Forty Minutes Of The Asphodells

The Asphodells formed when Andrew Weatherall and Timothy J. Fairplay realised that they had recorded enough material for an album, songs that eventually became Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust (named after a poster for a shlocky 50s gay gladiators film). The album came out in 2012, a fully realised collection of tracks with a typically diverse and eclectic set of Weatherall interests- dubby leftfield disco with New Order- esque basslines, John Betjeman, Tony Wilson quotes and AR Kane. Around the time of the album there were a slew of remixes by The Asphodells, alongside other ones from the same period but credited to Andrew Weatherall with Tim co- producing and engineering (the difference between a Weatherall remix and an Asphodells remix largely depending on who was paying and how big the cheque was apparently). 

Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust took up semi- permanent possession of my turntable for a while, an album that still rewards a decade later. It was followed by a remix album with members of the Scrutton Street Axis and wider Weatherall network on remix manoeuvres- Scott Fraser, Phil Kieran, Black Merlin, Hardway Bros, Justin Robertson, Richard Sen, Ivan Smagghe, Daniel Avery, Daniele Baldelli and DJ Rocco and Group Rhoda plus Wooden Shjips for a Record Shop Day 12". There was way too much material to cover all of this in one Sunday mix so this is a just a selection for today. 

Forty Minutes Of The Asphodells

• 200 (Asphodells Dub)
• Glock'd (The Asphodells Remix)
• Beglammered (Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Remix)
• Another Lonely City
• Needed You (The Asphodells Remix)
• Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells remix)

200 a single by Baris K, a DJ and producer from Istanbul with an interest in disco and 60s Turkish psyche. The 12" came out in 2013. The remix and dub are trippy, Middle Eastern chug of the highest order with a huge synth arpeggio and whooshes riding on top of a particularly gnarly bassline. 

Glock'd is by C.A.R., Chloe Raunet's musical outlet. Chloe was previously in Battant with Tim. Andrew and Tim's remix is one of the highlights of the entire period, a slow motion, glam rock/ sci fi stomp with Chloe's French accented vocal on top. Retro but utterly modern too. 

Beglammered was the opening track from Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, remixed by Justin and released on the remix album. Another Lonely City with its Power, Corruption And Lies bassline (played by Andy Baxter) came from the album too. 

Needed You was a remix of Berlin based band She Lies, post- punk/ dark disco. There are some lovely wobbly, throbbing sequencers and synths on this one. 

Songs Of Pressure was by Richard Sen whose links with Andrew went back to Sabres Of Paradise (he painted the sleeve art for Theme). For the dubbed out splendour of the remix Andrew added a vocal part- Andrew's vocals were a distinctive part of The Asphodells, and it seemed right that they should finish this mix off. 

Monday's Long Song

Today's long song comes from France and Turkey, a weirded out, industrial dub funk workout with spoken/whispered vocals pushed to the fore over some very seductive mechanical and electronic comings and goings. The original track, Durma, is by a Franco- Turkish duo called Kit Sebastian who say that their music is 'the meeting point of Anatolian psychedelia and Brazilian tropicalia... 60s European pop and American jazz.' The remix by Baris K takes Durma somewhere else entirely.

Cemalim

In 2011 Turkish DJ and musician Baris K put out a series of records under the title Istanbul '70, a collection of songs from Turkey in the late 60s and early 70s, Turkish psyche, disco, funk and folk. In the wake of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones Turkish artists in the mid 60s began to fuse traditional Turkish  music with rock, creating Anatolian Rock. The opening song on Volume 1 is a favourite of mine, a groovy, slightly psychedelic masterpeice. Carried by a smart acoustic guitar riff and a lead acid rock part with some intermittent drone from an organ over which Erkin Koray sings (and does his own reverb laden backing vox). It speeds up towards the end, percussion going into overdrive and the guitar solo flies the freak flag. Pretty trippy. 

Cemalim

Erkin Koray is one of the pioneers of Anatolian Rock and is still recording. Cemalim came out in 1974 on an album titled Elektronik Turkuler (which translates as Electronic Ballads), Koray's first full length lp after making a series of 45s. The Istanbul '70 series covers loads more Turkish artists from the period, handpicked by the expert ears of Baris K.

Sometimes with songs sung in a foreign language it's actually a pleasure to not know or understand what the lyrics are about, to put your own version into the words based on the singer's voice. Curiosity got the better of me with Ceralim. Google led me to a post on Reddit where someone asked for a translation of the song. The song is from the eyes of a woman named Serife from Ürgüp. She married a wealthy man called Cemal who after a couple of years was killed in a treacherous attack. She was left alone with a young son.

A translation site offers this version (there are others with some lyrical differences but a similar gist). 

'May you be merry, Ürgüp, your smoke doesn't fume

Cem's mansion doesn't hire my grizzly horse

Your son is too young, doesn't replace you

 

My Cemal, my Cemal, my weak Cemal

You've remained in red blood my Cemal

 

They saw me getting out of Ürgüp

They knew from my grizzly horse's leaping

They decided to kill me

 

My Cemal, my Cemal, my weak Cemal

You've remained in red blood my Cemal'

Kime Ne

This is a piece of Turkish psychedelic folk, from Insanlar, the in-house band at Istanbul's club Minimuzihkol (led by Baris K and Cem Yildiz). Kime Ne originally came out in 2013 and was then re-released by Honest Jon's in 2015 but I only discovered it recently thanks to a recording of Weatherall and Johnston playing their A Love From Outer Space night at Zukunft back in January. This is seriously good, a proper 'woah, rewind that and play it again' track.

Deadstock, Baris, Asphodells

This Asphodells remix came out on vinyl last week- Baris K is a Turkish musician/producer who was up here the other day. In this remix Weatherall stretches it out, bassline forefront, adds an Eastern stringed instrument. And the backwards/forwards vocal is t-r-i-p-p-y. Hypnotic. The original is worth seeking out too (or just flipping over if you bought the 12").

Also out recently (not sure if it's on vinyl or not) is a Weatherall/Asphodells remix of Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s. The Circular Path has a Luke Solomon and Dmitri Veimar remix apiece too. The Weatherall one is machine-funk reminiscent of TLS to these ears. Excerpts of each available to listen to below. I know, I find excerpts annoying too. You'll have to buy it.

Disko Kebap

I found this on the web recently, a fabulous dancey remix from Turkey- so I have posted it accompanied by a picture of Broadway dancer Janet McGrew dressed as a belly dancer, which is probably an awful piece of cultural stereotyping. It's by Urfali Bapi and remixed by Baris K (who may well feature here again very soon due to an imminent, tripped out remix by Andrew Weatherall/Asphodells). I don't what you call this stuff- globaldelic was a suggestion at the site I first heard it. I've never been a fan of the label 'World Music'. I just know that it shakes and shimmies and sounds great.