An Hour Of Björk

A month ago Khayem did a fairly definitive recreation of a Björk mixtape centred around her 1993 solo debut Debut. I'd been planning on doing a Björk Sunday mix here for some time and almost shelved the idea but a few days ago decided to go ahead. Debut and its surrounding singles and remixes are massively important songs and records for me, so resonant of a time in my life where it seems looking back like it was perpetual weekend. In Big Time Sensuality she sings, 'I don't know my future after this weekend/ And I don't want to', a line summing up how life felt. Almost everywhere we went Björk's songs were being played, stitched into the fabric of mid- 90s nightlife. When my then flatmate brought Debut home we played it constantly, the album seeping into our every day life. If I had to draw up a list of the albums which mean the most to me, Debut would be on it. It's hugely innovative too, Björk and producer Nellee Hooper inspired by the previous few years changes and freedoms, the sounds and rhythms, creating something self contained, optimistic, joyous and life affirming, a record in love with itself and with endless possibility. 

I've expanded the mix below beyond Debut but there's nothing post- 1997, it's all 20th century Björk. Her output from the 21st century can be obtuse and bewildering at times (and incredible at others), and it needs a mix of its own. My Sunday mixes have tended to be between thirty and forty five minutes long, the ideal length for a trip out (or one side of a tape, subconsciously maybe). Once I started this one it just kept getting longer and having reached the forty minute mark I couldn't leave off Underworld's marathon remix of Human Behaviour so what we have here is an hour of Björk Guðmundsdóttir, her unique vision and singing accompanied by a cast of like minded collaborators- the production of Nellee Hooper is an essential part of Debut and Graham Massey of 808 State played a pivotal role in her solo adventures beyond the Sugarcubes as the 80s became the 90s. Listening back to this last night I was struck by how good everything here still sounds, from the giddy skipping pop- acid house of Big Time Sensuality to the dislocating oddness of The Black Dog's version of The Anchor Song. She's brilliant and we're lucky to have her.  

An Hour Of  Björk

• One Day (Sabres of Paradise Endorphin Mix)
• Ooops
• Big Time Sensuality (Fluke Minimix)
• Violently Happy (Fluke Well Tempered Mix)
• There's More To Life Than This (Recorded Live In The Milk Bar Toilets)
• Hyperballad
• Venus As A Boy (7" Dream Mix)
• Army Of Me
• The Anchor Song (The Black Dog Mix)
• QMart
• Human Behaviour (Underworld Remix 110BPM)
• You've Been Flirting Again (Icelandic Version)

One Day was remixed not once but three times by Andrew Weatherall's Sabres Of Paradise. All three are superb, increasing in length, intensity and tempo. There was a 10" single with two of the remixes, the Endorphin Mix and the Springs Eternal Mix titled Björk Cut By Sabres, and then a six track compilation in 1994 called The Best Mixes From The Debut Album For People Who Don't Buy White Labels which rounded up all three Sabres remixes, the twelve minute Underworld monster and the two Black Dog remixes. I included The Black Dog's remix of The Anchor Song here too although it could easily have been the one of Come To Me. Such is the embarrassment of riches of Björk all six remixes could have/ should have been included here.

In 1991 808 State released ex:el, one of the period's  best dance albums although it tends to get a bit overlooked now. Björk's co- wrote and sang on two songs, the magnificent, slow burning sex- techno of Ooops and QMart. This sparked a long running song- writing partnership with 808's Graham Massey. Björk had loved 808 State's 1989 album 90 and phoned them up out of the blue looking for some help with drum programming. She flew to Manchester the next day. The 808 State boys showed Björk round the sights and clubs of Manchester and wrote and recorded at various studios in the area. 

Big Time Sensuality is off Debut, a song about being in love with going out and dancing, the sheer giddiness and delight evident in her vocal. The video, filmed in black and white on the back of a flatbed truck with Björk in a long silver dress is so of the time too. This song as much as any reminds me of 1993/4- it was played constantly in the flat I lived in, the remixes played in every club around town and me and Lou pretty much met on the dancefloor while it was being spun at Paradise Factory in Manchester. The Fluke Minimix is the version for me but there are some other remixes that hit the spot too, not least Justin Robertson's (not included here). Fluke also remixed Violently Happy (two versions) another single from Debut. 

Two more songs from Debut are on the mix- There's More To Life Than This is an astonishing song from an album full of them, full of manic Björk energy, and the jaw dropping moment she records the sound of the Milk Bar, running from the dance floor to the toilets, closing the door and then coming out again. I also love the way she sings 'ghetto blaster'. Venus As A Boy, the second single from Debut, is absurdly good, marrying post- club ambient sounds with tabla. The version here is the 7" Dream Mix, a mix by Mick Hucknall and Gota Yashiki. This marks the only appearance of the Simply Red singer at this blog. 

Hyperballad is from her second solo album Post, released in 1995, an exhilarating fusion of folk, acid house and synth pop. Hyperballad swoops in and out, as if the song is dropping from a height and shooting then back up again, head spinning production and vision. Post has several such moments- Possibly Maybe should possibly, maybe, also have been included on this mix.

Army Of Me came out in 1995, the lead single from Post. It's her most streamed song on Spotify which suggests its her most popular song. Björk and Graham Massey wrote Army Of Me in a terraced house in Gatley that belonged to a mate of Massey's and had a home studio set up. Gatley's not that far from here, I pass through often on my bike. The idea of Björk popping out from one of the houses to nip to the shop in the mid- 90s in a break from writing is bizarre and amusing. From such humble, suburban beginnings does great music appear- Army Of Me is a force of nature, the bassline alone more a landslide than a musical element and the pulverising industrial drums contain a sample from Led Zeppelin's John Bonham. The final song on this mix, You've Been Flirting Again (Icelandic Version) was on the Army Of Me CD single, the orchestral strings bringing things to a dramatic conclusion. 

Philly

This is one of those tracks which I've been listening to for over three decades now and when it plays I always get a rush of excitement, almost like hearing it for the first time again. Fluke were a Buckinghamshire based group, Mike Bryant, Jon Fugler and Mike Tournier, who were into the industrial/ electronic sounds of Cabaret Voltaire and were then fired up by acid house. In 1990 they found their way to Creation Records, who were at that point setting up a dance music division, the Creation office's enthusiasm for all things dance music having few limits at that point. 

In 1991 Alan McGee rounded up a killer selection of Creation's dance records and put them together on a compilation called Keeping The Faith. As well as Creation mainstays Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine (both in remixed form courtesy of Hypnotone, Terry Farley and Andrew Weatherall) Keeping The Faith had Ed Ball in his Love Corporation guise, superb singles from World Unite and Sheer Taft, J.B.C. aka The Jazz Butcher covering The Rolling Stones in classic 1990 style, Hypnotone remixed by Danny Rampling, The Sound Of Shoom and Crazy Eddie and Q.Q. Freestyle. Opening the record was this...

Philly (Jamorphous Mix)

The sci fi whooshes, juddering synths, twinkling sounds, cymbal crashes, keyboard runs and sirens all kicked in within seconds of my then housemate Al dropping the needle on side one, the rush of the track instantly dragging us aboard. The vocal comes in, 'Put your hands up high... got to try to find a way to liberate our hearts', and it's wide smiles on faces. There are sweeping synth strings and a throbbing beat, more string stabs (borrowed from Philly soul in the 70s), bursts of electric guitar, more strings and the ever pulsing rhythms. More and more, strings, whooshes, chanted vocals, trying to find a way to put your arms around the world'. Four minutes in a tumbling drum break leads to the briefest pause and then we're straight back in for the final three minutes. Everything that was in the air in1990 is in this track- the sense of freedom and possibility, the technology of samplers, synths, drum machines spliced with singers and guitars, influences dragged from record collections and nights out and put into a giant, technicoloured stew. 

Creation had released Philly as a single the year before, a three track 12" with the Jamorphous Mix on the A-side along with the Jamoeba Mix and the Jamateur Mix. Jamorphous is still the pick of the bunch without doubt but the Jamateur mix has its moments, less song, more rave, more piano and no vocals except for a chanting crowd just about audible. 

Philly (Jamateur Mix)

Fifty

Today is my wife's 50th birthday and obviously that's the kind of milestone you can't miss. We will be having a slightly scaled down Covid friendly birthday (due to Isaac's ongoing immune system and vulnerability issues) but there are a week of activities ahead and today we will do presents, cake, balloons, a night away and everybody loves you. Happy birthday. 

Back when we first met in 1994 we spent a lot of time clubbing. Big Time Sensuality by Bjork was one of our tunes, a heady, euphoric ode to the weekend, to dancing, to joy and being alive- 'I don't know my future after this weekend/ And I don't want to!' The video, filmed on the back of a flatbed truck in New York is so of the time too and what Bjork's clothes always remind me of Lou then. 

Of all the mixes and versions available I think this is the killer, Fluke absolutely getting everything exactly right. 

Big Time Sensuality (The Fluke Minimix)

Monday's Long Song

I posted this photo on Twitter last week, the contents of a box I found in the loft. These cassettes have survived numerous house moves and various culls. I was happy to find them, the Proustian rush was enjoyable. Many of them date from the late 80s when it was in lots of ways a different world and I was a different person. Someone called Jon Fugler saw the photo and commented 'good haul, the ladybird is my favourite...' to which I replied 'Fluke', a useful piece of information I thought as the band's name isn't on the front of the cassette. It was then pointed out to me by @AcidGrandads that Jon Fugler was the singer in Fluke. Sometimes you just have to give a virtual shrug, smile and face palm.

Fluke were ace, an acid house/ electronic band who crossed all the genres from techno to house to ambient, guitars, synths, samples, drum machines and vocals. Their song Pan Am Into Philly is one of the great lost ones of the era and the version on Creation's Keeping The Faith, Philly (Jamourphous Mix), is superb and a real personal favourite from that time. The album with the ladybird on it is from 1991,a live album from a time when people doubted whether this type of band could really perform live- the band doubted it as well as the computers weren't always reliable enough to survive a gig. Nevertheless the album, Out (In Essence) is a great snapshot of the group.

Garden Of Blighty (Out/In Essence)

What makes my inability to recognise Jon Fugler even worse is that in my final year at university I knew Hugh Bryder (who was Fluke's tour DJ and friend of a friend, and Hugh was supposed to be DJing at my wedding in 1995 but was stuck on a train).

Well Tempered

Fluke were a British acid house/techno group who put out a very good album on Creation (The Techno Rose Of Blighty, 1991) and went on to release several others and then went on to provide music for film soundtracks (The Matrix amongst others). But in some ways their best work was the remixes they did of other artists in the early 90s. They worked on several singles for Bjork's Debut including the definitive version of Big Time Sensuality and this magnificent, shimmering, rushing, dancefloor reworking of Violently Happy.

Violently Happy (Fluke Well Tempered)

This remix of  Spooky was the fourth single from their 1993 Republic album (and there is a sign of how things had changed- New Order on Factory would never have done something as major label as releasing 4 singles off an album). One of the (few) highlights of the album and its related singles were the 3 remixes Fluke did of Spooky.

Spooky (Magimix)

Slid

Fluke made a good progressive house sound, pumping bass with whooshing synths and were in demand as remixers- they worked some magic on Bjork and New Order to name but two. This 1993 single Slid came out in a variety of formats and mixes, all designed for playing at loud volume in bars and clubs and the chances are if you were out clubbing at this time you'd have danced to this. It stays just the right side of handbag with that insistent percussion and groove.

Slid (Pdfmone)

Something Important Is About To Happen

Between 1992 and 1994 I shared a flat with a friend. We both bought records and for reasons of limited finances and common sense he bought some records and I bought others. This meant that when we went our separate ways I was short of a lot of records from that period which I knew very well but now didn't have, some of which I filled in and some I never got around to. Years later I went to my collection looking for Debut by Bjork- and didn't have it.

Big Time Sensuality is one of my favourite songs from the time- the throb of the bass, the rush of the synths, the sheer giddiness of the vocals- and a fantastically memorable video too. It also perfectly illustrates why Bjork went solo. Would this song have been improved by Einar shouting over it intermittently? It would not.



The version of the song that soundtracked the video single release was the Fluke mix, more clubby. The album version is here if you want to compare and contrast. And this is one of Justin Robertson's thumping, arms-in-the-air remixes.

Big Time Sensuality (Justin Robertson Lionrock Wigout Mix)

Spooky

My previously unplanned Joy Division-New Order week continues. I can't imagine Republic is anyone's favourite New Order album, despite its magisterial Regret single. It was made against the backdrop of Factory collapsing (as sung about in Ruined In A Day). When Republic came out it was not on Factory but, irony of ironies, on London Records. Side one of Republic was decent enough- Regret is the last truly great song they recorded, World (The Price of Love) is a good dance tune, Ruined In A Day's alright. Spooky, co-written with producer Stephen Hague, stood out. It was also the final single released off the lp, and had a variety of remixes. I'm not sure New Order have been best served by remixes (a few outstanding ones excepted). The handful of remixes of Spooky passed muster though especially the ones by Fluke. They tweaked Spooky into a really classy, shiny, sleek piece of techno-pop.

Spooky (Magimix)

In 1993, not long after this was released and when we had just started courting I put this on a mixtape for the future Mrs Swiss. It had a hand drawn and written cassette inlay card and everything.

The picture above shows one of the more bizarre promotional appearances the band made. A Top Of The Pops slot to sell Regret was done live via satellite link up from the Baywatch beach. New Order mimed the song while surrounded by buffed Californians playing volleyball and frisbee. The smasher of the Berlin Wall David Hasselhoff looked on.

Keeping It Peel

October 25th is Keeping It Peel Day across the internet. I've taken part previously- the sound of John Peel's voice followed by something familiar and brilliant, or unfamiliar and brilliant, or just plain puzzling, was one of the joys of the man's radio show. In previous years I've posted Keeping It Peel songs by Half Man Half Biscuit, The Redskins and Sabres Of Paradise. I dallied briefly with posting a song from The Cramps only Peel Session but we've had a surfeit of Crampiness in recent weeks- not that you can have too much but I thought some of you might be getting bored- and when searching my d/ls folder found this, Sonic Youth covering The Fall's Rowche Rumble...

Rowche Rumble (Peel Session)

And also this from long lost blissed out, groovy, Balearic dance act Fluke, who I always had a soft spot for...

The Allotment of Blighty (Peel Session)

The two together, I think, kind of covers some of the spirit of the man and the radio show.

Fluke 'Philly (Jamorphous Mix)'

This is one of my favourite records, one of the period's most under-rated bands, the opening track to Creation's Keeping The Faith lp, dance-rock-acid house-crossover, and one of the most euphoric records ever committed to vinyl. From the opening chords, to the 'put your hands up high' vocal, to the bass, to the soaring synths... everything about it. Sheer bliss.

philly_-_jamorphous_mix.mp3