Jesse Fahnestock and Emilia Harmony's new musical outfit Electric Blue Vision release a four track EP today on Brighton's Higher Love label, making a late dash for those lists that people are busy compiling at this point in the year. Jesse sent me a version of the original mix of Other Skies a while back and I was smitten from first play, the swirly organ intro and warm thud of bass joined by Emilia's whispery vocals, everything a lovely hazy shade of blue but tinged with some yellow and amber.
Jesse has said he was aiming high with Other Skies, looking to Higher Than The Sun and One Dove's Fallen for inspiration. Other Skies has that widescreen, wide eyed ambient/ psychedelic feel, the drums and bass pushing it along but it has a sense of drift and yearning in the vocals too, Emilia singing, 'Can you help me to find my way? Do you know the way back home? I'm ready to go, I said I'm ready to go...'. It's late at night, the venue's closed and moved everyone left at the bar out onto the pavement, the streets are cold and lonely, home is calling. It's a lovely song and I can't recommend it enough.
If you're not convinced by all of that, there are three remixes to turn your head. Balearic Ultras give it some heavy bass, drums and FX, filtering everything through a heat haze stripped back and minimal. The Tambores En Benirras remix goes for shimmer and shimmy, a slo mo thud of kick drum, twinkles of guitar and echoes all over the voices, a few lines isolated, 'up down spin me round', nodding in New Order's direction, and there's a piano line near the end that sends shivers up and down the central nervous system. Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray join forces again as Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown, a dubbed out, melodica led stomp, percussion rattling round and Emilia looped into infinity. The bass of Wobble and the ghost of Augustus Pablo battling it out in other skies.
You can (and should) buy the Other Skies EP is here.
Duncan Gray's latest track, available here for just £1, is a monster, an eight minute epic that slides in and then starts snarling, the bassline growling and showing its tusks. Walrus was recorded back in July and is out now. It sounds like it emerged from the sea to make its presence known, weighs half a ton and will return to the choppy waters as soon as it's finished with you.
Duncan's label Tici Taci has been celebrating ten years in the business of releasing chuggy dancefloor based electronic/ dub/ slo mo/ cosmic tracks. By nature much of this kind of music is ephemeral, made for the dancefloor but not necessarily intended to last. It's remarkable how much of Volume 1 and Volume 2 has withstood ten years and still sounds fresh. The latest release, Volume 3, is tracks from more recent times, with many artists who have featured here in the last few years- Welsh cosmiche/ indie dancers The Long Champs, Tirana's Balearic Uj Pa Gaz, Duncan and Ian Weatherall's own Sons Of Slough, the brilliantly named Boy Division, plus Field Of Dreams, Martin Eve and Jack Butters. You can buy Tici Taci Decade Volume 3 here.
A couple of samples from Volume 3 to whet your whistle (but you could dip into any of the sixteen tracks and hit gold). This is Martin Eve's Night Train featuring the talents of Fluke's Jon Fugler. Martin is immune suppressed, has been seriously unwell and been isolating since Covid hit in 2020. His continued cheeriness in the face of this coupled with his righteous ire at the way some people have been left behind since the government deemed Covid to be over, is inspiring. For Martin and half a million people like him (and for us, who lost a son to Covid) it's not over. Night Train is a gorgeous slice of slinky chug- house to make the next seven minutes seem better.
Men Of Letters came out on The Long Champs album Straight To Audio, an album I raved about in 2020. Men Of Letters is a sunrise kind of moment, pattering drums and glistening guitar lines, everything heading upwards as the early morning mist burns off.
There's an enormous five disc edition of The Wicker Man out this week, a 50th anniversary celebration of the film. The box contains three versions of the film (Director's Cut, Theatrical Cut and The Final Cut) along with all manner of extras- interviews, trailers, documentaries, commentaries and photographs. There's more info at the BFI shop. The final disc is a CD which has grown from a Katy J Pearson cover of Willow's Song which was on her Sound Of The Morning album. Willow's Song is from the film and supposedly sung by Britt Eckland, played by the band Magnet (Britt apparently struggled to hold a tune even when equipped with a bucket and Willow's Song was actually sung by Rachel Verney. Or possibly Annie Ross). Written by composer Paul Giovanni, Willow's Song is haunted 1973 psychedelic folk, genuinely beautiful, a moment of calm with a darkness residing inside it too.
Katy J Pearson's cover is psychedelic/ motorik, a krauty four four beat kicking up and echo laden guitar. As well as Willow's Song the box contains several other songs from the film covered by Katy.
The CD also contains a pair of new versions of Katy's Willow's Song, one a far more folky cover done with alt- folk group Broadside Hacks, the acoustic guitars and folk arrangement transporting it back to Summerisle in 1973 with visions of Edward Woodward, pagan rituals and Britt.
The other is a seven minute remix by Richard Norris, a slowed down dub folk remix with long trumpet notes and deep bass. Katy's voice eventually glides in on top, floating over the dubness. Richard's recent immersion into dub sounds and production as seen in his new Oracle Sound label, is paying off massively with this remix, a track crying out for a vinyl release.
Credit where it is due- earlier this week Khayem featured the Richard Norris remix over at Dubhed as part of a 2023 mix he put together, marking the slow fade from summer to autumn. All three versions of Katy J Pearson's cover have the shiver of autumn about them, the dusk falling sooner and the mornings cooler and mistier even if the trees are still full of green leaves.
Back at the tail end of 2021 Sean Johnston put Hardway Bros aside for a while and released a cover of Willow's Song as The Summerisle Trio, a collective formed with Duncan Gray and singer Sarah Rebecca (later expanded to The Summerisle Six for the This Is Something 12"). Willow's Song was only available as 7" vinyl on Golden Lion Sounds, backed with The Emperor Machine's chunky self explanatory dancefloor monster Dance Your Tit Out. The Summerisle Trio's cover is less folky than Katy's cover, the drum machine and synths casting an electronic shimmer behind the vocal. You can listen to it here.
I've spent the last two Friday nights getting the train from Manchester Victoria up to Todmorden, a twenty five minute train journey that drops me off a two minute walk from The Golden Lion, a pub (run by the most brilliant and generous hosts Waka and Gig) in a small town in West Yorkshire variously described as a portal, the vortex and the best pub in the world.
On Friday 12th August Paul Simonon and Dan Donovan were due to play a DJ set. I bought a ticket back in March, the prospect of being in a pub with the bass player from The Clash too tantalising to miss out on. The Lion was busy from late afternoon, the crowd eagerly anticipating an evening with former members of the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite. News came through from London that Paul was unable to travel due a back injury. Dan Donovan stepped up solo and played a blinder, spinning reggae, dub and dancehall to the packed pub and later on some Clash songs. One of the many highlights of Dan's set was this 1985 Barrington Levy song...
I missed the last hour due to the train times back to Manchester- last train out of Tod is at 12.06am- and the need to connect with the last tram out of the city centre but it was a very good night. Hopefully Paul can make the trek north at some point to play at The Lion. One of the sights of the evening was the appearance of a giant sloth working its way through the pub just before Dan took to the decks. It seemed perfectly natural and exactly as things should be.
Last Friday, 19th August, was a long planned tenth birthday party for Duncan Gray's Tici Taci label, a night with the mighty Sons Of Slough (Duncan and Andrew Weatherall's brother Ian) playing a live set upstairs with a Hardway Bros/ Monkton DJ set afterwards downstairs (Hardway Bros being Sean Johnston and Monkton being Duncan). Chris Rotter and Rusty provided warm up DJ duties, chilled tunes for those in the back room and beer garden.
Sons Of Slough played to a packed room, heat dripping off the walls and ceiling by the end. They kicked off proceedings with their cover of New Order's In A Lonely Place, a song they released as a tribute to Andrew back in 2021 as IWDG, Ian dedicating the song to his brother and then taking up melodica.
In A Lonely Place is a moody song, New Order finding their way out after the death of Ian Curtis. Andrew was a huge fan of Factory and early New Order. Ian and Duncan's cover adds some hefty 21st century bottom end to the song and a slo mo acid house rhythm. The only line from Bernard's original lyrics that made it into the final IWDG version is 'how I wish you were here with me', a poignant one for obvious reasons.
After In A Lonely Place Sons Of Slough played a seamless, non-stop set of acid house, electro, oompty boompty music, songs from their 2021 Bring Me Sunshine album, synths, keyboards, vocoder, melodica, guitar and laptop put through the Lion's top class sound system.
Downstairs Sean Johnston had made a start playing songs, waiting for Duncan to join him. The whole pub becomes a club once night falls, the mirrorball bouncing beams around the stone walls and floor. The crowd at The Golden Lion are, without fail, friendly and lovely people, everyone up for a good time, a cross generational smiley crew who want to dance.
Sean played Jah Wobble and Sinead O'Connor's Visions Of You early on and some slow paced stuff before Duncan joined him and they started to ramp it up a bit, playing back to back, thumpy, wiggy acid house/ dub disco tracks spanning the last four decades including Secret Circuit's Jungle Dogs (Tiago Remix), Liaisons Dangerueses, the new Rich Lane one, Mandrake, Rule Six's The Ride (a summer 2023 Tici Taci release) and Peza's edit of Mystic Thug and Rock The Casbah. And loads more that I can't remember or didn't know or was too lost dancing to to want to know.
I've lots of recently released music to share. The new EP from The Long Champs came out two weeks ago on Tici Taci, a label celebrating ten years of releases while also continuing to put out consistently good music. The EP's title track, Nostalgia For The Future, is a six minutes of chug, submarine sonar bleeps, mangled guitar lines, faint echoes of voice and from two minutes twenty six a fuzzy, distorted bassline that push everything onward. Layers of guitars and feedback bounce around the track, some nostalgia for late 80s and early 90s indie- dance guitar bands spliced into 2023 cosmic Welsh chug.
The EP features two more tracks- Mind Trip, Right On and A Hungry Ghost. Mind Trip, Right On, is slower paced, a bumping bassline and various FX toplines playing off against each other. A Hungry Ghost has more of those squally guitars, backwards guitars and bursts of feedback, with insistent drums and a tambourine. You can listen to all three here. The Long Champs 2020 album Straight To Audio is still available physically at Bandcamp, full of slo- mo, indie dance, ALFOS chug treats.
Tici Taci are releasing four compilations to celebrate the ten years of operation. Decade Volume 2, sixteen tracks selected by label boss Duncan Gray spanning the years 2015- 2017, an embarrassment of riches including selections by Duncan himself, Uj Pa Gaz, Veneno, Planet Jumper, Tronik Youth, The Long Champs and James Rod. The compilation finishes with Duncan and Sraah Rebecca and their song Erotica Nervosa, a sleek six minutes of bump and grind. Over throbbing bass Sarah sings of sexual obsession, how freedom's just a word until you lose it and of being reborn in the fire. Decade Volume 2 can be bought here.
The Clash, remixed, edited and sampled for a thirty three minute blast of Strummer/ Jones energy and invention for your Sunday morning delectation. Best played loud.
Davis Road Blues (Don Letts Culture Clash Radio Version)
In 1990 The Clash had a number one single eight years after they split up (for the purposes of this we'll take Mick being sacked from the band as the actual moment they split up even though the five man Clash rumbled on for two years with a largely unloved album and a busking tour that those involved seemed to enjoy). Should I Stay Or Should I Go went to number one and saw a surge in Clash related activity, one of which was the record company CBS reissuing Paul's 1979 song Guns Of Brixton in remixed form as Return To Brixton. The remixes of Return To Brixton, three of them on the 12", were done by DJ Jeremy Healy.
Edit: it occurs to me now that the re- issue/ remixes of Guns Of Brixton were in response to the bassline being sampled for Norman Cook's chart topping single Dub Be Good To Me as Beats International, number one in January 1990.
Dancing Not Fighting came out last year, a thumping, beat driven, high octane Jezebell release that samples Mick Jones screaming at bouncers in the film Rude Boy, trying to get them to stop beating up Clash fans. The band disowned the film by the time it came out but the live footage of the band is among the finest committed to tape by anyone, anywhere. Here they are in July 1978 doing (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais at the Glasgow Apollo.
Rock The Spectre is a Peza edit, what happens when the Strummer and Jones vocals from Rock The Casbah are played over Mystic Thug's Brocken Spectre (Mystic Thug is Tici Taci's Duncan Gray). What happens is you get the song completely recast in a new light, reborn, Mick and Joe's voices over a throbbing piece of slinky 2023 chug. Joe's vocal particularly shows he gave absolutely everything in the studio.
Magnificent Dub is a Leo Zero edit, the Magnificent Dance (a B-side to the Magnificent 7 single, released in 1981, inspired by the band's time in New York and Mick especially being taken with the brand new hip hop culture). Some of the vocals Leo throws into this edit are from the band playing live at Bonds, Times Square and various people having a go at the bassline ((played originally by Norman Watt- Roy when Simonon was out of town filming The Fabulous Stains). Leo also inserts some sections from the unreleased, unofficial Larry Levan version of Mag 7.
In 2005 when mash up culture was the big new thing a whole host of artists/ bedroom bootleggers threw everything they had at a completely remixed, re- edited and mashed up version of the album London Calling. The Clash found themselves (unofficially) rubbing shoulders with The Streets, Peaches, Vanilla Ice, Chuck D, Outkast and host of others sampled artists. It was massive fun. E-jitz took Mick's 1979 album track I'm Not Down and spliced it with the vocal from Boris Dlugosch's speed house track from 1997, Hold Your Head Up (vocal courtesy of Inaya Davis).
Davis Road Blues is a dub track by Prince Blanco with Mick's guitar from B.A.D.'s The Bottom Line and Joe's voice from a radio interview describing his first meeting with Mick and Paul that led to the formation of The Clash, a meeting that took place at 22 Davis Road, Shepherd's Bush (in a squat Paul shared with Sid Vicious and Viv Albertine).
Edit: the squat at 22 Davis Road has appreciated in value since the 1970s, as you'd expect. According to Rightmove 23 Davis Road was sold in 2018 for £480, 000 (that was just half the property, a ground floor two bedroom flat). Full houses on Davis Road, number 43 for example, go for around £840, 000 (2022 price). The 2020s version of Paul, Viv and Sidney must be living elsewhere.
Duncan Gray has a story to tell in the musical world that orbits around Andrew Weatherall. As a DJ and producer and as a member of Sons Of Slough (with Andrew's brother Ian- they also released a 12" as IWDG, a cover of New Order's In A Lonely Place), as Jnr. Poon (who released the first 7" on Andrew's Hidden Library label) and as part of The Summerisle Trio with Sean Johnston and Sarah Rebecca. As well as all of that Duncan founded the label tici taci, ten years ago this year, a label that consistently releases superb leftfield dance music- chuggy, slinky, dubby, wonky floor filling dance music. Uz Pa Gaz's Tiranan Balearica Omo Can was featured here in April and various tici taci artists, including Duncan himself, Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright, Boy Division, The Long Champs, Jack Butters, Mystic Thug, Mr BC and Fjordfunk have graced these pages in the past.
Tici Taci is celebrating its tenth birthday with a slew of releases including Tici Taci Decade Volume One. Duncan asked me if he could take over Bagging Area for a day and say a few words about his favourite releases on the label. He was happy to answer a few questions too, about his musical life, his work with Andrew and Tici Taci.
Bagging Area: Where
did it all start for you musically?
Duncan: I'll be 60 this year, so my appreciation of music starts back in the 1970s. The
first band I ever saw was Tangerine Dream. It sounds cool to say that now but
at the time it kind of went over my head. I was in bands from the age of 16,
but what really stimulated me creatively was the advent of home recording and
the purchase of a cassette based porta-studio. That's where a lifelong
obsession with making music really started. Music has led me into all sorts of
scrapes over the years. I've made decisions which were (financially) poor in
order to pursue music. My life has been much more interesting as a result,
although there have been many times when I had to borrow money to pay the rent.
I started tici taci with the final scrapings of redundancy money from my last
proper job.
Bagging Area: tici taci is 10 years old. What’s the best thing about running a label?
Duncan: The best thing has to be watching it grow in popularity and gaining its own
identity, to the point where like-minded producers naturally want to get their
music released on the label. Then it becomes a case of other people making me
look good. Also there's been the DJing. I really thought my DJ days were over
when I started Tici Taci, but I was offered my first return gig at Slide
in Brixton almost right away, and from there the offers started coming in from
all over the place. It's a real shame how Brexit has killed the opportunities
to DJ in Europe. I used to get more Euro gigs than UK but now it's the other
way around.
Bagging Area: There’s
an Albanian connection with Tici Taci, artists from Tirana seem to feature
heavily and make some wonderful music (your remix of Pines In The Sun and the
recent Uj Pa Gaz release both come to mind). How did that connection come
about?
Duncan: Lindi (Uj Pa Gaz) was the original connection. I guess he heard the label
through Soundcloud and sent in a couple of tracks for consideration. Almost
more than any other producer on Tici Taci Lindi really understood the sound of
the label from the word go. From there, Genti Aliaj got in touch to see if I
would be interested in DJing in Tirana. Genti is Albanian but has lived in the
UK for 25 years, and offered to travel with me and chaperone me on my first
visit. Albania has this terrible cartoon reputation of being a dangerous place
based on tired Hollywood cliches in general and the Taken movies in
particular. In fact Tirana is one of THE friendliest places I've ever been.
I've had so many great weekends there, including the opportunity to play bass
for Damo Suzuki in a pick-up band which included both Lindi and Genti and the
very talented Bledi Boraku. The last time I spent any significant time with The
Guv was when he came to Tirana to DJ at Discobox in January 2020. A truly
memorable weekend.
Bagging Area: What’s next for tici taci?
Duncan: We have a ton of stuff to release this year. It being the ten year anniversary,
I'm hoping to have releases from all of our regular featured artists, plus a
couple of new signings. Our next release (after Decade Vol 1) is the debut from
Rule Six which is going down a storm, and at the end of June we have something
from another producer who is new to the label. Watch this space. There will be
an EP from the Long Champs, one from Mr BC, something from Jack Butters, more
from myself, a couple of new tracks from Sons of Slough, and maybe even
something from Boy Division. That lot should take us through to the end of the
year.
Bagging Area: Some
questions outside tici taci if I can…
Your guitar and bass are all over a lot of Andrew Weatherall remixes and
releases from a few years ago. What was working with Andrew like? What memories
do you have of him? What’s your favourite remix/ production you worked on with
Andrew?
Duncan: When Andrew invited me to play on some remixes it came at a very crucial time
in my life. I had been made redundant from the work I was doing in TV and film
post production, and could not find another job. Andrew really helped me get
through that time firstly by encouraging me and then helping me to set up the
label, and then by inviting me to play on some remixes. The first one was his
rework of Craig Bratley's Obsession where he asked me to add some punk-funk
scratchy guitar. It was a lot of fun working with him and Tim Fairplay at the
Bunker in Scrutton Street, and my playing seemed to fit well with the
Asphodells sound. I ended up playing on maybe half a dozen remixes until the
eviction from Scrutton Steet drew a line under that. The cool thing was that
Andrew really encouraged me to "play the sound" - it wasn't about
being a great guitarist (which is just as well because I am, at best, average),
it was about using the guitar and effects as a sound source, and that has
influenced my playing ever since. My personal favourites from those remix
sessions are Emiliana Torrini's "Speed of Dark" and Rock Section's
"Dayglo Maradonna" which, as many of you will know, is Julian Cope.
If someone had told my younger self that one day I would end up playing guitar
on an Andrew Weatherall remix of Moby I would not have believed it.
[coincidentally, this Andrew remix of Emilia Torrini's Speed Of Dark was spun by Mark from Rude Audio when we were DJing at The Golden Lion last weekend so Duncan picking it to feature here is a nice touch]
Bagging Area: What
else is going on outside tici taci? You seem to have a few projects on the go,
the dubtastic Hardway- Monkton remixes and Sons Of Slough are about to return I
believe….
Duncan: Since we lost Andrew, Sean Johnston and I have grown a lot closer and after
some initial dabblings we really found our collaborative voice with the Hardway
meets Monkton remixes. Uptown for Dub, Downtown for Disco. I think we've both
learned a lot from each other and I think it's fair to say we've produced some
pretty decent remixes and collaborations over the last three years, including
last year's "Enjoy the Day" for Phil Kieran and Green Velvet. We keep
talking about compiling our best work for release on a limited edition CD but
we've not managed to make that a reality yet. Soon come. We've also had the
opportunity to DJ together with 4 decks and effects (what we call "the
uptown thing") and I'm hoping we get to do a bit more of that. And yes,
the Sons of Slough are indeed a working unit once again. After we returned to
the studio a couple of years ago (for the mini album "Bring me
Sunshine") we did the tribute to Andrew as IWDG ("In A Lonely Place") and then thought we would retire the Sons of Slough brand but
continue under a different name, however.... We have been encouraged out of
retirement by the offer of some live work. We thought long and hard about it
but, I think I the cat is out of the bag on this one, we are going to be
playing some live shows together for the first time in 18 years. I can't say
too much more at this stage but we've been rehearsing and it is all systems go.
[again, coincidentally, I had a conversation with Ian Weatherall in The Golden Lion on Sunday about Sons Of Slough playing live last weekend- more news when we get it]
That's the interview. Now I'm handing over the rest of this post to Duncan...
Tici Taci Decade Volume One
The ten year anniversary of the label is the first time I'd considered putting
out a various artists compilation, so I went back through the archive to choose
my personal favourites. It's very Duncan Gray heavy, this release, because initially that's what the label was for - to put out my own tracks. There will be three
more compilations coming this year and the artist roster gets way more
diverse the further we go. But for now, here are my favourites from the first
two and a bit years of Tici Taci's history.
Duncan Gray - Electric Plum (2023 remaster)
Electric Plum was the first release on tici taci - initially it was vinyl only
and came with a remix from Kieran Holden. The original vinyl cut wasn't so
great so this version has been freshly remastered by Rich Lane in 2023. It's
never sounded so good.
Duncan Gray - Lychee (2023 mixdown and remaster)
The original version of Lychee was the first thing of mine that I heard Andrew
play at an ALFOS, back in 2013. Tim Dorney (of Flowered Up and Republica fame)
put in an extraordinary effort for his remix which, I think it's fair to say,
may have been overlooked by the tici taci faithful. Employing the services of
Republica drummer Conor Lawrence, Tim turbocharged the original and has done a
fresh mixdown from the original multitrack for this 2023 remaster by Rich Lane.
Future Bones - What U Want
I couldn't believe it when Leo and Stephen of Future Bones agreed to let me put out their
first EP on tici taci. All three tracks are absolute gems, and this low-slung
groover is probably the most sparkling of all. Signing Future Bones to the
label really cemented my belief in what I was doing and if they made any more
tracks together I would put them out in a heartbeat.
Will
Piecey - Jolt
Will's Jolt was the first outside signing to tici taci, although it was
released after the Future Bones EP, I am eternally grateful to Will for putting
his faith in my fledgling label. This track was championed by Ewan Pearson
which was another much appreciated show of support.
Future Bones - Pain Killer (Duncan Gray remix)
Future Bones' second remix and probably the first of my own remixes that I was truly
proud of. Initially it was released as a "tici taci remix" before I
realised that was pointlessly modest.
Mr Cogs - Wizard Prang
Mr Cogs was my nom de plume for stuff which was a bit more techno sounding.
Again, the whole alias thing didn't last long and I hardly listened to this
since release, but when exploring the back catalogue for lost gems I was
delighted to find out just how chunky this one sounded.
Future Bones - Dirty Profit (Mr Cogs remix)
Another tough sounding remix under the Mr Cogs moniker. Easy to get a decent
remix when the source material is so strong.
Duncan Gray - Chugboat (Rich Lane remix)
The first of the bona fide ALFOS classics. Rich Lane set the standard with this
one. It still sounds great, I played it at AW60 in Glasgow and it still rocks
the boat.
Duncan Gray - Slidden (Club Bizarre remix)
A remix of a track which never got released, but this magnificent rework from
Philippe and Sam became another ALFOS winner upon release. There's some great
video of Andrew and Sean playing it in Leeds with some amazing projected
visuals.
Nein and tici taci were both founded in 2013 and Neil and I exchanged tracks
for each other's labels. An easy decision when Neil's original came with this
head fizzing remix from Iniago Vontier.
Future Bones - Gone Again (Rich Lane remix)
The killer combination of the Bones and Rich Lane. This is so down and dirty.
It just bubbles away with a huge sense of menace until it it finally kicks the
doors in.
A Best Man Dead - Follow The Shoe
This acid nugget is as close as we'll ever get to a tici taci version of Winx'
Higher State. Play it in a set now. It will not disappoint. A stone tici taci
classic.
Kieran Holden - Parakeet
I love Kieran's work. I just wish he'd make more tunes! This is such an oddball
mix of bleep and ambience, there's really nothing like it.
Iko & Gibb - Praying Mantis (Peza remix)
The first of three releases by Maxime Iko and Markus Gibb - they're all great
cuts, but this one is particularly notable for being the first time I manged to
persuade Peza to get on the remix roster for tici taci. Needless to say all the
Peza hallmarks are there from all the way back in 2014.
Gemini Brothers - Eridu Eridu (Duncan Gray remix)
These two Romanian brothers were all over everything back in 2014 and 2015 and
boy were they keen to get a track out on tici taci. When we finally found
something everybody was happy with, it came out with (I think) 5 remixes. And
rather immodestly I have selected my own version as a favourite because (a) I
was dead pleased with how it came out (it changes direction in an unexpected
manner) and (b) because it was another one that the Guv really liked.
Thank you Duncan- it's been a pleasure. There's a sampler mix at Soundcloud you can listen to here, an hour of premium grade machine funk and quality chug, and this is the very latest Hardway- Monkton release, an eight minute disco- dub remix of Hardway Bros Here's To The Wild.
The Tici Taci label celebrates ten years of releases this year, an oasis of electronic excellence and chuggy dancefloor wonders. Tici Taci have a run of releases lined up to take us through 2023 with Mystic Thug, The Long Champs, more from Mr BC, more still from Duncan Gray and four retrospective compilations covering sixty- four back catalogue tracks. One of the most recent releases is from Jack Butters, whose Shake It Up throbs and pulses for three minutes before, without warning, turning into a loping skank- and then back again.
On the remix tip the Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Uptown version is a dubbed out delight, the bassline dredging the bottom end and the spaced out synth sounds lighting up the top, everything cool and tickety boo for eight minutes.
The second remix, by Mr BC, is a snake- hipped, lithe dancefloor groove with an increasingly hypnotising acid synthline aimed right between the eyes, which builds in intensity through to the sampled voice at the end which concludes, 'you must be out of your tiny mind'.
Duncan Gray's never ending supply of high quality chug continues into 2023 with the release of Boatface on Tici Taci. Gorgeous, slip sliding, 100 BPM chug with some tension inside that sinuous groove.
There are two tasty remixes. The Long Champs remix is an insistent, slinky, robotic thumper, likely to wear the carpet out in the corners at house parties. Dark repetitive fun.
The Bedford Falls Players remix, the longest of the three at seven minutes twelve seconds, is a peach. What starts out as a long drawn out intro teases for ages, all the way through, the acid squiggle borrowed from certain New York three piece rap groups while vocal samples talking about flying objects coming from the stars pop up.
Edit: vocal sample is Buzz Aldrin, being interviewed about being on the moon.
This came out last Friday- Enjoy The Day (Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Downtown Remix)- a four way collaboration that sounds like it should be filling floors at discerning discotheques near you as the December party season gets underway. The original track is by Phil Kieran and Green Velvet and here is remixed by the combined force of Hardway Bros and Monkton. The deep, dark groove and hedonistic vocal are one thing but the Italo piano that comes in is something else entirely, a gloriously happy/ sad, bittersweet refrain. The 808 rattles away, there is acres of lovely echo and space and the longer it plays, the better it gets. A pulsing, squiggly acid line pushes its way to the fore and rhythm gets tougher. Buy here and then rinse and repeat, as they say.
Sons Of Slough (Ian Weatherall and Duncan Gray) first made music back in the 1990s and most of their recordings date back to the early 21st century. Now reunited they have put out a new album called Bring Me Sunshine, a six track dub techno/ electro/ acid house punch (plus three remixes). This one, Sonblind, is a low slung pleasure with piano melody lines and huge bass, the sort of thing that hits all the right spots if you ever spent part of your youth in dark, sweaty clubs with strobe lights going off around you and music frying your synapses.
There's loads more like it on Bring me Sunshine and it's perfect music for travelling to as well, the kick drums ticking off the miles and the synths swallowing up road or rail. Much More Spark is chugging dub techno, Basic Channel via Berkshire.
As well as a very tasty Rude Audio remix of the above there's a Sons Of Slough remix of I Slip Away by Rich Thair. Rich is the drummer in Red Snapper, a group who have explored jazz, techno, and all points in between since the mid 90s. Their latest single The Warp And The Weft is a slowed right down head nodder, led by some really nice double bass, keys, trombone and a rap from Natty Wylah.
Psychederek is an artist who is very local to me- he plays records at a bar just a mile up the road in Stretford called Head, the first Friday of every month, a night called Psychederek's Psycho which promises disco, Balearic, bass, indie dance and Afrobeat, which sounds right up by street (literally and metaphorically). The video for his latest release is also features some very local parts of south Manchester, not least one of the streets around Stretford Arndale and the footbridge over the M60 from Kickety Brook and the Mersey to Stretford Meadows (it all sounds very romantic but don't be fooled. Stretford Meadows is built on top of landfill and rubble dug out to construct the motorway. The tip/ dump/ household waste recycling centre is next door). It's been one of my lockdown walk routes so it's lovely to see it immortalised in song- and not just any old song but a song called Screamadereka...
Clearly you don't call yourself Psychederek and release a song called Screamadereka and then expect to be taken entirely seriously but there's no joking with the song- it's a beautifully pitched, slow motion, blissed out stroll with sonic explosions, looped voices and a vocal that sounds like the sun shining. Screamadereka is out on an EP called Space Arcade, released by Sprechen, the label owned by Chris Massey (also a Stretford resident) and you can get it at Bandcamp. Disappointingly I think I have missed out on the vinyl.
There are two versions/ remixes on the EP by the combined talents of Sean Johnston (as Hardway Bros) and Duncan Gray (as Monkton), the deeply dubbed out cosmic trip of Screamadereka (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Downtown) taking the original and separating it out even further, finding all the space between the sounds. It's a stunner.
The Screamadereka (Hardway Bros Meets Monkton Disco Dub) does the reverse, pushing the tempo up and landing on the dance floor somewhere far, far away, powered by a very wigged out bassline. On and on it goes, round and round, looping itself out of the atmosphere and escaping.
Releasing single songs or tracks semi- regularly onto the internet has become the new way of putting music out for many artists, especially those who occupy the long tail of the music industry- not a single as we'd recognise it from the glory days of the 7" of the 70s and 80s or the CD single even of the 90s but a drip- drip- drip of new music in easily digestible chunks. Bandcamp seems to offer artists a much better deal than the big streaming services and they have a one Friday a month offer that gives even better cut for the artist. Two of my recent favourites both unleashed new tracks into the ether last Friday, a pair of superb pieces of 21st century electronic music, built on the dance music of the past but with a half closed eye squinting at the future.
Duncan Gray has released umpteen tracks through his label Tici Taci, often the kind of chuggy, wonky monsters that made Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston's A Love From Outer Space travelling disco such a good night out. His latest offering is a bouncier, housier affair- May Your Toes Kiss The Sand Again is a sentiment we can all empathise with and the track is a joy, a Larry Heard inspired piece of uptempo Chicago house via Slough (or uptempo Slough house via Chicago, either way).
This is an older one, Deep Blue, a fuzz bass- led slice of dark acid disco from 2013.
Pye Corner Audio has been dropping, as I believe the young people say, a series of one off tracks since lockdown last year, mesmerising wobbly acid and sci fi house with button pushing names like Quarry Rave, Rotational Squelch, Memory Of Rave, Somewhere There's A Sunrise and Jupiter Orbit. The latest is Interplanetary Acid, five minutes of retro- futurism, synths and sequencers, that I can't get enough of. Get it here at a name your own price deal.
More Pye Corner Audio acid from earlier this year came in the shape of Thermionic Acid- darker, deeper and altogether squelchier, part of a four track release called Midnight Acid. There's a theme developing here isn't there?
Sunday morning vibes to kick off your day, slowly at first and then building- first a collaboration between Dan Wainwright and Rude Audio with a swirling, slow motion, Sabres Of Paradise influenced song, a dubbed out blur with some very reverbed vocals, FX stretched sounds. Early Morning unwinds itself in no particular hurry and very nicely indeed.
Second a series of remixes of Double Sided Mirror by Cold Beat. The original, a year old, sounds like a long lost 80s synthpop classic, capable of making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
The remix package brings some heavyweights out to play including bass heavy, analogue hypnosis from ex- Cabaret Voltaire man Stephen Mallinder and some gorgeous motorik euphoria from Sean Johnston's Hardway Bros and Duncan Gray, billed together as Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown. Sean's remix output over the last year has been immense and difficult to keep tabs on and the standard is incredibly high but this is right up there (and reminiscent of his A Mountain Of Rimowa track from 2019, the spellbinding groove A Motorik Oscillation Retread). The Cold Beat remixes are available at Bandcamp, a phrase I am type regularly at the moment.
Ian Weatherall and Duncan Grey's cover version of New Order's In A Lonely Place is out to buy digitally, released on the first anniversary of Andrew Weatherall's passing with the proceeds going to his charities of choice.
Factory Records held an important place for Andrew and his brother. Early New Order records have been cited by Andrew in various interviews- in Jockey Slut he said Power, Corruption And Lies was his favourite ever album and Your Silent Face crops up repeatedly (not least in his remix of Mike Garry and Joe Dudell's St Anthony tribute to Tony Wilson). His admiration of Martin Hannett as a producer is well documented and Peter Saville's artwork, sleeve design, posters, the whole visual identity he created for Factory, must have struck chords. At one point in his youth Andrew styled himself on early A Certain Ratio's look (bleached crop, army shorts). There are several Weatherall mixes where Durutti Column songs appear (Sketch For Summer is in his Fact Magazine mix). There's an interview where he talks about the more obscure early/ mid 80s Factory bands- The Royal Family And The Poor are mentioned and the slightly better known ones such as Section 25. Ian and Duncan Grey's cover is a work of love and of homage, not just to a song but to a time and place and a way of life- Factory's bloody minded independence, their refusal to play the game and their insistence that they were an enterprise prioritising art over commerce. We all know how that ended but look what it gave us...
Duncan is the boss at the record label Tici Taci, and in the past with Ian made music as The Sons Of Slough. Duncan's solo releases over the last couple of years have been a joy, long chuggy instrumentals led by huge basslines and with trippy FX. Ian and Duncan's cover of In A Lonely Place is a heartfelt, stately cover, dubby melodica and a recreated Hook bassline.
There are three remixes, all by people with close connections with Andrew Weatherall. David Holmes' remix has a vocal, Ian Curtis' words re- imagined, a ghostly remix, the sounds coming at the listener as if through mist. Or maybe as Martin Hannett would have liked, from the bottom of a lift shaft.
ALFOS partner Sean Johnston in his Hardway Bros guise remixes the track as a dubbed out chugger, a different bassline driving it, some twinkling synths and a gear change at three minutes fifteen. Duncan's Hooky bassline re- appears at five minutes for an intense last few minutes.
Former Swordsman Keith Tenniswood's a long, thirteen minute trip, starting out very dubbed out and dislocated, winding it's way onward gradually. Eventually the melodica comes in and then at seven minutes thirty- nine the remix pivots on the line 'How I wish you were here with me now', just as Andrew's dub mixes in two halves for St Etienne and Primal Scream did. The second half is a beautiful but sombre journey.
There are links to buy the four tracks here. Vinyl to follow in June.
Duncan Gray has been responsible for many Andrew Weatherall and ALFOS approved pieces of music in the recent past, plenty of slo- mo, trippy chuggers with lovely grinding basslines and a dark heart. The latest is a tribute to Gong/ System 7/ solo artist Steve Hillage, nine and a half minutes of slow paced psychedelic magick. Bandcamp have Danucan's Steve Killage to listen to and to buy here. A much better way to spend Monday morning than getting in your car in the dark and going to work.
Even longer, twice the length in fact, is this Plastikman remix of System 7's Alpha Wave from 1995, Richie Hawtin sending everyone and everything into a state of hyper- realised acid techno mania. The build up for the first ten minutes is just absurd, endlessly building higher and higher, relentless stroboscopic action. There's a breakdown in the eleventh minute that makes you wait and wait, anticipating the inevitable, exhilarating rush of re- entry, which eventually starts to happen sometime around fourteen minutes before the dam bursts.
Today is our eldest Isaac's birthday, he turns twenty two. He'll be spending it in lockdown and still being shielded, as he has been since March. Some presents and cards, some neihgbours passing by the front of the house, a couple of Zoom parties, a drive through for lunch and a takeaway for tea. Happy birthday Isaac.
This is new from Rich Lane, Newcastle under Lyne's Balearic chug overlord, and it's a beauty. Laid back and easy going, slinky and filmic in scope, it hits the spot from the moment those synths fade in at the start and the windwood brings the melody.
A friend on Facebook said it sounds like driving down the Amalfi coast in a convertible, wind in the hair, sunglasses on, sun dipping in the sky, the tide coming in, the evening ahead of you. It's all those things. And even though all those things are imaginary at the moment the music makes them almost close enough to touch. There are two top class remixes, the Long Champs dub is lovely, an unwinding and stripped down take on the original while Duncan Gray Ambient Mix is gorgeous, opening with the sound of the tide coming in and some synth bleeps before the strings take over. Buy all three for £1.50.
A reader request today from someone called Boshed who found my Hidden Library post from 2012 and asked if the songs could be re- uploaded. First some background. Back in the early 21st century Andrew Weatherall had a short run of limited 7" single releases under the name Hidden Library. At the time there was a Rotters Golf Club website with a virtual club house you could explore and poke around in using your mouse and dial up internet connection. In the library there was a secret door which took you through to the hidden library from where a pair of singles could be ordered, limited to 500 copies. They were among the first things I ever bought off the internet and my ineptitude meant that I bought two copies of one of them and couldn't work out how to change my order. This was in the days when Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood were deep underground, making seriously purist electronic music. Breakbeats via turntables and laptops, abstract electro with a heavy whiff of skunk in the air.
The first single, Hidden Library 001, doesn't exist. Apparently it was mispressed and binned. Weatherall has said on the radio that he has a couple of OK copies that he'll sell on the internet when times are hard. The first release was Hidden Library 002. Both sides of the single are untitled but written and produced by Weatherall and Tenniswood.
Hidden Library 003 was a cover of Hawkwind man Robert Calvert's 1985 song Lord Of The Hornets. Both sides of the single are credited to Jnr. Poon. Eventually it came to light that Jnr. Poon, who made only these two songs, was Duncan Gray and Jim Wren. Duncan Gray has recently been releasing a slew of excellent, long chuggy monsters, some of which have been posted here and here.
Lord Of The Hornets is a buzzing, wired, electronic killer of a track, worth the price of admission alone.
The B- side is scratchy and dusty with a stark drumbeat, sounds a bit like it was recorded in an underpass beneath a dual carriageway at night, and has Weatherall on distorted spoken word vocals. Unfortunately the use of the word 'retard' really hasn't aged well.
Duncan Gray, as blogged about here in August, has been drip feeding long chuggy ALFOS dancers through the Bandcamp page of the tici taci record label. This one is a lost track, recorded in 2014, played by Weatherall and Johnston at their A Love From Outer Space nights and then sitting gathering dust on a hard drive. For the princely sum of £1 you get six and a half minutes of slow motion, electronic dub disco, all drums, weird noises and lovely bass.
This pair of chuggy, leftfield dancefloor monsters could have been posted on any given Monday in the Long Song slot, both being towards the ten minute mark. Both are from Duncan Gray with some sonic tweaking from Rich Lane in the mastering process. Both are getting frequent plays round here.
Much Much Worse is a stomper with a massive hoover bass sound, a little clipped and funky guitar part and a flipped out synth topline that dances about all over the place, growing increasingly intense.
Where Clock Goes (long version) is a slow burning, dark disco number with wobbly bass, tsk tsk tsk hi-hats, and synth riffs that builds more and more and more, the whole thing then shifting several times during it's nine minutes thirty seconds running time. This could be twice as long and it wouldn't get boring.
