Forty Six Minutes Of Twenty Three

Two months ago this weekend, the day before we were taking Eliza back to Liverpool for her final year in university, the three of us were sitting in a cafe in Didsbury village, one of our afternoon walk and a brew haunts. Eliza said, out of nowhere, 'I think we should all go and get a number 23 tattoo for Isaac'. Lou and I looked at each other and both said, 'yeah. ok'. It was very spontaneous, none of us ever really thought abut getting a tattoo before. Me and Eliza had joked about but very much in a 'we won't ever do this' kind of way. But at that moment it suddenly seemed like a good thing to do. Unfortunately the tattoo parlour in Sale couldn't fit us in on the day so we booked in for a month later- it felt like something the three of us should do together and Eliza didn't want to come back from Liverpool for a while. It also gave us some time to think about fonts and parts of the body.

The number 23 has become associated with Isaac. I've written about it before this year. He was 23 when he died and his birthday is the 23rd November (just a couple of weeks away now with the 2nd anniversary of his death a week later). In the last year the number 23 has kept appearing in front of me- on street signs, graffiti, electricity boxes, random tv countdown shows suddenly channel surfed onto, the only available table in a pub. I don't think it necessarily means anything- it's just something I've started noticing and when I see a 23 now it makes me think of him and smile. Getting a 23 tattoo might trigger the same reaction (and a month later, I'm happy to say it does). We got the tattoos done a month ago. Mine is pictured above, a type writer font on my forearm. Lou got a smaller 23 on her side and Eliza got an even smaller, fine line 23 on her upper arm. 

The number 23 has a rich history. I've written before as well about it's part in KLF mythology, with their interest in Discordianism and numerology. When Isaac died I was reading John Higgs' book about The KLF. A few weeks after he died I picked the book back up and the first chapter I read was about the significance of 23. I finished the chapter and put the book down, totally freaked about. I read it again the next day and it had a similar effect. When I was looking at fonts for my tattoo I thought about a KLF block 23 but it would very inky and take some time to do. I fancied a type writer font. On the morning we were due to go I suddenly wondered what 23 would look like in a factory/ Peter Saville font and started going through my various Factory art books. What, I asked myself, was Fac 23? A quick search later and I realised Fac 23 was the 7" release of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. Which caused me to stop in my tracks for a moment. In the end I didn't quite go full Peter Saville Fac font but it played a part in my thinking. We're all really glad we got them done. At the moment, all autumn chilliness and long sleeves, its often covered up, but when I see it, it makes me smile. The upcoming anniversaries are weighing quite heavily and I'll be glad to get November over with- but the tattoos feel like a positive and I'm not sure a year ago I'd thought that would be possible. 

This mix is 46 minutes of songs connected to the number 23. I was going to bring it in at 23 minutes but that felt too short so went for double 23. Two of the songs below were also released in full 23 minute versions which felt too long for a Sunday mix but they're here in shorter versions to represent their 23 minute long brothers. 

46 Minutes Of 23

• Chris Rotter And The Bad Meat Club: 86'd
• 10:40: Sleepwalker
• Local Psycho And The Hurdy Gurdy Orchestra: The Hurdy Gurdy Song (Mothers Of The New Stone Age Remix)
• 23 Skidoo: Coup
• Jah Division: Jah Will Tear Us Apart
• The Vendetta Suite: Eye In The Triangle
• Two Lone Swordsmen: 23rd Street
• Mogwai: U235
• Gorillaz: Aries
• Psychic TV: Godstar
• The KLF: 3am Eternal

Chris Rotter was the guitarist in the live band incarnation of Two Lone Swordsmen and played on and co- wrote songs on Andrew Weatherall's solo album A Pox On The Pioneers. I became friends with Chris online and then in real life. When Isaac died he wanted to record a song for Isaac. I asked him to do 86'd, a song I heard Andrew play on a radio show, a glorious chiming krauty instrumental. Chris went and re- recorded 86'd in new form, 23 minutes long. For reasons of space I've included the shorter one here. The full length 86'd (For Isaac) is here. 

Last December Jesse represented the entire 10:40 back catalogue as an advent calendar. This was the track for the 23rd December, the sleek psych and somewhat krauty Sleepwalker with Ben Lewis on guitar.

The KLF and the number 23 I've mentioned above. Read John Higgs' Chaos, Magic And The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds for more detail. Local Psycho And The Hurdy Gurdy Orchestra are ex- KLF Jimmy Cauty and ex- Pogue Jem Finer. Their hurdy gurdy, neolithic celebration drone came out on 12" came out earlier this year complete with a 23 minute mix. I've included the shorter remix here but the 23 minute version is the one really. 

23 Skidoo are here for obvious reasons. Coup is a block rocking post- punk/ punk funk track from 1984. In a further Andrew Weatherall connection, it was one of the songs on his 9 O' Clock Drop compilation from 2000. 

Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart, as I said above, was Fac 23. Factory's numbering system was central to their ethos. All Joy Division and New Order singles ended in 3. Rather than include the original I decided to put Jah Division's dub cover in- it fitted better. Jah Division released an EP of four dub covers of Joy Division songs  in 2004. If you ever see a vinyl copy, please give me a ring. 

The Vendetta Suite are from Northern Ireland, the work of Gary Irwin. In 2017 Gary released an EP titled Solar Lodge 23 from which this piece of cosmic dubbiness is taken. 

Two Lone Swordsmen- yes, them again- released their first record in 1996, a 12" that contained four tracks- Big Man On The Landing, Azzolini, The Branch Brothers and the one here, 23rd Street, a few minutes of abstract Swordsmen sounds. 

Mogwai's move into soundtrack work has paid off. This is from the soundtrack to Atomic, a bit of a cheat maybe numerically but 23's in there and the track fits.

Gorillaz have played with the number 23 frequently in their imagery and artwork. This song Aries was a single in 2020 and has the unmistakeable and melancholic/ uplifting sound of Peter Hook's bass at its heart.  

Psychic TV, Genesis P Orridge's experimental psychedelic/ acid house band had some interest in 23. In 1986 they began a series of gigs to be recorded and released, 23 in total, each played on the 23rd of a month for 23 consecutive months. Godstar is a single from 1985, a tribute to Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

The KLF's 3am Eternal was the second of their stadium house trilogy, released in 1991 (after a previous version in 1989 and a subsequent one in 1992). The version here, the 1991 single and chart topper, took this mix to 46 minutes. 

Forty Five Minutes of Speaking Voices

I had the misfortune recently to see an advert on TV with the voice of Alan Watts is being used to sell cruises for the Cunard shipping company. Watts was a writer, speaker and philosopher who did much in the 1950s and 60s to popularise Eastern philosophies in the west. His lectures and speeches have been widely available for a long time, not least since the rise of Youtube. His son tries to control the use of them through an Alan Watts website where they can be downloaded when paid for, so presumably Cunard paid for the use of Alan's voice rather than just ripping it from Youtube. The advert chops up Watts' speech and misses the end section entirely, not surprisingly, (knowingly) misrepresenting the message of the original, selling a luxury cruise on the high seas as the dream Watts speaks of. I'm not here to complain about advertising, it's a bit late in the day for that. Watts' voice and speeches are instantly recognisable and catnip for use in media where his message, accent and speaking voice and rhythms are striking and attention grabbing. 

I came across this clip this week too, writer Paul Bowles interviewed in 1970 about a trance dance and self mutilation he witnessed while resident in Morocco. Bowles left the USA in 1947 and settled in Tangier, recording local musicians and writing. His novel The Sheltering Sky came out in 1949, turned into an epic film by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1990 (I read the book and saw the film at the time and enjoyed both but don't remember much about either now so need to revisit). Bowles' speaking voice, like Alan Watts, very much lends itself to being set to music, not just the content but the tone and timbre and patterns of speech. Which led to think that speaking voices set to music would make a good longform mix.

The mix below is forty five minutes of speaking voices set to music, sometimes where voice and music have been specifically made for and recorded with each other and sometimes where the voice has been taken from earlier recordings and sampled. I could probably find enough to make a second at some point in the future. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Speaking Voices

• Jon Hopkins, Ram Dass and East Forest: Sit Around The Fire
• 10:40: The First Step
• Coyote: The Outsider
• David Holmes and Jon Hopkins ft. Stephen Rea: Elsewhere Anchises
• Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright: Be Love
• Steve Queralt and Michael Smith: Chaldean Oracle
• Steve Queralt and Michael Smith: Glitches (Flug 8 Remix)
• Fireflies and Joe Duggan: Leonard Cohen Knows

Sit Around The Fire is the closing track on Jon Hopkins 2022 Music For Psychedelic Therapy, the voice of guru and writer Ram Dass talking about spiritual discovery through sitting round the fire and staring at the flames, while Hopkins' slow piano chords and sound of wood burning and crackling drift by. 

The First Step came out on Higher Love Vol. 2 last year, a 10:40 track that borrows a Bertrand Russell interview and layers a slow burning groove and wash around it, growing in emotion with nods to Elvis and Spiritualized. Russell speaks of acting and of doing in spite of doubt and in the absence of religion.  Magical stuff. 

Coyote are masters of sampling voices and building beautiful Balearic songs around them. This one takes Alan Watts talking about artists, work, states of evolution and sane and insane societies, adds some lovely acoustic guitar, and pays tribute to Andrew Weatherall (who styled himself as The Outsider when writing for Boy's Own back in the late 80s). The Outsider is the last song on their 2021 album The Mystery Light, a highly recommended record. 

Elsewhere Anchises is from David Holmes' Late Night Tales, a stunning 2016 compilation album that pulled together nineteen songs of life and loss, spanning Buddy Holly and David Crosby to Eat Light Become Light and songs David made for the album. On Elsewhere Anchises actor Stephen Rea speaks the words of Seamus Heaney over David's ambient backdrop, the sound of something quite special taking place. 

Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright have released one of this year's best dub/ dub techno/ psychedelia albums, Psychedelic Science. Be Love opens the album with the voice of Ram Dass making his second appearance on this mix. 

Steve Queralt and Michael Smith released the four track EP Sun Moon Town last year, Ride bassist Steve writing and recording four very different pieces of music and Hartlepool born writer and flaneur Michael narrating his own tales of adventures and wanderings in the 21st century, a place and time that seems quite bewildering to him. The Flug 8 remix comes from this year's remix package, a dissection of late stage capitalism and advertising agency dreams you can dance to.  

Fireflies is one of Nina Walsh's musical outlets, a South London based collective. The voice is that of Joe Duggan, Derry born and resident of Crystal Palace. 'If anyone knows', Joe says, 'Leonard Cohen knows'. 

Little Black Dress

Back at the start of the year 10:40 released an album, Transition Theory, an eleven track trip through the Balearic/ dub/ downtempo fields with each track containing the seeds of the next. It was in some ways 10:40's definitive statement, a bringing together of the sounds its creator Jesse had been pursuing and refining for the previous few years. This is the album's opening piece, Tumbling Down, where long synth chords and crackles of electricity provide the backdrop to a voice that's just out of earshot. Some slow hand drums start up and various melody lines weave in and out. The album is here if you don't have it or haven't heard it. 

Out today, a sidestep from Transition Theory, shimmying towards the flashing lights and smoke of the dancefloor, is the newest release from 10:40- Little Black Dress, a three version release on Powder Wax Vol. 1 which promises 'pop disco cosmic disco dub'. Little Black Dress (Original Fit), with vocals from S.A.A.R.A, is a collision of the pop and the disco with the cosmic and dub disco, a sleek, modern, mirrorball moment with wobbly synths, lasers, thumping kick drum and pulsing bass. 

It's joined by10:40's Heavy Eyeliner Dub and Undressed Dub. The Heavy Eyeliner Dub takes Little Black Dress from the main room to the 80s goth/ cool wave room, a smaller space and darker too with someone hammering the dry ice machine. There's more hairspray and leather jackets out on the floor, everyone glancing around as S.A.A.R.A sings, 'You send shivers down my spine' and the synths stutter.

The Undressed Dub rattles and shakes, S.A.A.R.A's voice chopped up and echoed. The second half builds in intensity, the punters in the cosmic disco backroom, a smiley friendly space, flipping out to the wiggly synths, tumbling drums and bumping bass. 

The Powder Wax Vol. 1 EP is available at Bandcamp, pay what you like.  

Fate's Faithful Punchline

A few weeks ago Nina Walsh rediscovered and shared a YouTube playlist made my Andrew Weatherall when he and Nina were doing Moine Dubh (the record label they formed to put out weird, off kilter folk music based in Crystal Palace). Nina said Andrew often forgot his usernames and passwords for YouTube and was constantly having to create new accounts- it's nice to know that's something that affects top DJs and producers as well as the rest of us. The playlist, Dubh Drops, is here and features an array of acts including Cheval Sombre, The Shadow Project, Hungry Ghosts, Amanda Palmer and Edward Ka- Spel, The Black Ryder, Dean Wareham, Rose City Band, The Carpenters and Negative Lovers. It also includes this gem by The Legendary Pink Dots...

Fate's Faithful Punchline

Led by finger picked acoustic guitar and Edward Ka- Spel's echo- drenched voice and eventually some strings, Fate's Faithful Punchline is moving, gorgeous and elegiac psychedelic folk. The Legendary Pink Dots are an Anglo- Dutch group, formed in London in 1980 and have since then released forty- seven albums, twenty- six live albums and forty- eight  compilations. And you thought The Fall were prolific. 

I included Fate's Faithful Punchline on my latest mix for Tak Tent Radio which went live at the weekend, an hour of songs that you can listen to here at Tak Tent or here at Mixcloud. Andrew Weatherall's fingerprints are to be found elsewhere in the mix in the form of his remix of The Impossibles from 1991 and a Beth Orton song he produced that was a B-side on the Someone's Daughter CD single. 

• Alex Kassian: Spirit Of Eden
• Martin Duffy: Promenading
• Eden Ahbez: Full Moon
• 10:40: Ninety- Now
• Coyote: Nothing Rests
• David Holmes: No- One Is Smarter Than History
• Gal Costa: Baby
• The Impossibles: The Drum (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• A Certain Ratio: Houses In Motion (Version 1)
• Ultramarine: Stella
• Beth Orton: It’s This I Find I Am
• The Legendary Pink Dots: Fate’s Faithful Punchline

Transition Theory

In June 2015 Andrew Weatherall did a mix for Resident Advisor, RA.470 (with music from amongst others Flash Atkins, Duncan Gray and Vox Low). One of the questions they asked him in the mini- interview to go with the mix was as follows-

'Can you tell us the idea behind the mix?'

'The idea', Weatherall replied with typical wit, 'was to sequence some records together without the joins being too apparent.'

On the new 10:40 album Transition Theory (out next Tuesday on Valentine's Day) Jesse Fahnestock has pursued this idea into full album territory. A DJ mix is all about great tracks, the transitions between them and the flow of the overall whole. Jesse's started there, moved into making individual tracks and then turned it into a concept album. He's worried that he's releasing his best work at a time when people don't listen to whole albums any more but those who are interested will listen to Transition Theory as it is intended- an eleven track, uninterrupted whole- and those that don't, will miss out.  

Transition Theory opens with the slow motion, electronic haze of Tumbling Down, the distant and distorted voice of jazz pianist Keith Jarrett just faintly audible. As an introduction, it's seductive and glides in gently, percussion and a descending guitar line backgrounded by layers of ambient noise and FX. Over the next four songs, the transition theory makes itself clear as one song segues into another, the later features of one track becoming the first elements of the next. Ninety- Now picks up where Tumbling Down's drums left off but now joined by a backwards guitar chord and then some chuggy synths, building insistently. Ninety- Now's dancing melody fades into The Engineer, a sturdy groove picking up. It's all about momentum now. As The Engineer winds down, Picking Flowers sets off with the same synth arpeggio but then quickly starts to go elsewhere, transitioning into a blissed out two minute build up and then breaking down into something slinky and very European sounding. Picking Flowers then becomes Jimmy Ripp, the stuttering rhythm bent into a new form with a wave of juddering synths. 

From the opening notes that played twenty eight minutes earlier 10:40 has slipped and slid through five tracks, each one an extension of the previous one, new ideas bouncing around each time but all linked. At this point the album pauses. If it were a record or a tape we'd turn it over and put side two on, drop the needle or press play. Sunday's Cool bounces in, a chunky mid- set tune with a voice hidden somewhere under the beats. Regime Shift Dub busts Sunday's Cool's drums up, the tempo halved and dub's sense of space and atmosphere slugging it out with the former track's melodies. 'I can't stop it now', a voice says, 'I can't stop it now', the sense of flow and direction seemingly effortless and easy. We're working our way to the conclusion now, the distorted dubbed out synths morphing into Smoke The Demon. Side two is becoming a serious trip, glitched and fractured, trippy and hypnotic, psychedelic electronic music finding some space in between the loosest, most wigged out parts of indie- dance, the trippy edges of house music and with techno's intensity, the area Weatherall, Hardkiss, Underworld and others made their own three decades ago. At The Turning Of The Tide flows in on the oscillating synths of the previous track and features the voices of Emilia Harmony and Matt Gunn, reverbed and disembodied, drifting in and out of the twinkling synths and chuggy rhythms, the gothic spirit of basement clubs, hairspray and black leather now a presence. Thundering bass and drums see the song out and into the ringing bells of The Mountain, a track that breaks apart beautifully into an ambient dubby spacescape. Final track Mantis glides in as The Mountain finishes, the programmed drums now stepping things up, bass and guitar atmospherics (courtesy of Matt Gunn) the bedrock for a topline of sci fi bleeps. Onwards it goes with drums and washes of sound, bleeps and phasers pushing forwards for nearly eight minutes. 

You can buy Transition Theory here, the eleven tracks available singly, as an album and also with a twelfth track, the hour long album as one continuous mix. There was some indication Jesse's 10:40 was heading in this direction with his mix for Higher Love last year, an hour of music with a similar flow, feel and transitions found in there among Cowboy Junkies, Rich Lane, The Charlatans, Matt Gunn, Kusht, Yarni, Cosmikuro, MAKS, Hugh Masekela, Primal Scream and several 10:40s tracks. I've posted it before- you can find it at Mixcloud or below. You can use it to kill the time between now and Tuesday.

Higher Love 10: 40 Mix

NYE: A Mix For Dancing

New Year's Eve- I'm not sure what we're going to do tonight. New Year's Eve is a strange night at the best of times (unless you're young and in a club where all that happens is that the countdown to midnight is a brief interruption to a night of dancing). The reflective, verging on maudlin, aspects of it are too easily summoned at the moment but celebrating it feels odd too. Caught in no man's land.

But, still, Happy New Year to everyone who comes here for the music and the words, thank you for your comments and support, it means a lot. I hope you're having a good time tonight whether you're choosing to do something or nothing. See you all in 2023 for more of the same. 

This is a mix I put together of tracks from 2022, made for dancing to. It's what I'd want to hear as the clock ticked towards midnight, if happened to find myself in a sweaty basement with a good sound system and a strobe light tonight- you never know, it could happen. Sean Johnston's work features heavily, turning up on four of the tracks. There are a couple of transitions where things are a little skewwhiff (one of them skewwhiff in a way I quite like, the beats and noises piling up messily and then clearing) and the BPMs may be a little out but I think the track selection is good enough. A bunch of dance records sequenced together for an hour and a quarter, with a slow spaced out ambient start, a dubby ending and plenty of dancers in between. Happy new year.

NYE 2022 Dance Mix

• Space Ghost: 4 AM
• Long Range Desert Group: Adjustment Notice
• Rude Audio: Big Heat
• The Summerisle Six: This Is Something (Dub Mix)
• Peak High: Was That All It Was (Hardway Bros Bleep Dub)
• David Holmes: It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Unloved: Turn Of The Screw (Erol Alkan Rework)
• The Orielles: Darkened Corners (Eyes Of Others Remix)
• Phil Kieran and Green Velvet: Enjoy The Day (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Downtown Remix)
• Matt Gunn: Disko Drohne
• Cantoma ft. Quinn Lamont Luke: Alive (Conrad's Vacant Lot Remix)
• 10:40: Hawaii (Big Wave Dub)

Monday's Long Songs

Back in the early 90s Verve appeared out of the wilds of Wigan, four skinny pale boys with straggly hair, suede jackets and desert boots, looking like the existed on a diet of cigarettes and LSD with the occasional bag of chips for nourishment. They were a swirling psychedelic monster, space rock that soared and swooped. Guitarist Nick McCabe didn't appear to be much interested in chord progressions and verse- chorus dynamics but in texture and tone, FX and reverb, runs of notes that were like pinpricks of light against the inky black heavens. The rhythm section thundered away, a bedrock that elevated the group's noise away from the shoegaze bands and towards the skies. As a calling card and statement of intent their debut single, 1991's All In The Mind and its B-sides One Way To Go and A Man Called Sun, is a hard to beat. This incarnation of the group got lost after the release of A Storm In Heaven in 1993 (although A Northern Soul has its moments too). They were forced to add The to their name. Inter- band relations and constant touring took their toll. Singer Richard Ashcroft, 'Mad Richard' in the press in the early 90s, began to be more interested in mid- paced, universal balladeering than stratospheric dream psyche. These things happen. 

Gravity Grave, released in October 1992 is eight minutes of the above, a delay affected bassline, big drums and a squeal of guitar, then more guitar and FX and Richard singing into the wind, 'My life is a boat/ Being blown by you/ With nothing ahead/ Just the deepest blue'. The song shifts a few times, breaking down into bass and drums, some harmonica and then builds again, Nick McCabe playing like a Winstanley version of Hendrix but mainly it's all about the moment, being alive inside the song as the groove goes on. 

Gravity Grave

In case you haven't noticed, over in Stockholm Jesse Fahnestock has been running an advent calendar of musical delights, his 10:40 recordings re- presented, clearing the decks ahead of a new album next year. On 3rd December, behind door number three, was a 10:40 edit of One Way To Go, that 1991 B-side dubbed out and extended, Richard's vocal going backwards and forwards, eventually meeting itself in the middle of the seven minute trip. You can get it here for free. 

The entire 10:40 advent calendar of releases is free, a festival of music with releases- edits, original tracks and remixes spanning dubbed out rock, laser beam festival electronics, wonky hip hop, chuggy Balearica and Tom Waits boneshaker blues. It is going on every day until the big day comes this weekend. Dig in and feed your head here. 

The Knack

There is a lot of new music around right now and keeping up with it sometimes feels like a job in itself. Bandcamp Friday, the first Friday of every month, brings umpteen emails to my inbox, many of which are essential. The difficulty is in keeping up and not missing something good. One of yesterday's Bandcamp Friday treats was a new release from 10:40, a track called The Knack. Built around crunchy drums, a deep piano two note riff and a snatch of a female vocal, The Knack is a steamy, insistent thumper, the sound of pressure building and bodies moving. There's some Belgian EBD inside it's grooves/ bytes and the feel of darker, sweatier house music. The more you listen, the more it gives.

The Knack comes with two remixes, one by Ed Mahon and another by Jezebell. Ed pulls the deepest of synth basslines to the fore and crashing handclaps with a rhythm that is both fast and slow (as Martin Hannett might have demanded). The Jezebell Feeling Moody Remix strips it back to the core, streamlining it in a house rocking and the body rocking. The rhythm that comes in at one minute thirty takes no prisoners, puts its head down and thumps.  All three can be bought here. 

Also out this week is a new release from Jezebell, an EPs worth of edits out on Buenos Aires label Diavol, four tasty 2022 takes on Laurie Anderson, Herb Alpert, The Notorious B.I.G. and Kajagoogoo. All four are worth the price of entrance but in particular the digital stutter and bump of Re-birth (originally Laurie Anderson's Born Never Asked) and Vibrations Hitatchi Dub, a sleek electro stepper edit of Tijuana brassman Herb Alpert with muted wah wah trumpet, synths and timbales bouncing around. Buy here. Then press play and replay all weekend. 

Edit: all the edits are now available at Jezebell's Bandcamp site here, name your own price/ free.  

Wise Men Say Only Fools Rush In

We went to the cinema last week, the first time we'd been since pre- Covid. There's nothing quite like sitting in the dark and seeing a film on the big screen for that full immersive experience. The film we chose was Baz Luhrman's Elvis, a brash, hyperactive, high camp, historically inaccurate take on the life of Elvis Presley. It was great fun of course if an hour too long. Elvis' musical life splits into three stages for me- the raw, untamed brilliance of the Sun years followed by a succession of increasingly tame songs made to promote films he was starring in followed by a kind of renaissance- the '68 comeback special (the first heritage rock show?) and then the Vegas years (a mixture of sublime inspiration and utter schmaltz). Elvis released Can't Help Falling In Love in 1961 to accompany the film Blue Hawaii, a song which has a life of it's own- Elvis crooning with his heavenly backing choir, some emotional button pushing lines but some genuine beauty too. It was covered by UB40 and the supporters of several English football teams have made it their own too- hearing massed ranks of Sunderland fans singing it at Old Trafford once was quite a moment.

Can't Help Falling In Love

In 1997 Jason Spaceman was going through the recording of Spiritualized's then latest album, what would become Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. He wrote and recorded the title track, a weightless, wracked and wasted piece of space pop/ rock, introduced by a deadpan Kate Radley, blending his own song with the melodies and words from Can't Help Falling In Love. Obviously, by the time the album was ready to be released, Spritualized's finest album, the Presley estate were not happy and the Elvis parts had to be removed. Bootlegs exist of course. As a song, it is almost too much.

Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space/ Can't Help Falling In Love 

Last summer Jesse Fahnestock was having his own blues and revisiting Ladies And Gentlemen... and in search of a musical outlet for this found himself playing the song everyday, focusing on the line 'getting strong today/ a giant step each day'. I'll let Jesse describe the next steps...

'A lot of my music is about touching the hem of Spiritualized/Spacemen's cloak anyway, so I decided I’d pick up the baton. I spent a couple of weeks at the piano writing my own melancholy folk song in the round, keeping the “fools rush in” and adding some hopeful sentimentality to try to pull myself out of my funk, some words about daring to be happy, taking a chance on love and life. I called it “A Giant Step”, but that title didn’t stick.

In parallel I’d been toying with the idea of sampling some archival footage of the West’s last great philosopher (and personal hero), Bertrand Russell. I didn’t have a song for what I’d found, so when I started producing “Giant Step” on the computer, I stuck Russell on the intro, just as a whim. And then suddenly I heard what Russell was saying in that clip … it was about acting “vigorously” in spite of one’s doubt, about how modern philosophy was there to help you dare to live, even without the certainty of religion.

Making music is full of serendipitous moments, but this was the best one I’ve had yet. The song is more appropriately called “The First Step” '

10:40's The First Step has now been released as one of the songs on Higher Love Vol. 2, a compilation on Brighton's Higher Love label. You can get it here. It's a slow burning, sombre and emotive piece of music, the voice of Bertrand Russell surrounded by the laid back groove and the spectral female voices that join whispering, 'fools rush in'. It's a different take again from the feelings Elvis provokes and from the ones summoned by Spiritualized, a new feeling, and it shows how music can transform itself, shift its shape over time, one person taking a song somewhere else. 

The rest of Higher Love Vol. 2 is uniformly superb too, from the skittering sunset vibes of Perry Granville to the blissed out twinkling of Joe Morris, the heady brew of Secret Soul Society and enormous symphonic, spinning, giddying sound of Mass Density Human, and plenty more besides- if you need a soundtrack for the dog days of August, you'll find one inside Higher Love Vol 2. 

Tak Tent Six

Tak Tent is an internet radio station broadcasting out of Scotland. Last year The Wire magazine included them in a round up of radio stations worth listening to. A couple of years ago I was asked if I'd like to submit an hours' worth of songs for transmission and since then have been back several times. Last week Tak Tent put out my sixth Bagging Area mix, one that is made up almost exclusively of songs from this year and all from artists that are very familiar to this blog. You can listen to it here. 

Tracklist

• Pye Corner Audio: Let’s Emerge Pt. 1
• Reinhard Vanbergen and Charlotte Caluwaerts: They Do Not Care
• Sheer Taft: Requiem For Pablo
• Mark Peters and Dot Allison: Switched On
• 10:40: Coat Check
• A Mountain of One: Star (Glok Starlight Dub)
• Perry Granville: Dexter In Dub (Bedford Falls Players Remix)
• Unknown Genre: Elevator Ride (The Orielles Ambient Remix)
• Coyote: Home Grown
• The Summerisle Six: This Is Something (Rico Conning Mix)

Half An Hour Of The Charlatans

The Charlatans have weathered many, if not all, the storms that could be thrown at a band since their arrival in 1989 and still they keep moving. A Covid delayed thirtieth anniversary box set and tour has been completed this year and in September they play Manchester's New Century Hall as part of a week of celebrations for that venue where they'll play 1992's Between 10th And 11th in full plus 'all the hits'. Singer Tim Burgess regularly proves himself to be the nicest man on Twitter and his listening parties lit up lockdown back in 2020. They don't just rest on their laurels either- 2015's Modern Nature is among their best work and the follow up, Different Days, showed they still wanted to press forward. Tim's solo albums are full of ideas and good songs. None of this is what many would have expected from the five piece that stepped into the light in 1989 with Indian Rope. 

Todays'  thirty minute mix focusses on their swirly, heady, psychedelic side of the group's songs, a Hammond organ- led stew, with a couple of remixes thrown in, perfect for a bit of mellow/ wigging out on a Sunday. The Norman Cook remix is a 2016 Record Store Day release, a beautiful Balearic version of a song from Modern Nature. Come In Number 21 opened their third album, 1994's Up To Our Hips, produced by Steve Hillage- the 10: 40s edit here is somewhat unofficial. Opportunity is on debut Some Friendly (and thinking about this now I probably should have included Opportunity Three, the Flood produced remix and superior version). Another Rider Up In Flames is from Up To Our Hip. Chewing Gum Weekend is from Between 10th And 11th, the first album to feature guitarist Mark Collins. Imperial 109 is one two B-sides from their 1990 hit single The Only One I Know. Sproston Green closes Some Friendly and most of their gigs (the US single version I've included is slightly shorter, losing some of the long organ led intro- not the best version but it worked better here). Sproston Green is a small village near Middlewich, Cheshire, home to a couple of hundred people, a pub and a parish council noticeboard and not much else. The village has lost its signs on occasion, light fingered Charlatans fans taking it away from the side of the A54 in the dead of night. 

Half An Hour Of The Charlatans

• Trouble Understanding (Norman Cook Remix)
• Come In Number 21 (10:40's 21 With A Bullet Edit)
• Opportunity
• Another Rider Up In Flames
• Chewing Gum Weekend
• Imperial 109 (Edit)
• Sproston Green (US Version)

Half An Hour Of Spacemen 3

Pontins at Prestatyn, North Wales, has hosted all sorts of weekenders over the years from soul weekenders in the 80s to Northern Soul and Motown revival nights to an 80s weekender taking place there this very weekend, featuring in no particular order Chesney Hawkes, Black Lace, Aswad and Sonia (poor Aswad, how did they get mixed up in that?). To the best of my knowledge Spacemen 3 never played Pontins in Prestatyn but they did play a health spa in not too distant Chester in the late 80s with spectacular results (an event described in bassist Will Carruthers' book, Playing Bass With Three Left Hands), an evening where a group more familiar with opiates were introduced to ecstasy for the first time and played one of their best gigs. 

This Sunday half hour mix takes in Spacemen 3's dreamier, spacier, more ecstatic songs, less of the supercharged Stooges influenced sound and more of the 'lie back and think of Rugby' grooves, selected from their three albums- 1987's The Perfect Prescription, 1989's Playing With Fire and the final album 1991's Recurring (released after they'd split with Sonic Boom and J Spaceman unable to work together in the studio and taking a side of the album each), plus a lovely recent re- edit by Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40.  

Half An Hour Minutes Of Spacemen 3

• Ecstasy Symphony/ Transparent Radiation
• Just To See You Smile
• How Does It Feel? (10:40's Terrace Moonshine Dub)
• Big City (Everybody I Know Can Be Found Here)
• Ode To Street Hassle
• I Love You

Thickener

Brand new from Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40 is Thickener, two mixes of deep, techno tinged, dark disco. Psyche- chug from Stockholm, mastered by Rich Lane in Stoke. The Thinner Mix is first up, kick drum and hiss and huge belching synth bass. A chopped up fragment of wordless vocal, rising and falling topline and then on it goes, pumping away. 

The Full Fat mix follows, riding in on tom toms and a big groove, a distorted voice and synths pinging about. The bassline buzzes about around the breakbeat and everything gets quite intense before the breakdown at four minutes. Then it all goes off again. You can both at Bandcamp, name your own price. 

I'm particularly excited about this release because the cover photo is mine, a picture I took a while ago and shared on social media. Jesse got in touch and asked if he could use it. Here's my original, a shot of a pendant lamp in a cafe/ bar in Altrincham taken from below. 

Obviously we now need to start a crowd funder campaign for vinyl, t- shirts, posters, coasters, tea towels, tote bags and all the other merch the image requires. 

Anyone Who Ever Had A Heart

The last week has been soundtracked much of the time by this hour long mix from Jesse Fahnestock, a promotional mix for Brighton's Higher Love who have released Jesse's recent single Kissed Again (in his 10:40 guise). You can find Higher Love 059 at the Balearic Ultras Mixcloud  page and it's an absolute beaut, a meandering shuffle round some blissed out chugginess, some dub tinged delights, some indie- dance and some loose and lovely Balearica with half the tracks in the mix Jesse's own work as 10: 40. It drifts in with Rich Lane's Coyote, atmospherics, ambience and slide guitar and then Margo Timmins voice appears just below the surface, singing Sweet Jane from The Trinity Sessions back in the late 80s- quite the pairing. Matt Gunn, Kusht and Coco Rosie follow and then a run of unreleased 10:40 tracks before a euphoric section running from Cosmikuro into a re- edited Charlatans song from 1994, then into Kissed Again and then Jesse's re-edit of Hugh Masakela's Strawberries, all multi-coloured, dreamy splendour. Highly recommended.

Tracklist

• Rich Lane/Cowboy Junkies: Coyote Tan/Sweet Jane
• Matt Gunn: Lost in the Drohne
• Kusht: Trippin’ Out Back
• CocoRosie: Good Friday
• 10:40: Coat Check
• 10:40: [Unreleased]
• 10:40: [Unreleased]
• MAKS: North (Yarni Remix)
• Cosmikuro: Gum
• The Charlatans: Come in Number 21 (10:40’s Number 21 with a Bullet Edit)
• 10:40: Kissed Again
• Hugh Masakela: Strawberries (10:40’s Cream Edit)
• Florence & The Scream Machine: Don’t Fight The Love (10:40’s Machine Mash)
• 10:40: See Me Through

As an addition I thought I'd post two songs that provided Jesse with some of his source material. Back in 1988 Canada's Cowboy Junkies recorded an album that seemed to appear out of nowhere and crossed all kinds of boundaries over here. The album pulled together their own songs and some covers with the spectral presence of the church they were recorded in- the natural reverb of Toronto's Holy Trinity church is as important as any of the wood and metal instruments played by the group. The recording was made using a single microphone to pick up all the players and Margo's voice. On Sweet Jane they chose to cover the version from The Velvet Underground's 1969 Live album rather than the one from Loaded. Apparently even professional curmudgeon Lou Reed loved the Cowboy Junkies cover. 

Sweet Jane

By 1994 The Charlatans were a looking a little lost and out of time and their third album Up To Our Hips didn't set the world alight- the next big things of Britpop were already stirring and The Charlatans looked a bit like yesterday's men (many of their contemporaries had already run out of road). The album, produced by Steve Hillage, has endured though, has a groove and feel to it and some of the songs are real fan favourites, songs like Can't Get Out Of Bed, Jesus Hairdo and I Never Want An Easy Life If Me And He Were Ever To Get There. It opens with Come In Number 21, a song that sounds like they've just arrived, plugged in and turned all the switches on, a rehearsal where suddenly things come together on the spot. The guitars are lower in the mix, the drums less obviously based around the 1990 beat, Tim's singing surrounded by the swampy bass, organ and guitars. Time definitely not up. 

Come In Number 21

Kissed Again Again

Last September I posted the final track from a compilation by Brighton's Higher Love Recordings label, a track by 10:40 called Kissed Again. 10:40 is Jesse Fahnestock, an American producer residing in Sweden. When I first posted Kissed Again I said this about it...

The finale is a blissed out glide- by track from Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40 alias, an eight minute trip called Kissed Again, with gently rising and falling synths, bubbling sounds, rolling piano chords, some acid squiggles and a sense of reaching an ending that'll leave you either grinning or slightly dewy eyed. Maybe both. I can't recommend it enough.

I make no apologies for posting it again six months later. It's out today as a single, it's late summer of 2021 euphoric melancholy now transformed in early spring into something very hopeful indeed- the promise of long late evenings, the gentle hubbub of plazas and squares, folk on their way somewhere. It leaves me dewy eyed (still) too- and not only because of my current precarious emotional state. Those piano rolls and chords. The gently padding drums. The acid synthlines buzzing to and fro. The undulating melodies and ebbs and flows of elation. And the final thirty seconds as the sounds and FX fade like the tide, leaving you with the feeling that all you really want to do is play it again. 

Today's single release comes with two new tracks, Fin and Coat Check, neither of which I've heard yet but 10:40's Bandcamp page offers us 'haunting blissed out beauty tailor made for the majesty of a warm summer sunset' (Fin) and 'a slow mo sojourn into an electro chug wilderness' (Coat Check) both of which sound very much up my street. The EP is available to buy at Bandcamp. 

Iz Um

I've done a week back at work- not sure how when I look back at it but it's done and it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. My grief anxiety has kicked in a few times and driving in on Tuesday wasn't great when I realised it was six weeks to the day since Isaac died. That sort of significance of dates/ passing of time thing really gets to me, and in my head and gut puts me straight back into the room where we were when he died. It passes but it's not very nice at all and when I got to work I clearly didn't look great because a colleague brought me a cup of tea and a biscuit almost straight away. People are good. 

This came out two days ago, a throbbing, chugging psychedelic house monster aimed at bringing the summertime to January. Slowed dance music. Iz Um is by 10:40 (Jesse Fahnestock), an American in Sweden whose music lit up last year. Buy it/ get it for free here. 

Another track by Jesse which I didn't get around to posting last year when it came out because it got lost in everything that was going on in late November and December was one in his Jezebell guise called Thrill Me (I've just looked at the release date and it came out on Isaac's birthday which has thrown me slightly). Thrill Me is electric, acid psyche, sounding like nights in sweaty basements and dark backrooms with a vocal sample likely to trigger flashbacks. Buy at a name your own price arrangement here. 

Tak Tent Four

I submitted another mix to Tak Tent Radio, an eclectic and broadminded internet radio station broadcasting out of Scotland. It went live yesterday. You can find it at Tak Tent and at Mixcloud. No irritating DJs talking over the intros, no cutting away for the travel news or adverts, no playlist songs you don't like but they have to play anyway, just an hour of songs from my record collection/  hard drive. I don't think there are many surprises in the tracklist, it's the usual sort of stuff I've been writing about here but collected into one hour long mix. 

Tak Tent Four

• Durutti Column: Sketch For Dawn I
• Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood: The Crescent
• David Holmes and Steve Jones: The Reiki Healer From County Down
• Reinhard Vanbergen and Reinhard Roelandt: Amber Amplifier
• Steve Cobby: 45ft Tide
• Nick Drake: Rider On The Wheel
• Saint Etienne: Little K
• One Dove: Breakdown (Squire Black Dove Rides Out)
• David Holmes: Theme/ I.M.C.
• A Mountain Of One: Custards Last Stand
• 10:40 Kissed Again
• Ry Cooder: Cancion Mixteca (Paris Texas Soundtrack)

Sleepwalker

Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40 keeps up the high hit rate with Sleepwalker, a gently psychedelic, pulsing piece of music, slipping into a sweet spot where the trippier late 80s indie groups, Motorik rhythms and blissed out electronics overlap. Guitars are by UFO Club's Ben Lewis and beamed in vocals are from The Weather Band's David Rosenheim. The arrival of the throbbing, wobbly synthline at sixteen seconds and then a second a little later raises the pulse rate and then the guitars dapple their way in, like bright sunshine through thick tree cover, all light and shade. Lovely stuff. Six minutes long and it could go on longer without outstaying its welcome. 

I used to sleepwalk a lot when I was a kid. On one occasion I ended up fully asleep but wedged in behind a wardrobe (I vaguely remember dreaming about being in a tunnel) and having to be rescued by my dad. Another time I got fully dressed in the early hours and was about to go out to do my paper round several hours too early and still fast asleep. Disconcerting. Thankfully I grew out out of it although talking in my sleep continued into adulthood. I noticed recently my wife has begun sleep swearing, occasionally muttering 'for fuck's sake' as she rolls over or switches sides. Make of that what you will. 

The two other 10:40 songs on the EP are both worthy of your attention too. Neighbours (Dub) isn't a cover of the Australian soap theme tune, more's the pity, but a slinky instrumental and there's a very laid back Spacemen 3 edit, Let Me Down Gently- which does exactly that. Buy it at Bandcamp, a pay what you want deal. 

Kissed Again

A compilation on Brighton's Higher Love Recordings came out earlier this month, a late summer celebration from the Balearic Ultras stable featuring the likes of James Bright, Andres Y Xavi, Adam Warped, Go Satta and Perry Granville. The finale is a blissed out glide- by track from Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40 alias, an eight minute trip called Kissed Again, with gently rising and falling synths, bubbling sounds, rolling piano chords, some acid squiggles and a sense of reaching an ending that'll leave you either grinning or slightly dewy eyed. Maybe both. I can't recommend it enough. Higher Love Vol. 1 is here. 

Paisley Dark Is In Your Heart

Paisley Dark is a label based in Leeds specialising in dark, psychedelic electronic music, edits and remixes and original works. Recently I posted the Jesse Fahnestock re- edit of Spacemen 3's How Does It Feel, a deep, dubbed out version of Rugby's finest's druggy gospel sounds. This one, again by Jesse in his 10:40 guise, appeared at the end of May, a skewwhiff take on a hypnotic, slowly building song that sounds like it's come from somewhere else, a radio tuned into another reality- Inner Meet Me from The Beta Band's  second EP, The Patty Patty Sound (from 1998). Those first three Beta Band EPs really were something else. Jesse's 10:40's Outer Hebrides Dub is five minutes of pulsing, trippy sound and can be found at Bandcamp (free downloads available while they last). 

Inner Meet Me

Also out on Paisley Dark is an edit of Julian Cope's Safesurfer, his 1991 ode to contraception. The Jezebell edit is slightly shorter than the Archdrude's original and burns more slowly- descending bassline, hissing hi- hats, swirling, looped, chopped up vocals smothered in echo before Copey's refrain, 'You don't have to be afraid, love/'Cos I'm a safesurfer darling'. I've no idea who Jezebell is but this edit is clearly an act of love. Available at Bandcamp, free download while stocks last. 

Safesurfer (Peggy Suicide version)