Who-ray

At 5.15pm on Saturday 23rd November 1963, Doctor Who made it's debut on BBC One.

 

Incredibly - and notwithstanding a 16-year 'rest' from the small screen, bar a one-off movie in 1996 - Doctor Who is celebrating it's 60th anniversary not alone as an ongoing series but arguably bigger than it's ever been before, with the Disney boosting the BBC's financial and global reach even further.

 

If you're a fan, whether that began during the TV series' first run from 1963 to 1989 or with the hugely successful reboot in 2005, there is much to enjoy at the moment. BBC iPlayer kicked off November by adding most of the original run of Doctor Who episodes to the 150+ of the current series to watch for free.

 

Tonight on BBC Four, the first appearance of The Daleks from 1963 will be re-presented as a 75-minute edit in colour for the first time. The technology available now to produce the current TV series and repackage the old for a new audience could only be dreamed of six decades ago.

 

The icing on the cake is of course the double whammy two new Doctors before the end of 2023. First up is David Tennant, who played the Tenth incarnation of the Doctor from 2005 to 2010 and is returning as the Fourteenth iteration. Looks similar but not the same...

 

Tennant made his first 'full' on-screen appearance, in a brief encounter with Davros (kind of) and the Daleks (well, one of the them) for BBC's Children In Need telethon. It was short, it was irreverent, it was fun and a nice way to kick start the 60th anniversary.

 

The BBC also chose Children In Need to celebrate Doctor Who's 30th anniversary in 1993. The show had been off-air since 1989 so anticipation was high. This is what we got.

The original broadcast was in 3D, though arguably most of the acting was of the 2D variety with dialogue that would have had the cast frequently chewing the scenery. Not the revival that fans were hoping for, to say the least.

 

David Tennant will appear again on Saturday and will be on our screens for the next three weeks. From there, Ncuti Gatwa will make his debut as the fifteenth Doctor, including the return of the Christmas Day special which became a staple during the first decade of the revived series.

 

I thought Jodie Whitaker was a great Doctor Who but that period of the show suffered from episodes that looked fantastic but were frankly a bit dull and unengaging, miscast in some cases and didn't give the lead actor enough to work with. Although it may feel like a backwards step, with the return of former showrunner Russell T. Davies, the energy and buzz around the series is palpable and personally, I'm excited to see what's ahead.

As this is supposed to be a music blog, I should add something more than the opening video by The Timelords (aka The KLF), shouldn't I? 

 

Last February, as a birthday gift for my mate Shane, I posted a 20-track, 60(ish) minute mish-mash of Doctor Who songs and snippets, including Matt Smith (Doctor #11) appearing with Orbital at Glastonbury, Jon Pertwee (Doctor #3) teaching Dry Cleaning a thing or two about sprechsang, The KLF unofficially celebrating 25 years of Doctor Who and getting a UK #1 for their trouble and of course that classic theme tune (twice). As I'm in a celebratory mood, you can find it again here.

 

Happy birthday, Doctor, all of you!

The Hooded Antiquarian

Not content with the surprise drop of a new album, Robin Hood, in July, Julian Cope released the fifth in the excellent Cope's Notes series in October, a few days before his 66th birthday (which I celebrated here).

Subtitled "How I Wrote The Modern Antiquarian...And Why", this issue is another celebration, this time marking 25 years since the release of the titular tome in 1998. 

 

At the time, the book was something of a departure of Cope, if a characteristic one. Disappointed with the quality of the guidebooks on offer during a visit to Avebury Stone Circle, Julian decided to write his own. The Modern Antiquarian was the result of what eventually became an eight year mission, collating and condensing his journey across and around Great Britain to 300 significant sites. 

In the mid-2000s, Julian also featured in an hour-long documentary, also called The Modern Antiquarian. I missed it at the time of broadcast but thanks to YouTube, it's been available to a wider, tardier audience. It's well worth watching, if you haven't seen it before. Cope's passion is palpable and makes me wish he'd been commissioned to do more documentaries for TV.

 

I didn't buy The Modern Antiquarian in 1998 - or since - and it's never been reprinted. (Hopefully dog-eared and well-thumbed) copies are now going for silly money online so I possibly never will. Therefore, the Cope's Notes edition is even more welcome to someone like me, who is pretty much ignorant of the source book.

 

For £15.00 plus postage, you'll get another lavishly produced 48-page booklet containing notes, song lyrics, site photos and snapshots of his meticulously recorded notebooks, as well as a memoir, The Story Of The Modern Antiquarian, which racks up over 6,000 words. It's a fascinating read.

As if that is not enough, each Cope's Notes comes with a cover mounted CD. Whilst previous editions have contained contemporary musings and musical outtakes, The Modern Antiquarian contains a dozen brand new songs "inspired by megalithic culture". A combination of spoken word "theatre pieces" with some out-and-out (Kraut)rockers, it's every bit as enjoyable as Robin Hood, which I enthused about in July and again in October.

For a brief time, here's a 10-track selection, five from each album, to whet your appetite; Needless to say, I strongly recommend that you get yourself over to Julian Cope's Head Heritage site and buy both Robin Hood and Cope's Notes without hesitation. As the Arch Drude observes on the cover of the latter, "Surely such a comprehensive overview of the ancient world [can] only benefit our collective mind?"

 

1) An Inventory Of Megaliths

2) The Death Of Death

3) How Chor Gwar Became Stonehenge

4) Four Mohammeds And A Funeral

5) A Trial At Stenness And Brodgar

6) Ballad Of Fat Paul

7) Raised From The Inundation At Seahenge: Arminghall

8) Julius Geezer

9) Windmill Hill Culture

10) I Was A Punk Before You Was A Hippie

The Hooded Antiquarian (29:25) (KF) (Mega)

Every Place Of Good And Not-Good

Polly Jean Harvey.

 

James Johnston.

 

John Parish.

 

Tiny Desk Concert, NPR, Washington D.C.

 

Friday 17th November 2023.

 

0:00 I Inside the Old I Dying.

 

3:30 A Noiseless Noise. 

 

7:49 A Child's Question, August. 

 

10:52 I Inside the Old Year Dying. 

 

13:05 White Chalk.

 

Moved to tears.

 

'Nuff said. 

 

Buy 'bye.

Help Me To Find My Way

A multi-disciplinarian who seemingly doesn't require sleep, Jesse Fahnestock is back with a new single, Other Skies, a collaboration with Emilia Harmony as Electric Blue Vision. 

 

It would be understating things slightly to say that Jesse's creative fires have been burning brightly and strongly in 2023. February saw the third full-length 10:40 album Transition Theory. In April it was Jezebell's turn, Jesse and Darren Black unleashing the brace of Trading Places EPs, swiftly followed in July by the widescreen epic Jezeblue and then August's 20-track magnum opus Jezebellearic Beats Volume 1. Remixes for Högt I Tak & Jamie Tolley, Perry Granville, Pim Secle & Orchid and Warriors Of The Dystotheque have plugged the gaps and a just over a month ago, Jesse launched a new project, Powder Wax, collaborating with S.A.A.R.A on the single Little Black Dress.

 

Other Skies is the second single from Jesse and Emilia, following 2021's inaugural release Electric Blue Visions. This time, the original is accompanied by a trio of remixes from Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown (Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray), Tambores En Benirras (Graham Newby aka DJ Gripper) and Balearic Ultras (Mike Bradbury and Duncan Paterson).

 

The original version of Other Skies contains all of the elements that made Electric Blue Visions and At The Turning Of The Tide (from Transition Theory) so enjoyable, not least Emilia's breathy vocals which border on sprechsang and carry you over the gently undulating synth washes. Dr. Rob, of the excellent Ban Ban Ton Ton music site, provides a spot-on promo copy for the release and conflating two of his reference points, Other Skies is like the lovechild of Century by Instastella (especially the Adamski remix) and One Dove's White Love. It's that good.

 

Needless to say, the remixes are all superb. Balearic Ultras really play up the aspects of the above comparison, whilst Messrs. Johnston and Gray draw in elements of Augustus Pablo and inevitable reminisces of Star by Primal Scream. The EP was previewed with the Tambores En Benirras remix and it's a monster, built around the vocal refrain "Up down, spin around, bring it back together" and chugging along irresistibly for an all-too-short five minutes. All very different from the source version but, as a package, Other Skies is an absolute bargain at £4.00 for the lot. You can buy it now from Higher Love Recordings via Bandcamp.

 

It's been 18 months since I posted my first selection of Jesse's music and given the sheer volume of music that's been released since then, a return visit is well overdue.

 

I previously struggled to whittle the selection down, ending up with 16 tracks over an hour and half. I was determined to be more ruthless this time and provide a shorter yet still representative sample of music spanning Jesse's solo and collaborative work. The selection below is 17 tracks and just shy of an hour and three quarters, which pretty much tells you how well that went for me.

 

I've topped and tailed the mix with the two Electric Blue Vision releases and the segued and sequenced tracks in between feature Jesse and friends from the early releases in 2020, my slightly belated jumping on point in 2021, the birth of Jezebell and a handful of tracks from this year. As before, you can hear and feel the forward momentum and evolution of the music but also the connections. I think the opening four songs sit well together and illustrate as well as any how consistent - how consistently good - the music has been from the start without ever settling for repetition, tropes and safe options.

 

If this is your introduction to Jesse Fahnestock, Emilia Harmony, Darren Bell and friends then fasten your seatbelt, you've one hell of a flight ahead.

1) Other Skies (Original Version: Electric Blue Vision (2023)

2) The Knack (Jezebell's Feeling Moody Mix): 10:40 (2022)

3) Bone Cutter (Album Version): 10:40 (2021)

4) See Me Through (Sirens And Soldiers Dub): 10:40 (2020)

5) At The Turning Of The Tide: 10:40 ft. Emilia Harmony & Matt Gunn (2023)

6) Too Shy (Jezebell's 'Hush Hush' Edit): Kajagoogoo (2023)

7) Drugskill (Album Version): 10:40 (2020)

8) The First Step: 10:40 (2022)

9) Trading Places (5AM): Jezebell (2023)

10) Figure It Out (10:40's QED Edit): Royal Blood (2022)

11) Deliverance (10:40's Walk Off Dub): S.A.A.R.A (2022)

12) Picking Flowers: 10:40 (2023)

13) Loft Music (Jezebell's DC Metro Mix): Ian Vale (2022)

14) Dumbell (Original Version): Jezebell (2022)

15) Submissive Background (Jezebell Remix): Pete Bones & The Stones Of Convention (2022)

16) Coat Check: 10:40 (2022)

17) Electric Blue Visions (Original Version): Electric Blue Vision (2021)

2020: Found Time: 7

2021: All Of Us: 3

2021: Electric Blue Visions EP: 17

2022: 10:40's Advent Calendar: 4, 10

2022: Deliverance EP: 11

2022: Diavol Edits Vol. 7 EP / Jezebellearica Volume 2 EP: 6

2022: Higher Love Vol. 2: 8

2022: Hyena Hopscotch Remixes: 15

2022: Jezebellectro EP: 14

2022: Kissed Again EP: 16

2022: The Knack EP: 2

2022: Loft Music EP: 13

2023: Other Skies EP: 1

2023: Trading Places EP: 9

2023: Transition Theory: 5, 12

Help Me To Find My Way (1:42:15) (KF) (Mega)

You can find my previous selection from May 2022 featuring Jesse and friends right here.

Jaws Was Never My Scene And I Don't Like Star Wars

A very special selection for a very special Lady on a very special day. Ten songs that have had a special place in our hearts at various points in our lives and especially on the rare occasions that I hand over the Car K playlist.

Love you always.

 

1) A Message To You Rudy (Single Version) (Cover of Dandy Livingstone): The Specials ft. Rico (1979)

2) Bicycle Race (Album Version): Queen (1978)

3) Levitating (Album Version): Dua Lipa (2020)

4) Der Kommissar (Remix) (Cover of Falco): After The Fire (1982)

5) Love Me Again (Live @ Jools Holland's Hootenanny): John Newman ft. Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra (2013)

6) Special Brew (Single Version): Bad Manners (1980)

7) Night Boat To Cairo: Madness (1979)

8) Feel It Still (Album Version): Portugal. The Man (2017)

9) Bizarre Love Triangle (Single Version): New Order (1986)

10) Bleeding Love (Cover of Leona Lewis): The Wombats (2008)

 

1978: Jazz: 2

1979: A Message To You Rudy EP: 1 

1979: One Step Beyond...: 7

1980: Ska 'n' B: 6

1982: Der Kommissar EP: 4

1999: Splendor OST: 9 

2008: NME Awards 2008: 10

2013: Jools Holland's Hootenanny (BBC TV): 5

2017: Woodstock: 8

2020: Future Nostalgia: 3

 

I Don't Like Star Wars (35:27) (KF) (Mega)

Altered Perceptions

Side 1 of a mixtape recorded 26th November 1999.

Given the big hitters included on both sides, I'm surprised it's taken me this long to get around to posting this 1980s selection. This side perfectly captures the excess of glossy and expensive videos, stylised leather outfits, biiiig production (and hair) and film soundtrack numbers. Oh, and Talk Talk going in their own unique direction, against the flow.

First off though, it's The Psychedelic Furs and what for many long-term fans was the death knell of the band, re-recording and re-releasing Pretty In Pink to tie in with John Hughes' film of the same name. Personally, I have a lot of affection for this version of the song,  especially the 12" mix. I knew about the band before, but this was my proper entry point. I saw The Furs for the first time on the Midnight To Midnight tour and whilst I will always lean towards the first three albums, this period has a special place in my heart.

I don't think Rebel Yell was that much of a hit when first released in 1983 but more than made up for it when re-released on the back of White Wedding's success. The 12" mix mini-album Vital Idol (which didn't include Rebel Yell) was an essential purchase amongst a select few of us at secondary school. Sir William of Idol at the height of his powers.

 

It was a couple of years after it's release as a single that Siamese Twist by Flesh For Lulu wormed it's way into my head, from being played out at the indie/alternative clubs I was going to in the late 1980s. The 12" single survived my strapped-for-cash cull in the late 90s/early 00s and still gets an occasional airing at Casa K. I love the rather cack-handed false ending, too.

 

The long version of She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult has appeared here before but it's the definitive version for me, so why not? Another one (in this version) that got the dancefloor heaving back in the day. One of those examples of a band's most popular song also being their best song. 

Simple Minds, like The Psychedelic Furs, are here with the song that represented a turning point in their fortunes but also fans who had stuck with them through several albums of singular, angular music. Yep, it's Don't You (Forget About Me) from the soundtrack to another seminal John Hughes (him again) film, The Breakfast Club. Written by Keith Forsey and intended for Billy Idol, whose Rebel Yell album he'd produced a year or so previously, the song eventually went to Jim Kerr and crew. Although I've increasingly less fondness for the path Simple Minds took for the next decade or so, it was absolutely the right decision in the end. Even more so, having heard Billy Idol's subsequent go at the song years later. Don't You (Forget About Me) is another one where it's the 12" version over the 7" version, although the excessive sing-a-long live version that popped up on a later single gives it a run for it's money.

Life's What You Make It was a real jolt when it was released in 1986, a further stylistic shift for Talk Talk but also one that confirmed their intention to go against the general move into big music with ludicrously big production. Talk Talk were creating a sense of scale and grandeur but on a much more organic level, though the subsequent insights into how the sounds of this and The Colour Of Spring album were painstakingly created contradict that last statement somewhat. I owned the initial 12" with the more straightforward Dennis Weinrich extended version on it. It was another ten years or more before I finally got to hear Tim Friese-Greene's 'dance' mix on a compilation. I agree with the general view that this is the superior version. 

Give Me Back My Man by The B-52's first appeared on second album Wild Planet and it's a reminder that the band were capable of really heart-wrenching songs, even when it was underpinned by a compelling beat and lovely musical touches (the xylophone motif gets me every time). Give Me Back My Man didn't have a 12" extended version when released as a single. However, The B-52's were an early champion of the remix album with Party Mix! in 1981 taking six of their songs and reworking them, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter than the original versions. Give Me Back My Man closes the album and is truly spectacular.

 

1) Pretty In Pink (Berlin Mix): The Psychedelic Furs (1986)

2) Rebel Yell (Extended Version): Billy Idol (1983)

3) Siamese Twist (12" Version): Flesh For Lulu (1987)

4) She Sells Sanctuary (Long Version): The Cult (1985)

5) Don't You (Forget About Me) (Extended Version): Simple Minds (1985)

6) Life's What You Make It (Special 12" Dance Mix): Talk Talk (1986)

7) Give Me Back My Man (Party Mix): The B-52's (1981)

 

Side One (46:01) (KF) (Mega)

 

As an extra treat - well, it was the MTV-era for goodness sake! - here are the official videos for each of the featured songs. I particularly enjoyed Flesh For Lulu, which I haven't seen before and was at times unintentionally hilarious. The B-52's didn't have a video for Give Me Back My Man so I've plucked a performance from Netherlands TV show TopPop, broadcast 1st June 1980. it's brilliant, of course.

 

Brain Is Burning From Losing

After a week of looking back, Friday's selection brings us back up to date with an 8-track trawl through the last couple of years, heavily weighted towards music from 2023.

Private Agenda is Sean Phillips and Martin Aggrowe. "In their teens," says the bio, "[they] dipped in and out of musical projects with their peers, swapping instruments, records and literature along the way. What united these early efforts was a growing fascination and exploration of a multi-genre, interdisciplinary approach to musical projects. If Private Agenda didn’t exist in name, it existed in spirit from an early stage." Private Agenda released the excellent Submersion EP on Lo Recordings in 2021, closing with a remix by label boss - and one half of Seahawks - Jon Tye under his Ocean Moon moniker.

From Ocean Moon to Moon Ocean, one of a series of top notch EPs released by Justin Robertson this year. Confluence Of Torrents is one of five tracks on this EP, featuring music dusted off from the vaults, which speaks to the quality and volume of Justin's work that sometimes there's just too much good music to release all at once.

I was certain that I'd previously featured at least one version of Iron Warrior by Revival Season here, but apparently not. I've gone for the Dubstrumental, one of three Raf Rundell remixes of this standalone 2021 single. Revival Season is Brandon Evans (B-Eazy) and Jonah Swilley (Mattiel) and their debut album is landing in early 2024.

in 2021, Steady State produced the rather excellent Ofra Haza-sampling Shake Up Your Mind. In turn, those wonderful people at Paisley Dark Records commissioned around two dozen remixes. Most of these were compiled for Shelter Me: Beats For Beds: The Remix Album, proceeds going to the housing and homelessness charity Shelter. No longer available to buy, this extract from the album is by Clandestino and amazingly, the quality of the remixes is that good throughout.

The Machine Soul aka Robert Folkesson released the Engineered State EP in the summer, another solid release on Paisley Dark Records. The bio on Resident Advisor reads, "Robert was part of the early rave and house scene in Stockholm, DJ-ing at various underground warehouse parties and legendary clubs like Deep in Bleep, Monday Bar and Le Garage under the DJ Robo moniker. The Machine Soul is Roberts’s brain child for producing deep and groovy tech and deep house" and Engineered State delivers and then some. I've included the original mix here but the remixes by Högt I Tak, Ian Vale, UFO and Jay-Son are also highly recommended.

JP Buckle is Jason Peter Buckle, perhaps better known as a member of The All Seeing I and collaborating with Jarvis Cocker as Relaxed Muscle in the early 2000s before becoming a core member of JARV IS... at the turn of this decade. Redefining prolific, Self Respecting Unobsessed is a track from the album Radio Silence, the seventh of ten (so far) albums and EPs this year alone. 

bdrmm is Hull-based four piece comprising Ryan Smith, Jordan Smith, Joe Vickers and Conor Murray. bdrmm was born as a solo bedroom project by Ryan and after a demo got interest from Radio 1, Ryan roped in his brother and mates to flesh out the band and the sound. bdrmm's music is typically described as shoegaze though you wouldn't know this from listening to Daniel Avery's superlative remix. How much of bdrmm's original music is left in the mix is debatable, but it's a cracking tune all the same.

After the previous song's brain burning beats, some cool water to quell the flames with A Place To Bury Strangers remixed by Annie Hart of Au Revoir Simone. Sonically, the songs is very reminiscent of the latter; vocally it's all the former, Oliver Ackermann's lyrics left intact. Another gem from this year's See Through You Rerealized remix album.

With the exception of the Steady State song, all of today's selections and their parent releases can be found and purchased on Bandcamp.

 

1) P.S.R (Ocean Moon Mix By Jon Tye): Private Agenda (2021)

2) Confluence Of Torrents: Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s (2023)

3) Iron Warrior (Raf Rundell Dubstrumental): Revival Season (2021)

4) Shake Up Your Mind (Clandestino Melt Up Your Mind Mix By Joe Morris & Nick Smith): Steady State (2021)

5) Engineered State (Original Mix By Robert Folkesson): The Machine Soul (2023)

6) Self Respecting Unobsessed: JP Buckle (2023)

7) Port (Daniel Avery Remix): bdrmm (2022)

8) Nice Of You To Be There For Me (Annie Hart Remix): A Place To Bury Strangers (2023)

 

2021: Iron Warrior EP: 3

2021: Shelter Me: Beats For Beds: The Remix Album: 4

2021: Submersion EP: 1 

2022: Port EP: 7

2023: Engineered State EP: 5

2023: Moon Ocean EP: 2

2023: Radio Silence: 6

2023: See Through You Rerealized: 8

 

Brain Is Burning From Losing (45:21) (KF) (Mega)

They Killed Another Man

Odetta aka Odetta Felious Holmes performs a version of the traditional chain gang song, Another Man Done Gone.

 

According to the Secondhand Songs website. the first known recording was by Vera Hall in October 1940, released circa 1942. 

 

Odetta released her version in November 1956 on the album Odetta Sings Ballads And Blues, with this performance coming from an appearance on Belgian TV show Face Au Public on 5th December 1964. 

 

I originally heard the former courtesy of Straight To You, an Uncut magazine promo CD in 2010. The song also popped up on Murder Ballads, a cover mounted compilation CD with Mojo magazine in 2017. Unsurprisingly, as the titles suggest, both CDs were subtitled as songs that inspired Nick Cave. Both recommended, if you see a copy of either in a charity shop.

There have been dozens of cover versions since, most of which I've never heard, and whilst Vera Hall set the bar high with her a capella take, there's something about Odetta's voice, accompanied only by her own handclaps, that gets me every time.

 

This is an adapted version of the lyrics from the TV performance, excising a reference to the man being hung from a tree whilst his children watch, which was likely a home truth too far for TV audiences back in the early Sixties.

 

Another man done gone 

Another man done gone 

Another man done gone from the county farm

Another man done gone 

I didn't know his name

I didn't know his name

I didn't know his name, didn't know his name

Didn't know his name

He had a long chain on

He had a long chain on

He had a long chain on, had a long chain on

Had a long chain on

They killed another man

They killed another man

They killed another man, killed another man

Killed another man

Another man done gone 

Another man done gone 

Another man done gone from the county farm

Another man done gone

These Mysteries Of Life That Just Ain't My Thing

The Virgin Magnetic Material remix of Make It Wit Chu by Queens Of The Stone Age popped up on a random shuffle and instantly jumped the queue for prospective Dubhed posts this week. I haven't heard this version in a little while but a few seconds into the pulsing beat I was hooked and the moment Josh Homme's vocals kick in, you're in for the ride.

 

Pinching from his Soundcloud biography, "Virgin Magnetic Material is a remix project by Shai Vardi, a musician and artist based in Tel Aviv. Virgin Magnetic Material is a definition from the electronic world, describing core or shield material that has never been magnetized."

 

Shai's M.O. is to transform rock and pop songs into slow burning, downtempo earworms, retaining pretty much the entire vocals but teasing and stretching out new aural frameworks for the songs. Apart from a Virgin Magnetic Material mixtape in late 2020, most of the remixes date from the 2010s with more recent entries being reposts of previous work. 

 

I've managed to acquire about 20 or so in the last decade, probably less than half of Shai's entire output, and it's an eclectic mix, covering the likes of Queen, David Bowie and T. Rex via oddities from Bobby McFerrin, Flight Of The Conchords through to The Cure, The Smiths, Joy Division, Pixies and inevitably that New Order classic that every self-respecting remix artist/DJ has had a go at at some point.

 

Make It Wit Chu remains one of my favourites though and, back in 2012, persuaded me to check out the original version, which in turn was released as a single in 2007.

This led to the discovery that this in fact was a cover version, Josh Homme covering himself as it were. I Wanna Make It Wit Chu first saw the light of day on the ninth of his Desert Sessions project, titled I See You Hearin Me. It was released as a single album, The Desert Sessions 9 & 10 in 2003, and featured a certain Polly Jean Harvey on backing vocals.

 

When Josh and co. played I Wanna Make It Wit Chu live on Jools Holland's show in 2003, Polly was right there by his side, tambourine and maracas in each hand and adding an effortless brilliance to the performance. 

 

Phantoms I Could Belatedly Chase

Side 1 of a Magazine compilation cassette, originally recorded for me by my brother in September 1991.

 

I was 11 years old when I first heard Magazine, courtesy of my older brother having posthumous compilation After The Fact and live album Play on tape. 

 

I was fascinated by the handprint on the cover of the former and the grainy black and white photo of the band in the studio on the latter, both squashed and cropped to fit the two-and-a-half inch width of the cassette sleeve. 

 

I was fascinated by the song titles: Definitive Gaze, A Song From Under The Floorboards and especially Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) which to be honest also slightly irked this grammatically rigid adolescent.

I was fascinated by the sounds that emanated from the tape deck: Howard Devoto's voice, phrasing and a way of storytelling that was different from anything I'd heard before. And the music: spiky yet cinematic, poppy yet punky, alien yet painfully human (and hummable).

I was also fascinated by the perfunctory timing listed with the band name and album title on each side of the cassette. After The Fact's running time is 24:15 and 23:32 respectively; Play is 21:31 and 21:55. Unconsciously, the beginnings of an obsession with trying to cram the maximum amount of music on each side of a C60, C90 or C120 when it came to recording my own cassette compilations a couple of years later.

I think my brother was healthily less troubled by these things so there is difference of over a minute between the duration of each side of this mixtape: Side 1 is 45:19 whilst Side 2 is 46:22; I suspect I would have cursed every time I had to use precious Walkman battery power to fast forward to the end of the former to play the latter.

What is beyond argument is the quality of the ten songs on both sides. I'd wanted my brother to record his own equivalent of After The Fact for a long time. By the time I got it in 1991, I'd bought Secondhand Daylight (ah, the days of being able to buy back catalogue vinyl from WH Smith!) but memories of Magazine's wider work had faded. 

 

I loved this compilation, even if Magic, Murder And The Weather does get short shrift. A little unfairly in my opinion, but then what would I leave out to make room? I mentioned in my post about Side 2 that I swapped out a couple of versions for my recreation, but no such interference here. Parade is represented here with the live version from Play and it was the right call. On the surface, it might seem lazy to run tracks 4, 5 and 6 from The Correct Use Of Soap together (albeit in a slightly different order) but they work so well together, so why not?

And closing the side with Thank You - which many years later I discovered was a cover of Sly & The Family Stone is a perfect set up for the side to follow. Just listening to this again has brought a big smile to my face. Undiminished after more than three decades and the subsequent, inevitable deterioration of the original cassette.

Today's cover photo is another photo from Clan K's recent visit to Valencia. This time, it's a detail from one of the grand doorways to the Museu Nacional de Ceràmica i de les Arts Sumptuàries Gonzàlez Martí, succinctly described on Google Maps as a "Palace museum with an ornate 18th-century exterior, housing vast collections of ceramics & artworks." 

 

I'd like to tell you how much we enjoyed visiting it and viewing the exhibitions. To tell the truth, after taking a few photos outside, we carried on walking to the nearby Mercat de Colón, where we sat in a cafe enjoying coffee and pastries. The table next to us was hosting a "Day Of The Dead" (All Saints Day not George Romero) themed birthday party, crammed full of beautifully dressed and decorated - and excitably - pre-teen girls, with the associated parents sinking espressos at the table behind us. "So this is real life," as Howard Devoto once opined. You're telling me!

 

1) The Thin Air (Album Version) (1979)

2) Definitive Gaze (Album Version) (1978)

3) Talk To The Body (Album Version) (1979)

4) My Tulpa (Album Version) (1978)

5) Philadelphia (Album Version) (1980)

6) I Want To Burn Again (Album Version) (1980)

7) You Never Knew Me (Album Version) (1980)

8) So Lucky (Album Version) (1981)

9) Parade (Live @ Melbourne Festival Hall, Australia) (1980)

10) Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (Album Version) (Cover of Sly & The Family Stone) (1980)

1978: Real Life: 2, 4

1979: Secondhand Daylight: 1, 3

1980: The Correct Use Of Soap: 5, 6, 7, 10

1980: Play: 9

1981: Magic, Murder And The Weather: 8

 

Side One (45:19) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two here