555

Three very different variations on the theme of 555 by Delakota, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Augustus Pablo.

 

Delakota were short-lived: a single album, One Love, and a clutch of singles between 1998 and 2000. Formed by Cass Browne and Morgan Nicholls after their previous band The Senseless Things ended in 1995, the sound incorporated dance music, indie rock and use of movie samples to great effect. 

 

Their releases attracted an impressive roster of remixes by Fatboy Slim, Freddy Fresh, Adam & Eve (aka The Beloved), Tim Goldsworthy, Sound 5, Joshua Falken (aka Kieran Hebden) and David Holmes. I featured the latter in a previous Dubhed Selection and wrote about when Delakota repaid the favour to David Holmes in a guest post for The Vinyl Villain.

 

555 was one of four Top 100 UK hits for Delakota, crashing in at #42 for one week only in February 1999.

Charlotte Gainsbourg is famously the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin and has forged an impressive career as an actor and singer/songwriter, the latter including some inspired collaborations with the likes of AIR, Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon, Beck and SebastiAn. I'm a huge fan of her work and Charlotte was the focus of a Dubhed Selection in December 2021.

 

5:55 is the title track of Charlotte's second album (her first as an adult), which managed a single week at #78 in the UK album charts in September 2006. A few promos did the rounds in 2006 with an official vinyl 7" release of a pair of remixes by Metronomy and Black Ghosts that didn't trouble the charts in any way. 5:55 a wonderful, piano-driven song with words and music by the aforementioned AIR and Jarvis Cocker and the legendary Tony Allen on drums.

Last but certainly not least is the mighty multi-instrumentalist and melodica maestro, Augustus Pablo. 555 Crown Street was released on 7" vinyl on the Rockers International label in Jamaica around 1975. I was shocked to find that I've only featured Augustus Pablo here once before, and that with a Version on the flip of I-Roy's Cow Town Skank 7". This criminal oversight will be rectified with an Augustus Pablo Dubhed Selection in due course.

For this post, I've found a YouTube clip which pairs the full 7" with 555 Crown Street and it's Version on the B-side. As good a five minutes as you're likely to hear all day.

Joy Is The Ploy

The second of three David Holmes mix CDs that I compiled for my friend Dave on 13th March 2005. I previously posted volume three in December 2021 and according to the stats, it's proved to be a popular Dubhed selection, hopefully with human beings as well as blogbots.

 

This one spans David Holmes' career from his first solo single in 1994 to his full band excursions with The Free Association, taking in a slew of remixes along the way. Johnny Favourite, here in it's downtempo, ambient B-side version, is a prime contender for The Vinyl Villain's It Really Was A Cracking Debut Single series. I remember buying the 12" single at Way Ahead in Derby, getting it home and putting it on my turntable, placing the needle in the groove and...being transported. Both versions are essential listening, in my opinion.

There are a couple of rarer Holmes songs here. Jackson Johnson originally appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Bow Down To The Exit Sign in 2000. I picked it up in the UK the following year on the excellent London Xpress compilation. In 2010, it became more readily available on the 'best of' collection, The Dogs Are Parading.

A little harder to find is Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1 which (I think) is only available on 1996 compilation, The Science Behind The Circle, itself highly recommended as it features additional tracks from Andrew Weatherall, Carl Cox, Secret Knowledge, The Aloof and Ashley Beedle, to name a few. Both Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1 and Jackson Johnson are an indication of Holmes' prodigious output and the quality of his music that these didn't even make it onto official singles or albums. 

Delakota's version of Don't Die Just Yet takes the form of a short narrative about a toxic couple in the Australian wilderness and was a 'remix swap', Holmes repaying the favour with an excellent rework of their track I Thought I Caught, which appeared on volume three of my mix CDs. 

 

I can never quite decide if I like the Manic Street Preachers remix; I invariably decide that I do. The mix CD's title is taken from a second remix of You Stole The Sun From My Heart that Holmes did. It appeared on a promo 12" in the UK and a promo Remixes CD in the USA and I've never heard it.

The remix of Dawn Of The Replicants' Skullcrusher is a particular favourite, as is Gone featuring Sarah Cracknell, which came in a package of really strong remixes with Alter Ego's second take a standout. 

Closing track, the Children Re-Mix of Everbody Knows was the opener of The Free Association selection I posted in June 2021 and works well whether it starts or ends a selection.

 

1) Johnny Favourite (Exploding Plastic Ambience Mix By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): David Holmes (1994)

2) Sugarman (VV Featuring Chilly Gonzales Remix): The Free Association (2003)

3) 69 Police (Skylab Remix By Matt Ducasse & Duncan Forbes): David Holmes ft. Sean Gullette (2000)

4) Jackson Johnson: David Holmes (2000)

5) Die Laughing (David Holmes Mix 2 By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Therapy? (1994)

6) Swastika Eyes (David Holmes Mix) (Full Length): Primal Scream (1999)

7) Don't Die Just Yet (Delakota Mix By Cass Browne & Morgan Nicholls): David Holmes (1997)

8) Skullcrusher (David Holmes & Tim Goldsworthy Remix): Dawn Of The Replicants (1998)

9) Gone (Alter Ego Decoding Gone, Pt. 2) (Remix By Jörn Elling Wuttke & Roman Flügel): David Holmes ft. Sarah Cracknell (1995)

10) You Stole The Sun From My Heart (David Holmes' A Joyful Racket Remix): Manic Street Preachers (1998)

11) Grumpy Flutter Pt. 1: David Holmes (1996)

12) Everybody Knows (Children Re-Mix By Stephen Hilton & Pati Yang): The Free Association (2003)

Joy Is The Ploy (1:19:10)

Preacher Beats

Today's selection is a David Holmes mix CD that I did for my friend Dave way back in March 2005. Dave and I met in 1998 when I joined the careers service in Bristol; he was one of the ICT team. We immediately bonded over a shared love of music, clubbing and gigs and over the years swapped a ton of mix CDs and DIY rips. David Holmes was a particular favourite, although in hindsight gifting Dave with 5 different homemade CD-Rs might have been a little excessive...

This is the third in the series, mostly collating Holmes' remixes of other artists from the years 1994 to 1999, and I love it. It's a good example of how exciting David Holmes was back then and why he's still up there today, creating music and DJ sets that make you pause and wonder at the brilliance of it all. I saw him perform live several times in the 1990s and 2000s, including a gig by The Free Association which I wrote about in a previous post. David Holmes' latest single, Hope Is The Last Thing To Die, is one of my personal musical highlights of 2021.

The other thing that Dave and I have in common is the same birthday, today. Dave sadly succumbed to cancer in 2009 and I think of him and miss him a lot. We knew each other for a little over 10 years and I will be forever grateful for that. Every birthday, I raise a drink to him and listen to music, some which came out after he passed, but which I know would make him smile and move. This one's for you (again), Dave.

1) Talk About The Blues (For The Saints And Sinners Remix By David Holmes): The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (1999)

2) Wish You Were Here... (David Holmes Vocal): The Aloof (1996)

3) Blow The Whole Joint Up (Let's Slash The Beats Mix By David Holmes): Monkey Mafia (1995)

4) Smoked Oak: David Holmes (1995)

5) Die Laughing (David Holmes Mix 1 By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Therapy? (1994)

6) Failure (David Holmes Remix): Skinny (1998)

7) Hoops (David Holmes Mix): Ruby (1996)

8) I Thought I Caught (David Holmes Remix): Delakota (1998)

9) Live From The Opium Den (David Holmes Main Mix By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Justin Warfield (1994)

10) This Is Fascism (Experimental Plastic Racism) (Remix By David Holmes) (Cover of Consolidated): New Fast Automatic Daffodils (1996)

11) The Holiday Girl (Don't Die Just Yet) (Remixed By Arab Strap): David Holmes (1997)

Preacher Beats (1:19:18)