Bagging Area/ Ban Ban Ton Ton Mix

For some time now Dr Rob, the man who runs the standard setting blog Ban Ban Ton Ton, a one stop shop for all things Balearic and otherwise, has been asking me to write reviews for him. Since the new year I've written some album reviews which I don't think I've linked here, so today's Sunday mix post pulls those reviews from the first half of 2023 together for those who might be interested in them, and provides a sampler in the form of a forty three minute long mix below. 

Ban Ban Ton Ton/ Bagging Area Guest Review Mix

• Jon Hassell: Neon Nights
• Konformer: Konformer
• Tolga Boyuk and Kenneth Bager: Betrayal
• TECWAA: I Terra Dub
• Roe Deers: Can't Remember
• Yargo: Marimba
• Sorcerer: Zero Return
• Eloah: Logan Ede

Jon Hassell was a pioneering New York based trumpeter/ composer. His Fourth World music fused primitivism and futurism in the late 70s and 80s and led him to work with Talking Heads, David Sylvian and Carl Craig among others. Psychogeography is a compilation of late 80s recordings combining avant- jazz, soundtracks, psychogeography, ambient music and Situationism, which sounds off- putting but is great fun. My review is here. 

Konformer are a three piece from Nuremburg, signed to Manchester's Jason Boardman's new label Before I Die. Five lovely synth- led cosmische instrumentals. Reviewed by me here and highly recommended (the album I mean not the review). 

Tolga Boyuk and Kenneth Bager wrote and recorded a soundtrack to a film that hasn't been shot yet, East Is North, in two days. Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and John Carpenter all feature as reference points. Read my review here. 

TECWAA is from York and has released an EP on New York's Throne Of Blood, a label on something of a hot streak. My review said something like 'sci fi, deep house, cinematic psychedelic dub'. Here. 

Roe Deers were one artist on a compilation put out by Parisienne label Lumiere Noir, twelve previously unreleased slices of 'deep and dark electronics'. Read my review here if you've got this far down.  

Yargo were a Manchester blues/ funk/ dub group who missed the boat in the late 80s Manchester boom but are fondly remembered. Their proto- house/ Latin B-side features on the new compilation from DJ Luke Una, E- cultura soul Vol. 2, a multi- artist tribute to late nights, dancing and the widest spread of music you can imagine. Eloah's Logan Ede comes from the same album, Brazilian soul from the late 1970s. My review is here. 

Sorcerer is from Califronia and his second album Bubble Funk is a blast of short, funky instrumentals celebrating skateboarding, cassette culture, home studios, 70s funk and Balearic pop. Reviewed here. 

I also reviewed Reinhard Vanbergen's Meditation On Modern Modes, an hour long ambient tour de force from Belgium's multi- instrumentalist but couldn't work any of the ten minute pieces onto the mix above. Read and listen here. 

Masculine Encounter

I've been writing reviews this year for Dr. Rob's standard setting, all- things- Balearic blog Ban Ban Ton Ton. Most recently I reviewed the new album by Decius, a group made up of members of Fat White Family, Paranoid London and Trashmouth Records. Decius have pulled together a bunch of tracks recorded and released as 12" singles into Decius Vol. 1, a riot of electronic dance music sounds, the thump of house with the sleaze of disco, and with Fat White Family singer Lias Saoudi on vocals, a romp through gay nightlife, bars, clubs and bathhouses, emerging blinking into the city streets at dawn having had the night of one's life. It is both ridiculously tongue in cheek and completely serious- song titles such as Masculine Encounter, Look Like A Man, Quick Reliefs, Bitch Tracker and Roberto's Tumescence might give you an idea what to expect. The review is here. The album can be bought here. 

Masculine Encounter II

Decius was a Roman emperor, ruling from the year 249 to 251, a distinguished senator who was proclaimed emperor by his troops after defeating a rebellion. He had a thing about persecuting Christians and had Pope Fabian put to death. Decius died in June 251 at the Battle of Arbritus, killed by Goths. We can only hope the band Decius avoid such a fate. 

If you're after high quality dance music with an edge you could also do worse than have a look at the three EPs New York label Throne Of Blood have released this year, a celebration of their sixteenth birthday. I reviewed all three EPs for Ban Ban Ton Ton. There are twelve tracks across the three releases, every single one a banger- EP 1 has Chloe, Liona, Justin Cudmore and Joakim and Max Pask. EP 2 features an outstanding Hardway Bros track plus Hapa, Curses and Split Sec. EP 3 has tracks by Pleasure Planet, Danse Alice, Man Power and Teleseen. My review of EPs 1 and 2 is here and the one of EP 3 is here and you can listen to/ buy EP 1 here, EP 2 here and EP 3 here. 

Monday's Long Songs: Guest Post

Another very welcome guest post from Dr. Rob, live and direct from Ban Ban Ton Ton/ Japan. 

Colin Angus, of The Shamen, charted Ron Trent`s Altered States in one of the U.K.`s rock music weeklies, around the time of the landmark 12`s initial release in 1990.* Angus said it was a tune that he`d heard played at the infamous, illegal RIP parties, held on London’s Clink Street.** A darker, definitely non-Balearic, but equally as important contemporary of the more widely celebrated acid house incubator / shrine, Shoom.

 Altered States

I immediately added the tune to my “wants” list, but it wasn’t until Dutch label, Djax-Up-Beats reissued the record in 1992, that I managed to find a copy. It was probably a Kris Needs review, in his Needs Must, Black Echoes, column, that alerted me to its recirculation. The hunt for it took me from Flying Records, in Kensington Market - where it was “Great track, but sorry, no mate” - to Fat Cat in Covent Garden, just off Seven Dials, which fast became my new favourite shop. 

Ron Trent produced Altered States when he was just 14.*** His father was a percussionist (who sat in with jazz legend, Max Roach), a DJ, and co-founder of one of Chicago`s first record pools. Ron had grown up surrounded by rhythm, often playing along with his dad, on congas and traps, to the latest releases at home. Boy, does that upbringing show. 

Created on a friend’s set up of TR-909, D50, and SB01, the track is all about the drums. A huge kick counters a super simple key refrain. Tiny snippets of snares tease. Hand-claps crash and crack like thunder. Start, stop, and then start and stop again. There’s a synth-line that’s surely inspired by Master C&J`s Dub Love, but it`s the genius mixing, and editing****, of these basic, bad ass, percussive elements that bash your body - the breakdowns more like beatdowns - and hypnotize your head. The irregular programmed patterns made to alternately march, and totally wig-out. Everything coming together and colliding with a crazy intensity, especially when showers of jazz cymbals join in. Somehow, subliminally, continually climbing, this dynamic constantly changing for the whole of the track`s 13-minute duration. Driving its timeless status, and laying the stripped-back raw, jacking, foundation for Cajmere`s Relief Records imprint, which revitalized house and techno in the mid-1990s - and the Green Velvet one`s own classic, Conniption Fit.

 Dub Love

Conniption Fit

Green Velvet's 1994 single Preacher Man is the definition of simple but effective and set techno floors on fire in the mid- 90s (and ever since). 

Preacher Man

Notes

*Probably Melody Maker, probably while talking to Push.

**Where The Shamen`s vocalist, Richard “Mr. C(helsea)” West, DJed. 

***The whole Afterlife E.P. is great. 

****Edits by the one an only Armando. 

Where Do We Go On A Saturday Til The Morning Light?

Back in February I started writing some guest posts at Ban Ban Ton Ton, Dr. Rob's one stop shop for all things Balearic, electronic and dance music oriented. I haven't posted any links here since I wrote about Richard Norris' February Music For Healing, a twenty minute long ambient track called Chrome, and Nina Walsh's Music To Fall Asleep To and then in March the new album by Belgium's Rheinzand, Atlantis Atlantis, a record shaping up to be one of 2022's best. Last month I went to the launch party for Disco Pogo, the relaunched Jockey Slut magazine. Mo and Charlotte from Rheinand were one of four people scheduled to DJ in Electrik in Chorlton. At an opportune moment I spoke to Mo and told how much I like the album and that I'd reviewed it for Ban Ban Ton Ton. In response he gave me a big hug. 

Since March I've written a further six reviews, hopping around Europe and the world musically, with more in the pipeline. In chronological order then, with links to Ban Ban Ton Ton where you can listen to many of the tracks from the albums- 

Field Works- Stations

An album in two parts, the first a set of recordings done by Stuart Hyatt (in association with The National Geographic Society and The Anchorage Museum) where Hyatt used microphones and ground recording devices to record the sound of the earth. He then added human voices to create a found sound/ ambient ten track album that is frequently beautiful. The second part sees the ten tracks (Field Stations) remixed. My review at Ban Ban Ton Ton is here. 

Société Étrange- Chance 

French instrumental three piece cooking a storm- there are references and comparisons to A Certain Ration, King Tubby, Tortoise, Adrian Sherwood, Can and Jah Wobble in my review which you can read here. Six echo laden, post- punk/ cosmic instrumentals.

Andreas Kunzmann- Album

Austrian 90s IDM/ techno made for home listening. Lots of fun and very engaging. Read more here. 

The Balek Band- Medicines

Back to France, Nantes to be more exact, and some delirious, open minded dance music, a melding of synths and electronics with live instruments to make some lovely, exuberant, shape shifting Balearic/ cosmische/ nu disco/ house/ whatever else you can think of. Read and listen here. 

BSS (AMS)- Bredius

Mysteriously titled artist and EP from Amsterdam, Dutch ambient techno with splashes of Detroit and Blade Runner and more besides. Four track EP, my review is here. 

Rich Ruth- I Survived, It's Over

Nashville ambient/ instrumentalist Rich Ruth made the excellent Calming Signals back in 2019. His new album builds on the sounds on that album and the trauma of a carjacking outside his home to make one of 2022's most far reaching records, righteous drone/ ambient/ spiritual jazz. Read more here. 

For those of you who'd like a Bagging Area meets Ban Ban Ton Ton uptown primer/ sampler I put this together, a forty minute mix featuring one song from each of the albums reviewed above. 

Bagging Area Meets Ban Ban Ton Ton Uptown 

• Field Works: Station 2
• Field Works: Station 4 (Afrodeutsche Remix)
• BSS (AMS): De Regenboog
• Andreas Kunzmann: Sputnik Rave
• Société Étrange: La Rue Principale Grandrif
• The Balek Band: Cosmic Barry
• Rich Ruth: Doxology
• Rheinzand: Atlantis Atlantis

There will now follow a break in transmission until early August. School finished yesterday and we're getting away today, off on our holidays for ten days in the sun in the Canaries. See you all when I get back. Adios amigos. 

Saturday Theme Eighteen

Back in 1987 the three headed monster of Stock Aitken and Waterman produced a single for model and singer Mandy Smith and somehow created a record which went on to become a Balearic classic. It's an opinion splitter of a record and probably one of those which fits into Andrew Weatherall's description of the impact of E- 'you start off dancing to Throbbing Gristle and end up dancing to Chris Rea. That's how dangerous a drug Ecstasy is'. Mandy's Theme (I Just Can't Wait) was played out on the White Isle by those pioneers who ventured out there in the summers of 1987 and 1988 and ended up on the Balearic Beats Vol. 1 album, a compilation with a tracklist selected by Trevor Fung (who was a DJ at Amnesia in Ibiza from 1982 onwards). The album cemented for many people, not least those who didn't ever get to Ibiza during those halcyon days, the Balearic sound of summer in Ibiza in the late 80s- The Residents, The Woodentops, Code 61, Electra, Fini Tribe, Thrashing Doves, Nitzer Ebb. Interestingly, Trevor recently gave an interview to Dr. Rob at Ban Ban Ton Ton where he said that there were other tracks that were on his shortlist for inclusion but didn't make it. The missing songs would have made the album a much more house based affair- you can read it and find out what they are here. There's a full interview with Trevor here too. 

Mandy's Theme (I Just Can't Wait) (Cool And Breezy Jazz Version)

Mandy's Theme sonically is in a similar place to some of those mentioned above, the drum machine and bassline, the piano, the Spanish guitar. Mandy doesn't arrive until four minutes in, singing about being called a fool and a baby (which may or may not be a reference to her relationship with Bill Wyman, who she first met aged thirteen. He was thirty four years older. They went public, widely reported in the tabloids, on the day of her sixteenth birthday, married two years later and divorced two years after that. He wrote in his autobiography' she took my breath away... she was a woman at thirteen'. Different times eh?). Anyway, moving on from that which all seems even more distasteful now than it did then, Mandy's Theme is a perfect holiday record, the sort of tune that hits the spot in discos in holiday resorts and maybe doesn't sound quite as great back home in Britain in November.  

Bank Holiday Monday's Long Songs Guest Post

Dr. Rob's blog Ban Ban Ton Ton has been the standard setter for all things electronic and Balearic. The Ban Ban Ton Ton and Bagging Area tie in continues today with a post that follows on from Dr. Rob's bumper Andrew Weatherall funk, soul and jazz post I hosted last week. 

Dr. Rob writes...

Late one night, early one morning, in 1993, Andrew Weatherall played The Chi-Lites` The Coldest Days Of My Life on London’s Kiss FM. A sad, strung-out soul symphony, from 1972, smothered not only in strings, but otherworldly reverb and field recorded tides and seabirds. Due to the hour, and the station being a pirate, I’m assuming that he was a little drunk, and / or a tad stoned. I know I was. Weatherall said that The Chi-Lites` orchestral oddity reminded him of Reload`s Le Soleil Et La Mer, which was what he span next. A piece of brand new IDM - “Intelligent Dance Music” - “ambient techno”, produced by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton - a duo perhaps better known as Global Communications - and released on Creation Records` short-lived electronic off-shoot, Infonet. A label run by the Abbott brothers, Tim and Chris, who went on to work super closely with Oasis. 

I suspect it was the synths, mimicking wave after wave of crashing surf, and the soaring minor key melody, that brought about Andrew`s comparison. Probably not the broken breakbeats. The track is a classic of its genre, coolly managing to convey the rush, life’s urgency made plain, intensified, of a high head speeding while standing, or laying, perfectly still. 

Le Soleil Et Le Mer

Taken from Tom and Mark’s long-player, A Collection Of Short Stories, the tune later picked up a remix by The Black Dog. The triumvirate of Andy Turner, Ed Handley, and Ken Downie, turn the track into a bustle of busy bleeps and circuitry, clipped electric current. They shoot the strings into outer space, but keep the introspective, melancholic undertow. If anything it`s now even more of a mirror of a mind blown on Ecstasy, so that listening, flat on my back, I`m staring at the stars. It`s a thing of beauty created from seemingly random collisions. Sublime sonic serendipity. 

 Le Soleil Et Le Mer (Black Dog Remix)

Dr Rob, Andrew Weatherall And A Bucketful Of Jazz, Funk And Soul

Last week in honour of what would have been Andrew Weatherall's 59th birthday Dr Rob posted a series of mixes at Ban Ban Ton Ton, lovingly researched and put together mixes delving into Andrew Weatherall's record bag, focussing on the soul, funk and jazz records that Andrew played at various times and in various places. If you missed them and need to catch up the links are here-

Weatherall's Funk/Summertime

Weatherall's Funk/ Karnaval

Weatherall's Funk/ Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow

Weatherall's Jazz/ African Waltz

Weatherall's Funk/ Darkest Light

Rob asked me if I wanted to host the sixth part of this series here at Bagging Area. Obviously I said yes. It also gives me a chance to wish Andrew Weatherall a very happy belated birthday, wherever he is currently residing. 

Rob writes...

Last week on Ban Ban Ton Ton we were paying tribute to, and celebrating the birthday of, Andrew Weatherall. In 2021 we collected a ton of reggae and dub tunes that the legendary DJ / producer was known to spin, but this year we attempted to do the same with some soul, jazz, and funk. We posted a total of 5 mixes, but here are a few more songs that I didn’t quite manage to squeeze in….starting off with some strung out soul…

The Chi-lites` The Coldest Days Of My Life comes from the group’s A Lonely Man long-player, released in 1972. It`s not really typical of the band`s output, well it`s not really typical for a soul tune at all. Full of recordings of ocean surf and seabirds, heart-tugging violin strings and smothered in truly spaced-out reverb. The vocals leaving vapour trails,  while otherworldly winds whip the cryptic lyrics, that hint at childhood hardship and poverty. Mr. Weatherall played this tune late one night in 1993, on Kiss FM. Andrew said that it reminded him of Reload`s Le Soleil et La Mer, which he played immediately after. The intro of the Chi-lites song was later sampled and looped for the Quiet Village track, Victoria’s Secret. 

 The Coldest Days Of My Life

The Persuaders` It`s A Thin Line Between Love & Hate also came out in 1972. It is one of the 90-odd songs featured in Andrew`s Black Notebooks - a “pan-genre” collection of Youtube clips, created for his close friends, that shine a spotlight on musical moments of extreme emotion, often concerned with heartbreak and loss. Everything in there is a wonder, and well worth tracking down. This song was famously covered by The Pretenders. Chrissy Hynde apparently used to sing it when she was still knocking about with the Sex Pistols and working in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood`s Worlds End shop. 

 It's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate

Maceo & All The Kings Men`s I Remember Mr. Banks, I guess is more jazz than soul, while the playing feels deeply connected to the blues. Saxophonist Maceo Parker is best known as a member of James Brown`s band, but all The King`s Men were a short-lived project, formed in 1970, when the musicians in said band, having had enough of Brown, all quit. They toured and recorded two albums, the first of which was Doing Their Own Thing. This is the closer from that LP, and something, again, that Andrew aired on Kiss. 

 I Remember Mr Banks

 Dudley Moore`s Bedazzled, is jazz, for sure. The title track from his score for the 1967 movie of the same name, that he also starred in alongside Peter Cook - as the Devil - and Raquel Welch as “Lilian Lust”. It was Chris “Soft Rocks” Galloway who hipped me to this, when he put it on his own tribute mix, One Horse Shy In A One Horse Town - a sublime selection of songs that Weatherall turned him on to. The terrific Johnny Trunk reissued the soundtrack in 2016.

 Bedazzled

Sibusile Xaba`s Wampona is the sole slice of of African soul / jazz / funk here. This is something that featured in Andrew`s now sorely missed NTS radio shows, Music`s Not For Everyone - essential monthly bulletins of “outsider”, well, everything musically. I was super chuffed when he played this, as I`d just posted a typically “wordy” review of the album on Ban Ban Ton Ton. Sad, I know, but this fanboy felt momentarily qualified. 

 Wampona

Shuggie Otis` Aht Uh Mi Hed is a song synonymous with Weatherall, a big “backroom” favourite, that probably became a constant around the early days of The Heavenly Social, at The Albany on Great Portland Street, and later Turnmills, before they opened the bar off of Oxford Street. A slice of sweet, stoner introspection, a little weary, and wasted, with some pioneering Sly Stone-esque use of a drum machine. I`m not sure, but it was probably the original Maestro Rhythm King. Absolutely essential, and every home should have one. The record, not the drum machine that is. 

 Aht Uh Mi Head

The next three tunes are all lifted from NTS shows, and shaped, cut, from very similar sonic cloth as Shuggie`s seminal offering. 

Mandre`s Isle De Joie is taken from Mandre 4, a “lost” early `80s album from the artist behind synth-y disco Loft classics, such as Light Years and Solar Flight, which was rescued and reissued by Rush Hour in 2010. 

 Isle De Joie

Jean Pierre Decerf`s sleazy Touch As Much dates from 1977, and could originally only be found on a highly sought after Library Music LP that he released under the alias, Magical Ring. It`s since been included in a brilliant retrospective of Jean Pierre’s work - Space Oddities 1975-1979 - put together by Alexis Le Tan, DJ Jess, and Born Bad Records. 

 Touch As Much

Doug Hream Blunt`s Fly Guy is privately-pressed soul, lo-fi garage gangster boogie, which got reactivated in 2011, and was later picked up by David Byrne`s label, Luaka Bop. If you’re into this sort of stuff, try to locate a copy of the Personal Space compilation on Chocolate Industries.

 Fly Guy

A straight up funk track to follow. The Memphis Horns` Soul Bowl is pinched from a promo CD, entitled The Chairman’s Choice, complied to celebrate the opening of Heavenly Recordings` bar / club, The Social on Little Portland Street, back in June 2001.

Soul Bowl

Eugene Record`s Overdose Of Joy and Tyrone Davis` Is It Something You’ve Got? are both shining examples of the old soul sides that were revived by Andrew and Terry Farley when they manned the “alternative” room at Shoom - first at Busby`s, on Charing Cross Road, and then at The Park, on Kensington High Street. The pair revisited these two tunes on a wonderful BBC 6Music show in 2012, which lead to the Eugene Record tune being licensed and repressed on a 45 by London’s Love Vinyl label / shop. Eugene Record was, coincidently the lead vocalist of, and main songwriter for, The Chi-Lites.

Overdose Of Joy

 Is It Something You've Got?

Representing the Weird & Funky World of library music, I’ve cued up James Asher`s bonkers Vertigo, taken from his 1981 Studio G LP, Abstracts. This is piano-led jazz really, but James goes to town on the twisting and phasing, and the track finally hits a mad Orb-like breakdown. 

Vertigo

As a Balearic aside, Oscar Falanga, who once famously staffed the counter at fabled Soho record store, Trax, later remixed James Asher, in the guise of this prog house nom de plume, Aetherius. 

 Lastly, there’s the sitar-driven hippie exotica love-in, freak-out of Tally Man, composed and performed by Jimmy “Little Jim” Page`s main `60s guitar-slinging rival, Big Jim Sullivan. A tune taken from Big Jim’s 1967 album, Sitar Beat, which also features his cover of Donovan`s Sunshine Superman, another firm Andrew Weatherall favourite. 

Tally Man

 

Elefantasi

People used to joke that you couldn't name five famous Belgians* as if that somehow marked the country down. Fame is overrated anyway isn't it? Belgium has a rich musical history from New Beat to the present day and is especially influential in dance and electronic music. I've written quite a few times before about Rheinzand, a three piece from Ghent who make fantastic dance pop spliced with Balearica and disco. Multi- instrumentalist/ producer Reinhard Vanbergen, singer Charlotte Caluwaerts and producer/ DJ Mo Disko cook up a shimmering, unapologetic dance floor oriented storm. The single We'll Be Alright was one of my favourites from last year. Their 2020 self titled debut album was a wall to wall treat, from the cover of Talking Heads Slippery People to the nagging electronic bliss of Fourteen Again. They also roped in all and sundry to remix it, a slew of outstanding remixes from the likes of Red Axes, Scorpio Twins, Chris Coco, Pete Herbert, Skylab, Superpitcher and so on. This one, Obey (Hardway Bros Stereo Odyssey), as remixed by Sean Johnston's Hardway Bros is utterly sublime and seductive leftfield dance music.

Part of the recent cross blog pollination between this blog and Dr Rob's Ban Ban Ton Ton led to me reviewing the forthcoming Rheinzand album. You can read that here. The single Elefantasi has been recorded and released digitally in five different languages- English, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish- and at Bandcamp you can download a Make Your Own version (that's Belgian for instrumental). Elefantasi is sumptuous, trippy Nu Disco with an imaginary Peter Hook on bass. 

* Obviously it's not even that difficult- Eddy Merckx, Herge, various footballers (Enzo Scifo from the 80s and several current modern ones such as Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne), Adolphe Sax, Magritte- and that's without resorting to Google. All men I've just noticed however. 

Monday's Long Song Guest Post

Over the last few years I've had quite a bit of contact with Dr. Rob, the man behind the blog Ban Ban Ton Ton, an online archive for all things electronic and Balearic. Rob served his time in London during the acid house years, a period of  great music, great clubs and legendary nights out, where he took full part in everything London could offer. Now, older and wiser, he lives in Japan. Well over a year ago Rob suggested a Ban Ban Ton Ton/ Bagging Area collaboration and we've finally got around to it, after both of us thinking it was a good idea but neither of us quite sure how it would work in practice. Recently I've written a couple of reviews for Ban Ban Ton Ton, the first a review of Richard Norris' Chrome and more recently a review of Nina Walsh's Music To Fall Asleep To: Delta Waves. Even better that those, today sees Dr. Rob write for Bagging Area- fittingly (for both blogs), it's a piece of music first encountered while listening to Andrew Weatherall.

Over to Rob-

Harry Roche`s Constellation / Spiral 2022_02_28

 Wah wah guitar gets this groovy gear going - out of the gates at a cracking clip, as if it were scoring a chase scene in a cool `70s flick, like Shaft. Mod jazz organs and big band brass blasts rise and fall in massed fanfares. There’s soulful moaning care of Clare Torry, whose deep, psychedelic tones also graced Pink Floyd`s Great Gig In The Sky. The word “spiral” is whispered as if it`s a spell. Things are already pretty frantic with only a tambourine`s tapping keeping the beat, and it`s a full four minutes before the drums kick in. When they do though, they signal a crazy keyboard solo. At 6 minutes the track hits its first breakdown, a quick short switch into an easy-listening swing. Then trumpets and trombones sound and the race is on again - a soaring saxophone joining the party, before pausing once more for a bash on some bongos. At 8 minutes, things enter the same syncopated, symphonic Sci-Fi space as Deodato covering Strauss` Also Sprach Zarathustra - aka the theme from 2001 - the sort of fusion favoured by the Creed Taylor`s CTI label. The climax then comes in the form of a final funk freakout. Believe me, Harry Roche`s Constellation`s Spiral is a real library music / muzak rollercoaster. 

 Originally released on Pye in 1973, Spiral was squeezed in as the last track on an LP in the imprint`s “4D” quadrophonic demonstration series. Goodness knows where the budgets came from in those days, but the recording credits list some 15, 16, 17, players. I first heard Spiral on an Andrew Weatherall mix made for Dummy Mag, back in July 2013. Spiral just leapt out. It was so unique…and it just didn’t seem to quit. It immediately became a “must have”. As far as I know, the original LP has never been reissued, and is still quite pricey. However, if you’re after a vinyl copy of the song it can be found on Sequel Records` 1995 comp, Easy Project: 20 Lounge Core Favourites. Try to ignore the cheesy title, `cos there Spiral spins spaced-out, loud and proud, over the whole side of a bonus 12. 

Spiral

 *Spiral also featured on another outstanding Weatherall mix, over at The Rotters Golf Club, where it rubbed musical shoulders with a track from a perhaps more well known quadraphonic masterpiece, Mystic Moods` Awakenings.

The Dummy Mix Rob refers to appeared in 2013.Tthere's a link to it the text above or you can download below. 

Dummy Mix 39// Andrew Weatherall

Tracklist

Oskar Sala: Improvisation No. 2
Arthur Lyman: Exodus
The Harry Roche Constellation: Spiral
Beaver And Krause: Another Part Of Time 
Francois Roubaix: Militerreuse 
Francois Roubaix: La Fete Des Deux Avions 
Mad Professor: Rampage In L.A. 
Count Ossie And Leslie Butler: Soul Drums 
Effie Briest: New Quicksand 
Team Ghost: Echo
White Noise 3: Time Travel
Moebius And Plank: Tollkuhn 
Hannah Peel: Electricity 
Wild Nothing: Bored Games 

Monday's Long Song

I wrote a piece for Ban Ban Ton Ton, the number one blog for all things electronic. Dr Rob, said blog's author, is a veteran of the scene, someone who was there at the heart of things in the late 80s and early 90s. He's been resident in Japan for some time and our blogs have grown closer, musically and spiritually, and a while back Rob suggested a blog to blog tie in or collaboration. A few days ago I wrote a piece for him about the most recent long form Richard Norris release, Chrome, a long form ambient piece where Richard's Music For Healing series has entered its third year. You can find it here. I've been a big advocate of Richard's ambient work and its therapeutic properties over the last few years, even moreso in the last few months. 

One of Rob's recent recommendations was Max Essa's work. This led me to Panorama Suite, a twenty minute long Balearic beauty, a very lengthy track where the entirety is one seamless piece of music but also made up of different musical sections, making a whole- synths and keys followed by pads and toplines, guitar lines taking over, basslines coming in and out, and then percussion and more, through to the end. Panorama Suite was re- released this month by Japanese label Jansen Jardin and you can buy it for a couple of quid here. Press play, let it go and then press play again. 

General Public

Last week Dr. Rob at Ban Ban Ton Ton, the one stop shop for all things Balearic and related, posted a mix he'd done for the Eclectics label, his Balearic Bargain Bin Mix. The post and the mix (free download while stocks last) can be found here, two hours chock full of hidden treasures and delights- Wendy and Lisa remixed by The Orb, a Mediterranean summer cover of Waiting In Vain by one of Adam's Ants, his wife and Trevor Horn, Blow Monkeys, Brian Eno, Djum Djum, Shakespear's Sister, 808 State's Graham Massey, Fred Wesley, an ACR B-side, some Germans before they became Snap!, early Steve Cobby as Ashley and Jackson, some Spaghetti Western synth action, The Beloved and, as they say, much more. As well as all of this there's an instrumental by General Public. 

General Public were formed in 1983 by singers Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger as a new band when The Beat broke up. Various members of other early 80s ska/ punk groups joined- Mickey Bellingham and Stoker from Dexys, Horace Panter from The Specials and briefly Mick Jones after he was sacked from The Clash by Joe and Paul. Mick left partway through the recording of the album but is credited on the sleeve. In 1984 they released a self- titled single- General Public- a six minute dub- punk song, funky bassline, lots of reverb on the snare, monotone, socially conscious Two Tone vocals, surging into the bridge and then the chanted chorus, 'General public/ Uh huh/ General public/ Uh huh'.

General Public (Longer)

The B-side, Dishwasher, is the one on Dr Rob's mix. Dishwasher is a guitar led instrumental, not a million miles as Dr. Rob notes from the sound on Combat Rock, that kind of funky, crunching sound that you can imagine filling the floor at the nightclub in town when they let the punks, rudies, goths and other assorted outsiders in on a Thursday night. The piano line running through it and the tom toms also plant Dishwasher half a decade later, playing in bars and clubs in the Med as the sun goes down/ comes up. 

Dishwasher (Longer)

Back To The Source

This is really good and tailor made for a Sunday morning. Balearic DJ Dr Rob has put together a mix of the source material that inspired some of Andrew Weatherall's productions and remixes (and provided the samples). It opens with the famous Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski dialogue from Paris, Texas (the source of the 'yep, I know that feeling' line at the end of I'm Coming Down on Screamdelica) and then winds its way from there through some of Weatherall's record collection- Miles Davis, Bill Laswell, Lee and Nancy, Claire Hammil, American Spring (produced by Brian Wilson), the acid trip and tape loop drone of Tomorrow Never Knows, Billy Stewart, The Emotions, Gang Of Four, Fearless Four, Brilliant, the headspinning and heavy Hey Ho by Dub Syndicate, some even heavier Big Youth and Depth Charge- a mix that works both for trainspotters and general chilled out enjoyment.



Tracklist in full-

Harry Dean Stanton – I Knew These People
Bill Laswell – Lost Roads
Miles Davis – Saeta
American Spring – Sweet Mountain
Lee Hazlewood – Some Velvet Morning
Claire Hammil – Tides
The Beatles – Tomorrow Never Knows
Billy Stewart – Summertime
The Emotions – Don`t Want To Lose Your Love
Gang Of Four – What We All Want
Fearless Four – Rockin' It
Brilliant – Colours
Dub Syndicate – Hey Ho
Big Youth – Yabby Youth
Depth Charge – Depth Charge

Bonus selection- here's the Paris, Texas clip from the start of the mix and the end of the film, a scene and film that is always worth spending ten minutes with.

Flying

Radio 6 spent a day celebrating 30 years since the summer of love and dance culture earlier this week. You can catch some of it here where Steve Lamacq interviews Andrew Weatherall, Nicky Black market and The Bug.

Dr Rob has put together a Flying Mix Part 3 which captures the spirit of the times, a tribute to the clubnight Flying, held in central London back in the day. There's also a wonderful written piece to go with it here titled Oh My Gosh! You can also find links to parts 1 and 2 in here.



The tracklist is below- surely everyone can find something to groove to in this. It reminded me that I'd forgotten how much I like that Jesus Loves You record (Boy George's acid house guise).

Blvd Mosse - Can`t Escape The Hypeness
The Aloof - Never Get Out The Boat (Farley & Heller Mix)
Ethereal Beat - Can You Understand
Ariel - Sea Of Beats
Sensuround - Blind Faith
Orchestra JB - Free Spirit (FPI Project Mix)
Mad Jacks - Feel The Hit
Ian Dury - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Flying Mix)
Kwanzaa Posse - Wicked Funk
Raimunda Navarro - Jungle Fever
Beautiful Ballet - Energy (Rudy`s Remix)
Pete Wylie - Sinful
Jesus Loves You - Bow Down Mister (Grid Mix)
Audio Deluxe - Sixty Seconds
Ragged Jack - Party`s Over (Flying Mix)
Deep Joy - Fall (Let There Be Drums)
Mr Luthero - Rotation
Kiss AMC - Circles (Blind Lemon Mix)
La Camour - Tarantella
Paradiso - Here We Go Again
DJ H & Stefy - Think About
Stex - After The Rain
Sound Of Shoom - I Hate Hate
The Temptations - Ain`t Too Proud To Beg
Eve Gallagher - Love Come Down
Frances Nero - Footsteps Following Me
A Man Called Adam - Barefoot In The Head
Love Corporation - Give Me Some Love (Weatherall Mix)
Less Stress - Don`t Dream It`s Over
Archie Bell & The Drells - Don`t Let Love Get You Down

Gansey Style

Did you know fishermen's jumpers (or ganseys to be accurate, more info at Gansey Nation) can be identified to their town of origin by the stitch? There's a Filey stitch, a Bridlington stitch, and so on.

This and many other things can be learnt at the Bridlington Harbour Museum, free entry, closed Thursdays. I don't know which stitch Weatherall is wearing in the picture above- any fishermen who are reading may be able to enlighten us.

I was listening to these two mixes recently- a pile of early Andrew Weatherall remixes, mixed together by Dr Rob. They both sounded great in the car, Part Two not a million miles from some of the recent ALFOS mixes he's done.

Part One
Primal Scream- Loaded
Primal Scream- Come Together (Weatherall Mix)
S'Express- Find 'Em, Fool 'Em, Forget 'Em (Eight Hour Mix)
The Impossibles- The Drum (Weatherall Remix)
Big Hard Excellent Fish- Imperfect List (Mix 1)
One Dove- Fallen (Nancy And Lee Mix)
Jah Wobble- Bomba (Miles Away Mix)
That Petrol Emotion- Abandon (Boys Own Mix)
St Etienne- Only Love Can break Your Heart (A Dub Mix In Two Halves)
The Orb- Perpetual Dawn (Ultrabass One)
The Grid- Floatation (Sonic Swing Mix)

Part Two
Galliano- Skunk Funk (Cabin Fever Mix)
Deep Joy- Fall (Let There Be Drums)
Love Corporation- Give Me Some Love (Weatherall Mix)
Sly And Lovechild- The World According To... (Soul Of Europe Mix)
Meat Beat Manifesto- Psyche Out (Sex Skank Mix)
Airstream- Follow Through (9 O' Clock Drop Mix)
Primal Scream- Don't Fight It, Feel It (Scat Mix)
James- Come Home (Weatherall Mix)
Stereo MC's- Everything (Everything Grooves Part 1)
One Dove- Transient Truth (Sabres Squelch Mix)

There's something on very similar lines here (thanks to Colin D for the tip off). From more recent times there's an 'exclusive mix' for a French website here, which starts off with Rodelius and then goes into some funky, weird stuff. Meanwhile Faber have appointed Andrew as Artist in Residence. There was talk in an interview somewhere recently of Weatherall writing a book, stories with illustrations and such, which could be most entertaining.