Go!!!

Back in 2010 Andrew Weatherall remixed Danish producer Trentemoller's track Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go!!! At that point Timothy J. Fairplay was Andrew's studio right hand man, a partnership which would result in their album as The Asphodells (the superb Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, named after a shlocky gladiator porn movie). One of the key influences at the time, all over the Trentemoller remix, was the glam rock stomp, a wonderfully retro sound derived from twin sources- Big New Prinz by The Fall and Let's Get Together Again by The Glitter Band, 'the men in satin trousers it's ok to like' Andrew quipped after playing the song on one of his radio shows at the time (that's The Glitter Band not The Fall obviously). 

Big New Prinz is a remarkable piece of Brix- era Fall, built around Glitter Band drumming, some really grimy bass and vicious guitar lead lines, a song that developed from a 1982 song (Hip Priest) and was reworked for their 1988 I Am Kurious Oranj album, a record that combined some kind of tribute to William of Orange's ascension to the English throne in 1688 and the soundtrack to a Michael Clark ballet along with a version of Jerusalem. Meanwhile Mark riffs about rock records, drinking the long draft, big priests and the self referential refrain, 'He/ Is/ Not/... Appreciated'. 

Big New Prinz

Let's Get Together Again is 70s social club manna, a football chant and double drumkit stomp, sax and Les Paul. No mp3 I'm afraid but I've found it on Youtube- there's another clip on Youtube where they perform the song on Top Of The Pops and are introduced by a well known sex offender/ DJ but we don't need to see his face here.

Andrew and Tim channelled these sounds into the Trentemoller remix, one of those tracks you wish could loop endlessly whilst you go about you daily business. 

Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go!!! (Andrew Weatherall Prinz Remix)

There is a second Weatherall/ Fairplay remix, the Sky 81 remix, which is less Glitter stomp and more echo- laden, submerged, Wobble era- PiL take on the original. Both remixes, the original and two other mixes can be bought here. And for completion's sake here are the twin heroes of the Trentmoller song, from the golden age of Marvel and the pens of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. 

Impulse Begin

Some forward thinking electronica from 1982 from the combined talents of Chris And Cosey, then fresh out of Throbbing Gristle and enjoying the freedom of their independence. Chris Carter pioneered the use of all kinds of equipment, not least the Roland 303 bassline synth and Roland 808 drum machine, back before most people had even heard of either.

Impulse

They've never really stopped and in recent years have made some wonderful remixes. This one is a case in point, a sweetly euphoric version of a Tim Burgess and Peter Gordon collaboration from 2016.

Begin (Carter Tutti Remix)

I'm part way through Cosey Fanni Tutti's autobiography, titled art sex music, and without giving too much away she has lived an eye-opening life, a life lived as art, and in the 1970s put up with some very shitty behaviour from Genesis P. Orridge.

Face It Tiger

I was sifting through a box of cds found on top of a cupboard recently- various bits of decorating and reorganising have been taking place which will eventually lead to a new storage solution for the overspill of records that has been taking place in the back room for a few years now. The box contained either cds I'd made myself or cds that came free with magazines. Some didn't the survive the process. Some got refiled in the box (but more neatly). Some got taken to the car. On the way to work on Tuesday morning I put a cd called Change The Beat into the player, a compilation that came free with Mojo in 2015 subtitled '14 tracks from Madonna's New York scene'. This came blaring out of my car's speakers and for 4 minutes and 13 seconds I was convinced it was the best song I was going to hear that day.

Coup

Everything about it is the maximum it could be- that taut, funky as fuck bassline (pinched by The Chemical Brothers at a cost for Block Rockin' Beats), those chanted backing vox, the horns, the timbales, the gunshot samples. Magical stuff from 23 Skidoo back in 1983. You just hit the jackpot.

To Fly Free You Must Fly Alone

Back to 1990 today and a hands in the air piano rave moment from N-Joi. The vocal track on the original version of the song was made up of samples from 3 different sources- Gwen Guthrie, Soul II Soul and Darlene Davis- which singer Saffron mimed for TV and sang live for performances, as seen here on Top Of The Pops...



Anthem

Saffron went on to find fame as the singer of Republica, a group that included a former member of Flowered Up (Tim Dorney on keyboards) and a former member of Soul Family Sensation (Jonathan Male on guitar). Back in the late 90s I wrote some reviews and articles for a Manchester based magazine and got to interview Saffron (on the phone not face to face). I don't think the Saffron interview was published (probably because my interviewing skills were limited and the whole thing was a bit uncomfortable). Later on I co-interviewed Bez in a bar called The Temple Of Convenience. He was promoting his book Freaky Dancing. This interview went much better. Bez offered to take us out for the night with, and I quote, 'some classical music fella and the King of Cumbia squeezing fuck out of a massive squeezebox'. His opening gambit when we all sat down was to tell me that I looked like 'I smoked loads of smack' (which I didn't I hasten to add). Good fun and highly entertaining. Happy days.

Flame On

Stan Lee, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief and creator of hundreds of characters including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The X Men, Black Widow, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Thor, Ant Man and Daredevil, has died at the grand age of 95. It's fair to say that a lot of our childhoods would have been very different without Marvel Comics and their cast of brightly coloured superheroes (and their flawed, all too human alter-egos). RIP Stan and Make Mine Marvel.

There's been a little resurgence of The Dream Syndicate in blogs in these parts this year kicked off I think by my post back in April, a film of Andrew Weatherall playing in Italy last year and dropping The Dream Syndicate's John Coltrane Stereo Blues into his set. Watch it here, it's fifty minutes you won't regret. Drew posted some Dream Syndicate, CC has posted some and I think The Swede too. So here's some more from Steve Wynn and co, the second song from their full length debut, an album inspired by 1966 and 1977 in equal parts.

Defnitely Clean

Where Were You?

In 1989 Big Hard Excellent Fish, a duo of Josie Jones and Jake Walters, were asked to write a piece of music for the punk ballet dancer and choreographer Michael Clark. Josie asked her then boyfriend Pete Wylie to help out and they recorded Imperfect List, with Robin Guthrie of The Cocteau Twins producing. It was released in 1989 and then again a year later with remixes by Andrew Weatherall (subtitled Rimming Elvis The Andrew Weatherall Way). I've posted the Weatherall remixes before (or at least a couple of them, there are four on the 12" single). This is the original version.

Imperfect List

In Imperfect List Josie lists 64 things that her and Wylie hated starting with Adolf Hitler and taking in various other named or famous people from Terry and June to Bonnie Langford to 'fucking bastard Thatcher' to Stock, Aitken and Waterman, some unnamed people (macho dickhead, accusing ungrateful mate, weird British judges, tasteless A&R wanker and the dentist), some daily irritants (lost keys, neighbours- or is that Neighbours?), some entirely appropriate late 80s targets (the Tories, Hillsborough, Heysel, the poll tax, apartheid, acid rain, Clause 28, Nelson Mandela's imprisonment) and some universal hates (cancer, miscarriage, loneliness, hunger, murder, gut wrenching disappointment, the Sun newspaper) and plenty more besides.

'Where were you?' Josie asks at the end, leaving the question hanging and unanswered.

Second Surfer

A new two track release (digital and 12") from Toby Tobias, Second Stimulus and Syncro Surfer using up all the S alliteration. Second Stimulation is an eight minute journey through staccato synths and a machine pulse with intermittent bass. Syncro Surfer is a Detroit-esque rush of sirens and hi-hats, clattering percussion and bleepy pulses. This sort of thing is really pushing my buttons right now.

Past Bedtime

I found a cd I made many years ago, a compilation of early Warp bleep 'n' bass records, futuristic techno from Sheffield- Tricky Disco, Tuff Little Unit, LFO, Kid Unknown, all that sort of thing. It sounds fantastic on the car stereo (and it's not even a very good car stereo), the bass making things vibrate and rattle, the bleeps loud and the vocal samples reverberating around my car on my way to and from work. I am especially struck with this one at the moment, the B-side to Tricky Disco's Tricky Disco 12" from 1990, where the bleep 'n' bass is pitted against Gregorian chanting.

Tricky Disco (Past Tricky's Bedtime Mix)

Do Not Attempt To Speak! It Will Serve No Purpose...

'...since I know why you have come! But your quest is in vain! You cannot save your world from being ravished by Galactus!' The colour, vibrancy, movement and energy in these frames is something else.

The opening track from 808 State's 1989 album 90 is the first track on the memory stick in the family car at the moment. I can't get past it, hitting replay time after time while running around- the melodic intro, then the breakbeat and busy bass, synths in technicolour and Vanessa's spoken/sung vocal.... 'come with me and have no fear, just close your eyes and disappear'. Dead stop.

Magical Dream

I'm away overnight and haven't had the time to write anything for tomorrow so it's a rare Sunday off at Bagging Area. Enjoy your weekend.

What Manner Of World Have I Found Here?!!

Silver Surfer again, exploding out of deep space and bringing with him Galactus, devourer of worlds. But the Surfer makes his choice, the surfer stands with earth!

More good news for the people of planet earth, there is a new release from Finiflex (some of Finitribe) . This four track release on Bandcamp (digital and yellow vinyl) has four versions of Ta Ta Oo Ha. Origination, the nine minute, full length one is the one I'm going back to most, but the low slung, hypnotic throb of TX20 Agent Of Intelligence is a treat too. I really like this e.p., a blast of modernity with a foot in the early 90s.

And as a bonus, just in case you needed reminding, here is one of 1991's best releases.

'Bass, can you hear me? Loud and clear. Crunching through these speakers to you...'

101 (Sonic Shuffle)

Now It Is I Who Possess The Cosmic Power Which Once Was His!

Doctor Doom, perennial enemy of the Fantastic Four, has frazzled the Surfer and is now 'invincibly superior...  and has attained powers without limit-- power enough to challenge Galactus himself!' We all know how this ends- overconfidence is always the downfall of a supervillain. Even Victor von Doom.

Jack Kirby's artwork doesn't make me think of reggae too often- Lee Perry's Super Ape sleeve art and a few others aside- but in a week of new music today I offer you the honeyed voice of Hollie Cook and some wonderfully poppy reggae vibes on this single Freefalling which comes out tomorrow. An album, Vessel Of Love, produced by Youth is following in January.

Mordo Promised He Would Restore My Hand

Back to Marvel's Strange Tales today, with Jeremy Corbyn, prior to his leading the Labour Party I imagine, ending up with an injured hand and doing Mordo's bidding. Jeremy has clearly failed in his quest to strike back at the ancient one.

Earlier this year Siren (a chuggy electronic house duo) released a four track record. The lead song, Lulu, has been remixed by Italian cosmic-disco experts to absolute perfection. Daniele Baldelli and Marco Dionigi send the track to a lush and expansive other-world, with Devi Mamboka's wonderful vocals floating on top. Viva Italia.

Hurling Their Own Powers Against Them

One of this year's treats has been a remix by Chris and Cosey of Different Days, the title track of The Charlatans latest album. Rude Audio, a London based collective, have done a completely unofficial re-edit of Chris and Cosey's already rather gorgeous, Balearic remix. Rude Audio have pared the vocals back, dubbed it up and let the lovely, bubbling synths take centre stage.

In the picture the Fantastic Four's own powers have been combined by this set of magic gloves and this will enable them to be totally defeated--now-- and forever!! By hurling their own powers-- magnified many times-- against them!!

I Love You Because You're Different!

I was going to give the Marvel thing a rest but I've got several great frames still to use and it's given the writing of posts a new lease of life for me and I don't ignore those kind of things when it comes to trying to find something to say every day.

Barry Adamson, a man who has played bass with both Magazine and The Bad Seeds, had several first rate solo albums and a bunch of soundtracks (including The Beach, Lost Highway and Natural Born Killers), has a new e.p. out next month- remixes of his Love Sick Dick 6 track e.p. Love Sick Dick was a kind of modern, urban blues for 2017. One of the remixes out next month is by A Certain Ratio.

Martin Moscrop, ACR's guitarist and trumpeter, describes the remix as more of a collaboration. ACR built up a new track, with drums, 303, guitar, keyboards and trumpet, dropping in Barry's vocals, chopped up, and the backing vox. The remix is tagged ACR:MCR Rework and the reference to their 1990 masterpiece is spot on. This sounds like a continuation of the sound of that record, lovely uptempo grooves with Barry's vocals on top and an extended funky end section. Very good indeed.

ACR have recently signed a deal with Mute and a series of reissues has started, with Good Together and ACR:MCR due next year.

You Dare Invade Our Royal Sanctuary?

The Inhumans look like a band- an L.A. punk band, Black Flag maybe, or a second generation UK punk group like The Rezillos. There's something of Pixies about them too. The Inhumans first appeared in Fantastic Four in 1965, evolutionary advanced superbeings, led by their king Black Bolt. In this frame they have kidnapped Sue Storm (The Invisible Girl) and are facing down her brother Johnny Storm (The Human Torch). Coincidentally I've just seen an advert for a new Inhumans TV series, about to be shown on the Murdoch channel (which I don't subscribe to).

The Rotters Golf Club Archive Hour Vol 10 has recently been posted online, an hour inside Andrew Weatherall's record collection. This one is very much a band based affair and perfect for Sunday morning.

'No! They've brainwashed you! You don't know what you're saying!'



Radiogram – Waiting For The Merry Go Round
The Fall – Bill Is Dead
The Faces – Debris
Cowboys International – Here Comes A Saturday
Del Shannon - That’s The Way Love Is
The Czars – Killjoy
Lali Puna – Move On
Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell – The Breaking Hands
P. F. Sloan – Upon A Painted Ocean
The Duke & The King – The Morning I Get To Hell
The Felice Bros. – All When We Were Young
Alex Chilton – Every Day As We Grow Closer
Brett Smiley – Queen Of Hearts
Sir John Betjeman – A Russel Flint
Ian McCulloch – Nothing Lasts Forever (Live)
Scott Walker - Lines

Beautiful Dreamer

'Beautiful Dreamer versus Darkseid! Both hold the key to victory in the strangest war ever fought in comicdom history!'

More early 70s Jack Kirby-Third Eye- Black Light psychedelic madness. The more of this Marvel art I look for, the more I find, the more I want to post. I was planning to finish yesterday but there's more to come.

Two days ago reader KevM asked for The Box by Jack Of Swords, released on Weatherall's Sabres Of Paradise label back in 1994. The Box is a cover of The Velvet Underground tune (from White Light/White Heat), a tale of sexual obsession and accidental death, voiced by John Cale (and it's the original Cale vocal used on this cover too, a benefit of the being able to lift the whole isolated vocal off the Velvet's record by switching the speakers balance to the left hand channel). The Jack Of Swords version has a heavy, electronic backing that is pretty transfixing. On the B-side of the 12" single was a remixed version by Technova (David Harrow), a brilliant remix which adds a jackhammer beat, some speaker rattling bass and a load of acid-techno (the sort of record that makes me think I can smell dry ice) and see strobes flashing in the corner of my eye.

The Box

The Box (The Black Angel's Death Mix)

So Shall It Be

A 1971 psychedelic/Norse crossover, this one drawn by John Buscema, from the Third Eye series. Odin resurrects Hela. So shall it be.

This can only go in one direction can't it? From 2008's Black Sheep album, some prime recent Julian Cope.

Psychedelic Odin

More from the Marvel Third Eye series, these ones are all by Jack Kirby I think, but its the colourist who's getting most of the fun- The Infinity Man, an acid trip in spandex; the Silver Surfer, freed and unbound; magnificent Medusa.

And because Cope has more than one Marvel link, Spiderman and Daredevil threatened by Submariner- The Teardrop Explodes!

This is their 1979 single (that inspired its own tribute song by Chris Sievey and the Freshies, otherwise known as Timperley's own Frank Sidebottom).

Bouncing Babies

Are You Cast In My Image?

'Doubt and fear hang heavy in the passing light years---- until the passing form of the ranger centre appears!

ARE YOU CAST IN MY IMAGE?

We grow in your image!!--please translate us into penal section'

I'd love to explain what's going on here but I can't (so if anyone knows please put something in the comment box). Jack Kirby in full on, all the way up to 11, everything louder than everything else, Marvel psychedelic mode. Magical.

Lucy And The Mango Man is a fairly stoned psychedelic excursion that came out on Weatherall's Emissions Audio Output label in the mid 90s. It's by Is. The voice at the start is Lux Interior from The Cramps. It's a little less frenetic than what's going on in the picture but could easily soundtrack us sonic and sci fi adventurers as we cruise past by the giant hand with a brain in it, an eye on the wrist and yellow beams shooting from the fingertips.

Lucy And The Mango Man

Such Stars As This Are Not For Me

Silver Surfer was Norrin Radd, the young man from the planet Zenn-La who saved his home world from Galactus, the planet devourer, by agreeing to act as his herald. This resulted in Norrin flying through the cosmos announcing to various planets that they were about to be destroyed. He later turned on his master, defending the earth. Exiled to the blue planet he spent much of his time shaking his head, ruminating on existence and despairing at the inhumanity of mankind.

Silver Surfer first appeared in a Fantastic Four comic in 1966. When drawn by Jack Kirby a completely silver humanoid with no genitals on a surfboard sweeping through the cosmos, his speech coming from Stan Lee's scripts with him speaking in a kind of Shakespearean English, makes perfect sense.

Here's some beautiful minimal ambient-techno from Aphex Twin.

Actium

Planetary Folklore

No grandiose caption or speech with this Steve Ditko spread for Dr. Strange, who is on a very odd voyage into another dimension. And while that nearly led me to Intergalatic by the Beastie Boys it also put me in mind of Cavern Of Anti Matter and this piece of experimental retro-futurism from their 2016 album Void Beats/Invocation Hex.

Planetary Folklore

It's nice to have something calming and melodic to bring you safely home from excursions such as the one Dr Strange is taking. From the same record, this fits the bill perfectly...

Melody In High Feedback Tones