Forty Minutes Of AR Kane

AR Kane formed after Rudy Tambala and Alex Ayuli saw Cocteau Twins on TV in 1985. Their albums 69 (1988) and i (1989) were much beloved by the late 80s music press, the blend of guitar pedal noise, dub and electronic dance pop hitting the mark with writers and fans as the late 80s music scene found common ground between guitar bands and dance music. The otherworldly nature of the Cocteau Twins music, the swirl of FX is evident in their music, the pair playing guitars and singing, with drums provided by tape and machines. Initially they were lumped in with the feedback indie of The Jesus And Mary Chain. Rudy commented that they'd never heard The Mary Chain and were more inspired by Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, Arthur Russell and Lee Scratch Perry along with the Cocteaus (whose record label, 4AD, they were released their first record on). 

The AR Kane albums have been re- issued recently, a box set on Rocket Girl called ARKive containing 69, i and the EP Up Home as well as badges, art prints and a t- shirt. Rudy and Alex played in London in the summer. Their music is hugely influential if less widely heard than some of their contemporaries. Their feedback drenched, FX pedal guitar noise played a huge part in forming the early 90s shoegaze sound and their electronic dance- pop songs had a big impact on many including Andrew Weatherall (who covered A Love From Outer Space and named a long running mobile club night after the song). When they were put into a studio with Colourbox by 4AD boss Ivo Watts- Russell they created Pump Up The Volume, the M|A|R|R|S single that topped the charts and brought sampling to the masses and while the A-side was mainly Colourbox the B-side Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance) was mainly AR Kane. On 69 they created a sonic blueprint, blending dub, noise, jazz and pop. With Up Home! they'd brought electronic music and acid house into the sound. Just a year later 69 came out, a double album containing a headspinning rush of songs and sounds, some of them not much more than dream sketches, some of them woozy, off kilter pop, with bursts of jazz, drones and dub, bongos, percussion and cello, lullabies over ocean sized soundscapes. 

AR Kane described their music as dream pop, a phrase which has become a shorthand for 21st century guitar music, heavily reverbed chords strummed very slowly with breathy vocals. For Rudy Tambala dream pop was more about the 'dream mythology...and lucid dreaming. We both used to practice it... go into a semi- hypnotic trance just before falling asleep.... being awake inside a dream... What would happen was that we’d hear music in our dreams and wake ourselves up to write down melodies, lyrics or even just the atmosphere that we wanted to capture. Our music was literally dream pop'. 

The mix here switches between the different elements of AR Kane's sound, the wall of guitar FX and feedback, sweetly sung and murmured vocals, dub basslines and breakbeats and synths. 

Forty Minutes Of AR Kane

• Snow Joke
• Baby Milk Snatcher
• Sugarwings
• A Love From Outer Space 
• Miles Apart
• Up
• Crack Up (Space Mix)
• Spermwhale Trip Over
• Anitina (The First Time See She Dance)

Snow Joke, Miles Apart and Sugarwings are all from i, their 1989 album which came out on One Little Indian. A Love From Outer Space, delirious electronic pop, comes from the album too. 

Baby Milk Snatcher was a 1988 single for Rough Trade and then the lead song on the Up Home! EP, a longer version. Up was on the same EP, one of their finest moments. 

Crack Up was a 1990 single on Rough Trade. The Space Mix came out on a Rem'i'xes EP, remixed by Cocteau Robin Guthrie. 

Spermwhale Trip Over is from 69, a song which seemed to give birth to much of the shoegaze band's sound- My Bloody Valentine must have had a copy close by when they recorded Slow. Rudy has described 69 as 'a gem. We wanted to go as far out as we could, and in doing so we discovered the point where it stops being music'. The re- release of the albums in the ARKive box and recent return to live gigs is something to be welcomed. I hope they might make a trip up north at some point soon. 

Anitina (The First Time See She Dance) is the b-side to Pump Up The Volume by M|A|R|R|S, the AR Kane and Cooirbox collaboration. The two groups found out quickly that they weren't going to work together well, their outlook and working methods wildly different. Pump Up The Volume is largely Colourbox with some AR Kane guitar parts added in and the scratch mix DJ skills of CJ Mackintosh and Dave Dorrell. Anitina is predominantly AR Kane with some Colourbox drum machine programming and FX. Post- single disagreements meant that M|AR|R|S was a one off. 

Vaughan Oliver

Vaughan Oliver died yesterday aged 62. He was the man responsible for the creating the artwork that graced the sleeves of a slew of bands in the 1980s and 90s and the entire visual identity of 4AD. The selection above shows how distinctive, eye catching and beautiful his work was but also how varied. It helps that the music contained within the 12" by 12" squares above was always of the highest calibre- Lush, Pixies, This Mortal Coil, Cocteau Twins, Ultra Vivid Scene, MARRS, Colourbox, Pale Saints (and also Throwing Muses, The Breeders, AR Kane, Belly... the list goes on). From the days when buying records based on the label they were issued on was commonplace and when the artwork mattered as much as the music.

Here in 1991 are Lush performing their single Sweetness and Light at The Dome, shoegaze pop with a Manchester swing to the rhythm. Vaughan Oliver RIP.

Sugarwings

Jumping forward slightly from the last three day's posts to 1989 with a pair of dreads from East London, Alex Ayuli and Rudy Tambala. As AR Kane they made some bewildering and beautiful music, combining guitars with synths and breakbeats and what would become shoegaze. The pair used the term dream pop to describe their music, and the ambient, dubby swirl give many of their songs a dreamlike state. They released two albums- in 1986 their debut 69 followed in 1988 by 'i', both on Rough Trade. In 1990 they put out an e.p. of remixes from 'i' called rem'i'xes, with Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie providing three new versions and AR Kane themselves three more. This one is lilting and sweet but off kilter and experimental too.

Sugarwings (AR Kane Remix)

With Colourbox (as MARRS) they they would make Pump Up The Volume, an experience neither band enjoyed and wasn't repeated, but which resulted in an international hit for MARRS and 4AD. The A-side, a number one single, is an amazing record, a groundbreaking piece of UK house music, laden with samples and a propulsive rhythm. There were so any problems with sample clearence that different versions were released in different countries. Pump Up The Volume was mainly the work of Colourbox and DJs Dave Dorrell and CJ Mackintosh. AR Kane's contribution was pretty much solely a guitar line. The B-side was largely an AR Kane song but with drum programming from Colourbox's Martyn Young and while not sounding much at all like Pump Up The Volume is a great track in its own right.

Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)

Let It Roll

Sometimes I find I just want something big, brassy and up front- musically I mean, I'm not after not a Coronation Street matriarch coming round to beat me with a rolling pin. The rolling bass, cowbell and drumbreak of Doug Lazy's 1990 hit Let it Roll are instantly recognisable. Partly inspired by Mantronix this was quickly labelled hip house- and that's exactly what it is. House music's beat and groove with hip hop's clothes and vocals. Doug Lazy was a Washington DC radio dj, got a break in a studio, sampled Marshall Jefferson, MARRS and Big Daddy Kane and went top 30 in the US and then all over Europe. This record was a big favourite in certain clubs up north and while the rapping might sound a little dated but it still has groove in spades.

Let It Roll

MARRS Attacks

Pump Up The Volume by MARRS is surely one of the greatest singles ever made and a number one single to boot. From 1987 it was a one-off collaboration between members of AR Kane and Colourbox, both Bagging Area favourites, with extra input from djs Dave Dorrell and CJ Mackintosh. Does it sound twenty four years old? I've lost track of how things should sound after that amount of time. Made up mainly of samples it still shakes dancefloors- well, the floor in my front room anyway. I don't know if anyone would play it in a proper club anymore. This is the B-side Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance), made up of an AR Kane track with Colourbox programming the drum machine.

Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance).mp3