Jezebellearic Beats

Jezebell's end of summer album hits the digital shelves today, a twenty track monster titled Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1- the artwork for the album borrows/ pays homage to the original Dave Little sleeve art for the classic 1988 Balearic Beats album. The music Darren and Jesse make as Jezebell shifts between boundaries and blurs lines, between club and poolside, between dancefloor banger and early evening livener, between sunset and sunrise, and between sampling and editing. All these can be found on Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1. About half of the tracks have been released previously and some have featured here in the course of the last two years- the eight minute summer 2022 epic Jezebellearic, the twelve minute soft- rock/ soul dreamscape of Jezeblue from earlier this summer, the beatier Concurrence, the low slung, just setting out fun of Trading Places (11AM) and its more upbeat, more up for it cousin Trading Places (3PM), the spaced out dubby Balearic chanson of Jezebell et Moi, Can't Cope's echo- laden swirls and early 90s trippiness. 

Within this album there are traces of other people, samples of vocals and instruments; Laurie Anderson, Beastie Boys and Money Mark, DJ Alfredo, Max Berlins, Herb Alpert, Julian Cope, Talking Heads, and David Byrne and Brian Eno are among those who show up, making themselves known within Jesse and Darren's chuggy/ cosmic/ Balearic/ indie- dance grooves. There are Rich Lane re- masters and a pair of remixes too, their blissed out remix of D:Ream's Pedestal and the Jezebell version of Red Shift by Man 2.0. There are many new tracks as well, not least the closer Swamp Shuffle, which is perfectly named. 

Jezebellearic Beats is infused with the spirit of acid house, the irreverence of an anything goes attitude coupled with a love of the music and a respect for those who came before. When I posted Jezeblue back in July I suggested that the slowed down and blissed out summer groove of the song was as much about memory as about music, about the way that memories make us who we are. Jesse said that all music is (for him) about memories that are just out of reach- 'not personal memories but... a collective memory just out of everyone's reach'. That feeling can be found all the way through this album- there are plenty of feel good, uptempo moments too, music for dancing and for parties but they're alongside something that feels much more fluid and less tangible, music that skips between boundaries and limits and leaves you in a different, better place from the one it found you in. 

Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1 is available at Bandcamp from today, pay what you want/ for free. 

Blue

No Saturday live today, in place the brand new release from Jezebell, out yesterday and available at Bandcamp. Last summer's Jezebell soundtrack was the ten minute Ibizan odyssey of Jezebellaeric. This summer Jesse and Darren have gone a step further, twelve minutes of blissed out Balearica that keeps on giving the more you play it. Jezeblue surfs the waves as they gently break on the shore. Building slowly, it floats in with padding drums, synths, ripples of sound and then a voice in the distance singing, 'oh baby, come take me'. Gradually the groove finds its way to the front of the mix and then piano takes the lead, two chords playing off as the sun goes down. 

As much as it is about melody, groove and feel, Jezeblue seems to be in some way about memory, fragments of former lives, glimpses of the past, past events that reverberate in our minds in the small hours, and how they pull at us- not nostalgia necessarily but those memories that make us who we are now. Somehow it seems to contain all of that in the voice, the piano and the rhythms. Well into the second half there are synth stabs that push those buttons too, remnants of classic house reused for summer 2023. 

As well as the full twelve minute version there are two other versions of the song. Jezeblue (Slight Return) is a six and a half minute version with the synth stabs leading from the start, the pianos and drums layered, everything a bit more together.  The Blue Bell Edit is even more blissed out, bass, synths and piano and the vocal all rippling gently towards the sunset.

Half An Hour Of The Clash Edited, Sampled And Remixed

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. 

Half An Hour Of The Clash Edited, Sampled And Remixed 

• Return To Brixton (SW2 Dub)
• Dancing (Not Fighting)
• Rock The Spectre (Peza Edit)
• Magnificent Dub (Leo Zero Edit)
• I'm Not Down (Hold Your Head Up)
• 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. 

This seven minute clip has them powering through Complete Control, Safe European Home and What's My Name at the Music Machine in Camden a few weeks later. 

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.  

Trading Places

Out today from Jezebell, two new three track EPs with a single starting point but multiple routes- Trading Places (Daytime and Nightime Versions). Jezebell are Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell. They have an Ibiza takeover imminent, and these six tracks tell the story of a night out, the ebb and flow of day to night and back again in musical form. The six tracks, Trading Places 11AM, 3PM and 6PM on the daytime EP and Trading Places 10PM, 2AM and 5AM on the Nighttime, all began with the same initial sample and span out from there, ideas shuttling between them, music as infinite possibilities. Songs begin with a single spark- an idea, a riff, a sample, a line, a beat- and the decisions taken then fix that track/ song for the creator (and for the listener at the end). The six tracks here show what can happen when you take not just one route, but several, when ideas are followed not just this way, but that way too. Endless possibilities, nothing is fixed.

Trading Places (11AM) launches the day in easy style, a low-slung start with mid- paced drums and a padding bassline. Handclaps, a repeating synth part, bubbling sounds and eventually a horn part. Take a swig, get a little perked up, it’s still before lunch, no need to go mad.

3PM is a good time to be out, the whole day and night ahead, all sorts of possibilities in front and choices to be made. The track kicks a bit harder than 11AM with a clipped, choppy  guitar riff and looped ‘ah oh oh’ backing vocal. The funk bass synth bumps away. Upbeat, feel good, nothing to worry about.

6PM. You’re in the mood now, you’ve been out for a while, everything’s nicely groovy, the sun is out and the beer is cold. The track slides in lazily, catching your attention as it builds, synths parts and some hand drums. At thirty seconds the rhythm kicks in and pulls you forwards, the kick drum becoming more insistent. The vibrating synth toplines hit and there’s the stutter of a vocal sample. A female voice weaves her way in, suddenly and unexpectedly revealing itself as Siouxsie Sioux, imperiously saying peek- a boo. The bass pushes forward wrapping itself around the track and then Siouxsie’s back, ‘strobe lights pump and flicker… that’s right now hit the floor’. Not a request, more a command.

10PM. But then without you really noticing when, it’s gone dark and you’re somewhere else, somewhere familiar but with that thrill of the unknown. Lights and sound beckon, the thump of bass and the slight breathless feeling as the bass hits, feeling in the chest. ‘You know it’s us… start the music’ the voice says, ‘no trading places…’. Hypnotic and enveloping sound, music bursting out of the speakers and into the room, building. You couldn’t stop yourself now even if you wanted to. It’s out of your hands, the music’s in control. Breakdown and whooshing sounds at five minutes in give a pause for breath but only for a moment because when that kick drum comes back you’re moving again, caught in the moment.

2AM. Oh heck. Sirens. Throbbing bass. Speakers vibrating. Senses distorted. Smoke and dry ice. Everywhere. Your friends have vanished. No matter. The people you’re dancing with are our new friends. Everyone locked in to the same moment, the same feeling. ‘You you you… get up get up’ a voice says, somewhere in the mix, behind you maybe, or above you. Another vocal, chopped up and re- arranged. Limbs moving, hair now sticky with sweat. Drinks ordered and poured. Nods of recognition on the floor as the bass comes back. Smiles. Cheers. Whistles.

5AM. It’s late now. Or early, difficult to tell which. The voice is back, the one saying, ‘you know it’s us’. Things are slowing down slightly, the groove less insistent, the tempo a little slower. The voice there again, ‘Leave no traces/ Know your rights/ No trading places’. But things aren’t really easing up, the groove is still strong, the snare still cracking, the bass wanting to push you for one last spin round the floor, no let up even now, lost in it all. At dawn.

Both EPs are available from Bandcamp from today, Daytime Versions are here and Nighttime Versions are here. I recommend both as you can probably tell. 

Things

These pigs live in the field next to the cemetery Isaac is buried in. When we go to see Isaac it always cheers me to see the pigs scurrying around. One time we went last year, the pigs had escaped and were snuffling all over the place. They now live behind more secure fencing but still bring joy. 

About twenty years ago I had a colleague in the same department who was much older than me (he was probably about the age I am now). One Friday afternoon we were crossing the yard at school coming towards each other, rain driving in sideways and wind whipping around us. We were both trying not to lose what we were carrying while holding our coats to shield us from Lancashire's weather. As he came towards me, in his broad East Lancs accent, he shouted, 'In the words of the prophet, thank fuck that's over'. It has been one of those weeks at work this week too, so to echo my former colleague, thank fuck that's over.

One of the recent highlights of the 1994 Top Of The Pops repeats has been seeing D: Ream performing Things Can Only Get Better, a song not served well by subsequent events. Things Can Only Get Better is a million selling, massive hit single that soundtracked Tony Blair's rise to power, tainted by its association with New Labour- I'm reclaiming it. In autumn and winter 93 and into 94 it was everywhere, played in clubs and bars, shamelessly good time pop- house. Peter Cunnah was a great frontman. Around this time I had some very fetching checked trousers not dissimilar from the ones he's wearing below (although I baulked at the full suit). The band look great, professor Brian Cox plays keys, the female sax player is fantastic, everyone's breathlessly happy. By January they were at number one on Top Of The Pops. 

There- feel better now?

D: Ream still exist. Peter and Al MacKenzie have a considerably lower profile now than they did thirty years ago but they're still making good electronic dance music. Last year's single Pedestal was an end of year highlight and came with a remix package that included Drop Out Orchestra and Jezebell. 

Jezebell's Dizzy Heights Remix is a seven minute warm bath of Balearic bliss, treated acoustic guitars and chiming melody lines, a melodica winding its way through the song and hushed vocals just within earshot. Al MacKenzie released a tribute to Andrew Weatherall last year, the magnificent, languid Sail On, a seven minute odyssey built around a descending synth part, some throbbing sequencers and a lot of emotion. It too has been remixed, a pair of remixes that came out last month courtesy of Matt Gunn and Sven Kossler. Get them here. 

Monday Mix

A mix for Monday, my seventh for Tak Tent Radio who broadcast out of central Scotland with a range of contributors and guests. This one, has music from a lot of artists who have graced the pages of this blog this year- Mark Peters with Dot Allison remixed by Richard Norris, Pete Wylie and Wah! The Mongrel from 1991, Pye Corner Audio remixed by Sonic Boom, Andy Bell remixed by David Holmes, Gabe Gurnsey, Jazxing, Jezebell's recent edit of Laurie Anderson, Carly Simon, Dirt Bogarde and Boxheater Jackson. In short- starts ambient, goes Balaeric and ends up dancey. Listen here or here.

• Mark Peters and Dot Allison: Sundowning (Richard Norris Ambient Remix)
• Pete Wylie and Wah! The Mongrel: Don’t Lose Your Drums
• Pye Corner Audio: Warmth Of The Sun (Sonic Boom Remix)
• Andy Bell: The Sky Without You (David Holmes Radical Mycology remix)
• Gabe Gurnsey: To The Room
• Jazxing: Fala
• Jezebell: Re- birth (Edit)
• Carly Simon: Why (Extended 12” Mix)
• Dirt Bogarde: So Far Away
• Boxheater Jackson: Don’t Complicate

Tell Them A Story

A three for one offer at Bagging Area today to celebrate the weekend, the yin and yang of music. First this song came out in mid- October, Orbital with Sleaford Mods and a coruscating, furious and perfectly timed piece of music called Dirty Rat. 

'Shut up, you don't know what ya on about/ You voted for 'em, look at ya!/ You dirty rat'

'Blaming everyone at the hospitals/ Blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/ Blaming everyone who doesn't look like a fried animal'.

Written for and about the people who voted for the shallowest talent pool the Tory party have ever fished in for government, the three Prime Ministers, one elected and two unelected, and the incompetent, mean spirited and downright dangerous cabinets we've suffered since 2019, the worst group of people to ever end up in power- this one's for you. 

If that seems a bit much, a bit too angry for your Saturday morning and you fancy something more uplifting, more chilled and in places a tad more spiritual, this is David Holmes at NTS eleven days ago, back with his two hour God's Waiting Room show. This one is a tribute to DJ Alfredo, the man who who DJed at Amnesia in Ibiza from the mid 80s onwards and who David and his friend Iain McCready encountered there in 1990, a DJ set that took in reggae, Grace Jones, The Clash, Italo house, Eurodance, Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, Brazilian flamenco and much more, pulled together effortlessly. Alfredo has recently suffered some poor health and is recovering from a stroke. David's show, two hours of Alfredo's Amnesia inspired Balearica, is here, an absolute joy to listen to. 

Bonus- if you needed it, here's Jezebell's summer stunner, Jezebellearic, eight minutes of blissed out beats and percussion, a lovely warm bassline, a sprinkling of hints of pop songs you might be able to discern and the voice of Alfredo talking about the people who came to dance to his music, the songs he played and how to make them dance 'you have to tell them a story'. Still available here for free. 

The Knack

There is a lot of new music around right now and keeping up with it sometimes feels like a job in itself. Bandcamp Friday, the first Friday of every month, brings umpteen emails to my inbox, many of which are essential. The difficulty is in keeping up and not missing something good. One of yesterday's Bandcamp Friday treats was a new release from 10:40, a track called The Knack. Built around crunchy drums, a deep piano two note riff and a snatch of a female vocal, The Knack is a steamy, insistent thumper, the sound of pressure building and bodies moving. There's some Belgian EBD inside it's grooves/ bytes and the feel of darker, sweatier house music. The more you listen, the more it gives.

The Knack comes with two remixes, one by Ed Mahon and another by Jezebell. Ed pulls the deepest of synth basslines to the fore and crashing handclaps with a rhythm that is both fast and slow (as Martin Hannett might have demanded). The Jezebell Feeling Moody Remix strips it back to the core, streamlining it in a house rocking and the body rocking. The rhythm that comes in at one minute thirty takes no prisoners, puts its head down and thumps.  All three can be bought here. 

Also out this week is a new release from Jezebell, an EPs worth of edits out on Buenos Aires label Diavol, four tasty 2022 takes on Laurie Anderson, Herb Alpert, The Notorious B.I.G. and Kajagoogoo. All four are worth the price of entrance but in particular the digital stutter and bump of Re-birth (originally Laurie Anderson's Born Never Asked) and Vibrations Hitatchi Dub, a sleek electro stepper edit of Tijuana brassman Herb Alpert with muted wah wah trumpet, synths and timbales bouncing around. Buy here. Then press play and replay all weekend. 

Edit: all the edits are now available at Jezebell's Bandcamp site here, name your own price/ free.  

Do You Hear Voices?

After their summer highlight Jezebellearic- nine minutes of warm sounds, waves lapping on the shore and the voice of Ibizan DJ Alfredo- Jezebell have returned for autumn with some electro, cunningly renamed as Jezebellectro. The title track, Jezebell Spirit, is six minute long tour de force, funky as a mosquito's tweeter, pummelling dancefloor electro, recasting a familiar song into new shapes. You can get the EP complete with another track Dumbell and a pair of remixes at Bandcamp. 

You'll probably recognise the source- underneath the pumping drums, rattling snare and fizzing synth lines is a Brian Eno and David Byrne ground breaker from 1981, polyrhythmic Afro- beats and the disturbing found voice of a TV preacher performing an exorcism. I bought My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts back in 1987 and it's an album that still holds a huge amount of power, the layers of electronics, sampled voices and drums and rhythms borrowed from African and Middle Eastern cultures. They encountered a certain amount of legal action at the time and since and have recently been accused of cultural appropriation but it remains a staggering, forward thinking, pioneering record. 

The Jezebell Spirit

Monday's Long Song

A swift return to these pages for Jezebell with the release last Friday of their three track Jezebellearica EP. Two of the three have been released previously, the slinky groove of Le Funk Et Moi and the White Ilse stomper Stop Bajon (Primavera), summer songs built around the works of Max Berlins and Tullio Piscopo. The lead song, Jezebellearic, is seven minutes and forty three seconds of laid back, easy going charm, a groove and song that according to Jesse 'just seemed to write itself', pushed along by a lazy vaguely familiar bassline. It is sprinkled with the voice of legendary DJ Alfredo, the father of the Balearic Beat and resident of Ibiza since 1976, who picked up the residency at Amnesia and proceeded to play the contents of his record collection, a unique and eclectic blend of rock, pop, dance, soul, jazz, soundtracks, instrumentals and eventually house to a crowd of pleasure seekers from all over the world who 'all knew each other by their first name'. Jezebellearic is magic bottled, a feeling compressed into bytes. And much more. Get it here and name your own price. 

In the track Alfredo lists some of the records he played, including this one from Art Of Noise in 1984. How's that for cooling you down on the hottest Monday of the year/ decade/ century?

Moments In Love

Concurrence

For some reason I missed posting this when it came out back in the middle of June (and previously when it was first released in September last year) but better late than never. Walking out in the late evening sunshine last week with my headphones in, Concurrence by Jezebell came onto my playlist. 

A slow motion, dark slice of dubby house that picks up with a thunderous breakbeat a little way in and proceeds to mess things up with a chopped up vocal snippet that twists its way in and around the track. Ominous synths add to the moodiness as the vocal burrows its way in. Leaves one feeling slightly frazzled- in a good way. 

It was originally available here as part of When Disco Goes Wrong with several mixes, remakes and dubs, including one very acidic one from Sweden's Mindbender. Then last month it was re- released here with more remixes courtesy of Akio Nagase, 33rd December, Super FU and Pete Bones. Jezebell are Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell and despite featuring their music here several times in the last year I have only just now twigged that the name Jezebell comes from the start of Jesse's name and the end of Darren's. 

Meanwhile, In Frestonia

The Clash's re- issue programme continues with a forthcoming special edition of Combat Rock released for the album's fortieth anniversary. Combat Rock, the last album by Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon, is the definition of uneven. Mick was holding out for another double, a sixteen song whopper/ double album. Everyone else wanted something more concise that might push them to another level in the USA. They tried mixing it while on tour in Australia and the Far East and eventually Glyn Johns was brought in to mix it, shorten some of the songs and cut the number of songs. This did nothing to repair the fracturing relationship of Mick and Joe. Mick was already smarting from the return of Bernie Rhodes. Topper was sacked by the time they took Combat Rock on tour. The end.

Combat Rock is still full of golden moments though wildly uneven as I said above- two enormous singles (one written by the soon to be ex- drummer), some funk and rap, some agit- prop, some spoken word stuff, a few killer album songs, Allen Ginsberg, Sean Flynn and the weird, stunning modern jazz/ soundtrack finale of Death Is A Star. It's all along way from Janie Jones and White Riot. The re- issue is coupled with a bonus disc (two CDs, three vinyl although only five sides of the vinyl contain music) called The People's Hall, an attempt to entice the collector with extra/ new material. The bonus material is pulled together from a variety of sources, much released elsewhere in previous re- issue campaigns. It's named after the venue the group rehearsed in Frestonia, a heavily squatted part of West London that tried to secede from the UK in the late 70s and form a breakaway republic. It's a strange collection of songs, some that aren't even from that period (Outside Bonds and Radio Clash date from prior to the Combat Rock sessions when The Clash took over New York, played Bonds and recorded Sandinista!), some from B-sides from Combat Rock singles (First Night Back In London, Long Time Jerk- both intended for Mick's double that never happened that he wanted to call Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg), previously unreleased alternative versions of Sean Flynn and Know Your Rights, an unreleased instrumental called He Who Dares or Is Tired, The Fulham Connection (which seems to be The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too outtake renamed), Midnight To Stevens (a tribute to Guy Stevens which was first released on the Clash On Broadway box set) and Radio One with Mickey Dread (B-side, previously released). There is a booklet and a poster. The CD is fourteen quid. The vinyl is just shy of fifty. 

*shrugs*

Two pieces of Clash related music for you today. The first is an edit of The Magnificent Seven (The Magnificent Dub actually) by Leo Zero, dating back to either 2012 or 1981 depending on how you look at it. Leo has cut the song up in fine style, looping Norman Watt Roy's bass riff, adding some sound from a gig along with sections of Joe's vocal and new drum loops. Nine minutes of fun. 

The Magnificent Dub (Leo Zero Edit)

Much more recently, Jezebell (rapidly becoming a weekly fixture at these pages) released a new EP called Dancing (Not Fighting), built around a sample of Mick Jones berating the bouncers at a gig, it's a riot of drums and bass and horns, acid punk funk, with remixes from Matt Gunn and Markus Cooper. All proceeds to assist the victims of Putin's war in Ukraine. get it at Bandcamp. 

I Wanna Be Your Vacuum Cleaner

I went to see John Cooper Clarke at the rarefied environs of the Bridgewater Hall on Thursday night, an evening of poetry compered by legendary former- Clash road manager Johnny Green, resplendent in suit and thick rimmed glasses. Johnny kicked us off with the first poet, Luke Wright. Luke has published upteen poems and performed up and down the country and on radio. His poem These Boots Aren’t Made For Walking is funny, the Cooper Clarke influence evident in the rapid fire rhymes. He talks about being a parent and the sneering condescension of his ten year old son towards him (‘it’s like living with Stewart Lee’ he quipped) and counters this with the joys of watching children learning to read. He is funny and sharp and in Dad Reins, moving. He explains the background to and then recites his poem inspired by French situationists The Oulipo who demanded restrictions and constraints be placed on artforms rather than absolute free expression. His poem, Ron’s Knock Off Shop, written using only one vowel, O, a tale of London and Bolton is funny and clever (but not too clever). Luke was inspired by JCC aged 17 and his influence is evident but Luke Wright has a style and tone of his own too, honed from a young age from his home in Colchester, Essex.

Manchester’s own Mike Garry performs a poetic tour de force, an emotive set with tributes to his Mum, to the primary school teacher who taught him to read and to dream, and his famous, tearjerking tribute to Tony Wilson, St Anthony. I’ve seen Mike Garry twice before but here, on the big stage with the perfect acoustics of a chamber orchestra’s home, he is in a class of his own. Very much a home town hero, he reads God Is A Manc and breaks off with asides and comments, then dropping straight back into the poem. 

Garry often wanders away from the mic, singing lines of poetry and songs as preludes to the next poem and he gazes upwards, as if seeking inspiration from on high. His poems are honest, real and heartfelt, written from experience of growing up in south Manchester in the 70s and 80s, littered with references to this town and its people (‘Gorton girls know all the words to songs by Chaka Khan’), occasionally sentimental and always affecting. I always find St Anthony moving, especially when listening to the Weatherall remix where Andrew Weatheralll, 80s New Order, Factory and Manchester’s cultural history get bound together in rhyme- it often moves me. In my current emotional state, hearing and seeing Mike perform the poem leaves me wiping my eyes. 

John Cooper Clarke appears after the interval, big cap, long hair, shades and the tightest jeans in the building and launches into his familiar rapid fire, motoric performance poetry, from the streets of Salford (Higher Broughton to be exact) in the late 70s to his recent elevation to national treasure status. The between poem asides, jokes and commentary are as much part of the act as the poems and he doesn’t disappoint- it's a well honed act, clinging to the microphone with his knock kneed stance, firing straight into Hire Car and then Get Back On Drugs You Fat Fuck. He veers between newer stuff and his classics, (I Married) A Monster From Outer Space followed by Bedblocker Blues- age is clearly on his mind as he plays the nations venues after two years of gigs delayed by Covid aged 73.

Beasley Street is rattled out and then followed by the updated Beasley Boulevard, the late 70s slum life contrasted with 2020s gentrification. He reads poems about cars and pies and slows down the pace slightly with I’ve Fallen In Love With My Wife. Throughout the show he frequently flips into a New Yoik accent, this inspired by the films of his youth and the huge tip of the that that came his way when The Sopranos came calling and used his poetry over the end of one of the episodes of the box set, binge TV proto-series. 

The poem in question, Evidently Chicken Town closes the set,

‘The fucking pies are fucking old
The fucking chips are fucking cold
The fucking beer is fucking flat
The fucking flats have fucking rats
The fucking clocks are fucking wrong
The fucking days are fucking long
It fucking gets you fucking down
Evidently chicken town’

There is an encore, which occurs after the briefest of exits- ‘I was gonna milk it’, he says, ‘but there were stairs off the stage’- and gives us Twat, the laugh out loud funny stream of bile, line after line of invective building to the one word finale before finishing with the flipside of Twat, the Yin to Twat’s Yang, I Wanna Be Yours. 

I Wanna Be Yours

Handily, Jezebell (Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell) have just done an edit of Evidently Chicken Town, a murky, thumping acid stew poured onto and around John Cooper Clarke. You can get it from Paisley Dark here. 

Jezebell Et Moi

Jezebell released a new four track EP for Valentine's Day, for all the lovers out there- fortunately, we can have the love every day not just on 14th February, so it's here today, a day late but still on time. Jezebell have re- imagined the 1987 Balearic classic Elle et Moi by Max Berlin's (there are various grammatical versions out there, Max Berlin, Max Berlins and Max Berlin's). The original Elle et Moi is a much sought after Belgian 12", and is slinky, clubby, piano- driven Belgian chanson/ disco, very much in Serge Gainsbourg territory but relocated to Flanders. 

Jezebell are Jesse Fahnestock and co- edit conspirator Darren Bell and have been posted here several times in the last year. The lead version on this release is Jezebell et Moi, a spacey, low slung affair that will keep you coming back to it, like lovestruck moths round fairy lights. It comes backed by three further excursions- Le Acide et Moi, Le Funk et Moi and Le Dub et Moi. All three are on the tip in their respective title- Le Acide has a lovely ringing topline, the sort that reverberates round the cranium for some time. Le Funk stretches out seductively. Le Dub has echoing rimshots and melodica, a Sabres Of Paradise style reworking or a reworking. You're going to want all four obviously. Name your price here. 

Iz Um

I've done a week back at work- not sure how when I look back at it but it's done and it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. My grief anxiety has kicked in a few times and driving in on Tuesday wasn't great when I realised it was six weeks to the day since Isaac died. That sort of significance of dates/ passing of time thing really gets to me, and in my head and gut puts me straight back into the room where we were when he died. It passes but it's not very nice at all and when I got to work I clearly didn't look great because a colleague brought me a cup of tea and a biscuit almost straight away. People are good. 

This came out two days ago, a throbbing, chugging psychedelic house monster aimed at bringing the summertime to January. Slowed dance music. Iz Um is by 10:40 (Jesse Fahnestock), an American in Sweden whose music lit up last year. Buy it/ get it for free here. 

Another track by Jesse which I didn't get around to posting last year when it came out because it got lost in everything that was going on in late November and December was one in his Jezebell guise called Thrill Me (I've just looked at the release date and it came out on Isaac's birthday which has thrown me slightly). Thrill Me is electric, acid psyche, sounding like nights in sweaty basements and dark backrooms with a vocal sample likely to trigger flashbacks. Buy at a name your own price arrangement here. 

Primavera

Tullio De Piscopo is an Italian drummer/ singer/ top session percussionist whose 1983 single Stop Bajon went worldwide, slowly and gently, from Italian danceterias out to the rest of the world, to the early Chicago house scene to the Balearics, across Europe from Munich to Glasgow. It was a minor hit in the UK, one of those records bought by people when they returned from their fortnight in the sun. 

Stop Bajon

Over at Paisley Dark's Bandcamp page you can find a lovely slice of late summer re- edit action courtesy of Jezebell. Slinky and slightly darker than the original, nicely insistent. Should work a treat- free to download too. And if you want more, here's Tullio on Italian TV playing the song live in glorious VHS upload low fi. 

Paisley Dark Is In Your Heart

Paisley Dark is a label based in Leeds specialising in dark, psychedelic electronic music, edits and remixes and original works. Recently I posted the Jesse Fahnestock re- edit of Spacemen 3's How Does It Feel, a deep, dubbed out version of Rugby's finest's druggy gospel sounds. This one, again by Jesse in his 10:40 guise, appeared at the end of May, a skewwhiff take on a hypnotic, slowly building song that sounds like it's come from somewhere else, a radio tuned into another reality- Inner Meet Me from The Beta Band's  second EP, The Patty Patty Sound (from 1998). Those first three Beta Band EPs really were something else. Jesse's 10:40's Outer Hebrides Dub is five minutes of pulsing, trippy sound and can be found at Bandcamp (free downloads available while they last). 

Inner Meet Me

Also out on Paisley Dark is an edit of Julian Cope's Safesurfer, his 1991 ode to contraception. The Jezebell edit is slightly shorter than the Archdrude's original and burns more slowly- descending bassline, hissing hi- hats, swirling, looped, chopped up vocals smothered in echo before Copey's refrain, 'You don't have to be afraid, love/'Cos I'm a safesurfer darling'. I've no idea who Jezebell is but this edit is clearly an act of love. Available at Bandcamp, free download while stocks last. 

Safesurfer (Peggy Suicide version)