcelona and techno from Montreal. Talabot's remix of Davidson's So Right is a nine minute dub techno excursion, a deep dive into metronomic drums, moody synths and spectral, echoed voice. I like this a lot.
In 2014 Talabot remixed Bicep. This alternative mix was given away free somewhere- a long, somewhat bleepy version and like a lot of Talabot's remixes is a mid-tempo, mid-set sort of tune.
Albums
It looks like 2018 has been a very good year for albums, a format everyone keeps suggesting is dead or dying. Making a long list was very easy. There are albums that came out at the start of the year I'm enjoying, albums that have come out recently I'm still getting into and albums I haven't heard yet which I feel sure I should have (Beak for one, The Orielles for another and Neneh Cherry for a third).
Floating around above my top ten are all of these albums and placing them in order seems very arbitrary. All of them have brightened up my year and all are worthy of a mention- Factory Floor 'Soundtrack To A Film'; Mogwai 'Kin'; The Orb 'No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds'; Hollie Cook 'Vessel of Love'; Gwenno 'Le Kov'; J Mascis 'Elastic Days'; Tracey Thorn 'Record'; Echo Ladies 'Pink Noise'; The Advisory Circle 'Ways Of Seeing'; Half Man Half Biscuit 'No-one Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fucking Hedge Cut'. A week ago AMOR's debut album Sinking Into A Miracle arrived. If it had come out sooner I think it would have made the dozen below.
I should also mention a pair of albums out this year but not of this year- Primal Scream's Memphis Sessions, Tom Dowd's recordings left unreleased for two decades, and Joe Strummer 001, a compilation of Joe's solo years with enough newly uncovered material to make it feel like a treasure trove. Today is the sixteenth anniversary of his death and the world feels like a poorer place without him.
Previously unreleased, this is a Joe and Mick Jones song from 1986. Ten minutes inside Joe's mind with some of Big Audio Dynamite accompanying.
Albums of 2018- a top twelve Twelve
Gulp 'All Good Wishes'
Ace kraut-folk from Wales, full of invention and melody. Eleven
Rival Consoles 'Persona'
Perfectly judged laptop electronic dance music that works just as well at home/in the car. Very rhythmic and abstract in places but never without tunes.
Ten
Finiflex 'Suilven'
A 2018 return for the duo from Fini Tribe- an album named after a mountain, aimed at the head and the feet with multi-tracked vocals, synths and chugging electronic drums. Uplifting and fresh.
Nine
The Liminanas 'Shadow People'
Ten songs from France's best kept secret, ten versions of a psych-folk-Velvets-1960s for the modern world.
Eight
Chris Carter 'Chemistry Lessons 1'
Twenty five short electronic pieces- dance music, ambient, reflective industrial tracks, littered with found voices and shot through with melody. Brilliant and warm.
Seven
Jon Hopkins 'Singularity'
Starting and finishing with the same note, a sort of cosmic joke, and between the two some of the year's wildest techno and electronic tracks (especially the ten minute journey of Everything Connected) plus some very beautiful minor key piano pieces.
Six
Mr Fingers 'Cerebral Hemispheres'
This record has been a bit overlooked I feel, a double album by one of the men who invented house music. He spreads it around on this in a multitude of styles and the peaks are very peaky. Acid peaks Techno peaks, Dub techno peaks. All sorts of peaks.
Five
Spiritualized '...And Nothing Hurt'
If this ends up being the last Spiritualized album then Jason has finished it in fine Spaceman style. Bleak in places but well worth committing too and an album that rewards with repeated plays.
Four
The Lucid Dream 'Actualisation'
They blew me away at Gorilla in September- I was expecting them to be good after the single SX1000 early on in the year but not that good. The album then followed it up in spades, a perfectly 2018 cut-and-shut job combining acid house, psych-rock and dub.
Three
Gabe Gurnsey 'Physical'
The sound of a night out, late 80s drum machines, synths and some impressionistic vocals parts. Funky and sexy, and drenched in the smells of clubs- cig butts, dry ice, perfume and sweat.
Two
Daniel Avery 'Song For Alpha'
Minimal techno, buckets of reverb and some lovely ambient noise, designed to be listened to from start to finish, packaged beautifully and utterly absorbing.
One
Wooden Shjips 'V'
In a year when most of my favourite and most played albums have been electronic and dance music based the album sitting at the top of my list is the fifth lp from San Francisco's rocker Wooden Shjips, setting out on a trip through their record collections (psychedelia, stoner grooves, krautrock) but done with a lightness of touch and some real earworm melodies. Ripley's guitar playing and his tone are as good as anyone since the turn of the century. Why do I like this so much? It makes me happy.
Singles/remixes/e.p.s
There have been so many great songs, singles, remixes and eps this year that I could easily extend the length of this list but 40 seems like enough (and although his name appears all over the place below I have actually left some Weatherall tracks out of this). There are probably things I've forgotten too that I'll kick myself about next week. In the meantime here's a second list...
40. Johnny Marr 'Hi Hello'
39. audiobooks. 'Dance Your Life Away' Andrew Weatherall remix
38. A Certain Ratio ft Barry Adamson 'Dirty Boy'
37. The Liminanas ft Peter Hook 'The Gift'
36. Timothy J. Fairplay 'An Introduction To Consumer Electronics' ep
35. Field Of Dreams 'Nothing Is Perfect' original and Andrew Weatherall remix
34. Aphex Twin 'T69 Collapse'
33. The Twilight Sad 'Videograms' Andrew Weatherall remix
32. Steve Mason 'Walking Away From Love'
31. The Long Now 'Restoration'
30. Underworld and Iggy Pop 'Teatime Dub Encounters'
29. Echo Ladies 'Overrated' Robin Guthrie version
28. Daniel Avery/Jon Hopkins remix 12"
27. Hardway Bros 'The Laser' ep
26. Tracey Thorn 'Sister' Andrew Weatherall remix and dub
25. Factory Floor 'Heart Of Data'
24. Lost Cat 'Postcode'
23. The Vryll Society 'Light At The Edge Of The World' Richard Norris Dub
22. Gabe Gurnsey 'Eyes Over'/Eyes Over Extended Dub
21. Bob Mould 'Sunshine Rock'
20. Noel Gallagher and His High Flying Birds 'It's A Beautiful World' Andrew Weatherall remixes
19. Ride 'Tomorrow's Shore' ep
18. Roisin Murphy 'Plaything'
17. Rude Audio 'Rude Redux' ep
16. Daniel Avery 'Slow Fade' ep
15. Woodleigh Research Facility 'Heilige Siedhr'
14. Marius Circus 'I Feel Space' 12"
13. Craig Bratley '99.9' ep especially Take Me To Bedford Or Lose Me Forever
12. Daniel Avery 'A Quick Eternity' Four Tet Remix
11. Mogwai 'We're Not Done'
Ten
Circle Sky 'If I Let Go'
Richard Norris and Martin Dubka slipped this single out, a totally beguiling song from the heart of a very human sounding machine.
Nine
Lana del Rey 'Venice Bitch'
This took the top of my head off a couple of months ago- ten minutes of lullaby vocals about being 'fresh out of fucks forever', of being together and apart, some gorgeous atmospherics and a stunning guitar part.
Eight
The Lucid Dream 'SX1000'
Roland synths banged all the way up, bassline from '89- acid house reinvention from Carlisle.
Seven
Amy Douglas 'Never Saw It Coming'/Crooked Man remix and dub
Straight out of New York and remixed and dubbed out of Sheffield, September's moment of late autumn sunshine Balearica.
Six
Gabe Gurnsey 'Ultra Clear Sound'
A direct and sleek single ahead of the album back in May. A proper heads up moment. Five
Andrew Weatherall 'Making Friends With The Invader'
From a two track 12" called Blue Bullet, a long exploration of dub and guitar that I cannot get bored of hearing. The other side is pretty smart too. Four
The Confidence Man 'Out The Window' Andrew Weatherall remix
Weatherall's had another excellent year as this list shows and this remix is up there with his recent best, a gorgeous gospel/rave/steel guitar tribute to staying out all night and coming home as the sun comes up. Three
Death In Vegas 'Honey'
Ten minutes of sleek, seductive techno from Richard Fearless and Sasha Grey. What 12 inches of vinyl was made for.
Two
Circle Sky 'Ghost In the Machine'
I thought If I Let Go was good but this one worked its way into me a few weeks ago and refuses to leave. Futuristic and cool as fuck, deep and light and magical. One
Roisin Murphy 'All My Dreams'
Roisin has blazed a trail through 2018 with four 12" singles recorded with Maurice Fulton, eight songs designed to work on the floor, covering a bewildering array of electronic styles. If there's a better song out this year that this one, I haven't heard it. Massive drums and bass, experimental dance music but still with a foot in pop and some great juddering shifting sections where the floor seems to give way beneath you. By way of explaining Roisin sings 'ridiculously sexy, this is ridiculous'. Ridiculously good. For good measure she directed four videos too and this one looks like good club nights feel.
Edit: I forgot this one- Four Tet's remix of Bicep's Opal, an end of year listmaker without a shadow of a doubt.
I got in from work yesterday to an email from Bicep promoting the release of a new ep. The first two songs are Rain and an edit of Rain. Rain was on their their debut album from last year but it's always a treat to hear it- a few minutes of euphoria. Luke Wyatt has produced a new video for it, a mix of film footage, glitches and effects. It is very trippy and in places may/will freak you out.
The ep comes with a new track called Helix- a big kick drum, washes of warmth and modular synth bleeps. Listen on the Bandcamp player and then buy here.
Bicep's Opal, a track from last year's debut album, has been remixed by Four Tet. This isn't a full scale overhaul or re-working, but more of a subtle job- some tweaks, some filters, the whole thing stretched out with some of the melodies pulled to the fore.
In 2016 Bicep remixed 808 State's 1991 In Yer Face, taking the almost ambient two chord synth part and looping it (with that vocal sample slowed down). It gets busier in the second half, an updated version of '91, fine tuned for modern times with Bicep's trademark warmth. I can imagine it going down very well in the right places.
I'm not sure 808 State always get their dues when Manchester bands are ranked, rated and discussed. They made records that were as much part of the place as many of the more famous guitar bands and many of them have stood the test of time too. Here's the original version of In Yer Face from Ex:El.
Nope, I'm not entirely sure what is going on in the pictured Bagging Area either.
Albums
2017 seems to have been a good year for music. Making a list of 15 favourite albums was easy, an average of more than one a month- and in the end I got to 18. I'm sure there are loads of good albums I haven't heard too. These are the ones that pushed my buttons the most.
18 Monolife 'Sandalphon'
17 Peter Perrett 'How The West Was Won'
16 The Charlatans 'Different Days'
15 Hannah Peel 'Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia'
14 Steve Cobby 'Hemidemisemiquaver'
13 Timothy J. Fairplay 'Where Is The Champion'
12 The Replacements 'For Sale: Live At Maxwell's' (30 years old but first official release)
11 Ride 'Weather Diaries' (especially Cali, which soundtracked the end of August perfectly)
10 Slowdive 'Slowdive'
9 Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band 'Adios senor Pussycat'
8 Mogwai 'Every Country's Sun' (especially Party In The Dark, a number one in another universe)
7 Bicep 'Bicep'
6 The Jesus And Mary Chain 'Damage And Joy'
The top 5 are interchangeable in terms of positions, each one could be my number one in its own way.
Moon Duo 'Occult Architecture Vol 1' and 'Occult Architecture Vol 2'.
Released a couple of months apart as separate but linked records, the flip sides of each other, the light and the shade. Vol 2 is as light and up as anything they've done and is a treat but the dark side of the Vol 1 is often its equal. Motorik drumming, mellifluous guitar parts, analogue synths- psyche rock with electronics, blissed out and dreamy.
Andrew Weatherall 'Qualia'
Over the last couple of years Weatherall has hit another purple patch, with releases all over the place- singles, remixes, albums, dubs... Qualia is an 8 track joy, synths and guitars over live drums and loops, buzzing and propulsive, determinedly European in sound and full of vim. And just when you think he might be playing within himself, he throws in something like Soft Estates, a harking back to TLS's minimal electro, or Vorfreude 2, with lounge backing vocals cooing over massive sounding drums and wiggly keyboard lines.
Jane Weaver 'Modern Kosmology'
A hit of summer, psyche, folk, glam, kraut and pop all bound up in one ten song record.
Kelly Lee Owens 'Kelly Lee Owens'
I bought this almost on a whim in Piccadilly Records at the start of the year (and it's their album of the year). Kelly's debut is a beautiful blend of woozy electronics, ambient textures with both pop and techno at its heart. The slow motion build of some of the songs contrasted perfectly with the rhythmic pulse of the others. Closing track 8, extended over nine and half minutes, is a trip into a dream world.
Singles/e.p.s/remixes
Yes, there are quite a lot of Andrew Weatherall records in this list. There are individual songs off all of the albums listed above that could make this list but for the sake of brevity I've kept it to stand alone releases. It starts with a summer holiday earworm courtesy of the daughter and the then latest NOW! compilation and ends with Aura by Bicep which, especially in its 12" form, sums up everything that is great about electronic dance music.
35 Miley Cyrus 'Malibu'
34 Gorillaz 'Andromeda'
33 Paul Weller 'Mother Ethiopia'
32 Lorde 'Green Light'
31 Fort Beulah N.U. 3 one sided 12" singles that I'm taking together- '1', '2' and '3'
30 Phil Kieran 'No Life' Roman Flugel remix
29 Trentemoller and Jenny Lee 'Hands Up'
28 Confidence Man 'Bubblegum' Andrew Weatherall Remix
27 AMOR 'Paradise'
26 Kid Wave 'Everything Changes'
25 Doc Daneeka and Robert Owens 'LUV UNLTD'
24 Calexico 'Voices In The Field'
23 Konzel 'Haptic Didactic'
22 Finiflex 'Ta Ta Oo Ha'
21 Andrew Weatherall 'Kaif'
20 Duncan Gray ft Sarah Rebecca 'Erotica Nervosa'
19 Heart People 'Voices' Andrew Weatherall Remix
18 Nancy Noise 'Kaia/Azizi's Dance' Remix e.p.
17 Phil Kieran 'Find Love' Andrew Weatherall Remix
16 Jagwar Ma 'Give Me A Reason' Remixes
15 Charlotte Gainsbourg 'Deadly Valentine'
14 Andrew Weatherall 'Kiyadub' ep
13 Gulp 'Morning Velvet Sky' single/Richard Norris Remix
12 Justin Robertson 'Numerical Discord Swap'
11 The Charlatans 'Different Days' Chris and Cosey Remix
10 Halina Rice 'Drive' single/Richard Norris Remix
9 Mark Lanegan Band 'Beehive' Andrew Weatheral Remix
8 The Early Years 'Hall Of Mirrors' Andrew Weatherall Mixes 1 and 2
7 Ride 'Pulsar'
6 Bicep 'Glue'
5 Alien Stadium 'Livin' In Elizabethan Times' ep
4 Yello 'Frautonium' The Andrew Weatherall Remixes (4 of them but especially Warehouse)
3 Richard Fearless 'Sweet Venus'
2 BP Fallon and David Holmes 'Henry McCullough' Andrew Weatherall Remix
1 Bicep 'Aura' 12" Mix
Bicep's new album, Bicep, is getting a lot of my listening time right now. Bicep, a duo from Belfast but now in London, began as a blog, became a dj pair and then moved into production, inspired by artists like Aphex Twin and Laurent Garnier. This track, out back in June, is a perfect introduction to their sound- starting out sparse and becoming a heady trip, synths buzzing and blipping. The second half takes things down and then back up. If you've got any interest in electronic music or dance music and believe in the possibility of techno/house/electro still having somewhere new to go, give it a spin. Out now on Ninja Tune.
Down on the Atlantic coast at the south west of France the sunsets are, to put it mildly, pretty spectacular and beautiful. Gathering on the beach each night to watch the sun sink into the sea was a ritual for a lot of the holiday makers down there and the locals too. The light that the sun threw out as it descended into the distance was stunning too.
While queuing at Portsmouth trying to get out of the ferry port on Wednesday night I stuck Radio One on, not something I do very often. We got the last twenty minutes of Annie Mac's show where she mainly talked about the recent Radio One Ibiza weekender and played a few tracks, one of which sounded brilliant, a real sundowner (or sun-upper) of a track. And while going through four hundred plus emails yesterday I got one promoting the track in question- Bicep's Glue. Bicep area an Irish duo, bloggers and djs and now makers of music too. Glue has a breakbeat with some reverb on it and then some lovely synths. All warm and blissful. Out now digitally with an album in September.
