I was back at Todmorden's Golden Lion on Saturday night for the launch party for the new David Holmes album Blind On A Galloping Horse, the man himself DJing for four hours to what was once again a packed and enthusiastic pub. I've said it before and it never fails to strike me, the absolute wonder that is The Golden Lion. From the outside, a fairly ordinary looking pub, standing by a canal in a northern town nestled in the hills where Yorkshire meets Lancashire. On the inside, another world. Holmes arrives and begins slowly, some floaty sax easing us in, the red lights already bathing the pub in a warm glow and the mirrorball throwing sparkles round the room. Things heat up fairly quickly, the heartbeat thump working its way in. This thumper courtesy of Golden Bug and The Liminanas is played...
... and is followed by David's own remix of Jo Sims' Bass (The Final Frontier), a record I've played on repeat this year. David then drops in the instantly recognisable riff from Sign 'O' The Times and Prince's Fairlight synth and lyrics about Aids, the space shuttle and Hurricane Annie filling the pub.
Holmes pitches things more and more for dancing with tracks from Khidja, Roe Deers and Pete Shelley and then, a slight easing up with the appearance of Senor Coconut's Trans Europe Express (I should add here I'm indebted to Martin and his Shazam app- my memory would not have recalled much of this amount of detail). There are tracks by Soft Rocks, Decius, Rich Lane's edit of Sinead O'Connor, Patrick Cowley, there is She's A Rainbow (I'm not sure about this, it wasn't the World Of Twist cover but didn't sound exactly like The Stones either), and this slinky disco chugger with happy/ sad house piano chords from 2012 by Roberto Rodriguez...
It went on and on, The Human League's The Things That Dreams Are Made Of provoking much joy, and there was much more music besides, a proper night out with a lovely, friendly crowd and everyone there to dance, culminating in the ten minute epic from this year, Radio Slave's reworking of Audion's Mouth To Mouth, intense, rumbling, ecstatic techno with an irresistible ascending synthline that buzzes like a jar of wasps.
David and Raven Violet's album has been on repeat since arriving at my house on Friday. It's a proper album, a complete piece of work with lyrical concerns and themes that tie the fourteen songs together across four sides of vinyl and seventy five minutes. The four singles released from it so far have all been huge songs for me- Hope Is The Last Thing To Die and It's Over If We Run Out Of Love lit up 2021 and 2022 and Necessary Genius, a rollcall and tribute to those who have gone who inspire him from Weatherall to Samuel Beckett, from Angela Davis to Sinead O'Connor, has done the same to 2023. Recent single Stop Apologising too. The rest of the songs stand alongside those four from the long opener When People Are Occupied Resistance Is Justified, a song surely born in David's upbringing in Belfast and directly relevant to the world today. Scattered throughout are the voices of refugees, speaking in their own languages with gentle synths and FX behind them, the voices of the repressed and downtrodden given space next to David's words and Raven's voice.
Emotionally Clear and Yeah x 3 show a gentler, poppier side to the album. On the former Raven sings, 'Do you believe in the absence of evidence/ Do you believe in unjust punishment? Do you believe in cognitive dissonance?, and then the chorus erupts into a girl group swell of bells and synths. On the latter chiming synths and the sound of heads clearing and clouds parting, optimism and the word 'yeah', one of the oldest sounds in pop music.
There are several nods to Andrew Weatherall, David paying tribute to his friend and inspiration: the title of an instrumental called And You Will Know Me By The Smell Of Onions, lighter than air synths, piano and a pattering drum machine; a cover of Laugh Myself To Sleep with Timothy J. Fairplay's guitars adding some post- punk/ Mick Jones fire to Raven's voice and Weatherall's words (from Andrew's unreleased second solo album of the same name); and the repeated line in the song Too Muchroom, Andrew's comment about 'if you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much room'.
The album flows through to side four and the final three songs, that show the breadth of what David's created with Blind On A Galloping Horse. Tyranny Of The Talentless calms the pace, a slo mo drum track and lyrics about 'the ashtray of history'. It's followed by Love In The Upside Down, a tripped out monster led by fuzz bass and splinters of guitar, a giddy, swirling psychedelia filled with a sense of momentum, of other worlds, of awakening and possibility. Quite a rush.
That just leaves the title track to carry us home, the sound of the end of a journey and finding strength in song and community despite the horrors of the world outside. Over strings and padded bass Raven sings, 'They will push you out/ And pull you in/ Whatever happens now/ We mustn't mustn't let them win', and the track fades with another speaking voice, this time I think speaking in Gaelic- a song about personal resistance, completing the loop back to the start.
Blind On A Galloping Horse a beautiful packaged album as well, as all proper albums should be, with photos by Belfast street photographer Bill Kirk and artwork and text by British artist Jimmy Turrell, and a print of Sinead and the lyrics to Necessary Genius. As an album it feels like a statement, a personal account, a record that David had to make. Sonically, musically, philosophically, politically and emotionally, it feels very much like the album we need at this point in 2023, a response to both the inner and outer worlds, a call to action but one that also says we can still find hope out there somewhere, if we look in the right places.
This is my what seems like weekly David Holmes post, the newest single from his forthcoming album arriving yesterday, a perfectly timed piece of words and music for those of us who feel up to their knees/ neck in things at the moment. Stop Apologising is three and a half minutes of pulsating electro- disco, glam stomp and rattling snares and Raven Violet singing of how overthinking, catastrophising, inaction and how we should all find the power and strength to live more freely. There's a nod to psychedelic therapy in there too.
As with the three previous releases there are some remixes of Stop Apologising to push the song in a more thumpy, clubby direction. Horse Meat Disco weigh in with a pair of runaway, pumped up, stomping remixes directly aimed at the space near the glitterball. Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy strips the song down into bassline and FX and clipped guitar, a technicoloured funk version. All can be found here.
The album, Blind On A Galloping Horse, comes out on 10th November and I'm calling it early, it's going to feature highly in end of year lists. Holmes is staking out some ground with the album lyrically, a response to the current and recent insanities of the world, an album taking in the personal and the political, a record about inspiration and loss and trying to find a space in which to live. The three singles released over the last two years have already taken in politics, populism and the power to resist it (Hope Is The Last Thing To Die), the collective strength and inspiration found in youth movements and subcultures (It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love) and a rollcall of the great innovators and artists of the recent past (Necessary Genius)- David's response to the internal and external world he and we live in, someone who has something to say and has found the words to say it. More power to him.
Big news announcement! Sit down, hold tight. Sabres Of Paradise, the early 90s dub techno trio of Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, released their album Sabresonic thirty years ago (the exact release date is a matter of some debate but we're settling on 11th September 1993).
Over at The Flightpath Estate, the Andrew Weatherall Facebook group we set up nine years ago, the admin team (Martin, Dan, Mark, Baz and me) have had some discussions about things that have seemed ridiculous to us and have then actually started to take shape and happen. One of these is under wraps for the moment but the other is taking place three weeks today. Martin had the idea of holding a Sabresonic 30th birthday listening party at The Golden Lion in Todmorden and of inviting Jagz Kooner to do a Q&A session with him DJing after. We knocked it around a bit, a few calls were made and amazingly the Sabresonic 30th Anniversary party is happening at The Golden Lion on Friday 3rd November. The event is free. Jagz is going to have a chat/ answer a few questions about Sabres of Paradise, the making of the album Sabresonic, working with Andrew, the Sabres remixes from the period and whatever else comes up, we'll listen to the music and open it up to the floor. The Q&A part of the evening is going to be hosted by someone new to the David Frost/ Graham Norton role (that would be me). Fingers crossed eh?
Back in 1994 Sabres remixed James and the results came out as a two track, half hour epic titled Jam J. On Andrew's residency at Kiss FM he played an early version/ remix of what became Jam J. This was never released but has been ripped from that Kiss FM broadcast, a Sabres remix of James' Honest Joe. It contains all sorts of signature Sabres sounds, the Weatherall/ Kooner/ Burns team working their magic with seven minutes of 1993 four- four dub techno, Mr Booth et al bent into all kind of new shapes (with a Kiss FM ident annoyingly appearing in the middle).
November at The Golden Lion looks increasingly like the month of dreams. The night after the Sabresonic 30th party Red Snapper are playing. The following Friday David Holmes is DJing, a launchpad for his forthcoming album Blind On A Galloping Horse. On Sunday 19th November Manchester's Aficionado team of Jason Boardman and Moonboots host at 25th anniversary bash. That's just four of the highlights. David Holmes' recent single Necessary Genius was followed two weeks ago by a remix package, David and Raven Violet's song reworked by Skymas, Phil Keiran, Decius, Robin Wylie and Lovefingers. They've taken some time to worm their way into me but now all the different versions offer up something new and different. Lovefingers slows the song down, sticks a big, reverb heavy piano part into it and samples snippets of the people in David and Raven's list (a bit of Loaded, a brief snippet of Sinead, some Morricone). Decius do their Decius thing, chopping up a bit of vocal, raisng the tempo and making it very intense. Phil Kieran stretches the song out, bringing the synths to the fore and eventually hitting the button marked 'massive I Feel Love sequencer'. Find them all here.
Necessary Genius came out yesterday, the new single from David Holmes ahead of his album in November, a fourteen track album titled Blind On A Galloping Horse. Necessary Genius rides in on a rattling drum machine and gliding synths, a kraut/ cosmische spliced with 80s electro- pop celebration of outsiders, artists, misfits, dreamers and believers, with vocals from Raven Violet. David's list includes Tony Wilson, Sinead O'Connor, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, Angela Davis, Andrew Weatherall, Nina Simone, Terry Hall and Samuel Beckett in its rollcall of cultural inspirations, of people to believe in, alongside northern soul, rock and roll, agitprop and refugees. It's the latest in Holmes' recent run of songs that once over send me straight back to the beginning, clicking play again and again. This one sounds like a classic 7" single from the glory years of that format, a short sweet blast of sideways pop music and clarion call.
Necessary Genius comes after Holmes' pair of singles It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love and Hope Is The Last Thing To Die (released in 2022 and 2021 respectively) and the long awaited release of that pair of songs on vinyl is finally happening in early November. Those two songs have been played round here as often as any others released since 2020 and I suspect Necessary Genius will follow suit with the rest of Blind On A Galloping Horse following close behind.
A few weeks ago David made his monthly God's Waiting Room radio show at NTS a two hour tribute to Sinead O'Connor, finishing with a ten minute version of his remix of Orbital's Belfast with the vocal from Nothing Compares 2U mixed into it and then fading into an excerpt from an interview with Sinead. David read my blogpost and very kindly sent it to me. Up now for a limited time.
If you ever find yourself in the car park hell of Asda in Stockport, a car park split over two multi- storey sites linked by bridges and with different walkways to enter the supermarket, take some comfort from the fact that even in these unpromising conditions a moment of joy can still arrive- someone painted this little devil on the wall in a corner. This has nothing to do with the post that will follow, it's just a disconnected intro.
As is traditional here is my end of year list, twenty two musical artefacts 2022 in list form, a list combining singles, albums and EPs into one countdown- you'll notice I've cheated, there are many more than twenty two releases contained within. In a year shot through with all kinds of personal difficulties caused by grief and bereavement following Isaac's death at the end of last year, music has been an area of solace and distraction for me and I have listened to and enjoyed a huge amount of new music this year. I know as well there are albums I haven't heard and should have- Working Men's Club and Fontaines DC come to mind- and hopefully I'll get to them eventually. So, with no further ado...
Number Twenty Two
Some albums that have made the year tick, in no particular order:
Coyote: Everything Moves Nothing Rests
Sheer Taft: And Then There Were Four
Société Étrange: Chance
Gabe Gurnsey: Diablo
Timothy J. Fairplay: Free Andromeda
Half Man Half Biscuit: The Voltarol Years
Rich Ruth: I Survived, It's Over
Wet Leg: Wet Leg
Red Snapper: Everybody Is Somebody
Tigerbalm: International Love Affair
Panda Bear and Sonic Boom: Reset
The Order Of The 12: Lore Of The Land
Spiritualized: Everything Was Beautiful
Warrington- Runcorn New Town Development Plan: Districts, Roads, Open Space
Jon Hopkins: Music For Psychedelic Therapy
Number Twenty One
Some singles and EPs that have been on rotation at the Bagging Area this year, again, in no particular order:
Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s and Brix Smith: Brix Goes Tubular
Sault: 10
Phil Kieran and Green Velvet: Enjoy The Day Hardway Bros Meets Monkton
BTCOP: Just A Disco especially the Lights On A Hill Mix
Matt Gunn: Disko Drohne EP and the massive remix package
The Vendetta Stone remixes 12"
Peak High: Was That All It Was Hardway Bros remixes
Perry Granville: Lumux and Cleveland Sundays
Confidence Man: Feels Like A Different Thing (Daniel Avery remix)
Cantoma: Alive Remixes EP
Unknown Genre: Elevator Ride
Dirt Bogarde: Triumphe De Liebe and So Far Away
Curses: Gina Lollobrigida
Orbital and Sleaford Mods: Dirty Rat
Hifi Sean and David McAlmont: All In The World (and just wait for the album that gets a full release next year, a stunning record- the title track alone is one of next year's best songs)
Number Twenty
Various albums by Various Artists
There have been a slew of great compilation albums this year, multi- artist releases containing umpteen gems and treasure- The Chill Out Tent Volume 1, a compilation from Warm titled Home complete with animal and bird sounds between the tracks, Spun Out's Oompty Boompty Music compilation, the Shelter Me compilation from Leeds based Paisley Dark label and the cream of this crop, Higher Love Volume 2 (from the Brighton label of the same name).
Number Nineteen
Fontan: Iriz
A 7" single released on Hoga Nord at the start of the year, a gorgeous spaced out, instrumental warm bath with slowly building drums.
Number Eighteen
Boxheater Jackson: We Are One
Exeter's Mighty Force label has had quite a year. Boxheater Jackson's ten track album We Are One is a sublime set of chugging, optimistic, cosmic acid house. Also worth checking out on Mighty Force are Golden Donna's The Truth About Love, lovely washes of ambient techno, and the funky acid house/ indie- dance crossover Pro- Oxidant by Long Range Desert Group.
Number Seventeen
Mark Peters with Dot Allison: Sundowning/ Richard Norris ambient remix
Mark's latest album, Red Sunset Dreams, is pointing away from Wigan and towards the wide open landscapes of the US. With Dot Allison on vocals Switch On The Sky was a highlight- and then Sundowning came out, shimmering instrumental floaty ambience with a superb pair of Richard Norris remixes. Dot also had a solo EP out with the final remix from Lee 'Scratch' Perry, a lovely dubby version of Love Died In Our Arms.
Number Sixteen
The Orielles: Tableau
Tableau is one of the year's most unexpected treats, a double album spanning spoken word, dream pop, 60s jazz, indie and whatever else the trio decided they could turn their hands to. The recent Eyes Of Others' remix of Darkened Corners was superb spun out psychedelia and The Orielles own remix of Unknown Genre's Elevator Ride an unexpected visit to early 90s ambient techno.
Number Fifteen
Anatolian Weapons: Selected Acid Tracks
Strong acid from Greece, 808s set to stun, seven tracks of mind bending stuff. Acid Research 63, Acid Research 20 and Desert Track 66 are the picks and so much more than their functional titles suggest.
Number Fourteen
Rude Audio: Big Heat
A five track EP with typically brilliant tracks and remixes. Big Heat is a low slung, throbbing, dub techno groover, straight outta South London.
Number Thirteen
Pye Corner Audio: Let's Emerge
The latest Pye Corner Audio album left the dystopic sounds of last year's Entangled Routes and looked towards the summer, as typified on the glorious Warmth Of The Sun single with Andy Bell adding guitar to the analogue synth ambience. Sonic Boom remixed three tracks from the album, released as an excellent EP, Let's Remerge. A PCA remix of Principles Of Geometry's First I Heard Color is in the same area.
Number Twelve
Rhenizand: Atlantis Atlantis
More brilliant Belgian dance pop/ Balearic pop, an album that lights up any room it's played in. They can do no wrong for me.
Number Eleven
Unloved: Turn Of The Screw/ Turn Of The Screw (Erol Alkan Rework)
The new Unloved album, The Pink Album, found David Holmes, Keefus Ciancia and Jade Vincent and their 60s Now! sound extended over four sides of vinyl, twenty two songs (with Raven Violet, Etienne Daho and Jarvis Cocker along for the ride). On songs like Mother's Been A Bad Girl the woozy, disturbed, reverb drenched sound hit the spot and on Turn Of The Screw they nailed it, a driving, urgent, psychedelic pop song with Raven Violet on vocals and in charge. The remixes were bang on too, Erol Alkan's remix of Turn Of The Screw especially (and it sounded huge when David spun it at the Golden Lion in October). There's' an exhibition of Julian House's sleeve art at The Social in London too if you're in that neck of the woods.
Number Ten
10:40: three EPs
Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40 has one of 2022's ongoing delights, a slew of tracks and remixes from the start of the year to it's recent advent calendar end. Kissed Again, a gorgeous piece of emotional slow motion Balearic dance first came out in 2021 but was released this year by Brighton's Higher Love as an EP with the equally lovely Fin and Coat Check. Thickener (both versions) and The Knack (three versions) were both wonky dancefloor oriented thumpers.
Number Nine
The Summerisle Six: This Is Something/ This Is Something (Rico Conning Remix)
Sean Johnston's Wicker Man/ Todmorden inspired psyche folk/ indie dance side project grew from a trio to a sextet for this release (Andy Bell, Jo Bartlett, Duncan Gray, Kev Sharkey and Mick Somerset Ward all on board) for one of the year's best 12", an indie dance floor filler. Rico Conning's remix, a ten minute blissed out sunset journey, is the remix of the year.
Number Eight
Jazxing: Pearls Of The Baltic Sea
An album of Polish Balearica that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Start with the sax led Fala and go from there.
Number Seven
Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band: Dear Scott.
Mick Head's latest wonderfully crafted and written set of songs, tales of life lived and lives observed, with typically lovely melodies.
Number Six
Daniel Avery: Chaos Energy
A double vinyl ambient/ industrial/ techno album- emotive and hard hitting human/ machine music.
Number Five
Jezebell: Jezebellearica
A nine minute tribute to DJ Alfredo, the White Isle and an open minded approach to music, Jezebellearica was the song of the summer round here. Jezebell's The Knack, Dancing Not Fighting, Et Moi and Concurrence were all worth mentioning here too.
Number Four
Decius: Vol 1
Decius's album is twelve tracks of heady, sleazy, minimal, techno, inspired by the proto- house of Ron Hardy, with it's tongue firmly in its cheek, single entrendres rubbing up against distorted synths and banging beats. I reviewed it for Ban Ban Ton Ton back in November. In a turn of events I wasn't expecting some of my review has been pulled out for the press release, where my words are directly below a quote from Iggy Pop. As a year end treat Decius have made an end of year mix available, a pay what you want deal, with many of the tracks from the album included in it. You can get it here.
Number Three: EP |Of The Year
Andy Bell: Untitled Film Stills and I Am A Strange Loop
Andy Bell's Flicker came out at the start of the year, a beautiful and fully realised solo album with songs spanning the range of his influences- backwards tracks, guitar songs reprising the chord sequences from the earliest Ride records, cosmic instrumentals and straight ahead guitar pop. During the course of the year cover versions and remixes appeared, compiled in the autumn onto two four track 10" vinyl EPs (with a third of acoustic versions) and extras available digitally. Untitled Film Stills is a beautiful way to spend twenty minutes, his covers of Pentangle's Light Fight, Yoko Ono's Listen, The Snow Is Falling and The Kinks' The Way Love Used To Be all right up there and the small hours, quiet devastation of his cover of Arthur Russell's Our Last Night Together capable of bringing tears. The remixes EP is superb too with David Holmes Radical Mycology Remix of The Sky Without You and Richard Norris' lovely slowed down, string laden version of Something Like Love the standouts.
Number Two: Album Of The Year
A Mountain Of One: Stars Planets Dust Me
Existential Balearica, yacht rock, symphonic dark pop- however I slice it this album has been the one I'v enjoyed and played more than any other in 2022. Bubbling synth basslines, FXed vocals, acoustic guitars, piano, tom tom drums, cosmic hippy questions with no answers, spaced out and widescreen sun baked music with Rolo from The Woodentops on board for good measure. The remixes of Star in the summer stretched things further still, the Glok remix linking this with Andy Bell (at number three).
It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love was released on Valentine's Day and has been there throughout the year for me, played daily at times. David's tribute to the youth movements of our youths- the mods, rockers, rastas, punks, soul boys, teds, ravers and clubbers- sung by Raven Violet is a triumph, its two note keyboard blast and boom- tish drums capable of lifting the spirits on the lowest of days and the lyrics- 'I remember back when we were young/ They said the people's day would surely come/ It's over now if we run out of love'- don't really need picking through. It's the best single/ song I've heard this year and hopefully at some point will, along with last year's Hope Is The Last Thing To Die, form the centrepieces of an album. But if not, on its own, it's more than enough.
There was a remix a little while later, the song being toughened up and stretched out for late night revelry- Darren Emerson's Huffa Remix and the Hardway Bros one were the pick of the bunch for me. Holmes has had quite a year, his DJ gigs in small venues have been on fire- the Golden Lion in Todmorden was particularly memorable not least because I was on the turntables that evening and handed over to him, a chain of events a younger me would struggle to comprehend. Friends who went to his gig at the Social in London in February raved about it as did friends who saw him in Glasgow more recently. A few months ago David released a 7" on Hoga Nord, the motorik/ Joy Division glide of No One Is Smarter Than History another highlight of 2022 and his remix of The Vendetta Suite's Purple Haze, Yellow Sunrise is another 2022 peak as is his remix of Orbital's Belfast, thirty years after the original. You'll notice David appears elsewhere in this list as Unloved and with a remix of Andy Bell too. When you're on a roll, just keep on rolling.
One of the summer's best singles has been Unloved's Turn Of The Screw, an urgent, driving piece of 60s psyche that flips its middle fingers to all and sundry while simultaneously recommending the use of psychedelics for better mental health. David Holmes wrote the song in lockdown, an ode to 'making changes in your life for the better- cutting toxicity out of your life and focussing on the important things, family, friends and music'. Amen to that brother Holmes. Where Unloved often simmer and burn slowly Turn Of The Screw is fast and punchy, Raven Violet's vocals slicing through. The album, titled The Pink Album, is out in early September, twenty two songs with Etienne Daho, Jon Spencer and Jarvis Cocker involved on guest vocals.
There are some remixes too. Darren Price, formerly of Underworld, reworks the song into a tribal dub with glowering menace and krauty keyboards. Erol Alkan and Juan Ramos are also on the case. Buy them here.
Meanwhile, at NTS radio, David Holmes is proving himself the heir to Andrew Weatherall's much missed Music's Not For Everyone. Holmes' God's waiting Room is a monthly affair, two hours of cinematic, psychedelic, ambient, freakery. The latest one from mid- August is here.
David Holmes is in a purple patch, two singles of wonky indie dance brilliance (Hope Is The Last Thing To Die in 2021 and It's Over, If We Run If Of Love this year, both with Raven Violet on vocals) with a follow up 7" out on Hoga Nord later this year, two Unloved albums mining that 60s Now! sound and another due in the autumn, not to mention some stunning remixes. Throwing all of these together with a couple of choice songs from his past that fit in with those seemed an obvious Sunday half hour mix. The main problem was what to leave out- in the end there were several Unloved songs, some of the remixes of the two recent singles, some songs from his solo albums and a smattering of Andrew Weatherall remixes (of I Heard Wonders and Unloved's Devils Angels) that I couldn't fit in so a Holmes Mix Two may have to follow at some point.
David Holmes' It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love is right up there in terms of single releases of 2022. The remix package came out two weeks ago, six reworkings of the original from Lovefingers and Heidi Lawden, Working Men's Club, Darren Emerson and Hardway Bros. All push it onwards and outwards.
Darren Emerson's Huffa Remix is nine minutes long, a pulsing, building, thundering, epic early 90s Underworld style remix with Raven Violet's vocal intact. The breakdown and re- entry at the six minute mark, whooshing noises and enormous kickdrum with the synths and bassline well into the red, is thrilling stuff. For the last three minutes we're then riding the midnight train from Romford/ Belfast/ wherever you are.
Hardway Bros Live At The SSL Dub picks out a distorted synthline and crunching drums and builds a full head of steam, threatening to turn into Man 2 Man and Man Parish's Male Stripper, a glam/ chug stomp.
Lovefingers and Heidi Lawden offer two remixes, Low Tide and High Tide versions. The Low Tide one echoes mid- 80s New Order, shades of Bizarre Love Triangle and The Perfect Kiss, Holmes and Raven sent onto the dancefloor circa 1986 with cowbell and lasers.
Working Men's Club's remix is the shortest (under seven minutes) and the furthest from the original, a darkly frenetic, stripped down, acidic banger- close your eyes and the strobe will be flashing.
David Holmes made one of 2021's biggest singles and now he's making a claim at doing the same for 2022. It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love came out on Monday, a Valentine's Day release, and it's a massive sounding, button pushing, soaring ode to youth and love. There's a sense of euphoria in the opening keyboard stabs, some big 80s sounding chords and then a juddering drumbeat. Raven Violet is on vocals again, a 60s sounding voice pitched into the 21st century on the song. David's Unloved band do that Sixties But Now sound so well and it's a sound he's drawing from here but it's bigger, with an end of the night, last song before the lights come on feel.
The video (by Douglas Hart) celebrates the youth cults of the 20th century, the punks and the ravers, the rastas, rudies, mods and skins, the goths and rockers, the scooterists and the teds. It's all very much what we need right now. As Raven sings, 'I remember when we young/ They said the people's day would surely come'. The time has come.
I've done an end of year list at the end of every year since starting the blog in 2010. I started to pull a list of albums and songs together back in November and thought I should at least try to finish it off. Everything I've listened to since the end of November has been coloured by Isaac's death so I'm not sure if this is how the lists would have turned out if things had been different but we are where we are, as people say.
Albums of 2021
I've heard loads of good albums this year. My initial list ran to over twenty albums (and that was before the Pye Corner Audio album turned up) and there are several I've not heard yet that would surely be contenders had I got round to listening to them (I'm thinking of Carnage by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and this year's releases from LoneLady, WH Lung and Low). Floating around somewhere outside my top ten are these albums (in no particular order): Andres Y Xavi's Sounds From The Secret Bar; Stinky Jim's It's Not What It Sounds Like; The Vendetta Suite's Kempe Stone Portal; Steve Cobby's Shanty Bivouac (which has a close to perfect side 2); Richard Fearless's unsettling ambient techno masterpiece Future Rave Memory; Roisin Murphy's remixed Crooked Machine; Bicep's Isles; Reinhard Vanbergen and Charlotte Caluwaerts' Souvenir Des Bon Gout; Sons Of Slough's Bring Me Sunshine; Sonic Boom's remix album Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough; Cheval Sombre's pair of albums Days Go By and Time Waits For No One; Dry Cleaning's New Long Leg; Cerulean by Nashville Ambient Ensemble; The Liminanas and Laurent Garnier's De Pelicula; The Grid and Robert Fripp's Leviathan; Rose City Band's Earth Trip. The Bagging Area top ten looks like this-
10. Pye Corner Audio 'Entangled Routes'
9. Mogwai 'As The Love Continues'
8. Richard Norris 'Hypnotic Response'
7. Dean Wareham 'I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor Of L.A.'
6. Sedibus 'The Heavens'
5. Daniel Avery 'Together In Static'
4. GLOK 'Pattern Recognition'
3. Coyote 'The Mystery Light'
2. Circe Sky 'Dream Colour'
1. Saint Etienne 'I've Been Trying To Tell You'
I wasn't expecting Saint Etienne to make an album as good as this, at this stage of things- made in isolation but sounding like the work of three people in a room together, I've Been Trying To Tell You is a woozy, reflective album digging away at late 90s nostalgia (but not sounding itself nostalgic), built around samples from that period and with a strong undertow of bass and a warm wash of effects. On top of this Sarah Cracknell's voice is used almost like a sample library, cut up phrases and snatches of dialogue.
EP of 2021
5. Rich Lane 'Camo'
4. Three EPs of outstanding new music from A Certain Ratio, 'EPA', 'EPC' and 'EPR'. I couldn't separate them so have bunched them together.
3. SUSS 'Night Suite'
2. Hugo Nicolson 'Lost And Found'
1. Andy Bell and Pye Corner Audio 'The Indica Gallery EP'
No question here, the single piece of vinyl/ mp3s I've probably played as much as any other this year since it came out in April, six wondrous remixes of Andy Bell's 2020 album The View From Halfway Down. Pye Corner Audio's sunshine dreamscape remixes were the sound of this year for me in lots of ways, especially the analogue cosmische of Skywalker, Indica and Cherry Cola.
So many good songs/ tracks/ remixes, I could easily list a top fifty. Someone wrote recently a top ten should be enough and I kind of agree- but all of these have been essential listening in 2021 (again, in no particular order); AMOR 'Unravel' from Lemur; Daniel Avery's Lone Swordsman as remixed by Chris Carter; Craig Bratley and Amy Douglas' No In Between; 10:40's Sleepwalker; a pair of remixes of Fontaines DC, one of A Hero's Death by Soulwax, the other Televised Mind by Dave Clarke; A Mountain Of One's Stars Planets Dust Me; Perry Granville's Dexter In Dub; Mat Ducasse's Bunny's Lullaby; Dan Wainwright and Rude Audio's Early Morning; Future Beat Alliance's Primordial Sky; Daniel Avery's remix of Winter In The Woods by Leaving Laurel; Coyote's remix of Original Cell by Projections and Coyote's two track 12" Will We Ever Dance Again; Cheval Sombre's Althea; various Pye Corner Audio one offs (Fictional Drilling and Eyes Open stand out); and last but not least Woodleigh Research Facility's All Is Not Lost and Vernal Invocation releases.
As well as all of those Sean Johnston has been responsible for a steady stream of remixes in his Hardway Bros guise, any one of which could/ should be in the list below but they can have their own sublist here-
Hardway Bros Sublist
10. Martyn Walsh and Simon Lyon 'Afterglow' Hardway Bros Dub
9. Shadowlark 'Come Around Here' Hardway Bros Remix
8. Cold Beat 'Double Sided Mirror' Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Noch Einmal Remix
This song, a tour de force from Mr Holmes with vocals by Raven Violet, provided a glimmer of light in a year that has been bleak as fuck for all kinds of reasons, personal and political, macro and micro. The song is political, a call to arms, a lyric about not putting up with it any more,a demand to say enough is enough, but it works on a variety of levels for me. Hopefully 2022 will see it get a vinyl release.
Brother Joseph broadcasts a radio show out of Glasgow, Sonic Treasures, a feast of mixes from guests and a regular slot from Stephen Haldane (a man who knows his musical onions, spinning anything from far out psyche country to dizzying dub). In the past Sonic Treasures has hosted guest mixes from the likes of Jagz Kooner, Justin Robertson, Nina Walsh, David Harrow and Alex Knight and recently a beautiful, psyched out, shapeshifting mix from Sonic Boom. Last weekend Brother Joseph secured a sublime triple bill in the form of Andy Bell (in his Glok guise), Haldane's half hour and closing the six hour show David Holmes.
Holmes' mix is ninety minutes of headspinning, transporting delights- long, repetitive kosmische, slices of psychedelic abandon, weird and wonderful turns and several versions of Holmes' recent single Hope Is The Last Thing To Die (including remixes by Die Hexen and Daniel Avery) along with Love Is A Mystery, another song by David and singer Raven due out on Golden Lion Sounds whenever the vinyl pressing backlog clears. David's mix a total joy, an entrancing, hypnotic and forward thinking hour and a half, completely in the audio and spiritual area that used to be occupied by Andrew Weatherall- further proof if it were needed that Mr Holmes is one of our brightest talents (and has been since the early 90s). You can listen at Soundcloud.
This also gives me the perfect excuse to repost Hope Is The Last Thing To Die. I posted it recently but then the video hadn't been released, a video that makes abundantly clear the call for change in the song- personal change and political change. It's on you/ us.
David and Raven's single has been reverberating round my head and listening devices constantly over the last couple of weeks. Single of the year? Possibly.
The Glok/ Andy Bell section of Brother Joseph's Sonic Treasures is a thing of wonder in itself and thus deserves its own post. Rather than tack it on the end of this post and risk over-facing you I'm going to return to it in a few days time. David Holmes' sonic treasures are more than enough to be going on with.
Just when you needed something to pick you up, dust you down and send you into the weekend with a smile on your face and a bit of zest along comes David Holmes and a new song (out digitally on Heavenly and hopefully with physical to follow). Hope Is The Last Thing To Die, optimistic from its title inwards, arrives with a burst of noise, distorted bass and rattling percussion and drums. The 60s girl group/ Ye Ye vocals of singer Raven Violet ride on top and the sounds/ bass/ synths collide, tumbling over each other, building and then breaking down. There's a pause for breath with an interlude in French and then it all comes piling back in, Raven singing 'We are what we pretend to be' and 'Let's make some changes tonight' as the snare and organ break through. There are echoes of Unloved in the atmospherics and vox and a nod to his I Heard Wonders single from 2008, the events of May '68 and sharply cut fringes, Levis, desert boots and cobble stones. It's a four minutes forty- eight second long blast of energy and excitement, chaos and melody.
If you want more Holmes was back at NTS four days ago with the latest episode of his God's Waiting Room show, the spiritual successor to Andrew Weatherall's Music's Not For Everyone. Taking in everything from Sun Ra to Ten Fe, from Daniel Avery to King Tubby, Kevin Ayres and Lee 'Scratch' Perry and with a new remix of The Vendetta Suite by David himself, it's two hours of satisfaction guaranteed. Listen at Mixcloud. Tracklist at NTS.
