The Night Before You Came

This is very nice, The Night Before You Came by Paresse, it's got a touch of the Bladerunner groove to it, sci-fi electronica (good luck with finding it on vinyl, seems to be sold out left, right and centre).



This Craig Bratley remix is a bit of a looker too..



And from yesterday there's a free download of a remix by Dave McSherry (Fila Brazillia),a whopping 65mb WAV file...

Little Bird

I've got three Goldfrapp albums- two bought in charity shops (Supernature, Seventh Tree), one in an HMV sale (Black Cherry). I don't know whether this tells you more about me or them. I've been meaning to get Felt Mountain for ages but haven't got round to it. There's a lot to be said for the electro-glam stomp of songs like Ooh La La or Strict Machine, the sexiness of Twist, the live shows with Alison and backing dancers wearing horses tails.... maybe I'll stop there.

The best one though, the most lasting one out of the three I've got, is 2008's Seventh Tree, where they moved away from the dance sound and towards something more subtle, more psychedelic, more baroque- more adult maybe (not that necessarily means more boring, just less instant and requiring a bit more concentration). As it is it seems like the forthcoming one may be down similar lines- go see Davy's post from a few weeks back for proof. Little Bird, the second song on Seventh Tree is a stunner- it wraps its way around you and digs into your soul. This live version in Bristol in 2010 is nerve tinglingly good.



Little Bird (Live in Bristol 2010)

Electric Elephant

Second mix of the day and you'll need to set a little time aside for this one- five hours of Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston doing their A Love From Outer Space thing at Electric Elephant in Croatia recently. EE plugs it as 'five hours of space age disco house music which truly defines the word 'chug''. Make a cup of tea, grab a couple of biscuits and relax.

Buzzing

This is more of a Saturday night post but by Saturday night I shall be on holiday, hundreds of miles away so it's a Tuesday morning post instead.

This superb hour long mix by Jon Hopkins via the ever reliable Fact has had me skipping about the room recently- there's a magnificent bit about twenty minutes in where the tsk-tsk-tsk drums starting to be overtaken by a buzz-buzz-buzzing noise, like a swarm of bees have entered the control room and are flying around in time to the music. And that's just the first twenty five minutes- it keeps getting better and better (and noisier and louder) after that. He worked with Coldplay via Brian Eno a few years back but there's no need for that fact to worry you here- this is full on electronic dance music of the minimal house-techno variety. Free download too (but annoyingly it won't embed).

There Will Be A Reckoning

Billy Bragg's album of this year (Tooth And Nail) has some good songs on it- this is one of them- and has some of the political bite and ire of his former work.

There Will Be A Reckoning

There's something about the album as a whole that doesn't quite work for me- a bit too one paced, a bit too samey. Maybe that's just down to me and a lack of concentration over full albums nowadays, especially ones that don't have too much sonic variety. But then not every lp can or should have dub, krautrock and free jazz spilling into it's grooves can it?

Klik Klak

Back in the old nightclubbing days you'd go back to someone's house or flat after the lights in the club had been rudely switched on and listen to records, partake in other activities and generally be very relaxed until the dawn arrived. On one such occasion, '93 or 94 I'd guess, I heard both sides of a 12" and enjoyed it very much. The next week, in a long deceased dance record shop in Altrincham, leafing through the 12" section, I saw the very record I'd enjoyed so much only a few nights before. Klik Klak was one of many aliases of Dutch producer Erik van den Broek. One side (below) was minimal acid-techno, bouncing bassline and acid squiggles and packed an almighty punch. The other side sounded equally good at both 33 and 45 rpms. As neither side had song titles printed on it and there was a generic blank sleeve the sides to me were called the dance side and the stoned side (especially if played at 33, the 'wrong' speed).

This isn't really Sunday morning music- not unless you're still up from the night before.



Klik Klak (Dance Side)

I'd love to let you have an mp3 of this track but nothing technological is working right now so a Youtube stream is as good as it gets. Sorry.

Saturday Night Fairplay Mix

 I seem to have sleepwalked into a regular Saturday night mix feature- so here's another one, this time from Timothy J Fairplay. Deep, dark, hot stuff. An hour long and free download too.

Mrs Swiss and I.T. are away for the weekend, just me and the daughter E.T. This afternoon we saw Monster's University at the cinema and now the evening is our oyster.



In the picture Bryan and Diana Guinness on honeymoon in 1929, looking about as aloof as it is possible to look. Diana was one of the notorious Mitford sisters. They divorced in 1932 after she had started an affair with Oswald Mosley, leader of the slightly comedic British Union of Fascists. But it can't have done much for a chap's self esteem. Bryan may have had the last laugh- Diana spent most of World War II in prison, interned on the advice of MI5.

Thirteen Minutes Of Fun

Here I am again blethering on about that forthcoming remix album of The Asphodells' Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust lp, due in September. This promo mix has appeared on Soundcloud which has the different remixes spliced together making a very fine thirteen minute piece of dub-influenced electronic dance music in its own right. As well  as cd/download the remix album will be out on vinyl, eight of the ten remixes only on spinning round black disc (no place for the Daniel Avery one or the Group Rhoda one).

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 114

One from Lux and Ivy's record box tonight and a pointer as to where Lux developed his Cramps vocal style from. In my research for some background details I came across commenters on Youtube, arguing about the relative merits of this record- gold or trash? Both.

Rockin' Out the Blues

Brighter

If you're reading this then I'm still here.
The aftermath of the recent Blogger purge leaves me feeling a bit uneasy. If they delete me from here I'll be at  baggingarea.wordpress.com where you'll find all the usual rubbish but with a different font and layout.

The Railway Children, Wigan's favourite sons (before Verve popped up in pursuit of knowledge and wisdom through psychedelia and then big anthems in pursuit of fame). They were led by photogenic Gary Newby and signed to Factory in 1986. Their best known single Brighter (FAC 167) was a Factory gem, all jangling guitars and melodic 80s indie charm. Chart success eluded them and they jumped ship to Virgin where chart success still eluded them. The drummer sold Mrs Swiss a Nissan Micra in 1998, at Nissan Wigan. I don't know what's sadder- that the drummer from a former Factory band had become a car salesman or that I was quite impressed by this at the time.

Brighter

Unknown Immortal

'I was once an immortal' sings Joe Strummer on this little known song from the soundtrack of Walker (currently out of print over here but you can get it on import from the US fairly cheaply, and worth getting). I was listening to it the other day, while sat in the garden sunning myself. After listening to it for a while (mainly Latino, jazzy instrumentals) Mrs Swiss asked who it was. I told her. 'Would you listen to it if it wasn't Joe Strummer?' she asked, adding 'especially that one with the saxophone'.

'Yes/no/maybe/I don't know', I suppose is the answer.

The Unknown Immortal

There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out

The good people at Google's Blogger service have deleted The Vinyl Villain today- not just a post, the entire blog. Two and half thousand posts, over six years work, gone into the internet wind. This is a cause of great sadness and of a lot of righteous anger. The record industry still can't see that music blogs are places that promote music and therefore the sale of music. They see us as the enemy. Important message to the music industry- we are actually helping you; you are going down the drain really fucking fast and we are helping you to stay alive, because we love music too. 

There's a post at Drew's place and a long comment conversation about it you could have a look at. Thankfully JC (The Vinyl Villain), an inspiration to a lot of music bloggers including this one, has fired up a new Vinyl Villain. You can find him here (and in the links below to the right). Pop in, say hello and offer your support if you like.

High Contrast

Continuing with the dance music theme which has been running on and on here for the last week or so and the occasional sporting theme I cast my mind back a year to when the London 2012 Olympics started with that still jaw-dropping opening ceremony, Danny Boyle's Isle Of Wonder- dancing Victorian industrialists, Kenneth Brannagh as Isambard Kingdom Brunel reading Shakespeare, cyclists with wings shooting out beneath Arctic Monkeys, Bradley Wiggins in yellow ringing that massive bell, the NHS, Dizzie Rascal, Fuck Buttons soundtracking the athlete's parade. And then two weeks (more once the Paralympics started) of success and bonhomie and 'we're all actually really in this together' (except wobbly jawed George Osbourne, booed by an entire stadium). That oft-reported night when British track and field stars brought home three gold medals and in a beautiful two fingers to the EDL and other assorted racists they were a black Somalian refugee, a heptathlete with a white mother and black father, and a pasty Scot. And, rewind, from the opening ceremony, in a moment that probably brought tears to many an aging raver's eyes, Underworld's Rez booming out, across a stadium and globally; an acid house Olympics.

Rez (High Contrast Remix)

Goldfisch

Kolsch, whose Der Alte track I raved about last September (and still do having recently found it on 12" vinyl) has an album called 1977 out now. I haven't heard the whole thing yet but this song- Goldfisch- was the lead off single from it. Goldfisch repeats the trick he pulled off on Der Alte with lovely housey piano, low tech beats and a sense of euphoria from start to finish. Minimal, repetitive bliss.



In case you missed it last time... (you need this in your life, you really do)

Der Alte

Dub Visions

There was a time when Mr Weatherall looked like this and produced myriad remixes alongside his mucker Keith Tenniswood, some of which if truth be told didn't do that much for me. There were some Two Lone Swordsmen remixes that were absolute crackers as well, but some just meandered along, clanking and clicking and bubbling away. This one, Visions by Slam, never turned my head much at the time but I played it the other day and really enjoyed it- a lengthy piece of machine funk with some metal on metal noises. Probably enjoyed best late at night after a special cigarette.

Visions (Two Lone Swordsmen Dub)

The Box

Orbital's 1996 single The Box was not their usual ambient loveliness but something a bit more disconcerting. Spread over four parts (on the 12", the cd had only 3 parts I think) it had breakbeats and a Russian sounding refrain. Part Four featured the vocals of the wonderful Alison Goldfrapp. Quaintly the back of the record sleeve has both an internet address and a real address to send an SAE off to in return for a leaflet detailing Orbital merchandise. Wonder if I can still do that- send an SAE off and get something back.

The Box Part 2

Le Tour finishes today with its customary race into Paris. Maurice Garin won the inaugural Tour De France back in 1903. A year later he finished first again but was stripped of his title for cheating. This is from Wiki...

The race aroused a passion among spectators, who felled trees to hold back rivals and beat up others at night outside St Etienne. Garin was one of the mob's victims. Pierre Chany wrote:

'In the climb of the Col de la Repulique, leaving St-Étienne, supporters of the regional rider, Faure, assault the Italian, Gerbi. He is thrown to the ground, beaten like plaster. He escapes with a broken finger...

... A bunch of fanatics wielded sticks and shouted insults, setting on the other riders: Maurice and César Garin got a succession of blows, the older brother [Maurice] was hit in the face with a stone. Soon there was general mayhem: "Up with Faure! Down with Garin! Kill them!" they were shouting. Finally cars arrived and the riders could get going thanks to pistol shots. The aggressors disappeared into the night.'

Misbehaviour was rife too between riders and nine were thrown out during the race for, among other things, riding in or being pulled by cars. There were claims, too, that the organisers had allowed Garin to break rules — at one stage being given food where it was not permitted by its chief official — because his sponsor, La Française, had a financial stake in the race.

The French cycling union, the Union Vélocipédique Française, heard from dozens of competitors and witnesses and in December disqualified all the stage winners and the first four finishers: Garin, Pothier, Cesar Garin, and Hippolyte Aucouturier. The UVF did not say precisely what had happened and the details were lost when Tour archives were transported south in 1940 to avoid the German invasion and never seen again. Stories spread of riders spreading tacks on the road to delay rivals with punctures, of riders being poisoned by each other or by rival fans. Lucien Petit-Breton said he complained to an official that he had seen a rival hanging on to a motorcycle, only to have the cheating rider pull out a revolver.

Tales were also said to include 'Garin taking a train', a claim confirmed by a cemetery attendant looking after his grave who, as a boy, heard Garin tell his stories as an old man. In December 1904 Garin was stripped of his title and banned for two years.

Saturday Night In The Boiler Room

It might be too hot to seriously consider dancing but this set from Ewan Pearson live in The Boiler Room in Berlin throbs and chugs and could cause your feet to start twitching ever so slightly. Free download. Meanwhile, I am off to a party in car park.

Stubborn Love

Once upon a time American alt-country was all the rage and I lapped it up, or some of it. Then it seemed the bands were ten a penny and I got bored with it. But I found this recently by The Lumineers, who I'd never heard before, and have been going back to it. The playing is good, nicely sparse, and the combination of the different vocalists- nice bit of hollering- and the cello is really lovely. Recorded live in session last year.

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 113

It's broken lads, you'll have to get the train.

Gin Gillette's Train To Satanville from 1961 is a spooky rockabilly classic and frankly I'm surprised I've got to 113 rockabilly posts without featuring it. One for the compilation tape this one. And before you ask yes it does sound like that- crackly, with a $5 recording budget and a vinyl cutter that had as much subtlety as a knitting needle. It's no worse for it either.

Train To Satanville

Hot isn't it? I'm not complaining- I love it.

I Follow Rivers

Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys reckons this is 'that fantastic combination of beautiful chords with really great moving lyrics'. He's not wrong. Summer bottled, compressed and stuck up on the internet (from back in 2011).



And in only a few hours time (12.05 precisely) I break up for the summer holidays. Fan-fucking-tastic.

It's A Long Way To Go When You Don't Know Where You're Going

It's funny- having not listened to any hip-hop for years, not deliberately anyway, I've been undergoing a bit of a phase. Some select tracks have found their way onto the portable mp3 player that makes my commute more fun. Gang Starr have two songs on it at the moment but having listened to them this week they could end up with a lot more. I loved at least three of their albums back in the day- Step In The Arena, Daily Operation and Hard To Earn. Gang Starr often managed a perfect blend of Guru's easy flowing lyrics and DJ Premier's beats and sounds, a stripped back, minimal, economic sound. This one is a really good example...



And from Hard To Earn...

A Long Way To Go

The Edwin La Dell lithograph up top, Woburn Urns, is about as un-hip hop as it gets. Juxtapositions- I shit 'em (as Reg Presley never said).

Time Marches On

The Lighthouse At St Agnes by Frederick Uhlman

I read an article about an exhibition currently on in Eastbourne recently and the pictures and story really caught my eye. In the middle of the 20th century Lyons Teashops were present in almost every town, providing a cup of tea, slice of cake and decent food. After the war, when decorating supplies were scarce, Lyons Teashops were looking shabby and in need of some care and attention. Lyons commissioned many of Britain's top artists to provide prints to cover up tatty paintwork. The artists got a decent commission and a cut from each sale of runs of the pictures (1500 of each  were made). Today's artists would be far too expensive and above themselves to consider such a proposition- but not the Art For All context of the late '40s and early '50s. What I like about them is the way they manage to be both fairly modernist in style while fairly nostalgic in tone and subject. The modernist impulse of post-war reconstruction coupled with looking back at a time before bombs fell out of the sky on a nightly basis perhaps. The exhibition is on now at The Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. I suppose it's pretty unlikely I'll find myself in Eastbourne between now and the end of September. 

Hastings by Edwin La Dell

The River Rother At Rye by Clifford Frith

Albert Bridge by Carel Weight

                                                    The Shire Hall by Lynton Lamb

                                                 Landscape With  Bathers by John Nash

Music? How about this, totally unrelated thematically and musically but maybe not philosophically- an epic piece of 1988 house from Marshall Jefferson (hiding behind the Jungle Wonz name). It does that trick the truly great house tracks did of being utterly uplifting while using melancholic chords. Time marches on.

Time Marches On (Club Mix)

Is The Sky The Limit?

Grant Hart- Husker Du survivor- has a new double album out shortly on Domino. It's inspired by both John Milton's Paradise Lost and William Burroughs, which would seem quite daunting were it not for the quality of the tunes, or at least the ones I've heard so far. Grant has a real way with melody and mood and let's be honest- although Bob Mould is remembered as the key Husker, Grant wrote at least as many of their great songs. Grant's solo career has its high spot moments too- the 2541 single, the Intolerance lp, the Hot Wax album from recently, some of Nova Mob's stuff. The Argument promises to be up there amongst them.

Lanterne Rouge

I've been really enjoying watching the Tour de France this year. Those gruelling climbs in the Pyrenees and the Alps, the flat racing around the city of Tours recently, the sprint finishes, the helicopter shots of them breezing along at 35 mph through beautiful French countryside, the way that two or three riders make a break early and hang on for ages and then a few kilometres from the line the peloton appears like a swarm of brightly clad bees and just swallows them up. I especially like the lanterne rouge, the award given to the man finishing last. Given that he may be last out of 180 odd riders, the lanterne is highly sought after. After all, the rider has to finish within a percentage time of the man finishing first, so the lanterne rouge winner has cycled 3000 plus kilometres and shown huge endurance and had to compete within a set time. And in a world (our whole world, not the cycling world) where winning, being first, being top dog, being the outstanding candidate, is more and more the be all and end all, I think it's great that the last man in gets a prize, for finishing and not dropping out. Three cheers for all those who come last and still succeed.

My favourite song about cycling is this Billy Childish classic, Medway Wheelers- a song about the cycling club his mother was a member of in the 40s and 50s. Cracking video too.



I've posted Medway Wheelers before so we'll have a different Billy song for today's mp3. Billy's new band The Chatham Forts (or CTFM) have recently released an lp and two singles. It's a bit of an angular, '79 punk style thing, apparently having been inspired by finding a book of lyrics Billy wrote 36 years ago and deciding to record them as an album.

I Should Have Been In Art School

Tallulah Gosh

Daniel Avery has remixed the new Primal Scream single- Invisible City. There are two versions. I prefer this one (annoyingly neither will embed right now, click on the links). It builds slowly and then turns a bit acidic. 'Proper good' says a Soundcloud commenter and, you know what, I can't improve on that. There's also the Drone City remix, a bit softer and more chilled. Also pretty proper good.

For the record, after an initial sense of uncertainty, Primal Scream's More Light lp is rarely off my stereo at the moment. At first I thought 'too long, too many songs, the songs are too long, Christ that's a lyrical clunker etc' but  now I'm really enjoying it. Still think it could have been trimmed- not the song lengths perhaps but the number of songs. There are some crackers on it and David Homes' production is superb throughout, River Of Pain being my current favourite. And while It's Alright, It's OK is very much festival-fodder and Scream-by-numbers, it is also a fantastic summer song and often leads to Dad kitchen dancing (after dark, after alcohol). Back to form after two recent long-playing disasters and a Bagging Area hit, somewhat late in the day perhaps. I expect some of you will disagree.

Also, the new bass player is both really cool and really hot.

This song is a B-side from a Riot City Blues single, in which- cue glitter and dry ice- 'Tonight Matthew, we're going to be Led Zeppelin!'

Zeppelin Blues While Thinking Of Robert Parker

Saturday Night Avery Farah Mix

Or Mo' Farah as I could have called this post. Daniel Avery did this mix for Farah a year ago-slow, groovy, throbbing electronic stuff and free download too.

Farah have rebooted themselves in recent years by claiming their stuff is 'vintage workwear', sticking a hefty pricetag on the clothing and producing stuff that gets featured in glossy mags. Before that Farah was easily and cheaply available in old men's shops like Greenwoods and Sunwins in any suburban shopping precinct. Further back, when I was at secondary school circa '84-85, Farah trousers were a must have for school. Black or grey, worn with a round necked jumper (school tie underneath). The important thing was that the little yellow tag and F on the back pocket showed. Not strictly against school uniform rules but bringing a little bit of terrace chic into the classroom.

One Minute's Silence

Strange to think that the man staring the camera down in the picture is Siegfried Sassoon (war poet, officer and anti-war campaigner). The chap on the left is Stephen Tennant, androgene, leader of the Bright Young Things and aristocratic '20s It Boy. When their love affair ended, neither ever got over it according to friends.

That Asphodells remix album I blogged about a little while back is now scheduled for release on September 7th and doesn't include all the versions I speculated that it might- no Mugwump, no Wooden Shjips. Hope the Mugwump one doesn't get forgotten. The remixers are largely the group known as The Axis- friends and studio-buddies of Weatherall and Fairplay. It promises to be an autumnal corker though the thought of September now, just as summer has got underway, is a little depressing. The tracklist goes like this...

Another Lonely City (Group Rhoda Remix)
Late Flowering Lust (Phil Kieran Remix)
Beglammered (Justin Robertson Deadstock 33s Remix)
Skwatch (Black Merlin's Reel To Reel Remix)
Never There (Hardway Bros Remix)
We Are The Axis (Daniel Avery Remix)
Another Lonely City (Daniele Baldelli and DJ Rocca Remix)
Beglammered (Richard Sen Remix)
We Are The Axis (Scott Fraser Remix)
One Minute Silence (Ivan Smagghe Remix)

So, if that's the case, it surely won't hurt too much if I post the Wooden Shjips remix which came out on limited vinyl for Record Shop Day (and appropriate thanks to Drew for this). You'll love this, believe me.

One Minute's Silence (Wooden Shjips Remix)

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 112

One hundred and twelve?! Whose idea was this? How am I supposed to keep coming up with rockabilly posts every Friday night for this long? Eh?

Sonny Burgess recorded this belter for Sun Records- trumpet led rockabilly from the 1950s extolling the virtues of a red headed woman. Gotta love red headed women. Like current Bagging Area favourite redhead Rose Leslie (from sex and gore fest Game Of Thrones).

Red Headed Woman

Lay Right Down In My Favourite Place

This has been added to a recent re-release of The House Of Love's debut album, a live cover version of I Wanna Be Your Dog. Pretty standard fare you might think- it's an easy song to cover, it's a lot of fun to play, it stakes your left-field credentials as a Stooges fan. To be fair Guy Chadwick doesn't really try to out-Iggy Iggy but the twin guitar work is a joy and this is a top quality live recording sound-wise. It also sounds like the mic was about three inches from Terry Bickers amp.

I Wanna Be Your Dog

Dance Me Swamply

I've been enjoying the new Kid Congo Powers album, Haunted Head. It's not going to change your life or anything but it's a good ten tracker, a bit swampy, a bit subterranean. On a lot of the songs Kid Congo and his Pink Monkey Birds sound like they're the lounge band at the gates of somewhere grubby and sticky but strangely attractive. Garage-lounge you could call it.

Dance Me Swamply

Nice Brass

You can't think that having acid house hits played by a brass band (Stockport's Williams Fairey brass band) is anything other than a great idea can you? Yesterday's Kevin Saunderson track re-done under the leadership of Jeremy Deller. A Youtube user recommends playing the two together, one starting 30 seconds or so after the other. It takes a while to get the synch-up to work but it's well worth the effort. If you've got nowt else to do.

The Groove That Won't Stop (Acid Brass)

We Need To Talk About Kevin

Kevin Saunderson that is- Detroit originator, whose acid house track The Groove That Won't Stop is the bangingest, acidest, grooviest, squelchiest, most glorious acid house track there is. A piddly little mp3 doesn't do it justice. Get it on vinyl. Play it loud. Makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

The Groove That Won't Stop

Rich Ah Getting Richer

I've always liked this 1991 Rebel MC song, from when rave went ragga or ragga went rave and it's very much hot weather music. Over some breakbeats and synth string stabs Rebel MC gives us the drop on the ever widening gulf between different economic groupings- true in '91, even moreso now. Bright Young Thing of the 1920s Stephen Tennant looks on disdainfully.

Rich Ah Getting Richer (Orchestral Edit)

Testcard 2- Spirit Of The Future

Saturday Night Weatherall Mix

This superb mix from Mr Weatherall for deathmetaldiscoclub has appeared on Soundcloud and has Saturday-night-staying-in-fun-sitting-in-the-garden-sun written all over it. Free download too. Loads of goodies packed into 65 minutes; chunky basslines, otherworldly synths and dub-disco galore accompanied here by a photo of our disc selector choosing a new jacket.



TRACKLIST
1) Joe's Bakery - Mamba Gascoine
2) Femi vs KCRW - Eh Oh (Garth's Fiya Dubb)
3) Emiliana Torrini - Speed of Dark (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
4) Khalidasa - Waiting Game (Craig Bratley Remix)
5) Craig Bratley - Obession (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
6) Out Cold - All I Want (Ewan Pearson Remix)
7) 
8) Duncan Gray - Peach
9)
10) The Asphodells - Skwatch (Black Merlin's Reel To Reel Remix)

And if you go here there is a live set done recently for Chinwag while in Leeds- two hours of dub, rockabilly and rock 'n' roll. Essential.

Most Of My Heroes Don't Appear On No Stamps

I've been having a bit of a Public Enemy revival, partly sparked off by Drew's 1988 rap week and the band's appearance at Glastonbury last weekend. I've even got E.T. going around using the phrase 'Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't believe the hype', which pleases me no end.

While the media was looking at all the fuss over at the main stage Chuck D turned in a blinding set of Public Enemy songs, including the evergreen '88 classic...



I keep going back to this, from 1989. Their best moment? Maybe...



I don't know if Elvis was racist but it's a magnificent line- the whole verse is untouchably great. Chuck and I were in agreement for many years about most of our heroes not appearing on no stamps- until the Royal Mail released that series of classic British album covers a few years back, which included London Calling, Power Corruption And Lies and Screamadelica. Damnthe Royal Mail- they took that piece of righteous anger away from me.

Bring The Noise

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 111

Back to The Cramps for Friday night. Smell Of Female is a live album, recorded at The Peppermint Lounge in 1983 when the band were in contractual dispute with I.R.S records and decided to record a show to plug the gap between their second and third albums. It's a cracking lp in its own right, the band in electric psychobilly form. The original release on vinyl had six songs, later expanded to nine on cd versions. On You Got Good Taste Lux and Ivy prove you could sing songs about cunnilingus before Azealia Banks was even invented.

You Got Good Taste

And as a decidedly non-rockabilly extra, here is Azealia from Glastonbury last weekend, pulling a very large crowd to The Other Stage. The fans down the front have to wait until 42.56 to sing/shout-along to 212. The rest of the crowd get dragged in one-by-one.

And It Wasn't A Dream

Some more music from the late 80s/early 90s Manchester playground, this time the Ruthless Rap Assassins (from those days when the music press used to wring its hands about whether there could be such a thing as UK hip hop-seems absurd now doesn't it. A year ago Dizzie Rascal was preparing to perform at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony). This was probably their best known moment, detailing the experiences of the group's parents and grandparents arriving in the UK- 'and it wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare'- based around a Cymande sample. Great stuff and much under-rated, this is an important record. Kermit later showed up in Black Grape.

And It Wasn't A Dream

The video shows Ruthless Rap Assassins in and around Hulme, including the infamous crescents.

The Limit

Yargo were a mid-to-late 80s Manchester band who mixed up soul, reggae, funk and general late nightness to a largely indifferent public although when playing live in and around Manchester they often blew the roof off. Singer Basil Clarke has just released this song. I have no idea what he's been doing between Yargo splitting up 20 years ago and today but this single is rather fine in a moody, Massive Attack way, wandering around Manchester's streets in the rain.

Yargo put out an album called Bodybeat (which I think I've posted a song from before). I've also got this single on 12", featuring the vocals of Zoe Griffin and a very 1988 Justin Robertson remix. Apologies for the lowish quality of the rip- it's not the greatest vinyl pressing in the world, more like a flexidisc than actual vinyl and hasn't worn very well despite being played rarely.

The Love Revolution (Justin Robertson's Scream Team Remix)

Mickey Way

In between their early 80s post-punk/punk-funk peak and their late 80s acid house renaissance A Certain Ratio had a very jazz-funk mid 80s. This is Mickey Way, the 12" mix (FAC 168), off the album Force (FAC 166c2). I've got the lp on cassette, one of those beautiful Factory cassette packages in a cloth covered box with lovely cardboard foldout inserts. I may never play the tape again but I will never throw away the box it is housed in. Mickey Way is leftfield jazz-funk, not smooth jazz-funk. I think.

Mickey Way (The Candy Bar)

I gave up the cigs one month ago today. Seems longer. They still smell really nice when I walk past someone smoking. But I do feel good for it. I am now addicted to nicotine impregnated chewing gum instead.

For Yesterday

My inbox is a bit besieged by music submissions at the moment and I keep telling myself that Bagging Area is not a new music blog and I shouldn't feel guilty for not posting stuff people send in, even the ones that have personalised the email to include my name and say how much they love the blog.

Richard Haswell has sent me various links for his album Asteroids (released yesterday). The Soundcloud player below has the whole lp, eight songs in total and it is pretty impressive. Opener Jarvik 13 sounds a bit like mid 70s Bowie and its followed by some other 70s inspired tracks- cosmic and spacey in places, kosmisch in others, equally melodic and noisy with a very good downbeat closer The Thinner The Ice. Worth a listen if any of that appeals.

For Today

I've always found Blur too easy a band to dislike. For a start there's Damon Albarn, who spent much of the 90s exhibiting the kind of smug arrogance that's really, really irritating. Guitarist Graham Coxon sometimes came across as a petulant toddler who if he disliked playing music that much should've just stopped. The bassist- I can't bring myself to type his name- has committed more crimes against the counter-culture than almost anyone I can think of. The mockney, dahn-the-dogs, tracksuit top stylings. Country House. The list goes on. What's more I saw them at Liverpool Poly just after first single She's So High came out and there was nothing to suggest they'd go on to do anything other than fade away within a year (and for a sign of how different those times were, feminist groups picketed the gig protesting against the sexist nature of the record's sleeve- a retro painting of a naked girl riding a hippo. How odd all of that seems now). The highlight of the night was my friend Mr A.N. standing at the urinal trough next to Mr Albarn and splashing his desert boot.

And yet......

There's no denying that they know their way round a tune; off the top of my head the following are all first rate- There's No Other Way, Popscene, Girls & Boys, The Universal, MOR, Country Sad Ballad Man, Beetlebum, On Your Own, To The End, Coffee And TV, End Of A Century, Tender, This Is A Low, For Tomorrow, Under The Westway. In fact, that list makes me wonder why I don't even own a Blur Best Of compilation.

For Tomorrow